{"conf": "geo", "generated_at": "2026-04-26T08:00:02.954878Z", "threads": [{"num": 0, "subject": "", "response_count": 0, "posts": []}, {"num": 1, "subject": "All things planet Earth", "response_count": 661, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (16:53)", "body": "woohoo!!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (17:31)", "body": "Sheesh! I have been hunting through my advice material (given to me by a man braver than I) to set up topics for this conference. I know what they will be - just working on their names. You have done this - any advice from you would be most welcome! And, don't we have the most amazing assortment of buttons!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (18:54)", "body": "yippeee!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (18:57)", "body": "I've been busy!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (20:04)", "body": "I see...bravo!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (20:19)", "body": "Thank you! (Bowing deeply in acknowledgment to the man who is fixing my errors as I go...)"}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (20:48)", "body": "looks great so far!!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (20:56)", "body": "Thanks for saying so. It has been such fun and I am learning incredible things. Now, to get time to post goodies in these topics. Feel free to wander around!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (02:03)", "body": "Is anyone from anywhere other than the US able to give us information on what is happening to the rest of the world...I would appreciate any input from Europe and Asia and Africa. We have a few from Australia and would appreciate anything anyone else would like to share. From anywhere, really!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (02:20)", "body": "(earth-based, preferably...)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (09:23)", "body": "no, we want to know what's going on on Mars but they should direct their findings to paraspring! alex, ree-head? any inputs???"}, {"response": 12, "author": "StefanieB", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (10:07)", "body": "Great job, honey. It's nice to see you've been keeping busy."}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (10:21)", "body": "Thank you, Dear! - I was delighted to see you here this morning (just past 5am). Visit often - or lurk. It is nice to have you around!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (16:02)", "body": "Wolf, what do we have to do to get the others here - or is it just a wait till they find it deal? You cannot know how much I appreciate another Gemini here a lot of the time. I really appreciate you postings!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (19:09)", "body": "aw shucks, marcia *blush* i've been wondering how to get people over to poetry, paraspring, and collecting. shoot, i even tried a sales pitch for collecting but they were a no show. *frown*"}, {"response": 16, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (19:14)", "body": "and I sure haven't figured any of this out, either... just how to make the conferences look pretty!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (19:24)", "body": "wer, Dear, when you excel at something as you do at making conferences pretty, you do not need to figure anything else out. That is our job. Get out the ropes and chains..."}, {"response": 18, "author": "livamago", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (22:02)", "body": "It looks wonderful, my dear. You have outdone yourself! Very interesting topics, too, but then, coming from you, that is to be expected... ;~D"}, {"response": 19, "author": "riette", "date": "Wed, Jul 14, 1999 (13:20)", "body": "Too cool, Marcia!!! Way to go!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 14, 1999 (13:36)", "body": "Thanks Dear! They are keeping me out of trouble by making my brain think of things other than the ones which usually intrude (lust comes to mind first)...!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "heide", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (20:36)", "body": "What's happening in my part of the world? How about heat, heat and more heat and no rain! What's going on? Pennsylvania is starting to look like the desert. Brown grass and blazing white sun. I'm quite distressed. So, Marcia, oh great cosmic guru, what's going on? Site looks terrific!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (20:49)", "body": "Thanks Heide. I will post notice of severe drought in the NE on Topic 14, Weather updates. (I had been putting them under Atmospheric Disturbances but caught some flack for it.) Thanks for posting. I really appreciate it - especially from you!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (23:32)", "body": "Hiya, Heide! (pretending you live in Texas are you?)"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 24, 1999 (21:46)", "body": "Let's see, if we shift Texas to Pennsylvania, then Hawaii will be in Texas. Is that correct?"}, {"response": 25, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Jul 25, 1999 (23:48)", "body": "close, I think..."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (00:08)", "body": "What a concept... I like it!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (00:21)", "body": "I'm not too crazy about where that lands me :-("}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (22:10)", "body": "You do not like the Rockies? Most beautiful! The way we are rearranging the Earth, you can pick where you want to put Chicago!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (07:59)", "body": "Hey, I just got here (at last) and was immediately struck by the most daring concept possible: to rearrange the earth! Can I move Lisbon somewhere else too? May I choose where or is that predefined because of your previous movements? Better still, can I make it a wanderer? Oh well, this one is not so new, a portuguese writer by the name of Saramago (last year's Nobel Prize ;-))wrote a book where Portugal split away from Spain and started drifting southwest... I haven't read the book yet, but love the idea!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (12:06)", "body": "Since this has become a freeform globe, please do move around. A wanderer would be good - it would tie in with the Hot Spot theory of how Hawaii was formed. Your Earthquake in 1755 proved you are in a zone of subduction, so go to it. Let us know where in the world is Gi whilst you are wandering. (Btw, what joy it is to have you posting here!)"}, {"response": 31, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (00:04)", "body": "ah, so you're movement of Hawaii has no relationship to where I would go (N&E). Was picturing Chicago somewhere up around Iceland by my calculations. :-0"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (10:40)", "body": "Oh no, this is a plastic Earth in the truest sense of the word. Look what happened with the breakup of Pangea (see plate tectonics) into Laurasia and Gondwanaland then to the eventual place we find today. It just might take a while, but sure as part of California is moving northward in relation to the rest of the state, you will be moving, too. Do not change your wardrobe yet, however. It's gonna take a while."}, {"response": 33, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (11:41)", "body": "Guess who's stupid beyond belief? No, not that person! M E ! I didn't get eye protection to look at it, nor did I get filters for my cameras... Guess who won't take pictures of the eclipse... AND I WANTED TO FILM IT! With my Bauer Super 8-camera, where you can set the interval for it to shoot a single frame after the other (trick filming!). Boooohoooo! I am soo dumb! **************************************************************** Discovery Network plans live eclipse coverage August 6, 1999 Web posted at: 12:13 p.m. EDT (1613 GMT) NEW YORK (AP) -- The Discovery Network plans three hours of live television coverage next Wednesday of something mom warned you never to look at directly -- a solar eclipse. The cable channel's cameras will follow the 60-mile wide path where the sun is totally obscured by the moon, from its start in southern England, through France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania to the Middle East and its conclusion in India. It's the most extensive live coverage of any event in Discovery's 15-year history and, the network believes, the first time TV has followed an eclipse in such detail. Eclipse coverage runs from 6 to 9 a.m. EDT, with an hour-long wrapup that night at 10 p.m. \"Human beings have always been totally enthralled by eclipses,\" said Discovery general manager Mike Quattrone, \"but if you wanted to see an eclipse, you had to be geographically lucky.\" People shouldn't stare at the sun because there's a risk of eye damage, but cameras can safely capture an eclipse. Not just show, but science Discovery will do more than beam three hours of the sun. It will explain the science behind the eclipse and show how people in each country react to it. The network hopes to climax its coverage with an arresting image of the eclipse over the Taj Mahal. Discovery will pull its coverage together with the help of Discovery Europe and a dozen European TV affiliates. British broadcaster Mary Nightingale will be the host. The last total solar eclipse in the mainland United States took place in 1979. Discovery has time to make plans for the next one -- it comes on August 21, 2017. Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. *********************************************************** I didn't know where to post this, so I did here. Hope it fits somehow, Marcia. Gosh, I'm such an idiot!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (12:16)", "body": "It would have fit in tv, too...but this was a good choice of topics as well..."}, {"response": 35, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (12:35)", "body": "Not tv - this is FILMING, not video... But it's not the Filming stuff topic in COllecting, nor the Dead Media in Cultures (or Media?). Pity me a bit, though, perhaps then I feel less unfortunate... Oh. I see what you mean - THEY do the tv thing. How silly of me. I'm still wound up on my stupidity not to get some filters IN TIME. Bye bye, my chance!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (12:37)", "body": "Take it!!!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (12:39)", "body": "What?"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (12:50)", "body": "Oh, Alexander, I am so very sorry...but, how is your vision? You did not do a Gallileo, did you? I am not ever going to see a total eclipse...the year it was to happen over this Island, everyone had filters, and I had planned to chase it in case of bad wx. My resident driver said it would clear up by the time of the event - so I missed it under the worst cloud cover in Hilo for years. I hate him for that."}, {"response": 39, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:29)", "body": "Might happen here, too. Gotta improvise on filters for the camera - how? Any ideas? Aluminium-coated helium ballons - translucent enough? Or too thick? Darn! Where's McGyver when I need him?"}, {"response": 40, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:35)", "body": "Alexander, I too left it too late and have no glasses or filters for it. I believe there's something on makeshift filters for cameras in the paper, though, so I'll look it up and post here for you."}, {"response": 41, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:35)", "body": "cancelled and in syndication methinks..."}, {"response": 42, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:36)", "body": "MacGyver, that is..."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:38)", "body": "Aluminun coated mylar baloons are ok as is fully exposed and developed BLACK & WHITE photographic film (not color!) use several thicknesses and use your eye as a judge of what is visible - use many thicknesses to begin and work down to what is acceptable. It is also excellent for filming sun spots."}, {"response": 44, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:45)", "body": "You think so? Why not colour films? And that's just to look through, right? No matter, all I can get easily is the balloons... Super 8 Film is not very sensitive (60 Asa?). I'll try, and might also snap a few shots on 35 mm Gi, thank you! Any help appreciated! Where do you sit? I'm in Middle Europe."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:50)", "body": "Alexander you need the metallic particles to absorb some of the light rays. All dark color film does is make your iris open larger thus incurring even more damage to your retina. I am absolutely sure of this!!!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (15:47)", "body": "Sorry, went to the paper but they only say: neutral glass coated with chromium and nickel... They also say you can use colour film of around 100ASA. I live in Lisbon, Portugal, so the eclipse won't be half as spectacular as in Germany... Anyway, I've seen one before with a telescope. We projected the image on a screen and followed it there. It was fun, but I would love one where the light falls and birds stop singing...Like in books and movies, you know... I doubt I'll have that tomorrow... And there may be clouds!:-("}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (16:07)", "body": "Use a pinhole projector. Gi, I am sure the color film is incorrect. We really got the entire world here for that total eclipse and they kept telling us color film is NOT acceptable due to its being non-metallic...(I am not trying to be right, here - I am trying to save retinas!)"}, {"response": 48, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (21:06)", "body": "well there goes my bubble gum foil wrapper and a wad of that freshly chewed up gum theory! *grin* i know nothing about the proper film techniques required to record an eclipse. but i do know that meteor showers will be seen over our area this week with a good show on thursday (2 meteors a minute). wonder if my minolta 35mm will take a good pic of that? (if not, it's a good way to use up the rest of the film so i can show you the space shuttle pics!!)"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (21:33)", "body": "Get a tripod or wall for a steady base then set your lens wide open. Do so for 30 seconds, then a minute then 1 1/2 minutes etc and note your results for the next one. (Should have done some homework...but...) Best way to do the eclipse by projecting it onto a piece of paper on the ground through a pinhole in a paper cup or another piece of paper. If it is windy you might like to use cardboard or stake it to the ground."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (21:38)", "body": "Oh yes, and remember to look around. If your eclipse is partial, look at the leaf shadows. They should also project the pinhole image of the partially eclipsed sun. You can even make an aperture using your thumb and forefinger. Enjoy and report back...Please!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (23:30)", "body": "For the eclipse in your city (eastern coast of the us only for partial) and for Europe and Africa in totality http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/TSE1999/T99lookNA.html Home page of Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center - this site has it all http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/TSE1999/TSE1999.html#GenMaps"}, {"response": 52, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (02:36)", "body": "Cloudy and overcast now (9:08 am CET). We're supposed to get 95% eclipse - I'm just right North of the main event. I'll try the balloons... No exposed developed b/w here for looking. If I feel like it, I'll shoot 400 ASA colour film for slides and 400 ASA b/w, but then - everybody does that. But I'm gonna trick-film it, if things work out... Wolf, use two cameras loaded with sensitive film (an astronomer recommneded to me the Fuji 800 ASA colour film for prints, approx. USD 7 per film? 400 ASA should work ok, too), both on tripods. One, open the shutter for a minute or more at a time, so you get the streaks. Meanwhile, with the other one and widest aperture, work your way up from 10 sec, doubling at each step. (perhaps make two pictures at each step to be sure). WRITE DOWN (\"1. pic - 10 sec, 2nd - 10 sec, 3rd - 20 sec...\"), also what objective (50mm to 135mm) and aperture. Looking at the results, you'll be able to see later what was the best setting, and work around that next time. When packing up, point one camera at the North Star (?), and leave shutter open while packing. You'll get the circles showing how the stars wander around the North Pole... The kids will love it!"}, {"response": 53, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (07:35)", "body": "Alexander, I hope you saw the eclipse... I only had the partial view (went out and someone lent me her glasses for a moment)and did that projection gimmick, but what I saw on television was incredible, even moving. Next time I want to be there (as long as it is a reasonable viewing site, like this was)."}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (10:32)", "body": "uh, alex, i have a camera that doesn't allow me to open shutters and stuff, but thanks for the tip!! maybe i'll get it one of these days. i believe the next eclipse is next year? have a silly question though, alex, can you take a picture through those things that work like submarine scopes (please tell me you know what i'm talking about because my brain has lost the word i'm looking for)!!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (13:31)", "body": "Next year, but visible only at the Poles, and I'm not going *there*. There'll be another closer to home in 2005, I think."}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (18:27)", "body": "Now that this eclipse is over, I will tell you that the gods who control these things do not want me to see it. Anywhere! The year after the totality on this Island, and annular eclipse was visible over Southern California, and I was there. An Annular eclipse is one in which the Moon is smaller in diameter visually in comparison with the Sun's and it appears as though the Sun has a big hole through it. In hot, dry, parched Southern California, for just that day, it was dark and so overcast there was no even a visible darkening of the sky - just as it had been in Hilo the year before. Nothing. Either time. If you want to see an eclipse, be sure I am nowhere in the vicinity!"}, {"response": 57, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (18:40)", "body": "See, Gi, if you had gone to Turkey as I suggested, they had optimal viewing conditions!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (18:53)", "body": "*lol* Karen, and the most amazing accommodations, too!"}, {"response": 59, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sat, Aug 14, 1999 (20:54)", "body": "I was incredibly lucky with the Big Island eclipse of nearly a decade back. Strangely enough, my assignment was to broadcast it on the radio in Hilo (where clouds unfortunately obscured the view in most of town). We set up camp the night before at the 8300 foot level of Mauna Loa next to KGMB-TV's (Honolulu) Big Island repeater. We chose that site because the state's university would not allow us up on the more glamorous Mauna Kea and went the previous night because the road up was to be closed the fol owing morning. It turned out serendipitous despite a bone-chillling night. I used welder's goggles (not the full helmet) and saw a 100 percent eclipse with my own two eyes. KGMB's Big Island engineer, who was also up there, has his ham radio shack on the site. Using a one-watt (that's right, one-watt) microwave remote unit, I broadcast to Hilo not only the eclipse, but traffic reports, weather and cloud conditions and other pertinent information from around the island that was supplied to me via the h m shack. I used my radio sports play-by-play experience to attempt to create a \"theatre of the mind\" visual for listeners, and the vast majority of the feedback I got was positive, especially since the idea of a radio broadcast of an eclipse is rather absurd, when one thinks about it."}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 14, 1999 (21:23)", "body": "No, John, it was not absurd, it was wonderful for heartbroken in Hilo - Me! You saved my sanity, and as I listened to you and your gift with spoken English, it came alive for me. I could 'see' it through your eyes, and I am eternally grateful for it. I had tears of disappointment streaming down my face, but without your live commentary, I would not have 'seen' it at all! That one little Watt of power did what it had to do just fine for your purposes, and your coverage is the one I will always remembe . A belated Thank You to your boss for allowing this incredible experience to be shared. There is something very special about being up there on the mountains and I am sure you felt more in tune with what was happening than Bob Jones from KGMB did on the Kona side with the circus atmosphere. Mahalo Nui Loa, and thanks for posting in Geo!"}, {"response": 61, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Aug 14, 1999 (23:51)", "body": "oops, looks like I spoke too soon in poetry...I see you've found your way out and about, John!"}, {"response": 62, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (01:06)", "body": "Ver, I can thank Marcia for that. By the way, Marcia, and I know you will see this--because you are all-knowing and all-seeingyou did a wonderful job designing this conference site and I am impressed with your use of the national weather service hurricane tracking map. I did have a spiritual experience on the mountain with the eclipse that it would have been impossible for Bob Jones to have. If he had just gone to his own repeater site--but that wouldn't have been television friendly. No palm trees, n beach, not a lot of people to interview. BUT WE DID HAVE THE ECLIPSE and he only had a partial view at best."}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (12:33)", "body": "I am delighted you said that about the Kona-side view of things. Hilo gets the short end of every stick the state has, but, as you pointed out, WE DID HAVE THE ECLIPSE and Bob Jones only had a partial view...I recall seeing his video tape that evening; I was so proud of the the job you did. Thank you for the kind words on this Conference. It would not have been possible with out WER's patient help to make it pretty, David's help in feeding me up-to-date information on volcanoes world-wide, and a bunch of credit to Penn State for teaching me well. I really intend Geo to be informational and timely as well as a Q&A and experiences site. So far, so good. Feel free to add to any of the topics. (Oh, yeah, I also do my homework...ever on the search for current information.)"}, {"response": 64, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (10:34)", "body": "speaking of david, we ever gonna see him over here? and i would like to piggy bag on john's compliments, this place looks great!!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (13:01)", "body": "I am working on him. He sends me information all the time to put in here, including the earthquake in California just after it happened. (His father informed me by email of the one in Turkey!) He says he does not have the time to login. How long does it take to get a username and password? He wastes more time than that wondering what to have for lunch! We should start an email campaign to recruit him, but he just may never forgive me for that. *grin*"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (13:04)", "body": "Oh, and thank you for your kind thoughts, Wolf. We know why it looks this great...*smile*"}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 28, 1999 (19:14)", "body": "Since I put this on other people's conferences, the least I can do is to enter it on my own: PENN STATE 41 ARIZONA 7"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 30, 1999 (16:03)", "body": "Back to Geology. This, contributed by Alexander (thank you! and Note the Hawaiian connection): Source: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/082499sci-ocean-cables.html August 24, 1999 Old Phone Cables Open Sea Bed to Science By MALCOLM W. BROWNE \"Making use of thousands of miles of discarded telephone cables, scientists have begun to wire remote regions of deep ocean floor to create an undersea network of geological observatories. \"The old cables will serve as deep-sea extension cords running thousands of miles from land-based power stations to sensors, some of which are already sending back continuous flows of data from the ocean floor. \"Geologists and other scientists using abandoned cables have set out to collect a bonanza of information about earthquakes, underground nuclear explosions, changes in the earth's internal structure and its magnetic field, fluctuations in the high-altitude ionosphere and even whale migration patterns. \"Although seismometers and other geological sensors have long been operating in most land areas, conspicuous gaps in global seismic coverage exist under the world's deep oceans, and oceans cover most of the planet's surface. \"But this has begun to change, thanks in part to rapid progress in technology that has made old telephone cables obsolete. \"Dozens of such cables are still serviceable, said Dr. Rhett Butler, director of a data-collecting network in Washington called Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). 'These cables were built to last,' he said in an interview, 'and at least some of them, which went into use in the mid-1960's, still function perfectly.' \"One such line is a coaxial cable (similar to the cable that carries television programs into private homes) that was laid across the deep Pacific Ocean floor by AT&T in 1964 from San Luis Obispo, Calif., to Makaha, Hawaii -- a distance of nearly 3,000 miles. At the time, it was among the most advanced phone lines in the world, equipped with powered vacuum-tube repeaters every 20 miles to refresh the telephone signals as they traveled along it. The cable, called Hawaii-2, could simultaneously carry as many as 138 conversations. \"But in 1989 a fishing trawler working in shallow water near the California coast accidentally cut the $30 million cable. \"The telephone company could probably have repaired the break, but decided instead to abandon the cable; by then, optical-fiber cables had come into use, and the new cables could carry up to a half million conversations with greatly improved sound quality. AT&T announced that it would make the abandoned coaxial cable available to scientists who could find a use for it. \"'It took several years for scientists to consider the possibilities,' said Dr. Alan Chave, a senior scientist of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. 'But last year it all came together and we showed that continuous deep-sea seismic sensing was possible, using these old cables.' \"The world's first deep undersea seismic observatory capable of continuous long-term functioning began operating last September. Its seismometer failed two months later because of a short circuit, but Dr. Chave and his colleagues plan to retrieve and repair the instrument in September. With several upgrades now completed, the observatory (called 'H2O,' standing for 'Hawaii-2 Observatory') will then resume operation, midway between California and Hawaii, at a depth of 16,400 feet. \"A feature of the unmanned sea-floor observatory is a junction box equipped with eight power outlets and signal connectors allowing scientists to plug more ocean-bottom sensors into the line. Among the supplementary instruments scientists plan to install is a hydrophone capable of listening to whale calls and tracking their migrations. \"The cost of H2O, financed by the National Science Foundation, was about $2.5 million. If the project had had to start from scratch by laying its own cable, it would have cost up to about $120 million, scientists estimate. \"The idea that led to the project dates from a decade ago. In 1988 a scientist at Tokyo University suggested that abandoned telephone cables might be reused for research, and that suggestion started American scientists thinking. Eventually, a consortium that included Woods Hole, the University of Hawaii and IRIS came up with a plan. A shore-based power station could pump direct current at 5,000 volts into one end of AT&T's broken cable, creating a thousand-mile-long extension cord to power scientific instruments three miles deep. Electricity flowing into the cable would move along it, powering sensors and repeaters, and finally grounding the current into the ocean at the severed end, thereby completing a circuit. \"But making H2O a reality was a hair-raising challenge, as Dr. Chave described it. \"The tools included the 270-foot research ship Thomas Thompson; the Jason, a deep-sea remotely operated vehicle; and the Media, a remotely operated camera platform to wat"}, {"response": 69, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 31, 1999 (12:43)", "body": "It's been a note of the Dead Media project."}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 31, 1999 (14:44)", "body": "Yes! Thank you for pointing that out. I inadvertently lopped that fact off of your email when I posted it."}, {"response": 71, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Sep  9, 1999 (12:19)", "body": "No sweat! It's really great to see with what kind of other areas technology can connect, apart from original purpose... Often stuff never intended or though of originally!"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  9, 1999 (14:12)", "body": "I am the sort of person who, before I throw anything away, checks to see what else can be done with the item. Sometimes I store these \"widgets\" for years before the light bulb goes on and I find an even better use than the original. Human ingenuity! Where would we be without it?!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 12, 1999 (14:28)", "body": "a lot neater perhaps? i save a lot of stuff too, like cool whip and butter containers. you can imagine the state of my kitchen cabinets! and then scrap fabric that i can't bear to part with because if i ever learn to make a quilt, they'd be good to use on a square."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (21:07)", "body": "There are so many things happening right now that I though it best to put it in All Things Planet Earth. New Zealand experienced a 6.5 earthquake (thank you, AnneH) and Mt Etna is erupting so furiously it has just about decommissioned its VolcanoCam. I will try to put up relevant information and images in the proper topics when they become available. (Thank you KarenR and AnneH)"}, {"response": 75, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (13:43)", "body": "In case you're interested we had a little quake in Wales yesterday. It measured 3.5. By the way marcia, sneding me this URL was a sneaky way to get me involved in this conference (SMILE!) Well, I had to have a look didn't I!"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:21)", "body": "Oh! Thanks for that!!! Thank you for taking the bait. There are lots of goodies to interest you in here including atuo-updating weather maps in Geo 14 which a few folks check almost daily. (Scroll through the entire topic and bookmark your particular favorite - I have UK and the Continent in there!"}, {"response": 77, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:32)", "body": "Fun! Now I need to try and find \ufffd\ufffds for my growing internet bill (we're billed by the second/minute in the UK)! Is this a special interest area of yours -or just one of many?"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:52)", "body": "As you will discover, it is one of many - eventually I might just be crazy enough to have one for Archaeology and one for Astronomy. am also into lots of Topics on other conferences such as Books/41 Arthurian themes...and Malachology and just about anything else, actually. I need several more lifetimes to become a professional in each of these categories. I did want to become a Geologist but I did not get along with the math, so I studied to be a techinical writer."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:54)", "body": "Maggie, Gi lives in Portugal and was finally able to find an ISP who would give her unlimited time on the internet. I know you pay by the minute (how terrible that must be!!!) - mine is $20.78/month and it is unlimited - as are just about all of the ISP's in the US. My sympathies."}, {"response": 80, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:59)", "body": "Unfortunately, the free ISPs are so slow that what you save in Internet bills you spend on telephone bills... I'm still looking for the perfect one!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:27)", "body": "Auwe!"}, {"response": 82, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (12:41)", "body": "A lot of this is a new area for me (goody!) I only did a bit of geology when I taught my kids Geography (apart from what I did at school of course, MANY years ago). BTW: my ISP is free (I'm on my third one so far)and seems reasonably fast but it's the phone bills that cripple us here."}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (16:49)", "body": "Alas, that seems to be the lament of most of the countries in the world outside of the North American continent...and perhaps not all of that, either Feel free to wander and post wherever you'd like!"}, {"response": 84, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (20:23)", "body": "we should get astonomy and archeology conferences, what a great idea! and then, marcia, think of all the inter-conference links we could have!!!"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (20:57)", "body": "Oh Yes! I even know which midnight blue marble wallpaper I want for it and which Horizontal bars...and who I want to cfadm for me... Archaeology is excellent as well. Need another life time to come back as one of each of those professions!"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (20:58)", "body": "Would Angels fit into the Astronomy and ufo's and the like?! They are in the sky, are they not!!! Links galore! Happy thought, indeed! (I like it...can you tell?! *grin*)"}, {"response": 87, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (21:01)", "body": "nah, couldn't tell one bit, in fact was gonna ask! *GRIN*"}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (21:21)", "body": "Just like any hyper kid, the more !!'s I use the more I am virtually jumping up and down with excitement over the very idea!!!"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan  1, 2000 (19:47)", "body": "Such great ideas and we did not act on them. Must check and see what we can do about that with the new year and all. But, no fun doing it be telnet! I know Alexander would be interested in the Archaeology one - for sure!!!"}, {"response": 90, "author": "Ann", "date": "Tue, Jan  4, 2000 (20:31)", "body": "This probably belongs on an astronomy topic, but I didn't see one when I looked at the list of conferences, so here it is. My question is about the age of the universe/earth. The universe is currently estimated to be about 13 billion years old. In that time, stars and galaxies have formed, gone through their life cycles, died, gathered back together as nebulae, then created second and maybe third generation systems. Assuming the earth is only a second generation conglomeration of matter, then all of the heavier elements on the earth came from the first generation. Now the earth is estimated to be already about 4 billion years old. That leaves only 9 billion years--or only twice the time the earth has been around--for that first generation to have lived and died and given rise to the second generation. That doesn't seem like enough time to me! Am I missing something? Were life cycles nebulae and galaxies faster in the early universe? If not, how does the creation of the heavier elements work into the current assumptions on the age of the universe?"}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  4, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "Ann, welcome! May I suggest Topic 24 Beyond Planet Earth?! I think our estimation of the age of the universe will continue to be revised upward as we get bigger and better eyes into the past. For just about forever the age of the Universe was thought not to exceed 5 billion years and wa more likely 4 billion. Theories are just that...always subject to revision and correction, fortunately!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (19:13)", "body": "I had read a while back where scientists and archaeologists are beginning to suspect that the earth is actually older than they'd previously thought...so much for revision of theories, eh? Seems as if we come to those somewhat \"definite\" conclusions, then, we have to step back and say, \"wait a minute - what if...?\" That's the fun of discoveries - rediscovering!"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (00:01)", "body": "Indeed! When I took Geology in college they were one year away from teaching Plate tectonics! Don't check how long ago that was, but it gives you some idea of how things change!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (00:03)", "body": "One of my favorite things to discover is old knowledge which is rediscovered. I know we have forgotten more than we have learned from the time of the Pyramids and Stonehenge. They had the same brain as we are using. Why should they not have had as much success?!"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (10:40)", "body": "Having few means to pass down detailed science across generations, did the ancients really do more than make constructions to celebrate observed extremes of the sun's path? Please convince me."}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (11:46)", "body": "Not as far as I know, Mark. They did not come from Lemuria with exotic knowledge or from outer space. If anyone thinks they did, convince Mark and me. (I've read the books out there and they are more unbelivable than the idea that the ancients used magic to do things!)"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (11:48)", "body": "...just because we cannot replicate the ancient constructions now does not mean it was done by 'other beings' It just means we have not figured it out yet..."}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  1, 2000 (16:49)", "body": "Ok, why am I not seeing Response 99? It was posted today and is not showing up. In fact, nothing but what I am posting is showing up right now...test!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  1, 2000 (16:52)", "body": "Maggie, what did you say? I am curious to the max...on confifty using the ip posts show up but not using the URL. Hmmm... (Wish I understood half of what I know about this stuff!)"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "Maggie's missing post: Resp 99 of 99: Maggie (sociolingo) Tue, Feb 1, 2000 (16:13) 4 lines We've had a couple of TV series where ancient feats were recreated (?it may be the same as you PBS program). The latest ones were Caesars bridge across a huge river span that he built in a few days, and a kind of crane thing that was built to hoist enemy ships out of the water by one of the greek greats. (Sorry it's late and my brains going kind of dead, so I can't remember details) On a different tack - did anyone see reports about snow in the desert near Jerusalem and 15 inches of snow in Jerusalem itself. I think it was a 50 year record."}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "Thanks for that and thanks for telnet saving both the URL and the IP posts! We did mention the Jerusalem snow on Geo 14... Thanks, Maggie!"}, {"response": 102, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Feb  5, 2000 (07:15)", "body": "Slightly off topic: We've also got a super TV program just now called 'meet the ancestors'. Using forensic science they link an archeological dig with a recreation from the bones dug up, and reconstruct what the person looked like, their life etc. It's been facsinating. I've always been curious about how people lived, and its great to see the forensic skills put to use in this way. They rebuild the face from the skull, by building up the layers of muscles etc on a skull model. Its a mxture of artistry and science. Recently they did a ten year old girl, and to do that they had to take skin depth measurements from a large number of young girls as they only had adult measurements on computer file. This child (from a millenium ago) had had repeated infections as shown by forensics on the bones, and they determined the sex by DNA testing. She was found in an abondoned grave site a short distnace away from a church which is known to have been there 1000 years ago and which had 'relics'.. It was thought that the child would h ve been taken to the relics (in the surviving crypt) of the church for healing. Pilgrims went through a small wall slit in the church down into the crypt, round the relics, and the out by another slit. An archeological artist drew the scene."}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb  5, 2000 (11:20)", "body": "That sounds fascinating (and as DO have an Archaeology topic in here!). I hope Discovery or one of those channels picks it up for us to see. Thanks, Maggie!"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 21, 2000 (13:59)", "body": "Geo factoids HOW MANY ISLANDS ARE THERE IN HONG KONG? 235 islands. WHERE WAS THE FIRST TUNNEL IN RECORDED HISTORY? In Babylon. Built by the Assyrians in about 2100 B.C., the secret 3,000-foot-long passageway linked the royal palace on one side of the Euphrates River with the Temple of Jupiter on the other side. WHAT IS THE DIAMETER OF THE EARTH AT THE EQUATOR? 7,926 miles. (The circumference is 24, 902 miles.) WHAT RIVER IS THE ONLY RIVER TO FLOW NORTH AND SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR? The Congo River, which crosses the equator twice."}, {"response": 105, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (22:33)", "body": "Greetings all Well, time to move from the rf field to the geo-magnetic field. But first, any interest in ley lines (no, thats not you use for pickups in single's bars...) There are quite a few in Europe and the UK and there has even been research on the earth mounds in Wisconsin. Interesting connective stuff. BTW, there is quite a lot of power around Stonehenge. Same kind of neat energy around Enchanted Rock in Tx. mike aka cosmo"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (22:48)", "body": "Aloha Mike! Geo 27 is perfect for you. That started out with Ley Lines discussions. Maps and photos abound. Roam around and make yourself comfortable!"}, {"response": 107, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (22:26)", "body": "Ok, off to 27! (I see you are posting to classic radio just a minute ago...) Mike"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (22:29)", "body": "yup! I was following you so you did not get lost. Note that Spring had a problem which caused (or sumthin did) my rc file to delete and took all my wallpaper and horizontal bars and buttons with it. Have reinstated the bars and font colors but...no buttons or wallpaper...*sigh* See ya on 27!"}, {"response": 109, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (04:00)", "body": "The problem was the /tmp file."}, {"response": 110, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (04:13)", "body": "When things are ok it should look like this: $ df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Avail Capacity Mounted on /dev/sd0a 99135 14975 79203 16% / /dev/sd0h 16873439 9891364 6138403 62% /usr mfs:19 15855 434 14628 3% /tmp thor:/extra/tools 2991146 1362014 1479574 48% /tools"}, {"response": 111, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (04:22)", "body": "But when the /tmp file says Capacity 0% no one can write to the file system. It's a little kink in the armor of an otherwise bulletproof operating system."}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (12:24)", "body": "Ah so! I suspected as much, but wondered if it would not just leave the file untouched rather than deleting all of it. Well, I had \"a learning experience\" and managed to get most of it back on by checking how other rc files were configured. Cfadm pulled me through again! I am gratefulness personified this morning. Now, I have a slightly slow-loading but incredibly beautiful wallpaper to install, if I dare..."}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (16:42)", "body": "HOW FAST DOES LIGHTNING TRAVEL? It travels 90,000 miles a second - almost half the speed of light. (186,000 miles a second). EXACTLY HOW LONG IS ONE YEAR? 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds."}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (03:23)", "body": "Excellent statistics, Marcia - can you remind me how fast sound is?"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "For rule of thumb reckoning, it travels about 5 miles / second (so you can see how close the lightning is hitting by counting by 5's at one second intervals). More precise measurement will have to wait till I get into the other room to get the appropraite book. (Did you just get married? )"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (06:11)", "body": "Married? No, not unless 6 years ago is \"just\". Did you infer I got married from my question about the speed of sound?"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (12:44)", "body": "No, but you came up missing for a while and it was mentioned on Drool that Mark was getting married... But, I should have remembered that it would have been bigamy - you told me you were married in our email about cricket. You are the only Mark around here; I assumed, and you know what that means...! http://arts.ucsc.edu/EMS/Music/tech_background/TE-01/soundSpeed.html Speed of Sound You can measure the speed of sound the same way you measure the speed of a runner, with a stopwatch on a closed track. Find a place where you can hear a good echo, and stand a known distance from whatever the sound is reflecting off of. Fire a starter's pistol and start the stopwatch. Stop the watch when you hear the echo. Divide 2 times the distance (it's a round trip) by the time to get the speed. At 21 degrees C (70\ufffdF), you should get 344 meters per second, or 1129 ft per second. At freezing, the numbers are 331 m/s or 1087 ft/s. The proper formula for the change in speed due to temperature is: Where T is degrees Celsius. The works out to about a 0.1% change per degree Fahrenheit. The Speed of sound in water is 1480 m/s or 4856 ft/s. More than 3000 miles per hour. There is a project under way to take the earth's temperature by measuring the speed of sound between the USA and Australia."}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (16:14)", "body": "WHAT LAKE, ONCE PART OF A SEA, HAS THE ONLY FRESHWATER SHARKS IN THE WORLD? Lake Nicaragua, in Nicaragua. WHEN IT COMES TO WAVES IN THE OCEAN, WHAT IS A WAVELENGTH? The linear distance between the crests of two successive waves."}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (16:16)", "body": "Here is an easy and excellent Speed of Sound Calculator for those using Metric http://www.measure.demon.co.uk/Acoustics_Software/speed.html"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (16:42)", "body": "The above calculator has problems - try this one: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/souspe.html"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  7, 2000 (15:58)", "body": "http://www.discovery.com Earth Loses Weight Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery.com News If the latest measurement of the force of gravity, called the big G, is correct, it will end 200 years of confusion and mean Earth weighs 5.972 sextillion metric tons. That's a tad less than the 5.98 sextillion metric tons listed in some textbooks. A sextillion is a one followed by 21 zeros. The constant G tells how much gravitational force there is between two masses \ufffd such as the Earth and moon \ufffd that are separated by a known distance. It's a fundamental aspect of the universe that doesn't change, similar to the speed of light. Scientists were able to calculate Earth's mass based on G by applying Isaac Newton's famous equation F=ma. In the equation, \"F\" stands for the force of gravity (Big G); while \"m\" stands for mass (in this case, of the Earth); and \"a\" represents the local gravitational effects of Earth, which scientists already knew. By rearranging the equation, they were able to solve for \"m\" and thus calculate Earth's mass. University of Washington physicists Jens Gundlach and Stephen Merkowitz their results today at the American Physical Society meeting in Long Beach, California. To arrive at the new constant, the physicists refined an experiment first developed in the 18th century. They used an extremely delicate device called a torsion balance that records the effects of the gravity of four stainless steel balls on a gold-coated plate. The device is similar to one used 200 years ago to make the first big G measurement. But it is computer controlled and contains numerous mechanical refinements that make the more precise measurement possible. If the new value is accepted, it would reduce the uncertainty of G by a factor of 100. \"The experimental situation was just hilarious,\" said Gundlach of physicists\ufffd inability to find and agree on G. \"Our experiment was designed to clean that up.\" Because gravity is such a weak force, it is extremely difficult to measure without all sorts of errors creeping in. Physicists have been working hard to narrow down G, but different experiments have actually been coming up with numbers that are spreading farther apart. This has been especially embarrassing to physicists, since the other two most basic of all natural constants \ufffd speed of light and Planck\ufffds Constant \ufffd are known with great accuracy. Planck\ufffds Constant is a number that helps scientists determine the energy behind electromagnetic radiation. \"It\ufffds the least well known of all the fundamental constants,\" said University of California at Irvine physicist Riley Newman. Newman's team is working on a National Science Foundation grant to measure G. They have also built an instrument, but have a lot of work to do before they find G, he said. Gundlach said he will be watching Newman\ufffds work closely in hopes that the G\ufffds agree. \"If they don\ufffdt agree,\" said Newman, \"the confusion will go on.\""}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (13:47)", "body": "WHAT FOUR STATES HAVE ACTIVE VOLCANOES? Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Washington."}, {"response": 123, "author": "livamago", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (17:08)", "body": "And what are the names of the volcanoes, dear? Btw, the site looks wonderful. Congratulations!"}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (17:44)", "body": "Do you like my new marble wallpaper, too? (It is so good to see you here again - happy me!) I installed it with an artist in mind for the Aesthetics of Earth topic...*hope* Hawaii's active volcanoes: Kilauea, Mauna Loa, Hualalai, and on Maui, Haleakala (with the faint possibility of Mauna Kea added) California's: Lassen and Shasta Washington: St Helens, and any of the other Cascade mountains in the state since they are in the most active part of the subduction of Juan de Fuca plate under the North American Plate (see plate tectonics topic for good maps on the subject) Alaska has too many for me to remember off the top of my head...(there is a map for those, too in Geo 2.)"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (13:32)", "body": "Sparky Lifesavers If you chew a wintergreen-flavored Lifesavers candy in a dark room and watch in the mirror, you will see electrical sparks in your mouth. Why? The sugar in the candy is in crystal form. When you start shearing the crystal apart with your teeth, you end up with an excess of electrons on one side of the fissure. Just like a lightning arc, they jump across the gap to an area that has a positive charge, and in the process give off light. Interestingly, this works better with wintergreen than other flavors, because much of the light that is emitted is ultraviolet, outside of the visible spectrum. The methyl salicylate in the wintergreen oil is able to absorb ultraviolet light and re-emit it at a wavelength you can see. -- Michael Natkin"}, {"response": 126, "author": "livamago", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (18:51)", "body": "I love the wallpaper! I think it's very elegant, like everything in this site, and it's very appropriate too. I meant to mention it specifically. You read my mind. Kilauea I wonder why this one is my favorite! Didn't it erupt in 1983? Interesting fact about the lifesaver. I shall check the mirror the next time I eat one. I watched a show on PBS that was so interesting. It was a Nature special about body changers, and it showed how the salmon (the males ones, I think) slowly lose their shape to become really ugly-looking. This happens as their death approaches. It was amazing! Do we have a topic for animal?"}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (20:21)", "body": "You remembered! Kilauea did indeed begin the current eruptive cycle in 1983 and it is still going strong. Thanks for the kind comments on the wallpaper, too. The lifesaver thing or any wintergreen candy you can snap with your fingers my dad showed me in a dark closet. Never tried it by looking in my mouth with a mirror. My son is unaware of this phenomenon because of the high humidity here. Wintergreen tends to be mushy... Please check SpringArk conference of which Wolf and I are cohosts http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/SpringArk/all/new Thanks for asking!"}, {"response": 128, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (20:23)", "body": "ok, back to the lightening thing, when we see it, we're supposed to count by 5's, one 5 each second? so it's 5, 10, 15? (or, each second counted total multiplied by 5?) i've always used the seconds to judge the distance. interesting!"}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (21:11)", "body": "I count \"one thousand and one...two...three\" and multiply by 5. It's easier for me. The thousand part makes sure you are counting in seconds and not rushing too fast. Mississippi works, too."}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 12, 2000 (12:41)", "body": "IF YOU HEAR THUNDER 10 SECONDS AFTER YOU SEE LIGHTNING, HOW FAR AWAY WAS THE LIGHTNING? 2 miles away. Sound travels about a mile in 5 seconds. IN GEOLOGY, WHAT IS A CALVING? The breaking off or detachment of an iceberg from a glacier that has reached the sea, or the separation of a portion of a floating iceberg."}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2000 (20:28)", "body": "HOW MANY ICEBERGS ARE THERE IN THE WORLD? Approximately 320,000. HOW MANY AVERAGE-SIZE HOUSES CAN YOU MAKE FROM ONE GIANT SEQUOIA - THE BIGGEST LIVING THING ON EARTH TODAY? Fifty. The sequoia often extends 300 feet in height and 25 feet in diameter. Its seed weighs only 1/6000 ounce."}, {"response": 132, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2000 (20:45)", "body": "Umm I accept the Giant Sequioia is the widest tree - but is it the tallest - our giants here in Oz are very tall - I am not sure if the Gloucester tree in the South West of Western Australia wasn't taller. Also I believe there is a very tall tree and large to boot in N.Z. can anyone confirm. Can't remember for the moment the name of our largest tree - thus I mentioned the Gloucester tree. They are in an area called the Valley of the Giants."}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2000 (21:31)", "body": "Sequoia semprevirons is the larges thing ever to live on land. I will do citations for you in the next post. What kind of tree is the tallest Oz tree? The Sequoia is a Redwood (evergreen)"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2000 (21:36)", "body": "Check here for the hugest trees in the USA http://www.americanforests.org/whatnew/BTFacts.html Botanical record-breakers are at this amazing uRL http://daphne.palomar.edu/wayne/ww0601.htm The world's record for the tallest tree goes to another cone-bearing tree native to California, the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). In fact, the tallest living redwood on record stands 367 feet, 62 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. The California redwoods are rivaled in size by the amazing flowering Australian tree (Eucalyptus regnans). The record for the tallest tree of all time has been debated by botanists for centuries. Some amazing claims for towering Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and E. regnans exceeding 400 feet have never been substantiated by a qualified surveyor. In 1872, a fallen E. regnans 18 feet in diameter and 435 feet tall was reported by William Ferguson, making it the tallest (or perhaps longest) dead tree. According to the monograph on Eucalyptus by Stan Kelly (Volume 1 of Eucalypts, 1977), trees of E. regnans well over 300 feet tall have been measured, but the tallest tree known to be standing at present is 322 feet."}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (01:06)", "body": "Diatomaceous Earth Diatomaceous earth is a crumbly rock formed from the fossilized remains of microscopic one-celled plants that contain a lot of silica in their cell walls. It takes about 24,000,000 of these shells to make one cubic centimeter of rock. When the rock is powdered, it can be used as an environmentally friendly insecticide. The powder has a very rough texture at a microscopic level. The roughness can lacerate and dehydrate the shells of many insects, killing them over the course of a few hours. Diatomaceous earth has many other industrial uses: as an insulator, a filter, and an abrasive, for example. ...and my father, a chemist, made us our toothpowder using the stuff in purified form along with oil of peppermint and another chalky powder. I was my job to do the stirring so we all got equal amounts of peppermint, grit and chalk. It worked very well!"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (12:16)", "body": "ON WHAT PLANET IS THE LARGEST KNOWN MOUNTAIN IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM? On Mars. Called Olympus Mons, it's a volcano more than three times the height of Mt. Everest. HOW MUCH SYRUP DOES THE AVERAGE SUGAR MAPLE TREE YIELD EACH SEASON? One to one and a quarter quarts. WHICH BIRD STRAYS AS FAR AS 2,500 MILES FROM ITS NEST TO FIND FOOD FOR ITS YOUNG? The albatross, which has the largest wingspan of any living bird - over 11 feet. HOW MANY MUSCLES DOES A CATERPILLAR HAVE? Four thousand - more than five times as many as a human."}, {"response": 137, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (17:46)", "body": "Are the giant trees of Australia and New Zealand evergreens, as well? I find that there are many interesting facts about evergreen trees. The ginko tree, which looses it's leaves in the fall, is related to the conifers, it may even be classed with them. (Marcia probably knows.) About the ginko, it is one of the oldest species of trees in the world. A ginko tree was the only type of tree to survive the blast at Hiroshima. The Sequoia, an evergreen, is currently the largest tree. Lastly, the bristlecone pine tree of the American southwest is the longest lived tree in the world. All that, and they give us oxygen, too."}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (18:17)", "body": "Apparently they are eucalyptus is a (getting out my book) member of the Myrtle family (which also includes Ohia - Hawaii's hallmark tree) with 70 genera and 2800 species. The Ginko (or Ginkgo) is a living fossil (Marcia cannot remember, so she is looking it up). It is a gymnosperm in a class all by itself. It is the lone survivor dating to the Jurassic some 150 million years ago."}, {"response": 139, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (18:24)", "body": "Thank you for clearing up what the noble ginkgo tree is classed as. The ginkgo has many admirable traits, and is highly regarded in herbal lore, used in Chinese medicine, but...When the ginkgo nuts fall off the trees in the fall, they lay there and start smelling like sewage. The ginkgo isn't quite so noble then."}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (20:18)", "body": "When my eldest sister was at Penn State her dorm had a huge ginkgo tree in the front lawn. (It has since been felled by lightning and antiquity) I recall the \"fragrance\" well. Unreal!"}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (20:21)", "body": "In the scheme of the book, the author arranged it so the most primitive were at the beginning. Out of amost 1000 pages, The gingko was on page 19 right after the cycads!"}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 19, 2000 (18:34)", "body": "Pi Day is celebrated each March 14 at 1:59pm at the San Francisco's Exploratorium. (Reported in the Smithsonian Magazine)"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 19, 2000 (19:14)", "body": "WHAT CREATURE PRODUCES SPERM THAT ARE 2/3 INCH LONG - THE LONGEST IN THE WORLD? Some fruit flies of the genus Drosophilia. Their sperm, more than 300 times longer than human sperm, are six times longer than the fly itself - but hair thin and are balled up. HOW MANY TIMES PER SECOND DOES A MOSQUITO BEAT ITS WINGS? Up to 600. HOW MANY CONSTELLATIONS ARE THERE? 100,000. HOW MUCH HORSEPOWER DOES THE TYPICAL HORSE PROVIDE? About 24. Horsepower is the power needed to lift 33,000 pounds 1 foot in a minute. Scientists came up with the 24 horsepower figure based on a horse weighing about 1,320 pounds."}, {"response": 144, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, May 20, 2000 (03:50)", "body": "Going back to trees. I have wandered through the Valley of the giants Oz's tallest trees. They are indeed Eucalyptus, the panoply overhead is something to behold. Wonderful smelling and beautifully shaped trees. You can drive a car through. Immense and majestic - you can almost imagine them fully alive and talking. (shades of Narnia). One of the joys of my life and I get very angry when they are chopped down for chipwood for export to Japan."}, {"response": 145, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (17:51)", "body": "Are eucalyptus trees evergreens?"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (18:03)", "body": "...in a way...but not in the way we think of Evergreen. They are (getting out the book again) in the myrtle family and are NOT considered evergreen. However, there are many trees which keep some leaves on them all year round...including many of the Myrtle family."}, {"response": 147, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (18:07)", "body": "What's the best plant for a privacy hedge?"}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (18:25)", "body": ""}, {"response": 149, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (06:25)", "body": "Tried to post a couple of days ago. The tall trees in Australia are called Karri and Tingle. Magnificent trees but very different. Valley of the Giants in South Western Australia has both and is the most wonderful sight you can imagine. It is virtually unpopulated and seems to go on forever. Our population in this state of Australia is large than India and yet has under 2,000,000 people. We have just discovered a vast underground sea. which covers a quarter of a the state and is in some parts some 2,000meters deep. Bodes well for us in the future."}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (13:48)", "body": "Is your underground sea fresh water? That truly would be a boon! Dry Thunderstorms In desert areas, it is possible to have a thunderstorm where the rain never reaches the ground. The air near the Earth's surface can be so hot that the raindrops simply evaporate on their way down. These storms can be especially dangerous, because the lightning can still strike the ground, causing fires without even the help of the rain to put them out before they grow out of control. This evaporating rain phenomenon is known as virga, and is one of the reasons that you might see precipitation on weather radar even when none seems to be falling."}, {"response": 151, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (22:56)", "body": "The underground sea is brackish but treatable. It will make the desert bloom. We have thunderstorms and showers like the ones you have just quoted - you can see the rain coming down in the sky but it never reaches us - often happens in summer."}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 24, 2000 (19:12)", "body": "That happens in the deserts of Arizona and California with the dry showers which never hit the ground!"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 24, 2000 (22:41)", "body": "Since it has not elicited any comments, I guess not many are reading what I post in Paleo (topic 7). There has been some really interesting stuff lately - check it out! Also, I posted two pictures I took last evening of Hilo Bay at sunset and one was taken of me (unbeknownst to me) and that is also posted. Find it and take a look at the Mistress of Geo - if anyone is interested. I was asked if it was recent. yup! Last evening."}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 25, 2000 (12:38)", "body": "IN WHAT DIRECTION DOES THE JET-STREAM FLOW? From west to east. WHY ARE MERCURY AND VENUS KNOWN AS INFERIOR PLANETS? Their orbits are closer to the sun than Earth's orbit. Planets orbiting the sun beyond Earth are referred to as superior planets."}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 25, 2000 (16:07)", "body": "The most abundant metal in the Earth's crust is aluminium. The largest wave ever recorded was near the Japanese Island of Ishigaki in 1971 at 85 meters high. Fulgurite is formed when lightning strikes sand. At the nearest point, Russia and America are less than 4 km apart. The Channel between England and France grows about 300 millimeters each year. Mars has a volcano, Olympus Mons, which is 310-370 miles in diameter and 16 miles high. The Earth experiences about 50,000 earthquakes each year. The lowest temperature ever recorded was 129 degrees below 0 at Vostok, Antarctica, on July 21, 1983."}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 26, 2000 (19:56)", "body": "Invader ants win by losing diversity The Argentine ants that are trouncing U.S. species derive much of their takeover power, oddly enough, from losing genetic diversity. References & Sources Dolphins bray when chasing down a fish The first high-resolution analysis of which dolphin is making which sound suggests that hunters blurt out a low-frequency, donkeylike sound that may startle prey into freezing for an instant or attract other dolphins. References & Sources Spider real estate wars: Wake up early Big spiders in a colony get prime real estate day after day by spinning webs early. References & Sources"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 26, 2000 (23:31)", "body": "Donn, please login and join us. You said you liked learning new things...*smile*"}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 28, 2000 (19:07)", "body": "Until he does, he sent me this url which should be on everyone's bookmarks for such cases as those we pray don't happen: EYE ON THE WORLD http://web.beol.net/tabonga/violent.html It has links to every sort of disaster web page, every agency which might be of help or source of information, plus the weird and offbeat at the bottom. I'm gonna check the catastrophism pages, myself..."}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 28, 2000 (19:14)", "body": "Actually, you're gonna need permission slips from me to be allowed into some of those catastrophism sites. Taken with a huge grain of salt and a firm grounding in astronomy and geology, it appears ludicrous until you remember those who died because of a comet... Please accept my caveat and if you get upset with what you read there, come here first before you try any Koolaid..."}, {"response": 160, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (02:41)", "body": "Tried to get in wouldn't let me. Said time out - whatever that means. But I have put it onto favourites to read some time."}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (11:13)", "body": "That one takes a while to load. All the time out means is that it took longer for the URL to respond to the request to download than your browser allowed. If you poke around inside of the parameters under which your browser runs, you can change that. But, perhaps it was busy. It is very good and worth trying again!"}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (11:14)", "body": "Aha - you are using IE rather than Netscape. That might make a difference, too."}, {"response": 163, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (23:27)", "body": "Got it up on my husbands new computer - amazing programme."}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (23:56)", "body": "You will love having it online. Just watch it when all other things get boring. Love the little icons, too!"}, {"response": 165, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (04:42)", "body": "yep did all that but messed up his sound card with the sounds of the umiverse!! Wonderful though all the same."}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (12:53)", "body": "Hope it is not irreversible.......they were amazing sounds!"}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  2, 2000 (13:18)", "body": "Sun Dog A \"sun dog\" is a bright spot in the sky that is always at the same height above the horizon as the sun, but 22 degrees to its left or right. The effect is caused by refraction of the sun's rays by ice crystals in the atmosphere, resulting in a second image of the sun reaching your eyes. (Just as if you hold up a glass of water and look at an object in the room both directly and through the water, you will see two images of it.) Click here to find a nice photograph of this \"mock sun\" (or parhelion) phenomenon. http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/lb_images/historic/nws/wea00148.htm"}, {"response": 168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (15:38)", "body": "Q: How many cubic meters of dirt are in a hole 6 meters long, 2 meters wide, and one meter deep? A: None... it's a hole!"}, {"response": 169, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (06:02)", "body": "Really Marcia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (13:18)", "body": "WHAT CELESTIAL BODY GOT ITS NAME FROM A GREEK WORD MEANING \"LONG-HAIRED\"? Comet. The name comes from the Greek kom(t(s, an adjective formed from the verb koman, \"to wear long hair.\" (There is also a constellation, Coma Bernices) WHY DOES THE BRONX ZOO GET BLOOD DAILY FROM A LOCAL SLAUGHTERHOUSE? To feed its vampire bats, part of its captive breeding collection of bats - the largest in the world. (Yuck!)"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (14:00)", "body": "Flea Facts Summer time is coming fast and that means flea season. Now is the time to \"know thy enemy\" and prepare for battle. Here are some flea facts to prepare you for the skirmish. There are 2,400 varieties of fleas, including dog fleas (Ctenocephalides Canis). A flea can jump 150 times its own length. This is equivalent to an adult human leaping over the Statue of Liberty. A jumping flea accelerates 50 times faster than the space shuttle! Want to live without fleas? Consider moving to the mountains. Fleas do not live above 500 feet. Fleas thrive in a warm humid environment--about 65 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit and about 70% humidity."}, {"response": 172, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (15:54)", "body": "I really need to know that *grin*"}, {"response": 173, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (16:24)", "body": "Fun Fact: The Earth has a midriff bulge. Due to rotation the Earth is slightly flattened on each of its poles. As a result the circumfrence of the Earth is approximately 26 miles more than the measurement longatudinally around the poles."}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (17:27)", "body": "Yup! We are thus an Oblate Spheroid as astronomers like to call it. Maggie - it made me itch just posting that data on the fleas."}, {"response": 175, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (17:57)", "body": "I hope the self-imposed small tigress (red tabby) is holding up well against flea infestation."}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (18:22)", "body": "She got a pretty white collar to wear and she is still giving us a wide berth and staring daggers at us. But, I am tired of killing of her fleas on me! Maybe I should get a tastful one for my own...~"}, {"response": 177, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "Perhaps one with pearls and alexandrites?"}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (19:00)", "body": "There you go! Make that Moonstones and alexandrites and you have a deal! Pearls are too fragile for every day flea collars but lovely for formal occasions. You laugh, but the hippie children - some old enough to get social security - buy the most fles soap and \"uku combs\" Sheesh! Their personal grooming and hygene leaves a great deal to be desired..."}, {"response": 179, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Jun  7, 2000 (10:13)", "body": "I need help from a Web/Frontpage wizard in fixing the geo links on our main page at http://www.spring.net (reason, lack of time!). My plea has been issued forth!"}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  7, 2000 (14:27)", "body": "I hear you but not sure how to do it... Perhaps cfadm will see your plea in here. I;ll try to track down Ann if all else fails. Other than hiding at the bottom of the page in the wrong table (did you want it in the center?) it is lovely and the links work. I am all smiles to have it there, especially now that there are some people now on board who Really know what they are talking about!"}, {"response": 181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  7, 2000 (18:18)", "body": "This is important.....Please read! How To Build A Fire Pit The wilderness is no place to build a fire pit, but if you want to build one at home here's how. -First, dig a hole in the ground where you want the fire pit. Size the hole depending on the size of the fire pit you want. For most fire pits, a hole one foot deep and three feet in diameter will suffice. -Next, line the bottom and sides of the hole with flat rocks. The rock-lined pit provides an excellent surface for shoveling out ashes, will support the logs better, and helps the fire burn hotter. -Finally, place larger rocks in a ring around the top of the hole. One final note: Never use rocks from rivers and lakes. They have absorbed water and can explode when heated."}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  7, 2000 (18:26)", "body": "IN THE LATE 1920'S, WHO ARRANGED 200 GOLF BALLS IN NEAT ROWS IN THE HOLLOW OF A FALLEN TREE AT A PUBLIC GOLF COURSE IN WINNIPEG, CANADA? A gopher, in the mistaken belief that they were eggs and would make appetizing wintertime eating. WHY DID LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL OFFICIALS SPRAY-PAINT 108 PINK PLASTIC FLAMINGOS WHITE AND PLACE THEM IN GROUPS AROUND MARSHES IN THE EVERGLADES? To attract snowy egrets, white ibis and wood storks. The plastic flamingos were much cheaper than the white egret decoys. WHAT PERCENTAGE OF MEN ARE LEFT-HANDED? HOW ABOUT WOMEN? 10 percent of men; 8 percent of women. in parting... Wouldn't it be nice if the wattage of a car stereo could not exceed the IQ of the driver? --unknown"}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (14:01)", "body": "We have them in Hawaii and they are called Tarantula Hawks though the name is usually reserved for the much larger cousins in the Southwest of North America. They sting and incapacitate a \"cane\" (wolf) spider here and drag it somewhere safe to raise her baby. I have watched this industry many times and I am most impressed. She always rises in the air and does a circle for polarization location then off she goes to where her prey is then drags it all the way back to the hole she has dug. Absolutley amazing! Sphex Wasp The Sphex wasp has an egg laying ritual that has become a famous example of how absolutely rigid, instinctive behavior can appear quite intelligent. The female Sphex digs a burrow, stuns a caterpillar, drags it to the edge of her burrow, goes in a for a final check, drags the caterpillar in, then lays her eggs next to it. On the face of it, this looks like quite a well-thought out, intelligent sequence. But if you move the caterpillar a few inches away, when she comes back out from the inspection, she will drag it close again, and repeat the whole process You can move the caterpillar 40 times, and it will never occur to her to just drag it straight in and skip the re-inspection. This is a useful reminder that you can't always attribute human-style motivations to seemingly intelligent behavior."}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "This has nothing to do with Geo and everything to do with me. Play bagpipes and I will follow you anywhere : HOW MANY PIPES ARE THERE IN A TYPICAL SET OF SCOTTISH BAGPIPES? Five: the intake pipe, a valved tube connecting the bag to the player's mouth; the chanter, a pipe fitted with a double reed and pierced with eight sounding holes, used to play the melody; and three drones, pipes fitted with single reeds that provide the background."}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (17:18)", "body": "HOW MANY POINTERS WERE THERE ON THE FIRST CLOCKS WITH HANDS - MADE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY? Only one - to tell the hour. Minute and second hands were added in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries."}, {"response": 186, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (20:31)", "body": "WHAT IS VOG? A Hawaiian cousin of smog - it's a fog caused when sulfuric volcanic fumes mix with oxygen."}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (20:01)", "body": "HOW DID MASSACHUSETTS SEA CAPTAIN JOSHUA SLOCUM - THE FIRST MAN TO SAIL SOLO AROUND THE WORLD - FIGHT OFF PIRATES ATTACKING HIS SLOOP? He turned away the barefoot pirates by spreading carpet tacks on the deck of his boat. Slocum completed his historic 46,000-mile, 38 month voyage in 1898. WHAT WAS USED TO ERASE LEAD PENCIL MARKS BEFORE RUBBER CAME INTO USE? Pieces of bread. WHAT WAS THE FIRST LIVING CREATURE EVER EJECTED FROM A SUPERSONIC AIRCRAFT? A bear, in 1962. It was parachuted from 35,000 feet to a safe landing on earth. WHAT REASON DID YALE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE STUDENT EDMUND D. LOONEY GIVE WHEN HE SOUGHT PERMISSION IN 1956 TO CHANGE HIS NAME? He claimed the name Looney would interfere with the practice of his chosen profession - psychiatry."}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 13, 2000 (16:29)", "body": "WHAT PIECE OF CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT IS NAMED AFTER AN EARLY SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH HANGMAN? The derrick, which is named for Thomas Derrick - who carried out more than 3,000 executions during his career at Tyburn, near what is now the Marble Arch in London. IN 1964, A CAPSIZED FREIGHTER WAS REFLOATED IN KUWAIT BY FILLING ITS HULL WITH POLYSTYRENE BALLS. WHERE DID THIS IDEA ORIGINATE? In a 1949 Donald Duck comic, in which Donald and his nephews raised a yacht using ping pong balls. WHAT WAS THE SYMBOLISM BEHIND FLYING A FLAG AT HALF-MAST AS A SIGN OF MOURNING WHEN THE CUSTOM WAS FIRST INTRODUCED AT SEA IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY? The top of the mast was left empty for the invisible flag of death."}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 13, 2000 (17:37)", "body": ""}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 13, 2000 (17:40)", "body": "Light pulses flout sacrosanct speed limit Week of June 10, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 24 P. Weiss Five years ago, a wave of discontent swept away the 55-mile-per-hour U.S. speed limit. Nowadays, some physicists are taking a hard look at the 670-million-miles-per-hour speed limit of light in a vacuum, or c. Albert Einstein posted this limit in his 1905 theory of special relativity. Although popular lore and some physics textbooks still contend that nothing races faster than c, experiments going back decades have repeatedly shown that light can beat that speed under certain conditions. A few scientists argue that those experiments hint that Einstein was wrong. Two new experiments reveal dramatic additional evidence of superluminal velocity but make no clear case for repealing Einstein's law, scientists say. In one study, conducted in Italy, scientists propagated superluminal microwaves through air by bouncing them off a mirror. In the other, led by a New Jersey researcher, a laser pulse approaching a gas-filled cell's entry window materialized at the cell's exit glass before even reaching the cell. Although superluminal phenomena might someday help speed up computers\ufffdan avenue being explored by Raymond Y. Chiao of the University of California, Berkeley\ufffdthe main excitement around these experiments stems from basic physics implications. More..... http://www.sciencenews.org/20000610/fob7.asp"}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 13, 2000 (17:42)", "body": "Science News Week of June 10, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 24 Tsunami! At Lake Tahoe? Surprised tourists could catch the ultimate wave By K. Brown Postcards from Lake Tahoe all flaunt a peaceful, brilliant-blue stretch of mountain water. But geologists have been snapping a very different picture of the lake lately. Far beneath Lake Tahoe's gentle surface, they say, several hidden earthquake faults snake across the lake's flat bottom. These faults put the lake at a bizarre risk for an inland body of water. If the researchers are right, Lake Tahoe tourists could one day feel the ground tremble and, just minutes later, face a tsunami. Roiling waves of water would crest to 10 meters at the shore and crisscross the lake for hours. Tsunamis typically emerge in oceans, usually after a quake drops or lifts part of the seafloor. Undersea landslides\ufffdalone or following a quake\ufffdcan also trigger these giant waves. In 1998, for instance, a tsunami devastated Papua New Guinea, sweeping away more than 2,000 people living on the country's northern coast (SN: 8/1/98, p. 69). And in the past decade, tsunamis have lashed the coasts of Japan, Nicaragua, and Indonesia, as well. But Lake Tahoe? While it may seem improbable, Lake Tahoe holds just the right blend of ingredients to brew a tsunami. For one thing, it has plenty of water. As the world's 10th-largest lake, Lake Tahoe stretches 35 kilometers long, 19 km wide, and, in some spots, 500 m deep. What's more, the lake sits smack in the middle of earthquake country, nestled in a fault-riddled basin that straddles California and Nevada. Dozens of minor or moderate quakes erupt along faults in the region every week, and the Lake Tahoe area is no exception. All it would take, scientists say, is a strong quake directly beneath the lake to send the waters spewing, tsunami-style. To get a better grip on Lake Tahoe's tsunami potential, University of Nevada, Reno geologists have been modeling different quake scenarios. According to their calculations, if a magnitude 7 quake struck either of two major faults under the lake, the bottom could open like a trapdoor, with a chunk of it suddenly dropping as much as 4 m. Just behind it would fall a huge, sinking slosh of water\ufffdgenerating a giant wave that would reach the surface, gather strength, and come barreling to shore as a tsunami. And that's just the beginning. The scientists think the tsunami, in turn, would create so-called seiche waves, mountainous waves that lurch from shore to shore for hours on end. \"Think of the lake like a pan full of water. When you knock one end way down, the water surges and then sloshes back and forth for some time,\" says Gene A. Ichinose, a geophysics graduate student at Nevada-Reno and lead author of the group's study, which appeared in the April 15 Geophysical Research Letters. As in a jostled pan of water, some waves would likely splash past their usual borders\ufffdright into the homes and hotels that dot the Lake Tahoe shoreline. As Ichinose puts it, \"If you feel the earth shaking for 5 or 10 seconds, get to high ground.\" Inland tsunamis are extremely rare. Last year, geologist Jody More.... http://www.sciencenews.org/20000610/bob1.asp"}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (13:48)", "body": "Parabolic Focus Have you ever wondered why satellite dishes have the shape they do? That shape is a part of a paraboloid, which is what results when you rotate a parabola around its axis. A parabola is the set of points that are equidistant from a fixed line (the directrix) and a central point (the focus). The interesting property of a paraboloid is that if a set of parallel waves (such as you get from a distant transmitter) comes into it, the waves will all be reflected to the focus. So a satellite dish is designed with a receiver at the focus point to collect the signal that comes into the area of the whole dish. This amplification makes it possible to accurately register a weak signal. This same highly directional amplification concept is used in the design of the parabolic microphones that you see in use during sporting events, ensuring that high quality audio can be gotten from the players on the field even in the midst of the immense volume of the crowd."}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (19:43)", "body": "Holy Cow, That's A Big Horse! A pure-bred Irish draught horse owned by Joanna Shires of England may hit a record for size. The six-year-old horse is 19 hands high (six foot, four inches tall), although most horses of that breed are under 17.2 hands high. Shires says the good-tempered horse is still growing!"}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (16:25)", "body": "IN ASTRONOMY, WHAT IS A WHITE DWARF? The dense, burned-out remains of a star; a stellar corpse. THE HIGHEST SURFACE WIND SPEED EVER RECORDED WAS AT MOUNT WASHINGTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE, ON APRIL 24, 1934. WHAT WAS IT? It was 231 miles per hour. (Winds become hurricane force when they reach 74 miles per hour.) (I was up there in a dead calm. Very disappointing!)"}, {"response": 195, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (00:37)", "body": "231 miles an hour!!! Incredible."}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (00:49)", "body": "In the winter that wind can freeze you literally in moments. You can see why I was so disappointed by the dead calm. They test jet engines up there."}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (17:28)", "body": "- The female king crab incubates as many as 400,000 young for 11 months in a brood pouch under her abdomen. - Because of their extreme elasticity, the human lungs are 100 times easier to blow up than a child\ufffds toy balloon. - From the 1820s to 1960s, the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania, was owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co., making it the only privately owned river in the United States. - The Roman historian Pliny was so impressed by garlic and its perceived powers, he listed no less than 61 medicinal uses for the pungent bulb. Among them was that of warding off vampires, restoring hair loss, and preventing warts. - The hottest day ever in Canada was July 5, 1937 when the mercury soared to 113 Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) in Midale and Yellowgrass, Saskatchewan. But that's downright chilly compared to the United States where the temperature hit 135 (56.7 Celsius) degrees Fahrenheit on July 10, 1913 at Death Valley, California, and Al'azizyah, Libya, where thermometers reached 137 F (58 C) on September 13, 1922. - The Bactrian camel is the only mammal on Earth that can survive on salt water."}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (00:17)", "body": "Why do people get goose bumps? Goose bumps are a carryover from the days when humans' bodies were covered with fur. They are caused by the contraction of tiny muscles at the base of each strand of your body hair, and when those muscles contract they cause the hair to puff up. This action served two purposes: 1. It created an insulating layer of air next to the skin that helped keep a body warm in cold weather. This is why you get goose bumps whenever you are cold. 2. It gave your furry ancestors (of course, my ancestors weren't furry) a larger and more menacing appearance in the face of danger; this is why you get goose bumps when you are scared or frightened."}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (17:40)", "body": "Why are portholes (windows) on a ship round? The constant up and down motion of a ship places a lot of strain and stress on a ship's outer covering, or skin. If portholes were designed at angles, the stress would tend to concentrate at those points and perhaps crack the skin (probably not a good thing). With portholes being round, this stress is evenly distributed around the holes, making it less likely for these cracks to occur."}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (17:40)", "body": "WHERE AND WHEN WAS THE GREATEST EARTHQUAKE IN AMERICAN HISTORY? It took place in Missouri on December 16, 1811, at about 2:00 p.m. It is estimated the quake would have measured 8.7 on the Richter scale, compared with only 8.3 for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. However, the Missouri area was sparsely populated in 1811, so the San Francisco quake took more lives and damages more property."}, {"response": 201, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (08:39)", "body": "Where in Missouri?"}, {"response": 202, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (13:08)", "body": "The New Madrid fault."}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (13:24)", "body": "We discussed this last year in the Seismology topic, as I recall. It actually changed the course of Mississippi River!"}, {"response": 204, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (13:26)", "body": "Why do dogs sometimes turn around several times before taking a nap? Domesticated dogs, being descendants of wild dogs, still retain some of a wild dog's instincts. Wild dogs typically live in the forest or in the brush, and often have to trample down grass and weeds to make a comforatable place to lie down. They do this by walking around and around in tight circles. It is speculated remnants of this instinct account for a domesticated dog's tendency to turn around a few times before taking a nap."}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 23, 2000 (17:23)", "body": "WHERE AND WHEN WAS THE FIRST RECORDED BASEBALL GAME? On June 19, 1846, at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, the New York Club beat the Knickerbockers, 23-1. On that date, another baseball tradition began: The New York Club pitcher, James Whyte Davis, was fines 6 cents for swearing at the umpire."}, {"response": 206, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 26, 2000 (17:44)", "body": "WHAT ARE THE HIGHEST AND LOWEST ELEVATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES? The highest elevation is Mount McKinley, Alaska, at 20,320 feet. The lowest is Death Valley, California, at 282 feet below sea level. The average elevation of the United States is 2,500 feet. IF THE FEMALE SIDE OF A FAMILY IS CALLED THE DISTAFF SIDE, WHAT IS THE MALE SIDE? The spear side. A distaff was a stick with a cleft end, used to hold the flax or wool from which a woman spun thread. The distaff was considered a woman's tool, while the spear was a man's. Both ways of describing genealogy are now rarely used."}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 26, 2000 (23:38)", "body": "Why do geese fly in a \"V\" formation? I know that answer because I talked with some geese one day - as they were chasing and hissing at me in my Dad's backyard. Seriously, who knows, but there are two theories as to why they do it. The first theory speculates the \"V\" formation allows each bird to take maximum advantage of disturbances in the air created by the flap of the bird in front. These disturbances are generated in an inverted \"V\" pattern very similar to the formation flown by the geese. The second theory speculates because the bird's eyes are located on the sides of their heads, the \"V\" formation provides each bird with the best simultaneous view of the flock leader and the direction of the group's flight. You can decide for yourself or make up your own theory."}, {"response": 208, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jun 27, 2000 (16:38)", "body": "Have you ever tried to ask the local geese? Are they called \"Nene\"?"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 28, 2000 (22:45)", "body": "Never asked the Nene, but I sneaked them an oatmeal cookie (very much disapproved by both me and the park service.) They do not fly far enough (do not migrate) to fly in a V, but they are always in pairs."}, {"response": 210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 30, 2000 (13:54)", "body": "HOW MANY TYPES OF CLOUDS ARE THERE? There are 10: cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, altocumulus, altostratus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus, stratus, cumulus, cumulonimbus. Each of these clouds has a different shape and internal structure. HOW FAST IS THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT? The plates (solid segments of the earth's crust and upper mantle) that consist mostly of continents move at an average speed of about 2 centimeters per year. Europe and North America are moving apart at about this speed. The plates that are mostly under the oceans move faster, at an average speed of about 10 centimeters per year. It has been 200 million years since the original supercontinent, Pangaea, broke up into the continents we know today."}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  5, 2000 (14:59)", "body": "IF THE MOON PASSES BETWEEN THE EARTH AND THE SUN EVERY MONTH, WHY DOESN'T IT ECLIPSE THE SUN? The orbit of the moon around the earth is tilted at an angle of about 6 degrees from the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun. As a result, the moon is usually above or below the line between the earth and the sun - except on certain predictable occasions."}, {"response": 212, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  7, 2000 (23:41)", "body": "Why are ships referred to as \"she?\" Many moons ago - that means a long time ago, new sailing ships were dedicated to a goddess who allegedly protected the ship. This goddess would allegedly guide the ship safely to its destination. An image of the goddess was typically carved on the ship's bow, and this carved image led to the ships being referred to as \"she.\""}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  7, 2000 (23:42)", "body": "Why are stop signs red? While the color yellow is the most visible color in the color spectrum, the color red is the most exciting. The color red elevates the blood pressure, increases a person's pulse rate, and heightens the nervous system and tension. This makes the color red the most likely to attract human attention, which is what a person would want in a stop sign."}, {"response": 214, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (12:44)", "body": "interesting!"}, {"response": 215, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (13:38)", "body": "I thought so, and could not think of anyplace else for these little bits of information...so they go here. Were we not talking about this just the other day, Wolfie??"}, {"response": 216, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (00:49)", "body": ""}, {"response": 217, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (01:00)", "body": "Happy First Birthday, Geo My thoughts and thanks to the man to was so sure I could handle this conference when I was so sure I could not. With infinite patience he held my hand and corrected my errors as I made them. Geo would not have existed without him. I hope he is as happy with my efforts and results as I am. It has been quite a year! Thanks, also, to those who lurk and comment to me privately. I appreciate your thoughts and interest. To those who actually login and participate, my undying gratitude. Without you this would have been the most boring monologue in cyber space. Please continue to post - I will try to keep it interesting! MAHALO NUI LOA"}, {"response": 218, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (01:06)", "body": "Why did I put this on topic 1? It was the first thing I ever created all by myself here. What a feeling!"}, {"response": 219, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (17:27)", "body": "this is great!!!!!!! am so proud of you! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 220, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (17:43)", "body": "Thanks, Wolfie!!! *Big Warm and Fuzzy Hugs*"}, {"response": 221, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (18:08)", "body": "HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY GEO! Thank you Marcia for all the work you do. Geo looks wonderful."}, {"response": 222, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (19:32)", "body": "Thanks Cheryl - you helped too! Many thanks for continuing to find it interesting. It has been the most rewarding thing I have ever done outside of raising an incredible son. In this case the birthing pains lasted longer with Geo, but it was entirely worth it!"}, {"response": 223, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (23:34)", "body": "Happy First Birthday Geo!! Time flies, eh? Congratulations, Marcia! Thanks for creating such an interesting conference!"}, {"response": 224, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (23:56)", "body": "Wow!!! Thanks Ginny! I consider that high praise, indeed. I know you know about these things and can evaluate what I am doing. Humble gratitude to you! Other than David, Geo has given me the greatest sense of satisfaction. The first 6 months were the hardest. I had to block and tackle some of the posters in the early days...and there are still some who think Geo is forbiddingly intellectual. Riiiiiiight!!! Oh well..."}, {"response": 225, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (00:01)", "body": "Hey, I shoulda thrown a baby luau like they do here... Virtual Victuals could do the catering. Or the local cyber cafe, Bytes and Bites... Probably just as well I didn't. Poi in the keyboard is something you don't want to contemplate!"}, {"response": 226, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (00:32)", "body": "Poi in the keyboard? Ech!! :-) Bad enough when people spill coffee on keyboards! (And there's a few crumbs in my keyboard at work, I'm sure...) I've learned a lot by reading Geo, as well as having a lot of laughs. I was always into astronomy and cosmology, but I have a lot to learn about geology. I didn't know anything about volcanos before I met you and David. (And as far as web pages, I only know basic HTML...you've seen my web page!) Anyway, there's always something new to learn...that's what makes life interesting!!"}, {"response": 227, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (12:40)", "body": "Got that right, Ginny! Hope you are watching the Tall Ships Parade in Boston today as I am (The History Channel is carrying it alive) - hoow glorious the day and how magestic the ships! I have a spill guard vinyl cover on my keys to keep them clean inbetween. It is very easy to become accustomed to, and saves s lot of grief! But poi? Yeesh!"}, {"response": 228, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "3/4 of the Earth's surface is water....and only 1/4 is land.... The Good Lord's intentions were very clear. A man's time should be divided accordingly. 3/4 for fishing 1/4 for work"}, {"response": 229, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (15:26)", "body": "What color exactly is poi? Heck, what exactly is poi?"}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (20:11)", "body": "Poi is a leaden greyish purple translucent glutinous starchy substance obtained by cooking the taro root - a corm - then pounding it into a pasty consistency adding water and straining out the fibrous masses as you go. Eventually a uniform consistency is obtained and kept......more next posting"}, {"response": 231, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (20:47)", "body": "kept twor three days unrefrigerated as it gets more tart and fruity and totally delicious. Fresh is almost tasteless. Anyone hungry?"}, {"response": 232, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul 12, 2000 (19:33)", "body": "no, grossed out, yes. sounds really gross, marcia, i'm sorry. what do you do with it once you pound the pulp out of it?"}, {"response": 233, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 12, 2000 (20:52)", "body": "you strain it through cheese cloth and put it in something like a bowl and gradually thin it with water"}, {"response": 234, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 12, 2000 (20:54)", "body": "wolfie - it is soo good when it is ripe and tangy with little white mold on it which you beat into the mix and eat with Laulau and lomilomi salmon! So Ono! (I think it is an acquired taste.)"}, {"response": 235, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 12, 2000 (21:06)", "body": "Cheryl was so grossed out she did not even post a comment. That'll teach you to ask about Hawaiian delicacies. How about raw crab or sea urchin???"}, {"response": 236, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Thu, Jul 13, 2000 (00:16)", "body": "It does sound rather like an acquired taste, but I'd probably try it, as long as it doesn't look like ocra. It certainly wouldn't be the strangest thing I've ever tried!! I draw the line at raw fish or meat, though."}, {"response": 237, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (00:21)", "body": "Raw fish is wonderful.....funny you should ask... I'm with you on the okra."}, {"response": 238, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (00:30)", "body": "Ginny, when you next visit (iki will be here in October!) I will make sure you get the best tasting poi available and let you report back on the state of the staple."}, {"response": 239, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (11:46)", "body": "I think I've recovered. Actually, the mold isn't all that gross when you think about it. I eat cheese, which is basically milk which has gone bad. People pay a lot of money for cheeses such as Roquefort and Stilton, which are full of mold. Does the poi start to ferment, which is what gives it the fruity quality? Anyway, I thought an Hawaiian delicacy was Spam. The thought of raw sea urchin is gross, however. Raw sea urchin is for sea otters. Once at a Japanese restaurant I got a whiff of someone else's sea urchin soup. In a word, disgusting. It smelled as though it should have been in the tampon box in the ladies' room. I'm sorry, but that is the most apt desription for the smell."}, {"response": 240, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (18:24)", "body": "Yes......gotcha on the sea urchin..do not indulge in any bottom feeders raw. Penecillin is mold, also. It is pure white mold which gives poi its fruity flavor. Ever think of wine? Noble Rot, they call it."}, {"response": 241, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2000 (15:12)", "body": "Noble Rot. Yes, the great sweet wines of Sauternes and the Rhine owe their characteristics and longevity to it. Penecillin is also found in the famous ewe's milk cheese Roquefort."}, {"response": 242, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2000 (16:15)", "body": "I wonder if wine and cheese parties are ever gonna be the same for our readers"}, {"response": 243, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 17, 2000 (16:36)", "body": "Maybe not. Then again, people who read the Geo conference are tough. They can take it."}, {"response": 244, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Jul 17, 2000 (18:40)", "body": "Rough, tough creampuffs!"}, {"response": 245, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 17, 2000 (21:06)", "body": "Wow!! Is that good or not??? Yup, Geologist know how to get down and dirty when necessary...and how to remain ladies at all times (or most all time, anyway)"}, {"response": 246, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 17, 2000 (23:35)", "body": "WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE SAHARA DESERT IS COVERED BY SAND? About 20 percent - the rest is comprised of barren rocks, rocky plateaus and gravel-covered plains. WHAT IS THE LOWEST BODY OF WATER ON THE EARTH? The Dead Sea. At its lowest point, it's 1,315 feet below sea level."}, {"response": 247, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jul 18, 2000 (18:33)", "body": "I love the phrase \"rough, tough creampuffs\". Did you know it is impossible to get sunburn at the level of the Dead Sea? It is. It has something to do with the density of the athmosphere, I think."}, {"response": 248, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jul 18, 2000 (18:39)", "body": "I heard something about the Chandler Wobble today. It seems that as the Earth rotates, it also wobbles on its axis. If you could insert a large rod into the North Pole, you'd notice the rod making a circle of 20 miles in diameter. The Chandler Wobble was first noticed in 1891 and since then no one is quite sure why the Earth does this. There is now a new theory claiming the wobble is due to the displacement of vast amounts of water traveling through the world's oceans, such as currents and tides. It seems large amounts of seawater are being pounded into the Earth's crust, which in turn causes the Earth to wobble as it rotates."}, {"response": 249, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jul 18, 2000 (18:39)", "body": "I love the phrase \"rough, tough creampuffs\". Did you know it is impossible to get sunburn at the level of the Dead Sea? It is. It has something to do with the density of the athmosphere, I think."}, {"response": 250, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 18, 2000 (18:45)", "body": "Hmmmmmm.....interesting theory!"}, {"response": 251, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 22, 2000 (12:38)", "body": "Greetings from where the rocks are other than igneous"}, {"response": 252, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jul 22, 2000 (13:01)", "body": "Are you in California now? Say hello to the sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. If they answer -- run like hell."}, {"response": 253, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 22, 2000 (19:22)", "body": "Yes, I am midst the alien flora and fauna of the State of California - which is an altered state in all meanings of the word... Hoping the rocks don't talk to me, and I promise to run for cover if they do."}, {"response": 254, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 24, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "California is reputed to be an alternate reality. They rocks haven't started speaking yet, have they?"}, {"response": 255, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (15:30)", "body": "Funny you should ask. I have a sack of volcanic rocks from Long Valley Caldera whihc speak volumes (but you gotta buy the book to understand it.) Great whopping hunks of Obsidian and other volcanic origin as well as a great piece of Granite from the current peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The people, however, as still very far out and seem to be on another planet. Definitely \"Beam me up, Scotty\" time here!"}, {"response": 256, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 27, 2000 (18:08)", "body": "From Frank in Pennsylvania There has been some weird news in PA lately. In one of the towns that used to be a coal-mining community a hole opened in the middle of a downtown street. Its surface dimensions were about the size of a car, but the bottom didn't show. They dumped 300 tons of rock down the hole, but the rocks all disappeared! Last I heard, they were drilling exploratory holes all around the area to try to find out what is (and isn't) down there. Of course they assume that there was some sort of settling or cave-in of an old mine under the town."}, {"response": 257, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Jul 28, 2000 (04:34)", "body": "I've heard of bottomless pits."}, {"response": 258, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (02:23)", "body": "Read a book once where rocks were swallowed up in a bottomless pit. I mean literally swallowed - sounds like something the same here! How strange."}, {"response": 259, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (08:15)", "body": "are there any in the US?"}, {"response": 260, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (12:17)", "body": "My Mom used to live in a renovated old house over a coal mine. Despite the renovation work the kitchen floor slanted, if you spilled anything you'd have to run to catch it. Mom has since moved. As far as I know, the house is still standing in one piece. Still, the thought of something that deep under the town is frigtening."}, {"response": 261, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (23:05)", "body": "There are reports (Art Bell, if you believe his stuff)of bottomless pits in Oregon."}, {"response": 262, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  1, 2000 (20:05)", "body": "All you geophiles out there, please note that my AOL IM login name is now changed to Kilauea83A . Please add me to your list just in case you need to get in touch with me. When I transferred the information to this new big computer I managed to forget the old login password. Alas, I had to change it."}, {"response": 263, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  9, 2000 (14:28)", "body": "Dirty snow melts faster than white snow because it is darker and absorbs mroe heat. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite. Signals on your telphone travel 100,000 miles per second. An elephant is not afraid of a mouse."}, {"response": 264, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug  9, 2000 (17:22)", "body": "that peanuts thing could explain spontaneous human combustion!"}, {"response": 265, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (13:39)", "body": "The honey bee is the only bee that dies after stinging. The bat is the only mammal that can fly. Sharks are the only fish that can blink both eyes."}, {"response": 266, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (13:41)", "body": "*lol* Wolfie, what peanuts do to my son is unmentionable and objectionable in asocial setting. Pass the Beano!"}, {"response": 267, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 12, 2000 (17:54)", "body": "Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake entirely in the USA. Nepal is the only country in the world which does not have a rectangular flag - it has two triangular pennants, one on top of the other. The great horned owl is the only animal that will eat a skunk. The kiwi is the only bird that has nostrils at the end of its bill."}, {"response": 268, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 12, 2000 (17:57)", "body": "WHAT IS A QUASAR? It is another name for a quasi-stellar object. It looks like a star but emits as much radiation as an entire galaxy, with a volume far smaller than that of our Milky Way galaxy. No one knows what quasar is; recent evidence suggests it might be a galaxy with a big black hole at the center. WHAT MAKES LAVA LAMPS WORK? The colored stuff is an oil-based mixture that gets more liquidy as the water around it warms up; it moves because of convection currents. Oil and water do not mix, but the homogenize, which is why you should never shake a lava lamp. Lava lites were invented by Craven Walker in England and presented in 1965. They were marketed in America by Adolf Wertheimer."}, {"response": 269, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Mon, Aug 21, 2000 (04:48)", "body": "Lava lites were invented by Craven Walker in England and presented in 1965. Posted presumably to commemorate the death of Edward Craven Walker last week aged 82."}, {"response": 270, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 21, 2000 (11:58)", "body": "Thanks for that update, Mark. I had no idea, and if they were not still so expensive for a night light, I would have added to his bank account long ago! We Have a real Lava Lamp here but it is atop a mountain and gets out of control from time to time. Better where it is, I think! How is cricket season going??"}, {"response": 271, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (09:18)", "body": "Fine, thank you. About a month left. Keep posting your unusual facts, Marcia. Always well worth a read."}, {"response": 272, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "Thanks, Mark. I still smile when I think of the Saga of the Cricket Ball... Did you get snowed on? Imagine snow in England (4-6\") in August...!!!"}, {"response": 273, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (15:40)", "body": "More trivial stuff to make your day: Your brain is aproximately 80% water. Your feet perspire approximately one-half of a pint of water per day. Here in Houston my feet perspire a whole pint, but that's more information than you wanted to know beside it being damned hot here in Houston. William Moulton Marston was the creator of Wonder Woman. He also invented the polygraph. Flamingos can only eat when their heads are upside down. Abraham Lincoln died in a bed slept in by his assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Chinese celebrate their birthdays only once every ten years."}, {"response": 274, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (17:59)", "body": "Wow, I must really be out of the loop. Are you in Houston, Marcia? If you are, the place has a rotten climate, doesn't it? Okay, that's my opinion."}, {"response": 275, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (21:20)", "body": "Nope, still in Hilo, Hawaii with my Volcano, Kilauea. Honey, when you wander out of the loop I wil personally pull you back in... Will you do the same for me? I do wander sometimes!"}, {"response": 276, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (21:26)", "body": "Oh, I am pseting those comments from someone else. My personal feet do not do that..."}, {"response": 277, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 23, 2000 (15:18)", "body": "A toad has no teeth. There are more chickens than people in the world. Plymouth Rock weighs seven tons. Eli Whitney made more money as a gun manufacturer than he did form the cotton gin. The roller coaster was invented in the 17th century in Russia."}, {"response": 278, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (00:36)", "body": "From the Trivia guy: There are more sweat glands on the soles of your feet than on any other part of your body, which is kinda why I mentioned sweaty feet earlier in this week's trivia. Speaking of feet, did you know African elephants stay on their feet for 35 to 40 years? According to Goodyear, who allegedly spent 10 years researching this, a person's right shoe will wear out faster than your left shoe. An average person takes 18,000 steps per day. In your average lifetime, you will walk the equivalent of three times around the world. I'm tired just thinking about it. George Washington had a size 13 foot. Robert E. Lee had a size 4.5 foot."}, {"response": 279, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (18:49)", "body": "Marcia, you are a wealth of wonderful knowlege. I will pull you back in the loop it you wander out of it, as well. I think I read somewhere that there are 3 sheep for every person in New Zealand. Which brings up a story concerning my aunt's and uncle's vacation to New Zealand several years ago. They were sitting in the hotel's bar, having just started up a conversation with another American. This man had just returned from climbing the highest point in New Zealand. He said when he got up there, he found another climber, an Australian, who said to him, \"Did you come up here to get away from the sheep, too? The little woolly bastards are everywhere.\" It sounds like a comedy sketch line, but my aunt and uncle swear this is what the American climber told them."}, {"response": 280, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (19:21)", "body": "That is Hilarious!!! Thanks for sharing! I heard the sheep outnumbered us 10 to one in New Zealand."}, {"response": 281, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (19:22)", "body": "They've been breeding furiously it would seem."}, {"response": 282, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (19:27)", "body": "It is about the only thing to do in that beautiful country other than browse the ground. Feeling a little sheepish? Visit New Zealand!"}, {"response": 283, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (19:31)", "body": "You might consider sending that slogan to the New Zealand tourist board."}, {"response": 284, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "Too funny! I wonder how their sense of humor is these days about those sheep. I have heard curious things about human - sheep relations. Perhaps it is best to keep a safe distance from the subject considering this Island occupies a place in the same ocean that EnZed does..."}, {"response": 285, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (19:36)", "body": "Very true."}, {"response": 286, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (11:53)", "body": "A hummingbird can not stand on its feet as they are not strong enough to hold them up on a flat surface. Your feet swell during the day and can become 10 percent bigger at the end of the day than they were when you woke up this morning. City Ordinance #352 in Pacific Grove, California (USA) makes it illegal, actually a misdemeanor, to kill or threaten to kill a butterfly. The most popular name for a male cat is Tiger. The state flower of Alaska is a forget-me-not."}, {"response": 287, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (15:34)", "body": "HOW MANY TIMES DOES THE AVERAGE HUMAN HEART BEAT? About 100,000 -to pump 5 quarts of blood every minute. WHAT GEM SERVED AS CLEOPATRA'S SIGNET? The amethyst. She believed it had magical powers."}, {"response": 288, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (21:00)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 8/25/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= HORROR AT SEA: THE USS INDIANAPOLIS http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57862&pa=41 Near the end of World War II, 900 sailors survived the sinking of their ship only to be stranded in shark-infested waters for five days. Hear true accounts from some of the 316 who made it home. JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS AND VICTOR MATURE: WHO'S THE MISSING LINK? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57866&pa=41 Follow the clues to solve the mystery of the famous person these two famous people had in common. 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Learn how the proper racket grip and shoes can help you avoid common tennis injuries and get you back in the swing in no time. ALL NEW ... HORSE CAM! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57892&pa=41 IS ICE CREAM DANGEROUS? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57893&pa=41 THE DATING AND RELATIONSHIP CROSSWORD http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57894&pa=41 Completing this puzzle doesn't guarantee you'll find that perfect someone. But even if you're in a bad relationship, it's a great way to convince yourself that you're not the problem. BOOK YOUR NEXT TRIP ONLINE http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57895&pa=41 AT THE BALLOT BOX http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57897&pa=41 Of all the issues in the fall campaign, health care is probably the one that touches the most lives. Among voters\ufffd concerns: access to high quality doctors and hospitals, prescription drug coverage, and affordable insurance for all. The program, hosted by Dr. Bob Arnot, premieres Wednesday, August 30 at 10 p.m. ET. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=57897&pr=291&cf=1&pa=41&e=S EMAIL OUR YOUTH HATE-GROUP EXPERTS http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57899&pa=41 Do you have questions about youth hate groups and violence? Go to Discovery.com right after the East Coast and West Coast broadcasts of \"Warnings From a Small Town\" on Wednesday for live webcasts with our experts. Email your questions now! FEEL YOUR WAY TO BETTER SIGHT http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57900&pa=41 WATCH THE GORILLA IN LIVE STREAMING VIDEO http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57901&pa=41 THE BEST LONG-TERM CARE http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57904&pa=41 Nothing is easy when it comes to choosing a long-term care facility for a loved one, but our guide will help you determine what to look for in a nursing home. REDISCOVERING THE BENEFITS OF CROP ROTATION http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&e=S&cf=1&pr=291&c=57906&pa=41 ======== CHANNELS ======== THIS WEEK ON TV: TLC, SUNDAY, \"THE DETONATORS.\" Join us for a three-hour marathon of explosive entertainment, from fireworks to demolition to blasting into space. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=57917&pr=291&cf=1&pa=41&e=S DISCOVERY HEALTH, MONDAY, \"DESERT VIRUS.\" Follow the story of the deadly Hant"}, {"response": 289, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (23:20)", "body": "The National Safety Council says more Americans choke on toothpicks than choking on anything else. \"Celluwipes\" was the original name of Kleenex during the initial marketing effort in 1924. There are 11 points on the Canadian flag. Montgomery Ward's first catalog was only one sheet of paper. It was first printed in 1872. I don't believe thery publish the catalog anymore (are they even still in business?). Almost half of the bones in your body are in your hands and feet. Istanbul, Turkey is actually in two continents - Asia and Europe."}, {"response": 290, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 26, 2000 (21:01)", "body": "Tour plane down: Eight people survive the ditching off Hilo HILO -- Surfers saw it from the beach, and pilots could hear it from the sky: The Big Island plane suffering engine problems had to ditch the plane into ocean whitecaps in Hilo Bay. One person, a passenger, remained missing this morning. But eight people, including the pilot, survived the crash landing of a Big Island Air twin-engine Piper Navajo Chieftain at about 5:30 p.m. yesterday. The survivors were quickly rescued by the combined efforts of a Hilo Fire Department helicopter and boat. Both vehicles were joined today by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter and the cutter Kiska. Navy divers were to join the search for the missing person this afternoon. more... http://starbulletin.com/2000/08/26/news/story1.html"}, {"response": 291, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Aug 27, 2000 (04:02)", "body": "ooh nasty! Did you see/hear it Marcia?"}, {"response": 292, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 27, 2000 (14:17)", "body": "Only on my public utilities Scanner radio. We did not know about it till the fire rescue units were involved. Had I been monitoring the bands as I usually do, I wold have heard the entire thing. As far as I know, at this hour they still have not recovered the missing person."}, {"response": 293, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 27, 2000 (14:26)", "body": "Mt. Etna is erupting. Watch it happen: http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~gerhard/cam_etna.html"}, {"response": 294, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 27, 2000 (14:44)", "body": "+----------- Bizarre Product Warning Labels -----------+ Batman Costume - Warning: Cape does not enable user to fly. European Camera - This camera will only work when film is inside. Liquid Plummer - Warning: Do not reuse the bottle to store beverages. Toilet Plunger - Caution: Do not use near power lines. Little Ones Baby Lotion - Keep away from children Hair Coloring - Do not use as an ice cream topping. Boot's Children's Cough Medicine - Do not drive a car or run machinery."}, {"response": 295, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (00:31)", "body": "Bollide in daytime picked up by weather satellites:"}, {"response": 296, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (00:43)", "body": "That truly belongs in geo 24 so I will post it there later when I post the entire story of that particular image."}, {"response": 297, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 29, 2000 (23:22)", "body": ""}, {"response": 298, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 31, 2000 (22:38)", "body": "\"Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on Earth.\" --Will Rogers"}, {"response": 299, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 31, 2000 (22:40)", "body": "\"A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.\" --John Ciardi \"I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy next to me.\" --Woody Allen \"In the hands of a teenager, a seat belt buckle is a lethal weapon.\" --National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Official on why there are no seatbelts on public school buses \"Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening....The average American [should be] content with their humble role in life, because they're not tempted to think about any other role.\" --U.S. Commissioner of Education William Harris, 1889 \"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.\" --Mark Twain"}, {"response": 300, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  1, 2000 (23:24)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 9/1/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ DIVE INTO A CORAL ADVENTURE We're live in the Bahamas on one of the world's largest barrier reefs, among scavenger sea worms, brain coral and shell-less nudibranchs. Now, how can you resist that? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=63492&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ANIMAL OLYMPICS: YOU'RE THE JUDGE! Who's the better predator ... the scorpion or the gila monster? Is an archerfish a cooler killer than a croc? Your votes will determine the outcome. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=62020&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF DOWN UNDER In Australia you can hear the subtle whispers and the overwhelming roars. The sounds heard nowhere else on the planet. Are you ready for a little listen? Click below to send a FREE greeting with spectacular views of Australia now. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=62033&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=62033&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ARE YOU PART OF AN ODD COUPLE? Somehow, neat freaks and slobs seem to end up living together more often that you'd think. Whether you're an Oscar or a Felix, we have some tips on smoothing out the sticky situation. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=63133&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= HATE & VIOLENCE: WHAT CAN YOU DO? Are we all destined to be victims sooner or later? Some people don't think so. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=63501&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Test Your Violence I.Q. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=63501&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S How Likely Are You To Be Murdered? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=63501&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Youth & Violence: See Our Poll Results. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=63501&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S What would drive a child to kill? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=63501&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S THE DARKEST SIDE OF RICHARD NIXON? A new biography claims that the public knew only a few of President Nixon's demons. Might drugs and domestic violence be parts of the man's already-tarnished reputation? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=62060&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S MONSTER OR LEGEND? YOU BE THE JUDGE. El Chupacabra is a creature that makes Bigfoot look like the Easter Bunny. But although plenty of people claim to have seen him, no one has ever managed to capture him. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=63493&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY? (WE CAN HELP.) Know Your History From A-to-Z. Calamity Jane, Caligula, Charlemagne, Dick Cheney ... and that's just a little bit of the C's. Imagine all you can find about the ancient and recent past. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=63503&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Eavesdrop on a President. The private Lyndon Johnson was not the staid, fatherly figure who addressed the American public on television. Hear his phone conversations on topics ranging from the JFK assassination to Vietnam. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=63503&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Stonewall's Last Stand. It was the Battle of Chancellorsville, and few realized that it meant the beginning of the end for the Confederacy. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=63503&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S SEE EGYPT'S HIDDEN GEMS Why see this ancient wonderland just like every other tourist? We have the spots that will run a chill up your spine, and spice up your stories for years to come. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=63067&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S TO YOUR HEALTH Ahhhhh ... Choo! Summer allergies still plaguing you? Check out our allergy zone for tips on combating those pesky allergens. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=63248&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S STILL GOT THOSE FRESHMAN FIFTEEN? Help someone else avoid them. In doing so, you will help keep off the 11,000 tons of additional weight added to the hips and bellies of the nation's brightest teen-agers every year. CLICK BELOW Help someone else avoid them. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=65589&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ODE TO NFL OPENING DAY (WITH SPECIAL DISCOVERY.COM LINKS) The fields are lined, The helmets cleaned, Opening days Are made for dreams The Bengals bungled, this is true, But that just means they're overdue. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=64414&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Eagles teams have been unsteady, But Donovan and Duce are ready. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=64414&pr=331&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Who wouldn't want to be a Colt? In Peyton's place, would you rev"}, {"response": 301, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (15:54)", "body": "Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people. A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off until it dies from starvation. The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old. One quarter of the bones in your body, are in your feet. A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue. In Tokyo, they sell toupees for dogs. Some lions mate over 50 times a day. The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people."}, {"response": 302, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (15:55)", "body": "------------ Trapped Miners Eat Coal To Survive ------------ Four Chinese miners showed remarkable endurance and ironclad stomachs by surviving on a diet of coal and leaves when a landslide trapped them underground for 13 days. 33-year-old Wang Bo, a former soldier, took control of the situation and organized his colleagues to save water and start digging their way out. The four were eventually reduced to eating coal, but the trick seemed to work, because after seven days underground, they could hear rescuers digging down. Finally, on August 24, Wang and his colleagues saw the light of day."}, {"response": 303, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (16:02)", "body": "A full-grown elephant weighs LESS than the tongue of a Blue Whale..."}, {"response": 304, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (03:29)", "body": "After all that 'elephant ears' talk in spring ark ....this IS a surprising fact."}, {"response": 305, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (13:01)", "body": "Never thought of the connection when I posted the above tongue trivia. Hmmm. Gonna have to check with the only Spanish Pachyderm known in my world."}, {"response": 306, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (04:37)", "body": "Go to link below for story on blood fossils ....lost heart trying to transfer it in here... sorry, you'll just have to go and look .... http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/cultures/29.14"}, {"response": 307, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (23:29)", "body": "\"Spam\" stands for Shoulder Pork and hAM. The concept of \"escape velocity\" applies only to unpowered projectiles, not powered rockets. Maryland has 47 operational State parks, including 7 parks with waterfront areas, covering 90,239 acres The first Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages were 3\" wide and 18\" long. You made your own bandage by cutting off as much as you needed. P.J. Tierney, developer of the modern diner, died of indigestion in 1917...after eating at a diner. Jerry Rice holds the NFL record for most receiving touchdowns in a single season: 22 In 1995, the CN Tower was classified as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The average cost to take a family of four to an NBA game in 1999 was $266.61, based on two adult tickets, two children's ticket, four soft drinks, four hot dogs, parking, two game programs, and two souvenir caps. 100 years ago, Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine."}, {"response": 308, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (23:50)", "body": "Spectacular Solar Eruption on Sept 12, 2000 Space Weather News for Sept 12, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com On Tuesday, Sept. 12, less than 24 hours after the sunspot number plunged to its lowest value of the year, the Sun unleashed a surprising full-halo coronal mass ejection (CME). The leading edge of the CME could reach Earth on Thursday, Sept 14. Forecasters estimate a 30% chance of severe geomagnetic disturbances (possibly including aurora) at middle latitudes when the shock front arrives. For more information and images, please visit http://spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 309, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 13, 2000 (00:27)", "body": "A hockey puck weighs 0.38 pounds. In an average lifetime, the average human will produce in excess of 6,250 gallons of saliva (that's spit for those of you in Arkansas). Tuna fish swim at an average speed of 9 miles per hour. They also never stop moving. According to Metropolitan Life Insurance, major league baseball players live significantly longer than the average male - especially if you are a third baseman. The US state of Alaska's coastline is longer than that of all the US coastal states combined."}, {"response": 310, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (17:29)", "body": "The Library of Congress houses 30 million books. Babe Ruth never had a losing season...as a pitcher! IBM will capture 4,700,000,000,000 bytes of information at the 2000 Olympics -- almost 1 byte (character) for every person on the planet. On average, we send 38 Christmas cards every year. Wayne Gretzky holds the record for most goals by a center in a season: 92 The average length of a domain name is 11 characters. The US now imprisons more people than any other country. London - A plane carrying 55 passengers circled an airport in western Scotland while an air traffic controller had lunch. The officials at the airport on the island of Benbecula in the Western Isles of Scotland apologized for the incident. They said there was just one controller at Benbecula, and she had to take a lunch break because national air traffic rules forbid any controller from working more than two hours without one. It finally touched down 55 minutes late after the controller returned to her radar screen. The water in most underground layers is salty. Layers containing fresh water are most likely to be found within a few hundred feet of the surface. At depth, fresh water is the exception."}, {"response": 311, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (18:47)", "body": "A domestic cat has eighteen claws: fice on each of its front paws and four on each of its back paws. The tip of a whip makes a cracking sound because it is moving faster than the speed of sound. An ear of corn almost always has an even number of rows (twelve, fourteen, or sixteen). Earthworms have five hearts. The cat is the only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible."}, {"response": 312, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (19:13)", "body": "Why do cats have dew claws? Are they like feline thumbs?"}, {"response": 313, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (00:08)", "body": "90% of all volcanic activity occurs in the oceans."}, {"response": 314, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (18:55)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 9/15/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ THE OLYMPICS SHOWCASE Olympic Science Get the scoop on scientific advances that are helping world-class athletes shatter records at an astounding pace, including a few tricks that swimmers have learned from sharks. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S It's the Animal Olympics! The best athletes in the animal kingdom are squaring off against each other. You're the judge. Here are the matchups: Whale vs. Starfish vs. Anglerfish http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Gila Monster vs. Desert Lynx vs. Wind Scorpion http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Horseshoe Bat vs. Turkey Vulture vs. Aardvark http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Archerfish vs. Grebe vs. Crocodile http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Bird-Eating Spider vs. Fer-de-Lance vs. Arrow-Poison Frog http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Shrike vs. Woodpecker vs. Dove http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=8&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S DISCOVER OUR NEW CAM UNIVERSE Exploring your world has never been easier. We've added over 100 new live cams, including real-time views of an asteroid, ferrets and a college dining hall. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Pictures of the Day We're in Taiwan all this month, with some of the most vivid images you'll ever see. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=12&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Or maybe you missed some of our previous Picture of the Day road trips to: Paris http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Bimini http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S The Great Lakes http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=8&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Turkey and Greece http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=9&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Japan http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=10&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Tasmania http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=11&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= PIGS FLY! (AND OTHER ANIMAL ADVENTURES) Revenge of the Escargot Can you imagine being done in by a killer snail? Would it be a slow death? Would your family try to cover it up by saying you met your end in \"another senseless wildlife accident\"? So many questions, some of which we can answer. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=74138&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S What's the strangest creature you've ever seen? Well, we think we can match your experience with the peculiar sea creatures we've run into on our expedition to study coral in the Bahamas. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=74138&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=74138&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Pigs Fly! ... in the face of medical convention, that is. A new surgical technique using pig intestines is rewriting the book on animal-to-human transplantation. Among the many questions raised is: Why pigs? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=74138&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Starting Sunday: Ask the Experts About Ticks! Outdoors people don't fear bears. Or mountain lions. Or wolves. But they quake in terror at the prospect of confronting the tiny, and sometimes lethal, tick. Our experts are here through Sept. 23 to fill you in on these creatures. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=74138&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S SUCCESS IN SCHOOL ... PSSSST, HERE'S THE SECRET Maybe you haven't been the most ebullient student in the past. Well, there's no time like the present to change all that. Create a new image. Show those hand-raising, answer-knowing, down-their-nose-looking smart kids in your class that you're in on their secret. Let Webmath, A-to-Z Science and Brain Boosters be the advantage you've been looking for. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=74160&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=74160&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S htt"}, {"response": 315, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (20:56)", "body": "Mauna Kea may get extremely large scope Mauna Kea may be considered for a telescope with 10 times the light-collecting area of the world's largest optical telescopes, already atop the Big Island mountain. University of California and California Institute of Technology researchers who developed the 10-meter Keck telescopes have proposed building a 30-meter California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT). Almost routine discoveries have been coming out of the twin Kecks. CELT's mirror would allow astronomers to look deeper into the universe with more detail. \"It means you can study fainter, more distant objects in the same vein of many observations at Keck, but you can do them better,\" said Jerry Nelson, University of California-Santa Cruz professor of astronomy and astrophysics who heads the telescope design working group. Mauna Kea and several sites in Chile have been mentioned for the CELT, which project leaders hope to build in 10 to 15 years. Joseph Miller, director of UC Observatories/Lick Observatory, estimated the cost at about $500 million. \"We're working on the conceptual design but we don't have money in the bank so anything could happen two years from now,\" Nelson said in a telephone interview. \"People could say, 'Whatever happened to CELT?' It's not a sure thing but we have strong support at the highest level of academic institutions.\" The master plan for Mauna Kea anticipated such a telescope, according to Robert McLaren, interim director of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. In the plan, it's called \"Next Generation Large Telescope,\" describing the class of telescopes CELT falls into -- bigger than a 25-meter aperture, McLaren said. But while the plan foresees a telescope like CELT, such a project \"would have to be fully reviewed, assessed and approved,\" he said. As a one-time Hawaii resident, Nelson said he'd like to see the new telescope go to Mauna Kea. \"But for a project like this, you have to look for the best site for scientific and technical reasons, as well as fold in political things.\" A couple of sites in Mauna Kea's summit area might be suitable for a telescope as massive as the CELT, he said. \"Nonetheless, one must be sensitive to the political issues in Hawaii about developing the summit of Mauna Kea,\" he said. If that site is chosen, Nelson said, project leaders would work with the community to address concerns and \"not steamroll\" over them. Since the Keck telescopes are owned and operated by UC and Caltech, which CELT would be as well, Nelson thinks \"there would be a very strong connection. I could envision the same headquarters in Waimea.\" Because of the high maintenance costs of such facilities, however, the universities might end up selling or trading off part of Keck to support CELT, Nelson said. \"It's all highly speculative as to what would happen in 10 years,\" he said. McLaren said there is a trend to give the national astronomy community more access to large telescopes, mostly in private hands, in return for more federal support. \"In the case of Keck, it's unlikely that would happen real soon,\" he said, noting NASA is a partner in the telescope operation. Nelson said CELT leaders probably will start thinking seriously about sites in a year and aim for a decision in about four years. With CELT and adaptive optics, astronomers should be able to study galaxies and other distant things with better angular resolution than the Hubble Telescope, he said. \"You really win bigger by a bigger telescope, with more light sensitivity and better resolution, sharper. We will learn more about what's happening at the distant edge of the universe.\" CELT also will be powerful in exploring star-forming regions and planet formation, Nelson said. \"It has a lot of potential. Our (astronomy) communities are really excited about this. \"Experience has shown when you're building new facilities like this, the most exciting stuff that comes out of it you haven't anticipated at all -- things you just didn't even know.\""}, {"response": 316, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (21:46)", "body": "Stuff about things having nothing whatsoever to do with this conference.... A jumbo jet is 16 times more fuel efficient than a Concorde. So, just how good was that 6-iron from 218 yards that Tiger Woods hit from a fairway bunker, over water and right at the flag, to win the Canadian Open? The Toronto Sun asked three area professionals to go to the 18th at Glen Abbey on Monday and try it. None came closer than Woods' shot, which landed 18 feet behind the flag in the first cut of rough. Ashley Chinner, who tied for 13th in 1998 Canadian Open, hit the green three times with a 6-iron. His best shot was to 30 feet from the fringe. Chris Neale, golf director at Glen Abbey, got one of his seven shots on the green with a 4-iron. Tom Jackson, who played the Canadian Tour for 12 years, hit the green three times with a 5-iron, the closest one 40 feet away. \"The remarkable thing is that Tiger did it with so much on the line,\" said Chinner, who also works as a teaching pro. \"I think everyone knows he can pull that shot off. But under that situation, it was incredible. He worked the distance out perfectly so he took as much of the risk out as possible.\" http://espn.go.com/golfonline/tours/s/2000/0912/738970.html In response to changes in sea temperature, humpback whales adapt their calls so they can be heard by other humpbacks over the longest possible distance. 64% of Detroit, Michigan residents own a mobile phone. London - Stephen Brain, 30, won the holiday cheeserolling race in western England. Racers chase 8-pound double Gloucester cheese down a steep 300-yard course at Cooper's Hill near Gloucester. The first racer to finish behind the fast-rolling cheese gets to keep it. The races were canceled in 1998 because 27 racers were injured in the previous year's competition. This year, only one contestant was taken away in an ambulance. Historically cheeserolling was once just one event in a big spring celebration which included long-forgotten sports including \"grinning for the cake,\" \"jumping in the bag,\" and \"chattering for a bladder of snuff by old women.\" In the early 60s, IBM developed the Q7 for System Development Corporation, a private company funded by the U.S. Air Force to develop software for early air defense systems. Jerry Rice holds the NFL record for consecutive games with a touchdown: 13 Abraham Lincoln (the 16th president) carried letters, bills and notes in his stovepipe hat. When two zebras stand side by side, they usually face in opposite directions."}, {"response": 317, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (21:59)", "body": "Q. Is there a physiological limit on power output for humans? A. A person's power output rises when appropriate periods of rest are included. In 1916 a man carrying 92 pound pigs of iron 35 feet up an 8 foot high incline into a train carriage. The man carried 1,156 pigs into the train in a 10-hour day. Assuming he weighed 145 pounds and rested for about 15% of the time, this is some 200 watts average output--a remarkable figure. In fact, it is about as much energy as a human could hope to put out in a 10 hour day and was only accomplished after the introduction of rest periods! The previous record without rest had been 305 pigs. Proper rest *tripled* the total work output (if you include carrying the man's own weight back and forth). Bicycle racers use this sprint-coast-sprint sequence to maintain the highest possible average speed."}, {"response": 318, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (23:27)", "body": "For those of you who are big Olympic fans like I am: LEARN TO SPEAK AUSSIE Ready to hit the frog and toad? Sydneysiders are waiting for you. But you might not be able to understand them if you didn't realize that \"frog and toad\" means \"road\". Learn these words from Oz before you go. Billabong = A watering hole Woop Woop = The middle of nowhere Bruce = Man Sheila = Woman Footy = Australian Rules football Mackers = McDonald's restaurant Amber Fluid = Beer"}, {"response": 319, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (23:29)", "body": "In the English language, more words begin with the letter \"s\" than any other letter. On average, a person swallows 295 times while eating a meal. The left bank on a river is the left side as you look downstream. If you attempted to commit suicide in England in the 1800's, and were unsuccessful, you would face the death penalty. Only the female mosquito bites. (Discovery Channel's promo ads had men dressed as mosquitoes biting humans... Egad!)"}, {"response": 320, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (20:37)", "body": "The most common surname in the world is \"Chang.\" A golf ball, when driven off a tee, can reach speeds up to 170 miles per hour. A Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes. A person's left hand does 56 percent of typing. The Disney dog, Pluto, was originally named Rover."}, {"response": 321, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (20:58)", "body": "1. Debra Winger was the voice of E.T. 2. Pearls melt in vinegar. 3. It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs. 4. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. 5. The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order. 6. It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs. 7. Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms of their hands. 8. Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka. 9. The sentence \"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,\" uses every letter in the alphabet. (Developed by Western Union to Test telex/two communications) 10. Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches. 11. A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one know why. 12. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the round floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases. 13. The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the \"American Pie.\" (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.) 14. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David; Clubs - Alexander the Great; Hearts -Charlemagne; and Diamonds - Julius Caesar. 15. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 16. Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down-hence the expression \"to get fired.\" 17. Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt. 18. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the General Purpose\" vehicle, G.P. 19. The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado. 20. The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League All-Star Game. 21. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. 22. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original \"Halloween\" was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white. 23. If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom. 24. Snails can sleep for 3 years without eating 25. Actor Tommy Lee Jones and vice-president Al Gore were freshman roommates at Harvard. 26. The fingerprints of koalas are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene. 27. Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a \"Friday the 13th.\" 28. The man, who plays Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, is missing the entire middle finger of his right hand. 29. The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. 30. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. 31. All of the clocks in the movie \"Pulp Fiction\" are stuck on 4:20."}, {"response": 322, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 19, 2000 (00:23)", "body": "6,000,000,000 hits are expected on olympics.com this month. The Dead Sea is 1,300 feet below sea level. Michigan State University has the largest single campus student body (about 44,000) of any Michigan university, and is one of the largest universities in the country. The US incarceration rate plays such a distorting role in the labor market that one study found that the US unemployment rate would be 2% higher if prisoners and jail inmates were counted. - Justice Policy Institute, \"The Punishing Decade\" A snail can sleep for 3 years. The velocipede was the first bicycle with pedals The Eiffel tower grows six inches every year. In the summer the metal expands to make the tower grow, but in the winter the metal contracts to shrink the tower once again. Compared to the net worth of the average American, a nice home in Palo Alto, California costs Bill Gates $2.00."}, {"response": 323, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 19, 2000 (00:41)", "body": "Q. What is the world's most popular beverage? A. Despite the billions of dollars spent to promote colas and other sodas each year, soft drinks don't even rate second in the international beverage market. The dominant thirst quencher is water, but when it comes to man-made refreshment, tea reigns supreme. The worldwide obsession started over 4,000 years ago in China, when some tealeaves blew into a pot of boiling water. Today there are over 3,000 varieties of tea making up the five and a half billion pounds grown around the world. In the global tea drinking Olympics, the Irish are the biggest consumers, followed by the English in second place and the people of Qatar in third."}, {"response": 324, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 20, 2000 (20:05)", "body": "New Element Discovered The fire at Los Alamos has lead to another unexpected consequence. A top secret scientific document - discovered in a bunker whose security systems were mostly destroyed by fire - reveals the existence of a new element. The document describes what appears to be the heaviest element known to science. It has been tentatively named Governmentium (Gv). This new element has no protons or electrons, thus having an atomic number of 0. It does, however, have 1 neutron, 125 deputy neutrons, 75 supervisory neutrons and 111 team leader neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since it has no electrons, Governmentium is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. According to documents, a minute amount of Governmentium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would normally take less than a second. Governmentium has a normal half-life of approximately three years; it does not decay but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the deputy neutrons, supervisory neutrons, and team leader neutrons exchange places. The mass of Governmentium actually increases over time, since with each reorganization some of the morons inevitably become neutrons, forming new isotopes. This characteristic or moron promotion leads some scientists to speculate that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as the \"Critical Morass.\" Although it is odorless and tasteless, you will know it when you observe it."}, {"response": 325, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 20, 2000 (22:38)", "body": ""}, {"response": 326, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 20, 2000 (22:51)", "body": "A moment for a serious subject - the maintainance of Spring. Yesterday, the entire Spring shut down. I felt as though someone dear to me had died. There was NO was to see Geo or anything else in any of the other conferences. Karen and I emailed and she took up the problem with Terry. We are woefully behind in our payments for the use of Yapp software. check that url above. After the first slash, that is the program which allows all things to happen here. Without it, we do not exist! Karen explained it to me thusly: I have spoken with the woman who wrote the Yapp software and she has explained why we have some periodic site losses in the afternoon, which btw corresponds to midnight GMT. It has to do with the number of hits we experience daily and the fact we are exceeding them. Just FYI, it doesn't matter if you do or don't post at Spring because lurkers generate hits as well. She has generously offered to bump up the license limit if the old license is paid for. BTW, the license is a one-time thing. Therefore, folks, this is a request for donations. All payments should be mailed to: Spring Accounting Department 182 Clover Road Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Checks and money orders should be made out to \"The Spring\". Be sure to include the login ID of the account. Karen can now accept PayPal payments if you like. And for those who haven't signed up for these electronic payments and would like to do so, let me know. If people sign up under my referral, I would get a signup bonus of $5, which I will turn over to the Yapp cause. Please help if you can! Karen already has my contribution and I used PayPal. It is a simple process and the funds are safely in her account. Thanks for helping keep spring flowing and Geo alive!"}, {"response": 327, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2000 (16:19)", "body": "Lightening, not people, starts most forest fires. In 1924, American Robert LeGendre shattered the world long jump record with a leap of 25 feet, 4 inches. However, the jump was part of the pentathlon competition and LeGendre could muster only a third-place finish overall. The actual long jump competition was won with a jump of 24 feet, 5 inches. Mosquitoes have killed more people than have all the world's wars combined. 40% of Americans have married their first love. Elephants have been known to remain standing after they die. Uranus is the only planet that rotates on its side. The Oakland Bay Bridge took over 1,200,000 rivets, with a good crew installing 800 rivets per day. The temperature in eastern Siberia can get so cold that the moisture in a person's breath can freeze in the air and fall to the ground. The Utah state animal is the Rocky Mountain Elk."}, {"response": 328, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (00:29)", "body": "From Terry concerning the need for funds to keep Spring going... Also, our monthly rate just went up about 20 times, according to the invoice I just received. Your credit card will automatically be processed. You will receive a confirmati on e-mail when your card is charged. Your total payment due is $946 (to quote the email I just received)."}, {"response": 329, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (01:00)", "body": "Oregon was jointly occupied by the US and Canada from 1818 to 1828. 90% of the visits by patients to doctors are caused by conditions that are either self-limited or beyond the capabilities of medicine in the first place. - FJ Ingelfinger, \"Arrogance,\" New England Journal of Medicine 303(1980) http://upalumni.org/medschool/ Jerry Rice holds the NFL record for consecutive 100-catch seasons: 3 Top 10 Products sold at Toys\"R\"Us 08/16/98 to 08/22/98 1. Sony Computer playstation system w. dual shock controller 2. Acclaim N64 WWF Warzone 3. Nintendo Nintendo 64 system 4. Galoob Spice Girls dolls 5. Hasbro Preschool Talking Teletubbies 6. Nintendo N64 Banjo-kazooie 7. Acclaim Playstation WWF: Warzone 8. Evenflo trendsetter travel system 9. Mattel Hot Wheels Basic cars 10. Mattel Hot Wheels Mechanix Vehicles IBM's Q7, a vacuum-tube computer, had 30,000 vacuum tubes. At Vicksburg, Mississippi the United States Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station is the world's largest hydraulic research laboratory. A bird's eye takes up about 50% of its head. In 1859, 24 rabbits were released in Australia. Within six years the population had grown to 2 million Certain fireflies emit a light so penetrating that it can pass through flesh and wood."}, {"response": 330, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (01:10)", "body": "In the 1800's, people thought the eggplant was poisonous and called it the \"mad apple.\" \"Jack\" is the most common name in nursery rhymes. An adult has 206 bones. Newborn infants have 300 bones. The first minimum wage was established inthe USA in 1938 - all 25 cents per hour."}, {"response": 331, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (16:35)", "body": "Life at the South Pole ...nice pix http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/vtour/pole/dome/life/sun/ and a tour of the south pole center http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/vtour/pole/"}, {"response": 332, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (17:02)", "body": "Yeah, thanks for putting that here...I was wondering where to put it....this is fine!!!"}, {"response": 333, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (00:24)", "body": "George Washington nicknamed New York as the \"Empire State.\" Alaska doesn't have counties. Technically, neither does Louisiana (Parishes.) Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end. Honeybees and turtles are deaf. \"Shiek\" means \"old man\" in Arabic."}, {"response": 334, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (01:26)", "body": "New measurements Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter: EskimoPi 2000 pounds of Chinese soup: Wonton 1 millionth of a mouthwash: 1microscope Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement: 1 bananosecond Weight an evangelist carries with God: 1billigram Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour: Knot-furlong 365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer because it's less filling: 1 liteyear 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone: 1 RodSerling Half of a large intestine: 1semicolon 1000 aches: 1megahurtz Basic unit of laryngitis: 1hoarsepower Shortest distance between two jokes: A straight line 453.6 graham crackers: 1 pound cake 1 million-million microphones: 1 megaphone 1 million bicycles: 2 megacycles 365.25 days: 1 unicycle 2000 mockingbirds: two kilomockingbirds 10 cards: 1 decacards 1 kilogram of falling figs: 1 FigNewton 1000 grams of wet socks: 1 literhosen 1 millionth of a fish: 1 microfiche 1 trillion pins: 1 terrapin 10 rations: 1 decoration 100 rations: 1 C-ration 2 monograms: 1 diagram 8 nickels: 2 paradigms 2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital: 1 I.V.League 100 Senators: Not 1 decision"}, {"response": 335, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (10:11)", "body": "That's wonderful. Very funny, Marcia."}, {"response": 336, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (14:56)", "body": "My son, who sends very few forwards sent that and I just about wiped me out. A contingent of gentlemen who will appreciate it and do not read Geo(that I know of) I am wondering how well it translated into other languages. Do Spaniards and the English understand what an Esquimo Pie is???"}, {"response": 337, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (15:42)", "body": "Er, actually there were a few that didn't compute ...eskimo pie being one of them, but being the 'academic' I am I didn't like to show my ignorance!!!"}, {"response": 338, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (22:22)", "body": "An Eskimo Pie is chocolate covered vanilla ice cream and is disk-shaped. Play on words, of course. We all must learn thing like that fag means different things on either side of the Atlantic... Next puzzlement - I need to know what needs translations!"}, {"response": 339, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Sep 24, 2000 (04:14)", "body": "Thanks - never heard of that!!!! Yup, Fag does have two different meanings at least here .....! considering the others ...."}, {"response": 340, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (20:59)", "body": "wait, back a few posts...how did our monthly usage costs increase 20 times? what happened there?"}, {"response": 341, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Sep 26, 2000 (05:08)", "body": "Good question Wolfie ....."}, {"response": 342, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 26, 2000 (14:56)", "body": "Terry explained in in How's your connectin to the Spring topic which is linked to Drool . Topic 43, I think! Lots of lurkers? (Yeah, those millions of men who are checking out that URL I posted in Yahoo and AOl and on ICQ.) I do not have any way of checking who is lurking so I have no idea where they are looking, but I'll wager a goodly sized jewel that it is NOT in Geo!!! Karen also explained in the post I put with my own comments attached. I have no idea where they are lurking, I just know I never want to see Geo go invisible agin!!!"}, {"response": 343, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 26, 2000 (16:06)", "body": "I am haing considerable trouble getting my email. I can send it but the only incoming I can get is kilauea83@yahoo.com at the moment...*sigh* And there has just been a massive CME!!! Look for Aurora!!!"}, {"response": 344, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Sep 26, 2000 (16:59)", "body": "Just been out and looked ...clear night (for once!!) but nothing except stars to be seen .... *sigh*"}, {"response": 345, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 26, 2000 (17:04)", "body": "*sigh...perhaps tomorrow night...the photons are just beginning to hit here now. Just an aside...anyone who thinks Telnet for email is the best there is...Arrrrgh!!! Three email programs and only one works!!"}, {"response": 346, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Sep 26, 2000 (17:16)", "body": "Almost like cable television, 63 channels and nothing fit to watch on any one of them, at most times."}, {"response": 347, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 27, 2000 (22:09)", "body": "I spent 4 months in a home with itd own TV dish. I had 900 channels of nothing to watch! Olympics, however, I make an exception for. I'll wantch anything Olympic! The letters \"M.G.\" on the British sportscar actually stand for \"Morris Garage.\" Calvin Coolidge's will was one sentence long. One of the primary reasons the mayflower pilgrims ended their voyage at Plymouth rock was pretty much the same reason people today suspend their journeys: they ran out of beer. You have to count all the way to one thousand before the letter \"a\" is used in spelling a number. Fireflies light up as a means of sexual attraction."}, {"response": 348, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 27, 2000 (22:10)", "body": "Most of the books you own today will disintegrate in 50 years (approximately) unless they are printed on acid-free paper. Seals have been known to swim for as long as 8 months, and as far as 6,000 miles, without touching land. New York's World Trade Center has over 43,000 windows. I'd hate to have to pay and replace all of them. An ant's sense of smell is comparable to a dog's. William Shakespeare has no living decendants. (but His publisher, John Heminge does... Me!)"}, {"response": 349, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 27, 2000 (22:11)", "body": "The candlefish is so oily that it was once burned for fuel. 23 publishers rejected Dr. Seuss's first book. The Library of Congress houses 80 million non-book items. To keep from being separated while sleeping, sea otters tie themselves together with kelp, often drifting miles out to sea during the night. Montana has the largest migratory elk herd in the US. IBM's Q7s were deployed in pairs to ensure a backup if one went down, and took up three floors of a building, with one floor entirely devoted to air conditioners. The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, gives out 26 times as much light as the sun. Human bones can withstand stresses of 24,000 pounds/square inch. In the Old West a \"straight shooter\" was an honest person you could rely on. \"Shooting straight\" meant that the person was like a bullet's path: true, not crooked."}, {"response": 350, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (00:20)", "body": "A hummingbird feeds at 1,500 flowers per day. As of 1999 the white population in California is 16,500,000 while there are now 17,000,000 Latinos, Asian Americans, blacks and Native Americans. The Latino population has grown 35.8% in the 1990s to 10.5 million. The Asian population grew by 36.8% in the 1990s. Wisconsin has 7,446 streams and rivers. World Population growth: 1 billion in 1804 2 billion in 1927 (123 years) 3 billion in 1960 ( 33 years) 4 billion in 1974 ( 14 years) 5 billion in 1987 ( 13 years) 6 billion in 1999 ( 12 years) Projected World Population: 7 billion in 2013 ( 14 years) 8 billion in 2028 ( 15 years) 9 billion in 2054 ( 26 years) Venetian blinds were invented in 1769, by an Englishman. Tidal effects are moving the Moon further from the Earth into slower orbits and lengthening our day in the process. This will not stop until the Moon is in geostationary orbit and the Earth's day length equals the month length. The Spanish Inquisition once condemned the entire Netherlands to death for heresy. Compared to the net worth of the average American, where $100 will buy you tickets, food and parking to take your family to see an NHL hockey game, Bill Gates could buy the team for 100 \"Bill bills\"."}, {"response": 351, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (16:13)", "body": "I love watching the Olympics too, Marcia. I think the defining moment of the current games will be Cathy Freeman winning the 400 meter race. It seemed that the whole world loved her; although not as much as the Australians, of course."}, {"response": 352, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (16:15)", "body": ""}, {"response": 353, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (16:15)", "body": "I love watching the Olympics too, Marcia. I think the defining moment of the current games will be Cathy Freeman winning the 400 meter race. It seemed that the whole world loved her; although not as much as the Australians, of course."}, {"response": 354, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (16:17)", "body": "That was a really strange hiccup on one of my posts. I don't know what happened."}, {"response": 355, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (20:52)", "body": "It happens when lots of postings are being processed at the same time. It is a glitch in Yapp software that used to happen to me a lot!!! If all of the oceans in the world evaporated, Hawaii would be the tallest mountain in the world. Honey is used to make antifreeze. Dog meat is a delicacy in China. A fella by the name of Robert Earl Hughes used to be the heaviest person in the world. He weighed *just* 1,067 pounds. Shooting stars are not stars - they are meteors."}, {"response": 356, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (22:16)", "body": ""}, {"response": 357, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (22:17)", "body": "The above mention of Hawaii refers to The Big Island of Hawaii. The surrounding sea is 28,000' deep (8534.4M) and almost 14,000' above sea level (4267M) making a total height of Mauna Kea (the highest peak ) 42,000' (13,161M) That's a whol lot of mountain when you consider that the mass of Mauna Loa is large enough to contain several mountain chains and is really just a side peak on the entire mountain mass amking up this island. Actually, the Island of Hawaii is made of five fused volcanoes: Kohala, Mauna Kea, Hualalai, Mauna Loa, and Kilauea. The list is from oldest to youngest. Mauna Kea and Kohala are considered dormant (though Kohala might just be extinct), Hualalai and Mauna are currently dormant, too, but they have erupted in recent history. Kilauea is active, even as I write this."}, {"response": 358, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (01:45)", "body": "(This alst post reminded me ...Marcia, did you get the Hawaii pix I sent ....or do I need to resend them ...oops!! they're on the laptop!!! Pray I get that modem fixed ...found the problem ...got computerworking fine, just modem not..time's running out for me...)"}, {"response": 359, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (13:06)", "body": "Many healing words said in behalf of your laptop!! Black-eyed peas are not peas. They are beans. The flying fox is not a fox - it is a bat. Catgut string does not come from a cat - it is from a sheep's intestines. The kangaroo rat is not a rat - it is a gopher. The silkworm is not a worm - it is a caterpillar. Blackboard chalk is not chalk - it is plaster of Paris. The pineapple is a berry. St. Patrick was born in Britain. A prarie dog is not a dog - it's a rodent. A horned toad is a lizard."}, {"response": 360, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (13:57)", "body": "The first McDonald's was opened in 1955. The revenue from the first day's business? $366.12 www.olympics.com has thus far been viewed by 5.7 million people from 146 countries. Drop Tea tablets, developed by the Towa Company of Tokyo, are made of tea leaves tightly compressed into pellets. To make a fresh brew you just drop three or four into hot water. Because the compacted leaf surfaces are protected from air, they are claimed to stay fresh longer than loose leaves. Added to hot water, the leaves open up to brew Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Assam, apple or lemon tea. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is more transparent than glass. http://www.psrc.usm.edu/macrog/pmma.htm If there was a bathtub large enough to hold it, the planet Saturn would float. The winter of 1847-48 was so extraordinarily severe in the country that heavy ice formed in Lake Erie. When it was broken up during the latter part of March, the winds swept the ice into the entrance of the Niagara River at Buffalo, where it jammed in a solid mass, completely choking the outlet of Lake Erie, with the result that on March 29, 1848, the falls of Niagara were practically dry. In the Middle Ages, monks were forbidden to eat meat. If you are divorced man you are four times more likely to die in an accident than if you are married. The Alamo is located in San Antonio. It is where Texas defenders fell to Mexican General Santa Anna and the phrase \"Remember the Alamo\" originated. The Alamo is considered the cradle of Texas liberty and the state's most popular historic site."}, {"response": 361, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (18:18)", "body": "(healing prayers for the laptop worked ..I'm back online after reinstalling Win98! Dyed my hair to cover grey caused by the crash, and now reinstalling all my programmes and realising I lost all my links etc again .. GRRR)"}, {"response": 362, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (02:50)", "body": "Think I should dye mine too...but it will not turn a living room into a bedroom and keep my favorite painting wall from being turned into a Wall of Fame....!!! What color do you sugggest??? Right now, something witchy and black sounds about right! Brava and kudos on your recovered modem. That was scary!!! Back it all up on your zip drive NOW!!! *hugs*"}, {"response": 363, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (05:24)", "body": "Backed all data and progs I haven't got disks for before I reformatted hard disk!!!! Now downloading slowly to make sure everything works properly before adding new progs. Still waiting for unlock codes for Norton sysem works to arrive ...I NEED that!!! Nah, black would look awful with your colouring ....I always go pretty close to natural ..that way roots don't show and it just enhances ...may not help LR prob but sure boosts ego ....and gives confidence to stand firm ... HUGS"}, {"response": 364, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (15:02)", "body": "Oh, I hear you! Amen! Anyway, I turned grey much too young - the few I have - but not chestnut again. Look miserable as a blond. How about flaming red??? Yeah, I know...make it subtle and match what you already have!!!"}, {"response": 365, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (17:01)", "body": "I'm just lazy ...want to lift the colour, but can't be bothered with touching up roots and stuff ...not much grey, but fading a bit ...and it will be bleached by the African sun soon ..."}, {"response": 366, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (19:01)", "body": "I think I will remain as was intended by nature. in this BIG little town, it surely would be wondered about, Maybe that is what this town needs...a bit of fresh gossip to talk about, but, not about me!!!"}, {"response": 367, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  1, 2000 (22:16)", "body": "The FBI go through 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition each month at their training center. The Princess Anne and Princess Margaret hovercrafts have stopped service across the English Channel. Originally designed to last 10 years, they operated for 32, logging a million hours of operation across the 6 vessels. They had a top speed of 60 to 70 mph and were raised 12 feet in the air when the air cushion was inflated. Doctors, as a trade, stand high in the ranks of those who go mad, top themselves, filch pills, sniff gas, run from their spouses, weep in the night, live chronically disjuncted lives. - M Bywater, \"The Doctors We Deserve?\" http://upalumni.org/medschool/ The top 5% of American wage earners pay 86% of the total income tax collected. Wood Frogs can survive being frozen. In fact, they spend winters frozen on land, thawing in the spring. The planet Pluto takes 248 Earth years to orbit the Sun. For twenty of those years, it is closer to the sun than the planet Neptune. The nature of its orbit, however, always prevents it from colliding with Neptune. One day on Pluto is about the length of a week on Earth. When Heinz ketchup leaves the bottle, it travels at a rate of 25 miles per year. Jerry Rice holds the NFL record for longest consecutive games with a reception streak: 193 Only 4% of Americans asked the parents' approval for their bride's hand."}, {"response": 368, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Oct  2, 2000 (13:25)", "body": "Heinz ketchup travels at the amazing rate of 25 miles per year. That would be perhaps even slower than the sloth which moves so slowly fungus grows on its fur."}, {"response": 369, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Oct  2, 2000 (13:27)", "body": "Marcia, you might not want to go with ketchup red hair. You might consider red, but not quite that red."}, {"response": 370, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  2, 2000 (15:41)", "body": "Or Sunkist orange, either. No, being subtle is more my style. Not into anything flaming unless it is NOT im public... That Ketchup thing must be just after you have dislodged the initial plug and you end up with half the bottle on your hamburger! As the daughter of a chemist, I know how to avoid that happenstance."}, {"response": 371, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Oct  2, 2000 (16:43)", "body": "Well, I'm pleased with my new hair colour ..yup, subtle chestnut ..brightened it up nicely ...now where's the scissors???"}, {"response": 372, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  2, 2000 (23:50)", "body": "Here are 5 questions. See if you can answer them. Answers will follow, but don't cheat! 1. Where was Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders born? 2. Name the three countries closest to the United States. 3. What do the following ten places have in common: Atlanta, Cleveland, Dayton, Hartford, Jacksonville, New Haven, Newark, Norfolk, Philadelphia, and Phoenix? 4. What country celebrates Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October? 5. Where is the world's largest garbage dump? **************** Answers: 1. Indiana. 2. Canada, Mexico, and Russia. 3. They are all towns in New York state. 4. Canada. 5. Staten Island, New York."}, {"response": 373, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  2, 2000 (23:54)", "body": "The Earth's atmosphere is, proportionally, thinner than the skin of an apple. Top 4 Favorite Traditional Amusement Parks: 1. Kennywood, (West Mifflin, PA) 2. Knoebel's Amusement Resort, (Elysburg, PA) 3. Cedar Point, (Sandusky, OH) 4. Blackpool Pleasure Beach, (Blackpool, UK) Mongooses were brought to Hawaii to kill rats. This did not work as rats are nocturnal while the mongoose hunts during the day. The space station is a $60 billion effort of 16 nations. It will cover almost an acre and have as much pressurized space as a Boeing 747 when completed in 2005. Nevada native tribes include the Shoshone, Washo and Paiute. Australia's new parliament building in Canberra are one of the largest buildings in the southern hemisphere, with 4,500 rooms and about 2,700,000 square feet of space."}, {"response": 374, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  3, 2000 (14:00)", "body": "Contact Earth Imagine if you will... the leader of the fifth invader force speaking to the commander in chief... \"They're made out of meat.\" \"Meat?\" \"Meat. They're made out of meat.\" \"Meat?\" \"There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They're completely meat.\" \"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars.\" \"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines.\" \"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact.\" \"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines.\" \"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat.\" \"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they're made out of meat.\" \"Maybe they're like the Orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage.\" \"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of meat?\" \"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside.\" \"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the Weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through.\" \"No brain?\" \"Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat!\" \"So... what does the thinking?\" \"You're not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat.\" \"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!\" \"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?\" \"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat.\" \"Finally, Yes. They are indeed made out meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years.\" \"So what does the meat have in mind?\" \"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the universe, contact other sentients, swap ideas and information. The usual.\" \"We're supposed to talk to meat?\" \"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there? Anyone home?' That sort of thing.\" \"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?\" \"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat.\" \"I thought you just told me they used radio.\" \"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat.\" \"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?\" \"Officially or unofficially?\" \"Both.\" \"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing.\" \"I was hoping you would say that.\" \"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?\" \"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say?\" `Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?\" \"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact.\" \"So we just pretend there's no one home in the universe.\" \"That's it.\" \"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed? You're sure they won't remember?\" \"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them.\" \"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream.\" \"And we can mark this sector unoccupied.\" \"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?\" \"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotation ago, wants to be friendly again.\" \"They always come around.\" \"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe would be if one were all alone.\""}, {"response": 375, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  3, 2000 (20:28)", "body": "TFTD-L@TAMU.EDU US Code as of: 01/23/00 Title 4, Sec. 8. Respect for flag No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. ... (b) The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise. (c) The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free. (d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, ... - http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/4/8.html ***** tftd would like for the US Olympic Committee to instruct the US athletes on proper conduct including respect for our flag."}, {"response": 376, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  3, 2000 (20:32)", "body": "that was funny!"}, {"response": 377, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  3, 2000 (20:38)", "body": "About the meat, I trust. I loved it and did not want it to languish in Screwed unappreciated! The flag comments should also be meaningful to you... *hugs*"}, {"response": 378, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  3, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "IBM's Q7s used 10% of Santa Monica's power and were left on day and night for fear of causing destructive surges in the city's power. It has now been revealed that Colossus was in fact the world's first electronic digital computer, not ENIAC. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,39198,00.html A student of Carroll High School was blocked from accessing his high school's home page from his own high school's library computer. It turns out the high school had installed filtering software to filter \"all questionable material\" and this included filtering out pages containing the word \"high.\" http://dfn.org/Alerts/contest.htm Compared to the net worth of the average American, who might buy a plane ticket on a Boeing 747 for $1200, Bill Gates could buy three 747s for 100 \"Bill bills\". The first police force was established in Paris in 1667. Police dogs were first used in Scotland in 1816. The Texas Rangers, established in 1816 were the first US state police force. The first police car was an electric powered vehicle in Akron, Ohio in 1899. The Internet Trade Show List lists 595 Internet-related trade shows. The brain requires 25% of the oxygen used by the body. The earth's magnetic field pulls the electron beams hitting the cathode ray tube in computer monitors. Every computer monitor has to be calibrated relative to its position in the earth's magnetic field. Adjust a monitor in the northern hemisphere and its colors will be wrong if you plug it into a computer in the southern hemisphere."}, {"response": 379, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  5, 2000 (18:32)", "body": "Half of the peanuts grown in America are used to make peanut butter. Boston College is in Chstnut Hill, Massachusetts. Leonardo da Vinci could draw with one hand and write with the other - all at the same time. A kangaroo can hop at a pace of 40 miles per hour."}, {"response": 380, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  5, 2000 (18:41)", "body": "Robert E. Lee was buried barefoot as the coffin was too small to allow for his boots. The electric razor made its debut in America on March 18, 1931. General Custer's soldiers called him \"Hard Ass.\" Ping Pong is the national sport of China. A bear has 42 teeth."}, {"response": 381, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (16:04)", "body": "VIRUS ALERT!!! October 06, 2000 You may have heard about a variation of the LoveLetter virus called the \"US PRESIDENT AND FBI SECRETS\". It's a 'worm' virus that spreads through e-mail as a chain letter. The worm uses Microsoft's Outlook e-mail application to spread. The subject header will be US PRESIDENT AND FBI SECRETS=PLEASE VISIT( HTTP://WWW.2600.COM ) or a randomly generated 6 letter word displayed in all capital letters, or it might be blank. The worm will also include a randomly chosen attachment. The size of the attachment is approximately 12,609 bytes. Our current virus signature files will detect this worm. However, if you receive an e-mail prefaced with \"US PRESIDENT AND FBI SECRETS\" (Even if it sent by someone you know!) DELETE THE E-MAIL IMMEDIATELY!"}, {"response": 382, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (16:06)", "body": "The cornea of the eye is the only living tissue in the body that contains no blood vessels. Nutrients come from the tears and from the liquid that fills the chamber behind the cornea. Pigeons and hummingbirds have tiny magnetic particles in their heads that respond to the Earth's magnetic fields and that they use for navigation. In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Inca Indians of Peru, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other. If you blow in a dog's face he won't like it, but take him for a ride in the car and the first thing he does is stick his head out of the window. Jerry Rice shares the NFL record with Steve Young for most touchdowns by a WR-QB combo: 84 For over 20 years the medical literature has carefully documented the under-treatment of all types of pain by physicians. http://upalumni.org/medschool/appendices/appendix-76.html The 12,831 foot long Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is the world's longest suspension bridge. It was opened on April 5, 1998. Staying awake for 17 to 19 hours can dampen your mental and physical reaction times as dramatically as two drinks. http://www.sciam.com/news/091900/5.html 100 years ago, 18% of households in the United States had at least one full-time servant or domestic."}, {"response": 383, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "High altitude and continuous darkness in winter combine to make interior Antarctica the coldest place on Earth. The lowest temperature ever recorded was -126.9 F at 11,500 feet above sea level at the Russian station of Vostok on August 24, 1960. Dolphins don't automatically breath but have to tell themselves to. IBM spent seven years working on the systems for the Sydney Olympics. The first sponsored television was in 1930 and was seen on 44 television sets. Rain contains vitamin B12. On Thursday, October 5, 2000, the space shuttle program will launch its 100th shuttle. The program has transported into space 596 people and 3,000,000 pounds of cargo. Wayne Gretzky holds the record for most All-Star game points in a career: 25 A hummingbird hums because of the nature of the 10 primary feathers on each wing. These feathers are extremely long and narrow. When the wings flap, these feathers vibrate, making the humming sound."}, {"response": 384, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (20:38)", "body": "HOW DID MANHATTAN GET ITS NAME? It's a derivative of the Indian word Manahachtaniek, which means \"the island where we all get drunk,\" apparently referring to a spirited encounter between the Native Americans and some newly arrived Dutchmen. WHY DOES IVORY SOAP FLOAT? Too much air - originally an error in production. In 1878, Harley Procter and cousin James Gamble decided to create for their company a white soap that would rival the popular castile soaps of their competitors. The product was successfull. Then, in 1879, a worker mistakenly allowed the soap solution to be overmixed. The new version of the soap was an immediate success because it bobbed to the surface of the water."}, {"response": 385, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "Here on Earth it's almost always true, that tomorrow will follow today. Yet there is a place where yesterday always follows today. Where is this place?"}, {"response": 386, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Oct  7, 2000 (10:04)", "body": "I don't know, since I'm meat I may well be at a disadvantage. The posting on the aliens was too funny. So where is it that yesterday always follows today? This is one of those Sphinx Riddle things, isn't it? A bear has 42 teeth. I'll take your word for it as I don't want to wait a few months, find a hibernating bear, pry its mouth open, and count the teeth. The world's largest garbage dump, the Freshkills Landfill on Staten Island is well on its way, or just has become, the highest point on the east coast of the United States. The Dutch actually bought Manhattan from a tribe of Indians who lived in what is now Brooklyn. There were Indians living on Manhattan at the time, but they lived up in what is now Washington Heights. As far as I know, no one consulted them on the deal. Have those imported mongeese become a problem in Hawaii? Lastly, Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians at Spring."}, {"response": 387, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  7, 2000 (16:56)", "body": "*gonna kill me* Tomorrow comes before yesterday in a dictionary...*ducking*"}, {"response": 388, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  7, 2000 (18:36)", "body": "Loved that meat one...blame that dictionary one on my being meat..."}, {"response": 389, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  7, 2000 (19:38)", "body": "i did love the meat story!"}, {"response": 390, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  7, 2000 (22:48)", "body": "I should post it in Food/vegetarian so Autumn will see it!"}, {"response": 391, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  9, 2000 (01:17)", "body": "Originally developed in the Philippines around 1500, the Yo-Yo was a weapon. It consisted of a four pound stone attached to a rope about 20 feet long. Tribesmen used it in two ways. When hunting, they stood off to one side, held one end of the rope and threw the rock towards the legs of an animal. The rope became tangled around the animals legs, and with a tug, the hunter brought the animal down. Against enemies, the stones would be dropped on their heads. The tribesmen would quickly recover the stones, ready for a second blow if necessary. In 1927, an American named Donald Duncan saw a Yo-Yo in a museum and spent the next several years transforming this concept into his new toy. His Yo-Yo's were made of wood, and the name - the same as the Philippine weapon - is a legal trademark. Only later did Duncan discover that toys similar to his Yo-Yo, had been made of ivory with expensive silk strings, had been used in China as far back as 1000 B.C., and had showed up in Europe centuries later. This enabled other toy manufacturers to make similar toys legally, though only Duncan was ever allowed to use the name Yo-Yo. On October 7th, 2000 a 38-year-old Slovenian became the first person to ski nonstop down Mount Everest. It took five hours to ski from the peak to the 18,000 base camp. Incredibly, a sherpa recently set the record for the climb from base camp to the peak of just 16 hours! http://everest.simobil.si/eng/default.shtml Napster users downloaded 1,390,000,000 MP3 files ...in September, 2000. Babe Ruth struck out 1330 times. 20% of American men proposed on one knee. The 28th President (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson allowed sheep to graze on the White House lawn during World War I; their wool helped raise money for the Red Cross. Despite its size, IBM's Q7 had a single CPU running at about 12 KHz (83,333 times slower than 1 gHz Athlon) and 64K of RAM (1,000 times less than the minimum today). Cats spend 70% of their time sleeping. Fossilized remains of life 50 million years ago have been arranged in unusual forms, which is Lemmon's mark of distinction at the world's largest petrified wood park in South Dakota."}, {"response": 392, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  9, 2000 (04:06)", "body": "All of this is memorable stuff, but nothing like as memorable as my day has been. My son brought his new fiancee home to meet his volcano, to wlak the lava flows and to admire the glory of a lava flow in the night. Imagine this great lady's courage! She accepted his proposal even after meeting me in July!"}, {"response": 393, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  9, 2000 (04:43)", "body": "Overshadowing them all was the W incident...in th ecategory of momumentality"}, {"response": 394, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (14:47)", "body": "During the Cambrian period (500 million BC) an Earth day was only 20.6 hours long. Cisco Systems and Microsoft capitalized on the windfall profits of their employees to wipe out their federal income tax bills last year. Cisco, the second-most valuable U.S. company, behind General Electric, eliminated a $1.8 billion income tax liability by deducting the gains that its employees realized from stock options during the company's most recent fiscal year. Microsoft, the world's largest computer-software company, recorded a $5.5 billion tax benefit by deducting its employees' profits from stock options during its last fiscal year. Microsoft reported federal and state tax liabilities of $4.74 billion in the year ending June 30. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-3145717.html Only 15 to 20% of the population functions well in an environment where they are to be competitive with others. John Walker, an English chemist, never patented the match that he invented because he thought it was too important to be anything but public property. The Klondike Historical Park in Seattle is only 5000 square feet and can be safely explored in about an hour. It is also inside. In 1937 the tiny asteroid Hermes came within 500,000 miles from Earth. In ancient Greece women didn't start counting their age until their wedding day, rather than the actual day they were born. They believed the wedding date was the real start of a woman's life. Young priests of the island of Leukas, Greece were required to don the wings of an eagle and plunge from Cape Dukato into the sea in order to qualify for service at the temple of Apollo. This feat was routinely performed for hundreds of years yet no diver was ever hurt. The height of the dive? 230 feet. Black cats are considered lucky in England."}, {"response": 395, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (15:22)", "body": "This will not update but the page does regularly and you can see what my kiddies will be feeling as they reacquaint themselves with Kilauea: http://tux.wr.usgs.gov/results/seismic/BigIsland.html"}, {"response": 396, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (15:31)", "body": "In the above image, which is a satellite image inhanced, please notice the sea bed just off the southeast coast... Notice the Fan of sediment there? That came from massive faulting and slumping into the sea from that flank of Kilauea volcano. It will as surely happen again as tomorrow will. I just do not want to be here for the earthquake and resulting tsunami from this \"mass wasting!\" You will also notice similar fans of slump off the north end of the island. Loihi, the name in red at the bottom of the image just off the southeast tip is the newest volcano in the chair. The hot spot is moving!"}, {"response": 397, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "and how are your babies doing?"}, {"response": 398, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (18:35)", "body": "My *babies* are fanstastic. Today they are paying homage to the volcano and introducing her to the relism of fluid rock. I wanna go, too, but he wants it to be a special introduction - which I certainly understand! Still, I wnt to go see....*sigh* I might as well be living living in the middle of the outback of Australia for how close I get to that most amazing of sights. ...polishing up my Alexandrite and thinking Wonderful Wild and Wicked things..."}, {"response": 399, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (18:38)", "body": "For those of you about to travel: Here's a little tip from me to you as an experienced traveler. Wake-up calls: worst way to wake up. The phone rings; it's loud; you can't turn it down. I leave the number of the room next to me, and then it rings kind of quiet, and you hear a guy yell, \"What are you calling me for?\" Then you get up and take a shower. It's great. -- Garry Shandling Thanks for asking about my kiddies, Wolfie! *hugs*"}, {"response": 400, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "Q. Why are most cameras black? A. For a while, chrome was popular as a camera finish, but professional photographers covered it in black tape to cut down on surface reflections and that led to the color change. The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river. - H. Ross Perot"}, {"response": 401, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (19:30)", "body": "good one mr. perot! that's interesting about the camera. those pros are constantly fiddling with lights and stuff they don't need the extra frustration of \"where's that reflection coming from\"!! i've selected an alexandrite out of the amulet catalog. it's simulated but the whole thing is still gonna cost $600 (setting and all). may have to wait for a good raise!"}, {"response": 402, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (20:06)", "body": "Oooh...if it is like my \"Mexican Alexandrite\" (not the real one I wear all the time!) it will be beautiful and you will love it!"}, {"response": 403, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (22:59)", "body": "Northern General Ulysses S. Grant owned slaves who were not freed until after the Civil War had ended. Timekeepers have clocked the action in a 60 minute football game to actually be around 14 minutes. Leon Uris dropped out of high school to join the US Marines. In 1978, a college professor conducted a study of fingernail biting. His findings also revealed approximately 15% of Americans admitted to also chewing their toenails. Pigs can run a 7.5 minute mile."}, {"response": 404, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (12:25)", "body": "A typical American hospital has three to four times more employees than patients. Your skin is about 3/16th of an inch thick. Did you know the federal withholding tax taken out of each American's paycheck was enacted as part of a \"temporary\" wartime measure? Talk about fuzzy math. The Hawaiian alphabet has only twelve letters. Sioux Indian Chief Crazy Horse was called \"Curly\" as a child. ."}, {"response": 405, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (12:28)", "body": "Honey is used as a center for golf balls and in antifreeze mixtures. There are 6 Internet Service Providers serving Iceland. The Library of Congress has 530 miles of shelves. Jerry Rice is one of the NFL's best-conditioned players. Several people, including the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Navy, were killed when the ten-ton \"Peacemaker\" gun exploded during a firing from the first propeller-driven warship, the U.S.S. Princeton. They were on a cruise on the Potomac south of Washington, D.C., in 1844. President John Tyler was also on board with his fiance, Julia Gardiner -- they were unhurt as they were in a cabin below deck. IBM had 2,000 employees along with 4,000 volunteers working in shifts round the clock at the Sydney Olympics. On Thursday, October 5, 2000, the space shuttle program was to launch its 100th shuttle. Shuttles have orbited the Earth about 13,500 times, travelling 350,000,000 miles -- equal to going to the sun and back twice. Big tobacco has played another trick on the public, according to a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Tobacco Control. Instead of finding ways to reduce levels of harmful secondhand smoke, manufacturers chose to hide it, adding chemicals to their cigarettes that mask the smoke's odor and visibility. What's worse, those additives may actually make ETS more dangerous. http://www.sciam.com/news/091200/2.html The salamander is the official South Carolina state amphibian."}, {"response": 406, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (21:08)", "body": "i'm depressed about the pigs being able to run faster than me *frown*"}, {"response": 407, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (21:09)", "body": "honey is in the middle of golf balls? hmmmm, bet it's not edible!"}, {"response": 408, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (23:58)", "body": "It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. Top 4 Favorite Theme Parks: 1. Busch Gardens Williamsburg, (Williamsburg, VA) 2. Disneyland, (Anaheim, CA) 3. Cedar Point, (Sandusky, OH) 4. Paramount's Kings Island, (Kings Island, OH) 5 years after being one of the judges who condemned 19 people of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, Samuel Sewall stated the convictions were a mistake. If you pause Saturday Night Fever at the \"How Deep Is Your Love\" rehearsal scene, you will see the camera crew in the dance hall mirror. 6% of Americans proposed over the phone. America spends 14% of its GNP on healthcare: $1,000,000,000"}, {"response": 409, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (01:39)", "body": "Precipitation What is hail and is it dangerous? Are raindrops really tear-shaped? Big and small snowflakes Can snow be coloured? Sounds of snow Which day is the snowiest? The sound of hail What do you call it when snow evaporates before hitting the ground? I would like to know when it is too warm to snow? What determines whether precipitation will fall as freezing rain or snow? What is the Bergeron Process? Why are all snow flakes six sided? What is hail and is it dangerous? David Bowes, a Grade 11 student in Chatham, New Brunswick was curious about the formation of hail and how dangerous it is. While hurricanes, tornadoes and lightning grab all the headlines, hail is one of the most dangerous and certainly most destructive of all severe weather phenomena. Each year it injures a few Canadians, kills thousands of farm animals, wildlife and birds and causes millions of dollars damage. Now I don't know whether hail has ever killed anyone in Canada. It has killed hundreds in India and in China. And in the United States, at least 3 people have been killed by falling hailstones including a 3-month old boy, and it caused a single-engine plane to crash. For a hailstone to grow, it must be captured or held up by powerful thunderclouds while new layers of ice are continuously being added. In most cases, frozen raindrops or ice balls are caught up in a kind of atmospheric trampoline as they fall from clouds. The ice particles are thrown back up into freezing air by strong updrafts where they acquire another layer of ice. These updrafts can continue to bounce the growing ice pieces back and forth - sometimes 25 times or more. Eventually the hailstones grow too heavy to be supported by the thunderstorm's updraft and fall to the ground as hailstones - the size of peas or as big as grapefruits or even bigger. top Are raindrops really tear-shaped? Adam Taub of Thornhill, Ontario wonders whether raindrops are really tear or pear-shaped like you see on cartoons, advertisements and posters. High-speed photographs of most raindrops nearing the earth show them to be more like mushroom tops or hamburger buns - not at all tear-shaped. The falling speed of raindrops is directly related to their size. Small drops, those less than 2 mm in diameter, tend to remain round as they fall. The surface tension is sufficient to hold it together as a nearly perfect sphere. Larger raindrops fall at a speed around 30 km/h. Because the air pressure or resistance is greatest on the bottom, the drop flattens there which makes the droplet bulge on top. The side edges bulge out because air pressure there is lower. So the large raindrops tend to be flat on the bottom, round on top and wider than they are high just like a hamburger bun. Really large drops, those say 6 mm or more across, become distorted into a shape rather like a parachute and then they break up into smaller drops. top Big and small snowflakes Peggy Power of North York asks why are snowflakes quite big on certain days, and then smaller on other days? The shape and size of snowflakes ultimately depend on the temperature and the amount of water vapour available in the cloud where the flake first forms, and in the layers of air that the flake falls through as it descends. Some soggy flakes, measuring about 2 cm in diameter when they reach the earth, are conglomerations of 100's of matted-together flakes which have passed through relatively mild and moist air. On the other hand, dry snow tends to arrive as small, single flakes, unlikely to bind with other flakes as they fall through dry, cold air. Nearly anything can happen to a snowflake as it drifts and tumbles earthward. Pieces break off, evaporate or melt. They bump into each other and sometimes bind together. If the wind is too strong, the big flakes will rip apart and you'll only see fragments. Also the greater the distance a snowflake falls the larger it usually becomes. About a century ago, monster snowflakes which were larger than a medium-size pizza supposedly fell from the skies over Montana. top Can snow be coloured? Mr. Eloi DeGrace of Dartmouth sent me a clipping from a newspaper in 1819 citing a peculiar find of red snow. How can that be? In 1818, Sir John Ross, the noted Arctic explorer discovered large deposits of red-coloured snow in Greenland. It was found to contain red-tinted, microscopic plants and animals. Pure snow is white, but snow is never pure. It contains much more than just frozen moisture and air. Pollen, single-celled organisms, specks of dust, dirt, sand, and ash and traces of pollution are sometimes in sufficient quantities to affect the colour. The foreign material is carried by wind currents before the snowflake begins to fall. Yellow snow (it's not what you think) can be coloured by pollen from a near-by pine forest fell in Pennsylvania; pink snow has fallen on Vancouver Island; pale-blue snow fell in the French Alps presumably coloured by copper salts in the dust from the Sahara desert. During the Dus"}, {"response": 410, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (16:37)", "body": ""}, {"response": 411, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (07:20)", "body": "Did you hear about the big meteorite that fell in Northern British Columbia, it was on NPR this morning. To quote http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=10/13/2000&PrgID=3 -- NPR's Richard Knox reports on clues to the earth's formation that are falling from the sky. Last January, a real estate agent in Canada witnessed the crash of a meteorite he described as a gigantic white light from the sky. A week later an amateur scientist discovered pieces of the meteorite, collected and preserved them in the freezer. Scientists now say it's the best sample they have yet to study how the earth was formed. (4:51)"}, {"response": 412, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (07:36)", "body": "And more details at http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20001012/sp_meteorite.html"}, {"response": 413, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (13:01)", "body": "Cross posted from Springark Thursday October 12 4:41 PM ET Scientists Find Completely New Animal in Greenland http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001012/sc/life_animal_dc_1.html COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Reuters) - Danish scientists have found a completely new kind of animal down a cold well in Greenland and are keeping a colony of them in a fridge, the Arctic magazine Polarfronten reported on the Internet Thursday. The 0.1-millimeter long freshwater organism does not fit into any one of the previously known animal families -- making it only the fourth such creature to be discovered on the planet in the past 100 years, Polarfronten said. Studies of the animal named ``Limnognathia maerski'' show that it shares some characteristics with certain seawater life-forms. Scientists from Copenhagen University and Aarhus University in Denmark have established a new phylum -- or family -- for the tiny animal, whose most remarkable feature is a set of very complicated jaws. It has now got its own branch, Micrognathozoa, on the tree of the world's known animals, which are divided into slightly more than 30 families, Polarfronten said. Limnognathia maerski, which reproduces through parthenogenesis, uses its jaws to scrape the bacteria and algae it feeds on from underwater moss growing in icy wells which freeze over during the long Arctic winter. The animal was found in samples taken in 1994 from a well in Isunngua on Disco island in northwestern Greenland. A colony of the tiny creatures, all females, is in a refrigerator at Copenhagen University. Greenland, the world's largest island, is part of Denmark."}, {"response": 414, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (13:22)", "body": "Positively amazing, but boring...nothing male around at all??!"}, {"response": 415, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (16:16)", "body": "Trick or Treating under the Stars Thursday's Classroom for Friday, Oct. 13th http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com In little more than two weeks, millions of kids will be outdoors after nightfall on Halloween. Don't let your students go Trick or Treating unprepared -- a basic knowledge of the northern autumn sky will make Halloween more fun than ever. This week's activities include: o Draco-Lanterns -- transform traditional pumpkin carving into a truly stellar experience! o Toothpaste Constellations -- Do you have trouble convincing your kids to brush their teeth? Now you can put all that neglected toothpaste to good use in this constellation art project. o What's Your Angle? -- Students learn about triangles and quadrilaterals as they grow familiar with the autumn constellations. o Hands Up! -- One of the most useful tools for navigating the night sky (and learning the basics of angles and degrees) is right by your side. o The Crazy Constellations Coloring Book -- Students can color original art by Duane Hilton as they follow along with this week's lessons. ...and more! Please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com"}, {"response": 416, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (17:41)", "body": "WHAT WAS THE FIRST ZOO IN THE UNITED STATES? It was the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, which opened in 1874. In 1938, it became the site of the first children's zoo. Founded and operated by the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Zoo currently houses more than 1,400 specimens of over 400 species. WHAT IS SILLY PUTTY MADE OF? The rubberlike compound is composed, in part, of boric acid and silicone oil. Invented at the General Electric laboratories in the 1940s as an inexpensive synthetic rubber for use during World War II, it gained its greatest popularity when New Haven, Connecticut, store owner Paul Hodgson bought a large quantity of it, put it in small plastic eggs, and called it Silly Putty."}, {"response": 417, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (18:08)", "body": "note that there is a new topic in springark for those newly discovered critters. that meteorite was way cool!"}, {"response": 418, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (12:41)", "body": "Yeah, I need a piece of a meteorite for my collection. Even a wee little one no one will miss...oh, and a moon rock would be nice. Shoulda made off with the one I guarded that time... Parthenogenic Critters on SpringArk...gonna check!"}, {"response": 419, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "The largest crocodiles ever were Deinosuchus, from the late Cretaceous era. They were up to 50 feet long. One skull that was found was almost six feet long. If IBM's Q7 failed, it would run a diagnostic, telling you what rack of tubes to pull and what tube to replace in the rack. Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York was founded in 1861 by a brewer named Matthew Vassar. The Oakland Bay Bridge was completed 6 months ahead of schedule and millions under budget and is considered one of the 7 wonders of the modern world. The total weight of all insects Earth, is 12 times greater than the weight of all people. The height of the Eiffel Tower varies as much as six inches depending on the temperature. It took engineers 22 years to design the zipper. Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone. The US has the world's most violent weather. Each year it experiences 10,000 violent thunderstorms, 5,000 floods, 1,000 tornadoes and several hurricanes."}, {"response": 420, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 15, 2000 (00:57)", "body": "Benjamin Franklin was the 15th child of a Boston soapmaker. A dragonfly eats, on average, 300 mosquitos per day. An inch-thick rope of spider's silk can withstand up to 140,000 pounds of pressure. In 1968, there were 5 million-dollar lottery winners who did not claim their prize. A horse can look forward with one eye and backwards with the other."}, {"response": 421, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 15, 2000 (22:56)", "body": "Frogs never drink -- they absorb water through their skin. The book that Neo hides his money and software disks in is a copy of \"Simulacra and Simulation\" by the Jean Baudrillard. The book argues Baudrillard's thesis of \"hyperreality\": the idea that multiple copies annihilate the ancient relationship between copy and original... The British government has sanctioned insurance companies' use of genetic tests for inherited diseases. http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns999968 When North America was first settled, beavers grew to the size of bears. Blonde beards grow faster than darker beards. Worldwide, about 40 square miles of land are transformed into desert each day. Rhode Island was the last of the original thirteen colonies to become a state."}, {"response": 422, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (17:14)", "body": "A Matter of Time A Mind-Warping Memo to Kick-Start Your Brain on a Marvelous Monday Morning \"The time of physics is defined and measured by a pendulum, whether it is the pendulum of a grandfather's clock, the pendulum of the Earth's rotation around the sun, or the pendulum of the precessing electron in the nuclear magnetic field of the hydrogen maser. Time, therefore, is defined by periodic rotation - that is, by motion related to a point moving uniformly around a circle.\" These are the words of physicist Edgar Lipworth, as reported by the occasionally apocryphal but invariably colorful Tom Robbins in his book, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Apocryphal or no, Lipworth's assertion found a warm corner in my mind where it circled, laid down and then napped for awhile. Upon waking, the strange thought yawned, stretched its arms and said, \"All movement happens in Space; height, width and depth - the first three dimensions. And as you already know, the fourth dimension is Time. Light moves through space and according to Einstein, Time stands still at the speed of light. Light, my friend, is the pendulum of the universe, marking and measuring time. And just as faith is the evidence of things not seen, color is the evidence of light. Color is the momentary, visible bridge between space and time.\" Scratching my head, I asked, \"Are you sure?\" For a long time there was nothing but silence in my mind. Then, just as the thought was vanishing over the horizon, it called over it's shoulder, \"Let there be light. Remember?\" And then it was gone. But I had other thoughts to replace it on the playground of my brain. Here's one of the more interesting ones for you to ponder - \"Time is the mirror in which our choices are seen. And it is through our choices that our values and beliefs are revealed... If you want to know what a person believes, you need only to watch what they do.\" But the only useful, practical, valuable thought among all these, my most recent thoughts, is found in the answer to the following Question: \"If objective, fourth-dimensional reality is this meeting place that we call the space-time continuum, (composed of height, width, depth and time,) then what would a three-dimensional reality be?\" Ah, but the answer to that question is an illuminating and profitable one, indeed. I'll share it with you in next week's memo. Roy H. Williams MMMemo@wizardofads.com"}, {"response": 423, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (23:04)", "body": "England is smaller than New England. Some teenagers are now fearing technological obsolescence because their younger brothers and sisters know more about computers than they do. Robots in Japan pay union dues. During the Vietnam War, more people were killed in the US by guns and explosives than US soldiers in the war zone. - Deane Jordan 100 years ago, there were about 230 murders per year in the US. In 1769, Nicholas Cugnot, a French military engineer, built the first self-propelled car. Designed to pull artillery, the three-wheeled vehicle could travel about 2.5 miles per hour while carrying a cannon and four people. Most fish don't really sleep but rather go through a period of decreased activity that allows their body to regenerate. On the other hand, many coral reef fish do sleep and when they do they sleep by standing on their tails or leaning on a rock!"}, {"response": 424, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (23:58)", "body": "How does a bird find a worm in the ground? Before the sun rises and warms up the earth's surface, earthworms usually crawl up to the earth's surface while it is still cool and damp with the morning dew. That's also the time they fall prey to the \"early\" (and hungry) birds. When a bird stands on the ground near a worm which is crawiling underneath, the bird can feel the earth's vibrations with its feet. The bird can also hear the worm tunneling in the earth below with their ears."}, {"response": 425, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (07:14)", "body": "I heard a good piece on NPR this morning, a reporter carries video equipment and tapes his journey though a previously untravled part of the African interior. The animal and insect sounds nearly drown out this late night narrative. Worth catching!"}, {"response": 426, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (18:08)", "body": "So Japanese robots pay union dues. That's very funny. How exactly do they work out the accounting in regard to this? Your son's fiancee as thus far passed two trials, meeting you and facing the volcano. Aren't there usally three trials? What's the third going to be? Tomorrow comes before yesterday in the dictionary. It's a good think you ducked because I was ready to use a virtual yo-yo as a weapon. It's just as well I didn't since I'm mostly a menace to myself when using a yo-yo. No cracks about my being a yo-yo, please. Basically I refer to myself as quirky. I know that someone here will figure out this riddle, probably Marcia. So here goes: It's the beginning of enternity, the end of time, and found in space."}, {"response": 427, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (18:59)", "body": "My son's fiancee did the third trial first..fell in love with my son and managed to make it reciprocal while winning over his friends' affections. Even the House male likes her! About those robots...amazing opening for graft, huh! Yo-yos tend to attack those whose ineptitude they sense. I have had my share of bruises, thank you... ...the letter \"E\" Wish we could get NPR radio on this side of the island...."}, {"response": 428, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (23:13)", "body": "There are over 7,000 PCs and 2,000 touch-screens and 540 servers at the Sydney Olympics. By 1880, Standard Oil refined 95% of the oil in the U.S. The number of people accessing the Internet in China is now the same as the number of people in France: 7,200,000. Rugby, North Dakota is the geographical center of North America. It's marked by a 15 foot rock obelisk and flanked by poles flying the U.S. and Canadian flags. The first cook book was written by the Greeks in 400 B.C. Henry Ford went broke five times before succeeding. Autumn leaves actually do not turn color. They lose one color, green, and show other colors they've had all along. The change is also caused more by the shortening of the days than by cooler weather. - Deane Jordan, \"1001 Facts Somebody Screwed Up\""}, {"response": 429, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (03:39)", "body": "Saying 'goodbye' for the next 5 months ...off to Timbuctoo (well, near it anyway ...same country). Look for Marcia posting in Cultures and travel for me. See you all in March unless I get to an internet cafe or something ... Maggie"}, {"response": 430, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (15:21)", "body": "take care maggie!"}, {"response": 431, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (18:16)", "body": "God Speed Maggie, luv! +----------------- Bizarre Superstitions ------------------+ Spilling salt is considered bad luck, probably because it was once so valuable. Superstition has it a person is doomed to shed as many tears as it takes to dissolve the spilled salt. Evil spirits can't harm you when you stand inside a circle. Suspend a wedding band over the palm of the pregnant girl. If the ring swings in a circular motion it will be a girl. If the ring swings in a straight line the baby will be a boy. A knife as a gift from a lover means that the love will soon end. [Especially if the knife is delivered to your back.] If you use the same pencil to take a test that you used for studying for the test, the pencil will remember the answers. The number of Xs in the palm of your right hand is the number of children you will have. You must hold your breath while going past a cemetery or you will breathe in the spirit of someone who has recently died."}, {"response": 432, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (18:18)", "body": "My right palm has one X and I have one child."}, {"response": 433, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "Weekend Meteors NASA Science News for October 18, 2000 On Friday the 13th of October a brilliant fireball startled stargazers in Texas and Kansas. But that was just a piece of space junk -- a real meteor shower arrives this weekend. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast18oct_1.htm?list89800 ---"}, {"response": 434, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (19:26)", "body": "i have 2 x's that i can really see and i have two kids!"}, {"response": 435, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (19:32)", "body": "How weird! How does that matter, and is it only a female manifestation?"}, {"response": 436, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (19:36)", "body": "i have heard that when palm readings are taken, one should read the weaker hand. it seems that the dominate hand changes due to use. i wonder about guy's hands."}, {"response": 437, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (19:45)", "body": "yup, but certain things apparently only show up on dominant hand. Check how many grandchildren you're gonna have!!!"}, {"response": 438, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (19:48)", "body": "checked house male - he has only one X...and two natural children..."}, {"response": 439, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (19:56)", "body": "how do i do that?"}, {"response": 440, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (19:57)", "body": "I just asked a young teenage lady and she found 6 Xs on her hand! Not in HER future, she says. She said probably have two - the first one and quintuplets for the second one! Her mother has 2 Xs and 2 children..."}, {"response": 441, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (19:57)", "body": "the AM has none.......wait, i got it on the grandchildren! took me a minute!"}, {"response": 442, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (19:58)", "body": "she has three x's"}, {"response": 443, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (20:24)", "body": "Huh!!! You'll have at least 3 then...*grin* Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. IBM's Q7 could play video and text games and track 400 airplanes simultaneously. 29% of Americans can not drive a stick-shift car. Microsoft was the worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average this year (2000). By age sixty, most people have lost half of their taste buds. Poverty -- not cancer, not AIDS, not heart disease -- is the number one killer in the world. P.T. Barnum never said \"There's a sucker born every minute\". The shrimp's heart is in its head. America media mogul Ted Turner owns 1.5% of New Mexico."}, {"response": 444, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (20:45)", "body": "Q. Why do we read from left to right? A. The ancient Greeks started out writing from right to left, as many present day languages still do. They then adopted a style known as \"boustrophedon\" a reference to turning the way an ox turns a plow. This super efficient style went from left to right and right to left on alternate lines, saving the eyeballs the trip back to the right side to start a new line. Around 500 BC, the Greeks began to write exclusively from left to right. The reasons for the change are uncertain, but may have to do with a new split reed pen that was easier to move in that direction."}, {"response": 445, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (21:47)", "body": "Examples of different types of energy: 1. Kinetic energy - falling water from a dam or wind. 2. Heat energy - anything burning. 3. Electrical energy - obtained from an electric current. 4. Potential energy - energy locked up in coal, oil, gas, food, and wood. 5. Mechanical energy - a wheel turned by falling water. 6. Solar energy - heat from the sun. 7. Gravitational energy - from anything falling. 8. Atomic/nuclear energy - from splitting an atom."}, {"response": 446, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (16:16)", "body": "What makes a cat purr? A cat has two sets of vocal cords when born. One set, contained in a cat's voice box, makes the \"meow\" sound. The other set, which are actually false vocal cords, are vibrated upon inhaling and exhaling, which produces an involuntary continuous purring sound."}, {"response": 447, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (18:33)", "body": "Have a safe journey and an enjoyable visit, Maggie."}, {"response": 448, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (18:41)", "body": "Marcia, I'm sorry it took so long to get back. You are absolutely right, the letter \"E\" is the beginning of enternity, the end of time, and found in space. I knew you'd get it. I'm glad to learn that your son's fiancee passed all three of her tests. The house male approves as well. How about the little fur-person, the marmalade princess? Speaking of kitties, they can purr and eat at the same time. I always wondered how they did that. Thank you for explaining how they generate that sound. There's always something to learn at Geo."}, {"response": 449, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (19:14)", "body": "When my Master Programmer handed me Geo and told me I was to create the first topic, I thought I had chosen a totally useless topic; one so inspecific that nothing would fit in here. I have found it most versatile of late. After all, we ARE all things of Planet Earth! Miss Kitty, the marmalade princess is skittish of everyone but the male of the species. If I come bearing edibles then she will tolerate me and fling herself tummy-up on my shoes to be petted. Otherise, she just tolerates the rest of us but catches rats almost 1/2 her size and presents them to us. Yak!! Good Kitty!"}, {"response": 450, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 20, 2000 (00:11)", "body": "He who blindly quotes what he reads must at times admit he is an fool. CORRECTION: Microsoft could not be the worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, because it is listed on Nasdaq. Thanks, Richmond. ************************************************************* At age 16 Confucius was a corn inspector. 1,500,000,000,000,000,000 bytes of unique information are generated each year, the equivalent of 250 books worth for every man, woman and child on the planet. Of these 1.5 Exabytes of information, 93% of it stored digitally. http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/how-much-info/ The average car produces 4 times its weight in exhaust gases over the life of the car. Cleveland, Ohio got the first traffic light on Aug. 5, 1914. Jerry Rice is a 10-time ALL-PRO (1986-90, 92-96). The garden equipment maker Wolf-Garten has built a prototype machine fitted with an array of four lasers that cuts grass to an accuracy of 1/25th of an inch. Powerful lasers evaporate water from the grass and chop the dried residue into tiny particles. A stream of air then blends the cuttings with fertiliser before depositing the mixture onto the lawn. The mower also includes mobile Internet access and a CD player to entertain you as you cut the lawn. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns226055 Horses were originally used to pull railway cars. 80% of your body temperature escapes through your head. Polar bears can smell a person up to 20 miles away."}, {"response": 451, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 20, 2000 (21:46)", "body": "+--------------- Bizarre Historical Trivia ----------------+ 100 years ago.... Only 14 percent of the homes in the United States had a bathtub. There were only 8,000 cars in the US and only 144 miles of paved roads. Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the twenty-first most populous state in the Union. The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower. The average wage in the U.S. was twenty-two cents an hour. The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year. Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee cost fifteen cents a pound. Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo. Drive-by-shootings - in which teenage boys galloped down the street on horses and started randomly shooting at houses, carriages, or anything else that caught their fancy - were an ongoing problem in Denver and other cities in the West. Plutonium, insulin, and antibiotics hadn't been discovered yet. Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented. Some medical authorities warned that professional seam- stresses were apt to become sexually aroused by the steady rhythm of the sewing machine's foot pedals. They recommended slipping bromide - which was thought to diminish sexual desire - into the woman's drinking water. Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, \"Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and the bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.\" Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine. There were about 230 reported murders in the U.S. annually."}, {"response": 452, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Oct 21, 2000 (10:05)", "body": "Queen Victoria used cocaine. It was an ingredient in an elixer she took for \"women's complaints\". There is also an ad for Bayer aspirin from the 1890's which states, \"Bayer aspirin with herion. Strong pain relief.\" Last but not least, there was Coca-Cola which originally did have a small amount of cocaine in it."}, {"response": 453, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 21, 2000 (13:07)", "body": "Ah, yes... No wonder they called them \"The Good Old Days\" Laudinum is what was prescribed for almosty anything which ailed a woman. It was tincture of opium, and it probably kept them from complaining much!"}, {"response": 454, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 22, 2000 (23:58)", "body": "In the Arctic, the sun sometimes appears to be square. An ordinary light bulb converts only 10% of the inputted electricity as light. The rest is dissipated as heat. Seven nuclear submarines lie on the ocean floor: five are Russian, two American. In addition, dozens of obsolete Soviet submarines are rusting in just a few feet of water in various Russian ports. http://www.sciam.com/2000/1100issue/1100scicit2.html The first envelopes with gummed flaps were produced in 1844. In Britain they were not immediately popular because it was thought to be a serious insult to send a person's saliva to someone else. Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his hat to keep his head cool. He changed it every two innings. In England, in the 1880's \"pants\" was considered a dirty word. The Blesbok, a South African antelope, is almost the same color as grapejuice. The first baseball stadium was built in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1909. The chance of contracting an infection during a hospital stay in the US is 1 in 15."}, {"response": 455, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 22, 2000 (23:59)", "body": "I shall remember when sending post to Britain to moisten the flap with a sponge. ...and to tuck a cabbage leaf under my baseball cap..."}, {"response": 456, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 23, 2000 (01:34)", "body": "The Year is: 1800 1 vote gives Thomas Jefferson the presidency over Aaron Burr 1839 1 vote wins the Massachusetts governorship for Marcus Morton 1868 1 vote saves Andrew Johnson's presidency 1941 1 vote strengthens selective service before World War II 1960 1 vote per precinct gives JFK the presidency 2000 1 vote, your vote, can make the difference November 7th In America, as well as the rest of the world, 1 VOTE DOES MATTER. Be the ONE. Make the difference, SEND THIS TO A FRIEND."}, {"response": 457, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 23, 2000 (21:43)", "body": "The Empire State building was struck by lightning 8 times during a 24 minute thunderstorm. There are 26 known spellings for the name of Libyan leader Mummar Quaddafi. Carolyn Shoemaker has discovered 32 comets and about 800 asteroids. Owls are the only birds who can see the colour blue. The katydid bug hears through holes in its hind legs. Blue eyes are the most sensitive to light, dark brown the least sensitive. America once used a five-cent bill. 30,000 people work on the US Space Shuttle program. Vladimir Lenin bought 9 Rolls Royces while heading the Soviet Union."}, {"response": 458, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 24, 2000 (22:26)", "body": "As a young lifeguard at a beach near Dixon, Illinois, future 40th US president Ronald Reagan rescued 77 people from drowning. There were over 4,000 scooter-related injuries in August, 2000. http://www.sciam.com/news/102400/4.html 15,000 people per day are signing up with AOL. There are now 25,000,000 AOL members worldwide, in 16 countries and 8 languages. Clark Gable used to shower more than 4 times a day. Andrzej Makowski is the youngest person on record to receive a driver's license. He received his license when he was just 14 years and 8 months old. Oregon has more ghost towns than any other state. Wayne Gretzky won the goals, assists or points season title 29 times and owned all 3 titles continuously for a 4 year stretch. Procter & Gamble Co. spent $199,000,000 in TV ads in 1996. Ostriches live about 75 years."}, {"response": 459, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 25, 2000 (17:33)", "body": "Oct. 25th Solar Coronal Mass Ejection Space Weather News for Oct. 25, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com This morning a full halo coronal mass ejection sped away from the Sun faster than 620 km/s. The leading edge of a solar wind shock wave could arrive in the neighborhood of Earth later this week and possibly trigger auroras. For details and animations please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 460, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 25, 2000 (19:06)", "body": "This May Explain A Lot New research indicates that incompetent people tend not to know they are incompetent. Not only that, they also tend to be very confident that they know what they're doing -- even more confident of their own competence than people who really do know what they're doing. The New York Times reports that Cornell University psychology professor David Dunning reached those conclusions in a study he conducted with a graduate student, and wrote about his findings in the December 1999 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The researchers concluded that one reason incompetent people do not know how much they do not know, is that the cognitive skills required to be competent are also required for recognizing actual competence. Researcher Justin Kruger told the Times that the incompetence of incompetent people \"robs them of their ability to realize\" they have a problem. It also makes it difficult for incompetent folks to recognize competence in others. By the way, the researchers say they also noticed that people who can't tell a joke tend not to realize that they're not funny -- and as a result they persist in telling jokes badly. -From the National Association of Science Writers"}, {"response": 461, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (01:18)", "body": "45% of Americans consistently follow the speed limit. IBM's Q7 could play \"Stars and Stripes Forever\", using the tape drives as trombones, the line printers as percussion and the bit speaker as the flutes. The London subway (Underground) first opened in 1863. Henry Ford bought a Rolls Royce in 1924. When caught driving it, he said, \"My Ford was being serviced so I drove over in the next best thing!\" At birth a panda is smaller than a mouse, weighing about four ounces. A 1995 survey of 149 medical students found that all of them, 100%, had been introduced as \"doctor\" by hospital staff. This not only violates federal and professional guidelines, it's explicitly illegal in Massachusetts. http://upalumni.org/medschool/appendices/appendix-1.html The IBM systems at the Sydney Olympics involved 13 million lines of computer code. The Egyptian's wore something akin to a kilt."}, {"response": 462, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (15:09)", "body": "Re the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) mentioned in post 459. This image is awesom Better still go to the url at post 459 and click on the small image to see the larger one. I have never seen one as large as this. Northern climates, please check for Aurorae, please!!! Extreme southeen ones, check too! The come back and tell us all about it!"}, {"response": 463, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (15:51)", "body": "Lunar Leonids 2000 NASA Science News for October 26, 2000 Next month the Moon will plow through a stream of debris from comet Tempel-Tuttle, the parent of the Leonid meteor shower. Meteoroids that strike the Moon don't cause shooting stars as they do on our planet. Instead, they hit the lunar terrain at high speed. Scientists will be watching for signs of impacts as the Moon heads for a close encounter with the Leonids. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast26oct_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 464, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 27, 2000 (17:46)", "body": "i like the incompetent people explaination. that is classic!"}, {"response": 465, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 27, 2000 (19:23)", "body": "Yup!!! I also put in in screwed. How much better a place that that for such an subject. I guess The Man has more than his share of them working for him..."}, {"response": 466, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 27, 2000 (19:49)", "body": "Thanks to John in Canada, we have this handy URL to use for time corrections for all over the world. I will use it often! http://www.worldtimeserver.com/"}, {"response": 467, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 28, 2000 (00:29)", "body": "As the rest of the world moves their clock hand back and hour tomorrow night, we move the entire state 1000 miles closer to the rest of you. Not sure how it impacts us in relation to the Orient or Australia but we remain on Hawaiian Standard Time Year round. Maybe the world just gets 1000 miles smaller for Standard time?!"}, {"response": 468, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Oct 28, 2000 (12:42)", "body": "Yes, it's that one weekend a year, which is 1 hour longer than all the others, expect one. This weekend is 2 hours longer than that one. It's back to standard time for me."}, {"response": 469, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 29, 2000 (13:45)", "body": "William, you were right. No one reads Geo on Sunday. Maybe I should stage cricket matches...? Bullfights...? Football games...? (Your choice of definition of \"football\") *sigh*"}, {"response": 470, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (16:57)", "body": "On what night is Halloween observed when Oct. 31 falls on a Sunday? Halloween isn't an established holiday by law. It is traditional that Halloween is Oct. 31 no matter what day of the week it falls on. Halloween dates from 837 when Pope Gregory IV instituted All Saints or All Hallows Day on Nov. 1 to take the place of an earlier festival known as the Peace of the Martyrs. The day was set aside to honor all saints, known and unknown. Halloween then is a shortened form of All Hallows Eve - the evening before All Hallows Day. Certainly, you have a choice of celebrating it on Oct. 30, Saturday, if you wish. Many of the area parties will be held then rather than on Sunday. It's probably appropriate to say some people equate Halloween with the occult or Satanism and don't approve of it at all."}, {"response": 471, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (17:29)", "body": "FAST FACTS: I don't know about you, but in my student days, mastering English grammar seemed about as easy as learning the art of black magic. Well I was apparently onto something. The word \"grammar\" entered medieval English as \"gramarye,\" via Scotland. The Scots got it from the French word, \"grimoire,\" which meant a collection of magic spells. The connection was made between grammar and magic because most people then were illiterate, so any linguistic smarty-pants was metaphorically seen as dabbling in sorcery. I wish they had retained grimoire. It sounds more like the way I felt about the subject."}, {"response": 472, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (20:59)", "body": "(and the funny thing is halloween was made to divert the evil spirits in paganism believed to roam the earth before midnight of Oct 31 and has nothing to do with satamism at all) the ritual was to dress as scary as possible and place jack-o-lanterns at the gates to scare off the ghosts that wanted to party before All Saint's Day! But the scary thing is that satamists have used the day to celebrate their religion. and that is hilarious (grimoire)!!"}, {"response": 473, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (21:05)", "body": "ABCNEWS.com Oct. 31\ufffd The original Halloween had little to do with fake blood, vampire teeth, or trick-or-treating safety patrols. Halloween traces its ultimate origins back to the Druids\ufffda Celtic priestly class\ufffdwho believed that the spirits of the dead would roam the earth at the turn of the new year on Nov. 1. According to this pagan Celt tradition, the veil between this world and the other was at its thinnest on this \ufffdall souls\ufffd day and people would dress up and paint their faces to remove differences between the two worlds so they could better interact with the souls of the dead. Costumed villagers would offer up a feast and then parade to the outskirts of town leading the ghosts away. The Christians added to the festival in the seventh century by making Nov. 1 a celebration of all the known and unknown saints and martyrs\ufffdhence the name All Saints Day or All Hallows Day. The night before was known as All Hallow E\ufffden or Even (evening) and the day after, Nov. 2, became known as All Souls Day. Over the centuries, pranks, bonfires, belief in the return of the ghosts and dead souls, fortune-telling and ritualistic games began to be associated with Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Tricks, Treats and Lit Vegetables Trick-or-treating is a recent 20th century American phenomenon, but it has roots in ancient customs. The Irish originally initiated a custom hundreds of years ago where groups of farmers would go house to house soliciting food for the village. Prosperity was promised for generous givers and threats were made against the stingy villagers. The custom of trick-or-treating is also related to the Gaelic practice of giving cakes to the poor at Samhain or \ufffdsummer-end,\ufffd a seasonal festival that coincided with All Souls Day. They came to be called \ufffdsoul-cakes,\ufffd and in return recipients were obligated to pray for a good harvest. The custom of carving jack-o\ufffd-lanterns is thought to derive from an old Irish custom of creating lanterns out of vegetables. In Ireland and Great Britain, customs included throwing stones, vegetables and nuts into a fire \ufffdto keep the spooks away.\ufffd People would also hollow out turnips and pumpkins and place a lighted candle inside to drive evil spirits away from the home. An American Mega-Holiday The Halloween holiday in America became popular in the 1920s and 1930s. At that time, Halloween activities were fairly simple\ufffdkids would bob for apples or play with Ouija boards. According to costume experts, witch and ghosts costumes were common, as were Chinese and Japanese dress in response to the Asian arts movement at the end of the century. The modern movie-making industry would later inspire the more elaborate monster and horror-themed costumes we know today. With the help of mass merchandising efforts, Halloween has become a multimillion-dollar event and a good excuse for little kids and plenty of adults to overdose on the sugar."}, {"response": 474, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (21:14)", "body": "Happy Samhain (pronounced SAW-wen), everyone. We were all pagan once. Get in touch with your roots! Ovedose on empty calories (sugar)..."}, {"response": 475, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 31, 2000 (16:53)", "body": "Time to look skyward as your go house-to-house: Halloween Aurora Watch Space Weather News for Oct. 31, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com There is a slight chance for middle-latitude aurora on Halloween night, the result of a solar eruption on Sunday that probably sent a coronal mass ejection in the direction of our planet. For details please visit http://spaceweather.com ."}, {"response": 476, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 31, 2000 (17:27)", "body": "Why did the Russians name their cocktail after Mololtov? Now let's see, was it three parts gasoline to one part vodka, or three parts vodka to one of gasoline? Hold the vodka, please! Add a little borscht? Only for color. Shaken or stirred? Not on your life. As for why the Russians named this simple gasoline bomb -- gas in a bottle with a wick -- after Molotov, they didn't. The Finns, who first threw it at the Russians, named it. And why were the Finns being so rude? Because in 1939 the Russians invaded Finland, once part of the Russian Empire under the czars. The outnumbered Finns had to resort to guerrilla warfare and sarcastically honored Vyacheslav Molotov, then Premier of the USSR, with their \"cocktail.\" But the bombs didn't stop their much bigger foe, and they were soon, uh, Finnished."}, {"response": 477, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (12:29)", "body": "Not new but good to remember: From the World Village Project, which says the 1,000 person \"village\" would have 584 Asians, 124 Africans, 95 Eastern/Western Europeans, 84 Latin Americans, 55 Russians, 52 North Americans, 4 Australians and 2 New Zealanders. As far as language, 165 would speak Mandarin, 86 English, 83 Hindi, 64 Spanish, 58 Russian and 37 Arabic, with the rest made up of people speaking Bengali, Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese, German, French and 200 other languages. There would be 329 Christians, 178 Moslems, 167 non-religious, 132 Hindus, 62 Buddhists, 45 atheists, 3 Jews and the remainder \"other.\" Some 330 would be children, and only 60 would be older than 65. Twenty-eight new babies would be born each year, and 10 people would die every year. Other interesting information: 70 would own automobiles; 200 people would control 75 percent of the wealth and fewer than 10 would have a college education."}, {"response": 478, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (17:33)", "body": "+--------------- Bizarre National Holidays ----------------+ NOVEMBER IS November is... International Drum Month November is... Peanut Butter Lover's Month November is... Slaughter Month November 1 is ... Plan Your Epitaph Day November 4 is... Waiting For The Barbarians Day November 5 is... Gunpowder Day November 8 is... Dunce Day November 9 is... Chaos Never Dies Day November 13 is... National Indian Pudding Day November 18 is... Occult Day November 20 is... Absurdity Day November 22 is... Start Your Own Country Day November 28 is... Make Your Own Head Day November 30 is... Stay At Home Because You're Well Day"}, {"response": 479, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (18:32)", "body": "wow, we wasted tax money to make these days official?"}, {"response": 480, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (18:46)", "body": "What about November 7th, national throw away your vote day?"}, {"response": 481, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (19:11)", "body": "exactly! but i'm going to vote anyway. cuz then i can complain!!"}, {"response": 482, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (19:51)", "body": "Yup... Me too. I vote in each and every election insuring my right to complain about what ensues. And, they are expecting something like less than 50% voter turnout?! A lot of people are gonna be biting their tongues!"}, {"response": 483, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (20:01)", "body": "At The Smithsonian: Earthquakes Through Time: The ~55,000 earthquakes with magnitudes 5.0 that have occurred since 1960 are sequentially displayed on more than 30 colorful world and regional physiographic maps. The sizes and colors of the dots correspond to the earthquake magnitudes and depths, respectively. An option permits the display of tectonic plate boundaries and names. A powerful advanced-users mode allows the generation of cross-sectional and 3-dimensional views that provide a window into the Earth's interior. Eruptions Through Time: This program sequentially displays ~1300 eruptions from 1960 to 2000 on more than 20 different maps. Plate boundaries and earthquakes can also be shown. Triangle sizes reflect eruption magnitudes and their colors distinguish eruption types. The name of the volcano is displayed for the duration of each eruption, providing a visual primer to the world's most active volcanoes. Smithsonian Exhibit Version: Earthquake and eruption data are combined on a single world map that dramatically emphasizes the point that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions outline plate boundaries. This same program is featured on a 40\" monitor in the Geology, Gems, and Minerals Exhibit Hall in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. Seismic Waves: Six major earthquakes are highlighted to show how the resulting seismic-wave fronts travel through the Earth and across its surface. Three simultaneous views can be seen in this program: a cross-section through the Earth's center, a 3-dimensional view of the Earth from space, and seismogram traces where seismic stations sequentially record the arrival of different types of earthquake waves."}, {"response": 484, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  4, 2000 (23:24)", "body": "------------------- The Great White Pig ------------------- SPAIN - Not many fishermen would expect to haul in a wild boar after casting their nets 3 miles out at sea. But that is just what happened to a group of fishermen in Spain. No one knows how the wild pig managed to end up so far out at sea, or how it managed to survive for so long. The boar will reportedly be released into the wild near their home port of Tarragona as soon as it has recovered fully from its ordeal."}, {"response": 485, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  4, 2000 (23:26)", "body": "...without comment (some of my best friends live and work in London... my favorite of all cities in the world... London, England - All of London is aghast at a new study that revealed that people who believe they have been abducted by aliens exhibit 5 times higher rates of ESP. Some in the UFO community have said this proves that the implants that aliens leave inside the abductees turn them into human receivers."}, {"response": 486, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  4, 2000 (23:35)", "body": "Oh dear... Billy Graham was once considered the best Fuller Brush salesman in North Carolina. \"Utopia\" is an ancient Greek word meaning \"nowhere.\" Casanova traveled with a custom-made portable bath made for two. A dolphin's brain is bigger than a human's. A golf hole is four inches deep. Clark Gable's middle name was Clark - his first name was William. U.S. Presidents Grant, Taft, Hoover, and Eisenhower never held any other elective office."}, {"response": 487, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "France's King Louis XIV was on the throne so long he was succeeded by his great grandson. Jousting is the official state sport of Maryland. A cucumber is 96 percent water. A dime has 118 ridges on it."}, {"response": 488, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (14:44)", "body": "Election Day in the USA... VOTE!!! \"I don't want to set the world on fire,\" goes the song. \"I just want to start a flame in your heart.\" Or perhaps just induce heartburn, depending on how the romance goes. But no matter what course love takes, we often resort to fire for metaphors to describe it. This particular expression derives from another of life's passionate activities: politics. In 19th century America, people cared enough about their party's candidates to march in parades for them. These campaign parades were great spectacles. Bands joined in the fun, and partisans carried torches to show how strongly they felt about their favorite. Eventually, \"carrying a torch\" as an expression of passion also became synonymous with strong romantic feelings for someone. Of course, in love as in politics, you don't always win. You may even get burned. (Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison) ---------------"}, {"response": 489, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (15:49)", "body": "Okay, so who was it that sat around and counted the ridges on a dime? November is Peanut Butter Lover's Month. Marcia, since you're fond of peanut butter, how are planning on celebrating? Thanks for all the information on Halloween and Samhain. I know I'm late on this, but the Day of the Dead celebrated in Mexico seems a really fascinating holiday."}, {"response": 490, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "How I would choose to celebrate it is not appropriate to put here. However I like to get very persoal with peanut butter and share it with someone V E R Y special..."}, {"response": 491, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  8, 2000 (16:36)", "body": "Who invented sunglasses? It was definitely not some Hollywood movie star. But shades of Tinsel Town, the first sunglasses \ufffd there was no single inventor -- were used to hide behind. Fifteenth century Chinese judges didn't worry about being recognized. But they did care, in the interests of being even-handed, about hiding their reaction to trial testimony. They didn't want people to follow their eye movements so they wore smoked-tinted quartz spectacles to conceal them. Our modern, widespread use of sunglasses to keep out the glare, however, stems largely from pilots in the 1930s, who began to wear them to shield their eyes from the sun. Civilians quickly emulated the aviators. Some even adopted sunglasses for fashion as well as protection, hoping to make their social life take off. (Source: EXTRAORDINARY ORIGINS OF EVERYDAY THINGS by Charles Panati)"}, {"response": 492, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  8, 2000 (16:42)", "body": "FAST FACTS: Elevators rank as the safest form of transportation and have the record of only one fatality every 100 million miles traveled, That's pretty good, unless you happen to be the one. Steps on the other hand, are five times more dangerous than elevators. That's because very few people trip over an elevator. (Source: USELESS DIGEST)"}, {"response": 493, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  9, 2000 (23:04)", "body": "The ridges on ccorduroy are called \"wales.\" There are eleven time zones in Russia. Fish can become seasick if kept aboard a ship. The average American carries four credit cards. It takes four hours to hard boil an ostricj egg: it weighs 30 ounds."}, {"response": 494, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  9, 2000 (23:05)", "body": "methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylserylluecylphenyialanylalanylglutamin- ylleucyllysylglutamylarginyllysylglutamylglycylalanylphenylalanylvalylprolyl- phenylalanylyalylthreonylleucylglycylaspartylprolylglycylisoleucylglutamylglu- taminylserylleucyllysylisoleucylaspartylthreonylleucylisoleucylglutamylalanyl- glycylalanylaspartylalanylleucylglutamylleucylglycylisoleucylprolyphenylalanyl- serylaspartylprolylleucylalanylaspartylglycylprolylthreonylisoleucylglutaminyl- asparaginylalanylthreonylleucylarginylalanylphenylalanylalanylalanylglycylva- lythreonylprolyalanylglutaminylcysteinylphenylalanylglutamylmethionylleucyala- nylleucylisoleucylarginylglutaminyllysylhistidylprolythreonylisoleucylprolyli- soleucylglyclleucylleucylmethionyltyrosylalanylasparaginylleucylvalylphenylala- nylasparaginyllysylglycylisoleucylaspartylglutamylphenylalanyltyrosylalanylglu- taminylcysteinylglutamyllysylvalylglycylvalylaspartylserylvalylleucylvalylala- nylaspartylvalylprolylvalylglutaminylglutamylserylalanylprolyphenylalanylargi- nylglutaminylalanylalanylleucylarginylhistidylasparaginylvalylalanylprolyiso- leucylphenylalanylisoleucylcysteinylprolylprolylaspartylalanylaspartylaspartyl- aspartylleucylleucylarginylglutaminylisoleucylalanylseryltyrosylglycylarginyl- glycyltyrosylthreonyltyrosylleucylleucylserylarginylalanylglycylvalylthreonyl- gylcylalanylglutamylasparaginylarginyalanylalanylleucylprolylleucylaspartagi- nylhistidylleucylvalylalanyllysylleucylysylglutamyltyrosylasparaginylalanylala- nylprolylprolylleucylglutaminylglycylphenylalanylglycylisoleucylserylalanylpro- lyaspartylglutaminylvalyllysylalanylalanylisoleucylaspartylalanylglycylalanyla- lanylglycylalanylisoleucylserylglycylserylalanylisoleucylvalyllysylisoleucyli- soleucylglutamylglutaminylhistidylasparaginylisoleucylglutamylprolyglutamylly- sylmethionylleucylalanylalanylleucyllysylvalylphenylalanylvalyglutaminylproly- methionyllysylalanylalanylthreonylarginylserine, n.: The chemical name for tryptophan synthetase A protien, a 1,913-letter enzyme with 267 amino acids. -- Mrs. Bryne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words"}, {"response": 495, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Nov 11, 2000 (10:15)", "body": "I own a Mrs. Byrne's dictionary, from it I learned that a deuteragonist is a supporting actor. Mrs Byrne's can offer hours of fun browsing. About that ostrich egg...How many omelettes could you get out of one?"}, {"response": 496, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 11, 2000 (22:12)", "body": "Love obscure words. If make obfuscating that much more effective! WHY CAN WE SEE THOUGH GLASS? Because solid though it may seem, glass is really a viscous liquid. I'll pause a moment while that crosses your synapses and bounces among your neurons. Mind you that's a viscous, not vicious liquid such as a mix of vodka and champagne. A viscous liquid stiffens when cooled, but never becomes completely solid. Unlike solids, in which the atoms arrange themselves in a rigid, crystalline molecular structure, glass atoms just hang out, helter- skelter-like. Light can squeeze between them. The molecular make-up of glass, unlike that of ordinary solids, such as wood, also keeps it from absorbing visible light. Its structure also prevents the loss of light through internal reflections, characteristic of a solid. Only glass' outer surface reflects light, which makes it considerably more useful than, say, silver or tin for eyeglass lenses."}, {"response": 497, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (17:21)", "body": "superheating of sand makes glass, right?"}, {"response": 498, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (18:12)", "body": "selting the silica in sand and adding Borax for flux... Yup!"}, {"response": 499, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (18:13)", "body": "Melting the silica in sand and adding flux makes glass."}, {"response": 500, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (19:19)", "body": "The largest tree in the world weighs more than 6,000 tons. There are over 15,000 people in the Witness Protection Program. More than 90% of battery lead is recycled, compared to 62.5 percent of aluminum cans, 35% of glass containers and 69% of newspapers. The anthrax vaccine program has clearly resulted in the loss of more personnel than the very thing it was designed to protect against. - Dan Marohn, American Airlines & Air National Guard F-16 pilot [More than half the pilots in his 163rd Fighter Squadron left over the anthrax vaccine.] RAM is 25,000 times cheaper in 2000 than in 1985. One study showed that people who drank one to three cups of coffee per day were 30% less likely to commit suicide than non-drinkers. Those drinking six cups a day were 80% less likely to kill themselves. A \"threnody\" is a song of lamentation, or \"dirge\". The longest traffic jam in Japan's history was 84 mile long and involved 15,000 vehicles. Despite being a nine-inch-tall bird (unlike in cartoons), the roadrunner can run as fast as a human sprinter."}, {"response": 501, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (19:19)", "body": "betcha that tree is a Sequoia giganteum"}, {"response": 502, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (11:53)", "body": "From Maggie in Mali: NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE To the citizens of the United States of America, In the light of your failure to elect anybody as President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves and, by extension, the free world, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchial duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories including New Jersey. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, please comply with the following acts: 1. Look up \"revocation\" in the now official Oxford Dictionary ($75). Start spelling English words correctly. 2. Learn at least the first 4 lines of \"God Save The Queen\" 3. Start referring to \"soccer\" as football 4. Declare war on Quebec and France 5. Arrest Mel Gibson for treason 6. Close down the NFL. Learn to play rugby 7. Enjoy warm flat beer and steak and kidney pudding. Train waitresses to be more aggressive with customers and not to tell you their names. 8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday, this has been replaced with November 5th 9. All members of this British Crown Dependency will be required to take 6 weeks annual vacation and observe statutory tea breaks. 10.Driving on the left is now compulsory - recall all cars to effect the change immediately. 11.Report to our Consulate General in NY - M Wragg - for your new passport and job allocation. 12. Add the Royal Insignia to the top of the Washington Monument - and the Queens Christmas speeches to the Lincoln Memorial. 13. Stop referring to the World Series of Baseball and instead call the National Series of USA, Cuba and Japan. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776). Thank you for your cooperation and have a nice day!"}, {"response": 503, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "now that cracked me up (esp. the backdate of taxes due!) *laugh*"}, {"response": 504, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (22:47)", "body": "As of September 1998, the highest recorded mileage for a car was 1,615,000 miles for a 1966 Volvo P-1800. California is in no danger of sliding into the Pacific. It will eventually slide into Canada. The continental plate it's sitting on is traveling north, not west. The world's first Electric Trolley System was introduced in Montgomery, Alabama in 1886. 95% of the known cases of gout occur in males. Known as the \"Rich Man's Curse,\" attacks are often thought to be caused by an overindulgence in rich foods. It is a deficit in purine metabolism and in certain steroid hormones. 2/3 of us speed up at a yellow light. The Eiffel Tower was built by Gustave Eiffel, who also built a dam in Russia and locks for the first attempt at the Panama Canal. Eiffel also designed the right arm of the Statue of Liberty and the full steel structure holding it all together. In the wettest place on Earth, Hawaii's Mount Waialeale, it rains about 90% of the time: 480 inches per year. The reason Scotsmen still wear the kilt is because it is a source of pride. The kilt displays a Scotsman's tartan-- the color of his clan. Because of the Dress Act of 1746, Scots were banned from wearing kilts or tartans and thus it became a matter of pride to wear them. Each Shuttle is worth about $3,000,000,000 and costs another $1,000,000,000 to launch."}, {"response": 505, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (23:33)", "body": "Yeah, that tax deal gets everyone!"}, {"response": 506, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (07:42)", "body": "What's the weather forecast for Mt Waialeale today?"}, {"response": 507, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (11:46)", "body": "if it's like Hilo, RAIN is the weather-du-jour every day!!!"}, {"response": 508, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (22:02)", "body": "The reason that all lightbulbs, even tungsten filamented and halogen gas filled ones, eventually wear out is that the filament metal slowly but steadily evaporates. In fact, the reason a \"halogen\" (tungsten halogen) bulb lasts longer is that the halogen gas helps to redeposit some of the evaporated tungsten atoms back on the filament. \"Raiders of the Lost Ark\" featured 7,500 boas, cobras and pythons, and 50 tarantulas. PepsiCo spent $236,000,000 in TV ads in 1996. Cats spend 15% of their time grooming. Certain fireflies emit a light so penetrating that it can pass through flesh and wood. In 1867 US Secretary of State William H. Seward offered Russia $7,200,000 (or two cents per acre) for Alaska. When it comes to doing invasive procedures like spinal taps, the majority of 1500 medical students surveyed (63%) seldom or never obtained specific permission. At the same time, \"72% of patients indicated they would be upset to find out they had been the unsuspecting subject of a novice's first spinal tap.\" http://upalumni.org/medschool/appendices/appendix-2a.html Charles Dickens kept the head of his bed aligned with the North and South poles believing that the earth's magnetic field would pass longitudinal through his body and ensure a good night's rest."}, {"response": 509, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Nov 15, 2000 (08:22)", "body": "His head was toward the North or South? Or did it matter? I always sleep with my head to the South."}, {"response": 510, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 15, 2000 (11:15)", "body": "About the only way I can arrange my bedroom is with my head to the north. Have no idea about Dicken, though. If it geomagnetism he is thinking about it seems, like a compass needle, the head should point to the north. Do no know!"}, {"response": 511, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 15, 2000 (19:51)", "body": "my head's to the south.....hmmmmm"}, {"response": 512, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 15, 2000 (20:00)", "body": "maybe my genius is running out of my toes?!"}, {"response": 513, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (08:24)", "body": "Wonder what the feng shui experts say about this?"}, {"response": 514, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (19:05)", "body": "I'll check - think I once covered that in another topic. Time for me to check back...stay tuned!"}, {"response": 515, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (19:17)", "body": "The London Underground carries 2,500,000 passenger a day, on 500 trains. Planting trees won't save the climate: http://www.sciam.com/news/111500/5.html Anthrax spores are routinely found in animal hides. In 1999, Bill Gates made $4,566,000...per hour. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. The saguaro cactus blossom is the official Arizona state flower. McDonald's uses 500,000,000 pounds of hamburger each year. The longest alphabet is Cambodian -- 74 letters."}, {"response": 516, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (20:37)", "body": "A standard Slinky contains 87 feet of wire. There is $480,000,000,000 in US currency in circulation. Fearful of hospital infections, some surgeons are giving ALL their patients potent antibiotics. Shouldn't they be kept for emergencies? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns226048 Michael J. Fox's middle name is really Andrew. Most men's bodies are composed of about 40 percent muscle; women's bodies are 30 percent muscle. Chances of being hit by lightning in your lifetime is 1 in 600,000. Risk of dying by lightning is 5 times greater for men than women. 21% occur in June, with the riskiest state being Florida. 800 tornadoes a year strike the U.S., causing an average of 80 deaths and 1,500 injuries per year. Miami Beach pharmacist Benjamin Green invented the first suntan cream by cooking cocoa butter in a granite coffee pot on his wife's stove, and then testing the batch on his own head. His invention was introduced as Coopertone Suntan Cream in 1944. IBM was paid more $100,000,000 for its services at the Sydney Olympics."}, {"response": 517, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 20, 2000 (16:33)", "body": "\"Indiana Jones\" was the name of George Lucas' pet Malamute. On Nov 16th, 2000 ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) announced that they had chosen \".biz,\" \".aero,\" \".name,\" \".coop\", \".info\", \".pro\" and \".museum\" as new top level domain names. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3730464.html There have been 250,000,000 Dr. Seuss books published. Hard drive storage is 12,000 times cheaper now than in 1985. There are 45,000 large dams in the world. 5 countries have more than 1,000 large dams each. People surfing the Web at home spent 23% more time online this year than last year. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3731909.html People who bought the first Kodak cameras had to mail them back to Rochester, New York for reloading. The country of Togo has the lowest crime rate in the world, with an average of just 11 reported crimes annually for every 100,000 people."}, {"response": 518, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 20, 2000 (22:04)", "body": "Dunkin' Donuts serves about 112,500 doughnuts each day. The rudder from the Titanic weighed more than the Santa Maria. A new VW beetle can handle more weight than many popular SUVs. The community of Mountain View, Arkansas is called the Folk Capital of America. The little town preserves the pioneer way of life and puts it on display for visitors at the Ozark Folk Center State Park from March through October. If a person counted at the rate of 100 numbers a minute and kept counting for eight hours a day, five days a week, it would take a little over 4 weeks to count to one million and a lifetime (80 years) to reach a billion. A South African bullfrog can grow to be 35in in length. In England there is no difference between a pig and a hog, but in the U.S. a pig over 180 pounds is considered a hog. In 1968, a convention of beggars in Dacca, India, passed a resolution demanding that the minimum amount of alms be fixed at 15 paisa (about three cents). It is unlawful to refuse a person a glass of water in AZ."}, {"response": 519, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 21, 2000 (13:23)", "body": "Are you like me? \"QWERTY,\" the keyboard's first five letters, vividly describes my typing ability. My fingers function less than felicitously. I am a hunt-and-peck has- been, devoid of digital dexterity, clueless in coping with the keyboard's loopy logic. Why do they make it hard on us? Why do keyboards ignore alphabetical order? Blame the typewriter. The first machines in the 19th century did go from A to Z. But this stymied good typists because the most frequently used keys were contiguous. When typists struck, say, the \"a\" and \"b\" keys in rapid succession, the spokes carrying those letters often jammed. The solution: separate these and other often- used keys. Computers carried over the QWERTY keyboards that people were already used to. These machines never jam; they just crash, destroying our work and driving us to drink. (Source: EVER WONDER WHY? By Douglas B. Smith)"}, {"response": 520, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov 21, 2000 (17:24)", "body": "Marcia, I am tempted to say that you are a wealth of useless knowlege, but it is such wonderful knowlege. Besides, is any knowlege ever really \"useless\"."}, {"response": 521, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 21, 2000 (17:54)", "body": "Irrelevant information is my specialty. I am still worried about those bullfrogs 3 feet long!!!"}, {"response": 522, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 22, 2000 (12:34)", "body": "Best time to buy a computer: right after Christmas, you save about 25%. Best time to buy a big-screen TV: the day after the Super Bowl, average savings are about 50%. General Motors Corp. spent $285,000,000 in TV ads in 1996. Of 1600 medical students who were asked, \"Do you specifically ask permission as a medical student to perform invasive procedures [like spinal taps]?\", 56% said \"Never.\" http://upalumni.org/medschool/appendices/appendix-2a.html The word \"Psychic\" comes from the Greek letter \"Psi\" - Unknown. More turkeys are raised in California than in any other state. Every year of a dog's life is not the equivalent of seven years in human terms. Best estimates now are that the first year is worth about 18 to 21 years, and each year thereafter four. A girl, in the Vacococha tribe of Peru, to prepare her for marriage at the age of 12, is placed in a basket in the hut of her prospective in-laws and must remain suspened over an open fire night and day for 3 months. It took 670,000 hours to put the 31,000 insulating tiles on the original Shuttle. The national flag of Mozambique features the silhouette of an AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle. It is the only national flag that features the symbol of a gun."}, {"response": 523, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Wed, Nov 22, 2000 (13:12)", "body": "Psychic comes from the Greek word psyche, meaning soul or butterfly."}, {"response": 524, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 22, 2000 (13:42)", "body": "OOOhhhh... I like that. I think the nymph so named came to a bad end when she fell in love with Narcissus. Or was that Echo. Gotta brush up on my Edith Hamilton. Thank you, Mark!"}, {"response": 525, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 22, 2000 (14:54)", "body": "+-------------- Bizarre Thanksgiving Trivia ---------------+ Cut and planed lumber was hard to come by in the New World, and since the Pilgrims didn't intend to go back to Europe, they dismantled the Mayflower and used it's lumber to build a barn. Ben Franklin wanted the turkey, not the eagle, to be the U.S. national symbol. He considered the eagle a \"bird of bad moral character\" because it lives by being a shrewd thief. Franklin Roosevelt tried to change the Thanksgiving holiday date to the next-to-last Thursday in November in order to create a longer Christmas shopping season, but was forced to move Thanksgiving back to its original date because of negative public response. The heaviest turkey ever raised weighed in at 86 lbs, about the size of a large German Shepherd. It was grown in England. When Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin sat down to eat their first meal on the moon, their foil food packets contained roasted turkey and all of the trimmings. Turkeys can drown if they look up when it is raining. Turkeys in fields near the Air Force test areas over which the sound barrier was broken were known to drop dead from the shock of passing jets."}, {"response": 526, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 23, 2000 (12:34)", "body": "PLUM PUDDING... Here's a dish with a peekaboo ingredient: who knows where it's hiding. In fact if you were to dive into a plum pudding with sensitive electronic detection devices, you would find nary a plum in the place. A treat for desert since the earliest Thanksgiving celebrations, plum pudding's ingredients include flour, sugar, spices and suet (fat). This mush is steamed, not baked, and is unleavened, making it pudding rather than cake. As for plums, the stealth ingredient that lends its name to this post-turkey goo, credit linguistic practices currant, uh, current in colonial America. \"Plums\" and \"plumbs\" were what they called raisins, the final ingredient in plum pudding."}, {"response": 527, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 23, 2000 (21:12)", "body": "Bulls do not charge because a cape is red. They charge because of the movement of the cape -- it does not have to be red or any other bright color. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial consists of the Gateway Arch, the Museum of Westward Expansion and St Louis' Old Courthouse. Ants stretch when they wake up. They also appear to yawn in a very human life fashion before starting work each day. The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. Two French toolmakers were the first engineers to put the engine in the front of the car. This gave the car better balance, made it easier to steer, and made it much easier to get all your luggage in. The ant can lift 50 times and pull 30 times its own weight. The number one selling snack in the U.S. is potato chips. And the #1 item ordered in restaurants? French Fries. Emperor Henry VII (1269-1313) of Germany, during his reign as Duke of Luxembourg, was so proud of his police efficiency that he offered to reimburse personally any victims of robberies occurring within the boundaries of his duchy."}, {"response": 528, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 24, 2000 (12:04)", "body": "What bird has the longest migration path? You think that you're keen on piling up those frequent flyer miles? Consider the Arctic Tern. When it flies south it covers almost the distance from the North to the South Pole, 11,000 miles in all. This 17-inch winged wonder flies further than any of its fine-feathered friends. It's habitat ranges from New England well into the Arctic Ocean, from which it migrates south in August. After spending part of the winter in Antarctica it does the Tern-around, flying the 11,000 miles back to its home, arriving in June. Do you suppose it's ever occurred to this birdbrain that it gains nothing by flying from one cold place to another cold place for the winter? Who's its travel agent? (Source: HOW A FLY WALKS UPSIDE DOWN by Martin M. Goldwyn)"}, {"response": 529, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 24, 2000 (13:41)", "body": "WAS PUBLIC KISSING EVER A CRIME IN THE UNITED STATES? Yes, and it still is in some places. In 1656 in Boston, a Captain Kimble was placed in the stocks for kissing his wife in public on the Sabbath. To this day, it is illegal in Indiana, for a mustached man to \"habitually kiss human beings.\" In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, it is still a crime to kiss a stranger. WHAT IS THE LARGEST SHARK ATTACK EVER RECORDED? On November 28, 1942, hundreds of British seamen and Italian prisoners of war were killed by sharks when a German U-boat sank the steamer Nova Scotia off the coast of South Africa. Nine hundred men were on the ship when it sank; 192 were left when a rescue ship arrived."}, {"response": 530, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov 26, 2000 (20:49)", "body": "*laugh* that kissing thing!! *LOL*"}, {"response": 531, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 26, 2000 (22:42)", "body": "All 17 children of Queen Anne died before she did. Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they cannot find food. Spain has 1,196 large dams, fifth most in the world. Modems are about 2,500 times cheaper in 2000 than in 1985. The state of Florida is bigger than England. Blind people can pick out the meaning of a spoken sentence more quickly than sighted folks. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns226050 Colorado has the highest mean altitude of all the states. California police in the 1920s thought they had gotten the drop on a moonshiner. What they found, instead of a still, was Philo T. Farnsworth's invention: the television."}, {"response": 532, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (20:37)", "body": "was Philo the child who invented TV? there was something on discovery about a 14 year old boy who actually invented television. i can imagine that blind people can really tell what's going on since they must rely on inflection and tone and such rather than rely soley on facial expression. how hard it must be to not be able to read others' nonverbal action--but i'm sure that they can tell because of their heightened use of other senses. hmmmm.....gives me something to think about!"}, {"response": 533, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (20:56)", "body": "Yup!!!! Philo T. Farnsworth!!! 23 publishers rejected Dr. Seuss's first book. Over 1,000,000,000 pounds of depleted Uranium exist in the US. It is radioactive and has a half life of a billion years. http://www.iacenter.org The world's oil companies are now finding only one barrel of oil for every four that we consume. - Colin Campbell, oil geologist New Scientist, July 10, 1999 Political enemies of President Teddy Roosevelt once schemed to humiliate him by hiring a professional boxer to purposely bump into him on the street and start a fight. The boxer did what he was supposed to, but was promptly beaten up by Roosevelt shortly after the fight began. In 1992 further studies by the New Jersey Department of Health confirmed a 6.9 fold increase in bone cancer in young males. (Cohn, Perry D. Ph.D. \"An Epidemiological Report on Drinking Water\" Fluoridation and Osteosarcoma in Young Males, New Jersey Department of Health, Environmental Health Service, Trenton NJ November 8, 1992) http://www.bruha.com/fluoride/ Chrysler spent $370,000,000 in TV advertising in 1996. The world's oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old. The London Underground has over 260 stations and 16,000 staff."}, {"response": 534, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 28, 2000 (17:52)", "body": "marcia, i just love this stuff. wonder what makes them think to look stuff like this up!!"}, {"response": 535, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 28, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "People like me Wolfie - we are far too curious!!! When we don't care about something, why do we not \"give a hoot\" about it? Well I suppose we might be distinguishing ourselves from owls, which give a hoot about everything. But what's the point? I, for one, am quite sure that I'm not an owl\ufffdyou, too?--and I don't feel the need to give such comparisons any further thought. A little research shows that the expression comes not from birds but rather the backwoods. In nineteenth century rural America people declared something valueless by saying it \"wasn't worth a hooter.\" (Don't even think about that word's meaning in modern slang. We're not goin' down that dirt road). \"Hooter\" was the backwoods pronunciation of iota, the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet, which we still use to imply that something has little or no value. Hoot is simply a contraction of hooter. And if you don't like that, I don't give a . . . hoot. (Source: DICTIONARY OF WORD AND PHRASE ORIGINS by William and Mary Morris)"}, {"response": 536, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 29, 2000 (15:32)", "body": "Are there any living creatures that never die? Because there's no justice in the world, I'm sure that my next-door neighbor, who plays his stereo at 2 a.m., will end up in this category. Beyond him, science offers slim pickens' when it comes to immortality. In fact we've got just two kinds of candidates -- sort of. Theoretically, some one-celled animals divide indefinitely and thus maintain their biological integrity. But scientists have not counted any such activity much beyond 10,000 generations, just about the point where the brain cells of the scientists themselves give up the ghost. Then there's the hydra, an aquatic creature with a clever trick. It regenerates, replacing its cells with fresh ones that it grows about every month or so. There's no end to it. That's more comebacks than Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton could ever claim. (Source: Martin M. Goldwyn, HOW A FLY WALKS UPSIDE DOWN) FAST FACTS: November The second week of November is National Split Pea Soup Week, according to the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Industry. They used to serve that stuff in my high school cafeteria, but they spelled it Split Pea Soup Weak. November 3 is National Sandwich Day, brought to you \ufffd of course as a public service \ufffd by Ziploc Sandwich Bags. The company was also going to sponsor a sandwich week, but feared they might be spreading themselves too thin. (Source: THE BOOK OF DAYS)"}, {"response": 537, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 29, 2000 (16:43)", "body": "It costs 4.2 cents to print a US legal note (dollar bill). Coffee increases alertness and enhances performance on certain tasks. Tests on drivers and typists prove that two cups of coffee can help. However, research shows it helps most if the drinker is bored or fatigued. Only 27% of the total risk estimates fell within the order of magnitude reported in the literature. For every complication, many physicians made underestimation or overestimation errors by several orders of magnitude and a few consistently denied existence of any risk. [For example] substantial percentages of physicians under- estimated the risk of death due to [hernia repair] by a factor of 100 or even 1000. http://upalumni.org/medschool/appendices/appendix-2a.html The nation's first scheduled steam railroad began in New Castle, Delaware in 1831. Michael Jordan's high school basketball team cut him. Richard Hooker's novel, M*A*S*H, was rejected by 21 publishers. The power propelling the Shuttle upward at launch is equal to that in 23 Hoover dams. Pope Paul IV, who was elected on 23 May 1555, was so outraged when he saw the naked bodies on the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel that he ordered Michelangelo to paint over them."}, {"response": 538, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 29, 2000 (23:00)", "body": "King Louis XIV of France owned about 1,000 wigs. 13 boxes of jello are purchased every second in the US. Ole Evinrude, a Norwegian immigrant, founded the Evinrude outboard motor company in 1909. On average, a woman will speak 7000 words over the course of a day while a man will only speak 2000 words in a day. The fastest fish is the sailfish: up to 60 miles per hour. The \"spot\" on 7UP comes from its inventor who had a red eyes. He was albino. Punta Gorda in Florida means \"fat point\" when translated from Spanish. The name was given to the city because a broad part of the land in Punta Gorda juts into Charlotte Harbor. 220 billion computer chips are made each year. Brandy is from the Dutch \"brandewijn\", meaning burnt or distilled wine."}, {"response": 539, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 29, 2000 (23:24)", "body": "Q. What does Parallax mean? A. While looking at an object, cover first one eye, then the other. The object appears to move. Parallax is the apparent movement of an object as a result of two different points of view."}, {"response": 540, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Nov 30, 2000 (14:00)", "body": "That 7,000 word avg for women vs. 2,000 words for men ties in with the MSNBC study I just saw that says women listen with both sides of their brain while men only use the left side, could it be the same for speech? This is a drastic difference. The left side of the brain is the one that interprets language. Go to msnc.com and search for \"men brain\" and you'll find this fascinating article about the differences in how men and women communicate."}, {"response": 541, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov 30, 2000 (21:24)", "body": "men and women brains are wired differently. women are used to using all their senses to interpret everything around them. perhaps as a protective mechanism from our earlier periods of nurture and self-preservation. that is interesting. maybe it just means we talk too much? *LAUGH*"}, {"response": 542, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 30, 2000 (22:24)", "body": "I can monitor several conversations and read at the same time. I know of at least one man who can also - but it is rare."}, {"response": 543, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 30, 2000 (22:57)", "body": "The Indonesian coffee Kopi Luwak is the most expensive in the world, selling for $300/pound. The reason its so expensive is the way it is processed. Its beans are ingested by a small animal called a Paradoxurus. The beans are then extracted from the excreta and made into Kopi Luwak. The heart is not on the left side of the chest. It's about in the center with its strongest portion on the left side, thus, it can be heard slightly better from the left. 44% of American men tailgate to try to speed up the person in front of them. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Kangaroos can hop as fast as 40 miles per hour. By the late 1930's, more than thirty radio serials reached a daily audience of forty million, twice the audience reached by television soaps today. This vast audience was a bonanza for program sponsors. \"Ma Perkins\", a successful radio serial, sent the sales of Oxydol, a laundry detergent, through the roof. Soap companies plunged into the business of producing serials that featured their products, and they so dominated daytime that serials became known as \"soap operas\". Processing power is about 200 times cheaper in 2000 vs 1985. Japan has 2,675 large dams, fourth most in the world."}, {"response": 544, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 30, 2000 (22:58)", "body": "This may come in very handy for conversions: http://www.webcom.com/~legacysy/convert2/"}, {"response": 545, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 30, 2000 (23:04)", "body": "Q. Where does the \"blue blazer\" come from? A. Blue jackets were ordered for all crew members by the captain of the HMS Blazer in the middle 1800s. They were good looking, and caught on with everyone."}, {"response": 546, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  1, 2000 (01:06)", "body": "How did they choose which presidents to carve on Mt. Rushmore? Well it's a good thing they didn't vote on it or we might still be facing a blank mountain. South Dakota's Mt. Rushmore is said to have been named for a lawyer who was just passing through (sounds like a presidential election, doesn't it?). In the 1920s the state's tourism board decided that it would take more than that name to fill the local hotels so it proposed to have a sculptor carve on the mountain the images of famous figures from western history, such as Kit Carson. They hired John Borglum, who had already been engaged to carve Robert E. Lee's visage on Stone Mt. in Georgia. Borglum had a better idea for Mt. Rushmore: presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. And so it came to pass. (Source: JUST CURIOUS, JEEVES by Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett)"}, {"response": 547, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  2, 2000 (23:26)", "body": "A New Star in Space NASA Science News for December 1, 2000 Something in the heavens is growing brighter and it will soon become one of the most eye-catching stars in the night sky. No it's not a supernova. It's the International Space Station! FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast01dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 548, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  2, 2000 (23:47)", "body": "Track the new star using this url: http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/realtime/JTrack/Spacecraft.html"}, {"response": 549, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sun, Dec  3, 2000 (05:04)", "body": "Can't wait until those solar panels are fully fitted - it's going to be so *cool* to see the space station from Earth!!!! I want to go!!!"}, {"response": 550, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  3, 2000 (16:10)", "body": "Me too, Mike! After I posted the ISS and J-track information I went outside to look for it overhead. The skies were spectacularly clear - you could see the Great Galaxy in Andromda with naked eye deespite a quarter moon and a street light next to me. As I was scanning the sky I noted the most amaxing huge fireball! It was the color of a yellow frosted Christmas tree light - yellow-orange and bright but not brilliant which makes me think it was a piece of space junk. It had along tail sparkling with debris as it fell south to north."}, {"response": 551, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  3, 2000 (19:17)", "body": "Does the U.S. Constitution guarantee an American's right to own a gun? Whoa! Don't point that thing at me! I know this is a controversial issue, with feelings running high on both sides. So in my tradition of fearlessly following the truth wherever it may lead, I'm going to offer a little, uh, ammunition for each side. The Bill of Rights says, \"A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.\" So unless you and the other folks who hang at the pizza parlor constitute a state militia, the Constitution doesn't guarantee your right to own so much as a peashooter. On the other hand (the one with the trigger finger), the states are sure as shootin' free to regulate or not regulate private gun ownership. So go for it -- the legislation of your choice, not your gun, that is. (Source: DICTIONARY OF MISINFORMATION by Tom Burnam)"}, {"response": 552, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  4, 2000 (00:40)", "body": "14,000,000 Bic pens are sold daily in 150 countries. The toothbrush was invented in 1498. The cells which make up the antlers of a moose are the fastest growing animal cells in nature. Archduke Karl Ludwig (1833-1896), brother of the Austrian emperor, was a man of such piety that on a trip to the Holy Land, he insisted on drinking from the River Jordan, despite warnings that it would make him very ill. He died a few weeks later. Scientists discover 10,000 new species of insects every year. The catfish has the most taste buds -- over 27,000."}, {"response": 553, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  4, 2000 (22:02)", "body": "The largest wave ever recorded was near the Japanese Island of Ishigaki in 1971 and was 260 feet high. Experiments conducted in Germany and at the University of Southampton in England show that even mild and incidental noises cause the pupils of the eyes to dilate. It is believed that this is why surgeons, watchmakers, and others who perform delicate manual operations are so bothered by noise. The sounds cause their pupils to change focus and blur their vision. The hydrogen filling the Hindenburg airship did not explode, and the 35 dead were either killed by burning diesel or jumped to their deaths. In 1997, a retired NASA scientist found that the real culprit was the flammable fabric of the airship's outer skin, not the hydrogen. Many pesticides contain fluorine as an \"inactive\" ingredient -- serving as the adjuvant (\"ferry\") that delivers the agent to its target. Because they are considered \"inert\", listing is not required on labels. [As a Chemical Engineer, I can tell you that Fluorine is the EXACT OPPOSITE of inert. Inert means unreactive, and Fluorine is the most reactive element known to man. HF, Hydrogen Fluoride, can etch glass!] http://www.bruha.com/fluoride/html/pesticides.htm Of the 500 to 1,000 chemicals used in the manufacture of silicon chips, some are known or suspected carcinogens-- such as arsenic, which allows chips to better conduct electricity and is vital to the chip-making process. It takes over 60 people, spending four months and using 6,000 gallons of paint, to paint The Eiffel Tower. Trains in the London Underground average 20.5 miles per hour (counting stops). Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee. About 20% of adults have or have had a cockroach that called their inner ear canal home -- they enter while you sleep!"}, {"response": 554, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  5, 2000 (20:24)", "body": "If a US coin has the letter \"S\" printed on it, it was minted in San Francisco; a \"D\" means it was made in Denver; no letter at all means it was minted in Philadelphia. The odds against a flipped coin coming up with the same side showing ten times in a row are 1,023 to 1. The mill, equal to one-tenth of a cent, was declared the lowest money of account by the US Congress in 1786. The mill, as a coin, was never minted. \"E Pluribus Unum,\" the Latin expression appearing on US currency, means \"one out of many.\" Abraham Lincoln was carrying Confederate money when he was assassinated."}, {"response": 555, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  5, 2000 (20:27)", "body": "Why do we tell someone who's all riled up to keep their shirt on? Our clothes often speak for us in more ways than one, dressing up many colorful English expressions. For example, \"now the shoe is on the other foot,\" \"even a big shot puts on his pants one leg at a time,\" and \"keep it under your hat.\" As for keeping your shirt on when you get all huffy-puffy, there was once a practical reason for such behavior. In the 19th century men's shirts were more restrictive than they would later become. Men who were angry enough to throw a punch needed to take it off before they could get it on. Keeping their shirts on thus kept the peace. By the 1920s styles had changed, but by then the expression had entered the language and could be heard everywhere -- except in burlesque houses. (Source: HEAVENS TO BETSY! & OTHER CURIOUS SAYINGS by Charles Earle Funk)"}, {"response": 556, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  6, 2000 (00:45)", "body": "A boustrophedonic layout is where alternating lines are oriented left-to-right and right-to-left instead of the standard Western layout of left page top-to-bottom, then right page top-to-bottom. It is the layout that was used in the infamous Florida \"butterfly\" ballots. The Chunnel officially opened May 6, 1994 The new public network will be cheaper. - Equipment will be 70 % cheaper; - Access lines, 60 to 80 % less; - Maintenance, 50 % less; - Provisioning, 72 % less The American Film Institutes \"Top 10 All Time Movies\": 1. Citizen Kane (1941) 2. Casablanca (1942) 3. The Godfather (1972) 4. Gone With The Wind (1939) 5. Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) 6. The Wizard Of Oz (1939) 7. The Graduate (1967) 8. On The Waterfront (1954) 9. Schindler's List (1993) 10. Singin' In The Rain (1952) The shuttle has 6,000,000 parts. Mountains are formed by a process called orogeny. A survey in Academic Medicine found that 89% of trainees personally observed unethical conduct by residents or attending physicians. http://upalumni.org/medschool/appendices/appendix-2b.html Gertrude Ederly was still a teenager when she became the first woman to swim the English Channel on August 6, 1926. Not only did she swim the channel, but she broke the speed record held by a man."}, {"response": 557, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Dec  6, 2000 (08:36)", "body": "Singin' In the Rain, by the way, is how most people feel about this election according to the latest scientific poll. Can you say boustrophendonic?"}, {"response": 558, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  6, 2000 (13:03)", "body": "I can say it because I took archaeology in college!!! Still want to be incarnated as one...*sigh* We had an election? This millennium?! Hope they decide the outcome before the next one begins!"}, {"response": 559, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  6, 2000 (13:05)", "body": "U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center for Seismology, Denver Reply to: sedas@neis.cr.usgs.gov or neic@usgs.gov The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A major earthquake occurred about 95 miles (150 km) west-northwest of Gyzylarbat, Turkmenistan at 10:11 AM MST today, Dec 6, 2000 (10:11 PM local time in Turkmenistan). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 7.2 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time; however, this earthquake may have caused substantial damage and casualties due to its location and size."}, {"response": 560, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  6, 2000 (15:10)", "body": "When it's exactly midnight, is it A.M. or P.M.? Welcome to the Twilight Zone. The correct answer is \"neither.\" Midnight is a transitional, imaginary moment in time, neither here nor there. Midnight is defined as twelve hours after noon. At noon the sun reaches its zenith or high point -- the \"meridian\" in A. M. (before the meridian) and P. M. (after it). But since the sun never actually stops, that \"point\" doesn't really exist -- it's just a convenience. Similarly, midnight is the transitional moment between (P. M.) after the meridian, and (A. M.) before it. In reality the time may be just before (A. M.) or after (P. M.) midnight, but never midnight on the dot. Noon, at least, is in the middle of the day, whereas midnight is the dividing line between days. Poor midnight: it never has a nice -- or any -- day. (Source: THE STRAIGHT DOPE by Cecil Adams) FAST FACTS: One small step for whom? When Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon, what he also stepped on was his lines. He was supposed to say, \"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.\" And that's what encyclopedias and almanacs quoted. The only problem, as he acknowledged later, is that he left out the \"a\" and actually said, \"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.\" \"Man\" and \"mankind\" mean the same thing in this sentence, so he has us taking a small step and leaping at the same time. Had he done that himself he would have fallen flat on his face. Heck, for that we could have sent Chevy Chase to the moon. (Source: BIG SECRETS)"}, {"response": 561, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  7, 2000 (00:24)", "body": "Mars has a volcano, Olympus Mons, which is over 300 miles in diameter and 16 miles high. The dragonfly has about 30,000 lenses covering the retina of its eye, and thus sees many, many images where we see only one. Bryan J. Patrie, a Stanford graduate student invented the Watercolor Intelligent Nightlight, which informs midnight bathroom-goers if the toilet seat is up or down without having to turn on the light. There is about as much water on Earth now as there was three billion years ago. 80% of Americans sing in the car. Joseph Stalin refused a German request to swap prisoners in World War II. His son, who was captured during the war, died in a prison camp as a result."}, {"response": 562, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec  7, 2000 (21:04)", "body": "that water thing is true. the water isn't going anywhere, just the locations of it has changed (although waterways may seem dried up, the water has actually just been evaporated back into the atmosphere in the form of rain, fog, etc.). think about it for a second. a very interesting fact! thanks marcia!!"}, {"response": 563, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  7, 2000 (22:56)", "body": "Thanks Wolfie - you're the best!!! There are no rivers in Saudi Arabia. Elk River is the home of the Idaho Champion Western Red Cedar Tree, the largest tree in the state. Estimated to be over 3000 years old this giant is more than 18 feet in diameter and stands 177 feet tall. \"BIC\" is a shortened version of founder Marcel Bich's name. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled. Removable storage is about 100 times cheaper in 2000 vs 1985. India has 4,291 large dams, third most in the world. Seoul, the South Korean capital, means \"the capital\" in Korean. The official, neutral name of Switzerland, which has multiple official languages, is the latin \"Confederation Helvetica\", or the Helvetic Confederation, hence the \"CH\" on license plates. In 1998, 9,200,000,000 US legal notes were printed."}, {"response": 564, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (10:08)", "body": "I love the new reddish spacer bars. Did you miss me? You don't have to answer that. Anyway, I've missed reading all the fun and interesting facts on this topic. So I hope that Marcia, the Goddess of the Geo Conference had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I also hope that things are going well for Curious Wolfie, the Alpha Male, and the Pups. One of the earlier posts concerned the word \"psychic\" and its etomology in the Greek word \"psyche\" meaning soul, and symbolized by the butterfly. The Greek mythologial character Psyche was noted as had fallen in love with Narcissus. She didn't. Psyche was loved by Eros, the Roman Cupid, much to the chagrin of his mother Aphrodite, the Roman Venus. I believe it was Echo who pined away until nothing but her voice was left for love of the beautiful youth Narcissus. I have a geographical fun fact, West Virginia is the only American state which sits entirely on a mountain range."}, {"response": 565, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (12:14)", "body": "Of course we missed you, Cheryl! Marci's probably having her morning coffee about now. That image of Echo is powerful."}, {"response": 566, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (18:08)", "body": "hi cheryl!! i love these facts too marcia!!!!"}, {"response": 567, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (23:08)", "body": "I'ze here! Yeah, part of the joy of having a conference is putting fun stuff on it. That you are also enjoying it is double pleasure! Yup, Cheryl I did miss you - but you know that *hugs*"}, {"response": 568, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 10, 2000 (17:16)", "body": "Oooh, and you noticied my red horizontal bars!!! It took e mages to find just the right length and thickness to look right. I like these very well, indeed. You are the first to mention them (Wolfie was in on my choice when I posted them originally so she knew right away.)"}, {"response": 569, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 10, 2000 (19:38)", "body": "Windmills always turn counter-clockwise, except in Ireland. 22% of computers break down every year, compared to 9% of VCRs, 7% of big-screen TVs, 7% of clothes dryers and 8% of refrigerators. Coffee only boosts intellectual speed and not physical power. It takes 286 kilowatts of power to produce a single six-inch silicon wafer. Salvador Dali once arrived to an art exhibition in a limousine filled with turnips. The street names in the game monopoly come from Atlantic City, New Jersey. The March Hare character in Alice in Wonderland is based on the behavior of hares in the spring, when they often jump up and down and bang the ground with their big hind feet. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow the film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm. Pez was invented in 1927 by Eduard Haas, an Austrian anti- smoking fanatic, who marketed peppermint-flavored PEZ as a cigarette substitute."}, {"response": 570, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 11, 2000 (14:13)", "body": "Why is it that if you do something from the beginning, you're starting from scratch? If you know the origins of the expression, \"to toe the mark,\" you should have a good idea of what starting from scratch is all about. If that includes you, please leave the room now. How can I feel like a smarty-pants if you know as much as I do? That mark you are asked to toe is the starting line of a race, a line that was originally scratched on the ground. Ordinarily everyone starts from that scratch line, beginning at the beginning. But sometimes contestants in sports such as golf or horse racing are given an advantage and don't have to start from scratch. Handicaps are useful when uneven experience, skill, or size dictate that fairness can only be served by artificially leveling the playing field."}, {"response": 571, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 11, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "how come ireland's windmills turn backwards?"}, {"response": 572, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 11, 2000 (17:31)", "body": "Yeah, I wondered that too. Will check the prevailing winds and the methods of attaching sails to the mills. However, did you ever have a pinwheel on a stick when you were a kid? I used to make them, and by attaching alternate corners to the usual ones you could reverse the rotation. I think this is just a local tradition of pinning the sails in Ireland. But, I will search further so see if that is the case."}, {"response": 573, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (09:46)", "body": "interesting--i never tried to mess with the pinwheels. now let me see if my kids have any left! *grin*"}, {"response": 574, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (12:27)", "body": "You can make them out of manila folders or construction paper, too... ----- Hydrogen is less hazardous than gasoline. Spain grows 98% of all green olives. \"Beijing\" means northern capital in Chinese. Butterflies taste with their feet. The statue \"The Thinker\" by Rodin is actually a portrait of the Italian poet Dante. In a 1998 sampling of 1700 American second year residents, 46% saw others falsifying patient records; 70% saw others mistreating patients. 28% of the residents stated that they had been required to do something that they believed was, \"immoral, unethical or personally unacceptable. http://upalumni.org/medschool/appendices/appendix-2b.html"}, {"response": 575, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "George Washington never pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Nor did John Adams, Thomas Jefferson or Andrew Jackson put their hands over their hearts and recite the litany so familiar to Americans. Lincoln didn't do it either. Even President Chester A. Arthur \ufffdof course you remember him\ufffdnever took the Pledge. That's because the Pledge dates only from 1892. The words familiar to every American school child were written that year by Francis Bellamy, a staff member at Youth's Companion, a boy's magazine, as part of a Columbus Day celebration. (Source: DICTIONARY OF MISINFORMATION by Tom Burnam) ------- Not so mellow yellow There's been much concern in recent years about the danger posed to artists' health by some of the materials they use in their work. But when the British government banned a paint color called Indian Yellow back in 1908, it had nothing to do with protecting artists. This color was produced by feeding mangos to cows and then collecting their urine, from which were derived the magnesium and calcium salts used to make the paint. (Don't try that at home!) The government banned the color because officials thought it unfair to make cows pig out on mangos. (Source: JUST CURIOUS, JEEVES)"}, {"response": 576, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (17:05)", "body": "euw!!!"}, {"response": 577, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (19:29)", "body": "yeah, I just sent it to an eminent artist friend of mine. Have you sniffed your Old Masters paintings lately???"}, {"response": 578, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (19:33)", "body": "nope (don't have any)....but it made me wonder about the red M&M's!!"}, {"response": 579, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (19:33)", "body": "The ball at the top of the flagpole is purely decorative now, but it originally contained one match and one .45 caliber bullet, for the Color Guard to burn the flag and shoot himself in the event of inevitable capture. Venture capital invested in Internet companies has topped $80 billion in the first three quarters of 2000, compared with $60 billion for all of 1999. Ants stretch when they wake up in the morning. When the shuttle comes in for a landing, it does so at a 22% descent angle. Normal commercial aircraft descend at a 2% descent angle. Minneapolis, Minnesota is home to the oldest continuously running theater (the Old Log Theater) in the U.S. Some people think that the stage musical Les Miserables runs a bit long, but it's a mere flash in time compared with one of the sentences in the novel on which it is based. This 3-page, 823-word sentence is divided by 93 commas, 51 semi- colons and 4 dashes. Waste products from the production of a single six-inch silicon wafer include 25 pounds of sodium hydroxide. Ostriches stick their head in the sand to search for water. The Chunnel is 31 miles long (23 miles under the sea and 8 under land)."}, {"response": 580, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (19:36)", "body": "i've also heard that ants yawn!!"}, {"response": 581, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (19:41)", "body": "never got that close to one. Wonder how they saw that? Maybe I don't want to know the grad student laboring so hard to create a thesis..."}, {"response": 582, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (19:43)", "body": "haha!!"}, {"response": 583, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (19:44)", "body": "(you ok?)"}, {"response": 584, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (16:17)", "body": "(yeah, I am, but B is not and I am concerned!) Heard back from artist about the Mango and urine yellow paints: I DID know about Indian yellow, and in fact, I have a large tube of it. I think it is a synthetic version of the urinary product, but has some marvelous effects unattainable with any other yellow. The fact that each of these colors has a very unique and tangible base is one of the things I think of as the very esoteric (while remaining thoroughly earthbound) aspects of the art and science of painting. I can actually smell the difference in colors, since they are made from distinct elements, basically. I know them as a cook knows the fragrance of each spice. Fortunately, my Indian yellow is synthetic."}, {"response": 585, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (16:40)", "body": "The photo most often requested from the U.S. National Archives is that of the meeting between Elvis Presley and President Nixon in 1970. Presley had requested that Nixon make him an honorary drug enforcement agent and Nixon accommodated him. The name LEGO is from the Danish, \"LEg GOdt,\" that translates to \"play well.\" The deepest London Underground tunnel is 221 feet below ground. There is no rice in rice paper. Pez candy gets its name from the German word for peppermint, Pfefferminze. An eagles nest can weigh as much as two tons. The MGM lion lived in Memphis until his death. The plural of piecemeal is flockmeal. Strawberry Point, Iowa is home of the world's largest strawberry."}, {"response": 586, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (20:06)", "body": "More then 25% of the world's forest are in Siberia. Edwin Land received 535 patents during his lifetime, then second only to Thomas Edison. Thomas Jefferson anonymously submitted design plans for the White House. They were rejected. A snail can sleep for 3 years. If a spider dismantles his web, that means a bad storm is near. Historically, only Hawaiian men danced the Hula. The US has 6,575 large dams, second most in the world. Many sailors used to wear gold earrings so that they could afford a proper burial when they died. \"Tug of War\" was an Olympic event between 1900 and 1920."}, {"response": 587, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "(i shall keep B in my prayers) these facts are really fun. i mean, we knew snails were slow but three years to sleep? so do they take a year to actually fall asleep, a year to sleep, and a year to do the waking up? *laugh*"}, {"response": 588, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (13:59)", "body": "(Thanks, Sweetie! Me too!) Good questions about the snails. Dontcha wonder who bothered to watch them for 3 years...! Think I dated him once..."}, {"response": 589, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (14:01)", "body": "\"Smith\" is the most common last name in the USA. Rounding out the top ten, in order, are: -Johnson -Williams -Brown -Jones -Miller -Davis -Wilson -Anderson -Taylor Paul Revere took his midnight ride on a horse named Brown Beauty. In China, the day a child is born it is considered one year old. There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower, 296 steps to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and 168 steps to the crown of the Statue of Liberty."}, {"response": 590, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (18:00)", "body": "What do the letters \"S-O-S,\" as in \"help\" stand for? Well, it doesn't stand for anything. These letters were chosen for Morse Code as a distress signal because of their somplicity - three dots, three dashes, and three dots. It *doesn't stand for \"Save Our Ship.\""}, {"response": 591, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 16, 2000 (19:29)", "body": "CHRISTMAS SOLAR ECLIPSE FOR NORTH AMERICA http://www.skypub.com/sights/eclipses/solar/001225partial.html"}, {"response": 592, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (00:52)", "body": "In 1899 an electric vehicle captured the world land speed record with a speed of 66 MPH. The press as a whole refused to believe the Wright Brothers for nearly five years after their first flight. Editors discarded invitations to witness numerous flights. \"Bandwidth will increase in the same way that memory has increased in PCs,\" says Don Listwin, senior vice president at Cisco Systems Inc. He expects performance to double and prices to be cut in half every 18 months. Olympic games in 1900 included croquet, fishing, billiards, and checkers. Sequoia trees can be over 3,000 years old because the bark is virtually impervious disease, insects and even fire."}, {"response": 593, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (19:28)", "body": "(I have done this - straight under one!) Is it possible to drive around a rainbow? Legend has it that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and a song in a famous movie suggests that we can expect to find a wizard and a wicked witch over the rainbow. But what's on the reverse side of that colorful arc? Whatever it might be, it's all in the eye of the beholder. Put away that roadmap because rainbows don't exist in an actual location. They are the product of sunlight hitting tiny drops of moisture in the air. The light is refracted and broken up into its component colors, producing the light show we call a rainbow. If you move, your change in perspective will change the rainbow, but you can never get around it. Well since it's all inside your head, so to speak, you could spin around to try to get behind it. But then you'll fall down, banging your head, and all you'll see are stars. (Source: TRIUMPH OF THE STRAIGHT DOPE by Cecil Adams)"}, {"response": 594, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 19, 2000 (22:22)", "body": "An average American uses 168 gallons of water per day. Every year, without fail, the Amazon river bursts its banks, flooding an area of forest the size of England. A grain elevator in Hutchinson, Kansas is 1/2 mile long and can hold 46 million bushels in 1,000 bins. There are only four sports that are completely native to the U.S.: baseball, volleyball, basketball, and roller derby. 109 people have cancelled their subscription to National Geographic to protest their use of metric measurements. The two hemispheres of a dolphin's brain work independently. For 8 hours, the entire brain is awake. The left side then sleeps for 8 hours. When it wakes up, the right side sleeps for 8 hours. Thus the dolphin gets 8 hours of sleep without ever having to stop physically. The number of births in India each year is greater than the population of Australia. Waste products from the production of a single six-inch silicon wafer include 2,840 gallons of waste water."}, {"response": 595, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 19, 2000 (22:40)", "body": "While performing her duties as queen, Cleopatra sometimes wore a fake beard. 40,000,000,000 packages/yr of Ramen noodles are consumed. An opossum does not sleep while hanging upside down by its tail. As much as 40% of the entire world's varieties of freshwater fish are to be found in the Amazon River basin. Grants, New Mexico was at one time known as the carrot capital of the country. In 1962, the FDA tried to prohibit the sales of vitamins and minerals in all but very limited potencies and combinations, by first classifying, and then regulating them as prescription drugs. Coffee is the second largest item of international commerce. The largest is petrol. Neptune has not yet completed one orbit since its discovery."}, {"response": 596, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 20, 2000 (20:56)", "body": "A rat can last longer without water than a camel. Recent studies have found that the increase in moral reasoning and moral development normally expected for the age and education level of medical students are not occurring over their four years of undergraduate medical education...\" Evidence is beginning to appear that demonstrates that the structure of medical education may actually inhibit moral reasoning ability rather than facilitate it. Ethical sensitivity increases between the 1st and 2nd year but then decreases throughout the rest of medical school, such that the 4th-year students are less ethically sensitive than those entering medical school. - \"Medical Education\" Journal http://upalumni.org/medschool/appendices/appendix-2b.html There are significant problems with storing hydrogen. A tank full of hydrogen gas at atmospheric pressure would need to be 3000 times larger than a gasoline tank for a similar journey. Six Major Actors Who Never Won an Oscar (times nominated): Richar Burton (7) Peter O'Toole (7) Greta Garbo (4) Kirk Douglas (3) Cary Grant (2) Morgan Freeman (2) Michael Jackson owns the rights to the South Carolina anthem. The subject of the Mona Lisa was a Florentine merchant's wife. Her lack of eyebrows reflected the custom in Florence in those days to shave them off."}, {"response": 597, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 21, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "Ursid Meteor Surprise NASA Science News for December 18, 2000 The normally meek Ursid meteor shower could surprise sky watchers with a powerful outburst on Dec 22nd when Earth passes through a dust stream from periodic comet Tuttle. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast18dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 598, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 21, 2000 (17:16)", "body": "Yes Virginia, there really is a Christmas eclipse! Thursday's Classroom for Dec. 18, 2000 http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Reliable sources at the North Pole report that Santa Claus and his reindeer plan to linger over North America after sunrise on Christmas Day, long after all the presents have been delivered. Why? The Jolly Old Elf is hoping to catch a glimpse of a partial solar eclipse! This week's episode of Thursday's Classroom features stories for kids and seven original lesson plans about the coming solar eclipse. For details visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com The Dec. 25th eclipse will be limited to North America, but if you live elsewhere we have lessons for you, too. Please see \"Interplanetary Christmas\" for plenty of educational holiday activities: http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com/index_09dec99.html Happy Holidays!"}, {"response": 599, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 21, 2000 (20:02)", "body": "A hippo can opens its mouth wide enough to fit a four foot tall object inside. The opera singer Enrico Caruso practiced in the bath, while accompanied by a pianist in a nearby room. Coffee seems to help extroverts more than it helps introverts. Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote. A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, a dime has 118 grooves. Douglas MacArthur's mother used to send letters to his military superiors suggesting they promote her son. The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven is $6,400. A hummingbird weighs less than a penny."}, {"response": 600, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Dec 22, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "Happy Winter Holidays to one and all! Merry Christmas, Happy Boxing Day, Happy Hannukah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Blessed Ramadaan, and Happy Winter Soltace, unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case, Happy Summer Soltace, and for any antique Romans out there, Happy Saturnalia!"}, {"response": 601, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 22, 2000 (20:46)", "body": "I was all ready to deck the halls of Geo for the holidays until I saw the veritable plethora of them. I echo Cheryl's comments. Season's Greetings, to all."}, {"response": 602, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 23, 2000 (18:22)", "body": "Check what Peace on Earth means when we all work together... http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg Thanks Gandalf, for reminding us!"}, {"response": 603, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 23, 2000 (18:59)", "body": "MIDWINTER FESTIVAL OR CHRISTMAS Midwinter, or rather the winter solstice, marked the end of the first half of the Celtic year. It marked the date of the southernmost rising and setting of the sun. By our calendar, the day of the longest night usually falls on 21st December. The Celtic festival of the winter solstice, like Samhain, also had Roman and Christian festivals grafted onto it, the very important celebration of Christmas, and the Roman festival of Saturnalia. The festival dedicated to Saturn began on the 19th December. It celebrated the overthrow of the old father-god, Saturn, by the new father-god, Jupiter or Deus Pater (God the father, although in this context he is actually God the son). These gods have direct counterparts in Greek mythology (Cronos and Zeus) and in Celtic mythology (Bran and Bel or Belin). The basic symbolism is very ancient and a trifle convoluted. The goddess (Madron, mother of all creation, the moon) is married to the god Mabon (her son, the Sun). The renewal and continuation of the marriage (creation, the kingdom, life and the harvest) depends on the aging god (or king) being replaced by the young god (his twin, also Mabon, the new Sun, the new king). The Saturnalia also known as 'Dies Natalis Invicti Solis', the Day of Birth of the Unconquered Sun. Resulting from this title, the Saturnalia also became associated with the New Year. Subsequently the Romans created a new god to oversee the transition on the following Kalends, or first month day. He was Janus, the two-headed god who looked back over the past and forward into the future. His name gave rise to the naming of this first month, January. The Saturnalia was a fire festival, homes were decorated with evergreens, candles, and especially constructed coloured lanterns. The formal festivities lasted seven days though the whole of the preceding month was dedicated to Saturn. Personal gifts were exchanged, wrapped in coloured cloth. Popular festival foods were figs, dates, plums, and pears and apples, fresh melons and pomegranates from Africa, quince preserved in honey, sweet bread, cakes and pastries pressed into the shape of stars, nut breads, cheese pies, shelled pistachios, filberts, pine nuts and walnuts accompanied by cider and mulled wine. Many of these customs seem to be synonymous with the traditional festivities of Christmas. In fact Christ's birth-date was deliberately and artificially set in the third century AD to coincide with, absorb and supersede the pagan festival dedicated to Saturn. It is not certain when Christ was born, research has put his birth most likely in the spring. Some of the many controversies caused by the switch from the old Julian calendar to the Gregorian by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 persisted in the popular folk story that Christ was actually born on January 6th. At midnight on the eve of that day animals kneel in homage to the Christ Child in mangers and stables. The theme of the advent and the virgin birth is, of course, not Celtic or Roman, although there are virgin births in other religions and mythologies. Specifically Christian though, are the three Magi. Two midwinter tradition, almost certainly Celtic in origin are the Yule Candle and the Yule Log. Early Welsh texts, a good example being the 'Romance of Amergin', give us detailed evidence of the Druid preoccupation with trees and their mythological and religious significance. The Yule Log was directly associated with fire and the purifying embodiment of the sun god. Bringing the Yule Log indoors was symbolic of bringing the blessing of the sun god into the house. The collecting, hauling and kindling of the wood were conducted with great ceremony. The word Yule, however, is derived from the Middle English 'yole', from the earlier Anglo-Saxon 'geol'. It's meaning is unclear but could be related to 'geolo' (yellow) or 'geoleca' yolk. The word appears in a variety of spellings, in Old Norse and other Teutonic languages, it appears though, to have no Celtic counterpart. The Goidelic for Christmas is 'Noillach' (Scots Gaelic) or 'Nollaig' (Irish) related to the Brythonic 'Nadelik' (Cornish) or 'Nadolig' (Welsh) derived from the Latin 'Natalicia'. The Yule Candle was very large and ornamental, usually blue, green or red in colour, which was lit at the beginning of the Christmas season and associated with several superstitions. It could only be extinguished using a pair of tongs, blowing out the flame invited bad luck. Only the head of the household could light or extinguish the flame. The unconsumed remnant of the candle was preserved as a protection, to be lit during thunderstorms to prevent the house being struck by lightning. Its tallow was rubbed on the sole of the plough before spring ploughing, to bless and promote the seed. The lit candle was displayed in a window, as a sign of goodwill, a custom still widely observed in parts of New England and rapidly spreading throughout the rest of the US. These associations derive from the anc"}, {"response": 604, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 23, 2000 (19:00)", "body": "Ooops, citation for the above got away from me: http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/shaman/99/midwinter.html"}, {"response": 605, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 23, 2000 (19:04)", "body": "Imbolc An additional festival was added later. This is Imbolc and was held in Leinster to celebrate the Goddess Brigit. This festival marks the ending of Winter's grip and the passing of the influence of the Crone or Cailleach to the Maiden of Spring. It is the time of the first lambs and of new beginnings. Brigit's sacred flame was tended in Leinster in a sacred center for female Druids. This festival was usually one of the home and the hearth and was usually presided over by the female head of the house. http://www.summerlands.com/crossroads/library/celticfi.htm"}, {"response": 606, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (15:09)", "body": "******************************* ECLIPSE STUFF POSTED ON GEO 24 *******************************"}, {"response": 607, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (18:08)", "body": "Where did the iceman get the ice he delivered to homes before refrigeration? You've seen old movies in which a big burly guy delivers the ice that kept food cold in the icebox. But you never see where he got the ice to put on his truck. Was it magic? Did HE have a refrigerator \ufffd perhaps a truly pre-production model? Not at all. Before civilization advanced to the level of TV dinners and keeping leftovers frozen for months because we can always pop them in the microwave, they actually got ice from very cold places, such as frozen ponds in the winter. They even shipped it in from Alaska. The problem was keeping the ice from melting. The solution was sawdust as insulation \ufffd on the ice itself and between the walls of the icehouse, where ice was stored. With that kind of insulation it could even be shipped south to Latin America! Cool, heh! (Source: DO FISH DRINK WATER? By Bill McLain)"}, {"response": 608, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (18:09)", "body": "+-------------- Bizarre Christmas Traditions --------------+ In Italy they have no Christmas trees, instead they decorate small wooden pyramids with fruit. In Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, it is customary for the streets to be blocked off on Christmas eve so that the people can roller-skate to church. An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees. A spider web found on Christmas morning is believed to bring good luck. It is a British Christmas tradition that a wish made while mixing the Christmas pudding will come true only if the ingredients are stirred in a clockwise direction. A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard. Sending red Christmas cards to anyone in Japan constitutes bad etiquette, since funeral notices there are customarily printed in red. In Norway on Christmas Eve, all the brooms in the house are hidden because long ago it was believed that witches and mischievous spirits came out on Christmas Eve and would steal their brooms for riding."}, {"response": 609, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (15:34)", "body": "The stopwatch on 60 Minutes is made by Heuer. An ant has five noses. A cave man's life span was only 18 years."}, {"response": 610, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (15:36)", "body": "Cinderella is known as \"Tuna\" in Finland. In days long ago, when men who worked on the railroad visited a brothel, they left their red lamps outside - and there you have the coining of the phrase \"red light district.\" A duck feather weighs approxiamtely .016 to .063 grams. The term \"senator\" means \"old man\" in Latin. Earthworms don't have eyes or ears."}, {"response": 611, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (16:53)", "body": "Why do we call a wild fight a real \"donnybrook?\" There are all kinds of gradations of conflict and colorful ways to describe them. For example, there's the rhubarb between you and your neighbor over a backyard fence, the parents of kids who have been fighting who go at it themselves hammer and tong, and the brouhaha over who had the right of way on the freeway ramp. On the spectrum of contentiousness, a donnybrook is helter- skelter and Katy-bar-the-door. And why not? The word comes from a fair begun in medieval times at Donnybrook, on the site of the modern Dublin. The fair was held amid much drinking. One boisterous thing led to another. People were pleased as punch to be having such a grand old time and before you know it they were punching as they pleased in the midst of a general melee. In fact you could call it a real donnybrook. (Source: HEAVENS TO BETSY! & OTHER CURIOUS SAYINGS by Charles Earle Funk) Mix up Ivory soap didn't always float. Proctor and Gamble's famous product began life in 1878 as White Soap. It smelled good, had a rich, white color, and sunk like a stone if you let go of it in the bathtub. Then the guy who ran the machine that mixed White Soap's ingredients neglected to throw the off switch one afternoon when he took his lunch break. The soap that resulted had more air in it. The lighter bar floated, consumers loved it, and the rest is history. I just thought you should finally know the real story \ufffd a matter of history coming clean, so to speak. (Source: EXTRAORDINARY ORIGINS OF EVERYDAY THINGS)"}, {"response": 612, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (17:30)", "body": "AT WHAT WIND SPEED DOES A SNOWSTORM BECOME A BLIZZARD? Wind speed in excess of 35 miles an hour is considered a blizzard. WHAT IS THE WARMEST MONTH OF THE YEAR IN THE ARCTIC? The month of July, when the average temperature is no more than 50 degrees F, 10 degrees C."}, {"response": 613, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (19:40)", "body": "And you thought you had a bad job... Beijing Scoops the Last Ladles of Nightsoil BEIJING (Reuters) - Ending a century-old tradition, nightsoil collectors have cleared the last lavatory in Beijing by hand, another milestone in what has been dubbed the \"toilet revolution\" sweeping China. Armed with long-handled ladles and wooden barrels, six collectors on Saturday paid their final early morning call on two courtyard homes on one of Beijing's famous \"hutong\" alleyways. The squat-style \"draught lavatories\" -- pits that can accommodate only one user at a time -- were once common in the Chinese capital. But modern public conveniences with flush toilets have made them obsolete. Not that nightsoil collectors are now out of a job altogether. Much of the sewage from public toilets, as well as residential blocks and tourist hotels, still drops into septic tanks that are cleared by nightsoil trucks with long nozzles attached to suction pumps. The small green trucks are a familiar sight darting about the streets of Beijing on their way to the suburbs, where their human waste is spread on cabbage patches."}, {"response": 614, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (20:00)", "body": "Pez is one of the most secretive companies in the US. It is not even known who currently owns the company. The world's longest fence is 1,000 miles longer than the Great Wall of China. 3,307 miles long, it runs half the length of Australia and is designed to keep the Dingos separate from the sheep. 1,000,000 one dollar bills would weigh 2,040 pounds. The British fired 2,876 shells into the Bismarck on the day they sank it. Supermassive black holes contribute about as much energy to the universe as do all the stars combined. http://www.sciam.com/news/121400/2.html There are only 2 original parts on the President's limousine. Contrary to popular belief, most black widow spiders don't eat their mates. The Chunnel is 131 feet below the English Channel floor. China has over 22,000 large dams, the most in the world."}, {"response": 615, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (22:02)", "body": "Q. What continent has the most silver? A. 50% of the world's silver is in South America. Peru has 12%. The rest is mostly in North America. Mexico, Canada and the US all have large silver reserves. In the rest of the world, silver is mainly found in Australia, Poland and some of the former Soviet republics."}, {"response": 616, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (04:06)", "body": "They say (on a tv show I saw the ohter night) that the S African diamond trade is moving to the NW territory, where they have specially micro marked diamonds. This is a region not marked in bloodshed or strife, so the diamonds are sought after because they aren't tainted with overtones of repression."}, {"response": 617, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (14:07)", "body": "That is nice to know. Does DeBeers own that, too? Theyhave a huge stockpile of diamonds which are NOT rare, to make them more expensive, but the ones out of Russia are lovely and much more affordable since DeBeers cannot control them. Even colored ones! Why don't doors in homes open outward as they do in all public buildings? The reason for the outward orientation of doors in public places is simple: in case of danger, as in a fire, people have to be able to open the door and pour through the doorway quickly and in great numbers. If the doors opened inward, people might pile up at the exit as everyone pushed to get through at once instead of stepping back to allow space for the door to be opened. Doors open inward in homes \ufffd at least the front door does \ufffd because they sometimes have to be removed from the hinges in order to allow furniture to be moved in. If the hinges were on the outside, burglars could also remove them. Since there are fewer people in a home, there's no danger of a pileup at the door in case of fire. (Source: WHY DO DOGS HAVE WET NOSES? By David Feldman)"}, {"response": 618, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 29, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "Millennium Meteors NASA Science News for December 29, 2000 One of the most intense annual meteor showers, the Quadrantids, will peak over North America on January 3, 2001. Observers in western parts of Canada, the USA and Mexico could see an impressive outburst of shooting stars, numbering as many as 100 per hour. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast29dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 619, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 29, 2000 (22:46)", "body": "WHAT DID BLIND CELLARMASTER DOM PERIGNON SAY WHEN HE DISCOVERED CHAMPAGNE IN 1668? \"Oh, come quickly, I am drinking stars!\" WHAT DOES THE WORD KOALA MEAN IN AUSTRALIA'S ABORIGINE LANGUAGE? Koala means \"no drink\". This Australian marsupial gets all the liquid it needs from the eucalyptus leaves it eats."}, {"response": 620, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 30, 2000 (13:30)", "body": "There were 1,511,300 drunken driving arrests in the US in 1999. 407,100,000 people have Internet access as of Dec, 2000. There are three earlier versions of La Giaconda, the Mona Lisa painting's real name, underneath the top layer. In one of those versions da Vinci allegedly gave his subject not only eyebrows, but a beard, moustache and sideburns as well. Devoid of its cells and proteins, human blood has the same general composition as seawater. There are about 8,600 species of birds on Earth. Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia were the 13 original American colonies. The phrase \"a red letter day\" dates back to 1704, when holy days were marked in red letters in church calendars. Without using precision instruments, Eratosthenes measured the radius of the Earth in the 3rd century B.C. and came within 1% of the value determined by today's technology. The practice of naming hurricanes began early this century when an Australian weather forecaster decided to insult politicians he didn't like by naming devastating tropical storms after them."}, {"response": 621, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 30, 2000 (13:31)", "body": "Why is that liquid refreshment served in big bowls at parties called punch? If one can legitimately describe what you are drinking as \"spiked,\" you might easily conjecture why the drink is called \"punch,\" especially if you wake up prone next to the punch bowl. You might never know what hit you. But the word's origin is not so direct. It was a product of the British colonization of India. In the northern part of that land the Brits came upon a refreshing native drink made from rice alcohol blended with tea, sugar and lemon, all diluted with water. The colonizers, noting that the drink had five ingredients, used the Hindi word for five, \"punch,\" to describe it. Now of course you also have five fingers, and if you curl them into a fist . . . . Just a thought. (Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison)"}, {"response": 622, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 30, 2000 (18:14)", "body": "General Custer was the youngest general in US history. He was promoted at age 23. Waste products from the production of a single six-inch silicon wafer include 7 pounds of miscellaneous hazardous waste. UN statistics show that 88 nations have a lower death rate than the US. Early systems of measurement used body parts to calculate length. A cubit ran from elbow to middle fingertip. The distance from fingertip to fingertip of outstretched arms was a fathom. Oreos have been the number one selling cookie in America since their introduction in 1912. Elephants have 4 teeth. As they wear out, they are replaced, up to 6 times. After that, the elephant can't eat and starves. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable. The highest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 136 degrees Farenheit on September 13, 1992, in Azizia, Libya. The bottle-nosed whale can dive to 3,000 feet in 2 minutes."}, {"response": 623, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 30, 2000 (18:35)", "body": "+-------------------- Bizarre Holidays --------------------+ JANUARY January is... National Fiber Focus Month January 1 is...First Foot Day January 2 is...Run Up the Flagpole and See if Anybody Salutes It Day January 8 is...National JoyGerm Day and Man Watcher's Day January 10 is... Peculiar People Day January 11 is... National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day January 12 is... Feast of Fabulous Wild Men Day January 22 is... National Answer Your Cat's Question Day January 23 is...Measure Your Feet Day January 24 is... Eskimo Pie Patent Day January 27 is...Thomas Crapper Day January 28 is... National Kazoo Day and Rattle Snake Round-Up Day"}, {"response": 624, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (13:55)", "body": "Why is the flag flown at half-staff to honor someone who has died? The Greeks and the Romans believed that the souls of the dead began their journey to the afterlife by crossing the river Styx \ufffd rowed across by a fellow named Charon. With our modern transportation, we wouldn't be caught dead making such an important trip in so tacky a manner. Yet we still honor the passing of prominent people with a custom that stems from a time when travel by boat was where it was at. The flag at half-staff, originally unconnected to death, comes from an old naval ritual. When a ship lost a battle, the crew was obliged to fly the winner's pennant from the top of their mast. In order to make room for it, the losing captain ordered his own flag lowered halfway. By implication, this gesture of respect was also a symbol of loss. Even after this custom faded, captains might dip their flag to a passing ship as a sign of respect, like tipping one's cap. Eventually the practice was adopted to honor the dead. (Source: EVER WONDER WHY? By Douglas B. Smith) ---------------------------------------------------------- Look for the silver lining In one of history's most famous assassinations, Charlotte Corday stabbed to death French revolutionary Jean Paul Marat. She gave it to him while he was taking a bath. No doubt you have seen the famous painting that depicts the scene. But history had the last laugh: She killed an already dying man. He was in the tub to treat an invariably fatal skin disease. Nevertheless, had Charlotte let nature take its course we wouldn't have that famous painting, now would we? My mother always said that you could find something good in most everything. (Source: THE JOY OF TRIVIA)"}, {"response": 625, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (14:04)", "body": "Listen to the Quadrantids tonight Space Weather News for January 2, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com The Quadrantid meteor shower will peak over North America before dawn on Wednesday morning, January 3rd. No matter where you live you can listen to the shower by tuning in to a radio meteor listening station at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The installation, located in Huntsville, AL, is perfectly situated to detect a Quadrantid outburst. For more information and realtime audio please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 626, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (14:11)", "body": "Tiger Woods made $9,188,321 on the PGA Tour in 2000. He averaged $459,416 per start, $110,703 per round and $1,622 per stroke. By the year 2005, Bill Gates' wealth could overtake the GDP of the United Kingdom. A cricket's chirps can tell you the temperature. Just count the number of chirps it makes in 15 seconds and add 40. The result is a good approximation for the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. Birds do not sleep in their nests. They may occasionally nap in them, but they actually sleep in other places. Tremendous, stupendous, hazardous and horrendous are the only words in English that end in \"dous\". Internet data alone is expected to account for 90 percent of the world's bandwidth by 2003."}, {"response": 627, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (14:29)", "body": "There are more than 50 different kinds of kangaroos. The first Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is worth more than twice its weight in gold -- an estimated $50,000,000. When Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto, he announced the coordinates of its orbit. Astronomers around the world retrieved old photographs and -- sure enough, there was Pluto, right in front of their faces. Nobody had seen it because they didn't know where to look. Half the world's population now live in cities. The Greek unit of currency, the Drachma, has been in use for 2,650 years. In 1830 the first railroad station was built in Baltimore, Maryland. The U.S. interstate highway system requires that 1 mile in every 5 must be straight. These sections can be used as airstrips in a time of war or other emergencies. The ZIP in Zip-code stands for Zoning Improvement Plan. Most mammals view color only as shades of gray."}, {"response": 628, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (17:22)", "body": "Q. Which nations of Europe consume more food than they produce? A. Nearly all the nations of Europe run billion-dollar food deficits. Only three European countries have billion- dollar or better food surpluses: the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland."}, {"response": 629, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (18:42)", "body": "50 different kinds of kangaroos? wow!!"}, {"response": 630, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (21:45)", "body": "I only know of Red kangaroos and the other ones. Not 49 other ones!!! CORRECTION: The U.S. interstate highway system requires that 1 mile in every 5 must be straight. These sections can be used as airstrips in a time of war or other emergencies. HpstrDufuz points out the truth here: http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/airstrip.htm ADDITION: Tremendous, stupendous, hazardous and horrendous are the only words in English that end in \"dous\". HpstrDufuz adds \"apodous\", a zoological term meaning \"having no feet\". ************************************************************* The first Harley Davidson motorcycle, built in 1903, used a tomato can for a carburetor. 15% of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day. West Virginia is the only state to have acquired its sovereignty by proclamation of the President of the United States. Margaret Mitchell has sold 20,000,000 copies of \"Gone With The Wind\". The largest incense stick ever made was almost 15 feet long and 6 inches thick. In the 1940s a survey listed the top 7 discipline problems in public schools: talking, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls, getting out of line, wearing improper clothes, and not putting paper in wastebaskets. A more recent survey lists these top 7: drug abuse, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery, and assault. Arson, gang warfare, and venereal disease rounded out the modern \"top ten\". - George F. Will Although in America today life expectancy at birth is near the best of any civilized country in the world, at age 40 life expectancy is near the bottom. - New York State Medical Journal, Sept. 15, 1955 The rumbling sound your stomach sometimes makes is called a \"borborygmi.\" The brain accounts for just 2% of body weight, but burns up 20% of our daily caloric intake."}, {"response": 631, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  3, 2001 (15:15)", "body": "A sunrise/sunset calculator from the U.S. Naval Observatory website. http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data/docs/RS_OneYear.html Put in your lat/lon and time zone, and you're in business"}, {"response": 632, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  3, 2001 (15:48)", "body": "Happy Birthday Kilauea 0930 January 3, 2001 You know how hard it is to remember anniversaries, especially \"after all these years.\" Well, that happened today until a sentimentalist reminded us that today is the 18th anniversary of the ongoing eruption, which was born on January 3, 1983, and is now a healthy adult with no sign of early senescence. ___ Lava continues down Pulama pali and onto the coastal flat this Wednesday morning at 0454. More of the flow on the pali is crusted, however, so that the scene is less colorful than it has been for the past week or more. Most of the lava is confined to the east flow, where one river descends the pali amid a sea of patchy incandescence from past, still hot, surface flows. The west flow is dark except for one small incandescent spot, possibly a skylight, high on the pali. Lava fed by the flows continues to pond high on the coastal flat, some 2 km or so from the coast. The position of glow this morning suggests that the lava has not moved significantly seaward in the past 24 hours. The crater of Pu`u `O`o is dark this morning. Seismic tremor is weak to moderate near Pu`u `O`o and weak below Kilauea's caldera. The tilt at Kilauea summit and along the east rift zone is flat."}, {"response": 633, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  3, 2001 (16:46)", "body": "ok, someone gave a name to the rumbling tummy sounds? they must've had a lot of time on their hands!"}, {"response": 634, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  3, 2001 (16:57)", "body": "check our your filtrum and AM's frenulum... (may not have one, actually) Every sailing ship had to have cannon for protection. Cannon of the times required round iron cannonballs. The master wanted to store the cannonballs such that they could be of instant use when needed, yet not roll around the gun deck. The solution was to stack them up in a square-based pyramid next to the cannon. The top level of the stack had one ball, the next level down had four,the next had nine, the next had sixteen, and so on. Four levels would provide a stack of 30 cannonballs. The only real problem was how to keep the bottom level from sliding out from under the weight of the higher levels. To do this, they devised a small brass plate (\"brass monkey\") with one rounded indentation for each cannonball in the bottom layer. Brass was used because the cannonballs wouldn't rust to the \"brass monkey,\" but would rust to an iron one. When temperature falls, brass contracts in size faster than iron. As it got cold on the gun decks, the indentations in the brass monkey would get smaller than the iron cannonballs they were holding. If the temperature got cold enough, the bottom layer would pop out of the indentations spilling the entire pyramid over the deck. Thus, it was, quite literally, \"cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.\""}, {"response": 635, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  3, 2001 (18:57)", "body": "Q. What did European clergymen originally think of hot chocolate? A. Chocolate drinks were the first form of chocolate to spread widely in Europe but clergymen were not pleased. They considered the caffeine kick of chocolate a spur to bad behavior."}, {"response": 636, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  3, 2001 (19:52)", "body": "Theodore Roosevelt was the only US president to deliver an inaugural address without using the word \"I\". Mysterious monolith appears in Seattle park. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/15774.html There are significant problems with storing hydrogen. You could liquefy and compress the hydrogen, but this is costly and uses between 20 and 40% of the energy eventually stuffed into the tank. Also, the tanks themselves are robust and heavy--hydrogen only accounts for between 5 and 7% of their weight even when they're full. For buses and trucks this isn't a problem but it effectively limits the range of a hydrogen car to half that of a regular one. The Seattle Space Needle is 605 foot tall and is attached at its based with 72 bolts, each 30 feet long. Aunt Jemima was a real person. Our original expectation [in studying three dental school classes in California] was that, as the students progressed through dental school, they would learn more about professional ethics and display a higher level of ethical responses. The exact opposite occurred. In the first year 67% had a high ethics score. In the final year it had plummeted to 18%. Approaching the end of their professional education, the students were at the nadir of ethicality. http://upalumni.org/medschool/appendices/appendix-2b.html The world's largest alphabet is Cambodian, with 74 letters. Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. [100,000 of which are in Manitoba, according to that province's license plate]"}, {"response": 637, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Jan  4, 2001 (08:16)", "body": "So that's where that expression comes from!"}, {"response": 638, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  4, 2001 (16:55)", "body": "Seems we passed it past an archaeologist or two. One,who also enjoyed it, said there was not evidence for that brass plate in archaeological finds, but agreed with me that it was probably the creation of under used and over active college students. Sill a clever story! Why do we sometimes call a hodgepodge a mishmash? If you come from the northeastern United States, you might suspect that there's a spelling error here. Isn't it \"mishmosh?\" Isn't this another one of those slang Yiddishisms that have made their way into colloquial English, like something being \"kosher?\" Well, no. It's not even Yinglish, that blend of English and Yiddish that produced language-bridging expressions such as \"fancy-shmancy.\" Mishmash, in fact, has a fairly old English pedigree. It dates from about 1500, about the time that \"mash,\" a crushed mixture with the consistency of mush, also entered the language. Mishmash is what linguists call a reduplication, a doubling of a word root or syllable to form a new word. The result is a word that sounds very much like what it describes. And that's the whole megillah. (Sources: Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and Mary Morris; The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, edited by C. T. Onions; The Oxford Companion to the English Language, edited by Tom McArthur) Cinderella is one of our most beloved children's stories. Who can forget the mistreated girl who ends up with the Prince and the glass slipper? Whoa! There ain't no glass slipper. This error came about because the most well known version of the old legend \ufffd the one from the Mother Goose stories \ufffd contains a mistranslation. The fellow who got it from the old French mistook \"pantouffles en vair,\" slippers lined with white squirrel fur, for \"pantouffles en verre,\" slippers of glass. White squirrel fur? Not only does she really believe that she has a fairy godmother, she's also kinky to boot? (Source: FABULOUS FALLACIES)"}, {"response": 639, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  5, 2001 (00:47)", "body": "Elephants have poor hearing. At age ninety, Peter Mustafic of Botovo, Yugoslavia, suddenly began speaking again after a silence of 40 years. The Yugoslavian news agency quoted him as saying \"I just didn't want to do military service, so I stopped speaking in 1920. Then I got used to it\". A skunk can propel its spray 10 feet. Penguins don't always live in cold climates. Though they can be found in the South Pole, they can also be found on the equator. The Chunnel uses 3-tube construction: the two main tubes are 24 feet in diameter, and carry trains in each direction. The service tunnel provides ventilation and access for personnel. Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age."}, {"response": 640, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  5, 2001 (13:17)", "body": "Travel Channel, Tuesday \"Hawaii Volcanoes\" Join us in paradise to check out the most active volcanoes in the world."}, {"response": 641, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  5, 2001 (18:18)", "body": "Q. If I heat a 3 foot long iron bar, I can hold it at one end with my bare hands. If I then dunk the bar in water, it gets too hot to hold and starts to vibrate. Why? A. When red-hot iron touches water near atmospheric pressure, it boils the water so fast that a thin film of steam completely separates the water from the hot metal. So you can think of the bar as being in a closely fitting bubble of steam, surrounded by water. The bubble is unstable because of its buoyancy, so liquid water touches the iron at some point soon after the creation of the film. Where they touch, steam is produced very rapidly and it drives the iron and the water apart again. This movement drives the opposite side of the iron bar against the opposite side of the bubble. Again it contacts liquid water, and the the bar gets driven back toward the first point of contact, hence the vibration. The heating of the iron at the cooler end is caused by steam flowing upward along the rod. Its buoyancy drives the steam upward and it follows the rod because of the Coanda effect-- flowing fluid tends to follow a surface because if it tries to flow away from the surface it leaves behind a partial vacuum that draws it back. The steam then condenses on the rod where the rod is below 212 degrees. This will rapidly heat the whole rod to 212 degrees."}, {"response": 642, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan  6, 2001 (18:29)", "body": "Just how heavy and cumbersome was a suit of armour? You've probably seen movies in which a knight in armour was lifted by a winch onto his horse, so heavy was his protective covering. Or maybe you've seen the scene where Sir Somebody is knocked from his horse and can't get up without assistance. \"Poppycock,\" as we used to say in medieval England. Those suits of armour weighed no more than about 50 pounds and were flexible enough to permit Sir Laughalot to walk around. You wouldn't want to play squash in one, but they were not much more constricting than a business suit, the armour worn by today's corporate warriors. Which reminds me: A couple of years ago, in a museum, I saw a knight in armour from the medieval kingdom of Bohemia, later part of the Czech Republic. Could this have been the origin of the phrase, \"The Czech is in the mail?\" Just a thought. (Source: DICTIONARY OF MISINFORMATION by Tom Burnam)"}, {"response": 643, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jan  7, 2001 (15:44)", "body": "Happy Belated Birthday Kilauea! You've become a healthy adult in 18 years. So is Kilauea of legal drinking age in the state of Hawaii? I hope that every celebrated, and continues to have, a Happy New Year. On the subject of holidays, Twelfthnight or Epiphany was January 6th, and I can say Merry Christmas because January 7th is Orthodox Christmas."}, {"response": 644, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  8, 2001 (18:44)", "body": "Age 21 legal drinking age in Hawaii. LUNAR ECLIPSE TONIGHT NASA Science News for January 8, 2001 On January 9th sky watchers across some parts of Earth will enjoy a total lunar eclipse. But what would they see if they lived, instead, on the Moon? This story considers Tuesday's eclipse from a different point of view. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast08jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 645, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  8, 2001 (18:53)", "body": "really? we have a near full moon tonight (i mean, it's right there)... check your email, sweetie!"}, {"response": 646, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (12:54)", "body": "Quite excitingly, the full moon is right outside my apartment and about to go into eclipse over the next hour or two. All I have to do is cross the street and look up every half-hour or so."}, {"response": 647, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (13:32)", "body": "And now almost total eclipse..... Eclipsed from the bottom up"}, {"response": 648, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (13:53)", "body": "Wheeeeeeeeee!!!! Live and direct! Thanks Mark and big hugs for your eye-witness account. *** Jackie Bibby holds the record for sitting in a bathtub with the most live rattlesnakes: 35 of them. The Seven Deadly Sins are lust, pride, anger, envy, sloth, avarice, and gluttony. The Seven Virtues are prudence, courage, temperance, justice, faith, hope, and charity. The Moon travels around the Earth at 66,641 miles per hour. The Statue of Liberty's mouth is 3 feet wide. Ross Perot resigned from the General Motors Board of Directors because of the decision to purchase Hughes Aircraft Company. Holland gets by on a total of four food additives. We have over 1,400. - US Congressman Fred Richmond, Chairperson, Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing, Consumer Relations and Nutrition The Netherlands and The United States both have anthems that do not mention their country's name. Natchez, Mississippi was settled by the French in 1716 and is the oldest permanent settlement on the Mississippi River."}, {"response": 649, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (16:42)", "body": "And now the full moon is back, (at 66,641 mph?). It disappeared bottom first, and then reappeared right side first. Strange."}, {"response": 650, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (16:57)", "body": "Lunar eclipse from the Midlands, England... Partial: http://www.cix.co.uk/~aal/partial.jpg Totality: http://www.cix.co.uk/~aal/totality.jpg"}, {"response": 651, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (16:59)", "body": "Thanks, Ian, and friend Anyone else take pictures???"}, {"response": 652, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (18:47)", "body": "YOu just KNEW this was gonna happen, didn't you??? From Reuters: An estimated 1,500 white witches are planning to gather in Britain, Sweden, Iceland, France, Canada and Austria during the eclipse to ward off any doom it may bring, the BBC reported."}, {"response": 653, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (18:49)", "body": "I had a sneaking suspicion."}, {"response": 654, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (16:07)", "body": "This now from MSNBC about Stonehenge: http://www.msnbc.com/news/513457.asp?bt=nm&btu=http://www.msnbc.com/tools/newstools/d/news_menu.asp Been there and seen it - they restored it Just enough in my opinion. Thoughts?"}, {"response": 655, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (17:05)", "body": "1. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase \"goodnight, sleep tight\". 2. It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son- in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month or what we know today as the honeymoon. 3. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase \"mind your P's and Q's\" 4. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. \"Wet your whistle\" is the phrase inspired by this practice. 5. In ancient England a person could not have sex unless you had consent of the King (unless you were in the Royal Family). When anyone wanted to have a baby, they got consent of the King, the King gave them a placard that they hung on their door while they were having sex. The placard had F.*.*.*. (Fornication Under Consent of the King) on it. Now you know where that came from. 6. In Scotland, a new game was invented. It was entitled Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden ... and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language. (don't think #5 is correct...)"}, {"response": 656, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (22:38)", "body": "A group of owls is called a parliament. Jordan's national anthem does not mention the country's name. No president was an only child. Wisconsin's streams and rivers, if joined end-to-end, would stretch 26,767 miles. The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter Ruth. A dragonfly can fly up to 30 miles per hour. President James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other--simultaneously!"}, {"response": 657, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (23:11)", "body": "The tuatara lizard of New Zealand has 3 eyes: 2 in the center of its head and the third on top. Malaysia's national anthem does not mention the country's name. The average life span of an umbrella is 1 1/2 years. A rock band amplified at close range is 140 decibels -- 100,000 times louder than the 85 decibel level that causes permanet hearing loss from prolonged exposure. Julie Nixon, daughter of Richard Nixon married David Eisenhower, son of Dwight Eisenhower. Andrew Johnson, was the only president who was a self-educated tailor. He made his own clothes and that of his cabinet. A piano has to withstand 15 tons of force from the strings. It would take 212 years to drive a car to the sun, at 50 miles per hour."}, {"response": 658, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (05:08)", "body": "I don't think any of the \"facts\" in No 655 are right. P's and Q's comes from \" p leases and than k-yous \". \"Wet your whistle\" started out as \"whet your whistle\" to do with whetting (sharpening) your appetite, and golf comes from a Dutch word. I suspect the source may be a wind-up."}, {"response": 659, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (13:03)", "body": "Ah yes, Mark, thank you! Feedback is much appreciated! This from a fellow Londoner: I would take all this with a significant pinch of salt. # At the time of Shakespeare people slept on wooden beds, as anyone who has been to the Shakespeare museum will tell you. # Not too sure of the origins of mead but it was certainly made and served in the inns of England at least 1000 years ago. # Pints are the order of the day in English pubs, never quarts (A filthy European intrusion into our way of life as far as I'm concerned). This has been so forever to the best of my knowledge. # I have never heard of whistles in ceramic jugs. A simple..\"another pint if you please inn keeper\" would have worked just as well and been less trouble. # I think not. I am inclined to believe that certain citizens would not have waited for the consent of their intended partner before taking action, let alone the monarch. ..and two real ones for you. Derivation of the word POSH. A relatively modern introduction into the English language. When wealthy couples travelled across the Atlantic to New York from Southampton and back, they would always have a cabin on the port side of the ship on the outward journey and starboard on the homeward leg. This meant that the sun always shone through the porthole of their cabin. Thus...Port Out Starboard Home gave rise to POSH. The Royal Fish The sturgeon is a royal fish. Any sturgeon caught in British territorial waters must be offered to the king or queen of the day. Only when the monarch declines the offer can the fish be eaten by its capturer."}, {"response": 660, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (22:05)", "body": "CORRECTION: Thee Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter Ruth. No, it was named after Babe Ruth. The Ruth Cleveland thing was a dodge to avoid paying royalties, and was later used to keep a product bearing the Famous Ballplayers name off the market. - HpstrDufuz ************************************************************* The \"Cob\" in cobweb is an old English word for spider. President Taft got stuck in his bathtub on his Inauguration Day and had to be pried out by his attendants. Jerry Rice holds the Super Bowl record for most receiving touchdowns in a game: 3 Lie detectors do not. Independent research consistently shows they are barely better than chance at detecting lies. That is why they are not admitted into a court of law unless both sides agree to it, and often not then. London was the first city with a population over 1,000,000, in 1811. The Practicioner, a British medical journal, has determined that bird-watching may be hazardous to your health. The magazine, in fact, has officially designated bird-watching a hazardous hobby, after documenting the death of a weekend bird-watcher who became so immersed in his subject that he grew oblivious to his surroundings and consequently was eaten by a crocodile. At the Rocky Mountain Front Eagle Migration Area west of Great Falls, Montana more golden eagles have been seen in a single day than anywhere else in the country. 87,000,000 people in China have a family name of Li. Abe Lincoln's mother died when the family dairy cow ate poisonous mushrooms and Mrs. Lincoln drank the milk."}, {"response": 661, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (22:47)", "body": "CORRECTION: Lincoln's mother died of mushroom poisoning It was in fact a plant called white snakeroot, that was transmitted via milk. - Dave ************************************************************* Andrew Jackson thought that the world was flat. Consumers spent $10.7 billion in online shopping during the 2000 holiday season, up from $5.2 billion in 1999. If persons in the untreated group die at any time in the study interval, they are reported. In the treated group, however, deaths which occur before completion of the treatment are rejected from the data, since these patients do not then meet the criteria of the term 'treated'. - Hardin B. Jones, PhD, ACS 11th Annual Science Writers Conference 362,000,000 Oreos have been sold to date. In 1865 opium was grown in the state of Virginia and a product was distilled from it that yielded 4% morphine. In 1867 it was grown in Tennessee: six years later it was cultivated in Kentucky. During these years opium, marijuana and cocaine could be purchased legally over the counter from any druggist. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. Even though a mosquito beats its wings 600 times per second, it only travels about one mile per hour. The Chunnel was the biggest civil-engineering project of the 20th century. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 10, "subject": "Orogeny and Diastrophism: Changing the Face of the Earth", "response_count": 21, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (22:19)", "body": "This topic is so hot I though I should post something to make it a little cooler. Orogony is catastrophic mountain-building and land uplifting on a huge scale - as when the Indian sub-continent \"slammed into\" the Asian continent pushing up the Himalaya Mountain chain. On a geological time scale, that was an abrupt change. Diastrophism is the opposite."}, {"response": 2, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (22:25)", "body": "Which is the correct spelling of the former term?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (22:39)", "body": "Orogeny...sorry for the mistyping in the post! I shall try to be more careful on the diastrophism part...!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (22:50)", "body": "That shows your sense of humor runs pahoehoe hot."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (23:10)", "body": "Thank you! (I am taking that as a compliment!)*grin* How do you like the new buttons? I see I have one missing...must rectify that immediatly!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:06)", "body": "(John)pahoehoe What is that, pray?:-)"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:10)", "body": "The fluid lava that spills out of the craters and runs down hillsides like rivers - see the Etna picture just posted. THAT is Pahoehoe lava. The clinkery stuff is a'a."}, {"response": 8, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:15)", "body": "I like what I think is the sound of pahoehoe :-)"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:19)", "body": "pa HOEY hoey is the way it is pronounced with an European A (ah sound)"}, {"response": 10, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (18:27)", "body": "pah-HOI-hoi? pei-HOI-hoi? Nonr of the above? :-)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (14:32)", "body": "pah HOI hoi us the correct way to say it!!! =)"}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (20:20)", "body": "like pah HOY hoy?"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (21:18)", "body": "It works...*grin* Now we can all say a few words in Hawaiian, though it might be hard to work in to a conversation. a'a is \"Ah Ah\" with the stress being the same on each syllable. Actually, Pahoehoe is more like \"pa HO ee HO ee\"...come to think about it. Five syllables in all."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  9, 1999 (15:17)", "body": "I guess Mass Wasting would fall in this category - huge land slips, avalanches of mud and other transport of large masses of terra not quite so firma... (From Maggie) At least 46 people were missing yesterday after an avalanche possibly caused by volcanic activity buried several dozen homes in a village in the North peruvian Andes. The landslide buried parts of the village of Tacabamba 500 miles north of the capital Lima on Sunday afternoon. Some townspeople in the area say these are thermal geysers that exploded and could have been volcanic in nature. (A.P. Lima in The Guardian, 9.11.99)"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (13:37)", "body": "In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. Therefore ... in the Old Silurian Period the Mississippi River was upward of one million three hundred thousand miles long ... seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long. ... There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesome returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. -- Mark Twain"}, {"response": 16, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (08:09)", "body": "I grew up on the Mississippi, what a powerful, brown, muddy river. What strong currents.."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (12:45)", "body": "Dangerous for those who do not understand and respect her. The river is still carving out its \"proper\" course through the landscape and has a very wide flood plain. Folks just love to build farms on their fertile flood plains then let us pick up the bill to rebuild the place every so often when it gets washed away. Big Muddy is just that, and I can feel the ooze between the toes...Yeesh! There is an equally large river running beneath the Mississippi we can see, btw."}, {"response": 18, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (17:24)", "body": "If you ever fly over the Mississippi you can see the old river beds around the current one. I came across some information that due to flood control projects, among other things, the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana is now eroding back. The river no longer carries the same amount of silt to the Gulf of Mexico."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (18:41)", "body": "Interesting. I'll check the internet and see if I can get some data and a picture like you describe. I also remember seeing it from the air. It was astounding!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (05:57)", "body": "Ancient trees may explain story of Atlantis Marcia, I think this fits in here, feel free to cross post if you feel it fits elsewhere better :-) Ancient trees may explain story of Atlantis By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press WASHINGTON (September 14, 2000 5:45 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com ) - Researchers say ancient pine tree stumps found in a Swedish peat bog may hold a record of the great volcanic blast that some historians link with the end of the fabled Atlantis. Using radiocarbon dating, a team of researchers determined that the trees had been alive between 1695 B.C. and 1496 B.C., and a study of their growth rings showed a four-year period of severely depressed growth about 1636 B.C. Major volcanic eruptions have been known to blast enough dust into the atmosphere to cause frosts and limit crop growth, and one of the most powerful such blasts occurred when the Greek island of Santorini blew up in the mid-1600s B.C. That disaster destroyed a culturally developed island and some historians believe it gave rise to the legend of the lost continent Atlantis. \"Our dating and the severe magnitude of this phenomenon suggest that it can be ascribed to the 1628-27 B.C. event, hence providing new evidence of a wider, more northerly area of influence,\" the team of Swedish scientists reports in the Sept. 15 issue of Geophysical Research Letters. While the team led by Hakan Grudd of the Climate Impacts Research Center in Kiruna, Sweden, dated the Santorini blast to 1628, other scholars use different dates, though all are within a few years. The Swedish team said their tree ring dating had a margin of error of plus or minus 65 years. Other scientists studying tree rings have found periods of frost damage and slow growth in the mid-1600s B.C. affecting Irish, English, and German oaks, pine trees in California and trees in Turkey. This is the northernmost evidence of an effect from the volcanic blast, the researchers said of the new Swedish find. \"The evidence is consistent with the hypothesis of a major Northern Hemisphere volcanic eruption in 1628 B.C., which may have been Santorini in the Aegean Sea,\" they concluded. The climate impact of volcanoes has long been a topic of discussion, going back at least to Benjamin Franklin. The eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora was blamed for a worldwide cooling in 1816 - known as the \"year without a summer\" in New England, where snow fell in June. Today Santorini is a popular tourist spot, where visitors can see the great caldera formed when the ancient volcanic island blew up and view excavations uncovering the remains of the ancient town. The first mention of Atlantis occurs in Plato, who discusses an ancient island or continent destroyed by earthquakes and sunk into the sea. Geophysical Research Letters is published by the American Geophysical Union, an international scientific society."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (21:45)", "body": "Thank you so much for posting something in here. I love this topic, but it is just about impossible to find things to post other than long-winded lectures... Mahalo again, Maggie! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 11, "subject": "Atmospheric Disturbances: Storms and their effects on the Earth", "response_count": 49, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 12, 1999 (20:56)", "body": "Our first water spout of this conference was reported to me from St Petersburg, Florida where it managed to make landfall and tear up a few things. Check http://www.sptimes.com/News/10499/TampaBay/Weekend_thunderstorms.html Thanks, Barbara!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 12, 1999 (21:18)", "body": "don't forget california and it's mudslides going on as we speak!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 12, 1999 (21:10)", "body": "will have to check and get back - this turning out to be is a timely topic. I have the flood gauge check list, so I will see how things are going. Thanks for telling me!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 12, 1999 (21:18)", "body": "you're welcome! it was all over our news channel....really scary thing too!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 12, 1999 (21:49)", "body": "Any idea which part of the state? I have tidal gauages for all the rivers and they are really pouring water through them. But nothing mentions \"mass wasting\" which is earth slips, land slides and mud slides to the rest of us. I have consulted with the family Geologist in the area and wil update immediately when I hear from him (I keep telling him to join and save me from pasting his comments - he is a lurker!)"}, {"response": 6, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 12, 1999 (22:08)", "body": "no, am trying to think of the network so i can give you a url....it was the news program with dan rather--think it's cbs. your David should join us!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 12, 1999 (22:34)", "body": "it was cbs but when i went to their url ( http://www.cbs.com)i found nothing on the mudslides. i then went to the national weather service and found a bunch of expired flash flood warnings but nothing else to indicate any mudslides had occurred. it wasn't a wolfmare, i know i wasn't dreaming!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 12, 1999 (22:59)", "body": "California regularly dumps its finest homes into the sea because of excess rain \"which they never get...!\" Perhaps it is just some eye-catching news story but did not warrant press coverage until tomorrow. Thanks for checking. *hugs*"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 12, 1999 (23:04)", "body": "This is probably the best source of information on California Weather and the effects thereof. Many links at the very top and thoroughout the text. http://cdec.water.ca.gov/weather.html"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 12, 1999 (23:38)", "body": "Heat and drought are as detrimental as the others. Here is the California Statewide warning for heat. *** CALIFORNIA STATE WEATHER WARNINGS *** NORTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY-CENTRAL SACRAMENTO VALLEY- SOUTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY-CARQUINEZ STRAIT AND DELTA- NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY- ...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CONTINUES THE HEAT ADVISORY THROUGH TUESDAY FOR THE SACRAMENTO AND SAN JOAQUIN VALLEYS... ...HEAT ADVISORY THROUGH TONIGHT FOR THE DELTA REGION... THIS AFTERNOON TEMPERATURES HAVE CLIMBED TO READINGS BETWEEN 104 AND 111 AS OF 3 PM. WHEN COMBINING HUMIDITY THE HEAT INDEX HAS MADE IT FEEL SEVERAL DEGREES HOTTER. LITTLE RELIEF WILL BE FELT OVERNIGHT DUE TO HIGHER RELATIVE HUMIDITIES RESULTING IN MUGGY AND WARM CONDITIONS PERSISTING. TEMPERATURES WILL DROP INTO THE 70S FOR ONLY A FEW HOURS AFTER MIDNIGHT. VERY HOT TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED AGAIN TOMORROW IN THE VALLEY AND MUCH OF THE FAR INLAND DELTA. THE HIGHEST READINGS WILL OCCUR IN THE NORTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY WHERE TEMPERATURES WILL AGAIN APPROACH RECORDS. REDDING'S FORECAST HIGH IS 112. ELSEWHERE...TEMPERATURES WILL PEAK TO A RANGE FROM 103 TO 109. TEMPERATURES WILL NOT BE AS HOT IN MUCH OF THE DELTA REGION AN ONSHORE FLOW DEVELOPS. VERY HOT TEMPERATURES ARE COMMON TO THE VALLEY DURING THE PEAK OF THE SUMMER MONTHS. HOWEVER...THE LACK OF A SEA BREEZE OR DELTA COOLING AND AN INCREASE IN HUMIDITY WILL INCREASE THE DANGER TO A MUCH LARGER REGION...AND OVER A LONGER PERIOD OF TIME DUE TO THE WARM AND MUGGY NIGHTS. COOLER OVERNIGHT LOWS ARE EXPECTED WEDNESDAY MORNING FOLLOWED BY LOWER HIGH TEMPERATURES. THIS TYPE OF PROLONGED HEAT CAN CAUSE HEALTH PROBLEMS WITH THE POPULATION. THESE CAN RANGE FROM SIMPLE DISCOMFORT AND FATIGUE... SUNSTROKE...HEAT EXHAUSTION AND EVEN HEAT STROKE. YOUNG CHILDREN...THE ELDERLY...AND PETS ARE AT THE GREATEST RISK . YOU ARE URGED TO LIMIT YOUR EXPOSURE TO THE HEAT AND DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. IF POSSIBLE SPEND MORE TIME IN AIR CONDITIONED PLACES. CHECK ON NEIGHBORS THAT MAY BE AT A HIGHER RISK OF BECOMING ILL AND DO NOT LEAVE PETS IN VEHICLES. NORTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY-CENTRAL SACRAMENTO VALLEY- SOUTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY-CARQUINEZ STRAIT AND DELTA- NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY- ...HEAT ADVISORY THROUGH TONIGHT... VERY HOT TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TODAY IN THE VALLEY AND MUCH OF THE INLAND DELTA. EXTREME READINGS WILL OCCUR IN THE NORTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY WHERE TEMPERATURES WILL LIKELY BREAK RECORDS. ELSEWHERE...TEMPERATURES WILL PEAK TO A RANGE OF 104 TO 110. LITTLE RELIEF WILL BE FELT OVERNIGHT DUE TO HIGHER RELATIVE HUMIDITIES RESULTING IN MUGGY AND WARM CONDITIONS PERSISTING. VERY HOT TEMPERATURES ARE COMMON TO THE VALLEY DURING THE PEAK OF THE SUMMER MONTHS. HOWEVER...THE LACK OF A SEA BREEZE OR DELTA COOLING AND AN INCREASE IN HUMIDITY WILL INCREASE THE DANGER TO A MUCH LARGER REGION...AND OVER A LONGER PERIOD OF TIME DUE TO THE WARM AND MUGGY NIGHTS. THIS TYPE OF PROLONGED HEAT CAN CAUSE HEALTH PROBLEMS WITH THE POPULATION. THESE CAN RANGE FROM SIMPLE DISCOMFORT AND FATIGUE... SUNSTROKE...HEAT EXHAUSTION AND EVEN HEAT STROKE. YOUNG CHILDREN...THE ELDERLY...AND PETS ARE AT THE GREATEST RISK . YOU ARE URGED TO LIMIT YOUR EXPOSURE TO THE HEAT AND DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. IF POSSIBLE SPEND MORE TIME IN AIR CONDITIONED PLACES. CHECK ON NEIGHBORS THAT MAY BE AT A HIGHER RISK OF BECOMING ILL AND DO NOT LEAVE PETS IN VEHICLES."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 12, 1999 (23:43)", "body": "Forecast For Austin, Tx 930 Pm Cdt Mon Jul 12 1999 .Tonight...A 20 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. Lows Around 70. Variable Wind 5 To 10 Mph. .Tuesday...A 60 Percent Chance Of Showers And Thunderstorms. Locally Heavy Rainfall Possible. Highs In The Mid 80S. Northeast Wind 5 To 10 Mph. .Tuesday Night...Partly Cloudy With A 30 Percent Chance Of Showers And Thunderstorms. Lows Around 70. .Wednesday...Partly Cloudy With Isolated Showers And Thunderstorms. Highs In The Lower To Mid 90S. Rain Chance Less Than 20 Percent. .Extended Forecast... .Wednesday Night...Partly Cloudy With A Slight Chance Of Mainly Evening Showers And Thunderstorms. Lows In The 70S. .Thursday Through Saturday...Partly Cloudy. Lows In The 70S. Highs In The 90S. Special weather statement 600 Pm Cdt Mon Jul 12 1999 Showers And Thunderstorms With Heavy Rains Will Continue Across The Eastern Sections Of The Texas Hill Country And The Eastern Sections Of South Central Texas Tonight. Heavy Rains And Flooding Will Be Possible...As Rich Tropical Moisture From The Gulf Supplies The Fuel For The Thunderstorm Development. Rainfall Amounts Will Average Between One-Half To One And One-Half Inch Per Hour. Locally Heavy Rainfall Totals In Excess Of Two Inch Are Possible And Would Produce Localized Flooding Of Low-Lying Areas Such As Creeks...Streets...Roads And Low-Water Crossings. Showers And Thunderstorms Again On Tuesday Will Produce Additional Rains Over The Region. The Hazardous Weather Outlook Normally Will Be Updated By Means Of The Zone Forecasts...Short Term Forecast...Watches...Warnings And Advisories. The Hazardous Weather Outlook Itself Will Be Updated Only If Unexpected Hazardous Weather Develops Or If Expected Hazardous Weather No Longer Is Forecast To Develop. For Information On Weather Threats In Areas Surrounding South Central Texas...Please Refer To The Hazardous Weather Outlooks From Nws Offices In Midland...San Angelo...Fort Worth...Corpus Christi And Houston/Galveston. Extended Forecast for Texas Hill Country and South-Central Texas .Thursday Through Saturday...Partly Cloudy With A Slight Chance Of Mainly Afternoon And Evening Showers Or Thunderstorms. Lows In The 70S. Highs In The 90S."}, {"response": 12, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (01:42)", "body": "The weather in Austin right now is humid. Nothing else much matters...all that other stuff up there is extraneuos."}, {"response": 13, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (01:44)", "body": "(it does, however, wreak havoc on one's spelling...)"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (01:49)", "body": "I shall not place any more weather reports here. There was a warning flag beside Austin, and what affects Austin affects all of us who care about The Spring. I thought there might be more than casual interest in it. Sorry."}, {"response": 15, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (02:01)", "body": "hey, wasn't trying to pick a fight...just saying It's Humid!!! (especially in a kitchen with an average ambient air temperature of 98 degrees and two steam tables... and our mold count should be outrageous (one of my tattoos agrees with that sentiment, I should add))"}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (09:27)", "body": "euwww! it's humid here as well but the last couple of days have been rather nice (i.e., low humidity).... should we make a weather warning topic for this conference? oh, do any of you have theories about the space shuttle and other rockets breaking the atmosphere and it's effects on earth's weather?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (09:51)", "body": "The effect of space junk burning up on re-entry has been discussed briefly at seminars I have attended and it was the quick concensus that the amount of enegy expended is so small compared with the Earth's total atmosphere, that it is essentially nil. Would love to debate this with someone. Your suggestion for weather warning topic is great - I shall do that right away. Sorry, wer, I misunderstood your comment on the value of the wx for Austin I posted. It is so humid in Hilo, in some area the ceilings and walls get greeen and fuzzy with mildew. It is not a happy thought! The only place I can think of that is hotter and more humid that the kitchen you manage is a ship's boiler room."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (10:10)", "body": "Finally heard from California about the mudslides: (David)Lots of them in the winter. No one lives where it is sliding so no one pays much attention. Remember the big slide on I-80 west of Cordilia? There are web sites for that too. I am off to find those websites. I checked for them yesterday but was unsuccessful."}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (13:12)", "body": "hmm...i wonder why it was in our news show...."}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (14:12)", "body": "Two guesses - Much of Lousiana is at or below the water table, is it not? They appreciate the problems which arise from too much water all at once with no place to drin. Guess two is that they had time to fill and this was a spectacular event watching whole bunches of earth slip-slide away. (Who knows why the news contains what it does - hidden agenda? Trilateral Commission? Big Brother is corrupting your mind? That is a topic for another Conference!!!)"}, {"response": 21, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (17:43)", "body": "(and all of it is true!!!)"}, {"response": 22, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (19:12)", "body": "haha!! they showed folks narrowly escaping the rushing mud, a whole house slid away....it was awful. i don't think we have to worry about mudslides here, too much, as there are no hills, but sink holes? well, probably, but where'd we sink to, the water table is barely an inch below ground!!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (19:17)", "body": "and in some places, Louisiana's ground is below sea level..."}, {"response": 24, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (19:24)", "body": "got that right!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (19:31)", "body": "Isn't that also why they bury you above ground?!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (19:39)", "body": "As long as people live on the flood plain of a river it is going to destroy what they put there. Has since time began. Will continue to do so until they get smart enough to figure it out. Until then news at 6; film at 11!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (20:01)", "body": "no matter what the corp of engineers try to do, the earth will take back..."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (20:37)", "body": "It is comforting to look at Earth from the Space Shuttle. Nothing we have done down here shows from there. It is pristine and beautiful like a jewel in a velvet box."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (13:02)", "body": "Thought you might like a look at the water spout which began this topic... Again, Thank you, Barbara, for keeping up with this."}, {"response": 30, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (15:55)", "body": "wow!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:24)", "body": "Too late! Got here too late for the water spout! :-("}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:44)", "body": "I have just learned something I knew all along - save it to file and ftp it to here. I will not make that mistake again. Sorry, Gi. I'll look for another."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:53)", "body": "This is not the same waterspout, but it is impressive nonetheless."}, {"response": 34, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:55)", "body": "Impressive indeed! Wow!:-0"}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (17:34)", "body": "kewl!!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (18:38)", "body": "And, this one shall not vanish. It is on my little part of Spring's hard drive."}, {"response": 37, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (20:14)", "body": "well, you just fill that thing up, girl, let's see more!!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (16:12)", "body": "Let's see - how many jpgs can I fit into my space available? Lots of good ones coming with hurricane season just starting, and my son with his digital camera always ready for service in Geo-type things...and then there is the volcano...I could fill a large space with just those."}, {"response": 39, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (03:18)", "body": "Don't forget to leave some space for chocolate puddle related objects, though..."}, {"response": 40, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (13:44)", "body": "?"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (17:19)", "body": "(William, only a Firthian would understand...) Gi, how can I work him into this topic? - or any of the others in Geo. I am waiting for some inspired lady to come up with this. I could put precious stones mentioned as gifts from him in Fan Fiction. I already know of an Imperial Topaz. ...but that is not this topic."}, {"response": 42, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (19:27)", "body": "Back to atmospheric disturbances... I call 100 degrees very disturbing to me. ;-D But I'll take an imperial topaz in recompense for my discomfort."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (19:39)", "body": "I think from the Rockies eastward and including a large part of Texas, it is way too hot. When it is hotter outside your body than inside, nature is running a fever. Global aspirin time! When a cold front finally manages to struggle through, I know you will have fun and games with some pretty awesome storms. Then you shall recount your adventures with sheet lightning and good things like that, please?!"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 17, 2000 (16:31)", "body": "Ok, nobody wants to discuss seeing ball lightning? I did once. Sheet lightning? Seen that, too. How about Auroras? I've seen blood-red ones in Ohio after seeing huge sunspots earlier in the day. I've never seen a tornado except in the movies (\"cow, again...\") I cannot believe we all live in a bell jar. In fact, if others don't contribute, you're gonna have to listen to me some more!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (23:03)", "body": "I've never seen ball or sheet lightning...just the usual bright jagged line. Any idea what causes those unusual types of lightning? I saw an Aurora once, up in Baxter State Park in Maine, but it wasn't multi-colored. It was like a white curtain that moved from the left side of the horizon to the right. (That was the first time I really saw the Milky Way, too; the light pollution around Boston has blocked out all but the brightest stars.) I've also never seen a twister, which is just fine! Hurricanes and blizzards are enough for me... :-)"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (02:14)", "body": "You climbed Mt Katahdin? Or what else were you doing at that hour in Baxter State Park?! More on the lightning in the morning when I am not so boggy in the head. Thanks for asking!"}, {"response": 47, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (12:09)", "body": "We climbed up one of the smaller peaks; I think it was called Sentinnel. I can check when I get home, if you're curious. We actually went up to Baxter State Park for a star party with the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston. ATMoB had rented one of the campgrounds so they could ensure a light-pollution free area; no light sources other than red-filtered flashlights allowed in that campground after dusk. It was absolutely beautiful. I really saw the Milky Way for the first time, and was thrilled to see an Aurora. A lot of folks had some impressive telescopes, and loved to show off their toys, so I got to see a lot of deep space objects that weekend. (Nebulas, galaxies, star clusters, double stars, etc.)"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (12:44)", "body": "That is good stuff, a star party! One of my favorite things to do, actually. Man, the viewing must have been spectacular. It is good here on a clear night. The stars are just about on the ground. I never climbed it but David's father did and took me up there at dawn to see the sunrise. It is specatcular, Mt Katahdin! He said they camped in something-or-other pond campsite. I could check with him, as well..."}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (12:08)", "body": "http://www.nasa.gov/today/index.html A huge sandstorm blowing off the northwest African desert has blanketed hundreds of thousands of square miles of the eastern Atlantic Ocean with a dense cloud of Sahaharan sand. The massive nature of this storm was first seen when it reached over 1000 miles into the Atlantic on Feb. 26 by NASA's Sea Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) spacecraft. This image, captured yesterday, shows the dust and sand blowing north and east to the coast of Portugal. Recent studies by the U.S. Geological Survey have linked the decline of the coral reefs in the Caribbean to the increasing frequency and intensity of Saharan Dust events. (2/29/00) Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 12, "subject": "bioregions - getting to know your unique niche on planet earth", "response_count": 202, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (09:34)", "body": "My reference for this topic is a website I created while sitting by the side of my pool two weekends ago: http://www.bioregion.com Perhaps through this topic I can develop this site further and we as individuals can get more familiar with our own watersheds and bioregions."}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (09:42)", "body": "one thing folks can do to help out their local ecosystems is to plant native vegetation. find out what grows in your area (besides weeds) and set aside a piece of your yard or even just a clay pot. here in NW Louisiana, there is at least one gardner who does this and her plants are beautiful (not me, but i'm trying). another thing (probably just MO) but, keep your backyards clean, ok? i see so many places trashed (even in the nicer neighborhoods). people come here and complain because of the way it looks, well, all it takes are people to take responsibility for their own plot of green (or concrete), recycle what you can, mulch what you can, and throw the rest out (neatly in the nice garbage cans the city provides), mow the yard and weed the garden. OK????? is that too much to ask? ok, i'm done now...."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (09:56)", "body": "Terry, thank you for your timely topic. I am honored that it graces this site. I do need to pry my eyes open and goad my still-sleeping mind into action - it is not yet 5am here, and I am not thinking without extemem effort."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (13:29)", "body": "An Island in the middle of an Ocean is an encapsulated Bioregion. This is especially true of the smaller ones. On the Hawaiian Islands there are low central mountains with a windward and a leeward side. On the Island of Hawaii (about the size of Connecticut,) however, we have many Bioregions. Our mountains start in the subtropics and rise through temperate, alpine and eventually polar regions on the summits where we get snow. At 4267 M (14,000') above sea level and 8534 M (28,000') below sea level, they are the highest mountains on earth. We also have a windward and leeward side which are as different as rain forest (Hilo) to desert (Kona). The Volcanic areas and almost extra-terrestrial in their habitats. It is Earth in its rawest newest form with all of the original minerals and gases still entrapped. One can grow sizeable plants in fresh cinder. It self-fertilizes for about 2 years from the nutrients with which it was formed."}, {"response": 5, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (19:22)", "body": "or we gonna talk about riparian life zones, too?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (20:07)", "body": "I sure hope so - you live in a riverine world in Austin. I hope you are going to be my source for information of the riparian sort. Is that Colorado River in Austin part of \"The\" Colorado? Anything descriptive, including the elusive and endangered Barton Springs reptile would greatly be appreciated. (We are pathetically river-challenged...one in Hilo is only 20 feet long!)"}, {"response": 7, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Jul 25, 1999 (23:52)", "body": "can we talk about climax vegetation, too?"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (00:10)", "body": "Good idea...shall you or shall I?"}, {"response": 9, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (00:22)", "body": "doesn't anyone else want to join in?"}, {"response": 10, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (08:35)", "body": "somebody tell me what climax vegetation is!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (20:40)", "body": "This is as good a place to check climax vegetation, and the place from which I took the following definition. http://www.neonet.nl/ceos-idn/datasets/NPSYNP_VEG_POTENTIAL_CLIMAX.html \"A habitat type is a set of environmental conditions (temperature, moisture, light, mineral nutrient availability, disturbance frequency, and others) that appears repeatedly across the landscape. Plant species are suited to indicate a site's location in environmental space because they integrate all the environmental factors as well as the interactions among factors. Plants with narrow tolerance limits of their ecological requirements can be used as indicators of the occurrence of those particular conditions. Thus the plant community is a good indirect indicator of a site's position in environmental space. Habitat types can be combined with similar types into larger groups, called series. Habitat types are named after the climax plant community that would develop on that site after sufficient passage of time. Two species are used in the name. The first is a species with a broad ecological tolerance that dominates the climax community. The second is a species with more specific requirements that indicates the particular place in environmental space that the habitat type occupies. \""}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (21:14)", "body": "On Mauna Kea at timberline, there is scant water and even less vegetation. What little there is falls into two categories: imported species which grow anywhere it can put down seeds, and the Mamane tree which feeds the Palila bird. Both are on the endangered species list, as is the SilverSword, because it does not live any place else on earth. Those are the upper and lower limits of climax vegetation for that particular place. Each bioregion has its own particular upper and lower species types, includ ng your back yard!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (10:03)", "body": "so a species like the mamane tree could not be introduced into similar environs to help repopulate it? (such as louisiana?)"}, {"response": 14, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (12:58)", "body": "I am trying to grow a garden in the Algarve (south of Portugal)with plants, if not indigenous to it, at least that might find it a congenial place. Wolf's question is one I would like to see answered - so I could extrapolate."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:11)", "body": "First consideration is the latitude of the place you want to plant your mamane tree. That mountain is almost 14,000 feet high (4267 M) and for each hundred feet in elevation you procede north 10 degrees in latitude. (I think that is the proportion - will check when I am more awake). Thus, at 10,000 ft (4048 M)you are in the sub arctic. It will not work. It is too hot and way too wet and warm for the Mamane tree in Lousiana."}, {"response": 16, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:59)", "body": "(Wolf) one thing folks can do to help out their local ecosystems is to plant native vegetation I deeply agree....and you don\ufffdt necessarily need to plant it, it will come to you if you give it a chance and if you cherish it when it does. I\ufffdm trying to keep a garden where the natural vegetation can live its life side by side with things I\ufffdve planted but it\ufffds really not very simple if you want it to look good too and not just a wild mess of everything everywhere! But slowly I\ufffdm learning how to do it, like leaving space for the natural growth in the right places. The result is beautiful and what\ufffds more, animals come with the plants: hedgehogs, rabbits, frogs, birds, butterflies, bumblebees, beetles. Space and love for every species like in Eden!! :-)"}, {"response": 17, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (14:05)", "body": "I'm just sorry we can't have the ecosystem without the beetles..."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (14:37)", "body": "Gi, Dear, in the tropics we have every creepy crawlie there is aside from snakes, and they like to share your dwelling as well. Beetles help make compost so they are beneficial (yes, and they love Roses, too.) Here, we have to keep vigilance a high priority since a good many of our plants, birds and insects live no where else on Earth, and they have evolved not defenses against aggressive newcomers. It is only recently that the department of agriculture has taken a strong stand on what can and cannot be brought into Hawaii."}, {"response": 19, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (14:37)", "body": "Oh, I like beetles, Gi. I also take close-up pics of them, am planning to document the flora & fauna in my yard by photographing all the native species. And I forgot to mention spiders, I\ufffdm happy of every spider I encounter.....recently watched daily how a big one skillfully tended her hundreds of kids in a nest that she had woven in a branch of a flower."}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (14:41)", "body": "Spiders are neat. They eat the pests in your garden and are very good parents. We have cane spiders over here which are large enough and fuzzy enough to skin for a fur coat. I repect these, but I do not like them in my house! *shudder*"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (14:47)", "body": "Elena, I'd love one of your photos for in here as a bioregion most different from what I can relate to. I love your idea of making your yard into native species. Everything will benefit and you are allowed to feel very good about it. Any boulders in there?"}, {"response": 22, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (14:48)", "body": "And the cleaner the air is that you breathe the more happy, fat spiders there are around you! A good indicator of what\ufffds happening, they\ufffdre very sensitive to air pollution."}, {"response": 23, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (14:56)", "body": "(Marcia) spiders which are large enough and fuzzy enough to skin for a fur coat. NEVER heard of this before. Are you sure it\ufffds not just a legend???"}, {"response": 24, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (17:42)", "body": "haha!! elena, i think she's seen them with her own eyeballs *grin* marcia, do post a pic! elena, i don't think i'd get too many animals in my yard (suburban, fenced) but the birds! i have hummer feeders all around my house and use a home made syrup and they come! they're so neat!!! and i have bird feeders and lots of birds. they empty out one of the feeders in a day anyway, i love seeing them."}, {"response": 25, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (11:53)", "body": "Please take no offence, but I'm removing myself from this topic! (shudder) See you around in the others!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (14:12)", "body": "Bioregions do not require spiders. (*shudder* Indeed!) What is growing on your beaches? Elena, we have Wolf spiders here (Cane spiders they are called locally) and they get as large as a child's outstretched hand. Tarentulas as another thing entirely. I have seen them out west in the US and you could saddle one of those furry buggers and ride them!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "Elena", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (14:56)", "body": "you could saddle one of those furry buggers and ride them! Hee hee, I\ufffdm sure you could!! Hope somebody took a photo!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (15:47)", "body": "wolf spiders here as well. and i love garden spiders, you know, the big longlegged green and yellow gals!!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (15:56)", "body": "Argiope. Golden Garden Spiders are lovely indeed. Mine are my weather prognostigators. When they move in under the eaves I know there is a storm coming. They are never wrong!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (15:59)", "body": "Elena....uh...no! I do not like them well enough to get that close. Anything that big I do not cozy up to - especially if it has fangs and 8 legs."}, {"response": 31, "author": "Elena", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (12:13)", "body": "Dear Wolf, where on Earth are you? What about fangs & four legs, Marcia? We\ufffdre having a hysterical bear hunting discussion here in Finland right now because bears are getting more numerous and have actually killed a few people plus scared some others out of their wits. Bears used to be holy animals for Finns a couple of hundred years ago but modern people can\ufffdt stand the idea of having to be afraid of something when they go to pick berries etc."}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (13:09)", "body": "Elena, i'm in NW Louisiana (not Nawlin's). The bears' habitats must be dwindling and their fear of humans is being overruled by hunger. poor dears. i'm sorry folks were killed by them. does finland have any game reserves or something like that where animals can be protected and still have a habitat to survive in? (not a zoo) there are some places in the NE US that slaughter wolves when their numbers rise too high. i don't agree with it but understand it. wolves get a bad rap anyway."}, {"response": 33, "author": "Elena", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (15:01)", "body": "No, Wolf, the bears\ufffd habitats aren\ufffdt dwindling really, the trouble is that they like it in Finland and get on very well! There was a time when they were hunted so efficiently that they almost disappeared but now they are returning. I just don\ufffdt like hunting and I hate all this bloodthirsty beast hype. You see, most of this country is forest and more bears (and wolves) keep coming across the border from Russia. Bears are naturally very shy and quiet when they\ufffdre alone but if you\ufffdre unlucky enough to meet a female with cubs, you\ufffdre in trouble."}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (15:32)", "body": "Alas, Man's fear of anything he thinks encroaches on his \"freedom\" (read: what he wants for himself without regard for anyone or anything else) is bad and thus must be eliminated. I believe four-legged fanged things have as much right here as I do. I try to stay out of their homes and I hope devoutly that they will remain out of mine!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (17:47)", "body": "yup, folks need to be properly educated about the predators coming over from russia or anywhere and what to do to protect oneself. bears can usually be frightened off by aggression on the victim's part (or just acting crazy). however, a mom and cubs is something else altogether. as i believe most creatures are. there are more humane options available to control population, such as birth control. which is practiced up north somewhere where deer seem to live in people's yards and cities. i have no problems with hunting as long as it's done for the purpose of sustinence. not for the glory."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (18:32)", "body": "And, I don't want part of the poor animal on my floor or on my wall, thank you!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (18:41)", "body": "me, either!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (18:50)", "body": "Great! I'm glad I found this thread. I took two classes on this topic. Two of my closest friends have a web page that you can find listed on my web page. Their names are Teri and Steve. My web page is http://members.delphi.com/DAWNIS/index.html I have listed a number of friend's sites at mine that you might find interesting and or curious or odd or just plain laughable depending on your point of view. My friend Alex, who does RavenWoods has tons of links in his site that can lead to environmental issues among many other things..."}, {"response": 39, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (18:53)", "body": "cool, more links!!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (18:58)", "body": "Yeh but I can't emember how to bookmark this site for easy access. Dang."}, {"response": 41, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (19:05)", "body": "ok, you can do one of two things: 1. go to favorites, add favorites, type in a name and that's it. 2. go to bookmarks, add bookmark and that's it"}, {"response": 42, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (19:17)", "body": "\"go to favorites,\" well I kinda figured that. (grin) Like how? Also be sure and check out the Trufax site it has incredible links by some well known authors."}, {"response": 43, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (19:19)", "body": "When I posted it at Orenda...everyone disappeared for a while"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (19:27)", "body": "Welcome to Geo! ...that happens a lot, but they will come back!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (19:34)", "body": "Dawnis, thanks for the links - will be going there. If you are in Netscape use Control+D to Bookmark."}, {"response": 46, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (19:38)", "body": "No...let me clarify.... they fell into the Trufax zone and it took em a while to come back to the planet. It is truely an amazing site. Sorry about the last few short posts.... my 4 month old grandbaby was trying to climb me like a mountain while I held her. (grin) Now if I can just figure out how to add this to my hot list I will come back..... I have been looking around and can't find how to add it to my favorites. Duh! I feel dumb."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (19:42)", "body": "what are you using for a browser? (and, do you prefer to be called Debra or Dawnis?)"}, {"response": 48, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (20:11)", "body": "click on all the stuff at the top (actually, just set your pointer over them) and you should be able to find something. if that doesn't work, use the help file. and what browser you're using would be helpful (i.e., netscape, internet explorer)"}, {"response": 49, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (21:47)", "body": "I am using Netscape and I answer to either."}, {"response": 50, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (22:03)", "body": "I got it finally! I may be slow but I get there eventually. It is on my hot list."}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (09:06)", "body": "good!!"}, {"response": 52, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (11:34)", "body": "I took a class on BioDiversity. One of the most important concepts we covered was Key Species. In studies of vioregions it was discoved that certain species were key in the survival of that region. If they disappeared that whole bioregion collapsed. It's the food chain thing, plus environmetal needs. The burning question during this was...when we alter in any way a bioregion how do we know which of the species is critical to the survival of the rest of the inhabitant? At what point do we start a whi h will leak into the surrounding regions which are interconnected and create a dominoe effect that make have widespread ramifications that could be devasting to humanity?"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (12:35)", "body": "Key Species is the heart of the matter. In some Bioregions, it is so fragile that just one individual species holds that distinction, whereas more hearty and vigorous bioregions will support far greater loss before they succumb. But, as you say, they are all interconnected and we cannot afford a domino effect on that scale. We are part of it, like it or not!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (12:43)", "body": "there's some place that the key species seems to be frogs. some of the rarer species are just disappearing. \"civilized\" man has yet to learn to live in harmony."}, {"response": 55, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (16:02)", "body": "Most people cannot create harmony in their own personal lives. Why should their inability to live in harmony elsewhere surprise you? It takes daily effort to keep our personal lives flowing in harmony. I believe the journey starts with ourselves. Create the harmony within and it will radiate out. In my own life...that is the hardest thing to do...mainly because I am hard pressed to have my basic needs met. Because of recent physical ailments I spend a lot of time in this space because I can't afford to run around and join in the actual fray. I hope that by being in here I can at least hone my understanding and hopefully get people thinking. They don't have to agree as long as they think. Many people on the lower end of the economic scale seem to be apathetic when in reality they have their hands full just surviving."}, {"response": 56, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (16:21)", "body": "agree with the harmony within self to create harmony without. it surprises me mostly because i love the natural things in this world and it's hard for me to understand why others don't or won't....afterall, we're a product of it and it would make sense that to destroy it we destroy ourselves....i don't understand your reference to lower economic scale and how that affects ones' ability to create harmony....."}, {"response": 57, "author": "Elena", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (06:57)", "body": "(Debra) I believe the journey starts with ourselves. Create the harmony within and it will radiate out. Yes......I daily wonder why so many people seem to cause destruction and death in their natural environment where ever they are. My usual explanation to this is that you do what\ufffds been done to you, and your environment looks like you do inside. It flourishes or looks ailing and dying. But it\ufffds not easy to create harmony within if it hasn\ufffdt been encouraged and cherished right from the beginning. I used to watch the neighbor kids who liked to chase and catch small animals like insects and lizards and make them suffer, just like they chased and bullied each other. Once I said to one of them that a lizard is unhappy and will die if it\ufffds kept in captivity in a can without food. The poor kid stared at me with sincere amazement."}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2036 (04:41)", "body": "It all goes back to parenting. Babies are clean slates and either they learn the right respect for all living things from loving parents, or they learn the pack mentality from their peers who have also not been properly taught. We have a generation appreaching adulthood without the slightest care about anything but \"what's in it for me?\" Good for you, Elena, for kindly and gently letting one child know the ramifications of his actions."}, {"response": 59, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (19:25)", "body": "I wonder if there is a sociological equivalent of biological magnification...hmmm..."}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (19:54)", "body": "Good point...hmmm...(pondering)"}, {"response": 61, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (21:02)", "body": "*emulating the thinker*"}, {"response": 62, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (22:29)", "body": "*Rodan?*"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (22:44)", "body": "Rodin, and a most awkward position. Elbow is on the wrong knee! (Oh yes, there is a less well-known Sam Rodan statue in the Loover somewhere in Brooklyn!)"}, {"response": 64, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (23:09)", "body": "I thought I had spelled it wrong...more like one of Godzilla's buddies..."}, {"response": 65, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (23:43)", "body": "Wolf My reference was in regards to peoples priorities...If you are in the lower economic scale your priorities are to keep food on the table and a roof over your head. Things like car problems create extra stess becuaw you are already hard pressed to survive. When you mind is consumed with survival issues there is little time to think about the bigger picture. Our society keeps it's middle class yearning for that newer bigger better car-house-wardrobe.... Credit cards put many of those thing within reach but the price tag is that we are tied into paying off that privalege. That is fine and dandy until something happens and you end up unable to work due to some calamity in your life...then suddenly you are in a hole trying to dig your way out.... It becomes a viscious cycle that holds you prisoner to the system and by the time you get free time...most people don't want to be bothered by bigger issues They watch the news which tells them what the *key issues* of the moment are...(according to corporate America) These issues do not include information on the desicration of the planet because that would be counter productive to their agenda. I took an ethic's class and we spent some time discussing the way people were made to be fearful of all things wild. It was beneficial to do so because it allowed the justification of destroying these things. If wild things are dangerous...then they need to be tamed. One of my neighbors decided that I was a bad mother because I take my children camping in the mountains without a gun to protect us from the wild animals. I laughed at him and told him my children were in more danger from humans than wild animals. This made him furious. He offer to let me watch his film \"Wild Animal Attacks.\" I told him to turn on the news. We do not take care of things we fear...we destroy them. We tend to place no value on things we do not understand. MarciaH: Yes we can teach our children to care about these things but the peer pressure is hard to combat. I love to garden and I taught my (now 24 year old) son to respect nature. He would let bees land on him and walk around on his bare arms because I taught him that these creatures would not harm him unless he did something to make them feel threatened. He never got bitten until the kid next door engaged him in attacking and destroying ant hills and wasp nests. He now takes people on rafting trips and insists that they not burn plastic wrappers but pack them out."}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (00:05)", "body": "My 37 year old son is an Environmental Geologist who cleans up waste from the ground and breaks it down into harmless chemicals or burns off the small residue through many filtered chimneys. Mine, like yours, would rather be out hiking in the woods or be on Flow front duty at an eruption than in an office to which he has to drive a polluting machine. (Yes, William, I realized that, but I could not leave two ladies pondering and thinking like a statue and have a giant lizard attack us without your protection. I knew you'd understand...and keep Rodan under control *hugs*)"}, {"response": 67, "author": "Elena", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (03:48)", "body": "(Debra) When you mind is consumed with survival issues there is little time to think about the bigger picture. Big social problems like economic, educational and sexual inequality cause terrible environmental problems, we all know what sort of catastrophes they have caused all around the world and one of them of course is human overpopulation. So, what we do to each other is also reflected to what happens to the environment. But environmental awareness is also a cultural thing and I know a lot of people in the low economic scale who are very much aware of their environmental responsibility. They definitely spend and destroy less than the wealthy people next door and are proud of it."}, {"response": 68, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (10:39)", "body": "debra: that wild animal attacks thing is hilarious. and by this i mean that people don't realize that they are the cause of the attack whether they know it or not. wild animals don't make a habit out of attacking people!! there are wealthy individuals out there who use their status to help with environmental awareness and there are individuals out there on the poverty level who also develop environmental awareness. no, i don't think we can stipulate class as having more or less love of their habitats. the key is education. and i'm not talking about going to college and getting your phd in conservation either."}, {"response": 69, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (13:04)", "body": "Both of you are right...of course there are always excptions to the rule. But making the exceptions the basis upon which we make statements doesn't help us understand what we are up against. Ex: I took a class in Political Feminist Theory. During the feminist movement, White women were trying to recruit Black women into the movement and were shooked when they were not interested in the fight for women's rights when they had their hands full just tryng to pull their families up into the middle and upper class. The Black women who were fighting their way out of poverty, thought the White women were a bunch of cry babies. Were there exceptions to the rule? Sure. When we go into areas like the rain forests where suddenly the indigenous people are making enough moeny to take care of their families taking out the rainforests....and we tell them...don't cut down the rain forests because...do you think they are going to be sympathetic to our reasoning? Are there indigenous people who understand...sure. Especially if they are working with the Ethnobiologist who teaches them why they should be concerned...and perhaps some of the elders. Wolf: I agree...the incident was funny...but media portrays the wilds as a place hostile to humans. Think about the movies you have seen since you were a child about humans in the wilderness being chased by packs of wolves...attacked by bears...bitten by rattlesnakes. For those of us who have spent the time in wilderness areas, we know the chances of getting into an auto accident are much more likely. I have run into a mountain lion while hiking and bears...they run as fast in the opposite direction as you do. (grin)"}, {"response": 70, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (14:58)", "body": "i can see what you're saying, debra, why should they worry about other things that seem trivial compared to what they deal with day to day. what any of us have the potential of dealing with or have dealt with. i don't know much about the feminist movement because the term feminist is offensive to me. i understand and appreciate the theory (of course, i can vote and work) but i don't understand the extremists. unfortunately, they are the ones that instill the stereotype of the term. (just like the random elephant attack makes everyone afraid of elephants) education and making folks aware of their home space is the key in understanding their ecosphere. which is why i spend time filling bird feeders and planting vegetation to invite them in. as a family with pets, we instill into our children the respect required in living together which will hopefully carry on into their years as they learn to live with other people and this planet called earth. they know to save their plastic ice cream and pudding containers because we can use them to start seedlings. wh n they no longer serve that function, we'll send them off with the other recycled products. so it starts right under our noses whether we like it or not."}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (15:54)", "body": "Amen, Wolfie! If you don't succeed, it is not because you did not try. BTW, I agree whole-heartedly with your view on feminism (a truly offensive name!) I am afraid the radicals in that group, as in any pro-active group, have taken the entire movement in the wrong direction - so much so that I have found myself defending against them and their ideas."}, {"response": 72, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (16:01)", "body": "It is not the extremists who instill the steriotype. It is the media. They hand picked the most extreme group to put before the camera. They played on these women's vanity and tooted their horn. Most of the feminist I knew were women who believed that the violence perpetrated against women and children had the same source as the violence perpetrated against the planet. They did not want to rule, but to empower. It is hard to raise healthy children in an unhealthy world. Power-with as opposed to power-over. I believe we start the seeds at home for a better world...when I write here I am, in essence, just casting seed for further thought. To think that we will all someday totally agree on everything is crazy making...but if we can get people to think beyond their comfort zone....well... who knows. I love the differences that people bring to the table...it pushes my envelope to try and see it through their eyes. My friends do not all think the way I do...thank goodness...we have wonderful discussions as a result. The fact that we disagree does not make either of us bad or evil...they are loving people with different backgrounds and belief systems. Viva La Difference! (sp?) We can view those differences as threatening or as the spice of life. (grin)"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (16:11)", "body": "La Difference is what makes Hawaii such a special place in which to live and raise children."}, {"response": 74, "author": "Elena", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (16:27)", "body": "(Wolf) i don't know much about the feminist movement because the term feminist is offensive to me. Wolf, why is the term feminist offensive to you? And what do you mean with extremists? I call myself a feminist, definitely......but I have heard that there is a very different sound to this famous word in different countries. In Finland we don\ufffdt talk much about womens\ufffd rights nowadays although maybe we should for instance because women still earn less than men and thus have less say in the society. There are still strong structures that try to keep women as second class citizens and this has its negative effects to everything else, in societies and environment everywhere. Over here the current ethical discussion is about the rights of animals actually. A young girl recently got a severe punishment for stealing dogs from a laboratory where they were used as test animals. A lot of studies, books and articles have been made about this question these days. My personal decision is not to eat meat because I can\ufffdt stand the idea of cattle suffering and being slaughtered because of me!"}, {"response": 75, "author": "Elena", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (16:48)", "body": "that the violence perpetrated against women and children had the same source as the violence perpetrated against the planet. Amen, Debra!! Btw it\ufffds interesting to know that feminish is such a bad word in America! But I\ufffdm very sad if the media has succeeded to turn women against the whole idea. After all it\ufffds simply the question of equal rights as human beings reagrdless of sex."}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (18:07)", "body": "Testosterone Poisoning"}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (18:14)", "body": "we are born with equal rights, in my eyes. i never thought i couldn't do anything because of my sex. it's the fact that other people think it shouldn't be this way and are allowed to make decisions that affect everyone. the fact is, we let them a long time ago. we've always had a voice but we chose not to use it and if we used it, we let them wipe it out. i'm sorry, but i don't believe in blame. that does not fix anything. violence comes from the same place no matter where or to whom it's directed. people need to realize that it's a choice that is made. not something that happens and not because so and so did it and we've always dealt with things in this way. am not trying to argue with anyone so please don't take it that way. *hugs*"}, {"response": 78, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (18:14)", "body": "marcia, you snuck in before me!"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (18:18)", "body": "Wolf dear, it's just one of those little perks I have as World Builder of this Conference...;D"}, {"response": 80, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (20:14)", "body": "Marcia, dear, great discussion!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (20:21)", "body": "I'm sorry Wolf but I disagree. A a woman who was once a female child...(wasn't that profound) I can tell you we are not all born with equal rights. I had to fight tooth and nail to be taken seriously because I was a \"dumb blonde\" with big tits. At work my co-workers male and female insisted I got accounts because of how I looked. I was a very modest person and did not let it all hang out. In fact as a singer I wanted to know if I really had talent so I dressed in tent dresses and refused to wear makeup. If diagnosing a problem is accessing blame then why don't we call it that when the engineer tells us there is a crack in the dam created by faulty workmanship? Or when a doctor says he has a fractured skull caused by hitting his head on the windshield? That answer in my oppinion (grin) is a cop out. You never hear people say, he got the job because he is well hung. If a woman is agressive on the job she is a bitch...when a man is agressive...he is a real go getter, assertive. Careful...if there is reincarnation and you come back to understand things you didn't get in this lifetime you may come back as a woman. I wonder what tune you would sing then? (Big lopsided smile)"}, {"response": 82, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (20:40)", "body": "(Wolf)we are born with equal rights, in my eyes. i never thought i couldn't do anything because of my sex. I'm in agreement. Though the word 'feminist' is not so offensive to me, I find it unnecessary, because I have always considered myself equal. It never occured to me that being a woman placed limitations on me, despite the fact that I was born and grew up in a country where males control everything. I always thought that whatever I wanted could be mine if I chose to work for it, and I suppose I must thank my parents for that. I find that though people may have a certain way of thinking, the realities of li e may influence the practice of those beliefs. For example, in my country (Honduras) a lot of men think that women who work outside of the home can get \"corrupted\", but the truth is that a considerable portion of the labor force (I have no exact figure at hand) is female, simply because economic conditions demand it. I think that concerning environmental issues, education and cultural priorities are the key. In Honduras there is a small but active environmental movement, but it is extremely difficult to change people's perceptions, and things like disposing of trash in the nearest empty lot, driving cars that smoke, letting domestic animals die of curable diseases, and kicking the random stray dog for fun are (sadly and shamefully) part of every day life (not mine, I hasten to add). Most people think the treatment tha animals get here in the U.S. and simple respect for nature, are luxuries and trivial concerns of people who have nothing better to do. I don't know what has to happen to change those views."}, {"response": 83, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (21:28)", "body": "well, debra, i'm not trying to argue with you, dear...you said you enjoyed hearing other's points of view. let's remember that we're all from different backgrounds. i grew up in a very strict household and didn't even have boobs til my daughter was born (the second of my children). perhaps if i explain that i was a military brat and am currently with the air force, you would understand why i feel no threat to my standing based on sex. they tried that with me when i first enlisted. (the fellow airmen). bu i proved to them that i wasn't afraid to get dirty. in fact, some of my male coworkers were afraid to break a sweat. now that's sad. i revel in the fact that i am a woman. i work directly for my commander now and it's not because i look good in skirts. it's because i went to the desert and worked my a-- off right along with the men. hey, maybe because i'm ugly, you'd say, or that i'm brunette and have small boobs and have a few pounds on my hips, i don't care. i know i earned the place where i'm at becau e i worked for it. and truthfully, don't have time to worry about whether they look at me differently because i'm a woman and not a man. debra, when i refer to accessing blame i don't mean that an individual didn't die from their injuries. the kind of blame i'm refering to is not taking responsibility for self and allowing the other's to be the cause of all of one's problems. yes, i had a bad childhood, but its not my parents fault that i'm timid. it is my nature. and i have chosen not to repeat the mistakes i've endured. it would be easy for me to sit here and say \"oh mom didn't love me enough so screw it, that's why i can't get a promoti n\". oh, that man over there only promoted me because i had coffee with him when we were first introduced and he remarked that he liked my dress. yes, it's his fault. i only got the job because i let my breasts hang low and slept with the boss. hello! i'm not saying to you that women are treated completely as equals. i can't say that that's completely possible. men and women are made differently. however, we can, as equals, work together intelligently. please don't think that i am condoning the fact that omen are payed less then men. that is not my take at all. debra, sweetie, i understand what you're saying, so please try to understand what i'm saying. in no way is it my intention to fight for who's right. this matter is not black and white. i have learned that everything depends. depends on this or that, etc. if you feel that we are arguing, please email me and we can discuss it further. well, i'm just a wolf who lives in the woods, anyway *hugs to all*"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (21:55)", "body": "...and, lest anyone wonder, Wolf is a Lady with a capital L."}, {"response": 85, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (22:18)", "body": "I am not arguing either. I thought these areas were for discussing issues. That takes at least two people throwing out ideas. I try to throw in grins and smiles to show that I am ejoying the discussion and not angry. I have been told that because of the way I write it comes off as too forceful. I write with the same passion I feel for life. I think it is pretty funny.... I thought all this time you were a male. I too was an Airforce brat for part of my life. Dad was a military scientist in Aerospace. I have not allowed attitudes of males stop me from doing what I wanted and I agree that we cannot blame the past for where we are today in most cases. However there are things from our past that do have an impact on us, that we at times have very little control on. I was adopted when I was ten...I have no memory of the abuse I was put through up till the time I was 7, but it sure came back to kick me in later life...Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Since I found my natural family I have been able to validate the severity of the abuse. We are a product of many aspects of our lives...genetics...emvironment, social settings, economics, to name a few, if one of those aspects is damaged it alters our life. Just as in a bioregion if the key species is taken out the whole bioregion can collapse. It is all interconnected, why should we mentally as humans be any differnt? I know that as a child I was very outgoing (from talking to my natural family) I ended up being very shy. As I got older, my original personality emerged again, but was lost again during the PTSD attacks. It is in the discussing of issues that we find the commonalities and perhaps find information we would never have gotten otherwise, because time does not allow us to experience everything in life. My life has been an interesting saga of economic peaks and valleys (partially due to the undiagnosed PTSD) If undue stress is placed on a bone it becomes damaged or broken...without proper treatment it may never function properly again. If a farmer takes all the nutients out of the soil, his crops will fail can the soil be repaired...in time sure. Our body, is in essence a bioregion. If one area is damaged it changes the course of our lives...does it mean we will necesarilly fail? Of course not. It means we may get there a little slower or may need some assistance to do so. If a child is told you are smart all their lives and praised for their achievements, they tend to get what they desire easier than the child who had to overcome being told they would never amount to anything. Does it mean the child who was not encouraged will not get there? Some will and some may be so damaged they never get out of that negative space. Why? That is the million dollar question. Let's figure it out so we can claim our million dollars. (hugs back)"}, {"response": 86, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  2, 1999 (08:29)", "body": "what? there's money involved? *grin*"}, {"response": 87, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Mon, Aug  2, 1999 (09:40)", "body": "Sure it starts with...A penney for your thoughts....(giggle)"}, {"response": 88, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  2, 1999 (10:02)", "body": "well, heck, i should be a millionare by now!! drats, if only i knew i could charge for that..... i found a plant that doesn't work too well in my bioregion: fuschia. the darned thing has all but give out on me. she is shaded and well fed. all her leaves died but her branches were still green. i trimmed her back and am waiting. oh, i shoulda put this in gardening, eh?"}, {"response": 89, "author": "dawnis", "date": "Mon, Aug  2, 1999 (10:37)", "body": "Nope you are right your plant is a bioregion.... figuring out if it needs more light or less...top watering or from the roots is a part of sustaining it's health and happiness. The human condition is much the same. How do we integrate all our needs into a healthy environment. Individual needs: A Jade plant needs more sun and less water. Many plants like Ficus can do well without lots of sun. Coomonality: They all add beauty to their surroundings but need some degree of food, water, sunshine. I think too often we use our own lives as the gage for everone elses needs. In my activist work I saw this happen a lot. Especially when we were forming the Green Party. I kept asking how are we going to design a political party that meets the needs of the whole state. We have rivers that flow through our desert state and those areas that have developed around these water sources have very specific needs. Ranchers who graze cattle on the desert have others. People living in the mountian areas have their own special needs. In the city of Albuquerque and surrounding suburbs alone all of these bioregions are part of the dynamics. Plus the added needs of the inner city plus all the up scale and mid. scale and down scale neighborhoods. How do we find a way to govern the specific needs of each of these bioregions? Have you ever noticed that the person who offers you a penny for your thoughts seldom comes up with the penney? (giggle)"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  2, 1999 (11:47)", "body": "The fuchsia here do not like wet feet and they like cool filtered shade (they thrive at the 6,000' level on Kilauea on the verges of the tree fern forests. Perhaps potted, you could regulate drainage better? Don't know what you can do about the \"cool\" part, though."}, {"response": 91, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  2, 1999 (18:57)", "body": "marcia, she is potted and have found that she has to be watered regularly (as in everyday) to keep her from wilting. there does seem to be water standing in the saucer. think i'll go remove that and see what happens."}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  2, 1999 (19:40)", "body": "Ok, and move her to the breeziest corner of mixed shade you have."}, {"response": 93, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  2, 1999 (21:29)", "body": "that is where she is, under my neighbors live oak tree (the part that's in my yard) and facing north. there was a lot of yellowing and black spot looking stuff on her leaves all the time, too. i didn't treat it as i really didn't know what it was."}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  2, 1999 (21:57)", "body": "Do you fertilize her regularly? Will get out my books and see what they say about the spotting problem."}, {"response": 95, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (02:30)", "body": "(Marcia)Testosterone Poisoning I see you\ufffdve moved on from feminism to fuschia but I just need to say something to that snap of yours, Marcia!! I think that feminism is the most important part of modern humanism AND one of the most important ideologies in saving this planet (with this I\ufffdm referring to overpopulation as the result of the lack of womens\ufffd education in developing countries). It\ufffds tragic if the media has made this ideology look like it\ufffds hostile to men or that equality means similarity or whatever bullsh**. That\ufffds a terrible misunderstanding but I know why it has happened, every ideology has it\ufffds history and feminism too had its aggressive youth. Feminism is not seen as a radical movement in Finland anymore because its ideas have been largely integrated to the Finnish society in legislation and research. I think only Sweden is ahead of us (a lot ahead!) what comes to the modernisation of laws and official attitudes. Nowadays even men do feministic research in universities here. Well, everyday life is still something else, women don\ufffdt easily get in high places in firms and politics, and sexual & domestic violence is usual. Btw I belong to a feministic society that gets money from the State to help raped & sexually abused women to get justice and therapy."}, {"response": 96, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (09:57)", "body": "Excuse me if I'm male and talk (again) out of my turn, but in daily life, feminism means what people put into it. Comparing e.g. the US-American women's rights movement, most noticeably the National Organization for Women (NOW), and the state the women's movement is in in some European countries, you could already fifteen years ago see that - at least within the movements and per their view upon the world - \"feminism\" in the states was more something of a cooperative aim, where women AND men were working for an idea they shared. In Middle Europe, this is still today not necessarily accepted. Feminist studies are an all-female science; many self-declared feminists of female gender are, huh, how to express politely, enthusiastic male-bashers (which - to me - constitutes a case of chauvinism, not feminism). Perhaps this has to do with the lack of nation-wide centralized organizations as NOW in Europe. I cannot see how we will develop our societies if all we do is alienating each other. Feminism does not equal gender suprematism, but many - male and female - interpret it this way, feeling attacked or legitimized to attack. Elena, how did Finland manage to get over this obstacle?"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (10:55)", "body": "Alexander, welcome! You never speak out of turn when you post in Geo. Free flow of ideas is what I am trying to encourage. This Male-bashing you mentioned - is it not another form of scape-goat thinking?"}, {"response": 98, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (11:03)", "body": "Not if you think men are the cause of the problem."}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (11:09)", "body": "Do they honestly think this is so? I rather doubt that these women who are twice my size could be backed-down by any male at any time. Individuals are responsible for their lives, not some nebulous Male agenda. My opinion, of course, but I would be happy to debate it any time. I am flexible and a thinker. I would be delighted to be enlightened!"}, {"response": 100, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (12:30)", "body": "i abhor bashing of any sort. it's ignorant and displays that fact loud and clear. i am all for abuse and rape therapy groups and would hope that men have an outlet as well. shamedly, this country is only now beginning to recognize the results of abuse for women let alone men. (or maybe that should be the other way around) i agree that feminism is shown in a bad light via the media which so likes to show the worst of everything no matter what the subject. women are a natural complement to men. each bring out the best and worst in each other. we let ignorance be our guide rather than really seeing things for what they are and then blaming everything on society. well, i ask, just who is this \"society\"? do they belong with the infamous \"them\" and \"they\"? or are WE the society? if we are, it is up to us to reshape it and we do 't have to be radical or fanatical to do it. we have to remember that the only people we can change is ourselves, which is key. to change society, we have to change ourselves by education and compassion. please note that compassion does not mean tolerance. of course, the ideas expressed in this post are simply my opinion. am not trying to pick a fight. just talking."}, {"response": 101, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (12:58)", "body": "(Alexander) but in daily life, feminism means what people put into it. Yep, in fact I\ufffdve always thought that Marcia is a feminist and I still do (hee hee) (Marcia) Individuals are responsible for their lives I do not think that individuals are fully responsible for their lives because we all are products of our cultures, upbringing and even direct ideologic manipulation. We are deeply indoctrinated and it takes a lot of intellectual energy and sometimes a lot of pain to be able to see how and why, and what are its causes in ourselves. (Alexander) I cannot see how we will develop our societies if all we do is alienating each other. Bingo! About male-bashing.....many feminists are understandably deeply bitter because or the terrible things that they have experienced because of their sex, or the terrible things that we all know are happening to millions of women in the world because they\ufffdre women, not people with human rights. I think most of active feminists go through that bitterness first, you just can\ufffdt open your eyes to facts without first reacting emotionally. It can take some blood, sweat, tears and braincells to realize that men really are victims of the same tradition and that individual men are not responsible for it! You just have to get over your bitterness to be able to do something positive about things."}, {"response": 102, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (13:13)", "body": "Thank you!"}, {"response": 103, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (13:29)", "body": "I should have been more explicit... Elena, thanks for pointing out \"that individual men are not responsible for it!\""}, {"response": 104, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (13:33)", "body": "You\ufffdre welcome, dear!"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (13:37)", "body": "Thank you Elena for not tarring the whole of masculinity with the same brush. Me? A feminist???!!! I never thought of me in that way...hmmmm..."}, {"response": 106, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (14:17)", "body": "But you are! Great, isn\ufffdt it?! Btw I\ufffdm not twice your size........you know very well that I\ufffdm definitely shorter than 6\ufffd1....."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (14:39)", "body": "Yes, m'dear...I do know exactly what you look like and you are looking at me right this moment, as a matter of fact (or vice versa!) Compared with the others in your picture - you are of average height, indeed!"}, {"response": 108, "author": "Elena", "date": "Wed, Aug  4, 1999 (03:09)", "body": "(Debra)when we were forming the Green Party. When was this? I think I haven\ufffdt heard of a Green party in the US. How successful has it been? There is a Green Party in Finland too and I think they have done ok.....but not well enough yet. They have 11 mandates in the Parliament (100 members in all) and nine of them are women. The minister of environment is also a female Green Party member and the leader of the party. (Alexander)Feminism does not equal gender suprematism, but many - male and female - interpret it this way, feeling attacked or legitimized to attack. Elena, how did Finland manage to get over this obstacle? I\ufffdm not saying that we managed to get over it. You just need to look at the tabloid papers to see that men feel more or less threatened and keep trying to put women down, especially strong female politicians. However it\ufffds pretty mild stuff. Everyday life and attitudes are one thing and the official equality policy is another but I don\ufffdt think they are too far from each other really. I think it\ufffds the question of culture, history, tradition and religion. Strong and decisive women are traditionally respected in the Nordic countries. Equality also seems to be easier in Lutheran countries than Catholic. Also, Finns love efficiency above anything else and as a small nation of 5 million people we need all the labour force we can get! Half of it is women nowadays and things like children\ufffds daycare have been arranged efficiently. Housewives practically don\ufffdt exist."}, {"response": 109, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Aug  4, 1999 (15:11)", "body": "But tango dancers do! I wish you could teach me tango! I wish I had more Finnish tango records - perhaps some Eino Gr\ufffdn, no? Perhaps that would help me see deeper through the inter-gender jungle... Much of what you said is very agreeable to me. And perhaps analysis would show men are victims, too - look at how in the Western world they are killed of by stress-related heart-conditions... Our parents prepare our men for what they think men should be, much as our parents do with girls. Perhaps both are not acting or living in certain ways because of their own free will, but social programming. Perhaps I should stop here, because there are enough people who would roast me for this heresy..."}, {"response": 110, "author": "Elena", "date": "Wed, Aug  4, 1999 (15:25)", "body": "(Alexander) I wish you could teach me tango! Hmmmm......online lessons perhaps??"}, {"response": 111, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug  4, 1999 (16:13)", "body": "hey, there's a place locally that teaches ballroom dancing. you know, if you could set up your lear jet we could get you in a class!"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  4, 1999 (16:41)", "body": "Tango lessons...what is next? *lol* After a ill-spent youth taking \"couth\" lessons to make me into a debutante (during which I learnt to tango and everything else socially acceptable), I declined the debut and ball...I have not tangoed since. Let us know how the European connection is doing with it in the far north. I am much intrigued. Shall I perhaps create (or you do it, Alexander!) a new topic for you?"}, {"response": 113, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (03:35)", "body": "Thank you, Marcia, but look at the Finland topic in Travel... Wolf, the jet's grounded for maintenance - for at least as it takes to pay last times bill! Elena - any which way you can! Maybe we discover a correlation between the Finnish's love for tango and gender equality? What role does male alcohol consumption play (or sausage, coffee and cider consumption in ole Dance Barns)? I think the whole matter is nothing to be so tight and hard about, but something fun and alive. Perhaps that is why I don't understand all the problems many folks have... nor do I understand my own too well, but then - I just a guy."}, {"response": 114, "author": "Elena", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (04:55)", "body": "(OT: Alexander, Reijo Taipale is my favourite tango singer....I\ufffdm sure you know Olavi Virta too??) Maybe we discover a correlation between the Finnish's love for tango and gender equality? Ha ha....that can be difficult. Tango is actually our only escape from the straightjacket of equality!;-) You can\ufffdt dance it properly without letting the male take the lead....or you can but that\ufffds another story. That\ufffds why I have to disappoint you, terrible truth is that I really can\ufffdt dance it well and whenever somebody asks me to dance it I have to refuse, I don\ufffdt want to trample on peoples\ufffd toes. Maybe Marcia could teach us both?"}, {"response": 115, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (06:21)", "body": "Aw, Elena, is this why you vanished from the ball (at the Finland topic in Travel)? That you cannot dance? I would have never noticed! Nor would have anybody there, because that is why the ladies have coffee and the men cider, right? Haven't heard Reijo Taipale yet, but Olavi Virta (have mentioned to you the German compilation with Finnish tango before?). Marcia, dancing teacher - Elena, I bet she could (and would, too!) - but the proper Finnish tango? I doubt that's en vogue in Hawaii... *************************** See, I guess the key is perhaps the fact that dancing together is not a powerplay, but based on a mutual agreement to achieve a common goal - here: enjoy each other. So, who cares who leads, if it is just a dance? Maybe there is something desireable in this - who cares who does what, as long as everybody is happy and the job gets done? Well, I realise this is what got us into the inequality mess we're in first place (shared labour/specialisation), but maybe we can use it also to turn it back... Focusing not on the labour-aspect, but the hedonistic side about it: \"You're not happy? What would make you happy? I can ask the band to play a different tune. Want a sausage? Some coffee?\", instead of \"You're dancing with me now, so DANCE, dammit! And SMILE, fer Pete's sake!\""}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (10:34)", "body": "Alexander is right, Elena, Dance with him and enjoy. The Hula and tango do not mix all that well, and you would not like a half-naked man stomping on your foot, would you?"}, {"response": 117, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (13:56)", "body": "that depends, hmmmm........"}, {"response": 118, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (14:03)", "body": "Tango dancing, is it? I know that Tango is the Finnish national dance... but don't know why. Is it more like ballroom tango or like Argentinian Tango? Alexander, hope you enjoy this ( I hope it works ):"}, {"response": 119, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (14:08)", "body": "Try again...( I promise to stop if it doesn't work )"}, {"response": 120, "author": "Elena", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (14:23)", "body": "Well I would like a half-naked man, not sure about the stomping. Depends! ;-) (Alexander) is this why you vanished from the ball Oh, it wasn\ufffdt me who vanished, YOU did, don\ufffdt you remember? But I\ufffdm ready to put the past behind us and look forward in life. dancing together is not a powerplay Kidding, I was kidding.......actually I can think of some situations where I have nothing against it that the man takes the lead. But the very best is when we can take the lead in turns with love and respect, without clinging to some fuc**** old roles that we didn\ufffdt create."}, {"response": 121, "author": "Elena", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (14:29)", "body": "Wow Gi, I had no idea that you dance that well!!! But who is that beautiful man?"}, {"response": 122, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (15:30)", "body": "I don't...His name is Jorge and hers is Nelida. They are Argentinian professional tango dancers."}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (16:32)", "body": "Back On Topic for a moment...there are most disturbing events taking place in some Bioregions. Read it and weap for the Children involved and for all of us who allow this to continue without expressing outrage. Please read this: (from Nan in Cultures 27) http://worldnews.about.com/library/weekly/aa072699.htm"}, {"response": 124, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (19:34)", "body": "that is horrid! (not the tango, the article)"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (22:08)", "body": "Yes..it most surely is. And, worse than that, I have no idea how to do anything about stopping it."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  5, 1999 (22:10)", "body": "Oh, and thank you, Wolf, for defending this country. With people like you on guard, perhaps this fate will not be that of our children."}, {"response": 127, "author": "Elena", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 1999 (00:35)", "body": "Well, since practically all pedophiles are men, should the charities only send women to work with children in catastrophe areas?"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 1999 (00:56)", "body": "Elena, that is too obvious. Alas, we need leaders at the top who are women who can enforce this. Look at our Commander in Chief...does not speak well for the safely of children anywhere. Run for high office, Dear. I'll go out and raise money and beat drums for you."}, {"response": 129, "author": "Elena", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 1999 (09:31)", "body": "Just recently visited a kindergarten where half of the staff were male. That\ufffds not yet very usual in Finland (but slowly increasing) and I saw that the parents of the kids felt a bit uneasy about it, like the fact that these big guys dress and undress babies and all the normal thing in baby care. When I talked about this to people I found very strong prejudices, as if any man who wants to work with small children was a pedophile automatically! Normal men have become suspects too."}, {"response": 130, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 1999 (12:56)", "body": "unfortunately, most pedophiles don't run around acting like they are. one way to curb them enlisting into charities is to run police checks. or to have a chaperone. no one person is allowed with the kids, at least two people all the time. of course, i can see the problem of both the individuals being a problem to the children. also, teaching the children what to report. you know? i know there are a ton of false reports but do it anyway!"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 1999 (13:12)", "body": "The image of those big guys undressing the little kids makes me feel really bad way deep down where I live."}, {"response": 132, "author": "Elena", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 1999 (13:59)", "body": "This is a terrible thing to talk about because the subject matter is one of the worst things that people do to each other, but that of course is no reason for not to talk about it. Here they\ufffdre testing in prisons with a drug that reduces the male sexual desire and ability considerably, chemical castration they call it. It has been tested in the US too with pretty optimistic results. Surprisingly, some pedophiles are actually willing to go through such a process because they sincerely want to get rid of their \ufffdproblem\ufffd that\ufffds ruining their own life too, as well as their victims\ufffd. One of them was interviewed in a paper saying that he sees it as his only chance in life because without it he\ufffdll inevitably return to crime as soon as he gets out. ********* Back to Tango: Gi, I remember now that it actually was the theme of your exhibition? Do I remember correctly?.....I can\ufffdt see if the pic you posted actually is a painting, not a photo."}, {"response": 133, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 1999 (14:48)", "body": "Did you people know that many pedophiles have a personal history of childabuse? Much as most drug addicts and prostitutes were abused as children, too... Incorporating the abuse and perpetually either repeating it on themselves (if in different form, but still), or pathologically reenact it on others. Here, you find a problem that defies free will, as the assaults create a programming the individual can hardly identify. All they know is they are \"driven\". And often, they suffer because of this tremendously."}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 1999 (14:53)", "body": "Is intensive therapy, as in psychiatric councelling, the answer?"}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 1999 (14:55)", "body": "And, Yes, I am aware of the guilt and sel-loathing that goes with these afflictions."}, {"response": 136, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 1999 (15:38)", "body": "yes, and many children who suffer child abuse don't grow up to be child abusers themselves. the chain HAS to stop somewhere and it's a CHOICE. (sorry, but this is a touchy subject with me and this is probably not the place to discuss it)."}, {"response": 137, "author": "Elena", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 1999 (15:40)", "body": "(Alexander) often, they suffer because of this tremendously. Often yes and often no but whatever the case, I\ufffdm not willing to feel much sympathy for them, in spite of the obvious fact that their problem is usually caused by similar experiences as kids. I hear that pedophilia is very difficult to cure with therapy, often simply because the criminal is unable to realize that he has done anything wrong."}, {"response": 138, "author": "Elena", "date": "Sat, Aug  7, 1999 (07:59)", "body": "this is a touchy subject with me Wolf, I feel for you. And I think this is a more or less touchy subject for everybody, for various reasons. But like you said earlier, we can try to stop it by being aware of it, talking to children about it and simply enforcing a strickt 0-tolerance attitude.....also in products like movies and advertising. I think the active public discussion and awareness about this started surprisingly late, in Finland it happened in the beginning of \ufffd80s. Before that it was pretty difficult to make anybody believe that things like this really happen and the police wasn\ufffdt too interested. Now the attitude is different and any reports are taken very seriously."}, {"response": 139, "author": "patas", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (08:36)", "body": "The truth is, when you push majority (i.e., coming of age) later in years, and show progressively younger children as desirable sexual objects in publicity campaigns ecc, you are going to have more and more trouble. Remember also that it was usual for classical (ancient) greeks to love young boys who had not grown a beard yet. I am not defending paedophilia, which disgusts me as it does you. Yes, Elena, Tango was indeed an exhibition topic, and the pic I posted is of one of my paintings. Good of you to remember! :-)"}, {"response": 140, "author": "Elena", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (13:48)", "body": "the pic I posted is of one of my paintings I see that you were too modest to mention this yourself first! And as an answer to your question earlier about Finnish tango (this really suits fine the Bioregions topic doesn\ufffdt it?!? :-), ordinary people dance it everywhere, for example tonight in the local shabby dance restaurants in this smalltown. The most popular singers in Finland are usually tango singers, and their career often starts at a huge tango festival in a city called Seinajoki where people do the tango round the clock for days. For many people this is a real must yearly. You should come and see, you\ufffdd certainly paint a little different sort of tango paintings after that!"}, {"response": 141, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (17:56)", "body": "Haven't been here for a week and there wer 96 messages! Interesting discussion: feminism, tango, pedophiles, and Japanese movie monsters. ;-) Seriously though I would have a few comments on the current perception of feminism and how much of it relates to one's age. Having watched the trailblazers in action in my formative years, I have nothing but respect for what they accomplished in changing our society. Galls me when I see younger women boast that they are not feminists and want to have nothing to do with them. Most don't recognize that they wouldn't be in the positions they have without those women. As always, they haven't a clue as to he way it was before. Sad. I shall try to stay more current and get a book on Learning to Tango. :-)"}, {"response": 142, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (18:09)", "body": "you know, i'd love to take tango lessons but unfortunately, my husband has two left feet and no sense of rhythm...haha! i don't think it'd look the same doing it by myself!!!!"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (18:25)", "body": "Sorrow not! Look where my tango lessons got me. No one does it here unless a travelling dance troupe is making the rounds of the community concert series!"}, {"response": 144, "author": "Elena", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (02:32)", "body": "younger women boast that they are not feminists and want to have nothing to do with them Well I\ufffdm very happy if there\ufffds no need for young women to be feminists!! That\ufffds what we have aimed at, right? I guess women earn as much as men in the US these days, for example... When I got my interested in feminism at about 16 I naturally wanted to talk about it with my best girlfriend but she didn\ufffdt want to hear a word. She didn\ufffdt want to \ufffdstart hating men\ufffd or how was it! After that I\ufffdve always interpreted womens\ufffd negative attitude to feminism simply as unwillingness to open their eyes to unpleasant facts. And that leads to not being able to do anything about them. Well, keeping our eyes, ears AND mouth shut suits the patriarchy fine!!!"}, {"response": 145, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (08:26)", "body": "She didn\ufffdt want to \ufffdstart hating men\ufffd Where did being a feminist or being sympathetic to feminist issues equate to hating men? That is the negative perception of what the 1960s-70s feminists were all about. And all they did was burn their bras and were uglier than sin, among other negative stereotypes. I guess women earn as much as men in the US these days, for example... No they do not."}, {"response": 146, "author": "patas", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (13:34)", "body": "I agree that without the angry radical feminists of 20 to 30 years ago, and without the 1900s feminists, we would not be where we are now...taking it easier and being \"more reasonable\" in our protests."}, {"response": 147, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (23:21)", "body": "I should still stay out of this conversation, shouldn't I?"}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (23:30)", "body": "Oh yes, my dear, if you value your life, or unless you are extraordinarily good at tango...I'd run for the hills, if I were you, and I am right behind you!"}, {"response": 149, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (23:36)", "body": "That's what I thought."}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (23:42)", "body": "I'm bringing sandwiches and binoculars and a blanket - we can watch from a safe distance."}, {"response": 151, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (03:54)", "body": "I'm bringing sandwiches and binoculars and a blanket Just what are you two up to?? I should still stay out of this conversation, shouldn't I? William, please just bravely put in your two cents!! :-)"}, {"response": 152, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (09:11)", "body": "Wer - ole buddy, surely you will not leave me behind, to fall victim to these feminist, post-feminist, anti-feminist and non-feminist predators? I see my bones bleaching peacefully on a meadow in a tiny valley, with a little peaceful creek flowing through... One already has my leg! Leggo! Willya! Arrgh....."}, {"response": 153, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (11:23)", "body": "*impatient frown* All right, my turn to say I\ufffdm outa here."}, {"response": 154, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (11:49)", "body": "Oh."}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (12:31)", "body": "We just wanted to get a better vantage point without getting anything on us. It appeared to be a long one, so I can with provisions...not anything to create a topic about...and now I see we might have to provide our own entertainment since everyone took their toys and went away."}, {"response": 156, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (12:42)", "body": "And all because I asked if I should still stay out of the conversation... I guess I shouldn't have asked..."}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (12:53)", "body": "I am glad you did...."}, {"response": 158, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (12:55)", "body": "well, this was the wrong place for that topic anyway. glad you stayed, wer!"}, {"response": 159, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (13:01)", "body": "I don't think it was a negative discussion for the topic (you know how we wander, Wolf...) and of course I stayed, I do like to watch, dontcha know! It is just sometimes I shouldn't interrupt, and I still haven't figured that timing out..."}, {"response": 160, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (13:02)", "body": "....me, too....*smile*"}, {"response": 161, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:24)", "body": "Oh gosh, Wer, next time don't just let me stand in a discussion like this alone as sole representative of the male species. This subject especially needs many opinions and must bring agreements based on a large demographic base. Or whatever. Also, I do like to hear your opinion. I may not have said so explicitly, but I really do (but I'll save everybody my \"Wer, don't just post so short responses!\"-whine; I guess I'll save that for a special occassion)! Plus I don't do so well as typical male speciman. As soon as they find out I have a curious sense of humour AND can't dance, pouf! they're gone! .={"}, {"response": 162, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:38)", "body": "I have that same problem, Alexander..."}, {"response": 163, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:46)", "body": "...big feet? But then, YOU draw crowds... Must be the earrings..."}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:46)", "body": "You are both wrong in your accessment of your abilities, but I shall keep that little secret safe...Poor Alexander - left twisting in the wind...hardly seems fair."}, {"response": 165, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:48)", "body": "Thanks for the sympathy. Sweet dreams, everybody! Good night, Johnboy! (21:42 h, and tired like whatever)"}, {"response": 166, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:50)", "body": "big feet...yep...wear American size 13...g'night!"}, {"response": 167, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (21:02)", "body": "size 13? i didn't mean negative conversation, just that it needed to be explored with more depth in order to appreciate all the opinions and experience. our topic tangents don't really facilitate that. (IMMHO *grin*) what i'm saying is, social typecasts should have a conference of it's very own (i'm not a volunteer for hosting priviledges). well, that's coming out all wrong. does anybody know what i'm trying to spit out? i'm just saying feminism, suffrage, bias, bigotry, and all those social issues should have i 's own topic. and i'm not saying social issues don't have a bearing on our bioregion either. and i'm not saying that bigotry, bias, suffrage, and feminism are all looked at with the same intensity or even related to each other. just that all of those were the best examples i could come up with for social issues. got that? any questions? (oh, i shouldn't have asked) *smile and hugs to all*"}, {"response": 168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (21:28)", "body": "Yup - belongs in Cultures or somewhere else - not in a Conference I really wanted to be about things Geo. Thanks for pointing this out. It happens all over the place where friends meet in Spring...but it is not of interest to those seeking information the topic purportedly delivers."}, {"response": 169, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (22:29)", "body": "yep, Wolf, 13...that's why I hate so much putting them in my mouth... and why I look for \"environmentally conscious\" hiking boots (said to get back near topic...)"}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (22:31)", "body": "Let's hear it for those hiking boots. I hope they have thick soles - you would not like them melting on the fresh hot lava..."}, {"response": 171, "author": "Elena", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (00:30)", "body": "Feminism is not a social issue only. Women\ufffds situation on this planet is a crucial question in many bioregions.....like I said way back, many environmental catastrophes are actually caused by inequality between people. You just can\ufffdt separate social issues/social structures and environmental issues from each other, if you do that you won\ufffdt understand things as a whole."}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (11:49)", "body": "Elena, this is true, and at the deepest elemental level, all of The Spring's topics are related and thus be dumped into the same conference. There is nothing we do that is not somehow affecting Earth, other people and raw materials available. But, that would make libraries harder to browse, and The Spring almost impossible to navigate. There must be a place for discussing the living as opposed to the inert. I will open a topic for you wherever you'd like it. Just let me know. (Bioregions I thought w s how to protect the one in which you live - as we did originally...)"}, {"response": 173, "author": "Elena", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (12:41)", "body": "I will open a topic for you Um......I feel like needing to point out that it was not me who mentioned feminism first in this topic!!! Bioregions I thought was how to protect the one in which you live Exactly. It\ufffds just that social problems (and yes, many other things too) clearly correlate with it! What I\ufffdm saying is, if we really want to understand what\ufffds going on in our bioregions, and especially WHY it\ufffds happening and what to do about it, we shouldn\ufffdt discuss it out of context, it\ufffds pointless."}, {"response": 174, "author": "Elena", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (12:47)", "body": "Marcia, I don\ufffdt want to argue with you, it\ufffds clear that we see things a bit differently here. I hope you can go on with your discussion now and stop discussing what is the right thing to discuss! :-)"}, {"response": 175, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (14:29)", "body": "Hello? Excuse me? Could we find a middle way somewhere here? My personal problems with discussing stuff all over the place is not a kweftion of propriety, but that I find stuff hard to find again... Know what I mean? E.g. I care a lot about films, real reel-to-reel stuff. We discussed it in Record Collecting, but will I remember that later? When I try to find something somebody said on topic that I want to go back to? Or see what I said then? Of course it all should have belonged into the Film topic in Collecting first place; it just happened to have started somewhere else. Nobody involved complained about the suggestion to continue it in \"Film\", and I'm sure they'll be there, too.- Back to the issue here - I think it's great this exchange of ideas started up. I would love to see it continue. Perhaps there's new tricks for an old dog, so to speak. So, let's go on - but does it have to be here? Elena, please take a look at this, and see if you feel comfortable there: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/cultures/28 ."}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (14:33)", "body": "Thank you, My dear Alexander for setting this up and posting the link. I shall go to film...I already posted there once...and planning to return immediately."}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (22:01)", "body": "My bioregion is being changed as I sit here. A group of Samoans (very large and strong people) have descended on our Areca Palms framing the perimeter of the yard and are cutting the tall ones out. They must have cut 100 of them so far and are hauling them away - a huge job for us, but easy for them. Now, my shaded deep red plumeria can bloom again and I can make leis as I sit on the floor with my flower-collecting bucket in front of me and my lei needle strung with thin twine. There is something very oul satifying in making leis for others who will be delighted to have them around their necks adding a special frangrance which to me means Hawaii."}, {"response": 178, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Sep 30, 1999 (04:53)", "body": "Well! You have offered leis to several of us in Drool, Marcia, but I didn't know you made them yourself! :-)"}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 30, 1999 (12:40)", "body": "Selecting and stringing the flowers is a very important part of lei-giving. Since it is a token of love and affection (Aloha!), it is appropriate to make one from start to finished garland, if one has the time and flowers available. It is a pleasure to do so!"}, {"response": 180, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (23:18)", "body": "A group of Samoans (very large and strong people) have descended on our Areca Palms framing the perimeter of the yard and are cutting the tall ones out Please send your Samoans over to my house. My neighborhood organization sent some thugs over in the middle of the night and planted another tree in front of my house (on the parkway, which technically doesn't belong to me) that is effectively blocking what few rays of sun my frontyard needs. It is truly a boring tree, a poplar, whose only attribute (to them) is that it grows quickly. It has neither spring interest (flowers) nor fall interest (color change). I tell all dogowners to let their pets make ull use of it, but it survives..."}, {"response": 181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (23:21)", "body": "My Dear...there are ways to kill poplar trees. Round up all the ice you can muster - a bucket full if you have it. Sneak out in the nmight and heap it around the root base. The sudden chill will shock the tree to death and by morning all evidence will have disappeared!"}, {"response": 182, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (23:36)", "body": "Ice? Do you forget where I live? Maybe ice will scare a tree to death in Hawaii, but not here! ;-D Actually, the last year, I poured a cannister of this root stuff that you are supposed to pour down your toilets to kill tree roots which invade our sewer pipes. When I noticed that the granules were not dissolving, I thought some dog might come around and eat some of it, so I removed it all. The tree's root ball is protected by some kind of tarp too! This winter I'm covering the base with a bag of sidewalk salt! Also, someone suggested a copper nail, but I was never able to find that."}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (23:56)", "body": "Yes...yes, I know...it does work here for tropical trees...! I am pretty sure a quart of Roundup in a liquid form would not help it very much. Copper nails are a traditional method - just try finding one, though! House Gorilla says roundup would not do it - to use the granular poison and cover it with dirt..may take a little work on your part, and you might be seen. Ask at your local nursery. They have all sorts of that stuff to get rid of nusiance plants. Sorry I cannot come up with a better idea... unting on the web will teach you how to build a nuclear device - perhaps it will tell you how to poison a tree."}, {"response": 184, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Oct  5, 1999 (04:38)", "body": "I understand and empathize with your problem, Karen, still it shocks me to think of killing a tree..."}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  5, 1999 (19:27)", "body": "yeah, but this is a runty little one...not a tree-tree!"}, {"response": 186, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Oct  5, 1999 (20:21)", "body": "Checked out a product called \"Stump Out\" at the nursery. Unfortunately, you have to drill a hole into the tree to apply. Too obvious a method. The people at the nurseries don't like to tell you how to kill a tree either. Goes against their nature too. It's growing by leaps and bounds. argh!!"}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  5, 1999 (20:35)", "body": "I suppose a chain saw is out of the question? How about a drive-by shooting ala Mafia with machine guns? Hmmmm...don't know..checking the net."}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  5, 1999 (20:39)", "body": "You could girdle it....or make a very snug wire around it twisted until it strangles the tree..."}, {"response": 189, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct  8, 1999 (17:46)", "body": "that's what i was gonna ask, why don't you chop it down?"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  8, 1999 (18:00)", "body": "...just guessing until Karen can get her to answer for herself, but since the city of Chicago or the county beautification whatever put it there and it is on the median strip between the sidewalk and the street, technically she does not own it..."}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (17:18)", "body": "HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK World Heritage Site/International Biosphere Reserve What does Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park have in common with Germany's Aachen Cathedral, Frances' Palace and Park of Versailles, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Equador's Galapagos Islands, China's Great Wall and Tanzania's Serengeti National Park? The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization recognized their superlative values and designated them World Heritage sites. Hawai'i Volcanoes' vast lava fields, lush tropical rain forest, and alpine summits offer glimpses into the continuing process of creating land and life. On this volcanic landscape, complex and unique ecosystems and a distinct human culture have evolved. As both a World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Reserve, the park has achieved international recognition for its outstanding values. Learn more about World Heritage Sites in the United States."}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (17:25)", "body": "From http://www.cr.nps.gov/worldheritage/sites.htm World Heritage Sites in the U.S."}, {"response": 193, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:09)", "body": "Interesting that most such sites in the US are natural places while most in Europe (if I'm not wrong here) are man-made."}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:45)", "body": "I shall put up the European ones...(I did not know that!)"}, {"response": 195, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:54)", "body": "This is the web page which lists the European and North American sites http://www.unesco.org/whc/nwhc/pages/sites/maplist/euramer.htm This is the World Heritage site for kids http://www.unesco.org/whc/nwhc/pages/kids/main.htm"}, {"response": 196, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:12)", "body": "Thank you for the url. You will notice that Portugal has a few classified sites :-)"}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:20)", "body": "I did, Indeed! =)"}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (00:05)", "body": "Borrowed from Travel/Namibia and posted by Maggie originally: --Namibia's Quiver Tree Forest-- If you are travelling in the south of Namibia, be sure to stop and see this natural forest of more than 300 trees growing in an arid area where little else will grow. The forest was declared a national museum in June 1955. These trees (actually not a tree, but an aloe plant - Aloe Dichotoma) are one of the most interesting and characteristic plants of the very hot and dry parts of Namibia. The plant is called a Quiver Tree, because some Bushmen and Hottentot tribes used the tough pliable bark and branches to make quivers for their arrows. Read more about Namibia's Quiver Tree Forest at, http://www.africa.com/namibia/ttd_sa_qt.phtml From ULUNDI http://www.africa.com"}, {"response": 199, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (11:08)", "body": "Thanks Marcia. Couldn't figure out where else to put it!"}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (14:37)", "body": "*Hugs* Maggie. This is a difficult topic for which to find things which \"fit\" The quiver tree story is perfect!"}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 11, 2000 (00:08)", "body": "AfriCam / Agfa Awards 1999 AGFA Wildlife & Environment Awards The beauty around us (Scenic and Plants) 2nd: Theo Allofs' \"Quiver Trees at Sunset\" http://www.africam.com/mirror/special_content/agfa/1999/16.html"}, {"response": 202, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep  1, 2000 (12:23)", "body": "African Plant Life ( http://africancultures.about.com/culture/africancultures/library/weekly/aa100699a.htm ) Of the total land area of the continent, forests cover about one-fifth; woodlands, bushlands, grasslands, and thickets about two-fifths; and deserts and their extended margins the remaining two-fifths. Africa's vegetation had always been controlled by the interactions of climate; geology, soil, and groundwater conditions; and the activities of animals and later humans. The greater part of the reduction of Africa's natural vegetation has happened in the last 2,000 years. Pastoralism, agriculture, the rapid growth of human and livestock populations, the expansion of cities and towns, and the external demands for primary resources have made ever-greater demands upon the land for sustenance and perceived economic betterment. Within the tropical forests and woodlands, fire undoubtedly has been the great human agent of clearance and degradation. Hunters, pastoralists, and cultivators have all fired the land for centuries and have gathered wild foodstuffs, thatch timber for construction, and fuelwood. The long-term effects of such activity bear directly upon the debated question of the origin of the savannas. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 14, "subject": "Weather: Current Severe Weather Warnings and Updates", "response_count": 657, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:51)", "body": "One of the best sources of weather news and everything related to climate world wide is the weather Underground. If you have a weather program running on your desktop it is most likely plugged into this URL for updates, alerts and warnings. Check it out for your area http://www.wunderground.com/"}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:57)", "body": "oh wow! i usually use the weathersites on the search engines...."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (22:18)", "body": "Wolfie, thanks for holding down Geo when I was off reading stuff for tomorrow's postings. I really appreciate it. What fun to find someone beside me is interested (and what woman is not?!) And, authentic, card-carrying Droolers, too. The Spring will never be the same, which is a good thing!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (19:29)", "body": "My ex in central Pennsylvania is complaining of 100\ufffdF (37.77\ufffdC) temperatures out doors and sent the following: Russia is having abnormally high temps also. In the 90's and dry like us. Besides all that, they have locusts to eat the few plants that are surviving the weather."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2036 (03:38)", "body": "More from Pennsylvania (note the size of the hail storms): Yesterday afternoon was sunny and hot, although some welcome scattered clouds began to appear by mid-afternoon. Then an area of clouds-joined-together moved over us. They sprinkled a couple of times and tried to give us a rain, then it got darker and there was a boomy rumble of thunder. Real rain fell for quite a while, then there was a rattle on the roof as nickle-sized and quarter-sized hail fell with the rain. That cell moved away to the south, and we had a pause in the rain. It was still dark where the clouds were coming from, but we could see blue sky along the side of the second storm that was approaching. A somewhat cauliflowered shower head grew along the side of the main gray mass, and rapidly achieved the height of the rest of the storm. Its rapid rise would have given a hint of what was to come. The fairly concealed second storm approached; and the sky had barely begun to get dark, but no rain yet, when scattered white objects began to fall. They were maybe 20 ft. apart at first, then there were more and more of them in the air until they were falling about 2 or 3 ft. apart mixed with rain. These white objects were the largest hail I have ever seen. Golfball-sized hail is often mentioned in the news, but there is was! They weren\ufffdt spheres, but were chunks about the right size. They were big enough that they could roll in the grass after they landed, rather than getting tangled in it. They generally bounced several feet high, some as high as 4 or 5 feet. I was afraid to look at the car after it was safe to go outside, but found only one dimple. Possibly the hail was mostly soft; and I did see some smash to bits on the parking lot and the cars, rather than bouncing."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (16:54)", "body": "From my Alma Mater, Penn State, one of the best Meteorology pages there is. Lots of links and information relating to severe weather. Http://bookend.met.psu.edu/"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (14:14)", "body": "Since Hurrican Season is upon us and we all need to be aware of possible severe weather warnings for Tornadoes and other threats to life and property. First, before things begin, check for updates and possible storm threats to our area and while it is ongoing - as long as you have power to run your computer: http://www.noaa.gov/ Afterward you will need http://www.fema.gov/ And anytime is good to prepare the little ones in your family by using this URL http://www.fema.gov/kids/"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (14:24)", "body": "Actually, the best National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association website which has all of the links you will need plus solar images and other goodies is: http://www.websites.noaa.gov/"}, {"response": 9, "author": "heide", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (19:14)", "body": "You clever girl, posting this at Keepsakes. It got me to come by. I'm sorry to be complaining about the weather so much. I hate it when people do that. Look like relief is coming tomorrow though I can't remember if it's a high front or a low front. Which brings cooler temperatures and is it the same in winter?"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (19:41)", "body": "A high brings clear skies and the cold front. My ex is in Williamsport and he had golfball-sized hail. Did you get any of that? (Heide, I am delighted you posted...I do what I can to get people here as I work pretty hard on it to just be for my own ego..) The jet stream was up in Canada and that is what moved stuff around on the North American continent. It is sliding south again and will move the hot stagnant air out. Yes, the same things happen in the winter...lows bring snow and sleet because you angle to the sun is different."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  2, 1999 (12:37)", "body": "The State of New Jersey has declaired a state of emergency due to the prolonged drought afflicting the entire Eastern Seaboard. Other states in the area are bound to follow suit! (Rain Dances, anyone?)"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 13, 1999 (13:04)", "body": ""}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 13, 1999 (13:32)", "body": ""}, {"response": 14, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Aug 13, 1999 (23:15)", "body": "Um...Maryland was just declared a federal disaster area (or whatever they call it) because of our severe drought--worst in 70 years they say. When will it rain???"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 13, 1999 (23:29)", "body": "Good question - and if I had the answer, I would not be sitting in the corner of my bedroom writing this. (BTW, welcome, Autumn!)... Jet stream, la ni\ufffda and all that have to cooperate. Meanwhile I am being deluged by one of the feeder bands from Hurricane Eugene just below our island...Want some?!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Aug 14, 1999 (11:58)", "body": "well, louisiana has placed several parishes under burn bans since it's been so dry. expecting a cool front which will lower the ambient temp by 1 or 2 degrees plus the humidy level is expected to be much lower. hmmmm, so 95 will feel like 95 instead of 115! gotta luv it!!!!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 14, 1999 (12:40)", "body": "Hey, anything is better than running an external fever...and according the the weather maps, you are due for some relief in the gulf states area. I hope it get to where it is needed most. Plan a garden party, if all else fails...that usually brings on the monsoons!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 14, 1999 (19:29)", "body": "Forecast For Hilo, Hi 12 Pm Hst Sat Aug 14 1999 ...High Surf Advisory Is In Effect At 12 Noon For East And Southeast Facing Shores Of The Big Island Of Hawaii... .This Afternoon...Partly Cloudy With A Few Showers. High Near 80. Trades 10 To Near 25 Mph. .Tonight...Brief Showers. Low In The Upper 60S. Variable Winds 5 To 15 Mph. .Sunday...Showery. High Near 80. Trades 20 To 30 Mph. Special weather statement 12 Noon Hst Sat Aug 14 1999 ...A High Surf Advisory Is Effective At 12 Noon For East And Southeast Facing Shores Of The Big Island Of Hawaii... Large Swell Waves Travelling Out Ahead Of Hurricane Dora Are Forecast To Start Arriving At The East And Southeast Facing Beaches Of The Kau And Puna Districts Of The Big Island Late This Afternoon And Tonight And Continue On Sunday. This Wave Action Will Likely Also Affect Exposed Hilo District Beaches. These East And East Southeast Swell Waves Will Produce Surf That Is Expected To Be In The 8 To 10 Foot Range By Late Tonight And On Sunday. The Easterly Swell Will Reach As Far As Oahu And Kauai On Sunday And Could Produce Surf As High As 5 To 8 Feet Along Exposed East And Southeast Facing Beaches Of These Islands. Surfers...Swimmers...And Beach Goers Should Remain Alert And Cautious. Residents Along The Exposed Beaches Should Prepare To Protect Their Property. Another day in Paradise - with a hurricane..."}, {"response": 19, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Aug 14, 1999 (23:54)", "body": "does this mean you need to check your life preservers and raft, Marcia?"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (00:01)", "body": "We are 450 feet (157 Meters) above sea level. I think the worst that could happen is my 6 picture windows in the living room might shatter - so we will plywood them across...I always have candles and water to drink (and for flushing) on hand - and we have Spam!!! Thanks for asking, though..."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (00:02)", "body": "Actually, as soon as they post warnings like that one above, the crazies get their surfboards and head for the beach. Those are the ones who are in real danger!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (06:23)", "body": "Can you see the ocean from your picture windows? What's the view like? Batten up those hatches, and good luck getting through this one. Is this the biggest storm of the season so far?"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (12:20)", "body": "We shall batten down the hatches and tighten the anchor bolts if it becomes necessary. The only ocean I can see from the property without sitting on the roof is a very distant horizon, which is just fine considering the Tsunami potential. This is the first major storm to come our way this season, but we are lucky with the two 14,000'(4267M) mountains behind Hilo. They are usually large enough to deflect the storms that threaten(so far.) The current pattern is for them to hook around the south point of ur island and head north hitting Oahu (Honolulu) and Kauai. The last one, Iniki, just about levelled Kauai, and they are still trying to rebuild and recover."}, {"response": 24, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (15:58)", "body": "What's the elevation at your house?"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (16:37)", "body": "450' (157.16 Meters) above sea level, and 5 miles (8 Km) inland."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (18:51)", "body": "For the lastest on our hurricane"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (18:55)", "body": "In the picture above...the Hurricane is at the left and our island is the outline just avobe it. It also apprear as though there are a wholebunch of proto-hurricanes waiting to form to the right, near Mexico."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (21:00)", "body": "Anyone wishing to listen to our island's Civil Defense Coordinator, Harry Kim give the latest update on our Hurricane can do so on the hour (also does for lava flows when they are threatening inhabited areas)on the net: http://www.webradio.com/kwxx/"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (21:44)", "body": "And, as we enter the feeder bands here is our little Big Island and an even bigger Hurricane Dora"}, {"response": 30, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug 16, 1999 (21:22)", "body": "wow, it looks ominous. please be careful dear marcia!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 16, 1999 (21:40)", "body": "Thank you...and we had a Earthquake just a bit ago...I am tired of Mother Nature attacking - especially on a day like this one has been...!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug 16, 1999 (21:47)", "body": "ohmygod, marcia! girlfriend, you are in my prayers *hugs*"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 16, 1999 (21:51)", "body": "Thanks Luv! It surely could not hurt. Where are all those places that need water? Austin? May I ship you some?!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Aug 16, 1999 (22:13)", "body": "Those satellite pictures are just too freaky! Technology scares me!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 16, 1999 (22:21)", "body": "It allows you to see how big God is and how tiny man is. Our Island is the size of Connecticut...it is not tiny!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (09:47)", "body": "how's the weather Marcia??"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (13:04)", "body": "Finally...It is sunny and bright and we can see all the junk in the yard...At this hour it is 70\ufffdF (21\ufffdC)and the tradewinds are picking up. It will be a lovely day, thank you."}, {"response": 38, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (21:18)", "body": "glad things are well for you marcia......wish i could say the same about louisiana. yup, the humidity is back on the rise. icky!"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (21:59)", "body": "...it sounds like it is enough to melt your pralines before they get in your mouth..."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (22:05)", "body": "check http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/news/32 for the next little storms waiting to assault the Hawaiian Islands. BTW, I had not ventured into the News Conference before this got linked to Geo, and Ree, your painting is outstanding. Smashing, actually! And now these cool horizontal bars...it is so chic...wish the default wallpaper could be something else, but..."}, {"response": 41, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (10:38)", "body": "and as i can see by the updated satellite pics, the hurricane is far off now. thankfully."}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (13:13)", "body": "For an update on the next hurricane poising to attack Hawaii, check http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/14.26 It updates regularly. (Let me know if it is making the loading of this place too long, in which case I will delete it.)"}, {"response": 43, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Aug 19, 1999 (22:53)", "body": "Glad to see Marcia is safe and sound again (for the moment)."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 20, 1999 (00:06)", "body": "Thanks for saying that, Autumn. It is a great comfort to know good people care if you are safe...and I have not checked the updating maps on post 26 for a while...maybe I'd rather not know!!!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 21, 1999 (13:57)", "body": ""}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 21, 1999 (13:58)", "body": "The above image is from http://www.intellicast.com/LocalWeather/World/UnitedStates/SouthCentral/Texas/Brownsville/Satellite/"}, {"response": 47, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (09:49)", "body": "my parents live in harlingen. mom icq'd me to let me know they're waiting for evac orders and don't know where they're going right now."}, {"response": 48, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (10:06)", "body": "Harlingen! That's where Evelyn was headed yesterday."}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (11:39)", "body": "For the loop of the movement of this Hurricane about to hit Texas go to: http://www.intellicast.com/WeatherImages/SatelliteLoop/satloop.wsi;bro;SatelliteLoop;gif;satloop.gif It is pretty impressive and has intensified to a Category 4 hurricane - severe wind damage and flooding. They have taken the measures of dumping escess water from the lakes around Brownsville and Corpus Christi to handle the water generated by the rain bands accompanying the hurricane."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (12:06)", "body": ""}, {"response": 51, "author": "patas", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (14:56)", "body": "I keep my fingers crossed for all our friends in Texas."}, {"response": 52, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (14:58)", "body": "looks like corpus is going to get the brunt of this one. hopefully it'll bring some rain up this way. hope my family is alright."}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (15:04)", "body": "Plese keep us updated on your families! And, those living in the Austin area, could you please keep us up on your strong windy weather. I hate the thought of your losing power because it would mean no more Spring for a while. We NEED you! Thanks."}, {"response": 54, "author": "ratthing", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (19:29)", "body": "at present, we just have some clouds in San Antonio, but nothing else. the good thing about this hurricane is that i dont have to go to work this week (i work in Corpus)!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (19:58)", "body": "It is an ill wind that blows no good?! It would seem that someone else's bad fortune may allow us another day with you. Happy thought, indeed! Thanks for the report, Ray. I wonder if Austin is getting any rain - or any cooler?!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 23, 1999 (22:57)", "body": "How is the flooding going in Corpus area and are they letting you go home any time soon? Wolf, how is your family doing? Ray is dry in San Antonio on a forced holiday and spent some of the time with us at Spring and got me on telnet for real. Will someone with the local scoop update us on the progress of your storm. Thanks!"}, {"response": 57, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Aug 23, 1999 (22:59)", "body": "nope and not noticably(sp?)..."}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 23, 1999 (23:02)", "body": "Thanks for the report for the Austin area(?) Are you still not getting any rain from this system?"}, {"response": 59, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (07:35)", "body": "Nope, there has been scarce few drops of rain, the only change we've had is increased cloudiness."}, {"response": 60, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (11:17)", "body": "sunburn alert here..."}, {"response": 61, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (12:08)", "body": "it's been raining here since last night...but am nowhere near the gulf ;-D"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (13:44)", "body": "Thanks Terry for the Austin update. I hope the tornadoes go elsewhere, too. (It rains upwards of 200 inches (508 Cm) a year here, so I know rain!) Thanks for the other reports as well. I guess Colorado has sun alerts year round of one sort or another - just as Hawaii does."}, {"response": 63, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (19:44)", "body": "my parents are fine (harlingen). we got a t-storm this afternoon, but it didn't rain through the whole area...which is too bad because we really need it."}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (19:46)", "body": "That sort of activity starts mean brush fires. Glad to hear your parents are well and dry. Thanks for the report."}, {"response": 65, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (19:53)", "body": "we've had that and spontaneous hay fires."}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (20:05)", "body": "Incredible. Not much gets that dry on this side of the island, but where the lava flows go into new channels through the brush, it makes for particularly nasty fires and toxic fumes."}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (20:30)", "body": "i'll bet! even the humidity doesn't help the parched grasses. i have to water my lawn just about every night to keep the grass from going dormant (that's what it is, not dead like folks think)."}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (21:26)", "body": "We just must live right (oh sure...NOT!)God waters ours every night and shines up the leaves and makes the flowers open with dew on them...! We call our showers \"dust control\""}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 27, 1999 (01:51)", "body": "Here is a great little map of the world and its troubles with weather from http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/ Reports from Australia report tornadoes in Perth area again and cricket-ball sized hail stones in Sydney. Homes are still unrepaired, by the thousands. Thanks, AnneH for your report."}, {"response": 70, "author": "patas", "date": "Fri, Aug 27, 1999 (04:32)", "body": "A map of the world? Where? Where? I see but a little piece of the world here."}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 27, 1999 (13:40)", "body": "I erred. It is the world from Hawaii on the left to the edge of Africa of the right. They do not have one for the entire world, sadly, but few hurricanes form over the land mass of Europe. They have this one, though: from http://www.wunderground.com/global/EU_ST_Index.html"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 28, 1999 (18:13)", "body": "For a totally awesome image of Hurricane Dennis: http://lumahai.soest.hawaii.edu/gifs/atl_cam.gif"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 28, 1999 (18:23)", "body": "From http://www.weather.com :"}, {"response": 74, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Aug 29, 1999 (13:56)", "body": "So, somebody update me on the weather, pls. In the office tomorrow, it'll be overcast and cloudy... Coping with suboptimal news, putting some plan Bs up, etc. That's your Central European weather report, brought to you by superstar magazine..."}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 29, 1999 (14:38)", "body": "Most of the maps I put on this Topic automatically update every time you check them. Europe is http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/14.71 I am looking for a WX map rather than that temperature map. but it is some indication of the weather pattern for the area. Will try to get it up by the end of this day. Please check back. Sorry about the inclement weather in your office. Sometimes, it is necessary to go through that to appreciate the sun which will inevitably shine on you in two weeks. *smile*"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 29, 1999 (15:39)", "body": "For those interested in European weather, this map also updates each time you boot it. http://www.weather.com/weather/sat/europesat_440x297.html"}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 29, 1999 (15:42)", "body": "This color bar explains the image colors."}, {"response": 78, "author": "patas", "date": "Mon, Aug 30, 1999 (02:57)", "body": "Thank you for the European maps, Marcia, they come in very handy :-)"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 30, 1999 (12:29)", "body": "You are most welcome - Australia next...! I love the ones that update when you log in. It makes it so much easier."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 30, 1999 (16:38)", "body": "Australia's updating weather satellite map from http://www.weather.com"}, {"response": 81, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, Sep  1, 1999 (21:45)", "body": "I expect Marcia has put some of Oz's strange weather this winter on. But it is nothing compared to some parts in the rest of the world. Sydney's baseball or cricket size hailstones I suppose has been the worst. Adelaide has had a very dry season - already the driest city in Oz and they are in some trouble. I would be most interested to know if the monsoon arrived in India this year. New Delhi seems to have been hot most of their summer season."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  1, 1999 (21:52)", "body": "Thanks, Anne. Nothing like a report from \"on the ground\" to go with the weather map. It is hard to imagine how the rest of the world fluctuates because we are eternally springtime here all year round."}, {"response": 83, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep  2, 1999 (10:49)", "body": "Really, I hope you keep those weather reports from the other side of the planet coming! We're still waiting for rain in these parts, it's crackling dry here. Day after day of 100 degree weather. I love it! But we could use a good gully washer."}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  2, 1999 (13:11)", "body": "I shall put up the pacific basin from whence your weather will begin to come as autumn sets in. You need a soaking rain of some duration. Incredible how depressing so much sun can be (especially for someone who gets upwards of 200\" (508 cm) of the stuff anually! (Do you really like that much heat?!)"}, {"response": 85, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep  3, 1999 (08:15)", "body": "Good chance of some wet stuff over the holidays. What are folks doing for the holidays and what's the prediction for your area?"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  4, 1999 (00:22)", "body": "Nothing happening here. Just trying to recouperate from the Volleyball tournament. I would love to hike in the volcano...but I think I may be home alone - again - so I will be at the Spring again!!!"}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  4, 1999 (02:03)", "body": "sunny. mild, lovely trades in the day and mountain air at night. Same old Same old..."}, {"response": 88, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep  5, 1999 (19:23)", "body": "i just want everyone to know that nw louisiana has received rain and cooler temps! yippeeeeeeeee!!!"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep  7, 1999 (13:22)", "body": ""}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep  7, 1999 (13:25)", "body": "Hawaiian Islands updating satellite image from http://www.weather.com"}, {"response": 91, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep  9, 1999 (08:35)", "body": "Alright wolfie got her fur wet."}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  9, 1999 (13:45)", "body": ""}, {"response": 93, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Sep 14, 1999 (15:06)", "body": "the bad one looks like it's sitting on the Bahamas as we speak..."}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 14, 1999 (16:40)", "body": "A very dpecial lady in Drool is at the moment on a laptop in a bunker in Florida riding it out for the night. It does not sound like my favorite thing to do. http://www.wunderground.com"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 14, 1999 (16:44)", "body": "I feel rather bad wingeing about the earthquake swarms we are having as a prelude to our next volcano outbreak...I think I would rather deal with this Hell rather than her High Water!"}, {"response": 96, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (13:10)", "body": "According to CNN, Floyd is not going to strike Florida after all, but is heading upwards to North Carolina. So Moon should be alright (I hope), but do we know anyone in N.C.?"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (13:18)", "body": "My Dear, I was just wondering about that! Do not think FLOYD is going near anyone we are aware of. Perhaps they will volunteer some information as they emerge from underground. Has to be a bad experience, but lots better than dying!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (14:01)", "body": "Hey did you see that global picture I posted earlier? There's a bigger hurricane than Floyd out there in the middle of the ocean. Just a little detail I noticed, that's all."}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (15:08)", "body": "No, I did not. Where is it???"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (15:16)", "body": "If you check http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/news/32.69 you will see the relative proximities of the two hurrricanes. This map updates so it keeps current."}, {"response": 101, "author": "Moon", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (16:19)", "body": "Yes, that other one is called Gert and so far is following Floyd. I do not want to think about it! Florida was by-passed, thank you all for your prayers!"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (16:36)", "body": "Could you tell us where this bunker you were in is? Dug into your back yard? Under your Condo building? I cannot imagine, but you were computer-up for hours longer than any batteries last on most laptops! I am eyeballing Gert with suspicion. I do not trust her and she is just as big as her brother. Keep that bottled water handy! And, please keep us posted. Terry posted a neat visual water vapor map of both storms http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/news/16.14"}, {"response": 103, "author": "Moon", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (17:00)", "body": "My bunker is my home all safely tucked (I hope), under the hurricane shutters, we literally bolt ourselves in. We will keep all our supplies handy just in case Gert comes our way. It seems to be just as huge as Floyd. :-("}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (17:05)", "body": "Happy to know that, Moon. Don't take too much of that stuff off just yet! Gert is looking Bigger than Floyd now...!"}, {"response": 105, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (17:42)", "body": "Hang in there, Moon, we think of you:-)"}, {"response": 106, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (17:42)", "body": "Take care, Moon Dreams! My best wishes..."}, {"response": 107, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Sep 16, 1999 (13:12)", "body": "how'd ya fare??? still raining?? blowing??"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 16, 1999 (22:19)", "body": "I am happy to report that all Floridians save one who was far inland have checked in safe and well, but not unbolting their storm shutters just yet. Gert is not looking good for them...will keep in touch - if they do not report here, I will attempt to keep everyone posted on their well-being. Thanks for your kind thoughts!"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 18, 1999 (18:44)", "body": "Ah! The Tallahassee Droolian has checked in, finally. They got nothing of the storm, and not even any rain, which is making them very unhappy...and thirsty."}, {"response": 110, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (23:27)", "body": "Ooooh, Marcia, I love how your maps automatically update. I see our rain is finally heading east. Now, when will it warm up a bit? This is end-of-October weather we're currently having. Any minute now, I expect the doorbell to ring and some little kids to thrust their grocery bags in my face demanding candy!! And the worst part is I've actually had to turn the heat on already. :-("}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (23:32)", "body": "There is a rule of thumb about these things...as soon as you put away all your cool clothing it gets into Indian Summer in a big way and you rumple your nice woolens. By the mid to end of this month, there should be very few warm spells, considering the latitude of Chicago and its proximity to lake effect weather. Soon! (Those maps are neat, are they not?!)"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  8, 1999 (19:26)", "body": "From Anne Hale in Western Australia: We have for the last two days had the strangest weather - even my server was down. Storm winds - force 10 out to sea yesterday and last night (Thursday) today heavy rain for at least six hours - I measured three inches - unbelievable for October and extraordinary. Our total rainful for the month is two inches!! But three in two days. When Denis got up this morning he had an awful shock - rain coming through the lounge ceiling and now we have a large brown patch and a small hole - but fortunately he managed to get a roof tiler to come out in the pouring rain and fix it. He bored a hole to relieve the guttering on top of the rook and charged $70 but it was worth it to save the carpet and further damage to the ceiling. Now we have to repaint, it never stops does it."}, {"response": 113, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Oct  9, 1999 (10:00)", "body": "Wow, you really took a hit!"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (14:42)", "body": "Moon Dreams is in Miami enduring another hurricane - this time it is Irene. She has lost a huge oak tree so far... AUTO-UPDATING RADAR MAP OF INTENSE WEATHER CONDITIONS FOR THE USA from http://www.wunderground.com/US/Region/US/Radar.html"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (14:45)", "body": "Anne Hale reports from West Australia: ...not been on line for a while - we have had storms again this week - electricity off, trees down and a storm again today. I am almost afraid to go on line at present because of the fear of losing it all if my computer goes off."}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 16, 1999 (01:30)", "body": "With winter coming on, you might like to know the windchill for your locality From http://www.wunderground.com/US/Region/US/Windchill.html"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 16, 1999 (01:32)", "body": "Europe Windchill Australia Heat index"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (16:33)", "body": "From Moon Dreams in storm-battered and soaked Miami, Florida USA: Irene did not pull a Floyd and my extensive garden need major clean up. We lost two trees and part of the screen where the pool is. It was a category 1 hurricane and ironically, no one really made a big deal out of it. It happened very quickly, we did not even get the time to put up the shutters. Where I live lots of trees were up-rooted. In other areas there is flooding. We survived another one!"}, {"response": 119, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (07:12)", "body": "One man died when he drove his car into a canal thinking it was part of the street. He could not swim and drown. Four young boys out walking in the storm were electrocuted from broken electrical lines which were hidden by the high waters same happened to a woman walking her dog. Lots of areas remain without electricity and phone. The scary thing was not receiving a warning so as to prepare until it was too late to really do anything about it. Hurricane Irene was over Cuba and they predicted it would turn west towards Naples Florida, instead it went east to Miami. We survived another one!"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (14:19)", "body": "Thanks for your report, Moon. There is nothing quite as scary as a natural disaster which sneaks up on you then beats you to a pulp. We are delighted that you survived another one. This WAS the last one for the season, was it not? You do not think weather also has a Y2K bug...!"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (17:09)", "body": "I just scribbled all of the non-updating maps and images from this topic. All of the remaining ones keep currentm including the water vapor ones which show we are going to get hit by some thundery weather tonight or tomorrow!!!"}, {"response": 122, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (11:14)", "body": "Good luck!"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (13:04)", "body": "Thanks - the other islands are experiencing flooding now, but this side of the last island to get it is still dry. We have everything lashed down so we are prepared."}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (17:10)", "body": "NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI 830 AM HST WED OCT 20 1999 *** THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR ALL THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 830 PM HST WEDNESDAY. *** FLASH FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS... *** ALL THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS *** A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR HEAVY RAINFALL AND FLASH FLOODING. FLOODING IS NOT IMMINENT... BUT PERSONS IN THE WATCH AREA SHOULD TAKE PRECAUTIONS BY BEING PREPARED TO TAKE QUICK ACTION IF HEAVY RAIN IS OBSERVED OR A FLASH FLOOD WARNING IS ISSUED. *** THE KONA LOW IS NOW A LITTLE LESS THAN 600 MILES WEST NORTHWEST OF KAUAI AND CONTINUES TO MOVE WEST AT 15 TO 20 MPH. SHOWERS HAVE DECREASED OVER KAUAI AND EARLY MORNING PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS AROUND THE STATE HAVE BEEN RATHER LIGHT EXCEPT FOR KAUAI AND A FEW AREAS OF THE BIG ISLAND. *** THE MAIN THREAT IS NOW FROM ABUNDANT MOISTURE CARRIED NORTHWARD FROM 800 OR 1000 MILES SOUTH FROM THE INTERTROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE NEAR THE EQUATOR BY A BRANCH OF THE SUB TROPICAL JET STREAM. RADAR AND SATELLITE SHOW THUNDERSTORMS AND HEAVY PRECIPITATION ADVANCING TOWARD THE ISLANDS... MAINLY FROM OAHU TO THE BIG ISLAND. IT IS EXPECTED TO ARRIVE OVER THESE ISLANDS LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. KAUAI MAY BE AFFECTED AS WELL SINCE THIS IS A VERY BROAD AREA OF MOIST UNSTABLE AIR. *** PERSONS IN THE WATCH AREA... ESPECIALLY THOSE IN LOW LYING AREAS ALONG STREAMS... RIVERS... AND OTHER DRAINAGES SHOULD BE PREPARED TO TAKE QUICK ACTION IF HEAVY RAINS OR FLOODING OCCURS OR A WARNING IS ISSUED. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...LOCAL TV OR RADIO FOR FURTHER NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INFORMATION. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (17:07)", "body": "We got rained upon, went up the volcano to get through the clouds and only succeeded in getting pure Mother Nature's acid rain (SO2 from the volcano mixing with the mist) - which ate at my eyes and throat until we got upwind of it. No flooding on this Island that I know of so far...but it is still 1000% humidity (at the very least) and just hanging. No breezes to move it off of our high mountains. We often get weather systems hung-up that way."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (20:25)", "body": "Anne Hale reports that Eastern Australia is having devastating floods and giant hail stones again. Gotta check that weather map...!"}, {"response": 127, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:10)", "body": "Love your maps, Marcia."}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:23)", "body": "Thanks! Several people from diverse corners of the world check in here almost daily to check their weather map updates. That is lovely and makes me think I did *something* right! They were a great find!!!"}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 16, 1999 (16:40)", "body": "Have heard from Pennsylvania that it is very cold (below freezing) and from California that it is chilly and wet. I shall be watching out for flooding conditions. Will post here when I know more."}, {"response": 130, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Nov 16, 1999 (16:53)", "body": "Did you hear the south of France has had dreadful flooding in the last few days?"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 16, 1999 (18:37)", "body": "No, I had not heard except for a brief mention in headline news (which promptly disappeared from my head). I did note that their Weather Map was not all that promising. Lots more moisture heading for France from the Atlantic. Thanks, Maggie. I'll go check for pix and a report."}, {"response": 132, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (09:49)", "body": "Ski lovers are under the impression that we are having severe weather... no snow..."}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (11:30)", "body": "I guess all the white stuff is falling in the New England. 30\" (76 cm) have fallen on Mt. Mansfield, but that is not a lot. Is Colorado experiencing warmer than usual weather or is it simply a matter of skies too clear and no weather fronts to dump the good stuff on you? One appears to be heading your way...is just now going through Nevada and Utah."}, {"response": 134, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (12:51)", "body": "?"}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (13:39)", "body": "\"Severe\" winter, according to Stacey, in the ski state of Colorado is one with NO SNOW at all! \"Severe\" in all other places means dire things for drivers and homeless and the Amateur Snow-Shovelling Emergency Squad (ASSES for short) which incur heart attacks clearing it out of their sidewalks. Does that answer your '?'"}, {"response": 136, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (16:23)", "body": "Good thing Stacey's impervious to any environmental extremes."}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (17:11)", "body": "We did not get this far in the evolution of time and space without adapting. We are ingenious enough, even though we grouch a lot when it is not specifically the way we want things...too hot...too cold...too damp...too dry... We are worse than the Three Bears! (don't have the foggiest how that huge space got in there with Response 133...)"}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (20:36)", "body": "There is a hurricane in the Florida area approaching category 5 status. Check the updating weather maps for your area if you think you might be in danger."}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 19, 1999 (14:30)", "body": "One of the best sites for live WweatherCams is the University of Michigan'S http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/wxcam.html Check out the weather and scenery in your area or in the area where someone you know lives *smile* Donner summit in California is interesting in the winter tiime. Lots of snow and trucks impounded until the roads clear (if the name Donner is not familiar to you, ask me...) Mauna Loa Observatory on our Island is good, also, but for very different reasons."}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 19, 1999 (15:53)", "body": "While the Caribbean plays games with Hurricane Lenny, we have high surf warnings. It is the normal situation in the winter when we get our weather patterns flowing from west to east. Forecast For Hilo, Hi 10 Am Hst Fri Nov 19 1999 ...High Surf Advisory In Effect For North Shores... .This Afternoon...Becoming Mostly Cloudy With Widely Scattered Showers. Trade Winds 5 To 15 Mph. .Tonight...Mostly Cloudy With Widely Scattered Showers. Trade Winds Increasing To 10 To 20 Mph. .Saturday...Becoming Sunny After Morning Showers. Trade Winds 10 To 20 Mph. Temperature Hilo Airport 77 65 78 Special weather statement 8 Am Hst Fri Nov 19 1999 The National Weather Service In Honolulu Has Issued A High Surf Advisory Effective At 8 Am Hst For The North Shores Of All The Hawaiian Islands. Surf Heights Reported This Morning Along The North Shores Of Oahu And Kauai Were 8 To 10 Feet. Surf Heights Are Forecast To Remain In The 8 To 12 Foot Range Along The North Shores Of Kauai And Oahu Today And Then Slowly Decline Tonight And Saturday. Surf Heights Will Be Lower Along West Shores And Along The North Shores Of The Other Islands. A New Swell Train From More Northwesterly Directions Is Excpected To Arrive Later On Saturday. Large Surf Poses A Danger To Swimmers...Surfers...Beachgoers And Opihi Pickers Along The Affected Shores. These Beaches Should Be Avoided Until The Surf Subsides. The Next Advisory Will Be Issued At 8 Pm Hst This Evening Or Sooner If Necessary. Rosendal National Weather Service Honolulu"}, {"response": 141, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Nov 22, 1999 (11:50)", "body": "musta jinxed myself... six inches of snow on the ground... another four expected before sundown (although, I mentioned elsewhere that the sun hasn't really even been seen today)"}, {"response": 142, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Nov 22, 1999 (11:54)", "body": "(bet it woulda looked pretty...)"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 22, 1999 (13:57)", "body": "I heard you were really going to get a sizeable accumulation - especially in the mountains - from this storm system. Sunset is just a time it gets dark...as is sunrise when it is storming outside. We are having much the same kind of day but a whole lot warmer *smile*"}, {"response": 144, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Nov 23, 1999 (10:38)", "body": "bitter cold right now but the sun is shining bright so I see no reason to complain... The ground was still really warm so most of the snow on the roads melted (and froze again this a.m.) but plenty of fluffy white on the grass and trees and roofs, etc..."}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Tue, Nov 23, 1999 (11:01)", "body": "So you won't be as annoyed as people who get a lot of snow normally are when the rest of us are a bit jealous?"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 23, 1999 (11:21)", "body": "I watched the Raiders - Broncos game played in Denver last night and it was fun to see white stuff falling from the skies. Stace had better be prepared for a lot of envy between now and the New Year. I put flocked white stuff everywhere so at night I can pretend it is like it was when I was young. *sigh* I don't miss the traffic snarls, however!"}, {"response": 147, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Nov 23, 1999 (11:47)", "body": "nope Mark... won't annoy me at all! The first 'winter' Brandon and I were in Colorado it snowed on September 25th. I went over to his house... at 5am and made him get dressed and take a picture with me outside! I still like the white and the fluffy... and now that I have an all-wheel drive vehicle the driving in it isn't so bad either... there is just a sense of loss at losing temperate sunny days in one fell swoop with nine inches of snow and temperatures in the teens... It's funny Marcia... now that's we have Christmas seasons with snow when we go back to Texas something just doesn't seem right..."}, {"response": 148, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Nov 23, 1999 (11:49)", "body": "And Marcia... I was AT that game last night (working in the Team Leukemia concession stand) and I froze my bippy!!"}, {"response": 149, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 23, 1999 (12:13)", "body": "Wow!!! Fantastic you were there (did you get to see any of it?)...and I'll bet your bippy was frozen. It is always the worst the first really cold snap of the year. Our bodies think we are playing cruel jokes on us and respond with cruel jokes of their own. Hot toddy weather, methinks! Next time there is a good accumulation, make snow angels for me. I miss being a little kid in the snow!"}, {"response": 150, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 24, 1999 (11:52)", "body": "Well, today is pleasantly chilled in Austin."}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 24, 1999 (12:22)", "body": "OOoh, it really is in the 40's. I envy you. In the 70's as usual here...Sun shining after a night of gentle rain to water our plants and clean off the leaves and do general dust control...*sigh*"}, {"response": 152, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Nov 24, 1999 (14:25)", "body": "was 14 F this morning... has warmed up to mid 40's in the sunshine"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 24, 1999 (16:18)", "body": "That will melt your pretty white fluffy stuff! Then it will refreeze tonight making it really fun and games on the roadways. Or, is it too early for that in Colorado? (14\ufffdF = -10\ufffdC) (40\ufffdF = 4.44444444\ufffdC)"}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, Nov 25, 1999 (10:35)", "body": "Temperature translations, Marcia! That is considerate! Surely it would take quite a while at mid-40s to thaw any serious snow? So long since we had any good stuff I don't remember"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 25, 1999 (12:15)", "body": "My pleasure on the conversion. My son got me a hand calculator which makes it very easy. I cannot stand not knowing how hot 42\ufffdC is when it sounds cold to me and they are complaining about the heat (107\ufffdF) - I do it for the non-Americans who seem to outnumber the locals. Thanks for your comments, Mark! Since Britain is surrounded by moderating seas, you do not get as much snow which looks Dickensian?!"}, {"response": 156, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Nov 29, 1999 (09:55)", "body": "and back to warmth... highs in the upper 50s (F) since Friday... Still snow on the north face of everything but if you stay in the sun, you don't notice!"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 29, 1999 (12:52)", "body": "I noted while watching the Colorado game on Saturday that most of the snow was gone with only patchy [places under the trees and on the mountains. I was rooting for you to win the game - not much love for Nebraska from this Penn Stater. I am sure the ski resorts would appreciate a good blizzard about now!"}, {"response": 158, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Nov 29, 1999 (14:11)", "body": "The resorts have still been getting snow... evidently they had enough last week to generate quite a few happy faces over Thanksgiving. The high country gets and maintains their snow until the weather warms up for good!"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 29, 1999 (15:11)", "body": "This is true...and I am very happy for the most beautiful state I have ever visited. I miss winter and autumn, my very most favorite season!"}, {"response": 160, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (12:17)", "body": "It was a very loud night in Hilo. Much lightning and resulting thunder and buckets of rain as noted below. That means snow on our mountains. The only time we get snow up there is when we have thunder storms. They are the only precipitation-inducing clouds we get which are high enough to snow on the tops of the mountains. BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED FLASH FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI 2 AM HST THU DEC 2 1999 ...A FLASH FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM HST FOR PERSONS IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS... ON NORTH AND EAST HAWAII INCLUDING THE HILO AND PUNA DISTRICTS A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR HEAVY RAINFALL AND FLASH FLOODING. PERSONS ON NORTH AND EAST HAWAII SHOULD TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS NOW TO PROTECT PROPERTY AND BE PREPARED TO TAKE QUICK ACTION IF HEAVY RAIN IS OBSERVED OR A FLASH FLOOD WARNING IS ISSUED. NOW THAT THE GROUND IS SATURATED IN MOST OF NORTH AND SOUTH HILO AND PUNA...ANY ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAIN MAY RESULT IN FLASH FLOODING. SATELLITE AND WEATHER RADAR SHOW MORE THUNDERSTORMS OVER WATER EAST AND SOUTHEAST OF THE BIG ISLAND. FLASH FLOODING MAY OCCUR IF THESE THUNDERSTORMS MOVE OVER LAND. MOTORISTS SHOULD BE ALERT FOR FLOODING AND SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS FAST FLOWING OR RISING WATER...MANY FLASH FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR WHEN MOTORISTS TRY CROSSING FLOODED ROADWAYS. ESCAPE RISING WATER BY GOING DIRECTLY TO HIGHER GROUND. NEVER TRY TO OUTRUN A FLOOD EITHER ON FOOT OR IN YOUR VEHICLE. DO NOT CAMP NEAR STREAMS OR OTHER AREAS SUBJECT TO FLOODING. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...LOCAL TV OR RADIO FOR FURTHER NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INFORMATION. CRAIG NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU"}, {"response": 161, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (14:52)", "body": "You and John are on high ground, I hope!"}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (15:19)", "body": "John teaches at the high school across the street from the Athletic Complex of UHHilo so is pretty high and as dry as anyone is going to be today. He lives in a condo on overlooking Hilo Bay and is well fortified against the elements. I am well above sea level and the yard is surrounded by a drainage \"moat\" which empties uner the street and goes down across the golf course and eventually into Hilo Bay. That \"moat\" is usually a mowed and grassy slope which is quite pretty, or partly a stone wall...with a offee tree growing in it at present time - the gift of the last flooding rains we had."}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (15:24)", "body": "What is fun is listening to the public works road crews - they speak a language which is a whole nuther thing to English. It is very picturesque and semi-pidgin English with some Hawaiiand and Japanese mixed in for good measure. It is an adventure to listen to them (on scanner, of course.)"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (17:09)", "body": "Check this picture for true snow in paradise. It IS snowing on Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. This is from the 9,000 foot level (2743M) level on Mauna Loa"}, {"response": 165, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (19:29)", "body": "This picture is Mauna Kea with snow on the top from Mauna Loa. The camera is located atop the buildings in the previous photograph."}, {"response": 166, "author": "patas", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 1999 (22:48)", "body": "Fantastic! But why am I so surprised - high mountains will get snow however tropically situated. Madeira is the same."}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 1999 (23:07)", "body": "I guess no one ever imagines Hawaii as having mountains that high. They think we are a single funnel-shaped volcano with a palm tree sticking out of the side and white beach all around the perimeter. Not so. This island is 200 sq miles (518 sq Km)and has green, black, brown and some white beaches...and mountains high enough to have snow on them right now!"}, {"response": 168, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (06:54)", "body": "Cooler weather headed this way. It's been delightful for a long, long time here."}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (11:52)", "body": "I've noted your spring/fall weather rather jealously. Do you ever get snow on the ground in Austin."}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (14:50)", "body": "Lets see if these update: For Austin and vicinity"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (17:01)", "body": "Fierce Winter Storms Ravage Northern Europe COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Fierce winter storms left at least 17 people dead and scores injured across northern Europe on Saturday, as well as causing millions of dollars of damage and severely disrupting power and transport. Emergency officials said a series of storms packing gale force winds and heavy rain or snow rolled eastward from Britain on Friday afternoon, causing devastation across Scandinavia, Germany, Poland and the Baltic states overnight. Denmark appeared hardest hit and officials there said six people were killed and many injured in the country's most powerful storm this century. Material damage was estimated at more than one billion crowns ($134.5 million), the Danish Insurance Information Service said. ``This is the worst storm in Denmark this century,'' an official at the Danish Meteorological Institute said on DR1 television. Rescue officials logged more than 4,000 reports of damage to buildings, mainly shattered windows and torn off roofs, DR1 said. THREE KILLED IN NORTHERN POLAND In northern Poland, falling trees killed three people early on Saturday as 62 mph winds swept across the country, downing power and telephone lines, damaging houses and wreaking havoc with road and rail transport. A giant 345 foot crane capable of lifting 900 tons was toppled into the sea at a shipyard in the Baltic port of Gdynia. Rail connections between Warsaw and the Baltic cities of Szczecin and Gdansk were cut by falling trees, the news agency PAP reported. Air traffic at northern airports was badly disrupted. ``Many homes are cut off from the world, without power or electricity,'' the agency said. Casualty figures are expected to rise as more information arrived from outlying areas, police officials said. In Sweden, three people were killed and more than 125,000 households and businesses were left without power when the storm swept southern and central regions. Power companies said every effort was being made to restore power in the Skane region, Dalsland and Nykoping but about 70,000 households remained without power on Saturday afternoon. The storm halted traffic at Swedish airports and ferry terminals. Several train services were also cancelled. OFFICIALS HOPEFUL FOR TRAPPED LATVIAN FISHERMEN In Latvia, officials at the port of Liepaja said they were hopeful that six men trapped under their capsized fishing vessel since before dawn could survive a another night of crashing waves and near freezing water. ``We wouldn't speculate what the odds of survival are but we sincerely hope that there could be people still alive inside the wreck,'' a port official told Reuters. He said the water temperature was about 35.60 degrees Fahrenheit with winds of 18 miles per hour. He added the waves remained strong and winds were expected to reach 55 miles per hour overnight. Lithuanian media reported a 13-year-old boy had been crushed to death after strong winds toppled the chimney of his house in the western region of Shilute. A 76-year-old Hamburg man died and 16 others were hurt in Germany, officials reported. Strong winds, which reached up to 110 mph, ripped off roofs, and flooding raised the sea level 19 feet in Hamburg. On Friday, three people were killed when a large tree fell onto traffic as gales swept central England. Rain, snow and heavy winds also caused serious travel problems in Scotland."}, {"response": 172, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (17:11)", "body": "well marcia, thanks for the snow pics in hawaii because i would've been hard-pressed to believe it (and i know mountains in tropical zones get snow!!) we've got rain and cooler temps. it's beginning to feel like christmas (for Louisiana that is). but it's been sooooo muggy."}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (17:32)", "body": "You have my commiseration on the humidity front. It has rained for so long everything I own aches - including inanimate objects and my refirgerator is sweating - I hate that! If we wanted to be in a really huge traffic jam we'd go up the mountain with some plywood or a sheet of galvanized metal and slide on the snow. But, we don't so we didn't... This is about as Christmassy as Hawaii gets, as well."}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (17:33)", "body": "Where in Looziana are you? Gimme a town so I can put it on my weather program and see how you're doing."}, {"response": 175, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (18:53)", "body": "Bossier City--and it's raining cats and dogs. there was some wind damage over in Marshal Texas but all the bad weather is moving east."}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (19:09)", "body": "Ah...that band of bad weather on the above images (Response 170) are going eastward. I guess you are in the middle of it right about now...Keep warm and dry, Wolfie!!!"}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (19:23)", "body": "Oh, bummer!!! You have a tornado watch in effect. Sheesh! Hunker down, Dear. We cannot afford to have any Wolfies visiting Oz!"}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  5, 1999 (16:59)", "body": "Oh good! The Response 170 weather maps of Austin and Texas in general update. I can keep watch over you now!"}, {"response": 179, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Dec  5, 1999 (20:53)", "body": "well, you can see that we are having a clear night, those temps are gonna drop. and it's been cold all day! *woohoo* feels like Christmas. now if i could just get the icicle lights on the outside of the house!"}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  5, 1999 (21:37)", "body": "Oooh...you got those lovely dangly ones...they are very popular over here as it is the only time it looks like Christmas. In the daytime all of the green leaves and flowers show and it looks like summer! Looks like you are gonna have good weather and cold nights for a while - just about the entire country is cloud-free!"}, {"response": 181, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec  6, 1999 (08:48)", "body": "Chilly Willy!!! 20 degrees here."}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  6, 1999 (12:01)", "body": "That's getting down to the seriously cold...(-6.7\ufffdC) Almost \"take a friend to bed to stay warm\" temperatures! How cold does Austin get actually?"}, {"response": 183, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Dec  7, 1999 (12:32)", "body": "back into the high 40s yesterday and today... cold front tonight w/ a few inches of snow and highs only in the 20s tomorrow... I'll be in Hawaii in 3 1/2 days!"}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  7, 1999 (14:39)", "body": "The weather will be lovely for you. Bring your surf board: Forecast For Hilo, Hi 4 Am Hst Tue Dec 7 1999 ...High Surf Advisory In Effect For North And West Shores... .Today...Brief Mainly Morning Showers. Frequently Sunny In The Afternoon. High In The Upper 70S. Trades 10 To 25 Mph. .Tonight...Brief Showers. Low In The Mid 60S. Variable Wind 5 To 15 Mph. .Wednesday...Mostly Cloudy With A Few Showers. High In The Upper 70S. Trades 10 To 25 Mph. Special weather statement 830 Am Hst Tue Dec 7 1999 ...A High Surf Advisory Is In Effect For The North And West Shores Of All Hawaiian Islands... Another Northwest Swell Generated Several Days Ago By A Storm In The North Pacific Will Arrive At Hawaii Today. Surf Along The North Shores Of Kauai And Oahu Will Rise To 12 To 18 Feet This Morning While West Shores Will See 8 To 12 Foot Surf. Somewhat Lower Surf Will Arrive Along The North And West Shores Of The Other Islands By Early Afternoon. The Surf Will Lower Wednesday But The High Surf Advisory Will Likely Remain In Effect. Beachgoers Are Urged To Stay Out Of The Water And Well Away From The Shorebreak Due To The Suddenly Rising Waves And Riptide Action. The Next Issuance Will Be At 830 Pm Hst Or Sooner If Needed. Craig National Weather Service Honolulu State Extended Forecast .Thursday Through Saturday...Increasing Showers Both Windward And Leeward. Chance Of Locally Heavy Showers. Trade Winds 20 To 3O Mph And Gusty Becoming 10 To 20 Mph Friday And Turning Southeast 5 To 15 Mph Saturday. Lows Upper 60S To Lower 70S. Highs Upper 70S To Mid 80S."}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  7, 1999 (14:43)", "body": "I did not send you any information because what tourism stuff we get here is so old and miserable, you are better off stopping by one of this kiosks at the airport and picking up a bunch for Honolulu, Oahu and whatever else interests you. Tomorrow, another weather update for you - and you can access our updating weather maps for the islands further up on these Responses."}, {"response": 186, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Dec  8, 1999 (10:12)", "body": "the road were nice a clean from the last snow dumping we had but the snow was still hanging around on the grass... we got five inches over night and they expect up to 12 more this afternoon... 2 1/2 days and counting... pulled the bikini out... and the shorts and tank tops!"}, {"response": 187, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec  8, 1999 (13:15)", "body": "Kinda cool, cloudy, rainy and muggy 'round these hyar parts."}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  8, 1999 (14:33)", "body": "Bring sunblock, Stace! Even if it is cloudy, you're gonna burn in that radiation! Especially with all the tender parts emposed by that bikini...! (I have experienced same and have aloe vera plants growing all over - after the fact.) Austin's temp and humidity is almost like Hilo's today but we have trade winds starting and a blue sky, so it will be most pleasant later. Still high surf... Betcha don't get hardly any of those warnings in Austin! Forecast For Honolulu, Hi 10 Am Hst Wed Dec 8 1999 ...A High Surf Advisory Is In Effect For North And West Shores... .Today...Partly Sunny And Windy With A Few Showers. Gusty Trades 20 To 30 Mph. .Tonight And Thursday...Continued Windy With Brief Showers. Gusty Trades 20 To 30 Mph. Temperature Honolulu Airport 83 72 83 Kaneohe Mcbh 80 72 80 Makaha 81 71 81 Wahiawa 76 64 76 Special weather statement 830 Am Hst Wed Dec 8 1999 ...A High Surf Advisory Is In Effect For The North And West Shores Of All Hawaiian Islands... Surf Along All North And West Shores Will Be Lower Today...And The Downward Trend In Surf Heights Will Continue Through Thursday. The Forecast Calls For Surf Along The Northwest Facing Shores Of Kauai And Oahu To Be 6 To 10 Feet Today. Surf On The Other Islands Will Be Foot Or Two Lower. Beachgoers Are Urged To Stay Well Away From The Shorebreak Due To The Suddenly Rising Waves And Riptide Action. The Next Issuance Will Be At 830 Pm Hst Or Sooner If Needed. Craig National Weather Service Honolulu State Extended Forecast .Friday Through Sunday...Increasing Showers...Some Possibly Heavy. Trades 10 To 20 Mph Becoming Southeast 10 To 20 Mph Saturday And Sunday. Lows In The Upper 60S To Lower 70S. Highs Near 80."}, {"response": 189, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec  9, 1999 (09:00)", "body": "Stacey's doing Hawaii?"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  9, 1999 (15:28)", "body": "Tomorrow, I think...The Honolulu Marathon is this weekend! It is now raining outside...but cool!"}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  9, 1999 (15:29)", "body": "Gonna check to see if it will be live on the net...."}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  9, 1999 (15:36)", "body": "Check http://virt-340.connix.com/chapters/southeastern/HonoluluMarathon.html for everythihng you ever wanted to know about the Honolulu Marathon on Dec 12th"}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  9, 1999 (15:45)", "body": "RACE DAY NOTICE: The 1999 Honolulu Marathon will be held on Sunday, December 12th starting at 5 AM (HST). Unofficial results for the mens' champion and top mens' finishers will be posted to this website as soon as they come in from the finish line (sometime between 7:15 and 7:30 AM HST). Unofficial results for the womens' champion and top womens' finishers will also be posted as soon as they come in from the finish line (sometime between 7:40 and 7:50 AM HST). Other unofficial results will be posted and updated as they come in throughout the morning. Official results for all finishers will be posted to a searchable database when they become available. Local radio station KGU 760 AM will broadcast the Honolulu Marathon live from 5 to 8 AM on race day. Traffic to this website will increase more than 10 fold on race day and throughout the post-race week. With thousands of simultaneous hits, you may experience slow performance. Your patience is appreciated. Mahalo!"}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  9, 1999 (15:46)", "body": "The above from the official Honolulu Marathon website http://www.honolulumarathon.org/"}, {"response": 195, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec  9, 1999 (20:35)", "body": "go stacey!!"}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  9, 1999 (20:48)", "body": "(was gonna say \"break a leg\" for good luck...but thought the better of it...!)"}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 11, 1999 (23:15)", "body": "Weather forecast for the Honolulu Marathon which begins at 5am HST (9am Austin) Metric | English | Both Updated: 06:53 PM HST on December 11, 1999 Observed at Temperature 74\ufffd F HeatIndex 72\ufffd F Humidity 91% Dewpoint 71\ufffd F Wind East at 6 mph Pressure 30.00 in Conditions Light Rain Visibility 8 miles Hourly Precipitation 0.010 in Sunrise 6:58 AM (HST) Sunset 5:53 PM (HST) Moon Rise 10:41 AM (HST) Moon Set 10:08 PM (HST) Moon Phase Historical Conditions Add this page to your Favorites. Add this sticker to your homepage! Honolulu, Hawaii 74\ufffd F Light Rain at 6:53 PM (Click for forecast) Forecast as of 4:00 pm HST on December 11, 1999 High surf advisory in effect for north and west shores... Tonight Cloudy with occasional rain...some locally heavy. Chance of thundershowers. Southeast wind 10 to 25 mph. Sunday Cloudy with occasional rain...some locally heavy. Chance of thundershowers. Southeast wind 10 to 25 mph."}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 11, 1999 (23:17)", "body": "Forecast For Honolulu, Hi 830 Pm Hst Fri Dec 10 1999 ...Flash Flood Watch In Effect Until 5 Am Saturday... ...High Surf Advisory In Effect For North And West Shores... .Tonight...Showers...Some Locally Heavy With A Chance Of A Thunderstorm. Southeast Winds 10 To 20 Mph. .Saturday...Mostly Cloudy With A Few Mainly Windward Showers. Chance Of A Heavy Shower Or Thundershower. Southeast Wind 10 To 20 Mph. .Saturday Night And Sunday...Mostly Cloudy. Showers Mainly Windward With A Chance Of Heavy Showers. Southeast Winds 10 To 20 Mph. . Temperature Honolulu Airport 73 81 73 81 Kaneohe Mcbh 74 79 74 79 Makaha 70 81 70 81 Wahiawa 65 74 65 74 State Extended Forecast .Monday Through Wednesday...Partly Cloudy With Showers Mainly Windward. Chance Of Heavy Showers Kauai And Oahu. East Winds 10 To 20 Mph Except Becoming Southeast 10 To 20 Mph Tuesday Over Kauai And Oahu. Highs Near 80. Lows In The Upper 60S."}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 12, 1999 (10:47)", "body": "I woke up at 4:30am this morning and listed to the start of the Honolulu Marathon. The weather is as big a part of the story as the runners today. They are saying it is the worst race conditions since 1987 with torrential downpours and gusty winds. Monsoon conditions - on this Island as well. The race favorites, the Ethiopians are falling behind and the Russian women ( but not including our own Tinianovna) are running strongly and in front of the pack. Poor Stace, this is Not the way to start your ca eer in Marathoning. However, she is not alone; Thousands are running for the benefit of cancer research in diverse areas. They have raised many thousands of dollars for their cause - a truly meritorious reason for pounding your pedal extremities to a pulp. Go Stace!"}, {"response": 200, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (10:21)", "body": "Hurrah for Stacey! :-)"}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (11:52)", "body": "Lots more about her in the race in Fitness conf topic 15. I posted all sorts of things there yesterday including her order of finish."}, {"response": 202, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (13:01)", "body": "For Anne Hale in Western Australia I post this Weather map which I hope updates: And, the satellite image: http://cnn.com/WEATHER/html/PerthAustralia.html"}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (13:03)", "body": "There are two cyclones in these weather maps. Good luck, Dear! Keep us posted! Anne wrote earlier today: We have a catogory five cyclone coming down the coast and the news media is saying the worst Australia has ever faced - think of the people in the North West tonight and early tomorrow morning - perhaps Spring will be interested. Anne"}, {"response": 204, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (15:25)", "body": "Take care, Anne!"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (19:28)", "body": "From Anne as regards Cyclone John: Fortunately it is hundred's of miles from us and will only cause humidity and heat here in Perth. Karratha it seems will escape the worst of it. They were expecting huge tides but providentially it is expected to cross the coast at low tide. Most of the people of the town have been evacuated to higher ground. Fortunately too if it moves a little further down the coast it will cross over in a unpopulated area - an answer to prayer I believe. I shall keep you informed if anything further occurs. Anne"}, {"response": 206, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (19:32)", "body": ""}, {"response": 207, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (19:32)", "body": ""}, {"response": 208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (20:05)", "body": "Oh Anne...your posts are disappearing on you again. I wish I could figure out what was the matter!"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (22:22)", "body": "From Anne Hale: Marcia the cyclone has crossed the coast at a very small settlement called Whims Creek - it packed winds of 300ks an hour and has been confirmed as the strongest cyclone ever in Australia - or at least since records began. Port Hedland a large mining town has closed down and there is bad flooding etc. happening up there. There are no reports yet of damage or loss of life. Hopefully all reached higher ground and housed safely in schools etc. in the area. Thanks again for your concern. Anne"}, {"response": 210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (22:24)", "body": "300 ks = 186.4 mph. A brisk wind indeed! Thanks Anne. Let us know if you hear anything further."}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (23:10)", "body": "Cyclone John Hits West Australian Coast PERTH (Reuters) - Destructive gale-force winds lifted roofs from houses and cut communications as Cyclone John pounded towns on Australia's isolated northwest coast on Wednesday. The cyclone crossed the coast of Western Australia around 9.00 a.m. near the tiny settlement of Whim Creek, cutting off communications. Gerry Blum, a state emergency services official at the coastal town of Karratha, said houses had been damaged and power was down in the towns of Point Samson, Roebourne and Wickham, which collectively have a population of about 3,000 people. ``There are reports of substantial damage coming in from those areas and we are organizing a team to go out there to see what the situation is,'' Blum said. Whim Creek, one of many isolated towns in the state's Pilbara mining region, has a hotel, petrol station, and only a handful of miners and prospectors living in the settlement. ``When the conditions are right we will send a helicopter up to Whim Creek and see what is happening up there because we have lost contact with the people there,'' Blum said. About 400 people from the town of Karratha, which has a population of about 6,000, were on Tuesday moved into emergency shelters amid fears huge tides could devastate low-lying areas. ``Fortunately the cyclone did not come into Karratha as predicted, at the last moment it veered off to the east,'' Blum said. RED ALERT REMAINS Residents in Karratha were not yet permitted to return to their homes on Wednesday morning as the region remained on red alert amid fears conditions could still worsen. The cyclone, the most severe category five storm with winds gusting up to 290 kph, has caused iron ore operations to close and shut-down offshore oil production. The northwest coastal region of Western Australia is typically threatened by several cyclones each season. Cyclone John was the strongest cyclone to hit the coast since Cyclone Vance destroyed a third of the tiny fishing town of Exmouth earlier this year. Cyclone Warning Center spokesman Bryan Boase said the cyclone had hit the coast near Whim Creek as a category five cyclone with gusts stronger than the 167 mph level recorded by the destructive cyclone Vance. ``We haven't got any measuring gear there but we would estimate, as forecast, gusts around 290 kph. It is pretty substantial,'' he told Reuters. ``It is certainly right up there with Vance.'' Boase said the cyclone had now been downgraded to a category four cyclone, defined as having wind speeds from 225 kph to 279 kph, and would progressively weaken as it moved inland. Australian mining and energy companies continued to shut operations on Wednesday as Cyclone John passed overhead, with iron ore miner North Ltd closing its Pannawonica mine in the Pilbara. Woodside Petroleum said its North Rankin gas platform off the coast had escaped damage while the Cossack Pioneer oil production ship had stopped production and was sailing west to avoid the squalls. The Insurance Council of Australia said insured losses from the cyclone could be about A$300 million (US$192 million), the same as Cyclone Vance."}, {"response": 212, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 15, 1999 (00:35)", "body": "Severe dust storm here. Blew in from West Texas. It's eery and spooky. We just ain't seen dust like this in these parts. That's why a lot of West Texas folks moved to Austin, to escape the dusty conditions. Rare!"}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 15, 1999 (12:48)", "body": "How long does this stuff hang in the air after the wind stops, Terry? Sounds miserable! Is it gritty or fine and power-like? From Anne Hale on the aftermath of Cyclone John Marcia on our news just to hand - no one hurt, some damage, Whim Creek people managed to save themselves in and old iron container from and old ship. Cyclone suddenly veered off and went inland at a small township of just 12 people who as I said managed to shelter in an old container. The other towns had some damage but not casualties heavy rain, some flooding but everyone okay. Another cyclone Ilsa due in a couple of days hopefully not so destructive. Perth is okay. We may get some of the rain on Sunday but as I said before - heat and humidity but main populated areas safe. Anne Thank you to everyone for their concern."}, {"response": 214, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 16, 1999 (13:46)", "body": "It didn't hang around very long. We're back to normal now."}, {"response": 215, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 16, 1999 (14:03)", "body": "Excellent news. Back to breathing air you cannot see? Scary stuff!!!"}, {"response": 216, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 17, 1999 (08:52)", "body": "Yep. We got dusted and now it's back to normal. The folks that moved here from West Texas to escape the dust got an eerie reminder of their roots."}, {"response": 217, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 17, 1999 (13:33)", "body": "Like they tell me when it rains on my visits to Sunny California, they musta brought it with them. BTW, What is \"normal\" for Texas? I have heard so many stories..."}, {"response": 218, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (08:35)", "body": "There's a major cold front heading this way, you can feel it in the air."}, {"response": 219, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (13:32)", "body": "I posted your WX report and chill warnings in Austin News. Going to be in the teens and icy roads a real possibility. Please be careful out there!"}, {"response": 220, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (15:33)", "body": "cold and cold and super cold here... only in the twenties but there is some humidity in the air (very rare) which makes it feel like negative 273 Kelvin!"}, {"response": 221, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (16:12)", "body": "Are you sure you don't mean Celsius? It probably does feel about that cold, though. Sears the lungs and freezes up your nose. Not a good place for me this week, I think!"}, {"response": 222, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (17:40)", "body": "Nope, I meant Kelvin... of course I know we'd all be dead if it were either... so I was kinda stretching the truth."}, {"response": 223, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (18:29)", "body": "Yup! Especially since on the Kelvin scale absolute zero means all molecular activity is stopped. No orbiting electrons, no nothing! (I knew you knew!) *lol* That IS cold!!!"}, {"response": 224, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (19:45)", "body": "Venezuelan Flood Toll Rises to 10,000 Amid Looting LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (Reuters) - The death toll from mudslides and flash floods that swamped Venezuela's Caribbean coast last week rose to at least 10,000 on Monday, as hundreds of desperate survivors ransacked the main cargo port. Troops fired shots into the air at La Guaira port as disheveled looters, many barefoot, broke into containers and escaped with children's toys, work tools and fine imported foods such as smoked salmon and Swiss cheese. While some hungrily devoured their bounty sitting on the mud-caked streets, troops pinned about eight youths face down, their hands clasped behind their necks. The streets around the port teemed with people left behind by a massive air, land and sea evacuation of the coastal Vargas state which was devastated by torrential rains that lashed the South American country last week. ``Definitely it won't be less than 10,000 dead,'' Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel told Reuters. At a news conference later, Rangel said the death toll could reach 20,000, adding that ``any figure we give is more in the realm of speculation than reality.'' The death toll would make it Venezuela's worst ever natural disaster. It would also surpass the 9,000 people killed in Central America by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Authorities have recovered 1,500 bodies, Rangel said. ''There are bodies in the sea, bodies buried under mud, bodies everywhere,'' he added. U.S. GENERAL ``SHAKEN'' BY DAMAGE About 350,000 people lived in Vargas, an area just north of the capital Caracas about half the size of the smallest U.S. state Rhode Island. Along a 60-mile (100-km) stretch of coast, landslides and raging rivers buried entire towns under yards (meters) of earth, boulders and rubble, leaving tall buildings marooned in a sea of now rock-hard debris. U.S. military Southern Command chief Gen. Charles Wilhelm said he was ``shaken'' by what he saw after an overflight of the disaster area to assess humanitarian needs. ``The extent of the damage is indeed massive and it is obvious that a very, very large effort will be required to achieve recovery,'' he told reporters. Officials said reconstruction would run into billions of dollars and take several years. The Caracas stock market fell 8.8 percent over the impact on the recession-bound economy. About 200,000 people were made homeless by the floods which affected the entire northern coast, from the tourist island of Margarita to the western Zulia state bordering Colombia. With officials hinting that most of Vargas state would have to be razed, President Hugo Chavez said survivors would be moved to new settlements built in the interior of the country. ``Now comes the task of convincing people of the need to go to safer places, it won't be easy,'' he said during a visit to a Caracas sports hall sheltering more than 1,000 people. Dressed in the military fatigues he has worn since the crisis broke on Dec. 15, the former paratrooper said the government had enough land to accommodate everyone. ``Don't ask me how long it will take, but we start work today,'' he said, adding that 5,000 newly built houses were ready to be occupied. CHAVEZ: ``ADOPT A FAMILY FOR CHRISTMAS'' Chavez said army barracks would house refugees and called on the rich to ``adopt a family for Christmas.'' Leading by example, he took in at La Casona presidential residence dozens of young children orphaned by the floods. Evacuation of Vargas continued in a massive air-and-sea military rescue operation involving 12,000 troops, about 40 helicopters and several warships. Most towns along the coast were virtually deserted as the government tried to avoid epidemics caused by blocked drains, absence of running water and rotting corpses. ``The operation is house-to-house ... with dogs ... we're going to comb the entire area,'' Chavez said. Soldiers patrolled the rubble strewn coastal streets, searching for those still reluctant to leave. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed to combat widespread looting and theft. At the once plush resort town of Caraballeda, long lines of people waited under a blazing sun and waded up to their chests to board a naval ship designed to transport tanks and troops. Soldiers carried some aboard on stretchers. Flanked by the towering Avila mountain range, Vargas houses the country's main cargo port and international airport and contained some of the country's most popular beaches. Officials said the airport would be closed for at least another week and maybe as long as a month. Some international flights were being diverted via regional airports."}, {"response": 225, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (20:32)", "body": "hey people, we may get some snow (ok, louisiana snow--it's called ice, but it'll do in a pinch!). it's real cold out there. now watch it be 70 deg on Christmas Day! oh, how did you do stacey? i somehow missed the whole thing. did go to the site that marcia posted and looked for your name on last year's list. perhaps, i should go again?"}, {"response": 226, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (20:37)", "body": "It is frozen water? Falls from the sky from God's hands to your yard? It works for me! Wolfie, did I confuse you with my syntax or lack thereof? I meant I posted the Weather for Austin (since she would be visiting in TX over the holidays) and mistakenly said \"yours\" instead. Sorry!!!"}, {"response": 227, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (20:44)", "body": "no, didn't catch it *grin*"}, {"response": 228, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (21:05)", "body": "...I am totally lost...but that's not that unusual. Must have the Y2K flu which shut off my mental computer..."}, {"response": 229, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (21:13)", "body": "now i'm confused! *heehee* start over? hi, i'm wolfie and we might get some snow in looooziana tonight *aaawwww heeee*"}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (21:18)", "body": "It works for me... Musta been from all that dreaming of a white-stuff Christmas (Where did you lose Stace?)"}, {"response": 231, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (21:22)", "body": "i dunno, somewhere where you all were talking about how well she did in the race."}, {"response": 232, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (21:50)", "body": "fitness...I'll email you the URL for that. Ah so! Lightbulb is lighted! *Whew*"}, {"response": 233, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (12:38)", "body": "I post the following and add my concern for MarkG's well-being. Please check in with us as soon as you get to a handy computer! Scores Evacuated As Southern England Hit by Storms LONDON (Reuters) - Scores of Britons were evacuated from their homes and more than 5,000 houses were without electricity as gales and heavy rain lashed southern Britain on Christmas Day, officials said. Flood warnings were issued for 60 rivers in the southwestern counties of Cornwall and Devon. High tides forced police to evacuate 200 residents in east Sussex one of the worst-hit coastal areas -- but they were later able to return to their homes. Gales brought down power lines, knocking out supplies to about 4,000 homes in East Anglia in eastern England and 1,500 homes in south Wales. The Environment Agency said a change in wind direction and an easing of the rain had helped prevent worse problems. ``Although we expect showers today, conditions are much better than they were 24 or 36 hours ago,'' a spokesman said. ``River levels are very high all over Devon and Cornwall and across the south coast, but tides should start to decrease later in the afternoon,'' he said. Londoners were battered by strong winds and rain overnight but awoke to better weather on Christmas morning. ``There was some flooding in the Thames region with damage to lowland and farmland areas,'' said the spokesman. ``A lot of rivers have peaked, but the worst is likely over.'' The stormy weather played havoc with shipping off Britain's coasts, prompting several coastguard authorities to issue warnings. A crewman died on Friday from injuries sustained when raging seas swamped a cargo ship off England's southwest coast. On the northwest coast, a five-month-old baby was among six people airlifted by an air force helicopter from a stricken Dutch coaster."}, {"response": 234, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 1999 (17:51)", "body": "Storms in Europe Kill More Than 50 People PARIS (Reuters) - Tornado-force winds up to 120 mph lashed western Europe over the Christmas weekend, killing up to 53 people, including two in a ski gondola brought down in the Swiss Alps. The gales disrupted rail services, blocked roads and closed both Paris airports for several hours on Sunday. Euro Disney (EDLP.PA) closed its Disneyland Paris theme park because of fears about the safety of visitors. Up to 28 deaths were reported in France, two of them when a roof collapsed on a family gathered for Christmas lunch. A woman was blown into Le Havre harbor and drowned. Others were crushed in their cars by falling trees. About 200 people were reported injured. Gales gusted to 60 mph in low lying area of Switzerland, and up to 120 mph atop the Jungfrau peak. TEENAGERS DIE IN SKI CABIN In the ski resort of Crans Montana, a 13-year-old German boy and an 18-year-old Belgian girl were killed when a tree crashed into a cable and sent their ski gondola plunging to the ground. Swiss media reported at least eight other weather-related deaths, including an elderly man blown to his death south of Zurich while trying to repair his roof. In the central village of Kandergrund, locals told how freak winds left a trail of destruction, tearing off roofs, wrecking buildings and flattening forests. ``It is dreadful, what this storm has done in such a short time,'' said Peter Roesti, head of the local community. Zurich airport was operating on Sunday but with delays. FALLEN TREES CAUSE CHAOS IN GERMANY In southwestern Germany at least 12 people died, many of them in road accidents caused by fallen trees, including three occupants of a car hit by a tree in a village near Ettlingen. The weather delayed flights in Stuttgart and Munich, disrupted trains to and from Switzerland and brought down power lines. Officials estimated the damage at millions of marks (dollars). Some 1.5 million French homes were without electricity, French media reported. Half a dozen people were seriously injured in Paris by falling walls or collapsing roofs. Three huge cranes were blown over in separate areas of Paris. Nearly all commuter train services to and from the suburbs were shut down, along with seven of the city's 14 Metro lines. Police even barred cars and pedestrians from the Champs Elysees because of flying roof tiles. Incoming flights to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports were diverted to Brussels, Lyon and other West European cities. The airports partly reopened in the afternoon as the winds moved eastwards. High tides and the threat of floods forced about 300 people out of homes along the south coast of England on Christmas Day. Three people have died in weather-related incidents in Britain since Christmas Eve. The storm hampered the work of firemen, soldiers and hundreds of volunteers trying to save beaches on France's Atlantic coast from dense oil spilled when the tanker Erika sank on December 12. In Austria eight people were injured, two seriously, when a British bus skidded off a snow-covered road and tumbled 15 yards down a mountainside in Tyrol. The ferocious weather was moving east but had not yet reached the Balkans, where people in Kosovo and Serbia are ill prepared to face it. Many in Kosovo live in make-shift shelter because their houses were destroyed during this year's March-to-June war. Many Serbians have scant heat for their homes because international trade sanctions restrict fuel supplies."}, {"response": 235, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (12:49)", "body": "Europe mopping up after second hurricane in a couple of days hit France. 3 million still without electricity, not expected to be back on until new year. 2/3 of France reported to be affected by storm damage. Swathes of tress flattened, versailles lookes like a demolition site, don't know about damage to the palace. Current total 130 dead in storms and avalanches across mainland Europe. Austria badly hit by avalanches. Southern Britain still mopping up after severe flooding. Thames barrier raised for fi e consecutive tides (usually only raised three times a year)."}, {"response": 236, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (15:13)", "body": "...and it is now slamming into the Czech Republic as it wakes its way eastward. Wonder if this will be the storm of the millenniumn?!"}, {"response": 237, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (15:15)", "body": "Maggie, how are you doing in Britain? Did you have to evacuate? Did you lose some lovely old trees?"}, {"response": 238, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (15:21)", "body": "Lucie was asking about Portugal's status on Drool. Any info Marcia? But now that I read the news story above about the situation in the alps, we have Moon to worry about now. I'm pretty sure they were in Chamonix. :-("}, {"response": 239, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (16:16)", "body": "Gi just posted this on Topic 4: Response 31 of 32: Gi (patas) * Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:54) * 1 lines There have been showers and some wind at different times here in Lisbon and in Albufeira. We were afraid the storm would hit us for New Year's Eve but I checked the weather channel online just now and it is supposed to get better for friday."}, {"response": 240, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (16:40)", "body": "Good news about Gi. Any news on the French alps?"}, {"response": 241, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (16:41)", "body": "Maggie mentioned in fitness that the Thames spilled over its banks and flooded a park near to her gym... but she says the ducks love it!"}, {"response": 242, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (20:22)", "body": "Thanks for posting that. Scary! From Anne Hale in Western Australia: Today is going to be over a 100 degrees with a possibility of thunderstorms - tomorrow, 100, and the same on Saturday. This is one of the worst heat waves we have suffered in years and no end in sight. A blocking high in the Australian Bight is the cause. Well at least we don't have flooding, Melbourne has been awash. (100\ufffd F = 37.8\ufffd C)"}, {"response": 243, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 1999 (09:33)", "body": "I hope we get an update soon from Ree about weather conditions in Europe, it's been pretty intense over there."}, {"response": 244, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 1999 (20:54)", "body": "I was hoping she would check in over the holidays. The reports from Zurich were not as bad as from other places...but it sure would be mice to hear from her! We are worried!"}, {"response": 245, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 31, 1999 (09:28)", "body": "It would be exceedingly nice to hear from Ree."}, {"response": 246, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 31, 1999 (12:13)", "body": "....and exceedingly reassuring! One of our sisters is missing...our family is not complete!"}, {"response": 247, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  4, 2000 (16:52)", "body": "Since all things Earth are affected by things Solar, keeping a watch on Sun Spots is a science in itself...including an interest by meteorologists: This updates and you can watch the sun rotate by watching it often..."}, {"response": 248, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  4, 2000 (18:53)", "body": "Thousands Without Power Following Kentucky Storms OWENSBORO, Ky. (Reuters) - Thousands of homes were without power on Tuesday and storm debris littered streets and yards following a tornado that ripped through Owensboro and other parts of western Kentucky. The local power company, Owensboro Municipal Utilities, said it might take as long as five days to restore electricity to about 5,000 households in this town of 54,000 that were still blacked out following the Monday evening twister which snapped off dozens of power poles. Some of the most serious damage occurred at Kentucky Wesleyan University where the roof of the president's house was ripped off and nearly every building on campus suffered some damage. The campus was largely empty because students had not returned from Christmas break. No official damage estimates were available but about 50 houses were destroyed and many others damaged. There were several injuries though no deaths were blamed on the tornado in Owensboro. One man died near Paducah, Kentucky, when his truck was swept off a road by floodwaters from heavy rains that accompanied the storm front. The same storm system dumped heavy snow from parts of Kansas northeastward to Wisconsin and lower Michigan. There were also reports of tornadoes Monday in Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Frigid air spilling down from Canada was chasing away unseasonal warmth from the East Coast. In the upper Midwest temperatures were falling and lows around zero Fahrenheit (-17.7 C) were forecast Tuesday night."}, {"response": 249, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (06:42)", "body": "Thanks for the concern at #223, Marcia. Saw no evidence of flooding, as I had evacuated to Dublin before Christmas. Most of Northern mainland Europe had their highest winds of the century in its last week."}, {"response": 250, "author": "Moon", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (07:38)", "body": "Marcia, I was travelling into France on the worst day of all Dec. 26. The wrath of God decended on La France with high winds, snow storms, floods and even an oil leak on the coast of Bretagne. In Paris there were 30 dead from high winds. All their New Years decorations were brought down and they said the Eiffel Tower's fireworks at midnight were delayed because of it. Sacre bleu! My DH says it happened to La Grand France because they put sugar in their wines and butter and cream in their food. There's a true Italian!"}, {"response": 251, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (11:31)", "body": "Wow, Europe went out of the century like a lion. Those winds must have been fearsome to behold."}, {"response": 252, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (13:53)", "body": "Happy safe return to the European contingent. It is very good to hear from you! I hope the strong winds are lashing rain is out of the system for this winter! Thames Barrier up 5 days in one week! Unprescidented!! Moon...I love your DH's rationalization of the terrible winds and suffering which France underwent. Imagine sugaring wine? Bleah! As for their sauces, it is to hide miserable excuses for meat, according to my unbiased English grandfather. The Tour d'Eiffel was spectacular when it finally went off!"}, {"response": 253, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Jan 11, 2000 (17:22)", "body": "Yeah, but they still didn't put a man on the moon, did they? ;=}"}, {"response": 254, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 11, 2000 (19:26)", "body": "True...true...!"}, {"response": 255, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (16:01)", "body": "Since this will be read in News as well as Geo I shall post this information here hoping for the widest coverage: Lunar Eclipse Photography by Fred Espenak (c)1999 by Fred Espenak. All rights reserved. Photographing an eclipse of the Moon is fun and easy. You don't even have to worry about special filters to protect your eyes or your camera. Unlike eclipses of the Sun, eclipses of the Moon are perfectly safe to watch with the naked eye. A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes directly through Earth's dark shadow. This can only occur during full Moon. Since we have a Full Moon every 29 and 1/2 days, you'd think we would have a lunar eclipse once a month. Unfortunately, the Moon's orbit is tipped 5 degrees with respect to Earth's orbit around the Sun. As a result, a lunar eclipse can only happen when Full Moon occurs as the Moon passes through Earth's orbital plane. This occurs once or twice every year and the resulting eclipse can be seen from the half of the Earth experiencing night. Watching and photographing an eclipse of the Moon is a relaxing activity since it progresses at a relatively leisurely pace. The eclipse begins as a small notch slowly appears along one edge of the Moon. During the next hour or so, the Moon gradually dips deeper into Earth's dark umbral shadow. If the eclipse is a total one, the last remaining minutes of the partial phases can be quite dramatic and beautiful. The crescent of the Moon grows thinner as darkness propagates through a night sky now deprived of moonlight. If you're away from city lights, the Milky Way becomes bright and beautiful as the total phase begins. It's quite a remarkable sight. The Star Trail Technique Perhaps the simplest way to photograph an eclipse is to use the \"star trail\" method. You'll need a tripod and a camera which accepts a cable release allowing you to make time exposures on the bulb setting. A 50mm lens works fine but a wide angle lens (35mm or 28mm) is a better choice for this technique. Choose a moderate speed film (e.g.: ISO 100 or 200), and an aperture of f/8 or f/11. As the eclipse begins, place the Moon's image in one corner of your camera's viewfinder. Your camera should be oriented so that the Moon's image will move across your camera's field during a 2 to 4 hour exposure. This motion is actually caused by Earth's rotation on its axis. You can figure out the approximate orientation by trying it out on the Moon one or two nights before the eclipse. Just remember that the Moon rises about one hour later each night. For example, if the eclipse begins at 10 PM, you'll need to run the test at 9 PM one night before or at 8 PM two nights before the eclipse. Choose one corner of your viewfinder, place the Moon there and see if it drifts into or out of the frame after several minutes. Select a different corner if the Moon moves the wrong way. If your tripod allows you to tilt your camera, you can use this capability to frame the Moon so that it will pass through the diagonal of your camera's viewfinder. A couple of final tips should help. If the eclipse occurs in the early evening, the Moon will be rising and its motion brings it up and to the right as you face the Moon. If the eclipse occurs during the middle of the night, the Moon's motion is basically from left to right. If the eclipse occurs during the early morning hours, the Moon is setting and its motion takes it down and to the right. On eclipse night, load your camera with film, mount it firmly on a tripod and make one last check of your f/number, focus (on infinity) and shutter speed. At the appointed time, lock open the shutter with your cable release, sit back and enjoy the eclipse! You can close the shutter in one or two hours, depending on your lens and the time required for the Moon to pass through the camera's field. When your film is developed, you'll have an picture of the sky with the Moon's image smeared across it. The interesting thing is that the diameter of the Moon's trail will be a function of the Moon's brightness (i.e. - phase of the eclipse). If your exposure includes part of totality, the Moon's trail will probably dwindle down to a bright orange or dark red line. Multiple Exposure Technique Although the \"star trail\" technique is easy, it doesn't give you an image of how the eclipse actually appeared. A variation on the \"star trail\" formula which produces recognizable images of the Moon is the \"multiple exposure\" technique. But to use it, your camera must be capable of taking double or multiple exposures. Check your camera manual to learn if and how you can make multiple exposures on one frame of film. The camera set up and orientation are exactly the same as in the \"star trail\" method. The difference here is that you will take a series of short exposures at various stages of the eclipse with your camera in multiple exposure mode. The resulting image will contain a series of small Moon images each illustrating a different phase of the eclipse. An essential key"}, {"response": 256, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (16:28)", "body": "Storm Socks Midwest, East By The Associated Press 01/20/00 A powerful winter storm that dumped up to 9 inches of snow in the upper Midwest blustered into the East today, bringing heavy snow, grounding air traffic and closing schools throughout the region. Flights up and down the coast were canceled or delayed today as crews tried to clear runways. Near Washington, about a third of the flights out of Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport were canceled this morning. \"Winter has arrived,'' said Tara Hamilton, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. All of the city's public schools were closed, and the federal government said non-essential employees could take a paid vacation day instead of trying to make it to the office. Elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic region -- where about 5 inches had fallen by midmorning -- Delaware Gov. Thomas Carper canceled his State of the State address, and schools were closed across Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. All the affected states reported numerous fender-benders. \"This is probably really more typical of what a winter should be in North Carolina than what we've had in the last three years,'' said Ron Humble, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Raleigh. The storm dropped 1 to 3 inches of snow over much of the state. New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania also reported many school closings, as authorities braced for up to 6 inches of snow and possible gale force winds near the coast by day's end. The storm had some characteristics of a nor'easter, but was moving along the coast fast enough that it wasn't expected to have the same impact, said Kipp Hogan, a National Weather Service meteorologist. \"There'll be some coastal flooding and that sort of thing, but it's not expected to last long enough to become a real nor'easter,'' Hogan said. A nor'easter is a winter coastal storm that packs high winds and rain or snow. Lingering longer than a hurricane, it can bring blizzard conditions and severe flooding. On Wednesday, the high winds blew snow and made driving treacherous in the Midwest. Blizzard conditions that snarled traffic in Iowa were blamed for three deaths there Wednesday, and Michigan also reported one fatal accident in the storm. Byron, Minn., received 9 inches of snow, while lesser amounts fell across the Midwest and as far south as North Carolina. Northwest Airlines on Wednesday canceled close to 200 flights at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport where just over 8 inches of snow was recorded. Bitter arctic air from Canada followed the storm into the region. Several towns in northeastern Minnesota were the coldest spots in the nation overnight with temperatures sinking to 24 degrees below zero, the National Weather Service said."}, {"response": 257, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (16:35)", "body": "Mystery iceballs claim ``first victim'' in Spain MADRID, Jan 20 (Reuters) - An elderly Spanish woman has claimed she was hit by a falling iceball, apparently the first victim of a phenonmenon that has been puzzling scientists for days, state radio said on Thursday. Juana Sanchez Sanchez, 70, said she was knocked out briefly by a large, flying, frozen object that hit her on the shoulder as she walked in a street near her home in Almeria, southern Spain, the radio said. A man in Seville escaped injury last week when a four-kilo (nine-pound) iceball slammed into his car. Scientists are examining a dozen specimens to establish their origin amid speculation they could be frozen human excrement jettisoned by high-flying aircraft or debris from comets, an explanation which some space experts have ruled out."}, {"response": 258, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (17:33)", "body": "Anne Hale in SW Australia Marcia, for your information re strange weather - last night we had a such a storm, Denis and I were sweeping water from the Laundry, the drains outside kept blocking, we had water in the garage, the patio, and the bar. I reckoned there has been at least 3inches - and as I said yesterday it doesn't rain in Perth in January or at least it didn't used. Interestingly Beirut also was inundated virtually the same latitude. The thunderstorm is starting again - 7.00a.m. now so I may have to log off."}, {"response": 259, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (23:28)", "body": "You'll not like what I just heard on the news. The first few iceballs were real atmospheric oddities. The rest were home-made iceballs created and planted by \"pranksters.\" The real ones are the ones we concentrate on now."}, {"response": 260, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (19:55)", "body": "geez louise! sorry about all the rain, anne...."}, {"response": 261, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 23, 2000 (15:14)", "body": "Now we find out The Rest Of The Story as regards Aussie weather from Anne: A friend of mine was rather peeved with her husband for arranging a fishing expedition as he had promised to help with the Church's air conditioning. Well she prayed that the weather would be too inclement to go!!!!!!!! It was far worse for others, knee high water in their houses - down pipes clogged and water pouring in through their ceilings, even a jumbo jet got clogged in the mud at Perth Airport when full of passangers and getting ready for take off - Airport was closed until they could get it out. Think of the weight!!!!!! I measured at least 6 inches of rain in our neck of the woods. Thats a lot of water. It is more normal now although there is a small cyclone some few hundred miles up the coast and slowly heading our way - that we don't need."}, {"response": 262, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan 23, 2000 (17:04)", "body": "just shows to be careful what you wish for!!"}, {"response": 263, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 23, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "yup! You just might get what you wished for!"}, {"response": 264, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 23, 2000 (20:48)", "body": "My very special friend, who used to live in Hilo and wrote so eloquently of seeing the eruption of Kilauea from the sea, now lives in North Carolina. He is enduring the third winter storm of the week. His weather Winter Storm Warning For The North Central Portion Of Central North Carolina Expires At 5Pm... The Winter Storm Warning In Effect For The North Central Portion Of Central North Carolina Will Expire At 5Pm. However Areas Of Freezing Drizzle And Freezing Rain Will Continue Through The Early Evening Hours. In The Triad Area Including Winston Salem...Greensboro...Burlington And Asheboro...Freezing Drizzle Will Continue Overnight. Trees And Powerlines Have Some Ice Accumulation And The Freezing Drizzle Will Add To This Accumulation. Many Roads...Especially On Bridges...Overpasses And Secondary Roads Have Some Icy And Slick Spots. In The Triangle Area Including Raleigh...Durham...Chapel Hill And Roanoke Rapids...Areas Of Freezing Rain Will Continue Through The Evening Hours Tapering Off To Patchy Freezing Drizzle Around 7Pm. Additional Light Icing Could Accumulate On Trees And Powerlines. This Could Cause Some Small Or Weak Tree Branches To Break. Also With Temperatures Hovering Around Or Just Below The Freezing Mark... There Will Be Some Slick Spots On Roads Especially On Bridges... Overpasses And Secondary Roads. Motorists Are Urged To Drive With Extreme Caution While Travelling This Evening. Slow Down And Allow Extra Time To Reach Your Destination. During The Overnight Period...Temperatures Across Central North Carolina Will Fall Below The Freezing Mark Ranging From The Upper 20S In The Triad...Around 30 In The Triangle Area To Near 32 Degrees Across The Sandhills. Thus With These Temperatures... The Early Morning Commute Monday Morning Could Be Hazardous With Areas Of Ice On Roads...Especially On Bridges And Overpasses And Secondary Roads. Stay Tuned To Noaa Weather Radio Or Your Local Radio Or Tv Station For The Latest Weather Information."}, {"response": 265, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 24, 2000 (17:50)", "body": "Central Atlantic Seaboard where all of the Hurricanes and Nor'easters hit, Updating Doppler Radar Weather"}, {"response": 266, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (13:36)", "body": "From Warren near Raleigh, NC MSN 1-25-2000 Snow Storm Where we are, there is an average of 14\" of snow on the ground. There is about 12\" in my yard. Some areas East, like Raleigh got all time records over 18\", and some counties south of here got over 2 Feet. It's about 29 - 30 degrees outside, and the roads are paralysed, except with truckers. Those poor guys have to roll whether they want to or not, and I don't want to get tangled up with them in a sliding accident. Winston-Salem got 2\", Charlotte 6\". The surprise was South Rock, SC., with 18\", in a place they don't get that much in a year! Wilmington, NC,(where they film Dawson's Creek, and used to film some of Matlock) has 8\" and Myrtle Beach(!) has 5\". They haven't had that much snow on the ocean in the last decade! South Rock is leaving it alone, and waiting to get dug out by SC DoT trucks. Actual snowfall in Raleigh is about 18-19 inches. This is topping the biggest of the 1900's. Raleigh's record was 17.8\" in 1899, and it is gone now. Call it what anyone wants, this storm dumped more snow than the '93 storm that was so bad for all the east coast. Keep an ear on CNN for what happens in New England. This is a Nor-Easter of the first magnitude! [Airports closed] RDU to Boston! Greensboro is clear and open! [re:Storm hugging the coast] That is why this will be so strong; it will pick up moisture and strength as it goes north and replenish itself. Boston is going to think that God has dumped a planet sized bowl of stuff on them. [re the house you are in] This a brick house, with storm windows and doors. Only a power outage could hurt us, and we are in a line with the regional hospital, so our power usually comes back relatively quickly, comparatively speaking."}, {"response": 267, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (18:31)", "body": "From http://www.weather.com Storm pushes N. Carolina into state of emergency, RALEIGH, North Carolina (CNN) -- A near-blizzard clobbered North Carolina Tuesday, burying Raleigh's airport under a foot and a half of snow and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. Gov. Jim Hunt declared a state of emergency. The storm extended northward through Virginia, Washington, eastern Pennsylvania, New York and New England, shutting down airports, schools, workplaces and government offices in the nation's capital. Hunt said North Carolina, still dealing with the devastating floods left by Hurricane Floyd last fall, had much of its snow removal and transportation equipment out of position in the state's western mountains, which were spared the brunt of the storm. \"We really have a drastic situation, but we're used to a lot of these here in North Carolina and we're moving on it strongly,\" he said. In Raleigh, snowfall was expected to top a single-day record of 17.8 inches set March 2, 1927, Mayor Paul Cobble said. \"The amount of snow, I think, was a surprise to everybody,\" said state emergency management spokesman Tom Hegele. He said the hardest hit area was Piedmont, in the center of the state, and that many roads from Charlotte to Raleigh along the I-85 corridor were impassable. More than 300,000 people were left without the power throughout the Carolinas. About 150,000 National Guard troops were called out to help stranded motorists in North Carolina. The troops will also provide emergency medical services and set up temporary power generators at hospitals. Carolina Power & Light reported 121,000 customers without power, primarily in the Sandhills area of North Carolina that includes Southern Pines and Asheboro, and in parts of South Carolina. Charlotte-based Duke Power, which serves two million customers in North and South Carolina, said 118,000 of its customers were left without power. Both utilities had deployed crews to clear downed trees and repair damaged power lines, but CP&L said its crews were slowed by strong winds upstate. \"Visibility is very poor,\" said Sally Ramey, a CP&L spokeswoman. \"With wind gusts at 40 miles per hour, it's just not safe to have somebody up there working on a power line in a bucket truck.\" Snowfall of 14 inches was forecast for Virginia and the Washington suburbs, and 18 inches in eastern Pennsylvania."}, {"response": 268, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Jan 26, 2000 (00:52)", "body": "Boston wasn't really hit that badly; we got about 5-6 inches where I live. Not record-breaking, but enough to get out of work early. Worcester got more snow, which is typical. The change to rain/sleet is definately more of a problem; I'll probably have to chip my car out in the morning. I'd much rather deal with snow than ice. Here are the current weather reports for Boston... From WHDH-TV Boston, http://www.whdh.com Bay State Walloped by Winter Storm The snow is piling up in some parts of the Bay State today, while other areas escape with mostly rain. By midday, some communities north and west of Boston were reporting as much as eight inches of snow on the ground. Totals were much lower in southeastern Massachusetts, and it was raining on the Cape and Islands. Governor Cellucci told all non-essential state employees they could go home at 2 p.m. State highway crews struggled to keep up with the snow and ice. Numerous accidents were reported, but most w re minor in nature. It's been a tough day for anyone trying to get anywhere by air. The big winter storm has closed airports up and down the East Coast, leaving countless travelers stranded. Massport spokesman Phil Orlandella says about 400 flights have been cancelled at Boston's Logan Airport today. The airport was forced to close shortly before noon, but officials were hoping to get one runway open by mid-afternoon. (AP) NWS Weather Report for Boston Area, http://www.nws.noaa.gov/er/box/ Cheshire-Eastern Franklin-Eastern Hampden-Eastern Hampshire-Hartford-Hillsborough-Northern Worcester-Northwestern Providence-Southern Worcester-Tolland-Western Essex-Western Franklin-Western Hampden-Western Hampshire-Western Middlesex-Windham-Including the cities of, Blandford, Chesterfield, Fitchburg, Greenfield, Hartford, Keene, Lawrence, Lowell, Manchester, Northampton, Shelburne, Springfield, Stafford, Willimantic, Woonsocket, Worcester 1005 PM EST Tue Jan 25 2000 A winter storm warning remains in effect overnight The warning covers much of interior Southern New England north and west of Boston and Providence. Areas of mixed snow sleet and freezing rain will change to snow, Then taper off after 2 AM. An additional inch or two of snow is possible before daybreak. Total snow accumulations for the storm will be 8 to 12 inches from Hartford and Woonsocket to Worcester and Manchester New Hampshire...With totals of 10 to 15 inches accumulating across the Monadnocks and northwest Massachusetts. Gusty north winds will cause blowing and drifting of snow through the overnight hours. As cold air is drawn back across the region any wet or slushy roads will freeze, creating travel problems. If you must travel through tonight, allow extra time to reach your destination. Slow down, and leave extra distance between you and the vehicle ahead of you."}, {"response": 269, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (20:14)", "body": "Ginny?! Dig yourself a hole and see if you see your shadow! We need to hear from you. Are you OK? Do you have power and all that? Sheesh!"}, {"response": 270, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (20:27)", "body": "Posts missing from the new server transfer: Response 269 of 270: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Jan 26, 2000 (11:32) * 9 lines I guess Pennsylvania has not gotten much of this storm. Frank in Williamsport reports: We had only 3 to 4 inches around here, and it took all day to accumulate that much. It least it's light and fluffy, and VERY white. I guess that was too far inland. This seems to tbe an entirely coastal experience. Thanks, Ginny, for your great report. I remember snow scrapers and whacking at the ice sheets to free the windshield wipers. Funny thing - I don't miss it much, but it is fun to relive old memories by watching you guys cope. Seriously. please take care and watch out for the idiots who think they can drive as usual with no traction. I shall go bug Warren for an update on his weather. Response 270 of 270: Wolf (wolf) * Wed, Jan 26, 2000 (11:36) * 1 lines we're in for it tonight and tomorrow (highs in the 30's to 40's plus ice and snow)...... Response 271 of 271: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Jan 26, 2000 (13:59) * 1 lines Oh Dear Wolfie...Please keep us updated. I shall plug you into my prayers for safety during this extraordinary winter weather. *Warm Hawaiian Hugs* Response 272 of 272: Wolf (wolf) * Wed, Jan 26, 2000 (19:33) * 1 lines thanks. i really hope it does come down and closes things down (like work)! (isn't that sad?) Response 273 of 273: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Jan 26, 2000 (20:33) * 1 lines Nope! Not sad! Weather like that unleashes the little kid in each of us and we just wanna go out and play in it or sit by the fireside and snuggle with the furry and non furry guys we love. *hugs* of anticipation... Response 273 of 275: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Jan 26, 2000 (20:33) * 1 lines Nope! Not sad! Weather like that unleashes the little kid in each of us and we just wanna go out and play in it or sit by the fireside and snuggle with the furry and non furry guys we love. *hugs* of anticipation... Response 274 of 275: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Thu, Jan 27, 2000 (08:48) * 7 lines Rain. Good thing I spread some ryegrass out at the farm last night! Marati, the new caretaker/cottage dweller has turned out to me the miracle man. He's building stuff every day and making new spaces for folks. It's awesome, baby! Response 275 of 275: Wolf (wolf) * Thu, Jan 27, 2000 (09:35) * 1 lines well, we're shut down! *woohoo* Response 276 of 276: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Jan 27, 2000 (11:22) * 5 lines It's about time some of your miracles were performed by someone other than you, Terry. I rejoice in your miracle man who is being so beneficial to you. I have heard such dire things about this 4 year drought you are having in Texas! Wolfie gets to stay home and play today. Yippee! I have had no check-ins yet on the weather front from the east coast, but I am sure the storm has moved off into the Atlantic. Meanwhile there is another coming in from the west. Happy winter! Response 277 of 280: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Thu, Jan 27, 2000 (12:30) * 3 lines We're getting a good soaker here. Response 278 of 280: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Jan 27, 2000 (19:44) * 2 lines from what I have heard, you are in the midst of a serious drought...a good soaker is just what you need - no matter how inconvenient...! Response 279 of 280: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (08:19) * 1 lines and we're closed again today although some of the bridges are open..... Response 280 of 280: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (11:13) * 1 lines ...and another storm is headed for the Carolinas, so I suppose you will be in on that one, too?! Stay warm and safe, Wolfie!!! Response 281 of 283: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (11:55) * 3 lines just got a call from the office....apparantly, there was a liner on the news that we were to go back at noon today BUT, our boss called and said not to worry about it and stay home. i say good because the roads look terrible. we've got slush and everything. i thought there was another storm headed our way behind this one but i haven't heard anything about it. Response 282 of 283: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (12:34) * 2 lines Just for Wolfie I post this updating weather map and for Texas, as well... http://maps.weather.com/images/radar/regions/s_central_rad_300x187.jpg Response 283 of 283: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (12:36) * 1 lines Looks like most of your bad weather is past you and headed for Warren who is still housebound in North Carolina. Response 284 of 289: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (12:38) * 1 lines those clear skies mean one thing, cold nights! Response 285 of 289: Ginny (vibrown) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (14:01) * 1 lines Cold is right! We're having another arctic blast in the Northeast at the moment. Looks like that storm is going to move up here on Sunday night or Monday morning. Response 286 of 289: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (14:28) * 0 lines (scribbled) Response 287 of 289: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (14:30) * 2 lines Check it out! http://maps.weather.com/images/ra"}, {"response": 271, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (20:28)", "body": "Reposting updating weather maps:"}, {"response": 272, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (20:31)", "body": ""}, {"response": 273, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (20:33)", "body": "This is the WINTER WEATHER UPDATING RADAR WEATHER MAP"}, {"response": 274, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "There! I think we are back up to speed with just one or two glitches of my own..."}, {"response": 275, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (08:32)", "body": "Another overcast day in Austin, it's been wet lately."}, {"response": 276, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (12:45)", "body": "I noticed! Do you tend to flood? Or, does it soak in, like a good rain should? I also noticed you get a lot of wind and haze with your rain. Can't quite figure why it does not blow the haze away or at least wash it out of the air with all of that going on. But, Texas is a whole nuther world, isn't it?! Thanks for the report."}, {"response": 277, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "The day turned out to be sunny and warm in the afternoon."}, {"response": 278, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (20:32)", "body": "Back to cracks in the ground? Where does your drinking water come from? (How does it taste?)"}, {"response": 279, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Feb  4, 2000 (05:32)", "body": "My water comes from a well out in Cedar Creek. It tastes ok. If only Alcoa would stop sucking obscene amounts of water out of the ground. See http://www.bioregion.com for some notes on the Bastrop Country Environmental network and other water issues related to Texas."}, {"response": 280, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  4, 2000 (17:37)", "body": "Pretty terrible...and wasteful. My folks' water in Tucson, AZ was so high in selenium they had to drink bottled water. No dissolved baddies in your water in toxic amounts is indeed good news! I should post that in your Bioregion topic in here, huh?!"}, {"response": 281, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  4, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "From Maggie as reported on the BBC this morning: Nepal: Wheat crop in Parsu District badly damaged by freak hailstones weighing half a kilo(over a pound). eyewitnesses said it sounded like bombs were falling on their roofs. (Shades of the ice blocks in Spain that they're still muttering on about)"}, {"response": 282, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (16:34)", "body": "From Warren regarding the current Weather in North Carolina, USA It has been in the sixties for the last two days and in the seventies today, and there is STILL snow and ice on the ground and in the parking lots!! Our high today was 71 here, but it will drop into the low 40's to upper 30's tonight, colder farther north. With the cold front moving in, if the weather boffins are wrong about how far south it will go, we could have snow flurries tonight. No accumulation, tho. We want it to rain, however. Since it takes a foot of snow to equal an inch of rain, we need some rain to fill the reservoirs. At least the ground water levels are topped off, with the slow melt of snow seeping deep. Thanks, luv! *hugs*"}, {"response": 283, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (13:58)", "body": "22 Die in Georgia Tornadoes CAMILLA, Ga. (AP) -- Tornadoes slashed through southwest Georgia early today, killing at least 22 people and injuring more than 100. The Mitchell County town of Camilla appeared to be hardest hit, with a tornado cutting a five-mile path through a housing development south of town. \"It's like somebody took a bulldozer and leveled it,'' volunteer firefighter Mikie Newsome said. He and his father had watched a large dark funnel cloud dip down about three miles from their house near Camilla, about 200 miles south of Atlanta. \"All you heard was a roar, woo-woo-woo,'' said Johnny Jones, whose mobile home south of Camilla was lifted up and thrown on its side. He said he freed his 14-year-old son, who was pinned under a washing machine, and they crawled out a window. Newsome estimated that 50 to 60 homes were demolished, 90 percent of them mobile homes. Aerial photos showed the entire neighborhood was flattened. Fourteen people died in Mitchell County, said Liz McQueen, a Red Cross representative working at a temporary morgue in Camilla. Seven were confirmed dead in Grady County and one in Colquitt County."}, {"response": 284, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (14:59)", "body": "Awsome - heard it on the news just recently."}, {"response": 285, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (15:35)", "body": "Anyone from near there in here? Wolfie, are you alright?"}, {"response": 286, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (19:37)", "body": "Anne Hale informs me that the latest cyclone off the Western Coast of Australia is Cyclone Marcia. I suggested she send it back from whence it came *grin* Fingers crossed, Anne!"}, {"response": 287, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (20:49)", "body": "Added to that Marcia - the 'dead heart' of Australia is a desert no more - they are flooded out and tourists have been stranded for days. We had over 4 inches of rain over a day in January - unheard of in Perth, humidity and horrible temps mostly over 85f. But I will try and blow it away!!"}, {"response": 288, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (22:41)", "body": "...or Marcia shall...Some times you need a good gale to clear things out!"}, {"response": 289, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (18:47)", "body": "Anne reports that Marcia blew herself out and is now a tropical depression. She know all about that...Thanks, Anne!"}, {"response": 290, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (21:34)", "body": "I found two more updating weather maps for your enjoyment:"}, {"response": 291, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (21:34)", "body": ""}, {"response": 292, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (21:41)", "body": "For both, this is the color index:"}, {"response": 293, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (21:43)", "body": ""}, {"response": 294, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (00:26)", "body": "Checking in as requested! :-) Yes, things are ugly here. We haven't had that much snow where I live, but it's the worse kind. Ultra heavy wet stuff looking for potential coronary victims. I shoveled this morning (couldn't sweep it off the stairs...and I have a lot of stairs), then Jeff shoveled earlier this evening. But there's been more. Tomorrow is another day. Driving was awful because the side streets don't get plowed. Unfortunately, you can't always stick to main thoroughfares. Then there were those smug 4WDers. Argh, I've got ZWD. ;-) Saw the forecast and temps will be rising. Stuff should melt soon enough. Thanks for your concern, but next to last year, this is just another winter day."}, {"response": 295, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (00:30)", "body": "Oh yeah, the airports got closed because the winds were bad and there was no visibility (I'm guessing).. ZWD=zero wheel drive"}, {"response": 296, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (12:17)", "body": "Thanks, Karen. I thought about you a lot over night with all of the news stories about the airports being closed from here to there and you can't get there from here stuff. Watch that heart, Sweetie. You are not replaceable and kids get coronaries, too. Here we sit on a warm sunny day with an AWD in the garage (AWD=All Wheel Drive). Wish I could lend it to you for the duration!"}, {"response": 297, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (23:17)", "body": "Boston got about 8-12 inches of heavy, wet snow from Friday to Saturday. The most we've had all winter, but not record-breaking. (The weather-folks have called it a \"winter storm\", not a \"blizzard\".) It was enough to cause some backaches and heart-attacks, though. Logan was still backed up, according to the news at 11. Glad I wasn't planning to go anywhere. (Planning a big vacation in Feb. is always a crap shoot around here.)"}, {"response": 298, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (02:17)", "body": "You in Boston and Karen in Chicago got the brunt of the soggy snow. Just let the little kids shovel it. Yup...excuse to play on the computer and fill in gaps on Geo for me this weekend (I am celebrating your snow-in, too!)"}, {"response": 299, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (16:05)", "body": "Snow is melting as I type. Unfortunately, I did have to shovel (even while knowing it would start melting the next day...rising temps here) in order to get in and out of the house. The stairs would've been impossible. No coronaries, but my quads are killing me. Am trying to avoid going \"down\" any stairs as much as possible, which is tough as I have a duplex. :-("}, {"response": 300, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (16:21)", "body": "Please tell me your stairs are indoors from the second floor...! Get yourself a little sled and skim your way down. Haven't quite figured out how you are going to get back upstairs again, though...*sigh* Didja make any snow angels for me?"}, {"response": 301, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (16:30)", "body": ""}, {"response": 302, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (16:43)", "body": "I have circular stairs (inside) going up to the third floor, which is the only renovated part of my unit. v. painful today. Around the corner I noticed a few buildings where people hadn't cleaned off their stairs. No way, I'd set one foot on those. BTW, if I tried to sled my down the front stairs, I'd go right into one of those infernal parkway trees that we've discussed on a non-eco topic before. ;-) Concussion city. Or I'd land in the street and get hit by a car."}, {"response": 303, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (16:45)", "body": "*sigh* posted pearls of oysters rather than pearls of weather wisdom. Sorry!"}, {"response": 304, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (16:47)", "body": "scratch the sled idea. What's fun is when those snow-heaped steps do not melt clean and refreeze in the night. You have to end up chipping the stuff off and the brick / stonework with it. Stupid! Love the though of your spiral staircase. Shall we see you starring in Vertigo any time soon?!"}, {"response": 305, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (17:13)", "body": "Just heard on BBC World service that a tropical cyclone is heading towards Mozambique to add to the misery following recent severe flooding."}, {"response": 306, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "Gotta go check the latest africa updating weather map I posted yesterday. Thanks, Maggie!"}, {"response": 307, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (17:13)", "body": "Our winter was unusually mild. Need not be the greenhouse hop, nor the Nino mambo, just the solar cycle of 11 years, I guess."}, {"response": 308, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (18:01)", "body": "I think you are right about that. This new jargon of el Ni\ufffdo and La Ni\ufffda are just new manifestations of the old eleven-year solar cycle. Anyone who is interested in short wave radio or Ham radio is well aware of this. We are just climbing out of one of the longest and lowest solar flux since records were kept. Other times, mini ice ages happened as when the Thames froze over and they ice skated on it. Amazing!"}, {"response": 309, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (19:22)", "body": "Austinites, please check in with us in the morning and let us know what your night was like - weather-wise, of course *grin* Forecast for Austin, TX 400 pm CST tue feb 22 2000 .Tonight...A 70 percent chance of thunderstorms...some possibly severe before the evening is over. Low in the lower 50s. Winds stronger and gusty in and near thunderstorms...then becoming west and northwest and diminishing to 10 mph early morning. .Wednesday...Mostly sunny skies with the high in the mid 70s. West winds 10 to 15 mph. .Wednesday night...Mostly clear. Low in the upper 40s. .Thursday...Mostly sunny and breezy with the high in the mid 70s. .Extended forecast... .Thursday night...increasing cloudiness. Lows near 60. .Friday...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers or thunderstorms. Highs in the 70s to near 80. .Saturday...Mostly clear. Lows in the 50s. Highs in the 70s. .Sunday...Partly cloudy. Lows in the 50s. Highs in the 70s."}, {"response": 310, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (23:39)", "body": "Ricky Williams got arrested and thrown in jail for changing lanes without signaling on Mopac in his hummer. thus joing the Matthew Mcconaughey Hall of Shame."}, {"response": 311, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (23:48)", "body": "At least he was not cracking open someone else's head with a hockey stick! We gotta do something. Guess your weather is not too terrible - but in a hummer, what is terrible weather?!"}, {"response": 312, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (00:13)", "body": "Do you know what a hummer is, Marcia?"}, {"response": 313, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (11:50)", "body": "Yup! An outrageously expensive and Ugly (with a capital U) vehicle which was origianlly created for the military. They run convoys through Hilo from the Pohakuloa Military Training Area in the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa and they always have Hummers included in various shapes and forms. I think it is about the only vehicle I would ever feel truly safe in on the southern California freeways!"}, {"response": 314, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (14:17)", "body": "I never liked hockey before, but after watching the news last night, I like it even less. I hope they throw that idiot off the Bruins and out of the NHL!"}, {"response": 315, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (14:18)", "body": "By the way, the lava buttons look great! Really hot!! :-)"}, {"response": 316, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (14:30)", "body": "Geo conference again looks as we created it on July 10th. I added the buttons (which had ugly white frames around them and which took me some time to find a program to remove them after the brilliant programming magician had done one and made the rest look even worse...) some time later when I could not get the buttons I wanted ( which ended up as the default buttons and which have my heart.) You think I should leave the lava-pool buttons up or only during winter? Guess I'll change the link color if I'm gonna leave the lava buttons up...*sigh*"}, {"response": 317, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (15:06)", "body": "I think the lava-pool buttons are very appropriate for this conference; seems kind of nice for each conference to develop it's own look. By all means, do what you think best!"}, {"response": 318, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (15:07)", "body": "I guess you did change the link color! I now see blue instead of green! Very nice! (Blue is my favorite color.. :-)"}, {"response": 319, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (15:12)", "body": "I am playing with it as we speak. I wanted some sort of royal-to-navy blue but it just is plain boring where it is not emboldened. So, I tried brown - ucky. Red was worse. The forest green I used over Christmas and Thanksgiving. I really like it, but the blue is better. This is indigo and I think I need something more blue than purple. Off I go to fiddle behind the scenes again."}, {"response": 320, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (15:23)", "body": "Guess there is no darker blue which is not on the purplish side. I really wanted a deep bluish green, but the ones on the hex color chart are electric bluein that part of the spectrum...*sigh*"}, {"response": 321, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (16:42)", "body": "Love the lava-look buttons, no doubt Pele would approve."}, {"response": 322, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "Thank you. It took some real intelligence and hard work on the part of a few very special people to make Geo look like this. (and I did find Navy blue!) I truly appreciate their efforts and your comments. *grin* Pele must like it - she has not paved over my computer yet with a fresh lava flow, which is the modus operandi of the Goddess when mortals do things with her property she does not like."}, {"response": 323, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (18:54)", "body": "From AnneH in Australia: Most of the Northern Territory, the top end of Western Australia, a third of Queensland and the North Western part of New South Wales are under feet of water. All have been declared disaster areas. Movement is by boat or helicopter and people are being rescued everywhere. The phenomenon is called \"the wet\" this is far worse than usual and stock, i.e. cattle, horses and sheep are drowning in their thousands. As for the wild life you can see then running for their lives to higher ground."}, {"response": 324, "author": "patas", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (14:12)", "body": "Is it because we care for individuals who live in such different places that natural disasters seem to be more so nowadays? When it is not an earthquake in Hawaii it's a hurricane in Florida, the Wet in Australia, ecc... I hope all is well with AnneH, CatheyP, Maureen and our other Spring friends in Australia."}, {"response": 325, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (14:33)", "body": "The world has become a very small sphere, thanks to the Internet and easy access to travel. Who'd have thought some of my dearest friends would live in places like Portugal, England and Australia (not to mention Austin, Home of The Spring)?! We need them to check in from time to time...Anne surely will keep us current on Weather because she is also interested in it. As soon as the mother board is replaced on her new computer, we have hopes that she will be able to post her own weather. Earth is a dynamic place, constantly subject to pull from the moon and sun (pulling us out of round) making us oblate (squashed at the poles) from spinning at 100,000 MPH ( 160,390KM ), and all that movement on our own - mountains erupting, plates sliding and colliding - we are a very busy place!!! It is a wonder we hold together at all."}, {"response": 326, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (05:25)", "body": "Latest news on African floods received today from the United Nations: Southern Africa was battered by torrential rains and high winds this week as cyclone Eline moved across Mozambique and into Botswana, Zimbabwe and southern Zambia, causing extensive damage and leaving hundreds of thousands of people displaced. Mozambique launched an international appeal to cope with extensive flooding, Zimbabwe declared a state of emergency and will launch its own appeal next week, while officials in Botswana's National Disaster Management Authority told IRIN on Friday that care for the displaced was being hampered by a shortage of tents throughout the effected region. FLOODS-MOZAMBIQUE: Appeal for international help The Mozambican government and UN agencies launched a joint international appeal on Wednesday for US $65 million to repair damaged infrastructure and carry out humanitarian operations following two weeks of floods that have left at least 70 people dead and 300,000 in urgent need of assistance. The government said several main roads, including connections with neighbouring South Africa and Swaziland were severely affected. \"The national road that connects the capital, Maputo, with the rest of the country has been cut at several places, and embankments and bridges have been washed away,\" a government statement said. The country's railway and electricity networks, added the appeal, have also been devastated and need urgent repairs. The Ressano Garcia line to South Africa, the Goba line that goes through Swaziland to South Africa, and the Limpopo line to Zimbabwe have all been damaged. For a detailed report see: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/mozambique/20000224.htm FLOODS-MOZAMBIQUE: Floods threat to food security More than 70,000 hectares of land and a substantial amount of livestock have been destroyed in the floods that have devastated Mozambique over the last two weeks, humanitarian agencies told IRIN on Wednesday. The risk of an outbreak of water-borne diseases such as cholera and malaria as well as meningitis has also increased. For detailed reports see: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/mozambique/20000223.htm and: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/mozambique/20000222.htm FLOODS-ZIMBABWE: State of emergency declared Zimbabwe declared a state of emergency on Thursday as torrential rains and flooding affected an estimated 250,000 people in four of the country's eight provinces this week. Sibusisiwe Ndhlovu, the deputy director of Zimbabwe's Civil Protection Unit told IRIN on Friday the effects were \"the worst we have seen\" and the damage to infrastructure in the south and east of the country could \"run into billions\" of Zimbabwe dollars. She said Zimbabwe was preparing an international appeal over the disaster. Ndhlovu said the main problem at the moment was accessibility to people marooned by flood waters. \"We are trying to rescue and provide shelter to a number of communities. There is a problem of foodstuffs, logistics, and telephones are down.\" The official 'Herald' newspaper reported on Friday that at least 12 people have died. For a detailed report see: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/zimbabwe/20000225.htm FLOODS-SOUTH AFRICA: Northern Province battered At least 50 people have been killed and more than 80,000 left homeless in South Africa's Northern Province since heavy rains started more than two weeks ago, government officials told IRIN on Friday. Sam Hlungwane, of the Local Government and Housing department, said many roads in the province's northern region have been washed away while power lines and bridges have collapsed. \"All the rivers have been flooded after the dams started overflowing,\" Hlungwane told IRIN. He added that five regions in the province were affected by the floods. \"The rains were heavier this week following the Eline cyclone that cut off whole communities in the Bushbuckridge area, situated east of the province on the way to Mozambique.\" For a detailed report see: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/countrystories/southafrica/20000225.htm FLOODS-BOTSWANA: North and northeast affected President Festus Mogae put Botswana on full alert as Eline, downgraded to a tropical depression, approached the country still struggling to come to grips with last week's heavy rains. The National Disaster Management Authority told IRIN on Friday the storms hit the north and northeast of the country but their full effect were felt in Zimbabwe and southern Zambia. FLOODS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: New cyclone in Indian Ocean More rain is expected over much of Southern Africa in the next few days, but was likely to taper off towards the end of next week, a researcher from the Climatology Research Group at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg told IRIN on Friday. She said that a new cyclone, Felicia, was currently in the Indian Ocean around Madagascar and Mauritius, but might not hit the Mozambican coast as cyclone Eline did this week with "}, {"response": 327, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (11:23)", "body": "I noted more articles on Mozambique yesterday when I got home from Softball (we won both games!), but was too tired to post them. Thanks, Maggie. Those thirsty monkeys should move to Mozambique!"}, {"response": 328, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (11:14)", "body": "VOLCANIC ASH CLOUD HEADING FOR BRITAIN An ash cloud from a volcano is expected over the UK within hours, experts are warning. The Meteorological Office has issued warnings to aircraft about the ash which was blasted into the atmosphere by Mount Hekla, near Keflavik in south-west Iceland. The volcano's main eruption sent the bulk of the ash towards northern Norway, but a thin ash cloud is being blown across the North Atlantic towards the UK at between 10 and 15,000ft."}, {"response": 329, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (02:13)", "body": "Thought we may have seen some atmospheric disturbance last night - colour of moon etc. But nothing visible from my area. They say air quality won't be affected."}, {"response": 330, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (11:22)", "body": "I was hoping you would get some spectacular sunsets. At least you won't have to breathe it. I wonder where it will settle out of the atmosphere. There is nothing quite like lava grit down your neck!"}, {"response": 331, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (13:17)", "body": "It should be well into mainland Europe by now. I think they said 10-15,000 feet passing us. I wonder if there's an air traffic problem. I think the cloud level is too heavy and low just now for us to get a good sunset. We had large hail stones yesterday which covered my garden and the road, probably a quarter inch square and very white."}, {"response": 332, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (13:29)", "body": "Oh my! Hailstones mean spring is coming. That is the up side of an otherwise messy and destructive form of precipitation! There is a place on the Weather Channel http://www.weather.com where you can check thngs like aircraft advisories and such. Texas is having severe weather. I never even knew Texas had weather before. Now, I worry about every off-looking cloud shows up over the state. High winds and hail pound TX Heavy hail and high winds create hail drifts in Texas, stranding motorists, while gusts blow down power lines and trees."}, {"response": 333, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (15:56)", "body": "I remeber wierd weather when I was there two years ago. At least it was wierd to us visitors. Scraping ice of the car in the mornings, and stripping down to Summer clothes in the same afternoon, heavy winds, and then nothing."}, {"response": 334, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (16:35)", "body": "YOU were in Texas? Wow!!! I'm so envious! Is is wonderful? (stupid question)"}, {"response": 335, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (17:18)", "body": "I was working!!!! We had five days of meetings. But - we did see where Kennedy was shot and the herd of bronze cattle (plus cowboys) in the centre of town. We also ate out - a lot (which we don't at home in UK). Driving was wierd, found the traffic light regulations difficult. We couldn't believe people didn't walk anywhere. We tried to walk to the local shops on our first day, and got some really wierd stares. We found out later from our host that you only walk (in their neighbourhood) if you're exercising (i.e. in full sports gear so people know you are). I did enjoy shopping, but never did understand how to add State tax on to prices. I liked seeing houses go by on the backs of lorries, and saw at least one I'd like in a take away lot. Shop assistants seemed to have real problem with my English accent and I had to get rescued a few times. MMm I had a good time."}, {"response": 336, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "LOL!!! Texas is a whole nuther world...I guess you found that out. They think you are hard to understand?! Likew THEY don't have an accent you can cut with a knife. How funny! You could understand Terry, though. Too bad you missed his voice-over the other night. It was wonderful to hear him like he was in the room with me. He has a voice which is well-modulated and he enunciates clearly and speaks at just the right speed for clarity without seeming hurried or too slow. He was raised in the mid-west, so that is not precisely a Texas accent with which he speaks, but it does have overtones. I have become a huge fan...!"}, {"response": 337, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (18:14)", "body": "Am trying to imagine an accent from a Southern Gentleman - Texas mix...I just might really be in trouble with that one...*sigh*"}, {"response": 338, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:16)", "body": "The guy we stayed with NEVER took his hat off - oh except in church, and then he held it. (security blanket?) *lol*"}, {"response": 339, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "Did he sleep with his boots on, as well? One never knows about these things! That is really funny!"}, {"response": 340, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (03:35)", "body": "I know a guy like that, a local cinematographer who started wearing cowboy hats and now can't stop."}, {"response": 341, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (06:50)", "body": "I guess it's addictive. *lol*"}, {"response": 342, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (12:21)", "body": "Maybe it makes one's hair fall out and he cannot take off his hat out of vanity? I never have gotten used to wearing a hat in the heat. Especially indoors... Gotta be addictive and comes with the water, though I have never seen Terry wearing one..."}, {"response": 343, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (22:23)", "body": "Space Science News for March 5, 2000 Residents of Canada and the northern United States should be on the alert for aurora borealis during the night of March 5 and morning of March 6. The best time to view aurorae is usually around local midnight. Tonight's new moon will make even faint activity easy to see. Early on March 5, 2000, the interplanetary magnetic field in the vicinity of Earth developed a significant southward-directed component. This condition often means that solar wind plasma can penetrate Earth's magnetosphere and trigger auroral activity. Data from NOAA's polar orbiting meteorological satellites late on March 5 show an expanded auroral oval. If this high level of activity continues, auroral displays could be visible as far south as the Great Lakes states and in New England. For continuing coverage of aurora and all forms of space weather, please visit http://www.SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 344, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:18)", "body": "Midnight here, but no aurora borealis visible from my back porch. :-( Looks a bit hazy or overcast. Only a miserable possum, which scared me half to death, walking on my back fence. Ugly thing. Not going back out there."}, {"response": 345, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:20)", "body": "Possum??? You live where there is wild life? ! You need an almost inky dark sky (Dark of moon is great for this right now) to see the faint whisps of Aurora"}, {"response": 346, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:21)", "body": "If you were a pioneer woman you would catch that sucker and skin'um and cook up a mess of possum like Granny Clampett used to do."}, {"response": 347, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:23)", "body": "Well, heck! Thanks for the resport. Seen: One Possum (U G L Y !)"}, {"response": 348, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:28)", "body": "Am glad it was an oppossum. When I first saw it last summer, sitting on my back porch, thought it was a giant rat. My neighbors told me what it was. Every agency in the city has been notified (streets & san, alderman's office, pest control) and no one has come out to deal with it. Where it came from is the big question. Catch it and skin it like Granny Clampett? ha! Threw a shoe at last summer and it went cowering behind a plant."}, {"response": 349, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:32)", "body": "It likes You ! They're marsupials, you know! Be nice =) Share your veggie scraps and you may end up with many possi? possums?"}, {"response": 350, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (02:12)", "body": "I have seen an Aurora only once in 1947/8 winter - it was particularly cold that year in U.K. and we did indeed see the Northern Lights flickering across the screen - an amazing wave like green in the Northern sky - in those days there were very few street lights in my home town in Southern England and the stars were wonderful in those days. It is something I have never forgotten it was beautiful, strange and even at my young age I believe gave me my first interest in astronomy."}, {"response": 351, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (10:30)", "body": "I'd love to see them in the far north. They make crackling and booming noises, I've heard tell. All in England are certainly are far enough to see the aurora, BTW, so go out and look at it and report back. My notice was from NASA and usually only covers North American events - but polar is polar. There is also Aurora at the South Pole - Aurora Australis!"}, {"response": 352, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (11:44)", "body": "Too much backglow, I'm afraid - unlikely to see anything unless I drove out to the country and the clouds cleared away - anyway wasn't it last night?"}, {"response": 353, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (12:14)", "body": "The solar ejections which cause aruroae arrive over several days. I'll forward any further information get about it, but I am sure if it is visible one night it will be visible it will be so for several days."}, {"response": 354, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (12:17)", "body": "I think our cloud layer will be too heavy - as usual. Still, will look tonight."}, {"response": 355, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (17:54)", "body": "Marcia why are the large powerful ocean storms which sometimes hit Hawaii called \"hurricanes\"? Shouldn't they be \"typhoons\"? It should be very logical \"hurricanes\" in the Atlantic, \"typhoons\" in the Pacific, and \"cyclones\" in the Indian Ocean\". But no, the news once informed me that a hurricane hit Guam. Statistically the United States and China are hit by more large tropical ocean storms than any other countries."}, {"response": 356, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:00)", "body": "Typhoons originate in the Western Pacific. Hurricanes originate in the Atlantic or Eastern Pacific, It depends on which way it is going where it makes landfall. Hurricanes usually follow the island chain westward and often land on Guam. I think the large ocean distance to Guam and the large land masses available for typhoons keep them from hitting Guam...at least most of the time."}, {"response": 357, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:08)", "body": "You noted that there are no stupid questions. Thank you for that. Hurricanes, et. al., is their rotation ever affected by what hemisphere they're in? Will the hemisphere affect whether it's clockwise or counterclockwise?"}, {"response": 358, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:32)", "body": "Oh yes...they make the cutest curls either side of the equator where they start because they need the warm water to build into such intense storms. The Coriolus effect is directly responsible for the spin!"}, {"response": 359, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:34)", "body": "As soon as the season begins I will post one with the curls in opposite directions on either side of the Equator. It is so cute. Same with those storms on Jupiter! Absolutely, I believe there are no stupid questions. Not so sure I do not give stupid answers, though, from time to time...*grin*"}, {"response": 360, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:41)", "body": "There is still data coming in on Hurricane Andrew. There were some very interesting things about that storm. Firstly, it was really small as hurricanes go. However, it did make in strength what it lacked in size, being a very high Category 4 storm. Another interesting thing which was found were pockets of devastation caused by very high velocity winds (about 240-250 mph). Andrew, it seems, had tiny tornadoes impeded in its eyewall. I'd never heard of that before. I was aware that hurricanes could spawn tornadoes, the truly spectacular ones appear as water spouts over the ocean. It would seem that Hurricane Andrew was a very compact compound storm."}, {"response": 361, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:12)", "body": "Fascinating stuff! I had never heard of that before. I went through many hurricanes as a child on the East Coast, but never remember tornadoes associated with them. Thanks for the information. Something else I need to check on bye'n'bye when I get a moment. Someone is sure to make a diagram/schematic of what it looked like. Amazing !"}, {"response": 362, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (20:48)", "body": "Cyclone Steve which has formed three times is now I believe dead - it is incredible it travelled right over the whole of Northern Australia and has gone inland near Exmouth just up from Carnarvon - I hope now our weather will not be 102degreesf for the next couple of days. It was extraordinary though - because our meteorologists can stop talking about it. I hope now that is the end of it but one forecaster this morning said it was possible it could go out to sea and reform again - I hope not cause it could then hit Perth."}, {"response": 363, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (20:53)", "body": "102\ufffdF (39\ufffd C) No wonder your computer did not want to work correctly! That is running a fever outside of your body! National Aspirin time! Cold compresses!"}, {"response": 364, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (20:53)", "body": "You mean..Steve could be resurrected ? Go away, Steve!"}, {"response": 365, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (21:10)", "body": "Careful thats my sons name!"}, {"response": 366, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (22:20)", "body": "oops....Storm, go away and leave Australia alone! *sorry!*"}, {"response": 367, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (11:58)", "body": "Space Science News for March 8, 2000 Powerful tidal forces from Jupiter have molded two of the solar system's most bizarre worlds, fiery Io and icy Europa. Images released this week reveal new details of tidal action on the two moons. FULL STORY at Jupiter's Terrible Tides CLIMATE NEWS NOTE: Without El Nino to spice up life along the Gulf Coast, it\ufffds been \"a boring year\" for thunderstorm watchers, say scientists who have found an interesting correlation between El Nino and lightning. FULL STORY at The Lightning of El Nino"}, {"response": 368, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (22:15)", "body": "Does the wind ever shift directly from east to north? Many people believe the wind never shifts from north to east and back to the north again without veering around by way of the south and west. It is a well-know fact to meteorologists the wind very seldom veers from the north to the east and then, without further shift, back from east to north. However, according to the U.S. Weather Service, such changes can, and often do, occur."}, {"response": 369, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (23:10)", "body": "Injuries, Damage As Tornado Strikes Milwaukee MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - A tornado swept through part of Milwaukee on Wednesday, injuring at least 16 people, damaging a commercial area and lifting some homes off their foundations. The twister touched down on Milwaukee's far south side, damaging areas there and in the neighboring community of St. Francis, not far from Mitchell International Airport. The Milwaukee County Sheriff's office said none of the 16 injuries appeared to be life-threatening. Damage, however, appeared to be extensive. Homes were pushed off foundations and others lost their roofs. Cars were tossed about and a semi-trailer wound up on its side in an intersection. The storm damaged a line of shops. Some of the injured were inside a fast food restaurant at which the window was blown in. The storm struck at 6:10 p.m. CST (00:10 GMT) following several days of unusually warm weather across the Midwest that pushed temperatures to levels that were 30 degrees or more above normal. The storms occurred along a cold front which was sweeping across the region, bringing more seasonal late-winter temperatures and even heavy snow to the Northern Plains. A 15-square-block area was evacuated due to the possibility that natural gas leaks and downed power lines might lead to explosions."}, {"response": 370, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (23:14)", "body": "Steve has gone inland - very little rain in Perth but oh my further up the coast. It is expected, maybe, to reform in the Great Australian Bight - but this time I think a large depression. It is still hot and horrible here. But we have escaped."}, {"response": 371, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (10:41)", "body": "This storm is so strong that it will re-form land features? I AM impressed with this storm. I will look up more about it. That strip of land off of Florida wherein Miami is located was created by a hurricane long ago. I can just as easily be removed! Thanks, Anne."}, {"response": 372, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (20:19)", "body": "Aurora Watch, March 10/11, 2000: Residents of northern Europe, Canada, and the northernmost tier of US states should be on the alert for possible auroral activity tonight. The interplanetary magnetic field as monitored by NASA's ACE spacecraft developed a southward-directed component earlier today. This condition often means that solar wind plasma can penetrate Earth's magnetosphere and trigger geomagnetic disturbances. NOAA space environment satellites show an expanded auroral oval at 2304 UT on March 10. To monitor developments, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 373, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 28, 2000 (20:03)", "body": "A tornado has touched down in Fort Worth. Much damage and at least one death reported. Please be careful... Forecast For Dallas-Ft Worth, Tx 325 Pm Cst Tue Mar 28 2000 .Tonight...Thunderstorms Likely...Some Severe And With Heavy Rain. Low In The Upper 50S. Southeast Wind 10 To 20 Mph Becoming Northeast By Morning. Chance Of Rain 70 Percent. .Wednesday...Mostly Cloudy With A 40 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. High In The Lower 70S. North Wind 10 To 20 Mph. .Wednesday Night...Decreasing Clouds And Cool. Low Near 50. .Thursday...Partly Cloudy. High In The Lower 70S. .Extended Forecast... .Thursday Night...Increasing Clouds With A Slight Chance Of Showers And Thunderstorms. Low In The Mid 40S. .Friday Through Saturday...Partly Cloudy With A Slight Chance Of Showers And Thunderstorms. Low Near 50. High In The 70S. .Sunday...Partly Cloudy. Low In The 50S. High In The 70S. Tornado warning 640 Pm Cst Tue Mar 28 2000 ...This Is A Tornado Emergency For Fort Worth... The National Weather Service In Fort Worth Has Issued A * Tornado Warning For... Tarrant County In North Central Texas * Until 715 Pm Cst * At 640 Pm Cst...A Tornado Was Observed By Doppler Radar And Trained Spotters 5 Miles East Of Fort Worth...Moving East At 20 Mph. * Persons Along The Interstate 30 Corridor Between Arlington And Fort Worth Take Cover Immediately! Lat...Lon 3279 9734 3272 9734 3272 9707 3279 9706 Severe thunderstorm warning 533 Pm Cst Tue Mar 28 2000 The National Weather Service In Fort Worth Has Issued A * Severe Thunderstorm Warning For... Tarrant County In North Central Texas * Until 615 Pm Cst * At 533 Pm Cst...National Weather Service Doppler Radar Detected A Severe Thunderstorm 7 Miles West Of Azle...Moving East At 25 Mph. * Locations In The Warning Include Sansom Park...Saginaw...Lake Worth...Haslet...Eagle Mountain And Blue Mound * The Severe Thunderstorm Will Be Near... Eagle Mountain...Lake Worth Around 550 Pm Cst Blue Mound Around 600 Pm Cst Doppler Radar Detected Hail Up To Two Inches In Diameter With This Severe Thunderstorm. Lat...Lon 3299 9754 3277 9753 3277 9722 3299 9727 Severe weather statement 705 Pm Cst Tue Mar 28 2000 ...A Tornado Warning Continues For Tarrant County Until 715 Pm Cst... At 700Pm...Doppler Radar Detected A Tornado 5 Miles West Of Arlington Airport. This Tornado Was North Of I 20 Moving East At 20 Miles Per Hour. Persons In Arlington Take Cover Now! Nnnn Flood warning 643 Pm Cst Tue Mar 28 2000 The National Weather Service In Fort Worth Has Issued A * Flash Flood Warning For... Tarrant County In North Central Texas * Until 945 Pm Cst * At 643 Pm Cst...Weather Service Doppler Radar Indicated Very Heavy Rain Over Fort Worth And Northern Tarrant County Moving Very Slowly East. Another Storm Is Developing In Southeast Parker County And Will Move Into Tarrant County Through 730 Pm With More Heavy Rain. * Avoid Low Lying And Flood Prone Areas. Lat...Lon 3287 9740 3259 9751 3259 9707 3299 9708 Special weather statement 244 Pm Cst Tue Mar 28 2000 There Is A Moderate Risk Of Severe Thunderstorms Across All Of North Texas...Mainly Late This Afternoon And This Evening. This Includes The Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex...Waco...Temple...Sherman...Paris... And Mineral Wells. The Main Storm Threats Will Be Very Large Hail...Damaging Winds...And Heavy Rainfall. There Is A Threat Of A Tornado Or Two During The Late Afternoon And Early Evening...Mainly Northwest Of An Eastland... ...Mineral Wells...Gainesville Line. The Wind Profile Was Becoming More Favorable For Supercell Storms Within This Area. A Threat Of A Few Tornadoes May Spread Further South And East Through Mid-Evening. Scattered Thunderstorms Were Forming Between Abilene And Vernon At Mid Afternoon. A Few Of These Storms Will Become Severe As They Move Into North Central Texas Through 500 Pm...Generally North Of Interstate 20. By Evening...Thunderstorms Will Become Widespread...Mainly Across The Northern Two Thirds Of North Texas. Damaging Wind And Hail Will Occur In Some Areas. Heavy Rainfall Will Become A Threat...Mainly In Northern And Eastern Portions Of North Texas. A Flash Flood Watch Likely Will Be Issued This Afternoon. Emergency Management Officials And Storm Spotters May Be Activated...Mainly After 400 Pm And Into The Evening Hours. For Hazardous Weather/Thunderstorm Outlooks For Adjacent Areas...See Okcspsokc (Northwestern Texas...Western And Central Oklahoma)... Okcspstul (Eastern Oklahoma And Northwest Arkansas)...Newspsshv (Northeast Texas...Northwestern Louisiana...Extreme Southeastern Oklahoma And Southwestern Arkansas)...Satspshou (Southeast Texas)...Satspssat (South Central Texas)...And Lbbspssjt (West Central Texas)."}, {"response": 374, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 28, 2000 (20:06)", "body": "Can anyone tell me the county in which Austin resides? Please....."}, {"response": 375, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (02:59)", "body": "Travis! Bastrop is to the East and Blanco County is to the West."}, {"response": 376, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (14:36)", "body": "Thanks, Terry. This morning I heard from a friend who lives in Arlington and works in Dallas. She reported this morning: Just got here. They have shuttled us in by police escort. We had a tornado here last night. I am scared. I have been scared; this looks like a war zone down here. They shuttled us in. It was amazing. You should see how bad things look. It is really scary. I worried all night. It was frigtening experience. Thank you, but I much prefer Tsunami and Lava flows."}, {"response": 377, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (14:39)", "body": "I have friends there. haven't heard anything yet."}, {"response": 378, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (14:43)", "body": "Any problems in Austin? I am also concerned about Wolfie as it was heading her direction when last I checked. Scary, indeed! Let us know what you discover when you hear from your friends, Maggie."}, {"response": 379, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (15:39)", "body": "Nope, it's sunny. Getting up to 90 this afternoon. I went for a swim in my pool this morning."}, {"response": 380, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (16:00)", "body": "You have two extreme season, it seems. What happened to Spring? I am more delighted than I can say that Austin and it Springizens are well and safe *hugs*"}, {"response": 381, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (18:50)", "body": "Ok, everybody sing: \"Take me out to the Ball Game....\" This just came through (our game starts in 3 hours) ULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED FLASH FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI 100 PM HST THU MAR 30 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HONOLULU HAS ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WATCH EFFECTIVE UNTIL 100 AM HST FRIDAY FOR PERSONS IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS... THE BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII"}, {"response": 382, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (16:12)", "body": "I don't know all the words, so I'm humming in some places."}, {"response": 383, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (16:16)", "body": "Thanks! It worked because it only sprinkled on the field and no time-outs were needed. However, we lost 7-17 to San Jose State University. We play again this evening, with different results, I hope!"}, {"response": 384, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (05:23)", "body": "A cyclone in far north queensland is imminent = strange name something like Tessi. Expected to increase from 1 to 2 in the near future"}, {"response": 385, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (11:24)", "body": "When does your cyclone season end? Or, are you 'lucky' enough to get them year round?"}, {"response": 386, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (19:22)", "body": "The cyclone season is supposed to end at the end of the big wet - which has been particularly wet this season. It is late ending and affects our weather down here in Perth. We will probably have a dry winter and won't start until end of May."}, {"response": 387, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (19:30)", "body": "Does it get cold enough to snow in Perth? (How long does it take you to get over expecting July to be HOT and December to be COLD?) Guess Footie is about to supplant cricket for the duration...*sigh*"}, {"response": 388, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (00:16)", "body": "Cyclone Tessi Crosses Australia's Northeast Coast CANBERRA (Reuters) - Tropical Cyclone Tessi weakened s it crossed Australia's northeast coast early on Monday but still brought with it the threat of flooding inland rains. Tessi brought down some trees and power lines with wind gusts of up to 81 miles an hour as it crossed the coast south of Ingham, 770 miles north of Brisbane in the state of Queensland. Jim Davidson, senior meteorologist at the Queensland Cyclone Warning Centre, said Tessi was downgraded to a category one cyclone from category two just before it crossed the coast at about 9:00 a.m. Australia's far north has barely had time to recover from Cyclone Steve, which damaged homes and uprooted trees with winds of up to 106 miles when it hit the resort town of Cairns in late February. Strong winds associated with Cyclone Tessi were expected to cause more damage to Australia's sugarcane crop, industry officials said. Meteorologists are also monitoring a low pressure system near New Caledonia, which they said has the potential to develop into a cyclone off the Queensland coast within the next 24 hours."}, {"response": 389, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (14:49)", "body": "Sotrm watch updating USA map from http://www.earthwatch.com"}, {"response": 390, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (14:54)", "body": "For the most sensational updating weather maps check http://www.earthwatch.com/SKYWATCH/ I would like to thank the Austin ARES website for pointing me in this direction!"}, {"response": 391, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (15:01)", "body": "These tropical updating maps will let you watch the hurricanes develop which may be a threat to you and yours..."}, {"response": 392, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (15:03)", "body": "SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI 850 AM HST MON APR 3 2000 WATERSPOUTS WERE OBSERVED OVER NORTH AND EAST HAWAII...SEVEN MILES NORTH OF HILO OVER ONAMEA BAY. IF WATERSPOUTS MOVE ONSHORE THEY CAN PRODUCE DANGEROUS WINDS. IF YOU CANNOT GET OUT OF THE WAY...MOVE UNDER SOMETHING STURDY AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS. IF YOU ARE IN THE OPEN LIE FLAT FACING THE GROUND WITH YOUR HANDS OVER YOUR HEAD. CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR WATERSPOUTS TO FORM OVER THE ISLAND AREA. THESE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO TERMINATE AROUND 1200 PM HST. THIS WILL BE THE FINAL STATEMENT UNLESS CONDITIONS REQUIRE FURTHER ISSUANCES. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...LOCAL TV OR RADIO FOR FURTHER NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INFORMATION. FARRELL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU"}, {"response": 393, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (20:18)", "body": "HIGH WIND WARNING NUMBER 1 NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HONOLULU HAS ISSUED A HIGH WIND WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 400 PM HST FOR... THE SOUTHERN PORTION OF THE CENTRAL VALLEY OF MAUI...THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE WEST MAUI MOUNTAINS AND THSLOPES OF HALEAKALA ON MAUI AND... THE WAIKOLOA SLOPES OF THE BIG ISLAND FROM WAIMEA TO KAWAIHAI ...INCLUDING WAIKOLOA VILLAGE AND... A WIND ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT FOR STRONG AND GUSTY TRADE WINDS OVER ALL HAWAIIAN ISLANDS... A HIGH WIND WARNING MEANS THAT WINDS IN EXCESS OF 40 MPH OR GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH ARE OCCURRING. PERSONS IN THE AFFECTED AREAS SHOULD TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT PROPERTY. TIE DOWN OR MOVE LOOSE OBJECTS TO A SHELTERED LOCATION. SEVERAL TREES HAVE BEEN UPROOTED IN UPCOUNTRY MAUI AND MOTORISTS ARE LOSING CONTROL OF THEIR VEHICLES IN THE OLOWALU AREA JUST PAST THE TUNNELS ON THE ROAD TO LAHAINA. ONE VEHICLE HAS OVERTURNED THIS MORNING IN THIS AREA. REPORTS OF 40 TO 45 MPH WINDS WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH WERE RECEIVED FROM PAUKA ON THE WAIKOLOA SLOPES OF THE BIG ISLAND. WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE IN THE 35 TO 45 MPH RANGE WITH GUSTS OVER 60 MPH THROUGH 400 PM HST AND POSSIBLY THROUGH... TUESDAY OVER THE AFFECTED PORTIONS OF MAUI. BRISK TRADE WINDS OF 20 TO 35 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS ARE FORECAST TO CONTINUE THROUGH TUESDAY OVER THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. PERSONS IN AREAS EXPOSED TO THE STRONG WINDS SHOULD TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT PROPERTY. TIE DOWN LOOSE OBJECTS OR MOVE THEM TO A SHELTERED LOCATION. MOST SUSCEPTIBLE AREAS ARE MOUNTAIN RIDGES AND VALLEYS ON THE LEE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAINS. THE STRONG WINDS ARE BEING CAUSED BY A LARGE HIGH PRESSURE SYSTEM NORTH OF THE ISLANDS. THE NEXT WARNING ON THIS EVENT WILL BE ISSUED BY 400 PM HST OR SOONER IF NECESSARY. FARRELL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU"}, {"response": 394, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (19:29)", "body": "If it's not one thing out here, it's another... HIGH WIND WARNING NUMBER 4 NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI 830 AM HST TUE APR 4 2000 ...A HIGH WIND WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR ALL HAWAIIAN ISLANDS... A HIGH WIND WARNING MEANS THAT SUSTAINED WINDS GREATER THAN OF 40 MPH OR GUSTS GREATER THAN 60 MPH ARE OCCURING. TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT PROPERTY..TIE DOWN OR SHELTER LOOSE OBJECTS. DRIVE WITH EXTRA CARE DUE TO BUFFETING AND POSSIBLE DOWNED TREES AND POWERLINES. AN INTENSE 1040MB HIGH NORTH OF THE STATE WILL CONTINUE TO SUSTAIN VERY STRONG TRADE WINDS OVER THE ISLANDS AGAIN TODAY. SUSCEPTIBLE AREAS ARE OVER HIGHER ELEVATIONS AND THRU DOWNWIND VALLEYS. THE HIGH SHOULD BEGIN TO WEAKEN TONIGHT AND SIGNIFICANTLY SO TOMORROW. THE HIGH WIND WARNING WILL LIKELY LOWER SOMETIME TONIGHT. THE NEXT ISSUANCE FOR THIS EVENT WILL BE AT 830 PM TONIGHT OR SOONER IF NEEDED. MATSUDA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU"}, {"response": 395, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (21:25)", "body": "We now have cyclone Vaughan off the Queensland coast two days after cyclone Tessi - they have so much rain it is unbelievable. It is a category 2 at present but could increase."}, {"response": 396, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (22:02)", "body": "Is this the BIGGER Wet? Heavens...when it rains, it really rains!!! Any Ark builders busy at work yet?!"}, {"response": 397, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (23:15)", "body": "Space Weather News for April 4-5, 2000 The interplanetary magnetic field in the vicinity of Earth turned southward on April 4. This condition often creates a weak point in our planet's magnetospheric shielding against the solar wind. Geomagnetic activity is currently high. If active conditions continue, observers in northern Europe, Canada, Alaska and the northern tier of US states could be in for a display of aurora borealis around local midnight on April 5 (when April 4 turns into April 5). The Moon is just one day past New, meaning that even very faint Northern Lights could be visible against tonight's dark skies. For more information see: http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 398, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 16, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "Here is an updating central Europe map for you to bookmark. Very Special People are in Italy from time to time, and one is there now. I shall look at this with great frequency."}, {"response": 399, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (03:24)", "body": "Excellently useful Marcia! I shall be in the centre of this map next weekend. Your timing is flawless. :-)"}, {"response": 400, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (11:56)", "body": "Must be the vibes, Mark. Have a pleasant journey and safe return. Now, I will have two gentlemen of great esteem on that little part of this Big Blue Marble. I shall be watching closely, as well."}, {"response": 401, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (23:06)", "body": "I should have included this bar with the above weather map"}, {"response": 402, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (23:07)", "body": "grey is cold ... deep red is coldest"}, {"response": 403, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (19:41)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 18, 2000 April's Lyrid Meteor Shower : The oldest known meteor shower peaks on the morning of April 22. Bright moonlight will reduce the number of shooting stars that are easy to see, but many meteor enthusiasts will be watching anyway because it's been over 3 months since the last major meteor display. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast18apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 404, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (18:29)", "body": "If this updates it stay, if it does not it will disappear in the morning"}, {"response": 405, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (19:55)", "body": ""}, {"response": 406, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (08:11)", "body": "we have just suffered severe cyclone Rosita - category 4-5 Broome damaged - beach devestated - winds at centre 250 k's per hour - tomorrow Alice Springs top temp will be 14degrees c. all due to cyclone - last night Perth suffered thunderstorms not predicted - due to cyclonic weather. Most unusual for this time of year. Perth 9.12p.m. 20th April"}, {"response": 407, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (09:43)", "body": "Wow, are you ok? Were you affected personally, Anne? Where is Broome, which coast?"}, {"response": 408, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (11:00)", "body": "On the NorthWest Coast of Australia is where Broome is located. That is a sizeable distance from Perth, which is the area in which Anne lives. I cannot believe the devastation you have suffered this year from one cyclone after another. Did thid one sneak up on you unaware? Anne, is your roof still intact? How much of that storm reached Perth?"}, {"response": 409, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (23:15)", "body": "I'm hoping all is well for Anne down under."}, {"response": 410, "author": "ommin", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (08:02)", "body": "We are okay here in Perth - but not in Broome some 1000 ks to the north. It is a tourist area and has been devastated, holiday homes etc. have disappeared, the beach known as Cable beach all but destroyed. Trees down, light poles, telephone poles etc. all down. It has been an extraordinary year with cyclone Steve re-starting three times and then finishing as a depression in the Bight. Apparently the cyclone season is supposed to stop by 30th April but....... We had heavy rain here in Perth but nothing untoward re wind although we have a cold change, gales etc forcasted for the middle of next week, about a month early. Alice Springs is suffering flooding - two dry river beds are now deeply flooding rivers and much concern is being shown. Roads cut off etc. Again most unusual. Lake Eyre normally a huge salt pan is now a vast inland sea - the rains have filtered down from the North West, North East and from the North. Again most unusual - La Nina I suppose. We really shouldn't complain as we are the dryest continent and any rain is welcome."}, {"response": 411, "author": "ommin", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (08:14)", "body": "Being utter selfish about our troubles in Oz. but will now show my concern re tornadoes in the U.S. I hope all is well with everyone and no one has been hurt."}, {"response": 412, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (15:08)", "body": "We need you to be utter selfish about it so we can get the details we'd otherwise miss and the immediacy of the damage. Poor Broome! Anyone in the US mainland who experienced tornadoes yet? I note that there is a tornado watch in the http://www/austin360.com web site. Perhaps I should post that, here, as well."}, {"response": 413, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (17:51)", "body": "Nothing here locally. Glad you're ok Anne, I was concerned for your welfare. Has the worst passed now?"}, {"response": 414, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (14:40)", "body": "GLOBAL WARMING FOUND AT EQUATOR Macapa -- New evidence of global warming has been found in this Brazilian city at the mouth of the Amazon River. Dr. Bruno Clinckerdinck, Professor of Climatology and Auto Repair at Gomer State University, said evidence of warming is \"incontrovertible\". \"There's lots of palm trees and stuff, plus it's always hot and humid here.\" Prof. Clinckerdinck, head of an international team of scientists, has been in Macapa for a month, studying the phenomena caused by global warming. \"We walk up and down the beach all day, taking air and water samples. Then we sit under beach umbrellas and analyze the results. I'm telling you, it's frightening.\" The professor then excused himself, mumbling something about \"mai tais\" and \"nap\". Copyright 2000 Cruddy Enterprises Blithering Idiot -=+=- SCIENTISTS RETRACT GLOBAL WARMING REPORT IN LIGHT OF COLD FRONT A report validating global warming by a National Academy of Sciences panel retracted their findings only a few days after it was issued in light of the current cold front blanketing much of the country. \"Never mind,\" said one of the researchers who worked on the study. A skeptic of the report, Professor Marvin Lynch of the University of Southern North Carolina School of Atmospheric and Animal Husbandry Sciences, felt vindicated. \"I told them to wait just a few more days before concluding their report because it was going to get colder than Hillary Clinton on her wedding anniversary, but they went ahead and rushed it out,\" he said. The 11 members of the panel were unavailable for further comment on the report. \"They're out buying winter clothing,\" said an administrative assistant at the academy offices. Breaking News Beyond Repair"}, {"response": 415, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (14:42)", "body": "More seriously, Wolfie's home town got pasted with 2-4-inch hail stones yesterday and was a near-miss for a Tornado. I wish she would check in and let us know how she fared. It looked really scary. Guess Texas got some of it, as well, but I do not know anyone in that part of Texas..."}, {"response": 416, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (23:22)", "body": "She did while Spring was frozen. She is fine (aren't you?!) *hugs*"}, {"response": 417, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (01:32)", "body": "While we wait for Wolfie's pix of the black menacing clouds here's some weather news from Ginny's neck of the woods: Flattening of Radar Antenna Delays Boston Flights BOSTON (Reuters) - Flight delays and cancellations plagued Boston's Logan Airport on Sunday after the flattening, apparently by high winds, of a radar antenna that handled incoming flights, aviation officials said. A replacement antenna was loaded onto an Air Force C-17 in Oklahoma City and was expected to arrive at Logan on Sunday, replacing the antenna knocked over on Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Installing and testing the new antenna were expected to take as long as four days, snarling plans for travelers returning from April school vacations, airport officials said. Logan is the nation's ninth busiest airport. Planes were landing at the rate of about 22 to 28 an hour on Sunday, compared with an average of 35 to 40 in inclement weather and more than 60 in clear weather, officials said. New England has been soaked by rain in recent days. About 210 flights were canceled on Saturday, with 130 others canceled on Sunday by early afternoon, officials said. Some airlines were diverting flights to airports in Manchester, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island. US Airways Group Inc (U.N) and its US Airways Express and MetroJet subsidiaries announced late on Sunday that they were canceling selected flights out of Boston on Monday to minimize the effect of the continuing outage of the radar system. US Airways Express regional flights, operated by Allegheny Airlines, Colgan Air and CommutAir under the US Airways Express brand, were canceled until 5 p.m. (2100 GMT), while Mesa Airlines, another US Airways Express carrier, would operate a single morning flight from Boston to Washington-Dulles. US Airways said it was also canceling 10 departures and arrivals at Boston to and from Baltimore; Charlotte, North Carolina; Buffalo and Atlanta. But US Airways Shuttle would fly a normal schedule on Monday, servicing airports in Boston, New York and Washington."}, {"response": 418, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (08:10)", "body": "Looking for a wolfie check in and update!"}, {"response": 419, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (13:01)", "body": "I think it will not till after work this afternoon..."}, {"response": 420, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (06:00)", "body": "Sorry I did not reply to your query Terry but have been unindated with relatives over the Easter Period. The weather here in Perth, Western Australia is still very strange - Friday we had winter gales unheard of in April, and it has been wet and horrible ever since. Our bad weather usually occurs between late May and early August - I suppose it must be the La nina effect? Do any of you think so."}, {"response": 421, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (06:05)", "body": "Hi Anne, we've had really strange weather in the southern England recently too. In the recent week or so we've had snow, large hailstones, Rain, rain and more rain, and bright enough sunshine to go out in shorts!"}, {"response": 422, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (13:40)", "body": "Probably, Anne, but theories are just that. subject to chance to the newest thought on the subject. Do we really know?! Hawaii is still pretty much Hawaii"}, {"response": 423, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (00:21)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 1, 2000M One year ago this week killer tornadoes raged across Oklahoma. Now, NASA scientists are figuring out how to predict such storms using lightning data from Earth-orbit. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast01may_1m.htm"}, {"response": 424, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (02:00)", "body": "Space Weather News for May 1, 2000 A coronal mass ejection (CME) from a small sunspot group was recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory on April 30, 2000. If material from the eruption is heading toward Earth, as animations of the CME suggest, then the shock wave will probably arrive late on May 2nd or sometime on May 3rd. Forecasters estimate a 30% chance of active geomagnetic conditions at middle-latitudes on May 3, 2000. For more information, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 425, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (08:24)", "body": "We're getting heavy thunderstorms and lightning this morning, it's been going on since at least 3 am, I unplugged all my systems at one point."}, {"response": 426, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (12:24)", "body": "I am glad you did unplugged. I trust you also disconnected your antennas from your rigs. A solid-soldered interior is NOT a good thing for a boat anchor! Guess when it is done tearing up Texas, that storm system will be heading for Wolfie. You guys, be careful, please! None of you are expendable."}, {"response": 427, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (14:26)", "body": "I didn't but everything survived."}, {"response": 428, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (14:50)", "body": "Good to know. Thanks! The Hams here disconnect the antenna and throw it out the window as far away from the house as they can do easily and in a hurry through a window. Lightning can jump gaps, but you know that!"}, {"response": 429, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (16:06)", "body": "http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000502/sc/science_tsunamis_1.html Tuesday May 2 4:45 PM ET Tsunamis Seen Possible Along U.S. East Coast By Patrick Rizzo NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tsunamis, the sometimes devastating tidal waves produced by undersea earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides, are not normally the kind of geologic activity people on the U.S. eastern seaboard worry about. But newly-discovered cracks in the continental shelf off the Mid-Atlantic may change that. Researchers writing in the May issue of the journal Geology said that cracks in the continental shelf off Virginia and North Carolina, if geologically active, could produce landslides that may trigger a tsunami along the heavily populated coast in those states and the lower Chesapeake Bay. A tsunami could generate two to 20 foot (.06 to 6.1 meter) high waves, equivalent to the storm surge of category three to four, or extensive to extreme, hurricanes. Hurricane Andrew, a category four storm that hit Florida in 1992, caused over $25 billion in damage, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. In 1998 two strong earthquakes caused a series of tsunamis to hit the north coast of Papua New Guinea, killing 2,500 people. The researchers, Neal Driscoll of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, Jeffrey Weissel of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and John Goff of the University of Texas at Austin, discovered the cracks after examining National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maps of the continental shelf. Weissel said when he first saw the data, the escarpments ''looked like they could be the headwalls of future large scale submarine landslides.'' He said that he and his colleagues would be leaving from Woods Hole Saturday morning to look for signs of whether the cracks, shaped like a series of tilted roof shingles, are active and likely to trigger a landslide in the future. ``We need to understand whether these crack-like features are active or recently active, in which case we should be concerned,'' Weissel said in a telephone interview. If they are active and a large chunk of the escarpment were to slump into the deep water off the continental shelf, it would push huge volumes of seawater ahead of it. Water along the coast would rush in to take its place and the water would then rush back toward land, possibly causing massive flooding in low-lying towns along the coast. ``You could expect a tsunami hitting the coast ... about 20 minutes after the slide,'' Weissel said. The last major tsunami to strike the Eastern Seaboard was in 1929, when an earthquake triggered a landslide and a tidal wave that killed 51 people on the Grand Banks along the Newfoundland coast."}, {"response": 430, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (16:58)", "body": "Thanks, Maggie. I was hoping you would put this in here where others might see it linked with News. Lotsa relatives there and Autumn lives in the area. This is just an IF scenario...it is not necessarily going to happen. Stay tuned!"}, {"response": 431, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (23:20)", "body": "Last week, while the rest of her state and neighboring Texas was getting hammererd by huge hailstones and tornadoes, Wolfie took this image of the distant storm. These cloud formations are known as mamatocumulous... Splendid job and thanks!"}, {"response": 432, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (03:24)", "body": "Oh wow! that's a fantastic photo Wolfie!"}, {"response": 433, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (04:14)", "body": "What a spectacular, mind blowing picture! I'm going to print it on glos"}, {"response": 434, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (12:18)", "body": "I can send you the original which is quite large if you would like to have it to work with."}, {"response": 435, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (13:19)", "body": "These GOES satellites are the ones I use to get some of the updating weather maps of the USA To: Geostationary Satellite Server Users: NASA Press Release: \"The fourth in a series of five of the most sophisticated weather spacecraft ever built, soared into space this morning at 3:07 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-L spacecraft was carried in space aboard aLockheed Martin Atlas IIA rocket. Twenty-seven minutes later, the spacecraft separated from the Centaur stage. At approximately 4:22 a.m., controllers successfully deployed the outer panel of the solar array, making the spacecraft power positive and allowing the batteries to charge\". GOES-L will be called GOES-11. More info will be at http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov and http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/earth/goesl/goesl.htm ."}, {"response": 436, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (00:08)", "body": "To Be or Not to Be, La Nina? NASA Science News for May 18, 2000 Just last month, scientists were predicting that current La Ni\ufffda conditions would persist, but now data from Earth-orbiting satellites show that it may be on the decline. Is it too soon to revise the 2000 hurricane forecast? FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast18may_1m.htm To Be or Not to Be, La Ni\ufffda?"}, {"response": 437, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (21:06)", "body": "Hurricane season is back. Bookmark this url - it beats wading through the entire topic to get to this excellent map Looks like Arleta has disappeared: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/14.69 Unplug your computers Terry! Forecast For Austin, Tx 400 Pm Cdt Sat May 27 2000 .Tonight...Mostly Cloudy With A 50 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms...Some Possibly Severe Later Tonight. Lows In The Middle 70S. Southeast Winds 5 To 10 Mph. .Sunday...Cloudy Morning With A 30 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. Partly Cloudy Afternoon. Highs In The Lower 90S. Variable Winds 5 To 10 Mph. .Sunday Night...Mostly Clear. Lows In The Lower 70S. .Memorial Day...Mostly Sunny And Hot. Highs In The Middle 90S. .Extended Forecast... .Tuesday Through Thursday...Some Brief Early Morning Clouds... Otherwise Mostly Clear And Hot. Lows In The 70S. Highs In The Middle 90S To Near 100. Special weather statement 734 Pm Cdt Sat May 27 2000 ...Thunderstorms Moving Across Northern Hill Country This Evening... A Line Of Strong Thunderstorms Will Move Across The Northern Hill Country This Evening. Some Of These Storms May Become Severe And Capable Of Producing Very Heavy Rain...Deadly Lightning...Strong Damaging Winds...And Large Hail. Campers And Persons In The Outdoors Should Take Precautions For The Storms Later This Evening By Securing Loose Objects...And Having Safe Shelter Available. Boaters Should Be Ready To Seek Safe Harbor And Tie Boats Down Securely. Most Lightning Fatalities And Injuries Occur In Open Fields Or Under Trees. If Outdoors...Seek Shelter In A Sturdy Building Or Car. Do Not Take Shelter In Small Sheds...Under Isolated Trees...Or In Convertible Automobiles."}, {"response": 438, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (21:48)", "body": "For Lance - no wonder I have not heard from him... Forecast For NC 937 Pm Edt Sat May 27 2000 ... Severe Thunderstorm Watch In Effect Until 2 Am... .Tonight...Showers And Thunderstorms Likely. Some Storms May Be Severe With Damaging Winds And Large Hail. Low In The Mid 60S. Southwest Wind Near 10 Mph. Chance Of Rain 60 Percent. .Sunday... Showers And Thunderstorms. High 75 To 80. West Wind Around 10 Mph. Chance Of Rain 80 Percent. .Sunday Night...Showers And Thunderstorms Likely. Low In The Upper 50S. Chance Of Rain 60 Percent. ***If I am lucky I might hear from him for my Birthday but not before, I fear... For Wolfie who is also unplugged, I hope: LA 911 Pm Cdt Sat May 27 2000 ...Severe Thunderstorm Watch In Effect Until 100 Am Cdt Sunday... .Tonight...Cloudy With Showers And Thunderstorms Likely. Some Storms Possibly Severe. Locally Heavy Rain Possible. Low Near 70. Southwest Wind Near 10 Mph. Chance Of Rain 70 Percent. .Sunday...Mostly Cloudy In The Morning With A Chance Of Showers And Thunderstorms. Mostly Sunny During The Afternoon. High Near 90. West Wind 5 To 10 Mph Becoming North Near 10 Mph. Chance Of Rain 30 Percent. Severe thunderstorm warning 909 Pm Cdt Sat May 27 2000 * Severe Thunderstorm Warning For... Bossier Parish In Louisiana Caddo Parish In Louisiana * Until 1000 Pm Cdt * At 909 Pm Cdt...The Shreveport National Weather Service Doppler Radar Indicated A Line Of Severe Thunderstorms Developing Over The Area...Moving East At 30 Mph. This Thunderstorm Will Produce Large Hail And Strong Damaging Winds. Do Not Remain Outside...This Is A Dangerous Weather Situation. Repeating...The National Weather Service Has Issued A Severe Thunderstorm Warning For... Xxxxx Parish In Louisiana Xxxxx Parish In Louisiana Until 1000 Pm Cdt. Special weather statement 822 Pm Cdt Sat May 27 2000 Thunderstorms Are Rapidly Forming This Evening. At 820 Pm...Thunderstorms Were Over Northwest Shreveport And Northern Caddo Parish...Moving Northeast At 30 Mph. A Thunderstorm Outflow Boundary Moving Southwest Out Of Southwest Arkansas..."}, {"response": 439, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (23:29)", "body": "Lance checked in with me this evening: Our problem sprang up unexpected on Thursday and caught the weather weenies totally by surprise. No hail, 1/3 to 1/2 inch of rain, but winds!!!! Clocked at 82 MPH here in Burlington! Trees, lines, everything possible. Signs gone, and they blocked the Interstate for hours with downed lines. I sat and watched it blow thru. We are fine, just a couple of downed branches for us. Neighbors on each side lost trees. Our weenies caught it with about an hour's warning. Didn't do me any good. I slept in until shortly before. I sat down and saw the warning on TV that it was about ten miles away and coming. Got all of one minute of TV when the power went off. They don't want too much power going too quickly into use and the phone lines getting jammed. You are the only one I'm letting know about this tonight. Take care and I'll write again when I can. Thank goodness...I hope Wolfie checks in when she can..."}, {"response": 440, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (20:37)", "body": "Terry, where are the fatalities in Texas due to flooding? Houston area? Please, not in Austin!!!"}, {"response": 441, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (04:12)", "body": "What flooding and fatalities? Not heard about this - or from friends in the area."}, {"response": 442, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (18:09)", "body": "No, we haven't had any flooding lately. I've been pretty isolated from news sources the last 2-3 weeks, buried in work."}, {"response": 443, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "At least no flooding in the Austin area. It's been pretty dry and hot. Only tinges of rain here and there."}, {"response": 444, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (22:39)", "body": "I seem to rememeber it as being in \"the Houston Area\" which is far to the south of Austin. Still, I worry!"}, {"response": 445, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (20:11)", "body": "GO OUTSIDE AND LOOK AT THE AURORA TONIGHT!!!"}, {"response": 446, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (11:25)", "body": "June 8-9 Aurora Update Space Weather News for June 8-9, 2000 Geomagnetic disturbances are finally subsiding after an interplanetary shock wave struck Earth's magnetosphere around 930 UT on June 8. The event triggered intense aurora over sparsely-inhabited regions of northern Asia and the Pacific. However, by nightfall over North America conditions had quieted. There is still a chance for isolated auroral substorms that might be visible tonight (June 8-9) at middle latitudes. The next opportunity for viewing aurora borealis may arrive as soon as June 10, when another solar wind disturbance is expected to reach Earth. For more information and updates please visit http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 447, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (02:21)", "body": "(Oh drat!!! I was too busy and fogot to look - but there was heavy cloud cover when I looked earlier)"}, {"response": 448, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (07:20)", "body": "Austin's been getting some flooding and it's been raining solid for the last day or two. And no end in sight. What a change!"}, {"response": 449, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (14:10)", "body": "Is there no moderation in Texas? Your droughts are bigger, your floods deeper...and now there are people I truly care about and am now worried - REALLY worried! Wish there was some way to know if \"they\" are ok..."}, {"response": 450, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (14:20)", "body": "No one saw the aurora that I am in contact with...Pennsylvania was under clouds, Mike fed the mosquitoes for naught, and England had clouds....*sigh* And, I am way too far south..."}, {"response": 451, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (23:24)", "body": "Listening to the flood reports on Terry's main page... They did not mention Cedar or Quail creek...does anyone else live near a creek that I should worry about? Forecast For Austin, Tx - 911 Pm Cdt Sat Jun 10 2000 ...Flash Flood Watch In Effect Tonight... .Tonight...Cloudy With A 50 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms...Locally Heavy Rainfall And Flooding Possible. Lows In The Lower 70S. Southeast Winds 5 To 10 Mph. .Sunday...Continued Cloudy With A 60 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms...Locally Heavy Rainfall Possible. Highs In The Mid 80S. Southeast Winds 10 To 15 Mph. .Sunday Night...Cloudy With A 40 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. Lows In The Lower 70S. .Monday...Mostly Cloudy...Becoming Partly Cloudy During The Afternoon. A 30 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. Highs In The Upper 80S. .Extended Forecast... .Monday Night...Partly Cloudy. Lows Near 70. .Tuesday...Mostly Cloudy With A Slight Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. Highs In The 90S. .Wednesday And Thursday...Mostly Cloudy With A Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms. Lows In The 70S. Highs Near 90."}, {"response": 452, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sun, Jun 11, 2000 (09:29)", "body": "Lots of rain in the forecast, esp. Monday. Well, all week really."}, {"response": 453, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 11, 2000 (14:01)", "body": "Looks like the worst of it has gone through Dallas from what the Wx Channel is showing. Is it Very flat in central Texas or is there a impervious layer under the soil as there is in Arizona? Whatever, your 7 inches it way more than baked hard ground can absorb so quickly! Everything up on tables and lashed down!"}, {"response": 454, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (08:14)", "body": "The rain's let up. It's been pretty mild the last couple of days."}, {"response": 455, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (18:42)", "body": "From my son who lives there: From: San Francisco Office of Emergency Services The Pacific Gas and Electric Company has notified the City of San Francisco that PG&E will begin involuntary curtailment of electrical service to portions of San Francisco. These outages are necessary to prevent collapse of the electrical power grid. Parts of San Francisco are expected to be without power for at least an hour to an hour and a half."}, {"response": 456, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (18:44)", "body": "More from Iki: URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA 345 PM PDT WED JUN 14 2000 CARQUINEZ STRAIT AND DELTA- ...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED AN EXCESSIVE HEAT ADVISORY FOR TONIGHT AND THURSDAY... A STRONG RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE OVER NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COMBINED WITH BREEZY NORTH WINDS IS PRODUCING WELL ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES IN PARTS OF THE CARQUINEZ STRAIT AND DELTA. AS A RESULT AN EXCESSIVE HEAT ADVISORY HAS BEEN ISSUED. THIS IS DEFINED AS TWO OR MORE DAYS WHERE DAYTIME HIGHS EXCEED 105 FAHRENHEIT AND OVERNIGHT LOWS ARE 80 OR GREATER. LOWS IN THE MIDDLE TO UPPER 80S WERE COMMON ACROSS THE DELTA THIS MORNING. HIGHS TODAY WILL TOP OUT WELL ABOVE 105 AT MANY LOCATIONS ...AND LOWS TONIGHT ARE ONCE AGAIN EXPECTED TO ONLY COOL INTO THE UPPER 70S AND 80S. ON THURSDAY...THE MERCURY WILL ONCE AGAIN SOAR ABOVE 105 IN MANY AREAS OF THE DELTA. SLIGHTLY COOLER TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED OVERNIGHT THURSDAY INTO FRIDAY WITH LOWS IN THE 70S AND HIGHS IN THE UPPER 90S TO AROUND 103. GREATER COOLING IS EXPECTED OVER THE WEEKEND AS MARINE AIR MOVES INLAND. AVOID PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO SUNLIGHT...ESPECIALLY IN THE AFTERNOON. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER AND USE SUNBLOCK WHEN OUTDOORS. ALSO IT IS ADVISED TO CHECK ON THOSE SENSITIVE TO HEAT...SUCH AS THE ELDERLY... CHILDREN...AND PETS. TUNE TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR VISIT THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WEB SITE FOR THE LATEST FORECAST PERTAINING TO THIS HEAT WAVE. THE INTERNET SITE IS HTTP://WEATHER.NOAA.GOV/SACRAMENTO . BE SURE TO USE LOWER CASE."}, {"response": 457, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (09:23)", "body": "does this have anything to do with the sun's acting up here lately?"}, {"response": 458, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (14:03)", "body": "No... Not directly... and not yet. They are still figuring out the dynamics of weather systems but seems to be La Nina this time....which is sort of nebulous at best. Will post some information when I find a clear explanation...."}, {"response": 459, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (19:38)", "body": "(i couldn't think of what the sun has been up too besides shining brightly, *grin* the SOLAR WIND)"}, {"response": 460, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (21:27)", "body": "Check the sunspots with this amazing little updating image:"}, {"response": 461, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun 17, 2000 (10:15)", "body": "One of the days this past week, it was reported that San Francisco reached a temperature of 103 degrees F. That is extremely unsual. San Francisco is noted for having a very temperate climate, being not very cold in winter or hot in summer. The penninsula it sits on is said to keep \"air conditioned\" as it were."}, {"response": 462, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 17, 2000 (12:25)", "body": "Yes, Indeed. A few posts back are two reports for my son who lives there. It was actually 109\ufffdF (42.7\ufffd C) and that is not fit for human consumption. Rolling brown-outs are the order of the day. It is gonna be a bad fire season."}, {"response": 463, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (04:18)", "body": "and the U.K. this morning was complaining about a heatwave all of 27c. or about just over 80f. Well San Francisco is experiencing Western Australian temps. In the summer we often have over 42c. but strangely this year we didn't exceed 40degrees c. once. It must be terrible over there. I hope they don't have awful forest fires - but the ground will be tinder dry won't it."}, {"response": 464, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (16:30)", "body": "You can bet this will be a very active fire season with it being so hot and so dry this early in the year."}, {"response": 465, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (21:09)", "body": "i believe fire in colorado is under control now since the weather has taken a turn toward cool. someone correct me if i'm wrong (but be nice about it *grin*)"}, {"response": 466, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (23:53)", "body": "From what I head on the Weather Channel the Colorado fire was mostly contained and just about out. The wildfires are now in New Mexico."}, {"response": 467, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (08:34)", "body": "UK heatwave hit 35C yesterday. Hottest day for 40 years Supposed to be 32C today. And we forgot to take the fan away with us .....!"}, {"response": 468, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (16:41)", "body": "Don't be tempted to acquire an all-over tan; your skin and mine was never intended to be exposed to such radiation and is ill equipped to deal with the resultant damage."}, {"response": 469, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (16:49)", "body": "My father was of French and Scotch/Irish ancestry, and he never got a tan. He got freckles, he got sunburn. He even claimed to have once bought this product called Man Tan, (no kidding), which he said turned him orange. My maternal grandfather was Greek-Cypriot and had blond hair. I have slightly olive skin and I do get sunburn in really obvious places, like my nose."}, {"response": 470, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (17:20)", "body": "Your Dad and I share much in common genetically. Though eschange the french for English and you have it. We do not tan either. I can remember ManTan. The funniest part of that was the orange palms it gave you...not the usual color! My son, of the same general heritage as mine with some Teutonic thrown in had blond hair (which has since darkened to brown from being not in Hawaii and in an office), green eyes and a perpetual tan - born that way actually - from who knows where. Maybe a travelling salesman of the swarthy kind visited my ancestress some where way back???"}, {"response": 471, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (05:19)", "body": "No problems with tans, we all have perpetual tans and never burn - more like David I spose (and I have green eyes!), unlike the rest of either of our families. All the men in my family have reddish hair from our Scots inheritance with fairish complexions, don't know where I dropped in from!"}, {"response": 472, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (12:57)", "body": "The Gypsies??!!"}, {"response": 473, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (16:58)", "body": "Weeelll, there was a rumour ...."}, {"response": 474, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (17:29)", "body": "*grin* There are some of those waaaaaay back in all of our ancestries if we'd only admit it. I am sure my Viking ancestors were not all that choosy where they left their DNA..."}, {"response": 475, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (19:02)", "body": "Why are so many umbrellas black? When umbrellas first came into greater use during the 18th century, they were made of oil-soaked cotton cloth that was stretched over a whalebone. The purpose of the oil was to make the cotton cloth water proof, but it also gave the cloth a black-looking color. While this type of umbrella was very waterproof, it wasn't very durable. Soon, newer and better umbrellas were made, and since the color black was associated with effective waterproofing, most of the newer models were dyed black."}, {"response": 476, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (21:48)", "body": "Mini Tornado just outside Melbourne today. There was significant damage."}, {"response": 477, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (21:52)", "body": "Was it a waterspout which came ashore or a real tornado? Amazing! Thanks, Anne"}, {"response": 478, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, Jun 24, 2000 (03:48)", "body": "It was a genuine tornado - so much so the Victorian Government are paying out $750 per household and some $500odd per week in compensation."}, {"response": 479, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 24, 2000 (18:17)", "body": "Amazing. Is this unusual for Sydney? I do not recall hearing of one before this one you reported. Thanks!"}, {"response": 480, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 29, 2000 (17:42)", "body": "THE GO TEAM (from weather.com) In September 1998, Hurricane Georges rampaged across 17 Caribbean islands. The storm killed over 500 people, flooded out roads and bridges, and tore apart thousands of houses. In its wake, the number of homeless was staggering - more than 100,000 in the Dominican Republic alone, with thousands more in Haiti, Puerto Rico, and St. Kitts. Those who lost everything to Georges urgently needed food, clean water and medical supplies, which were often slow to arrive. A new international response team sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) plans to provide much more rapid relief following a hurricane strike. The GO (Ground Operations) Team, made up of disaster response professionals from Miami-Dade Urban Search and Rescue and USAID, is set up to deploy immediately. While typical response to a disaster can take as long as 72 hours, GO is on the move within 12 hours, airlifting emergency supplies such as plastic sheeting, water, blankets and hygiene kits. \"From now on these GO Teams, with pre-packaged supplies, will allow us to provide assistance almost immediately,\" said USAID administrator J. Brady Anderson. The teams are able to arrive on the scene so quickly because of the preparation that goes on ahead of time, says Ruben D. Almaguer, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's division chief of special operations. Almaguer has a team of 300 specially trained urban search and rescue task force members, 50 of whom have also been trained as part of USAID's Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DART) in humanitarian relief. Even before hurricane season (which runs from June 1 to November 30) began, the GO Team was in full operation, readying a stockpile of supply kits, which are stored in two warehouses at Homestead Air Reserve Base. When a request is made, the team quickly loads the kits onto commercial or military aircraft and is on their way to the country in need. Almaguer says that beyond the satisfaction of helping those in need, the program is also useful to his department. \"The benefit of it is the value of having county personnel responding all over the world, getting a lot of training, a lot of experience which will better allow us to handle our own disasters,\" he says. The GO Team's ultimate goal is to train small islands to better respond to their own needs. But, he says, making them completely self-sufficient is still far in the future."}, {"response": 481, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, Jul  1, 2000 (04:32)", "body": "Destructive storm in Western Australia including a tornado in Fremantle some 13 miles south of Perth, much damage. One person killed in Safety Bay some 20 miles south of Perth during severe thunderstorm. Destuctive winds still blowing and heavy rain, hail and sleet. Most unusual - okay we get winter storms but this is something else."}, {"response": 482, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul  1, 2000 (13:20)", "body": "Has anyone done a study of recorded weather history for your area? This past 12 months have sounded more stormy and extreme than any I have ever heard of before. Hang in there, Dear. Cannot lose you!"}, {"response": 483, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul  1, 2000 (15:17)", "body": "Time to post the updating severe weather map again http://www.weather.com/"}, {"response": 484, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Jul  1, 2000 (16:11)", "body": "Bill Hecke, the Channel 42 Meteorologist, came by and looked in to renting tyhe Cedar Creek house. He's a true weatherman and nearly full blooded Indian to boot. Nice guy."}, {"response": 485, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul  1, 2000 (16:26)", "body": "We need him in Geo!!! Yay, Terry!!!"}, {"response": 486, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  3, 2000 (22:04)", "body": "Just in time for the 2000 Cape Verde season, a resident in central Florida has came up with an idea to break up hurricanes by dropping Soil Moist, a substance used by gardners to soak up moisture from the surrounding ground and keeping it near plants, into the storms. Soil Moist can absorb 250 times its weight in water-sounds similar to soak up used to absorb oil. The idea is that dropping massive amounts of the absorber into the storms would caus them to fall harmlessly into the ocean. The govt is seriously considering the idea. (from the Hurricane Team)"}, {"response": 487, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, Jul  5, 2000 (21:35)", "body": "'HEATWAVES' In Abadan - Iran - the temperature has risen to 53c. over the last four days. Drinking water has been cut off and caused riots in the town. In Italy one of the green lungs of Rome is burning and Italy is suffering Heatwave contions."}, {"response": 488, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  7, 2000 (00:27)", "body": "Typhoon Kirogi is heading for Japan, after taking the lives of at least 12 people in the Philippines. It is expected to brush the country, near Tokyo, this weekend. Flooding and mudslides triggered by Kirogi's torrential rains are blamed for many of the deaths. The heavy rainfall worsened as a tropical depression, now Tropical Storm Kai-tak, also soaked the Philippines this week. That storm is forecast to grow to Category 4 hurricane strength and is forecast to make landfall near Shantou, in eastern China, this weekend. The rains forced more than 16,000 families to flee their homes as floodwaters across the northern island of Luzon climbed to 10 feet. Now, residents of Tokyo are on alert, as Kirogi is expected to strike there Saturday morning. Kirogi weakened during the last 24 hours, and was packing winds of 97 mph at 8 a.m. EDT Thursday. Courtesy of Weather.com"}, {"response": 489, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  7, 2000 (00:29)", "body": "I heard a friend in Tehran that it was 108\ufffd when he was talking with me last evening my time (they are 14 hours ahead of us) No rain in sight for months. It must be stiffling! Thanks for reminding me, Anne!"}, {"response": 490, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  7, 2000 (16:48)", "body": "Typhoons force 400,000 to evacuate In the Kanto Plain, winds have been running at about 40-60 kph sustained (10 minute average) with the pressure down to 976 hPa in Tokyo. Lowest pressure along the coast I saw was 974 hPa and winds of 77 kph so we are probably seeing 60-80kph winds along the coast. Heavy rain showers are occurring throughout the area and gusts are probably approaching 100 kph in the Tokyo area and exceeding 100 kph along the coast."}, {"response": 491, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  7, 2000 (21:53)", "body": "As if the flooding from heavy rains and tidal flooding which have killed 27 people on Luzon so far weren't enough... A tornado struck San Fernando La Union on the 7th damaging a number of homes. A rain induced secondary explosion in the Sacobia pyroclastic deposit zone of Mt. Pinatubo caused a muddy rain and moderate ashfall on the former Clark AB and surrounding towns. Fortunately, so far lahars have been minimal."}, {"response": 492, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (18:24)", "body": "Help Plant A Tree With Just A Click One click a day. It'free. http://www.webreleaf.com/"}, {"response": 493, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Jul 13, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "Tornado in Perth Western Australia yesterday. The suburb Thornlie was hit by a tornado yesterday morning - early. Although there is much damage no one was hurt. Another bad wind day is forecast for later today. Hopefully less destructive."}, {"response": 494, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (01:17)", "body": "Pacific Lunar Eclipse NASA Science News for July 14, 2000 This weekend the Moon, the Sun and the Earth will align for the longest total lunar eclipse in 140 years. The best places to see the event are in and around the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii and Australia. Observers along the west coast of North America will be able to see a partial eclipse just before the Moon sets on Sunday morning. During totality skywatchers may also be able to spot the asteroid 4 Vesta, which coincidentally makes a rare appearance as a naked-eye object during the days around the eclipse. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast14jul_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 495, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (14:32)", "body": "Saturday July 15, 9:19 AM Tornado kills 7, injures 79 in Alberta, Canada MONTREAL (Reuters) - A tornado obliterated a popular mobile home campground near Red Deer, Alberta, Canada on Friday evening, killing seven people and injuring 79 as it flipped dozens of trailers in its path, authorities said. \"We're at seven fatalities and the number of injured is now 79 and may rise some more,\" Jim Squire, a public information officer for the county of Red Deer, told Reuters early on Saturday morning. Squire said rescue and medical crews continued to work into the early morning hours at the Green Acres campground site at the edge of Pine Lake, about 36 miles (60 km) southeast of Red Deer. The tornado destroyed 400 trailer camp sites in the campground. In addition to the dead and injured, 325 people had been evacuated to a nearby community centre and college in Red Deer, he said. Squire added that county officials were beginning to obtain information on the scope and severity of injuries inflicted when the funnel cloud touched down mid-evening on Friday. The twister ripped through the camp ground, flipping trailers, tossing cars and uprooting trees. Although some victims escaped with small cuts and bruises, others suffered broken limbs and gouges from flying debris. \"Some of the injuries are life threatening,\" he said. Crews were continuing their search of the campground as rescue personnel reported finding trailers stacked one on top of the other, Squire said. The tornado also blew several trailers into the lake. WATER SEARCH HALTED Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Patrick Webb told Reuters that divers had searched trailers found in the water, but had to halt their efforts because of darkness. The lake search was to resume at daylight. Webb said people were frantically calling the police and other authorities hoping to learn whether friends and family had been caught in the tornado. One problem, however, was that authorities did not know how many people had checked into the campground or how many others had been headed there for the weekend. That made it difficult to determine the number of missing, he said. Louise Martin, producer for RD-TV, said the television station's video footage from the scene showed injured victims sitting amid the wreckage of the campground. \"It's like a war zone, mobile homes and cars upside down, people walking around covered in blood or sitting down wrapped in blankets,\" she said. The Green Acres campground was a permanent summer recreation area used by vacationers, including many families with children. A baseball tournament had been planned for this weekend, Martin said. Television pictures on the CTV network showed a substantial amount of debris strewn by the lakeside where many trailers had been parked. A nearby house was in ruins and several cars and trailers were upended. The injured were being taken to hospitals in Red Deer and the nearby community of Three Hills. At least two energy companies had provided disaster relief crews to assist the rescue effort. Rescue crews were called in from surrounding communities, including the cities of Calgary and Edmonton. Citizens from neighbouring communities and farms also rushed in to help, but some had to be turned back because of the crush of vehicles and personnel. Red Deer County's Squire said Ralph Klein, premier of the western Canadian province, was headed to the campground."}, {"response": 496, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (16:35)", "body": "An Extreme Geomagnetic Storm is Underway Space Weather News for July 15, 2000 A powerful shock wave from the fast-moving July 14th coronal mass ejection has arrived in the neighborhood of Earth. An extreme geomagnetic storm was underway at 1900 UT (3:00 p.m. EDT) on July 15th. If conditions persist as they are now, aurora could be visible at middle (and possibly even equatorial) latitudes. The best time to view aurora is usually near local midnight. In this case, sky watchers are advised to look for aurora as soon as night falls. For more information and updates please visit http://www.spaceweather.com Readers are invited to send pictures of tonight's aurora and the July 16, 2000, total lunar eclipse (visible across the Pacific Ocean) as an email attachment to phillips@spacescience.com for possible posting on spaceweather.com and/or spacescience.com. For more information about the lunar eclipse: Pacific Lunar Eclipse http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast14jul_1m.htm"}, {"response": 497, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (23:32)", "body": "For those checking the progress of Daniel (once hurricane and not tropical storm)"}, {"response": 498, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (21:38)", "body": "have been ordered offline by our civil defense leaders. Storm intensifying. check in in the morning...wish me luck."}, {"response": 499, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  2, 2000 (20:16)", "body": "This from California from whence I just returned: The Independent System Operators (ISO) may declare a Stage 3 electrical power emergency for State of California. During a Stage 3 power emergency electrical power around the state would be shut off for a period of time and then restored. Areas of San Francisco may be affected by the blackout. During a Stage 3 alert, the blackout could last from one to two hours. California ISO declared a Stage 1 at 11 a.m., and a Stage 2 at Noon. Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr. has directed all City agencies to take immediate steps to reduce their electrical power use and is requesting help from the public to minimize the effect of this possible outage. City services report the following developments in association with apossible blackout:- Fire and Police expect no disruption in 911 service or emergency dispatching capabilities.- MUNI anticipates minimal loss in service - The Department of Parking and Traffic has dispatched parking control officers to major intersections that might be affected - Department of Public Health reports hospitals affected by the blackout will run on emergency generator power and that they do not anticipate any disruption in service - Recreation and Parks Department expects that some of their facilities will be affected by the blackout Citizens should expect traffic delays and difficulty with the evening commute, as traffic signals may be affected. PG&E may interrupt power to the following areas:The Van Ness Avenue Corridor Fisherman's Wharf North Beach Chinatown/Portions of the Financial District Portions of Civic Center Upper Market:Portions of the Haight and Inner Sunset Portions of the Richmond DistrictPortions of the Outer Sunset District For further information contact: Kent Paxton, San Francisco Office of Emergency Services 415-558-2790."}, {"response": 500, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Aug  2, 2000 (23:21)", "body": "There is a disturbance off the coast of Africa tonight. The same place that spawned Andrew. Those that start there are always so much worse than the ones that form in the Caribbean. the one that they were watching off Cuba seems to have disappeared."}, {"response": 501, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  2, 2000 (23:57)", "body": "This is true, Lucie! There are several good updating weather maps in this topic though some are back a way and should be bookmarked for reference (even by me - or especially by me!) We will be watching it closely. You are in a very vulnerable place! *Hugs* and warm thoughts go out to you!"}, {"response": 502, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 18, 2000 (23:04)", "body": "Where a dear freind lives: * TORNADO WARNING FOR... ALAMANCE COUNTY IN NORTH CAROLINA * UNTIL 500 PM EDT * AT 423 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO 3 MILES SOUTH OF ALAMANCE...OR ABOUT 7 MILES SOUTH OF BURLINGTON...MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 45 MPH. THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE DURING A TORNADO IS ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF THE BUILDING IN AN INTERIOR HALLWAY OR ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET. USE BLANKETS OR PILLOWS TO COVER YOUR BODY AND ALWAYS STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS. ---------------------------- BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RALEIGH NC 15 PM EDT FRI AUG 18 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RALEIGH HAS ISSUED A * SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR... ALAMANCE COUNTY IN NORTH CAROLINA * UNTIL 445 PM EDT * AT 415 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM 4 MILES SOUTH OF ELON COLLEGE...OR ABOUT 5 MILES SOUTHWEST OF BURLINGTON...MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH. * THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL PASS SOUTH OF BURLINGTON AND NEAR ALAMANCE AT 420 PM. THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM. IF YOU ARE IN ITS PATH YOU SHOULD PREPARE FOR DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 55 MPH...LARGE HAIL...AND DEADLY LIGHTNING. PEOPLE OUTSIDE SHOULD MOVE TO A SHELTER...PREFERABLY INSIDE A STRONG BUILDING BUT AWAY FROM WINDOWS. LAT...LON 3614 7952 3605 7956 3601 7957 3589 7928 3606 7927"}, {"response": 503, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 20, 2000 (00:16)", "body": "Heard from my friend and he is well and safe but the storms were fierce and dangerous. I waas delighted to hear that he was well. Nothing else in the world is happenig except that my ISP did not work most of the day and kept me from my usual posts. Sorry!"}, {"response": 504, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 21, 2000 (21:13)", "body": "Maggie reports: We had SNOW in Humberside (N England) today. 4-6 inches!!! and hail, and a tornado off the coast of scotland. I asked her if this was usual for August in England. She said, definitly not. May, maybe but never August!"}, {"response": 505, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 21, 2000 (21:15)", "body": "Meanwhile we are enduring squalls from the remains of Hurricane Hector and are pretty tired of the sogginess of it all."}, {"response": 506, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (20:14)", "body": "From Puerto Rico via Yahoo club: Hurrican Team At 7:30pm WEare on tropical storm warning we expect a lot of rain tonite but not wind.We expect everything will go back to normal tomorrow.The public schools have classes tomorrow and the majority of the people is working.The authorities have problems with the surfers that are practicing this sport today.They had to rescue a surfer in Ocean Park,a sector in San Juan).The damage is minimal.One death reported in Guaynabo when a man was removing his antenna in his roof and fell off andd died instantly.The eye just passed north of our island we were saved by the majority of the rain and wind was in the north of the system."}, {"response": 507, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (18:51)", "body": "I'd heard that Debby had been downgraded to a tropical storm and might even be downgraded further to a tropical depression."}, {"response": 508, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (19:24)", "body": "Yup but the gulf states have such a high water tables and the land is so flat that runoff from tropical deluges can lead serious flooding. That is the problem now. That, and whatever storm surges are left..."}, {"response": 509, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "That's true. The storm category is largely determined by wind velocity, but when the winds slow the rain is still left. That's how hurricanes disipate, by raining themselves out."}, {"response": 510, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (19:37)", "body": "Yup, and without the wind to move it, it just hangs arund and hangs and hangs... we are still getting wet from Hector's remnants. That does not bode well for those states bordering the Gulf."}, {"response": 511, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (13:01)", "body": "Oh dear, now I know people in India and worry about them: Helicopters Rescue Marooned in India Floods; Toll 93 HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - Helicopters plucked people from flooded apartments in the inundated south Indian city of Hyderabad Friday as the number of people killed by the heaviest rains in more than 40 years rose to 93. More than 35,000 people had been affected by the floods in Hyderabad and thousands of homes have been destroyed, said the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh state, Chandrababu Naidu. Hyderabad, the state's capital, which has been trying to become the new center of India's booming software industry, was among the worst-affected areas after it was hit by the heaviest rains in more than four decades, officials said. Hundreds of people, including some marooned in city apartments, were being evacuated by air force helicopters and boats were also deployed to rescue stranded people, officials said. More than 20 localities in the city remained heavily water-logged although there has been no fresh rain since Thursday morning, they said. Hyderabad Meteorological Center Director C.V.V. Bhadram said the rains this week were the heaviest in history, with the city receiving around one third of its normal annual rains in just 24 hours to Thursday morning. Officials said more than 10,000 houses were flooded, forcing residents to flee to the roof-tops to escape the raging waters. ``We sent away our sons and daughters-in-law and the kids to the first floor as soon as waters entered into our house soon after midnight Wednesday,'' said Mohammed Barkatullah, a resident in one of the worst-affected areas. Several complained that their food items had been washed away and drinking water contaminated by the flooding. ``We have nothing to eat or drink. The food packets dropped by the helicopters missed the target. Please rescue us somehow,'' another resident Sajid told chief minister Naidu on a cellular phone. Officials said rescue efforts would become more effective with the waters receding as there had been no rains since Thursday and more areas were now accessible. The floods in the south followed catastrophic monsoon season flooding in north and northeast India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh in which about 300 were feared killed and millions left homeless. DROUGHT IN NEIGHBORING STATE But in the eastern state of Orissa, which borders Andhra Pradesh, authorities are battling drought. Half of Orissa's 30 districts were faced with a grim situation because of the shortage of rain, the state's revenue minister Biswabhushan Harichandan said. State officials said 500 water pumps were being rushed to the worst-affected districts."}, {"response": 512, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 29, 2000 (18:13)", "body": "UP AND AWAY: Visitors watch the twister off Llandudno Twisted out of another sunny Bank Holiday by Sarah 0'Grady IT WAS your average British bank holiday - rain, plummeting temperatures and...tornadoes. A \"twister\" was spotted spinning off the North Wales coast yesterday afternoon. John Reay watched it for 20 minutes by the West Shore at Llandudno with hundreds of astonished holidaymakers. \"It was really spectacular and lasted a long time,\" he said. \"It was followed by an almighty downpour. It was several hundred feet high and amazing.\" Another tornado levelled two marquees in Scarbor- ough, trapping a local show organiser inside. Margaret Pitts, who escaped uninjured, said: \"Fortunately the marquee poles missed me and I was able to crawl my way out after being trapped for a time. It was scary and I was extremely lucky.\" Rain also hit rail travel. Flooding at Granthouse in Berwickshire blocked the East Coast main line, causing trains from Scotland to the south of England to be diverted via the west coast. But the weather failed to dampen spirits when up to a million revellers flocked to west London for the final and busiest day of the two-day Notting Hill Carnival. There were 57 arrests on Sunday, a slight increase on last year. Most were for drunken behaviour and public order offences.Today's forecast is for further showers across the country. However, Northern Ireland can expect a largely dry day. \ufffd Express Newspapers, 2000"}, {"response": 513, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (15:16)", "body": ""}, {"response": 514, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 11, 2000 (17:43)", "body": "What Lies Beneath A Hurricane NASA Science News for September 11, 2000 Two NASA satellites can see things beneath the cloud tops of hurricanes that have been hidden from traditional weather satellites. The new data are helping scientists understand and predict dangerous storms. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast11sep_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 515, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (06:07)", "body": "Thursday September 14 2:44 PM ET Tropical Storm Florence Weakens But Eyes Bermuda http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000914/ts/weather_florence_dc_8.html MIAMI (Reuters) - Bermuda was placed under a storm alert on Thursday as Tropical Storm Florence hovered and lost steam in the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles from the British colony. The weather service of Bermuda issued a tropical storm watch for the islands, alerting residents to possible storm conditions within 36 hours. At 2 p.m. EDT, the center of Florence was about 540 miles west-southwest of Bermuda near latitude 29.3 north and longitude 73.1 west, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (news - web sites). Its top winds were measured at about 50 mph, down from 60 mph earlier Thursday. Florence was a hurricane with 75 mph winds on Wednesday. The storm was drifting to the southeast and was expected to begin heading east in the next 12-24 hours. Three cruise ships and a pair of cargo ships that had been scheduled to sail from Bermuda on Friday moved their departures up by a day to steer clear of the storm, which was expected to skirt the island late on Friday. ``After 6 p.m. this evening, the Bermuda ports will be empty,'' harbor radio officer Joe Pagnam said by telephone from St. George. ``The ships that normally sail tomorrow -- a couple of cruise ships and a couple of cargo ships -- are sailing today.'' The storm was not expected to have a major impact on Bermuda, where homes, resort cottages and hotels are built to withstand much stronger wind and rains than a tropical storm can kick up. ``We're just keeping a close watch, (but) it's not even a threat to us,'' said Annmarie Malcolm, manager at the Cambridge Beaches resort along Somerset Long Bay on the island's west end. The Bermuda Reservations Service and several hotel managers reported no calls from tourists canceling plans to visit the island in the coming days. The National Hurricane Center also warned that Florence was stirring up dangerous surf and rip tides along parts of the southeastern U.S. coast, particularly in North Carolina. Rip tides kicked up by Florence were blamed for at least two deaths on North Carolina beaches on Tuesday. U.S. hurricane forecasters also were watching a tropical depression -- the forerunner of a tropical storm -- that formed along the coast of the Yucatan peninsula. It had winds of about 30 mph."}, {"response": 516, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (12:03)", "body": "Saturday September 16 10:31 AM ET Florence Skirts Bermuda; Gordon Threatens Gulf http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20000916/ts/weather_storms_dc_3.html By Jenny Miller MIAMI (Reuters) - Parts of Florida's west coast were on a hurricane alert on Saturday as Tropical Storm Gordon trekked through the Gulf of Mexico while another big storm skirted Bermuda and headed out safely into the Atlantic Ocean. Gordon was moving at 60 mph and was expected to become a hurricane sometime on Saturday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. ``Heavy rain can be expected on the Florida coast and people in the watch area should be making preparations,'' said NHC meteorologist Eric Blake. A hurricane watch was in effect along Florida's Gulf Coast from Bonita Beach north to the Suwanee River. At 8 a.m. EDT, the storm's center was about 310 miles west-southwest of Key West, Florida, near latitude 23.7 north, longitude 86.6 west. The storm was moving north-northeast near 9 mph. Sections of western Cuba were doused with 7-10 inches of rain from the developing storm, and 2-5 inches of rain were forecast for south Florida and the Keys. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds near 60 mph, with tropical storm force winds extending up to 105 miles from its center. Residents along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Louisiana were advised to keep track of Gordon's progress through the weekend. The storm could make landfall by late on Sunday or early on Monday, depending on its track through the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said. Meanwhile, the other big mid-September storm, Hurricane Florence, brushed past Bermuda with gale-force winds that did not appear to have caused serious damage on the storm-hardened resort in the mid-Atlantic. ``I think the worst has past,'' Bermuda Weather Service meteorologist Declan O'Connell said shortly after driving to work in St. George on the island's east end. ``There was nothing more than light branches down, maybe some palm fronds.'' At 8 a.m. EDT Florence was centered about 125 miles north of Bermuda and was racing to the northeast and out into the open Atlantic at 25 mph with maximum sustained winds of about 75 mph. It only dumped about half an inch of rain on the islands as it passed by overnight. Forecasters were also watching the 12th tropical depression of the season, a poorly organized system expected to become a tropical storm later on Saturday. Tropical storm watches were raised for Antigua, Anguilla, Barbuda, Montserrat, Nevis and St. Kitts, and remained in effect for St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius. Tropical storm warnings could be raised for portions of the Leeward Islands later in the day as it moved west. The tropical depression was centered about 395 miles east of Guadeloupe in the Leeward Islands, with maximum sustained winds near 35 mph and higher gusts."}, {"response": 517, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (04:06)", "body": "Sunday September 17, 9:18 AM(UK) Gordon becomes hurricane, targets Florida coast http://uk.news.yahoo.com/000917/80/ajjjp.html By Angus MacSwan MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Gordon churned toward Florida on Saturday, prompting a hurricane warning along the state's Gulf coast, and forecasters predicted it could hit land sometime late on Sunday or early Monday. Gordon reached hurricane strength on Saturday afternoon while ploughing through the Gulf of Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph) and higher gusts, according to the U.S. National Weather Service. Gordon previously had been classified as a tropical storm. Authorities called for a voluntary evacuation along parts of Florida's western coastline and urged residents to make preparations for Gordon's arrival, as forecasters said the hurricane could make landfall somewhere between Tampa and Tallahassee. Meanwhile, the other big mid-September storm, Florence, weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm over the Atlantic on Saturday night after brushing past Bermuda with gale-force winds that did not appear to have caused serious damage on the storm-hardened resort. Rains from Gordon already have caused death and mayhem in Guatemala, where 19 people were killed and more than 50 hurt over the past two days. Hundreds of people in the Central American country have fled their homes for fear of landslides or flooding. Hurricane or tropical storm warnings were in effect along Florida's Gulf Coast from Bonita Beach to Apalachicola -- around 400 miles (650 km) of coastline -- and communities as far west as Alabama were advised to keep an eye on the storm. A forecaster at the National Hurricane Centre in Miami said that if Gordon stayed on its present track it was likely to spare towns and cities and lurch ashore at a thinly populated area. \"Right now it looks like it will land in north Florida on the West Coast somewhere between Tampa Bay and the 'Big Bend' south of Tallahassee,\" National Hurricane Centre specialist Stacy Stewart said. \"We're zooming in on a remotely populated area.\" he said, adding that the storm could still deviate from that course. If Gordon stayed on course it was expected to hit on Monday morning although as of late Sunday night landfall was still a possibility, Stewart said. Although a minimal hurricane, Gordon is packing lots of rain, forecasters added. GORDON IS STRENGTHENING Gordon was picking up strength as it moved to the northeast. At 10 p.m. EDT (3 a.m. BST on Sunday), the storm's centre was located about 235 miles (375 km) southwest of Tampa and 275 miles (440 km) south of Apalachicola, near latitude 25.7 north, longitude 85.3 west. The storm was moving northeast at about 12 mph (19 kph). Communities along the coast were bracing for the storm. \"We have our emergency operations centre open and operating, and issued a voluntary evacuation at 5 p.m. to citizens who don't feel comfortable staying in homes along the coastal areas,\" said Karen Windon, public safety director for Manatee County. \"We always encourage people to reinforce their homes. It's easier to do it before the winds start blowing.\" Sections of western Cuba were doused with seven to 10 inches (17 to 25 cms) of rain from Gordon and two to five inches (five to 12 cms) of rain were forecast for south Florida and the Keys. Gordon already has lashed Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and the Guatemalan coast with heavy rains. Mexico's National Weather Service said on Saturday another 3 inches (7 cm) was forecast in some parts of the south, with wind gusts of up to 66 mph (110 kph) expected. The storm forced authorities to shut the port of Campeche on the Yucatan peninsula to all shipping, according to the transport ministry. As of earlier on Saturday, Mexico's main oil ports were unaffected by the storm. In Guatemala, two days of pounding rains left 19 dead and 50 injured, with hundreds more forced from their homes over fears of flooding, cave-ins and landslides, authorities said. FLORENCE HEADS OUT TO SEA Forecasters said Florence weakened after brushing past Bermuda, where local weather officials said the effects of the storm appeared light. \"I think the worst has past,\" Bermuda Weather Service meteorologist Declan O'Connell said shortly after driving to work in St. George on the island's east end. \"There was nothing more than light branches down, maybe some palm fronds,\" said Bermuda Weather Service meteorologist Declan O'Connell. The storm packed sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph) and was on a course that would take it near eastern Newfoundland on Sunday afternoon. A tropical storm in the Pacific, meanwhile, moved closer to the Mexican coast on Saturday, prompting authorities to declare a state of emergency in the northwestern state of Baja California. Tropical Storm Miriam was centred 125 miles (200 km) southeast of Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula late on Saturday. It was moving northwest at six mph (9 kph) and was expected to mak"}, {"response": 518, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 20, 2000 (22:26)", "body": "I heard this morning form Pennsylvania concerning the remnants of Gordon. It was supposed to stay along the coast, but central Pennsylvania got some really heavy rain from this system."}, {"response": 519, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Sep 20, 2000 (22:49)", "body": "California Heatwave http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/power20.htm Published Wednesday, September 20, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News Gradual cooling is expected for the rest of the week CONSERVATION AND WEATHER LUCK HELP THE STATE AVOID BLACKOUTS, BUT BAY AREA HEAT RECORDS FALL FOR SECOND DAY BY GLENNDA CHUI AND STEVE JOHNSON Mercury News California appears to have dodged the danger of rolling blackouts -- at least for now -- despite record temperatures across the Bay Area for the second day in a row Tuesday. Cooling through the rest of the week should diminish the immediate threat of the lights going out. Although the people who control California's sprawling power grid had predicted that electricity use would rise on Tuesday, possibly triggering blackouts, it didn't happen; in fact, power use declined. Conservation had something to do with it, according to the Independent System Operator, which manages most of the state's power grid. But the biggest factor was that the weather statewide was not quite as hot as expected, especially in Southern California. Temperatures in Los Angeles were five to 10 degrees cooler than anticipated, leading to a drop in energy use of about 1,900 megawatts. That's enough to power about 1.9 million homes. ``What's making the difference is the weather,'' said ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle. ``Now, tomorrow it could be a whole different story.'' However, for the time being, state energy experts said they expect power usage to remain level today. ``It should get better'' for the rest of the week, McCorkle said. The heat set records Tuesday in San Jose, at 99 degrees; Gilroy, at 101; Redwood City, 98; and Oakland, 96. Downtown San Francisco reached 86 degrees; the record is 93. Forecasters expect cooler temperatures today, with San Jose reaching a projected high of 94, Santa Cruz 74 and San Francisco 77, as a sea breeze continues to push cool marine air over the land. And Thursday should see a dramatic cooling to seasonally normal temperatures, according to the National Weather Service. The threat of blackouts has worsened this year because the demand for electricity has increased dramatically but construction of new power plants has lagged. With increasing frequency, demand for power has come close to outstripping supply. Although the danger of blackouts appears to have eased this week, state energy officials warn that California will struggle until new power plants are built. The threat of outages has led to growing angst among Silicon Valley companies. ``There were several companies that feel that they've dodged the bullet so far,'' said Justin Bradley, director of environmental programs for the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group. ``It's like a game of roulette.'' He said several large firms, including Sun Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., 3Com Corp. and Intel Corp., have been meeting to discuss the challenges presented by the state's continuing power shortages and the cost of conserving power. Some companies, including Solectron Corp., a major contract manufacturer of circuit boards, don't have backup generators to protect them if the power goes out. Companies are hard-pressed to calculate exactly how much damage a blackout causes. But Sun Microsystems has estimated that a blackout costs ``up to $1 million per minute,'' says Larry Owens, division manager of customer services for Silicon Valley Power, the utility that manages power for many large Santa Clara County companies. Chuck Mulloy, spokesman for Intel, says that if one of its fabrication plants shuts down ``it could cost millions, depending on the circumstances.'' The Independent System Operator declared a Stage 2 electricity emergency Monday, reflecting the fact that more than 95 percent of the power generated in California was being used. During a Stage 2 alert, some businesses are urged to go on backup power. On Tuesday, however, the ISO only had to declare a Stage 1 alert, meaning that 93 percent of available power was in use. In such cases, consumers are urged to conserve electricity. If a Stage 3 alert had been issued, utilities would have temporarily cut power to groups of customers according to prearranged plans. Helping to ease the situation Tuesday, some power plants that had been shut down for routine maintenance earlier in the week were able to reopen, increasing the available power by about 500 megawatts, McCorkle said. The ability of the ISO to deal with these recurring emergencies varies from moment to moment, said Kellan Fluckiger, the ISO's chief operating officer. ``Every day is dynamic and different, and it's a mess,'' he said. But, he added, the agency has become better in recent months at finding sources of power to pump into the grid. California generates about 75 percent of the electricity it uses. It imports the rest -- mostly from the Pacific Northwest, funneled into the state along high-voltage lines that can carry nearly 7,000 megawatts. With 17 Stage 2 alerts issued"}, {"response": 520, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2000 (00:25)", "body": "Yes, my son sent me the weather bureau warning and a friend in high school there had marching band practice for 2 hours in 110\ufffdF (43.3\ufffdC) sun on a football field! That is down right dangerous!"}, {"response": 521, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2000 (15:16)", "body": "La Ni\ufffda's Ghost NASA Science News for September 15, 2000 La Ni\ufffda has faded away, but will weather patterns change? Some scientists expect the Pacific Decadal Oscillation to pick up where La Ni\ufffda left off. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast15sep_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 522, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2000 (17:57)", "body": "About the heavy rains in Central Pennsylvania, I spoke to my Mom and she said that the remnants of Gordon really were torrential."}, {"response": 523, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (00:38)", "body": "Bet they are monitoring the flood gauges on the Susquehanna River."}, {"response": 524, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (10:12)", "body": "No doubt."}, {"response": 525, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (22:49)", "body": "Was going to mention something about going out with a guy from Johnstown while at Penn State. He seemed determined to practice his swimming every time we went out. Extra points for you if you can guess his favorite stroke..."}, {"response": 526, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Sep 26, 2000 (17:01)", "body": "Oh, let's see, was it the breast-stroke?"}, {"response": 527, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (01:15)", "body": "You knew that guy, too??!! *lol*"}, {"response": 528, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (16:21)", "body": "I think it might have been his son, a family trait, it might be said."}, {"response": 529, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (20:12)", "body": "From: Meteorologist1 Subject: Hurricane Keith Discussion #9 - 5pm/est [Yahoo! Clubs: The Hurricane Team] HURRICANE KEITH DISCUSSION NUMBER 9 NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIAMI FL 5 PM EDT SAT SEP 30 2000 KEITH IS BECOMING A LARGE AND DANGEROUS HURRICANE. DATA FROM A RECONNAISSANCE PLANE INDICATE THAT KEITH IS STRENGTHENING. THE MINIMUM PRESSURE DROPPED TO 970 MB...FLIGHT-LEVEL WINDS AT 850 MB REACHED 98 KNOTS FROM THE NORTHWEST AND DVORAK T-NUMBERS... OBJECTIVES AND SUBJECTIVE ARE INCREASING. ALTHOUGH 98 KNOTS AT FLIGHT LEVEL CORRESPOND TO 80 KNOTS AT THE SURFACE....THE INITIAL INTENSITY HAS BEEN SET AT 85 KNOTS ASSUMING THAT SOME STRENGTHENING HAS OCCURRED SINCE THE PLANE SAMPLED THE AREA OF MAXIMUM WINDS AND AS SUGGESTED BY OBJECTIVE T-NUMBERS. THE HURRICANE IS OVER A TREMENDOUS RESERVOIR OF WARM WATER OR LARGE HEAT CONTENT AND THE UPPER-LEVEL WINDS SEEM IDEAL FOR STRENGTHENING AT THIS TIME. THE EFFECT OF LAND IS THE ONLY APPARENT INHIBITOR FACTOR. IN ADDITION...EVERY AVAILABLE INTENSITY GUIDANCE INTENSIFIES KEITH. THEREFORE...FURTHER STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST ALTHOUGH MANY TIMES...INTENSITY FORECAST TURN OUT TO BE WRONG ONE WAY OR THE OTHER. KEITH HAS BEEN MOVING VERY LITTLE... AND SO FAR...THIS HAS BEEN AN OUTSTANDING JOB DONE BY THE GFDL AND THE NCEP GLOBAL MODEL. IN FACT...THE GFDL SUGGESTED A SMALL LOOP AND THE HURRICANE APPEARS TO BE DOING SO AT THIS TIME. TRACK GUIDANCE INCLUDING GLOBAL MODELS... WITH THE EXCEPTION OF NOGAPS AND ITS DERIVED GFDL WHICH TAKES KEITH WESTWARD...SUGGEST THAT THE HURRICANE SHOULD BEGIN TO MOVE SLOWLY TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHWEST OVER THE EASTERN PORTION OF YUCATAN OR THE YUCATAN CHANNEL AND THEN INTO THE SOUTHERN GULF OF MEXICO. LATEST LONG RANGE GFDL MODEL RUN MAKES KEITH AN EVEN STRONGER HURRICANE IN THE GULF OF MEXICO. THE VESSEL C6YC JUST WEST OF THE EYE OF KEITH REPORTED NORTHWEST WINDS OF 60 KNOTS. FORECASTER AVILA FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS INITIAL 30/2100Z 18.0N 86.8W 85 KTS 12HR VT 01/0600Z 18.4N 87.0W 95 KTS 24HR VT 01/1800Z 19.5N 87.2W 105 KTS 36HR VT 02/0600Z 20.3N 87.4W 105 KTS...INLAND 48HR VT 02/1800Z 21.0N 87.5W 75 KTS...INLAND 72HR VT 03/1800Z 23.0N 88.0W 85 KTS"}, {"response": 530, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (20:27)", "body": "*** Hurricane Keith *** Keith is now a category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100mph. It is nearly stationary off the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Its minimum pressure is sitting at around 966mb. Keith has a very well defined eye and eye wall. It is bringing some heavy rain to parts of the Yucatan Peninsula. Hurricane warnings are posted for a good chunk of the coast on the peninsula. There is no external systems to influence Keith's movement, so it is hard to track where Keith will be going. Right now the forecast calls for Keith to landfall on the northeastern part of the peninsula as a category 3 hurricane and drift north-northwest into the Gulf of Mexico. The whole U.S. Gulf Coast needs to monitor the storm as it enters the gulf in 60-72 hours. If there are any significant changes to the storm's movement, it will be posted at the club. *** Tropical Storm Joyce *** Joyce is now bearly a tropical storm and moving west. It is expected to enter the Carribean Sea and slowly intensify over the next couple of days. More later on this storm. *** Hurricane Isaac *** Isaac's winds are down to 75mph and is quickly moving to the northeast. No threat to land."}, {"response": 531, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  2, 2000 (16:50)", "body": "Subject: ARLB040 Hurricane Watch Net Activated for Hurricane Keith Organization: American Radio Relay League Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2000 16:25:05 EDT Hurricane Watch Net Activated for Hurricane Keith ARRL Bulletin 40 From ARRL Headquarters October 2, 2000 Hurricane Watch Net Activated for Hurricane Keith The Hurricane Watch Net and W4EHW at the National Hurricane Center activated on 14.325 MHz over the weekend to monitor Hurricane Keith. Right now, the storm remains stalled along the coast of Belize in Central America with 80 MPH winds and is weakening slowly. Reminiscent of Hurricane Mitch last year, the storm is dumping a lot of rain on the region. The National Weather Service is advising those in the northwestern Caribbean and southern Gulf of Mexico to monitor the storm's progress. Hurricane Keith could be downgraded to a tropical storm by later today if it remains in place, but Hurricane Watch Net Manager Jerry Herman, N3BDW, says the National Hurricane Center has been relying on Amateur Radio field reports indicating the storm still retains hurricane-force winds. The Hurricane Watch Net activated September 30 at 1700 UTC to collect reports via Amateur Radio for the National Hurricane Center. Operators at the center gather the reports via W4EHW at the Center. ''Reports from Belize indicate extensive damage from wind and flooding,'' Herman said October 2. ''Since the storm is sitting almost stationary, I expect the full extent of the damage is not yet known but that it will be catastrophic.'' He said the Net already has gotten reports of homes and businesses destroyed. Assistant Amateur Radio Coordinator Julio Ripoll, WD4JR, at the National Hurricane Center, reports the Center continues to hear from amateurs in Belize and Mexico. Herman said the Net is attempting, whenever possible, to take advantage of bilingual amateurs. The Salvation Army Tactical Emergency Radio Network--SATERN--has activated on 14.265 MHz to handle health-and-welfare requests and to assist with relief operations in the aftermath of Hurricane Keith. A Health and Welfare Network also will use the Web site http://www.go.to/satern . This will provide a common area for Health and Welfare information that all can use through the internet. A VHF and a 40-meter net have been active in Mexico."}, {"response": 532, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  8, 2000 (18:40)", "body": "For a VPC... A Very Special Canadian:"}, {"response": 533, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  8, 2000 (18:50)", "body": "This may allso be helpful...I hope the upper one updates..."}, {"response": 534, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  8, 2000 (19:12)", "body": ""}, {"response": 535, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (17:42)", "body": "Severe Weather Statement - Contra Costa, CA Oct SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE 258 PM PDT TUE OCT 10 2000 ...FUNNEL CLOUD REPORTED NEAR ISLETON IN LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS... AT 258 PM A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS EXTENDED FROM NEAR ANTIOCH NORTHWARD TO NEAR WALNUT GROVE. THIS LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS HAS PRODUCED AN UNCONFIRMED REPORT OF A FUNNEL CLOUD. THE STORMS ARE ALSO PRODUCING HEAVY RAINFALL...LIGHTNING...STRONG WINDS AND POSSIBLE HAIL. THE STORMS APPEAR TO BE WEAKENING AND SHOULD BE MOVING OUT OF THE AREA BY 400 PM."}, {"response": 536, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (01:31)", "body": ""}, {"response": 537, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (01:34)", "body": "Sorry, but I had to move that one updating North American weather map. The Canadian Flag was far too distracting. The above maps are from http://www.theweathernetwork.com/ The Canadian Weather map DOES update. Yes!"}, {"response": 538, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (01:35)", "body": "So does the Temperature map for Canada! Again, thank you, John!"}, {"response": 539, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (01:47)", "body": "How about Mali???? (Has anyone looked at my postings in Travel or cultures???)"}, {"response": 540, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "Thursday October 12, 6:40 PM http://uk.news.yahoo.com/001012/4/am3ux.html Worst floods in decades bring chaos to the south Much of southern England is in chaos after heavy rain caused the worst flooding in decades. Millions of pounds worth of damage was caused to homes and businesses as flood waters deluged property, blocked main roads and disrupted and in some cases halted rail services. Lifeboat crews were drafted in to rescue stranded residents and workers in Uckfield, East Sussex, after 6ins of rainfall in just 12 hours left the town virtually under water. A shopkeeper in the town was swept away by fast flowing floods earlier in the morning. Twenty minutes later he was spotted in the River Uck desperately clinging on to the bank, cold and shivering. He was pulled to safety by coastguards and then airlifted to the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath where his condition is described as stable. In the town centre, cars once parked neatly on a garage forecourt lay scattered close to the railway station. A 400-unit industrial estate and around 30 shops were completely flooded. Residents from low-lying areas of the historic town of Lewes were also evacuated as the River Ouse threatened to burst its banks. RNLI lifeboat crews are making regular trips to carry stranded home owners to safety. More than 20 staff at the brewery were also carried to safety. None were injured when a wall collapsed inside. A health centre, the magistrates court, supermarkets including Tesco and Safeway and hundreds of shops and homes are under several feet of water. The police said they will be working hand-in-hand with the Environment Agency and the fire brigade in a bid to minimise problems caused by the flooding. The whole town is without electricity. The Environment Agency issued Severe Flood Warnings, which alert of imminent threat to life and property, for 10 rivers in Sussex and Kent. By 4pm, the agency had issued 42 flood warnings, advising that flooding is expected, across the country from Devon to Yorkshire and Shropshire to Kent. Sussex Police urged all drivers to stay at home as main roads, including the A21, A22, A26, A27, A227 and A272, were flooded. Weather forecasters from the Met Office warned that there was more rain to come in south east England during the evening but added that showers would ease on Friday."}, {"response": 541, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (05:30)", "body": "Latest update:Hundreds flee floods in southern England By Mark Herlihy LONDON (Reuters) - Large areas of southern England were on full-scale flood alert on Friday after heavy rains raised river levels, swamped towns and forced hundreds of people to flee their homes. \"We are saying there is an imminent threat to life and property,\" an Environment Agency spokesman told Reuters late on Thursday. Some insurance experts said Britain could be facing its biggest bill for a natural disaster. The bill could run to four billion pounds, Jeffrey Salmon, of Salmon Assessors, was quoted as saying by the BBC. Officials estimated that several hundred people had left their homes after rivers broke their banks and flooded towns, villages and roads in the counties of Sussex, Kent and Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight. Some unconfirmed reports said the figure for the number of homeless could run into thousands. Helicopters and lifeboats were rushed in to help rescue people stranded by the floods caused by several days of heavy rain. A man in East Sussex was swept away by floodwaters outside a supermarket and was carried downstream clinging to a door. He was plucked from the water and airlifted to hospital by a coastguard helicopter. SEVERE FLOOD WARNINGS \"We have currently 16 severe flood warnings in effect -- all in East Sussex and in Kent,\" the Environment Agency spokesman said. \"We have a total of 40 flood warnings, which means people in those areas should prepare now, and 89 flood watches currently in force across the south, southwest, midlands, central and eastern England.\" The Environment Agency said it expected the severe flood warnings in Kent and East Sussex to remain in place for the next few days. \"Even though the rain has been easing off, the rivers are at very high levels. It will take a long time to return to normal,\" the spokesman said. Kent police said on Thursday they had started to evacuate whole villages because of the rising waters. A spokesman said emergency centres had been set up in the affected areas. \"The number of people evacuated from their homes is in the hundreds,\" he said. A Sussex police spokesman said: \"The general situation in the south is very bad and every road in the area is affected. \"We are warning people not to drive if they don't have to.\" Sussex police said about 200 people had been evacuated from their homes in the county, mainly from the town of Lewes. Rail services from London to the English south coast have been disrupted by the weather and some stretches of line have been closed. \"There are some delays in the region, where parts of the track are under as much as four feet (1.3 metres) of water,\" said a spokeswoman for railway network operator Railtrack. Police in northern England plan to resume a search on Friday for a teenage girl swept away by a fast- flowing river. North Yorkshire police recovered the body of 14-year-old Rochelle Cauvet on Wednesday and have widened their hunt for her friend Hannah Black, 13. The pair were swept away by the swollen waters of the Stainforth Beck river while on a school walking trip along its banks."}, {"response": 542, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (13:47)", "body": "...and I thought we had a lot of rain... At least our ground is so porous that it runs straight through seldom flooding anywhere for very long and only in minor ways. Maggie, please be careful...and all those on that very special Island..."}, {"response": 543, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (21:16)", "body": "*** Hurricane Michael *** Michael has intensified quickly over the last 12 hours. Now it has winds of 75mph, moving slowly north. Michael is expected to pick up speed and head northeast. There is a slight chance for the hurricane to brush the island of Bermuda. The hurricane force winds only extend out about 25 miles from the center. Most of the hurricane force winds are on the northeast side of the storm. Pressure are down into the 980s mb."}, {"response": 544, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 20, 2000 (19:08)", "body": "Earth's Fidgeting Climate NASA Science News for October 20, 2000 Is human activity warming the Earth or do recent signs of climate change signal natural variations? In this feature article, scientists discuss the vexing ambiguities of our planet's complex and unwieldy climate. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast20oct_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 545, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 21, 2000 (00:57)", "body": ""}, {"response": 546, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 21, 2000 (00:58)", "body": ""}, {"response": 547, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 21, 2000 (13:39)", "body": "If this is what we got earlier, you are gonna need water-wings! Good Luck, Texas! BULLETIN...IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED FLASH FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 400 AM CDT SAT OCT 21 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WATCH EFFECTIVE THROUGH TONIGHT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS COMAL...GILLESPIE...MEDINA...GONZALES...KENDALL...WILSON... REAL...BASTROP...BLANCO...TRAVIS...KERR...BEXAR...HAYS... DIMMIT...LAVACA...DEWITT...BURNET...WILLIAMSON...ATASCOSA... MAVERICK...BANDERA...LEE...LLANO...EDWARDS...KINNEY... GUADALUPE...FRIO...UVALDE...CALDWELL...ZAVALA...FAYETTE...VAL VERDE AND KARNES THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH INCLUDES ALL OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS AND THE HILL COUNTRY. ABUNDANT LOW-LEVEL MOISTURE AND UPPER LEVEL MOISTURE FROM THE PACIFIC WILL PERSIST ACROSS MUCH OF THE HILL COUNTRY AND SOUTH CENTRAL THIS WEEKEND. A SERIES OF UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCES WILL MOVE FROM NORTHERN MEXICO ACROSS THE RIO GRANDE INTO PORTIONS OF THE EDWARDS PLATEAU AND TEXAS HILL COUNTRY TODAY AND TONIGHT. THESE DISTURBANCES WILL BE THE TRIGGERING MECHANISM FOR THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT...SOME OF WHICH COULD PRODUCE LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL AND FLASH FLOODING. SINCE THE GROUND HAS BECOME NEARLY SATURATED FROM PREVIOUS RAINS...AND THESE NEW STORMS WILL \"TRAIN\" ACROSS THE SAME AREAS PRODUCING HEAVY AMOUNTS OF RAIN...FLOODING IS LIKELY. TOTALS WILL AVERAGE BETWEEN 2 AND 4 INCHES...WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS OF 4 TO 6 INCHES POSSIBLE OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS. IN ADDITION...A RIVER FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THIS MORNING FOR THE RIO GRANDE RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES ABOVE LAKE AMISTAD...THE PECOS RIVER FROM SHEFFIELD TO THE RIO GRANDE...AND THE DEVILS RIVER NEAR JUNO TO LAKE AMISTAD. NO IMMEDIATE END IS IN SIGHT FOR THIS WET WEATHER PATTERN. IT APPEARS THE UPPER AIR DISTURBANCE TO THE WEST WILL KEEP RAIN CHANCES HIGH INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK AT LEAST. THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH MAY NEED TO BE EXTENDED BEYOND TONIGHT. A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT FLASH FLOODING IS POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA. PEOPLE IN THE WATCH AREA ARE ADVISED TO CHECK PREPAREDNESS REQUIREMENTS...KEEP INFORMED...AND BE READY FOR QUICK ACTION IF FLASH FLOODING THREATENS."}, {"response": 548, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 21, 2000 (18:46)", "body": "Houston Hurricane Evacuation Plan (1) Hispanics take I-10 west to San Antonio (2) Yankees take I-45 north to Oklahoma (3) Cajuns take I-10 east to Lafayette (4) Aggies take the 610 Loop"}, {"response": 549, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 22, 2000 (23:56)", "body": "My son just sent this - he reported gusts up to 36 MPH on his wind gauge! URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA 930 PM PDT SUN OCT 22 2000 ...GUSTY NORTHERLY WINDS HAVE BEGUN TO GRADUALLY WEAKEN OVER MOST OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AND THIS TREND WILL CONTINUE OVERNIGHT... HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE GREAT BASIN WILL CONTINUE TO PRODUCE NORTH TO EAST WINDS OVERNIGHT. THE WINDS WILL CONTINUE TO DECREASE THIS EVENING WITHIN THE SACRAMENTO VALLEY...HOWEVER LOCAL STRONG WIND GUSTS WILL PERSIST OVERNIGHT IN THE SIERRA NEVADA AND PARTS OF THE COASTAL RANGE. THE GUSTY WINDS IN THE SIERRA AND ALONG THE COASTAL RANGE WILL DECREASE MONDAY MORNING. SOME WIND REPORTS AS OF 9 PM... HELL HOLE / 5249 FT ..33 WITH GUSTS TO 61 MPH (PLACER COUNTY) BALD MTN / 4600 FT ..18 WITH GUSTS TO 42 MPH (EL DORADO COUNTY) KNOXVILLE CRK / 2550 FT ..24 WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH (LAKE COUNTY) HAWKEYE / 2000 FT ..37 WITH GUSTS TO 71 MPH (SONOMA COUNTY) SACRAMENTO INTERNATIONAL..20 WITH GUSTS TO 28 MPH SACRAMENTO EXECUTIVE......18 WITH GUSTS TO 25 MPH VACAVILLE.................20 WITH GUSTS TO 30 MPH FAIRFIELD.................22 WITH GUSTS TO 30 MPH"}, {"response": 550, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Oct 23, 2000 (08:26)", "body": "Wow, 71 mph winds in Sonomo County. Wonder where hawkeye station is located?"}, {"response": 551, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 23, 2000 (11:36)", "body": "Published Monday, October 23, 2000 Wind, fires cut power Outages affect 80,000 across the Bay Area Raging winds and dry weather merged into a violent force this weekend, knocking out power and igniting brush fires from Lake County to San Jose and in the Oakland hills on the nine-year anniversary of a blaze that killed 25 people on those same slopes. In Contra Costa County, crews scrambled Sunday to put out blazes that erupted from Bay Point to Port Costa to Orinda. PG&E crews also worked throughout the day to restore power to about 80,000 customers in the Bay Area. No local damage or injuries were reported, although flames destroyed a hillside house in San Jose. The high winds forced the postponement of the passage of four of the world's biggest cranes underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge on Sunday afternoon. The ship carrying the cranes pulled anchor and headed south -- nearly to Santa Barbara -- to try to get out of the winds, said Harold Jones, a spokesman for the port. The Oakland hills fire erupted when a eucalyptus tree fell onto power lines at 11:32 a.m. on Clarewood Drive, knocking down power lines and sparking the flames. The fire quickly moved east along land belonging to the Mountain View Cemetery and burned 10 acres before it was contained, said Oakland Fire Department Capt. Vicky Evans-Robinson. It was expected to take all of Sunday to completely knock out the flames, she said. Two small planes from the California Department of Forestry dumped retardant on the three-alarm fire while 150 firefighters fought it from the ground, she said. No one was evacuated. Adrienne Kohler, who rents a house on Truitt Street, said she lost her home in the Oct. 21, 1991, fire and was ready to evacuate when she saw smoke. \"I packed the car a lot faster than the first time,\" Kohler said as she stood outside with her 6-year-old daughter, Haley, watching the billows of black smoke above the Mountain View Cemetery. Although the fire did not spread as the 1991 blaze did, authorities were worried enough to open up the Alameda County Emergency Operations Center. Kohler said after the fire started, \"the power kept flickering in and out and all of a sudden, we heard a loud pop.\" She said fire department officials came by and told her everything was OK. \"I've heard that before and I didn't have a house later.\" Only hours earlier, a San Jose hillside fire, one of at least five in the city Sunday, burned 25 acres. It was started about 1 a.m. when a power line fell into a pine tree on top of a hill in eastern San Jose. Winds gusting to 45 mph pushed the flames toward homes. People living in the area near Penitencia Creek Road were forced to make split-second decisions about whether to flee or stay and fight the fast-moving flames in the dark. Joseph Gallo, a retired English teacher from Foothill Community College, chose to fight. Seventeen years ago, a mudslide destroyed his house in the same hills. Neighbors saw that Gallo's roof was on fire and ran over to help him spray it with garden hoses, but Gallo's single-story ranch house was gutted, destroying two pickup trucks and his Model A. Thirty-six people were evacuated, some of whom gathered at a temporary shelter at a nearby middle school. The fire still smoldered into the late afternoon, and fire Capt. Mark Mooney said officials were concerned that the gusty wind could re-ignite lingering hot spots. Late Saturday, a fire erupted in Lake County and quickly engulfed 3,000 acres by Sunday morning, thanks to the high-speed winds. About 1,000 firefighters -- some from the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District -- worked through the weekend to control the blaze. By Sunday, the fire was only 10 percent contained, with full containment not expected until Tuesday. Houses were threatened in Lake County, but only four rural structures were reported damaged. In the East Bay, the weekend was capped off by a string of small fires and downed trees. One grass fire ignited a hillside near Cal State Hayward, and 6 acres burned in another grass fire at Wildcat Canyon and Inspiration Point in Orinda. Early Sunday morning, about 100 firefighters battled a blaze on Evora Road in Bay Point that was caused by electrical wires \"swinging in an arc,\" said Contra Costa fire Capt. Dave George. \"A shower of sparks occurred (between the wires) and rained down,\" George said. In Port Costa, a grass fire that raged for most of Sunday afternoon was under \"shaky containment\" by early evening, said Lt. Dean Colombo of the Crockett-Carquinez fire department. The fire, which went to three alarms, burned more than 100 acres about half a mile outside town along McEwen Road, Colombo said. No one was injured in the fire, which began around 1:45 p.m. and at one time threatened a ranch and a ranch house off McEwen Road. \"We'll have crews out there all night,\" Colombo said. As of Sunday afternoon, fire officials did not know the cause of the fire. A California Department of Forestry plane dropped"}, {"response": 552, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 23, 2000 (11:38)", "body": "My son says the weather is exciting and is sending these accounts. I'lll check with him about there the hawkeye station is. I know I have seen an internet map of them and will post either it or the URL for it as soon as I find it. THAT is scary weather!"}, {"response": 553, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 23, 2000 (12:25)", "body": "While California endures hell, Texas has the high water. How's it going, Austinites??? FLASH FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 1030 AM CDT MON OCT 23 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS EXPANDED THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH ISSUED EARLIER THIS MORNING AND EXTENDED THE WATCH THROUGH TONIGHT. THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT THROUGH TONIGHT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS COMAL...GILLESPIE...MEDINA...KENDALL...WILSON...BASTROP... BLANCO...TRAVIS...KERR...BEXAR...HAYS...BURNET...WILLIAMSON... ATASCOSA...BANDERA...LEE...LLANO...GUADALUPE...FRIO...REAL... CALDWELL...AND UVALDE...VAL VERDE...EDWARDS...KINNEY... MAVERICK...ZAVALA AND DIMMIT THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH INCLUDES MOST ALL OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS AND THE HILL COUNTRY AND NOW INCLUDES THE WESTERN PLATEAU AREA. ABUNDANT LOW-LEVEL MOISTURE AND UPPER LEVEL MOISTURE FROM THE PACIFIC WILL STREAM ACROSS MUCH OF THE HILL COUNTRY AND SOUTH CENTRAL TODAY AND TONIGHT. SEVERAL UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCES OVER MEXICO WILL TRAVERSE OVER THE AREA LATE TODAY AND TONIGHT. THE GROUND HAS BECOME NEARLY SATURATED FROM PREVIOUS RAINS OVER THE WEEKEND AND THIS MORNING... AND THESE NEW STORMS WILL TRAIN ACROSS THE SAME AREAS PRODUCING LOCALLY HEAVY AMOUNTS OF RAIN AND FLOODING. ADDITIONAL HEAVIER TOTALS WILL AVERAGE BETWEEN 1 AND 3 INCHES...WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES POSSIBLE THROUGH TONIGHT. A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT FLASH FLOODING IS POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA. PEOPLE IN THE WATCH AREA ARE ADVISED TO CHECK PREPAREDNESS REQUIREMENTS...KEEP INFORMED...AND BE READY FOR QUICK ACTION IF FLASH FLOODING THREATENS. MOTORISTS SHOULD ALLOW EXTRA TIME FOR THE LATE AFTERNOON COMMUTE AS SOME ROADS WILL BE BARRICADED AND TRAVEL WILL BE SLOW. PARENTS SHOULD KEEP CHILDREN INDOORS AND AWAY FROM DRAINAGE DITCHES...STREAMS AND CREEKS. BANKS WILL BE SOFT...UNSTABLE AND VERY DANGEROUS."}, {"response": 554, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 23, 2000 (16:11)", "body": "Flash flood watches continue - was just notified that they have been extended."}, {"response": 555, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Oct 24, 2000 (07:55)", "body": "It's pretty dry today so far, yesterday wasn't that bad. I'm in Bastrop and Travis counties. I wonder if this is extended today? No rain in the forecast today, just clouds and 82 degrees. Rain forecast for Wedsday and Thursday with low 80s and high 70s. I'm still going swimming every day, the water temperature's staying at a constant 70 pretty much."}, {"response": 556, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 24, 2000 (22:51)", "body": "I just got notice that it was extended until further notice - 323 PM CDT TUE OCT 24 2000"}, {"response": 557, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 29, 2000 (22:19)", "body": "This is frightening. So many of those special and dear to me live here: Gales Batter Southern England And France, One Dead LONDON (Reuters) - Gales and heavy rain have battered southern England and northern France, killing one person, endangering shipping, raising the specter of flooding, and leaving thousands without electricity. Police in Surrey, south of London, said one person died on Sunday and two had been seriously injured when their car was hit by a tree. Earlier the Meteorological Office had told people in southern England, Wales and parts of Scotland to prepare for heavy rain and damaging winds. \"In the coming 24 hours, the southern part of England and Wales are expecting very windy weather with gusts of 70 to 80 mph,\" a national forecaster said. \"Gusts of 90 mph would be possible on exposed parts.\" Also in Surrey, a train collided with a tree that had fallen onto the line near Guildford. Another train hit a tree in Worcestershire. Transport police said no one had been injured. Britain's Environment Agency said it expected storms to rage through the night and warned there could be serious flooding on Monday. The agency said up to 40 millimeters of rain was expected overnight and that rivers in southern England and Wales might burst their banks. Storms also left thousands of homes in southern England without electricity, one power company said. Southern Electric said some 8,000 customers had been cut off in the late afternoon, after winds of 90 mph brought trees down, cutting through power lines. \"We've been hit fairly hard all over our area and we're expecting a hard night,\" Southern Electric spokesman Bob Major told Reuters. Sunday's severe weather comes as families in the southern English seaside resort of Bognor Regis were cleaning up after a tornado that struck on Saturday, injuring five people as it ripped roofs from hundreds of houses and overturned cars and caravans. STORMS HIT NORTHERN FRANCE, SHIPPING ENDANGERED Severe storms were also battering Northern France and the French Meteorological Office recommended \"the greatest prudence\" in coastal areas. Inhabitants along France's northern coastline were told to expect winds of up to 85 mph while the Paris area could see gusts of 60 to 75 mph. Twenty to 23 foot waves were forecast for the Gironde estuary in southwestern France. The BBC said the six crew of a Norwegian cargo vessel that was being towed to Liverpool had abandoned ship off Scotland in force 10 to 12 gales and been winched onto a rescue helicopter. The 1,600-ton Elektron was continuing its journey to Liverpool under tow from a Russian tug, the BBC said. The ship was refloated on Friday night after spending 12 days aground off St Kilda, an island west of Scotland. In the early hours of Sunday two ships had also been troubled by the weather on the French side of the Channel. One was towed back to harbor and a small oil tanker that had been stranded in heavy seas near Boulogne managed to push clear of the coast and head toward Britain on Sunday afternoon. Gale force winds at London's Heathrow Airport forced a Dubai-bound Emirates plane carrying 376 passengers to return to the airport, after the rear of the plane hit the runway on take-off, the Daily Telegraph said. Northern France experienced hurricane strength winds in a storm last December. The French Meteorological Office said it did not expect the approaching storm to be as intense."}, {"response": 558, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (02:34)", "body": "Weather has continued all night long - am not expecting many people into work on time."}, {"response": 559, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (11:55)", "body": "A friend who works in London finally got to work from the suburbs at 1:30pm since the rail lines and electricity were down. He had time to replant the bushes uprooted and blocking the entry to his home, and other things which needed doing immediatley. All were safe bue the downed trees were plentiful! Thanks Mark! Happy you checked in safe and sound. How is your garden???"}, {"response": 560, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (13:11)", "body": "Have no garden :-("}, {"response": 561, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (16:53)", "body": "*Hugs* Mark...neither does anyone else in Britain at this stage of the year and after that gale. May I set aside part of mine for you and think of you as I pluck slugs from it, feed the mosquitoes, remove unwanted over-night-appearing sword ferns and begonias? My roses are worse than none here but I have leaves on everything else the size of those salvers in the Tower Of London Jewel Vaults. Rose beds are nice...especially in Britain. I wish you a garden. Enghishmen just do not seem complete without one...! I'd even weed an infernal rock garden for you! Now, that's devotion!!!"}, {"response": 562, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (17:52)", "body": ""}, {"response": 563, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (17:55)", "body": "This image will not post but it is excellent for Europe: http://www.intellicast.com/LocalWeather/World/Satellite/Europe/ This image will not cpost either, but it is amazing for the entire world! http://www.intellicast.com/LocalWeather/World/Satellite/World/"}, {"response": 564, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (20:13)", "body": "from http://www.weathersite.com/"}, {"response": 565, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (20:17)", "body": "If they do not update they are gone. Map projection is distorted but you can see the patterns of the weather which hit Britain...and the storm over the Rockies. As for us, we are under those mid-Pacific clouds, as usual!"}, {"response": 566, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (09:03)", "body": "Storms due to return to the UK tonight - but still no sign of bad weather outdoors."}, {"response": 567, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (11:47)", "body": "Oh Mark, Please take care! You too, Steven! Austinites are gonna get another flood... URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED FLASH FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 1015 AM CST WED NOV 1 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WATCH EFFECTIVE THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH TONIGHT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS COMAL...GONZALES...WILSON...BASTROP...TRAVIS...BEXAR...HAYS... LAVACA...DEWITT...WILLIAMSON...ATASCOSA...LEE...GUADALUPE... CALDWELL...FAYETTE AND KARNES THE WATCH IS GENERALLY ALONG AND EAST OF AN INTERSTATE 35 LINE FROM SOUTH OF SAN ANTONIO TO NORTH OF AUSTIN...AND INCLUDES AUSTIN AND SAN ANTONIO. A SLOW MOVING COLD FRONT APPROACHING FROM THE WEST WILL MOVE VERY SLOWLY ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS THIS AFTERNOON AND PROVIDE A FOCUS FOR HEAVY RAINS TONIGHT. MOIST TROPICAL AIR WILL FEED INTO THE COLD FRONT...RESULTING IN SCATTERED TO NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. THE COMBINATION OF STORMS TRAINING ALONG THE SLOW MOVING FRONT AND A GROUND THAT IS NEARLY SATURATED...WILL RESULT IN THE THREAT OF HEAVY RAINFALL AND FLOODING. WIDESPREAD RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ACROSS THE WATCH AREA WITH LOCALLY HEAVY AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES POSSIBLE OVERNIGHT. IT APPEARS THE CHANCES OF RAIN AND HEAVY RAIN WILL REMAIN HIGH AND MAY PERSIST FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS AS SOUTH TEXAS POTENTIALLY GETS LOCKED INTO A VERY WET WEATHER PATTERN. A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT FLASH FLOODING IS POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA. PEOPLE IN THE WATCH AREA ARE ADVISED TO CHECK PREPAREDNESS REQUIREMENTS...KEEP INFORMED...AND BE READY FOR QUICK ACTION IF FLASH FLOODING THREATENS. STAY TUNED TO LOCAL OR CABLE TELEVISION PROVIDERS...COMMERCIAL OR NOAA WEATHER RADIO STATIONS OR OTHER MEDIA FOR FURTHER STATEMENTS ON THIS FLASH FLOOD THREAT."}, {"response": 568, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (18:47)", "body": "It's biting at our heels, nothing yet, scheduled a concrete pour tomorrrow (sidewalks), trying to get the garage roof on also. Nothing but rain, rain, rain an d more rain in the forecast. I'm going to settle down, eat dinner while watching the last two nights opening skits on Leno via tivo, and wait for the raindrops. I'll stay tuned. thanks for the heads up Marci."}, {"response": 569, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (21:02)", "body": "Happy to be of help. Humidity is good for curing concrete, but floods you do NOT need! Your forecast: Txz173-191/194-208-012200- Bastrop-Caldwell-Hays-Lee-Travis-Williamson- Including The Cities Of...Austin...Bastrop...Georgetown...Giddings... Lockhart...San Marcos 1039 Am Cst Wed Nov 1 2000 ...Flash Flood Watch In Effect Through Tonight... .This Afternoon...Mostly Cloudy With A 60 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms...A Few Possibly Severe With Heavy Rain. Highs In The Lower 80S. South Winds 10 To 15 Mph...Stronger And Gusty In Thunderstorms. .Tonight...Mostly Cloudy With A 70 Percent Chance Of Showers Or Thunderstorms...Heavy Rainfall And Flooding Possible. Lows In The Lower 60S. Winds Becoming Northwest 10 To 15 Mph. .Thursday...Mostly Cloudy With A 40 Percent Chance Of Rain Or Thunderstorms. Highs In The Lower 70S. Northeast Winds Near 10 Mph. .Extended Forecast... .Thursday Night And Friday...Cloudy With Rain Or Thunderstorms Likely. Lows In The Lower 60S. Highs Near 70. .Saturday Through Monday...Mostly Cloudy With A Chance Of Rain Or Thunderstorms. Lows Near 60. Highs Around 70. .Tuesday...Partly Cloudy. Lows In The 50S. Highs In The 70S. Extended Forecast... .Thursday Night...Increasing Clouds West And North. Mostly Cloudy With A Chance Of Showers And Thunderstorms South And East. Lows In The 50S. .Friday Through Sunday...Mostly Cloudy With A Chance Of Showers And Thunderstorms. Highs In The 60S. Lows In The 50S."}, {"response": 570, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (22:53)", "body": "The first thunder of the winter season heard just a few minutes ago in Hilo. That means it is snowing on the mountains!"}, {"response": 571, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (07:46)", "body": "Still no rain to speak of, that 5 inches never came last night, whew! There's still hope for my concrete pour (sidewalks) today. Hoping to get the roof on the garage and those sidewalks around the pool and house poured before the heavy stuff comes."}, {"response": 572, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (12:33)", "body": "We had 20 inches of rain overnight, many thunder-and-lightning strikes so close that they seemed simultaneous. Did not sleep much. One area above us got 5 inches of rain an hour! Power is on and off. 450 AM HST THU NOV 2 2000 * FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...HILO PUNA AND KAU AREAS BIG ISLAND * UNTIL 750 AM HST THURSDAY * AT 450 AM HST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR SHOWS PERSISTENT RGENERATING THUNDERSTORM CELLS OVER THE HILO PUNA AND KAU. * THUNDERSTORMS WITH EXCESSIVE RAINFALL WILL CONTINUE TO BE IN THE HILO PUNA AND KAU. A FLASH FLOOD WARNING MEANS THAT DANGEROUS FLOODING IS ALREADY OCCURRING. TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY AND CONTINUE PRECAUTIONS UNTIL THE THREAT AND WARNING ARE OVER. HILO IS STILL RECEIVING ITS HEAVIEST RAINFALL EVER IN 24 HOURS OF OVER 24 INCHES SO FAR. THE HEAVY THUNDERSHOWERS ARE STATIONARY APPEARING ANCHORED TO THEIR LOCATIONS. THESE CELLS ARE EXPECTED TO WEAKEN LATER THIS MORNING. MOTORISTS SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS FAST FLOWING OR RISING WATER...MANY FLASH FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR WHEN MOTORISTS TRY CROSSING FLOODED ROADWAYS. ESCAPE RISING WATER BY CLIMBING DIRECTLY TO HIGHER GROUND. NEVER TRY TO OUTRUN A FLOOD EITHER ON FOOT OR IN YOUR VEHICLE. DO NOT CAMP NEAR STREAMS OR OTHER AREAS SUBJECT TO FLOODING. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...LOCAL TV OR RADIO FOR FURTHER NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INFORMATION. MATSUDA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU"}, {"response": 573, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (12:39)", "body": "Worst Floods for 50 Years Drench Britain BEWDLEY (Reuters) - Britain's worst floods in more than 50 years forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes on Thursday as the rain kept falling and meteorologists warned worse was yet to come. The Environment Agency said initial estimates suggested that about 3,000 properties had already been flooded. It warned river levels had yet to peak. \"There is no light at the end of tunnel. We are expecting rain to continue for at least the next few days,\" said a spokesman for the Meteorological Office. Prime Minister Tony Blair visited some of the towns worst affected by the floods, including Bewdley, Shrewsbury in central England and York, in northern England. Dressed in a long raincoat and rubber boots, he surveyed Bewdley from the main bridge over the River Severn. He was confronted by activists trying to save a local hospital from closure. After being constantly heckled by them, he finally turned and said \"I've got the message.\" Evacuations of homes were ordered from Yorkshire in the north to Kent in the south. Severe flood warnings were issued for 14 areas in England and Wales. Rivers in Yorkshire and the river Severn in south west England were the main concerns. The Severn river had already swollen to 10 times its normal level. In Yorkshire the Environment Agency, the official body that deals with natural disasters, said water levels on two rivers were continuing to rise. Residents of three villages in the area were preparing to evacuate their homes for the second time in 18 months. Last year Malton, Norton and Stamford Bridge were hit by floods that caused 20 million pounds ($29 million) of damage. The agency said up to four centimeters of rain was expected to fall on the region on Thursday. People in more than 10,000 homes in Dover, on the south coast of England, were told to boil their water after bacteria was found in the supply as a result of the flooding. Folkestone and Dover Water Services warned they could be forced to introduce water rationing to conserve supplies if the flooding continued."}, {"response": 574, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (13:00)", "body": "SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HILO HI 730 AM HST THU NOV 2 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HONOLULU HAS ISSUED A * SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR... HAWAII... INCLUDING THE COMMUNITIES OF...VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK * UNTIL 815 AM HST * AT 730 AM HST...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM JUST TO THE WEST OF KILAUEA CRATER * THIS SEVERE THUNDERSTORM IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK FOR THE NEXT 30 TO 45 MINUTES PERSONS IN OR CLOSE TO THE WARNED AREA...TAKE SHELTER IN BASEMENTS OR STURDY STRUCTURES. PERSONS ON SOUTH HAWAII SHOULD MOVE TO SHELTER AND BE READY FOR STRONG GUSTY WINDS...VERY HEAVY RAIN...LIGHTNING AND POSSIBLE HAIL. A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM MAY GIVE RISE TO A TORNADO. THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM...TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY. MOVE TO A BASEMENT OR AN INTERIOR ROOM AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS. DO NOT USE YOUR CAR UNTIL THE DANGER HAS PASSED. IF YOU ARE IN YOUR CAR...LEAVE YOUR CAR AND GO TO A STRONG BUILDING. IF CAUGHT IN THE OPEN...LIE FACE DOWN IN A DITCH OR FLAT ON THE GROUND WITH WITH YOUR HANDS OVER YOUR HEAD. BE AWARE THAT HEAVY RAINFALL MAY GIVE RISE TO FLASH FLOODING. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...LOCAL TV OR RADIO FOR FURTHER NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INFORMATION."}, {"response": 575, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (14:41)", "body": "The entire island is involved om this storm comingup from the south. In Kona, on the other side of the island, a tree collapsed on a restauranrt full of people. One has died so far in Hilo when his truck flipped over. Power outages common so I keep my candles lit in votive holders just in case..."}, {"response": 576, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (17:32)", "body": "To give you some idea how bad it is, this is the current update for the Kilauea Volcano: 0550 November 2, 2000 There is no update this morning, because exceptionally heavy rain makes it too dangerous to venture onto the dark roadways. At your observer's home in Hilo, a rain gage re- corded more than 20 inches (50 cm) between 1945 last night and 0405 this morning, and the water still cometh down as this is written. Lightning and thunder serve as garnish for the storm. During the day yesterday, more than 5 inches (12.5 cm) of rain fell near HVO, and it now totals 16 inches (40 cm) since yesterday morning and is still rising. At Pu`u `O`o the total since yesterday morning is higher; more than 18 inches (45 cm). All tiltmeters are showing de- flections because of the added mass of water to the ground. This is one whale of a storm. Volcanic tremor near Pu`u `O`o is at a moderate level. Earthquake activity is low across the island. The tilt at Kilauea summit is rather flat (actually continuing the long-term slow deflation underway since the eruption began in 1983), as it is near Pu`u `O`o and everywhere else along the east rift zone."}, {"response": 577, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (18:28)", "body": "Good News for Bastrop! ...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR BASTROP AND TRAVIS COUNTIES HAS EXPIRED...AT 400 PM CST NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED THE STORMS THAT PROMPTED THE WARNING NO LONGER POSE A THREAT AND THE WARNING HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO EXPIRE."}, {"response": 578, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (18:55)", "body": "EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS With local flooding, rain, winds and storm activity occurring around the island, here are some last minute pointers to consider in emergency preparedness: East Hawaii has severe damage and West Hawaii is expected to experience more heavy rains in the very near future. Flooding is impacting the roads - Various roads are closed around the island - Stay off the roads - Flooding occurring around the island. - Locate your battery operated radios and flashlights now - don't wait until dark. - Listen to the radio for Weather Service and Civil Defense Warnings & Advisories. - Use the telephone only for emergency purposes. - Don't go sightseeing. - Unplug unnecessary appliances. Most people have plenty of food in their refrigerators and pantries to last a couple of days - stay at home, you already have enough food - don't worry about food. If power goes out - use your refrigerator and freezer sparingly - eat perishables first, then pantry/canned goods. If wind and rain continue we should expect the possibility of prolonged power, water and telephone outages. Use a battery operated radio to get weather updates. Start to collect water NOW - two needs: 1. Drinking water - start to collect and store in clean containers - NOW. 2. If water goes out, your toilets won't work - put empty garbage cans under your gutter drain pipes to collect water to use to flush the toilets. Remain Calm - once the storm passes, we will work together to get things back to normal. Red Cross volunteers are standing by to help. If you need to be evacuated follow the evacuation advisories. Reminders: Stay at home - Use telephones for emergencies only - Listen to the Radio - Prepare while it is still light, power is on, water is on and things are relatively normal."}, {"response": 579, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (19:09)", "body": "NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 634 PM CST THU NOV 2 2000 ...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH HAS EXPIRED... ...A TORNADO WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 7PM FOR COMAL BLANCO AND HAYS COUNTIES... DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUES TO INDICATE A TORNADIC THUNDERSTORM IN SOUTHERN MOST HAYS COUNTY MOVING EAST TOWARD WIMBERLY. NO REPORTS OF SEVERE WEATHER HAVE BEEN RECEIVED AT THIS TIME. ALTHOUGH REPORTS OF PEA TO MARBLE SIZE HAIL WERE REPORTED IN KENDALL COUNTY AND THE CITIES OF OTTINE AND KERRVILLE. NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE OVER MOST OF THE AREA THROUGH THE NIGHT. GUSTY WINDS...DEADLY LIGHTNING... HEAVY RAINS AND HAIL CAN BE EXPECTED."}, {"response": 580, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (21:26)", "body": "Austinites you are not out of the woods yet... BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED FLASH FLOOD WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 816 PM CST THU NOV 2 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A * FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR... BASTROP COUNTY LEE COUNTY GUADALUPE COUNTY CALDWELL COUNTY * UNTIL MIDNIGHT * AT 816 PM CST...WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED VERY HEAVY RAIN BETWEEN SEGUIN AND NEW BRAUNFELS...MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHEAST AT 20 MPH."}, {"response": 581, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (23:21)", "body": "The above has been extended until 5 AM CST Friday."}, {"response": 582, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (06:58)", "body": "We got the heavy rains! But we got the sidewalk poured just before they came, so it should have an interesting mottled pattern when it finishes setting up. It rained hard, probably about 4 inches. And today it has settled down, but like you say, we still in the woods."}, {"response": 583, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (11:56)", "body": "It will be textured and a non-skid surface which will not be unpleasing. We had that happen to us one time, too. Four inches? That's a heavy dew, here! National Weather Summary - Morning Edition Friday, November, 2000 Hawaiian Deluge Ends Heavy tropical rains finally taper across the Hawaiian Islands. Over thirty inches of rain has fallen across Hawaii over the last several days. A persistent flow of tropical moisture is finally diminishing, but not before causing flash-flooding, mud slides, and hundreds of thousands dollars worth of damage."}, {"response": 584, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (11:57)", "body": "Cover your sidewalk, Terry! This just in: BULLETIN...IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED FLASH FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 523 AM CST FRI NOV 3 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS EXTENDED THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH...NOW EFFECTIVE THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS COMAL...GILLESPIE...MEDINA...GONZALES...KENDALL...WILSON... REAL...BASTROP...BLANCO...TRAVIS...KERR...BEXAR...HAYS... LAVACA...DEWITT...BURNET...WILLIAMSON...ATASCOSA...BANDERA... LEE...LLANO...EDWARDS...KINNEY...GUADALUPE...FRIO...UVALDE... CALDWELL...FAYETTE...VAL VERDE AND KARNES"}, {"response": 585, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (12:48)", "body": "FLASH FLOOD WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 1143 AM CST FRI NOV 3 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A * FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR... BASTROP COUNTY * UNTIL 245 PM CST"}, {"response": 586, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (16:17)", "body": "RIVER FLOOD WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 354 PM CST FRI NOV 03 2000 THIS PRODUCT INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING RIVERS: COLORADO RIVER. FOR THE COLORADO RIVER, INCLUDING BASTROP, MINOR FLOODING IS OCCURING AND IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE. BF FLD OBSERVED FORECAST LOCATION STG STG STG DAY TIME 6 PM MIDNIGHT 6 AM COLORADO RIVER BASTROP 14 25 12.01 FRI 2 PM 13 15 18 FOR THE COLORADO RIVER AT BASTROP, THE LATEST STAGE IS 12.01 FEET AT 12 PM FRIDAY. THE RIVER WILL CREST BETWEEN 18 AND 19 FEET LATE TONIGHT. AT 18 FEET RIVER FLOW EXCEEDS BANKFULL INTO THE LOWEST AREAS OF THE FLOOD PLAIN. ADDITIONAL RAINFALL TONIGHT WILL CHANGE FORECAST RIVER LEVELS."}, {"response": 587, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (18:38)", "body": "You are not out of the woods yet. Please be careful! A NEARLY STATIONARY COLD FRONT HAS STALLED OVER THE HILL COUNTRY. TROPICAL AIR WAS FEEDING INTO SOUTH TEXAS AT THE LOWER LEVELS WHILE MOIST AIR FROM THE PACIFIC WAS STREAMING INTO TX ACROSS MEXICO. UPPER LEVEL ENERGY IS ALSO PROVIDING ADDITIONAL LIFT THAT IS HELPING TO PRODUCE NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS THIS MORNING. THE UPPER STEERING WINDS WILL ALLOW FOR THE TRAINING OF THE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. SINCE THE SOILS ARE ALREADY SATURATED...THIS WILL RESULT IN THE THREAT OF SIGNIFICANT FLOODING. WIDESPREAD RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES HAVE FALLEN ACROSS MOST OF THE WATCH AREA WITH SEVERAL AREAS RECEIVING 4 TO 6 INCHES OVERNIGHT. ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAINS OF 2 TO 5 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE TODAY THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON. WITH SATURATED GROUNDS...SOME AREAS WILL BECOME FLOODED WITH ONLY AN INCH OF RAIN IN AN HOURS TIME. THE CHANCES FOR RAIN AND HEAVY RAIN WILL REMAIN HIGH AND MAY PERSIST THROUGH THE WEEKEND AS SOUTH TEXAS GETS LOCKED INTO A VERY WET WEATHER PATTERN. SEVERAL RIVERS IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS ARE ALREADY OUT OF BANKS...AND ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAINS COULD RESULT IN A VERY SERIOUS FLOODING SITUATION. A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT FLASH FLOODING IS POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA. PEOPLE IN THE WATCH AREA ARE ADVISED TO CHECK PREPAREDNESS REQUIREMENTS...KEEP INFORMED...AND BE READY FOR QUICK ACTION IF FLASH FLOODING THREATENS."}, {"response": 588, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  4, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "OH NO...NOT AGAIN!!! BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED FLASH FLOOD WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI 915 PM HST FRI NOV 3 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HONOLULU HAS ISSUED A * FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...THE PUNA DISTRICT OF EASTERN HAWAII INCLUDING THE COMMUNITIES OF...PAHOA...KEHENA...KALAPANA AND KAPAAHU * UNTIL 1215 AM HST SATURDAY * AT 915 PM HST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED STRONG THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING ALONG AND INLAND FROM THE COAST FROM CAPE KUMUKAHI TO APUA POINT * THUNDERSTORMS WITH EXCESSIVE RAINFALL ARE ALREADY OCCURRING IN] THE PUNA AND VOLCANOES AREA. FLASH FLOODING IS EXPECTED IN NORMALLY DRY STREAMBEDS DURING THE NEXT TWO HOURS. PERSONS IN LOW-LYING OR FLOOD PRONE AREAS SHOULD MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND. A FLASH FLOOD WARNING MEANS THAT DANGEROUS FLOODING IS IMMINENT OR ALREADY OCCURRING. TAKE NECESSARY ACTIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY AND CONTINUE PRECAUTIONS UNTIL THE THREAT AND THE WARNING ARE OVER. MOTORISTS SHOULD BE ALERT FOR FLOODING AND SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS FAST FLOWING OR RISING WATER...MANY FLASH FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR WHEN MOTORISTS TRY CROSSING FLOODED ROADWAYS. ESCAPE RISING WATER BY CLIMBING DIRECTLY TO HIGHER GROUND. NEVER TRY TO OUTRUN A FLOOD EITHER ON FOOT OR IN YOUR VEHICLE. DO NOT CAMP NEAR STREAMS OR OTHER AREAS SUBJECT TO FLOODING. THIS STORM WILL PRODUCE DANGEROUS LIGHTNING. LIGHTING IS A LEADING KILLER AND PRECAUTIONS SHOULD BE TAKEN TO AVOID BEING STRUCK BY LIGHTING. STAY OUT FROM UNDER TALL TREES AND AWAY FROM THE OCEAN AND BEACHES IF LIGHTNING IS OCCURRING. DO NOT TOUCH OR REMAIN CLOSE TO METAL POLES OR FENCES. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...LOCAL TV OR RADIO FOR FURTHER NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INFORMATION. FARRELL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU"}, {"response": 589, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  4, 2000 (13:52)", "body": "THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HONOLULU HAS ISSUED A * FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR... NORTH AND EAST HAWAII INCLUDING THE COMMUNITIES OF...LEEWARD AND WINDWARD KOHALA. THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HONOLULU HAS EXTENDED THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH... NOW EFFECTIVE UNTIL 830 PM HST SATURDAY EVENING... FOR PERSONS IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS... ON MAUI...AND THE BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII"}, {"response": 590, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  4, 2000 (13:55)", "body": "The warnings are showing up in my inbox faster than I can read them. More now on the mountains!!! http://www.intellicast.com/LocalWeather/World/UnitedStates/Southwest/Hawaii/Hilo/BaseReflectivityLoop/"}, {"response": 591, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  4, 2000 (21:08)", "body": "HILO -- In addition to $20 million in damage to Big Island bridges, roads, homes and businesses, this week's flooding could mean snarled traffic and isolated communities for a month. Mayor Stephen Yamashiro and Gov. Ben Cayetano have declared a state of emergency for the entire island. The governor also declared Maui a disaster area and said officials from state Civil Defense and Federal Emergency Management Administration will make assessments on the Big Island to determine if federal funds will be made available. Yamashiro put initial damage estimates at $10.5 million to private property and $8.4 million to public facilities. He added that the total will likely rise to $20 million. Civil Defense Deputy Bruce Butts said 77 businesses and as many as 300 homes were damaged. At Pahala in the Kau District, two bridges on the Hawaii Belt Road were severely damaged, he said. Traffic can now go only to Kona. Kapapala Ranch owner Gordon Cran said remote Wood Valley is also isolated from Pahala by a bridge washout. Cran bulldozed a temporary road across his land so residents can get to the highway. In Hilo, a culvert underneath Komohana Street washed away. \"This is really major,\" Butts said. Repairs in both Hilo and Kau could take a month, he said. Kamehameha Avenue, still covered with slick mud, remained closed yesterday but might open today, he said. A flood control project done in 1996-97 deliberately dumps flooding onto Kamehameha Avenue. Yamashiro said extending the project to the bay would have required two more bridges with no federal money to pay for them. With Kamehameha and Komohana closed, traffic in the downtown Hilo area turned bumper-to-bumper yesterday, moving at a crawl. Yamashiro said he was happy that it was moving at all. Some lose food, art collections He said several more flood control project are planned, but they may cost $15 million each. In his downtown Hilo office attached to the Hawaiian Arts T-shirt store, artist Regie Koyama had his mind on a smaller sum: $90. That's the value of just one of his art books that was destroyed when 27 inches of water flowed into his office. Koyama had been collecting books, art clippings and other objects to help in designing T-shirts and other art for 35 years. Much of it was destroyed. An inlet to an underground drain is right outside his doorway. He said the owner of his building tried to control the flooding with sandbags. When the street was filled with two feet of water, it came into the shop anyway."}, {"response": 592, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  4, 2000 (23:08)", "body": "..and you thought you had a bad day... From Bizarre News : I am a news junkie. I am so twisted, C-Span is on my remote memory. I ran across a story last week and have been waiting for CNN, MSNBC, or other networks to make mention of this frightening story. There is a village in India called Gauhati that had suffered through the worst summer drought in their recorded history. Crops were devastated. Villagers had an idea. They decided to hire a rainmaker to perform a ritual designed to break the devastating grip of the drought. After performing his duty, the skies opened and a downpour ensued. It rained...and rained...and rained some more. For 10 days, straight, rain pounded the area. Floods washed away half of the village. Now this might sound bizarre, but the story takes an even more tragic and bizarre turn from here. On the tenth day of the flood, angry villagers attacked the \"Rainmaker\" and killed him for causing the disaster. Within hours of the killing the rain suddenly stopped. The final chapter of this story ends with the police. They made no arrests in the murder because they said that villagers were simply protecting their personal property from the ravages of an evil \"Rainmaker.\" Now I ask every single one of you; isn't this newsworthy? Well, I can say that Bizarre News picks up where the other news organizations leave off."}, {"response": 593, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  5, 2000 (13:38)", "body": "Wehave a brilliantly sunny day...finally! Texas is still getting rain: FLASH FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 455 AM CST SUN NOV 5 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS EXTENDED THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH...NOW EFFECTIVE THROUGH TONIGHT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS COMAL...GILLESPIE...MEDINA...GONZALES...KENDALL...WILSON... REAL...BASTROP...BLANCO...TRAVIS...KERR...BEXAR...HAYS... LAVACA...DEWITT...BURNET...WILLIAMSON...ATASCOSA...BANDERA... LEE...LLANO...EDWARDS...KINNEY...GUADALUPE...FRIO...UVALDE... CALDWELL...FAYETTE...VAL VERDE AND KARNES THIS WATCH COVERS MUCH OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS AND ALL OF THE HILL COUNTRY AND INCLUDES THE CITIES OF AUSTIN...SAN ANTONIO...DEL RIO AND KERRVILLE. A STRONG UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS TEXAS TONIGHT. AT THE SURFACE A STALLED OUT FRONTAL BOUNDARY WILL LIFT NORTH AS A WARM FRONT TODAY WITH NUMEROUS STRONG TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING ALONG THE FRONT. THEN...AS THE UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM MOVES ACROSS THE REGION TONIGHT...A COLD FRONT WILL MOVE WEST TO EAST ACROSS THE HILL COUNTRY AND SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS. STRONGER THUNDERSTORMS TODAY AND TONIGHT ARE EXPECTED TO PRODUCE RAINFALL RATES OF 2 TO 3 INCHES PER HOUR. RAINFALL TOTALS TODAY THROUGH TONIGHT WILL LIKELY BE IN THE 1 TO 2 INCH RANGE OVER A LARGE AREA...WITH ISOLATED 3 TO 5 INCH AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. SOILS REMAIN FULLY SATURATED FROM RECENT HEAVY RAINS AND FLOODING...SO FLASH FLOODING RAINS WILL BE POSSIBLE ALONG BOTH THE WARM FRONT AND THE COLD FRONT. IN MANY PORTIONS OF THE WATCH AREA...IT MAY TAKE AN INCH OR LESS OF RAINFALL IN AN HOURS TIME TO PRODUCE FLASH FLOODING. SEVERAL RIVERS IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS REMAIN SWOLLEN...AND ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAINS WILL LIKELY RESULT IN ADDITIONAL RIVER FLOODING. A BRIEF BREAK IN THE RAINS IS EXPECTED MONDAY AND TUESDAY. HOWEVER... ANOTHER STORM SYSTEM WILL THREATEN TO BRING ANOTHER POTENTIALLY HEAVY RAIN EVENT ON WEDNESDAY INTO THURSDAY."}, {"response": 594, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  5, 2000 (20:52)", "body": "BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED FLASH FLOOD WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 834 PM CST SUN NOV 5 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A * FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR... GONZALES COUNTY BASTROP COUNTY LAVACA COUNTY DEWITT COUNTY LEE COUNTY CALDWELL COUNTY FAYETTE COUNTY * UNTIL 1 AM CST * AT 834 PM CST...WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A LARGE AREA OF STRONG THUNDERSTORMS WITH VERY HEAVY MOVING EASTWARD INTO THE AREA. RAIN ALSO WAS INCREASING FROM THE SOUTH. DUE TO THE SATURATED SOIL THIS HEAVY RAIN WILL PRODUCE RAPID FLOODING OF LOWLYING AREAS AND ROADWAYS AND CAUSE STREAMS TO SWELL OUT OF THEIR BANKS. DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE ROADWAY. THE WATER DEPTH MAY BE TOO GREAT TO ALLOW YOUR CAR TO CROSS SAFELY. VEHICLES CAUGHT IN RISING WATER SHOULD BE ABANDONED QUICKLY. MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND. ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER TO RECOGNIZE THE DANGERS OF FLOODS AND FLASH FLOODS. IF FLASH FLOODING IS OBSERVED ACT QUICKLY. MOVE UP TO HIGHER GROUND TO ESCAPE FLOOD WATERS. DO NOT STAY IN AREAS SUBJECT TO FLOODING WHEN WATER BEGINS RISING."}, {"response": 595, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  5, 2000 (21:01)", "body": "SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 848 PM CST SUN NOV 5 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A * SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN TEXAS... BASTROP COUNTY * UNTIL 945 PM CST * AT 848 PM CST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM 6 MILES SOUTH OF ROSANKY...OR ABOUT 13 MILES SOUTHWEST OF SMITHVILLE...MOVING EAST AT 65 MPH."}, {"response": 596, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  5, 2000 (21:04)", "body": "A thunderstorm moving at 65 MPH?! That is 105 kph??"}, {"response": 597, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  5, 2000 (21:32)", "body": "aha!!! 848 PM CST SUN NOV 5 2000 ...CORRECT THUNDERSTORM SPEED... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A * SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN TEXAS... BASTROP COUNTY * UNTIL 945 PM CST * AT 848 PM CST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM 6 MILES SOUTH OF ROSANKY...OR ABOUT 13 MILES SOUTHWEST OF SMITHVILLE... MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH. LAT...LON 3009 9761 2983 9733 3006 9708 3026 9712 3039 9737 3021 9747"}, {"response": 598, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  5, 2000 (21:33)", "body": "THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR BASTROP COUNTY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 945 CST. AT 915 PM...THE THUNDERSTORM WAS NEAR MCDADE MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH. THE THUNDERSTORM HAS A HISTORY OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS. REMAIN IN A SECURE SHELTER UNTIL THE THREAT ENDS."}, {"response": 599, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Nov  6, 2000 (07:41)", "body": "It was a pretty heavy storm last night, I had to fish a chair out of the pool this morning. And the Directv dish was nearly blanked out for periods due to the heavy clouds and rain. Hopefully, it will be clear today so Duane can finish the garage roof."}, {"response": 600, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  6, 2000 (12:10)", "body": "I'll continue to post the storm alerts as soon as they arrive in my email. I know about fishing stuff out of odd places. One of our trash cans ended up in the \"moat\" around the property. We have no idea how it got out of the garage!"}, {"response": 601, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (15:51)", "body": "FLASH FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 300 PM CST TUE NOV 7 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS COMAL...GILLESPIE...MEDINA...GONZALES...KENDALL...WILSON... REAL...BASTROP...BLANCO...TRAVIS...KERR...BEXAR...HAYS... LAVACA...DEWITT...BURNET...WILLIAMSON...ATASCOSA...BANDERA... LEE...LLANO...GUADALUPE...FRIO...UVALDE...CALDWELL...FAYETTE AND KARNES THE METROPOLITAN AREAS OF AUSTIN AND SAN ANTONIO ARE INCLUDED IN THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH AREA."}, {"response": 602, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Nov  8, 2000 (07:28)", "body": "It rained hard last night but I was still able to get by the low water crossing this morning and make it in to Austin."}, {"response": 603, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  8, 2000 (13:23)", "body": "more bad news for you.... FLASH FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 448 AM CST WED NOV 8 2000 THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT TODAY FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS COMAL...MEDINA...GONZALES...KENDALL...WILSON... BASTROP...BLANCO...TRAVIS...BEXAR...HAYS... LAVACA...DEWITT...BURNET...WILLIAMSON...ATASCOSA... LEE...GUADALUPE...FRIO.... CALDWELL...FAYETTE AND KARNES THIS WATCH COVERS MUCH OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS AND THE EASTERN HILL COUNTRY AND INCLUDES THE CITIES OF AUSTIN...SAN ANTONIO...HONDO AND LA GRANGE. A STRONG UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS TEXAS TODAY. AHEAD OF IT...WIDESPREAD SHOWERS AND SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE WITH A MIX OF SLEET ACROSS THE HILL COUNTRY. THE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE NORTHEAST AT 40 MPH WHILE THE STORM SYSTEM SHIFTS EAST AT 30 MPH. ADDITIONAL RAINFALL OF 1 TO 2 INCHES IN THE WATCH AREA IS POSSIBLE TODAY. SOILS REMAIN FULLY SATURATED FROM RECENT HEAVY RAINS AND FLOODING... SO FLASH FLOODING RAINS WILL BE POSSIBLE. IN MANY PORTIONS OF THE WATCH AREA...IT MAY TAKE AN INCH OR LESS OF RAINFALL IN AN HOURS TIME TO PRODUCE FLASH FLOODING. SEVERAL RIVERS IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS REMAIN SWOLLEN...AND ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAINS WILL LIKELY RESULT IN ADDITIONAL RIVER FLOODING. A BRIEF BREAK IN THE RAINS IS EXPECTED MONDAY AND TUESDAY. HOWEVER... ANOTHER STORM SYSTEM WILL THREATEN TO BRING ANOTHER POTENTIALLY HEAVY RAIN EVENT ON WEDNESDAY INTO THURSDAY."}, {"response": 604, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  8, 2000 (13:26)", "body": "Our entire island-county of Hawaii has been declared a disaster area, so at least we will see some federal funds (and the bureaucrats who come with them) to help rebuild our infrastructure. It takes hours to just get from one side of Hilo to the other!"}, {"response": 605, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 11, 2000 (13:07)", "body": "Storm damage in Hilo: Where I was standing was under water just a few hours previous to taking this photo. This is the baseball field. What those brown things are in the grass are huge boulders washed over? under? the chain link fence in the outfield."}, {"response": 606, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 11, 2000 (13:18)", "body": "Why are the images so bad? The first one was taken at midday. It WAS that dark!!! That is a drop of about 8 feet (2.4 M). Fortunately, just when the water is at house entry level it crosses the road and flows into drainage over there. The second picture was a foggy lens of which the photographer was unaware. What you cannot see is the chain-link fencing to the right. Mashed flat on the ground by the force of the water. Amazing!!!"}, {"response": 607, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (11:53)", "body": "Winter (whatever that is) has hit California: *** STATE WEATHER WARNINGS *** CAZ017...019-121700- SOUTHERN SACRAMENTO VALLEY-CARQUINEZ STRAIT AND DELTA- NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY- ...FROST ADVISORY CONTINUES FOR LATE TONIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING... TEMPERATURES TONIGHT WILL DROP INTO THE UPPER 20S TO MIDDLE 30S ACROSS THE REGION. TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN AT OR BELOW FREEZING FOR SEVERAL HOURS LATE TONIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING FOR MOST OF THE AREA. PLANTS THAT ARE SENSITIVE TO FROST SHOULD BE PROTECTED AND ACCOMMODATIONS MADE FOR PETS. TEMPERATURES SHOULD WARM ABOVE FREEZING BY 8 AM SUNDAY MORNING."}, {"response": 608, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (13:42)", "body": "BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED * TORNADO WARNING FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN TEXAS... BASTROP COUNTY FAYETTE COUNTY * UNTIL 210 PM CST * AT 107 PM CST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A THUNDERSTORM WITH STRONG SIGNS THAT A TORNADO IS DEVELOPING 7 MILES WEST OF ROSANKY...OR ABOUT 12 MILES SOUTHWEST OF BASTROP...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 20 MPH. * THE TORNADO PRODUCING STORM IS EXPECTED TO BE... 2 MILES SOUTHEAST OF BASTROP AT 130 PM CST OVER CIRCLE D-KC ESTATES AT 145 PM CST"}, {"response": 609, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (13:44)", "body": "...TORNADO WARNING FOR CALDWELL COUNTY UNTIL 200 PM... ...TORNADO WARNING FOR BASTROP AND FAYETTE COUNTIES UNTIL 210 PM... AT 124 PM CST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A POSSIBLE TORNADO 15 MILES SOUTHEAST OF NIEDERWALD...OR 7 MILES EAST OF LOCKHART...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 20 MPH."}, {"response": 610, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (14:44)", "body": "* AT 218 PM CST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A THUNDERSTORM WITH STRONG ROTATION THAT MAY PRODUCE A TORNADO AT ANY TIME 7 MILES SOUTHWEST OF ROSANKY...OR ABOUT 16 MILES SOUTHWEST OF SMITHVILLE...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 20 MPH. A SECOND THUNDERSTORM WITH A POSSIBLE TORNADO WAS LOCATED OVER BASTROP...MOVING IN THE SAME SPEED AND DIRECTION."}, {"response": 611, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (15:05)", "body": "...A TORNADO WARNING IS IN EFFECT TIL 3 PM CST FOR FAYETTE COUNTY... ...A TORNADO WARNING IS IN EFFECT TIL 330 PM CST FOR HAYS COUNTY... ...A TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT TIL 7 PM CST... DOPPLER RADAR WAS INDICATING TORNADOES OVER HAYS AND FAYETTE COUNTIES AT 250 PM CST. OVER HAYS COUNTY...THE TORNADO WAS BETWEEN SAN MARCOS AND WIMBERLEY...ABOUT 10 MILES WEST OF SAN MARCOS...MOVING EAST AT 30 MPH. PERSONS IN SAN MARCOS NEED TO BE ALERT AND READY TO TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY AS THE TORNADO WILL BE IN THE SAN MARCOS VICINITY IN JUST A FEW MINUTES. OTHER TORNADOES WERE INDICATED JUST NORTHEAST OF CISTERN AND IN THE WINCHESTER WARDA AREAS OF FAYETTE COUNTY. TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU ARE IN THESE AREAS."}, {"response": 612, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (15:10)", "body": "Please Texas, Take cover and report back when you can!"}, {"response": 613, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (15:41)", "body": "Ther alerts are coming in as fast as I can post them ...TORNADO WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT FOR GONZALES...LAVACA...FAYETTE AND CALDWELL COUNTIES TIL 4 PM CST... ...A TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT TIL 7 PM CST... DOPPLER RADAR WAS INDICATING TORNADIC STORMS JUST SOUTH OF LA GRANGE IN FAYETTE COUNTY AND BETWEEN SHINER AND MOULTON OVER LAVACA COUNTY AT 330 PM CST. ALSO A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM BETWEEN LOCKHART AND MENDOZA IN CALDWELL COUNTY APPEARS TO HAVE SOME ROTATION. THESE STORMS APPEAR TO BE MOVING EAST AT 30 MPH. A WALL CLOUD HAS JUST BEEN REPORTED TO THE WEATHER OFFICE JUST SOUTH OF LAGRANGE AT 325 PM CST. IF YOU ARE IN THESE AREAS....TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY.."}, {"response": 614, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 12, 2000 (16:12)", "body": "342 PM CST SUN NOV 12 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN TEXAS... BASTROP COUNTY * UNTIL 445 PM CST * AT 342 PM CST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A THUNDERSTORM WITH STRONG SIGNS THAT A TORNADO IS DEVELOPING 10 MILES SOUTHWEST OF CEDAR CREEK...OR ABOUT 8 MILES NORTHEAST OF LOCKHART...MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH. * THE TORNADO PRODUCING STORM IS EXPECTED TO BE... 7 MILES SOUTH OF CEDAR CREEK AT 350 PM CST 5 MILES NORTH OF ROSANKY AT 410 PM CST 7 MILES SOUTH OF BASTROP AT 415 PM CST OVER SMITHVILLE AT 430 PM CST IF YOU ARE CAUGHT OUTSIDE...SEEK SHELTER IN A NEARBY REINFORCED BUILDING. AS A LAST RESORT...SEEK SHELTER IN A CULVERT...DITCH OR LOW SPOT AND COVER YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR HANDS."}, {"response": 615, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (13:43)", "body": "FLASH FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI 930 AM HST TUE NOV 14 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HONOLULU HAS ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WATCH EFFECTIVE UNTIL 1000 PM HST FOR PERSONS IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS... ON HAWAII...ALL AREAS A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR HEAVY RAINFALL AND FLASH FLOODING. FLOODING IS NOT IMMINENT... BUT PERSONS ON HAWAII SHOULD TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS NOW TO PROTECT PROPERTY AND BE PREPARED TO TAKE QUICK ACTION IF HEAVY RAIN IS OBSERVED OR A FLASH FLOOD WARNING IS ISSUED. MOISTURE MOVING INTO THE BIG ISLAND FROM THE EAST IS COMBINING WITH AN UNSTABLE ATMOSPHERE DUE TO COLDER AIR ALOFT TO PRODUCE HEAVY SHOWERS. THESE WILL LIKELY CONTINUE OVER THE NORTH AND EAST PORTIONS OF HAWAII...AND AFTERNOON HEATING COULD SET OFF LOCALLY HEAVY SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS OVER OTHER SECTIONS OF THE BIG ISLAND THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THUS THE WATCH AREA INCLUDES THE ENTIRE COUNTY OF HAWAII."}, {"response": 616, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (13:59)", "body": "Move over, Mt Waialeale, we gotta be the wettest place on earth. I never saw rain this hard for this long..."}, {"response": 617, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (15:03)", "body": "Three more flood warnings have come in in the last few moments. Check the loop for the weather patterns; http://www.intellicast.com/LocalWeather/World/UnitedStates/Southwest/Hawaii/Hilo/BaseReflectivityLoop/"}, {"response": 618, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (11:48)", "body": "WINTER WEATHER WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI 1115 PM HST WED NOV 15 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HONOLULU HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH EFFECTIVE UNTIL 1000 AM HST THURSDAY FOR THE SUMMITS AND UPPER SLOPES OF MAUNA KEA AND MAUNA LOA. A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THAT WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS... INCLUDING BELOW FREEZING TEMPERATURES...SNOW...SLEET AND STRONG WINDS...ARE POSSIBLE...BUT NOT IMMIMENT ATOP MAUNA KEA AND MAUNA LOA. PERSONS ATOP THESE SUMMITS SHOULD TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS IN PREPARATION FOR THE ONSET OF HAZARDOUS WINTERLIKE CONDITIONS."}, {"response": 619, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (11:57)", "body": "THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HONOLULU HAS ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WATCH EFFECTIVE UNTIL 1000 AM HST THURSDAY FOR PERSONS IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS... IN NORTH AND EAST HAWAII A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR HEAVY RAINFALL AND FLASH FLOODING. FLOODING IS NOT IMMINENT... BUT PERSONS ON NORTH AND EAST HAWAII SHOULD TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS NOW TO PROTECT PROPERTY AND BE PREPARED TO TAKE QUICK ACTION IF HEAVY RAIN IS OBSERVED OR A FLASH FLOOD WARNING IS ISSUED. HEAVY RAINS HAVE BEEN OCCURRING ON NORTH AND EAST HAWAII... ESPECIALLY IN THE HILO AND PUNA DISTRICTS. SOME STREAMS ARE REPORTED HIGH AND SOME OVER THEIR BANKS AND SOME ROADS ARE REPORTED WITH WATER OVER THE ROAD SURFACES. SATELLITE AND RADAR INDICATE THAT MORE HEAVY SHOWERS ARE MOVING INTO THE BIG ISLAND FROM THE EAST AND WILL BRING HEAVY SHOWERS AND POSSIBLE THUNDERSTORMS TO THAT AREA OVERNIGHT. WITH THE GROUND ALREADY SATURATED...AND ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAINFALL WILL LIKELY CAUSE FLASH FLOODING CONDITIONS."}, {"response": 620, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (12:09)", "body": "Hope you're staying as dry as possible. The boulders on the baseball field along with the flattened chain link fence do not make a reassuring picture."}, {"response": 621, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (15:09)", "body": "Yup, I am fine and joining those wondering what do do about removing all those huge boulders on the outfield without tearing up the turf. Meanwhile for someone I care deeply about: URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE...CORRECTED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 335 PM EST SAT NOV 18 2000 ...ACCUMULATING SNOW LIKELY ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS... .ABUNDANT MOISTURE WILL STREAM NORTH FROM THE GULF OF MEXICO TONIGHT AND SUNDAY...UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF A STRONG UPPER LEVEL JET STREAM. SURFACE LOW PRESSURE WILL MOVE NORTHEAST FROM THE GULF COAST TO THE GEORGIA COASTAL WATERS BY SUNDAY. THESE WEATHER FEATURES WILL COMBINE WITH THE UNSEASONABLY COLD AIRMASS CURRENTLY IN PLACE TO CAUSE SNOW TO FALL TONIGHT AND SUNDAY. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR THE MEDIA FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS WINTER WEATHER SITUATION. GAZ010-017-NCZ051053-058-059-062065-SCZ001003-190321- CORRECTED BUNCOMBE NC-GRAHAM NC-GREENVILLE MOUNTAINS SC-HABERSHAM GA- HAYWOOD NC-HENDERSON NC-MACON NC-NORTHERN JACKSON NC- OCONEE MOUNTAINS SC-PICKENS MOUNTAINS SC-RABUN GA- SOUTHERN JACKSON NC-SWAIN NC-TRANSYLVANIA NC- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...CLAYTON GA...CLARKESVILLE GA... CHEROKEE NC...WAYNESVILLE NC...ASHEVILLE NC...SYLVA NC... FRANKLIN NC...BREVARD NC...HENDERSONVILLE NC 335 PM EST SAT NOV 18 2000 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY THROUGH SUNDAY... SNOW WILL DEVELOP THIS EVENING AND CONTINUE THROUGH SUNDAY...SNOW MAY MIX WITH RAIN AT TIMES IN SOME SOUTHERN VALLEYS. AN INCH OR TWO OF SNOW ACCUMULATION IS POSSIBLE BY DAYBREAK...WITH TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 2 TO 3 INCHES POSSIBLE BY SUNDAY AFTERNOON. The Almighty is gonna get tired of hearing for me as winter progresses."}, {"response": 622, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (21:57)", "body": "NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 959 PM EST SAT NOV 18 2000 ...ACCUMULATING SNOW LIKELY ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS... .UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF A STRONG UPPER LEVEL JET STREAM...ABUNDANT MOISTURE WILL STREAM NORTH FROM THE GULF OF MEXICO OVERNIGHT AND SUNDAY. SURFACE LOW PRESSURE WILL MOVE NORTHEAST FROM THE GULF COAST TO THE GEORGIA COASTAL WATERS BY SUNDAY. THESE WEATHER FEATURES WILL COMBINE WITH THE UNSEASONABLY COLD AIRMASS CURRENTLY IN PLACE TO CAUSE SNOW TO FALL LATE TONIGHT AND SUNDAY. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR YOUR FAVORITE MEDIA OUTLET FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS WINTER WEATHER SITUATION. GAZ010-017-NCZ051053-058-059-062065-SCZ001003-190936- BUNCOMBE NC-GRAHAM NC-GREENVILLE MOUNTAINS SC-HABERSHAM GA- HAYWOOD NC-HENDERSON NC-MACON NC-NORTHERN JACKSON NC- OCONEE MOUNTAINS SC-PICKENS MOUNTAINS SC-RABUN GA- SOUTHERN JACKSON NC-SWAIN NC-TRANSYLVANIA NC- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...CLAYTON GA...CLARKESVILLE GA... CHEROKEE NC...WAYNESVILLE NC...ASHEVILLE NC...SYLVA NC... FRANKLIN NC...BREVARD NC...HENDERSONVILLE NC 959 PM EST SAT NOV 18 2000 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY THROUGH SUNDAY... SNOW WILL DEVELOP LATE TONIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGH SUNDAY...SNOW MAY MIX WITH RAIN AT TIMES IN SOME SOUTHERN VALLEYS. AN INCH OF SNOW ACCUMULATION IS POSSIBLE BY DAYBREAK...WITH TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 2 TO 3 INCHES POSSIBLE BY SUNDAY AFTERNOON."}, {"response": 623, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 19, 2000 (11:08)", "body": ""}, {"response": 624, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 22, 2000 (21:08)", "body": "NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 354 PM CST WED NOV 22 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WATCH EFFECTIVE FOR THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND THURSDAY EVENING FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS GONZALES... BASTROP ...TRAVIS...HAYS...LAVACA...DEWITT... WILLIAMSON...LEE...CALDWELL AND FAYETTE A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT FLASH FLOODING IS POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA. PEOPLE IN THE WATCH AREA ARE ADVISED TO CHECK PREPAREDNESS REQUIREMENTS...KEEP INFORMED...AND BE READY FOR QUICK ACTION IF FLASH FLOODING THREATENS. A STRONG UPPER LEVEL WEATHER SYSTEM WILL INTERACT WITH A DEVELOPING SURFACE LOW TO TRIGGER SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS DURING THE DAY THURSDAY. A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS WILL LIKELY DEVELOP WHICH COULD PRODUCE RAINFALL RATES OF 1 TO 2 INCHES PER HOUR. WITH SOILS STILL SATURATED FROM PREVIOUS RAINS...THE RAINFALL WILL RUN OFF CAUSING FLOODING OF LOW WATER CROSSINGS AND SMALL STREAMS. THE WEATHER SYSTEM WILL TRACK ACROSS DURING THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING. WINDY CONDITIONS WILL FOLLOW THE PASSAGE OF A COLD FRONT THURSDAY NIGHT. LIGHT RAIN AND CONTINUE BREEZY WEATHER ARE IN STORE FOR FRIDAY."}, {"response": 625, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 23, 2000 (12:31)", "body": "Despite the threat of floods, Happy Thanksgiving to Austin... FLASH FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 358 AM CST THU NOV 23 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WATCH THROUGH TONIGHT FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES: IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS COMAL...GONZALES...WILSON...BASTROP...TRAVIS...BEXAR... HAYS...LAVACA...DEWITT...WILLIAMSON...ATASCOSA...LEE... GUADALUPE...CALDWELL...FAYETTE AND KARNES THE WATCH COVERS THE EASTERN PORTIONS OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS ALONG AND EAST OF INTERSTATE 35...THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF AUSTIN...SAN ANTONIO AND LA GRANGE. LIGHT RAIN WILL CONTINUE FOR SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS WITH A FEW THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING THIS AFTERNOON. A STRONG UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS TEXAS LATER TODAY...TRIGGERING THUNDERSTORMS AND HEAVY RAIN TONIGHT. RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE WITH ISOLATED AMOUNTS UP TO 4 INCHES IN STRONGER STORMS."}, {"response": 626, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 23, 2000 (21:53)", "body": "...TORNADO WARNING FOR DIMMIT AND ZAVALA COUNTIES EXPIRED AT 930 PM CST... ...TORNADO WATCH UNTIL 1 AM CST FRIDAY FOR PARTS CENTRAL TEXAS AND EAST PART OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS... ...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR FRIO COUNTY UNTIL 10 PM... ...FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR TRAVIS...WILLIAMSON...BASTROP... CALDWELL AND GUADALUPE COUNTIES UNTIL MIDNIGHT... ...FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR HAYS...COMAL...BEXAR AND MEDINA COUNTIES UNTIL 1130 PM... TORNADO WARNING FOR DIMMIT AND ZAVALA COUNTIES HAS EXPIRED. A FLASH FLOOD WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR TRAVIS...WILLIAMSON... BASTROP ...CALDWELL...GUADALUPE...HAYS...COMAL...BEXAR AND MEDINA COUNTIES. IN THESE COUNTIES...HEAVY RAIN...SOME HAIL...GUSTY WINDS AND DEADLY LIGHTNING THE NEXT FEW HOURS WILL CAUSE SOME FLOODING AT LOW WATER CROSSINGS. A TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 AM CST FOR LLANO...BURNET... WILLIAMSON...LEE...GILLESPIE...BLANCO...KENDALL...TRAVIS... BASTROP... FAYETTE...COMAL...HAYS...GUADALUPE...CALDWELL...GONZALES... AND LAVACA COUNTIES. THIS INCLUDES THE AUSTIN METRO AREA. OCCASIONAL RAIN WITH SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS THE NEXT FEW HOURS OVER PARTS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS...PLUS THE HILL COUNTRY THE NEXT FEW HOURS. SOME OF THE THUNDERSTORMS COULD BECOME SEVERE...AND ISOLATED TORNADOES COULD FORM. STRONG GUSTY WINDS...FREQUENT DEADLY LIGHTNING...SOME HAIL AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN ARE POSSIBLE WITH THE STRONGER STORMS. SOME FLOODING AT LOW WATER CROSSINGS OR OTHER LOW LYING AREAS IS POSSIBLE WHERE LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN FALLS. A FLASH FLOOD WATCH CONTINUES THROUGH TONIGHT OVER SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS ALONG AND EAST OF I35. ON FRIDAY...A WINDY DAY IS EXPECTED...WITH DAYTIME HIGHS IN THE 60S AND NORTHWEST WINDS 20 TO 30 MPH...DIMINISHING LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON TO FRIDAY EVENING."}, {"response": 627, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (16:28)", "body": "BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED FLASH FLOOD WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 925 PM CST THU NOV 23 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A * FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR... BASTROP COUNTY (Terry and Geo's instigator are both in Bastrop county) TRAVIS COUNTY WILLIAMSON COUNTY GUADALUPE COUNTY CALDWELL COUNTY * UNTIL 1200 AM CST * AT 925 PM CST...WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICTED BANDS OF STRONG THUNDERSTORMS FROM LAGO VISTA TO GEORGETOWN AND FROM SEGUIN TO NEAR BASTROP MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH. SOME THUNDERSTORMS WERE PRODUCING HOURLY RAINFALL RATES OF 1 TO 2 INCHES PER HOUR. THESE RAINS WILL PRODUCE FLOODING OF URBAN AREAS...LOW WATER CROSSINGS AND SMALL STREAMS. DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE ROADWAY. THE WATER DEPTH MAY BE TOO GREAT TO ALLOW YOUR CAR TO CROSS SAFELY. VEHICLES CAUGHT IN RISING WATER SHOULD BE ABANDONED QUICKLY. MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND. LAT...LON 2962 9814 2957 9783 3008 9730 3067 9744 3083 9785 3033 9798 2998 9768"}, {"response": 628, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Nov 28, 2000 (08:31)", "body": "Wow, and it's such a nice pleasant day today. That front's done gone I think."}, {"response": 629, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 28, 2000 (23:38)", "body": "Thank goodness! It has been a pretty bad couple of weeks for you guys!!! Thanks for checking in!"}, {"response": 630, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 11, 2000 (17:18)", "body": "well, parts of texas, arkansas, louisiana, and oklahoma are in for some nasty weather. we're currently under a winter storm watch and the temp here has dropped 20 degrees since i went to work this morning! (it's 40)"}, {"response": 631, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 11, 2000 (17:34)", "body": "Hmmmmmm... wonder why my weather alerts are not arriving? Bad weather??? Take care you guys!!!"}, {"response": 632, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Dec 11, 2000 (18:13)", "body": "we're currently under a winter storm watch Ha! We've been in the winter storm all day and it doesn't show any signs of easing up. How many times can one shovel in a given day? :-("}, {"response": 633, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (09:49)", "body": "our ice and snow is supposed to arrive late this afternoon and tonight...."}, {"response": 634, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (10:36)", "body": "We're waiting for a big ice storm, I'm going to check the http://www.kvue.com site for Doppler radar to see when it will hit. I just bought 20 gallons of reserve spring water, just in case the well goes out due to power outages."}, {"response": 635, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "thankfully our power lines are buried! but, we have lost power before. it's early for us to have weather like this!! thanks for the link to doppler radar."}, {"response": 636, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (11:15)", "body": "The ice storm is subsiding, at least for now, but the branches are hanging low around Austin."}, {"response": 637, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (14:27)", "body": "yeah, we were sent home from work. lots and lots of tree limbs down and now the sun is coming out. but, a low of 28 overnight so those roads are gonna freeze. be careful out there, esp. those not used to this type of weather!!"}, {"response": 638, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (14:40)", "body": "It's bright and sunny outside now! What a change."}, {"response": 639, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 17, 2000 (03:46)", "body": "Happy me and envious, too. Sam old same old here. Looks and feels like June!"}, {"response": 640, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 23, 2000 (17:30)", "body": "Anyone want to help me flock the lawn???"}, {"response": 641, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (05:38)", "body": "You're doing this?"}, {"response": 642, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (16:50)", "body": "No, I didn't but had flapole garlanded illuminated with tiny lights!!! URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 423 PM CST TUE DEC 26 2000 BANDERA-BASTROP-BEXAR-BLANCO-BURNET-CALDWELL-COMAL-EDWARDS-GILLESPIE- GUADALUPE-HAYS-KENDALL-KERR-KINNEY-LEE-LLANO-MEDINA-REAL-TRAVIS- UVALDE-VAL VERDE-WILLIAMSON- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...AUSTIN...BANDERA...BASTROP...BOERNE... BRACKETTVILLE...BURNET...DEL RIO...FREDERICKSBURG...GEORGETOWN... GIDDINGS...HONDO...JOHNSON CITY...KERRVILLE...LEAKEY...LLANO... LOCKHART...NEW BRAUNFELS...ROCKSPRINGS...SAN ANTONIO...SAN MARCOS... SEGUIN...UVALDE ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY HILL COUNTRY AND ADJACENT AREAS OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY AND ADJACENT AREAS OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS FOR TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY. THE ADVISORY AREA IS ALONG AND NORTHWEST OF A DEL RIO TO SAN ANTONIO TO GIDDINGS LINE. A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THE POTENTIAL EXISTS FOR LIGHT WINTER-TYPE PRECIPITATION TO OCCUR. IN THIS INSTANCE...THE BEST CHANCE IS FOR A MIX OF LIGHT FREEZING RAIN...SLEET AND SNOW TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY. PERSONS IN THE ADVISORY AREA SHOULD CHECK PREPAREDNESS REQUIREMENTS AT ONCE...REMAIN INFORMED OF THE LATEST WEATHER FORECAST AND ADVISORY...AND BE PREPARED TO SAFEGUARD LIFE AND PROPERTY IF WINTER WEATHER IS OBSERVED. NOW IS THE TIME FOR ADVANCE PLANNING...TONIGHT OR WEDNESDAY COULD BE TOO LATE. COLD ARCTIC AIR CONTINUES TO INFILTRATE SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS AND THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY AS SURFACE LOW PRESSURE MOVES INTO THE UPPER TEXAS COAST. MUCH OF THE AVAILABLE MOISTURE HAS MOVED EAST OF THE AREA IN ADVANCE OF THE SURFACE LOW. HOWEVER...SOME MOISTURE REMAINS. THE COLD AIR AND REMAINING MOISTURE WILL COMBINE WITH AN UPPER-LEVEL LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM TO PRODUCE A MIX OF LIGHT RAIN...FREEZING RAIN... SLEET AND SLOW. MINOR ACCUMULATIONS OF ICE AND SNOW ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE HILL COUNTRY AND ADJACENT AREAS OF SOUTH CENTRAL TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY. THE ICE AND SNOW WILL ACCUMULATE MAINLY ON EXPOSED SURFACES SUCH AS TREES AND POWER LINES...AND BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT...CITY AND COUNTY OFFICIALS SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BULLETINS...OR CONTACT THE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION CONCERNING YOUR LOCALE. WEATHER INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ON A CONTINUOUS BASIS BY TUNING TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO TRANSMITTING ON FREQUENCIES RANGING BETWEEN 162.400 AND 162.550 MHZ. THE INTERNET ADDRESS FOR TEXAS WEATHER SERVICE OFFICES IS HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV . TEXAS ROAD INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE AT 1-800-452-9292. WEATHER INFORMATION IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS MAY BE OBTAINED BY DIALING 830-609-2029 OR 830- 606-3617."}, {"response": 643, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (22:08)", "body": "URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE...UPDATE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 945 PM CST TUE DEC 26 2000 BANDERA-BASTROP-BEXAR-BLANCO-BURNET-CALDWELL-COMAL-EDWARDS-GILLESPIE- GUADALUPE-HAYS-KENDALL-KERR-KINNEY-LEE-LLANO-MEDINA-REAL-TRAVIS- UVALDE-VAL VERDE-WILLIAMSON- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...AUSTIN...BANDERA...BASTROP...BOERNE... BRACKETTVILLE...BURNET...DEL RIO...FREDERICKSBURG...GEORGETOWN... GIDDINGS...HONDO...JOHNSON CITY...KERRVILLE...LEAKEY...LLANO... LOCKHART...NEW BRAUNFELS...ROCKSPRINGS...SAN ANTONIO...SAN MARCOS... SEGUIN...UVALDE ...A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY CONTINUES FOR THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY AND ADJACENT AREAS OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY AND INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES...BANDERA...BASTROP...BEXAR... BLANCO...BURNET...CALDWELL...COMAL...EDWARDS...GILLESPIE... GUADALUPE...HAYS...KENDALL...KERR...KINNEY...LEE...LLANO...MEDINA... REAL...TRAVIS...UVALDE...VAL VERDE...WILLIAMSON... A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THE POTENTIAL EXISTS FOR LIGHT WINTER-TYPE PRECIPITATION TO OCCUR. IN THIS INSTANCE...THE BEST CHANCE IS FOR A MIX OF LIGHT FREEZING RAIN...SLEET AND SNOW TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY. DRIVING CONDITIONS ACROSS THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY AND ADJACENT COUNTIES ALONG THE ESCARPMENT ARE DANGEROUS AND TRAVEL IS NOT ADVISED. ACCUMULATION OF SLEET...ICE AND SNOW IS POSSIBLE OVER HILL COUNTRY ROAD TONIGHT AND INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING. COLD ARCTIC AIR CONTINUES TO MOVES INTO AND ACROSS THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY AND SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS AS A SURFACE LOW PRESSURE CENTERED OVER LUBBOCK TEXAS MOVES SLOWLY NORTHEAST. THE COLD ARCTIC AIR MOVING OVER THE REGION WILL INTERACT WITH THE MOISTURE FROM THE GULF TO PRODUCE LIGHT RAIN MIXED WITH FREEZING RAIN...SLEET AND SNOW. PERSONS IN THE ADVISORY AREA SHOULD CHECK WINTER WEATHER PREPAREDNESS REQUIREMENTS. REMAIN INFORMED OF THE LATEST WEATHER FORECAST AND ADVISORY...AND BE PREPARED TO SAFEGUARD LIFE AND PROPERTY. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT...CITY AND COUNTY OFFICIALS SHOULD MONITOR FORECASTS AND BULLETINS. WEATHER INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ON A CONTINUOUS BASIS BY TUNING TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO TRANSMITTING ON FREQUENCIES RANGING BETWEEN 162.400 AND 162.550 MHZ. THE INTERNET ADDRESS FOR TEXAS WEATHER SERVICE OFFICES IS HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV . TEXAS ROAD INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE AT 1-800-452-9292. WEATHER INFORMATION IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS MAY BE OBTAINED BY DIALING 830-609-2029 OR 830- 606-3617. ADVERSE WINTER WEATHER EXTENDS INTO NORTH AND WEST TEXAS. MOTORISTS AND TRAVELERS SHOULD CHECK WEATHER AND ROAD CONDITIONS PRIOR TO DEPARTURE INTO THESE AREAS OF THE STATE. TRAVEL AND HIGHWAY CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BE HAZARDOUS DUE TO ICE AND SNOW ACCUMULATION. IN ADDITION...AIRLINE TRAVEL MAY BE DELAYED OR INTERRUPTED AT SOME AIR TERMINALS AND MAJOR HUBS...SO BE SURE TO CHECK BEFOREHAND WITH YOUR AIRLINE OR TRAVEL AGENT. ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS OR BULLETINS WILL BE ISSUED PERIODICALLY TO KEEP YOU UPDATED ON THE VERY LATEST WEATHER INFORMATION. THIS INFORMATION WILL BE BROADCAST OVER LOCAL RADIO...TV...CABLE TV STATIONS AND NOAA WEATHER RADIO. LISTEN FOR THESE BROADCASTS...AND HEED THEIR ADVICE!"}, {"response": 644, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (04:08)", "body": "Yep, I went to the hockey game last night (Ice Bats won) and saw impending signs of a freeze on the roads as I traversed the back roads to Cedar Creek from the Expo Center. It will be interesting to see what the roads are like in the morning."}, {"response": 645, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (14:11)", "body": "Ice Bats?!!! URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 445 AM CST WED DEC 27 2000 BANDERA-BASTROP-BEXAR-BLANCO-BURNET-CALDWELL-COMAL-EDWARDS-GILLESPIE- GUADALUPE-HAYS-KENDALL-KERR-KINNEY-LEE-LLANO-MEDINA-REAL-TRAVIS- UVALDE-VAL VERDE-WILLIAMSON- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...AUSTIN...BANDERA...BASTROP...BOERNE... BRACKETTVILLE...BURNET...DEL RIO...FREDERICKSBURG...GEORGETOWN... GIDDINGS...HONDO...JOHNSON CITY...KERRVILLE...LEAKEY...LLANO... LOCKHART...NEW BRAUNFELS...ROCKSPRINGS...SAN ANTONIO...SAN MARCOS... SEGUIN...UVALDE ...A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY CONTINUES FOR THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY AND ADJACENT AREAS OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS TODAY... A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY CONTINUES TODAY FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES...BANDERA...BASTROP...BEXAR...BLANCO...BURNET...CALDWELL... COMAL...EDWARDS...GILLESPIE...GUADALUPE...HAYS...KENDALL...KERR... KINNEY...LEE...LLANO...MEDINA...REAL...TRAVIS...UVALDE... VAL VERDE...AND WILLIAMSON. A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THE POTENTIAL EXISTS FOR LIGHT WINTER-TYPE PRECIPITATION TO OCCUR IN THE COLD WEATHER TODAY. IN THIS INSTANCE...THE BEST CHANCE IS FOR A MIX OF RAIN OR LIGHT FREEZING RAIN WITH SLEET AND SNOW FOR TODAY. IN ADDITION...DAYTIME HIGHS WILL BE IN THE 30S ACROSS THE HILL COUNTRY TO 40S OVER THE WARMEST PARTS OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS...SOME 20 TO 25 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. FINALLY...COLD NORTHWEST WIND AT 10 TO 20 MPH TODAY WILL KEEP THE WIND CHILL INDEX BETWEEN 5 AND 30. AS A RESULT... A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY WILL CONTINUE TODAY. DRIVING CONDITIONS ACROSS THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY AND ADJACENT COUNTIES ALONG THE ESCARPMENT COULD POSSIBLY BECOME DANGEROUS. TRAVEL WILL BE MORE HAZARDOUS THAN USUAL. PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED TO BE MOSTLY LIGHT. A MIX OF SLEET...FREEZING RAIN AND SNOW IS POSSIBLE OVER NORTHERN PARTS OF THE ADVISORY AREA...WHILE MOSTLY A MIX OF RAIN OR FREEZING RAIN WITH SLEET AND A FEW SNOW FLURRIES...IS POSSIBLE OVER THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE ADVISORY AREA. MAINLY ALONG AND NORTH OF A LINE FROM JUST NORTH OF DEL RIO TO JUST NORTH OF SAN ANTONIO TO NEAR THE AUSTIN AREA TO TAYLOR IN WILLIAMSON COUNTY...LIGHT ACCUMULATIONS OF SLEET...ICE AND SNOW COULD FORM ON ELEVATED ROADS...BRIDGES AND OVERPASSESES...WHERE TEMPERATURES BE BELOW FREEZING PART OF THIS MORNING. FROM DEL RIO TO SAN ANTONIO TO BASTROP AND GIDDINGS IN LEE COUNTRY...PATCHY ACCUMULATIONS OF SLEET OR FREEZING RAIN...MIXED WITH RAIN...COULD FORM ON BRIDGES...OVERPASSES AND EXPOSED OBJECTS. TEMPERATURES WILL FALL CLOSE TO OR REMAIN SLIGHTLY ABOVE FREEZING...THEN RISE SLIGHTLY LATER THIS MORNING. TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO RISE ABOVE FREEZING OVER NORTHERN PARTS OF THE ADVISORY AREA BY LATE MORNING TO NOON. OVER SOUTHERN PARTS OF THE ADVISORY AREA...TEMPERATURES WILL BE NEAR TO SLIGTLY ABOVE FREEZING...THEN RISE BY LATE MORNING. DRIER CONDITIONS WILL SWEEP THROUGH THE ADVISORY AREA LATER TODAY AND TONIGHT...DIMINISHING AND FINALLY ENDING THE CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION. OVERNIGHT LOWS ARE EXPECTED NEAR TO BELOW FREEZING TONIGHT...THEN RISING TO MOSTLY 50S THURSDAY...UNDER SUNNY SKIES."}, {"response": 646, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (14:13)", "body": "945 AM CST WED DEC 27 2000 ...THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY ISSUED FOR THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY AND ADJACENT AREAS OF SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS IS CANCELLED... VERY LITTLE PRECIPITATION IS CURRENTLY BEING REPORTED ACROSS THE HILL COUNTRY AND SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS. AN UPPER LOW CURRENTLY OVER WESTERN TEXAS WILL PRODUCE A FEW RAIN...SLEET OR SNOW SHOWERS ACROSS THE AREA AS IT MOVES THROUGH TEXAS THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. HOWEVER...AMOUNTS WILL BE VERY LIGHT AND NOT CAUSE ANY PROBLEMS ACROSS THE AREA."}, {"response": 647, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 28, 2000 (23:24)", "body": "More Travel Chaos Expected As UK Freeze Goes On Thursday, Dec. 28, 2000 LONDON (Reuters) - Bitterly cold and icy weather is expected to cause more travel chaos on Friday as Britain endures its worst winter for six years. Police and motoring organizations told Britons to stay at home unless their travel was necessary. They warned that driving conditions would remain treacherous with black ice on many roads after overnight temperatures plummeted to minus 14F. The Meteorological Office said the arctic conditions would continue throughout Friday, with the maximum temperature expected to be just 2C 36F. A spokesman for AA Roadwatch said its message to drivers had been \"try and enjoy the rest of Christmas and don't go out unless it's absolutely necessary.\" Heavy snowfall of up to 6 inches fell across most of the UK on Thursday causing severe disruption to air travel with flights in and out of many airports canceled. The Met Office said it was the most widespread snowfall to hit the country since February 1994. More snow showers are forecast for coastal regions on Friday with another very cold night in store and a severe frost in places. The freezing weather was set to continue over the weekend, the Met Office said."}, {"response": 648, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Dec 29, 2000 (10:35)", "body": "I wonder if Mike is in the UK or US? (Mike Griggs). Who else on Spring is in the UK? I wonder how Aishling Hall and Ann Whittle are doing? I hope they're ok!"}, {"response": 649, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Dec 31, 2000 (19:41)", "body": "And it's New Year's Eve and NW Louisiana has snow!!"}, {"response": 650, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Jan  1, 2001 (03:51)", "body": "I heard that on the way home from a New Years eve party. My friend Mickey said he wished he were in Shreveport."}, {"response": 651, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  1, 2001 (12:17)", "body": "we got about 2 inches. the roads are pretty good now but earlier today, it was rather slick out. we usually don't get snow until late jan/feb!"}, {"response": 652, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  1, 2001 (17:22)", "body": "Shreveport' sgame was amazing. Wish I could have made snow angels all over the field. Talk about a boring half time show... It was lovely to watch, but I was rooting for the team who almost won...*sigh*"}, {"response": 653, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (18:04)", "body": "Sorry that your team didn't win, Marcia. Too bad the half time show didn't feature people making snow angels on the field. On the subject of college football, I'm sorry that Penn State had such a dismal season. Maybe next year, Marcia?"}, {"response": 654, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (22:53)", "body": "Thanks! Yup! Wait'll next year, as they say!!! I like that idea for half time - would have been seasonal and pretty, too!"}, {"response": 655, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (17:13)", "body": "In front of a Chinese restaurant just outside of Pittsburgh some of the employees made snow pandas, instead of snowmen. They even colored some of the snow black so that the life-size giant pandas looked very life-like. People would stop and take pictures of, or have their pictures taken with the snow pandas, while they lasted."}, {"response": 656, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (13:38)", "body": "How cute!!! I love that idea! Next snowfall we get I'm gonna do that, too!"}, {"response": 657, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (15:10)", "body": "California where there is now power and plenty of cold: LOCAL STORM REPORT...ADDITIONAL REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY - HANFORD CA 1030 AM PST THU JAN 11 2001 TIME(PST) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS... ....COUNTY LOCATION.... 0700 AM AGNEW PASS 9450' CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 MARIPOSA 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 39 INCHES 0700 AM MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 MADERA 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 30-36 INCHES 0700 AM UPPER BURNT CORRAL 9700' CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 MADERA 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 33 INCHES 0700 AM OSTRANDER LAKE 8200' CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 MARIPOSA 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 20 INCHES 0700 AM HUME LAKE CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 FRESNO 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 17 INCHES 0700 AM GIN FLAT 7050' CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 MARIPOSA 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 16 INCHES 0700 AM TUOLUMNE MEADOWS CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 YOSEMITE NAT'L PARK 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 22 INCHES 0700 AM BIG MEADOWS 7600' CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 TULARE 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 22 INCHES 0700 AM TUNNEL GUARD STATION 8950' CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 TULARE 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 20 INCHES 0700 AM CHAGOOPA PLATEAU 10300' CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 TULARE 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 20 INCHES 0700 AM MITCHELL MEADOW 10375' CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 TULARE 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 20 INCHES 0700 AM BENCH MEADOWS 7650' CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 TULARE 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 17 INCHES 0700 AM QUAKING ASPEN 7200' CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 TULARE 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 12 INCHES 0700 AM FISH CAMP CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 MARIPOSA 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 12 INCHES 0800 AM TEHACHAPI CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 KERN 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 6 INCHES 0900 AM FRAZIER PARK CA HEAVY SNOW 01/11/01 KERN 24 HOUR TOTAL OF 9 INCHES Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 15, "subject": "Geosites for Kids: Resources with Children in Mind.", "response_count": 129, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (16:21)", "body": "this is a great idea!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (16:28)", "body": "she's been having several of those lately..."}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (19:33)", "body": "i know, go marcia, go!! or should i say geaux?"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (20:56)", "body": "Now I gotta get to work and post the stuff I promised. Thanks, guys!!!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 16, 1999 (14:08)", "body": "Since this is a place for Resources on the Net, let's begin with URLs which are the most coverage of all facets of Earth Sciences and plenty of great hot links. http://kidscience.tqn.com/msub13.htm This one is terrific, with both kids, parents and teachers in mind. Loads of great links http://members.accessus.net/~5phlps/rel_pgs.htm Another all-purpose site with many categories and links. http://www.lighthouse.chtr.k12.ma.us/resource/science.htm And the best kiddies nature webring http://nav.webring.com/cgi-bin/navcgi?ring=natureswonders;list"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 16, 1999 (19:07)", "body": "This is Science for Kids - wide spectrum of interest http://vyne.nmhu.edu/outreach/kids/science.htm Lawrence-Livermore's Fun Science For Kids - loads of links for things to do from a most prestigious institution http://www.llnl.gov/llnl/03education/science-list.html Learning Kids Interactive - experiments you can try at home - this is really interesting and fun but you should do these with your children! http://www.learningkids.com/experiment.html Science for Kids with help for their parents. All sorts of interesting things. http://waterw.com/~science/index.html"}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 17, 1999 (09:38)", "body": "you've been busy!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 17, 1999 (10:29)", "body": "Keeps me out of trouble =) Thanks for noticing!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (13:38)", "body": "Plate Techtonics for kids K-12 from the USGS. Excellent graphics. http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/dynamic.html"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (17:02)", "body": "Now that weather is in the news and surrounding each of us, the kids might like this page with lots of fun things to do and read about. Parents, too! http://bookend.met.psu.edu/~kathy/kids/kidzweather.htm"}, {"response": 11, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (13:19)", "body": "and don't forget FEMA for kids... http://www.fema.gov/kids/"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (13:38)", "body": "Excellent! Thank you for posting that. I am wondering if I should also post the kids resources on the topics to which they are related...Opinion?"}, {"response": 13, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (18:17)", "body": "go for it!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 1999 (18:28)", "body": "Thanks Wolfie dear. Have done so in Weather...working on others. Good stuff out there for kiddies and their parents (or I would not put it in here!)"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 13, 1999 (14:08)", "body": "Here is an excellent source of information for teachers (which also means parents) This particular issue is about Natural Disasters and overcoming science myths (that is what they said!) http://www.earthsky.com/Teachers/Booklet/natural_disasters.html"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 28, 1999 (23:06)", "body": "This web site has Virtual trips through Hawaii and satellite images and all kinds of links for Hawaii locations. http://www.satlab.hawaii.edu/space/hawaii/"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 28, 1999 (23:34)", "body": "Discovery channel has wonderful earth-aware links and images and cams: http://www.discovery.com/cams/hurricane/hurricane.html http://www.discovery.com/news/earthalert/990823/earthalert.html"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (17:38)", "body": "WORLD HERITAGE SITES IN THE US - LINKS WITH THE PAST with maps and links to sites world wide: http://www.cr.nps.gov/worldheritage/"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:57)", "body": "This is the World Heritage website for kids - Our links with the Past. Lost of good things to do and places to go: http://www.unesco.org/whc/nwhc/pages/kids/main.htm"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:58)", "body": "That should read - \"Lots of good things to do and Places to Go\""}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (21:22)", "body": "A particularly comprehensive site for Volcanoes which includes a kid's site, \"ask a volcanologist\" site and lots of other links plus a search capability: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (15:47)", "body": "This is NASA's kid site. They are talking about Alien Volcanoes, which is what I am doing right now in Geo 24. It is called Thursday's Classroom: http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com/index_07oct99.html"}, {"response": 23, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (16:24)", "body": "What's an example of a live volcano on another planet?"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (17:07)", "body": "Olympus Mons on Mars is 10 miles high! (The largest known volcano anywhere) Io is erupting (a moon of Jupiter) Triton is also active (Neptune's largest moon) All of these can be checked at http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com/07oct99/alienvolcanoes.html"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (20:29)", "body": "Almost every planet/moon/asteroid is or has been volcanic sometime in its past. A few are due to accretion or solid pieces slamming into each other with enough force to cold-weld them together. Many dead volcanoes in the solar system - including our very own moon."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (14:00)", "body": ""}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (22:56)", "body": "The caption for the above image: These views of Jupiter's moon Io in the eclipse of the large planet's shadow are color coded so blue to yellow to red represents increasing brightness. The bright spots indicate the locations of volcanic vents on Io, which are spewing hot lava. This image and other data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft indicate that the lava at Pillan Patera (marked Pillan) exceeded 1,700 degrees kelvin (2,600 degrees Fahrenheit) and may have reached 2,000 degrees kelvin (3,140 degrees Fahrenheit). The hottest eruptions on Earth today reach temperatures of about 1,500 kelvin (2,240 degrees Fahrenheit), but hotter lava erupted billions of years ago. The left and middle parts of this picture show a \"raw\" image presented without processing other than color coding and labeling. Small, bright pixels and clusters of pixels represent radiation interference. The bright vertical lines are column blemishes in the imaging detector (CCD). An image of Io was acquired through both a 1- micrometer filter (left) and clear filter on the Galileo solid state imaging camera system. Both images were exposed on the same frame; however, during the left exposure, the spacecraft platform moved, causing the exposure to slide toward the clear filter position. The middle view disc combines the two exposures. The brightest hot spot at Pillan Patera was saturated in both filters, but the platform motion resulted in a horizontal line between the Pillan positions. The unsaturated line allows measurement of Pillan's temperature. For further information, see a report in Science magazine, Vol. 281, July 3, 1998, page 87. The third view (right) is the processed clear filter data. Diffuse glows, produced by energized particles interacting with gases, highlight both the rim of Io's disc and active plumes such as Marduk. North is to the top of the picture. The resolution is 14.6 kilometers (9 miles) per picture element (pixel), but camera motion smeared the hot spots over about nine pixels. They appear bigger than they really are; modeling indicates the actual hot spots are much smaller than the pixels. The image was taken on June 28, 1997 at a range of 1,440, 000 kilometers (890,000 miles). JPL manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  1, 1999 (21:47)", "body": "For those who might not have seen this most valuable resource, Let me tell you about Project Gutenberg whose aim is to make all books in the public domain available to anyone with internet access and a modem. You simply access the files and ftp them to your hard drive. Any book! The project in ongoingm but many books are now available. Check it out: http://promo.net/pg"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (13:15)", "body": "Friday, December 3 NASA and its various websites listed below will carry live from Mars the Polar Lander beamed to Earth from 157 million miles away. The sites will contain weather reports, science data, first sound clips ever beamed to Earth from \"out there\" and lots of pictures. Main Mars site will post the latest pictures and updates throughout the 90-day mission: www.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98 JPL's main page has links to the latest Mars project as well as to probes sent to other planets over the last 20 years: www.jpl.nasa.gov JPL's Mars Educational site which includes activites for children and teachers: marsnt3.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.html UCLA, where the primary science team is based, offers a site focusing on the experiments aboard the Mars Volitiles and Climate Surveyor payload. mars.ucla.edu"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (13:21)", "body": ""}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (13:23)", "body": "Ok, that was a transcription from a newsapaper article. Let me put them in clickable links: Main Mars Site : http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98 JPL's main page : http://www.jpl.nasa.gov JPL's Educational Site: http://marsnt3.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.html UCLA's site: http://mars.ucla.edu"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (13:36)", "body": "The first link (jpl.nasa.gov/msp98) does not work...try http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98 or http://marslander.jpl.nasa.gov"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 1999 (16:37)", "body": "If anyone else has experienced the frustration of not getting into the JPL site that I have, this may be the reason: 1999-12-02 9,229,982 hits"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (19:23)", "body": "The Space Shuttle is up and orbiting every 90 minutes around the Earth. Check on its visibility from your house (I've seen it many times from the ground in Hilo) http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/temp/ShuttleLoc.html"}, {"response": 35, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 1999 (08:54)", "body": "NASA needs some successes, they've really taken a hit lately."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 1999 (11:06)", "body": "Oh boy, have they. Or is it JPL which has been the problem. They seem to be powers above much government scrutiny, so I hope someone tries to figure out what went wrong - like the last one: mixed signals due to using both the English and the metric system at the same time. And, we were led to believe Rocket Scientists were smarter than the rest of us...Ah well, they are also human."}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 1999 (11:08)", "body": "You can watch the Bhuttle capture and repair the Hubble telescope beginning about 8pm Austin time this evening. Same url as above. It was fascinating last time. I expect the same again, and the conversations between the astronauts and ground support are always fascinating."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 1999 (11:11)", "body": "You can watch the Shuttle...on Nasa TV http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/video45m.html"}, {"response": 39, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 22, 1999 (09:58)", "body": "A Bhuttle? Is that like a Buttum? I hope they get the Hubble working again, NASA so desperately needs a win right now."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 22, 1999 (13:22)", "body": "Oh Dear (hiding under my keyboard)... I think both of those terms are technical thingies NASA makes my fingers type so I do not divulge secrets they do not wish to get out. Hubble is tethered and they are busy working on their EVA. I truly hope it is fixable, and I think it is. They just have to replace three of the gyro systems which failed. It is a simple open the hatch, unbolt the old one, bolt in the new one and secure the hatch again x three (or was it four?!)"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 22, 1999 (23:39)", "body": "about time I closed this shouting HTML tag"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 24, 1999 (18:30)", "body": "Send Page Friday - 18:54 12/24/99, Spacemen Deliver Christmas Gifts to Hubble CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Space-walking astronauts spent Christmas Eve delivering the last of a long list of gifts to the Hubble Space Telescope from admiring scientists and engineers on Earth. Steve Smith and John Grunsfeld left the space shuttle Discovery's air lock on Friday for the third of three space walks set for the mission, which found the Hubble stranded and disabled in space but has restored it to its status as the finest observatory ever built. ``Ah, John, another beautiful day outside,'' Smith called back to Grunsfeld as he entered the shuttle's cargo bay, where the four-story Hubble was latched to a service platform. ``Look at that Earth.'' The two astronauts were working to replace a broken radio transmitter on the Hubble and install a solid state recorder in place of the telescope's older reel-to-reel model. On Wednesday, the same astronauts replaced six navigational gyroscopes, four of which were broken and had left the 12.5 ton observatory out of service since mid-November. Astronauts Michael Foale and Claude Nicollier on Thursday installed a new central computer and a refurbished guidance sensor. The crew was scheduled to return Hubble to its own orbit on Saturday, Christmas Day. Discovery and the seven-astronaut crew are scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday. So far, all the new equipment aboard the $3 billion Hubble has performed flawlessly. This rescue mission has ended the year on a hopeful note for NASA, which otherwise has struggled through a year of disappointments. Two Mars probes were lost once they entered the Martian atmosphere, and only three shuttle missions managed to launch, one of them limping to orbit after short circuits hit two on-board computers. The Hubble's failure was a particular concern. The space agency quickly assembled the crew and patched together a mission plan as the telescope reached the brink of failure in February. Discovery's launch, first scheduled for October, was delayed nine times by mishaps, breakdowns and bad weather, and mission managers worried they might lose the Hubble if the mission slipped into next year. Halfway through its 20-year life expectancy, the Hubble has helped to rewrite the book on the age and size of the universe with the 259,000 images it has transmitted back to Earth. Its pictures also have added valuable knowledge on planetary formation and the long-term effects of comet collisions on planets. With the repairs completed, senior Hubble scientist Dave Leckrone said the best days are still ahead for the telescope. ``I predict within the next few years that Hubble will lead the way in giving us the first really clear understanding (of how) planets are formed,'' Leckrone said. ``I think there are going to be some interesting surprises.''"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 14, 2000 (16:35)", "body": "The next total lunar eclipse is coming on January 21, 2000 a Lunar Calculator is located on the site so you can calculate when and how to see it: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html"}, {"response": 44, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan 14, 2000 (16:45)", "body": "it will appear on 20 Jan at around 2204 in my area. lasts a long time too."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 14, 2000 (16:53)", "body": "I usually put an old carpet runner I save for stuff like this and lie on the driveway and just watch. I can remember one year it was so orange that it appeared 3-D and suspended like a true sphere somewhere between the stars and me. It was incredible and I can still see it in the back of my mind."}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (16:11)", "body": "For Thursday's Total Lunar Eclipse there are wonderful informative pages Lunar Eclipse Lunar Show-Stopper The sun, as always, maintains its station. The Earth, on its constant orbit around the brightly burning star, swings into position. And the moon slides into place behind the Earth. A lunar eclipse begins. Conditions are right for a lunar eclipse when the sun, Earth and moon align in a straight row. The Earth, situated between the sun and moon, prevents sunlight from reaching the orbiting moon as it moves around the Earth's night side. How It Happens As Earth orbits the sun, it casts a cone-shaped shadow that extends 850,000 miles into space. A lunar eclipse occurs when a full moon passes through this shadow, about 239,000 miles from the Earth. Elements of an Eclipse Umbra: Earth's dark, cone-shaped shadow. At the point where the moon passes through, the umbra's diameter measures 5,700 miles, more than twice the size of the moon. A trip by the entire moon through the umbra causes a total eclipse. If the moon only grazes the umbra, then you'll see just a partial eclipse. Penumbra: A lighter shaded zone on Earth's shadow surrounding the umbra. On occasion, the moon passes through part of the penumbra but not the umbra. When this happens, a pale, fuzzy shadow will cover part of the moon. Why don't lunar eclipses occur every month? The answer is fairly simple. Usually the sun, moon and Earth don't arrange themselves in a straight line. Because the moon's orbit is tilted about 5 degrees in relationship to the Earth's orbit around the sun, the moon usually passes above or below the imaginary line that connects sun and Earth. Because of this, the moon usually does not pass through the Earth's shadow. What It Looks Like Lunar eclipses generally take place twice a year. The duration of a lunar eclipse depends on the distance between the Earth and moon at the time of alignment. A total lunar eclipse usually lasts about an hour. But the moon does not completely disappear. Some filtered sunlight skirts around the Earth's edge and hits the moon. Observers on the night side of Earth see this light turn the faint image of the moon a dark red. The Earth's atmospheric particles, such as volcanic ash or pollutants, can further enhance the blood-red moon effect. Lunar Watch You don't have to worry about eye damage if you want to enjoy a lunar eclipse. Unlike a solar eclipse, which creates thermal energy that can badly burn your eyes and cause permanent damage, a lunar eclipse is safe to view. Sky watchers see lunar eclipses more frequently than they see solar eclipses because a darkened full moon is easily observed from anywhere on the Earth's nighttime half. To see a solar eclipse, you must be in its narrow path, which never covers more than one-half of 1 percent of the Earth's surface. Moon Myths Through the ages, superstitions and myths have fed fears about lunar eclipses. Different cultures have responded in unique and sometimes deadly ways to cope with the disappearance of the moon. Here are some human responses to past lunar eclipses: In biblical times, a lunar eclipse was said to have foretold the death of King Herod, the Roman-backed ruler of Judea. South American Orinoco Indians feared that the moon would disappear for good during an eclipse. In order to save light, they would bury burning sticks. The Incas in Peru believed that the moon could transform a woman's spinning tools into dangerous animals during an eclipse. In late 1503, Christopher Columbus, exploring the world on behalf of Spain, became stranded with his crew on what is now Jamaica. Columbus quickly wore out his welcome with the island's natives, and they refused to supply him with fresh water and food. He told the inhabitants that a powerful god would turn the moon dark red if they did not help him. Columbus knew from his calendar that a lunar eclipse would appear in February 1504. When the eclipse occurred, the natives quickly provided the supplies. A lunar eclipse caused an unnecessary tragedy in 1974. Frightened Cambodian soldiers believed a monkey was eating the moon and fired their guns to scare it away. In the process, they inadvertently shot and killed 16 people. Related Links Editor's note: These links will take you to Web sites with content we do not control or endorse. Total Eclipse http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html Schedule for upcoming solar and lunar eclipses, from Goddard Space Flight Center Eclipse Photography http://www.mreclipse.com/LEgallery/LEgallery.html Lunar eclipse photo gallery, from MrEclipse.com and Goddard Space Flight Center Moon Shot http://www.mreclipse.com/LEgallery/LEphoto.html Tips on how to photograph a lunar eclipse, from MrEclipse.com and Goddard Space Flight Center Between Sun & Moon http://archive.abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/Geek/geek990712.html Brief eclipse explainer, from ABC News Cause & Effect http://www.earthview.com/tutorial/causes.htm How an eclipse takes place, from Earth View Celestia"}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (16:12)", "body": ""}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "(scribbled double posting) Check http://www.tdo.com/ click on the graphic of the eclipse and a window will open with animated eclipses showing how they occur. Fantastic. So are the other links! http://www.mreclipse.com/MrEclipse.html This URL boasts that it is the ultimate eclipse photography source on the web."}, {"response": 49, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:18)", "body": "the www.tdo.com link is cool and very informative....."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (22:14)", "body": "I have the little Flash 4 eclipse animation running around on my desktop. I just love it and wish I could capture it for Geo... Thanks for checking it out!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (01:07)", "body": "Here are some space links I've collected over the past few years. Not all of these links are specifically for kids, but this seems the best place to post this list. http://www.kalmbach.com/astro/astronomy.html ASTRONOMY Magazine http://www.skypub.com SKY Online - Sky Publishing Corp. http://www.starhustler.com Star Gazer (From PBS) http://www.spaceviews.com Online Publication of Space Exploration http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html Espenak's Eclipse Home Page http://umbra.gsfc.nasa.gov Solar Data Analysis Center http://www.solar-eclipse.org Solar Eclipse Org http://www.eclipsechaser.com EclipseChaser http://www.earthview.com Earth View ECLIPSE Network http://www.phy.mtu.edu/apod/astropix.html Astronomy Picture of the Day http://www.astropix.com Astrophotography http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov National Space Science Data Center http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov Mars Exploration Program at JPL http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov Center for Mars Exploration http://www.seds.org Students for the Exploration and Development of Space http://www.planetary.org The Planetary Society http://www.coseti.org Columbus Optical SETI Observatory http://comets.amsmeteors.org Comets and Meteor Showers http://www.amsmeteors.org American Meteor Society http://www.imo.net International Meteor Organization http://web.infoave.net/~meteorobs North American Meteor Network http://www.leonidslive.com Leonids Live! http://www.perseidslive.com Perseids Live! http://leonids.hq.nasa.gov Near-Live Leonid Watching System http://comet.hq.nasa.gov Near-Live Comet Watching System http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov Comet Observation http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/billa/tnp/comets.html Comets http://www.cometwatch.com The Puckett Observatory http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/comet Comet Hale-Bopp (JPL) http://www.halebopp.com Comet Hale-Bopp http://www.atmob.org Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston http://hyperion.haystack.edu MIT Haystack Observatory http://www.hawastsoc.org Hawaiian Astronomical Society http://www.eso.org European Southern Observatory http://www.stsci.edu Space Telescope Science Institute http://www.windows.umich.edu Windows to the Universe http://www.lpl.arizona.edu Lunar and Planetary Laboratory"}, {"response": 52, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (09:06)", "body": "Great stuff Ginny!"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (11:40)", "body": "Thanks for that, Ginny. Terry, woould you believe this is new to me as regards Ginny. We became friends over mutual love of Arthuriana and things Stonehenge. I'm gonna show her around the Spring as soon as get finished in here. I do have been blessed with a most interesting group of friends...this one in Boston!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (11:48)", "body": "Ginny is a many-faceted lady - she qualifies as a cyber-babe in that she is employed by Lucent Technolgy. I think she will find many things of interest at the Spring...even Sports. Bahston does have a few teams which make the newspapers from time to time *grin*"}, {"response": 55, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (17:27)", "body": "Yep, just the Celtics, Red Sox, and Bruins."}, {"response": 56, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (19:57)", "body": "that's some list, ginny!"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (20:47)", "body": "For those who run through other conferences and happen to see linked geosites, check into Geo 24 and see my son's photos of the recent eclipse. They are worth a detour! http://206.97.234.70/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/24.97"}, {"response": 58, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Jan 24, 2000 (14:15)", "body": "Thanks, Marcia! Marcia and David also got me interested in volcanoes. My visit to Hilo and Kilauea volcano is still the most exciting trip I've ever taken. (The solar eclipses were pretty close, but not quite the same as seeing an eruption from 40 feet away.) I found the Arthurian note in the books conference (not to mention some of the other conferences on Spring). Yikes! I can really spend a lot of time here; reminds me of the notes conferences when I worked at Digital."}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 24, 2000 (15:25)", "body": "Hi Ginny! They are already salivating over your Bahstahn connections in the Sports conference. Spend time here? I LIVE here! From 6:30 am till about 8 pm HST I am in here mucking about with some of the most fascinating minds in the entire world. They keep me hopping and making sure I am posting the straight stuff! Volcanoes are on Geo 2. Enjoy! Just wait'll you see my marble wallpaper and neat graphics as well as photographs...as soon as Spring's move is complete... Sorry I noted your employment incorrectly. You ARE still with Lucent Technologies, are you not?!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (09:38)", "body": "Hi Marcia! I do work for Lucent Technologies now. I first worked for Digital (DEC), then a small software company called Gradient Technologies, and now Lucent Technologies. I have to admit I'm not a big sports fan. I used to watch the Red Sox until 1986, and I watched the playoffs last year (different names and faces, but still the same old Red Sox). I did see a couple of Celtics games in the old Garden while Larry Bird and the others were still playing. Can't wait to see what everything looks like when Spring is put together again..."}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (12:23)", "body": "If you go into Geo 14, which is the Weather channel on the Spring, a lot of the graphics are still functioning because they are updating (auto-magically) weather maps of various sorts and of every place I can get them. We have regulars who have bookmarked their regional ones and check almost daily. Good people, those! (I am jumping up and down with joy just knowing you are posting here!)"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (12:26)", "body": "BTW, with those cyber-credentials, Terry just might latch onto you! There are lots of conferences you are gonna relate to here. I am continuously amazed and delighted with the range of topics which interest me - some I never thought I would have considered."}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (18:34)", "body": "THURSDAY'S CLASSROOM for March 9, 2000: Solar Activity Heats Up! This week's episode of Thursday's Classroom focuses on the recent spate of solar activity and what NASA scientists are doing to improve space weather forecasting. In addition to the usual lesson plans and activities for primary school students, the March 9 episode includes six advanced activities for high schoolers. Please visit for details. Thursday's Classroom SPACE WEATHER NEWS : Predicting solar activity can be tricky, but space weather forecasters have found a new way to anticipate the future. A technique called helioseismic holography will allow scientists to see active regions on the far side of our star before they rotate around to face Earth. FULL STORY at SOHO Sees Through the Sun"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (18:44)", "body": "Space Science News for March 10, 2000 NASA's durable Galileo spacecraft is joining forces with Saturn-bound Cassini on a mission to study Jupiter's magnetosphere -- the biggest thing in the solar system. How big is it? If Jupiter's magnetosphere were visible, it would appear to be larger than the Sun or Moon in spite of its great distance from Earth. This story also includes plasma wave sounds recorded by Galileo in 1996 as it sailed past Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede. Galileo will swing past Ganymede two more times before the end of 2000.FULL STORY at The Biggest Thing in the Solar System"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (16:39)", "body": "Space Science News for March 14, 2000 NASA has renamed the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft for planetary science pioneer Gene Shoemaker. FULL STORY at NEAR Shoemaker SPACE WEATHER NEWS NOTE: A large sunspot near the center of the solar disk has developed a comlicated magnetic field that could lead to significant solar flares. Flares or coronal mass ejections from this region will likely be directed toward Earth. For details and updates visit SpaceWeather.com Solar updating image is available at http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/geo/24.41 Note the large sunspot visible just left of middle where the equator would be on earth."}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (12:25)", "body": ""}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (12:26)", "body": "Space Science News for March 19, 2000 As the Sun sets at the south pole on March 20, 2000, Earth will join two other planets in the solar system where it is northern Spring. FULL STORY at Sunset at the South Pole"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (15:10)", "body": "Thursday's Classroom for March 20, 2000 This week's episode of Thursday's Classroom is about Spring on Earth and other planets. Educational lesson plans and activities include a scavenger hunt for signs of Spring, solar system Easter eggs, math exercises involving temeratures on Earth and Mars, a reprise of the Fall favorite \"S'more Seasons,\" and much more. Thursday's Classroom"}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 21, 2000 (21:26)", "body": "The Earth weighs around 6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons."}, {"response": 70, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (15:36)", "body": "Unlike Saturn, which is so light it would float in water. If you could find enough water to put it in."}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (16:33)", "body": "Ah...there's the rub... Saturn is one huge planet. Not as huge as Jupiter which is just a few mgatons shy of being a star all by itself..."}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (22:02)", "body": "Until we get a craft conference, here are some activities involving rocks for kids and fun adults: http://www.hmns.mus.tx.us/hmns/educator/sq_gems98.htm Minerals used everyday \ufffd clay or bentonite (ceramics, deodorant, coffee creamer), chalk, salt, graphite (pencils) Minerals around the classroom Where would we be without minerals? Vocabulary: Cleavage \ufffd The way certain minerals break at weak points due along their internal crystal structure. Thousands of tiny facets can be cut into diamonds and other gemstones because we know how they break or cleave. Mineral \ufffd A solid substance that is inorganic, has a crystalline structure and occurs in nature. A mineral can be composed of only one element or it can be a combination of elements. Gold, silver, and copper are minerals. Zinc is not a mineral because it never occurs in nature except in combination with other elements. Those combinations, however, are minerals. Element \ufffd Any substance--solid, liquid, or gas--that is composed of only one type of atom. Rock \ufffd Rocks are aggregates of minerals. That means they are mixtures in which the individual components are \"clumped\" together rather than \"blended.\" (Like the tossed salad as opposed to the melting pot analogy of the people of the United States. A chocolate chip cookie is another good analagy). Granite, for example, is a rock made of the minerals quartz, feldspar, and mica. Take a look at a piece of granite and you can see all three minerals. Crystal \ufffd The geometric shape formed when the atoms combine to form a mineral. Every mineral species has a certain crystal structure. That means that every single crystal of every single diamond has the same shape. Activity 1: Plaster Casting Plaster is made by dehydrating gypsum. Gypsum contains a lot of water. When gypsum is heated, the water evaporates and what is left is a white powder. When you mix the powder with water & let it dry, it hardens. (But the molecules don\ufffdt arrange themselves back into the same crystal structure.) Ancient peoples learned to throw gypsum into a fire and heat it until the water evaporated. Then they mixed the left over ash with water to make plaster. They used the plaster to decorate buildings and other objects. The ancient Egyptians, Romans & Greeks all used plaster. A human skull decorated with plaster was found in a cave in Europe indicating that plaster has been used for many thousands of years. What You Do: Mix up some plaster of Paris to make footprints, leaf prints, or pour it into molds. Activity 2: Make a \"Precious Jade\" Carving Jade or Jadeite is precious to many cultures including the Chinese, and the Aztec, Maya, and other mesoamerican people. It is prized because of its beauty and carvability. Extremely intricate details can be carved into jadeite because of its microscopic crystal structure. It does cleave or break along its crystal structure, but because the crystals are so small, we seem to be able to cut it any way we want. Incidentally, the Chinese consider any equally carvable stone such as lapis lazuli & nephrite to be jades. Add vermiculite to plaster to make a soft, carvable \"stone.\" Vermiculite is the mineral mica that has been heated until it expands or pops\ufffdkind of like popcorn. What You Need: Green tempera paint, 2 scoops plaster of Paris, 3 scoops Vermiculite, water, Small milk carton, Carving tools: Plastic spoon, knife, stick, nail, What You Do: 1.Mix the plaster, paint & vermiculite in a bucket or large bowl. Add about two scoops of water and stir until it looks like thick gravy. Pour the mixture into the milk carton & let harden. It will be ready to carve in about half an hour. 2.Peel away the milk carton & start carving. (Hint: you can keep the plaster soft enough to carve for 2-3 days if you keep it wrapped in a plastic bag.) 3.When finished, let it dry for 2 weeks. Activity 3: These Words are Crystal Clear Gems are prized for their rarity and beauty. Precious gems are some of the rarest, although, they must also be durable. Who would want a ring made out of something that wouldn\ufffdt last, no matter how rare or beautiful it is? Diamonds are considered one of the most precious, not because they the rarest, but because they are the hardest substance we have on earth. Like they say, diamonds are forever. Quartz may form some very pretty crystals, but because it is the most common mineral on Earth, it isn\ufffdt very valuable. What You Need: Table salt, oven, paint brush, black construction paper. What You Do: 1.Add 3 teaspoons of salt to 1/4 cup water 2.Preheat the oven to 150 degrees F. (Always ask an adult to help you use the oven). 3.Write a message on the black construction paper with the salt water & brush. Stir the solution before making each letter. 4.Turn the oven off & place the paper on a shelf in the oven. 5.Let the paper heat for 5 minutes or until it dries. What Happens: The water evaporates leaving the shiny white crystals of salt spelling out you message. Remember salt is the mineral Halite. For more act"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (22:10)", "body": "Foucault Pendulum These days, everyone knows the Earth spins on its axis. But for centuries, scholars searched for scientific proof. That proof came in 1851 when the French physicist Jean Bernard Leon Foucault discovered that a pendulum's swing plane would change according to the Earth's rotation. The pendulum is suspended on a 63-foot cable that extends through the three floors of the new wing. At Houston's latitude, the Foucault pendulum swings through 180 degrees (half a circle) in a 24 hour period. This display is a larger version of the one Foucault demonstrated in the Paris Observatory. Informational displays next to the pendulum provide a more in-depth explanation of pendulums. Fascinating Foucault Facts In the mid-nineteenth century, the French physicist J. B. L. Foucault first demonstrated that the plane of a swing of a pendulum appears to rotate or precess. At the Museum, the pendulum's swing advances between two adjacent star points every 4 hours. Because it knocks over pins on both ends of its swing, all pins are knocked over in just over 1 day. Mass: 180 lbs (81.6 kg) Length of Cable: 61.6 feet (18.8 m) Period: 8.71 seconds Swing angle: 5 degrees Swing displacement: 65 inches (1.65 m) Latitude of the museum: 29 degrees 46 minute North What causes the pendulum to knock over pegs? The earth rotates under the pendulum. The same Coriolis effect that turns the winds and water going down a drain causes the pendulum's swing to advance to the right (eastward as it swings northward and westward as it swings southward) in the Northern Hemisphere. At the North Pole, the pendulum would make a circle every 24 hours. In Houston, it takes just over 48 hours for the pendulum to complete one circle. At the Equator, the pendulum does not precess at all. What keeps the pendulum swinging? The earth's gravity and a magnet keep the pendulum from slowing down and stopping. The earth's gravity pulls the pendulum down toward the bottom of its swing arc. The pendulum is traveling fastest as it crosses over the center star. The pendulum's momentum carries it past the center point. At each swing, air resistance and friction between cable strands and at the cable hinge slow down the pendulum. To keep the pendulum swinging, a ring-shaped electromagnetic collar around the top of the pendulum cable turns on as the pendulum crosses the center point of its swing. An iron armature, mounted on the cable just inside the collar is attracted outward toward the magnetic collar. This pull gives the pendulum the energy it needs to keep swinging. How could you make the pendulum swing back and forth faster? The length of the cable determines the pendulum's period. A shorter cable would make it swing faster. This very exact period, regardless of how wide the swing is, makes a pendulum a good time keeper for a clock. Until atomic clocks and quartz oscillators were invented, pendulum clocks were used to provide an absolute time base. The pendulum can also be used to measure the local pull of gravity. The period of a pendulum depends on the length of the cable and the local acceleration due to gravity. (period = 2*pi*square root(length/gravity) ) The local gravity is 32.2 ft/sec2 pr 9.8m/sec2.)"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (22:18)", "body": "There is nothing quite like sitting quietly on the floor of a great museum and watching a huge Foucault pendulum swinging independently of the earth. Its motion keeps it steady back and forth motion while you and the rest of the Earth rotates under it. As it swings through its arcs and pegs rotate into its path, it knocks them over. I know of no other way to feel the earth rotate beneath you and see the effect of that rotation. I helped set one up at a Chemistry-Physics Open House in college and even our small one did exactly the same thing. The above pendulum is electronically kept in motion."}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (22:22)", "body": "http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/pendulum/default.htm is a wonderful site with interesting links for kids and explanations and pictures. I am still looking for a good picture of this pendulum - one of the most noticeable is the very long string on which it is suspended. Ours was hung in a stairwell of about 4 stories."}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (13:11)", "body": "Discovery Online http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/webletter/webletter.html 1. THE KINGDOME IS IMPLODING ... SEE IT LIVE! On Sunday morning (11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT) Ken Griffey Jr.'s old home-run palace is coming down. Pitchers cheer, hitters mourn and you can check it all out over breakfast. http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/kingdome/kingdome.html 2. WHAT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW? CHECK OUT THE NEW LIVE EVENTS PAGE. From live surgery to a boxing match to soaring eagles, there's no time like the present to check out our latest feature. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/liveevents/liveevents.html 3. ON THE ROPES -- ROOT FOR AN ACADEMY AWARD. The film is up for an Oscar this weekend. It's the story of three young fighters overcoming adversity through hard work and perseverance. Get to know them, and join in on the discussions about their struggle. http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/ontheropes/ontheropes.html 4. WANT TO TAKE A TURTLE NAP? BETTER HOLD YOUR BREATH. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000320/animals_turtles.html 5. CAN HATE AND VIOLENCE BE STOPPED? Discovery has embarked on a year-long initiative to better understand hatred and violence in the United States. We're looking for success stories, specifically steps that you or others have taken to counter racism in your community or home. If you'd like to participate, please send us a brief description of actions you've taken. solutions@online.discovery.com 6. VIDEO TIPS AND TRICKS FROM CHRISTOPHER LOWELL!!! Think you're not creative? Visit the Discovery Store and find a great selection of videos from decorating guru Christopher Lowell. Learn secrets for transforming your bed and bath into a personal oasis. And discover how easy it is to decorate your home with creativity and flair. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=3000368 7. ROYAL SCANDALS (IT'S NOT GOSSIP, IT'S HISTORY!). It seems that the ruling classes have always held a special place, a sort of Hall of Fame, for particularly tawdry tales of sex and death. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/royal/royal1.html 8. BLACK HOLES GETTING FAT AND LAZY IN SPACE? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000321/space_blackhole.html 9. DINOSAUR DELIGHTS. Walk with them ... and even talk with them, in our special Dinosaur Guide. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/guides/dinos/dinos.html 10. GEAR UP FOR SPRING. With warmer weather coming, be prepared for all of your favorite outdoor activities. The Discovery Store offers a wide variety of products that help you explore your world. From expedition wear and sporty hats to outdoor tools and hiking gear, you're sure to find what you need to have an adventurous spring! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=1000000 11. GARDEN VARIETY TIPS FOR SPRING. How does your garden grow? Give it a good start in our \"Lifestyles\" section. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/lifestyles/gardening/gardening.html 12. OUR KNUCKLE-DRAGGING ANCESTORS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000323/anthro_knuckle.html 13. YOU HAVE OUR WORD: THE DAILY CROSSWORD PUZZLE IS GREAT! It's as challenging as you want it to be. We can leave you alone to solve it yourself, or give you hints along the way. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/games/crossword/crossword.html 14. GAMMA RAYS PUZZLING SCIENTISTS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000323/space_gammaray.html 15. LIVE CAMS: WHAT IN THE WORLD? For years Discovery Channel has encouraged you to \"explore your world.\" Now we bring you an open window to your world. EAGLE http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/eagle/eagle.html#top SEAL http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/seal/seal.html WEDDING http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/wedding/wedding.html BABY GORILLA http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/gorillas/gorillas.html LIBERTY BELL 7 http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/liberty/liberty.html PUPPY http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/puppy/puppymain.html GOLF http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/hhgolf/hhgolf.html SHARK http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/shark/sharkmain.html TIMES SQUARE http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/timessquare/timessquare.html PANAMA CANAL http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/pancan/pancan.html 16. THE HEALING PROPERTIES ... OF JEWELRY? For centuries gemstones have been rumored to carry magic properties. Garnets were thought to protect travelers, and amethysts to bring peace of mind. The Discovery Store offers a large assortment of beautiful jewelry with stones created by nature. We can't guarantee they have \"magical\" properties, but you'll look and feel great wearing them! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39111809&ti=3000621 17. THE LATEST \"MY DISCOVERY\" PRIZE PAK WINNER IS: Kent A"}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (17:04)", "body": "NASA Science News for March 30, 2000 Next Thursday, April 6, three planets and the thin crescent Moon are going to put on a memorable sky show when the quartet converge inside a circle 9 degrees across. The grouping is just the prelude to a grander alignment of planets on May 5, 2000. Is doom at hand, as many mystics assert? Find out by reading the FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast30mar_1m.htm Planets for Dessert Also, for kids and kids-at-heart, a younger person's version of this article is available at the NASA Kids web site: http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2000/news-planetalign.asp?se The Planets Line Up __"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (14:20)", "body": "Thursday's Classroom for March 30, 2000 This week's episode of Thursday's Classroom explores planetary alignments. The Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars will put on a beautiful sky show April 6 when the quartet converge in the western sky after sunset. The grouping is just the prelude to a grander alignment on May 5. Is catastrophe at hand, as many doomsayers predict? \"No way!\" say scientists. Educational lessons and activities include \"Sky Orienteering\" (how to view the April 6 alignment), \"Doomsday Desserts\" (skywatching snacks for the big event), \"Alignment of the Decimals\" (a math exercise involving interplanetary gravity) and more. VISIT http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (19:16)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 1, 2000 On April Fools Day, 2000, NASA researchers are questioning the fate of five high-flying sweet treats that disappeared after a meteor balloon flight in April 1999. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast01apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "Discovery Channel Online - 1 Apr 2000 1. NEW WORLDS FOUND! Two more planets have been discovered just outside our solar system. Get the scoop on these and the skinny on what else is going on out there in the wide-open universe. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/exp/universe/amazingspace/am_main.html 2. HAS MARS SEEN THE LAST OF US? Mistake upon mishap upon miscalculation ... Are the secrets of the Red Planet not ours to know? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/features/marspolar/marspolar.html 3. WATCH \"CROCODILE HUNTER\" ANY TIME YOU WANT ! Shocking, wild and chock-full of crocodiles, gators, pythons and wild pigs! Visit the Discovery Store if you can't get enough of \"TV's wild man.\" You'll find a great selection of videos with all of Steve Irwin's exciting adventures, so get close -- REALLY close! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=9000000&ps=733774 4. THE IRISH ELK DONE IN BY HIS ENORMOUS ANTLERS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000328/animals_elk.html 5. SEE THE REAL AMAZON AT \"PICTURE OF THE DAY.\" Sure, you may know it as one of the most famous brand names on the Internet, but we're here to show you the real, actual, authentic Amazon River, running through Brazil, Colombia and Peru. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/picture.html 6. INSIDE THE CIA. You're officially cleared (at least as far as we're concerned) to check out the inner workings of America's spy factory. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/cia/cia.html 7. TRASH OR TREASURE? YOU MAKE THE CALL. Can you tell a priceless heirloom from a worthless piece of junk? Give us your verdict, then see what the professional appraiser had to say http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/treasures.html 8. BREED ALL ABOUT IT: THE VIDEOS. Which dog is considered the ultimate house pet? What's the oldest known purebred? Find these answers and much more when you visit the Discovery Store. With videos on almost 20 popular breeds, you're sure to find the history and unique characteristics of your favorite family pet. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=3000389 9. ANCIENT PERSIAN ARMY DISCOVERED? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000327/history_persianarmy.html 10. WE'RE THE LIVE CAM CAPITAL OF THE WEB. NEED PROOF? HERE'S A SAMPLER: NEW YORK CITY TAXI http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/taxi/taxi.html SAN FRANCISCO http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/sanfran/sanfran.html TRAFALGAR SQUARE http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/tsquare/tsquare.html ORANGUTAN http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/orang/orangmain.html BIRD FEEDER http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/bird/bird.html CHEETAH http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/cheetah/cheetahmain.html NAKED MOLE-RAT http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/rat/ratmain.html DAYTONA BEACH http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/daytona/daytona.html BALTIMORE HARBOR http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/bharbor/bharbor.html PENGUIN http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/penguin/penguinmain.html VOLCANO http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/sthelens/sthelens.html 11. PREP YOURSELF FOR SURGERY! OK, you aren\ufffdt the one performing the procedure. Still, you need to take a proactive stance when it comes to preparing for surgery. From telling your doctor about all medications and supplements (even herbal teas), to boosting your immune system with proper nutrition -- you can help ensure a good outcome and a speedy recovery. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20707/23833.html 12. NAME THAT PLANE. You might say that the fun is flying, as aviation buffs from all around the world test their knowledge. Are you up to the challenge? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/games/plane/plane.html 13. LAUGH AND LEARN WITH CHRISTOPHER LOWELL. The reigning design inspiration guru is certainly not above teaching with a chuckle, a giggle or even a downright guffaw. Download the videos here! http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/dscdaytime/christopherlowell/lightenup/lightenup.html 14. EASY SOLUTIONS TO THE \"HARD TO BUY FOR.\" How many times have you been baffled shopping for someone you love? The Discovery Store has the solution. From our video collection, exploration tools and unique home decor to great travel gear and jewelry designed by nature, you're bound to find just the right gift! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39111809&ti=1000000 15. CAN THE MILITARY LEARN FROM A BUTTERFLY? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000329/animals_butterfly.html 16. YOUR MILLION DOLLAR SMILE ... LITERALLY? Cosmetic dentistry is no longer limited to bleaching and bonding. It's expanded into laser gum contouring, porcelain veneers, and even a procedure called a \ufffdsmile lift.\" We'll fill you in on how much you\ufffdll have "}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  8, 2000 (13:11)", "body": "Sat, 8 Apr 2000 15:08:48 GMT From: Discovery Channel Online Subject: Eco-Challenge, Rogue Iceberg & Your Animal Videos at Discovery.com Here are our picks for some of the coolest things going on in your world this week ... If your email doesn't hyperlink these addresses, just copy this one address into your Web browser and click your way through this week's highlights. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/webletter/webletter.html 1. IT'S ECO-CHALLENGE ARGENTINA. Go behind the scenes of the adventure race that make triathlons look like powder-puff derbies, with course maps, team rosters and conversation pipelines to the racers themselves. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ecochallenge/ecopatagonia/reports/ecopatagonia.html SPONSOR MESSAGE: Isuzu's Geared Up Sweepstakes. Click here for your chance to win! http://www.isuzu.com/eco_sweeps_mail.htm 2. THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACES ON EARTH. For some people, the perfect vacation is no day at the beach. Robert Young Pelton has been to the brink, and now he's back with a guide for those who dare follow him. http://travel.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tv/wmdangr/wmdangr.html 3. SPACE CAPITALISM: A MIR FORMALITY. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000404/space_mir.html 4. SEND US YOUR FUNNIEST ANIMAL VIDEOS. Have you seen a pigeon who thinks he's a duck? Do you know a squirrel who looks like Regis? Well, catch them on video and there may be fame for your subject and (not quite a) fortune for you. http://animal.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tunein/funniest/funniest.html 5. A SECOND GIANT ICEBERG IS ON THE LOOSE. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000404/enviro_iceberg.html 6. POMPEII: THE DAY THAT HELL ARRIVED. The volcano spewed from the bowels of the Earth so quickly, some people died before they had time to scream. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/features/pompeii/newfindings.html 7. CREATE YOUR OWN ECO-CHALLENGE. Visit the Discovery Store now to find a great selection of products that help you explore your world! The Eco-Challenge boutique offers a wide variety of products, from tools and outdoor gear, to expedition wear and binoculars. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=3000696 8. THE SECRET TO A LONG LIFE ... THE X CHROMOSOME. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000404/health_genes.html 9. A CARNIVORE NO MORE? Have you thought about exchanging your beef for beets and your chicken for chick peas? Check out our guide to going veggie, and learn the benefits and basics of eating a balanced, meat-free diet. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20707/23907.html 10. VISIONS FROM THE AMAZON RIVER. \"Picture of the Day\" features a whole new set of incredible images from the Amazon River, running through Brazil, Colombia and Peru. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/picture.html 11. THE PYRAMID BUILT FOR A QUEEN. The discovery of a 4,000-year-old tomb with all the majesty usually reserved for kings has researchers wondering what made Queen Ankh-sn-Pepi so special. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/guides/ancientworlds/egypt/egypt.html 12. WHOOPING CRANE TURF WAR AVERTED. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000404/animals_cranes.html 13. BUILD A ROLLER COASTER. Think you could design a scarier coaster than the professionals? Here's your chance to try your luck. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/exp/rollercoasters/build.html 14. DOING YOUR BABY A SOLID. Which comes first, cereal or pureed carrots? When should you start feeding your baby solid foods, and what should you try first? Take our quiz and learn what foods to introduce to your baby at each stage of development. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20730/24082/275833.html?d=dmtContent 15. HERE COME GIANT COMET TAILS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000406/space_comet.html 16. VIDEO TIPS AND TRICKS FROM CHRISTOPHER LOWELL! Think you're not creative? Visit the Discovery Store and find a great selection of videos from decorating guru Christopher Lowell. Learn secrets for transforming your bed and bath into a personal oasis. And discover how easy it is to decorate your home with creativity and flair. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=3000368 17. VICTORY IN THE FEET. Reflexology teaches that the soles of the feet are a map of our entire body. Different areas of the foot correspond to different organs, glands and body parts. Click here to learn if the key to beating illness lies in your sole. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20770/23918/275188.html?d=dmtContent 18. LIVE CAMS: WHAT IN THE WORLD? For years Discovery Channel has encouraged you to \"explore your world.\" Now we bring you an open window to that world. TIGER http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/tiger/tiger.html MANATEE http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/manatee/manatee.html WEDDING"}, {"response": 82, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (23:40)", "body": "Boy, I the Discovery Channel has been busy lately! I guess I've been missing a lot of good science programs now that I no longer have cable TV. That April Fool's day article about the high-flying peeps is a scream! (Notice they don't fly, so much as plummet...)"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (00:05)", "body": "David's father sent me that peeps article. Yes, they do tend to plummet and leave a sticky mess behind..."}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "hursday's Classroom for April 13, 2000 This week's episode of Thursday's Classroom examines one of the biggest mysteries of modern astrophysics: What causes distant cosmic explosions that astronomers call \"Gamma Ray Bursts?\" Lessons and activities include \"Gamma Ray Playing Cards\" (a card game about the electromagnetic spectrum), \"Gamma Rap!\" (proof that high energy astronomers are hip), \"High Energy Math Problems\" and more.... Please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com !"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 15, 2000 (14:21)", "body": "April 15, 2000 http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/webletter/webletter.html 1. WALKING WITH DINOSAURS ... PREPARE TO BE STUNNED. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/dinos/dinos.html 2. WERE DRAGONS REALLY DINOSAURS? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000412/history_myths.html 3. THE CLOSEST CALLS IN SPACE TRAVEL. Thirty years ago we heard: \"Houston, we have a problem.\" Here are more of the nearest-misses in the history of space exploration. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/features/spaceescapes/spaceescape.html 4. WATCH ECO-CHALLENGE ANYTIME YOU WANT. You saw the thrilling, suspenseful action on Discovery Channel; now take home the video that captures it all! Competitors penetrate dense forests, navigate wild rapids, kayak a glacial fjord and climb a 12,000-foot summit mantled by ancient glaciers, all while braving the intense Patagonia terrain and weather. Visit Discovery Store to order your copy today. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=3000696 5. CRANE CHICK MISSING. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000412/animals_crane.html 6. NEW KIDS ON THE WEB. Add your bundle of joy to our gallery! http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcdaytime/babystory/newkids.html 7. BRAINY BEES BEAT BRAWNY BEES. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000412/animals_bees.html 8. UP CLOSE TO AN ASTEROID. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000412/space_near.html 9. NAPOLEON INVADES EGYPT! This multimedia feature about the great emperor's Egyptian campaign goes online Tuesday, but as an insider you can get a \"sneak preview\" now! http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/napoleon/napoleon.html 10. HATE ON THE INTERNET: HOW FAR IS TOO FAR? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/hateviolence/onlinereporting2.html 11. DINO DETECTIVES AT DISCOVERY KIDS ONLINE. Hey, parents! If your kids are dinosaur fans, tell them to check out dinosaurs at Discovery Kids Online. They can take the dino trivia quiz, collect dino trading cards and send prehistoric e-cards to friends! http://kids.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/dinos/dinos.html 12. WANT TO LEARN ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING? GO TO THE NORTH POLE! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000411/enviro_arctic.html 13. TWINS! WE NEED YOU! Do you share a bond no one else understands? Perhaps a secret language or ESP? Bizarre matching outfits? We're looking for stories about the unique experiences of twins. Please email us your most amazing anecdotes, and include a picture, too. Twins_TLC@discovery.com 14. THE CROCODILE HUNTER IS ALIVE AND WELL. Despite persistent rumors of his untimely demise, Steve Irwin continues to interact personally with wildlife like no one you've ever seen before. http://animal.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/animalpages/crocpages/croc.html 15. CHAT LIVE WITH CHRISTOPHER REEVE. Join Christopher Reeve on Wednesday, April 19, at 9 p.m. ET, as he takes your questions about living with a spinal cord injury and the amazing research being done on spinal cord regeneration. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20725/23718.html 16. TENNIS CAM, ANYONE? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/hhtennis/hhtennis.html 17. HAVANA: THE ONLINE WALKING TOUR. http://travel.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ideas/grtcities/cuba/cuba.html 18. KATHY SCHROCK HAS THE BEST INFO ON THE INTERNET. http://school.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/schrockguide/index.html 19. TRASH OR TREASURE? YOU MAKE THE CALL. Can you tell a priceless heirloom from a worthless piece of junk? Give us your verdict, then see what the professional appraiser had to say. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/treasures.html 20. WHEN DINOSAURS REIGNED: TAKE THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY BACK IN TIME! State-of-the-art digital effects and animatronics combine to form the living, breathing images that put you in the scene of a virtual lost world of \"Walking With Dinosaurs.\" Visit Discovery Store and bring the most expensive documentary ever created into your home! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=9000000&ps=165340 21. GIFTS FOR YOUR FEARLESS FLYERS. Is there an aviation buff in your life? You'll find authentic aircraft replicas from World Wars I and II at Discovery Store, and a complete line of aviation apparel and home decor to keep your loved one \"flying high.\" http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39111809&ti=3000618 22. RIDE WITH EMERGENCY VETS. They can't get a medical history, and they can't ask where it hurts. http://animal.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/animalpages/e-vets/e-vets.html 23. OY! PASS THE LOW-FAT GEFILTE FISH. Can't imagine lightening Aunt Miriam's traditional Passover recipes? After indulging in our interactive Seder meal, you may think twice about those matzo balls. To avoid schlepping around extra pounds, click here to learn how to skim the fa"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (12:39)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 19, 2000 Lt. Col. Cady Coleman talks with Science@NASA about what it's like to be an astronaut and how a passion for high school chemistry led her to become one. FULL STORY at http://www.spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast19apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 87, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (20:46)", "body": "That's good, because most women aren't going in to technology or computer science. Women, I believe, only make up 25% of the techie population."}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (22:13)", "body": "Really! Hey you guys with clear skies, I expect you to give a full report on the Lyrid meteor shower - I posted it on Geo 14."}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (13:20)", "body": ""}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (13:23)", "body": "http://www.discovery.com/webletter/webletter.html Discovery Online Welcome to the coolest destinations you can find anywhere on the Internet: 1. YOU'RE ON MOUNT EVEREST. It's a real-life adventure, with pictures and video from our correspondent, and a virtual climb for you. 2. FLY THROUGH A PHARAOH'S TOMB. 3. WALKING WITH DINOSAURS ... IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, IT\"S BACK! 4. ORDER YOUR COPY OF \"WALKING WITH DINOSAURS\" TODAY. Take the ultimate journey back in time ... to the reign of the dinosaurs! State-of-the-art digital effects and animatronics combine to form the living, breathing images that put you inside a virtual lost world. Visit Discovery Store and secure your own copy of the most expensive documentary ever created! 5. WAS SHAKESPEARE ITALIAN? 6. PIERCING THE HEART OF EVIL. 7. BRAND-NEW PHOTOS FROM THE AMAZON RIVER AT \"PICTURE OF THE DAY.\" 8. SHOW ME THE BUNNY! TEST YOUR CHOCOLATE QUOTIENT. Easter is upon us, and you know what that means -- chocolate! Indulge without the bulge. 9. ENTER THE \"WORKING DOGS\" SWEEPSTAKES. Animal Planet is honoring the hardest-working \"best friends\" anywhere, and you could win a spa getaway for you and your pooch! 10. TRASH OR TREASURE? YOU'RE THE APPRAISER. 11. AN ALIEN'S VIEW OF EARTH. 12. BABY GORILLA CAM: THE TWINS JOIN APE SOCIETY. 13. SHARK CAM: ARE YOU READY TO HANG OUT AT THE TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN? 14. DID CAVEMEN WORRY ABOUT CAVITIES? 15. SURFING MEETS SCIENCE, DUDE. 16. BUILD THE PERFECT WAVE. 17. WHAT'S YOUR BEEF? Not sure which cut of meat you should throw on the barbie? Learn your beef basics, as supermarket guru Phil Lempert, primes us for grilling season with tips on choosing USDA-graded meat. 18. PREGNANCY JOURNAL. Trish is two weeks from delivery. She can't wait to meet her daughter ... and get reacquainted with her old body. 19. TWINS! WE NEED YOU! Do you share a bond no one else understands? Perhaps a secret language or ESP? Bizarre matching outfits? We're looking for stories about the unique experiences of twins. Please email us your most amazing anecdotes, and include a picture, too. 20. NEW MEADE AUTOSTAR UPGRADES AT THE DISCOVERY STORE. Access the FREE Discovery Channel Millennium Sky Tour. Meade Autostar owners can explore the most up-to-date celestial objects in the sky. Each month, there's a new tour to download to your Autostar, bringing you an endless universe of stellar space objects. 21. WORLD TOUR CAM. Hollywood? Panama? The Kremlin? Where shall we go next? 22. WORLD TRADE CENTER CAM. 23. STARTING SUNDAY: ARMY ANT EXPERTS TAKE YOUR QUESTIONS. 24. GET THE VIOLENCE POLL RESULTS. 25. WHAT'S NEW WITH CHRISTOPHER LOWELL? 26. THE VERY WORST OF MOTHER NATURE. In 1988 Hurricane Gilbert had winds of more than 155 mph, nearly three times the speed of a car on the highway! Visit Discovery Store to learn about hurricanes and seven other natural phenomena with the best-selling \"Raging Planet\" video series. 27. FOUND: CRATER FROM THE METEOR THAT MADE DINOSAURS EXTINCT? 28. THE TOUGHEST BREAK: SPINAL CORD INJURIES. In 1995, Christopher Reeve went from Superman to quadriplegic in a matter on moments. Join Reeve as he narrates this program about the challenges of living with the injury and learn about new advances in spinal cord research. 29. CROCODILE GOD'S TEMPLE UNCOVERED. 30. ON TV: TRAVEL CHANNEL, SUNDAY, GREAT WRITERS, GREAT CITIES: MEXICO CITY. Paco Taibo is Mexico's premier mystery writer. Follow him on a journey through his capital city that only he could show you. 31. ON TV: TLC, MONDAY, SEPARATE LIVES. There are consequences to trying to fix Mother Nature's \"mistakes,\" as the team of doctors learn when to try to separate conjoined twin girls. 32. ON TV: DISCOVERY CHANNEL, TUESDAY, WILDEST SHOW ON EARTH: THE ANGOLA PRISON RODEO. Go \"On the Inside\" the competition in which it isn't just the animals who long to break free of their cages. 33. ON TV: ANIMAL PLANET, WEDNESDAY, CROCODILE HUNTER: RETURN TO THE WILD. With the help of Steve's parents, Terri and the Crocodile Hunter hope to transport a half-ton croc safely out of a populated area. 34. UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS NEWSLETTER. Just insert the email address you used to sign up, hit \"unsubscribe,\" and you're off our database. Thanks for trying us out! 35. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER. Let us know what's on your mind!"}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (14:50)", "body": "Thursday's Classroom for May 4, 2000 This week, Thursday's Classroom takes a wild ride on the original interplanetary Sport Utility Vehicle: the amazing Apollo Moon Buggy. Students will tap their toes to the beat of the \"Moon Buggy Boogie,\" play a stimulating game of \"Lunar Rover Lunacy,\" covert measurements from English to metric units in \"Moon Math,\" and more... Please visit: http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Also, a note for recent subscribers: The March 30, 2000, episode of Thursday's Classroom features lessons and activities related to the May 5, 2000, planetary alignment. See: http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com/index_30mar00.html"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (11:33)", "body": "Titanic, Killer Tornadoes & NYC Stories at Discovery.com Buckle up for this week's big adventures at Discovery.com ... http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/webletter/webletter.html 1. TITANIC: YOU'RE ONBOARD! (Will you make it?) http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/guides/history/titanic/titanic.html 2. WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE ... LITERALLY. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000424/space_galaxy.html 3. NEW -- EARTH ALERT ROCKS! Don't miss the new, improved map of Mother Nature's temper tantrums. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/earthalert/earthalert.html 4. SEX AND DECEPTION: THE BEETLES AND THE BEES. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000503/animals_beetles.html 5. IS THE UNIVERSE FLAT? Get the latest theory and a look at the far reaches of the cosmos like you've never seen them. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/exp/universe/amazingspace/am_main.html 6. STONEWALL JACKSON'S LAST STAND. The Civil War's Battle of Chancellorsville cost the Confederate Army dearly, and may have signaled a dramatic change of fortune was about to come. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/civilwar/chancellorsville/chancellorsville.html 7. TOUR MOUNT EVEREST. The beauty of a VIRTUAL tour? All the extreme thrills, with none of the frozen extremities. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/exp/mteverest/flash.html 8. WHAT ABOUT MOM? In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the second Sunday of May a national holiday honoring all mothers. Honor yours with a special gift from the Discovery Store. Order by May 9, and we'll guarantee on-time delivery and a free gift with every purchase! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=3000724 9. WORKING DOGS. They're hunters, herders, rescue workers ... even police. Here's our tribute to them! http://apl.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/working_dogs/working_dogs.html 10. VISIT JAPAN AT \"PICTURE OF THE DAY.\" http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/picture.html 11. DID DINOS EVOLVE INTO TURKEYS? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000426/dino_turkey.html 12. THE END OF THE UNIVERSE (You heard it here first). http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000426/space_universe.html 13. MUGS, MOBSTERS AND MOGULS. Lots of cities have character, but none has characters like New York does. http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/newyork/index.html 14. LYNETTE JENNINGS, UP CLOSE. It's everything you've always wanted to know about the design diva, her projects and guests. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/dscdaytime/lynettejennings/lynettejennings.html 15. BEACH BLANKET CAVE MAN? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000503/fossil_stonetools.html 16. IS THAT TRASH OR TREASURE IN YOUR ATTIC? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/treasures.html 17. PREDICTING KILLER TORNADOES. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000501/weather_lightning.html 18. THE SECRETS OF LIFE REVEALED? The human genome is nearly mapped, but is it a miracle or a nightmare? http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/EMDSC000/20729/24239.html 19. BEETLES: YOU SAY YOU WANT AN EVOLUTION? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000427/animals_insects.html 20. SPACE SHUTTLE: I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN ... http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000427/space_atlantis.html 21. THE WEDDING PLANNER. Put your guest list online, share photos, find the perfect vows ... We provide everything but the bride or groom! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/lifestyles/weddings/weddings.html 22. DOZENS OF NEW PRODUCTS ADDED TO THE DISCOVERY STORE OUTLET! Save big when you shop the Discovery Store Outlet. With prices slashed up to 60%, you're sure to find something for those you love ... or treat yourself! Shop now for best selection, as quantities are limited. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=3000720 23. SEE AN ASTEROID UP CLOSE. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000501/space_near.html 24. LASER ME, DOC! This year 750,000 Americans will solve their sight problems with Lasik surgery. It could be the miracle you're looking for, but you should weigh the risks, too. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20770/23895/229845.html?d=dmtDSCinside TWINS! WE NEED YOU! Do you share a bond no one else understands? Perhaps a secret language or ESP? Bizarre matching outfits? We're looking for stories about the unique experiences of twins. Please email us your most amazing anecdotes, and include a picture, too. Twins_TLC@discovery.com 25. SOY, OH SOY. THE SECRET TO A LONG LIFE? http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20707/23853.html 26. LIVE CAMS: WHAT IN THE WORLD? For years the Discovery Channel has encouraged you to \"explore your world.\" Now we bring you an open window to that world. POLAR BEAR http://www.discov"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  7, 2000 (15:50)", "body": "Weird Science Projects The name of this site\ufffdBizarre Stuff You Can Make in Your Kitchen\ufffdsums it up nicely. It describes, in detail, classic science projects originally published in books and magazines from the 1930s to 1960s. The list includes lessons on how to build your own seismograph, manufacture strange goo, or make pickles glow. The site even explains the process of making a shrunken head, though it recommends using an apple instead of the real thing. Go to: http://freeweb.pdq.net/headstrong/Default.htm"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  7, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "http://freeweb.pdq.net/headstrong/Cat.htm#10 This website has links to pages of science projects of all sorts from the simple to the complex - complete with schematic diagrams and things easily abtainable."}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (16:35)", "body": "Big and little kids much check this url out. My son sent it to me and I ask you to check it out - it is worth it! http://www.intplsrv.net/jcems/californ.htm"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 13, 2000 (14:16)", "body": "DISCOVERY ONLINE 1. THE SECRET WORLD OF TWINS. Telepathy ... secret languages ... good twin/evil twin ... What's legend and what's fact? http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/twins/twins.html 2. MOMMA WAS A NAKED MOLE-RAT. What better way to celebrate Mother's Day than a tribute to the best parents in the animal kingdom? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/animalfamilies/animalfamilies.html 3. \"GODZILLA\" ICEBERG IS FREEING ITS FRIENDS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000508/geo_iceberg.html 4. KLEOPATRA ASTEROID: A DOG BONE THE SIZE OF NEW JERSEY. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000505/space_asteroid.html 5. LIVE: TIMES SQUARE CAM. It's a people watcher's dream come true ... and now it auto-refreshes, too! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/timessquare/timessquare.html 6. WALKING WITH DINOSAURS -- BRING IT HOME! Take the ultimate journey back in time. State-of-the-art digital effects and animatronics combine to form the living, breathing images that put you inside a virtual lost world. If you missed the landmark broadcast, then visit Discovery Store to secure the original BBC version! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=3000698 7. WHAT YOUR CAT IS THINKING. From the mystery of the purr to that famous \"cattitude\" of theirs, we have your ultimate guide to house cats. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/cats/cats.html 8. CUSTER AND VANDERBILT: WHO LINKED THEM? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/games/missinglink/missinglink.html 9. WALKING AMONG POMPEII'S DEAD. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000511/history_pompeii.html 10. GET THE LATEST FROM \"TREASURES IN THE ATTIC.\" http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/treasures.html 11. THRILL RIDE PHOTOS -- SEND THEM IN! We want your best photos from amusement park thrill rides around the world. Include a sentence or two about the experience, your name and the state/country where you live. Photos should be scanned into one of three formats -- .bmp, .jpg or .gif -- and sent to the email address below. We'll post selected ones in an upcoming story. coaster@online.discovery.com 12. A MILE OF MUMMY? Did you know the linen used to wrap one Egyptian mummy could stretch almost an entire mile? While we can't offer you an original, the Discovery Store has a great selection of popular Egyptian decor. From unique statues to replica artifacts, you're sure to find something to satisfy any Egyptophile! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=3000635 13. VIKINGS: AMERICA'S FIRST COMMUTERS? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000511/history_viking.html 14. DOG LOVERS: GET \"BREED ALL ABOUT IT\" ON VIDEO. Which dog is considered the ultimate house pet? What's the oldest known purebred? Find the answers to these questions and much more when you visit the Discovery Store. With videos on almost 20 popular breeds, you're sure to find out the history and unique characteristics of your favorite family pet. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39118006&ti=3000389 15. ON TV: TLC, SUNDAY, ALL TWINS, ALL NIGHT! It's the secret world of twins ... six episodes in a row. http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tv/tvschedule/series.jsp?series=3370 16. ON TV: DISCOVERY CHANNEL, MONDAY, ON THE INSIDE: LIFE AND DEATH. The most dangerous beat in America? It just might be LAPD's gang war territory. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tv/tvschedule/episode.jsp?episode=21412001 17. ON TV: ANIMAL PLANET, TUESDAY, SHARK SEAS. It isn't just humans who have to watch out for shark-infested waters. http://animal.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tv/tvschedule/episode.jsp?episode=675608002 18. ON TV: TRAVEL CHANNEL, WEDNESDAY, LONELY PLANET: ISRAEL. Justine Shapiro takes a fresh look at one of the world's most holy places. http://travel.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tv/tvschedule/episode.jsp?episode=771954013 20. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER. Let us know what's on your mind! jack_huber@discovery.com"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (19:41)", "body": "http://www.greatachievements.org/greatachievements/index.html All of the below items are hot links for descriptions of the inventions named. How many of the 20th century's greatest engineering achievements will you use today? A car? Computer? Telephone? Explore our list of the top 20 achievements, and learn how engineering shaped a century and changed the world. 1. Electrification 2. Automobile 3. Airplane 4. Water Supply and Distribution 5. Electronics 6. Radio and Television 7. Agricultural Mechanization 8. Computers 9. Telephone 10. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration 11. Highways 12. Spacecraft 13. Internet 14. Imaging 15. Household Appliances 16. Health Technologies 17. Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies 18. Laser and Fiber Optics 19. Nuclear Technologies 20. High-performance Material"}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2000 (00:13)", "body": "Students take control of a prototype Mars Rover NASA Science News for May 17, 2000 Students from around the country will take control of a prototype Mars rover named FIDO as it explores a western Nevada desert. The FIDO rover is a testbed for future missions, including the proposed Mars Mobile Lander that is currently under study for a possible launch in 2003. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast17may_1.htm?list Heel, FIDO, Heel!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (15:11)", "body": "Thursday's Classroom for May 18, 2000 - NORTHERN LIGHTS Lately, sky watchers have been seeing some unusual sights -- red, green, yellow and purple lights in the sky that usually arrive about two days after a big solar storm. What's going on? They're the Northern Lights. You can learn more in this week's episode of Thursday's Classroom. Lessons and activities include Aurora Art, the Northern Lights Mystery, and a Soda-bottle Magnetometer. PLEASE VISIT: http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Thursday's Classroom -- The Northern Lights"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 20, 2000 (17:14)", "body": "May 20, 2000 The Discovery.com information buffet: Good for you (like veggies), fun (like ice cream) and full of adventure (like five-alarm chili). So dig in! If your email doesn't hyperlink these addresses, just copy this one address into your Web browser and click your way through this week's highlights. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/webletter/webletter.html 1. EVEREST: THE PLOT THICKENS. Correspondent Finn-Olaf Jones ran into some very unexpected problems in his quest to reach the summit. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/exp/mteverest/mteverest.html 2. YOUR ULTIMATE GUIDE TO PLANES. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/technology/planes/planes.html 3. A NUCLEAR BOMB ON THE MOON? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000516/space_moon.html 4. LET THERE BE FLIGHT (VIDEOS, CLOTHING AND REPLICAS). Is there an aviation buff in your life? Then visit Discovery Store's \"Ultimate Guide to Planes\" boutique. You'll find authentic aircraft replicas from World War I and II, plus a complete line of aviation apparel, WINGS videos and home decor to keep your loved one \"flying high.\" http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=1000000 5. WHAT'S A PROP FROM \"THE GODFATHER\" WORTH? A reader has the newspaper announcing that Vito Corleone has been shot. Find out what our appraiser thinks. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/treasures.html 6. PLAY THE NEW \"TRASH OR TREASURE GAME.\" http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/polls/poll000516.html 7. SCIENCE AND THE PERFECT PUTT. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000517/misc_golf.html 8. VISIT KREMLIN CAM. (And your papers don't even need to be in order.) http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/kremlin/kremlin.html 9. BRING STATE-OF-THE-ART DINOSAURS HOME! If you missed the dramatic broadcast of \"Walking With Dinosaurs,\" visit the Discovery Store and secure your own copy of the original BBC version, and take the ultimate journey back in time to the reign of the dinosaurs! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=3000698 10. ET STILL DUCKING THE SETI SEARCH. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000517/space_seti.html 11. CROCODILE HUNTER NOT DEAD. Despite rumors of Steve Irwin's untimely death, we tend to believe him when he tells us he's alive and crocking. http://animal.discovery.com/animalpages/crocpages/stevespeaks.html 12. SEE JAPAN AT \"PICTURE OF THE DAY.\" http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/picture.html 13. COMET SNEAKS BY ASTRONOMERS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000517/space_comet.html 14. SHARED GENES HELP ANT INVADERS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000517/enviro_ants.html 15. FARMING IN THE IRON AGE: A TOUGH ROAD TO HOE. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000517/history_village.html 16. IS DA VINCI DNA STILL AROUND? He may no longer be the world's most famous Leonardo, but scientists are still interested in capturing DaVinci's genetic code. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000516/history_leonardo.html 17. CARE AND FEEDING OF T-REX. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000515/fossils_trex.html 18. LIGHTNING IS HAIR-RAISING STUFF! Did you know that 10 million lightning bolts shoot to Earth every day? Each is hotter than the sun, miles long and less than an inch thick! For more great weather facts, visit the Discovery Store, and get informative videos and precise weather tools ... everything you need to become your own meteorologist! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39111809&ti=1000000"}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "Yukon Meteor Blast Thursday's Classroom for June 1, 2000 On January 18, 2000, a \"small\" 200 metric ton asteroid streaked across the skies of western Canada and exploded in the atmosphere. Now, scientists have recovered fragments of the space rock and discovered that they are members of a rare class of meteorites possibly containing amino acids and other organic compounds. In this week's episode of Thursday's Classroom, students can learn more about the Yukon meteor by attending a \"Cosmic BBQ,\" calculating \"Fractions of a Meteorite\" and more. VISIT: http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Thursday's Classroom: Yukon Meteor Blast"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  3, 2000 (12:11)", "body": "newsletter@Online.Discovery.COM 1. ROLLER COASTER MADNESS! Vote for the best thrillers, take a video coaster ride and send us photos of your own personal terror on the tracks. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/exp/rollercoasters/thrills/thrills.html 2. THE LATEST ON THE \"SHROUD OF TURIN.\" http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000524/history_turin.html 3. THE SEARCH FOR MOBY SQUID. No human has ever seen a live giant squid, but we know they exist because their carcasses have washed up onshore. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/giantsquids/giantsquids.html 4. JOIN THE INTERACTIVE SQUID SQUAD. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/giantsquids/meet.html 5. DEEP-SEA GALLERY OF THE ODD. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/giantsquids/tentacle.html 6. ASK THE SQUID DOCTOR. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/giantsquids/ask.html 7. GEAR FOR YOUR SUMMER EXPEDITIONS! Warm weather alert ... The Discovery Store offers a wide variety of products that help you explore your world. From expedition wear and sporty hats to outdoor tools and hiking gear, you're sure to find what you need for an adventurous summer! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=1000000 8. GET OUT YOUR NUTCRACKER! Have you added nuts to your list of food no-nos? Well, prepare to cross them off that list. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/325/24368/282428.html?d=dmtContent 9. BODY CAM. Are the stars (working) out tonight? Find out live from Gold's Gym in Venice, Calif. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/body/body.html 10. ALIENS INVADE YELLOWSTONE. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/features/ecoinvaders/ecoinvaders.html 11. MISSION INVISIBLE: GO INSIDE A STEALTH BOMBER. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/area/technology/b2/b2.html 12. GATOR CAM. You may have heard that danger often lurks just below the surface. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/gator/gator.html 13. JUNK OR JACKPOT? ARE YOUR HEIRLOOMS VALUABLE? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/treasures.html 14. CHRISTOPHER LOWELL SCREENSAVER. Download our latest Lifestyles feature, and you'll never know when Christopher will pop in to keep you company. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/dscdaytime/christopherlowell/screensaver.html 15. TAKE A DINOSAUR JOURNEY BACK IN TIME. State-of-the-art digital effects and animatronics combine to form the living, breathing images that put you in the scene of a virtual lost world in \"Walking with Dinosaurs.\" Visit the Discovery Store and secure your own copy of the most expensive documentary ever created! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=3000698 16. GO, KEIKO, GO! The star of \"Free Willy\" may finally be free in real life. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000522/animals_keiko.html 17. IMAGINE AN AGELESS, STRESS-FREE WORLD. Watch \"Hormone Heaven\" this week on Discovery Health Channel, and explore a futuristic world where controlling our hormones may be the key to controlling our lives. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20770/23680.html#Anchor-35882 18. ROME CAM. View the \"Eternal City\" 24 hours a day. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/rome/rome.html 19. NEW MEADE AUTOSTAR UPGRADES AT THE DISCOVERY STORE. You already know Discovery Store offers a large variety of telescopes and accessories, with equipment for every age and skill level. But did you know you can now access the FREE Discovery Channel Millennium Sky Tour? Check it out today! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39111809&ti=1000000 20. 6,000-YEAR-OLD CITY FOUND. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000523/history_syria.html 21. THE REAL LYNETTE JENNINGS. It's everything you've always wanted to know about the design diva, her projects and guests. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/dscdaytime/lynettejennings/lynettejennings.html 22. ATHLETIC AND DISABLED. These are not contradictory terms. Recreational activities for disabled people have gone far beyond the wheelchair basketball you're familiar with. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20707/20918.html 23. A YEAR ON MARS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000523/space_mars.html"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (12:44)", "body": "Discovery Online - June 10 1. YOU'RE SUCH A NEANDERTHAL! No offense intended. We thought you'd like to take a virtual tour of a Neanderthal cave and see if you can find the clues hidden there. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/science/stoneages/day.html 2. WALKING UPRIGHT ... WHAT A CONCEPT. Find out how that developed and many other human traits, too. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/science/stoneages/roots.html 3. SOLAR RADIATION HITS EARTH! http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/sunstorms/sunstorms_main.html 4. SEX AND THE SINGLE BANANA SLUG. Birds do it. Bees do it. Lions, tigers, bears ... oh my! Procreation is never far from an animal's thoughts. Fittingly, we've gathered some of the most unusual wildlife wooers you'll ever see. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/mating/mating.html 5. MYTHIC CITIES FOUND UNDER THE SEA. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/guides/ancientworlds/egypt/news/newsmain.html 6. DON'T FORGET ABOUT DAD!! Honor your father in style this year with a special gift from the Discovery Store. Our Father's Day boutique offers a wide range of products, from exploration gear and weather gadgets to stargazing equipment and exciting home videos. Order by June 13, and we'll guarantee on-time delivery and a free gift with every purchase! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=3000729 7. BUG DINOSAURS: IT WAS A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000606/fossils_trilobite.html 8. EATER'S DIGEST. Your food travels an incredible pathway in the 30 feet or so between intake and ... let's say ... output. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20707/24311.html 9. SECRETS BEHIND MOVIE MAGIC. http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/specialeffects/specialeffects.html 10. FAST STARS PRODUCE GIGANTIC BLACK HOLES. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000606/space_blackholes.html 11. NOW YOU'RE COOKING! Please, we beg you, these expert cooking techniques should only be tested by people who eat. Thank you for your cooperation. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/lifestyles/food/techniques/techniques.html 12. BIRD FEEDER CAM. Check out the pecking order when cardinals chow down with wrens and finches dine with chickadees. http://animal.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/birdfeeder/birdfeeder.html 13. WHAT'S UP IN ICELAND? This month we answer that eternal question 30 times with a daily image in \"Picture of the Day.\" http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/picture.html 14. FITNESS THROUGH FUN. Kickboxing ... snowboarding ... what's your passion? Join Stephanie Oakes on Thursday, June 15, at 1 p.m. ET as she shows us the latest way to get in shape: sport-specific training. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20725/23719/281161.html?d=dmtContent 15. OWN THE MOST EXPENSIVE DOCUMENTARY EVER PRODUCED! State-of-the-art digital effects and animatronics combine to form the living, breathing images that put you inside a virtual lost world. If you missed the dramatic broadcast of \"Walking with Dinosaurs,\" visit Discovery Store and secure your own copy of the original BBC version! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=3000698 16. EARTH ALERT: KEEP TRACK OF MOTHER NATURE'S TEMPER TANTRUMS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/earthalert/earthalert.html 17. GREAT MOMENTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY. Remember all the way back to the 20th century? If not, here are some highlights to help you out. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/features/20thcent/20thcent.html 18. AVIATION BUFFS: CAN YOU \"NAME THAT PLANE\"? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/games/plane/plane.html 19. TRASH OR TREASURE? How's your eye for valuable antiques? Give us your appraisal, then find out how you did. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/polls/poll000516.html 20. PIRATE GHOSTS. Just when you thought it was safe to cruise the high seas ... they're back. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/pirates/pirates.html 21. THE GREAT BOOKS SERIES. The best summer reading doesn't ALWAYS have that Fabio guy on the cover. http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/greatbooks/greatbooks.html 22. HURRICANE ENABLED. 'Tis the season for the big winds. See how they start, and find out about the science of predicting them. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/features/huritech/huritech.html 23. VEGAS WEDDING CAM. Live from the city that was built on taking a chance, watch couples roll the dice on wedded bliss. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/wedding/wedding.html 24. THE HEALTHY MALE. Men's bodies may have a reputation for relative simplicity, but if that were true, how would you explain their shorter life span? http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/9105/9105.html 25. SEARCH BEGINS FOR NAZI WAR TREASURE. http://www.di"}, {"response": 104, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sun, Jun 11, 2000 (09:30)", "body": "Fathers day! Is that next weekend?"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 11, 2000 (12:16)", "body": "Yes, Indeed. And I will be celebrating here...brace yourself! June 18th is Father's Day *grin*"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (12:54)", "body": "DISCOVERY.COM THIS WEEK http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/webletter/webletter.html 1. THE PERFECT STORM. Get the real story behind the movie, with readings from Sebastian Junger, the man who actually experienced it. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/storm/storm.html 2. CAN YOU CREATE THE PERFECT STORM? http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/storm/flash.html 3. THE LOST ARK. It's a relic thought to be touched by the hand of God, but with the power to strike unbelievers dead in their tracks. http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/ark/ark.html 4. CROCODILE HUNTER WEEK. Ask Steve, check out the live cam or enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to the Australia Zoo! http://animal.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/crochunter/crochunter.html 5. THE CROC HUNTER AUCTION. Want Steve's snake-catching bag? How about his famous khaki shorts or snake-bitten boots? Well, you'd just better get down to bid-ness and join the auction. http://animal.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/crochunter/auction.html 6. THE CROCODILE HUNTER, IN YOUR HOME! Can't get enough of \"TV's wild man\"? Well, to celebrate \"Croc Week,\" we've compiled all your favorite Steve merchandise in one place. Here, you'll find the best Crocodile Hunter videos, outrageous Steve Irwin apparel and exploration tools for your own adventures. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=1000000 7. KEIKO: BIGGEST STAR IN MOVIES IS NEARLY FREE. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000612/animals_keiko.html 8. YOUR BEST ROLLER COASTER PICTURES. From readers in Cuyahoga Falls to The Netherlands they came ... photos of the scary, the thrilling, the dramatic and the romantic. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/exp/rollercoasters/thrills/toughrider.html 9. LIFE'S A BEACH, AND THEN YOU FRY. Find out the dangers lurking at the beach, from sunburn to ear infections to raw sewage. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20707/20919.html 10. PLAY THE GAME OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. It's called \"Senet.\" Find out if you can beat Ramses at it. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/games/senet/senet.html 11. BE A TV HOST ON \"DISCOVERY KIDS.\" The \"Get Real Sweepstakes\" is your ticket to a chance at stardom. http://kids.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/KIDS/getreal/sweeps.html 12. RAISING A TEENAGER ... AND SURVIVING IT. They're exasperating, exhilarating, passive, passionate ... and it doesn't help that you used to be one. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/lifestyles/babies/teenjournal/teenjournal.html 13. NEANDERTHALS DID THEIR OWN KILLING. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000613/fossils_neanderthal.html 14. CALIFORNIA OTTERS REBOUND (Even Better Than Shaquille O'Neal). http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000612/animals_otter.html 15. \"BREED ALL ABOUT IT\" VIDEOS. Which dog is considered the ultimate house pet? What's the oldest known purebred dog? Find the answers to these questions and much more when you visit the Discovery Store. With videos on almost 20 popular breeds, you're sure to find out the history and unique characteristics of your favorite family pet. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=3000389 16. ALLERGY WARS. Don't go out there unarmed against the powers of nature. Take the offensive with the knowledge you gain in our Allergy Center. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/7945/7945.html 17. FEDERAL AGENTS TRACK BIRD MURDERERS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000613/enviro_cormorant.html 18. TREASURES IN THE ATTIC: THE GALLERY. Check out the pictures of, and stories behind, all the items that our appraiser has ruled on so far. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/appraisal.html 19. ELEPHANT BORN LIVE ON THE INTERNET. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000612/animals_elephant.html 20. WHO WON THE LATEST \"MY DISCOVERY PRIZE PAKS\"? Tammy Ratcliff of Ceredo, W.Va., and Lynette Smith of Manteca, Calif., are the proud owners of an Animal Planet T-shirt, TLC Trauma scrub top, Travel Channel insulated mug and a Discovery.com baseball cap. To be eligible, just make sure all the optional information is filled in on your \"My Discovery\" account. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/MyDiscovery/login.html 21. STARTING SUNDAY: ASK US ABOUT THE ARCTIC FOX. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/conversations/creature/creature.html 22. THE BEST STUFF IN THE WORLD. It's the best of the bunch for beaches, boardwalks, theme parks, safari lodges and more. http://travel.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ideas/wbestlst/wbestlst.html 23. THE SPACE GUIDE. We can truly promise you that the sky is no limit here. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/guides/space/space.html 24. THE DAILY CROSSWORD. Challenging, yes, but not the sort of puzzle you need to be an astrophysicist brain surgeon to solve. http:"}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 23, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "Divining Water on Mars: Part I Thursday's Classroom for June 22, 2000 At a NASA press conference on June 22, 2000, scientists revealed indirect but \"compelling\" evidence that liquid water exists near the surface of Mars and sometimes flows down gullies similar to ones formed by flash floods on Earth. This week's episode of Thursday's Classroom -- the first of a two part series about Mars and martian water -- includes kid's stories that summarize today's press conference along with educational lesson plans and activities about the Red Planet. Please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Thursday's Classroom: Divining Water on Mars (Part 1 of 2) Part 2 of this episode will appear next week on June 29, 2000."}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 24, 2000 (20:15)", "body": "http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/webletter/webletter.html 1. WATER ON MARS! NASA made a monumental announcement this week. Here's what it means. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/features/marspolar/marspolar.html Late-Breaking Bonus Item: CROC CAM. Live from Australia, see the twice-a-day feedings, and look closely for the Crocodile Hunter, himself! http://apl.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/crochunter/croc.html 2. FOLLOW OUR COSMO GIRL! That's \"cosmo\" as in cosmonaut, as correspondent Jane Stevens trains with the Russian space program. You could, too (for the right price). http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/features/spacecamp/spacecamp.html 3. \"PERFECT STORM\" LIVE WEBCAST. Join us right after Discovery Channel's \"The Storm,\" on Monday at 10 p.m. ET to talk to guests, including the man who saved the lives of six people in the real-life \"perfect storm.\" http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/storm/liveevents.html 4. DOES MUSIC MAKE A DIFFERENCE? TELL US ABOUT IT. Did you find the answers blowin' in the wind? Has music or benefit concerts like No Nukes or Live Aid influenced the way you look at the world? Tell us about it, and we may include your story on TLC's \"Stand and Be Counted\" Web site. http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/sabc/sabc.html 5. THE INCREDIBLE CROCODILE HUNTER! Can't get enough of \"TV's wild man\"? Click through the Discovery Store to find the best Crocodile Hunter videos, outrageous Steve Irwin apparel and exploration tools for your own adventures. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=1000000 6. GLADIATOR ARENA FOUND. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000620/hi_gladiator.html 7. WEIGHT UP FOR ME! Despite \"breakthrough\" diets and late-night ads for exercise contraptions, weight is up for most of America. Can you buck the trend? http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/EMDSC000/14220/14220.html KM 8. KITTY CAM. We have the kitten, caboodle may not be included. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/kitten/kittenmain.html 9. PUPPY CAM IS BACK! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/puppy/puppymain.html 10. YOUR GIANT SQUID ANSWERS ARE IN. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/giantsquids/ask.html 11. ICELAND SWINGS AT \"PICTURE OF THE DAY.\" http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/picture.html 12. EARTH ALERT: DISASTERS DON'T REALLY WAIT TO HAPPEN. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/earthalert/earthalert.html 13. MENTAL HEALTH QUIZZES. From alcoholism to bulimia to relationships, find out if you (or someone you love) has a problem that he or she needs to confront. http://www.lifescape.com/discovery/quizzes.asp 14. THE GARDEN THERAPIST. Would hummingbirds in your garden bring a little serenity to your life? Here's how to attract them. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/lifestyles/columns/gardentherapist.html 15. SHARKS ATTACK EXTINCTION! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000620/an_shark.html 16. TIPS AND TRICKS FROM CHRISTOPHER LOWELL. Creative people aren't born; they're made aware by Christopher. At the Discovery Store you'll find a great selection of videos from decorating guru Christopher Lowell. Learn secrets for transforming your bed and bath into a personal oasis. And discover how easy it is to decorate your home with creativity and flair. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=3000368 17. THERE'S SUGAR IN MY MILKY WAY. The galaxy, that is. And it may mean that life-forming chemicals exist before planets develop around stars. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000620/sp_sugar.html 18. ARE HAMMERHEADS SENSITIVE? With a name like that you wouldn't think so, but evidence may be proving otherwise. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000620/an_hammerhead.html 19. CHEF CAM. Check out what's cooking, with our compliments! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/chef/chef.html 20. SMELL YOURSELF WELL? Aromatherapy isn't just a bubble bath, incense and candles. It turns out that there just may be some healing powers here. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/lifestyles/betterliving/aromatherapy.html 21. SHARK CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/shark/sharkmain.html 22. LIVE VEGAS WEDDINGS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/wedding/wedding.html 23. BALTIMORE HARBOR CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/bharbor/bharbor.html 24. IS THIS OLD PHOTOGRAPH VALUABLE? It MIGHT be a Charles M. Russell, but then, not everything is as it seems in the antique world. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/current/appraisal4.html 25. MEET OUR ONLINE APPRAISER. Ever wondered \"Who says so?\" Well, we're glad you wondered that. Here he is. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/meet.html 26. SHOULD YOU DO PRENATAL TESTING? http://www.d"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  6, 2000 (12:29)", "body": "Here Comes Comet Linear NASA Science News for July 05, 2000 Comet 1999 LINEAR S4, which can already be seen through binoculars, is expected to become a faint naked-eye object similar in appearance to the Andromeda Nebula as it glides by the Big Dipper this month. Maximum brightness is expected on July 23, 2000. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast05jul_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  7, 2000 (00:41)", "body": "The Patriot, American Pyramid & Those Wacky Commercials at Discovery.com 1. \"THE PATRIOT\": HOW MUCH IS TRUE? Although Mel Gibson makes a dashing revolutionary, would you be safe quoting the movie as historic fact? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/reelhistory/patriot/patriot.html 2. WATCH THE DISCOVERY.COM TV COMMERCIALS. Some folks love them, and some just can't stand them. Take a look to see where you stand on the controversy. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ad_ventures/onairspots/ 3. AMERICAN PYRAMID. Maybe George never told a lie, but scandals, scuffles and scam artists are just a few of the reasons it took 85 years to make the Washington Monument a reality. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/monument/monument.html 4. WHEN DID PEOPLE START USING COINS? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000627/hi_coins.html 5. GET READY FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY! As summer heats up, be prepared for all of your favorite outdoor activities. The Discovery Store offers a wide variety of products that help you explore your world. Barbecue and outdoor tools, travel gear ... you're sure to find what you need to have an adventurous summer! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=1000000 6. WE HAVE 63 ADVENTURES FOR KIDS (and still growing)! http://kids.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/thelist.html 7. PLAY THE GAME OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. Back by popular demand ... It's called \"Senet.\" Find out if you can beat Ramses at it. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/games/senet/senet.html 8. THE PERFECT STORM. Now that the movie is out, get the real story from the people who actually lived through it. http://dsc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/storm/storm.html 9. HAVING THAT SEX TALK. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20722/24494.html 10. DOES MUSIC MAKE A DIFFERENCE? TELL US ABOUT IT. Did you find the answers blowin' in the wind? Has music or benefit concerts like No Nukes or Live Aid influenced the way you look at the world? Tell us about it, and we may include your story on TLC's \"Stand and Be Counted\" Web site. http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/sabc/sabc.html 11. MARS: EVEN MORE WATER THAT THOUGHT? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000628/sp_mars.html 12. GET A LIFESTYLE! Don't be content with just a life. We can help you with everything from dating through the wedding, cooking and parenting. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/lifestyles/lifestyles.html 13. VISIT TURKEY AND GREECE AT \"PICTURE OF THE DAY.\" http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/picture.html 14. I GOT THIS DOLL AT THE SALVATION ARMY. WHAT'S IT WORTH? Prepare to be surprised! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/current/appraisal1.html 15. CAN MACHINES EVOLVE? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000626/te_tl_darwincar.html 16. NEW MEADE ETX 60 TELESCOPE ARRIVES AT THE DISCOVERY STORE! This new Meade telescope incorporates ETX technology with a great price. Ideal for the introductory student of astronomy or for the casual observer; be sure to check it out today! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=3000322 17. BIRD WATCHER CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/cbird/cbird.html 18. BODY CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/body/body.html 19. GORILLA CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/gorillas/gorillas.html 20. KIDS! PLAY \"DINO DOUBLES\" AND TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE. http://kids.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/dinos/triassic/coeldoubles.html 21. EATING RIGHT ON THE ROAD. That summer car trip needn't turn into a grease, salt and fast food assault on your digestive system. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20707/24544.html 22. LATEST NEWS FROM HUBBLE. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000628/sp_hubble.html 23. THE ONE-MILE MUMMY? Did you know the linen used to wrap one ancient Egyptian mummy could stretch almost an entire mile?! While we can't offer you an original, the Discovery Store has a great selection of popular Egyptian decor. From unique statues to replica artifacts ... you'll find something to satisfy any Egyptophile! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39118006&ti=3000635 24. DIGESTING THE SUMMER. Hot dogs, burgers, fried foods ... get the lowdown on how your body handles the summer fuel you feed it. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/8270/8270.html 25. ON TV: TLC, SUNDAY, UFOs UNCOVERED. When pilots and air traffic controllers report sightings, can governments continue to debunk? http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tv/tvschedule/episode.jsp?episode=550351002 26. ON TV: TRAVEL CHANNEL, MONDAY, HIDDEN HARRODS. See what goes on in the backroom of the world's most famous department store. http://travel.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tv/tvschedule/episode.jsp?episode=780559000 27. ON T"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (14:52)", "body": "Discovery Channel Online 1. GET TO KNOW YOUR DOG. Why do they stake out their territory? What IS all that barking about? Here, the puzzles of the purebred and the mysteries of the mutt are revealed. http://animal.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/dog_guide/dog_guide.html 2. STARTING SUNDAY: LET'S TALK ELEPHANTS! This Tuesday they appear on Animal Planet's \"A Herd of Their Own.\" But all week long, Doug and Sandi Groves are online to answer your elephant questions. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/conversations/creature/creature.html 3. TROUBLE ON (PSEUDO) MARS. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000711/sp_tl_marscamp.html 4. EMAIL THE MARTIANS! OK, they're really earthlings trying to simulate life on Mars in the Arctic, but they're ready to answer your questions about their experiments (or whatever you'd like to know). mars@online.discovery.com 5. SEE THE WORLD: THE BEST FROM \"PICTURE OF THE DAY.\" Paris, France. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/sep99/photo26.html Bimini. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/nov99/photo03.html Tasmania, Australia. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/mar00/photo09.html Naples, Italy. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/aug99/photo26.html Tucson, Ariz., United States. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/feb00/photo09.html Priene, Greece. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/jul00/photo10.html Kyoto, Japan. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/may00/photo25.html The Amazon River. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/apr00/photo14.html Washington, D.C., United States. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/jul99/photo29.html MacKinnon Pass, New Zealand. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/jan00/photo30.html The Rocky Mountains. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/dec99/photo19.html Iceland. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/jun00/photo16.html Redford, Mich., United States. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/oct99/photo13.html 6. TREASURES OF THE \"ROYAL CAPTAIN.\" It lay at the bottom of the South China Sea for two centuries ... is it ready to give up its riches now? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/captain/main.html 7. OWN THE MOST EXPENSIVE DOCUMENTARY EVER PRODUCED! Take the ultimate journey back in time ... to the reign of the dinosaurs! If you missed the dramatic broadcast of \"Walking with Dinosaurs,\" then visit the Discovery Store and secure your own copy of the original BBC version! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=3000698 8. HISTORY FROM A-TO-Z. Check out this incredible resource from \"World Book Online.\" You won't believe all that's here. http://school.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/students/homeworkhelp/worldbook/atozhistory/index.html 9. UNDERSTANDING THE UNIVERSE. Now you really DON'T need to be a rocket scientist to know about the world around you, and beyond. http://school.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/schooladventures/universe/index.html 10. KEEP THE FIRE IN YOUR MARRIAGE. Remember your first glimpse? First date? First kiss? There's no reason that time has to wear away that loving feeling. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/lifestyles/dating/passion.html 11. LOOK LIKE A CELEBRITY, OR JUST WORK OUT LIKE ONE. Could you keep up with Cindy Crawford\ufffds trainer? Learn how one woman survived the Radu Method. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20812/24619.html 12. SQUID FISHING: SOLUTION TO WORLD HUNGER? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000710/an_squid.html 13. SURVEY: TELL US WHAT YOU THINK OF DISCOVERY EMAIL. If you've signed up for our FREE email account, are you satisfied? Unhappy? Here's your chance to make your opinions count. http://survey.informative.com/sb/survey?s=87386&hdr=1 14. SPACE STATION'S \"LIVING ROOM\" LAUNCHED. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000712/sp_station.html 15. WATCH \"ECO-CHALLENGE\" ANY TIME YOU WANT. You've seen the thrilling, suspenseful action on the Discovery Channel, now own the video that captures it all! Competitors penetrate dense forests, navigate wild rapids, kayak a glacial fjord and climb a 12,000-foot summit mantled by ancient glaciers, all while braving the intense Patagonia terrain and weather. Visit the Discovery Store to order your copy today. http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=3000696 16. ALL ABOUT ARTHRITIS. Find out exactly what it is, its symptoms and treatments. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/9071/9071.html 17. FIRST BROWN DWARF FLARE EVER SPOTTED. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000712/sp_chandra.html 18. WHO OWNS THE MOON? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/unofficialspace/980420/space.html 19. ARCTIC ICE CAP: GONE IN 50 YEARS? http://www.discovery.c"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (20:52)", "body": "Thursday's Classroom for July 20, 2000 Divining Water on Mars (Part 2) http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Last month, many experts expressed surprise when scientists unveiled new evidence for water flowing on Mars. The Red Planet is extraordinarily cold and dry. Water there is expected to be in the form of a solid or a vapor. Liquid water ought to be very rare. In this episode of Thursday's Classroom students can explore the reasons why it's so hard to maintain water on Mars in liquid form. Lessons and activities include: o A Martian Cookbook -- modify an Earth recipe to bake cake in the rarefied martian atmosphere o Whatsa Matta You?! -- explore the three states of matter with examples from the human body o Mars Geography Concentration -- play cards and learn the strange names of important places on Mars and more! This week's episode also introduces a new feature: The Thursday's Classroom Coloring Book. Younger students can color original art by Duane Hilton as they follow the articles and activities. For more information please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (22:58)", "body": "Whales, Volcanoes & Sharks at Discovery.com If your email doesn't hyperlink these addresses, just copy this one address into your Web browser and click your way through this week's highlights. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/webletter/webletter.html 1. VOLCANO! Go inside the awesome fury of a live volcano, then make sure your town isn't next on the \"hit list.\" http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/volcano/volcano.html 2. BE A WHALE WATCHER. Visit the top places in North America to view migrating grays, thrill to the breaching humpbacks, kayak among orcas, mingle with wild dolphins, and experience whales, dolphins, and porpoises on their own terms. http://travel.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ideas/animtrv/whalewtch/whalewtch.html 3. SHARK WEEK ONLINE. On Discovery Channel, Shark Week starts on August 13. But it's in full swing online right now! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/sharkweek2000/sharkweek2000.html 4. SHARK WEEK SWEEPSTAKES. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/sharkweek2000/sweepstakes/sweepstakes.html 5. THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE POTIONS. Whether it's chocolate, ground rhino horn or a good workout, we all have our own avenues to arousal. Learn more about the fascinating science behind what turns us on, with \"Aphrodisiacs: Magic or Medicine?.\" http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20770/24663.html 6. DON'T MISS OUR EXTREME WEATHER GUIDE. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/guides/weather/weather.html 7. HISTORY GUIDE ... THE PAST WAS FAR FROM PERFECT. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/guides/history/history.html 8. NAME THAT PLANE! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/games/plane/plane.html 9. TREASURES IN THE ATTIC. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/history/treasures/treasures.html 10. JOIN THE \"DAWN OF MAN\" DISCUSSION. For decades, scientists have kept certain evolutionary discoveries under wraps, discoveries that date modern humans back much further than we've been lead to believe. Want to learn more? Michael Cremo, author of \"Forbidden Archaeology,\" is ready to take your questions. http://tlc.discovery.com:4000/mb/user/msglist.html?NoFrames=1?1256485&Topic=Dawn+of+Man 11. SKYSCRAPER CAM. Watch the construction as it happens. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/torremayor/torremayor.html 12. FOR THE LOVE OF A BROTHER. When John Vilardi desperately needed a transplant, his sister gave him more than half of her own liver. Witness their humor and love as they prepare for major surgery that has the potential to save John -- or take both their lives. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20729/24666.html 13. FANS OF \"FBI FILES\" AND \"NEW DETECTIVES,\" GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK! We're developing a Web site to complement your TV experience, and we want to hear from you! Is there something you want to know about the shows? About forensics in general? Tell us you want to see online. fansite@online.discovery.com 14. TIMES SQUARE CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/timessquare/timessquare.html 15. PET CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/kitten/kittenmain.html 16. BODY CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/body/body.html 17. CROC HUNTER CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/crochunter/crochunter.html 18. BIRD WATCHER CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/cbird/cbird.html 19. KREMLIN CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/kremlin/kremlin.html 20. GOLF CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/hhgolf/hhgolf.html 21. GORILLA CAM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/gorillas/gorillas.html 22. DUST BUNNIES BEGONE! If you're sneezing and sniffling in your own home, you may need to rethink your cleaning technique. Visit our Allergy Zone and you'll be breathing freely in no time. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/7945/7945.html 23. ON TV: DISCOVERY HEALTH, WEDNESDAY, \"BIRTH DAY MARATHON.\" They say it's our Birth Day! Celebrate Discovery Health's first anniversary with back-to-back episodes of our daytime series \"Birth Day,\" featuring stories that take you through the birthing process, from anticipation to delivery. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/20770/23680.html"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  4, 2000 (14:27)", "body": "A Comet Comes Apart Thursday's Classroom for August 3, 2000 http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Late last month stargazers were eagerly anticipating the arrival of Comet LINEAR, which was expected to become the first naked-eye comet in three years. But the comet surprised observers by blowing apart as it passed near to the Sun. Even now, astronomers are watching intently as Comet LINEAR dissolves into a haze of gas and dust. This week's episode of Thursday's Classroom features stories for kids and educational lesson plans about comets and Comet LINEAR. Activities include: * Comet Cones -- Kids who sample one of these delicious treats will never forget the \"dirty snowball\" model for comets. * Really Big Numbers -- How many zeros are in Comet LINEAR's distance from Earth? Kids find out in this lesson about scientific notation. * The Comet Coloring Book -- Students can color original art by Duane Hilton as they follow along with this week's lessons. ...and more! Please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  4, 2000 (22:52)", "body": "Shark Week, Gorillas & World Tour at Discovery.com Your transport to fun and adventure is ready when you are ... 1. THE SHARK WEEK BRAIN TEASER. How small is the smallest known shark? Find out and test more of your shark knowledge in our online brain-teaser quiz for Shark Week. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/sharkweek2000/teaser.html 2. SHARKS IN DEPTH. Are you a 3-D fan? Explore our 3-D shark tank online. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/sharkweek2000/3dtank.html 3. YOUR LIFE AS A GORILLA. Who among us hasn't wondered what sort of gorilla we'd make? Well, we can help you answer that gnawing question once and for all. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/area/nature/gorillas/gorillas.html 4. WHY DO BEANS GIVE ME GAS? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/area/skinnyon/skinnyon970815/skinnyon.html 5. WHY DO ICE CUBES SHRINK IN THE FREEZER? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/area/skinnyon/skinnyon970509/skinny1.html 6. WHERE DO FRUIT FLIES COME FROM? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/area/skinnyon/skinnyon970718/skinny1.html 7. DOES A FULL MOON MAKE PEOPLE CRAZY? http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/area/skinnyon/skinnyon970620/skinny1.html 8. WHY DOES \"TWEEZING\" MY EYEBROWS MAKE ME SNEEZE? http://www.discovery.com/area/skinnyon/skinnyon970411/skinny1.html 9. SPA BLISS. Whether you enjoy scaling rocks or scaling the massage table, we'll help you find the spa retreat that suits your fancy. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH?t=23854&p=~br,DSC|~st,20770|~r,WSDSC000|~b,* | 10. ALIEN ENCOUNTER HEADQUARTERS. We've compiled all of our human-alien contact information in one place to help you decide if the truth really is out there. http://tlc.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/tlcpages/encounters/encounters.html 11. HIGH CHOLESTEROL AT AGE 10? It's not out of the question. If your family has a history of high cholesterol, you may want to have your children checked. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/8059/23514/29347.html?d=dmtContent 12. FANS OF \"FBI FILES\" AND \"NEW DETECTIVES,\" GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK! We're developing a Web site to complement your TV experience, and we want to hear from you! Is there something you want to know about the shows? About forensics in general? Tell us you want to see online. fansite@online.discovery.com 13. THE \"PICTURE OF THE DAY\" WORLD TOUR: Corricella, Italy. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/aug99/photo31.html The Huron River, Mich. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/oct99/photo07.html Wellington, New Zealand. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/jan00/photo02.html Tasmania. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/mar00/photo15.html 14. THE PANORAMA PHOTO WORLD TOUR: Tasmania. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/mar00/panoramas/javapano1.html The Navy Museum, Washington, D.C. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/jul99/panoramas/javapano1.html The Latin Quarter, Paris, France. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/sep99/panoramas/javapano1.html The Amazon River. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/apr00/panoramas/javapano4.html Tokyo, Japan. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/may00/panoramas/javapano1.html Wupatki National Park, Ariz. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/feb00/panoramas/javapano3.html Hvita River, Iceland. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/jun00/panoramas/javapano3.html The Rocky Mountains. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/picture/dec99/panoramas/javapano4.html 15. NEWEST \"MY DISCOVERY\" PRIZE PAK WINNERS! Dee Ferrero of Clairton, Pa., is patiently awaiting the delivery of an Animal Planet T-shirt, TLC \"Trauma\" scrub top, Travel Channel insulated mug and Discovery.com baseball cap. How can you win? Just go to your \"My Discovery\" profile and make sure the optional information is filled in, and you're eligible! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/MyDiscovery/login.html 16. IS FOOD YOUR FRIEND OR FOE? Is your diet your best insurance against cancer or is it just feeding killer cells? Get the latest research on what and how to eat to prevent cancer. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/8096/8766.html"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (13:23)", "body": "Catch a Falling Star this weekend Thursday's Classroom for August 10, 2000 http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com On Saturday morning, August 12th, early-rising stargazers can enjoy the sight of an unusually colorful Moon as it sinks below the southwestern horizon. You have to be awake at 3:30 a.m. to see the sight, but it may be worth it. That's because after the Moon sets the sky will sparkle with a brief but beautiful Perseid meteor shower. This week's episode of Thursday's Classroom features stories for kids and educational lesson plans about meteors and the coming Perseid meteor shower. Activities include: * Falling Star French Toast -- This activity will motivate kids to wake up early for the meteor display! * Meteor Estimation Graphing -- Students can try their hand at guessing how many meteors per hour might be seen during this year's Perseid meteor shower. * Sky Orienteering -- This simple lesson introduces kids to the cardinal directions around their house so they'll know how to find the Perseids radiant. * The Meteor Coloring Book -- Students can color original art by Duane Hilton as they follow along with this week's lessons. ...and more! Please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 11, 2000 (17:53)", "body": "Live Shark Videos, New Planets & Wildfires at Discovery.com Sunday starts Shark Week, a time when, for the true Discovery.com fan, all is well in this great big, wonderful world. If your email doesn't hyperlink these addresses, just copy this one address into your Web browser and click your way through this week's highlights. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/webletter/webletter.html 1. WATCH SHARKS ... LIVE IN STREAMING VIDEO! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/predator/predator.html 2. BASKING WITH SHARKS. Discovery is live in the field! We're finding out why the mysterious giant basking sharks at the Isle of Man attract such big fans. Join the expedition online. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/sharkweek2000/bigsharks.html 3. EMAIL OUR SHARK EXPERTS. Do you have questions about great whites or prehistoric sharks? Come here right after \"Great White Down Under\" on Monday and \"Jurassic Shark\" on Wednesday for live webcasts with our experts. Email your questions now! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/sharkweek2000/webcast.html 4. DOWNLOAD \"SHARK WEEK\" WALLPAPER. It's the \"Sherman's Lagoon\" cartoon! http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/sharkweek2000/wallpaper.html 5. LIVE GORILLA VIDEO. What if that \"Big Brother\" TV show were populated exclusively with apes? Say, we may be onto something big here. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/gorilla2/gorilla2.html 6. THOSE CRAZY DISCOVERY.COM TV COMMERCIALS. Viewer opinions range from \"pure genius\" to \"pure bunk.\" Take a look and decide for yourself. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ad_ventures/onairspots/ 7. NINE NEW PLANETS DISCOVERED. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000807/sp_planets.html 8. WEST NILE VIRUS ATTACKS AGAIN. It's ba-ack! This season's first case of West Nile virus was discovered last week in New York City. Learn what you can do to protect yourself against this mysterious virus. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH?t=24552&p=~br,DSC|~st,24479|~r,WSDSC000|~b,* | 9. TAKE THE \"SHOULD WE STAY TOGETHER\" QUIZ. As the saying goes, there are plenty of fish in the sea. Find out if your relationship is a well-balanced, carefully tended aquarium, or a dead mackerel that's starting to stink. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/lifestyles/dating/marriagetest.html 10. WILDFIRES CONTINUE TO RAGE. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000808/hi_fires.html 11. PRODUCTS TO EXPLORE YOUR WORLD. With 3-4 day standard shipping, 24 hour, 7 days-a-week customer service, online order status and a host of other great new features, the Discovery Store is your one-stop-shop. You'll find only the best products to pursue your passions ... exploration tools, home accents, expedition wear, videos, books and more. Visit now and you'll find over 250 new products added to the site! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39099415&ti=1000000 12. WILL YOU WIN THE CYBERSURFARI? It's the online treasure hunt where you not only learn about the Internet, you can win cool prizes while you're doing it. http://school.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cybersurfari/ 13. A MAMMOTH EXPEDITION ... THE NEXT STEP. The mammoth hunters are back in Siberia, searching for the remains of more woolly mammoths. They might even find other prehistoric grassland neighbors such as the woolly rhino on this live expedition. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/exp/mammoth/mammoth.html 14. WATCH LIVE VIDEO FROM LOGAN AIRPORT IN BOSTON. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/airport/airport.html 15. TIPS AND TRICKS FROM CHRISTOPHER LOWELL!!! Think you're not creative? Visit the Discovery Store where you'll find a great selection of videos from decorating guru Christopher Lowell. Learn secrets for transforming your bed and bath into a personal oasis. And discover how easy it is to decorate your home with creativity and flair. You'll be painting, pasting and pleating in no time! http://shopping.discovery.com/jumpzone/entry.html?ai=39105612&ti=3000368 16. THE BENEFITS OF FIBER? First we hear that diets rich in fiber help stave off colorectal cancer, then we hear it's bunk. So ... should you favor fiber or forget it? http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/8096/8241/212081.html?d=dmtContent 17. SPACE STATION GETS A DELIVERY. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000808/sp_station.html 18. TRAGEDY AT SEA: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE USS INDIANAPOLIS. The story that Robert Shaw told in \"Jaws\" is real. When the USS Indianapolis went down near the end of World War II, 900 sailors were stranded in shark-infested waters. Hear stories from some of the 316 men who survived. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/exp/indianapolis/indianapolis.html 19. EVOLUTION: IS THERE PRESSURE TO COMPLY WITH THE THEORY? Suppose you found fossil evidence that didn't quite fit the prevailing theories of evolution. Would the scientific world clamo"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 18, 2000 (11:55)", "body": "1. EXPLORE DISCOVERY.COM BY SUBJECT. One of the coolest features of our new look is the quick route to your favorite topics. You told us what they were, so we organized around them: history, animals, dinosaurs, weather, planet Earth, space, human behavior and technology. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/guides/guides.html TELL OUR G.M. WHAT YOU THINK. Discovery.com General Manager, Bill Allman, would love to hear your reactions to our new look. He won't be able to answer you all, but you can be assured that he'll see every response! tell_the_boss@discovery.com 2. CAN SHARKS FLY? Shark Week may end on Sunday, but Discovery.com subscribers get a look at what's hitting the air next year. Just call them \"Air Jaws.\" http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/stories/nature/sharkweek2000/sneakpeek.html 3. THE LATEST ON RAISING THE MAMMOTH. The mammoth hunters are once again searching back in time. Find out about their latest finds, and see photos from our reporter in Siberia. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/exp/mammoth/mammoth.html 4. KENNY THE SHARK TELLS ALL! Who are the heroes and villains in the undersea world? Who broke Kenny's heart? All this and more is revealed in the big guy's new Shark Week mini-memoir. http://kids.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/sharkweek00/kennymain.html 5. WHAT IS YOUR CAT THINKING? Is the constant cleaning obsessive-compulsive? What's with that purr? Are they cool or cold? Take a little trip inside the feline mind to find out. http://animal.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cat_guide/cat_guide.html ***** ENTER TO WIN ... ****** ... a trip to Jazz Fest 2001 in New Orleans or a TiVo Personal Video Recorder(tm)! Click here to enter the \"TiVo TV Your Way\" Sweepstakes! And while you're there, we'll tell you all about the revolutionary, new TiVo Personal Video Recorder(tm). http://www.discovery.com/ad_ventures/TiVo/sabc/ ******************************* 6. SEND DISCOVERY-THEMED E-CARDS FREE! Combine your words and sentiments with our dynamic images to let those special someones know you're thinking of them. But be careful, once you get started, it's hard to stop. Try these themes: Animals http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ecards/animals/select_1.html Travel http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ecards/travel/select_1.html Lifestyles http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ecards/lifestyles/select_1.html Kids http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ecards/kids/select_1.html School http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ecards/school/select_1.html Discovery Channel http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ecards/discovery/select_1.html Greetings http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ecards/greetings/select_1.html Special Collection http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/ecards/special/select_1.html 7. SILENT ANGELS: THE SEARCH FOR GENETIC MIRACLES. Hosted by Julia Roberts, \"Silent Angels\" tells the story of families and genetic researchers as they try to find answers to the mysterious neurological condition, Rett syndrome. Learn more about the causes and symptoms, plus a recent medical breakthrough in treating this debilitating syndrome, which almost exclusively affects girls. Premieres Sunday, August 27 at 10 p.m. ET. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH?t=24713&p=~br,DSC|~st,24479|~r,WSDSC000|~b,* | 8. TERROR ON THE TRACKS - LIVE! Roller coaster riders at Six Flags America may try to look cool, but the looks on their faces are a dead giveaway. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/cams/sixflags/joker.html 9. LIFE IS A CARNIVORE, OLD CHUM. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000815/an_carnivores.html 10. STAY ON TOP OF TECHNOLOGY. Our new weekly Technology column will fill you in on the very latest, and help you figure out how it relates to YOUR life. http://www.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/news/briefs/20000814/te_usn_pertech1.html 11. WEIGHT A MINUTE! We may be nearing the last hot days of summer, but it's not too late to trim down for a new fall wardrobe. For motivation, check out our Weight Center daily for the latest weight loss tip. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/14220/14220.html 12. WHAT'S NEW WITH \"THE CROCODILE HUNTER\"? It's not all wrestling crocs and catching giant snakes for Steve Irwin. Watch the debut of his new \"Crocodile Rap\" video. (Come to think of it, it IS all wrestling crocs and catching giant snakes.) http://animal.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/crochunter/crochunter.html 13. THE CROSSWORD SOLVER. Sometimes a letter here or there is all it takes to break that brain-stumping logjam. Now you can attack those vexing verbs and pesky participles three different ways. http://school.discovery.com/ex/ad/newsletter/dictionaryplus/crosswordsolver/ 14. SIX DEAD EVERY HOUR. More than 56,000 people in the United States will die this year from colorectal cancer. Learn how many of them could be saved through early detection and intervention. http://www.discoveryhealth.com/DH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/8096/246"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (21:14)", "body": "For a seemingly inexhaustable list of science links just for kids: http://arizona.speedchoice.com/~billbo/kidlinks.htm"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (23:36)", "body": "Ocenaography news for Kids with great links: http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/kids/news.html"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (16:40)", "body": "Divining Water on Mars, Part 3 Thursday's Classroom for August 24, 2000 http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Earlier this year, scientists revealed pictures of Mars that seem to show gullies carved by flooding water in the recent past. Many experts were amazed because Mars is such an unlikely place to find liquid water. The planet is colder than Antarctica and far drier than any place on Earth. If humans visit Mars they will likely need water to grow food, to drink, and as a source of oxygen and hydrogen for rocket fuel. Native microbial life on Mars -- if it exists -- probably also needs water. The hunt for precious water on Mars will shift into high gear in 2003 when NASA sends two rovers to explore the surface of the Red Planet. This week's episode of Thursday's Classroom features stories for kids and educational lesson plans about the history of Mars exploration and the upcoming rover missions. Activities include: o The First Words from Mars -- students discuss Neil Armstrong's famous words when he first set foot on the Moon and develop a phrase that might be worthy of the first person on Mars. o It's About Time -- This timely math lesson invites kids to work with dates and time intervals relevant to the history of Mars exploration. o Martian History Quiz Show -- This zero-preparation activity is a great way for kids to review facts the history of Mars exploration. o The Red Planet Coloring Book -- Students can color original art by Duane Hilton as they follow along with this week's lessons. ...and more! Please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com"}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  6, 2000 (21:14)", "body": "Watch Out for Space Rocks! Thursday's Classroom for September 6, 2000 http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Last Friday, a small asteroid zoomed past Earth barely 12 times farther from our planet than the Moon. There was no danger of a collision, but astronomers are keeping a close eye on the space rock and many others like it. This episode of Thursday's Classroom features stories for kids and educational lesson plans about Near-Earth asteroids and NASA's efforts to discover and track them. Activities include: o Alphabet Soup for Rocket Scientists -- If NEA 2000 QW7 passes 0.03 AU from NASA HQ, should we worry? Students find out in this lesson about acronyms and abbreviations. o Oh Fudge, it's an Asteroid! -- Asteroids may look like \"flying potatoes,\" but modeling their shapes is a lot more fun if you use fudge. o Asteroid Angles -- This middle school and high school level math exercise helps students decide whether it's better to blow up an Earth-threatening asteroid, or just to nudge it a bit. o The Near-Earth Asteroid Coloring Book -- Students can color original art by Duane Hilton as they follow along with this week's lessons. ...and more! Please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 13, 2000 (01:01)", "body": "Thursday's Classroom for September 12, 2000 http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com The Harvest Moon is coming, but are you ready? This episode of Thursday's Classroom will help you prepare for this week's brilliant Full Moon with stories for kids and educational lesson plans. Activities include: o Moon Munchies & Moon Magic -- Investigate the famous Moon Illusion with the aid of edible spyglasses. o Moon Shadows -- Are Moon shadows different than Sun shadows? Students will find out for themselves in this lesson, which emphasizes English-to-metric conversions and the scientific method. o A Tourist's Guide to the Moon -- Check out easy-to-see points of interest on the face of the full Moon. o The Harvest Moon Coloring Book -- Students can color original art by Duane Hilton as they follow along with this week's lessons. ...and more! Please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com"}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (15:18)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 10/6/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR PET? Can you figure out what your pet is trying to tell you? Take our online pet quiz. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=89618&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Email your questions to pet expert Dr. Alan Beck. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=89618&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ****HOT DEAL**** $199 EYEGLASSES AT LENSCRAFTERS Get a great pair of prescription glasses with designer frames and one of LensCrafters' best lenses, FeatherWates, for only $199*. Offer includes bifocals and progressives. Hurry \ufffd ends soon. Find the store nearest you. *some restrictions apply. ************************** http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=89618&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S HELP US WRITE FUTURE STORIES Make Your Pet Famous! Do you have a hammy hamster or a star-struck schnauzer? Send us a photo with a short story and you may see your best pal in our gallery of pets. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=89621&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Adventures in Birthing Share your birthing stories with us! Whether you delivered your baby underwater, with the help of a midwife, or even in the comfort of your own home, we want to hear about it! Send us your story, then look for it in our online feature at the end of October. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=89621&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Escape Stories! We're looking for true stories about the triumph of the human spirit over captivity and oppression. Have you or anyone in your family escaped from tyranny to freedom through ingenuity, courage or just plain luck? If so, please tell us about it, and we may feature your story on our Web site. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=89621&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= THE CIVIL WAR VIDEO GALLERY Check out our newest content, including interviews with Stonewall Jackson, two Union soldiers and a woman on the battlefield. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=89624&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S BASEBALL'S GREATEST SUPERSTITIONS Lucky hats, silk underwear, chicken every day ... You never know what the baseball gods will demand in return for that clutch hit or acrobatic catch. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=89629&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Send Classic Baseball E-Cards The Major League playoffs are underway, and what better way to spread baseball fever than by sending a team picture of the 1913 Cleveland Americans or Philadelphia Nationals to a fellow fan? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=89629&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S GET THE LATEST SCIENCE NEWS Enormous Iceberg Is on the Loose. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=89634&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Michael Jordan From the 5th Century B.C.? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=89634&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Braille Computer Makes Blind Web Surfing Easier. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=89634&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S PERSONAL TECH: SHOULD ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS GO DIGITAL? Are digital cameras really all they're cracked up to be? Rich Folkers tackles this question and others in his debut article for Discovery.com's Tech Guide. Look for Rich's technical wit and wisdom twice a month, and feel free to ask him your questions! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=89638&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=89638&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S FROM DISCOVERY HEALTH: THE COMING ALZHEIMER EPIDEMIC Twelve million people have the disease, but research suggests the numbers are about to undergo a rapid increase. Learn more about this debilitating disease, see if it can be prevented, then take the quiz to test your Alzheimer's knowledge. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=89641&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Generation Prozac Half a dozen post-Prozac antidepressants are on the market, and 26 new drugs are in the pipeline, but are we any closer to a safe, effective \"cure\" for depression? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=89641&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Food Kills If a hidden kitchen-cam filmed your food-safety practices, would you pass or be fined by the food police? Find out how lapses in hygiene can affect your health and what you can do to make your food-handling practices safer. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=89641&pr=549&cf=1&pa=41&e=S BRING DISCOVERY CHANNEL QUALITY TO YOUR HOME! Visit a Weather Buff's Paradise Did you know that 10 million lightening bolts shoot toward the Earth every day? Each bolt is hotter than the sun, miles long, yet less than an inch thick! For more great weather facts, visit the Discovery Store. You'll find inf"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 10/13/2000 --------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ THAWING THE MAMMOTH! Now that our ancient guest has been raised from his icy grave, there are new challenges, like coordinating dozens of hair-dryer operators and dealing with a cave full of dead fish. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=93791&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Mammoth Versus Mastodon: Take the Quiz Some people think they're one and the same, so if you know the difference you're ahead of the game. Now see how far ahead you are. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=93791&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Where Did Mammoths Come From? Well, it all started with a pig ... sort of. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=93791&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Send Us Your Mammoth Questions You can ask the folks right there in the cave with the mammoth. We'll choose a few to post on the Net, so stop back to see if yours has made the cut. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=93791&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Five T. Rex Unearthed On average, a T. Rex is discovered every ten years. That's why this Montana miracle has scientists thinking they've hit the motherlode. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=93791&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S *****HOT DEAL***** Timberland now brings you a full range of apparel and footwear designed for the adventure traveler. Whether you are trekking in New Zealand or just taking a walk in the outdoors Timberland has you covered. Visit Timberland.com to discover more. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=93791&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ********************** ASTEROID HUNTER TAKES AIM The first step in making sure we don't go the way of the dinosaurs is spotting the big chunks of space rocks headed our way. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=93796&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Making a Home on Mars If you think your heating bills will be high this winter, imagine the task facing scientists investigating what it would take for humans to live on Mars. Their first order of business ... heat an entire planet. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=93796&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Europe Unveils New Space Probes The European Space Agency is looking 13 years down the road, and one of their goals is to put Einstein's theories to the test. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=93796&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Gifts for Your Aircraft Fanatic Is there an aviation buff in your life? Then visit the Discovery Store where you'll find authentic aircraft replicas from World Wars I and II, plus a complete line of aviation apparel, WINGS videos and home decor to keep your loved one flying high. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=93796&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= PET LOVE: MEET THE TV STARS Get to know the pets and their families from Monday's Discovery Channel program, and then after the show, find out what they're up to now. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=93809&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Why not put your best friend in the spotlight? Tell us about your own pet. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=93809&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S \"Pet Love\": Order the Video Does your cat perceive your deepest feelings and unspoken thoughts? Can your dog see a heart attack coming before you do? The answers may surprise you. Learn all about the emotions of your favorite family pet when you pre-order your copy of \"Pet Love\" at the Discovery Store. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=93809&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S WHAT ATTRACTS A WOMAN? Writer Mark Bemesderfer is convinced that nothing makes him more interesting to females than being with another female. Is he imagining things? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=93819&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Go Behind the Scenes at \"A Dating Story\" Imagine your worst blind date on television for the world to see. It takes a crew of true professionals to coax and cajole these brave daters along. Find out how it's done. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=93819&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Do the Dating and Relationships Crossword The beauty of this particular puzzle is that it works great whether you're in a state of bliss or smack dab in the middle of a love snit. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=93819&pr=600&cf=1&pa=41&e=S LOCH NESS MONSTER SIGHTINGS GALLERY Have you experienced a sighting of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster on our live cam? Send us the pictures to prove it! In the body of your e-mail, attach images you've saved for us in JPG format (please include the file extension in the title of each image). If we choose your pictures, they may appear in our Sightings Gallery. We get a lot of mail, so "}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (19:04)", "body": "Want to have some fun in the kitchen? Here, borrowed from Sprin5, is the place: http://freeweb.pdq.net/headstrong/Default.htm"}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (13:02)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 11/17/2000 ---------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ SPACE STATION: YOUR USER'S GUIDE Come meet astronauts, take a space walk, explore life-in-space firsts and go to a construction zone that is (quite literally) out of this world. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=113202&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S SEE WHAT THE DETECTIVES SEE In a criminal investigation, little things mean a lot. Now you can enter the amazing microworld that crime-solvers see. Go \"through the lens\" at our new site created just for the fans of \"FBI Files\" and \"New Detectives.\" http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=113205&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S And read our expert's answers to your questions about how forensic artists work. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=113205&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= THE NEW DISCOVERY ADVENTURE RACE: WHO WON? The people of New Zealand are very hospitable, but the terrain for this race is not. Find out who came out on top in this incredibly grueling competition. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=113211&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S FROM RAGE TO REVENGE! What happens inside you when you get mad? Here's your chance to find out with our new interactive that explores how people react to a bad day in three different ways. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=113213&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S And here are the answers to the questions you asked this week following the Discovery Channel special \"Rage to Revenge.\" http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=113213&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S GET INTERACTIVE ... DEFEAT THE BERLIN WALL Hundreds of people defied intimidating odds to escape East Berlin between 1961 and 1989. To get an idea of what they were up against, try our simulation and see if you can beat the Wall. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=113225&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Can You Solve the Riddle of the Sphinx? Answer the Sphinx's three riddles and you're on your way. (And we never thought we'd say this, but if you're stuck you can always get a hint from the donkey.) http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=113225&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Watch a Baby Grow! You went through it yourself, of course, but your womb memories are probably fuzzy at best. So here's your chance to relive those carefree days when Mom took care of your every need. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=113225&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Build a Roller Coaster We've come up with a relatively harmless way to vent that sadistic streak in all of us. See if you can create a terrifying roller coaster experience! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=113225&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Planet Earth: You're in Charge Turn the temperature up or down. Tilt the axis or adjust the rotation. Then see what your fine tuning has wrought! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=113225&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Play Mummy Match Game They're faces that only a mummy could love. See how much you know about your tightly wrapped ancestors who have been hanging out in tombs, bogs or frozen caves for centuries. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=113225&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Explore Christopher Lowell's House Find out what the master of design inspiration has done with his showcase home! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=113225&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Save a Sea Turtle As soon as leatherback turtle hatchlings hit the ground, they're in mortal danger. See if you can navigate the treacherous beach and find the peace and quiet of the sea. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=8&c=113225&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ======================= INTERACTIVE MINDERS ======================= ***Visit Cam Universe*** Syndey Cam http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=113853&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Croc Hunter Cam http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=113853&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Peeling Paint Cam http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=113853&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Baby Elephant Cam http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=113853&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Wedding Cam http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=113853&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Pet Cam http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=113853&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ***BEST OF TV THIS WEEK*** Discovery Channel, Sunday, The Master of Deception Learn the secrets of the great spies of all time. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=113854&pr=905&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Discovery Health, Monday, Class of '75 A quarter century takes its toll on enthusiastic high school seniors. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 24, 2000 (11:42)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 11/24/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ SECRETS OF THE SABRETOOTH Cats are mysterious even today, but their long-in-the-tooth ice age ancestors have experts scratching their heads thousands of years after the last ones walked the Earth. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=117598&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S CATCH MUMMY MANIA! Who wants to live forever? Meet a few folks who thought that immortality sounded like a pretty good idea. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=117601&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S And if your connection is above 56K, try our interactive feature: Unwrapping a Mummy. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=117601&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S *** From Our Sponsor*** Science Diet Holiday Pet Safety Tips Holiday foods and bright decorations can be unhealthy and possibly dangerous for your pet. Veterinarian recommended Science Diet Holiday Safety Tips can help ensure your pet stays healthy, happy and safe this holiday season. Dog Owners click here. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=117601&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Cat Owners click here. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=117601&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ************************* ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= SPYING 101: TAKE THE COURSE Just what IS my neighbor up to? That urge to find out has been around since Neanderthal times. Here you'll get the stories and a crash course in the techniques of the best who ever played the spy game. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=117602&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S MONKEY BRAIN CONTROLS ROBOT ARM It may sound like science fiction, but it's a giant feat that may one day allow paralyzed people to move artificial limbs just by thinking. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=117603&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S KNOW YOUR UNIVERSE You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand the world of deep space, or to be awed by the Hubble telescope's best photos. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=117605&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=117605&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S TRACK THE FLU BUG Find out where its attacks are strongest in the United States. It's not too late to protect yourself or your family from becoming a casualty in the annual flu wars. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=117606&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR PET? Can you figure out what your pet is trying to tell you? Take our online pet quiz. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=117607&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ======================= INTERACTIVE MINDERS ======================= ***PLAY A GAME!*** http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=8&c=117099&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Solitaire http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=117099&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Senet http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=117099&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Missing Link http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=117099&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Name That Plane http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=117099&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Someone in Time http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=117099&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Crossword http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=117099&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Geo Game http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=117099&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ***BEST OF TV THIS WEEK*** Discovery Health, Sunday, \"Alternative Medicine Marathon\" It's five hours of advances in non-traditional medicine, from hypnosis to bee therapy. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=117906&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Discovery Channel, Monday, \"Sabretooth\" Learn the secrets of the cat twice as heavy as a lion with teeth like daggers. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=117906&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S TLC, Tuesday, \"Future Cuts\" How would you feel if your next surgeon were a robot? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=117906&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Travel Channel, Wednesday, \"Castle Ghosts of Scotland\" Feuds, treachery and murder may be at the root of haunting in the highlands. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=117906&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Animal Planet, Thursday, \"Elephant\" Pongo is a lucky baby boy guided to the best feeding lands by his mom and aunts. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=117906&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Customize Your TV Schedule http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=117906&pr=969&cf=1&pa=41&e=S"}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (19:28)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 12/15/2000 ---------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ POMPEII CONFIDENTIAL Findings near the city that was destroyed in a day give researchers clues that some attractive females may have occupied a class that was not quite slave and not quite free. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=126991&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S THREE NEW PLANETS FOUND! They're orbiting distant stars, and one looks suspiciously like good, old mother Earth. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=126995&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Get Your Astronaut Answers Catch up on the transcripts of our live chat with International Space Station resident Dan Bursch. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=126995&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S LET DISCOVERY.COM KNOW WHAT YOU THINK What's Your Take on Hate and Violence? Discovery Channel explored the roots of violence in this year's special on-air/online series, \"Hate and Violence: No Simple Answers.\" We want to know what impact it had on you. Check out our online feature, then let us know your opinions. Send your opinions to: solutions@online.discovery.com http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=127003&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=127003&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Tell Us Your Gulf War Stories! Were you (or a member of your family) involved with the Persian Gulf War? We're doing a feature in January that focuses on the experiences of the people at home and abroad during the Gulf War. If you have an interesting story to tell, send us an email. Tell us your story and please include your email address and telephone number. If your story is chosen, we'd like to call you up and do an interview. And maybe talk you into sending us a photo or two. Send your stories to: history_guide@discovery.com http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=127003&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Ask the Panda Keepers The couple just moved into their new home at the National Zoo, and here's your chance to ask their closest friends how they're doing. Be sure to put \"Pandas\" in your subject line. Mail your questions to robin_bennefield@discovery.com. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=127003&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= SEX IN THE MEDIA Help your teen sort through the sexual messages in the media that can lead to a false body image and low self-esteem. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=127009&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Who Will Win \"Junkyard Wars\"? Imagine that the Nobel Prize committee ran professional wrestling. That's a little bit like this competition, where teams turn scraps from the junk pile into battling robot warriors. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=127009&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S HAVE A CROC HUNTER NEW YEAR Is your favorite episode that one where he gets bit? Oh, wait ... that could be any of them. Vote for the top \"Crocodile Hunter\" episode, then tune in on New Year's Eve for the countdown to the winner. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=127012&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S MURDERERS INCARCERATED You asked forensic expert Deborah Hewitt, featured in this week's episode of \"The New Detectives,\" about her part in catching killers. Find out what she had to say. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=127022&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S The Wild, the Wacky, the Presidents Now that we're fairly certain who the next one will be, why not check out a few facts you probably didn't know about his predecessors? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=127022&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S The Lyndon Johnson Tapes What did LBJ know about President Kennedy's assassination? Did the Vietnam War wear him down? What were his true feelings about the civil rights movement? Hear it all from the man, himself. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=127022&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Toys Were Us: How Your Favorites Came To Be Barbie, Frisbee, the skateboard, Pong ... get the scoop on the bright ideas that resulted in your playthings, then vote on your favorite toy ever. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=127022&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S FAT CHANCES: A LIVE WEBCAST Learn about the relationship between controlling food intake and obesity, LIVE Monday, Dec. 18, at 1 p.m. Dr. Rolls, professor of nutrition at Penn State University, will discuss Dietary Changes for Long-Term Health. And you can view previous webcasts on obesity and weight loss, too. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=127096&pr=1123&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Volunteer to Live Longer Find out how volunteering can help reduce stress and boost the immune system, especially in seniors. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=127096&pr="}]}, {"num": 16, "subject": "Diagnostics: How to identify what you have found", "response_count": 11, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (00:35)", "body": "The most common diagnostic test is Moh's Scale of Hardness which every rock hound has committed to memory. From softest to hardest: 1 - Talc 2 - Gypsum 3 - Calcite 4 - Fluorite 5 - Apatite 6 - Feldspar 7 - Quartz 8 - Topaz 9 - Corundum 10 Diamond fingernail is 2 1/2 steel pen knife blade is 5 1/2 window glass is 5 1/2"}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (09:56)", "body": "so how do you use your household gadgets to figure the moh's rating? do you take your steel pen knife blade and poke it into your precious rock?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (09:58)", "body": "got another question: you know how you can go into shops and find amethyst in the rough? what makes it different (beside the obvious) from what is sold? how can they sell it for cheap but a polished and worked stone is much more expensive? makes me wonder if those bits and pieces of \"amethyst\" are real or not."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (11:24)", "body": "Last question first...most of the price of a stone is in the cutting and polishing (and mounting). I have a huge slab of magnificent amethysts my son gave me for my Birthday. It was 3 figures, but still inecpensive condisering the size of it! Those bits are real indeed, and I have all sorts of them from tumble-polished beads in long ropes to solitaires set in rings. Amethyst is abundant and beautiful - no one would bother to fake it. For years I carried a streak plate (unglazed porcelain) and a penny (2 1/2) and knife and small window glass plus a known pieve of quartz when I went into the field. It is to check if the red thingy sparkling at you from the sand is glass or garnet."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (11:33)", "body": "As to your question about finding out the hardness of household things, these have been well ascertained that I am giving you. Ideally you would have a specimen of each of the stones in the Moh's Scale to go into the field with you, but I find that a chunk of quarts is sufficient. Anything harder than quarts (and can scratch it) deserves much closer scrutiny since they are all from the precious stones category. Your streak plate is used to see the color of the mark left by streaking the specimen over th gritty surface. Hematite - a dark silver stone used in jewellry - leaves a very evident orange streak since it is an oxide of iron (thus the rust-colored streak.)"}, {"response": 6, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (12:50)", "body": "interesting!! there's a diamond crater in arkansas. i wonder if i should pack up my gear and take a dig...."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (13:56)", "body": "Mrs Clinton wore a pheasant-egg-sized champagne diamond found in Arkansas to the first inaugural ball - loaned to her by someone who was a loyal supporter. If that sized gems are wandering around, think what might still be in the ground!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (14:39)", "body": "you know how you can go into shops and find amethyst in the rough? what makes it different (beside the obvious) from what is sold? how can they sell it for cheap but a polished and worked stone is much more expensive? makes me wonder if those bits and pieces of \"amethyst\" are real or not. The rough stuff is not deemed \"gem-quality.\" Usually because of color or lack of clarity. You can get bargeloads of the stuff in S. American for cheap and use it as livingroom art sculpture. It is real, but not of good enough quality to polish and cut and sell for jewelry. Usually bookend size is good enough for most people though."}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (15:57)", "body": "interesting...i always wondered that and thought maybe others did too, thanks for the help!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (17:43)", "body": "Minor mistake in terminology. All unpolished gems are called \"rough.\" BTW, the lesser quality stuff may also be polished into cabochon form (nonfaceted) and set or strung into beads."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (18:34)", "body": "Indeed, and we need to get that into precious stones too...! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 17, "subject": "Archaeology: The world as a time capsule", "response_count": 1283, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (18:25)", "body": "With drought prominently featured in the newspapers currently, it is wise to remember how important a reliable source of water is to a civilization. The final failure of water replenishment caused the downfall and/or dispersal of the Hohokam and Anasazi cultures in the American West. Many other places on earth since the dawn of man have had these very problems as in Mohenjo-Daro in the Middle East. We would be wise to study and learn."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (20:43)", "body": "Baffling Viking Artifacts Found in Cave DUBLIN (Reuters) - A hoard of Viking artifacts found in a cave in southern Ireland is baffling archaeologists. The hoard discovered by a heritage worker cleaning the cave comprises coins, bronze and silver ingots and conical objects made of silver wire. ``Nothing like these have been seen anywhere, let alone in the Viking world. There is no parallel,'' Andrew Halpin, keeper of Irish antiquities at the National Museum in Dublin, told Reuters Friday. ``We think they could be ornaments for garments, or some kind of cloak fastener, but we're not sure. It's a very important find for academics studying this era,'' he said. The hoard, found in county Kilkenny, south of Dublin, also includes Anglo-Saxon coins dating from 940, confirming historical evidence that the Vikings maintained settlements in both Ireland and northern England at the time. Halpin said the cave may have been used as a refuge and the artifacts probably formed part of someone's personal wealth stashed for safe keeping during some kind of emergency. A Viking presence at the site had been well established, he said, and there were records of a massacre of 1,000 people in the cave about 40 years before the earliest date on the coins. Vikings first carried out hit-and-run raids on Ireland in 795 and later founded settlements, including most of Ireland's existing major towns, around 840."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (20:43)", "body": "Oops!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (21:42)", "body": "Is not there a theory about the Vikings reaching the Americas long before Columbus? It seems quite possible; they seem to have been everywhere. Great article! I will take the liberty of searching for pictures of my own country's Copan Ruins. I will post them as soon as I can find them."}, {"response": 5, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (23:14)", "body": "And here is the first... if it wishes to appear. Spring is not behaving normally, imo."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (00:52)", "body": "Brava, Amiga Mia. Lovely Copan stela you posted. The first archaological photograph. Who better than you to post it?! Muchas Gracias, Es muy interesante. (now correct my Spanish as I check your English...)"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (01:06)", "body": "Not only is my Spanish bad, I also mixed in Italian. I had better stay with the jumble English of my Mother tongue. Perhaps you could add some Gaelic?!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "livamago", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (11:05)", "body": "I see no errors in your lovely Spanish salutation! How wonderful to read! I see no Italian anywhere, though... \"Cop\ufffdn, located in western Honduras, was once a Classic Maya royal center, the largest site in the southeastern part of the Maya area. Covering about 29 acres, it was built on the banks of the Cop\ufffdn River on an artificial terrace made of close to a million cubic feet of dirt. Over time, people spread out from the central core and built homes in outlying areas that had formerly been used for crops. Cop\ufffdn's nobles built smaller, rival complexes on sites that were increasingly further from the core. In spite of its wealth, power, and size, Cop\ufffdn collapsed. No monuments seem to have been produced after A.D. 822.\" This from the learner.org site."}, {"response": 9, "author": "livamago", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (11:06)", "body": ""}, {"response": 10, "author": "livamago", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (11:07)", "body": ""}, {"response": 11, "author": "livamago", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (11:14)", "body": ""}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (22:38)", "body": "Missing posts from changing servers: Response 12 of 13: Ginny (vibrown) * Mon, Jan 31, 2000 (12:11) * 6 lines Archaeology has always interested me, but I haven't had a chance to do much research on it. When I went to Bolivia for the 1994 solar eclipse, I remember reading that the Inca civilization covered most of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and northern Chile. Apparently Bolivia had a pre-Inca civilization near Lake Titikaka; I think they were called the Aymara. Where were the Maya and Aztec civilizations located? Response 13 of 13: Marcia (MarciaH) * Mon, Jan 31, 2000 (12:55) * 7 lines The Maya peopled the southern area of Mexico, The Yucatan Peninsula, and most of Central America. They were in power from pre-1000 BC until the Spanish Conquest in the 1500's AD. The Aztec were succesors of the Toltecs from about 1300 AD until the Spanish conquest. In the 1200-1521AD period the Aztecs established an empire and constructed their capital on a marshy island beneath what is now Mexico city. Their empire extended south to Guatemala. Their terms for the ancient cultures in the area are the ones we use today. The Mayan civilization encompasses Pre-classic 1000BC - 250AD when they were mostly an egalitarian civilization. The rise of shaman priest-kings led to Classic Mayan time of 250AD - 900AD which saw the creation of city and village systems, math using a zero,(They had no Millennium problems!) and a vast network for overland trade. Post Classic Mayan 900AD-1521AD population became too vast for natural resources to sustain which brought about the decline of the cities and central power. Source: The National Geograpohic Mesoamerican timeline. back to regular programming"}, {"response": 13, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (16:44)", "body": "A really good book on the impact of geology on archaeology is \"Unearthing Atlantis\" by Charles Pellegrino, highly readable and informative, even if you know next to nothing about either discipline. The Atlantis of the title refers to the Minoan culture of the eastern Mediterranean. One of the sites of Minoan habitation was the island of Kalliste, the most beautiful. Well it was until one of the most violent and loudest vulcanic eruptions blew 2/3's of the island away, and may possibly have been the cause of the Biblical 10 Plagues on Egypt.(That's Pellegrino's assertion). The island then got the name it would be known by until past classical times, Thera, the place of fear. The excavation on the island, now called Santorini (St. Irene), has been riddled with infighting and backbiting on the of the academic establishment and the Greek government."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (16:49)", "body": "Yes! I am familiar with this book. He is an adherent of the Thera origin of Atlantis. One of the saner books in this wide open to wild theories discussions. Whatever happened there, it did in more than just the enormous Volcano which blew itself into oblivion along with an entire culture."}, {"response": 15, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (14:41)", "body": "Just watched a really good archeology TV programme. Must be the season fro them cos there are several on different channels at the moment. This one is called Time Team (they have a web site if i find the address I'll post it). They do a three day dig together with local archeologists who have called the team in. todays programme was in Coventry, England and they were escavating part of the original cathedral there trying to find the cloisters. They use geophysics to take ground soundings as well as conventional archeological 'digging'. They found the cloisters, lots of medieval floor tiles, a skeleton, that at first was thought to be modern and murdered, but turned out to be medieva, and an artist gave his impression of the scene. They also did a virtual reality tour of the cathedral."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (15:16)", "body": "How neat! Thanks for sharing that. Would love to work with that team. Gotta come back as a British Archaeologist in the next life (just before the one in which I come back as a geologist... and the one as an anthropologist...) Whilst I was visiting Canterbury Cathedral, they were replacing the most eroded scuptures on the outside. There was a flatbed truck full of small pieces of the old Caen stone. I asked the loader what was going to happen to these pieces. He said they were going to the local landfill. I asked for a piece and he let me select the one I wanted. In my rock collection not boasts a little part of the original Canterbury Cathedral (but not the one St Augustine built...)"}, {"response": 17, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (17:02)", "body": "Did you see the Roman exhibition there? we went once when I lived in kent and I thoght it was very impresive. Just recently we were in Winchester for a weekend, and in the shopping Centre (Mall) as you came out of the car park into the Mall there was a walk through exhibition of the excavation that had been done before the shopping centre could be built. It even had light up scenarios and a sound track! All freee!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (18:26)", "body": "Gads! They'd have to drag me away with a block-and-tackle! Yes, visited the Kent site some years ago. That must have been SOME villa! The mosaics are reknowned world-wide, I believe!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "there's another one near Cirencester that we've been to. It seemed massive and there was a surprising amount above ground (just), and they marked out the bits that weren't. I love visiting those sort of places."}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (14:31)", "body": "If I lived over there, I'd have climbed every hillfort, crawled through every fogou, peeked into every dolmen and chambered long \"burial\" mound, pondered the significance of every stone circle and ditch-and-mound monument...*sigh* Oh, and I'd have been through every little and giant church and cathedral. There is nothing quite like walking through Salisbury Cathedral at dusk and looking at a small casket containing the bones of someone buried in 616. Incredible! Cirencester (\"Sisister\" yes? Or is it \"Sinsister\"?) is on my \"next time\" list."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (14:32)", "body": "Make that ditch-and-bank. Got it confused with Motte and Bailey which should also be on that list..."}, {"response": 22, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (15:57)", "body": "Trouble is it's like living in London - you get so used to it you don't notice what's on your doorstep."}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (16:33)", "body": "Yes, I know...I grew up in suburban New York City, and the only time I was ever to the top of the Empire State Building was with a tourist. Never been to the Statue of Liberty...!"}, {"response": 24, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (18:55)", "body": "I once went to the Statue of Liberty on a ferry full of teenage French girls, Japanese heavy-metal kids, and Greek-Americans from Astoria, Queens. I forgot the Dutch tourists in sensible shoes. My favorite part was when Lady Liberty could be clearly seen from the right side of the boat, they announced that it would be best if people didn't head to the right side of the boat. So of course everyone ran to the right side of the boat, I didn't, but English is my native tongue. Sorry, that had nothing to do with archaeology. But there are interesting archaeological finds made in New York City, particularly if there is excavation in Lower Manhattan. The city grew from south to north. Aaron Burr once lived in what now is Harlem; it was the country then. Some of the things which were found include colonial era ships and a slave cemetery. I honestly wasn't trying to sully your discussion with mention of \"Unearthing Atlantis\". I bought my copy of the book from A Common Reader, and they don't really sell crackpot books. I mentioned it because I've always been fascinated by Minoan civilization, Arthur Evans' excavation at Knossos and other sites. It was one of the world's great eary civilizations, dazzling and sophistocated. The Egyptians traded with the Minoans and treated them with honor, by not referring to them as \"barbarians in the presence of Ra\". That was the usual Egyptian term for foreigners. All of this was ended for most intents by the Thera eruption/explosion, a geological event both extrodinary and catastophic. An event of that magnatude would not only be disasterous to the local area, but on a worldwide scale. And I liked Pellegrino's collection of data worldwide to posit his argument."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (19:03)", "body": "Yup! There were farms all over Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the Bronx was wilderness. Please tell us what you discovered in the book you are reading, although Wolf would probably welcome it in her Paraspring Conference http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/paraspring/13/new See you there! Hey, did anyone notice I finally figured out how to put that cute graphic back on my title page??? Yay!!!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (19:09)", "body": "Cheryl, there is nothing crackpot from that bookshop. I know! I buy stuff from their catalog and read it like it was as good a book as the things they sell! I really think this is a great place to post a discussion of that book. It certainly was a geophysical event of gigantic magnitude which caused the upheaval in the first place Have you, by chance, ever read \"Gods, Graves and Scholars\" by C. W. Ceram? If not, please get yourself a copy. It was my first archaeology book and I was hooked. (Actually, \"living\" in the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is what really convinced me that I needed to be an archaeologist. I visited there so often as a child I knew my way around as though it were home.)"}, {"response": 27, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (19:23)", "body": "Yes, I do own a copy of \"Gods, Graves and Scholars\". I got and interest in archaeology from 2 sources, my father and my maternal grandfather. I remember going to the museum with my Dad to see the mummies. He was fascinated by ancient Egypt, and the Meso-Americans, and the African kingdoms, and the classical cultures of Greece and Rome. On a note closer to home, we used to walk in the woods and look for Indian (Native American) arrowheads. My maternal grandfather was Greek Cypriot, and very aware of his native island's very ancient history. On the subject of another island, Manhattan, I'll check at the library for that particular information. It wasn't one of my own books."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (19:54)", "body": "Fascinating! Have you antiquities around your home in your collection? We have the making of a new topic for collecting conference! Where we lived in New Rochelle, N.Y. it was farmed so long that nothing was still around from ancient times, but I did find a chunk (2\"x3\"x1\") of massive garnet tranported there from upstate NY by the last glaciers!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (14:07)", "body": "Wow! Apparently the area around my part of the village was a pig farm from the Danish invasion of southern England (last millennium). we also think there are some plague mass graves somewhere. However, I've never turned anything up yet."}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (15:10)", "body": "Those Mass Graves must be just about everywhere considering half of the population of Europe died in the plague. That garnet mass I found measures 8cm x 5cm x 2.5cm."}, {"response": 31, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (15:23)", "body": "I think it's quite surprising we don't dig up more. There's also a mass of ley lines in this area. I think one goes through the house two doors up from me."}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (16:13)", "body": "Ah, Ley lines. Yes! Alfred Wadkins and \"The Old Straight Track\" Shall we discuss these here or in Paraspeing where Wolf has just created crop circles and other such things. I think these'd fit right into that topic, no? I'd love to hear of your experiences concerneing Ley lines..."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (16:15)", "body": "I can crreate it here...Never mind - going to create Geomaganetism!!!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 17, 2000 (15:38)", "body": "Egyptians Find Tomb of Ancient God Osiris GIZA, Egypt (Reuters) - Sinking water levels have revealed a granite sarcophagus of the ancient Egyptian god Osiris in a 30-meter (98 feet) deep tomb at the Giza pyramids, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass said Wednesday. Osiris was one of the most important gods of ancient Egypt who according to mythology was murdered by his wicked brother Seth. He was buried by Isis, his sister-wife, and brought back to life as judge of the dead and ruler of the underworld. Hawass said the sarcophagus, which he dated to 500 BC in the New Kingdom, was surrounded by the remains of four pillars built in the shape of a hieroglyphic 'Bir' or 'House of Osiris'. The excavation unearthed 3,000-year-old bones and pottery found in the underground water, he said. ``I never excavated this shaft because it was always full of water. But when the water went down about a year ago, we started the adventure,'' he told Reuters. After dirt and most of the remaining water were cleared from the shaft, located between the Sphinx and the Pyramid of Chefren (Khafre), archaeologists found three underground levels, with the submerged Osiris sarcophagus at the lowest. ``Many people believed there were tunnels going to the Sphinx and another leading to the Great Pyramid but only when we sent a young boy into a tunnel in the west wall (of the tomb shaft) did we find this exciting discovery,'' said Hawass."}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 17, 2000 (17:06)", "body": "From a friend who would like opinions of the readers herein (Now, if I can ever get this guy to post for himself I'll be esctatic!) according to a friend of mine, ancient Maya carvings predict the inundation of the NY/NJ area by quake and tsunami in/around 2012. How? fun speculations may abound. Post it yourself and see what others say."}, {"response": 36, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (00:59)", "body": "The excavation at Santorini is called Akrotiri. I visited the site when I went to Greece in 1991. According to the guidebook, the excavations began in 1967 by Prof. Spyridon Marinatos. (He's actually buried at the site.) It's supposed to be a Bronze Age settlement from about 1500 BC. They found a lot of Minoan pottery and frescoes, similar to those found in Knossos, Crete. The theory is that there was a big earthquake before the eruption, and that the eruption caused tsunamis that hit Crete. They never found any bodies in Akrotiri, so the population managed to leave before the eruption, probably after the earthquake. I don't know if anyone has finally figured out where the people went; they had no idea back in 1991. The theory of Akrotiri as Atlantis is obviously controversial. I took a course in Greek Civilization back in college, and the professer mentioned the Atlantis theory as a load of rubbish. Who knows? Schliemann was convinced he found Troy, but all we really know is that he found 9 levels of a very big city (and he wound up destroying most of it). There's usually some small grain of truth to most legends, though."}, {"response": 37, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (01:01)", "body": "By the way, I love the new graphic for the conference, Maria! Looks great!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (03:09)", "body": "Thanks, Ginny - it was the original grahpics, which were placed there for me as a surprise by my programmer who taught me everything I know, which I just got back up - they had to set me up with new space on Terry's hard drive, I then ftp'd all of the stuff out of my old files onto my hard drive here at home then back to the new place then locate the url for the graphic and repost it. Not all that difficult, but it took time and some thinking and care. I am happy to see it up again, also. I am delighted you are posting this here. Akrotiri is as good a place for Altantis as is currently available. Actually, it is the only place that makes sense to me."}, {"response": 39, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (15:37)", "body": "Back to Atlantis, is it? I'm in agreement with those who think that the Minoan civilization was the basis for the Atlantis legend. Something had to have happened. The Minoans were an actual civilization, and the Thera eruption was an actual event. Marcia, you asked if I had any items of archealogical interest in my home. Unfortunately no. I've moved a lot since completing school. All my Dad and really ever found were arrowheads. I grew up in central Pennsylvania, there is farming there, but there are also the wooded slopes of the Alleghenies. (We lived on the western edge of central PA.) Anyway if you know what to look for, you can still find some arrowheads or maybe a spearpoint. The closest archealogical site to Pittsburgh is Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, which is to the north. The site was discovered in the 1970's and was very controvesial. Why? Because the dating of the artifacts placed them at atleast 14,000 years old. American Indians weren't supposed to be east of the Mississippi River, much less in Pennsylvania 14,000 years ago. That was the conventional wisdom at any rate. Then in the 1980's a site was excavated in Brazil that was dated at 30,000 to 35,000 years. They're still trying to sort all this out. Concerning Pittsburgh, 2 new stadia are being built. When the foundations were being prepared, they found farming artifacts from the early 19th century and everyday artifacts from after industrialization. Yes, they even found a few American Indian items. The current 3 Rivers Stadium is built on land that was once an island in the Ohio River. There was a narrow channel seperating it from the shore. When the first Europeans got there, they reported that human sacrifices took place there. Could be propaganda or not."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (15:53)", "body": "I graduated from Penn State, the daughter of Philadelphians. Married a guy from Williamsport, dated a guy from New Kensington, and am now with a guy from south of Pittsburgh. I do know about Pennsylvania. Current house male says they picked loads of American Indian arrowheads of out the plowed fields (of course they are long gone.) By the time I got to Pennsylvania I was on fossil hunts and I still have the lovely examples of dolomite and limestone goodies I found. Three-rivers confluence was a very powerful place (see water lines and ley lines). In Hawaii, such sources commanded human sacrifice. In Britain and Western Europe the same thing happened!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (13:30)", "body": "Hmm, I wonder if there are any interesting archealogical sites around here? (Besides the ongoing \"big dig\" fiasco, I mean. ;-) Marcia, I know it takes time to move files around, but it's worth the effort. Looks great!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (13:55)", "body": "Thanks, Ginny. I am almost done getting graphics back onto the place - at least the ones I can do easily. It looks so different from the other conferences that I like to rest in here and admire when I am not off finding other goodies to share with everyone. Boston area should have all sorts of good stuff going on because the place was inhabited for so long. You mean that under-the-highway subway they are digging is not a Good thing? In Hawaii, the theory is \"build a highway and dig it up again to put the sewers and power lines. Then patch it unevenly.\" Not sure why they do it that way, but it is bone-jarring! About the only good things we find in this exercise is charred tree remnants which yield Carbon-14 to tell the age of the lava flow through which they just blasted."}, {"response": 43, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (15:22)", "body": "The Bid Dig is supposed to relieve all the traffic problems in Boston when it's finished...*if* it's ever finished. As usual for government projects, this one is way over budget (to the tune of $1.4 billion), and in danger of having its federal funding cut off. Apparently the feds are starting an investigation into the shortfall. They have dug up most (if not all) of the existing highways in Boston for this project, so they certainly can't leave the project unfinished; the governor and the head of the Mass Turnpike Authority would both be lynched! Fortunately, I live and work outside of Boston; the only impact on me is my wasted tax dollars, which is bad enough! There's a Big Dig website that describes the project at http://www.bigdig.com . It includes a link to the \"Archaeology of the Central Artery Project: Highway to the Past\" exhibit at the Commonwealth Museum. Apparently archeologists did find a lot of artifacts before construction started."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (16:01)", "body": "OK, went into BigDig and noted the Bechtel is doing the job. You DO know how prominently they figure in the trilateral commission and other pseudo or really nefarious-minded world movers and shakers! Somehow I am not surprised. I'll go back and hunt through that teeny-print pulldown for the archaeology stuff. Thanks! Is it gonna be a road rather than mass transport system like the BART?"}, {"response": 45, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (17:29)", "body": "From what I understand, it's a new set of highways and tunnels, replacing most of the major roads in Boston. The Ted Williams tunnel is already finished and in use. I haven't heard anything about replacing/expanding the MBTA lines, but they probably are digging near some of the lines, anyway. Hmm, I've never heard of Bechtel. Should I be happy, or more worried than ever? :-) That little window they give you is pretty annoying, isn't it? Haven't found a way to enlarge it, yet."}, {"response": 46, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (17:41)", "body": "From the Big Dig FAQ (also at http://www.bigdig.com) : What are you building? The project includes two main elements -- the extension of Interstate 90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike) from its current terminus south of downtown Boston under Boston Harbor to Logan Airport, and the replacement of Interstate 93 through downtown Boston, including a tunnel through the heart of the city. The I-90 extension includes the first major project milestone, the Ted Williams Tunnel under the harbor, which opened in December 1995. Other major elements include four major highway interchanges; a two-bridge, 14-lane crossing of the Charles River on the northern edge of downtown Boston; the world's largest highway tunnel ventilation system; the world's most advanced electronic traffic management and incident response system; demolition of the existing elevated Central Artery (I-93) downtown; and 150 acres of new parks and open space, including 27 acres downtown where the elevated Central Artery now stands. An important feature of the project is keeping the City of Boston open for business throughout more han a decade of construction, which involves (among many other things) holding up the six-lane elevated highway while tunneling for an eight-to-ten-lane underground expressway directly underneath. See the project summary, \"Gee Whiz\" (about engineering marvels), Mitigation, and Facts and Figures for more information. Are you nuts ?? The project may look like an unbelievable challenge but with design virtually complete and construction past the half-way mark, the amazing vision is becoming a reality. The fact is that there is really no other way to solve Boston's legendary traffic problems. The city's downtown highway, the Central Artery, can't be expanded in place. There is no other place to put a new highway (we can't plow down another neighborhood, and we can't put a new road on top of the waterfront, for example), so the only alternative is to build the new highway underneath the old one. Because the work takes so long, there is no choice but to invest in the techniques that will keep the city open for business during construction. Because the project's two highways (I-93 downtown and I-90 to Logan Airport) thread their way through an old and often fragile city, there is no choice but to adopt the engineering marvels that take the tunnels down 120 feet to pass under a subway line, solidify pudding-like soils so that the road can be built under a channel off Boston Harbor, or protect historic brick buildings and towering modern skyscrapers from construction taking place just a few feet from their foundations. Traffic is so bad on and around the elevated Central Artery that it would be nuts not to build a new highway system for the people of Boston and New England."}, {"response": 47, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (17:48)", "body": "Here's the link to the \"Highway to the Past: The Archaeology of the Central Artery\". It was under \"Dirt on the Dig\"...cute, eh? http://www.bigdig.com/thtml/dod_arch.htm"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (17:50)", "body": "Can't do anything with pop-up boxes except to close them. Can't even bookmark most of them. Bechtel? You can die happy not knowing anything about them, but if you think there is an evil plot afoot to take over the world by the Gnomes of Zurich, you need to read up on them. They have their clickable logo there - or if you are Really interested in dirt, do a web search...heh...heh...! (Shall read the rest of what you wrote as soon as I feed the house male his lunch)"}, {"response": 49, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (17:56)", "body": "Now I'm curious! I will have to check out Bechtel later. Signing off for now...catch you later!"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (18:31)", "body": "Yeow! I could not wait to drive through a tunnel surrounded by pudding-consistency soil overlaid by a subway traintracks surmounted by a roadway. Never mind, I think! That archaeology site was really interesting. Love the old bottles they found. And, North America's oldest Bowling Ball. It is a really nicely setup interactive website and, having done some of that, I appreciate the good ones a whole lot. Archaeology fans, take the virtual tour! Thanks, Ginny. Oh, Bechtel built Hoover Dam and the Oakland Bay Bridge amongst other things..."}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (21:42)", "body": "Response 65 of 67: World Builder (MarciaH) * Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (20:09) * 9 lines NEW STONES AT AVEBURY new series of slabs at Avebury stone circle in western England, discovered under a farmer's field, probably formed a causeway linking the circle, or henge, to a contemporary burial site at Beckhampton, a mile to the southwest. University of Leicester and Southampton archaeologists now believe that the complex, whose main circle was last excavated in 1930, covered a much larger area than originally thought and was probably built in several stages. The existence of buried avenues was first suggested in the 1720s by the English antiquarian William Stukeley, although many dismissed his theories as guesswork. Some years ago, however, an avenue was uncovered leading from Avebury to nearby West Kennet, and the latest find appears to confirm Stukeley's beliefs and the notion that Avebury was connected to other ceremonial sites. Avebury, constructed between 2800 and 2700 B.C., includes the world's largest stone circle (1,401 feet in diameter), numerous barrows, and the 130-foot-tall Silbury Hill, the largest man-made mound in Europe. Evidence of a \"woodhenge\" has also been unearthed at the site. Large holes, six feet deep and arranged in circles, are thought to have supported giant wooden pillars up to 17 feet tall. While the pillars might have formed part of a ritual building, they are much larger and closer together than necessary to support a roof and are more likely to have been a free-standing wooden henge, possibly one of 40 similar structures in Wessex, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom that in the late ninth and tenth centuries included much of southern England. The latest discoveries have major implications for Stonehenge. If there were other wooden structures in the region, then Stonehenge may not be as unique as was once thought. Henges, in stone or (more usually) wood, were simply part of the religious landscape of the period. The idea of henges dotting ancient Britain is reinforced by the discovery of the so-called \"Seahenge,\" a remarkably well-preserved timber circle, on a remote Norfolk beach in November 1998. Comprising 55 timber posts, with an upturned oak stump in the middle, it was exposed by winter gales that swept away a peat dune covering it. Seahenge is the first circle to be found with an intact oak stump at its center. Other sites have revealed hollows in their centers but until now no one knew what had caused them. Seahenge is extremely fragile and was only preserved thanks to its peat covering. This past summer archaeologists from the Norfolk County Council's Archaeological Unit excavated and dismantled the circle. Once cleaned, studied, and treated, it may be reconstructed near its original site.--CHRIS HELLIER http://www.he.net/~archaeol/"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (21:43)", "body": "These are the pictures which apply to the article just above about Avebury Stone Circle. They are visible in the aerial photograph - and for scale, there is a pub in that henge. In fact, they built the village - church and all - and never noticed the henge and stones! Anyway, each of those stones is the size and weight of a car. Stuckey's drawing shows the \"avenues\" which were considered pure conjecture for decades. Now they are reassessing his drawings."}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (21:50)", "body": "If you flip the drawing above top to bottom, it is aligned with the photograph at the bottom. Silbury Hill is the whitish mound in the left center background, and the left to right street in the photograph are aligned on the stone \"avenues\" This is one of my most favorite places in Britain. We have had lunch of apples and cheese in the town museum's carpark, and I have walked every inch of the place. I long to go back..."}, {"response": 54, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (00:27)", "body": "Awesome pictures!! How the heck could they build in the middle of that big circle and not notice it? Now I gotta look at my pictures from Stonehenge again. How close is Avebury to Salisbury plain?"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (11:30)", "body": "I think it is just about 20 miles (hunting through my several books on the topic I can't find it at the moment,) on Marlborough Downs just north of Salisbury Plain. It is near the place where the Sarsen stones were left by glaciation 10,000 years ago and was the source of both Avebury and Stonehenge Sarcens. The most remarkable thing is the momuments all around Avebury. The oldest known trackway, the Great Berkshire Ridgeway runs right by it. Silbury Hill, the largest man-made earthen hill in the world, is adjacent. Then, on the skyline from Avebury, two of the longest and largest long barrows are silhouetted against the sky. Calling them \"burial chambers\" is like having someone excavating a cathedral at some remote future point and calling it a burial house just because the edifice contains the remains of famous (to us) people. Actually, from south of Stonehenge to north of Avebury, where you will find the Uffington White Horse, it is pretty much full of ancient monuments and burial chambers of var ous sorts. I'll hunt up a map which detail what all can be found there. Wiltshire is a very special place, indeed!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (11:52)", "body": "When I went to Stonehenge, I picked up a small tourist book that gives a brief description of a lot of ancient monuments, burial mounds, chalk drawings, and the like. It does seem like Wiltshire has the largest section in that book. Fascinating! I never got to Avebury, but hopefully one day I'll go back...there's a lot more I would love to see in Britain!"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (12:04)", "body": "There are so many goodies on that Blessed Isle... The first time we drove north on the 345 roadway I was consulting my map (I am navigator) and Frank asked if the stones out my window indicated anything. I looked up, and it was a jaw-dropping experience. The stones were HUGE and we were about to enter the henge, itself. I had no idea it was going to be anything like that monumental. Btw, the ditch is now about 9' (2.7M) deep but originally was about twice that. Rain and erosion have silted it up a bit. It was dug by our ancestors with pick and shovel made from deer antlers and shoulder-blades! Of course, chalk is softer than most other stones, but this is not your blackboard slate variety of chalk..."}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (12:14)", "body": "Make that ditch originally over 30' deep (over 10 M) The resulting bank was as high making the entire ditch-and-bank from the outside a daunting 60+ feet (20M)."}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (12:17)", "body": "I am consulting the definitive book on Avebury (which I purchased there): Avebury by Aubrey Burl. It is a book which I would own whether or not I had been there. I recommend it highly."}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (17:09)", "body": "Prehistoric Avebury is the book by Aubury Burl (I have every book and guide he has written, I think!). Here is an excellent webpage with links and pictures of and about Avebury http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~aburnham/eng/aveb.htm I am still hunting for a good map of the area and my old bookmarks are no longer valid and working. I begin the hunt anew."}, {"response": 61, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (17:19)", "body": "I saw the Seahenge dig (on TV)- the Time team (I wrote about earlier) were involved as well as English Heritage and the Norfolk Archeology team. The oak trunk in the centre was actually installed upside down (roots in the air). There was a lot of opposition to the dig by druids and others, despite the fact that the site was being badly eroded. They erected a facsimile site nearby as they thought it might have looked. It was amazing with wooden pillars higher than a man and a low arch entrance with the big oak stump in the middle. The name seahenge is really a misnomer because it was not underwater. The sea levels have risen and the early sealine was quite a distance away."}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (17:22)", "body": "For a good look-see at the goodies in the \"Stonehenge Area\" http://www.amherst.edu/~ermace/sth/nearby.html Good links and photographs for you to ponder while I hunt up the map I have IRL in my hot little hands. Aaarrrrrgh!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (17:30)", "body": "I had never heard of the Seahenge until I read and posted that article. Must do a search for that, as well. These henge monuments, let me state emphatically, had and have NOTHING whatsoever to do with Druids, ancient or modern. They worshipped in groves of trees. These henge momuments were long abandoned by the time of the Keltic inmigration to Britain in 500 BC. These Henges are thousands of years old!"}, {"response": 64, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "Thanks for the Avebury article and all the attendant information on henges. I was familiar with the concept of \"woodhenges\", but Seahenge is new. You do know that visitors can no longer walk up to or touch the stones at Stonehenge. It would seem that there was a problem with tourists carving into and writing grafitti on them. Did you know that in the 19th century there was a suggestion that Stonehenge be incoporated into a railway station. It's true! On the subject of Celtic stone monuments, does anybody know much about Carnac or Kerrec in Brittany? All I know is there are lot of megaliths there, row upon row of them."}, {"response": 65, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (18:27)", "body": "From http://www.channel4.com/nextstep/timeteam/2000seahenge.html The wooden 'henge' rescued from the sea off the Norfolk coast. UPDATE In the spring of 2050BCE, a huge oak tree was felled and its stump upturned and half-buried on a site near to what is now Holme-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. The following year, a number of smaller oaks were felled and cut into 56 posts, which were arranged in a circle around the central stump. The Bronze Age monument, hailed by some modern archaeologists as among the most exciting ever discovered, could have formed some kind of ceremonial site, perhaps with special astronomical or other significance. Alternatively, it has been proposed that it could have been a place of \ufffdexcarnation\ufffd, where bodies were laid out after death to hasten the process of decomposition and speed the spirit on its way to the afterlife. Both the circle and the people who built it were long forgotten before the land on which it stood became submerged by the sea. Its existence had vanished even from folk memory until, almost 4,000 years after its construction, the shifting sands off the East Anglian coast moved again to reveal its presence. \ufffdSeahenge\ufffd, as the monument was to become known, turned into a minor archaeological cause celebr\ufffd as Druids and modern-day pagans organised sit-in protests against English Heritage\ufffds decision to remove and preserve it. Agreement was eventually reached over the future of the \ufffdhenge\ufffd and, in the summer of 1999, it was finally recorded and removed to the Flag Fen Bronze Age Centre, near Peterborough. There, as well as being preserved, the ancient timbers were subjected to detailed dendochronology (tree-ring dating) and carbon dating techniques. It was from these that such a precise date could be arrived at for the felling of the trees that make up the Seahenge circle. The tree rings gave three possible dates, which were narrowed down to just one -- 2050BCE -- after statistical comparisons with a series of carbon dating tests. The time of year -- beween April and June -- was obtained by an examination of the final growth ring of the main stump, which showed that the tree had been felled in the spring. Time Team\ufffds visit to Seahenge helped cast some fresh light on the circle, the people who built it and the techniques they used. It included the construction of modern replica, which it is hoped will be found a home in the area permanently. As the first Bronze Age monument that has ever been precisely dated, Seahenge provided an exciting special venture for the Team. Web resources http://www.flagfen.freeserve.co.uk/index.html The Flag Fen Laboratories, Bronze Age site and visitor centre, near Peterborough, is where the main oak stump and posts from Seahenge are being preserved and studied (not yet on public display). This website provides further details of the centre, its excavation work and visitors\ufffd facilities. For example, Flag Fen\ufffds Visitor Centre houses the Museum of the Bronze Age containing artefacts found on site, including the oldest wheel in England on permanent display. Guided tours of the ongoing excavations at the site are available in the spring and summer. http://www.norfolk-now.co.uk/Content/Features/New_Seahenge/default.htm Useful site produced by Eastern Counties Newspapers with help from the Norfolk Archaeological Unit, providing a great deal of background information, including about the kind of people who might have constructed the circle, and a useful Q&A section. Not updated with latest details following the removal and study of the timbers, though. http://druidry.org/obod/text/news/woodhenge.html The Order of Druids\ufffd \ufffdWoodhenge News\ufffd site has an extensive selection of press articles and public statements relating to Seahenge, as well as a few high-quality photographs. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_544000/544947.stm The BBC has a number of news reports relating to Seahenge, including how it was dated to spring 2050. Its site includes a Realplayer video report on the lifting of the timbers, audio interviews with Alex Bayliss of English Heritage on dating the timbers; and archaeologist Maisie Taylor describing preservation work at Flag Fen. Further reading Bronze Age Britain by Michael Parker Pearson (Batsford/English Heritage, 1996) Based on the prehistoric evidence, as well as current research and debate, this book examines how life in Britain changed during the period 4000-900 BC. Illustrated with lots of maps, plans, reconstructions and photographs. Flag Fen by Francis Pryor (Batsford/English Heritage, 1991) Fascinating account of the discovery of this Bronze Age site. The Flag Fen Laboratories are where the Seahenge timbers are being studied and preserved. An exciting archaeological adventure story. The Significance of Monuments by Richard Bradley (Routledge, 1998) The author traces the history of Neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds, henges, stone circles and barrows since their first appearance 6,000 years or more ago. He provide"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (19:00)", "body": "Oh Maggie!! You dear, dear lady! Now, to find an image to post. If they have one, I shall post them! As to the Megaliths in any part of Europe, they seem to hgave been raised by the same cultures - the Beaker People (because they buried their dead with beaker-shaped pottery). Britain's culture came from the Iberian peninsula, most likely. At least, that was the theory last I looked. I'd be delighted to learn of new ones. I knew that Stonehenge was no longer accessable. in '77, '79' and '81 when we were there we could walk right up to the stones. Alas, during WW2 a general wanted it removed for an airport runway (tanks are all over the place and are trashing Salisbury Plain at an alarming rate. In the 1800's they rented sledge hammers so one could break of parts of the stones for souvenirs! Amazing!"}, {"response": 67, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (19:12)", "body": "It's amazing there's anything left of Stonehenge at all. I remember reading about 2 years ago that some Pagan religious groups were protesting because the only people allowed to go into Stonehenge on their holidays were the Druids. The other Pagans found this grossly unfair."}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "SEAHENGE from the website Maggie posted in her article:"}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (19:22)", "body": "SEAHENGE"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (19:32)", "body": "That is the tiniest woodhenge I have ever seen. Woodhenge near Stonehenge is much larger and was probably the ritual place used while building the more durable Stonehenge. Durrington Walls is a H U G E monument with a housing estate obliterating a lot of it, but that is probably where they lived."}, {"response": 71, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (20:20)", "body": "re: post #34, i saw that show! they said they couldn't go into the other halls because of the water. amazing!! i was waiting with bated breath to see where all the tunnels led! because i was trying to catch up, didn't catch up on everything, scanned through. so what is the seahenge? i can't see anything in that picture but sand bags and butts!"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (23:49)", "body": "Seahenge is like a stone circle but the uprights are oak. Most of it has either rotted away or has been silted in. You can see them poking up about a foot or so. Henge means a circular monument around which is a bank and ditch. Lots of henges never had stones or uprights, but Stonehenge is the prototype and there is no other like it. It has shaped, mortise and tenon lintels and shaped sarsens. Most of the others are just stones chosen for their natural shape and set in alignments. Anything you can add about the Egyptian tomb? Sounds wonderful and amazing and breathtaking to watch. I'll watch the journals to see if they leak anymore information to the public. Fascinating!!!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (02:55)", "body": "There was another dig quite recently on Salisbury plain when the army wanted to build a new tank track. They found two sites, one was bronze age. I'll see if I can 'dig' up some details. There was an 'epic' book on Salisbury I read ages ago - same guy who wrote 'Hawaii', Marcia you must know it."}, {"response": 74, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (03:12)", "body": "http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/ancestors/ser3pro6.shtml Hunter of the Plain To the north of Stonehenge, lies the vast expanse of the Army's Salisbury Plain Training Area, over 25,000 hectares (60,000 acres) of largely untouched downland. Last year, during the upgrading of one of the many tank tracks that cross the Plain, a prehistoric burial was discovered, lying in apparent isolation within a deep chalk cut pit. What made this burial so unusual was that, resting in the skeleton's hand was a clue to it's age, a finely worked flint arrowhead dating to the time of the first building of Stonehenge. This meant that the burial had to be late Neolithic, some time around 2500BC. There was an additional puzzle though. Next to the burial was a short length of curved ditch, but with our burial outside it. A magnetometer survey showed that it was part of a circular ditch, about 35m in diameter, but excavation provided no clues about its date or its function. To me there were two options, it could either be a small henge, a roughly circular temple of Neolithic date, which would fit in well with the date of the arrowhead or, what seemed more likely to me, a levelled round barrow. These are burial mounds of Bronze Age date, many from about 2000 BC to 1500BC and they cluster in their hundreds around the Stonehenge area. Their shape and size varies enormously but I felt that our circular ditch was probably a ploughed down 'disc' barrow, a beautiful shape that looks like a target or shield from above. So, I thought that we had a Neolithic burial (about 2500BC) and a barrow from the Bronze Age, a few centuries later, say around 1800BC. However - when a radiocarbon date came back from a sample of bone from the burial it was around 1600BC and snails from the circular ditch, analysed by Mike Allen, suggested that it was of Neolithic date. Why can't archaeology sometimes be a bit more simple! But did the arrowhead mean that we had found a prehistoric archer? When the skeleton was examined by bone expert Jackie McKinley she found that it was of a very well built man aged about 35 when he died, certainly powerful enough to have used a prehistoric bow. There were no clues about how he had died, but the arrowhead did not seem to have been the cause, unlike the famous 'murder victim' from Stonehenge whose bones still had the tips of flint arrows embedded in them 4000 years after his death. To find out more about prehistoric archers we enlisted the help of Alan Course and Hilary Greenland. Under Alan's expert tuition I made a flint arrowhead similar to our man's (although far less finely worked, I must add) while Hilary made us a replica of a Neolithic bow from yew, the perfect bow wood. Her pattern was the oldest surviving bow from this country, from Meare Heath in Somerset. Initial tests showed that Hilary's bow was very powerful and so, to test its strength, and the effectiveness of my arrowhead (now fitted to a shaft by Alan) we took them both to the Defence Evaluation Research Agency (DERA) where the Army's modern weapons are put through their paces. The speed and drag of the arrow, its penetrative power and the power of the bow suggested, when fed into the computer programme that calculates the performance of a bullet, that the arrow would fly no more than 65 metres when shot from Hilary's bow. But this calculation does not take into account the human factor involved in archery and, in the field, the arrow flew for nearly 100 metres, rising to around 160 metres when the feather fletchings were trimmed to reduce drag. So who was our man? Was he an archer, a hunter who roamed Salisbury Plain in the Bronze Age and why was he buried outside the henge or barrow that must have been the reason for choosing his burial place? What is certain is that he lived and died at a time when Salisbury Plain, with its temples and burial mounds, clustering around the magnificent and by now ancient Stonehenge, was the spiritual heart of prehistoric Britain. Our man would have known Stonehenge, he may have made the pilgrimage there at Midsummer and, perhaps more importantly, at the Winter Solstice, the turning of the year when life is renewed. He may even have helped to build Stonehenge..."}, {"response": 75, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (12:12)", "body": "Marcia, didn't you say I would find Portuguese petroglyphs here?"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (12:17)", "body": "I am still awakening. I shall post them for you as soon as I get through the posts in Geo (I think we are giving Drool a run for the most popular right now!)"}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (14:08)", "body": "http://www.he.net/~archaeol/ PORTUGUESE PETROGLYPHS When construction workers laboring on a bridge in northeastern Portugal's C\ufffda Valley lowered the Pocinho Dam lake by nine feet in early December, archaeologists and rock art experts jumped at the chance to nose around. Their investigations were rewarded with the discovery of a new petroglyph panel to add to the array of local rock art dating from Palaeolithic times to the 1950s (see \"Rock Art Saved,\" March/April 1996). The latest discovery, at Fariseu, is a vertical outcropping incised with bovine and horse images, some sporting two or more heads on single bodies to suggest animation. The Fariseu panel, covered at the base by undisturbed Palaeolithic strata, has been dated to 21,000 years before present. \"Until now,\" Joao Zilhao of the Instituto Portugu\ufffds de Arqueologia told ARCHAEOLOGY, \"the dating of the stylistically Palaeolithic C\ufffda Valley rock art to the Palaeolithic was supported only by indirect evidence. This was very strong evidence, but, in the language of the courts, only circumstantial. Now we have the strongest possible evidence: stratigraphy. After the Fariseu finds, no one in good faith can question the Palaeolithic chronology of the C\ufffda Valley rock art.\" At the end of December the art was reburied and water levels restored. Archaeologists hope to lower the lake again this summer.--ELIZABETH J. HIMELFARB"}, {"response": 78, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (14:32)", "body": "This is right near me but I haven't seen it in the 'flesh' yet. The WWW site http://www.etoncollege.com/lake.html has photos. Eton College is constructing an Olympic sized rowing lake on the north bank of the river Thames at Dorney, Buckinghamshire. In advance of the construction a major archaeological investigation is taking place, organised by the Oxford Archaeological Unit. Aerial Photography Aerial photography shows that alongside the present river there is a series of gravel islands divided by ancient, relict river channels. Cropmarks reveal some of the evidence of past human activity on the dry islands: an early Bronze Age barrow cemetery (about 1800 BC), later Bronze Age field systems (about 1000 BC) and a Romano-British farmstead. Evaluation To supplement the evidence of aerial photography a large number of evaluation trenches were cut by machine across the 150 hectare site. These showed that the historic landscape was even more complex than first thought. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aerial view of the Roman farmstead showing the rectangular enclosure ditch upstanding in the growing crop. Inside the enclosure the circular ditch surrounding a house and various blobs indicating storage pits are also visible. Plan of the site on the north bank of the modern River Thames, with former channels of the river and its tributaries shown in blue. The cropmark sites, which show on the dry gravel terraces alongside the river, are also marked (dark green on yellow). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The most significant discovery was a major channel of the Thames which was active in the late prehistoric and Roman period. On the banks of this channel were Mesolithic (about 8000 BC) and Neolithic (c. 4000 BC) settlements. Alterations were made to the design of the rowing Lake construction in order to preserve some of the most important of the archaeological deposits, particularly the rare, waterlogged Mesolithic sites. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flint arrowheads found on the alluvial floodplain next to the former course of the river Thames. These arrowheads date from the Neolithic (4000-2200 BC) and Early Bronze Age (2200-1600 BC). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Thames Channel The River Thames has been called `liquid history'. On its banks are countless royal palaces and of the most important historic towns in Britain from London to Abingdon and Oxford. Since the last century the Thames itself has been continuously dredged. Large numbers of prehistoric weapons and prestige objects such as the Battersea shield (now in the British Museum) have been found, indicating the wealth of material deposited in the river. Unfortunately little now remains in the river itself owing to the dredging. The channel has been scoured clean. So the discovery of a 2km long section of prehistoric Thames is of major importance. Surviving within the Channel are prehistoric trees, the remains of a beaver dam and the layers of silt which act as a guide to past climate, river flow and human activity in the catchment area. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wattle trackway laid upon horizontal timbers between the uprights of another timber bridge crossing the former Thames. Only the tops of the uprights are visible; these were over 2 m long. Late Bronze Age pot found in the former channel of the river Thames next to upright wooden posts around a sandbank. This was probably a deliberate offering made when the posts were driven in. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alluvium The silt or alluvium deposits are a particularly important indicator of human activity. As the natural climax woodland was cleared from about 4000 BC there was increased run-off into the river valley. Alluviation is particularly evident from about 2000 years ago as arable farming intensified and the population increased. The Eton Rowing Lake alluvial sequence is one of the most complex so far observed in the Thames Valley. Dating by Optical Stimulated Luminescence and C14 is helping to define the sequence. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Uprights of a timber bridge crossing the former channel of the river Thames. The timbers have not been fully excavated, and the figures are standing on the river silts. This particular bridge dates to c. 600 BC; part of an earlier bridge dating to c.1300 BC is visible to the left of the person farthest from the camera. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Earliest Bridges over the Thames The most interesting human artefact found in the Channel are the remains of six prehistoric timber bridges, dated from about 1300 BC to 300 BC. They probably indicate a"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (14:43)", "body": "Maggie, what great things you have posted this morning. Incredible for one little lady to post on my most favorite of topics. I had not heard of the man buried so differently near Stonehenge. That is fascinating and I will pass it on to family who were there with me. I have not had time to digest it yet, but I will and have more to say then. The Thames channel is amazing bit of history going back to the Mesolithic ! There are not a whole lot of mesolithic remains around. They were built over, grown over, the sea took them or whatever, but this find is so exciting. Now, I don't have to wait for Antiquity to publish the report. We have Maggie on the scene. Get thee over there and let us know what you can see (a soggy trench, no doubt!)"}, {"response": 80, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (16:48)", "body": "Unfortunately it's on very private land (after all Prince William goes to Eton!) I've craned my neck as we go past on the motorway, but haven't seen anything yet."}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (17:02)", "body": "How disappointing. It looks as though it is on the seacoast, but Eton is not. Hmmm...is it a very wide river (gotta get my Ordnance Survey Atlas out!)"}, {"response": 82, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (00:08)", "body": "Wow, you folks have been busy! What great links and pictures!! I never realized how many different \"henges\" existed. How did the Druids end up getting associated with these circles, anyway? Maggie, do you live near any of these places?"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (00:35)", "body": "They did not at all. Unfortunately, a prominent Antiquarian a few hundred years ago (having more money than brains, unfortunately) stated that it was a temple erected by the Druids...I shall cite it better in the morning, but it was a fanciful notion which gathered cult status after his death. I have Aubrey Burl's first book, which enumerated and describes all stone circles in the British Isles as his published PhD thesis. It is a wonderfully readable book, and I wish I could have tagged along on his research treks. He is the one who wrote the book on Avebury which I cited earlier. There are several hundred stone circles; I will get the exact number in the morning when I can see better."}, {"response": 84, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (10:52)", "body": "I live about 25 mins away from the site at Eton, an hours drive from stonehenge. But it's little use going there now you can't get to it."}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (12:14)", "body": "That is so sad - on both accounts - that you cannot get into it. Do you like Avebury? Actually, the town is Amesbury. I always thought that weird since it is halfway inside of that gigantic henge. Y'know, if it weren't for those latter-day bogus \"druids\" (objectivity has nothing to do with it), we'd all be able to get much closer to Stonehenge. I can recall sitting on the grass in the shade of one of the largest Sarsens for the longest time and just absorbing the feeling of the place. I was there long enough to see the teeny daisies blooming in the cropped grass and to remember the ambience of the place. It was lovely and we were the only ones there most of the time aside from the guards. Fortunately, the Sarcen is an extremely hard form of sandstone and almost impervious to human battering on the usual scale of activity. Those stones are still there almost 4000 years on..."}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (12:19)", "body": "A little aside: I wondered how Maiden Castle (a colossal iron-age Hillfort and not a castle at all) and the rest of the \"monuments\" were kept so neatly groomed. After we'd climbed to the summit, we discovered why. The momuments are kept well trimmed by the biggest and healthiest sheep I have ever seen. They are moved from place to place as needed, and the only residuals are the \"meadow muffins\" you have to be careful not to tread on."}, {"response": 87, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (14:46)", "body": "I visited Stonehenge in 1995. We weren't able to get right up to the stones, but we were able to walk by and get some pictures. If you were careful, you could keep the fences out of the frame. I don't know if it's been closed off even more than that. Still have to take another look at my slides from that trip... Never got to Maiden Castle; where is that?"}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (15:28)", "body": "Maiden Castle is in Dorset. I believe it is the largest hillfort and the one the Romans had to conquer to conquer Britain and bring baths, indoor plumbing and straight roadways to the Barbarians...!"}, {"response": 89, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (15:52)", "body": "I feel very lucky to have visited sites that are now closed, or have been in a long while. Stonehenge is one of them. Wonderful place."}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (16:25)", "body": "Funny thing about Stonehenge...I had read so much hype and \"New Age\" stuff about the place that I did not even want to stop there the first time. The pleading of son David made me get out of the car. We walked up to that back stone, the biggest and tallest of them all. (We had just seen \"2001, A Space Odyssey\" prior to leaving for Britain.) We stood within inches of it looking up at it silhouetted against the sky. Suddenly, both of us had a hair-raising experience and we backed away together. That Black monolith in the movie HAD to have been in Clarke's mind when he wrote the book on which the movie was based. Stonehenge has held my interest ever since and I have a rather large collection of books on the subject."}, {"response": 91, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (17:56)", "body": "I never really got into the \"New Age\" things concerning Stonehenge or the Pyramids for that matter, but I digress. I remember reading that one of the very remarkable things about Stonehenge is that is a lunar calculator. It was constructed to be in alighments with and to predict lunar eclipses. This wasn't known until the 1970's and was discovered with the help of (then) recent developments in computer science. The striking thing about this is that it takes a higher degree of mathematical sophistocation to construct a lunar calculator/observatory than a solar one. Not bad for people who apparently didn't have writing."}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (19:05)", "body": "Indeed! Thanks for bringing that up about Stonehenge's alignments. I have that book, too. Stonehenge Decoded by Gerald S. Hawkins. He ran all of the coordinates of alignments of the stones. (There is more than a circle of stones at Stonehenge.) If Stonehenge had been erected anywhere else on earth the alignments would not have worked! A great overview with images is available: http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMStonehengeD.html \"Floor plan\" of Stonehenge:"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (19:12)", "body": "Note that in the aerial view at the top right a wide white band appears. That is the 345 Highway. When Stonehenge was first offered to the nation for \ufffd7000. It was considered too much money for an old pile of stones, even though it included many acres of land around it. When it became available again and purchased by the National Trust, it included only the immediate land around it. You can see the result - a highway ! If you walk away from the monument and look back, you will see that it is built on a slight hillside...but the top of the lintels is dead straight level. It is the most incredible place and unique in all the world."}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (03:46)", "body": "Sorry to be pedantic, but Stonehenge is at the junction of the A303 and the A360. In most ways it is outrageous to build a road so close, but on the other hand, it's great that you can get your fill of wonder every time you drive down to Devon & Cornwall."}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (13:06)", "body": "Thanks, Mark I have a very bad map in front of me. Getting out the OS maps again. (Every so often I slip in an error to see if anyone catches it - but that was not one of them.) The 345 goes through Amesbury, no? The nearest town to Stonehenge? Btw, That is a great drive to Cornwall - full of \"leylines\" and ancient goodies for those with a discerning eye and an interest in the subject. Please, continue to be pedantic. I need to have the right information out there."}, {"response": 96, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (16:54)", "body": "It would seem that in some respects, Stonehenge is a bit like the Rodney Dangerfield of ancient monuments -- it don't get no respect. Well it's getting more than it used to anyway."}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "It has gotten respect. During WW2 it was considered so important that it was ringed with tangles of barbed wire and search lights so the Nazi bombers would see it and not destroy it (Hitler wanted British Heritage intact when he conquered the place...) The obscenities did not happen (except for the loss adjacent land) until the latterday \"druids\" started buring their dead in the henge and slaughering chickens on the \"altar\" stone (an upright which has fallen flat)... Nowadays it is getting all the respect it can handle and still be approachable. I purchased a Tower Minted commemorative coin of Stonehenge last time I was there and the obverse has the \"floor plan\" engraved upon it. It is one of my very most prized possessions!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (17:19)", "body": "But, Cheryl, upon thinking of them renting out sledge hammers to bash off your own souvenirs, you are right. I get furious every time I think about it!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (15:49)", "body": "(Marcia)renting out sledge hammers to bash off your own souvenirs What was this??"}, {"response": 100, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (16:17)", "body": "Here's some more for you from http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/archaeometry/StantonDrew/ There are some great pics on the site. STANTON DREW STONE CIRCLES (Somerset, England) [ Please note : the sites of these stone circles, although in the care of English Heritage, lie on private land. You are welcome to visit them during daylight hours on payment of an entrance fee of \ufffd1.00 (please leave the money in the honesty box at gate from the car park). However, please do not take dogs with you, do not leave litter, and respect the country code.] Stanton Drew lies off the beaten track and it is perhaps for this reason that its remarkable prehistoric stone circles have not received the same level of interest and exploration as their more famous relatives at Avebury and Stonehenge. This obscurity, and the lack of modern intrusions into their surroundings, has protected the solitude and character of these sites. Very little is known about them. The great stones (or megaliths), and the patterns they make in the landscape, remain mysterious; no excavations are recorded, nor have any modern surveys been made - that is, until very recently. This note provides you with a very brief background to the site and of the results of this new research. The megalithic sites There are three stone circles at Stanton Drew: the Great Circle being one of the largest in the country. The other two, to the south-west and north-east respectively are smaller. Both the great Circle and the north-east circle were approached from the north-east by short `avenues' of standing stones. Most of the stones have fallen, although a few still remain upright. In the garden of the village pub is a group of three large stones called The Cove, and to the north, across the river Chew, is the site of a standing stone called Hautville's Quoit. Their proximity to each other, and alignments between some of them, indicate that these sites are related as a single complex, and it is a fair assumption that Stanton Drew was once a place of primary significance during the later Stone Age. History and folklore The circles are thought to have been originally noted by the famous antiquarian John Aubrey in 1664, and the first plan of them was published by William Stukeley in 1776. Although several other observers have written about them, they remain very much as first recorded over three hundred years ago. In the absence of many facts about the sites, the stones have attracted a considerable tradition of folklore. The most persistent tale is that the stones represent the members of a wedding party and its musicians, lured by the Devil to celebrate on the Sabbath and thus becoming petrified in their revels. Archaeology and recent survey Stone circles such as those here are known to date broadly to the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age (approx 3000-2000 BC), and many examples are known, mostly from western and northern Britain. In southern England the stone circles and avenues at Avebury and Stonehenge testify to a long and complex history within a landscape dense in other evidence of prehistoric activity. The circles are believed to have played an important part in contemporary social and religious life, and there is evidence that some were aligned with major events of the solar and lunar calendar. They are difficult subjects to tackle archaeologically, though, and their interpretation is the subject of much discussion, a debate much enlivened by the interests and theories of the `New Age'. Apart from the certainty that the stone settings at Stanton Drew share an affinity with ritual complexes such as Avebury, there is little material evidence to take this interpretation further. Contemporary prehistoric sites seem to be rare in the vicinity although they probably await discovery. In order to try and lift this veil of ignorance a little, and also to help improve the day-to-day management and presentation of the circles, English Heritage have recently initiated geophysical research at the site. Geophysical survey Geophysical survey is a method of examining an archaeological site without having to dig it up. Several techniques can be used, but the one that has so far proved most effective at Stanton Drew is magnetometry. This relies on the fact that all soil is slightly magnetic and that this magnetism is concentrated and enhanced in many types of archaeological feature. Measurements made with a portable magnetometer, carried across the site at regularly spaced intervals, allows a picture of the local magnetic field to be built up. Magnetic `anomalies' are revealed in the subsequent computer plots as patterns which indicate the presence of buried features such as pits, ditches and hearths. Fluxgate gradiometer survey of Stanton Drew [67.5Kb GIF] This year the Ancient Monuments Laboratory of English Heritage has carried out a magnetometer survey [67.5Kb GIF] of the large field which contains the Great Circle and the north-east circle. The results have been astonishing and have, at "}, {"response": 101, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (16:31)", "body": "neat! any pictures of the stones??"}, {"response": 102, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (17:19)", "body": "Yes, on the site - I'm not clever enough yet to patch them in. Marcia probably will when she sees it. I'd not heard of this site at all, but then I don't know Somerset much, I usually pass through on my way to Devon. http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/archaeometry/StantonDrew/"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (22:06)", "body": "I'll post 'um just as soon as I eat something (long day at the ball field.) Maggie, you have discovered one of my most favorite sites. Thanks for posting the URL."}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (22:39)", "body": "Stanton Drew is near Bristol, England...across the Bristol Channel from South Wales. From: http://www.stonepages.com/England/Inglese/StantonDrew.html and http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~aburnham/eng/stant1.htm"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (22:43)", "body": "No, Stanton Drew is not a recumbent stone circle in which a specially-placed stone was placed on its side lengthwise. These simply fell over. All, if I remember correctly, recombent stone circles are in Scotland. Gi, it was in the 18th and 19th century when they rented out sledge hammers at Stonehehenge. The barbarity of the very idea offends me to the soul."}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (23:48)", "body": "From the BBC - Friday, October 15, 1999 Published at 09:48 GMT 10:48 UK Stonehenge face mystery Silently watching us for 4,000 years? By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse Has the face of the creator of Stonehenge been staring at us unrecognised for more than 4,000 years? A British archaeologist claims to have seen a face carved into the side of one of the mighty stones at Stonehenge. It is the first face ever seen on the Neolithic monument and one of the oldest works of art ever found in Britain. It was recognised by Terrence Meaden, an archaeologist with a fascination for the ancient standing stones of the British Isles. \"I just happened to be there at the right time of day because only when the light is right can you see it properly. During the summer months it is only obvious for about a hour each day around 1400.\" It is amazing that it has never been recognised before. Dr Meaden believes that it was missed because previous researchers concentrated on the fronts of the standing stones and not their sides. The particular viewing conditions to see it at its best will have also played a part in it not being seen. \"But once you see it it's obvious,\" he says. It seems to carry a serious expression, almost a frown, as it looks across the Salisbury plain. Stonehenge was built about 2450 BC but why does Dr Meaden believe the carving was made at the time and was not done much later. \"Why would anyone do that?\" he asks, \"The type of stone, Sarsen, is the hardest stone know to man. It would have taken hundreds of hours working on a platform to do it. Why bother?\" Meaden's photographs are being evaluated by other archaeologists. He also claims that other faces can clearly be seen on the Avebury stones not far from Stonehenge. But who is the face of Stonehenge? \"We will never know,\" says Meaden, \"He could be the patron of the monument or even its architect. Perhaps the designer of Stonehenge has been looking at us for four thousand years and we didn't see him.\" Terence Meaden can be contacted by email at terence.meaden@stonehenge-avebury.net."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (23:51)", "body": "That most curious article was found at URL http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_474000/474977.stm"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (00:16)", "body": "Curiouser and curiouser... http://www.stonecentric.connectfree.co.uk/aveburyi.html"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (00:23)", "body": "Remember how much I applauded the work of Aubury Burl? Here is the Megalithic web site with which he is associated: http://www.megalith.ukf.net/ From that site this map of Megalithic Britain - there are a lot of stone circles and other alignments out there!"}, {"response": 110, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (10:29)", "body": "OK, England's back on line and awake (actually it's mid-afternoon!). Drats, I thought I'd discovered stonepages.com only to find you already knew!!! In the above map it's the clusters that interest me. Why? Is there any connection with the geomagnetism lines? Is the pattern continued in mainland Europe? I've got a book somewhere on early settlement patterns, maybe there's a connection somewhere."}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (12:25)", "body": "Maggie, I have been at this for more than 5 years...I began with a Commodore 64 where everything was done is Dos, you used lynx to surf the web and emailed using Pine. I can still do all of that, but how primitive it all is! However, I discovered some more good new URLs last night when I was posting all of the above, so Keep finding them and letting me know. I am always delighted when you find new things or discover ones which are truly worthy which I already knew about. I was having trouble figuring out which place to post that map. Perhaps I should post it both places? From the Bronze Age onward the tin in Cornwall was much sought after to harden the copper found on Cyprus. That's why the Romans needed Britannia. More on that after breakfast..."}, {"response": 112, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (16:34)", "body": "Cyprus and Cornwall, we're kind of back to the Minoans. Yes, well a lot of Bronze Age people sailed out of the enclosed Mediterranean, hugging the coast of Western Europe, to Cornwall. Britain was the tin island. I'm a bit partial to the Minoans as they were extraordinary artists, and even had indoor plumbing. Seriously, what survives of Minoan art is remarkably beautiful. About the face on Stonehenge -- it may be a face, but it looks as though it might be a natural formation in the rock. Seeing a face there might be analogous to seeing pictures in the formations of clouds. Only clouds are fleeting."}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (16:40)", "body": "Of course, those faces are tricks of lighting and good imagination. Be sure to check the link I posted (\"stonecentrics\") at Geomagnetism. Very odd, indeed. He even admits to retouching some of the pictures. Go figure! Those who WANT to see them will see them everywhere!"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (16:41)", "body": "Who can we recruit to check it out?! Mark? Maggie? Mike, how about a weekend at the White Hart in Salisbury?"}, {"response": 115, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (17:02)", "body": "i know i know this post refers to one from way back: what's a petroglyph? *grin* oh, and they should've brought me along on that stonehenge thing, i would've seen the face right away (good imagination, i guess).....love the pics!"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (17:25)", "body": "Like a heiroglyph or any other sort, glyph means carved work. Petros is Greek for rock (thus St Peter) It simply means rock carvings. They are all over Hawaii, as well. New Grange (In Ireland)has spectacular ones and the Aborigines in Australia have theirs, as well as Amerindians, theirs. I think even we have them on our public buildings...! Love to get you to Stonehenge You'd feel vibes and all kinds of fun things!"}, {"response": 117, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:40)", "body": "imagine what a child would feel in a place like that? you know, children are so oblivious to adult rules (no ghosts, can't see angels, etc.) that they'd be bound to feel something there. one day, i'll see stone henge in the flesh!"}, {"response": 118, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:40)", "body": "thanks for the definition, that's the idea i had but wanted to make sure!"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:56)", "body": "...thanks for being interested and asking *Hugs* I know you will feel things all around Stonehenge and Salisbury Plain which is one huge antiquity which the military should get off while there is still something there. I told you the experience David and I had...it was palpable the feeling that we should not be so close to the stone and not to touch it. They drive tanks all over the place there and fire live ordnance for practice. I know it is important to practice and our guys go into the saddle between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea to do it - where there is just about nothing but bleak lava fields."}, {"response": 120, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:58)", "body": "usually they practice out in the deserts and such. didn't know stonehenge was in the middle of such a field. i certainly hope the practice is for those in the know and not beginners who'd be sure to knock a stone or two over. geez!"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:13)", "body": "Tell me about it. Some General wanted the stones removed so he could build a runway there during WW2. Britain is small, but they don't need to do that. Sheesh! Just lucky the Gods were looking over it. Between the sledge hammer renters and the generals...I am amazed that it is still there. Remember Avebury? The Huge Henge with the village inside of it? Guess where they got the stones for all of those houses, the church, walls everywhere?! Arrrrgh!"}, {"response": 122, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (00:33)", "body": "Seems like a lot of significant archaeological sites have been destroyed through sheer ignorance. Happened a lot in Greece and Turkey... The experience you and David had at Stonehenge sounds really eerie, Marcia. Can't get close enough to the stones to feel anything like that now, though. I was also thinking that those faces are more tricks of lighting and imagination than anything else, like the face on Mars. I think we have a natural tendency to look for patterns in things, anyway. Isn't that how our brain tries to process and organize the sensory input we receive?"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (00:40)", "body": "I agree with you, Ginny, but we are pragmatists and scientists. Others may be more sensitive to other things we cannot even imagine. My ESP does not even work."}, {"response": 124, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (00:47)", "body": "My ESP has never worked, either...though I admit that sciense doesn't have a clue what the human brain is fully capable of. The temple of the sun at Tiwanaku in Bolivia had some very definate faces carved in the walls, but I don't think that site is as old as Stonehenge."}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (01:07)", "body": "The temples at Malta are the oldest Megalithic structures, as I recall with the Boyne Valley 'tombs' in Ireland of which New Grange is the best restored are also very old. 8000 years old. There in one on Cornwall which just might be as old...More tomorrow on Ballowal."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (05:38)", "body": "Unlikely to make it out to Salisbury Plain myself for a few months - don't think one can get close enough to the stones to check out the \"sculpting\" anyway. On Newgrange, I was listening to a phone-in at Christmas where as recently as the Sixties, members of the public could just borrow the key to the gate off the farmer who owned the field with the passage burial-chamber, and go for a look. It wasn't till 1975 or so that a professor of archaeology suddenly wondered about the winter solstice, and went to camp out in the burial chamber for the longest night. Lo and behold, come the dawn the place was flooded with natural light for the first time that anyone modern had ever seen."}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (11:02)", "body": "Incredible! I do wish they had a better name than passage burial-chamber or chambered barrow or whatever. I think there are just a few of them in Ireland and a few on Anglesey (which you also had to go to the farmer for the key when we were there in the late 70's and early 80's). Just as St Paul's Cathedral is not a chambered passage tomb, neither is Newgrange or its ilk. I shall post pictures and goodies about the Boyne Valley \"tombs\" as soon as I awaken and catch up with the overnight posts. Thanks, Mark!"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (13:52)", "body": "Newgrange and the Bru na Boinne Newgrange is a passage-grave that overlooks the valley of the Boyne river in County Meath, Ireland. It is widely considered to be one of the most significant archaeological sites in Europe. In Irish tradition the Bru na Boinne (the Gaelic for \"Valley of the Boyne\") is sacred in and of itself, a reason why several other passage grave complexes, such as Dowth and Knowth, were built there. Newgrange, though, is special. Newgrange is the only passage-grave ever excavated that is aligned so as to allow the light from the Winter Solstice sunrise to enter and light the main chamber deep within the mound. This has significant spiritual meaning, as the Winter Solstice is the time of the longest night, and the sunrise after this night (as the Druids would have celebrated it) would mark the beginning of the return of light to the world. Building a passage-grave so that the light of the beginning of the sun's annual resurrection may fall on the remains of the ancestors is a powerful symbol, and serves to show the ancient Celts' considerable theological, astronomical and architectural sophistication. The purpose behind the construction of Newgrange remains, to a degree, a mystery. While the excavation of the barrow earlier in this century revealed the remains of several individuals within the central chamber, whether interment was the initial and sole intent behind Newgrange is uncertain. The alignment with the Winter Solstice and the white quartz facing of the monument suggest that this monument was constructed with more than burial in mind, but the inner chamber is too small for more than a handful of individuals to witness the brilliant Solstice sunrise. Would the highest of the Celtic elite celebrate the holiday within, while others gathered outside for a group ceremony? Or could Newgrange have been constructed for the exclusive use of a very high-ranking noble family, as a private catacomb and worshipping space? The remains found had few grave goods to support the second theory, but unsupervised access to the mound for decades before the excavation could explain the lack of luxurious artifacts. The state in which the remains were found also leads to some speculation, a mix of burnt and unburnt bones, in some disarray. Were all of an individual's remains brought here, or just part? Were remains left here forever, or were they circulated yearly, removed after the Solstice light had imbued them with the spirit of resurrection? Unless some startling resource is found, speculation may provide the only answers to the many questions. In Irish mythology, Newgrange is the home of Aenghus mac Og, god of love. He won the site from his father, the Dagda, by means of a trick. Aenghus had been away when the magical places of Ireland had been parcelled out to the various gods, and upon returning, begged his father that he might have Newgrange for only the space of a day and a night. When twenty-four hours had passed, the Dagda returned to claim his own, only to have Aenghus refuse to give up Newgrange, claiming that all of time could be divided into the space of day and night, and that Newgrange was therefore His until the end of time, by the terms of the agreement. Aenghus is supposed to have lived quite happily there for some time, with his wife, Caer Ibormeith, whom he wooed and won in the form of a swan, as she was enchanted into that shape. Newgrange is well worth visiting, and is a very popular site with tourists to Ireland. There is a waiting list for as long as ten years for the privilege of being inside the mound at sunrise on the morning of December 21, the Winter Solstice. The freedom to walk within this sacred monument is now in danger, however, as moisture from the breath of the hundreds of daily visitors has been found collecting on the stones inside the mound, risking irreparable damage - the monument is as weatherproof as the day that it was built, but the pervading humidity from tourists' breath was not a force that was forseen or engineered against."}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (13:56)", "body": "Winter Solstice Sunrise at Newgrange by Will Hurley Many years ago, my maternal grandfather led me into a large man-made earth and stone mound, in county Meath, Eire. Being raised in the U.S.A. and only 14 at the time, I did not appreciate where he was taking me or why. During the previous eight or nine years, he had often told me he wanted to show me a wonder of the ancient world. Every morning before sunrise on the solstices and equinoxes he would wake me up and make me go outside with him. For most of those years I would whine and complain about it -- I wanted to stay in bed, it was cold outside, I didn't feel like getting up so early. But he made me do it anyway. We would stand facing east to watch the first rays of the sun. The first year he had me stand in a specific spot, and he wrote in a notebook exactly where the sun appeared on the horizon. He also had me watch other spots on the horizon, by holding my thumb upright while closing one eye and then the other. When I reached the age of ten, he made me write the notations. Each year afterwards, he had me compare the previous years' spots to those of the new year. The first couple of years I did not see a difference. Maybe I really didn't notice a difference, or maybe I was too young to care. Then I saw that the point where the sun touched the horizon was slowly changing. It was not something I could compare between sightings year to year, but over a few years a change was noticeable. Granddad finally explained the earth science reasons that were behind this, and said he would take me on a long airplane ride to show me why he had made me get up all those mornings. The night before we were to go into the mound, Granddad seemed very depressed. When I asked him why, he told me the morning might be overcast, and we might not be able to see the sunrise. I learned in later years he had called in many favors from his youth in Ireland to do this with me. After a while he decided that we would go to the mound anyway, just in case. We met several other people just before we entered. Everyone seemed quiet to me, but I sensed a great deal of excitement. We entered the mound about an hour before sunrise. The first thing that I noticed was the odor. It wasn't a bad smell, but it seemed old to me, like a mix of a stone cellar and a damp forest all at the same time. We used flashlights to find our way to the rear of the passageway. The floor was not smooth, and someone could have tripped and hurt themselves without the lights. It was very dark after everyone turned off their lights. Completely dark. For a while this made me uncomfortable. I knew I was standing next to Granddad, but I could not see him or anyone else. I tried to calm myself down by taking slow measured breaths (an exercise he had taught me). I began to hear the others breathing. Someone began to hum softly. Others joined in. I realized it was a tune Granddad often hummed or whistled and I knew how it went, so I joined in as well. About twenty minutes later, while everyone was still humming, I noticed it was getting a little lighter. I could just barely make out the shape of the people who stood between me and the door. Then everyone went silent. A glow had begun to appear at the front of the opening, over the door. Soon a ray of light was on the wall. I thought someone was outside, shining a floodlight through a small hole. The light slowly kept moving toward us. Then I realized what Granddad had been doing all those years. He had been preparing me for this very moment. The sun was slowly making its way to the innermost chamber of the mound, and finally reached it. The emotions of observing and participating in this age old event are indescribable. Even though we had been prepared for disappointment if it had been an overcast morning, this millenia old event had occurred again. All too soon the sun had lit up the inner chamber and now it was beginning to dim. Feelings of regret that nature and man's light show was over were nothing compared to the awe of this marvel. Over the years I have often remembered that morning. Through study I now know that this only happens on the winter solstice. Occasionally the same effect can happen the day before or the day after. What is amazing is that this has been happening every year for over four thousand years. Built over a thousand years before the Egyptian pyramids, the inhabitants of prehistoric Ireland created a monument to man's ingenuity and nature's never-ending cycles."}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (14:03)", "body": "More of Newgrange"}, {"response": 131, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (15:58)", "body": "way kewl! *grin* back to maggie saying scientists don't know much about our brains, i've read that humans use only 10% of their brain. can you imagine what we'd be capable of if we used 20%, 15%? kinda creepy. well, i think clairvoyance comes from a glimpse into that area. and because humans only want logical answers to everything, we logically call those folks crazy. we do seek patterns so things make sense to our brains, but i could never doubt that there IS a face in that stone! i like patterns so this rock appeals to me, love the swirls! reminds me of snail shells or nautilus shells...."}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (16:32)", "body": "Spirals are some of the oldest petroglyphs (Yes!) known...and they occur all over the world in all cultures. Sacred dances are done sunwise directions and mazes in hedges (as well as the maze in the tile on the floor of Chartres Cathedral...they are very old, indeed! This more properly goes in Geomagnetism but is fascinating anywhere."}, {"response": 133, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (17:05)", "body": "Did I really say that? sounds too profound for me!!! *lol* I think there is a LOT that we don't understand. The more I see and hear about how people used to live, the more I feel I don't understand human life. At times it seems like an immense amount of knowledge has been lost, despite all our computers and technology and stuff. I don't think it's wierd metaphysical stuff either, but aspects of these brains of ours that we don't understand and therefore despise. (I'm not saying I despise it just that ....) I'll shut up for now."}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "Well said (and please, don't shut up!) You did mention that when commenting on my suggestion that we had probably forgotten more of what we originally knew than we remember... No wonder we have problems if we are only using 10% of the available space. There are some people I know whose brains must be smooth and unwrinkled..."}, {"response": 135, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (18:31)", "body": "I was the one who made the comment about the human brain, and I have heard that same statistic, Wolf. I've always wondered what it would take just to tap into another 10% of our brainpower. Maybe that's what geniuses like Einstein were doing...just wish we knew *how* they did it! I can totally believe that I have forgotten more of what I've learned than I can remember! I've tried ginko biloba, but it hasn't helped."}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (19:21)", "body": "Wail'll you get some age on you! Sometimes all we remember is stuff we do not need. It is most aggravating!"}, {"response": 137, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (19:29)", "body": "i'm sorry about the mix up of who said what *grin* i do that a lot! (talk about memory)...."}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (20:07)", "body": "http://www.paddynet.com/island/newgrange/ancient.html Covering an area of one acre, Newgrange is one of the most impressive prehistoric monuments in Europe. The entrance, which is almost sixty feet long, leads to the main chamber, which has a corbelled roof and rises to a height of nineteen feet. The traditional name for Newgrange and the grouping of tombs to which it belongs, was Brugh na B\ufffdinne; and it was regarded as the otherworld dwelling of the divine Aonghus Mac \ufffdg - Aonghus the Youthful. Older than Stonehenge, the giant megalithic tomb of Newgrange was probably erected about 3,200 BC (in calendar years). It is one of a group of 40 passage tombs including Knowth and Dowth, that are enclosed on three sides by the river Boyne. Passage tombs are generally found in clusters giving rise to the theory that they were ancient cemeteries, perhaps for leading families. They consist essentially of a round mound or cairn with a long, stone lined passage leading from the outside to a chamber within. As with Newgrange, which can still be seen by the naked eye from the Hill of Tara, some 15 miles away, they tend to be situated on hill tops and commanding sites. The mound is enclosed on the outside by a circle of standing stones of which twelve remain. This gives the impression that the monument was built and designed to stand out from the landscape - perhaps as a beacon for pagan worship. The present day reconstruction, aimed at restoring the site to its pre-historic appearance, gives this theory further substance. Many have likened it to a grounded flying saucer; and it is the subject of much controversy. However, during the Newgrange excavations between 1962 - 1965, much research focused on the original shape of the cairn. This information was drawn from the accounts of those who had visited the monument in the preceding centuries: all of them commented on its flat top. And the positioning of the white quartz stones that reinforce the front of the mound is based entirely on meticulous engineering analysis of the cairn collapse. The white quartz gives the monument a particularly startling facade and it is worth noting that this was only positioned at the front of the cairn, facing the sun. White quartz is known for its energy-dispersing properties and it may, therefore, have been used to absorb and channel its life-giving energy, or it may simply have provided further visibility to those wishing to reach the site. In addition, there were large numbers of oval granite boulders found amongst the collapsed quartz facade. These have been scattered randomly through the reconstructed facade, without acknowledgement to any possible use for these dark stones as patterning elements within the quartz. The twentieth century restorers were not prepared to risk a spiral pattern. The reasons for the use of quartz and granite, and their design, must have been of consequence because the builders of the Newgrange went to great lengths to put the stones there. They are not found locally. The nearest place that they could have collected the quartz was from the Wicklow Mountains to the South; and such a journey would have taken them seven days going by canoe along the Boyne and down the coast. The granite was probably collected around the Mourne Mountains, some days to the North. The cairn itself is reinforced at its base by a continuous circle of stones, called kerb stones. Many of these are ornamented. The most spectacular of these are the entrance stone, and the stone opposite the entrance on the other side of the mound. There is much speculation as to the meaning of these complex designs and many consider them to have solar symbology as sun worship was the most widely spread cult in pre-historic Europe. One of the most interesting features of the mound, particularly in view of the fact that it is a feature unique to Newgrange, is the roof-box above the entrance to the passageway. It consists of two low side-walls, a back corbel and a roofstone; and it is through this gap that the dawn sun beams on the winter solstice. Its purpose is unknown, but some have speculated that the builders: must have held the sun in such high regard that they gave it a separate entrance. Entering the passage tomb is a remarkable experience: the corbelled roof extends to 19ft and the central chamber has three recesses which contain massive stone basins that are thought to have been receptacles for cremated remains, but they may also have had other ceremonial functions. Many of the orthostats or standing stones lining the passage-way are decorated. The eastern recess shows the most decoration and once again this points to sunworshipping as the sun rises in the east. The pre-Celtic inhabitants had no written language. This has lead to the thinking that the artwork at Newgrange, comprising mainly of three-dimensional geometric designs, must have described the world in which they lived. Their complex patterns of loops, spirals, diamonds, zig zags and lozeng"}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (20:10)", "body": "Natural Features Newgrange, on the ridge of Brugh na B\ufffdinne, lies between the valleys of the Boyne river and the little tributary river Mattock. On the ridge, each mound is set on the top of a knoll, as it may have been necessary for ritual purposes to set the mound on a high point. The site is a splendid vantage point looking straight down on the Boyne, which is one of the great rivers of Ireland, flowing through a fine fertile valley. Newgrange was first brought to broad modern attention after 1699 by the Welsh antiquarian, Edward Lloyd. Until then, it was simply a huge, yet somehow 'magical' grass-covered mound. The landscape of Ireland is peppered with many such mounds, also known as S\ufffddhe. The Valley of the Boyne is effectively the Northern boundary of the Central lowland plain of Ireland. To the North lies the undulating hill country of County Louth, and the line of drumlins which mark the borders of old Ulster. The drainage basin of the river Boyne coincides with the fertile pastureland of County Meath where, today, grazing cattle, coppiced woodland and prosperous farms help to create a scene not unlike the Cheshire Plain on the opposite side of the Irish Sea. But six thousand years ago, this was all forest. If we stand on the top of Newgrange and look about us in every direction, we overlook a basin of about 50 square kilometres before rising ground cuts off our view. Then if we imagine this basin as completely cleared of trees, we can get some idea of the kind of clearance that would have been required to produce a Neolithic farming community large enough to undertake the enormous task of building the complex of monuments at Brugh na B\ufffdinne. By about five thousand years ago, everyone working within this radius could either see the monuments, or feel that he ought to be able to see them, and could have a sense of devotion or commitment to these mysterious and sophisticated structures, which were constructed more than a thousand years before the pyramids of Egypt. http://www.paddynet.com/island/newgrange/natural.html#ridge"}, {"response": 140, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (21:28)", "body": "this is neat!"}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (22:51)", "body": "Never been there, but I most assuredly would like to go there. Wolfie, you'd love it!!!"}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (13:17)", "body": "Barrows, chambered tombs and other antiquities in Stonejeng's immediate area: http://www.amherst.edu/~ermace/sth/nearby.html In Stonehenge's Vicinity Although Stonehenge is a world-famous site, other \"henges,\" stone (or wood) circles, and barrows abound in the area surrounding \"the Henge.\" Here is a map of the area around Stonehenge. Barrows Barrows are ancient burial chambers. There are two main types of barrows: long barrows, built in the Neolithic Period (4000 BCE - 2500BCE) and round barrows, built in the Bronze Age (2000 BCE - 1000 BCE). Stonehenge I, the first stage of construction at Stonehenge, when it was just the Bank and Ditch (see map.), goes back to the time of the long barrows. However, Stonehenge IV, the \"version\" that is most famous today, was built at a time when the round barrows were on the declin e. Long Barrows: Long Barrows can be found in Wessex and Sussex, and also in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. They are most numerous in the immediate area of Stonehenge. They were used for the burial of important people. Excavation shows that the pe rson was kept above ground for a time, perhaps on top of a platform, until others died, and the bodies could be put in the barrow and the barrow covered over with earth. The Entrance to West Kennet Long Barrow Photo Credit: Emily Mace. Round Barrows: Round barrows, built at the time of Stonehenge IV, also surround the area of Stonehenge. In fact, within the Henge's Bank and Ditch are two round barrows. There are four types of barrows: bowl, bell, pond, and disc. As with the l ong barrows, round ones only housed important People buried in these barrows often had their possessions about them: daggers, bronze maces, stone battle-axes, in the graves of the men, and in the graves of women, bead necklaces and other ornaments. Origi nally bodies were buried in a crouched position, but later bodies were cremated. Clusters of Barrows: Normanton Down King Barrows Winterbourne Stoke cross-roads Henges Besides Stonehenge, there are three other monuments in the area which have earned the designation of \"Henges:\" Woodhenge, Coneybury Henge, and Durrington Walls. Nothing except marks on the earth remains of these barrows, but their existence has been disc overed by aerial photography, which revealed the post holes and the various ditches and embankments. Woodhenge: Today they have filled in the post-holes with cement posts about waist high. Like Stonehenge, it had an outer bank, which, like so many of these monuments, is very much flattened by ploughing. It was built about 2300 BCE. Inside the ditch were six concentric oval rings, which once held wooden posts. Near the center there is a small grave, in which the body of a three-year old with a split skull was found. Archaeologists think it was a dedicatory burial, and as such it would be t he only evidence of human sacrifice in Neolithic Britain. The original use of the posts, whether as supports of a roof, or otherwise, is unknown. Symbolic axe-heads found in two of the outer rings suggest that it was a temple. Woodhenge. Source: Atkinson, p. 33. Coneybury Henge: All that remains of this henge, too, is a bank and ditch surrounding post holes and other pits. Some pits contain pottery. It appears to have been used only a short time before it was abandoned, around 3500 BCE. Durrington Walls: This monument consisted of a huge oval bank 30 m wide, which too has been largely damaged by plowing. There were two entrances on opposite sides. Inside the circle were two circular timber structures, one to the north, one to the south. In the photos below, the left-hand drawing shows the northern structure, the right the southern. They are both only possible reconstructions."}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (13:19)", "body": "The Durrington Walls structures look smaller by comparison with Woodhenge, but in fact they are huge. Woodhenge is intimate and would fit in one's side yard. Well, almost..."}, {"response": 144, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (13:22)", "body": "isn't it strange how they all use circles as their basis for construction? (does this play into it at all?)"}, {"response": 145, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (13:23)", "body": "speaking of side yards, on hgtv, one show visited a garden where the owner built a mini stone henge. he uses a lot of celtic influences in his garden. it was quite lovely."}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (13:44)", "body": ""}, {"response": 147, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (13:52)", "body": "The latest insult to Stonehenge - from The Times Good News : this page seems to have had an effect! Thanks to the effect of much campaigning and many letters sent through this page in 1996, the disastrous plans for Stonehenge have been dropped. However, an equivalently barbaric project is being carried out in America with regard to the traditional native Apache Indian peoples. http://www.wolflodge.org/urgentnews/apache1.htm has teh details. John Birchall writes to us to say \"Independent p.3 on Friday (June 6) gave the new alternative plans for Stonehenge which involve Madame Tussauds paying for removal of modern accretions and grassing over of nearby road; new carpark; and in return Mdme Tussauds would get the right to run a commercial 'interpretation centre'. Access to the monument to be free of charge and unrestricted; the Independent billed it as a populist move motivated by the new government. I am sure your faxes were worthwhile - it is important for us to constantly remind quango's (English Heritage included) that they are under public scrutiny, even if unelected. I am writing to The Chairman of English Heritage to express support - this should also help to keep them up to the mark! July 20 1996 GENERAL NEWS Stonehenge to be \ufffd163.65m theme park STONEHENGE is to become a \ufffd163.65 million theme park using private investment and lottery cash. The plan includes a visitors' centre with a virtual reality tour, shops, restaurants and a monorail to the stones (Peter Foster writes). For the first time, English Heritage, which is responsible for the monument, will use the Government's Private Finance Initiative under which business puts up part of the money. The centre, with 8,000 square metres of floor space and parking for 3,000 cars, is expected to attract 1.8 million visitors a year, nearly double the present number. Finances permitting, work should start next year and be completed by the end of the decade. Opponents say that the plan will destroy Stonehenge's mystical appeal. Paul Sample, a Liberal Democrat Wiltshire county councillor, said: \"This abhorrent commercialism is out of keeping.\" Click here if you want to write a letter of protest mailto:remote-printer.Department_of_National_Heritage_re_Stonehenge@441712116210.iddd.tpc.int,latrobe@mistral.co.uk,441719733001@faxaway.com to the UK Department of National Heritage and English Heritage. It will get printed on their fax machines: remember to give your snail mail address or fax number for reply - Please mark it re: STONEHENGE - and ask for a reply! click here to write a letter of protest to the UK Department of National Heritage and English Heritage. latrobe@mistral.co.uk Mark it Re: PLEASE FORWARD - Re: STONEHENGE and I (David Pinnegar) will manually fax it to them - remember to give your snail mail address or fax number for reply - and don't forget to ask for a reply!"}, {"response": 148, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (15:17)", "body": "More Africa archeology - and Stone Heads!!! Stone heads recall Africa's forgotten past By: Matthew Bunce Broadcasted on BICNews 10 February 1998 GOHITAFLA, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - When Bernadette Vouinan tripped over a rock with eyes and a nose in 1982, she unearthed one of the first of more than 1,000 ancient stone head sculptures to emerge from Ivory Coast's pre-historic soil. The origin of the heavy granite and laterite stones of up to three feet high and 2,000 years old remains a mystery. But some villagers have no doubts, even challenging theories on East Africa's Rift Valley as the cradle of mankind. ``We believe they were created and placed in the earth here by God,'' said one farmer in the remote Marahoue valley in central Ivory Coast where many of the heads have been found. Such lore attributes flattened rocks found there to the creator's footprints as he stepped back to heaven. Farmers are often less star-struck, selling any heads they find to tourists for a pittance. Ivorian anthropologists staging an exhibition in the commercial capital Abidjan this month hope to dispel myths and spur a wider interest in promoting Africa's forgotten past. ``It means we have had art for a long time,'' said leading anthropologist Georges Niangoran-Bouah, chief researcher on Marahoue. ``And where there is art there is civilization.'' The problem is that West Africa's tropical climate means clues to history often rot, leaving only rich oral tradition. GOD'S TEST-BED FOR HUMANS ``We Africans say man was not made in a day. And the most important part of man is the head,'' Niangoran-Bouah told Reuters. Folklore says the myriad facial designs -- many Marahoue heads have no mouth, nose or eyes -- are but one sign of God's use of Marahoue as a human test-bed. Later carvings with busts and full figures show man's head at one third rather than one seventh of his height. ``African artists think God must have made a mistake,'' said Niangoran-Bouah, holding a giant-nosed head nicknamed Charles de Gaulle, one of his garden collection of 200 stones. The faces, once used in mask rituals, are said to have been buried by God to protect women and children from seeing them. But some village wives have more pressing domestic concerns. ``They are very good. They withstand the heat,'' said one cook who was using three around a fire to support her pots at Diacohou. BEFORE OUR ANCESTORS The heads have yet to be accurately dated but similar stones in Senegal date back as far as 2,000 years. ``No one knows what role the heads played in ancient times,'' Niangoran-Bouah said. ``They are not the work of men known to us or our ancestors,'' said Ta-bi-Tra, a hunter at Gohitafla, now inhabited by Ivorian President Henri Konan Bedie's ruling Baoule tribe. Baoule warriors arrived there under Queen Abla Pokou in the 17th century, displacing Gouro tribes who in turn had pushed out the Wan culture in the 15th century. ``The Wan consider them to be ancestral objects,'' said Niangoran-Bouah, citing the stories of nearby Wan descendants, including a theory that the heads betrayed them to the enemy. The heads are also seen as grave charms for Wan warriors, homes for dead mens' souls or guardian spirits and talismans. ``We make offerings for a safe voyage, to find a good partner or fight off evil sorcerers, eaters of souls, jealous people and poisoners,'' said one soothsayer. ``We trust them.'' Animal sacrifices in cult rituals ensured successful childbirth and stone heads still play a part in ritual exorcisms and purification of adulterers. One man described being inhabited by a spirit from stones surrounding his house. ``I have 13 children, they all come from the stones.'' Prehistoric stone heads have been found around the world, from Africa to Europe and America. Marahoue's are thought to be among the largest and oldest along Africa's Atlantic coast. Ivorian standing stones are larger than average and found deeper in the ground than similar African examples, suggesting a greater age of up to 7,000 years, Niangoran-Bouah said. Such African megaliths weighing between half a ton and 15 tons are found in a northwestern strip on the Mediterranean and pockets in a wide west-east sub-Saharan band between Senegal and Kenya. Villagers showed Reuters a 19-foot rock said to be one of the largest African megaliths. In Mali, to the north, anthropologists have been baffled by the Dogon culture's ability to predict cycles of an invisible satellite of the star Sirius, which appears every 60 years. The Dogon, whose God Amma is said to have thrown a ball of clay into space to create Earth, is just one example of deep civilization in Africa often brushed over by colonists. ``This civilization before the pre-colonial period honorsour country,'' Niangoran-Bouah said. ``During colonial times the stones were probably kept hidden in the forest. The whites did not see them.'' That, for better or worse, is no longer the case. \ufffd Copyright 1998, Reuters News Service"}, {"response": 149, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (16:26)", "body": "Amazing stuff. Maggie! Are there pictures anywhere that you know of? Or shall I make myself useful and search for them?"}, {"response": 150, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (16:53)", "body": "I haven't found any pics to go with this yet - there weren't any on the site."}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (17:00)", "body": "Guess I'd better get on it...whilst you get on with exorcising, exercising or just plain doing your PhD stuff (technical talk gets me all excited for the hunt for stone head pictures...)"}, {"response": 152, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (17:19)", "body": "(actually I've been trying to earn some money! Maybe I'll be able to get a good camera to take nice pics with)"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (17:27)", "body": "Make it a digital and you will have the best of both worlds without having to worry about running out of film! (Still trying to get on your web thingy so I can join and give you credit, but I cannot - they are overhauling their website and told me to come back later.)"}, {"response": 154, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (18:26)", "body": "(I should be getting check from them soon - maybe it'll save my marriage! oops the phone bill's enormous again) I'm a bit wary of getting only a digital camera not an ordinary one - I think I need both, oh yes, and a camcorder, wish, wish, wish"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (19:05)", "body": "*Sigh* Yes, I know...!"}, {"response": 156, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (01:29)", "body": "Fascinating about the stones in Africa! I had never heard of Newgrange before, either. Still learning a lot around here... A digital camera and camcorder are on my wish list, *after* a negative/slide scanner. I have a lot of prints/slides that I want to scan in to put on my web page, but the hand scanner I have is such a pain. It also doesn't give as good an image as the ones scanned from the original film. I still love my old SLRs, especially while digital cameras and photo quality printers are still evolving."}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (01:43)", "body": "You can't beat the old SLR's for sharpness, septh of focus and versatility. Iki's digital is about like an SLR and he has taken incredible pictures with it. I am delighted to see you tonight...I was talking to myself for a while!"}, {"response": 158, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (02:02)", "body": "Thanks, Marcia! Things were quiet at work for a little while, but now it's back to the usual hectic pace. (I just found out that Lucent is spinning off my group and a few others as a separate company. Looks like end of Sept. timeframe. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, yet.) I'll try to check in on weekends, at least...when I'm procrastinating from homework. (I'm taking a C++ class that ends in May. It's fun, but it keeps me busy.) I love all the info about the different henges! It's almost 2am here, so I guess I better sign off for now. 'Night!"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (02:18)", "body": "G'night Ginny! Henges are my fav topic! Later!"}, {"response": 160, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (15:47)", "body": "Four miles north of Hereford, adjacent to the River Lugg, a tributary of the River Wye, are the Suttons. Two small villages, located a mile or so to the south west of the Iron Age hillfort of Sutton Walls, they have long been associated with King Offa of Mercia, who ruled this powerful Saxon kingdom from 757 to his death in 796. Offa\ufffds Dyke, the vast earthwork that marked Mercia\ufffds western borders, is just a few miles away. And there is historical evidence to suggest that, three years before the end of Offa's reign, he came to a royal vill, or palace, in a place called Sutton. But no archaeological proof of its precise location has ever been found. The area around the Suttons is rich in archaeological sites. The Sutton Walls hillfort has earthworks on a scale comparable with Maiden Castle. There is evidence of both Roman and Saxon occupation in the vicinity. And a medieval manor house, Freen's Court, complete with fishponds, artificial water channels, dams, a lake and a moat, is known to have existed on the site -- giving landscape expert Stewart Ainsworth more than his usual share of exciting \ufffdlumps and bumps\ufffd to get worked up about when he arrived on the scene. Then, perhaps most exciting of all, there were the tantalising results of an aerial photographic survey carried out in 1990. This produced some remarkable pictures of previously unrecorded parch marks on the grassy meadow next to the River Lugg and adjacent to the former manor house structures. These showed what appeared to be a series of post holes or stone pads on which posts would have been mounted to support a large aisled building. This could have been built of timber or stone and appeared to consist of up to nine bays, each approximately four metres wide. Next to this were further parch-mark outlines of a \ufffdmulti-celled\ufffd building, up to 60 metres in length and 10 metres wide. Could either of these structures have been associated with King Offa's palace? Comparison with similar sites at Northampton and elsewhere suggested the structures may have had a Saxon origin. Certainly English Heritage was sufficiently convinced by the possibility to declare the whole area a scheduled ancient monument. With only a dozen Anglo-Saxon palace sites ever having been positively identified in Britain, the discovery of a thirteenth would have been a major archaeological find indeed. As so often in this series, Time Team was treading new ground with this programme. The Project Design -- basically a very detailed breakdown of the proposed investigation of the site, which has to be approved by English Heritage in advance of any excavation of a scheduled ancient monument -- had been prepared not by the Team but the county archaeologist, Keith Ray. Time Team had worked with him before in his previous post, at Plympton in the 1999 series, and he was to act as project director on this occasion. He also brought along his deputy, Tim Hoverd, as excavation director and a team of experienced local diggers to work alongside the Team's usual crew. An English Heritage inspector, Paul Stamper, was present throughout to keep an eye on things and ensure that the Project Design was adhered to. A diary of each day's dig, together with photos and details of some of the artefacts found was kept on the Timesite website [ http://www.timesite.co.uk] , which ran \ufffdlive\ufffd with the excavations as they took place last October. Suffice to say here that, as ever, things did not run exactly according to plan. For a start, a geophysics survey carried out by English Heritage eight years previously turned out not to be as useful as it might have been because the all-important grid reference details to locate it precisely had gone missing. Then the long, wet grass resulted in confusing readings being produced by Time Team's own geophysics survey. And to cap it all, after a half-day delay before the first turf could be lifted, all the digging in the main trenches -- involving the shifting of 17 tonnes of material, it was estimated -- had to be done by hand because permission to excavate scheduled ancient monuments stipulates that no machines can be used. In fact, none of the excavations at the Suttons yielded artefacts or structures that could be definitively dated to the Saxon period. Trench One, a section cut through an earthwork bank, produced no finds at all, turning out to be part of a dam associated with the various water features that once stood on the site. Trench Two, when it finally got underway, quickly produced a stone post pad, but as Mick Aston suspected when it first emerged, it was of a later date. And Trench Three contained plenty of building material, nearly all of it post-medieval. The massive Trench Four was later dug on the site of a knoll some 300 metres from the main site, and two further trenches were later put in the area of an enclosure ditch and platform by the village church. It was not until relatively late in the excavations that Trench Two uncovered an early wall, which "}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (16:08)", "body": "This is such great stuff. We Need to have this program in the US. I have been to Offa's Dyke. Re the Suttons, I expected Sutton Hoo to be nearby, but I was on the wrong side of the Island! Please check that link again. I could not make it work!"}, {"response": 162, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "The URL is right, but it doesn't work. Try http://www.channel4.com/nextstep/timeteam/update.html The link to timesite is on there."}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (16:35)", "body": "Oh Boy! That link works just fine! Splendid and there are all sorts of goodies on that webpage. Mahalo plenty!"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (17:44)", "body": "If you have downloaded Quicktime, by all means go to this url and take a sweep around the diggings. It is fantastic! http://www.channel4.com/nextstep/timeteam/2000waddon.html"}, {"response": 165, "author": "viola", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (12:25)", "body": "To all who have contributed on this page, I'd like to say \"HI\" to all those who share an intellectual interest in this subject and I hope to visit again and share anything of interest which I may find during my studying. I'm now off to watch Time Team. Let you know how it goes. Bye. From viola."}, {"response": 166, "author": "viola", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (12:28)", "body": "Hi viola, nice to meet you - come again soon!"}, {"response": 167, "author": "viola", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (12:29)", "body": "oops - scrap that - it's maggie on viola's machine!!!"}, {"response": 168, "author": "spanna", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (13:13)", "body": "hi viola and maggie! how was time team? anything interesting happen?"}, {"response": 169, "author": "viola", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (14:27)", "body": "Time Team found a Roman temple in sight of the Millennium Dome, near London. The Time Team dig gets underway in Greenwich Park, the oldest of Britain's royal parks and birthplace of Henry VIII: Henry VIII was born there, Elizabeth I played in its gardens and the meridian line runs right through it. Greenwich Park, in sight of the Millennium Dome in south London, is the oldest royal parkland in Britain, having first been enclosed in 1433. That means that, despite later landscaping, many archaeological features remain there, untouched by the buildings and other developments that have covered up most of the rest of London. Various earthworks are readily visible within the park boundaries, including a large number of Saxon barrows and a mound, surrounded by iron railings, that has long been associated with Roman remains on the site. These remains were the subject of excavations during 1902-3. But all that was visible to visitors almost a century later were a few Roman tesserae, or mosaic fragments, stuck together in a clump of concrete. The precise locations of the three trenches dug at the beginning of the 1900s had not been properly recorded, and many of the finds made at the time had since disappeared. Nevertheless, enough had been discovered then to indicate the presence here of an important Roman structure. One of Time Team's principal objectives was to try to find out what it was. The previous week's programme in search of King Offa's palace at the Suttons, near Hereford, had seen the Team's long-suffering geophysics surveyors joshed over their inability to give Phil a quick and exact location in which to dig his trench. One of their difficulties -- that the long, wet grass was interfering with the megnetronomy results -- led to one unkind visitor to the Time Team website forum asking whether this was geophysics' equivalent of Railtrack's 'wrong leaves on the line' type of excuse. Greenwich delivered further grist to the mill of those who like to tease John Gater, Chris Gaffney and Co when the geofizzers declared that on this occasion their readings were being upset not only by the metal railings that surrounded the few visible Roman remains, but also by the fact that the ground was too dry. 'Let's hope for rain,' they announced, to the general dismay of the rest of the Team. The railings were taken down, but nothing could be done about the dry ground. This resulted in Chris Gaffney resorting to an unorthodox, but effective, method of locating the line of Roman walls beneath the surface. This involved tapping on the ground with an upturned pickaxe and judging the presence of stone beneath the surface by the change in sound. Meanwhile, some cynics questioned whether geophysics was needed at all, since the 'parch marks' in the grass provided clearly visible evidence of underlying structures anyway. 'Just dig on the dry bits,' as Tony Robinson's new archaeological dictum had it. These marks indicated the presence of a substantial rectangular structure on the site. The nature of the finds made in 1902-3, which included more than 400 coins, high-quality pottery and statuary, had also suggested some sort of high-status building. Time Team wanted to confirm that the rectangular structure was indeed of Roman origin, and to find out whether the building had been a temple, a villa or a military or other establishment. Two finds in particular, both made on the third day, were to provide important evidence. A Roman roof tile was found in Trench Two, which had been set up under Carenza's supervision on the line of the rectangular enclosure and soon revealed a Roman wall not far beneath the surface. The tile was inscribed with the letters PPBR, standing for Procurator of the Province of Britannia. The beginning of the letter L, which also appeared on the edge of the tile, was thought to stand for Londinium. The procurator was the second most important official in Roman Britain, responsible for much of the province's finances, military supplies and transport. The presence of his stamp on the tile indicated that there had been an important public building on the site associated with Roman London. An even more significant find was made in the small Trench Five, on the west side of the mound. This comprised a piece of broken limestone on which the letters MIN and ILIV could be made out in two rows, one above the other. A further three letters CVS formed part of a third row underneath. The presence of the letters MIN led to immediate speculation that it referred to the Roman goddess Minerva. One of Time Team's Roman experts, Guy de la B\ufffddoy\ufffdre, was called upon to feed the letters into his computer database of inscriptions from Roman Britain to identify the words in which they appear most often. Minerva turned out not to be the most likely word. Rather the inscription in which the letters MIN were most likely to be found was determined to be ET NUMINEB AUG, referring to the spirits or deity of the emperors. The letters ILIV "}, {"response": 170, "author": "viola", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (14:30)", "body": "Spanna, we enjoyed Time Team, you should have seen it! All the info has been included on the page- Enjoy!"}, {"response": 171, "author": "spanna", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (14:40)", "body": "hi viola and maggie! how was time team? anything interesting happen?"}, {"response": 172, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (15:33)", "body": "hi viola and spanna!!"}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (16:14)", "body": "Imagine my delight as Mama of this site to find my baby has not only grown up but is walking all by herself! Welcome all - and most especially to the \"Frieds of Maggie\" club. I am counting on your on-site-in-Britain accounts to made immediate the stuff I can only copy from the web and gather out of my memory banks. Feel free to take shoes off and make yourself comfortable. Again, E komo mai - welcome!"}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (16:27)", "body": "Been to Greenwich and I am trying to imagine where this dig is happening. There are lots of open grassy spaces there abouts and it is quite lovely, even on a leaden-skied late May day with the dank chill coming off the Thames. Viola, Spanna...Most delighted that you share our interest in Antiquities and will help add to my knowledge of the local digs....*wishful sigh* (Maggie, you are too funny! Welcoming Viola from her own computer. *lol* I wondered if traffic was so slow in here that she had to welcome herself!)"}, {"response": 175, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (21:05)", "body": "i know, that's what i thought!! viola was talking to herself...."}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (21:12)", "body": "(Maggie sent me an email requesting I remove the Viola-to-Viola welcome, but by that time I had posted my comment and left it as she posted it.) Silly Me!"}, {"response": 177, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (02:21)", "body": "I forgot to log in - classic mistake, I felt really silly!!!. We were having fun! We posted the origianal message at uni then went off and watched time team and came back to uni and posted it in for you. We thought of you all as we paddled (well, they did - I'm too old and the sea was too cold!) in the sea at West Wittering (isn't that a lovely name *lol*). Lots of flint on the beach but no interesting fossils, although viola found a rock with a hole in it which has dark crystals glinting inside. We were looking for rose quartz. (wrong topic, but i thought you'd like to know!)"}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (12:59)", "body": "Viola found a geode. Merlin's Crystal Cave! How exquisite. I am envious! I need a beach with something beside lava granules. crushed coral or peridots all over it. You have to row to get to the nearest Telly?! (I know abut you, and NO WAY are you too old for anything!!!) Thanks for the teaser, though. Looking forward to more Time Team reports. Thanks, Maggie! *hugs*"}, {"response": 179, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (11:11)", "body": "Oh that's what a geode is, I never knew and meant to ask."}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (13:14)", "body": "Geode is a cavity (often entirely enclosed) which has perfect crystals formed in that space. They range from tiny with minute crystals to ones the size of large tubs and larger still. I have several of differing size with all sorts of crystal (one type for each geode) - usually of the quartz family."}, {"response": 181, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (15:51)", "body": "I remember seeing a beautiful geode in my grade school science class. It was about 6\" across and filled with amethyst crystals."}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (16:15)", "body": "They commonly are amethysts and two of mine are, as well. Plus parts of some which must have been absolutley staggeringly huge!"}, {"response": 183, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "Staggeringly huge -- would that be anything like having your own cave if you had the whole geode?"}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (16:24)", "body": "From the merest hint of an arc on the largest one, I'd say yes - I am fairly small boned and can curl up into a small ball and tuck my long legs in, too. Not enough for a large man, I think, but Merlin in the Crystal Cave would have fit in just fine! Imagine finding one like that and opening it just enough to get inside! Incredible!"}, {"response": 185, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (16:28)", "body": "The boy Merlin would have fit; but if I remember the Mary Stewart books correctly, didn't he grow up to be rather tall?"}, {"response": 186, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (17:28)", "body": "Yes, but also some native Britain in him (Welsh) gave him light bone structure - much like the sort of Briton from which I spring. Of course, when the power was on him he rose to awesome stature...and paid for the privilege with a hangover of monumental proportions! I love those books, and I got shouted down by those posting with me in Books conf / Arthurian. *sigh* Those who must speed read and cast aside what which they cannot are missing out on so much!"}, {"response": 187, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (00:05)", "body": "I never knew what a geode was, either. Now I have a great picture in my mind of Merlin lying inside one... Marcia already knows I loved Mary Stewart's books, too. I didn't find her books difficult to read, but then I'm no speed reader by any means. Does that mean I can't talk about Stewart when I finally get to that Arthurian topic??"}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (14:43)", "body": "Ginny, you gotta talk on the Arthurian topic! I was the only one in there upholding the Merlin Trilogy (which I adore) and trying to get Amy to read them. John, who had already read them for course work in college, accused me of evangelizing...so outnumbered and alone in the disucssion, I quit. Please come back and let us discuss it!!!"}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (14:46)", "body": "David (my non-bookreading-for-pleasure son) and his father read them at the same time I did per my recommendation. We all loved them. Must be the speed readers of the world who cannot be bothered. They miss so much!!!"}, {"response": 190, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (15:59)", "body": "Oops I'm out of this - which trilogy?"}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (17:00)", "body": "The trilogy in question takes the Arthurian legend and tells it from Merlin's point of view. It is a well- researched work and gripping reading. The best of its sort extant, IMHO. The books are in paperback (she is a Scotswoman) and consist of \"The Crystal Cave,\" \"The Hollow Hills,\" and \"The Last Enchantment\" followed by another taking the Mordred theme, \"The Wicked Day.\" Author is Mary Stewart. If you have time for reading frivilous things, this set is splendid! I have read mine so many times that they are falling apart!"}, {"response": 192, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (17:06)", "body": "Mmm read it many years ago - will look it out again. Have you read the stephen lawhead pendragon trilogy? Talliesin, Merlin, Authur. I have the first two."}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (17:10)", "body": "NO!!! I shall look for them! Oooh, Goody!"}, {"response": 194, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (17:18)", "body": "I thought they were good. I had actually thought of sending them to you!!!!"}, {"response": 195, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (21:33)", "body": "If I cannot find them here I shall reimburse you and if that is alright, I will agree. But, let me hunt for them online and here in Hilo, first. Thanks, dear!"}, {"response": 196, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (14:39)", "body": "No time team report tonight - they've got technical problems and it won't be posted on the site until 27th. More bedtime reading: Earthworks Wiltshire between two worlds shared time, A suspended bridge circling ancient skyline, Mindscape myriad of standing stones, Shimmering spectres touched by pagan bones Retrospective following footsteps of mystic migration Ceremonial rites hypnotic chanting resonant vibration, Suspended past turning spiral helix DNA, Pay silent homage lost spiritual stairway, Echoed voices woven tapestry threads connect, Your tribe, my tribe earned respect, Existing mingled, merged juxtapose yet unresolved, Open book sentenced to be unsolved. (Nicola Fowler)"}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (16:11)", "body": "Oooh, I love that. Exactly how it is and how it feels!"}, {"response": 198, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (21:56)", "body": "Thought you would. I like poetry!"}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (14:17)", "body": "Wolfie has an entire conference dedicated to poetry...check it out sometime. Lovely stuff. John has written some excellent stuff he posted in there and he posted one in Geo2 for the first time seen anywhere. It was an incredible privilege!"}, {"response": 200, "author": "viola", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (06:55)", "body": "Hi All, Thankyou for your messages. Yes Maggie, the sea was lovely. Thankyou for a lovely afternoon! By the way, there was a brilliant documentary on the other night about the infamous pirate Blackbeard and his sunken ship which they reckon has been found offshore. If I can download the info from the sight you can all have a look. Watch this space..."}, {"response": 201, "author": "viola", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (07:03)", "body": "Blackbeard's Revenge Blackbeard the pirate is a figure who seems to belong more to legend than to fact. It is believed that he was English who may have come from Bristol. In order to frighten his enemies and crew, he was known for stuffing smoking fuses in his hair for dramatic effect. In one famous incident, he shot Isreal Hands, one of his most trusted men, in the knee. His excuse was that if he didn't kill one of his crew now and then, they would forget who he was. His ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, was the most powerful warship and allowed him to rule the waves from the Caribbean to the North Carolina coast. However, this power was short-lived for he had the ship for less than a year before it sank. According to an eyewitness, this was on the 10th of June 1718 at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. The ship had ran aground on a sandbar at the mouth of the inlet. It was obvious from the position of a ship anchor that Blackbeard had made strenuous efforts to pull the ship off but to no avail. It was then left to the elements. Blackbeard, promptly, abandoned some unwanted crewmembers on a barren island. They would have died if a ship hadn't passed by a few days later. The 'Queen Anne's Revenge' was originally a French vessel called The Concorde. She was transporting African slaves to the Caribbean, when in 1717, Blackbeard had captured her off the island of Martinique. The pirate was fortunate because the Concorde crew were weakened with dysentery and the remaining healthy crewmembers were in no position to defeat the pirates after a long and tiring voyage. Through the Queen Anne's Revenge and his three other ships, Blackbeard captured some 23 ships and stripped them of anything of value. Just the sight of his flag, which shows a skeleton of the devil carrying a spear and an hourglass, made many ships surrender without a fight. The Royal Navy was helpless because they had just ten ships to police the entire American coastline. Later in 1718, Blackbeard sought shelter on the island of Ocracoke which is a hundred miles away to the north. On November 21st the pirates came ashore at Springer's Point. It is believed that they met up with other pirates and celebrated the night away. However, two vessels of the Royal Navy were lying in wait and attacked early the next day. Blackbeard fought furiously as he was determined never to surrender. He died after being shot five times and had 20 sword cuts."}, {"response": 202, "author": "viola", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (07:05)", "body": "I hope this is ok. I thought it was interesting, but there was so much more on the actual programme. It's a pity they have to condense it. Thankyou Marcia for the information on my rocks. They are sitting at home on the arm of the sofa at the moment. ( I have nowhere else to put them at the moment!)"}, {"response": 203, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (13:38)", "body": "Hi viola, nice to see you back again. Why does it not surprise me that you have nowhere else to put your lovely rock - hee hee! want some suggestions???). (Ignore me I'm just jealous!) Which programme was that - I think I must have missed the listing."}, {"response": 204, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (14:25)", "body": "Viola, it might be a migratory rock from Hawaii and bad luck - I think I need to have it here for your safety and for my own collection (only fooling, of course because I am jealous, too) Had to shoot Blackbeard 5 times? He was as hard to kill as Rasputin was! Thanks for the interesting read. I hope we get the program over here - eventually, as all things always are!"}, {"response": 205, "author": "viola", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (10:58)", "body": "The programme was on last monday night on BBC1 and is a series exploring different subjects. Next week it had something to do with the exploration of Pandora's Box (?) if that means anything to you? The series is called 'Voyages to the Bottom of the Sea'. Enjoy! The stone is still in the living room. I just hope the insane one doesn't throw it away, (although that would be a first!) I shall treasure it and keep my eyes open for any more."}, {"response": 206, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (13:22)", "body": "Viola, take it to Uni and scan it. Save it as a jpeg file and send it me. Put it on the scanner so the hole is pointing downwards and the scanner light can show up the crystals. I think we're coming down sometime next month so maybe we can go exploring again. Do NOT let the insane one get hold it !!!! Hide it or something. P.S. thump Spanna for me please - with pleasure, and tell her to stop messing with your email or else!"}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (13:38)", "body": "Yes, Pandora's Box means something to me The only thing which did not get out was Hope. Famine, pestilence and all those good things did get out! The HMS Pandora is at the bottom of the sea...I wonder if that is the one which they will be exploring?!"}, {"response": 208, "author": "viola", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (15:32)", "body": "THE MYSTERY OF THE COCAINE MUMMIES. The mystery that baffled Egyptologists and called into question whole areas of accepted scientific fact. In 1992, routine tests on a mummy in a Munich museum revealed high body levels of cocaine and nicotine. But such substances were not available in ancient Egypt, as they come from the Americas which were not to be 'discovered' for thousands of years after the passing of the Egyptian dynasties. Are the mummies fakes? Were the substances from plants that have since disappeared? Or were there trade routes between Egypt and South America that predate accepted chronology? If you have questions about any of the science subjects raised in the programme, or any other science topic, you can call the experts at Science Line on: 0808 800 4000. All calls are free and lines are open 1pm to 7pm Monday to Friday. Sorry there isn't more. I have tried to access the site and the time team site as well but so far I have had no luck. Thankyou for the messages. I will hit spanna very hard and let you know if she bruises."}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (15:47)", "body": "[Aren't you trying to get Spanna's attention rather than inflicting damage on her?!] Viola, that is a teasing bit of information there. Most curious to know what they discover!"}, {"response": 210, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (14:18)", "body": "It is similar to the mystery concerning the golden peanuts found in an ancient Chinese tomb. Peanuts are New World plants and would have been unknown in China at that time. The golden peanuts were small pieces of gold worked into little sculptures of peanuts."}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (16:06)", "body": "Peanuts are native to Brazil. Most interesting! Maybe they have just not found the progenitor of the peanut we know today. There is no reason a similar legume could not have been native to China - many of these plants produce underground nodules which fix nitrogen in the soil."}, {"response": 212, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (16:21)", "body": "It's marine archeology evening here. Just seen underwater exploration in the dead sea looking for Sodom and Gomorrah, and the pandora's box/ship programme Viola talked about. I'll see if I can trace a URL for them as they were both so interesting."}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (16:27)", "body": "Thank you for that, Maggie - I'm far too claustrophobic to ever find underwater archaeology fun IRL, but I am fascinated by watching others do it."}, {"response": 214, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (16:35)", "body": "I loved the special which ran last year on tv about underwater archaeology concerning the city of Alexandria in Egypt. They found pieces of the Pharos in the harbor."}, {"response": 215, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (16:53)", "body": "Oh yes....and lots of obelisks and other neat stuff. Everything but the Library...but don't get me started on that...*sigh*"}, {"response": 216, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (17:38)", "body": "MMmm we had that here too. I couldn't cope with being in a submarine though. I love watching it - but the thought of being shut up and under water - yuk! mind, the thought of being shut up anywhere ........ (Yes, I'm going to bed!!!)"}, {"response": 217, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (18:22)", "body": "G'night Maggie...*lol*"}, {"response": 218, "author": "viola", "date": "Tue, Mar 28, 2000 (12:57)", "body": "Just read all your responses. Sorry, that was all the info that was available although I was able to get the info on Pandora's Box... PANDORA'S SECRETS. On the 28th of August 1792, the HMS Pandora sank off the northern coast of Australia when she had hit a reef, keeled over and sank. She was on her way back to Britain with 14 prisoners but hadn't found any trace of the Bounty. Her mission had started two years previously when she left Britain with orders to arrest the mutineers and bring the Bounty home. In 1789, the first mate, Fletcher Christian, had cast Captain Bligh and 18 others adrift in an open boat. However, the boat wasn't large enough to take all the crew members who wanted no part of the mutiny. Captain Bligh had noted their innocence so these crewmembers greeted the Pandora when it arrived at the island of Tahiti. However the Pandora captain quickly slapped them in irons. He then sent soldiers to capture the six mutineers who had fled into the mountains. After eighteen days, they were all captured and brought to the ship. The 14 prisoners, guilty and innocent alike, were then caged in a specially built eleven foot wooden cell on the top deck. It was nicknamed Pandora's box and it was like a sauna with only two tiny gratings supplying the only fresh air. In it's search of the Bounty, the Pandora came within two days sailing of Pitcairn Island where the Bounty mutineers had settled. However the mutineers fate was only revealed to the outside world when they were discovered some fifteen years later. In the night that the Pandora sank, some thirty-five men lost their lives. The diving team discovered the remains of three men who had gone down with the ship. One of the skeletons was discovered in the Captain's cabin. His skull was intact and forensic anatomist Meiya Sutisno was able to reconstruct his face. It is believed that he was Robert Bowler who was the pursers steward. The University of Queensland are keen to establish the identity of these three skeletons from the Pandora casualty list. To aid their research, they would like to hear from direct living descendants of the Pandora crew. If you are able to help, please find more details in their website address. It is in our Wrecks and Diving information guide. The Pandora survivors managed to climb aboard tenders and reach the safety of a sand cay. After two days on the baking sand cay, the survivors climbed into four open boats and Captain Edwards took them to the Dutch island of Timor, a journey of some 1,000 miles. There, they purchased a larger ship and sailed back to England. It had been an epic journey of nearly 30,000 miles. Captain Edwards was court-martialled for the loss of his ship but acquitted. Of the prisoners, six were found guilty and two publicly hung. The remainder were acquitted or pardoned. Today, the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty still live on Pitcairn Island. Hope you find this interesting. I wasn't able to watch the programme about Sodom and Gomorrah but I hope it was good. Gotta go, I shall try and trace Time Team for you. Bye..."}, {"response": 219, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 28, 2000 (15:14)", "body": "Viola, that was not only good..it was spectacular. Thanks for posting it. It is what was indistinctly remembered about the HMS Pandora saga. Time Team has an excellent website with panoramic scenes which are zoomable. Great stuff!"}, {"response": 220, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (14:01)", "body": "Thanks Viola, I didn't get round to looking at the site. I sat curled up in bed watching all this, absolutely enthralled."}, {"response": 221, "author": "viola", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (15:14)", "body": "Ta for your messages. Please can you tell me if the new Time Team website is available yet as I was unable to access it. Also, I think that the series finished last week!!!!! Now my Sunday nights will be extremely dull!"}, {"response": 222, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (15:57)", "body": "Viola, Maggie posted this and it is bookmarked for all time in my Netscape http://www.channel4.com/nextstep/timeteam/"}, {"response": 223, "author": "viola", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (15:19)", "body": "Thankyou Marcia, that is brilliant!!!!! By the way, did you get maggie's message from spanna? Her modem is down and will probably be broken for quite a while but she is hoping to visit in a few weeks and will hopefully be able to use the computers here."}, {"response": 224, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (15:25)", "body": "Yes, thank you! I am shortly to answer her note. Thanks for reminding me. *hugs* to her from me!"}, {"response": 225, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (05:33)", "body": "I'm back on!!!! HI! We took the lid off (the computer silly!) and transferred the modem to another com port, and it seems my comport 1 has died not the modem. hence why I am online at 10.30 in the morning - with permission of course! Thanks Spanna and Viola for keeping me in touch!"}, {"response": 226, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (15:03)", "body": "Aha!!! That is why you are here! Good news. I thought you have \"borrowed\" someone else's computer for the duration. Welcome back!"}, {"response": 227, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (08:03)", "body": "Is this the relevan spot to report findings of new Sphinxes in Egypt found just recently. Apparently they are in a row forming some form of road. Just a short paragraph reported on our teletext in Oz. Has anyone else more information. It looks quite fascinating what they have found"}, {"response": 228, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (08:23)", "body": "Thanks Anne, hadn't seen that, will look out for it now."}, {"response": 229, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (09:02)", "body": "Couldn't find reference to what Anne was saying, but I fouind this site which looks to have some interesting stories of discoveries. http://www.earthchangestv.com/egypt/index.htm"}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (14:07)", "body": "This is the place. The benefit of living where we get the morning last. It gives everyone else a chance to post neat stuff where I can find it when I awaken. I shall look for the sphinxes, too. Maggie!!! I think you hit the Mother-lode of goodies. Will post things from that site I am sure. Mahalo, Dear!"}, {"response": 231, "author": "viola", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (16:54)", "body": "Hiya folks, just thought that this might interest you. It's the next episode in the series of Voyages to the Bottom of the Sea. This (and much more) can be accessed at www.bbc.co.uk/history. Cromwell's Forgotten Wreck In the summer of 1653, Oliver Cromwell sent a fleet of six vessels to finally crush the Royalist uprising in Scotland. One of these ships was the 'Swan' whose mission was to seize Duart Castle, a Royalist stronghold which overlooks the Sound of Mull. When the Swan arrived on the 5th of September 1653, the Royalists had already fled so the Castle put up no resistance. The ship was sunk, eight days later, during a violent storm. Anchored in the bay, the ship was torn free and the wind drove her repeatedly against the rocks before she sank. She was to be lost for some 300 years before being discovered by a naval diver in 1979. The Swan had been built in 1641 and started life in the King's service. However in 1645, while their captain was away, the crew did a deal with the Parliamentarians. In a ritual handover, they surrendered their weapons in a pledge of loyalty for Cromwell. The Parliamentarian authorities then ceremonially returned their weapons and the crew sailed for the Parliamentarian cause. The wreck was identified as the Swan because of a wooden carving which had been raised from the wreck. On it, was the carved badge of the heir apparent to the throne. This proved that the ship had been under the command of Charles I. After sifting through the archives, a letter from the 1600's was discovered which helped pinpoint the wreck's identity. It was from the Scottish Parliamentarian Commander, Robert Lilburn to Oliver Cromwell. Robert Lilburn mentions three Parliamentarian ships including the Swan which were sunk in Scottish waters at this time. However, the Swan was the only one which had been 'captured' from the Royalists. Clearly the wreck must be the Swan. Now, the wreck is the subject of painstaking research by leading marine archaeologist, Colin Martin, who has written our History of marine archaeology. In order to protect the fragile wreck, it has been designated as a protected wreck which means that there is a exclusion zone around it and no one can dive it without licence"}, {"response": 232, "author": "viola", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "Just found some more interesting info from the same site... The Black Hand For over 30 years on a remote and isolated spot on the Cheshire Borders, a strange mound has caused some puzzlement. In 1962, farmer Gerry Fair, first had the idea that it may be of historical importance. Meet the Ancestors took up the baton and soon discovered that this was once the site of a chapel. Cistercian Monks had built an abbey here in 1158 and the fact that they were Cistercian held the key to the chapel's remote location. They loved wild places and part of their ethic was to convert wild, barren places into productive land. An early 17th century map has the Poulton Chapel still standing, but was probably not used after Henry VIII's Reformation. The chapel and surrounding land had passed on to a local family called the Manleys around the 14th century. A meeting with amateur genealogist Joyce Cook and a visit to the Cheshire Records Office put Julian Richards firmly on the trail of the Manleys. Carefully maintained local papers and documents, identified wealthy landowner Sir Nicholas Manley's will dated 1520. In it he states \"My body will be buried in the chapel of Poulton in the church in the chancel, and after my death and my wife's. A priest to be found to sing there for my soul\". Armed with this new knowledge, Julian went back to locate the chancel. Site archaeologist Mike Emery had already discovered some graves here, but unfortunately the skeletons were not good enough to restore. However, in the middle of the chancel (what would be considered prime spot) a very well-preserved male skeleton had been found. Initial exploration indicated that it was dated around 1500 - the time of the Manleys. All the bones were carefully removed and taken for analysis to Bradford University. Bone specialist, Charlotte Roberts confirmed the bones belonged to a man measuring 6'3\", and probably in his late fifties. This was enough information for medical artist Richard Neeve to begin reconstructing his face. Meanwhile Joyce Cook had established the Manley family tree from Sir Nicholas in the 1500's to present day. Julian managed to track down Michael Roger Manley, a direct descendant if DNA analysis linked the skeleton in the grave to him. Both Michael and his son Mark left body fluids for DNA testing. Unfortunately the special type of DNA they needed for testing could not be found in any of the bones. However there was another clue which may have linked them. The Manley family crest was a black hand and it had been suggested by Joyce that the name Manley could have come from the French word \"main\" meaning hand. Michael and Mark Manley both have very large hands and so did our man in the grave. Although, not conclusive, many of the pieces of the ancestral jigsaw do fit together, the modern day Manleys may well have found their ancestor. Footnote: All of the burials from the Poulton chapel site will, after study, be given a Christian reburial at a Cistercian monastery Many people have asked if we tried to use DNA to prove the link that had been established by genealogical research. Yes we did. At Glasgow University Dr Will Goodwin is still working on the samples of ancient and modern DNA. This was always going to be difficult though as male lineage can only be determined by using Y chromosone DNA of which there is much less than the mytochondrial DNA that is passed through the female line. Although Y chromosone DNA is widely used to determine paternity, there are great difficulties in trying to use it in a case where as many as 16 transfers from father to son may have taken place."}, {"response": 233, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (17:16)", "body": "OOOOOOOOOO! Neat stuff. Thanks Viola. Btw, when you want to post a link, put the http:// in front of the www stuff and it will auto-magically make it a hotlink as in http://www.bbc.co.uk/history ."}, {"response": 234, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2000 (02:51)", "body": "That programme Meet the Ancestors' is amazing - I watch it every week. The finds made in U.K. are quite amazing from Roman matron to Anglo Saxon 12 year old girl - this is where we are at present - I shall watch again tonight. The way they make up the skull into a face absolutely amazes me. Thank you to Viola for that special info."}, {"response": 235, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2000 (05:33)", "body": "I missed the aquatic archeology on monday because of french class and we forgot to record it. Don't suppose you did Viola???"}, {"response": 236, "author": "viola", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2000 (17:28)", "body": "Sorry maggie, The under water programme was not videoed although we did video meet the ancestors. (Is that any help?) From viola."}, {"response": 237, "author": "viola", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2000 (17:39)", "body": "2000 series: York 26 March, 6pm One thousand years of British history in three days As if trying to discover all that can be discovered about a site in just three days wasn't challenge enough, when the Time Team Live programme went to York in September 1999, the Team set themselves three very different sites to investigate as well. 'I know,' you can imagine some bright spark at the Time Team planning meeting suggesting. 'York has got lots of remains from the Roman, Viking and medieval periods. Instead of choosing between them, why don't we go for all three?' And so it was that Tony Robinson and the team of experts found themselves faced with the challenge of explaining 1,000 years of British history over a sunny late summer weekend. The three sites explored at York comprised: A Roman cemetery under the lawn of the Victorian Royal York Hotel next to York railway station. Here the Team uncovered three skeletons -- belonging to a young man, a mature woman and, most poignantly, a four-year-old girl. Next to the young man were chicken bones, the remains of a 'feast for the dead' to mark his passage to the afterlife. Other finds included various coins and fragments of glass, similar to that made in a reconstruction of Roman glass-making techniques carried out for the programme. A Viking 'tenement block' beneath a derelict plot at Walmgate. Similar to the building found at Coppergate during the 1970s, this excavation produced remains of wattle boundary fences, amber, leather-working and grains, seeds and nuts indicative of the Viking diet. It also yielded a superb glass bead, unlike anything found in Britain before. The medieval hospital of St Leonard's, in the Museum Gardens by the River Ouse. This site was fully explored, making it possible to locate all the major structures of this large medieval complex. There was also a second world war air raid shelter, uncovered on the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of war and stretching the period covered by the Team excavations in York to the best part of two millennia. The Team's trip to York was not only covered live on television. Events were reported as they unfolded on the Time Team Live website. By far the most ambitious such project yet attempted in British archaeology on the internet, this attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors during the course of the weekend. Even before the Team got to York, the website was up and running with a wealth of detail about the city, its history, past excavations and sources of further information and reading. And during the weekend, our cyber-team backed up what was appearing on the television screens with a huge range of material covering every aspect of the excavations. RealVideo snippets revealed off-screen activity, while RealAudio interviews with the Team and other experts gave the lowdown on what was happening at the three main sites and in the incident room. In between the live broadcasts, a diary and regular updates provided detailed reports of what was going on. Questions were answered and discussions took place on the Forum. And photos and information about the finds were posted almost as soon as they were made. You can still access all of this information by exploring the Live web pages and reading through the 'Old Topics' on the Time Team Forum. York Archaeological Trust is planning to run a training excavation at the St Leonard's hospital site, York (as featured on Time Team), in the summer of 2000. If you would like details of this, information will be posted on the York Archaeological Trust website www.yorkarch.demon.co.uk as soon as arrangements have been finalised; or send a stamped-addressed envelope to: York Archaeological Trust Training Excavations 2000 Cromwell House 13 Ogleforth York YO1 7FG TIM TAYLOR, TIME TEAM SERIES PRODUCER ON THE YORK LIVE EVENT: The live programme is now a regular event in Time Team's calendar. Because of the pressures and tight time scale, it is ultimate television of a particular kind -- the polar opposite in some ways of the documentary. It involves a huge technical and logistical support team -- more than a hundred staff, camera crews, edit suites, satellite vans, a website team and three teams of archaeologists alongside our presenters: Tony, Sandy Toksvig, our live 'stalwart', and, in York, Paul Thompson. The financial investment is huge, as is the pressure for the archaeology to deliver. Although Time Team accept that we will not always find what we hope for, and that this is the reality of archaeology and part of the ethos of the programme, the atmosphere of a 'live' makes it difficult if there are too many archaeological dead ends. There were three sites in York and this, and the knowledge that wherever you dig there you are likely to find archaeology, gave us a certain amount of security. Each transmission for live television has to be a specific length, and must be timed and scripted so that Tony can read the linking pieces to camera that introduce each new section on a"}, {"response": 238, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2000 (18:40)", "body": "I can remember looking at York Cathedral from the train as we paused there on the way to Scotland...How I wanted to get out and look around. Alas, there was no time on our packed (by me) itinerary. *sigh* Perhaps one day I will get back and take the time to tour the digs in York. They sound fascinating!"}, {"response": 239, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (04:46)", "body": "Thanks for posting that Viola, I totally forgot. I've never been to York , but I'd like to go sometime."}, {"response": 240, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (12:13)", "body": "This appeared in the Sunday Times yesterday. Marcia, I sent you the picture if you want to put it in. Medieval Zoo found at the Tower of London Excavation work beneath the ramparts of the Tower of London has revealed new evidence of a medieval menagerie which held an extraordinary array of animals. A dig under the Lion Tower and new research in royal, cathedral and university archives have produced proof that 100 different species were once housed within the walls of the palace. Bones of rhinoceroses, antelopes and tigers have been discovered as well as the skins of snakes and alligators. The remains of ostriches, brought by sailing ship from Africa have also been found. The huge flightless birds died after they were fed nails because their keeper thought that iron was good for them. One was found with 90 nails in its throat. The menagerie was founded during the Crusades in the reign of King John (1199-1216) and was closed in 1835 when London Zoo opened in Regent\ufffds Park. Never bigger than the size of a \ufffdlargish suburban garden\ufffd according to researcher, the Tower zoo stood beneath what is now the West Tower, near the Thames. Most of the early animals came through kings and some queens of Europe exchanging gifts. \ufffd. The King of Norway sent his polar bear to Henry III in about 1250 and the elephant, a year or so later was from a French monarch, who in turn had taken it from the Middle East. The elephant walked from Kent to the capital, but died after it was plied with wine to keep out the cold. The polar bear fared better, swimming and living off fish in the Thames. A zebra also made it\ufffds way to the Tower and was regularly ridden by a young boy as it paraded around a tiny yard. \ufffdSometimes animals had been captured in wars, \ufffd said Rory Browne (Professor of History at Harvard) \ufffdCaptive lions, in particular, really appealed to kings. After all the king himself was the arch beast\ufffd. Hence Henry III during whose reign the Tower zoo was substantially built up, had three lions on his coat of arms. \ufffd.. Although experts had been aware of the existence of the zoo, the excavations, partly financed by BBC2s Timewatch programme, have revealed extraordinary details of the historic animal residents of one of England\ufffds most famous i stitutions. The programme will be shown in the UK on BBC2 on Saturday 15th April at 8 pm"}, {"response": 241, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (14:23)", "body": "Maggie's Scanned Photo"}, {"response": 242, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (16:00)", "body": "A man approached a local in a village he was visiting. \"What's the quickest way to York?\" The local scratched his head. \"Are you walking or driving?\" he asked the stranger. \"I'm driving.\" \"That's the quickest way!\""}, {"response": 243, "author": "viola", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (16:01)", "body": "That is quite bizarre!!!!!"}, {"response": 244, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (16:10)", "body": "How so?"}, {"response": 245, "author": "viola", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (16:15)", "body": "...the story I mean. By the way, I've just visited the channel 4 website and there are quite a few interesting sites there. The site is http://www.channel4.com , then click on nextstep and you can visit all the history, eg Time Team. There is another good page called To The Ends of the Earth. All are highly recomended. Also Marcia, did maggie send you a photo of me and spanna? If she did please believe me when I tell you that my teeth are nowhere near as big as they look in the photo."}, {"response": 246, "author": "viola", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "Oh my goodness!!!!! I can't believe I'm actually writing to you at the same time as you are writing. Spanna has suggested that I change my pseudonym for a joke so I thought maybe I'd call myself something original...like...bananapants...???"}, {"response": 247, "author": "viola", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (16:26)", "body": "...AND, for those who are interested, there is an article on http://www.bbc.co.uk/history about the history of Christian art and the images of Jesus. The programme is actually on tonight but for those who can't watch it I hope the website will be satisfactory. Well gotta go, there is a programme I videoed this evening about the dead sea scrolls which I am going to watch now. Goodnight!"}, {"response": 248, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (17:57)", "body": "The history of the depiction of Jesus is a really interesting topic. The earliest pictorial depictions of Jesus from the Roman Empire show him as a beardless young man. The convention of depicting a bearded Christ came about at about the time of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. Jesus was always depicted as a beautiful young man, within the conventions of Byzantine Art. He was shown as having an oval face, wide eyes, a very straight, narrow nose, small mouth, and of course, a beard. Unfortunately, due to the efforts of the Iconoclasts very few icons remain from the Byzantine Empire. One of the most extraordinary and beautiful to survive is Christ Pantocrator from the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai. Pantocrator means judge, so Christ is shown holding the Book of Judgement. It is conventional in Eastern Orthodox Christian religious art to present Jesus as Christ the Redeemer or Christ the Judge. The St. Catherine's icon is notable because the the two halves of Christ's face are different. This was in ended to present both the human and divine natures of Jesus. The icon is also the work of artist of extraordinary talent. As far as I know,the artist is unknown, and was probably one of the monks."}, {"response": 249, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (19:01)", "body": "Don't worry viola the directions to york were for me!! did you see the ark of the covenant programme this evening. i meant to phone you about it."}, {"response": 250, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "Hang on... I need to check that link since it will be absolute ages before the US gets the program - if we do at all... Thanks for the URLs and the interesting articles. Now, if I could only get my sticky fingers into the good soil of England and muck about for a while....*sigh*"}, {"response": 251, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (19:21)", "body": "well you do it virtually alll the time!!! *grin* (Yes, I'm goinggggggg)"}, {"response": 252, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (19:23)", "body": "Picture is lovely, Viola. *Hugs* I am totally enchanted and shall not share with a soul if that is your wish. We gotta get back on tomorrow/later at the same time. It is fun and really amazing considering the distance involved."}, {"response": 253, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (20:15)", "body": "Maggie! It is Waaaaaaay past your bed time. You need adult supervision *grin* Christ in Byzantine art is supposedly influenced by the classic Greek extant likenesses of Alexander the Great. From thence they were permutations thereof. Russian Orthodox Icons were much different and most likely had and idealized image gleaned from many sources. Cheryl, do you know of any URLs where the Two-sided Icon might be found? I would love to see it and if I can get it small enough, to post it."}, {"response": 254, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (03:49)", "body": "ooo I fogot I've got a lovely little icon on my wall - i shall get it down and scan it. i found it in a junk hsop years ago. it's very old."}, {"response": 255, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (12:15)", "body": "Does it have jewels? Is it Russian Orthodox sort? I am most interested in seeing it. How interesting. Your Junque Shoppes have much nicer things in them than ours. Out here it is just that - Junk!"}, {"response": 256, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (12:18)", "body": "Out here, Very Old and Prehistoric means before Captain Cook. Very old in Europe can be a whole other millennium. How old? Any maker's marks on the back?"}, {"response": 257, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (14:39)", "body": "No, nothing fancy, very plain in fact. It's orthodox, but I haven't traced it yet. I doubt it's valuable but I like it. It was almost black when I got it. i cleaned it with bread and grapeseed oil, and it has come up well. I'm scanning it now. I don't know how it will come up because it's not too bright."}, {"response": 258, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (14:56)", "body": "You know how to tend old things. I am used to people telling me they used abrasive cleanser or steel wool to get the \"old stuff\" off. *shudder* I'll probably scan better than shiny-bright which causes flare."}, {"response": 259, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (15:01)", "body": "Have you got it yet?"}, {"response": 260, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (15:41)", "body": "Maggie's Icon: Please tell us of what material and method it is made."}, {"response": 261, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (15:44)", "body": "Can anyone read the Greek text? Maggie says she paid \ufffd1 for it!"}, {"response": 262, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (15:47)", "body": "Quarter inch depth piece of wood. Just a little over 5 inches tall by just under 4 inches wide. I think it is oils, although it may be some kind of print I suppose, the surface is very crackled. The edges are very worn. It has a rustic feel to it."}, {"response": 263, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (16:16)", "body": "Is there any other color but black outline? Might it be pen and ink? Or is the entire surface painted? (What do you want for \ufffd1 ?!)"}, {"response": 264, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "I don't understand the question. what black outline? no it's definitely notpen and ink, it's antique paint surface of on oily kind. there is ia slight sheen to most of it if you tilt it - that came back after i'd restored it."}, {"response": 265, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (17:40)", "body": "The only color I can see is the background color and the black outline which details the image. I was just curious if there were other colors involved or is what we see what you see?!"}, {"response": 266, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "No I see the picture as it is normally. I think something is seriously wrong in how you are seeing it."}, {"response": 267, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (01:56)", "body": "I can't make out much of the greek text on the icon, but I think it starts out as \"I am the light of the world\", or something like that. I'll take another look when I'm less tired. Here's a link to some Orthodox icons: http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/icons/icons.html"}, {"response": 268, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (02:04)", "body": "Oooh, Ginny!!!! Thanks! How could I forget?!"}, {"response": 269, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (02:08)", "body": "(Ginny is Greek!!! for those who do not frequent other topics on other conferences...)"}, {"response": 270, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (01:38)", "body": "I wish I had learned to speak Greek! My grandmother tried to teach me, and I got as far as learning the alphabet and pronunciation, but I never got the hang of Greek grammar. I do have a Greek-English dictionary, though..."}, {"response": 271, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (04:54)", "body": "me too, from NT greek study days, but I've forgotten most of it. If I can figure out how to post speical characters in here I'll try and post the inscription. I think it's a well known bible verse, so once we've figured some key words I will be able to find it."}, {"response": 272, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (17:20)", "body": "Thank you Ginny. Nobody ever tried to teach me to read Greek. My Grandfather could read it of course and all of his children can read it to some degree or other. They, however, never tried to teach their children. Spoke to my mom, the semi-Luddite, she avoids computers as much as possible. Anyway, Mom can read some Greek, but since she avoids the internet like the plague, and I don't read Greek, I have to explain the icon as best I can over the telephone. Mom says from what she knows about icons the text is probably from the Gospel of John, as it seemed to be the most favored in some ways in the Orthodox Church. Mom also noted that the Eastern Orthodox Bible doesn't contain the Book of Revelations."}, {"response": 273, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (18:02)", "body": "Fascinating! Gotta blow up the texts of both icons and get them off to Ginny for further work. Remember this is old Greek, not contemporary stuff...!"}, {"response": 274, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (18:06)", "body": "Maggie, your computer has a little handy program called Character Map and using it you can summon up the complete Greek alphabet plus stuff like \ufffd \ufffd \ufffd and the rest of the fun things in there."}, {"response": 275, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (04:51)", "body": "Just to confirm the conclusions already drawn, the Greek text says something close to: \"Go eimi io phos tou kosmoi ho akolouthon emoi ou peripate dei en te skouia all' exei phos tes\" (apologies for incorrect or obscured characters or transcriptions), and is unquestionably the original of John 8:12 \"I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.\""}, {"response": 276, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (13:08)", "body": "Thank you for the translation, Mark. How extraordianry, An Englishman who not only is a whiz (yes, you are!) at Cricket, but also likes baseball, and can read Greek. Just your ordinary well-bred and educated Briton...*sigh* It makes sense that the passage quoted above is the one the icon makers would use."}, {"response": 277, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (18:35)", "body": "Thanks Mark, you got there just ahead of me. Here's my reading of it. Ego eimi to phostou kosmou ho akalouthon emoi ou me peripatesei I am the light of world the companion/disciple my (pl)where -ve follow en te skotia all exei to phos tes zoes in the darkness but go out the light of life The first E was actually in red and doesn't show up too well through the scanner, and the 'me' (-ve) was obscured by one of the hands."}, {"response": 278, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (18:39)", "body": "Oh blow - I had it nicely interleaved and it got mucked up. sorry Ego eimi to phostou kosmou ho akalouthon emoi ou me peripatesei I am the light of world the companion/disciple my (pl)where -ve follow en te skotia all exei to phos tes zoes in the darkness but go out the light of life I'm trying again"}, {"response": 279, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (20:05)", "body": "Understood! Yapp software does incredible stuff with neatly arranged stuff. It likes to make its own decisions and they are not usually the way we planned them to appear...*sigh* Thanks all, for the translations. I sent Ginny a vastly enlarged copy of just the book and hands. Have not heard from her, yet..."}, {"response": 280, "author": "viola", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (16:27)", "body": "This all sounds rather interesting stuff. How comes I missed it all? There seems to be lots more archaeology programmes on at the moment focusing on Christ and Biblical matters, but that's not really surprising considering the time of year! I hope you all have a great Easter and I shall try and access more info on any of the programmes that I have seen."}, {"response": 281, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (17:31)", "body": "Nice to see you again Viola. Thanks for the treacle tart (it was yummy even if it was well done - my fault!). I'll show you the icon when you come to visit sometime!"}, {"response": 282, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (17:48)", "body": "Oooh, I NEED a treacle tart!!! The nearest one is probably in New Zealand. *sigh* I miss the stuff, too, Viola. Comeon over! We'll rent them when they come out on video...*grin*"}, {"response": 283, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (15:36)", "body": "(I hear she's gone home for the easter hols - she'll be back soon) There's a history of archeology programme on TV now, but I'm finding it a bit boring, not sure why. Out at dinner today, perusing my hosts bookshelves I came across the Watkins - the old straight track. Is that the one you were talking about earlier? T.s got interested now. I also picked up Wilcock -A guide to occult britain which I'm not sure about but will have a look. It does have some black and white photos."}, {"response": 284, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (16:44)", "body": "Schleimann boring? Not so! Mostly about Britons, I'd venture to guess. Just my sort of program, actually..."}, {"response": 285, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (07:42)", "body": "From: Timothy Troy, University of California Berkeley Forwarded by: David Newbury, University of North Carolina dnewbury@unc.edu Prof. J. Desmond Clark, emeritus professor of paleoarchaeology at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the preeminent paleoarchaeologist and Africanists in the world, has just shown me a copy of a March 29, 2000 article from the Daily Telegraph (London) entitled: \"Last Record of African Explorers Faces Ruin.\" The article was written by Ishbel Matheson in Livingstone, Zambia. It reads in part: \"A priceless collection of books and documents, detailing the earliest days of European exploration in Africa, is under threat of destruction. The Livingstone Museum in southern Zambia has hundreds of valuable books, written by the first missionaries, adventurers and prospectors in central Africa. But the building's leaking ceiling collapsed in recent heavy rains, and many publications were damaged beyond repair. Others need expensive conservation work to save them. Piles of ancient, sodden volumes, with subjects as diverse as elephant-hunting and native practices, have been left to dry in the tropical heat. Early newspapers, with vivid descriptions of life in what was then British-ruled Northern Rhodesia, can scarcely be opened, for fear of tearing fragile, brittle pages. Flexon Mizinga, the keeper of history at the museum, said: 'It means the whole history is wiped out. When you lose this kind ofthing, there is no replacement. You can't get copies anywhere else. These are the only copies we have. Valuable historical documents, which escaped the flood, are slowly disintegrating because the museum has no money for conservation. The original letters and journals of David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary, are the pride of the collection. He was the first European to discover the nearby Victoria Falls, and he is remembered affectionately in the area as a Christian who campaigned to stop slavery. His notebooks describing his second Zambezi [River] expedition in 1858 are stored in the museum, with those of his companions, even though the institution is ill equipped to preserve them. The journals of Sir John Kirk, a botanist, and Richard Thornton, a geologist, which record their first impressions of the African landscape and its commercial potential for the British Empire, are in battered cardboard boxes. The acidity of the brown paper which wraps the notebooks is slowly eating away the handwritten testimony of these Victorian explorers. In the museum's clock tower, amid a jumble of books and newspapers, is the work of Thomas Baines, an artist and a member of the Zambezi expedition. A beautiful first edition of his famous Victoria Falls watercolours lies on a tabletop, vulnerable to the fierce heat and high humidity of the southern Zambia climate. Kinglsey Choongo, a museum curator, says, 'The documents will not see the beginning of another century.' Family members of the early explorers and settlers gave historical items to the museum because they wanted their ancestors' contribution to this part of Africa remembered. It seems, however, that in Livingstone and Zambia the history of the whites in Africa is being erased from the national consciousness. Tim Holmes, an author, lives in Zambia and has written a biography of Dr. Livingstone. He believes the museum has been starved of funds because its collection is perceived as a relic from the colonial past.'After independence came, what Zambians wanted to know most of all, is their own history. The colonial history was seen as an irrelevant burden. But trying to ignore colonialaism is like trying to tell the history of Britain without the Romans.'It is the former colonial countries who are now trying to help the museum out of its immediate crisis. The European Union has pledged 250,000 pounds. Conservationists fear that the money is too late because so much damage has been done. Nor will it be enough for the extensive upgrade needed to preserve the collections.\" Dr. Clark was the director and primary curator of the Livingstone Museum in its early manifestations from 1937 to his departure for Berkeley, California in 1961. In 1951 he raised the funds needed for a major expansion of the museum complex and library in Livingstone. A modest man, Clark neverless has told me in recent oral history interviews I have conducted with him for the Regional Oral History Office of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, that it was he who built the magnificent book and manuscript collection for the museum's library. He personally worked with the descendants of David Livingstone and others to do so. Though now eighty-four years old, Clark can list practically every rare book title, journal and manuscript collection which is held in the Livingstone Museum library. Curiously, however, Clark's great legacy to the world will be his work as a paleoarchaeolgist in Africa. The paleolithic and neolithic archaeolgical collections at the Museum are the result of hi"}, {"response": 286, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (14:41)", "body": "This should be posted in Books conference...perhaps in the intro or conference business. Thanks, Maggie."}, {"response": 287, "author": "viola", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "Hi, Yes, I am at home at the moment but I am at my parent's computer. I return to Chichester tomorrow. I'm afraid I haven't seen any more interesting programmes yet but I did get the Time Team book for Easter. If I come across anything worth scanning (which I probably will) I shall give it a try. There's loads of photos and interesting info. I shall show you when you next visit Chichester maggie, and I promise to make another treacle tart (this time cooked for just the right length of time!!!!!)"}, {"response": 288, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (19:11)", "body": "There you are! Yippee! Hope your Easter has been lovely, Dear...I am delighted to see you here if only for a moment. o created some new topics and posted a whizzo one on crop circles at Stonehenge...(no comment)"}, {"response": 289, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (03:31)", "body": "Tonight on the The Learning Channel they had a program on the Ark of the Covenant. I would like to hear from anyone who saw it. It covered all the bases from space men through the Knights Templar. Shades of Holy Blood, Holy Grail. It did not cover any new material, but it was interesting from the standpoint of seeing the places mentioned in all of the books on the subject. With the major omission of the Rennes-le-Chateau connection. They claimed (they being the Knights Templar and guardians of Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland) thatr there are no fewer than 5 Arks of the Covenant, and they are all still in existance. Of course, none of this could be proven, so it was an exercise in futility for those who wanted a definite yes or no to the question of its still existing. Please comment if you happened to see it."}, {"response": 290, "author": "Saskia", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (18:46)", "body": "There's supposed to be an Ark of the Covenant still in existence in Ethiopia. It's at St. Mary's Monastery, I believe. I'm sorry I don't know exactly where in Ethiopia. The Ark is the life-long responsibility of one of the monks, at his death another is chosen from among the brothers."}, {"response": 291, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (18:51)", "body": "Yes! I have Graham Hancock's book on the subject. The TLC program I cited above was more current than the research GH did for his book. Neither of them got close to discovering its whereabouts. I suspect, for the devout, you will not change their belief of its whereabouts, and for those still searching, it will be like the Holy Grail...ever out of reach. Just... Aloha Saskia..*hugs*"}, {"response": 292, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (18:29)", "body": "The latest history of Archeology programme was much better than the two earlier ones. I still don't like the presenter's style much. This one was Schiemann and Petrie. The earier ones were BORING - and we like archeo programmes. Programme 1 Stones and Bones Over the past 250 years archaeologists have completely changed our view of human history. Before archaeology became a scientific discipline, most people thought that the Bible, which has been interpreted as saying that God put Adam and Eve on Earth one day in 4004BC, was literally true. Now, archaeologists have proved that hominids \ufffd that is, human beings and their immediate ancestors \ufffd have been around for about five million years. From the beginning, archaeologists have grappled with ways of answering the big question: where does the human race come from? Unlike other historians, they have had few documents to go on \ufffd instead, they have had to find answers through digging into the earth. The following sections trace the development of archaeology from its early beginnings at Herculaneum. 1736 VENUTI AND HERCULANEUM In southern Italy, which is divided into several independent states, a new king, Charles, begins his rule by buying a small estate on the Bay of Naples. He wants to have a large area on which to hunt. He is told that the farm is famous for its deep well, in which many ancient Roman statues have been found. The king sends his royal antiquary, Count Marcello Venuti, to take a look inside the well. He\ufffds been told that an ancient temple is buried there, but he discovers a curving set of stone steps that look like theatre seats. Then he finds an ancient Roman inscription which tells him that it was a theatre and gives him the name of the city in which it had been built: Herculaneum. Venuti tells Charles that he has an ancient city buried under his estate. It had been covered in lava and ash when the volcano Vesuvius, which still exists, erupted on 24 August 79AD. People had known from manuscripts and books that this had happened, but no one knew exactly where the buried city was. Thirteen years later, Venuti discovers another buried city nearby. It is the now legendary Pompeii, which was covered by volcanic ash so rapidly that most of its buildings and all the everyday objects of its citizens were preserved. These discoveries illustrate the birth of archaeology because they show that remains of the past life of our ancestors are always with us \ufffd they are buried under the accumulated layers of time and can be found by excavation. 1816 THOMSEN and COPENHAGEN In Copenhagen, Denmark, Christian Thomsen \ufffd a pioneering coin-collector \ufffd is appointed keeper of the national archaeological collection. He discovers that although all the objects have been labelled, they have not been classified or arranged in any order. Thomsen decides that because early humans probably used the most advanced materials for weapons, he should organise these ancient objects according to what they were made out of. He arranges the artefacts into Stone Age objects, Bronze Age objects and Iron Age objects. By doing so, he invents a way of grouping what we find in the earth into a story, a history of progress from stone, through bronze and on to iron. His system of three ages is still used by museum curators. 1840s-1860s WORSAAE and DENMARK Christian Thomsen\ufffds assistant at the national museum is Jens Jacob Worsaae. He\ufffds been excavating since the age of 15 and he realises that by looking in Denmark\ufffds ancient mound burials, he always finds the Stone Age burials below the Bronze Age burials and the Iron Age are always on top. From this fact, he concludes that the Stone Age is the most ancient and the Iron Age the most recent, with the Bronze Age in between. From now on, archaeologists can argue that artefacts found in different layers of the earth can be dated to different historical ages. Worsaae is appointed archaeologist royal, becoming the first professional archaeologist, and influencing scholars all over Europe. 1879 De SAUTUOLA and ALTAMIRA In the cave of Altamira, on the north coast of Spain, an amateur archaeologist Marcelino de Sautuola excavates the entrance in the company of his daughter Maria. She wanders inside the cave, looks up at the ceiling and exclaims: \ufffdPapa, papa, there are painted bulls.\ufffd At first, professional archaeologists don\ufffdt believe that such wonderful images could have been painted in the Stone Age, because they assume that early humans were barbarians. It is even suggested that de Sautuola faked them. However, similar paintings are soon found in French caves which have been sealed since ancient times, so their authenticity cannot be doubted. Altamira is dubbed \ufffdthe Sistine Chapel of the Stone Age\ufffd. 1881 PITT-RIVERS and THEBES Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers travels up the Nile to the ancient city of Thebes, modern-day Luxor. He finds ancient flints embedded in cemetery walls that are known to be 4,000 years old. The flints had been scraped up when th"}, {"response": 293, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (20:07)", "body": "Archeologists Finish Roman Bath Restoration CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian archeologists have completed the restoration of the largest of five Roman baths found near the Mediterranean coast in the northern Sinai, officials said Thursday. ``Restorations to a Roman bath, dating back to the Roman period in the third century AD, took one year to complete,'' said Gaballah Ali Gaballah, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, while inspecting the restored baths. Mohamed Abdel Maksoud, director of Sinai antiquities, said the baths were built of red brick and included rooms decorated with mosaics of Indian design, water tanks, a section for hot and cold bathing and a steam room. The baths are said to have been used by Roman rulers. They are situated outside the Pilosome Citadel on the Mediterranean coast road between al-Qantara and al-Arish, some 130km (80 miles) northeast of Cairo."}, {"response": 294, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (16:52)", "body": "I thought that Lescaux was the Sistine Chapel of the Stone Age. No matter, both sites are remarkably beautiful. I think the Lescaux paintings are slightly older than those at Altimira. Tourists can no longer actually view the actual cave paintings at Lescaux, due to the effect of the humidity from all the visitors breath on the cave environment and the paintings. You can, however, tour a reproduction of the famous cave paintings."}, {"response": 295, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (20:22)", "body": "Lascaux and Altamira are supposedly the most significant. But, we are nit picking here. It is subjective opinions on things so much more significant than that they are good art."}, {"response": 296, "author": "viola", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (16:32)", "body": "Hi!!! Yep, I'm back! Not really much to say. I recall seeing a good programme recently but I have been working hard and I am extremely tired thus causing my brain to want to sleep. When I have woken again I shall try and look up about the programme and post it onto this page. I think it was another channel4 prduction. Watch this space..."}, {"response": 297, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (16:43)", "body": "...watching... but have to go to a double-header baseball game in an hour, so take your time to get your brain well-rested and back into gear. I had heard that you were too busy to get into trouble (well, almost!) *hugs* Welcome back!"}, {"response": 298, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (06:41)", "body": "If you're interested in Pompeii, check http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pompeii/page-1.html From the home page, click on the link to the forum. It gives you a large clickable map of the town plus images. It gives building plans, photos, and some explanations. A link in the section on the Imperial Cult Building brings up a study of how the room and roof might have been constructed, along with several fly-around animations of the sructure as it might have looked. It's definitely worth a visit! (One of my 'love to go there sometime' places!)"}, {"response": 299, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (14:03)", "body": "Thanks for that. It is definitely one of my Gotta Go places...perhaps in another lifetime...*sigh*"}, {"response": 300, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (08:02)", "body": "me too *sigh*"}, {"response": 301, "author": "viola", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (17:01)", "body": "I don't know, don't be a pair of doubting Thomas's. If you want to you will get there. If something is worth going for you'll do it. Positive thinking and enthusiasm and a LOVE of archaeology and you'll go ANYWHERE! ENJOY!"}, {"response": 302, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (17:20)", "body": "For me it is not doubting, it is reality. Especially when financial obligations take priority and it is not easy to hitch a ride to Pompeii from the middle of the Pacific. However, I have not given up on going other places closer to home which call me clearly and insistently!"}, {"response": 303, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (03:49)", "body": "OK Viola, when are we going? Come on, I need some cheering up!!! I'm still trying to get to York, but that MAY be possible if we can find somewhere to stay on the way up to Scotland this week, and if someone does something about it! (shoulder surfers please note)"}, {"response": 304, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (13:45)", "body": "Shoulder surfers in my experience are selective blind when looking at the monitor. If it is meant for him to see, you just might have to post it in something which might attract his attention. York would be a natural place to stop and peer at the past!"}, {"response": 305, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (05:17)", "body": "*sigh* stopping in Sunderland instead. Maybe in August ..... now what archeo is going on there?? must do a search"}, {"response": 306, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (15:37)", "body": "If you need help or come up empty, I know of some places for you to check.."}, {"response": 307, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (17:34)", "body": "Please let me know any suggestions. Have arranged a stopover in Pontefract coming home the following week. We shall pass through York and do a reccy prior to a possible longer visit on the way up to scotland in August."}, {"response": 308, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (21:54)", "body": "I shall investigate my archy guide books for the area and let you know if I find anything other than the odd castle. That's the place pronounced \"pumfret\" or something similar?"}, {"response": 309, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (21:55)", "body": "check this url, Maggie http://www.casandpont.freeserve.co.uk/front.htm"}, {"response": 310, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (21:59)", "body": "Maps: http://freespace.virgin.net/stuart.lonsdale/ Museum http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/lifestyle/pontmuse.htm Collieries http://www.nce-league.freeserve.co.uk/pontefract_colls.htm Calderdale - the best one on this post, I think: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/north_east_england_history_page/Calderdale.htm"}, {"response": 311, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2000 (05:54)", "body": "Thanks. I think we will visit Pontefract. The castle and museum sound interesting. I'll post about it in Travel/england etc. when I get back."}, {"response": 312, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2000 (18:19)", "body": "Great! Have a splendid time!"}, {"response": 313, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 26, 2000 (12:02)", "body": "when they discuss a dig, these measurements are the ones used: Acres And Hectares An acre is a measurement of area equal to 43,650 square feet or 4,840 square yards. Originally, an acre had to be a fixed-shape rectangle, 660 by 66 feet. But in current usage, it can be any shape as long as it has the same total square footage. Some other countries, such as Ireland and Scotland, have traditionally used somewhat different definitions of the acre. There is also a metric equivalent--the hectare, which is 10,000 square meters, or almost 2.5 acres."}, {"response": 314, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (07:30)", "body": "Check out this site for loads on archeology in Mali. http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Eanth/arch/mali-interactive/aboutproject/index.html Here's a taste: The archaeological site of Jenn\ufffd-jeno is located within a huge, seasonally flooded basin called the Inland Niger Delta, in the West African country of Mali. Every year, after the rains begin further south, where the mighty Niger River has its source, the swollen river rushes downriver (towards the north!). When it enters the flat, Inland Niger Delta basin, the waters spread out and flood all the lowest areas to a depth of 2-3 meters. The floodwaters cover an area about 300 kilometers long by 100 kilometers wide! Needless to say, people who want to live in the Inland Niger Delta year-round have to build their houses on high ground, or create some high ground to live on. Many of the villages are on high mounds that have accumulated over centuries, with the surface getting higher and higher everytime a mud house is abandoned and decays. The mounds become like islands when the floodwaters rise. Sometimes they can be quite big. The modern town of Jenn\ufffd, for example, has over 10,000 inhabitants settled on a mound over six meters high. Jenn\ufffd will be our home while we are digging at Jenn\ufffd-jeno, located three kilometers away across the floodplain. According to tradition, Jenn\ufffd-jeno (\"ancient Jenn\ufffd) is the early site of Jenn\ufffd. The town moved to its present location sometime around a thousand years ago, although we aren't sure why the inhabitants moved, finally abandoning Jenn\ufffd-jeno totally by 1400 A.D. The fact that Jenn\ufffd and Jenn\ufffd-jeno are so closely related historically and share many features allows us to look at Jenn\ufffd for clues to help us understand how the early Jenn\ufffd-jeno people lived. One of the main goals of the project is to do some excavation at Jenn\ufffd-jeno to salvage, or rescue, information from several areas of the mound that are cut by huge erosion gullies. Thousands of potsherds, beads, and many other kinds of artifacts are being washed out of the soil and into the gullies every year during the torrential rains in June and July. Along with them goes all possibility for the archaeologist to figure out when and how they were used. Earlier work at Jenn\ufffd-jeno by the two American archaeologists on the project, Rod and Susan McIntosh, showed that town life in large, settled communities began over 1500 years ago in this region. At that time, in the late 1970's, people thought that town life in areas south of the Sahara only developed in the last few hundred years. The discovery that Jenn\ufffd-jeno had grown very large soon after it was first settled in 250 B.C. came as a big surprise. As the earliest known urban settlement south of the Sahara, Jenne-jeno is one of the very few World Heritage archaeological sites recognized by UNESCO in sub-saharan Africa. Because it is an important site for our understanding of the development of civilization south of the Sahara, its slow destruction by erosion is a matter of grave concern. The World Monuments Fund has provided money to Malian archaeologists to rescue archaeological information in endangered sections of the site, and to fill in the gullies in order to stop further erosion. Malian and American members of the project team are working together toward this important goal."}, {"response": 315, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (13:47)", "body": "Mali has been known for years as a very rich country as far as archaeology goes. Thanks for that url and the \"taste\""}, {"response": 316, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (15:33)", "body": "there's also been an awful lot of 'poaching' of artifacts. There's more on that site about that too. There's an 'artifact' market in Bamako. I went past but didn't go anywhere near it!!!"}, {"response": 317, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  3, 2000 (18:26)", "body": "Ancient Cities Reported Found Under Sea Off Egypt ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Archaeologists on Saturday showed off relics retrieved from the nearly complete ruins of ancient cities they said they had discovered on the seabed off the Egyptian coast. The joint French and Egyptian team said the cities of Menouthif and Herakleion, submerged more than 1,000 years ago, lay in five to 10 meters (15-30 feet) of water about six km (3.75 miles) off the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. ``We are very excited because we are used to finding the remains of a tomb, a church or a mosque, but this time we are finding complete cities cities that were heard about from the classical writings,'' said Gaballah Ali Gaballah, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. ``Most probably they disappeared because of seismic causes,'' said Franck Goddio, head of the Paris-based European Institute of Marine Archaeology. A rise in the Mediterranean sea level and sudden submersion caused by earthquake, or climate changes, could explain the annihilation of the cities, he said. The cities were legendary in antiquity for their wealth and arts as well as their many temples dedicated to the gods Serapis, Isis and Osiris. An intricately carved 1.5-meter (five-foot) black granite statue of Isis was shown to the media after being raised from the seabed. ``To me she looks 17 years old but in reality she is probably around 1,200 years old,'' Goddio said. Gaballah said researchers were aware of the existence of the ancient cities but could not pinpoint their exact location. ``Thanks to modern technology and the efforts of the Egyptian-French team, we could pinpoint cities that were read about in Greco-Roman literature,'' he told Reuters. Also discovered during two years of undersea exploration were the head of a pharaonic statue of a sphinx, jewelry and gold coins dating from the Byzantine and Islamic eras. The archaeologists said the coins showed the region had not been submerged until the eighth century, although the cities had been founded many hundreds of years earlier. The archaeologists said they had also identified two other submerged cities in the same area, Canopus and Thonis, but had not yet retrieved relics from them."}, {"response": 318, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  3, 2000 (18:30)", "body": "Maggie, grave robbers have been the bane of Archaeologists since mankind began to learn from their past. I know Britain had passed a Treasure Trove law, but some countries are so poor and their governments are so corrupt that it is almost useless to try. The best way to stop this illegal trade is to do as you did...stay as far away from it as possible. Things purchased better have good and legal provenance sheets with them."}, {"response": 319, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (11:59)", "body": "Following what we are talking about - this appeared in the Sunday Times this morning. Gangs smuggle best of Africa's art to Britain Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Peter Watson TRIBAL crowns, carvings and terracotta statues dating back more than 2,000 years are being plundered from Africa for British collectors, an investigation has revealed. Organised gangs with up to 1,000 workers have dug up dozens of protected sites to satisfy demand in Europe. The Nigerian high commission in London has complained about the quantity of goods without any provenance being openly sold by auction houses and antique dealers. The trade is so well established that artefacts that would have fetched \ufffd30,000 a decade ago are now on sale for a tenth of the price. The government is examining ways of cracking down on sales thought to be worth up to \ufffd500m a year. Government officials in Africa are so concerned they have effectively banned the export of all treasures. London outlet: Telfer-Smollett says he has no way of knowing if the art he sells is smuggled Michael Telfer-Smollett, a dealer in African art based in Notting Hill, west London, sold The Sunday Times a Yoruba tribal crown for \ufffd275, which Nigerian officials say would have been banned from export. The crown, decorated with wading birds, is believed to have been made early last century for the king in the walled city of Abeokuta. \"It's an elaborate work and might have been used in ceremonies,\" Telfer-Smollett said. Dr Patrick Darling, an archeologist who has worked extensively in Africa, said: \"It's been smuggled out. It would never have been allowed to leave the country legally.\" Telfer-Smollett said yesterday: \"Most of my African stuff is bought to me by Africans. They come streaming over with bagfuls of stuff. I don't believe the crown was smuggled, but it's impossible to check. It's up to the authorities in Nigeria to check it before it comes out.\" Artefacts are bought locally for a few pounds and smuggled out via neighbouring countries. Others are excavated or stolen from museums and temples. The looters particularly target Nok terracotta figures, named after the village on the Jos plateau in Nigeria where the sculptures were discovered. These provide the earliest evidence of a sculptural tradition south of the Sahara. Even artefacts in museums are not safe. Curators complain that items are \"borrowed\" and never returned amid allegations of corruption. The National Museum in Lagos has so few artefacts it displays replicas. \"It's a scandal the way in which archeological material is being lost because of systematic pillaging,\" said John Picton, of the School of Oriental and African Studies. \"It's illegally smuggled out of Africa, but there is no law against selling it here.\" Archeologists are angered at Britain's refusal to sign the Unesco treaty, which aims to prevent the looting of antiquities. The problem is so widespread that the Royal Academy of Arts had to withdraw several pieces from an exhibition of African art because of fears they were smuggled. \"They included Nok pieces which could not have been acquired legitimately,\" said Picton. The Nigerian high commission has also complained to the London auctioneer Bonhams about its tribal art sales, which regularly include items without provenance. In one sale in April 1997, the commission highlighted six lots that it considered suspect, including a Nok terracotta head. Bonhams has assured the commission that it never accepts any material that has been illegally exported. The commission believes that any item without a detailed history should be removed from sale. Nigeria now wants stricter controls in Britain against illegal imports. \"This is the history of Nigeria which is being stolen and sold to art collectors in Europe and the United States,\" said Greyne Anosike, cultural attach\ufffd at the commission."}, {"response": 320, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (16:01)", "body": "That is truly horrifying. They are stealing and voiding any direct evidence of our past. Items found en situ are about as objective as \"history\" can be without coloring by the author. Now, that part of it is rendered as just another antiquity with no provenace, no value but what the black market will bear. How tragic!"}, {"response": 321, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (16:25)", "body": "Stephen, welcome to Geo and most especially to Archaeology. I talked to Maggie and she told me about you. I am so envious of your working on restoring stone circles; would love to hear about the one in Scotland. A recumbent? My \"bible\" of Stone circles of the British Isles is by Aubrey Burl and what a thesis that was! How I wish I could have carried his stuff around - and just admire the places. After three trips to Britain crawling through fogous in Cornwall and through sheep paddocks to climb Windmill Hill, it is good to have someone here who know of what I am speaking. Aloha! If you need to contact me in Yahoo, I am kilauea83."}, {"response": 322, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "Studying artifacts \"in situ\" is a fairly new development even among archaeologists. At one time the object was to gather as many relics as possible, which were themselves as valuable as possible."}, {"response": 323, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (18:29)", "body": "Not in the last too centuries. Before that, it was considered treasure and so much for history. In situ is the best scenario and the devoutly wished-for situation for all artifacts..."}, {"response": 324, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (18:58)", "body": "But just imagine the knowlege that was lost, in addition to the damage done."}, {"response": 325, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (19:26)", "body": "Just a look at the tombs of Egypt is enough to make you cry. In the US, we managed to level the largest mound of the Woodland folk and build St Louis on the site. Obscene. It makes me very angry then proundly sad at the loss. I would almost rather not know."}, {"response": 326, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (19:28)", "body": "...and they levelled a large Hillfort outside of London to build Heathrow....."}, {"response": 327, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (19:45)", "body": "At least Rome doesn't have a subway. It was decided not try and build one, for archaeological reasons."}, {"response": 328, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (20:04)", "body": "Yup - the catacombs beat them to it - fortunatly! However, when they were tunnelling under London for the Undeerground, they found hippo bones and elephant and ancient extinct wonderments there. Who'd have thought!"}, {"response": 329, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (15:28)", "body": "Come on in - the water's fine! *grin* (and the Pirhan's don't bite)"}, {"response": 330, "author": "StephenA", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (15:49)", "body": "Hi Marcia, Thanks for the greeting to this completely new experience. I have been meaning to post a message, but my technological capabilities ended with flint tools...I will e-mail you soon....Stephen."}, {"response": 331, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (15:55)", "body": "Come on in - the water's fine! *grin* (and the Pirhan's don't bite)"}, {"response": 332, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (17:05)", "body": "...and so he did... Thank you and Aloha Stephen! We all started out in here much as you are now - and I worked my way up to what you see now. It just takes persistence, a lot of mistakes and some guidance - all of which I am happy to provide *smile*"}, {"response": 333, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (17:46)", "body": "I feel the sudden urge to float over the conference strewing frangipani (plumeria)and ginger blossoms in his way... Am I happy to have a *real* archaeologist here? You'd better believe it! *Hugs*"}, {"response": 334, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "A real live archaeologist. I'm now too petrified to post here again. Okay, petrified is the wrong word. Embarassed is more accurate."}, {"response": 335, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (18:59)", "body": "Don't do that to me! I NEED you here. I shall never again mention who the new people posting are. Besides, we need to keep his interest here and if I have to dance to do it, we'll all be embarrassed. (Maybe he is kidding...maybe I am kidding...maybe...) Cheryl, Please don't desert me! I NEED your insight!"}, {"response": 336, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (19:25)", "body": "I'm not leaving. I was just kidding. Actually, it's great to have a real archaelogist. Now we can all be enlightened in our dabbling."}, {"response": 337, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (23:47)", "body": "That's what I thought, actually! This man is man of charm and cultivation. He will correct us most kindly and gently"}, {"response": 338, "author": "StephenA", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (03:12)", "body": "Who is this real live archaeologist? Perhaps I had better keep my incoherant ramblings about the origins of monuments to myself then. We wouldnt want anyone to get the wrong end of the stick would we? A man of charm and cultivation? That doesnt sound like many of the field archaeologists I know. Who is this mystery man Marci?"}, {"response": 339, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (16:31)", "body": "Oh, not to worry abut him....he is someone who got bored and decided not to enter the commentary. Boring! Unimaginative and totally unresponsive. I think we are well done with him....probably just someone with ill humor and no affection in his heart for anything.......*smile*"}, {"response": 340, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (16:32)", "body": "Your incoherent rambling are enchanting this reader. Please continue as thoughts enter your mind....*hugs*"}, {"response": 341, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (16:38)", "body": "Stephen, Dear, anytine you wish to comment on your origin of monuments please do. My mind is travelling back to the places so familiar to my heart and I need to meet you there and for you to tell me what you are thinking.....please?!"}, {"response": 342, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (19:45)", "body": "...*out of body experience*... wonder if I can summon up one for Wiltshire..."}, {"response": 343, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (14:54)", "body": "Does anyone know if anymore has been discovered about the Henge monument at Marden? It was reputed to be the biggest yet known."}, {"response": 344, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (14:57)", "body": "On one of the trips to England we investigated what was visible, but there is precious little remaining of surface visibility and much of that was in a small wooded area."}, {"response": 345, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (15:42)", "body": "There was another of the 'Secrets of Lost Empires' programmes on last night in he UK. I just checked, and they showed in the US earlier this year on PBS. Go and check the following URL for details. there's some really good photos and video footage. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/ The programme I saw was about 'Pharaoh's Obelisk' http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/obelisk/raises.html The soaring stone monuments known as obelisks were the Egyptian pharaohs' way of capturing a ray of revered sunlight in stone. In this section, follow NOVA's ultimately successful attempts to raise an obelisk of its own. Also, learn where ancient Egypt's obelisks have ended up today, explore other Egyptian monuments using QuickTime VR, and more. this really is worth a look - GO SEE!!!!"}, {"response": 346, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (15:50)", "body": "(Yup i'm back on form - finding all sorts of stuff again) This sounds interesting. No pix though. Found it when I was looking up on your earlier query. There's also a good Bibliography at http://csweb.bournemouth.ac.uk/consci/text_kn/knbiblio.htm _______________________________________________________________________________ From http://csweb.bournemouth.ac.uk/consci/text_kn/knintro.htm Introduction to the Knowlton henge complex -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The group of Late Neolithic henge monuments at Knowlton is generally recognised as one of the five most important enclosure complexes in Wessex at this time (Renfrew 1973; Wainwright 1989). These complexes consist primarily of massive earthwork enclosures up to 480m across, and often associated with other Late Neolithic monuments such as timber circles and monumental mounds. The importance of these complexes is demonstrated by their continued role in the Early Bronze Age when they became the focus for round barrow cemeteries. Nonetheless, despite their obvious significance, their function remains poorly understood. Their role as the effective centres of Wessex have been stressed by several authors (Bradley and Chapman 1986; Wainwright 1989, 147), whilst it has also been noted that they may have acted in the maintenance of relations with other distant communities via the axe trade (Bradley 1984, 54). In terms of the activities which occurred within the henge enclosures, Burgess (1980, 326) argues that the Wessex henges may have held a permanent population of holy men or retainers to a chief. This view is supported by Mackie (1981) who goes a stage further by suggesting that we should compare the large henges of Wessex as being similar to Early Christian monastic sites, combining a ritual role with the domestic life of a resident population. The idea of both a domestic and a ritual role to henge enclosures appears to be supported by the evidence recovered from excavation at Durrington Walls, although the excavators were more cautious in their interpretations (Wainwright and Longworth 1971). The potential for display at henge sites is also a popular theme in the interpretation of their function. This is a corollary of their design which places the bank outside the ditch thereby creating a grandstand effect from which audiences could view activities taking place in the centre (Burgess 1980, 237). If this is the case we could therefore argue that the role of the ditch was to act as a physical barrier between the observers and the observed, allowing a view, but not access. The suitability of henges to this role is amply shown by the Roman conversion of the henge of Maumbury Rings, Dorchester, into an amphitheatre. Nonetheless, we cannot assume that since we can see the value of henges as auditoriums that their builders held similar views. In this respect it should be noted that at Mount Pleasant the site was, for a time, surrounded by a timber palisade, which would have obstructed both visibility and access to the interior from the banks (Wainwright 1979). With such equivocal evidence, perhaps we hould take the view of Darvill (1987, 81-2) that it is likely that henges fulfilled many functions, and indeed changed their role through time. Extensive fieldwork has been carried out at and around four of these henge enclosures: Avebury (Smith 1965; Ucko et al 1991), Stonehenge and Durrington Walls (Wainwright and Longworth 1971; Richards 1990; Cleal et al 1995); Mount Pleasant (Wainwright 1979), and Marden (Wainwright 1971). At Knowlton however, little or no fieldwork has been carried out and, when this latter complex is mentioned in discussions of henge monuments, it is usually considered by analogy with these better known sites. The extent to which these analogies are accurate is unclear, and can only be resolved by considerable fieldwork in this little understood part of Wessex. At first sight the lack of fieldwork at Knowlton is curious since just 500m to the north lies Cranborne Chase, where there has been considerable work in recent years in the examination of Neolithic landscape patterns (see Barrett et al 1991; Tilley 1994). These studies have demonstrated the importance of Cranborne Chase in the Early Neolithic, with the long barrows and the Dorset cursus forming obvious focal points for activity. Nonetheless, it seems equally clear that in the Later Neolithic, the local communities ceased building major monuments in Cranborne Chase and diverted their attention to the construction of the henge complex at Knowlton, just to the south (see area plan). That this geographical shift has been so little studied can be explained by examining the history of research in this part of Dorset. Cranborne Chase is well known as the proving ground for the modern approach to archaeological fieldwork pioneered by General Pitt Rivers in the late 19th century (Barker 1977, 13). His excavations in the area included many famous"}, {"response": 347, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (15:58)", "body": "Even more ..... Hey I found the Journal British Archeology is freely available online - full articles. The following item is from Issue no 43, April 1999. and follows the discussion we had earlier about barrows and a Time Team excavation. Check it out. http://britac3.britac.ac.uk//cba/ba/ba43/ba43feat.html Bury the dead in a sacred landscape Bronze Age barrows are often found near rivers, lakes and springs. David Field explains why Where did Bronze Age people bury their dead? Where were the favoured locations for their round barrows? For years, there has been an unquestioned assumption within archaeology that over 3,000 years ago people preferred to site barrows on the tops of hills and ridges, or on the `false crests' of prominent hills, as these were places that commanded the widest view. Quite why this incorrect assumption has prevailed may be partly because it offers an enduring image of funeral ceremonies taking place at visually dramatic points in the landscape. Archaeologists have also tended to focus on the relatively few surviving barrows on the chalk downs, while paying less attention to the greater number of flattened barrows in lower locations such as lower hill slopes and river valleys. Recent surveys of the evidence as a whole across large tracts of southern England suggest, in fact, that relatively few barrows were positioned on the highest points in the landscape. Most were rather built on sloping ground, usually on the middle or lower slopes of a hill, where drainage is good. Remarkably large numbers were also sited close to springs, lakes, or rivers, sometimes in the valley floor but often along the upper reaches of the river. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that water and well-drained soils were deliberately sought out for the location of Bronze Age barrow cemeteries. These observations allow us to revise our interpretation of certain aspects of Bronze Age funeral practice. The idea of the existence of `ritual landscapes' in prehistory is now well-established, and from ethnographic records we know that many non-western societies regard the whole landscape as imbued with sacred or mythological significance. It is easy to imagine how features such as caves and springs might be thought to provide a point of contact with the spirit world. Seen in this light, the positioning of barrow cemeteries may suggest a funeral practice in the British Bronze Age as much concerned with the sanctity of the landscape as with status display, leaderveneration and other such traditional interpretations. It has long been thought that surviving barrow cemeteries tend to cluster in certain restricted areas - such as, for example, around Stonehenge and Avebury. This clustering has been said to reflect the location of the summer pastures of a transhumant community, or the presence of settlement nearby, or even the existence of a property or territorial boundary. It has also been argued that earlier monuments attract later ones around them. The assumption has been, however, that these concentrations are genuine. In fact the areas where barrows exist today as earthworks appear to be amongst the few that have escaped episodes of intensive cultivation during the Roman, medieval and later periods. Recent research by the English Royal Commission in North-East Yorkshire indicates that there is greater chance of survival where barrows are located on steeper ground rather than on gentler slopes, and this is likely to be the case for the southern chalk too. Many large clusters may have been lost long ago. Air photography has revealed many such levelled cemeteries and the emphasis has shifted as a result. The concentration of ring ditches on the Isle of Thanet in Kent, for example, compares with extant barrow distribution around Stonehenge. Pioneering work by Peter Woodward and Stephen Green in the Great Ouse valley of Cambridgeshire during the 1970s helped to draw attention to the number of levelled round barrows along river valleys. Here, over 400 ring-ditches, most of them likely to be levelled barrows, occurred in often quite large clusters at intervals along the river terrace. Along the Avon valley, in Wiltshire, air photographs show that a string of levelled barrow cemeteries extend all the way to the river's source, close to the great henge at Marden. A similar pattern can be seen around other rivers, for example the Wylye, Nine Mile River, and the Kennet, all in Wessex, as well as elsewhere. Other water features may also have been important markers. In Hampshire, for example, some barrows tend to focus on lakes and meres. New surveys of surviving barrows in the south-east of England, Salisbury Plain, and the Marlborough Downs have also offered a different perspective. Even among surviving examples, few are found on the highest points in the landscape. Instead barrows are found on middle or lower slopes or around the foot of a hill. Sometimes low ridges in the lee of higher hills were used. Many cemeteries of "}, {"response": 348, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (16:02)", "body": "Comments on any of this anyone????? One bit that stuck out for me in the above article was 'In a sacred landscape, prominent landscape features often develop their own mythology'. That seems to link in with the item we had earlier in geomyth about Aboriginal 'songlines' in Australia. I haven't come across this in Africa yet but I will ask questions when I am in Mali in October."}, {"response": 349, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (16:10)", "body": "In the January/February 2000 issue of Archaeology Magazine new findings at Avebury, one of which is a woodhenge similar to the one near Stonehenge were discussed. Near Stonehenge there are several including Durrington Walls which has quite a large one and a smaller one which will never be fully excavated because a housing estate was built squarely atop most of the entire area. Has anymore informations come out of the study of Avebury's newly rediscovered woodhenge or the Beckhampton / West Kennet Avenues? I have Burl's book on Avebury but it was written before any of these new finds. Would appreciate an update if you have one!"}, {"response": 350, "author": "StephenA", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (14:15)", "body": "I have read the above postings on ritual and scared landscapes....a lot of the ideas I have researched for my thesis...so as soon as I cut out the technical jargon I will try and post something coherant on the subject..."}, {"response": 351, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (15:10)", "body": "Aloha Stephen. We await your posting with great anticipation (having read the entire thesis with great pleasure) and encouraging you to take your time as we exercise patience. I am delighted that you are posting here *smile*"}, {"response": 352, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (15:35)", "body": "oh new blood! haha, welcome stephen. don't mind me, i'm just a little wolfie."}, {"response": 353, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (15:44)", "body": "Vampire Wolfie strikes again...*grin*"}, {"response": 354, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (15:47)", "body": "sorry.....off topic drift again.....*sigh*"}, {"response": 355, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (17:55)", "body": "(Now where's Buffy when we need her? guess the house male's monopolising her again! - sorry, it's late and I'm goofy!)"}, {"response": 356, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "*laugh* Oh dear, second childhood or just burgeoning manhood there? He is in good company. There is an entire topic for the program in the TV conference... (Am surprised there is not a Babes conference one as well...I have one there!)"}, {"response": 357, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (02:36)", "body": "(I don't!)"}, {"response": 358, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (10:24)", "body": "(yet!)"}, {"response": 359, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (14:21)", "body": "I think the creator of same is no longer creating. Mine for John was the last one of that sort I did in Screwed...and Male Babes taught me not to do that again..!"}, {"response": 360, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (18:30)", "body": "From NASA's children's site: For several days following June 16, the Moon will appear nearly full and, of course, there's another full Moon every month. Each one hovers above the horizon for a while as it rises, triggering the 'Moon Illusion.' The illusion simply lasts longer for northern observers near the time of the summer solstice. (Oh to be at any stone circle in the British Isles about now...*sigh*)"}, {"response": 361, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (18:31)", "body": "It has the same effect on the recumbent stone in the Scottish circles?!"}, {"response": 362, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (10:56)", "body": "I cut this out to post ages ago - and lost it in the debris. From the Sunday Times April 14 Bespectacled warriors who terrorised ancient Britain The mere sight of their double horned battle helmets was enough to strike fear into the hearts of the Brits. But as archeologists have discovered the Vikings who rampaged across Britain and Europe also wore something a little less daunting on their heads - spectacles! Clear disks uncovered at Viking settlements in Sweden, which were at first thought to be jewellery are in fact sophisticated lenses. German scientists who examined the finds were astounded by the standard reached by ancient opticians who were working between 700 and 1000 AD. the principles they used to make these lenses were not really understood until many centuries later, yet these people managed to employ these principles to create lenses that were perfect for a wide variety of uses. Their cut is practically perfect and the surface is almost perfectly elliptic. The optical quality can be compared with that of modern spectacles. But the archeologists who found the lenses at settlements in Gotland say that they don't prove the Vikings were a y more civilised than previously thought. It is thought that they probably stole the lenses from merchant caravans that travelled across from eastern Europe or the Byzantine Empire. The Vikings were always raiding the Byzantines and once they realised what these lenses could be used for they would have been much prized. The size of the lenses also indicates that some were used to make the first crude telescopes, 500 years earlier than the Dutch opticians thought to have invented them for seafarers. the largest had a radius of 50mm and a thickness of 30mm."}, {"response": 363, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (12:53)", "body": "Interesting image, big hulking Vikings wearing glasses. I wonder if they had shades too?"}, {"response": 364, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (13:06)", "body": "That is amazing. I am wondering how the ground the lenses and how they calibrated them one with the other. Nothing is worse than glasses whose lenses do not match. It makes me seasick-feeling. Despite my favoring gentlemen who wear them, I somehow cannot imagine how it helped their image as fearsome warriors (from whose loins the Hemming lineage arose.) I am wondering why it did not get more press. That is amazing, as I said..."}, {"response": 365, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (17:33)", "body": "there was a rather fanciful line drawing attached, but my scanne is offline just now, and I wasn't convinced!!! I think the Byzantine point of origin would be an interesting line to follow and see if there is more anywhere on their techniques and use of telescopes."}, {"response": 366, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (19:14)", "body": "This from Reuters which is probably old news to some but new to me: Scientists Probe Riddle of Stonehenge Skeleton LONDON (Reuters) - The skeleton of a man executed up to 2,100 years ago at Stonehenge, Britain's greatest prehistoric monument, was shown in public for the first time Friday. The bones, which date from between 100 BC and 1000 AD, were first unearthed in 1923 and stored in London, where they were thought to have been destroyed in the Nazi Blitz in 1941, according to government conservation body, English Heritage. The skeleton was found to have survived by author Mike Pitts during research for a book about the giant stone circle in western England. After using modern forensic techniques, scientists have concluded that the man did not die of natural causes as had been thought but was the victim of an execution. Archaeologist Jacqueline McKinley said the man, who was about 35, died from violent beheading. There is a small nick on the lower jaw and a cut on the fourth neck vertebra, indicating he was beheaded by a sharp sword. \"Why he was executed is not known,\" English Heritage said. \"But it is possible that he was singled out for special punishment, as Stonehenge clearly represents a dramatic and important site for the event and the man's burial.\" Scientists are using carbon-dating techniques to try to find out exactly when the man died. It is only the fourth complete skeleton to have been found at Stonehenge, a World Heritage Site built between 3050 BC and 1600 BC. http://news.excite.com/news/r/000609/09/science-britain-stonehenge-dc/"}, {"response": 367, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Jun 17, 2000 (04:31)", "body": "I think i must hae missed that too. curious!"}, {"response": 368, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun 17, 2000 (11:23)", "body": "Bespectacled Vikings. Now there's an image. It has been surmised that a lot of the reason for the bad press the Vikings got was due to the fact that they weren't Christians. At least not in the early stages of their entry onto the world stage. They particularly favored raiding monasteries and church, as the Church was rich. Since monks were virtually the only people who were literate then -- it was they who wrote what survives from that time."}, {"response": 369, "author": "StephenA", "date": "Sat, Jun 17, 2000 (14:12)", "body": "Cognicized, Conceptualized and Cultural Landscapes - Some brief thoughts on new approaches to landscape archaeology. The concept of \ufffdritual landscape\ufffd is one which still runs through much of the writing on prehistory. This term is, however, outmoded and outdated for the very reason that it attempts to compartmentalize prehistoric landscapes into the \ufffdeconomic\ufffd and the \ufffdritual\ufffd, the \ufffdsacred\ufffd and the \ufffdprofane\ufffd. There is, however, no evidence that such a demarcation existed in the past and we should really be looking at landscapes as a whole and not attempting to categorize them into areas that, although they may make life easier for the archaeologist, had little or no relevance in prehistory. So where are we to start when attempting to understand prehistoric landscapes? As mentioned already the term \ufffdritual landscape\ufffd is not one that should be relied on too heavily. Neither should interpretations based on the breaking down of landscapes into the \ufffdnormal\ufffd categories of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age landscapes be approached uncritically. In the past landscapes, and the monuments contained within the landscape, have been approached mainly in terms of the monuments themselves. So much has been written about sites such as Stonehenge and Avebury in Britain, and comparable monuments in America, such as Cahokia, that it is often easy to forget that the monuments themselves are only a small part of the picture. We must never lose sight of the fact that what we are looking at is a \ufffdcultural landscape\ufffd, a landscape that is not only a product of human activity and manipulation, but is conceptualized and perceived in the minds of the people interacting with their lived environment. This idea of \ufffdcognitive landscapes\ufffd is one that may take some time to come to terms with, but the lived landscape is as much a cultural and cosmological construct as a more easily recognizable piece of material culture. The crux of this argument is based around the idea that manipulation of the landscape, and the construction of monuments is not solely related to the kind of economic determinizm suggested by Colin Renfrew (1973). If we look beyond the monuments themselves, at the landscape, the scatters of artefacts around unaltered \ufffdnatural\ufffd places and at anthropological study of significant places in the landscape, it is possible to see that the concepts that up until relatively recently have been associated solely with the construction of the earliest monuments, have their origins much further back in prehistory. If we look at studies of Australian Aboriginal culture (see especially Josephine Flood - The Archaeology of the Dreamtime), and various studies of Native American society, we can see that the ideas more normally associated with the building of monuments within the landscape are much more concerned with developments in human thought patterns and cognitive evolution than in any kind of economic determinizm. If we want to study the development of landscapes over time it is much more important that from now on we look at the landscape as an evolving entity rather than as a series of monumental sites associated with specific periods in prehistory. If we use this approach in conjunction with more recent work on developments in human cognition, then we may have a much better chance of understanding, not just prehistoric landscapes, but of prehistory as a whole."}, {"response": 370, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 17, 2000 (15:57)", "body": "Stephen, Thank you seem hardly adequate to express my delight with your posting. It is fascinating. Being able to walk the places they walked must be almost a religious experience, for those who have the ability and empathy to feel their presence. One day I shall return and feel that once again."}, {"response": 371, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 17, 2000 (16:57)", "body": "Woven cloth dates back 27,000 years Clay bearing a textile imprint together with a cast By BBC News Online science editor Dr David Whitehouse Woven clothing was being produced on looms 27,000 years ago, far earlier than had been thought, scientists say. It had been thought that the first farmers developed weaving 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. But Professor Olga Soffer, of the University of Illinois, is about to publish details in the journal Current Anthropology of 90 fragments of clay that have impressions from woven fibres. Professor Soffer revealed some her findings recently when she said that a 25,000-year-old figurine was wearing a woven hat. If confirmed, her work could change our understanding of distant ancestors, the so-called Ice Age hunters of the Upper Palaeolithic Stone Age. More at...... http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_790000/790569.stm"}, {"response": 372, "author": "StephenA", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (08:29)", "body": "Domesticates, Monuments, Death & Society. Some brief thoughts on the adoption of agriculture in Neolithic Europe. One of the great paradoxes and debates surrounding interpretations of Neolithic society in Europe is to what extent did the adoption of agriculture create the hypothesized ideas of social stratification deemed by some necessary for the construction of the earliest monuments. Colin Renfrew (1973) suggested that in order to create the correct social and economic stratification necessary for the construction of the earliest Neolithic monuments, it is necessary to have an agrarian economy in place before hand. At the opposite end of the spectrum Julian Thomas (1999) argues that at the time the earliest monuments were constructed in Britain, the evidence for an economy based almost solely on agriculture is practically non existent. As usual the real truth lies somewhere these two polar opposites, although my own opinion on reassessment of the evidence (evidence which admittedly Renfrew would not have had access to) is that the \ufffdtruth\ufffd, if indeed truth is a concept applicable to prehistory, is probably much closer to the Julian Thomas view than to Renfrew\ufffds. So how are we to solve this problem that has caused so much debate and controversy in the past? Perversely it is not to the biological remains that we should turn first, but to the monuments themselves, but first we must look at ourselves, and at the development of the human mind. Steven Mithen (1996) has pointed out that the cognitive abilities to produce not just functional stone tools, but also items of quite breathtaking beauty, were in place as far back as the Upper Palaeolithic at least. The adoption of agriculture then can not be seen as a quantum leap in human cognition as has sometimes been suggested in Childesque ideas of some form of \ufffdNeolithic Revolution\ufffd. What we are in fact seeing is a very small part of a long term process, a process that may not necessarily, in its initial stages at least, have been consciously embarked upon at all. This raises another question as to who domesticated what? Did prehistoric communities domesticate plants, or was it the other way round. The major change in the Mesolithic / Neolithic transition was not the beginnings of the use of domesticates per-se but the construction of the first monuments. This has in turn led to deterministic theories about environmental and economic change being responsible for the social change and the social stratification thought necessary for the origins of monumentality. By looking at a couple of case studies it is hoped to show that the transition from a hunter / fisher / gatherer (HFG) based economy, to an economy based on agriculture was a much longer term event that did not really reach an intensive level into well into the Iron Age. The table above shows some of the arguments put forward both for and against continuity and change in the Meso. / Neo. transition. Archaeology, however, obstinately refuses to fall into such neat columns. Let us now examine some of the changes that occurred in the earlier Neolithic to see whether or not we can identify the origins of ideas most usually associated with the Neolithic back into the Mesolithic. In my own research into the origins of monumentality, I have suggested that perhaps the concepts associated with monuments at least can be traced back into the forest environment of the Mesolithic (Appleby, 2000). I have also suggested that perhaps manipulation of woodland in the Neolithic may not, in fact, be purely for economic reasons but that perhaps Neolithic communities were creating a kind of \ufffdaesthetic of landscape\ufffd associated as much with phenomenology and cosmology as with economy (ibid.). Rather than outlining the main points of that paper again I now propose to look at some of the more general concepts associated with the Neolithic in Britain and Europe, and see how these can be used to fit in with the idea that adoption of an agrarian economy was somehow a determining factor in the construction of earlier Neolithic monuments. The first monuments to appear in the British Neolithic are the long barrows and long cairns associated with ritual disposal of the dead. Writers such as Renfrew (1973) have postulated that perhaps these can be seen as boundary or territorial markers in the landscape. These in some way define the boundaries between different groups of early agriculturalists, and were primarily built by utilizing an agricultural surplus to feed the people building the monuments. This suggests a certain amount of social hierarchy and complexity, with the elite at the top being able to co-opt and coerce their social underlings. Robert Chapman (1981) was also suggested that perhaps the building of early Neolithic burial mounds in some way marks out not only territory, but also creates a sense of \ufffdbelonging\ufffd to a certain place, and therefore to a certain territory by the placing of the ancestors into these mortuary monuments."}, {"response": 373, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (15:59)", "body": "Where do I begin...?! Stephen, this is wonderful stuff. Many questions are tumbling around in my head which are vying for answers and attention. I seem to need to be brought up to date with the literature much as the authors do whose books I rely on. Your sharing your expertise with us makes me both delighted and aware of the gaps in my understanding of the most recent findings and interpretations. More when I absorb this posting, and thank you for including the bibliography."}, {"response": 374, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (22:44)", "body": "If you can email me the file containing the table I will post it for you. American education standards fall so far below English standards that your BA thesis would probably be worthy of a MSc or higher. I wish you would publish in a journal and get proper credit for your insight and analysis. I am stunned and amazed by your brilliance. ...and, you quoted from \"The Hobbit\" Thank you!"}, {"response": 375, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (08:55)", "body": "Thank you Stephen for that erudite theory, I have read about and looked at with much interest, iron age forts on the North Downs and the Harrow Way, a roadway across the top of the downs, and in particular the prominent roadway not far from Boxhill and Mickleham. Also have seen and pondered the many standing stones and barrows in Wales. I certainly found what you had to say most interesting and found it answered some of the queries I have held. Now a question - I have read somewhere and have spoken too about the subject a late lamented friend who was quite knowledgable having travelled to many different places(Roger Price)- about the possibility of a great civilisation before the great flood which took place in the middle east many thousands of years ago. I have been to the end of the great rift valley just outside Eilat in the Negev and witnessed for myself the proof of such a flood which actually happened in ancient times. Our Israeli guide made a great show of pointing out the sea shells and marine debris embedded in the rock. How do you all think on this?"}, {"response": 376, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (15:20)", "body": "Anne, not trying toaddress the Archaeolgy, but rather the geology... there are sea fossils in the rocky mountains. Mountains are push-up of ancient sea beds. This does not necessarily mean The Flood did not happen but that there are other reasons for the shells atop the mountains in Israel."}, {"response": 377, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (16:41)", "body": "There is a theory that the Flood was actually an account of the drastic rise in the level of the Black Sea at the end of the Ice Age."}, {"response": 378, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (17:38)", "body": "That epoch was full of such disastrous flooding and land transformation. It was during this time that Britain became islands separate from Europe."}, {"response": 379, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (17:40)", "body": "Which is why they are known as continental islands, having once been part of a larger continent, but later seperated from the larger land mass."}, {"response": 380, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (17:43)", "body": "Yup *smile*"}, {"response": 381, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (21:50)", "body": "I fear I did not explain myself properly. The sea shells and other marine detritus was in a line two inches deep more than half way down the valley. It was situated at the King Solomon's Mine (copper I think from memory) It was a strange place - slaves worked there and graffitti from that time was carved into the rock walls on either side of an ancient roadway. A temple of sorts was situated half way up where the slaves worshipped their gods. Well worth a visit."}, {"response": 382, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (21:59)", "body": "Fascinating, Anne...Have you pictures or shall I hunt for some?"}, {"response": 383, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (22:08)", "body": "Stephen, feel free to return to your subject (of which you have much more to say!) or wade in on this..."}, {"response": 384, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (16:00)", "body": "Been there and was revolted when we guess the wrong day for the solstice travesty at Stonehenge and landed right in the middle of it. Tuesday June 20, 3:09 PM BBC News The lure of Stonehenge The public can celebrate summer solstice at Stonehenge on Wednesday for the first time more than a decade. What is the appeal of this ancient stone circle? Perhaps none have expressed the magic and mystery that is Stonehenge quite so, er, eloquently as mock rock gods Spinal Tap. In the imaginatively titled Stonehenge, the band thrash out a tribute to the ring of stones: \"Stonehenge, where the demons dwell, where the banshees live and they do live well,Stonehenge, where a man is a man and the children dance to the pipes of pan,Stonehenge, 'tis a magic place where the moon doth rise with a dragon's face.\" Come the dawn of midsummer on 21 June, members of the public can try to tap into the magic for the first time in 15 years. About 10,000 people - curious tourists, New Age revellers and pagan worshippers - are expected to mark the summer solstice at sunrise, free to wander in and around the stones. English Heritage banned solstice celebrations in 1985, and later threw up a perimeter fence crowned with barbed wire, following a nasty showdown between riot police and revellers. The demonstrators had taken exception to the National Trust injunction against their plans to stage a free festival in and around the World Heritage Site. The resulting clash, in which 700 people were arrested, became known as the Battle of the Beanfield. Trouble also brewed at last year's invitation-only event, when gatecrashers clambered onto the stones. Secrets of the ancients What is it about this 5,000-year-old ring of moss-covered stones with a scenic view of the A303 that exerts such strange pulling power? Perhaps it is the mystery that shrouds the origins of the monument. It remains unclear to this day for what purpose the stones were erected on Salisbury Plain - was Stonehenge intended to be a temple, a burial ground or a calendar? Almost the only common belief among Stonehenge scholars is that the stones are aligned with both the winter and summer solstices. When the midsummer sun rises directly over the heel stone, it marks the turning of the season and the approaching harvest season. At midwinter, the sun rises over a stone on the opposite side of the circle. Haul halted The site is thought to date back to about 3100BC, when it was little more than a ditch and a circle of round holes cut into the chalk. Cremated human bones have been excavated from the site. It was abandoned soon after, and left untouched for more than 1,000 years. Some experts believe bluestones from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales were heaved 240 miles on sleds and boats to the Wiltshire site in about 2150BC. It is this journey that the ill-fated Millennium Stone project has attempted to recreate. The three-tonne stone is now 17m under water off the Pembrokeshire coast after sinking over the weekend. By 2000BC, sarsen stones were erected, with the largest weighing in at 50 tonnes. Modern calculations show that it would have taken 500 men to pull one stone. Within 150 years, the bluestones were rearranged in the horseshoe and circle seen today. Originally, there were 60 stones in the circle but many have since crumbled. The joint chief of the British Druid Order, Greywolf, explains on the order's website why worshippers beat a path to the ancient site. \"Having felt the resonance of the stones responding to the beat of a drum, having heard the voices of our ancestors join in the Awen chant, having seen the priests and priestesses of elder times walk among the stones, I could hardly fail to recognise the power of the place.\""}, {"response": 385, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (19:13)", "body": "This is as good a place as any to post this as any. Happy Summer Solstice, unless of course you're in the southern hemisphere, then Happy Winter Solstice. In Europe the Summer Soltice became associated with the Feast of St. John the Baptist, actually June 23. The association is similar to that of the Winter Solstice with the Feast of Christmas, Dec. 25. Traditionally in rural France St. John's Day was when marriage proposals were made."}, {"response": 386, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (19:30)", "body": "I was going to look for something appropriate like the sun rising over the \"heel\" stone...I just might yet. Thanks for reminding me..."}, {"response": 387, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (19:44)", "body": "(Yes, Stephen, I know that the only reason the sun rises over the \"heel\" - or \"hele\" - stone is because it has fallen out of the upright position at which it originally stood... and that neither name is appropriate for the stone, anyway.)"}, {"response": 388, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (19:42)", "body": ""}, {"response": 389, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (19:48)", "body": "Millennium project to move bluestone from Wales to Stonehenge A six-month journey to discover how the builders of Stonehenge transported giant Welsh stones from the Welsh mountains is set to get under way. It remains a mystery how the huge blue stones from the Preseli mountains were dragged 200 miles to the ancient ceremonial site. But a group of volunteers from The National Trust and Pembrokeshire College are attempting to finally discover the methods used to move the stones using a rock called the Millennium Stone. They plan to re-enact a possible route of the Stone Age builders using methods they will first rehearse at Withybush Aerodrome, near Haverfordwest. International engineering company Whitby Bird and Partners and economic development body Menter Preseli will oversee the volunteers using 21st century knowledge. Inner circle The puzzle centres on how the builders of Stonehenge created the inner circle of bluestones which originate from north Pembrokeshire. From April the Millennium Stone will be moved over land and water using methods that would have been available in the Stone Age. The modern day volunteers will use ropes, sleds and runners, while the trip across water will be made using replica Stone Age boats that have already been built. The route the stone will take begins in the Preseli Mountains then down to the Cleddau Estuary to the Bristol Channel at Milford Haven. The sea journey will end at Bristol. Marathon trek From there, the stone will travel along the route of the River Avon to Dolemeads and then along the Kennet and Avon Canal before a final overland stage to Stonehenge. It is anticipated the stone will reach the ancient site by September. The \ufffd100,000 Millennium Stone project has been funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the Millennium Festival. Menter Preseli put the idea forward under the European Union Leader II programme and the scheme is linked in with the Celtic Voyage 2000, also taking place in Pembrokeshire."}, {"response": 390, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (19:50)", "body": "Millennium project to move bluestone from Wales to Stonehenge continued... The ambitious Millennium project to transport a Pembrokeshire bluestone from the Preseli Hills to Stonehenge has hit further problems. The three-tonne stone is now lying off the Pembrokeshire coast near Dale after sinking over the weekend. It has been abandoned by volunteer rowers because of strong winds. go to http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/wales/newsid%5F794000/794299.stm for story and pix"}, {"response": 391, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (00:54)", "body": "Marcia I am afraid I do not have any photographs but I am sure somewhere in Israel there are some."}, {"response": 392, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (01:34)", "body": "I will do a Google search for it. Thanks! I am instructing a new seismologist on logging in......Yay!!!"}, {"response": 393, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (06:23)", "body": "Of course, as explained in #384 above, the bluestone is now lost underwater after a fraught journey in which volunteers gave up on wearing \"authentic\" animal skins as it was too cold, insisted on wearing \"unauthentic\" protective gloves as the stone and rope surfaces were too rough, and then many pulled out through boredom. Meanwhile the real Stonehenge was at last re-opened to the public for the Solstice, and 6,000 turned up to see in the dawn. The Times carries a humorous report on the lunatic fringe."}, {"response": 394, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (13:52)", "body": "Thanks, Mark......have to hunt on The Times website to see if they have the article available. I shudder when I think of the trash heap of humanity which showed up the time we misguessed the solstice. Amazing how easy it is to pull out of a difficult project when the \"religious\" or whatever it was motivation is missing!"}, {"response": 395, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (14:30)", "body": "2000-06-22 EGYPT: TOMBS CAST FRESH LIGHT ON EGYPT PYRAMID BUILDERS By Reim Bashir GIZA, EGYPT, June 22 (Reuters) - Restoration of tombs at the pyramids of Giza is casting fresh light on the builders of the towering monuments, an Egyptian archaeologist said on Thursday. Zahi Hawass, director of the Giza plateau where the pyramids are located, told Reuters work on tombs of workers and their supervisors, found by Egyptian archaeologists 10 years ago, had revealed two cemeteries designed as mini-replicas of the complex around the pyramids. \"This discovery proves that the builders of the pyramids of Giza were Egyptians and that they were not slaves as some archaeologists have claimed,\" Hawass declared. \"They prepared the tombs just like they did for the pyramids complex, with the funerary temple to the east of the pyramids and a causeway leading from it to an offering basin at the foot of the causeway,\" he said. \"They prepared these tombs to last forever just like they would do for the queens and kings. Slaves would not do that.\" The tombs, located to the south of the Sphinx at the eastern foot of the three great pyramids, were built at the end of the 4th Dynasty in the reign of the pharaoh Khufu (Cheops). The upper-level tombs were built of solid limestone for technicians, craftsmen and artisans, along with their families. The lower-level tombs, made of less durable mudbrick and rock such as granite and basalt left over from pyramid construction, were built for the workmen who moved the huge stone blocks used for the great pyramids 4,600 years ago. Sometimes workers were buried with the supervisors in the upper-level tombs. Archaeologists have found curses inscribed in the tomb of a man named Pety and his wife, warning unwanted visitors that crocodiles would eat them if they entered the tomb. ANCIENT MEDICAL TREATMENT Hawass said that among the skeletons found at the site, 12 had broken arms, with wooden boards placed on them as splints. One was of a man with an amputated leg who lived for 14 years after completion of the pyramid. The skull of a man who survived for two years after that date showed signs of brain surgery. \"These discoveries prove to us that medical treatment took place at the time and workers received good care,\" Hawass said. Workers were five to six feet (1.53 to 1.83 metres) tall and did not live past 35 years of age. Bilharzia, a disease still prevalent in Egypt that is caused by parasitic worms and transmitted from water-snails, was the commonest cause of death. Archaeological evidence showed the workers wore clothes very similar to the traditional garb of Egyptian farm workers. \"Men used to dress in galabiyas, or flowing robes, tied around the waist and held sticks in their hands just as peasant workers dress today,\" Hawass said. He said the cemeteries and settlements indicated that the workforce that constructed the pyramids was smaller than the 100,000 workers estimated by some researchers. \"Around 20,000 workers helped build the Giza pyramids based on the size of the settlements we discovered,\" Hawass argued. Near one causeway, archaeologists found an unfinished double statue of a man and a woman with the man's right foot placed in front of the left, reversing the normal pattern. \"In ancient Egyptian times, statues were built with the man's left foot placed in front of the right symbolising him leaving home to go to work, while the woman's two feet were placed side by side symbolising her place in the home. \"This discovery shows that this statue was constructed by an unprofessional craftsman and had a flaw, which explains why it was placed in the workers' tombs,\" Hawass said."}, {"response": 396, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (20:00)", "body": "I'm not surprised that the current observation is that the Pyramids weren't consctructed by slaves. In one of my history classes I remember the teacher saying that Egypt was not a slave society, as the later classical cultures of the Greeks and the Romans would be."}, {"response": 397, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (20:30)", "body": "This is true. Motivation is important (so is staying alive)... Never did think that sort of construct could have been accomplished with slaves."}, {"response": 398, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (20:18)", "body": "Ancient gold treasure found By Ramdutt Tripathi in Lucknow Indian archaeologists say that gold treasure found early this month in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh could be highly significant. The treasure belongs to the Indus Valley civilisation and may be about 5,000 years old. A farmer in the village of Mandi in Muzaffarnagar district found the treasure while levelling his field. Archaeologists are now planning a proper excavation of the site, in the hope of finding more about the lost civilisation of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Accidental discovery The treasure was in some containers found buried in the field. It is believed that a part of the treasure was removed by the land owners and other villagers. Later, the authorities managed to recover about 10kg of the jewellery. A joint team of the state's Department of Archaeology (DoA) and the federal Archaeological Survey of India inspected the materials. Precious jewellery DoA Director Rakesh Tewari said the jewellery found from the site comprises mainly beads made of gold, banded agate, onyx and other semi-precious stones. Two copper containers, one circular in shape and the other rectangular, were also found. Mr Tewari says that this material is comparable to the jewellery found from the Harappan phase of Lothal and Mohenjo-daro. There are several sites related to the Indus Valley civilisation in Pakistan and India, but Mr Tewari says this is the first time that such a huge quantity of gold jewellery has been recovered . Archaeological significance This also means that the area of the Indus civilisation is much larger than previously presumed. In his report to the government, Mr Tewari has emphasised that the new site is of great archaeological significance. He has recommended further investigation of the Mandi village site. The report also says that the residents of Mandi village are curious about the gold and may try to dig the site up again. The district administration has deployed the police force to protect the site. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_797000/797151.stm"}, {"response": 399, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 26, 2000 (18:00)", "body": "In the Guatemalan jungle, a Brigham Young University professor has unearthed one of the most significant pieces of Mayan culture ever discovered -- a rock panel scrawled with hieroglyphics about a coldhearted warrior who ruled a city. \"It's easily one of the biggest panels ever found of this sort,\" said BYU anthropology professor Stephen Houston. \"It probably is the champion panel.\" The professor and other archaeologists discovered the slab April 15 while digging at a Mayan excavation site once called Piedras Negas in the northwest part of Guatemala. The limestone slate is believed to be more than 1,200 years old and was originally placed at the top of a pyramid that was the burial site of the city's ruler, King Itsam K'anahk, who reigned from 639 to 686, more than 800 years before Columbus sailed to America. The dig, which started in 1997, is run and funded in part by BYU, the Guatemalan university Universidad del Valle, and the National Geographic Society. The stone tablet is 7 feet by 5 feet, about a foot thick and weighs so much -- 3,500 pounds -- that it had to be airlifted out by helicopter. It is now on display at the national museum in Guatemala City. The panel was found at the base of one of two pyramids next to the acropolis, the city's palace, and has more than 100 hieroglyphics. The carved writings surround a scene in which horrified captives are brought before the king. \"You can see them moaning and screaming, and they're kind of clutching themselves in terror,\" said Houston, who helped decipher Mayan hieroglyphics at Yale University before moving to BYU in 1994. \"In contrast, the king and his two head warriors are shown with an utter lack of emotion.\" In other words, Houston said, don't mess with those three. Houston described the Mayans of that time as \"brutally warlike.\" After all, they would sacrifice humans by chucking them down the steep 100-foot pyramid stairs. But they were \"paradoxical,\" he said. \"You have this brutally warlike people, but you have this exquisite art style. They would be sniffing bouquets of flowers but think nothing of throwing captives down bloody pyramid steps. This is what makes them so alluring and strange.\" The panel, which most likely was commissioned by the king's son, was sculpted to be a central symbol for the city and the king's burial at the bottom of the pyramid, Houston explained. \"This tomb marked by this panel would have been the most striking feature in the royal palace,\" he said. \"It's encapsulating his life as a warrior. He seems to be very proud of the misery he is causing to his enemies.\" George Stuart, an expert in Mayan culture in North Carolina and former vice president of research and exploration for the National Geographic Society, agrees the find is important. \"It's really rare to find them in good shape, and they were lucky this time,\" he said. \"This seems to be one of the biggest ones and one of the more interesting because of the inscription on it. It's nice to find a record of someone's reign.\" The slab apparently toppled down the pyramid after a warring kingdom called Yaxchian invaded the city sometime in the year 800. While smashing the palace, the enemy must have struck the panel down. \"It slid down from the top of the pyramid on what must have been a wild toboggan run to the base,\" Houston said. \"We were fortunate because it had fallen face down. If it had fallen face up, all of the hieroglyphics would have eroded.\" Houston and staff archaeologist Ernesto Arrendondo discovered the slab buried only 10 to 15 inches below dirt and loose stone. \"I stuck my hand in to feel the hieroglyphics, and I knew we had something amazing,\" Houston said. In three years, Houston and Guatemalan archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of ceramics, jewelry, tools made of bone, and figurines from the site, which is surrounded by rain forest and is a four hour hike and mule ride to the nearest town. And because of the nearly constant rain the rest of the year, they can excavate only from March through May. \"Otherwise, it's like digging fudge,\" Houston said. Last season, there were 25 archaeologists and 85 workers at the site, but they might not have the funding to continue next year. \"This site has one of the richest and most beautiful collections of Mayan culture,\" Houston said. \"This panel is the cap of the dig. This is what we had hoped to find. This is why I do this. It's an experience not a lot of people have.\" http://www.sltrib.com/2000/Jun/06242000/utah/61570.htm"}, {"response": 400, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 28, 2000 (15:47)", "body": "Leonardo's second sitting for Last Supper FROM RICHARD OWEN IN ROME A HITHERTO unknown second version of The Last Supper which Italian art experts believe Leonardo da Vinci painted two years after his masterpiece has come to light in a parish church near Milan. The fresco, to be unveiled today so that international art experts may examine it, includes a self-portrait which suggests that the Renaissance master had a squint. After the fresco was painted in the 15th century in the apse of the Church of San Rocco at Inzago, a small town northeast of Milan, it was partly plastered over. Those sections of the painting which remained visible were later obscured by an \"undistinguished\" 18th century altarpiece. Father Davide Mazzucchelli, the parish priest, said that he had been struck by the \"sheer beauty\" of the head of Christ in the fresco after he took over the parish ten years ago. He called in Massimo Peron, a restorer from Varese, who in 1998 began cleaning and repairing the painting, which has been dated to 1499. Experts from the office of the Superintendent of Arts in Milan believe that it is by Leonardo's workshop, with \"key contributions\", including the heads of Christ and the apostles, by the master himself. Martin Kemp, Professor of the History of Art at Oxford University and a leading authority on Leonardo said that in 1499, the year Milan was invaded by the French, Leonardo was \"never in one place for long\", and had returned to Florence by the next year. Professor Kemp said he could not give an opinion without seeing the fresco, but it was \"plausible\" that Leonardo had allowed his workshop to complete the design. In a trick of perspective which suggests a painter of high calibre, the fresco, measuring about 19 square yards, is painted on a curved wall, although the table appears to be a perfect rectangle. The \"supper\" in the painting includes potatoes, confirming a date after 1493, when potatoes were introduced to Europe from newly discovered America. There are also two-pronged forks, a sophistication known to have been introduced by the court of Duke Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan. Some restorers are convinced an Apostle on the far left of the painting is a self-portrait of Leonardo with long, silver hair and a pronounced squint. \"The left eye is looking at Christ but the right one looks straight out at us\" Father Mazzucchelli said. \"This may finally explain why Leonardo painted the world the way he did\". Another clue is that none of the figures has a halo, one of Leonardo's \"signatures\". Leonardo (1452-1519), who began his career in Florence, entered the service of the Duke of Milan in 1482, deploying his genius not only as a painter and sculptor but also as architect, military and hydraulic engineer, town planner, and organiser of sumptuous court entertainments. In his 18 years in Milan he was thought to have produced only six paintings, including The Last Supper. Last year it was unveiled after a controversial 20-year restoration, with critics noting that restorers had \"filled in gaps\" and only 20 per cent of the work could be said to be \"original\". Father Mazzucchelli said experts had used computer imaging and infrared techniques to compare the heads in the Inzago fresco with those in Milan, and had concluded they were \"by the same hand\". more.... http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/06/24/timfnffnf01002.html"}, {"response": 401, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Jun 29, 2000 (20:36)", "body": "A little modern archeology pondering.... Today I wandered to one of the big buildings in downtown Chicago for lunch - was reading Ley Hunter and wondered if there were any sacred alignments in the big cities - stuff that was done on purpose that was subliminally integrated into the cityscape. If you look at the big city - you have plenty of modern 'ley' lines - the roads and other paths that lead in from the country. For those who are of the cult of the dollar, there are some temples were the shaman, dressed in ceremonial garb (the suit...), wave their arms, chant, and jump about with the hope that their divinations will turn a profit... But, I digress.... What I was looking for was the modern ley with links to a sacred path - very sublime but still focusing power or guiding to a sacred site. A point where during the Solstice or Equinox, the stars and planets would align and would transform the cold and impersonal concrete into something mysterious and part of the great Earth grid - even for a brief moment. Lunch was over and I wandered back through the crowded streets which lined up with more than just the normal.... de Mike"}, {"response": 402, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 29, 2000 (21:46)", "body": "The chase for the Almighty Dollar has replaced the hunt for the White Stag, Holy Grail, and the interface between this and the Otherworld. Any river is a sacred line of power. E lines radiate across the entire earth for those who believe and can sense them. In the beginning of this topic I placed maps you might wish to check, and if you are truly interested (Stephen has gone missing....) I will hunt more on this subject for you. There are fascinating first person accounts early in this topic, as well, by those who have lived near and trod the ley lines in Southern England. Check Geo 27 for discussions and maps"}, {"response": 403, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Fri, Jun 30, 2000 (03:34)", "body": ""}, {"response": 404, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Fri, Jun 30, 2000 (03:37)", "body": "I saw the restored Last Supper in Milan last year, and even if it isn't mostly original any more, it's still wonderful. Fascinating news about the \"workshop\""}, {"response": 405, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 30, 2000 (14:14)", "body": "There has been a lot of discussion about that restoration of Last Supper. I am delighted to hear you think it is still wonderful. Nothing like getting the grime off of the paintings we thought we knew..."}, {"response": 406, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2000 (02:01)", "body": "The Stonehenge Haul Saga continues..... Ancient stone's modern hitch BY SIMON DE BRUXELLES VOLUNTEERS using prehistoric techniques to take a three-tonne rock from west Wales to Stonehenge yesterday received a helping hand from a crane, a salvage tug and a team of divers from the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service. The stone from the Preseli mountains plunged into the sea two weeks ago while being carried on a platform between two leather-hulled Stone Age boats. However, yesterday divers from the RMAS's tug Moorfowl placed a harness around the stone 17 metres down on the seabed and a crane winched it to the surface. The tug then sailed to Gelliswick Bay where the stone was taken ashore. It will be hoisted back on to the original vessel and resume its 240-mile journey at the weekend. The volunteers involved in the project had been awarded \ufffd100,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund to follow in the footsteps of the prehistoric monument's builders. Phil Bowen, who helped to organise the operation, said: \"I am absolutely delighted. I was worried we would never see the stone again.\" The stone will be rowed along the coast towards Bristol and then transferred to a replica neolithic barge for a short journey up the River Avon to Bath. The barge will then drift along the Kennet and Avon Canal as far as Honey Street near Devizes. The final stage will see it dragged overland 26 miles to the Stonehenge site. The Millennium Stone project, organised by Menter Preseli, the rural development organisation, has been plagued with mishap and delay since it began in March. Dillwyn Miles, the Welsh historian, said: \"They have used modern methods to help the stone on its way and that totally invalidates what they claim to be doing.\""}, {"response": 407, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2000 (17:55)", "body": "The First Pen and Ink? Famed Lindisfarne Gospels Yield Hidden Sketches By Reagan Duplisea What may be the oldest metal-point sketches \ufffd drawings in an early version of pen and ink \ufffd have been discovered hidden under the texts and elaborate embellishments of the famous Lindisfarne Gospels manuscripts of Britain. Sixty previously undetected drawings were found under the Latin manuscript at the British Library by curator Michelle Brown. They were spotted through a microscope and appear to be made by a metal-tipped pen that left imprints on the calfskin pages. The ancient sketches appear to be practice drawings that were made on the back of each page. The manuscript was mostly written about A.D. 698 by the monk Eadfrith on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne off the coast of Northumberland. The gospels were then taken to Durham Cathedral for safekeeping from Viking raiders. They now make their home in the London museum. Before this discovery, the oldest metal-point drawings were from the twelfth century. The manuscript is one of Britain's greatest treasures."}, {"response": 408, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2000 (18:49)", "body": "Archaeologist uncovers 6th century crozier in Offaly Archaeologists working in a Co Offaly bog have discovered a wooden crozier which may be the earliest of its kind recovered in Ireland, dating from the 6th century AD. The find was made by Ms Ellen O' Carroll of Archaeological Development Services, working for Bord na M\ufffdna in advance of its peat harvesting programme at Leamanaghan. The crozier, which is being examined by experts in Dublin, has been preliminarily identified as cherrywood. It was found stuck vertically in the peat beside an ancient track through the bog. Ms O' Carroll said the crozier was carved longitudinally from a stem or branch and then polished. Although broken at several points along its length, it can be fitted together. \"When it is fitted it would appear to be 1.25 metres in length and 25 mm in diameter. It would probably have been held along the shaft as its height would inhibit holding it at the crook,\" she said. \"What is really interesting about the crozier is that the crook itself has a Greek cross located in a circle incised into the wood and the tip of the shaft is stepped and pointed. \"There may have been a metal point originally positioned on the end but we cannot be sure of that. But we do believe that this is probably the earliest dated in Ireland so far.\" She explained the crozier was unearthed beside a wooden togher, or pathway, which had been dated by dendrochronology to AD 596. More http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2000/0622/hom5.htm"}, {"response": 409, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  4, 2000 (17:47)", "body": "First tower of London built by the Romans EVIDENCE that a Roman \"tower block\" stood in the City of London 1,700 years ago has been unearthed by archaeologists. Excavations have revealed the remains of a massive high-status domestic building on a sprawling site near the present Leadenhall Market. The dimensions suggest that the house, up to 131ft wide, could have had four or five floors plus a tower reaching 82ft above the ground. At a time when Roman London was less than safe, a wealthy family could have found refuge there. The discovery has been linked to a 4th-century aristocratic woman whose elaborate sarcophagus was found a year ago in a nearby cemetery at Spitalfields. More... http://www.sunday-times.co.uk:80/news/pages/tim/2000/07/01/timnnfnnf01003.html"}, {"response": 410, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Wed, Jul  5, 2000 (04:00)", "body": "Hard to see how site dimensions found in a dig can suggest an 82ft tower. I hope the archaeologists aren't getting a little too speculative. I saw the above sarcophagus as my company for a while owned the site in Spitalfields. Also found in one of the cemeteries on the site (which had repeatedly been used as a cemetery age after age) was a 15th century syphilitic bone, refuting the accepted wisdom that syphilis was brought back to Europe from the Americas."}, {"response": 411, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  5, 2000 (12:29)", "body": "Thanks for your first hand report. How did they ever keep you out of the dig? One of the most poignant memories of London was a dig on the Bank of Westminster site which bore the sign \"volunteers wanted\". I had to be dragged away protesting before I plunged into the very deep hole they has excavated. It still haunts me. I always wondered how the syphilis got to the Americas before the Europeans. Thanks for that update, too. Between BJD lurking and digs outside your business, it must make for a busy day!!!"}, {"response": 412, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  6, 2000 (23:55)", "body": "DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for July 5, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - CANADA'S ICEMAN REVISITED Research Begins on Human Remains Found in a Glacier http://www.DISCOVERINGARCHAEOLOGY.COM/articles/070300-iceman.shtml - THE FIRST PEN AND INK? Famed Lindisfarne Gospels Yield Hidden Sketches http://www.DISCOVERINGARCHAEOLOGY.COM/articles/063000-pen.shtml - EGYPTIAN TREASURES IN EUROPE (CD-ROM) Reviewed by Bob Partridge http://www.egyptrevealed.com/062800-statues.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - The Titanic...Finders Keepers? http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47686-2000Jul4.html - American Archaeology Professor Detained in Greece http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-eur/2000/jul/02/070200981.html - Rising Water and Turkish Treasures http://www.msnbc.com/news/427265.asp - They Got the Wrong Jesse James http://www.foxnews.com/science/063000/jessejames.sml - Desert Cave Pictographs May Not Be Real http://www.foxnews.com/science/063000/egypt_drawings.sml - Season of Discovery http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/000710/lost.htm ----- The Discovering Archaeology Newsletter finds the week's most interesting archaeological stories and presents them to you in a simple, easy to read format on the web. Read these and other interesting features, including Readers Polls, Book Reviews, Archaeological Event Calendars and much more at: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 413, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (20:38)", "body": "On the subject of the Biblical Flood. There is a new theory concerning it. The authors of this theory are William B.F. Ryan and Walter C. Pitman, two senior geophysicists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. They hypothosize that the deluge might have occurred in the area of the Black Sea. Using sound waves and coring devices to probe the sea floor, they found that 7600 years ago, the Black Sea was a freshwater lake lying hundreds of feet below the level of the world's rising oceans. When the Mediterranean spilled into the Sea of Marmara causing it to finally burst through the narrow Bosphorus, causing 10 cubic miles of seawater a day to pour into the Black Sea, which was then 500 feet lower. The farms and villages around the shore of the Black Sea were swept away. The sea would have pushed inland for up to a mile each day, causing the inhabitants to flee. Perhaps survivors dispersed across Europe and Asia Minor, carrying their languages, their genes, and their memory of the catastrop e with them? Last summer Robert Ballard found the remnants of a beach near the sea's south shore under 500 feet of water. In the sediments were lakeshore rocks and shells; there were freshwater shells of an age of 7,800 years and saltwater shells of 7,300 years old. Indicating freshwater being inundated by saltwater. Ballard is planning to search for evidence of human settlements along the drown shore. Here is a link to read more about Robert Ballard's expedition: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/events/releases/pr991117.html"}, {"response": 414, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (21:52)", "body": "Thanks for that, Cheryl. I had heard he was planning this expedition but did not know when or for whom. I am delighted that National Geographic is his sponsor."}, {"response": 415, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 12, 2000 (22:49)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for July 12, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - INTRODUCING KIDS TO THE PAST A Project Takes Archaeology to School and Puts Youngsters in the Field http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/0900toc/9randn11-past.shtml - Pinning the Worth of an Ancient Theft About 3200 years ago, give or take a few hundred years, the merchant Wenamun had a pretty bad trip to Phoenicia. http://www.egyptrevealed.com/051200-wenamun.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - The Hunt for Ghengis Khan's Tomb http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20000706/hi_genghis.html - Chefren's Pyramid Reopens http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000706/sc/egypt_pyramid_dc_3.html - Restoring Archimedes' Manuscript http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/07/11/archimedes000711 - Pacific Island Colonists Via Taiwan http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20000630/aw_pacific.html - Glyphs Tell of Mayan Horror http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20000630/aw_maya.html - Pack Rats as Preservers http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/108650_packrats_09tex.html - The Search for Sunken Lands, Gods, and Civilizations http://www.franckgoddio.org/english/projects/backtolight/default.asp"}, {"response": 416, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 13, 2000 (01:24)", "body": "Tuesday July 11 10:00 AM ET Scientists Find Archimedes' Words ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - Scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology are restoring a 10th century manuscript - the only known copy in the original Greek of some of the writings of mathematician Archimedes. The text, which scholars believe was copied in the 10th century by a scribe from Archimedes' original scrolls, was erased 200 years later by a monk who reused the parchment for a prayer book. It was purchased anonymously at a 1998 auction for $2 million. Using digital cameras and processing techniques as well as ultraviolet and infrared filters, the scientists captured images of the original words and drawings that were washed away and then covered with a new text. ``There is always a residual, traces of what was there,'' said Robert Johnston, an archaeologist and RIT professor emeritus. ``It's amazing what can come out. Soon, nothing will be secret or hidden.'' Archimedes lived from about 287-212 B.C. The manuscript is the only copy in the original Greek of Archimedes' theory of flotation of bodies, which holds that the buoyant force on an object immersed in a fluid is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced. The text and diagrams also detail his mathematical treatises and mechanical theorems and contain the roots of modern calculus and gravitational theory. The team is working on five pages from the text as part of a competition that will determine who will analyze the entire manuscript, which contains more than 170 pages. ``This book is Archimedes' brain in a book,'' said William Noel, curator of the Walters Arts Gallery in Baltimore, where the manuscript is kept. ``What we need to do is X-ray that brain.'' RIT's scientists plan to finish their work by September. The gallery expects to make a selection by the end of the year. The text is on vellum, a writing surface made from animal skin. It was cleaned off in the 12th century and the valuable parchment was reused in a Greek prayer book. The book disappeared from the Convent of the Holy Sepulchre in Constantinople in the 1920s. It resurfaced in the possession of a French family in the 1930s and was sold by the family in 1998."}, {"response": 417, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (21:29)", "body": "The latest assault on Stonehenge's environment: http://www.britarch.ac.uk/cba/stone1.html"}, {"response": 418, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Jul 17, 2000 (14:48)", "body": "There's a forensic archeo programme on TV soon this evening looking at a possible ancient murder at Stonehenge. I'll see if I can find anything on it on the net later."}, {"response": 419, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 17, 2000 (15:08)", "body": "Have read about it on the net and posted about it above - a sacrifice as they all were back then..."}, {"response": 420, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 27, 2000 (18:30)", "body": "DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for July 26, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - RESTORING THE MAP OF ANCIENT ROME Scientists and Computers are Reassembling a Huge Depiction of the Old City http://www.DISCOVERINGARCHAEOLOGY.COM/articles/072600-rome.shtml - Face to Face with Pharaoh Ever since the first tourists and travelers visited Egypt, one aspect of the ancient culture has been of particular fascination - the preserved bodies of the ancient dead. http://www.egyptrevealed.com/071500-mightypharaoh.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Dateline... Mesa Verde http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/mesaverdefire000722.html - The Monkey Lives http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/scopestrial000723.html - Holy Land Rest Stop http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/cu-amp072400.html - An African-American Business in the Old West http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2000/jul/23/510540502.html - Titanic Salvagers Race against Time http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20000724/hi_titanic.html - Let the Games Begin http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/07/07212000/firstfans_2862.asp - Studying Things Passed http://www.academicpress.com/inscight/07212000/graphb.htm - The Emperor's Private Battleground http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20000725/aw_hi_colosseum.html - The Monk's Remains and Syphilis http://www.ananova.com/news/story/heritage_health-diseases-syphilis-uk_916540.html ----- The Discovering Archaeology Newsletter finds the week's most interesting archaeological stories and presents them to you in a simple, easy to read format on the web. Read these and other interesting features, including Readers Polls, Book Reviews, Archaeological Event Calendars and much more at: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 421, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  3, 2000 (01:54)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for August 02, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - WHEN THE RAINS STOPPED Constant Shifts in Climate Molded Much of Human History http://discoveringarchaeology.com/0900toc/9focus1-rains.shtml - Archaeology Live! It's midnight in the middle of the eastern Sahara Desert. Cairo lies some 230 miles to the northeast \ufffd and in-between is nothing but four hours of sand. http://www.egyptrevealed.com/073100-archlive.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Chinese Toilet http://www.foxnews.com/science/072600/sky_toilet.sml - Another Civilization's Remains Discovered in Iran http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/entertainment/afp/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/000801/entertainment/afp/3_000-year-old_remains_discovered_near_Tehran.html - Finland's Undersea Museum http://www.latimes.com/news/asection/20000728/t000070685.html - Raising the Hunley http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/07/07262000/hunley_2869.asp - Civil War Blockade Runner Excavated http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000729/us/civil_war_ship_1.html - The Roman Open Aire Museum http://www.villa-rustica.de/indexe.html - Calculate like an Egyptian http://www.bigchalk.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/WOPortal.woa/wa/HWCDA/file?fileid=161183&flt=CAB -----"}, {"response": 422, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (01:45)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for August 09, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - THE EARLIEST MUMMIES Were Mothers in the Andes Trying to Preserve Lost Children? http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/080400-mummies.shtml - STONE FOR THE EMPERORS Purple Porphyry Carved from Egypt Surrounded Roman Royalty http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/0900toc/9feature1-emperors.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - The National Underwater and Marine Agency http://www.numa.net/ - The Remains of the Titanic http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000807/2525421s.htm - The First Americans http://www.sciam.com/2000/0900issue/0900nemecek.html#further - China's Other Great Wall http://www.latimes.com/news/asection/20000804/t000073045.html - Tut's Butt http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/08/08032000/0175-0564-britain-tutankhamen.asp - Creationists Lose in Kansas http://www.academicpress.com/inscight/08022000/grapha.htm - The Oracle at Delphi http://www.sltrib.com/08032000/thursday/8890.htm - Ishi Goes Home http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/ishi06.htm"}, {"response": 423, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 11, 2000 (20:41)", "body": "Shall we speak of the glamour of Archaology? Stephen has spent his summer working on this project. Nothing like excavating Thames muck. It is hard labour as well. The Archaeology of the Eton Rowing Lake SUMMER EXCAVATION 26th June to 18th August 2000 A large area on the north bank of the river Thames is being excavated in a series of summer seasons in advance of the construction of the Rowing Lake. The site, which is situated in open countryside next to the village of Dorney in South Buckinghamshire, is unique because of the preservation of a substantial channel of the prehistoric river Thames, within which waterlogged wooden structures have been located. The floodplain alongside contains a sequence of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age in situ occupation horizons with flint knapping scatters, hearths and other artefact spreads sealed within the alluvium. On the gravel terraces the cropmarks indicate probably the best surviving Bronze Age landscape in the Middle Thames valley, with settlement, field systems and burials in barrows, flat graves and cremation urns. An enclosed Roman farmstead overlies Bronze Age settlement alongside the former course of the Thames. Results from the work in 1995, 1996 and 1997 exceeded expectations. Six Bronze Age and Iron Age waterlogged timber bridges were found, while a pair of Neolithic middens came to light in a channel. On the floodplain Neolithic knapping areas have been revealed, while on dry ground Bronze Age barrows and waterholes and an Iron Age and Roman farmstead have been excavated. The project is headed by Tim Allen from the Oxford Archaeological Unit. The professional team invites assistance from students from British universities, local archaeological societies, and other interested groups and individuals. A wide variety of experience of archaeological fieldwork and finds is available working with one of the foremost professional Units in the country. The 2000 season will examine the extensive Bronze Age enclosure system and settlement. The site lies west of London close to Windsor Castle, and is easily accessible by rail from London Paddington and by road from the M4, A4 or M40, while Heathrow Airport is also nearby. There are no on-site facilities, but details of local campsites are available. Work will be Monday to Friday, with the weekends off; the standard working day will be from 8 am to 4.30 p.m. http://www.oau-oxford.com/eton.htm"}, {"response": 424, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 11, 2000 (20:43)", "body": "The Eton Rowing Lake The Oldest Bridge across the River Thames The oldest bridge on the River Thames was discovered last summer in excavations at the Eton rowing lake at Dorney in south Buckinghamshire. In fact, the possible remains of two bridges were discovered, one Bronze Age, one Iron Age. The earlier consisted of two lines of timbers on opposing banks of the channel - the surviving timbers did not go right way across. There were unfortunately too few rings for tree-ring dating, but two timbers have been radiocarbon dated by the British Museum, one to 1100 \ufffd 50 bc, the other to 1200 \ufffd 40 bc which between them calibrate to between 1300 and 1400 BC. Alongside were two parallel lines of timbers forming the later structure, this time running right across the channel, a distance of approximately 35 metres. Again, samples from two of the timbers were sent to the British Museum and radiocarbon dated at respectively 500 \ufffd50 bc and 470 \ufffd 50 bc. However, as these dates fall into the notorious radiocarbon \ufffdwiggle\ufffd in the Iron Age, they can only be calibrated loosely to between 800 and 400 BC. http://www.archaeology.co.uk/hilites/eton.htm"}, {"response": 425, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 11, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "Photos and interesting commentary by the head of the dig: http://wtin.simplenet.com/lake.html Best writeup of the history and findings so far (1998) http://www.wargrave.net/history/jun98.html (Would love to see a picture of the guy digging the huge holes and excavating all those \"very old snail shells\"...)"}, {"response": 426, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 16, 2000 (23:57)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for August 16, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - THE EARLIEST MUMMIES HIDDEN HISTORY OF CENTRAL PARK http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/081500-central.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Ice age planetarium http://www.numa.net/ - Dateline... Israel http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/hominid_000811.html - Ancient Sarcophagus Discovered in Iran http://www.sciam.com/2000/0900issue/0900nemecek.html#further - Minoan Tupperware http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/minoanpots000809.html - Archaeologist Buries Findings: http://detnews.com/2000/metro/0008/10/d09-103210.htm - China to Spend $12 million to Save Relics http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000812/wl/china_three_gorges_1.html"}, {"response": 427, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Aug 20, 2000 (04:29)", "body": "A medieval wall painting that was unknown has been discovered in a church near me - at Checkendon near Henley, Oxfordshire. It was found when they removed the old organ. Apparently the victorians stripped a lot of plaster off to get to the brickwork in the rest of the church, stripping the wall paintings at the same time (BTW they did more 'vandalism' then Henry VIII and reformation!). This fragment escaped ob,iteration because they didn't bother to strip behind where the new organ was to go. Part of the painting depicts a man on horseback outlined in red. It's being restored by English Heritage and the Churches Trust. It's supposed to be one of the most important finds of this kind for a lONG while. I haven't been able to get to see it yet as it's not on public display while the restoration takes place."}, {"response": 428, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Aug 20, 2000 (04:45)", "body": "Took a trip down the length of Hadrian's Wall from Carlisle to Newcastle. Visited a couple of sites. Go visit http://www.vindolanda.com This is the current area of archeological excavation. Vindolanda is one of the forts along the wall. We were surprised to find how much excavation still needs to be done. If you visit the site click on visitor information and then find 'Archaeology and Excavation News' - that will take you to the digs. Look at 'earlier 2000' and you will see the early british huts that have been discovered. The excavation of these is continuing as they find more of them. I saw one entire one which had just been unearthed and two guys were still working on on a further one. The bath house which is the current dig is not open to the public yet, but we could see it clearly. On our trip up to Scotland we visited the Temple of Mithras along the wall. It was amazingly preserved and surprisingly small. The fort by which it stood is no more than a big grass mound now and has not been excavated. However, the temple has the three altar pillars intact. One of these has carving which goes right through the stone and is amazingly fine."}, {"response": 429, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 20, 2000 (14:15)", "body": "Maggie, thanks for theses goodies. I have a HUGE problem with the Victorian treatment of antiquities. One of the biggest abuses was their fondness for planting copses of trees atop long barrows for \"aesthetics\". It has made a mess of the interiors with the roots rearranging the structures therein. If they had only stuck to constructing \"Follies\""}, {"response": 430, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 23, 2000 (22:56)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Newsletter for August 23, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - PRESERVING POTS Huge Collection of Southwest Pottery Wins Grant for Conservation http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/082200-pots.shtml - ONLINE CONTEST! Answer the question correctly and win great prizes from Egypt Revealed! Just for kids! https://orion.he.net/%7Esaa49000/onlinecontest.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - A Cable Car At Machu Picchu http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000818/2563775s.htm - Research Supports Anasazi Cannibalism Theory http://www.cortezjournal.com/1news699.htm - Dateline... Bulgaria http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000822/wl/bulgaria_archaeology_1.html - The Modern Saga of Spirit Cave Man http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/html98/cave17m_20000817.html - Dateline... South America http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_842000/842442.stm - Sweden's Ancient Crematorium/Temple http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000820/wl/sweden_temple_dc_1.html - Searching for Buried Secrets http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_890000/890163.stm - Drought And The Americas http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/08/08212000/climatetrip_2954.asp - Archaeology on Antelope Island http://www.sltrib.com/08202000/utah/14100.htm ----- The Discovering Archaeology Newsletter finds the week's most interesting archaeological stories and presents them to you in a simple, easy to read format on the web. Read these and other interesting features, including Readers Polls, Book Reviews, Archaeological Event Calendars and much more at: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 431, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (13:16)", "body": "This article will probably offend someone I used to know and love, but it is from The Times, So hang the cost! RETURN OF THE NATIVE An open stones policy at Stonehenge Yesterday came the summer solstice and with it the return of a time-honoured tradition to Stonehenge: it rained. Who knows? - perhaps the sun had spotted all those would-be druids ironing their bedsheets the day before and so decided to join in the general festivities and get out some linen fancy dress of its own. It made its 4.43am entrance swathed in damp sheets of stratus which, judging from the drizzle of accompanying rain, must have been pulled still wet from some celestial washing machine. Not that that mattered to the covens of witches and warlocks, wizards and weirdos who had gathered to welcome it under Stonehenge's triluthon lintels. They tootled their greetings on seaweed-stem horns. Worshippers were grateful, quite simply, to have been permitted entrance, for yesterday was the first time in 16 years that Stonehenge has been admissible to anyone but the man with the mower. Seven thousand or more gathered to give gratitude to the great gods of English Heritage: hordes of hippies and tribes of transcendentalists, scrums of spiritualists, armies of new agers. Some were pagan, others were simply practical: some came with their oak leaves, others with picnic hampers; some with bongo drums, others with umbrellas. But then the only truly traditional thing about the entire event was the rain - which was just as well for, in probably the only first hand account that exists of druidical ceremonies, Pliny describes a ritual slaughter of two white bulls which, in this day and age, would have gone down as badly with the EU abattoir regulators as it would with the animal rights protesters who were very probably among the festive groups. Certainly the only human sacrifice that appears to have been performed, was that made by one, Bob, who disapparelling himself of all but his bobble hat poured out libations of Ice Dragon Cider on the grass. Bogus it certainly is. Today's ancient orders of the druids date back about as far as the Celtic revival of the 1970s which - though that might seem to some readers like remote history - is but the whisk of a dreadlock on Stonehenge's 4,000 year timescale. But still the fact that a horde of would-be barbarians managed to mark the solstice so jubilantly without a single arrest being made, or any damage being done to the site, vindicates the open stones policy of English Heritage. And although cacophonies roused by warring styles of celebration may have broken in on the peace preferred by some druids, at least it would have drowned out the modern rumble of early morning traffic on the A303."}, {"response": 432, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (19:55)", "body": "Witches, warlocks, wizards, and wierdos -- that sounds like a show on the Discovery Channel or maybe the History Channel. Did the man with the lawnmower show up eventually?"}, {"response": 433, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "Wondering that myself. What a job! Been there and I would volunteer to mow the place just to absrob the atmosphere!"}, {"response": 434, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "I can imagine you with putting the finishing touches on the job by neatly trimming around the stones with garden shears."}, {"response": 435, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (21:45)", "body": "There you go! All neat and tidy. You do not think I would pollute such sacred space with a weed whacker...*gasp* Then maybe they would let me play with the archaeologists who arrive from time to time..."}, {"response": 436, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (22:02)", "body": "(I can't believe I actually posted that. It is one thing to think things. Quite another to post it...)"}, {"response": 437, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (06:25)", "body": "(yeah, well I didn't get to play with the archeologists working at Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall - they were too busy for the likes of me.... *sigh*)"}, {"response": 438, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (12:45)", "body": "Understood... and I understand the *sigh* too. *HUGS* Maggie"}, {"response": 439, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (16:28)", "body": "There are very few hands-on 'public' digs where a visitr can join in. At Vindolanda one can become a friend of the Vindolanda Trust and apply for a place on one of the digs. Both the guys working there when I visited were local - from their Geordie accents. Talking of digs: here's a site to go and look at. This is an ongoing archeological project in Mali. I think the team go back each year. http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~anth/arch/mali-interactive/index.html"}, {"response": 440, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "Each spring, Archaeology Magazine and Biblical Archaeology Review pubish digs which take volunteers, inluding contact people and what it will cost you. I was jesting in my comment on Stonehenge. Somewhat poignantly, however..."}, {"response": 441, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Aug 26, 2000 (15:25)", "body": "Maggie, I'm sorry you didn't get to work with the archaeologists at Hadrian's Wall."}, {"response": 442, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 26, 2000 (20:08)", "body": "...me, too! Then I could have visited her...and...and...! *sigh*"}, {"response": 443, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Aug 27, 2000 (05:00)", "body": "Well, it nearly happened this trip - maybe we'll get it (and the money) together one year!!! I did get to stand and watch the hunky males though. First time IRL, only ever seen active digs on TV. Time Team Live are on TV this weekend. They are working in Canterbury. I'll try and find the URL and post it (lost my links on this machine so have to start over...)"}, {"response": 444, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 27, 2000 (15:21)", "body": ""}, {"response": 445, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 27, 2000 (15:22)", "body": "Oh *sigh* Now you are telling me that archaeologists are hunks, too?! I think neither of us would be safe if I were there. Perhaps digging a hole in a drained rowing lake? Screening the diggings for artifacts...or very old land snails...I hear there are hunks there, too."}, {"response": 446, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (04:51)", "body": "Well, you'd have liked the two guys working at Vindolanda .....Anyway, I had a chaparone .... Haven't heard any more about the Eton rowing lake. Did drive past a while back though."}, {"response": 447, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (05:09)", "body": "Was really fed up yesterday afternoon. The Time Team live main 1 1/2 hour broadcast was cancelled because the Benson and Hedges cricket cup final was being played - postponed because of rain from Saturday. Even my husband was annoyed (and he loves cricket...). The excitement of TT live is just that that it is live and you see things as they happen. He's just told me that for some reason the video recorder did not even record the later short Time Team report. Oh well, back to the website for info."}, {"response": 448, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (05:42)", "body": "Check out http://www.channel4.com/ and click on the time team picture to get to the current reports site. Just found out from there that there is an extended programme at lunchtime today, so we'll watch that and I'll report on that later ... Here are the reports so far from Canterbury...Chronology of the digs at the three sites opened up: Greyfriars, Blue Boy Yard, Tyler Hill Greyfriars - Saturday 26 August, Sunday 27 August Saturday 26 August Trench One Trench One is situated over the cloisters of the church. 10am Opened up. 11am Top of wall uncovered, possible first sighting of the Friary. 12.20 Sheets of polythene are unearthed, coverings from the 1970s Louise Millard excavations. When Millard finished her dig, she covered the walls with polythene before filling the earth back in. Trench Two Trench Two is situated over the chancel of the Friar\ufffds church. The trench is divided by a wall and split into two parts: Trench 2a - south of the wall, Trench 2b - north of the wall. 10.30 Opened up. 11.30 A bone handle to a knife is found in Trench 2b, probably dated around the 15th/16th century. 12.30 A coin is found in Trench 2b, given a provisional date of the 15th century. 14.00 Two structural supports made of brick from a late 19th century, early 20th century forcing house (greenhouse) are uncovered. Trench Three 1pm The archaeologists begin debating where to start a third trench. Sunday 27 August Trench One 9.15 Extended trench by one metre so that the wall on the other side of the cloister can be uncovered. 10.15 Carved stone window mullion found Trench Two 9.30 In Trench 2b, two pits are uncovered containing tiles, Mark Horton, the tile specialist from Tyler Hill, suggested that the tiles have been produced locally, possibly Tyler Hill and are dated circa 15th century. 10.00 Uncovered possible chancel wall. 10.15 Trench 2a, the diggers have removed, photographed and recorded the greenhouse so that they can continue digging down to medieval layer. Trench Three 10.30 Tiles unearthed last night are identified as being identical to those from Tyler Hill and dated circa 13th century. Blue Boy Yard - Friday 25 August,Saturday 26 August,Sunday 27 August Friday 25 August 18.25 The mechanical digger makes its first inroads into the concrete-covered site at Blue Boy Yard. A 5 metre-square trench is to be dug on the site. Saturday 26 August 12.00 Mechanical digger halted as first finds \ufffd of early 16th-century blue and white glazed pottery \ufffd are uncovered. 13.00 The first Roman find at Blue Boy Yard \ufffd a pottery shard. 14.30 A piece of 12th-century Tyler Hill pottery is uncovered. It is followed by possibly fifth-century Anglo-Saxon pottery shards. 16.00 A coin from the reign of King Cunoblinus (Cymbeline), who died in 42 AD, is found in the spoil heap by a metal detectorist. Sunday 27 August 15.30 The results of soil sample tests by soil scientist Dr Richard MacPhail confirm that the Roman temple precinct area was probably used as a cattle corral after the Romans left. A bone lice comb find, together with large quantities of human hair, sets off the team on a search for lice in the cess pit refuse. The cess pits in general are yielding a wide variety of finds. 16.20 As the finds dry up, the mechanical digger is brought in to clear the final debris from the trench. The non-Roman material is now cleared to prepare for the investigation of the Roman layers tomorrow. 18.00 The team finds its first lice -- in human hair from the cess pits. Tyler Hill Saturday 26 August 8.30 am The security guards open the site for the production crew. Everybody prepares equipment before the archaeologists and cameo specialists arrive. 9.00am The Time Team diggers arrive, led by Mick-the-dig Worthington. Regular Time Team digger Ian Powesland also appears, ready to co-ordinate work with some local Canterbury archaeologists. 9.30am Deturfing (removing the top layer of grass) commences on the first trench. It\ufffds at this stage that features could appear so the diggers follow up deturfing with cleaning back the underlying soil. 9.32am Everyone discovers that the soil here is like concrete! 11.15am Things are a bit stalled on site as the archaeologists and even the mechanical digger are struggling with the soil conditions. More later\ufffd"}, {"response": 449, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (19:38)", "body": "Ah, neither Marcia nor Maggie would be safe with those hunky archaeologist milling about. Would it rather be that said archaeologists wouldn't be safe? Just being silly. Thanks for the detailed posting, Maggie."}, {"response": 450, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Aug 29, 2000 (04:26)", "body": "They did a special 1 hour Time Team programme lunch time yesterday and a later report back. The finds at Canterbury have been spectacular. They have uncovered an intact medieval tile factory, and excavation will continue to uncover this unique factory site. It is truly immense! Last night was 'Roman' night again on the TV and there was a really good programme about Nero. Then there was another programme about Gladiators which was fascinating, and a further one on Trajan's column which depicts the Dacian wars and is a history of Roman warfare. By 10.30 pm I was completely Roman'd out *grin*"}, {"response": 451, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 29, 2000 (13:31)", "body": "I am so jealous!!! All I have of Canterbury is a small chunk of the original Caen Limestone exterior which they were replacing."}, {"response": 452, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 29, 2000 (13:36)", "body": "I understand from someone who is on a dig, that it gets to be an old thing. Scholarship calls when your supervisors will only let you dig. I guess that is part of the apprenticeship process (or grad student.) Makes for fantastic physiques, however!"}, {"response": 453, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Aug 29, 2000 (14:33)", "body": "Hmm, physique is a male thing I think!!! Ah, so that's why there are so many hunks on digs....To be truthful I don't think I have the energy to dig really .....Just like the thought of it."}, {"response": 454, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 29, 2000 (14:39)", "body": "Nit picking in my thing. I'll wash and screen the diggings but I'd really rather pick over the screenings. Digging is not for me. I am far too slender to do heavy digging!"}, {"response": 455, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 31, 2000 (23:15)", "body": "SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN - DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for August 31, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - SWALLOWED BY THE SANDS Archaeologists Hope to Solve the Mystery of Persia's Lost Army of Egypt http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/082800-sands.shtml - ONLINE CONTEST! Answer the question correctly and win great prizes from Egypt Revealed! Just for kids! This week's prize is the Pharoah game CD-Rom by Sierra. https://orion.he.net/%7Esaa49000/onlinecontest.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Discovery at Lake Titicaca Questioned http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000823/wl/bolivia_titicaca_ruins_1.html - Cambodia's Army Profits From Archaeo-Tourism http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/08/08292000/cambodia_2982.asp - Titanic Salvager's Erie Haul http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/read/titanic0816.html - Ming Dynasty Bowl Recovered From Spanish Shipwreck http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/000830/world/afp/Ming_dynasty_bowl_found_in_wreck_of_Manila_galleon.html - Excavating in Aphrodisias, Turkey http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/082900sci-archaeo-turkey.html - This Old House http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0828c.htm - Venice is Sinking http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/082900sci-venice-flooding.html - Do Graffiti, Go to Jail http://www.vernal.com/aug16/fr.defacing.p1.html ----- The Discovering Archaeology Newsletter finds the week's most interesting archaeological stories and presents them to you in a simple, easy to read format on the web. Read these and other interesting features, including Readers Polls, Book Reviews, Archaeological Event Calendars and much more at: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 456, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Sep  6, 2000 (03:19)", "body": "( http://www.volcano-hawaii.com/petroglyphs.htm ) Petroglyphs Ancient Hawaiian Rock Art Want to get a true picture of the history of Hawai'i? You can learn a lot from Hawaiian petroglyphs - ancient rock carvings that tell stories about early life on the islands. The Hawaiian petroglyphs is a great mystery of the Pacific. No one knows who made them or why, but it seems that perhaps ordinary people, not artists, etched the linear and triangular figures into the pahoehoe lava. These graphic carvings, more than 3,000 of them, were probably made as part of ritual or prayer and speak of spiritual phenomena - mana. Upon approaching a petroglyphs field, a wonderful cast of characters leap to life. There are dancers, paddlers, fishermen, and family groups. Turtle, dog, ship and horse symbols are also depicted, as well as fish hooks, spears, poi pounders and canoes. There are 135 different petroglyphs sites on six inhabited islands, but most of them are found on the Big Island of Hawai'i."}, {"response": 457, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (13:58)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly Newsletter for September 06, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - THE REAL VIKING LEGACY Trade, not Terror, was the Hallmark of the Norse http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/090100-vikings.shtml - ONLINE CONTEST! A Contest for kids! Answer the question correctly and win great prizes from Egypt Revealed. This week's prize is the Pharoah game CD-Rom by Sierra. https://orion.he.net/%7Esaa49000/onlinecontest.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Thawing Out Mr. Cool http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000405944438668&rtmo=r2QbXF3X&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/9/3/wmum03.html - Russia's Oldest Book http://www.sptimes.ru/current/news/n_dig.htm - Archaeologists Find Bronze Age City http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000831/sc/bulgaria_bronze_age_1.html - Dateline: Siberia http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-3sep2000-31.htm - Excavations at Olonski, Poland http://www.princeton.edu/~bogucki/oslonki.html"}, {"response": 458, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Sep 10, 2000 (14:38)", "body": "Marcia aren't you glad to know that some of your Danish ancestors had real business acumen and weren't blood-thirsty thugs. Well, some of them might have been that too, as Europe was rapant with blood-thirsty thugs at that time. It was called the Dark Ages. I think the Vikings got really bad press because their favored targets were monasteries. The monasteries were rich, but monks were just about the only people who could write then in Europe. Hence, the Vikings were attacking the very people who wrote the history."}, {"response": 459, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 10, 2000 (21:30)", "body": "Believe it or not...(funny you should mention it)...in the 1910 Encyclopaedia Britannica there is an article on King Hemming (spelt precisely that way) who managed amongst other things to limit Charlemagne's nothern conquests and King Hemming's southern conquests by treaty. According to them (I Xeroxed it for posterity), he was the only one who was strong enough to limit Charlemagne by treaty. Thanks for noting that some had more than muscles between their ears. Like the Irish slave raiders who took Partick to Ireland, there were bullies in every crowd - even nowadays..."}, {"response": 460, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (04:54)", "body": "Friday September 8 2:02 AM ET Scientists Uncover Mayan Marketplace http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20000908/sc/guatemala_lost_city_1.html By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - Scientists and looters ignored the ruin for nearly a century because it appeared devoid of temples and burial sites that might yield valuable treasures and artifacts. They had no idea what they were missing. Underneath the jungle curtain of mud and dense foliage was a sprawling lost city called ``Cancuen,'' (can-ku-win), one of the most important commercial centers of the Mayan world for more than 1,200 years. Cancuen has been rediscovered by Guatemalan and American scientists working deep in the country's northern jungles. They believe it will take 10 years to fully unearth the city, which dates to 400 B.C. It is buttressed by a 270,000-square-foot Mayan palace. With three floors - each 66 feet high - and 170 rooms, it is among the most grandiose Mayan structures ever discovered, the National Geographic Society announced Friday. The society is a chief sponsor of the Cancuen excavation project. ``We started off working with what we thought was a small palace, part of a small Mayan settlement,'' said Arthur Demerest, a Vanderbilt University archaeologist and head of the Cancuen project. ``What we found was a palace 20 times as large as we were expecting and an important Mayan marketplace that had been forgotten for almost 100 years.'' Built in the shadow of the hulking palace, the 5-square-mile city featured a crowded rectangular layout of heavy stone walls, 11 spacious stone-tiled patios and buildings with cubbyhole-like rooms and thick, multileveled roofs. While Demerest said scientists aren't sure how many Mayan merchants traded in Cancuen, the city is thought to have attracted thousands from nearby highland settlements, including the sprawling, majestic city of Tikal, 85 miles to the northeast. Cancuen, an ancient Maya word meaning ``Place of the Serpent,'' became a key trading post because of the sprawling River Passion in what is known today as southern Peten, Guatemala's northernmost province, Demerest said. First discovered in 1905 by Austrian explorer Tobert Maler, scientists and looters ignored the site for years. ``A city that was built only for commercial purposes and not for religious ones seemed uninteresting to a lot of academics and worthless to a lot of looters,'' Demerest said, adding that the city is now overrun with such jungle-dwelling animals as howler monkeys. Cancuen lacked the breathtaking temples that dominate Tikal and other Mayan sites because its inhabitants worshipped and buried their dead in surrounding highland areas. ``All of the fantastic temples you see at other sites are an effort to copy the altitude of the highlands that surrounded Cancuen,'' said Demerest, who said that being close to the heavens was the cornerstone of Mayan religious practices. ``In Cancuen they had the real thing.'' Though work at the site has been suspended until next spring because of the rainy season, scientists have already recovered dozens of artifacts in nearby mountain caves. Cancuen remained shrouded by jungle until 1967, when a group of Harvard graduate students returned to the city for less than a week and brought back crude sketches of what they thought was waiting to be discovered there. Demerest and scientists from Guatemala's City's Valley University were drawn back to the area in April because hieroglyphics inscribed in artifacts recovered in Tikal and Dos Pilas, the ancient Maya's largest commercial center, made reference to a marketplace called Cancuen and its powerful fourth-century B.C. ruler, Tah Chan Wi, or ``Celestial Fire.'' Frederico Fahsen, the foremost Guatemalan authority on deciphering Mayan hieroglyphics and the Cancuen project's co-director, said the Cancuen ruler married his daughter to the king of Dos Pilas, 55 miles to the northeast, to establish relationships with surrounding settlements rather than go to war with them. ``Mayan cities have been in constant war, with their constructions dedicated to the gods and the heavens,'' Fahsen said. ``Here we have exactly the opposite.''"}, {"response": 461, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "Marcia, I feel certain that you are a descendent of the astute and diplomatically capable King Hemming. The story of the Mayan discovery is striking news. My Dad was very interested in the great cultures of Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya. It is also a great find in that it is not a ceremonial center, rather a commercial Mayan settlement."}, {"response": 462, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 13, 2000 (02:38)", "body": "Indeed! about the Mayan ruins... If I were not feeding enough mosquitoes here I would hunger more for the Belize and Guatamala - Yucatan area. Alas, there is so much blood I have to give... It is rare to find non-royal or ritual sites anywhere. Careful study should yield much information on those whose labor kept the kings and priests in the status to which they were accustomed."}, {"response": 463, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 13, 2000 (02:44)", "body": "News from Ancient Sites Directory 9th September 2000 Hello Everybody, I've been spending quite a lot of my spare time updating The Ancient Sites Directory recently. I've overhauled the \"look and feel\" of the pages, hoping to make them friendlier to use and navigate (especially for those using 800x600 screen resolutions - which is most of you). New sites are what you'll be wanting to hear about, and I have quite a few of those on-line after our recent trip to Orkney. Some of the new sites were visited on the journey up to get the ferry:- Aviemore - stone circle Cairn O'Get - chambered tomb The Camster Cairns Carn Liath - broch Once on the Orkney Islands we had some old favourites to visit again and some sites on other islands to see for the first time. Plus we were among the first members of the general public to explore the enigmatic Mine Howe, re-discovered just about a year ago. New sites added to the directory from Orkney so far:- Holm of Papa Westray North - chambered tomb Holm of Papa Westray South - chambered tomb + excellent prehistoric carvings Mine Howe - subterranean passages Quoyness - chambered tomb To access any of these pages click on the \"contents\" button from the home page ( http://www.henge.org.uk ) and then find \"Highland\" and \"Orkney\" in the menu. I have many more sites to add as and when time allows. Shortly after we returned from our visit the discovery of a new chambered tomb on the island of Westray was made public. This is a repeat of our previous visit in 1998 when about a week after we got home the discovery of a tomb at Crantit, just outside Kirkwall was announced. I'm beginning to feel that we're jinxed! For anybody wishing to read more about the Orkney Islands I can highly recommend a visit to Orkneyjar ( http://www.orkneyjar.com ) a site published by Sigurd Towrie. He covers all aspects of the heritage of the island from the depths of the prehistoric past through local folklore and dialect. Cheers for now, Chris -- Chris Tweed - ICQ: 71688382 For PGP Public Key email pgp@henge.org.uk with subject of \"*send pgpkey\" Ancient Sites Directory - http://www.henge.org.uk"}, {"response": 464, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Sep 13, 2000 (05:03)", "body": "Tuesday September 12 7:02 PM ET Yemeni Temple Could Uncover Queen of Sheba http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20000912/sc/discovery_yemen_dc_1.html By Rajiv Sekhri TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian archeologist said on Tuesday that his team was slowly unraveling the secrets of a 3,000-year-old temple that may have belonged to the Queen of Sheba. Half-buried under the sands of the southern Arabian desert in northern Yemen, the Mahram Bilqis or Temple of the Moon God contains priceless documents and artifacts from the time of the biblical queen. The temple was a sacred site for pilgrims in Arabia from around 1200 BC to 550 AD, the time that fits with history's record of the Queen of Sheba and her visit to King Solomon of Israel. ``To have such historical, religious and cultural connection to one site is tremendous. Not often in archeology do we have that.'' Professor Bill Glanzman told Reuters. Glanzman, who teaches archeology at the University of Calgary and is the project's director, said: ``We've probably excavated less than one percent of the site, with many of its treasures still buried far beneath the sands.'' The discovery and excavation of the temple began in 1951 by the late American archeologist Wendell Phillips. But it was halted abruptly a year later because of political unrest. Work was restarted in 1998 by the American Foundation for the Study of Man, a nonprofit organization that spearheads such projects. Glanzman said the temple could become an ``eighth wonder of the world,'' attracting people from around the world. ``We think it has the potential to become a world-class tourist site, where tourists can walk around and really feel what happened thousands of years ago.'' But another expert disagrees. ``This is the most optimistic of statements at the moment, given the economic and political situation and the problem of raising money for such things,'' said Edward Keall, senior curator of Middle Eastern Archeology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. ``I do not expect to see it in my lifetime,'' he said. ``As of the moment, the Yemeni government does not have control over the various tribal groups that live in the country and who believe that they own the land,'' Keall said. But Glanzman tries to sell the importance of the excavation, saying it is as important a discovery as the ruins of Pompeii, the pyramids of Giza or the Acropolis. ``The sanctuary is packed with artifacts, pottery, artwork and inscriptions, opening a new door to the ancient civilizations of southern Arabia,'' he said. Glanzman said his team could be finished with the excavation within 15 years."}, {"response": 465, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 13, 2000 (16:22)", "body": "Thanks again, Maggie - this is fascinating! Maybe even more than digging land snails out of Eton Rowing Lake...*sigh* Sources: Reuters | SPACE.com | AP Wednesday September 13 2:16 AM ET Explorer Finds Evidence of Life Before Great Flood By Sue Pleming WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. explorers said on Wednesday they have found signs of human habitation hundreds of feet below the Black Sea where a catastrophic flood occurred about 7,500 years ago, which some scientists say is linked to the biblical story of Noah. Explorer Robert Ballard, famous for discovering the wreck of the Titanic, said his National Geographic expedition found a ''rectangular structure,'' possibly that of a building, about 310 feet (90 meters) below the sea's surface, indicating people lived there before a massive flood inundated the area. ``We now know people were living on that surface when that event (the big flood) took place because we are now finding evidence of human habitation,'' said Ballard in a telephone interview from the Northern Horizon research ship, about 12 miles (20 km) off the Turkish shore. ``This is an incredible find. It's clear a vast amount of real estate is under water and that a vast amount of people were living around the Black Sea,'' said Ballard, adding that it was far more significant than his Titanic discovery in 1985. Ballard said his team made its finding three days ago, in the second week of a five-week expedition. They hope to make more findings and will do precise mapping and photo documentation before anything is brought up to the surface. ``Our job is to find as many structures as we can, to explore them and to see what they tell us about the people that lived here and present that to the world and let the world draw it's own conclusions,'' he said. Ballard said it was too soon to say whether there was a link between the great flood he believes occurred in the Black Sea and the one depicted in the Bible. ``What we are trying to do is gather facts. We are testing that theory and so far we have not found any holes in it. We will continue to gather data,'' Ballard said. The artifacts found by Ballard's team were captured by sonar and on pictures taken by a roving vehicle called Argus that is about the size of a washing machine and attached by fiber-optic cable to the research ship. The rectangular structure measures about 12-feet (4 meters) in width and is 45-feet (15 meters) long, with carved wooden beams, wooden branches and stone tools collapsed among the mud matrix. ``It's architecture and artifacts were of the Neolithic bronze age, which is from about 7,000 years ago,'' said Ballard. The team's chief archeologist, Fredrik Hiebert, described the finding as the ``Pompeii of landscapes'' and said it was typical of the wattle and daub homes seen on land. ``This is a major discovery that will begin to rewrite the history of cultures in this key area between Europe, Asia and the ancient Middle East,'' said Hiebert, an archeologist from the University of Pennsylvania. ``This looks to me, as an archeologist familiar with this region, like the typical architecture of the people who lived around the Black Sea,'' he said. The cataclysmic flood in that area was tentatively linked to the biblical story of Noah in the book of Genesis by U.S. geologists William Ryan and Walter Pitman of Columbia University in their 1997 book ``Noah's Flood.'' The two geologists believe Noah's flood took place not in the Middle East, as might be assumed from reading the Bible, but in the area around the Black Sea. The geologists theory of a great flood in the Black Sea was based on their discovery of a drowned landscape as seen in seismic profiles and sediment cores. Pitman said he had ``never been so excited in his life'' as he was with Ballard's finding, adding that it would probably revive debate over his Noah's Flood theory. ``I certainly believed that there had to be people living there but finding the structure was like finding a needle in a haystack,'' Pitman said from his home in New York. Ballard said the extraordinary state of preservation of the wood and other organic materials of such great age was most likely due to the site's closeness to the Black Sea's deeper, oxygen-free waters. Hiebert said it was possible human or animal bones could have survived in the waters because organic material that would typically disappear would have been preserved. ``We do think that human remains would be extremely well preserved, opening up the whole Pandora's box of DNA and discovering who these people truly were,'' said Hiebert. Scientists believe the Black Sea was a freshwater lake until it was flooded by the Mediterranean Sea about 7,000 years ago. Ryan and Pitman's research showed today's Black Sea was transformed when melting glaciers raised the level of the Mediterranean, causing water to break through the strip of land separating the Mediterranean from the smaller freshwater lake."}, {"response": 466, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "I read somewhere that Bosphorus means \"ox crossing\". It seems a litte deep to cross oxen there now, unless the bovines are excellent swimmers."}, {"response": 467, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (07:53)", "body": "Canoes Show Life in Neolithic Paris http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000914/wl/france_neolithic_canoes_1.html (picture via link) Thursday September 14 2:33 PM ET By MARILYN AUGUST, Associated Press Writer PARIS (AP) - Thousands of years before the Bateaux Mouches began plying the Seine with sightseers, Neolithic Parisians cruised the river in dugout canoes, fishing and trading with their neighbors upstream. Three 6,000-year-old canoes, unveiled Thursday, suggest human settlements were set up at the location of present-day Paris up to 1,500 years earlier than had been believed. The 20-foot canoes, each hewn from a single oak log, will be the centerpiece of a new wing of the Carnavalet Museum scheduled to open later this year. The dugouts, the earliest of which experts say dates to 4,500 B.C., were unearthed along with thousands of artifacts by French archaeologists in 1990 during a major urban renewal project on the banks of the Seine at Bercy, in southeastern Paris. ``The site is the most spectacular of its kind ever found in Paris and shows that the city is much older than we had thought,'' said Philippe Velay, archaeology curator at the Carnavalet. Other Neolithic remains were found under the courtyard of the Louvre Museum in central Paris when it was undergoing renovations in the early 1980s, he said. But that find, much smaller than the Bercy one, was not studied in depth at the time. Together, the finds suggest two Neolithic communities a few miles apart that had contact with each other via the Seine, which at the time was over a mile wide in parts. Experts had previously put the earliest settlements in the Paris region to around 3,000-2,500 B.C. The Neolithic period, characterized by polished stone tools, pottery and agriculture, ranges from 8,000-3,500 B.C. The Bercy site could have had between a few hundred and a thousand people living in it at one time. Along with a total 11 canoes, archaeologists found some 50,000 objects - including perfectly preserved fragments of ceramic bowls and cups, a flint and a millstone. A double tomb was unearthed containing the skeletons of two children, aged 9 and 5, curled in the fetal position. Also found were a polished ax, wooden bow and a fish hook, as well as beaver, turtle and wolf remains, Velay said. ``This suggests that the earliest city dwellers were concerned primarily with their own survival, and hunted and fished for food,'' he said. The canoes - some large enough to hold six people - were found about 26 feet underground, perfectly preserved in the soil. One boat was split in half inadvertently by a bulldozer working on the site. ``The biggest challenge was figuring out a way to make sure that their discovery was not the first step towards their disappearance,'' said archaeologist Philippe Marquis, who made the discovery in September 1990. ``We had to make sure they didn't just dry out and crumble, and basically, we just kept them wet using an ordinary lawn sprinkler,'' he said. Marquis said that if archaeologists had had the opportunity to stay and excavate longer, they could have unearthed more of the settlement. A public park has since been built over the site. Since their discovery, which was not made public at the time, the canoes underwent a $280,000 treatment at a laboratory in Grenoble to stabilize the condition of the wood. They will be displayed in temperature- and humidity-controlled cases."}, {"response": 468, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (13:45)", "body": "Wow, neat! Bet there are handsome and intelligent archaeology grad students digging holes in the sludge there too. Wondering why they do not use undergrads for peon labor. Oh well... I wouldlike a update o n the Eton Rowing Lake but think I wil have to search it out for myself. Mahalo Maggie!"}, {"response": 469, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (13:53)", "body": "As you wished - http://www.oau-oxford.com/eton.htmThe Archaeology of the Eton Rowing Lake SUMMER EXCAVATION 26th June to18th August 2000 A large area on the north bank of the river Thames is being excavated in a series of summer seasons in advance of the construction of the Rowing Lake. The site, which is situated in open countryside next to the village of Dorney in South Buckinghamshire, is unique because of the preservation of a substantial channel of the prehistoric river Thames, within which waterlogged wooden structures have been located. The floodplain alongside contains a sequence of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age in situ occupation horizons with flint knapping scatters, hearths and other artefact spreads sealed within the alluvium. On the gravel terraces the cropmarks indicate probably the best surviving Bronze Age landscape in the Middle Thames valley, with settlement, field systems and burials in barrows, flat graves and cremation urns. An enclosed Roman farmstead overlies Bronze Age settlement alongside the former course of the Thames. Results from the work in 1995, 1996 and 1997 exceeded expectations. Six Bronze Age and Iron Age waterlogged timber bridges were found, while a pair of Neolithic middens came to light in a channel. On the floodplain Neolithic knapping areas have been revealed, while on dry ground Bronze Age barrows and waterholes and an Iron Age and Roman farmstead have been excavated. The project is headed by Tim Allen from the Oxford Archaeological Unit. The professional team invites assistance from students from British universities, local archaeological societies, and other interested groups and individuals. A wide variety of experience of archaeological fieldwork and finds is available working with one of the foremost professional Units in the country. The 2000 season will examine the extensive Bronze Age enclosure system and settlement. The site lies west of London close to Windsor Castle, and is easily accessible by rail from London Paddington and by road from the M4, A4 or M40, while Heathrow Airport is also nearby. There are no on-site facilities, but details of local campsites are available. Work will be Monday to Friday, with the weekends off; the standard working day will be from 8 am to 4.30 p.m. Application forms may be obtained from the OAU . The telephone number is O1865 243888 and Fax number 01865 793496, or you can email postmaster@oau-oxford.com."}, {"response": 470, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (13:55)", "body": "ou may want ot check out http://www.oau-oxford.com/news.html lots of news of digs"}, {"response": 471, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (18:00)", "body": "Visited the Rollright Stone Circle in the Cotswolds today. I think it is probably my favourite stone circle....you can walk round them and touch them. Across the road is the King stone. Can't get near that, but it is impressive. There is another group of stones in a field near the Rollrights. Here is a site to visit that has lots of pictures for you to see, and info. http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/carolrb/rollright/rollright1.html"}, {"response": 472, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (01:30)", "body": "As I said before to this lady, if she were not such a special friend, I would be jealously hateful of her treading the sacred ground of my ancestors...*sigh* I am delighted you are appreciating what I can only remember through pictures taken by me ages ago. Thanks!"}, {"response": 473, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (04:31)", "body": "What really surprised me was the way Hannah remembered it all ...she and I had a special time there yesterday --while house male was taking pix for you ...the last time we were there was when she was 13. For anyone planning to visit ...the stile opposite the king's men stones leading to the king stone is badly broken ...there is a much better, hidden, stile a few yards down the road. The King stone is surrounded by iron fencing and you can only stand and look ...which is a pity becuase it is the one I am most drawn to and would most like to touch. We couldn't find an access point to the whispering stones ..maybe it was further down the road than we looked. They are in the middle of a farmer's field. When you come over next Marcia, we'll definitely go there ... I promise. At least you have been there .....(which is more than I have been for HAWAII!!!!!!! *grin*)"}, {"response": 474, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (17:41)", "body": "Taking you up on that offer one day, my dear....and the standing invite to the volcano stands... *sigh* one of the delights of hiking to the long barrows and other things on the hilltops is climbing over stiles. No one in the US knows what they are anymore - we use ugly barbed wire everywhere - and I had not seen one until I climbed over my first one. Just more added joy and data for my memory banks! Updated: Wednesday, Sep. 13, 2000 at 09:51 CDT Archaeologists in London may have found woman gladiator's grave By ROBERT BARR Associated Press LONDON -- No one knows her name, or how she died, but archaeologists think she was a gladiator in Roman London. And, from the evidence, a very popular one. The existence of female gladiators in Roman times has long been known to historians, but now what are believed to be the first remains of one -- a young woman in her 20s, buried with high honors -- have been unearthed at a Roman cemetery in London. The Museum of London displayed the evidence for the first time Tuesday. Only a piece of the young woman's pelvis escaped the flames of her funeral pyre -- enough to say that she was in her 20s. The belief that she may have been a gladiator comes from the ceramics buried with her in what was a walled cemetery on the south bank of the River Thames, in present-day Southwark. One dish was decorated with a fallen gladiator and other vessels with symbols associated with gladiators, said Hedley Swain of the Museum of London. Three lamps found in the grave were decorated with images of the Egyptian god Anubis. This jackal-headed deity was associated with the Roman god Mercury, and Swain noted that slaves dressed as Mercury were employed to drag away the bodies from amphitheaters. \"The fact that we have this association with gladiators indicates that she was a gladiator, or someone deeply involved with gladiators,\" said Jenny Hall, curator of early London history at the London Museum. \"It is obviously quite a wealthy burial,\" she added. Hall says its \"70 percent probable\" that the woman was a gladiator. \"It is always the case with archaeology, that you are left with tantalizing glimpses,\" she said. The grave was excavated in 1996 and the analysis was completed recently. \"There is evidence of a very exotic and high-status feast, including dates, almonds, figs and a dove,\" Swain said. There were also remains of pine cones imported from the Mediterranean, which apparently were burned as incense. It has long been known that women fought as gladiators. An inscription in Pompeii refers to women in the arena, and the Emperor Septimius Severus, who ruled from A.D. 193 to 211, allowed combat by women. Graves excavated at Trier, in Germany, may have remains of male gladiators. Hall said she knew of no other gladiator graves excavated anywhere else in the world. A show opening Oct. 21 at the British Museum includes a second-century relief carving of two women fighting. Each has a short sword and a shield. The inscription, which says that both were granted \"an honorable release from the arena,\" identifies one as Amazonia, the other as Achillea, a feminine form of Achilles. Ralph Jackson, curator of Romano-British antiquities at the British Museum, said he was not convinced that the London Museum had found a woman gladiator. \"I would characterize it as possibly a gladiator,\" he said. \"I would say that it is a very notable find, to have a female burial with eight lamps.\" Jackson noted that gladiators, in general, had a very low status. \"The only lower thing was an actor or an actress,\" he said. Archaeologists from the museum also continue to analyze the results of their excavations of the Roman amphitheater found near the present Guildhall in the financial district. That amphitheater, discovered in 1986, had room for 7,000 spectators, which would have been about a third of the population of Roman London. http://www.Museumoflondon.org.uk"}, {"response": 475, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 20, 2000 (00:04)", "body": "\"An archeologist is the best husband any woman can have. The older she gets, the more he is interested in her!\" --Agatha Christie"}, {"response": 476, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2000 (19:00)", "body": "But can't he always dig up her past? Sorry, that is a really old archaelogy joke."}, {"response": 477, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (01:43)", "body": "*laugh* Um... yes...but there is something totally charming about younger Archaeologists. They have a passion that is difficult to replicate elsewhere!"}, {"response": 478, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "The Most-Complete Hominid Skull A 2 million-year-old Skull Emerges From a New South African Site http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/042600-skull.shtml by Robert Locke South African Journal of Science The nearly complete skull of an early hominid has emerged from a rich, new treasure trove of hominid fossils discovered in South Africa. Andre Keyser discovered the skull while working under the auspices of South Africa's University of Witwatersrand. He said Wednesday (April 26) that the skull, which dates to 1.5 million to 2 million years old, is the most complete ever to be scientifically described. The skull, along with its lower jaw (or mandible) and complete set of teeth, is attributed to Paranthropus robustus, which other scientists refer to as Australopithecus robustus. Also found was a second, larger mandible from the same species. Keyser said the smaller specimen probably is that of a female and the larger one of a male. Robustus is generally considered a dead-end species that is not a human ancestor. The hominid had a rather flat face, with a protruding, ape-like jaw and mouth. Its molars were very large, probably to accommodate a vegetarian diet, while the front teeth were quite small. Keyser said the just-reported skull was found in October 1994 at the previously unreported site of Drimolen, about 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) northeast of the famous hominid site of Sterkfontein. The sites are within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of Johannesburg, South Africa. Discovered by Keyser and Rosalind Smith, the fragile pieces of skull were reconstructed by Ron Clarke. The Drimolen site has so far yielded 79 fossil-hominid specimens, including some early species of Homo. Many animal fossils and 24 items identified as bone tools also were reported. Keyser is a retired geologist formerly with the Geological Survey of South Africa. The excavations were under the direction of the University of Witwatersrand's Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research. Also of interest: http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9712/16/baby.skeletons/ Prominent hominid fossils http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/specimen.html"}, {"response": 479, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (15:56)", "body": "Ah...where DO we put hominid fossils? Paleo? With the Coprolites and gastroliths and petrified wood??? Perhaps they do belong in Archaeology since it deals with humankind. Thanks, Maggie!"}, {"response": 480, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "Potentially Toxic Artifacts Found By CHRISTINE HANLEY, Associated Press Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - David Hostler learned the troubling news when he journeyed more than 3,000 miles from his Hoopa Valley reservation, California's largest, to dig through troves of tribal artifacts on display and in storage at Harvard University. Arriving at the Ivy League school's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, which owns the largest collection of American Indian remains outside the Smithsonian, officials suggested he don a pair of gloves and a dust mask before sifting through the collection. ``That's when I found out some of the artifacts had been contaminated,'' said Hostler, a director of the Hoopa museum and a ceremonial leader of the tribe, which has 4,000 members and an 89,000-acre reservation about 40 miles outside the northern California coastal city of Eureka. Two years later, Hostler and fellow Indians across the United States remain unsettled by the notion that human remains and sacred objects being returned to them under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, may be poisoned with heavy metals and pesticides that were used as preservatives. On Friday, representatives of California's 110 tribes began arriving at San Francisco State University for a three-day workshop aimed at raising awareness of the potential health risks that scientists consider especially acute because many of the artifacts - steeped in spiritual significance - have been or will be returned to their traditional use. ``For people who are only hearing about this for the first time, it's only human to be scared and angry,'' said Lee Davis, an anthropology professor at SFSU and consultant for the Hoopa tribe. Pesticides and other toxins, including mercury and arsenic, have been routinely used on all kinds of artifacts to preserve them and keep insects away, with the idea that the objects would only be displayed under glass. But that changed when the repatriation act, passed in 1990, required museums to return headdresses and other regalia to their rightful tribal owners."}, {"response": 481, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (16:21)", "body": "...the rest of the message begun above: It is unclear how widespread the contamination may be, since most of the evidence is anecdotal and no official empirical studies have been conducted to determine whether mercury, arsenic, DDT and other toxins used as pesticides or preservatives persist in harmful levels. SFSU on Friday released preliminary findings of a study showing traces of mercury in a handful of items that have found their way back to the Hoopa tribe. There were also low levels of pesticides on some samples, including DDT and naphthalene, an active ingredient in mothballs. But Peter Palmer, a chemical analyst who led the study, questioned whether the results were reliable, saying he was ``not sure how they would hold up in a court of law.'' He and other researchers noted how they are impeded by financial constraints and limited in the types of testing they can do since a lot of the cultural material must remain intact, and removing toxins could be destructive. ``There are no easy answers - a lot of uncertainties,'' Palmer told a large group of other scientists, Indian leaders and observers during one of Friday's sessions, calling the study a ``best effort'' by students. ``At least we've done this much.'' Palmer and other scientists agree more in-depth studies are needed. On Sunday, organizers plan to start drawing up a cohesive plan to address the issues raised at the workshop. ``The ramifications are complex,'' said Jeff Fentress, coordinator of SFSU's artifact testing lab. ``Where did all these contaminants come from? What other contaminants are there? What exposure have we all had all these years? And last, what do we do about it?'' For the tribes, the waiting could mean sacrificing tradition. ``Repatriation is important for preserving our culture and educating our youth, and carrying on our religion as it always was,'' Hostler said. ``At this time, hopefully we'll find solutions on how to get the poisons out.''"}, {"response": 482, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "Three months after my marriage my new husband began teaching at a tiny college with an even tinier museum. The chemicals were so strong that you could smell them as soon as you entered the building. I wonder if any museums are toxin-free if they have been collecting for many years."}, {"response": 483, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Oct  2, 2000 (04:00)", "body": "Shrine untouched for 2,000 years found in Croatia By Davor Huic http://uk.news.yahoo.com/001002/80/al8ma.html ZAGREB (Reuters) - An international team of archaeologists has uncovered what may be a pre- Roman pagan shrine that has lain undisturbed beneath the hills of southern Croatia for more than two thousand years. The Croatian-Canadian team says the site, dating from the third century BC, is the only shrine of the ancient Illyrian people ever found. They believe they are the first people to have set foot in it since it was sealed up as Rome's legions marched across Europe. The dramatic discovery was made deep inside a cave at Spila, near the village of Nakovana on the Peljesac peninsula in southern Dalmatia, about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the Adriatic city of Dubrovnik. Pottery and a huge phallic stalagmite in the cave indicate that it was used as a shrine. \"We believe that the centre of the cave served as an altar for some pagan ritual, probably linked to fertility or potency,\" Dr Staso Forenbaher of the Croatian Institute for Anthropological Research told Reuters. \"To our knowledge, this is the only Illy ian sanctuary ever found,\" he added. MIGRATING SLAVIC TRIBES The Illyrians inhabited the western Balkans before the Romans conquered the region and were assimilated by migrating Slavic tribes in the early Middle Ages. Albanians are their only modern descendants. Forenbaher and Dr Timothy Kaiser of the Royal Ontario Museum discovered deeper channels in the Spila cave almost by accident, during excavations at the entrance in August 1999. They returned a year later to lead the project. The cave contains several layers of archaeological material dating from the early neolithic era, 6,000 years BC. The most valuable findings were hidden behind a mass of stones and earth deep inside. Forenbaher said he believed the entrance might have been sealed on purpose, at some point during the first century BC at the time of the Roman conquest, possibly to prevent the sanctity of the site from being broken. \"It looked completely intact. The surface was crusty, and there was no evidence whatsoever that any human or animal had walked there for centuries,\" said Forenbaher. The fact that the shrine has been completely untouched for two millennia makes its significance even greater. \"Hopefully, this will give us a chance to try to reconstruct what had been going on there,\" Forenbaher sa d. As the team went into the cave, a corridor 50 metres (164 feet) in length and tall enough for a person to stand up in, opened up roughly in the middle of a circular area about 10 metres (32 feet) in diameter. In the middle of this stood a 60-cm (two-feet) tall red and white stalagmite in the form of a phallus. The team believe it played a central role in whatever rituals went on in the cave when it was used as a shrine. PLATES AND CHALICES \"We dug around and under the stalagmite and found that it had not grown there naturally. It had to be brought in from someplace else -- perhaps even from the cave itself -- to be installed there by humans,\" Forenbaher said. Scattered around were hundreds of pieces of Hellenistic pottery, mostly plates and chalices, some of them bearing inscriptions in ancient Greek and Latin. Their function and position around the phallus indicate they were used in some sort of a ritual that included feasting, drinking and probably making offerings to pagan gods. Most pieces seem to have originated from Magna Graecia -- Greek colonies in southern Italy -- and from Greek settlements in the southern Dalmatian islands of Korcula (Korcyra Nigra), Hvar (Pharos) and Vis (Issa). The team dug out about three tonnes of material from the cave, taking everything they could find to the Dubrovnik Archaeology Museum for further research, Forenbaher said. They also found containers with what looked like remains of food that will be sent t Britain to be analysed, while radioactive carbon dating will be done in Croatia. More than 100 kg (200 lb) of collected pottery will be sorted out and put together by local experts. \"We expect first reports to come out within a year, and the whole project to take three years,\" Forenbaher said"}, {"response": 484, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  3, 2000 (21:55)", "body": "http://freespace.virgin.net/philip.dunn/knowlton.htm Check out the aerial view of this Henge group. I remember driving past on the way to Bournemouth to spend the night, and it is startling the number of barrows around this henge group. You cannot miss it on the right as you drive south. TheChristaion church standing in the middle of the largest henge attracts your attenion immediately! This entire site is worth visiting. Very interesting stuff in there - especially about the Gough Cave in Cheddar Gorge! Check it out!"}, {"response": 485, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (18:13)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY - Newsletter for October 04, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - WORLD'S OLDEST BRUSH HUTS Some of the Earliest Homes are discovered in Israel's Jordan Valley http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/100400-huts.shtml FROM EGYPT REVEALED: - Finding the Pharaoh's Vizier More Secrets from the Valley of the Golden Mummies. http://www.egyptrevealed.com/1000toc/100300-pharaoh.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - The Questions in a Dazzling Tomb http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/03/science/03TOMB.html - Roman Shipwrecks Discovered http://www.worldnews.com/?action=display&article=3763371&template=worldnews/search.txt&index=recent - A 2,000-year-old Shrine in Croatia http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20001002_79.html - Hopis Dispute Cannibalism Theory http://www.abqjournal.com/news/1hopis09-29-00.htm - Outhouse Archaeology http://www.sacbee.com/news/news/local02_20000929.html - Sound Waves Hunt for Artifacts http://unisci.com/stories/20004/1003002.htm - Contaminated Artifacts http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/09/30/MN16969.DTL"}, {"response": 486, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (18:07)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY - Newsletter for October 11, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - THE \"FOLSOM\" COWBOY The Remarkable Legacy of George McJunkin http://www.DISCOVERINGARCHAEOLOGY.COM/articles/101100-folsom.shtml FROM EGYPT REVEALED: - Finding the Pharaoh's Vizier More Secrets from the Valley of the Golden Mummies. http://www.egyptrevealed.com/1000toc/100300-pharaoh.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Hyena Den Archaeology http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000579381554028&rtmo=aqJJK9aJ&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/10/6/nden06.html - Deep Mysteries http://www.latimes.com/news/asection/20001005/t000094667.html - The Father of Underwater Archaeology http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/0399toc/GeorgeBass.shtml - Life Down On The Body Farm http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,195020050,00.html - Virtual Palenque http://www.virtualpalenque.com/ - Nordic Underwater Archaeology http://www.abc.se/~m10354/uwa/ - Contemporary Guide To An Ancient Spice: http://www.saffroninfo.com/ ----- The Discovering Archaeology Newsletter finds the week's most interesting archaeological stories and presents them to you in a simple, easy to read format on the web. Read these and other interesting features, including Readers Polls, Book Reviews, Archaeological Event Calendars and much more at: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 487, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (19:50)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY - Newsletter for October 18, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml Discovering Archaeology Newsletter is sponsored by Rolex. --- Feature Stories --- - MISREADING THE BONES A Brutal Conquistador was Innocent of a Georgia Slaughter http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/1000toc/10randn04-bones.shtml FROM EGYPT REVEALED: - Lost City of the Pyramids A Complex Community Supported the Builders of Egypt's Greatest Monuments http://www.egyptrevealed.com/1000toc/101200-pyramids.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Classic Greek City Found: http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20001017/hi_helike.html - Britain's Stone Age Atlantis http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/10/10162000/atlantis_3155.asp The Lascaux Lunar Calendar http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_975000/975360.stm - Mega Etruscan City Unearthed http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20001016/hi_etruscan.html - Vance Haynes http://www.post-gazette.com/neigh_washington/20001015wadave1.asp - Archimedes' Ancient Text Revealed http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001013/us/archimedes__words_1.html ----- The Discovering Archaeology Newsletter finds the week's most interesting archaeological stories and presents them to you in a simple, easy to read format on the web. Read these and other interesting features, including Readers Polls, Book Reviews, Archaeological Event Calendars and much more at: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 488, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (20:23)", "body": "Stone Age 'Atlantis' Found in North Sea By The Independent October 16, 2000 SCIENTISTS ARE unearthing the long-lost secrets of Britain's own Atlantis - a vast area of former dry land under what is now the North Sea. The investigations are revealing how ancient Stone Age communities were wiped out by a series of apocalyptic floods which, scientists believe, are a stern warning of the devastation that global warming and rising sea levels can cause. After the last Ice Age, melting ice caused the southern half of the North Sea to rise by some 65ft in 2,000 years, submerging an area in the North Sea the size of modern Britain. But researchers at Durham University have now established that Britain also suffered a series of shorter term but catastrophic floods with terrible effects on human communities, killing 2,000- 3,000 people at a time. Whereas populations were able to adapt to long-term sea level rise, they would have been unable to escape from the periodic super- floods which resulted from it. There were periods in which very large flat areas became vulnerable to tidal surge inundation for several hundred years before becoming permanently submerged. Between 7600 BC and 5900 BC around 1,000 square miles of North Sea region dry land would have been overwhelmed by 15ft-high tidal and storm surges on average four times a century - once a generation. more... http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/10/10162000/atlantis_3155.asp"}, {"response": 489, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (19:55)", "body": "Yet more background to support the widespread existence of the Flood Legend in many different cultures. Wasn't the Baltic Sea once dry land, as well? I think that the Baltic is supposed to be a relatively shallow sea."}, {"response": 490, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (21:12)", "body": "About the Baltic, Yes! Mediterranean too. Probably much of the Caribbean was above seal level once, as well."}, {"response": 491, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (18:04)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for October 26, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml Discovering Archaeology Newsletter is sponsored by Rolex. --- Feature Stories --- - POTTERY, JAGUARS & HOLIDAY INNS Familiar Images Grease the Wheels of Travel and Commerce http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/1000toc/10commentary1-holiday.shtml FROM EGYPT REVEALED: - Giza the Truth By Ian Lawton and Chris Ogilvie-Herald http://egyptrevealed.com/reviews/gizathetruth.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - The Artifacts of Ancient Ur: http://chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV-0010190227,FF.html - The Florida Canoe Caper: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001019/us/ancient_canoes_1.html - The Vikings: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/20/arts/20VIKI.html - Royal Mummy Relocated in Raid: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001023/od/mummy_dc_1.html"}, {"response": 492, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (15:18)", "body": "DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for November 02, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - OBELISKS IN EXILE Monuments of Stone Stand the Test of Time Around the World http://discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/102500-obelisks.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Dateline... Egypt: http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20001031/hi_royalboat.html - The America's First Root Crop http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/31/science/31OBSE.html - Divers Looting D-Day Remains http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/10/10312000/normandy_3233.asp - New Anasazi Connection http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/10/30/anasazi.clues.ap/index.html - The Restoration Of An Ancient Library http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/10/10302000/alexandria_3229.asp - Hunting May Have Started Later Than Previously Thought http://unisci.com/stories/20004/1027006.htm ----- The Discovering Archaeology Newsletter finds the week's most interesting archaeological stories and presents them to you in a simple, easy to read format on the web. Read these and other interesting features, including Readers Polls, Book Reviews, Archaeological Event Calendars and much more at: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 493, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  5, 2000 (15:51)", "body": "Archaeologist Sorry for Planting Artifacts TOKYO (Reuters) - A prominent archaeologist apologized on Sunday for planting artifacts at an excavation site so he could claim credit for discovering Japan's oldest stoneware. \"I have nothing more to say except that I am deeply sorry for what I've done,\" Shinichi Fujimura told a televised news conference. Japanese media said Fujimura, a senior director at the Tohoku Paleolithic Institute, planted eight stoneware pieces at an excavation site and claimed the stoneware dated back to an early stage of the Stone Age. Fujimura made the announcement of his \"discovery\" on October 27 and initially it enhanced his reputation among his peers as having \"a god's hands\" for his ability to find artifacts. The archaeologist gave his televised apology after Japanese media gave prominence to a different version of events. The national daily Mainichi Shimbun, on the front page of its Sunday edition, ran video stills of Fujimura placing the stoneware pieces in a hole and covering them up with dirt. The archaeologist said after being caught by the paper that he went out alone to the excavation site several times in the early hours of the morning to bury dozens of artifacts that he claimed he \"discovered\" later in the day, media reported. Archaeologists believe human communities lived at the excavation site 600,000 years ago."}, {"response": 494, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (18:00)", "body": "Never know where to put Neanderthal material, so I am putting this link here and in Archaeolgy, thanks to Dar of Yahoo's anthropology club. It is a great site and the club is full of informative people with a passion for the the subject. Excellent site for all things Neanderthal and other modern forms of mankind: http://www.neanderthal-modern.com/index.html"}, {"response": 495, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (16:06)", "body": "The 10 families of man who settled Europe are revealed in gene tests By Roger Highfield EUROPEAN men are almost all related to just 10 male lineages whose descendants migrated from the east in three waves over the past 40,000 years, scientists reported last week. A genetic study of 1,007 men across Europe and the Middle East found that 95 per cent of them could be traced to one of 10 categories. On average, more than 80 per cent of European men have inherited characteristics from two waves of Palaeolithic ancestors 40,000 and 25,000 years ago, according to the study published in the journal Science. The oldest male lineage - characterised by a genetic marker called M173 - contributes to half of the genetic make-up of European males. Their advent coincides with the arrival of what archaeologists call the Aurignacian people, known for rock art and finely crafted tools. The second wave is thought to be called the Gravettian culture, known for its Venus figurines and delicate blades. The remainder were thought to have arrived after an ice age some 10,000 years ago, when there was a third - Neolithic - migration of the first farmers from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East. The higher levels of the latter genetic make up in the south of Europe suggest that some of these farmers travelled by boat along the coast. The international team, led by Dr Ornella Semino, from Pavia University in Italy, studied the \"male\" chromosome - Y chromosomes - of men. Since its genetic information passes only from father to son, DNA variations on the Y chromosome can be used to trace paternal ancestry. The researchers analysed 22 such markers, and found that nearly all the individuals in the study could be linked to 10 groups of male ancestors. The investigators said: \"Two lineages . . . appear to have been present in Europe since Palaeolithic times. \"The remaining lineages entered Europe most likely later during independent migrations from the Middle East and the Urals.\" ...thanks H_H from Yahoo's Prehistory club!"}, {"response": 496, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (13:15)", "body": "The Y chomosomes are a bit analogous to mitochondrial DNA. While it is true that only men inherit a Y chomosome, while everybody inherits mitochondrial DNA. Yet mitochondrial DNA can only be passed on by the mother. Everyone in the world carries only his or her mother's mitochondrial DNA. This is what led to the Eve theory that everybody in the world can be traced back to a single female ancestor who lived in Africa millena ago."}, {"response": 497, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 20, 2000 (15:07)", "body": "Archaeologists Find Sarcophagus in Egyptian Tomb ABU SIR, Egypt (Reuters) - Archaeologists excavating a 4,000-year-old tomb near Cairo found an empty sarcophagus on Monday that they said could yield vital clues about the collapse of the pyramid-building era in ancient Egypt. Zahi Hawass, director of the Giza Plateau, told Reuters that a team of Egyptian and Czech archaeologists discovered the stone coffin in a sixth dynasty tomb at the pyramids of Abu Sir 17 miles southwest of Cairo. \"This sarcophagus was found empty. It means that some people entered this tomb after it was built 4,200 years ago,\" said Hawass. He said he expected more sixth dynasty tombs to be found there soon. The sarcophagus came to light as archaeologists explored a bone-littered burial chamber about 60 feet underground. \"This is a private tomb from the Old Kingdom, belonging to Inti, a judge and keeper of the city of Nekhen,\" said Bretislav Vachala, director of the Czech Institute of Egyptology at Charles University in Prague and joint leader of the mission. He said the whole area south of the Abu Sir pyramids was packed with tombs of the Old Kingdom elite. \"Here we can witness the period more than 4,000 years ago, the clue to understanding the period when the age of pyramid builders came to an end before the collapse of the Old Kingdom,\" Vachala said. \"The tomb was robbed in ancient times. The stone coffin is broken from one corner and the bones are scattered all over the burial chamber,\" he said. The treasures may have gone, but hieroglyphic drawings remain to tell the story of the tomb's original occupant. Inti's two sons are depicted along the entrance walls, while on the chapel walls, his wife is drawn kneeling at her husband's feet. Inti himself is shown in several ways: standing with a scepter and stick in his hand, sitting with his wife at his feet, and standing with offerings of food and drink. Vachala and his team began excavating the tomb in October and expect to finish documenting it next month."}, {"response": 498, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 22, 2000 (21:24)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY -Newsletter for November 22, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - OBELISKS IN EXILE Monuments of Stone Stand the Test of Time Around the World http://discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/102500-obelisks.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - In Search of a Religion's Origins http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/11/11202000/wirbuddha_3332.asp - Czech Archaeologist Find Another Tomb http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001121/wl/egypt_archaeology_3.html - Wisconsin Rock Art http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/11/20/cave.art.ap/index.html - The Case of the Elgin Marbles http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/11/11172000/elginmarbles_3308.asp - The Archaeological Method and Healing http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/11/17/MN75981.DTL - Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave... http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/japan_archaeologist0001105.html - World's Oldest Cave Paintings (?) http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1000000/1000653.stm - The Sarmatic Culture of Western Russia http://unisci.com/stories/20004/1101006.htm - The Pyramids and the Stars http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/pyramids001115.html"}, {"response": 499, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 26, 2000 (19:41)", "body": "OLD WORLD NEWS Perhaps a bit 'old' for this newsletter, but interesting nonetheless, is a report that the 400,000 year-old-remains of a woman indicate she might have had capacity for speech: http://www.newsday.com/coverage/current/discovery/tuesday/nd5778.htm A French archaeologist is claiming to have discovered the remains of a 6000-year-old civilization in Balochistan (watch the wrap) http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2000-daily/24-11-2000/main/update.htm#10 A Czech team has discovered a 4,300 year-old-tomb near Cairo (unfortunately with an empty sarcophagus): http://centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=223363 http://www.spokesmanreview.com:80/news-story.asp?date=112200&ID=s883302 http://www.latimes.com:80/news/science/science/20001123/t000112486.html http://www.msnbc.com:80/news/493234.asp?cp1=1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1035000/1035784.stm Last week, listland was all arage in response to Kate Spence's suggestion that star positions could be used to date the pyramids ... here's the coverage (mind the wrap as required): http://209.19.141.102/news/2000/11/11172000/egypt_3319.asp http://helix.nature.com/nsu/001116/001116-10.html http://www.worldnews.com/?action=display&article=4436303&template=worldnews/search.txt&index=recent http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1024000/1024779.stm http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/11/16/egypt_star001116 http://www.lineone.net/express/00/11/16/news/n3720-d.html http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/11/16/ageofpyramids.ap/index.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000579381554028&rtmo=qxdtMXR9&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/11/16/npyr16.html http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/pyramids001115.html Also in the world of pyramid theories, the Independent has a report suggesting the Egyptians borrowed the design from Scotland (insert editorial comment of your choice here)(mind the wrap): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2000-11/pyramid141100.shtml Also on the 'insert editorial comment of your choice' front, the Belfast Times reports on plans to search for the Ark of the Covenant in, er, Ireland: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/today/nov16/News/ark.ncml Returning to the Egyptian front, the Express has an article by David Rohl on the search for Cambyses' lost army: http://www.lineone.net/express/00/11/16/features/f0100splash-d.html A couple of reports on what's been found at Umm el-Marra (I think these are about the same site): http://www.latimes.com:80/news/science/science/20001123/t000112488.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7215-2000Nov12.html The Daily Star has a touristy/historical piece on Persepolis (scroll down quite a bit, if necessary): http://www.dailystarnews.com/200011/18/n0111809.htm#BODY4 'South Nexus' reports on the discovery in Iran of the coffin of a woman dating to ca. 200 B.C.: http://www.southnexus.com/newspopup_news.php?date1=18/11/2000&sequence=1&cnews = The Independent reports on the discovery of a 3,000 year-old megalithic 'temple' bigger than Stonehenge in Wales: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2000-11/temple261100.shtml Iron Age Scotland was apparently milking cows, according to a BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1024000/1024888.stm News24 has a brief item on the discovery of a Roman \"Titanic\" off the coast of Sicily -- some sort of luxury cruise ship with assorted affinities with Pompeii (I'll try to track down more on this one): http://news.24.com/News24/Technology/Science_Nature/0,1113,2-13-46_939109,00.html We also have a report on conservators at the British Museum revealing one of the most detailed images (on a knife) of a Roman gladiator ever found in Britain: http://209.19.141.102/news/2000/11/11142000/wireknife_3307.asp King Arthur's 'round table', which supposedly resides in Winchester Castle, has turned out to probably date from the time of Edward I: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2000-11/round231100.shtml A wire report tells of excavations in Tilaurakot, home of the Buddha: http://209.19.141.102/news/2000/11/11202000/wirbuddha_3332.asp Xinhua reports on the discovery of an ancient pottery workshop in Mongolia: http://202.84.17.11/english/htm/20001122/232333.htm A piece on the Reuters health wire suggests that evidence from teeth proves that rat-born nasties caused the big plague (and the same techniques might be used to figure out the plague at Athens, apparently) (mind the wrap): http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2000/11/23/eline/links/20001123elin006.html Completely unaware of the above, apparently, other scholars are claiming that rats were 'framed' for the plague: http://www.express.co.uk/00/11/26/news/n4720.shtml In the world of art history, the latest controversy is over a pile of bones which may or may not belong to Giotto: http://www.spokesmanreview.com:80/news-story.asp?date=112100&ID=s882699 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/dailynews/giotto001120.html http:/"}, {"response": 500, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  1, 2000 (03:07)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for November 29, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - SOUTHERN INDIA'S MYSTERIOUS RULERS A Granite Pillar Records a Royal Family's Gift to its Subjects http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/112900-india.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Science, Swaying Palms, and Sea Breezes http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/11/11272000/micronesia_3340.asp - Japanese Ruins Up for World Heritage Designation http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/11/11272000/wirunesco_3352.asp - 30 Times Bigger Than Stonehenge http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2000-11/temple261100.shtml - What the Bones Can Tell You http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,230010824,00.html - Cave Tomb Discovered in Nabetieh http://www.dailystar.com.lb/27_11_00/art11.htm - The Virtual Museum of Nautical Archaeology http://ina.tamu.edu/ - Forest Fires Play Archaeologist http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20001128/t000114118.html"}, {"response": 501, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  1, 2000 (13:40)", "body": "Found: temple sacred for 3,000 years The astonishing past: Stone Age site 30 times the size of Stonehenge is discovered Archaeologists have discovered a mysterious 4,700-year-old temple that is the largest Stone Age structure ever found in Western Europe. More than a half a mile across and covering 85 acres, the site in mid-Wales is 30 times the size of Stonehenge. A six-year research programme has revealed that the vast, egg-shaped religious complex consisted of 1,400 obelisks, each towering up to 23ft into the air. Made of oak, they were arranged as an oval with a perimeter of one-and-a-half miles. At its western end, archaeologists have discovered the site of the temple's main entrance \ufffd flanked by 6ft diameter timbers that may have stood 30ft tall. Despite its vast size, the site is baffling archaeologists. They are certain that it had a religious function \ufffd but what was being worshipped or venerated remains a mystery. The focal point appears to have been a natural spring \ufffd and possibly some sort of shrine. The complex may have been built on such a grand scale to include a second possible shrine 500 yards north-west of the spring and an area of further ritual activity about 200 yards to the north-east. The main entrance is oriented towards sunset on the summer solstice \ufffd the point at which the sun disappears after the longest day of the year. Detailed examination has revealed that the enclosed area was kept clear for almost 3,000 years. Outside the oval, archaeologists have found a normal level of flint and other prehistoric finds. Inside there have been almost no finds at all. \"They must have kept it extraordinarily clean,\" said Dr Alex Gibson, an archaeologist who has spent much of the past six years investigating the site for Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust. It remained untouched by normal \ufffd secular \ufffd human activity from its construction in 2700BC, through the late Neolithic and the whole of both the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, which ended after the Roman invasion of AD43. The absence of debris of human activity from the earlier parts of the Neolithic era suggest the area may have been taboo for even longer \ufffd possibly from 4000BC. After the arrangement of 1,400 oak obelisks was constructed \ufffd just before the time that most of Stonehenge was built \ufffd it is likely that ordinary people were not just barred from the site, as they probably had been for generations, but were also prevented from seeing inside it. Archaeologists believe planks were used to close the gaps between the obelisks for at least the bottom third of their height. The temple was almost certainly kept exclusively for the use of the priesthood \ufffd probably shamans whose function was to maintain spiritual contact with ancestors and deities. However, when the Roman invaders arrived, its very sanctity seems to have made it a target. For, in common with many other native British sacred sites \ufffd including Stonehenge \ufffd the place appears to have been deliberately violated. The Romans seem to have chosen to insult local sensibilities by building first a marching camp on one part of the site and then a permanent fort on another. The site \ufffd at Hindwell, three miles east of New Radnor in Powys \ufffd is being seen as one of the most important in Europe. \"We were bowled over by the sheer scale of the structure \ufffd and the fact that it appears to have remained sacred for thousands of years,\" Dr Gibson said."}, {"response": 502, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (15:25)", "body": "DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY - Newsletter for December 07, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - CANNIBALS AT COWBOY WASH Biomolecular Archaeology Solves a Controversial Puzzle http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/120600-cowboy-1.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Oldest Human Ancestor Discovered In Kenya http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001204/ts/fossils_find_dc.html - New Theory for the Nasca Lines http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/12/12052000/nascalines_3379.asp - Search4Science http://www.search4science.com - The Canadian Iceman Project http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/NWview.cgi?/news/2000/11/30/iceman001130 - Chemical Analysis to Trace Population Migrations http://news.excite.com/news/uw/001128/tech-43 - Anasazi Exodus http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/scitech/docs/migrate28.htm - The Philosophical Emperor http://ancient.thevines.com/leaf/AA0000363772/2/ ----- The Discovering Archaeology Newsletter finds the week's most interesting archaeological stories and presents them to you in a simple, easy to read format on the web. Read these and other interesting features, including Readers Polls, Book Reviews, Archaeological Event Calendars and much more at: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 503, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (13:17)", "body": "I'll have to check out that Canadian Iceman project, sounds like a hockey player."}, {"response": 504, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 10, 2000 (01:23)", "body": "Tell Nan!! She's got a thing for hockey players...."}, {"response": 505, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 10, 2000 (19:08)", "body": "EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 32 -- December 10, 2000 THE BIG NEWS The big news this week (judged solely by press coverage) appears to be the discovery of George Washington's still: http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/body/0,1079,500287227-500453881-502977445-0,00.html http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/12/06/washington.whiskey.ap/index.html OLD WORLD NEWS Potentially big news, but losing the coin toss, is the discovery of what is apparently the oldest human ancestor: http://www.iol.co.za/general/newsview.php?click_id=87&art_id=ct20001205121018851O435130&set_id=1 http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/12/12052000/wirefossil_3382.asp Arabic News has a nice feature on Ugarit: http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/001206/2000120601.html The same source also has a somewhat vague report on 'new Egyptian discoveries': http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/001205/2000120506.html Potentially big news, but I think the journalist types are reading a bit too much into it, is the discovery of a pair of entwined lovers, supposedly master and slave, along with a pile of gold in Pompeii: http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000579381554028&rtmo=wew0Kstb&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/12/9/wpomp09.html http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,48958,00.html Also on the Pompeii front, Canada's own National Post has an excellent feature on the erotic art of Pompeii: http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20001205/393447.html Bloomberg has a report on the auction of a 'year 5 of Israel' shekel: http://www.bloomberg.com/pgcgi.cgi?T=finer99_art.ht&s=AOi_0ABPuUmFyZSBJ The Observer brings a report on Boudicca's nastier side: http://observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,406152,00.html The Egyptian News service brings word of the discovery of a sunken Roman port: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o041220c.htm The Houston Chronicle reports that a chunk of a Roman wall in Spain has collapsed due to heavy rains: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/world/767265 Xinhua reports on the discovery of some ancient iron plates in Central China: http://202.84.17.11/english/htm/20001206/254654.htm The same source reports on the discovery of a rather large stone turtle: http://202.84.17.11/english/htm/20001206/254154.htm National Geographic News has a report on the discovery of a tomb in Vietnam, which should shed light on that region's bronze age: http://209.19.141.102/news/2000/12/12042000/wirvietnam_3374.asp NEW WORLD NEWS Also potentially big news, but I think this has been mentioned before (?), researchers have connected Peru's Nazca lines to water sources: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/12/001201073347.htm http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/12/12052000/nascalines_3379.asp As with other sites of major forest fires this summer, the Sequoia National Forest conflagration has turned out to have revealed quite a few significant archaeological sites: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/12/08/MN156509.DTL A fish trap near Olympia Washington has been dated to the fifteenth century: http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?o1827_BC_WA--IndianArtifacts&&news&newsflash-oregon CLASSICISTS CORNER The Guardian has a somewhat interesting editorial about 'classism' which takes its start from Macauley's \"Lays ...\": http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/saturday_review/story/0,3605,408691,00.html An editorial in the Atlanta Constitution has plenty of Classical content as it compares the current US election difficulties to ancient Rome: http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/tuesday/opinion_a3c289d5a178719310a0.html Time Magazine has a nice little article on the benefits of Latin for English instruction: http://www.time.com/time/education/article/0,8599,90457,00.html SAGAS Humans out of Africa/DNA http://helix.nature.com/nsu/001207/001207-8.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1058000/1058484.stm http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/human_evolution001206.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/499641.asp?cp1=1 FOLLOWUPS Mummy CAT scans: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o051220h.htm http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,46461,00.html Roman luxury ships: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/12/03/stinwenws01011.html King Tut DNA tests: http://itn.co.uk/news/20001205/world/11mummy.shtml http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/12/05/king.tut.ap/index.html Wisconsin Cave Paintings (I'm not sure if this one will still come up): http://radio.cbc.ca/insite/AS_IT_HAPPENS_TORONTO/2000/11/30.html World's Oldest Love Song: http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20001206/hi_hu_song.html Cambyses' army (boy, they better find something ... they're certainly building the hype): http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/12/08/p7s2.htm http://209.19.141.102/news/2000/12/12082000/wirpersia_3408.asp AT ABOUT.COM Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest is about Vincent Panella's first novel, which feature Julius Ca"}, {"response": 506, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (01:45)", "body": "the following is from dave salisbury's \"an occult guide to legendary london\", at this URL: http://members.tripod.co.uk/Brit_Nephilim/page29.html \"Christchurch, Spitalfields During the restoration work following the Great Fire of London, one of Sir Christopher Wren's contemporaries built a string of strange churches across the city. Nicholas Hawksmoor claimed to be following the ancient building traditions of the early Christian basilicas, but his obelisk-like spires and trompe d'oeuil effects have drawn admiration and conspiracy theorists in equal measures. Christchurch, Spitalfields is Hawksmoor's best example. Haunted does not describe the feeling of a church built atop a plague pit, over the road from what used to be the biggest abattoir in the world. A recent excavation of the crypt (now a drop-in centre for homeless alcoholics) unearthed a series of lead lined coffins full of liquefied corpses which archaeologists had to shovel out into bags for analysis. Does lead stop a Nephilim from returning to its stasis? Hmm. If anywhere in London is the site of a Black Moon Ka nexus, it's here.\" then there's this, from \"spoilheap: burial archaeology\", at this URL: http://www.spoilheap.co.uk/burintr.htm \"The period from the beginning of the 16th century has been identified as the start of the modern era and is termed post-medieval by archaeologists. Historians date this change from the reign of Henry VII and his innovations in government. Most of the evidence for this period is historical rather than archaeological, but a few excavations have been carried out in post-medieval churches, notably in London (St. Bride's and Christchurch, Spitalfields) and Holland (Zwolle). Other archaeological methods have been used to record standing monuments in churchyards and other funerary objects. Spitalfields burial in coffins within crypts, often stacked in precarious positions, sometimes even on their heads excavated to recover a group of identifiable burials archaeologically for anthropological study. also provided an insight into 18th and 19th c. crypt burial customs, and a closely dated series of funerary artefacts. allowed for comparison of historical and archaeological data e.g. accounts of contemporary funerals compared with the total disarray of coffins and bodies within the crypts.\""}, {"response": 507, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (14:44)", "body": "Prehistoric Treasure Found in Trash RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A retired Brazilian carpenter had hoped to get rich off a piece of trash his sons dug out of a garbage dump 40 years ago: a 2.6 million-year-old mammoth molar the size of a small television. The family of Francisco Porfirio dos Santos, 88, uncovered the prehistoric molar at a dump in the Boogie-woogie shantytown of northern Rio de Janeiro some four decades ago. But dos Santos only recently took the fossil to the National Museum to find out what it was, said Deise Dias, a biologist at Rio de Janeiro's National Museum, Tuesday. \"After 40 years of sitting on the fossil he brought it to us to identify and now he's saying he wants to sell it,\" she said. Dias said the tooth belongs to a mammoth, a sort of extinct elephant which had hairy skin and long curved tusks which roamed the earth millions of years ago. Mammoth remains have been found in North America, Asia and Europe but not in South America. \"It's a beautiful piece with rich scientific value, but absolutely no commercial value, especially since it's illegal to sell fossils in Brazil,\" added Dias. \"It's a pity all the media blitz went to his head, but we can't buy it.\""}, {"response": 508, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (18:46)", "body": "DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for December 13, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - A WARRIOR CAMP Pre-Viking Chieftains Likely Drove Scandinavian Conflicts http://discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/121200-warrior.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Pompeii Love http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20001212/hi_hu_pompeii.html - DNA Investigations of King Tut Postponed http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001212/sc/egypt_tutankhamun_1.html - Archaeological Field School in Tuscany http://www.smu.edu/~poggio/2000fieldseason.html - Refreshing the Frescoes http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns226827 - World's Oldest Love Song http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20001206/hi_hu_song.html - Japan's Stone Age Man Hoax Update http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/07/world/07JAPA.html?pagewanted=2 - Maine's Sunken Wreck http://www.herald.com/thispage.htm?content/archive/news/yahoo/digdocs/100360.htm - DNA and an Ancient Persian Riddle http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/12/12082000/wirpersia_3408.asp - Tomb Discovery in Vietnam http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/12/12042000/wirvietnam_3374.asp - Learn Hieroglyphics http://egypttourism.org/English/TravelTips/Hieroglyphic.htm ----- The Discovering Archaeology Newsletter finds the week's most interesting archaeological stories and presents them to you in a simple, easy to read format on the web. Read these and other interesting features, including Readers Polls, Book Reviews, Archaeological Event Calendars and much more at: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 509, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 21, 2000 (01:07)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering Archaeology Weekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for December 20, 2000 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - CHOMPING AT THE BIT Researhers find the first ridden horse http://discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/121900-horses.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Athens Subway http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/19/arts/19ARTS.html - Two new sites in India http://www.timesofindia.com/151200/15indi44.htm - The Vikings and The Vatican http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/19/science/19HEYE.html - Battlefield Archaeology and the Collapsing Tunnels http://www.theage.com.au/news/2000/12/15/FFXUE48YPGC.html - Remote Desert City Holds Priceless Manuscripts http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/12/12112000/wirdesert_3414.asp - Dateline... Bulgaria http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001218/wl/bulgaria_tomb_1.html - The Aerial Archaeology Research Group http://rs6000.univie.ac.at/AARG/ - Student Stories in Archaeological Fiction http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~kah2/fiction.htm ----- The Discovering Archaeology Newsletter finds the week's most interesting archaeological stories and presents them to you in a simple, easy to read format on the web. Read these and other interesting features, including Readers Polls, Book Reviews, Archaeological Event Calendars and much more at: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 510, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  3, 2001 (18:46)", "body": "EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 35 -- December 31, 2000 ]|[=================================================================]|[ Editor's note: Depending on your mail software, some urls may wrap (especially those from the Telegraph) which will require you to rebuild the url at your end; if you get a 'file not found', check to see if the url wrapped on you. Most urls should be active for at least eight hours from the time of 'publicatio'. ]|[=================================================================]|[ As we enter a new year (and Millennium), your editor would just like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year. It's been a quiet week, as one might expect, but I'm still happy to report that over the past year, subscriptions to Explorator increased by 50% and hopefully the next year will bring an even greater increase! Thanks for your support! OLD WORLD NEWS Xinhua via Northern Light reports on the discovery of some 3500-year-old structures in Iran: Http://library.northernlight.com/FB20001223260000013.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc Egypt Revealed via USA Today reports on the discovery of a pile of inscriptions in Egypt (from all periods) which are threatened by road construction: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/science/archaeology/inscript121800.htm Another story suggests some recent discoveries by a British team might challenge ideas of the origins of the Egyptians: http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/281200/detFOR12.asp http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4110040,00.html The Bergen Record has an interesting \"Antiques Roadshowish\" story wherein the donation of some pots to Richard Stockton College might prove that they are actually wares from Magna Graecia: http://www.bergen.com/ed/urn26200012265.htm Ananova reports on plans to possibly rebury 'Seahenge': http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_156765.html?menu = Business Week has an interview with Robert Vergnieux on the use of new technology in archaeology: http://www.businessweek.com/ebiz/0012/eo1229a.htm For what it's worth, Northern Light picked up a Reuters story on a book which describes how the Knights Templar took the Holy Grail *and* the Ark of the Covenant to some island in the Baltic Sea: http://library.northernlight.com/HB20001224010000016.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc In the same department from TASS via Northern Light is a somewhat confusing report on the discovery of the tomb of St. Nicholas (a bit suspicious this one): http://library.northernlight.com/FB20001220270000219.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc NEW WORLD NEWS I couldn't find any ... told you it was a bit slow this week. ON THE NEWSSTANDS Archaeology Magazine has a new online issue, with a full text article on the Karachi mummy and abstracts on forging Minoan artifacts and making mummies (by Bob Brier) among other things: http://www.archaeology.org/curiss/toc/toc.html CLASSICIST'S CORNER The Lakeland Ledger has a piece on a local archaeologist's search for the historical Jesus: http://www.theledger.com/local/local/25arch.htm Rediff Online has a report on a booklet which suggests Indians discovered the Pythagorean theorem long before Pythagoras (among other things): http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/jan/01rss.htm FOLLOWUPS Sunken cities in Aboukir Bay: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/12/001214082602.htm http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000140326706927&rtmo=as3sHb3L&atmo=HHHHHHHL&pg=/et/00/12/27/wcleo27.html Egyptian prosthetic toes: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/hsn/20001222/hl/walk_like_an_egyptian_1.html http://www.arabia.com/article/0,1690,Life|36125,00.html Thracian tomb in Bulgaria: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/breakingnews/International/0,3561,622736,00.html REGULAR FEATURES CTCWeb's Words of the Week http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/myword.html Radio Finland's Nuntii Latini http://www.yle.fi/fbc/latini/trans.html English translation (probably delayed ... hasn't been updated since August): http://www.cbc4kids.ca/general/whats-new/latin-news/mainlatin.html l> EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT: http://www.onelist.com/archive/Explorator ]|[================================================================]|[ EXPLORATOR is a weekly newsletter representing the fruits of the labours of 'media research division' of The Atrium. Various on-line news and magazine sources are scoured on a daily basis for news of the ancient world (broadly construed: practically anything relating to archaeology or history prior to about 1700 or so is fair game) and when a sufficient number of urls are gathered (usually a minimum of three stories), they are delivered to your mailbox free of charge! Those articles that don't expire, plus supplementary links eventually find a home at: Commentarium (news articles) http://web.idirect.com/~atrium/commentarium.html The Rostra (audio files) http://web.idirect.com/~atrium/rostra.html A media archive of links of files that have previously appeared in Commentarium or at the Rostra is currently under cons"}, {"response": 511, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan  6, 2001 (18:07)", "body": ""}, {"response": 512, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (15:05)", "body": "EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 36 -- January 7, 2001 OLD WORLD NEWS Kathimerini has a tantalizingly brief article on a dispute over rights to dig where what is possibly the oldest human skull in Europe was found: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=65090 NG News has an item on how the receding waters of the Sea of Galilee have revealed a neolithic site: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/01/0102galilee.html The San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting piece on a biopsy done on a 3,500 year-old mummy: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/01/03/MNW107794.DTL An animal cemetery has been discovered in Egypt: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Africa/2001-01/egyptian030101.shtml http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20010105/di_hi_ratmummy.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1098000/1098102.stm http://www.arabia.com/article/0,1690,Life|36597,00.html Also on the Egyptian front, the Independent has an interesting item on how a scholar has traced the origins of the concept of \"the mummy's curse\": http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2000-12/mummy311200.shtml The Jerusalem Post has a somewhat shocking item on how the IAA treated a certain artifact: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/01/05/News/News.18885.html The Sunday Times has a report on Thor Heyerdahl's theory that viking \"tax exiles\" settled in America: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/01/07/stifgnusa02002.html The BBC reports on Iraq's ongoing efforts to restore its heritage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1102000/1102547.stm The Sunday Times has a report on Greece's plans to destroy a huge chunk of the site of the Battle of Marathon for Olympic event purposes: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/01/07/stifgneur01004.html The Indian Express has a piece on the discovery of an inscription which sheds light on Hindu rule in 9th century Afghanistan: http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20010105/iin05014.html The People's Daily reports on the discovery of a number of Shang Dynasty tombs (this one and the following items should have been in last week's issue): http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200012/19/eng20001219_58230.html The same source also has a couple of items on what excavations in Sanxingui are revealing: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200012/13/eng20001213_57743.html http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200012/11/eng20001211_57502.html Xinhua via Northern Light reports on the discovery of a pair of horse graves in China: http://library.northernlight.com/FB20010104840000319.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc Science Daily has an item on how volcanic eruptions may have really made the Dark Ages 'dark' (this isn't really a new story): http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/01/010102061812.htm Back to the BBC, which has an interesting report on excavating shipwrecks from the Zuider Zee: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/from_our_own_correspondent/newsid_1102000/1102498.stm NEW WORLD NEWS The Canadian version of Discovery Channel has an interview online with David Johnson in regards to the evidence that the Nazca Lines in Peru have associations with water sources (a brief bit of text, but otherwise requires Windows Media Player): http://www.exn.ca/Stories/2001/01/04/60.cfm ON THE NEWSSTANDS There's a new issue of Biblical Archaeology Review on the stands, the highlight of which is its annual guide to digs: http://www.bib-arch.org/bar2.html Bible Review also has a new online issue, with articles on \"King David, Serial Murderer\" and \"The Gospel of Thomas\" , among other things: http://www.bib-arch.org/br2.html And we might as well round out the BAS triad: Archaeology Odyssey has a new issue out (new to me) with an article on kingship in Sumer, another guide to digs, etc.: http://www.bib-arch.org/aod2.html CLASSICIST'S CORNER Kathimerini has a report on an exhibit of photos of the Acropolis over time (pardon the awkward description): http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=65101 I missed this one ... the Boston Globe a month ago had a report on the revival of Classical Greek in a certain county jail (!): http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/344/metro/At_county_jail_study_of_classical_Greek_enjoying_a_revival+.shtml The Cincinnati Enquirer has a piece on the return of Latin to a high school in that city: http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/12/26/loc_latin_classes_return.html REVIEWS The LA Times has a review of Finkelstein and Silberman *The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts*: http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20010106/t000001538.html SAGAS Kennewick Man: http://www.msnbc.com/news/323998.asp?cp1=1 http://www.kgw.com/kgwnews/oregonwash_story.html?StoryID=11677 Elgin Marbles (same story, different papers): http://www.southam.com/ottawacitizen/newsnow/cpfs/world/010105/w010540.html http://www.vancouversun"}, {"response": 513, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (15:33)", "body": "That must be be, a Viking tax exile!"}, {"response": 514, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (18:19)", "body": "Boy, did they ever pick the wrong place for a white male worker to hide his taxes!!! Perhaps that is why so few Vikings are still here?!"}, {"response": 515, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (16:49)", "body": "Scientific American Discovering ArchaeologyWeekly DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY Newsletter for Januarary 13, 2001 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml --- Feature Stories --- - UNLOCKING PANDORA'S MYSTERIES Forensic Anthropologists Search for Clues about Mysterious Sailors http://discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/010801-pandora.shtml Plus these Feature Reports: - Australian Challenge to the Out of Africa Theory http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1108000/1108413.stm - Modern Threat to Ancient Cave Petroglyphs http://www.msnbc.com/news/512223.asp - Chinese Bones and DNA http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200101/03/eng20010103_59506.html - Roman Coin Cache Uncovered http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010110001253&query - Why Texas Isn't Part of Canada http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20010103/424314.html - China Ruins May Become a World Heritage Site http://english.china.com/cdc/en/culture/articles/0,1677,3734-106000,00.html - The Mummy Has a Wooden Toe http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001228/hl/mummy_toe_1.html - The Brazil Mound http://farwestern.com/brazilmound/pagei.html -----"}, {"response": 516, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (16:55)", "body": "3.4 Million-Year-Old Skeleton Found in Ethiopia ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - An Ethiopian scientist has discovered the well-preserved 3.4 million-year-old partial skeleton of a child hominid, which experts say should provide valuable information in the study of human evolution. Dr. Zeresenay Alemseged, a palaeoanthropologist, told reporters in Addis Ababa Saturday they had found a fragment of a lower jaw and an exceptionally well-preserved partial skeleton, including the skull, of a child early hominid. They were discovered in the Busidina-Dikika sector of the Afar region, in an area bordering the Republic of Djibouti. Busidina-Dukika lies south of Hadar, where numerous fossils of Austrolopithecus Afarensis, including the famous Lucy, have been discovered. \"This is probably the earliest well-preserved young hominid so far known,\" he said, adding that the discovery would help in filling a gap between the earliest known hominids and those from later periods. \"The new hominid is an important addition which may fill in the gap between Lucy, which is dated to 3.2 million years, and a similar hominid species from Laetoli, Tanzania, and dated at 3.7 million years,\" he said. Alemseged, a post-doctoral research associate at the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, led a mission to prehistoric sites in Busidina and Dikika in 1999 and 2000."}, {"response": 517, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (17:52)", "body": "EXPLORATOR - Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 37 -- January 14, 2001 OLD WORLD NEWS Plenty of versions of this AP story: archaeologists have found what they believe is an insole dating to some 3000 years B.C./B.C.E.: http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/01/01122001/ap_footprint_41315.asp http://www.nj.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0550_BC_AncientInsole&&news&newsflash-international http://austin360.com/shared/news/technology/ap_story.html/Science/AP.V0881.AP-Ancient-Insole.html Just as folks were figuring out what to do with Seahenge, another was discovered (maybe): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Environment/2001-01/seahenge110101.shtml http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1111000/1111952.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003864436460684&rtmo=lvwbQQQt&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/1/11/nheng11.html And while we're on the subject of henges, it's big news in Britain, apparently, that much restoration work went into Stonehenge: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/010901/times_stonehenge.sml http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999310 The Telegraph has a brief item on how the Nile is threatening inscriptions at Karnak: http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003864436460684&rtmo=psSl3M1e&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/1/12/wnile12.html Arabia.com has a feature on pyramids in the Sudan: http://www.arabia.com/article/0,1690,Life|37185,00.html The Charlotte Observer has an item on a new permanent display of artifacts from Israel at UNCC: http://www.charlotte.com/observer/local/pub/oldstuff0112.htm There are a couple of reports on the discovery of a bust of Caesarion (in the waters off Alexandria, of course): http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20010112/hi_ceasar.html http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/010801/times_caesarion.sml Other news from Abukir bay ... this seems like old news, no?: http://www.iol.co.za/html/frame_news.php?click_id=31&art_id=qw97931550066B221 The Telegraph reports on the impending exhibition of a Roman gold coin hoard: http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003864436460684&rtmo=lvwbQQQt&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/1/11/ncoin11.html ... while the Independent reports on the discovery of a new one: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2001-01/coin100101.shtml The Times of India reports that archaeologists have found an ancient 'idol making unit': http://www.timesofindia.com/today/06ente13.htm The Age reports on the trial of seven men accused of robbing a tomb near Beijing: http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/0101/12/A13265-2001Jan12.html NEW WORLD NEWS CNN has a report on the threat posed by mining operations to petroglyphs in the Dominican Republic: http://www.cnn.com/2001/STYLE/arts/01/10/cave.art.ap/index.html The Billings Gazette has a report on how a piece of 'repatriation' legislation is working: http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?section=local&display=content/local/debate.inc ON THE NEWSSTANDS There's a new issue of British Archaeology on the webstands, with plenty of news items and features on the Bignor Roman Villa, Avebury, and Neanderthals, among other things: http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba51/ba51toc.html CLASSICIST'S CORNER ... sorry, the search engines came up dry this week ... AT ABOUT.COM Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill gives us a rundown of what folks have been chatting about: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa010901a.htm ?terms=a1 Archaeology Guide Kris Hirst has an article on the Koster site: http://archaeology.about.com/library/weekly/aa010801a.htm Latin Guide Janet Burns has a selection of Roman-related January trivia: http://latin.about.com/library/quizzes/blJanuaryTrivia.htm FOLLOWUPS Animal mummies (actually, this is one I missed): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Africa/2001-01/egyptian030101.shtml Black Sea/Noah's Flood: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/09/science/09FLOO.html SAGAS The \"out of Africa\"/maybe not debate has a new installment to complicate matters: http://www.msnbc.com/news/514732.asp?cp1=1 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/01/0111origins.html http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999307 http://www.sciam.com/news/010901/2.html http://www.theaustralian.com.au/common/story_page/0,4511,1594904%255E8882,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1108000/1108413.stm http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Science/2001-01/dna090101.shtml ... and another twist on the same idea: http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSScience0101/11_skulls-ap.html http://www.oweb.com/newslink/National/AncientHumansP0229.html http://www.bergen.com/morenews/oldones200101127.htm REGULAR FEATURES CTCWeb's Words of the Week http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/myword.html url: http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/myword.html EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT: http://www.onelist.com/archive/Explorator"}, {"response": 518, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 21, 2001 (18:06)", "body": "EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 38 -- January 21, 2001 ]|[=================================================================]|[ OLD WORLD NEWS What might be construed as the big news of the week, based on press coverage alone, is the theory that early bone tools reveal that early hominids chowed down on termites: http://www.msnbc.com/news/517206.asp http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/hominid_termites.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1119000/1119359.stm http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Science/2001-01/dinner160101.shtml http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/17/science/science-humans-dc.html The Telegraph and MSNBC have a brief item on using DNA analysis to learn about when horses were domesticated: http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003864436460684&rtmo=fs3aMa0s&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/1/19/whors19.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/518171.asp Just when you thought the 'Noah's flood' thing had died down, a team of researchers from Canada is suggesting the site may have been near the Persian Gulf: http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSScience0101/14_manitoba-cp.html http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_173982.html?menu = http://www.nypostonline.com/news/worldnews/21462.htm The Frontier Post has a (somewhat strange) article on the Near East and Aegean art: http://frontierpost.com.pk/weekend.asp?id=4&date1=1/21/2001 Nando Times and the Macedonian Press Agency report that the FBI has (finally) returned a large number of antiquities purloined from the museum at Corinth a decade ago: http://www.nandotimes.com/global/story/0,1024,500301332-500481694-503309637-0,00.html http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpab/2001/01-01-19.mpab.html#12 The Athenian News Agency has an all too brief report on the discovery of some Geometric period tombs in Cyprus: http://www.hri.org/news/greek/ana/2001/01-01-15.ana.html#19 The International Herald Tribune has a piece on the Etruscans: http://www.iht.com/articles/8109.htm I'm sure we'll hear more about this one next week ... EurekaAlert has an interesting press release on how a Classics grad student (yay!) has found proof that Homer was right about burnt sacrifices in the Bronze Age: http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/uc-cds011901.html Techie types will be interested to learn that archaeologists have unearthed a prehistoric C compiler (sorry ... I couldn't resist including this one): http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16227.html Xinhua via Northern Light reports on the discovery of a 3200-year-old noble's tomb in central China: http://library.northernlight.com/FB20010117780000030.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc A number of tombs have also been discovered near Shanghai: http://library.northernlight.com/FA20010119340000017.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc The same source has a wrap up of recent discoveries all over China as well: http://library.northernlight.com/FA20010115390000602.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc NEW WORLD NEWS I couldn't find any New World stuff this week!! ON THE NEWSSTANDS The January issue of Scientific American has an interesting commentary piece on the development of writing: http://www.sciam.com/2001/0101issue/0101wonders.html Discovering Archaeology has put up an article on the city of Aperlae (in Lycia): http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/011401-turkey.shtml http://www.usatoday.com/weather/science/archaeology/2001-01-16-aperlae.htm CLASSICIST'S CORNER Ekathimerini has posted an article from December 1969 (I doubt that's right ... there's a ref to 1998 in it) about the 'Cabernet Sauvignon of Antiquity' -- Phliasios wine -- with plenty of ancient refs ... interesting stuff: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=67087 The New York Times has an extended piece on Cleopatra, with refs to the exhibition in Italy, movies, etc.: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/20/arts/20CLEO.html FOLLOWUPS Baharaiya Oasis mummies: http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010118/2001011829.html Karachi mummy: http://news.excite.com/news/r/010119/08/odd-mummy-dc http://www.timesofindia.com/160101/16nbrs26.htm Ancient insoles: http://chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/article/0,2669,SAV-0101140394,FF.html Zeugma: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:FAITH1/1:FAITH10119101.html SAGAS The Out-of-Africa vs. Not-necessarily-so debate: http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dsnews/219nd1.htm AT ABOUT.COM Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest is on Hanno of Carthage's little trip: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa011801a.htm?terms=a1 Latin Guide Janet Burns' has a guest-written feature on Augustus: http://latin.about.com/homework/latin/library/weekly/aa011401a.htm REGULAR FEATURES CTCWeb's Words of the Week http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/myword.html Radio Finland's Nuntii Latini http://www.yle.fi/fbc/latini/trans.html English translation (probably delayed ... hasn't been updated since August): http://www.cbc4kids.ca/general/whats-new/latin-news/mainlatin.html l>"}, {"response": 519, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 22, 2001 (04:16)", "body": ""}, {"response": 520, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 22, 2001 (04:17)", "body": "I have persmission from the senior writer of this article to post it. If there is enough interest in the citations, I will post them as well. Thanks JSK! A SUBSTITUTE HAY WAGON IN SOUTHERN OHIO: NOTES ON RURAL MATERIAL CULTURE John S. Kessler and Donald B. Ball ___________________________________________________________________________________________ A simple implement resembling a mono-runner sled used for the transportation of hay from the field in the days before baling became a locally common practice is described as observed in a restricted section of rural Ohio in 1945. This device appears to be previously unreported in the European and regional material culture literature; no antecedent implement is presently known. The simplicity and temporary nature of such items of material culture demonstrate the problems in inherent in interpreting disarticulated yet previously recycled historic artifacts. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Editor\ufffds Note: The description of the subject farm implement for the first time in print affords the opportunity to simultaneously document this humble and little known item of material culture and contemplate its interface with regional historic archaeological investigations. As may be noted from the following discussion, the few items of likely recycled stable hardware needed to construct this implement serve to clearly demonstrate the problems - if not impossibility - of confidently interpreting certain categories of disarticulated historic artifacts. A major portion of the senior author's childhood was spent in Brushcreek Township in rural Highland County, (south-central) Ohio. This location at the edge of the Appalachian escarpment was in many respects atavistic, retaining the southern-weighted flavor, customs, and methods of the 19th and perhaps 18th centuries. One possible holdover from earlier times was a method for transporting hay from the field in which it was cut to the haystack. In general, the prevailing method for hay harvest (prior to the local rise in popularity of baling in the 1950s) was cutting with a horse drawn or tractor mounted sickle bar mower, raking into windrows, and loading into a wagon to which hay racks had been attached for transport to the stack site This process was labor and equipment intensive. A typical crew consisted of two wagons with drivers (each wagon pulled by either a team of horses or a tractor), at least three loaders, and one stack builder. This broke down into six people, two wagons, and four horses or two tractors. If the hay was being stored in a hay mow (barn loft), about the same size crew would have been required for reasonable efficiency. During the season of 1945 while World War II was still in progress, there was a shortage of either manpower, equipment, or both in the hay crew with which the senior author (then 12 years of age) was associated. Consequently, a different method of transporting the hay to the stack site was adopted. After being cut and allowed to partially cure, the hay was raked and piled into \"doodles\". A hay doodle was in fact a small stack about four ft (1.2 m) in height and about the same in diameter. Thus, a hayfield would be filled with these small stacks or, colloquially, doodles which needed to be transported to the hay stack. TRANSPORTING HAY The actual transportation was assigned to the senior author and another boy somewhat older in age. This was accomplished by providing each of us with a horse to which a rather unusual contrivance was attached via a single tree. As recalled over half a century later, this device (Figure 1) consisted of a pole made from a freshly cut hickory sapling about three to four in. (7.6-10 cm) in diameter at the base and about eight ft (2.4 m) in length. A ring was attached by #9 wire to the basal end while the other end had been sharpened to a point with an ax. One end of a rope about twice the length of the sapling was tied to the single tree while the other was passed through the ring attached to the basal end of the pole. Another ring equal to or greater in size than the basal ring was then attached to the free (\"bitter\") end of the rope. Thus, FIGURE 1. A SUBSTITUTE HAY WAGON FROM RURAL OHIO. when the pole was pulled behind the horse, the ring attached to the rope would prevent that rope from being pulled completely through the basal ring. After these contrivances were attached, the horses were ridden into the hayfield and halted at a hay doodle. Here a hay hand would shove the sharpened end of the pole under the doodle, put the rope over the doodle, and place the ring tied to the bitter end over the sharpened end of the sapling. The doodle was then in a loop formed by the rope over its top and the sapling beneath it. When the horse walked forward, the loop tightened as the bitter end ring was pulled up the length of the pole and the rope was pulled through the basal ring. In this fashion, the doodle was se"}, {"response": 521, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 28, 2001 (16:04)", "body": "EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 35 -- December 31, 2000 ]|[=================================================================]|[ OLD WORLD NEWS News24 has a feature on new technology being used on the Dead Sea Scrolls: http://news.24.com/News24/Technology/Science_Nature/0,1113,2-13-46_968917,00.html Also in Israel, the prime minister has ordered a halt to excavations on Temple Mount: http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=14&datee=01/22/01&id=107528 http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/01/22/News/News.19995.html I think this is a repeat (the photo is for sure), but MSNBC has a feature on archaeological matters in Yemen: http://www.msnbc.com/news/518350.asp USA Today/Egypt Revealed have a piece on the playing of a couple of 'trumpets' from King Tut's tomb: http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/archaeology/2001-01-27-ancientmusic.htm http://www.egyptrevealed.com/012401_tutstrumpet.htm The Observer has an excerpt from Anthony Sattin *The Pharaoh's Shadow* which is somewhat interesting: http://www.observer.co.uk/travel/story/0,6903,429704,00.html National Geographic reports on plans to move homes away from the Valley of the Kings etc.: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/archaeology.html Business Week has a chapter excerpt from W. Michael Blumenthal *The Invisible Wall* which has some interesting, albeit fleeting, bits of ancient history: http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/blumenthal.htm A couple of sources report on an underwater archaeological expedition searching for various pirate ships: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/ship01192001.htm http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010124/3011912s.htm Also on the pirate front are a couple of reports on dives off the coast of Kenya (which includes pirate remains and prehistoric ones): http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/breakingnews/International/0,3561,690378,00.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Kenya-Sunken-Treasure.html The Guardian has an item on how Hippocrates still has stuff to teach us: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4121846,00.html RussiaToday has a feature on ancient art in Uzbekistan (no decent pictures, alas): http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=269678 A couple of sources on the discovery of an 'Anglo Saxon gold disk' or 'erotic ring': http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_182949.html?menu = http://www.the-journal.co.uk/cfm/newsstory.cfm?StoryId=227871 The Herald reports on the discovery of a 12th-century cemetery in Kinghorn (Scotland): http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/26-1-19101-23-55-34.html Xinhua's weekly wrap-up of archaeological work in China: http://library.northernlight.com/FA20010122630000321.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc http://library.northernlight.com/FA20010122630000339.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc The BBC reports on the increasing rate of discovery of coin hoards: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1133000/1133910.stm And as long as we're talking about coin hoards, here's one I missed a few weeks ago (despite having been given a heads up) from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1109000/1109308.stm One we'll likely hear more about: a Eurekalert press release (and several spawned articles) tells of one prof's theory on the connection between collapse of societies and climate change: http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/umass-ccp012501.html http://www.smh.com.au/news/0101/28/world/world4.html http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-26-09.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000140326706927&rtmo=lvSbnzAt&atmo=HHHHHHHL&pg=/et/01/1/26/wclim26.html The BBC has an interesting item on what a Raphael painting has recently revealed: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/from_our_own_correspondent/newsid_1130000/1130895.stm NEW WORLD NEWS The Free-Lance Star reports on the discovery of a paleo-Indian site near Fredericksburg: http://www.fredericksburg.com/news/Local/Culpeper/0127arti.htm The BBC reports on the archaeological potential of Ek Balam http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1136000/1136198.stm An AP report tells of a dig near Independence Hall in Philadelphia, which reveals a culturally-diverse early colony: http://www.msnbc.com/news/519972.asp http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/dig_philly010123.html http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/012301/phili_dig.sml CLASSICIST'S CORNER National Defense magazine has a sidebar piece which cites classical precedents for psyops: http://nationaldefense.ndia.org/article.cfm?Id=427 (full article at http://nationaldefense.ndia.org/article.cfm?Id=425 ) ABCNewsguy John Stossel makes passing mention that there were classical (and even more ancient) precedents for making New Year's resolutions (is this true??): http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/ABCNEWSSpecials/001229_stossel_feature.html One I missed last week: the Washington Post had a feature on presidential inaugurations with a sidebar on the origin of the word: http://washingtonpost.com/"}, {"response": 522, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  1, 2001 (18:45)", "body": "NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2, 2001 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml This Week's Feature Reports Hail Caesar\ufffds A casino is paying for an archaeological dig TV Archaeologist Helps Identify War Casualties British archaeologist helps with the healing process The Archaeology Of Shipwrecks UNESCO fights to save our underwater heritage Archaeology in Mali Political unrest hampers archaeological research Tale of Two Trails Bones and DNA reveal the history of human origins The EMuseum Come stroll through Minnesota State University\ufffds virtual gallery \ufffd if you dare! http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 523, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb  4, 2001 (17:25)", "body": "EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 40 -- February 4, 2000 ]|[=================================================================]|[ OLD WORLD NEWS Egypt Revealed has an interesting item on Egypt as \"cradle of the neurosciences\": http://www.egyptrevealed.com/020201-neuroscience.shtml A brief item at Egypt Online tells of the discovery of a bust of Isis, dating to Ptolemaic times: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o270121c.htm The same source relates the discovery of some Ptolemaic-era baths (the date at the top of the page is wrong; this is a new item): http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o010221.htm One I missed last week: the Lebanon Star has an interesting item on the remains of Tabinet, king of Sidon: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/features/27_01_01_b.htm The Times on plans for the Roman Forum: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,20-76039,00.html The online news section of Archaeology magazine has an interesting item on mob activity in regards to (modern) Pompeii (so to speak): http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/mob.html They also have a short feature on Magnesia on the Maeander: http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/magnesia/index.html The Journal reports on plans to excavate a Roman fort in County Durham: http://www.the-journal.co.uk/cfm/newsstory.cfm?StoryId=229097 Discovering Archaeology has a brief item on wrestling in history (mostly in ancient Greece): http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/013101-hulkhogan.shtml What might be the oldest Christian church has been discovered in Jordan (this is a bit of a deja vu, no?); there's a video tour of the church at the CNN site: http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/01/29/jordan.church/index.html National Geographic news has a nice feature on the TAY project, which is webbifying plenty of archaeological and historical data relating to ancient Turkey: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/02/0202_turkeyweb.html As might be suspected, the recent earthquake in Gujarat has caused damage to many ancient monuments: http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/regional/gujarat/20010201-7.html http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_193039.html?menu=news.latestheadlines http://www.cnn.com/2001/TRAVEL/NEWS/02/01/quake.monuments.ap/index.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003864436460684&rtmo=rrrrrrrq&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/ixworld.html The Xinhua summaries of recent archaeological finds in China: http://library.northernlight.com/FB20010131630000016.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc http://library.northernlight.com/FB20010131620000315.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc The New York Post has a reviewish sort of thing of Oscar Muscarella's work claiming up to 45 items at the Met might be forgeries/fakes: http://www.nypost.com/02012001/entertainment/21538.htm In a similar vein is a EXN.ca story on a suspect Minoan artifact at the Royal Ontario Museum: http://exn.ca/Stories/2001/01/31/52.cfm NEW WORLD NEWS A Science Daily press release (and others) on one scholar's theory on the Hohokam \"multiethnic network: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010202073801.htm http://www.eurekalert.org/news.pub.brief.html I suspect we'll be hearing more about this one, a Eurekalert press release about the Texas A&M excavations at the Gault site: http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/tam-taf013101.html Discovering Archaeology has a feature on a certain person's redating of Tiwanako and why it's wrong: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/013101-15,000mistake.shtml On a more positive note, the same source has a feature on a recently-discovered urban area at Palenque: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/013001-palenque.shtml REVIEWS The New York Times has a review of Finkelstein and Silberman *The Bible Unearthed*: http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/04/reviews/010204.04triblet.html CLASSICIST'S CORNER The Salt Lake Tribune has a feature on the religious origins of the Olympic games: http://www.sltrib.com/02032001/saturday/68198.htm The followup to the \"Images of Alexander\"-test-at-Harvard-cancelled-because-of-a-bomb-threat story: http://news.excite.com/news/uw/010131/university-107 A nice article on a high school ancient civ teacher: http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/sun/news/docs/029173.htm A review of a performance of Oedipus Rex, set in contemporary Africa: http://www.bostonphoenix.com:80/boston/arts/theater/documents/00408547.htm A review of Medea, starring Fiona Shaw: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/newsid_1148000/1148799.stm Another old one which turned up this a.m. for some reason ... a nice little history of the calendar: http://www.sptimes.com/News/010101/Columns/Julius_Caesar_s_old_d.shtml AT ABOUT.COM: Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill has a couple of interesting items this week, including a feature on St. Patrick: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa020101a.htm and a guest feature on Carthage and Human Sacrifice: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa020101a.htm Archaeology Guide Kri"}, {"response": 524, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 15, 2001 (17:50)", "body": "Pyramid in Peru Yields Unprecedented Buried Treasure Archeology: UCLA scientists find unique cultural artifacts in three 1,500-year-old tombs of the Moche people. By THOMAS H. MAUGH II, Times Staff Writer UCLA archeologists have found three unlooted tombs in a 1,500-year-old Moche pyramid in Peru, a finding that has left them scratching their heads over the burial chambers' unusual contents. Each of the three treasure-filled tombs was accompanied by a miniature tomb containing a copper figurine of the deceased and miniature versions of the tomb's artifacts--something never seen in any culture before, even in the most elaborate Egyptian chambers. Perhaps even more puzzling, all three of the deceased, and two other young males apparently included as sacrifices, were giants among the short-statured Moche people, whose empire flourished in the desert plain between the Andes and the Pacific from about AD 100 to 800. \"More than 350 Moche burials have been excavated [by archeologists],\" said UCLA archeologist Christopher B. Donnan, who led the team, \"but neither I nor my colleagues have seen anything elsewhere remotely like the ones at this site.\" Fewer than 15 of those previously discovered tombs contained silver and gold, but all three of the new ones do, and one contains unusual amounts, suggesting that its occupant was very powerful. The tombs and artifacts are expected to give archeologists new insights into the religious beliefs of the Moche, said archeologist Steve Bourget of the University of Texas at Austin. The discovery, announced Wednesday by the National Geographic Society, which sponsored the excavation, is also important because the tombs are from the early stages of the Moche empire. Most previous discoveries have dated from the end of the Moche empire. \"We certainly know what happened at the end [of the Moche empire], but what happened at the beginning has been a mystery,\" said Moche expert Carol Mackey, a professor emerita at Cal State Northridge. \"It's really important to find a beginning and an end of something.\" The Moche were primarily farmers, who probably migrated to the Peruvian plain from Central America. They diverted rivers into a network of irrigation canals, growing corn, beans, chili peppers, potatoes and squash. They also dined on ducks, llama, guinea pigs and fish. A sophisticated culture, the Moche raised huge pyramids of sun-dried mud bricks, laying their noblest dead inside. They also created splendid objects of gold, silver and copper. Although the Moche apparently had no written language, their artifacts are decorated with scenes of hunting, fishing, combat, punishment, sexual encounters and elaborate ceremonies. Their departure from the area is a source of some mystery, but many experts believe that it was hastened by a prolonged drought followed by a series of floods. They were eventually succeeded in the region by the Incas. The new tombs were discovered at Dos Cabezas, the first big settlement identified from the early Moche culture. Dos Cabezas is at the mouth of the Jaquetepequa River, about 40 miles south of Sipan, where even more elaborate tombs were found in the 1980s. Donnan's team began working at Dos Cabezas in 1994, initially confining its efforts to exploring and preserving opened tombs that already had been looted. Members also discovered a fishermen's neighborhood and an enclave occupied by farmers during the early Moche period. The team has been searching intensively for workshops and tools to explain how the Moche constructed the sophisticated artifacts found there, said team member Alana Cordy-Collins of the University of San Diego, but so far without success. Donnan found the first tomb in the summer of 1997. It contained an adult male with a 15-year-old female lying crosswise at his feet--most likely a sacrifice. The man had been buried wearing a cylindrical metal headdress and a gold nose ornament. Four \"absolutely awesome\" ceramics were arrayed in the corners of the tomb, Bourget said. \"Each piece is museum quality,\" he said. One was a white ceramic vampire bat, one was a black sea lion, one was a red condor and the last was a brown owl. The bat is associated with human sacrifice, Bourget said. The sea lion is associated with being the victim of a sacrifice. The owl is associated with the preparation of funeral offerings and the condor is associated with eating the dead--liberating the soul of the dead by taking the flesh off the bones. At one end of the tomb, Donnan said, was a little compartment containing a copper figurine wrapped in textiles and accompanied by miniature artifacts. \"When we finished, the big question for me--and one that haunted me throughout the next school year--was what was the relationship between the little compartment and the tomb?\" Donnan said. \"We were at a loss to explain it.\" The following summer, the team opened a second tomb that contained 10 to 15 times as many riches as the first, Donnan said. \"The only tombs that are ri"}, {"response": 525, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Feb 16, 2001 (13:44)", "body": "Good grief!!! Great story, Marcia, glad I looked ... Yup - just got online for first time in months - only $3 an hour from Mali!!!! Anyway, greetings to all."}, {"response": 526, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 16, 2001 (14:15)", "body": "OH MAGGIE!!! Aloha! We have missed you!!! Lovely things found in that tomb too. I will post image locations as soon as good ones are available."}, {"response": 527, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Feb 17, 2001 (15:02)", "body": "Maggie, you're back! Greetings to you and your family."}, {"response": 528, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 18, 2001 (14:11)", "body": "EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 42 -- February 18, 2001 ]|[=================================================================]|[ Editor's note: Depending on your mail software, some urls may wrap (especially those from the Telegraph) which will require you to rebuild the url at your end; if you get a 'file not found', check to see if the url wrapped on you. Most urls should be active for at least eight hours from the time of 'publicatio'. ]|[=================================================================]|[ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks for heads ups (headses ups ... er, heads upses ... er, when does that coffee finally come up (actually it's green tea these days) to: rmhowe, Bill Kennedy, Sally Winchester, Michael Ruggieri, Chris Laning, Glenn Meyer, and DC Briscoe! OLD WORLD NEWS I'm positive this is really a story from last year, but Czech archaeologists have confirmed that the song they found in an Old Kingdom tomb was a love song: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/02/0213_1stlovesong.html A somewhat strange/chatty piece on King Tut in the Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/02/16/fp23s2-csm.shtml I'm pretty sure this isn't 'new', but Discovering Archaeology has an item on a Stonehenge-like structure in Yemen: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/020801-yemen.shtml The Egyptian State Information Service (and others) reports on the discovery of a statue of Septimius Severus in Alexandria: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o120221b.htm http://www.timesofindia.com/130201/13mide15.htm http://www.arabia.com/article/0,1690,Life|39843,00.html An AP story via NorthernLight reveals that the scaffolding will be removed from the Parthenon in time for the Olympics: http://library.northernlight.com/EC20010214530000082.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc Ekatherimini reports on four recently-acquired 6th/5th century B.C./B.C.E. Greek vases now on display at the Goulandris: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=71655 Ekatherimini also has a nice feature on the Via Egnatia: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=71477 The Tahoe Tribune reports on a recently-acquired Hellenistic-era mummy mask: http://www.tahoe.com/tribune/stories.2.16.01/YourTown/cultureflerun16Feb9437.html The Chicago Sun-Times has a feature on the restoration of Stonehenge a century or so ago: http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/stone18.html The Irish Times reports that 'reconstruction' of a megalithic tomb has been halted at Carrowmore: http://www.ireland.com:80/newspaper/ireland/2001/0215/hom15.htm The same source has a report on the number of sites found by the Cork Archaeological Survey: http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2001/0213/reg3.htm Storms in Wales have revealed a medieval settlement: http://www.worldnews.com/?action=display&article=5677105&template=worldnews/search.txt&index=recent AlphaGalileo and Ananova report on the discovery of a (17th or 18th century) phallic drinking cup (photo at Ananova): http://www.alphagalileo.org/ReadNotice.cfm?releaseid=5571 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_206635.html?menu = Xinhua's wrapup of recent discoveries in China (via NorthernLight): http://library.northernlight.com/FB20010131620000315.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc http://library.northernlight.com/FA20010206360000053.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc Xinhua also reports on the discovery of an ancient musket: http://library.northernlight.com/FA20010207770000016.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc Frankfurter Allgemeine has a feature (in English ... don't worry) on the renewed interest in plaster cast collections (mind the wrap): http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub=%7BB1311FFE-FBFB-11D2-B228-00105A9CAF88%7D&doc=%7BCB6E0FA0-FFBE-11D4-A3B3-009027BA22E4%7D&width=1024&height=740&agt=explorer&ver=4&svr=4 NEW WORLD NEWS The big new world news is the discovery of a Moche tomb in Peru (lots of coverage ... photos at NG): http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/02/0215_moche.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/530988.asp http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010215/sc/moche_dc_1.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5712-2001Feb14.html http://athensnews.dolnet.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12880&m=A09&aa=1&eidos=S http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/02/15/MN193959.DTL http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/02/18/FFXAR3A6AJC.html The Pilot reports that a pile of bones remains a mystery, three years after their discovery: http://www.pilotonline.com/news/nw0217bon.html NOT SURE HOW TO CLASSIFY THIS ONE A Scottish power company has attempted to bill the Suenos Stone: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/scotland/newsid_1170000/1170273.stm ON THE NEWSSTANDS Bible Review has a new issue out, with an online feature on the earliest Christian inscription, among other things: http://www.bib-arch.org/br2.html Mercator's World has a nice online feature on Olaus Magnus' (b. 1490) map of Scandinavia: http://www.mercato"}, {"response": 529, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 19, 2001 (00:34)", "body": "A Scientific American discussion of who where the first Americans is worth looking through. Great links, too. http://www.sciam.com/2000/0900issue/0900nemecek.html"}, {"response": 530, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 25, 2001 (16:57)", "body": "EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 43 -- February 25, 2001 ]|[=================================================================]|[ Editor's note: Depending on your mail software, some urls may wrap (especially those from the Telegraph) which will require you to rebuild the url at your end; if you get a 'file not found', check to see if the url wrapped on you. Most urls should be active for at least eight hours from the time of 'publicatio'. ]|[=================================================================]|[ Aknowledgements: thanks are accruing to Mark Elliot, Judy Underwood, Ruth McGurk, Bill Phelps, Bill Kennedy and Patrick Rourke (hoping as always that I haven't left anyone out!). OLD WORLD NEWS There is evidence for the claim that the first domesticated animal was the goat: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Science/2001-02/goat190201.shtml http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/02/0220_goat.html The Egyptian State Information Service has a vague article on the search for Zarzora: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o240221u.htm The Detroit News has a preview of the Royal Tombs of Ur exhibit: http://detnews.com/2001/entertainment/0102/24/e01-191990.htm The same source reveals the discovery of an Akhenaten-era statue of a priest and his wife: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o220221b.htm ... and a Mameluke-era water reservoir: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o190221H.htm In case you missed it, the sun illuminated the image of Ramses II at Abu Simbel this week: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o220221a.htm http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/02/0221_abusimbel.html Cairo is coming under fire for bulldozing homes in the Valley of the Kings (and Queens): http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=kCNL1Zkp&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/2/18/wegy18.html A professional talk is getting some coverage -- it deals with the role water supply and water management had on the development of early civilizations: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010221071726.htm Plenty of coverage of this one: the discovery of a 2nd-3rd century B.C./B.C.E. Greek (?) shipwreck in the deep water of the Mediterranean is challenging the theory that ships tended to hug the shore: http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpab/2001/01-02-24.mpab.html#01 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/23/science/23ap-wreck.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/534511.asp http://dsc.discovery.com/news/ap/20010220/wreck.html http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=72697 eKathimerini has a brief item on some smuggled items in Cyprus: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=72694 I missed this one last week: Frankfurter Allgemeine has a very nice feature on the Cleopatra exhibit at the Palazzo Ruspoli: http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub=%7BB1311FD3-FBFB-11D2-B228-00105A9CAF88%7D&doc=%7BCB6E1057-FFBE-11D4-A3B3-009027BA22E4%7D ... and I might as well toss in this one from the same source on an Egyptian exhibition in Hanover (original date Jan. 30): http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub=%7BB1311FD3-FBFB-11D2-B228-00105A9CAF88%7D&doc=%7B2893B856-F584-11D4-A3B3-009027BA22E4%7D USAToday has a touristy piece on Carthage: http://www.usatoday.com/life/travel/leisure/2001/2001-02-22-carthage.htm Also plenty of coverage of this one: analysis of bones have revealed that Rome had to deal with quite a malaria problem: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/20/science/20ROME.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1180000/1180469.stm http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/02/0221_malariarome.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4139301,00.html The Warrington Guardian has an item on the discovery of a Roman site in the area: http://www.thisischeshire.co.uk/cheshire/warrington/news/WARR_NEWS1.html The Telegraph reports on the return of a Roman statue of Diana: http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000140326706927&rtmo=weAsftKb&atmo=HHHHHHHL&pg=/et/01/2/24/wscul24.html There's also a big debate going on in Rome over suggestions that the Via dei Fori Imperiali should be moved: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1186000/1186394.stm The Independent reports on excavations of one of the Vikings' earliest settlements: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Science/2001-02/viking220201.shtml http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/02/0222_viking.html Recent excavations have demonstrated that the Great Wall of China is considerably longer than previously thought: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/23/science/23ap-archaeo.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/534506.asp http://dsc.discovery.com/news/ap/20010220/wall.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1184000/1184306.stm The Telegraph has a piece on the archaeological evidence for dissection of humans: http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=kCNL1Zkp&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/2/18/nbod18.html USNews has an interesting article on some "}, {"response": 531, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 27, 2001 (13:45)", "body": "***Taliban May Destroy Buddha Statues *** KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The ruling Taliban are endangering Afghanistan's history by ordering the destruction of all statues in the country, including two towering 5th century images of Buddha, opponents said Tuesday. ``It is a great loss, a tragedy for the Afghan people and for the world,'' said Angelo Gabriele de Ceglie, Italy's ambassador to Pakistan and a representative of the Society for the Preservation of Afghan Culture and Heritage. He made the comments in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. Afghanistan's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, on Monday ordered the destruction of all statues, including the two giant ancient Buddhas, saying they were offensive to Islam. ``Because God is one God and these statues are there to be worshipped, and that is wrong, they should be destroyed so that they are not worshipped now or in the future,'' Omar said in his edict."}, {"response": 532, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Feb 27, 2001 (13:50)", "body": "Hi, Just looking in - posted in Travel and cultures. Keep up the good work"}, {"response": 533, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  1, 2001 (22:53)", "body": "let me know which photos to post!!!!!! Thursday March 1 9:37 AM ET Afghans Smash Ancient Statues, Defy World Appeals ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The radical Taliban movement began smashing all statues from Afghanistan's rich cultural past Thursday, turning its back on urgent international appeals to save the ancient artifacts. In Kabul, Mullah Qudratullah Jamal, the ruling Taliban's information and culture minister, said centers where the campaign had been unleashed included Bamiyan Province -- site of two soaring statues of the Buddha hewn from a solid cliff that are the most famous relics of Afghanistan's history. ``All statues will be destroyed,'' he told reporters. ''Whatever means of destruction are needed to demolish the statues will be used.'' ``The work began early during the day. All of the statues are to be smashed. This also covers the idols in Bamiyan,'' he said. Russia, Germany, India and Pakistan condemned the destruction and appealed to the Taliban to reconsider. International alarm was first sparked Monday, when Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar ordered the smashing of all statues, including the two famous Buddhas that soar 125 feet and 174 feet above Bamiyan. The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO Wednesday appealed directly to the Taliban -- a fundamentalist movement that regards all human likenesses of divinity to be un-Islamic -- to reverse its decision. ``UNESCO considers this to be a crisis,'' Christian Manhart, head of UNESCO's Asian division in the cultural heritage department, told Reuters. Muslim Pakistan, one of Taliban's very few foreign supporters, joined the international chorus Thursday. ``Pakistan attaches great importance to and supports the preservation of the world's historical, cultural and religious heritage,'' the foreign ministry said. ``We appeal to the Afghan government to take measures to fully protect Afghanistan's rich historical monuments, sites and artifacts which are part of the world's cultural heritage.'' India Vows Action India said it would try to stop the destruction. ``The government of India will raise this issue at every international forum including the United Nations. We will make all attempts to stop the demolition of Lord Buddha's statue,'' parliamentary affairs minister Pramod Mahajan told parliament. ``This is not only a statue, but a legacy of humanity. Nobody should demolish it,'' he said. Thailand and Sri Lanka -- both largely Buddhist nations -- have made similar appeals. Earlier this week, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Taliban ``to do all in their power to preserve the unique and irreplaceable relics of Afghanistan's rich heritage, both Islamic and pre-Islamic,'' a spokesman said. Russia denounced the Taliban step as vandalism. ``This intention (to destroy the statues) can only be classed as an assault on cultural and historical treasures, not only of the Afghan people but of world civilization,'' the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday. ``The Taliban's vandalism against material objects of the rich spiritual heritage of the ancient Afghan world shows their clear enmity to common human values,'' it added. Germany condemned the Taliban action. ``Germany is appalled by the willful destruction of cultural artifacts in Afghanistan. The damage to culturally unique Buddha statues by the Taliban cannot be justified,'' the foreign ministry said in a statement issued in Berlin. Taliban officials insist there will no reversal. Statues Declared Un-Islamic The Taliban has steadily conquered most of Afghanistan in recent years, and now controls its cities and highways. The destruction of artifacts -- also under way in the national museum in Kabul, which housed a prized collection of early Buddhist statues -- has inflicted new damage to the Taliban's already poor ties with most countries."}, {"response": 534, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  4, 2001 (14:39)", "body": "EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 44 -- March 4, 2001 ]|[=================================================================]|[ Editor's note: Depending on your mail software, some urls may wrap (especially those from the Telegraph) which will require you to rebuild the url at your end; if you get a 'file not found', check to see if the url wrapped on you. Most urls should be active for at least eight hours from the time of 'publication'. ]|[=================================================================]|[ Happy Zoroastrian New Year everyone: http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/onpen02.htm OLD WORLD NEWS Egypt Online has a brief feature on the Sun Boats of Cheops: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/calendar/html/cl030398.htm#2 The Lebanon Daily Star has a piece on the origins of the Arabic language: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/features/02_03_01_b.htm The Times has a touristy piece on various ancient sites in Libya: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,71-92671,00.html http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,71-92682,00.html The latest entry in the our-ancestors-were-cannibals sweepstakes is the Britons (no doubt soon to be the subject of an installment of Eat the Ancestors ... sorry ... couldn't resist): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Science/2001-02/cannibal260201.shtml http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/uk.cfm?id=50706&keyword=the http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=Vkk5VlZx&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/2/28/nbone28.html http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/cannibals_uk010227.html As you've no doubt seen on countless news reports, the Taliban in Afghanistan is deliberately damaging several ancient Buddhist monuments: http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/afghanistan/index.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1197000/1197900.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1196000/1196363.stm http://www.msnbc.com/news/536573.asp http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Asia_China/2001-03/tal030301.shtml http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghanistan-Buddha.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10297-2001Mar1.html http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=73512 If you'd like some background on the Bamiyan site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1198000/1198379.stm A brief item in various sources suggests rail construction of links to the Channel Tunnel are turning up plenty o sites: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_219476.html?menu = http://www.nceplus.co.uk/news/news_article/?pid=1&aid=12417&sid=60&channelID=4 Tests on some pipes (the smoking kind) suggest Bill Shakespeare might have had access to drugs: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20010301_780.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/538051.asp ITAR-TASS via Northern Light has an item on the discovery of a coin of the Bosporan Kingdom: http://library.northernlight.com/FB20010223630000149.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc Xinhua via Northern Light reports on the discovery of a number of tombs: http://library.northernlight.com/FD20010302440000065.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc ... and well preserved mummies in Lop Nur: http://library.northernlight.com/FA20010226460000045.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc ... along with the usual weekly news briefs: http://library.northernlight.com/FA20010227100000025.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc http://library.northernlight.com/FA20010226690000104.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc NEW WORLD NEWS Another week when I couldn't find anything!!!! ON THE NEWSSTANDS There's a new online issue of Archaeology out, with online features on Timbuktu, the deepwater Greek shipwreck mentioned last week, an interview with Rosalie David, among other things: http://www.archaeology.org/main.html Mercator's World has some new stuff online, including a feature on how to identify fake maps and one on Willem Blaeu: http://www.mercatormag.com/ CLASSICIST'S CORNER A review of a production of Prometheus in Athens: http://www.independent.co.uk/enjoyment/Theatre/Theatre/Reviews/2001-02/prometheus230201.shtml ... and of Mister Hercules: http://www.independent.co.uk/enjoyment/Theatre/Theatre/Reviews/2001-02/slaughter280201.shtml Athens News has a touristy piece on Rome and the \"Coliseum\": http://athensnews.dolnet.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12890&m=A20&aa=1&eidos=S Portland Press has an item on homeschooling Latin: http://www.portland.com/news/state/010304homeschool.shtml A pile of classicists have weighed in on the Marathon rowing venue thing: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,59-93391,00.html EXHIBITIONS The Toledo Museum of Art is hosting \"Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from the British Museum\": http://www.toledomuseum.org/exhibitions.html http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2001/03/01/28162.html Rain of the Moon: Silver in Ancient Peru is on at the Met: http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId=%7B30C85F8F-D237-11D3-936E-00902786BF44%7D http://www.iht.com/articles/12305.html ER"}, {"response": 535, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 18, 2001 (20:04)", "body": "]|[=================================================================]|[ EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 46 -- March 18, 2001 ]|[=================================================================]|[ Editor's note: Depending on your mail software, some urls may wrap (especially those from the Telegraph) which will require you to rebuild the url at your end; if you get a 'file not found', check to see if the url wrapped on you. Most urls should be active for at least eight hours from the time of 'publicatio'. ]|[=================================================================]|[ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to Sally Winchester, Eric Cline, Hillary Cool, and Mark Elliott for the headseseses up this week (hoping once again that I haven't left anyone out but I've got a nagging feeling that I have!) Thanks to all who signed the UNESCO petition last week! Alas, it was in vain (see the followups section), apparently, as many folks suspected it would be ... OLD WORLD NEWS Last week it was Macchu Picchu; this week it's the colossi of Memnon which are in danger of collapse: http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2001/525/tr2.htm The Telegraph has a very nice feature on the importance of discoveries in the \"Canyon of the Boats\": http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000579381554028&rtmo=0xKs2Kiq&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/3/17/tlcivil17.html The Egyptian State Information Service has a brief item on upcoming archaeological projects: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o170321m.htm There are a couple of reports on what mummy portraits tell about the health of the folks they were put on: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o170321a.htm http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o150321.htm http://www.iol.co.za/html/frame_news.php?click_id=117&art_id=qw984654782186B252 This probably should be a followup, but since it was first mentioned here so long ago, it's probably news to many of our new subscribers ... the archaeologists working on the 'Queen of Sheba's Temple' are suggesting that it might be much larger than previously expected: http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSScience0103/16_sheba-sun.html http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/stories/010316/5015177.html An errant tourist has apparently returned a chunk of something he purloined from the Acropolis: http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpa/2001/01-03-13.mpa.html#12 The LA Times has a touristy piece on a mosaic in the National Museum of Naples: http://www.latimes.com/travel/stories/20010311/t000021342.html InScight has an item on the genetic legacy of the Vikings: http://www.academicpress.com/inscight/03162001/graphb.htm IndiaExpress reports on the discovery of a \"well planned\" copper age city: http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/regional/rajasthan/20010313-0.html The BBC and People's Daily are reporting the discovery of what is believed to be a piece of the Buddha's hair: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1224000/1224892.stm http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200103/15/eng20010315_65142.html The Times has a piece on the medieval remains found in the Bullring district of Birmingham: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-99984,00.html The Telegraph has an interesting piece on the \"hidden costs\" of finding archaeological remains (from a homeowner's/developer's p.o.v.): http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000579381554028&rtmo=gjGblZYu&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/3/17/tparch17.html The illicit antiquities trade seems much in the news this week; an article in the Art Newspaper, e.g., deals with \"my life as a tombarolo\" (this might be an older article): http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=4890 Considering what's going on in Afghanistan, the fact that ancient art from there is being smuggled out and sold to collectors might not be a bad thing: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4150072,00.html ... but an article on smuggling of artifacts from Mali reminds us of the 'bad side': http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Africa/2001-03/mali170301.shtml Also apropos is mention that Britain has signed an agreement aimed at dealing with the illicit antiquities trade: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-99226,00.html On an entirely different note, the great cities of the past are being held up as ominous warnings of what might happen to the megacities of today: http://www.freep.com/news/nw/city15_20010315.htm NEW WORLD NEWS Macleans magazine has a nice feature on the 'who got here first' discussion, written from a Canadian perspective: http://www.macleans.ca/xta-asp/storyview.asp?viewtype=browse&vpath=/2001/03/19/Cover/47976.shtml ... with a largeish sidebar on the 'treating remains with respect' issue: http://www.macleans.ca/xta-asp/storyview.asp?viewtype=browse&vpath=/2001/03/19/Cover/47825.shtml Folks working on the Hunley are apparently going to attempt to recreate the faces of the crew: http://www.charlotte.com/observer/local/pub/hunley0315.htm REVIEWS One I missed: another review of the Barrington Atlas: http://www.latim"}, {"response": 536, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 25, 2001 (16:11)", "body": "]|[=================================================================]|[ EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 47 -- March 25, 2001 ]|[=================================================================]|[ Editor's note: Depending on your mail software, some urls may wrap (especially those from the Telegraph) which will require you to rebuild the url at your end; if you get a 'file not found', check to see if the url wrapped on you. Most urls should be active for at least eight hours from the time of 'publicatio'. ]|[=================================================================]|[ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks for the heads up to Sally Winchester and Bill Kennedy! Lotsa stuff today ... a pile of followups too! OLD WORLD NEWS A boat discovered some forty years ago near Hull now lays claim to being Europe's oldest boat: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4156753,00.html http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-102840,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1234000/1234529.stm The Sphinx is (once again, it seems) in danger of falling apart: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Africa/2001-03/sphinx180301.shtml http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o210321k.htm This is sort of a followup: more mummies have been discovered at the Barhariya Oasis site: http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/0103/22/A31127-2001Mar22.shtml http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o220321h.htm http://www.oweb.com/newslink/international/EgyptArchaeologyP0617.html Greek police have recovered a bunch of smuggled Minoan artifacts: http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/547808.asp A trio of Greek shepherds have found bits and pieces of eight or so Greek statues: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/breakingnews/International/0,3561,800431,00.html http://athensnews.dolnet.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12902&m=A35&aa=6&eidos=S http://www.iol.co.za/html/frame_news.php?click_id=588&art_id=qw985010101340B262 Greek archaeologists have been busy excavating the palace of Alexander the Great: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-101058,00.html ... and the Times has a little article on the cultural context of Al: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,649-102173,00.html ... and a piece on how the Macedonians weren't really barbaroi: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-101056,00.html New Scientist reports on evidence that the Vikings who came to Scotland in the ninth century planned on staying: http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999541 Some guy with a metal detector has found an Iron Age horde in Britain: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-102839,00.html ... and as long as we're on the subject, the Guardian has a report on what metal detectors have been turning up: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4158370,00.html The Boston Globe has a nice report on some puzzling bronzes from China's Sichuan province: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/079/science/In_China_strange_bronze_heads_rewrite_history+.shtml An eighth-century nativity scene from China has got the media just a-buzzing: http://www.freep.com/news/nw/china19_20010319.htm The Daily Yomiuri reveals the discovery of a pile of Buddhas in Angkor: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20010325wo61.htm Iraq is celebrating the 5000th anniversary of the development of writing: http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=aC5JdBKJ&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/3/21/wirq21.html http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/iraq010320_writing.html http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,56-102938,00.html Discovering Archaeology has finally put up some different content, including a feature on Ignatius Donnelly, who pretty much created the Atlantis story as we usually see it: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/011701-atlantis.shtml Fans of Time Team (I wish they'd show it across the pond here), will be dismayed to learn that the hoof-and-mouth breakout has pretty much nixed excavation of most of the sites they'd planned on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4150290,00.html Folks thinking of a career in archaeology/museology etc. might be interested in some pieces in the Guardian this week: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4155535,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4155116,00.html NEW WORLD NEWS The New York Times has a nice feature on Maya sweathouses: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/20/science/20SWEA.html The Washington Post has a nice feature on Donald Shomette's work in Maryland: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/metro/md/A20596-2001Mar17.html There seems to be quite a bit of coverage of the human remains being found in the Hunley: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/03/0321_hunleyfind.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/545501.asp CNN has a mostly-video report on the search for pre-Clovis sites in Texas: http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/03/22/texas.dig.t_t/index.html REVIEWS The Times has a double review of N. Reeves, *Akhenaten: Egypt's False Prophet*"}, {"response": 537, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  2, 2001 (16:18)", "body": "]|[=================================================================]|[ EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 48 (!) -- April 1, 2000 ]|[=================================================================]|[ Editor's note: Depending on your mail software, some urls may wrap (especially those from the Telegraph) which will require you to rebuild the url at your end; if you get a 'file not found', check to see if the url wrapped on you. Most urls should be active for at least eight hours from the time of 'publicatio'. ]|[=================================================================]|[ Happy daylight savings time to everyone in those parts of the world who observe such things! Thanks for the heads ups to Sally Winchester, John Carr, Ernest Loewinsohn, and Bill Kennedy (a.a.h.i.h.n.l.a.o.) OLD WORLD NEWS ABC (Australia) reports that a 3100-year-old mummy has had a \"sex change\" of sorts: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/scitech/SciTechRepublish_267644.htm eKatherimini has an item on the excavations at (Minoan) Palaikastro: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=76822 The Chicago Tribune had a nice article last weekend on the state of archaeology/sites in Iraq: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/nationworld/article/0,2669,SAV-0103250412,FF.html Zahi Hawass is challenging the long-held notion and soon-to-be BM exhibition that Cleopatra wasn't exactly a Helen-of-Troy league beauty: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html3/o290321h.htm http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1250000/1250323.stm http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20010326/cleo.html http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/03/25/magazine.html http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/03/25/stinwenws01027.html A number of frescoes stolen from Pompeii have been returned: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/03/25/stinwenws02012.html ? A watering trough outside a British pub has turned out to be a Roman sarcophagus: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_256054.html?menu=news.quirkies The Lebanon Daily Star has a piece on Roman glass: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/features/30_03_01_b.htm A new documentary on the 'real' Jesus is getting a lot of hype primarily (it seems) for the facial reconstruction: http://www.msnbc.com/news/550752.asp http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/virtualjesus010327.html http://dsc.discovery.com/news/ap/20010326/jesus.html http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=63407 A scholar has suggested that Robert the Bruce's organs were not interred with his body: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000579381554028&rtmo=lvAS7vbt&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/3/29/nbob29.html Xinhua reports on the top 100 Chinese archaeological discoveries of the 20th century: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20010329/391415.htm They also report on a project to determine the origin of Chinese civilization: http://library.northernlight.com/FB20010329590000097.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc http://library.northernlight.com/FB20010329590000105.html?cb=229&dx=1006&sc=0#doc Discovering Archaeology has put up a new feature on Cambodia \"After the Nightmare\": http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/033001-cambodia.htm First it was recreating the beer drunk by various ancient cultures, now it's recreating perfumes from Pompeii: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000579381554028&rtmo=psN3BBMe&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/3/30/wpomp30.html Folks might enjoy reading the historical basis for Britain's tax year: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=psNQMh3e&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/3/24/cmtax124.html NEW WORLD NEWS The Inland Empire Online has a column all about Mesa Verde sites on the web: http://www.inlandempireonline.com/columns/garrett/ There's a new (?) suggestion on what happened to Walter Raleigh's 'lost colonists': http://www.pilotonline.com/news/nw0331cro.html ON THE NEWSSTANDS There's a new issue of Archaeology Odyssey out, with some nice online content on ancient copies (Greek and Roman), the Hurrian city of Urkesh, the origins of the jury system, and several other items: http://www.bib-arch.org/aod2.html Atlantic Monthly has an article on \"The Genetic Archaeology of Race\": http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/04/olson-p1.htm EXHIBITIONS Athens News has a review of Waldemar Deonna - Paul Collart: Two Swiss Archaeologists Photograph Greece 1904-1939: http://athensnews.dolnet.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12902&m=A38&aa=1&eidos=S http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=76807 CLASSICIST'S CORNER A preview/reviewish thing tells all sorts of gossipy stuff about the movie Cleopatra (the one with Liz): http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?BCCode=E&storyKey=55058 cf.: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/032901/enc_5766382.html Knowledge Management magazine has a feature \"Taxonomy of the Ancients\", on how Callimachus organized the Library at Alexandria: http://www.destinationcrm.com/km/dcrm_km_article.asp?id=812 REVIE"}, {"response": 538, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Apr  2, 2001 (18:29)", "body": "I'll check out that Maya bathhouse link."}, {"response": 539, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  5, 2001 (01:37)", "body": "I'm curious about that too. All I can imagine that it deals with the Cenote at Chichen Itza... or something similar. Fascinating!"}, {"response": 540, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 10, 2001 (18:10)", "body": "Archaeologists uncover 'fabulous' chariot Martin Wainwright Guardian Saturday April 7, 2001 The reputation of prehistoric Britons was notched up another peg yesterday, with the discovery of the oldest iron age chariot to be unearthed by archaeologists. Apart from the slight hitch that its owner was probably French, the mass of intricate bronze-work, inlaid coral and skilled joinery was described as \"fabulous\" proof of ancient native expertise by English Heritage and the British Museum. more... http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4166971,00.html"}, {"response": 541, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 13, 2001 (00:37)", "body": "Prehistoric man may have had dentists LONDON (Reuters) - Pre-historic people living in Asia 8,000 years ago may have used stone-tipped drills to repair teeth. In what could be one of the earliest examples of dentistry, scientists at the University of Missouri-Columbia in the United States have found tiny, perfectly rounded holes in teeth found in Mehrgarh in pre-historic Pakistan, which they suspect were drilled to repair tooth decay."}, {"response": 542, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 13, 2001 (00:42)", "body": "The above come complete with image at this url http://uk.news.yahoo.com/010411/80/bk0kx.html"}, {"response": 543, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Apr 13, 2001 (15:03)", "body": "Well, I'm glad to hear that the owner of the oldest existing Bronze Age Chariot was probably French. The Gauls were Celts like the Britons. Still, the British Museum claims it as \"fabulous\" proof of ancient native expertise. What was it Napoleon said? \"Perfidious Albion\". To all of those at Geo who are English/British, I'm just kidding."}, {"response": 544, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 16, 2001 (23:03)", "body": "Thanks - considering that Gallic soldiers were used to conquer Albion are we not all relatives separated by our own self-perceived prejuidices? anglo/german/gaulish relatives all blame one another for their problems. Ah, the joys of being Celtic! I really want to see that chariot. Sounds incredible!"}, {"response": 545, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Apr 17, 2001 (18:09)", "body": "That's very true. Especially in regard to the French and Germans. It irritates the French to no end that the native language of Charlemagne was a form of German. The Germans also claim Charlemagne as great hero. They call him Karl Grosse."}, {"response": 546, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 23, 2001 (06:29)", "body": "]|[=================================================================]|[ EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 51 -- April 22, 2001 ]|[=================================================================]|[ Editor's note: Depending on your mail software, some urls may wrap (especially those from the Telegraph) which will require you to rebuild the url at your end; if you get a 'file not found', check to see if the url wrapped on you. Most urls should be active for at least eight hours from the time of 'publicatio'. ]|[=================================================================]|[ Greetings archaeophiles! Curiosity question: if this newsletter went to an html mail format (which would help with the perpetual url wrap problem), would it bother anyone? Thanks to Bill Kennedy and Gene Barkley for the headses upses this week (a.a.h.i.h.l.n.o.o.) ... OLD WORLD NEWS The Egyptian State Information Service has a brief item on the discovery of some Amenhotep-era artifacts: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o210421W.htm ... as well as some predynastic stuff: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/note/html/n120421a.htm The Business Recorder (and others) has a piece on the claims of a couple of French researchers to have found \"passages to hidden portions of the Great Pyramid\" ... no doubt soon to be a documentary: http://www.brecorder.com/story/000000/200104/20010420/200104200196.shtml?Top~Stories http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/scitech/SciTechRepublish_279993.htm eKatherimini reports on the discovery of a 5th-century B.C./B.C.E. copper cauldron at Argos: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?aid=79099 eKatherimini also has a report on a 4th-century B.C./B.C.E mass grave found at Pydna: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?aid=79054 The Times reports on the restoration of Trajan's arch at Benevento: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-113354,00.html The Independent reports on plans to locate and excavate a Roman ship which sank in the Tyne estuary: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=67471 This was actually announced already within the last year or so, but a group at Stanford is going to use computer technology to reassemble the Forum Urbis: http://sanjose.bcentral.com/sanjose/stories/2001/04/16/daily37.html A large section of the Aurelian wall in Rome collapsed this week: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1280000/1280611.stm http://news.24.com/News24/Technology/Science_Nature/0,1113,2-13-46_1011661,00.html http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/world.cfm?id=64721 http://my.cnn.com/jbcl/cnews/Go?template=otmDetStory&art_id=6690997&uid=987437873088&page_exclude=1 The Architects' Journal supposedly has a report on the discovery of an \"ancient carving of a Roman warrior\" but I can't get it to load properly at my end; maybe it will work for you: http://www.ajplus.co.uk/news/news_article/?pid=2&aid=14379&sid=60&channelID=4&NewsComingFrom=Construction The Irish Times reports on the discovery of an iron age skeleton: http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2001/0421/reg3.htm The Getty Museum has returned a second-century bust of an athlete to Italy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4171745,00.html ... while the Met has returned an image of Seti I to Egypt: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o190421n.htm ABCNews reports on the discovery of a \"cave full of teeth\" in China (this one's actually a little more ancient than I usually cover, but it's interesting): http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/chinacave010417.html Xinhua via Northern Light reports on the discovery of a tomb in Shanxi province: http://library.northernlight.com/FE20010418060000015.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc ... and more: http://library.northernlight.com/FA20010417510000045.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc Thor Heyerdahl is looking for the origins of the Vikings ... in Russia: http://news.24.com/News24/World/Europe/0,1113,2-10-19_1013838,00.html Archaeologists have found the site of London's Hope theatre: http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=QwaSwLxR&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/4/22/nhope22.html NEW WORLD NEWS The Denver Post has a report on \"America's first archaeological subdivision\": http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%257E22737,00.html The Idaho Statesman has one of those introductory sort of things to 'Archaeology Week' in Idaho: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/daily/20010418/LocalNews/105060.shtml The St. Petersburg Times has a nice article on looting of sites: http://www.sptimes.com/News/041801/Citrus/Looters_of_artifact_s.shtml ON THE NEWSSTANDS Egypt Revealed has an article by Mark Lehner on the city of folks who worked on the pyramids: http://www.egyptrevealed.com/041501-cityopyramid_builders.htm Discovering Archaeology has an article on the excavation of an 1800's steamboat: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/041201-oklahoma.htm CLASSICIST'S CORNER The Times has a piece on the benefits of a classical education (in a"}, {"response": 547, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 23, 2001 (17:57)", "body": "DISCOVER ARCHAEOLOGY ONLINE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER; APRIL 11, 2001 Saludos, and thank you for subscribing! Click here to get there: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml Your Feature Report for this week: * French Explorer Maps Sunken City * The Battle of Korcula * Dateline ... Egypt * Artifact Thief Apprehended * New Tombs Discovered in Bahariya * Protection of the Terracotta Warriors * Sudan Archaeology * Anthony's Egyptology and Archaeology * Minoan Research Click here to get there: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml"}, {"response": 548, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 27, 2001 (08:16)", "body": "Seahenge may be saved from watery grave The tale of Seahenge took a dramatic new turn last night when it was revealed that the ancient timbers might not be heading for a watery grave after all. Government body English Heritage met yesterday to decide the fate of the Bronze Age timber circle, which was controversially removed from the beach at Holme-next-the-Sea, near Hunstanton, almost two years ago. Its ruling commissioners were expected to agree that the circle should be reburied later this year, close to the spot where it was originally found. But yesterday, officials heard that fresh evidence had come to light about the timbers, along with new scientific techniques which would enable it to be studied. \"We brought the commissioners new information, and we want to carry out more research because there is far more potential,\" English Heritage's chief archaeologist David Miles said after the meeting. \"There are marks in the surface which are very slight marks, like bruises in the wood. \"It's all about how we capture these marks, because if the timbers were conserved or reburied now, they would be lost.\" New digital modelling techniques will enable the marks to be copied onto a 3D digital likeness of each timber, stored on computer. Mr Miles suggested the new marks, which were just visible to the naked eye, could shed new light on how the timber circle was first built in 2049BC. \"There may be complications as to how it was built,\" he added. \"It might well have been modified and we want to do some more dating on it as well.\" Scientists at the Flag Fen Bronze Age research centre, near Peterborough, have been studying the timbers since they were removed from the beach at Holme almost two years ago, amid angry protests. Two weeks ago, it was claimed that the timbers would disintegrate if reburied on the beach. Last night Mr Miles said the claim, which surfaced in New Scientist magazine and The Guardian, differed from what English Heritage had been told about the circle's chances of survival. Now any firm decision will await the outcome of the latest round of research, which will be carried out at Flag Fen. The circle's future could even be referred back to the Timber Circle Forum, which was formed from local councils and other interested bodies, to decide its fate. \"We've got to consider the future,\" said Mr Miles. \"We would certainly come up and talk to the Timber Circle Forum about the fact that the site could be more important.\" South Norfolk plant hire tycoon Mervyn Lambert was an outspoken critic of the timbers' removal from the beach. He led a high court bid which failed to halt the excavation. But English Heritage said it would conserve the timbers. Then it emerged that neither Norfolk County Council or West Norfolk council was prepared to pay for the work. And the Timber Circle Forum believed that the option of burial in Holme's clay deposits was believed to offer the best chance of preserving Seahenge, in case anyone decided to fund a proper display to house it in the future. \"So they've just found some new marks they hadn't noticed yet after 21 months,\" Mr Lambert said last night. \"Nothing surprises me now. \"In the high court, almost two years ago, English Heritage said they could not guarantee long-term conservation of the timbers without removing them from the beach. \"Twenty-one months on they've done nothing towards conservation.\" Geoff Needham, chairman of Holme Parish Council, said: \"They classed it as the most important archaeological discoveries of the century, but the way they have treated it is an absolute disgrace. \"It was one of the biggest acts of vandalism ever created in the name of archaeology.\" The timber circle first came to the notice of archaeologists in early 1998 after a Bronze Age axe head was found nearby. Since its removal the following summer, more timbers have been exposed by the shifting tides at Holme beach, including what appears to be the remains of a larger circle. Mr Miles said the fresh artefacts were probably a fish trap and a burial mound, of which there were many similar examples dotted across the country. http://www.edp24.co.uk/Content/Search/nfdetail.asp?Brand=EDPONLINE&Category=NEWS&ItemId=NOED26+Apr+2001+11%3A33%3A23%3A403"}, {"response": 549, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 27, 2001 (12:35)", "body": "Peru Complex May Be Oldest City By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - About the time that pyramids were being built in Egypt, a civilization in Peru was building the Americas' first urban center, a complex of stone pyramids, plazas and intricate irrigation canals, researchers say. A site called Caral, 125 miles north of Lima, ``may actually be the birthplace of civilization in the Americas,'' said Winifred Creamer, a Northern Illinois University professor and co-author of a study appearing Friday in Science. Jonathan Haas of Chicago's Field Museum, Creamer's husband and a co-author of the study, said that Caral has been aged-dated to as early as 2,627 B.C. and excavations show it once covered some 160 acres on the floor of Peru's Supe Valley. The people living there created a civilization of farmers, craftsmen and fishermen. Haas said there was a central government or organization strong enough to induce hundreds of workers to labor long to build a sprawling complex of six pyramids, apartment-like buildings, open stone-cobbled plazas and irrigation canals that tapped a nearby river. Researchers say that the site, some 125 miles north of Lima, shows evidence of being a thriving inland metropolis that lasted for hundreds of years and then declined into oblivion. It was rediscovered in 1905, but is only now being studied in detail. ``What we're learning from Caral is going to rewrite the way we think about development of early Andean civilization,'' said Haas. Caral's civilization was age-dated from woven reeds and other material extracted from a 60-foot high pyramid. Haas said the people used reed bags to carry stones to put inside the pyramid as it was being built. ``They filled the reed bags with stones, carried them on their shoulders to the building site and then dumped them in, bag and all,'' said Haas. In Peru's dry climate, the reed material survived the ages and scientists used it to age-date the site, he said. Haas said that the people of Caral lived on vegetables - squash, beans and root crops - and seafood. They did not grow grains or make pottery, both of which are common for other ancient civilizations. Instead, Haas said, the Caral people grew cotton and wove it into nets used for fishing. The researchers found evidence that the people ate lots of seafood -- anchovies, sardines and shellfish. He said there were no large animals in the area to provide food so they depended on the sea. The Pacific Ocean coast is about 14 miles from Caral. Caral thrived for more than 600 years and was home over the centuries to thousands of people, although Haas said the peak population of the city is still not known. Eventually, the Caral society faded, replaced by new complexes in other civilizations built to the north and to the south. It's believed that descendants of the Caral people became the Incas, who were ruling the Andes when the Europeans arrived in the 16th century. Haas said that six pyramids, some rising by 60 feet above wide bases, dominate the site. There are also fitted-stone plazas and smaller pyramids with stairs and top-floor rooms that were probably upper class housing. Nearby, more modest homes, built of adobe, have been excavated. People at Caral depended heavily on irrigated farming and the site may have been the first in the Americas where water was moved in large volumes for agricultural use, said Haas. The water came from the nearby Supe River. There were no nearby forests or other sources of wood, said Haas, but there is evidence that the people chipped stones to make tools and carved large rocks to fit into building walls. - On the Net: Northern Illinois University: http://www.niu.edu/pubaffairs/presskits/wcjo/ Science: http://www.eurekalert.org Thanks K3"}, {"response": 550, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 27, 2001 (13:06)", "body": "http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-120993,00.html FRIDAY APRIL 27 2001 Peru's first city thrived as Egypt built pyramids BY MARK HENDERSON, SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT AN ADVANCED civilisation was thriving on the coast of modern-day Peru at the same time as the pyramids were built in Egypt - more than 1,000 years earlier than was previously thought, American researchers have discovered. New radio-carbon dating of plant fibres found at Caral, 120 miles north of Lima, has revealed that the ancient city was built as early as 2600BC, making it by far the oldest urban settlement yet identified in the Americas. The findings, published today in the journal Science, suggest that the significance of the Caral civilisation has been badly underestimated by archaeologists and anthropologists. The inhabitants of the city had developed technology on a par with much of that found in Ancient Egypt at about the same time: they had the know-how to irrigate fields and to build monumental pyramids, though they never learnt to make ceramic pottery, a fact that continues to puzzle anthropologists. Jonathan Haas, curator of anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago, who led the study, said Caral had previously been dated to about 1600BC. \"Our findings show that a very large, complex society had arisen on the coast of Peru centuries earlier than anyone thought,\" Dr Haas said. \"This is a project that comes along once in a generation and offers opportunities rarely glimpsed in the field of archaeology.\" Caral is dominated by a central zone containing six large platform mounds arranged around a huge public plaza. The largest of these mounds, known as Piramide Mayor, stands 60ft high and measures 450ft by 500ft at its base. All six central mounds were built in only one or two phases, providing strong evidence of complex planning, centralised decision-making and mobilisation of a large labour force - all of which suggest an advanced civilisation. Stairs, rooms, courtyards and other structures were constructed on top of the pyramids as well as on the side terraces. Excavations are now planned to determine whether there were rooms or tombs inside the mounds. Other architecture at the site also indicates a high level of cultural complexity. In particular, three sunken circular plazas testify to the emergence of a well-organised religion with open, public ceremonies. Other villages in Peru are known to have been occupied before 2600BC and some even had small-scale public platforms or stone rings. All, however, are much smaller in scale."}, {"response": 551, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 27, 2001 (13:26)", "body": "http://www.msnbc.com/news/560131.asp?cp1=1 Black magic in Greece's Golden Age This ancient Greek katara, or curse, was found in the ancient Kerameikos cemetery in Athens, dating back to the 4th and 5th centuries B.C. During the Golden Age of ancient Greece, magicians worked in secret and buried the hexes with the dead. ASSOCIATED PRESS ATHENS, Greece, April 22 - During the Golden Age of ancient Greece, no one was safe from spells, not even exalted politicians and orators. MAGICIANS WORKED in secret and buried hexes with the dead, who they believed would carry them to the underworld. Some curses were for opponents in lawsuits. Others sought to hex a political figure. Still others meant to bring harm to enemies. \"I bind to the earth,\" begin some of the inscriptions on the 55 \"katares,\" or curses, found during nearly nine decades of excavations at the ancient Kerameikos cemetery near the ancient marketplace where politicians made public addresses. Specialists are now restoring and studying the katares for a planned book that explores how rites of black magic - although outlawed in ancient Greece - played a fundamental role in a society that also prized logic and the intellect. The book will mark the first comprehensive volume on the katares of ancient Athens. \"These practices were indeed carried out ... They shed light on the political and cultural history,\" said Jutta Stroszeck, head of the German Archaeological Institute of Greece, which leads the cemetery digs. The katares found were inscriptions etched into lead, sometimes found with figurines. They were often buried in the graves of youths because it was believed a premature death would get the spell to the underworld gods faster, archaeologists said. THE ZENITH OF A SOCIETY Although katares have been discovered throughout the Mediterranean, the Athens collection tells of the life of a society at its zenith: the Age of Pericles about 2,500 years ago when the Parthenon was built. The objects also give fascinating examples of the direct connection between ancient superstitions and daily life. \"Katares were the appropriate medium to destroy political opponents,\" said Felice Costabile, an expert in ancient inscriptions at the University Magna Graecia in Catanzaro, Italy. The ancient magicians - outlaws to the Athenian authorities - apparently performed a secret ritual to prepare the katares. But it is uncertain what exactly transpired, experts say. It could be that the magicians were responsible for finding the lead, writing out the curses and finding tombs of young people who had recently died. Katares were also dropped in wells, another avenue to the underworld. \"You made the spell in the very moment that you wanted to weaken the another person ... to impede, to make immobile to bind somebody,\" Stroszeck said. \"It is clearly an statement of hate.\" Some katares meant to curse a warrior were accompanied by small bent swords. Others were male figurines with hands tied behind their backs, pronounced genital organs, birdlike heads and numerous inscriptions. A BRACELET FOR THE DEAD A different type of katara was shaped in the form of a bracelet and placed in the hands of the dead, perhaps to be carried to the underworld or improve the potency of the hex, Stroszeck said. Etched into one katara are the names of Lykourgos, an Athenian politician who participated in managing the city's finances and building program and lived from 390 B.C. to 324 B.C. The name of Hyperides, an orator who lived about the same time and who led the city to battle with the Macedonians in the Lamian War in 323 B.C., was found on another. One of the most important finds is a lead plate with three curses inscribed on it. They are written together as if in a book of three columns and show how ancient texts were composed 2,400 years ago on papyrus, Costabile said. \"It did not have any relation to the official religion as it was then,\" said Stroszeck, referring to the ancient belief in the 12 Olympian gods led by Zeus."}, {"response": 552, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  1, 2001 (06:13)", "body": "]|[=================================================================]|[ EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 3, Issue 52 -- April 29, 2001 OLD WORLD NEWS The Daily Star has a feature on the Canaanite site of Yarmuta: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/28_04_01/art3.htm A conference on how best to preserve the monuments of the Middle/Near east has political implications: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1295000/1295319.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1295000/1295008.stm MSNBC (and others) has an interesting item on black magic in the ancient Greek world: http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/560131.asp http://athensnews.dolnet.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12907&m=A05&aa=1&eidos=S http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=79231 Police have confiscated a hoard of interesting illegally-excavated artifacts near Vonitsa: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?aid=80390 AthensNews has a lengthy touristy piece on ancient Troezen: http://athensnews.dolnet.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12907&m=A24&aa=1&eidos=S A fourth-century Egyptian coffin is on display in Rochester: http://library.northernlight.com/EB20010427170000046.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc Another bit of fallout from Afghanistan: the left foot of Zeus is on display in Tokyo: http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/0426/asahi042604.html The Aberdeen Herald has a brief item on a recent Iron Age discovery in that city: http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/24-4-19101-0-1-2.html The Times (South Africa) has a feature on the excavations at Uxellodunum ('eat your heart out Asterix'): http://www.iol.co.za/html/frame_news.php?click_id=79&art_id=qw988311781884B216 (cf. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_275516.html?menu= ) There was a fair bit of coverage this week devoted to the discovery of a Roman-era armoury/armour in Roman Carlisle: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1297000/1297752.stm http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,478537,00.html http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-120182,00.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/04/0427_romanarmor.html A Roman villa at El-Jem will soon be open to the public: http://www.news24.co.za/News24/Technology/Science_Nature/0,1113,2-13-46_1014411,00.html A third-century Celtic fibula has reached a rather high price at auction: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=gjSGSbru&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/4/26/ngold26.html Also at auction at Christie's ... a pile of Italian vases, many of them looted apparently: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,7-118293,00.html Le Figaro has an item (in French) on damage done and threatened to the Henri IV-era Chateau de Saumur (watch the wrap): http://www.lefigaro.fr/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=FutureTense/Apps/Xcelerate/View&c=figArticle&cid=FIGI72LWTLC The Times of India reports on damage done to Mnajdra Temple: http://web.infinito.it/utenti/m/malta_mega_temples/mnajdest/times15.html The BBC has an item on damage done to the Zoukoudian Caves: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1298000/1298621.stm CNN has a piece on the threat to ancient cities in Laos: http://www.cnn.com/2001/TRAVEL/NEWS/04/26/laos.ancientcities.ap/index.html SwissInfo reports on an exhibition of ancient textiles from the Taklamakan Desert: http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=201&sid=661022 NEW WORLD NEWS There was major coverage of the discovery/redating of the Peruvian city of Caral: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1298000/1298460.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1299000/1299426.stm http://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,500476670-500732206-504186344-0,00.html http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/city010426.html http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/science/A8889-2001Apr26.html http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/04/27/fp1s3-csm.shtml http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/articles/042601-oldestperucity.htm http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/04/04282001/reu_peru_43240.asp http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-120993,00.html http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/world.cfm?id=67657 http://www.msnbc.com/news/564981.asp http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010426/sc/science_city_dc.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/04/0426_perucity.html The Telegraph has a feature on the Mayan site of Las Milpas: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=0xbKbsGq&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/4/28/wmay28.html The Salt Lake Tribune has an interesting item on a pile of old footwear originally found in Promontory Cave: http://www.sltrib.com/04272001/utah/92394.htm http://www1.standard.net/stories/local/04-2001/FTP0284@local@28cave@Ogden.asp The Washington Post has a nice piece on the slave graves at what was once James Madison's home: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8417-2001Apr26.html The Columbus Dispatch has an item in anticipation of a conference ("}, {"response": 553, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  2, 2001 (12:47)", "body": "Gladiator-Era Armor Factory Found By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News May 2 \ufffd Archaeologists working in northern England have excavated one of the most important finds in Britain from the Roman period- an armor workshop containing rare gladiator-era garb and other Roman military equipment. more... http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20010430/gladiator.html"}, {"response": 554, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 10, 2001 (16:57)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Carbon clock could show the wrong time: (10 May) Carbon dating is a mainstay of geology and archaeology - but an enormous peak discovered in the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere between 45 thousand and 11 thousand years ago casts doubt on the biological carbon cycle that underpins the technique. The study led by physicist Warren Beck of the University of Arizona, US, could also affect estimates of how quickly the Earth can re-absorb the excess carbon dioxide generated by fossil fuels (J W Beck et al 2001 Science to appear). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/5/7 ] ----------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 555, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 11, 2001 (16:07)", "body": "Va. Highway Work Unearths Ancient Quarry of Jasper By Craig Timberg Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 4, 2001; Page B01 CULPEPER COUNTY, Va. -- The drive for the future here has turned up tantalizing clues about Virginia's prehistoric past. In the path of a long-awaited four-lane highway, archaeologists working for the Virginia Department of Transportation discovered reddish-brown pieces of jasper, a rock that the continent's earliest settlers used for spear points, knives and other tools. Hundreds of pieces of it, in flakes that looked like the result of human handiwork, turned up in a test pit right in the path of where the new and improved Route 3 was to pass through a rural stretch of this county halfway between Charlottesville and Washington. Five years and $300,000 of state-funded digging later, archaeologists are hailing the site, dubbed Brook Run, as a rare and exquisitely well-preserved ancient quarry. It dates to more than 11,000 years ago, a time many scientists call the earliest human habitation of the region. The site consists of two pits, nearly 14 feet deep through bedrock and soil, and less than two feet across at the bottom. Archaeologists are puzzling over how ancient people, without the benefits of backhoes or even a modern shovel, managed to dig so deep to extract stones from a vertical seam so narrow. \"They must have been very narrow people who went down there and hauled that stuff out,\" marveled Michael F. Johnson, Fairfax County staff archaeologist. They are equally astonished that Brook Run was found at all in a place where scientific models didn't predict human settlements and no disruption at the surface offered a hint of what lay beneath. The shovel test pits were dug about every 50 feet along the 10-mile highway corridor from Lignum to the outskirts of the town of Culpeper. Such surveys for historic and cultural artifacts are common for road-building projects; finds as valuable as Brook Run are not. \"If [highway officials] had just walked through here without doing the shovel test, they never would have found the site,\" said archaeologist Eric Voigt, whose firm, the Louis Berger Group, has a contract with the Virginia Department of Transportation. Voigt and crews of up to a dozen workers have spent the past year excavating the site. The evidence they found suggests that Paleo-Indians, the ancestors of today's American Indians, came across the jasper by accident -- as VDOT did -- maybe while following game or traveling to villages on the Rappahannock or Rapidan river, more than a mile away. Over the next several hundred years, Voigt said, the Paleo-Indians returned repeatedly, digging deeper each time into the seam of jasper and carrying back hunks of the rock to their villages, where they fashioned it into tools. Voigt and his crew found a rock hearth dating back 11,500 years but little other evidence of human habitation here. \"This site does show, even more strongly, how important really good raw materials were to these folks,\" he said. Dating the site were pieces of burned wood that fell into the narrow pits. Carbon dating of the burned wood and the rock hearth put the age of the site between 10,500 and 11,500 years ago. Voigt stirred brief hopes of a more stunning discovery when one relic initially appeared to be 15,000 years old. Archaeologists had long agreed that humans arrived in the Americas across a land bridge from Asia and settled the continent about 11,500 years ago. But recent discoveries have challenged that, and some archaeologists were hoping that Brook Run would offer proof that humans settled in the Americas thousands of years earlier and perhaps arrived along a different route. A site called Cactus Hill, in Sussex County south of Richmond, has relics seeming to date back that far, but the finding remains controversial. At Brook Run, a more precise reading this week of the oldest relic put its date at 11,500 years ago. Virginia was then emerging from the Ice Age and had a climate far colder than today, with more pine trees and a different mix of wildlife, including bison. There are few archaeological sites on the East Coast as old as Brook Run. Virginia has three others, Cactus Hill, Thunderbird in Warren County and Williamson in Dinwiddie County. Smithsonian archaeologist Dennis Stanford visited Brook Run this week and came away astonished. \"We didn't know people did that type of quarrying,\" he said. \"Every bit of data that can be gleaned out of each site is just wonderful.\" Voigt and his crews have extracted more than 700,000 relics from Brook Run for analysis. They plan to fill the site with sand and cover it with plantings so future archaeologists will be able to continue exploring it. To make that easier, VDOT has revamped its designs for improving Route 3. Officials plan to build a narrower median strip so the new road doesn't disturb the ancient quarry. \"There's just no way you can justify paving over this site,\" said VDOT spokesman Jim Jennings. \ufffd"}, {"response": 556, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 11, 2001 (16:27)", "body": "More on the above story on the ancient site in Virginia http://www.culpepernews.com/Archive/n1feb01.htm#past"}, {"response": 557, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, May 13, 2001 (15:45)", "body": "Wow! Yet another controversial site to conflict with the conventional thought as to when the Native Americans arrived. Perhaps they are right in their view that they have always been here. Then maybe those who acertain that the arrived about 30,000 years ago are right. Or perhaps there was no one migration, but a succession of migrations into the Americas by different means and routes over a long period of time."}, {"response": 558, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 13, 2001 (21:15)", "body": "Yup - the \"Clovis First\" debate has probably been buried for good. Too much evidence points to earlier than formerly though occupation of the North American continent!"}, {"response": 559, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 13, 2001 (21:28)", "body": "My considered opinion (Please, prove me wrong!) is that many migtrations of many sorts of origins occurred. Over a very long time. I think we are just beginning to discover what is in those woods. Even as far east as the East Coast of North America! Check the age of Meadowcroft and contemporary structures!"}, {"response": 560, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May 15, 2001 (20:24)", "body": "Meadowcroft is considered to be at least 13,000 years old, I think. The Meadowcroft data was considered extremely controversial in the early days of the excavation."}, {"response": 561, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 15, 2001 (21:38)", "body": "I think the Meadowcroft dates are still controversial. Groundwater seepage and nearby springs were though to contaminate the site, but think the Clovis Firsters are fianlly conceding that Clovies was NOT first no matter what dates the afix to Meadowcroft."}, {"response": 562, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 21, 2001 (00:22)", "body": "Silbury Hill is about to be subjected to a 3D seismic scan: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=rQFhmbXX&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/5/18/nstone18.html Archaeologists have found stained glass which might be associated with Lady Godiva: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4186858,00.html The discovery of a 17th century shipwreck might delay pipeline construction in Dublin Bay: http://www.iol.co.za/html/frame_news.php?click_id=588&art_id=qw990116701574B264 Not really archaeology or ancient, but interesting nonetheless is the claim that Anne Boleyn might have been pregnant when she was executed: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=73561 The Guardian has a feature on what a career in archaeology might involve: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4188105,00.html"}, {"response": 563, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 22, 2001 (01:02)", "body": "Archaeology is hopelessly enmeshed in politics, wars etc. During war, opposing sides are always quick to target monuments of national importance and national pride, and the archaeologicalo heritage of opposing sides. Archaeology is endlessly manipulated to suit the ideology of people. But on a more humorous note I decided to post some howlers I personally was told by people I met. The funny thing is not so much the ignorance but the pride and \"know-all\" attitude of the people I was speaking to. Some people love to bash/show off to archaeologists for some reason.... 1) (On the temples of Ireland and Malta) \"But they have the same spirals. I think I have understood what happened. An irish craftsman who made the symbols on Newgrange travelled to Malta and made them on the temples there as well\". 2) (On the Pyramids of Egypt) \"You have an absolutely closed mind. Can you not at least consider that there was a possibility that the pyramids were build by aliens from the Plaedes? No? But u CANT say no! You are so closed minded!\" 3)(on megaliths) \"I dont call them megaliths. I have read many books on the subject and prefer to call them sarsens. Have you sarsens in Malta?\" (she didn't realise that sarsen was a stone type that some of the stonehenge megaliths were made out of) 4)(Guide taking us around the Hypogeum) \"And here is the hole where there was the snakepit, and justabove it in that niche they kept a statue of the mother goddess holding snakes (???). Right above us are the famous red ochre spirals. They are the trees of life like the tree of life in the Bible and Mesopotamia (????) and in those hollows over there women slept offering their dreams to the goddess (??????????).\" (needless to say for once i was speechless). 5) (Angry man talking to me over phone when i was working at the arch museum) \"Tourists come up to me and ask me where the Salina catacombs are and I am ashamed to tell them they were destroyed by people putting rubbish in them and that you lot did nothing to stop it. I used to go to the catacombs everyday! Now they are building over them!! You lot are **&%$#@#\" ...(ME) \"Excuse me sir where exactly do you place the salina catacombs?\"...(HIM)...\"what do you mean? under X overY of course!\"...(ME)...\"uhh...no..not exactltly they are in L under S\"...(HIM)...\"OH\" **click** (know-all man in attendance of archaeology lecture on the building of the temples) \"I disagree with this presentation. It would have taken far more labour to build the temples. I am an engineer! I know these things. You didn't even mention the guy who would have written down all the plans and given them to the others to follow...\" (umm maltese temples are dated to 5000-3000 in all..like..no writing in Malta then? ouch this was bad...it was a public lecture) Thanks for this, Si\ufffdg http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/prehistoricarchaeology"}, {"response": 564, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 22, 2001 (16:19)", "body": "Thanks for this H_H Secrets of Stone Age hill to be revealed By David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent THE largest and most mysterious Stone Age earth mound in Western Europe may be about to reveal some of its closely guarded secrets. Archaeologists are assembling on the summit of Silbury Hill, in Avebury, Wiltshire, to carry out its first three-dimensional seismic scan. The survey will reveal the extent of damage caused to the World Heritage Site by 18th and 19th century investigators. It may also solve the long-standing mystery of whether chambers, tunnels and burial rooms lie within the mound. Silbury Hill is about 130ft high and has a circumference at its base of 1,640ft. It covers five acres and is made from 12 million cubic feet of soil and chalk. It was built between 2800 and 2000 BC, but its purpose remains a mystery. The hill has attracted numerous legends. According to one, a solid gold knight and horse are hidden in a burial chamber. Last year a hole appeared on its flat summit, the result of a partial collapse of a vertical mine shaft dug by the Duke of Northumberland into the middle of the mound in 1776. His excavation found nothing, but archaeologists believe that the shaft was carelessly filled in. The hole at the summit, which measures 24ft by 18ft wide and is around 12 feet deep, is threatening the stability of the site. English Heritage, which is funding a dig to find out more, said a seismic scan within the next few weeks would reveal the extent of the instability and the state of other mine shafts dug in 1849, 1867, 1886 and 1968. Amanda Chadburn, English Heritage's inspector of ancient monuments, said: \"The excavations will provide us with knowledge essential to our understanding of the hill's present condition. \"Together with a seismic survey, it will enable us to solve some extremely complex technical problems and decide on the most effective strategy for repairs.\" The mound is thought to have religious significance and forms part of a complex of monuments in Avebury. http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/prehistoricarchaeology"}, {"response": 565, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 22, 2001 (17:21)", "body": "Ancient cemetery discovered in Costa Rica San Jose, Costa Rica - Human remains more than 2 500 years old have been found on Costa Rica's Pacific coast and are believed to be part of an important pre-Colombian cemetery, scientists said on Wednesday. A fisherman discovered the site in April when he came across some bones 200 miles (320 kms) north-east of the capital, San Jose, said Vicente Guerrero, an archaeologist with the National Museum. Among the cadavers is a small child whose remains were well preserved. The site had been covered by the ocean, but was exposed during a low tide common in April. Guerrero said the burial was unique in its detail. Scientists have been able to determine the subjects' sex, age, height and cause of death. - Sapa-AP"}, {"response": 566, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 22, 2001 (17:53)", "body": "More on P I C T I S H http://www.linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/archive-1998.7/msg00983.html and especially http://www.britannica.com/seo/p/pictish-language/ (the britannica article will list sources. There is some disagreement among scholars but generally, newer scholarship indicates that the Picts spoke a very ancient dialect of Brythonic or P-Celtic, like the language of the Gauls and Britons, rather than Goidelic or Gaelic like the Irish and Scotts. There are those who still disagree, however. When Columba went to proselytize the Picts he needed a translater even though he spoke both Briton and Irish. People of the \"non-Celtic\" school point to this as evidence that the Picts were a non-Celtic ore even non-Indo European people. But the fact of the matter is that this evidence is not dispositive because people who speak linguistically similar languages often cannot understand each other. For example, a French person would need a translator to converse with people who spoke Spanish, though they are both Romance languages. An even better way of looking at it is to say that even the same language may be unintelligible if you look at a much older dialect than the one with which you are familiar. How many modern English speakers can understand Beowulf, for example? Greek, too, has undergone significant changes in the last 1000 years; I'm told that Byzantine Greek (used in the Orthodox liturgy) is almost unintelligible to modern Greek speakers. Thanks Doug oldestcivilizations@yahoogroups.com"}, {"response": 567, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (01:06)", "body": "H_H - thank you for sending me this. It is 'orrible! Duchas objects to King's Island plans By \ufffdibhir Mulqueen, Midwest Correspondent D\ufffdchas, the Heritage Service, says a proposed hotel development for the King's Island area of Limerick will erase a medieval laneway and ignores important monuments. The application by King's Island Developments to build a 107-bedroom hotel is for an area which formed part of the historic walled city. A substantial part of the wall runs through the site, Ms Triona Lonergan of the development applications section of D\ufffdchas told Limerick Corporation. The proposal is for two interconnected curvilinear blocks, reaching a height of 20.5 metres, in an area bounded by the Northern Relief Road, the medieval Long Lane and Sir Harry's Mall, which runs alongside the Abbey river. The developers also propose building a pedestrian boardwalk across the river. \"It is proposed to erase all trace of a medieval laneway, the widening of a second medieval lane and the substantial loss of the southern end of Sir Harry's Mall,\" Ms Lonergan said. more... http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2001/0522/hom15.htm"}, {"response": 568, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (01:57)", "body": "Have asked for a legal opinion on this one .. let you know if I find out anything"}, {"response": 569, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (16:34)", "body": "Thanks for that Maggie!"}, {"response": 570, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (00:32)", "body": "DISCOVER ARCHAEOLOGY ONLINE WEEKLY, MAY 24, 2001 http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml The Feature Report Menu: * Dateline ... Caral, Peru * Indian Seabed Hides Ancient Remains * Oldest European Calendar Deciphered * So You Want To Be An Archaeologist * China Strengthens Cultural Relics Protection Laws * Hunley Commander's Remains Found * Seafood Gave Modern Humans Edge * Egyptian Farmer Discovers Ottoman Warship * Archaeoseismological Research * U.S. Customs Returns Relic To China * People Of Mystery * The Marathon Battlefield/The War Continues Click here to get there: http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/newsletter.shtml Thank you for subscribing!"}, {"response": 571, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (18:13)", "body": "From 'orrible 'orace with thanks from me: Digging deep to uncover secrets of ancient tomb Recent geophysical tests conducted at one of Ireland's most fascinating landmarks will provide some new insights into the mysteries of the Newgrange passage tomb in Meath's Boyne Valley. The use of modern technology allows archeologists to map out what lies hidden underground using electronic waves. It is now known that the process conducted for the first time at the historic site has produced a number of startling discoveries. A report on the findings, which are believed to show a long \"avenue of the dead\" leading up to the monument, is now being evaluated by experts. Details are likely to be released in the coming months. Constructed around 3000BC, Newgrange is one of Ireland's oldest man-made structures and a master feat of engineering even today. It is the oldest structure in the world with a recognised solar alignment. The drum-shaped passage tomb is part of a cluster which includes the smaller structures at Knowth and Dowth.While it is known as a passage tomb (the remains of six people were found inside), experts believe the structure and its surrounds fulfilled a number of functions which are still not clear today. It is thought to be a religious site and may also have been a gathering point for political use. Newgrange is best known for its marking of the winter solstice on December 22 - the shortest day of the year. At Newgrange, a \"light box\" opening above the entrance channels the sunlight in a beam right down the internal passage almost to the end of the tunnel. When Newgrange was first constructed, the alignment of the earth and sun were slightly different and the beam of sunlight would have reached right to the central chamber, illuminating it fully. The chamber at the end of the Newgrange tunnel has a corbelled stone roof built by stacking flat stones one on top of another in a reducing circle - using their own weight to create stability. \ufffd Tunnel vision: archeologists have found an \"avenue of the dead\" leading to the Newgrange tomb. Photograph: Eamonn Farrell Passage tombs like Newgrange and its neighbours, Knowth and Dowth, were made by building a stone tunnel and the relevant chambers and then stacking boulders and earth on top. Newgrange has 200,000 tonnes of rock and stands 42ft (13 metres) high and 260ft (80 metres) across. Outside Newgrange is \"dashed\" with gleaming quartz which cannot be found locally. The tomb is surrounded by large stones, some of which are carved with spirals thought to represent the sun while others show lined carvings. Newgrange was first excavated in the 1960s by Professor Michael J O'Kelly. The monument was excavated and restored to its present form. The Boyne Valley was first occupied 7,000 years ago by a pre-Celtic people who farmed the fertile valley. Dowth was the first tomb to be built followed by Newgrange and then Knowth. The Knowth site is more rounded and only 33ft deep but contains two tunnels back to back, one facing east and the other west. Knowth was continually occupied, later providing a fortress for Celtic and then Norman use. Dowth has remained unexcavated. Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd."}, {"response": 572, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (18:14)", "body": "photograph and url for the above article http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/05/27/stipripri02021.html"}, {"response": 573, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (18:29)", "body": "Horrible, *Hugs* again for this article. Fascinating stuff! Earliest Scots discovered Frank O\ufffdDonnell (fodonnell@scotsman.com) AMATEUR archaeologists have discovered the earliest known evidence of human settlement in Scotland - dating from 8500BC. The remains of a temporary camp at Cramond, on Edinburgh\ufffds northern foreshore, were uncovered with more than 3,000 artefacts, including around 300 stone tools and tool fragments. Tiny fragments of discarded hazelnut shells were the crucial evidence that the inhabitants of the mesolithic site were the earliest known people to have lived in Scotland - pushing the starting date for Scottish civilisation back around 500 years. The find proves the theory that people began to recolonise Scotland almost immediately after the last Ice Age. John Lawson, of Edinburgh City Council\ufffds archaeology service, said: \"It\ufffds exciting to think these are the oldest known remains of settlers in Scotland. This is one of the most significant archaeological finds in the UK.\" Cramond now contains links to all periods of human occupation in Scotland. Previous excavations have uncovered a Roman fort, the underlying medireview church and village and a Roman lioness sculpture. A team of archaeologists began digging trenches in an area close to a Roman bath house in 1995. The dig expected to uncover further Roman remains but it quickly became apparent the team from the Edinburgh Archaeology Field Society had stumbled upon a mesolithic site. Careful analysis of the findings, with the assistance of the local authority and the National Museums of Scotland, has taken six years and it is only now archaeologists have been able to confirm the significance of the discovery."}, {"response": 574, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (07:44)", "body": "Found this brilliant site ...have a look http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/archeology/archeology.html"}, {"response": 575, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (07:47)", "body": "Here's a great link if you want to find lots of archeology sites. There's sure to be something of interest to you here .... http://bubl.ac.uk/link/hum.html"}, {"response": 576, "author": "horrible", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (15:30)", "body": "Regarding Newgrange,I have long thought that the book was still open and now that the proper tools are being used we should soon see how old the site actually is.But I wonder why the other Irish sites are so neglected.The time scale of all the guesses regarding all aspects of the prehistoric occupation of europe ,never mind just Ireland,must be pushed back a good few thousand years.Recent studies by younger Archaeologists versed in all the disciplines are putting the skids under the old farts who have dominated the field for far too long.Simply..it has been a cake walk for the old brigade to bullshit and get away with nonsense,the time of the real Archaeologist has come at long last"}, {"response": 577, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (17:33)", "body": "I trust you are out there encouraging them. I know your bit of the Auld Sod is sacred ground to you and no stone will be unturned in your efforts to get to the history of the place. Modern technology has been embraced by the new archaeologists, but the power still lies in the Old Boy Network who refuse to upgrage their memory banks or install new thinking. Those I used to worship have become stumbling blocks (go to a fogue in Cornwall to see a real one!) in the path of advancement of Archaeology. You are sadly right, but as long as you are custodian of even a small part of our ancient past, I will rest contented that what can be done will be done correctly. Go to it, man! I am right behind you carrying the lunch and notebooks."}, {"response": 578, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (00:29)", "body": "This stuff Horace just sent me is amazing stuff. I wonder if I should post it under Mysterious Geo... for the time being check out http://www.geocities.com/mythical_ireland/ancientsites/dowth/index.html Mahalo Nui Loa, Horace. How I would love to see the Boyne monuments!!!"}, {"response": 579, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (01:51)", "body": ""}, {"response": 580, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (01:57)", "body": "Liam, thanks for this! http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4194064,00.html Stones that could be Britain's pyramids Backwardness of ancient Britain is myth, says historian Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent Tuesday May 29, 2001 The Guardian The history books tell us how the Romans brought civilisation to the barbarians of Britain. But yesterday an archaeologist turned that long-held belief upside down by claiming that the ancient people of these islands were far more advanced than any of the early Mediterranean cultures. More daring still, Barry Cunliffe, professor of European archaeology at Oxford, also disputes what he calls the \"established pseudo-history\" that the Celts swept westwards through Europe until they reached the Atlantic seaboards of Spain, France, Britain and Ireland. \"There is simply no evidence for this,\" he said. \"There was no great movement of peoples towards the Atlantic, because they were already there,\" he told the Hay-on-Wye book festival yesterday. \"Only recently have we begun to discover that these people were far more advanced than those around the Mediterranean. We have underestimated dramatically the complexity of these people.\" Professor Cunliffe said the view of Stone Age Britain as backward had been skewed by our historical reliance on Greek and Roman classical texts, which were thick with prejudice and ignorant of almost anything beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar). \"For all these years we have been looking at Europe the wrong way round, and the idea that civilisation flowed out from the Mediterranean out to the barbarian edges of Europe has clouded our view that it flowed the other way too.\" He said the Atlantic civilisations that began to develop on favoured stretches of coasts such as southern Spain, Galicia, Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland and the western |isles of Scotland during the Mesolithic period from 6000 BC were the \"most advanced and stable communities in Europe\". He went on: \"They were the first, for instance, to make what we call 'careful burials' and to leave offerings for the dead, surrounding their heads with red ochre to symbolise blood. You find remarkable similarity in these coastal burials from Iberia right up to Ireland and even to Denmark.\" The huge shellfish middens on which Stone Age people lived, and later buried their dead, also contained hooks and bones of large deep sea fish which proved that they had seagoing vessels. Prof Cunliffe said it was from these middens that the huge megalithic tombs, standing stones and circles that still pockmark Britain and Ireland, sprang up by 3000BC. \"Thirty years ago it was held that these great stone monuments were influenced from the Mediterranean cultures, but carbon dating has begun to prove that this building was happening here long before they began to appear in southern Europe.\" The \"astonishing complexity and daring\" of these vast tombs, like those at Newgrange in Co Meath, Ireland, and Maes Howe on Orkney is as impressive as anything in Egypt at the same time. The professor, who has developed his theories in his new book Facing The Atlantic, and a forthcoming volume which follows Pytheas the Greek's circumnavigation of Britain in 320BC, said it was \"very mistaken\" to dismiss these Atlantic civilisations because they did not develop early forms of writing. \"There is a tendency to say that the complex, urban societies that developed in the eastern Mediterranean were more advanced because they had writing,\" he said. \"But these Atlantic ones were innovative in other ways. They were hugely more advanced in navigation, shipbuilding and their solar knowledge, and that of the seasons and the stars.\" But perhaps Prof Cunliffe's most extraordinary claim is that the Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, Galician and Breton languages are not the last vestiges of a tongue carried by Celtic invaders from northern India, but were local languages which grew from the aboriginal population."}, {"response": 581, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (02:03)", "body": "Good Grief, Middens have given rise to New Grange? Dowth and Nowth? Have they truly yielded fish bones at the bottom? Oh my heavens! Imagine living on your own rubbish tip?! We were a smelly lot. I can only wonder that we did not die off from some plague brough about by flies and rats who surly shared our abode. I think I need another bath!"}, {"response": 582, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (02:16)", "body": "Horace, The dolmen at Bree has a recumbent stone circle? I am all astonishment. A mini Boyne monument! I recall seeing dolmens in Wales and in Cornwall. None had standing stones around them. Henge traces, but no stones that I recall. *Getting out my books again* Your website is wonderful. May I offer my congratulations on a job well done?! I plan to spen hours in your company scraping the ground softly with a badger brush so I do not harm the glass shards. I also plan to get a bit of Rhyolite for my volcanic rock collection. Plants I will tackle in a bit elsewhere. Your home is wonderful. You did a splendid job on it! http://homepage.eircom.net/~bree"}, {"response": 583, "author": "horrible", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (15:12)", "body": "Thank you for your kind words Marcia and I must send you some Rhyolite,some limestone from the cliffs of Moher in Co. Clare and some 430 million year old fossil bearing limestone from the Hook Head here in Wexford which is sadly disappearing due to the action of Mother Nature ,Liam PS I did a post recently in your lovely conference and one of the young and fragrant members said that I did not sound horrible at all.Any more slanderous libelous stuff like that and I will show how horrible I am.Not horrible indeed,where do these youngsters get their ideas from?"}, {"response": 584, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (16:57)", "body": "OOOOOOuuuuuuuuu Sacred stones from the Emerald Isle?! FOSSILS?????? I will understand if it is not possible... The thought is lovely and the suggestion is much appreciated. See??? Not Horrible at all. Or is that for scaring the ladies who get too close? How horrible are you half way around the world? Can you scare straight through the earth?!"}, {"response": 585, "author": "horrible", "date": "Fri, Jun  1, 2001 (18:12)", "body": "Me? scare ladies? never"}, {"response": 586, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  2, 2001 (15:43)", "body": "Ah, That is nice to know. You warned us about how horrible you could be. I'll never tell what a pussycat you really are! Tell them to stick their cell-phone masts... well, trying to be a lady about this is not easy. Just tell them to shove them ! I'll help!"}, {"response": 587, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun  2, 2001 (16:25)", "body": "A pussycat? Marcia do you mean that Horrible Horace might occasionally be, just a little bit, horrible. After all, pussycats may have soft fur and purr, but they also have fangs and claws."}, {"response": 588, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sat, Jun  2, 2001 (18:15)", "body": "and things that go bump in the night"}, {"response": 589, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  2, 2001 (22:51)", "body": "Uh oh... I'd better behave myself. Lots of stuff goes bump in the night when you dwell in a house 250 years old and live on land occupied for aeons. You don't happen to have Indian burial grounds, do you? You don't want to build your Hale (Hawaiian for \"house\") on that! Native Hawaiian burials are also not a good thing to build upon. Night-marchers, you know!"}, {"response": 590, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (00:39)", "body": "French Scientists Revive Napoleon Poisoning Theory French scientists on Friday presented new findings which they say prove that Napoleon was poisoned with arsenic, reinforcing the controversial theory that the emperor was murdered by French and British conspirators. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010601/sc/life_napoleon_dc_1.html ***watch out for that Napoleon Brandy!"}, {"response": 591, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (14:17)", "body": "I'm more inclined to believe that Napoleon poisoned himself rather than endure the sheer boredom of life on St. Helena."}, {"response": 592, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (15:43)", "body": "I thought it was the aresenic on his wallpaper that did it. Copper arsenate was commonly known as Paris Green and was the chief source of green pigment for art and printing (and wallpaper) early on. It is illegal to use it now, for good reason!"}, {"response": 593, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (16:51)", "body": "I thought that some of you might be interested in this link in regard to the Celts. http://www.ares.u-net.com/celtindx.htm"}, {"response": 594, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (16:55)", "body": "Ooouuu yes!!! Thank you ... will report back. I have been \"buried\" in pyroclastic flows all morning and this will be a pleasant break ! Mahalo Nui!"}, {"response": 595, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (17:21)", "body": "I have downloaded that site to read later ,Cheryl,thank you for the link.A little caution on some \"Celtic \" sites ,racists have been known to take over the celtic history and twist it to try to prove some theory of a master-race in the Nazi style.I am not exactly a Politically Correct person but i abhor these people.That said there are some very good sites dealing with my great(to the power of megawatt)granddaddy.I will post some links later..I am still the new boy in this very nice and active Conference.(Thats another kiss you owe me Marcia)"}, {"response": 596, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (19:05)", "body": "There are some slightly \"off-beat\" (trying to be charitable) links there that should provide sfor some interesting conversation. Horace, you and I share these hisroty reconstructionists. The damage everything they touch. Soil and despoil. (All you have to do is make sure you have the entire url listed including the http part) *BIG HUGS* I am so delighted to have you join us. I hope you feel right at home. Thank you *kisses* for the lovely compliment! You are the ones who make it work. Otherwise you get my monologues all the time... Politically Correct is an oxymoron to me. How offensive!"}, {"response": 597, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (19:42)", "body": "Back to some nice Archaeo..sorry I have not yet upated my site on the ad-freeEircom,but if anyone is interested the photos of the stones surounding the Dolmen are on http://www.geocities.com/bree_house ,go to the photofile,which shows 4 blank buttons,click on the third one down(I hope,I'm on apple and blackberry wine just now) it should show a list of photos with red bits all over. Any questions to breehouse@eircom.net Liam"}, {"response": 598, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (22:49)", "body": "Ok... Wonder if you wrote this before or after our little conversation...*;) Thank you!"}, {"response": 599, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (22:53)", "body": "I found them!!! Thank you. The are on the photofile page. Just scroll down below the four dolmen ones and there are 13 photos complete with the arrows (must have Welshmen about!) Hugs... I hope you slept soundly!"}, {"response": 600, "author": "horrible", "date": "Mon, Jun  4, 2001 (13:57)", "body": "There may well be a full circle of stones around that Dolmen,its very overgrown with brambles etc and as its not on my land I cant touch anything.maybe we will have a little conversation later............"}, {"response": 601, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  4, 2001 (15:20)", "body": "Better to let the brambles hide the desirable stone rather than to have someone blast them to small bits and make chimneys out of them. Every been to Avebury? The entire town and walls around gardens are built out of that monument's stones. They even tried to bury then since they considered standing stones to be blasphemous. (Don't get me started on the evils done in the name of God.) Keep your stones hidden until someone protects it under the Ancient Momuments protection statutes - if they exist (the statutes, that is) Is it possible to porbe with a long pipe that would not damage the stones nor hurt them? As in an aluminum thin-walled pipe? At least you might be able to locate more of them if that were the case. Talk later... You usually manage to find me!"}, {"response": 602, "author": "horrible", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (16:45)", "body": "That was a nice link Cheryl ,thank you, I have read an enjoyed the site"}, {"response": 603, "author": "horrible", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (16:48)", "body": "I am only allowed to look at and take pics of the Dolmen Marcia,otherwise it would be completly explored by now. I would have brought you in as special advisor and such a nice time would have been had..."}, {"response": 604, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (17:42)", "body": "OOOOOOuuuuuuu yes! *Big wistful sigh*"}, {"response": 605, "author": "horrible", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (17:55)", "body": "damn,just missed you..had to after a fox..after telling you all about locking up on time I was 30 mins late and a poor duck was taken right at the window.By the time I got the gun the %*@@##$ was gone with duck over its shoulder.When it comes back I will be waiting.Talk to you soon"}, {"response": 606, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (19:37)", "body": "Ah, we did talk. The fox got his unhappy dinner and I got to talk to you. I trust you are loaded and ready for bear next time. *Gathering up rocks for Nick* Did you say you wanted a Lava nymph in that box, too?"}, {"response": 607, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (20:19)", "body": "Horace, I'm glad that you enjoyed the site. The man whose site it is has a book, either just our or just coming out, called \"The Atlantic Celts\". I'm sorry to hear about one of your ducks. I hope the rest are safe. Lava nymph? Marcia are you thinking of mailing yourself to Ireland?"}, {"response": 608, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (22:40)", "body": "*wide-eyed innocence* Just wanted to see the Dolmen for myself..."}, {"response": 609, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (10:48)", "body": "Published online before print June 5, 2001 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.121590798 http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/121590798v1 Ornaments of the earliest Upper Paleolithic: New insights from the Levant Steven L. Kuhn, Mary C. Stiner, David S. Reese, and Erksin G\ufffdle\ufffd Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0030; Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, P.O. Box 208118, New Haven, CT 06520-8118; and \ufffd Paleoantropoloji, Ankara \ufffdniversitesi, Dil ve Tarih-Corafya Fak\ufffdltesi, Shhiye, 06100, Ankara, Turkey Two sites located on the northern Levantine coast, \ufffd\ufffdazl Cave (Turkey) and Ksar 'Akil (Lebanon) have yielded numerous marine shell beads in association with early Upper Paleolithic stone tools. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates indicate ages between 39,000 and 41,000 radiocarbon years (roughly 41,000-43,000 calendar years) for the oldest ornament-bearing levels in \ufffd\ufffdazl Cave. Based on stratigraphic evidence, the earliest shell beads from Ksar 'Akil may be even older. These artifacts provide some of the earliest evidence for traditions of personal ornament manufacture by Upper Paleolithic humans in western Asia, comparable in age to similar objects from Eastern Europe and Africa. The new data show that the initial appearance of Upper Paleolithic ornament technologies was essentially simultaneous on three continents. The early appearance and proliferation of ornament technologies appears to have been contingent on variable demographic or social conditions. To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: skuhn@u.arizona.edu. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.121590798 Archaeologists Home In on Body Ornament Origins From earrings and necklaces to lipstick and tattoos, humans across cultures decorate themselves. Yet exactly how and why this practice came about has proved somewhat of a mystery, owing to holes in the archaeological record. Findings announced today in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, are offering new insight. According to the report, the technology for making body ornaments such as beads and pendants emerged simultaneously in Europe, Asia and Africa more than 40,000 years ago\ufffdperhaps as a new form of communication among the expanding populations in these regions. Previous work had turned up ancient ornaments crafted from shells, teeth, ivory and stone dating to the early Upper Paleolithic period in Africa and Europe. The new research, conducted by Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner of the University of Arizona and their colleagues, shows that people in the Levant were making ornaments back then too. Recent excavations at a cave in Turkey and reappraisal of some Lebanese remains, the team reports, have revealed shell beads that are at least 41,000 years old. Full text: http://www.sciam.com/news/060501/2.html"}, {"response": 610, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (16:13)", "body": "I would love to see pictures of their finds..."}, {"response": 611, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (18:09)", "body": ""}, {"response": 612, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (18:12)", "body": "Speaking of Dolmens... I had a long bit written just as my computer froze and took my thoughts with it. Here, thanks to Liam for permission http://www.geocities.com/bree_house/dolmen.html The Dolmen at Bree, County Wexford, Ireland. \ufffd Liam Ryan 2001"}, {"response": 613, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (18:18)", "body": "Under the above photo on the webpage for the dolmens the buttons will take you to further pictures. Some Dolmens are quite cramped inside and some, like Lanyon Quoit in Cornwall were reputedly high enough for a man on horseback to ride though in the \"old days\" (Probably in the 18th century.) Lanyon is quite high compared with the others I have seen which strongly resemble the one from Bree. There was a turf mound over this stone structure originally. With some you can still see the outline on the ground of the extent of the mound's circumference. And, lest I be unclear, \"quoit\" is the name in Cornwall for \"dolmen\" used elsewhere."}, {"response": 614, "author": "horrible", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (18:24)", "body": "And the word Dolmen is from a beton word meaning \"stone table\" and you can see why"}, {"response": 615, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (19:02)", "body": ""}, {"response": 616, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (19:03)", "body": "\"men\" is for stone as in menhir (standing stone)... if I remember correctly."}, {"response": 617, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (21:55)", "body": "Ok, what did you do to change your pictures? You changed urls!!! That means I wait til you quit fiddling with your website or download them to mine... You ARE Horrible, after all."}, {"response": 618, "author": "horrible", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (07:02)", "body": "i have'nt changed a thing Marcia what pics are changed?"}, {"response": 619, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (12:48)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/17.612 Your dolmen no longer shows and instead of the image that ugly little \"where an image should be\" (that broken little pink and blue box) is there instead."}, {"response": 620, "author": "horrible", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (17:54)", "body": ""}, {"response": 621, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (18:08)", "body": "You learned how to delete, did you? Or are you giving us the silent treatment? (Anyone wanting toknow how to delete their own posts can contact me for the command string. You can only delete your own posts unless you are the Conference Creator )"}, {"response": 622, "author": "horrible", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (18:35)", "body": "pressed the wrong button,sorry"}, {"response": 623, "author": "horrible", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (18:37)", "body": "submit instead of redisplay,have i got to stand in the corner?"}, {"response": 624, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (19:02)", "body": "You, never! Unless I am in the corner of choice, perhaps? Feeding the wolf, of course!"}, {"response": 625, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (21:27)", "body": "From Maggie, with hugs - Indian tribe objects to archaeological dig June 7, 2001 Posted: 8:43 AM EDT (1243 GMT) TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan (AP) -- An American Indian tribe is trying to halt an archaeological dig at the site of a 17th-century settlement where Indians and French settlers once lived. The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians contends the research team from Michigan State University is showing disrespect for what many natives consider sacred ground. The dig is taking place in St. Ignace, an Upper Peninsula town on the Straits of Mackinac, where Lakes Huron and Michigan converge. Missionary Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit priest, founded the village in 1671. Some tribe members complained the student workers smoked in the pit, wore heavy boots that could have crushed artifacts, and did not show proper deference to their surroundings. Full text: http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/06/07/excavation.protest.ap/index.html"}, {"response": 626, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (21:36)", "body": "Subject: bones of contention Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2001 00:11:02 -0400 The Body in Question The discovery of the remains of a 9,000-year-old man on the Columbia River has set off a conflict over race, history and identity that isn't just about the American past, but about the future as well By Steve Coll Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 3, 2001; Page W08 http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/style/postmagazine/A99386-2001May30.html A middle-aged man with a long face died near the north bank of the Columbia River about 9,000 years ago. He had known violence: crushed ribs, a chipped elbow, a fractured skull. A stone-tipped spear or projectile once plunged into his right hip, leaving a fragment in his bones. He survived and wandered western America for months and perhaps years afterward. The man lived among hunter-gatherers who covered vast distances in small bands. They rarely stopped for more than a few days. They made little effort to store food. Some may have trekked on long, solo walkabouts. A restless search for elk, bison, deer and pronghorn dominated their lives. Continually at risk, they had little time for decorative arts or social ritual. But they had tools, spears, language and something like ambition. In the coulee-riven plateau between the Rockies and the Cascades where the man with the long face died, there were very few people -- perhaps as few as 500 or 1,000 in all of what is now eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, Idaho and Nevada, scholars say. Bitter winters and erratic vegetation threatened famine, but a man who could take a spear in his hip and keep walking had a fair chance on this terrain. Today the man's skull and skeleton lie in storage in Seattle's Burke Museum, sequestered by a federal court order. If he could somehow be revived, he might be dismayed to learn that he has become known as Kennewick Man, after the shabby electricity-generating town in eastern Washington (\"Welcome to Kennewick: A Public Power Community\") where his bones were discovered in 1996 by beer-sodden college students sneaking into a speedboat race. Five years on, because of a scientific, cultural and legal battle that would be difficult to explain to him or any of his fellow hunter-gatherers, the man's final resting place seems unlikely to be decided until the U.S. Supreme Court expresses an opinion. Meanwhile, disputants in Bonnichsen et al. v. United States of America and its related, sprawling Interior Department proceeding are set to reconvene before a federal magistrate in Portland, Ore., on June 19. Presiding will be Judge John Jelderks, who has noted that \"some of the issues presented in this case are questions of first impression that have not previously been addressed by any court.\" In the lawsuit, eight prominent American archaeologists and physical anthropologists seek to block the U.S. government from delivering Kennewick Man's remains to a coalition of five Northwest Indian tribes, who claim him as an ancestor and intend to honor him by reburying him. In siding with the Indians, the government cites a 1990 federal law that gives tribes extensive rights over remains judged as \"culturally affiliated\" with modern Indians. The law seeks in part to redress grave-robbing and racist theorizing by 19th-century white scientists who studied Native American bones. The anthropologists who sued argue that these particular remains are a rare scientific treasure. The bones are like precious books in a government library, the scientists say, and they have a First Amendment right to study them. At stake, argues the Smithsonian Institution's Douglas Owsley, one of the plaintiffs, is \"the right to ask questions of the past.\" But then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt concluded last September that Kennewick Man is likely an ancestor of modern Indians and that the scientists have no legal basis to stop reburial. The tribes accuse the scientists of perpetuating exploitive study of Native American bones. \"We are very much involved as well as intrigued and interested in our own history, as well as all history,\" says Jeff Van Pelt of the Federated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation. \"But science needs to have some kind of ethical foundation on controlling how far is too far.\" The case has become so inflamed that scholars involved speak of shouting matches and threatened fisticuffs at academic conferences, as well as vindictive silent treatments meted out in divided university anthropology departments. Debate about race has deepened the resentments. When Kennewick Man was first discovered, some scientists examined his skull's shape and declared that he might have physically resembled modern Europeans, not modern Native Americans. Newspapers and magazines carried sensational stories describing speculation by scholars that modern Indian tribes might be descended from Asian people who arrived later than a previously unknown European group. (Very few scholars credit this theory today.) For a while, a small religious sect of Norse"}, {"response": 627, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (12:07)", "body": "There is also a theory that Kennewick Man shared certain characteristics with the surviving current Ainu population of northern Japan."}, {"response": 628, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (16:21)", "body": "Alas theory,if the USA wasn't so tied by PC, fact and not theory would rule.Try searching some of the European and Australian,Middle Eastern and newly emerging web sites from the former communist countries.The wealth of information on these sites is overwhelming and not hidebound by consideration of some Micky Mouse set of rules.From this side of the world it appears that the Native American needs to have his palm greased before he will do anything..........."}, {"response": 629, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (16:31)", "body": "Ah yes, you are allowed to say that since you are not one of the heirs of the perpetrators of evil against all nations other than the white ones. It is an unhappy situation no matter whose side you take. I could just as well claim that man as MY ancestor since he was caucasian and NOT indian. I am more than a little furious at the way this has been handled. We all lose in this one. Americans can be so stupid about some very important things!"}, {"response": 630, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (19:21)", "body": "The power that Elizabeth Dole wielded is good example ........You can die for America as a teenager but not have a drink.Alcohol has replaced the \"Reds s the new enemy.What sort of prissy nation is developing here? Dole? do you know how she manipulated the rules of the Great USA for her own narrow ends?"}, {"response": 631, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (19:22)", "body": "Why is there a guilt factor in all aspects of life these days?"}, {"response": 632, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (19:24)", "body": "Sorry I should have said in \"some \"countrys"}, {"response": 633, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (19:27)", "body": "In the time of Slavery for example ,the Irish were treated by the English in a manner that no slave owner could afford.After all he had to buy a slave ..we came free ..think about it.we were expendable"}, {"response": 634, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (19:30)", "body": "And yet I was happy to work and live in England and I like the English..then I dont have any guilt complex"}, {"response": 635, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (19:44)", "body": "I don't have a guilt complex either. I have never met anyone I did not appreciate on a personal level. Character matters. Your ancestors do not. you are a very good sort, H_H, in more ways than one would imagine. *hugs* Hate to mention this, but didn't the Irish acquire their Patron Saint on a slave raid to Wales?!"}, {"response": 636, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (19:50)", "body": "Liam, would you please let us know about Elizabeth Dole, and is it about the Red Cross? I have not a whole lot good to say about the Red Cross."}, {"response": 637, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (06:02)", "body": "Dole threatened to withhold funds from States that did not hike the drinking age limit,she actually wants it to be 25!! imagine half a liftime gone without a glass of Californias best.Yes we got the slave from Wales and other places as well"}, {"response": 638, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (16:32)", "body": "The Puritans took over the US long ago. The now lurk in th guise of politicians and Tipper Gore and her ilk were finding hidden messages in rock music where none existed and her stickers were an added inducement to buy them for the kiddies she was trying to protect. As for age limits on drinking, that is liek gon control. They drink earlier and earliier in gradeschool because they are not taught how to deal with it at home. I got watered wine early in life for dinner and never did drink, nor did my sisters. Making things illegal just drives it underground and makes it more and more intriguing. Dole and her like are a menace."}, {"response": 639, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 12, 2001 (16:25)", "body": "Thanks Don! I wish you had time to come read and participate... Chicago Natural History Museum to Return Totem Pole to Indian Tribe in Alaska The Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) - The Field Museum of Natural History will give one of its most treasured items, a 27-foot totem pole, to an American Indian tribe that asked for its return. The totem pole was taken as part of an 1899 expedition to collect American Indian artifacts and other items in the Alaskan territory for the museum. It will be shipped by summer to Cape Fox, Alaska, a spot considered sacred by members of the Tlingit Native American nation. \"This is a very important object for us to have returned and it will be the cause for much celebration,\" said Irene Shields, a spokeswoman for the 16,000-member Tlingit nation. \"These items are so important for us to have to convey our traditions and history to our children and grandchildren.\" The pole is the latest of several items the museum has returned to American Indian groups under terms of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The museum, which has one of the country's largest American Indian collections, has returned a carved wheel, beads and eagle feathers to the Arapaho tribe in northern Arizona. It has also given back a stone basket to the San Manuel Mission band of Indians in California, and a shaman's robe to the Kootznoowoo in Alaska. \"I try to understand the times when our sacred objects were taken from us and I know they were different then,\" Shields said. \"Being able to get these things back is all very new to us.\" AP-ES-06-10-01 2009EDT This story can be found at : http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAD9X2HTNC.html"}, {"response": 640, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 12, 2001 (18:15)", "body": "http://www.vernonweb.com/vwnews.htm \"Representatives of Native American nations who were present at the 5/31 TC meeting made comments to the effect that, in light of earlier TC meetings concerning the park plan, the TC's actions had been deceitful and treacherous. They pointed out the township's deliberate bulldozing of the artifacts grounds before an alternative park design could be presented. It was also suggested that, if remains of Lenni Lenape inhabitants are disturbed, a federal human rights issue might be in prospect.\""}, {"response": 641, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (08:44)", "body": "Roots \ufffd Deep Ones The perils of looking into American prehistory. By John J. Miller, NR's national political reporter June 9-10, 2001 \ufffd Printer-Friendly E-mail a Friend ne of the secrets of archaeology is that many truly great finds aren't made by archaeologists. It was a farmer, Harold Conover, who stumbled on a clue in the late 1980s that led to a magnificent site in Virginia called Cactus Hill. Conover and his wife were walking on logging roads near their home when he spotted a few Indian artifacts mixed in the sand. He soon traced the sand back to a quarry about ten miles away. Thanks to this detective work, a group of archaeologists led by Joseph McAvoy started digging near that quarry in the early 1990s. They unearthed signs of human habitation stretching back about 18,000 years \ufffd making Cactus Hill one of the two or three oldest sites in North America. They also found evidence to support one of the most provocative developments of our time: the growing suspicion among physical anthropologists, archaeologists, and even geneticists that some of the first people who settled in the New World were Europeans. continued @"}, {"response": 642, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (15:23)", "body": ""}, {"response": 643, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (15:26)", "body": "Terry... arrrgh! what is the rest of that url? Fascinating. I have a friend who is an archaeologist for the Army Corps of Engineers. He gets to go out and discover what is worth saving and if the road or dam construction should be halted until he can do excavating and so forth. He can walk the ground and sense things we never see and find things lying \"hidden in plain sight.\" It is truly a gift. And the product of hard work and study."}, {"response": 644, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (15:42)", "body": "http://www.nationalreview.com/weekend/anthropology/anthropology-miller060901.shtml Does this work?"}, {"response": 645, "author": "horrible", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (17:18)", "body": "It did Terry ,will read it later"}, {"response": 646, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (18:05)", "body": "Thanks Terry! Now, if only I could find my FTP files on the net so I could post a few images...*sigh* I see that you managed to post, Horace! does this mean your spring difficulties are fixed?"}, {"response": 647, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (14:33)", "body": "http://www.adn.com/metro/story/0,2633,274172,00.html Natives give DNA to solve mystery of ancient man PUZZLE: 500-year-old body was found at glacier's foot. By Cathy Brown The Associated Press (Published June 13, 2001) Juneau -- Southeast Alaska Natives are donating drops of blood this week to help unravel the mystery of a man who died more than 500 years ago on the ice of British Columbia. The body of the man called Kwaday Dan Sinchi, or \"Long Ago Man Found,\" was discovered by sheep hunters in 1999 at the foot of a melting glacier in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park near the British Columbia-Yukon border. Champagne and Aishihik First Nations in Canada decided to take DNA samples from present-day Tlingit of Southeast Alaska and Athabaskan Tutshone people in Canada to see if genetic material links them with the ancient man. \"People are very interested to find out, if it's possible, which communities he may be connected to,\" said Chuck Smythe, an ethnologist with Sealaska Heritage Foundation in Juneau. \"It's very interesting to know because this man was found in an area that was a shared area between the Canadian tribes and the Alaska tribes, and there was a lot of intermarriage and trade, commerce and interaction.\" Harryet Rappier of Juneau said the pin prick to draw her blood was a small inconvenience for the chance to learn more about her relatives to the north. Her mother was born in Klukshu, Yukon, in 1903. \"I just can't get enough information from that part of the country,\" Rappier said. \"I'd like to know more about my mother's people.\" Loretta \"Betty\" Marvin of Juneau, whose mother was born in Haines, was also happy to cooperate. \"To me this is pretty interesting, very fascinating, to be able to find out and check back,what is it, 500 years, and there's maybe a possibility I could be a relative,\" Marvin said. \"And it's just kind of fascinating to know what DNA can do.\" More than 50 people showed up at the Sealaska building in Juneau on Monday and Tuesday to share stories and blood samples with a team of First Nations workers. In Alaska, the First Nations group is particularly interested in testing DNA of people with ancestors from Yakutat, Klukwan and Haines. Along with the blood samples, the group is collecting genealogical information. The DNA study is one of a couple dozen studies First Nations and universities in Canada, the United States, Great Britain and Australia are conducting on the man and the artifacts found near him, said Sarah Gaunt, heritage planner for Champagne and Aishihik First Nations. Although the man's head was missing, ice preserved most of the body, Smythe said. Studies so far have shown Kwaday Dan Tsinchi was probably in his late teens or early 20s and was in good health. He had food with him -- a pouch of dried chum salmon was found in his robe. Gaunt said the cause of death isn't known yet. Oral history suggests his fate may have been common. \"There's quite a lot of stories here and in the Interior of people who traveled and didn't come home,\" Gaunt said. Hunting tools, a hat, robe and other artifacts lay near the body. The hat and robe have been dated to between 1415 and 1445, A.D. Where Kwaday Dan Tsinchi was from is a puzzle. The finely woven spruce root hat found with him was in the style of the coastal Tlingit, but the robe was of Interior gopher fur -- a material Harryet Rappier remembers in a blanket her grandmother once had. The hunting tools also provide conflicting clues, Gaunt said. Some of the wood is from coastal trees, but in other cases the wood comes from the Interior. And researchers found pollen on the robe from a meadow-like area, from high alpine alder, from river valley vegetation and from coastal hemlock. \"There's four ecosystems represented in the coat alone, which means it was a well-traveled coat,\" Gaunt said. While some Lower 48 Native Americans have objected to studies of ancient remains, Gaunt said this case was different because a legal agreement between Champagne and Aishihik First Nations and the British Columbia government clearly gave First Nations ownership of the body and the artifacts found with it. That level of control provided the comfort needed to proceed with studies, Gaunt said. The group allowed access to the remains for biological studies only until December of 2000. A decision on how the body ultimately will be laid to rest hasn't been settled, Gaunt said."}, {"response": 648, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (18:57)", "body": "On the other hand.....*HUGS* to Liam for this: Gum disease decoded SCIENTISTS have successfully read the entire genetic code of a bacterium believed to cause gum disease. The breakthrough is a major advance in the effort to develop vaccines and drugs to combat Porphyromonas gingivalis. The genetic code of the cause of adult periodontitis and tooth loss were released on the internet on Tuesday. The project to read all 2.3 million \"letters\" of code was carried out by Dr Robert Fleischmann at the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Maryland, in collaboration with the Forsyth Institute in Boston. 26 April 2001: Diabetes linked to gum disease"}, {"response": 649, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (20:59)", "body": "To Don, for 25 year of meritorious and diligent service for the Army Coprs of Engineers as an archaeologist on behalf of all Americans, with great affection and appreciation: Maile & Tuberose Traditional Green Open End Maile Lei twined together with 2 White Tuberose Lei. This combination of three leis is worn by men's for weddings and special occasions."}, {"response": 650, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (21:00)", "body": "I forgot your Rolex and your Range Rover... I'll bring them with me!"}, {"response": 651, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (21:19)", "body": "Prime rib dinner for the gentleman served in the manner he wishes and where he wishes. He did not even get a peanut butter sandwich! We do not compensate devotion very well in this country. I am most disappointed! *Hugs* Don!"}, {"response": 652, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (20:52)", "body": "OLD WORLD NEWS The Tucson Citizen has a feature on early humans' diet: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/local/6_14_01fish.html A recent paper is disputing the Scot's Irish origins: http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/11-6-19101-0-51-36.html A bronze age site has been revealed near Hostivice: http://www.pbj.cz/common/article.asp?id=121541&site=1 Six tombs dating to 3000 B.C./B.C.E. have been discovered outside Cairo: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_324538.html http://www.smh.com.au/news/0106/16/review/review9.html http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/story_14329.asp http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2001/06/12/FFXIWM1KUNC.html A British weather man has suggested weather can explain a number of Biblical events: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=QeSk3e3R&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/6/17/nbibl17.html A number of Sassanid dynasty coins have been found: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010613/sc/syria_archaeology_1.html http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/06/13/syria.coins.ap/index.html The Cyprus PIO has a brief item on the excavation of the theatre at Paphos: http://www.hri.org/news/cyprus/cypio/2001/01-06-13.cypio.html#03 There is now more evidence that the Colosseum was built from spoils from the sack of Jerusalem: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000579381554028&rtmo=wKtet5fb&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/6/15/wcol15.html Also in regards to the Colosseum, plans are in the works to restore it to its original colour: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010614/wl/italy_colosseum_2.html http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-eur/2001/jun/14/061400786.html http://www.iht.com/articles/22999.html (spelling!) A dozen or so Roman ships found near the Sardinian port of Olbia are beginning to give up their secrets: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1385000/1385326.stm MSNBC has a feature on Australian archaeologist Rhys Jones: http://www.msnbc.com/news/587594.asp Researchers using archaeological evidence have suggested that taller people live longer: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=77944 The latest use of DNA research appears to be to determine the origins of India's caste system: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/hsn/20010519/hl/genes_confirm_origin_of_india_s_castes_1.html Weird stuff: museum officials in Britain have to deal with an upsurge in \"mummy worship\": http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=77419 NEW WORLD NEWS Genetic testing is being done to find living relative of Canada's \"Ice Man\": http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSScience0106/13_ancient-ap.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/586829.asp http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20010613_474.html http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/national/27407_ice14.shtml There's concern about 'mom and pop' approaches to er, 'archaeology' in Oregon: http://www.kptv.com/news/local/story.asp?content_id=466348 http://www.kgw.com/kgwnews/oregonwash_story.html?StoryID=21386 The Arizona Republic has a feature on Phoenix archaeologist Todd Bostwick: http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0612Dig12.html It sounds like we're going to be hearing more about Mesa Verde: http://db.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=701491&pic=none&TP=getlifestyle http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/national/27337_ruins14.shtml http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_617159,00.html cf. http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/0699toc/6special-mv1.shtml ON THE NEWSSTANDS Egypt Revealed has a piece on a \"gender confused\" mummy: http://www.egyptrevealed.com/061401-mummysexchange.shtml CLASSICIST'S CORNER A bunch of runners have retraced the gruelling 110km route of Euchidas: http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12913&m=A48&aa=1&eidos=S The Independent has a touristy sort of piece with plenty of classical references on Italy: the land of myths: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=77459 FAZ has a feature on the temple of Zeus at Olympia: http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub={B1311FD3-FBFB-11D2-B228-00105A9CAF88}&doc={6C641DF5-5FE1-11D5-A3B5-009027BA22E4}&width=800&height=572&agt=netscape&ver=4&svr=4.7 There's a big article on Atlantis kicking around various newspapers: http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010613/12/ent-wkd-atlantis-myths FOLLOWUPS Herakleion: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001200227,00.html http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o090621ka.htm http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=194471&thesection=news&thesubsection=world http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,503588,00.html Hunley: http://www.msnbc.com/news/588079.asp Phillipeion returned antiquities: http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12914&m=A39&aa=3&eidos=S OBITUARIES Graham Webster: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,60-2001200161,00.html Edward Wright: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/breakingnews/International/0,3561,973614,00.html AT ABOUT.COM Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest is on Teiresias in Ovid's Metamorphoses: http://ancienthistory.about.c"}, {"response": 653, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (22:43)", "body": "Ancient village leaves little evidence in Hawaii Kai The old heiau has almost disappeared, and restoration may be impossible By Nelson Daranciang ndarancian@starbulletin.com Nothing remains of the ancient Hawaiian village in Hawaii Kai. Only rocks covered with old construction material mark the nearby heiau. In 1993, John Delima said, a friend took him to the site where they made a traditional Hawaiian offering. They also surveyed the surrounding area. \"It pains me to see that nothing is or was ever done to protect this heiau or the remains of the village,\" he said. \"I just wanted to spread awareness of it and maybe somebody would step up and put a fence around it and people would leave it alone.\" Archaeologist Gilbert McAllister plotted the location of Hawea Heiau in 1930 for the Bishop Museum, which published his findings in \"Archaeology of Oahu.\" \"It was already damaged in 1930. Rocks were taken to reconstruct the Keahupua O Maunalua Fish Pond (now known as Kuapa Pond). And it was finished off during the construction of Kaluanui Road in the '50s and '60s for Mariners Ridge,\" said Sarah Collins, state archaeologist. The heiau was mauka of the Hawaii Kai Post Office on the side of the hill, Collins said. Delima said he found a map showing that the village stretched from the heiau down toward where the Oahu Club now sits. But when he surveyed the site, he found no signs of the village. Collins said no burials were found in the area. more... http://starbulletin.com/2001/06/17/news/"}, {"response": 654, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (21:16)", "body": "Got sharp eyes, keen love for the past and a passion for its preservation but no diploma to show you are worthy? These guys will take care of that need and help you fulfill this dream! http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/pii.htm#NAI1990"}, {"response": 655, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (14:11)", "body": "From Ireland from Liam.... thanks!!! Luas archaeological digs uncovers human skeleton By Frank McDonald, Environment Editor Archaeological digs along the route of Dublin's Luas light rail system have revealed a partially dismembered human skeleton and a 14th century animal horn from an extinct species of cattle, among other major finds. Mr Jim Quinlan, architect with the light rail project office, said the former Maguire and Patterson site off Church Street had yielded a surprising amount of material, including an 18th century cobbled lane with four previous road surfaces. As its location is near St Michan's Church, dating back to 1095, desktop studies identified the site as having high archaeological potential. As a result, the office commissioned archaeologists Margaret Gowen and Company to excavate it. Old maps suggest the site may lie within the curtilage of St Michan's, though it is now separated from the church by a Law Library building. Barristers there were given a presentation on the dig. Finds included an intact 18th century wine bottle, pottery jug and drinking vessel. But Mr Quinlan said the skeleton was the \"most exciting find of all\". Missing its right arm and leg, it may date from the 18th century also. Pending a report on the dig, the site is to be back-filled and covered to protect further deposits below the excavated level. The archaeologists have moved to another site beside the former Jameson distillery in Smithfield, where two wells and a cess pit which may date from the sixth century have been found. According to Mr Quinlan, although laying Luas trackbeds does not require significant construction depths, the diversion of sewage mains, electricity lines and other utilities can mean deep digs. An earlier excavation at Ballymount, adjacent to a prehistoric enclosure to the north of Tallaght, yielded shards of pottery and a cobbled yard. Further digging last summer revealed a possible souterrain chamber. The archaeologists are on call to deal with unexpected finds along the Luas alignment. They are monitoring the demolition of buildings on the south side of Mary's Abbey. All of the excavations have been licensed by D\ufffdchas, the Heritage Service. http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2001/0619/hom12.htm"}, {"response": 656, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 20, 2001 (17:48)", "body": "From Liam, again... June 19 \ufffd The battle between Indians and scientists over a 9,300-year-old skeleton is landing in court, again. A U.S. magistrate in Portland, Ore., is hearing oral arguments today in the lawsuit brought by eight prominent anthropologists against the federal government over whether they can study Kennewick Man. They say the skeleton, found in 1996 by college students near the banks of the Columbia River in Washington, doesn't resemble modern American Indians and could radically change theories about the earliest inhabitants of the Americas. Some scientists say Kennewick Man's bones most resemble those of modern people in East Asia. But scientists may never have the opportunity for further study. In September, the Department of Interior ruled the skeleton should be turned over to five Northwest tribes who claim the skeleton as an ancestor and want to rebury it under a 1990 federal law. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, was designed to give tribes power over Indian remains and artifacts held by museums or found on federal and Indian land. more... http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/kennewick_hearing010619.html"}, {"response": 657, "author": "horrible", "date": "Wed, Jun 20, 2001 (18:23)", "body": "The Sun has just set here and I have tried to capture the scene on a slide show at http://homepage.eircom.net/~bree/dolmen.html hope the magic comes through.And moments later the most spectacular meteorite for years spun its magic too..what a night"}, {"response": 658, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 20, 2001 (21:25)", "body": "OH LIAM!!! Great portent!!!"}, {"response": 659, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 22, 2001 (18:18)", "body": "Liam, this is from you, for which I give my thanks. It is fascinating to think how far back the not-out-of-Africa origins might go... Korean-Russian Team Unearth Neolithic Settlements Korea and Russia have conducted a joint excavation on Suchu Islet, located near the Russian city of Havarovsk, and successfully discovered two underground settlements that go back to the Neolithic age it was announced Thursday. The project was carried out in July and August of 2000 by Korea's National Institute of Cultural Properties and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology (a Siberian branch of Russian Academy of Sciences). Along with excavations of the two settlements, the joint team also unearthed many artifacts of the same age inside the settlements, 8,000 in total, which included figures of women and animals made of clay. The two settlements are said to date back to 3,500-4,000 B.C. The Suchu Islet has long been considered a treasure for the world's archaeologists, due to its wealth of artifacts dating back to antiquity. http://www.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200106/200106210296.html"}, {"response": 660, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 25, 2001 (02:10)", "body": "Tribes unearth their past in paper Documents buried in East Coast archives offer Northwest Native Americans valuable, and often painful, links to their history Saturday, June 23, 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Alice Tallmadge, Correspondent, The Oregonian http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oreg onian/nw_71recor23.frame EUGENE -- When George Wasson traveled to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., more than 25 years ago, it was to hunt down and piece together the shards of his Native American legacy. That simple quest has led to the discovery of more than 110,000 pages of forgotten documents that are helping 45 tribes from throughout the Northwest establish stronger links to their past and better understand their cultural and historical identities. The trove includes archival documents -- maps, letters from Indian agents, military documents, word lists and cultural notes from early explorers -- that had been inaccessible to Native American tribes for decades. Wasson admits that the discovery of the documents, found during two research trips to the National Anthropological Archives and the National Archives, both at the Smithsonian Institution, opens searing wounds about how native people were treated by Western settlers and the U.S. military. But they also are giving hope and strength to hundreds of Native Americans whose ancestors once had dominion over lands that stretched the length of the Oregon coast and to Southwest Washington and Northern California. \"The worst tragedy to a cultural group is not merely the brutality and slaughter of the people,\" said Wasson, a member of the Coquille Tribe and a doctoral recipient from the University of Oregon. \"Holocaust is terrible, but the immediate pain is for young people who are separated from their culture and traditions. They inherit the pain and anguish of their ancestors.\" \"These documents mean more to us than interesting papers,\" said Jason Younker, a UO doctoral candidate and member of the Coquille Tribe. \"They are actually proof that we were here.\" The Coquille Tribe was terminated in 1954, Younker said. \"And until restoration in 1988, we were not Indians. Growing up a generation from that experience has a tremendous impact on your psyche. Now here we have overwhelming credibility to what we have already known: that we truly are the Coquille people.\" The Coquille Tribe and the university have co-sponsored the project, and copies of all the documents are being housed in the UO Knight Library's Division of Special Collections. Younker, who helped research archives at the Smithsonian, estimated the tribe has invested about $110,000 on the project. This tribe recently donated $10,000 to support research and access to the collection. Digging out history Wasson first got wind of a possible trove of documents in the mid-1970s when he traveled to the Smithsonian to do research. He found the unpublished field notes of John P. Harrington, an ethno-linguist who interviewed the oldest speakers of coastal Native American dialects in the 1930s and '40s. Wasson said he never forgot \"the vast amount of information held back there\" on native people. An assistant dean of students at the UO, Wasson retired and returned to graduate school. In 1995, he secured funding from the university to establish the Southwest Oregon Research Project. He used the funds to take tribal researchers and a group of students to the Smithsonian. The group pored over paper and microfiche documents until their eyes burned, marking everything that referred to Indian tribes who once populated the southwest Oregon coast. Although told they \"wouldn't find much,\" they unearthed 50,000 pages of documents. The researchers' mission was not to actually read through all the documents, but sometimes they couldn't stop themselves, Wasson said. Sometimes they wept. \"There was a soldier's comments about marching people from Port Orford to Yachats,\" Wasson remembered. \"An old woman was walking barefoot. He gave her cloth to bind her feet, but it didn't help. He wrote that he could tell when she was ahead of him, he could see her bloody footprints, climbing over the rock, climbing over the (area of) Sea Lion Caves.\" On their return, the group gave copies of the documents to the UO library. They also presented copies to seven Oregon coastal tribes, distributing the papers at a potlatch (give-away ceremony), the first held in the area in 150 years. A return trip in 1999 yielded 60,000 more pages of documents, this time with a geographical reach that extended into southern Washington, Central Oregon, western Idaho and Nevada. The group held a second potlatch a few weeks ago, presenting copies of relevant documents to representatives of 44 Northwest tribes. Jon Erlandson, UO professor of anthropology, called Wasson the \"godfather\" of the research project. \"These documents have been hidden and inaccessible to Indian people and ot"}, {"response": 661, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 25, 2001 (17:04)", "body": "Also from Liam and The Telegraph, the fount of interesting stuff for geo: Napoleon 'poisoned by French royalists' A LEADING British expert on Napoleon has given his backing to the theory that the deposed French Emperor was assassinated by his fellow countrymen. Dr David Chandler, considered the foremost living authority on Napoleon, believes that history books should be re-written to include a final chapter on the conspiracy behind his death. It has taken decades for Dr Chandler and other academics to accept that one of the greatest military commanders in history was assassinated. For more than a century, it had been accepted that Napoleon died from stomach cancer aged 52 on May 5, 1821. But Dr Chandler is now \"99.9 per cent certain\" that one of France's greatest heroes was poisoned by his campatriots on St Helena, the south Atlantic island to which he was exiled following defeat in 1815. The historian claims that between his arrival and his death six years later, Napoleon was systematically poisoned with arsenic given to him by Count Charles de Montholon, a man he regarded as his closest friend on the island but who, in fact, was acting on the orders of French royalists. The monarchy was motivated by the fear that Napoleon would return to France and lead another revolution. Earlier this month, hair belonging to Napoleon was found to contain excessive amounts of arsenic in tests commissioned by Ben Weider, a Canadian millionaire and historian who has championed the murder theory for the last 50 years. Dr Chandler, whose works on the French-born Corsican include the Campaigns of Napoleon, has taken 30 years to accept his conclusions. He said: \"After long checking, I am convinced 99.9 per cent that Napoleon was murdered. The only murderer must have been Count Charles-Tristan de Montholon. De Montholon was in the right place at the right time and had a sufficient motive to kill his emperor.\" An army officer who had an undistinguished career during the Napoleonic wars, de Montholon had left himself open to bribery after he was caught stealing money from regimental funds. The Comte d'Artois, brother of Louis XVIII, who had tried to assassinate Napoleon on several occasions, used the information to blackmail de Montholon to become the assassin. For years de Montholon fed his leader wine laced with arsenic which made him ill but was not deadly. However, a mixture of an orange drink, bitter almonds and calomel created a lethal cocktail. Calomel added to arsenic produces strichnine which both kills and then removes all symptoms."}, {"response": 662, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 25, 2001 (23:30)", "body": "EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 4, Issue 8 -- June 24, 2001 ]|[=================================================================]|[ OLD WORLD NEWS A trio of 5600-year-old mummies are challenging conventional theories for the reasons for the process: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001201920,00.html Here's one I missed: back in May, FAZ had a piece on Tel Cheura (in English): http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?sub={F1B72E51-3783-11D4-A3AA-009027BA22E4}&doc={C7B015D3-52D1-11D5-A3B5-009027BA22E4 } National Geographic has a nice piece on the search for the Queen of Sheba: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/06/0612_sheba.html Athens News has a feature on the Helike project: http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12915&m=A25&aa=1&eidos=S (check out the project website at: http://www.geoprobe.org/helike/index.html ) A body has been found for Livia's head in the Ashmolean: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,61-2001210561,00.html They've re-erected the obelisk which once graced the hippodrome at Caesarea: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010618/wl/israel_obelisk_1.html It wouldn't be summer without an account of the goings on at Stonehenge at the solstice: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1398000/1398810.stm http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4208370,00.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/06/0620_Stonecircles.html http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001211781,00.html Mitteldeutsche Zeitung has a feature on a very large 9th century graveyard being excavated near Buro: http://www.mz-web.de/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=mz_web/pages/regionales/news_ArtikelColl&RegionalRubrik=anh&RegionalRubrikName=Anhalt&MZWebArtikelID=993240121027 Robert Ballard is heading back to the Black Sea to look for evidence of the/a Flood: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/06/17/stifgneeu01002.html UNESCO is worried about Mohenjodaro: http://www.dawn.com/2001/06/19/nat21.htm A university in Britain will be offering an MA in Archaeology for Screen Media in an attempt to reduce the number of howlers in programs like Time Team: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=qKqpJte9&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/6/24/ndeg24.html A group in California used a huge kite to raise a 30 foot obelisk ... hmmmmmmmm: http://www.austin360.com/shared/news/technology/ap_story.html/Science/AP.V2774.AP-Obelisk-Kite.html http://www.nj.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0604_BC_ObeliskKite&&news&newsflash-national NEW WORLD NEWS The Kennewick Man saga has been renewed: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44633,00.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/323998.asp http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/06/21/p2s2.htm http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,297296-412,00.shtml http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/06/19/kennewick.man.ap/index.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010619/ts/kennewick_man_1.html http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/kennewick_hearing010619.html The Tennessean has a feature on local archaeologist Elizabeth Kellar: http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/01/04/06043797.shtml?Element_ID=6043797 The New York Times has a very interesting feature on the artistic/stylistic side of native american rock art: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/19/science/19ROCK.html A 16th-century Spanish fortress (maybe) has been discovered near Asheville: http://www.charlotte.com/observer/local/catawba/docs/dig0622.htm REVIEWS Archaeologists will certainly want to read the review of Edward Fox, *Palestine Twilight: The Murder of Dr Edward Glock and the Archeology of the Holy Land: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/06/24/stibooboo01014.html National Review has a review of Page Dubois *Trojan Horses: Saving Classics from the Conservatives*: http://www.nationalreview.com/weekend/books/books-kopf062301.shtml EXHIBITIONS Absolute Arts has a review of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery's \"Egypt Revealed: Life and Death in Ancient Egypt\" (there's nothing at the BMAG site itself on this yet other than an announcement that the exhibition is coming): http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2001/06/23/28746.html ON THE NEWSSTANDS There's a new online edition of Biblical Archaeology Review out, with articles on the evidence for early Christianity at Yattir and King Hezekiah's seal: http://www.bib-arch.org/bar2.html Egypt Revealed has a feature on the pharaohnic village: http://www.egyptrevealed.com/062001-pharaonicvillage.htm I'm not sure whether this is really a 'newsstand' piece, but an online journal called Transoxiana was recently brought to my attention and it has several articles (by graduate students at the University del Salvador) on the ancient near eastern/egyptian world (in Spanish). Worth a look: http://www.salvador.edu.ar/transox/index.html CLASSICIST'S CORNER Latin continues to make a comeback: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/06/0614_wirelatin.html ... and folks "}, {"response": 663, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 25, 2001 (23:32)", "body": "Liam I want to see this!!! TV howlers spark producers' history degree A NEW university degree that will teach graduates how to make episodes of Time Team and other archaeological programmes is to begin later this year, in an attempt to make television history programmes more accurate. Academics at Bristol University, who will run the MA course in Archaeology for Screen Media with producers from the Channel 4 series, said that the new qualification was needed because many historical programmes contained significant errors. Among the worst offenders cited are the recent BBC series What the Romans Did for Us, and Surviving the Iron Age, also from the BBC, which is described by those teaching the new degree as little better than a game show. Even David Starkey's acclaimed Henry VIII is accused of containing inaccuracies, which the academics believe would have been spotted if a trained archaeologist had been monitoring the series. One example, they said, is cameras switching from Dr Starkey talking about the Tudor king to give a view of part of a castle built in the wrong century. Dr Mark Horton, a reader in archaeology at Bristol University, who is organising the new degree, said that one of the reasons for the errors was that dons were often poor at presenting their subject on television. The result is that many programmes were made with little expert advice. more... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=004826292612046&rtmo=a5a4WXWJ&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/6/24/ndeg24.html"}, {"response": 664, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 27, 2001 (20:12)", "body": ""}, {"response": 665, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 27, 2001 (20:16)", "body": "Corlea Trackway - Ireland In 1984, at Corlea near Keenagh, Co. Longford, removal of peat by Bord na M\ufffdna's production machinery revealed a great timber roadway which had lain buried in the bog for centuries. Tree ring analysis carried out at Queen's University, Belfast revealed the trees used were felled late in 148 B.C. or early in 147 B.C and identified the roadway as the only known example in Ireland of an Early Iron Age road. In 1985 the roadway at Corlea was excavated under the auspices of the National Monuments Branch of the Office of Public Works. The road, which was made of massive oak planks, extended for over one kilometre across the bogland, connecting an isolated drumlin island of mineral soil with the mainland. A similar trackway had extended westwards from the drumlin island across the bog at Derraghan for one kilometre. Dating of this roadway showed it to be of the same age as the Corlea road and established the existence, over two thousand years ago, of a substantial road system capable of carrying wheeled traffic. The Corlea road was constructed of heavy planks split from oak trunks using timber wedges. These oak sleepers were between 3m and 4m long and up to 60cm wide, and were laid across parallel pairs of timber runners on average about 1.4m apart. The runners were logs of birch or ash, up to 10m in length and laid end to end directly onto the Iron Age bog surface. Where the roadway ran across wet areas of bog, several runners were used. At one point eight runners were used to bridge what was probably a difficult area. In other sections brushwood was laid as a supporting raft for the heavier timbers. Mortices were generally cut into the ends of the oak planks through which long pegs of birch or hazel were fixed to secure the road surface Thousands of timber sleepers were used in constructing the Corlea roadway which reveals a high level of woodworking knowledge and skill in Early Iron Age Ireland. The Corlea road was a major undertaking capable of carrying wheeled vehicles. It has been speculated that it may have been part of an ancient highway linking the pagan ceremonial sites of Cruachain in Connaught and the Hill of Uisneach in Leinster, but its precise function is as yet unclear. In the course of archaeological investigations several smaller bog trackways (or toghers) were discovered in the area of Corlea. The oldest trackway was dated to the middle of the fourth millenium B.C. This was made of tightly packed layers of hazel, alder and birch placed lengthwise along the track and supported occasionally by cross timbers to form a trackway about 1.6m wide. Another track, which has been dated to about 2259 B.C., crossed over the earlier Neolithic path at one point. The depth of peat between the trackways, about 80cm, illustrates how the bog was growing during that time. This trackway was constructed of substantial timbers of oak and ash laid across branches of birch which had been placed lengthwise along the path to create a track between 2m and 2.5m wide. A brushwood track dated to about 1200 B.C. was made of tight bundles of long hazel rods laid along the path to form a trackway about 1.5m wide and up to 25cm thick. A simple narrow trackway, dating from about 587 A.D. was made of single oak planks, up to 30cm wide, laid end to end on short transverse supports. These trackways were probably built to allow the early inhabitants of the region maintain contact between communities across the expanses of inhospitable and treacherous wetlands. more and pictures too... http://www.bnm.ie/discovering_peatlands/corlea.htm"}, {"response": 666, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 29, 2001 (18:53)", "body": "Dating study 'means human history rethink' Archaeological findings may have to be dated again A complete rewrite of the history of modern humans could be needed after a breakthrough in archaeological dating techniques. British and American scientists have found radio carbon dating, used to give a rough guide to the age of an object, can be wrong by thousands of years. It means humans may have been on earth for a lot longer than previously thought and accepted versions of early history could need a radical rethink. Experts have known for years that carbon dating is inexact but until researchers from Bristol and Harvard completed their study no one knew by how much. more... http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1413000/1413326.stm Mahalo Nui Loa, Liam!"}, {"response": 667, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 29, 2001 (18:56)", "body": "Skara Brae usurped as oldest site Archaeologists believe they have found the site of what could be Scotland's oldest farm. The farm is thought to be 6000 years old - up to 1500 years older than the \"World Heritage\" archaeological site at Skara Brae in Orkney. The archaeologists from Stirling University have spent nearly two years working at the site, near Blairgowrie in Perthshire. The exact location is being kept secret, but it is close to a burial mound known as Cleave Dyke, which dates from a similar period. The team has found evidence of flint tools having been made and a large, roughly circular enclosure, which they believe may have been home to an extended family of about 30 people. more... http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/scotland/newsid_925000/925037.stm"}, {"response": 668, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sat, Jun 30, 2001 (16:42)", "body": "I have just read that Carbon Dating can be as much as 10000 years out,so some of my rants going back some time ,are now being proven to be correct.Never ever equate a Micky Mouse Professorship with reality and accuracy!!"}, {"response": 669, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 30, 2001 (17:33)", "body": "Hey, I was married to academe for years. You do not need to tell me!!! Thanks Liam. I am always delighted to hear from you!"}, {"response": 670, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Jul  4, 2001 (14:11)", "body": "http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_344317.html?menu = Story filed: 16:26 Wednesday 4th July 2001 Bronze age village saved from the diggers Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a British Bronze Age village dating back 3,500 years. Diggers were about to plough up the ancient farmsteads to build a new gravel quarry. Archaeologists were called in to excavate the site in Shorncote near Cirencester, Gloucestershire. They discovered remains representing a settlement of about 18 homes as well as fragments of animal bones, cereal, fruit and nuts. Many of the remains were perfectly preserved because they lay under water for thousands of years. Historians are piecing together the finds to paint a portrait of the lifestyle of Bronze Age people. Senior archaeologist Gill Hey, from the Oxford-based historical unit leading the discovery, said: \"This is very significant because we have never found a settlement or remains of buildings of that period in this area before. \"The earliest remains we had before now were 500 years more recent. The farmstead we found dates back 3,500 years to 1,500 BC. Buildings of this period are very unusual nationally.\" The latest finds from the Hills Aggregates Quarry will be carefully restored before going on display in Cirencester's Corinium Museum. Staff from the Oxford Archaeological Unit plan to unearth a neighbouring Roman farmstead and hope to open the whole site to visitors next year."}, {"response": 671, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  5, 2001 (15:44)", "body": "Too bad the Reading Univsersity archaeologists did not get to it first. Thanks, Maggie. It is ages before I can find most of the British archaeology finds in news without spending my day prowling UK sources. They are simple not carried here, alas. Nothing like living on your own rubbish tip to make for good archaeology far in the future. We must have been a frangrant lot!"}, {"response": 672, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  6, 2001 (18:51)", "body": "From Our Man In China (he gets around!) Liam: MongoliaA three-story pyramid dating 5000 years back has been discovered in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The pyramid, which looks like a trapezoidal hill from afar, is located on a hill one kilometer north of Sijiazi Town, Aohan County. The pyramid is about 30 meters long and 15 meters wide at its base. This is considered the best-preserved pyramid built during the Hongshan Culture period that has been found so far, said Guo Dasun, an archaeologist in charge of the excavation. Seven tombs and one altar were also found on the top of the pyramid. Archaeologists also discovered a number of pottery pieces with the asterisk character inscribed on the inner wall. The asterisk character is believed to be related to the understanding of ancient people on astrology. Among the culture relics excavated from one of the seven tombs are a bone flute and a stone ring and a full- sized stone statue of Goddess unearthed from another tomb. What astonished the archeologists is a one palm-sized stone genital found on the inner wall of a tomb with a small stone statue of Goddess below. Guo Dasun said that most of these relics are found for the first time and will shed light on studying the origin of Chinese civilization. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/mongolia.html"}, {"response": 673, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  9, 2001 (14:56)", "body": "EXPLORATOR Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World Volume 4, Issue 10 OLD WORLD NEWS There is a ton of coverage of the new cave art find near Cussac, France: http://news.24.com/News24/Technology/Science_Nature/0,1113,2-13-46_1048236,00.html http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=81813 http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/france.html http://www.ecnnews.com/cgi-bin/s/thestory.pl?slug-07CAVE http://www.msnbc.com/news/596544.asp http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001230838,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1423000/1423021.stm http://dsc.discovery.com/news/reu/20010702/cave.html http://www.lemonde.fr/article/0,5987,3244--205403-,00.html (in French) http://news.excite.com/news/r/010705/09/news-france-cave-dc http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010705/sc/france_cave_dc_1.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010704/wl/france_cave_engravings_1.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010705/wl/france_cave_dc.html http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news_photos?p=cussac&n=20&c=news_photos (11 photos) EXN (Discovery Channel Canada) has a (video) report on some petroglyphs found in Yemen: http://www.exn.ca/inc/demo1.asp?Video=20010508-ht-yemen.asx A brief report suggests a \"stone age\" (surely wrong?) woman has been discovered during road work in Denmark: http://www.news24.co.za/News24/Technology/Science_Nature/0,1113,2-13-46_1047384,00.html http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_343883.html?menu = A Hyksos era tomb was discovered this week, with the aid of an ancient \"road map\" which will probably have many implications: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o030721z.htm A brief AP story reports on the discovery of the tomb of a New Kingdom priest: http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/07/04/egypt.tomb.ap/index.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010704/wl/egypt_tomb_1.html http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o040721a.htm (I think this is the same) The Egyptian State Information Service reports that the pyramid of Chephren will be opened to the public (cf. Zahi Hawass' update below): http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o070721j.htm http://news.24.com/News24/Africa/Northern_Africa/0,1113,2-11-38_1049065,00.html http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_343514.html?menu = The same source briefly reports on the discovery of an Old Kingdom temple: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o070721k.htm http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010707/2001070720.html ... and the base of a pyramid (I think this is a followup) of Nub-Khabr-Ra: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o020721I.htm http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o300621n.htm An Assyrian temple has been discovered in Iraq: http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2001/07/07/FFXIP3T9UOC.html This is probably really a followup, but AthensNews is reporting the discovery of a mysterious mass grave near Kalamata: http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12917&m=A10&aa=3&eidos=S A Roman-era site has been discovered in Ismailia (Egypt): http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o050721.htm ... and some Roman-era antiquities were found in Alexandria too: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o020721e.htm HumanOasis/Discover Archaeology reports on research which is pushing back the date of the oldest steel in England: http://www.humanoasis.com/Feature%20Stories/070401-Originsofsteel.html http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/web%20articles/070301-Origin%20of%20Steel%20in%20Englandweb.htm Peoples Daily has an item on the discovery of a 5000-year-old pyramid in Mongolia: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200107/06/eng20010706_74356.html The Ilisu Dam Project is once again in the news : http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,516405,00.html A report in the Telegraph suggests major problems with the assumptions of C14 dating: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=0Ks20beq&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/7/5/tesdate05.html The Dallas Morning News has a feature on Lew Binford: http://www.dallasnews.com/science/413179_binford_08liv..html Science Daily has an item on looting of sites in Iraq: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/07/010706081613.htm NEW WORLD NEWS The Miami Circle is back in the news, with the discovery of associated human remains: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/krmiami/20010704/lo/ancient_cemetery_found_at_brickell_park_1.html http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001231482,00.html http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/dade/digdocs/106582.htm http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010704/16/miami-ruins A German \"treasure hunter\" is claiming to have found the wreck of Captain Morgan's pirate ship: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001232149,00.html ON THE NEWSSTANDS There's a new issue of British Archaeology out, with online features on cannibalism, 8th century York, and other things: http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba59/index.shtml Zahi Hawass has finally found the time to update his Giza Update feature at Egypt Revealed: http://www.egyptrevealed.com/news_from_giza.htm Egypt Revealed als"}, {"response": 674, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (14:28)", "body": "ANCIENT DNA UNRAVELS HUMAN ORIGINS http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2001/july/origins.htm In this new online science magazine, an interesting article details the unravelling of our species' origins. Beyond the fossil trail lie the genetic imprints left by our ancestors - and they suggest that we began our journey towards a global human race in Southern Africa."}, {"response": 675, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (17:14)", "body": "Thank you for the link to the new magazine. I think Liam might disagree with the article, however. It is an interesting field and will continue to be controversial for perhaps as long as man lives!"}, {"response": 676, "author": "horrible", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (17:31)", "body": "Rubbish,Out of Africa is nonsense as anyone READING the current research across the world will see.The whole african thing is based on fragments of bone and imagination"}, {"response": 677, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (17:40)", "body": "(Just KNEW it'd get a reaction!!! *grin*)"}, {"response": 678, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (17:43)", "body": "Marcia look in Melungeons in Cultures .. I found a DNA article for you there too ...dunno if its less contraversial ..we'll see .... (Tony's auntie who we're very fond of is dying ...need to go to her ...may not be around much ..hugs)"}, {"response": 679, "author": "horrible", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (17:51)", "body": "Maggie,you are girl after my own cynical heart!! I love getting the fights going, Marcia has seen me stir it up in other clubs and its so much FUN"}, {"response": 680, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (19:43)", "body": "Maggie, my love to you! *HUGS* and my condolences. Yup, i knew you were up to something. Hugs to Liam, too. Very special ones for being so brilliantly to the point. I love his directness and other things about the man whose values are so right. Please continue to have fun!"}, {"response": 681, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Jul 14, 2001 (08:41)", "body": "(I'm back home .....wiped out after sitting with a dying aunt ...she died 3.20 am on Friday in her sleep. A little plain wooden cross and a hand to hold were all she wanted ....Still a bit weepy, but that's for me .. not her ..she's at peace now.) From English Culture: http://englishculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa071001a.htm Lady in the Glass Could archaeologists be looking at the image of an Anglo-Saxon queen? Archaeologists believe that fragments of painted glass found in rubble at Coventry's first cathedral, part of a great Benedictine abbey which was destroyed in the dissolution of the monasteries, depict the image of Lady Godiva (d. 1070). Although the it dates from the 14th century - 300 years after the Anglo-Saxon Christian princess rode naked through the marketplace to save her people from unjust taxes - the glass was produced a century after the first written version of the legend. Indeed, during the 1300s glass was a great luxury, and stained or painted glass even more so, indicating that the woman was definitely of high status. The fragments were pieced together from thousands of shards of medieval glass, and it is also possible that more of the image may still lie in boxes that have not yet been examined. Although there is little evidence to prove its authenticity, the piece does show the face of a beautiful woman with long wavy hair, suggesting to some that it could be the earliest image of the city's heroine The tombs of Godiva and her husband, Leofric, were looted and destroyed many centuries ago. Records indicate they were both buried in the small church they founded on the hilltop in Coventry. Around this grew an impressive cathedral, far bigger than the cathedral destroyed in the Blitz or its modern replacement. The glass was found within the ruins of the nave, meaning the men who destroyed the abbey probably smashed it in from outside. It is thought to have come from a large window in the nave, near the site of the lost tombs. Legend says that when Lady Godiva informed her husband that the townspeople were crippled by excessive taxes, he scornfully offered to relieve them if she rode naked - or in some versions simply \"unadorned\", without any head covering or jewellery - through the marketplace. Although her flowing locks covered her naked body, much later versions of the story include an unfortunate tailor who was struck blind for peeping at her through his shutter. He was henceforth known as 'Peeping Tom'. The face and any other fragments will be displayed in a new visitor's centre, due to open in August 2001"}, {"response": 682, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Jul 14, 2001 (09:44)", "body": "More on the DNA issue (*duck*) http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/web%20articles/060601-mungoman.htm Scientists challenge claims for 60,000 year old Australian DNA Scientists based in Britain and Denmark have questioned claims made in January that DNA extracted from a 60,000 year old Australian fossil challenge the \"Out of Africa\" theory. In a letter published in the journal Science on June 1st, they argue that the DNA may be contaminated, and even if it is not, it does not fall outside the range of modern human DNA variation. In January, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA published a paper by Gregory Adcock and colleagues, reporting that sequences of ancient mitochondrial DNA had been recovered from 10 Australian fossil humans. While 9 of them fitted within known human variation, it was claimed that the oldest sequence, from the 60,000 year old Mungo 3 fossil, was distinct from those of recent humans, and cast doubt on the theory that modern humans had originated in Africa. Further commentaries and media coverage claimed that the results in fact supported the alternative multiregional model of human origins."}, {"response": 683, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sat, Jul 14, 2001 (15:33)", "body": "Dont be too sad Maggie"}, {"response": 684, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 14, 2001 (16:18)", "body": "I Emailed my condolences to Maggie. She knows the aunt is in a much better place now. Thanks, dear, for your fascinating bit about the Lady Godiva bit. Hmmm...wondered what certain archaeologist in Britain were doing. I had thought just about every inch of the old Coventry Cathedral had been excavated after the carpet bombing it got from the Queen's cousins. Now I want to SEE it! Liam you are a treasure! Nothing whatsoever horrible about you when the chips are down or a little furry fellow is endangered or misses his momma in the night. *HUGS*"}, {"response": 685, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Jul 14, 2001 (17:44)", "body": "Thanks . am not too sad .. just wiped out from sitting up a couple of nights ....and trying to get my brain back into gear to write again ....Will be back in cultures conference again shortly ....check out the new postings there ..I'm sure you'll find something to disagree with!!! How about an Irish topic in there???"}, {"response": 686, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 14, 2001 (18:09)", "body": "I was trying to find more Melungeon stuff. There seems to be some controversy of which I will refrain from mentioning! I'll wrestle you for Liam. he is my main source of things archaeological and ecological about Ireland. Poetry has Limericks... I shall add him to my Babes list even though I think he does not know where it is on Spring. This is one great guy and I will give him up very reluctantly!"}, {"response": 687, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Jul 14, 2001 (18:27)", "body": "giggle"}, {"response": 688, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 14, 2001 (20:01)", "body": "mmmhmmm!"}, {"response": 689, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sun, Jul 15, 2001 (08:36)", "body": "????????????????????/"}, {"response": 690, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sun, Jul 15, 2001 (16:39)", "body": "Hey there Maggie,talking of culture and Coventry Cath. I was there for the premiere of Brittans \"War Requiem\" in the early70's absolutely wonderful.Lived in The Royal Spa for many years and worked in Coventry.Come to think of it friend of mine sang in that concert and her name was Maggie too."}, {"response": 691, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Jul 16, 2001 (06:24)", "body": "Have sung in other Britten performances .... in 1970s but not that one!!! *grin* Did you see Brit Arch posting on seahenge???? A stargate???? That should get us going ....."}, {"response": 692, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Jul 16, 2001 (09:06)", "body": "I missed this story because I was in Mali ...did anyone else see anything about it??? Look up the link to see pix. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1111000/1111952.stm No sequel to Seahenge 11 Jan 2001 Winter storms have exposed the new ring to the world. Archaeologists are examining a mysterious circle of wood which has emerged from under the shifting sands on the coast of Norfolk in the UK. The structure was discovered just 100 metres from the site where the famous Bronze Age monument known as Seahenge was uncovered more than two years ago. Researchers are aware of several features on the beach at Holme-next-the-Sea which may hail from the same period of history as the henge but none, they believe, is as significant as the now excavated oak ring. As well as the new circle, there is a single, unexplained stump sited close to a 19th Century shipwreck. The new circle was probably the rotting timber supports of a simple burial mound or barrow, said Norfolk county archaeologist Brian Ayers. He said it might be Bronze Age but although \"exciting\" was not exceptional. \"There are 40,000 such mounds in the country,\" he said. \"The unusual thing here is that normally one would get a Bronze Age barrow consisting of great heap of earth and, occasionally, within it a circle of post holes where posts have been rotted away. Here, if it is a barrow, we've lost the earth but we've retained the posts.\" The BBC's Mike Liggins reports on the emergence of a new wooden circle. Brian Ayers urged people not to flock to the beach in the way they had to see Seahenge because of the detrimental impact such an invasion might have on local wildlife. The recently uncovered timbers can only be seen at low tide, the time when wading birds come on to the beach to feed. His request was echoed by Gary Hibberd from the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. \"If you care about the beaches in Norfolk and the wildlife that live on them, please stay away for the time being,\" he said. The new circle is slightly bigger than Seahenge and instead of a central upturned stump has two flattened logs. The central logs were first spotted last August by archaeologist John Lorimer. The surrounding ring appeared as winter storms shifted the sands. \"As soon as I saw the ce tral posts - how they are - I knew we had another circle,\" he said. \"It's nearly the same [as Seahenge], only bigger.\" The new circle features two central posts. The Seahenge timbers were removed, against some local people's wishes, and taken to the nearby Bronze Age research centre at Flag Fen. The structure, which was probably used for death rituals, was extensively studied under carefully controlled preservation conditions. Scientists, who combined a number of techniques including complex mathematics, were able to show that the wood for the henge came from trees felled in 2049 and 2050 BC. Now, with the investigations complete, Seahenge is likely to reburied. However, the same process of excavation and study will not be applied to the new circle. It will be left in place. \"We do need to put this into context,\" said Brian Ayers. \"When you have an exceptional feature like the original timber circle, you have to take exceptional measures. But the norm is to study things and monitor them.\" The original Seahe ge is likely to go back under ground."}, {"response": 693, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 16, 2001 (16:02)", "body": "I have posted a whole bunch on Seahenge - some of which came from a guy Liam is not all that crazy about - but he WAS thre and my only live source at the time. From Liam who is he was closer ..... well lucky he isn't! Thanks, Luv! Burial chamber reveals haunting sound of past John Burns NEWGRANGE, Ireland's world-renowned neolithic burial chamber, may have been used as a prehistoric \"echo chamber\" in religious ceremonies, according to two scientists who have discovered that the 5,000-year-old grave has the ability to alter sound. While the burial chamber was not designed for that purpose by our neolithic ancestors, they would have inevitably discovered the amazing acoustic effects in Newgrange and exploited them in religious ceremonies, the scientists say. Aaron Watson, an archeologist, and David Keating, an acoustic expert, carried out up to 10 hours of sound tests at Newgrange last month in conjunction with the BBC. The tests, including humming, bursting balloons, banging drums and playing \"standing waves\" to the stones, will be broadcast on a Radio 4 documentary next week. The University of Reading scientists have conducted similar tests at Stonehenge and other neolithic sites. \"We had a loudspeaker making a humming tone and as you moved towards the sound, it got quieter. It was very unusual,\" said Keating. \"However, if you moved away towards the side chambers, the sound got louder. Even with modern knowledge of acoustics, it is quite an eerie and odd effect.\" Keating believes neolithic priests or druids may have exploited this phenomenon in ceremonies. \"If they were humming in the main chamber, and there was no visible evidence they were making that sound, someone could believe that the noise was coming from the side chambers where the bodies of the dead were buried,\" he said. \"It is inevitable that priests or druids would have found this effect and exploited it, or it is possible they believed that when they made this noise they were bringing the dead to life.\" Keating believes the acoustic tricks may help explain how Newgrange was constructed by such a primitive society. It was built 500 years before the great pyramid of Giza and a millennium before Stonehenge. It was aligned with the winter solstice; only at dawn on December 21 each year does the sun's light pass through a 25cm opening above the entrance. Watson and Keating found a strange effect from beating drums in the chamber. Inside, the noise is very loud but outside, a listener only hears a distant drum. Stone Age Sound, the BBC documentary, will be broadcast on July 24 at 11am."}, {"response": 694, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (14:26)", "body": "I know you posted on Seahenge ..so did I at the time! But what I posted about in 692 was a second monument discovered later 100 meters from Seahenge .. Also on the Brit Arch list someone asked if anyone had noticed a similarity between Seahenge and a 'stargate' ... I assume in jest ..but wondered if anyone had thoughts on it!"}, {"response": 695, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (14:27)", "body": "This is from my anthro listserve: For those who may not know, the CNN program - Science & Technology Week - occasionally has segments on matters of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists (and buffs). They recently had an item, with video footage, on the Upper Paleolithic engravings in the newly discovered cave in France. And I would expect to see something about the Temple of Ishtar discovery in Iraq, and about the Ardipithecus ramidus kaddaba discovery in Ethiopia, in the very near future. In the U.S. Eastern time zone the program airs at 13:30 on Saturday (your airtime may be different). If you set your VCR to record it you can scan through it later to see if it had any articles of personal interest to you each week."}, {"response": 696, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (15:15)", "body": "More controversy!!! The cover story for the July 23, 2001 issue of Time Magazine is about the new Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba discovery, and Time Magazine has put this story on the web! http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010723/cover.html"}, {"response": 697, "author": "horrible", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (16:38)", "body": "another 2 scraps of bone, another rash of theory!we have more in common with piggies and some viruses than we have with these \"bones\".Would the $1.7 million in grants have anything to dowith this research?"}, {"response": 698, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (18:23)", "body": "If the first I hear about it is on CNN it is highly suspect in my mind. Liam, that grant has everything to do with it, and you realize this irony. It must be a slow news day, as we say. Maggie, I had heard of the caves in France. I post a long list of new things covering all of Geo in 40 once a week. Most of these subjects have been covered in the links it contains. What I need to do is to reinstate my subscriptions that lapsed when I contemplated leaving Hilo. How incredibly foolish I was and you all my hurl invectives at the offender, though I suspect he will get his double - payback is you-know-what."}, {"response": 699, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (18:47)", "body": "(For anyone who cares, it was not in this life - but it is well to remember. I am a bit older and a whole lot wiser now!)"}, {"response": 700, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (18:53)", "body": "OK ... no more from me ...that's why I used to email stuff ..off to my own corner"}, {"response": 701, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (20:25)", "body": "It is a good thing to post these and let everyone know the difficulties they pose when those of us who are not into archaeology - and we cannot all be up on everything going on in the world. Please put it out there - we do not discredit you - rather the hastily drawn conclusions of the writers. I cannot believe the archaeologists I know psersonally are so slipshod or hungry that they would rush to publish erroneous material. Maggie, you have such great sources, Please continue. I need you to do so. I cannot be on so many elists. I am already on more than I can handle comfortably in a 12 hour day! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 702, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (20:27)", "body": "Besides, we are not shooting the bearer of the news, just the news. Post away and let those who are well up on the subject toss roses or stones depending on what it deserves! Thanks, Maggie!"}, {"response": 703, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (03:26)", "body": "If you read what you posted you can see why I thought you were saying that you didn't want stuff posted here and I should check out on 40 first ....I just don't have time and I'm too stressed out at the moment to check out ... which lead me to over react to almost everything. If you're happy for me to post and sometimes get it wrong ..then OK. But the whole point of publishing is for people to come back at you .... *stir stir* That's why it terrifies me! Be gentle with me folks .. bad time just now ....early Sept looms near and still nowhere to live and I've yet to come to terms with the fact that I won't get finished on the PhD by the end of the year!"}, {"response": 704, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (15:55)", "body": "O dear. Maggie. That is a bit more than one small lady can deal with at one time. I was rather hoping you would graguate in December when a \"friend\" of mine gets his MSc in Geoarchaeology and plunges into his PhD. I rather fancied a photograph but I guess I will just have to imagine it, now. You neglected to mention amongst all of the above you are shortly to become mother of the bride. *Hugs* for success on all fronts! Post away, dear. We'll sort it out! Between you and the BBC you seem to have the most fascinating bits and pieces this side of Liam (across the Celtic Sea.)"}, {"response": 705, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (17:22)", "body": "Ok, Liam, post your piece you sent me to look over. I am working on the four good methods of dating prehistoric samples from Archaeological digs. Your points are so well taken, it surely deserves a wider audience than the tunnel-visioned club might give it. I can even think of a few archaeologists I know personally who might agree with you and one I am certain would not. He no longer matters, actually... It is the younger generation of archaeologists who are going to dare dispue the accepted norms. I know one who already has pointed out how woefully ill-equipped the old guard is to handle modern technological tools. They not only refuse to use it, they refuse to acknowledge its usefulness."}, {"response": 706, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (17:35)", "body": "OBSIDIAN CLOCK Obsidian is the term for the material known as volcanic glass. Obsidian was a material of choice for prehistoric tool and weapon makers. Determining the age of these obsidian arrowheads, knives, and spear points left by our Mexican and Central American ancestors has always been a challenge for archaeologists. If you read The Obsidian Clock, ORNL method chips away barriers to dating prehistoric human artifacts at http://www.ornl.gov/reporter/no7/clock.htm you will learn how ORNL and University of Tennessee, Dept. of Anthropology Researchers have created the Obsidian Clock dating technique called ODDSIMS (Obsidian Diffusion Dating by SIMS (Secondary Ionization Mass Spectrometry)). The Obsidian Clock tools AKA ODDSIMS method is fully explain as to how and why it works, as well as the problems encountered in field use. It seems \"some established chronological systems may go out the window if the ODDSIMS method continues to provide consistent and reproducible results.\" With more progress on this dating technique science may finally know exactly how long ago many ancient civilizations and cultures flourished. (This also works with flint. I have some lovely half nodules from a Salisbury Plain road fill rock pile. Freshly cleaved and showing all that nature allows)"}, {"response": 707, "author": "horrible", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (17:35)", "body": "Regarding the recent finds of the \"oldest human\" bits in Ethopia.I am coming to the conclusion that yet again the experts could be and probably are wrong.My research which is as always cross-disciplinary is shouting out that humans and apes did not split form each other but rather that they are different strains of developement from an earlier form.Like it or not we share over 90%(nearer 95% in some reports) of our genetic makeup with Viruses so the monkey bit is a side-road driven by those too idle to get onto the Highway and too scared of the oppinion of their \"peers\" to get their collective heads out of their butts\".Out of Africa\" is popular ,ok if you are studying apes but Human as in US PEOPLE types have developed in a crescent across from Spain to Japan on the current documentation and maybe even further when the real search starts.Prehensile thumb? So what?Remember that in some places on the web, and elsewhere, long winded and detailed articles were written about the Scythians? Have you read the rece t reports on excavations of Scythian sites showing the 2000 year disrepancy in the \"expert\" dating ? 25% error is not exactly scientific is it? And the exploration of Central Europe has only just started.Its no wonder that crap like the Valetta treaty is being foisted on to us,the Acedemics have had it so easy for so long that they can't cope with the exposure of their waste of funds and even more damning their waste of TIME.Serandipity has been a bigger source of information than all the PHds laid end to end.Maybe these people should take work as Interns with the US government and really get laid end to end!PS The inaccuracy of Carbon Dating has been in question for a while, I raised that point before but was ignored.Now, I know of 4 very good methods for dating prehistoric samples ,do you?"}, {"response": 708, "author": "horrible", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (17:38)", "body": "and that took FIVE attempts to post..if there is anything worse than an academic gobshite its a bloody ISP like Eircom, the Irish one. If i get cut off agiain tonight some one will DIE!!!"}, {"response": 709, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (17:43)", "body": "Please, Liam, not you! You simply cannot be the sacrifice to the cyber gods. Thanks for that magnificent post - I love it."}, {"response": 710, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (18:44)", "body": "Hmmm ... actually a geophys archy is one reason not to graduate in dec!!! grin. No no twin photos. Actually I'm not too far off schedule .. had a a good supervisory session today ..feel a little happier ... but masses of edited material to plough through.... and I still have a video to produce!"}, {"response": 711, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (18:45)", "body": "Oh and er .. we were house hunting in Reading."}, {"response": 712, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (20:15)", "body": "Oh no........*grin* I could be a neighbor..."}, {"response": 713, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (00:08)", "body": "Gas workers uncover Scottish Bronze Age cemetery online.ie 10 Jul 2001 Gas pipeline workers in Northern Scotland have uncovered a 3,500-year-old Bronze Age cremation cemetery. The find was made near Auchnagatt and includes 10 cremation urns and human bones. All the finds have been transferred from the site at Skilmafilly to Marischal Museum, Aberdeen, to be analysed. Aberdeenshire Council archaeologist Ian Shepherd said: \"Latest advances in archaeology mean we will be able to analyse the ashes in the pots like never before. \"Tiny crystallised fragments of DNA contained in the bone fragments can reveal all sorts about the person who died, including when they died, possibly their sex and whether they were in good health.\" Original article at: http://www.online.ie/news/viewer.adp?article=1401418"}, {"response": 714, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (00:15)", "body": "Things like this give me nightmares - especially the last sentence... Iron age discovery at road scheme Relics dating back 3,000 years have been unearthed during work on a new motorway near Birmingham. The discoveries were made by archaeologists working alongside the construction teams on the Birmingham Northern Relief Road (BNRR). Their finds have included Bronze Age charcoal mounds, an Iron Age settlement and a Roman farmstead. The Iron Age discovery, near Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, is the first of its kind in the area. Work continues All removable items are being taken away allowing work on the 27-mile-toll road to continue. They will eventually be displayed in museums. Previous discoveries along the route of the BNRR have included a medieval fishpond at Wishaw, Warwickshire, and a Roman burial ground containing 50 cremations at Wall, Staffordshire. Major discovery Dr Mike Hodder, planning archaeologist for Birmingham City Council, described the finds as a \"major discovery\". He said there had been previously been strong evidence of Bronze Age settlement in the area. But little had been known about the Iron Age. Dr Hodder told BBC WM: \"\"These are very important new discoveries of Birmingham's very earliest period of history. \"Myself and the local archeologist agreed the archeology would be managed as part of the road construction. \" The excavations started a few months ago\". http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1437000/1437374.stm"}, {"response": 715, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (00:32)", "body": "NBC News had a good vignette last night about the guy who inspired the archeaologist in Jurassic Park, you know, Sam Neill's role."}, {"response": 716, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (16:29)", "body": "Yes, and on something I was watching they switched between the film character and the actual excavation being carried out by the Palenontologist. I found it fascinating!"}, {"response": 717, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2001 (15:31)", "body": "Maggie, I hope that you're doing well and that the househunting has improved. Thanks for posting the Time magazine article. Of course, there will always be debates in paleoarchaeolgy."}, {"response": 718, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2001 (16:50)", "body": "Here we go gathering nuts in may"}, {"response": 719, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2001 (18:45)", "body": "*Hugs* How delightful to have the Horrible one back amongst us. Did you fall into your keg of rice beer or did the night patrol find you out when you were flipping your Joe Cocker CD? Liam, luv, there will always be nuts amongst us. Without them we would not have forests nor squirrels. I just wondered about nuthatches. What actually do they hatch out of those nuts?"}, {"response": 720, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 30, 2001 (18:57)", "body": "The Sam Neill character in the \"Jurassic Park\" movies is either based on Robert Bakker or Jack Horner. I think it might be Bakker, but I'm not sure."}, {"response": 721, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Aug  2, 2001 (05:22)", "body": "(What a pity ... I'm back down from Scotland by 18th August or I'd go to this ....) Still I thought you'd find it interesting. Invitation: FROM SCRIBE TO SCANNER; COMPUTERS, IMAGES AND ANCIENT DOCUMENTS 1-4pm Monday, 3 September 2001 C305 Joseph Black Building, University of Glasgow Digital detective work is breaking new ground in deciphering ancient stone inscriptions and writing tablets. A team of classicists and engineers have been brought together by the British Academy and the Hunterian Museum to give live demonstrations of their imaging techniques. Techniques such as 3D active imaging using projected laser light could have a huge impact for historians trying to understand ancient artefacts. But the benefits do not end there. The team have developed an imaging technique to help read stilus tablets and a variant to some of their analysis has proved to be of value for analysing mammogram images for early detection of breast cancer The presentation is part of the British Association\ufffds 2001 Festival of Science. The event will be followed by a tour of Glasgow University\ufffds Hunterian Museum and a reception to which all members of the audience are invited. Presentation team: Dr Alan Bowman FBA Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, Oxford University Professor Mike Brady FRS FREng Dept of Engineering Science, Oxford University Dr Charles Crowther Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, Oxford University Professor Lawrence Keppie Hunterian Museum, Glasgow University Professor Andrew Wallace Dept of Computing & Electrical Engineering, Heriot- Watt University The event will appeal to anybody with an interest in archaeology or science, whether an expert or novice. Attendance is free but it is essential to register in advance. For further details: Jonathan Breckon The British Academy Tel: 020 7969 5263 Email: jbreckon@britac.ac.uk"}, {"response": 722, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  2, 2001 (16:51)", "body": "Great groans of anguish accompany this response to your post regarding archaeological sleuthing. Thanks for sharing it - I wish at least one of us could go and report back!"}, {"response": 723, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  3, 2001 (23:34)", "body": "from Liam. We finally won a round for ancient monument preservation ! Ancient stones block by-pass - and will THREE ancient standing stones which lie in the path of the \ufffd140m Waterford by-pass road are holding up the administration of a South Kilkenny woman's last will and the sale of her house and seven acres of land. The status of the standing stones was the subject of an objection against confirmation of a CPO at an oral hearing by Bord Pleanala in Waterford yesterday. more... http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=487876&issue_id=5006"}, {"response": 724, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 15, 2001 (21:09)", "body": "Step forward for Acropolis museum An international committee which will decide the winner of the competition for the new, 50-billion-drachma Acropolis museum was set up yesterday. The museum, originally planned by the government to be ready before the 2004 Athens Olympics, will be built in the former gendarmerie barracks in Makriyianni, under the Acropolis. The deadline for submission of projects is August 10. The 13-member committee, presided over by distinguished archaeologist and former Socialist MP Dimitris Pantermalis, has an international flavor with six members from Germany, Great Britain, Australia, Italy and Spain. They include noted Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who has already been commissioned for two Olympics-related projects. The jury's composition and setup was made public a year after former Culture Minister Theodoros Pangalos announced that competitors were to submit their plans by October 2000 and that a committee was to decide the winner by the end of November. Pangalos's dismissal last November delayed decision making considerably. This is the second competition for the museum. The first, in 1989, had been awarded to Italy's Manfredi Nicoletti and Lucio Passarelli but was canceled due to the discovery of antiquities on the site. The new design must incorporate the finds. http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=94415"}, {"response": 725, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 16, 2001 (15:04)", "body": "Tombs Found in Mongolia Might Hold Genghis Khan By Andrew Stern CHICAGO (Reuters) - A team searching for Genghis Khan's elusive grave site said on Thursday it has discovered a walled burial ground 200 miles northeast of the Mongolian capital that may contain the 13th century conqueror's remains along with priceless artifacts. \"It is an exciting discovery because it's located near where some other important events occurred in Khan's life,\" said University of Chicago history professor John Woods, who directed the summertime expedition organized by former Chicago commodities trader and lawyer Maury Kravitz, an amateur explorer who has studied Khan for 40 years. more... http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=sciencenews&StoryID=161415 #"}, {"response": 726, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 16, 2001 (15:15)", "body": "East-West Exchange Starts 5,000 Years Ago: Experts BEIJING, Aug 7, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- More than a dozen heads of maces dating back to between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago, extremely similar to those used by kings of ancient Egypt, were recently unearthed in northwest China. \"The findings indicate that the contact between east and west civilizations began as early as the prehistoric period,\" said Li Shuicheng, a professor from the archaeological department of Beijing University. Previously, historical documents and archaeological discoveries have shown that east and west cultural exchanges started from the Qin and Han dynasties over 2,000 years ago. The new discovery greatly pushes back that date. http://library.northernlight.com/FB20010807550000160.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc"}, {"response": 727, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Aug 21, 2001 (05:19)", "body": "Hi Marcia, Around 3000 BC, people lived in settlements complete with streets, squares and mud-brick houses centered around a large palace-like structure which belonged to the tribal leader. The most complete Neolithic settlements in Greece are in DIMINI (inhabited from 4000 to 1200 BC) and in SESKLO, both about 5 km west of the city of Volos. John"}, {"response": 728, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 21, 2001 (15:39)", "body": "John, you are absolutely enchanting to me. You have everything wonderful near to you so I might search for it and post what I discover by digging on the net. I knew Greece had lovely things - we are still building things looking like the Parthenon all over the world! I just did not realize how close to you were visible antiquities. I suspect ever cm of Greece is somehow holy ground for the archaeologically inclined. One day in some lifetime, I will see it with my own eyes. Thank you... and so much more!"}, {"response": 729, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 21, 2001 (16:02)", "body": "I was searching for your ancient volcano and found Dimini - they must be close to one another. I did find several sites - in Greek, and one in Czech. I am going to have to learn many languages in my quest for things Ancient and Volcanic in Greece. The Museum in Volos must be a wonderful expereince. I can get lost in Museums for the longest time and not ever feel alone. History Magnesia was among the first areas in Greece to be inhabited. Archaeologists have brought to light Mesolithic finds from the Sarakinos cave, Neolithic settlements such as Dimini and Sesklo, as well as forgotten Mycenean cities that played an important role during the Bronze Age. All these discoveries prove that distinguished cities were found in the district around present day Volos and that they reached their peak during the Mycenean era. Among them there was the legendary Iolkos, capital of Mycenean Thessaly and site of today\ufffds Volos. More plus pictures... http://www.travel-pelion.gr/makrinitsa/magnesia/magnesia_history_gb.htm"}, {"response": 730, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 26, 2001 (20:45)", "body": "================================================================ AFRICA, EUROPE, AND ASIA ================================================================ The Egyptian State Information Service reports on the discovery of a plaque for Thutmose IV: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o230821k.htm A brief item in the same source gives an idea of who's digging where ...: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o200821a.htm ... and something on the ancient Egyptians' etiquette: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o210821n.htm The Star Tribune has a report on a lecture series \"The Archaeology of Ancient Israel\" recently hosted by the LA Museum of Ancient Art: http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/643796.html HumanOasis has a brief item on the excavations at Nemea, where the ancient hippodrome has been discovered: http://www.humanoasis.com/Feature%20Stories/082301-Tracks%20of%20Ancient%20Athletes.html A \"spectacular\" pre-Greek-influence Scythian mound has been discovered: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=7174 The Times has a report on what Mount Caburn (in East Sussex) might really have been used for: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,61-2001290444,00.html I don't know what readers will make of this, Space.com has a news item on the use of satellite technology to find Noah's Ark (there's a link there as well to similar technology being used to find Amelia Earhart's plane): http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetearth/noahs_ark_010823-1.html A study of bones suggests that medieval Britons who lived in villages were actually better off health-wise than their country cousins: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4244639,00.html The mystery of the location of William Wallace's Stirling bridge might not be a mystery for long: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/08/26/stiscosco02013.html http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/shtml/NEWS/P40S4.shtml This should be a followup, but it's getting renewed attention ... back in May we drew your attention to the discovery of stained glass which might be associated with Lady Godiva: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001292274,00.html The BBC has a feature on Lady Godiva herself: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/newsid_1507000/1507606.stm http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/08/23/ngodi23.xml http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001292274,00.html Discovery.com (and others) have an interesting report on the 'rescue' of a Venetian island and two 700-year-old ships: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20010820/venice.html http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991182 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010821/wl/italy_submerged_island_1.html Xinhua (via Northern Light) reports on the discovery of a HUGE Han Dynasty coin hoard: http://library.northernlight.com/FA20010823370000028.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc ================================================================ THE AMERICAS ================================================================ It's deja vu all over again (8^)) ... the discovery of aboriginal remains have put a halt to development of some prime Miami real estate: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010823/ts/miami_ruins_1.html http://www.usatoday.com/news/healthscience/science/anthro/2001-08-24-ancient-miami.htm http://www.bergen.com/morenews/grave24200108247.htm http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0108240313aug24.story http://www.archaeology.org/cgi-bin/site.pl?page=0109/newsbriefs/miami [can't resist this one] The National Post reports on some stone circles in southern Alberta which didn't quite pan out: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/national/story.html?f=/stories/20010825/666889.html OSU Research has a nice article on the fate of Mayan scribes who toiled for defeated kings: http://www.osu.edu/researchnews/archive/mayans.htm The first extensive archaeological survey of the South Puget Sound area is bearing fruit: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134331862_squaxin21m.html The Tampa Tribune reports on the discovery of a tool-making site: http://www.tampatrib.com/News/MGAFV14KSQC.html A 17th century tobacco-manufacturing factory has been discovered in Providence (Maryland): http://sunspot.net/news/local/annearundel/bal-ar.digs24aug24.story?coll=bal%2Dlocal%2Dheadlines A dig in Idaho has failed to come up with evidence for the Ward Massacre of 1854: http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpID=347&NewsID=164731&CategoryID=2143&show=localnews&om=2 More light is being shed on Annapolis' historical African-American community: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2242736&BRD=2101&PAG=461&dept_id=392169&rfi=6 Nasa has put up some new images of the Nazca lines: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5103 ================================================================ ON THE NEWSSTANDS ================================================================ Archaeology Magazine has a new look and "}, {"response": 731, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 27, 2001 (18:53)", "body": "Archaeologist Uses Air Force Robot By ERIN EVERETT, Associated Press Writer HELENA, Mont. (AP) - When Meriwether Lewis first pushed his ``great experiment'' into the Missouri River near present-day Great Falls in 1805, he surely beamed. ``She lay like a cork,'' he wrote in his journal. But the iron-framed boat that Lewis designed floated only for a moment before it leaked and sank, taking with it his high spirits. ``The circumstance mortified me not a little,'' he wrote. Lewis and expedition co-commander William Clark gave the boat a proper burial in a field near the river's great falls. It was never mentioned again. But now, archaeologist Ken Karsmizki intends to find it. Karsmizki, of the Columbia Gorge Discovery (news - web sites) Center in The Dalles, Ore., has enlisted the help of an Air Force robot equipped with a giant metal detector, and will set out the second week of September to find the boat he believes is still buried. The boat, dubbed by some ``the holy grail of the exploration,'' would solve a brainteaser for archaeologists and historians if it is found. ``What we would learn that nobody knows is exactly what that thing looked like - the engineering,'' Karsmizki said. ``What was it that they had imagined and then constructed?'' The journals say Lewis designed the frame, which was fabricated by Harper's Ferry arsenal in West Virginia. The expedition carried the 220-pound frame to the great falls, and assembled it at the explorers' White Bear Island camp. The frame came in 10 sections, so it could be adjusted depending on the availability of materials for covering it. Fully assembled, the government vessel was 36 feet long, 21/2 feet deep and 41/2 feet wide. The frame was covered with elk and buffalo hides and sealed with a mixture of beeswax, animal fat and charcoal. more... http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010826/sc/exp_buried_boat_1.html"}, {"response": 732, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 28, 2001 (00:07)", "body": "This is a bit of a wonder for me who has stood in the same place and looked 360\ufffd to admire Avebury. Take a look and at the second one in Wales, as well. http://www.henge.org.uk/wiltshire/aveburypano.html http://www.henge.org.uk/dyfed/gorsfawrpano.html"}, {"response": 733, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  3, 2001 (18:49)", "body": "This article in infuriates me. Go be crazy and chase after UGFS's but leave our antiquities alone! Alien seekers damage Stone Age mound Silbury Hill: Sacred place or waste tip Trespassing UFO hunters have climbed into Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, UK, damaging the biggest man-made Neolithic mound in Europe. English Heritage closed the 4,000-year-old mound to the public after an 18th Century mining shaft opened up in the summit in May last year. The alien hunters broke into the site under cover of darkness soon after the hole was discovered. Evidence of the trespass has only come to light now, after a video of the foray was included in a documentary film. More... http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1511000/1511448.stm"}, {"response": 734, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  3, 2001 (18:55)", "body": "================================================================ AFRICA, EUROPE, AND ASIA ================================================================ The New York Times (and others) have an item on the alignment of the pyramids: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/28/science/social/28PYRA.html There appears to be controversy over a Turkish excavation of Salamis (Cyprus): http://library.northernlight.com/FB20010831720000173.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc The New York Times has a travel feature on Minorca, which has a good overview of the archaeological history of the Balearics: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/26/travel/MINOR.html The Aftenposten has a piece (in Norwegian) on the discovery of a strange arrangement of human skulls: http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article.jhtml?articleID=183210 DNA analysis is shedding more light on when Central Asia was populated post-out-of-Africa: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1502000/1502189.stm The Roman villa at Chedworth (Cheltenham) has revealed the skeleton of an infant: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_386332.html http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001302658,00.html MSNBC has an interesting item on recent excavations/research at the Colosseum: http://www.msnbc.com/news/622857.asp Kyodo News has a report on the discovery of an almost complete 7500 year-old skeleton in China: http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20010828073 Here's one I missed: China Daily reports on the discovery of a large number of ancient mace heads in Northwest China: http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/news/cn/2001-08-13/26240.html People's Daily has a report on the discovery of some very ancient (pre?) writing: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200108/31/eng20010831_78972.html The Ancient capital of the Dian kingdom might have been found: http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=31&si=504600&issue_id=5190 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001302980,00.html The Buddhas of Angkor Wat are under threat from looting: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/08/0828_angkorbuddhas.html The British Museum has plans to make its ca. 4 million objects in storage more available to the public: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,542811,00.html Iraq is seeking the return of a number of artifacts in European museums: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=1403503408 A little out of the regular time period covered by this newsletter, but folks might be interested that an expedition has been launched to find the remains of Amelia Earhart: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/reu/20010827/amelia.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/08/0828_wireamelia1.html Not quite sure how to classify this one: the Independent has a piece called 'Beirut Stories' which focuses on a diving school in Beirut but which has some interesting info on underwater sites unexplored and/or lost (I think): http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=91833 The same newspaper reports on the recreation of neolithic dung- flavoured ale: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=91895 ================================================================ THE AMERICAS =============================================================== The TimesDaily has a report on an ongoing dig into a mound in Shiloh (Tennessee) National Military Park: http://www.timesdaily.com/news/stories/8110newsstories.html A pre-Columbian temple has possibly been found on a Mexican mountain top: http://www.news24.co.za/News24/Technology/Science_Nature/0,1113,2-13-46_1072796,00.html A Hohokam site in Phoenix is about to be bulldozed by a gravel mining company: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/breaking/0830ruins30.html The Concord Monitor reports on the threats to an Abenaki site hear Holderness: http://www.concordmonitor.com/stories/front0400/abenaki_site_clash.shtml http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/Main.asp?SectionID=25&SubSectionID=378&ArticleID=38991 A two-year rescue dig near Townsend, Tennessee is winding down: http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/01/08/08189011.shtml?Element_ID=8189011 The Las Vegas Sun has a feature on archaeological theft: http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-other/2001/aug/31/512293814.html"}, {"response": 735, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 10, 2001 (00:21)", "body": "What is possibly the oldest fortified settlement in the Aegean has been discovered on the island of Andros: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?aid=98628 AthensNews has a piece on the history of the excavations at Troy (I believe this was in the Times of London previously): http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12926&m=A24&aa=1&eidos=S Assorted Iron Age boats found near Fiskerton (UK) are being excavated: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001305231,00.html A Hellenistic site has been discovered near the Pakistan/Afghanistan border: http://www.dawn.com/2001/09/07/nat17.htm Chinese archaeologists have excavated (maybe) some 2000-year-old wine: http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/020901/dtLFOR43.asp It would appear that Greek museums and sites still suffer from the problems they have suffered from for many years: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=98610"}, {"response": 736, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 10, 2001 (00:23)", "body": "A midden along the Withlacoochee river is proving to be a rich source of animal remains (as opposed to fish and shellfish): http://www.sptimes.com/News/090601/Citrus/Mound_is_fresh_snapsh.shtml The Miami Herald has a piece on the search for Pelikalaha: http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/florida/digdocs/006615.htm A vague report of the discovery of a 2000-year-old skeleton on Vancouver Island: http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=090201&ID=s1017641&cat=section.regional A unique burial site has been found in Boteourt County (Virginia): http://info.timesdispatch.com/printversion.cgi?url=http%3A//www.timesdispatch.com/vametro/MGB8YOWT9RC.html&oaspagename=printthispage A gold-rush-era ship has been discovered in San Francisco's financial district: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/09/08/MN214923.DTL http://www.modbee.com/24hour/nation/story/788958p-849702c.html http://www.nando.com/nation/story/75251p-1058850c.html"}, {"response": 737, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 10, 2001 (00:26)", "body": "Not sure where to put this but it somehow is important: Athens bailiffs seek SS atrocity reparations FROM ROGER BOYES IN BERLIN BAILIFFS in Athens will take over some of Germany\ufffds most important cultural offices in the Greek capital next week and attempt to auction them off in order to compensate the victims of an SS massacre. This extraordinary development, the result of a Greek court ruling on Tuesday, could open a new round of international wrangling about how to settle wartime crimes. Germany\ufffds Goethe Institute \ufffd the equivalent of the British Council \ufffd is a prime piece of property only a few minutes walk from the Greek Parliament and situated at the very hub of Athens. Other buildings due to be impounded include the German Archaeological Institute and the German School \ufffd all owned by the German Government, which is being sued for \ufffd18 million by villagers of the mountain community of Distomon. There, not far from the ancient site of Delphi, SS tank grenadiers ran amok on June 10, 1944, slaughtering 218 civilians, including old women and babies. The skulls of the victims have been preserved in the village and are regarded as a shrine to Greek suffering at the hands of the Germans. A Greek court in Livadia awarded the survivors \ufffd18 million against the German Government in 1997, but Germany has not paid up, arguing that a state-to-state compensation payment of DM115 million (\ufffd37 million at today\ufffds exchange rates) paid to Athens in 1960 covered all outstanding claims. more... http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001310153,00.html"}, {"response": 738, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 10, 2001 (22:14)", "body": "Prehistoric People Cared for Kin, Study Shows WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Early humans were willing to lend a helping hand -- or at least some mushy deer meat -- to assist elderly and incapacitated members of their clans, tens of thousand of years earlier than previously believed, scientists said on Monday more... http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=sciencenews&StoryID=209944"}, {"response": 739, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 10, 2001 (22:15)", "body": "Sounds tasty...mushy deer meat. I guess it beats starving!"}, {"response": 740, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (00:54)", "body": "From Horrible_Horace http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/archaeologyireland Taking a look at the Archaeology of archaeology,your most excellent and exalted founder has become a little disgruntled.( OK so I am a crankey bastard at times .so what??) I am forming an enlighten impression that this whole darned subject started out life as an excuse for rich sods to have an excuse to travell abroad.hence all the out of Africa and such nonsense. These early Archys were a sorry lot for the most part,failing to even get a job running a plantation or embassy in Basutoland or wherever.That was the fate of the more stupid offspring of the arisotocracy jes a little while back.Now this idle bunch were hardly going to go to Siberia or the relative comfort of Bandar Abbas and fearing the tendancy of the Turks to sodomise tourists off they trotted to the dark continent instead. Once there they found Egypt a little full,what with Huns and Frogs and other continentals,so onwards to the sandy bits,the jungles being full of natives and animals.\" Ah \" they said \"this is our bit \" and then they found somes bones which they made some informed decisions on and declared them to be very old indeed.After a while some more of them arrived and found more bones which they declared to be even older..and so on.This process continues as we speak(so to speak) In more modern times in Ireland and I'm sure elsewhere also as well ,the shortage of Aristos opened up the subject to those who failed to qualify for Medicine and Engineering and other difficult subjects and so instead of being a bit of fun for the Gentry it became a serious subject of study for the lesser gifted ,who spent many hours in debate,arriving at decisions which are now being shamefully scorned by the new race of young Archys using scientific tools .Tools which the old brigade depise because their cosy sinecure is threatened,as the utter crap they espouse is debunked daily. Most of the excavations recently seem to have taken longer than the origional construction of the site,due allowance being made for scientific study. So where do we go from here?All the new finds that I knowoff have been made by accident or amateurs.Yet the full rigours of the law designed to protect monuments will be misused to hound any field walker lucky enough to make a find,and silly enough to announce the find in earshot of the Holy People of Archy.Its enough to make you spit"}, {"response": 741, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (00:56)", "body": "You are right, Liam. As I told you on your home turf at Yahoo, I am reading a book recommended to me by a practicing archaeologist who works for the US Gov't saving as much of our heritage from freeways as possible. \"TUTANKHAMUN, The Untold Story\" by Tomas Hoving. Liam is right. Give it a look!"}, {"response": 742, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (20:30)", "body": "A 2,000 year old manuscript of the Torah (maybe) has been found in the UAE: http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=26492 The theatre at Aspendos -- or rather, the concerts being held there -- are causing much concern amongst archaeologists: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7409-2001Sep11.html The tomb of Alexander the Great's grandmother (Eurydice) was broken into and robbed some time this summer: http://news.excite.com/news/r/010912/13/odd-antiquities-dc http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?aid=99363 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001314555,00.html http://us.news2.yimg.com/f/42/31/7m/dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010912/od/antiquities_dc_1.html A bronze age canoe has been found in Scotland: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001313884,00.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=V1kmwZlx&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/9/13/ecncano13.html An ancient cave temple has been found in India: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_394521.html?menu = Researchers have found the fault line which caused a massive earthquake in plague-ridden 1356 Europe: http://www.msnbc.com/news/628398.asp The Middle English Lexicon Project has been brought to an ende: http://www.sltrib.com/09162001/nation_w/132626.htm"}, {"response": 743, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (17:40)", "body": "From Liam - with great thanks! Trust plans to restore copper-miners' winch Copper mining and the Allihies area of west Cork have been synonymous for thousands of years. The Illustrated Archaeology of Ireland records that radiocarbon dating of the Mount Gabriel Mine on the Mizen Peninsula suggested it was being worked between 1700 and 1500 BC, making it the oldest copper mine in north-west Europe. More recently, the copper mine above the village of Allihies was worked up to 1880 when it closed. The local copper miners then emigrated with their skills to the mines of Michigan and Butte, Montana, where their presence and influence has been well documented. In Allihies, they left behind what is known as a man engine house, basically a sophisticated winch with steps which allowed miners to travel 2,000 feet down into the bowels of the mine and back up again after their shift was over. The Cornish-designed winch was a big improvement, even if working conditions were still barbarous. Now the Mine Heritage Trust of Ireland wants to restore and preserve the man engine house for posterity. Mr John Morris of the trust says that plans to begin the project were stymied by the foot-and-mouth scare when members were unable to travel to Allihies to begin surveying the mine which is on land that has passed into commonage used by sheep farmers. There is nothing in Ireland like this man engine house, he says; it is one of only 20 in the world and the best example extant. A grant from the Heritage Council to facilitate the work, was unable to be taken up because of the foot-and-mouth restrictions but it is hoped this will become available again. Cork County Council will also provide funds. Today Mr Morris will travel to Allihies to begin the trust's work afresh now that the allclear has been given. ireland.com - The Irish Times - IRELAND"}, {"response": 744, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (20:08)", "body": "Tuscany's Excalibur is the real thing, say scientists Rory Carroll in Rome - The Observer The sword of St Galgano, said to have been plunged into a rock by a medieval Tuscan knight, has been authenticated, bolstering Italy's version of the Excalibur legend. Galgano Guidotti, a noble from Chiusdano, near Siena, allegedly split the stone with his sword in 1180 after renouncing war to become a hermit. For centuries the sword was assumed to be a fake. but research revealed last week has dated its metal to the twelfth century. Only the hilt, wooden grip and a few inches of the 3ft blade poke from the hill, which still draws pilgrims and tourists to the ruins of the chapel built around it. 'Dating metal is a very difficult task, but we can say that the composition of the metal and the style are compatible with the era of the legend,' said Luigi Garlaschelli, of the University of Pavia. 'We have succeeded in refuting those who maintain that it is a recent fake.' Ground-penetrating radar analysis revealed that beneath the sword there is a cavity, 2m by 1m, which is thought to be a burial recess, possibly containing the knight's body. 'To know more we have to excavate,' said Garlaschelli, whose findings have been published in Focus magazine. Carbon-dating confirmed that two mummified hands in the same chapel at Montesiepi were also from the twelfth century. Legend has it that anyone who tried to remove the sword had their arms ripped out. In English legend the sword Excalibur is pulled from a stone by the future King Arthur, heralding his glory. In Galgano's case the miracle signified humility and holiness. The son of an illiterate feudal lord, Galgano had a reputation for arrogance and selfishness. After a vision of the Archangel Michael, however, he retired to a cave to become a hermit. Lured out by his family he was thrown by his horse while passing Montesiepi, a hill near Chiusdano, where another vision told him to renounce material things. Galgano objected that that would be as difficult as splitting a rock and to prove his point he struck one with his sword. The rock, it is said, yielded like butter."}, {"response": 745, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (18:07)", "body": "Stalagmites in Caves Show History By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Stalagmites created over thousands of years in New Mexico caves preserve a rainfall climate record of the arid Southwest and help explain why ancient Americans fled the high, dry mountains and settled in river valleys some 700 years ago, researchers say. Victor J. Polyak of the University of New Mexico said that two-foot-long stalagmites taken from Carlsbad Caverns and from two other caves contain mineral deposition rings that correspond to levels of precipitation in the region. Polyak, first author of a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, said the rings formed in the stone by the slow dripping of mineral-rich water are similar to growth rings found in tree trunks. more... http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011005/sc/stalagmites_climate_2.html"}, {"response": 746, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (18:19)", "body": ""}, {"response": 747, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (21:39)", "body": "How to mess with an archaeologist's head: excavations of a 17th century shipwreck have also turned up a possibly paleolithic hand axe: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_411508.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery The Guardian (et al) has a piece on the mystery of why Britons appear to have disappeared from the archaeological record for 100,000 years or so: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,558200,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1565000/1565002.stm http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001332868,00.html Sewage construction has revealed a bronze age site in Limerick: http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2001/0928/hom6.htm Also in Ireland, housing construction has revealed a number of tunnels in Cork: http://www.unison.ie/corkman/stories.php3?ca=34&si=516836&issue_id=5310 Al-Ahram has a feature on what's being done to Menkaure's pyramid: http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2001/552/tr2.htm There are plans for a new museum of antiquities near Giza: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html4/o260921o.htm Here's some interesting noggin fodder: Greece recently passed a law which requires archaeologists to publish within a certain time frame or lose their right to direct excavations: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?aid=100849 The Roman camp at Carnuntum (Austria) has been located using ground-penetrating radar: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010923/sc/austria_roman_ruins_1.html The Times (et al) reports on the discovery of a pair of Roman-era water lifting machines in London: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001333960,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1564000/1564325.stm http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991343 The AP wire has a feature on a mini-sub called the Thetis which will prove useful in underwater archaeology situations: http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/09/24/archaeology.sub.ap/index.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010923/sc/exp_archaeology_by_sub_1.html In China, archaeologists report the discovery of a number of carts and the remains of draught animals dating to the Zhou dynasty: http://library.northernlight.com/FB20010926450000146.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc This should be a followup, but since it happened so long ago ... the extent of Shinichi Fujimura's 'salting' of paleolithic sites in Japan is becoming very clear: http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20010929p2a00m0fp009001c.html http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_411388.html?menu=news.quirkies http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/firstp.jsp?news=technology&an=#20010929134"}, {"response": 748, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (18:13)", "body": "Congratulations to Stephen on his MSc in Geoarchaeology"}, {"response": 749, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 21, 2001 (16:13)", "body": "Iraqi Archaeologists Find Ancient Temple to Ishtar Last Updated: October 21, 2001 03:00 PM ET BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi archaeologists in a new find have uncovered a temple dedicated to the goddess Ishtar at the ancient city of Babylon, 56 miles south of Baghdad, the weekly Tikrit newspaper reported Sunday. \"Cuneiform inscriptions on the 25 artifacts found at the temple indicate that the building dates back to the old Babylonian era, and to the reign of King Hammurabi (179-1750 BC) in particular,\" Tikrit quoted a source at the Antiquities and Heritage Department as saying. Ishtar was the goddess of love in Babylonia and Assyria. Under various names, the cult of the mother goddess was universal in the ancient Near East. Tikrit reported that excavation teams had also discovered a house with an open courtyard, a number of rooms and graves inside the house in the temple area. \"Artifacts included a relief on a clay tablet of a woman breast-feeding her child, the first ever to be found,\" it quoted the source as saying. The excavations also yielded a number of jars, clay tablets, seals used at that time, and toys. A well and two canals used to carry water to the temple and the houses and clay basins to collect water were uncovered."}, {"response": 750, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 21, 2001 (16:17)", "body": "Some Neolithic art has been discovered on the Greek island of Andros: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011018/wl/greece_neolithic_dc_1.html Cyprus Mail has a brief item on the discovery of some Bronze Age tombs: http://www.cyprus-mail.com/October/13/news4.htm Bronze Age tombs have also been discovered at Ras al Khaimah: http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/people-places.asp?ArticleID=29286 AlphaGalileo has a press release on recent research into the Maykop people: http://www.alphagalileo.org/ReadNotice.cfm?releaseid=7604 A Hellentistic/Roman era settlement has been discovered near Ioannina: http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12932&m=A10&aa=5&eidos=S"}, {"response": 751, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 21, 2001 (16:27)", "body": "A Gallic Stonehenge may be a vital link in evolution Sanjida O'Connell Guardian Thursday October 18, 2001 In Saint-Just, a village in central Brittany, is one of the largest collections of neolithic monuments in northern France. Giant quartz blocks straggle across the hillside, some weighing up to 30 tons, many brought from the surrounding region. A Gallic equivalent of Stonehenge, archaeologist Dr Chris Scarre believes the monuments were built when people changed from being hunter-gatherers to farmers and that such buildings were indicative that people's world views changed as they began to farm. Scarre, the deputy director of the McDonald Institute at Cambridge University, has been studying settlements in northern France for 20 years. Genetic studies have tried to decipher whether Europe's population descends from the first wave of colonists that arrived as the ice age receded, or whether later settlers are the ancestors of modern Europeans. The spread of these settlers could be linked to the spread of farming. \"Archaeology has always suggested that there are large areas of Europe where people were hunting and gathering but began farming,\" says Scarre. His studies indicate that small-scale farming took place here, but it was another two to three hundred years before farming became widespread. Ultimately these settlers inspired a radical new way to view the landscape. \"Hunters and gatherers in Europe don't build much in the way of physical structures,\" says Scarre, \"yet from the beginning of farming in Western Europe you get these massive monuments.\" Neither was it a case of having sufficient numbers of people or resources, argues Scarre. \"It's a question of wanting to. Suddenly they look at the world in a different way and they start to build these monuments. They pick up all sorts of resonances between monuments and landscapes.\" Scarre argues that people began relating to the landscape in a particular way, almost copying it. He gives the example of an alignment on Gree de Cojoux, a hill in Saint-Just where there are three rows of stones. Two run east-west, the third is at a right angle and consists of five massive quartz blocks in a line 25 metres long along a naturally rocky outcrop. \"The row of standing stones appears to be aligned on a natural rock formation, blending the cultural and natural,\" says Scarre. Burial tombs at Saint Just were made from the local schist, but the stone alignments were solid quartz, the same kind that runs in thin veins through the rocky outcrops. Scarre believes the people, by carrying chunks of quartz from the surrounding valley, were \"trying to unlock something they thought was in the land already.\" More... http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4279520,00.html"}, {"response": 752, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 21, 2001 (16:28)", "body": "The remains of a medieval village have been found near Somerset: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1599000/1599898.stm There are plans in the works to excavate London's Rose Theatre: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1597000/1597821.stm"}, {"response": 753, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 21, 2001 (16:35)", "body": "As much as I appreciate museums and would be content to be lost forever in the British Museum, here is the flip side of this issue: A pile of antiquities from various periods has been found buried in the yard of a holiday home in Greece: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=103897 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_424334.html http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12932&m=A10&aa=0&eidos=S Another case from Greece: http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12932&m=A10&aa=7&eidos=S The British Museum has returned a stolen Egyptian statue to the Sudan: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1600000/1600389.stm http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001355635,00.html"}, {"response": 754, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 21, 2001 (17:01)", "body": "The Descendents Of Horsewomen Buried Only Men The archaeological expedition of Volgograd State University has for ten years been working at the South of the Volgograd region. Here, in the near-Volga-river steppes, there are hundreds of burial-mounds made by nomadic tribes. The scientists are working along the river Aksay (the left tributary to the Don river); this region is very rich with artifacts. Nomadic life did not stop for several thousand years here. The wide Aksay flood-lands with lush steppe vegetation attracted ancient Eurasian cattle-breeders of the Neolithic Age; then catacomb and shell-makers of the Bronze Age; Polovets and Pecheneg people of the Middle Ages; but Sarmat people of the Iron Age made the most number of burial-mounds. It is the latter that the archaeologists at Volgorad State University are studying. They excavated fourteen burial-mounds last year and ten more burial-mounds this summer dating from the second century B.C. up to the third century A.D. More... http://www.alphagalileo.org/ReadNotice.cfm?releaseid=7467"}, {"response": 755, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 29, 2001 (15:01)", "body": "Bath discovery opens window on 13th-century Jewish world BY DALYA ALBERGE, ARTS CORRESPONDENT ARCHAEOLOGISTS have unearthed a 13th-century ritual bath that provides exceptional physical evidence of the Jewish community in medieval London. The bath, or mikveh, reveals new information on life in the city before the expulsion of the Jews by Edward I in 1290. The Museum of London Archaeology Service discovered it in Gresham Street in the City of London. The bath consists of a semicircular basin about 4ft across and more than 4ft deep and is built of blocks of masonry, with a flight of stone steps leading into it. Although the upper parts of the structure and steps were destroyed by later buildings, the remains of seven steps survive. Bruce Watson, who is heading the excavation, said that archaeologists had assumed that it was the entrance to a medieval cellar, until they noticed \ufffdthe beautiful nature of the close-jointed masonry\ufffd. They led down to an outside tank with a puddle clay floor, which was meant to hold water. He said that it was a ritual bath which would have been at least 5ft deep. more... http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001371420,00.html"}, {"response": 756, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 29, 2001 (15:06)", "body": "FRIDAY OCTOBER 26 2001 Greece to build \ufffd29m home for Elgin Marbles BY DALYA ALBERGE, ARTS CORRESPONDENT THE Greek Government has commissioned a design for a \ufffd29 million Acropolis Museum crowned with a glass structure intended to hold the Elgin Marbles \ufffd even though Britain shows no sign of giving them back. Nicos Papadakis, a spokesman for the Greek Embassy in London, said that the plan would send a clear message to Britain. \ufffdWith this project, which does cost a lot of money, we\ufffdre simply manifesting in a practical way our commitment to completing this project in the expectation that the Parthenon sculptures will grace the new rooms of the museum in Athens,\ufffd Mr Papadakis said. \ufffdThis shows our determination to forge ahead.\ufffd He said that the issue would not go away. more... http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001372085,00.html"}, {"response": 757, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 29, 2001 (15:15)", "body": "A personal comment on the Parthenon Freize (commonly known as the Elgin Marbles): Please read the rest of the above story. Anyone with a sense of history and fairness knows that none of the Marbles from the Arcopolis in Athens belongs anywhere but in Greece. That they are creating a safe and protective building to house them is to be applauded. I have seen them in their sterile surroungings in the British Museum. It is protective of them, but it gives no sense of the context for which they were created. Next time, I hope to see them in Greece, where they rightfully belong."}, {"response": 758, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 29, 2001 (15:26)", "body": "Neolithic Rock carvings unearthed in Greece A SERIES of digs carried out at the newly discovered Neolithic settlement of Strofilas on the island of Andros uncovered significant rock carvings. The excavations, which started in June under the supervision of archaeologist Christina Televanou, brought to light a dozen ships incised on the outer face of the settlement's defensive wall and measuring 20-30cm. A 1.5-metre long carving depicting 17 animals and a 15m2 group of ships and fish were discovered in the settlement. http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12933&m=A35&aa=4&eidos=S"}, {"response": 759, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  3, 2001 (19:08)", "body": "'Bronze Age Pompeii' Found Buried by Vesuvius ROME (Reuters) - Italian archaeologists have discovered one of the world's best-preserved prehistoric villages, a \"Bronze Age Pompeii\" that was buried in volcanic ash near the world-famous Roman city almost 4,000 years ago. The ancient settlement was overwhelmed by volcanic flow when Mount Vesuvius erupted around 1800 BC, smothering the village near present-day Nola in southern Italy many centuries before Pompeii suffered the same fate. \"This is by far the best-preserved prehistoric village in Italy and one of the best in the world. Everyday life in the ancient Bronze Age is preserved there,\" Giuseppe Vecchio, the director of the excavation, told Reuters. Vecchio discovered the village north of Vesuvius while doing routine tests to grant a company a license to build a shopping center and underground parking lot on the site. But the cross sections of the earth revealed part of an ancient pottery kiln. \"It was a complete surprise, a really extraordinary find,\" he said. While much of the original structures, especially the wood beams of huts, was destroyed, the original forms are preserved in molds made of volcanic ash and mud. \"For the first time we can see things about prehistoric life that we had only imagined,\" Vecchio said. \"People didn't have time to grab their things when they fled, so we can see what they ate, how they cooked, what social life was like.\" Explorations so far have revealed three huts up to eight meters (26-ft) high, pots full of grains, sheep bones, a cage holding the bones of pregnant goats and hunting and cooking tools made from other bones. Archaeologists expect to find more dwellings. At most sites around Europe, all that is left of Bronze Age villages are holes in the ground where huts used to stand. RECONSTRUCTION PLANNED No human remains have been found at Nola, unlike at Pompeii, which was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD killing an estimated 2,000 people and freezing the once-bustling commercial town under a sea of ash. With its well-preserved shops, houses, amphitheater and baths, Pompeii is one of Italy's top tourist sites. Archaeologists at Nola hope to complete their excavations in the next couple of months. They plan to reconstruct the village at a nearby archaeological museum and possibly open the site to tourists. \"This is a prehistoric Pompeii, the Pompeii of the ancient Bronze Age,\" said Salvatore Nappo, an archaeological consultant and Pompeii expert. \"It will teach us about the period, but also shows that the area has been inhabited for thousands of years.\" Other late Bronze Age period villages have also been discovered in the area, although they were not preserved in volcanic ash the way the Nola site was. Archaeologists believe one nearby settlement was destroyed by a flood. Today, a giant pool of magma still lies beneath Vesuvius and extends at least 400 square kilometers under some of Italy's scenic coastline, making a fresh eruption possible at any time. The last major eruption of the imposing volcano, which overshadows Naples, was in March 1944, as Allied troops landed in Italy during World War Two."}, {"response": 760, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  7, 2001 (16:59)", "body": "Thank to Neil for the following: Explorers View 'Lost City' Ruins Under Caribbean By Andrew Cawthorne HAVANA (Reuters) - Explorers using a miniature submarine to probe the sea floor off the coast of Cuba said on Thursday they had confirmed the discovery of stone structures deep below the ocean surface that may have been built by an unknown human civilization thousands of years ago. Researchers with a Canadian exploration company said they filmed over the summer ruins of a possible submerged ``lost city'' off the Guanahacabibes Peninsula on the Caribbean island's western tip. The researchers cautioned that they did not fully understand the nature of their find and planned to return in January for further analysis, the expedition leader said on Thursday. The explorers said they believed the mysterious structures, discovered at the astounding depth of around 2,100 feet and laid out like an urban area, could have been built at least 6,000 years ago. That would be about 1,500 years earlier than the great Giza pyramids of Egypt. more... http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011206/sc/cuba_discovery_dc_1.html"}, {"response": 761, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  9, 2001 (20:30)", "body": "================================================================ AFRICA, EUROPE, AND ASIA ================================================================ You knew it was coming: a pair of geologists are challenging the Pittman-Ryan theory on the flooding of the Black Sea region: http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSScience0111/25_nfld-cp.html The Irish Independent has a brief item on high hopes for finding a 3200-year-old goldsmith's workshop in Mayo: http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=649166&issue_id=6490 A Hungarian expedition has found all sorts of sites relating to pharoahnic mining activities: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html5/o281121z.htm A statue of Mut has been discovered near Karnak: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html5/o031221n.htm Well, at least *something* escaped the Taliban's antiquity-smashing: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=110372 cf sadly: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001560012-2001565718,00.html Ha'aretz has a very in-depth article on the excavations of Herod's palace: http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=101418 Deseret News has a feature on the Nag Hammadi library: http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,355010719,00.html ? A brief item on the excavation of a Roman winery in Abu Qir: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html5/o061221j.htm The Museum Lauriacum folks are miffed that plans are in the works to send 30 years' worth of finds elsewhere for cataloging (in German): http://ooe.orf.at/oesterreich.orf?read=detail&channel=4&id=164042 Genetic evidence is providing more information as to the extent of Viking settlement in Britain: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1689000/1689955.stm Xinhua has an item on the discovery of a West Han Dynasty sacrificial pit: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2001-12/06/content_150239.htm ... and a Southern Song Dynasty palace: http://library.northernlight.com/FA20011205810000075.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc ... and a Tang Dynasty wooden (!) building: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2001-12/04/content_146179.htm A very brief item in China Daily reports on the discovery of a very well-preserved body dating from the Ming dynasty: http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/news/lf/2001-12-06/46878.html http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001565696,00.html Not sure how to classify this one, but if you read through it, you'll find a cancer treatment which was discovered due to an archaeological discovery: http://www.msnbc.com/news/667259.asp ================================================================ THE AMERICAS ================================================================ A bit out-of-date but a good read nonetheless, the Stanford Report has a piece on John Rick's discoveries this year at Chavin de Huantar, not least of which were a number of Strombus shells: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/report/news/october24/chavin-a.html An ancient Incan doorway has been discovered in the Andes: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011205/wl/peru_incan_discovery_1.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-1363967,00.html http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap12-05-173956.asp?reg=AMERICAS This is technically a followup, but since it has been so long since we heard about it ... a Canadian exploration company is claiming to have found evidence of a lost civilization off the coast of Cuba: http://www.msnbc.com/news/668477.asp?cp1=1 http://dsc.discovery.com/news/reu/20011203/cuba.html # http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/341/nation/Explorers_pinpoint_lost_city_near_Cuba+.shtml http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=109015 There's a new claim that the Mayans did not routinely engage in human sacrifice: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991650 Evidence has finally been found to confirm a French presence in the 1700's near what is now Peoria: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-12/uoia-wsp120301.php http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_465162.html The number of potential sites in Clark County (Washington) has been expanded: http://www.columbian.com/12052001/clark_co/236255.html"}, {"response": 762, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  9, 2001 (22:38)", "body": "The Greek Drachma has a history that goes back to the beginning of the use of coins as money. The world's first coins appeared simultaneously in two places - China and the kingdom of Lydia in what is now western Turkey at the end of the seventh century BC. No-one knows what the Lydians called their coins, but not long after the Lydian ruler Croesus was minting his legendary fortune. In the middle of the sixth century BC, Greeks in Athens and the island of Aegina had begun producing silver drachmas. The word \"drachma\" is Greek for \"handful\". It was taken as the name for a coin because it was worth a handful of iron spits known as obols, which earlier Greeks had used for money. Heavier silver or gold coins were known as staters. Coins minted on the island of Aegina were stamped with the image of a turtle, those in Athens with an owl. At each mint the weight was precisely calibrated, though it differed from one city-state to the next. \"It was the mother of all later coinage systems,\" says Jonathan Williams of the British Museum. Automatic vending Before long drachmas were being minted at Greek settlements in southern Italy, with the result that the Romans switched from using bronze bars to coins in about 300 BC. And at roughly the same time Philip of Macedonia and his son Alexander the Great were producing huge quantities of coins to finance their military conquests. A big copper five-drachma coin was used in the first recorded automatic vending machine, used to dispense ceremonial water in Greek-governed Alexandria in 150 BC. Jesus Christ, in one of the parables recorded by Saint Luke, refers to a woman who had 10 drachmas but lost one. The writer Josephus, reporting on the Roman siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 says that starving people in the besieged city were selling bundles of withered grass for four drachmas. Further afield, Indian drammas, and dirhams from North Africa and Central Asia, which were used in trade all over Russia, are descendants of the drachma. Depreciation The ancient Greeks began the art of coin design, and some experts believe Greek artists working in Italy have never been matched. Usually coins bore images of plants and animals or gods and goddesses, sometimes views of cities or temples. It was only in the third century BC that one of Alexander the Great's successors started stamping coins with his own head. The drachma disappeared for almost a millennium while Greece was ruled by foreign powers, but made its return shortly after the creation of the modern Greek state in 1827. Jonathan Williams says it was a conscious throwback to the nation's golden age. \"An ancient people gets its freedom back - what more natural for that people to have an ancient Greek name for its coinage,\" he says. \"It's a symbol of antiquity.\" The changeover evokes mixed feelings among Greeks, who will miss the drachma with their hearts, while recognising that it's been a weak currency - now worth only one twelfth as much against the dollar as it was in 1970. For this reason they will welcome the euro, which promises to be a rock of stability by comparison."}, {"response": 763, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  9, 2001 (22:42)", "body": "The above article on the history of the Greek Drachma was from http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1627000/1627442.stm I think the Euro might be a good economic move but it rather ruins part of what makes each country so wonderfully different from the rest. I guess I am too much of a romantic."}, {"response": 764, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (22:46)", "body": "Irish man finds rare Bronze Age necklace DUBLIN (AP) \ufffd When a man walked into Tim Keane's store and asked him to identify an unusual necklace, the jewel dealer got very excited. What the man presented was a Bronze Age torc, a strand of twisted gold worn around the neck or upper arm of a child. More than 3,000 years old and very rare, it is regarded as extremely valuable. \"He produced this piece and asked could we identify what it was,\" Keane said today. \"Needless to say I got very excited when I saw it. Keane, owner of Michel Jewelers in Cork, said \"it was like a unicorn walking through the door, I was so excited.\" He said the piece is a ribbon torc, made in Ireland in the second half of the Bronze Age in a time called the Ornament Arising period. \"It is a twisted gold child's necklace or amulet. If you got a piece of metal laid it flat and kept twisting, it would end up like a spring. That's the best way to describe it,\" he said. The torc has been handed to officials of the National Museum in Dublin, who are planning to display it. A preliminary assessment by Peter Woodman of Cork's University College has confirmed it is around 3,200 years old. Authorities are not identifying the area where the artifact was discovered so that it is left undisturbed while archeologists search for other pieces. Under Irish law, the state has first claim to such treasures, but in most cases the finder is given a reward calculated according to the item's value. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1007032217472&call_page=TS_Ontario&call_pageid=968256289824&call_pagepath=News/Ontario"}, {"response": 765, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (22:51)", "body": "Thor Heyerdahl is back in the news, this time with a claim that Odin is based on a real life king who fled north to escape the Romans: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/30/international/30BRIE.html http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=sciencenews&StoryID=415842 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1353000/1353343.stm"}, {"response": 766, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (22:53)", "body": "A first century A.D. Roman burial site has been found in Wales: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/wales/newsid_1684000/1684894.stm http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Culture&F=1&id=5006 Some sixth-century A.D. warrior paraphernalia has been found near Sutton Hoo: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001545142,00.html ... and there's a bit about Sutton Hoo too: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001545138,00.html Here's another case where conservationists did rather more damage than conserving, this time in regards to a Leonardo drawing of Orpheus: http://www.allemandi.com/TAN/news/article.asp?idart=8215 Another major site buried by Vesuvius (but in the Bronze Age!) has been discovered near Nola: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_460049.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology http://etad.telegraph.co.uk/html.ng/site=et&spaceid=box2&logstatus=f&transactionID=10072945263083872&Sect=uk&view=details http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$SNVZ0MIAAIARFQFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F11%2F28%2Fwpomp28.xml eKathimerini has a report on the emergency excavations of an ancient cemetery at Kephisia: http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=109840"}, {"response": 767, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (22:55)", "body": "Ancient graves discovered near Kifissia train station Archaeologists struggle to save remains of cemetery spanning 800 years A Roman marble portrait from the Louvre of orator, sophist and public benefactor Herodes Atticus, the most illustrious resident of ancient Cephisia. By Nicholas Paphitis Kathimerini English Edition A couple of streets down from the electric railway terminus in one of the less leafy parts of Kifissia, the most extensive traces yet known of the northern Athenian suburb's ancient past have emerged in the form of a cemetery spanning 800 years of use. A rescue excavation that started in March and still continues on a building site on the corner of Acharnon and Socratous streets has revealed 45 graves dating from Geometric to Roman times, many of which yielded rich pottery artifacts. The 2,000-square-meter site, only half of which has been fully excavated, also contains remains of a round Roman building of dressed marble blocks that stand almost six feet tall. Possibly a Nymphaeum - sections of a waterproofed floor that would have contained a small pond have been found in the structure - it will be incorporated in a luxury apartment complex. The summer finds, in combination with two smaller cemeteries and several fourth century BC houses unearthed on Kato Kifissia construction sites over the past four years, have helped archaeologists form a clearer picture of the ancient deme of Cephisia, celebrated in antiquity for its abundant waters and cool groves of deciduous trees. http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=109840"}, {"response": 768, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 28, 2001 (17:17)", "body": "Roman mosaics were found near Lopen (Britain): http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1642000/1642564.stm http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001385297,00.html http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=103765 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,589468,00.html http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/11/08/nmos08.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/11/08/ixhome.html Timbers from Seahenge have yielded the oldest metal-made axe cuts in Britain: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,602119,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1664000/1664196.stm Also on the British Bronze Age front, some guy has found a bronze age burial in his back yard: http://ews.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1670000/1670707.stm Obviously coinciding with Harry Pottermania, the Telegraph has a piece about ancient wizards: http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/11/19/nwiz19.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/11/19/ixhome.html"}, {"response": 769, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 28, 2001 (17:23)", "body": "Acropolis Museum foundation stone to be laid in June BY CHRISTY PAPADOPOULOU THE FOUNDATION stone for the Acropolis Museum will be laid in June, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos told the press on November 20, adding that the exhibition space will be ready in time for the 2004 Olympic Games. Complete with the Parthenon Hall, which will remain empty until the British Museum returns the Parthenon Marbles, the space will function as \"an ongoing challenge and invitation for the Marbles' return\", Venizelos said. \"It will serve as a painful reminder for those who wish to keep the monument in a mutilated condition.\" more... http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12937&m=A39&aa=3&eidos=S"}, {"response": 770, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jan  3, 2002 (14:18)", "body": ""}, {"response": 771, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jan  3, 2002 (22:36)", "body": "DEMOCRITUS He was a philosopher and he lived at Avdera city in the ancient Macedonia of ancient Greece. (460-370 B.C). Democritus describing that the structure of the matter came to the conclusion that the smallest element was the atom. Atom in Greek means that it can't be cut, or divided more. Describing the centre of the atom named it 'pirin'. The meaning in Greek comes from two words pyr (fire) and ein (is)! He found a very interesting way to describe what could be found inside the atom if anyone dares to divide it! Today we are trying to find a safe way of using that power playing with the fire... Maybe we have to learn from our mistakes what Democritus told us. The atom has more parts but don't divide it because inside there is fire! From: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/5743/en/dimokritos.htm Democritus stated that all existing things, like the earth, the moon and the sun and stars moved as in a vacuum. And he also maintained worlds were infinite, and of different sizes. He stated there were worlds where neither sun nor moon existed. Democritus stated worlds could be destroyed by clashing one with another. Some worlds are without animals and plants, and contains no moisture. John"}, {"response": 772, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  4, 2002 (00:15)", "body": "Thank you, John! The 10 Drachmae coin has Democritos' image on the obverse and an atom on the reverse. I looked for him using a search engine wondering what atoms had to do with Democracy. Nothing, really! I mistook his name for the founder of democracy. I did not discover any other sites telling me much about him. I wonder how soon children will forget who these great people of Greek history were since they now do not see them and will not ask why they are on their coins. Euros will be a great help to visitors, but also a great disservice to those who will populate the countries involved in the new currancy. *sigh*"}, {"response": 773, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (21:50)", "body": ""}, {"response": 774, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (21:54)", "body": "Pavement slide uncovers cave in Plaka district 07/01/2002 18:39:41 A cave apparently hidden since antiquity came to the forefront on Monday after the pavement gave way on a secondary road near the Acropolis in central Athens. A truck parked exactly over the three-metre cave subsequently fell in, police said. According to reports, the subterranean cavity was located recently during work for a new metro line passing nearby, although support beams placed by construction crews failed to prevent the landslide. Archaeologists and engineers were dispatched to the site, located in the old quarter district of Plaka. http://www.ana.gr/"}, {"response": 775, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (23:07)", "body": "so that's why we have mud slides! how very interesting!!!"}, {"response": 776, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (01:04)", "body": "I cannot believe the archaeologists and engineers failed to put timber supports in there. I hope no one was hurt and that nothing of antiquity was damaged. Wow! When we have mud slides, all we have underneath is lava flows. *sigh*"}, {"response": 777, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (19:45)", "body": "but they didn't know that stuff was there in the first place, did they?"}, {"response": 778, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (20:21)", "body": "Under the Acropolis? In Athens? Actually, they did know. They had found it earlier when digging for a metro line and had it surveyed but neglected to support it properly. That is why it fell in with the weight of the truck on it. I'd suspect every inch of that magnificent country is rife with antiquities of the most irreplaceable sort. *Sigh* Too bad progress and preservation cannot be more compatible."}, {"response": 779, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (20:48)", "body": "that's what i get for skimming through articles! *wink*"}, {"response": 780, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (21:10)", "body": "I wish I could find a longer one. I will search for more information and, hopefully, for the original finding of the cave. I'd really be interested in finding what is in that cave!"}, {"response": 781, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 14, 2002 (22:07)", "body": "I think none of the known world was the same after the death of Alexander ANCIENT TRADERS SUFFERED BOOM AND BUST Alexander the Great's death plunged Babylon into economic turmoil. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020101/020101-9.html"}, {"response": 782, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 14, 2002 (22:10)", "body": "There are several of great interest among the following ================================================================ AFRICA, EUROPE, AND ASIA ================================================================ The New Yorker has a nice article on what ice cores tell us about ancient climate etc.: http://www.newyorker.com/FACT/?020107fa_FACT A shrine erected in honour of Ramses II has been found in an ancient Egyptian army base: http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2001/1230/breaking44.htm http://www.arabia.com/egypt/life/article/english/0,5127,19979,00.html http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$D1NW0IYAADAMRQFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2001/12/30/uw06.xml&sSheet=/portal/2001/12/30/ixport.html Perhaps the same?: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html6/o050122e.htm or: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html5/o311221j.htm The Egyptian State Information Service also has a feature on Carter's discovery of Tutankhamen: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html6/o030122.htm ... and news that the Kalabsha Temple restoration is almost complete: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html5/o010122a.htm Tutankhamen also features in a somewhat strange 'news' story in the Guardian (this is one of those things which probably made sense in the print version): http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4327484,00.html There is word that a new chamber of some sort has been discovered by georadar in the Great Pyramid (article in French): http://www.egypt.edu/actualite/2002/020101/01janvier01.htm A new development in the Temple Mount saga: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/01/02/News/News.40993.html The Middle East Wire has a feature on Biblical archaeology: http://www.middleeastwire.com/commentary/stories/20011227_1_meno.shtml There's plenty of coverage of one scholar's claim that a long-known artifact actually came from the throne of Midas: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/03/science/social/03MIDA.html http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-01/uop-uak122101.php http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/arts/newsid_1742000/1742019.stm http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/681100.asp http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/01/020103074806.htm http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020103/od/midas_dc_1.html http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?aid=113367 A brief item on the discovery of a Greco-Roman period town in the Sinai: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html6/o030122i.htm A major Roman coin hoard has been found in Moray (Scotland), although the conclusions being drawn from it are somewhat suspect: http://www.news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=3152002 ... while the discovery of a dog burial in Silchester is causing more questions to be asked: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,626325,00.html A team of Greek archaeologists is headed to Afghanistan to see, well, what's left: http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12943&m=A35&aa=1&eidos=S http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_487723.html?menu = http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=113509 http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap01-04-154838.asp?reg=ASIA"}, {"response": 783, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 15, 2002 (12:43)", "body": "More great things found in Greece Rare Macedonian Tomb Unearthed in Northern Greece ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek archaeologists have discovered an ancient Macedonian tomb, part of a war memorial from the time of Alexander the Great, the Culture Ministry said Tuesday. \"Such buildings are rare,\" the ministry said in a statement. \"The monument is of special archaeological importance not just for the Epirus (region) but the whole of Greece.\" The tomb measuring 2.28 by 2.35 meters dates back to Hellenistic times, about 330-150 BC, and is part of a larger memorial which includes an open-air yard and a store-room. Discovered in September near the northern Greek town of Ioannina, the monument is located on an ancient road leading from the western coastline to the Epirus region. The building had apparently been looted by antiquities smugglers and contained no artifacts. The tomb is close to the Dodoni oracle, where ancient worshippers hoped to receive prophesies from the god Zeus, and which Jason visited on his mythical quest for the golden fleece."}, {"response": 784, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 15, 2002 (19:03)", "body": "THE PARTHENON MARBLES WILL NEVER LEAVE THE BRITISH MUSEUM Athens, 15 January 2002 (18:15 UTC+2) The Parthenon Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles, will never leave the British Museum to return to Greece, stated the London Museum director to the London Times newspaper. The statement was made in response to the campaign for the return of the marbles to the Acropolis launched by at least 90 British parliament members and personalities from the world of art and literature. Greek Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos stated that Greece is not interested in the legal aspect of the dispute and it simply wants the marbles to be returned to their natural place. http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=244522"}, {"response": 785, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 28, 2002 (19:41)", "body": "Evidence shows Greeks were first to cultivate the almond tree and enjoy the taste and nutrients the dry fruit offered BY CONNIE PHILLIPSON ALMONDS are probably the oldest and most widely known of the world's nut crops, having helped to sustain our hunter/gatherer ancestors with their monounsaturated oils, more calcium than any other nut, B vitamins and vitamin E, and a small amount of protein. The nuts are the fruit seeds of Prunus dulcis, that was formerly known as P amygdalus, and which is also known as Amygdalus communis. Don't you sometimes wish that scientists would make up their minds! At any event, the almond tree is native to the Mediterranean area and western Asia, and was apparently first cultivated by the Greeks. An almond seed was found at the Neolithic level of Knossos on Crete, under the palace complex, and wild almonds were discovered at the Neolithic sites of Sesklo and Dimini in Thessaly, showing a presence in the Aegean area of at least 5,000 years. more... http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=12946&t=04&m=A40&aa=1"}, {"response": 786, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan 28, 2002 (22:09)", "body": "wow! that's neat.....we oughto include this tidbit in garden. i'll copy it and put it there now."}, {"response": 787, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 29, 2002 (10:36)", "body": "Great idea. The only Greek on scene I know has not come into this topic, I think. I do NOT support Britain's claim to the Parthenon marbles! Perhaps he is afraid I just might."}, {"response": 788, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (23:40)", "body": "THE ANCIENT CITY OF ATHENS A photographic archive of the archaeological and architectural remains of ancient Athens (Greece). It is intended primarily as a resource for students of classical art & archaeology, civilization, languages, and history at Indiana University as a supplement to their class lectures and reading assignments and as a source of images for use in term papers, projects, and presentations. This site will be useful to all who have an interest in archaeological exploration and the recovery, interpretation, and preservation of the past. View of the Acropolis and the South Slope from the southwest (from near the Philopappos Monument). In the background to the right of the Parthenon are Mt. Lykabettos and Mt. Penteli. http://www.indiana.edu/~kglowack/athens/"}, {"response": 789, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (16:20)", "body": "Oh John! You do know my vulnerabilities. Pictures like the one you posted of the Acropolis is what made me want to be an archaeologist since my youngest days. But, where I lived there were no antiquites in our soil when we made gardens. Not even arrowheads like other people find. So, I collected rocks. Thank you! What a feast for my eyes and my soul to see your post. I will investigate the rest of the links there. Have you ever found anything ancient? Bits of pottery? I have this page saved in my bookmarks because it is very detailed and has the same deep blue skies and magnificent edifices. http://www-media.dbnet.ece.ntua.gr/wacro/erecht01.htm"}, {"response": 790, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 25, 2002 (21:45)", "body": "Acid could wreck wreck If you are planning to visit the restored wreck of the Swedish ship, the Vasa, get your skates on - by a quirk of chemistry, the ship's timbers are producing sulphuric acid and threaten to consume themselves from within. Due to the overzealous addition of one too many gundecks, the top-heavy warship keeled over and sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. Left for 333 years marinating in the sulphurous waters of Stockholm harbour, the Vasa soaked up large quantities of hydrogen sulphide, which was then converted to a reservoir of benign sulphur in its timbers, Magnus Sandstrom of the University of Stockholm and colleagues have found. More... http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-15.html"}, {"response": 791, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 25, 2002 (22:12)", "body": "I need one of these - unfortunately they were sold out: http://seis.natsci.csulb.edu/rmorris/cophap.htm"}, {"response": 792, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (18:56)", "body": "TRIVIA ~ Early human habitation Bluefish Cave is only one of several sites that are current- ly candidates for the earliest human site in North America. Many have been claimed to be early but only a few have fair- ly strong evidence for occupation dating to before about 11,000 years ago. Meadowcroft Rockshelter (Pennsylvania) has levels with stone tools that have been radiocarbon dated to 19,000 to 11,000 bp (bp means radiocarbon years before 1950 and is not exact- ly equal to 19,000 to 11,000 years ago). Cactus Hill (Virginia) has some levels questionably dated to about 16,000-15,000 bp. The Chesrow Complex (Wisconsin) has mammoth skeletons that may have been killed or butchered by humans. These date to around 12,000 and 13,000 bp. Bluefish Caves (Yukon) has stone tools mixed with bones that have been dated to approximately 12,000 to 25,000 bp (but the stone tools may actually belong to occupation that dates to 11,700 bp and later). Valsequillo (Puebla, Mexico) has a crudely worked artifact associated with shells that have been dated to about 21,800 bp. It's possible that the \"artifact\" is actually only a natural rock, though. The information given above comes from \"The Peopling of the New World: Present Evidence, New Theories, and Future Dir- ections\" by Stuart J. Fiedel published in 2000 in the Journal of Archaeological Research."}, {"response": 793, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  7, 2002 (22:22)", "body": "This is an outrage. What is Berlin using for curators?! FRIEZE DAMAGED 380 BC panels depicting Odysseus are cracked at Berlin exhibition A 2,500-year-old stone frieze loaned by an Austrian museum for an exhibition of ancient Greek art in Berlin has been accidentally damaged, the German news magazine Tagespiegel reported yesterday. The organizers said that three panels of the 220-meter-long frieze, which comprises about 100 panels in all, dating to 380 BC, fell while they were being mounted for display. Their fronts were not damaged but they suffered cracks on the back. The panels \ufffd insured for up to 1 million euros each \ufffd have been returned to Vienna for repair. They illustrate the wanderings of Odysseus after the Trojan War. The frieze is from Goelbasi, in present-day Turkey."}, {"response": 794, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  8, 2002 (21:54)", "body": "German archaeologists claim to have found a bronze age star chart: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_533690.html In a much anticipated bout, Korfmann and Kolb finally came to blows at a conference over their differences about the site of Troy (the two pieces from the Times are different): http://www.thetimes.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-218343,00.html http://www.thetimes.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-218264,00.html An early Christian cemetery has been found in Athboy (Ireland): http://www.unison.ie/meath_chronicle/index.php3?ti=50&ca=34&si=693684&issue_id=6920"}, {"response": 795, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  8, 2002 (21:56)", "body": "================================================================ CRIME BEAT ================================================================ Vandalism has been committed in the archeological park of Kos and damaged a mosaic: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=13977 http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=254412 Another raid on a Greek home: http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12951&m=A10&aa=5&eidos=S Museum staff are accused of aiding in the theft of various artifacts from the National Taiwan Museum: http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/02/27/story/0000125571"}, {"response": 796, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  8, 2002 (22:00)", "body": "Kalamata antiquities raid nets mini-treasure trove POLICE in the southern port city of Kalamata confiscated two ancient statues, more than a dozen ancient coins and arrested a man allegedly trying to sell the artefacts, authorities said on February 22. Archaeologists said they appeared to date from the Hellenistic period, between the 3rd and the 1st centuries BC, while the 16 bronze coins were from the later Byzantine times. The antiquities were found during a raid on the home of Pandelis Semertzidis, 44, in Kalamata. Photo: http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=12951&m=A10&aa=5&eidos=S"}, {"response": 797, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  8, 2002 (22:02)", "body": "I suspect stolen antiquities are a problem for any country older than Hawaii - but even we have this problem with raiding of ancient burial caves. Poi pounders seem to be the prize because they are made of stone and are about the only things to survive long periods of time."}, {"response": 798, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 13, 2002 (22:14)", "body": "Campaign for Parthenon Marbles return begins in Belgium 13/03/2002 22:50:31 BRUSSELS (ANA - V. Demiris) A campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece was launched in Belgium on Wednesday by Belgian senators Francois Roelants du Vivier and Paul Wille, at a press conference in the Belgian capital. Entitled 'Parthenon 2004', the campaign aims to put pressure on the British government and the British Museum, where the Parthenon Marbles are currently on display, to return the ancient sculptures in time for the start of the Athens Olympics in 2004. The Belgian campaign mirrors a similar campaign started up in Britain with the same aim. http://www.ana.gr/"}, {"response": 799, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (18:45)", "body": "Do you think that the curator or curators at the Berlin museum will lose his or their job(s) over the damaging of the Greek friezes. It seems unlikely that the Austrian museum in question will be loaning anything to Berlin for quite some time."}, {"response": 800, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (20:14)", "body": "Interestingly, Cheryl, I asked my archaeologist-friend about this appalling event. He assured me these things happen - hairline cracks not apparent on the face develop and carvings literally fall apart in their hands. If that were the case, why weren't they x-rayed for this possibility and stabilized on some sort of stable background? I guess I am just too much of an idealist. I suspect there was more than a little damage done to inter-museum loans!"}, {"response": 801, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 15, 2002 (15:26)", "body": "Shrine to earthy love at riding venue Archaeologists investigating an eastern Attica site earmarked for an Olympic horseriding venue have come across the remains of a 2,500-year-old shrine where the rites of love were celebrated and performed, as well as a cluster of Mycenaean graves. The discovery \ufffd one of the chief nightmares of officials racing to complete lagging preparations for the 2004 Games \ufffd on the 2.1-hectare Markopoulo plot, some 15 kilometers southeast of the capital, could cause construction delays but is not expected to force a change of venue. Archaeologist Olga Kakavoyianni, who supervises excavations at the site in the Mesogeia plain played down the significance of the find, which is linked to Aphrodite, goddess of love. \ufffdIt is a small shrine, by no means a temple,\ufffd she told Kathimerini\ufffds English Edition. \ufffdIt consisted of an external wall enclosing a series of small rooms.\ufffd These stone structures, tentatively identified as bath and relaxation rooms, would have been used by priestesses of Aphrodite \ufffd who combined the attributes of celestial love and sexual passion \ufffd to offer sexual services to visitors. A much larger sanctuary of Aphrodite, the famous temple on Acrocorinthos above ancient Corinth, was described by the Roman geographer Strabo as \ufffdso wealthy that it possessed as temple-slaves more than a thousand prostitutes who were dedicated to the goddess.\ufffd The fourth-century-BC Markopoulo shrine, discovered in 2001, belonged to the ancient agricultural settlement of Myrrhinous, on much of which the riding center is being built. Working since 1998, archaeologists have also discovered several Mycenaean chamber tombs whose contents have not been investigated. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100008_15/03/2002_14442"}, {"response": 802, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (06:35)", "body": "The Seven Wonders of The Ancient World Although most people know that a list exists of the Seven World Wonders, only few can name them. The list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was originally compiled around the second century BC. The first reference to the idea is found in History of Herodotus as long ago as the 5th century BC. Decades later, Greek historians wrote about the greatest monuments at the time. Callimachus of Cyrene (305BC-240BC), Chief Librarian of the Alexandria Mouseion, wrote \"A Collection of Wonders around the World\". All we know about the collection is its title, for it was destroyed with the Alexandria Library. The final list of the Seven Wonders was compiled during the Middle Ages. The list comprised the seven most impressive monuments of the Ancient World, some of which barely survived to the Middle Ages. Others did not even co-exist. Among the oldest references to the canonical list are the engravings by the Dutch artist Maerten van Heemskerck (1498-1574), and Johann Fischer von Erlach's History of Architecture. Today, archaeological evidence reveals some of the mysteries that surrounded the history of the Wonders for centuries. For their builders, the Seven Wonders were a celebration of religion, mythology, art, power, and science. For us, they reflect the ability of humans to change the surrounding landscape by building massive yet beautiful structures, one of which stood the test of time to this very day. http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/ John"}, {"response": 803, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (04:41)", "body": "A Brief History of Life by Lexi Krock For most of us, the Pyramids symbolize the distant past. After all, they're more than 4,500 years old. But for geologists and palaeontologists, they might as well have been built yesterday. That's because these biographers of the primordial deal in increments of millions and even billions of years as they struggle to reconstruct our planet's life history, which is so vast that those 4,500 years would have to be replicated a million times over to reach back to Earth's beginnings 4.5 billion years ago. Looked at another way, if one were to measure our planet's age as a single 24-hour day, the first human civilizations would appear less than a second before midnight. The geological time scale, established by scientists in the mid-19th century and agreed upon internationally, breaks down the eternity of our planet's history into more manageable units than years. The scale functions as a massive calendar, dividing the history of life into eras, periods, and epochs based on fossil evidence. In this feature, explore the history of life on Earth as we know it today, from the earliest bacteria to the first modern humans. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/link/history.html# John"}, {"response": 804, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (15:56)", "body": "The closest I have come to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World as delineated by the Chief Librarian of the (Library) Mouseion (the root of our word, museum?!) of Alexandria was in the British Museum. Therein is a reconstruction of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus of King Mausolus who gave his name to the structure and all subsequent burial structures. The exhibit contained bits and pieces of what was left of it. http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/mausoleum.html About the reconstruction of the Library at Alexandria, see this link. I had no idea they were going to try this. Where are they going to get those missing thousands of plays by Sophocles? Where is the science we are still trying to re-discover? This will be a hollow attempt but more of symbolism than substance. Thank you for the links, John! I'd like to post a bit on each one or should we make them go to the links we post? I suspect posting would be the better of the two ooptions. http://www.unesco.org/webworld/alexandria_new/ Next, about the geological timeline. I had thought of a topic of PaleoAnthropology. But, is that different from Archaeology and/or Paleontology? It really is, but would we find enough to talk about? Suggestions?"}, {"response": 805, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (19:08)", "body": "MIXER, AN AGE-OLD GREEK INVENTION (Cultural, Scientific & General News Category) February 2002: Do you think that mixer is a modern instrument? Anything but that! Archaeologists found a mixer of more than 8,000 years. The earthen deep vessel found in excavation in Yiannitsa nearby the ancient Macedonia's capital Pella, has in its bottom a concavity which was formed by the intense contortion of a wooden shaft that laid in vessel's base. 'Thus, it is substantiated the invention and the use of mixer before 8,000 years before at least' announced the archaeologist Mr. Panikos Chrysostomou, Director of the excavation in the paleolithic settlement during the Archaeological Symposium held in Thessaloniki. The recent excavational cuts brought to light a lot of mobile finds and earthen anthropomorphous and zoomorphous figurines of the Premier Neolithic period. The houses founded during the excavation date between 6,300 and 6,000 BC. http://www.Greekproducts.com Classic Newsletter#23, March 2002"}, {"response": 806, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (20:42)", "body": "For those of you with way too much time on your hands and a knowledge of archaeology, a puzzle for you: http://archaeology.about.com/library/weekly/aabyb031702a.htm"}, {"response": 807, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 19, 2002 (20:30)", "body": "the closest i've ever been to the seven wonders is the discovery channel (though i may have been even closer during my brief stay in Kuwait) marcia, i'm not even gonna try the puzzle (but my curiousity is piqued!)"}, {"response": 808, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 19, 2002 (20:35)", "body": "oooooooohhh, you didn't say it was a crossword!!! printing it out right now!"}, {"response": 809, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 19, 2002 (22:08)", "body": "I know what you mean, Wolfie!!! As soon as I saw that it was a crossword puzzle, I also had to print it out!"}, {"response": 810, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 19, 2002 (22:09)", "body": "The British Museum might be as close to the Parthenon as I ever get, too. So much to see and only one life to do it...*sigh*"}, {"response": 811, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 19, 2002 (22:15)", "body": "(The puzzle is not as archaeological as I expected, and I used to be a memeber of the AIA.)"}, {"response": 812, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 20, 2002 (00:03)", "body": "Explorers Unearth Lost Inca Stronghold in Peru Reuters Mar 18 2002 6:10PM LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - In the first major Inca find in four decades, Peruvian and British explorers say they have discovered a hidden city, perched on an Andean hilltop, that may have sheltered stalwarts of South America's legendary empire as they made a last stand against Spanish conquerors. Located on a narrow ridge around 11,000 feet up in Peru's windswept, southern Andes, the Inca citadel of Corihuayrachina is a mysterious gathering of religious platforms, funeral towers, and food storehouses. British scholar and guide Peter Frost told a news conference on Monday he first spotted the ruins in the rugged, isolated Vilcabamba region some 300 miles south-east of Lima three years ago. Frost said the site was the biggest of its kind found since 1964 and could have been occupied by the Inca when they took to the hills after the Spanish conquest. It is about 22 miles southwest of the famous Inca citadel of Machu Picchu. The Incas once ruled a vast swath of South America stretching from Colombia to Chile, but Spain's Francisco Pizarro and his band of 160 treasure-hunters, using cannons and horses, brought that empire to a bloody end in 1533. Some Inca, moving with an army of 50,000 to the more remote Vilcabamba area, held out against the invaders for nearly 40 years. \"It's a jigsaw puzzle. What we're finding are more pieces ... to get a better sense of what was happening in that area,\" said Frost, who has lived for 30 years in the Inca's imperial capital Cusco in southern Peru, gateway to Machu Picchu. European diseases like measles ravaged the empire, cutting its population from an estimated 32 million people in 1520 to 5 million in 1548. Frost said he found Corihuayrachina -- eyeing it from afar but not able to actually reach it -- when he was leading a group of tourists through the remote region in 1999. Funded by the Washington-based National Geographic Society, Frost was finally able to set foot on the cloud-shrouded site two years later in June, 2001, trekking four days along winding mountain paths with a team of scientists and excavators. UNTOUCHED BY SCIENCE \"This was an area totally untouched by science,\" said Peruvian archeologist and expedition co-leader Alfredo Valencia, who along with local workers hacked away at the thick leaves and vines covering squat buildings and murky tombs. But Frost said the scientists were still in the early stages of puzzling out who inhabited Corihuayrachina, how they lived, and why they chose to live in such an inhospitable place. \"If (the site) was occupied after the Spanish conquest, what will we find? If we find human remains, will they show European diseases?\" Frost said. Like most of the scores of native shrines, tombs and temples across this Andean nation, the explorers said the site had been looted over the years by local grave-robbers and now the graves were only filled with pottery fragments and bones. But unlike Machu Picchu, discovered in 1911 by American explorer Hiram Bingham, Frost said the recent find was not home to the Inca elite. Machu Picchu has been named a United Nations World Heritage site and draws throngs of tourists from across the globe. Unlike Machu Picchu, only stone foundations some 2-3 feet high remain of the new find's structures, which were originally constructed with adobe or wood. National Geographic is due to release a television special chronicling the Corihuayrachina discovery in May."}, {"response": 813, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (00:47)", "body": "Lesson 10: Middle Minoan Crete POTTERY, CHRONOLOGY, AND EXTERNAL CONTACTS Middle Minoan IA (ca. 2050/2000-2000/1950 B.C.) Middle Minoan IB (ca. 2000/1950-1900/1850 B.C.[palace sites], 1750/1720 [non-palatial sites]) Middle Minoan IIA-B (ca. 1900/1850-1750/1720 B.C.) Middle Minoan IIIA-B (ca. 1750/1720-1700/1675 B.C.) ARCHITECTURE Palaces Monumental Non-Palatial Complexes The \"Town Mosaic\" from Knossos The House Model from Archanes BURIAL CUSTOMS Larnax Burial Pithos Burial Tholoi of Mesara Type Chamber Tomb RELIGION WEAPONRY FIGURES WRITING Pictographic or Hieroglyphic Script Linear A The Phaistos Disc *.*.*.*)*()*()*()*()*()Middle Minoan Crete POTTERY, CHRONOLOGY, AND EXTERNAL CONTACTS [The absolute dates listed below are essentially those suggested by Manning 1995: Appendix 8.] Middle Minoan IA (ca. 2050/2000-2000/1950 B.C.) The pottery of this phase develops directly out of that of the preceding EM III period. At Knossos, it is best represented by the finds from the houses under the kouloures (see below under \"Architecture: Palaces\") in the area of the later palace's West Court. The east Cretan equivalent is typified by the finds from House D at Mochlos and House B at Vasiliki. In the Mesara, the phase is well represented by a large deposit from Patrikies. At Mallia, pottery from houses underlying the southern edge of the later palace is contemporary. Polychromy in a light-on-dark style (the use of both white and red/orange on a solidly painted dark ground) begins in this phase, though it is relatively rare, especially in the east. Also beginning in this phase is the particular form of relief decoration known as \"barbotine\". Dark-on-light pattern-painted pottery is still common, however, especially at Knossos, and all pottery is still handmade. The straight-sided cup (also known as a Vapheio or Keftiu cup) makes its first appearance. A major difference between EM III and MM IA pottery at Knossos is the far greater frequency of curvilinear decoration in the later period. In the east, representational or naturalistic motifs appear on pottery, more often floral than faunal. Although a good deal of MM IA pottery, as well as imitations of it, comes from coastal sites of the eastern Peloponnese (see handout on MH Greece), little has been found in the central Aegean islands (e.g. at Phylakopi on Melos) and only a very few pieces have been found further east, on Samos and on Cyprus. The site of Kastri on Kythera was probably first permanently settled by Minoan colonists in this phase. Middle Minoan IB (ca. 2000/1950-1900/1850 B.C.[palace sites], 1750/1720 [non-palatial sites]) The first certain palaces are now constructed at Knossos and Phaistos. The pottery is characterized by the first use of the fast wheel, by increasingly thinner vessel walls, by more complex polychrome decoration (Walberg's Early Kamares), and by crinkled rims and other features indicative of the influence of metalwork. The {carinated} (\"having a sharply angular body profile\") cup first appears now and continues to be common through the MM IIIA period. Close contacts are maintained with the eastern Peloponnese and now are extended for the first time on a similar scale to the central Aegean islands (Ayia Irini on Keos, Phylakopi on Melos, Paroikia on Paros, and probably Mikri Vigla on Naxos). The earliest Minoan pottery from the Dodecanese (the Serraglio on Kos, Ialysos/Trianda on Rhodes) and the coast of Western Anatolia (Iasos, Miletus, Knidos) is probably also of this period. Cretan sherds of MM IB-IIA date have been found at Kahun and Harageh in Egypt in levels datable to the early 19th century B.C. Minoan objects are now also firmly attested at such Levantine sites as Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) and are more numerous on Cyprus. Middle Minoan IIA-B (ca. 1900/1850-1750/1720 B.C.) These two designations describe ceramic styles (Walberg's Classical Kamares) current at the palatial sites of Knossos, Phaistos, and Mallia but rarely found outside of them except in certain specialized cult contexts (e.g. the Kamares Cave or the peak sanctuary on Mt. Iuktas). As a result, MM IIIA directly succeeds MM IB at most Minoan sites, although MM II is stratified between MM IB and MM III at Knossos and Phaistos and therefore does have some chronological value, however limited. At Knossos and Phaistos, the end of MM IIB is marked by a major destruction horizon (probably due to an earthquake) which defines the end of the Protopalatial or Old Palace period. At Mallia, a shrine and the impressive Protopalatial complex known as Quartier Mu appear to have been violently destroyed by fire at about the same time or perhaps slightly later. During the 18th century, ceramics became a major art form and the best \"{Kamares ware}\" (also known as \"eggshell ware\" due to the thinness of its walls - it is so fine that many have argued that it must have been mouldmade rather than having been thrown on a wheel) is of a technical and artistic quality never again attained duri"}, {"response": 814, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (00:48)", "body": "Pini's argument runs as follows: In both late MM and LM chamber tombs, pieces of bedrock are sometimes left in the form of piers within the chamber to help support the roof. The plans of such tombs are as a result bi- or tri-lobate and are particularly close to those of somewhat earlier Cypriot tombs. Significantly, such multi-chambered plans are rare on the Greek Mainland at any time during the Mycenaean period. Antechambers are rarely if ever present in Minoan chamber tombs, in marked contrast with the situation in Egypt where the antechamber of such a tomb remained open so that sacrifices and offerings could be made to the dead. A Minoan chamber tomb, on the other hand, was sealed by a blocking wall built across the stomion and the dromos was then completely filled in. If a tomb marker of some kind was not placed in the dromos fill, the location of a Minoan chamber tomb could easily be forgotten within a year or two of its last use, an unthinkable happening in Egypt. It is, of course, by no means impossible, as Dickinson has pointed out, that chamber tombs could have been independently \"invented\" on both Crete and the Mainland or, alternatively, that both the Minoan and the Mainland examples are somehow connected with either EH versions of the basic form known from sites such as Manika in Euboea and Pavlopetri in Laconia or with early Middle Cycladic examples such as those from Phylakopi. In any case, the later chamber tombs, unlike tholoi of the \"Mesara\" type, have no consistent orientation in terms of their entrances or the alignment of their dromoi. The direction in which a dromos runs is entirely determined by the topography and often the geology of a particular necropolis. Individual chamber tombs normally contain multiple inhumation burials, but the manner in which these burials are disposed within the tomb chamber - in pithoi, larnakes, wooden coffins, or simply laid out upon the tomb floor - varies considerably. Chamber tombs are particularly characteristic of north-central Crete and are relatively rare in the east. RELIGION Both hilltops and caves for the first time reveal unambiguous evidence of being used for cult purposes in the MM I period. Of the fifty or so hilltops which have been claimed as Minoan \"peak sanctuaries\", at least twenty-five are generally considered to be accurately identified as such and at none of these does the evidence for cult activity predate central Cretan MM IA. Cave sanctuaries are fewer in number (Amnisos, Idaean, Iuktas, Kamares, Psychro, Skoteino, Stavromyti) but are similar to the peak sanctuaries in that cult begins at them no earlier than MM I. It is likely that the development of both forms of cult place is to be connected with the rise of the palaces in MM IB or slightly earlier. Certain artifactual types, such as polychrome Kamares pottery and inscriptions in Linear A or a script allied to that on the Phaistos Disc (see below), are found only in the palaces or at such specialized cult locations, another fact suggesting a direct connection between the two. In all probability, the \ufffdlite who built and occupied the first palaces on Crete maintained its power through claims to a special connection with divinities which were worshipped at special cult places established by that \ufffdlite. WEAPONRY MM weapons are relatively rare, and this fact has led to the somewhat simplistic conclusion that the Minoans were peace-loving and simply did not indulge in warfare. An interesting hoard of apparently ceremonial weapons was found in the ruins of a Protopalatial building, perhaps part of an \"Old Palace\", at Mallia. The hoard includes the earliest sword in the Bronze Age Aegean, a long, tangless rapier with a gold-sheathed hilt and a rock-crystal pommel, as well as a brown schist axehead in the form of a rampant leopard, extensively decorated with running spirals, and a dagger, also hilted in gold, which was probably a companion piece for the sword. Two other swords, one having a gold-plated pommel decorated in the repouss\ufffd technique with the figure of an acrobat, were found in another late Protopalatial context at Mallia, under the later residential quarters of the Neopalatial palace. FIGURES There is a great variety of human and animal figurines during this period. The best known are the fa\ufffdence \"snake-goddesses\" from the MM IIIB Temple Repositories at Knossos, the terracotta figurines of male and female worshippers from peak sanctuaries at Petsopha, Kophinas, Iuktas, and several other locations, and the groups of large bulls being grappled with by tiny human beings from tholos tombs in the Mesara. WRITING At least three different systems of writing in Crete can be dated to the Middle Minoan period: Pictographic or Hieroglyphic Script This appears in MM IA and continues into the MM IIIB period, a \"life history\" of some 500-550 years. The signs are, as the name of the script implies, pictorial and the script has an overall \"glyptic\" character. The earliest examples occur on "}, {"response": 815, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (00:49)", "body": "I did not realize it would copy so much to Geo.. it came from http://archaeology.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://devlab.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze%5Fage/lessons/10.html%2322"}, {"response": 816, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (17:59)", "body": "The tricky part of decyphering the Linear A & B examples is how to read them. It was discovered that Linear B (the only one of the two which has been successfully decyphered) is read ina manner called boustrophedon meaning as an ox plows a field. Line one would read left to right. Line 2 would read right to left and so on. An excellent discussion of the Greek language and its history: http://www.translexis.demon.co.uk/new_page_2.htm"}, {"response": 817, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (18:02)", "body": "A very early Greek (around 650 BC) inscription with the text running from left to right then doubling back to run from right to left. This form of writing, resembling the path of the ox-drawn plough across a field, is known as boustrophedon. Unlike the example of linear B above, this is an early forerunner of the Greek script still in use today. I see that this website (the one cited above) has described and shown how it looks. Please note that these examples were found at Knossos on Crete. Frozen for all time in the ejecta from the eruption of Thera."}, {"response": 818, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (18:31)", "body": ""}, {"response": 819, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (18:33)", "body": "Another comprehensive site for the archaeology of the Aegean is from Dartmouth University http://devlab.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age/ I have found one from Penn, but since I have been treated rather poorly by an archaeologist from that institution, I think I will let you find it for yourself. That is rather petty of me - here it is: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~ekondrat/aegean.html"}, {"response": 820, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (18:40)", "body": "An absolute treasure of a site MUSEUMS OF GREECE http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~ekondrat/greekmuseum.html"}, {"response": 821, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (19:34)", "body": "dolphins with duckbills! thanks for the wonderful research marcia! in your first example of heiroglyphics, one of the characters looks like something found on egyptian walls (egyptian cross) (assuming that the elongated A and the backwards S are one character, it would be the fourth character from the left)"}, {"response": 822, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (20:34)", "body": "PRESSURES FOR THE RETURN OF THE PARTHENON MARBLES The pressures for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece intensified after the revelations made by the London newspaper \"Guardian\" according to which, the British Museum sold a total of 30 16th century bronze plates in the 50s and 60s. The plates in question, known as the Benin Plates, were parts of the Nigeria art treasures. The museum's decision was in absolute contrast with its internal regulations that forbid the breaking up of a work of art. For the record, the British Museum maintains that the Parthenon Marbles belong to its collection and is not in a position to return them to Greece."}, {"response": 823, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (11:19)", "body": "Ships of Thera The first famous ships of the ancient Greek were the ships of Thera. Representations of them are saved in vessels but also in wall paintings in Thera. The wall paintings are dated to the 1500 - 1600 B.C. Strange is that this knowledge for the ships declines up to much more late near the 700 B.C. when the Corinthus presented the first form of trireme. Had 40 metres length and used 150 oarsmen in three lines and also 50 persons for the rest needs. John"}, {"response": 824, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (12:45)", "body": "i like looking at the old wooden ships--they were so neat!! have you heard a peep out of marcia? i'm so worried about her (have sent a couple of mails but she must be down again)"}, {"response": 825, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (15:30)", "body": "*P E E P* I'm back. Do I need an excuse from my mother? This might take a while. At least I won't cough on you and spread my germs! Thanks for missing me, Wolfie, Sweetie! Thanks, John. I can never get enough of archaeology and most especialy Greek archaeology. Function and beauty in one magnificent wooden structure! ONE MILLION VISITORS IN VERGINA IN FIVE YEARS Thessaloniki, 1 April 2002 (17:18 UTC+2) About one million people visited the archaeological site of Vergina since 1997 and their number is expected to be increased after the construction of the Museum of Vergina. The announcement was made by Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the death of archaeologist Manolis Andronikos, who discovered the tomb of King Philippos B' father of Alexander the Great. The new museum will allow the treasures of every monument in the archaeological site of Vergina to be exhibited separately."}, {"response": 826, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (16:29)", "body": "oh, Vergina, at first i thought it was virginia *silly me-laugh*!!"}, {"response": 827, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (17:27)", "body": "I did too!!!! Wolfie, we truly so think alike! I thought it was a typo! Now, I am going to do a bit of research on what is there and resport back."}, {"response": 828, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (17:58)", "body": "This place is so remenicent of New Grange in Ireland and West Kennet Long Barrow in England. I was stunned to know passage graves were elsewhere in Europe. Of course, it make sense since the tribes that populated Britain were migrants from the east. How likely is it that we are all related?! The Royal Tombs at Aigai: a Museum on the Site On the discovery of the Royal Tombs of Vergina (Aigai) in 1977, an immediate programme was launched to preserve the magnificent murals which adorned them. At the same time a conservation laboratory was set up on the spot to save and restore the extremely important portable objects they contained. For the preservation of the Royal Tombs themselves a subterranean structure was built in 1993 to encase and protect the ancient monuments by maintaining a constant temperature and humidity, both indispensable for the preservation of the wall paintings. Externally the structure has the appearance of an earth mound; inside it are the treasures found in the Royal Tombs, which have been on exhibition since November 1997. http://alexander.macedonia.culture.gr/2/21/211/21117a/e211qa07.html"}, {"response": 829, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (18:23)", "body": "Go look at the Ministry of Culture website. Wander around and let your eyes feast on the magnificance of the artistic creations of ancient Greece. We pale by comparison."}, {"response": 830, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (19:07)", "body": "I knew that Wolfie would love the painting of the dolphins. The Minoans exceled at wall paintings of great vitality, refinement, and beauty. Interestingly, the Minoan dolphins are much more accurate representations than those of the 16th and 17th centuries."}, {"response": 831, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (20:39)", "body": "thanks for that cheryl, of course i did!"}, {"response": 832, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (23:08)", "body": "Trireme The Athenian trireme had length of roughly 35 metres and biggest speed the 20 Km/h (other however him calculate in the 15Km/h). Usually it covers 100 kilometres daily being useful as commercial ship but also as martial ship. It was equipped (in its front part) with a ram that was invested with metal. It could ram and sink the enemy ships. Its power during the naval battles, was based in the force of the 170 oarsmen, even if it was sailboat. Oarsmen were seated in three carefully drawn levels (The two internally and one externally). They are used three lines of oars in synchronism. Bigger double oars placed in the stern of the ship were used as helm. Trireme had draught of only 60 cm. So, it could sails in very shallow waters without problem. John"}, {"response": 833, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (23:25)", "body": "I was reading in the culture site and discovered they also carried 30 spare oarsmen to take over for those injured or incapacitated. I also think we might relieve another fable about those oarsmen. They were not galley slaves. They were trained military men capable of swinging about and maneuvering that great boat in most weather. If you believe Hollywood epic movies, you will think they were all slaves and shackled to their seats. That makes about as much sense as using slaves to pilot our United States Air Force jets!"}, {"response": 834, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (23:32)", "body": "Lovely image, John! Again I am grateful for your sharing your wealth of information and national heritage with us."}, {"response": 835, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  4, 2002 (17:12)", "body": "Mysterious Minoan-era ring a \ufffdmasterpiece\ufffd An engraved gold piece of jewelry of doubtful origin known as the 'Ring of Minos\ufffd has been pronounced by experts as an original, 3,500-year-old Minoan work from Crete, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos confirmed yesterday. A ministry committee of experts vetted the ring and estimated its value at 400,000 euros (163 million drachmas), he said, adding that a reward will be paid to the Cretan family that handed it over to the authorities. Venizelos said the 15th century BC ring - which was found at Knossos in 1928 - will be displayed at the Iraklion Archaeological Museum. Archaeologist Katie Demakopoulou, former director of the Athens National Archaeological Museum, called the ring a \ufffdmasterpiece of Minoan art. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100018_04/04/2002_15022"}, {"response": 836, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (18:02)", "body": "GENUINE RING OF KING MINOS WORTH 400,000 EURO The ring of King Minos, a find from the 15th century BC, was authenticated by the Central Archeological Coucnil (KAS), while at the same time it was valued at 400,000 euro. Nonetheless, the scientific and historic value of the find is much greater, as Minister of Culture Evaggelos Venizelos stated, pointing out that the ring will be turned in to the Heracleon Museum. The Minister of Culture also stressed that the citizen who turned the find in to the Archeological service will be rewarded. \"I am not in a position to reveal the amount of the reward at present, because I want to evaluate all the facts of the case, taking into consideration the response of the KAS, and it is a great pleasure for me that the object known as the King of Minos, as it is known in the bibliography - because there is always an element of myth involved - will be turned over to its natural owners, the people of Crete, the people of Heracleon. It will be turned over to the Archeological Museum of Heracleon, which is entering a new period as an autonomous unit of the Ministry of Culture. Thus, this is a development strengthening the prestige of the Heracleon Museum\", added Mr. Venizelos."}, {"response": 837, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (22:09)", "body": "MOHENJO-DARO Mohenjo-Daro was a city located in the south of Modern Pakistan in the Sind Province, on the right bank of the Indus River. It was built between four and five thousand years ago, and lasted until 3,700 BP. It was part of the Harrapan Civilization, and the city had at least 35,000 residents. Mohenjo-Daro means \ufffdmound of the dead\ufffd. The city was approximately one square mile in size. In 1922-1927 large scale excavations at Mohenjo-daro were carried out by R. D. Banarjee and continued by M. S. Vats and K. N. Dikshit under the direction of Sir John Marshall. E. J. H. MacKay carried out further excavations from 1927 to1931. Sir Mortimer Wheeler made small excavations in1950. http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/archaeology/sites/middle_east/mohenjo_daro.html"}, {"response": 838, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (22:12)", "body": "Salt Range (Pakistan) Temples http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/arth/meister/pakistan.html"}, {"response": 839, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (22:52)", "body": "Professor returns stolen Acropolis fragment after 30 years A US fine arts professor who returned a stolen marble fragment from a sculpture on the Acropolis to Aegean Minister Nikos Sifounakis in Sydney yesterday said his \ufffdsignificant gesture\ufffd set a precedent for the return to Athens of the Elgin Collection of marbles. Californian Jim Bertholm admitted to having stolen the fragment as an anti-junta protest in 1972, when he led a group of students to the Acropolis. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100026_06/04/2002_15110"}, {"response": 840, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  7, 2002 (00:20)", "body": "A river runs through it: Athens' ancient graveyard The ancient cemetery of Kerameikos offers its visitors both sculpturalmasterpieces and curious amphibians BY DIANA FARR LOUIS WHY IS it that of my first visit to the Kerameikos, the ancient cemetery of Athens at the bottom of Ermou Street, my most vivid memory concerns hopping frogs? Our guide must have been telling the group fascinating details about the site, pointing out landmarks and bringing the place of the dead back to life, but her commentary has left no trace in my mind. Instead, it has been supplanted by a vision of totally unexpected yellow-and-green spotted creatures croaking by the side of a stream. I suppose it is a measure of how thirsty we Athenians are for nature, that the presence of any wildlife other than pigeons, alley cats and mangy dogs can be more exciting than a historic monument. For Athens holds the dubious honour of having the lowest ratio of green to cement of any major European city, and maybe too we take old stones for granted. And while Paris, Rome, London, Prague, Budapest and a host of other capitals have romantic rivers adding colour, life and diversity to their city-scapes, the rivers of Athens - all three of them - have been boxed into concrete channels and buried almost totally out of sight. The Ilissos and Kiphissos suffered this fate in the mid 20th century; the Eridanos, which flowed through the centre of Athens, was covered over by the Romans, if not even earlier. And yet it is the Eridanos that makes the Kerameikos more than just an interesting collection of tombs and historic walls. Although it probably was never more than a seasonal torrent, swollen by winter rains and virtually dry in August, its muddy banks were a wonderful source of clay. Which brings us to a chicken-and-egg story: Did the area become the potters' district because this was where the cemetery was located (from the 12th century BC on) or did the cemetery become established there because of the proximity of the potters? Potters were as essential to funerals as morticians are today, since urns were required for grave offerings and as containers for ashes. Unlike the Orthodox Church, the ancients did not consider cremation anathema. In any case, the district took its name from Keramos, a son of Dionysos and Ariadne and patron of the potters (kerameis). Eridanos, on the other hand, was a river god, one of the three thousand sons/rivers from the union of Oceanos and Tethys, which also resulted in three thousand daughters, the Oceanids. With its source at the foot of Lycabettus, the Eridanos flowed through what is now Syntagma Square; you can see a small section of the petrified bed bristling with shards and behind glass on exhibit in the Metro station. From there its course ran under Philellinon, Othonos and Mitropoleos streets, down Adrianou (where a bit of ancient channel lies exposed) and alongside the tracks at Monastiraki. Then it bends to the northwest and enters the cemetery enclosure, where it surfaces for a few hundred metres before entering another underground channel and eventually joining up with the cemented bed of the Kiphissos, which parallels Pireos Street. Granted, this slow-moving trickle is not much to look at. But the fact that it exists at all is remarkable and reflects the symbiosis of archaeology and ecology. Few laws preserve ecosystems that occupy prime real estate in the middle of a burgeoning city, but they do protect ancient monuments and therefore, inadvertently, some vestiges of nature manage to survive in these sites, even when surrounded by heavy traffic and noxious smog. A booklet prepared by the ministry of culture in 2000 catalogues these vestiges, reporting that the Kerameikos is home to fifteen species of birds and animals, one fish - a minuscule creature called the mosquito fish that can cope with the river's shrinking waters - and 188 plant species within its 40,000 square metres. This does not mean that you will see anything more exotic than a tortoise or a caper bush, but I find it comforting that hedgehogs may be napping in a shady burrow or that the Callas impersonator concealed in the branches of a Jerusalem thorn tree is actually a Sardinian warbler. It is also reassuring that some branch of the government actually cared enough to conduct this census and publish the information in such an attractively produced, impeccably translated edition. It comes as a welcome diversion from the 'Great Works in Progr ess' that seem to gobble most public resources. more... http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=12956&t=06&m=A24&aa=1"}, {"response": 841, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (21:27)", "body": "For Imran, who will porbably never come here to see it: IMPORTANT/ HISTORICAL PLACES Of the MARDAN DISTRICT Shahbaz Garhi is situated on Mardan Swabi Road at a distance of 12 kilometer from Mardan. The emperor Babar in his book Tuzk-e-Babri has given reference of this monastery. It has also been stated that this village has named with the name of a famous religious person. 1n the ancient books the name of this village is Varshapura. In 7th century, a Chinese pilgrim Mr.Haven Sang, visited this monetary and recorded this polosha in his book. A servant of Ranjit Singh, Mr.Moart saw this inscription in 1832 for the first time and made a thirteen lines copy. Later on Herd Duclus Assistant Commissioner Mardan stated that these words are of Khoroshti language. so much more and pictures... http://www.mardan.sdnpk.org/Historical%20Sites.htm"}, {"response": 842, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 12, 2002 (23:19)", "body": "The acute pain of my inability to read any Greek is compounded by this little bit of English: In the course of this research project (*) a multidisciplinary approach has been undertaken to re-examine the documentary and archaeological evidence combined with extensive geological Prospection regarding these most elusive of industrial minerals of Antiquity, the Lemnian and Samian earths. They were famed in Classical / Roman and the Ottoman periods primarily for their healing properties as well as a wide range of other applications, as fuller's earth, pigments and clays for pottery-making. Despite extensive documentation, the Lemnian sphragis (seal) and the two types of Samian earth, the colyrium and the aster, have remained distinctly elusive in the archaeological record. The reason is that as raw materials, products and industrial waste they are readily assimilated into the background of the natural environment. Not only are they elusive in the field but the main ingredients to which they owed their curative properties have not been identified either. This joint research program between Glasgow and Athens, part of a larger program into the nature and methods of processing of other industrial minerals in the Aegean (**) has been aimed at identifying their mineralogy and potential locations of extraction on their respective islands as well as illuminating the nature of the main ingredient responsible for their curative properties. (**)GUAD, as a member of the British School at Athens is currently carrying our research on industrial minerals in Antiquity in Melos (Melian and Kimolian earths, alum and sulphur). http://www.archaeometry.gr/r-projects/Samos-pro/samos.htm"}, {"response": 843, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 12, 2002 (23:24)", "body": "Not happy with the above I hunted onward to discover more about Bentonite. My son used it extensively and he left me some for my collection. Industrial Mineral exploitation in Antiquity in the Aegean http://www.archaeometry.gr/r-projects/Samos-pro/samos_result.htm"}, {"response": 844, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 12, 2002 (23:27)", "body": "Of course there is a volcanic connection: In the course of geological prospection, altered and weathered pyroclastic rock was observed in the crags about 20m NW of the spring. Some were intensely altered showing coloursfrom white to yellow and brown to red. X- ray diffraction analyses showed that clay minerals like montmorillonite and illite were the main components with crystoballlite, relict feldspar, quartz and alunite. Alunite, a potassium aluminium sulphate forming as the result of high temperature alteration of feldspathic volcanic rocks, is usuall associated with alum and sulphur. Alum, aluminium sulphate, was well known in antiquity for its medicinal properties but being particularly soluble, it would have bee washed by rain out of the high volcanic ground into the alluvial sediment in the fields below or into man-made traps."}, {"response": 845, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 12, 2002 (23:29)", "body": "And, you thought archaheology was boring! yes I understand what they are saying in that last post. I'll explain it when we get around to discussing how volcanoes work. Suffice it to say, that was the state of medicine when Galen was the supreme physician of the world."}, {"response": 846, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 12, 2002 (23:32)", "body": "Samian Earth: the case of \"colyriun\" and \"aster\" Although documentary evidence of the exploitation of Samian earth dates from the time of Theophrastus in the 4th century BC it is Pliny in c. 50 AD (Nat. Hist.) who details two distinct varieties. These are \"colyrium\" an eye salve and \"aster\" which was used as a soap as well as in medicines. Samian earth is described as a white, soft lightweight substance, clearly a valuable versatile material, a typical industrial mineral. The present search for Samian earth followed the suggestions of the Samiot geologist Karageorghiou (1947) and IGME geological maps, that the volcanic rocks in the vicinity of Platanos were the likely source. These rocks have been altered to a soft absorbent clay mineral known as fullers' earth or bentonite. However, the medicinal value of this material is only limited, as an absorbent of toxic substances and it is likely that a second substance was present with more powerful medicinal and antiseptic properties. The existence of borate minerals, like collemanite identified in localities near Platanos point to the special substance being a soluble borate, well established ingredient in modern pharmaceutical products. Therefore it is suggested that Pliny's colyrium contains borate as the active ingredient while aster was a clay used as fullers' earth. http://www.archaeometry.gr/r-projects/Samos-pro/samos_result.htm"}, {"response": 847, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 14, 2002 (18:37)", "body": "Archaeologists threaten strike over dwindling resources By Elias Hazou THE ANTIQUITIES Department yesterday warned it would take drastic measures, including possible strike action, unless the government stepped in to improve working and organisational issues. The department claims severe under-staffing is jeopardising the proper preservation of archaeological sites and artefacts, since the current number of archaeologists and technicians cannot cope with the workload. Giorgos Filotheou, president of the department's council, painted a grim picture of the situation. He cited the example of Larnaca, where if no measures were taken to re-organise the facilities there, by the year 2008 just one technician would be on duty. \"Clearly, this is a political issue,\" said Filotheou, explaining that government policy on antiquities was outdated and needed to change immediately. \"After human life, our cultural heritage is the next most important thing,\" Filotheou noted. If no action was taken, he went on, the department's staff, \"who are already putting in superhuman efforts,\" would dwindle further and not be able to provide even the minimum of services. The department has asked for a better hiring scheme that would help gradually replace retiring archaeologists and other staff, and better organisation and facilities. It has recommended that the government commission a relevant study. Citing another example, Filotheou said that only one person was on duty at the department's library in Nicosia. Also, from 1988 to 2002, just one additional technician was hired. Filotheou compared the situation in Cyprus to that in other countries, such as Greece and Israel, where the ratio of staff to archaeological sites was far better. The free areas of Cyprus have approximately 700 archaeological sites and monuments; the antiquities department staff numbers 66, and there are just 11 archaeologists out in the field. The department has already appealed to the Minister of Communications, who it says \"responded with understanding.\" But the core problem seems to be the unavailability of funds. \"Everyone says they care about our cultural heritage, but when it comes down to acting, no one is willing to foot the bill,\" Filotheou remarked. In what seemed a muffled warning, he said the department would take drastic measures if the government took no corrective action over the next few months. This might include going on a strike, said Filotheou, but did not elaborate further. The department was founded in 1935 during British rule. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2002"}, {"response": 848, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 16, 2002 (00:06)", "body": "Greeks grapple with the idea of having the Athens 2004 Games represented bya symbol of arguable identity BY JOHN HADOULIS A WEEK after the conical figures of Athena and Phevos traipsed onto the international stage at their special April 4 unveiling, Greeks are still trying to come to terms with the reality of having these mascots serve as ambassadors to the Athens 2004 Games. The first signs weren't encouraging. \"What on earth are they?\" wondered Express daily. \"Strong promotion may eventually succeed in selling [the mascots] to the public, but they are definitely a poor choice,\" it added. Critics are amazed that Athena and Phevos are the best result organisers could come up with after a 13-month competition, which attracted 196 design proposals from Greece and abroad. \"Ethics prevent me from commenting on the abomination that was chosen,\" one of the competition finalists said in a telephone interview. Some wonder whether the choice was entirely Greece's to make. \"I fear that the final judgement was passed by foreign sponsors of the Games, people who have nothing to do with the Greek spirit, \" says film director Yiannis Smaragdis. \"ATHOC president Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki is a woman of very good taste, \" he notes. \"How could this mistake have been made?\" more... http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=12957&t=01&m=A03&aa=1"}, {"response": 849, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 16, 2002 (00:09)", "body": "Suffice it to say they did not ask me. I'd have chosen nothing that looked like what they did choose. With all that Greece has contributed to design (including the horizontal bars of Geo) this was surely the least indicative their creative genius. Was it really a foreign conspiracy? For what reason? I am stunned!"}, {"response": 850, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 16, 2002 (00:18)", "body": "Bridge the gap between East and West - visit Pergamon (in Turkish Bergama)for a taste of Satan's throne but also a touch of Hellenism BY STACEY SHACKFORD AS AN archaeology student, Pergamon (to be found in modern-day Bergama) was a dream come true for me: A magnificent acropolis, topped by the enormous, well-preserved ruins of the Temple of Trajan, surrounded by an entire ancient city and an insanely steep 10,000-seat amphitheatre. Below, the equally well-preserved Asclepion, with its columned sacred way, theatre, underground passageway, pantheon and slightly radioactive spring. It was the most extensive archaeological site I had ever seen, and, three years later, still is. Of course, it was also much more than archaeology. Archaeology alone would not have lingered with me for so long, nor drawn me back again with such urgency. I also fell in love with the modern city and its people - with an unnamed eatery smaller than my kitchen where I had the best breakfast of my life and the friendly young boy who led me there. When you have a love affair with a place, it comes on unexpectedly and stubbornly refuses to leave. My love affair with Bergama began in March 1998. Three other girls and I had chosen Turkey as our Spring Break destination while archaeology students in Athens. Our first stop, of course, was Istanbul, where we nearly froze to death while spending hours gazing in awe at the Topkapi Palace and Blue Mosque. Then we hit Cannakale and the ancient ruins of Troy, before stopping in Bergama on our way to a washed-up resort town and a ferry to Rhodes. At that time, I had not yet gotten to the Hellenistic period in my ancient history, architecture and sculpture classes, so I did not immediately recognise the importance of the ancient city of Pergamon. We were there at the suggestion of a fellow student who insisted it was \"awesome.\" We may have only been there a day or two, I don't remember exactly. It seemed like an eternity. We hunkered down in a hostel, took a taxi up the 5 km road winding around the mountain that is the ancient acropolis, and spent the next few hours working our way back down, dumbstruck. On this trip, taken in mid-August, I headed straight to Bergama from the Greek island of Lesvos. I came with a different companion, one who had heard me reminisce endlessly about the place, and who had never been to Turkey herself. We didn't attack the acropolis immediately, but waited until early the next morning, when we could actually climb to the top. There was a fence around the site, which I didn' t remember before, but we quickly found a gaping hole in it and climbed through. At 8.15am, the site wasn't even officially open yet, and we could feel people glaring at us from inside an air-conditioned tour bus parked at the gate, waiting to be let in. There's nothing like being alone among the crumbling remains of an ancient city, with no fences, no guards, no immediate sign of modern civilisation. You can almost feel history seeping up into you from the dust at your feet. Even without knowing anything at all about the history of the place, you can sense the ghosts of Roman Pergamon leading donkey carts past the long strip of stores in the agora. much more and images http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=12957&t=06&m=A24&aa=1"}, {"response": 851, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (23:31)", "body": "Thousands of Inca Mummies Found Near Lima WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thousands of Inca mummies, some of them bundled together in groups of up to seven, have been unearthed from an ancient cemetery under a shantytown near Lima in Peru, National Geographic announced on Wednesday. Believed to be the largest cemetery from one time period excavated in Peru, lead archeologist Guillermo Cock said as many as 10,000 Incas were possibly buried at the site at Puruchuco in Peru's Rimac Valley between 1480 and 1535. But Cock, a Peruvian archeologist, said the site was being destroyed at an alarming rate by humans, including the release of thousands of gallons of sewage daily into the shantytown's streets that had seeped underground and damaged some mummies. \"The consequences of humanity on these burials are terrible,\" said Cock, adding that some of the mummies were riddled with worms. \"It was not a pretty sight.\" Cock, who estimates they uncovered the remains of between 2,200 and 2,400 Incas, said the cemetery provided a huge scientific sampling of the Inca people from infants to the elderly and from the rich to the very poor. \"We have what in sociological terms, we would call the perfect sample to project presidential elections. Each social class and group and age is proportionally represented,\" Cock told a news conference at National Geographic's Washington headquarters. \"This will give us a unique opportunity to look into the Inca community, study their lives, their health and their culture,\" added Cock, who has been doing archeological work in Peru since 1983 and is an adviser to the Peruvian government. The Incas once ruled a vast swath of South America stretching from Colombia to Chile but Spain's Francisco Pizarro and his band of 160 treasure hunters, using cannons and horses, brought that empire to a bloody end in 1533. Some of the \"mummy bundles\" contained as many as seven people buried along with their possessions and weighed hundreds of pounds. So far, Cock said only three bundles had been unwrapped in what was a painfully slow, expensive process. It would take generations before the full implications of the find were known. One of the unwrapped bundles, nicknamed the Cotton King, was made up of hundreds of pounds of raw cotton. Inside was the body of an Inca noble and a baby as well as 70 items including food, pottery, animal skins and corn. Among the most interesting discoveries were the number of elite members of Inca society, some of whom were still wearing the elaborate feather headdresses they were buried in. FALSE HEADS Another striking find was 22 intact and 18 disturbed \"false heads,\" or falsas cabezas. These are mummy bundles usually reserved for the elite with a bump on top filled with cotton and resembling a human head, many of them with wigs. These bundles contain several people, one of them the key person and the remainder probably accompanying him in the afterlife. The bodies of adults are in the traditional fetal position, with their possessions arranged around them. \"Prior to our excavations, only one falsas cabezas bundle from the Inca Period had been recovered by an archeologist, in 1956,\" said Cock. Cock said it was unclear whether all of the bodies in these bundles were related but probably when a key person died his body was put aside until the remainder of his party died and could be buried with him. About 50,000 to 60,000 artifacts were retrieved from the site and 22 of these are on display at National Geographic, including ancient ceramic pots and patterned textiles. Cock and his team worked at a frenetic pace over the past three years to salvage as much as they could from the cemetery before the shantytown was leveled for development. The site is known as Tupac Amaru by the 1,240 families who sought refuge there from 1989 after fleeing guerrilla fighting in the Peruvian highlands. Aside from the toll the cemetery has taken from tens of thousands of gallons of liquid being dumped daily into the ground, other graves were destroyed by bulldozers in 1998. Shantytown dwellers fought to remain on the site and archeologists turned the area into a giant dig, building bridges for people to cross the streets. Some of the residents joined in the dig. Some of the graves were found very close to the surface, especially in a dusty school playground which had been leveled several years ago. The excavation ended last July, and Cock said houses now cover most of the untapped areas. \"Having to walk away is frustrating. What's left may have been a huge contribution to knowledge of the Inca.\""}, {"response": 852, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (21:40)", "body": ""}, {"response": 853, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (21:44)", "body": "Bergama's biblical and archaeological proportions Bridge the gap between East and West - visit Pergamon (in Turkish Bergama)for a A taste of Satan's throne but also a touch of Hellenism BY STACEY SHACKFORD The Asclepion at Pergamon More... http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=&t=06&m=A24&aa=1"}, {"response": 854, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (21:46)", "body": "AS AN archaeology student, Pergamon (to be found in modern-day Bergama) was a dream come true for me: A magnificent acropolis, topped by the enormous, well-preserved ruins of the Temple of Trajan, surrounded by an entire ancient city and an insanely steep 10,000-seat amphitheatre. Below, the equally well-preserved Asclepion, with its columned sacred way, theatre, underground passageway, pantheon and slightly radioactive spring. It was the most extensive archaeological site I had ever seen, and, three years later, still is. Of course, it was also much more than archaeology. Archaeology alone would not have lingered with me for so long, nor drawn me back again with such urgency. I also fell in love with the modern city and its people - with an unnamed eatery smaller than my kitchen where I had the best breakfast of my life and the friendly young boy who led me there. When you have a love affair with a place, it comes on unexpectedly and stubbornly refuses to leave. My love affair with Bergama began in March 1998. Three other girls and I had chosen Turkey as our Spring Break destination while archaeology students in Athens. Our first stop, of course, was Istanbul, where we nearly froze to death while spending hours gazing in awe at the Topkapi Palace and Blue Mosque. Then we hit Cannakale and the ancient ruins of Troy, before stopping in Bergama on our way to a washed-up resort town and a ferry to Rhodes. At that time, I had not yet gotten to the Hellenistic period in my ancient history, architecture and sculpture classes, so I did not immediately recognise the importance of the ancient city of Pergamon. We were there at the suggestion of a fellow student who insisted it was \"awesome.\" We may have only been there a day or two, I don't remember exactly. It seemed like an eternity. We hunkered down in a hostel, took a taxi up the 5 km road winding around the mountain that is the ancient acropolis, and spent the next few hours working our way back down, dumbstruck. On this trip, taken in mid-August, I headed straight to Bergama from the Greek island of Lesvos. I came with a different companion, one who had heard me reminisce endlessly about the place, and who had never been to Turkey herself. We didn't attack the acropolis immediately, but waited until early the next morning, when we could actually climb to the top. There was a fence around the site, which I didn' t remember before, but we quickly found a gaping hole in it and climbed through. At 8.15am, the site wasn't even officially open yet, and we could feel people glaring at us from inside an air-conditioned tour bus parked at the gate, waiting to be let in. The sacred road of the Asclepion There's nothing like being alone among the crumbling remains of an ancient city, with no fences, no guards, no immediate sign of modern civilisation. You can almost feel history seeping up into you from the dust at your feet. Even without knowing anything at all about the history of the place, you can sense the ghosts of Roman Pergamon leading donkey carts past the long strip of stores in the agora. I was glad we decided to approach the acropolis this way, the same way the ancient people would have come. It also led us to wonder about practical things: How did they ever get those enormous marble columns up there? Where did they get water? What was this used for? I now know more about ancient Pergamon than I did three years ago. Scholars believe there was a Persian settlement at Pergamon, but the city really began to develop after Alexander the Great conquered it in 334 BC and one of his generals, Lysimachos, established his treasury there. A renowned school of sculpture developed from this wealth during the fourth century BC. Pergamon sculpture has a severe yet realistic style, marked by exaggerated muscles, frowning tragic-looking figures and lots of dishevelled hair. Examples of this can be viewed at the Archaeological museum downtown, which also features an interesting outdoor \"garden of ruins\", where Muslim funerary stellae mix with Hellenistic columns, cannonballs and an enormous Byzantine bell. Returning to history - Eumenes I later expanded the territory around Pergamon and started a building programme on the acropolis in 263 BC that was continued by his successor, Attalos I, with the temple of Athena and th e library of Pergamon, which at its peak contained 260,000 volumes and rivalled the library of Alexandria. An interesting footnote to history is related to the library: the Egyptian kings, alarmed at the library's growth, banned the export of papyrus to stop the production of books; this led to the revival of writing on animal skins and the invention of the paged book. It was under the reign of Attalos' son, Eumenes II, that the city reached its height. His kingdom stretched from the Marmara to Cappadocia and his influence reached Rome. The theatre and gymnasium were built during this time, as well as the famous Altar of Zeus, whose magnificent relief sculptur"}, {"response": 855, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 21, 2002 (16:26)", "body": "Greeks model Olympic mascots on wrong Homer Helena Smith in Athens Sunday April 21, 2002 The Observer They have been likened to a pair of post-disaster mutants, an unmentionable part of the male anatomy, condoms, and perhaps worst of all, the Simpsons. As murky as their preparations for the 2004 Olympics may be, the Greeks are making one thing very clear: they loath Ph?vos and Athen?, the cartoon mascots that will symbolise the world's most cherished sporting event when the games return to Athens. In the two weeks since the ungainly duo were unveiled, Hellenes have lambasted them as an outrageous affront to the nation's cultural heritage. Although inspired by a seventh century BC terracotta figurine and given ancient Greek names - Ph?vos is another name for Apollo the god of music and light, and Athen? the goddess of wisdom - the smiling, bell-shaped twin siblings have been denounced for being decidedly un-Greek. Even worse, they have unbecoming torsos, huge, flat feet - and four toes, in the style of the four-fingered Simpsons. 'If we see these things at the opening ceremony, it will be a national catastrophe,' snarled filmmaker Yiannis Smaragdis. 'No matter how much I try to be positive, they just seem to be so very tasteless,' lamented popular Athenian actress Dina Konsta. Informal polls have shown that 75 per cent of the population agree. The mascots' creator, little-known Greek artist Spyros Gogos, had hoped the brother and sister images would represent all the values encompassed by the Olympic ideal: the brotherhood of man, equality of the sexes, and as fun-loving children, participation in the games irrespective of victory. No other mascot to date, the Games' organisers declared, had managed so successfully to marry the past with the present. In Ph?vos and Athen?, the world had two gods in human form to represent the ultimate in human competition. 'The 2004 Olympic mascots are unique,' Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, the Games' president said somewhat defensively. 'They have a long history, as well as a modern face.' The furore adds to the woes surrounding Athens 2004. Since winning its bid for the Olympics in 1997, Athens has been savagely criticised for the chaotic way it has prepared for them. Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said Greece would need 'to run a marathon at a sprinter's pace' if it wanted to put on a problem-free Games. Delays in the construction of key sports venues, including the Olympic village, have frayed nerves. Refurbishment of the main stadium is so behind schedule there will be no time for test events. Foot-dragging on infrastructure projects, such as vital bridges and roads, has led to several works being cancelled. This month, Denis Oswald, the IOC's top inspector for Athens 2004, said the lack of suitable hotels in the Greek capital 'and chaotic plans to build new ones' was particularly worrying. Plans to host visitors in cruise liners berthed in the port of Piraeus would not solve the problem, he said. There were not only security concerns but the worry of people being trapped in Athens' notorious traffic jams. Fears of the Games being marred by a terrorist strike have increased dramatically since 11 September. As the home of November 17, the terrorist group who murdered British defence attach?, Brigadier Stephen Saunders in June 2000, Greece is viewed as Europe's 'soft underbelly'. 'Security and transport will be a concern till the end' groaned Oswald. As will in-fighting between the different ministeries and agencies handling the Games. 'We can't seem to agree on anything,' sighed one Olympics official. Ph?vos and Athen?, Greece's maligned mascots, would surely agree. http://observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,687827,00.html"}, {"response": 856, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 21, 2002 (16:32)", "body": "I have to admit that I think Greece has much more lovely things to represent them than Athena and Phoebus, but they did not ask for my approval. I suspect that they will become endearing to all of use because of what they represent, and not because of what they resemble."}, {"response": 857, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (19:36)", "body": "I have heard the Athens 2004 Olympic mascots referred to as \"phallic\". Do you think that is the effect that was intended? I hope not."}, {"response": 858, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (19:55)", "body": "Heanvens No.... I have also seen this but think it is unwarranted. See Sports 58 and travel 40 for more about Athens 2004 and the mascot controversy."}, {"response": 859, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (16:09)", "body": "Remains of ancient factory found on Salamina acropolis Ioannina University excavations unearth some significant Mycenaean relics An ancient factory dating from the late 13th to the early 12th century BC is the latest finding at the Mycenaean acropolis of Salamina. Two big buildings situated close to each other are part of an extensive organized complex, which included a guarded entrance. Other significant finds include part of a copper ingot or talent from Cyprus. Yiannis Lolos, director of Ioannina University\ufffds excavations on Salamina, says the Mycenaean settlement in the Kanakia area can be identified as the \ufffdancient city\ufffd of Salamina, which was recorded by the geographer Strabo, who noted that it was deserted in his era (1st century BC - 1st century AD). In other words, it is the oldest capital on the island. Lolos sums up the research done to date: \ufffdThe late Mycenaean coastal settlement at Kanakia, Salamina, is known to have existed in the Middle Helladic and Early Helladic ages. It comprises an acropolis (the main built-up areas of which cover about 4.5 hectares) and smaller peripheral dependent neighborhoods. In addition to the 12 buildings and urban traces found in 2000, two large buildings (with a triangular fortified entrance) were excavated in autumn 2001, with the support of Ioannina University, the municipality of Salamina and private sponsors.\ufffd The first building is a large two-story factory measuring 11.5 x 18 meters, with work areas and other areas. Stone tools, quantities of mineral ores used for coloring, pieces of two clay tubs, low platforms and some work benches were found in the workshop. The second building has a large fortified entrance of an unusual shape, to enable those entering the building to be observed: It is a double triangular gate, the only one of its kind from late Mycenaean Greece or Cyprus. The guard on the gate must have been impressive. Lolos explains that the guard would have included slingers and archers, because a sling stone and a special stone tool for working on arrows were found. References in the \ufffdIliad\ufffd indicate they were used in Mycenaean times, but the only visual representation of them is on the famous silver \ufffdSiege Rhyton\ufffd from Mycenae. The excavation also turned up significant finds related to the connection between Mycenaean Salamina and other Aegean island centers and Cyprus in the late 13th to early 12th century: A painted jug with a spout typical of the 12th century BC and part of a talent made from pure copper imported from Cyprus. The copper ingot has four extremities. \ufffdApart from its importance for the study of international trade in the late Bronze Age, its special shape and the fact that it was found in two prehistoric shipwrecks on the Asia Minor shore, this find contributes to the promotion of marine archaeology,\ufffd says Lolos. The wide distribution of copper talents along sea routes is evidenced by the cargoes of ships wrecked at Kimi, Evia, during the the time of Minoan naval domination: The Uluburum of 1305 BC the Helidoni in 1200 BC, and other marine finds of unknown provenance. more and pictures... http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=15601"}, {"response": 860, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (16:14)", "body": "An Iron Age settlement has come to light near Glasgow: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_569688.html An Anglo Saxon burial has revealed a glass bowl (the yahoo stories are virtually identical, but two of them claim, as often, that archaeologists \"stumbled upon\" the artifact ... I can just see it now, the late Peter Sellers as a Clousseauesque Heinrich Schliemann): http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,686712,00.html http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_570032.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4397082,00.html http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020418/ap_wo_en_ge/britain_anglo_saxon_bowl_2 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020418/ap_on_re_eu/britain_anglo_saxon_find_2 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020418/ap_wo_en_ge/britain_anglo_saxon_bowl_1"}, {"response": 861, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (16:17)", "body": "The 'machination' of ancient Greeks Exhibition at Gazi's 'Technopolis' explores the often overlookedtechnological know-how rooted in Greek civilisation BY CHRISTY PAPADOPOULOU TECHNOLOGY, an essential part of ancient Greece along with art, philosophy and history, has yielded inventions that are used even today in a more advanced form. Ancient Greek Technology, a unique exhibition - currently hosted at the Athens Municipality Technopolis, in Gazi - sheds light on a subject least known and rather neglected by modern-day academics and researchers of ancient Greek life. Twenty-five mock-ups of ancient technological achievements spanning the period from the 6th century BC and onwards and structured around thematic sections - construction, navigation, metallurgy, cranes and pumps, measuring instruments, automation and technology in music and sports - make up the show's dynamic. These are complemented by audio-visual material, captions and explanatory text (in both Greek and English) as well as few epigraphs inscribed with the terms laid down by the State for the construction of specific public works and the penal clauses in case of their breaching by the contractor. Organised in collaboration with Thessaloniki's Technical Museum and the Society for the Study of Ancient Greek Technology, and featuring participation from the Epigraphic Museum, the 1st Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and the European Cultural Centre of Delphi, this educational in its orientation show premiered in Thessaloniki in 1997 and has travelled since then to Hanover (2000) and Frankfurt (2001). Though the greatest technological achievements of ancient Greece were realised with the contribution of science from the 6th century BC and onwards it was as early as 1600 BC that three-storey houses were built. The West House of Akrotiri in Thera, an earthquake-resistant urban house from the height of Minoan civilisation, complete with a storeroom and workshops on the ground floor communicating via staircases with the domestic quarters on the upper floor, is an excellent example of the ancients' construction skills. Situated in the Roman Agora the clock tower of Andronekos Cyrrestos, also known as the Tower of the Winds (2nd century BC), was decorated in relief with personified depictions of the main winds. Standing out for its architectural grace the clock tower was engraved with sundials and contained a hydraulic clock. The art of navigation is spotlighted through models of ancient vessels. Among the most known is Kyrenia II, a miniature model of the 4th century BC, 14-metre long cargo-ship that was found off the coast of Cyprus. The Greek Institute for the Protection of Nautical Tradition has constructed a faithful mock-up (in terms of dimensions and materials used) of the ancient ship, which has already sailed to Paphos in Cyprus as well as to Japan and the US. Metals from the mining centres of Lavrio, Sifnos and Thassos opened up new horizons - either in their pure form or as an alloy - competing with widely exploited by that time materials such as stone, wood and clay. As part of the exhibition's metallurgy section, visitors are introduced to a comprehensive show of the different phases of casting bronze statues based on the 'lost wax' technique, widely used even today. Mechanisms such as cranes and pumps were used in ancient times as an alternative to human labour. Such an example is the screw of Archimedes (3rd century BC) used in irrigation and for pumping sea water out of a boat's hold. The section dedicated to measuring instruments is particularly impressive. In Heron's Odometer the movement of a chariot's wheels was translated through a system of communicating discs into units for the measurement of a distance covered. Comprising of seven circular intersecting rings the Astrolabe of Ptolemy (2nd century AD) is an astronomical instrument on which the celestial sphere is projected stereographically. It was used for the measurement of the longitude and latitude of stars from any point of the earth and for finding out the distance between the moon and the sun. Another astronomical device of great precision invented most probably in Rhodes was the Antikythera mechanism. Consisting of 29 variously shaped gears simultaneously activated with a handrail, this complex in its operation mechanism rendered the movement of the sun and the moon in the zodiac. Considered the ancestor of the steam engine, Heron's Aeolipile (an example of automation) exploits the pressure of vapour converting it into motive circular power. Also in the same category are the gates of an altar which opened automatically once the fire of the altar was lit and closed once it went out. Invented by the great Alexandrian engineer Ktesivios, Hydraulis was the first keyboard instrument ever made. Considered as the ancestor of the organ, Hydraulis consisted of metal pipes of various shapes, fed with air of stable pressure and activated for the production of sound by "}, {"response": 862, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (20:47)", "body": "Stone Circles: Stonehenge and Beyond Who built them; why were they built, and what do they mean? By Leon Fitts for British Heritage Magazine Dotting the countryside of England, Wales, and Scotland are what the English historian Henry of Huntingdon, in 1130, called 'stones of an amazing size'. No one, he said, can 'guess by what means so many stones were raised so high, or why they were built there.' Huntingdon specifically had Stonehenge in mind, but his description can apply to any of the circular megalithic enclosures in the United Kingdom and the wonderment they have inspired since their construction. These lonely places, often with stark stones standing in defiance of gravity and time, inspire and mystify. Who built them; why were they built, and what do they mean? Questions like these haunt most who see them. pictures and much more... http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/prm/blstonecircles.htm"}, {"response": 863, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (21:52)", "body": "Mummies Past and Future Treasure for Poor Peruvians Reuters Apr 24 2002 1:56PM PURUCHUCO, Peru (Reuters) - Trudging up a dusty rise overlooking a shantytown on the outskirts of Lima, Joel Luyo treads on what once was a sacred burial site of the Inca empire, whose thousands of recently excavated mummies, scientists say, could unlock secrets of the past. But for Luyo and other desperately poor families, the mummies are mostly a hope for a brighter future. \"Nobody here knew what lay under the ground -- nobody suspected. It was totally abandoned, filled with trash dumps,\" said Luyo, a local council member who, like thousands of people who leave rural jungle or mountain homes to try their luck in the crime-ridden Peruvian capital each year, helped settle the Tupac Amaru squatter town 12 years ago. National Geographic's announcement in Washington last week that more than 2,000 mummies had been uncovered beneath Tupac Amaru fanned world interest in the Inca empire, which dominated a vast swath of South America from Colombia to Chile until it was toppled by Spanish conquistadors in the 1530s. Lead archeologist Guillermo Cock and his team of experts say the mummies they have recovered -- all of which were buried alone or in groups of up to seven bodies in large, cotton sacks -- could reveal secrets about diet, disease, death and, most importantly, everyday life for people from 1480-1540. Cock's Lima laboratory is overflowing with hundreds of mummies, their black hair topped with colorful feathers from jungle birds, leathery skin tattooed or adorned with red paint, gnarled but preserved hands still bearing fingernails. Shelves are stacked not only with dozens of infant mummies but the artifacts that accompanied them into the next world: flawless earth-colored and black ceramics decorated with tiny frogs and monkeys, copper staffs, and intricately woven bags that were stuffed with coca leaves and look like new. AN ARCHEOLOGICAL GOLD MINE Although there are a few ruins around Tupac Amaru, no one suspected its 12,000 squatters were living atop an archeological gold mine. When residents applied for property titles to legalize their ramshackle homes, they were told they had to pay for excavations, which revealed the mummies in 1999. Dirt-poor residents had to come up with $7 a month -- a fortune in a country where half the population lives on $1.25 or less a day -- to finance most of the dig so they could get property titles. Cock said they paid more than $100,000 in all. Scientists dug up streets, schoolyards and parks, saying they had to work urgently because sewage and water from the town -- with no water, phones, and until recently, electricity -- was seeping underground and decomposing the mummies. \"The situation was unbearable both for the people and for the remains. The remains didn't deserve this fate, nor did the people deserve to live in such conditions,\" Cock said. Susan Haun, a University of Pennsylvania anthropologist, is working to extract DNA samples from mummies' teeth that, unlike flesh and hair, were not contaminated by sewage. She said the discovery is important not only for the quantity of mummies, ceramics and textiles found, but also because the people buried spanned social classes and ages. \"This is a great sociological sample ... because it's so large and the people who died here probably only spanned two generations. It's like a snapshot,\" Haun said, cradling the head of a mummified 5-year-old child in her hands -- the child's dark brown hair wrapped in cotton, and skin and flattened ear still visible. A MUMMY MUSEUM After National Geographic's high-profile announcement, some townspeople feared they could be evicted for more excavation. Cock says he does not want to send townsfolk packing, but also says that what has been found so far could be just 25 to 40 percent of the entire stash of mummies. Today, residents of the town -- where teen-agers play soccer around Inca ruins on a late-summer day -- say they want a mummy museum. \"With tourism, we could get more income,\" Luyo said. Squinting against the fierce glare from the rocky hills around Tupac Amaru, Luyo says he, like most of his neighbors, is proud of the fact that the shantytown in which he lives has caught the world's eye for its cultural treasures. He said that with so much attention fixed on those buried underneath Tupac Amaru, he hopes that the town's living also will be given a chance to make their lives better. \"We've contributed a great deal through great sacrifice,\" he said."}, {"response": 864, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, Apr 25, 2002 (15:16)", "body": "I have a pic of Stonehenge as my wall-paper at work. Get's lots of comments (not as many as the pics of Colin Firth i have as my screen saver -but still people do ask about the standing stones...) :-)"}, {"response": 865, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 25, 2002 (16:43)", "body": "Stonehenge is amazing. I did NOT want to go to that \"tourist trap\" that my mind has imagined it to be. Only the pleadings of my son changed my mind and therest is history. My house is full of little things and big of Stonehenge. Each time we visited Britain, we stayed in Salisbury so I could return. Each nuance is etched in my memory. I miss it. Remind me to take a digital photo of my Stonehenge \"watch.\" You'll love it. It really works!"}, {"response": 866, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, Apr 25, 2002 (17:07)", "body": "i take the roll of your son, when i'm traveling in England. I always have to talk my friends into seeing it. And they're always glad i made them visit once they see it with their own eyes. Those stones are just awe inspiring. i remember watching some show a few months back (Nova i think) where they tried to re-enact moving a similar size stone from the coast -where they think Stonehenge's stones came from, using the technology available from that time period. -dont think they suceeded."}, {"response": 867, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 25, 2002 (21:00)", "body": "OK, I do it too, now, but I also first suggest they visit Avebury. That is one completely incredible set of monuments there - large enough to contain an entire little town complete with church and pub. Please tell me you have been there or I shall send you back!"}, {"response": 868, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (11:52)", "body": "*whispering confession* nope, havent been there. But i've been to Bath and bought a hat. ;-)"}, {"response": 869, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "Bath? You are into Regency Crescents. Ah well, just keep going up the road A345 (Mark will correct me if I made the mistake I made the first time I posted about it) from Salisbury north up to the Marlborough downs. It's not all that far and you are tracing the route the men who brought the megaliths to Salisbury Plain used when they moved the Sarsen stones (the very hardest of all sandstone.) It is truly worth the hour or less trip and traffic is fairly light if you pick a day NOT involved with a celestial calendar. Been there and did that - once! I got the full treatment of Faux Druids and hippies. Avoid it at all costs. I wonder if Cosmo has been there. Hmm we might need to ask ehsewhere unless he reads more of Geo than I think he does."}, {"response": 870, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (19:43)", "body": "One of my favorite pictures of Avebury:"}, {"response": 871, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (19:47)", "body": "Four henges, Marden Henge, Durrington Walls, Avebury and Mount Pleasant, are far larger than all others at 462, 462, 427 and 345 m in mean diameter respectively. Avebury is also a dramatic outlier among stone circles, with an outer stone circle having a mean diameter of 331.6 m. Inside the gigantic Avebury henge and stone circle are located two megalithic stone circles of 103.6 m, the same diameter as a stone circle surrounding the Newgrange tumulus. http://www.jqjacobs.net/astro/aegeo_4.html I'm still seeking more information about Marden Henge. We drove there to see what was visible. Not much! But for so huge a henge monument, we surely need to do some excavation. Stephen! Get that PhD and do some digging. Please!"}, {"response": 872, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (23:49)", "body": "Antiquity theft networks continue to covet Greek cultural heritage Archaeological sites and churches are the favorite targets for looters according to Interpol report An Archaic relief depicting two female figures with upraised hands. The artifact was one of the 284 pieces stolen in 1990 from the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth. Today, it is once again on display after a successful operation by the FBI three years ago in Miami, Florida. By Miron Varouhakis - Kathimerini English Edition Places of worship and archaeological sites top the list of places in Greece favored by art thieves, while their preferred loot includes vases, paintings and sculptures. These are some of the basic findings by Interpol\ufffds Stolen Works of Art program, launched in recent years in a drive to crack down on international theft networks that steal, transport and trade cultural objects on a global scale. According to Interpol, France and Italy are the two most affected countries, as the ever-increasing demand in an already drained fine arts market has, in turn, created a need for new, obscure sources of objects d\ufffdart. Greece also ranks among countries which have suffered cultural losses from local and cross-border art theft networks, with some 3,554 objects of cultural worth having been stolen, according to Interpol statistics from 1999. Vases, paintings, icons, sculptures and statues, as well as ceremonial objects are some of the cherished spoils sought over the years by art thieves in Greece. Moreover, places of worship and archaeological sites are by far the places targeted most by thieves of Greek antiquities and art. Interpol reports note that 47 of 141 art theft cases in Greece in 1999 occurred in churches, followed by archaeological sites with 27 reported cases, while museums, castles and art galleries each claimed fewer than five incidents. Although museums in Greece are not ostensible targets of art theft rings, one case made the headlines over a decade ago when, on April 12, 1990, thieves broke into the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth and stole 284 artifacts, with a total value of approximately $2 million. It took a painstaking 10-year investigation and close cooperation between American and Greek law enforcement agencies, as well as Interpol, before agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were able to retrieve the stolen antiquities. Following information that a number of the stolen objects had been consigned for auction at Christie\ufffds in New York by a woman identified as Wilma Sabala, FBI agents raided a location in Miami, Florida on June 7, 2000, where they discovered 265 of the stolen antiquities. A further investigation led to the recovery of several more pieces and FBI officials on January 18, 2001 returned a total of 274 artifacts to the Greek museum and Culture Ministry officials during a ceremony held in FBI offices in New York. Interpol argues that it is difficult to gauge the extent of the illicit art trade, mainly because a theft is often not discovered until the stolen objects appear in the official arts market. Another problem is the lack of information being provided by the countries involved to international police agencies. In an effort to keep up with the fast pace of developments in technology and international crime, Interpol has developed a database of information available to all Interpol member states. More recently, the law enforcement agency Stolen Works of Art unit produced a CD-ROM featuring detailed records of stolen and recovered artworks. As many as 50 pieces are featured on Interpol\ufffds website under the heading \ufffdRecently stolen works of art,\ufffd while as many as 152 works of art are listed as \ufffdunclaimed.\ufffd \ufffdThis form of traffic will never cease, but if we want to reduce it, we must work together,\ufffd the agency noted in a statement. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_2271738_26/04/2002_15853"}, {"response": 873, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (23:59)", "body": "Sponge-diver nets 216,000-euro reward A fisherman who handed over to the authorities a record treasure trove of 30,000 Roman coins from an eastern Aegean shipwreck will receive a 216,000-euro reward, following a decision by the Ministry of Culture. In late July 2000, Christos Galouzis from the small Dodecanesian island of Kalymnos and his assistant, Stavros Michas, were diving for sponges off Astypalaia, the westernmost of the island complex, when they located a group of shipwrecks 47 meters deep. One contained the treasure \ufffd 182 kilos of, mainly small denomination copper coins. Culture Ministry experts evaluated the find at 432,000 euros and awarded Galouzis half that sum. The fisherman said he would share the reward with Michas. The coins, which date from the second and third centuries AD and were originally in a wooden chest, were probably destined for the payment of Roman soldiers. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_2274597_26/04/2002_15861"}, {"response": 874, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (00:02)", "body": "LASERS TO CLEAN MONUMENTS Athens, 26 April 2002 (16:43 UTC+2) Lasers will be put to use in an attempt to clean the smog that has settled on the western Frieze of the Parthenon, after the approval of the pertaining study by the Central Archeological Council. The method was initially tested on the surfaces of ancient architectural structures and sculptures, on parts of ancient monuments, the preservation circumstances of which are similar to those of the western Frieze, and on selected areas of the Frieze itself. Specifically, it was established that lasers can be used to deal with all forms of dirt, with no ill effect to the marble surface the colored layers. http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=265544"}, {"response": 875, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 28, 2002 (01:09)", "body": "Will Britain lose its Marbles? Court to decide The long-running dispute over the rightful home of the Elgin Marbles looks likely to end in a bitter court battle and a family row between the descendants of the Scottish earl who first removed the ancient stones from Athens more than 200 years ago. The British Government is named as a defendant in a court case being prepared by a group of Greek shipping tycoons advised by Bruce Tattersall, a barrister and distant relative of the 7th Earl of Elgin. Mr Tattersall claims that the earl, cousin to his great, great grandmother, illegally acquired the 2,500-year-old marbles when he took them from the Acropolis and arranged for them to be sent to England in 1801. The lawsuit, which is also being supported by the former judge and Bloody Sunday inquiry barrister, Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC, is based on the civil law of theft also known as \"conversion\". But the current 11th Earl of Elgin dismissed any question of illegality yesterday. \"Nobody has said thank you for the incredible mission that he [Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin] undertook, which saved the artefacts from destruction. \"The Turkish authorities gave him leave to take them.\" In a draft writ to be lodged at Marylebone County Court, lawyers for the Parthenon Marbles Trust argue that \"legal title\" was never passed to Lord Elgin or the British Museum under Greek, Ottoman or English law. http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=285458"}, {"response": 876, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 28, 2002 (01:11)", "body": "Al-Qaeda's Role in the Destruction of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE FEATURES)--April 17, 2002--Al-Qaeda and Taliban hardliners in Afghanistan conspired to ``break the cultural neck of the nation'' in an attempt to consolidate power in the country, according to an exclusive report in the May/June issue of Archaeology magazine. In an interview with managing editor Kristin Romey, Paul Bucherer-Dietschi, director of Switzerland's Afghanistan Museum, outlines the Taliban's change in attitude toward Afghan heritage under pressure from Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization, which culminated in the calculated destruction of the 1,500-year-old colossal Bamiyan Buddhas by al-Qaeda demolition experts in March of last year. The destruction of the Buddhas captured world attention, but few knew at the time that it was the work of al-Qaeda. ``Afghan Taliban refused to do the job,'' says Bucherer, ``so Mullah Omar sent in foreigners-Arabs, Chechens, Sudanese-to blow them up. These guys were experts. They drilled holes four, five, six feet into the rock and stuffed them with explosives.'' Accompanying the article are exclusive photographs taken by Bucherer that document the systematic destruction of the Kabul Museum collections. ``The Taliban came in the morning, hammered until prayer time, paused, hammered again, paused for tea, then hammered for the rest of the day,'' he recalls. At the crossroads of great eastern and western empires, Afghanistan was home to over 3,000 years worth of remarkable cultures. Alexander the Great built magnificent Greek cities in the country, and Afghanistan's powerful Buddhist kingdoms were the first to give the Buddha a human form, sculpting its image in the Gandharan style-an exquisite synthesis of classical Greek and Indian art-and carving towering figures of the Buddha into the cliffs of Bamiyan. By the end of 2000, al-Qaeda forces had effectively taken over Afghanistan, bankrolling the hardline Taliban elements that supported them. Al-Qaeda, under increasing pressure from the U.S., was keen on strengthening its grip on the country; Afghan nationalism, reflected in the stone monuments and elaborate sculptures going back thousands of years, was getting in the way. On a trip to Kabul in December of that year, Afghan archaeologists pleaded with Bucherer to spirit whatever artifacts remained in the once-prestigious Kabul Museum and various storerooms out of the country. Hamstrung by the reluctance of international organizations such as UNESCO to support the removal of artifacts from Afghanistan, Bucherer could offer no help. ``Even if I had the agreement of UNESCO, I doubt whether the Afghans would have managed to bypass al-Qaeda and get the materials out,'' he says. The Afghanistan Museum, a museum-in-exile established under an agreement between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in 1998 to safeguard what remained of the country's cultural treasures, won the official support of UNESCO following the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas."}, {"response": 877, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 28, 2002 (01:16)", "body": "False idol: Author's research indicates MFA's Snake Goddess is a Fake by Christopher Cox Sunday, April 21, 2002 With his passion for archaeology, Kenneth Lapatin had to dig deep into the past. The object of his great obsession was a small, gold-and-ivory statue in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts and considered one of the masterpieces of Bronze Age art. But more than a decade of research led Lapatin to an unpopular conclusion: The famed, 6-inch figurine wasn't made by the Minoans, a long-lost civilization that flourished on the Mediterranean island of Crete 3,500 years ago. It was, in fact, a forgery less than 100 years old. ``Forgers create what society wants, and what society wants tells you how it constructs the past to suit its own needs,'' said Lapatin, 40, author of a just-published book on the topic, ``Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, and the Forging of History'' (Houghton Mifflin Co., $24). The Cambridge resident, a professor of art history at Boston University, has long been familiar with the statue. Anyone with an interest in classical history would know of the MFA's treasure, which the museum acquired in 1914 and has since been reproduced in numerous art history texts. Most recently the Snake Goddess has been a source of inspiration for feminist scholars and New Age philosophers. What Lapatin didn't know about was the murky history surrounding the object, which had no provenence or verified spot of discovery, though it supposedly came from the ancient city of Knossos and was subsequently carried to Boston by a Greek immigrant. In the course of researching a scholarly book about ancient gold-and-ivory statuary, Lapatin began to doubt the Snake Goddess' authenticity. the rest of the story... http://www2.bostonherald.com/lifestyle/lifestyle_trends/life04212002.htm"}, {"response": 878, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (12:49)", "body": "V. cool pic of Avebury, Marcia! Will definately have to add it as a must see on my next trip! :-)"}, {"response": 879, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (14:29)", "body": "Welcome S B Robinson. Hi Marcia and all, I think that you are talking about this gold-and-ivory statue. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston c. 1500 B.C. The snake goddess is the source of all life and the central figure in Minoan religion. Below she is represented in elaborate court dress, exposing her breasts. She holds two snakes, which symbolize the mysterious life. On her hat sits a lion. Minoan Snake Goddess From Knossos, Crete (c. 1600 BCE) Fa\ufffdence, height 13 1/2 inches (34.3 cm) (Archeological Museum, Herakleion,Greece) Wishes from Greece John"}, {"response": 880, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (15:21)", "body": "May I ask you for the place where you live S B Robinson? I need it in order to add your place in the table of weather forecasts in Geo portal. Wishes again John"}, {"response": 881, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (15:23)", "body": "California, Bay Area (East Bay if we're getting specific)"}, {"response": 882, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (18:49)", "body": "John needs a city, EsBee. Hayward? San Francisco? Yes, John that is the very statue mentioned as being a fake. My sister saw that while in college on a field trip to Boston Fine Arts Museum. I think I have not the heart to tell her is it fake. As I recall from the pictures and books she brought home for me about it, this is a very beautiful and skillful fake. How sad that we have reduced our gifted artists to making false antiquities to feed either their egos their families. The Metropolitan in New York City for years had a place of honor for their Kouros later proven to be a fake. Thus far, one of my favorites, \"The Dying Gaul\" has his integrity intact. \"Laacoon\" is another favorite, but it is not Greek so it doesn't count! *;)"}, {"response": 883, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (19:19)", "body": "Livermore, Ca."}, {"response": 884, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (20:48)", "body": "John, I looked up Livermore CA and found it here http://english.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=Livermore%2C+CA"}, {"response": 885, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (10:59)", "body": "Hi S B Robinson, Your place included in our Geo Portal. -See your time and temperature of your place together with these of the rest friends in Geo directly. -Click on your name and see your weather parameters and forecast for the next days. -Click on the icon that shows time/temp. on the left of your name and see the sky upwards of your head at the same moment. Regards John"}, {"response": 886, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (12:01)", "body": "Thanks John :-)"}, {"response": 887, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (17:55)", "body": "Kouros found in Kerameikos By Iota Sykka - Kathimerini Archaeologists excavating one of the best-known ancient sites of Athens have discovered a 2,600-year-old statue of a rare type and in a good state of preservation. The 2-meter-high kouros statue, depicting a naked youth standing upright with his hands clenched by his sides, was found by German Archaeological Institute archaeologists in the ancient Kerameikos cemetery during work to clean a channel associated with the Eridanus River \ufffd which traversed the site in antiquity. Archaeologists working with the Ministry of Culture who have seen the statue described it as a unique find of vast importance as it dates to the Protoarchaic Period and is one of the very few known kouroi of that time. They say it is incredibly beautiful and artistically impressive. The statue was found lying face-down at a shallow depth. Everyone who has seen it says the work preserves most sculptural details to an extraordinary degree. It is the most impressive of all the non-architectural finds unearthed by the German Archaeological Institute, and emerged from a spot where nobody had expected such a surprise. The excavation started a few weeks ago, and yielded a series of finds that were important enough to persuade the Ministry of Culture\ufffds Central Archaeological Council to extend the Institute\ufffds excavation permit for three more weeks, following a proposal by archaeologist Liana Parlama, director of the ministry\ufffds Third Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities. The impressive kouros was photographed by a special ministry team before being shut in a case. It is now being guarded in a secure location, ahead of being studied, conserved and then exhibited in a fitting manner. [In November 2000, Culture Ministry archaeologists excavating the site of the ancient town of Thera, on the island of Santorini, discovered a 2.3-meter-high statue of a kore, a dressed young woman, dating to around 640 BC.] http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100014_30/04/2002_16000"}, {"response": 888, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (17:56)", "body": "There was a terrestrial Eridanus River once? I can see it celestially very easily but never knew it actually existed. How wonderful. More paleogeology!"}, {"response": 889, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (11:00)", "body": "Indeed, existed a river Eridanus as it existed a river Ilissos and some others. These rivers disappeared by the monster of the incontrollable building! Some other rivers as Kifissos are reduced enough. It is also true that are existing buildings in the floor of a small lake without water today, at the west outskirts of Athens. It is not surprising the fact that with normal rain becomes serious flood in enough areas. I imagine that we are not alone in this crazy. But Nature knows well how to take back what is necessary. I am sorry but this is the reality. John"}, {"response": 890, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (15:57)", "body": "John you are not alone at all. My son's house is on a perched water supply. In downtown Hilo, streets and buildings are built on artesian wells and springs that only appear during very wet times of the year. They are always being pumped and routed around for safety. I am sorry about the Eridanus River. I thought maybe the last ice age changed it as the rivers of the US were changed. I have no problem with that, but I do worry when it is man's stupidity at work. *Sigh* Thank you for the information. I will seek it further."}, {"response": 891, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (16:01)", "body": "They actually erected a building in a dry lake bed?! Incredible!"}, {"response": 892, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (16:34)", "body": "Not only a building. But almost a part of an entire city!!!!!!!! Believe it. John"}, {"response": 893, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (17:19)", "body": "Are the lawyers as aggressive in Greece as in the US? If so, this is going to prove to be a very expensive oversight. It cannot be much above the water table unless it is on a sealed caprock lake bed. It will be morbidly interesting to see what transpires as time passes. With the wet winter you just experienced, I am certain they had water problems."}, {"response": 894, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (18:06)", "body": "\"The same level of thinking that created them cannot solve the problems that exist in this world. (Albert Einstein)\" John"}, {"response": 895, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (01:54)", "body": "Exhibition of 200 artefacts at the National Archaeological Museum showcasesglassmaking techniques from the Prehistoric period up to Late Byzantine times BY CHRISTY PAPADOPOULOU WHETHER plain or intricately decorated, transparent or iridescent, they are bound together by their fragility and elegance. Over 200 rare glass vessels - bowls, jugs, flasks and vases - of distinct beauty are displayed at the National Archaeological Museum through to July 30. Comprising select pieces from the museum's collection, the Fragile Luxury exhibition offers insight into glassmaking techniques employed in mainland Greece and on the islands from the Prehistoric period to Late Byzantine times. One of the show's oldest exhibits dating to the 15th-14th centuries BC is a rim and neck fragment of an Egyptian vase from the Acropolis of Mycenae decorated with coloured threads. Indicatively in Greece the word kyanos (used to define glass) is first encountered in Linear B tablets from Pylos and Mycenae. When not grouped by type or shape, vessels are classified by context as in the case of the Palaeokastro Treasure comprising the finds of a richly furnished grave accidentally brought to light by farmers near Karditsa, Thessaly in the early 1900s. On show are three glass vessels: two amphora-shaped, handle-free imitation agate vases and a transparent one. Dating to the 2nd century BC and cast in two, these were possibly used as ceremonial discs. Another eye-catching item exhibited in context is a bluish green hemispherical bowl bearing floral motifs on the outside. Its bottom decorated with a carved rosette, this glass vase creating the visual effect of relief comes from the Antikythera shipwreck first registered at the north coast of Antikythera in 1900 with additional research operations following in 1953 by Frederic Dumas and in 1976 by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Apart from marble and bronze statues the cargo ship also carried important Hellenistic period monochrome and polychrome glass vases (the latter of three types: \"millefiori\", lace-work and strip-mosaic bowls) - also represented in this show - dating to the early 1st century BC. A colourless bucket with a yellowish tinge said to be from Cyprus (late 4th century BC), a mould-blown cinerary urn with separately applied handles (1st-2nd century AD) and variously-shaped unguentaria from Kerameikos, Piraeus, Corinth, Megara and Amorgos - ranging from tiny to unusually large dimensions - and a miniature Negroid head flask (2nd century AD) also attract the visitor's attention. Standing on its own with a mirror placed beneath it in order to facilitate the viewing of its relief-like decoration is a transparent two-handled bowl (1st century BC-early 1st century AD) engraved on the outside with two Cupids - one on each side - mounted on a sea-griffin and a seahorse respectively. Cast in one piece and wheel-polished on the outside this vessel was found in a grave on the island of Siphnos. The core-forming technique, which flourished from the late 6th century BC onwards, was used to manufacture mainly amphoriskoi, alabastra, aryballoi and oinochoai. Casting yielded finely fashioned transparent as well as mosaic vessels. From the 1st century BC, glassblowing proved to be revolutionary as it transformed glass-making from an art reserved to a select elite to an affordable commodity for all. Belonging in the latter category are two 14th century AD flasks - one decorated with lozenges, the other with vertical lines - found in a grave inside the theatre of Dionysos, at the foot of Athens' Acropolis. http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=12959&t=04&m=A38&aa=1"}, {"response": 896, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (18:08)", "body": "wow!! glassware so intricate from way back then!!"}, {"response": 897, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (00:12)", "body": ""}, {"response": 898, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (00:15)", "body": "In Hawaii, bottle collectors are happy to find one 50 years old. Archaeological excavation on such delicate things as blown glass must require the patience and dedication of a neurosurgeon."}, {"response": 899, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (17:36)", "body": "Not to mention some really top quality brushes and other tools to coax the earth off the glass."}, {"response": 900, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (19:07)", "body": "Badger hair, as I recall, for the brushes, and dental tools for extracting the tiniest bits from the rock-hard soil in which they are entombed. I'd LOVE doing that. I am a micro-manager."}, {"response": 901, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (17:39)", "body": "Finally a sensible use for those little fish hooks and tiny icepicks that the dental hygenist stabs into my gums on a regular basis."}, {"response": 902, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (21:18)", "body": "Indeed!!! I was just thinking that *;)"}, {"response": 903, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (21:38)", "body": "*laugh* my dad used to get those so he could fiddle with his model trains! and just yesterday, i read that they are also used to help clean seashells!!"}, {"response": 904, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (22:18)", "body": "I clean my computer keyboard with one. I should excavate a larger area so things would not keep sliding onto the floor!"}, {"response": 905, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (14:22)", "body": "Sculpture From Athens Dig Is Ancient Masterpiece ATHENS (Reuters) - A marble statue unearthed in Athens last month is the third known masterpiece of an outstanding Greek sculptor who lived more than 2,500 years ago, archaeologists said on Friday. \"This discovery is very important as we now have a new masterpiece by one very renowned sculptor,\" Greek Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos told reporters. The archaic Greek statue -- a Kouros -- was carved in the sixth or seventh century B.C. by the Sculptor of Dipylo, named after the place where his first statue was found a century ago. His real name remains a mystery. The statue of a standing male youth was in excellent condition, displaying the stern expression, almond-shaped eyes and long, ornate curls characteristic of the Archaic period. It was found lying face down near a branch of the ancient river Iridanos during excavations by the German archaeological school in the central Athens district of Kerameikos, the site of the ancient city walls and cemeteries. Only two other works by the Sculptor of Dipylo have been discovered, both standing male youths like the latest find. One is now in the New York Metropolitan Museum and one in the National Museum in Athens. The rigid Kouros -- and the female equivalent, the Kore -- statues preceded the more naturalistic, Classical sculptures of Athens' Golden Age. Their fists are clenched, arms close to the body, and usually one foot is stepping out ahead of the other. \"There is no doubt that this is the work of the sculptor of Dipylo,\" German archaeology Professor Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier told reporters during a presentation of the finds. Niemeier is leading the excavation. The German Archaeological Institute, which has been digging in the same area since 1913, also unearthed two marble lions, fragments of a Sphinx whose exact twin was found almost 100 years ago, and the remains of two capitals, all from the sixth century B.C. Asked if there were more ancient artefacts in the Kerameikos area, despite 150 years of extensive excavations, Niemeier said anything was possible. \"A hundred years ago archaeologists discovered the first finds of the sculptor (of Dipylo) and we were almost certain that that was it. Now I can only say that I really, really don't know any more,\" he said."}, {"response": 906, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (17:56)", "body": "yaaay, any pics yet?"}, {"response": 907, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (23:51)", "body": "I'm still looking for the elusive picture. You can rest assured that I will post it as soon as I find one."}, {"response": 908, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (01:39)", "body": "A picture released by the Greek culture ministry of an ancient sphinx dated 560 B.C., one of the important findings, which came into light during excavations at the Kerameikos ancient cemetary in Athens, and were presented during a press conference at the ministry on Friday. The excavations were carried out by the German Archeaological Institute. http://www.ana.gr/"}, {"response": 909, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (17:51)", "body": "I am still looking for the statue of the kouros. Even if I keep it for my eyes only. If you wonder why, search google.com for what a kouros is."}, {"response": 910, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (18:22)", "body": "uh oh!!"}, {"response": 911, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (19:15)", "body": "Alas, as I mentioned some time ago, bits of a delicate nature are missing from most of these beautiful naked Greek male youth statues. Noses and other parts which protrude from the main body seem most fragile. You can find lovely examples here http://www.eekman.com/virtual_gallery/sculptures/kouros.shtml"}, {"response": 912, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (21:25)", "body": "Masterpiece revealed - Statue found at Kerameikos is work of early 6th century master Archaeologists cleaning a channel associated with the Eridanus River that flowed through the Kerameikos cemetery in antiquity were surprised to discover an early sixth-century BC masterpiece by the first great Attic sculptor, known as the Sculptor of Dipylos because of the site where part of this kouros\ufffds twin was found in 1916. The new kouros was found face down along with other marble sculptures. It was used to hold up a road surface and showed marks from cart wheels. The marble statue of a young man that was discovered in the ancient Kerameikos cemetery last month is a masterpiece created by the first great sculptor of Attica, officials said yesterday. The 2.10-meter-high statue is the better-preserved twin of a kouros, as the archaic type is known, part of which was found in 1916 and is on display at Athens\ufffds National Archaeological Museum. A slightly smaller one (1.84 meters), found in 1932, is at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The statue was found lying face down on April 5 during a German Archaeological Institute excavation aimed at cleaning a channel associated with the Eridanus River, which traversed the cemetery in antiquity. The statue, dating from about 600 BC, was the most important of several other finds, including a sphinx (dated to about 560 BC and whose twin is also in the Athens museum after being found in 1907), two early-sixth century marble lions (one of which is in perfect condition) and fragments of columns. \ufffdAfter 140 years of excavations at the Kerameikos no one could have imagined a new work by the Sculptor of Dipylos coming to light. And yet this happened,\ufffd archaeologist Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier, who is responsible for the digs, said at an official presentation at the Culture Ministry yesterday. The artist\ufffds name is not known but he has been named for the fact that the first kouros was discovered at the Dipylos, or Double Gate, on the eastern side of Keremeikos. \ufffdWe have a new masterpiece by a known sculptor, the sculptor of Dipylos,\ufffd said Culture Minister Evangelos. Niemeier said that the finds were discovered near the Sacred Gate (on the west side of Kerameikos) under a dirt track which was created during the construction of Athens\ufffds new defensive walls by Themistocles in 479-478 BC. \ufffdIt appears that the Eridanus would flood at this point now and then. The sculptures show marks of wagon wheels that passed over them. In a way, they held up the road surface,\ufffd Niemeier said. Further research will indicate their original placements. Niemeier surmised that Persian invaders destroyed the burial plots and the Athenians had then used the fragments in construction work. \ufffdThe new finds from Kerameikos enrich our picture of Athens\ufffds archaic sculpture. It is especially important that we have a new masterpiece by the first great Attic sculptor, the Dipylos sculptor,\ufffd he said. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100004_11/05/2002_16308"}, {"response": 913, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (21:27)", "body": "I wish they had turned him over! I've seen the one in the Metropolitan! He was holding up the road surface?! How terrible that is."}, {"response": 914, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (23:16)", "body": "Aha! Persistence and determination has proven fruitful. I have a front view! From CNN international: Ancient statue 'a masterpiece' ATHENS, Greece (AP) --German archaeologists digging in a Greek burial ground have found a 2,600-year-old statue that appears to be another masterpiece by an acclaimed -- but anonymous -- ancient artist. The find -- a nearly complete statue of a young man called a \"kouros\" -- bears the stylistic hallmarks of works attributed to a sculptor known only as Dipylos after the neighborhood where his works were found. \"After 140 years of excavations ... no one could imagine that a new work by the Dipylos sculptor would come to light. But it happened,\" Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier, head of the German archaeological digs in the area, said Friday. The new statue was discovered in March along with other antiquities, including two lion sculptures and a sphinx, near the Sacred Gate, one of two portals into ancient Athens. The finds date from the Archaic period, which was about 900-510 B.C. Another Dipylos kouros is at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The National Archaeological Museum in Athens also has one. Digs in the area have been going on for more than a century and fragments of several kouros figures have been found. But it is rare to find one as complete as the latest find, which is missing portions of its legs and face. Similarities in facial features, hair and body type among all the finds have led experts to believe they were created by the same artist or workshop. Niemeier said the newly uncovered statue has striking similarities to the Dipylos work in New York. When it was complete, the statue may have stood as tall as 6 feet 6 inches tall. \"This find is important ... Greece, which is a vast archaeological area, provides and will always provide the joy of this kind of discovery,\" said Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos. Kouros are sculptures of standing young men, typically with one leg slightly forward. Their original use or meaning is unknown. Some were later used as building material for roadways, presumably after they lost their cultural significance. The sphinx dates back to 560 B.C. and is the twin of one found in 1907. One of the two lions was found in fragments, but the other was intact, Niemeier said."}, {"response": 915, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (23:19)", "body": "Kouros are sculptures of standing young men, typically with one leg slightly forward. Their original use or meaning is unknown. Some were later used as building material for roadways, presumably after they lost their cultural significance. My favorite thing - smashing up antiquities to make roadways. How sad I am..."}, {"response": 916, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (18:14)", "body": "Two olive trees rowed to Otranto by crew of the Olympic Idea craft The Olympic Idea is a triacontor \ufffd a replica of the 30-oared craft that plied the Mediterranean in antiquity. It set out from Piraeus on Palm Sunday and arrived in Otranto on May 2, bearing two olive trees from Iraklion to this formerCretan colony to build cooperation and cultural ties between Greece and the Grecophone areas ofsouthern Italy. HELBI A 30-oared triacontor called Olympic Idea has sailed from the port of Piraeus to the port of Otranto in Sicily, carrying two olive trees from Iraklion, Crete, to be planted in the park of Otranto. The intention was to establish new deep roots for cooperation and cultural exchanges between Greece and the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy. The triacontor and its crew of 30 young rowers set out on Palm Sunday, April 28, and arrived in Otranto on May 2, where it met with a rapturous reception from the eight mayors of the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy. Otranto was the Cretan colony Idria in antiquity. In addition to the two olive trees, the boat also bears the Olympic Idea, which is its name. The whole enterprise was organized by the Ligue Europeenne and its president, Ioannis Sakellaridis."}, {"response": 917, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (18:58)", "body": "I have created Hisory 10 to discuss Greece's history. I can think of no country more deserving of this tribute - my humble opinion, of course. http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/history/10/new Historical Setting of Greece THE BURDEN OF HISTORY lies heavily on Greece. In the early 1990s, as new subway tunnels were being excavated under Athens, Greece's museums were being filled to overflowing with the material remains of the past: remnants of houses from the Turkokratia (the era of Ottoman rule); coins and shops from the period of the Byzantine Empire; pottery remains from the Greek workshops that flourished during the Roman Empire; and graves, shrines, and houses from the classical period when Athens stood at the head of its own empire. The glories of ancient Greece and the splendor of the Christian Byzantine Empire give the modern Greeks a proud and rich heritage. The resilience and durability of Greek culture and traditions through times of turmoil provide a strong sense of cultural destiny. These elements also pose a considerable challenge to Greeks of the present: to live up to the legacies of the past. Much of the history of the modern state of Greece has witnessed a playing out of these contradictory forces. An important theme in Greek history is the multiple identities of its civilization. Greece is both a Mediterranean country and a Balkan country. And, throughout its history, Greece has been a part of both the Near East and Western Europe. During the Bronze Age and again at the time of the Greek Renaissance of the eighth century B.C., Greece and the Near East were closely connected. The empire of Alexander the Great of Macedonia brought under Greek dominion a vast expanse of territory from the Balkans to the Indus. The Byzantine Empire, with its heart in Constantinople, bridged the continents of Europe and Asia. Greece's history is also closely intertwined with that of Europe and has been since Greek colonists settled the shores of Italy and Spain and Greek traders brought their wares to Celtic France in the seventh century B.C. A second theme is the influence of the Greek diaspora. From the sixth century B.C., when Greeks settled over an expanse from the Caucasus to Gibraltar, until the dispersal of hundreds of thousands of Greeks to Australia and Canada during the 1950s and 1960s, Greeks have been on the move. The experience of the diaspora has been and continues to be a defining element in the development of Greece and Greek society. The third major theme is the role of foreign dependence. Until 1832, the Greek nation had never existed as a single state. In antiquity, hundreds of states were inhabited by Greeks, so the Greek national identity transcended any one state. For much of their history, Greeks have been part of large, multiethnic states. Whether under the suzerainty of the emperors of Rome or the dominion of the Ottoman Empire, much of Greek history can only be understood in the context of foreign rule. In more recent times, the fortunes of Greece have been linked in integral ways to the struggles of the Great Powers in the nineteenth century and the polarizing diplomacy of the late twentieth-century Cold War. The history of Greece and the Greek people, then, is bound up with forces and developments on a scale larger than just southeastern Europe. To understand the history of Greece, one has to examine this complex interplay between indigenous development and foreign influences. http://www.gogreece.com/learn/history/historical_settings.html"}, {"response": 918, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (21:50)", "body": "Temple ruin goes hi-tech Ancient ruins unearthed by builders on a housing development in Wiltshire could be turned into a tourist attraction. Archaeologists believe the discovery, much of which is still buried beneath a modern housing estate, is an extensive Roman water temple. Now experts are examining the idea of using display panels to simulate the temple and setting up a website to recreate how the site would have looked. There has been uncertainty over what to do about the find since is was stumbled upon by workmen at Abbey Meads, Swindon, in 1996. Play area At that time the construction of 25 new houses was cancelled. The site, surrounded by about 1,000 houses, is still used by locals as a play area. Paul Weston, from Land Use, a firm researching how to develop the ruins, said: \"We are proposing a small observatory platform where you will be able to look at a reconstruction of the site.\" A hoard of silver coins and a stone-lined water system were also discovered at the location. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1975000/1975136.stm"}, {"response": 919, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (00:25)", "body": "BRITISH MUSEUM CHANGESPOSITION ON PARTHENON MARBLES London, 26 May 2002 (19:53 UTC+2) The new Director of the British Museum, Neil McGregor, who will take up his duties in August, agreed, according to today's \ufffdSunday Telegraph\ufffd, to start working on the Parthenon Marble's issue as soon as he begins. In fact, Mr. McGregor is prepared to have discussions with the British Committee for the Repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles for the first time in the long conflict of the two sides. The Telegraph mentions that the British Museum is more lax on the Marbles issue, although today's Director recently stated that the marbles will never return to Greece. According to the Sunday Times, this apparent change in attitude has to do with the fact that the Greek government promised to give the British Museum other recent archeological finds, in exchange for the Marbles. This could allow the British Museum, always according to the Telegraph, to cover a huge deficit it has by charging visitors for a possible special exhibit of new archeological finds from Greece. http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=270805"}, {"response": 920, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (03:34)", "body": "* Faces from the Ice Age * A German scientist is reawakening interest in what he thinks may be the oldest lifelike drawings of humans yet discovered. Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2012000/2012385.stm"}, {"response": 921, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (03:39)", "body": "Has the face of the creator of Stonehenge been staring at us unrecognised for more than 4,000 years? A British archaeologist claims to have seen a face carved into the side of one of the mighty stones at Stonehenge. It is the first face ever seen on the Neolithic monument and one of the oldest works of art ever found in Britain. It was recognised by Terrence Meaden, an archaeologist with a fascination for the ancient standing stones of the British Isles. \"I just happened to be there at the right time of day because only when the light is right can you see it properly. During the summer months it is only obvious for about a hour each day around 1400.\" It is amazing that it has never been recognised before. Dr Meaden believes that it was missed because previous researchers concentrated on the fronts of the standing stones and not their sides. The particular viewing conditions to see it at its best will have also played a part in it not being seen. \"But once you see it it's obvious,\" he says. It seems to carry a serious expression, almost a frown, as it looks across the Salisbury plain. Stonehenge was built about 2450 BC but why does Dr Meaden believe the carving was made at the time and was not done much later. \"Why would anyone do that?\" he asks, \"The type of stone, Sarsen, is the hardest stone know to man. It would have taken hundreds of hours working on a platform to do it. Why bother?\" Meaden's photographs are being evaluated by other archaeologists. He also claims that other faces can clearly be seen on the Avebury stones not far from Stonehenge. But who is the face of Stonehenge? \"We will never know,\" says Meaden, \"He could be the patron of the monument or even its architect. Perhaps the designer of Stonehenge has been looking at us for four thousand years and we didn't see him.\" Terence Meaden can be contacted by email at terence.meaden@stonehenge-avebury.net. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_474000/474977.stm"}, {"response": 922, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (03:40)", "body": "Here is the \"face\" at Avebury. Esbee, get thee hither and look into it for us!"}, {"response": 923, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (18:36)", "body": "i see a face in both of them (but i could see a face in the smoke from the world trade centers too)"}, {"response": 924, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (22:31)", "body": "I see Mme Pele in the smoke clouds over the volcano, too. I really should have put those \"faces on the megaliths\" in Geo 31 which is where the rest of them are. If you look long enough at anything I think it is possible to see anything you wish to see. That German one is truly imaginative. I saw nothing of what he saw."}, {"response": 925, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, May 31, 2002 (12:09)", "body": "Esbee, get thee hither and look into it for us! Right! i'm on the case. Will be there ASAP!! ....er, of course, that wont be for another year, but still - *happy dance* *singing* i'm going back to England!! It does look like a face, doesnt it?"}, {"response": 926, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  1, 2002 (01:23)", "body": "Better late than never... Antiquities law Parliament yesterday passed a new law on antiquities, according to which anyone illegally in possession of objects dating to before 1453 must declare them to the authorities within 12 months of the law\ufffds publication in the government gazette and may be allowed to keep them. Restrictions also apply, in some cases, to artifacts up to 100 years old. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100022_31/05/2002_17062"}, {"response": 927, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  1, 2002 (01:24)", "body": "Yup it does look like a face. I'd love to join you on that trip...*sigh*"}, {"response": 928, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Jun  3, 2002 (13:40)", "body": "Why Dont you???? You'd be most welcome! :-)"}, {"response": 929, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  3, 2002 (18:23)", "body": "Sweetie, I'm leaving for your neck of the woods for a week at least on Thursday!"}, {"response": 930, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Jun  3, 2002 (18:47)", "body": "Can you do lunch on Sunday??????"}, {"response": 931, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jun  3, 2002 (21:16)", "body": "are you really??? *WOW*"}, {"response": 932, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  4, 2002 (00:05)", "body": "Hang on. Gotta check with Iki. Email me your phone number, please!!! I'll be midstate, Wolfie, but we just have to meet one of these days. perhaps on my return trip. More details in email *;)"}, {"response": 933, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  4, 2002 (00:07)", "body": "Yes, I am. Been loading and talking to people on my laptop to make sure I can contact them all and have addresses I need. If you don't hear from me,. drop e a line with Hello as the subject and I will add you to my address list. Thanks. Geo will not be forsaken!"}, {"response": 934, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (21:33)", "body": "First volume of 'Protato's Relics' presented Athens, 05/06/2002 (ANA) The first of two volumes of ''Protato's Relics'', a publication including all ritual relics safeguarded for centuries at Protato's temple, was presented during a special event held at the Old Parliament building on Tuesday. Among others, Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister Vasso Papandreou, Education Minister Petros Efthymiou, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos and Alternate Foreign Minister Tassos Giannitsis attended the event. Father Ioannis, a monk and secretary of the Holy Community, referred to the contents of the first volume, saying that the Holy Community appealed to acknowledged Greek experts for its excellent appearance. http://www.gogreece.com/news/headlines/story.html?id=5358"}, {"response": 935, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun 15, 2002 (15:46)", "body": "Historical background: On an autumn stormy night in the middle of the Sicilian Channel a sailing cargo ship is in serious distress. The captain is cursing for having ignored the first signs that a few hours before had warned of the weather worsening, and for having decided not to stop for the night in Pantelleria Island in front of which the ship had passed two hours before, just after the sunset. The 24 meters long ship, rigged with a single mast and a big square sail, left the port of Carthage on the African coast early the morning before, heading toward the port of Marsala, in Sicily, were she planned to arrive the next morning with her mixed cargo composed mostly of 600 amphorae of three different qualities of wine, 50 amphorae of oil, other goods, some slaves to sell on the slave market in Selinunte and a few passengers. The first half of the 110 NM trip went very fine, until in view of the island of Pantelleria, when the south-western breeze turned into a fresh and taut NW wind, with moderated waves. he captain evaluated the new situation, considering the possibility in heading towards Pantelleria and passing the night there. Finally decided to head directly toward Sicily. The wind grew stronger, reaching soon a stormy force with very heavy sea. The ship can't proceed, the sail gets damaged, and many times the ship risks to capsize. The captain decides to head back toward Pantelleria, hoping to find a shelter along the coast of the island. While inverting her course the ship is invested by giant waves on her side, and the mast gets broken. The sailors manage to somehow repair it, and now the ship heads toward Pantelleria with reduced sail. In the darkness of the night the captain views what seems to be a small repaired bay with relatively calm waters behind a rocky headland, and decides to try to reach it. While approaching he gives orders to the men to stay ready with anchors and sailing rigs. But something goes wrong, the sea and wind push the heavy ship over the opening of the bay, and towards the ro ks. The men can clearly hear the thunder of the waves breaking on the rocks; they throw at sea all the anchors trying to arrest the ship, but it is all vane. All the anchors get broken, and the ship hits violently and repeatedly on the rocks. Tons on water enter from the broken hull, then the sea takes back what already is a floating wreck; part of the cargo is overthrown at sea, until the ship finally sinks. Some of the men survived, but the majority of the crew, passenger and \"goods\" drowned. If you'd like to read more about this classical era shipwreck: http://www.fifthd.com/divestore/classes/events.htm"}, {"response": 936, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun 15, 2002 (16:04)", "body": "Finding the lost city of Atlantis is tantamount to locating the Holy Grail. So when Anton Mifsud and a group of Maltese investigators put together a compelling body of research citing Malta as one of the fabled civilisation\ufffds remnants, more than a few eyebrows were raised. In publication now since 2000, the concise study has sparked wide interest, while also attracting international TV crews and publishers. This is mainly due to the validity of the suggestions put forth in Malta \ufffd Echoes of Plato\ufffds Island, authored by Anton Mifsud, Simon Mifsud, Chris Agius Sultana and Charles Savona Ventura. The research presented by Anton Mifsud makes a strong case that the Maltese and Pelagian Islands \ufffd which include Lampedusa, Linosa and Lampione \ufffd are the remnants of Plato\ufffds Atlantis, although he had originally set out with the intention of disproving such a theory. Mifsud explains that he actually became frustrated by his failure to discredit the suggestion put forth by fellow researcher Chris Agius Sultana \ufffd that today\ufffds Maltese Islands form part of what was left when the sizeable land mass of Atlantis was submerged. The link for this is: http://www.maltamag.com/topstory/atlantis100402/"}, {"response": 937, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 15, 2002 (17:02)", "body": "Thank you Cheryl!!! I can't wait until I have a moment to read the REST of the stories. They are currently retracing ancient ship routes in modern rebuilds of athe same ships."}, {"response": 938, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (05:37)", "body": "This is for those who interested on the genealogical tree of the Greek ancient god's. ...In the beginning, Hesiod says, there was Chaos, vast and dark. Then appeared Gaea, the dep-breasted earth, and finally Eros, ' the love which softens hearts ', whose fructifying influence would thenceforth preside over the formation of beings an things. From Chaos were born Erebus and Night who, uniting, gave birth in their turn to Ether and Hemera, the day. On her part Gaea first bore Uranus, the sky crowned with stars, ' whom she made her equal in grandeur, so that he entirely covered her '. Then she created the high mountains and Pontus, ' the sterile sea ' with its harmonious waves... Find more information about each one here: http://www.ancientgreece.com/mythology/mythology.htm With my special regards to Marcia's friends in the Tennessee archaeological company. John"}, {"response": 939, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (11:23)", "body": "How wonderful, John! I will give your regards to my friends and let them know that not only the people they study had geneologies. It looks quite familiar not only from remembering my childhood studies of Greek Mythology and trying to keep who was who is my mind, but it is also something I have come tolook over bvery carefully over the weekend and this week in reveiwing all I heard presented in learned papers at the conference. Zeus did create a lot of children, but his ancestry was memorable!"}, {"response": 940, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (11:25)", "body": "As an aside, I find it remarkable that Athena is listed as from the union of Zeus and Hera. I thought Athena came full born and in armor from her father's head. I did not know who or if there was a mother involved!"}, {"response": 941, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (18:48)", "body": "*laugh* everyone came from chaos!!"}, {"response": 942, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (04:29)", "body": "Have you think that the myths but also the Old Testament are trying to tell humans a truth that they can not understand with their knowledge Marcia ? Indeed! Finally, Everything came really from Chaos Wolfie. Remember also Big-Bang theory. Our universe became from the NOTHING! John"}, {"response": 943, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (14:04)", "body": "Yes, John, you are quite right. Allegories have always been forms of teaching us what we should know and what to believe is true. We are more than a little dense and stubborn in coming to terms with these mystical truths. I am trying. My Host has found his answers. I am still looking. Chaos has been my life forever. I try to be the calm still place within it so I can think quietly, but that is not always possible. The truth remains unchanged no matter what form the tales take to make it easier to understand. We just have to find the right ones for us, I suppose. Each of us."}, {"response": 944, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (14:06)", "body": "Finally, there will always be MUCH humans do not understand. If their egos are not in the way, then some sort of prejudgement is. *Sigh*"}, {"response": 945, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (04:50)", "body": "The Boule - Development and Spread of a Greek Institution in Ancient Times The Boule, a basic institution of the ancient city-state in historical times, consisted of the citizens' representatives who assembled in order to confer and decide about public affairs. In the cities of Ionia it was called \"Boule\", \"Gerousia\", or \"Synedrio\", whereas in the Dorian cities it was called \"Alia\", \"Apella\", or \"Aliaia\". The first archaelogical finds of buildings serving this purpose date back to the 6th century BC, although already in prehistorical times certain open spaces or buildings were used as places of assembly by the members of a particular community. The first reference to the term \"Boule\" is found in Homer's epics, where it means the council of noblemen attending the king and assisting him in the exercise of the legislative, executive, and judiciary powers. The decisions of this aristocratic body were announced at the assembly of the active citizens, which consisted of the warriors and was called initially \"Agora\" and later \"Ekklesia\". The \"Boule\" and \"Ekklesia\" of historical times were government bodies of varying size, social constitution and political role in different cities and periods, and thus defined the democratic or oligarchical character of the government of each city-state. As they developed historically from the archaic to the classical period, these bodies were expanded and represented wider strata of the population to a different degree in different cities. At the same time the common citizens participated more actively in public affairs, as a result of the expanded responsibilities of the \"Ekklesia of Demos\" (Assembly of the People). This development culminated in the democratic regime of Athens in the middle of the 5th century BC. The Boule of Athens, consisting of 500 members, i.e., 50 members from each of the ten tribes, was invested with considerable consultative, legislative and judiciary powers. It drew up laws and proposals, the so-called \"provouleumata\", on political, economic and administrative matters, and submitted them for voting to the \"Ekklesia of Demos\", the general assembly of the citizens. The executive authority at the highest level was exercised by the \"Prytany\", consisting of the 50 representatives of each tribe who held office alternately for one tenth of the year. The Hellenistic and Roman periods were characterised by interference in the cities' internal affairs on the part of Hellenistic monarchs and Rome. Through increasing subjugation to them the city gradually lost its political autonomy, and the political role of the Boule, as a symbol of local self-government, was limited. These developments took place both in the Greek mainland and the Greek colonies, since the institution of the Boule spread along with the Greek colonial expeditions, mainly to Asia Minor as well as to Lower Italy and Sicily. Much more here: http://www2.fhw.gr/projects/bouleuterion/ John"}, {"response": 946, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (14:26)", "body": "I will go seek more information about the Boule. Is that the same root for which we get Boulean logic? I suspect it is! Thank you for a bit of classical archaeology in a house full of archaeologists who talk about archaeology of a far different sort. I can better relate to yours than to mine (if southern archaeology is anything like \"mine\" though I rather think it is NOT.) I have been proofing a rather lengthy paper for a jopurnal for my host. He was kind enough to acknowlede my research contributions and now is kind enough to listen to my suggestions. I am most pleased. This is about as close as I will get to becoming an archaeologist! For that reason alone, this time away from Hilo has been of great worth to my heart and soul. Discussions long into the night result from sitting down to have something small to eat. One night we alctually talked until after the sun rose. My mind has hungered just to listen to such a conversation. To take part in this is a honor and joy I will never forget. And, I am living surrounded by books it will take me two lifetimes to read, but I eagerly devour one whenever I can. My absence from Geo is unconscionable but please forgive me. This is a dream of a lifetime to have the opportunity to be present at discussions of the most elemental archaeological research - and the resultant episodic tales of interesting things that happened during t e course of researching it. Thank you again, John. Our foundations could never pass the tests of the Bouleans of Ancient Greece. We are getting far too indiscriminate and thoughful."}, {"response": 947, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (03:06)", "body": "No Marcia. It has the root of the Greek ancient word \"VOULOMAI\" = \"I WANT\". Boule or VOULI = The place where they are expressing and discussing what they wanted or what were their opinion on each subject. They used logic but not the Boolean Logic. \"smile\" John"}, {"response": 948, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (03:12)", "body": "Do you believe that the helicopter existed in the ancient world? This is a photo of an ancient temple at Abydos, Egypt. It shows some objects that seem like our contemporary aircraft. Do you think that you see a helicopter on it? Find more about ancient flying machines here: http://paranormal.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.veling.nl%2Fanne%2Ftemplars%2Fancientaircraft_nf.html John"}, {"response": 949, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (16:11)", "body": "well, yeah, it looks like a helicopter. where'd you get this pic? i've watched just about everything on the ancient pyramids and this is the first time i've seen anything like this!"}, {"response": 950, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (19:10)", "body": "Oh John! This is very strange and amazing and VERY easy to fake. Do you believe in their authenticity? Erik Von Daniken was full of this sort of thing. Many followed him and the innocent public swallowed it whole."}, {"response": 951, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (19:11)", "body": "(Yes, I understand the Boolean Logic!!! *;))"}, {"response": 952, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jul  4, 2002 (03:20)", "body": "I don't know. But I wonder. Look what big steps have made our technology the last 50 years. And he makes bigger and bigger steps every second now. Why we are the first generation that can make incredible things? In any case is mystery. I am very reserved against Erik Von Daniken. But when I wondered what is doing a green hill at the mid of low land, I was informed that there was ancient buildings under it. Just as Erik Von Daniken suggests. John"}, {"response": 953, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  4, 2002 (13:13)", "body": "i've never heard of erik von daniken......"}, {"response": 954, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (18:49)", "body": "Wolfie, Von Daniken wrote books explaining many things all of which were space beings created. Anything we cannot explain he explained away with alien asissistance. Unhappily he did not do very good research even if some of his theories have proven true. In turn, he created a bit of a rush for other suthors to make other such suggestions and a lot of books appeared in the same manner as his. I have just about all of them since my Dad and I discussed them./ Unhappily, most played down religion as worshipping these aliens. \"Chariots of the Gods\" was Von Daniken's first and most famous book."}, {"response": 955, "author": "DonB", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (22:27)", "body": "By way of introduction, I am an archaeologist working in Louisville, Kentucky. My research interests are oriented primarily toward historic era sites and materials including the study of 19th century rural farmsteads, sites associated with niter mining and the production of blackpowder, the identification and analysis of archaeologically recovered firearm-related artifacts, 19th century grave markers, and folk/traditional architecture. A current research project is an extended study of Civil War era paper mills in the Confederate South. For me, part of the excitement of my field is not merely the chance to examine a wide variety of early materials but the opportunity to explore many little known and previously overlooked vistas of past lifeways. Comments and discussion on archaeological topics are welcomed."}, {"response": 956, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:22)", "body": "Welcome, Don! You honor us with your presence. I am certain when people find you are the REAL thing that many questions will arise for your answering. Per tradition, I add my *HUGS* of Aloha and a warm hope that you will feel very much at home here. As my host, you have been more than kind. This was unexpected and is greatly appreciated. You do us great honor on Geo's third birthday."}, {"response": 957, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (02:56)", "body": "Welcome Donald. It is great honour your presence between us. Geo is based on scientific reality from its creation time before just three years. So, your scientific position will help us understand our roots, from where and through what filter meshes we are going to the unknown future. Archaeologist is a time researcher walking on unknown paths of previous levels of the human life. A small part of the work of an Archaeologist is that he is distinguishing and conclude for the historical events (Most people believe that it is the whole work of an Archaeologist). I know that it is not true. Materials, technology and the way of life in the past years are very interesting since the pleated frill of history has many dark areas. I am glad that I can discuss with you. Personally, I hate the platitudinous history (mainly for those dates) but I am very interested for the lost captures of the human perceptive mind. My best wishes from Volos, Central East Greece. John"}, {"response": 958, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (04:27)", "body": "Hi Don, Marcia and all. City of Knossos The Palace of King Minos From the Palace of Knossos Inside the Queen's mansion in the east wing of the palace. \ufffdExcavations showed that the area was inhabited since the Neolithic times (6000 BC and perhaps even earlier) and verified that the Neolithic levels of Knossos are amongst the deepest in Europe. An important Pre Palace already existed on this Neolithic site as far as 3000 BC. while the first Palace was built around 2000 BC and destroyed 300 years later. On the same site a new Palace was built, more elaborate than the previous, only to be severely damaged from an earthquake one hundred years latter. During this period we see the development of a series of satellite buildings like the \"Little Palace\", the \"Royal Villa\" and the \"South House\". Knossos has now developed into a large city whose population - judged by the adjacent cemeteries - must have not been less than 100 000 inhabitants. The Palace now lives and prospers until the next disaster of around 1450 BC connected to the volcanic eruption of Santorini. Following this event, it is restored once more and used by the Achaean sovereign until at least 1380 BC although other city states in Crete had already been destroyed. After its final destruction the palace was not used again except for the \"temple of Rhea\" in later historical times. Knossos survived through the historical times as a great city - state until the first Byzantine times. Its final decline came during the Middle Ages where it was diminished to an unimportant small village with the name \"Makrys Toihos\". The Palace of Knossos is divided by its central court into two wings, the West and the East. The West wing where the visitor enters today is where the religious and official state rooms are found while the East wing is occupied by domestic rooms and workshops. More and good photos here: http://www.dilos.com/region/crete/kn_01.html John"}, {"response": 959, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Jul 13, 2002 (13:51)", "body": "Hi Don Find local weather forecast and the sky map for your place in our portal. It is under Weather, Time & SKY Reports For GEO-Friends. Best regards from the hot Greece John"}, {"response": 960, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (00:31)", "body": "Don is working offline and I have the modem cord (is it possible to link up a W95 and W98 computer in a peer to peer network?) Thank you for posting the weather for this location. The links are even better. My humble gratitude and great hugs of aloha are yours for being the heart and soul of Geo during my forced \"vacation\" from home here with you. You are back on my desktop. Next - to find you on my IM...*SIGH*"}, {"response": 961, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (00:34)", "body": "New Acropolis Museum by 2004 ANA An artist\ufffds impression of the new Acropolis Museum (c), as seen from the Acropolis. Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos announced yesterday that construction company Themeliodomi had been chosen for the first phase of the project, the foundations. The second phase is to begin sometime around September. The foundations of the new Acropolis Museum will begin to be laid by early next month and the building will be completed before the Athens Olympics, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday. Denying reports that construction had been delayed, he said during a news conference, \ufffdWe say with certainty that construction of the Acropolis Museum will be completed before the 2004 Olympics.\ufffd Venizelos rejected criticism that the museum would damage antiquities at the Makriyianni site facing the Acropolis. He argued that the building would stand on \ufffdstilts,\ufffd like the roof over the Akrotiri antiquities on Santorini. Athens hopes the new museum will help its efforts to repatriate the Parthenon Marbles that Lord Elgin sold to the British Museum. Prof. Anthony Snodgrass, chairman of the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, who was at the news conference, noted that public opinion in Britain was increasingly in favor of their return. He noted that the British Museum's new director, Neil McGregor, who assumes his duties in August, had agreed to meet with him. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100004_17/07/2002_18832"}, {"response": 962, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (10:28)", "body": "In the summer of 2000 and 2001, a scientific team directed by the Greek archaeologist Dr. Dora Katsonopoulou, President of the Ancient Helike Society, and Dr. Steven Soter of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, brought to light the Classical Greek city of Helike, destroyed and submerged by an earthquake and seismic sea wave in 373 BC. They also discovered its prehistoric predecessor, which was evidently submerged in the same place about two thousand years earlier. Classical Helike was the principal city of Achaea, in the northern Peloponnesos. It had a venerable pan-Hellenic temple and sanctuary of Poseidon, the god of earthquakes and the sea. For centuries after the city was destroyed, ancient writers reported that its submerged ruins could still be seen. Later the site was silted over and lost. The rest of this article is at: http://www.geoprobe.org/helike/news.html"}, {"response": 963, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (10:31)", "body": "Ruins May Be Ancient City Swallowed by Sea By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD From the New York Times, October 17, 2000, Section: Science Copyright The New York Times In a winter night in 373 B.C., the one-two punch of an earthquake followed by a surging tidal wave destroyed the grand old Greek city of Helike, near the Gulf of Corinth. The city was, coincidentally, a venerated center for worship of Poseidon, the god of earthquakes and the sea. The land and the city ruins sank beneath the sea, and all the people were said to have perished. Ancient Greece had not known a natural disaster as devastating in more than 1,000 years, when an exploding volcano destroyed much of the island of Thera, modern Santorini. The Helike catastrophe, some scholars speculate, may have inspired Plato's story of Atlantis, a land that supposedly sank to the bottom of the sea. For several centuries after the disaster, writers like Pliny, Strabo and Ovid reported that the ruins could still be seen on the sea floor, just offshore. Then all traces of Helike disappeared. Here was another \"lost\" city to challenge the sleuthing instincts of archaeologists. In excavations this summer, Greek and American researchers uncovered what they think is the first evidence pointing to the location of Helike (pronounced ha-LEE-key). After 12 years of searching, mostly offshore and invariably in vain, they began digging on a coastal plain near the town of Aigion, 45 miles northwest of Corinth. Some of their first trenches yielded stones of a paved road and building walls, classical ceramics and a bronze coin, which was minted in the late 5th century B.C. \"It's just a glimpse,\" one of the researchers, Dr. Steven Soter of the American Museum of Natural History, said in an interview. \"But it's the first strong evidence for Helike that is consistent with descriptions in ancient accounts.\" Dr. Soter and Dr. Dora Katsonopoulou, an archaeologist and president of the Ancient Helike Society in Aigion, reported the discovery at a recent conference of archaeologists in Greece. Though Dr. Soter is a planetary scientist, his research on earthquakes drew him into the search for Helike in collaboration with Dr. Katsonopoulou. Dr. Soter directed the use of remote-sensing technology like magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar in surveying buried terrain where the city was thought to be. These surveys, followed by the sinking of scores of bore holes, located ancient ceramic fragments and other evidence of human occupation over an area of about one square mile. Digging among the orchards and vineyards of modern villages, archaeologists reached layers of sediment 10 feet deep bearing classical pottery along with seashells and other marine remains. In their reports, the researchers said these findings suggested that the pavement and wall stones were from the time of Helike's destruction and supported stories that the city ruins were for a long time submerged in the sea or a lagoon. The ruins were buried by silt, which, combined with a general uplifting of the land, had left the once-submerged site about half a mile inland from the present shore. A house built on the shore between the Selinous and Kerynites Rivers in the 1890's is now about 1,000 feet from the sea. \"It's a very important find in classical studies,\" said Dr. Robert Stieglitz, an archaeologist and classics professor at Rutgers University at Newark. \"These are definitely signs of a settlement. Now they need to expand the excavations to look for the temple and theater and other public buildings that should be at the core of a city like Helike.\" As a measure of his confidence that the site of Helike has been found, Dr. Stieglitz said he would join the expanded excavations next summer. Dr. Soter and Dr. Katsonopoulou said the discovery of paving stones from a buried road might be especially rewarding. So far, only a short segment of the road's cobbles and boundary boulders have been uncovered, but enough to tantalize archaeologists. \"We think the road may be the best thing we could find,\" Dr. Soter said. \"This could lead us to the rest of the city. And it could provide a relatively undisturbed `time capsule' from the classical period of Greece.\" On the other hand, Dr. Soter acknowledged, the earthquake and tsunami, a towering sea wave, might have left few recognizable ruins. Scientists suspect that a strong earthquake set off a submarine landslide, which in turn produced the tsunami. Aftershocks of the quake could have caused the landscape to collapse, perhaps sinking below sea level. And a tsunami, perhaps more than 35 feet high, could have swept away most of the remains. But digging deeper and wider at the likely site of Helike will probably be irresistible to archaeologists seeking to learn more about public and private life during the golden age of Greece. At the time of Helike's destruction, Plato was teaching and Aristotle was a boy of 12. Socrates and Aristophanes had died at the beginning of the century."}, {"response": 964, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (11:39)", "body": "Archaeologists from UCLA and the University of Delaware have unearthed the most extensive remains to date from sea trade between India and Egypt during the Roman Empire, adding to mounting evidence that spices and other exotic cargo traveled into Europe over sea as well as land. \"These findings go a long way toward improving our understanding of the way in which a whole range of exotic cargo moved into Europe during antiquity,\" said Willeke Wendrich, an assistant professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA and co-director of the project. \"When cost and political conflict prevented overland transport, ancient mariners took to the Red Sea, and the route between India and Egypt appears to have been even more productive than we ever thought.\" \"The Silk Road gets a lot of attention as a trade route, but we've found a wealth of evidence indicating that sea trade between Egypt and India was also important for transporting exotic cargo, and it may have even served as a link with the Far East,\" added fellow co-director Steven E. Sidebotham, a history professor at the University of Delaware. The rest of the article is at: http://www.college.ucla.edu/berenike.htm"}, {"response": 965, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (14:48)", "body": "What's new in the world of achaeology? Is the world a time capsule?"}, {"response": 966, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (14:49)", "body": "What goods did India offer for trade, Cheryl?"}, {"response": 967, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (14:56)", "body": "The world is indeed a time bcapsule. Thanks TERRY!!!"}, {"response": 968, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (15:03)", "body": "Thanks for the great articles, Cheryl. I had missed them. Fascinating!"}, {"response": 969, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (12:26)", "body": "DB stitting beside the unique drystone wall of about 2 meters in height. Plum Creek, Spencer County, Kentucky"}, {"response": 970, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (12:28)", "body": "That wall is about 2 1/2 feet (.76M) THICK and 1,800 feet (550 M) LONG."}, {"response": 971, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (21:22)", "body": "IMPORTANT FINDINGS IN THE PERAMA CAVE Important findings among them, human bones, came to light during the recent exploratory missions conducted in the Perama Cave by the Speleology Club of Ioannina. The human bones and the cave-bear teeth found by an exploratory team were discovered 60 meters away from the spot where the bones of another cave-bear, that lived 300.000 years ago, were found 40 years ago. http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpa/2002/02-07-08.mpa.html"}, {"response": 972, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (10:48)", "body": "Terry, you'd asked what was India trading with the Roman Empire. Among those things were spices, especially black peppercorns. South Indian peppercorns dating from the first century have been excavated in Germany. Other goods included Indian coconuts, batik cloth, as well as exotic gems, including sapphires and carnelians. There were also glass beads which may have come from Sri Lanka."}, {"response": 973, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (21:14)", "body": "If I recall correctly, there was also trade is scents and incense."}, {"response": 974, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (18:37)", "body": "Sandalwood, of course, among others. You're right, Marcia."}, {"response": 975, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jul 30, 2002 (18:43)", "body": "According to Gutasagan (the Gotlandic Tale), Gotland was an enchanted island , which rose every evening and sank again every morning. The enchantment was broken when a man by the name of Tjelvar came to the island, bringing with him fire. Geological studies have shown that, although the tale might not be true, the island has sunk and risen again many times from the sea. In this way Gutasagan, written down in the beginning of the 13th century, tells its version of the origin of Gotland. Still today the island is as enchanted, very rich on memories from the past. In an endless number of archaeological remains in the countryside as well as in Visby you can see ancient time, middle ages and present time running side by side. You can see it from the more than 90 middle age churches still in use. Archaeological findings show that people have lived on Gotland for over 8,000 years. Over 31,000 ancient remains have been recorded, making the island one of the richest areas in Scandinavia in this perspective. Everywhere in the landscape one is impressed by mighty shipmoulds and stonegraves from the bronze age, as well as the more than 700 gravefields from the iron age. You can read more at: http://gotland.luma.com/History.html"}, {"response": 976, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 30, 2002 (20:57)", "body": "Thanks, Cheryl. This is fascinating and new to me. However, I am not surprised. Little volcanic islands have formed and submerged into the North Atlantic off Iceland for as long as written history has been kept there. The Sagas go even further back in time. How great that Ultima Thule has another name and a little geology to back it up. I rather like the whole idea. Heaven? Not warm enough for me, but it makes sense geologically."}, {"response": 977, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (08:10)", "body": "Hope for the Temple of Zeus Ditching 16-year old plans \ufffd which were never implemented \ufffd to partially conserve the battered Temple of Olympian Zeus in central Athens, one of the capital\ufffds major landmarks, the Ministry of Culture has expressed willingness to press ahead with a wide-ranging facelift on the ruined building. During a meeting late on Tuesday, the ministry\ufffds Central Archaeological Council (KAS) decided to commission a study on conserving the entire structure, which was the largest temple in mainland Greece. By the end of August, KAS agreed, the ministry\ufffds restoration service must decide on the basic guidelines along which the study will be drawn up. In 1986, the ministry had approved restoration work on two of the temple\ufffds 16 surviving Corinthian columns \ufffd initially, there were 104 \ufffd that supported a massive slab of marble from the architrave, which contains a large crack. But KAS found that project unsatisfactory. Council members stressed that conservation should proceed even at the cost of having the monument shrouded in scaffolding during the 2004 Olympics. The temple was completed in 131 AD, eight centuries after it was started. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100012_01/08/2002_19402"}, {"response": 978, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (13:57)", "body": "Only 800 years to finish the Temple of Zeus. That is even longer than it took to finish one of the most famous Gothic cathedrals of a later age. Cologne Cathedral was started in 1248 and was not completed until 1880; the latter generations of builders always remained faithful to the original plans. It only took over seven centuries for Cologne Cathedral, has opposed to the eight required for the completion of the Temple of Zeus. Oh, to have seen the Temple at its height in the 2nd Century, CE."}, {"response": 979, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (13:59)", "body": "A large sophisticated civilization equal to Sumeria and Mesopotamia and thriving at the same time at least 5,000 years ago was lost in the harsh desert sands of the Soviet Union near the Iran and Afghanistan borders. But now details are beginning to emerge. This week I visited archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. There he has some exquisite pottery shards the Russian government gave him permission to bring back to the United States from his recent excavations in the Kara Kum desert of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan on the Iran and Afghanistan borders. No American archaeologist had been there since 1904 when New Hampshire archaeologist and geologist, Raphael Pumpelly, discovered ancient ruins at Anau in southern Turkmenistan near Iran. But the Soviets did not develop the Anau site. In the 1970s, Soviet archaeologists working west of Afghanistan reported vast ruins, all built with the same distinct pattern of a central building surrounded by a series of walls. Several hundred were found in Bactria and Margiana on the border that separates Afghanistan from Russia's Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. But nothing was reported beyond a few Soviet journals that were never translated. Then in 1988 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dr. Hiebert first received permission to travel to Anau. He has discovered it is about 2,000 years older than the Bactria and Margiana sites further to the east, going back nearly seven thousand years to at least 4,500 B. C., or the Bronze Age. Not only are the oldest shards from there of high craftsmanship, this past summer Dr. Hiebert also found a black rock carved with red-colored symbols that, to date, are unidentified but considered to be evidence of a literacy independent of Mesopotamia. The discovery is revolutionary to earlier academic thought that Sumeria was the first civilization with language. If you want to read further about the \"First Asians\", here's the link: http://www.crystalinks.com/firstasians.html"}, {"response": 980, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (14:10)", "body": "Greek archaeologists have recently discovered a Late Neolithic or Chalkolithic period settlement that dates back to 5,000 BC on the island of Andros, the Cyclades, Greece. This settlement (which is actually a town, by the standards of that era) lies on the Strofilas plateau in western Andros and is unique in many ways. It is large, intensively built, fortified and very well preserved. The main body of the town stretches in an area of about three hectares and has --among others-- a number of big, rectangular, arch-ending buildings. Other findings include refined artwork (pottery, jewels), utilities, stone tools and weapons equipped with opsidian stone pikes, as well as figurines and many objects made of copper. Due to the variety and quantity of the latter, prehistoric archaeologists might have to reconstruct some of their views, regarding the start and level of metallurgy in the Aegaean. Indeed, the island of Andros seems to have been the ideal place to work out such techniques, for several reasons: it lies near continental Greece, it is rich in waters and has many fields that could easily support agriculture -a doubtlessly attractive area for people to settle. http://users.hol.gr/~ianlos/a014.htm"}, {"response": 981, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug  3, 2002 (00:00)", "body": "Great posts, Cheryl. My little first archaeological \"dig\" was anticlimatic. We found nothing but also were not disappointed as we were not expecting anything. Rescue archaeology is not like finding Troy, unfortunately! But, I did enjoy holding the shovel and carrying the maps."}, {"response": 982, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug  3, 2002 (11:02)", "body": "Greek concern over museum\ufffds lost head Not missing the opportunity to score points over the custodians of the Elgin Collection of Parthenon Marbles, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos yesterday sought explanations from the British Museum regarding the theft, this week, of a Greek artifact from its collections. The battered, 6th-century BC marble head of a woman was acquired by the museum in 1922, and Greece has never sought its return \ufffd unlike the architectural sculptures removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century. The ministry yesterday said Venizelos has written to the museum\ufffds new director, Neil MacGregor, \ufffdseeking information on the theft... given the historic and cultural interest Greece has in Greek antiquities, wherever they may be.\ufffd The 12-centimeter high head was found to be missing on Tuesday, and is believed to have been stolen the same day. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100012_03/08/2002_19487"}, {"response": 983, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (17:27)", "body": "Thanks to DirtDevil JohnG for sending me the following: Oldest bakery found -- and looks familiar By Seif Al-Nasrawi From the International Desk Published 7/28/2002 1:20 PM View printer-friendly version CAIRO, July 28 (UPI) -- An American archaeological team has discovered the remains of the oldest bakery to date used by ancient Egyptians to produce \"sun bread\" -- bread still made today in Egypt's southern villages, officials said Sunday. The secretary-general of the Archaeological Higher Council, Zahi Hawas, said the archaeologists were digging south of the Sphinx in Giza when they found what was, in the third millennium B.C., a fully stocked and functioning bakery. He told United Press International the discovery showed modern farmers in the rural villages in Egypt were still using the same methods to produce the same bread their forefathers made more than 4,000 years ago. The team, headed by archaeologist Mark Lener, found trays and tools used to make and ferment the dough. Also uncovered were closets used to store the seeds before sending them to the bakeries, Hawas said. Egyptologists said ancient Egyptians succeeded in producing yeast during the Old Dynasty (2686 to 2181 B.C.), and used it to produce the oldest known types of alcoholic beverages and 12 kinds of bread and pastries. Team leader Lener told UPI the team also found tools and equipment used to construct two of the three pyramids of Giza, built to bury two of the most important pharaohs who ruled in the Fourth Dynasty between 2613 and 2494 B.C. Among other discoveries: -- a collection of archaeological pieces used to count the laborers building the two pyramids, believed to have exceeded 20,000 workers; -- primitive statistical drawings to record the number of tools handed out to the workers; -- an industrial zone that manufactured bronze tools and special uniforms for the laborers building the pyramids. -- 250 ceramic stamps printed with the names of the Pharaohs Khafra and Manqara, owners of the second and third largest pyramids in Egypt. The latest discoveries came within an archaeological campaign by Egyptian and U.S. archeologists in the Giza and Sakkara areas to uncover tools and technologies used by the ancient Egyptians to build the pyramids."}, {"response": 984, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (18:18)", "body": "Thanks Marcia, and thanks to DirtDevil JohnG. The Egyptians had a saying that was, \"Like barley, eaten but maligned.\" They cultivated both wheat and barley. Wheat has always been incredibly valued a crop; this can be evidenced in that it has, and is, virtually never used as animal fodder. The Egyptians valued wheat higher as foodstuff than barley; however, they did make beer from barley."}, {"response": 985, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (22:51)", "body": "I was just reading an archaeology report prepared in the prospect of a certain little river valley being submerged under a lake. They mentioned that the first white settlers in the valley raised corn for food and what was left over they made into \"moonshine\" (distilled spirits) which proved to be much more profitable. I suggest every new settler on the planet has discovered this truth. Even the ancient Egyptians!"}, {"response": 986, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (23:18)", "body": "Prehistoric burial ground discovered A prehistoric burial ground has been found at the site of a lost abbey in Cheshire. Cremated fragments of human bone believed to date back up to 4,000 years have been excavated in the hamlet of Poulton near Chester. They were discovered with broken pieces of pottery, believed to be the container in which they were buried. The Daily Post reports scientific tests confirm the bone is human and work is now under way to dig up all the remains. The discovery came during excavations to find the abbey of Poulton, which once stood on the site, bordering the Duke of Westminster's Eaton estate. Archaeologist Mike Emery, who is the brother of actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes, said: \"The burial ground dates from between 2,300 BC and 1,000 BC. In the past we have discovered evidence hinting at prehistoric activity but this is a major find. \"Once the site has been fully excavated we will send the bone for dating and we should be able to find out how many people were buried here, their gender and ages.\" Gerry Fair, a former Lord Mayor of Chester, who owns the land where the remains were found, says they'll go on permanent loan to the city. Mr Emer has run the dig independently for four years and is currently registering the Poulton Research Project as a charity. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_644681.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 987, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (15:49)", "body": "Archaeologists excavate monastery to reveal Gaza Strip\ufffds ancient lineage Away from the ongoing violence, researchers uncover the vestiges of Palestine\ufffds Byzantine past EPA An archaeologist looks at the site of an ancient Byzantine monastery on Monday, near Nusseirat in the Gaza Strip. A mere 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Gaza City, after a short drive through lush vineyards, one discovers the stunning site of an ancient Byzantine monastery whose first church is believed to have been erected at the end of the fourth century AD. The site was first excavated by the Palestinian Authority in 1998, four years after it took control of the Gaza Strip. By Sophie Claudet - Agence France-Presse NUSSEIRAT, Gaza Strip - Just a short drive outside Gaza City, through lush vineyards, Palestinian and French archaeologists are excavating a remarkable Byzantine monastery which they hope will draw tourists once the violence is over. The site, whose first church is believed to have been erected at the end of the fourth century AD, was first excavated by the Palestinian Authority in 1998, four years after it took control of the Gaza Strip. \ufffdBut the Israeli army stumbled on the site when it was still occupying the area, although the Israelis did not carry out proper digs,\ufffd explained Abdelaziz Midan, the site\ufffds archaeological supervisor. The current works, mainly intended to uncover the remaining 20 percent of the large monastery that spans one and a half hectares (3.7 acres) in the middle of the Gaza Strip, are being undertaken by a French delegation of experts and financed by the French Consulate in Jerusalem. \ufffdWe are working closely with the Palestinians at the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry,\ufffd said Rene Elter, who heads the French cooperation mission. \ufffdWe bring them our expertise and benefit in return from their prior knowledge of the site,\ufffd he said. Midan could not agree more: \ufffdWe greatly benefit from this cooperation by learning more about the significance of the site, by having access to technologies and an expertise we do not have or cannot afford.\ufffd Once the entire site is uncovered and its remarkable mosaics are restored, Palestinians hope to turn part or all of the site into a museum \ufffd with French help. \ufffdThere are no tourists now, but they will be back one day,\ufffd says Ahmed Abdelrahman, who is responsible for the site\ufffds excavation. Pupils and local inhabitants are already drawn to the site, attracted by its beauty and originality in the otherwise battered and impoverished Gaza Strip. To Elter, the site is of great importance on more than one account. \ufffdThe monastery was originally built around the remains of Saint Hilarion, who settled here as a hermit. With him started the construction of monasteries throughout historical Palestine.\ufffd Saint Hilarion, of Greek descent, was born in Gaza in AD 329 and fled to Cyprus when his secluded hermitage was overrun by monastic followers. Although he died there, his remains were brought back to Gaza around AD 370. \ufffdUntil the eighth century, this site was a mandatory resting and worshiping area for pilgrims coming from Jerusalem on their way to the Sinai,\ufffd he said. North of the monastery, vestiges of a hostel and the well-preserved remains of a hamam, or Turkish bath, with marble tubs, large pools, and a sophisticated plumbing network still stand. Elter attaches special value to this site because \ufffdit links Palestinians to ancient history, to their roots and ancestors. In fact, the Byzantines are more of their ancestors than they are ours,\ufffd he adds. The Nusseirat site, 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Gaza City, is one of the many Byzantine sites on the Gaza Strip, which also housed a large Roman city and port, rivaling Alexandria. \ufffdEgyptians, Persians and Greeks also once inhabited the Gaza Strip. The oldest vestige ever found here dates back 3,500 years and is Egyptian,\ufffd said Elter. Midan and Abdelrahman noted that Palestine and its indigenous Canaanite people were always occupied but that \ufffdsome occupations were much better than others. The rulers were changing but the population stayed pretty much the same,\ufffd says Midan, who could not help drawing his colleagues\ufffd attention to an F-16 Israeli warplane streaking over the site. \ufffdIt\ufffds surreal working here because we\ufffdre cut off from reality, except for a few reminders when we hear bombings, shootings and planes in the distance,\ufffd says Elter. Meanwhile, Palestinian workers are busy uncovering and cleaning newly found mosaics whose tints of blue, red, green and ocher are wonderfully intact. Previously discovered mosaics feature delicate drawings of animals, birds, fountains and flowers. In the center of the site lie three floors of mosaics with intricate geometric patterns on which the last of the three churches that have been discovered so far was built. Elter is confident that yet another church will be discovered under the mosaics, one dating back to Saint Hilarion\ufffds times. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_310430_08/08/"}, {"response": 988, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (22:10)", "body": "Ancient tombs looted for antiques By Philippe Coumarianos - Agence France-Presse BAKHCHISARAI, Ukraine - Small-time tomb-raider Volodya shone his torch into the ancient terra-cotta amphora and swore. No gold. No precious stones. No documents. Nothing. Foiled, yet again. Night after night, Volodya and his band have combed the forests of southern Ukraine, tracking down one grave after another, in search of gold bracelets, rings and broaches commissioned by wealthy merchants but drawn a blank. Twelve burial sites, all dating back to the mists of time, have offered up a barrow-load of clay pottery but little that would flutter the hearts of the collectors and specialists who frequent the region\ufffds illegal antiquities markets. \ufffdHey, look over here,\ufffd hissed Sergei, an accomplice, as he bent over a stone slab he had uncovered at a depth of 3 meters (10 feet). \ufffdAnother tomb.\ufffd Several hefty blows with a steel bar later, and Volodya is able to squeeze through a passage into the neighboring vault. This time the beam of his torch falls onto the scattered remains of a woman buried some 1,500 years ago. Scratching around among the bone fragments, he\ufffds able to unearth a few bronze bits and pieces, some multicolor paste-glass necklaces, and some red earthenware jars, worth maybe a few hundred dollars at the Sevastopol flea market where Ukrainian and Russian collectors do their antiquity shopping. Every weekend in the season, the merchants and the adventurers gather on the hill overlooking the Black Sea port to negotiate their deals and commissions for the stolen historic treasures. Contacts are made by phone, or through trusted intermediaries for whom a nod is as good as a wink. The prize objects \ufffd gold artifacts, statuettes, glazed objects and vases from the Hellenic era \ufffd are sure of a rapid transfer to Moscow where they will change hands for a handsome profit. Some find their way onto the international antiquities market and to the auction houses where they can fetch tens of thousands of dollars. \ufffdIt\ufffds a disaster. Thousands of tombs have been looted in the past 10 years, and there\ufffds no sign of it abating,\ufffd said Culture Ministry official Shukri Seytumerov. The Crimean peninsula, jutting into the Black Sea, forms a historic crossroads between the Mediterranean world and the Eurasian steppes. It has been home to numerous civilizations. The Scythians, among the earliest of the region\ufffds known occupants, were followed from about the seventh century BC onward by the Greeks, to be succeeded by the legionnaires of Rome and the emperors of Byzantium. The burial sites, scattered over what is now wild and broken terrain, mostly date back to the period between the second century BC and the fourth century AD. Older Greek and Roman tombs are exceedingly rare. \ufffdMost of the tombs belonged to ordinary people. The objects buried with them usually have no commercial value but are extremely valuable historically,\ufffd said Seytumerov. During the winter, bands such as Volodya\ufffds roam the region looking for possible sites and preparing for the spade work which they begin in the spring. They move in groups of three or four, communicating by cell phone and leaving men strategically posted to stand watch in case the police should show. \ufffdTheir leaders are specialists, often having extensive historical knowledge comparable with archaeological experts,\ufffd Seytumarov noted. \ufffdUnfortunately, Ukrainian law is not strict enough to stamp out the trade in antiquities and the police are inefficient,\ufffd he said. In most cases, he noted, the few tomb-raiders who fell into police clutches faced little more than a suspended sentence. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_2031903_16/08/2002_19837"}, {"response": 989, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (22:18)", "body": "To GEO's resident archaeologist (even if he is currently too busy to be more than my guidance at this time...) HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DON !!! Ti leaf and Orchid Lei. Ti leaf for protecion against evil and orchids for beauty."}, {"response": 990, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (22:21)", "body": "I did close the tags. I wonder what went wrong...b"}, {"response": 991, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (22:24)", "body": "14th century window on burrowed time Rabbits have been credited with unearthing the remains of a rare glass window which once adorned a 14th century manor house. An English Heritage spokesman says the rabbits, which burrowed into what appeared to be a mundane grass-covered hump, had uncovered a large quantity of hand-painted medieval glass. Conservation experts are now attempting to preserve the glass before it deteriorates after being exposed to the air. Further details about the discovery, which was made at a secret location in Warwickshire, are expected to be released by English Heritage later. Story filed: 08:16 Tuesday 13th August 2002 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_649042.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 992, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (22:45)", "body": "If you keep company with an archaeolgist long enough you will end up being suggested for giving a paper. I think the one I have kept company with of late has me in mind for a future meeting at which he will also give a paper. My topic will either be stone walls of central Tennessee - a survey. Or gravehouses of the same area. I photographed the latter last weekend and foundthem unique and fascinating. I will post images of them shortly. I am curious if anywhere else in the world has such structures."}, {"response": 993, "author": "DonB", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (00:38)", "body": "test"}, {"response": 994, "author": "DonB", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (01:07)", "body": "Marci, John, Cheryl, and others -- my sincere apologies for being silent these past few weeks. During this time, I have been continuing my work relating to a rather extended study of paper mills in the southern Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861-1865) as an aspect of industrial archaeology, the study of \"archaic\" manufacturing facilities. According to the 1860 Federal manufactures census schedules, there were but 24 such mills recorded in the southern states out of 555 in the entire nation. Efforts on the part of the Confederates resulted in the construction of several additional mills but the vast majority of these were destroyed during the war. The focal point of my efforts has been directed toward the history and architecture of the 1849 William S. Whiteman paper mill near the small settlement of Whites Creek near Nashville, (Davidson County) Tennessee. As best as I can determine, this forlorn structure is likely the last standing Confederate paper mill in existence. It operated as a paper m ll until the spring of 1862 when Whiteman fled Nashville in advance of the Union occuption of that town. After the war, it was not placed back into service and was converted into use as a barn about 1870 (a function it still serves). The paper making equipment was apparently sold long ago. The property left Whiteman family hands in 1919. Comments from folks familiar with any comparable studies would be greatly appreciated. Marci will be posting a photograph of this structure in the near future."}, {"response": 995, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (01:36)", "body": "1849 Whiteman Paper Mill near Nashville, Tennessee"}, {"response": 996, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (01:42)", "body": "Notes on Whiteman Paper mill: The picture posted above is as the mill looks today. The center part with two windows, loft and main door are the original brick structure painted white on the outside. Interior shots to follow. The extensions to the left of the photograph are cattle sheds added after the mill ceased operation. The above photograph is in glorious black and white in preparation for journal publication on which Don is working."}, {"response": 997, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (10:41)", "body": "hi Don!!"}, {"response": 998, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (15:02)", "body": "Center of Athens set to get new park by 2004 The 7-hectare area is situated next to the Byzantine Museum A panoramic view of the existing area surrounding Vassilisis Sophias and Vassileos Constantinou avenues as well as Rigillis Street. The new park, which will be constructed next to the Byzantine and Christian Museum, is set to become a mini oasis for Athenians. By Dimitris Rigopoulos - Kathimerini By the spring of 2004, once the extension to the Byzantine and Christian Museum is complete, the residents of Athens will be able to enjoy what is expected to be a unique, 7-hectare leisure park, an oasis between two of the city\ufffds busiest roads (Vassilisis Sofias and Vassileos Constantinou) which will combine relaxing walks with archaeological sightseeing. Two events were catalytic to the forwarding of this ambitious plan: First and foremost was the discovery of the Aristotle Lyceum and the decision to transform it into an open-air archaeological site. The other factor was that the area on the corner of Vassileos Constantinou and Rizari, which once was an apartment building that was knocked down and then subsequently left to turn into a stinking swamp, is currently being transformed into a 700-space underground car park that will serve the nearby Evangelismos Metro station. According to the director of the Byzantine and Christian Museum, Dimitris Constantios, \ufffdintense pressure was applied on the ministries of Culture and Public Works for the right to exploit the land above the car park and make it a part of the park.\ufffd Their efforts paid off well and besides getting permission to use the area above the car park, the group was also allowed to plant trees and shrubbery which, according to Constantios, are part of a well-researched landscaping plan that examined the species of flora that existed in the area during antiquity. \ufffdWe want to recreate the landscape and that is why you will not see plants here which have nothing to do with the Athenian reality,\ufffd he said. The new park will be open 24 hours a day (the museum will hire security personnel and have a closed-circuit television surveillance system installed) and admission will be free of charge. The aim of the park will be, first and foremost, to create a model environment and, secondly, to provide a leisurely ambience for visitors to the museum or to Aristotle\ufffds Lyceum. \ufffdIf we succeed in attracting more people to the museum that way, then so much the better,\ufffd said Constantios. To add to visitors\ufffd enjoyment, the museum also has a cafe overlooking the park at the back of the museum while there are plans to build a restaurant there as well. Furthermore, an idea to have a small-sculpture display area is being discussed, as are plans for a small, 400-seat amphitheater that will host various shows during the summer months. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/civ__2452120KathiLev&xml/&aspKath/civ.asp?fdate=19/08/2002"}, {"response": 999, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (17:45)", "body": "My best wishes for your birthday Don. I am late but it is better now instead never, as we say in Greece. I find your work very interesting and useful even if I work on completely different object. John"}, {"response": 1000, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (22:36)", "body": "We say \"better late than never\" as our recycling of ancient axioms continues. I suspect that if we each did only one thing everyone considered \"important\" that history and many other fields would suffer. We hardly have time to teach today's children what we once learned. How will they ever know what is important and what is a waste of time? Only they can determine that. We each put pieces of the human experience puzzle into place to make a complete picture. John is as valuable in his profession and research as is Don in his. We need everyone. That, my mother informed me, was the reason we each liked different things. So we could get the most complete picture possible! Thanks for each of your different interests. Your expertise is what makes Geo precious."}, {"response": 1001, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (19:02)", "body": "Hello Don and I hope that you had a very Happy Birthday! Thanks for posting about your work concerning industrial archaeology in relation to the Whiteman paper mill. I must admit that I don't readily associate the Confederacy with industrialization, other than textile mills. That is a shortcoming on my part and I can only learn."}, {"response": 1002, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (21:10)", "body": "I am in agreement with you, Cheryl. I grew up in the part of the US were the American Revolution was fought. I am also learning about the Confederacy. Imagine life without paper. You can begin with newsapapers and end in the bathroom. Money and messages were all important in wartime and the North had the south blockaded. Things got VERY difficult before they got any better. It is a fascinating work Don is doing. I am fascinated at being in on each new discovery. I am learning with the rest of us. Don is an excellent guide!"}, {"response": 1003, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (22:46)", "body": "Mycenaean cemetery in Vari yields rich finds A cluster of richly furnished ancient graves dating to Mycenaean times has been discovered on the southern outskirts of Athens close to a settlement of the same period, a report said yesterday. According to the Ethnos daily, archaeologists conducting a rescue excavation in Vari have located 26 graves so far, which date from the 15th to the 12th centuries BC. This spans most of the Mycenaean era, the best-known remains of which are the citadels of Mycenae and Tiryns, and the Palace of Pylos in the Peloponnese. Over 100 vases have been recovered, along with terracotta figurines, copper knives, seals, gold beads and steatite pendants. They had been laid in 24 chamber graves \ufffd up to three meters wide with approaches up to 4 meters long \ufffd and two shaft graves, of the same type as the royal burials in Mycenae. The settlement was 300 meters away. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_2785960_20/08/2002_19950"}, {"response": 1004, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (19:19)", "body": "Cliff-cut Alexander scheme on the rocks A grandiose scheme, inspired by Greek-Americans, to carve an 80-meter-high likeness of Alexander the Great on a cliff in northern Greece has been denounced as a monstrosity by archaeologists and environmentalists alike, who are threatening legal action against the 30-million-euro project. The project's backers, who include local authorities in the area of Asprovalta and Vrasna, some 90 kilometers (56 miles) east of Thessaloniki at the far end of the Halkidiki peninsula, claim the rock-carving will \ufffdemphasize the Greekness of Macedonia\ufffd and attract tourists. \ufffdThe archaeologists are calling it a monstrosity, but we say it is the best thing being done in Greece,\ufffd local mayor Angelos Frantzis told Kathimerini. \ufffdIf they want a monument, why don't they do it in front of the town hall?\ufffd a local antiquities official countered. \ufffdWhy destroy the rock. Is it theirs?\ufffd http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100016_21/08/2002_19985"}, {"response": 1005, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug 22, 2002 (16:46)", "body": "Marcia, you're right, what is life without paper. It's so common, that we tend forget how important it is. Was it the Chinese who developed paper as we know it. I do know that the Egyptians had papyrus, made from a kind of reed. I suppose that it may well be classed as a sort of paper. In Europe in the Middle Ages and early Rennaissance, paper was made from cloth rags. I have used 100 percent linen rag paper when I was an art student. I somehow remember some association with the Chinese and paper, though. I know that they made rice paper, but I really don't know who came up with making paper from wood pulp. One last thing about paper, in Japan pre-pakaged food items are enclosed in an edible paper made from the skin that forms on top of tofu during the process of making it. That would be paper from soy beans."}, {"response": 1006, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug 22, 2002 (16:53)", "body": "I rather agree with the archaeologists and the environmentalists on the subject of the Alexander sculpture. From the standpoint of archaeology, what undiscovered sites might possibly be compromised or destroyed by the work involved carving the sculpture. Environmentally, what creatures habitats would be distupted by it, as well. Lastly, what about the geological ramifications concerning this particular sculpture. I'm certain that there are reasons in its favor, as well. They just don't seem as compelling to me."}, {"response": 1007, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (00:55)", "body": "The \"paper\" Cheryl mentions as wrapping for some foods ( candy mainly ) is edible. In Hawaii it is readily available. It is tasteless. The paper question I will answer tomorrow. In the meanwhile may I suggest a book with just the information you seek. Papermaking: The history and technique of an ancient craft by Dard Hunter. I have a copy and it is full of great information. Published in 1978, it is available in reprint paperback."}, {"response": 1008, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (13:08)", "body": "Thanks, Marcia."}, {"response": 1009, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (21:08)", "body": "Shawn, who rents the new construction from me, found a very strange and mysterious artifact today. It's solid bronze. It's a fragment of a sphere and it ahas strange symbols on it. I've never seen anything like it and have no idea what it could be. I took some pictures of it and I'll post them here when I get them transferred out of my camera. It's a fascinating object."}, {"response": 1010, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (21:58)", "body": "We're waiting to see the object. All we can say from Don's professional view is that it is not prehistoric - American-wise, anyway."}, {"response": 1011, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (22:25)", "body": "On our way home from Illinois archaeology site inspection we watched the moon rise a bright rosy pink. I wonder how it will appear in Athens: MOONLIT RUINS - Archaeological sites open to the public tonight Dozens of archaeological sites will be open to visitors free of charge from 9 p.m. tonight until 1 a.m., under the Ministry of Culture\ufffds annual policy of allowing public access to selected monuments on the night of the August full moon. Concerts will be held at most of the 56 sites involved, which include the Athenian Agora, Olympia, Delos, Mystras, Dodona and Dion. The Athens Acropolis will be open but without music. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100018_23/08/2002_20063"}, {"response": 1012, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (10:02)", "body": "solid bronze? wow. strange symbols? *humming the twilight zone theme* you know, it could be a relic from skirmishes earlier in this countries history. maybe the symbols are just worn and the only parts you see are making it so you cannot recognize it. can't wait to see the pics!"}, {"response": 1013, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (11:12)", "body": "Just processed them and ftped them to geo."}, {"response": 1014, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (12:15)", "body": "Don looked carefully at your pictures and asked again where it was found. He said during the Spanish-American War the Mexicans made small cannon balls out of COPPER. He says this one looks very like rough made cannon balls he has seen from that period. b"}, {"response": 1015, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (12:17)", "body": "If nothing else, Shawn has found a piece of History and it makes a good paper weight or bookend."}, {"response": 1016, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (17:10)", "body": "i'm thinking cannonball too, in fact, before i even got to your suggestion, i was thinking that!"}, {"response": 1017, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (17:26)", "body": "I asked Don if that was what it could be before I showed him the picture. I agree it is most likely that it is a cannonall."}, {"response": 1018, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (00:43)", "body": "That's my theory also. I wonder if I should take a metal detector to the area where we discoverd this cannonball. I wonder what the markings mean?"}, {"response": 1019, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (01:09)", "body": "Definitely on the metal detector. He will check but he guesses it might be a foundry mark. Make that the Mexican War . (My error is saying the Spanish American.) 1830s is the date for it. 0.70inch round musket balls would also be found in the same area if associated with a battle and not an accidental loss by a collector. Don is curious to know the context in which it was found."}, {"response": 1020, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (01:12)", "body": "Internet campaign to solve 30 year mystery of stolen pots http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_655335.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology Officials trying to recover more than 100 artefacts stolen three decades ago are mounting a 'no questions asked' internet campaign. Staff at Kolomoki Mounds State Historic Park in Georgia are posting 'wanted' photos of more than 100 pieces of missing pottery on their website. The collection of 1,500-year-old Native American artefacts was stolen from a South Georgia museum in 1974. Park superintendent, Eric Bentley, said: \"We're not all that interested in prosecuting the people responsible - we just want our pots back, no questions asked. \"We believe they're still out there, on someone's shelf or for sale in some flea market or artefact show.\" The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports the museum was unguarded and the thieves stole every item on display. Officials admit the trail has gone cold and the internet appeal is a last resort. Pictures of the missing pottery can be found on the park's website. http://www.geocities.com/kolomokistatepark/"}, {"response": 1021, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (11:43)", "body": "YES to the metal detector!!!"}, {"response": 1022, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (18:20)", "body": "Terry, you should also find inch-square thin black translucent pieces of flint used in the muskets a gun flints. Look for them. They make pretty and interesting things to display and to collect. Don has a study box of them from a shipwreck whose happening I found in articles on the internet. They were the first real hard evidence of a historic event I ever held in my hand. The second was minnie (mini or minne) balls which were the bullets fired in the Civil War. Quite unlike anything I had ever seen!"}, {"response": 1023, "author": "DonB", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (19:04)", "body": "To one and all, thank you for the very kind birthday wishes. At 55, I don't like to think I'm getting older -- just ever closer to retirement when I can devote much more time to the research projects that really interest me. To reurn for a moment to the copper object from Texas (and I hope not being over redundant on comments that Marci has already posted), I suspect the piece is half of a broken canon ball dating to the Mexican-American War of the 1830s. As I recall reading in an archaeological study of the Palo Alto Battlefield, the Mexicans at that time lacked iron foundries but did have copper mines and the facilities to smelt same. The markings likely relate to the factory which made the item. Also recovered at the Palo Alto Battlefield were \"small\" shot on the order of 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) in diameter -- these were also fired from canon in clusters. The types of related artifacts which might be encountered in association with this likely canon ball are ca. 0.70 inch (15.75 mm) diameter round lead balls fired from the smoothbore longarms of that era. I'm not immediately certain of their supply of gunflints -- though these may be black (or oxidized as a dull gray) suggestion production at Brandon, England, France was also exporting some flints (theirs were typically a \"honey\" yellow in color). I hope these comments help more than confuse the issue."}, {"response": 1024, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (20:09)", "body": "Thank you for your clarifications, Don. I find if I mess up the message sufficiently well, the person who really knows what I was trying to say will say it as intended. The only gun flints I have seen in real life were black, but I know there are other colors of flint that were used. Thank you for the clarification, again! Of course you know this exists but may I call to your attention the new Americana topic for discoveries in this part of the world dealing with things of American History and Folkways. Geo 81."}, {"response": 1025, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (06:02)", "body": "I prefer to say, \"This is my XXth turn around the Sun\", in each of my birthday Don. But I can use your words for retirement. Suddenly I become too close to it. I feel very strange because I was not ready\ufffd John"}, {"response": 1026, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (07:49)", "body": "John, with all your electronics background, do you have an amateur radio license?"}, {"response": 1027, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (15:47)", "body": "Albania yields Athena statue BUTRINT, Albania (AP) - Albanian archaeologists say they have discovered a 2,000-year-old statue in the ancient town of Butrint \ufffd ancient Greek Buthrotos \ufffd their first major find since the site was opened to researchers nearly 75 years ago. The statue, believed to depict Athena, the goddess of wisdom, was found last weekend at a dig in the town 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of Tirana. \ufffdWe have no other sculpture so big and powerful as this,\ufffd said chief archaeologist Dhimiter Condi, happily embracing the statue for photographers. The heavy marble statue, believed to date to the time of the Roman Emperor Octavian Augustus, is 2.16 meters (7.09 feet) tall and 0.65 meters (2.13 feet) wide and stands on a solid base. \ufffdIt is a vivid figure on the move,\ufffd said Auron Tare, manager of Butrint National Park. The Butrint site, located at a lake of the same name, was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1992. Many cultural activities \ufffd including the Miss Albania contest, concerts and festivals \ufffd are regularly held at an ancient theater on the site that seats 1,500. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100014_28/08/2002_20227"}, {"response": 1028, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 29, 2002 (00:29)", "body": "EVENT FOR THE RETURN OF THE NIKE OF SAMOTHRACE An event for the return of the statue of the Nike of Samothrace from the Museum of Louvre to its home, the island of Samothrace in northern Aegean, will take place on August 31 organized by the municipality of Samothrace. A message by the Daily Newspapers Journalists' Association of Macedonia-Thrace will be read by a representative of the association's board of directors in support of the demand. In the message it is stressed that the return of the Nike of Samothrace will be a victory of civilization and the efforts will continue until the goal is met. http://www.goGreece.com/news/headlines/story.html?id=7675"}, {"response": 1029, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  8, 2002 (17:53)", "body": "Archaeological dig at Bell's Tavern Park City residents are still learning about the people who built Bell's Tavern. Information about the old tavern has been unveiled in the past through archaeological digs that have taken place at the tavern's ruins. Several items have been unearthed through the digs, which usually take place in September each year. Another archaeological dig is scheduled to take place next week -- Sept. 12-14. Jay Stottman, staff archaeologist with the Kentucky Archaeological Survey, will be heading the dig this year. Helping him will be students from area schools. Students in the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grades will be taking part in the digs, which will be held at 8:45 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. Each session will last approximately an hour. The archaeology digs coincide with the Bell's Tavern Heritage Festival, which will be held Saturday, Sept. 14, and with plans to stabilize the tavern ruins and turn the immediate area around the tavern into a community park. A group of Kentucky masons recently visited the ruins to see what type of work they could do in stabilizing them, said Joy Lyons, chairperson of Bell's Tavern Historical Park Commission, which is overseeing the project. \"I like very much the idea of Kentucky craftsmen working on the ruins,\" Lyons said. \"They are Kentucky stone masons who are capable of stabilizing the ruins.\" At one point, the Bell's Tavern Historical Park Commission had discussed utilizing the services of the Historic Preservation Training Center, which is based in Maryland and is connected with the National Park Service, for stabilizing the tavern's ruins. \"They can do it for us, but with our TEA-21 project money we are going to try to get the most we can for every dollar,\" Lyons said, adding that if the commission decides to work with the Kentucky masons, they would have someone within the state who could do repair work in the future. The city received a $350,000 matching federal grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Equity Act for the 21st Century or TEA-21 for Bell's Tavern Historical Park project last November. Approximately $170,000 of the grant money will be used to stabilize the major stones of the Bell's Tavern ruins. The remainder of the money will be used to develop the area around the ruins into a community park. more... http://www.glasgowdailytimes.com/display/inn_local_news/newsb.txt"}, {"response": 1030, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  8, 2002 (17:56)", "body": "Don has seen the site above. It is, incidentally, in Kentucky. He is not working on this project, though. I would like to see it..."}, {"response": 1031, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  8, 2002 (20:45)", "body": "The quest for the Lost Colony ring By CATHERINE KOZAK, The Virginian-Pilot \ufffd September 3, 2002 BUXTON -- Unearthed nearly four years ago, among the broken remnants of an American Indian civilization, there was a ring. Once worn by an English nobleman, the 16th century gold signet ring was no doubt the most spectacular find in archaeological explorations of Croatan, the ancient capital of the only chiefdom that lived permanently on the Outer Banks. Few have seen the ring since. Many want to. more and pictures... http://www.pilotonline.com/news/nw0903art.html"}, {"response": 1032, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  8, 2002 (21:08)", "body": "And more curiousity about the ancient Americans: Ancient Illinois village unearths lode of questions CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Digging under a blazing sun in an Illinois cornfield, archaeologists this summer unearthed a fascinating anomaly: a 900-year-old square hilltop village. The discovery near Shiloh -- about 15 miles southeast of St. Louis -- challenges previous notions of the area's first people and adds a piece to the puzzle that was Cahokia, a huge \"mother culture\" that suddenly appeared, and just as suddenly vanished, leaving only traces of its majesty and meaning in the 11th century. more and photos... http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-09/uoia-aiv090202.php"}, {"response": 1033, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 10, 2002 (20:39)", "body": "The NEW Battle of Marathon? Battle over Marathon finds The revelation that Bronze Age building remains have been found during construction work for a controversial Olympic venue near Marathon in northern Attica took on a political twist yesterday with the opposition leader accusing the government of neglecting antiquities. Premier Costas Simitis canceled a visit planned for this week to the site of the 2004 rowing center at Schinias after New Democracy Chairman Costas Karamanlis arrived there unexpectedly yesterday to inspect the finds, whose existence the government only conceded on Sunday following a Kathimerini report. He complained to journalists that the Early Helladic remains, which, according to a Culture Ministry preliminary report, belong to two insignificant dwellings, \ufffdwere discovered not as a result of a systematic excavation but during earthworks for the construction of the rowing center.\ufffd Construction work at the northern end of an artificial lake has stopped to allow excavation of the finds, which end abruptly at the edge of the lake. \ufffdI must point out that this is the spot that the government claimed was under the sea [in antiquity] and allowed to be built on despite objections by archaeologists and historians,\ufffd the conservative leader added. The Culture Ministry, which has steadily rejected arguments the venue is being built on the site of the final stages of the 490 BC Battle of Marathon, says the 3000-2000 BC foundations belonged to isolated buildings on the verge of an ancient swamp. Yesterday, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos said he would decide on the fate of the finds once the full excavation report is available. \ufffdIt is not fitting for the opposition leader to suddenly descend, in the company of television cameras, on an excavation without having first notified the archaeological authorities,\ufffd he said. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100010_10/09/2002_20711"}, {"response": 1034, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 11, 2002 (20:26)", "body": "Old English mill built from captured US ship Scientists say a water mill in an English village contains ship timbers dating back to the last time the United Kingdom and US were at war. Beams used to build Wickham Mill in Hampshire were taken from the USS Chesapeake. The ship was captured by the Royal Navy off Boston in 1813. To this day, they still bear the signs of cracks and splinter damage caused by cannon fire during fierce fighting in which 93 sailors were killed and 156 wounded. As well as showing the signs of battle damage they also offered a glimpse into the history of the Chesapeake, which negro plantation slaves helped to build in 1799. The 1812 war between Britain and the US arose indirectly from the Napoleonic Wars. Resentment over the Royal Navy stopping and searching neutral American ships bound for blockaded ports spilled over into a conflict that lasted three years. The Star Spangled Banner was written during the war, and the White House was burned by the British. HMS Shannon engaged the Chesapeake in the coastal waters off Boston. The American commander, Captain James Lawrence, was mortally wounded and his last words \"Don't give up the ship\" passed into US Navy folklore. Describing the story, Dr Robert Prescott from the research team at the University of St Andrew's said: \"This was the great age of the frigate. This was where all the dashing young commanders wanted to be. It attracted young hotheads.\" After repairs, Chesapeake was sold by the Royal Navy in 1819 for breaking up. The following year, a builder called John Prior bought some of her timber for \ufffd3,450 for the water mill. The mill's dimensions reflect those of the ship, which was carefully dismantled so that every last inch of the long timbers could be used. Speaking at the British Association Festival of Science at Leicester University, Dr Prescott said: \"When you go into the mill you can easily be fooled into thinking you are on board a ship. All the beams over your head which hold up the floor above you are gun deck and quarter deck beams from the ship, and all the lintels that span the openings of doors and windows are from the ship.\" http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_668004.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1035, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 12, 2002 (08:22)", "body": "Phenomenon at Loch Ness A skeptical Earth scientist throws more cold water on Scotland's liveliest legend. The Loch Ness Monster is a well-known, even beloved icon for all kinds of believers and skeptics. Is the legendary Scottish creature merely the roilings of earthquake gas? Not far from Nessie's home lake, a provocative visitor from Italy has argued just that. The occasion was a 2001 gathering of geoscientists in Edinburgh, Scotland, called Earth System Processes, the first-ever collaboration by the Geological Society of America and the Geological Society of London. Such gatherings are a carnival of science, and the research presented there is fresh, unpublished, speculative, even provocative. Meeting presentations are also considered \"gray literature,\" useful snapshots but not formal publications that are reviewed beforehand by fellow scientists. So the latest Loch Ness theory, presented in a poster session by Luigi Piccardi, was nothing truly serious. Piccardi has been arguing recently that the mythology and sacred places of the ancient Mediterranean owe a lot to geologic activity, like earthquakes or the Delphic Oracle. In Edinburgh, Piccardi presented a poster extending that argument to Scotland. The earliest account of the monster in Loch Ness, from the seventh century, refers to the creature's appearance and disappearance being accompanied by shaking. And the lake happens to lie directly upon the active Great Glen earthquake fault. \"In this light,\" goes his reasoning, \"many modern eyewitness reports attributed to Nessie may find a simple natural explanation. > > http://geology.about.com/library/weekly/aa070101a.htm"}, {"response": 1036, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Sep 17, 2002 (02:00)", "body": "U.S. Scientists Find Famous Viking Site in Iceland September 16, 2002 07:45 PM ET By Gina Keating LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California archeologists have discovered a Viking Age farm in northern Iceland that may have been home to Snorri Thorfinnsson, the first European child born in North America and a hero in Norse folk legends, the University of California Los Angeles announced on Monday. More on Reuters-Science John"}, {"response": 1037, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 18, 2002 (19:39)", "body": "The local archaeological news is at a site not thought to have any value and under pressure for modern development they found Late Woodland pottery pieces and some human bones. This is very exciting. In this area, these finds have not been made since I have been acquanited with it. I await further developments. Other than being an archaeologist myself, this is a very close exciting second place option."}, {"response": 1038, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (23:49)", "body": "Stone Age woman ate like a wolf THE thigh bone of a Stone Age woman who ate almost as much meat as a wolf has been found in a dried-up channel of the Trent. It gives archaeologists their earliest look at the development of the British diet. Chemical analysis of the 7,700-year-old femur shows that the \ufffdLady of Trent\ufffd, whose remains were unearthed at the Nottinghamshire village of Staythorpe, was not one to eat her greens. Her diet had a meat content more similar to that of a wolf or a lion than of modern man. Further evidence of her diet comes from bones of a similar age belonging to deer and wild cattle, many bearing cut marks typical of human butchery, that were found at the site. The discovery, by scientists from Sheffield University who were monitoring gravel extraction for a housing development, is highly significant. Very few human bones from the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) have been found in Britain. Glyn Davies, of the university\ufffds archaeological research and consultancy unit, said that the discovery had already cast important light on the lifestyle of Britain\ufffds inhabitants in a little-known period. \ufffdThis was an extremely rare he said. \ufffdIt tells us that here was a settlement of humans that lived inland, hunting animals, when people generally moved around seasonally between the hills and the coast.\ufffd The Lady of Trent\ufffds thigh bone suggests she was about 5ft 2in. She probably lived in a community of 10-25 individuals, from several families, who would have hunted game with flint-tipped or fire-hardened wooden spears. She lived between 5700 and 5600 BC, radiocarbon dating has shown. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-2-398917,00.html"}, {"response": 1039, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 22, 2002 (09:45)", "body": "She may have tall for her time!"}, {"response": 1040, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Sep 23, 2002 (06:59)", "body": "The clockwork computer From The Economist print edition The Antikythera mechanism An ancient piece of clockwork shows the deep roots of modern technology WHEN a Greek sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck of a cargo ship off the tiny island of Antikythera in 1900, it was the statues lying on the seabed that made the greatest impression on him. He returned to the surface, removed his helmet, and gabbled that he had found a heap of dead, naked women. The ship's cargo of luxury goods also included jewellery, pottery, fine furniture, wine and bronzes dating back to the first century BC. But the most important finds proved to be a few green, corroded lumps\ufffdthe last remnants of an elaborate mechanical device\ufffd Much more in: Economist.com, Science & Technology"}, {"response": 1041, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (17:42)", "body": "I remember that set of gears and other clockwork items corroded into what looked like a watch maker's nightmare. How old it is compared with the modern usage of clockwork! Thank you, John, for reminding us that we have forgotten much and still have much to learn!' We went out on another archaeological survey of a site yesterday. This time to Indiana and a national guard training facility. They want to widen a road and move a little stream. Nothing was found archaeologically, but they did have a great static display of armaments, and the only exisitng (as far as we knew) Prisoner of War chapel from WW2. It was built by Italian prisoners. The whole site was built for German and Italian POWs and after the war, was given to the state of Indiana for training of their National Guard troops. We even got to see some. Especially pleasant, it was a beautiful sunny day with deep clear blue skies and cool temperatures. \"October's bright blue weather...\" How I have missed autmun!"}, {"response": 1042, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 27, 2002 (07:46)", "body": "2004 venue\ufffds ancient finds to be saved - Survey: area was under water The battered remains of three 4,500-year-old houses discovered on the site of an Olympic sporting venue near Marathon in northern Attica will be preserved with two of the buildings to be shifted a few dozen meters out of the way, the government said yesterday. The dwellings, which were probably linked to a larger settlement to the north, were discovered last month. But while announcing his determination to save the Early Bronze Age remains from destruction, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos failed to convincingly defend his main argument in favor of the government's controversial decision to build the Olympic rowing course at Schinias on land linked with the 490 BC Battle of Marathon. The findings of a geological survey, conducted last year under Thessaloniki University geologist Antonios Psilovikos and presented yesterday at a press conference hosted by Venizelos, showed that, since Neolithic times, the Schinias area - some 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Athens - has been covered by freshwater swamp and lake, salt marsh, and lagoon. Venizelos has long claimed that Schinias was covered by the sea in the fifth century BC, in order to dismiss critics who say the venue is being built on swampland where the final phase of the battle took place. \ufffdFor the past 5,500 to 6,000 years, the area was under water,\ufffd Psilovikos said. \ufffdThere is no doubt whatsoever of that.\ufffd The 120 soil samples taken by Psilovikos's team revealed traces of aquatic life from which conclusions were taken on the historical morphology of the area. \ufffdWe found hundreds of shells,\ufffd he said, \ufffdbelonging to freshwater shellfish, shellfish that live in low-saline water and seawater shellfish.\ufffd \ufffdIn this area, any thought not only of battle but even of approach would have been impossible. Anyone trying to get there would have sunk in the mud, and would have been totally unable to advance.\ufffd This, however, concurs with ancient historians' accounts of the defeated Persian invaders fleeing their Athenian pursuers into a large swamp which accounted for a large portion of the Persian casualties. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100006_27/09/2002_21379"}, {"response": 1043, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 27, 2002 (07:47)", "body": "Roman iron factory uncovered A Roman iron factory has been discovered at a remote moorland site. A team from the University of Exeter unearthed the site during a month-long dig near Brayford, Exmoor. Archaeologists believe large quantities of iron were produced at the 2,000-year-old site for use across the UK and abroad. Excavation director Dr Gill Juleff said: \"Clearly what was being produced was over and above the needs of the local population. It would probably have gone to an international market.\" The team of 20 students and archaeologists dug a 30 metre long trench to uncover an intact factory floor. Furnaces where iron was smelted were also found in the 10-metre-deep trench. Pottery remains also discovered at the site date back to the second and third centuries AD. Dr Juleff said: \"The big question is whether it was a site run by local people or whether the work was directed by the Roman Army. She added: \"What is interesting about this is that until very recently it was believed that the Romans hadn't reached this far, but now the story is quite different. Archaeologists will continue excavation work on Exmoor next summer. The dig forms part of a four-year project funded by English Heritage. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_677823.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1044, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 27, 2002 (15:34)", "body": "2004 venue\ufffds ancient finds to be saved Survey: area was under water The battered remains of three 4,500-year-old houses discovered on the site of an Olympic sporting venue near Marathon in northern Attica will be preserved with two of the buildings to be shifted a few dozen meters out of the way, the government said yesterday. The dwellings, which were probably linked to a larger settlement to the north, were discovered last month. But while announcing his determination to save the Early Bronze Age remains from destruction, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos failed to convincingly defend his main argument in favor of the government's controversial decision to build the Olympic rowing course at Schinias on land linked with the 490 BC Battle of Marathon. The findings of a geological survey, conducted last year under Thessaloniki University geologist Antonios Psilovikos and presented yesterday at a press conference hosted by Venizelos, showed that, since Neolithic times, the Schinias area - some 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Athens - has been covered by freshwater swamp and lake, salt marsh, and lagoon. Venizelos has long claimed that Schinias was covered by the sea in the fifth century BC, in order to dismiss critics who say the venue is being built on swampland where the final phase of the battle took place. \ufffdFor the past 5,500 to 6,000 years, the area was under water,\ufffd Psilovikos said. \ufffdThere is no doubt whatsoever of that.\ufffd The 120 soil samples taken by Psilovikos's team revealed traces of aquatic life from which conclusions were taken on the historical morphology of the area. \ufffdWe found hundreds of shells,\ufffd he said, \ufffdbelonging to freshwater shellfish, shellfish that live in low-saline water and seawater shellfish.\ufffd \ufffdIn this area, any thought not only of battle but even of approach would have been impossible. Anyone trying to get there would have sunk in the mud, and would have been totally unable to advance.\ufffd This, however, concurs with ancient historians' accounts of the defeated Persian invaders fleeing their Athenian pursuers into a large swamp which accounted for a large portion of the Persian casualties. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100006_27/09/2002_21379"}, {"response": 1045, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  1, 2002 (12:53)", "body": "Italy to return a fragment of the Parthenon frieze to Greece 30/09/2002 21:19:12 ROME (ANA/L/Hatzikyriakos) - A fragment of the Parthenon frieze presently housed in Palermos Museo Nazionale will be returned to Greece during Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampis official visit to Athens on 6 November, Italian daily La Republica reported on Monday. The 14-by-13.4-inch foot of Pithos, a fragment from the eastern Parthenon frieze, gifted 150 years ago by a British diplomat to the Palermo Museum, will be returned to Athens by the Italian President, the article said, adding that this would be enough to ?rekindle? the confrontation over the return of various archaeological finds, now housed in museums around the world, to their countries of origin. According to La Republica, this is a ?gesture of friendship? providing the Greek authorities with the opportunity to resume the campaign for the repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles that are now housed in Londons British Museum. Sculpted in the fifth century BC, the 176-yard frieze was removed from the Parthenon 200 years ago by Lord Elgin, the British Ambassador to Istanbul at the time. http://www.hri.org/news/greek/apeen/2002/02-09-30.apeen.html"}, {"response": 1046, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  5, 2002 (20:28)", "body": "Face of original Londoner revealed The face of a pre-historic British woman can be seen for the first time in over 5,000 years. She has been dubbed the capital's first lady and the original Londoner after becoming the oldest human ever unearthed in the city. Researchers reconstructed her face and now believe she may have come originally from either Derbyshire, the Mendips or perhaps further north. Shepperton Woman, named after the place in the west London suburbs where her grave was found, had her face rebuilt by medical artists using the same procedures used in police investigations when detectives try to find the identity of human remains. The skeleton dates from the Stone Age - between 3,640 and 3,100BC. The face shows a woman with striking but heavy features who died aged between 30 and 40 years. Shepperton Woman will go on display to the public for the first time on October 18 at the Museum of London in the centre of the City. Hedley Swain, head of early history at the Museum, said: \"She seems to have travelled quite widely within Britain but not abroad. \"Life would have been pretty tough for her. People at that time lived in quite large, extended family groups or tribes. They had to work very hard to struggle for existence.\" The body was originally recovered from Staines Road Farm, in Shepperton, in 1989 and the remains were reconstructed by facial anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson of Manchester University. Medical artists took two weeks to rebuild it before a plaster cast was made. Clay was then applied and gradually the reconstructed face of the individual appeared - more than five millennia after she died. Photo of her likeness: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_683602.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1047, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  5, 2002 (21:22)", "body": "someone did a computer likeness of King Tut and it was scary to see!"}, {"response": 1048, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  6, 2002 (20:45)", "body": "King Tutankhamun was scary? How so? He was so young!!"}, {"response": 1049, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  6, 2002 (21:12)", "body": "the image the computer created looked creepy--but not because it was ugly or anything, just creepy. think i saw it on msn.com or ccn.com.....supposed to have some special about who really did want to take over after him."}, {"response": 1050, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  6, 2002 (21:18)", "body": "here's a link to the King Tut stuff--but, clicking on the article about what he looked like doesn't bring up the pic as I saw it for the first time--this one is less eerie: http://dsc.discovery.com/anthology/unsolvedhistory/kingtut/kingtut.html"}, {"response": 1051, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  8, 2002 (18:25)", "body": "Looking... BTW, I think someone is messing around with the graphics and programming. Suddenly I am getting a lot of little boxes amongst the letters of the programming titles and buttons here, but not the posted texts. Interesting! I have no idea what this means. It reminds me of a Japanese webite!"}, {"response": 1052, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  8, 2002 (18:30)", "body": "This is the reconstructed likeness - more likely than the stock portrayals: From the website Wolfie cites above. Not nearly as cute as the little statues!"}, {"response": 1053, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  8, 2002 (20:38)", "body": "but not ugly, that's for sure. the other picture had more upturned corners of the mouth, making it look like he had scars across his cheeks. but it must've been another website i saw that pic at. will check cnn.com and see what they have."}, {"response": 1054, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  8, 2002 (20:58)", "body": "Hi Wolfie!!! It is fun to be on the same time you are even if we cannot IM. *sigh* Fleshing out the Acropolis bones Nearly 150 years of excavations on the summit of the Acropolis have laid bare the limestone base, now worn slippery by millions of pairs of shoes, on which the monumental buildings of the fifth century BC were erected. But in some years, if plans presented on Sunday by a leading Acropolis expert are implemented, tons of earth will be used to restore the surface of the citadel rock to its classical form. Speaking at the end of an international meeting on the 27-year-old Acropolis restoration project, architect Manolis Korres, who has headed restoration efforts on the Parthenon, proposed covering the exposed bedrock with earth. He said exposure to the elements was damaging the monuments\ufffd foundations and destabilizing the rock itself, as well as the enceinte. In classical times, he argued, the soil on the walled summit of the rock was distributed among a series of artificial terraces that contained sanctuaries to the gods. The Acropolis Restoration Service, which manages work on the citadel, wants to implement Korres\ufffds plans after 2006, when a 31.5-million-euro cycle of restoration is due to end. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100016_08/10/2002_21770"}, {"response": 1055, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  8, 2002 (21:02)", "body": "Speaking of the Acropolis... In Nashville, Tennessee, there is a full size replica of the Parthenon. I would love to go see it. Perhaps I might get there after all. I just spoke to the person who could get me there and he agreed it would be a great idea to visit. Oooh!!!"}, {"response": 1056, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  8, 2002 (21:06)", "body": "Roman statue unearthed in Paphos building site A CYPRIOT pensioner saw a marble elbow protruding from rubble at a building site and unearthed a large 2000-year-old Roman-era statue. \"It is in very good condition, it is the best preserved we have found in Paphos,\" said Efstathios Raptou, head of the Paphos division of the antiquities department. The white marble statue, missing its head, was possibly cast in the mould of a woman who lived at the time, he said. The statue was discovered Paphos on Saturday and has been moved to a local museum for maintenance. Cyprus was under Roman rule from 30 BC to 330 AD. (R) http://www.goGreece.com/news/headlines/story.html?id=9017"}, {"response": 1057, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (18:57)", "body": "marcia, you have got to email me!!!!"}, {"response": 1058, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (19:39)", "body": "Just did!"}, {"response": 1059, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (19:42)", "body": "MoD hoping to strike gold with salvage deal A deal has been struck between the Ministry of Defence and a US salvage company to search for a treasure trove of gold coins worth up to \ufffd2.8 billion in a sunken British warship. HMS Sussex, which went down in a storm off Gibraltar in the Mediterranean Sea in 1694, was thought to be carrying nine tonnes of gold coins belonging to the Treasury. When the Sussex sank she was loaded with gold and silver that was headed to Spain to be handed over to the Duke of Savoy to fund his war against King Louis XIV during the war with France. The contract allows Odyssey Marine Exploration, which found the ship in 1998, to claim a share of the booty. Under international law the warship and its cargo is considered to be the property of its home country. The salvage project is expected to begin next year and Odyssey will spend three to six months exploring the wreck, which is a half-mile deep. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_685202.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1060, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (19:43)", "body": "Australian shipwreck could pre-date Captain Cook Archaeologists believe a shipwreck found buried off Australia's east coast could pre-date the arrival of Captain James Cook The team found the 100ft wreck buried under sand on Fraser Island, about 680 miles north of Sydney. Team leader Greg Jeffreys says a row of four cannons suggests the ship was a European military exploration vessel from the 17th century. \"The cannon definitely are not English cannon. We know the style of most of the English cannon, so we are looking at a European ship - probably 1650s around that era,\" he said. Photographs of the weapons will be sent to experts to verify their age and where they were made. Jeffreys says as the ship is excavated other finds such as dinner plates, glasses, weapons or money could provide more accurate evidence of its origin. Captain Cook is credited with being the first European explorer to find and chart Australia's east coast in 1770. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_685328.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1061, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 24, 2002 (15:47)", "body": "Is the ship Dutch, do you think? I know that the Dutch had been sailing in the vacinity of Australia's west coast around the time of Cook's expedition."}, {"response": 1062, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 25, 2002 (15:25)", "body": "Quite possibly Dutch. Abel Tasman got around there a lot. Burial box is 'proof of Jesus' An archaeologist is claiming an inscription on a burial box is the oldest solid evidence Jesus existed. more and picture http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_694350.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1063, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 25, 2002 (16:40)", "body": "Experts solve crop lines mystery The remains of a massive Iron Age cattle ranch have been identified in North Yorkshire. The ranching operation stretches for more than 10km on a chalky hillside near Malton. It's being hailed as a major find by archaeologists because of its sheer scale. The site has baffled experts since mysterious lines were spotted in crops over it when aerial photographs were taken in the 1950s. But a team of archaeologists, including English Heritage investigator Dave MacLeod, believe they have now solved the mystery. Although there are no physical remains on the site, by using the latest techniques of aerial archaeology combined with ground excavations, the team examined the lines - which are thought to date back to the 2nd century BC. They identified ditches and banks which created funnels used to channel thousands of livestock into droveways leading to the only reliable water source in the area. It's thought the funnels were part of a much bigger system stretching over 20km. Mr MacLeod said: \"Nowhere else in the UK do we see funnel structure of this complexity or on such a massive scale. \"Essentially we are looking at the remains of a highly sophisticated cattle business that is more reminiscent of the High Chaparral than small scale peasant farming. It paints a vastly different picture of the Iron Age. \"English Heritage, which was involved in the project as part of the BBC2 series Time Flyer, says the site will not be protected as there are no physical remains on it. Story filed: 15:48 Friday 25th October 2002 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_696939.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1064, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Fri, Oct 25, 2002 (22:31)", "body": "Thanks Marcia. Will have to look for further details"}, {"response": 1065, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (22:43)", "body": "NASA Images Find 1,750,000 Year Old Man-Made Bridge The Hindustan Times 10-10-2 WASHINGTON (PTI) -- The NASA Shuttle has imaged a mysterious ancient bridge between India and Sri Lanka, as mentioned in the Ramayana. The evidence, say experts matter-of-factly, is in the Digital Image Collection. The recently discovered bridge, currently named as Adam's Bridge and made of a chain of shoals, 30 km long, in the Palk Straits between India and Sri Lanka, reveals a mystery behind it. The bridge's unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man-made. Legend as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge's age is also almost equivalent. more and image... http://rense.com/general30/nasa.htm"}, {"response": 1066, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (22:52)", "body": "Sensational Finding at Samoil Fortress - Golden Mask Alike the Trebenista Ones Excavated (Vest, 3.10.2002) - This is an epochal discovery for the Macedonian, Balkan and European archaeology since it sheds additional scientific light to the widely famous Trebenista necropolis near Ohrid. The tomb and all the items found in there date back to 5th B.C. pointing to the oldest burial within the Lichnidos necropolis. A golden postmortem mask and a golden glove with a golden ring were discovered at the Samoil Fortress three days ago (Monday, 30 September). more and pictures... http://www.culture.in.mk/story.asp?id=4829"}, {"response": 1067, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (23:03)", "body": "Just in time for Hallowe'en: 2,000 bodies found underneath family home A Romanian family plans to move out after finding they were sharing their home with more than 2,000 dead bodies. The find was unearthed in the cellar of the property after plumbers came in to repair a pipe and discovered the skeletons under the floor. The Oana family say they have been living in the house in Sibiu, Transylvania, for half a century but no longer want to return after being told of the find. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_690236.html"}, {"response": 1068, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  7, 2002 (12:47)", "body": "Transylvania sounds like a place where a plumber would find some bodies. But 2,000!"}, {"response": 1069, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (19:20)", "body": "*Laugh* You're right, Terry. And no hauntings like in Indian Burials scenarios? I am surprised! Temple to gay love unearthed near Rome A temple devoted to gay love has been discovered by archaeologists in Italy. They found remains which were once dedicated to a lover of the Emperor Hadrian about 20 miles east of Rome. The temple of Antinous dates from 134 AD shortly after his death. Zaccaria Mari, the head archaeologist on the site says archaeologists have dug up parts of the walls of the monumental temple and made a couple of exploratory excavations. He told 365Gay:\"We found a series of fountains and planters for interior gardens, niches for statues and very important marble fragments, some with Egyptian hieroglyphics,\" Mr Mari said. \"I'm sure this discovery will cause a lot of controversy, because it flies in the face of previously accepted theories, but only further excavations will give all of the answers.\" Historians are divided over whether the emperor's favourite lover committed suicide in the river Nile or was pushed in. Antinous was despised by the emperor's jealous aides, but it could never be proven that he was murdered. Other scholars claim Antinous committed suicide before old age destroyed his looks. He was 21. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_710095.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1070, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (19:21)", "body": "Ancient iceman 'probably killed by his own people' A man frozen in Alpine ice more than 5,000 years ago could have been shot with an arrow by one of his own people. The body of \"Otzi the Iceman\" was discovered by hikers in 1991 as ice melted in the Schnalstal glacier, high in the Italian Alps. Otzi was found half emerged from the ice and his body was first thought to be that of a modern climber. Closer examination showed he was still wearing goatskin leggings and a grass cape. His copper-headed axe and a quiver full of arrows were found nearby and radio-carbon dating showed the body was more than 5,000 years old. Scientists believe Otzi came from the southern Alps after studying artefacts found with his body. Last year an arrow-head embedded inside the mummified corpse was found and the latest research has helped to narrow the search for the iceman's attacker. Professor Annaluisa Pedrotti, from Trento University in Italy, was called in to examine the arrowhead. She said: \"The type of arrowhead found in Otzi's body has a very specific 'tanged' shape. It occurs only in the southern Alps and in northern Italy, not in the northern Alps where the arrowheads tend to have a flat base. That means that the guilty party lived south of the Alps and was probably one of Otzi's own people.\" She said it was still unclear how Otzi died and that many questions remained to be answered. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_708952.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1071, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 2002 (19:56)", "body": "Scientist: Oldest American skull found (CNN) -- Researchers said it may be the oldest skull ever found in the Americas: an elongated-faced woman who died about 13,000 years ago. But perhaps more significant than the age, researchers said, is that the skull and other bones were found while a well was being dug near Mexico City International Airport. Because the remains were discovered outside the United States, scientists will be able to study the DNA and structure of the skeleton without the objection of Native American groups, who can claim and rebury ancestral remains under a 1990 U.S. law. \"Here Mexico is providing the opportunity to see what clues these bones can yield about man's arrival in the American continent,\" Mexican anthropologist Jose Concepcion Jimenez Lopez said. The oldest skull in the Americas up to now, believed to be that of \"Buhl Woman,\" was found in 1989 at a gravel quarry in Idaho. Scientists said it dates back 10,500 to 11,000 years. But researchers scarcely studied those bones before the Shoshone-Bannock tribe claimed and reburied them. The \"Pe\ufffdon Woman III\" -- which scientists believe is now the oldest skull from the New World -- has been sitting in Mexico City's National Museum of Anthropology since 1959. At the insistence of geologist Silvia Gonzalez, who had a hunch that the bones were older than previously thought, the remains were taken to Oxford University to be carbon-dated. And indeed, tests proved Gonzalez's assertion. Scientists said they believe that the Pe\ufffdon Woman died anywhere from 12,700 to 13,000 years ago at the age of 27. Did humans arrive in the Americas by boat? Emboldened by her finding, Gonzalez will try to prove her theory that the bones of the Pe\ufffdon Woman belong not to Native Americans, but to descendants of the Ainu people of Japan. She said she bases her hypothesis on the elongated, narrow shape of the Pe\ufffdon Woman's skull. Native Americans, she said, are round-faced with broad cheeks. \"Quite different from Pe\ufffdon Woman,\" she said. She said she believes descendants of the Ainu people made their way to the New World by island hopping on boats. \"If this proves right, it's going to be quite contentious,\" said Gonzalez, who teaches at John Moores University in England and received a grant last week from the British government to conduct her research. \"We're going to say to Native Americans, 'Maybe there were some people in the Americas before you, who are not related to you.' \" Gonzalez's theory is controversial but gaining credence in scientific circles, where up to now many believed hardy mammoth hunters were first to arrive in the Americas 14,000 to 16,000 years ago by crossing into Alaska from Siberia. Gonzalez and other scientists said they believe people may have arrived in America as much as 25,000 years ago. She points to evidence of camps -- man-made tools, a human footprint and huts dating back 25,000 years -- that have been found in Chile as evidence of man's imprint on the Americas long before mammoth hunters. Searching for answers to coastal migration Gonzalez will embark on a three-year journey to prove her theory. As part of that journey, she will travel to Baja California to study the Pericue people, who shared the same elongated faces of the Pe\ufffdon Woman. She said she believes that the Pericue, who for unknown reasons went extinct in the 18th century, may hold the answers to coastal migration of man from Asia to America. The bones of the Pe\ufffdon Woman will have DNA extracted to compare it with genetic matter of the Pericue, she said. Scientists also said they hope to study clothes fibers found near the skeleton and try to piece together how the woman died. Gonzalez said the skeleton does not show any wounds or obvious injuries. \"We still have a long way to go,\" she said. \"But we have a good start.\" This is the link to the article: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/12/03/oldest.skull/index.html"}, {"response": 1072, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 2002 (23:59)", "body": "Thanks Cheryl. America's earliest written language uncovered Carvings believed to be the earliest form of written language in the Americas have been found in Mexico. Symbols dating back to 650BC were found by archaeologists in the San Andreas region of Tabasco state, near the Gulf of Mexico. They were found on chips from a stone plaque and on a cylinder stone used for printing that were unearthed in a dig at the site of an ancient Olmec city near La Venta. The symbols are 350 years older than the oldest previously discovered American writings. Kevin Pope and Mary Pohl have published their study in the American Science magazine. Mr Pope told The News online: \"Only a handful of civilisations have ever made the leap from spoken to written language.\" The carvings were interpreted to mean \"king\" and \"3 Ajaw\", which researchers believe was the name of a ruler. The Olmec's system of carvings for dates and names was adopted by the Mayas, who then developed it into a highly sophisticated language over the next 1,000 years. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_723136.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1073, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (14:36)", "body": "A British archaeologist has uncovered what is probably the unluckiest church in the world The church was wrecked by two earthquakes, a flood, and a landslide - all of which happened while it was still being built. It later became an opium den and after it was abandoned most of the remains were washed into the sea. St Phocas' Church was founded on what is now a clifftop at the Turkish city of Sinop, on the shores of the Black Sea, because this is where its patron saint was martyred. The site was discovered when the Sinop museum found pieces of late Roman mosaic washed up at the coastal village of Chiftlik in the mid-1990s. Dr Stephen Hill, from the University of Warwick, was asked to investigate by the museum and he found not just a mosaic, but the site of a large, previously unknown 4th century church. \"It will survive into next year but its long-term future is not good. It probably won't see too many more Friday 13ths,\" he said. The church's founder, St Phocas, the patron saint of gardeners and sailors, was a Christian hermit who dug his own grave the day before he was martyred by Roman soldiers in the 2nd century AD. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_726609.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1074, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 19, 2002 (23:01)", "body": "Treasure in Kythnos sanctum On one of the least developed Cycladic islands, archaeologists have hit on one of the most coveted prizes of Greek archaeology \ufffd the unplundered inner sanctum of an ancient temple replete with offerings in precious metals and luxurious pottery items. A team led by University of Thessaly Associate Professor of archaeology Alexandros Mazarakis-Ainian discovered the treasure chamber in a ruined temple of a female divinity at Vriokastro on Kythnos, on the western fringe of the archipelago. The sanctum \ufffd called adyton by the ancient Greeks \ufffd was forbidden to all but the priests of the temple and contained sacred statues of the divinity as well as offerings brought by worshippers. These could include precious jewels, gifts donated by dignitaries to enhance their own prestige and spoils of war. \ufffdBehind the cella (main hall) of the temple, and on the other side of a wall with a threshold in its middle, where nobody would have expected it, we discovered the adyton,\ufffd Mazarakis-Ainian said in an interview published in yesterday\ufffds Vima daily. \ufffdOn the earthen floor and in the destruction layer covering it, in other words, practically on the surface, we found some 1,500 precious objects.\ufffd The opulence is impressive. Finds, which dated mostly from the seventh to the fifth centuries BC \ufffd thus defining the life span of the temple \ufffd included 70 golden artifacts, 150 in silver, 450 in bronze, 70 terracotta figurines, 50 intact and many smashed vases. The majority of the pottery was painted, and some pieces have been linked to master painters. There was also a small stone bead incised with a boat, dating from Minoan times, which could have been a family heirloom. The temple, which may have belonged to Hera or Aphrodite, was probably destroyed by earthquake. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100011_19/12/2002_24404"}, {"response": 1075, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 24, 2002 (17:58)", "body": "Neolithic gold on Myconos At the furthest recess of the Bay of Panormos, which cuts deep into the northern coast of Myconos, archaeologists excavating a 7,000-year-old settlement have unearthed well-preserved remains of public buildings and a rare example of the Neolithic goldsmith\ufffds art. Dig head Adamantios Sampson told Kathimerini that this year\ufffds excavation at Ftelia, a beach popular among windsurfers, turned up two small buildings ending in apses that were probably not used as simple dwellings. He believes the structures \ufffd whose walls survive to a height of 1.8 meters \ufffd may have been granaries, or even cult areas. An earlier building, dating to around 5000 BC, is seen as a precursor of the Megaron type that evolved into the basic unit of the Mycenaean palace and the first Greek temples. This year\ufffds excavations also unearthed large quantities of locally made Neolithic pottery, obsidian blades, terracotta figurines and the fired clay model of a boat, as well as an extremely rare circular gold pendant with a hole in the middle for suspension. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100014_24/12/2002_24564"}, {"response": 1076, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 25, 2002 (02:24)", "body": "bathhouse in Jesus' hometown Archaeologists and Bible scholars have refuted claims a bathhouse unearthed in Nazareth may have been used by Jesus. The remains of the vaulted and tiled room were found under a Nazareth souvenir shop. The structure lies a few paces from a well where Eastern Orthodox churches believe the Angel Gabriel told Mary she would give birth to Jesus. Owner Elias Shama is convinced the edifice is classical Roman and that Jesus himself may have visited it. But Tel Aviv Antiquities Museum archaeologist Tzvi Shacham says all the evidence indicates it was built at least a millennium after Christ. Stephen Pfann, president of the Jerusalem-based University of the Holy Land, added the Roman part of Nazareth covered a small area where the modern Basilica of the Annunciation now stands, and it never extended as far as Mr Shama's shop. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_729492.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1077, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jan  6, 2003 (19:31)", "body": "About the Neolithic site at the Bay of Panormos, would that be evidence of the Helladic culture?"}, {"response": 1078, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (02:04)", "body": "Interesting question. I'll ask the resident professional archaeologist."}, {"response": 1079, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 14, 2003 (13:17)", "body": "Rare cannon recovered from Cromwellian wreck Archaeologists have discovered what is believed to be one of the most significant underwater finds ever made. They have found a 17th century iron cannon, thought to be the only one of its kind still in existence. It was recovered from the wreck of the Swan, a small Cromwellian warship lost off Mull while attacking the royalist stronghold of Duart Castle in 1653. Colin Martin of the University of St Andrews, who has been excavating the eroding wreck for 10 years, recently discovered the historic cannon. He has been working at the wreck site in conjunction with the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) and Historic Scotland. Dr Martin said the cannon had the initials of John Browne, King Charles I's royal gunfounder, on it. \"In the 1620s Browne developed a completely revolutionary new type of gun - one which was much lighter for the weight of shot it fired, allowing more to be carried on the king's ships,\" said Dr Martin. \"These stronger and lighter new guns were called 'drakes', and the secret of their success was a tapered end to their bores, where the pressure of the gunpowder explosion was greatest.\" Conservators at the NMS are currently removing layers that have built up on the cannon over hundreds of years. St Andrews University said conservationists hope to find out soon whether the cannon is indeed a drake. Work is expected to reveal that it is probably the only iron example of this type of gun known to have survived into modern times. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_738054.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1080, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 14, 2003 (13:18)", "body": "Huge Bronze Age haul found in Austria Europe's biggest-ever discovery of Bronze Age weapons and jewellery has been made in Austria. Archaeologists believe the hoard could prove Bronze Age Europe rivaled Greece in terms of early society and technology. The scientists from the University of Innsbruck and the Austrian National Memorial Office have so far found 360 pieces buried at the side of a crevice in Moosbruckschrofen am Piller in Tyrol. It is thought they were laid there as part of a ritual offering sometime between 1550 and 1250 BC. As well as swords, axes, spearheads, sickles and jewellery the historians also found part of a bronze helmet. It is thought the helmet could be one of the earliest such finds, Austrian Broadcasting Company ORF reported. The only other helmet thought to be from the 14th or 13th century BC was one that had been discovered on Crete, which the experts say is of a totally different sort. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_739588.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1081, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (12:06)", "body": "British archaeologists uncover ancient Egyptian town British archaeologists have discovered the 'Egyptian Lourdes'. The desert town dates back to 2,500 BC and was probably home to priests and builders working on Memphis pyramids. It is thought that the 4,000 people there would have earned a living by selling religious objects and charms. Team leader Ian Mathieson, a 75-year-old retired surveyor from Edinburgh, described the find as \"absolutely fabulous\". He discovered the town near Saqqara, 15 miles from Cairo, with 10 British archaeologists and said: \"Our first guess is that it was inhabited by priests and workers, a bit of a thing like Lourdes.\" Mr Mathieson said the team stumbled on the town while searching for an ancient road. He said: \"We had an idea that there was a road which people used to transport these 50 tonne bits of stone up to the huge sarcophaguses at the temple. \"We didn't find a road, we found a lake, and we found that the lake had a town on the side of it.\" \"We're convinced that there was quite a big community making religious objects to be buried in the catacombs at the burial site.\" Excavation has not yet begun but geo-thermal surveys show that the site covers an area of around one mile by three-quarters of a mile. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_749921.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1082, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (12:10)", "body": "Scientists discover 'milk of the ancients' Scientists have found what ancient Britons may have eaten by looking at their broken dirty dishes. Research from Bristol Uiversity found people could have been eating dairy foods as long as 6,000 years ago. Although scientists knew settlers in prehistoric Britain kept domestic animals, it was uncertain whether they were raised for their meat, or for products such as wool or milk. Now university chemist Dr Mark Copley has examined potsherds - ancient broken dishes - from archaeological sites across the country to discover ancient eating habits. He and his colleagues looked at material from sites in Britain settled during the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. He said: \"What we looked at are pots which have been used in cooking. When you boil meat or any food you get fats from the food and they get absorbed into the vessel itself. These survive for thousands and thousands of years.\" Residues from each site indicated the presence of dairy products, but the age of samples involved differed from site to site, pointing to the gradual spread of dairying practice throughout Britain. Of particular interest were three sites with dairy residues from the Neolithic era - a period when consumption of dairy products had previously been uncertain. The researchers suggest the widespread availability of dairy products may have had major impacts on the diet, health and subsistence economy of ancient people. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_744324.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1083, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (16:14)", "body": "World's oldest wheel found in Slovenia, claim archaeologists Archaeologists claim to have unearthed the world's oldest wheel in Slovenia. Experts estimate that the wheel is between 5,100 and 5,350 years old. That makes it just 100 years older than the previous record-holders from Switzerland and southern Germany. The wheel, which is made of ash and oak, has a radius of 70 centimetres and is five centimetres thick. It was found buried beneath an ancient marsh settlement near the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. Dr Anton Veluscek, from the Archeological Institute at the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences, was part of the team that made the find. He said: \"The wheel is surprisingly technologically advanced - much more so than the later models found in Switzerland and Germany.\" http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_754415.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1084, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (16:18)", "body": "This article about the most ancient wheel reminds me of the unfinished millstone Don showed me in a creek in Tennessee. You could see where the outline was chipped out but for some reason it was not freed and used. Fascinating!"}, {"response": 1085, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (23:49)", "body": "Hmmmm...Marcia, I'm taking Anthro 280 this semester which is essantially archaeology. I have to do a research paper thats due in May. I was curious if you had any ideas. I'd like to talk about it with you on IM sometime when you get a chance. Thanks. Hugs!"}, {"response": 1086, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  8, 2003 (14:22)", "body": "Sure, Julie! I have a paper I am working on which I think would be excellent for your purposes. I have the IM booted and waiting for your arrival on my monitor. Invisible, as always, but I am watching for you. HUGS ! I can even give you my web sources. Anthropology is what the degree is in the US. Only in Europe can you get degrees in Archaeology!!!"}, {"response": 1087, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 12, 2003 (15:26)", "body": "With gratitude to the gentleman in charge for the email he sent, please read the following: The first report of the Kythnos excavation is now available at the web site of the University of Thessaly at http://www.ha.uth.gr/gr/department/07.html (in Greek and English). Prof. Alexander Mazarakis Ainian Director of Kythnos Excavations"}, {"response": 1088, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 12, 2003 (16:11)", "body": "Load the pfd link and let it load completely. The photographs are splendid. I wish I were there, too. http://www.ha.uth.gr/gr/department/kythnoseng.pdf"}, {"response": 1089, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 12, 2003 (17:42)", "body": "I missed this due to travel: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100011_19/12/2002_24404 Treasure in Kythnos sanctum On one of the least developed Cycladic islands, archaeologists have hit on one of the most coveted prizes of Greek archaeology \ufffd the unplundered inner sanctum of an ancient temple replete with offerings in precious metals and luxurious pottery items. A team led by University of Thessaly Associate Professor of archaeology Alexandros Mazarakis-Ainian discovered the treasure chamber in a ruined temple of a female divinity at Vriokastro on Kythnos, on the western fringe of the archipelago. The sanctum \ufffd called adyton by the ancient Greeks \ufffd was forbidden to all but the priests of the temple and contained sacred statues of the divinity as well as offerings brought by worshippers. These could include precious jewels, gifts donated by dignitaries to enhance their own prestige and spoils of war. \ufffdBehind the cella (main hall) of the temple, and on the other side of a wall with a threshold in its middle, where nobody would have expected it, we discovered the adyton,\ufffd Mazarakis-Ainian said in an interview published in yesterday\ufffds Vima daily. \ufffdOn the earthen floor and in the destruction layer covering it, in other words, practically on the surface, we found some 1,500 precious objects.\ufffd The opulence is impressive. Finds, which dated mostly from the seventh to the fifth centuries BC \ufffd thus defining the life span of the temple \ufffd included 70 golden artifacts, 150 in silver, 450 in bronze, 70 terracotta figurines, 50 intact and many smashed vases. The majority of the pottery was painted, and some pieces have been linked to master painters. There was also a small stone bead incised with a boat, dating from Minoan times, which could have been a family heirloom. The temple, which may have belonged to Hera or Aphrodite, was probably destroyed by earthquake. Greek earthquakes strike again. John! They need you!"}, {"response": 1090, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 19, 2003 (22:15)", "body": "'Oldest set of human footprints found at volcano' Scientists have found the oldest set of human footprints to be discovered, preserved on an Italian volcano. They were left by three small human-like creatures who scrambled down the side of the mountain between 325,000 and 385,000 years ago. Researchers say it is clear from the tracks that the pigmy hominids, probably no taller than 1.5 metres, walked on two legs. The footprints, found at the Roccamonfina volcano in Campania, southern Italy, are locally known as \"devils' trails\". Reporting the discovery in the journal Nature, the scientists led by Paolo Mietto, from the University of Padua, Italy, wrote: \"We believe that these tracks are the oldest human footprints found so far and that they were made by hominids who had a fully bipedal, free-standing gait, using their hands only to steady themselves on the difficult descent.\" The tracks, designated A, B and C, are preserved on the surface of a single layer of volcanic ash and descend a steep slope that in places is almost vertical. Trail A consist of 27 footprints, which at one point follow a Z-shaped path presumably made to negotiate the slope more easily. Trackway B is composed of 19 footprints crossing the slope in a single straight line and curving roughly 45 degrees to the right. There is evidence of slipping - an occasional handprint can be seen on the slope beside the track. In contrast trackway C follows a straight line with 10 regular footprints made over a smaller incline. \"Although the footprints do not show all of the known features of contouring human bipedalism, there are enough similarities to support the idea that they are indeed human and fully bipedal,\" said the scientists. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_759683.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1091, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 19, 2003 (22:16)", "body": "Vatican accused of destroying history to build car park The Vatican has been accused of destroying ancient Roman burial grounds to build a new underground car park for tourists. Tempers frayed between Vatican officials and archaeologists after bulldozers uncovered tombs dating back 2,000 years to the time of Nero. Work was temporarily halted to allow archaeologists to examine the site, but officials insisted that it should carry on as they had a tight schedule and urgently needed the 300 space car park. Among the tombs uncovered was one bearing the name of Nero's secretary and his wife, and apart from Roman graves, early Christian ones dating back to the 4th century AD were also found. A Vatican Museum source said:''This whole area is rich with history and heritage and work should stop so a proper excavation can be carried out. We are talking history here but the public works department are just not interested.'' Bishop Giovanni Danzi, of the Vatican public works department, said:''The car park is vital to the Vatican. It is very difficult to park near here and it really does need to be built. ''Yes, some small items were found, but I don't think they were historically very significant. The whole of Rome is full of ancient history so it's not unusual to uncover items such as this, but as I have said the car park is vital.'' Professor Andrea Carandini, who has led numerous digs in Rome, said:''I think the Vatican should really think whether this car park is absolutely necessary, especially if items of a historically value have been discovered.'' http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_759593.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1092, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Mar 20, 2003 (19:27)", "body": "How can the tomb's of Nero's secretary and his wife not be considered of historical and archaeological importance? Or maybe I'm just being dense."}, {"response": 1093, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 20, 2003 (20:46)", "body": "They are! It seems the Vatican has its own agenda, but I won't go there."}, {"response": 1094, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 26, 2003 (21:16)", "body": "Hungry dogs find 2,500-year-old mummy Two dogs digging for a buried bone in their owner's backyard in Chile found a 2,500-year-old mummy. Ivan Paredes, who lives in Arica, could not believe his eyes when his dogs dug up the ancient body. He told La Cuarta online: \"The dogs were trying to find bones buried in the backyard as usual, but they started to bark very loud and I came to check what was going on and found the mummy of child.\" Archaeologists believe it is the remains of a boy buried by his parents who would probably have been farmers. The mummy, said to be in good condition, is being transferred to the San Miguel de Azapa museum. Archaeologists believe Mr Parades's backyard could be an ancient burial site and want to excavate it. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_764118.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1095, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Apr 10, 2003 (20:13)", "body": "Has Wolfie read your that last item? She might be amused, furry archaeologists with cold, wet noses. Maybe the dogs could be honorary members of the dig for being the intitial discoverers of the mummy."}, {"response": 1096, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Apr 10, 2003 (20:22)", "body": "The Amesbury Archer The invader who founded Stonehenge The richest Bronze Age burial ever discovered in (Britain) was unearthed in 2002 at Amesbury, only three miles from Stonehenge. Who was he? Where did he come from? Did he have any relationship with Stonehenge? The Burial The main burial had to be uncovered on the day it was discovered, due to security reasons. As is usual in the Bronze Age, it is a crouched burial. but there was a wealth of finds that accompanied the body. In front of his face there were two beaker pots, no doubt filled with beer for the next world. There was a wrist guard on his wrist to protect his arm from the snap of the bow-string. There were two more beakers behind him, and a cache of flints - no doubt all that remains of a a quiver-full of arrows; while by his feet was yet another beaker and more equipment. The archer was 35 to 45 years old when he died and probably walked with a limp due to an injury to his left knee. Preliminary calibrated radiocarbon dates centre on around 2,300 BC. How do we know he was an archer? For one thing, he was buried with numerous flint arrowheads of this distinctive 'barbed-and-tanged' variety that is typical of the beaker period in the early Bronze Age. Another indication that he was an archer came from two wrist-guards, shaped pieces of stone designed to protect his wrist from the backlash of the bow. The Archer was buried wearing (one); the (other) one was by his knees. Another diagnostic find consisted of these three knives, made of copper. They are very similar to the early daggers, but these were so small that they may have been knives. They were made of copper, rather than bronze, suggesting a very early date before the alloying of copper to make it harder had been discovered. The outline of the former handle of wood or horn can be seen on the largest knife, which was by his knees. (The) most diagnostic feature - part of one of the beakers, where a comb had been used to make a pattern. It is very similar to the beakers known as AOC beakers - All Over Cord beakers, which are found all over Europe and have long been used for evidence for widespread beaker migrations, and for a beaker invasion of this country. Where did he come from? This is the most controversial aspect of all. Our teeth contain oxygen, and the oxygen has three different forms, called isotopes, and as we grow up, our teeth preserve the isotopes of the water we drank when we were young. Oxygen isotope analysis of the archer's teeth suggests that he was brought up on the continent. The Archer's teeth showed values (indicating somewhere) from Switzerland up to Scandinavia. This presents a dramatic challenge to current academic interpretations of the Early Bronze Age. Traditionally, 'beakers' were held to mark the spread of a 'Beaker folk' across Europe, in a huge prehistoric migration, similar to the Greek migrations of the early Iron Age,or to the Germanic and Viking migrations in the Dark Ages at the end of the Roman era. However over the past 20 years, many academics have challenged this view, and argued that the spread of beakers marked the spread of a beaker 'cult package' and that there were no migrations at all. The discovery of the Amesbury Archer suggests that this view is sheer nonsense and that there really were beaker invasion after all - here is a beaker invader. If so, this has an important corollary. It has long been recognised that what little pottery has been discovered associated with the stone phases of Stonehenge is beaker. However the nearby monument at Durrington Walls is filled with 'Grooved Ware' pottery, with Beaker only found in the upper, destruction layers when the site was destroyed or abandoned. Is this Amesbury Archer therefore, the leader of the Beaker invaders? Was he the man who led the attack on Durrington, after which it was abandoned? And in place of Durrington, did he decide to build an even more elaborate monument not far away on what had hitherto been a subsidiary site at Stonehenge? If so, he was not so much the King of Stonehenge as rather the founder of Stonehenge. He ordered the construction of the monument, and was buried on a site where from which his spirit could see it arise. http://www.archaeology.co.uk/issues/ca184/archer/archer.htm"}, {"response": 1097, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 11, 2003 (18:49)", "body": "OOOH Cheryl, What exciting news about the archer burial. Somehow I am surprised more have not been found. Salisbury Plain was a very labor intensive place. Only the nobles and warriors were granted a barrow burial."}, {"response": 1098, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (20:26)", "body": "Did you follow the link to view the photos that accompanied the article? You're right though, it is surprising that more haven't been found."}, {"response": 1099, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (20:28)", "body": "Treasures Looted from Baghdad Museum Feared Lost Mon April 14, 2003 03:44 PM ET By Niala Boodhoo WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Antiquities experts, dismayed that U.S. officials failed to heed their warnings to protect Baghdad's historic artifacts during the war, said on Monday they were concerned the priceless treasures looted from Iraq's main museum may never be recovered. U.S. archeological organizations and the U.N.'s cultural agency UNESCO said they had provided U.S. officials with information about Iraq's cultural heritage and archeological sites months before the war began. University of Chicago professor McGuire Gibson was among a group that met Pentagon officials several times and presented them with a list of archeological and other sites that should be protected, particularly the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad. \"We warned them about looting at the very beginning,\" said the archeologist who has worked extensively in the region. \"I was assured it would be secured.\" Now, he said, the loss was immeasurable. \"The Baghdad museum is the equivalent of the Cairo Museum. It would be like having American soldiers 200 feet outside the Cairo museum watching people carry away treasures from King Tut's tomb or carting away mummies,\" said Gibson. The museum, which housed key artifacts of ancient Mesopotamia, which was among the earliest civilizations, was ransacked and its contents taken or destroyed in a wave of looting that has swept the Iraqi capital since the collapse of President Saddam Hussein's rule last week. UNESCO's deputy director, Mounir Bouchenaki, said on Monday leading archeologists will meet in Paris on Thursday to seek ways to rescue Iraq's cultural heritage. They also plan a fact-finding mission to Iraq. Iraq's ancient dynasties, a cradle of civilization that existed long before the Egyptian, Greek or Roman empires, created the world's earliest forms of writings and built the first major cities of Nineveh, Nimrud and Babylon. Gibson likened the museum's destruction to that of the famed library founded by Alexander the Great in Egypt that was destroyed more than two thousand years ago. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters the United States was concerned about the looting at the museum and was working to secure the facility. \"The United States understands its obligations and will be taking a leading role with respect to antiquities in general but this museum in particular,\" he said. CUNEIFORM TABLETS ON EBAY? Powell said the U.S. would work with UNESCO, which earlier urged the U.S. and Britain to take immediate steps to protect and preserve a heritage considered to be \"one of the richest in the world.\" A 1954 Hague Convention mandates protection of cultural property during conflict, an international group of archeologists and antiquities experts warned before the war. While Iraq had ratified the convention, the United States and Britain, both partners in the war in Iraq, have not. Of the more than 170,000 objects in the museum were treasures like an alabaster Uruk Vase that dates back to 3500 B.C., Gibson said. The museum also held tablets of cuneiform writing that still had to be translated. \"We understand most of the best pieces are gone,\" said the Archeological Institute for America's Patty Gerstenblith, adding she heard looters cut off heads of larger statues that could not be moved. Some items have already reportedly shown up for sale in Paris, Gibson said. Two markets for the items would exist: collectors willing to pay millions for the high-end items and others who would pay much less for smaller items like pottery. \"Average kind of pottery could well sell on (the Internet auction site) eBay for like $20 or $50,\" Gerstenblith said, adding small pieces have been smuggled out of Iraq during the U.S. economic embargo. Experts are trying to set up a Web site to provide a catalog of what was in the museum in Baghdad and Gerstenblith said they were appealing to the White House to take emergency measures to order troops to be on the lookout for artifacts. In the meantime, the loss of objects with not only historical and cultural, but scientific and religious value, was devastating, Gerstenblith, a DePaul University professor said: \"We have allowed to be destroyed not only our own heritage but the heritage of future generations.\" http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=focusIraqNews&storyID=2563696"}, {"response": 1100, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (20:32)", "body": "Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure Sat Apr 12, 2:59 PM ET By JOHN F. BURNS The New York Times BAGHDAD, Iraq (news - web sites), April 12 \ufffd The National Museum of Iraq recorded a history of civilizations that began to flourish in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia more than 7,000 years ago. But once American troops entered Baghdad in sufficient force to topple Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s government this week, it took only 48 hours for the museum to be destroyed, with at least 50,000 artifacts carried away by looters. The full extent of the disaster that befell the museum only came to light today, after three days of frenzied looting that swept much of the capital. As fires in a dozen government ministries and agencies began to burn out, and as some looters tired of pillaging in the 90-degree heat of the Iraqi spring, museum officials reached the hotels where foreign journalists were staying along the eastern bank of the Tigris River. They brought word of what is likely to be reckoned as one of the greatest cultural disasters in recent Middle Eastern history. A full accounting of what has been lost may take weeks or months. The museum had been closed during much of the 1990's, and like many Iraqi institutions, its operations were cloaked in secrecy under Mr. Hussein. So what officials told journalists today may have to be adjusted as a fuller picture comes to light. It remains unclear whether some of the museum's priceless gold, silver and copper antiquities, some of its ancient stone and ceramics, and perhaps some of its fabled bronzes and gold-overlaid ivory, had been locked away for safekeeping elsewhere before the looting, or seized for private display in one of Mr. Hussein's ubiquitous palaces. What was beyond contest today was that the 28 galleries of the museum and vaults with huge steel doors guarding storage chambers that descend floor after floor into darkness had been completely ransacked. Officials with crumpled spirits fought back tears and anger at American troops, as they ran down an inventory of the most storied items that they said had been carried away by the thousands of looters who poured into the museum after daybreak on Thursday and remained until dusk on Friday, with only one intervention by American troops, lasting about half an hour, at lunchtime on Thursday. Nothing remained, museum officials said, at least nothing of real value, from a museum that had been regarded by archaeologists and other specialists as perhaps the richest of all such institutions in the Middle East. As examples of what was gone, the officials cited a solid gold harp from the Sumerian era, which began about 3360 B.C. and started to crumble about 2000 B.C. Another item on their list of looted antiquities was a sculptured head of a woman from Uruk, one of the great Sumerian cities, dating to about the same era, and a collection of gold necklaces, bracelets and earrings, also from the Sumerian dynasties and also at least 4,000 years old. But an item-by-item inventory of the most valued pieces carried away by the looters hardly seemed to capture the magnitude of what had occurred. More powerful, in its way, was the action of one museum official in hurrying away through the piles of smashed ceramics and torn books and burned-out torches of rags soaked in gasoline that littered the museum's corridors to find the glossy catalog of an exhibition of \"silk road civilization\" that was held in Japan's ancient capital of Nara in 1988. Turning to 50 pages of items lent by the Iraqi museum for the exhibition, he said that none of the antiquities pictured remained after the looting. They included ancient stone carvings of bulls and kings and princesses; copper shoes and cuneiform tablets; tapestry fragments and ivory figurines of goddesses and women and Nubian porters; friezes of soldiers and ancient seals and tablets on geometry; and ceramic jars and urns and bowls, all dating back at least 2,000 years, some more than 5,000 years. \"All gone, all gone,\" he said. \"All gone in two days.\" An Iraqi archaeologist who has participated in the excavation of some of the country's 10,000 sites, Raid Abdul Ridhar Muhammad, said he had gone into the street of the Karkh district, a short distance from the eastern bank of the Tigris, at about 1 p.m. on Thursday to find American troops to quell the looting. By that time, he and other museum officials said, the several acres of museum grounds were overrun by thousands of men, women and children, many of them armed with rifles, pistols, axes, knives and clubs, as well as pieces of metal torn from the suspensions of wrecked cars. The crowd was storming out of the complex carrying antiquities on hand carts, bicycles and in boxes. Looters stuffed their pockets with smaller items. Mr. Muhammad said he found an American Abrams tank in Museum Square, about 300 yards away, and that five marines had followed him back into the museum and opened fire above the looters' heads. This drove "}, {"response": 1101, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (20:41)", "body": "U.S. says it will protect Iraqi antiquities, repair museum Tuesday, April 15, 2003 at 09:00 JST WASHINGTON \ufffd Criticized for not preventing the pillage of Iraqi antiquities, the United States vowed Monday to take a \"leading role\" in protecting artifacts and repair damage to the National Museum of Iraq which was looted last week. In addition, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington was working with the United Nations, the European Union and Interpol to prevent stolen objects from leaving Iraq and warned thieves that they would face prosecution. \"This kind of looting causes irretrievable loss to the understanding of history and to the efforts of Iraqi and international scholars to study and gain new insight into our past,\" Powell said in a statement. Separately, the president of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), Maxwell Anderson, urged museums and collectors to spurn any offer to acquire Iraqi artifacts. Anderson \"called on museums and collectors around the world not to acquire antiquities stolen from the Baghdad Museum, and urged that information leading to the recovery of artifacts be passed on to appropriate authorities,\" the AAMD said in a statement. Earlier, Powell told reporters that the United States was deeply concerned by the looting of the national museum Baghdad, which he called \"one of the great museums in the world.\" Powell said Washington would work with others \"not only secure the facility, but to recover that which has been taken and also to participate in restoring that which has been broken.\" Deputy State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said U.S. officials had been in contact with the international police agency Interpol to locate and return stolen objects before they turned up in the thriving global black market for such items. Powell said he had spoken Monday with Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, about possible ways to protect Iraq's cultural heritage. And, he said U.S. officials had been in touch with the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to explore steps that could be taken. UNESCO's chief, Koichiro Matsuura, on Saturday called on U.S. and British authorities to immediately protect Iraq's cultural heritage by monitoring and guarding archeological sites and cultural institutions. Iraq's national museum fell victim to looters on Friday in the lawless atmosphere that engulfed Baghdad after the arrival there of U.S. troops on Wednesday. Pottery artifacts and statues were broken and overturned, while administrative offices were wrecked, according to witnesses. Iraq, among the earliest cradles of civilization and home to the remains of such ancient Mesopotamian cities as Babylon, Ur and Nineveh, has one of the richest archaeological heritages in the world. Shortly after the war began on March 20, a group of 18 prominent archaeologists appealed for the U.S.-led coalition to spare Iraq's priceless antiquities. \"The extraordinary significance of the monuments, museums and archeological sites of Iraq \ufffd ancient Mesopotamia \ufffd imposes an obligation on all peoples and governments to protect them,\" they said in March 21 open letter published in Science magazine. They also called on the international community to take a post-war role in assisting in the protection of antiquities from looting and themselves pledged to help Iraqi Department of Antiquities do its job. Some of the signatories were among a team of scholars to have worked with the Pentagon and the State Department before the war to identify some 4,000 sites that should be protected. Despite these efforts, they expressed deep concern that the fall of the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would erode the control of cultural watchdogs in the country and spur looting, particularly at the museums in Baghdad and Mosul. (Wire reports) http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=256726"}, {"response": 1102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (21:11)", "body": "Thanks, Cheryl! I was just looking for articles to post when yours showed up on my monitor. Looting museums is about the lowest manking can go, and you can bet there will be buyers out there!!! It makes me sick! Looking for archer burial pictures... see next post."}, {"response": 1103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (21:14)", "body": "For Archer Burial in the UK... http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/amesbury/excavation_images.html"}, {"response": 1104, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Apr 15, 2003 (20:07)", "body": "Thanks for the link to the archer photos, Marcia. This seems to be a really important find. The news about the Iraqi artifacts is too depressing. You're right about there being buyers. The one article above notes that some items have already shown up for sale on the international market. I saw one museum offical interviewed on television; he was just despondent. He said that not only was it the loss of Iraq's cultural heritage, it was a loss to the world's cultural heritage. Everyone has lost something of great importance. It was a very sad interview."}, {"response": 1105, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Apr 15, 2003 (20:14)", "body": "Looters ransack Iraq's National Library By Charles J. Hanley April 15, 2003 | BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Looters and arsonists ransacked and gutted Iraq's National Library, leaving a smoldering shell Tuesday of precious books turned to ash and a nation's intellectual legacy gone up in smoke. They also looted and burned Iraq's principal Islamic library nearby, home to priceless old Qurans; last week, thieves swept through the National Museum and stole or smashed treasures that chronicled this region's role as the \"cradle of civilization.\" \"Our national heritage is lost,\" an angry high school teacher, Haithem Aziz, said as he stood outside the National Library's blackened hulk. \"The modern Mongols, the new Mongols did that. The Americans did that. Their agents did that,\" he said as an explosion boomed in the distance as the war winds down. The Mongols, led by Genghis Khan's grandson Hulegu, sacked Baghdad in the 13th century. Today, the rumors on the lips of almost all Baghdadis is that the looting that has torn this city apart is led by U.S.-inspired Kuwaitis or other non-Iraqis bent on stripping the city of everything of value. But outside the gutted Islamic library on the grounds of the Religious Affairs Ministry, the lone looter scampering away was undeniably Iraqi, a grizzled man named Mohamed Salman. \"It was left there, so why leave it?\" he asked a reporter as he clung to a thick, red-covered book, a catalog of the library's religious collection. The scene inside was total devastation. In much of the library, not a recognizable book or manuscript could be seen among the dark ash. The destruction has drawn condemnation worldwide, with many criticizing U.S.-led coalition forces for failing to prevent or stop the looting, sometimes carried out by whole Iraqi families. On Tuesday, U.S. officials acknowledged they were surprised by the rampage and said troops were too occupied by combat to intervene when they first reached Baghdad. \"I don't think anyone anticipated that the riches of Iraq would be looted by the people of Iraq,\" U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said at a U.S. Central Command briefing in Qatar. The United Nation's cultural agency and the British Museum announced Tuesday they will send in teams to help restore ransacked museums and artifacts. Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, called on customs officials, police, art dealers and neighboring countries to block the trading of stolen antiquities. Among the National Museum's treasures were the tablets with Hammurabi's Code _ one of mankind's earliest codes of law. It could not be immediately determined whether the tablets were at the museum when war broke out. Thieves smashed or pried open row upon row of glass cases at the museum and pilfered or destroyed their contents. Missing were the four millennia-old copper head of an Akkadian king, golden bowls and colossal statues, ancient manuscripts and bejeweled lyres. The looting and burning _ the museum in the northern city of Mosul also was pillaged _ has dealt a terrible blow to a society that prides itself on its universities, literature and educated elite. \"I can't express the sorrow I feel. This is not real liberation,\" said an artist in a wing of the National Library that had been looted but not burned. The thin, bearded, 41-year-old man, who would not give his name, was going through old bound newspapers and tearing out pages whose artistic drawings appealed to him. \"I came yesterday to see the chaos, and when I saw it, I decided to take what I could,\" he said. The three-story, tan brick National Library building, dating to 1977, housed all books published in Iraq, including copies of all doctoral theses. It preserved rare old books on Baghdad and the region, historically important books on Arabic linguistics, and antique manuscripts in Arabic that teacher Aziz said were gradually being transformed into printed versions. \"They had manuscripts from the Ottoman and Abbasid periods,\" Aziz said, referring to dynasties dating back a millennium. \"All of them were precious, famous. I feel such grief.\" No library officials could be located to detail the loss. Haroun Mohammed, an Iraqi writer based in London, told The Associated Press some old manuscripts had been transferred from the library to a Manuscript House across the Tigris River. Except for wooden card catalog drawers and a carved-wood service counter which somehow escaped the flames, nothing was left in the National Library's main wing but its charred walls and ceilings, and mounds of ash. The floor on the ground level was still warm from the flames. Long rolls of microfilm littered the courtyard. \"This was the best library in Iraq,\" said music student Raad Muzahim, 27, standing among piles of paper in the periodical room. \"I remember coming as a student. They were hospitable, letting students do their research, write their papers. Armored vehicles were positioned on the nearby street, m"}, {"response": 1106, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Apr 15, 2003 (20:20)", "body": "Iraq \ufffdliberated\ufffd as arsonists burn the library of Korans By Robert Fisk So Monday was the burning of books. First came the looters, then the arsonists. It was the final chapter in the sacking of Baghdad. The National Library and Archives ... a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents, including the old royal archives of Iraq ... were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then the library of Korans at the Ministry of Religious Endowment was set ablaze. I saw the looters. One of them cursed me when I tried to reclaim a book of Islamic law from a boy of no more than 10. Amid the ashes of Iraqi history, I found a file blowing in the wind outside: pages of handwritten letters between the court of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who started the Arab revolt against the Turks for Lawrence of Arabia, and the Ottoman rulers of Baghdad. And the Americans did nothing. All over the filthy yard they blew, letters of recommendation to the courts of Arabia, demands for ammunition for troops, reports on the theft of camels and attacks on pilgrims, all in delicate hand-written Arabic script. I was holding in my hands the last Baghdad vestiges of Iraq\ufffds written history. But for Iraq, this is Year Zero; with the destruction of the antiquities in the Museum of Archaeology on Saturday and the burning of the National Archives and then the Koranic library, the cultural identity of Iraq is being erased. Why? Who set these fires? For what insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed? When I caught sight of the Koranic library burning \ufffd flames 100 feet high were bursting from the windows \ufffd I raced to the offices of the occupying power, the US Marines\ufffd Civil Affairs Bureau. An officer shouted to a colleague that \ufffdthis guy says some biblical [sic] library is on fire\ufffd. I gave the map location, the precise name \ufffd in Arabic and English. I said the smoke could be seen from three miles away and it would take only five minutes to drive there. Half an hour later, there wasn\ufffdt an American at the scene \ufffd and the flames were shooting 200 feet into the air. There was a time when the Arabs said that their books were written in Cairo, printed in Beirut and read in Baghdad. Now they burn libraries in Baghdad. In the National Archives were not just the Ottoman records of the Caliphate, but even the dark years of the country\ufffds modern history, handwritten accounts of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, with personal photographs and military diaries, and microfiche copies of Arabic newspapers going back to the early 1900s. But the older files and archives were on the upper floors of the library where petrol must have been used to set fire so expertly to the building. The heat was such that the marble flooring had buckled upwards and the concrete stairs that I climbed had been cracked. The papers on the floor were almost too hot to touch, bore no print or writing, and crumbled into ash the moment I picked them up. Again, standing in this shroud of blue smoke and embers, I asked the same question: why? So, as an all-too-painful reflection on what this means, let me quote from the shreds of paper that I found on the road outside, blowing in the wind, written by long-dead men who wrote to the Sublime Porte in Istanbul or to the Court of Sharif of Mecca with expressions of loyalty and who signed themselves \ufffdyour slave\ufffd. There was a request to protect a camel convoy of tea, rice and sugar, signed by Husni Attiya al-Hijazi (recommending Abdul Ghani-Naim and Ahmed Kindi as honest merchants), a request for perfume and advice from Jaber al-Ayashi of the royal court of Sharif Hussein to Baghdad to warn of robbers in the desert. \ufffdThis is just to give you our advice for which you will be highly rewarded,\ufffd Ayashi says. \ufffdIf you don\ufffdt take our advice, then we have warned you.\ufffd A touch of Saddam there, I thought. The date was 1912. Some of the documents list the cost of bullets, military horses and artillery for Ottoman armies in Baghdad and Arabia, others record the opening of the first telephone exchange in the Hejaz \ufffd soon to be Saudi Arabia \ufffd while one recounts, from the village of Azrak in modern-day Jordan, the theft of clothes from a camel train by Ali bin Kassem, who attacked his interrogators \ufffdwith a knife and tried to stab them but was restrained and later bought off\ufffd. There is a 19th-century letter of recommendation for a merchant, Yahyia Messoudi, \ufffda man of the highest morals, of good conduct and who works with the [Ottoman] government.\ufffd This, in other words, was the tapestry of Arab history \ufffd all that is left of it, which fell into The Independent\ufffds hands as the mass of documents crackled in the immense heat of the ruins. King Faisal of the Hejaz, the ruler of Mecca, whose staff are the authors of many of the letters I saved, was later deposed by the Saudis. His son Faisel became king of Iraq \ufffd Winston Churchill gave him Baghdad after the French threw him out of Damascus \ufffd and his brother Abdullah became the first king of Jordan, the father of King Hussein"}, {"response": 1107, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Apr 15, 2003 (20:21)", "body": "Inquiry demanded over US failure to stop library looting By Andrew Gumbel 16 April 2003 The burning of Iraq's National Library is a \"devastating loss\" and is the equivalent of losing the British Library, international academics said. The US military's failure to prevent the calamity must be investigated to prevent it happening again, they added. After the looting and burning at government ministries and the ransacking of Iraq's main archaeological museum, the burning of the library, with its thousands of rare printed books and hand-written archives, marks a further erasure of Iraq's past, obliterating large chunks of Middle Eastern history and destroying many unique documents. Geoffrey Roper, head of the Islamic Bibliography Unit at Cambridge University, said: \"If people's personal possessions are lost they can be replaced, but these things can never be replaced. \"The archive contained a lot of early Arabic printed books, which are very scarce and very fragile, a lot of which have survived in just one or two editions. We've also lost material from the library of the Ministry of Religious Endowments, which contained rare early legal and literary materials, priceless Korans, calligraphy and illumination \ufffd the kind of thing that appeared in international exhibitions in the past,\" he said. Some of Iraq's most valuable collections may yet be safe, because they were stored separately at the Saddam Library. If those too had been looted, Dr Roper said, it would mean \"a whole nation's collections had been wiped out\". Andreas Riedlmayer, an Islamic art and architecture specialist from Harvard who has also studied the destruction of the National Library in Sarajevo during the Bosnian conflict, said he believed some of the destruction was quite deliberate. Although mob rule played a part, he believed some archives \ufffd especially in ministries and police stations \ufffd were deliberately destroyed to eradicate the evidence of Saddam Hussein's repressive rule. In the case of libraries and museums, he believed many of the most precious treasures had been taken intact for sale on the international art market, and the rest destroyed to create confusion about what was missing. \"One must not oversimplify it. There was no one clear motive,\" Dr Riedlmayer said. \"But this was certainly opportunistic on the part of people who held positions of power. At the National Museum, the vault doors were opened undamaged, which means someone had a key and deliberately let the mob in.\" He said: \"One speculation is that people with access stole selected valuable objects and then left the place open, hoping everything would be attributed to the mob rather than to them.\" Dr Riedlmayer described the failure of American troops to prevent the looting as \"totally discreditable\", saying they had violated a whole series of international conventions on the rules of war. He said an investigation was essential, not so much to assign blame as to make sure everyone understood what had gone wrong. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=397629"}, {"response": 1108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 19, 2003 (17:41)", "body": "Thanks for keeping us current on the ancient destruction of the world's earliest civilization. We ALL are victims of this horror. I was stunned that someone set fire to the library and burned up the second oldest extant copy of the Q'ran. One day maybe they will see the error of their ways - way too late."}, {"response": 1109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 19, 2003 (18:00)", "body": "http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_771607.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology Standing stone is found to rival Stonehenge Archaeologists working at the ancient Avebury stone circle have uncovered what could be one of the largest standing stones in the country. Experts at English Heritage and the National Trust say the stone could weigh in at 100 tons, rivalling the largest megaliths at its fellow site in Wiltshire, Stonehenge. The surprise discovery was made during work at the 4,500 year-old stone circle to straighten two stones known as the Cove, which have begun to lean over the last 300 years and experts feared might collapse. The team from the Universities of Wales, Leicester and Southampton found the stone was buried much deeper beneath the ground than previously thought. They found that one of the stones, which stands at 14ft high above the ground, exists at least 7ft below the surface and could possibly go down to 10ft. Amanda Chadburn, Inspector of Ancient Monuments at English Heritage, which is the guardian of the stones, said: \"We were amazed when we discovered that the stone went so much deeper than we expected. \"Ground penetrating radar and probing had suggested it existed to only about one-and-a-half to three feet below the surface. It is absolutely enormous and could weigh as much as the trilithon at Stonehenge.\" Although it was originally planned to bring both stones at the Cove to an upright position, the investigations show that only the other stone - which is 16ft high above ground and predicted to exist to 4ft below ground, requires straightening. The biggest stone will now be left, as it is considered safe. Rob Mimmack, property manager at Avebury for the National Trust, which owns the monument, said: \"The stone is being fixed in the ground with lime concrete. \"Within two to three weeks we will be taking down the scaffolding and people will have access to the stones again for the first time since 1997 when they were fenced off for safety reasons.\""}, {"response": 1110, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 22, 2003 (01:43)", "body": "totally off the subject but in the right topic, methinks, what happened to Discovery Civilization Channel???? i happen to go into my channel guide and the thing is gone and now they have Discovery Times. what is up with that?"}, {"response": 1111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  2, 2003 (18:58)", "body": "Different times of day they run programs from their other Discovdery Channels such as Discovery International (or is that History International?!) Try another time and it will be back to normal. These teases are usually only an hour long."}, {"response": 1112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 16, 2003 (02:34)", "body": "Historic Thebes comes to light Thebes, Athens\ufffds powerful neighbor in antiquity, remained something of a mystery in later centuries, known more as the setting for the myths centered on Oedipus and for the role described by historians. But this is set to change soon with the announcement by Prof. Vassilis Aravantinos on 22 years of excavations around the Boeotian capital. In a speech titled \ufffdNew evidence of unknown Thebes in historical times,\ufffd Aravantinos yesterday described finds that included 20,000 movable objects (such as figurines, inscriptions, gravestones and clay vessels), the contents of 1,200 unplundered graves \ufffd some of which date back to the Archaic era (1000-700 BC) \ufffd and the head of a kouros (youth) dating from 510 to 500 BC which, uniquely, wore a cap aimed at protecting the statue from bird droppings. No photos were available yesterday of the unpublished finds, most of which came from rescue digs at construction sites ranging from homes to major public works. \ufffdThey fill in a puzzle, providing a portrait of Thebes in historical times,\ufffd Aravantinos said. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100016_15/05/2003_29632"}, {"response": 1113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 22, 2003 (19:58)", "body": "Six more bodies found near 'King of Stonehenge' site Archaeologists have discovered six more bodies near the grave of the so-called King of Stonehenge. The remains of four adults and two children were found at a site in Amesbury, Wiltshire. It is about half-a-mile from that of the Amesbury Archer, the Bronze Age man who was buried with the earliest gold found in Britain. It is thought he might have had a major role in creating Stonehenge. Tests showed he was born in the Alps region in central Europe. The latest bones discovered are some 4,500 years old - the same age as the Archer, said Salisbury-based Wessex Archaeology - which excavated the site during the digging of a trench this month. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_783642.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 22, 2003 (23:56)", "body": "Archaeologists unearth Britain's first cave pictures Robin McKie, science editor Sunday June 15, 2003 The Observer Archaeologists have discovered 12,000-year-old engravings carved by ancient Britons in a cave in Creswell Crags, Derbyshire. The depiction of the animals - which include a pair of birds - is the first example of prehistoric cave art in Britain. The discovery - by Paul Bahn and Paul Pettitt, with Spanish colleague Sergio Ripoll - is set to trigger considerable scientific excitement, for it fills a major gap in the country's archeological record. 'If this is verified, it represents a wonderful discovery,' said Professor Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum, London. 'There are fine examples of cave art in Spain and France but none has been found here - until now.' More and photo... http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,977904,00.html"}, {"response": 1115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 23, 2003 (00:07)", "body": "Ancient tools found at Carrow Road The ancient flint tools could be 12,000 years old A cluster of rare flint tools unearthed at Norwich City's football ground could date back 12,000. Archaeologists have found flint artefacts on the site of a new stand at the club's Carrow Road ground. Experts believe the tools could be from the Upper Palaeolithic era. Lots more and photo... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/norfolk/2994828.stm"}, {"response": 1116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 23, 2003 (00:18)", "body": "Permanent home plan for Seahenge A home for the ancient timber circle is planned in King's Lynn Proposals to put the ancient Seahenge timber circle on display in Norfolk have been put forward. The circle, discovered five years ago and at present being conserved at Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire, could form the centrepiece of the redeveloped Lynn Museum in King's Lynn. The plan would give Seahenge, discovered off the coast of Norfolk at Holme-next-the-Sea near Hunstanton in 1998, a permanent home. Seahenge sat unnoticed and undisturbed off the coast for almost 4,000 years. great photo and more info... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/norfolk/3011098.stm"}, {"response": 1117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 29, 2003 (23:26)", "body": "to keep this site available for children, I post the following briefly: Mother Stonehenge by Josie Glausiusz Anthony Perks, an endocrinologist and professor of gynecology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, sees a symbolic meaning in Stonehenge that other researchers have overlooked: MUCH more http://www.discover.com/July_03/breakstone.html"}, {"response": 1118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 24, 2003 (02:24)", "body": "Eight thousand years of history beneath Terminal 5 Archaeologists say the largest single dig in the UK has provided an insight into 8,000 years of history. A team of 80 archaeologists working at the 250-acre site of the new Terminal 5 building at Heathrow Airport unearthed 80,000 objects, some dating back to 6,000BC. These included 18,000 pieces of pottery, 40,000 pieces of flint and the only wooden bowl found dating to the Middle Bronze Age (1,500BC to 1,100BC). The experts, who spent more than 15 months on the excavation, were able to piece together how communities living on the site and the landscape itself have changed over the last 8,000 years. Framework Archaeology, formed especially to tackle the project, found evidence that people were creating field boundaries from around 2,000BC - 500 years earlier than previously thought. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_800431.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 24, 2003 (02:25)", "body": "I was unhappy when they leveled a hillfort to build that airport. This above article makes me even more unhappy!"}, {"response": 1120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (16:19)", "body": "Stuffed dormice a Roman favourite Roman bowl The remnants of a Roman hare stew Archaeologists in Northamptonshire are unearthing the recipe secrets of the Romans. Excavations in the county have shown the dish of the day 2,000 years ago was freshly-grilled hare and stuffed dormice. The excavations are at Whitehall Villa, Nether Heyford, just yards from the Grand Union Canal, are revealing the secrets of Northamptonshire's Roman Heritage, including their unusual diet. Archaeologist Martin Weaver said a burned bowl found at the site contained the remnants of hare stew. \"They also ate dormice - stuffed - and oysters. They loved their oysters,\" he said. Lots more ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/northamptonshire/3080263.stm"}, {"response": 1121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 29, 2003 (15:16)", "body": "Mystery capsule reveals 2,000-year-old Roman ointment A Roman capsule unearthed at an archaeological dig in central London has been opened to reveal a pot of 2,000-year-old cream. More on the next beauty secret fad... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_803956.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 31, 2003 (12:42)", "body": "Rare Iron Age cremation found in Dorset Prehistory News Archaeologists working at Britain's biggest excavation site near Wareham are celebrating a rare discovery of national importance and a first for Dorset. A student from Bournemouth University uncovered a 20cm pot which turned out to be evidence of the first Iron Age cremation ever found in Dorset. The pot filled with human remains was found intact at Bestwall Quarry - where archaeologist have unearthed a wealth of finds, including 30 Roman kilns. Archaeologist Lilian Ladle said: \"We've found three Roman cremations and a number of Bronze Age cremations but during the late Iron Age in Dorset bodies would be put out to rot or buried. more plus some really \"curious\" links... http://www.stonehenge.uklinux.net/article.php?sid=2146411016"}, {"response": 1123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  4, 2003 (14:41)", "body": "Ancient stone circle found on remote island An ancient stone circle which has lain buried for more than 3,000 years has been found on a remote Scottish island. The circle is the latest to have been discovered at a site widely considered as second in importance to Stonehenge. Experts said the new circle was very exciting, as it had been built not into soft ground but propped up on a rocky outcrop. They have also located the quarry where the rocks came from, a rare discovery in archaeological terms. The circle, called Na Dromannan, has been found overlooking the standing stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_813926.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  4, 2003 (14:43)", "body": "Ancient Celtic spoon is 2,000-year-old A 2,000-year-old spoon, used for scooping out shellfish, has been discovered at the site of a Celtic village. The tiny, copper alloy metal Romano British spoon, the handle of which is missing, was found by workmen at the Chysauster site, which is just three miles from Mounts Bay, near Penzance, Cornwall. A similar spoon was found during recent excavations in Newquay, north Cornwall. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_810465.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1125, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Sep  9, 2003 (20:24)", "body": "how cool! marcia, you're just gonna have to take your archaeologist and visit scottland and all those magical places!!"}, {"response": 1126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 10, 2003 (11:24)", "body": "That would be fantastic! What is even more incredible is just by weeding your garden you can find treasure (be sure you report it to the proper authorities if you do find anything!!!) which makes weeding interesting for the first time in my particular life...! I rather fancy that Celtic seafood spoon, too. Hmm. I wonder if they made complete sets so I might still find one?! The stone circle is a minor miracle. Aubrey Burl has done exhaustive work on stone circles of the British Isles (I have at least 3 of his books on the subject) and he did not find this one?! I am impressed. I want to find pictures, next. If I do, so will you!"}, {"response": 1127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 2003 (19:52)", "body": "And, all I find in my garden is weeds... Man finds Roman tablet in garden Experts are studying a gold Roman tablet engraved with magic symbols found by a man tending his garden. The tablet, a thin plate covered in Greek writing asking a god for protection and magic symbols, was found in Dereham, Norfolk, and handed to museum staff in Norwich. A spokesman for Norfolk County Council said the tablet, which is about an inch square and thought to date back to the second century AD, had been passed to the British Museum where it was being valued by experts. Officials have not released who found the coin or exactly where or when. But the council spokesman added: \"Museum staff think it could be a very important find.\" http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_820277.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology It is thought to be the fourth tablet of its kind found in Britain."}, {"response": 1128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 2003 (19:57)", "body": "More about the Neanderthals: Potholers uncover 35,000-year-old human jawbone Scientists believe a 35,000-year-old jawbone may be the oldest relic of modern human ancestors discovered in Europe. The fossil was found by potholers in a cave once used by hibernating bears in Romania's Carpathian Mountains. Experts dated it to between 34,000 and 36,000 years ago - a period during which early modern humans co-existed with the last of the Neanderthals. Other bones from the same cave - a skull fragment, a facial skeleton and a partial brain case - are still undergoing analysis, but thought to be the same age. Professor Erik Trinkaus, from Washington University in St Louis, USA, said: \"The jawbone is the oldest directly dated modern human fossil. \"Taken together, the material is the first that securely documents what modern humans looked like when they spread into Europe. Although we call them 'modern humans', they were not fully modern in the sense that we think of living people.\" Prof Trinkaus and his team found that most of the specimens' anatomical characteristics were similar to those from other early modern human fossils found in Africa, the Middle East, and later in Europe. But certain features, such as the unusual molar teeth size and proportions, indicated a more primitive origin - and a possible link with Neanderthals. Scientists disagree on whether or not early modern humans and Neanderthals ever bred. The Neanderthals, which populated Europe millions of years before early modern humans, had more primitive features and were less advanced tool users. Many scientists are convinced the two were separate species incapable of having offspring. But others view the Neanderthals as a sub-species of Home sapiens, and believe interbreeding was possible. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_821928.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 2003 (20:05)", "body": "900-year-old ship found beneath rice field A sailing vessel that experts believe sank off the coast of southern India 900 years ago has been found buried in a rice field. The ship is made of local Indian wood but the craftsmanship is not, leading experts to suggest it was made by ancient Chinese, Japanese, Egyptians or Arabs. The government of southern Kerala state has excavated the 22-metre long, five-metre wide ship, after it was found in a rice field in Thaikal, a coastal village. After centuries of land buildup, it was 50 metres deep in the inland field when workers tilling the field two years ago noticed some of its wooden planks protruding. More... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_831662.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1130, "author": "marshallsmyth2", "date": "Wed, Nov 19, 2003 (15:12)", "body": "Trying to catch up in here too. My new email is marshallsmyth@lycos.com"}, {"response": 1131, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 26, 2003 (21:38)", "body": "Hi Marshall! Marcia, please send me an email (mswolf68@hotmail.com). My alternate address for you isn't working!!!"}, {"response": 1132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 29, 2003 (14:59)", "body": "None of my emailshas been working. My son and wife called me to see if I was alive since my email at all addresses they knew came back to them. I have no idea why. I've been \"enjoying\" Kentucky's finest flu and finally getting to see some snow. The snow I like. Yay! Marshall is back!"}, {"response": 1133, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov 30, 2003 (21:09)", "body": "Please send me an email Marci so I can get reconnected via this cumbersome means."}, {"response": 1134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (14:21)", "body": "Did so. Cumbersome? What other means would you prefer to use?"}, {"response": 1135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (15:15)", "body": "Ancient sun disc declared a treasure A court has declared a priceless 4,000-year-old Welsh gold sun-disc as treasure. Experts say the Copper Age or early Bronze Age artefact, no bigger than a milk bottle top, is one of the most exciting finds in years. The National Museums & Galleries of Wales will now try to buy it for the nation. Freelance archaeologist Simon Timberlake found it at Cwmystwyth Mines, near Aberystwyth, in a burial plot at the site of a Roman and medieval lead-smelter last year. It proved to be one of the earliest kinds of metal object ever created in Britain and Ireland and the first of its kind discovered in Wales. Mr Timberlake, a member of the Early Mines Research Group, said: \"This discovery was made quite by chance, whilst we were investigating a Roman and medieval lead-smelting site about 500 metres away from the early mine.\" An inquest in Aberystwyth has declared the disc to be treasure after hearing experts detail its importance. It's price will now be assessed by the independent Treasure Valuation Committee. A spokesman for the NMGW said: \"This is a priceless find in archaeological terms. It is only the third known piece of goldwork from this period.\" Adam Gwilt, curator at the NMGW, added: \"Gold sun-discs are one of the very earliest kinds of metal objects ever to have been made and used in Britain and Ireland. \"The first of its kind from Wales, this fragile sheet disc seems to have been used as an item of adornment on a few special occasions, here upon the death of an individual. \"It is tempting to see this person as connected in some way with very early mining on Copa Hill over 4,000 years ago, perhaps one of a group of travelling prospectors or a person of some standing who lived nearby.\" http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_841449.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (15:17)", "body": "Buried megaliths discovered at stone circle site Archaeologists have discovered an arc of buried megaliths that once formed part of the great stone circle at Avebury in Wiltshire. The National Trust says the existence of these enormous stones, originally constructed more than 4,500 years ago, has remained a puzzle for the last 300 years. Visitors to Avebury will see most of the standing megaliths in the western half of the stone circle. The famous map of Avebury drawn up by William Stukely in the 1720s showed that many of the stones in the south east and north east quadrants of the circle were missing. Now, the first ever geophysics survey of these areas of Avebury, carried out by the National Trust, has revealed that at least 15 of the megaliths lie buried in the circle itself. The massive stones show up very clearly as computer images and the National Trust has been able to identify their sizes, the direction in which they are lying and where they fit in the circle. Martin Papworth, the National Trust's archaeologist for Wessex said: \"This is a truly exciting find and completes the circle of Avebury. \"These stones were erected over 4,500 years ago and the world of archaeology suspected that most of these stones had been demolished and lost forever. \"We know that many of the Avebury stones still standing up to three hundred years ago were broken up for building stone in the 17th and 18th century. \"Until now, no-one had realised that some of these stones had survived intact and that they actually lay buried in the earth, next to their original locations.\" Now, although the National Trust said it has no plans to raise the stones that have been so well protected by the earth for around 700 years, it is considering using ground probing radar to create three dimensional images of each of the buried stones and raise them as computer images. Story filed: 15:25 Tuesday 2nd December 2003 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_843553.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (15:19)", "body": "I hope they excavate them and restore them to the stone circle. Avebury is my favorite place on earth!"}, {"response": 1138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (15:22)", "body": "Iron Age chariot found near the M1 An Iron Age chariot from about 500 BC has been discovered by engineers working on the new A1 motorway in West Yorkshire. More and picture... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_843692.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:49)", "body": "Early man's carvings found in Germany Small figurines believed to be carved from mammoth ivory more than 30,000 years ago have been discovered in a cave in southern Germany. Among the earliest undisputed artworks ever found, they are providing new clues into the migration and religious beliefs of early humans. The figurines depict a water bird, what appears to be a horse's head and a lion-man. The one-inch lion-man is similar to a near one-foot-long figurine previously found in a nearby valley, which had been cited as evidence of shamanism - the belief that spirits can be influenced by priests known as shamans. Birds, especially water birds, are known to be favourite shamanistic symbols, which means \"advocates of the shamanistic hypothesis are going to be very happy about these finds,\" said study author Nicholas Conard. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_848047.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 11, 2004 (20:13)", "body": "Fabulous finds as Saxon king's tomb is unearthed The tomb of an East Saxon king containing a fabulous collection of artefacts has been unearthed. The burial chamber, believed to date from the early 7th century, has been described by experts as the richest Anglo-Saxon find since the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk - one of Britain's most important archaeological locations. The site in Prittlewell, Southend, Essex was filled with everything a King might need in the afterlife, from his sword and shield to copper bowls, glass vessels and treasures imported from the farthest corners of the then known world. The remains of the nobleman's body have dissolved in the acidic soil, but two gold foil crosses were found which suggest he was a newly-converted Christian. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_862828.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 11, 2004 (20:15)", "body": "I've been looking for photos of the finds of the Saxon burial mentioned above. I'll post them when I find them. I've seen Sutton Hoo in the British Museum and it is worth the effort to get to them."}, {"response": 1142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 22, 2004 (17:52)", "body": "Apparently there has also been a chariot burial mostly intact discovered. This is rare for the UK."}, {"response": 1143, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Feb 27, 2004 (17:29)", "body": "Would that be a Celtic chariot burial?"}, {"response": 1144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 18, 2004 (19:30)", "body": "Interesting question. The ones in China are listed as Bronze Age. The one in West Yorkshire is listed as Iron Age, and since the Celts were the inventors of iron working, and they were the main population in Britain during the Iron Age, I surmised it was a Celtic burial. This site has lots of photos http://www.oxfordarch.co.uk/pages/chariot_burial.htm"}, {"response": 1145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 18, 2004 (19:42)", "body": "Excitement over Viking find Viking experts are anticipating one of the most important archaeological excavations in Britain following the discovery of what may turn out to be the site of a 9th century boat burial. It follows the uncovering of a range of artefacts by amateur metal detector enthusiasts including boat building nails. The discovery among a hoard of 9th century artefacts has raised hopes it could signal the site of a Viking boat burial - which would make it the first to be found in England. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_866983.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1146, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Apr 15, 2004 (11:39)", "body": ""}, {"response": 1147, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Apr 15, 2004 (11:44)", "body": "Ancient remains could be oldest pet cat NewScientist.com news service People tamed cats as pets at least 9500 years ago, say researchers who have unearthed the grave of a prehistoric tabby in Cyprus. The Stone Age moggy appears to have been carefully placed alongside a human corpse, along with offerings including jewellery and stone tools. Until now, historians thought the ancient Egyptians first domesticated cats about 4000 years ago. But evidence suggests cats were culturally important outside Egypt long before that. Stone and clay figurines of cats up to 10,000 years old have turned up in Syria, Turkey and Israel. And archaeologists have found cat bones more than 9000 years old on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which has no native feline species. \"The first discovery of cat bones on Cyprus showed that human beings brought cats from the mainland to the islands, but we could not decide if these cats were wild or tame,\" says Jean-Denis Vigne of the French research organisation CNRS and the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. Now Vigne and his colleagues have discovered the remains of a Neolithic cat at the ancient village of Shillourokambos in Cyprus, and the manner of its burial suggests the animal was a pet. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994867"}, {"response": 1148, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Apr 16, 2004 (11:05)", "body": ""}, {"response": 1149, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Apr 16, 2004 (15:17)", "body": "Ancient jewellery found in African cave Shell beads point to Stone Age sophistication. Diamonds are a girl's best friend, but shell necklaces were all the rage in the Stone Age. So say archaeologists who have unearthed what may be the oldest jewellery ever discovered. The 75,000-year-old beads were found in the Blombos Cave on the southern tip of South Africa. A team led by Christopher Henshilwood of the University of Bergen, Norway found over 40 pea-sized shells with bored holes and worn areas showing that they had been strung on a necklace, bracelet or clothes. The beads predate jewellery excavated from sites in Europe and Africa by at least 30,000 years, they report in Science. http://www.nature.com/nsu/040412/040412-9.html"}, {"response": 1150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 20, 2004 (13:00)", "body": "Cheryl, you need to find the jpg url to post a photo rather than a shtml or html url. I've done it more often than I'd like to admit. I'll go search for your posted url anyway. Thanks for posting this. Cats, it seems have been around far longer than the Egyptians' mummified creatures!"}, {"response": 1151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 20, 2004 (15:47)", "body": "'Shell beads' could be world's oldest necklace Scientists excavating a cave in South Africa believe they have found the world's oldest necklace. Perforated shells found at Blombos Cave appear to have been strung as beads about 75,000 years ago, according to research published in American journal Science. Archaeologists conducting the dig on the coast of the Indian Ocean said the beads provided some of the earliest evidence of our ancestors' modern behaviour. A total of 41 shells, from a tiny river-dwelling mollusc scavenger, were discovered in a layer of sediment deposited during the Middle Stone Age - making them 30,000 years older than any previously identified personal ornaments. The shells, which were found in clusters of up to 17 beads, all contained holes and had marks in similar positions. The research stated they appeared to have been selected for size and deliberately perforated after being found in rivers 20km from the site. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_923093.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 20, 2004 (15:49)", "body": "It seems we have been decorating ourselves for more then just millennia!"}, {"response": 1153, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Sep 22, 2004 (15:56)", "body": "Pompeii find shows secrets of the Samnites By Bruce Johnston The discovery in Pompeii of a pre-Roman temple is being hailed as evidence that the city was sophisticated and thriving 300 years before Vesuvius erupted. The temple is said to be of Mephitis, a female deity worshipped by the Samnites, a mysterious ancient people who preceded the Romans in Pompeii. The temple complex includes a sanctuary where it is thought girls from good families worked briefly in \"sacred prostitution\" as a rite of passage to full womanhood. The Samnites were previously thought of as mountain warriors, whose settlements thrived due to a military pact with Rome, but archaeologists say the finds suggest instead that theirs was an advanced society in its own right. The discovery is the result of a three-year joint project by the University of London and the University of Basilicata in Italy. It is said to have come as a \"complete surprise\". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/05/wpom05.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/05/ixworld.html"}, {"response": 1154, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Sep 22, 2004 (21:25)", "body": "interesting find, cheryl!"}, {"response": 1155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:33)", "body": "Intreresting indeed. Now I have to find the source of my notices because they got eaten by my old computer's breakage. Ah here it is! In the rarified air of WAG thinking comes the following: Ananova: Atlantis 'found in Spain' A German scientist thinks he may have discovered Atlantis - in Spain. Dr Rainer Kuehne says satellite images of southern Spain reveal features on the ground that match Plato's descriptions of the fabled city. He thinks descriptions of Atlantis as an 'island' simply refer to parts of Spain that were destroyed by a flood between 800 and 500 BC. The photos of the Marisma de Hinojos salt marsh near Cadiz show two rectangular structures in the mud and parts of concentric rings that may once have surrounded them More... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_980335.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:35)", "body": "Excavations show Maya culture 'ahead of its time' Elaborate ritual objects have been uncovered in the ancient ruins of a city in Guatemala. The findings at the 2,000-year-old site suggest the Maya civilisation was more advanced than previously thought, reports BBC News Online. The city, Cival, thrived in what is generally considered the 'pre-classic' period - but it bore the hallmarks of the more advanced 'classic' period. The excavations, supported by the National Geographic Society, have unearthed two monumental carved masks, 120 pieces of polished jade, a ceremonial centre that spanned 800m (2,600ft) and an inscribed stone slab dating to 300 BC. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_948671.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 1157, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 2004 (15:17)", "body": "Small relatives may add layer to human history By Lee Bowman Scripps Howard News Service - Detailing \"a new and surprising twig\" on the human family tree, scientists report Thursday they've discovered the remains of a clan of tiny human relatives, standing about 30 inches tall, that lived on an isolated island in eastern Indonesia as recently as 18,000 years ago. Bones from seven individuals of the new species have been recovered from a 130-foot-deep cave called Liang Bua on the island of Flores, a tropical island already renowned for being home to many animal species found nowhere else in the world. Dubbed Homo Floresiensis, or Flores Man, by the team of Australian and Indonesian researchers who found them, the diminutive humans seem to have had the island to themselves for at least 100,000 years before they became extinct, possibly victims of a volcanic eruption around 12,000 years ago or perhaps done in by the arrival of modern humans. Evidence from the cave shows Flores Man walked upright, made stone tools, built fires and worked together to hunt large game, yet sported a grapefruit-sized brain about a quarter the size of the brains of modern humans. Its brain capacity and stature are more in line with a pre-human species that lived in Africa more than 3 million years ago, but other features, like large eye sockets and small front teeth, put the creature in the more modern Homo family. Archaeological evidence shows modern humans have been living practically next door in New Guinea for at least 50,000 years, but scientists also know that full-sized archaic humans, Homo erectus, continued to live along the Solo River in nearby Java until at least 50,000 years ago. Peter Brown, a professor of archaeology and paleontology at the University of New England in Australia and lead author of one of two papers describing Flores Man published in the journal Nature, says the discovery suggests that the human family has been a lot more varied and adaptable than has been recognized. \"People of this body size were supposed to be extinct three million years ago. Yet we missed them by so little in time. This begs the question of what else are we going to find?\" said Brown. Already, he and his colleagues plan to look for signs of similar clans in other caves around the region. But other anthropologists who reviewed the papers before they were published are so puzzled by the jumble of features, some more ape-like than human, that they think it's wrong to include the creatures in the recent human family tree at all. The existence of Flores Man, along with recent evidence that clusters of Neanderthals survived in Europe until about 30,000 years ago, suggests the human family album is becoming more crowded. For most of the roughly 160,000 years that modern humans have been around, our species \"seems to have shared the planet with other bipedal and cultural beings - our global dominance may be far more recent than we thought,\" observe British evolutionary experts Marta Mirazon Lahr and Robert Foley, in a Nature analysis of the research. \"The Flores fossils add a new and surprising twig to the hominin (human) family tree,\" they said. Brown and his colleagues believe that Flores Man evolved from larger archaic humans who may have reached the island on bamboo rafts from other islands as far back as 800,000 years ago, based on the age of stone tools found elsewhere on Flores. Flores, a former Portuguese colony, even today is off the beaten path. The last time the island made news was in 1992 when a series of tsunamis struck the north shore, wiping out several villages and killing more than 1,700 people. The scientists argue that the small size of the species came about over time because natural selection favored dwarfing on an island where the selection of animals for food was limited to birds, reptiles and one large mammal. Such adaptations are common among many animals on islands, including Flores, which featured a miniature elephant, the Stegodon, that Flores Man hunted and cooked, charred bones found in the cave confirm. While modern humans are known to have been in the area for tens of thousands of years before Flores Man disappeared, there's no evidence of interaction. Bones from deer, pigs and porcupine were also found in the soil of the cave - but only in layers above where the dwarf human skeletons were found - suggesting that the new species arrived with modern humans. Lying just below those bones on the cave floor is a thin layer of material laid down 12,000 years ago by volcanic eruption that marked the demise of both the Stegodons and Flores Man. http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=WEEFOLK-10-27-04&cat=II"}, {"response": 1158, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 2004 (11:35)", "body": "We May Not Be the Only Humans on Earth A 3ft tall 'hobbit' discovered on a remote Indonesian island has raised the extraordinary possibility that our human species might not be alone on Earth. The female creature has been identified as a completely new member of the human race. But, although she lived 18,000 years ago, scientists believe her relatives survived for thousands more years on the island of Flores. And experts have not ruled out the possibility of her descendants, or other unknown human species, still hiding in the impenetrable forests and cave systems of South-East Asia. Mythical tales abound in the region of a race of little people that dwell on the islands of Indonesia. Dutch explorers who colonised Flores 100 years ago were told colourful stories of a human-like creature local inhabitants called 'ebu gogo'. The tales described how they could be heard 'murmuring' to one another, and how, parrot-fashion, they repeated back words spoken to them. Dr Henry Gee, senior editor of scientific journal Nature, said scientists who made the discovery were now having to think again about these stories' source. 'Until they found this creature they would have dismissed them as tales of hobbits and leprechauns, but no longer,' he told a news conference last night. from http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=98344 How about them' hobbits?"}, {"response": 1159, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 2004 (16:56)", "body": "cool!"}, {"response": 1160, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 2004 (07:41)", "body": "Strange world of island species Robin McKie on a discovery that sheds light on our distant past - and possibly our present Sunday October 31, 2004 The Observer On one island visited by Sinbad during his travels, he found a giant bird with the wingspan of a whale, while Odysseus, according to Homer, discovered an island race of one-eyed giants who ate humans. Great stories, but tame stuff compared with reality. On the island of Flores in the Malay Archipelago, scientists have found remains of a race of three-foot high humans who hunted pony-sized elephants and rats as big as dogs and who battled dragons with saliva laced with deadly bacteria. When it comes to the fantastic, you can never beat science. Certainly, the furore that surrounded last week's reports that fossil-hunters have discovered the bones of a new human species, Homo floresiensis , is scarcely surprising. This little hominid lived a mere 18,000 years ago, it transpires (and so must have shared Flores with Homo sapiens for millennia), made some nifty stone tools and butchered mini-elephants (called stegadons) with alacrity. As Cambridge anthropologist Robert Foley says: 'Discoveries don't get better than this.' from http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1340260,00.html"}, {"response": 1161, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 2004 (21:56)", "body": "that's way cool!"}, {"response": 1162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 10, 2004 (14:18)", "body": "The 30 inches tall mad us wonder about that. three feet is what most anthropologists are reporting. Oddly enough that news happened just before we attended the Meeting of the Kentucky Academny of Science in Murry, KY last weekend. The item was added to two papers presented to the archaeology section. It is not all that common to have living news in archaeology!!!"}, {"response": 1163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 10, 2004 (14:20)", "body": "Imagine a race of people 30 inches tall? That smacks of the Tennessee \"Pygmies\" that Don has been writing about. In fact, his paper was about just those people."}, {"response": 1164, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Nov 10, 2004 (17:20)", "body": "Tennesee pygmies? Is there more information you can share on them here, Marcia?"}, {"response": 1165, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 10, 2004 (21:32)", "body": "do tell marcia!! (hi cheryl)"}, {"response": 1166, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Nov 11, 2004 (09:40)", "body": "Hi Wolfie! Yes, please do tell us about the Tennesee pygmies."}, {"response": 1167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 16, 2004 (10:28)", "body": "The Rise and Fall of the Mayan Empire NASA Science News for November 15, 2004 NASA scientists are using space satellites to unravel one of the great mysteries of the ancient world. The long-lost secrets they're discovering could help modern people in Central America avoid the fate of the Maya. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/15nov_maya.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 1168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 2004 (19:31)", "body": "/ New theory on Stonehenge mystery A fresh theory on how Stonehenge was built has been tested out by a group of experts and enthusiasts. Gordon Pipes, of the Stonehengineers group of scientists and archaeologists, has suggested that levers may have been used to move the giant stones. They have tested his \"stone-rowing\" theory which involves a 45-tonne stone being levered on a track of logs. \"It's akin to rowing a boat, weights can be picked up with levers using body mass and balance,\" said Mr Pipes. Mr Pipes, from Derby, combined his interest in prehistory and his skills as a carpenter to test his idea. The method is said to require little effort and be just as efficient whether uphill, downhill or on level ground. Many theories have been put forward for the engineering of Stonehenge, including the belief that the stones were dragged or rolled into place. Mr Pipes is planning more experiments on Salisbury Plain next summer in an effort to prove his suggestion. They will involve attempts to move two blocks, weighing 10 tonnes and 40 tonnes, half a mile in a day. Story from BBC NEWS : http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4064817.stm"}, {"response": 1169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 2004 (19:32)", "body": "There will never be a shortage of opionions on Stonehenge. I heard that every age gets the one it deserves. Ours seems to hover between New Age and Space Age."}, {"response": 1170, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 2004 (21:47)", "body": "Did you read the article about the great wall of China? It seems like the thing that made the mortar used in building was rice flour."}, {"response": 1171, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 2004 (21:48)", "body": "Ooops, mean the thing that made the motar so strong was rice flour"}, {"response": 1172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  6, 2004 (16:25)", "body": "I heard that but immediately forgot it. I'll go chase it down on Google and report. Thanks for reminding me, Lucie!"}, {"response": 1173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 2004 (16:03)", "body": "On The Antiquity Of Pots: New Method Developed For Dating Archaeological Pottery The contents of ancient pottery could help archaeologists resolve some longstanding disputes in the world of antiquities, thanks to scientists at Britain's University of Bristol. The researchers have developed the first direct method for dating pottery by examining animal fats preserved inside the ceramic walls. Archaeologists have long dated sites by the visual appearance of pottery fragments found around the site. The new analytical technique will allow archaeologists to more accurately determine the age of pottery and, by extension, the age of associated artifacts and sites. The research builds on recent work that has shed light on the types and uses of commodities contained within the vessels. The findings will appear in the Sept. 30 edition of Analytical Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. more... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/09/030930055244.htm"}, {"response": 1174, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Wed, Mar  2, 2005 (15:33)", "body": "from the Museum of Natural History website On a balmy June morning in 1874, several thousand people gathered in Manhattan Square, an undeveloped tract of New York City's Central Park between 81st and 77th Streets, to see President Ulysses S. Grant lay the cornerstone for the permanent home of the American Museum of Natural History. After an elaborate ceremony, Grant spread mortar over a copper box that contained newspapers, magazines, books, coins, and currency. Then the stone was lowered into place, and he struck it three times with a silver trowel from Tiffany's. The ceremony ended when Albert S. Bickmore, the Museum's founder, repeated the blows for good luck. Once again, a container of cultural relics and recorded knowledge is being installed on the Museum's grounds, to be opened in the year 3000. This \"Times Capsule\" (winner of a competition by the New York Times) is on display in the exhibition \"Capturing Time: The New York Times Capsule.\" The practice of leaving time capsules with messages for people in the future has existed in some sense for thousands of years. The Sumerians buried texts addressed to future rulers in the foundations of palaces and temples, according to anthropologist Robert Ascher, of Cornell University. But the present custom--deliberately burying sealed vessels filled with artifacts that reflect particular aspects of a culture and setting a specific date for their retrieval by others--evolved in the United States. One of the earliest examples of such a vessel was the Century Safe, sealed for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia by a Civil War widow, Mrs. Charles Deihm. In 1976, during Bicentennial celebrations, President Gerald Ford opened the safe, which contained autographs and photographs of officials and other mementos of the bygone era. But Thornwell Jacobs, president of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, raised the concept to a new level in 1936. Inspired by the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen a decade earlier, which revealed vivid details of life in ancient Egypt, Jacobs outlined a plan to preserve a record of life from ancient times to the middle of the twentieth century in what he called the Crypt of Civilization. By 1940 he had sealed, in a heavily reinforced former underground swimming pool, an encyclopedic record of human civilization--from Lincoln Logs to 640,000 pages on microfilm from classics such as the Bible, the Koran, the Iliad, and Dante's Inferno---to be opened in the year 8113. The idea caught the attention of the Westinghouse Company, which was planning a promotional event for the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. During the fair, company officials buried what they called the Capsule of Cupaloy--a seven-and-a-half-foot copper-alloy cylinder with an inner heat-sealed glass tube--in New York's Flushing Meadows, saying it was not to be unearthed for 5,000 years. It was then that the expression \"time capsule\" was coined by G. Edward Pendray, the company publicist also responsible for creating the word \"Laundromat.\" Since then, time capsules have proliferated. Some have even gone into space, like the twelve-inch, gold-plated copper records incised with sounds and images from Earth (encased in aluminum and equipped with a playing needle and instructions written in symbols) and affixed to NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 before their 1977 launches. Both spacecraft will eventually bounce out of our solar system to drift in a remote region of the Milky Way Galaxy, where they will probably remain for hundreds of millions of years--long after the Sun \"will have reduced Earth to a charred cinder,\" as the late astronomer Carl Sagan, director of the project, put it. The discs may thus serve as a cosmic calling card to extraterrestrials and perhaps also as a memorial to humankind. Now, at the new millennium, the International Time Capsule Society (ITCS) estimates that more than 10,000 capsules have been sealed and countless others have been buried secretly in backyards by private individuals. \"Hundreds more have been planned to celebrate the year 2000,\" says Paul Hudson, a historian at Oglethorpe University and an ITCS founder. The contents of the container will be on display in Gallery 77 until the Times Capsule is sealed and installed. Enclosures range from the biological, such as hair samples that will provide a human DNA profile, to the cultural--a compendium of \"lost practices\" with entries on such by-then-extinct behaviors as \"smoking,\" \"reproductive sex\" \"embarrassment,\" and \"reading the New York Times.\" \"It's a kind of instant archaeology that is especially popular with Americans,\" says Hudson. Ascher adds that if the trend continues at the same rate, \"future Earthlings may infer that we were obsessed with explaining ourselves, just as we sometimes believe that the Maya were obsessed with time, and the Egyptians with death.\""}, {"response": 1175, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Mar  6, 2005 (10:40)", "body": "http://www.timecapsule2k.com/ It's a roll yer own time capsule. Get it and set up to release in the year 3000. From the site: \"Preservation - The Easy Way Replacing the air in your Time Capsule 2000 Since oxygen is the deteriorating element, we believe the simplest and most effective method of preservation is to remove the air and replace it with an inert gas, after which the contents will remain as they were when placed in the time capsule. Simply place all items inside your time capsule, screw the lid onto the time capsule, coating the screws with any silicon gel and placing the gasket between the lid and the flange, and then take the capsule to a local bottled gas supplier who will replace the air. Argon or nitrogen are the most commonly used oxygen-free gases and typically come in a gas bottle with a low-pressure hose and a hand operated push valve. The valve end is placed into a tube, which is then inserted into your time capsule through one of the two screw holes. The gas distributor will calculate the volume of gas needed from the size of your time capsule. Since the gas in heavier than air it will push the air out of the other screw holes, and will prevent the air from returning to the time capsule while the screws are replaced. \""}, {"response": 1176, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Mar  6, 2005 (10:41)", "body": "So, what would you include in your time capsule for the year Y3K?"}, {"response": 1177, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar  6, 2005 (11:21)", "body": "good question....my daughter made a mini one over the holidays (school project) but i don't know what she put in there."}, {"response": 1178, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar  6, 2005 (11:22)", "body": "we can't open it until 2010. she'll be 17."}, {"response": 1179, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar  6, 2005 (14:10)", "body": "That's fun. Where did you put it? Underground?"}, {"response": 1180, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar  6, 2005 (16:40)", "body": "no, it was wrapped in giftwrap and stored with all the christmas stuff. she barely remembered putting it together."}, {"response": 1181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 10, 2005 (23:29)", "body": "What a great idea. My son told me too late that he wanted all those icky Christmas decorations he remembered from childhood. Oops. Guess I joined the ranks of moms who throw good stuff away. Those of you aho haven't, please set aside a few of the most memorable ones for 10 years hence. You'd be glad you did. Keeping out the Oxygen and humidity is most of the battle in preservation. This looks like such a great idea."}, {"response": 1182, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (09:57)", "body": "That's one way to cut down on clutter. Bury it all as a time capsule."}, {"response": 1183, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:11)", "body": "*laugh* we'll all have landfills in our backyards!!!"}, {"response": 1184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:50)", "body": "You laugh !! I know that is what I had to clean out of my house in Hawaii. Not worth digging up again and NOT worth burying unless it is to get rid of it. I seem to know lots of folks with landfills in their backyards !!"}, {"response": 1185, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (07:38)", "body": "I'm going to get a schoolbus. Fill it up with Apple //s, Macs and IBM PCs and bury it to open in 2050. You think I'm kidding don't you?"}, {"response": 1186, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (14:56)", "body": "Terry, Have we ever doubted you?! I know by now there must be millions of outdated computers out there not worth recycling for their parts. Go for it. I can remember my first computer with NO memory. Zero! We had to load each program from tape into the \"computer\" to use it - Each time we wanted to use it !! But it beat manual typewriters. In my time capsule I'd put something indicative of every decade I'ved lived. You'd be surprised how much stuff would be in there !"}, {"response": 1187, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Mar 14, 2005 (13:23)", "body": "I sure don't want all these computers in my garage anymore."}, {"response": 1188, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 25, 2005 (08:23)", "body": "http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/video/ephemera_56kW.html Archeology TV. The striking images in Ephemera were achieved using a data projector to physically project filmed interviews onto the building fabric of West Kennet long barrow, part of the ancient Avebury complex in Wiltshire, UK. The result was a unique tactile fusion between Neolithic stone and modern digital technology. West Kennet was selected because it sits, guardian-like, opposite Silbury Hill \ufffd the site of a live televised excavation by the BBC in 1968 as part of the hugely popular series, Chronicle. Upon the illuminated stone, the three interviewees \ufffd all regular TV archaeology protagonists \ufffd discuss archaeology\ufffds portrayal on British TV beginning with the BBC excavation and moving onto the 90s surge in popularity of TV archaeology that Channel 4\ufffds Time Team initiated. Time Team has made archaeology popular unlike any TV series before or since. As well as a new series of episodes each year, the program has generated many specials, live events transmitted over the course of a weekend and national-scale projects such as last year\ufffds Big Dig and this year\ufffds forthcoming Big Roman Dig. The three participants are: Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology magazine. Mike regularly appears in documentaries about Stonehenge and Avebury, most notably Secrets of the Dead: Murder at Stonehenge. His news-stand magazine includes a column, written by students on the MA in Archaeology for Screen Media course, which reviews UK TV archaeology. Julian Richards, TV and radio broadcaster. Julian is probably best known as the presenter of BBC 2\ufffds Meet the Ancestors and Blood of the Vikings as well as radio series including BBC Radio 4\ufffds Mapping the Town. Meet the Ancestors pioneered the use of the then new lightweight mini-DV cameras to create a far more mobile TV-production experience on a restricted budget, but one that reflected that sense of \ufffdmucking-in\ufffd that working on an archaeological dig is about. Julian\ufffds website is http://www.archaemedia.net/tv.asp . Francis Pryor, President, Council for British Archaeology http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ . Francis regularly appears on Channel 4\ufffds Time Team as well as writing and presenting his own series including Britain AD. As the film begins to probe archaeology\ufffds portrayal a little deeper, and asks whether the reconstructions featured in these programs genuinely advance our understanding of the past, Francis Pryor cites the reconstruction of Seahenge that he was directly involved with for the Time Team Seahenge special. From this, the current and future state of TV archaeology is discussed which, at the time of filming, was represented by new series such as BBC 2\ufffds Hidden Treasure and Channel 4\ufffds Extreme Archaeology, both faster-paced, visually slicker programs with snappy music and younger participants but thinner on content and long-term viewer appeal. Curiously, both those series have not returned to UK screens and are unlikely to do so, at least in their previous incarnations. Ephemera is somewhere between a talking head documentary and a video installation. The concept behind the video projections was to place the importance back upon the archaeology by literally making the interviewees elements within the archaeological context, rather than following the normal pattern of having the archaeology serve as cutaways that mask over edits in the more dominating interview. The technique of fusing different technologies to create news ways of engaging viewers is one that the film-maker intends to develop for his future work."}, {"response": 1189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (12:41)", "body": "I've BEEN in West Kennet Long Barrow! I do wish we had the archaeology channel. I would seldom watch anything else!"}, {"response": 1190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 24, 2005 (21:17)", "body": "Remains at Louisville, KY building site may be of ancient Indians Archaeologists have found what they believe are the 5,000-year-old remains of two American Indians at a southern Jefferson County site planned for development. Bone fragments were unearthed last week during an archaeological survey of a 55-acre site near Interstate 65 and Outer Loop slated for a Wal-Mart, restaurants and condominiums. Spear tips and burned rock were found several years earlier at the site, officials said. The remains, accompanied by trash pits, charcoal, carbonized seeds and tools, suggest a camp used by nomadic hunters who might have gathered medicinal herbs and food in the wetland area around 3000 B.C., said David Pollack, a Kentucky Heritage Council archaeologist and site-protection manager. more... http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050420/NEWS01/504200431/1008/NEWS01"}, {"response": 1191, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 25, 2005 (18:46)", "body": "did you go out to the site, marcia?"}, {"response": 1192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 20, 2005 (12:13)", "body": "Not yet. It is fairly near where I live so I suggest there will be trips there with great regularily - though mostly to see Walmart and not the dig. I'll tell you what we discover if allowed to get near the place. This is not uncommon. There was a sizeable population around the river valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, as well as the Tennessee and Kentucky rivers. Lively trade brought gulf shells into their lives. I think we are just beginning to scratch the surface of what is really here."}, {"response": 1193, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jun  7, 2005 (15:36)", "body": "I think that the site which is now downtown Pittsburgh, the confluence of the the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, to form the Ohio River, was considered a place of power by ancient Americans."}, {"response": 1194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 11, 2005 (22:20)", "body": "That is almost as bad as the fate of the huge mound levelled to make room for the city of St Louis, Missouri. With all that land out there, they had to level the largest mount in North America?!! Welcome back, Cheryl. I was concerned about you!!! I missed you, too !!"}, {"response": 1195, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Aug  2, 2005 (16:01)", "body": "What Lies Beneath in Pompeii Going Deep Yields New Perspective on Ancient Roman City By Daniel Williams Washington Post Foreign Service POMPEII, Italy -- For Pompeii's 2 million yearly visitors, the overwhelming attraction is the captivating view of daily life in the Roman Empire evoked by the city's temples, taverns, houses and public baths, and by its ever-popular brothels with their erotic frescoes. This summer, visitors might be forgiven for failing to notice a series of newly dug trenches at the southwest exit to the city. The site looks like an example of below-street plumbing in mid-repair, yet it provides a tiny glimpse of a fact obscured by Pompeii's better-known association with the imperial era: A non-Roman civilization thrived here for three centuries, with its own temples, houses, taverns, baths and saucy sexual practices. Last month, a team of archaeologists from Italy's Basilicata University uncovered the remains of a structure built by the Samnites, a mountain warrior people who conquered, inhabited, built up and ruled Pompeii before Roman chariots wheeled into town. The diggers were looking for something else -- remains of Pompeii's harbor. Instead, they found a pre-Roman temple wall, clay offerings to the Samnite goddess of love, and a basin and terracotta pipes indicating the site of a ritual bath. The Basilicata researchers were digging below Pompeii's surface because the focus of excavations had changed. For the past 250 years, most excavation has concentrated on the Roman city that was suspended in ash and stone by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Until the 1990s, local officials believed constant discoveries from the Roman era were needed to keep Pompeii in the news and to preserve its spot as Italy's most popular tourist attraction. But current administrators say this approach has become counterproductive, pointing out that they can barely afford to maintain the scores of monuments already exposed along Pompeii's lava-stone streets. As a result, only 34 acres out of Pompeii's excavated 115 acres are open to visitors, half the expanse on view 50 years ago. The damage resulting from these years of neglect is readily visible in the dead city. Tourists pick up small pieces of marble for souvenirs, plastic water bottles lie at the feet of Roman columns and stray dogs roam the streets. Thieves frequently raid the sites. During the past 30 years, more than 600 items, from frescoes to bricks, have been pilfered from Pompeii. One of the worst thefts occurred in 1977, when someone hacked 14 frescoes from a villa known as the House of the Gladiators. And in January, thieves cut two frescoes from the House of the Chaste Lovers. (Pompeii houses are usually named after prominent paintings, sculptures or other artifacts.) Administrators suspect that some guards participated in past looting, while local criminal gangs have tried to bid on restoration projects. In any case, Pompeii's archaeological superintendent, Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, in office for a decade, decreed an end to the expansion of digs outward. He says digging down not only allows him to spend money on preserving the already exposed parts of Pompeii, but also is scientifically rewarding. \"By searching vertically, one uncovers the full history of the city. The surface Roman part is only part of the story,\" Guzzo said in a recent interview. \"Going deep doesn't cost so much. It won't include restoration or opening more area to tourism or hiring more guards.\" Subterranean Pompeii may not contain the luxurious villas and elegant sculptures found on the surface, but for archaeologists trained to perceive a universe in a clay shard, it is no less exciting. \"Pompeii is a city which, unluckily for it but fortunately for us, is best known for being destroyed. In everyone's mind, it is frozen at the moment of destruction, when it was a Roman city,\" said Emmanuele Curti, the chief archaeologist on the latest dig. \"But Pompeii was a city long before that, and it's good to remind the world of that.\" In short, it's time the Samnites got their due. \"They were traditionally considered unimportant, but that's because they lost out to the Romans, and the Romans got to write history,\" Curti said. The Samnites were a tribal people who occupied much of southern central Italy and expanded to the Pompeii area around the 6th century B.C. Beginning in 343 B.C., they fought three wars with Rome, which had not yet become the peninsula's sole power. Taking advantage of a moment when the Samnites were busy fighting the Greeks, the Romans invaded their territory. The Romans tried to set up colonies near Naples, but the Samnites struck back. At one point, Samnite troops trapped a Roman army in a mountain pass and forced it to surrender. The humiliated Roman Senate eventually orchestrated a counterattack. Preparations for renewed war included construction of the Appian Way, a road that runs south from Rome toward Naples. The Romans also adopted the checkerboard off"}, {"response": 1196, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Aug  2, 2005 (20:11)", "body": ""}, {"response": 1197, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Aug  2, 2005 (20:17)", "body": "Fascinating History! Beneath a level of 'civilisation' there are probably many others waiting to be exposed. In the few antiquities I have come across I wonder about the stories they could tell. Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 1198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 28, 2005 (20:00)", "body": "We have lived on our own rubbish heaps for thousands of years. The most fertile places archaeologically are either privies or middens both dealing with trash and waste from our having lived there. Considering the trash accumulated in my former home in Hawaii, we are still not more civilized than when we crawled out of caves all of those millennia ago. Now if we want to entertain future diggers, we need to begin flushing broken dishes and jewelry and other household goodies ?!"}, {"response": 1199, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 29, 2005 (21:22)", "body": "*laugh* at least people like the AM can use their metal detectors and find things besides bottle caps and nails!"}, {"response": 1200, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (12:20)", "body": "I'm trying to cut back on trash and on stuff in general and get down to the more essential items I need to make a living and enjoy life."}, {"response": 1201, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (17:42)", "body": "good thinking! i yell at people in the office and at home for not recycling the stuff that's supposed to be recycled!"}, {"response": 1202, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (22:16)", "body": "I recycle everything I can."}, {"response": 1203, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (22:28)", "body": "but, i do admit, despite all of my tree-hugging, i am quite wasteful....."}, {"response": 1204, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (18:42)", "body": "Recycling is absolutely necessary. We so that here rather religiously. In fact, I have avoided buying things with too much packaging. How are you wasteful, Wolfie? I am still wearing things dozens of years old. When fun is digging in the dirt for rocks or relics, old clothes are a necessity !"}, {"response": 1205, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (22:09)", "body": "don't know where to begin---we waste food, buy new things instead of fixing old things or making do with what we have already.....but, when it comes to things around the house such as clothing, toys, furniture, we do love to donate to goodwill or some other organization (not trying to toot horn here). i'd much rather donate than have a garage sale (i know, it's only a few extra bucks)--it's just easier for me. i subscribe to magazines, read them, then take them to work. i must say, though, that my recycle bin is usually fuller than my garbage can, that's a good thing! but today, we cleaned out the fridge of stuff past it's use by date and there were a lot of things being thrown out."}, {"response": 1206, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (22:59)", "body": "since you have kids you are doing very well on conservation !! Get them out of the house and you'll improve even more. I applaud your efforts at donating. I hate yard sales with a passion, so I understand where you are coming from. Hugs wolfie, it is so good to be back. BTW I have seen a ring with Mystic fire stone in it and it is stunning. How is yours holding up?"}, {"response": 1207, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  2, 2005 (21:49)", "body": "i love to GO to garage sales, just not having one of my own......my ring is still fine---though i had a jeweler add more (shoot, what are they called? the little pieces of gold that hold the stone in place).....yeah, those, and one broke off already. haven't lost the stone but i just think it was poorly designed to begin with. needless to say, i don't wear it often and much prefer my alexandrite (did i tell you i bought another one with 3 stones, great color changing properties, in white gold?)"}, {"response": 1208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (14:01)", "body": "Oh yes, I meant I hate having my own. Occasionally we find good old equipment at yard sales. DB already has a large floor-standing corn sheller in the dining room and an old Singer treadle sewing machine I'd love to get working. Prongs hold stones in place in jewelry settings. OOOH You did get an Alexandrite!! Natural or created? I want one so much... I guess that happens in another lifetime along with the geology/archaeology/astronomy profession."}, {"response": 1209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (14:02)", "body": "Prongs should not even snag if they are designed right. You can have a jeweler fix it for you or get you a whole new setting."}, {"response": 1210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (14:07)", "body": "Let's hope this one is not a planted fake. So much lately has been just that. First Temple-era seal discovered By ETGAR LEFKOVITS A First-Temple period seal has been discovered amidst piles of rubble from Jerusalem's Temple Mount, an Israeli archaeologist said Tuesday, in what could prove to be an historic find. The small - less than 1 cm - seal impression, or bulla, discovered Tuesday by Bar-Ilan University archaeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkay amidst piles of rubble from the Temple Mount would mark the first time that an written artifact was found from the Temple Mount dating back to the First Temple period. The 2,600 year old artifact, with three lines in ancient Hebrew, was discovered amidst piles of rubble discarded by the Islamic Wakf that Barkay and a team of young archaeologists and volunteers are sifting through on the grounds of a Jerusalem national park. more plus pictures... http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1127787594479"}, {"response": 1211, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (21:40)", "body": "that's cool--as i was rereading the posts above the word \"prong\" popped in my head. i seem to snag prongs all the time....in fact, my anniversary ring had to be fixed because i snagged a prong (the jeweler was surprised i even noticed it!) yes, i'll have to reset that mystic fire topaz. both of my alexandrites are created (read: affordable and for those that don't know, they are real stones that have been helped).....marcia, they have wonderful color properties!"}, {"response": 1212, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (21:41)", "body": "didn't see a link to a pic of that seal (it's really small, huh?)..."}, {"response": 1213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (23:36)", "body": "I'll post a link to that seal when it becomes available on the internet. I'm curious about it too. We think we are about a small spool of thread or about the lenth of a quarter (25 cent piece) I try very hard to get rings that are smooth concerning prongs or I'll snag everything and some places on people, too. Ouch! Could you email me if you don't want to post it, which dealer you got your stone from - the alexandrite. I guess I will have to buy one online and I am not too ptoud to have a created gem. They are all but mined out in the real world."}, {"response": 1214, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (22:04)", "body": "don't remember where i got the first one but the second was found at overstock.com--very nice quality too (just not crazy about white gold)...."}, {"response": 1215, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (22:11)", "body": "here it is: http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?page=proframe&prod_id=1141517"}, {"response": 1216, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (22:15)", "body": "and the first one...the funny thing is i chose my stone, setting, and side stones and couldn't find anything like it on the website, NOW they have the same exact ring in the size and cut stone i ordered---must be pretty popular: http://www.stuller.com/public/product.aspx?prodGrpID=dba3b4b4-47ec-4469-a7e6-43e6e33c4957&categoryID=eff68680-78ee-4aac-b9b2-414b11aedac7"}, {"response": 1217, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (22:16)", "body": "on my last post, mine doesn't turn pink--it goes from purply-blue to a lovely sea green....not sure if i can capture the color change for you or not but will try. the first one from overstock is a deep purply-blue but changes to pink outside."}, {"response": 1218, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (00:11)", "body": "I have one from Mexico that goes from a purply-blue to a steel blue-green. It isinteresting and I like it very but... I want one that goes from red to green andback again. My other one goes from a purple to a green (class b color change) and neither of them is particularly pretty, but the change is what makes it inetesting. They usually set Alexandrites in sterling silver or white gold. I have one in each. I think I agree it might be prettier in yellow gold, come to think of it. It is just the way the Russians did it for the Tsar in silver."}, {"response": 1219, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (15:37)", "body": "Jewel of the Magdalenian period A necklace and pendants made 15,500 years ago have been discovered in the Praile I cave; it is the most important Upper Paleolithic find in the Basque Country in recent years Mikel Lizarralde \ufffd DONOSTIA (San Sebastian) A Magdalenian treasure of the Upper Paleolithic has lain hidden for the last 15,500 years in the Praile I cave in Deba (Gipuzkoa). Excavations done over the last few years by a team led by the archaeologist Xabier Pe\ufffdalver of the Aranzadi Society of Sciences have uncovered spectacular jewellery. Four stunning necklaces of smooth black stone, another one of goats\ufffd teeth and a 12-cm pendant made by Cro-Magnon man have been discovered in the cave. There are 29 items in all, each one made by hand and engraved. The find in the Praile I cave is not only the most important in the Basque Country in recent years, but also one of the most significant ones in the European continent as far as the Upper Paleolithic period is concerned. The Praile I cave was discovered in 1983 by Mikel Sasieta and Juan Arruabarrena, members of the Munibe group of Azkoitia (Gipuzkoa), and is one of the Paleolithic\ufffds most significant archeological clusters. http://www.berria.info/english/ikusi.php?id=1832"}, {"response": 1220, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (16:25)", "body": "For the Stonehenge afficiandos amongst us: Yorkshire team find ancient road A TEAM of archaeologists from Sheffield University have revealed significant new insights into the role of Stonehenge after discovering a prehistoric ceremonial road. The team, also from four other universities, discovered the avenue. It proves there was a walkway between a henge (a circular momument) at Durrington Walls, and the River Avon, three miles away, blowing a hole in the theory the standing stones at Stonehenge were a one-off feature. The new find supports the team's theory that Stonehenge was in fact just one part of a much larger complex of stone and timber circles linked by ceremonial avenues to the river. Radiocarbon dates indicate the henge was in use at the same time as the sarsen stones were erected at Stonehenge. The newly-discovered roadway, with its rammed flint surface, is wider than most modern roads and more substantial than any other Neolithic track in Europe. It runs for about 100 metres (328ft) from the timber circle within the great henge to the river. Analysis has shown that the avenue was heavily trampled by prehistoric feet, and archaeologists have unearthed numerous finds along its edge. Prof Mike Parker Pearson, from the University of Sheffield's Department of Archaeology, believes Stonehenge and Durrington Walls, together with its adjacent site of Woodhenge, were linked by the river to form a single complex. He has suggested the entire complex was a funerary monument. The work was filmed for a Channel 4 Time Team special, to be screened next year. http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1223025"}, {"response": 1221, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (16:29)", "body": "wouldn't you know I'd spell aficionado wrong. Arrrrgh"}, {"response": 1222, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (16:32)", "body": "I did that once with a domain name, afirthianado.com."}, {"response": 1223, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (16:38)", "body": "I'd love to see some graphics on the location of this new track. I know the Durrington Walls / Stonehenge area very well. This fascinated me. We are just beginning to understand what that little remnant is - a bit of a much greater complex. Sort of like finding the high altar of a vanished cathedral."}, {"response": 1224, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (16:47)", "body": "I wonder just how large the complex was."}, {"response": 1225, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (19:39)", "body": "yeah, i can't wait to see pics either."}, {"response": 1226, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 19, 2005 (21:39)", "body": "I have looked long and hard and the lay of the land on Salisbury Plain and there is no reason it could not stetch out for miles. The entire area is full of barrows of various ages and types. That plain has been sacred land for so long anything is possible. Now if we could only keep the army from using it for an artillary range !!!"}, {"response": 1227, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 19, 2005 (22:36)", "body": "actually, artifacts are what keeps the spot from being used! (in some states over here, anyway)..."}, {"response": 1228, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 19, 2005 (23:09)", "body": "Oh yes. DB worked for the Army Corps of Engineers and what he found at sites under consideration for development determined if it secured for future generations or left to the devices of current needs. Of course there is the one high up official during WW2 who wanted Stonehenge demolished because it was at such a great location for an air strip !!!"}, {"response": 1229, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 20, 2005 (23:10)", "body": "Project to help Dorset people love ancient barrows A new project aims to increase people's awareness, knowledge and appreciation of the landscape between Weymouth and Dorchester (Dorset, England). It is being launched on November 5 by the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team which hopes the project will appeal to everyone who enjoys the countryside. Among outstanding features of the area are the strange 'lumps and bumps' which litter the skyline between Broadmayne and Hardy's Monument - and which few realise are round barrows that have been there 4,000 years. Some long barrows go back as far as 5,000 years, which experts say is an extraordinary survival feat considering their simple construction from native chalk with soil on top. There are some fine round barrows examples to see while walking the inland South West Coast Path route from Came Down, over Ridgeway Hill and on towards Gould's Hill and Hardy's Monument. The AONB said its project had been designed to encourage local people to get out on foot and explore the area and to get them more involved with it. The team hopes to achieve this with a Lumps and Bumps photographic competition, entries for which will be displayed at the county library in April 2006 and there will also be a watercolours and oils competition. The AONB added that there was even a chance that a few volunteers might be able to help English Heritage surveyors re-survey ancient earthworks. A new booklet is being released at the project's launch, and there will be a free awareness morning at Portesham Village Hall with guest speakers including archaeologist Dr Bill Putnam and reconstruction artist Jane Brayne. A second awareness day is scheduled for Dorset County Museum on November 26. For project details call 01305 756785 or see the href=\" http://www.dorsetaonb.org.uk/ \""}, {"response": 1230, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct 25, 2005 (16:34)", "body": "4,000-Year-Old Noodles Found in China John Roach for National Geographic News A 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles unearthed in China is the earliest example ever found of one of the world's most popular foods, scientists reported today. It also suggests an Asian\ufffdnot Italian\ufffdorigin for the staple dish. The beautifully preserved, long, thin yellow noodles were found inside an overturned sealed bowl at the Lajia archaeological site in northwestern China. The bowl was buried under ten feet (three meters) of sediment. \"This is the earliest empirical evidence of noodles ever found,\" Houyuan Lu of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at Beijing's Chinese Academy of Sciences said in an e-mail interview. Lu and colleagues report the find tomorrow in the science journal Nature. The scientists determined the noodles were made from two kinds of millet, a grain indigenous to China and widely cultivated there 7,000 years ago. Modern North American and European noodles are usually made with wheat. Archaeochemist Patrick McGovern at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia said that if the date for the noodles is correct, the find is \"quite amazing.\" Even today, he said, deft skills are required to make long, thin noodles like those found at Lajia. \"This shows a fairly high level of food processing and culinary sophistication,\" he said. Noodle History Noodles have been a staple food in many parts of the world for at least 2,000 years, though whether the modern version of the stringy pasta was first invented by the Chinese, Italians, or Arabs is debatable. Prior to the discovery of noodles at the Lajia archaeological site, the earliest record of noodles appears in a book written during China's East Han Dynasty sometime between A.D. 25 and 220, Lu said. Other theories suggest noodles were first made in the Middle East and introduced to Italy by the Arabs. Italians are widely credited for popularizing the food in Europe and spreading it around the world. Additional evidence is needed to prove that the noodles found at Lajia are the ancestor of either Asian noodles or Italian pasta. \"But in any case, the latter is only documented two millennia later,\" Lu said. Gary Crawford, an archaeologist at the University of Toronto at Mississauga in Canada, said finding 4,000-year-old noodles in China is not a surprise. \"It fits with what we've generally known\ufffdthat noodles have a long and important history in China,\" he said. Ingredient Sleuthing To determine what the noodles were made from, Lu and colleagues compared the shape and patterning of the starch grains and seed husks in the noodle bowl with modern crops. The team concluded the noodles were made from two kinds of millet\ufffdbroomcorn millet and foxtail millet. The grain was ground into flour to make dough, which was then likely pulled and stretched into shape. Foxtail millet alone, the researchers say, lacks the stickiness required to allow the dough to be pulled and stretched into strings. While archaeological evidence suggests wheat was present in China 4,000 years ago, it was not widely cultivated until the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618 to 907), Lu said. According to Crawford, the fact that the noodles were made of millet is not surprising. His own research at a similarly dated site in northern China shows ample millet and rice but very little wheat. However, he added, the discovery of well-preserved millet noodles helps explain the lack of grain seeds found at some archaeological sites. \"One suspicion is grain seeds were made into a type of food through boiling and flour production. That would not necessarily leave much in the way of grains to be \ufffd recovered,\" he said. \" \ufffd and if they were making noodles, that would explain it.\" According to Lu, in poor, rural areas of northwestern China, millet is still used to make noodles. \"These modern millet noodles have a harder texture than the wheat noodles, so they are commonly called iron-wire noodles,\" he said. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1012_051012_chinese_noodles.html"}, {"response": 1231, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct 25, 2005 (16:54)", "body": "Beer Brewing Paralleled the Rise of Civilization Kurt Stoppkotte National Geographic News Malting, mashing, boiling, and fermenting \ufffd the basic process of brewing beer has remained relatively unchanged for thousands of years. Using his own gravity-fed brewing system, fabricated of Styrofoam coolers, plastic tubes, sliced kegs, and a propane stove, home brewer Steve Marler of Arlington, Virginia, pursues an activity that has been associated with the beginnings of civilization. \"I'm just converting starches into sugars, boiling it with hops and adding yeast,\" Marler said. \"Basically, it's very simple, and in a few weeks I will be able to enjoy the fruits of my labor.\" The brewing methods that Steve Marler employs in the backyard of his suburban home are undoubtedly much like those that were used 6,000 years ago by the Sumarians, whose beer brewing was the first recorded knowledge of the practice. Hailed by Caesar Michael Jackson, author of the World Guide to Beer, says the relatively simple process of converting grain into a palatable substance\ufffdor \"liquid bread\"\ufffdis at least as old as civilization. \"There is a perfectly respectable academic theory that civilization began with beer,\" he noted. Some people contend that beer may have been the staple of mankind's diet even before bread was invented. During the Neolithic Revolution, bands of hunters and gatherers began forming organized communities to cultivate the land\ufffdthe beginning of civilization. \"We know that in farming the land, they grew things, and the first thing grown was cereal grains in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East,\" said Jackson. \"The first thing they did with that grain,\" he added, \"was make it into beer. We don't know whether they were trying to make beer, or just trying to find a way to make grain edible.\" The idea behind the theories about the early emergence of beer is that grains could be grown in poorer soils and required less water to grow than other crops, such as grapes. Unlike grapes, however, grains had no juice to extract. Therefore, they had to be soaked in water, which led to a natural fermentation process that produced what Julius Caesar described as \"a high and mighty liquor.\" So which came first, beer or civilization? Dave Alexander, owner and operator of the Brickskeller in downtown Washington, D.C., argues that \"beer is probably the reason for civilization.\" There is pretty strong evidence that after the first sampling of fermented beverages, man realized he had to end his nomadic life and settle down to grow grains and to continue to produce the beer,\" Alexander surmised. Simple Process, Varied Results Although the brewing process has remained basically the same, the results now vary considerably. The Brickskeller, a clearinghouse for beers from around the world, opened in 1957 with 51 beers on its menu. Today, it has 971 varieties in stock. The vast selection is what attracts Mike Bengston, who has frequented the Brickskeller for 20 years. \"There is always a beer that will fit every mood you are in,\" he said. The large increase in the range of beers available over the past 15 years stems mainly from the growth of microbreweries and their challenge to large-scale industrial beer production. At the Old Dominion microbrewery in Ashburn, Virginia, 50 kegs of beer are brewed every four hours. \"In a big brewery, it looks very complicated, with all the different pipes and pumps and all kinds of things, but really, all they are doing is moving stuff around,\" said Scott Zetterstom, Old Dominion's master brewer. \"You're just making sugar water, and it's really not that complicated.\" Although the brewing process itself has remained fairly consistent for more than 10,000 years, a beer gets its distinctive flavor from how the grain-derived sugar water is fermented and other ingredients that may be added. Alexander is proud to be able to offer his customers 971 different varieties. Yet he is quick to defend the major breweries from attacks by beer drinkers who tend to treat the products of microbreweries as inherently superior. \"The fact of the matter is that it was those [traditional] beers that actually got you to drink in the first place, and they will always be the beers that still get people to like beer,\" said Alexander. \"They have an important place in the world of malted beverages for that reason, and they will always be popular.\" http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/04/0424_kurtbeer.html"}, {"response": 1232, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct 25, 2005 (16:56)", "body": "Ancient Chocolate Found in Maya \"Teapot\" By Bijal P. Trivedi National Geographic Today Analysis of residue from a ceramic \"teapot\" suggests that the Maya, and their ancestors, may have been gobbling chocolate as far back as 2,600 years ago, pushing back the earliest evidence of cacao use more than 1,000 years. \"This reopens the whole debate about who first invented chocolate,\" said Jonathan Haas, curator of the mouthwatering \"Chocolate\" exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago. The first chemical evidence of cacao use came about 15 years ago after the analysis of residue from a vessel found at the Mayan site of Rio Azul in northeastern Guatemala and belonging to the Early Classic period of Maya culture\ufffdapproximately A.D. 460. But Michael Coe, co-author of The True History of Chocolate, believes based on a slew of evidence, some linguistic, that the roots of chocolate go much further back to the great Olmec civilization, which preceded the Maya. \"The Maya derived a lot of their high culture from the Olmec,\" said Coe, also professor emeritus of anthropology at Yale. \"Even the word 'cacao' is not a native Maya word\ufffdit's Olmec.\" The Olmec lived in the southern Gulf of Mexico between 1500 and 500 B.C., and their influence extended to Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. \"The new find is hard chemical evidence that the Mayans were drinking chocolate in 500 B.C.,\" said Coe, suggesting that people were cultivating the cacao tree long before the Maya civilization, which flourished in southern Mexico, the Yucat\ufffdn, and the highlands of Belize between 500 B.C. and A.D. 1500. Chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao tree, which are swaddled in gooey white flesh inside green-yellow pods. The seeds and the pulp are scooped out of the pod and allowed to ferment until the seeds are a rich dark brown. The seeds are then dried, and then roasted before being ground to produce a thick chocolate paste. Chocolate for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner The Maya had a lifestyle many kids would envy\ufffdchocolate at every meal. \"It was the beverage of everyday people and also the food of the rulers and gods,\" said Haas. In fact, the scientific name for the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao\ufffd\"food of the gods.\" Hieroglyphs that depict chocolate being poured for rulers and gods are present on Maya murals and ceramics. Now the newly-analyzed spouted ceramic pot reveals the deeper darker history of this almost drug-like substance. Mayan teapots have always fascinated Terry Powis, an archaeologist at the University of Texas at Austin, which is how his investigation began. \"Spouted vessels are very distinct from other Mayan ceramics and quite rare, typically associated with elite burials,\" he explained. Fortunately for Powis, fourteen such vessels were excavated in 1981 from a site at Colha, which lies close to the Caribbean coast in northern Belize, and have since been housed at the University of Texas, Austin. The Maya occupied Colha, which is known for its production of stone tools and its Preclassic spouted vessels, continuously from about 900 B.C. to A.D. 1300. The Essence of Chocolate Powis's goal was to determine whether the vessels were indeed used to pour some type of chocolate libation. He scraped residue from the vessels and sent the samples to W. Jeffrey Hurst, who has a delicious job as an analytical biochemist at the Hershey Foods Technical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Using \"high performance liquid chromatography coupled to atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry,\" Hurst analyzed all the samples. The first instrument separates all the components of the mixture and the other measures the molecular weight of each. Cacao is a blend of more than 500 chemical compounds. Of this tasty compendium the signature chemical is a compound called theobromine\ufffdthe chemical marker of cacao. Of the 14 samples analyzed, 3 were positive for theobromine, \"chocolate, that is,\" said Powis. The study is published in the July 18 issue of the journal Nature. These spouted vessels were first dubbed chocolate pots about 100 years ago. Archaeologists knew from Spanish accounts that the Maya drank liquid chocolate and just assumed that the teapots were used to pour the beverage. \"Now we have proof,\" said Powis. Chilli, Honey and Maize With Your Chocolate? By the time the Spanish reached the Maya, around the 1500s, everyone was drinking chocolate\ufffdrich and poor alike. Traces of chocolate have been found in ordinary Maya houses. The Maya drink was very different from America's thin, watery hot chocolate, said Powis. According to Spanish accounts\ufffdmany of which come from Bishop Diego de Landa, whose descriptions of Maya culture and language are the primary tools used today to translate Maya glyphs\ufffdthe Maya enjoyed their hot chocolate thick and foamy. While standing, Maya poured the chocolate drink from one vessel to another on the ground. The drop, together with the fatty cacao butter, produced a thick head of rich, dark, ch"}, {"response": 1233, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct 25, 2005 (16:59)", "body": "Chocolate and Holidays\ufffdA Long History National Geographic News What does Easter have in common with Valentine's Day, Halloween, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Mexico's Day of the Dead? They're all celebrated with chocolate. How did people learn to extract this sublime pleasure from the bitter seeds of the cacao tree? No one knows. When the Europeans reached the capital of the Aztec Empire, they found a people who used cacao seeds to make a frothy, spicy drink used in royal and religious ceremonies. This ancient delicacy and its roots and cultural importance are the subject of an exhibition that opened recently at the Field Museum in Chicago. Interesting facts from the exhibition and companion books published in conjunction with the event: \ufffd Obrana cacao, the name of the tree that produces chocolate, means \"food of the gods.\" \ufffd In the 19th century, people began adding condensed milk to cocoa to produce milk chocolate. (Cacao refers to the bean or tree; cocoa is a product derived from cacao.) \ufffd The Aztecs used cacao seeds as money. \ufffd The Aztecs sometimes fed their sacrificial victims chocolate beverages to calm them before the sacrifice. \ufffd During World War I chocolate began to be shaped in the form of bars for eating. \ufffd White chocolate contains cocoa butter, but no cocoa solids. Chocolate purists argue that the confection should not be called \"chocolate\" at all. \ufffd Cacao seeds are traded on the commodities market\ufffdunder the name \"cocoa\"\ufffdalong with pork bellies and soybeans. \ufffd Mexicans today use chocolate as an offering on the Day of the Dead, in the form of mol\ufffd, a spicy sauce made with chilies and chocolate. \ufffd Foil-wrapped chocolate coins are given to children as Hanukkah \"gelt.\" \ufffd In the United States, chocolate has a place in nearly every holiday celebration: heart-shaped boxes of chocolate for Valentine's Day, chocolate bunnies for Easter, wrapped candies for trick-or-treaters at Halloween, and cups of hot cocoa to warm Christmas carolers. \ufffd Sales of chocolate products in the United States total $13 billion a year. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0328_0328_choclate.html"}, {"response": 1234, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct 25, 2005 (17:01)", "body": "Maya Murals May Depict Murder of Royal Scribes Hillary Mayell National Geographic News A new study offers a gruesome illustration of the pen being mightier than the sword. It suggests that the official scribes of Maya kings, who were considered important to the kings' power, were especially targeted by enemies in warfare. If captured, they were executed\ufffdafter their fingers were broken and their fingernails ripped out, according to a researcher who has taken a much closer look at Maya murals. Kevin Johnston, an anthropologist at Ohio State University, first began thinking about the fate of captured scribes when he saw a photo enhancement of a mural from Bonampak in National Geographic. Bonampak is a Maya site in the Chiapas state of southern Mexico. The mural depicts captured scribes\ufffdbound, semi-nude, and with their fingers broken and bleeding. Some have already been executed. \"I was looking at it and I had a 'eureka!' moment,\" said Johnston. \"I realized they were holding quills, and that I had seen similar depictions in other places. Johnston, whose study is published in a recent issue of the journal Antiquity, said: \"Destroying a conquered king's ability to communicate is a powerful act of symbolism.\" Human Captives During the Classic Maya period, A.D. 250 to A.D. 800, the Maya civilization consisted of 50 or more city-states spread across Mexico, Belize, northern Guatemala, and western Honduras. A king ruled each city-state, which consisted of farmlands surrounding urban centers. Warfare between neighbors was common. Besides the usual spoils of war, the conquerors sought human captives, which were essential for a king to maintain power. One measure of a kingdom's wealth was its large temples, ceremonial plazas, and palaces. Building these monuments required a great deal of manpower, which was often provided by the forced labor of those captured in battle. A king also used captives as human sacrifices to the gods. Human sacrifice was seen as necessary for the king to maintain a relationship with the gods and keep them happy, thereby ensuring healthy, abundant crops. Scribes were important to a king as well, to document his spiritual superiority, success in battle, and political might. Power of the Pen Reading and writing were elite functions in Maya society, and scribes were minor royalty, related to nobles or sometimes even to the king. By immortalizing a king's victory in battle and ready communication with the gods, a scribe played an important and highly visible role in maintaining the king's power. Scribes wrote on a variety of media, including pots, stone, books of deerskin covered with a thin layer of plaster, and other small portable objects, said Johnston. Text was also posted on stelae, tall stone obelisks that frequently surrounded the central plaza. Steve Houston, a Maya scholar at Brigham Young University, has suggested that some of the texts were designed to be read aloud to assembled crowds. In Maya society, Johnston said, \"writing was a political tool of persuasion and authority. Scribes were deliberately targeted in warfare to silence the king's mouthpiece, which would compromise his power and reveal his vulnerability.\" Johnston thinks a king may have had additional motives for executing an enemy's scribes. The conquering king already had numerous scribes of his own and would not need their services, and because the captured scribes were typically related to the defeated king in some way, their loyalty was questionable. Another View Mary Miller, a professor at Yale, is the lead researcher on the Bonampak restoration, for which the computer-enhanced photographs of the murals are being produced. She has a slightly different, if even more gruesome, interpretation of the bleeding fingers depicted in the artwork. Miller believes that the scribes' fingernails are not being ripped out, but the fatty pads on their fingers are being cut away from the bone. She is also not sure that captured artists and scribes were executed. \"I've been arguing for years, since at least 1986, that artists are one of the most important pieces of tribute a conquering king could have, and that captive workers were often forced to produce works of art,\" she said. \"After warfare, in many cases you can see styles of art change.\" Johnston agrees that such artistic tribute was required of captives in some cases. There is very limited evidence at the moment to tell whether artists, scribes, and carvers were treated differently. Reconstruction of the murals at Bonampak are a multi-year project for Miller and her colleagues, and their findings are just beginning to be published. \"As more of the data is published,\" said Miller, \"it will engender a lot of discussion, as new details of the richness and complexity of Maya cultural practices emerge and we can take a fresh look at Maya warfare.\" http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1126_Mayanscribes.html"}, {"response": 1235, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 25, 2005 (18:32)", "body": "Oooh goodies ! Chocolate even. But they drank it without sugar. Try it sometime. It'll give you halucinatins, too. I was wondering when the ancient noodles would be posted. Yuck. I think I had some of those with the 1000 yr old eggs in my cupboard in Hilo. I've been sidetracked into some lunatic fringe archaeology reading lately. It is fun even if it isn't true. Don and I have also been discussing the difficulties of curating thousands of tons of plainware and lithics salvaged each year. New laws need to be made or some other source of funding. There simply is not enough room to store all of this stuff and no one can afford to do so anyway. Thanks, Cheryl!"}, {"response": 1236, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 25, 2005 (18:34)", "body": "Read this one aloud to yourself AN image of a Roman gladiator wearing only a G-string has been dug from the bed of the River Tees. http://www.teesdalemercury.co.uk/teesdale-news/story,975.html"}, {"response": 1237, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 30, 2005 (09:31)", "body": "ohhhhh, chocolate! cheryl, you find some of the neatest articles! marcia, no way!!! where's the picture?"}, {"response": 1238, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  1, 2005 (12:23)", "body": "I've been looking for the pictures myself. When I find them, you can bet I will let you know where to see them. Welcome home, Wolfie. I hope everything went well."}, {"response": 1239, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov  1, 2005 (20:55)", "body": "thanks marcia *hugs* we had a wonderful time!"}, {"response": 1240, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  2, 2005 (15:13)", "body": "So excellent is this news. LIttle wolfies need tending now. They are at \"that\" age! We're off to Nashville to visit the state archaeologist (I think I recall that is who he is.) In any case the weather is lovely and the fall leaves are gorgeous. We'll have a great time no matter what."}, {"response": 1241, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov  2, 2005 (21:11)", "body": "*laugh* your visit to nashville almost sounds like you're going to the doctors or something! *heehee* take pictures of the foliage, we don't have much of that down here!"}, {"response": 1242, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Nov  2, 2005 (21:47)", "body": ""}, {"response": 1243, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  3, 2005 (11:24)", "body": "It should be a great day for the drive to Nashville Marci. What route did you /are you taking?"}, {"response": 1244, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  7, 2005 (19:26)", "body": "found this article today about the unearthing of a church in Israel: http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/06/israel.ancient.church.ap/index.html"}, {"response": 1245, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 13, 2005 (14:00)", "body": "The Nashville trip was lovely. That archaeologist we visited has a basemennt worth the envy of the civilized world. It is carpteted and lined with illuminated glass cases full of artifacts he has excavated that were not needed or desired by the establishment sponsoring the dig. Worse, educational institutions are also not interested. In any case he photographs them, makes exhaustive notes and then publishes them to make a record of his finds. I was never so close to such lovely things in my life. I even got to hold some of it. Best of all, he has a pile of artifacts outside his front door full of unlabeled and unclassified things hoping to interest his grandchildren. None have shown any interest yet but I certainly was. The lady of the house gave me a grocery sack and I filled it with potsherds, mineral specimens (many with crystals), lithics (stone tools from the stone ages) and some just plain curious pieces. Next I want to find them in context. I guess I am the only person on the planet who ha not found a single spear point or other stone Indian tool. The leaves were beautiful. Last weekend we were off to Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond for the annual Kentucky Academy of Sciences meetings. DB gace a paper and I got to meet and renew acquaintences with archaeologists from all over the state. It was a great weekend completed by a meeting of the Falls of the Ohio Archaeological Society in Indiana where we heard from one of the men who did the excavation of a riverbank on the Ohio River that was undercut and collapsed taking part of a roadway with it revealing a large Missippisn settlement area."}, {"response": 1246, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 13, 2005 (14:02)", "body": "Today's amazing archaeology article is finding evidence of an earthquake attributed to Archangel Michael: When the Earth moves, beware of snakes, whales and archangels, says Steve Jones Tuesday, in the Orthodox Church, was Michaelmas, the feast of the Archangel Michael, patron saint of grocers and victor over the fiery dragon of Revelations. Like many saints, he was fond of apparitions, and in AD 439 descended with alarming instantaneity on Sant'Angelo, a small town in the boot of Italy. Legend has it that Michael landed with such force as to leave an imprint in the rocks, an event celebrated in a sanctuary that still stands. That Christian monument is on the site of a much older Greek shrine, an entrance to the underworld. Now archaeologists have uncovered a great fault - a step in the rocks - beneath the building's floor. Michael's long-lost footprint is proof of an ancient earthquake that caused one segment of land to slump against its neighbour and the locals, Greek or Christian, to assume that the commotion was due to the bumpy touchdown of a deity rather than the uneasy movements of the Earth. more... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2005/11/08/ecfjones08.xml"}, {"response": 1247, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 13, 2005 (17:32)", "body": "Pennsylvania hunters may use prehistoric weapon Pennsylvania hunters may use prehistoric weapon An ancient weapon that struck fear in the hearts of Spanish conquistadors, and that some think was used to slay woolly mammoths in Florida, may soon be added to the arsenal available to Pennsylvania (USA) hunters. The state Game Commission is drafting proposed regulations to allow hunters to use the atlatl, a small wooden device used to propel a 6-foot-long dart as fast as 80 mph. The commission could vote to legalize its use as early as January. It's unclear which animals atlatlists may be allowed to hunt, but the proposal is being pushed by people who want to kill deer with a handmade weapon of Stone Age design. The name, usually pronounced AT-lad-ul, is derived from an Aztec word for \ufffdthrowing board.\ufffd In Alabama, one of a handful of states that allows the use of atlatls for hunting or fishing, few hunters use them during deer season, said Allan Andress, the chief fish and game enforcement officer for the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Even spear hunters\ufffdAlabama game law also allows spears\ufffd outnumber those using atlatls. \"As you might imagine, it\ufffds not something that most people have the skill or the patience for,\" Andress said. To use an atlatl, throwers hook arrow-like hunting darts into the end of the atlatl, which is generally a wooden piece about 2 feet long. The leverage of the atlatl allows them to throw the 5- to 8-foot darts much farther than they could throw a spear. There is evidence that the weapons were used more than 8,000 years ago in Pennsylvania, said Kurt Carr, an archaeologist with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Prehistoric atlatls have a distinctive counterweight feature called a winged banner stone that has helped confirm their existence at digs in Huntingdon and Bucks counties, among other places, said Carr. Atlatl use goes back as far as 12,000 years elsewhere in North America and far longer in Europe. If the commission gives preliminary approval in January, a final vote in April could clear the way for atlatl hunting in Pennsylvania late next year. Source: Associated Press, CBS 3 (12 November 2005)"}, {"response": 1248, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 13, 2005 (17:35)", "body": "It is not uncommon to see atlatl use at archaeological meetings and conferences. I have not yet tried it but watching others is great fun. It is fairly easy to master, as far as I could tell. I'll report on how well I did and how difficult it really is when I get the courage and opportunity next time I get the opportunity to try."}, {"response": 1249, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov 15, 2005 (16:16)", "body": "I'm worried about those who go hunting to drink using an atlatl. Okay, it's silly on my part, but every year a few of them do manage shoot one another. Now they might have spear throwers. Tell us how it works out for you when you get a chance to you use one Marcia."}, {"response": 1250, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 17, 2005 (00:16)", "body": "I need to find a good graphic, but essentially it is thrown as any spear is thrown with arm cocked over shoulder. The atlatl has a launcher attached and a bannerstone for added impetus. You use an overhand throwing motion stopping just as it comes by your ear. The bannerstone carries forward and the inertia you have built up launches the spear. I worried immediately about the drinkers in the woods huring spears and making macho jokes about it - then someone loses an eye. (That seesm to be my favorite thing to worry about.)"}, {"response": 1251, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 20, 2005 (16:02)", "body": "Thank AE for the following. Fascinating possibilities... A 1,200-Year-Old Murder Mystery in Guatemala By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD Archaeologists and forensic experts in Guatemala have made a grisly discovery among the ruins of an ancient Maya city, Cancu\ufffdn. In explorations during the summer, they found as many as 50 skeletons in a sacred pool and other places, victims of murder and dismemberment in a war that destroyed the city and, it seems, served as a beginning of the collapse of the classic period of the Maya civilization. The precipitous decline of the Maya is one of the enduring mysteries of American archaeology. As the scale of the massacre became apparent, the archaeologists called on Guatemalan forensic investigators for their experience with mass burials of modern war. The team, established in 1996 to excavate the mass graves from Guatemala's civil war, has also analyzed sites in Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda. Arthur A. Demarest, an archaeologist at Vanderbilt University who directed the excavations, described the discovery yesterday in an announcement by the National Geographic Society and in an interview by telephone from Guatemala City. \"This is probably the most important thing I've ever discovered,\" said Dr. Demarest, who has explored Maya ruins since the 1980's. more... http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/17/international/americas/17maya.html?emc=eta1&pagewanted=print"}, {"response": 1252, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov 20, 2005 (19:20)", "body": "maybe the mayans were like a cult (remember the kool-aid masacre?) and they were all killed as part of it or something. this is interesting though."}, {"response": 1253, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 24, 2005 (13:44)", "body": "Great suggestion, Wolfie. I was just wondering how they can talk about possible disembowelment when there are only skeletons?! Remember Waco? The guys who were sure their space ship was in the tail of a comet? Be careful, people ! Think !! Happy Thanksgiving, all."}, {"response": 1254, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Dec  5, 2005 (11:49)", "body": "Hi all Picked up a couple of trinkets at the local 'toy' store - they were selling Egyptian scarab beetles (tiny carvings of beetles). Bought two - quite reasonably priced - one had a carving of the deity Bes and the other had a weave pattern between two Horus Hawks perched on baskets. Estimated age 1500 to 2000 BC. Fascinating objects! de Mike"}, {"response": 1255, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec  6, 2005 (08:37)", "body": "What were they made out of?"}, {"response": 1256, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Dec  6, 2005 (23:10)", "body": "One was made out of Steatite (sp?) - possibly both. There were others made out of various materials - Lapis Lazuli, silver, alabaster, etc. These two had very interesting underbelly engravings - I went with those even though there were chips in the top of the beetle over the more intact ones without inscriptions on the bottom. I did some net reading - Bes is the deity of dance and merry making although other info sites described Bes to be a house hold guardian - he was a dwarf with very scary features but benevolent - main job was to scare off demons. The Horus hawks have something to do with the pharoes. Note these were the hawk birds - not the human with hawk head. de Mike"}, {"response": 1257, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 10, 2005 (00:56)", "body": "I have a bracelet of scarabs but they are of modern making. How great to have an genuine antiquity. The ones that are here in the house fastinate me. I can look and ponder for a long time knowing someone had to make this to survive. Most of our things are lithic tools and not decorative adornment like scarabs. I guess the folks in long-ago America had real beetles adorning them. *;) Mike, did you know that scarab beetles are dung beetles?"}, {"response": 1258, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sat, Dec 10, 2005 (22:06)", "body": "Hi Marci! After I found these scarabs I did some searching for their history plus the significance of the symbols - the scarabs pushed balls of dung which was interpreted to symbolize the movement of the sun across the sky. I had the feeling that here was something made thousands of years ago and who's hands did it pass through? Very interesting on the lithic tools - I have a few arrow points I found in west Texas as well as a scraper tool. Again, who made this, what was its story. Here is something made by hand many generations ago - if the item could only speak and tell its story! This is what I find the most fascinating about antiques and antiquity. de Mike"}, {"response": 1259, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Dec 14, 2005 (10:34)", "body": "Mayan treasure found in Guatemala Archaeologists working in Guatemala say they have uncovered one of the most spectacular pieces of artwork created by the ancient Mayan people. They say they have discovered a mural depicting the Mayan creation myth and the coronation of a king, thought to be more than 2,000 years old. Archaeologist William Saturno said it was like finding the Mayan equivalent of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. 'Unique' find Mr Saturno, of the University of New Hampshire, said the mural - painted in greyish blue, orange and flesh tones - was discovered at the western wall of a room attached to a pyramid. The mural on the wall - measuring 0.9x9m (3x30 ft) - includes four deities, which are variations of the same figure, the son of the maize god, offering a blood sacrifice from his genitals. The first deity stands in the water and offers a fish, establishing the watery underworld, Mr Saturno said. The second stands on the ground and sacrifices a deer, establishing the land; the third floats in the air, offering a turkey to establish the sky; and the fourth stands in a field of flowers, the food of gods, establishing paradise. The crowned Mayan king is depicted at the end of the mural, Mr Saturno said. \"It was like discovering the Sistine Chapel if you didn't know there had been a Renaissance,\" Mr Saturno said at a news conference. \"It's like knowing only modern art and then stumbling on the finger of God touching the hand of Adam,\" he said. Mr Saturno first reported the discovery of the site in 2002. The western wall is thought to be painted about 100 BC, but was later covered when the room was filled in. Archaeologists say the artwork is particularly unique because it dates from hundreds of years before the classical Mayan period. The Mayans - known for their prowess in astronomy and mathematics - dominated southern Mexico and parts of Central America for some 1,500 years. The mural and William Saturno's research will be featured in the January issue of National Geographic magazine. The mural was discovered at the San Bartolo site in northern Guatemala. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4526872.stm"}, {"response": 1260, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 16, 2005 (17:01)", "body": "Yes !! The Sistine Chapel of the Maya, so they say. The National Geographic website has some nice closeups of that ceiling. Very impresive. Not like anything Mayan I've ever heard of. Mike, Don has a maul with a groove for lashing it onto a sturdy limb and is dated to 10,000 BP. I can get lost for a long while just pondering what the life of the maker was like and what history had evolved around it. Keep collecting. This stuff is the most contemplative thing I can actually hold in my hand."}, {"response": 1261, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jan 10, 2006 (11:27)", "body": "MURDERED 2,500 YEARS AGO Clare Raymond Hair, flesh and eyes intact, the two bodies found in an Irish bog looked like recent IRA victims. But they were.. TORTURED, maimed and disembowelled, the two savagely slaughtered bodies were a grisly sight for the Irish peat bog workers who unearthed them. One of the dead men was found in County Meath, Ireland. The other was discovered three months later, just 25 miles away in Co Offaly. With soft flesh, fingernails, masses of red hair, teeth and eyeballs still intact, it seemed that the corpses had been freshly buried. And detectives thought they had stumbled across IRA victims. But when state pathologist Marie Cassidy saw the water-logged graves, she suspected the remains were much older than they seemed. And today, after an 18-month investigation by an international team of experts, it has been revealed that the men were killed 2,500 years ago. Miraculously, their remains have survived from the Iron Age in near-perfect condition, thanks to the moist Irish peat in which they were buried. What emerged from the bog were not skeletons, but well-preserved body parts. The peat had halted decomposition - the bodies did not even carry the stench of a rotting corpse. Advertisement The bog bodies are now at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. So far they have been seen only by archaeologists and scientists, but they will go on public display at the Museum in May. I am one of the few people to get an early glimpse of them, lying on slabs in a starkly-lit laboratory. Both are covered by white paper sheets. \"These are our ancestors and we should treat them with the greatest of respect,\" says Ned Kelly, Keeper of Irish Antiquities. \"They died in a particularly horrific and terrifying manner. \"We owe it to them to ensure that their terrible end isn't trivialised or sensationalised. They give us an insight into the dark side of human nature.\" One sheet is pulled back to reveal the body of Clonycavan man - named after the area in Co Meath where he was unearthed in February 2003. A young man, 5ft 2ins tall, his skin has been dyed brown and his hair turned ginger by the peat. He has a squashed nose and wonky teeth. Pores are visible around his nose and he has a wispy beard. His forearms, hands and lower abdomen are missing, believed to have been hacked off by the peatcutting machine. Even so, it is clear he met a violent end. His skull has been smashed open and there is a slash across his cheekbone. The other bog body has been called Oldcroghan man after the ditch at Croghan Hill, Co Offaly, where he was discovered. The head, lower limbs and body from the hips down were missing. Oldcroghan man was in his early to mid-20s and his arm span indicates he was 6ft 6ins tall. There are two cuts where his nipples would be - a sign that he was tortured. He has been stabbed in the chest and has a cut on his arm. His huge hands are creased with lines and clasped into fists. His fingernails are perfectly preserved, polished and manicured - suggesting he was a man of high status, untroubled by manual labour. This headless bog body was found naked, apart from a plaited leather band around his left arm - something which curator Isabella Mulhall, who has co-ordinated the project, describes as a \"very significant find\". Of the 150 or so bog bodies that have turned up over the years, only a dozen are well preserved. The last complete one to emerge was in Meenybradden, Co Donegal in 1978. She was a woman in her late 20s or early 30s, dating from the 1570s. The last bog body was found in 1984 at Lindow Moss in Cheshire - a 25-year-old man whose skull had been smashed with a heavy object, he was also strangled with a cord and had his throat cut. He bled for some time before being placed face-down in the bog. Since then, archaeological science has developed greatly. The Dublin team knew to keep these recent finds in wet peat from the sites where they were found. Carbon testing showed that Clonycavan man died between 392- 201 BC and Oldcroghan man from 362-175 BC. From his distorted head, computers can digitally recreate his skull to show us how this Celt looked nearly 2,500 years ago. Analysis of his hair shows that his diet was rich in vegetables, suggesting he died in summer. And he had also been using an Iron Age hair gel of plant oil mixed with a pine resin grown in the south western part of France and Spain - showing that even 2,500 years ago there was trade between Ireland and southern Europe. The clues to headless Oldcroghan man's life lie in his nails. Their high levels of nitrogen indicate he had a protein-rich diet and probably died in the winter when vegetables were scarce and meat was the main source of food. FOOD in his stomach reveals his last meal was wheat and buttermilk. Scars on his lungs show he had pleurisy. If it seems unsettling knowing such intimate details of a man who was brutally murdered so long ago, spare a thought for Head of Conservation Rolle Read. He had to drive the 6"}, {"response": 1262, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 10, 2006 (19:18)", "body": "how fascinating! thanks cheryl!"}, {"response": 1263, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 13, 2006 (17:18)", "body": "Those new Irish bog bodies are tne most fascinating reading. Recently I have seen photos of what remains (that the peat cutter didn't get.) How fortuitous it was that they were deposited into the most preserving atmsphere outside a desert that there could possibly be. I hope a good book is written about them as was written about Lindow Man and the Scandanavian finds of a similar nature."}, {"response": 1264, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jan 13, 2006 (18:00)", "body": "Bog bodies, that has a certain ring to it."}, {"response": 1265, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 21, 2006 (17:49)", "body": "Forensic anthropologists have reconstructed what this bog man might have looked like. I'm absoluely certain he could walk around today and no one would think anything was different about him. Speaking of forensic anthropologists, is everyone familiar with the Bone Farm at University of Tennessee run by Dr. Bill Bass? The resident archaeologist took a course from him in human osteology but has happily never been to the farm."}, {"response": 1266, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 21, 2006 (17:50)", "body": "Body Farm is closer... http://www.rense.com/politics6/flesh.htm"}, {"response": 1267, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2006 (18:42)", "body": "First Knights Templar are discovered April 10, 2006 LONDON: The first bodies of the Knights Templar, the mysterious religious order at the heart of The Da Vinci Code, have been found by archaeologists near the River Jordan in northern Israel. British historian Tom Asbridge yesterday hailed the find as the first provable example of actual Knights Templar. The remains were found beneath the ruined walls of Jacob's Ford, an overthrown castle dating back to the Crusades, which had been lost for centuries. They can be dated to the exact day -- August 29, 1179 -- that they were killed by Saladin, the feared Muslim leader who captured the fortress. \"Never before has it been possible to trace their remains to such an exact time in history,' Mr Asbridge said. \"This discovery is the equivalent of the Holy Grail to archaeologists and historians. It is unparalleled.\" http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,18761160-5001027,00.html"}, {"response": 1268, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2006 (18:52)", "body": "we already knew the knights templar existed....that's neat that they actually found the bodies of a few. amazing that they can get the exact day, how'd they do that?"}, {"response": 1269, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2006 (18:15)", "body": "There are documents in Arabic telling of Saladin's victory over that fortress. By comparing calendars it is easy to know which date it pertains to. His scribes took very good notes and provided the details of time of day and so forth. It really is neat. I have seen many Templar graves in Brtitain but none were of crusaders still on crusade. The ones just found are the real thing in situ."}, {"response": 1270, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2006 (13:33)", "body": "1,500-year-old royal mummy found in Peru BUT WEAPONS AT SITE PUZZLE ARCHAEOLOGISTS By Thomas H. Maugh II Los Angeles Times Archaeologists in Peru have discovered a 15-century-old mummy of a tattooed Moche woman entombed with a dazzling collection of weapons and jewelry. The woman, clearly a member of royalty, was buried with a sacrificed teenage slave at her feet and surrounded by multiple signs of femininity, including precious jewelry, golden needles and bejeweled spindles and spindle whorls for spinning cotton. But her burial bundle also contained gilded copper-clad war clubs and finely crafted spear throwers -- objects never seen in a Moche woman's tomb. ``Why would a woman be accompanied by weapons?'' asked archaeologist John Verano of Tulane University, who reported the find in the June National Geographic magazine. ``It's somewhat of a mystery who she is.'' Given the quantity and unusual preservation of the artifacts, he added, ``it is going to take archaeologists years of work to try and unravel the mystery.'' Intercity alliances University of California-Los Angeles archaeologist Christopher B. Donnan, who has been working for years in the nearby Jequetepeque Valley, said many of the burial goods are identical to royal artifacts he has discovered there. ``There are implications of contact between royalty in two different valleys,'' he said. ``We've never been able to recognize something like that before.'' The find suggests that the Moche, like other South American cultures, cemented alliances between cities through intermarriage. The mummy was discovered by Verano and Peruvian archaeologists from the National Institute of Culture at a site called El Brujo, or ``The Wizard,'' on the Peruvian coast about an hour's drive north of Trujillo and 300 miles north of Lima. The site was occupied by a variety of groups from about 2500 B.C. through the Spanish colonial period, when it was abandoned. The Moche flourished there from about A.D. 100 to 700. They primarily were farmers who diverted rivers into a network of irrigation canals. A sophisticated culture, the Moche raised huge pyramids of sun-dried adobe bricks, laying their noblest dead inside. Although they had no written language, their artifacts document their lives with detailed scenes of hunting, fishing, combat, punishment, sexual encounters and elaborate ceremonies. Huge pyramid The mummy was discovered in a pyramid called Huaca Cao Viejo, a massive structure 100 feet tall and 150 feet on a side. It was built in several phases, with successive generations enlarging it. The mummy, which dates to about A.D. 450, was placed on a covered patio that was subsequently buried under 15 feet or so of adobe bricks, which protected it from the weather and looters. The mummy bundle ``was huge, obviously symbolic of her status,'' Verano said. But to remove it, the team first had to take out a skeleton lying alongside it. ``It was a well-preserved sacrifice, with a rope around its neck -- the girl had been strangled,'' he said. Some servants were sacrificed at funerals, while others volunteered to accompany their masters into the afterlife. It took eight men to lift the bundle from the grave and carry it to a nearby lab for inspection. The team then carefully removed the hundreds of yards of cotton cloth that encased the body, revealing a woman who was about 5 feet tall -- average for the time -- and in her mid- to late 20s. She was apparently in good health with no signs of nutritional deficiencies, although she had one tooth that would have become abscessed if she had lived longer. Her abdominal skin was wrinkled and collapsed, and bone scarring indicated the woman had given birth at least once. With no obvious cause of death, Verano speculated that it was ``most likely some sudden infectious disease, like pneumonia or bronchitis, that wouldn't leave a mark on the skeleton.'' http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14599200.htm"}, {"response": 1271, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2006 (21:10)", "body": "I have seen notices of this Peruvian find. Thanks, Cheryl, for posting this article. Fascinating ! I wonder contageous some of the viruses are that they had so long ago and for which we have no antibodies!"}, {"response": 1272, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Feb  7, 2007 (09:30)", "body": "Buried in love for 5000 years Nick Pisa THEY have lain together, locked in each other's arms, for more than 5000 years. The story of enduring love has been revealed by archaeologists who unearthed the hugging skeletons at a neolithic site at a less-than-romantic industrial estate in Valdaro, northern Italy. Elena Menotti, who is leading the dig, said: \"I am so excited about this discovery. We have never found a man and a woman embraced before and this is a unique find. \"We have found plenty of women embracing children but never a couple. Much less a couple hugging \ufffd and they really are hugging. \"They are face-to-face and their arms and legs are entwined.\" One theory being examined by experts is that the man was killed and the woman then sacrificed so his soul would be accompanied in the afterlife. \"It's possible,\" Ms Menotti said. \"From an initial examination they appear young as their teeth are not worn down \ufffd but we have sent the remains to a laboratory to establish their age.\" An initial examination of the couple \ufffd dubbed the Lovers of Valdaro \ufffd revealed the man (on the left in the picture) has an arrow in his spinal column while the woman has an arrow in her side. \"I've done digs at Pompeii, all the famous sites. But I've never been so moved because this is the discovery of something special,\" Ms Menotti said. Five thousand years ago the surrounding area was marshland and criss-crossed by rivers. The environment helped preserve the skeletons in their near-perfect state. The tribes of the region thrived by hunting and fishing. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21187868-5001021,00.html"}, {"response": 1273, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  9, 2007 (15:57)", "body": "There is a very evocative photo of the couple en situ on this site as well as more details of the burial. http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/healthscience/story/3547650p-12764361c.html A very special Valentine."}, {"response": 1274, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Apr  5, 2007 (10:52)", "body": "Greek archaeologists unearth rich tomb ATHENS, Greece - Archaeologists on a Greek island have discovered a large Roman-era tomb containing gold jewelry, pottery and bronze offerings, officials said Wednesday. The building, near the village of Fiscardo on Kefalonia, contained five burials including a large vaulted grave and a stone coffin, a Culture Ministry announcement said. The complex, measuring 26 by 20 feet, had been missed by grave-robbers, the announcement said. Archaeologists found gold earrings and rings, gold leaves that may have been attached to ceremonial clothing, as well as glass and clay pots, bronze artifacts decorated with masks, a bronze lock and copper coins. The vaulted grave, a house-shaped structure, had a small stone door that still works perfectly \ufffd turning on stone pivots. On a nearby plot, archaeologists also located traces of what may have been a small theater with four rows of stone seats, the ministry said. Previous excavations in the area have uncovered remains of houses, a baths complex and a cemetery, all dating to Roman times \ufffd between 146 B.C. and 330 A.D. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070405/ap_on_sc/greece_ancient_tomb"}, {"response": 1275, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (12:29)", "body": "The British have a new Viking Hoard on their hands. Lovely stuff. I need to get a link for you but it made the news in the past week. Thanks Cheryl!"}, {"response": 1276, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2007 (08:14)", "body": "Nan Madol is a mysterious \"lost city\" on Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands sometimes called the \"Machu Pichu of the Pacific\" or the \"Venice of the Pacific\". http://www.janeresture.com/micronesia_madol/ http://www.uoregon.edu/~wsayres/NanMadol.html http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf045/sf045p01.htm"}, {"response": 1277, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 18, 2007 (07:33)", "body": "Early seafood, makeup found in S. Africa By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer WASHINGTON - In one of the earliest hints of \"modern\" living, humans 164,000 years ago put on primitive makeup and hit the seashore for steaming mussels, new archaeological finds show. Call it a beach party for early man. But it's a beach party thrown by people who weren't supposed to be advanced enough for this type of behavior. What was found in a cave in South Africa may change how scientists believe Homo sapiens marched into modernity. Instead of undergoing a revolution into modern living about 40,000 to 70,000 years ago, as commonly thought, man may have become modern in stuttering fits and starts, or through a long slow march that began even earlier. At least that's the case being made in a study appearing in the journal Nature on Thursday. Researchers found three hallmarks of modern life at Pinnacle Point overlooking the Indian Ocean near South Africa's Mossel Bay: harvested and cooked seafood, reddish pigment from ground rocks, and early tiny blade technology. Scientific optical dating techniques show that these hallmarks were from 164,000 years ago, plus or minus 12,000 years. \"Together as a package this looks like the archaeological record of a much later time period,\" said study author Curtis Marean, professor of anthropology at the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. This means humans were eating seafood about 40,000 years earlier than previously thought. And this is the earliest record of humans eating something other than what they caught or gathered on the land, Marean said. Most of what Marean found were the remnants of brown mussels, but he also found black mussels, small saltwater clams, sea snails and even a barnacle that indicates whale blubber or skin was brought into the cave. Marean figured the early people, probably women, had to trudge two to three miles to where the mussels, clams and snails were harvested and to bring them back to the cave. Then they put them over hot rocks to cook. When the food was done, the shells popped open in a process similar to modern-day mussel-steaming, but without the pot. Marean and colleagues tried out that ancient cooking technique in a kind of archaeological test kitchen. \"We've prepped them the same way,\" Marean said in telephone interview from South Africa. \"They're a little less moist (than modern steamed mussels). They definitely lose some moisture.\" Marean also found 57 pieces of ground-up rock that would have been reddish- or pinkish-brown. That would be used for self-decoration and sending social signals to other people, much the way makeup is used now, he said. There have been reports of earlier but sporadic pigment use in Africa. The same goes with rocks that were fashioned into small pointy tools. But having all three together shows a grouping of people that is almost modern, Marean said. Seafood harvesting, unlike other hunter-gatherer activities, encourages people to stay put, and that leads to more social interactions, he said. Yet 110,000 years later, no such modern activity, except for seafood dining, could be found in that part of South Africa, said Alison Brooks, a George Washington University anthropology professor who was not associated with Marean's study. That shows that the dip into modern life was not built upon, said Brooks, who called Marean's work \"a fantastic find.\" Similar \"blips of rather precocious kinds of behaviors seem to be emerging at certain sites,\" said Kathy Schick, an Indiana University anthropologist and co-director of the Stone Age Institute. Schick and Brooks said Marean's work shows that anthropologists have to revise their previous belief in a steady \"human revolution\" about 40,000 to 70,000 years ago. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071017/ap_on_sc/early_seafood"}, {"response": 1278, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Oct 31, 2007 (13:53)", "body": "Headless Skeletons Help Solve Mystery By Rob Taylor,Reuters CANBERRA (Oct. 30) - A 3,000-year-old burial site in Vanuatu containing 60 headless skeletons and skulls in pots is helping end the mystery over colonization of the Pacific and the first Polynesians, archaeologists said on Tuesday. The remains have enabled scientists to reconstruct the lives and habits of the seafaring Lapita people, who settled Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa from Melanesian islands scattered to the west. \"We've got the archaeological record, but until now the actual people have been missing from the story,\" researcher Stuart Bedford, from the Australian National University, told Reuters. The remains were found in 2003 at an archaeological dig on Efate Island, in the tiny South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, in a cemetery in use by the Lapita at the time of Egypt's Pharaohs. The Lapita are believed to be ancestral Polynesians, moving east from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands over thousands of miles of ocean, taking with them their crops and animals. The burial site at Teouma, on the southern coast of Efate, was first uncovered by bulldozers clearing land for a shrimp farm, and was excavated by scientists from Britain, New Zealand and Australia. The skeletons were buried with ornate ceramic pots, some in carefully laid south-facing graves, and in one case three heads were laid on the dead person's chest, the researchers wrote in an October article for the journal American Antiquity. None of the remains had an attached skull and the heads may have been removed after burial, the researchers said, with the grouping of three skulls possibly due to mystical significance the islanders had for the number. Bedford said chemical analysis of their teeth revealed vital information about the origins, diets and burial practices of the Lapita. At least four of the 60 had migrated from distant coastal locations, possibly as far as Southeast Asia. \"Although they traveled long distances by sea, they nonetheless were farmers as much as they were fisher folk,\" said Alex Bentley, from Durham University, who led the team. http://news.aol.com/story/_a/headless-skeletons-help-solve-mystery/20071030150009990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001"}, {"response": 1279, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Nov 12, 2007 (08:08)", "body": "Temple built 4,000 years ago unearthed in Peru Rueters UK LIMA (Reuters) - A 4,000-year-old temple filled with murals has been unearthed on the northern coast of Peru, making it one of the oldest finds in the Americas, a leading archaeologist said on Saturday. The temple, inside a larger ruin, includes a staircase that leads up to an altar used for fire worship at a site scientists have called Ventarron, said Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, who led the dig. It sits in the Lambayeque valley, near the ancient Sipan complex that Alva unearthed in the 1980s. Ventarron was built long before Sipan, about 2,000 years before Christ, he said. \"It's a temple that is about 4,000 years old,\" Alva, director of the Museum Tumbas Reales (Royal Tombs) of Sipan, told Reuters by telephone after announcing the results of carbon dating at a ceremony north of Lima sponsored by Peru's government. \"What's surprising are the construction methods, the architectural design and most of all the existence of murals that could be the oldest in the Americas,\" he said. Lambayeque is 472 miles from Lima, Peru's capital. Discoveries at Sipan, an administrative and religious centre of the Moche culture, have included a gold-filled tomb built 1,700 years ago for a pre-Incan king. Peru is rich in archaeological treasures, including the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in the Andes. Until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s, the Incas ruled an empire for several centuries that stretched from Colombia and Ecuador in the north to what are now Peru and Chile in the south. \"The discovery of this temple reveals evidence suggesting the region of Lambayeque was one of great cultural exchange between the Pacific coast and the rest of Peru,\" said Alva. http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKN1018888320071111?pageNumber=2&sp=true"}, {"response": 1280, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 30, 2008 (20:43)", "body": "Such good stuff. Thank you for posting. I have the word of the family archaeologist that he would post things in the topic I made for him if I came back here. Stay tuned. His early American folk archaeology is fascinating and I get to go along when he inspects sites."}, {"response": 1281, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 30, 2008 (20:45)", "body": "May I recommend one of my favorite places on the net for archaeology: The Megalithic Portal: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/"}, {"response": 1282, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Mon, Jul 21, 2008 (20:22)", "body": "Awesome marci!"}, {"response": 1283, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 16, 2008 (17:10)", "body": "Original 'Gladiator's' Tomb Unearthed in Rome Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Oct. 15, 2008 -- Italian archaeologists have discovered the tomb of the ancient Roman hero believed to have inspired Russell Crowe's character in the hit movie \"Gladiator,\" Rome's officials announced on Thursday at a press conference. Marble beams and columns, carvings and friezes first emerged from the Roman soil during construction work to build a residential complex in Saxa Rubra, not far from the headquarters of Rai, Italy's state-run television station. According to Cristiano Ranieri, an archaeologist who led the excavation at the site, the huge fragments belonged to a monumental marble tomb built on the banks of the Tiber River at the end of the second century A.D. \"This is the most important ancient Roman monument to come to light for 20 or 30 years,\" Daniela Rossi, an archaeologist for the city of Rome, told reporters. Further excavation revealed a huge marble inscription that declares the tomb belonged to Marcus Nonius Macrinus, a general and consul who achieved major victories in military campaigns for Antoninus Pius, the Roman emperor from 138 to 161 A.D., and Marcus Aurelius, emperor from 161 to 180 A.D. Born in Brescia in northern Italy in 138 A.D., Macrinus was one of the emperor's favorite men (his villa on the shores of Lake Garda is currently under excavation). He was consul in 154 A.D. and proconsul of Asia in 170 to 171 A.D (consuls were the highest civil and military magistrates in Ancient Rome). The life of Marcus Nonius Macrinus is believed to have inspired the fictional character Maximus Decimus Meridius in Ridley Scott's film. In the movie, Meridus, also a general and a favorite of Marcus Aurelius, fell from grace after the emperor's death and ended up in exile in North Africa -- to return as a gladiator and take revenge. Although the tomb collapsed long ago, the large marble blocks are intact and perfectly preserved by the Tiber's mud. Reassembling them should not be a difficult task, Rossi said. \"We know that the area was subjected to frequent floods in ancient times. Just like Pompeii, a disaster helped preserve the monument. After a particularly strong flood, the mud from the river basically sealed the collapsed marble blocks,\" Rossi said. While the construction work for the residential complex has been halted, Rome's officials plan to first reassemble the tomb in a 3-D model, and then fully reconstruct it as the centerpiece of a public archaeological display now underway in the area. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/10/16/gladiator-tomb-rome.html Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 18, "subject": "Precious Gems of Organic Origin:  Animal, Plant and Oceanic Jewels", "response_count": 426, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (20:20)", "body": "This is where we will discuss precious materials from Animals (Ivory), Plants (Amber) and Sealife (Pearls, corals, shells)"}, {"response": 2, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (21:22)", "body": "Ohhhh, baby!! Poils! you couldn't pay me to wear amber, way too sappy ;-D"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (21:28)", "body": "Hey, with a big enough whole critter in it, I'd do a Lady Godiva for Amber... What color Poils? I brought back a $20,000 (or was it $45,000) necklace for Gi's bridal shower in Tahitian Black ones...!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (00:29)", "body": "Well, I'm not a big fan of the pinky or peachy colored ones, but I'd never turn down basic white or Tahitian Black. I remember the necklace for Gi's shower or were there two? One was gorgeous. Am drooling right now over a gorgeous single Tahitian black pearl, sandwiched between two bezel-set diamonds on an 18K white gold omega chain. Cover of the Bailey Banks & Biddle summer catalogue. Only $1,800. A bargain compared with Gi's necklace, but only one pearl of unknown mm. Love these non-eco topics. ;-D"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (00:37)", "body": "There was a long necklace of large pearls and one with a pendant, I believe. They were smashing, no?!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (00:38)", "body": "(And I much prefer shiny bright object than angst - any day!!!)"}, {"response": 7, "author": "patas", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (14:35)", "body": "Gi's jewels... Oh they were magnificent! Wish they were mine in real life too ;-)"}, {"response": 8, "author": "roarksmuse", "date": "Thu, Aug 12, 1999 (22:31)", "body": "I'm back again. I love the Tahitian black pearls. They are so expensive. One day though I plan to at least get the ear rings."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 12, 1999 (22:36)", "body": "I thought I would settle for a nice cleveage dangler with substantial gold which I would match with the earrings. Or a clavicle hugger... But, at the rate I am going, I shall just admire the ones on other people. The way I figure it, why buy something I want to see and admire then put it on me where everyone except me can see it. My earrings are usually plain ones."}, {"response": 10, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Aug 13, 1999 (16:06)", "body": "From the number of black pearls I've been seeing out there, am wondering how many are truly natural vs. dyed cultured pearls. I'm going to have to scan that single black pearl necklace in for you to see, Marcia. It says it is Mikimoto but I know that company's pearl beds are in Japan. Thought the black ones were only found around Tahiti, or do you think Mikimoto is seeding its oysters with something to create black pearls in greater quantities than found naturally?"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 13, 1999 (18:25)", "body": "Mikimoto has established pearl fisheries in the Tahiti - Tonga area. They do it the same way as in Japan, but use the oysters native to the black pearl area. It seems they are very successful. Be aware there are \"bargain\" black pearls out there which are dyed. Just be sure of your jeweller's integrity and his source for them."}, {"response": 12, "author": "patas", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (08:43)", "body": "(Marcia)The way I figure it, why buy something I want to see and admire then put it on me where everyone except me can see it. That was very well put, Marcia, and I'll try to remember it when I can't afford some jewelry I like!;-D *But*... my favourite jewels are rings... :-("}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 15, 1999 (14:38)", "body": "Mine, too, Gi! I need about 10 more fingers to accommodate what I have...and toes, too?!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "patas", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (05:30)", "body": "Do American ladies wear several rings in one finger, like the Spanish and Portuguese do? ;-)"}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (10:51)", "body": "yes....especially stack rings...."}, {"response": 16, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (11:08)", "body": "All depends on how long one's fingers are. The stack rings I have are all very narrow, but I still have difficulty wearing more than two because of how short my fingers are."}, {"response": 17, "author": "helen", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (12:41)", "body": "finally, women are following the finest style of jewellry designs."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (13:20)", "body": "Hello, Helen, Welcome. I have long fingers, and on my \"wedding ring\" finger I have a plain gold band (wedding ring to keep unwanted mashers away) topped by a guard, then my Alexandrite, then another guard on top of that. I do have a friend who stacks all sorts of very valuable heirloom rings on her fingers and it looks trashy...even though she has a huge amount of money festooning her fingers. Things should sort-of go togehter, imo."}, {"response": 19, "author": "patas", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (15:53)", "body": "What are guards?"}, {"response": 20, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (15:54)", "body": "i showed the alpha male the orbis rings and he thinks they're silly. there are petite styles and huge styles, necklaces, and earrings. the max stack rings i wear are three on my right index finger. they were my grandmother's (diamond, ruby, and sapphire all set in silver). but if i wear them, i limit the other rings. maybe just my anniversary ring and another silver on my right hand. i don't care for the look of rings on all fingers, but some folks just want to wear everything they own at once."}, {"response": 21, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (15:55)", "body": "guards are rings designed to wrap around a ring. they're also known as wraps. some are designed with two bands where you can slip a solitaire in between. they're to enhance the solitaire. some have gems and some are plain."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (16:20)", "body": "In my case, guards are plain little thin bands which keep the Alexandrite solitaire in place on top of the wedding band and set it off a little. Wraps actually interlock with the solitaire and are lovely - much nicer than guards. Ring guards can also augment your original plain wedding band and make it look wider and more elegant if they are done is stones or cutwork."}, {"response": 23, "author": "quimby", "date": "Mon, Aug 23, 1999 (20:28)", "body": "A place to talk about jools!? Gi's were so nice. Having been brought up to be a Southern Belle, I used to never leave the house without at least one piece of jewelry, but with time (a great deal of it, it seems to me), I went on a sabbatical. I can't even stand to wear a watch; things seem to interrupt the energy pulsing underneath my fair skin. I'd like to wear a pendant watch if I could ever find one I liked. And yes I know they're _so_ over; that's precisely the time to wear things, in my book. But abo t jools. I'm so boring. Diamonds, pearls, sapphires, the end. Nary an emerald has ever lain upon me. Once an exhusband bought me a jade necklace, but I returned it; way too expensive for the amount of time I'd wear it. I mean, you can't just go around wearing jade any old time, unless you're Chinese, or can you? Maybe it's just that I've become more minimalist. One really great piece. As long as it doesn't block the flow. I was given a lot of amber in Russia, since they're so fond of it, but since I'm not I gave it to Russians stateside and made a lot of people happy."}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 23, 1999 (20:38)", "body": "Wow! Welcome dear...we have two Jool topics in here. The inorganic stuff is down the numbers a ways..and there is a nice discussion of CF in Vulcanism (you'll see why!) *lol* is there any way we can keep him from cropping up in our conversations?! And, if we could, would we really want to? Pendant watches on long, swag chains pinned up at the left shoulder is \"the\" way to wear them - I have my Grandmother's in turquoise enamel and gold. It is exquisite, but arrived into my keeping without the swag. I shall never afford one strong enough to hold it up there, but it is still gorgeous! You can wear Jade Anytime in Hawaii. Any kind, any style, anytime. Lots of it, too."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 30, 1999 (20:30)", "body": "Time to wax lyrical about Amber. Love the stuff but have only three tiny pieces none of which have any bugs or interesting inclusions. I am working on the Geologist kid to get me one, but he keeps getting them for girl friends who then part from him. I am his eternal mother...oh well. Back to the Amber... Tree resin...over time hardened into something like plastic but still containing the fragrance of the original tree sap. If you are a romantic like I am, you will appreciate these two wasps captured forever in amber in the act of mating."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 30, 1999 (20:31)", "body": "Ooops! ...they are not wasps...they are scavenger flies, as it plainly states!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct  1, 1999 (21:38)", "body": "how did you know i wanted to talk about amber too? as i was waiting for the topic to open, i was putting together my amber statement. anyway, i was thinking, wouldn't it be neat if i could find an 8mm amber bead to put in my orbis ring? wonder where i could find one....any ideas?"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  1, 1999 (21:57)", "body": "Funny you should ask...I happen to have a few URLs for you of amber dealers: http://goldray.com/amberlady/ This is the gems and fossils webring http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=gems;list"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  1, 1999 (22:01)", "body": "I did an google search for \"amber\" and came up with several dealers... this one is the best, but it is sometimes \"down\" (poor English, but I think you know what I mean...) http://www.kadets.d20.co.edu/~lundberg/amber.html"}, {"response": 30, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 1999 (13:18)", "body": "thank you thank you thank you!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 1999 (14:08)", "body": "Let us know of your success. I know they have beads loose for stringing in some of those wholesale places...! It would be lovely in your Orbis ring!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "patas", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (03:31)", "body": "(Marcia)Let us know of your success. Yes, please! I don't own, or wear, much jewelry (less and less, actually), but enjoy reading about yours, and always enjoy looking at it in stores :-)"}, {"response": 33, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (10:47)", "body": "here's a scanned image of the only piece of amber i own. marcia, i sent this pic to one of your amber sources and also asked for pricing on an 8mm bead."}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (14:12)", "body": "How pretty! Thank you for scanning it. Unfortunately, amber is very soft and as a pendant on a ring, it will get abraded rather quickly losing its luster. Be careful with how you wear it! I still think enclosed in your wires of the Orbis ring is the best way to wear it...all save and sound inside the protecting captive mounting."}, {"response": 35, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Oct  5, 1999 (05:47)", "body": "Lovely, Wolf! Although I would never wear an insect, however well encased in amber, I guess i might wear a leaf or a flower if there are any around."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  5, 1999 (20:28)", "body": "lotsa ferns...I think..."}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (00:17)", "body": "Talk about having the world on a string...You can capture it for your Orbis ring Gi's gift:"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (00:18)", "body": "I love that little world - it's gonna show up a lot. Thank you Gi Dear !"}, {"response": 39, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (04:40)", "body": "You are very welcome!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (14:26)", "body": "Oh My Dear!!!! How darling...Thanks for such cute and different little gems for Geo. *grinning ear-to-ear*"}, {"response": 41, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (23:16)", "body": "Let me get in here a minute. As a former manager of a Tahitian Black Pearl Store, let me say that Mikimoto is not in the Black Pearl business, as much as he supplies seeders to the Tahitian growers. This is for a fee, and also in exchange for a much reduced price on Blacks. Face it; the Japanese are the most successful in the world at grafting oysters. How to tell if a pearl is a Tahitian?... size IS everything. The PINCTADA MARGUERITIFERA oyster, known as the black lipped oyster, produces pearls between 9 and 15 mm, with some larger ones on occasion. I have sold a matched set of three bronze Tahitians at 13mm, and have handled one beauty that was 25mm. If a pearl is under 9mm, the chances are over 90% that it is a dyed white pearl. The only exception is if you have proof of growing location, as the Marquesas islands are growing some smaller ones in their colder water, but the color is not as good as it should be."}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (23:21)", "body": "Lance! E Komo Mai! I am delighted to read your post. We have needed an expert in the business...and you will be ours, please? Which color of Tahitian Black Pearls is the most costly and which the least? Given that the size and shape are not part of the equation. Yippee! We finally have someone who really knows his pearls...*grin*"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (00:01)", "body": "As I recall, Your Tahitian Black Pearl is mounted in a gold scallop shell and suspended in your suprasternal notch by a slender gold chain which makes it appear to float there. Most attractive..."}, {"response": 44, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (00:02)", "body": "Size and shape ARE the equation. Color is the most subjective catagory, and totally a personal choice. My experience says that dark, shiny greens and rainbows of green, blue, and pink are the most prized, but not always. Luster and depth of color are far more important. If a pearl is highly lusterous, and the color seems to emanate from deep inside, not just painted on the surface, it is a much better pearl. Size comes in after the pearl is 12mm. From 9 - 12mm, the price increases steadily. From 12mm up, it increases exponentially!A good 12mm could retail at 800- 1000, but a 13 of the same shape and color will be 1000 - 1500! The 13mm's I sold went for 12000 as a set, due to their size, rare color, and exceptional luster. My rule-of-thumb is that you should go by the color of your skin. Lighter skinned people should wear lighter pearls, say light greens, light blues, pinks, greys, and combos. Darker skinned people should wear darker greens, true blacks, as well as combos. Get what you like in co or is the only way to go. But get the highest luster and the best depth of color possible for quality."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (00:04)", "body": "This man K N O W S his pearls!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (00:15)", "body": "Thanks."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (01:12)", "body": "Then, by saying that size IS the equation, there is not a rare color or combination of colors? I cannot believe some you showed me are all the same price aside from the gold mounting. They were all about the same size but what a variety of colors they were! This is the best collection of colors of black pearls I could find tonight. Comments, Lance?"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (01:15)", "body": "I think if I am ever fortunate enough to own one, I am taking him along with me to guide me in my choice...*grin*"}, {"response": 49, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (17:21)", "body": "Hi Lance! Any samples or rejects? Since you mentioned that Mikimoto was not in the black pearl business, I went back to my old comments at the beginning of this topic. I questioned that too, but Marcia said that Mikimoto had established an operation in Tonga. I still have that Bailey Banks & Biddle catalog with the simple, yet elegant necklace on the cover (which I will scan in one of these days). The Mikimoto trademarked name is there, as well as on a page with their overpriced regular pearls. I've never understood how anyone could wear such a huge pearl on a ring, which is how I see them used all the time. Criminy, it would get banged up and nicked. It would probably come out of its mounting and get lost. If anyone had a long strand of them, no one would believe they were real (pop-in beads more like). Earrings work ok for me. As a former manager of a Tahitian Black Pearl Store, let me say that Mikimoto is not in the Black Pearl business, as much as he supplies seeders to the Tahitian growers. This is for a fee, and also in exchange for a much reduced price on Blacks."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "Marcia was quoting Mikimoto's web site... I shall look again to see what they are saying these days in preparation for Lance's return. I hate to disseminate erroneous information...aaarrrrgh!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (17:32)", "body": "I always said the only way I'd have my ears pierced was if I had the offer of a Karat Diamond for each ear. Black pearls might also be an inducement, but I still say, if I am gonna wear something that lovely, I want to be able to see it, too. A pendant is excellent. As for the ring, one wears them only to the opera, restaurant or cocktail party. Pearls on fingers are not a everyday item. Detergents will ruin them! (Lance, where are you? Did I err?!)"}, {"response": 52, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (17:44)", "body": "Karat Diamond for each ear. Works for me too. BTW, what's the topic number for mineral-type gems? I have a question for you."}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (17:49)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/8/new"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (19:41)", "body": "Another type of natural colored pearls: History of South Seas Pearls Throughout history, the most beautiful pearls were natural South Sea Pearls. Extremely rare, these pearls were by far the largest pearls in the world, and possessed a wonderful array of natural colours and shapes, and emitted a distinctive warm glow from their thick pearly nacre. Found in the large, rare and beautiful Pinctada Maxima shell species, these wonderful pearls were considered to be the \"queen of all gems\" by many cultures around the world. The habitat of these extraordinary shells (also known as the \"Silver-Lipped Mother of Pearl Shell\") is confined to a small area of ocean commonly referred to as the \"South Seas\", centred around Northern Australia and South-East Asia. For centuries, pearlers dived for these exotic shells for the valuable Mother of Pearl for the world's button trade. Only occasionally, pearls were found inside Mother of Pearl shells, and these pearls were regarded as a rare and valuable bonus to any pearler's catch of shell."}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (20:02)", "body": "http://www.tahiti-blackpearls.com/ is the official website of Tahiti Black Pearls. They have some really lovely specimens from prominent jewellers. Harry Winston has a killer bracelet, and Mikimoto presents this:"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (20:20)", "body": "The deep colors of black, gray, pink, and bronze pearls:"}, {"response": 57, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (20:23)", "body": "Oh my... *jaw dropping* Am consoling myself that I don't have the neck to wear such a thing. Is there surgery to elongate a neck? ;-)"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (20:24)", "body": "My personal favorite (though the above one would do nicely, I think...) Pearl and diamond parure consisting of a necklace, a removable pendant and a pair of pendant earrings for a total of 18 carats of diamonds and 33 pearls."}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "And I have a swan neck I am always hanging things around to distract the eye from its length..."}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (20:28)", "body": "In the category of \"this should never happen to beautiful natural gems: Yellow gold necklace with Tahitian pearls, rubies, cabochons and brilliant-cut diamonds."}, {"response": 61, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (20:28)", "body": "I'll go shopping at the site later, but I noticed that there's an auction coming up soon. BWAAA"}, {"response": 62, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (20:29)", "body": "You're v. right. That is truly hideous. Who is the designer?"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "Gilbert Albert. I went through all of the jewelers on the left column. Stunning pearls! Wait'll Lance sees'um...! Luckily I have Nothing that goes with that last one...that goodness *grin* Yeah, I noticed that they were having an auction, too...*sigh*"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (20:37)", "body": "...thank goodness...I was overwhelmed by the last gaudy item and got it all wrong...*lol* I'd love to see the prices on some of those, but \"if you have to ask....\""}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (21:09)", "body": ""}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (21:28)", "body": ""}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (21:39)", "body": ""}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (22:03)", "body": "Nothing like posting the wrong pictures and text in the wrong topic and doing it three times to get it right...! *sigh*"}, {"response": 69, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (00:17)", "body": "Shoot! And I was expecting to see more purty things that I couldn't afford. ;-)"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (00:50)", "body": "I shall - but megaliths for around your neck is not what you wanted to see. Promise more tomorrow *grin* I need to see them, too *sigh*"}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (00:54)", "body": "So much for \"tomorrow night...\" Lance has not abandoned Geo. He is back working on his degree and has to prioritize his time. Geo comes pretty far down the list of things to do, I'm afraid. But, as long as I am here, he will not be far away."}, {"response": 72, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (16:39)", "body": "I'd like to ask about a gem which is currently very popular in jewelery designs -- tanzanite. What is it exactly? I mean, I know that rubies are chemically the same as sapphires. Actually they're just red sapphires, just a lot more rare than other color sapphires, consequently worth much more. I also think that emeralds and aquamarines are chemically similar, but I might be wrong on that."}, {"response": 73, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (17:06)", "body": "wow! those pearls are gorgeous! thanks lance for jumping in with some expertise. i've never really cared for pearls although i have a pearl bracelet still waiting to be restrung (creamy colored-don't tell me it's fake and dyed and stuff)....*plugging fingers into ears and singing \"lalalalala\"*"}, {"response": 74, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (17:09)", "body": "tanzanite is intriguing and only now gaining in popularity, cheryl, which is why they're expensive these days. i bought one right before the boom in a 10K setting (marquis center and trillion sides) i've had it checked and it's tanzanite and beautiful! the color changes when you tilt it and with the light by which you view the stones. according to my gem book, tanzanite is a variety of zoisite. (wrong topic, sorry marcia 8grin*)"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (17:59)", "body": "Thanks, Wolfie - you're spot-on with your Tanzanite. It is the only clear and flawless form of Zoisite - discovered totally by accident in 1967. LOLROTF...I can just imagine you with fingers in your ears and singing so you cannot hear what you don't wanna hear. I'm with you! I have Lance in my tender care. He has exams today and this week so it will be a bit before he is able to post again. I shall tell him he is appreciated, however *smile*"}, {"response": 76, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "I love pearls, the subtle irredescence of their colors. They impress, without being flashy. (There's nothing wrong with flash, sometimes it's great.) I saw the most beautiful pearl necklace in New York. It was black Tahitian deep water pearls set in platinum, very spare and elegant design, possibly Japanese. The necklace looked really good in Cartier's window; and given the state of my finances that's were it stayed."}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:18)", "body": "I have that picture, Cheryl! Or at least one of Cartier's creations:"}, {"response": 78, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "That's pretty much it. The one I saw was very slightly different, but not much. Thanks. Now I can enjoy the image. I really do love the way pearls softly diffuse light over there surfaces."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:47)", "body": "Anyone ever see a pearl this color? Spiral brooch in yellow gold, set with trapeze diamonds, Pendant with round diamond, trapeze diamond and one 14.42 carat pearl."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:49)", "body": "I do not own anything in real pearls whatsoever, but they are exquisite and flatter the wearer no matter who. Someday...perhaps..."}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:55)", "body": "This pearl has the lovliest color but I do not care for the setting: A brooch/pendant in yellow and white gold set with rose-cut diamonds Drop earrings with a leaf design set with 230 diamonds weighing 9.95 carats, a 35.68-carats Tahitian pearl and a 31.58-carats white pearl on white and yellow gold."}, {"response": 82, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:57)", "body": "Nope. I have never seen a reddish pearl. I've seen rose pearls, they're pink, but never anything which looked so red. There are very large orange pearls which come from a type of shellfish which live off the coast of Viet Nam. I have some high quality cream colored faux pearls, which have ground up pearls in them. I quess the pearls which were ground were a little too irregular to qualify as baroque."}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:01)", "body": "Your pearls sound lovely. I have mentioned the orange pearls up topic somewhere...they are pretty but only as objects, I think - unless you are a die-hard Tennessee Fan (the University of Tennessee's colors are orange and white) Here are two rings Karen worried about wearing and harming the high-mounted pearl:"}, {"response": 84, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:08)", "body": "You're right about the large orange pearls pretty as objects. As far as I know they're not used in jewelery. But you never know when you'll see some die-hard Tennesee fan on tv sporting an enormous orange pearl. The broach/pendant you posted was little too much. The pearl was beautiful, but the setting -- in a word, gaudy. The rings are beautiful. I understand why Karen would worry about the high mounting, and pearls are delicate as gems go. Some people won't wear a large pearl set in a ring at all."}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:14)", "body": ""}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:16)", "body": ""}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:17)", "body": ""}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "Cheryl, I don't know what is happening with Yapp and Spring today but when I deleted the multiple posts of the pearl rings, it took your posting with it. Could you please comment again?"}, {"response": 89, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "those rings are a bit much for me and so was that brooch! but the red pearl, it looked translucent. it's real? have only heard of the black and creamy pearls but red and then orange?"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:21)", "body": "I give up. Your post showed up again and so did another set of rings. I'm gonna leave them alone until it settles down."}, {"response": 91, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:26)", "body": "I think I can. You're right the large orange pearls are admired as objects in their own right, as far as I know they're not used in jewelery. Although you never know when you'll tune into a college football game and see a Tennessee fan sporting a large orange pearl. I agree with your assessment of the pearl broach/pendant; the pearl is exquisite -- but the setting is in a word, gaudy. As for Karen worrying about the high setting of the pearls, I can completely understand that. Pearls are delicate as gems go, and some people would never wear a large pearl in a ring because of that. The rings are beautiful though."}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:26)", "body": "Those big heavy rings are set in solid platinum! The red \"pearl\" looks like a polished ruby or garnet or whatever, but you can see through it. Gonna send it to Lance to see what he says. Sorry for all of the mess here. Three repeats of those rings we did not need here!"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "Now, for being so patient and helping me through the Yapp software mess: Double-strand necklace of 64 pearls totaling 640.4 carats and diamonds totaling 7.71 carats. Matching ring and earrings."}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:31)", "body": "Here are a group of South Seas Pearls Some colours have become more popular than others in particular markets.(eg. white in America, silver in Asia, gold and fancy colours in the 1990's) This sometimes causes a price premium on the particular colour. This factor varies over time and with fashions and due to the dictates and changes in fashion, colour will never be as important a measure of quality as lustre. Colour categories of Australian South Sea Pearls: White (including white - pink) Silver (including silver - pink) Gold (yellow) Fancy (including champagne, apricot, peach & rose) Tip: When purchasing a pearl, the best colour is the one that looks most attractive on your particular complexion."}, {"response": 95, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:38)", "body": "oh boy, this wolfie is drooling! couldn't you see that pearl necklace set on a woman wearing a simple black dress with nothing else to adorn her? upswept hair so the necklace would be seen. oh, how lovely!"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:08)", "body": "That one is my favorite...with the diamonds sparkling and setting off the pendant earrings and necklace. Yes! Absolutely plain black dress...upswept hair...Long neck...elegant bearing...exquisite!"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:19)", "body": "Another South Seas Pearl in a lovely setting:"}, {"response": 98, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (22:20)", "body": "now i like that one! very pretty and elegant!!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (00:48)", "body": "A red pearl? That's a new one for me. Unfortunately, what's the use of having it when it looks like a cabochon red something. :-( Getting back to those precariously set pearls, I couldn't wear it. I'd be petrified that it would get knocked out of the setting and I'd lose it. I'm not that worried about nicking it, but losing it. Look, ma, no pearl. Speaking of which, I got a pearl ring as a present from my grandmother ages ago. What was really bizarre is that a rod went through the pearl. It had been drilled. No way to lose that baby and I got to play with it all the time, twirling to my heart's delight. One last word on Tanzanite (aside from wanting to kick myself for not buying it while there) is that you'll rarely find large stones. Back to our regular organic subject... Fabulous pictures, Marcia. That's all I needed before I head off for slumberland."}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (00:53)", "body": "All pearls which are not strung are set on posts and epoxied into place. Nothing will dislodge them but you can bash them in against a brick wall or whatever. Wear them to the opera - not to weed the garden. Gonna send that red pearl to Lance right away...See what he says."}, {"response": 101, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (00:56)", "body": "That's true about the epoxy and the posts...but but but I really can't take a ring that's sitting a couple of feet above your knuckle."}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (01:03)", "body": "I agree with you...I'd be hitting it against everything. Even with that massive platinum setting. They are not for me!"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (14:40)", "body": "Lance was kind enough to give me a reasonable explanation for the pearl which looked like a ruby: What happened is that the flash has accented the color beyond normal. It is a burgundy, which is rare, but I have seen them. They are lovely."}, {"response": 104, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (16:01)", "body": "a burgundy? but why does it look so translucent? and karen, i've only seen smaller pieces of tanzanite. wonder why that is....."}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (16:39)", "body": "Bounce reflection fooling the eye? I'll have to check it again..."}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (16:44)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/18.79 Ok, I checked and can see how it could be a pearl. Flash distortion."}, {"response": 107, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (19:24)", "body": "i looked again, guess it's not as translucent as i had originally thought. think it was that flash shining on it that did it. it's still beautiful, but never having heard of i would've thought a pearl that color was fake. very pretty!"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (19:35)", "body": "He suggested a $15,000 price for it...but probably just for that pearl. All those diamonds are gonna cost ya (especially with a one-of-a-kind hand-crafted piece of jewelry.)"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (20:16)", "body": "For Lance who is a black Kelt of the Welsh sort and all others who celebrate St David's Day by putting a leak in their hats:"}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (22:54)", "body": ""}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (22:54)", "body": ""}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (22:57)", "body": "For those who have known and love the Welsh language and people: Cymru am Byth"}, {"response": 113, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (00:16)", "body": "i've only seen smaller pieces of tanzanite. wonder why that is..... So far, that's the only way they've found it. Just forms that way, I guess. The same goes for peridot in Arizona and a lot of the neat colored sapphires from Sri Lanka and Australia. Big formations appear to be very rare."}, {"response": 114, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (00:35)", "body": "OK, got another type of pearl for y'all: but the one I have is closer to this one, long and simple."}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (00:41)", "body": "Gnarly!"}, {"response": 116, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (13:24)", "body": "that's quite a change from all the round pearls. it looks more natural to me. lovely, karen! marcia, what's the phrase mean?"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (14:28)", "body": "aarrrgh! I have misplaced my Welsh Dictionary, so I will have to rely on Anne's Welsh-speaking husband for a translation, unless someone comes to my rescue before she gets online. I'm not a fancier of lumpy pearls, but Mabe' pearls are beautiful."}, {"response": 118, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "I love Mabe pearls. As for lumpy ones, I wouldn't mind a strand of baroque pearls. They're not perfectly round, just a little irregular, but more or less round. As for round pearls, what can you say, the white-cream ones look like miniature moons. Which is perfect. The moon causes tides, and pearls come from the ocean. I once saw a strand of beautifully matched blue pearls; they mostly blue, but had the most wonderful green-gray, slightly peach sheen. I hope someone knows what the Welsh phrase is. I think the word \"Cymru\" is what the Welsh call themselves, or is it their country? Or both?"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (18:51)", "body": "I sent it off to Anne but she is not yet awake, I think. They are the Cymri and the country is Cymru. If I had to guess, I'd say \"Wales forever\" - like Erin go bragh (or however that is spelled) for \"Ireland forever\". Those silvery to orange South Seas pearls I posted the picture of back a few postings just might be like those pearls you saw. I just am not fond of baroque pearls which look like painted wads of chewed gum. Some do! I like braided ropes of baroque freshwater pearls interspersed with garnets and gold spacers."}, {"response": 120, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (19:00)", "body": "Agreed, some baroque pearls are a little too, err, lumpy. They should atleast be mostly spherical, only just a little asymetrical. We haven't really touched on freshwater pearls. I do like them. Not as refined as ocean pearls, but charming in their own right. Garnets and pearls always make a good combination."}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (19:18)", "body": "...and here they mix them with rosy-orange coral and peridots and they look like little flowers interspersed amongst the pearls. They are mostly warm-weather jewelry rather than sea pearls which are more formal and are for all seasons."}, {"response": 122, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (19:32)", "body": "I'm really ambivilent about coral. I love the orangy-rose color, but I worry about coral reef destruction. I do have a piece of jewelry of a very politically incorrect substance -- ivory. No catcalls, please. It's vintage. I received it as a birthday gift, a carved ivory carnation stick pin, circa 1910. So I can wear it good consceince."}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (19:55)", "body": "http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pearl/freshwater.html is a great resource from a NOVA program on growing pearls. Pretty pictures, as well. There are some really good freshwater pearl places on the web but the pictures are pathetic. This one has good links and pictures you will find hard to believe - like the one mussel shell producing 10 or more beautifully-colored pearls. http://www.pearloasis.com/freshwater.html These are the most beatiful pearls I have seen from the luster point of view. South seas: Tahiti Black:"}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (19:58)", "body": "South seas: Don't worry about reef coral. Precious coral, whether black, oxblood, or orange do not grow as reefs. They grow like little trees all by themselves planted in the sandy bottom like separate rose bushes."}, {"response": 125, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:00)", "body": "That is the most beautiful pearl. It is perfect, perfectly shaped, perfect lustre. It really is exquisite, which is a word very often misused, but not in this case."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:05)", "body": "um....don't tell anyone...but I have a whole necklace of Ivory (yes, the worst kind) carved to replicate pikake (jasmine) blossoms. I have never worn it and it is an antique. Totally legal. I just don't want any dead elephants around my neck!"}, {"response": 127, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:05)", "body": "That is the most beautiful pearl. It is perfect, perfectly shaped, perfect lustre. It really is exquisite, which is a word very often misused, but not in this case."}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:08)", "body": "I'm delighted you like that black pearl. I had to make that image mine when I saw it and to share it with you. It beggars the language to find words praiseworthy enough to describe its beauty. The South Seas is not bad, either, but is far behind the black one in luster."}, {"response": 129, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:11)", "body": "the black one looks metallic....."}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:18)", "body": "I have all sorts of hematite beads and hunks and polished pocket stones. They have a very hard brilliant luster which lacks the depth of that black pearl. I should hunt up a picture of one such for comparison - off I go!"}, {"response": 131, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:20)", "body": "i've got a hematite band ring. very shiny grayish black.....don't wear it very often though."}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:32)", "body": "Cymru am Byth = WALES FOREVER!! hematite earrings: More pearls:"}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "What I am seeing as differentiating the hematite from the pearl is that in the luster of the hematite I see a cold steely-blueishness and in the pearl I see a warm slightly yellowishness or golden sheen ... does this make sense?"}, {"response": 134, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:37)", "body": "perfect sense!"}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:42)", "body": "Thank you! I also have ring guards of hematite, and of carnelian and of Jade and onyx (black) Don't wear mine much, either, but they are lovely in an arrangement on my specimen display-go-round."}, {"response": 136, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "a ring guard of hematite? sounds neat. my hematite ring was one of those $5 jobs you find at festivals and such."}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (21:34)", "body": "So is mine a $5 one. I got two of them ('cause they are skinny and the jade and carnelian are fat ones) Next time you see one, get another one and put a silver or gold band between them - or that Avon amethyst...! I have little hands and small fingers so I try to keep larger stones from rotating under my hand by putting guards around them. The Alexandrite has two thin braided gold bands either side of it to keep it on top of my hand and to set it off. Looks lovely!"}, {"response": 138, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (21:35)", "body": "the hematite band is 1/4\" or so wide. much too big to put that little amethyst between."}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (21:41)", "body": "No wonder. Mine are only 1/2 that wide. The others are like that, though! I'll bet it is pretty!"}, {"response": 140, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (21:45)", "body": "all of the ones on that display were that wide. will have to look for one smaller, next time. it bothers my finger because of the width."}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (21:53)", "body": "I know about the feeling on your finger...and in warm humid climates moisture tends to stay under there and soon your finger is less than well and the skin starts coming off. Not a great thing!"}, {"response": 142, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (22:01)", "body": "all the rings come off at the end of the day (maybe sooner during the summer)"}, {"response": 143, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (22:03)", "body": "g'night marcia dear! (stayed up toooo late last night)"}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (22:08)", "body": "*g'night Woofie *hugs*"}, {"response": 145, "author": "lance8", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (00:00)", "body": "Hello Everyone! Looks like something got started here. As Marcia said, I've been in Mid-Terms, and trying to pick a school for next year, as I'm at a Community College now. Now, for a few comments. On entry 47, if you number L-R,[1-8], #'s 2,7,& 8 are the rarest, and 1,3,and 4 are the most common. Karen- If you can afford to buy it, you WILL be careful. This is feedback I've gotten from customers. You are very aware of the piece, and change your body movements to accomodate the pearl. Marcia- No, Detergents ARE terrible. Oil from your skin or Ex.Virgin Olive Oil are best for storage or for brightening up a pearl. I disagree, entry 60 is a KILLER piece!!! I'd love to have a crack at selling that! Wolf- From your description, I'm 99% sure it's real. A good fake cream is hard to find. #75- Thanks, Marcia! #81- The pearl is a Bronze/Brown over another layer of Burgundy/Black. VERY rare 4 color mix! Not a \"South Seas\" pearl to experts, but Australian Gold Lipped oyster pearls. Grown on the North and NW coasts. HUGE size, 15 - 30 mm.! Also, excellent Mabe. The tip on choosing is spot on perfect. 113 and 114 and definately baroques, probably freshwater from China from the snowy shade. The photos have been bothering people with the colors. Understand, please, that pearls are actually crystalline in structure. They are composed of calcium carbonite formed into crystals called argonite, and held together in a protein/tissue matrix. This makes pearls the only stone that can absorb and hold oils and water. There is even a debate over whether pearls are alive or not because of the tissue in the pearl. But the argonite causes light to bend when directed into a cultured pearl in a way that a traineed eye can see the core irritant, and use that to help determine the quality. A pearl that is large, but has little nacre,[or pearl coating], is not as valuable or desired as one of the same size that has a thick coating. Pearls that stay in the oyster longer have more coating, but also risks flaws developing the longer it stays. Number 79, the burgundy, is a good example of how to look. You can plainly see the dark circle in the center, which is the core. It is a rare color, but not quite as thick a nacre as I would like. But since these oysters are pulled up and x-rayed yearly to check on pearl growth, I would have extracted that one myself. Good size and perfect shape! Marcia- Thank for the Flag. Lovely."}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (00:13)", "body": "Whew! Thanks! I have to check back and see what things refer to...but I am as sure he is right about it as anyone on earth can be. I appreciate it. I am more than ever positive Lance is going with me when / if I ever own a real pearl of any sort!"}, {"response": 147, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (00:50)", "body": "#114 Tennessee freshwater and baroque of course. :-)"}, {"response": 148, "author": "lance8", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (01:00)", "body": "Karen- Thought that was Tennessee! Saw them when they first hit the market. Not bad quality. Photos better than I thought it would. Fooled me. As good in photos as Yalu Chinese."}, {"response": 149, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (01:03)", "body": "Sheesh...gotta go back and look...I'm lost!"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (01:05)", "body": "I found a shot of tennessee freshwater pearls which were orange...peachy orange. You'd have to root for Tennessee to wear them! I'll post the pix tommorrow."}, {"response": 151, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (08:50)", "body": "Sorry, decided to go to sleep. Yes, they're Tennessee. The one I have is not as \"gnarly\" as the second, Marcia. It is about 1-1/2\" in length and a long oval shape, set with tip guards on the two ends. Very simple. It has to be one of my favorites and I wear it all the time."}, {"response": 152, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (12:09)", "body": "tennessee pearls? (i get the color and rooting for them) they grow pearls in tennessee? (am a total duncecap today)...."}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:18)", "body": "http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/gemstones/sp14-95/pearls.html Demand for U.S. freshwater pearls is a function of quality. Quality is determined by the size, color, shape, degree of translucency, texture, ability to match and blend, and luster. Usually, the quality of U.S. freshwater pearls is as good or better than any other pearl. The possible exceptions are the availability of round pearls and the ability to match colors. Yet, it is thought by some that these exceptions are not detrimental, but that the variety of shapes and colors available are advantageous and are positive selling points. To date, 31 different States have reported production of freshwater pearls and shell. During 1993, 18 States reported production, they were Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. The bulk of the shell and pearl production came from Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, and Louisiana. Figure 6.--Freshwater, Pearls from Tennessee. (Photo is courtesy of American Pearl Co.) There is some U.S. production of saltwater pearls. Abalone from along the Pacific Coast, primarily California, produce both blister and free pearls and their shells are used for inlay in jewelry and other items. The pearls are green, blue-green, yellow, or pink in color and may have high luster, but the texture is always coarser than that of other pearls. Some of the pearls are very large, as large as 60 carats each. It also appears that attempts are underway to start a saltwater cultured pearl industry in Hawaii. The Hawaiian industry would be based upon saltwater oysters. Only time will tell of the success or failure of the abalone and Hawaiian cultured pearl programs. It appears that the U.S. freshwater shell and pearl industries are well and growing. The pearls are beautiful, valuable, and the consumer is willing to purchase and wear them. The oldest of U.S. gemstones is doing well and its future is bright."}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:35)", "body": "Where is Lance when I need him?! How do carats equate to size in mm's? Btw, his 12 mm Tahitian pearl is quite large - and very noticeable on him - and he is a big guy. It is, however, protected from getting oiled by his body by the gold scallop shell in which it is mounted. I have noticed him fingering it a lot, though... Another Tennessee example which is not so extreme: Nature's beautiful gift, Tennessee freshwater pearls are all pearl, all the way through. These three lustrous, Tennessee freshwater pearls are nestled in free-form 14k gold tracery. Price includes shipping and handling. Sabrina - Pearl Ring USP1$448.00"}, {"response": 155, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:06)", "body": "carats = weight Re: American pearls (also from those websites) Apparently, the mollusk shells are exported to Japan and they form the nucleus of most of their pearls."}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:33)", "body": "I realize carats = weight. But, I can visualize a 2 carat diamond. I cannot relate to 60 karat pearl. 12 mm I can visualize. I would imagine that the makeup of the pearl also affects the weight so it may just be a rough estimation. I am sure he has an excellent answer which I will let him post in here rather than email-and-post the answer. That gets to be an old thing! Ah...they are not only seeding the pearls, they are seeding the stream beds, as well. Interesting!"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:35)", "body": "Btw, those USGS websites I posted the URL for above has a page on every gem and a lovely picture or two. It is a great resource."}, {"response": 158, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:44)", "body": "cool beans. ok, now another dumb question: cultured pearls; does that mean they have the sand planted in the oyster (or mollusk) to develop a pearl?"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:56)", "body": "Geo Motto: There are no Dumb Questions. On occasion I may give dumb answers, but the questions are what keeps us going! Now, Onto Wolfie's question... They usually have a shaped pellet placed in them (until Lance can get here to tell you) They used to use small glass spheres. Yup! You are correct! See?!"}, {"response": 160, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (16:00)", "body": "so you'd be really lucky, then, to find a \"naturally\" occuring pearl (and probably have to dive real deep too). i have a picture of buddha casts placed in an oyster for pearalizing (in my gembook)....."}, {"response": 161, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (16:42)", "body": "I've never heard carat used with pearls - only mm. Was that in a description up above? Since we were on the subject of opals (on the other subject but does anyone care), they aren't measured in carats either. Love them mabes too."}, {"response": 162, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (17:01)", "body": "Cultured pearls are real pearls, but the deep water pearls have a mystique and romance. But both can be very beautiful."}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (17:55)", "body": "Some of those jewels I posted had the pearl weight rather than size listed. Curious! Opals have water in them so they cannot! I have something to post on opals shortly...working my way over to the hard stuff!"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (19:49)", "body": "If this duplicates what Lance said last night in his posts, please forgive me. He said this regarding the image of the solitary black pearl of great beauty: It's got very nice luster, shape, and depth of color, but I would need to see it personally to judge the color itself. It appears to be a bit lacking in brightness, something which many value, but my experience says the average consumer doesn't want. Most people want more brilliance in the color they choose, not just in the luster."}, {"response": 165, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (02:42)", "body": "Since I did not make it clear who wrote the stirring and poetic comments on http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/geo/2.13 It was Lance who wrote those words, not David. Dave is usually deep in the lava fields just ahead of the flow front. Lance, when you visit Hilo again, I hope you will be able to show me how lovely that must be."}, {"response": 166, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (14:48)", "body": "marcia, give me the name of your \"how to buy jems\" book...i looked and looked all over a bookstore and found nothing...."}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (14:50)", "body": "Simon and Schuster's Guide to Gems and Precious Stones"}, {"response": 168, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (14:52)", "body": "that's what i thought, thank you!!!!"}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (14:54)", "body": "They have a companion book for rocks and minerals which is also excellent"}, {"response": 170, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (15:03)", "body": "i saw that one....when i go back, i'll pick that one up too!"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (15:32)", "body": "They work very well together...and they are sitting on my book shelf right next to me! Great photos as well. Enjoy! I got the set for David, as well!"}, {"response": 172, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (16:52)", "body": "I have found the perfect Mothers' Day gift. It's a 36\" strand of freshwater pearls with small accents of amethyst, blue topaz, citrine, and peridot. Very pretty. I think Mom will like it."}, {"response": 173, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (21:59)", "body": "do ya have a pic?"}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (23:25)", "body": "This mom would love it!!! But, this mom is not going to get it, I think. Please post a picture or send it to me and I will post it!"}, {"response": 175, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (16:46)", "body": "Couple of quickies.... #154- carats ARE weight. I don't remember the correlation, but try mommes. That's the Japanese measurement for pearl weight. On #160, a good point was raised. Surprisingly, there is no difference in price between cultured and 'natural' pearls on the open market. There probably should be, but if there was, it is thought that the pearl oyster species would soon be extinct in the mad search for pearls. As far as the core, or seed, goes, it is logically now made of rounded pieces of the same mollusk shell that is being grafted, i.e., black-lipped shell for black pearls, Tennessee mussle shell for Tennessee pearls, and so forth."}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (16:56)", "body": "I much prefer the size designation. We are used to a one or half carat daimond and think everything else of that weight should be that size. Wrong! CZ's weigh twice as much as diamonds so a 1 carat CZ is half the size of the same weight diamond...and so on. Thanks for the information on seeding the oysters. I was taught it was an irritant that caused the oyster to secrete nacre to smooth over the rough places. If the seed is not rough will a pearl for anyway? And, how do they get them to make Mabe pearls? Lance, we have missed you!"}, {"response": 177, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "Oh, yes. Anything in the right place is an irritant. Just ask anyone who wears false teeth! The seeds are smooth now to encourage smooth secretions by the oyster. Mabe pearls are made on the shell. A small form of plastic is glued on the shell, sometimes more than one at a time, and the oyster is then going to coat that with nacre. By the way, Tahiti and Australia started a good ecological trend with they're oysters. Because of the rarity, the oysters are babied in special nets, harvested after a couple of years, the good ones then are placed back in to breed a year, then implanted again. This can go for 2-3 cycles. On the last cycle, the Mabe pearls are made, as the oyster must be killed to harvest the shells. Sound ecology, that."}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (17:22)", "body": "I am suddenly even more of a fan of pearls than ever before (but still without same)... it is good to know they are not sacrificing one for one to harvest the pearls. Too bad they cannot make a decent pearl out of a tridachna!"}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (17:34)", "body": "I imagine drilling would be facilitated by having the same material at the center than a foreign pellet of differing hardness. Not a great place to have the drill bit go off of center line!"}, {"response": 180, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (13:02)", "body": "Not just drilling is improved, but the cement used to hold the pearl in place will hold better by being formulated to one substance rather than two."}, {"response": 181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (13:27)", "body": "Yippee! Good morning, Lance. Incredible to see you *happy me*"}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (13:28)", "body": "Stronger bond was something I did not think about as regards the inner post adhesive. Definitely an advantage. Thanks *hugs*"}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (19:18)", "body": "What sort of number of Black Tahitian Pearls are harvested each year? Is there a cartel involved, such as DeBeers is in diamonds, to keep the prices high and the investment value intact?"}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (19:19)", "body": "Or the Austalian or Tennessee pearls, as well? America has another gem claim-to-fame but I am posting it in Geo 8 to keep it on topic."}, {"response": 185, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (19:06)", "body": "There it is!! (the one in lower right) Finally got around to scanning Mikimoto's Black Tahitian cultured pearl necklace. Its in 18K white gold, with 2 bezel set diamonds on a gorgeous omega chain. Price was $1,800; now is $2,000 according to the latest catalogue from Bailey Banks and Biddle. I don't know the mm of the pearl, but does not look to be any larger than 8 mm (by my practiced eye) ;-)"}, {"response": 186, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (19:09)", "body": "Probably could've scanned the entire catalogue, but here's another from the Mikimoto page that I liked and could definitely wear this to an upcoming wedding."}, {"response": 187, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "Ooops. Let me try this again:"}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (19:23)", "body": "OOoh, Me too. I love the mounting for the white pearl, but it would be stunning with a black or aubergine Tahitian...*sigh* How much is the set with the white pearls? Thanks for the eye candy."}, {"response": 189, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (21:04)", "body": "White pearl necklace (18K white gold and diamonds) is a very reasonable $2420. Matching earrings are a mere $1650. Shall I order them for you? Or can we get somebody to knock those off for a tenth of the price or less?"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (21:33)", "body": "It might be better to pay extra and one of us get one specially made with black pearls, while the other gets the white pearls. It would make for a nice change. Same setting, of course...or, do you fancy the black one being set in yellow gold?!"}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (21:35)", "body": "BB&B does not know the meaning of discount unless a great deal has changed sinceI was last in their proximity."}, {"response": 192, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (22:23)", "body": "gorgeous pearls, karen!"}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (23:23)", "body": "Don't we each need a set? I would not turn them down..."}, {"response": 194, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Apr 15, 2000 (09:15)", "body": "Yes! (am having a hard time: \"new roof? necklace?\" \"new roof\" necklace?\" terrible dilemma)"}, {"response": 195, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Apr 15, 2000 (10:35)", "body": "Decisions, decisions. New roof -- necklace. You can get many years of use out of each of them. Actually the pearl necklace will outlast the roof, so as far as value for money goes -- the pearl necklace is the better investment. It just isn't the more practical choice. Karen it is good to see you posting on the gems topic again. If you're not the goddess on this subject, you're an avatar at least."}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 15, 2000 (18:09)", "body": "*sigh*....i know...i know..."}, {"response": 197, "author": "lance8", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (22:41)", "body": "Good eye, Karen. From the price, I judge the pearl to be approx. 9 - 9.5 mm. For a non-professional, very good estimate. Ladies, if you happen to live in an area where there is a pearl specialist, you'll get better quality AND price on Tahitians than from a BB&B, Zales, etc. The Big boys don't carry the volume to get quality, unless you can go to Cartier's or Harry Winston. They carry very nice pieces at reasonable prices, considering the quality of workmanship involved on the setting."}, {"response": 198, "author": "lance8", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (22:46)", "body": "As to how many are harvested, that is an ever increasing number, as more producers enter the market and production techniques improve. Mikimoto has a lot of control due to their supplying most of the men for the implant surgery. They have teamed with the largest producer, Robert Wan, in an unofficial cartel. I have no idea about the Aussie's plans."}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (22:49)", "body": "*sigh* It is SO good to see you here....(melting in my chair)"}, {"response": 200, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (22:54)", "body": "hi lance! (and marcia) and i'm the 200th post, what's my prize???? *laugh*"}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (22:57)", "body": "....Ummm...let me think about that. *grin* I know what you'd LIKE to have...."}, {"response": 202, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (23:06)", "body": "indeed you do, marcia dear!"}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (23:10)", "body": "*grin* but I cannot get that for you so getting something second best...*giggle* ...or third ...or fourth..."}, {"response": 204, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (23:12)", "body": "oh marcia!! *laugh* (can't wait for your next box!!) i've gotta go! g'night luv *HUGS*"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (23:48)", "body": "Lance, interesting stuff, and not surprising that Mikimoto is doing a DeBeers maneuver with Tahitian Black Pearls. Keep them stockpiled, scarce and pricey so businessmen like you can get rich enough to afford women like me *grin* Wolfie...heh...heh..."}, {"response": 206, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (23:28)", "body": "Thanks for all the additional info, Lance. If I were really serious about that necklace (which I can't be right now), I'd go directly to someone in the business as I have for er...other items and driven them quite crazy. Wouldn't there be a problem with the setting and design being exclusive to Zales/BB&B? When I've hit our Jewelry Row, they don't have access to the high-end designer stuff who work exclusively for certain stores."}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (15:36)", "body": ""}, {"response": 208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:27)", "body": "The Merrie Monarch Hula Festival opens tonight (see Media - you can watch it live on the internet,) and The Black Pearl Gallery has some specials. Never saw one this blue: Ocean Swim This necklace has the look of a whale's tail, in 18k yellow gold and diamonds. This excellent quality pearl has a brilliant blue green color. The surface grade is A, and the form is semi-round, measuring at 9.7mm. The chain is 20 inches long, done in 18k yellow gold.The diamond weight is .08 karats. Order Now $1,575.00 Plus Ocean Blue This stunning necklace has excellent quality round pearls. The pearls are slightly graduated from 10.8 - 12.3mm. The primary color of the pearls is blue.The surface grade is B-C. The setting is 18k yellow gold. Look for the matching bracelet: Stock #: BRH43413501 Order Now $13,158.90 Plus Harmony A beautiful necklace that highlights the color range of the Tahitian black pearls, from light silver to deep blue. These round pearls are excellent quality, with a surface grade of A-B. This strand is slightly graduated from 9.-12.7mm, with 18k yellow gold spacers. There are 36 pearls strung on black silk to make a stunning addition to your jewelry collection. Order Now $24,300.00 Plus"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:30)", "body": "Magnificent An elegant design with 18k yellow gold, diamonds, and an excellent quality round pearl. The surface grade is A, and the pearl measures at 12.2mm. Rainbow is the way to describe the colors that this pearl reflects. The chain is 18 inches in length. The VS diamond weight is .25 karats. Order Now $3,440.70 Plus Unique Beauty A exquisite necklace with two beautiful round pearls. The surface grade is A, and they measure at 12.5-12.8mm. The color of the top pearl is silver blue, and the pearl below is dark blue. The chain is 18k yellow gold, 20 inches in length.The diamonds add just enough sparkle. Total diamond weight is .80 karats. Order Now $7,897.50 Plus Marvelous A stunning necklace with all the right elements. An excellent quality round pearl, surface grade of A. This pearl measures at 13.8mm, and has a blue green color. The setting is 18k yellow gold, with diamonds and sapphires. The diamond weight is .50 karats. Order Now $17,082.00 Plus"}, {"response": 210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:38)", "body": ""}, {"response": 211, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:40)", "body": "Oooh, wee, Marcia. I like that Harmony design and that lariat. Somebody have a tree that grows money?"}, {"response": 212, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:41)", "body": "check out the url (the longest I have ever seen!) for rings http://shop.evolutionh.com/pageexpress/templates/merrie.wml&ViewStore=Yes&CategoryID=7&subcategoryid=25&siteid=32&ViewProductList=Yes&sessionid=2000428112911115&pageid=0 Sun and Moon This double pearl enhancer pendant looks great on a strand of pearls, or on a variety of chains. The pearls are very good quality, both being round, and have a surface grade of A/A. They measure at 11.-10.9mm. The color of the top pearl is silver, and the pearl below it is dark blue. The setting is 18k yellow gold. Order Now $1,756.80 Plus Drop of Love This enhancer pendant has a sweet teardrop pearl, with excellent quality. The surface grade is B, and it measures at 12.mm. The simple design of the 18k yellow gold and diamond setting show off the rainbow color of the pearl. The diamond weight is .04 karats.This enhancer pendant will clip onto any strand of pearls, or can be worn on a chain. Order Now $580.50 Plus Shipping"}, {"response": 213, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:42)", "body": "House male just sed \" are these in geomyth??\""}, {"response": 214, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:44)", "body": "I love the Navy blue ones - Never saw them ! Can't wait till Lance checks them out. I thought you might wander in to check on the goodies I was posting. You seem to have second sense for when I am doing so *grin* Aloha, Karen! I would not turn any of them down, but the lariat is stunning and versatile...!"}, {"response": 215, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:50)", "body": "*wishful thinking* I'm getting an ordinary cultured blackpearl choker, necklace and bracelet and earrings for my upcoming birthday. It's on order."}, {"response": 216, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:57)", "body": "Tell house mate that there is nothing mythological about these beauties excepting the ability of the posters to afford any one of them. They are stunning, indeed, and the luster...! The most expensive one had the largest pearl and was photographed so poorly I nearly did not post it. Marvelous is its name, and it is the largest pearl posted. Lance's is 12mm when you look at these. I am privileged to know someone who owns one of high quality and appreciable size. It is stunning on him...hmmmm....wonder if he'll ever let me wear it...*smile*"}, {"response": 217, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:58)", "body": "What is the origin of the pearls, Maggie? (How lovely!!!)"}, {"response": 218, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (18:10)", "body": "The Daily Mail Newspaper I think!!!! *grin*. They're nothing special, but rather fashionable right now in Britain. He's sent off for them. If it says where they're from when I get them I'll let you know. House male was referring to the prices (he was trying to be funny and springical). The jewels leave him dead (typical). I thought they were stunning."}, {"response": 219, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (18:30)", "body": "The jewels leave him dead (typical). Quite right. v. umimportant. ;-) Hmm, Marcia, I saw lots and lots that I'd give somebody's eyeteeth for. I've never been much of an enhancer fan, but am making an exception for these. Unfortunately, my pearls are too long, but if I double them and then add a clip in the back, they are a double cho-chokers."}, {"response": 220, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (18:34)", "body": "beautiful!"}, {"response": 221, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (18:35)", "body": "Am in a terrible quandry trying to accessorize dress for this weekend's wedding. Of all the stuff I own, the thing that looks best with the dress is costume jewelry!! Can you believe that? Am miserable and will be working to figure something out."}, {"response": 222, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (18:43)", "body": ""}, {"response": 223, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (19:26)", "body": "Mute wolfie? I goofed and posted the strands of pearls on Geo 8. They would make lovely accessories. How about a scarf and a good brooch rather than a necklace, Karen?"}, {"response": 224, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (20:13)", "body": ""}, {"response": 225, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (20:17)", "body": "For those of you who prefer a simple strand of pearls: Heart of Paradise This silver blue strand has excellent quality pearls. The form of the pearls range from round to semi-round. The surface quality is primarily A grade, with a few B's. This 16 inch strand is slightly graduated from 8.5- 10.7mm. With 42 pearls strung on black silk, and a 18k yellow gold clasp, this is the necklace to keep forever. Order Now $26,550.00 Plus shipping Heart of Tahiti This is it! The finest collection of Tahitian black pearls on one strand of black silk. There is nothing but excellent quality round pearls on this piece, 43 pearls total, with a surface grade of A-with a few B's. This strand is slightly graduated from 8.8mm to 10.mm. What stands this strand apart from the rest is the high luster and bright green color of these pearls. The clasp is 18k white gold. If nothing but the best will do, this is it. Order Now $33,750.00 Plus Shipping"}, {"response": 226, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (20:48)", "body": "Gee Marcia, which one do you plan to order? Has anyone been to North Carolina where you can pick up amethyst, sapphires, and even just walking through the pasture."}, {"response": 227, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (20:54)", "body": "If I could... I'd use the bead enhancer on a really thick gold rope or byzantine chain. I would probably need to see them in person, but those indigo blue ones are incredible. I'd have to take Lance along with me to advise on quality. Stones are my field of expertise. Pearls are his. Which would you chose?"}, {"response": 228, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (20:56)", "body": "Lance is around North Carolina, or has been, anyway. We'll have to ask him about it."}, {"response": 229, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (22:19)", "body": "(marcia, i hit the submit button accidently). i'd have to try the necklace on to see how it looks."}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (23:03)", "body": "(we all do that...!) Perhaps they's let you borrow the one in question for the evening to see how it feels...*sigh* In my dreams...!"}, {"response": 231, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (00:06)", "body": "Scarf and a brooch? Naw. Evening thing. IMO scarf is for daytime. Don't even own any brooches. Ah, the misery of accessorization (if that's a word). Now, if you could FedEx one of those necklaces for me to *try out* this weekend, I'd be much obliged. And I have always wanted a be-yew-ti-ful byzantine and (knocking head against wall) that other one that's like a byzantine. grrr"}, {"response": 232, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (00:55)", "body": "Wouldn't one of those bead enhancers look Sooo much better on a rich thick Byzantine?! Oh my...enough to make me think of parting with some of my emortal soul just to get one. Evening is more difficult - the pearls you already have will not suffice?"}, {"response": 233, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (00:59)", "body": "um..yeah...can't immediatly think of the one which looks like a Byzantine but would do equally. I have a large magnified phoney one and I know what you mean *head on keyboard* arrrrrgh!"}, {"response": 234, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (17:04)", "body": "I'm madly in love with the Heart of Tahiti. But oh the price -- over $33,000. Still, those black pearls with a white gold clasp. Then there's always the Ocean Blue, which is merely a little over $13,000. I can't afford that one either. I'll just look at them longingly."}, {"response": 235, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (20:11)", "body": "Join us with noses pressed against the monitor glass! Have Drool Cloth handy!"}, {"response": 236, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (20:30)", "body": "I love pearls. They are about the only jewelry I wear. My son sent me a beautiful string of black pearls when he was in Oman. They are much smaller than these though."}, {"response": 237, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (21:46)", "body": "Well, I chose the most expensive and huge ones they had. How lovely that he did so...I did not know they were available in Oman..! But, they have the $$ so it figures!"}, {"response": 238, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Apr 29, 2000 (18:53)", "body": "Had some time to kill today and popped into BB&B to see THE actual necklace. v.v. nice. Omega was a lot thinner than I'd imagine and it was a 9mm pearl. Wouldn't refuse it if someone gave it to me. Remember the white set? Didn't like it in person. However, there was another necklace there with some dangling white pearls which was much more reasonable in price and I would really really like it. Will see if it's in the catalogue somewhere. (Did I say I would really really like it?) ;-)"}, {"response": 239, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 29, 2000 (18:59)", "body": "Please scan it if / when you find it, please! To bad about the white not living up to its billing. It looked so lovely and refined and elegant...oh, well. None of us would likely refuse it if it were given as a gift *grin* Yes, you did =)"}, {"response": 240, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 29, 2000 (23:58)", "body": "Since this is the last night of Merrie Monarch Hula Festival and neither Lance nor I can ascertain whence commeth the lovely pearls, I saved every last image for future enjoyment just in case they close down the website. In that case, I'll post them all again (small KB/per). However I am posting two I had not seen earlier - one for Wolfie (guess!) and one Karen can share with me... Jump for Joy This happy dolphin is leaping over an excellent quality pearl. The form of this pearl is a drop, with an A grade surface. A rainbow of colors is reflected in the surface of this 8.8mm pearl. The setting is done in 18k yellow gold. Chain sold separately. Order Now $607.50 Heavenly This slider pendant has an excellent quality round pearl. The surface grade is A, and this green pearl measures at 9.7mm. This 18k white gold setting with diamonds is available in 18k yellow gold. The diamond weight is .19 karats. Chain sold separately. Order Now $1,652.40"}, {"response": 241, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (00:02)", "body": "Ugly chains...Druther hang my on a silken cord than those snake ropes! Oh well."}, {"response": 242, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (01:02)", "body": "Share? Wishful thinking. Snake chain isn't too bad, although I hate how they catch the hairs on the back of your head. Eowww"}, {"response": 243, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (11:00)", "body": "love it!! (not the chain though)"}, {"response": 244, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (13:30)", "body": "The chains are Yew-glee to the max. Did not want to detract from the enhancer, probably. I'm gonna post one each time I post in here (or two) since I saved them all last night before they ended the Merrie Monarch deal."}, {"response": 245, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (20:04)", "body": "They had a \"Treasures Of The Czar\" exhibition at the St Petersburg Art Museum Catherine The Great's wedding dress was one of the subjects shown. It was solid pearls and weighed over 40 pounds. Gorgeous."}, {"response": 246, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (21:47)", "body": "bet she was glad to take it off (well, maybe)"}, {"response": 247, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (23:43)", "body": "can't have been very slimming ;-)"}, {"response": 248, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (01:17)", "body": "Catherine the Great was happiest out of her gowns, if her reputation is to be believed. Intelligent and restless, she liked intelligent men around her for conversation. Sounds like someone I know...."}, {"response": 249, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (12:25)", "body": "me,too"}, {"response": 250, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (13:17)", "body": "*grin* G'morning, Wolfie!"}, {"response": 251, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "No, it is not true that Catherine II, Empress of the Russias, died while having to have sexual congress with a horse. That is what is known as a factoid, an ungrounded rumor which takes on a life of its own."}, {"response": 252, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (20:54)", "body": "Um...did anyone Really think that happened? Sounds like petty sniping taken to a new low!"}, {"response": 253, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "...and, Yes, I had heard it, too..."}, {"response": 254, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2000 (18:28)", "body": "Aloha, Lance. If I am not here when you login and post, I welcome you with warm Alohas and fragrant leis...*Hugs* Wehave missed you!"}, {"response": 255, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 24, 2000 (22:35)", "body": "From one of the most peculiarly named urls (luv it!) http://www.uselessknowledge.com/explain/pearl.shtml How do you make a cultured pearl? Sing to an oyster? No - irritate an oyster! About 4,000 years ago the Chinese discovered pearls in oysters. The inside of an oyster's shell is covered with a smooth shiny coating called mother-of-pearl. When an irritant, such as a grain of sand, gets caught inside the oyster's shell it secretes layers of mother-of-pearl to protect its body by coating the irritant. The coated grain of sand becomes a pearl. Man can force the oyster to produce a pearl by inserting an irritant into the shell. It takes the oyster two to three years to produce a good size pearl. Cultured pearls are usually not perfect, but the Japanese have discovered that if you surgically insert an irritant directly into the body of the oyster this will produce a perfect pearl. Historically, pearl divers dove up to 80 feet with equipment no more sophisticated than nose clips. The divers could stay under water for about a minute and they scooped up the shells with their hands and put them in tubs that would float to the surface. The largest pearl ever found is reported to be four inches around and two inches long."}, {"response": 256, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (22:28)", "body": "My friend Dawn called me today to show me the pearls she was giving to her daughter for her wedding. Her great great grandfather gave them to her great great grand mother on their wedding day. He was the captain of one of the tall ships that sailed to and from the orient. He had the necklace made in Japan especially for her. They are given to each daughter to wear on her wedding day and then they go back into the safe deposit box."}, {"response": 257, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (22:52)", "body": "Tell us what they looked like! How special! They will disintegrate without being worn, btw. They need to be in contact with body oils to sustain the luster. It will chalk up otherwise!"}, {"response": 258, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (23:37)", "body": "They are really beautiful. Quite a long string about 20 inches it looked to me. they are strung every five years on silk. They wear them for special occasions. Each daughter gets them on her wedding day and on her 30th birthday when she gets to keep them for a year. They are kept in the safety deposit box when they aren't beihg worn. All perfectly matched. They have a very slight pick glow to them. They are very creful to take good care of them. They have lasted for over a hundred years. They restring them themselves because they are afraid of them being switched."}, {"response": 259, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (23:51)", "body": "They are wise about the restringing!!! How delightful to be able to wear such regal pearls with the slightly rosy cast - and how lovely they must be on a beautiful bride. *sigh* Thanks, Lucie!"}, {"response": 260, "author": "nan", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (12:09)", "body": "Okay Marcia, I'm here. But I warn you, you'd get much more out of me if the Vulcanism topic was actually about Spock ;-p So...the topic is pearls, yes? I'm afraid I don't know all that much about it, but like all good females I have an opinion ;-) Even though I rarely wear them, I love pearls--so milky and round and sensuous, are they. When I graduated from high school my parents gave me a strand of pearls. At the time, it was THE thing to have. I went to a very proper sort of high school where all the cool girls wore pearls and I often felt out of place because of it. It underscored the difference between us. Most of them were the children of diplomats and CEOs. My father installed safes for a living ;-) On the upswing, that profession allowed him to become friendly with many jewellers, hence the graduation gift. I heard somewhere that pearls represent tears. Anyone know if that's true? Doesn't seem very appropriate to me as I've always considered them such a friendly, warm kind of thing."}, {"response": 261, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (13:35)", "body": "Sweetie, Did you graduate from New Rochelle High School? I did and it is/was an exact copy of your high school! For our senior pictures we HAD to wear dark sweaters and a strand of graduated pearls. Mine were not real at the time since I was headed for Penn State and a dorm room was not a good place to take good jewelry. I'm still waiting for my first strand of real pearls. Thin you might be interested in Vulcanism - purty pix in there of eruptions. Cfadm wanted to work the local varsity team's name into a topic, so I did on Geo2. No pointy-eared stoics in there! Welcome, and Mahalo for posting. I am honored by your presence!"}, {"response": 262, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (18:47)", "body": "I'll bet that Mr. Spock would know that Vulcanism gets its name from Vulcan the Roman god of volcanoes, fire, and the forge."}, {"response": 263, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (20:13)", "body": "Indeed, and he would be incredulous to find that the Hawaiian team from UHHilo chose Vulcans as their team name. Most curious, but it was the UHH ones for which the topic was names. Sorry, Spock! Well I tried another white stony horizontal bar. I call these coprolite..."}, {"response": 264, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, May 31, 2000 (20:24)", "body": "much better! *grin*"}, {"response": 265, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (13:11)", "body": "Still look like chewed straws *lol* but at least they have more dimentionality than the wrought iron ones did. Thanks, Wolfie...but there is still something lacking - need long skinny white one which do not look quite so abused!"}, {"response": 266, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (13:13)", "body": "Lance is in deep *bleep* - nothing heard from him yesterday... so much for devotion!"}, {"response": 267, "author": "nan", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (02:34)", "body": "(Marcia) Sweetie, Did you graduate from New Rochelle High School? I did and it is/was an exact copy of your high school! No, not in New Rochelle but it sounds like a similar place. For our senior pictures we HAD to wear dark sweaters and a strand of graduated pearls. I'll do you one better: for graduation we had to wear floor length white gowns and carry a bouquet of roses. Of course, all the girls had their pearls on as well. It looked like a mass wedding... (Marcia) No pointy-eared stoics in there! Hey, hey...watch it! His blood burns under all that stoicism. It's the quiet ones who leave bruises (ooop! I didn't say that) ;-p (Cheryl) I'll bet that Mr. Spock would know that Vulcanism gets its name from Vulcan the Roman god of volcanoes, fire, and the forge. Aah, well that would explain why the planet Vulcan is so hot and...red ;-) At least someone did a little research before giving it that name. All hail the Roddenberry! ;-p"}, {"response": 268, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (22:48)", "body": "I am trying to imagine carrying bouquets of roses - but they were nosegays. *sigh* luckily my grandmother told me about the old days when ladies carried them...;) Oh my! I think I have a short list of where you might have gone to school....betcha it was all girls...that frustration makes us lusty for life, ya know! Can that be the cause of all of that drool?! It is so good to see you posting in my conference. I am truly amused and honored by your comments! More on Vulcanism elsewhere, but like all volcanoes they are cold and unresponsive on the outside ant 2000\ufffdF on the inside!"}, {"response": 269, "author": "nan", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (22:04)", "body": "LOL! No, it was a co-ed school, but very, very small and very, very Catholic. All that repression definitely has something to do with my drooling. My graduating class was 37 people so, since there weren't many choices, everyone had...er...dated, for lack of a better word...everyone else during those 4, glorious years. By the end it was positively incestuous ;-p Aren't you sweet...no need to be honored, honey...I'm in a chatty mood ;-) I have to find a topic here I know something about, though. Can't contribute much, ya know. What other Conferences do you host?"}, {"response": 270, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (01:17)", "body": "Crafts, Garden and SpringArk I co-host with Wolfie. Maybe History, not sure. Hey, check the attic and basement. Maybe you can find something for Geo 17 Archaeology? I have topics all over the place - Hawaii in travel and loads in Food *grin* Geez, sounds like you went to Rye Country Day!!! Did you make your debut, too??!"}, {"response": 271, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (01:24)", "body": "Oh, and since when did you need to know anything about anything to post in here. If you use confifty you will see I am all over the Spring and I know just enough to get myself into trouble in almost any subject! Gi and Elena and Alexander discussed the fine points of tango in Bioresgions....! We drift off topic with some regularity. Please take off your shoes and make yourself at home...and think of something which would look better than these coprolite horizontal bars!"}, {"response": 272, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (03:18)", "body": "(why? I've grown rather fond of them (bars that is)....... shoes are definitely off, onto second cup of coffee since house male has gone back to sleep and not drunk his ... definitely not on topic ..... babble .....yawn ..... sorry, very late night last night)"}, {"response": 273, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (11:00)", "body": "How about some gray-green marble bars."}, {"response": 274, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (14:52)", "body": "then I could make the hyperlinks green too....must not clash, you know! Did not find any skinny long green marble ones and the fat ones are just out of proportion... I'll play with it tomorrow when I will not disturb the sleeping Spring. Wiggling toes...ahhh!"}, {"response": 275, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (14:53)", "body": "Then Nan will get an email...*grin*"}, {"response": 276, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (15:07)", "body": "LOL Maggie - you are too much *hugs*"}, {"response": 277, "author": "nan", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (17:01)", "body": "(Marcia) Then Nan will get an email...*grin* :-) As I said, feel free to ask. If you found a bar you did like, but was the wrong color, I can certainly change that for you."}, {"response": 278, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (19:51)", "body": "Gotcha *hugs* and thanks!"}, {"response": 279, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul  3, 2000 (19:24)", "body": "my oma gave me a three strand amber necklace. it is made of polished nuggets and due to age, it appears to have lost moisture. will inspect it closely for bug leftovers! because i don't want to ruin it completely, won't wear it during the summer here. i'll scan it in for you later."}, {"response": 280, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  3, 2000 (23:10)", "body": "How lovely! Check for those little critters in there. Can't wait to see it!!"}, {"response": 281, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 13, 2000 (18:19)", "body": "i know i promised a pic of oma's string of amber. but last night, i had it under my big magnifying glass (the one i use to cross stitch) and found a bug. i almost fell out. it has legs and wings. now i'm afraid that it was put in after the fact. but, the age of this piece is apparant and i don't think it's fake. but still. so i'll try to make a decent scan and see if we can get a good pic of this bug."}, {"response": 282, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 13, 2000 (21:12)", "body": "here's the piece with the bug. i don't think you can see it though..."}, {"response": 283, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (01:33)", "body": "Wow, can't see the bug, but it is a beautifully clear amber. Take care of it - it is very soft. I am so envious."}, {"response": 284, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (18:32)", "body": "it has numerous chips in it. wonder if i can use the magnifying glass and the scanner to help you see the bug. i'm telling you, it's in there! i had to tape that piece down so it would lay on it's side. it's too bad you can't see it. and i scanned the whole necklace but the pic came out so big that even lview couldn't handle it. will have to rescan and try again."}, {"response": 285, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (21:05)", "body": "Send it to me and let me try to downsize it. Hard to tell I am dying to see it."}, {"response": 286, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Dec 24, 2000 (10:21)", "body": "http://www.qvc.com/asp/frameset.asp?nest=/scripts/detail.dll?frames=y!tpl=tsv!item=tsv&mhproduct=mastheadptsv.gif&mhtitle=mastheadttsv.gif this is a link to qvc's today's special value--a single tahitian pearl with a chain."}, {"response": 287, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Dec 24, 2000 (10:22)", "body": "and if you check this out a day after i've posted it, you'll need to do this: http://www.iqvc.com and type in the search button the item number J66118."}, {"response": 288, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  1, 2001 (17:05)", "body": "Ok, Ijus tgot sent to Richard Simmons' get skinny offer, Hmmm. trying to tell me sumthin? Even Walmart had Gorgeous Black pearls here this year. Sears too. I did not get one - think I am destined not to ever have one. Which is ok. lots of stuff I don't yet have. Alexandrite back on finger... not going to remove it."}, {"response": 289, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  1, 2001 (18:51)", "body": "did you try the second link with the item number? you just put the item number in the search button (the richard simmons is for today's (jan 1) special value)...."}, {"response": 290, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  1, 2001 (18:53)", "body": "try this link: http://www.qvc.com/asp/frameset.asp?nest=%2Fasp%2FIsItemNumberRedirect.asp&search=SQ&frames=y&referrer=QVC&txtDesc=J66118&x=19&y=10"}, {"response": 291, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  3, 2001 (13:47)", "body": "Thanks Wolfie, that is a great price and a nice size. Really pretty! Oh, heard from Lance! The dear is up to here in finishing his degree so he can think about Black Pearls more of the time and even post a few things for us again. Happy Me!!!"}, {"response": 292, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (19:08)", "body": "Okay, Wolfie and Marcia, 'fes up -- are both, or either, of you the proud owner(s) of some beautiful black pearls?"}, {"response": 293, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (00:41)", "body": "Not I...not yet. Not even a single pendant, which would please me exceedingly."}, {"response": 294, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (21:34)", "body": "me either, tempting as it was!"}, {"response": 295, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (22:44)", "body": "Yup, I see them every day I go shopping in various stores including Walmart!!! I want one in a silvery or purple shade... I think, but would turn none down!"}, {"response": 296, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (18:08)", "body": "wal-mart has them? wow!!"}, {"response": 297, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (15:00)", "body": "ours also has Aloha Shirts...."}, {"response": 298, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jan 16, 2001 (18:57)", "body": "The question is would you wear your silvery or purple pearls with an Aloha Shirt? Or would you only wear the pearls with a vintage, circa 1950, rayon Hawaiian shirt?"}, {"response": 299, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 16, 2001 (20:22)", "body": "*scratching chin pondering* (not that a wolfie would be caught in pearls and a hawaiian shirt, mind you *grin*)"}, {"response": 300, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 16, 2001 (22:18)", "body": "...and Mu'umu'us too...I wear them with my mu'umu'u (long dress in aloha print in any style) We coul dhide lots of Wolfie fur under a long Muumuu"}, {"response": 301, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan 19, 2001 (18:47)", "body": "i knew a lday who wore mumu's because they were the only thing that fit (she was a rather large woman)...."}, {"response": 302, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 21, 2001 (18:59)", "body": "The one I wore yesterday (and got to give John a hug and kiss - f rom both of us, Wolfie) is sleeveless and has a hig neck with a a ruffle around the bottom... and around the square bodice, It is fitted till just above the waist and under that square. From there down I could fit a team of linebackers in with me. Hides a multitude of sin, as they say..."}, {"response": 303, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan 22, 2001 (21:15)", "body": "i dunno, i can't picture myself in a mumu (thanks for that hug & kiss to John)...are they prettier these days?"}, {"response": 304, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 23, 2001 (22:48)", "body": "I have one quite lovely and form-fitting with an almost off-the-shouder look to it with a big ruffle - then a little flare at the hem so I can walk in it. Quite elegant also is my brocade Chinese style one...."}, {"response": 305, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jan 31, 2001 (19:40)", "body": "A form fitting mumu, who knew? Marcia, just when did you hide a team of linebackers under your mumu? Wolfie, if you can't see yourself wearing a mumu, maybe your wolflings could use it as a pup tent? Ouch. Sorry for that pun."}, {"response": 306, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 31, 2001 (20:21)", "body": "that was my thought exactly!! didn't know you could get mumus form fit!"}, {"response": 307, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jan 31, 2001 (20:32)", "body": "Hi Wolfie! Have you seen any beautiful pearls lately?"}, {"response": 308, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb  1, 2001 (21:25)", "body": "nope! you?"}, {"response": 309, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  1, 2001 (21:55)", "body": "You haven't been to Walmart lately, either???? Oh dear, if I tell yo when I hid linebackers under my muu I will have to kill you...and I like you too much for that =) Mu'umu'u here is simply something either in Hawaiian print fabric or anything dress to the floor which doesn't look like a prom dress. They can fit or be styled in loads of ways. will post some pictures in the Travel Conference under Hawaii topic!"}, {"response": 310, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb  5, 2001 (19:52)", "body": "Wolfie, I did see some beautiful cultured pearls in a jewelry store window. They were having a 25% sale on Mikimoto pearl jewelry. Mostly classic round cream pearls, but they did have an ethereal soft luster. Marcia, forget I asked about those linebackers...I'll have to check the travel conference."}, {"response": 311, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb  6, 2001 (19:57)", "body": "me too and the local wal-mart!"}, {"response": 312, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  6, 2001 (20:38)", "body": "Oh yese... haven't gotten that done yet... must do that... get off IM and Yahoo and to travel to post. Sorry! Mikimoto I can afford a seed at a time and grow my own. Even the air in the stores is to expensive for me! Lovely stuff, though!"}, {"response": 313, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (23:47)", "body": "HAPPY GRADUATION, LANCE The peart expert of Geo has a brand new college degree and I sent maile to him for the part of his heart still remaining in Hawaii. This time he gets orchids freshly picked from the volcanic soils near Hilo."}, {"response": 314, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (23:49)", "body": "Lance will return. Newly endowed with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereto his degree from Guilford College. I could not be prouder."}, {"response": 315, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (11:20)", "body": "congratulations lance!!! can't wait to see you here again!"}, {"response": 316, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (14:36)", "body": "Today Lance goes through the tassel-switching ceremonies. He did ask last week for the url for this topic. I told him we have been very busy. I think he will be surprised and delighted. Since he cannot wear orchids for the ceremony, I sent him a Maile lei from the slopes of Mauna Loa to wear as they do here. It was the \"graduation present\" request when I insisted in sending him something. I hope it arrived safely yesterday as planned."}, {"response": 317, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (13:46)", "body": "Congratulations Lance!"}, {"response": 318, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (13:47)", "body": "Marcia, how does a maile differ from a lei?"}, {"response": 319, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (16:38)", "body": "Maile is an aromatic vine with glossy green leaves. They use it to bless new establishments (commercial or private) and it is never cut. Rather it is entined and unentwined to keep the blessings and healing qualities intact. Even dried it retains its aroma. Old leis are usually put into linen storage closets or drawers. Maile is never strung on string as gflowers are and never worn with the ends tied. It hangs gently around your neck and down either side of your torso to about waist length. Maile Lei The exotic Maile Lei is made from a vine having 1-3 inch long oval, leathery, pointed leaves that grow in pairs. The bark and the leaves of the Maile vine have a vanilla-like fragrance. The lei is fashioned by twisting or knotting the bark and leaves together in an open horseshoe style. The maile vine is becoming increasing rare due to its exotic appeal. It is frequently a favorite with men due to its masculine appearance and sensual light scent."}, {"response": 320, "author": "lance8", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (00:36)", "body": "To CherylB, Wolfie, and most especially Marcia H: Thank You all so much for your kind words. Yes, I have finally graduated, and now will have time again to join in on topics. I look forward to exchanging quips, quotes, other such bon mots with everyone."}, {"response": 321, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (00:43)", "body": "Of all the precious organic gems in this topic, Lance is the most precious! Welcome home, Dear!"}, {"response": 322, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (00:45)", "body": "You'll have to wait until the end of the week to get that hug up close and personal. I can hardly wait!"}, {"response": 323, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (18:22)", "body": "so good to see you back lance!!!!"}, {"response": 324, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (18:29)", "body": "Poor Lance was running full tilt last night till 3 AM getting reacquainted with Geo and other places on Spring where I seem to appear. It is very good to have him return to us. He can make me laugh whenever I am completely burnt out."}, {"response": 325, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (09:49)", "body": "Congratulations Lance! I will add my warm welcome for your glorious return in Geo. I am newer than you here and I live in Greece. Your heart is golden if I understand well. Have a good career in your science. John"}, {"response": 326, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 18, 2002 (18:57)", "body": "I visited with Lance this past day and he can tell you better than anyone else how well my actuality compares with my virtual reality. It was very good to talk with him again. In fact we were so wrapped up in sharing what had happened since last we met that all I seem to remember eating was a shared pizza. There are times when food no longer matters. The conversation and the company is everything. This was one such time. John, I told him about you, and caught him up with the new members and how the regulars are doing. He will return but he will also be out of computer range for some of the rest of this month, so be patient."}, {"response": 327, "author": "lance8", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (22:28)", "body": "Marcia was so right about that! Hi, John; nice to meet you, as Marcia has spoken VERY highly of you. I believe that Marcia has created an online persona that is only a small fraction of the totality of who she is. 'Ware this woman, oh ye of oerweaning ego! She can puncture a balloon as easily as brainstorm with someone to new heights. Quite a gal, our Marcia!"}, {"response": 328, "author": "lance8", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (22:39)", "body": "By the way; Wolfie and Cheryl: Have you seen the new freshwater pearls coming from China? Some are gorgeous. I picked up a baroque pair of earrings for a young friend that were so beautifuly colored, I had to look very closely to see that they were not small Tahitian blacks. Plus, because they were freshwaters, I got the earrings from a crafter at the Hilo Farmer's Market for only $7/pair. Good bit of thickness of nacre, for what they were, too. Going to see if I can work up a connection for myself. Anybody got craftiness hiding in their repertoire?"}, {"response": 329, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Jul  6, 2002 (06:38)", "body": "Hi Lance, Wolfie and Cheryl Marcia is very interesting and able woman. We know only a small part of she\ufffds abilities and knowledge. It is not coincidental that she has created this perfect Geo conference almost from nothing. She has to say something correct for everything. She has spoken VERY highly of you too. I am glad to meet you here anyway. I have also only good words for all geo-friends around the world. Now about the Chinese freshwater pearls. If pearl farmers can grow cultured pearls that test as naturals, the market may be in for a wild ride ...Once again the Chinese have radically altered freshwater culturing, making saltwater and freshwater techniques indistinguishable. They have also introduced a new type of culturing, nucleating with small tissue-nucleated pearls. Some of China's new pearls are all-nacre, some have nacre-coated nuclei, all are unmarked. After one experimenter used small off-round naturals as nuclei, he sent the resulting freshwater pearls to a gem lab and received a report identifying them as \"naturals.\" If pearl farmers can grow cultured pearls that test as naturals, the market may be in for a wild ride... http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pearl/freshwater.html John"}, {"response": 330, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Jul  6, 2002 (06:44)", "body": "I am sorry for the above image. I will try to post it again. John"}, {"response": 331, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul  6, 2002 (12:11)", "body": "hang on a sec---a pearl is the result of an irritant inside the oyster. so how could a pearl test as unnatural? ok, and i have another question, at disneyland, we came across a kiosk with oysters and you were supposed to pick out an oyster and pluck the pearl (for $12). then, you could choose a setting for them (i don't think that was included in the $12). are these \"real\" if we go with what i asked above, then they are real just planted pearls, right? since it takes a long time for the oyster to cover the irritant, how is it that the farmers make them so quickly? do they put something the size of a pea inside the oyster?"}, {"response": 332, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul  6, 2002 (12:12)", "body": "oh, hi lance!! welcome back!!!!"}, {"response": 333, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (18:54)", "body": "Hi Lance! Lovely to see you back amongst us and Big Hugs of congratulations for your brand new college degree. Take a well-deserved bow. Btw, about those pearls in the Hilo flea market, Of course I missed them due to lack of means to get to them. Next time buy them and I will reimburse you! China is fast beating all markets in all manner of things. How nice they are making beautiful pearls affordable! *SIGH* (I think what Lance said about me is flattering. He should know. He hugged me just a few weeks ago! and he has know me for over 20 years...)"}, {"response": 334, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jul 14, 2002 (16:03)", "body": "The cultured black freshwater pearls you bought sound beautiful, Lance. What a great price, as well, $7.00 for the pair! The pearl market may well be in for a wild ride. As for Marcia, well she is the Goddess of Geo, or an avatar, atleast."}, {"response": 335, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (05:32)", "body": "Hi Cheryl I can answer that we are small Gods, all of us. We are a miracle of the nature but we need a miracle to save Nature from us. As for avatars, they are counterbalances for our nervous system. Each one of us is rated on his efficiency. But for good or not good feelings main role has the personality. John"}, {"response": 336, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (12:20)", "body": "Avatar or not, this little lady is incredibly unhappy. I have my computer back and all is swift and working well. Except for AOL which is determinded to keep mme from both thenet and geo and sending email from my aloha.net address. Worse yet is the difficulty with Yahoo. I could access it yesterday and even talked to Julie there and left messages for others including John. Alas, today it is not the case and I am back on w 95 thanks to Don's old reliable computer which seems able to handle just about any indignity AOL sends him. My thanks to his generosity so I can get caught up with Geo again. It feels so good to be home!"}, {"response": 337, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (20:17)", "body": "what is an avatar exactly? does yahoo have instant messaging?"}, {"response": 338, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (20:44)", "body": "YES!!! Yahoo has excellent IM. I highly recommend it very highly."}, {"response": 339, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (04:38)", "body": "See your troubles from the hopeful side Marcia. Destiny it gives you time to reorganise your time and think what else you have to do for you. See it as a test. The Wheel of Life is travelling us where only destiny knows. So do not worry and be happy. This situation is also a test for all Geo-members and visitors. I expect that the result have a degree upper of the base. So, Geo-mother must be pleased and free for explorations. Avatar is a live figure that is sitting higher between us. Wolfie. Avatar is also something live that we admire or that we envy its luck. John"}, {"response": 340, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (16:27)", "body": "This current adventure is a first for me.I have always been very conservative. However, this has been both spiritually satisfying and intellectually illuminating. Despite the effort of security to make it miserable, they were quite unsuccessful!I amdelighted to be where I am despite the thunder in the background. On the mainland of the US, that does NOT mean snow will be on the mountains. Not this time of year! I consider John Geo's avatar of seismic events. Demi-god? Absolutely!"}, {"response": 341, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (16:29)", "body": "Hi John! That was a very interesting observation about small gods and avatars. As for Marcia being an avatar, I do admire her and hope that AOL and Yahoo are treating her better. Wolfie, Yahoo does have instant messaging."}, {"response": 342, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (16:35)", "body": "Hi Cheryl! Big happy smile that I am back with the living and communicating with the world! Yahoo IM has been a life saver. Ask thepeoplewith whom I communicate directly. Where else could I afford to talk live with voice with Greece, New Zealand, UK, and various other far reaches? Nowhere!"}, {"response": 343, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (16:42)", "body": "Hello Marcia! The world has missed you and is glad to be in communication with you again. Okay, I can only speak for my small part of the greater world."}, {"response": 344, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (16:57)", "body": "I am much closer to your part of the world.Is Pittsburgh as hot as Louisville?Will you get our thunderstorms? (It sounds like the intro for \"As the world turns\" and it might as well be!) You are our fine arts specialist. We all have roles to play in life - even as lurkers.Enjoy! Meanwhile I will try to post my prize geode I found..."}, {"response": 345, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (17:02)", "body": "It's hot and humid here. We're supposed to get thunderstorms overnight and/or tomorrow. Unfortunately, the rain will probably just bounce off the ground here. We are down for rainfall this summer and all the grass is yellow or brown and the ground is as hard as cement. Atleast the rain will cool it off a bit, though. Love to see that geode."}, {"response": 346, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (17:23)", "body": "The grass is yellowing here too, and the earth looks parched and baked to a light tan brown instead of a rich moist mixture. I wonder how any plants can survive! We also could use a good soaking rain. I wonder when they put us on water rationing. It is happening in California..."}, {"response": 347, "author": "lance8", "date": "Wed, Apr  2, 2003 (22:11)", "body": "Ok, folks, some news from the world of pearls. Perle de Tahiti has had a huge showing with some very trendy designers, and all should look for real and fake Black Pearl jewelry to be a very hot thing in fashion for the next several seasons. And i am talking BIG stones, and LONG strands of them. If you can afford them, Bold and Black is an 'in' thing. Check National Jeweler for some items."}, {"response": 348, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Apr  3, 2003 (04:19)", "body": "I'm building the http://bonitapearl.com site on our server now. It's pretty basic. I have to add the shoppping cart and go to a design phase on it. Should I suggest that these folks carry this line of pearls?"}, {"response": 349, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  5, 2003 (21:00)", "body": "Welcome back, Lance! We have missed you. I am still sans pearls of any sort grown by oyster, but maybe I can have one small one before I die. That definitely gives me plenty of time!!"}, {"response": 350, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  5, 2003 (21:02)", "body": "Terry, the site you cited is amazing. I'd have holes poked through my ears for any of them. Lovely!!!"}, {"response": 351, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr  6, 2003 (10:24)", "body": "I have posted some pictures of quartz crystals that I'm selling at http://lemurianquartz.com . . . these pictures were taken in my backyard on a sunny day and there are some remarkable specimens weighing 2 lbs. and more."}, {"response": 352, "author": "lance8", "date": "Mon, Apr  7, 2003 (21:47)", "body": "Terry, those pearls look to be of fairly good quality on your site. Perle de Tahiti is the largest dealer/grower in Tahiti, but tends to be consistantly dark of color, as well as expensive. Robert Wan is simply a kingpin type, who gets things the way he wants. If your people are looking for good color variations, have them ask where a suppliers pearls are grown. The slightly warmer water around Manihi is the home of some of the wildest variations known without chemical treating. Also, all the way out in the Gambier islands does the same thing occur. Suprisingly, there are some farms in the Marquesas and in the Philippines, around Cebu, that have produced nice pearls, but in smaller sizes, so the consumer gets a price break."}, {"response": 353, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  8, 2003 (00:16)", "body": "Terry, those quartz crystals are lovely. In your back yard? All I have is lava! Of course, lavas contain every element found on earth!! It just is not as pretty as it will be after reforming it through metamorphosis, hearing, water percolating, and millions of years to gtow the crystals. *sigh*"}, {"response": 354, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Apr  8, 2003 (00:21)", "body": "They come from Ruand S America. I just did the photos in the backyeard. I may have a sale on one today."}, {"response": 355, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  8, 2003 (01:01)", "body": "Did you mean the lower info in black (rather the the blue links above them) to be Kb or is it the weight of the crystal and should be Kg???? Mexico was blessed with lovely things. I have a huge piece of a geode of amethyst. The large geode I found was a pale citrine. Like champagne diamonds."}, {"response": 356, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Apr  8, 2003 (09:36)", "body": "It's the weight in pounds. 1.75 is 1.75 lbs. I need to clarify the descriptions and provide more information, like the dimensions, size, weight,circumference, presence of rainbows, triangles, ridges, baby crystals, bottom configuration, etc. I had a great talk on the phone with Debra, who has a crystal shop in Pennsylvania, and she enlightened me as to the proper way to photograph and display these crystals. She's pretty seasoned at this stuff, and was impressed with the size and the low prices on these specimens. I've got one of them listed on ebay, and I need to get shopping cart software running on http://stonedom.com and on http://lemurianquartz.com"}, {"response": 357, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 11, 2003 (18:54)", "body": "Talking trade is alwys a good way to gather information. I can get some sort of scale when looking at your hand holding each one of the large ones. http://www.arizonaminerals.com/specimens_amethyst-north-am.shtml This site above can show you how some do it."}, {"response": 358, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr 13, 2003 (21:25)", "body": "Cool I'll bring that up."}, {"response": 359, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (18:18)", "body": "Just be certain you are in a position where your flash will not reflect off a crystal face and ruin your picture. It happens more than you can imagine!"}, {"response": 360, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (18:37)", "body": "I don't use a flash at all, just sunlight. I have to redo those http://lemurianquartz.com pictures, I did an inventory with pricing today: http://lemurianquartz.com/quartz05.html"}, {"response": 361, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (21:24)", "body": "OK!!! Makes sense."}, {"response": 362, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Apr 15, 2003 (10:06)", "body": "http://lemurianquartz.com/quatzinv.htm is the current version, I need to rephotgraph all these stones and name the jpgs with a code that matches the inventory. I'm finally making sense out of some of this, but still need to master some of the terminology and learn how to describe the pieces better."}, {"response": 363, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 19, 2003 (17:43)", "body": "YOU? Having programming problems? Can you imagine the mental gymnastics I went through when I was given a blank space to fill the day Geo was created?! Programming is in your blood. You'll be fine! Meanwhile I want some of those colored Russian diamonds!"}, {"response": 364, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (02:12)", "body": "Lance, come back with your pearls. I think Tennessee has none of them."}, {"response": 365, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:06)", "body": "Come back, little Lance."}, {"response": 366, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:33)", "body": "He will. I talked to Lance last night on Instant Messenger and got him acquainted with how to find conferences special to him. This is definitly one. He is the staff expert on pearls."}, {"response": 367, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 21, 2003 (11:43)", "body": "That's great, because with the http://bonitapearl.com project as one of our client websites, it's become more relevant. Maybe we can get these folks in on the dialog on pearls."}, {"response": 368, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 22, 2003 (22:30)", "body": "ok before i check the site, gotta a question--are these the pearls with the irridescent aura to them? i've been seeing \"black\" pearls all over the place lately."}, {"response": 369, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sun, Apr 27, 2003 (02:19)", "body": "Wolfie, Black pearls are, indeed, from all over. Tahiti, the Society islands, the Marquesas, the Philippines, and China. But, only those labeled Tahitian Black Pearls are the real thing. They come only from one species of oyster, and will come from many different islands, but are from the right oyster. This is important, as China and Japan have made \"black pearls\" for years, using dyes injected into the oyster at implanting, or about six months before harvest, depending on the quality sought. The old \"Pearl Factory\" shops in Hawaii and the West Coast used a different technique. They used dye at several stages, and the older the pearl, the more dye collected, and the color range was brilliant. Now, as the Chinese perfect the use of shell fragments for nucleus usage, the more you will see dye and irradiation used. Also chemical peels can make spectacular results. I have a friend in South Carolina that has a ring I selected for her that has a chemical peel treatment, but the pearl is so irridescent an striking in its multi-color spendor that it doesn't matter what was done to it. Burgundy, Green, Blue, and Bronze over a deep green/black background. Many beauties are no longer found \"only\" in Tahiti."}, {"response": 370, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  2, 2003 (19:01)", "body": "OOOH Good! Dialog!!! Thanks, Lance! *Hugs* They are even making tinted fresh-water pearls which are also beautiful - even if temporarily. Lance, do you know the longevity of the color on these dyed ones?"}, {"response": 371, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sun, May  4, 2003 (22:40)", "body": "Depends on the Ph of the wearer and the frequency of wearing. It's possible to last 20 years, maybe more."}, {"response": 372, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  7, 2003 (00:26)", "body": "I did know that wearing pearls is the best way to make the nacre more beautifuland to preserve it. Keeping them in the drawer for generations makes them chalky and they eventually disintegrate!"}, {"response": 373, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sat, May 10, 2003 (19:03)", "body": "If anyone is interested in what is being done with pearls, check out and go to the pearls section. The strands are B grade or less for natural pearls, but the colors they are dyed are fantastic. And these are cheapies sold for beading and inexpensive jewelry, not good ones. If they go to this much trouble with cheapies, think what they are doing with the top pieces!"}, {"response": 374, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 11, 2003 (01:41)", "body": "Where do we go, Lance? Needing the url... I have a set of fake pearls which are beautiful, but have nothing real... yet...!"}, {"response": 375, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sun, May 11, 2003 (02:06)", "body": "AARRGGHH!!! The top section disappeared!! I wrote out Sorry about that!"}, {"response": 376, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sun, May 11, 2003 (02:10)", "body": "is the place."}, {"response": 377, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sun, May 11, 2003 (02:12)", "body": "AARRGGHH!!! Not again!! Let's try: www.firemountaingems.com."}, {"response": 378, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 11, 2003 (02:16)", "body": "Http://www.firemountaingems.com You forgot to put the http:// to make it a hot link. Thanks for posting it!"}, {"response": 379, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May 13, 2003 (19:59)", "body": "I got a strand of cultured pearls as a gift recently. They're cream colored, so nothing much to tell you about them colorwise. Still, they are real, even if they are cultured."}, {"response": 380, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 13, 2003 (21:38)", "body": "I am not particular. If they are real pearls, it matters not, to me, who inspired the oyster to make them. Wear them, Cheryl. You will make them more beautiful if you do (and will make you more beautiful by wearing them)."}, {"response": 381, "author": "lance8", "date": "Thu, May 15, 2003 (16:34)", "body": "Marcia is right, Cheryl. Cultured pearls are just as real as non-cultured. the only difference is that the starter seed was put there by man, and is not an accident of nature. Wear them with pride."}, {"response": 382, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, May 19, 2003 (20:34)", "body": "I definitely will, Lance. They are beautiful."}, {"response": 383, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 2004 (14:30)", "body": "I now have my first REAL pearl. I started at the top of the ladder of aspirations as you will see. My gift is from the resident expert and a black pearl of exceptional qualities. This is the loveliest thing I have ever held in my hand that was organic in creation - other than my son. *;) 8.5 mm of extraordinarily beautiful deep luster, this is like no other I've seen. It is mounted even better than I could have imagined it myself. A classically modern setting with pave diamonds in three swoops of uellpw gold. I must have been V E R Y good !! Thank you, luv!"}, {"response": 384, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 2004 (14:33)", "body": "Oh dear, I was so overcome I neglected to see what I did to YELLOW as in yellow gold. Lance, you should see me wearing this !!!"}, {"response": 385, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 2004 (16:00)", "body": "you must've been very good! do post a pic when you can!"}, {"response": 386, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 2004 (16:06)", "body": "I'll do it!! It should make for interesting comments when house male re-enters the scene. I can't believe I was alone for all of Christmas and New Year's Eve. On the other hand, maybe I was terrible but word just hasn't gotten around !"}, {"response": 387, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 10, 2005 (23:20)", "body": "This is the one Lance said has gone missing. It is on my geo/all list to it is available to anyone wishing to post. Lance, get thee hither !! Post !"}, {"response": 388, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (09:58)", "body": "See the other topic where I posted the url to get here. How is your connection to Geo? Marci and anyone else? Fast? Slow? Normal? Sporadic? Constant?"}, {"response": 389, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (21:35)", "body": "The connection for me using slow dialup is excellent. In years past, it was slow and somewhat sporadic. The connection is fast and efficient. I trust you are getting similar comments from others."}, {"response": 390, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (07:39)", "body": "Nope, the drooleuses are crawling."}, {"response": 391, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (14:39)", "body": "I wonder if they are continuing to load the entire topic each time. That is a waste of cybertime and no one wants to read it all back to post number one each time they go there. I wonder why more people are not using the /new additive. I learned it early on and have used it exclusively ever since."}, {"response": 392, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Mar 14, 2005 (13:23)", "body": "new is good."}, {"response": 393, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 14, 2005 (22:24)", "body": "Terry, I tried unsuccessfully to post a comment. I dumped RAM and came back to see if that made a difference. If you can read this, it was a RAM problem. If not well, none of us can see it!"}, {"response": 394, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 14, 2005 (22:25)", "body": "Guess it was my problem but it has been slow the last week or so posting at times. I always assumed it was my maxing out the memory by multitasking."}, {"response": 395, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 15, 2005 (20:00)", "body": "i've been slow too, marcia!"}, {"response": 396, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  1, 2005 (19:22)", "body": "I did manage to get rid of a pesky self-downloaded adware spyware cleaner which took over my msconfig. I had to go in there and disable it before I could delete if from my hard drive. I was offended, and it is seldom that software gives me such feelings. BTW the Tennessee Pygmies have been addressed by the resident archaeologist on the Americana topic. It has turned into a scholarly treatise of more than 300 pages but way more than just about pygmies real and supposed."}, {"response": 397, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr  4, 2005 (08:08)", "body": "Is this pygmy treatise published on the net?"}, {"response": 398, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (12:52)", "body": "The Tennessee Pygmies article is Not published on the net. It is part of a forthcoming book and as such it is still copyrighted. I was delighted to get a peek into the book written by Don especially for Geo. Instead, you can find more information by googling Mary Noilles Murfree who wrote the popular novel about them, In the \"stranger People's\" Country"}, {"response": 399, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul  3, 2005 (20:35)", "body": "went out to Natural Bridge Caverns where you can buy a bag of dirt and pan for rough gems. of course, you pay for what you get but me and the kids had a blast filtering out the \"planted\" gems. we even started panning the stuff that others dropped in the water! we're going to have some fun trying to figure out what we have. garnets, quartz, topaz, amethyst, etc. are among the few rough stones we found (probably nothing \"gem worthy\"). my youngest pup suggested we find someone to tell us what we have and whether or not they can be mounted into a setting after polishing. some of the stones were loose and some were still very much bound in their matrix. am gonna try a black light and see if any glow."}, {"response": 400, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug  8, 2005 (08:10)", "body": "What is a LifeGem\ufffd? The LifeGem\ufffd is a certified, high-quality diamond created from the carbon of your loved one as a memorial to their unique life. The LifeGem diamond provides a way to embrace your loved one\ufffds memory day by day. The LifeGem\ufffd is the most unique and timeless memorial available for creating a testimony to their unique life. Your LifeGem memorial will offer comfort and support when and where you need it, and provide a lasting memory that endures just as a diamond does. Forever. http://lifegem.com/ I heard about this on the \"More Hip Than Hippie\" podcast. convert your ashes to diamonds to last an eternity \ufffd the ultimate in recycling."}, {"response": 401, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug 10, 2005 (19:07)", "body": "that is really weird. so i can run around with a necklace that has the \"stone\" made of my loved one around my neck. that sounds sooo creepy!"}, {"response": 402, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Aug 12, 2005 (13:41)", "body": "Can you imagine if your necklace was haunted? Seriously, it does seem a bit creepy."}, {"response": 403, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (18:50)", "body": "Wolfie, get a hardness chart and test them. Quartz will scratch windows . Flouite will not despite their selling it as gemstones (way too soft in my opinion). You can find sapphires in so many colors - every color actually !! Except for the red ones. They are called rubies. Get yourself a little hardness kit with a penny in it, a penknife blade, a piece of window glass. Also get some unglazed porcelain (the bottom of a mug will do) to test for streak - though most gemstones will leave no streak. Hematite will leave an orange streak, though. Then get a good inexpensive guide to rockhounding (there are several printable ones on the internet) and have at it. That can be the most fun at the end of the day. Oh, and don't forget to save those old toothbrushes to clean what you have found ! Where is the place you were \"panning\"? I'd love to go to some place one of these days. I hear North Carolina is full of good things on the ground."}, {"response": 404, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (22:12)", "body": "it was natural bridge caverns a little north of town. believe me, that was the most fun i've had spending $12!!"}, {"response": 405, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (23:01)", "body": "Only $12 ??? You MUST go back. I can see your Christmas list getting little bags of dirt. Were they naughty or nice? They have to screen the dirt to find out !"}, {"response": 406, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  2, 2005 (21:49)", "body": "*laugh*"}, {"response": 407, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (14:09)", "body": "I'd be happy for hours with such a bag of dirt. Lance sent me a bunch of \"rocks\" he had gotten thru one of such sites in NC. I did the cleaning and felt a little like I had been there. Telling sapphires is not easy. They look terrible, but they also scratch everything else other than diamonds."}, {"response": 408, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (20:29)", "body": "amethysts look just like they do in a setting....which really surprised me so when i dug them out of that bag, i was flabbergasted!"}, {"response": 409, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (20:33)", "body": "I have a huge block of amethyst downstairs on a book shelf and yes it is purple and looks just like it was cut and polished but is raw and unrefined just as created. There are green amethysts on HSN, I noticed. I wonder why green quartz did not get its own name."}, {"response": 410, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (21:42)", "body": "had no idea amethysts come in green, didn't even see that in any of my mineral books....will have to scan these stones and post a pic (as soon as i figure out my password to ftp)..."}, {"response": 411, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (21:54)", "body": "Howdy Geo Wolfie I saw that you visited Natural Bridge Caverns - I visited that place many years ago in my yoooth and the whole thing was super cool - I loved going to tourist caves in Texas and Arkansas. I did some caving in Enchanted Rock (more like crawling through granite fissures) and that was fun/exciting until my flash light went out and I sat around in darkness until some other folks came along. Real smart... But anyway, was indestructable back then... Fun to read about finding neat rocks. 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 412, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (22:08)", "body": "in the caves you aren't allowed to touch anything, i think the touching police show up and everything, flashing lights, totally embarrassing, but this $12 bag of rocks was the cat's meow....my kids were watching ME pan. and the whole time i was talking about how this was so cool and stuff. then i started thinking about all the water running around that thing and ALL the dirt stuck in the channels so i wanted to pan that too, my kids were digging up dirt from it and throwing it in the sifter....good thing i wasn't around during gold fever! i'm too clausterphobic to be rooting around underground and then to have my flashlight go out? oh no, it'd be over then! my dad was telling me about all kinds of caves in the area (we used to live near Ft Sam Houston ages ago)...have you heard of the cave with no name supposedly somewhere off of Bandera Rd (maybe into Bandera County)?"}, {"response": 413, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (23:39)", "body": "There is a tunnel straight thru a mountain in eastern Kentucky. It has a similar name which is why I asked where yours was. I do want to go see it but I also do not like being underground with no light at the end of the tunnel. I'd have had to recite every book I ever read to get thru a blackout like Mike had. Brrrrr!!"}, {"response": 414, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (00:46)", "body": "What's the name of the Eastern Ky. tunnel. Can you name some precious Ky gems?"}, {"response": 415, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (15:34)", "body": "Agates are the KY state gemstones. There are few if any others since most of the state is covered by limestone from the inland sea. Natural Tunnel is the name of the natural train tunnel in eastern Kentucky."}, {"response": 416, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (23:55)", "body": "Have you been to many Ky caves?"}, {"response": 417, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (02:05)", "body": "Not inside them yet, though Mammoth will be on a trip soon. I've been in caves outside Tucson, AZ and in Luray, VA. Very nice but I really do not like being underground."}, {"response": 418, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (17:36)", "body": "I do."}, {"response": 419, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (17:47)", "body": "A Spelunker amongst us. Actually on a hot day they are lovely and cool. I guess I am still afraid of the dark? I just don't fancy being buried alive in there or losing my way. Wever see \"The Englidh Patient\" ? That's why!"}, {"response": 420, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (18:57)", "body": "natural bridge is pretty muggy. it was 70 degrees but the humidity left you sweating......yes, i've seen the english patient!"}, {"response": 421, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (22:20)", "body": "Dying alone of lack of water and food in the dark is not my favorite way if I have a choice."}, {"response": 422, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (22:30)", "body": "me neither because there may be beautiful water but you can't drink it, what kind of irony that would be!"}, {"response": 423, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (22:44)", "body": "Just like the water everywhere and nothing to drink (paraphrasing) like New Orleans and now Pakistan. How many places on earth can catastrophes happen and us pay for them? I suggest zero but I try to keep solvent."}, {"response": 424, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (22:48)", "body": "it's just running its cycle again.....of course, there are predictions in the Good Book, but you can't let that panic you. how strong was that EQ again? i saw some of the coverage but didn't sit down and really take it in (and tired of watching bad news)."}, {"response": 425, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (22:51)", "body": "found it-7.6 with a 6.2 aftershock......any concerns about tsunami?"}, {"response": 426, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (23:07)", "body": "it was between 7.6 and 7.8 Richter. If it had been anywhere else yes, but the direction of the shock waves do not disturb the water so much. I did check on that right away 26 aftershocks so far. The complaints of the victims sound terribly familiar. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 19, "subject": "Caves and other Subterranean features", "response_count": 95, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (14:56)", "body": "Thank you, Marcia dear! I have always found caves fascinating, ever since I went into my first one years and years ago at a local theme park. I live in a karst valley, which means that there are caves EVERYWHERE. It is very common for people who live on farms to have an entrance to a cave on their property, and some of them have been clever enough to open them to the public. We have ride-through caves (in a funny little topless Range Rover thing,) walk-through caves, and even some crawl-through caves. My favorites are a comb nation between walking and crawling--I like to get a little dirty, but not feel claustrophobic. Many of the caves are used for growing mushrooms and aging wine and cheese. I've been to one in which there are many Native American drawings on the walls--and that one's not 10 minutes from my house!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (15:13)", "body": "In Pennsylvania there are many limestone caves - lots of them are used for growing mushrooms and ripening cheeses. California uses them for wine aging. In Hawaii, we have lava tubes - vast empty contuits which formerly carried molten lava away from the vents. I shall hunt up some pictures of the lava tubes to post. Amy, are you familiar with blue holes in the Caribbean? By that I mean, know anyone who has explored them? I am claustrophobic - I could never do an underwater cave exploration!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (15:26)", "body": "Uncleared Lava tube with rubble at the bottom: Thurston Lava Tube entrance, Hawaii Volcanoes Nat'l Park Illuminated interior of Thurston Lava Tube, HVNP"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (15:34)", "body": "Thurston Lava Tube in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was one of the main conduits of lava from the summit caldera of Kilauea Volcano. It is not all that comforting to know that it is also considered our fallout shelter in case of a nuclear attack. How do I know it will not unplug the vent and allow lava through to were we thought we were secure?! Lava tubes can be very small in diameter or as vast as this one is (see person in entry picture for realtive size.) Many exist on this island, and many w re used for sacred burial caves for the ruling class (the Alii), while others are just there waiting for someone to wriggle into them. Lava is jagged...it is not something to do without much prior preparation. Some are many miles in length."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (16:45)", "body": "Lava Tube in the formative stages looking into it from a skylight. The current eruption is building a spatter cone around such a skylight since the lower end of the previously-used conduit had been blocked by congealing lava. By comparison, a much older lava tube which different type of lava formed: 100,000 year-old lava tube in Germany which has been used as a quarry"}, {"response": 6, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (17:11)", "body": "Underwater cave exploration is something that I could never do--I would have a panic attack just knowing that if something went wrong, I couldn't just come up for air--I'd have to swim all the way back out. I've heard of several people drowning around here from trying to do that--we have some very deep holes in caves. Do lava tubes have anything living in them? We have blind cave fish, blind crayfish, and lots of bats. Your pictures are great, Marcia!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (17:30)", "body": "I am delighted to bits that you are here! Yes, we have a quite unique array of critters living in our lava tube systems. There are blind happy-face spiders (ones with red markings on their abdomens which resemble Happy Faces), No-eyed big-eyed hunting spiders (don't ask me how they hunt!), blind centipedes, some crayfish-like critters, and other insect and crawlies. I am looking for pictures of the happy-face spiders and other dwellers therein. Since trees and plants take root rather easily on the rai y lava roots crack the ceiling and it is generally quite moist in there (at least, the ones on the upper slopes of Kilauea.) This encourages all sorts of algae and odd things to grow. Most of the dry tubes are barren - nothing for the blind to consume! I believe there are even blind cave crickets here! I agree with you about the drowning bit. Caves are not my favorite things anyway...and going without ready air is terrifying to me. Panic attack just waiting to happen, I'm afraid. Sink holes are another thing I am not too fond of getting near. I like my caves horizontal! The best commercial cave I ever visited was Luray in Virginia."}, {"response": 8, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (18:50)", "body": "Sinkholes are a big problem here--people have been known to lose their houses into sinkholes without ever having known that they were built on them. There used to be a neighborhood right in the middle of town that was flooded out because it was built on a sinkhole, so the city had to buy up all the property and eat their losses."}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (20:27)", "body": "never been in a lava tube and i'd rather not see a sink hole in person! but have been in a cave. notice i said \"a cave\" and not 2 or 3. but that's ok. plenty of time to explore. the one i visited was near new braunfels, texas and i can't recall the name of it right now. have pictures too if my mom would ever mail my photo album to me!! i wanna say the carlsbad caverns, but i don't think that's right. lemme do some looking and i'll tell you fer sure!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (20:36)", "body": "Carlsbad Caverns are in New Mexico, unless they moved them recently...! I was in a cave in Arizona where desperados hid out...that is the only way you're gonna get me back into that one!!!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (20:38)", "body": "Wolfie, you said you were going to visit Hawaii one day and John offered to chauffeur you around and I will be your tour guide. You will walk through the Thurston Lava Tube with me =) At night it is spectacular!!!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (20:41)", "body": "What is the name of the biggest cave in the country, which I believe is in Kentucky? I remember learning about it in geology, but that was 3-4 years ago. I'm amazed at what I do remember--I really enjoyed that class, except when it came to reading those bloody topo maps!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (20:45)", "body": "see, i figured i had the wrong set of caverns. john said he'd chauffeur this wolfie around the state? wow, i missed that. well, i'll be out of country during the summer of next year but it won't be hawaii. it's on my list of things to do though! and there is a military billeting there right on the beach!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (20:46)", "body": "oh, can i take a picture inside the lava tube and it come out alright?"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (20:56)", "body": "You can take all sorts of good shots like the ones I posted in the lava tube. Just bring fast film and a wide open shutter...or a good digital (what I want from Santa - if one exists for me anymore other than myself...!) I'm gonna have to look up the Kentucky caverns - I know then very well and they escape me at the moment...*sigh*"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (20:59)", "body": "Amy, I share your distaste for topos but Terry loves them...wish he would post something in Cartography...!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (21:02)", "body": "I don't know how anyone can understand topo maps! And if they do at least understand them, I don't know how they actually use them for anything! They were just a big jumble of lines for me, and I didn't get very good grades on the map-reading portion of the class."}, {"response": 18, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (21:06)", "body": "we have a cartography topic? (besides the one in collecting)...."}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (21:41)", "body": "k--the caverns i went to see in texas was the natural bridge caverns. went to the national caverns association to find that info. didn't copy the link but you can find it if you do a search using caves!!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (21:54)", "body": "Okay...thanks! I'll go check."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (22:16)", "body": "Mammoth Caves, Kentucky...for some stunning photographs and an idea of just how huge it really is http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/8916/pltravKY.htm"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 21, 1999 (21:29)", "body": "From Reuters: Trapped French Potholers Alive And Well GRAMAT, France (Reuters) - Seven French potholers were located on Sunday after spending 10 days trapped by a torrent in an underground cavern in southwest France and rescuers said they were preparing to raise them to the surface. Paramedics, sent down a narrow shaft drilled to the cavern, checked the potholers' health before they were pulled up one by one over the next few hours, local prefect Michel Sapin told reporters. He said they seemed in good health. ``When we bring them back up to the surface depends on their state of health, but from now on it's just a race against the clock,'' Sapin said as sirens blared across the village of Gramat, 112 miles north of Toulouse, to spread the news. In the biggest rescue mission of its type in France, around 250 rescue specialists and troops fought hard rock, floods, mud and fatigue to get through to the group, who were trapped last weekend after sweeping floods turned a routine expedition into a battle for survival. The four rescuers who descended some 130-330 feet into the pitch-dark drill hole said they were amazed when first one, then a second member of the missing group scrambled over to them. They confirmed the other five were alive, ending fears they might not have survived their ordeal. Microphones lowered repeatedly into the cavern in recent days had failed to pick up any signs of life. ``I was in the first group sent to find them and I was at the front when I saw a light in front of me,'' rescuer Cyril Arnaud said. SURPRISED BY CONTACT He said he had been making his way along the edge of an underground river some 100 yards from where the group was believed to be sheltering when he made contact. ``He was in fine form, just a bit dazed to see me, which isn't surprising. He explained he'd come over because they had heard first the sound of drilling and then our shouts,'' Arnaud said. He added that, as hoped, the group had set themselves up in a bivouac high above the water level and still had enough batteries to provide them with light. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said he was overjoyed that the seven potholers, who have dominated headlines in France this week, had been found and hoped they would soon be reunited with their families. In a swift statement, Jospin also praised the rescuers and wished them luck with the evacuation operation. Bernard Tourte, a technical supervisor for the rescue operation, said that once doctors had given the green light for the evacuation, the group would probably make their way out via a fairly straightforward route. This would lead to a near-vertical shaft where they would be helped up by an inner tube lowered down from the surface. Despite the grueling conditions at the rescue site, exhausted rescue workers had stayed optimistic they would find the group alive, noting the temperature underground was a bearable 13 degrees Celsius and that the experienced team had ample kit and provisions. The potholers were located as weather conditions took a turn for the worse in the south of France, with freezing temperatures and heavy snow blocking roads and cutting power in some regions."}, {"response": 23, "author": "patas", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 1999 (23:51)", "body": "Uff! I'm glad they're safe."}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (00:09)", "body": "This lady is claustrophobic. I cannot imagine a much worse nightmare than that!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (14:52)", "body": "Man breaks underground balloon flying 'record' Miroslaw Rekas believes he is the first person to fly a hot-air balloon underground. He lifted a 50-foot high balloon seven feet off the ground in a Polish salt mine and stayed aloft for about four minutes, the PAP news agency reports. He hopes to get into the Guinness Book of Records as he believes no-one else has performed a similar feat. The stunt took place at night, 400 feet underground, after tourists had left the Wieliczka mine in southern Poland."}, {"response": 26, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (02:01)", "body": "that is truly wierd!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (17:00)", "body": "A Salt mine in Britain had the earliest versions of carving discovered in the UK (correct me if I am wrong, and of course you must since I want to be right as well as the rest of us do!) Anyway, the carving resembled the Willendorf Venus, a rather chubby fertility goddess. Salt mines in Canada still house the most rare and valuable documents from Britian, including the Magna Charta."}, {"response": 28, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (16:46)", "body": "Haven't heard of that one ....."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (01:12)", "body": "MAGNA CARTA. Now that I have typed it correctly... I heard that a copy (there were a few) is in the Canadian Salt mine on The Discovery channel or The Leaning Channel or one of those... History Channel, perhaps?! For those not knowing what it is and needing a modern translation, this is your place! http://www.bl.uk/diglib/magna-carta/magna-carta-text.html"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (01:47)", "body": "This will do nicely, as well http://www.bl.uk/diglib/magna-carta/magna-carta-text.html"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 19, 2001 (18:31)", "body": "This is also from Liam - too good for just kids. I have heard of the Caves of kentucky and would love to see them one day. http://www.kdu.com/caveecol.html also see: http://www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/index.html"}, {"response": 32, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 26, 2001 (21:55)", "body": "Marci, have you run across any descriptions of the caves of Afghanistan? How extensive are they and what part of the country are they in mostly?"}, {"response": 33, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Oct 27, 2001 (00:19)", "body": "http://www.pipeline.com/~caverbob/home.html . . . lists the worlds biggest caves. And Afghanistan isn't really on this list as this National Geographic piece reveals: Bill Marvel The Dallas Morning News October 16, 2001 The underground war in Afghanistan is about to begin. President Bush has announced the U.S. armed forces are \"mounting a sustained campaign to drive the terrorists out of their hidden caves and to bring them to justice.\" According to Aviation Week magazine, the U.S. Air Force has revealed it will be using powered AGM-130 bombs, which can be fired horizontally into the mouths of caves. But despite talk of vast underground labyrinths, Afghanistan has few real caves, according to the cave explorers and the few outsiders who have visited the region. \"Talk of caves is overdone,\" says a former CIA agent who spent three years on the ground in Afghanistan. \"Most of these are dugouts, man-made things,\" said Milt Bearden, who was \"running the agency's part of the war against the Soviet Union\" in the mid-1980s. Bearden has written The Black Tulip, a novel loosely based on his experiences in that war. \"During their ten-year war,\" he said, the mujahidin \"just burrowed into the side of the mountains in these narrow switchback valleys to put their ordinance out of harm's way.\" Limestone Found in Only Two Places Limestone, the rock in which most caves and caverns form, is found only in two very small areas of the country, according to \"The Underground Atlas,\" a survey published by British cavers in 1986: the high tablelands north and west of Kabul, and a lower, desert massif in the region northeast of Kandahar. Afghanistan is conspicuously absent from the list of the world's impressive caves, said Bob Gulden, a Washington, D.C., caver who maintains a list of longest and deepest caves on the Internet. Citing a French atlas of cave exploration, Gulden said expeditions to Afghanistan in the 1950s by a Swedish biologist and in the mid-1970s by French and Spanish teams turned up only three natural caves of any importance. The longest, the 1,120-foot (341-meter) Ab Bar Amada, is high in the mountains northwest of Kabul. But that area is not where Osama bin Laden frequents, Bearden said. \"He hangs out generally in the eastern and south-central mountains.\" Nevertheless, it will be very difficult to smoke him out of his underground lair, as the president has promised. The dugouts where al Qaeda is holed up are about 10 to 30 feet (3 to 9 meters) deep, Bearden said. \"You have to drop bombs down sheer walls and rock faces. Most were built to be safe from any air or missile attack. Finding Cavities Would be Difficult, Expert Says \"All you're doing is bouncing rubble around. If you hit a guy, you're lucky.\" Even finding the underground cavities presents a difficult technical challenge, said Mats Lagmanson, a geophysicist and president of Texas-based Advanced Geosciences Inc. All three techniques that geologists use require that the searchers and their equipment be on the ground near the cavity. Lagmanson's company has used electrical resistivity to find a previously unknown cavern, Sting Cave, north of Austin, Texas. In this method, he said, an electrical current is injected into the ground and its resistance measured at several points. He likens it to a CT scan. Researchers also measure the gravity at ground level, looking for tiny variations. A lessening of gravity may indicate a large underground void. The third method, ground-penetrating radar, has been used to locate underground archaeological sites. \"It's beautiful when it works,\" Lagmanson said. But it works best at shallow depths and certain kinds of soils block the signal. Those searching for bin Laden and his caves have their work cut out for them. \"Most people think it should be an easy task,\" Lagmanson said. \"But it's not that easy to find"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 27, 2001 (16:51)", "body": "I was not aware of the extent of the cave system beneath the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas. That they exist is not surprising - the Appalachians are full of them. Thanks for suggesting this topic. I'll so hunt up more information and perhaps an image or two."}, {"response": 35, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (18:15)", "body": "I am getting bored doing nothing, so I think its time to share my spelunking experiences. I love adventure so there is nothing more exciting than exploring a lava tube or a cave. But before I share my fun experiences, I am going to share one that was not so fun. This one will teach others exploring other subterrainen features what you should NOT do when you go exploring."}, {"response": 36, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (18:19)", "body": "For our high school senior trip, my classmates and I went on a backpacking trip to Supai, Arizona. It was a beautiful hike down the canyon. Supai is most known for its awesome waterfalls, like Havasui Falls, Mooney Falls, and Navajo Falls. While most of us were jumping off the falls and sun tanning in the hot Arizona sun, my friend and I decided to go off and explore a little on our own. There were dozens of caves along the canyon walls. Most of them didn't go in very far, but some of them went in for miles, so we were told. Anyway, I grabbed my headlight and an extra flashlight and we headed to the caves. We explored many of them and to our disappointment they were no more then a few hundred yards. Finally after we climbed a little bit higher up the canyon wall, we saw this small cave that we had to crawl to get into. My friend was very reluctant to go in, but with my adventurous and optimistic personality she soon followed. The cave widened, as we got deeper inside. My headlight shinned on thou ands of beautiful crystals that sparkled. Quartz or Barite was my guess. As we walked in deeper, the sunlight disappeared. We walked deeper and deeper until we started walking through a different passage that connected with it and then a few moments later another. I couldn't believe how long this cave was. My friend\ufffds complaints and worries disappeared as my light shinned again on the beautiful crystals. She walked over and scraped a few off the rocks. Suddenly without warning my headlight started to dim. My friend began to panic, but I reassured her that I probably just accidentally hit the dim switch. I tried to turn it back up, but it didn't work. No, big deal I said to her. I asked her to give me the other flashlight. She reached into her pocket to find nothing. We realized that she must have dropped it back near the entrance somewhere while we were crawling on the cave floor. Now I knew we were in trouble. Ok, I told her, lets start heading back. But before we had even walked 5 feet my l ght flickered once and then went completely out. I heard my friend scream and yell my name. I felt my heart in my throat. I reached up to try to turn the light back on, but it just wouldn't work. I tried not to panic, but it was very hard to stay calm when I knew we were far away from the entrance and it was pitch black. I stumbled in the darkness grabbing anything I could grab. I called her name out, but when she answered back, she sounded far away. I didn\ufffdt know if either one of us was going the right way. I held my hands out in front of me to keep from going into things, but it did little use. I called my friends name again and heard nothing. All I could hear was my heartbeat in my throat beating a mile per minute and my feet scraping through the rocks on the cave floor! Thoughts began flashing through my head. What if she went the wrong way? What if I went the wrong way? What if one of us fell and got knocked unconscious or something? I tried to stop thinking so negatively, but it was he rd to focus. Suddenly I banged my forehead hard into a rock. I reached my hand up to feel something wet on my hands. It was blood. I stumbled around for it seemed like hours, just scraping, scratching, and cutting my body up as I walked and crawled through the darkness of the cave. Finally I saw a dim light as I walked around a corner and there was the sun shinning through the entrance of the cave. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I crawled through the entrance to see my friend waiting outside on a rock with just as many scrapes, cuts, and bruises as me, and a very pissed look on her face. From then on, I now always go caving with extra flashlights, extra batteries, extra light bulbs, and extra band-aids. We were very lucky that we didn\ufffdt get seriously injured or had taken a wrong turn into another passage and could have gotten even more lost. Well, that\ufffds my story. So next time you go caving, make sure you have all your equipment with you and some extras, because you never no wh t might happen."}, {"response": 37, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (18:45)", "body": "Ice caves in my opinon are one of the most beautiful and unusual types of subterrainean features. I haven't been in many because they are hard to come by in the west. A small one, but not very impressive is in Lava Beds National Monument. You can only go in half way though because the rest is gated off for safety reasons. The best one I have seen so far I just visited last month in Mt. Adams Recreational Area. It was a true ice cave. What I mean by that is that its frozen all year round, has that beautiful blue cast to it like you see in pictures, and has both stalagmites and stalactites. Stalagmites are the ones that form on the cave floor that form by dripping water and stalactites are the ones that hang from the ceiling that drip water. The cave was quite unusual because of the ammount of stalagmites and stalctites it had. The entrance of the cave was in the center, but there were 3 differnt ways you could go. The one that goes in the deepest is directly in front of you when you enter the cave. Thi one extends into a smaller passageway that you have to crawl through in your stomach. I went thru half way, but Sean made me come out because he didn't want me to go in any further and he was relluctent to lay on his stomach and crawl. There is nothing more fascinating than hearing the water drip from the stalactites onto the cave floor. What was also neat is that there were pools of water that had formed from the drips. Some of them were 3 feet deep. Do not enter this cave without crampons and an ice axe. The entrance is steep and to walk to some area you may need to cross the pools so its best to keep your ice axe in front of you so you know which ones are frozen and which are not. Trust me, its not fun to fall into a semi-frozen ice pool, I have done it! And don't forget to wear warm clothes. Its quite cold in there. There are some others in the Cascades, especially at higher elevations. But don't be fooled, some of them are dangerous traps, like the one that killed the two climbers at the summit of Mt. Rainer last month. The icea caves on mountains or volcanoes themselves can collapse very easily so it is wise to check with the ranger before you decided to go in the ice caves that are at higher elevations."}, {"response": 38, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (18:57)", "body": "Lava Tubes are also quite interesting. The longest one in the continental U.S is called Ape Cave located near Lava Canyon in Mt. St. Helens National Mounment. Ape Cave is 12,810 feet long. The cave is divided into two sections, the lower cave and the upper cave. The lower cave goes downhill about 4000 feet and ends in a sand fill. This one is the one that most people go thru. If you are more adventurous like me and don't mind climbing and crawling than the upper cave is for you. The upper cave goes about 7000 feet uphill over rock collapses. Ape Cave formed about 1,900 years ago when a lava flow came down from the south side of Mt. St. Helens. The Meatball is a very intersting feature in Ape Cave. This feature is in the lower cave and is a round ball of lava that got wedged above the cave floor while lava was still flowing through the cave. No one has actually gotten to the end of the cave yet. You can crawl if you fit and try to dig out some more."}, {"response": 39, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (19:03)", "body": "There is lots of lava tubes of different sizes in Lava Beds National Monument. And there is several more in the Cascades too. Another well known one is called Lava River Cave located in the Oregon Cascades. This one is quite wider than most lava tubes. Most lava tubes around the Cascades are quite cold. Ape Cave has a cool temperture year round of 42. F. So when visiting lava tubes in these areas make sure you bring warm clothes, a lantern, flashlights, extra batteries, and a hard hat just in case. You definatly need a hard hat if you are going thru tight spaces in the lava tubes. Lava Beds National Monument sells hard hats cheaply for their lava tubes."}, {"response": 40, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (19:14)", "body": "Then there are your limestone calcium carbonate caves. These are quite unique. Some are dry and some are wet. One of the largest limestone cave in the west is Grand Canyon Caverns which is a dry cave. Grand Canyon Caverns, located just past Kingman Arizona, has a very fascinating history. When the cave was first found the only remains were of a mummified bobcat that had probably fallen through the cave ceiling. Grand Canyon Caverns is very large. In fact, there is some speculation that it may connect to one of the cave systems in the Midwest, but to find that out it would take millions maybe billion of dallars to blast thru more of the cave. Grand Canyon Caverns was formed about the same time as the Grand Canyon. During the Cold War, Grand Canyon Caverns was going to be used as a bomb shelter. Even today you will see the boxes of food, first aid, and huge barrowls of water sitting on the cave floor in a small clutter. The people that moniter the cave still are trying to figure out what to do with he stuff. The crystals in the cave are very ususual looking, but never try to touch them. You can see very easily all over the cave what the oils on our skin do to the fragile ecosystem in the cave. The crystals become brown and icky because of it."}, {"response": 41, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (21:10)", "body": "you've really enjoyed quite a few adventures julie!! you must have had an innate sense of direction getting out of that cave!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (04:03)", "body": "Hi Wolfie! Oh\ufffd You had a very strong experience inside that cave Joulie. Do not forget that you need also a communication way with your friends outside the cave. I suggest you also the Ariadne's ball of thread. Have you heard this ancient story? It is a secure indicator to the direction outside the cave. I wonder why you must suffer in order to learn. Have you realise that you were so near to death? John"}, {"response": 43, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (15:26)", "body": "Yeah, I did realize that we could have died in there. Fortunatly, before we began exploring the caves, we told our advisors where we were going to be so if we had not come back then they would have come looking for us. Your right about the ball of thread. I have heard of that story and it would have been a good idea to use something like that to be sure where the cave entrance was. I certainly have learned from that horrifying experince. I don't think I was as mature in high school and I always had the fearless attitude which eventually got me into trouble. Its better to be safe than sorry. We did go in some more caves after the accident, but this time we brought two advisors with us which is what we should have done in the first place. Now when I go cave exploring, I take more than the required safety equipment. Besides flashlights, headlights, lanterns, extra batteries, and extra lightbulbs, I also carry 2 way radios, a first aid kit, food, water, extra clothing, and rope."}, {"response": 44, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (17:46)", "body": "you're one smart girl!! i think i'd be rather claustrophopic in a cave, though i have gone to some larger caves. i'd love to go inside a pyramid too but i don't know how i'd react."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (19:01)", "body": "I was thinking of Ariadne as Julie was telling her most adventurous stories. I am far too claustrobic to do that much exploring underground. However, I AM currently near Mammoth Cave, KY. I have been inside two of the caves in the US that are not lava tubes. I have been in them, also in Hawaii. Here they are karst formations. Way too confining for my senses I think. Julie, please do as John suggests and keep close contact with someone on the surface. A small GPS might also be useful!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (03:23)", "body": "I made the following thoughts! You need also an emergency medicine box. I am thinking also an electronic emergency transmitter that assists the outside helps find you. (I don\ufffdt know if it is existing in the market). I am thinking also a small real candle that can inform you if you have enough oxygen for breathing. But I am not expert on cave explorations. I want to give some safety instructions for those of you are interested on cave explorations. Perhaps you can find more complete information. I found the following: CAVE EXPLORATION IS A DANGEROUS ACTIVITY WHICH POTENTIALLY COULD CAUSE SERIOUS INJURY, PERMANENT DISABILITY, OR DEATH. Accidents, whether minor or serious, do not result in favorable consequences for yourself, your club, or the sport of caving. Safety and accident prevention must be practiced by each individual member at all times. Most accidents are avoidable if the hazard is noticed and/or corrected in time. It is not possible to list every hazard or wrong condition you may find when caving, or every unsafe practice you should try to avoid; however, the following precautions may be helpful to you in doing your part. Get An Idea Of What It's Like To Go Caving. Familiarize yourself with types of equipment available and when you would be wise to wear or carry each type. The use of a hard hat at all times is recommended. Most cavers find that boots are the best footgear to use, with the particular type varying with the individual. Experienced cavers are divided on the kind of clothing which is best. Some use coveralls and others prefer Levi's with sweat shirts and/or fatigue jackets. Many experienced caver prefer polypropelene and nylon caving suits. Bear in mind, when choosing the type of clothing you wear, that it is cold and damp in a cave. Also, arms and legs should be covered to protect them from cuts and scrapes. There are a number of books available which cover the subject of caving clothing and equipment, and you might find them useful. Never Go Caving Alone. It is safest to go in groups of four or more. Then, if a person is injured, at least one person may stay with the injured party and give first aid and encouragement while the others return to the surface for help. Always Tell Someone Where You Are Going And When You Plan To Return. In the event that you are lost or trapped, help will then be sent to you when you fail to appear within a reasonable length of time. Obtain Permission Before Entering A Cave. Many caves are on private land. Get permission from the owner before going caving. The \"wrong end\" of a shotgun is a rather uncomfortable place to find yourself! Be Prepared For Common Emergencies. Carry at least a rudimentary first aid kit, and learn the basics of first aid. Check Your Equipment Before Each Expected Use. Is your pack complete? Is your carbide light (or other primary light source) in top working condition? Are you carrying enough water and carbide, or spare parts and batteries if you are an electric caver? Is your spare parts kit included? Do you have your alternate light sources? Do you have your emergency food rations? Have you a first aid kit? If vertical work is contemplated, always check your rope and other equipment prior to use for the adequacy of their condition. If in doubt about a piece of rope, or other equipment, don't use it. Always Carry Three Sources of Light. You should carry replacements and/or spare parts for each light source. Carbide cavers need carbide, water, cleaning equipment, and spare parts. Electric cavers need batteries and bulbs. Your alternate sources could include a flashlight, with appropriate supplies, candles and matches waterproofed or in a waterproof container, etc. Never Go Beyond Your Experience. If you've never climbed cliffs, used ropes, climbed to great heights on a cable ladder, etc., a cave isn't the best place to learn. Try yourself out on the safer ground outside first. Always try to curb the tendency to engage in horseplay or to grandstand. Caves are not the place for this activity. Know Your Physical Limitations. Try to learn the limits of your abilities, and follow these self imposed limits. Don't cave to exhaustion, and THEN head for the entrance. Your fatigue could cause serious difficulties before you get there. Learn whether or not you are a good judge of distance, and whether you have a good sense of direction . Find out if constant dampness and/or a cool atmosphere rapidly sap your strength, and act accordingly. If you happen to be the first in your party to tire, don't be ashamed to say so we've all been in that position. Watch Where You Step. When underground, or when on your way to a cave, always keep alert and be sure of where you are stepping. Your principal danger outside is snakes; inside it is probably loose rock and holes. Don't Over Extend Your Reach Or Jump From Heights. Think before you stretch for a handhold or object which is slightly out of reach. A serious fall could result; and a strain or sprain w"}, {"response": 47, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (11:42)", "body": "good safety tips john!"}, {"response": 48, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (11:42)", "body": "would a gps work inside a cave?"}, {"response": 49, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (13:45)", "body": "Thats a good question Wolfie. I know when we were in thick forests the GPS wouldn't work because there was too many trees in the way to track all the satalites. Yeah John, those are very good safety tips. But there's one thing that was not mentioned that I consider one of the most dangerous things of all about caving. A few weeks ago there was a terrible tragedy in Silverado Canyon, CA. Two boys walked into an abandoned mine, waded through brown murky water to a huge sandbar. They climbed over the sandbar and swam thru water over their heads and drowned because they suffocated from lack of oxygen. The oxygen over the sandbar was only 4%. Even though this was in a mine, the same thing can happen in a cave too. I know Mexico, Brazil, and other places have cave diving. Cave diving is a very dangerous sport because you can easily drown from lack of oxygen. There has been many deaths because of this. So to make things safe, NEVER wade or swim through murky water or any water for that matter unless you a e a certified cave diver and even then that is still risky. Sadly, you may not feel the signs of lack of oxygen until it is too late, just like it was for those two boys. If you start to feel lightheaded, dizzy, or numb get out as quick as possible. These are some of the signs of lack of oxygen. I know, I have felt all of them and not from going in a cave. But if you follow all the rules inlcuding all the great ones you mentioned above, caving can be a very fun and enjoyable experience."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (14:34)", "body": "Great reasons, all, for staying topside of a mine or cave. It seems that mines aer magnets for adventurous kids. How tragic this one was. I had not heard of it. I am distressed watching caving documentaires. Especially when they have to dive underwater to get to an unknown next chamber and do not have air tanks with them! Not my sort of adventure, even slightly! But, I do enjoy other people's adventures and photos brought back to surface... sort of...!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (17:30)", "body": "i heard about the abandoned mine too."}, {"response": 52, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (06:27)", "body": "Normally, GPS cannot work inside a cave. So, better, simple and secure is the Ariadne's ball of thread. John"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (10:26)", "body": "Ariadne's ball of string and perhaps a hand held communication system much like a \"walkie talkie\" used by the miliraty and available widely in just about every electronics store in the US. They have very limited range so that must be taken into consideration. The rule of caving should be never go inside alone and always keep a person topside for safety in case you get into trouble!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jul 11, 2002 (04:25)", "body": "Usual Walkie-Talkies are not suggested too. They are working well in the open area but not through rocks. The secret is on the frequency that they use. You can use Walkie-Talkies 27Mc/s for short distances but inside the cave the result is expected not well. Higher frequencies are not penetrating the rocks surely. Mike, can help better on it. John"}, {"response": 55, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 11, 2002 (12:37)", "body": "so what do professional cave explorers use?"}, {"response": 56, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 11, 2002 (13:58)", "body": "Harlan Bretz had a dog and a flashlight."}, {"response": 57, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jul 11, 2002 (22:57)", "body": "LACONIA, GREECE Dyros Caves in Laconia, Greece, overlooking the Messenian Gulf (ill. 2), were known already at the end of the 19th century, but their scientific exploration began almost half a century later. In 1949, Ioannis and Anna Petrochilos explored 5,000 square meters of the large cavern they named Glyfada (or Vlyhada), covering 33,400 square meters. In 1958 they explored the second large cave, called Alepotripa. The explorations revealed prehistoric graffitti, skeletons, weapons, and fragments of pottery. The Dyros cave complex, still not completely charted, is among the largest and most spectacular in Europe, featuring incredible formations of stalactites and stalagmites, an underground stream and lakes, narrow passages and enormous halls (ill. 1, 3-9). Today, a flat-bottom boat tour around Glyfada takes about thirty minutes. Scholars believe that at the end of the neolitic period a cataclysmic earthquake caused the sea to flood the caves, kill all their inhabitants, and hide the entrance for 45 centuries. http://www.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Greek/dyros.html John"}, {"response": 58, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (00:43)", "body": "Those are fantastic pictures John!"}, {"response": 59, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (03:01)", "body": "I visited this cave in 1975. It was fantastic experience Julie. I travelled 2500 meters inside by a boat. Boatman was tour guide simultaneously. Whole cave floor is an underground river. The roof and the walls are all a continue stalagmite. There are also small islands of stalactites. Variety of colours is amazing. Whole cave is illuminated suitably from inside the water. John"}, {"response": 60, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (03:18)", "body": "That is truly amazing! Nothing I have ever been in looks as beautiful as that."}, {"response": 61, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (03:51)", "body": "Water of the river (inside that cave) is very clear and cold. It is strange that whole cave is about in the sea level. Upwards of the cave is a whole mountain. John"}, {"response": 62, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (11:05)", "body": "lovely pictures, john!! i'll need to dig out my pics (if i took any) of the cave we visited in texas."}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (19:30)", "body": "Oh John!!! This is magnificent.(I am quickly running out of words to extoll your virtues as a poster!) My singlular cave experience was in Luray Caves in Viriginia similar but I think smaller than your cave- and we had to walk.I am near Mammoth cavesbut I think I will not venture in. For some reason, I have become a bit claustrophobic, and as a result, caves no longer hold much fascination for me.I do appreciate your pictures,though. It must have been so beautiful..."}, {"response": 64, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (03:15)", "body": "Lava Beds National Monument has over 400 lava tubes and more are discovered every year. 18 of them are accessable. Mushpot Cave is located right in the parking lot of Lava Beds Visitor Center. Indian Well Cave forms unusual ice formations in the winter and also has a pool of water covering the cave floor, Labyrinth and Lava Brooks Cave are connected by a small narrow segment that can be crawled through. Some of the features in this cave are frothy pahoehoe, lava pillars, lava benches, and lavacicles. Thuderbolt Cave is partically collpased. Golden Dome Cave has some unusual yellow bactaria deposits covering most of the cave which gives it its name. Hopkins Chocolate Cave was named for its dark brown coloring that resembles chocolate. Blue Gratto Cave leads up to its name for its unique pale blue powder on the cave ceiling. Catacombs Cave is the longest cave in the Monument (6,903 feet). Ovis Cave when first discovered contained 36 bighorn sheep skulls. Sunshine Cave has two collapses which allow sunlight to get in forming hanging gardens and lava cascades. Hercules Leg and Juniper Cave have very interesting lava formations. Sentinel Cave is a lava tube within a lava tube. Valentine Cave has unusual ceiling formations, cascades, falls, and pools. Skull Cave when first discovered contained 2 human skulls, bones of antelope, mountain goats, and bighorn sheep. Skull cave is two lava tubes on top of each other. The lower level has an ice floor all year round. Merrill Cave also has an ice floor all year round. Balcony and Boulevard Cave contains natural bridges and a very smooth cave floor. Big Painted Cave connects to Symbol Bridge, which is where petroglyphs are seen on the cave walls. Heppe Ice Cave is very unique as well. Lichens and minerals combine to make very colorful patterns on the cave walls and also has an ice floor year round."}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (21:21)", "body": "Son and Daughter in law took pictures of some of the lava tubes at LAVA BEDS"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (21:23)", "body": "I'll try to get some of them. They seem VERY like the ones in Hawaii. Are all lava tubes the same? Julie, come to Hawaii and tell me!"}, {"response": 67, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (03:35)", "body": "Wow! Marcia, I forgot about those lava tube photos you asked me to scan to you several months back. They have been waiting to post for ages so I think I will do that right now."}, {"response": 68, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (03:45)", "body": "Lava Tube in El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico Valentine Cave in Lava Beds National Monument, California Lava River Cave, Newberry National Volcanic Monument, Oregon Ape Cave, south side of Mt. St. Helens, Washginton"}, {"response": 69, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (04:01)", "body": "Hi all WOW!! These are impressive!! I will have to go back to MSH to do that, as well as see what is new in the devastation zone. THIS IS COOL!!!! Rob"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (15:25)", "body": "Yours are oblate!!! The ones in Hawaii are round. Is this another example of yours being from a non-pahoehoe flow and ours are (pahoehoe is marked by perfectly round vesicles and a'a with flattened or misshaped vesicles.) Great pictures, Julie. Send me the others you wanted to and I will get them ready for you to post before I leave for TN this afternoon!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (19:20)", "body": "had no idea lava tubes were soooooo big!!"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 15, 2002 (13:47)", "body": "They can be HUGE. Still, not my favorite place to use for fall-out shelters!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (02:04)", "body": "Hi all They are excellent pictures of impressive lava tubes! Thank you for posting them Julie. I did not know that the lava tubes were so big. I wonder for how much secure we are is inside them. -Is possible a new eruption inside this tube during the visit? -What will happen during a mid-magnitude EQ? -Is possible the existence or a suddenly release poison gases inside there? -What is the level of radioactivity? And a practice question: -What information can collect a volcanologist inside there? John"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (22:44)", "body": "In answer to your excellent thoughtful questions, I submit the following. I have been assured that the lava tube in which I am supposed to survive a nuclear explosion is both plugged and not possible to be used by Kilauea for future eruptions. I still wonder if one was close enough that it might crack the entire plumbing system on Kilauea and none of the assurances would matter. Volcanogists can ascertain movement by hand held seimometers. Radon and other radioactive gases can be monitored with insturments such as you monitor your house with in Greece *;) One can feel the heat building up in the volcano's ducting system just by being there but far more sensitive electronic devices can do much better than that. Mini tilt-meters can detect summit swelling. By that time if all are sensing positive results, it is best to get out of the lava tube."}, {"response": 75, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 17, 2002 (09:06)", "body": "Some nice pix of California Caverns by jleft@well.com Jim Leftwich http://www.anigami.com/jimwich/jimwich_archives/jwpicts_7_8_9_2002/GCU.html"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 18, 2002 (20:57)", "body": "I have just been handed two books - one on Indiana caves and one on the caves of Kentucky. The latter contains a National Park- Mammoth Cave. Since I have gotten us a passport to the US National Park system, we may have to visit so I can get mine stamped."}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 18, 2002 (21:00)", "body": "That is really a great site, Terry. I do find thumbnails very pleasing and quick to download. Thanks for calling it to our attention."}, {"response": 78, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 19, 2002 (09:31)", "body": "I wish I still had a copy of Harlan Bretz 'Cave of Missouri'; it's a classic. Maybe it's still available on amazon's used books."}, {"response": 79, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 19, 2002 (09:38)", "body": "Bretz, Harlan J.: Caves of Missouri Price: $100.00 (Whoa!) Description: 4to -over 9\ufffd\" - 12\" tall Quoting from title page: \" Vol. XXXIX, Second Series\". A beautiful book, bound in dark green cloth with gilt spine titles. Book shows very little w... read more Merchant: The Old Book Shop (22) Details: 4to - over 9\ufffd\" - 12\" tall Quoting from title page: \" Vol. XXXIX, Second Series\". A beautiful book, bound in dark green cloth with gilt spine titles. Book shows very little wear, inside or out. Publisher: State of Missouri Place of Publication: Jefferson City Mo Date of Publication: 1956 Binding: Hard Cover Condition: Near Fine Keywords: Missouri, CAVES, GEOLOGY"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (10:23)", "body": "Whoa! Indeed. I will have to wonder about them in that case. Any place with mountains surely has caves. Niter mining was done to make gunpowder from cave soil. It was laborious and time consuming, but if you want to fight a war you need nitrates. Potassium Nitrate, specifically. I know this because I have an exhaustive bibliography published by Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology and authored by Donald B. Ball and Gary A. O'Dell. The introduction to the bibliography is an excellent history of niter mining. Mammoth Cave in Kentucky was used during the Civil War as were many other caves and rock shelter sources. Curious how nitrates form in soil of caves and under barns and old houses. It even renews itself. But, this being said, this is a worst case scenario way to get your nitrates."}, {"response": 81, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul  3, 2005 (20:39)", "body": "as i was talking about in the natural gemstones topic, we went to the Natural Bridge Caverns this afternoon. didn't take a camera but had fun anyway. absolutely amazing what the earth can do. beautiful formations and i sure wanted to get off the path and explore. probably would've been a lot more fun for the eldest pup. we can learn so much more by touching but imagine millions of hands on those formations!! only went into the North cave because the other one was sold out (and we weren't hanging out all afternoon for that tour). maybe we'll go back for it tomorrow. the last time i came through this tour was 20 years ago! go caving with your family, it's awesome!!"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (18:51)", "body": "Where is Natural Bridge Caverns?"}, {"response": 83, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (22:13)", "body": "a bit north of san antonio.....they have a drive-thru wildlife ranch too..."}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (23:05)", "body": "Great bison? Elk? Native stuff? I'd be glad for a really secure car in that case. Take advantage of what is there. It sounds fabulous."}, {"response": 85, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  2, 2005 (21:51)", "body": "lots of african grazers--elands, zebra, gazelle, rams, water buffalo (ok, maybe he was from australia), bison (who was nibbling right out of my hand), ostrich and emu...the day we went was pretty warm but we had all the windows down with our hands hanging out the windows!"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (14:34)", "body": "Fall rut is in full swing. If you go there and drop something, be careful of how you bend over to pick it up ! Seriously. I have seen signs to that effect."}, {"response": 87, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (21:43)", "body": "we went in august and boy was it hot!"}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (23:43)", "body": "Natural tunnel in Virginia is the only natural tunnel used as a train tunnel in the entire world. Picture (tiny but you can see http://www.virginia.org/site/features.asp?FeatureID=235 There are much better pictures from when Victorian adventurers went hiking in there. It looks like a huge bullet hole in a cliff face."}, {"response": 89, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (22:19)", "body": "i like caves but not squeezing through tight passages and stuff--that would be too freaky! unless, i guess, i had a buddy (which anyone going through a cave better have) who kept a cool head and a very very good flashlight (i mean, a big honkin' flashlight, not one of those penlights or anything)."}, {"response": 90, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (00:47)", "body": "Name some Ky caves."}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (16:04)", "body": "MAMMOTH CAVE is a National Park. In that area (most of the state is karst topography and full of caves known and yet unknown) there are several open to the public. Diamond Cave. Big Bone Cave (paleontological specimens found there) Niter cave. There is even a cave county in eastern KY."}, {"response": 92, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (23:56)", "body": "have you been to many yet?"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (02:11)", "body": "I'm working on it. DB has a major book on Niter manufacturing in the offing so I would like to see Mammoth Caves where niter was being produced during the War of 1812 and there are artifacts from the manufacturing operations still there. Great Saltpeter Cave in eastern KY is another."}, {"response": 94, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2006 (15:55)", "body": "http://www.backcountrymaps.com/ is a real good mapping service for that back country trip. Trip reports. Featured maps. Sample report: 06/26/06 - Huge google imagery update. Indian Peaks, RMNP, Teton Pass and much more! Awesome for scouting and research. Thanks Google 05/18/06 - USGS and gisdata.usgs still down! System Administration 101 anyone? 05/15/06 - More USGS downtime! \"Downtime: Posted: 5-11-06 The problems that the Seamless Server has been experiencing due to security patches issued by Microsoft two weeks ago have greatly affected our service. We have been working to correct that problem and are now testing the \"patch to the patch\" that Microsoft has issued to resolve the problems introduced in the last patch set. They seem to be working well, and Seamless is running with limited capacity. If our plans go well, Seamless will be back to normal next week.\" Wow, awesome service from another stellar government agency and sole provider of this data. Go figure. 05/09/06 - Dreamhost issues resolved again. It looks like changes were made to the Rails configuration without any notification or thought. 05/04/06 - USGS WMS data issues fixed. New layers added. Sorry for the slow updates, I've been snowboarding and doing the backcountry thing lately. 04/28/06 - Terraserver-usa.com is having issues. Topo and Aerial layers are effected. No ETA on recovery. 04/22/06 - USGS Server Downtime. \"The system is currently experiencing an interruption of service. All Seamless servers and services will be unavailable until further notice. Unknown ETA on recovery.\" 04/22/06 - Although we can't guarantee 100% uptime from the various WMS data overlays, most come via government sanctioned projects and at the most experience slowness from time to time. For best results allow map time to load fully, we recommend turning your browsers status bar on and looking for the \"Done\" or \"Completed\" status. 04/20/06 - My Maps clean up, new features. Added 2 new Featured Maps with new data overlays. US Fire Detections & Danger Forecast & US Seismic & Volcanic Hazards. This information via NRL GIDB. 04/18/06 - My Maps users can now create markers and waypoints by clicking anywhere on the map. Created function to display My Maps on other web sites. You can now reference your My Map via an iframe and even set up custom map sizes. More to come.. 04/17/06 - USGS Server Downtime. \"..currently unavailable due to maintenance. We expect the system to be operational by 4:00 PM CST.\" 04/15/06 - New real time weather overlay, \"Wx Ext\" button at the top of the map. Wind direction, speed, nexrad, temps and other information via GIDB Portal and AccuWeather WMS. We reported an issue with the WMS server and overlay transparency -- Thanks to Lev and the DMAP team this is now fixed! 04/15/06 - My Maps module completed. Allows registered users to add up to 10 custom My Maps, each map can be public or private. Group collabration and trip planning soon. Contact Us if you are interested in becoming a beta test user. You get the idea!"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2007 (19:01)", "body": "I have reached the exalted state of carrying my own Palm pilot and a GPS attached with software by Magellan. The maps are great and I am still learning the finer points of using it. Mapping available on the internet has come a long way since it first appeared. Great website, Terry. We can never have too many maps. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 2, "subject": "Vulcanism", "response_count": 346, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (18:19)", "body": "The Island of Hawaii has an ongoing eruption from Kilauea Volcano's southeast rift. It began in 1983 and has been active almost continuously since then. It has covered two subdivisions, a church founded by Father Damien, a Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Visitor Center plus a nearby campground.It completely destroyed a landmark black sand beach at Kalapana. At the same time, it has been creating new land mass (highly unstable), more black sand beaches and topographic features such as cinder cones and spa ter cones. It is visible from the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Park Rangers are on duty."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (23:18)", "body": "This link will take you directly to Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory for the latest eruption updates, maps and links to other volcanic sites. http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (23:30)", "body": "The other definitive source of information on Hawaii's volcanoes with many links http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/HCV/eruption.html This is daybreak over Pu'u 'O'o"}, {"response": 4, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (00:24)", "body": "now that is a sunrise I could get up for every day!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (00:30)", "body": "*smile* It is less than thirty miles from where I am sitting."}, {"response": 6, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (05:52)", "body": ""}, {"response": 7, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (05:53)", "body": ""}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (17:26)", "body": "wow, it's beautiful though!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (18:17)", "body": "When you are there all night and you see the dawn breaking over an active vent it is like seeing the Earth on the very first day of creation. It is an awesome feeling. No one speaks. Very moving and spiritual."}, {"response": 10, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (21:50)", "body": ""}, {"response": 11, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (21:54)", "body": "I can understand your experience Marcia must be intensely spiritual. The earth is certainly a wonderful place - a pity those who could help the most rarely do - that is to preserve it."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (22:19)", "body": "Thanks for your persistance, Anne. It is a delight to see you posting here. Perhaps you will help me with the Gaia topic and give us some insight from UK and OZ perspective. (I can use all the help I can get. I don't want to be all alone here necessarily. All are welcome!)"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (01:25)", "body": "From a former Hilo resident who is trying to clear his username and password to join us comes this comment on my eruption picture above: Marcia: Great work on your page! Beautiful shot of the vent, but I think I can top sunrise or sunset. If you want to feel connected properly to the universe, try going about a mile offshore of old Kalapana in a boat on a clear night. That far out, one can get the complete sweep of the Milky Way above you. Then, when you look at Pu'u 'O, you can see the glow of the lava as it leaves the caldera, as well as the gas jets of blue and orange shooting skyward. Once you see it as a tapestry all around yo , it will stay in your heart forever."}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (09:00)", "body": "is david a poet too? my goodness! it sounds breathtaking...."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (13:54)", "body": "No - except for funny things we make up together. I want to get out in that boat and watch from there. Trying to think who owns one that does not smell of fish. Old fish...!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (14:00)", "body": "for that view, honey, i'll go instead (smelly fish or not) *smile*"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (14:06)", "body": "Corundum. Beryls are softer and include Emerald and Aquamarine"}, {"response": 18, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (14:24)", "body": "oops...misread...thought you said conundrum..."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (14:59)", "body": "The ever-vigilant and extraordinarily well-read wer misread?! *grin*"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (15:00)", "body": "...but that was Topic 8...!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (15:02)", "body": "...sigh...Proving I am even more mortal that I thought I was...sorry!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:13)", "body": "No conundrum, I prefer wearing my corundum (sapphires, rubies, et al). Second hardest on the Mohs scale, after a girl's best friend. I know what's important on Planet Earth...you'll find me in precious to semi-precious. ;-D"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (23:16)", "body": "...but Moh's scale will be down a few topics. You are right about your hardness scale."}, {"response": 24, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (23:38)", "body": "isn't that what the ladies of Drool are known for? Hi, Karen!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (23:56)", "body": "Karen, William has been lurking at Drool, I think! He is on to us! *lol*"}, {"response": 26, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (09:39)", "body": "(Marcia) You are right about your hardness scale. Always. (wer) isn't that what the ladies of Drool are known for? Absolutely!! ;-D Not to mention the family jewels. Oh, but I'm bringing your topic down to our level. Nevermind. ;-o Hiya wer."}, {"response": 27, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (15:05)", "body": "Just as long as everyone is having fun, I say!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (15:23)", "body": "(And I was trying to keep this conference on a higher moral plane...) Karen, I was just remembering the 2 page bit you did on which side for both Darcy and for Bingley - and whether or not they were...um....*that* way! Oh, indeed, we have fun!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (17:38)", "body": "...oohhh, yeah, am waiting for the *eruption* (now I'm on topic again for vulcanism) ;-D"}, {"response": 30, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (17:52)", "body": "*bravo*"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (18:31)", "body": "*lol* Whenever I start taking myself too seriously, one or the other of you posts something like the above exchange and I dissolve into helpless laughter. How delightful....*eruption* coming August 1st BTW when my son was working at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park at the main desk where tourists ask more incredibly illogical questions than they do in the field, he was asked way too often what time the next eruption started. He finally made a big red button housed in an impressive electrical box with appropriate wires dangling from it. Affixed to it was a sign stating START ERUPTION. He would push it for them and head them out the door in the right direction. One weekend when he was off someone wi h no sense of humor threw it away. I wanted it!!!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (20:01)", "body": "how clever!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (20:06)", "body": "I thought so, but apparently the bureaucracy of the National Park Service mandates the abandonment of individualism and sense of humor. I was really ticked when I found out it was missing (perhaps they sent it to the Smithsonian...NOT!)"}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (20:11)", "body": "they're just jealous they didn't think of it first!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (20:24)", "body": "I suspect it is sitting on someone's book shelf as a conversation piece. I wish it were mine. I should have him make me another one. He sent me a canned earthquake...why should this be any more difficult?!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "livamago", "date": "Wed, Jul 21, 1999 (09:32)", "body": "(Karen)oohhh, yeah, am waiting for the *eruption* What is going on here??? L O L!! I never thought Darcy and volcanoes could be found in the same sentence!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 21, 1999 (13:02)", "body": "Goodness knows I have tried to keep lofty ideals in here. But, just mentioning the Scale of Hardness brought some other creative juices to the surface and we were off. Is it not amazing how that man fits in everywhere in our discussions?! *bigger than usual sigh*"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 23, 1999 (19:13)", "body": "This is the Island of Hawaii map showing Hilo and the various volcanoes. This is the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park web site which is full of information, maps and pictures concerning the various points of interest. http://www.nps.gov/havo/ This is the best and easiest to access information in general for our volcanoes http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/HCV/kilauea.html We have a second volcano which has been active twice since I moved to Hawaii. Mauna Loa is the single largest mountain mass in the world. More about it: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/mauna_loa/"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 23, 1999 (19:32)", "body": "For those with Adobe programs, this is the neatest map. You can zoom in for more detail and information. http://www.nps.gov/havo/pdf/map_summit.pdf Also for Adobe is http://www.nps.gov/havo/pdf/map_park.pdf http://www.nps.gov/havo/pdf/map_island.pdf"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 24, 1999 (13:15)", "body": "latest updates of various volcanoes: Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 14:00:17 +0001 Subject: Colima,Guagua Pichincha,Fuego Sender: VOLCANO ************************************************************* Colima, Mexico ************************************************************* Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 12:02:36 -0700 Apparent new explosive eruption from Mexico's Colima volcano at approximately 1615 GMT on 15 July 1999, with ash cloud to 19,000 feet (nearly 6km) above sea level. From: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/SSD/ML/vaacmsgs.html ------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 12:58:48 -0700 The 16 July 1999 Press Release shows the lowered level of seisimicity persisted at Colima, with an average of ~10 weak degassing events or explosions/day. However, at 1241 on 17 July a sudden but brief eruption threw glowing debris onto the flanks of the mountain while the ash plume rose to at least 12km above sea level, with ash falls to the WSW. Evacuations were ordered in local communities, although some residents refused to comply. Following the short termed strong eruption, seismicity returned to its low levels again. Loosely translated from: http://www.ucol.mx/volcan/jul16.html , http://www.ucol.mx/volcan/jul17.html Minor ash eruptions have continued on 18 July at Colima. From: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/SSD/ML/vaacmsgs.html -------------------------- Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 20:12:39 -0700 At 0830 on 19 July 1999, a collapse down the S flank of Colima produced a block and ash flow some 2km in length. This collapse left a scar down the track of the 1998-99 lava flows. Heavy rains a few hours later generated a hot lahar some 4km in length from the deposit of the 0830 block and ash flow. Loosely translated from: http://www.ucol.mx/volcan/jul19.html ************************************************************* Guagua Pichincha, Ecuador ************************************************************* The report for 14 July 1999 for Guagua Pichincha showed a single small explosion, followed by six hours of tremor of varying amplitude. Loosely translated from: http://www.cybw.net/volcan/ ************************************************************* Fuego, Guatemala ************************************************************* Renewed eruption at Guatamala's Fuego volcano on 19 July 199, marked by a hotspot on satellite imagery and small ash eruptions. From: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/SSD/ML/vaacmsgs.html"}, {"response": 41, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 24, 1999 (16:15)", "body": "I wonder why they didn't cast Mr. Firth as the lead in \"Joe and the Volcano\"..."}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 24, 1999 (16:24)", "body": "Mr Firth, heaven forbid, would never consider such a role. But in Femme Fatale he did say he had spent his honeymoon in the Islands where the volcano is erupting...that is THIS island!"}, {"response": 43, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (00:23)", "body": "I wonder why they didn't cast Mr. Firth as the lead in \"Joe and the Volcano\"... Is it keeping you up at night?"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (00:34)", "body": "Not I, my dear...but I have the feeling the question was not addressed to me."}, {"response": 45, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (03:51)", "body": "that is one of the things, yes...I wish I could get some sleep, though, as these typos I keep making are dragging me d-o-w-n..."}, {"response": 46, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (08:13)", "body": "This topic is a lot of fun, Marcia... Karen, you bring lofty planes to terrestrial perspective very cleverly... Why do you all think Mr. Darcy \"smolders\"? It *must* be a volcano inside."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (12:12)", "body": "Poor William...I did not know you were having sleep and typo problems. Might I be of any help? Darcy not only smoulders from the volcano inside...he has erupted with amazing frequency, also, if our FanFiction writers are to be believed..."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (23:27)", "body": "Renewed mild eruptions at New Zealand's White Island began no later than 21 July 1999 from a new vent some 60-100m SW of PeeJay vent, accompanied by weak volcanic tremor. -------------------------- From: http://www.gns.cri.nz/earthact/volcanoes/wizv9912.htm SCIENCE ALERT BULLETIN: WIZ V99/12 July 26 1999 (Monday) 1500 NZST (UT +12) WHITE ISLAND VOLCANO Update: Summary Minor eruptive activity has recommenced at White Island from a new vent to the south of the vents active earlier this year. Volcanic ash was erupted from this vent during the later part of last week and the weekend. Ash emissions decreased significantly on Sunday July 25. A small lake is still present within Metra Crater. Only weak volcanic tremor has been recorded during periods of known the ash emission. During an over flight on Saturday July 24 the steam and gas plume was observed extending over 40km downwind of the volcano. The alert level remains at Alert Level 1. Observations An overflight was made between 1340 and 1352h on July 24. A weakly ash charged steam and gas plume was rising to about 600m above the active vent, before being blown downwind for over 40km. The plume carried very minor volcanic ash. Viewing conditions within the Main Crater area were poor, although the local wind was from the SE at 12-15kts. Views obtained were sufficient to ascertain that neither PeeJay vent nor the new vent immediately east of it was the source of the volcanic ash cloud. The ash cloud appeared to originate from an area about 60-100m to the south west, towards the gully system that drains SE in to Metra Carter. This active vent was continuously emitting ash. There was no evidence of ash accumulating on the Main Crater floor or on the outer flanks of the cone, indicating no significant ash emission has occurred. There was also no evidence of impact craters. Tour operators visiting the island on Wednesday July 21, experienced minor ash emissions. While on Friday July 23 several aircraft operators observed a plume extending to 3000m above the island. Tour operators also report ash emission stop after 0830h on Sunday July 25. In summary, minor eruptive activity has recommenced at White Island. With the recommencement of activity the possibility of larger scale eruptions is again present. Hence all visitors to the island should exercise caution. Brad Scott Mgr Volcano Surveillance ----------------------------"}, {"response": 49, "author": "livamago", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (15:11)", "body": "Darcy not only smoulders from the volcano inside...he has erupted with amazing frequency, also, if our FanFiction writers are to be believed... Indeed! ;~D"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (22:03)", "body": "Colima, Mexico Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 09:56:00 -0500 (CDT) From: Juan Carlos Gavilanes Subject: Explosion at Colima volcano A strong explosion occurred yesterday (29 July 99) at 14:42 hrs (local time) at Colima volcano's crater. Mr. Jesus Mendez, who is the political authority of La Yerbabuena village (8 km from the crater, ~195 inhabitants, the nearest community) informed via radio that the explosion was clearly heard and seen from the village. He also estimated that the pyroclastic flows and rockfalls triggered by the explosion reached approximately the same distances of those produced by the 17 July 1999 explosion: a maximum runout of 5- 5.5 km along La Lumbre gully (volcano's west flank). On the Cordoban barrancas (SW flank) the distal reachness of the pyroclastic flows was estimated by him in ~3-3.5 km from the crater. Following yerterday's explosion, a relatively intense ashfall occurred on La Yerbabuena, causing irritations on eyes among some villagers and visitors, but fortunatelly few minutes after the ashfall, volunteers of Pro eccion Civil Colima (Cuauhtemoc County) arrived to the village to provide light surgery masks to the people, so the effects of the ashfall were substancially minimized. Before this explosion, policemen of Policia de Procuracion de Justicia de Colima who were at La Yerbabuena previously and during the explosion reported intense jet sounds at 12:40 and some rockfalls. A very light ashfall was noticed at the city of Colima (32 km to the South of the crater), which started at 17:05 hrs and stopped at ~ 20:00 hrs. More intense ashfall was registered at some towns located on the S and SE sectors of the volcano (Queseria, 7,700 inhabitants, 14.5 km from the crater; Montitlan, more that 50 inhabitants, 12.2 km from the crater). At 18:04 hrs a strong exhalation was ejected from the crater. The ash column, rose rapidly, and reached at least 5,500 m.a.s.l., which was clearly seen from the city of Colima. The observers of Proteccion Civil Jalisco posted at their observatory (4,000 m.a.s.l.) on the W upper slopes of Nevado de Colima (5.7 km to the north of Colima volcano's crater) reported that they did not hear any explosion sound accompanying this exhalation. It looks that this exhalation was responsible of most ashfall registered yesterday at the city of Colima. Juan Carlos Gavilanes Ruiz. Observatorio Vulcanologico de la Universidad de Colima. Coordinador del Grupo de Informacion a la Poblacion en Zonas de Alto y Medino Riesgo."}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  3, 1999 (23:48)", "body": "Volcano Updates Date: Mon, 02 Aug 1999 11:55:47 -0700 Subject: Taal News Increased geothermal activity at Taal volcano in the Philippines continues with prolonged geysering and volcanic earthquakes. This activity may be due to heavy rains interacting with subterranean heat. Full article at: Philippine Headline News http://www.newsflash.org (see Hometown & Community News) According to the news article at the above web site, the was a mud geysering event on August 1 at Taal that lasted 9 hours, accompanied by 3 volcanic earthquakes and some steam eruption. Phivolcs has maintained a Level 1 alert at Taal volcano, and has banned visits to the main crater area. Other information on Taal activity, as well as some recent explosions at Pinatubo, can be found at the Manila Bulletin website: http://www.mb.com.ph/main/9907/29jm01g.asp ___________________________________________________________________ Colima, Mexico ******************************************* Date: Mon, 02 Aug 1999 11:55:47 -0700 Subject: 30 July 1999 Colima Update The 30 July Press Release indicates that Colima continues to experience high seismic levels accompanied by periodic moderate explosions or degassing events, following the major eruption of 29 July. Loosely translated from: http://www.ucol.mx/volcan/jul30.html ---------------------- Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 15:54:08 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Impact of 29 July Colima explosion Due to the ashfall caused by the 29 July 14:42 hrs. explosion and 18:04 hrs. exhalation of Colima volcano, aerial traffic at the national airport of the City of Colima was interrupted from the afternoon of 29 July until at least 13:00 hrs. on 30 July. Meanwhile, aerial arrivals were redirected to the city of Guadalajara (~180 km to the north of Colima city). Observatorio Vulcanologico de la Universidad de Colima. Coordinador del Grupo de Informacion a la Poblacion en Zonas de Alto y Medino Riesgo. ******************************************* Fuego, Guatemala ******************************************* Date: Mon, 02 Aug 1999 11:55:47 -0700 Subject: Fuego Update Fuego remains restless seismically. A periodic hot spot shows up on satellite imagery and there may be some occasional small ash events. This is from several reports at: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/SSD/ML/vaacmsgs.html"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 27, 1999 (22:02)", "body": "************************************ Guagua Pichincha, Ecuador ************************************ Small phreatic eruption at Guagua Pichincha at 2109 on 16 August, followed by one hour of tremor. The eruptions on 10 & 12 August have left a thin veneer of ash on vegetation to the W of the dome. The most recent eruptions have occurred from the W part of the dome itself. The Cristal River has become muddy from recent ashfalls. Photo of Guagua Pichincha showing active features at: http://www.cybw.net/volcan/fotos/990720d.html -------------------- On 23 August a small phreatic eruption took place at Guagua Pichincha, not followed by tremor. At 0807 on 24 a large explosion took place, with a mushroom-shaped eruption cloud rising to 6km a.s.l and ashfalls to the S. Two smaller events followed, with an eruption plume to 3km. These events were followed by tremor. Strong fumarolic activity in the 1981 crater and the July 1999 craters on the W part of the dome was noted afterwards. From: http://www.cybw.net/volcan/ ************************************ Telica, Nicaragua ************************************ New eruption at Nicaragua's Telica volcano on 10 August, with ash clouds ascending to 300-400 m above the volcano. This event was somewhat larger than that of June. From: www.igc.org"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 13, 1999 (13:58)", "body": ""}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 14, 1999 (12:38)", "body": "U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory 2:00 p.m. - September 12, 1999 Earthquake swarm and ground deformation event at Kilauea Volcano Starting about 1:31 Sunday morning, September 12, a swarm of small earthquakes and associated volcanic tremor began at Kilauea Volcano. The swarm was concentrated along the east rift zone between Devil's Throat and Mauna Ulu, but earthquakes eventually occurred in a broader area involving the summit and south flank areas. The strongest part of the swarm lasted a couple of hours, but earthquakes are continuing at the time of writing (2:00 p.m., September 12), as is tremor from the summit caldera. Many of the earthquakes were felt by residents of Mauna Loa Estates, Volcano, and other nearby areas. Most of the earthquakes were shallow, within 2-3 miles of the ground surface. The largest rift zone earthquake was approximately magnitude 3.0. At 5:59 a.m. the largest earthquake in this episode occurred beneath Kilauea's south flank, near Pu`u `O`o. This earthquake was approximately magnitude 3.7, but final calculations have not yet been made. Accompanying the earthquake swarm was deflation of the summit area and the east rift zone between the summit and Pu`u `O`o. The deflation, detected by five electronic tiltmeters newly installed in this area, began at about the same time as the earthquakes and tremor. We anticipate that GPS data, currently being processed, will show substantial widening of the rift zone. The floor of crater in Pu`u `O`o collapsed and is now mostly overed with rubble. Aerial views at about 11 a.m. showed only a tiny pad of weakly spattering lava remaining in the crater. The flow of lava through the tube to the coast was weak and luggish when observed between 11 a.m. and noon. One small trickle was entering the ocean at the bench, most of which had collapsed into the sea since about 8 a.m. this morning. By 1:30 p.m., the steam plume had died, and the eruption had entered into another pause, which likely will last from a few days to several weeks. ------From the HVO Eruption Update Web Page today: 700 September 13, 1999. The swarm of earthquakes reported in yesterday's update (see below) has ended. Summit tilt is slowly recovering, but ermanent tilt may have been induced at several other stations. There is no significant tremor at Pu`u `O`o, and the pause in the eruption continues. 1500 September 12, 1999. swarm of small earthquakes and associated volcanic tremor egan at Kilauea at 0131 September 12. The swarm was oncentrated in a short segment of the upper east rift zone between Devil's Throat and Mauna Ulu but eventually spread across the summit and south flank. The main swarm lasted a couple of hours, but earthquakes continued until at least 1500. Most of the earthquakes were shallow (1-5 km) and small (magnitude less than 3); nonetheless, residents of the Volcano area felt many earthquakes in the early Sunday hours. One magnitude 3.7 earthquake at 0559 took place near Pu`u `O`o at about 10 km depth. Sharp deflation of the summit and east rift zone began at the time of the swarm. The rift zone between the summit and Pu`u `O`o sagged and presumably spread as magma intruded into the rift zone from beneath the summit. The floor of the crater in Pu`u `O`o collapsed several tens of meters and is now strewn with rubble, with only a tiny pad of weakly spattering lava remaining. These events initiated a pause in eruptive activity. By 1330 the steam plume at the ocean entry had died. The bench began to collapse between about 0800 and 0915 and was more than 80 percent gone by noon. By analogy to episode 54 in January 1997, today's events may initiate a pause that lasts several days or more."}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 15, 1999 (19:43)", "body": "Kilauea Volcano Eruption Update http://wwwhvo.wr.usgs.gov/ Another pause in episode 55 of the Pu`u `O`o - Kupaianaha eruption began at 0131 HST on the morning of September 12. The supply of magma to Pu`u `O`o was interrupted in response to an intrusion into the upper east rift zone in an area between Pauahi Crater and Mauna Ulu, based on the location of small earthquakes and the pattern of ground tilt from several tiltmeters. About 8 hours after the start of the intrusion, the active lava bench on the south coast of Kilauea began collapsing into the sea. Several small collapses were observed by scientists on September 12, and by the evening of September 13, about 2 ha (5 acres) had been removed. The discharge of lava into the sea stopped completely in the afternoon of September 13. The intrusion began when three tiltmeters at the summit showed a downward tilt of the ground (red line) toward the caldera. A swarm of small earthquakes along the upper rift zone accompanied the ground deformation. The downward tilt indicates that magma was moving out of the summit reservoir; data from two other tiltmeters on the east rift zone (east of Pauahi Crater and just uprift from Pu`u `O`o) indicate the magma was moving into the rift zone. The reversal of summit tilt about 4-6 hours later indicates when the intrusion stopped and magma once again moved into the summit reservoir. An inspection on September 12 of the ground above the intrusion did not reveal new ground cracks, which suggests the magma intusion did not reach to within 1-2 km of the surface. Much remains to be learned from this event. Leveling across the zone of intrusion on September 14 showed changes in elevations that provide clear evidence for a dike, but the size and depth of the dike remain to be calculated. The onset of seismicity and tilting on September 12 was abrupt and simultaneous to within the one-minute resolution of the tilt data, all along the rift zone and the summit. This intriguing observation will be the source of considerable interpretative effort by HVO staff and colleagues."}, {"response": 56, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Sep 24, 1999 (12:19)", "body": "There were heavy quakes in Turkey and Greece, and in Taiwan, also. High casualties in Turkey and Taiwan, several dead in Greece."}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 24, 1999 (19:34)", "body": "Yes, Indeed - check Geo 9 - Seismology"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 29, 1999 (13:14)", "body": ""}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 29, 1999 (13:17)", "body": "It appears that the mid-atlantic ridge separation and the Pacific Ring of Fire are the only two which are defined by volcanic activity...and the Great Rift Valley in Africa...Each of those little white triangles represents a volcano."}, {"response": 60, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Sep 30, 1999 (04:34)", "body": "Wonderful map, Marcia, I think this is what I was looking for or very near it, I'll save and study it.:-)"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 30, 1999 (12:34)", "body": "Great! I found it while looking for something entirely different...and I downloaded it to my space on Spring's hard drive - it is definitely a keeper."}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  7, 1999 (18:26)", "body": "KILAUEA VOLCANO UPDATE The lava pond in Pu`u `O`o remains active this afternoon, and lava is oozing from the lava tube system onto the surface between Pu`u `O`o and the top of Pulama Pali. Tremor near the vent has increased since yesterday. 1545 October 5, 1999 Observations yesterday and early this morning found no active surface flows on Pulama pali or anywhere else in the flow field. Consequently we are defining the period from 2200 on October 3 to 0945 on October 5 as a pause. During this time, tremor virtually ceased near Pu`u `O`o and Kilauea's summit was showing slight swelling. However, by 0945 today breakouts of lava were taking place from a perched lava pond built above the lava tube about halfway between Pu`u `O`o and the top of Pulama Pali. The pahoehoe flows from the perched pond were small, but one entered a kipuka just west of the pond and started fires. The surface of Pu`u `O`o's lava lake this morning and early afternoon was about 7 m below the terrace around the lake, which in turn is about 50 m below the rim of the crater. A thin crust caps the lake, broken only by three bubbling areas and by sporadic crustal overturns. Tremor near Pu`u `O`o is weak but distinctly higher than during the pause. Tilt at Kilauea's summit is now flat."}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  7, 1999 (18:49)", "body": "Since this was written (two day ago) there have been more outbreaks reported by the tour pilots - a frequency I monitor with great regularity."}, {"response": 64, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct  8, 1999 (17:36)", "body": "the triangles are volcanoes? didn't know we had so many on the west coast!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  8, 1999 (17:52)", "body": "All of the Cascades are volcanic from Seattle to Mt Shasta in California...and Lassen!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  8, 1999 (17:55)", "body": "The Pilots today are reporting that since the old tube system is blocked by cooling lava, the new flows are coming out of a \"sky light\" hole in the tube system and is forming a new cinder cone around the vent. Mountain building going on as we speak...almost in my back yard, actually!"}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  9, 1999 (15:22)", "body": "watching nature recreate herself!"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  9, 1999 (16:52)", "body": "This is not only true at the vent (making the spatter and cinder cone) but also at the ocean where the island increases its size as flows harden and extend beyond the existing shoreline. From time to time that also becomes unstable and acres of the stuff crash back into the sea - and on occasion has taken a visitor, who ignored the warning signs and ropes, with it. I am a great believer in what the ranger tell us is safe and what is not safe - they are not there to spoil our fun!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  9, 1999 (20:58)", "body": "good for you! cuz we wouldn't want our marcia and volcano lover to be too swept away in the moment!! *hugs*"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  9, 1999 (21:12)", "body": "*hugs* Thanks!...me too...! Gonna post a few pictures to show the different side of the story of lava - it nourishes as well as kills: Stop sign in a buried street: New Land and Black Sand Beach being created: Little Ohia Tree growing in crack of hardened Pahoehoe Flow:"}, {"response": 71, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  9, 1999 (21:37)", "body": "yes, just like natural occuring forest fires. it's done on purpose by mother nature herself!"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  9, 1999 (21:44)", "body": "Absolutely! Some seeds will not germinate without first having gone through a fire - or through the digestive tract of an animal! Very good point, My Dear!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 11, 1999 (16:40)", "body": "VOLCANOES OF THE WEST COAST"}, {"response": 74, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (19:30)", "body": "i had no idea we had that many over there! and here i thought our only volcano in the conus was mt st. helens!!"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (19:51)", "body": "...and who says the internet is not educational...?! I hunted for just this sort of map. I think there are many people who think the ones in Hawaii and perhaps Alaska and Mt St Helens are the only volcanoes we have. Not so!!! Ours are just more active at the moment..."}, {"response": 76, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (22:52)", "body": "Rock Becomes a River --by John Burnett, copyright 1999 Rock becomes a river underground, superheated, supercharged, answering only to Madame Pele. Rock becomes a river underground, spewing forth as a mighty geyser leaping, reaching ever higher, seeking to paint the sky and cover its blue with a brilliant hue of red. Rock becomes a river underground, trickling to the surface, then meandering at a nearly apologetic pace while coursing an interminable, inevitable, inescapable path, altering both topographic and human landscapes, playing no favorites-- and exploding in a toxic haze where the river meets the sea."}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (23:02)", "body": "This is magnificent, John. I am honored you chose to put it here! It is wonderful beyond words and Geo is privileged to have been so chosen. Mahalo Nui Loa."}, {"response": 78, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (23:06)", "body": "It is unpublished, so Geo is first. Thank you."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (23:10)", "body": "(bowing with appreciation and humility)...*speechless but glowing* *HUG*"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (23:42)", "body": "In tribute to your inspired poem, I offer the generation of that creative power Pu'u O'o in Eruption"}, {"response": 81, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Wed, Oct 13, 1999 (00:26)", "body": "Pu`u Oh! Oh!"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 13, 1999 (00:33)", "body": "*laugh* You're delightful...!"}, {"response": 83, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Wed, Oct 13, 1999 (02:21)", "body": "In the immortal words of my late daddy, E: \"Thankya verramuch!\""}, {"response": 84, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:00)", "body": "Both of you make this a very nice place to be. Thanks :-) BTW, learned a new Internet symbol [] means \"hug\" so please consider yourselves hugged :-)"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:37)", "body": "Ah...Thank you! I did not know about that! All the ones I have in Arial are more square than that. Where did you find it? (other than in character map)"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:40)", "body": "trying....\u007f"}, {"response": 87, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (23:41)", "body": "Where are the pictures of Mt. Etna? A whole lotta lava flowing..."}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (23:51)", "body": ""}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (23:53)", "body": "Nothing is showing on my life cam on the wx program. If this does not update I will scribble it and post static pictures of that eruption"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (23:57)", "body": "Will post the photo captures from Mt Etna when I get them - the live cam did not update in here."}, {"response": 91, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (23:57)", "body": "The new thematic buttons are nice, but the \"forget\" button forgot to download."}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (00:00)", "body": "I have searched all over my three identical files Wolfie sent to me with the buttons...it is just not there. Unless one can be tweeked by the master tweeker and installed (I ftp'd extra buttons over to spring) perhaps the tweeker could post some other forget...! Actually, they forgot to send it!"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (21:29)", "body": "EPISODIC ACTIVITY AND LAVA OVERFLOWS FROM THE BOCCA NUOVA OF ETNA CONTINUE. Repeated surges of lava have overflowed the western rim of the Bocca Nuova, one of Etna's four summit craters, since late 17 October, and spilled up to 4 km down the western flank of the volcano. The overflows were caused by episodes of violent Strombolian activity and lava fountaining at the crater which is completely filled; a sizeable pyroclastic cone is growing in the western part of the Bocca Nuova. Bombs are thrown over a large part of the summit area, making visits to the scene of this exceptional activity highly dangerous. A detailed report will be posted later today on the Etna News Page. - WORLDWIDE VOLCANISM UPDATE. http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~boris/gifs/image/Etna181099_1.jpg"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (21:34)", "body": "MT ETNA ERUPTION UPDATE http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~boris/ETNA_news.html 21 October 1999 update. After continuing vigorously until the early morning of 20 October, the activity from the eruptive vents in the W and NW part of the Bocca Nuova ceased, and the overflow of lava through the notch (formed on 17 October) in the W crater rim stopped. Sometime around dawn (0700 h local time=GMT+2), forceful expulsions of ash began from the SE vent in the Bocca Nuova, which had shown little activity in the past week. Later that day weather conditions deteriorated, and visual observations were rendered impossible. However, it was stated this morning that the activity was at low levels throughout the day (communication from Marco Fulle, Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, who presently stays at the Rifugio Sapienza and received this information from forest guard personnel). This morning at 0300 h, intense eruptive activity reportedly resumed, with renewed lava overflow from the Bocca Nuova onto the W flank. As of the early afternoon of 21 October, bad weather is preventing visual observations."}, {"response": 95, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (12:59)", "body": "Awesome! I was in Taormina two years ago, and we could see Mt. Etna in the distance. Very quiet at the time. Wonder what it looks like from out there now..."}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:04)", "body": "The weather has been particularly bad lately which is why their Volcano Cam is not sending images - it seems like fog and low clouds are obscuring the eruption, but a glow is suffused throughout the entire area surrounding the mountain. It will be nice with the weather clears - though eruptions have been known to make their own weather systems. We'll just have to wait...I promise to post something as soon as it is available."}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:35)", "body": "Interesting Volcano Trivia http://www.dc.peachnet.edu/~pgore/students/f96/students/harris/webpage.htm The Tambora Volcano, located in Indonesia, killed 92,000 people in 1815- the most people ever killed by a volcano. There are, at best guess, 1511 volcanoes that have erupted in the last 10,000 years. The biggest volcano is the world is Mauna Loa in Hawaii (80,000 cubic kilometers). The biggest volcano in our solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars (17 miles tall). Ojos del Salado in Chile is the world's tallest volcano (22,589 ft or 6887m). The largest eruption ever was Yellowstone 2.2 million years ago. The eruption produced 2500 cubic kilometers of ash. The youngest volcano is Paricutin in Mexico. It grew out of a cornfield in 1943 and erupted for 8-9 years. Diamonds cannot be melted by lava."}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:42)", "body": "Surtsey in Iceland is younger than Paricutin...And from Base to summit, Mauna Loa is the world's tallest volcano - 28,000' (8534.4 M) below sea level + almost 14,000' (4267 M) above sea level makes it 42,000' (12602 M) total."}, {"response": 99, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Nov  3, 1999 (13:57)", "body": "(Marcia)Diamonds cannot be melted by lava. So they are still a girl's best friend...;-D"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  3, 1999 (19:07)", "body": "...If the girl falls into lava - which is rather cool (a mere 2000\ufffdF or 1093\ufffdC). You can evaporate your diamonds - they turn into Carbon Dioxide and burn with a blue flame, but then they are all gone!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Nov  4, 1999 (15:40)", "body": "I was thinking more along the lines of girl not falling into lava but home being washed by it... or whatever ;-)"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  4, 1999 (16:36)", "body": "Houses usually spontaneously combust when the lava approaches because of the intense heat...Then the lava paves over the entire place so nothing is left which is recognizable as having once been a home, yard, garden or proptecting wall around the place. It is urban renewal on a scale never imagined until you actually see it!"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  4, 1999 (22:13)", "body": "From Reuters Nwews Service Send Page Thursday - 20:57 11/04/99, EST Mexican Volcano Shoots Smoke High Into The Sky MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano sprang to life Thursday morning after months of dormancy, sending smoke two miles into the sky, officials said. ``Today, at 11:10 a.m. there was a moderately significant exhalation, lasting 19 minutes, that produced a smoke column of two to three kilometers in height,'' the Interior Ministry said in a statement. A series of tremors were also felt Wednesday at the volcano, 40 miles southeast of Mexico City, from where 18 million residents can sometimes see the volcano through the smog. Ash was expected to rain on nearby communities. Mexico City airport was placed on alert and some flights were delayed, airport officials said. The government said there had been no significant change in activity at the volcano, and that a yellow alert remained in place, prohibiting access within a three-mile radius. A yellow alert means that Popocatepetl, which last provoked safety warnings in February, could erupt in weeks or months but probably no sooner."}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  4, 1999 (22:31)", "body": "On the best kids volcano site this letter and answer (by a Geologist I know personally!!!) http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/frequent_questions/grp13/question2153.html dear srs: if the Popocatepetl volcano eruption could lava arrive to Mexico City? Alessandra Hi Alessandra, No, there won't be any lava from Popocatepetl getting to Mexico City. Popocatepetl does not produce very much lava and that which it does produce is very viscous and slow-moving. Instead of flowing down the slopes it piles up into what is called a dome. Popocatepetl is much more likely to produce explosive eruptions. These have already managed to spread ash all the way to Mexico City, but the effects were not particularly serious. The biggest danger is from pyroclastic flows and lahars. These are an immediate threat to the towns on the slopes of the volcano itself, and in the worst case scenario might affect Puebla, but not Mexico City. Sincerely, Scott Rowland"}, {"response": 105, "author": "ommin", "date": "Fri, Nov  5, 1999 (20:27)", "body": ""}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  5, 1999 (20:52)", "body": "Well, it worked in Drool - guess I'll have to hunt thru telnet tomorrow te see what went wrong with your post here. Hmmm...thought we had it fixed!"}, {"response": 107, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (20:25)", "body": "did you guys notice the forgotten forget button has been remembered and is now part of the conference? (just thought i'd throw that in since every topic in this place is concerned about the fogotten forget button *grin*)"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (20:51)", "body": "Yes, we did indeed see that. It is mentioned somewhere in this conference. Thanks for such lovely eruption buttons - I smile every time I come in here and admire them. I especially love the one without the frame."}, {"response": 109, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (21:02)", "body": "so do i! *smile*"}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (21:23)", "body": "*sigh*"}, {"response": 111, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Nov  9, 1999 (10:23)", "body": "Why aren't the others made frameless as well?"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  9, 1999 (11:35)", "body": "Because Wolfie and I do not know how to do it. Only cfadm does, and he's not telling."}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  2, 2000 (14:37)", "body": "we have found a program online (nothing to download) which will make your frames transparent or even different colors and reword your buttons. Very nice, Indeed. That is why they look gettr ( make that better) than before, but I need the font and size of same before I can change the interiors - which I now have to bother Wolfie about now..."}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (18:54)", "body": "The latest update on the Kilauea Eruption which began on January 4, 1983... 0645, January 5, 2000 Eruptive conditions are little changed from those of yester- day. The ocean entries at the Lae`apuki bench continue to be active. Lava continues to spread across the surface of the west flow above and below Paliuli. The east arm of the east flow remains active above Pulama pali. This morning at 0550, at least four clusters of entry points were feeding lava into the ocean from the front of the Lae`apuki bench. There was, in addition, one sluggish cascade over the old sea cliff near the west end of the new bench. Surface breakouts of pahoehoe toes continue just inland of the bench. Much of the surface of the flow directly above the old sea cliff has been renewed in the past several days. Predawn glow this morning shows continued movement of the reactivated part of the old easternmost flow. The location of the glow suggests that the flow is active between about 1600 and 1100 feet elevation, above the top of Pulama pali. At least two small vents in the crater of Pu`u `O`o are glowing this morning, but there is no flow or pond in the crater. Seismic tremor near Pu`u `O`o is weak, and the tilt at Kilauea summit is flat."}, {"response": 115, "author": "livamago", "date": "Fri, Jan 14, 2000 (22:33)", "body": "Hello, my dear! I finally made it...Do you know where to find a picture of the Irazu volcano in Costa Rica? My brother was just there, and he says it's beautiful. I've never seen a volcano in real life (my country is mercifully deprived of them), so pictures will have to do. ;-D"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 15, 2000 (00:59)", "body": "I did an altavista image search and this is the place you should start: http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=q&sc=on&q=Irazu&kl=en&stype=simage&wt=y Loads of ggod things there for just pictures. If you wish more, go to web pages on the same search. Good luck! (and welcome back!!!)"}, {"response": 117, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sat, Jan 15, 2000 (18:24)", "body": "Wow, it is beautiful! Thank you... (I thought the Best Western picture was hilarious...)."}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (11:59)", "body": "(so did I, and it was the first place I accessed.) Did your brother see any signs of activity at Irazu?"}, {"response": 119, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (20:20)", "body": "No, no activity, I think. I heard today that a volcano in Guatemala has started to erupt. Do you know the details? I must correct my previous statement, because I have indeed seen a volcano in real life; the Amatitlan peak in Guatemala, with its beautiful lake. I was just a child when I visited, though and we did not go to the top, but we could see the smoke. It has a baby volcano on one side, and that one was smoking too. Quite a site."}, {"response": 120, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (20:21)", "body": "That is, quite a sight ."}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (00:22)", "body": "I heard an eye-witness on CNN radio telling of tall plumes of dark reddish hue rising high into the sky. The One URL I have for the Volcano no longer works. I shall hunt it down as soon as I can get some sleep and type more carefully. (My New Year's Resolution!)"}, {"response": 122, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (14:05)", "body": "Saturday, 26 February, 2000, 21:51 GMT Spectacular eruption of Icelandic volcano A volcano in Iceland has erupted, sending clouds of ash and smoke up to ten kilometres into the air. The Hekla volcano -- one of the highest in Europe -- is in the remote south-west of the island and the authorities say there's no danger to local people but aircraft have been warned not to fly over the area. Witnesses say the eruption is a magnificent spectacle with red-hot lava flowing down the snow-covered slopes of the volcano. In Icelandic mythology, Hekla was believed to be one of the gates to hell and a haunt of witches."}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (14:33)", "body": "Thanks, Maggie. I have hunted through all of the Icelandic volcanic-events links and they are not yet reporting anything. I will keep watch and post a picture and update as soon as I find one."}, {"response": 124, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (14:46)", "body": "I went to the Icelandic news sources to see if I could find anything, but it is only on the BBC and few details. I think the last big ones for Hekla were 1991 and 1996."}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (15:19)", "body": "There is a link I check when Vatnajokul happened http://norvol.hi.is/bard3.html - The Icelandic Volcano Observatory http://xanadu.centrum.is/icerev/daily1.html#vat - Daily updates (last was on Friday) of Iclandic news."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (17:24)", "body": "http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_659000/659187.stm Iceland's volcanic spectacular The volcano is an an uninhabited area Iceland's most active volcano, Mount Hekla, has erupted for the first time in almost 10 years, spewing columns of ash several kilometres into the sky. Experts say the volcano poses no danger as it is situated in an uninhabited area about 120 km (75 miles) east of Reykjavik. The volcano, one of the highest in Europe, has erupted more than 20 times since the 11th century. In Icelandic folklore, it was believed to be one of the gates to purgatory. Icelandic television said a lava flow from a fissure was estimated to be seven km (4.5 miles) long. Tousands of Icelanders have gone to witness the magnificent spectacle of red-hot lava and white snow. But the authorities warned drivers to beware of clouds of ash clogging up their engines. The 1,490-metre ( 4900-foot) volcano spewed ash all over Europe when it erupted last century. Seismologists say this latest incident resembles a 1991 eruption that lasted seven weeks. No flights to or from Iceland had been cancelled. But despite the civil aviation authorities warning aircraft not to fly over the zone, a flying club announced that it was charging just over $100 for aerial tours of the volcano."}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (17:28)", "body": "Next time I'm gonna remember to put \"\" around the left, center and right align command and they will not end up in a string on the left...*sigh*"}, {"response": 128, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (07:33)", "body": "that top picture looks like my wife-to-be when she's in a mood..."}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (10:45)", "body": "The top picture is the sort in which people here see Madame Pele looking benign/kind/sad/whatever and then the locals predict good or dire things. Your wife-to-be has a temper, does she? And, you are going into this with eyes open. I think I'll worry some more about you - Poor Mike! He's got himself a Godess!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (14:32)", "body": "http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~boris/Latestnews.html 28 February 2000 POWERFUL EXPLOSIONS AT MAYON; HEKLA ACTIVITY DIMINISHES Over the past two days, Mayon unleashed its strongest explosions so far, terrifying tens of thousands of people living in the surrounding areas, and sending glowing pyroclastics hundreds of meters into the sky. Press photos show spectacular incandescent fountains illuminating the summit area, and the upper flanks covered by glowing projectiles. According to news reports, the latest activity was purely explosive, following several days of predominantly effusive activity. Philippine volcanologists noted that each explosion appeared to be stronger than its predecessor, and that the climax might yet come. So far, more than 50,000 people have been evacuated. Many left the areas around the volcano voluntarily, being impressed by the latest series of strong explosions. Local authorities asked thousands of residents, who had left areas not under threat, to return home. The refugees have been accomodated in evacuation centers, and news reports lament the lack of food and the threat of diseases. Warnings have also voiced about the danger of lahars, which might be caused by rainfalls washing the new pyroclastics from the slopes of the volcano. LINKS TO OTHER MAYON INFORMATION Mayon updates from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) ABS-CBN News (Philippine television news) Links to on-line Philippine newspapers from Yahoo Mayon Volcano Pictures:"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (14:40)", "body": ""}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (14:43)", "body": "The top image above is a dublicate - sorry. Here is the intended one: And, from Hekla:"}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (14:59)", "body": "Activity continues at Mayon Volcano, with several eruptions over the past two days, and two powerful eruptions today (Mon. Feb. 28). There are several news reports available online. (for example, http://news.lycos.com/headlines/Science/ ) Updates and general information on Mayon may be found at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) website: http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/Volcanoes/Mayon/MayonIndex.html"}, {"response": 134, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (22:59)", "body": "Amazing pictures and links! \"Mother earth\" is certainly restless these days..."}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (23:15)", "body": "either that or we are more aware of it because I am poking at her all day to find out what is happening. It is amazing to have people posting local weather from all over the world. What a luxury and a joy! How's Boston this evening?"}, {"response": 136, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (23:43)", "body": "It's been rather warm (in the 40's F) and rainy for the past few days. It's been nice to get rid of all that dirty snow and ice. Looks like it might get up to the 50's this week...that's balmy for this time of year! How are things in Hawaii? Is Pele still rumbling, or have the tremors calmed down for now?"}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (10:18)", "body": "Kilauea appears to have quieted down but the eruption continues on at its usual steady rate. It is still dark out as I write this, but it should be warm and sunny again...just another same old - same old day in Paradise *grin*"}, {"response": 138, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (10:49)", "body": "Must you rub it in??? ;-)"}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (11:09)", "body": "...You asked...*smile* At least you are not mowing your lawn yet. Ours is deep enough to hide tigers and nasty things like that. We need a yard service!"}, {"response": 140, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (11:28)", "body": "I also realize that you have your share of storms, earthquakes, etc. It's only in the middle of winter that I start to dream of warmer climates. When the summer hits, I head for the air-conditioning and wonder why anyone would want to live in warmer places. (I can't deal with giant bugs, either.)"}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (12:10)", "body": "...and free-range lizards all over your house... Inside?!"}, {"response": 142, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (12:19)", "body": "I forgot about the geckos...that would take some getting used to, but better them than the bugs, I guess."}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (12:25)", "body": "Yup! They eat the bugs - and each other - then *bleep* on your picture frames, window sills, curtains, etc. The cat usually gets the lizards so we have far fewer of them than before the cat adopted us."}, {"response": 144, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (17:21)", "body": "I like geckos and I'm not too keen usually on lizards. We always hoped to have them in our African houses - they actually like mosquitoes and can put away a surprising amount. I think they're sweet!"}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (18:03)", "body": "I think they're sweet, too. I take the babies outside so the big ones don't eat them. One night I heard crunching noises in the walkway. I turned on the front light to see what was happening, and there was a large Gekko (7\" end to end) eating a large cockroach. Yup! Druther have gekkos any day of the week! Ours chirp, too!"}, {"response": 146, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:15)", "body": "Oh how nice, I don't remember any of ours making any noises."}, {"response": 147, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:24)", "body": "I think ours are the only ones in the world which do...though there may be some other Polynesian ones which do also. It is very cute! And, no, for those wondering, they do not fall on you!"}, {"response": 148, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:12)", "body": "I can confirm that, I've never had a gecko fall on me yet, unlike cockraoches, millipedes, ear wigs ............"}, {"response": 149, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:43)", "body": "Are geckos the ones that lick their eyes with their tongues? Still if they're eating their fill of insect life, it's a small habit to get used to. Much better than an exterminator, works for free and best of all, is environmentally friendly."}, {"response": 150, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:56)", "body": "African geckos are pink, sort of albino-ish, with bulging eyes, but I don't remeber them licking their eyes with their tongues, cone to that I don't remember ever seeing thier tongues! Marcia???"}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (16:16)", "body": "No, but they are pretty small. And I am sure they are very quick with that tongue unlike the pretend one on the Telly ads. We have two kinds. The ones which are supposedly are from Japan are larger, pink and almost albino (you can see the eggs in them when they are on your windows.) The Hawaiian are darker and change colors a bit more than the big pink ones and they are smaller and are prey for the bigger pink ones. Much rather have them than bugs - and we have earwigs, too!!!"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (22:32)", "body": "Babies Born As Volcano Erupts TABACO, Philippines (Reuters) - Nine babies have been born in cramped evacuation centers in the central Philippines where refugees from the wrath of Mayon volcano have been sheltering for over a week, relief officials said on Friday. One of the new mothers, 35-year-old Asuncion Broncate, gave birth to her seventh child early on Thursday in a room at a school in Tabaco town, which was serving as a temporary shelter for 10 families. ``Despite our miserable condition it is hot, there is no electricity everything went smoothly with the grace of God,'' Broncate told Reuters as she breastfed her one-day-old baby boy at the Panal Bangkilingan Elementary School. Broncate said she gave birth without the help of a midwife or any trained help at dawn on Thursday. Other evacuees in the school, mostly farmers living on the slopes of the 2,460 meter (8,000 foot) volcano, later took the baby to a nearby hospital for an examination, she said. Veronica Madulid, a provincial disaster official, said eight other babies were born earlier in the week at other centers around Mayon. More than 65,000 people are currently housed in various evacuation centers in Albay province since Mayon first began erupting on February 24. The volcano killed 77 people in its last major eruption in 1993."}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (23:27)", "body": "Ginny's Photrograph published on http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hornak/ I enlarged it but do not recognize where it was taken and I was with her when she took it!"}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (23:30)", "body": "This is the slightly enlarged version - a beautiful and dramatic shot:"}, {"response": 155, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (01:10)", "body": "Thanks, Marcia! Actually, I took that picture (along with *many* more) the day that David, Polly and I hiked out to the lava shield near Pu'u O'o. I think it was called \"Kupaianaha\" (not sure about the spelling). Marcia was with us the day before, when we hiked out to where the lava was flowing into the ocean. That was quite a hike...it took most of the day! We scratched the paint on the sides of the rental car just getting to our starting point for the hike! I enjoyed the jiffy pop, popped on a hot vent! The picture was just published in the \"Dictionary of Volcanology and Seismology\". It's a Spanish-to-English/English-to-Spanish translation dictionary of volcanology and seismology terms. The author, Ken Hornak, found my web site last year, and asked permission to use the photo on the title page of the book. My sample copy of the book, signed by the author, came in the mail yesterday. It's a first for me!"}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (15:59)", "body": "Congratulations to a puvblished photographer! I remember that hike but I did it with the graduation bunch in the day time and did the Jiffy-pop thing, too. I recall being told (and I did not doubt it for a second) that it was gonna be a tough hike at night and that I should probably not go with you-all. I'm sure, from my hike of the same route that it was no easy thing to negotiate."}, {"response": 157, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (23:35)", "body": "If I remember correctly, the hike to where the lava flowed into the ocean was at night, and you joined us. The hike to the sea shield was a much longer hike, and we did that the next day. It took the whole day, and I was pretty tired by the end of it...and I was in better shape than I am now! :-)"}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (12:09)", "body": "I remember hiking to the sea with you and have photos to prove it - some from you and some from David. Ginny's latest and now I recognize the surroundings:"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:21)", "body": "Mayon Volcano Bulletin 12 March 2000 An ash puff with height of about one kilometer was observed at 0903H yesterday. The ash column was drifted to the northwest direction. The ash ejection was caused by water that comes in contact with the still hot lava deposits at the summit. And at 1242H, another minor billowing ash was seen descending the Bonga Gully due to the detachment of the new lava deposit at the upper slope. The elutriated ash cloud drifted to the west-southwest by the prevailing winds. During the rest of the past observation period the volcano was relatively quiet. This was manifested by faint crater glow at the tip of the cone and weak to moderate emission of steam. Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) emission rate decreased from the previous reading of 4,300 tonnes per day (t/d) to 4,000 t/d. Seismic activity consisted of 5 low-frequency volcanic quakes and 7 episodes of short-duration tremors. Slight deflation of the volcano edifice continued to be recorded by ground deformation measurements via precise leveling. PHIVOLCS considers the moderate seismic levels, deflation of the volcanic cone, moderate steam ad SO2 outputs including crater glow to be part of the volcanic processes involving the gradual return to quiet conditions. At this stage, however, these parameters are still above normal repose levels such that Alert Level 4 remains hoisted over the volcano. http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/Volcanoes/Mayon/MayonIndex.html"}, {"response": 160, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (11:51)", "body": "VOLCANOES - updates Mayon (Philippines) Summitcrater dome growth and escalating eruptions herald evacuations Barren Island (India) Naval aircraft flight crew sights unconfirmed \"volcanic emission of smoke\" Piton de la Fournaise (Reunion Island) A new eruption in February 2000 begins venting lava flows Nyamuragira (Zaire) As 27 January eruption began, witnesses assumed they heard artillery fire Stromboli (Italy) 1999 seismic summary and some strongerthanusual eruptions Kilauea (Hawaii) Ground deformation continues through June; earthquake swarms begin in December Tungurahua (Ecuador) More than twofold increase in longperiod earthquakes during December Pacaya (Guatemala) Map of new lava flows, satellite data, and perspective on the 16 January eruption Fuego (Guatemala) Satellite data reveals hot spot; field observers see JanuaryFebruary ash puffs Popocatepetl (Mexico) Increased number of exhalations and new dome growth in late February Soufriere Hills (Montserrat) Stillvigorous, potentially destructive eruptions during JulyNovember 1999 http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/"}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (14:43)", "body": "This photo was taken some years ago when he and another geologist would spend several days in the field. They slept and stored all things under that rusty-roofed structure. It got covered by cinders regularly and had to be dug out. As I recall this place ( just in front of that vent - Pu'u O'o) was called Camp 7 and was covered entirely and permanently just as the 6 camps before them had been. The items on the tripods are lasers and reflectors with which they measure the deformation of the entire mountain of Kilauea."}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (17:39)", "body": "STROMBOLI ON-LINE and ITALY'S VOLCANOES: THE CRADLE OF VOLCANOLOGY proudly present: Video clips of a paroxysmal eruptive episode at the Southeast Crater of Mount Etna(Sicily), 15 February 2000, filmed by British film maker David Bryant A series of video clips in Quicktime format (.mov) showing the spectacular eruptive episode at the Southeast Crater on Etna of 15 February 2000 has been posted simultaneously at \"Stromboli On-line\" and \"Italy's Volcanoes: The Cradle of Volcanology\". The videos, which range from 1.5 to 3.5 MB in size, show all main stages of the spectacular event from the initial Strombolian activity over the escalation and the rise of huge lava fountains to the decline and end. We believe that this is extraordinary footage of a volcanic eruption and are grateful to David Bryant for his availability to share his material with volcano enthusiasts and volcanologists worldwide. His full video will appear in a film about Mount Etna and Catania, which will be broadcast later this year; information about this will be provided timely to visitors of our web sites. We have decided to post the video clips on both sites simultaneously, because this will allow both U.S. and European visitors fast downloading. If the connection to one of the sites is slow, you may thus switch to the other site and see if this works faster. We also give tips about how to download faster and without annoying ruptures of transmission, if you have a slow line. And this is where you will find the movie clips: Stromboli On-line: http://stromboli.net/perm/etna/etna00av/index-en.html Italy's Volcanoes: http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~boris/ETNA_15022000movie.html Enjoy!"}, {"response": 163, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (04:32)", "body": "Got it - was in wrong topic earlier!"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (15:01)", "body": "Got a cute one of him as a full-grown man....have I inflicted it on you, yet? It used to be visible in Spring Gallery on Porch conference."}, {"response": 165, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (15:25)", "body": "I've got one - don't know if it's the same one though. You said it was your favourite."}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (15:29)", "body": "You have the fav one, so far, that is...*smile*"}, {"response": 167, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Mar 28, 2000 (23:36)", "body": "wonderful pic. Marcia, now we have converted to netscape - didn,t realise how much better it is."}, {"response": 168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (14:06)", "body": "Finally! I told you (as they say)...it is true !"}, {"response": 169, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (00:03)", "body": "That's a great picture of David! Was that close to where we went hiking (when I took the picture that just got published)? I remember seeing Pu'u 0'o when we were out there. Wow, 7 camps buried by lava? I hope no one was *at* any of the camps when they got buried!!"}, {"response": 170, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (04:38)", "body": "Has the volcanic eruption due to come at any moment in Japan been reported. Also large earthquake in New Zealand today."}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (10:33)", "body": "Nothing in here reported about the eruption, but my email is full of items from Dacid (Yes, Ginny, that is where you were! No one was endangered by the eruptions which buried any of the camps, thank goodness.) Did not know about the earthquake in NZ, but will post as soon as I get through here and wake up a little. *************************** Usu Volcano, Japan crisis *************************** Volcanic Advisory reports (nos. 1-7) on Usu Volcano, Hokkaido, Japan, were issued from Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) since 28 March. Number of volcanic earthquakes around this volcano has increased since 8 a.m. (JST), 27 March; 16 times in 27 Mar. and 599 in 28 Mar. (including 68 felt-earthquakes) at the JMA site about 2 km south of the summit. At 07:08, 29 March, the quake of M3.4 occurred on this volcano. According to the Usu Volcano Observatory, the hypocenter of the earthquakes locates on the northern slope of the volcano. Neither volcanic tremor nor visible change in fumarolic gas had not been observed by the 28 March night. National Coordination Committee of Volcanic Eruption Prediction (Chaired by Prof. Yoshiaki Ida, Univ. of Tokyo) commented a high possibility of imminent eruption in this volcano in the 28 March evening. JMA is also calling the local people's attention to mud flows triggered due to snow melting by eruption. Hot spring resort locates on the northern foot of the volcano, and about 1,600 guests stayed this night. However, more than 400 persons living around the volcano actively took refuge to safety places like distant schools by the 28 March night, according to the attentions by local governments. Historical eruptions occurred in 1663, 1769, 1822, 1853, 1910, 1943-45 (Showa-shinzan lava dome eruption), and 1977-78. According to Akihiko Tomiya, Geological Survey of Japan, precorsory phenomena of these eruptions, mainly volcanic earthquake events, before eruptions lasted from 32 hours (1977-78) to 6 months (1943-45 eruption). Most of them began with the Plinian phase, followed by pyroclastic flows and, then, dome growth. The volume of tephra is 0.05 c.km for the 1943-45 eruption to 2.5 c.km for the 1663 eruption. Information on Usu Volcano is in the site, http://uvo.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/ ."}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (17:07)", "body": "Japanese Volcano Eruption Forces 15,000 to Flee DATE (Reuters) - Japan's snow-capped Mount Usu volcano erupted on Friday, belching forth vast clouds of smoke and ash and forcing 15,000 people to flee their homes. The 2,402-foot volcano, among Japan's most active, sent rocks hurtling into the air as plumes of dark gray smoke streaked with blue lightning billowed from the conical mountain. Residents ran for cover, holding towels over their mouths as the smell of sulfur pervaded the air. Onlookers said they could taste grit from the eruption that hurled ash as high as 8,850 feet into the sky. A carpet of ash coated cars and houses. Tremors were jolting the hot spring resort area on the northern island of Hokkaido as the eruption continued, Meteorological Agency official Manabu Komiya told reporters. Ash, volcanic rocks and mudslides had flowed toward the small town of Abuta and the navy and the Coast Guard were deployed to evacuate the entire population of some 2,000 from homes perched precariously between the mountain and the sea. Officials said four naval ships, five Coast Guard vessels and two military helicopters had plucked residents to safety. ``Depending on developments, the eruption could cause even bigger damage,'' Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said. ``The government will do whatever it can to deal with the situation.'' Sailors on the naval vessels reported mudslides slipping down the cone-shaped mountain toward Abuta, but navy officials said later these were small. Officials said there were no reports of casualties. Mount Usu last erupted in 1978 after a series of earthquakes that gave birth to a new and smaller volcano by its side. Mudslides triggered by that eruption killed three people. Troops had already helped to evacuate more than 15,000 people from towns around the foot of the volcano and they were being housed in schools and public halls. Officials said they were establishing emergency post offices and banks to allow residents easy access to their money. FURTHER ERUPTIONS POSSIBLE Government experts said another big explosion appeared unlikely but it could take some time until the volcano settled down and more eruptions were possible from new craters. ``The fact that the ash cloud rose so high suggests the force of the eruption was strong. We can't dismiss the chance of other developments, like magma moves,'' said Yoshiaki Ida, chairman of the government's volcano experts panel. Snow was falling heavily, further coating the slopes of the volcano still shrouded by billowing smoke from explosions of gases from five craters on the mountain's western slope. Officials said initial assessments showed the eruption had not been as large as first expected, but further blasts could not be ruled out. Thousands of earthquakes had rumbled through the region since Sunday as the mountain prepared to blow its top. ``Mount Usu has had seven significant eruptions that we know of, and at no time has it ended quickly with only a small scale eruption, said Yoshio Katsui, a professor at Hokkaido University. The plume of smoke was not as large as the one spewed out by Mount Usu's last eruption in 1978. ``It looks smaller than before,'' said one middle-aged woman watching the smoke pillar from the shore of nearby Lake Toya. Train services in the area had been disrupted, some flights had been diverted and roads blocked off, officials said. Officials warned residents to beware of mudslides amid predictions of heavy rain later on Friday night because snow on the mountain, believed to be 11 to 31 inches thick, could melt rapidly. Some 3,300 troops were providing food, water and blankets for evacuees. Others were on reconnaissance missions around the mountain, including some in helicopters. A Hokkaido government official said 55,000 people living in five towns around the foot of the mountain, including the hot spring resort town of Toya, could be affected by an eruption. Cabinet ministers, keen to appear on top of the situation after past criticism for slow response to disasters, huddled at a crisis center at the prime minister's residence to monitor events. Officials warned there was a chance that an eruption at Mount Usu could mimic the deadly flow of superheated gas and ash from Mount Fugen in southern Japan in 1991, which killed 43 people."}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (21:11)", "body": "From David: ************************************************ Stromboli On Line: Etna Video and smoke rings ************************************************ May we bring to your attention the fact that now STROMBOLI ON-LINE's 1999-Etna videocassette is available, featuring South East Crater lava flows and hornito activity, and Bocca Nuova paroxysm with the \"small scale pyroclastic flow\". All footage was digitally recorded and processed (58min; VHS-PAL, VHS-NTSC upon request); original sound only, no commentary. Written explanations in German, English and Italian are added. For further details please consult our website: http://stromboli.net/shop/index-en.html We would also like to ask if any of you are aware of publications regarding \ufffdsmoke rings\ufffd. We were able, in February 2000, to document exceptionally beautiful and long-lasting rings on Etna, and this arose an incredible interest about their nature. We would be therefore glad to be able to present a rather complete list of scientific references regarding their origin. Etna's \ufffdring world\ufffd can be seen at http://stromboli.net/perm/etna/etna00b/index-en.html"}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (21:40)", "body": "Go to this remarkable page of pictures - below is one of them: http://educeth.ethz.ch/stromboli//perm/etna/etna00b/index-en.html"}, {"response": 175, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (22:54)", "body": "Amazing pictures! I love the smoke rings."}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (22:59)", "body": "There are incredible pictures on that web page, but I love the one I posted here. Never saw anything like it! Well, I did see Pu'u O'o do that during one episode way back in its infancy...and if someone else had not mentioned it, I would have thought I was seeing things."}, {"response": 177, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (23:08)", "body": "I would have thought I was seeing things, too! Pu'u O'o didn't do that while I was there (but I can't complain about what I *did* see)."}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (00:08)", "body": "Yup! You got close enought to get your feet \"wet\", as I recall."}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (16:52)", "body": "*************************************** Submarine eruption: Madagascar Plateau *************************************** A probable submarine eruption was observed during the April 24-25 night by the solitary navigator Philippe MONNET, who is doing the world tour in inverse order, near 30\ufffdS-45\ufffdE where there is a seamount, on the Madagascar Plateau, the top of which is around 300-400 m. below sealevel. He observed very big dark and white plumes up to 10 000 m. high, may be more, glowing gleams in the base of the plumes issued of the sea, and many flash of lightning. The sea was especialy rough in the zone. He observed this phenomena during more than 14 hours, and April 25 in the evening, many milles in the West, he could always see the glowing plume. April 23 (4:16 UT) the Piton de la Fournaise Observatory recorded an earthquake around 1 000 km in the West sector of Reunion Island. Relationship? P. Lanier (Monnet's routeur) followed plumes on satellite images during this period. *************************************** Submarine eruption: Azores *************************************** From: Hugh McNichol Photos of the ocean surface during an eruption of an underwater volcano near the Azores can be found at: http://www.acores.net/fotos/foto_iris/ According to a marine historian living on the Azores, this underwater volcano is only about 5 km offshore and the summit was 400 meters below the surface in the summer, and it is only 200 meters below the surface now. According to the web sites below, the submarine eruption near Terceira, Azores Islands, which began late in 1998 is still continuing as of Feberuary 2000, albeit at a low and flucuating level. Pictures are available at the first URL below. http://www.virtualazores.com/crise99/index.html Following from: http://www.geo.aau.dk/palstrat/tom/santorini_homepage/ongoing_eruptions.htm # terceira 26 February 2000 Ash and gas emission from the submarine eruptive fissure that started erupting in late 1998 is still continuing at Terceira, Acores. For over one year, the eruption is continuing at low, fluctuating levels."}, {"response": 180, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (00:25)", "body": "Sorry if this is a duplicate...haven't had a chance to catch up on all the Geo topics yet. From http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2000/jovianduststream.html MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE JET PROPULSION LABORATORY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov Contact: Jane Platt, (818) 354-0880 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 3, 2000 IO'S VOLCANOES SPLATTER DUST INTO THE SOLAR SYSTEM Fiery volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io are the main source of dust streams that flow from the Jupiter system into the rest of the solar system, according to new findings from NASA's Galileo spacecraft analyzed by an international team of scientists. The scientists, led by Amara Graps of the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, analyzed the frequency of dust impacts on Galileo's dust detector subsystem. They found peaks that coincided with the periods of Io's orbit (approximately 42 hours) and of Jupiter's rotation (approximately 10 hours). Although dust scientists had suspected Io as the source of the dust streams, it was difficult to prove. They ruled out several possible sources, including Jupiter's main ring and Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, but Jupiter's gossamer ring and Io remained as candidates. The dust scientists studied several years of Galileo data to show that the motion of the dust stream particles is strongly influenced by Jupiter's magnetic field, with a unique signature that could exist only if Io were the main contributor to the dust streams. \"Now, for the first time we have direct evidence that Io is the dominant source of the Jovian dust streams,\" said Graps, lead author of a paper on the findings that appears in the May 4 issue of the journal Nature. The Jovian dust streams are intense bursts of submicron- sized particles (as small as particles of smoke) that originate in Jupiter's system and flow out about 290 million kilometers (180 million miles), or twice the distance between Earth and the Sun. They were first discovered in 1992 by the dust detector onboard the Ulysses spacecraft during its Jupiter flyby. \"The escape of dust from the Jovian system in 1992 was a total surprise,\" said Dr. Mihaly Horanyi, a dust plasma physicist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, and co-author of the paper. Since 1995, the Galileo dust detector, a twin to the Ulysses instrument, has observed the streams, both while the spacecraft was en route to Jupiter and within the Jupiter system. Very, very early in the history of our solar system, before and during the formation of the planets, small dust grains were much more abundant. These charged grains were influenced by magnetic fields from the early Sun, much as the dust on Io is affected by Jupiter's magnetic field today. Thus, studies of the behavior of these dust grains may provide insight into processes that led to the formation of the moons and planets in our solar system. \"The dust from the Jovian dust streams is clearly magnetically-controlled dust,\" said Dr. Eberhard Gruen of the Max Planck Institute. \"Dust particles carry information about charging processes in regions of the Jovian magnetosphere, where information is otherwise sparse or unknown.\" Gruen built the dust detectors for several spacecraft, including Galileo, Ulysses and Cassini. These new results provide a useful window on Io. In-situ dust measurements can monitor Io's volcanic plume activity, complementing observations made by Galileo and from Earth-based telescopes. The Jovian dust streams, with their Io source, are minor when compared to the huge amounts of dust created in the solar system by comet activity and asteroid collisions. Nonetheless, they add to the variety of dust sources in the solar system. In fact, the Jovian dust streams travel so fast that some particles can actually leave the solar system to join the local interstellar medium -- the gas and dust that fill the space between stars. In December 2000, during a joint observation of Jupiter by Galileo and Cassini, scientists will have a unique opportunity to study the Jovian dust streams using dust instruments on both spacecraft. In addition to Graps, Gruen and Horanyi, authors on this paper are Dr. Harald Krueger, Andreas Heck and Sven Lammers of Max Planck, and Dr. Hakan Svedhem of the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. This work was supported by the German space agency, Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft-und Raumfahrt E.V. (DLR). More information on the Galileo mission is available at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov . The Max Planck, Heidelberg Dust Group web site is at http://galileo.mpi-hd.mpg.de/ . The Galileo, Cassini and Ulysses missions are managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. ##### 5/3/00 JP #2000-042"}, {"response": 181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (00:27)", "body": "I posted similar stuff before the beginning of the year in Geo 24 - which is why it was created - for Volcanoes other than on Earth. Thanks!"}, {"response": 182, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (00:29)", "body": "Ah...wasn't sure which topic it belonged in...a little bit of \"overlap\""}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (00:31)", "body": "That's really fascinating. I wonder how it will effect the magnetosphere over which Mike has now taken control on Geo 35 ( check out the cool diagram I found)"}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (00:36)", "body": "Not to worry - we'll catch 'em one way or the other. I often link it by saying look on topic whatever post who... I hope it is being read. I think I shall alert mike to your post so we can decide what is gonna happen to us. Btw, I now post all space news in topic 34 just for that purpose. I imagine they will come out with headlines about this, too..."}, {"response": 185, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (01:03)", "body": "You certainly have been busy around here...gonna take me a while to catch up on all the postings! :-) Well, it's 2am here, so good night all!"}, {"response": 186, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (12:10)", "body": "Oh, Ginny, they're worth it. Lots of good stuff in here lately (as usual, actually...) Welcome home!"}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 26, 2000 (21:42)", "body": "Observations in late May 2000 by NZ geologists showed that the famous Kavachi submarine volcano in the Solomon Islands is once again erupting, with spectacular bomb ejections and possible island formation. From: http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/release/volcisland.htm NEWS RELEASE, 25 MAY 2000 NZ SCIENTISTS WATCH FIERY BIRTH OF NEW PACIFIC ISLAND Two New Zealand scientists were part of an international team who this week witnessed the dramatic birth of a new volcanic island near the Solomon Islands. The rare observation was made during an investigation of seafloor volcanic activity and associated mineral formation in the Bismark and Solomon seas north of Australia. Marine geochemist Gary Massoth and mineral geologist Cornel de Ronde, both of the Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences Limited (GNS), were part of an international team on the CSIRO research ship Franklin who made a comprehensive study of the island-building eruptive activity. The scientists found the shallow Kavachi seamount, which had been dormant for nine years, had started a new phase of eruptive activity. Kavachi, in the Solomon Island chain of volcanoes, is only 30km from the boundary of the Indian and Australian tectonic plates. A roughly conical feature rising from a seafloor depth of 1100m, Kavachi is about eight kilometres in diameter at its base and has produced ephemeral islands at least twice in the past century. \" When we arrived at Kavachi, we found violent eruptions taking place every five minutes,\ufffd\ufffd Mr Massoth said from Darwin today. \" The eruptions were ejecting molten lava up to 70 metres above sea level, and sulphurous steam plumes rose to about 500 metres. At night we were treated to a spectacular fireworks display with the red glow of eruptions continuing.\" The peak of the volcano was forming a sandy ashen beach two metres below sea level with regular violent bomb-like eruptions. The ship approached to within 750 metres of the eruption centre and found that the volcano had grown substantially since it was last surveyed in 1984. The scientists were able to sample freshly formed volcanic rocks from the flanks of the erupting volcano. \" This was an unprecedented opportunity and has given us valuable geological information. We also systematically sampled gases and seawater at various depths around the perimeter of the volcano \ufffd something that has not been achieved before with an erupting submarine volcano. \" We detected particle and chemical plumes from the eruption at least 5 kilometres from the centre of the volcano. This has provided valuable information about the impact of active volcanoes on ocean chemistry.\" Mr Massoth said Kavachi differed from Brothers volcano, the largest and most active submarine volcano north east of White Island, in that Brothers was deeper and hydrothermally active while Kavachi was shallow and volcanically active. \" Hot rock, or lava, predominates at Kavachi while hot water predominates at Brothers.\" Hydrothermal fluids were venting from Brothers volcano at about 300oC against 100oC at Kavachi. Hotter fluids react with the volcano host rocks more efficiently and are more heavily laden with dissolved minerals.\" Observations at Kavachi showed that lava being quickly quenched in seawater did not produce a strong chemical plume in the ocean, unlike the active volcanoes northeast of White Island which vent large volumes of hydrothermal fluids and heat into the ocean. \" Kavachi has confirmed our observations that forearc volcano chains, such as the Kermadec chain north east of White Island, contribute significantly to the global inventory of heat and chemical emissions entering the oceans. \" The work we have been doing in New Zealand waters is effectively re-writing the textbook on submarine volcanism.\" About 80 percent of the world\ufffds volcanism occurred in the ocean and only a small proportion of all submarine volcanoes had been systematically surveyed with scientific equipment, Mr Massoth said. At another location, the scientists dredged up what they believe is a world-record size \"black smoker\" \ufffd a 2.7m-high chimney prised from an active volcanic vent at a depth of 1700m. Black smoker chimneys are packed with minerals \ufffd typically 1000 to 10,000 more concentrated than background levels in seawater. The chimney was expected to be rich in silver, zinc and gold, Mr Massoth said. John Callan Communications Co-ordinator Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences Limited"}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 26, 2000 (22:31)", "body": "Kavachi submarine volcano in the Solomon Islands is once again erupting, with spectacular bomb ejections and possible island formation."}, {"response": 189, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (04:29)", "body": "I'm glad i came and looked - that's a great photo"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (12:08)", "body": "Thanks! There is nothing quite like watching an island emerge from the sea or watching what used to be a huge pit crater fill, then build a small mountain which becomes a named hill on maps. It is like peeking while God was creating the world...He has not stopped and for that I am eternally grateful. This island has grown by 400 sq acres since the current eruption began!"}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (17:04)", "body": "A few eye-witness accounts from a Honolulu guy who has had rather negative volcano experiences compared with mine: I was in a 747 about 15 years ago flying somewhere over india..there had been a volcano erruption hundreds of miles away but the cloud at risen something like 60 thousand feet...the plane flew thru the cloud and all engines quit..pilot got them started back... speaking of which..about 8-9 years ago I was on vacation in the Philippines and a volcano blew..I was about 10 miles away..I couldn't belive how quickly the ash traveled..in a matter of minutes all the trees where gone and the sky dark..it was a nightemare. If I hadn't of been in a pretty secure building at the time, I dont think I would of made it...everything around us was pretty much history.."}, {"response": 192, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, May 28, 2000 (06:00)", "body": "Mmm some story."}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 28, 2000 (15:07)", "body": "Indeed. I am trying to encourage him to login and post his experiences. He is a most fascinating individual, and I would like to get to know him better."}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 28, 2000 (18:14)", "body": "He sent this url, and lest it be thought that Hawaii has the only beautiful volcanoes, this one is the archetypal shape and displays why composite cones of mostly ash are so beautiful and so deadly: Mayon Volcano: Cagsawa Church Ruins Photograph by C.G. Newhall on September 23, 1984 Pyroclastic flows descend the south-eastern flank of Mayon Volcano, Philippines. Maximum height of the eruption column was 15 km above sea level, and volcanic ash fell within about 50 km toward the west. There were no casualties from the 1984 eruption because more than 73,000 people evacuated the danger zones as recommended by scientists of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology."}, {"response": 195, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 28, 2000 (18:47)", "body": "Thanks, Donn, for the urls and the great pictures. If you'd like to see where I did my disaster relief work, please check http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/history/1990Kalapana/ It was heart-breaking because all I could do was to hug them as they sobbed and watched their homes disappear - one after the other."}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 28, 2000 (18:49)", "body": "correcting my html problem..."}, {"response": 197, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, May 31, 2000 (13:53)", "body": "Fantastic pics. Love the one with the smoke ring particularly."}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 31, 2000 (16:42)", "body": "Oh, You had not seen that? Incredible, no?!"}, {"response": 199, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jun  2, 2000 (15:34)", "body": "CAMEROON: Mount Cameroon oozing lava Lava has started to flow again from Mount Cameroon but government officials said on state radio there was no immediate cause for alarm, news organisations reported on Wednesday. It is unclear exactly when the volcano started to erupt, although residents of Buea, the town closest to the volcano, said there were light earth tremors on Monday and thick smoke and fire at the top of the mountain, Reuters reported state radio as saying. When Mount Cameroon last erupted, in March and April 1999, the authorities evacuated residents of villages around the volcano. It lies along a geological fault that includes Lakes Nyos, from which carbon dioxide emissions on 21 August 1986 killed 1,700 people."}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  2, 2000 (18:41)", "body": "frica's Mt. Cameroon has begun erupting again. Felt earthquakes were noted on 29 May, and by 30 May the summit was erupting \"fire\". It is unclear as to the precise onset of the eruption, one report said eruptions began 20 May. Reports on 31 May indicate a 3 mi. long lava flow has formed while eruptions of incandescent material continue at the summit. From: http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/africa/05/30/bc.cameroon.volcano.reut/index.html Mount Cameroon shows signs of fresh volcanic activity May 30, 2000 Web posted at: 9:47 AM EDT (1347 GMT) YAOUNDE, Cameroon (Reuters) -- Mount Cameroon has shown signs of fresh activity and people living near the volcano have been put on a state of maximum alert, state radio reported on Tuesday. The radio said residents of Buea in south-western Cameroon reported light earth tremors on Monday and a cloud of thick smoke and fire at the top of the 4,095-meter high (13,435 feet) mountain. Mount Cameroon sits on a seismic fault line that crosses the country. The volcano was last active in March and April, 1999, when lava cut a key highway before stopping a few meters (yards) from the Atlantic Ocean. A government monitoring station is due to go into service in June at Ekona, north of Buea, to provide early warning of any volcanic activity or eruption From: http://www.cameroonnews.com/?action=display&article=2187152&template=dou ala/stories.txt&index=recent Lava Gushes Out of Mount Cameroon The Associated Press, Wed 31 May 2000 YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) - Lava is gushing out of the Mount Cameroon volcano in this central African nation, state-run radio reported Wednesday. The hot, molten stream had extended up to three miles, the radio said. The volcano, 195 miles southwest of the capital, Yaounde, began erupting on May 20. Government officials, however, said there was no immediate cause for alarm. ``There is intense volcanic activity at the top of the mountain, which is essentially characterized by flames and a small flow of lava, which is still not very important,'' said Henri Hogbe Nlend, minister for scientific and technical research, who surveyed the volcano from a helicopter. The flames and lava flow are also primarily on the less populated side of the slope, he added. It is the second time in just over a year that the volcano has erupted. In March and April 1999, flowing lava displaced thousands of people and destroyed farmland."}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (20:40)", "body": "http://www.lineone.net/cgi-bin/loadcontent.pl?page=/cgi-bin/drecgi/express/00/06/06/news/n0320-d.html Maggie, You did it again! Sounds very exciting...! Flash, bang, wallop, what a picture, what a photograph BY LOUISE JONES ALL they wanted was a quiet stroll up Mount Etna to gaze at one of the wonders of the world. What they got was a sudden eruption, a half-mile run for their lives - and some great pictures to stick in the family album. The 16 British holidaymakers were within 300 yards of the main crater of Europe's most-active volcano when lumps of molten rock started pouring down the mountainside. The eruption began at 10.15am and it seemed such fun that geography teacher Lucy Newstead felt confident enough to pose smiling for a photograph. But at 10.16am all hell broke loose. The party's Italian tour guides screamed at them to \"run, run\" as the volcano threatened to engulf them in a flow of boiling lava. Lucy, 31, who teaches at Diss High School, Norfolk, said: \"Suddenly there was an explosion of ash. Straight away we could see this lava fountain of red hot rock. \"It just got bigger and bigger and then lava bombs started flying through the air. It was an incredibly awesome sight and it all seemed to happen in slow motion. \"We started running over the ash and ice until we reached a path. Every time I stopped because I was out of breath they made me carry on. \"Some people were terrified, but I don't remember being scared. I did not even think about what danger we were in until we had reached safety.\" She was on the adventure holiday with Explore Worldwide when she took pictures of the group's escape. \"I am just delighted to be here. It could have been a very different story if we had been closer to the crater when it erupted,\" she said. The eruption was the volcano's most violent this year and could be seen for miles. Fellow hiker Pat Holding, 52, of Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, said: \"It blew with no warning whatsoever. We saw a big white puff to begin with and then it darkened immediately and got higher and higher. \"Every time I looked behind me the mushroom cloud was getting bigger and bigger.\" Mrs Holding, also a geography teacher, added: \"There was no time to be scared. We just had to run for our lives. We went on the holiday in the first place to look at volcanos, but we ended up with a bit more than we bargained for.\" The group had driven up the mountainside in a four-wheel drive vehicle before climbing to the 11,000 ft high summit. They had earlier visited the Sicilian volcanoes Stromboli and Vulcano on their \ufffd600-a-head holiday. Travers Cox, managing director of Explore Worldwide, said: \"We have been running trips to Etna for six years without any problems. A lot of our groups are disappointed if they do not see an active volcano so these people are lucky in a way.\"Our tour guides are very experienced and we try not to put people in any danger.\" \ufffd Express Newspapers, 2000"}, {"response": 202, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 13, 2000 (13:29)", "body": "Subject: Rise in underground temperature Dear Sir/Madame, I am writting on behalf of a geologist here in Tashkent (Capital City of) Uzbekistan. They have a new puzzle which they are trying to find some answers for, through anyone & everyone who is a specialist, in geological & ecological problems. Here in various locations around Tashkent city, at a depth of around 10 meters, the ground temperature has risen from around the normal readings of aprox. 15 Celsius, up to as high as 30 & 50 Celsius! The questions are, what is causing such an increase in heat of the underground temperature around Tashkent, & have other major cities of the world has such cases of such readings? Thanks for any help, & correspondance in this matter. Joe Ruuskanen (Humanitarian aid worker for Central Asian Free Exchange, Tashkent Uzbekistan)"}, {"response": 203, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (06:15)", "body": "HOW STRANGE WHAT ON EARTH DOES IT MEAN? It sounds rather worrying to me. Can anyone confirm the meaning."}, {"response": 204, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (08:27)", "body": "do they sit on a fault-line or volcanic area? wouldn't magma rising slowly to the surface cause the heat to increase? (oh, we're supposed to give answers not more questions!!)"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (11:55)", "body": "I post questions as well as answers. If we had all the answers, there would be no purpose for Geo other than playing. hmmmm..that's what we do anyway. Get back to you on that question - gotta consult my experts!"}, {"response": 206, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (12:26)", "body": "oh, look, marcia has her own experts! *giggle* please let us know, this is most curious."}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (23:38)", "body": "How about Funk and Wagnals?? Now you haave made me forget the question Yup, the family geologist/volcanologist... Wolfie, behave.....I thought you were my friend....*sigh* Google.com is my expert if all else fails..."}, {"response": 208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (23:54)", "body": "Back from reading that post about the rise in temperatures of the ground in and around Tashkent...That was forwarded to me by son David who got it from a bulletin sent out to professional geologists and volcanologists. Apparently no one knows and they are asking for help. Will let you know further when I know."}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (23:19)", "body": "Montserrat Volcano Observatory - Montserrat, W.I. Report for the period midday, 9 June 2000 to midday, 16 June 2000 Rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows have occurred from the growing lava dome throughout the week, with a dilute ash plume maintained to the west of the island. The broadband seismic network recorded a total of 326 rockfall signals, 49 hybrid earthquakes, 1 volcano-tectonic and 76 long period earthquakes for the reporting period. There has been a marked increase in rockfall activity this week and a sustained high level of long-period earthquakes. This information suggests that the dome is still growing at a moderate rate. Visual observations of the Soufri\ufffdre Hills Volcano have again been hampered throughout the week by low cloud. The upper parts of the dome were glimpsed briefly early in the week. The high point on the dome is now close to 3,000 ft, and the size of the dome is approaching the same as it was immediately prior to the large collapse event of 20 March 2000. Rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity has been in the Tar River valley and within the summit crater. There has been steady production of volcanic ash which has blown westwards over Plymouth and out to sea; ash has not affected inhabited areas. The GPS network is fully operational, and the pattern of ground deformation remains similar to that which has been seen since late last year. Maintenance of field stations is still being hampered by the dry, ashy conditions on the volcano. Residents of and visitors to Montserrat are advised to tune in to ZJB Radio for up-to-date information on the status of the volcano. Rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity is likely to remain at a high level for several weeks, producing more ash clouds which may blow over inhabited areas if winds are from the south or southeast. Elevated levels of pyroclastic flow activity may develop very rapidly. Ash masks should be worn in ashy conditions or when you disturb ash. The Belham valley should be avoided during and after periods of heavy rain and everyone is reminded that access to Plymouth, Bramble airport and beyond is prohibited."}, {"response": 210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (23:20)", "body": "Mount Cameroon volcano lava threat recedes June 14, 2000 Web posted at: 11:20 AM EDT (1520 GMT) YAOUNDE, Cameroon (Reuters) -- Lava flowing down the flanks of Mount Cameroon has slowed and the threat to people in the nearby town and villages has receded, officials said on Wednesday. \"There is no more reason to panic. All is calm and the people are going about their jobs normally,\" an aide to the governor of South West Province in the town of Buea told Reuters by telephone on Wednesday. Scientists monitoring the volcano, which showed fresh signs of activity on May 29 and later began spewing lava, said last week that Buea was a high risk zone and the authorities were on standby to evacuate people living in the area. The 4,095 meter (13,435 foot) volcano is on a geological fault line running through Cameroon. It was last active in March and April, 1999, when lava cut a key highway before stopping a few meters from the Atlantic Ocean."}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (16:14)", "body": "For the European contingent, You have volcanoes too: ************************************** Piton de la Fournaise - new eruption ************************************** From: Dan Shackelford Increased seismicity on 22 June and at ~1800 on 23 June a new eruption began at Piton de la Fournaise, on the SE flank of Dolomieu. Bad weather has precluded visual observations to date. Following from Henry Gaudru SVE INFORMATION release - June 24, 2000 PITON DE LA FOURNAISE - Reunion Island - (France) Following an increasing of the seismic activity during Thursday 22nd a new eruptive activity has began on the Piton de la Fournaise. From a local source the new eruption occured on Friday 23 at 6 PM (local time). Preliminary information shows that the eruption started from the Southeast flanc of the Dolomieu crater (Summit of the Piton de la Fournaise) near the site of the previous eruption of July 1999. Because poor meteorological condition no direct observation was possible yesterday. (Further details next ) ---------------------------------- European Volcanological Society C.P.1 - 1211 Geneva 17 Switzerland Fax : 41.22.759.21.05 Email : info@sveurop.org http://www.sveurop.org"}, {"response": 212, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "Montserrat Volcano Observatory Montserrat, W.I. Report for the period midday, 23 June 2000 to midday, 30 June 2000 Activity has increased at the Soufri\ufffdre Hills Volcano this week, with almost continuous rockfall activity and small pyroclastic flows being produced. The broadband seismic network recorded a total of 315 rockfall signals, 4 hybrid earthquakes, 4 volcano-tectonic and 157 long period earthquakes for the reporting period. The number and size of rockfall events increased throughout the week. Long-period earthquake activity remains at a high level, indicating relatively high pressures inside the dome. Dome growth is occurring high on the eastern face of the dome at the top of the Tar River Valley, forming a rough spiny area. Much of this material is cascading down the steep eastern face of the dome producing many small rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows. Rockfall talus is accumulating more slowly around the southern edge of the dome, where it encroaches on a low point which would lead into White River Valley. Good views of the notches onto the north flanks of the volcano and into Gages Valley were not obtained. Although the volcano appears to be quiet, the level of activity can change extremely quickly and portions of the dome can collapse with no warning and generate much larger pyroclastic flows than have been seen for many months. Residents of and visitors to Montserrat are advised to tune in to ZJB Radio for up-to-date information on the status of the volcano. Rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity is likely to remain at a high level for several weeks, producing more ash clouds which may blow over inhabited areas if winds are from the south or southeast. Elevated levels of pyroclastic flow activity may develop very rapidly and could affect any valleys around the volcano. Ash masks should be worn in ashy conditions or when you disturb ash. The Belham valley should be avoided during and after periods of heavy rain and everyone is reminded that access to Plymouth, Bramble airport and beyond is prohibited. The daytime entry zone remains closed. 12 noon, Friday, 30 June 2000"}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (22:06)", "body": "Kilauea is not doing this right now, but in honor of Geo's Birthday...."}, {"response": 214, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (23:45)", "body": "Love that last photo! When was that one taken? Kilauea did not do that when I was there...which is probably a good thing, considering where we were hiking... :-)"}, {"response": 215, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (00:05)", "body": "My thoughts exactly... we would have had to have the old asbestos umbrella handy. It was during this episode that the fountain reached 2000' (610M) and made a roar heard 10 miles away. I did not get up there to see it, and that phase did not last very long, but it WAS spectacular! I'll have to check with David and see if he can remember when it occurred. I can't seem to remember. The lable on the image was just \"gyser\"(sic)"}, {"response": 216, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (05:16)", "body": "Friday July 14, 9:32 AM Japan volcano erupts again on island off Tokyo TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese volcano erupted for a second time on Friday, spewing ash and rocks high into the air and prompting officials to recommend the evacuation of residents, officials said. A local government official said the eruptions were expected to be short-lived and were unlikely to pose threat to the nearly 4,000 inhabitants of the island. However, they recommended the evacuation of residents of about 30 homes near the foot of Mount Oyama on the island of Miyakejima, some 200 km (125 miles) south of Tokyo, as large amounts of ash cascaded from the sky after the eruption. \"It's a pretty impressive cloud of ash, so we decided to issue the evacuation warning,\" a Miyakejima official said. \"We will monitor the situation closely.\" A Meteorological Agency official said Friday's second eruption from the summit of Mount Oyama took place at 3:50 p.m. (7.50 a.m.). \"The eruptions are within our expectations and unless there are other signs, we don't think there will be a major eruption,\" the official said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. BILLOWING GRAY ASH Like the first eruption earlier in the day, pale gray ash was seen being billowing about 1,000 metres into the air after a thunderous explosion from the volcano's summit. Last Saturday, a similar eruption occurred at Mount Oyama, hurling ash and rocks into the air. The volcano started to rumble at the end of June, but residents who had been evacuated from homes near the mountain were given the green light to return home after a few nights in local schools and other designated evacuation centres. The island chain south of Tokyo has experienced tens of thousands of earthquakes over the past few weeks triggered by the increasingly active volcano. This month, a powerful earthquake rocked the neighbouring island of Kozushima, triggering landslides that killed one man, the first earthquake fatality in the earthquake-prone nation for five years. Miyakejima is one of a chain of seven islands south of Tokyo. The island has a population of about 3,800 and its perimeter measures about 38 km (22 miles). Mount Oyama's last major eruption was in 1983 when it destroyed 400 houses and left a moonscape of rock, burning out nearby forests and destroying a lake. A lava flow from an eruption in 1940 killed 11 people and it erupted again in 1962."}, {"response": 217, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (05:16)", "body": "(loved the picture Marcia)"}, {"response": 218, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (12:41)", "body": "(Thanks, Maggie!) The photos and video on the morning news were truly horrifying. Thanks for posting the article!"}, {"response": 219, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "Friday July 14 4:38 AM ET Japan Volcano Erupts Again on Island Off Tokyo TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese volcano erupted for a second time on Friday, spewing ash and rocks high into the air and prompting officials to recommend the evacuation of residents, officials said. A local government official said the eruptions were expected to be short-lived and were unlikely to pose threat to the nearly 4,000 inhabitants of the island. However, they recommended the evacuation of residents of about 30 homes near the foot of Mount Oyama on the island of Miyakejima, some 125 miles south of Tokyo, as large amounts of ash cascaded from the sky after the eruption. ``It's a pretty impressive cloud of ash, so we decided to issue the evacuation warning,'' a Miyakejima official said. ``We will monitor the situation closely.'' A Meteorological Agency official said Friday's second eruption from the summit of Mount Oyama took place at 3:50 p.m. ``The eruptions are within our expectations and unless there are other signs, we don't think there will be a major eruption,'' the official said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Billowing Gray Ash Like the first eruption earlier in the day, pale gray ash was seen being billowing about 1,000 meters into the air after a thunderous explosion from the volcano's summit. Last Saturday, a similar eruption occurred at Mount Oyama, hurling ash and rocks into the air. The volcano started to rumble at the end of June, but residents who had been evacuated from homes near the mountain were given the green light to return home after a few nights in local schools and other designated evacuation centers. The island chain south of Tokyo has experienced tens of thousands of earthquakes over the past few weeks triggered by the increasingly active volcano. This month, a powerful earthquake rocked the neighboring island of Kozushima, triggering landslides that killed one man, the first earthquake fatality in the earthquake-prone nation for five years. Miyakejima is one of a chain of seven islands south of Tokyo. The island has a population of about 3,800 and its perimeter measures about 22 miles. Mount Oyama's last major eruption was in 1983 when it destroyed 400 houses and left a moonscape of rock, burning out nearby forests and destroying a lake. A lava flow from an eruption in 1940 killed 11 people and it erupted again in 1962."}, {"response": 220, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (03:52)", "body": "(Hey, I just posted that - see 216!!! Great minds or somthing....)"}, {"response": 221, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 20, 2000 (22:46)", "body": "Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 12:24:23 -0700 From: Barry Cameron Subject: Eruption at Lascar, Chile Sender: VOLCANO Approved-by: Barry Cameron To: VOLCANO@asu.edu Reply-to: VOLCANO X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) ******************* Eruption at Lascar, Chile July 20, 2000 ******************* The Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center has been notified of a major eruption of Lascar in eastern Chile. GOES-8 satellite imagery confirmed the eruption at approximately 14:10 UTC. The cloud, estimated at 35 to 40 thousand feet, is presently moving east into northern Argentina. Official advisories will be issued by the Buenos Aires Volcanic Ash Advisory Center. Satellite imagery including still images and loops can be viewed at the NOAA Satellite Services Division website, at: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/SAB/cases.html Brian Hughes Meteorologist NOAA/NESDIS Satellite Analysis Branch Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center"}, {"response": 222, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  2, 2000 (16:14)", "body": "Can't wait to read the papers coming out of this conference since I also live on an active volcano! ************************************** Cities on Volcanoes-2 Auckland, New Zealand February 12-16, 2001 Auckland is a modern vibrant city, with an international status in trade, investment and business, superbly located on a green isthmus between two magnificent harbours. However the metropolitan centre of Auckland has developed across a potentially active basaltic volcanic field. It also faces a hazard from several large central North Island volcanic centres. Auckland, like many other cities, is preparing for a volcanic crisis through collaborative work of specialists in a variety of fields, such as volcanology, sociology, psychology, emergency management, economics and city planning. This meeting will provide a forum for specialists from several disciplines and countries to collaborate to re-evaluate volcanic crises preparedness and management in cities and densely populated areas. By drawing upon multidisciplinary perspectives the workshop affords an opportunity to develop strategies and consider the means for their implementation."}, {"response": 223, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  2, 2000 (16:38)", "body": "*********************** Eruption at Semeru, Indonesia July 27, 2000 *********************** We sadly post this report: At approximately 0621 on the morning of 27 July an eruption from the summit crater of Semeru resulted in two deaths and injuries to six other volcanologists near the crater. Both fatalities, Wildan and Mukti, were Indonesian scientists from the Volcanological Survey of Indonesia (VSI). Other members of the group sustained injuries caused by ejected material. These included Kris from VSI, Amit Mushkin from the Hebrew University in Israel, Mike Ramsey from the University of Pittsburgh, and Lee Siebert and Paul Kimberly from the Smithsonian Institution. Kimberly's injuries were more serious, including a broken hand, broken arm, and 3rd-degree burns. He is now recovering in a Singapore hospital. The members of the group had attended a meeting of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) in Bali during the previous week. Background. Semeru, the highest volcano on Java, and one of its most active, lies at the southern end of a volcanic massif extending north to the Tengger caldera. The steepsided volcano, also referred to as Mahameru (Great Mountain), rises abruptly to 3676 m elevation, towering above coastal plains to the south. Gunung Semeru was constructed south of the overlapping Ajekajek and Jambangan calderas. A line of lake-filled maars was constructed along a NS trend cutting through the summit, and cinder cones and lava domes occupy the eastern and NE flanks. Summit topography is complicated by the shifting of craters from NW to SE. Frequent 19th and 20th century eruptions were dominated by small to moderate explosions from the summit crater, with occasional lava flows and larger explosive eruptions accompanied by pyroclastic flows that have reached the lower flanks of the volcano. Semeru has been in almost continuous eruption since 1967."}, {"response": 224, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  2, 2000 (16:38)", "body": "************************ Lascar Eruption Images - July 20, 2000 ************************ This kindly submitted by Dr. Jose Viramonte: GOES 8 and NOAA 14 images of the Lascar eruption on 07/20/00 can be found at: http://www.unsa.edu.ar/varias/lascar/"}, {"response": 225, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (20:43)", "body": "************************************** Mount Oyama, Miyakejima, Japan ************************************** http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000810/sc/japan_volcano_dc_3.html Thursday August 10 2:37 AM ET Japan Volcano Erupts Again on Island Off Tokyo TOKYO (Reuters) - A volcano on a small Japanese island south of Tokyo erupted again early Thursday, spewing steam, smoke and ash into the air, and prompting local officials to urge nearby residents to evacuate. The eruption from the summit of Mount Oyama on the island of Miyakejima, some 113 miles south of Tokyo, took place at 6:59 a.m. (5:59 p.m. EDT Wednesday), the Meteorological Agency said. There were no reports of injuries or damage from the eruption. Some 4,000 people live on the small resort island. The volcano has erupted several times since the end of June. It last erupted on July 15. Although the eruptions seemed to have subsided slightly, local officials recommended the evacuation of some 630 residents from 315 homes near the foot of the volcano. \"There has been no panic among the residents and the eruption is apparently subsiding. But as a precaution, we have urged residents to evacuate,\" one official said. The eruption forced the airport on the island to close and commercial flights between Tokyo and the island were canceled, an airport spokesman said. The island chain south of Tokyo has experienced tens of thousands of earthquakes in the past two months triggered by the increasingly active volcano. Mount Oyama's last major eruption was in 1983 when it destroyed 400 houses and left a moonscape of rock, burning out nearby forests and destroying a lake. A lava flow from an eruption in 1940 killed 11 people and it erupted again in 1962."}, {"response": 226, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 20, 2000 (13:10)", "body": "************************** Miyakejima eruption ************************** Mount Oyama experienced its largest eruption in 17 years, forcing the evacuation of residents. There were no reports of injuries, but some reports said the ash had formed into a small rock-like objects that had fallen on to car roofs. The volcano last erupted on August 10. For full stories and links, see: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000818/sc/japan_volcano_dc_7.html http://www.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/east/08/18/japan.volcano.reut/index.html"}, {"response": 227, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 21, 2000 (00:52)", "body": "**************************************** Elevated seismicity at Bandaisan, Japan **************************************** In 1888 a sector collapse at Japan's Bandaisan created a horseshoe-shaped caldera open to the N and killing 461 people in the process. [There were several explosions that may have triggered this event]. Some 1\ufffd km3 of debris deposits from the catastrophic slope failure. Since Aug 14 there has been much elevated seismicity at this volcano, including felt events and tremor. JMA began monitoring this volcano in 1965. This information courtesy of: http://hakone.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/vrc/erup/bandai.html (maintained by S. Nakada of the University of Tokyo) **************************************** White Island and Ruapehu, New Zealand **************************************** For the week ending 18 August, White Island continued its mild gas and ash venting unchanged, with plumes to ~1,000m. Ruapehu had an episode of moderate to strong volcanic tremor without any visible change in its activity. From: http://www.gns.cri.nz/hazardwatch/latest/gweekvo.htm White Island Minor eruptive activity continued during the week. No notable changes in activity occurred. Ash and gas plumes rose to a height of about 1000m and drifted about 50 km downwind of the volcano. The Alert level remains at 2. Ruapehu A short period of moderate-strong volcanic tremor was recorded during the week, but no volcanic activity was observed associated with this tremor. Ruapehu remains at Alert Level 1 (signs of volcano unrest)."}, {"response": 228, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (23:22)", "body": "More info on Miyakejima, Japan ******************************** Following information from: http://hakone.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/vrc/erup/miyake.html (maintained by S. Nakada) Since the 8 July summit collapse opened a pit crater atop Miyakejima's Oyama cone, collapse has continued, marked by ongoing deflation and earthquakes. This now likely is a small caldera, currently 1.4km diam by 450m deep. Intermittent phreatic eruptions continue, especially since 10 August. Photos of the 10 and 14 August eruptions appear on the URL above. Prior to 10 August, an est. 2 million cubic meters of ejecta while the caldera vol. is about 0.35 cubic km. The eruption cloud on 10 Aug. eventually achieved 10km in ht. A rather large eruption from ~1700 - ~1900 on 15 Aug. with the eruption cloud rising to at least 8km. \"Abundant ash fell mainly in the northwestern part of the volcano island; as thick as 15 cm about 3 km away from the crater. Cinders as large as 5 cm fell over the airport which locates in the southeastern part of the island, breaking windows of automobiles\". All eruptions to date appear to solely phreatic in nature, although the 18 Aug. tephra is still being analyzed. ************************** Miyakejima, Japan photos ************************** From: Claude Desgroseilliers http://www3.50megs.com/claude/volcano/miyakejimavolcano.html --"}, {"response": 229, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (23:16)", "body": "I wish I could attend this: ********************************* Penrose Conference Announcement ********************************* Penrose Conference to address Longevity and Dynamics of Rhyolitic Magma Systems A Geological Society of America Penrose Conference, \"Longevity and Dynamics of Rhyolitic Magma Systems\" will be held June 7-12, 2001, in Mammoth, California. Mammoth Mountain forms the southwest rim of the Long Valley caldera, one of three large Quaternary rhyolitic caldera centers in the United States. Long Valley, a site of recent volcanic unrest, lies at the heart of current debate over the mechanisms and time scales for the production, storage, and differentiation of rhyolite magma. Such information is critical to our understanding of fundamental geologic problems such as the formation and growth of Earth's continents and predicting volcanic hazards. The purpose of the conference is to bring together petrologists, geochemists, volcanologists and geophysicists actively studying the generation and evolution of silicic magmas. We hope to try and resolve, or at least constrain, a number of very important and currently highly topical issues pertaining to the shallow-crustal evolution of large, typically caldera-forming, silicic magma bodies. These include: \ufffd What is a magma chamber-a large, long-lived fractionating liquid body or a \"sleepy\" crystal mush that gets kicked to life every so often, re-mobilizing existing material? A related issue is to what degree do plutons carry-forward, in some integrated way, the expression of this? \ufffd What do crystals really represent-phenocrysts vs. xenocrysts-and what 'memory' do they retain? Related to this issue are questions such as does crystal growth- and dissolution-zoning reflect protracted fractionation of a single magma body or remobilization and dispersal of crystal mush during injection of fresh magma into the subvolcanic system and how do crystals move in the magma system - or are the crystals effectively static in a moving magma system? \ufffd What is the efficacy of, and driving forces for, convection/mixing in silicic magmas? Can crystal disequilibrium features, such as chemical/isotopic zoning and dissolution surfaces, serve to discriminate between thermal convection and magma mixing? \ufffd What are the time scales needed to produce large, rhyolitic magma bodies? Recent work using 40Ar/39Ar, Rb/Sr or U-series isotope data has led to the suggestion that rhyolite magmas in the Long Valley system are stored, following differentiation, for long (105-106) time scales. This contention has been disputed principally on the basis that it would be difficult to keep a body of magma thermally viable for such long periods, even if grater than 500km3 volume. Alternative physical models have been proposed, such as remobilization of juvenile plutons or cumulate materials and ion microprobe work on zircons has variously upheld or contested the claims for long magma residence times. A key focus of the meeting will be to evaluate the different types of data available that bear on ages of magmatic events, and discuss their interpretations. A limited number of keynote talks will serve to outline the current state of knowledge concerning the generation and evolution of large rhyolitic magma systems, and will set the foundation for evaluation of existing paradigms, development of new models, and discussion of future research directions. Most of the meeting will focus on poster sessions and group discussions. Mid-meeting field trips to selected Bishop Tuff and Sierran plutonic locations will serve to raise questions concerning limits and constraints on sampling and interpreting geochemical data from pyroclastic deposits based on our knowledge of how large silicic systems erupt, links between plutonic and volcanic environments, and the importance of recharge and mixing in magma evolution. The conference is limited to approximately 50 participants to ensure a 'workshop-type' atmosphere focussed on manageable discussions. We encourage participation of graduate students working on silicic magma systems; partial student subsidies will be available. The registration fee, which will include lodging, some meals, field trips, and all other conference costs except personal incidentals, is not expected to exceed $750. Information on travel to the conference will be provided in the letter of invitation."}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (23:17)", "body": "Arenal, Costa Rica Arenal Volcano erupted yesterday, Wednesday, Aug. 23, injuring two American tourists and a Costan Rican tour guide hiking near the volcano. The tour guide, Ignacio Protti, later died from second and third degree burns. From: http://www.nacion.co.cr/ln_ee/2000/agosto/24/pais1.html (in Spanish) http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20000824/wl/costa_rica_volcano_cof.html"}, {"response": 231, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (16:07)", "body": "From Maggie and Reuters: Friday August 25 12:54 AM ET Japan Volcano-Hit Island Set to Evacuate Children TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese authorities plan to evacuate nearly 200 school children from an island near Tokyo after a volcanic eruption last week left the island covered in ash and fearful of more eruptions. Officials on Miyakejima island, struck by its biggest eruption in 17 years on August 18, said the evacuation may occur within a week to have the children settled by September 1, the start of the new school term. This would involve taking around 190 primary and junior high school children off the island, by ship, to an evacuation site somewhere in the Tokyo metropolitan area, they added. ``Authorities are saying there could be another eruption like the one last week, or even larger,'' said Chihoko Kaechi, an official at the Miyakejima Board of Education. ``We can't guarantee the children's safety.'' The total population of primary and junior high students is 327, but the rest have already left voluntarily. A week ago, the island was plunged into darkness when a massive pall of smoke and ash from Mount Oyama was thrown as high as 26,400 feet into the air, burying the island in centimeters of gray ash. The volcano has erupted repeatedly since late June. It spat out more ash Friday morning. ``This place is like a desert now,'' said Kaechi. ``It's very hot and the ash gets in your eyes. People with conditions like asthma are really suffering.'' Workers have been clearing the ash from roads and buildings, using shovels and brooms and scooping it into bags. The Meteorological Agency has warned that, while they believe it unlikely, they cannot entirely rule out an eruption of magma at some point. Eruptions on the scale of the August 18 eruption, or larger, are also possible, with the chance of small rocks being thrown out with the ash. Decision To Be Made Soon Tokyo government officials said that while no final decision on the evacuation had yet been made, they expected one soon. ``The biggest difficulty is deciding whether to keep each school together or break them into smaller units and evacuate them separately,'' an official with the Tokyo Board of Education said. ``And of course it is quite hard to find a good site.'' About 4,000 people live on Miyakejima, 113 miles south of Tokyo, part of the Izu island chain, which has been jolted by tens of thousands of earthquakes in addition to volcanic eruptions over the past two months. Some 800 have already left the island voluntarily. Those who remained have suffered through periodic orders for short-term evacuations to gymnasiums and public halls. Mount Oyama's last major eruption in 1983 destroyed 400 houses and left a moonscape of rock, burning out nearby forests and destroying a lake. A lava flow from an eruption in 1940 killed eleven people. Japanese media reported that Miyakejima's mayor had asked that all remaining residents be evacuated from the island, but a Tokyo city official said there had been no formal request. The entire population of Oshima, another island in the chain, was evacuated when a volcano there erupted in 1986. The Tokyo official said that the city was not considering such an evacuation at this point, adding that it was not yet dangerous enough to warrant the logistical difficulties and the trauma involved in uprooting people from their homes. ``Besides, the activity of this volcano is proving extremely difficult to predict. Who will take responsibility for evacuating people -- and then nothing happens for months or years?''"}, {"response": 232, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (20:16)", "body": "This web site contains the updating Etna, Vesuvius and Stromboli Volcanoes. Watch them erupt! ******************************************* Earthquakes & Volcanoes in Sicily website ******************************************* From: Villari Letterio I should like to inform the Volcano List Server follower that since the beginning of the current year weekly news on Earthquakes and Volcanoes in Sicily (Italy) are available, on-line, by consulting the Poseidon web page, at http://www.poseidon.nti.it address. L. Villari, Director"}, {"response": 233, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 27, 2000 (14:25)", "body": "Mt Etna is erupting and may get a lot bigger. Watch in real time: http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~gerhard/cam_etna.html"}, {"response": 234, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (23:46)", "body": "\"Today In Volcanic History\" This is for all of August- August 4 1905- Savai'i, Samoa Erupts August 8 1991- Hudson, Chile Erupts August 16 1663- Usu, Japan Erupts August 17 915- Towada, Japan Erupts August 24 79- Vesuvius, Italy Erupts I snitched this from Yahoo! Clubs: WARNING Volcanology Activated"}, {"response": 235, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Aug 29, 2000 (03:09)", "body": "Update on the Japanese volcano: Tuesday August 29 2:39 AM ET Japan Island Volcano Erupts; Evacuation Speeded Up By Elaine Lies TOKYO (Reuters) - A volcano on a Japanese island 113 miles south of Tokyo spewed a huge column of steam, smoke and ash Tuesday, forcing authorities to speed up a planned evacuation of school children from the island. Officials on Miyakejima said they were taking the last remaining school children off the island Tuesday afternoon rather than Thursday, as previously scheduled.``This new eruption made us decide to speed up the evacuation as it's no longer safe,'' a Board of Education official said. Some 139 children, from primary to high school, were scheduled to leave by boat later Tuesday. There are normally close to 500 students on the island, but the rest had already left voluntarily. Authorities were hurrying to take enough food and bedding to a boarding school in western Tokyo where the students will be housed, NHK public television said. The evacuation will last at least until the end of September. Television pictures showed Miyakejima island shadowed by a massive pall of smoke and ash that shot as high as 26,400 feet into the air from Mount Oyama. Officials said the eruption -- the ninth in a series that began in late June -- emitted no volcanic cinders, unlike an eruption on August 18 that was the largest in 17 years, but warned that the situation remained extremely fluid. ``There is a strong smell of sulphur in the air, but this eruption is much smaller than the one two weeks ago,'' an official at the Miyakejima town office said.There was no outflow of lava but up to six inches of ash had accumulated on some parts of the island. Emergency Task Force Residents were told to stay indoors while officials prepared evacuation centers for residents who wanted to leave their homes.No formal evacuation order had been issued, however, and there were no reports of injuries.Chief cabinet secretary Hidenao Nakagawa told a regular news conference Tuesday the government was establishing an emergency task force to aid evacuation efforts and address safety issues.About 4,000 residents live on Miyakejima, part of the Izu island chain that has been jolted by tens of thousands of earthquakes in addition to volcanic eruptions over the past two months.The nearby islands of Niijima and Kozushima were jolted by a moderately strong earthquake that measured 5.0 on the Richter scale Tuesday morning, but there were no reports of damage or tidal waves.Around 1,159 people had left Miyakejima as of late Monday, Japanese media said -- more than one-third of the population.The Meteorological Agency has warned it cannot entirely rule out the possibility of an eruption of magma, althoug this is considered unlikely. Eruptions on the scale of the August 18 eruption or larger are also possible, with the chance of small rocks spewing out with the ash. Mount Oyama's last major eruption in 1983 destroyed 400 houses and left a moonscape of rock, burning out nearby forests and destroying a lake. A lava flow from an eruption in 1940 killed 11 people.The latest eruption also briefly appeared to boost sulphur dioxide levels to several times acceptable amounts in the air over areas west and south of Tokyo, where residents complained of a sulphurous smell Monday. No illnesses were reported.Prevailing winds apparently blew smoke from Miyakejima toward the area, Japanese media reported."}, {"response": 236, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 29, 2000 (13:08)", "body": "Thank, Maggie. David has not sent me the official update yet!"}, {"response": 237, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 29, 2000 (23:59)", "body": "*********************** Arenal, Costa Rica *********************** Last Wednesday 23 of August, Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica, erupted a sequence of pyroclastic flows originated by a crater collapse in the north flank of the volcano. The first activity began at 15:45 hours GMT, with a vigorous emission that began at 16:01 and had a duration of 23 minutes. Two tourists and their guide were burnt by the front part of the flow, about 2.3 km. from the crater. The guide Ignacio Protti took the two tourists, walking about 500m. and driving about 2 km to a safer place. Mr. Protti died around midnight (6:00 GMT of Aug. 24). A second and more intense sequence of flows began at 19:23 GMT with a duration of 1 hour and 14 min. The deposits reached a maximum distance of 2.7 km. from the active crater and expanded more than 300 m in the distal part. The following activity has returned to the normal emission of gases (carried to the west by the predominant winds) and lava through the same direction of the pyroclastic flows. The National Park was closed and most of the nearest hotels were evacuated. On Saturday 26 an airplane with 10 passengers crashed against the northeastern flank of Arenal Volcano, about 200 m. lower than the summit and a distance of about 600 m from the collapse. All the occupants died. The Red Cross are attempting to rescue the bodies today, Aug. 28. More information could be found at the web pages http://www.una.ac.cr/ovsi http://www.nacion.co.cr/ln_ee/2000/agosto/24/pais1.html http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20000824/wl/costa_rica_volcano_cof.html"}, {"response": 238, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 30, 2000 (15:00)", "body": "Thanks American_Patriot VOLCANOES- August 29 2000- Mt. Etna Explodes- Italy's Mt. Etna Volcano erupted Monday afternoon, raining ash on the Sicilian city of Catania to the south. No one was threatened by the lava flows of Etna. The lava flowed from one of Etna's youngest craters located on the southwestern flank. August 29 2000- Mt. Oyama Erupts Twice- Mt. Oyama is on Miyake island 120 miles south of Tokyo erupted twice on Tuesday. Mt. Oyama's activity began in June but first erupted on Tuesday at 4:35 AM and sent a plume of ash 5 miles into the sky. Then erupted again at 2:53 PM (14:53). There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. These eruptions have so far been the largest since her last eruption 17 years ago."}, {"response": 239, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 30, 2000 (15:11)", "body": "SHEVELUCH VOLCANO 56o38' N, 161o19' E; Elevation 2,447 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS ORANGE. PREVIOUS LEVEL OF CONCERN WAS YELLOW. A short-lived explosive eruption was observed at 11:35 AM KDT (2235 OTC) sending an ash-rich plume to an estimated altitude of 33,000 ft (10 km) ASL; the ash cloud was reported as moving to the southeast. Increased seismicity was noted at 2231-2237 followed by volcanic tremor. Seismicity has decreased significantly and the eruption appears to be over at this time. However, Sheveluch has had several short-lived explosive eruptions recently as partial dome collapse has occurred and more eruptive activity could occur. PLEASE CONTACT AVO IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS."}, {"response": 240, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 30, 2000 (21:58)", "body": "****************************** Indonesian volcano updates ****************************** Below is a summary of Indonesian volcanic activity reported for the week ending 21 August. Interesting to note the Kaba appears to \"active\" and that famed Merapi, after an unusually long quescence, appears to be increasing in activity. From: http://www.vsi.dpe.go.id/hotnews.html VSI Weekly Report, 23 August 2000 Report for the period 15-21 August 2000 G. Kaba During the week the weather around the volcano was cloudy, so the visual observation can not be done clearly. But from seismicity of Kaba volcano was still in active. That was represents from the number earthquakes. Although the number of seismicity was decreased over last week, seismograph was still recorded the main of volcanic earthquake, deep volcanic (A) earthquake but the number lesser than previous. In contrast, tectonic earthquake was increased over last week, 37 events during the week. On 17 August seismograph was recorded tremor harmonic earthquake with the maximum amplitude of 14 mm. The complete data were deep volcanic (A) earthquake 256 events, 1 event of shallow volcanic (B) earthquake, and 12 events of tremor volcanic earthquake. Kaba activity was stated in level 2 (out of four alert level). Anak Krakatau Anak Krakatau activity was still continuing. Although the haze obscured the visual observation, observer was heard booming sound from the volcano. Seismograph was still recorded many quakes, especially for explosion/small explosion earthquakes which the number were increased over the previous week, and infrasonic was also recorded 12 events of explosion earthquakes but decreased for the number of deep volcanic (A) earthquakes. The complete seismicity were 1 event of deep volcanic (A) earthquake, explosion/small explosion earthquake 326 events, infrasonic 12 events. Anak Krakatau volcano is stated in level 2, alert. G. Slamet Central Java 109\ufffd13\ufffd20\"N, 7\ufffd16\ufffd2\"E, summit elevation 3676 m Ash smoke was ejected from the summit with the height was about 50-100 m. Seismicity was dominated by small explosion earthquake (1018 events during the week) and tremor earthquakes, with the amplitude of about 0.5-15 mm. Slamet activity is stated in level 2 (out of four alert level). G. Semeru East Java 112.92\ufffdN, 8.11\ufffdE, summit elevation 3676 m Semeru activity was still high but lower than the week before. It was represents from both visual and instrumental observations. From the volcano was appears ash plume in white thin-brown color hit about 600 m height. The number of seismicity were lesser than last week. Seismograph was still recorded volcanic earthquake, but the dominant seismicity were explosion earthquakes. The complete data were listed as follow deep volcanic (A) earthquake 2 events, explosion earthquake 420 events, avalanche earthquake 17 events, and 5 events of tectonic earthquake. Semeru activity is now stated in level 2, alert (out of four alert level). G. Lokon North Sulawesi 1\ufffd21.5\ufffdN, 124\ufffd47.5\ufffdE, summit elevation 1579 m Based on visual observations, there is no major changes around the volcano compare to the week before, but ash plume was still appears and reached about 100-300 m height above the rim of the crater. Night observations was notice that the red flame was appears from the crater. The radiation was about 25 m height above the crater rim. It was observed from the Kakaskasen post observatory. Seismicity was increased over the week before, mostly in deep volcanic earthquake. Seismograph was recorded 3 events of shallow volcanic (B) earthquake, 4 events of deep volcanic (A) earthquake, 40 events of tectonic earthquake, and a continuous of tremor with the amplitude of 0.5 mm. Lokon activity is now stated in level 3 (out of four alert level). G. Soputan North Sulawesi 124\ufffd41\ufffd12\"N, 1\ufffd6\ufffd20\"E, summit elevation 1783,7 m On 14 August 21.05 (local time, WIB) was occurred again an explosion from the main crater of Soputan volcano. Ash explosion was in dark grey rises to 2500 m. This activity was continued by strombolian explosion which hit 150 m height above the rim of the crater. The ash explosion was went to the southwest. This activity was continuing until 6.00 am (local time) in the morning and accompanied by a continuum of thundering sound which made tremble the windows of people houses around the Maliku village (about 7 km away from the summit). This explosion also accompanied by lava avalanche, flowed down to the southwest 200 m away from the source. Seismicity was still dominated by avalanche and tremor harmonic earthquakes. Tectonic earthquake 18 events, explosion earthquake 3 events, avalanche earthquake 795 events, and a continuous of tremor earthquakes. Soputan activity is now stated in level 4 (the highest level). G. Merapi Yogyakarta 110.45\ufffdN, 7.54\ufffdE, summit elevation 2911 m Merapi activity continued to increase and now in level 2 (out of four alert level). That was represents from both visual and instrumental monitoring. By visual observati"}, {"response": 241, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 30, 2000 (22:01)", "body": "The AGU 2000 Fall Meeting will take place in San Francisco, Dec. 15-19 2000. For your convenience, here is a summary list of special sessions offered by the Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology (VGP) Section, including cross-listed sessions. Convener contact information is included. Full descriptions of each session can be found at: http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm00_spss.html Abstracts are due Sept. 1, 2000 by postal submission, and Sept. 7, 2000 by electronic submission."}, {"response": 242, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 30, 2000 (23:28)", "body": "VOLCANO- August 30 2000- Tokyo Prepares For Evacuations- An earthquake and small eruption hit a volcanic island south of Tokyo today, prompting naval forces to station a destroyer off the coast for a speedy evacuation. The Tokyo city government offered shelter for the remaining 1,600 residents of the island. Massive underground reservoirs of magma are responsible for the recent volcanic and seismic activity on Miyake, one of the Izu islands about 118 miles from Tokyo. Mt. Oyama which experienced its last big eruption in 1983, shot a 1.6 mile-high column of ash and smoke at 4:24 AM today. Hours later a magnitude 4.8 quake struck. No reports of injuries or damage were made. Mahalo to A_P1"}, {"response": 243, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (19:36)", "body": "http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/arenal/arenal.html Check out the above URL for information and a pic ture of the perfect composite cinder-cone Volcano. Hawaiian volcanoes are all shield volcanoes, as are those in Iceland."}, {"response": 244, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Sep  6, 2000 (02:28)", "body": "You may have seen these before, but they were new to me. Here are some fantastic Hawaiian volcano pix by G. Brad Lewis - all copyright, but well worth a look see https://secure.hialoha.net/kw/lavart/1999_catalog.html."}, {"response": 245, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Sep  6, 2000 (02:30)", "body": "If that link doesn't work (it doesn't show up linked on here) try http://www.lavart.com/ and click on image catalog"}, {"response": 246, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  6, 2000 (21:18)", "body": "**************************************** Volcanoes, Aerosols and Climate meeting **************************************** VOLCANOES, AEROSOLS AND CLIMATE Royal Meteorological Society Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group of the Geological Society of London Aerosol Society Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR, UK Wednesday 18 October 2000, 1-5pm The meeting will cover several aspects of the relationship between volcanism and climate, from measurements of gases as they emanate from active volcanoes, through the processes of aerosol formation, growth and transport in the troposphere and stratosphere, and the impacts of volcanic aerosol upon the chemical composition, radiation budget, and climate of Earth's atmosphere. The meeting is free and open to all who are interested. For further details see: http://www.royal-met-soc.org.uk/wedmeet.html http://www.royal-met-soc.org.uk/wedabs001018.html"}, {"response": 247, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  6, 2000 (21:22)", "body": "Ash eruptions - Komagatake,Popocatepetl,Tavurvur(Rabual) The full report from the Japan Times (09/06/00) is available at: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news.htm excerpt: SAPPORO (Kyodo) A volcano in Hokkaido erupted Monday night for the first time in nearly two years, the Meteorological Agency said early Tuesday. Mount Komagatake in southwestern Hokkaido erupted at 10:14 p.m. ...There have been no reports of casualties or damage. At around 5 a.m. Tuesday, the Sapporo District Meteorological Observatory reported seeing smoke from the volcano reaching as high as 500 meters above the volcano...The observatory also reported that a seismic tremor was observed on the 1,133-meter mountain, which is about 120 km southwest of Sapporo. ************************* Popocatepetl, Mexico ************************* from the CENAPRED September 5 Bulletin http://www.cenapred.unam.mx/boletines.html September 4. At 03:47 a moderate large plume of ash was produce. The doppler radar detected the plume, that occurred at night. There were reports ash fall in many towns in the North-west flank: Amecameca, Ozumba, Tepetlixpa, San Juan Tehuxtitlan, Zoyatzingo and Valle de Chalco. Some ash also fell on the South limit of Mexico City. The intense phase of this event lasted 3 minutes, and was followed by 25 minutes of high frequency tremor. A tectonovolcanic event, below the crater and of magnitude 1.8 also ocurred. It is recommended not to approach the volcano to less than 7 km from the crater. The traffic light of volcanic alert is maintained yellow. (Recent images of the volcano can be viewed in this web page.) ************************** Tavurvur (Rabual), PNG ************************** full Reuters report at: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000906/wl/papua_volcano_dc_1.html excerpt: BRISBANE (Reuters) - Thick clouds of volcanic ash have blown over the Papua New Guinea town of Rabaul and authorities said on Wednesday they were watching a nearby volcano closely for signs of increased activity. The Tavurvur volcano in PNG's remote northeast province began blowing smoke and debris last week but vulcanologists said the activity was still considered normal and no alert had been issued to warn townspeople in the New Britain island trading port. \"In the past several days we have had strong southeasterly winds which have blown the ash directly into Rabaul,\" Ima Itikarai, director of the Rabaul Vulcanological Observatory, told Reuters by telephone. \"It is not at the stage where we would declare it critical, but we will keep a close watch on it.\"...Itikarai said the current activity is similar to events in 1995 and 1996, when Tavurvur spewed debris for several hours at a time over a period of days before calming down."}, {"response": 248, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 10, 2000 (23:23)", "body": "VOLCANO- Sept 7 2000- Volcano In Papua New Guinea Explodes- Tavurvur Volcano, located in a remote NE province of Papua New Guinea, exploded Wednesday. The volcano began showing signs of increased activity last week, spewing smoke and volcanic debris. The activity was within the mountain's normal range, and no alerts were issued. Rabaul, located 500 miles NE of the capital Port Moresby, is built on the caldera of the volcano. The city suffered extensive destruction in 1994 when Tavurvur erupted simultaneously with a neighboring volcano, Vulcan, killing five people. Both of the volcanoes erupted in 1937 triggering tsunamis that flooded the city. Rabaul is surrounded by 6 volcanoes, and is located on the Pacific's Ring of Fire. Thanks to A_P again!"}, {"response": 249, "author": "Carys", "date": "Mon, Sep 11, 2000 (17:43)", "body": "Hello Marcia. I thought it best to make my maiden post at Geo on this conference. Since you mentioned living on an island with a large volcano -- Hawaii, the big island of course. You live in the shadow of the great goddess Pele. There used to be a beautiful black sand beach on Hawaii. It's gone now, under lava fields. The process of island building goes on!"}, {"response": 250, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 11, 2000 (20:24)", "body": "Kalapana black sand beach is no more and I have it documented inch by painful inch in photographs as it was paved over by 20 feet of faceless lava. However, as the leading edge of molten lava hit the sea it fractured into minute particles and remade a balck sand beach several hundred feet from the former shoreline. Locals whose houses escaped collected coconuts which had sprouted in the kipukas (kipuka = island of original land which the new lava left untouched) and planted them in an arc around the new beach. It is getting pretty out there and they hold surfing contests again. Pele giveth and Pele taketh away. The current eruption just down the coast from Kalapana is still ongoing and has added over 5000 square acres to our island. The cartographers have a constant updating job here. I have watched two mini mountains form which are now on maps and have names. It is fascinating! I was wondering when you would post in my conference...Aloha! E komo mai! Original Kalapana Black Sand Beach\\ New Black Sand Beach at Kalapana"}, {"response": 251, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (02:05)", "body": "Large rocks in strange places http://www.islenews.com/ By Staff | 2000.9.7 - 17:19:53 HST Sometimes in science you find something that theory says you shouldn't. Then your pulse starts racing. Are your observations or calculations wrong? Is the theory wrong? Or is there a middle ground, in which observations can be fit to theory if both are tweaked a little? In late August two volcanologists from the USGS (one from HVO) and one from the Smithsonian Institution were faced with this dilemma. We don't yet know what the final outcome will be, but we're pretty excited. As this column has previously noted, Kilauea has exploded more often than many people think. Ongoing research at HVO is trying to learn as much as possible about these explosions, for flying rocks are clearly hazardous events that will impact the public. We went looking for rocks that were thrown out of the volcano about 1,000 years ago. Work in past months had shown that a wide variety of material was exploded from Kilauea then, mostly cherry-sized scoria and other fine-grained material. However, several times explosions were apparently more violent or powerful. They ejected large, heavy rocks, much like those from the 1924 explosions that litter the surface around Halema`uma`u today. The question we asked was how far out were such rocks thrown? Using a hand-held GPS unit, we established a grid between the Hilina Pali Road and the `Ainahou Ranch Road. The grid is about 700 m (2,300 feet) on a side. At each node of the grid, we spent a total of 18 minutes looking for rocks on the surface-6 minutes per person with a full crew, and 9 minutes with only two of us. We selected the largest 10 rocks we could find during the search. It was like an Easter egg hunt, except the rocks can't be eaten and Nature put them there. We were searching for the largest rocks we could find. We were not interested in those that broke off the surface of the lava flow beneath our feet, but in those that were clearly foreign-that reached their resting place by flying through the air ballistically. After a little practice, recognizing the ballistics became a simple matter. Some of the rocks are even coarse-grained gabbro, which cooled and crystallized underground before being blasted out. What we found surprised, even shocked, us. Rather than seeing few, if any, large rocks so far from the caldera, we found lots. And some were very large. At a distance of 10 km (6 miles) from the summit, we found one rock (a gabbro) weighing 1292 g (2 lbs 13 oz.). At 7.9 km (4.7 miles) from the summit, we found another weighing 1998 g (4 lbs 5 oz.). Many others weigh 100 g (3.5 oz.) or more. When we compared our findings with theoretical models of how far such large rocks could have been thrown from a volcanic vent, we found that we were observing the impossible. The models simply say no dice, it can't be done. Even if we assume that the source for the rocks was on the east rift zone, say near Pauahi Crater or Mauna Ulu, the distance of more than 5.25 km (3.2 miles) is still too great for the models to accept. But, models or no models, the rocks traveled through the air to get where we found them-and that has to be explained. We think we are on to something. Kilauea has likely had explosions that were either more powerful, or of a different type, than existing theoretical models can explain. Before you toss out theory, all steps in the observation and interpretation process must be checked and double checked. We are doing that now. Explosions of such unusual power or type are significant; we can leave no stone unturned (pun intended) in trying to determine their nature and cause."}, {"response": 252, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (02:17)", "body": "Waiting for the pause that refreshes http://www.islenews.com/ By Staff | 2000.8.31 - 18:17:49 HST What do Kilauea Volcano's eruption and Hilo's 7:30 a.m. traffic have in common? For one thing, lots of stops and starts. The stops and starts in the eruption at Kilauea are the by now familiar pauses; the stops and starts in busy Hilo traffic might be referred to in more colorful terms. The latest pause in Kilauea's ongoing eruption occurred just over a week ago and was brief. The pause started late on Wednesday, August 23, and ended Saturday, August 26. This was the first Y2K pause but the 30th of the current eruptive episode, which began in February 1997. Eruptive pauses can be short--lasting only a few hours--or long--lasting days or even tens of days. For avid local volcano viewers and once-in-a-lifetime visitors, a pause can be a frustrating experience, since lava stops flowing completely, and there is little, if anything, to see that is red and molten. However, for residents and visitors who are acutely aware of air quality, a pause can be a refreshing experience. Since the current eruption began in 1983, Kilauea has released a total of around 8 million tons of toxic sulfur dioxide gas (SO2)--enough to fill 400,000 Goodyear blimps or 350 billion party balloons. This gas, which reacts in the atmosphere to form sulfuric acid and other aerosols, is the principle gas responsible for the formation of volcanic smog (vog). At Kilauea, the amount of sulfur dioxide gas released is directly proportional to the amount of lava erupted. Therefore, when the lava eruption rate declines, there is generally a decrease in the amount of SO2 discharged. During a long pause, the amount of SO2 released from the eruption site is usually drastically reduced. For example, during a 25-day break in the eruption in early 1997, so little SO2 was being emitted that it could not be detected downwind of the eruption site using our standard measurement techniques. This abrupt decrease in gas confirmed that, in addition to the absence of lava at the surface, magma had also withdrawn from beneath Pu`u `O`o. Several months later, SO2 emissions were still only around half their typical value, reflecting the sluggish start-up of the eruption. During this delightful three-month period of very low SO2 emissions, Kona residents reported the return of the clear air that was the norm before 1986, when the eruption became continuous. Residents who had moved off-island to escape the hazy Kona air quality inquired whether the improved conditions were likely to continue and it might be time to move back. The respite was brief however, and as the lava production came up to full volume, so did the SO2 emissions, and thereby the air pollution problem. During brief pauses, SO2 emissions may decline somewhat but not stop altogether. During the most recent event, measurements showed that the amount of SO2 released during the pause was still around two-thirds of what we had measured prior to the pause. Although no active lava was flowing, residual degassing of cooling lava, tubes, the vent areas, and shallow magma beneath Pu`u 'O`o continued. It can take many days for all of the gas to escape from the material remaining in the system, so a brief pause may give little chance for chronic volcanic air pollution, such as that in Kona, to clear. Close to the emission sources, it may also be difficult to detect that a decrease in SO2 has occurred. Under steady trade wind conditions, a compact plume of the residual SO2 from the inactive eruption site can cross the Chain of Craters Road in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, 9 km (5.5 miles) from the emission source. This plume is concentrated enough so that a person would still experience the pungent smell, taste and ensuing watery eyes associated with SO2 exposure. Although the latest pause in Kilauea's ongoing eruption was brief, an extended \"pause that refreshes\" may lie in the future."}, {"response": 253, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (17:18)", "body": "Maggie!!! This is hilarious stuff!!! Whoooooo...I did not know it was even out there let alone for God and everyone to read. Thanks for putting it here!!! Kilauea continues to erupt on the southwest flank and continues to add acreage to the island as it does so....and more black sand for the beaches. The House Male assured me that the new Kalapana black sand has all washed away and thatr this other beach is a poor replacement for the old one. But, it is one of the few remaining beaches in the area. He said there are 200-foot (61 M) cliffs now where the \"new\" black sand beach used to be."}, {"response": 254, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (19:52)", "body": "******************************* Aoba Volcano, Vanuatu website ******************************* From: Roberto Carniel A short note to inform you that, in collaboration with Charlie Douglas and Sandrine Wallez, Geohazard Mitigation section of the Department of Geology, Mines and Water resources of Vanuatu, and Michel Halbwachs and Michel Lardy, of French IRD, we prepared a page regarding the current situation at Aoba volcano, in the island of Ambae, Vanuatu. STROMBOLI ON LINE, by J. Alean & R. Carniel, http://stromboli.net From homepage follow link: *Eruptions worldwide\", then \"Aoba, Ambae, Vanuatu\". Best regards. Roberto Carniel. University of Udine, Italy"}, {"response": 255, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (04:06)", "body": "(did you see 251 as well?)"}, {"response": 256, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (05:42)", "body": "You probably know all this but it was new to me ...The following near-real-time Earthquake Bulletin is provided by the National Earthquake Information Service (NEIS) of the U. S. Geological Survey as part of a cooperative project of the Council of the National Seismic System. For a description of the earthquake parameters listed below, the availability of additional information, and our publication criteria, please finger qk_info@gldfs.cr.usgs.gov. This Bulletin is updated every 5 minutes, if necessary. The same Bulletin is also available via the Internet at: http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/bulletin.html and that is the preferred means of obtaining it. Updated as of Thu Sep 14 22:22:40 GMT 2000. DATE-(UTC)-TIME LAT LON DEP MAG Q COMMENTS yy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss deg. deg. km 00/09/12 06:43:13 35.35N 99.32E 33.0 4.7Mb A QINGHAI, CHINA 00/09/12 09:50:50 22.65S 179.92W 544.7 4.6Mb B SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS 00/09/12 09:54:38 36.42N 120.99W 9.7 2.8Md CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 00/09/12 10:54:12 6.66N 73.05W 163.9 5.0Mb A NORTHERN COLOMBIA 00/09/12 15:54:33 27.41S 177.16W 33.0 4.8Mb B KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION 00/09/12 16:27:24 5.42S 101.76E 33.0 6.1Ms A SW OF SUMATERA, INDONESIA 00/09/13 00:11:26 51.00N 179.28E 33.0 4.3Mb B RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 00/09/13 00:13:33 23.86S 66.71W 33.0 4.9Mb B JUJUY PROVINCE, ARGENTINA 00/09/13 03:55:10 27.76N 51.74E 33.0 4.7Mb B PERSIAN GULF 00/09/13 04:17:04 27.77N 51.72E 33.0 4.8Mb A PERSIAN GULF 00/09/13 08:47:50 7.91S 74.41W 147.1 4.3Mb A PERU-BRAZIL BORDER REGION 00/09/13 09:04:22 27.48N 51.85E 33.0 4.7Mb B PERSIAN GULF 00/09/13 10:08:01 42.73N 145.09E 33.0 4.4Mb A HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION 00/09/13 10:34:53 58.38S 25.05W 33.0 4.8Mb B SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION 00/09/13 13:09:46 27.82N 51.70E 33.0 5.1Mb A PERSIAN GULF 00/09/13 15:11:20 34.18N 95.08E 33.0 4.7Mb B QINGHAI, CHINA 00/09/13 20:39:03 9.12N 126.10E 132.0 4.7Mb B MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 00/09/13 22:15:09 44.51N 140.56E 248.4 4.2Mb B EASTERN SEA OF JAPAN 00/09/13 22:29:10 54.31S 136.80W 10.0 5.3Mb C PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE 00/09/14 14:59:57 15.65S 179.80E 33.0 6.2Ms A FIJI ISLANDS 00/09/14 17:33:27 22.43S 176.35W 104.5 5.2Mb A SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS"}, {"response": 257, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (05:48)", "body": "Also http://www.drudgereport.com/quake.htm The areas covered are: LIVE REPORTS WORLD LIST LOS ANGELES LIST LOS ANGELES MAP SAN FRANCISCO LIST SAN FRANCISCO MAP INSTA CALI MAP EMERGENCY INFO SEISMO/H'WOOD ENTIRE US MAP AP QUAKE NEWS UPI/REUTER QUAKE NEWS MAMMOTH VOLCANO WATCH"}, {"response": 258, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "Yup...post them daily in Geo 26, but I appreciat your posting them anyway. I am desperately trying to retrieve my foot from my mouth in which it has been firmly wedged all week! Appreciate your diligence. Btw, falcon came here in July and apparently was soooo bored that he has not been back since...!"}, {"response": 259, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (11:49)", "body": "Friday September 15 2:35 PM ET Mexico's Popocatepetl Volcano Spouts Steam And Gas MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano spewed a column of steam and gas nearly a mile into the air on Friday but authorities said there was no threat to people living nearby. The Center for the Prevention of Disasters (CENAPRED) said the volcano, 40 miles east of the nation's capital, remained on yellow alert, meaning it could erupt in weeks or months but probably no sooner. The center advised people to stay at least 4.3 miles away from Popocatepetl, which means ``smoking mountain'' in the indigenous Nahuatl language. Ramon Pena, director of Plan Popocatepetl at the center, told local radio the exhalation was normal for an active volcano. He attributed the emission to the presence of snow on the crater that evaporates rapidly on contact with the magma. Recently, the 17,887-foot volcano has shown increased activity. ``Popo,'' as it is known locally, was inactive from 1927 to 1994, when there was a moderate eruption. Since then it has been active, regularly sending up smoke and ash columns. In November 1998, the volcano spewed fragments of lava rock."}, {"response": 260, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (15:01)", "body": "VOLCANO- Sept 10 2000- Tavurvur, Rabual Caldera, New Britian Island, Papua New Guinea Erupts- On Sept 6, the stratovolcano Tavurvur erupted sending thick clouds of ash over the town of Rabual. Tarvurvur began showing signs of increased activity the week before, but not alerts were issued. *Mahalo, A_P*"}, {"response": 261, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (15:15)", "body": "Asama-Yama Volcano Japan................ Asama-Yama, Japan Location: 36.4N, 138.53E Elevation: 8364 Ft. (2550 m) Asama-yama is a stratovolcano. Three overlapping bodies make up this volcano. It consists of a young stratovolcano with two craters lying on a shield volcano. The shield volcano rests on an older stratovolcano. Kurohu-yama is the name of the western crater rim of the older stratovolcano. It stands 7888 ft (2405 m) high. Erosion has enlarged this crater to 1.25 miles (2 km) around. Water rests in the crater and is drained to the SW. The eastern part of this stratovolcano has been down-faulted and buried under a shield volcano. A younger stratovolcano also lies on top of this shield. This younger stratovolcano has two craters. The SW rim of the outer crater is Maekake-yama. It stands 8177 ft. (2493 m) high. The outer crater is ~3900 ft. (1200 m) across from east to west and ~3000 ft. (900 m) across from north to south. This crater is about 1.25 miles (2 km) east of Kurohu-yama. Kama-yama is a cone at the center of the outer crater. It stands 8364 ft (2550 m) high. This cone rises 558 ft. (170 m) above the bottom of the crater. Its crater pit is ~1150 ft. (350 m) across and very active. The depth of this crater changes with time. It was 820 ft. (250 m) deep in 1893, but it was completely filled with lava in 1912. All recorded eruptions have taken place from this crater pit. Asama-yama sits on a flat plateau. This plateau is about 3300 ft. (1000 m) high. It is made of rocks erupted from other volcanoes, lake deposits and rocks make up the older volcanoes. Hotoke-iwa exists as a bulge to the SW of the outer crater of the younger stratovolcano. Hotoke-iwa is a shield volcano with a steep slope. The first stage of activity of Asama was the eruption of Kurohu-yama. This cone shaped stratovolcano grew 6560 ft. (2000 m) from its base at the time. Its crater began to grow by erosion once the cone itself stopped growing. The eastern part of Kurohu-yama was destroyed by down-faulting and large scale steam explosions. The second stage of activity involved the eruption of Hotokeiwa. Several lava flows occurred during this stage. These are now exposed at Hotokeiwa SSE of the present active crater. Ko-asama-yama is a parasitic lava dome on the eastern side of Asama. It stands 5428 ft (1655 m) high and is made of a rock similar to dacite erupted during the formation of the shield volcano. The western side of the shield was destroyed by down-faulting. The third state of activity consisted of the eruptions of two pumice flows. These flows had great volume that spread over wide areas to the north and south of the shield volcano. Andesite stratovolcanoes grew during the fourth stage of activity. The recent eruptions produced thick lava flows and pyroclastic ejecta together with pyroclastic flows (nuees ardentes). On the southern side of this cone there is a parasitic lava dome made of andesite. Its name is Sekison-zan. It rises 656 ft. (200 m) from the surrounding cone. This cone is younger than the cone of Kurohu-yama but older than the recent cone. Its age relation with the shield volcano is unknown. Asama has erupted 121 times. Most of these eruptions have been Vulcanian. A weak solfatara is active at the SW crater rim of the volcano. The last eruption was in 1990. American_Patriot [Yahoo! Clubs: WARNING Volcanology Activated]"}, {"response": 262, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (07:48)", "body": "This was a new site to me ...and I have been surprised at the sheer number of African volcanoes ...several I knew about but many here are new to me ...I think everyrone has pix...often from space, great detail and documented. Too much to explore right now, but I'll be coming back to this site for sure ....... http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/africa/africa.html I found this site through http://www.viexpo.com/dmstest/volcano.html which is also well worth looking at ...."}, {"response": 263, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (23:01)", "body": "Been there and done that. Thanks for reminding me...!"}, {"response": 264, "author": "Carys", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (10:36)", "body": "Marica, I'm sorry it took me ages to get back. I can't get here as often as I'd like having all those \"Mom\" things to do. Thank you so much for the lovely greeting and the information and beautiful photos of the two Kalapana black sand beaches. It must have been very painful to have seen it disappear. I admire and am amazed at the the people who had the forsight to collect the coconut sprouts and plant them on the new beach."}, {"response": 265, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (22:41)", "body": "There are sacred-to-Hawaiian-Ohana (extended family) places all over the place down around Kalapana. There was little grieving by the Hawaiians who have lived with Madame Pele forever. Rather, the celebrate the new land and consecrate it with offerings of food, flowers, carefully made into haku leis, and chants. One hike I took was with a class of geology students. My hiking buddy a local girl. She prayerfully collected flowers for her offering and prayers to Pele for safe passage over the just-barely-hardened flows. I still have the photo of her offerning and will try to scan it. There were about 20 students, one professor and one mom (guess who) who went on the night hike, and none intruded into her quiet departure from us when we reached the new lava on foot. She was just about 5 minutes away from us, out of sight, and no one doubted that her offering and chants helped us escape unscathed. One place we crossed made my hiking boots' soles smoke! It also poured on us at one point - so heavily that our feet made squelching sounds as we walked. But, in Hawaii, rain is a blessing. No one complained and we were all toasty-warm and dry by the time the hike was over!"}, {"response": 266, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (22:43)", "body": "A long story and no mention of the coconuts. Part of the Hawaiian respect for the 'Aina (the land) is their replanting where the lava has taken away."}, {"response": 267, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (21:25)", "body": "*************************** Indonesian updates *************************** Below is a summary of some of the Indonesian volcanic activities for the week ending 18 September. Kerinci, Anak Krakatau, Slamet, Semeru (pyroclastic flows too), Batur, Api Siau (nightime glares and continuous tremor), Lokon-Empung (nighttime glow), Soputan, Ijen (minor ash plume) and Merapi (rockfalls and ash falls) all continued to be active. Following from: http://www.vsi.dpe.go.id/news/index.html Weekly Report No. 581 12 - 18 September 2000 Kerinci Jambi, Sumatera; 1\ufffd41.5' S, 101\ufffd16' E, summit elev. 3,800 m During this week, the activity of Kerinci volcano was still ongoing. Visually, a white thin-thick as plume was observed with a maximum height reached about 300 m above the crater. Seismic record was still dominated by emission earthquakes, but the seismicity decreased compare to the last week. Recorded activities were emission earthquake 129 events and tectonic 15 events. The alert level of Kerinci volcano is in level 2. Anak Krakatau Sunda strait; 6\ufffd6'5.8\" S, 105\ufffd25'22.3\" E Anak Krakatau was covered by smog, so that the visual observation could not be done from the observatory post. Boom sound was not heard from the post. Seismograph was still recording emission earthquakes but the number decreased compare to the last week. Infrasonic sensor recorded 4 explosion earthquakes. Recorded activities were deep volcanic earthquake 2 events, emission/explosion earthquake 1,477 events and tectonic earthquake 1 event. Anak Krakatau volcano is in level 2. Slamet Central Java; 7\ufffd14.30' S,109\ufffd12.30' E During this week, Slamet volcano produced a white medium-thick ash plume with the height of 50-100 m above the summit. Seismicity was dominated by emission and tremor earthquakes with the amplitude of 0.5-5 mm, but there was no a significant change compared to the last week. Seismograph recorded shallow volcanic earthquake 5 events, continuous tremor and emission earthquake 212 events. Slamet volcano is in level 2. Semeru East Java; 8\ufffd6.50' S, 112\ufffd55' E The visual observation showed that a white gray thin ash plume rose up to 600 m above the summit. Seismicity was still dominated by explosion earthquakes and the number showed a increase, whereas the number of ash fall decreased. During this week, seismograph recorded 623 explosion earthquakes, pyroclastic flow 3 events, tremor 2 events and ash fall 72 events. The alert level of Semeru volcano is in level 2. Batur Bali; 8\ufffd14.30' S, 115\ufffd22.30' E During this week, from the visual observation, Batur volcano produced a white thin ash plume with the height of 10 m above the crater edge. Seismograph recorded shallow volcanic earthquake 3 events, deep volcanic 8 events, emission earthquake 4 events and tectonic 14 events. Batur volcano is in level 2. Karangetang Siau island; 2\ufffd47' N, 125\ufffd29' E A white thin-thick ash plume from the main and the second craters rose up to 400 m above the craters. At night, was observed the light around the crater that the height reached 75 m above the crater. Continuous tremor volcanic dominated seismic activity, with the amplitude of 0.5-29 mm, and only 1 event of tectonic was recorded. Karangetang volcano is in level 2. Lokon North Sulawesi; 1\ufffd21.5' N, 124\ufffd47.5' E During this week, there was no a significant change from this volcano compared with the last week. A white thin-thick ash plume rose up to 400 m high from the crater edge. A light was seen around the crater with the height of 25 m above the crater. Tremor earthquake was recorded with 0.5-1 mm of amplitude and also recorded 32 tectonic earthquakes. Lokon volcano is in level 3 Soputan North Sulawesi; 1\ufffd6.5' N, 124\ufffd43' E A significant change of Soputan volcano was not seen visually. A white thin-medium emission ash plume rose 50 up to 200 m above the summit. Seismicity was dominated by ash fall earthquakes (178 events). Seismograph also recorded deep volcanic 6 events and tectonic 33 events. Soputan volcano is in level 4. Ijen East Java; 8\ufffd3.5' S, 114\ufffd14.5' E A white thin-medium ash plume rose up to 25 m above the crater. Seismicity showed a decreased in the number of volcanic earthquakes, but tremor volcanic earthquakes were recorded continuously. The complete seismicity as follows : deep volcanic 1 event, shallow volcanic 11 events and tectonic 8 events. Ijen volcano is in level 2. Merapi Central Java; 7\ufffd32.5' S, 110\ufffd26.5' E Based on the visual and instrumental observations, the alert level of Merapi volcano is waspada Merapi (level 2). The visual observation showed that the volcano produced a white thin solfatar with the maximum height of 250 m from the summit and the pressure was low. Seismicity did not show a significant decrease and increase in volcanic activity. The activities were dominated by ash fall and multiphase earthquakes. Shallow and deep volcanic events still occurred. Merapi volcano is in level 2."}, {"response": 268, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (18:42)", "body": "Update On Previous Volcanic Cases- thanks to A_P VOLCANOES- Sept 20 2000- Japan Volcano Threatens To Explode- Hundreds of earthquakes have jolted the region near central Japan's Mt.Asama Volcano since the beginning of the week. On Monday, at least 138 quakes shook the mountain, located on the border between Nagano and Gunma prefectures. There haven't been any evacutions. The tremors did however increase on Tuesday by 40 an hour. It has been spewing steam. This volcano has been silent for the last 217 years. A major explosion in 1783 killed 1,151 people. Sept 20 2000- Mexican Volcano Threatens To Erupt- On Wednesday a new lava dome formed on Popcatepetl Volcano which means that lava is rising to the surface and could cause a major eruption. The last major eruption of this volcano was in 1994 when it awoke from its 67-year dormancy. Alert status has not been raised. The nearest living establishment is 5 miles away from the base of this 17,259 foot volcano. Sept 22 2000- Guatemalan Volcano Spews Ash Cloud- An active volcano in Guatemala shot out a huge cloud of ash and smoke on Thursday, leaving nearby communities blanketed in ash. Plans to evacuate residents is in consideration. Volcano del Fuego, which is Spanish for Volcano of fire, was put on orange alert. The last major eruption of this volcano was in May 1999. Sept 28 2000- Japan Volcano Erupts- Mt. Komagatake, a volcano in northern Japan, exploded on Thursday, but there were no reports of damage or injuries. The 3,716-foot volcano, located 441 miles NE of Tokyo, on the island of Hokkaido, last erupted Sept.4. A major eruption of the volcano in 1929 killed two, and a 1856 eruption claimed 20."}, {"response": 269, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (19:15)", "body": "Mt. Cameroon, Cameroon Location: 4.20N, 9.17E Elevation: 13,428 ft (4095 m) Mt. Cameroon is a poorly studied stratovolcano located in the nation of Cameroon, 180 miles west of the capital Yaounde. This volcano is also known locally as Mt. Faka and \"Chariot of the Gods\". It is one of Cameroon's main tourist attractions. Thousands of people participate in a race up its rocky slopes each year. It is the highest peak in West and Central Africa. Cameroon has erupted six times this century, most recently in the summer of 1999. Eruptions generally occur on the flanks of the volcano and produce small cinder cones and lava flows. Cameroon was the site of one of the earliest recorded volcanic eruptions--in the 5th century BC--observed by a Cathaginian ship captain while sailing down the Atlantic Coast of Africa. Mahalo to A_P"}, {"response": 270, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  5, 2000 (13:42)", "body": "************************* Popocatepetl, Mexico ************************* Mexican Volcano Spouts Steam And Ash Column full Reuters report at: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001004/sc/mexico_volcano_dc_2.html excerpt: Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano...spouted a 4-mile column of ash on Tuesday, its biggest this year, authorities said....CENAPRED said on Sept. 15 that Popocatepetl's main volcanic crater had been sealed by the formation of a dome-like structure. Tuesday's eruption of ash, gases and water came as the dome became slightly uncovered, Valdes said. CENAPRED bulletins and links to images are available at: http://www.cenapred.unam.mx/boletines.html ************************* Colima, Mexico ************************* The 22 September update for Colima volcano in Mexico indicate weakening activity but steam and ash emissions still are occurring. Loosely translated from URL"}, {"response": 271, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  5, 2000 (13:43)", "body": "********************************************* Mt. Komagatake and Mt. Asama, Japan activity ********************************************* Information from Chris Eisinger Mt. Komagatake erupted last week on Thursday, Sept. 28, following an earlier eruption on Sept. 4. An AP news report is available at: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000928/wl/japan_volcano_1.html AP news also reported previously that Mt. Asama in central Japan was shaken by 138 earthquakes on Monday, Sept. 18 (compared with about 10 daily in recent months). By late Tuesday, Sept. 19 there were an average of 40 volcanic tremors an hour. The last major eruption of Mt. Asama in 1783 killed over 1,000 people. ********************************************* White Island and Ruapehu, NZ updates ********************************************* From: Dan Shackelford For the week ending 29 September, White Island's MH vent continued to emit gas with a very small amount of ash and the crater opened on 27 July produced gas. Also, a swarm of high-frequency earthquakes took place, as well as periodic low-frequency tremor. Minor tremor noted at Ruapehu, but no change in surface activity. From: http://www.gns.cri.nz/hazardwatch/latest/gweekvo.htm White Island During the week a swarm of small high-frequency earthquakes were recorded. These were sourced at or near White Island. There has also been periodic low-frequency tremor recorded. There have been no reported changes in activity, with MH vent still producing a very small amount of ash. Both the MH and the unnamed crater (formed July 27th) are emitting steam and gas. The Scientific Alert Level remains at 1. Other volcanoes A small amount of volcanic tremor was observed at Ruapehu during the week. No surface activity has been reported. The Scientific Alert Level remains at 1."}, {"response": 272, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  5, 2000 (13:44)", "body": "******************************* Mount Ulawun, Papua New Guinea ******************************* From: Dan Shackelford Papua New Guinea's Ulawun volcano erupted briefly on 29 Sept. 2000 at 0230 from its summit. Heavy ash falls prompted evacuations. As of 2-3 Oct. there have been no further eruptions but the summit crater continues to emit white fume, while low - moderate seismicity continues, including harmonic tremor. Full report: http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20001002/news02.htm excerpt: Mt Ulawun quiet but stage 2 alert remains. The stage two alert on Mount Ulawun will be maintained indefinitely despite a decline in the volcanic activity. Mt Ulawun, on the border of East and West New Britain provinces, erupted at 2.30am on Friday but no casualties or major damages had been reported so far. Government officials say that although the eruption had stopped, there was still low to moderate seismic activity, which indicate that the volcano was still active. Reports of the early morning eruption were not received at the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory until about 8am, because of communication problems with its monitoring station on Mount Ulamona. A team of government officials from East New Britain comprising the senior volcanologist Ima Itikarai, provincial disaster co-ordinator Peniel Lotu and health adviser Bernard Lukara flew to the area to assess the situation. Their report was still to be ratified by the East and West New Britain provincial disaster committees. But government officers in Bialla said there has been a decline in activity. The summit of the volcano was clear while the vent was emitting thin white vapor. Full report: http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20001003/news08.htm excerpts: Alert kept up on volcano THE stage two alert on Mount Ulawun will remain in force until authorities are convinced there is no imminent danger of another eruption. An update on the volcanic activity by the East New Britain provincial disaster committee, which is monitoring the situation through the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory, said the summit activity had quietened down. But the continuous occurrence of volcanic tremors provided evidence that the volcano was still active. West New Britain Governor Clement Nakmai yesterday met with the provincial executive council, the administration and disaster committee, to discuss the fate of the 3750 displaced people in care centres at Bakada, Soi and Kabaya. Officials in Bialla said the immediate concern was to feed those in care centres."}, {"response": 273, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (22:29)", "body": "Kilauea update 0510 October 8, 2000 Note: Your observer will be attending a meeting in Waikiki on October 9-11. The next predawn report will be written on October 12. In the meantime, any important developments will be reported here as needed. Kamokuna continues to gobble up all the lava that makes its way across the coastal flat. This Sunday morning at 0435, the entry was glowing brightly and giving off a moderate steam plume. Still, the amount of lava entering the water seems substantially less than that pouring through the lava tube above Pulama pali. Apparently the new flow on the coastal flat is inflating and consequently taking up some of the lava that otherwise would make it all the way to the coast. Kamokuna is about 1.5 km west-southwest of Waha`ula and has been the site of repeated entries over the years. Narrow streams of lava are trickling over the old sea cliff there, spaced across a shoreline distance of about 600 m. The mid- dle of the three benches at Kamokuna is about 360 m wide and has been the most active for the past several days. On Pulama pali this morning at 0435, the only glow is from the long-lived skylight high on the scarp. The crater of Pu`u `O`o is dark on this cool, blustery morning. Volcanic tremor near Pu`u `O`o continues at a weak to moderate level. Earthquake activity is low across the island. The tilt at Kilauea summit is rather flat (ac- tually continuing the long-term slow deflation underway since the eruption began in 1983), as it is near Pu`u `O`o and everywhere else along the east rift zone."}, {"response": 274, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (20:52)", "body": "********************************** Piton de la Fournaise eruption ********************************** From: Jean-Louis CHEMINEE A new eruption, the third in 2000, started at Piton de la Fournaise (Reunion Island) Oct 12 at 5:05, local time, after a seismic crisis started at 4:09, local time. This eruption, situated SE of Dolomieu crater flank, in the Enclos Fouquet, follows 4 weeks of increasing seismicity and ground deformations."}, {"response": 275, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "************************************ MVO update, Friday, October 6, 2000 ************************************ From: Dan Shackelford Subject: Spine growth, incandescent rockfalls and pyroclastic flows at Soufriere Hills For the week ending 6 October, Soufriere Hills displayed spine and dome growth, small pyroclastic flows and incandescent rockfalls. Somewhat reduced seismic levels when compared to the previous week, Following from Montserrat Volcano Observatory, care of Peter Dunkley : Report for the period midday, 29 September 2000 to midday, 6 October 2000 Activity at the Soufri\ufffdre Hills volcano has continued this week with the summit lava dome continuing to grow. Clear views of the summit of the volcano were seen on most days of the week. A large steeply inclined lava spine dominated the eastern part of the summit region of the dome and changed in size and shape throughout the week. On the evening of the 30th September the top of the spine had reached an altitude of 1054 metres, this being the highest measurement taken on the dome so far. On the morning of 6 October there were several smaller spines. Observation flights indicate that there has been no new growth on the western flanks of the dome. Rockfalls were confined to the eastern side of the dome, where they contribute to a very broad apron of talus accumulating in the upper reaches of the Tar River valley. Rockfalls of incandescent material were observed in this area at night. There were a number of very small pyroclastic flows off the eastern side of the dome, the largest of which passed down the Tar River but did not reach the delta. This short-lived but energetic flow occurred on the morning of the 2nd October and produced a dense, dark ash cloud which remained at a low level and moved rapidly to the northwest on the prevailing wind, depositing ash in the Salem area before being swept out to sea. The level of seismic activity was considerably lower than in the previous week. The broadband seismic network recorded a total of 169 rockfall signals, 29 hybrid, 25 long period and 16 volcano-tectonic earthquakes for the reporting period. COSPEC measurements indicate an increase in sulphur dioxide emissions compared with the previous week, with daily average values of 790 and 948 tonnes on the 2nd and 3rd October respectively. Residents of Montserrat and visitors to the island are advised to tune in to ZJB Radio for up-to-date information on the status of the volcano. Rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity is likely to remain at a high level whilst the dome continues to grow, producing ash clouds which may blow over inhabited areas if winds are from the south or southeast. Elevated levels of pyroclastic flow activity may develop very rapidly and could affect any valleys around the volcano. Ash masks should be worn in ashy conditions or when you disturb ash. The Belham valley should be avoided during and after periods of heavy rain and everyone is reminded that access to Plymouth, Bramble airport and beyond is prohibited. There is a maritime exclusion zone around the southern part of the island that extends two miles beyond the coastline from Trant's Bay in the east to Garibaldi Hill on the west coast. The daytime entry zone remains closed. 12 noon, Friday, 6 October 2000"}, {"response": 276, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 24, 2000 (23:02)", "body": "******************************************** KVERT Information Release; October 17, 2000 ******************************************** From: Alaska Volcano Observatory Kamchatkan Volcanic Activity INFORMATION RELEASE 00-44 Wednesday, October 18, 2000, 12:20 KDT (2320 UTC) The following Release was received by the Alaska Volcano Observatory via e-mail from KVERT (Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruptions Response Team). All times are in Kamchatkan Daylight Time, 21 hours ahead of Alaska Daylight Time. BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO 55o 58'N, 160o36'E; Elevation 2,895 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS YELLOW. PREVIOUS LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE WAS GREEN. A thermal anomaly, first observed in satellite images by AVO on September 21, has increased in intensity during the past week. According to AVO satellite data, a 4 pixel thermal anomaly at Bezymianny was observed in a nighttime AVHRR image at 07:04 KDT on October 18. One pixel was saturated at 50 degrees Celsius, and a recovery pixel was also present, indicative of intense thermal activity. Background temperature values were about -10 to -15 degrees Celsius. This is the most intense thermal activity that has been observed since the initial observation of the anomaly on September 21. No ash plumes or drifting ash clouds have been detected. Thermal anomalies detected in satellite data have preceded explosive eruptions of Bezymianny by days to weeks in October 1995, May and December 1997, February 1999, and March 2000. However, in June 1998, intense thermal activity was not followed by an explosive event. Only two small (M0) earthquakes were registered under the volcano during the past 5 days. On most days, clouds obscured the volcano. On October 16, weak fumarolic activity was observed. It is necessary to note that the nearest seismic station ZLN has been out of order since October 14. PLEASE CONTACT AVO IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS. Olga Chubarova David Schneider Kamchatka Volcanic Eruptions Alaska Volcano Observatory Response Team, IVGG, Piip Blvd, 9 4200 University Drive Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 683006, RUSSIA Anchorage, Alaska 99508 E-mail: ochubarova@emsd.iks.ru E-mail: djschneider@usgs.gov tel. (415-22)59385 907-786-7037 *************************************** KVERT Weekly Update, October 20, 2000 *************************************** From: Alaska Volcano Observatory Kamchatkan Volcanic Activity INFORMATION RELEASE 00-45 Friday, October 20, 2000, 12:00 KDT (2300 UTC) The following Release was received by the Alaska Volcano Observatory via e-mail from KVERT (Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruptions Response Team). All times are in Kamchatkan Daylight Time, 21 hours ahead of Alaska Daylight Time. KLYUCHEVSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES KLYUCHEVSKOY VOLCANO 56o03'N, 160o39'E; Elevation 4,750 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. During the past week (October 13-19), seismic activity was near background levels. Shallow earthquakes occurred. On October 13, a fumarolic plume rose 200 m above the volcano and extended 5 km to the east. On October 15, weak fumarolic activity was observed. On other days, clouds obscured the volcano. BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO 55o58'N, 160o36'E; Elevation 2,895 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS YELLOW. A thermal anomaly, first observed in satellite images by AVO on September 21, has increased in intensity and size during the past week. Only three small (M0) earthquakes were registered under the volcano during the past week. On most days, clouds obscured the volcano. On October 16, weak fumarolic activity was observed. SHEVELUCH VOLCANO 56o38'N, 161o19'E; Elevation 2,447 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS YELLOW. On October 15, weak fumarolic activity was observed. On October 16, a gas-steam plume rose 350 m above the dome. On other days, clouds obscured the volcano. Weak continuous volcanic tremor was recorded during the entire week. At 15:12 KDT on October 14(02:12 UTC), seismic data indicated a possible gas-ash explosion as a 20-minutes-long series of strong shallow seismic events occurred. The height of the cloud was estimated on the basis of the seismicity at ~7,500 m ASL. KARYMSKY VOLCANO 54o03'N, 159o27'E; Elevation 1,486 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. Seismic activity was at background levels. AVACHINSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES, 53o15'N, 158o51'E; CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. Seismicity at Avachinsky and Koryaksky volcanoes is at normal levels. MUTNOVSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES GORELY VOLCANO, 52o33'N, 158o02'E, Elevation 1,828M MUTNOVSKY VOLCANO, 52o27'N, 158o12'E, Elevation 2,324 M. CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE FOR BOTH VOLCANOES IS GREEN. On October 14-15 and 17-18, both of volcanoes were quiet. On other days, clouds obscured the volcanoes. On October 13-16, microseismic signals were registered on seismic station GRL. PLEASE CONTACT AVO IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS. Olga Chubarova David Schneider Kamchatka Volcanic Eruptions Alaska Volcano Observatory Response Team, IVGG, Piip Blvd, 9 4200 Univ"}, {"response": 277, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 27, 2000 (23:12)", "body": "******************************************************* Indonesian Volcano Update, 10-16 October ******************************************************* For the week ending 16 October, the Indonesian volcanoes Slamet and Semeru showed a decrease in the level of their activity, whereas the volcanoes Api Siau (lava flow and avalanches) and Merapi (earthquake swarm and deep earthquakes) showed a significant increase in their activities. Kerinci, Krakatau, Lokon-Empung and Soputan remained at about the same level of activity. From: http://www.vsi.dpe.go.id/news/index.html Weekly Report No. 585 - 10-16 October 2000 Kerinci Jambi, Sumatera; 1\ufffd41.5' S, 101\ufffd16' E, summit elev. 3,800 m Ash plume still occurred and dominating at Kerinci activity. The color was commonly in white thin-thick, rose up to 400 m height. Seismicity was still dominated by small explosion earthquakes and increased in volcanic earthquake. Deep volcanic (A) 3 events, shallow volcanic (B) 1 event, small explosion 261 events, and 3 events of tectonic earthquake. The alert level of Kerinci volcano is in level 2. Anak Krakatau Sunda strait; 6\ufffd6'5.8\" S, 105\ufffd25'22.3\" E Krakatau activity more quite during the week. There was no thundering sound from the volcano. Seismograph continued to record small explosion earthquake but the number decreased over last week. The complete seismicity during the week were 24 events of small explosion and 1 event of tectonic earthquake. Anak Krakatau volcano is in level 2. Slamet Central Java; 7\ufffd14.30' S,109\ufffd12.30' E During the week Slamet activity showed a significant decreasing. It was represent from both visual and instrumental monitoring. Ash plume rose about 50-100 m height and seismograph only record a continuous tremor with the amplitude of 0.15-7 mm. Slamet volcano is in level 2. Semeru East Java; 8\ufffd6.50' S, 112\ufffd55' E From seismograph recording Semeru activity indicated a major decreasing this week. The number of seismicity was decreased over the previous week. Pyroclastic flow occurred once time. Detail seismicity were deep volcanic (A) 1 event, shallow volcanic (B) 3 events, explosion 592 events, pyroclastic 1 event, avalanche 41 events, and 9 events of tectonic earthquake. The alert level of Semeru volcano is in level 2. Karangetang Siau island; 2\ufffd47' N, 125\ufffd29' E Karangetang activity showed a major increasing within this week. Main crater and crater II continued to ejecting white thin-thick ash plume, hit about 500 m height above the summit. Sometime was heard a thundering sound from the volcano and night view was observed the red flame up to 75 m. On 14 October 2000, at 18.40 WITA (local time) was observed glowing lava which flowed away 100 m distance to the Nenitu river. Meanwhile the avalanche hit about 1000 m. Seismograph recorded a significant increasing of deep volcanic (A) and small explosion earthquake. Complete data listed as follow : deep volcanic (A) 36 events, shallow volcanic (B) 1 event, small explosion 145 events, tectonic 11 events, and a continuous of tremor earthquake with the amplitude of 0.5-23 mm. Karangetang volcano is in level 2. Lokon North Sulawesi; 1\ufffd21.5' N, 124\ufffd47.5' E Based on visual observation there is no major change in Lokon activity. But the volcano was still ejecting the white thin-thick ash plume that hit about 250 m height. Red flame with the radiation of 25 m was shown from the crater. Seismograph was recorded 6 events of deep volcanic (A) and 22 events of tectonic earthquake. Lokon volcano is in level 2. Soputan North Sulawesi; 1\ufffd6.5' N, 124\ufffd43' E There is major change in Soputan activity during this week. Seismicity was dominated by avalanche earthquake but recorded 1 of deep volcanic earthquake. Complete seismicity were deep volcanic (A) 1 event, tectonic 18 events, and 242 events of avalanche earthquake. Soputan volcano is in level 2. Merapi Central Java; 7\ufffd32.5' S, 110\ufffd26.5' E Although visual observation was obscured by the haze, Merapi activity showed a significant increasing. Seismograph recorded a significant swarm and deep volcanic earthquake during this week. Meanwhile, seismicity was still dominated by superficial earthquakes such as multiphase and avalanche earthquake. Merapi volcano is in level 2."}, {"response": 278, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 27, 2000 (23:16)", "body": "I know this man with the JPL initials. VERY well, indeed. I also know Jim Griggs! We even share the same ISP! ************************************ Year 2001 IAVCEI Volcano Calendars ************************************ From: John Lockwood Dear Volcanophile Friends: Brian Hausback and Steve McNutt's superb Labor of Love, the Sacramento Volcanological Society's \"2001 IAVCEI Volcano Calendars\" (and other calendars focusing on Hawaiian Volcanic activity) are now available at the HAWAIIAN VOLCANO STORE ( http://www.volcanostore.com) . Please pardon the delay in presenting these, but the Store has undergone a change of ownership and management, and has been completely redesigned. Jim Griggs of Volcano, Hawaii, well-known for his photographs of Hawaiian volcanic activity, is the new Proprietor of the Store, and is now responsible for carrying the shop to new heights!. Marti and I have enjoyed filling thousands of orders for you over the past four years, but have decided that we really weren't cut out to be \"shopkeepers\". There are lots of volcanoes \"out there\", and so long as our legs stay strong, we intend to make them our main focus in life - both for fun and work! Jim and his colleagues will be greatly expanding the Store line of volcano-related products in the near future, and they look forward to hearing from you as to new quality products you'd like to see stocked. As before, the Store will be offering most products to you at below retail cost. Please stop by and see the changes! Aloha 'Oukou, Jack & Marti"}, {"response": 279, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 27, 2000 (23:28)", "body": "Smithsonian Institution Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network Volume 25, Number 8, August 2000 VOLCANOES Arenal (Costa Rica) Maps, photos, and seismic data on the 23 August eruption Poas (Costa Rica) Fumarolic activity and increased seismicity during JanuaryJune 2000 Shishaldin (Alaska) Thermal anomaly and small explosions on 11 August Shiveluch (Kamchatka) Fumarolic plume, multiple gasash explosions, and partial dome collapses Bandai (Japan) Unprecedented increase in seismicity during 1416 August Komagatake (Japan) Small eruptions on 4 and 28 September, the first since October 1998 Aoba (Vanuatu) Increase in temperature and acidity at Lake Voui during AprilAugust 2000 Ulawun (Papua New Guinea) Eruption on 29 September causes the evacuation of nearby towns Rotorua (New Zealand) Smallscale hydrothermal eruption on 18 September White Island (New Zealand) Ashandsteam emissions accompanied by magmatic eruption Stromboli (Italy) Lowtomoderate eruptive activity JanuarySeptember 2000 EARTHQUAKES Santa Cruz Islands (Mw 6.7) 3 August; Sakhalin Island (Mw 6.8) 4 August; Kermadec Islands (Mw 6.7) 15 August; Indonesia (Ms 6.8) 28 August Editors: Rick Wunderman and Edward Venzke Editorial Assistants: Gari Mayberry, Luke Jensen, Alicia Arroyo, David Charvonia, and Jacquelyn Gluck"}, {"response": 280, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 28, 2000 (23:53)", "body": "For an idea of how the Island of Hawaii is made of various volcanoes:"}, {"response": 281, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 28, 2000 (23:54)", "body": "Hawaiian Meaning The Hawaiian name \"Kilauea\" means \"spewing\" or \"much spreading,\" apparently in reference to the lava flows that it erupts. Most Recent Eruption Continuous since January 3, 1983 Number of Historical Eruptions 61, not counting the continuous lava-lake activity in Halema`uma`u crater Summit Caldera The caldera itself has no Hawaiian name other than Kilauea but houses the famous crater, Halema`uma`u; \"hale\" is a house, \"ma`uma`u\" a type of fern. Kamapua`a, a jilted suitor of Pele, is said to have built a house of ferns over Halema`uma`u to keep Pele from escaping her home and causing eruptions. The ploy failed. Dimension: 6 x 6 km (outermost faults), 3 x 5 km (main depression) Depth: 165 m deep Age: probably several incremental collapses 500-210 years ago Oldest Dated Rocks 23,000 years old Estimated Age of Earliest Subaerial Eruptions 50,000-100,000 years Estimated Age of First Eruption of Kilauea 300,000-600,000 years before present Hawaiian Volcano Stage Shield-forming stage"}, {"response": 282, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 28, 2000 (23:57)", "body": "Close-up of where the erutpion is taking place:"}, {"response": 283, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 29, 2000 (00:04)", "body": "In our latest effort to improve the volcano-monitoring instruments on Mauna Loa and Kilauea, we have just completed the installation of the most sensitive instruments available for monitoring the strain deep beneath the surface of a volcano. Three holes more than 100 m deep were drilled into Mauna Loa, and an existing deep hole in Kilauea's summit area was also used. In each hole were installed an ultra-sensitive strainmeter and a seismic package consisting of a three-component broadband seismometer and a strong-motion sensor. Currently the installations are being tested and modified where necessary. Later this year, a borehole tiltmeter may be added high in each hole. Once all of this is completed, the state-of-the-art instrumentation will radio data to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in real time and make possible the early detection and tracking of events occurring deep within Mauna Loa and Kilauea with unprecedented clarity. The instruments were installed in a collaboration between USGS scientists from HVO and the Earthquake Hazards Program (Menlo Park, CA) and scientists from the Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes (CSAV), University of Hawai`i in Hilo. The Carnegie Institution of Washington - Department of Terrestrial Magnetism manufactured the instruments and advised us in their installation. Funding for the drilling came through a grant from the Department of Defense via NASA. The project received invaluable assistance from Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, the Mauna Loa Observatory, the Mauna Loa High Altitude Observatory, and Hokukano Ranch. The holes on Mauna Loa were drilled by DOSECC (Drilling, Observation, and Sampling of the Earth's Continental Crust, Inc.). More... http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/howwork/strain/"}, {"response": 284, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 31, 2000 (19:32)", "body": "********************************************* KVERT Information Release; October 29, 2000 ********************************************* Kamchatkan Volcanic Activity INFORMATION RELEASE 00-47 Monday, October 30, 2000, 10:30 KST (2230 UTC) The following Release was received by the Alaska Volcano Observatory via e-mail from KVERT (Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruptions Response Team). All times are in Kamchatkan Standard Time, 21 hours ahead of Alaska Standard Time. KLYUCHEVSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO 55o58'N, 160o36'E; Elevation 2,895 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS ORANGE. PREVIOUS LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE WAS YELLOW. The number and energy of shallow earthquakes has continued to increase. Seismic data indicate that (hot?) rock avalanches have rolled down from the dome. Beginning at 01:15 KDT on October 28, energy from B-type earthquakes increased. A thermal anomaly, first observed in satellite images by AVO on September 21, continued to be detected (8 pixels with 4 pixel at saturation temperature of 50 degrees Celsius in the satellite image at 06:32 KST on October 30). At 08:10 KST on October 30, a gas-steam plume rose 1000 m above the volcano and extended to the northeast. The previous few days, the volcano was obscured by clouds. Unfortunately, KVERT has incomplete seismic data because of unstable seismic stations operation. ********************************************* KVERT Update, Friday, October 27, 2000 ********************************************* Kamchatkan Volcanic Activity INFORMATION RELEASE 00-46 Friday, October 27, 2000, 13:00 KDT (0000 UTC) The following Release was received by the Alaska Volcano Observatory via e-mail from KVERT (Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruptions Response Team). All times are in Kamchatkan Daylight Time, 21 hours ahead of Alaska Daylight Time. KLYUCHEVSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES; KLYUCHEVSKOY VOLCANO 56o03'N, 160o39'E; Elevation 4,750 m. CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. During the past week (October 20-26), seismic activity was near background levels. Shallow earthquakes occurred. On October 23 and 25, weak fumarolic activity was observed. On other days, clouds obscured the volcano. BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO 55o58'N, 160o36'E; Elevation 2,895 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS YELLOW. A thermal anomaly, first observed in satellite images by AVO on September 21, continued to be detected (4 pixels with one pixel at saturation temperature of 50oC). On October 21, a fumarolic plume rose 50 m above the volcano and extended to the east. On October 25, a fumarolic plume rose 50 m above the volcano and extended 20 km to the south. On other days, clouds obscured the volcano. A few shallow earthquakes (M0) per day wee registered under the volcano. Since October 25, seismic data indicate that (hot?) rock avalanches have rolled down from the dome. From 20:40 to 21:00 KDT on October 26, spasmodic volcanic tremor was registered. Unfortunately, KVERT has not complete seismic data because of unstable seismic stations operation. SHEVELUCH VOLCANO 56o38'N, 161o19'E; Elevation 2,447 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS YELLOW. On October 25, a gas-steam plume rose 200 m above the dome. On other days, clouds obscured the volcano. Weak continuous volcanic tremor and small shallow earthquakes were recorded on October 22-23. At 22:29 KDT on October 14(09:29 UTC) and at 21:14 KDT on October 26, seismic data indicated possible gas-ash explosions as shallow seismic events occurred. The height of the cloud was estimated on the basis of the seismicity at ~4,000 m ASL. Since 01:00 on October 26, volcanic tremor continued to be recorded. KARYMSKY VOLCANO 54o03'N, 159o27'E; Elevation 1,486 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. Seismic activity was at background levels. On October 25, weak local events were registered and a small pyroclastic flow possibly occurred. AVACHINSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES, 53o15'N, 158o51'E; CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. Seismicity at Avachinsky and Koryaksky volcanoes is at normal levels. MUTNOVSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES: GORELY VOLCANO, 52o33'N, 158o02'E, Elevation 1,828M; MUTNOVSKY VOLCANO, 52o27'N,158o12'E, Elev. 2,324 M. CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE FOR BOTH VOLCANOES IS GREEN. On October 20 and 25,both volcanoes were quiet. On October 24, a gas-steam plume rose 700 m above the Mutnovsky volcano. On other days, clouds obscured the volcanoes. Since October 24, no microseismic signals were registered on seismic station GRL."}, {"response": 285, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 31, 2000 (21:15)", "body": "**************************** Popocatepetl, Mexico **************************** Subject: Renewed dome growth and explosive activity at Popocatepetl. New dome growth is occurring at Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano. A rather vigorous eruption on 29 October at 1710 lofted an impressive ash cloud to ~3 km above the crater, with ashfalls to the ENE. This event followed several days of increased seismicity which is believed indicative of new tholoid growth. According to http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/VAAC/messages.html , a \"hot spot\" was seen on satellite imagery for this event as well. From: http://www.cenapred.unam.mx/cgi-bin/popo/reportes/ultrep.cgi ******************************************** KVERT Information Release, October 30, 2000 ******************************************** From: Alaska Volcano Observatory Kamchatkan Volcanic Activity INFORMATION RELEASE 00-48 Tuesday, October 31, 2000, 11:00 KST (2300 UTC) The following Release was received by the Alaska Volcano Observatory via e-mail from KVERT (Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruptions Response Team). All times are in Kamchatkan Standard Time, 21 hours ahead of Alaska Standard Time. KLYUCHEVSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO 55o58'N, 160o36'E; Elevation 2,895 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS ORANGE. Beginning at 23:00 KST on October 30, seismic activity increased. The most intense seismic activity was registered from 01:46 to 02:46 KST on October 31 (from 13:46 to 14:15 GMT on October 30). The seismic record did not show a distinct explosive event. AVHRR satellite data from AVO showed an ash eruption at Bezymianny. The image from October 30 at 1700 GMT showed an ash plume extending from the volcano to the southeast (azimuth 110-115 degrees) for 55 km (~30 nautical miles). An image from October 30 at 1800 GMT, showed the ash plume extending for about 80 km (45 nautical miles) to the southeast (azimuth 110-115 degrees). It was not possible to estimate the height of the ash plume. Wind data from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at 1200 GMT showed that the wind was generally out of the west at all altitudes, so it was not possible to estimate height based on cloud movement. According to visual report from Koziyrevsk at 07:30 KST on October 31, a gas-steam plume rose 1500 m above the volcano and extended to the southeast. Seismic activity at the volcano continues. Seismic data analysis implies that the volcanic activity may increase and another ash eruption can occur with little warning."}, {"response": 286, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (20:10)", "body": "********************************************** MVO Weekly Activity Report, 27 October 2000 ********************************************** Montserrat Volcano Observatory Montserrat, W.I. Report for the period midday, 20 October 2000 to midday, 27 October 2000 Activity at the Soufri\ufffdre Hills volcano has continued at an elevated level this week. Clear views of the summit of the volcano were seen on most days. Growth of the lava dome continued on the east side of summit region where spectacular incandescence was observed at night. Growth was dominated by the semi-continuous extrusion of a broad lava spine inclined at a steep angle upwards towards the east. At various stages large portions of the spine broke off, but growth generally kept pace with disintegration as fresh material continued to be extruded. On the 25h October the top of the spine had an altitude of 1039 metres, and the general height of the surrounding summit region of the active lobe had an altitude of around 1000 metres. Observation flights indicate that there has been no new growth on the western and northern flanks of the dome. Rockfalls were confined to the eastern side of the dome, where they contribute to the talus fan accumulating in the upper reaches of the Tar River valley. The talus is beginning to bury the remnant buttress of older dome material on the north-east flank which formed during the 1995-98 phase of growth. Rockfalls produced small ash clouds which drifted north-westwards on the prevailing wind and gave rise to very light ash falls in the populated areas of the island. Rockfalls of incandescent material were observed at night. The level of seismic activity has been much lower than in previous weeks. The broadband seismic network recorded a total of 214 rockfall signals, 9 hybrid, 35 long period and 4 volcano-tectonic earthquakes for the reporting period. Some of the rockfalls had long period precursor signals characteristic of small explosive events. COSPEC measurements indicate daily average sulphur dioxide emissions of 235, 925 and 2252 tonnes on the 23th, 24th and 26th October respectively. Residents of Montserrat and visitors to the island are advised to tune in to ZJB Radio for up-to-date information on the status of the volcano. Rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity is likely to remain at a high level whilst the dome continues to grow, producing ash clouds which may blow over inhabited areas if winds are from the south or southeast. Elevated levels of pyroclastic flow activity may develop very rapidly and could affect any valleys around the volcano. Ash masks should be worn in ashy conditions or when you disturb ash. The Belham valley should be avoided during and after periods of heavy rain and everyone is reminded that access to Plymouth, Bramble airport and beyond is prohibited. There is a maritime exclusion zone around the southern part of the island that extends two miles beyond the coastline from Trant's Bay in the east to Garibaldi Hill on the west coast. The daytime entry zone remains closed. 12 noon, Friday, 27 October 2000"}, {"response": 287, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  4, 2000 (21:26)", "body": "Mexico on Alert Over Volcano Popocatepetl Activity MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities were on alert on Saturday for a possible strong exhalation of ash and smoke by the volcano Popocatepetl, which lies 38 miles from Mexico City, due to an increase in volcanic activity. \"We have increased our preventive measures and increased the radius of security to 10 km (6.2 miles). Previously the radius was 7 km (4.3 miles) from the crater,\" a spokesman for the National Center for Prevention of Disasters (Cenapred) told Reuters. However, the spokesman said the activity of the volcano, known as \"The Smoking Mountain\" in the indigenous Nahuatl language, had diminished since Saturday morning after earlier increasing. After the volcano's activity picked up on Friday, the center decided to step up the state of alert to \"yellow phase three\" from \"yellow phase two,\" which means preventive measures are reinforced among the local population. \"This does not in any way imply a possible evacuation,\" the spokesman said. Recently, Popocatepetl, 17,884 feet high, has been registering strong exhalations. The volcano sporadically exhaled small amounts of steam and gases on Saturday. Popocatepetl, active for the past six years, in 1997 spewed up a spout of ash 11.2 miles into the sky, causing eye irritation and respiratory problems among thousands of people living nearby."}, {"response": 288, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  5, 2000 (18:56)", "body": "*********************************************** Montserrat Volcano Observatory: Weekly Report *********************************************** Montserrat Volcano Observatory Montserrat, W.I. Report for the period midday, 27 October 2000 to midday, 3 November 2000 Activity at the Soufri\ufffdre Hills volcano has continued at an elevated level this week. Growth of the lava dome has continued on the east side of summit region. Clear views of the volcano were seen on the last three days of the reporting period when the summit region of the dome was occupied by a cluster of toppled spine fragments, the highest of which had an altitude of 1013 metres. Observation flights indicate that there has been no new growth on the western and northern flanks of the dome. Rockfalls were confined to the eastern side of the dome, where they contribute to the talus fan accumulating in the upper reaches of the Tar River valley. The talus has continued to encroach upon the remnant buttress of older dome material on the north-east flank which formed during the 1995-98 phase of growth. Rockfalls produced small ash clouds which drifted north-westwards on the prevailing wind and gave rise to very light ash falls in the populated areas of the island. Rockfalls of incandescent material were observed at night. The level of seismic activity was slightly lower than in the previous week. The broadband seismic network recorded a total of 146 rockfall signals, 20 hybrid, 19 long period and 3 volcano-tectonic earthquakes for the reporting period. A few rockfalls had long period precursor signals characteristic of small explosive events. Residents of Montserrat and visitors to the island are advised to tune in to ZJB Radio for up-to-date information on the status of the volcano. Rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity is likely to remain at a high level whilst the dome continues to grow, producing ash clouds which may blow over inhabited areas if winds are from the south or southeast. Elevated levels of pyroclastic flow activity may develop very rapidly and could affect any valleys around the volcano. Ash masks should be worn in ashy conditions or when you disturb ash. The Belham valley should be avoided during and after periods of heavy rain and everyone is reminded that access to Plymouth, Bramble airport and beyond is prohibited. There is a maritime exclusion zone around the southern part of the island that extends two miles beyond the coastline from Trant's Bay in the east to Garibaldi Hill on the west coast. The daytime entry zone remains closed. 12 noon, Friday, 3 November 2000"}, {"response": 289, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  5, 2000 (18:58)", "body": "************************************ KVERT Update, Friday, Nov. 3, 2000 ************************************ From: Alaska Volcano Observatory Kamchatkan Volcanic Activity INFORMATION RELEASE 00-49 Friday, November 3, 2000, 18:00 KST (0600 UTC) The following Release was received by the Alaska Volcano Observatory via e-mail from KVERT (Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruptions Response Team). All times are either in Kamchatkan Daylight Time, 21 hours ahead of Alaska Daylight Time or Kamchatkan Standard Time, also 21 hours ahead of Anchorage. KLYUCHEVSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES; KLYUCHEVSKOY VOLCANO 56o03'N, 160o39'E; Elevation 4,750 m. CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. During the past week (October 27-November 2), seismic activity was near background levels. On October 29-31, a gas-steam plume rose 400-700 m above the volcano and extended 5 km to the southwest and sourtheast on October30-31. On other days, clouds obscured the volcano. BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO 55o58'N, 160o36'E; Elevation 2,895 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS YELLOW. PREVIOUS LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE WAS ORANGE. On October 27-29, the volcano was obscured by clouds. The number and energy of shallow earthquakes continues to increase. Seismic data indicate that (hot?) rock avalanches have rolled down from the dome. Beginning at 01:15 KDT on October 28, energy from B-type earthquakes increased. No ash plumes or drifting clouds was observed at 07:30 and 15:30 KST on October 30 satellite images. At 08:10 KST on October 30, a gas-steam plume rose 1 km above the volcano and extended to the northeast. Beginning at 23:00 KST on October 30, a significant increase in seismicity occurred. The most intense seismic activity was registered from 01:46 to 02:15 KST on October 31 (132:46 to 14:15 UTC on October30). The seismic record did not5 show a distinct explosive event. AVHRR satellite data from AVO showed an ash eruption at the volcano. The image from October 31 at 05:00 KST (Oct. 30 at 1700 UTC), showed an ash plume extending from the volcano to the southeast for 55 km. An image from Oct. 31 at 06:00 KST (Oct. 30 at 1800 UTC), showed the ash plume extending for about 80 km to the southeast. It was not possible to estimate the height of the ash plume. According to visual reports from Koziyrevsk at 07:30 KST on Oct. 31, a gas-steam plume rose 1500 m above the volcano and extended to the southeast. At 12:10 KST, an ash-poor plume rose 3 km above the volcano, at 13:30 a gas-steam plume rose 1 km, and at 15:15 KST, a gas-steam plume rose 2 km above the volcano. An image from Oct. 31 at 15:06 KST (0306, Oct. 31 UTC), showed an ash plume extended for about 40 km to the northeast that might have a minor amount of ash. A larger, diffuse cloud was seen off the east coast of Kamchatka that seemed to be continuous with the more distinct plume coming from the volcano. It extended for about 250 km to the southeast but did not appear to contain an ash component. The most intensive seismicity was registered from 03:20 to 04:00 KST and at 06:26 KST on Nov. 2. The satellite image at 06:26 KST on Nov. 2 showed an ash plume extended 50 km west of the volcano, then 130 km to the southwest. The height of the plume was ~ 6,500 m ASL. According to visual reports from Koziyrevsk at 08:00 KST on Nov. 2, a gas-steam plume rose 1000 m above the volcano and extended to the southwest; at 08:42 KST, an ash-gas plume rose 1500 m above the volcano and extended to the southwest. Beginning at 12:00 KST on Nov. 2, seismic activity began to decrease. A satellite image at 16:21 on Nov. 2 revealed a 231 km long ash plume approximately 270 km southwest of the Bezymianny summit, centered within the lower third of the Kamchatkan Peninsula. The satellite image at 16:50 revealed a 250 km long ash plume ~ 300 km southwest of the Bezymianny summit. An image from Nov. 3 at 06:18 KST (1818 UTC, Nov 2), showed the plume extending for ~ 30 km to the southeast. According to visual reports from Koziyrevsk at 13:55 KST on Nov. 3, a gas-steam plume rose 1000 m above the volcano. SHEVELUCH VOLCANO 56o38'N, 161o19'E; Elevation 2,447 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS YELLOW. On October 29, a gas-steam plume rose 400 m above the dome. On Oct. 31, Nov. 1, a powerful gas-steam plume rose 700 m above the dome and extended 5 km to the northwest and east on October 30-31. On other days, clouds obscured the volcano. At 22:29 KDT on October 14(09:29 UTC) and at 15:20 KDT on October 27 (0220 UTC) and at 17:11 KDT on Oct. 28, seismic data indicated possible gas-ash explosions as shallow seismic events occurred. The height of the cloud was estimated on the basis of the seismicity at ~4,000-4,500 m ASL. KARYMSKY VOLCANO 54o03'N, 159o27'E; Elevation 1,486 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. Seismic activity was at background levels. AVACHINSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES, 53o15'N, 158o51'E; CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. Seismicity at Avachinsky and Koryaksky volcanoes is at normal levels. MUTN"}, {"response": 290, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  6, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "Monday, November 6, 2000 Two hikers found dead atlava flow The Volcanoes Park hikers had severe burns; cause of death is unknown By Rod Thompson Star-Bulletin HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK -- Two hikers were found dead of unknown causes about four miles from the end of Chain of Craters Road at midday yesterday, according to a park ranger at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Their names were withheld pending notification of their next of kin. The two, a man and a woman, had apparently walked across a series of lava flows that had been deposited in the area in the last decade. They were found near where a current lava flow enters the ocean, said ranger Doug Lentz. Rangers were notified about the bodies by a cell phone call at about 1:30 p.m., Lentz said. The park used a private helicopter to fly rangers to the scene, and the bodies were retrieved by a Hawaii County helicopter. Hiking to the lava flow is permitted, but signs in the immediate area warn not to go farther, Lentz said. Officials at the park were not immediately clear on where the bodies were. The park advises anyone hiking in the area to have sturdy boots, lots of drinking water, protection from sun and rain, and flashlights. Park officials had no information on how the hikers were equipped. Lentz said the hikers had suffered severe burns but were fully clothed, so it was difficult to determine the extent of their burns. They also had cuts and bruises on their hands, knees and heads. They were found on high ground, not down on a \"bench\" of fresh lava at the water's edge, where signs prohibit hiking, Lentz said. \"They were up where the general public is allowed to be.\" An autopsy will be done to determine cause of death, he said."}, {"response": 291, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (07:40)", "body": "Strange, no obvious cause. Could it have beent he fumes or heat?"}, {"response": 292, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (12:36)", "body": "I've been where they were found and no reason for them to be so badly burnt. Scratches and abrasions are common if you fall out there on the sharp new flows, but not dangerous in that area. The police say it appears there was no foul play. However, how else do they explain these inconsistencies. I'll keep you posted!"}, {"response": 293, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (15:52)", "body": "Could they have been on the beach and then climbed higher on the flow?"}, {"response": 294, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (16:11)", "body": "How did they bet so badly burnt?? Surely they could not have moved from where that happened to the place they were found. There is more to this than meets the eye...there are no beaches along there...just unstable cliffs"}, {"response": 295, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (16:12)", "body": "A real mystery. It seems very strange."}, {"response": 296, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 10, 2000 (19:06)", "body": "********************************************** New GVP/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report ********************************************** From: Gari Mayberry The Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program and the US Geological Survey's Volcano Hazard Program have collaborated to create the Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, an online summary of global volcanic activity on a weekly basis that can be accessed via the Global Volcanism Program\ufffds website at http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/ (under Preliminary Notices) or the USGS Volcano Hazard Program\ufffds website at http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/ . The Weekly Volcanic Activity Report consists of: \ufffd Brief summaries of current volcanic activity with links to the information sources and to definitions for technical terms in the USGS photoglossary \ufffd Background information about the reported volcanoes compiled by Global Volcanism Program staff \ufffd Maps that highlight the location of the reported volcanoes in reference to geographical features and other volcanoes in the region \ufffd An archive of the weekly reports sorted by volcano and date \ufffd A link to a new USGS web page that provides current updates for US and Russian volcanoes \ufffd And links to more comprehensive reports that are published monthly in the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network ******************************************************************* Gari Mayberry USGS/Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History E-421 Washington, DC 20560-0119 Phone: (202) 357-2618 Fax: (202) 357-2476 mayberry@volcano.si.edu *******************************************************************"}, {"response": 297, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 15, 2000 (11:09)", "body": "Update on the two people found dead on the lava flow: Bodies not burned. Officials awaiting toxicology results."}, {"response": 298, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (21:42)", "body": "**************** Kilauea Update **************** 0555 November 16, 2000 If rain washes air, we have the cleanest on the planet this morning. That allows the glow at Kamokuna to be particularly intense, and the skylight high on Pulama pali gleams like a jewel at 0505. The heavy rain obscures all views of the crater of Pu`u `O`o this Thursday morning. Volcanic tremor near Pu`u `O`o remains at a moderate level. Earthquake activity is low across the island. The tilt- meters at Kilauea's summit and along the east rift zone are now showing flat signals, except for several hours last night, when the giant earthquake in New Ireland caused slow, peak-to-peak oscillations at Kilauea's summit amounting to more than 12 microradians. Alarms at two tiltmeters were set off by the large and rapid tilts."}, {"response": 299, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Fri, Nov 17, 2000 (22:53)", "body": "I've visited two volcanoes this year: Mount Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands this September and then Mount Fuji on Japan just last week. My friend and I drove up and over Tiede, about 2500m (about 8-9000 feet) in a tiny little 1.0 litre rental car...a most nerve-wracking experience! The view was fantastic, though. As close to a feeling of alien landscape as I've ever experienced. There were huge great lava fields that were just incredible. Maybe I'll buy a scanner, scan some photos and post them here. Last week on Mount Fuji was great. Went up in a coach tour this time, which was more relaxing. The top of Fuji is usually obscured by cloud, but once we'd reached the visitors centre we were above the cloud. The view was *incredible*. Absolutely no cloud except for a 'hat' of cloud that flew around the caldera at high-speed. I have never seen that before. I guess it must be due to convection currents of some kind coming out of the volcano (it's only dormant, not exctint). I took loads of photos of that, so I'm hoping they will come out. I like volcanoes :-)"}, {"response": 300, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Fri, Nov 17, 2000 (22:57)", "body": "Shame I can't spell extinct, though..."}, {"response": 301, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 17, 2000 (23:52)", "body": "Hey, Mike!!! Remember Mauna Loa? Didn't you do a bit of remote theorizing about when we punch though the crust? How about Kilauea? It is erupting even as I write this. Aloha!!! Come to Hawaii and see some REAL volcanoes! Your trip sounds like it was splendid. I am envious like you cannot believe. Amazing about that cloud on Fujiyama. Never heard of that effect. Thanks for sharing. Noe, get thee to a scanner, and if you need space on Spring's hard drive for them, send'um to me and I'll send you the urls for them! Mahalo Nui Loa."}, {"response": 302, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (00:16)", "body": "Thanks, Marcia. I think I have a telnet account, but I can't remember the hostname. I tried www.spring.net but that no longer works. I seem to think it was .spring.net Care to share the hostname? :-)"}, {"response": 303, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (00:53)", "body": "unfortunately, since terry changed servers only he and his chief programmer-lurker have access. Ftp I will email to you if you'd like - it is my space on Geo. I hate not having telnet access anymore!!!"}, {"response": 304, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (00:56)", "body": "Oh...I can't say that I used the telnet access much anyway. Tough luck, I guess! If/when I ever scan them I will happily send them to you."}, {"response": 305, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (02:33)", "body": "Thanks, Mike - I'll be delighted to accommodate resize and so forth and accedit you for your efforts. ************************************* MVO weekly report, 17 November 2000 ************************************* From: Dr Gill Norton Montserrat Volcano Observatory Montserrat, W.I. Report for the period midday, 10 November 2000 to midday, 17 November 2000 Activity at the Soufri\ufffdre Hills volcano has remained at an elevated level this week with the continued growth of the lava dome on the eastern side of the summit region. The level of seismic activity was higher than in the previous week with a marked increase in the number of long period earthquakes. The broadband seismic network recorded a total of 207 rockfall signals, 33 hybrid, 144 long period and 7 volcano-tectonic earthquakes for the reporting period. Clear views of the dome were seen over the period 10 to 13 November. The summit was still dominated by the extrusion of a broad lava spine inclined at a steep angle up and towards the east. On 12 November the spine had an altitude of 1059 metres or 3475 feet. On 13 November it had grown to 1077 metres or 3530 feet, the greatest height measured on the dome throughout the eruption. Brief views of the dome on the morning of 17 November showed that the spine had continued to grow still further, although a direct measurement was not possible. The number of rockfalls and pyroclastic flows increased towards the end of the week. A small pyroclastic flow on 15 November entered the upper reaches of Tyre's Ghaut traveling about 1 km away from the dome. On 17 November, pyroclastic flow deposits were also noted in the upper reaches of Tuitt's and White's Ghaut on the north-eastern side of the volcano. This represents the first new dome material to have traveled down the notch between the north-eastern and northern lobes of the 1995-98 dome. Most rockfall activity, however, is still occurring across the eastern face of the dome above the Tar River. Ash clouds from this activity reached no more than 10,000 feet and mostly traveled to the west across the exclusion zone. Residents of Montserrat and visitors to the island are advised to tune in to ZJB Radio for up-to-date information on the status of the volcano. Rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity is likely to remain at a high level whilst the dome continues to grow, producing ash clouds which may blow over inhabited areas if winds are from the south or southeast. Elevated levels of pyroclastic flow activity may develop very rapidly and could affect any valleys around the volcano. Ash masks should be worn in ashy conditions or when you disturb ash. The Belham valley should be avoided during and after periods of heavy rain and everyone is reminded that access to Plymouth, Bramble airport and beyond is prohibited. There is a maritime exclusion zone around the southern part of the island that extends two miles beyond the coastline from Trant's Bay in the east to Garibaldi Hill on the west coast. The daytime entry zone remains closed. 12 noon, Friday, 17 November 2000"}, {"response": 306, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (02:49)", "body": "EUROPEAN GEOPHYSICAL SOCIETY XXVI GENERAL ASSEMBLY NICE 25-30 MARCH 2001 ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS FOR SYMPOSIA ON VOLCANIC HAZARDS SESSIONS ON VOLCANIC HAZARDS (NH): NH6.01 Volcanic hazards from explosive eruptions Convener: Baxter, P.; Co-Convener(s): Macedonio, G. NH6.02 Parametrization and modelling of lava flows for hazard assessment Convener: Dingwell, D.B. NH6.03 Gas emission Convener: Chiodini, G.; Co-Convener(s): Allard, P. CO-SPONSORED SESSIONS (SE): SE13.01 Geophysical and geochemical modelling of unrest episodes at volcanic areas. Convener: De Natale, G.; Co-Convener(s): Cornet, F.H., Dahm, T. SE13.03 Neogene-recent magmatism in the Mediterranean region Convener: Wilson, M.; Co-Convener(s): Beccaluva, L., Bianchini, G. SE13.04 Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei - volcanism and volcanic hazards Convener: Civetta, L.; Co-Convener(s): Orsi, G., Patella, D. SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS Deadline for receipt of abstracts is 1 DECEMBER 2000 The abstracts must be sent to the EGS Office (EGS@copernicus.org). Please, send an additional copy to one of the convener of your choice. Electronic submission is strongly encouraged. Abstracts must be formatted according to the rules described on the Web page http://www.copernicus.org/EGS/EGS.html A LaTeX style and guide is provided on this Web page. E-mail the abstract as a LaTeX, ASCII, WORD, WordPerfect, Postscript or PDF file. Posters with brief oral introduction during the oral session and extended presentations during the poster sessions are encouraged. GENERAL INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION General information on the EGS Assembly and registration forms are available by browsing the Web page http://www.copernicus.org/EGS/EGS.html EGS2001: XXVI General Assembly Sending an abstract does not mean registration. Please do not send the registration form to the convener but to the EGS Office. PLEASE POST THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND CIRCULATE IT AMONG COLLEAGUES More information on the the Scientific Programme, Abstract Submission, Registration, etc. can be found at the following URL: http://www.copernicus.org/EGS"}, {"response": 307, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (14:14)", "body": ""}, {"response": 308, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 19, 2000 (14:07)", "body": "*************************************** White Island and Ruapehu, New Zealand *************************************** From: Dan Shackelford For the week ending 3 November, White Island's vents only emit steam and gas. No signs of visible unrest at Ruapehu. For the week ending 10 November, no eruptions at New Zealand volcanoes. Minor levels of tremor at Ruapehu and weak to moderate degassing at White Island from its two active vents (9 Nov. observations). From: http://www.gns.cri.nz/hazardwatch/latest/gweekvo.htm 11/3/00 Eruptive activity has largely ceased at White Island, although the active vents continue to emit steam and gases. Mt Ruapehu shows no signs of surface activity. Both White Island and Ruapehu remain at Alert Level 1 (signs of volcano unrest). All other volcanoes are at Alert Level 0 (dormant or quiescent). 11/10/00 No eruptive activity has occurred at any of the volcanoes this week. Scientists visiting White Island on 9 November found weak to moderate fumarole activity, with the two active vents producing a white steam and gas plume. At Ruapehu minor levels of volcanic tremor have been recorded. Both White Island and Ruapehu remain at Alert Level 1 (signs of volcano unrest). All other New Zealand volcanoes are at Alert Level 0 (dormant or quiescent). ********************************** Piton de la Fournaise, Reunion ********************************** From: Thomas Staudacher Regain of activity at Piton de la Fournaise. An eruption started at Piton de la Fournaise volcano on october 12. Activity was quite reduced for about 2 weeks, until begin of november and a new cone was formed, named \"Piton Morgabim\". Lava flows of 4.5 km formed in the \"Grand Br\ufffdl\ufffd\" on the east of the volcano. Since November 1rst, tremor constantly increased over 8 days. From november 5, intense fumeroles formed just above the actual crater. Tremor highly increased over 24 hours and on nov 9, a new well formed 30 m above the first one. Since 48 hours, eruption tremor is extremely high, but constant and regular. Piton Morgabim is very active, with a 15 m wide lava lake, intense degasing and large heavy lava fountains. New lava flows pf about 2 km lengths formed and partly covered the june lava flows. ========================================== Thomas Staudacher, Jean Louis Chemin\ufffde Observatoire Volcanologique du Piton de la Fournaise Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris 14 RN3, le 27\ufffdme 97418 La Plaine des Cafres La R\ufffdunion ***************************** Colima, Mexico ***************************** From: Dan Shackelford Explosive eruption at Mexico's Colima volcano on the evening of 10 November which produced an ash cloud to ~6 km above sea level, which drifted to ENE. Following from: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/VAAC/messages.html FVXX21 KWBC 110015 VOLCANIC ASH ADVISORY ISSUED 0015 UTC 11 NOV 2000 BY THE WASHINGTON VAAC . COLIMA 00-016 MEXICO 1931N 10337W . BACKGROUND: COLIMA MEXICO (1401-04) SUMMIT HEIGHT 13451 FT (4100 M)) . SOURCES OF INFORMATION: GOES-8 VISIBLE AND INFRARED AND MULTISPECTRAL IMAGERY. MEXICO CITY METEOROLOGICAL WATCH OFFICE. . ERUPTION DETAILS: ERUPTION AT 10/2333Z. . DETAILS OF ASH CLOUD: THE MEXICO CITY METEOROLOGICAL WATCH OFFICE REPORTS AN ERUPTION OF COLIMA TO FL200. THE ASH IS MOVING TOWARDS THE EAST NORTHEAST. SATELLITE IMAGERY THROUGH 10/2345Z SHOWS NO ASH. . TRAJECTORY: ACCORDING TO UPPER AIR REPORTS ASH FROM THE SUMMIT TO FL200 WILL MOVE TOWARDS THE EAST NORTHEAST AT 15 TO 20KTS. . OUTLOOK: SEE SIGMETS. . THE NEXT MESSAGE WILL BE ISSUED AT 11/0600 UTC. . REAL TIME SATELLITE IMAGERY AND VOLCANIC ASH ADVISORIES OFTEN ACCOMPANIED BY A MAP DEPICTING ASH LOCATION ARE AVAILABLE AT INTERNET URL ADDRESS HTTP://WWW.SSD.NOAA.GOV/VAAC/WASHINGTON.HTML (ALL LOWER CASE EXCEPT /VAAC/) . PLEASE REFER TO SIGMETS FOR CURRENT WARNINGS. ."}, {"response": 309, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 19, 2000 (14:12)", "body": "******************************* MVO Weekly Activity Report ******************************* From: Peter Dunkley Montserrat Volcano Observatory Montserrat, W.I. Report for the period midday, 3 November 2000 to midday, 10 November 2000 Activity at the Soufri\ufffdre Hills volcano has remained at an elevated level this week with the continued growth of the lava dome on the eastern side of the summit region. Clear views of the dome were seen on several days during the reporting period. The summit was dominated by the extrusion of a broad lava spine inclined at a steep angle upwards towards the east. At various stages parts of the spine broke off, shedding large blocks on the upper parts of the dome. On 4th November the spine had an altitude of 1017 metres, but by the evening of 5th November it was noticeably higher. When next seen on the morning of 9th November much of the spine had disintegrated and only a broad basal stump remained. Incandescent glow could be seen on the active part of the dome at night. Observation flights indicate that there has been no new growth on the western and northern flanks of the dome. Rockfalls were confined to the eastern side of the dome, where they continue to contribute to the broad talus fan accumulating in the upper reaches of the Tar River valley. Incandescent rockfalls were observed at night. Heavy rainfall in the early hours of 4th November produced mudflows down the Belham River. Further heavy rainfall on the afternoon of 8th November produced mudflows in a number of valleys including the Belham River. Coinciding with this second period of rainfall, continuous rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows occurred within the Tar River over a period of several hours, as minor amounts of material avalanched off the eastern flank of the lava dome. The pyroclastic flows appear to have been of low energy and did not reach the Tar River delta. Ash clouds generated by these flows reached heights of about 6000 feet and drifted northwards on the prevailing wind. The level of seismic activity was slightly higher than in the previous week. The broadband seismic network recorded a total of 252 rockfall signals, 9 hybrid, 11 long period and 3 volcano-tectonic earthquakes for the reporting period. Residents of Montserrat and visitors to the island are advised to tune in to ZJB Radio for up-to-date information on the status of the volcano. Rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity is likely to remain at a high level whilst the dome continues to grow, producing ash clouds which may blow over inhabited areas if winds are from the south or southeast. Elevated levels of pyroclastic flow activity may develop very rapidly and could affect any valleys around the volcano. Ash masks should be worn in ashy conditions or when you disturb ash. The Belham valley should be avoided during and after periods of heavy rain and everyone is reminded that access to Plymouth, Bramble airport and beyond is prohibited. There is a maritime exclusion zone around the southern part of the island that extends two miles beyond the coastline from Trant's Bay in the east to Garibaldi Hill on the west coast. The daytime entry zone remains closed. 12 noon, Friday, 10 November 2000"}, {"response": 310, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 19, 2000 (14:14)", "body": "************************************** KVERT Update, Friday, Nov. 10, 2000 ************************************** From: Alaska Volcano Observatory Kamchatkan Volcanic Activity INFORMATION RELEASE 00-50 Friday, November 10, 2000, 11:30 KST (2330 UTC) The following Release was received by the Alaska Volcano Observatory via e-mail from KVERT (Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruptions Response Team). All times are in Kamchatkan Standard Time, 21 hours ahead of Anchorage. KLYUCHEVSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES KLYUCHEVSKOY VOLCANO 56o03'N, 160o39'E; Elevation 4,750 m. CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. During the past week (November 3-9), seismic activity was near background levels. On Nov. 3, weak fumarolic activity was observed. On Nov. 4,6, and 7, a gas-steam plume rose 150-800 m above the volcano and extended 10 km to the southeast on Nov. 7. On other days, clouds obscured the volcano. BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO 55o58'N, 160o36'E; Elevation 2,895 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. PREVIOUS LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE WAS YELLOW. Seismicity has decreased to background levels. No Nov. 3-6, a gas-steam plume rose 1000-2000 m above the volcano and extended 20-60 km mainly to the southeast. On Nov. 7, a gas-steam plume rose 500 m above the volcano. On Nov. 9, clouds obscured the volcano. SHEVELUCH VOLCANO 56o38'N, 161o19'E; Elevation 2,447 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS YELLOW. On Nov. 3-4, 6, and 8, a gas-steam plume rose 100-300 m above the dome. On Nov. 7, a gas-steam plume rose 1500 m above the dome. On other days, clouds obscured the volcano. KARYMSKY VOLCANO 54o03'N, 159o27'E; Elevation 1,486 m CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. Seismic activity was at background levels. AVACHINSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES, 53o15'N, 158o51'E; CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS GREEN. Seismicity at Avachinsky and Koryaksky volcanoes is at normal levels. MUTNOVSKAYA GROUP OF VOLCANOES: GORELY VOLCANO, 52o33'N, 158o02'E, Elevation 1,828M MUTNOVSKY VOLCANO, 52o27'N,158o12'E, Elev. 2,324 M. CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE FOR BOTH VOLCANOES IS GREEN. On Nov. 3-8, Gorely volcano wa quiet, and a gas-steam plume rose 300-800 m above Mutnovsky volcano. On Nov. 9, the volcanoes were obscured by clouds. The seismicity was near background levels. PLEASE CONTACT AVO IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS. Olga Chubarova Tom Miller Kamchatka Volcanic Eruptions Alaska Volcano Observatory Response Team, IVGG, Piip Blvd, 9 4200 University Drive Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 683006, RUSSIA Anchorage, Alaska 99508 E-mail: ochubarova@emsd.iks.ru E-mail: tmiller@usgs.gov tel. (415-22)59385 907-786-7454"}, {"response": 311, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 20, 2000 (21:24)", "body": "******************************** Caribbean Volcano Cruise II ******************************** From: David Lea Announcement: Many of you may have heard about the volcano cruise that took place in the Caribbean last year aboard the 150 foot topsail schooner, Sir Robert Baden Powell. Well we are having another one in 2001, only instead of 21 days, it will only be 10 days long. You can check out the ship that we will be sailing on and get a lot more information by going to last years website at: www.volcano-island.com/cruise The ship will depart Martinique in the French West Indies on April 3, 2001 The passengers/participants will disembark in St. Maarten on April 14, 2001 The volcanic islands we will be visiting will be Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Nevis and St.Kitts The leader of this expedition will once again be David Lea, well known videographer of the Montserrat eruption and creator of the documentary series, \"The Price of Paradise\" and other educational videos. www.priceofparadise.com We will be climbing the volcanoes in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nevis and St. Kitts, along with a visit to the famous boiling lake in Dominica. Montserrat will no doubt be the centerpiece of the cruise as it is still in eruption. Visits to all of the observatories are also being arranged. The ship is also fully equipped with the latest diving gear for those of you that are interested in some great diving. For further information you can contact David Lea directly at: lead@candw.ag"}, {"response": 312, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 21, 2000 (20:10)", "body": "Who wold be stupid enough to live on a live volcano?! Cities on Volcanoes 2 conference (12-16 February 2001, Auckland, New Zealand) programme now available on-line at: http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/conferences"}, {"response": 313, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 21, 2000 (20:11)", "body": "**************************************** Piton de la Fournaise, Reunion activity **************************************** Piton de la Fournaise eruption which started on october 12, suddenly stopped on november 13, after 33 days of continuous eruption. During the last five days of activity, tremor was unusually high and at Piton Morgabim very vigorous eruption activity occured. On november 9th, a new eruption went opened some 30 m above the initial one and slight phreatomagmatic events could be observed. On november 13 at 22h45 (local time) the tremor suddenly disappeared within only 15 minutes. On november 15, up to 800 \ufffdC hot lava fields were still present formed by the final lava flows. The crater showed an about 100 m large and an about 40 m deep cavity, which was formed by welding together of both eruption sites. Thomas Staudacher & Jean Louis Chemin\ufffde Observatoire Volcanologique du Piton de la Fournaise Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris 14 RN3, le 27\ufffdme 97418 La Plaine des Cafres La R\ufffdunion t\ufffdl.: 02 62 27 52 92 fax.: 02 62 59 12 04 *************************************** White Island and Ruapehu, New Zealand *************************************** For week ending 17 November, White Island developed a new degassing vent just SE of MH vent and MH vent was noisely actively degassing too. No significant change in seismicity at White Island though. Minor volcanic tremor continues at Ruapehu. From: http://www.gns.cri.nz/hazardwatch/latest/gweekvo.htm White Island continues to emit steam and gases. Early in the week the noise from the active MH vent was so loud that it could be heard from the beach in still conditions. By Thursday, a small new vent southeast of MH was also steaming. This slight increase in activity was not accompanied by any significant seismic activity. At Ruapehu minor levels of volcanic tremor continue to be recorded."}, {"response": 314, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 26, 2000 (22:37)", "body": "******************************************* Vanuatu volcanoes on \"STROMBOLI ON-LINE\" ******************************************* From: Roberto Carniel Dear volcanophiles Just a brief note to let you know that STROMBOLI ON-LINE ( http://stromboli.net ) has established, after field work done by Carniel and Fulle in July 2000 on Ambrym, Lopevi and Yasur, a section on Vanuatu's volcanoes. It includes photos, videoclips, maps and a QuickTime-VR panorama of Yasur. The direct URL is: http://stromboli.net/perm/van/index-en.html As always, this material is also available in German and Italian: http://stromboli.net/perm/van/index-de.html http://stromboli.net/perm/van/index-it.html"}, {"response": 315, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (20:42)", "body": "********************************* Api Siau and Merapi, Indonesia ********************************* For the week ending 20 November, Api Siau (Karangetang) ejected ash from its two active craters, frequent boomings and nighttime glares. Merapi emitted a thin ash plume to 530m and notable seismicity continued. From: http://www.vsi.dpe.go.id/news/index.html Weekly Report No. 590 14-20 November 2000 Karangetang Siau island; 2\ufffd47' N, 125\ufffd29' E Karangetang activity continued during this week. White-thin ash plume appeared from main crater and crater II rose up 600 m height above the summit. A frequently booming sound was heard from the summit. Sometimes at night sight the observer noted red flame from the summit, the height is about 75 m. Seismic record dominated by discontinuous tremor, which has amplitude 0.5-4 mm. During this week seismograph also recorded some multiphase earthquakes. Detail of seismic activity were: deep volcanic (A) 7 events, 3 events of shallow volcanic (B), 51 events of multiphase, 18 events of small explosion, 45 events of tectonic, and discontinuous tremor earthquake. Karangetang volcano is in level 2. Merapi Central Java; 7\ufffd32.5' S, 110\ufffd26.5' E Merapi volcano continued to ejecting white ash plume. During the week ash plume rose up 530 m height above the summit and low in pressure. Seismograph recorded both of deep and shallow volcanic earthquakes, but seismicity still dominated by multiphase earthquakes. Merapi volcano is in level 2."}, {"response": 316, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (20:53)", "body": "************************************* MVO weekly report, 24 November 2000 ************************************* Montserrat Volcano Observatory Montserrat, W.I. Report for the period midday, 17 November 2000 to midday, 24 November 2000 Activity at the Soufri\ufffdre Hills volcano has remained at an elevated level this week with the continued growth of the lava dome and a marked increase in the number of rockfall signals. The level of seismic activity was higher than in the previous week. The broadband seismic network recorded a total of 497 rockfall signals, 1 volcano-tectonic, 85 long period and 16 hybrid earthquakes for the reporting period. The number of rockfalls has more than doubled relative to the previous week, although the number and energy of the long period earthquakes has decreased. Clear views of the dome were seen over the period from 17 to 22 November. The lava spine that had been extruding over the previous week was seen briefly on 17 November and the height of the top of the spine was estimated as over 1085 m or 3560 feet. However views over the weekend showed that the large spine had collapsed and a number of smaller spines were visible in the summit area. On the afternoon of 17 November and over the following few days, rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows were occurring down the notch between the northeastern and northern lobes of the 1995-98 dome. These were reaching into the upper parts of Tuitt\ufffds and White\ufffds ghauts to the northeast of the dome and traveling down the northern edge of the Tar River valley. Some new deposits were also noted in the upper White River valley to the south of the dome. Ash clouds from this activity reached no more than 10,000 feet and mostly traveled to the west across the exclusion zone. Towards the end of the week, the rockfall activity down the eastern flank had decreased, although the number of rockfalls detected by the seismic network remained high. Measurements of sulphur dioxide emissions from the volcano were made on 23 November and showed that the average flux was 1050 tonnes per day. This is higher than the previous measurement of 610 tonnes per day on 10 November, but is similar to other measurements made over the last 3 months. Residents of Montserrat and visitors to the island are advised to tune in to ZJB Radio for up-to-date information on the status of the volcano. Rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity is likely to remain at a high level whilst the dome continues to grow, producing ash clouds which may blow over inhabited areas if winds are from the south or southeast. Elevated levels of pyroclastic flow activity may develop very rapidly and could affect any valleys around the volcano. Ash masks should be worn in ashy conditions or when you disturb ash. The Belham valley should be avoided during and after periods of heavy rain and everyone is reminded that access to Plymouth, Bramble airport and beyond is prohibited. There is a maritime exclusion zone around the southern part of the island that extends two miles beyond the coastline from Trant\ufffds Bay in the east to Garibaldi Hill on the west coast. The daytime entry zone remains closed. 12 noon, Friday, 24 November 2000"}, {"response": 317, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  4, 2000 (22:18)", "body": "************************************* MVO weekly report, 1 December 2000 ************************************* Montserrat Volcano Observatory Montserrat, W.I. Report for the period midday, 24 November 2000 to midday, 1 December 2000 Activity at the Soufri\ufffdre Hills volcano has remained at an elevated level this week with continued growth of the lava dome. The level of seismic activity was comparable to last week. The broadband seismic network recorded a total of 491 rockfall signals, no volcano-tectonic, 69 long period and 13 hybrid earthquakes for the reporting period. Clear views of the dome were possible briefly on the evening of 27 November. The crest of the dome was dominated by a large shark\ufffds fin-shaped spine. Glowing rockfalls were seen cascading down the eastern and southeastern faces of the dome. Poor visibility through the rest of the week prevented further observations being made, although new rockfall deposits were seen predominantly in the upper reaches of the Tar River valley. Measurements of sulphur dioxide emissions from the volcano were made on 28 November and showed that the average flux was 1020 tonnes per day. This is similar to the values measured last week. Dr. Glenn Mattioli, Andy Eby and Lizzette Rodriguez from the University of Puerto Rico are visiting Montserrat this week to collaborate with the MVO in a GPS monitoring campaign. Occupations of several sites around the volcano are in progress, using both MVO and University of Puerto Rico equipment, so that the movements of the flanks of the volcano can be measured very accurately. This is part of a long-established collaborative venture that has been ongoing since the start of the eruption. Residents of Montserrat and visitors to the island are advised to tune in to ZJB Radio for up-to-date information on the status of the volcano. Rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity is likely to remain at a high level whilst the dome continues to grow, producing ash clouds which may blow over inhabited areas if winds are from the south or southeast. Elevated levels of pyroclastic flow activity may develop very rapidly and could affect any valleys around the volcano. Ash masks should be worn in ashy conditions or when you disturb ash. The Belham valley should be avoided during and after periods of heavy rain and everyone is reminded that access to Plymouth, Bramble airport and beyond is prohibited. There is a maritime exclusion zone around the southern part of the island that extends two miles beyond the coastline from Trant\ufffds Bay in the east to Garibaldi Hill on the west coast. The daytime entry zone remains closed. 12 noon, Friday, 1 December 2000"}, {"response": 318, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (19:48)", "body": "********************************************************** Updates: Semeru, Api Siau and Bromo Volcanoes, Indonesia ********************************************************** For the week of 5-11 December 2000, Semeru's eruption, which began 33 years ago, continues with thick white fume, two pyroclastic flows and numerous explosions (513 explosion earthquakes). Api Siau (a.k.a. Karangetang) exhibited fume columns from both active craters and occasional nighttime glares to 25m height and a marked increase in seismicity (which includes continous tremor). The new eruption at Bromo with manifold explosions and ash columns rising to as much as 900m a.c. (above crater), continuous tremor and strong sulfur odor. Source report: http://www.vsi.dpe.go.id/news/index.html Weekly Report No. 593 5-11 December 2000 Semeru East Java; 8\ufffd6.50' S, 112\ufffd55' E A 600 m white-thick fume rose from Jonggring Seloko crater. Seismic record dominated by explosion earthquake (513 events), the others record were: 1 event of deep volcanic (A), 1 event of shallow volcanic (B), 16 events of avalanche, 6 events of tectonic, and 2 event of pyroclastic flow. The alert level of Semeru volcano is in level 2. Karangetang Siau island; 2\ufffd47' N, 125\ufffd29' E Volcanic activity increased during reported period, white-thin fume exhibited from crater II and main crater. This fume reached 50 m above the summit. An indistinct fire plume observed frequently at night sight. The fire plume reached up to 25 m above the summit. An extrem increase on volcanic earthquake occurred within this week. Seismic record showed: 135 events of deep volcanic (A) earthquake, 1 event of shallow volcanic (B), 151 events of multiphase, 74 events of small explosion, 8 events of tectonic, and a continuous of tremor volcanic. Karangetang volcano is in level 2. Bromo East Java; 7\ufffd56.30' S, 112\ufffd37' E Within this period, G. Bromo still stated as \"waspada\" level. Volcanic activity marked by ongoing explosion and continuous tremor. Ash explosion, which is accompanied by grey-brown to dark fume. Fume's height approximately 150-900 m above crater rim, sulphur smelled strongly from observation post. 817 events of explosion earthquake, which has amplitude of 4-30 mm and continuous tremor, which has amplitude of 2-6 mm recorded during observation period. Bromo volcano is in level 2."}, {"response": 319, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (21:40)", "body": "*************************************** Colima, Fuego, and Tungurahua updates *************************************** Colima, Mexico --------------- As of 1800 on 6 December, activity at Colima was at low seismic, deformation and visual levels. The recent tendency has been that of low, waning levels of measured activity. See: http://www.ucol.mx/volcan/report1.html Fuego, Guatemala ----------------- Several small explosions at Guatemala's Fuego volcano in the evening of 9 December. Tungurahua, Ecuador --------------------- Thin ash plume from Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano in the early hours of 10 December. Source: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/VAAC/messages.html"}, {"response": 320, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 19, 2000 (18:14)", "body": "Popocatepetl is erupting - for updating image please go to: http://www.cenapred.unam.mx/images/popo.jpg"}, {"response": 321, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 19, 2000 (19:01)", "body": "or try http://www.cenapred.unam.mx/popo/UltimaImagenVolcan2.html"}, {"response": 322, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 19, 2000 (21:17)", "body": "Popocatepetl volcano, seen from the Mexican village of San Nicolas de los Ranchos, erupts late December 18, 2000. The eruptions have caused small forest fires on its slopes in Puebla state where thousands of residents had been evacuated, but many others refused to leave. (Daniel Aguilar/Reuters) -------------- Ash Plume earlier in the week - Popocatepetl, Mexico"}, {"response": 323, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 19, 2000 (21:25)", "body": "Mexico's Popocatepetl Erupts, Thousands Evacuated SAN PEDRO CHOLULA, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano spewed molten rock into the sky Tuesday forcing more than 30,000 people to abandon their homes and sparking fears a glacier could become dislodged and trigger massive mudslides. Flaming rock burst from the 17,884-foot high volcano at 2 a.m. on -- the second eruption in a few hours in what was the volcano's most violent activity for decades -- perhaps centuries. Mexican authorities, fearing a roughly 3,000 feet long glacier on the volcano's western face could become dislodged by molten rock and cause mudslides, expanded an emergency zone to 12.5 miles from 7.5 miles. \"We are on maximum alert ... because we have to be ready for any possible contingency regarding the glacier,\" Interior Minister Santiago Creel told a news conference on Tuesday. The volcano, revered as a divinity by indigenous peoples before the 1521 Spanish Conquest, was stable later Tuesday but authorities predicted more activity before the day was out. Authorities helped establish makeshift shelters for the more than 30,000 evacuees, whose homes were near the base of the volcano. Creel said eventually more than 48,000 people living in central Puebla, Mexico and Morelos states near the mountain -- Mexico's second highest -- would have to be evacuated from their homes. President Vicente Fox flew by helicopter to towns near the volcano and toured evacuee shelters as government officials met to coordinate their response to the emergency. EVACUATED VILLAGERS FEAR FOR HOMES, FAMILY MEMBERS In a refuge in San Pedro Cholula, in Puebla state which Fox visited early Tuesday, villagers who had been evacuated from their homes voiced worries about family members who had been separated from them in the upheaval. \"I want to find my children. They are very small. They left the house first and by the time I came out last night they had gone, I must look for them,\" Margarita Cortes, carrying a baby on her back, told Reuters. Cortes' husband, like other men from villages at risk, stayed back out of fear for his home. Others have been driven home in army trucks to check on their abandoned properties. One man, aged 75, apparently overcome by shock from the eruption, reportedly died of a heart attack on Monday in the village of San Pedro Benito Juarez, in Puebla state. Local radio reported that in the village of Santiago Xalitzintla, in Puebla state, soldiers forced residents to leave their houses on Monday night as the mountain threw up slabs of molten rock, some as much as 1.5 feet (45 cm) in diameter. Army patrols were manning many of the roads into communities closest to the volcano. Puebla city airport was closed on Tuesday. Popocatepetl, or \"smoking mountain\" in the indigenous Nahuatl language and pronounced poh-poh-kah-teh-peh-til, was inactive from 1927 to 1994, when there was a moderate eruption. Since then it has been increasingly active, sending up smoke and ash columns. In April 1996, five mountain climbers died near the crater's rim during an explosion of the volcano, which is believed to have been formed about 300,000 years ago. Fox, who was sworn in on Dec. 1, attempted to reassure villagers in refuges as government officials met to coordinate their response to the emergency. \"You can rest assured, the army is looking after your houses and everything,\" he told a woman in an evacuation shelter in Chalco, in Mexico state. Creel said some 1,500 troops from the armed forces and 800 more police were involved in the emergency operation and that there had only been minor incidents of looting. Airplanes were taking off and landing normally in Mexico City airport, 42 miles from the volcano. Ash can pose a danger to airplanes if it enters their turbines. \"...No airline has suspended flights,\" Roberto Canovas, director of the air terminal, told journalists. Mexico City authorities said a rain of ash could cover the city but so far winds had blown the volcanic ash toward Puebla state."}, {"response": 324, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 21, 2000 (00:07)", "body": "*********************** Popocatepetl, Mexico *********************** As many of you are aware, Popocatepetl in Mexico erupted large amounts of ash and steam last week, and experienced a spectacular eruption on Monday night (December 18). Some reports say it was the largest eruption in over a thousand years. Since Monday night, it has erupted at least three times, in its greatest activity in over 400 years. Activity seems to have slowed today, Wednesday December 20. Updates on Popocatepetl activity can be found at the CENAPRED web site: http://www.cenapred.unam.mx/ Reports are also available through the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program Preliminary Notices of Volcanic Activity, http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/gvn/world/index.htm and at the Volcano World website, http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/popo/mar5popo.html Finally, general news coverage can be found at: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/Science/Earthquakes_and_Seismology/"}, {"response": 325, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 22, 2000 (20:07)", "body": "********************************* Bromo Volcano, Indonesia ********************************* Bromo volcano in Indonesia began a new eruption on 30 November. Prior to that there was no specific precursory events known, although the monitoring seismograph has been down since 18 October, just the usual white gas plume of low intensity, rising ~50m. Some sort of increased activity may have begun earlier since the local government urged a no-climbing effort on the 29th. The initial explosion sent up a dark ash cloud to 100-150m ht. Increased activity thereafter with ash clouds to 600-700m a.c. (above crater). Ash falls to 1-3cm depth at distances of 40 km by early December. From: http://www.vsi.dpe.go.id/news/index.html Bromo Crisis 4 December, 2000 A minor explosion occurred suddenly on Bromo volcano on 30 November 2000. There was no a specific cursor before it. Daily activity marked by white ash plume which had low intensity and rose up about 50 m height. There is no seimicity data because the seismograph did not work since 18 October 2000. The first explosion ejected dark ash as height as 100-150 m height above the crater rim. An explosion ongoing up to now and increased. Ash explosion reached 600-700 m height above the crater rim and hit 1-3 cm thick in 40 km distance from the volcano. Since 29 November 2000 a local government recommended to people living around volcano and tourists not to climb the volcano for a several time until normal. Bromo activity increased and stated in level 2. For further monitoring VSI will be repair the old seismograph and install the new telemetry one and EDM (Electronic Distance Measurement)."}, {"response": 326, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 22, 2000 (20:07)", "body": "********************************* Popocatepetl, Mexico (1401-09) ********************************* Tue, 12 Dec 2000 There was a massive exhalation of ash and steam from the volcano Popocatepetl, near Mexico City. The eruption was detected by the Center for Prevention of Natural Disasters (CENAPRED), and relayed to the Washington D.C. Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) by way of the Mexico City Meteorological Watch Office. The eruption began at approximately 2207 UTC (5:07 EST) and was immediately visible on the Popocatepetl \"Web Cam\" set up by CENAPRED. A large plume of mostly ash (judging by the darkened color of the plume) was seen exiting the summit. An analysis of subsequent imagery from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-8) indicated a dense ash cloud extending 37 kilometers (20 nautical miles) to the northeast. The immediate area around the volcano was clear of water clouds at the time. The only disability in the satellite detection was a post GOES-8 maneuver that resulted in a navigation error of about 30 to 50 kilometers. The ash cloud was estimated to reach a level of 29,000 feet above sea level based on upper air wind observations. For details of the current eruption including real time satellite imagery, visit: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/VAAC/popo.html"}, {"response": 327, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 22, 2000 (20:09)", "body": "***************************** Volcano Expedition website ***************************** From: David Hilton (David Hilton) Please join us on a scientific expedition to study the volcanoes of Costa Rica via the Internet beginning Thursday, January 4, 2001. The Scripps Web site, titled Volcano Expedition ( http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/volcano/) , will allow users to log on and follow a two-week-long field trip to six active volcanic areas in the highlands of Costa Rica in Central America. The site will feature photographic documentation of the expedition, along with videos of the field research being conducted by a multinational team of earth scientists and graduate students. Web users will be able to travel along with the team by logging on to daily reports from the field. This expedition represents the first stage of an NSF-sponsored investigation of the volatile systematics of the Central America volcanic margin. We will target recent lavas, fumaroles, and geothermal waters. The goal is to understand geochemical cycling through the earth's crust via the processes of subduction and volcanic emission. David Hilton (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) ***************************** Lake Nyos, Cameroon website ***************************** From: Gaudru Dear Colleague, We are pleased to inform you that a new website concerning the Lake Nyos in Cameroon is now running. In 1986, a tremendous explosion of CO2 from the lake Nyos, West of Cameroon, killed more than 1700 people and livestock up to 25 km away. The dissolved CO2 is seeping from springs beneath the lake and is trapped in deep water by the high hydrostatic pressure. If the CO2 saturation level is reached, bubbles appear and draw a rich gas water up. An avalanche process is triggered which results in an explosive over-turn of the whole lake. A French team has carried out since 1990 a series of tests in an attempt to release the gas slowly through vertical pipes. The site, also, show a general overview about the Lake and the degassing project. Information contact for the site : Michel.Halbwachs@univ-savoie.fr To access directly at the Nyos homepage : http://perso.wanadoo.fr/mhalb/nyos and/or by a direct link from the SVE website : http://www.sveurop.org (see article/Lake Nyos) (in addition, we inform you that a new page about the recent SVE mission on the Serreta submarine volcano (Azores) is also already running) - under construction"}, {"response": 328, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (17:03)", "body": "********* Kilauea ********* 0550 December 26, 2000 Boxing Day at Kilauea brings more lava on Pulama pali. This morning at 0459, a moderately vigorous flow has reached the base of the pali 200-400 m farther west than the flows of the past week. The new flow apparently is fed from either a higher breakout point than were the previous flows or a tongue of these flows that headed more southward than normal. The new flow is burning scattered trees, but kona winds blow the smoke smell northward, leaving clean air on the coastal flat. The previous flows are still visible farther east on the pali, but they are mostly crusted over, with four large incandescent patches separated by dull crust. Mapping on Sunday, and glow this morning, indicate that lava is slowly moving seaward on the coastal flat. Still, more than 2 km separate the flow front from the water. The crater of Pu`u `O`o is dark this morning, seismic tremor near Pu`u `O`o is weak to moderate and beneath Kilauea caldera is weak, and the tilt at Kilauea summit and along the east rift zone is flat."}, {"response": 329, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (04:07)", "body": "What is the significance of boxing day in Hawaii, I know they have this in Candada as well."}, {"response": 330, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  1, 2001 (15:44)", "body": "Nothing whatsoever. We are totally Americanized here. I guess we were not colonized out here for long enough and the New England missionaries brought American traditions with them. No Boxing day except to return the boxes you got the day before you did not like..."}, {"response": 331, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  5, 2001 (00:26)", "body": "Proof of Kilauea\ufffds big bang shocks Hawaii geologists The volcano once had a Mt. St. Helens-style eruption, never before known in the islands By Rod Thompson Big Island correspondent HILO -- Sometime before 1000 A.D., Kilauea volcano blasted skyward in an eruption so massive it sent rocks and dust as much as 18 miles into the air. The cloud of debris may have been seen on Maui, said Don Swanson, scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. And the eruption may have changed the way Hawaiians viewed Kilauea, ushering in the new volcano goddess Pele, said Hawaiian cultural consultant Kepa Maly. For several years, geologists have known about fist-size rocks shot through the air, different from surrounding rocks, lying on the ground south of Kilauea, Swanson said. In August, geologists took a closer look. \"What we found surprised, even shocked us,\" Swanson said. About five miles from the summit, they found a rock weighing 4.3 pounds. At six miles from the summit, they found one weighing nearly 3 pounds."}, {"response": 332, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  5, 2001 (00:27)", "body": "more of the above article plus maps: http://starbulletin.com/2001/01/04/news/story2.html"}, {"response": 333, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  5, 2001 (15:53)", "body": "check http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/geo/2.161 then look at this aerial view of where he was camped - in center foreground on an old hilltop! http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/hazards/dds24167_L.jpg"}, {"response": 334, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (17:58)", "body": "How far away is Maui from Hawaii?"}, {"response": 335, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (14:22)", "body": "The Alahelenui channel is about 12 miles across - one of the roughest channels in the world. It separates The Kohala mountains of Hawaii from Haleakala Volcano on Maui. Re Popocatepetl: From Yahoo Volcanology Club's Steve: Some phreatic emmissions are visable. Sulfur dioxide emmisions were reported to be slightly lower. I am unsure how reliable Mex television is. Volcanologist here recommended against any people being allowed back into area closer than Oaca and &or 10 km of the volcano. Ary troops are still in the area for any further actions to remove people. Some residents have drifted back dispite concerns of so 2 and other vapors . Biggest fear is the melting of the glacial snow as clodest par of year is passing fast."}, {"response": 336, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (20:47)", "body": "A field trip and conference in the week immediately preceding the Cities on Volcanoes 2 conference in Auckland, New Zealand. A conference and field trip to be held in Australia in early February 2001 will be concerned with scoria cones and small lava shields of Quaternary age, extensive flows, and some 40 maar volcanoes with tuff rings, crater lakes and swamps, which occur on the Western Victorian Volcanic Plains. A field trip leaves Melbourne on Saturday 3rd February 2001 and travels through the main volcanic field with leaders who have worked on volcanicity, dating, crater lake stratigraphy and fauna sequences, pollen sequences and recent lake level change related to current climate fluctuation. Staying for two nights in the old pastoral town of Camperdown, and then reaching the small historic coastal town of Port Fairy in far Western Victoria on the afternoon of Monday 5th, about 50 researchers and post-graduate students will meet for the rest of the week to discuss all aspects of the Quaternary history of the region, as part of a regular meeting of the Australasian Quaternary Association (AQUA). A mid-conference field trip on Wednesday 7th will visit the famous Tower Hill nested maar, and also the nearby Mt Eccles volcanic complex and young stony rise flows. The conference will conclude at lunchtime on Friday 9th February, allowing attendees to return to Melbourne in time to catch evening flights at Melbourne airport, and so allowing ample time to travel to Auckland for the Cities on Volcanoes 2 meeting commencing on Monday 12th. The young volcanic subprovince of Western Victoria has many similarities to the Auckland field and this meeting provides an interesting (and inexpensive!) opportunity for those going to the Auckland meeting, or just interested in young areal volcanism, to see another famous field, and hear the latest information on dating, volcanic history and the risk of future eruption. For details of the conference, field trip and other program details see: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ges/research/conference.html"}, {"response": 337, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (21:33)", "body": "****************************** Mayon Volcano, Philippines ****************************** From: Dan Shackelford Subject: Something brewing at Mayon Activity at the beautifully conic Philippine volcano Mayon seems to be increasing. Increased seismicity, a growing summit lava dome and copious amounts of gas have been noted. Inflation has been noted, indicating possible magma ascending in the conduit. No crater glows though, yet. From: http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/Volcanoes/Mayon/MayonIndex.html (follow link at top of page to latest bulletin and photos) Mayon Volcano Bulletin 7:00 PM, 09 January 2001 A possible resurgence of activity is evident from recent observations on Mayon. Reports by the Lig\ufffdon Hill Observatory in Legazpi City disclosed an apparently growing lava dome, which is also emitting voluminous volcanic gases from the summit crater. Significantly increased earthquake occurrences have also occurred this past week and these events are likely related to ascent of magma. Such ascent is also indicated by slight ground tilt that has coincided with appearance of the lava dome, and the sustained gas outputs visible during cloud breaks. Due to near-constant cloud cover, however, no crater glow has been observed yet but the major monitored parameters strongly suggest that activity is rapidly progressing beyond the usual background or quiet conditions. Because of the reactivation of the volcano which may eventually lead to a lava flow-producing or pyroclastic flow-producing eruption, PHIVOLCS is now hoisting Alert Level 2, meaning increased and sustained volcanic unrest. No time frame or precise eruption prediction can be given yet because of the short observation period and the lack of good visibility of the summit area. As a precaution against hazards from sudden explosions, however, PHIVOLCS advises the public to stay away from the six (6) kilometer radius Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ) and to avoid major river channels that originate from the volcano. In addition, all treks within the prescribed PDZ, should be postponed until the alert has been lowered to the appropriate level. In the meantime, additional volcano monitoring teams are now being sent on-site to further evaluate the unrest and any significant developments shall be relayed to all concerned. PHIVOLCS"}, {"response": 338, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (22:07)", "body": "U.S. Relief Supplies to Be Sent to El Salvador WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. aid agency said on Saturday it would dispatch a planeload of plastic sheeting, medical kits, blankets and other supplies to earthquake victims in El Salvador as soon as an airport there reopened. \"We have supplies prepared and ready to go in Miami but we have to wait until an airport is open for us to land in,\" said Joseph Schultz, a spokesman for the U.S. Agency for International Development. The supplies will include plastic sheeting to create makeshift shelter, five-gallon plastic jugs for water, personal hygiene kits, medical kits and blankets, he said. The agency said it had three people on the ground in El Salvador, and hoped to get five more emergency workers into the Central American nation by early on Sunday. The spokesman said he had no information regarding the powerful earthquake because of downed telephone lines. The quake's epicenter was about 65 miles southeast of the capital San Salvador. Red Cross and local authorities said dozens of people had died in El Salvador and Guatemala. A spokesman for the Pentagon said there were no immediate plans to send U.S. military troops to the area to assist with emergency relief."}, {"response": 339, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (22:09)", "body": "Central America Quake Death Toll Up SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - A major earthquake shook Central America on Saturday, unleashing a landslide that buried hundreds of houses near El Salvador's capital and killing at least 63 people across the region. About 1,200 people are believed to be missing in the buried Las Colinas neighborhood just west of San Salvador, Red Cross spokesman Carlos Lopez Medina said. Medina said that at least 61 people were killed across El Salvador but the national police estimated the death toll at near 100. The 7.6-magnitude quake centered off El Salvador's southern coast also rocked Honduras and Guatemala, where two deaths were reported. Buildings swayed in Mexico City, about 600 miles to the northwest. Salvadoran President Francisco Flores declared a national emergency and appealed for international aid to help look for buried victims and assist survivors. Hundreds of rescuers frantically ripped at the earth with sticks and bare hands to reach those buried in the middle class Las Colinas area, where a 1,500-foot landslide carried away houses, cars and trees. A distraught Arturo Magana, 25, wandered about to find his 18-year-old brother, Jaime. ``I don't know where to dig because I don't know where the house is,'' he said. ``This is terrible. I don't think we will be able to pull out any victims; everything has been buried,'' said David Lara, a rescue worker struggling at the mass of dirt and concrete with a shovel. Lopez estimated that 300 houses had been destroyed in Las Colinas. By night, 20 bodies had been recovered at Las Colinas. No survivors had yet been found. ``There is my boy! Help me! Help me!'' wailed Carmen de Marin, a 41-year-old woman weeping beside the buried ruins of her Las Colinas house. She said her 12-year-old son Jaime Ernesto Marin had stayed home to await a phone call from his father in the United States when she went out shopping shortly before the quake hit at about 11:35 a.m. In the southeastern town of San Miguel, the wall of a hospital collapsed and 25 people were known to be dead in a small village nearby. News of the damage was slowed by the fact that much of El Salvador's telephone service and electricity was knocked out by the quake for several hours. Only sketchy reports had arrived from many hard-hit areas. In Santa Ana, about 35 miles northwest of the capital, the 116-year-old El Calvario church collapsed, killing at least one employee and possibly others worshipping inside, according to the Rev. Robert Castro. The Red Cross reported that 13 people died in nearby Sosonati. Some 200 other victims were rushed to the area hospital, which authorities weren't sure was still structurally sound. The quake was centered off the Salvadoran coast, about 65 miles southwest of San Miguel, according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, Colo. It took more than an hour for some San Salvador radio stations to return to the air and telephone service remained spotty at mid-afternoon. There were cracked buildings and shattered windows across the city of 500,000. Officials at San Salvador's international airport said all flights had been canceled . Most businesses in the city closed - though in a surreal touch, acrobats and dancers from a touring circus marched through the streets past frightened people, using a loudspeaker to promote a coming performance. Police in neighboring Guatemala said a man and a 2-year-old girl were killed and three other people were injured when a pair of homes collapsed in the city of Jalpataua. Local radio stations reported the collapse of a church in Suchitepequez, in southern Guatemala. The quake set off car alarms and temporarily knocked out electricity, radio, television and cellular phone service all over Guatemala, but most service was quickly restored. Honduran officials reported cracked buildings in several cities, but there were no reports of injuries. A 1986 earthquake centered near San Salvador killed an estimated 1,500 people and injured 8,000."}, {"response": 340, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 15, 2001 (20:12)", "body": ""}, {"response": 341, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 15, 2001 (20:29)", "body": "From Rob in New Zealand on http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/volcanoesandvolcanologist Nine caldera volcanoes exist in New Zealand, but seven of them have been buried by flows of ignimbrite and breccia, mainly from Taupo, but also Okataina. Other caldera's are Maroa, Whakamaru, Rotorua, and Oruanui. The latter exists only in name as it borders Taupo, and the more recent eruptions at Taupo since Oruanui had it's 15 minutes of fame 26500 years have completely wiped it out. It is essentially part of Taupo. All the caldera's in New Zealand have had a violent history typical of caldera volcanoes. Parts of Maroa and Whakamaru can still be seen but they have a least 200 metres of ignimbrite and ash from various eruptions elsewhere overtop, so all that can be seen is the top of the rim. Eruptions at Taupo and Okataina will occur again as seismic tests show that vast magma bodies lie under both. Both have population centres nearby (Rotorua city - pop. 45000 - 8km from Okataina, and the towns of Taupo (15000)and Turangi (3500), near Taupo). Ignimbrite flows from caldera volcanoes have gotten as far as the Manukau Harbour, 150 miles north-northwest of Taupo. Eight hydro-electric powerstations, two geothermal stations, and a thermal station use the water of the Waikato river which drains from Lake Taupo in the caldera. The city of Hamilton (145000 people)is 90 miles from Taupo and is sited on the banks of the Waikato River. This means 20 percent of the power generation, 40% percent of New Zealands population, possibly 50% of all tourism, the main trunk railway and main highway, our only large pulp and paper mill, plus a fair portion of our dairy, and sheep farming capacity is threatened by the caldera volcanoes of the North Island."}, {"response": 342, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 15, 2001 (23:47)", "body": "Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network Volume 25, Number 11, November 2000 Rabaul (Papua New Guinea) Ashfall during August-October most abundant since 1995 Ulawun (Papua New Guinea) An eruption during 28 September-2 October 2000 sends a plume to 1012 km Langila (Papua New Guinea) Mild Vulcanian eruptions during July-October 2000 Karkar (Papua New Guinea) Rumored eruption on 29 September believed to stem from Ulawun's ash fall Manam (Papua New Guinea) Low August-October 2000 activity; increased seismicity 18 September Karangetang (Indonesia) February-December included explosions, ash falls, lava flows, and debris flows Tengger Caldera (Indonesia) Sudden explosion 29 November; eruption continues as of 18 December Merapi (Indonesia) Consistent gas plume; lava avalanches and landslide; new lava dome and fractures Slamet (Indonesia) During May-October 2000, continuous tremor and abundant explosion earthquakes Kaba (Indonesia) Explosions and light gray ash Marapi (Indonesia) Large explosions in March 2000 eject ash Heard Island (Indian Ocean) Discovery of a distinct vent below Mawson Peak; brown fumes in November Shiveluch (Kamchatka) Frequent steam plumes, weak tremor, and possible gasandash explosions Rabaul New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea 4.271 S, 152.203 E; summit elev. 688 m All times are local (= GMT + 10 hours) This report, which covers the period from August through October 2000, notes that Vulcanian eruptions prevailed at Tavurvur during 29 August through October 2000. These eruptions bore far more ash than typical. Substantial amounts of ash blew towards the city of Rabaul and other inhabited areas. During the second and third weeks of September the amount of ash falling reached a maximum since the current eruption began on 28 November 1995. On 2 and 9 August eruptive plumes contained ash. At other times during August vent activity was relatively low, consisting only of small volumes of thin white vapor. The 29 August eruption changed this pattern. Although the main phase of the 29 August eruption began at 1158, it was preceded by a series of weak explosions yielding dark gray ash plumes. After these less-forceful explosive events ended, moderate volumes of dark gray ash clouds erupted. Subsequently, and through 8 September, the eruption pattern was comprised of interchanging periods of either continuous, moderate-volume ash emissions or relatively subdued ash-cloud emissions typically white to pale gray in color. At about 2200 on 8 September, the eruption became more intense, frequent, and discrete explosions producing thick billowing dark ash clouds. Throughout the rest of September, periods of sub-continuous ash emissions occurred. After 21 September, however, discrete explosions and sub-continuous ash emissions declined and continued at a subdued level. Throughout September, observers saw incandescent lava fragments occasionally ejected. Residents saw these ejected fragments more frequently after the onset of explosive activity on 8 September, and around this time the residents regularly noted audible noises associated with venting. Explosions every few minutes produced sub-continuous moderate to heavy ash emissions that continued in October. Some of the larger explosions showered the N and NE flanks of the volcano with bombs. At night these were seen to be incandescent (red to dull orange). On inspection most projectiles were lithic blocks, but a minority were in a plastic state with some bread-crust surfaces. Jet-aircraft-like roaring from the vent was common and some of the larger explosions could be heard at distances of over 15 km. Toward the end of October, the explosions were less forceful, but contained increased volumes of solid fragments. All activity during the reporting period appears to have been confined to the 1941 vent; the 1995 crater issued only white vapor. The current phase enlarged the vent as a result of explosive activity. The N crater was breached, forming a saddle-like depression in the rim reaching about 15-20 m lower than the originally symmetrical and level line comprising the ridge. During the first 2-3 weeks of September ash clouds rose as high as 2 km above the summit. As previously noted, many plumes blew N and NW to drop ash on inhabited areas. As a result, many Rabaul businesses were adversely affected and, by the end of the September, some had moved ~40 km SE of Rabaul to the settlement of Kokopo. The major health center in Rabaul town was also affected and patients with respiratory problems were moved to another health center near Kokopo. During early October the ashfalls caused patients to undergo evacuation from Nonga Hospital (5 km NNW of Rabaul). Toward the end of October the annual change in the trade winds caused less ashfall in Rabaul town; frequent heavy rains around this time also provided relief from suspended dust. Seismicity correlated fairly directly with behavior observed at the summit, and accordingly, seismic activity remained relatively low"}, {"response": 343, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 17, 2001 (15:34)", "body": "************************************ MVO weekly report, 8 December 2000 ************************************ Montserrat Volcano Observatory Montserrat, W.I. Report for the period midday, 1 December 2000 to midday, 8 December 2000 Activity at the Soufri\ufffdre Hills volcano has remained at an elevated level this week with continued growth of the lava dome. The level of seismic activity was comparable to last week. The broadband seismic network recorded a total of 547 rockfall signals, 1 volcano-tectonic, 72 long period and 15 hybrid earthquakes for the reporting period. Clear views of the dome were possible throughout the week. The main focus of activity remains on the eastern flanks, although some small rockfalls were seen on the western side of the new growth. The buttress of the 1995-98 dome above Tuitt\ufffds Ghaut is being eroded away and engulfed by the new dome growth behind. Rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows are now regularly travelling down the upper reaches of Tuitt\ufffds Ghaut. The notch between the central and northeastern buttresses of the 1995-98 dome is now 60 m or 200 feet wide. Intense dome glow was seen throughout the week, both from the east at Jackboy Hill and the west at Salem and Frith\ufffds. Spines are continuously growing and collapsing on the summit of the dome. On 5 December, the top of a spine was at a height of 1060 m or 3480 feet, and the flat top of the main dome was between 1020 and 1030 m height, that is between 3350 and 3380 feet. Measurements of sulphur dioxide emissions from the volcano were not possible this week due to ashy conditions. Andy Eby and Lizzette Rodriguez from the University of Puerto Rico continued their collaboration with the MVO this week. Measurements of sites at Galway\ufffds, Roche\ufffds, St. George\ufffds Hill, Lookout and Reid\ufffds Hill were made throughout the week. These data continue a long time series of measurements made by the University of Puerto Rico over the past 5 years in conjunction with the MVO. Measurements have been made about every 3-4 months during this period, and provide useful information on the long-term deformation of the volcano. Residents of Montserrat and visitors to the island are advised to tune in to ZJB Radio for up-to-date information on the status of the volcano. Rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity is likely to remain at a high level whilst the dome continues to grow, producing ash clouds which may blow over inhabited areas if winds are from the south or southeast. Elevated levels of pyroclastic flow activity may develop very rapidly and could affect any valleys around the volcano. In addition to the risk from pyroclastic flows, the Belham valley should also be avoided during and after periods of heavy rain. Ash masks should be worn in ashy conditions or when you disturb ash. Everyone is reminded that access to Plymouth, Bramble airport and beyond is prohibited. There is a maritime exclusion zone around the southern part of the island that extends two miles beyond the coastline from Trant\ufffds Bay in the east to Garibaldi Hill on the west coast. The daytime entry zone remains closed. 12 noon, Friday, 8 December 2000 Check out our web pages for recent pictures of the dome, including the large spine from 17 November. Dr Gill Norton Director Montserrat Volcano Observatory Mongo Hill Montserrat West Indies"}, {"response": 344, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 17, 2001 (18:18)", "body": "MIYAKEJIMA VOLCANO, South of Tokyo (Oyama 813 m, 34o04'43\"N, 139o31'46\"E) (10/16/00) According to JMA, Geological Survey of Japan, and Tokyo Institute of Technology, SO2 flux from the craters within the Miyakejima summit caldera has still continued in high level; 30,000-50,000ton/day. Ash had been emitted continuously in early-September and intermittently in late-September. The subsidence had not been clear after mid-August, although partial collapses of the northern cliff of the caldera took place in late-September. A large pyroclastic cone inclined the southern cliff of the caldera, on which steaming craters are located. The present altitude of the caldera floor is about 230 m according to the laser-distance meter survey from helicopter by ERI. As SO2 was too high, the Tokyo Metropolitan government to which the Miyakejima belongs decided that nobody stayed in the island during night. By the early October, public workers and researchers had stayed in a boat floating near harbors (hotel-ship system) and landed at the island in daytime. P3C of the Maritime Safety Department watched the activity during the operation. In the early October, the hotel-ship system also stopped and public workers and researchers commuted by small boats between Miyakejima and Kozu-shima, the nearest island to the former. Operation was limited along the road running the coastline, for a short time, only when clear sky, and depending on the direction of the wind. Electric power was cut when workers of the electric company did not stay in the island, so that most of monitoring equipment was down in night and cloudy-rainy days. Though Earthquake Research Insatiate, University of Tokyo, and other national institutes kept the gathering the real-time data, their aims were hardly filled. Excellent images and great links: http://hakone.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/vrc/erup/miyake.html (thanks Ian...)"}, {"response": 345, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 17, 2001 (19:49)", "body": "****************************** Mayon Volcano, Philippines ****************************** Subject: Mayon activity continues as of 15 January. New dome began growing at Mayon on ~8 January. Aerial observations on 10 January found the dome to have a spiny, blocky surface as the crater floor is being pushed up by the ascending magma. Voluminous steaming, slight incandescence and heightened SO2 rates are being noted, as well as increased seismicity. N flank of edifice is inflating. This activity still ongoing as of 15 January. Below from: http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/Volcanoes/Mayon/MayonIndex.html Mayon Volcano Bulletin 8:00 AM, 12 January 2001 An aerial survey conducted on 10 January with the help of AFP confirmed the presence of a lava dome inside the summit crater. The lava dome appeared to have a spiny, blocky surface, which resulted from the crater floor being pushed upward by magma beneath the crater. The lava dome is emitting voluminous steaming and is the source of slight incandescence. The Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) emission rate determined by the PHIVOLCS Correlation Spectrometer (COSPEC) is 2,300 tonnes per day (t/d), which is way above the 500 t/d output usually observed Mayon's quiescent periods. Earthquake activity related to lava dome growth remains significant. In the past 24 hours, fifteen (15) low frequency-type volcanic earthquakes were detected indicating that magma ascent is still ongoing. For reference, the usual number of earthquakes recorded during repose is generally less than five (5) events. Ground deformation being measured by electronic tiltmeters deployed on the northern flank of the cone continues to report ongoing tilting, also signifying intrusion of magma into the upper levels of the volcano. The above observations strongly suggest that magmatic ascent is in progress. PHIVOLCS reminds the public that Alert Level 2 remains in effect. A full-scale eruption, however, is still not evident because the trend in monitored parameters have not yet attained critical levels. The six (6) kilometer radius Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ) must therefore be off-limits at all times because sudden explosions may occur as a result of hot lava deposits in the crate area encountering groundwater. Visits within the PDZ are also prohibited, especially treks to the summit area. PHIVOLCS also suggests that residents near major river channels be extra alert against possible volcanic mudflows, landslides and rockfalls that may result from volcanic debris deslodged or eroded from the upper slopes. PHIVOLCS -------- Mayon Volcano Bulletin 8:00 AM, 15 January 2001 Earthquake activity generally remained at higher-than-usual levels. The Mayon seismic network detected forty-seven (47) low frequency-type volcanic earthquakes on 13 January and seismicity has been significantly high since the lava dome was observed on 08 January. Electronic tiltmeters deployed on the northern flank of the volcano indicates sustained inflation of the edifice. This is corroborated by the above-normal Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) outputs that were recorded in the past week. These observations could be an indication of a magmatic intrusion. Steaming activity was noted to be vigorous since the appearance of the lava dome and crater glow was still visible at Intensity 1 (perceptible only with the aid of a telescope). However, thick rain clouds obscured most of the volcano since 14 January up to this writing. Alert Level 2, which means sustained unrest with indications of magmatic activity remains in effect. PHIVOLCS reminds the public to avoid the six (6) kilometer-radius Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ) and that treks near the summit is prohibited. Residents near river channels that originate from the volcano are advised to be always aware of lahars, which may form during heavy rains. PHIVOLCS"}, {"response": 346, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 19, 2001 (14:34)", "body": "***************************************** University of Hawai'i faculty position ***************************************** From: Mike Garcia Faculty Position in Volcanology The University of Hawai'i Department of Geology & Geophysics, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in the general area of volcanology. We are seeking candidates to augment and complement current department research in igneous petrology, geochemistry and volcanology. Applicants with expertise in quantification of magmatic processes (including melting and magma transport, magma chamber and conduit processes, eruption dynamics, and geochemical cycles) are especially encouraged to apply. The successful applicants will join a large, dynamic research group and will be expected to interact with numerous other Earth scientists within SOEST. We expect to fill positions at the Assistant Professor level but exceptional candidates at more advanced levels will be considered. Starting salaries for these 9-month appointments will be dependent on qualifications and experience. The successful candidates will be expected to develop outstanding research programs, and to teach at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Requirements for both positions include a PhD in geology or related fields, and evidence of scientific research excellence and teaching ability. Rank to be determined by qualifications and experience. The anticipated starting date is August 2001, subject to position clearance. Applicants should send a curriculum vitae, a list of publications, a summary of research and teaching interests, and addresses, phone-numbers and email of three or more references to Volcanology Search, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii, 1680 East-West Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 USA. Recruitment will continue until the positions are filled. To ensure full consideration applications should be sent immediately. The search committee has already began to review applications. Information about the Department can be found at website: www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 20, "subject": "Introductions and Suggestions", "response_count": 223, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (16:00)", "body": "This Conference is full of goodies for all sorts of interests. Why is it not attracting more posters? There are plenty of graphics and great maps which update automatically, and photographs for each category when I can find them. I need your suggestions concerning how to make this place more attractive."}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (19:23)", "body": "i like this conference! and the marble background is marbleous!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (19:32)", "body": "Thank you SO much! I love the background...it sneaked up on me in the dawn of the creation of this Conference - from the hand of the god of the cfadm. I had asked if there were a nice granite...but while he hunted he slipped this one in. I was delighted and told him to rest. He had found a far better background than I could have imagined. And, as a final blesssing, he put the clever title on the conference and the cutest graphic...! Sometimes I just leave it on as my wallpaper and smile remembering t e 10 hours it took me to get this up and running - with the most patient and benevolent help of the god of the cfadm. I worked on goodies for this all morning - 2 new topics and lots of graphics posted. I hope they are well received. Perhaps I should gave away samples???"}, {"response": 4, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (19:38)", "body": "dunno what kind of samples you could hand out! if you do too much, folks will avoid you and this isn't a safe conference to throw pieces of granite at passersby!! i noted the new graphics and they're great!!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (19:43)", "body": "...I was thinking of coprolites, actually *lol*... Thanks for enjoying the graphics. It is really neat to find just the ones I have been searching for...and by people I actually know (and with whom David worked!)"}, {"response": 6, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:22)", "body": "Coprolites! LOL! You are in a foul mood!;-)"}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (17:07)", "body": "i'm here but i can't look at the rc file. instead i'm reading the source (from view source)"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (17:14)", "body": "Right - I can send you a photo of rc but do not know how to get you in there in reality...! You have lots to do - it can wait...! Truly!!!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (17:17)", "body": "gotta wait on the laundry anyway, marcia!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (17:24)", "body": "Diddit - but it is the same - like something was blocking acccess to access. I note that he does not have the url for the geoback listed but it works when I take my define gifs off. Curious!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (17:26)", "body": "Changing back by removing my command line..."}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (17:27)", "body": "i ran into the same problem when changing the background in collections. i couldn't mix image sources when i defined the gifs. very weird! TERRY!! HELP!!!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (17:27)", "body": "Changing back by removing my command line..."}, {"response": 14, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:13)", "body": "Marcia, don't forget your Forget button..."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:26)", "body": "Wolfie has to make one when she gets time. Soon, she says. How could I forget? It is like losing a tooth in the front of the mouth when I look at the button bar and see that missing...I shall not forget my forget button."}, {"response": 16, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:36)", "body": "I'm having fun finding my way around the conference. Looks like I can spend some time here browising. Well done!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:57)", "body": "Thank you, My Dear. Enjoy and return often. We are a good bunch, and you will certainly recognize more than a few Droolians from time to time. *smile*"}, {"response": 18, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:03)", "body": "Well, I guess you might recognize me then, Maggie, but I wish I could say the same... Pleased to meet you for the first time then :-)"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:31)", "body": "Maggie is playing Hookey from school - she is supposedly on her computer finishing her thesis for an advanced degree at University...but I find her in the most unusual places - like in Travel where she has regaled us with her adventures in Gambia...so far. It makes for exciting reading!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:33)", "body": "I guess I misspoke when I mentioned Maggie having come from Drool - she came in through PHinisheD conference. She is a great addition, wherever she arose as is the distinguished Medica from Lisboa. *smile*"}, {"response": 21, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (03:43)", "body": "Hey, you don't need to flatter me! ;-) I read Maggie's posts around Geo and am pleased to meet her :-)"}, {"response": 22, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (09:26)", "body": "Thank you. I feel very welcome."}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (13:37)", "body": "*sigh* I do not flatter you, my dear Gi...I brag about you a bit because you have been an extraordinarily good friend, and I appreciate that more than mere flattery can ever hope to express...*hugs* Ok, Back to rocky stuff...Dave sent specimen photos which are knockouts. Have to find a good place to put them...*smile*"}, {"response": 24, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Nov  3, 1999 (14:01)", "body": "I see your Forget button is up. Good for you! :-)Not that I intend to use it ;-)"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  3, 1999 (19:11)", "body": "I have mo idea what happens when one uses it, and I have enough short term memory loss to dare to push it...but does it not look lovely with the complete set up there?! *beaming*"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  3, 1999 (19:12)", "body": "Even more amazing is the fact that I managed to get it up there all by myself! Bit by bit I am learning...!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Nov  5, 1999 (14:12)", "body": "pat pat smile"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  5, 1999 (15:18)", "body": "Purrrrrrr...Purrrrrrrrrr *smile* With a head full of rocks, I need all the help I can muster."}, {"response": 29, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (20:17)", "body": "so where are those rock specimens? do any look like the one i posted? *grin*"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (21:07)", "body": "um...they are sitting in files in my computer waiting to be made smaller and ftp's to Spring. That is a fun thing I can do this evening...but his favorite specimen shot is labelled \"iforgetite\"...! Some geologist! Though I am the mineralogist in the family (identity of the stuff) and he is the physical geologist...we make a great pair! None look like the ones you posted. Not even your \"mysteryite\" boot."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 11, 1999 (20:38)", "body": "Ok, gang of followers of things Geological and Earthly, I managed to make the frames around my Geo Buttons from Wolfie mostly invisible...but not really like Cfadm managed to do for the Help button. I have spent several hours working at this with zero input, so hurl your invectives if you'd like...I am too tired to fend them off..."}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 11, 1999 (20:42)", "body": "are you able to select a transparent color using the photo suite program?"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 11, 1999 (20:51)", "body": "No...just just something which matches the background of the program (which also matches here unless you look very closely. That is, if I have that choice, I have not yet found it. Still looking and poking and checking the convoluted Help files. When / if I do find the transparency option, you will the the first to know!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 11, 1999 (20:59)", "body": "When you do not choose a color and just do cut, you get a black frame which I thought at first meant no frame...until I ftp'd it here and looked at the black frame sitting amidst the white ones... Oddest of all is when I click on the Help button I saved from here (done by Cfadm) with the zero frames, it looks like it has blue frames on my MGI Photo Suite program. So, I tried that, thinking it might be a color-blind deal with the software. Wrong! I ended up with royal blue frames. Oh well, I guess it ooks ok the way it is until I have some magic help or learn the secret..."}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 11, 1999 (21:00)", "body": "hmmm...do let us know."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 11, 1999 (21:03)", "body": "Indeed! You first. *grin*"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Fri, Dec 17, 1999 (03:16)", "body": "Unless my eyes deceive me, half of the buttons are now perfect, and the other half 99.9% perfect?"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 17, 1999 (13:17)", "body": "In the top row of this page they are 50% correct; second row none of the red ones are correct. On the public pages most are correct. Thanks for noticing, Mark! I would have been happy with the background-matching frames, but when look at my lovely little conference, I know I have to make it the best I can as soon as this flu I caught clears out."}, {"response": 39, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Dec 17, 1999 (16:13)", "body": "marcia! take some soup and go to bed. don't worry about the conf buttons until you are well!!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 17, 1999 (16:48)", "body": "I think I shall. I proofed what I posted to you on 41 concerning your time off and still a mistype got through. Brain on mush and watery eyes is not my best thing... but, before I hit the horiontal again, don't your buttons look great? They are just perfect for here!!! (I'da said cool, but lava that color ain't cool)"}, {"response": 41, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 18, 1999 (21:55)", "body": "i think they're pretty hot myself *grin* hope you're feeling better sweetie!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 18, 1999 (22:06)", "body": "I am because I am listening to Penn State Lady Lions play Stanford for the NCAA Volleyball Chhampionship from Honolulu. I am listening to the station in State College, Pa, WMAJ which has been there since my Dad was at Penn State! We are up 2 games to none....! Actually, I feel very dizzy so I think it is settling into my ears sinuses and chest - gonna make me pay for those 3 years of no colds/flu...!"}, {"response": 43, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Dec 19, 1999 (13:21)", "body": "eat something spicy and avoid milk. milk actually causes the sinuses to swell and you know what happens when you eat spicy stuff when you don't have a cold so have a huge box of tissue handy!"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 19, 1999 (13:56)", "body": "Thank you for the suggestions. I will try that spicy stuff, but if my nose runs any more than it is at the moment, I will just stuff something absorbant up each side and give up!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Dec 19, 1999 (15:56)", "body": "*lol*"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 24, 1999 (13:22)", "body": "MELE KALIKIMAKA"}, {"response": 47, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Dec 24, 1999 (16:25)", "body": "do you realize that only one my 100th viewing of christmas vacation, i finally figured out that that's what they were singing during the pool dream? hahaha! thanks marcia and the tree is just lovely. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 24, 1999 (17:23)", "body": "Wolfie, as I was whisking through the channels on TV I went past one of those TV shopping channels and rhey had your ring with 9 (I think) interchangeable spheres (in that red box you scanned for us) in SS for knock-down price of $18.99. Then it was gone. At least I know now where to look for one!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 24, 1999 (17:26)", "body": "Thanks for appreciating the tree. I made sure all the lights worked before I posted it *grin* As to that song containing Mele Kalikimaka...I have heard it ad nauseum this year and every year since I got here. Very popular!!!"}, {"response": 50, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Dec 24, 1999 (21:31)", "body": "i'll bet! and i'm glad you got to see that ring in person (well, better pics than what's here)...."}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 24, 1999 (21:52)", "body": "Next timem O'O said, Buy it!!! So I will =)"}, {"response": 52, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (12:52)", "body": "really????? *woohoo*"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (13:07)", "body": "Yeah...He knows my credit card is healthy! I hop they have it in gold so it does not tarnish quite so easily from the volcano fumes...but I'll take whatever I can get."}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (13:36)", "body": "just don't go into sticker shock with the gold (which is what i'd prefer), silver for $19 is amazing!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (13:45)", "body": "That was the close-out price in the middle of the night (for the rest of you) on one of those home-tv-shopping channels. I am sure after the new year they will be much more expensive. I'll go for Silver and save for that Alexandrite like you are =)"}, {"response": 56, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (16:01)", "body": "don't blame you."}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (16:04)", "body": "'course, most of the silver rings they sell now are rhodium plated so food and hand cream do not discolor or tarnish the silver quiet so easily."}, {"response": 58, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sat, Jan 15, 2000 (18:36)", "body": "Marcia, I would love to see a photo tour of different archeological sites on the archeology topic, and a little information on them. What say you?"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (18:19)", "body": "Excellent thought, and if you have some send them to me and as soon as I can ftp them to the hard drive at spring I will post them. Otherwise I can post them from their web pages. Might you suggest some or shall you post them yourself? I love that you are interested in Archaeology and are just what I needed to spur me on to post more in there!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (20:37)", "body": "As you know, my brother has an anthropology degree, and I have always been interested in ancient civilizations, especially Egyptian and Greek, not to mention the Maya and Inca. I will move to the Arch. topic and discuss the possibilities there!"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (00:47)", "body": "Lidya, you and I need to get lost in the British Museum for an indefinite time. What a luxury to be in there with another willing and interested soul!"}, {"response": 62, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (19:00)", "body": "i was watching a national geographic discovery program the other night about landslides and thought that would be an appropriate topic for this conference. i don't know if it belongs in an existing topic or what!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (19:16)", "body": "Landslides...Yeah! We have them all the time over here. Landslips they are called in the UK and remnants of Empire, and if they are big enough they are called mass wasting by geoloists. Do you think it would fit in Gaia which covers geological ecology? We did wildfires in there but we need a topic like orogony and disatrophism but on a much smaller scale. Name suggestions? How about Natural Disasters?"}, {"response": 64, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (19:52)", "body": "yeah, that would work!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (19:53)", "body": "on that show, they mentioned a volcano in hawaii where half of it was missing. amazing how they knew that! i would have thought it blew itself out or something."}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (20:04)", "body": "Yup...cinder cones fracture along the line of the fault zone which caused the cone in the first place. A whole lotta shaking going on will make coastal ones plunge into the sea entirely or just the seaward half. Leaves behind a most interesting cross-section of how the cone was built of layers of cinder and spatter which held the cinders together. Some do blow themselves apart. Not much left to see of those. They are usually Phreatic ones which experience steam explosions and it just leaves the jagged rim of the base of the cone there. Unfortunately, Volcano is a big structure often used interchangeably with volcanic cone. One is a mountain and one is a small-to-large hill. Of course, when a new volcano is building, it begins small...so that is also a possibility!"}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (23:26)", "body": "OK, if I cannot be designated (don't know how) World Builder where host link is, I shall make do with this...if I can stand it! Not that big on bragging on my own bahalf, actually."}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (23:28)", "body": "Better go to bed. My typing is worse than usual."}, {"response": 69, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (17:33)", "body": "what do you mean \"world builder\"?"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (17:41)", "body": "You did not notice? When the programmer helped me create Geo, instead of host (that hyperlink which gets you into cfconfig and rc), it read You are world builder in this conference."}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (17:42)", "body": "It still says that in my rc file but apparently what is in there is not available yet, eventhough I have changed the address for some of it to where it is on my new space. Wish I understood more of what I know about this stuff..."}, {"response": 72, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (11:25)", "body": "oh! in paraspring, i'm the (g)host isn't that clever?"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (13:24)", "body": "Indeed. Are you still? And, if you are, did you do it? If so, please tell me how to restore mine. (Mine is still the way it is supposed to be, I think!)"}, {"response": 74, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (20:24)", "body": "no, i can't figure it out :("}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (20:46)", "body": "Didja notice that I got my big graphic on the title page of Geo again?! But, where it says I am world builder (where you are the clever (g)host - love that!) it is in the block which is now over-ridden by the default settings and I do not think we can change it. I tried, but it comes up the way you see it now anyway. =( ... me too"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 17, 2000 (13:45)", "body": "That little thingy called a \"tab\" is back between the conference title and the Main Menu on the bottom left of the topic. Merlin is back at it, and everything is getting to be so beautiful again. Happy me! Thank you...*hugs*"}, {"response": 77, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (11:16)", "body": "I guess it's about time I actually introduce myself... I am a software engineer in the Boston area, and I found this conference when Marcia emailed the conference pointer. I met Marcia and David a few years back when I was visiting a friend who was living in Hawaii (and dating David) at the time. David and Marcia gave me a wonderful tour of the big island and the volcanos. (I took about 24 rolls of pictures on that trip.) Anything I've learned about geology is from them! My interests include astronomy/cosmology, archealogy, mythology (especially Greek myths and Arthurian legends), photography and music, as you can probably tell by my other posts around here. I'm still finding my way around Spring, so I'll probably venture into other conferences, as time permits."}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (11:34)", "body": "See? This lady was a Gods-end to me. How could we possibly have so many interests in common? We irritated more than a few people while she was here, but we loved it! ...and I should have emailed you sooner. Arthurian discussion is http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/books/23/new We need you there. it has been quiet, of late."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (11:35)", "body": "Oh, E komo mai, Ginny! Where are my manners?!"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (11:36)", "body": "Eeeeek! She was a God-send ....*sigh* Better go eat some breakfast to neutralize all this coffee...!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (11:48)", "body": "Quite all right...I contribute my share of typo's, as well. Yes, I think we managed to irritate both Polly and David...but I certainly loved our discussions! :-) I will check out the Arthurian topic, soon. I must finish my lunch (while you have your breakfast) and get back to work (sigh). Catch you later!"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (13:02)", "body": "Later! (Happy me *grin*)"}, {"response": 83, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "Marcia, how lovely, an Arthurian topic! Will I ever find the time to go there?"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (17:50)", "body": "Not with the company you are expecting (she told me she would be seeing you almost immediatley!)...and I am so jealous. I found some interesting Portuguese Petroglyphs. Would you be interested in seeing them in Archaeology(Geo 17)?"}, {"response": 85, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (06:29)", "body": "Will visit presently. Wonder if they are the Foz Coa glyphs :-)"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (22:27)", "body": "Aloha Mike! Please feel free to create a topic when the spirit moves you. I would be delighted to have someone other than me doing so."}, {"response": 87, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (15:57)", "body": "oh wow, i feel positively inferior in this conference but i love it anyway, esp. geomagnetism!"}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (16:42)", "body": "YOU feel inferior??? Move over and make room for me! You go places to learn and to trade information and to share what you know...and ask questions which keeps the converstions going. If no one does that...I am back to posting to myself from books and the internet...Don't feel like that...You are VERY important to Geo's survival! *hugs*"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (16:43)", "body": "We gotta get some more on ley lines and stone alignments and the otherworld interface going. It fascinates me, as well *grin* I was hoping you wold enjoy it!"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (00:05)", "body": "If you are reading this tonight...just know I miss you... and many other things."}, {"response": 91, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (12:27)", "body": "oh, marcia *hugs* sorry i left out of here so abruptly....we got another krewe parade to watch and have been making gumbo all morning. (we all miss you very much)"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (12:35)", "body": "Let's see...You get all the okra you can find and a mess of shrimp and...or is that another sort of Lousianna edible?! Sounds incredible, though. Keep your T-shirt down because I'm gonna be watching! I'll trade you some mardi gras beads for shell leis! Feeling better this morning...I just tried and tried to communicate with our friend and could not (that I know of). Sometimes it is very difficult. So I left him online and went to bed feeling very sad. (Yup! We all do - Very Much)"}, {"response": 93, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (12:41)", "body": "i don't think he put okra in it this time, but chicken and sausage....no t-shirts being lifted for me, too cold, plus i decorated a shirt for the occasion though it didn't work last week. we'll be towards the end of their route this time so hopefully they'll be more generous and want to download their wears! (all this for cheap beads *laugh*) if we were gonna trade, i'd go out and get nicer beads than what they throw!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (12:46)", "body": "Hey, we have all sorts of free shell leis here, and like your \"glass\" (plastic?!) beads, some are lots nicer than others. I'm game if you are!!! How do you thicken gumbo without okra? (Bummer - no double exposures for Wolfie this year...*grin*)"}, {"response": 95, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (12:50)", "body": "(trust me, any double exposure from me would make them canx the parade!) plastic beads. this year they were throwing huge (mm) beads and my son got two. tried to get one from him but he was not game! shipping leis from your part of the country would be awfully expensive, wouldn't it, marcia? i've got to see what we get today and let you know!"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (14:16)", "body": "My part of the world is serverd by the United States Postal Service just as yours is. Same rate. I can put them in a proprity envelope and ship the entire mess for under $4 which is a small price for me to pay to get you a little Hawaii. What I need (via email) is your snail-mail address!"}, {"response": 97, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:02)", "body": "marcia, i got six beads (three of which i gave to the little boy standing next to me). a couple of teenie boppers were wearing tight t-shirts and had their stuff out and the one kept fluffing her hair. they weren't even in mardi gras wear, which is what the floaters usually look for, spirit. perhaps not tonight. i will find some good beads and then we'll talk (i'll send you my snail mail but i'll need yours too!) in a word, BORING! we go out there for the kids and the bigger kids push them out of the way and can jump higher. oh, and i'm standing there minding my own business and some girl runs headlong into me at full speed. hit me on the left side and i had just turned sideways so i know i hurt her more than she me...."}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:09)", "body": "So much for party time. Sounds a little too scary for me. It is getting to be like that for the Christmas Parade. Why, when my kid was little...*grin* Take care out there and I will send you the shells anyway - give the stuff to the kiddies!!!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:17)", "body": "oh it's nothing compared to new orleans. it's butt to butt there (but they throw better stuff)....a couple of years ago, two kids got in trouble because they mooned the floats. that's the worse i've heard. drunk and disorderly is about as bad as it gets, thank goodness. the kids have a good time and that's the reason we do it year after year (even when we vow not to do it again!)"}, {"response": 100, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:18)", "body": "it was really cold today though and i was covered in blankets while waiting. kids weren't cold at all and were so mad at us for making them wear their jackets! what happens when we get older? suddenly it's too cold for anything, or too hot. kids just go out there and do it!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:42)", "body": "Yup! That's what happens, I hear *grin* How else can you wear a t-shirt 5 sizes too small and attract enough beads to weight down a burial at sea?! Not by wearing a jacket - for sure! Enjoy and let the good times rollez"}, {"response": 102, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:50)", "body": "yeah, well that was me, keeping warm, and the teens (with mom right behind them) without coats but getting all the beads. they'd go right up to floats despite the \"float guards\" who, for safety, tried to keep people back."}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:56)", "body": "What fun is it to be a float guard if you don't have all those shrunken t-shirt rubbing up against you?! (Now, go to bed, Wolfie!)"}, {"response": 104, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (23:00)", "body": "yes ma'am *smart salute* actually, i gotta go to sleep.....see ya tomorrow!"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (23:16)", "body": "G'night Wolfie!! It was fun...sleep well and talk to you tomorrow!"}, {"response": 106, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (13:23)", "body": "(Marcia) How do you thicken gumbo without okra? Fil\ufffd powder, which is from sassafras. Gumbos use okra or fil\ufffd; never both."}, {"response": 107, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "we always use file'.....but i've had gumbo with okra and it's good too. cooked okra isn't really slimy at all...."}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (14:10)", "body": "See, I learned something. Thank you, ladies!"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (14:12)", "body": "Can you taste the sassafrass in the fil\ufffd?"}, {"response": 110, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (15:40)", "body": "couldn't tell you, never had sassafrass by itself but you can definitely tell when the file' is added!"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (15:43)", "body": "You mean you never walked through the woods in the spring and your Dad cut you a shoot of sassafrass to chew on. Gets really slippery and tastes really neat. Sort of like rootbeer without the sweetness."}, {"response": 112, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (16:04)", "body": "I have a fun botanical fact, okra is a member of the hibiscus family. I must have had improperly cooked okra, as it was slimy, worse yet it was slimy and furry. Not a great textural sensation."}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (16:24)", "body": "It is downright nasty cooked improperly. My mom managed to do that each time she put it in the home-made veggie soup. Indeed, it is a hibiscus...just as Spanish moss is a bromeliad and a relative of the pineapple!"}, {"response": 114, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (16:36)", "body": "Thats right, the pineapple is an edible bromeliad. It is also an immigrant to Hawaii, being native to either the Caribbean or Central America. The pineapple was introduced to Hawaii by Europeans."}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "Indeed and now it is grown in Southeast Asia and the Philippines at much lower prices...*sigh* We priced ourselves out of the sugar market and soon will do so for pineapple. Very sad!"}, {"response": 116, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (17:44)", "body": "It's your real estate. It's worth too much to be used for farming said items."}, {"response": 117, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (17:46)", "body": "Well you still have the Kona coffee. The last time I had it was in a blend; it was blended with Columbian coffee. In Florida Big Sugar are dirty words to many people."}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:17)", "body": "Karen, the sad truth is that even in Paradise the people need a way to earn a living. Granted that tourism is our main strength along with the military, but in the past 10 years base closures and depressed economic situations have made it very difficult to keep our state supported University campuses afloat. We need other sources of income if they are going to price themselves out of the market! Sugar workers chose to go on welfare rather than take a cut in pay - they were the highest paid agricultural workers in the world when they made this choice. Who is supposed to pay for this welfare if we all take that way out?!"}, {"response": 119, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:48)", "body": "we have pineapple growing in my house (until real spring hits)! i've got a couple of okra seedlings growing, first time this year, they seem viney...."}, {"response": 120, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:50)", "body": "It's not just tourism but real estate development. Remember, the San Fernando Valley used to be full of citrus trees."}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:57)", "body": "Yes, I know, but they commute to their jobs in Los Angeles by car. Where are the people going to go to get jobs to commute? That is part of the problem. The Kona side is pricey and touristy. This side is the working part of the Island and it is not as healthy financially as is the other side."}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:58)", "body": "Wolfie, is that pineapple doing ok? I remember discussing what to do with it last fall - then I forgot all about it. Say Aloha to it =)"}, {"response": 123, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:59)", "body": "Was there once cattle ranching on the island of Hawaii? And do Maui onions really come from Maui?"}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:00)", "body": "Oh yes, Okra that I've seen grows on tough prickly vines. Sounds right!!!"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:02)", "body": "Still is cattle ranching though the Parker Ranch is no longer larger than the King Ranch of Texas. We have great range-fed beef here. Maui onions really come from Maui and they can be pretty hot if the weather is too dry and hot over there."}, {"response": 126, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:08)", "body": "So if you're in the mood, you can enjoy a nice steak with some grilled onions."}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:15)", "body": "Oh yes ma'am! And the best Prime Rib you can sink your teeth into on earth! Washed down with Menehune Beer (local micro-brewery) and a side of Manoa Lettuce salad...*sigh* getting hungry!"}, {"response": 128, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (21:32)", "body": "there's room to farm cattle? *grin* the pineapple is doing well in the house. not a shoot yet though. perhaps this summer when i'm away *frown*"}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (22:04)", "body": "Our island is about the size of Connecticut. 200 square miles, I think - but to verify that I just fired off an email to John to check. It takes 18 months from cutting to cutting. You harvested that top only a few months ago...is that right??!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (22:13)", "body": "i harvested it last year before summer. so, maybe december i'll have a shoot or something! it had to be summer because i started it outside and it wasn't cold at all."}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (22:28)", "body": "The crown should grow to about 2 feet in diameter then in the center it will take on a deep rosy color. Then a tiny bunch of little thingies will be down in the deep well made by the leaves...then the stalk under it will grow...then the pineapple will swell and increase in size. Happy thoughts of harvesting come into your mind but remember, pineapples do not ripen off the plant. Make sure it is perfect when you harvest it. When you put it outside in good soil, water it well and feed it. It will respond!"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (22:35)", "body": "Just heard from John: The BIG island is officially 4,038 sq. mi. and increasing all the time where the lava meets the ocean in Puna. It is the largest island under the U.S. flag."}, {"response": 133, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (09:22)", "body": "kinda like a bromeliad, then, marcia, only no water in the well! it's fairly large compared to when i planted the pineapple top. no reddish tinge though. do you think if i put an apple on the soil, it'll force the fruit? (this is what you do to get a bromeliad to bloom if it hasn't in awhile)"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (11:34)", "body": "The Pineapple IS a bromelaid. Funny thing about the thought of no water in the well. They grow in open fields here and it rains a lot! Needless to say, they get a lot of water in the well and just about all of the time! It does evaporate quickly, so if you are gonna plant them where they will get wet but not dry out again, you might just kill it with crown rot. If you get water in the well, no biggie, but be sure it dries out again. I have not heard of the apple forcing a plant to flower. I know it ripen already formed fruit. Not sure, either, that Pineapples are forceable. I think their 18 months routine is cast in concrete! But, experiment! We all may learn something *gtin*"}, {"response": 135, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (15:16)", "body": "see, i was afraid to give it crown rot by watering from the top, but in the summer, the water evaporates fairly quickly and does go down the well!"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (16:17)", "body": "It'll be just fine! I know we are damper over here than you are even deep in the bayous."}, {"response": 137, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "Wolf did you and the junvenile members of your pack (i.e., your offspring) have a good time on Fat Tuesday. Now here it is the beginning of Lent. If you look at it philosophically without Lent, Carnival has no meaning. I know the pups (cubs?) were well looked after. Wolves are exempliary parents. Are young wolves called pups or cubs? Of course, your young ones, Wolf, are properly called children, but they probably hate that, especially if any of them are teenagers."}, {"response": 138, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (19:45)", "body": "my pups are still young enough to love their mama! offices in new orleans and some select places in town close shop for tuesday and wednesday (fat tuesday and ash wednesday)....my first day of lent was alright as i was so busy i didn't miss the hershey kisses or the caffiene from sodas. (yup two things this year cuz i skipped last year). i'm not catholic, but we practiced lent in my homw growing up. had the AM doing it too (and he is catholic!) the pups were busy raking leaves in the front yard yesterday (they got paid, too)...yard looks great and the kids learned a lesson on teamwork (that's what i tell myself anyway)!!"}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (20:58)", "body": "Excellent practice for wolfhood in the big bad world. I got paid for raking leavesm, mowing the lawn and shovelling snow - but only if my father did not have to remind me. Then, I HAD to do it and got nothing for it. I remembered!"}, {"response": 140, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (21:02)", "body": "this is good. we do that too. boy do the kids get ticked when they're asked why they didn't do their chores. my son actually came out and told his father that the reason he didn't do his chores all week was because he didn't want to. no allowance. (of course, i'm home with him evenings and he tries to pull stunts)"}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (21:22)", "body": "Oh yeah! I guess they would not be normal kids if they did not try their boundaries...butcha have to live long enough to see THEIR kids doing the same things to their parents...Then you can say, \"See!\" It reaches them responsibility and mine learned that way, as well. I was a sorta push-over Mom, though. Way softer than necessary, but he turned out to be Very Responsible. I guess he was listening all those times!"}, {"response": 142, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "well, i'm the fit thrower (ok, well, that's how i feel) but those ying-yangs would rather be with me than their father (!!) kids, gotta luv em...."}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (14:29)", "body": "Got that right!!!"}, {"response": 144, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (15:57)", "body": "Wolf, your pups will still love their mama when they're grown. Speaking of giving up things for Lent, my mom gave up smoking for Lent when year. That's how she stopped smoking, it worked for her. I did have a Catholic upbringing, (I'm what is known as \"lapsed\" now). Anyway -- I remember when I was little telling my mother that I wanted to give up broccoli for Lent. She said I had to give up something I liked, to which I replied, \"I do like broccoli.\" In fact, I very much did and still do."}, {"response": 145, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (17:32)", "body": "i like broccoli too! my son is trying to give up nintendo but just today he asked to play!! i told him he had to try to avoid it the best he could. cheryl, thanks for that, i do hope they are close to me as we get older...."}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (18:29)", "body": "It would be easy for me to give up broccoli if I did not have dips and salads in which to put it, and my mother to boil it till it ws gray...Yuck! Wolfie, mine is close to me - so close that when I send him what I consider a funny story about a mother he writes all worried asking about hidden meanings and what was I really trying to say...! The acorns doe not fall far from the tree. Take my word for it - love will bond you like nothing else. On levels you never imagined!"}, {"response": 147, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (18:36)", "body": "good. (obviously something was missing in my childhood relationships *frown*)"}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (19:01)", "body": "Yup! Mine too. Think that's why we are so affectionate and cuddly."}, {"response": 149, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (09:00)", "body": "well, then good things do come out of bad at times.....*HUGS*"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (12:10)", "body": "Indeed!!! Hugs, Wolfie. Was your weather terrible last night? Wish Austin would check in but I know at least one is online. That is good new, indeed!"}, {"response": 151, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (12:27)", "body": "we had lots of lightening and it's rather cool today. supposed to have a light frost tonight. better go put backs on all those goodies i planted!"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (12:35)", "body": "Cover'um with burlap and leaves if you have any - they'll be ok! Bummer!"}, {"response": 153, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (12:37)", "body": "yup!"}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (16:59)", "body": "In case this did not get to the eyes for which it was intended in Today's quotes, I repost it here: For the creator of Geo: \"Real programmers don't work from 9 to 5. If any real programmers are around at 9am it's because they were up all night.\" -- Anon."}, {"response": 155, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Fri, Mar 17, 2000 (12:36)", "body": "I have no idea who that might be referring to... ;-)"}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 17, 2000 (14:04)", "body": "The creator of Geo will see it and know =)"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (17:15)", "body": "Because it is important to read this following information I post it here as well as in News... Because everything you read on the internet is true . . . I was on my way to the post office to pick up my case of free M&M's, (sent to me because I forwarded their e-mail to five other people, celebrating the fact that the year 2000 is \"MM\" in Roman numerals), when I ran into a friend whose neighbor, a young man, was home recovering from having been served a rat in his bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken - which is predictable, since as everyone knows, there's no actual chicken in Kentucky Fried Chicken, which is why the government made them change their name to KFC. Anyway, one day this guy went to sleep and when he awoke he was in his bathtub and it was full of ice and he was sore all over and when he got out of the tub he realized that HIS KIDNEYS HAD BEEN STOLEN. He saw a note on his mirror that said \"Call 911!\" but he was afraid to use his phone because it was connected to his computer, and there was a virus on his computer that would destroy his hard drive if he opened e-mail entitled \"Join the crew!\" He knew it wasn't a hoax because he himself was a computer programmer who was working on software to prevent a global disaster in which all the computers get together and distribute the $250.00 Neiman-Marcus cookie recipe under the leadership of Bill Gates. (It's true - I read it all last week in a mass e-mail from BILL GATES HIMSELF, who was also promising me a free Disney World vacation and $5,000 if I would forward the e-mail to everyone I know.) The poor man then tried to call 911 from a pay phone to report his missing kidneys, but a voice on the line first asked him to press #90, which unwittingly gave the bandit full access to the phone line at the guy's expense. Then reaching into the coin-return slot he got jabbed with an HIV-infected needle around which was wrapped around a note that said, \"Welcome to the world of AIDS.\" Luckily he was only a few blocks from the hospital - the one where that little boy who is dying of cancer is, the one whose last wish is for everyone in the world to send him an e-mail and the American Cancer Society has agreed to pay him a nickel for every e-mail he receives. I sent him two e-mails and one of them was a bunch of X's and O's in the shape of an angel (if you get it and forward it to more than 10 people, you will have good luck but for 10 people you will only have OK luck and if you send it to fewer than 10 people you will have BAD LUCK FOR SEVEN YEARS). So anyway, the poor guy tried to drive himself to the hospital, but on the way he noticed another car driving without its lights on. To be helpful, he flashed his lights at him and was promptly shot as part of a gang initiation. Send THIS to all the friends who send you their junk mail and you will receive 4 green M&Ms, but if you don't, the owner of Proctor and Gamble will report you to his Satanist friends and you will have more bad luck: you will get cancer from the Sodium Laureth Sulfate in your shampoo, your wife will develop breast cancer from using the anti-perspirant which clogs the pores under your arms, and the government will put a tax on your e-mails forever. I know this is all true 'cause I read it on the Internet."}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (19:58)", "body": "Sorry this is off conference but I have to put it somewhere: http://promotions.go.com/espn/mascots/challenge.html the Nittany Lion won the mascot battle! It was so close.. 50.0 to 49.9. Could anything be closer? But, it's great that your mascot won and I'm very happy for Penn State! 56,763 people actually voted on this important issue (including me, but we won't tell anyone!) Thanks, Barbara!"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  8, 2000 (00:24)", "body": "Spent most of the day sruffing envelopes for the scholarship fund drive at UHHilo. I am too tired to write any more with no one to talk to. More tomorrow. Good night...*hugs* U"}, {"response": 160, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (16:58)", "body": "Marcia, you must have been tired. You typed that you were \"sruffing\" envelopes."}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (19:19)", "body": "LOL *S I G H* I guess I was more tired than I knew. Actually, after stuffing the envelopes, much to everyone's horror, we were told to put them in zipcode order. So, with as much dignity as I had left, I plopped onto the floor and spread the states out around me and did them all while the rest of the gang gossiped."}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (02:20)", "body": "I am on the W 3.1 laptop onto which I downloaded *gasp* IE. I can see the pictures on Main - finally. Looks like the Magicians are busy at work on it even at this hour. Let's see if this can be posted. Lots of people have said that IE does not post very well. If you can see this, I succeeded."}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (02:21)", "body": "It's there! I guess it does work. Now I can post the real reason I came in to Spring tonight (tomorrow for everyone else!) More about that on Geo 17."}, {"response": 164, "author": "Saskia", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (18:01)", "body": "Hello to one and all. As you can note my name is Saskia Burch. I don't have any Dutch lineage despite my first name. My mother has a degree in art history and she really admires the work of Rembrandt. That's the story of how I got my name. A bit about me, in brief. I was born in Hong Kong. My father is of English/Chinese descent and my mother is American of German and American Indian (Crow) ancestry. I don't remember much about Hong Kong. We moved when I was four. We went to live in England, at Cambridge, where Dad was working toward his doctorate in mathematics. After that, I lived in Montreal and New York City. I'm 22 and am currently studying theater arts. No, I do not want to be an actress. I want to direct plays, opera, theater!"}, {"response": 165, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "Let us know when you need some encouragement in those noble pursuits. We are good for that as well as other stuff. I am SO delighted to have you posting here!"}, {"response": 166, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (21:24)", "body": "Have you had a chance to direct anything yet? What a fascinating lineage, Saskia. And you've lived in the worlds cultural meccas, very interesting. I look forward to talking to you more."}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (21:34)", "body": "I do, as well *smile*"}, {"response": 168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (21:39)", "body": "How do I get the buttons back onto Geo - please check my rc file, Magician of the Spring!"}, {"response": 169, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (04:23)", "body": "Looks like cfadm put them back."}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (11:50)", "body": "One or the other of us did - we were both working at the same time on it. I am sure he was the one who did as he is much better at it than I will ever be. I wish I knew how it happened so I could prevent its reoccurrance. Thanks and plaudits to the magician who restored my conference! *hugs* too."}, {"response": 171, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (14:21)", "body": "If you ever need answers to real specific Yapp questions you can post on the bulletin board at http://www.armidalesoftware.com"}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (14:25)", "body": "Thanks for that! I am installing new marble which is so lovely...I hope cfadm does not mind. I think it would be much better for dancing and does not resemble the pastry marble that he thought it other did...*grin* Now, to get the last of the frames transparent.... Comments (other than it is slow loading the first time) on the new wallpaper???"}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (16:43)", "body": "As you can see, I changed it back almost exactly as Cfadm and I created it almost a year ago! It is now much easier to read. The other marble was lovely, but not a good background on which to read, and it clashed with my buttons. I could not find any bars which looked right but these at least do not clutter the place. Opinions, please? I have these same bars in a charcoal and a light green as well..."}, {"response": 174, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "it's ok, but at first, i thought i was looking at chewed up straws! *GRIN* looks good!!"}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (17:37)", "body": "I think it is supposed to be wrought iron. I can try the darker version"}, {"response": 176, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (17:46)", "body": "*grin*"}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (19:08)", "body": ""}, {"response": 178, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (19:18)", "body": "The light green might be interesting, as it is a naturally occuring color in marble. Yes, I know charcoal gray also occurs naturally in marble. Consider how gray to you want your page to be. The background is pale gray, with black body copy, the light green might offer a certain visual interest. The darker gray would work as well, it would be very tasteful. Sort of an antique book look, if you will."}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (19:38)", "body": "Don't like the coprolite bar? actually, look at the title page and imagine the clutter with colorful bars. I tried rust, other gold ones but I think these have the necessary dimentional qualities without being too obtrusive - and they ARE stone!"}, {"response": 180, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (19:39)", "body": "It works!"}, {"response": 181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (19:43)", "body": "Mahalo! I think I shall leave well enough alone!"}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 11, 2000 (23:41)", "body": "Comments, Please! New look???"}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 11, 2000 (23:55)", "body": "These bars I also have in the same quality of pale blue with dark just like the green ones on now......which just might look better with the front page of Geo's clipart globe. Thoughts?"}, {"response": 184, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (04:03)", "body": "personally I lke the old grey ones! But that's just me ..."}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (12:05)", "body": "Have plenty of options. One I tried laast nght was a very dark green and bold square-ended one which dominated the entire place. I'll be playing with it so check back."}, {"response": 186, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "it's taking ages to load!"}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (18:03)", "body": "Yes...I was working on it when you were trying to load. Back to the minimalist. I think they work best and the other are in storage for some other time. Downloaded an awesome one which I have no idea where to use.....but it was too stunning to resist."}, {"response": 188, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (18:13)", "body": "I like the green hyper-links. Sorry I missed seeing the green bars, but if they were taking forever to load..It's just as well you brought back an oldie, but a goodie."}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (18:22)", "body": "The green ones were splendid with the dark green links, but miserable with the front page of Geo with the bright red Visto Banner and buttons. It was just wrong in every way... I tried a dark green long bar without texturing but was far to dominant. I think this one works best...there is enough going on in here as it is, I think."}, {"response": 190, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (18:28)", "body": "Red and green, must've looked like Christmas. Red and green, I remember them from color theory class. Mixed together they give you brown, but used to together, for anything other than Christmas, the effect isn't pleasing."}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (18:33)", "body": "I know.....here are the others: Overwhelming bar boring bar The one I like best but clashes with the cover page Awesome bar:"}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (18:36)", "body": "Hmmmm: retrying the first two Overwhelming Green bar Boring in Brown"}, {"response": 193, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "The awesome bar has a really nice graphic quality. The one you like best has a very nice classical aesthetic, but not with the title page. The boring brown bar does have a attractive pattern. As for your current choice, I think it was Mies van der Rohe who said, \"Less is more.\" I know for certain he said, \"God dwells in the details.\""}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (19:43)", "body": "Those two quotes puzzle me...hmmm. They seem to the flip side of each other. If I wish God to be with the conference I must have lots of detail? I though the devil was in the detail?! Guess it is all in how you look at it. I decided it was best for all concerned if I kept it as classic and uncluttered as possible. I thought the pink marble and gold bars was exquisit, but better for a Victoria's Secret webpage. I did not want to alienate the men in here by making it look like a boudoir. The brown boring and my fav green are two of four identical bars with different coloring. I also have it in blue and charcoal. I seriously considered the blue but liked the green links....! That awesome one I saw on shown on a dark grey back ground of such color that the horizontal lines seemed to disappear and it seemed to hover on the page. Amazing!"}, {"response": 195, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (01:39)", "body": "I'm still a minimalist at heart!"}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (13:27)", "body": "I agree and this shall be the look for Geo... Any more elaborate bars clutter the main page with all of the graphics at the top! I agree, Maggie!"}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (01:29)", "body": "For all the men who check to see what I am doing in here and occasionally post, this is for you: *Hugs*"}, {"response": 198, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (12:53)", "body": "Happy Fathers' Day, indeed, to all you guys."}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (19:35)", "body": "HAPPY SOLSTICE DAY"}, {"response": 200, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (07:40)", "body": "Happy Solstice!"}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (12:55)", "body": "Ok, next time I download it......was a beautiful image..."}, {"response": 202, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 27, 2000 (00:01)", "body": "HAUOLI NA HANAU, UILAMA, The creator of Geo white ginger, the most exquisite lei ever made. Me Ke Aloha"}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 27, 2000 (00:02)", "body": "when I goof, I do it as large as possible!"}, {"response": 204, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (04:22)", "body": "HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEO"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (12:48)", "body": "Thank you, Maggie!! When you use the big stuff, you remember to close the tags. I had forgotten where I had posted the other Birthday wishes...Mahalo again"}, {"response": 206, "author": "americ", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (22:49)", "body": "Just arrived! Thanks for the invite, Marcia."}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (23:48)", "body": "No one you can imagine how delighted I am to have you here. We cover all sorts of stuff here - I know you'd find something interesting. Are you into Ley lines?"}, {"response": 208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  1, 2000 (16:51)", "body": "Hauoli Na Hanau, Lance!"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (01:55)", "body": "Anouncing the betrothal of the hostess of this conference to a scholar and gentleman - and a gentle man. More to come..."}, {"response": 210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (02:03)", "body": "I hasten to add that my husband-to-be is a man who understands long term friendships, and he insists that I continue to do just what I have been doing since I and William created it long ago. He would not hear of my abandoning Geo. If anything, we have gotten someone who will aid and abet my posting here immeasurably. More to come... My special friends remain just that to me - special cherished and part of my life."}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (02:05)", "body": "(and that should have read \"created by William and I\". Without him, Geo would not exist, my eternal gratidue to one of the kindest men I have ever known.)"}, {"response": 212, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (03:30)", "body": "Congratulations, Marcia! What happy news."}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (03:32)", "body": "Desperately trying to decentralise (which doesn't always work for some reason). Sorry..."}, {"response": 214, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (14:01)", "body": "Thanks, Mark... I thought I'd slip it in unobtrusively...where no one would ever find it. *smiling happily* You did it the first time...it ijust quirk of Yapp software. To check that you did it right just hit the reload button and it will affirm your correction wad done properly. Btw, that book... It is now residing next to Bulwer-Lytton's \"Last Days of Pompeii\" ... somehow, seems appropriate!"}, {"response": 215, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Oct 28, 2000 (12:44)", "body": "Best Wishes, Marcia and the Gentle Man."}, {"response": 216, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 29, 2000 (00:12)", "body": "...who at the moment has been missing for two days. Stay tuned. There may be a homicide in my future and I am not gonna be the victim...! (Can you tell I am alternating between despair and anger and anxiety?) Thanks dear! I need all the hugs I can manage tonight!"}, {"response": 217, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (19:59)", "body": ""}, {"response": 218, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (20:02)", "body": "hi marcia!!"}, {"response": 219, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (20:04)", "body": "oops - was teaching Neil how to post image"}, {"response": 220, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (20:04)", "body": "didn't mean to leave you out, hi neil!! (thanks for the card!!!)"}, {"response": 221, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (20:05)", "body": "your welcome, wolfie!"}, {"response": 222, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (20:07)", "body": "marcia, log onto msn!!"}, {"response": 223, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (23:52)", "body": "Wolfie check that I am on your list. I can see you when you are online... Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 21, "subject": "Rocks", "response_count": 171, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  7, 1999 (22:12)", "body": "Rockhounds of the world, Unite! Wolfie dear, you're super!!! I have a chunk of Canterbury Cathedral -that has to qualify as especially choice. Lest you turn me over to Scotland Yard, let me reassure you I took it, with permission. It was in a dump truck which was hauling away stone which had been so badly eaten by acid rain that they were replacing it - most often statues. This piece has nothing carved on it, so I was allowed to \"take as much as you want, Ma'am!\" But, it is the original stone w ich was there when Thomas Becket was murdered therein!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  7, 1999 (22:16)", "body": "Oh yeah! I need a Moon Rock. We had a piece of it here, and it looks just like the dense lava core of an A'a flow! It even had tiny craters in it!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Jul  7, 1999 (22:27)", "body": "Did anyone find a piece of the meteor that exploded ove NZ yesterday?"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  7, 1999 (22:57)", "body": "No! I had not heard about it! Did it actually strike earth or did it burn off in the atmosphere as so many do? Lucie, let us know what you find out. I shall ask AnneH and see what she knows. Thanks for the news!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (08:49)", "body": "i hadn't heard about that either. thanks for stopping by, lucie, do come back!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (13:57)", "body": "Let's see, two new Firthians know there is more to TheSpring than Drool. Very good. Now, I shall work on prying some more loose - even if I have to send them to my *shudder* Babe topic."}, {"response": 7, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (14:49)", "body": "Why shudder? Nice kneecap!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (14:58)", "body": "Thanks, Alex...you made my day! Hmm...should I put my rock wish list here now...the one with the coprolite, gastrolith, meteorite and moon rock on it?! Oh, and the complete creature in a chunk of amber."}, {"response": 9, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (15:58)", "body": "let me think on that...might be redundant, don't you know!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (16:07)", "body": "methinks you already did *grin*"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (20:36)", "body": "Re the New Zealand Meteorite, I just got this from a Firthian in Perth, Australia: It was on the news last night. A burst of light just above the surface in New Zealand did not say where I expect the Astronomers want to get the pieces pristine. Apparently although it did fall to the surface in small pieces no one was hurt."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (22:14)", "body": "*grin* Yes, I did, didn't I...*grin*"}, {"response": 13, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (22:49)", "body": "re response 11: thank God for that! marcia, do you have any websites for rock collecting info? or perhaps any literature titles devoted to it? i'll do some research myself and see if there are any legitimate sites out there. you know, in junior high (ah, so long ago), our science class touched on geology and i remember whenever the family would go on a drive, i'd look at all the landscape and jutted rocks or places where they cut through to put a road and be a little more knowledgeable about what happened to the earth. it really is cool!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (23:03)", "body": "Wolf, I have half of my Netscape Bookmarks used by Geology - from volcanoes (big over here), Earthquakes (part of the same and we have 'um quite regularly), Tsunamis (caused by the EQ's)and all sorts of US Geological Survey sites. What would you like? List the URLs or email them to you?"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (23:22)", "body": "I just did an AltaVista search for Rocks and Minerals and came up with over 2,000 Web pages. The first few are very good for minerals and what they look like...and there are all levels of intellect, too, from little kids to us big ones. Any questions and I will check it out and report back here!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (23:37)", "body": "A good place to start is the Volcano Update from the Island of Hawaii where I am It has updates and links to other volcanoes and other neat stuff http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/ Use this URL for live images refreshed every 30 seconds of Etna, Vesuvius and Stromboli in Italy http://www.iiv.ct.cnr.it:80/files/cam_index_stromboli.html Current Earthquake information world-wide http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/QUAKES/CURRENT/global.html"}, {"response": 17, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (01:09)", "body": "any good plate techtonics sites?"}, {"response": 18, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (01:11)", "body": "(sorry about the spare h)"}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (09:54)", "body": "thanks for your research, marcia. i know if i lived in a volcano/earthquake prone area, i'd have all those bookmarks too!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (13:46)", "body": "instead, all of yours are to water gauges, right, Wolf?"}, {"response": 21, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (13:56)", "body": "got that right! flood markers all over the yard too! *grin*"}, {"response": 22, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (18:11)", "body": "i have a friend who is quite into geology and collects rocks from everywhere. we spent quite the evening looking at her collection under black light!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (18:37)", "body": "Plate Techtonics (adult) www.earth-resources.net Plate Techtonics (kids) tuweb.ucis.dal.ca/~jmerry/basinview/plate.htm (JASON project) Plate techtonics for the truly curious - contains the meter sites where they measure contintal drift (some of these David has helped install) www.udayton.edu/~geology/FieldTrip/psites.htm"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (18:41)", "body": "Stace, I'd love to have a shadow-box cabinet in which to display my fluorescent rocks. I hope all of you who can get hold of a \"black light\" for viewing this phenomenon know not to look at the light source. It will damage your retina, and your retina is not into self healing. You lose it, you are blind. Please be careful."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (18:47)", "body": "Pardon the dead links. These should work: The one for adults http://www.earth-resources.net/p1832.htm the one for kids http://tuweb.ucis.dal.ca/~jmerry/basinview/plate.htm The metering sites http://www.udayton.edu/~geology/FieldTrip/psites.htm"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (18:57)", "body": "This is for those of you who live in natural-disaster-prone areas (Tornado, flood, hurricane and such), this is the Natural Disasters Website of the University of Colorado (one of the very best!) http://www.Colorado.EDU/hazards/"}, {"response": 27, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (21:50)", "body": "what? flourescent rocks? i have a black light bulb...hmmm...should i go out in the drive and pick up pebbles? when i lived in kansas, i found a couple pieces of crystal. they were cool!still have them, but don't remember where they are. think they're in the middle of a jar of shells!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (22:01)", "body": "Lots of things flouresce. Plug a light bulb socket (any hardware store has them) or cheap lamp into a l o n g outdoor extension cord, turn it on and look around. If you are wearing polyester anything or blend, even you and your shoes will fluoresce."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (22:08)", "body": "Sorry about this misspelling it is Fluorescence (like the lights in an office) and certain chemicals (everything is made of chemicals) emit electromagnetic radiation which is visible to the human eye. Lots of things do exhibit this quality, but our visible spectrum is rather narrow in comparison with other animals."}, {"response": 30, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (13:15)", "body": "i knew about white clothing really blaring under black lights...hmmm, am gonna have to have a black light alligator pool party in my backyard!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (13:21)", "body": "Please tell me you are not looking for shredded remnants of clothing left by sated gators! and promise me you will not join them - BTW, be really careful around water. You could get a really nasty shock!!! And, remember to protect those little one's eyes from the bulb."}, {"response": 32, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (13:24)", "body": "so, Wolf, what do you think? Should Marcia host a geology conference?"}, {"response": 33, "author": "casanova", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (15:35)", "body": "im new here so just burry me please"}, {"response": 34, "author": "casanova", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (15:36)", "body": ""}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (16:49)", "body": "welcome to rock collecting, casanova! wer: i believe marcia is an expert on geology and would be perfect for her own geology conference!! marcia: i promise to be extra careful *grin*"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (17:42)", "body": "Send them over if necessary. If you cannot baffle them sufficiently I can try to snow them under completely! BTW, I wrote a cute intro for the Geo Conference which got lost somewhere between my keyboard and my returning image. Oh well. Off to create topics for discussion...and thanks, I think, for your faith in my abilities and expertise. I am thinking seriously about comandeering my son to help with the Geoecology part - that is his field."}, {"response": 37, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (19:07)", "body": "figured you would..."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (16:48)", "body": "I need this to be linked to Topic 21 in Geo Conference. Going to look for some help in this endeavor - and perhaps we can breathe some life back into both of them. (It would be 21, right?)"}, {"response": 39, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (09:01)", "body": "For example, when you're in telnet, to link a topic 30 in the austin conference to the news conference, go to the news conference and type li 30 austin"}, {"response": 40, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (09:01)", "body": "Ok: help link **** LINKFROM **** Syntax: li_nkfrom Description: This will link items in the specified range in the given conference into the current conference. This can only be done by a fair-witness of the current conference. A link can be erased with the kill command. Link commands are logged to the conference log file."}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (12:01)", "body": "Thanks, Terry. I shall try that as soon as I am more awake. I noted where my other links are indentified in the conf log because I found the ones which were done for me earlier before I had seen that they were an actuality!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (17:55)", "body": "I tried in telnet to do as you instructed and the following appeared: Ok: li 29 springark Cannot access conference 29. I got the same response when I tried to link the other one, as well. Do I need to be cfadm to do this? I have not been so named. Suggestions?"}, {"response": 43, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (05:51)", "body": "I got the syntax backwards, it must be li springark 29"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (13:48)", "body": "Thanks Terry...(picky computer language...*grin*). It works beautifully and so easily when one knows the right command..! Both are now linked!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (19:12)", "body": "Hi Marcia, I was looking for new posts in the geo conference and there popped this topic! Telnet magic, I guess :-)"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (20:06)", "body": "Yes! I managed to link two topics - one from SpringArk and one from Collecting. Of course, Terry had to tell me what to do, but now I know...watch out world! Btw, I love the little world you promised me for my next birthday on Drool 72 =)"}, {"response": 47, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (08:42)", "body": "Cool!"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (13:44)", "body": "Now there will be people posting who never dared to venture into Geo before. It is rather nice in here and we get off topic as much as any other place does. Check us out...there is a lot of really cool stuff in here."}, {"response": 49, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:55)", "body": "(Marcia)Btw, I love the little world you promised me for my next birthday on Drool 72 =) Oh no, it wasn't a promise. I couldn't wait for your birthday so it was a non birthday present. Or a party favour, if you like :-)"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:48)", "body": "Might I save it and use it in my topics, then? I noted it was from a Portuguese (?) language web graphics site. Thanks!!! It is darling!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (20:56)", "body": "what is it? i can't wait to see..."}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (21:44)", "body": "Its a cute little globe...she is giving me the world! (I think it might fit in theat capture ring you have which has interchangeable spheres...-*grin*"}, {"response": 53, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (04:08)", "body": "(MarciaH) I noted it was from a Portuguese (?) language web graphics site. I think Swedish, not Portuguese... Rather the opposite end of Europe :-) Here's the page's url, they say you can use their graphics and ask that you link to them, so..."}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (09:51)", "body": "cool! thanks!!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (13:47)", "body": "Wolfie, your captured world is in Organic gems, but so you can share it, I'll put it here, also."}, {"response": 56, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (19:55)", "body": "i like it!"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (20:07)", "body": "Is that not the ultimate sphere for your Orbis collection>\u007f?!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (20:14)", "body": "indeed!! *grin* oh, i found an amber colored rock on the beach (at port aransis, texas) and picked it up. maybe i can get it ground and polished up for my ring!"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (20:16)", "body": "OOOh...Opaque or translucent?"}, {"response": 60, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (20:38)", "body": "it's kinda translucent and smooth from the water."}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (23:36)", "body": "Ummm..darkish reddish orange - Carnelian?"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (23:42)", "body": "Check out http://www.jewelry4less.com/parts/carnelian.shtml"}, {"response": 63, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (09:09)", "body": "none of those. it's more of a pale orange. it looked darker on the beach."}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (13:45)", "body": "Hmmmm...how hard is it? Does it scratch window glass? Could it be citrine quartz?"}, {"response": 65, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:05)", "body": "haven't tried that yet. um...it has a dark spot on it, like something stuck inside. perhaps i should scan it?"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:11)", "body": "Is it very light? Might it be amber??? Scan it by all means!"}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:13)", "body": "The dark spot is an inclusion of some sort. If it is light in weight and amber it might be a creature or leaf. If it is another inorganic sort, it is what is known as a flaw in diamonds and other precious gems. Interesting!!!"}, {"response": 68, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:14)", "body": "marcia, could it be just a rock? *grin* i'm gonna scan it in a few minutes just to spare you the suspense!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:26)", "body": "k, here are the scanned images. one side: other side: and i tried to scratch glass and it didn't....."}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:27)", "body": "It could evem be part of a beer bottle...*smile* (There is no such classification as \"rock\"...gotta know what it might be...I am driven to know such things!) Go Wolfie, Go! Scan, Woman!!!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:28)", "body": "Looks like a bit of already-sucked-and-discarded Hallowe'en candy! Hmm...I'll bet it does not scratch because it is rounded. Will a kitchen knife scratch it? (Be careful, dear...!)"}, {"response": 72, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:32)", "body": "all these scientific experiments! lemme try....... there was some scratching from the knife. but it didn't cut into the stone and couldn't tell if i was merely removing dirt!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:34)", "body": "there's stuff inside but it was hard to show you on the scanned image. if i hold it up to light, i see bubbles and stuff."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:38)", "body": "You mean you did not lick it clean??? What kinda Wolf are you?! *lol* wash the little thing and report back."}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:39)", "body": "Bubbles...hmmm...sounds like stained milk glass or glass slag. Any manufacturing of glassware going on around you anywhere? Last century?"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:41)", "body": "Too bad there is not an easy way to rig a light box for your scanner bed...like the ones on which you review photographic slides...Hmmm..."}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:50)", "body": "what do i wash it with? soap and water or a jewelry cleaner? it's probably just a big piece of glass that didn't get beaten down to a sand pepple yet. there's also a dark line through it. but can't tell you for sure about bubbles because it's kinda milky."}, {"response": 78, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:52)", "body": "ok, i cleaned it with soapy water and the slight knife marks are still there."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:56)", "body": "Get a tiny flashlight and put the pebble on top and turn it on. What can you see now? It sounds like it is about the hardness of glass (which is also the hardness of knife steel). Wash it when you wash your hands unless you think there is something stuck to it...that is why I keep old toothbrushes. To scrub little things with."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:57)", "body": "Ok, of the knife made discernable but not deep marks, it is almost certainly glass."}, {"response": 81, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:06)", "body": "now that the AM thinks i'm crazy...it has orange colored striations through it."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:10)", "body": "Oooh...interesting. Hmmm.. thinking... This is the first time I have done remote rock identifying - I think it is exciting. (I know - the house male here thinks I am odd beyond belief.) Could they be stains? If they are semi-regular it might be onyx."}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:12)", "body": "I have my Rockhounding Manual in hand and I find that there is incidences of agate (banded is like your stone but probably harder than yours), jasper (dull red-brown) and petrified wood (does not look like that to me.) Hmmm..."}, {"response": 84, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:13)", "body": "i don't know, but it's definitely inside the rock. and i dropped it while trying to examine it and can't find it! (i have a wood laminate floor and it blends in quite well). the AM is trying to fix my keychain flashlight as the other one's light was blinding as it escaped the edges of the rock! will keep looking and try to give you better details. don't know how to zoom with the scanner either!"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:13)", "body": "What county are you in, and what is the next state closest upstream?"}, {"response": 86, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:16)", "body": "got the rock back (it went under the computer desk!). i don't know how you can tell what it is or isn't from that picture i scanned!"}, {"response": 87, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:19)", "body": "ok, i found the rock off the gulf of mexico off of port aransus texas. there were lots of pepples and broken shells as the breakers were quite strong."}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:29)", "body": "Ah....not in Lousiana...looking...since it was ocean-borne, and there are bubbles in it (they are rare in nature because of the way rocks form, I am guessing on just that evidence that it is glass - that and the hardness and translucency. I would guess also that the striations of orange visible might either be due to its original form and intended to be there as ornamental, or it is due to internal fractures which gathered sediment which (such as oxides of iron) which made the discolorations. The secon I think is unlikely. I think you have a pebble of OLD glass - perhaps from early American or Spanish settlements - hand blown (the only kind they had). It is a nice pebble to keep! But it will not polish...etched glass just does not work that way."}, {"response": 89, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:34)", "body": "hmmmm....interesting indeed! thanks for your research!"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:37)", "body": "How am I telling what this specimen is? Looking at it and your discription allows me to eliminate a lot of things. Your hardness test was precise enough to allow me to ascertain it was about 5 to 5 1/2 on Moh's scale of hardness (check Geo 16 Diagnostics) which is about what window glass is and just a little softer than a steel blade. The bubbles were the most telling detail - as I said previously, because they are seldom found in nature except in rare cases and are really tiny (microscopic). Do I get a passing grade? Its translucency also aided me. You could even have the remant of a broken marble, but I doubt that. I think it is a broken piece of colonial milk glass..either Spanish or American which has been rounded by ages in the harder quartz sand."}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:40)", "body": "My pleasure! Over here we hardly ever find anything but coral (sand is crushed shell and coral if it is white) or lava or peridot sand. I once found a small chunk of granite washed up where we launched our sailboat. I still have it. How did it get here? Probably as ballast stones in saliling ships!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:43)", "body": "i think it's way cool!!"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:44)", "body": "*beaming* Me too!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:45)", "body": "now you got me digging through my older shell collections. i have a few crystal pieces that i got in kansas but can't remember where i put them. also found this beauty that's in the shape of a boot! (it's a rock not a crystal). i'll scan it real quick for you...."}, {"response": 95, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:52)", "body": "here's the boot:"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:53)", "body": "Understand, but it could be made of rock crystal which is a real semiprecious stone. The clearest and purest form of glass on earth formed naturally. (I am enjoying this very much!)"}, {"response": 97, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:55)", "body": "well, you know, it would help if i ftp'd it over first!!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:56)", "body": "sorry, didn't mean to post it twice!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:59)", "body": "Yep...then they both show up! Do you think this just happens to look like a foot rather than being off of a leather doll of great age which had procelain hands, head and feet? If it is natural is it translucent at all and is the surface granular or smooth in texture?"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:01)", "body": "give me 15 minutes to eat dinner - I shall return!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:16)", "body": "i'm gonna fill in the details on that piece and then i have to give over the pc to the AM (he's got some stuff to do too).... ok, the boot is smooth with some jagged spots on it. it is granular looking and has some pitting going on. haven't done the knife or glass test yet but can't scratch it with my nail. it has light and dark grey spots on it. i've had it for over 16 years and can't remember if i found it in a gravel road or what. it appears to be the same on both sides although on one side the \"ankle\" is smooth and the other is bumpy. what is interesting, besides the symmetry, is the indentation where the achilles is over he back of the foot and before the beginning of the calf. if this was nature made, it's amazing. it never occurred to me that it could be a petrified dolls foot. and now i've got to go. thanks for your help marcia and for spurring on my interest! oh, and i've still got to find a jeweler's glass and a black light. tried a black light bulb but it wasn't the same."}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:27)", "body": "Thanks Wolfie for the interesting posts...like a treasure hunt. More on the doll's foot tomorrow, then?! I'll be here."}, {"response": 103, "author": "Isabel", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (09:30)", "body": ":-) Hey, this was real fun reading! You two will get the Indiana-Jones-Treasure-Hunters-Award for this one! Those stones are interesting. I got a box full which my parents collected, there are amethysts between and garnet and other stuff. My sisters lives at the north sea and always finds these precious ambers...I never had the luck to find something worthy at the shores..."}, {"response": 104, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (16:58)", "body": "me either!"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (18:16)", "body": "Make that three of us...I found broken stuff in the Atlantic as a child, and out here there is more different stuff because of being in coral reef territory, but there is still no amber or anything close to it washing up around me. Hi Isabel! Happy you enjoyed our little fun evening of detective work. I really had a great time with it! Thanks again, Wolfie...time to get to the little foot again?"}, {"response": 106, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (18:41)", "body": "yeah! and i found a couple other interesting rocks mixed with my earliest collection of land shells. let's do one rock at a time! so what is your theory on my boot?"}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (18:47)", "body": "Does it seem like it is old eroded porcelain or does it seem hard enough to be stone? If it is stone it could be almost anything, but it could also be part of a figurine. I am still opting for the doll foot."}, {"response": 108, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (18:52)", "body": "i have no idea about eroded porcelain."}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:06)", "body": "How hard is it? Try your knife and window again"}, {"response": 110, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:08)", "body": "1. scratches glass 2. knife scratches rock"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:12)", "body": "Huh! hmmm....does it seem to be of some sort of glass, as well?"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:14)", "body": "Can you see light through it? (get out that flashlight again!)"}, {"response": 113, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:14)", "body": "i don't know! the residue from scratching with the knife made me think of sand and the scratch left a white mark."}, {"response": 114, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:15)", "body": "as to the light, no, it's opaque..."}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:30)", "body": "Hmmm...turn over a coffee mug or plate and find where it is not glazed. Does that scratch whichever?"}, {"response": 116, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:45)", "body": "it didn't leave a discernable mark, but did draw on it (like chalk). the unglazed portion of the mug left a white mark on the boot."}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:54)", "body": "..engraved white mark on the boot?...that means it is harder than the boot. Unglazed porcelain is hard - about 7... so it is used as a diagnostic for streak (Do you have some polished hematite which has a dark metallic luster and is often made into beads? Try that on your unglazed porcelain.)Do you have a stee life handy? Try that...it is 6 1/2."}, {"response": 118, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:57)", "body": "that's what i used, a steel knife....i have a polished black stone ring but am not sure if it's hematite. actually, the white mark is gone now after i rubbed my finger over it."}, {"response": 119, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:58)", "body": "the scratch from the knife is still there, i can feel the indentation with my nail."}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:58)", "body": "I'm guessing it is just slightly harder than glass but enough to scratch it. Pure forms of silica would react like that but would be clear and without inclusions. Thinking.... Do you recall from whence this little footie came?"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:01)", "body": "Ok softer than 5 1/2 so likely not glass or silica of any form. (Your black stone is probably onyx if it does not have a metallic luster) Try a penny - which scratches which and how much (I am guessing it will scratch the penny which is 2 1/2.)"}, {"response": 122, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:08)", "body": "the black stone is in the form of a ring--it's not onyx....ok, now to find a penny...is my little boot gonna get all ruined from all these experiments?"}, {"response": 123, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:09)", "body": "ok, it scratched the penny, but we expected that, right?"}, {"response": 124, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:12)", "body": "(back to the ring, i think it is hematite....it's black with a silvery lustre and very smooth.)"}, {"response": 125, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:26)", "body": "ok, i tried the hematite and boot scratching thing and neither scratched the other....."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:47)", "body": "No, find something tiny and unglazed to use on the underside of your stone ring (it will scratch your ring, so use it on the inside.) If you don't wish to do this I will tell you what happens. (I have a pair of them and wear them as guards on a jade or carnelian ring made the same way)"}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:49)", "body": "Put that boot somewhere in a safe place until I can think of other things to try. I am having to look through my texts now to see what it might be."}, {"response": 128, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:51)", "body": "are you talking about using the boot on the inside of the ring? i did and no marks."}, {"response": 129, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:53)", "body": "ooohh, making marcia do some deep research!! thanks, girl, for your help and patience with me and my rocks!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:55)", "body": "'night! *hugs*"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:12)", "body": "Break a dish or somethiing really badly chipped. Take the bigest piece you can slip into the inside of your ring and see what color streak it scrapes off...just the tiniest scratch will suffice. If you do not wish to do that I will tell you in the morning what your results would have been and why. Meanwhile hitting the books for boot ID, and downloading lava pix for Travel/Hawaii ... G'night, Wolfie! *hugs*"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "Don't know quite where to put this little story but it IS a rock we are talking about and not old enough for Paleo... Woman Carries 'Fossil' Fetus for 49 Years TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan doctors operating on a 76-year old woman discovered a ``fossilized'' fetus in her abdomen conceived 49 years ago a phenomenon recorded only three times in history, hospital sources said Wednesday. The Veterans General Hospital said doctors on December 31 found a 20 gram (0.7 ounce) lithopaedion, the rocklike remains of a fetus hardened by calcium buildup, in the abdominal cavity of a woman surnamed Wu. The baby appeared to have died in the 20th week of Wu's pregnancy when the fetus moved from her womb to her abdomen. The hospital said their research yielded only three known lithopaedions, and the earliest case dated back to 1582, when a 28-year old fetus was found in French woman."}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (19:14)", "body": "(Wolfie is not going to be happy with me as this is linked to her collecting conference, but it IS a rock...)"}, {"response": 134, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (19:18)", "body": "it is an interesting rock to say the least. how could she not have known?"}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (20:30)", "body": "Some people are dead from the neck up, I think! No sense, no feeling and all those old adages must be true!"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (20:34)", "body": "Don't think I'll put one of those on my wish list...Yeesh!"}, {"response": 137, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "euw! well, on the subject of rocks, i received my mom's package with the photo albums and guess what was in there? the mysterious kansas rock pictures. yup, tomorrow i'll scan and post them for you to marvel over. yes, am gonna keep you in suspense! :)"}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (21:02)", "body": "Yes! I remember. Big'uns, if I recall correctly...! Waiting patiently...well...as patiently as I can...*sigh*....Yippee!"}, {"response": 139, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (20:17)", "body": "ok, here's the link to the mysterious kansas rock formations: http://www.spring.net/~bayou/rocks.gif"}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (20:23)", "body": "For the time being it is http://206.97.234.70//~bayou/rocks.gif except for the fortunate few who can still get in the old way... Oh my! They look like fossilized butter rolls which you peel to eat (I cannot think of their real name...) They are just sitting around like that with all those layers? Never thought they'd look like that in Iowa! Thanks, Wolfie!"}, {"response": 141, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (20:28)", "body": "iowa? kansas, marcia! *heehee* they're absolutely huge. we climbed on some of them. can't even remember what the site was called. a bunch were perfectly round and others were flatter. they all had that butter roll look though."}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (20:41)", "body": "Absolutely amazing! Funny thing I can never remember the midwest because whenever I flew over it the states were not painted different colors like on my map and I could not tell where I was. They could have at least painted the edges a different color...*sigh*"}, {"response": 143, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "the midwest looks like a patchwork quilt to me....(check out my post in linens)"}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (22:00)", "body": "I did...and noted that I am to \"talk\" to Terry which I shall do straight away. *hugs*"}, {"response": 145, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (08:20)", "body": "Talk to me, talk to me."}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (11:52)", "body": "Wolfie and I would like an Arts and Crafts Conference, unless you think it is too much and would be more properly a Topic in another conference. This would be handmade things from crocheting and knitting to doll-making, teddy bear making and tapestry to name a few. Pottery, woodworking and glassblowing also come to mind. Or should this be under the Art Conference? Not all of it is art however...sewing of clothes and design of same...lots of cross-overs to be linked if it is a separate conference. Let s know. Thanks! When you have, time, of course! *hugs*"}, {"response": 147, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (17:05)", "body": "...or just plain CRAFTS would probably be better..."}, {"response": 148, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (19:32)", "body": "yeah, cuz then it wouldn't be confused with the arts and if we run across topics that would serve a purpose (and it's ok with ree ree) we could link them up. i've got a bunch of ideas for a crafts topic! (and terry, i want to send something to help with the bills but it will have to wait until payday. always tell myself that i'm gonna do that and i forget, so maybe this way, i'll be more apt to remember *grin*) speaking of rocks, i saw a show today on emerald mining. how tempting it must be for those miners to want to walk off with something. guards were all over the place (i think they were in mexico or someplace else where they speak spanish)--no offense but i can't remember where they were. they were 300 feet below the surface and air had to be blown in. i'd be so scared!"}, {"response": 149, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (20:07)", "body": "oh, thanks terry *smoooooooch* (and to you, marcia for taking the ball and running with it)"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "Museum Sues Indians Over Meteorite Ownership NEW YORK (Reuters) - The American Museum of Natural History sued an American Indian group Monday to block its claim to the 15.5-ton Willamette Meteorite, one of the museum's oldest treasures and a centerpiece of its newly opened planetarium. The suit seeks a court ruling that the museum is the rightful owner of the largest meteorite ever found in the United States. It also seeks a ruling that it does not have to repatriate the extraterrestrial object to an Oregon Indian group that alleges that the gigantic meteorite is a holy tribal object that brought messages from the spirit world long before the arrival of white men. The museum's lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court a little over a week after the much touted opening of its sleek $210 million Rose Center for Earth and Space on Manhattan's upper West Side. The metallic iron meteorite, which is believed to have fallen to earth 10,000 years ago from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, holds a place of honor on the main floor in the planetarium's astrophysics hall. It has been viewed by countless scientists, teachers and schoolchildren for nearly a century. The lawsuit alleged that the meteorite's ownership history dates back to at least 1855 when various Indian tribes voluntarily ceded the meteorite, which was once located in the upper Willamette Valley in Oregon, to the United States in exchange for reservation land and other considerations. In 1905, the Supreme Court of the State of Oregon ruled that the meteorite belonged to the Oregon Iron and Steel Company as owner of the land on which the object was found. The company sold the meteorite to the American Museum of Natural History the next year for $20,600. Almost immediately after its purchase, the museum began to study the object and it has been on almost continuous display since 1906. According to the lawsuit, the current ownership dispute began during the fall of 1999 when representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon visited the museum. The federally recognized group consists of a number of tribes from the Upper Willamette Valley, including the Clackamas which ceded the meteorite in 1855, the suit said. At the end of their visit, the representatives submitted a written claim for repatriation to the museum stating that the meteorite is a sacred object. It filed its claim under the federal law known at the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA. The law was written for the preservation and repatriation of Native American cultural and religious artifacts. To obtain repatriation of a sacred object, a tribe must show that it is a sacred object, that the tribe owned or controlled it and that the museum does not have a right of possession, the suit said. The museum alleged that the Oregon Indian group did not meet these requirements."}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:28)", "body": "Gee, perhaps I was not talking loud enough in the post before last...?!"}, {"response": 152, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:23)", "body": "are we people sue happy or what? who can own a meteorite? sheesh!"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:27)", "body": "I'd sure like to have one, but I must not! They belong to everyone as far as I am concerned! Greed once again rears its ugly head...!"}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:29)", "body": "Of course, all of the famous legendary swords were forged out of meteroitic iron. Iron from the gods made them invincible - and we still remember the names today - as in Excalibur..."}, {"response": 155, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:29)", "body": "well, it's one thing if you happened across a piece, kinda like the berlin wall, but to sue for ownership? this world has become quite greedy. i'd love to just see one in person (already landed and no damage done safely inside a scientific museum) *knock on wood*"}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:33)", "body": "*lol* Me too!!! Exhibit A...."}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:34)", "body": "(Sometime, when I am not cooking supper, remind me to tell you why you knock on wood!)"}, {"response": 158, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:43)", "body": "it's from an old myth, right? anyway, i don't like tempting fate, God, or whatever...."}, {"response": 159, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:43)", "body": "you guys are just eating supper? and you're still posting?"}, {"response": 160, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:36)", "body": "Nope - I took off about 15 minutes to eat and another 10 to clean up the dishes and kitchen...and I am back at it. As I write itis 5:36pm and we watched the local evening news while consuming my homemade pisghetti."}, {"response": 161, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (22:01)", "body": "I think I only just missed you! It's 4 am here and I'm working already."}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (22:52)", "body": "You so not sleep much. It is almost 5am and I have kept you from doing anything constructive =) It is just going on 7pm yesterday here!"}, {"response": 163, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (01:53)", "body": "(shh I went back to bed for a while afterwards ;-) but I'm back working again now - it's 7.50 am and I've got a meeting at 9.30 which I'm not ready for! My sleep patterns are all over the place just now. I napped yesterday afternoon which I don't usually do)"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (10:04)", "body": "(Shhh...so are ours. R wanders in the night and ends up in the back bedroom if he does not start there...I just get up and read.)"}, {"response": 165, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (12:43)", "body": "(I'm really gonna have a problem when I move my desk back in - won't be able to get up at night and work!)"}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (13:25)", "body": "That is currently my problem. He built my computer station into the corner of the bedroom...and when he is in here trying to sleep for the night, I cannot be on the computer. Maybe I should leave him in the back bedroom....=)"}, {"response": 167, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (19:14)", "body": "ok, so tell me the story about the knocking on wood (i think i've heard it but right now, can't remember a thing)"}, {"response": 168, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (19:18)", "body": "What is the story of knocking on wood? It's one of those things you hear and don't really pay attention to, one of those old bromides."}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (19:30)", "body": "Well, it all has to do with the world tree and the Celts who gave it to the Norse. The roots reached to the gods of the underworld and the branches reached into the heavens. By knocking on the tree, you are praying for the gods of both to heed your comments and help you!"}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (19:31)", "body": "Ygsdrill or something like that...(gotta look that up, too...)"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (19:36)", "body": "Funny thing about old bromides and nursery rhymes and folk tales. Somewhere, way back..there was real meaning behind the words... Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 22, "subject": "Jurassic Park", "response_count": 151, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (19:23)", "body": "Competing with my Paleontology or Fossils Topics, or are we talking Live Dinosaurs???! *hugs* it is good to have you busy again in here *smile*"}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (19:24)", "body": "Actually, I wanted to use this topic to supplement yours and thought we could link the two up. Want to use this to explore the dinosaur age and whether or not the world is as old as \"they\" say it is. And to discuss theories as to what killed them off. A huge virus, meteor, what....."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (19:26)", "body": "OK, I'll add this to my request for linkup between Collecting rocks and Geo..."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (19:35)", "body": "Cfadm may have to create a new Paleo topic in Geo since this one is written in and there in one post in my Paleo...which is easily dispensed with as it was not important. I think this is an exciting prospect. I have loved dinosaurs since I was very little and taken to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I still have my books about dinosaurs from when I was a kid!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "riette", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (13:29)", "body": "Dinos are so cool!! Apparently new evidence shows that the T-REX lived in colonies. Don't you find that SCARY?? Imagine such mean animals in a pack! But apparently they weren't very nice to each other, and always picked on the smaller T-REX."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (15:16)", "body": "They were the ultimate killing machine of the Jurassic, and they helped evolution out a lot by getting rid of the lame, stupid and slow so they did not pass those genes on to their offspring. Whatever happened to Natural Selection?! I think we need to have it back..."}, {"response": 7, "author": "riette", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (04:00)", "body": "We do. That's why bad people get away with being bad so often..."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (20:21)", "body": "I'm afraid you are right...It seems as though they are propagating faster than the good folks of the world, as well."}, {"response": 9, "author": "riette", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (03:12)", "body": "Of course. Survival by means of depleting other people's means."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (15:00)", "body": "As soon as there were two people on the Earth, there was the problem of depleting the other person's means...if for nothing else than to eliminate the competition. Seems we were at it from the very beginning. It is amazing that we survive as well as we do! We are now linked to Geo. Happy thought, Indeed...so now we can legitimately discuss gastroliths and coprolites *grin*"}, {"response": 11, "author": "riette", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (05:39)", "body": "You mean farting and burping?"}, {"response": 12, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (08:58)", "body": "They've found a completely intact mammouth and are planning on cloing the dna and inseminating an African elephant with it (I may have the details garbled, I heard it on the car radio a few days ago), but the gist is that mammouths will walk the earth again. Jurrasic Park is real."}, {"response": 13, "author": "riette", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (13:07)", "body": "You're late!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:10)", "body": "Terry, I think we discussed this on SpringArk 30 / Genetics:Animal Kingdom. I am really excited for them to do this and I hope they are successful. Not quite the Jurassic period, but far enough back that it piques our interest and imagination."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:16)", "body": "(Ri\ufffdtte)You mean farting and burping? If we are talking coprolites, it is long past the flaming point and into fossilization (wouldn't that make a nifty engagement ring stone?!), as for Gastroliths...yup! But belching stones is not a pleasant thing to contemplate. Bouncing around in your gut at that size could be the cause of more than gastric distress! It might knock two stones together, cause a spark and ignite the whole Dinosaur. BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:18)", "body": "I wish these intersecting topics would show as \"read\" in all the conferences once they are read in one of them. Can this not be done, Marcia, Terry?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:54)", "body": "When I enter a conference I do it like this: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/Geo/all/new after I have accessed them and I go to SpringArk or Collecting (to which Geo is linked - as well as News and Parents - I do the same using browse/all/new. The ones already read should not appear again on the other place since you have accessed it."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:57)", "body": "Well, so much for that. It did not work this time... Since each conference is independent one of the other it might be impossible to do what Gi requests."}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (20:42)", "body": "i've wondered the same thing myself!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (22:41)", "body": "I have done some looking at yapp capabilities, and this seems to be too convoluted for it to handle."}, {"response": 21, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (03:47)", "body": "Well, then, never mind! Some genius may think of that, though, the next time they write such a program :-)"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (14:00)", "body": "I think it just might take an exasperated non-expert to write such a program. I have been thinking about it, but am far from the stage of making useful suggestions - so I keep plugging at it, and another program which would keep posts on private boards from general display...!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (19:12)", "body": "And, here I sit in telnet (actually double telnet) and am still coming up empty"}, {"response": 24, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Nov  3, 1999 (14:32)", "body": "I wonder if I Forget it in one conference will it be Forgotten in the other? Will try it. But then the object is defeated, which was to link to it from either conference."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  3, 1999 (19:15)", "body": "Hmmm....I think it is conference specific, but not sure. Please report your findings on this matter!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Nov  4, 1999 (15:42)", "body": "I Forgot it on SpringArk but it still showed up in Geo."}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  4, 1999 (16:40)", "body": "Thank you! I was wondering, but since I am host on both of those conferences I did not think it would be a fair test."}, {"response": 28, "author": "patas", "date": "Fri, Nov  5, 1999 (08:26)", "body": "And it is still forgotten in SpringArk. So now we know :-)"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  5, 1999 (12:39)", "body": "Aha again! Good to know these things. Thanks, again *hugs*"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  7, 2000 (19:12)", "body": "Mammoth Stuck Outside New Museum NORMAN, Okla. (Reuters) - A life-size bronze sculpture of an Ice Age mammoth is proving to be a mammoth headache for the University of Oklahoma, which has been unable to fit the beast through the doors of the country's newest natural history museum, officials said on Thursday. When the massive bronze, whose 12-foot (3.6-metre) tusks make up more than half its 23-foot (6.9-metre) length, arrived on Wednesday, workers discovered the head was eight inches (20 cm) too high to fit upright through the loading doors of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Natural History Museum. The new University of Oklahoma museum is a large state-of-the-art facility built to showcase a university collection that has spent decades scattered in buildings across campus and in dilapidated storage sites. It is due to open on May 1. ``It's going to be a big pain and a lot of guys are going to be working on it,'' museum spokeswoman Linda Coldwell said. ''But we will get it in.'' She said a large crane would be brought to the site and the sculpture would be turned on its side to fit through the door, ''like you'd bring a sofa into your living room, around the door frame.'' The sculpture is of an Imperial Mammoth, a species that lived more than 10,000 years ago. The bronze weighs 5,000 pounds (2,250 kg). It will be mounted in a display called the ``Pleistocene Plaza'' alongside bronze sculptures of an early Native American family encountering the beast, a scene which could have easily occurred on the site of the new museum around 12,000 years ago, Coldwell said. The sculpture, by Nebraska artist Fred Hoppe, is based on the bones of a mammoth found in the fossil beds of Lincoln County, Nebraska, in 1922."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "Internet Auction Flogs T-Rex Bones for $5.8 Million SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In a monster sale on the Internet, online auctioneers on Monday put a fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton on the block with the opening bid set at $5.8 million. The fossil dubbed ``Mr. Z-Rex'' and boasting the largest male skull with the longest teeth of any T. Rex ever discovered is being jointly offered by online auction sites run by Lycos Inc. (LCOS.O) and Millionaire.com. ``The fossil is absolutely breathtaking,'' its discoverer, paleontologist Alan Detrich, said in a statement. ``This truly is the King of T-Rex's.'' The fossil was estimated to bring in between $10 million and $12 million, according to the auctioneers. A 1997 Sotheby's auction for ``Sue,'' a female T. Rex dubbed ``The Queen of T. Rex's,'' fetched $8.36 million, the highest price ever paid for dinosaur fossils. That purchase was made by a group led by Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner on behalf of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History. ``Mr. Z. Rex'' was discovered on Oct. 6, 1992 by Alan and Robert Detrich on a private cattle ranch in northwestern South Dakota. It is currently co-owned by Detrich Fossils and Fred J. Nuss Fossils, both Kansas-based paleontological groups. This is not the first time the massive fossil has been put up for sale over the Internet. In July 1999, Detrich Fossils offered the item over another online auction site, but the sale was scrapped after phony bidders put in too many illegitimate offers. The new sale will be limited to pre-qualified buyers, which could include natural history museums seeking to add the T-Rex to their attractions, company officials said. Appraisers have estimated that a T-Rex exhibit can boost museum revenues by as much as $40 million a year. ``When a significant boost in ticket sales is combined with revenue from souvenirs, casts of giant teeth, etc., the revenue from a T. Rex display could total millions of dollars per year, quickly earning back the original cost of the fossils,'' the companies' statement said. The auction, which closes on Feb. 10, is visible at www.auctions.lycos.com and www.millionaire.com."}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (20:42)", "body": "that's absurd! is it a hoax?"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (21:18)", "body": "Nope. Complete T-Rex skelatons are so rare that this is up for the highest price it can fetch. There is world-wide interest in this guy without any meat on his bones and probably not gastroliths or coprolites, either."}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (21:22)", "body": "*wow*"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (21:41)", "body": "Actually, if I am remembering correctly, this is the Only complete T-Rex skelaton ever found let alone successfully excavated. Btw, it is a female!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (19:57)", "body": "Was it \"Sue\"? Then, again, I think that that Sue was the largest T-Rex, though not complete...missed the exhibition - rats!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (20:32)", "body": "No name that I remember seeing. I guess that honor goes to the person or institution willing to shell out $5+ million for the privilege of taking her home. But, I have not gone to the websites holding the auction...have been busy posting about the eclipse instead. I have seen the one in the American Museum of Natural History which is by far the largest of the ones currently on exhibit in major museums. I was disappointed by the small size of the British Museum of Natural History's specimen. But, a T- ex is impressive in any condition...I would jump at the chance to see another specimen."}, {"response": 38, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (20:51)", "body": "see, i don't understand why it's on the auction block. i thought those things were taken to museums not purchased. been to the natural history museum in d.c. and that thing was huge (the dinosaur, ok, the museum was too)"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:04)", "body": "There is no law in this country that I am aware of which deals with \"treasure\" found on land not owned by anyone (is there such thing anymore?!). In Britain the discoverer can take possession and sell it to the highest bidder if it is lost property...anything dropped on the ground or lost by the owner. Finders Keepers. If it is buried or placed somewhere where the owner could reasonable be considered to return to use it, then it is in the custody of the state and as such it goes to the British Museum. e are a prickly bunch when it comes to the government taking things we discover in the wilderness - like Gold or dinosaur bones...!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:07)", "body": "I am all for things as unique as dinosaur bones or meteroites belonging to the nation and being kept in a museum for all to see. But, where do you draw the line??? It is almost a no-win situation!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:14)", "body": "wait, i didn't know the museums were govt run. i knew they got money, but the pieces were property of the museum and the general public, not the gov't. maybe i need to move to a smaller scale. finding an arrowhead is no big deal but finding a whole dinasour is just infathomable to me. can you imagine? my finding this thing in my backyard (of course, if i did, wouldn't that make headlines) and then what do i do with it? i dunno. just a question, not trying to start a fight! speaking of things we find in the wilderness, there are laws regarding the taking of certain feathers found lying about. the only \"civilian\" people allowed to take them are indians and then for ceremonial purposes. (of course, bird feathers are covered in mites and junk, so clean it really well!)"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:23)", "body": "You will never get me to fight with you, Wolfie! *Hugs* is more like it =) I am just stating what exists in the world of archaeology...like the Dead Sea Scrolls and other things of that magnitude which should belong to all mankind. Most museums are run by a board of directors and get endowments from many sources. The Smithsonian is that way, but is also the Nation's repository of historically significant things. Most finds of the American Museum were by people hired to go out and find. Margaret Meade was on their payrole as was the man who did all of the dinosaur finds in Mongolia. Therefore his things belong to the museum. Other things, like the Hope Diamond were either sold or donated to the museum by their owners/discoverers I think all finds should be first the nation's and second the finder's...but this is the fight Mel Fisher is fighting over his gold salvage finds in the sea."}, {"response": 43, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:37)", "body": "if i found something significant, depending on what it was as to whether i'd want to keep it, i'd definitely want credit for unearthing the thing. perhaps the idea behind musuems and such is to preserve it for mankind and to take ownership away. i don't know. i thought archeology was for everyone's benefit. i guess there's the \"pirate's treasure\" deal going on for folks. to me, that's just greed. but i'd sure be tempted to keep it, am only human (thank goodness) just hate how things get exploited for t e sake of the almighty dollar. who's got $5M to lay out for some dinosaur bones anyway? what are they gonna do with it? put it in the foyer of their castle and hang christmas lights off of it? it belongs in a museum or such place so people can take a gander and see it to know that it's real IMMHO. i'd love to see it and touch the bones and know that this thing used to be alive. i'd love to pet the mammoth and feel the texture of it's fur and know that that thing, too, was alive."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:56)", "body": "I agree! Put most eloquently, Wolfie...you expressed the frustration we all feel who care about these things. I am afraid the altruism which once was the rule in the world is long gone. It is now, \"What's in it for me?\" and getting worse by the moment!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "Found this interesting article which addresses some of our worst fears: Wednesday, September 17, 1997 Fossil may be biggest T-rex ever Last modified at 1:36 a.m. on Wednesday, September 17, 1997 HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- What may be the largest Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever found has been unearthed on a Montana cattle ranch, touching off a dispute over who has claim to the site. University of Notre Dame paleontologist Keith Rigby said identification of the fossil is not yet complete, but if it is not a T-rex it may be a completely new variety of dinosaur -- and the largest meat-eater ever found. \"There is some possibility that it may be new, and T-rex may have to become 'T-who?\"' Rigby said Tuesday. Rigby said he found a pubis bone, one of three bones in the pelvis, that measures at least 52 inches, compared with 48 inches in the largest T-Rex fossil ever measured. However, the femurs, or thigh bones, which paleontologists normally use to estimate the size of dinosaurs, are still unexcavated. The find is \"exciting, but not earth-shattering,\" said J. Michael Parrish, a dinosaur expert at Southern Illinois University. He said only a couple of dozen T-rex specimens are known and the largest size keeps changing, but that Rigby is probably right that his would be the biggest T-rex known. Parrish said other carnivores found recently in South America and Africa are thought to be larger than a T-rex, but comparisons among species are difficult. Rigby said he was forced to reveal the find before the fossil could be confirmed because of an unauthorized excavation over the weekend, which prompted federal agents to intervene to keep bones from being taken away. James Rector, a lawyer who has been helping Rigby, said he saw two sons of the former landowner and other relatives using a tractor to dig at the site on Sunday. Rector said he alerted the FBI and the federal Farm Service Agency, which owns the land. No one was arrested, but the FBI is investigating. Rector said he asked Steve Walton, a son of former landowner Edmund Walton, what he intended to do with the bones and the man replied: \"I'm going to save my farm and feed my children.\" T-rex fossils can be extremely valuable. A 50-foot fossil nicknamed Sue, which was found in South Dakota in 1990, is expected to bring more than $1 million when it is auctioned next month at Sotheby's in New York. Rigby said he began work at the Montana site more than a year ago with permission of people who claimed to own the land, but he later became suspicious. He said he did a title search and found that FSA took ownership of the land several years ago. Two men who identified themselves to The Associated Press in separate calls as Steve Walton and his cousin, Fred Walton, said Tuesday the group did not take anything from the site and were there merely out of curiosity. Both said ownership of the land is still in dispute and they might be entitled to some money from the dinosaur find. A similar fight was waged over Sue, one of the most complete T-Rex fossils ever found. It was seized by the government in 1992 from Peter L. Larsen, the fossil dealer who excavated it. The government said the land where Sue was found was under federal jurisdiction and off-limits to Larsen. Sotheby's is selling the fossil on behalf of the Sioux Indian on whose ranch Sue was found."}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (18:09)", "body": "The T-Rex Fossil The fossil, currently owned by Detrich fossils, a Kansas-based paleontological group, contains the most perfect skull and largest teeth (some measuring 13 inches) ever discovered. The fossil is nicknamed Mr. Z-Rex in honor of the owners of the private property where the fossil was discovered. Bids for the T-Rex are beginning at $5.8 million. Appraisers believe a T-Rex fossil of this quality can bring an additional $40 million in permanent, annual revenue to the museum that acquires it. Mr. Z-Rex was discovered on October 6, 1992 by paleontologists Alan & Robert Detrich while exploring fossil deposits on a private cattle ranch in northwestern South Dakota. The skull was found in a sand formation. It is thought that the T-Rex died on the sandy shoreline of a prehistoric river, sea or lake. Mr. Z-Rex has the best skull with the largest teeth I have seen. The fossil is absolutely breath-taking. This truly is the King of T-Rex's - a paleontologist's dream come true. -Alan Deitrich -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The specimen was excavated according to professional standards and transported without damage. Skeletal elements have been exposed by partial preparation from the original undersurface of three major blocks. These blocks contain, respectively, the skull, the presacral vertebrae, and elements of the hind limbs and anterior portion of the tail. Great care was taken to collect all fragments of bone from from the locality, which may permit the reassemblage of several bones which would otherwise have been lost. Stabilization of the skeletal parts will present no unusual problems, and the extraction of the bones from the sediment in which they are preserved will vary from relatively easy to requiring considerable skill. Details Length of skull 1370 mm Length of tooth row, left maxilla 560 mm (approximately) Length of tooth row, left dentary 530 mm Length of articulated cervicals from the anterior zygapophysis of C4 to the posterior zygapophysis of C10 985 mm Length of dorsal 4-6 taken at base of transverse processes 393 mm Length of posterior dorsal vertebra 140 mm Height of posterior dorsal vertebra 653 mm Length of 13 articulated caudal vertebrae 2780 mm Length of centra of two isolated caudals 152 and 132 mm Length of femur 1330 mm Circumference of femur 588 mm (indicating a weight of 5.5 metric tonnes) Length of fibula 965 mm (approximately) Length of metatarsal II 620 mm Length of metatarsal III 750 mm Length of metatarsal IV 640, 655 mm Length of phalanx r-1 120 mm The total length of the reconstructed skeleton is estimated to be approximately 10.8 m (35 feet). The total reconstructed height at the hips is estimated to be approximately 3.45 m (11.35 feet)."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (11:53)", "body": "I wonder if this will affect the price of the one being auctioned now: BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) \ufffd Scientists working in the remote Patagonia region of Argentina say they have discovered partial remains of what may be the largest dinosaur species on record. Carlos Munoz, director of the Florentino Ameghino Museum of Natural Sciences, said Thursday a team of paleontologists unearthed the bones of a huge plant-eating dinosaur thought to have roamed Earth some 105 million years ago. The dinosaur is believed to have stretched between 157 and 167 feet from head to tail and weighed more than 10 tons. The creature is said to have been 27 feet longer than the 100-ton Argentinosaurus, considered by some experts to be the largest dinosaur ever recorded. The new dinosaur, which had a small head and a lengthy tail, has yet to be named or classified, Munoz said. Munoz said scientists working on a tip from a villager found a femur and two parts of a vertebra. The pieces of cervical vertebrae were nearly four feet high, he said. ``This is a spectacular find,'' said Munoz, whose team of nine students is still working in the remote area near the city of Neuquen, 640 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. Munoz said his team would continue to dig until the end of the month before returning to the museum to clean and classify what they uncovered. The scientists plan to officially release their findings in March in an Argentine paleontology magazine. John McIntosh, a dinosaur expert at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., said in a telephone interview that if the new creature truly did reach 167 feet in length, ``it certainly would be the largest dinosaur yet recorded.'' But paleontologists say there are different ways of measuring the biggest dinosaur, which might add some controversy to the Patagonia discovery. Though possible shorter, the 100-ton Argentinosaurus would have been as much as 10 times heavier than the new dinosaur, according to scientists' estimates. And in November, researchers at the University of Oklahoma reported the discovery of a 60-ton, 60-foot tall giraffe-like creature that lived 100 million years ago along an ancient seacoast in what is now the south-central United States. Those measurements would give that dinosaur, called Sauroposeidon, the greatest height and longest neck \ufffd 40 feet \ufffd of any recorded species, researcher Richard Cifelli said."}, {"response": 48, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (20:02)", "body": "i heard about that one on the news and for some reason thought this and the one up for auction were the same. guess i was wrong! a 40 ft long neck?"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (20:41)", "body": "You don't want to imagine a sore throat... Annette...Response 45 is about Sue. I Finally found the female. T-Rexes are very confusing. They all look alike..."}, {"response": 50, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (07:24)", "body": "LOL, the female of the species is the largest (T-Rexes, guys! :-) )...but, it seems there might could have been different sizes within the species, male and female. I am digging desperately for an article that I cut out of our local newspaper, last year, re: the unearthing of a specimen which appeared to be T-Rex, at first, but, the head resembled that of a crocodile! I think that the dig took place in or around the Gobi desert. This species was thought to have actually used it long jaws to pluck fish and other small animals out of the rivers, similar to herons, and other water bir s...birds...?? (*wink!) Does anyone remember reading about that or seeing anything regarding it?"}, {"response": 51, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (08:16)", "body": "http://jurassic.unicity.com/ Good Luck! ;)"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (12:14)", "body": "I have no memory off-hand regarding the incredible crocodile-headed dino, but I would not be surprised. The Gobi Desert is where most of the American Museum's fossils came from including that gigantic T-Rex I remember from childhood. Once upon a time it must have been one enormous swamp teaming with animals I do not ever wish to meet tooth-to-tooth. Thanks for the URL..."}, {"response": 53, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (10:06)", "body": "Has anyone tried the game, yet? (the URL that I listed above...) I am not much of a gamer, which probably explains why I keep getting eaten by the Velociraptor...! Seems I can't make it to the next level...oh, well...maybe that is my fate, being lunch for the raptor, and all...;)"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (11:52)", "body": "No..I don't dare. That is not my thing, and if I get going on it I could really mess up my latent Carpal-Tunnel problem. Typing for 16 hours a day is about all I can handle. Not much of a gamer, actually, but I'll bet there are some out there with kiddies who might like to try it. *lol* You must be very tasty!!!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (09:03)", "body": "ok, this may be old news (haha, a pun, get it?), today's paper has an article about finding a carnivorous dinosaur larger than t-rex, 45 ft bigger! can you imagine? the bones were found on the eastern slopes of the andes in south america."}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (12:12)", "body": "I heard that on the radio yesterday and spent considerable amount of time chasing it down. Never did find out anything before we had to leave for Baseball. Thanks for posting at least that much. Oxymoron for sure about the old news. *grin*"}, {"response": 57, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (12:36)", "body": "ok, then here's the whole article from the shreveport times: Scientists have discovered the bones of what could be the largest meat-eating dinosaur ever to walk the Earth--a needle-nosed, razor-toothed beast that may have been more terrifying than even the Tyrannosaurus Rex. A team of researchers from Argentina and North America unearthed the fossilized bones of as many as six of the previously unknown species in Patagonia, a desert on the eastern slopes of the Andes in South America. The discovery of the predators' graveyard challenges the theory that the largest meat-eaters were loners. It also raises the possibility that they lived and hunted in packs--which would make them even more terrifying to their prey. \"You always think of these things as being solitary--now we know they traveled in packs,\" said Philip Currie, one of two scientists to make the discovery. He works with the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada. Currie said the newly discovered species lived about 100 million years ago, and was heavier and had slightly shorter legs than the T-rex, which roamed North America. It had a tail and short front legs that were basically useless. The dinosaur also was characterized by a long, narrow skull and a jaw shaped like scissors. That suggests it could have dissected its prey with an almost surgical precision, \"where the Tyrannosaur had a nutcracker skull,\" Currie said. Researchers estimated the meat-eating giant was 45 feet longer, bigger than the reigning king of the carnivores, the 41-foot Gigantosaurus. The better-known T-rex was about 40 feet long. \"I think it would look just as nasty, if not worse,\" Currie said. She said the animal is apparantly related to the Gigantosaurus, but it's a new species and genus. ----- maybe i can find something on line. all msn news shows is stuff about the sun."}, {"response": 58, "author": "Ree", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (12:57)", "body": "Must have been difficult to have been such a huge beast with so many useless bits."}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (13:56)", "body": "Post a picture or send it to me and I'll post it if you find one. I have to leave for the Softball games in a little while. Thanks for the article. Amazing!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (14:06)", "body": "Maybe it dined on siesmosaurus, one of the largest herbovorous dinosaur fossils ever found."}, {"response": 61, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (21:11)", "body": "here is a rendition of the new beast, thanks to abcnews.com Courtesy of Robert F. Walters/Dinosaur Productions/AP Photo"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (22:28)", "body": "Thanks wolfie. That critter is mostly head! An eating machine!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "Ree", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (05:09)", "body": "I wonder how those things managed to balance. I mean, it's got a huge head, it's arms are useless and it seems have such an akward spine. How could the spine hold all that weight? Amazing though, isn't it? Did you see that computer animated series about the dinosaurs? THat was GREAT!"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (17:50)", "body": "Ree, that computer animated series WAS great. I hope they run it again! Speaking of such, on Discovery Channel this evening they are uncovering the Mammoth live from Siberia. Check your local schedules to see when it is on - it starts here at 6pm and re broadcasts at 9pm. It runs about 3 hours."}, {"response": 65, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (20:08)", "body": "that mammoth show is on right now (7-9CST)....will catch the beginning again at 9CST (back to back showing)"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (20:19)", "body": "Thanks for that, Wolfie. I'll catch it at 6pm HST ( which is 11pm Eastern)"}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (20:21)", "body": "not a problem! they've got it out of the ice right now and showing his fur. amazing!!"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "Wow! Can't wait!....Must be really neat!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (20:31)", "body": "yeah, the stuff they've found is amazing. but am not gonna let the cat outta the bag, you'll just have to wait!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "*sigh* we are always the last to know...*sigh* *Grin*"}, {"response": 71, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (20:40)", "body": "actually, i figured you'd be watching this right now too."}, {"response": 72, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (20:42)", "body": "\"Walking with Dinosaurs\" will premiere on the Discovery channel on Apr 16. be there!!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (21:55)", "body": "Remind me again and I will be there! It starts in 4 minutes so logging off for the eveing.. G'night, Wolfie! It was great again *hugs*"}, {"response": 74, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (11:49)", "body": "so didja like it? (i was unable to watch the second showing)"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (13:44)", "body": "I really loved it. I was spellbound and all nervous that they would not get it out of the pit before winter set in again... Thanks for not giving away the ending. When it was over I was all elated and looked over at the house male and said how much I had liked it. He said it was boring. Back to the computer! This man is clueless...*sigh* I can't wait till they let us know what they did discover from tests and such."}, {"response": 76, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (17:47)", "body": "the news just reported that monkey bones the size of a human thumb have been discovered in China. they say that this may change the way they look at how monkeys evolved and later humans (!!)....anyway, the bones are very very old (didn't catch how old they were)..."}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (17:54)", "body": "L O N D O N, March 15 \ufffd Scientists have discovered 45-million-year-old foot bones in China from an extinct primate that may fill in a missing branch of the evolutionary tree. Paleontologist Dan Gebo of Northern Illinois University said Wednesday the tree-dwelling, mouse-size animal, called Eosimias, could solve the hotly debated issue of the origins of higher primates \ufffd monkeys, apes and humans. \ufffdThese fossils for the first time actually bridge that anatomical gap between the lower primates and the higher primates,\ufffd Gebo said in a telephone interview. Fossil Provides Crucial Link Contrary to expectations, the bones of Eosimias were found in Asia, not Africa, and they are older and tinier than scientists thought they would be. Until now only jaws and teeth of Eosimias had been found. \ufffdThese fossils are much smaller than what other people had been thinking about in terms of the ancestral condition of higher primates,\ufffd said Gebo. On the evolutionary tree, the creatures are somewhere between prosimians such as lemurs and tarsiers, which leaped and clung to trees, and anthropoids such as monkeys, apes and humans, which walk on four or two limbs. \ufffdThey are half prosimians and half anthropoids. They really do make that connection. Much of the debate in the field has been to figure out which of those early prosimian fossil primates gave rise to anthropoids,\ufffd he said. \ufffdWe needed something that is 50-50 and that\ufffds what we think Eosimias is.\ufffd Gebo and other scientists from the United States and China discovered the fossils in a limestone quarry 100 miles west of Shanghai and along the Yellow River, about 350 miles southeast of Beijing. The finding was reported in the science journal Nature. Complex Anatomical Features The lack of physical evidence led to doubts about whether Eosimias was a primate, and if it was, where it fit into the family tree. \ufffdThe most interesting aspect of these new foot bones is that they represent a mosaic,\ufffd Gebo said. \ufffdThey possess primitive lower-primate features as well as several advanced or higher-primate characteristics.\ufffd Scientists from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology in Beijing contributed to the study. the above was from abcnews.com"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (18:10)", "body": "Fascinating stuff - thanks for posting it, Wolfie! At least it will show which way one branch of primates went...!"}, {"response": 79, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (18:12)", "body": "maybe they're related to the marmosettes (sp?)....."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (18:30)", "body": "or lemurs or other little primates witht he big starey eyes which l@@k so cute."}, {"response": 81, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "can you imagine how cute these guys must've been?"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (19:39)", "body": "Incredible! I am smiling just thinking about them!"}, {"response": 83, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (21:02)", "body": "they have a terrible rendition of what the monkey might look like on msnews but i'm not gonna post it. the one on tv was cuter!"}, {"response": 84, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (21:08)", "body": "found a pic of the new monkey (that was on abc news):"}, {"response": 85, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (21:09)", "body": "can you imagine a primate this little?"}, {"response": 86, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (21:20)", "body": "i believe tamarins are the smallest primates existing today. they'll fit in your hand."}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (21:24)", "body": "That is Teeny indeed! Looks like the plastic ones kids get. It is adorable. I guess tamarinds are the tiniest ones now. How enchanting! Thanks for posting the picture - I had not seen it!"}, {"response": 88, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (21:24)", "body": "here's an informative website on the golden tamarin, who, btw, is an endangered species. i'll copy this info over to our ape topic as well. http://www.si.edu/glt/facts.htm"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (12:16)", "body": "Cute and furry little dickens, isn't he?!"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 21, 2000 (11:57)", "body": "Space Science News for March 21, 2000 Scientists have discovered molecular buckyballs containing extraterrestrial helium from the era of the dinosaurs. The find comes from the global Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary layer. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast21mar_1.htm Buckyballs from Outer Space"}, {"response": 91, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 21, 2000 (17:36)", "body": "what in the heck is a buckyball?"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 21, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "Have you ever seen a geodesic dome on a sports arena or some such thing? Buckminster Fuller, an engineer/architect invented the structure and it has been since applied to all sorts of physics and chemistry. (I have a caller bugging my phone and I do not get them out here very often. Sorry if I sound rattled...I am!) I'll check it out on the web and post a picture!"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 21, 2000 (19:15)", "body": "Saying that about the geodesic dome, if you go to that URL I posted, you'll see the similarity. \" Fullerenes -- better known as \"buckyballs\" -- are hollow, cage-like molecules made of carbon atoms. They are named in honor of Buckminster Fuller, designer of the geodesic dome that resembles the molecule. This image shows how extraterrestrial gases such as helium can be trapped inside the fullerene cage. One view shows a broken bond, or open \"window,\" with an atom moving out through window. \" http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast21mar_1.htm"}, {"response": 94, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (12:42)", "body": "This isn't exactly right here but since David attenborough is the dinosaur bloke I guess it fits. I've added an brit/US glossary at the end.Film director Lord Attenborough locks himself out of his car and flies into a panic because he has an important ceremony to attend. Luckily his brother David passes by, and the movie-maker is certain he\ufffdll have a good suggestion to get him out of the scrape. \ufffdoh, darling, just in the nick of time! With all the horrible places you have had to visit, you must have learned a few survival tricks. Can you get me into my car?\ufffd \ufffdNo problem, stand aside\ufffd says Sir David. Then he steps forward and begins rubbing his trouser leg up against the car door. Within a few seconds there is a click and the door is opened. \ufffdDarling David, you\ufffdve done it! \ufffd declares the delighted Dickie. \ufffdBut do tell me, were you taught the secret by some isolated tribesman?\ufffd \ufffdNo, not really\ufffd said his smiling brother. \ufffdYou were just lucky that I am wearing my khaki trousers\ufffd. (Key: Richard Attenborough \ufffd movie director; David Attenborough \ufffd naturalist and \ufffdwalking with dinosaurs\ufffd etc. movie maker. Trousers = pants. Khaki \ufffd dullish green colour, pronounced \ufffdcar key\ufffd in Brit English)"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (14:00)", "body": "LOL....You had me going until I wondered about the Khaki trousers (we call'um trousers too, on occasion, and Khaki is a very popular color here now as is olive drab (probably what you call khaki!) Thanks for another chapter in the Attenborough saga."}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (14:02)", "body": "Actually, more Americans might be curious about two men calling each other \"darling\"...!"}, {"response": 97, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (16:47)", "body": "Didn't you know - they're luvvies!!! IMHO all theatre people do it! ALL the time!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (18:52)", "body": "...and they call eachother by diminutive names...dickie...larry...ralphy (you might know of whom I speak if you are a certain age and all that...!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (01:26)", "body": "who me??"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (12:40)", "body": "Ah, you did not read all of Olivier's books then?!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "books? - i thought he was an actor?"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (13:39)", "body": "Oh, My Dear! He was the first great love of my life. He wrote two books and I have about 7 others written about him. An actor? That's like saying Shakespeare was a writer or that Beethoven wrote music...*sigh* But, that is where I learnt about luvvies (though they were not called that when they were written)"}, {"response": 103, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (13:53)", "body": "I never knew that. I did sort of grow up with the teatre though. Wrote, produced and danced in my own ballet - the little mermaid."}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (14:01)", "body": "I AM impressed! Bet you were just as cute as the proverbial button, too *grin*"}, {"response": 105, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (14:22)", "body": "Gave it up when I was sixteen - back injury. gotta sweet photo somewhere I'll dig it out."}, {"response": 106, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (16:01)", "body": "I read somewhere that \"khaki\" was British Army slang for, ahem I'll be polite, crap. It got the name when when the Army stopped wearing their famous red coats and the new uniforms where this beige sort of color. The soldiers thought the color was like that of crap."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (16:08)", "body": "Kaka is babytalk for it over here... think it was a contribution of another language other than English, though."}, {"response": 108, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (16:12)", "body": "Probably, the word was borrowed from another language. I think the khaki uniforms were first issued by the British Army to soldiers in India."}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (16:21)", "body": "Indeed! I just looked it up and it is Hindi for \"dust-colored\" in my Webester's Collegiate Dictionary."}, {"response": 110, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (12:51)", "body": "olive drab is the perfect color of baby stuff. and that's what we wear all over....khaki is tan over here and rather a nice color when compared to olive drab *smile*"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (14:27)", "body": "Got that right, wolfie. On all counts, actually. I uderstand the wisdom of making uniforms the color of dirt in the locality - especially in a very dry area. However, wonder why they thought you'd get \"baby stuff\" all over you in the military - who uses olive drab more than any other color, I think!"}, {"response": 112, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (16:07)", "body": "I guess i really started something here!! *grin*"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (16:54)", "body": "Just a little off-topic conversation to entertain us until the next dinosaur makes the newspaper and some kind soul posts it in here *grin*"}, {"response": 114, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (19:33)", "body": "actually, the bdu (battle dress uniform) is effective in camoflauge. there are also desert uniforms that are various shades of khaki."}, {"response": 115, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (12:47)", "body": "OK here's the latest dinosaur dropping courtesy of The Times newspaper. One of the world's most important dinosaur skeletons has bee offered for sale over the internet for \ufffd15 million in a move that has appalled archeologists who fear historic specimens are being lost to private collectors. Alan Detrich and American fossil dealer, spent 2 half months digging up a 41 foot long 16 geet high tyrannosaurus rex with his brother, and is keeping it in his store house at Bend Point, Kansas. He claims to be close to selling what he says is the finest male tyrannosaurus in the world to a private buyer. Dietrich found the skeleton in south Dakota.'We found it in clay and sand which is why it is so well preserved' he said. 'We haven't cleaned it up yet becuase we figure the new owner can make money out of getting poeple to pay to see it being cleaned and prepared.' Paleontologists blame films and documentaries such as Jurassic park and the BBCs Walking with Dinosaurs for boosting the market in fossils. Many specimens for sale come from the American West where large numbers of fossils are found. However, fossils from britain's premier dinosaur site on the Isle of Wight have disappeared from digs in the past few months while paleontologists were still working on the sites. Scientists are calling for tighter controls, and want the law which at present covers man-made archeological objects to be extended to the collection of fossils."}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (14:38)", "body": "Thanks, Maggie. Think that is the one we were discussing should belong to all mankind rather than some odd collector with more money than social conscience. There must be a huge black market in such finds - something I cannot imagine! Check Geo 2 for an interesting picture of Geologist David from his college days."}, {"response": 117, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (20:22)", "body": "went and saw. how brave or crazy it must be to live near the vent (wrong topic but....)"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (20:39)", "body": "That is what we say when other volcanoes are erupting...then people look at us and shake their heads.... But, ours is so well-mannered...so far..."}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (19:40)", "body": "We're just a few dinosaurs short of a full tank By DAVE BARRY If you've been to a gas station lately, you have no doubt been shocked by the prices -- $1.67, $1.78, even $1.92. And that's just for Hostess Twinkies. Gas prices are even worse! Americans are ticked off about this and with good reason, our rights are being violated! The First Amendment clearly states: \"In addition to freedom of speech, Americans shall always have low gasoline prices, so they can drive around in 'sport utility' vehicles the size of minor planets.\" And don't let any so-called \"economists\" try to tell you that foreigners pay more for gas than we do. Foreigners use metric gasoline which is sold in foreign units called \"kilometers,\" plus they are paying for it with foreign currencies such as the \"franc,\" the \"lira\" and the \"doubloon.\" So in fact, there is no mathematical way to tell WHAT they are paying! But here in the US we are definitely getting messed over and the question is, what are we going to do about it? Step one, of course, is to file a class-action lawsuit against the cigarette companies. They have nothing to do with gasoline, but juries really hate them, so we'd probably win several hundred billion dollars. But that is a short-term answer. To truly solve this problem, we must understand how the oil business works. Like most Americans, you probably think that gasoline comes from the pump at the gas station. Ha ha! What an idiot. In fact, the gasoline comes from tanks located UNDER the gas station. These tanks are connected to underground pipelines which carry large oil tankers filled with oil from the Middle East. But how did the oil get in the Middle East in the first place? To answer that question, we must go back millions of years to an era that geologists call the Voracious Period, when giant dinosaurs roamed the Earth eating everything that stood in their path, except for broccoli which they hated. And then, one fateful day (Oct. 8), a runaway asteroid, believed by scientists to be nearly twice the diameter of the late Orson Welles, slammed into the Earth and killed the dinosaurs, who by sheer bad luck all happened to be standing right where it landed. The massive impact turned the dinosaurs, via a process called photosynthesis, into oil. This oil was then gradually covered with a layer of sand, which in turn was gradually covered by a layer of people who hate each other and thus the Middle East was formed. For many years, the Middle East was content to supply the United States with as much oil as we wanted at fair constitutional prices. But then the major oil-producing nations -- Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Texas -- got all snotty and formed an organization called OPEC, which stands for \"North Atlantic Treaty Organization.\" In the 1970s, OPEC decided to raise prices, and soon the United States was caught up in a serious crisis -- The Disco Era. It was horrible. You couldn't go to a bar or wedding reception without being ordered onto the dance floor to learn \"The Hustle.\" At the same time, we also had an oil crisis which was caused by the fact that every motorist in the United States was determined to keep his or her automobile gas tank completely filled at all times. As soon as your gas gauge dropped from full to fifteen-sixteenths, you'd rush to a gas station and get in a huge line with hundreds of other motorists who also had nearly full tanks. Also a lot of people, including me, saved on heating oil by buying kerosene space heaters which enabled us to transform a cold, dank room into a cold, dank room filled with kerosene fumes. Buying gas and dancing \"The Hustle\" with people who smelled like kerosene -- that was the seventies. So anyway, the oil crisis finally ended and over time we got rid of our Volkswagen Rabbits and replaced them with Chevrolet Suburbans boasting the same fuel economy as the World Trade Center. Now, once again, we find ourselves facing rising gas prices and the question is this time, are we going to learn from the past? Are we finally going to get serious about energy conservation? Of course not! We have the brains of mealworms! So we need to get more oil somehow. As far as I can figure, there's only one practical way to do this. That's right, we need to clone more dinosaurs. We have the technology, as was shown in two blockbuster scientific movies, \"Jurassic Park\" and \"Jurassic Park Returns with Exactly the Same Plot.\" Once we have the dinosaurs, all we need is an asteroid, or, if he is available, Marlon Brando. If this plan makes sense to you, double your medication dosage, then write to your congressperson. Do it now! That way you'll be busy when I siphon your tank."}, {"response": 120, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (10:29)", "body": "During the Voracious Period the broccoli plants were the size of oak trees and you should have seen those cabbages. Why do Americans think it their undisputable right to have access to cheap gasoline?"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (15:17)", "body": "Cheryl, it is a complex problem. The US produces a great deal of oil. Alalska alone could supply us pretty well, but we cannot use it in the US - all of it is marked for export to Japan. (Don't ask!!). You don't think it is manipulated like DeBeers manipulates the prices of diamonds? Sooner or later we are gonna have to give up being greedy and share what we have - or use our own. America has rich natural resources. That is why. it is here and cartels are getting rich over selling cars which burn huge amounts of the stuff when they have already built the engines which would put them out of business. Power and Control. Don't blame the American tax-payers so quickly. It is a very difficult and tortuous situation. I'd be interested in hearing your suggestions on how to rememdy this problem."}, {"response": 122, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (17:59)", "body": "Maybe it's just a crazy theory, but could it be that George W's dad called on his Gulf War cronies to jack up the prices while his son runs for election? Bush can't win in a sparkling economy."}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (18:24)", "body": "Anything is possible, including your idea. It did not occur to me...but it certainly is plausible...scary!"}, {"response": 124, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (19:26)", "body": "Just a crazy idea. But who knows?"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (19:46)", "body": "Indeed! Crazier things than that have happened. All's fair in love, war, and politics, I hear...!"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (20:46)", "body": "John agrees that with such high stakes, anything goes; nothing is outside of the realm of possibility."}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (23:24)", "body": "Protesters Knock 'Cents' Into Oil Company TORONTO (Reuters) - The annual meeting of Canada's biggest oil company, Imperial Oil Ltd., was disrupted briefly when protesters showered shareholders and directors with pennies. ``Outrageous! Esso penny pinches while Torontonians choke!'' yelled one person protesting the high sulfur content of Imperial's gasoline, marketed under the Esso brand. Exxon Mobil Corp. of Irving, Tex., owns 69.6 percent of Imperial. Imperial and several other Canadian oil companies have warned the Canadian government that implementing new, lower sulfur, regulations for gasoline would result in higher gas prices. Gasoline sold in Canada now has some of the highest sulfur levels among industrialized countries and Esso gas has the highest levels of sulfur in Canada, according to figures supplied to the government by Imperial. ``Come on Imperial can't afford to spend a penny a liter to clean up the gasoline, reduce smog and protect our children from asthma? Nonsense!'' three protesters shouted Thursday. Imperial Oil maintains it meets current government standards and is working to meet new requirements for cleaner gasoline by 2004, a year ahead of schedule. Lobby group Friend of the Earth said sulfur particles spewed from cars are the most health-damaging component of smog. The lobby group is calling for a boycott of Esso gasoline in the heart of summer driving season between Earth Day, April 22, and Labor Day. Sulfur in gasoline causes increased emissions of sulfur dioxide and sulfates particles from cars which can contribute to asthma, chronic heart or lung disease, said Trevor Hancock, chair of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, in a statement. The protesters were escorted out of the meeting without further incident. ``Well, for long time attenders, that was a change of pace,'' said Imperial Oil chairman Bob Peterson."}, {"response": 128, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (17:53)", "body": "Excuse me while I atempt to get my virtual foot out of my virtual mouth. I do take your point Marcia that American tax-payers have been and are continuing to be manipulated by businessmen and politicians. It's like Eisenhower said in his farewell speech as president, \"Beware of the military-industrial complex.\" I also know something of advertising and marketing. The American consumer is courted by the safety factor in driving an SUV. Yes, you are statisically and realistically safer in a larger vehicle than a small one. That is an important point, and it well used on consumers. Mass transit and rail travel were eviscerated in the US from circa 1946 through 1960 by the automobile industry. What was good for General Motors was good for America. GM wanted the interstate system and they got. The ruse which Congress used was National Security. The roads were there for use by the Army in case of national emergency. The laws were passed, the land appropriated. The dream of two cars in every garage. The most famous of the mass transit scandals was the Red Car Scandal in Los Angeles. It's hard to believe but Los Angeles once had the most enviable mass transit system in America. The trolleys went everywhere, and the ran every 8 to 10 minutes. So this is the lifestyle of enormous petroleum consumption to which Americans have been conditioned by many factors. About the assertion that George W's daddy might have his cronies in the oil business pulling strings to affect the presidential election -- scary stuff. It is, however, plausible. The elder Bush was once the head of the CIA."}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (18:38)", "body": "Excellent points, Cheryl! (You did not have your foot in your mouth - you were provoking discourse!) As a non-driver (yup, there are still some of us out here) and on a finite island with everything fuel brought in by ship, we are very aware of the crippling effects of things we cannot control - such as strikes by longshoremen and such - and that we are at the mercy of the big boys when it comes to petroleum prices. We can hardly drive to the next state or the next island, for that matter for better prices. I would put nothing beyond the rich and powerful. Thanks for that well-considered post, dear!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (18:54)", "body": "You don't drive, wow! I never knew that. I guess it's easy to get around on a small island with a bike or a bus. One of my room mates at Quail Creek, Dora, walks or takes the bus everywhere. She got a job at Dell, which is real close by the house. Dora cleans the pool, mows the lawn, cleans the bath rooms, and vacuums the carpets. She was just out by the pool cleaning the bbq grills and the tarp. We like having Dora around here!"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (19:14)", "body": "You did not read my discourse with Alexander in Cultures on the subject?! He suggested it was because I had so many admirers circling for the honor of driving me places...but not the case, necessarily and not the reason, in this case. Dora sounds Heaven-sent. Be sure you tell her how nice she is making the place...(not too much or she'll ask for a raise, but...)"}, {"response": 132, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (19:44)", "body": "i can't imagine life without my car. why do you think i drive to all my classes? (and to think i used to be afraid to go anywhere of distance)...."}, {"response": 133, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (20:13)", "body": "You've gotta have a car in Austin, but I can see where it wouldn't be that desireable on a small island."}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (21:01)", "body": "Guess I'd better avoid Austin...or get me a chauffeur..."}, {"response": 135, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (05:47)", "body": "Actually, there's a pretty good bus system here. It just takes longer to get places. I've enjoyed the bus rides I've taken around town, just not the waits at the bus stops. And there are some good bike trails."}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (18:31)", "body": "...I had thought to visit, sometime. Perhaps I should bring my own driver."}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (18:33)", "body": ""}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (19:46)", "body": "Mega-Artichokes to Power Homes? LONDON (Reuters) - Spanish farmers are growing three-meter high artichokes for burning in special power stations to produce electricity, the Independent newspaper reported on Thursday. The genetically-modified monster vegetables, which boast seven meter roots, will be generating power for 60,000 people when operations in the northern towns of Villabilla de Burgos and Alcala de Gurrea begin in two years. The newspaper said twin power stations will burn 105,000 tonnes of the dried and pulped Cynara Cardunculs each year. Farmers were persuaded to sow the prickly plant by EU subsidies and price guarantees from the electricity generator. Burning plants for energy is not a new idea, but the biomass sector has seen a revival in recent years as environmental concerns rise. While there are already a number of biomass schemes in Europe they often struggle to compete commercially with other green energy schemes. An Irish scheme to burn cannabis as a fuel foundered last year because of it was considered too expensive compared with wind power projects."}, {"response": 139, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (20:28)", "body": "Wow, pot powered cities."}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (20:46)", "body": "Can you see the Chamber of Commerce ads now? Stressed? Come to PotTown and take a deep breath. Or something like that, anyway. I gather they are gonna burn industrial waste from the fiber hemp plant and not the mind-altering sort."}, {"response": 141, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Apr 29, 2000 (15:44)", "body": "Burning cannabis for electricity. That doesn't seem to likely in the US. Can you hear the political debate on that one. What would the Religious Right make of that? I mean no offense to those posting who hold conservative views. It's just that it would fuel (pardon the pun) debate. Fun fact: both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis on their plantations. It was an ordinance in Virginia. So much acreage had to be planted in hemp. It was used for rope and sailcloth for the sailing ships of the era."}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 29, 2000 (16:08)", "body": "Like I said before somewhere (here?), the Hawaii Visitors Bureau could advertise that the air here is not only clean but is stress-relieving. Our public workers don't get much work done now...can you imagine the Polynesian Paralysis which would ensue downwind of the power plant?! Lest someone get the wrong idea about the industrial hemp grown by our founding fathers, it contains so little of the stuff which makes marijuana so popular, that it is not worth mentioning. That, however, would not keep the rabid right from attacking it just on the name Hemp alone. I agree!"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (11:48)", "body": "Fossil gives clues into T. rex's behavior CHICAGO (AP) - In ''Jurassic Park,'' the terrified kids held perfectly still so a hungry celluloid Tyrannosaurus rex couldn't detect them. In reality, scientists say, they would've been lunch meat. CT-scanning of the desk-sized skull of Sue, the most complete T. rex fossil ever found, suggests the supreme carnivore in North America 65 million years ago had acute senses. Its forward-pointing eyes provided a wide field of view, and ear structures suggest it could hear well. But Sue's key advantage was smell. Its olfactory bulbs were grapefruit-sized. The skull opening for the bundle of olfactory nerves leading to the brain is wider than the spinal cord. ''The olfactory bulbs are larger than the cerebrum,'' said paleontologist Chris Brochu of the Field Museum of Natural History, the only scientist to have extensively examined the Sue fossil. The dinosaur ''smelled its way through life,'' he said. Sue's skeleton will be unveiled at the Field Museum on May 17 after nearly three years of cleaning and assembly. For now, it is off-limits to outsiders. Brochu has yet to reveal many details. At a recent paleontology meeting, he said it was unlikely that the bones, however complete, would settle key debates about the superstar of dinosaurs. Among them: T. rex's color and vocalizations, whether it was warm-blooded, hunter or scavenger, male or female. Others are more hopeful. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. of the University of Maryland examined Sue briefly before it was auctioned in 1997, but key parts were still jacketed in protective plaster. ''The complete tail of a T. rex has not yet been described,'' he said. ''I would like to see if the furcula, or wishbone, is present.'' Peter Larson, president of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, S.D., directed the fossil's excavation in 1990. He spent two years examining the bones until they were seized by federal agents in a legal dispute. He believes the Sue fossil is an older female. Among predatory birds, fish and insects, females are larger than males, he notes. Sue has a wider pelvis that would accommodate egg-laying. And, similar to crocodile anatomy, she lacks an extra bone that male crocs and smaller, presumably male T. rex skeletons both have. Reading behavior based on bones is trickier. Sue's teeth are foot-long cylinders with serrated edges. Her stomach contents included acid-etched bones of a duckbilled dinosaur. Other T. rex remains include bones from triceratops and other plentiful herbivores. A T. rex gulped everything and relied on a powerful digestive tract to process bone and horn. In the movies, T. rex is a solitary killer. But many scientists believe the real-life carnivores hunted in packs. Evidence? The Sue excavation also yielded juvenile and infant T. rexes in the same location. Long before dying, Sue suffered a broken left leg that was slow to heal. ''She couldn't have hunted on it,'' Larson said. ''I think her mate helped her.'' How did Sue die? T. rexes fought each other, probably over territory, food and mates. Embedded in Sue's ribcage is the tooth of another T. rex. The left side of the skull is smashed, with holes along her jaw. Brochu doubts it is evidence of a fatal encounter. The holes don't line up with the bite of a T. rex, he said. Larson disagrees. ''In her last fight she didn't do so well,'' he said. T. rex might have ruled North America in the late Cretaceous Period. But on the roster of the biggest and baddest dinosaurs, some formidable predators are emerging around the world. In March, scientists announced the discovery in Argentina of a yet-to-be-named meat eater that lived 100 million years ago. At 45 feet, it was 10% longer than T. rex. It had a long, narrow skull with scissor-like jaws, whereas the T. rex had nutcracker jaws. ''It probably attacked and dismembered its prey with a surgical precision,'' said Phil Currie of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada. ''T. rex was a creature of brute force.'' In 1998, researchers in central Africa found Suchomimus tenerensis. It was as large as a T. rex, but it prowled 30 million years earlier. Its pointy crocodile-like jaw sported 100 teeth. It also had 16-inch sickle claws. In Argentina, Gigantosaurus was discovered in 1995. It weighed 50% more than T. rex and was a contemporary of Suchomimus about when Africa and South America were connected. It had thin, flat teeth like daggers."}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 24, 2000 (17:31)", "body": "HERE WE GO AGAIN The price of gasoline is going up again. The latest Lundberg Survey shows that gas prices went up by five cents over the past two weeks. Nationwide, the average price for a gallon of self-serve regular last Friday was $1.58.41. Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the survey, says the two main reasons for the higher prices are higher prices for crude oil and a new federal requirement that refineries turn out more environmentally friendly gasoline. Refineries have taken steps to produce \"greener\" gas by reducing sulfur content and cutting down on other pollutants in the final product. Prices dropped over the past two weeks in some states, such as California, where stricter emissions standards have already forced refiners to produce \"greener\" gas."}, {"response": 145, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (21:07)", "body": "saw an interesting show on discovery today: two dinosaur experts had opposite theories concerning our beloved T. Rex. was the t. rex a scavenger or a predator. both really held up their theories with what is known about scavengers and predators today. for example, t. rex has a better sense of smell than of sight. how does this influence whether they were scavengers or predators? i don't know but they thought it was significant. most predators today have excellent eyesight as well as smell. also, the teeth played a role in their theories but i only heard the predator theory of where the teeth curved inward so for a critter to attempt escape, they'd have to (ironically) go down the t. rex's throat. of course, i'm no expert. but does t. rex being a predator or a scavenger seriously affect our whole idea of dinosaurs and rearrange the \"givens\" significantly? (unfortunately, i didn't see the conclusion of the show)."}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (23:51)", "body": "Did not see it. However, considering the musculature in the hind legs T-rex would almost certainly have been a preditor. Who needs legs like those to run down a dead animal?"}, {"response": 147, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (08:11)", "body": "curious. i think an animal like the t. rex could have his meal anyway he'd like it-dead or alive. *grin*"}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (14:30)", "body": "I think he was probably an opportunist as well as a predator. you are right!"}, {"response": 149, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (15:46)", "body": "Even today predators will scavenge when they can. Lions are prime examples of this. They are adept hunters, but aren't beneath driving another animal off its kill. That's one of the reasons leopards carry their kills into trees; so it won't be stolen by lions. Lions are too large to climb and leopards are the most athetic of the cats."}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (16:35)", "body": "Indeed!"}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 29, 2000 (18:26)", "body": "Science News - Week of June 24, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 26 Overlooked fossil spread first feathers S. Milius A new look at a fossil that had been lying in a drawer in Moscow for nearly 30 years has uncovered the oldest known feathered animal, says a team of U.S. and Russian researchers. First honors go to the 10-inch-long, lizardlike Longisquama insignis, which is not a dinosaur itself but a related ancient reptile, say Terry D. Jones of Oregon State University in Corvallis and eight colleagues. It sported six to eight pairs of long, narrow feathers on its back, the researchers argue in the June 23 Science. The creature didn't fly but may have been able to glide from tree to tree, they suggest. Longisquama dates from some 220 million years ago, at least 75 million years before Archaeopteryx, the first known bird, the researchers note. They don't claim that Longisquama gave rise to birds, explains coauthor Alan Feduccia of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. However, he says, the fossil \"points toward the right time to look for the ancestors of birds.\" More... http://www.sciencenews.org/20000624/fob2.asp Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 23, "subject": "Shells", "response_count": 43, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:02)", "body": "i make a point to collect sea shells whenever i'm at a beach. my faves are scallops, welks, and sand dollars. of course, the sand dollars are always broken up so i call them fifty cent or quarter pieces! the larger shells are in my curio cabinet. i recently made a wreath with a bunch of smaller shells. used a grapevine wreath with spanish moss covering 3/4's of it and then hot glued shells onto it. left it that way and hung it up. note: shells are heavy so use a heavy type glue and a strong hanger. i glued a piece of coat hangar onto the back. it turned out really nice for its simplicity."}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:07)", "body": "another note: it is important to remove any remaining parts of the critter that lived in the shell (esp. welks) as they will stink very badly! i used a q-tip because i could bend it to fit into the spirals. also, soaking them in bleach will kill any remaining bacteria and the smell. i mix bleach with water (kinda like when doing the wash). let them soak for a few days, then rinse, and let them dry. you can take some varnish (clear, matte or glossy) and coat your favorites if you like. i leave mine in their natural st te but out of the sun (due to bleaching). there are lots of books out there for quick identification but i haven't actually purchased one yet. will get some links to post here as soon as i can."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:59)", "body": "OOoh, Wolf, May I link this to Geo as well? I ama malacologist from way back and have an extensive collection which are kept is several plastic cases with clear drawers (which crafters use and in which men keep their screws and other widgets) Mine are all catalogued and labelled and the log kept in a book. I have lovely spider whelks from Kwajalein Island in the Solomons and fun things like that which students used to bring back to butter up the professor via his wife. It worked for me!!! I put a wir cage of hardware cloth over my shells to be cleaned and our carnivorous ants pick them clean. Then I soak them in a dilution of bleach ( no stronger than 1/3 bleach to 2/3 water or your will etch the calcium of the shell.) Then dry them in the sun and that is it!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (22:00)", "body": "I have lots of field guides to shells - one of the best being in the Peterson series. I highly recommend it."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (22:07)", "body": "Ah Wolfie, I couldn't wait - so we are linked for our third time ...yippee!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (11:47)", "body": "And Marcia is a malawhat?"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (12:51)", "body": "Was es das?"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (12:52)", "body": "Malacologist - seashell studier rather than just a collector."}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (17:02)", "body": "cool! i like being linked. so i have a question, ms malacologist: are shells of a certain type all marked the same (i.e., rusty stripes against a white background) or are they individualized? and exactly what kinda critter can squeeze into a sand dollar?"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (18:26)", "body": "Just as plants have family, genus and species, so do shells. The gastropods include the whelks and conches, and under these are individual species which differ quite widely. Bivalves are the clams, musssel and oyster families and there are many genera under each classification. Snd so on...*grin*"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (18:31)", "body": "Links are cool and edgy. I like'um! Sand dollars (of which I have no specimen in my collection since I have never been where they live) are related to sea urchins, and the critter who lives in it is pretty simple and very flat. They have mouth parts extending out of the central aperture of the flat side of the \"shell\" and when they are live, there is varying amounts of \"felt\" covering it depending on the species."}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (18:37)", "body": "cool! i found various sites for shells and all of theirs were shiny and pretty. mine are rather dull. i'm afraid to take anything to them (like my drummel buffer bit)....have learned that i own 4 sundials! i have a ton of scallops with varying patterns. and have a couple of really ugly shells that i think are oysters. is there a way for me to buff it up to find the beauty?"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:54)", "body": "Aha! No, get the cheapest colorless nail polish you can find and thin it to about 1/2. Lacquer your shells and they will be lovely and shiney, too! Works for beach pebbles as well, if you like the \"wet\" look!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:57)", "body": "Oysters can be wire-brushed if you are talking about the outside. Otherwise, try them wet and see if that improves the color. If so, lacquer them as well. I have some wee teeny sundials and one about the size of a nickel. Flattened gastropods and Really pretty!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:58)", "body": "what do i thin it with? (ok, i'll hush and go now *grin*)"}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:00)", "body": "and about the oysters, are they supposed to be pretty underneath all that dark stuff?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:05)", "body": "Don't go...I forgot to tell you acetone or the cheapest polish remover you can find. Make that dilution 1/3 acetone and 2/3 polish for shells. For stones use 1/2 to 1/2."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:07)", "body": "Nah - Oyster shells are only pretty inside if they are pretty at all, and after they have been cooked, forget it! The insides of oyster shells are what the animal secretes to make pearls so it is pretty soft. If it has been in the surf it is almost beyond salvaging except as an example of an oyster shell."}, {"response": 19, "author": "Isabel", "date": "Tue, Nov  2, 1999 (10:58)", "body": "Yummy! oh, eh...sorry!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Nov  2, 1999 (11:47)", "body": "Malaco-, eh, cool! I only knew \"mala-djusted\"... ;=}"}, {"response": 21, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov  2, 1999 (18:04)", "body": "i think mine were in the water awhile so they must be hopeless. i'll try scrubbing them and see what happens!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  2, 1999 (20:14)", "body": "Next time AM takes you for seafood, save one of the raw shells - the prettiest one inside (the outsides are a total loss anyway!)"}, {"response": 23, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov  2, 1999 (20:19)", "body": "he doesn't do oysters, at least that i know of. the AM is into clams! and those shells aren't very pretty (and have been cooked!).... (and look at that forget button *grin*!!!)"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  2, 1999 (20:27)", "body": "Bummer - someone is Looziana must eat'um raw... Isn't it Purty?! *smiling broadly* We dood it!!! Mahalo plenty, Dear!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov  2, 1999 (20:38)", "body": "not a problem!! sorry about the white border...will keep at it though. i shall go and dream of shells and rocks! maybe this weekend i'll scan a few more rocks and start on some shells. it'd be neat to have some eye candy! (but i promise, terry, i'll keep em small, or post them somewhere else to save space *smile*)"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  2, 1999 (21:02)", "body": "Keep 'um small or send them as files and we can discuss them. Those you have done so far don't amount to much at all - bet there is junk email in boxes unread and undeleted amounting to far more than that! It is surprising how much I could tell about that glass pebble from your descriptions and analysis when I could see it. The boot remains unknown to me. Cannot find anything like it. Does it feel heavy enough to be stone?"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  2, 1999 (21:05)", "body": "Yaknow, even with the white borders, now that Visto is red, and my horzibars are white, it looks very nice...with the complete set up there. I am all happy and content with the elegant new look along with the most endearing original look..."}, {"response": 28, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov  4, 1999 (20:17)", "body": "here's an interesting link: http://www.ma.iup.edu/MathDept/Projects/CalcDEMma/SeaShellCode.html and here's another: http://www.susqu.edu/facstaff/b/brakke/complexity/LAVELLA/seashell.htm"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  4, 1999 (20:26)", "body": "Susquehanna University?! Near Penn State (relatively, that is) for the second one. Thanks, Wolfie, and more *hugs* for using the Geo link...it looks better if there is traffic in here. And, you can admire your buttons *grin*"}, {"response": 30, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov  7, 1999 (16:14)", "body": "and another link: http://www.seashellworld.com/seashells.htm"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  7, 1999 (16:23)", "body": "Ooooh, Splendid. I can ID shells as well as rocks. Have you found one you cannot identify?"}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov  7, 1999 (16:46)", "body": "they do rocks there too? didn't notice that. clicked on sundials but only one kind was shown. will do more looking though!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  7, 1999 (17:51)", "body": "No, but I do *grin*"}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (19:03)", "body": "i finally got a shell identification book. it's one of those eyewitness handbooks and it has lots of info. there's are all shiny and pretty and mine are, well, they're glued to a grapevine wreath *grin* (which fell down and still hasn't been fixed)....."}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (19:29)", "body": "Hey, there's a good excuse to go back to the seashore to look for goodies. Winter throws the best ones up on the beaches - I miss beach combing...! I know how to make your old matte-finished finds look all shiney, too!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (19:32)", "body": "we've talked about the nail polish and stuff, but how do they polish it?"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (19:50)", "body": "It dries shiny. Not all that different from what the snail secretes - at least in the old days before plastics and epoxies. There is no other way that I know of to bring back the polish from an sand-abraded sea shell."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (20:02)", "body": "well, you could wax them or oil them but they get sticky with oil...."}, {"response": 39, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (20:05)", "body": "i dunno....maybe i'll just leave them alone for now....."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (20:11)", "body": "That or flock them up one side and down the other - if we're still talking wreath, here! (Where is that Crafts conference?!)"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (20:12)", "body": "...or paint 'um green for St Patrick's Day or red, white and blue for just about any reason... Or, of course, just leave 'um alone for now..."}, {"response": 42, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (20:12)", "body": "i know, right! gotta run, have that big test in the am.....*HUGS*"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (20:15)", "body": "*Hugs* wolfie - knock 'um dead!!! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 24, "subject": "Beyond Planet Earth", "response_count": 377, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (14:34)", "body": "A Hawaiian-Style Volcano on Io New images from Galileo reveal unexpected details of the Prometheus volcano on Io including a caldera and lava flowing through fields of sulfur dioxide snow. November 5, 1999: A volcanic crater several times larger than one found at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has been photographed on Jupiter's moon Io during a close flyby performed by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. \"It appears that the Prometheus volcano on Io has characteristics remarkably similar to those of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, although Prometheus is much larger,\" said Dr. Laszlo Keszthelyi (KEST-ay), a Galileo research associate at the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. \"Both volcanoes are long- lived eruptions, with flows that apparently travel through lava tubes and produce plumes when they interact with cooler materials.\""}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (15:41)", "body": "For the above photo, the caption: Right: This is a high-resolution image of part of Prometheus, an active volcano on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io. In earlier, lower resolution images, it appeared that all the dark material at Prometheus comprised a single, long lava flow. The new image shows for the first time that the northeastern end of this dark feature is actually a lava-filled caldera 28 kilometers (17 miles) long and 14 kilometers (9 mile s) wide. The underground source of the Prometheus lava is probably beneath this newly discovered caldera. Galileo scientists are intrigued also by the snowfield containing hummocks, seen to the east of the Prometheus caldera."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (15:54)", "body": "LEONID METEOR SHOWER Leonids in the Crystal Ball -- On the morning of November 18, 1999, bits and pieces of periodic comet Tempel-Tuttle will hurtle into Earth's atmosphere at a head-spinning 158,000 mph. There is little danger - few of the meteoroids will reach the ground. Most will disintegrate and in the process produce a streak of light in the sky called a meteor. The meteors caused by debris from comet Tempel-Tuttle are known as Leonids because they appear to come from the direction of the constellation Leo. Most years the November Leonids aren't much to write home about. Observers see no more than 10 to 15 meteors per hour. But every 33 years something special happens. Comet Tempel-Tuttle swings through the inner solar system bringing with it an especially dense cloud of debris. The last time this happened was in January 1998, and the November 1998 Leonids were spectacular. Experts think that this year's Leonids be even better, with peak rates greater than 1000 shooting stars every hour. The place to be on November 18, 1999 is certainly outside and looking up! For the next two weeks, Thursday's Classroom will present lesson plans about meteor showers and the Leonids. We'll also be inviting kids to participate in real NASA research by counting meteors. http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com/index_28oct99.html"}, {"response": 4, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (16:15)", "body": "The last time a \"star shower\" was predicted everybody in and around Lisbon went out of town to watch the skies. They were in for a big time disappointment. That was more than three years ago but I'm not sure when (I still lived in my old apartment and stayed up late to watch from my window). So now the papers are being very cautious about the Leonids. They say it \"might\" be worthwhile to watch for them ;-)"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (16:44)", "body": "Meteors and comets are such difficult things to predict. No one knows what has happened since the last swing around the sun, and sometimes, they just disappear into the sun and are never seen again. Maggie just sent this URL for Live Cam broadcast of the Leonids http://www.live-leonids.org/en/live.html"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (16:45)", "body": ""}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (16:51)", "body": "The Broadcast begins in 10 minutes - at 5 pm Austin time."}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (19:15)", "body": "we're supposed to see some of a meteor shower tonight at 8 central time. i had just about forgotten!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (19:30)", "body": "Now you know! Put a sticky-note on the bridge of your nose so you do not forget *grin*"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (05:01)", "body": "As I interpret the information: The Tempel-Tuttle comet comes by every November. Every 33 years it comes close enough to break into our atmosphere. It permanently fires off meteoroids everywhere it goes all the time. Is that right? Would it be orbiting around the sun? I am such a dunce astronomically - someone hold my hand."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (13:10)", "body": "This is correct. Anything orbiting in the solar system ultimately orbits the sun. It is a periodic comet which means it has returned at predictable times since its initial discovery. Haley's Comet is the most famous of these return visitors with a period of 75 years. On occasion Comets slam into the sun as their orbits decay and the sun's gravity draws them into itself. All that is left of the Temple-Tuttle Comet is meteor showers which follow the former comet's orbital path. Eventually, they too wi l fall victim to gravity and be no more."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (13:11)", "body": "(Since you are not using your hand for Cricket at this time of the year, I would be delighted to hold it, astronomically and virtually!)"}, {"response": 13, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (16:51)", "body": "Wasted getting up at 2 a.m. skies cloudy couldn't see anything. Am I right in that the leonids are an annual event associated with the temple-tuttle comet? Is it possible there will be further showers tonight? We do have a clear sky now - typical!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (17:04)", "body": "Yes, there will be more tonight...but supposedly last night was the best viewing. I had the same result as you did in the middle of the night. Clouds! (Hot and sunny here, as well!) I plan to look tonight again...hope springs eternal and all that...!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (17:07)", "body": "On Response 11 to MarkG I noted that it was debris from the Temple-Tuttle comet."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (23:02)", "body": "Please check Geo 15.26 and 15.27...the volcanoes on Io are shown in photographs and the caption which goes with them are there. http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/15.26"}, {"response": 17, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov 21, 1999 (20:35)", "body": "i sat out for 20 minutes and saw one flare through the sky. i was lucky to see that one because there weren't anymore visible from my backyard."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 21, 1999 (20:46)", "body": "Somewhere they counted 5,000 per hour. Bummer! I saw none, of course. All that blessing and dust control which makes our orchids so lovely obscures my skies most nights. Good for you to see that one! Did your kiddies see it, as well?"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (13:28)", "body": "Friday, December 3 NASA and its various websites listed below will carry live from Mars the Polar Lander beamed to Earth from 157 million miles away. The sites will contain weather reports, science data, first sound clips ever beamed to Earth from \"out there\" and lots of pictures. Main Mars site will post the latest pictures and updates throughout the 90-day mission: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98 JPL's main page has links to the latest Mars project as well as to probes sent to other planets over the last 20 years: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov JPL's Mars Educational site which includes activites for children and teachers: http://marsnt3.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.html UCLA, where the primary science team is based, offers a site focusing on the experiments aboard the Mars Volitiles and Climate Surveyor payload. http://mars.ucla.edu"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  2, 1999 (13:33)", "body": "The first link (jpl.nasa.gov/msp98) does not work...try http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98 or http://marslander.jpl.nasa.gov"}, {"response": 21, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 1999 (17:10)", "body": "Got through to the site OK. Pictures taking a while to download. Will check back again tomorrow as it's getting late here. Looks exciting. Thanks for bringing it to my attention Marcia!!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 1999 (17:18)", "body": "Tomorrow will be early enough...JPL are having problems contacting the little dear now that it is on the surface. There are just so few windows of opportunity when Mars is accessible from Earth, and most of those have been used for today. Tomorrow will be a good time to check. It will be slow-going until the weekend begins because all of the schools in America as well as the rest of the world are trying to access the sites, too. It is difficult to be patient..."}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 1999 (18:14)", "body": "Friday - 18:54 12/03/99, EST Mars Lander Misses First Communications Chance PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - Scientists plotting the planned touchdown of the Mars Polar Lander were met with a frustrating silence on Friday after failing to receive the first expected signal from the spacecraft that would indicate that it had landed safely on the Martian surface. Flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena scanned the skies for contact from the lander, which had been due at roughly 12:39 p.m. PST (3:39 p.m. EST), or 24 minutes after its scheduled landing on Mars. After about 20 minutes, however, flight operations manager Sam Thurman told engineers to take a break and wait for the next possible communications window, expected after 2:04 p.m. PST (5:04 p.m. EST). Scientists speculated that the spacecraft may have gone into a ``safe'' mode and had not deployed its main antenna properly after landing. They said another possibility was that it was transmitting, but on an unknown frequency that would take NASA's Deep Space Network of worldwide listening posts some time to locate. If everything had gone according to plan, the lander would have deployed its main antenna and started sending back communications to Earth, informing controllers that it had started its mission to search Mars for signs of water and other information about its climate. Scientists long had cautioned that it was very possible that no communications link would be established during the first window of opportunity, and said there were numerous chances later on Friday and over the rest of the weekend for the lander to open communications links with Earth."}, {"response": 24, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Dec  5, 1999 (16:48)", "body": "Now seems a bit dismal. News at teatime (GMT) was that todays window had passed and hope was fading. Nice pictures on the site though!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  5, 1999 (17:43)", "body": "Still No Sign of Life From Mars Lander PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - Space controllers on Sunday failed for a fifth time in 48 hours to make contact with the Mars Polar Lander since it arrived on the Red Planet, causing bitter disappointment among the scientists and raising fears about the mission. ``I'm not pessimistic. But I'm disappointed. I feel like I've been stood up on a date. This is not a good thing,'' Dave Crisp, a mission scientist, told reporters minutes after the latest attempt failed. The $165 million lander was supposed to use its Ultra High Frequency antenna to make contact with the Mars Global Surveyor satellite orbiting the planet during a brief, six-minute communications window, but it remained silent, as it has since Friday, when it was scheduled to land on Mars at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT). The window of opportunity stretched from 10:50 a.m. PST (1:50 p.m. EST/1850 GMT) to 10:56 a.m., but because it takes 15 minutes for a signal to travel the 145 million miles (232 million km) from Mars to Earth, it was about 11:15 a.m. before anxious scientists knew their latest attempt had failed. It was the first time they had tried to get the craft to use its UHF antenna, which is not powerful enough to communicate directly with Earth but is capable of sending a stream of data to the orbiting surveyor for relay to Earth. The hope had been that if the craft's main antenna, which scientists had been using for previous attempts to get in touch with the lander, had failed for some reason, then the UHF might succeed as a backup. A NASA official at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said the latest failure eliminated the possibility that the craft was in a normal operating mode. He said the spacecraft may have landed in a pit and that there were objects blocking the antenna's view of Earth or the surveyor satellite, or it might be unable to perform gyro compassing to determine its geographical location at Mars' south pole, he said."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  5, 1999 (17:47)", "body": "Cosidering how lame the excuses for the loss of the last Mars Probe were, it would behoove NASA and JPL to get their acts together lest the tax-payers get really unhappy and cut off their allotment!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 17, 1999 (13:08)", "body": "This year will be the first full Moon to occur on the winter solstice, Dec.22 (commonly called the first day of winter) in about 100 years. Since a full Moon on the winter solstice occurred in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in the Moon's orbit that is closest to Earth) the Moon will appear about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in its elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth). And since the Earth is also several million miles closer to the Sun at this time of the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the Moon is about 7% stronger making it brighter. Also, this will be the closest perigee of the Moon this year since the Moon's orbit is constantly deforming. If the weather is clear and there is snow cover where you live, it is believed that even car headlights will be superfluous. On December 21, 1866, the Lakota Sioux took advantage of this combination of occurrences and staged a devastating retaliatory ambush on soldiers in the Wyoming Territory. In laymen's terms it will be a super bright full Moon, much more than the usual AND it hasn't happened this way for 133 years! Our ancestors, 133 years ago, saw this. Our descendants 100 or so years from now will see this again. I hope someone else might find this interesting! Remember this will happen December 22, 1999....."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 19, 1999 (23:29)", "body": "The Space Suttle is back in orbit. Lucie watched the blast off from her home: The shuttle launch was spectacular tonight, I just walk down to the end of my stree and look to the east across the lake and watch it light up the sky and the lake. It's relly beautiful to see. One time the atomspheric condition were just right and about four or five minutes after it went and we were still watching it streak across the sky we heard a rumble, rumble, rumble and the ground started to shake just like it does when you are there. Ilike the night launches because it is so beautiful. The day ones we can see it but son't get the color. The best thing about that night was a 10 year old girl was visiting her grandparents and she had to write a paper about what she saw when she was here. It was a part of the conditions for her getting out of school to come. She thought it was totaly awesome, but then so did I. In all these years of watching them that is the only time it happened."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 19, 1999 (23:34)", "body": "closing my italics Here is the Nasa live TV URL http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/missions/index.html"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (12:39)", "body": "For a truly unique way of looking at Earth check: http://www.discovery.com/cams/planet/planet.html"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 1999 (10:43)", "body": "Looking forward to the close & bright full moon tomorrow night (and I will be flying, so a fraction closer still). Is the fact that it coincides with the winter solstice relevant, or does that just give us the longest night in which to see it? - oh hang on, just worked it out, this brings the sun as near as possible to brighten the moon. I was thinking how odd that the sun should be nearest the Earth in midwinter (when it's coldest), but of course that's why it's midsummer (& hottest) in the Southern He isphere, I suppose."}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 1999 (10:56)", "body": "Bravo. Your line of reasoning is right-on. I checked the moon just before daylight as it was streaming into my room this morning and it was brilliant. I think one could have read the newspaper by it - or at least the headlines! One tends to forget about the tip of the earth out of plumb which makes these unusual circumstances more fascinating. Pop over to Stonehenge and check the shadows falling over the stones and sight between them. I really wish this were possible for you as I would love a live r port...almost as much as I would like to be doing the live reporting! Happy Solstice Day, Mark!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Wed, Dec 22, 1999 (02:58)", "body": "Sorry I cannot make it to Stonehenge. Even if I could, the stones are now sealed off from the public, and come the solstice you have to brave the hippies New Age Travelers trying to commune spiritually with the Ancient Druids. But maybe my plane will fly over Salisbury Plain, and I'll try and sneak a peek at the moon shadows!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 22, 1999 (10:54)", "body": "How lovely that would be - flying over Stonehenge in the moonlight. *sigh* I agree entirely with you about the hippie ersatz druids reinventing themselves as they go. Makes the archaeologist and historian in my soul revolt. Another eye-witness of the shuttle launch: \"Had a beautiful sight a few nights ago. The TV had the shuttle going up on the split screen, so we ran out. Off to the southeast the sky was turning orangish and getting brighter. Then we could see the torch like flame coming up . We watched the shuttle go on up, and the separation of the boosters and two red dots as they fell back down. Then it just went on up and turned into like a star, it was really bright. We had an exceptional clear night and they said we could see it for about 18 minutes to the curvature of the earth. we went back in the house and then we heard the thunder and rumble of the noise just reaching us. and the windows quivered enough that we could hear them rattle. Must have headed more north instead of south like before. But it was neat, hope to go down sometime and see one.\""}, {"response": 35, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:27)", "body": "I was told about the solstice moon but unfortunately the weather has not been cooperating... I'm afraid we're gonna have another New Year's Eve storm :-("}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:37)", "body": "Does this involve bone-chilling dampness and driving rain or do things get cold enough to freeze? I am worried about you and these storms."}, {"response": 37, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:58)", "body": "Only rain and strong winds... But maybe we'll have better weather for friday."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (16:20)", "body": "We gotta stop talking about this out here in other topics...they are worried about you in Geo 14! Did the strong winds do any serious pruning of your trees or your electrical/phone system?"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan  1, 2000 (19:50)", "body": "anyone who watched the world-wide pollution extravaganza yesterday under the guise of celebratory fireworks must wonder how long it will circle the earth before it falls as something really nasty...!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "Ann", "date": "Tue, Jan  4, 2000 (21:35)", "body": "This probably belongs on an astronomy topic, but I didn't see one when I looked at the list of conferences, so here it is. My question is about the age of the universe/earth. The universe is currently estimated to be about 13 billion years old. In that time, stars and galaxies have formed, gone through their life cycles, died, gathered back together as nebulae, then created second and maybe third generation systems. Assuming the earth is only a second generation conglomeration of matter, then all of the heavier elements on the earth came from the first generation. Now the earth is estimated to be already about 4 billion years old. That leaves only 9 billion years--or only twice the time the earth has been around--for that first generation to have lived and died and given rise to the second generation. That doesn't seem like enough time to me! Am I missing something? Were life cycles nebulae and galaxies faster in the early universe? If not, how does the creation of the heavier elements work into the current assumptions on the age of the universe? And is this taken into account when people estimate the age of the universe? I would think that any theory which did not allow enough time for at least one cycle to complete itself would be rejected on that basis alone. If there isn't time, then the age can not be right. And can we estimate the age of the universe by estimating the length of time it takes for one cycle."}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  4, 2000 (21:39)", "body": "You found us! Guess I should paste my message here as well as the sunspot gif I think our estimation of the age of the universe will continue to be revised upward as we get bigger and better eyes into the past. For just about forever the age of the Universe was thought not to exceed 5 billion years and wa more likely 4 billion. Theories are just that...always subject to revision and correction, fortunately! This Solar image updates automatically:"}, {"response": 42, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (21:05)", "body": "that solar deal is neato. it makes me think of an egg yolk when you shine a flashlight through the egg."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (21:17)", "body": "Yup! did you see it pulsate? Makes you think your eyes are doing funny things to your mind..."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 10, 2000 (16:52)", "body": "From John Burnett Findings from a new study provide strong support for one of two diametrically opposed theories explaining why people perceive the moon on the horizon as much larger than the elevated moon, a phenomenon known as the moon illusion. The human ability to perceive an object's size accurately regardless of its distance, known as \"size constancy,\" reflects an innate understanding of the inverse proportion between distance and size of the image projected on our retinas. According to the older of the two general explanations for the moon illusion, we see the horizon moon as bigger because the information presented by the intervening terrain affects our perception of distance, so our brains respond as if the moon were closer. Proponents of more recent explanations for the moon illusion argue that perception of distance follows from perception of size. They contend that certain factors cause us to perceive the elevated moon as smaller than the horizon moon and that this illusory size difference, in turn, leads to the perception that the elevated moon is farther away. In an effort to determine whether people perceive the horizon moon as closer or farther away than the elevated moon, a father-son team of scientists from New York University and IBM's Almaden Research Center conducted experiments involving artificial moons projected onto the actual sky using optics and a computer display. In the article, they report that people perceive the halfway point between themselves and artificial horizon moons to be more than four times farther away than the halfway point between themselves and artificial elevated moons. They also show that people perceive an artificial moon of constant size to be smaller when it is moved closer, in keeping with the older theory of the moon illusion."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 11, 2000 (17:24)", "body": "Original Caption Released with Image: This mosaic of images collected by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on Thanksgiving Day, November 25,1999 shows a fountain of lava spewing above the surface of Jupiter's moon Io. The active lava was hot enough to cause what the camera team describes as \"bleeding\" in Galileo's camera, caused when the camera's detector is so overloaded by the brightness of the target that electrons spill down across the detector. This shows up as a white blur in the image. Most of the hot material is distributed along a wavy line which is interpreted to be hot lava shooting more than 1.5 kilometers- (1-mile) high out of a long crack, or fissure, on the surface. There also appear to be additional hot areas below this line, suggesting that hot lava is flowing away from the fissure. Initial estimates of the lava temperature indicate that it is well above 1,000 Kelvin (1,300 Fahrenheit) and might even be hotter than 1,600 Kelvin (2,400 Fahrenheit). These images were targeted to provide the first close-up view of a chain of huge calderas (large volcanic collapse pits). These calderas are some of the largest on Io and they dwarf other calderas across the solar system. At 290 by 100 kilometers (180 by 60 miles), this chain of calderas covers an area seven times larger than the largest caldera on the Earth. The new images show the complex nature of this giant caldera on Io, with smaller collapses occurring within the elongated caldera. Also of great interest is the flat-topped mesa on the right. The scalloped margins are typical of a process geologists call \"sapping,\" which occurs when erosion is caused by a fluid escaping from the base of a cliff. On Earth, such sapping features are caused by springs of groundwater. Similar features on Mars are one of the key pieces of evidence for past water on the Martian surface. However, on Io, the liquid is presumed to be pressurized sulfur dioxide. The liquid sulfur dioxide should change to a gas almost instantaneously upon reaching the near-vacuum of Io's surface, blasting away material at the base of the cliff. The sulfur dioxide gas eventually freezes out on the surface of Io in the form of a frost. As the frost is buried by later deposits, it can be heated and pressurized until it becomes a liquid. This liquid then flows out of the ground, completing Io's version of the 'water cycle.' North is to the upper left of the picture and the Sun illuminates the surface from the lower left. The image, centered at 61.1 degrees latitude and 119.4 degrees longitude, covers an area approximately 300 by 75 kilometers (190-by-47 miles). The resolution is 185 meters (610 feet) per picture element. The image was taken at a range of 17,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) by Galileo's onboard camera. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the Galileo mission home page at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov . Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/io/ioimages.html ."}, {"response": 46, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jan 14, 2000 (15:14)", "body": "Wow! There was something on the BBC Open University about a Lunar eclipse coming up. V. interesting programme but at 1 am. my attention slips. Didn't catch the date or whether it was only applicable to the UK."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 14, 2000 (16:25)", "body": "I shall look it up and post what I find. It will be at new moon, of course."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 14, 2000 (16:31)", "body": "http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html This page has an eclipse calaulator. I put in my residence for The January 21st lunar eclipse and got the following: Total Eclipse of the Moon HILO, HAWAII o ' o ' W155 05, N19 43 Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time Moon's Azimuth Altitude h m o o Moonrise 2000 Jan 20 18:01 69.0 ---- Moon enters totality 2000 Jan 20 18:04.6 69.3 0.5 Middle of eclipse 2000 Jan 20 18:43.5 72.2 8.4 Moon leaves totality 2000 Jan 20 19:22.3 74.8 16.8 Moon leaves umbra 2000 Jan 20 20:25.4 78.5 30.7 Moon leaves penumbra 2000 Jan 20 21:24.1 81.6 43.8 Moonset 2000 Jan 21 07:29 289.7 ----"}, {"response": 49, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Jan 15, 2000 (06:40)", "body": "I gather that what will be seen is a darkened moon, possibly reddish colour."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 15, 2000 (13:45)", "body": "Yes, I think so, but since it is close to perigee (last month) it should look very close! BTW, that Jan 21 date was by GMT or Zulu time which is midnight in London (Greenwich, actually) which happens at 2pm here in Hawaii. You need to check that calculator and see what time it happens for you where you live. According to the 1806 Jan 20 entering totality will be the day before the baseball game, alas! But better it rain out the eclipse than the ballgame!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 15, 2000 (14:01)", "body": "What we see of the moon during an eclipse is the reflected light of the Earth. It is also a function of how close Earth is to the Sun. It should be pretty bright and orange because I think we are close to perihelion, as well."}, {"response": 52, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (05:10)", "body": "I wonder if that'd be filmeable with the low-sensitivity Super 8 films I use.... Yeah, we read about that in the paper a few weeks ago. Gonna try get pictures (like I tried of the Hale-Bopp comet - uh, like in \"Hail the Bop Apocalyse\", have the Heaven Gates folks had read too much Ginsberg? - and the sun-thingus-what-was-the-word-for -it before). Gonna see what I'll do."}, {"response": 53, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (05:14)", "body": "Watching old Super 8 movies from the early 70ies, I found that my father had already filmed a solar eclipse (that the word!). Oh, now it starts to snow... And I got a radio show to do in Frankfurt tonight! Darn, hope driving is good, I still need much time to prepare, and always leave five minutes after last minute..."}, {"response": 54, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (09:35)", "body": "Did anyone see a report about a black hole being discovered 'near' earth - I think 160,000 light years away. Report said it was the size of 30 million of our suns, but the gravitational pull was puzzlingly lower than expected. Report came from Washington, so I expect there's more info in US than the UK. Excuse me for being stupid - how do I work out my location to use the table on the site you quoted Marcia. What's the radio show Alexander?"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (12:16)", "body": "What's the radio show and when're you gonna get a tape of it to Terry so we can see you on SpringCam? The eclipse should en easily photographable if you have timed photography available on your camera. Open the lens as wide as it will go and leave for 30 sec. then one minute then 45 sec....bracket it well and you should have no trouble. Perhaps, if the Moon is unusually dark you may have to leave the shutter open for a few minutes or more."}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (12:18)", "body": "As to how to find out your location on that eclipse calculator, I just put Hilo, HI, USA.... You use Outer Gronkster, Thistleberry, England or whatever.."}, {"response": 57, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (13:10)", "body": "Oh I didn't realise it was that easy - I thought I had to put coordinates in!!!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (13:17)", "body": "Whoops! non-US form is different. It does require degrees north etc. I'll have to get the atlas out to find out where I am!!!"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "Whip out the Ordnance Survey maps. I have their atlas if you are having trouble locating yourself with co-ordinates. Just tell me where you are (town wise) and I will go \"down the hall and up the stairs\" for you!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (14:54)", "body": "Thank you. High Wycombe, Bucks, England"}, {"response": 61, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (15:16)", "body": "(Radio: my monthly appearance as part of the weekly \"superstar rotation\" show, 2 hours on Frankfurt's Radio X - this one was titled \"Respect For Joe Strummer\" to honour a great songwriter and creative muscian; we played material from his London '77 band The Clash to his Nov. 99 release with his new band)"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (17:50)", "body": "Fantastic, Alexander! You are not on the Internet as yet, is that correct? I would listen to you read the phone book in a language I do not understand just to listen to your Teutonic/Brit accent. Maggie, High Wyckcombe is 21\ufffd North latitude, and 4.85\ufffd West longitude if I am reading this correctly!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (18:03)", "body": "Let's give High Wycombe another try. 51.5 North Latitude and 0.28 West longitude."}, {"response": 64, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (15:27)", "body": "Thanks, let's hope it's not another cloudy night like last time!!!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (15:31)", "body": "I just saw in the paper that iceballs the size of melons have been landing in Spain. I think 11 have landed so far. Various theories have been put forward as to their origin. The main contender seems to be that it is comet debris, although pranksters have not been ruled out. It is curious that no iceballs have landed in France or Portugal, just Spain."}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (12:51)", "body": "Lunar Eclipses always happen during FULL moon. I somehow got it messed up with a solar eclipse which does happen during new moon. I stated the opposite on response 47, proving once again that I am not only mortal, but that I should be held accountable for my information. I welcome corrections and clarifying at all times! For those of you living in the Florida area and especially, Tallahassee, and happen to be FSU fans / alums, this is for you (Thanks, Barbara!) It also contains good information on why the moon is different colors from eclipse to eclipse. From: http://www.tdo.com/news/local/0119.loc.lunar.htm Lunar eclipse to pass through on Thursday night Tallahassee's weather is predicted to be ideal for viewing the eclipse, the last until 2003. By GERALD ENSLEY Tallahassee Democrat Grab your coat and crank up the Pink Floyd: We're all going to see a dark side of the moon Thursday when a total lunar eclipse will be visible all over North and South America. The eclipse will begin at 9:03 p.m. Thursday and reach its darkest phase between 11:05 p.m. and 12:22 a.m. Friday. This is the first total lunar eclipse visible in the United States since September 1997 -- and the last we'll see again until May 2003. The weather in Tallahassee should be ideal, if nippy, for eclipse-viewing. A cold front moving through North Florida is expected to clear out by Thursday afternoon. Forecasters at the National Weather Service said temperatures will be in the 40s Thursday night, and it will feel colder because of a steady breeze. But the sky will be clear. The event is being billed as one of the most spectacular lunar eclipses in a decade. The shadow on the moon is expected to be deep orange-red in color -- much like a sunset. The shadow is also expected to be the most sharply visible for a lunar eclipse since 1991, when an erupting volcano in the Philippines (Mt. Pinatubo) saturated the Earth's atmosphere with a film of ash and dust. A lunar eclipse is when the Earth passes between the sun and the moon in such a way as to cast the Earth's shadow across the lunar face. A solar eclipse, which is more infrequent, occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth in such a way as to block the sun's light to the Earth. The shadow the Earth casts on the moon is called the \"umbra.\" The thin ring of light around the shadow is called the \"penumbra.\" The Tallahassee Astronomical Society will host a viewing at Lake Ella. The group will set up telescopes, and members of the club will be available to discuss the eclipse and other heavenly bodies. During an eclipse, many faintly seen stars and planets become more visible. Gerald Ensley has been with the Tallahassee Democrat since 1980. A former sportswriter, he is now a general assignment reporter and columnist. He has won more than 20 state and national awards for his writing."}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (12:55)", "body": "Maggie, I saw the bowling-ball-sized hailstones on the Television news this morning and was astounded. They are HUGE!!! I will post the lab reports when they become available."}, {"response": 68, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:19)", "body": "i still haven't seen those. it'll be interesting once they figure out what's going on. makes me think of the crop circles. ooooh, i should include this stuff in paraspring."}, {"response": 69, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:27)", "body": "here's an article on the melon-sized iceballs: Comet Debris, Not Excrement, Rains on Spain MADRID (Reuters) - At least ten melon-sized ice balls that have slammed into Spain in the last week are probably debris from comets, not human excrement as first suspected, a Spanish scientist said Monday. Enrique Martinez, head of a team at the Higher Council of Scientific Investigation studying the phenomenon, said it was first thought that the ice balls were human excrement ejected from high-flying aircraft. ``But they lack the typical coloring and texture we find in those cases,'' he said. A man in southern Spain escaped injury last week when an ice ball eight inches across weighing nine pounds smashed into his car. A further nine ice balls have since been reported around Spain over the last week. human excrement? geeze louise. too bad they didn't have any pictures!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:28)", "body": "wait, did you see that? \"they lack the typical coloring and texture we find in those [human excrement from aircraft] cases.\" gross!!!!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (22:19)", "body": "Yup! Those aircrafty objects often drop *stuff* out, but it is usually that bluish-green disinfectant color. These look like snowballs or hailstones (which I am sure they are - NOT human stuff). Thanks for posting the article. Those were the ones they showed on the telly this morning!"}, {"response": 72, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (21:32)", "body": "Some scientists seemed to think they might be from a meteor but as another pointed out this couldn't be because the heat of the meteor hitting the earths atmosphere would melt any ice."}, {"response": 73, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (21:52)", "body": "quite true. check out a pic i found while searching the news sites:"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (21:53)", "body": "Yes....they are very large hailstones, I am sure. How they got that big will be interesting to learn. No go outside and look at the moon! It is cloudy here...really cloudy!!!"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (21:54)", "body": "Wolfie!! You did it!!! Brava, my dear. *H U G S * wow!!! Thanks oodles and wads for that. How amazing!!!"}, {"response": 76, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (21:54)", "body": "oh, and the lunar eclipse is quite underway. i've tried to get pictures of it at each interval as it enters into totality. fifteen minutes more to go. (am using a regular minolta 35mm so don't expect anything news worthy, but am trying)"}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (21:55)", "body": "the scientist with his hand on his head looking at this thing is classic!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (22:27)", "body": "It really is red, very beautiful. This must be what the ancients saw when the said there ws blood on the moon. I have seen many lunar eclipses but none like this"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (22:41)", "body": "Wow!~!! Red! Nrevedr seen a red one...does the moon look like it is suspended between the stars and the earth? It looks more like a sphere during totality than at any other time. Lovely of you to keep me posted! Yeah, I loved that guy in the lab coat with his hand on his head. Wolfie, I downloaded it to my files in case you ever need it,"}, {"response": 80, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (23:23)", "body": "The lunar eclipse was \"snowed out\" where I am. I'd love to see your pictures, Wolf. I got some pictures of the Sept. 26, 1996 lunar eclipse, which can be seen at http://world.std.com/~vbrown/p_le96.htm . I also use Minolta 35mm cameras (XG-M and SRT-101); you can still get some good shots with 'em! I think the most important tools for astrophotography are a sturdy tripod, and decent lenses."}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (23:49)", "body": "Myh son in California with his digital camera came through! Lovely pix and very red!!! Yippee!!!"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (23:49)", "body": ""}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (00:07)", "body": "Ginny! Welcome! How exciting to have a second IRL person posting on Geo. I am so delighted with your eclipse pictures - one which was unavailable out here. It seems you were about the only one I was in contact with who had success. Portugal and Germany both had problems. You have one of the best lenses it would appear and a good sturdy tripod to keep your images sharp. Mahalo! Visit frequently!"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (00:13)", "body": "As soon as my FTP works to Spring's hard drive I will post the pictures David took from California. Spectacular! Never saw a red moon - ever! If anyone MUST see them before Terry gets the tarballs back where they belong, I will email some to you...let me know!"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (00:39)", "body": "When asked what camera he was using, my son reeplied with the following: It is a Nikon Coolpix 950 with a x2 telephoto lens which makes my 35 mm equivalent of 200 mm. Now you know. Thanks for the bragging. As soon as I can ftp to access.spring.net we can all see them!"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (06:46)", "body": "Can't wait, Marcia. Clouds obscured the view here in London - and of course today is cloudless, just like the night before was cloudless ... #@\ufffdX#\ufffd&!!"}, {"response": 87, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (10:34)", "body": "Thanks, Marcia! I use a 500mm f8 mirror lens with my old Minolta SRT-101 for all my astrophotography pictures. I generally use high-speed color film (800 ASA and 1600 ASA). Dave's pictures from the digital camera came out great! It seems like the digital cameras are really improving. I also have solar eclipse pictures from 1994 and 1998, and comet pictures up on the same web site. ( http://world.std.com/~vbrown under the \"Photo Gallery\" link)"}, {"response": 88, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (11:30)", "body": "marcia, e the pics to me and i'll store them at geocities until ftp is up and running again!"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (11:32)", "body": "Splendid, Ginny. It is so great to see your posts in here. One day I will take you to my Arthuriana Topic in the Books Conference... Will get to your other eclipse pix shortly...happy me!!! Mark, Your sentiments echo mine. Bad enough it was cloudy - but it rained hard enough to make listening to myself think just about impossible. Now, please get it over with before this weekend's baseball games, thank you! As soon as all of the hard drives for Spring are in place in their new homes and I again have access to them, I shall be ftp'ing my son's great photos and posting them for your perusal. Until then all I can do is to hold them up to the monitor....*sigh*"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (11:36)", "body": "THanks, Wolfie, they will be on their way shortly!!!"}, {"response": 91, "author": "livamago", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (11:40)", "body": "I am happy to report that the eclipse was gorgeous in Tallahassee; very clear and when it started, the moon was huge! As the article that our gracious host posted said, there was a gathering at Lake Ella (an artificial, small lake a few miles from where I live), but the night was very cold and the sky was so clear that I only had to step out into our balcony to get a wonderful view. I alternated the eclipse with the Pakistan/India cricket match (Pak won!), so it was an eventful night. I went to bed past m dnight, and it was still on. The red shadow was spectacular and the view of the nightsky something to remember."}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (11:58)", "body": "How spectacular. I was also listening to the cricket match (congrats, Pak!) The only thing better than my seeing an eclipse is for others to see it and post their comments. Thanks, Lidya... It must have been a chicken-skin experience. The best ones seem to be in a sparkly clear and cold night sky! Thanks, Dear! Now, to send Wolfie David's pix so I can post them..."}, {"response": 93, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (12:22)", "body": "Looking forward to seeing the pix as we had a cloudy sky in High Wycombe (England)."}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (12:30)", "body": "Yup! Guess if Mark was overcast you were, as well. They will be up ASAP..."}, {"response": 95, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (14:12)", "body": "I didn't get to see anything - overcast and cloudy. Bah! Wolf, you are my only hope to get to see this. (Radio: No, Radio X doesn't webcast yet. No budget - it's a members-club broadcaster working of membership dues and donations only. No commercial aspects, no/few public fundings. Crap equipment. Great spirit.)"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (15:00)", "body": "From Moon Dreams: I saw the whole eclipse! It was beautiful! We had a perfect cool clear night, not one cloud in the sky. I used my binoculars for the details. From white to grey and then the orangy/red border appeared until it was completely covered by it. With the naked eye it looked as if it were Jupiter. Those red moon rays have done their magic on me. In Dec. we had the closest moon to earth in years I was in Milan and it was also a clear crisp night. In Aug. I was in Lake Como during the solar eclipse and that was a bad experience. We all felt dizzy and were affected in a negative way. The lunar eclipse was the complete opposite. :-D I heard from my friends in London who got up at 3:45am to watch it but the sky was completely covered with the usual stark grey clouds and did not see a thing. I am still moondancing!"}, {"response": 97, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (19:57)", "body": "the eclipse was indeed beautiful. it was cold and our part of the sky was clear as a bell and i think i was able to discern more stars than usual. my pictures stunk (had them developed today). i went out with my binoculars and got a lens full of red moon. now to david's pics!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (19:58)", "body": ""}, {"response": 99, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (19:58)", "body": "the above is my fave!"}, {"response": 100, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (20:04)", "body": "It was so beautiful, red, red with a halo of light."}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (20:28)", "body": "Thank you Wolfie! *hugs* How lovely they are! He had trouble seeing it with the naked eye and sent me that picture too - totally black! It was slightly overcase so you see wispy clouds going past the moon... It must have been incredible in a clear sky! Last night with the reports coming in and the pictures, too was about as close as I could get to actually seeing it. Thank you all! Now, to tell his father (who has logged in and can post any time he chooses...) and David as well...*grin*"}, {"response": 102, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (15:54)", "body": "I'm so excited to see the pix, and fed up that we weren't able to see anything here. Thanks."}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (20:52)", "body": "I know the feeling...*lol* I am delighted that someone in the family got to see it...and as all good mom's, I would rather he saw it than I if we had to choose."}, {"response": 104, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sun, Jan 23, 2000 (08:26)", "body": "Great pics, Wolf! Thanks!"}, {"response": 105, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (13:30)", "body": "This is from the E. Telegraph today. Lost Asteroid is Earth's, new Moon http://www.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/00/1/25/whubbig.gif > I think you will enjoy. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=001182080732013&rtmo=kLLZ1JNp&atmo=kLLZ1JNp&pg=/et/00/1/25/whub25.html I hope the link works. I know Terry is in the middle of moving."}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (13:48)", "body": "Love the Eskimo Nebula! What incredible pictures!!! Thanks so much for posting this, Moon (great name for this topic !) I was busy on Geo 14 posting information on \"the snow storm of the millennuim\" (it is bound to be called something liket that), and had not seen anything about Hubble and the new pictures. Thanks! And, please don't be a stranger!"}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (18:02)", "body": "John Burnett sent this contribution. It is fascinating! Can time run backwards? IN a distant galaxy, a star unexplodes. Just moments ago a shell of tortured matter was flying together at 30 000 kilometers a second. Now it has become a star, and the last shreds of glowing debris are being sucked in. With the explosion undone, the star begins the long journey back to the time when it will be unborn into the gas and dust of an interstellar cloud. Is someone running the film backwards for comic effect? Not necessarily. In a paper published in the last week of 1999, Lawrence Schulman of Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York dropped a bombshell. He showed that regions where time flows in the normal direction can coexist with regions where it flows backwards. There could be places, perhaps even within our Galaxy, where stars unexplode, eggs unbreak and living things grow younger with every second. To understand how time could run backwards, you need to understand why it has a preferred direction at all. The equations of physics say that particles of matter don't care what direction time runs in: any interaction between two particles could happen just as easily in reverse. (Some nuclear interactions do show a small bias, but no one has found a way to turn this into an arrow of time.) But when you have a lot of particles instead of just two, things change. Messy, disordered states tend to develop from tidier ones. This tendency is called the thermodynamic arrow of time. Physicists say that entropy-a measure of disorder-always increases. \"It's easy to break an egg, difficult or impossible to put the pieces back together,\" says Schulman. Say the air in a large room is confined in a 1-metre cube in one corner, then released. It is perfectly possible that, after five minutes, the air molecules will all be back in the same 1-metre cube. Perfectly possible but hugely improbable, because there are far more ways to arrange the individual molecules when they are spread out than when they are confined. In fact, the most disordered state-in which the air molecules are spread more or less evenly throughout the room-can be achieved in far more ways than any other state. \"This is the second law of thermodynamics,\" says Schulman, \"which seals the fate of Humpty Dumpty.\" However, argues Schulman, a reverse arrow is perfectly possible: \"It's all down to the 'boundary conditions'-the external constraints imposed on the system.\" In the room, the air has to be in the 1-metre cube only at the start of the five-minute period. There is no constraint on it at the end of the five minutes-the system can find its own final state. But say a final condition is imposed. After five minutes, the air molecules have to be back in the 1-metre cube. On Earth, this is clearly an artificial situation. But for Schulman, it is perfectly legitimate to consider such a state of affairs. \"There is no reason in principle why the Universe might not have a future boundary condition imposed on it,\" he says. The future condition would constrain the molecules to follow only a tiny subset of trajectories, ending up in the 1-metre cube. From our point of view, time would be running backwards. But there's an objection to having forward and backward time regions in the same universe. Surely the arrow of a reverse-time region would be wiped out by the slightest interaction with a normal-time region, leaving a completely disordered system with no arrow at all? Imagine a game of snooker in which the triangle of red balls is struck by the cue ball and scattered around the table. Now imagine the reverse-time scenario. For the balls to follow the precise trajectories necessary to finish in a triangle will take a monumental amount of coordination. The slightest disturbance will spoil it. Any interaction with a region with normal time-for instance, the smallest cry of amazement from someone watching-could vibrate the air, nudge the balls and wreck everything. So the backward arrow of a reverse-time region would be instantly destroyed by any interaction with a normal-time region. Schulman sees a flaw in this idea. The two systems are on an equal footing, so the reverse-time region is as likely to destroy the arrow of the normal-time region as vice versa. \"All we can say is that if the two regions interact their arrows will either both be destroyed or both survive.\" Most physicists would have put good money on the former possibility. But Schulman's startling conclusion is that as long as the interaction between the two regions is weak, both arrows will survive. He bases this claim on a simple computer model that allows him to set up weakly interacting systems with opposite arrows of time and see what happens. Here's how it works. Take a square 1 unit on each side, and add a particle with coordinates x and y. Move the particle by repeatedly replacing x with x + y and y with x + 2y, and discarding any integer parts of the results (so x and y stay in the range from 0 to 1). The "}, {"response": 108, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Feb  6, 2000 (10:42)", "body": "In the UK Times today: Found: The hibernation Gene that could send man to the stars! Scientists have discovered genes for hibernation in humans. The discovery could pave the way for human hibernation of the kind forshadowed for astronauts in the 30 year old film 2001: A pace odessey. Human hibernation would ake ultrlong haul space travel feasible, with crews effectively put to sleep for months, even years, by triggering the hibernation genes that man's distant ancestors used millions of years ago to sleepthrough hostile winters. The first use of hibernation technology is likely to be in transplant surgery, where donor organs would be preserved on shelves for weeks or months by putting them into a state of deep sleep. After a five year project, Matthew andrews, associate professor of genetics at North Carolina State University has idenfied two genes - PL and PDK-4 - which appear to mastermind hibewrnation. One stops carbohydrate metabolism ewhich ensures that the glucose that animals have stored in their body from their last meal is preserved for use by the brain and central nervous system. The second gene controls the production of an enzyme that breaks up stored fatty acids, and converts then into usable fats for fuel. As result the animal can tick over on its stored fat. ..... Researchers found the genes can be made to work in similar ways [to animals] in humans. They also hope to dientify what genesare involved in triggering the loss of body fat, and to find a way of kick-starting the same genes in humans as a way of losing weight."}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb  6, 2000 (12:00)", "body": "Amazing stuff, Maggie. Thanks for posting this. I had no idea!"}, {"response": 110, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Feb  6, 2000 (13:37)", "body": "I like the idea of the weight loss gene!!!! Seriously, it could revolutionise space travel and make things possible. Did you see anything on the newly discovered black hole that's near earth?"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb  6, 2000 (14:27)", "body": "I have seen nothing. I am off to go a search for information about it. Thanks for the reminder. (If your body stayed the same shape would you care what you weighed? It is just a number and is entirely asbitrary!)"}, {"response": 112, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Feb  6, 2000 (17:02)", "body": "I'm just glad I don't have talking scales - numbers have power don't you know!"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb  6, 2000 (17:54)", "body": "Yup! Numbers do have power. Even for the long and willowy sort who wishes she were more horizontally endowed. *sigh* Whoever though up talking appliances had nothing else to think about, obviously. Very weird, Indeed!"}, {"response": 114, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Feb  7, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "What do you think about talking spaceships? or computers for that matter. If we were weightless (e.g. in space) would size matter?????"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb  7, 2000 (13:28)", "body": "Size would have to matter. The smaller the individuals, the more that could be accommodated, I would think. Everything has a load limit and the support system making the air to breathe and food to eat would have to be considered pr capita. I know of no way to eliminate the mass even if it is weightless!"}, {"response": 116, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Feb  7, 2000 (18:08)", "body": "Oh what a pity, just think of the airline bags you could take if weight didn't matter!!! Sorry, it's late and I'm feeling goofy."}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb  7, 2000 (18:52)", "body": "When you ship via air freight, the cost for moving it is by the cubic foot, not by weight. Who said life was fair?!"}, {"response": 118, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb  8, 2000 (11:31)", "body": "From http://www.skypub.com/news/news.shtml Tuesday, February 1 New Martian Meteorite Discovered in California About 20 years ago, Robert S. Verish was on a rock-collecting trip in Southern California\ufffds Mojave Desert. While walking around, he spotted a couple of dark basaltic rocks. Interested, Verish scooped them up, took them home, and put them in a box for safe keeping. It wasn\ufffdt until last October that Verish realized he stumbled upon a great find. While cleaning, he noticed that the rocks he collected looked surprising like meteorites. Excited, he brought samples of each rock to geochemist Alan Rubin (University of California, Los Angeles). Rubin confirmed the rocks to be meteorites and noted the similarity they had to a Martian meteorite discovered in Antarctica in 1994. \"It was immediately obvious it was similar to Martian meteorites,\" says Rubin. \"Within two minutes we were convinced.\" \"There may be other pieces out there,\" Rubin notes. \"The problem is we don\ufffdt know where 'out there' is. If we knew specifically where it was, we could look out there for more.\" This find brings the current number of known Martian meteorites to 14, and the Los Angeles meteorites are only the second piece of Mars to be found in the United States. The first, named Lafayette, was discovered in Indiana in 1931. Meteorites are known to be of Martian origin largely for two reasons. First, gases trapped in the rock match that of the Martian atmosphere. Second, the rock\ufffds oxygen isotopic ratios are unlike other meteorites or any Earth rock, but they match the ratios found on Mars. The rocks were likely ejected from Mars during a large impact event, making their way to Earth in less than a million years."}, {"response": 119, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb  8, 2000 (11:56)", "body": "I think this is the black hole Maggie was asking about... Chandra Finds a \"Cool\" Black Hole at the Heart of the Andromeda Galaxy CXC PR: 00-03 January 14, 2000 Steve Roy Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Phone: 256-544-6535 http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news Dr. Wallace Tucker Chandra X-ray Observatory Center Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA Phone: 617-496-7998 In its first look at the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has found that the gas funneling into a supermassive black hole in the heart of this galaxy is a \"cool\" million degrees. This unexpected result adds one more quirk to the strange behavior previously observed at the center of M31. A team of scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass., reported on this observation at the 195th national meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta, Ga. The team is led by Drs. Stephen Murray and Michael Garcia, and includes Drs. Frank Primini, William Forman, Christine Jones, and Ralph Kraft. Chandra took its first X-ray picture of the Andromeda Galaxy with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer on October 13, 1999. More than 100 individual X-ray sources were seen. One of these sources was at the previously determined position of the central supermassive black hole, which has the mass of 30 million suns. With many X-ray emitting stars in the center of M31 there was a slight chance that one of them might be at this position just by coincidence. The low temperature of the suspected central source, as compared to the other sources, gave the team the clue they needed. \"When we found that what we suspected was the central object was also anomalously cool, we KNEW we had it\ufffd one coincidence might be believable, but two was too much to ignore!\" said Garcia. While the gas falling into the central black hole is cool, it is only cool by comparison to the 100 other X-ray sources in the Andromeda Galaxy. To be detected by an X-ray telescope, the gas must have a temperature of more than a million degrees. The typical X-ray star in the Andromeda Galaxy has a temperature of several tens of millions of degrees. In contrast, the temperature of the supermassive black hole source is a few million degrees. The Andromeda Galaxy is our nearest neighbor spiral galaxy at a distance of two million light years. It is similar to our own Milky Way in size, shape, and also contains a supermassive black hole at the center. This central black hole has always been a bit odd when compared to central black holes in similar galaxies. Based on its X-ray luminosity, it is much fainter in radio waves than expected. Such behavior, coupled with Chandra\ufffds discovery of the low temperature gas, cannot be accommodated by standard models developed for supermassive black holes in galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda. \"The Chandra observation is telling us that an entirely different flow pattern is operating around the Andromeda black hole,\" said Dr. Eliot Quataert, of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J. \"This will require a different class of models than usually considered.\" One possibility is that the gas undergoes a large scale boiling motion which slows down the rate at which gas falls into the black hole. The best previous X-ray pictures were not sharp enough to clearly distinguish the X-ray source associated with the black hole in the center of the Andromeda Galaxy nor did they give information about the temperature of the source. \"A good analogy might be to say that previous X-ray images were taken with a slightly out-of-focus black and white camera, while the Chandra image is taken with a sharp, color camera\" said Murray. Another intriguing feature of this observation is the detection of a diffuse glow that extends for a thousand light years around the central region. It is not known if this is due to many individual sources, or to a hot wind expanding out from the center. \"This is just a first, quick look at our nearest Milky Way analog,\" Murray emphasized. \"I expect that our future pictures will lead to more exciting discoveries in the Andromeda Galaxy.\" The ACIS instrument was built for NASA by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and Pennsylvania State University, University Park. To follow Chandra's progress, visit the Chandra site at: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/0007/index.html AND http://chandra.nasa.gov NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program. TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., is the prime contractor for the spacecraft. The Smithsonian's Chandra X-ray Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass. High resolution digital versions of the X-ray image (JPG, 300 dpi TIFF ) and other information associated with this release are available on the Internet at: http://chandra.harvard.edu/"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  8, 2000 (12:10)", "body": "Ginny! Thanks for these posts and for finding the black hole which I had not had time to search for. I actually spent yesterday hunting up new graphics (and better ones) for the topics in here with great success. Zowie! Meteorite is number 1 on my wish list. I just need a wee little piece. The closest to anything like that is the tectite David got for me some years ago. I am not all that sure they are ejecta from the moon, but they are very odd-looking rocks, and I am happy to have one."}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (15:39)", "body": "Space Shuttle Launched From Florida Complex CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The space shuttle Endeavour roared off the launch pad Friday on a long-delayed radar mapping mission that should produce the best ever three-dimensional images of Earth's surface. The six-astronaut crew will spend 11 days in space as they bounce radar signals off cities, fields, mountains and forests, almost everything, in fact, that shapes the Earth's surface between the polar regions. As those signals bounce back into space, they will be collected by antennae aboard the orbiter and at the end of a 197-foot mast deployed from the shuttle's cargo bay. It is those slightly off-set images, like the ones seen in a 3-D movie or picture, that should make this whole-Earth topographical map the best ever assembled. NASA had been trying to launch this mission since September, but technical glitches and safety concerns kept Endeavour grounded. A launch attempt last week was scrubbed by cold winds and heavy rain, and mission managers used the delay to replace a faulty piece of flight hardware that engineers detected late in the countdown. ``Liftoff of space shuttle Endeavour on a 21st century mission, putting Earth back on the map,'' said launch commentator Joel Wells as Endeavour sailed through the clear blue skies above the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch was delayed by about 20 minutes past its 12:30 p.m. scheduled launch time for last-minute technical checks. Once the astronauts have stowed their spacesuits and configured shuttle systems for orbit, the first major task will be to deploy the radar mast, which when fully extended will be the longest fixed structure ever to fly in space. ------------------------------------------------------------ Watch it live http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/video45m.html"}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (22:07)", "body": "I have been watching the Nasa feed all afternoon and watched the antenna which is going to map the world in fine detail operate. I hope you all smiled and looked up every 90 minutes as the shuttle circled the earth. More about this mission will be taken up on http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/geo/5/new"}, {"response": 123, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (16:32)", "body": "From http://dailynews.yahoo.com Monday February 21 12:40 PM ET Shuttle Crew Solves Hatch Glitch, Set for Return By Brad Liston CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour ended their ambitious Earth-mapping work on Monday and prepared to come home, but not without some last-minute anxiety as they struggled to shut a hatch. Following a final mapping pass over Australia, the astronauts began to stow their radar gear for Tuesday's scheduled landing, but there was trouble with the 20-story radar deployed just hours after their Feb. 11 liftoff. Although the 197-foot collapsible truss-structure folded easily into its canister in Endeavour's cargo bay, three latches designed to secure the canister's hatch refused to lock into place. The Endeavour astronauts, working remote controls from the orbiter's crew compartment, tried three times to shut the lid before finally succeeding, using a maximum force setting. Cheers erupted in Houston's Mission Control Center when ground controllers saw the hatch close successfully in a television feed from the orbiter. ``Excellent job. A little extra work and well worth the effort,'' Mission Control told the astronauts. If the astronauts had not been able to close the hatch, Mission Control probably would have ordered the astronauts to detonate small explosives that would have tossed the mast and its canister overboard. Although two of the astronauts were trained to leave the orbiter and repair the mast, NASA discarded that option on Saturday when the space agency ordered an extra nine hours of mapping, using time that had been reserved for the contingency spacewalk. Tense Moments In Space The 2-1/2 hours spent on Monday trying to close the latches provided tense moments on the ground and in space. After one failed attempt, mission commander Kevin Kregel radioed a disappointed assessment: ``It's a little bit closed.'' Even if the mast had been sacrificed, the glitch would not have affected the focus of Endeavour's mission, collecting radar readings that will be used to create the most detailed 3-D surface maps ever assembled. Since taking flight on Feb. 11, the shuttle has mapped more than 46 million square miles of Earth's land formations, most of it twice. The data was stored on 326 digital cassettes inside Endeavour's crew compartment. Only about two to three percent of Earth's topography has been mapped in the kind of resolution that NASA hopes to accomplish with this mission. The U.S. military will be the chief beneficiary. The National Imagery and Mapping Agency, which supplies classified maps for U.S. defense and intelligence agencies, is NASA's primary partner on this flight. Most of the highest resolution images are likely to remain classified. A lower resolution map, still superior to existing planetary topography images, will be made public. Scientists will be given access to the higher resolution images on a case-by-case basis, NASA said."}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (17:36)", "body": "The U.S. military will be the chief beneficiary. The National Imagery and Mapping Agency, which supplies classified maps for U.S. defense and intelligence agencies, is NASA's primary partner on this flight. You betcha. That's why I was waving and smiling peacefully each time they took my picture. Sheesh! Is anyone surprised?! I have a molten lava flows to sell for your future houselots. Get'em while they're hot!!!"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (17:43)", "body": "Most of the highest resolution images are likely to remain classified. A lower resolution map, still superior to existing planetary topography images, will be made public. Scientists will be given access to the higher resolution images on a case-by-case basis, NASA said. Sorta, need-to-own basis? And, I wanted a new atlas to add to my library. Mine is very old... phooey! (Still have those hot lava flows for ya if you're interested...*grin*)"}, {"response": 126, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (23:15)", "body": "I found all that to be very disappointing, too. Our tax dollars support all this, just so the government can turn around and say we don't need to see it?? phooey is right! :-P"}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (10:37)", "body": "Dontcha wonder where our right to know and their obsession with being the most powerful begin and end?! Be sure to check on Bechtel. Your Boston dig is just a legit front for a REALLY big deal going on. Years ago, when A Rockefeller was vice president of the US, one of his brothers built the Mauna Kea Beach Resort on the Kona side of this island. When we drove by and my dad saw the Bechtel sign on the construction \"shack\" he simply uttered the name and fell silent. Those were the days when Scandia laboratories had highly-guarded test facilities high up on Mauna Loa. ...and, my Dad was a Knights Templar and a 33\ufffd Mason. Anyone get a connection (not sure I do, but there are those out there nodding!)"}, {"response": 128, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (17:04)", "body": "This is an old news story, but I thought it might still be of interest since we were talking about black holes recently. It's really exciting that they are finally starting to find evidence of black holes; they've theorized about supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies for more than a decade! New evidence of black hole at Milky Way's center January 7, 1998 Web posted at: 10:03 p.m. EST (0303 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A massive black hole, with a mass 2.6 million times that of the sun, sits at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, providing its gravitational anchor, according to new evidence unveiled by astronomers Wednesday. Research teams in Germany and the United States found that some stars near the black hole, named Sagittarius A, are speeding along at more than 600 miles a second -- nearly 2.2 million miles per hour (3.5 million kph). \"This is the strongest case we have yet for a super, massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way,\" said astronomer Andreas Eckart at a news conference sponsored by the American Astronomical Society. Sagittarius A is about 26,000 light years from our sun and the planets that revolve around it. A light year is about 6 trillion miles (9.6 trillion km). A black hole is an entity of such density and gravitational strength that nothing -- not even light -- can escape from its grasp. Because it doesn't reflect light, a black hole cannot be seen and can only be detected by measuring the motion of stars, gas and dust nearby. The theory that a black hole exists in the center of the Milky Way -- the galaxy in which Earth is located -- has long been controversial, and many astronomers have rejected previous evidence supporting such a theory. But researchers at Wednesday's news conference said the latest data bolsters the idea of a black hole because that is the best explanation for their findings. Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics used radio telescopes to make independent measurements of the motion of the object at the center of the galaxy. They found that it stood relatively still compared to the rest of the galaxy -- which is consistent with a black hole. Another team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany found that thousands of stars existed in the area around the black hole, zipping around in tight circles. In order to cause stars to move that quickly, the black hole would have to have 2.6 million times as much mass as our sun. Many of the stars zipping around Sagittarius A are old -- \"a retirement village for stars,\" says Eckart -- suggesting that the black hole grows more and more massive by sucking in stars over the eons and eventually swallowing them. Astronomers also unveiled evidence of another unusual black hole, nicknamed Old Faithful, about 40,000 light years from Earth. Old Faithful, more powerful the Sagittarius A, sucks matter into a doughnut-like disk, then ejects it in eruptions that throw out an amount of material as massive as Mount Everest at a speed of more than 171,000 miles per second (274,000 km per second.) \"It's incredibly violent,\" said Steven Eikenberry of the California Institute of Technology. \"We're talking about something that is trillions of times the annual energy output of the United States.\" And when the black hole is active, these eruptions take place in consistent 30-minute intervals. Those regular eruptions led NASA scientists to nickname the black hole after the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park, which also erupts regularly. Reporter Rick Lockridge and Reuters contributed to this report."}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (18:41)", "body": "I really appreciate your posting that article, Ginny. I kept missing it and forgetting to look it up. Now it is here...! You cannot imagine how happy I am in this little conference of mine lately. My favorite stuff being discussed by the greatest posters anywhere. Mahalo nui loa!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (13:46)", "body": "Today in Space 4 Mar 2000 Aurora Watch: An increase in geomagnetic activity levels could occur late today in response to a glancing blow from recent coronal mass ejections (CMEs) associated with the M6 and X1-class flares observed on March 2. A direct hit is not likely since neither of these CMEs were observed as a halo event. Solar activity has subsided since late in the day on March 3 (Universal Time). Nevertheless, the large sunspot groups 8891 and 8882 have complicated beta-gamma magnetic fields, which makes them likely sites for solar flares. 8891 is stll close to the center of the solar disk. Flares or coronal mass ejections from that region will likely be directed toward Earth."}, {"response": 131, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (13:50)", "body": "Will that show up on photos?"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (14:20)", "body": "Chcek http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/geo/24.41 You can see the holes in the solar disk as brighter places where the cooler exterior were blown away. The entire discussion is fascinating and available: http://www.spaceweather.com/"}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (14:23)", "body": "Solar prominences are visible on photographs as streams of hot gases looping over the solar disk. Mostly, however, they are hightly charged particles which get to Earth and not visible until they get to the ionosphere where they cause Auroral displays. Look skyward these next few evenings!"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (22:21)", "body": "Space Science News for March 5, 2000 Residents of Canada and the northern United States should be on the alert for aurora borealis during the night of March 5 and morning of March 6. The best time to view aurorae is usually around local midnight. Tonight's new moon will make even faint activity easy to see. Early on March 5, 2000, the interplanetary magnetic field in the vicinity of Earth developed a significant southward-directed component. This condition often means that solar wind plasma can penetrate Earth's magnetosphere and trigger auroral activity. Data from NOAA's polar orbiting meteorological satellites late on March 5 show an expanded auroral oval. If this high level of activity continues, auroral displays could be visible as far south as the Great Lakes states and in New England. For continuing coverage of aurora and all forms of space weather, please visit http://www.SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (22:29)", "body": "Space Science News for March 9, 2000 New pictures from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft show exotic terrain made of dry ice near the Red Planet's south pole. Differences between the north and south poles suggest that the opposite ends of Mars have had divergent climates for thousands or perhaps even millions of years. FULL STORY at Martian Swiss Cheese"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (13:58)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 10 There was a nice surprise for participants in last weekend's DX contest. ARLB009 predicted stormy geomagnetic conditions, but it turned out that the energy from solar eruptions did not affect the earth's geomagnetic field. Instead of the predicted planetary A indices of 12, 28 and 25 for Friday through Sunday, the A index for those days was 5, 5 and 7, which is very quiet. Solar flux was 189, 167 and 181. Average solar flux was about the same last week as the week before, and average sunspot numbers were slightly lower. Average A indices have also been lower. Solar flux is expected to dip below 200 this weekend. Predicted flux values for Friday through Tuesday are 200, 195, 190, 185 and 180. Solar flux is expected to bottom out around 150 on March 17 or 18, then rise above 200 by March 23 and stay around 220 from March 25 to April 4. Geomagnetic indices are expected to remain quiet until March 22-23, then settle down again until March 31 and April 1. We are moving toward the spring equinox, which always means better HF conditions, especially with the rising solar flux. Look for more frequent worldwide openings on 10, 12 and 15 meters. Cable News Network has an email service which delivers weekly space news, and some of it concerns solar activity of interest to hams. The email service sends URL links to articles, such as the one at http://CNN.com/2000/TECH/space/03/01/sunspots/index.html . You can subscribe at http://cnn.com/EMAIL . In the mail this week was an interesting tip from a ham in Vermont, who wrote, ''This is Zach Manganello, K1ZK, I am a freshman at Middlebury College, and I just attended a lecture that I thought was absolutely fascinating, pertinent to HF propagation, and worthy of sharing with you at the ARRL. The lecture was about the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN), and these scientists have giant radar arrays at several locations near the Earth's poles which they use to study interaction of solar radiation with the Earth's geosphere and ionosphere. Check out their web site at http://superdarn.jhuapl.edu ''. NASA Space Science News has an item this week about predicting disturbances by seeing what is happening on the other side of the sun that faces away from earth. This uses the Michelson Doppler Imager on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, on the web at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast09mar_1.htm . This is important because solar forecasts for the short term are based on calculating when known active regions will rotate back into view. If activity can be observed on the far side of the sun, then more accurate forecasts can be made which are not dependent on the last glimpse of the active region before it rotated out of view. Finally, check out http://www.solarmax2000.com/ , a site devoted to this year's peak in solar activity. Sunspot numbers for March 2 through 8 were 209, 189, 167, 181, 172, 164 and 212 with a mean of 184.9. 10.7 cm flux was 213.2 203.8, 200.2, 220.3, 222.4, 221.8 and 214.9, with a mean of 213.8, and estimated planetary A indices were 8, 5, 5, 7, 11, 16 and 13, with a mean of 9.3."}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (18:42)", "body": "Space Science News for March 10, 2000 NASA's durable Galileo spacecraft is joining forces with Saturn-bound Cassini on a mission to study Jupiter's magnetosphere -- the biggest thing in the solar system. How big is it? If Jupiter's magnetosphere were visible, it would appear to be larger than the Sun or Moon in spite of its great distance from Earth. This story also includes plasma wave sounds recorded by Galileo in 1996 as it sailed past Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede. Galileo will swing past Ganymede two more times before the end of 2000.FULL STORY at The Biggest Thing in the Solar System"}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "I'm gonna start putting these Space science notices in Geosites for Kids - Geo 15. More people will see them as they are linked the parents conference."}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (13:03)", "body": "It's all his fault: On This Date in History: March 13 In 1781, the distant planet Uranus was discovered by British"}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (13:03)", "body": "astronomer William Herschel."}, {"response": 141, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (15:39)", "body": "Blame it on Herschel. It was all because he had a classical education. There were already the planets Jupiter and Saturn, so that led to Uranus, the grandfather and father of them respectively in mythology."}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (16:42)", "body": "Not only that...he was of the same school as Handel and was German born, as well. He went to England under the tutilage of the Hanoverian kings as did Handel. German engineering again...and glorious music, too. Fortunately the Titan-planets did not devour their own children - or did they?"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (16:43)", "body": "I shall ask Alexander how Uranus is pronounced in German...it might just give us a new slant on the sound of the name in question!"}, {"response": 144, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (16:50)", "body": "I don't know if the Titan planets tried to devour their children. Maybe they did, which might explain why they all have rings. Of course, none can compare with Saturn's ring system. Uranus (the Sky) in Greek mythology was the consort to Gaia (the Earth) which gave birth to the Titans."}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:06)", "body": "Ah...yes! I was slightly ahead of myself with Uranus. I can still see Blake's woodcut (was it? or etching?) of Saturn devouring his children...terrifying. Interesting that Earth is the only one who supposedly spawned her own moon rather than devouring it."}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:08)", "body": "...or am I seriously confused on this Monday in particular?! Going to look up the artwork and will post it when I find it..."}, {"response": 147, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:08)", "body": "It was etching by Blake. There is also a painting by Goya of the same subject. Old Goya had a bit of bizarre sense of humor; the Saturn devouring his children painting hung in Goya's dining room."}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "Thank you! I was about to do some serious brain revamping. Yuck! What a painting to hang in your dining room. Bet his kids behaved! Thanks, Cheryl - don't even think of not posting in here - I cannot possibly remember everything and I need you! *hugs*"}, {"response": 149, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:15)", "body": "You're too kind. I knew those art history courses would be useful someday."}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "My Bullfinch is in the other room. Saturn was not a Titan, I guess...?"}, {"response": 151, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:23)", "body": "You might be right. I thought he was though, Gaia and Uranus gave birth to the Titans. Among the Titans were Rhea and Chronos (Saturn) who gave birth to the Olympian gods. The brothers Zeus (Jupiter), Poseidon (Neptune), and Hades (Pluto) divided the rule of all creation among themselves. Hades got the Underworld, (talk about a bum deal), Poseidon got dominion of the Seas, (not to shabby), and Zeus got the Sky, because he was the oldest and got everyone else out of Chronos's tummy."}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:36)", "body": "Right!!! Now I remember. Mahalo nui loa!"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (19:24)", "body": "Space Science News for March 13, 2000 With a little help from the Sun, NASA's NEAR spacecraft has spotted a telltale x-ray glow from elements on asteroid Eros. Scientists discussed that and other accomplishments at a press conference today. FULL STORY at One month around asteroid Eros"}, {"response": 154, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (00:27)", "body": "Yes, Kronos and Rhea were Titans (there were 12 in all), but Zeus was the youngest of their children. Rhea hid Zeus from Kronos because she was tired of losing all her children as soon as they were born. She even helped Zeus overthrow Kronos. It's an interesting succession. Uranus was overthrown by his son, Kronos, who in turn was overthrown by his son, Zeus. What a lovely bunch of gods to worship!! It's a wonder the ancient Greeks didn't kill themselves in despair..."}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (11:24)", "body": "Since you are the resident Greek person, did not the ancients like gods to whom they could relate, so along with the divinity, they gave them the same shortcomings we have, as well. Made them less fearsome - until you angered them. I think most of the worship was spent appeasing them rather than worhshipping as we do in OT / NT religions. (Please correct me if this analysis is off base!)"}, {"response": 156, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (15:22)", "body": "Right Ginny, Zeus was the youngest, I don't know why I thought him the oldest Titan. As the Greeks became more sophistocated many of the most educated ceased to believe in their own religion by classical times. Pythagoras formulated his own religion based on -- what else -- geometry."}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (12:28)", "body": "Space Science News for March 15, 2000 What do asteroids and cosmic gamma-ray bursts have in common? NASA's NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft is helping astronomers learn more about both. The gamma-ray spectrometer on NEAR -- designed to study the elements of asteroid Eros -- helped pinpoint an an unusual gamma-ray burst on March 1st. Now, telescopes around the world are tracking the explosion's afterglow. This could be the first of many high-energy discoveries during NEAR's one-year mission to Eros. FULL STORY at Gamma-ray bursts are NEAR MORE GAMMA-RAY NEWS : The NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center reports that amateur astronomers have imaged the optical afterglow from the gamma-ray burst detected by NEAR on March 1, 2000. In collaboration with the AAVSO, NASA plans to organize a global network of amateurs to monitor gamma-ray burst fireballs. FULL STORY at Amateurs catch a gamma-ray burst"}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (14:54)", "body": "Space Science News for March 16, 2000 Fragments of a meteor that exploded over the Yukon in January, 2000, have been collected and turned over to Canadian and NASA scientists for analysis. The find is potentially the most important recovery of a rock from space in at least 31 years. FULL STORY at Yukon meteorite recovered! ---"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (15:12)", "body": "The last time a carbonaceous chondrite was quickly recovered after its fall to Earth was September 28, 1969 near Murchison, Australia. The Murchison meteorite, pictured here, has fascinated students of life's origins since 1970, when investigators discovered that the rock is rich in amino acids and other complex organic compounds."}, {"response": 160, "author": "ommin", "date": "Fri, Mar 17, 2000 (02:56)", "body": "I did read today that the meteorite fragments found in the Yukon was causing some excitement because they thought they might have been formed before the solar system - am I right?"}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 17, 2000 (13:35)", "body": "Not sure, Anne, but I shall investigate at the url above. If I am not mistaken, most, if not all meteorites which land on Earth are debris left over from the formation of the Solar System. Let me check! Propagation Forecast Bulletin 11 Average solar flux was down slightly and average sunspot numbers rose over the past week. There were no really disturbed days, but the geomagnetic field was active on March 12. The spring equinox is coming up this Monday, and this is always an exciting time for HF operators. Conditions should be good this season with the rising solar flux. Solar flux has been declining this week, and is expected to reach a short term minimum near 170 from March 19 to 21. Flux values should quickly rise to another short term peak that is expected to be very broad. Solar flux should be around 220 from March 25 through April 4. The projected solar flux for the next five days, Friday through Tuesday, is 180, 175, 170, 170 and 170. Planetary A index for these same days is expected to be 8, 8, 8, 8 and 12. Upcoming dates that may be disturbed are March 22-24, March 31 and April 1, and April 18 and 19. Chip, K7JA, wrote to alert readers to fantastic conditions on 10 meters, including long path propagation. He is in Southern California, and writes ''You might want to mention in your column the tremendous LP openings on 10 meters lately. Saturday night of ARRL Phone was one, and last night (perhaps 0300z to 0800z at least, out here, earlier on Right Coast) was a doozy. The band started over the top into UA9, etc., and about 0300z went to Long Path. Loud UA9s, 3B8FG, JY9NX, A41LZ, A45XR, 5Z4WI, SU9ZZ, and stations from literally everywhere in Europe (like PA, DL, OH etc.) filled the band. I gave up at midnight, but the band was still hopping. The East Coast got into this one, as did stations in Texas and other Midwestern areas. I saw a number of spots by W3UR. Basically, about 7 PM is a good time to be watchful to the south, beaming about 90 degrees. Last night's opening, however, had a broad peak into Europe, maybe as far up as 220 degrees or so. Guess we finally have a sunspot cycle!'' Sunspot numbers for March 9 through 15 were 225, 231, 178, 188, 172, 193 and 167 with a mean of 193.4. 10.7 cm flux was 205.8 203.4, 203.2, 203.2, 188.1, 182.6 and 177.8, with a mean of 194.9, and estimated planetary A indices were 5, 10, 12, 19, 4, 6 and 3, with a mean of 8.4."}, {"response": 162, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar 17, 2000 (14:54)", "body": "Saw (some of ) a fascinating programme on planets beyond the solar system last night. Trouble was I fell asleep watching it so I didn't make any notes. Sorry!"}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 17, 2000 (17:50)", "body": "*sigh* Will they do reruns?! planets BEYOND the solar system?! Gotta see that one, for sure!"}, {"response": 164, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Fri, Mar 17, 2000 (23:41)", "body": "re: .155 & .156 Marcia, I agree with your analysis. The ancient Greeks believed in the notion of \"hubris\", which was basically pride, insolence, and general defiance of the gods. Anyone who angered the gods was sure to be punished. Many of the myths involved mortals who ran afoul of the gods (Sisyphus, Tantalus, Arachne, Andromeda, Phaethon... to name a few). Cheryl, I haven't really studied the downfall of the ancient Greek religion, but it makes sense that the philosophers and scientists would be the first ones to stop believing. Wasn't Socrates put to death for being a non-believer and speaking against the pagan gods? I'll have to look that one up."}, {"response": 165, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (10:22)", "body": "I think Socrates was charged with impiety leading up to his trial. One of the main charges at the trial which culminated in his being sentenced to death was corrupting the youth of Athens. Socrates advocated moral philosophy over blind adherence to religion. Most of the Greek philosophers, Socrates among them, espooused a rational vision of the universe. Their belief was that the intellectual component of human nature was the most important. The force of truth was examplified by reason. Even if a person desired to do otherwise, his reason (the force of truth) would force him to accept the logical conclusions. The historical context of Socrates trial should be considered. He was tried in the years just after Athens had lost the Peloponnesian War to Sparta. Democracy in Athens was overthrown, and the Spartans enstated an oligarchy of 30 tyrants to rule over Athens. Socrates was viewed as a threat to public order by undermining the moral conventions of the city and brought to public trial at the age of 70. The fact that he led a private life and chose not to be concerned with Athenian politics was to his detriment. He served only when called upon. Although he held full rights of Athenian citizenship for 40 years, he never took it upon himself to take on public service. Socrates himself claimed that he wished to preserve his own moral principles, therefore took no interest in politics. This did not sit well with the Athenians. The Athenian leader Pericles stated at his funeral oration at the time of the outset of the Peloponnesion War: ...this is a peculiarity of ours: we do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say he has no business here at all. Not only did Socrates harbor what might construed as a disdain for democracy; he also held indiosyncratic and unconventional views of the gods. He was critical and questioning in his view of religion. He was as well interested in the new knowlege of philosophers, since referred to as the presocratics. They believed in natural theories for the existence of the cosmos. To them reality could be explained by the movement of matter or the recombination of elements. One of the best known of these natural philosophers was Anaxagoras, for whom Socrates accused his critics of mistaking him. Socrates accusers seem to have thought him quilty of doing the same inquiring into the domains of the gods, into things below the earth and sky. Which brings us back to the title of this topic: Beyond Planet Earth. Remember what Socrates said, \"The unexamined life is not worth living.\""}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (13:57)", "body": "As an aside, Wasn't Socrates convicted of Corruption of the Nation's Youth?! How terribly modern that sounds and how nasty the inplication nowadays!"}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (12:23)", "body": "Space Science News for March 19, 2000 As the Sun sets at the south pole on March 20, 2000, Earth will join two other planets in the solar system where it is northern Spring. FULL STORY at Sunset at the South Pole"}, {"response": 168, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (16:03)", "body": "Yes, Marcia that was the offence for which Socrates was convicted. What is interesting is that in the later Hellenistic culture and the Roman Empire the Socratic Method was deemed the proper method for education. This entailed requiring the student to argue both sides of a topic."}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (16:25)", "body": "Today is Monday, March 20, the 80th day of 2000 with 286 to follow. Spring begins today in the Northern Hemisphere at 2:35 a.m. EST. The moon is waning, moving toward its last quarter. The morning stars are Mercury and Venus. The evening stars are Mars, Jupiter and Saturn."}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (16:27)", "body": "Indeed - and until one understands both sides of the subject in question, one cannot know the truth about it! Still as relevant today as it was then!"}, {"response": 171, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (13:42)", "body": "Space dust disappears into black holes. British astronomers have found that black holes at the centre of galaxies get bigger with age by consuming dust and gas. The first evidence of black hole appetites was found by astronomers at Nottingham and Birmingham universities who compared the ages of galaxies with the dark mass at their centres. The older the galaxy, the bigger the b. The astronomers determoined the age of 23 galaxies, concluding that some were as young as four billion and others as old as 12 billion years. \"One of the basic properties of a black hole is that material can fall into it, but can't get out\" professor Merrifield of Nottingham University, said. The findings will be presented next week at a conference in Oxford, and published in the Monthly notices of the royal Astronomical Society, next month. See http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ppzmrm/blackhole.html"}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (14:06)", "body": "Maggie's Black hole picture:"}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (14:09)", "body": "Interesting story and incredible picture. I wish I could have dared to post the enlarged one but thought it better for Terry's bandwidth that I make a smaller version for posting here. Thanks, Maggie - Fantastic stuff!"}, {"response": 174, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (14:14)", "body": "That didn't come out too badly did it, considering it came from a newspaper! (the size above was the size it came up on my screen, didn't realise it sent as larger - still sorting that out!). Still can't figure how to put that in myself if it's from my computer."}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (14:17)", "body": "It is probably better that you send the biggest possible one and let me downsize it. It has worked well so far on Geo and other places I have posted images. You did an excellent scanning job. I am envious of your talents and Wolfie's as well. Guess I'm just gonna have to take the plunge and get one, too."}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (14:20)", "body": "The graphic you are posting must first be on the internet, not just your home computer. After I downsized your image, I ftp'd it to Spring's hard drive (hosts have space allotted to them for such things). From there I got the image location by accessing my webspace url then did the command string to post it. Simple, once you've done it a few dozen times *grin* but I still occasionally mess it up...*sigh*"}, {"response": 177, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (14:22)", "body": "Mine's only a cheapy (\ufffd49). I got it to scan academic text documents - I've got a pretty nifty text scan programme that does really well. But it's doing pretty well on pics too now I've sussed the right settings. Trouble is I can't run the scanner and zip drive at the same time, and it's complicated to change the wires round."}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (16:36)", "body": "Hmmm...there is not a splitter available like an extension cord with several outlets on the end?! I am afraid I am going to have that same problem!"}, {"response": 179, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (17:44)", "body": "I've also run out of plug space on my extension lead. Under my desk looks like some kind of geek's paradise! Mind you the top doesn't look much better. Yes, I'm off to have my bath now - don't nag!"}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (17:53)", "body": "LOL...is there a cyber knee-hole which is not filled with extensions and plugs and such?! If there are, they are not trying hard enough - and my feet are atop my tool box under there, too! The top is hopeless. As soon as one project gets done another takes its place....*sigh*"}, {"response": 181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 22, 2000 (18:20)", "body": "Space Science News for March 22, 2000 The Earth's magnetosphere is being buffeted by high-speed solar wind particles from a coronal hole straddling the center of the Sun's disk. The solar wind velocity has increased from 350 to 600 km/s during the past 12 hours. Follow the action at http://www.spaceweather.com MORE SPACE SCIENCE NEWS : #1 Curiouser and Curiouser: The exotic world of gamma-ray astronomy has taken yet another surprising turn with the revelation that half the previously unidentified high-energy gamma ray sources in our own galaxy actually comprise a new class of mysterious objects. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast23mar_1m.htm #2 Solar Cycle Update: Is the real Y2K problem just starting? The solar cycle appears to be on schedule for a peak in mid-2000. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast22mar_1m.htm"}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (13:05)", "body": "Henceforth Space Science News will be posted in http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/news/36 This will enable a wider readership. For some reason surfers avoid Geo like it was a deadly disease. Suggestion?"}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (15:09)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 12 Spring is here, and 10 and 12 meters are the place to be. A high solar flux and shifting seasons are again producing conditions where low power mobiles can work the world on the highest HF bands. Last year at this time, the average solar flux for the week was 147.5. This week it was 207.8, much higher, and almost 13 points higher than last week's average. A steady upward recent trend can be seen in the graph at http://www.dxlc.com/solar/ . Geomagnetic indices have been quite low, but this should change. Active conditions are predicted for the next few days due to recurring coronal holes and some recent flare activity. A large coronal hole that has been returning for several months has split into three groups, and one of them crosses the sun's equator and is well positioned for disturbing radio conditions here on earth. Weekend conditions for the CQ Worldwide WPX Phone Contest could be stormy. The predicted planetary A index for the next five days, Friday through Tuesday, is 25, 30, 20, 10 and 10, so it looks like the best contest conditions may be on Sunday. On March 31 and April 1 conditions may be unsettled or active again, but should be quiet until April 18. Solar flux predicted for the next five days is 230, 240, 245, 245 and 235. Flux values are expected to bottom out around 185 on April 12 or 13, then peak near 250 around April 22 or 23. The High-Energy Solar Spectrograph Imager mission was set back at least six months when the satellite was mistakenly vibrated too hard in a test on a shake table at the Jet Propulsion Lab. The deployment of the satellite, which is designed to observe solar flares in their most energetic wavelengths, was expected to coincide with the solar maximum this year. You can read about the accident at http://www.msnbc.com/news/386019.asp?0a=23232C5 and about the HESSI mission itself at the NASA web site http://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/hessi/index.html and at a University of California site, http://hessi.ssl.berkeley.edu/ . Sunspot numbers for March 16 through 22 were 138, 152, 142, 208, 240, 191 and 212 with a mean of 183.3. 10.7 cm flux was 184.4, 192.4, 194.8, 208.2, 210.3, 230.5 and 233.8, with a mean of 207.8, and estimated planetary A indices were 4, 6, 7, 8, 8, 6 and 11, with a mean of 7.1."}, {"response": 184, "author": "ommin", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (23:51)", "body": "How to persuade the others to look. Is the Sun sexy! or something like that - difficult and a shame because it is all so interesting."}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (14:31)", "body": "Sex definitly sells and attracts attention. Oh well, I posted something in Porch where more people will see it. Today I posted the Discovery Channel Online in Geosites for Kids (Geo 15) with the schedule of good things to watch on the telly this week on their channel. I hope others see it. I'll put it in each Saturday hoping....!"}, {"response": 186, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (14:29)", "body": "NASA is now concerned about how to avoid showering the earth with huge shards of red-hot metal. The space agency announced this weekend that it is to crash-land a satellite the size of a railway engine in the Pacific Ocean to prevent it from spiralling out of control perhaps onto an inhabited area. The Compton gamma ray observatory studies mysterious natural explosions in space. Scientists had desperately tried to save it as no other instrument gives such good insight into the highest energy parts of the spectrum, where most energetic events in the universe show themselves. Last week NASA confirmed that it had suffered a catastrophic failure in one three gyroscopes that keep it pointing the right way. As it was deemed too expensive to send up a space shuttle to repair it, NASA scientists now plan to use Compton\ufffds remaining fuel to bring it down in a controlled descent in June. If they did not, NASA admitted, the satellite would veer off course, lose its balance and fall more than 100 miles to earth. It is so big that large chinks of metal would not burn up, like most space debris, but would land with the force of a substantial meteorite. This has happened before in 1979 when the Skylab station was being decommissioned and spread burning debris across Australia. (The Times, 26.3.2000)"}, {"response": 187, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (14:30)", "body": "I glad John sent in that thing about time. i saw that and then lost it and could'nt find it again."}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (14:47)", "body": "What did John send in? Did I miss something? Yikes!!! More debris heading for us out in the Pacific (which is very large until you start talking about something from space...)"}, {"response": 189, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (14:59)", "body": "I'm sure i didn't imagine it, but i can't see it. it was about space time continuum and time reversal. Maybe I've gone mad!"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (15:30)", "body": "No...it is there somewhere. Hmmmm...I just might have to look it up again. I would ask him but he is currently doing a midnight to 6am shift as production manager at the station as well as taping the 6 hour morning show he does daily, and tomorrow through Saturday he will be also doing Play-by-play baseball games for UHHilo - one televised, as well - from Kona. Poor dear is not all that fit and I am more than a little concerned about it. He needs as much rest as he can get so I do not bother him with email during weeks like this."}, {"response": 191, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (15:37)", "body": "I was sure i saw it as I scrolled through. then it had disappeared. (Humpy noises coming from off stage. Gotta go. probably offline for a coupla days. Bye)"}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (16:20)", "body": "Bye!!! Good luck, Dear!"}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (19:47)", "body": "Space Weather News for March 29-30, 2000 Aurora Watch: Skywatchers in northern Europe, Canada, Alaska, and the northermost tier of US states could be treated to a display of aurora borealis tonight thanks to elevated levels of geomagnetic activity late in the day on March 29. Also today, the SOHO spacecraft captured beautiful images of a full-halo coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun. Full-halo CMEs are massive bubbles of hot gas headed either directly toward or away from Earth. This one appears to have erupted on the back side of the Sun and is proceeding away from our planet. Details on both are available at http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (19:52)", "body": ""}, {"response": 195, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (19:55)", "body": "If this image updates you will be able to watch the aurora wax and wane from http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html This plot shows the current extent and position of the auroral oval in the northern hemisphere, extrapolated from measurements taken during the most recent polar pass of the NOAA POES satellite. The yellow, clock-like, arrow in the plot points toward the noon meridian. The statistical pattern depicting the auroral oval is appropriate to the auroral activity level determined from the power flux observed during the most recent polar satellite pass. The power fluxes in the statistical pattern are color coded on a scale from 0 to 10 ergs .cm-2.sec-1 according to the color bar on the right. The pattern has been oriented with respect to the underlying geographic map using the current universal time, updated every ten minutes. This presentation provides an estimate of the location, extent, and intensity of aurora on a global basis. For example, the presentation gives a guide to the possibility that the aurora is located near a given location in the northern hemisphere under the conditions that existed at the time of the most recent polar satellite pass."}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (20:13)", "body": "Mauna Kea team finds the smallest planets yet beyond our solar system By Gregg K. Kakesako Star-Bulletin Two more planets -- which may be smaller in mass than Saturn -- have been discovered by scientists at W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in the hunt for extra-solar planets. The latest planets are far smaller than the planets that have previously been found orbiting suns beyond our solar system. Saturn, the sixth planet in our solar system, is about nine times wider than Earth, but has only one-third the mass of its neighbor Jupiter. Of the 30 planets previously found around stars like Earth's sun, all have been Jupiter-sized or larger. The finding was made by Geoff Marcy of San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkeley; Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington; and Steve Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz, using the 10-meter Keck I telescope. In a written statement, Marcy said that searching for planets orbiting distant stars is \"like looking at a beach from a distance.\" \"Previously we only saw the large boulders, which were Jupiter-sized planets or larger,\" he said. \"Now we are seeing the 'rocks,' Saturn-sized planets or smaller.\" Sighting Earth-sized objects, said Marcy, would be like seeing pebbles on that beach. Astronomers are not yet able to do that. One planet, with at least 80 percent the mass of Saturn, is orbiting 3.8 million miles from the star HD-46375, 109 light years away in the constellation Monoceros. Another planet, with 70 percent of Saturn's mass, was found 32.5 million miles from the star 79 Ceti (HD16141), 117 light years away in the constellation Cetus. The planets are presumably gas giants, the scientists say, made mostly of primordial hydrogen and helium, rather than the rocky materials that make up Earth. They orbit so close to their parent stars that they are extremely hot and not conducive to life. The planet orbiting 79 Ceti has an average temperature of 1,530 degrees; while the planet orbiting HD46375 has an average temperature of 2,070 degrees. The planets probably formed at a farther distance from the star, the scientists say, where they accumulated cool gas and then migrated into their present orbits. Discovery of the Saturn-sized planets, however, supports a theory that planets such as those in Earth's solar system formed around many stars in the universe. It also supports the theory that most planets are relatively small, such as Earth, Mars and Venus. The planets are not actually seen by astronomers. Instead, they measure the gravitational effect of planets on their star. As a planet orbits, it causes the star to wobble very slightly. By measuring this wobble, scientists can detect the presence and size of a planet. Astronomers have used this technique to catalog at least 21 extrasolar planets. The group is searching some 1,100 stars within 300 light-years of Earth to find evidence of planets. A light-year is the distance that light travels in a year in a vacuum, about 6 trillion miles. Other astronomy groups are also searching and have found additional extrasolar planets."}, {"response": 197, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (09:54)", "body": "found the above article on msn today but you beat me to it *wink*"}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (10:37)", "body": "I got it almost straight from the source...then Honolulu newspaper. The telescope mentioned (the Keck) is visible atop Mauna Kea from my yard!"}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "NASA Science News for March 30, 2000 Next Thursday, April 6, three planets and the thin crescent Moon are going to put on a memorable sky show when the quartet converge inside a circle 9 degrees across. The grouping is just the prelude to a grander alignment of planets on May 5, 2000. Is doom at hand, as many mystics assert? Find out by reading the FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast30mar_1m.htm Planets for Dessert Also, for kids and kids-at-heart, a younger person's version of this article is available at the NASA Kids web site: http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2000/news-planetalign.asp?se The Planets Line Up"}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (19:22)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 1, 2000 On April Fools Day, 2000, NASA researchers are questioning the fate of five high-flying sweet treats that disappeared after a meteor balloon flight in April 1999. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast01apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 201, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (05:25)", "body": "greatMarcoa - my imagination is in overdrive!!!!!!!!!!!"}, {"response": 202, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (05:25)", "body": "Sorry Marcia a misprint"}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (11:12)", "body": "OK, those missing Peeps must be the ones I have been consuming under an disguise. Mine were yellow. If I had just known they were hiding the pink so they would not be discovered, I wouls have left the alone. It's all my fault. Actually, I have saved one to grow to adulthood amd make me some more Peeps for next year!"}, {"response": 204, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (11:14)", "body": "Sheesh! Hard to tell I am just waking up and not typing very well. Sorry for the mistakes in that last post...I tried erasing my screen but all I have to show for my efforts is smear!"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (13:53)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 3, 2000 Like blood pulsing in an artery, newly discovered currents of gas beat deep inside the Sun, speeding and slackening every 16 months. The solar \"heartbeat\" throbs in the same region of the Sun suspected of driving the 11-year cycle of solar eruptions. Scientists are hopeful that this pulse can help them unravel the origin and operation of the solar cycle. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast03apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 206, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2000 (14:37)", "body": "Next Thursday, April 6, three planets and the thin crescent Moon are going to put on a memorable sky show when the quartet converge inside a circle just 9 degrees across. \"It's going to be beautiful,\" says Vince Huegele, a researcher at the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center. \"And best of all, you won't need a telescope to see it, just your naked eye.\" Right: Duane Hilton's rendering of the April 6 planetary get-together as seen above Bryce Canyon in Utah. To admire the display, simply go outside after dinner on April 6 and look toward the southwest sky. Around 8 p.m. local daylight savings time the slender crescent moon will be easy to spot about 30 degrees above the horizon. The brightest nearby \"star\" will be Jupiter. At magnitude -2.1, the giant planet is 8 times brighter than Saturn, which glows pale yellow less than 3 degrees west of the Moon. Mars will lie a scant 1.1 degrees north of Jupiter. The red planet (magnitude 1.4) will be about 3 times fainter than Saturn (magnitude 0.3). Although the planets and our Moon will appear to be close together, there's no danger of a collision. While the Moon is only 384,000 km away from us this week, Mars is 349 million km away; Jupiter is 875 million km away; and Saturn is a whopping 1493 million km distant. When it comes to the sky, appearances can be deceiving! Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn will appear to be even closer together on April 15 when the three will fit inside a circle less than 5 degrees across. That's the most compact grouping of any 3 planets for the entire year. Nevertheless, the display on April 6 will be more beautiful thanks to the delicate crescent Moon as it passes by the trio. But wait, there's even more: Cradled in the arms of the crescent Moon will appear the ghostly outline of the full Moon, a dim glow that astronomers call \"Earthshine.\" Like all the planets we see in the night sky, the Moon shines because of reflected sunlight. The side of the Moon facing the sun shines brightly, and the side facing away is nearly dark. The only significant illumination on the \"dark side of the Moon\" is due to Earthshine -- sunlight that bounces off the Earth and falls on the lunar surface. A slender crescent Moon with Earthshine is widely regarded as one of the most delicate and beautiful sights in the night sky. It will be difficult to see from urban areas, but should be easy to view from dark sky locations. Duane Hilton's rendering of the April 6 planetary get-together as seen above Bryce Canyon in Utah."}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (19:27)", "body": "And...a reprise of April 6th lunar eclipse - one photo I did not have posted because the moon was too small in it...but I still love it. Total Lunar Eclipse Fairfield, California August 6, 1999 David Little"}, {"response": 208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (19:43)", "body": ""}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (19:45)", "body": "Please post your comments on whether or not you were able to see the alignment this evening, please."}, {"response": 210, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (20:17)", "body": "the lunar pic is great and i saw the alignment, wouldn't have known they were planets without having read this post first!"}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "I posted it in the News conference topic I created which I would like to have linked to Geo called Space News. I try to double post if it is important enough. You gonna see it? A friend in Maine just reported cloudy skies. No aurora for him, either. Looks clear to the east, but where this is gonna be is under several layers of thick clouds. Gotta get you outside some time and teach you constellations. You'd know in a flash that those bright objects did not belong there normally."}, {"response": 212, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "how did they look, woofie???"}, {"response": 213, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "i usually see one star next to the moon but because the proximity of these weren't as close as i'd imagined, i wouldn't have thought differently. jupiter is the brightest, then saturn, then mars. am gonna go out and look as it gets darker. (they were in the western sky, doesn't the moon rise in the east?)"}, {"response": 214, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (20:47)", "body": "At new moon the moon rises at sunrise and sets at sunset and we cannot see it. It rises an hour later each night (actually more like 55 minutes)until half way thorough its cycle it is full and rising at sunset and setting at sunrise. Oh yeah! Everything rises in the East because we are actually rotating west to east and we make them look that way."}, {"response": 215, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (21:03)", "body": "right, but this crescent moon was low in the western sky and rising towards the east."}, {"response": 216, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (21:09)", "body": "Not rising, sweetie. Look at it again. It should be setting."}, {"response": 217, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (21:17)", "body": "you are sooooo right! *grin* see what happens when it gets darker later? i was wondering why you were saying the moon sets when the sun sets due to the changing rising hour each day!! i got it *laugh*"}, {"response": 218, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (21:20)", "body": "Yippee!!! Pleases me as much as it does you -if not more- because you were interested enough to notice!"}, {"response": 219, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (21:21)", "body": "Can you see the old moon in the new moon's arms tonight?"}, {"response": 220, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (21:24)", "body": "yes. i've always been able to see that."}, {"response": 221, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (21:24)", "body": "if you look at it and kinda screw up your eyes (try not to focus directly), you can tell that the moon is round (and not just a disc in the sky)!!"}, {"response": 222, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (21:35)", "body": "Yup! The bright part of the moon is reflecting the sun's light (we are shading the rest) and the shaded part is illuminated by earth shine!!!"}, {"response": 223, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (21:41)", "body": "yup. my mom used to tell me it was a reflection of earth and so i thought the land-looking shapes on the moon was a result of the earth (it makes no sense, but as a kid, i didn't either)...she was probably trying to explain to me the different phases of the moon but i took her literally. if they told me the moon was made of cheese, probably would've believed that too *smile*"}, {"response": 224, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (21:46)", "body": "Make that AMERICAN cheese...there is a flag up there to prove it *grin* Kids always have interesting ways of interpreting what we say...that's why I really like talking to kids. I learn more than they do!"}, {"response": 225, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (22:30)", "body": "Okay I looked but unfortunately in Western Australia it was still light when the moon was going down and I could only see what I though was Venus, the other planets would not have shown up. Even so it was still an unusual sight. Setting sun, and a crescent moon. I was sad to miss the spectacle."}, {"response": 226, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (23:26)", "body": "There are thick, charcoal grey clouds backed up on the mountain. That is all I will be seeing this evening. Tomorrow they should not be all that farther apart. It will be interesting to see how they move in comparison with each other over the next few nights. We are all orbiting the sun so it should make a good thing to sketch each evening to compare. (I do that sort of thing...!)"}, {"response": 227, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  7, 2000 (12:17)", "body": "Response 15 of 15: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Apr 7, 2000 (12:16) * 11 lines NASA Science News for April 7, 2000 Subject: Geomagnetic Storm A major geomagnetic storm hit our planet on Thursday after an interplanetary shock wave passed by Earth on April 6, 2000. Displays of aurora borealis were spotted in Europe, Asia, Canada, Alaska and in the continental US as far south as North Carolina. The storm appears to be subsiding, but forecasters note that more aurorae might be visible Friday night. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast07apr_2m.htm"}, {"response": 228, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (20:01)", "body": "from msnmembers news : April 10 \ufffd Astronomers around the world are focusing on a mysterious pulsing light in the Big Dipper, trying to figure out whether it\ufffds a newly active black hole or a neutron star. One of the strangest things about it is its location, observers say. THE OBJECT, known as XTE J1118+480, was first spotted March 29 by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, a satellite that monitors the sky in X-ray wavelengths. At that time, the mystery object was in the midst of a rapid brightening in X-rays. Ron Remillard, a Rossi research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, put out an alert that brought confirmation of the pulsing source within an hour, from Japanese astronomers. In the days since then, the object\ufffds rise and fall has been charted by the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment, a full-sky telescope set up at Los Alamos, N.M., to track quick-changing phenomena like the pulsing light. The ROTSE team reviewed previous data and found that the object brightened and dimmed in a four-hour cycle, building up to peaks in January and March. \ufffdBefore this recent work, nothing about XTE J1118+480 was known to any branch of astronomy,\ufffd Remillard told MSNBC. Just a few days of analysis have shed a lot more light on the mystery, leading Remillard to remark that \ufffdit\ufffds not entirely a mystery anymore.\ufffd He and other astronomers believe that the source is either a black hole, a collapsed star so dense that nothing, not even light, can escape its gravitational grip; or a neutron star, a compact remnant that\ufffds only slightly less dense than a black hole. In either case, the outburst isn\ufffdt coming from the object itself, but from dust and gas that\ufffds heated to an explosive glow as it\ufffds sucked toward the object, Remillard explained. \"We get these X-ray novae that pop up when matter starts flowing from a companion star into a black hole or in some cases a neutron star,\ufffd he said. As that companion star swings around the more massive object, it may block out some of the emissions from the outburst, accounting for the variations in brightness, he said. What\ufffds particularly interesting about this source is that it has cropped up high above the galactic plane, where most of the action is, he said. Astronomers haven\ufffdt yet figured out how far away the source is, but Remillard speculated that the object is a long-dormant black hole that has just become active in the halo of stars surrounding the denser disk of our Milky Way galaxy. \ufffdIf you had a black hole forming way back then in a binary (star system), it just may have occasion to reawaken every once in a while, and we just happened to catch it,\ufffd he said. ROTSE researcher Tim McKay of the University of Michigan said the pulsing object might also turn out to be much closer to our celestial neighborhood. \ufffdEither of these solutions would be a little bit odd,\ufffd he said. Whatever it is, XTE J1118+480 is currently under close watch by astronomers ranging from backyard amateurs to investigators with the Hubble Space Telescope. But skywatchers shouldn\ufffdt expect to see the source with the naked eye: Its peak magnitude of 13 or so brings it within range of a typical 4- to 6-inch (100mm to 150mm) telescope. McKay said the object\ufffds optical brightness appears to increase about a week before its X-ray brightness, which adds to the sense of astronomical mystery. \ufffdIt may turn out to be not all that exotic,\ufffd he said, \ufffdbut its location suggests that it may be a different thing.\ufffd =============== a different thing, hmmm...very technical there. couldn't believe i got to this before you, marcia, sweetie! but my pleasure and enjoy!!"}, {"response": 229, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (21:54)", "body": "Thanks, Wolfie...now my turn to hunt for things other than the esthetic, which is what has captured my imagination of late. (How about a topic Esthetic Earth or something like that to make a home for the Fine Arts in a place which is so inspiring?!)"}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (21:59)", "body": "I can find nothing and your link does not work...*sigh*"}, {"response": 231, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (11:40)", "body": "Iridium Program Bankrupt/ Satellites to De-Orbit http://www.drsky.com/ Over the past few years, the Motorola Iridium project had placed a constellation of some 66 earth orbiting satellites, to change the future of cellular communications. The project called for cellular type communications in almost ALL areas of the globe. Now the project is bankrupt and the fate of the satellite \"constellation\" is up to the push of a few buttons to de-orbit the satellites. For observers on the ground, the Iridium satellites have been something of a rare treat. Seeing a \"flare\" in the sky as the mirrors on the satellites would glint back at the Earth from space and create a UFO of sorts. \"Dr.Sky\" has been viewing these Iridium flares for a few years and they are even seen in daylight. Now that the program is ending, why not try and view this relic in the sky for as long as you can. You can visit the Heavens-Above website to get the latest times of passage for the Iridium satellites. All you need to do is enter the information for your local observing city. http://www.heavens-above.com/"}, {"response": 232, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (18:08)", "body": "that wasn't a purposeful link. anytime i type the word news, it gets hyperlinked. (see, it did it here)"}, {"response": 233, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (18:09)", "body": "now wait, how come it didn't do it there but everywhere else?"}, {"response": 234, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (18:37)", "body": "I have had that happen to me, also, but it is usually only when I copy and paste something with that word in it which is NOT necessarily a link. Beats me!"}, {"response": 235, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (19:16)", "body": "Please check http://www.emergingmind.com/schwa/contest.htm"}, {"response": 236, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (19:28)", "body": "or this... http://www.jwp.bc.ca/saulm/index.htm"}, {"response": 237, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (01:19)", "body": "okay joined and voted the planetoid's name as Sagan - an Astronomer I admire - I did think about Fred! as in Sir Fred. Hoyle but that was too silly. After all he was always coming up in the Goon show, Fred I mean."}, {"response": 238, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (04:28)", "body": "Oh I don't know Anne, at least Fred's easy to remember. I confuse everyone and call my husband that - his name's Tony! He does goon impressions too - not very well! Tell me about sagan, my education is woefully deficient!"}, {"response": 239, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (11:00)", "body": "Maggie, did the PBS show called \"Cosmos\" ever get to Britain. Carl Sagan did the entire thing, and I liked it so well I taped the entire series. \"Billions and Billions\" of episodes *grin* He is a late US astronomer of rare talents and we all miss him. Sir Fred was my choice. Thought of According to Hoyle but a bridge master took that. Actually, I have been to a live lecture by Sir Fred Hoyle when he visited Hawaii - it was a huge thrill, though I disagreed with a lot of stuff he wrote. Thanks, Anne. How about the Solar System being named Fred? (I also refer to people we both know their names but...as Fred)"}, {"response": 240, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (12:51)", "body": "April 12, 2000 -- Astronomers from all over the United States and from 10 countries will converge in Huntsville, Alabama today for a series of meetings and lectures. Approximately eighty participants will learn about the latest findings in the field of high-energy astrophysics from a dozen research scientists. Sounds like another dry scientific meeting, right? Wrong. This workshop is the first of its kind devoted to amateur astronomers. The participants -- who will attend lectures by leading researchers in x-ray and gamma-ray astronomy -- are expected to return to their communities and spread the word about high-energy astrophysics in schools, civic forums and clubs. \"We selected the attendees in part by asking how they would share their knowledge with others,\" says Janet Mattei, director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), which is co-sponsoring the meeting along with the Marshall Space Flight Center. \"We got some fantastic responses from astronomy club presidents, planetarium workers, and teachers ... just wonderful responses. There's a real need to bring high-energy astronomy to the attention of the public, and we think these are the right people to do it.\" But that's not all. Participants will also find out how they can be involved in cutting-edge research along with NASA scientists. \"The usual connotation of 'amateur' really doesn't apply here,\" says NASA/Marshall's Dr. Jerry Fishman, one of the workshop's organizers. \"These are dedicated, well-prepared and knowledgeable astronomers who use very sophisticated equipment -- often comparable to professional observatories. Many of them are able to contribute astronomical data used in forefront astronomical research.\" Monitoring fireballs from gamma-ray bursts and tracking the light curves of variable stars are two areas where amateur data can make an impact, says Fishman. The workshop will touch on those topics and more, ranging from gamma-ray explosions at the edge of the universe to cosmic rays here in the solar system. There will be a special session entitled \"Rapid Observations of GRBs by Amateurs\" prompted in part by the recent detections of gamma-ray burst afterglows by amateurs. The three-day meeting will conclude on Saturday, April 15 with a lecture by Astronaut Dr. John Grunsfield entitled \"The 1999 HST Servicing Mission and Remarks on High Energy Astrophysics.\" Click for a Preliminary List of Speakers The Invisible, Violent Heavens High energy astrophysics is the study of the most violent events in the universe. Colliding neutron stars, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), swirling accretion disks around black holes -- these are just a few of the cosmic wonders visible in the x-ray and gamma-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Unfortunately, the short wavelengths where these events shine brightest are inaccessible from Earth because our atmosphere filters out most forms of high-energy radiation. (This is a real nuisance for gamma-ray astronomers, but a good thing for life on our planet!) To study these objects, astronomers use ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma-ray detectors on Earth-orbiting satellites. Satellite-based astronomy was once the exclusive realm of professionals, but that's slowly changing. \"Amateurs have been helping scientists with satellite-based research in variable stars since 1975,\" says Mattei. \"For example, when the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer and the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (both are orbiting observatories) were scheduled to observe the cataclysmic variable star, SS Cygni, the AAVSO was asked to help. Our members around the world kept a vigil and when the star flared at optical wavelengths we immediately called our professional colleagues.\" Thanks to the rapid alert, professional astronomers were able to point their satellites at SS Cygni while it was flaring and monitor the enigmatic star at many wavelengths for the first time. \"In this particular case everything worked! Optical, x-ray, extreme ultraviolet-- we got it all.\" This summer scientists will try to observe another outburst from SS Cygni using NASA's newest Great Observatory, the Chandra x-ray telescope. Once again the AAVSO will be called upon to alert professionals that SS Cygni is erupting, says Mattei. Another Glowing Accomplishment.... Performing a feat once reserved for trained professionals, amateurs have lately shown that they too can photograph the faint optical afterglows of distant gamma-ray bursts. The most recent instance was in early March when an amateur astronomy group in Buffalo, NY, recorded the fading fireball from a powerful GRB using a modest 14\" telescope and a home-built CCD camera. In January 1999, another amateur used a 24\" telescope in New Mexico to record the afterglow from a gamma-ray burst located near the edge of the observable Universe. Right: Nestled 7 arc seconds from a 17th magnitude foreground star, the 20th magnitude afterglow of GRB 000301C is circled in this CCD image from the US Naval Observatory 1m te"}, {"response": 241, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (03:30)", "body": "Yes, I remember watching much of Carl Sagan's \"Cosmos\" on the BBC. It was mesmeric viewing. (The \"according to Hoyle\" Hoyle was actually a whist expert, who lived before contract bridge was invented.) :-)"}, {"response": 242, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (14:31)", "body": "This is true about Hoyle, but they published bridge how-to books in the US under his name - and probably still do. It is about as far in the game as I ever got...and that was another life long ago in academia. Btw, Mark, your book and brochures were repackaged by an Hawaiian lady postal worker yesterday for the newly created Global Priority. Expect something at work in the beginning of next week...!"}, {"response": 243, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (19:24)", "body": "(pssst....marcia....mine get off yet? *smile*)"}, {"response": 244, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (20:56)", "body": "YUP...went out with Mark's...but it was wrapped ok. Let me know when it arrived and in what condition. I am accumulating a new one for you *grin*"}, {"response": 245, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (16:36)", "body": "already? (mine isn't in yet, but i will let you know) and check this link http://www.msnbc.com/news/394725.asp?bt=pu&btu=http://www.msnbc.com/m/olk2k/msnbc_o_install.asp&cp1=1"}, {"response": 246, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (17:13)", "body": "I have been posting the Space News on the News Conference hoping more people would see it and read it. I would like to have it linked here...but cannot do it without telnetting and I am not yet able to do that.... http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/news/36/new I know I posted that article from the Keck telescope (which I can see from the living room window - on a clear day, that is...! Thanks for the link, Wolfie."}, {"response": 247, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (21:24)", "body": "sure thing!!"}, {"response": 248, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (22:30)", "body": "The Home web site of the W. M. Keck Observatory is http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu:3636/ It looks rather plain but inside there are wondrous thing. Check it out!"}, {"response": 249, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (22:35)", "body": "Oh, yes, the specs on that nice Observatory on Mauna Kea (otherwise known as the Backyard...) The Observatory Observatory location Mauna Kea, Hawaii USA Headquarters location Kamuela, Hawaii USA Sponsoring Institutions California Institute of Technology, NASA & University of California Project management California Association for Research in Astronomy Donor W.M. Keck Foundation The Telescope Primary mirror design Segment Number of segments 36 Segment shape Hexagonal Segment diameter 1.8 meters (6 feet) Segment weight 880 pounds Segment material Zerodur (low-expansion glass-ceramic) Primary mirror diameter 10 meters (33 feet) Light-collecting area 76 square meters (818 square feet) Mirror curvature f/1.75 hyperbolic mirror Focal length 17.5 meters (57.4 feet) Total weight of glass 14.4 metric tons (15.9 tons) Telescope mount Altitude-Azimuth Overall telescope height 24.6 meters (80.7 feet) Total moving weight with mirrors, 270 metric tons (298 tons) The Dome Dome height 30.8 meters (101 feet) Dome width 37 meters (121.4 feet) Total moving weight 635 metric tons (700 tons) The Mountain Name Mauna Kea Location 20.708 N, 156.25 W English Meaning White Mountain Summit Elevation 4205 meters (13,796 feet) Keck Elevation 4146 meters (13,603 feet) Area 2,380 km2 (920 mi2, 22.8% of Hawaii Island) Volume ~30,000 km3 (~7,200 mi3)"}, {"response": 250, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (08:17)", "body": "Hey, hey, hey, Mark. Sir Frederick Hoyle, Astronomer extraordinaire, Plumian Professer at Cambridge, writer of many books on Astronomy - not Hoyle's on cards etc. Sir Fred Hoyle - is one of the most famous of british Astronomers - it was him who first interested me in astonomy. He first thought the universe was steady - i.e. steady state universe - but realised he was wrong. He has also written many science fiction books and has had two plays on BBC 1 - sorry to be so long replying but am inundated with reli's from U.K."}, {"response": 251, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (11:04)", "body": "I still think the steady state makes more sense than the \"Big Bang\"... He is my hero because he is the most famous astronomer I have had the privilege of meeting in person...In Hawaii, no less!"}, {"response": 252, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (12:38)", "body": "Just thought you'd be interested... While the night sky may appear to be full of stars, there are really only about 3,000 stars visible to the naked eye. They can be seen without a telescope as they are either close to the Earth or extremely luminous. The closest star to Earth, not counting the sun, is Alpha Centauri. It is about 25 trillion miles, or 4.3 light years, away."}, {"response": 253, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "and we must remember that a lot of the star light we see are just getting to us after first lighting up millions of years ago. isn't that amazing?"}, {"response": 254, "author": "ommin", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (08:10)", "body": "Hey Marcia you have met my hero Fred Hoyle, you lucky lucky girl, he is one man I have always wanted to meet (apart from one other than is who shall be nameless!! Marcia knows) - but afraid I would be totally tongue tied with his great intelligence and way with words. I am almost inclined to agree with you Marcia re steady state cause I am not sure the universe is expanding as they say. I am not sure re the doppler affect also. The galaxies seem to move at such extreme speeds that it is beyond understanding. One thing I have wondered about when they look back and see quasars at some 16 billion light years away - are we seeing our past or what? Answers please. Or at least some thoughts."}, {"response": 255, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (15:34)", "body": "*grin* Anne, he is shorter than I am...but droll and dapper - very appropriate-looking for a British Astronomer, I thought. I have spent my entire life with academics. They are no different from anyone else. I find it easy to speak with anyone because they are individuals, and I approach them that way. What we see beyond the considered 15 billion year age for the solar system is seeing the universe BEFORE we were coalesced into a galaxy. We were loosely joined star-stuff. If we could see a planet of the same age as we are ourselves at any distance in the realm of light years we would be seeing them as we were. More easy to understand is if we were to go there, we would see us in a far distant past. NASA Science News for April 21, 2000 Amateur astronomers attended a unique meeting in mid-April to learn about high-energy astrophysics and how they can participate in it. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast21apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 256, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (12:29)", "body": "EXPLODING STAR FEATURED ON WEB SITE Wednesday, April 26, 2000 16:04 A spectacular view of an exploding star was released today on a new web site launched to mark the Hubble Space Telescope's 10th year in orbit. The multi-coloured fireball, some 6,500 light years from Earth in the constellation Aquila, looks like a giant eye in space. A few thousand years ago a dying star about the same size as the Sun erupted and threw off its outer layers to create the \"planetary nebula\" NGC 6751. Shells of gas were hurled into space at speeds of 25 miles per second, glowing with the strong ultra-violet radiation emitted by the star's hot exposed core. The celestial cataclysm offers a sobering vision of what is in store for us. Our own Sun is predicted to undergo the same death throes in about six billion years' time. When it happens nothing in the Solar System, including the Earth, will escape destruction. The image is one of a number of dramatic pictures now available on the new Internet site http://hubble.stsci.edu Others include infant galaxies that existed billions of years ago, and tall, gaseous pillars that serve as incubators for embryonic stars. NGC 6751 shows several poorly understood features. Blue regions mark the hottest glowing gas, forming a ring around the central stellar remnant. Orange and red colours mark the locations of cooler gas, which tends to lie in long streamers pointing away from the central star, and in a tattered ring around the edge of the nebula. The origin of the cooler clouds within the nebula is still uncertain, but the streamers are evidence that they are affected by radiation and raging winds from the hot star at the centre. The star's surface temperature is estimated to be a scorching 140,000C. Hubble will be decommissioned in 2010 and replaced by the even more powerful Next Generation Space Telescope. \ufffd Press Association Thanks for this, Maggie"}, {"response": 257, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (11:56)", "body": ""}, {"response": 258, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (12:01)", "body": ""}, {"response": 259, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (13:06)", "body": "Universal Pictures Not content with mapping the world with its Terraserver project ( http://www.terraserver.com ) Microsoft is expanding its sights to include the entire universe. The company is setting up a database of digitised images of the sky, using pictures taken from the automated Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which is currently collecting 200m shots of the cosmos. Microsoft which hopes the project will show how reliable the database products are, has a prototype of the website Try http://www.sdss.org which will eventually let users click on any part of the night sky to zoom in and see more detail. It looks a great site now and has lots in it."}, {"response": 260, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (13:41)", "body": "Thanks!!! (having trouble with html programming?!)"}, {"response": 261, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (00:44)", "body": "yeah, I'll send you what i did (yesterday was not a good time to send it for checking!), so i did it the old way again."}, {"response": 262, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (01:59)", "body": "Isn't there a planetary conjunction due early this month?"}, {"response": 263, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (02:01)", "body": "Planet earth gets a whole lot lighter IT HAS taken more than 300 years but science\ufffds weightiest problem may at last have been solved. A group of American physicists has finally found an accurate way of weighing the Earth Tomorrow they will formally announce to the American Phys-ical Society that the Earth weighs 5,972 billion billion tonnes \ufffd about 10 billion bil-lion tonnes less than the best previous estimates. It is both a scientific landmark and the cul-mination of an international race, which Britain has lost. A rival group at Birmingham Uni-versity was within days of com-ing up with its own figure. The work was carried out by Professor Jens Gundlach, of the University of Washington, Seat-tle. \ufffdWe are confident that we now know the mass of our home planet more precisely than it has ever been known to mankind,\ufffd he said. Scientists have fought over the planet\ufffds weight since the 17th century; when Sir Isaac Newton first described how the Sun and the planets orbiting around it were held together by gravity \ufffd a force related to their masses. Newton worked out the basic rules of gravity, but lacked the equipment to measure the so-called gravitational constant. Without this he could only guess at the figures that have intrigued physicists ever since: the exact weight of Earth, the other planets and the sun. Since then scores of physi-cists have come up with values for Big G, as the constant has become known. Henry Cavend-ish came close in 1798 but his result, like all others since, was very inaccurate. All bodies exert a gravita-tional pull on other bodies around them. Its size depends on bow much they weigh and the distance between them. For anything less-massive than a star or planet the force is tiny. Most laboratory experiments have therefore been based on making highly accurate meas-urements of the attraction between two masses \ufffd usually lumps of metal. The tiny forces generated tend, however, to be swamped by others such as Earth\ufffds own gravity, air move-ments and temperature changes. Even lorries parking near a labo-ratory can alter the results. Gundlach spent \ufffd160,000 constructing an apparatus mounted on turntables which were rotated to cancel out local anomalies. In his final set-up a small plate was suspended by a tungsten thread in a slowly rotat-ing cylinder. Then, a set of mas-sive weights mounted outside the cylinder was spun in the opposite direction \ufffd creating a gravitational pull on the plate. This put a tiny, measurable twisting force on the thread. -\ufffdThe total force acting on the plate was equivalent to the weight of a bacterium,\ufffd said Gundlach. \ufffdIt was amazingly hard t measure.\ufffd He believes the effects of his work will be profound. Apart from shaving billions of tonnes off previous estimates of Earth\ufffds mass, it should give geologists a better idea of the density of the planet \ufffd ena-bling them to work out what is happening in the molten layers beneath the surface. Astrophysi-cists may also be able to get a better idea of the age of the uni-verse and bow long it will last. Perhaps the greatest benefit could be for cosmologists searching for the so-called grand unified theory, which sci-entists hope will one day explain the forces that first cre-ated the universe and which have since governed the behav-iour of everything \ufffd from stars to sub-atomic particles. Other scientists, however, are not optimistic. Clive Speake, of Birmingham University\ufffds exper-imental gravitational physics group, is working on data from a separate experiment from which results for Big G and the Earth\ufffds weight are also expected this week. He described Gundlach\ufffds results as \ufffdpretty incredible\ufffd and added: \ufffdI nearly fell off my chair when I read his report. Nobody else has ever pretended to find these values with such a high level of accuracy. The test will be whether he and others can repeat this.\ufffd Gundlach, however, has also worked out the weight of the sun. But at 1.988 billion billion billion tonnes, even he accepts there is room for error. \ufffdWe could be wrong by billions of tonnes\ufffd but it is still the clos-est we have got,\ufffd he said. Jonathan Leake Science Editor, The Sunday Times, April 30th 2000"}, {"response": 264, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (11:48)", "body": "Yes, May 5, 2000 is the grand alignment and it will not be visible because they are lined-up on the other side of the sun from us and will be lost in the glare. Posted Earlier in Space Sceince News re the Grand Alignment: May 5, 2000. Is doom at hand, as many mystics assert? Find out by reading the FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast30mar_1m.htm Planets for Dessert Also, for kids and kids-at-heart, a younger person's version of this article is available at the NASA Kids web site: http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2000/news-planetalign.asp?se"}, {"response": 265, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (22:37)", "body": "I was on my way to Geo27 but had to stop here for a bit... Very interesting stuff - another hobby interest is in radio astronomy/SETI. Once I get the dish mounted, I can start work on a hydrogen line receiver (1.4ghz) then I can listen to all the light dimmers in the neighborhood. I have seen plans for simple RA setups in the 400mhz and 12ghz range but I want to focus on L band stuff but there is some interesting signals heard around 5ghz as well - not sure if my 8ft dish will be any good but I have to start somewhere (plus need to find a 30ft dish...) - data crunching will be on the old P90. Any other radio astronomers out there? Mike"}, {"response": 266, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (22:44)", "body": "Spent 4 years in shouting distance of Green Bank, W Va and have seen Jodrell Bank as well. I'd love to be a mouse in the corner while you work with your array. Great stuff. SETI has a great website. Now, we are expecting photos of you at the controls. Must have a handy analyzer (used to be an oscilliscope sp?!) Please let us know what is happening as you create your listening post! I, for one, am very interested!"}, {"response": 267, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "http://www.msnbc.com/news/399686.asp Please check this out! April 26 \ufffd A telescope that took a 10-day balloon ride over Antarctica has provided the most detailed glimpse ever into the fossil universe, as well as the best evidence yet that the cosmos conforms to classic geometry. The Boomerang experiment also confirms that all the matter we can see \ufffd from germs to galaxy clusters \ufffd accounts for only a small fraction of the universe. More at the above url. Thanks, Ginny!"}, {"response": 268, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (05:44)", "body": "(Patrick Moore (the 'Sky at Night' guy) is doing a live evening locally next month on'the Universe'. I am trying to persuade the house male to take me.)"}, {"response": 269, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (13:00)", "body": "Oh yes! Promise him anything! I would in similar circumstances. (How do you think we got to see Sir Fred Hoyle?!)"}, {"response": 270, "author": "ommin", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (06:21)", "body": "Patrick Moore is very, very special one of my favourite men - he is totally eccentric - totally given over to astronomy, talks the fastest I have ever heard in a quarter of an hour on the \"Sky at Night\" he got in half an hours worth of facts every month. He is I believe probably the greatest amateur astronomer ever. If you can get him on here I would be delighted - he would respond you know, I used to write to him in the U.K. and he always was delighted to respond, Fred Hoyle apart he is my favourite. Do try to contact him someone in the U.K. We had a delightful chappie on our channel nine programme this morning (Australia) that is talking about the planet alighment using a chocolate cake as an example! Pointing out that this alighment was not as near as many others but on the other hand it wouldn't be until 2690 before another like it! I was somewhat puzzled as I thought it was every 75 years or so."}, {"response": 271, "author": "ommin", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (06:22)", "body": "Please excuse spelling. But I would be most interested in any response to my question."}, {"response": 272, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (13:24)", "body": "I've no idea at the moment how to contact him Anne, but it would be great if we could get him interested. Have you heard him play the xylophone? He is truly extraordinary! I took down notes from last months sky at night, but haven't got round to posting them yet (can't find the pad I wrote on!). He also used to play the 'ask me any question about any computer game' quiz master on a kids programme on TV. I will definitely book to go and hear him, with or without the house male!"}, {"response": 273, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (13:47)", "body": "For years I subscribed to the Illustrated London News and adored it and most especially Partick Moore's regular contributions. I'm lining up behind you in the ranks of those who admire this most interesting man. ( I would suggest contacting him through where ever he is now publishing articles.)"}, {"response": 274, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (18:42)", "body": "A Hubble Decade To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 10th anniversary, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., has created a new Web site devoted to the Earth-orbiting telescope and its spectacular images. Offering much more than pretty pictures, the site recounts Hubble's discoveries, illustrates how the telescope works, and suggests various educational activities and games. Until June 6, you can also vote on which celestial object astronomers should point the Hubble telescope to. Go to: http://hubble.stsci.edu/ and http://heritage.stsci.edu/"}, {"response": 275, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (19:22)", "body": "Lost and Found: Hubble Finds Much of the Universe's Missing Hydrogen For the past decade astronomers have looked for vast quantities of hydrogen that were cooked up in the Big Bang but somehow managed to disappear in the empty blackness of space. Now, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered this long-sought missing hydrogen. This gas accounts for nearly half of the \"normal\" matter in the universe -- the rest is locked up in galaxies. The confirmation of this missing hydrogen will shed new light on the large-scale structure of the universe. The detection also confirms fundamental models of how so much hydrogen was manufactured in the first few minutes of the universe's birth in the Big Bang."}, {"response": 276, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (01:00)", "body": "I also admire Carl Sagan and Patrick Moore, and have some of their books. Moore's \"A-Z of Astronomy\" is a great reference for quick (and easy to understand) explanations of astronomical terms. BTW, nice new marble background, Marcia!"}, {"response": 277, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (11:47)", "body": "Thank you for joining the Moore-Sagan fan club and for your approval of the new marble. Moore's column is the one thing I miss the most about no longer subacribing to the Illustrated London News. It was a slendid magazine until they sold it and \"modernized\" it. Read: They added many more adverts and removed lots of the serious content - especially the archaeology!"}, {"response": 278, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2000 (15:16)", "body": "Ginny posted this in Science conference - and it was important enough that I am pasting it to here... Friday, May 5 Missing Matter Found At Last Astronomers announced on Wednesday that they have at long last found an elusive component of the universe's missing mass. The \"dark matter\" is in the form of giant clouds of hydrogen in intergalactic space. Such streams of gas were presumed to exist, as computer models showed matter collecting into ribbons as the universe cooled after the Big Bang. (Galaxies formed where the gas was densest.) Evidence for the hydrogen was revealed in spectra of a quasar taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. As light from a quasar travels toward Earth, some of the light is absorbed by atoms in the clouds. The redshifts of gases at different distances create spectral features at different, specific wavelengths. Todd Tripp and Edward Jenkins (Princeton University) and Blair Savage (University of Wisconsin-Madison) determined that the quasar's light had several absorption features due to ionized oxygen, which, the astronomers note, is a \"tracer\" for the hydrogen (itself invisible). Tripp and his colleagues explain that these hydrogen ribbons can account for as much as half of the universe's \"normal\" matter (that which is composed of protons and neutrons, as atomic nuclei are). The results appear in the May 1st Astrophysical Journal Letters. See the online press release: http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2000/18/"}, {"response": 279, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2000 (16:53)", "body": "It was never really missing. It was there all along; we just didn't know where or how to look for it."}, {"response": 280, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2000 (17:03)", "body": "Of course...*grin*"}, {"response": 281, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (00:44)", "body": "Please check http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/34.66"}, {"response": 282, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (20:07)", "body": "Atlantis Shuttle Poised for Friday Launch CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The space shuttle Atlantis was poised on its launch pad on Thursday, ready to send astronauts on a long-delayed repair and supply mission to the International Space Station, which is running short of power and slowly losing orbit. NASA scheduled liftoff for 6:12 a.m. EDT on Friday following a month of delays caused by bad weather, a crowded schedule of unmanned launches and the astronaut commander's badly sprained ankle, which has now healed after an in-training injury. When commander James Halsell docks Atlantis to the space station early on Sunday, the crew of six Americans and one Russian will be arriving at an outpost whose completion is more than two years behind schedule and months away from seeing its first long-duration crew. The unfinished $60 billion project will need repairs before construction can even resume. In April, bad weather caused the U.S. space agency to scrap the Atlantis launch on three consecutive days. Air Force forecasters were predicting perfect weather for Friday's launch. The first priority on the 10-day Atlantis mission is to restore full power to one of the two station modules now in orbit. Astronauts will replace four of six solar charged batteries that no longer fully recharge. The crew will also use thrusters on Atlantis to boost the station's orbit about 17 miles to a standard orbit of some 235 miles. Although the Earth's atmosphere is extremely thin at such distances, it has been enough to reduce the station's orbit by about 1.5 miles a week. With the boost, the station can be properly positioned for an automatic docking with its next major component, a Russian service module with living quarters and enough fuel to keep the station up on its own. The Russians plan to launch the module, dubbed Zvezda, in mid-July. Space-walking astronauts will also try to lock-down a wobbly construction crane outside the station. The mission was announced in February as Zvezda's launch was repeatedly delayed by trouble in the cash-strapped Russian space program. By then it had become clear the station would need stop gap repairs. ``We didn't think it would be this long before we got more modules up there,'' said the station's operations manager, Bob Cabana, who as an astronaut commanded the first assembly mission in 1998. NASA took four astronauts already in training for a supply mission Halsell, pilot Scott Horowitz, and mission specialists Mary Ellen Weber and Jeffery Williams and teamed them with a Russian cosmonaut and two American astronauts Yuri Usachev, Susan Helms and James Voss training in Moscow to become the second crew to live aboard the station. And even though the fledgling station is six months away from seeing its first live-aboard crew, and 12 months from hosting any serious science, NASA has called this mission a jump-start for the program. ``By this time next year, we'll have a real space station up there with a laboratory and an airlock and electrical power and a crew on-board,'' Cabana told reporters on Thursday. ``I think people ought to stop doubting and start believing, because we're launching.''"}, {"response": 283, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 26, 2000 (14:41)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 26, 2000 The pioneering space station concepts of the mid-1950's don't look much like the erector-set habitat in orbit today. Read about Werner von Braun's early designs for an outpost in space and how he advocated his ideas to the public 50 years ago. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast26may_1m.htm?l=NzMwMjk2IG1hcmNpQEFMT0hBLk5FVCBTTkdMSVNUIC66FwsfrRgz"}, {"response": 284, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (11:38)", "body": "Sunday Times 4/6/2000 Britons open eye on dawn of universe Jonathan Leake, Science Editor BRITISH astronomers are designing the world's ultimate telescope - so large it will be able to make direct observations of life-bearing planets in other solar systems. The so-called Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (Owl) will also see across space to the edge of the universe - collecting light emitted 11 billion years ago from the first stars formed. The insights it provides, say astronomers, will be stupendous. Sir Martin Rees, the astronomer royal, said the project was \"the next big step\" in probing the origins of the universe. \"It will be looking at more distant and fainter objects than ever before - including some that formed close to the big bang,\" he said. A telescope capable of such feats has long seemed an astronomer's fantasy. The crucial part of any telescope is its reflector, essentially a mirror, which focuses light into cameras and other instruments. The largest telescope made has a reflector 10 metres in diameter, tiny compared with the 100 metres needed for the Owl device. Until now astronomers had not even considered such a project. A 100-metre glass mirror is beyond modern technology, would be too heavy to move and would be pointless because of the way light is distorted when it passes through the atmosphere. At Durham University, however, a team of physicists has designed a system that replaces traditional reflectors with hundreds of thin flexible mirrors with just a fraction of the weight. Such mirrors may even be made of fabrics sprayed with reflective coatings. These can be built onto a flexible frame whose shape is computer-adjusted thousands of times a minute to counteract the distorting effects of the atmosphere. The result has been to cut the cost of the project to about \ufffd800m - less than the total cost of the Millennium Dome. Roger Davies, professor of astronomy at Durham, said the system meant ground-based telescopes would be able to make observations as if they were floating in space. \"We will be able to see other planets clearly enough to measure water on their surface and oxygen in their atmospheres. Such planets could be capable of bearing carbon-based life,\" he said. The obstacles, however, remain formidable. Even with its advanced optics it will have to be built in the highest, driest place that can be found. The most likely spot is Cerro Paranal, high in the Andes mountains in Chile. \"The cost means Britain cannot go it alone on this - it will be an international project,\" said Professor Ian Halliday, chief executive of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, the government's funding agency for such research, when he unveiled the scheme last week. He is negotiating to link Britain with the eight European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Holland, who already run the European Southern Observatory in Chile. Among the most important questions the Owl telescope would resolve is the structure and origin of the universe. What puzzles astronomers is why stars and galaxies are not spread around at random but occur in clusters with huge empty voids in between. More recently it emerged that galaxies often string themselves together into long filaments or form into flat sheets. The limited power of modern telescopes means they cannot provide enough detail to explain such phenomena. By contrast, the Owl telescope's ability to collect radiation from stars as they looked billions of years ago will allow astronomers to examine what was going on to create such unexpected patterns today. Its huge dish will also enable it to peer through the intergalactic clouds of dust that hide the hearts of galaxies and watch new stars being born. But it is the search for life on other planets that provides the most powerful inspiration for building such telescopes. Designs are being drawn up at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh. But Britain's astronomers are not driven only by lofty ideals. In the past few years there has been an increasing sense of frustration as Britain's telescopes have been eclipsed by others. The Americans, for example, have now got the Keck telescope, whose 10-metre reflector is the biggest in the world. Britain's European partners also have some spectacular facilities, in particular the very large telescope comprising four linked 8-metre reflectors that is nearing completion in Chile. Britain has taken no part in this project or any others of note except for paying a quarter of the costs of the Gemini observatory comprising two 8-metre telescopes, one in Hawaii and the other in Chile. It means that, unless the UK can initiate a large telescope project or buy into an existing one, it will soon be marginalised. Halliday said: \"Britain has a long and proud history in astronomy and the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope is the kind of project we must get involved in to maintain that record.\""}, {"response": 285, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (11:39)", "body": "oops sorry"}, {"response": 286, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (11:40)", "body": "trying to correct"}, {"response": 287, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (14:44)", "body": "You did just fine - I am going to leave it - momentous as it is! Thanks for posting it."}, {"response": 288, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (19:27)", "body": "Hi All There was something in the most recent Astronomy magazine about the adaptation of military technology to telescopes to eliminate 'twinkle' - this had to do with making adjustments to the reflector mirror as well. Anyway, cool stuff - hope it gets built. Mike"}, {"response": 289, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jun 23, 2000 (03:49)", "body": "Scientists Find Evidence of Water on Mars By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers said they had found convincing evidence that water flows on the surface of Mars, a finding that makes it much more likely life could exist or has existed on the planet. Photographs from NASA's orbiting Mars Global Surveyor show gullies that look like they could have been formed only by large amounts of water bursting out and causing landslides, scientists Michael Malin and Kenneth Edgett said on Thursday. ``We see features that look like gullies formed by flowing water and the deposits of soil and rocks transported by these flows,'' Malin, of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, said in a statement. ``The features appear to be so young that they might be forming today. We think we are seeing evidence of a ground water supply, similar to an aquifer.'' Channels carved by flash floods in the U.S. West look very similar to the Martian gullies, said Mike Carr, a planetary geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. ``These images are dead ringers for things we see when we fly over the West,'' Carr, who wrote a book about water on Mars, said in an interview. Malin and Edgett have been poring over some 65,000 images taken by a camera aboard the Mars Global Surveyor in the past year. What they saw shocked them. Right where they would least expect to find water, in the coldest crannies of craters facing away from the Sun and toward the poles, they found gullies. The most logical explanation is that they were formed by water. ``I was dragged to this conclusion kicking and screaming,'' Edgett told a news conference. The findings are astonishing because scientists had believed that water on Mars could only exist in frozen form, beneath the soil or tied up in polar icecaps, and as extremely sparse clouds in the thin Martian atmosphere. ``The presence of liquid water on Mars has profound implications for the question of life not only in the past, but perhaps even today,'' Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science, told the news conference. ``If life ever did develop there, and if it survives to the present time, then these landforms would be great places to look,'' said Weiler. The evidence is also overwhelming that the landslides were recent. Craters quickly pockmark everything on the surface of Mars, but no craters can be found in the piles of rock and dirt below the slides. Some of the slides also pile up over sand dunes, which themselves are transient. And intriguing glints of light and dark suggest there has not been time for the ubiquitous Martian dust that coats everything on the planet with a red powder to settle in some of the gullies. The new conclusions will have to be confirmed. The paper does not say that water itself has been detected -- only structures that, if found on Earth, would have been formed by water seeping up from underground, then building up under pressure and bursting out in an explosion of mud. ``I bet when this data gets out in the science community, there will be all sorts of proposals about how you could do this without water,'' Carr said. Malin and Edgett say they plan to study more pictures in the hope of finding one of these landslides in action. ``I personally will feel better when he shows me a picture some day ... and a channel has moved, a boulder has moved,'' Weiler said. The findings are a huge boost to NASA, which lost two Mars missions in a row late last year. The space agency is planning missions to Mars in 2003 and 2005 which will include the use of a robot to sample the planet's surface. ``It is very pleasing to be up on the dais talking about something positive for a change,'' Weiler said. ``It feels a lot better than crashing a satellite,'' he added later. NASA has admitted it may have cut a few too many corners in recent Mars missions. ``We pushed a little too far on faster, better, cheaper,'' Weiler said. ``We need to take a step back.'' But, he pointed out, the Mars Global Surveyor was the result of the ``faster, better, cheaper'' approach. ``I think one of the most interesting and significant aspects of this discovery is what it could mean if human explorers ever go to Mars,'' said Malin. ``If water is available in substantial volumes in areas other than the poles, it would make it easier for human crews to access and use it -- for drinking, to create breathable air, and to extract oxygen and hydrogen for rocket fuel or to be stored for use in portable energy sources.''"}, {"response": 290, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jun 23, 2000 (03:51)", "body": "Try: http://www.starport.com/mars/ for more Mars specific info"}, {"response": 291, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 23, 2000 (17:41)", "body": "I posted this yesterday on Geo 34 but thank you for putting another version in full here! *hugs*"}, {"response": 292, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 29, 2000 (18:29)", "body": "Science News Model Tracks Storms from the Sun R. Cowen Hell hath no fury like a solar storm. When the sun blows its top, it hurls billions of tons of electrically charged gas into space at speeds up to 2,000 kilometers per second. Now, a group of astronomers has developed a reliable method for predicting how long it will take these storms to hit Earth. There, they can disrupt satellites, hamper radio communications, and knock out power grids. Another team has gathered observations that confirm a model of how the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, manages to store up enough magnetic energy to induce these upheavals. Both teams reported their findings this week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Stateline, Nev. The new calculations of solar storms' arrival times relied on observations by two spacecraft. SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) stares directly at the sun and measures the speed of massive clouds of electrified gas known as coronal mass ejections. Those clouds that head toward Earth are detected by another spacecraft, called Wind, about an hour before they arrive. Predicting the travel time for a coronal mass ejection is a tricky business. Once launched from the sun, these clouds must make their way through the solar wind, the vast stream of ions that continuously blows out from the sun. Like the current of a great river acting on a tossed twig, the solar wind tends to pull slowermoving material up to its own speed and hold back material that sets off at a higher speed. more... http://www.sciencenews.org/20000624/fob1.asp"}, {"response": 293, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (16:41)", "body": "The SOHO C2 coronagraph captured this image of a sungrazing comet 0.75 degrees from the Sun on April 29, 2000. The solid brick-colored disk in the middle is the coronagraph's occulting disk; the white circle shows the true size of the Sun. The comet was noticed by four different amateur astronomers who were monitoring images from SOHO's realtime data page. All four (M. Boschat, T. Lovejoy, M. Oates, R. Gorelli) are credited with the discovery. The same comet was visible a day earlier in wider-angle C3 images, but it was much fainter. This 4-frame animation of the comet illustrates why it is easier to find sungrazers when they are very close to the Sun. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast07jul_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 294, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (16:42)", "body": ""}, {"response": 295, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (16:44)", "body": "Caption above for this image:"}, {"response": 296, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (18:08)", "body": "COMET LINEAR NASA Science News for July 05, 2000 Comet 1999 LINEAR S4, which can already be seen through binoculars, is expected to become a faint naked-eye object similar in appearance to the Andromeda Nebula as it glides by the Big Dipper this month. Maximum brightness is expected on July 23, 2000. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast05jul_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 297, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (18:12)", "body": "TIME LAPSE IMAGE OF COMET LINEAR This time-lapse sequence of Comet LINEAR-S4 was taken on July 2, 2000, from Arizona and shows the comet's movement over only 19 minutes. Credit & Copyright: Wil Milan"}, {"response": 298, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (19:22)", "body": "Comet Linear information pages: http://www.cometlinear.com/ http://www.skypub.com/sights/comets/0007linearS4.html Enjoy, photograph and post your comments!!!"}, {"response": 299, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2000 (13:17)", "body": "Last Night's Aurora Report: Location: Bakersfield, CA (N118.00 W035.00) UTC Date/Time of Observation: 2000/07/14 at 08:17 for 01 hours 00 minutes. Dimmest Stars Visible: 4th to 5th Mag. Estimated Intensity of Activity: Moderate Elevation angle of activity above horizon: 120 degrees Types of activity observed: (Discrete Arcs) (Rays) (Curtains) Light Pollution: Moderate Sky Conditions (cloudy or not): Clear View Estimated Lunar Interference: High (Near-Full Moon) Comments: I have never seen it here before... my mother lives 75 miles away and described almost exactly the same thing I saw!"}, {"response": 300, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2000 (20:32)", "body": "okay. I seem to be the only one who saw the lunar eclipse last night. I live in Perth, Western Australia, as it was a somewhat showery evening, I had to dodge between the showers. Nevertheless it was an awesome sight. The moon looked first time as if it was smoke covered, red coloured and rather smaller than usual. Gradually the red colour took over although it still seemed to be on fire - rather strange. It was weird and rather peculiar, and I can imagine some 100/200 years ago would have caused panic. Portents and goodness knows what else. It was well worth seeing and lasted for some three hours. I apologise for not taking a picture but the weather was to unstable to chance staying outside too long."}, {"response": 301, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2000 (23:28)", "body": "Anne, a million thanks for that report. Scroll back and see my son's pix (I'l post the url for the exact place) so you can compare the last lunar eclipse."}, {"response": 302, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 17, 2000 (00:57)", "body": "For all of the most current Aurora reports please check http://www.spacew.com/www/auroras.html Looks like England had the best show!"}, {"response": 303, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 17, 2000 (16:40)", "body": "I heard about the lunar eclipse on the news. They showed people in Japan viewing it."}, {"response": 304, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 18, 2000 (00:51)", "body": "Yeah.....I got to watch a downpour but some others saw it at 2am here so I am really unhappy for having missed it. Oh well. For my son's images ofd the previous lunar eclipse http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/geo/24.97 http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/geo/24.207"}, {"response": 305, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 19, 2000 (13:54)", "body": "Chris report Last night's aurora from Eastern Pennsylvania as being green, pink and blue with stars sparkling through it. He prnounced it beautiful. It was his first experience seeing it. I am delighted - now if I can only get him to post his report next time.....sigh"}, {"response": 306, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 19, 2000 (14:01)", "body": "Um.....that comment about posting ones own report was not just directed at Chris. We all like to read someone other than my words on any topic. Ok?!"}, {"response": 307, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 20, 2000 (01:02)", "body": "Unveiling the Infrared Sky NASA Science News for July 20, 2000 Your home computer can become a portal to a wonderland of stars, thanks to a massive release of images from an infrared sky survey sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation. The current release is based on a volume of data several hundred times larger than that contained in the human genome! FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast20jul_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 308, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 21, 2000 (12:01)", "body": "Coronal Mass Ejection 21 July 2000 There is high probability that the CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) from the major M-class solar flare of 19 July 2000 will arrive today. It is expected to hit the Earth almost head-on. It is not expected to be as intense as this last weekend's event. Auroral activity is expected to increase to storm levels on 21 July 2000. There is a good chance for observations of auroral activity from many dark-sky middle latitude regions, particularly prior to midnight when the moon is still below the horizon and optimal observing conditions exist. Moonrise occurs near local midnight. TWO ADDITIONAL M-Class flares occured today: :ALERTS: X-Ray event M5/1B/S12W14 BEG 20 Jul 2000 2022 MAX 20 Jul 2000 2025 END 20 Jul 2000 2028 UT Comment: None X-Ray event M5.5 BEG 21 Jul 2000 1430 MAX 21 Jul 2000 1437 END 21 Jul 2000 1443 UT Comment: None More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 309, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 22, 2000 (21:07)", "body": "Comet LINEAR update Space Weather News for July 22, 2000 Comet LINEAR will reach maximum brightness around July 23, 2000, as it glides past the bowl of the Big Dipper. Sky watchers have been hoping that LINEAR would become visible to the unaided eye. However, monitoring data from a global network of astronomers suggest that the comet's brightness will peak at a visual magnitude of +6.5, just below the threshold for naked-eye visibility. LINEAR should still be a visual treat when viewed through binoculars or a small telescope. ALSO: The Boulder sunspot number soared this week to a value of 401. Experts say that's rare, even near the peak of the solar maximum. For more information please visit http://www.spaceweather.com NOTE to readers: Since SpaceWeather.com was launched in its current form on January 1, 2000, the site has focused on solar and geomagnetic activity. Comets and meteors are an important aspect of space weather, too. With today's update about comet LINEAR we will begin an accelerating program of coverage for comets, meteor showers, and related astronomical events."}, {"response": 310, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 28, 2000 (23:36)", "body": "Comet LINEAR breaks apart Space Weather News for July 28, 2000 There is growing evidence that comet LINEAR, which made its closest approach to the Sun earlier this week, is disintegrating. Today's spaceweather.com features images and animations of the apparent breakup. Also, an interplanetary shock wave struck Earth's magnetosphere on July 28, 2000, triggering minor geomagnetic activity. For more information please visit http//www.spaceweather.com http//www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 311, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (06:07)", "body": "Wow a shock wave!"}, {"response": 312, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (22:52)", "body": "Amazing, huh?! They have great photos on that above url."}, {"response": 313, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  4, 2000 (20:47)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 31 - August 4, 2000 Solar activity for last week (July 28 - August 3) was mostly at low levels. A minor M-class flare from region 9090 occurred on July 28. Several new regions (9110, 9111, 9112, 9113, 9114, and 9115) emerged later in the week. Region 9114 produced a C7 flare and associated CME on August 2. The 10.7 cm solar flux, following the sun's 27-day rotation period, decreased to a minimum of about 155 at the beginning of last week. Solar flux is forecasted to steadily climb to a maximum of about 240 around mid-August. A comment about 10.7 cm solar flux - although 10.7 cm solar flux is easy to measure because the Earth's atmosphere is transparent at that wavelength, energy at 10.7 cm is about 1 million times less energetic than the true ionizing energy. Thus 10.7 cm solar flux contributes nothing to the formation of the ionosphere. But it is an indicator of the general activity level of the sun, and smoothed solar flux values (a 12 month running average) correlate very well with smoothed sunspot numbers (SSN). Solar activity for next week (August 4 - August 10) is expected to be at moderate to high levels. Isolated M-class flares are expected, along with a chance for an isolated major flare. Historically the equinox months (September and March) give us the greatest amount of magnetic storms due to the orientation of the Earth at these times with respect to the solar wind. Thus expect an increase in storms up to mid-September, then a gradual decrease after that to a minimum in December. Cycle 23 continues its march upward, with a peak forecasted by the end of the year. For details, see the web site referenced in last week's bulletin ( http://www.sec.noaa.gov/weekly/index.html) . The latest SSN data is 113 for January 2000. The estimated SSN for the month of August is 120. Cycle 23 appears to be similar to, but just a bit higher than, Cycle 20, which peaked at an SSN of 110. This level of activity, while not approaching that of Cycles 22 and 21, will still give us excellent conditions on the higher HF bands as we progress from Summer to Fall and into Winter. Sunspot numbers for July 27 through August 2 were 174, 163, 183, 138, 123, 139 and 153 with a mean of 153.3. 10.7 cm flux was 162.4, 157.8, 153.2, 149.9, 147.9, 149.4 and 150.6, with a mean of 153, and estimated planetary A indices were 9, 30, 27, 10, 19, 15 and 14, with a mean of 17.7."}, {"response": 314, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  7, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "Astronomers Discover Nine Planets Outside Earth's Solar System Manchester, England, Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Astronomers say they've discovered nine planets, many as large as Jupiter, that orbit stars close to Earth, providing evidence that other solar systems made up of multiple planets exist. The results, presented at the International Astronomical Union meeting in Manchester, England, increase the number of planets discovered outside Earth's solar system to 50, said astronomer Dr. Jacqueline Mitton. ``We're making a leap to much more-distant stars,'' she said. Many of the planets discovered are 10 light-years to more than 100 light-years from Earth. The sun, by comparison, is eight light-minutes away, she said. A light year, the distance that light travels in one year, is equal to about 5.88 trillion miles. ``They're typically like Jupiter or Saturn, but it's not possible to determine exactly,'' Mitton said. ``They are giants, giant planets. They're balls of gas or liquid.'' Jupiter is about 300 times the size of Earth, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman Don Savage said. NASA helped fund the research, along with the U.S. National Science Foundation and Sun Microsystems Inc. All research was done using land-based telescopes, he said. The planets are discovered by measuring the gravitational pull, or ``wobble'' on stars the planets exert as they revolve around them, the same way the Earth follows an orbit around the sun. The results require a long series of exacting measurements that take ``several years'' to complete, Mitton said. While previous discoveries have been of single planets, ``there is evidence of multiple planets within these systems,'' Mitton said. Evidence also suggests the existence of smaller planets similar to Earth, not composed of fiery gases, that could in theory sustain life, she said. BBG/Astronomers-Discover-Nine-Planets-Outside-Ea/ Any redistribution of Bloomberg content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Bloomberg L.P. Any reference to the material must be properly attributed to Bloomberg News."}, {"response": 315, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  8, 2000 (22:48)", "body": "Perseid Dawn NASA Science News for August 08, 2000 The Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12, 2000. This year the bright, nearly-full Moon will outshine the Perseids most of the night, but for an hour between moonset and sunrise on Saturday morning, star gazers could witness a brief but beautiful meteor shower. The setting Moon may put on a show of its own Saturday. Wildfires and dust storms have filled parts of our atmosphere with aerosols. A low-hanging Moon seen through such dusty air can take on a beautiful pink or orange hue. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast08aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 316, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 11, 2000 (17:43)", "body": "Perseid meteor update + an ongoing geomagnetic storm Space Weather News for August 11, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com On the eve of the Perseid meteor shower, sky watchers report seeing 10 to 15 meteors per hour streaming from the constellation Perseus. That's consistent with an expected peak rate between 30 and 50 visual meteors per hour before dawn on August 12th. The projected maximum is somewhat weaker than Perseid maxima of recent years, but observers are also reporting that this year's Perseid meteors have been pleasantly bright. The shower should put on a good show for northern hemisphere observers this Saturday morning. Readers are invited to send their photos of the 2000 Perseids to phillips@spacescience.com (Tony Phillips). There is a chance that Saturday morning sky watchers at higher latitudes could spot colorful auroras during the Perseid meteor shower. Our planet is experiencing an ongoing geomagnetic storm triggered by a southward-pointing interplanetary magnetic field in the vicinity of Earth. If conditions persist, high latitude (and possibly even mid-latitude) auroras are possible. For more information, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 317, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 21, 2000 (14:53)", "body": "Thank Maggie for forwarding this! Manned flight to Mars in 2014? By BBC News Online science editor Dr David Whitehouse (11 August 200) The best time for the first manned mission to Mars will be in 2014, says James Longuski of Purdue University in the US. This is because the position of the planets will provide an escape route back to Earth in the event of an accident. Because of an alignment of Earth, Mars and Venus, a so-called gravitational slingshot manoeuvre would take astronauts to Mars and, if needed, bring them home safely. According to Professor Longuski, the emergency flight path would only be possible if the spacecraft was launched within a few days of 14 January 2014. Via Venus Orbital calculations show that no similar escape option exists for at least a decade before or after 2014. This means that astronauts might be forced to attempt a landing on Mars even if their spacecraft became crippled in an accident on the way to Mars. \"This trajectory is remarkably fortuitous as it does not exist for many years prior to or after the 2014 date,\" Professor Longuski said. Nasa has also identified 2014 as a possible launch date for the first human mission to Mars in a 1997 study. Professor Longuski discovered that the safest route to take would be one that permitted a quick return trip, via Venus, in case of an accident that forced the Mars landing to be aborted. If that happened, the Martian gravity would change the spacecraft's trajectory, hurling it toward Venus, where another gravity assist would return the spacecraft back to Earth. The gravity assist would allow a safe return to Earth even if the spacecraft's main rocket engine failed, Professor Longuski said. Currently, Nasa has small-scale studies but no plans for a manned mission to Mars. Many experts say that it is too late to organise a mission in 2014. But the advantages of that date may force Nasa to look again at manned flights to Mars"}, {"response": 318, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "also from Maggie and Reuters: New evidence suggests ocean on icy Jupiter moon WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New information provides the strongest evidence yet that lying beneath the icy surface of one of Jupiter's moons may be a salty ocean of water, one of the necessary ingredients for life, researchers reported on Friday. Scientists said data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft suggest the presence of water in liquid form on Europa, a moon similar in size to the Earth's. The Galileo spacecraft passed close to Europa in January. Measurements from magnetic fields led scientists to conclude that \"water is the most probable medium on Europa,\" wrote Margaret Kivelson of the University of California at Los Angeles. Kivelson and her colleagues reported their findings in Friday's edition of the journal Science. Previous NASA orbiters had beamed images of huge cracks in Europa's surface that indicated a liquid ocean might be sloshing underneath. But scientists could not tell from those pictures whether the water was frozen or still in liquid form, a key element for supporting life. Galileo collected data from magnetic fields and scientists found patterns that indicated the possibility of water, Kivelson and her colleagues wrote. While they did not rule out other scenarios, the scientists said water was the most likely explanation for the patterns they saw. Given the findings, Europa ranks just behind Mars as bodies in the solar system that merit further exploration for life forms, said David Stevenson of the California Institute of Technology. \"After Mars, it remains the most attractive extraterrestrial environment within our solar system in which to seek evidence of past or present life,\" Stevenson wrote in an accompanying article in Science. Stevenson said the Galileo evidence of water is \"overwhelming.... A global layer of water with a composition similar to Earth seawater and a thickness greater than about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) could explain the data.\" Future flights to Europa could provide more answers. NASA says it hopes to send another spacecraft there, although the space agency's missions have been hindered by budget constraints."}, {"response": 319, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Sep 13, 2000 (03:39)", "body": "More on black holes..... Tuesday September 12 1:36 PM ET NASA Shows Evidence of 'Missing Link' Black Holes http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20000912/sc/space_holes_dc_1.html By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Black holes, those matter-sucking drains in space, used to come in only two sizes: small and extra, extra large. Tuesday, NASA offered evidence of a mid-size ``missing link'' black hole. Astronomers have theorized for years that such ``missing links'' existed in the rarefied world of black holes, but now they may have detected an example of this type using NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. A black hole with the mass of 500 suns packed into a region the size of Earth's moon has been detected in the M82 galaxy some 12 million to 15 million light years away, Wallace Tucker of the Chandra X-ray Observatory Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said by telephone. Unlike black holes with a mass of up to a billion stars that tend to lie at a galaxy's center, the ``missing link'' is located some 600 light years from the heart of M82. That is relatively close in galactic terms. A light year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km), the distance light travels in a year. Relatively tiny black holes, known as stellar black holes because many have the mass of just a single star, are scattered throughout galaxies, including the Milky Way, which contains Earth. Black holes are the gluttons of the cosmos, gobbling up everything that comes near, not even letting light escape. For that reason they are invisible to scientists but can be detected by activity around their edges. Scientists had suspected that M82 might contain a so-called mid-mass black hole, but these suspicions were not confirmed until high-resolution images made with Chandra found that most X-rays in the galaxy were coming from a single, bright source. Repeated observations of M82 also showed that the X-ray flickered, brightening and dimming every 10 minutes or so. This flicker is the tell-tale sign of a black hole slurping gas from a nearby star or cloud, NASA scientists said. ``This is an interesting scientific mystery that's been solved by superior resolution of the Chandra observatory,'' Tucker said. He said scientists reported years ago that such an X-ray source might exist in M82 and there were also hints of such sources in other galaxies. But the telescopes could only ``see'' the center of the galaxy as ``one big blob,'' lacking the power to determine just where the X-rays were coming from. The M82 ``missing link'' is not in the absolute center of the galaxy, but comparatively close to it. It does seem to e in an area of rapid star formation and this raises questions about how the mid-size black hole formed, Tucker said. ``Did black holes that formed from normal stars form and then merge to form a 500 solar mass black hole or did massive stars collide and merge to form a hyperstar, that then collapsed to form (the ``missing link'') in one fell swoop?'' he said. Stellar black holes form as a natural consequence of evolution of massive stars that run out of the fuel they need to support their inner portions, which collapse of their own weight to form a black hole."}, {"response": 320, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (19:22)", "body": "Just don't fall in, my dear!"}, {"response": 321, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (19:35)", "body": "16 September, 2000 Two full-halo coronal mass ejections (CMEs) occurred on September 15, 2000, and a third CME on September 16, 2000 has been observed as the brightest of the three. These were associated with solar flares (M5-class for the latest of the three CMEs). Due to the complex delta magnetic field in the Sunspot group 9165, there is a good chance for further eruptions. Those who wish to experience Aurora (visual as well as the radio propagation mode) should be on the lookout from this point forward. At the time of writing, the Aurora index is 10, the highest level. :ALERTS: Magnetic K-Index of 4 Warning valid from 16 September, 2000 1800Z to 17 September, 2000 1500Z. Magnetic A-Index greater than=30 Watch for 19 September, 2000Z. Magnetic A-Index greater than=30 Watch for 20 September, 2000Z. Report by NW7US More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 322, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (21:00)", "body": "Mauna Kea may get extremely large scope Mauna Kea may be considered for a telescope with 10 times the light-collecting area of the world's largest optical telescopes, already atop the Big Island mountain. University of California and California Institute of Technology researchers who developed the 10-meter Keck telescopes have proposed building a 30-meter California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT). Almost routine discoveries have been coming out of the twin Kecks. CELT's mirror would allow astronomers to look deeper into the universe with more detail. \"It means you can study fainter, more distant objects in the same vein of many observations at Keck, but you can do them better,\" said Jerry Nelson, University of California-Santa Cruz professor of astronomy and astrophysics who heads the telescope design working group. Mauna Kea and several sites in Chile have been mentioned for the CELT, which project leaders hope to build in 10 to 15 years. Joseph Miller, director of UC Observatories/Lick Observatory, estimated the cost at about $500 million. \"We're working on the conceptual design but we don't have money in the bank so anything could happen two years from now,\" Nelson said in a telephone interview. \"People could say, 'Whatever happened to CELT?' It's not a sure thing but we have strong support at the highest level of academic institutions.\" The master plan for Mauna Kea anticipated such a telescope, according to Robert McLaren, interim director of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. In the plan, it's called \"Next Generation Large Telescope,\" describing the class of telescopes CELT falls into -- bigger than a 25-meter aperture, McLaren said. But while the plan foresees a telescope like CELT, such a project \"would have to be fully reviewed, assessed and approved,\" he said. As a one-time Hawaii resident, Nelson said he'd like to see the new telescope go to Mauna Kea. \"But for a project like this, you have to look for the best site for scientific and technical reasons, as well as fold in political things.\" A couple of sites in Mauna Kea's summit area might be suitable for a telescope as massive as the CELT, he said. \"Nonetheless, one must be sensitive to the political issues in Hawaii about developing the summit of Mauna Kea,\" he said. If that site is chosen, Nelson said, project leaders would work with the community to address concerns and \"not steamroll\" over them. Since the Keck telescopes are owned and operated by UC and Caltech, which CELT would be as well, Nelson thinks \"there would be a very strong connection. I could envision the same headquarters in Waimea.\" Because of the high maintenance costs of such facilities, however, the universities might end up selling or trading off part of Keck to support CELT, Nelson said. \"It's all highly speculative as to what would happen in 10 years,\" he said. McLaren said there is a trend to give the national astronomy community more access to large telescopes, mostly in private hands, in return for more federal support. \"In the case of Keck, it's unlikely that would happen real soon,\" he said, noting NASA is a partner in the telescope operation. Nelson said CELT leaders probably will start thinking seriously about sites in a year and aim for a decision in about four years. With CELT and adaptive optics, astronomers should be able to study galaxies and other distant things with better angular resolution than the Hubble Telescope, he said. \"You really win bigger by a bigger telescope, with more light sensitivity and better resolution, sharper. We will learn more about what's happening at the distant edge of the universe.\" CELT also will be powerful in exploring star-forming regions and planet formation, Nelson said. \"It has a lot of potential. Our (astronomy) communities are really excited about this. \"Experience has shown when you're building new facilities like this, the most exciting stuff that comes out of it you haven't anticipated at all -- things you just didn't even know.\""}, {"response": 323, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (04:43)", "body": "Sunday Times 17th Sept http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/ Britain plans \ufffd25m shield to prevent asteroid collisions Jonathan Leake, Science Editor A GOVERNMENT team is to propose spending up to \ufffd25m on a plan that would safeguard Britain and the world from devastation by a giant asteroid or comet. The Spaceguard initiative, expected to be announced tomorrow by Lord Sainsbury of Turville, the science minister, could see Britain using a chain of telescopes to detect and monitor \"near-Earth objects\". A report, from a commission appointed by Sainsbury, says that Earth faces a tiny but definite risk of being struck one day by an asteroid - a large lump of stone or metals travelling at tens of miles a second. This kind of impact is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs 65m years ago. A monitoring station, possibly based at Armagh in Northern Ireland and linked to telescopes around the world, would be the first stage in a programme that would also investigate ways of knocking any approaching asteroid off a collision course with Earth. One option could be to fire a nuclear missile that would explode close to the incoming rock and deflect it. At least two big impacts were recorded during the last century alone. The first, at Tunguska in Siberia in 1908, devastated an area the size of greater London. The other, in Brazil in 1947, left several huge craters. Both fell in unpopulated areas and nobody was killed. Last week astronomers announced that a huge asteroid would cross Earth's orbit today at a range of 2.6m miles. In astronomical terms this is a tiny distance - and others will come much closer. In 2027, a rock measuring half a mile in diameter, travelling at 50 miles per second and known as 1999 AN10, will hurtle past Earth at a distance of just 200,000 miles. It will pass close by several more times - with nobody yet able to predict whether it will hit the planet. The British commission includes Professor Harry Atkinson, who has worked for the European Space Agency and other international bodies, and Sir Crispin Tickell, the former British ambassador to the United Nations. It was set up in January. The threat is already taken seriously by America and Japan, which have established their own Spaceguard projects. Nasa has said it plans by 2006 to track all asteroids with diameters greater than 1km that will cross the path of Earth. An asteroid that size would wipe out most life and there would have been many such events early in Earth's 4.6 billion-year history. Now, however, the risk is much lower because most potential collisions have already happened. The last big asteroid, about six miles in diameter, was the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. The commission's report says Britain's role could be to find smaller objects, between 50 yards and about half a mile in diameter, of which there are many thousands. Up to six telescopes would have to be built - some designed to detect near-Earth objects, others to track them continually and a third group to analyse the light they reflect in order to find out what they are made of. The aim of Spaceguard would be to ensure that Earth had sufficient advance warning - hopefully decades - to investigate and then take preventive action. A Whitehall source said: \"We accept there is a risk and want Britain to take a leading role in dealing with it.\" Sainsbury wants other European countries to help finance the network, which would be computerised and would enable astronomers to build up a huge database from which they could predict which objects presented a threat. Mark Bailey, director of the Armagh Observatory, a world-renowned centre for the study of asteroids and comets, where the project would probably be based, believes the world is now so heavily populated that even a small impact could kill millions. \"Asteroid and comet impacts have changed human history in the past and it could happen again,\" he said. The biggest risk to Earth is from comets that appear at random from the Oort Cloud - a huge sphere of icy rubble that surrounds the solar system. They move very fast and could reach Earth within months of being spotted. Dr Bill Napier, an astronomer who specialises in comets and asteroids, believes the only solution is to set up a fleet of rockets carrying nuclear bombs that could be detonated half a mile from any threatening object. \"You would only have to nudge them a few metres to send them safely past Earth to avoid Armageddon,\" he said."}, {"response": 324, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 20, 2000 (14:58)", "body": "House male says he could do it at half the price and would send everyone Bibles! The USA is also planning a defense system. Good grief, is their no end to our stupidity?!"}, {"response": 325, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Sep 20, 2000 (15:15)", "body": "Explain please why you consider it stupid?? I understand there is a large asteroid expected to arrive some 200,000 miles near earth in 2027. Some predictions of its closeness have been as little as 30,000 miles. An asteroid arrived some 2.6 million miles from earth last Sunday, which was considered close in Space terms. It would seem sensible to me to be looking at what could be done to deflect asteroids or comets and provide early warning ... the kinds of warning time I heard about was up to 10 years."}, {"response": 326, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Sep 20, 2000 (15:45)", "body": "To read the full report of the Task force on Potentially Hazardous Near Earth Objects go to http://www.nearearthobjects.co.uk/downloads/full_report.pdf You will need Acrobat Reader The report is not dry and dusty ..it has a lot of information on comets and asteroids as well as plenty of pictures, and makes fascinating reading."}, {"response": 327, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2000 (05:26)", "body": "Ok, lighten the mood ...Here's something completely different ... The Dogon's Enigmatic Scientific Knowledge of Medicine and Astronomy http://www.discovertimbuktu.com/am/culture.html One of the top 10 places to see in Africa, the Dogon's homeland has been designated a World Heritage site for its cultural and natural significance. They are also famous for their artistic abilities and vast knowledge about astrology, especially the Sirius star, which is the center of their religious teachings. The Dogons know that Sirius A, the brightest system in our firmament, is next to a small white dwarf called Sirius B, which was not identified by western scientists until 1978. The Dogons knew about it at least 1000 years ago. Sirius B has formed the basis of the holiest Dogon beliefs since antiquity. Western astronomers did not discover the star until the middle of the nineteenth century, and it wasn't even photographed until 1970. The Dogons go as far as describing a third star in the Sirius system, called \"Emme Ya\" that, to date, has not been identified by astronomers. In addition to their knowledge of Sirius B, the Dogon mythology includes Saturn's rings and Jupiter's four major moons. They have four calendars, for the Sun, Moon, Sirius, and Venus, and have long known that planets orbit the sun."}, {"response": 328, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (17:05)", "body": "Take a virtual tour of the sun ...this site is fantastic http://www.michielb.nl/sun/kaft.htm"}, {"response": 329, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  3, 2000 (14:05)", "body": "Aurora Watch + An Unusual Asteroid Space Weather News for Oct. 3, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com Ongoing geomagnetic activity could intensify on Wednesday or Thursday when an Earth-directed solar coronal mass ejection arrives in the neighborhood of our planet. With the Moon just past New, it may be a good time for stargazers to watch for dark-sky aurora. In other news, a Near-Earth Asteroid that passed our planet in September appears to be a binary space rock. See http://spaceweather.com for amateur video of the asteroid racing through the sky on October 2nd. For more information and images, please visit http://SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 330, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 24, 2000 (21:00)", "body": "Storms Collide on Jupiter NASA Science News for October 24, 2000 NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured dramatic images of two swirling storms on Jupiter as they collided to form a truly titanic tempest. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast24oct_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 331, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (23:19)", "body": "I o=posted this in radio being sassy to Mike, for which I apologize only a little: I've seen zodiacal light and Gegenshein and loads of green flashes and one turquoise flash along with abut 20 comets and innumerable satellites. Sonic booms but not from the Shuttle. Have seen the shuttle fly over and watched the first burnout ofEarth's orbit on the first moon trip. The last was just after having had dinner with astronauts on either side of me and across the table. Fascinating guys!!! Sunset rays are also frequent here. Oh, and the southern cross. The magellanic clouds are visible from here but just a little while per year. I should have added that I have also seen brilliant red and green aurorae just after a cloudy day had enabled us to see a huge sunspot with the naked eye. That must have been an enormous CME!!!"}, {"response": 332, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  4, 2000 (13:29)", "body": "Oooh, also seen noctilucent clouds, and was reminded of the eclipses lunar which I have also seen. Alas, I missed the total solar eclipse HERE and the annular eclipse in California while I was there. Heavy clouds obsured even the darkening of the skies at totality in both cases. Do not come near me if you want to see things eclipse solar. The gods to not want me to see that. I did see the 3/4 eslipse many years ago in West Virginia and it was spectacular. Also another partial here for which I put up a pinhole porjector for public inspection in front of the college library. It worked splendidly. No UFOs, though... Ok guys, add you things to my list... What have you seen?"}, {"response": 333, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (16:09)", "body": "Here in Pittsburgh, which gets on average 49 clear days per year, everytime there's an eclipse or a meteor shower, it's either raining or cloudy. You can look up and see -- clouds."}, {"response": 334, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (00:26)", "body": "check the picture with this caption - and the rest of the article! http://starbulletin.com/2000/11/13/news/story4.html UH Institute for Astronomy This is one of the most distant galaxy clusters discovered so far: almost 8 billion light years away. Early measurements suggest that this system may be one of the most massive clusters known. The picture was taken with the University of Hawaii's 2.2-meter telescope. Galaxies in the cluster appear as fuzzy yellowish blobs, while galaxies in the foreground (closer to us) appear bluer and galaxies in the background (farther away from us) appear redder. Non diffuse, bright objects are foreground stars. This image spans about 6-7 million light years of space."}, {"response": 335, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (00:27)", "body": "Are you sure, Cheryl, that you are not living just down the street from me? Sounds like Hilo weather!"}, {"response": 336, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (12:17)", "body": "I think there might be some connection. Some strange weather connection through a dimensional portal."}, {"response": 337, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (13:26)", "body": "Anyone listen to the Leonids last night? Accessed the Marshall space center's live streaming video and put on full screen. Watched them fill the weather balloon, launch it with the camera and listening devices and watched it rise and rise and rise. On the second re run of the filling of the balloon, etc, I finally fell asleep, hours before our portion of earth rotated so that we were facing outer space and incoming projectiles. Did anyone see anything?"}, {"response": 338, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Thu, Dec  7, 2000 (22:02)", "body": "I've been asked by my dear friend and lady I love, MarciaH, to contribute a few postings to this wonderful conference site she maintains. I've had a life-long interests in astronomy, volcanology, and planetary geology, and although I'm no expert in any of those fields, I find them fascinating nonetheless. One of the things that most attracts me to astronomy is the simple beauty and awe-inspiring grandeur of many of the images of astronomical objects that have been produced over the years, especially by the Hubble Space Telescope, which continues to orbit the Earth on it's mission of exploration, discovery, and research. One of the most remarkable images taken by the Hubble is actually a composite mosiac of several images called the Hubble Deep-Field Image. These images were taken over a period of several days beginning on December 18, 1995 until December 30 of that year. The images were of a fairly \"empty\" (or so it was thought) region of sky just north of the bowl of the Big Dipper in the constellation of Ursa Major (R.A. 12Hrs 36' 49.4000\", Dec. +62Deg. 12' 58.0000\"). After a series of long-duration exposures totaling some 100 hours, the images Hubble returned revealed showed a few local stars which inhabit our galaxy (the stars are the bright objects with classic \"starpoints\", which are actually defraction spikes--relics of light being scattered, refracted, and reflections from the telescope's optical structure), but everything else to be found in the images are individual galaxies like our own--island continents of millions, billions, and even trillions of stars. Some 1,200 - 1,500 separate galaxies have been counted i the Hubble Deep Field Image, the vast majority of which had never been observed before. Most of these galaxies are amongst the most distant ever observed, 10 to 12 billion light years away, meaning we are glimpsing these objects at a very early point in the Universe's history, when galaxies were still fairly new kids on the cosmic block. But the most remarkable aspect of the Hubble Deep Field Image is this: these incredibly distant galaxies are so far away that the area of sky they occupy is so small, that it could easily be covered by a single grain of sand held at arms length... Here is a link to a glimpse of this astonishingly beautiful, yet remarkably humbling image: http://cadcwww.dao.nrc.ca/hst/hdf/PR/MosaicQ.jpg"}, {"response": 339, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (00:58)", "body": "Neil, love, thank you for a spectular post! You sent me to see that image and it was stunning. The size of the universe is brought home most impresiively in your comment that this world of galaxies is just a sand-grain in size?! Held at arm's length!!! I sit and stare at that picture and I am stunned at the vastness it represents in that one sand grain... *Hugs*"}, {"response": 340, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "thanks for that, neil. based on the fact that some starlight are from stars that have expired years and years ago but their light is only now reaching the earth. is it possible that the galaxies being observed by the hubble have already died away?"}, {"response": 341, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (10:17)", "body": "Neil, thank you for the information on the Hubble Telescope. I is something that I've heard about for years, but didn't really have much understanding or information."}, {"response": 342, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (12:17)", "body": "That's awesome, thinking man!"}, {"response": 343, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (14:28)", "body": "SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN - DECEMBER 8, 2000 =========================================================== For images and Web links for these items, visit http://www.skypub.com =========================================================== Axel Mellinger's composite image of the entire Milky Way was so stunning that we made it into a poster. Now, not only is there a 2nd Edition of his quick-selling panorama, Mellinger has imaged the polar regions as well to create a spectacular all-sky view. The 24-by-36- inch \"Celestial Sphere\" poster consists of 51 wide-angle exposures stitched together into a seamless \"real\" map of the entire sky. The poster comes with a key chart identifying major constellations and stars. To order either of Mellinger's posters, visit Sky Publishing's online store at http://store.skypub.com/ or call 800-253-0245. =========================================================== MARTIAN SEDIMENTS: ANCIENT LAKEBEDS OR BLOW-INS? Dramatic new images show that Mars once had an environment that created sediment-like layers within craters and canyons across much of the planet's midsection. In some locales hundreds of individual beds can be counted, occasionally creating stacks of alternating light and dark layers 2 to 4 kilometers tall. In the region known as Terra Meridiani, the sediments extend continuously for hundreds of kilometers. As detailed by Michael C. Malin and Kenneth S. Edgett in the December 8th issue of Science, the layers could be explained by two very different climatic scenarios. \"The first, and perhaps favored, model draws heavily on comparison to Earth to invoke a planet and environment capable of sustaining liquid water on its surface,\" they state. Thus the sediments occur preferentially in confined areas where water would tend to collect. The other scenario, which Malin and Edgett consider \"a plausible but uniquely Martian explanation,\" envisions times when the Martian atmosphere was denser, enough so to mobilize and deposit huge amounts of dust. For example, the red planet's polar tilt is known to oscillate between 15 and 35 deg. every 100,000 years, a cycle that probably induces drastic changes in atmospheric pressure and climate as the thick polar ice caps vaporize and become redistributed. At such times the planet might have experienced ferocious dust storms, or the atmosphere may have aided in the transport of volcanic ash or impact debris. \"We think both models have some validity,\" Malin told SKY & TELESCOPE, \"or we wouldn't have included both.\" Although surface ages are notoriously difficult to estimate on Mars, the two researchers believe most of the sediments date from the earliest span of Martian history, between 3.5 and 4.3 billion years ago. But the evidence for such ancient ages is weak, Malin admits. In fact, Nathalie Cabrol (NASA/Ames Research Center) and her colleagues have used Viking images to identify roughly 200 Martian craters with lakebed sediments that she believes were laid down much more recently -- some only few hundred million years ago. \"To say they are all ancient, I would be cautious,\" Cabrol warns. \"What would the agent be to expose all these ancient layers in recent times? How do you do that? Maybe they are more recent than Malin and Edgett think, or something happened recently on Mars to exhume them.\" The crater sediments only add to the new and much more confusing picture of Mars that is emerging from Mars Global Surveyor data. When one observation indicates that the red planet had a warmer, wetter past, another (like widespread outcrops of the mineral olivine) argues for eons of cold, dry conditions. \"We caution that the Mars images tell us that the story is actually quite complicated,\" Edgett notes, \"and yet the implications are tremendous.\" SATURN'S CLAN GROWS BY FOUR The space around Saturn may not be as crowded as New York's La Guardia airport, but Thursday astronomers announced the discovery of four more small Saturnian satellites. The new objects, all between 23rd and 24th magnitude, were first spied on September 23rd by moon-meisters Brett Gladman (Nice Observatory) and J. J. Kavelaars (McMaster University) using the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Follow-up observations in late November by other members of Gladman's team cinched the discoveries, which bring the planet's total up to 28. No firm orbits exist at this time, and for now they've been designated S/2000 S 7 through S/2000 S 10. Additional observations are planned later this month, but the moonlets probably occupy a mix or prograde and retrograde orbits. The team continues to track a few other prospects as well. \"During the past year and a half, the number of know outer-planet satellites (or candidate satellites) of the giant planets has more than doubled,\" observes Brian G. Marsden of the IAU's Minor Planet Center. Details of the new finds appear on IAU Circulars 7538 and 7539. HUBBLE PEERS INTO THE PLEIADES The Hubble Space Telescope has taken a closeup view inside"}, {"response": 344, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 11, 2000 (14:08)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, December 11, 2000 @ 0551 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ENDEAVOUR HEADS FOR FLORIDA HOMECOMING TODAY -------------------------------------------- Flush with success, the shuttle Endeavour astronauts are set to close out their mission that spread the power-generating wings of the international space station this evening with a pin-point landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Touchdown on Runway 15 is expected at 2304 GMT (6:04 p.m. EST ). http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/001211fd12/ Continuous live landing updates in our status center: http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/status.html Timeline of today's deorbit preparation: http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/fdf/97entry.html Landing weather forecast: http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/fdf/97wx.html ATLANTIS ROLLOUT DELAYED FOR BOOSTER INSPECTIONS ------------------------------------------------ Rollout of shuttle Atlantis to pad 39A to ready the ship for launch next month will be delayed at least two days -- from Monday to Wednesday -- because of ongoing work to determine why an explosive booster separation bolt failed to fire during the Endeavour's launch Nov. 30. http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/001210sts98/ ARIANE 4 TO ROCKET TURKISH EURASIASAT 1 CRAFT INTO ORBIT -------------------------------------------------------- A Turkish telecommunications satellite built to bridge Europe and Asia is poised for its launch into space later today atop an Arianespace Ariane 4 rocket. Liftoff is set for 2204 GMT (5:04 p.m. EST) from Kourou, South America. We will have live reports: http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v137/status.html LAST WEEK'S ATLAS ROCKET LAUNCH REVISITED ----------------------------------------- Spaceflight Now looks back to last Tuesday's flight of the Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS rocket with a secret satellite cargo with a gallery of spectacular launch photographs. http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/ac157/launch.html WEEKEND HEADLINES ----------------- FOUR ADDITIONAL MOONS DISCOVERED ORBITING SATURN http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/10saturnmoons/ ASTRONOMERS FIND NEW EVIDENCE FOR MAGNETARS http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/09magnetars/"}, {"response": 345, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (17:01)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, December 12, 2000 @ 0524 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ENDEAVOUR RETURNS TO EARTH WITH NIGHTTIME LANDING ------------------------------------------------- The space shuttle Endeavour glided to a smooth Florida touchdown Monday evening just minutes after the international space station sailed overhead, closing out a successful flight to equip the outpost with the most powerful solar arrays ever launched. http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/001211land/ Read our play-by-play description of entry and landing: http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/status.html Video clip of Endeavour's landing from NASA Television: http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/video/001211landing_qt.html Video from onboard camera showing pilot's view: http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/video/001211ppov_qt.html Video of landing from infrared camera: http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/video/001211irland_qt.html THREE EXTRASOLAR PLANETS FOUND 150 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY --------------------------------------------------- Three new planets around distant stars have been found by scientists using an observatory in Australia, adding to the 46 other extrasolar planets found since 1995. The new worlds vary in size but are comparable to Jupiter and likely gas giants. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/12planets/ HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS MAKE STELLAR DISCOVERY, WIN AWARD ------------------------------------------------------ Three high school students, using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the NSF's Very Large Array, Monday won first place in the Siemens-Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition for discovery of the first evidence of a neutron star in the nearby supernova remnant. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/12chandrakids/ ONE OF NASA'S FEMALE PIONEERS TO RETIRE --------------------------------------- In 1964, Carolyn Griner was one of only three women in technical positions at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center -- outnumbered by male engineers at a ratio of more than 1,000 to one. Today, after 36 years of helping America reach new frontiers in space exploration, Griner, now deputy director of Marshall, has announced plans to retire. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/12griner/ GALILEO CONTINUES PROBING JOVIAN MAGNETOSPHERE ---------------------------------------------- Galileo's efforts continue on maintaining the continuity of a survey of the Jovian magnetosphere. The survey data are very valuable as they are Galileo's contribution to a dual-spacecraft observation campaign to examine the influence of the solar wind on the magnetosphere. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/12galileothisweek/ ARIANE 4 ROCKET LAUNCH OF TURKISH CRAFT DELAYED ----------------------------------------------- Monday's launch of the Arianespace Ariane 4 rocket with the Turkish Eurasiasat 1 communications spacecraft from Kourou in South America was called off and a new date is still pending. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v137/status.html"}, {"response": 346, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (00:30)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 @ 0612 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now JUPITER'S EYE SEEN WATCHING IO IN STUNNING NEW PHOTO ---------------------------------------------------- As NASA's Cassini spacecraft cruises through space, the probe has captured yet another awe-inspiring image of Jupiter. This latest view shows details of the planet's Great Red Spot and other features not seen earlier. Also visible is the Jovian moon Io and the white and reddish colors on its surface. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/13jupio/ BOOSTER INSPECTIONS KEEP SHUTTLE ATLANTIS PARKED ------------------------------------------------ Engineers began inspections of electrical cable connectors in the solid rocket boosters of space shuttle Atlantis on Tuesday in the wake of a problem during the launch of sistership Endeavour two weeks ago. http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/001212sts98/ BLACK HOLES SAID YOUNGER, MEANER AND MORE PLENTIFUL --------------------------------------------------- A team of astronomers has found that supermassive black holes contribute about as much energy to the Universe as all the stars combined. Many have formed recently rather than in the early, violent stages of galaxy birth. And, at any give time in the history of the Universe, about 10 percent of all supermassive black holes are actively pulling in huge quantities of gas and whole stars. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/13chandra/ DOD GETS GLOBAL WITH IRIDIUM SATELLITE-PHONE SYSTEM --------------------------------------------------- The U.S. Department of Defense awarded a two-year, $72 million contract last week for unlimited use of the global Iridium satellite-based, secure telephone network. Details of deal indicate the Pentagon will pay 10 to 30 cents a minute while new civilian commercial service will cost about 80 cents a minute, down from the previous near $5 per minute for some customers. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/13iridium/ FUTURE FRENCH MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM SET ------------------------------------------------ Alcatel Space has won the contract to build France's new-generation Syracuse 3A military satellite, plus options for a second and third satellite in the series. Syracuse 3A satellite will enter service in 2003, complementing the current fleet of mixed civil/military spacecraft to serve both French and allied armed forces. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/13syracuse3a/"}, {"response": 347, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (23:45)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, December 14, 2000 @ 0450 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NEW REPORT OFFERS EVIDENCE OF PRIMITIVE LIFE ON MARS ---------------------------------------------------- A new scientific report offers compelling evidence that primitive life existed on Mars. Tiny magnetite crystals, identical to those used by aqueous bacteria on Earth as compasses to find food and energy, have been found in the Martian meteorite ALH84001. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/14marslife/ NEW MOVIE NOW SHOWING: 'HIGH CLOUDS OF JUPITER' ----------------------------------------------- Images from NASA's Cassini space probe have been used to generate this new movie of Jupiter's high-altitude clouds. This is the first time a movie sequence of Jupiter has been made that illustrates the motions of the high clouds on a global scale. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/14jupiter/ SHUTTLE DELAY EXTENDS VOYAGE OF FIRST STATION CREW -------------------------------------------------- The first expedition aboard international space station got a little longer on Wednesday when NASA announced a delay from February to March in launching space shuttle Discovery to ferry the three-man crew back to Earth. http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/001214sts102/ ENGINE BURN PUTS NEAR SHOEMAKER ON FINAL TRACK ---------------------------------------------- An engine firing yesterday put NASA's NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft in orbit just 22 miles above the tumbling space rock Eros' center of mass in preparation for low altitude operations in January and February, just prior to the mission's end. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/14nearburn/"}, {"response": 348, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (08:29)", "body": "I thought we'd known about the Mars meteorite for a while, this isn't \"news\" per se, is it?"}, {"response": 349, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (14:04)", "body": "Not as far as I know. Did not check the link to see what new tests it was undergoing. I shall, though, and post what I discover."}, {"response": 350, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 16, 2000 (16:27)", "body": "=========================================================== SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN - DECEMBER 15, 2000 =========================================================== For images and Web links for these items, visit http://www.skypub.com =========================================================== Axel Mellinger's composite image of the entire Milky Way was so stunning that we made it into a poster. Now, not only is there a 2nd Edition of his quick-selling panorama, Mellinger has imaged the polar regions as well to create a spectacular all-sky view. The 24-by-36- inch \"Celestial Sphere\" poster consists of 51 wide-angle exposures stitched together into a seamless \"real\" map of the entire sky. The poster comes with a key chart identifying major constellations and stars. To order either of Mellinger's posters, visit Sky Publishing's online store at http://store.skypub.com/ or call 800-253-0245. =========================================================== HUBBLE AND CASSINI TEAM UP ON JUPITER Yesterday marked the start of a two-week-long observing campaign by the Hubble Space Telescope and Cassini spacecraft to monitor auroral activity on Jupiter. Cassini is nearing the solar system's largest planet on its way to a 2004 appointment with Saturn, and scientists are taking full advantage of this month's opportunity. The spacecraft will pass 9.8 million kilometers from Jupiter on December 30th. Shortly after the flyby, the dual observations will recommence, as Hubble will image Jupiter's day side and Cassini will watch the planet's night side. Astronomers hope to obtain a better understanding of the interaction of the solar wind with Jupiter's magnetic field and create a model of the planet's aurora. To illustrate what Hubble and Cassini will be looking for, the Space Telescope Science Institute released a detailed view of Jupiter's north pole surrounded by aurora. The picture -- taken on November 26, 1998 -- features auroral \"footprints\" of Io, Ganymede, and Europa. These are artifacts of the electric fields generated as the satellites move through Jupiter's magnetosphere. AN ALL-SKY OPTICAL SETI SURVEY A new kind search for intelligent life in the universe is in the making. Paul Horowitz (Harvard University) and his graduate students Andrew Howard and Chip Coldwell have begun building a specialized, 72-inch (1.8-meter) telescope that will sweep more than half the celestial sphere to look for extremely brief laser pulses from other civilizations. Recent studies indicate that lasers could be as efficient as radio for interstellar signaling. Following up on this idea, several optical SETI projects are already under way (including one by Horowitz's group) or are being built. But these are \"targeted\" searches looking only at preselected lists of a few thousand stars at most. The new wide-sky survey will take at least brief looks at hundreds of millions. The telescope's main mirror will be a cheap \"light bucket\" of low optical quality. At the heart of the instrument will be two parallel arrays of 1,024 high-speed photomultipliers each. These will observe a 1.6 degree-by-0.2 degree swath of sky at once. Only recently have such arrays become available. They will be able to resolve light pulses as short as a nanosecond (a billionth of a second). Any such brief pulses from the stars would be clearly artificial and would represent an energy-efficient way to communicate across thousands of light-years. The $350,000 project is being funded by The Planetary Society. Half the amount has been put up as a matching grant by one donor, David Brown, and the society is canvassing its members for the rest. Horowitz says the instrument will examine every point on more than half the celestial sphere for at least 48 seconds every 150 clear nights. It will sweep the whole sky from declination +60 degrees to -20 degrees, a zone that includes more than half of the visible Milky Way. If all goes well observations should begin in late 2001 or 2002. For a description of all the radio and optical SETI searches under way worldwide, and a comprehensive review of today's debate over intelligent life in the universe, see Sky & Telescope's SETI Page at http://www.skypub.com/news/special/seti_toc.html . CHRISTMAS ECLIPSE Christmas Day will be extra special this year. Weather permitting, people all across North America will be able to watch the Moon glide across the low December Sun, creating a partial solar eclipse. This event will be visible throughout nearly all the inhabited parts of North America (except Alaska and the Yukon), as well as from most of Mexico and the Caribbean. To find out when the eclipse will occur, how much of the Sun will be covered from your location, and how to observe it safely, see Sky & Telescope's Web site at http://www.skypub.com/sights/eclipses/solar/001225partial.html . COMET MCNAUGHT-HARTLEY IN THE MORNING Although it is the brightest comet in the sky right now -- between 6th and 7th magnitude -- Comet Utsunomiya-Jo"}, {"response": 351, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (00:14)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, December 18, 2000 @ 0531 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now OCEAN BELIEVED HIDDEN ON SOLAR SYSTEM'S LARGEST MOON ---------------------------------------------------- Add Jupiter's moon Ganymede, which is bigger than two of the solar system's nine planets, to the growing list of worlds with evidence of liquid water under the surface. A thick layer of melted, salty water somewhere beneath Ganymede's icy crust would be the best way to explain some of the magnetic readings taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/17ganymedeocean/ BOOSTER REPAIRS THREATEN TO DELAY NEXT SHUTTLE LAUNCH ----------------------------------------------------- Launch of the shuttle Atlantis next month on the next space station assembly mission faces a potentially significant delay because of work required to fix a crumbling electrical cable in the shuttle's booster separation system. Workers may be forced to remove Atlantis and its external fuel tank to complete the repair job. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/001218srb/ Watch our NEW status center for developing news today: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html DETAILS EMERGE AS IRIDIUM'S TRANSFER OF POWER WRAPS UP ------------------------------------------------------ The new company pumping life into the once-defunct Iridium satellite telephone system plans to relaunch the global communications service within the next couple of months. Plans also call for seven more spacecraft to be launched into the constellation. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/18iridium/ MAGNETIC FIELD 'UMBRELLAS' SHIELD MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE ---------------------------------------------------- Though Mars lacks a global protective magnetic shield like that of the Earth, strong localized magnetic fields embedded in the crust appear to be a significant barrier to erosion of the atmosphere by the solar wind, according to a new map by the Mars Global Surveyor. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/17marsmagnet/ ARIANE 508 ROCKET TO LAUNCH 3 PAYLOADS TUESDAY NIGHT ---------------------------------------------------- A mighty Ariane 5 rocket has taken center stage at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, where satellite troubles have sidelined an Ariane 4 launcher once poised for blastoff a week ago. Workers are now gearing up to launch a pair of communications satellites and a crucial Japanese experiment Tuesday evening on the Ariane 508 vehicle. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v138/status.html"}, {"response": 352, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 19, 2000 (22:42)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, December 19, 2000 @ 0630 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now INTRICATE STRUCTURES SEEN IN JUPITER'S POLAR REGION --------------------------------------------------- The familiar banded appearance of Jupiter at low and middle latitudes gradually gives way to a more mottled appearance at high latitudes in this striking true color image taken last week by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/19jupmott/ MOST DISTANT SPACECRAFT MAY REACH SHOCK ZONE SOON ------------------------------------------------- A NASA spacecraft headed out of the solar system at a speed that would streak from New York to Los Angeles in less than four minutes could reach the first main feature of the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space within three years. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/19voyager1/ ARIANE 5 LAUNCH TO CLOSE OUT 2000 FOR ARIANESPACE ------------------------------------------------- The European Ariane 508 rocket is sitting on its South American launch pad and awaiting liftoff with two communications satellites and an experimental technology demonstration tonight at 0026 GMT (7:26 p.m. EST). We will have comprehensive live launch coverage. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v138/status.html ANDROMEDA GALAXY COMES ALIVE WITH DETAILED SPYING ------------------------------------------------- The Andromeda galaxy, only 2.6 million light years away, is an ideal field of study for X-ray astronomy. XMM-Newton has observed its galactic center, revealing many new point sources and the probable presence of a very hot diffuse gas which contributes to the overall X-ray luminosity. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/19xmmdiffuse/ NO OFFICIAL DECISION YET ON SHUTTLE BOOSTER REPAIR -------------------------------------------------- NASA officials have yet to select a plan to repair solid rocket booster cabling on space shuttle Atlantis. The repair plan chosen will impact the shuttle's scheduled January 18 launch date on a mission to deliver the Destiny research module to the international space station. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html SOYUZ PICKED TO LAUNCH EUROPEAN WEATHER SATELLITES -------------------------------------------------- EUMETSAT has signed a contract with Starsem for the launch of its Metop polar orbiting satellites. The launch of the first satellite of three in the Metop series, part of the EUMETSAT Polar System, is planned for 2005. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/19eumetsat/"}, {"response": 353, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 21, 2000 (15:30)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, December 21, 2000 @ 1629 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now PROBLEM HITS CASSINI JUST DAYS BEFORE JUPITER FLYBY --------------------------------------------------- The Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft suspended its observations of Jupiter on Wednesday because of troubles with its pointing system, ending the much-anticipated picture-taking and research as the probe heads to a close encounter with the giant gas planet next week. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/21cassproblem/ IO CASTS SHADOW ON JUPITER IN CASSINI'S BEST IMAGE YET ------------------------------------------------------ Jupiter's four largest satellites, including Io, the golden ornament in front of Jupiter in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, have fascinated Earthlings ever since Galileo Galilei discovered them in 1610 in one of his first astronomical uses of the telescope. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/21jupio/ NASA REVIVES PLUTO MISSION -------------------------- Bowing to pressure from both the scientific community and the general public, NASA gave new life Wednesday to prospects for a Pluto mission, saying it would solicit proposals for a revised mission to the outermost planet in our solar system. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/21pluto/ LANDING SITE SELECTED FOR BEAGLE 2 MISSION TO MARS -------------------------------------------------- The European Space Agency's Mars Express lander, Beagle 2, will land on Isidis Planitia, a large flat region that overlies the boundary between the ancient highlands and the northern plains of the Red Planet. The region appears to be a sedimentary basin where traces of life could have been preserved. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/21beagle2/ CHINESE NAVIGATION SATELLITE LAUNCHED INTO SPACE ------------------------------------------------ China launched the \"Beidou\" navigation satellite today aboard a Long March 3A rocket from the Xichang space center in the southwest province of Sichuan, the Xinhua news agency reported. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/21beidou/"}, {"response": 354, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Dec 21, 2000 (16:12)", "body": "They better get that Pluto flight off withing two years or the window shuts down as Pluto gets very far away, like it wasn't far already! Man, how many *years* will that take to get there? And how will they pump a signal back? What a feat to pull off. And they have to do it on the cheap."}, {"response": 355, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Dec 21, 2000 (16:13)", "body": "Too bad about Casini."}, {"response": 356, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 22, 2000 (12:18)", "body": "It has to be done very carefullly, for certain. Smoke and mirrors just don't hack it anymore! It is fixed!! See below: NEWSALERT: Friday, December 22, 2000 @ 0604 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CASSINI'S POINTING SYSTEM PROBLEM APPEARS FIXED ----------------------------------------------- A glitch with the pointing system aboard NASA's Cassini space probe appeared to be resolved on Thursday, giving scientists optimism the craft could resume observations of the planet Jupiter during next Saturday's flyby. Cassini is on a 2.2-billion mile, seven-year interplanetary trek to Saturn. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/22cassini/ NASA RELEASES JUPITER FAMILY PORTRAIT WITH MOONS ------------------------------------------------ One moment in an ancient, orbital dance is caught in this color picture taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on December 7, just as two of Jupiter's four major moons, Europa and Callisto, were nearly perfectly aligned with each other and the center of the planet. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/22cassmoons/ REDOCKING OF STATION CARGO SHIP WILL BE TRICKY AFFAIR ----------------------------------------------------- Russian flight controllers - and ultimately, cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko - will have overall control authority during the upcoming redocking of a Progress supply to the international space station Tuesday. U.S flight controllers will only provide oversight and make a video conferencing system available. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/001221update/ See our timeline of the redocking sequence: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/fdf/redocking.html SPACE TELESCOPE RENAMED FOR BRITISH ASTRONOMER ---------------------------------------------- Astronomers from around the world met in Toledo, Spain, earlier this month to discuss new scientific objectives for Europe's next-generation infrared space observatory. By the time the workshop was over, the telescope had a new name and redefined mission goals. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/22herschel/"}, {"response": 357, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Dec 22, 2000 (12:47)", "body": "Casini's back today! Great!"}, {"response": 358, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 23, 2000 (13:54)", "body": "SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN - DECEMBER 22, 2000 =========================================================== For images and Web links for these items, visit http://www.skypub.com =========================================================== Axel Mellinger's composite image of the entire Milky Way was so stunning that we made it into a poster. Now, not only is there a 2nd Edition of his quick-selling panorama, Mellinger has imaged the polar regions as well to create a spectacular all-sky view. The 24-by-36- inch \"Celestial Sphere\" poster consists of 51 wide-angle exposures stitched together into a seamless \"real\" map of the entire sky. The poster comes with a key chart identifying major constellations and stars. To order either of Mellinger's posters, visit Sky Publishing's online store at http://store.skypub.com/ or call 800-253-0245. =========================================================== PLUTO MISSION BACK IN PLAY NASA officials announced on Wednesday that the space agency will again consider sending a spacecraft to Pluto. The space agency will seek proposals for mission designs in three weeks, with an eye toward selecting a winning proposal later next year. The mission plan must be developed soon in order to launch the probe by 2004 (2006 at the latest) and thus take advantage of a speed-boosting flyby of Jupiter. That could get the spacecraft to its distant destination by 2012. In making the announcement, NASA associate administrator Edward J. Weiler said he'll consider proposals for craft that would reach Pluto by 2015, whether or not a Jupiter flyby was involved, but the total cost must be well below $500 million. \"This is probably our last chance to go to Pluto for a generation,\" Weiler noted. However, he cautioned repeatedly that there is no guarantee that a spacecraft will actually be built and launched. Still, his announcement was a dramatic change from his precipitous order last September to stop all work related to the proposed Pluto-Kuiper Express mission. The space agency had combined missions to Europa and Pluto in 1997 under a single program that shared development funds and technical expertise. But when steeply escalating costs threatened both efforts in mid-2000, Weiler opted to defer the Pluto mission indefinitely so that work could continue on the Europa orbiter. The back-to-the-drawing-board announcement came after months of lobbying by outer-planet specialists. Key to the turnaround was a late-November report by NASA's Solar System Exploration Subcommittee that recommended going to Pluto before Europa. The latter mission has higher scientific priority overall, but Pluto's atmosphere may soon freeze out as the icy world drifts farther from the Sun. Weiler said the Europa orbiter will be developed regardless of the Pluto mission's outcome, and that it will be launched no later than 2011. Meanwhile, the results of a nationwide survey, also released on Wednesday, show that the U.S. public supports the exploration of two fascinating bodies in the outer solar system. Sponsored by Sky & Telescope, the poll found that 64 percent of Americans want NASA to send a spacecraft to Europa, while 58 percent approve sending a probe to Pluto. The exploration of Mars also continues to receive strong support, as 70 percent of people would like to see samples of the red planet returned to Earth for analysis. (Details of the nationwide poll can be found at http://www.skypub.com/news/pr_001220planetpoll.html .) \"We all learn in school that our solar system has nine planets,\" says Richard Tresch Fienberg, Sky & Telescope's editor in chief. \"It's downright dissatisfying that one of them remains unvisited after 40 years of interplanetary exploration.\" Fienberg encourages NASA to mount a Pluto mission in an editorial appearing in the magazine's February 2000 issue at Sky & Telescope's Web site at http://www.skypub.com/news/images2000/pr_001220planetpoll.pdf . ROGER W. TUTHILL, 1919-2000 Long-time amateur astronomer and entrepreneur Roger W. Tuthill of Mountainside, New Jersey, died of heart failure on December 15th following a brief illness. He was 81. Known to myriad friends and acquaintances as Tut, it was a midlife look at the Moon through a telescope in 1960 that ignited his lasting passion for astronomy. During the ensuing decade he became an increasingly well-known amateur astronomer, publishing several important articles on telescope making in Sky & Telescope. With one of the century's longest total solar eclipses pending and organized eclipse travel almost nonexistent, Tut led a large group of amateurs to Africa's western Sahara Desert in the summer of 1973. During a preliminary scouting trip he planned to thwart the desert's intense daytime heat with a tent he made of aluminized Mylar. The experiment failed because of the tent's \"maddeningly annoying\" noise as it rippled in the ever-present wind. But sitting inside and looking up, Tut discovered that aluminized Mylar was a safe and effective solar "}, {"response": 359, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (15:38)", "body": "Check this url for next time (thanks, JSK) http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/TotalityCh12-1.html#Right_Filter CHRISTMAS SOLAR ECLIPSE Eclipse 1 was a pinhole projection. Eclipse 2 was at the sun through a special eclipse-viewing silvered plastic. Photos by HFL December 25, 2000"}, {"response": 360, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (16:22)", "body": "thanks for these great pics!"}, {"response": 361, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (17:32)", "body": "My sister reportd in from Long Island, New York that she saw the eclipse much as did HFL in the images above. Did anyone else see it???"}, {"response": 362, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (14:22)", "body": "\" NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, 25-DEC-2000: A pair of pinhole projected images of the partial solar eclipse are projected on to a piece of paper (with cartoon face drawn on) to form what looks like eyes on a happy face on Dec. 25, 2000 in New York. The solar eclipse could be viewed on Christmas Day in parts of North America. [Photo by Don Emmert, copyright 2000 by AFP and ClariNet]\" Thanks HFL for sending this - very clever!!!"}, {"response": 363, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (19:44)", "body": "University of Hawaii astronomers have detected the destruction of a dark interstellar cloud by one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades cluster. George Herbig and Theodore Simon, with the Institute for Astronomy, obtained high-resolution images in September with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Pleiades, a famous navigational signpost for Hawaiians, formed about 100 million years ago from interstellar clouds, Herbig explained. The small group of bright blue stars is named for the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology. Easily seen in the night sky during winter months, the cluster resembles a small dipper, lying in the constellation Taurus about 380 light years from Earth. \"Moving through space, it shed all the material from which it was born, but if you look at it from photographs, it is covered with dusty clouds,\" Herbig said. \"Stars shine on the clouds and create luminosity. \"So it's kind of like a star seen through frosted glass. It's covered with smoky stuff, which is really dust illuminated by stars.\" Not far from Pleiades is a big dark cloud of cold gas and dust, Herbig said. \"It just happens that Pleiades, by pure accident, is passing through the edge of the dust cloud, like an airplane.\" One little piece of cloud happens to be close to the bright Pleiades star Merope, which is reflecting light off the black clouds like a flashlight beam, Herbig said. American astronomer E.E. Barnard discovered bright nebulosity next to Merope in 1890. \"Barnard's Merope Nebula\" is the brightest place in the conglomeration of dust around Pleiades, Herbig said. \"It just happens that the brightest reflection of nebula luminosity is not shown on ordinary photographs. This little glob of stuff ... that's what we studied.\" The Hubble image doesn't show Merope itself but caught wispy tendrils of the interstellar cloud passing by the bright star. No one has ever been able to measure the motion of dust clouds because they're so amorphous, Herbig said. \"But it turns out it's possible to associate a position and motion of this little glob of stuff, Merope nebula, with the motion of dark clouds nearby.\" Thus, he said, he and Simon were able to map the approach of Pleiades to the unrelated mass of dust of interstellar material. The star is so close and shining on the dust with such intensity that it is starting to fray and dissipate, Herbig said. The same phenomenon is at work with Merope and the interstellar cloud as occurs with comet tails, he explained. \"We see dust tails of comets blown away from the comet's head by radiation pressure of the sun, because it exerts a force. It can drive the dust back in the opposite direction.\" Space telescope images show radiation pressure from Merope also is destroying the cloud, Herbig said. In a couple of thousand years, as it gets closer to the star, the nebula may be blown apart completely, he said. \"Or, it may be just like comets that go past the sun repeatedly and lose dust.\" People have always thought dust clouds were structureless masses of gas and dust, Herbig said. \"This picture has shown us there is fine structure, all full of filaments and ridges and globs.\" Like leaves of trees that have veins and structure, he said, \"it looks like structure inside these interstellar clouds. This is something we didn't appreciate before.\""}, {"response": 364, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 30, 2000 (13:17)", "body": "=========================================================== SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN - DECEMBER 29, 2000 =========================================================== For images and Web links for these items, visit http://www.skypub.com =========================================================== Axel Mellinger's composite image of the entire Milky Way was so stunning that we made it into a poster. Now, not only is there a 2nd Edition of his quick-selling panorama, Mellinger has imaged the polar regions as well to create a spectacular all-sky view. The 24-by-36- inch \"Celestial Sphere\" poster consists of 51 wide-angle exposures stitched together into a seamless \"real\" map of the entire sky. The poster comes with a key chart identifying major constellations and stars. To order either of Mellinger's posters, visit Sky Publishing's online store at http://store.skypub.com/ or call 800-253-0245. =========================================================== SATURN'S SATELLITES: 30 AND COUNTING Brett Gladman (Nice Observatory) and his international observing partners have announced their discovery of two more moons around Saturn. One of the new finds, designated S/2000 S 11, was spotted on November 9th by team member Matthew Holman with the 1.2-meter reflector at Whipple Observatory in Arizona. Gladman and J. J. Kavelaars (McMaster University) spotted S/2000 S 12 on September 23rd using the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on Mauna Kea. It is probably only 5 kilometers across, whereas S 11 has a diameter of perhaps 35 km. Counting these additions, Saturn now has 30 known moons -- 19 of which were found in the past 20 years. The dozen discovered by Gladman's team appear to fall into three orbital groupings: most travel in the same direction that Saturn rotates and have orbital inclinations that cluster near 35 and 48 deg.; the third group travels in the reverse (retrograde) direction with inclinations near 170 deg. \"The situation of Saturn thus seems to resemble that of Jupiter,\" Gladman notes, \"which also has one prograde and one retrograde cluster.\" A WARMER EARLY UNIVERSE The Big Bang is one of the most widely known and debated theories in cosmology. Most theorists assume the explosion was hot, and that the universe has since cooled dramatically. Although we know the current temperature of remnant Big Bang radiation, called the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), until now, no one has made a direct measurement of the temperature of ancient Big Bang radiation. Today, the background radiation is only 2.7 deg. Kelvin, but theoretically the farther back in time we look, the hotter the CMBR should be. Using the 8.2-meter Kueyen reflector of the Very Large Telescope in Chile, Raghunathan Srianand (Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics), Patrick Petitjean (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris) and Cedric Ledoux (European Southern Observatory) were able to measure the temperature of the CMBR when the universe was only 2.5 billion years old. They found that back then the cosmos was between 6 and 14 deg. Kelvin. The team's results -- announced in the December 21st issue of Nature -- came from observations of the distant quasar PKS 1235+0815. By examining at the object's spectrum, the astronomers found the signatures of carbon and hydrogen that only occur at these specific temperatures. Their result is in line with other theorists who predicted that the CMBR should be 9.7 deg. K at that cosmic era. COMET MCNAUGHT-HARTLEY IN THE MORNING If you got new binoculars or a telescope for Christmas, try training it on the 8th-magnitude Comet McNaught-Hartley (C/1999 T1). The comet reaches some 25 to 30 deg. above the southeastern horizon before the first light of dawn for Northern Hemisphere observers. For those south of the equator, the comet will be about 20 to 25 deg. above the eastern horizon. Here are positions for McNaught-Hartley as it moves through Libra for 0 hours Universal Time in 2000.0 coordinates: Date R.A. Dec. Dec 30 14h 31m -18.7 deg. Jan 1 14 56 -12.8 Jan 3 15 02 -11.3 Jan 5 15 08 -09.8 For more about the comet, see the Special Sky Events page at http://www.skypub.com/sights/skyevents/0101skyevents.html . QUADRANTID METEORS You won't need optical aid to see the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower -- but you'll still have to wake up before dawn. The peak is expected on January 3rd at about 12 hours Universal Time, which corresponds in North America to 6 a.m. Central Standard Time and 4 a.m. Pacific. This year the first-quarter Moon will pose no interference, for it sets shortly after midnight and leaves the skies fully dark from then on. Toward dawn is when the shower radiant, halfway between the head of Draco and the end of the Big Dipper's handle, is highest in the sky. The \"Quads\" have a very sharp peak lasting only two hours or so. But if you're watching when it arrives, this can be one of the year's best meteor displays. Between midnight and dawn in good years, 40 or more of "}, {"response": 365, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 31, 2000 (13:15)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Sunday, December 31, 2000 @ 1653 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CASSINI AND GALILEO SPACE PROBES DOUBLE-TEAM JUPITER ---------------------------------------------------- Joint observations of Jupiter by NASA's Cassini and Galileo spacecraft are providing an unprecedented look at the giant planet's atmosphere and magnetosphere, scientists said Saturday, just hours after Cassini made its closest approach to the solar system's largest planet. (Includes video and sounds of Jupiter clips!) http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/30flyby/ See our complete Cassini flyby coverage: http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/ YEAR'S END FOR GALILEO ---------------------- The end of the year 2000 finds the Galileo spacecraft starting to wrap up another encounter with the Jovian system. The spacecraft's camera takes the stage over the weekend, with observations to capture global color views of Io, plus images of Jupiter's main ring. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/31galileo/ FROM THE ARCHIVES IN 2000 ------------------------- GO FOR A RIDE WITH ROCKETCAMS! http://spaceflightnow.com/features/rocketcams/ TOP 10 IMAGES FROM COMMERCIAL EYE-IN-THE-SKY http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0009/25ikonos/ SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA UNDERGOES TUNE-UP http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/features/000414overhaul/"}, {"response": 366, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  4, 2001 (15:31)", "body": "An Ailing Neil asked me to post this for him. With pleasure and get well, soon! From Earth to Mars in as little as two weeks Jan 3, 2001 BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL - Scientists at Ben-Gurion University have shown that an unusual nuclear fuel could send space vehicles from Earth to Mars in as little as two weeks. Spacecraft now take between eight and 10 months to make the same trip. The research shows a fairly rare nuclear material, americium-242m (Am-242m), when used as an extremely thin metallic film, is capable of sustaining nuclear fission. When the film is less than a thousandth of a millimetre thick, the high-energy, high-temperature products of fission can escape the fuel and be used for propulsion in space. Obtaining fission-fragments like this isn't possible with the better-known uranium-235 and plutonium-239 nuclear fuels: they require large fuel rods, which absorb fission products. Long-time interest Dr. Yigal Ronen, the author of the study, became interested in nuclear reactors for space vehicles 15 years ago at a conference. Speaker after speaker talked about the use of nuclear reactors for powering space missions - and stressed that the mass of any reactor would be the defining factor. It had to be light in order to be efficient. So Ronen decided to examine one aspect of reactor design - the nuclear fuel itself. That led him to Am-242m. By using this element, Ronen was able to cut the amount of fuel necessary to reach maximum power. To achieve the same result as uranium or plutonium requires only one per cent of the amount (mass) when Am-242m is used. But use of this fuel is still in the very early stages of development. \"There are still many hurdles to overcome before americium-242m can be used in space,\" Ronen says. Producing large quantities of Am-242m requires several steps and is expensive. Design of the reactor, refuelling, heat removal and safety provisions also need to be examined. In spite of the hurdles, Ronen remains optimistic about the future of this fuel. \"I am sure that americium-242m will eventually be implemented for space travel, as it is the only proven material whose fission products can be made available for high speed propulsion.\" The study was published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A (455: 442-451, 2000)."}, {"response": 367, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  4, 2001 (16:41)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, January 4, 2001 @ 0610 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now HUBBLE: X MARKS THE SPOT OF STAR FORMATION GLOW ----------------------------------------------- The saying \"X\" marks the spot holds true in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image where Hubble-X marks the location of a dramatic burst of star formation, very much like the Orion Nebula in our Milky Way galaxy, but on a vastly greater scale. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/04hubblex/ MASSIVE GAS CLOUD FOUND NEAR YOUNG GALAXY ----------------------------------------- A massive gas cloud with the raw materials to form 100 billion stars could reshape theories of galaxy formation. Astronomers say a distant young galaxy harbors a unexpectedly massive cloud of hydrogen gas that may fuel a burst of star formation. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/04galaxygas/ SHUTTLE ATLANTIS ARRIVES ON SEASIDE LAUNCH PAD ---------------------------------------------- After a day's delay because of computer troubles, space shuttle Atlantis made a 3.5-mile, six-hour crawl to launch pad 39A Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center. Atlantis is being prepared for blastoff later this month to carry the $1.4 billion U.S. Destiny laboratory module to the international space station. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010103rollout/ SHUTTLE ROLLOUT PANORAMA ------------------------ As space shuttle Atlantis rolled atop Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A, Spaceflight Now was there to capture this 360-degree panorama. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010103rollout/rollout_qtvr.html EXPEDITION ONE CREW TROUBLESHOOTS BATTERY PROBLEM ------------------------------------------------- The international space station's Expedition One crew moved into its tenth week in orbit Wednesday aboard the orbiting outpost. The only technical issue being addressed by Russian flight controllers involves a minor problem with battery three in the Zvezda service module. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html BOEING WINS POTENTIAL $1.3B FOR SIX MILITARY SATELLITES ------------------------------------------------------- Boeing has been picked to led the charge in developing the U.S. military's next-generation Wideband Gapfiller Satellite communications network, which could lead to the company building as many as six spacecraft for the system. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/04gapfiller/ ARIANESPACE SETS MONDAY LAUNCH DATE FOR STALLED ARIANE 4 -------------------------------------------------------- Activity at Guiana Space Center's Ariane 4 launch pad is once again bustling as Arianespace has announced that Flight 137 is back on track for blastoff next week after a month-long delay caused by the rocket's Turkish communications satellite cargo. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v137/status.html"}, {"response": 368, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  5, 2001 (16:07)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, January 5, 2001 @ 0617 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now PLANETS ORBITING OTHER STARS COULD BE MORE PLENTIFUL ---------------------------------------------------- The number of stars with extrasolar planets may be much larger than previously thought, scientists studying several nearby stars concluded this week. Research shows that clouds of molecular hydrogen gas, the raw material for gas giant planets like Jupiter, may last millions of years longer than once believed, making it much easier for such planets to form. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/05extrasolar/ NASA MULLS OPTIONS FOR FUTURE LOW-COST EXPLORER ----------------------------------------------- On beat with its \"faster, better, cheaper\" rhythm, NASA on Thursday announced the selection of three proposed low-cost missions for further in-depth study, including one that seeks to find habitable planets outside our solar system. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/05discovery/ COMPLETELY DARK GALAXIES ------------------------ The universe could be harboring numerous galaxies that have no stars at all and are made entirely of dark matter. Astronomers may ultimately discover that completely dark galaxies outnumber the familiar kind populated by shining stars and gas, perhaps by as many as 100 to 1. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/05dark/ CASSINI PROBE KEEPS ITS SCIENTIFIC EYE ON JUPITER ----------------------------------------------- NASA's Cassini spacecraft has continued collecting new scientific information from Jupiter's environs every day since making its closest approach to the giant planet on Saturday, and is scheduled to keep studying the Jupiter system for another three months while proceeding on toward Saturn. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/05cassini/ See our complete Cassini special report: http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/ HUBBLE: X MARKS THE SPOT OF STAR FORMATION GLOW ----------------------------------------------- The saying \"X\" marks the spot holds true in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image where Hubble-X marks the location of a dramatic burst of star formation, very much like the Orion Nebula in our Milky Way galaxy, but on a vastly greater scale. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/04hubblex/ SHUTTLE ROLLOUT PANORAMA ------------------------ As space shuttle Atlantis rolled atop Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A, Spaceflight Now was there to capture this 360-degree panorama. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010103rollout/rollout_qtvr.html"}, {"response": 369, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (13:43)", "body": "10 new moons found around Jupiter / 2 rocket launches today NEWSALERT: Monday, January 8, 2001 @ 0552 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now 10 ADDITIONAL MOONS DISCOVERED AROUND JUPITER --------------------------------------------- An unprecedented surge in planetary moon discoveries continues as astronomers announced Friday the discovery of 10 more moons orbiting Jupiter. The ten natural satellites were first spotted in late November and early December by a group of astronomers at the University of Hawaii. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/08jovianmoons/ ARIANESPACE ARIANE 4 TO ROCKET INTO 2001 ---------------------------------------- If an Ariane 4 rocket launches on time Monday it will have the distinction as planet Earth's first space flight of 2001. If the European launcher can deliver its Turkish communications satellite cargo into the correct orbit it will mark the workhorse Ariane 4's 60th consecutive success. We will have complete live coverage! http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v137/status.html SEA LAUNCH TO LOFT FIRST XM RADIO SATELLITE TODAY ------------------------------------------------- The three-stage Ukrainian-Russian Zenit 3SL rocket was rolled from its hangar and erected atop the Odyssey launch platform Sunday as the countdown ticked away for Monday's scheduled 2235 GMT (5:35 p.m. EST) blastoff. We will have live coverage of the launch as the first XM Satellite Radio craft is boosted to orbit! http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html Watch an animation clip of XM 1 satellite: http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/010107anim_qt.html NASA'S CORE POLICY OVER LAST DECADE GETS CLOSER LOOK ---------------------------------------------------- A team of NASA officials not long ago completed a thorough review of the space agency's \"faster, better, cheaper\" policy. The 83-page report highlights recommendations for where these policies and programs should be headed and how to improve them enough to get them there. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/08nasareview/ SPACE SHUTTLES THAT REPAIR TECHNICAL GLITCHES ON THE FLY -------------------------------------------------------- Ever stop and think about the millions of dollars spent on fancy space equipment that breaks down? If you are millions of miles away orbiting the Earth, there's no repairman available to fix the problem. The answer: machines that are smart enough to learn from experience, detect problems and fix themselves. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/07fixitshuttle/ RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL SIGNS OFF ON MIR DEORBITING ------------------------------------------------------- Space station Mir's destruction upon burning up during re-entry seems even more certain with the announcement by a Russian Space Agency spokesperson that the Russian Prime Minister has signed an order mandating the deorbiting late next month. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/07mirok/ AUSTRALIAN SALT LAKE HELPS TEST NASA 'SKY EYE' ---------------------------------------------- A team of scientists has just spent a week in a huge barren salt lake in Australia's interior helping to test a new NASA satellite -- the Earth Observing 1 technology demonstrator. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/07eo1test/ SEASONS GREETINGS FROM THE MARTIAN NORTH POLE! ---------------------------------------------- As many children across the U.S. and elsewhere anticipating an annual visit from a generous and jolly red-suited soul from the Earth's North Pole, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor was busy acquiring new views of the region around the Martian North Pole. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/06marscaps/"}, {"response": 370, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (13:46)", "body": "Sea Launch aborts liftoff / Cat's Eye nebula revealed NEWSALERT: Tuesday, January 9, 2001 @ 0728 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SEA LAUNCH ABORTS LIFTOFF IN FINAL SECONDS OF COUNTDOWN ------------------------------------------------------- A last-moment concern with the XM 1 radio broadcasting satellite cargo led to a frantic halt to the countdown of Sea Launch's Zenit 3SL rocket on Monday with clocks stopping 11 seconds before blastoff from the Odyssey platform in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html Watch video clip of countdown abort: http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/010108abort_qt.html CHANDRA REVEALS THE X-RAY GLINT IN THE CAT'S EYE NEBULA ------------------------------------------------------- Scientists have discovered a glowing bubble of hot gas and an unexpected X-ray bright central star within the planetary nebula known as the Cat's Eye using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The new results provide insight into the ways that stars like our Sun end their lives. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/09chandraeye/ ARIANESPACE ARIANE 4 ROCKET LAUNCH DELAYED 24 HOURS --------------------------------------------------- Gusty high altitude winds above the jungle launch site in Kourou, French Guiana forced Arianespace to scrub Monday's planned liftoff of an Ariane 4 rocket carrying the Eurasiasat 1 telecommunications satellite. Officials are hoping for improved conditions Tuesday evening. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v137/status.html ASTRONOMERS MAP OUT LARGEST STRUCTURE IN DISTANT UNIVERSE --------------------------------------------------------- By reading the light from the fiery heart of unimaginably remote galaxies, astronomers have discovered evidence for an immense concentration of galaxies over 6.5 billion light years away in the largest known group of quasars, possibly the largest structure anywhere in the observable universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/09lgstructure/ RARE SPHERICAL NEBULA HELPS MEASURE STARS' COMPOSITION ------------------------------------------------------ The simple spherical geometry of the beautiful planetary nebula Abell 39 will help astronomers identify the source of very serious errors in measuring the chemical composition of dying stars. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/09rarenebula/ EVIDENCE PRESENTED FOR NEW SUPERNOVA EXPLOSION MODEL ---------------------------------------------------- New research, based on observations of a brilliant supernova, is challenging existing models of how one type of the powerful explosions take place in the Universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/09supernova/"}, {"response": 371, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (14:09)", "body": "No Wonder I could not find it - had it posted in Archaeology!!! =========================================================== SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN - JANUARY 5, 2001 =========================================================== For images and Web links for these items, visit http://www.skypub.com =========================================================== Axel Mellinger's composite image of the entire Milky Way was so stunning that we made it into a poster. Now, not only is there a 2nd Edition of his quick-selling panorama, Mellinger has imaged the polar regions as well to create a spectacular all-sky view. The 24-by-36- inch \"Celestial Sphere\" poster consists of 51 wide-angle exposures stitched together into a seamless \"real\" map of the entire sky. The poster comes with a key chart identifying major constellations and stars. To order either of Mellinger's posters, visit Sky Publishing's online store at http://store.skypub.com/ or call 800-253-0245. =========================================================== ASTRONOMERS FLOCK TO SAN DIEGO The 197th meeting of the American Astronomical Society will be held January 7-11 in San Diego, California. Visit Sky & Telescope's Web site ( http://www.skypub.com/ ) for late-breaking news reports filed by S&T's on-the-scene editors Rick Fienberg and Alan MacRobert. CELEBRATING CERES AT 200 On the first night of 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi saw a \"star\" that didn't belong in the field of his little refractor mounted atop the royal palace at Palermo, Italy. \"I have announced this star as a comet,\" he wrote later that January, \"but . . . it has occurred to me several times that it might be something better.\" He had, in fact, spotted the first minor planet, which was soon named Ceres, after the Roman goddess of the harvest and the patron goddess of Sicily. Exactly 200 years later, an eclectic mix of astronomers, artisans, philosophers, and historians gathered in Palermo to celebrate the Theatine monk's discovery. In a lecture prior to the group's party to mark the beginning of the new, true millennium, Giorgia Fodera-Serio pointed out that Piazzi's then state-of-the-art telescope has now been completely restored. All its parts are original, except for the eyepiece, and it has been remounted atop the former palace. At the time, Piazzi's discovery seemed to be the long-sought confirmation of what today is known as the Titius-Bode \"law.\" First publicized in 1772, it neatly described the orbital spacings of the five planets then known. But there was one glaring glitch: the law predicted a planet between Mars and Jupiter, but none was known. Ceres seemed to fulfill the law's prophesy. After the newcomer passed through the Sun's glare and emerged once again into the night sky, it was recovered by Franz von Zach the night preceding the first anniversary of its discovery. Three months later, Heinrich Olbers discovered the second minor planet, Pallas. That posed a serious problem for the Titius-Bode law -- now there were two planets where only one should be. But by then Piazzi and others had already begun to doubt that Ceres measured up to full-planet status. Even to these early observers, it was evident that Ceres was too small to qualify. Today we know that this largest minor planet is only about 930 kilometers in diameter, a quarter the size of the Moon. And we know that Ceres is accompanied by thousands of similar bodies that inhabit the so-called asteroid belt. PATRICK MOORE TO BE KNIGHTED Patrick Moore has been England's unofficial prince of astronomy for more than four decades. At the end of last month, Buckingham Palace announced that he will receive the country's highest royal recognition when Queen Elizabeth II will bestow knighthood upon him for \"services to the popularisation of science and to broadcasting.\" Moore, 77, has written and starred in the BBC television series \"The Sky at Night\" for 44 years, making it the world's longest-running television show with a single host. Americans and the rest of the world are probably more familiar with some of his approximately 100 books and numerous magazine articles. He has been an active amateur astronomer since even before joining the British Astronomical Association at age 11. Unfortunately, his observing may have come to an abrupt end. Moore explains that a deterioration of his spine has left him unable to use his telescope or to write. \"Writing is impossible, and even typing is very difficult and slow,\" he told Sky & Telescope. \"Unfortunately there seems little to be done about it, and I have to accept that my really active life has come to a sudden and premature end.\" Nevertheless, Moore hopes to be able to continue with \"The Sky at Night\" for a while longer. For additional details about Moore's astronomical career, see David Levy's profile in the May 1997 issue of Sky & Telescope (page 106). CASSINI'S NEW GROOVE The Cassini spacecraft and its attached Huygens probe swept past Jupiter on December 30th at a distance of 9.7 mi"}, {"response": 372, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (18:44)", "body": "Britons Get Front Row Seats for Lunar Eclipse LONDON (Reuters) - Britons had front row seats on Tuesday night for a three-hour show billed as the most colorful lunar eclipse for a decade. Beginning at around 1:40 p.m. EST, the earth's shadow slowly moved over the surface of the moon until finally eclipsing it at about 2:50 EST. Totality -- when the moon is completely covered by the earth's shadow -- saw the moon turn orange as the light from the sun was bent and filtered by the earth's atmosphere. Astronomers said the eclipse was particularly spectacular because it is almost a decade since the last big volcanic eruption -- that of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. The debris thrown up by volcanic eruptions reduces the amount of light transmitted from the sun to the moon during a lunar eclipse. Tuesday's show was visible from all parts of Britain, as well as Europe, Africa and Asia. The only restricting factor for some was the weather, with some areas covered by cloud. The last total eclipse of the moon visible from Britain, in January 2000, was obscured by cloud across much of the country. The moon \"turning to blood\" was once seen as a sign that disaster would strike or that the gods were angry. In some places it still fills people with fear. An estimated 1,500 white witches are planning to gather in Britain, Sweden, Iceland, France, Canada and Austria during the eclipse to ward off any doom it may bring, the BBC reported."}, {"response": 373, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (14:27)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 @ 0530 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CHINESE CAPSULE LAUNCHED ON SECOND UNMANNED TEST ------------------------------------------------ China took another step towards manned space travel Tuesday by launching its second prototype capsule on a demonstration flight. The unmanned Shenzhou 2 spacecraft, with several animals aboard, was successfully launched into the planned orbit around Earth by a Long March rocket on a several-day excursion. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/09china/ BIZARRE NEW PLANETS PUZZLE ASTRONOMERS -------------------------------------- Astronomers Tuesday announced the discovery of a pair of new and highly unusual planetary systems that challenge their views on the structure of solar systems and even the definition of a planet. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/10newplanets/ ENGINE REPLACEMENT DELAYS SEA LAUNCH TO FEB. 28 ----------------------------------------------- Sea Launch officials Tuesday decided the first stage engine on the Zenit 3SL rocket needs to be replaced because its pre-ignition sequence was started during Monday's aborted countdown. The job will require the command ship and launching platform return to port, delaying the mission until February 28. http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html 'PIPELINE' FUNNELS MATTER BETWEEN COLLIDING GALAXIES ---------------------------------------------------- This visible-light picture, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, reveals an intergalactic \"pipeline\" of material flowing between two battered galaxies that bumped into each other about 100 million years ago. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/09pipeline/ WINDS POSTPONE ARIANE 4 ROCKET LAUNCH YET AGAIN ----------------------------------------------- Continued unacceptable winds above the jungle launch site in Kourou, French Guiana forced Arianespace to forego making an attempt Tuesday night to fly the Ariane 4 rocket with the Eurasiasat 1 satellite. Launch has been reset for tonight and we will have live coverage! http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v137/status.html OVER 150 RAPIDLY MOVING STARS FOUND IN MILKY WAY ------------------------------------------------ Astronomers have discovered 154 rapidly moving stars towards the center of our galaxy and our brightest neighboring galaxy. The results are of special interest because this is the first time scientists have been able to discover such objects in front of the millions of stars seen at the Galactic center and the Large Magellanic Cloud. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/10stars150/ BOEING BEGINS BUILDING NAVY COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE ---------------------------------------------------- Boeing has received the final go-ahead to manufacture an eleventh satellite for the U.S. Navy's UHF Follow-On communications satellite constellation, keeping the network working well into this decade to relay spy satellite photos, intelligence reports and strike orders to U.S. troops around the world. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/10uhf11/"}, {"response": 374, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (23:30)", "body": "Moon Hoax Spurs Crusade Against Bad Astronomy SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The myth about equinox eggs got him started, misinformation about meteors bugged him, but when he learned that some people think the Apollo Moon landings never happened, Philip Plait knew the time had come for his crusade against bad astronomy. So what began as a frustrated astronomy graduate student's online fuming has evolved into a newspaper column, a book contract and a Web site that gets an average of 15,000 hits a week: http:/www.badastronomy.com. No one is spared on the site: Plait, who holds a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Virginia and worked with the Hubble Space Telescope, takes aim at movies, television, the news media and the Internet when they trample on what he considers to be the obvious truths about space science. Take, for example, the notion that humans never walked on the Moon, despite copious evidence to the contrary. \"People believe in the weirdest stuff, but they don't believe the most flaming obvious thing that's right in front of their face and I get e-mail about this,\" Plait said in an interview at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego. He blames much of it on the movie \"Capricorn One,\" a science fiction offering in which a planned human mission to Mars is faked. \"It's a good flick, but it legitimized a lot of these people who claimed we never went to the Moon,\" Plait said. \"There weren't that many people, but with the Web, you can spread disinformation instantly. People are just willing to grab onto this stuff.\" WHERE ARE THE STARS IN MOON PHOTOS? One common argument used by the anti-Apollo folks is that in photographs of astronauts on the lunar surface, no stars can be seen in the dark sky, therefore the pictures must have been taken on Earth somewhere. Plait literally gagged as he recounted this, and countered with what to him was the obvious fact: there are no stars in the pictures from the moon because the Moon itself is being blasted with sunlight and is enormously bright, so bright that people on Earth can sometimes read by the light of the full Moon. \"When they're taking a picture of this brightly lit astronaut on a brightly lit landscape, it's just like taking a picture in daytime here on the earth,\" he said. \"No stars have a prayer of getting through that.\" Rather that debunking this idea on his Web site, Plait has a section referring visitors to other sites of \"debunkers\" and \"conspiracy theories.\" But he plans a chapter in an upcoming book to be called \"Bad Astronomy\" on this question. There will also be a chapter on those who calculate the birth of the universe using the Bible, estimating its age in the thousands of years, instead of the billions of years that astronomers have long maintained. \"Astronomy is one of the most accessible sciences,\" he said. \"Everybody wonders about it and it does tap into the fundamental questions of humanity -- why are we here, what's our place in the universe, does the universe have an end, how did it start -- these aren't little questions, whole religions, trillion-dollar-a-year industries are based on these questions. \"But it means that there's an open door into people's heads. If you can use that pathway to get to people, it's a good way to do it, for ill or for good,\" Plait said. Beginning in his student days in 1993 and 1994 with a personal Web site as his platform, Plait expressed irritation at a commonly held belief: that eggs can only be stood on end at the exact moment of vernal equinox. That, said Plait, is just plain nonsense. And he said so on his site, eventually featuring a picture of a gaggle of eggs at attention, taken on Oct. 25 -- as he said, about as far from the vernal equinox as possible. He did not hit on the idea of creating a Web site about bad astronomy until 1998, several months before a Leonid meteor shower. It turned out to be good timing: there was plenty of media grist for his mill in that event. Plait has not quit his day job: he currently works in California on public education programs for the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope. He also writes a column for the German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung."}, {"response": 375, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (15:20)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Sunday, January 7, 2001 @ 1728 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SPACE SHUTTLES THAT REPAIR TECHNICAL GLITCHES ON THE FLY -------------------------------------------------------- Ever stop and think about the millions of dollars spent on fancy space equipment that breaks down? If you are millions of miles away orbiting the Earth, there's no repairman available to fix the problem. The answer: machines that are smart enough to learn from experience, detect problems and fix themselves. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/07fixitshuttle/ RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL SIGNS OFF ON MIR DEORBITING ------------------------------------------------------- Space station Mir's destruction upon burning up during re-entry seems even more certain with the announcement by a Russian Space Agency spokesperson that the Russian Prime Minister has signed an order mandating the deorbiting late next month. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/07mirok/ AUSTRALIAN SALT LAKE HELPS TEST NASA 'SKY EYE' ---------------------------------------------- A team of scientists has just spent a week in a huge barren salt lake in Australia's interior helping to test a new NASA satellite -- the Earth Observing 1 technology demonstrator. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/07eo1test/"}, {"response": 376, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (21:36)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, January 11, 2001 @ 0654 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CHANDRA LINKS PULSAR TO SUPERNOVA OF 386 AD ------------------------------------------- New evidence from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggests that a known pulsar is the present-day counterpart to a supernova that exploded in 386 AD, a stellar explosion witnessed by Chinese astronomers. If confirmed, this will be only the second known pulsar to be clearly associated with a historic event. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/11chandra/ EXTREME WARP FOUND IN ANDROMEDA'S STELLAR DISK ---------------------------------------------- Astronomers have obtained new evidence of an extreme warp in the stellar disk of the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest galactic neighbor. Possible causes of the warp include interactions between Andromeda and its smaller satellite galaxies. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/11warpdisk/ ARIANESPACE BEGINS 2001 WITH LAUNCH FOR TURKEY ---------------------------------------------- A telecommunications satellite that will bridge 150 million Turkish-speaking people of Europe and Asia was launched into orbit Wednesday by an Arianespace Ariane 4 rocket, marking the European booster's 60th straight success. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v137/ http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v137/status.html ARIANESPACE POSTS $185 MILLION LOSS FOR 2000 -------------------------------------------- Arianespace reports it lost money last year, the first time the European launch services firm's annual earnings have wound up in the red during its 20-year history. But officials say they are optimistic that mark will not be repeated in 2001 with plans to reduce operating costs. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/11ariane2000/ AIR FORCE DELAYS LAUNCH OF WEATHER SATELLITE FOR REPAIRS -------------------------------------------------------- Next week's launch of a U.S. military weather satellite aboard a Titan 2 rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base has been pushed back one day after technicians accidentally damaged a sun shield on the craft during pre-flight cleaning. http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/g9/ DATE SET FOR NEXT SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH -------------------------------------- NASA has established January 19 as the official launch date for space shuttle Atlantis' upcoming mission to deliver the $1.38 billion U.S. Destiny laboratory research module to the international space station. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html"}, {"response": 377, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (21:59)", "body": "Space-Station Crew Awaits Next Shuttle Mission CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were busy preparing on Friday for the arrival later this month of a U.S. space shuttle carrying the station's newest element -- a U.S. laboratory named Destiny. The crew of American William Shepherd, the station commander, and Russians Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalyov, passed their 73rd day in space on Friday. NASA and the Russian Space Agency, senior partners in the $60 billion orbital construction project, said they plan to give the station crew more time to relax and prepare for the arrival of shuttle Atlantis than they had in December, when shuttle Endeavour's crew found them exhausted and sleep deprived. Atlantis is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 19 with the $1.4 billion Destiny module in its payload bay. The weeks leading up to Endeavour's visit had been a mad scramble to bring life-support, communications and computers to life aboard the Russian Service Module after the trio docked their Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the station in November. That work meant the astronauts had to sacrifice sleep leading up to the shuttle's arrival, and left Shepherd complaining about \"trying to fit 30 hours into 16-hour days.\" \"We started the process of preparing the crew before Christmas\" for Atlantis' arrival, Jeff Hanley, the U.S. space agency's lead flight director for the station, said at a NASA regular space station briefing held on Friday. But there was still plenty of work left for the astronauts, who will live aboard the station about 120 days before being replaced by the Expedition Two team of one Russian commander and two Americans. Like anyone expecting house guests, there are numerous repairs and plenty of cleaning up to do. This past week the crew fixed an air conditioner, replaced some electronics in the on-board power system and tested the Russian space suits that would be used for space walks. Radios on the space suits proved balky and Russian ground controllers are studying the problem, Hanley said. A more immediate problem is one of four latches that will be needed to secure the Destiny to an existing space-station module. While testing the latches earlier, NASA found that one of them would not close due to an obstruction from some ductwork. \"These are latches that actually reach out and grab the incoming module, in this case the lab,\" Hanley said. NASA plans to have the astronauts enter that part of the station, which currently is closed off by a hatch, to work on the latch this week. Otherwise, the astronauts top job is to prepare the station for provisions and equipment that Atlantis will carry into orbit. \"The main theme of next week is going to be packing, packing, packing,\" Hanley said. The space station is a joint project of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. It is scheduled for completion in 2006 and will have as much pressurized space as a 747 jumbo jet. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 25, "subject": "Natural Disasters: Drastic Changes in the Landscape", "response_count": 106, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (19:24)", "body": "Wolf, this one is for you! Thanks for suggesting it!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (19:58)", "body": "wow, you're very welcome! ohhhh, my very own geospring topic *grin* anyway, i wanted to share something i learned on a national geographic discovery show about landslides. now, all you scientific types will already know this but i did not! when mt st helens erupted, it was being filmed. during this process, the geologists (or vulcanists) learned a new thing and put an old theory about landslides and their causes out the door. right before this volcano erupted, the earth moved downward, almost as if making room for st helens' belly to spew forth with all its energy. this ad never before been documented and changed the theory about landslides being the result of a volcano rather than a precurser (sp?). oh, and that half of a volcano in hawaii is gone, that was interesting too, i couldn't figure out how they knew that the volcano didn't cut itself in half!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (20:10)", "body": "It's that cross-section that shows the internal plumbing which gives away the fact that half of it is missing. Next time write down what it sounds like - you were very good with Happy Easter in Hawaiian...go for the name of the volcano and I shall investigate. Not sure they are talking about a cone or an entire volcano!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (20:11)", "body": "Love the name GeoSpring...it rolls nicely around on the tongue. *hugs*"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (20:14)", "body": "I'm gonna borrow a post I put in Intro and put it here regarding the halving of Volcanoes: Cinder cones fracture along the line of the fault zone which caused the cone in the first place. A whole lotta shaking going on will make coastal ones plunge into the sea entirely or just the seaward half. Leaves behind a most interesting cross-section of how the cone was built of layers of cinder and spatter which held the cinders together. Some do blow themselves apart. Not much left to see of those. They are usually Phreatic ones which experience steam explosions and it just leaves the jagged rim of the base of the cone there. Unfortunately, Volcano is a big structure often used interchangeably with volcanic cone. One is a mountain and one is a small-to-large hill. Of course, when a new volcano is building, it begins small...so that is lso a possibility!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (20:20)", "body": "see, i don't remember the name of it or which island it was on. paid attention cuz they said hawaii and i thought, hey, i know someone there! *grin*"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (23:03)", "body": "Yup! You do,indeed. I can look it up in my texts and other places which might have it. Of course, the Hawaiian Chain stretches some 1500 miles across the pacific, but it would have to be at this end to still look like a volcano. Let me do some checking when I am more awake tomorrow. I just might ask the kid, too!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Feb 10, 2000 (13:30)", "body": "I think this is the right place to put this Marcia? 2000-02-10 SOUTH AFRICA: FLOODS SWAMP PARTS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA, KILL 35. By Buchizya Mseteka JOHANNESBURG, Feb 10 (Reuters) - At least 35 people have died in flooding from torrential rains that have swamped parts of southern Africa and cut major road links in the region, television and radio stations reported on Thursday. The South African emergency services said water levels were rising in most rivers and advised people not to try to cross them. \"It is still raining in most areas and we have a problem with fresh drinking water,\" said Captain Ronel Otto. She said an 80-year-old woman died on Thursday when her house collapsed on her in South Africa's Northern province. Other officials said floods had cut off a road linking Botswana to Zimbabwe and South Africa and links between Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa. In Mozambique, government officials said four people died when a bus was swept away by floods and overturned. The main road link between Mozambique and South Africa was also cut, leaving traders and tourists stranded. South African radio reported that 800 trucks were stranded on the Botswana side of the border by high waters. South Africa, the regional economic powerhouse, is already providing aid to Mozambique, where floods have isolated cities and left more than 100,000 needing aid. South African police said torrential rains across South Africa's Northern, Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces left a trail of death, destruction and despair, as dams overflowed, and rivers broke their banks and swept away bridges and roads. Local media said the death toll in the Northern and Mpumalanga provinces - the worst affected - had risen to 31, scores were missing and thousands were homeless. The South African Weather Bureau forecast more rain and thunderstorms through to next week, threatening further flooding with most rivers already at their highest levels in 50 years. The Star newspaper reported that damage to infrastructure in Mpumalanga amounted to around 250 million rand ($39.4 million). Business at the country's famed Kruger National Park has been disrupted with the closure of several rest camps. Scores of tourists were evacuated from the Park on Wednesday, disrupting one of South Africa's lucrative hard currency earners. for more current news, click on the link below http://news.africa.com/"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 10, 2000 (16:39)", "body": "Good grief, Maggie! Near anyone you know? This is as good as any place else because this magnitude flood is just about Biblical, and it is gonna change the landscape for sure. Soil transportation, for one. Wonder when the Cholera outbreaks begin?! Thanks, but so sorry for the poor people affected."}, {"response": 10, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (13:31)", "body": "No, I don't know anyone there. But I am surprised that it didn't even get a mention on the BBC news. I haven't heard of any majorfloods in that area before."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (13:43)", "body": "Interesting how blind to the third world the media can be - unless it is a slow news day! Shocking, actually!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (14:25)", "body": "I check BBC monitoring quite often as they do have some wider view stuff on it. Usually the BBC's world coverage is quite good."}, {"response": 13, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (14:28)", "body": "This just came in: Mozambique In Mozambique as the Incomati, Umbeluzi and Sabie Rivers rose to their highest levels ever recorded, a major international humanitarian relief operation swung into action to bring relief to tens of thousands of flood victims. In a statement, the Mozambique government said that it estimated that it would need about US $15 million to fully rehabilitate flood-stricken areas. It said that US $2.7 million was needed for the initial emergency response. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) sent an assessment team to assist the Resident Coordinator and the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) in information gathering, reporting and appeal contribution management. OCHA said that it had released US $30,000 from the OCHA Emergency grant. The United States embassy in Maputo said that it had given US $25,000 to help support flood relief efforts. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Norway, Kjell Magne Bondevik, announced this week a donation of US $100,000 to support flood victims. Bondevik was in Mozambique for talks with President Joaquim Chissano. The United Kingdom's Department of International Development has pledged US $30,000 for emergency relief efforts. The Belgian chapter of Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF-B) had already provided doctors, medical supplies and water tanks to several sites in the capital Maputo and Matola, about 45 km west of the capital. Neighbouring South Africa, according to OCHA, provided two cargo helicopters to help rescue people stranded by rising flood waters. South Africa is also providing various non-food items such as tents, blankets and kitchen utensils. UNESCO said that it would monitor the communications requirements to improve information access to the affected populations. In Maputo, about 100,000 people have been affected by the flooding. WFP said, in its latest update that, about 20,000 people were being sheltered at 14 centres in the city. It said that 1,000 mt of food, enough to feed 70,000 people for one month, would be distributed. Authorities in Maputo had also started rationing water after a treatment plant was flooded. WFP said that it was also providing 54,655 people with food aid in other parts of the Maputo Province. \"Recent information indicates that these numbers should increase by about 10 percent,\" the report said. In Matola 25 km away, an estimated 100,000 people had been affected by the floods. It said that 2,000 people were being housed at 11 sites in the city and that \"several cases of malaria had been reported at some of these sites\". In Xai-Xai, the capital of the southern Gaza Province, 5,000 people had to be resettled. WFP said that this number was likely to increase as the level of the Limpopo River rose. WFP said that 6,975 families in Sofala Province in the east had been affected, with about 34,874 people having to be evacuated. It said that there was no access to the south of the province and that the main road to Maputo in the Chibabava district was also impassable. In Inhambane Province to the east of the country, flooding from the Save River had affected the Govuro district in the north of the province. Botswana Meanwhile, Botswana received about three quarters of its annual rainfall in recent days, severing the country's main road and rail arteries in what police described this week as some of the worst floods experienced in the past 30 years. Foreign Minister Mompati Merafhe said on state radio this week that 5,100 homes had been destroyed by the floods. The main route linking Gaborone with the north of the country, was washed away near the town of Morwa, about 70 km north of the capital, while crops in many areas were destroyed, officials said. In Kopong village, about 30 km from Gaborone, residents had been forced to seek refuge on rooftops after the Metsimotlhabe river burst its banks. Local radio broadcast warnings to the public to be alert for collapsing infrastructure, and people were advised against attempting to cross fast flowing rivers. Police and the country's emergency services were assisting people rendered homeless. Swaziland In Swaziland, an estimated 10 rivers in the country had burst their banks. At least two people had drowned since the rains began on Saturday afternoon. Swazi Meteorological services said this week that between Sunday and Monday an estimated 157 millimetres of rain had fallen in the country's capital, Mbabane. The agriculture ministry's Food and Security Bulletin said the continuing heavy rains were also threatening the country's maize supply because fields were becoming water-logged. A spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs told IRIN this week that the Mananga border post, between Swaziland and South Africa's Mpumalanga Province, had been closed because of the heavy rains. South Africa In South Africa, at least 38 people are reported to have died and thousands left homeless by the heavy rains. One of South Africa's most well known tourist attractions the Kruger Na"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (15:20)", "body": "I had no idea it was so widespread! How terrible! Thanks for finding the more complete story!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (15:52)", "body": "Why nothing on the main news though? wierd."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (16:02)", "body": "Indeed. Deaths yet? That usually gets attention if enough faceless and nameless people far away die. Sad, but true!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (16:05)", "body": "Well they said 35 or so In S.Africa. The Mozambique situation semms pretty bad form the above report. I think N. Ireland has taken over tonight."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (18:30)", "body": "http://www.africanews.org/PANA/news/20000211/feat10.html Botswana Appeals For Emergency Aid To Contain Floods February 11, 2000 GABORONE, Botswana (PANA) - Botswana President Festus Mogae and Foreign Affairs Minister Mompati Merafhe Thursday appealed to the international community for emergency aid to deal with the effects of floods that have caused deaths and severely disrupted life in the country. An official press release Friday said Mogae is likely to declare the crisis a national disaster if the situation gets worse. The release added that Botswana's capacity to deal with the flooding and its effects is being exhausted fast. To complicate matters, the rains are still falling and therefore there is need to seek international emergency assistance for greater efficacy in the fight to save lives and alleviate suffering, the release said. All the rivers and dams in Botswana have completely over-flowed their banks, causing severe flooding. The floods have submerged roads, bridges and caused permanent and mud houses to collapse, killing people in the process. By Friday morning, three people had perished in the floods. Reports from other parts of the country say that a number of schools have been closed. In Gaborone school children have been released from classes earlier than usual since the flooding started. Residents of a number of submerged estates had to be given leave from their work places to enable them evacuate their houses. Most affected has been Tlokweng, a populous residential area on the outskirts of Gaborone. The estate has been cut off from the capital after a bridge over the Notwane River was submerged. The capital, Gaborone, was still cut off from Francistown with the police monitoring the submerged bridge on the road to the second city Friday. The army has been called in to help."}, {"response": 19, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (10:15)", "body": "Poor Mozambique... It is either draught or flood, and they starve to death anyway. Yet there are edenic places there, i am told, mostly in the islands. OT: methinks I've just seen a \"list of the more recent posts\" when I was in browse/geo/all/new... Will go see again... Thank you, Master Programmer! :-)"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (10:53)", "body": "Indeed, but he traded my wallpaper and buttons for the posting list. But, I forgive him anything and all will be well. It is good to see, is it not?! Thank you, my dear prgramming wizard."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (10:54)", "body": "(Or whomever it is - Kaylene?!) =P"}, {"response": 22, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (13:06)", "body": "Did you see the news on the cyclone that hit Mozambique on top of the recent flooding. There's another out in the Indian ocean at the moment, it's just been 'downgraded' to a tropical storm. However, because it's right on top of the last one it will just bring higher floods and added misery. The situation appears really desperate."}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (13:57)", "body": "I did not see about poor Mozambique, but I did see the storm on the weather map. Avalances have killed many people in Europe. The mountainsides were scoured by last year's heavy rains and there was no vegetation left to hold back the snow."}, {"response": 24, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (15:50)", "body": "Oh, I forgot - there's a volcano erupting in the Philippines. Sorry, didn't catch the island name. They're doing mass evacuations."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (16:09)", "body": "I'm on my way to my volcano sites...Thanks, Maggie!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (16:16)", "body": "Mayon Volcano, Philippines Location: 13.257N, 123.685E Elevation: 8077.43 ft (2462 m) Last Updated: February 23, 2000. February 23, 2000 On 21 February, a wall of the Mayon crater collapsed and sent chunks of volcanic rock crashing down the side of the volcano. Brown ash spewed 1,300 feet into the air. More than 5,000 people remain on the slopes and are reluctant to leave their farms. February 22, 2000 A 6-kilometer-radius around the crater of the Mayon Volcano has been declared a \"no man's land.\" All residents in this area have been ordered to evacuate. Fresh magma is slowly but steadily ascending in Mayon's plumbing system. An increase in S02 emissions and volcanic earthquakes indicate the possibility of a new eruption. A lava pile on the summit has been observed since 12 February."}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (22:09)", "body": "Mayon, Philippines critical Increasing SO2 emissions, the formation of a \"lava pile\" on its summit, and increased volcanic earthquakes at the Philippine volcano Mayon in February has led to increased alert levels and the possibility of a new eruption. It is believed that magma is slowly ascending in its plumbing system. Mayon has experienced several eruptions in the past year. The area within a 6-kilometer-radius around the crater of Mayon Volcano has been declared \"no man's land\" and all residents in the area have been ordered to evacuate. ------------------ From: Philippine Headline News Online Full article at: http://www.newsflash.org (\"Hometown & Community News\",Feb. 17) MAYON VOLCANO REACHES CRITICAL LEVEL Legazpi City, Feb. 16, 2000 - Government volcanologists raised yesterday the alert level at Mayon Volcano in Albay from \"alarming\" to \"critical\" following signs that hot molten rock was slowly but steadily rising to the crater. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said Alert Level 3 means that \"fresh magma (hot molten rock) is close to the crater,\" but noted that an eruption \"is likely only if the present trend of relatively high volcanic unrest is sustained.\" Phivolcs said a lava pile on the summit of Mayon Volcano has been observed since Feb. 12, accompanied by an increase in sulfur dioxide emissions and volcanic earthquakes. see the URL above for the full article"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (20:02)", "body": "Volcano Erupts in Philippines By BULLIT MARQUEZ Associated Press Writer AP News Report Thursday February 24 1:21 PM ET LEGAZPI, Philippines (AP) - A 1 1/2-mile-high volcano erupted Thursday, spewing superheated ash into the air and sending streams of superhot, bright orange lava down its slopes. Thousands of nearby villagers, many jarred from sleep by rumblings before the pre-dawn eruption, boarded army trucks to leave the area. Evacuees crammed into school classrooms and some took refuge under trees in the schoolyard. No injuries were reported. The Mayon volcano's eruption began with lava gushing out of the crater, accompanied by loud rumblings that some nearby residents compared to thunder. Lava with temperatures that reached well above 1,000 degrees cascaded 3 1/2 miles down the mountain's near-perfect conical slopes. Ash rained as far as seven miles away. Fourteen explosions were recorded by late afternoon, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. The fiercest sent ash flying 4 1/2 miles into the air and spread it across the sky, darkening some villages and forcing cars to use their headlights at midday. Officials warned that a more violent explosion could occur at any time. The area is most vulnerable to lava, falling rocks and deadly pyroclastic flows - superheated clouds of volcanic ash that travel up to 50 mph and can instantly incinerate anything in their path. Raymundo Punongbayan, director of the volcanology institute, urged residents of villages up to 5 miles away along the mountain's southeastern side to evacuate. As of noon Thursday, more than 18,000 people had left 18 villages, said Cedric Daep, head of the Albay provincial disaster management office. Judel Mirandilla - a 14-year-old student from the village of Bonga, which lies in the path of possible pyroclastic and lava flows - said he was roused from his sleep shortly after 1 a.m. by thunderous explosions and flashes of light from the mountain. ``We became so scared we decided to leave. Other people were waking up our neighbors to evacuate,'' he said. Authorities canceled all flights to Legazpi, the airport closest to the volcano, located about 215 miles southeast of Manila in Albay province. The volcano's repeated explosions indicated that magna is still rising to the dome and volcanic activity could continue for some time, said Juan Cordon, a research specialist at the volcanology institute. For about a week, the 8,118-foot mountain famous for its cone-like shape has been emitting ash plumes and occasional flows of lava. The crater's lava dome has swelled, releasing molten rocks the size of a room down its slopes. The volcano has been showing signs of unrest since June, spewing ash-laden smoke high in the sky several times last year. An explosion in September forced more than 5,700 people to flee their homes. On Feb. 1, 1814, Mayon's most violent eruption killed more than 1,200 people and buried an entire town in volcanic mud flows. Its last eruption in February 1993 killed more than 70 villagers."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (20:09)", "body": "I thought they were having floods...or was that another place in Africa?! And, I thought I had a bad day...! Thirsty Monkeys Stone Herdsman to Death NAIROBI (Reuters) - A group of thirsty monkeys stoned a herdsman to death in drought-stricken northern Kenya as he watered his livestock, a newspaper reported Thursday. ``In a clear sign of worsening drought, a herdsman was killed after riotous monkeys stoned pastoralists at a watering point in Wajir district,'' the East African Standard said. A nurse in district said the man died from severe head injuries. Herdsmen in Wajir usually tend cows and camels."}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (20:53)", "body": ""}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "Philippines volcano eruption warning Authorities in the Philippines' Albay province have urged villagers not to return to their homes near Mayon Volcano, which was evacuated last month after signs of possible eruption. The 2,462m volcano, among the Philippines' most active, belched steam seven kilometers into the air in June, and panicking residents fled to emergency evacuation centers. The volcano simmered down a day later but has been showing signs of possible eruption in recent days. Defence Secretary Orlando Mercado said a 7km area around the volcano is a permanent danger zone. But around half of the 18,000 locals within the zone refuse to leave while others return to work on farms and homes during the day. Fatal eruption Lying 340km southeast of Manila, the crater attracts many tourists because of its cone-shaped profile According to volcanologists, Mayon's gas emissions are increasing and there is a slight bulging of the volcano's slope near the crater. With unfelt tremors becoming increasingly frequent, experts believe magma may be rising toward the crater. Mayon last erupted in February 1993, killing at least 70 people. Its most violent eruption occurred on 1 February, 1814, killing more than 1,200 people and burying an entire town in volcanic mudflows. The Philippines lies on the Pacific \"Ring of Fire\", the focus of much of the world's volcanic and tectonic activity as continental plates on either side of the world continue to shift."}, {"response": 32, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (11:48)", "body": "Wow! Stunning pictures! Weird about those monkeys in Nairobi! Talk about a bad day..."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (12:16)", "body": "Yup! I sent David a copy of that picture of the Mayon eruption, and he was impressed. It is amazing how difficult it was to find one on the net yeaterday. Today it is on the front page of our local newspaper! And, just when I think my day has been too sordid to think about, monkeys stone a guy to death. Amazing stuff happens, huh?!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "patas", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (14:20)", "body": "(MarciaH)I thought they were having floods...or was that another place in Africa?! Weren't the floods in South Africa and Mozambique? Further south than Nairobi, Kenya."}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (14:49)", "body": "Yes, the floods and drought were in widely separated parts of Africe (I was being facetious...a naughty habit of mine.) There is still terrible flooding ongoing in Mozambique. The BBC has articles which numb the mind daily. It seems that those with the least in the whole world continually have what little they have taken away by the whims of nature. And, if not nature, human greed! It all seems so unfair."}, {"response": 36, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:57)", "body": "Natural Disasters: Drastic Changes in the Landscape One of those big flying rock things certainly changed things a bit for the dinosaurs, didn't it :-)"}, {"response": 37, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:58)", "body": "forgot to close my italic tag... :-)"}, {"response": 38, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:58)", "body": ""}, {"response": 39, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:59)", "body": "is that better yet?"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (21:49)", "body": "it is now! I am glad I am not the only one goofing up the place and deleting my posts. *Hugs* Mike! Yup! The dinosaurs had a really bad go of it and the wee little shrew-like mammals from which all mammals descended hid out of the way and survived. I'm not so sure it was a \"good thing\"...but that was out of out hands entirely. That skinny little iridium layer told the entire story. They found it world-wide and at exactly at the right time in evolutionary history. Remarkable!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (11:27)", "body": "Iridium layer? Does that have to do with the theory that a huge meteor crashed to earth and eventually caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? Is that still the going theory? I reading about \"periodic bombardment\" in Sky & Telescope years ago, but haven't read much about it since. I don't remember if it mentioned iridium..."}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (12:14)", "body": "Iridium is not found on Earth. The only way it could have gotten here is from extra-terrestrial (do NOT imply space ships) sources. That the impact pulverized the meteor is apparent from the world-wide distribution of this iridium, It must have circled the earth for years (along with masses of Earth material blasted out by the impact) blocking the sun, chilling the climate and causing plants to die. No food, cold temperatures and no sun to bask in to get the reptilian metabolism high enough to eat and digest food caused death. Conveniently, years of rain and settling out of the atmosphere of the obscuring dirt covered the remains. Rain compacted the deposits into fossil-forming rock. The rest is, as they say, history. I know that is a bare-bones narration, but did I get it right, Mike?"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (12:18)", "body": "It was in the news a few years back because they think they found the impact crater off of the Yucatan Penninsula."}, {"response": 44, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (15:41)", "body": "Was that theory on the extinction of the dinosaurs the work of Walter and Luis Alvarez?"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (16:37)", "body": "It was, Indeed!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (16:39)", "body": "Btw, it was neglegent of me not to mention the Alvarez father and son. Thank you for bringing it up!"}, {"response": 47, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (23:56)", "body": "Yes, thanks...I blanked out on their names! I read that article quite a few years ago; I think it was before the Yucatan crater was found."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (10:23)", "body": "It was, and they made a documentary about it with the Alvarez's and it is shown from time to time on the Discovery and Learning Channels, also not including the Yucatan crater. It is still most fascinating...and entirely relevant."}, {"response": 49, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (11:07)", "body": "From http://www.nasa.gov/today/index.html ; there is a picture with it. Full story is supposed to be at http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html , but I haven't located it yet. Massive African Dust Storm Over the Atlantic A huge sandstorm blowing off the northwest African desert has blanketed hundreds of thousands of square miles of the eastern Atlantic Ocean with a dense cloud of Saharan sand. The massive nature of this storm was first seen when it reached over 1000 miles into the Atlantic on Feb. 26 by NASA's Sea Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) spacecraft. This image, captured yesterday, shows the dust and sand blowing north and east to the coast of Portugal. Recent studies by the U.S. Geological Survey have linked the decline of the coral reefs in the Caribbean to the increasing frequency and intensity of Saharan Dust events. (2/29/00)"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (12:04)", "body": "Thanks, Ginny! Going to post it in Atmospheric disturbances Geo 11."}, {"response": 51, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (23:18)", "body": "Hi, Anne Hale from Oz. The desert near Uluru is blooming with wonderful flowers and is green!!!! Lake Eyre a salt pan in the heart of northern South Australia is filling up and has not done so for years. Cyclone Steve has crossing into the Gulf of Carpenteria and is bearing down on communities and the city of Darwin - we have a low which is feared to be turning into a Cyclone off the North West Australian coast. Melbourne usually very wet during summer is going to have water restriction cause it has been so dry. Perth had nearly 100% humidity yesterday plus nearly 100degrees. Unheard of hear - its supposed to be dry heat. Flooding is nearly as bad as Mozambique but we have the facilities to rescue and clear up - but unfortunately can't help those poor people because our helicopters etc. are busy helping the flood stricken Queensland, News South Wales and the Northern Territory - also now North Western Australia is expecting flooding."}, {"response": 52, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (23:32)", "body": "The desert near Uluru is blooming with wonderful flowers and is green!!!! That's Ayres Rock to us. Anne, that should be gorgeous. Am thinking how it would look with the red earth there. Wonder if there are pictures posted somewhere."}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (23:44)", "body": "Not yet, but if no one has posted by morning, I will hunt up some and do so! Aloha Anne! What a pleasure to see you posting with such ease!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (22:47)", "body": "Hi again Tropical Cyclone Steve is not now expected to reform and hit Darwin. And Tropical Cyclone Norman is moving away from Western Australia. Small earthquake in Port Lincoln today - almost unheard of."}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (22:49)", "body": "Good Heavens, Anne. Who has provoked the wrath of God?! Has your Big Wet dried to a Big Flower Garden for good for the year?"}, {"response": 56, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:14)", "body": "Heard there's another cyclone (gloria?) forming ready to hit Mozambique. What IS happening in Australia - I don't remember hearing about such things before - or is it just that I haven't heard in earlier years."}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:28)", "body": "I was wondering the same thing. Anne will be on later this afternoon (my dinner time is her breakfast time the next day!) We can always look at the weather maps but that doesn't explain why so many storms just that they exist."}, {"response": 58, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:10)", "body": "We had the el nino effect, wasn't there supposed to be a counter one that followed. Could this have anything to do with it?"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (17:04)", "body": "Yes! La Ni\ufffda... Entirely possible, but then again it is theory to be replaced by the next darling of the environmentalists. Earth fluctuates and so does the Sun...there are many reasons for the weather changes and ice ages. They will always be with us and we will continue to talk about the weather...and guess!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (04:30)", "body": "Tropical Cyclone Steve has now reformed for a third time in Western Australia and is travelling down the north western Australian coast. We now have two cyclones running down the coast. Worrying hey. Perth itself will have intensive heat caused by the northerly/northeasterly winds. Tuesday will be well over a hundred degrees - but if a trough forms we probably will finish up with heavy rain."}, {"response": 61, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (06:57)", "body": "We're thinking of you! My mind boggles at the conditions. Is that centigrade or farenheit?"}, {"response": 62, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (06:57)", "body": "Ignore that - of course it must be farenheit. sorry, confused."}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (12:18)", "body": "Poor Anne...What incredibly bad weather you have had this season/year. Lie down with cool cloths on your face and turn on the fans. I cannot imagine living with such high temperatures anymore. Our extreme highs never reach 90\ufffdF"}, {"response": 64, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (12:23)", "body": "Is the electricity still working? Do you have fans/air conditioners?"}, {"response": 65, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "This just came in from UN. ETHIOPIA: Raging forest fires continue More than 30,000 hectares of land has been destroyed by raging fires which broke out in Shakiso district, in Borena zone of Oromiya State, southeast Ethiopia over three weeks ago. \"The fire is still out of control,\" counsellor at the Ethiopian embassy in Nairobi, Mengistu Ayalew, said on Friday. \"Help from the international community is yet to come.\" The fire has caused the deaths of hundreds of animals at the National Park in the Bale Mountains, destroyed forests, electricity poles, residential houses and bee hives. \"It is a catastrophe,\" he told IRIN."}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (14:25)", "body": "Good grief! Is there no end of suffering for that continent?! Thanks, Maggie."}, {"response": 67, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (04:18)", "body": "africa has been hit so hard and very little help too. We here have enough troubles and have not helped much although we have a fund set up. The cyclone is causing having and warning are up as far south as Port Hedland. Today was hot about 94 but from tomorrow, 96f, 100f, then 102f then a cool change down to 88f. Or if the cyclone doesn't move inland but continues down the coast I don't know what will happen - but it is nothing compared to Africa - difference between third world and the affluent countries - the government helps restore he farms and stock, sugar cane etc. for next year."}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (11:08)", "body": "I think it is becoming more and more apparent that one or two or even a few fortunate first-world-countries cannot take care of the entire world. I am sure there many hungry, unhoused and ill people wandering the streets here as anywhere else, and we are not tending them, either. There are no easy solutions."}, {"response": 69, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (02:18)", "body": "You are right Marcia - our farmers are in dire straits they need help, there are homeless and refugees in terrible conditions. Our aboriginals are not well looked after - taken away from there native areas and live on the fringes of the city - their children steal cars, they rob and break into houses, then sent to prison or children's detention with very little done for their welfare - the parents are usually alcoholic and are thus unable to discipline them. Our prisons are mostly full of aboriginals and there is only 2% of our population. Thus it is difficult for funds to be sent to Africa when we can't even help our own."}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (10:37)", "body": "That is like our aboriginal populations in the US - AmerIndian on the mainland and Polynesian in Hawaii. When we imposed Christianity on the rest of the world, we forgot to practice it ourselves!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (20:36)", "body": "The type of Christianity imposed was Victorian without any thought for the aboriginals and their understanding. Also as you said we forgot to practice it ourselves - some 50 years ago it was the practice in Western Australia to remove the aboriginal children from their mothers cause it was deemed they were not able to look after them properly - they are now called the lost generation -they were put into orphanages, foster homes and lots were abused, told their parents were dead etc. I know this doesnit seem a natural disaster but it does come under that heading. Anne H"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (20:46)", "body": "I think it qualifies just fine as a natural disaster. How sad! Don't you wonder how so many generations of peoples survives without our interevention. Millennia, even, not just the recent centuries! Can't think of this too deeply or I'll get furious and have nothing to attack but my own innards. Good to see you posting. D must have got it right ! Bravo!!!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (21:00)", "body": "Yeah but only on the web - we can't send e-mail except on Yahoo. I get angry to because I knew two of the girls taken from their homes. Doreen who I know particularly well was the daughter of a chief. She now works for her people in the tribal areas. Wonderful good - she came good - she had a wonderful foster mother - so theres a good story."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (21:05)", "body": "Did you get my response to your email? It is good to know that true beauty can grow out of barren fields. Thank you for the bright spot in an otherwise terrible tale. My congratulations and gratitude to you and Doreen!"}, {"response": 75, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (14:49)", "body": "from UN IRIN news service ENVIRONMENT: Obasanjo appeals to UN to save Lake Chad Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has appealed to the United Nations Development Programme and other international agencies for help in reversing the gradual recession of Lake Chad. In a speech delivered on Monday by Defence Minister Theophilus Danjuma in Abuja at the opening of the 47th session of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, he said it was imperative to halt the degradation of the lake, once the world's sixth largest, 'The Guardian' newspaper of Lagos reported. \"Your vision for the people of the Lake Chad basin must have at its core the security and well-being of the suffering masses as well as the unity of the member-nations,\" he said. Members states of the commission, formed in 1964 to ensure optimal use of the lake basin's water resources, are Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. The commission is also supposed to coordinate the planning and implementation of all regional projects of the lake basin, review complaints and help settle disputes. As a result of persistent drought since the 1960s, the lake has shrunk to one-tenth of its size. A project has been launched to save it but the commission lacks money. \"Member countries, therefore, have to pay their contributions on time,\" Obasanjo said."}, {"response": 76, "author": "ommin", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (23:54)", "body": "Mt. Etna erupting with some force. I wasn't sure where to put the info."}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (14:58)", "body": "For Mt Etna, I think I will continue the discussion in Geo 2 and post what I can find about it. Thanks, Anne!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (11:06)", "body": "******************************* Yemen -- landslide ******************************* From: Martin Menzies I have just talked with Mohamed Al'Kadasi and Abdulkarim Al'Subbary who are at Royal Holloway for a Penrose Conference on Volcanic Rifted Margins. They came in from Sana'a yesterday. They have no knowledge of any volcanic eruption but they confirm that a landslide occurred at Saber, near Taiz on one of the granite mountains. As a result Dr. Ismaiel Al-Ganad (Director Geological Survey, Sana'a) ordered two geologists to visit Sabwer and to report to him. Professor Martin Adrian Menzies, (Chairman/Head of Department & Professor of Geochemistry) http://www.gl.rhbnc.ac.uk Department of Geology Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX, England"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (13:25)", "body": "Don't know where else to put this and it might not change the landscape, but it sure enough is a disaster: Wednesday, April 12, 2000 - 7:39:05 AM HST Accident reported on nuclear sub at Pearl Harbor One worker is hospitalized after a pipe burst aboard the USS Olympia By Gregg K. Kakesako - Star-Bulletin One shipyard worker was injured during an accident on the nuclear attack submarine USS Olympia this morning at Pearl Harbor. The accident, which occurred at around 5:37 a.m., injured one civilian shipyard worker who was taken to Tripler Army Medical Center. His condition was unknown. The sub's nuclear reactor was not operating at the time and had been shut down for two weeks. The shipyard worker was working on a pipe when it may have ruptured forcing the worker to back into another object. The explosion was caused by a leak from the propulsion plant to the ship's bilge. The Olympia is a Los Angeles class attack submarine homeported at Pearl Harbor. - - - Starbulletin.com will update this story as it develops."}, {"response": 80, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (08:13)", "body": "I hope that liquid wasn't radioactive."}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (12:33)", "body": "No, it wasn't and the reactor was shut down at the time. Fortunately!"}, {"response": 82, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (04:30)", "body": "India's drought relief starts to get through By Peter Popham in Jodhpur 29 April 2000 The Indian government's plan to relieve the worst drought for a century finally swung into action yesterday while thousands of people desperate with hunger and thirst fled the worst-afflicted regions. In Jodhpur the first relief train arrived with 200 tankers of water which will be trucked to Rajasthan's parched countryside. The state authorities said 400,000 people had been hired for emergency work schemes. A trainload of fodder is expected today and ships carrying water were on their way to the coast of Gujarat. But if the inhabitants of a village called Mokalashani get so much as a sniff of the water, the fodder or the work, they will be mighty surprised. It is a small place, with 500 or 600 people. It is not remote: Jodhpur, the second-biggest city in the state, which has plenty of water thanks to the Rajasthan Canal, is an hour away. But the people here are about as desperate as you can get. Every village in western Rajasthan is a potential victim in time of drought, so the government built water tanks in most villages, hooked up to pipelines. Mokalashani has one too but the expert eye of my local companion spotted something wrong: the structure was disintegrating. Villagers confirmed it was a ruin. Built 10 years back, pipes fed it for a few days, then never again. So what do you do? It is 43 degrees Centigrade in the shade and the most vital staple of life has gone. The answer is that you dust off the wisdom of the ancients. When these villages were established, settlers made a hedge againstdrought: in the beds of the seasonal ponds they dug wells, which they lined with stones for durability. But when the government waved its wand and shot pipelines out into the Rajasthan Desert, these practices fell into disuse. Now, for want of alternatives, Mokalashani's women are rediscovering the wells, or bheri. But this year's drought is so bad that they too are almost dry. Many village women have given up and set off in search of better sources. Apart from being so depleted, the water in Mokalashani's bheri is not even potable. It is dirty and can only be used for watering animals and washing. The only way to get drinking water is from water barons, who bore wells on their land or use intimidation to plunder common sources, then fill up tankers to sell. Near Jodhpur they charge 150 rupees (\ufffd2) a tanker but in Mokalashani it is 300 rupees. One day soon, if the people of Mokalashani have not given up and fled, an official will arrive to set up a famine work programme. As subsistence farmers the villagers have no cash coming in but by working in such a programme for eight days they will be able to afford one tanker of drinking water, enough to last one family about a week. But in Mokalashani no such scheme is operating. The only way to get cash is to mortgage land and house and sink into debt. In many poor, drought- prone parts of the Indian countryside a time of drought presents bigger and ruthless landowners with a perfect opportunity for expanding their land-holding when their poor neighbours, faced with the challenge of merely staying alive, are in no position to argue about the terms of a loan. This helps explain why tens of thousands of poor farmers have abandoned the cattle they can no longer feed or water. They place a tilak, a red \"third eye\" spot, on the cow's forehead and thread a string round one ear to indicate that they yield the holy animal to any gaushala, cow sanctuary, which may take pity. But the normal end of such cows is as a heap of bones in a dusty field, picked over by dogs and vultures. Such remains can already be seen outside Mokalashani. http://www.lineone.net/express/"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (14:45)", "body": "It boggles the mind that the Indian subcontinent can continue to be devastated by floods, drought and famine yet continues to increase their population alarmingly. Dontcha wonder if nature is not trying to tell them something?!"}, {"response": 84, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, May  7, 2000 (12:23)", "body": "It would seem so. The human population increase also spells trouble for India's animal population, most especially elephants and tigers."}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  7, 2000 (12:33)", "body": "Indeed! Strange and unfortunately, they were not considered an incarnation of someone - only cows. Will someone tell me why, please."}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 24, 2000 (18:34)", "body": "Lahars at San Cristobal volcano, Nicaragua ------------------------------------------ Just after the beginning of the rainy season a series of lahars took place at San Cristobal volcano, Nicaragua. On the evening of Saturday, May 13, several lahars have occurred at the volcano, after short but intense rains. The largest lahar came down the southern flank of San Cristobal,following an existing gully near hacienda Las Rojas and then following a dry river near the village Valle Los Morenos. This lahar reached the Chinandega-Leon highway below the Los Cabros bridge, nearly 15 km from the volcano. The deposited material consisted partly of new volcanic ash that has accumulated since the beginning of the ongoing eruption of San Cristobal in November 1999. Local inhabitants report that they heard a noise \"like helicopters\" when the lahars occurred. INETER seismologists immediately detected the lahars by means of the local seismic stations. The recordings from two stations located south and southwest of San Cristobal suggest that the lahar consisted of at least 5 separate events which occurred between 7:20 PM and 8:30 PM (local time). The largest lahar came down at 8:00 PM and reached the area of Valle de Los Morenos, 7 km from the crater, at about 8:20 PM. On Wednesday, May 17, after hours of intense rain, another strong lahar occurred at 8:00 PM, at the same location. The lahars caused no destruction and no injuries as they passed through unpopulated area. Local inhabitants living near San Cristobal well remember the 1998 Casita volcano lahar disaster. For that reason, during the nights of heavy rainfall, most locals preferred to stay in the emergency Civil Defense shelters, which local authorities had prepared in advance on high ground. Civil Defense and local authorities have maintained a yellow alert level for San Cristobal area since the beginning of the rainy season. INETER, in a report on the risks of lahars and landslides at San Cristobal volcano published on April 25, had alerted Civil Defense and local authorities to the possibility of strong lahars in the area due to the deposition of large quantities of fresh volcanic ash, especially near the crater region of San Cristobal. San Cristobal volcano, is the highest volcano (1740 m) in the Nicaraguan volcanic chain ( http://www.ineter.gob.ni/geofisica/vol/cristobal/cristobal.html) . The area south and southwest of the crater is densely populated. Casita volcano, at 4 km distance from San Cristobal, was the place of a disastrous landslide which destroyed two villages and killed more than 2,000 people on October 30, 1998 ( http://www.ineter.gob.ni/geofisica/vol/casita/casita.html) ."}, {"response": 87, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (05:31)", "body": "Friday July 14, 9:30 AM Tornado kills 11 people in east China, injures 500 BEIJING (Reuters) - A tornado killed 11 people, injured 500 and destroyed more than 4,000 houses in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. It said the tornado hit the cities of Yangzhou and Taizhou on Thursday afternoon, uprooting large trees and disrupting power supplies and telecommunications. The tornado ripped across fields of rice and cotton, causing more than four million yuan (320,000 pounds) in damage, Xinhua said."}, {"response": 88, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (05:34)", "body": "Bombay landslide toll 67 and likely to rise By Uday Khandeparkar BOMBAY (Reuters) - Sixty-seven bodies have been pulled from under tonnes of sewage, mud and debris in a Bombay slum buried by a landslide, rescue officials said on Friday. The death toll is expected to rise. The torrential rain that triggered Wednesday's tragedy has eased and rescue workers were guided by the stench of rotting flesh as they looked for victims among the crushed hovels on a hillside in the city's eastern suburbs. Soldiers cordoned off the site at Azadnagar, a largely Moslem colony in the suburb of Ghatkopar, so that emergency workers using mechanical diggers could work unhindered by the thousands of people who live in surrounding slums. The landslide is believed to have been triggered by the bursting of a swollen septic tank at the top of the hill. A tanker sprayed the hill with chemicals to prevent the spread of disease and mask the stink. \"The workers are now being led by the stench in their search for bodies. They've just located one such area and are digging there,\" a newspaper photographer at the site said. Building collapses and landslides are common in Bombay during the four-month monsoon season because a majority of the city's more than 12 million people live in shacks. The huts are typically made with bamboo, corrugated tin and plastic sheeting. India's western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat and the southern state of Andhra Pradesh have been battered by heavy rains in the past week and the total death toll has risen to nearly 120. Maharashtra, of which Bombay is the capital, accounts for 90 of those deaths. In neighbouring Gujarat, where 30 people have died in the past few days, over 5,000 people were rescued from their flooded homes and the army was called in to help with the evacuation, a local government spokesman said on Friday. The break in the weather comes after a weeklong spell of the heaviest rains since the four-month monsoon season began in June. The city, paralysed for two days because of flooding on the streets and railway tracks, returned to normal on Friday."}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (12:40)", "body": "As if Bombay did not have enough grief"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  4, 2000 (20:58)", "body": "These URLs were sent to me by my son - the contain most of the major fire fronts active a this time http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/news.shtml http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.html http://volcano2.pgd.hawaii.edu/goes/california/ http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast04aug_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  4, 2000 (21:40)", "body": "Firefighters Lose Ground in Montana HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Two hundred Canadian firefighters and 500 additional Army troops will reinforce beleaguered crews battling wildfires across the West, the head of the U.S. Forest Service said Friday. Mike Dombeck said most of the Canadians will be assigned to Montana while a second battalion of 500 Army troops from Fort Hood, Texas, will undergo firefighting training and join 500 Army troops and 500 Marines already assigned to fires in Idaho. Dombeck toured the Idaho and Montana fire lines Friday and promised adequate resources for fire crews. ``We're really at the mercy of Mother Nature,'' the forest service chief said. ``Unless we have a miraculous change in the weather, I think we can look forward to several tough weeks ahead of us.'' In Montana, 15 major fires were burning on 100,000 acres. Hundreds of homes were evacuated in the Bitterroot Valley, where heavy smoke cut visibility to zero on stretches of highways. In Nevada, a firefighting helicopter crashed near Elko, killing one crew member and injuring three other people shortly after takeoff late Thursday. One crew member remained in serious condition Friday; the pilot and a fuel truck driver who ran to help were treated and released. In all, nearly 62,000 wildfires have been reported across the nation this year, scorching nearly 3.8 million acres. Assistant Interior Secretary Sylvia Baca has called it the worst fire season in 50 years. More than 60 large fires were burning Friday across more than 650,000 acres of the West, and forecasts called for continued dry, hot conditions with the potential for lightning-packed thunderstorms. Fire conditions were predicted at the worst possible level, known as ``red flag,'' Friday, with temperatures in the 90s and blustery winds. The entire southwestern Montana zone raised its fire-danger rating to ``extreme'' on Thursday. It previously reached that level in 1994 and 1988, officials said. Farther south, near Jackson, Wyo., a brief downpour Thursday slowed a 3,100-acre wildfire, but 200 people were no closer to returning to their homes, cabins and campsites in the Bridger-Teton National Forest on Friday. The lack of rain in northwestern Wyoming is close to what it was in 1988, the year of the devastating Yellowstone National Park fires. In central Idaho, nearly 600 soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, wrapped up two days of firefighter training and streamed into already burned areas to begin mopping up. The soldiers' arrival freed up experienced firefighters to battled the stubborn blaze that had ballooned to 17,000 acres by Friday. Six Blackhawk helicopters joined the crew, dropping water and flame retardant on hotspots. Outside Reno, crews corralled a fire that damaged six homes even as other lightning-sparked blazes flared up across northern Nevada - some burning virtually unchecked. Gary Zunino, northern regional manager for the Nevada Division of Forestry, said the number of people and equipment to battle the flames was dwindling. ``The fires are going to move fast and get big fast,'' he said. ``Everybody in the West is fighting for the same resources.'' Elsewhere, firefighters across Utah battled nearly 109,800 acres of wildfires after a night of thunderstorms brought dozens of new fires to the state. On the Net: National Fire Information Center: http://www.nifc.gov Forest Service links: http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/links2.shtml APO/Western-Fires/ Copyright \ufffd 2000 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinkshave been inserted by AOL.com."}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  4, 2000 (21:41)", "body": "Forest Service links: http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/links2.shtml/APO/Western-Fires/"}, {"response": 93, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, Aug  5, 2000 (02:46)", "body": "Did you know there are firefighters coming over from Australia. Our thoughts go with you all in the Western Pacific. We have our quota of bush fires over here and can understand your fears."}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug  5, 2000 (16:08)", "body": "Yes, and Canadian troops have been sent to our aid, as well. It is now burning some very important archaeological places in Mesa Verde National Monument. Thanks for the Aussie aid!"}, {"response": 95, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (03:33)", "body": "Four killed in worst Japan rains in century http://uk.news.yahoo.com/000912/1/aiyfj.html NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) - Flooding and landslides from Japan's worst torrential rains in at least a century have killed four people and prompted authorities to urge almost 400,000 to flee their homes in the nation's industrial heartland. Police said on Tuesday four people were still missing after rains triggered by typhoon Saomai lashed three prefectures in central Japan, halting high-speed bullet trains and traffic on the main highways into the industrial metropolis of Nagoya. Local authorities urged 200,000 households to evacuate to public facilities after heavy rains set off landslides and rivers burst their banks, flooding thousands of homes, and virtually cutting off Nagoya, a city of more than two million people. \"Rain is likely to fall for another two days so people should remain on the alert,\" a Meteorological Agency official told a news conference on Tuesday morning. Some 460 military troops were sent to Aichi Prefecture, where Nagoya is located, and soldiers rescued 30 people stranded on the rooft ps of flooded homes. More than 50,000 passengers were forced to spend Monday night on high-speed bullet trains stalled by the storms, which dumped as much as 60 cm (18 inches) of rain on the area. Thousands were stranded in train stations. The rainfall in the region, home to Japan's third-largest metropolitan area, was the highest on record for a 24-hour period since the local observatory began keeping records in 1891. \"All I can do is ask the gods to send the floods away,\" said a woman in Nagoya. A 76-year-old man and his 73-year old wife were killed when their home was flattened by a landslide in the region's Komaki city. In Nagoya, a 53-year-old firefighter died after being washed into an irrigation channel, a police spokesman said. Twenty-nine people have been injured. Saomai, packing winds of up to 162 kph (100 mph), was moving slowly toward Japan's southern island of Okinawa from the southeast and was expected to hit the island full force sometime in the evening. Television cameras showed vast residential areas partly submerged in muddy water after the Shonai River broke through its banks near Nagoya. The Shin River, running parallel to the Shonai, also broke through a 100-metre (330 foot) stretch of its banks. An estimated 38,000 homes have been flooded. Residents clutching backpacks and plastic bags with a smattering of belongings waded through waist-deep water as they fled their homes. Some held onto ropes to avoid being swept away. \"The road looked like a river of churning water last night although by this morning the water had resided a bit,\" said Nagoya housewife Nobuko Iijima. \"There were dozens of abandoned cars blocking the road.\" Rescue Efforts Firefighters rescued about 50 people stranded on the second story of their homes by floods and orange-suited rescue workers lifted children and elderly from boats. Japan has had more than its share of natural disasters this year. Three volcanoes have erupted in Japan this year including one on the northernmost island of Hokkaido in April and another on the tiny island of Miyakejima, 180 km (113 miles) south of Tokyo. Nearly all of Miyakejima's nearly 4,000 residents had been evacuated by early this month."}, {"response": 96, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (09:36)", "body": "Thursday September 14, 11:15 AM http://uk.news.yahoo.com/000914/80/aj9ej.html Half a million at risk in huge Vietnam floods LONG AN, Vietnam (Reuters) - Rising waters threaten to drive a further 500,000 people from their homes in the worst floods to hit Vietnam's Mekong Delta in decades, relief officials have said. The floods have already inundated at least 140,000 homes in the rice growing provinces of Long An, Dong Thap and An Giang bordering Cambodia and forced more than 50,000 people to seek refugee on higher ground, the International Red Cross said. \"I think we are talking about a very grave situation at the moment,\" said John Geoghegan, head of a delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) visiting the stricken area to assess relief needs. The swelling floodwaters from the mighty Mekong River and its tributaries have already surged well above danger levels and turned vast areas of the provinces into inland seas. Reuters journalists travelling by boat with the Red Cross team to the worst-hit part of Long An province saw hundreds of low-lying bamboo and thatch homes flooded to th ir rafters. Relief officials say nearly half the land area of the three provinces is submerged and water levels are above or approaching those in 1996, when floods killed 180 people. Geoghegan said water levels were forecast to rise another half-metre in coming days, endangering another half a million people in a worst case scenario. HIGHER WATERS LEVELS EXPECTED \"(They) have still been rising in the Mekong (river) in Cambodia. That head of water is going to be coming down this way in the next few days.\" On Thursday, the IFRC appealed for $1.9 million (1.34 million pounds) to help victims in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, where it said 600,000 people had lost homes and farmland. It said the unusually widespread monsoon floods had affected millions across Southeast Asia and nearly 800,000 square km of land in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam had been flooded. The Red Cross said $300,000 (212,000 pounds) would go to Vietnam to help 100,000 people hit by tropical storm Wukong on Sunday and Geoghegan's assessment would clarify the Delta needs on Friday. Prompt rescue efforts by thousands of soldiers and volunteers have held Vietnam's death toll to eight in the past week, but rapidly rising water levels threaten increasing numbers of people. Geoghegan said the Delta had been better prepared than in 1996, with more dykes and canals built, but some dykes that have offered refuge to evacuees have begun to crumble. Some families had to be moved 25 km (15 miles) to the nearest high ground, he said, adding that evacuees would need several months' assistance after losing crops and food. \"They're going to be sitting on the dykes until the end of November, because that's when water levels will reduce to their normal levels.\" The Dong Thap flood committee said some 28,000 people were already facing hunger and 57,000 less severe food shortages. It said 110,000 homes in the province had been flooded and more than 30,000 people evacuated. Geoghegan said that despite the risks, some villagers had been reluctant to leave their homes, fearing the loss of meagre possessions, increasing the risk of casualties. Floods, landslides and typhoons have killed about 40 people in Vietnam this year. Floods and typhoons lash the country every year beginning from July, and last November typhoons and ensuing floods in the central coastal areas killed 730. Truong Van Tiep, vice chairman of Long An people's committee, said water levels were the highest recorded in the province in 73 years. \"They have come earlier this year and have lasted longer,\" he said. The floods' impact on rice output has been slight as the Delta harvest was almost complete when they hit. Officials said 24,000 hectares (60,000 acres) of rice were lost in all three provinces and traders say stocks are plentiful."}, {"response": 97, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (04:16)", "body": "Update on Vietnam situation:Sunday September 17, 9:15 AM Flood-hit Vietnam villagers have no place to run HONG NGU, Vietnam (Reuters) - Villagers swamped by the worst floods to hit Vietnam's Mekong Delta in decades face weeks of sodden uncertainty and fear as flood waters rise relentlessly around their fragile homes and crumbling dykes. \"We don't know what to do -- the water keeps rising and we have no where to run,\" said 51- year-old Vo Van Duc as he sat with his family on a bamboo floor just a few centimetres above the lapping waters in the Delta province of Dong Thap. Dong Thap, bordering Cambodia, has been one of the three worst hit provinces in what officials say are the worst floods to hit the low-lying rice-growing region in 40 years. Waters from the Mekong River have turned half the land of the rice-farming provinces into desolate inland seas. Only roof-tops of houses and occasional trees break the gloomy monotony. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimates more than half a million homes have been flooded, some up to the rafters and 150,000 people forced to flee to higher ground, many having had to abandon meagre possessions and rice reserves. Phan Van Thuong, 66, worries his house will collapse, not least due to increased boat traffic since the floods hit. \"My biggest fear is a that a big wave from the river will knock my house down,\" he said. \"I have no idea what to do if water rises. We can't move because the floods are everywhere.\" Thuong's children have built him a crude wooden bridge from the front of his house to his bed. As he spoke, his 63-year-old wife Luong Thi Tac stepped onto the bed from water reaching above her knee. She is too frail to use the home-made bridge. \"Hopefully the floods will recede in about a month,\" she said. FEARS OF DISEASE Rising waters from the Mekong River have also hit Cambodia hard with 94 people killed since July. Cambodia says the floods are its worst in 70 years and has sought help for an estimated 600,000 affected people. Thailand said more than 85 percent of its rice crop in the main northeastern growing area had been damaged by floods. The Red Cross says its could be late November before the waters recede. It says most of the flood victims are the poorest of the poor peasants and the longer the floods go on the risks of serious outbreaks of disease increases. Dinh Cong Kham, of the local Red Cross, said the floods not only put villagers in immediate danger but also threatened their future livelihoods. They have made a living rearing fish and growing rice and fruits like mangoes and longans. \"Fruit trees have had their roots soaked for so long they're now ruined, \" he said. \"And it takes five years for them to become productive after planting.\" In An Phu district of neighbouring An Giang province, authorities moved 300 people to a 300-metre long dyke six km (four miles) away. Their living conditions are cramped and squalid and they are short of food and fresh water. Tiny children compete for space with pigs and chickens. A sign reads: \"Dumping human excrement is prohibited\". Tran Nhan Ngoc was moved to the dyke with three members of her family. They are all hungry. \"We have nothing to eat. The floods keep us trapped here waiting to die from hunger,\" she said from a three square-metre shelter where her sick husband lay on a bed, their only possession. \"Before everything was submerged I could earn up to 3,000 dong (about 14 pence) a day going to the market to sell fish or vegetables, but now there's nothing.\" Tran Thanh Binh, deputy district chairman, said the floods were forecast to peak at the end of this month. Water levels in An Giang's Tan Chau district, where the Mekong River enters Vietnam, were at 4.92 metres on Saturday, eight cm higher than the last serious floods to hit the Delta in 1996, which killed 217 people. They are forecast to hit the five metre mark on September 20. Prompt rescue work by thousands of soldiers and volunteers and better flood defences than in 1996 have so far limited deaths from the latest floods to 19 in the past week -- most of them children. But some dykes not already breasted by the floods have started to crumble and landslides have occurred in some areas, threatening greater casualties. Le Minh Dung, deputy chairman of An Giang Red Cross, said it had been difficult to mobilise help for those worst affected. \"The floods have been spreading in the province and everyone is now facing a tough time,\" he said."}, {"response": 98, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (08:53)", "body": "North Pole icecap melts as global warming increases Sunday Times Aug 20, 2000 http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/08/20/stifgnnws02001.html Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor Big thaw hits the North Pole THE North Pole is melting for the first time in 55m years. Researchers have found that the icecap at the top of the world has turned into a mile-wide patch of open ocean. The melting of the pole last happened on such a scale when the Earth was going through a period of rapid warming. This year's meltdown has been linked with the greenhouse effect, where gases released by burning fossil fuels are trapping ever more heat in the atmosphere and so warming the Earth. The melting was discovered by James McCarthy, an oceanographer and member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is sponsored by the United Nations to advise governments on global warming. It coincides with official confirmation that the icecap covering Greenland is also disappearing. Earlier research conducted by McCarthy has shown that the average summer thickness of ice at the North Pole was about 9ft. This year, however, he was able to take a ship directly to the pole and then had to float over it - because there was no ice to stand on. \"It was totally unexpected,\" he said. Researchers had warned that the polar icecap was shrinking by about 6% a year, but nobody had expected the North Pole to melt until global warming had become much more severe. The meltdown could also counteract the Gulf Stream, which keeps Britain's climate two to three degrees warmer than countries at similar latitudes. The Eocene period, 55m years ago, was the last time the world's climate grew rapidly warmer. Fossil evidence shows that it became warm enough for tropical vegetation and animals to flourish in the Arctic and Antarctic circles. The news comes as the IPCC is drafting an important report on global warming for publication in January. This weekend it emerged that the report will, for the first time, confirm that the Greenland icecap has not only started to melt but also will eventually disappear unless global warming can be halted. Sir John Houghton, former head of the Meteorological Office and who now heads the IPCC's scientific panel, said the report would make it clear to governments that the world's climate was changing rapidly. \"We are confident that climate change is due to human activities,\" he said. The news also anticipates the November reopening of negotiations in the Hague over ratifying the 1997 Kyoto climate change agreement. Under the agreement, first world countries such as Britain and the United States of America have to reduce their greenhouse emissions sharply by 6%-8% by 2012. Britain is likely to meet the target but, the report will say, most other countries will fail. America - the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide - is predicted to increase emissions by 15%. There is also no agreement on reductions after 2012. Houghton and his colleagues will tell governments that the world must slash greenhouse gas emissions to 60% of 1990 levels by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of climate change. If the reductions are left for another 50 years it could prove too late. The Hadley Centre - the Meteorological Office's climate change unit - has warned of a \"runaway\" greenhouse effect where temperatures would reach a point at which it could no longer be stopped. Tony Juniper, campaigns director for Friends of the Earth, said the melting of the North Pole showed how urgently action was needed. \"The melting polar ice is consistent with the predictions of scientists,\" he said. \"It shows global warming is for real and governments must agree tougher pollution targets.\" Dr Peter Wadhams, a specialist in sea ice at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, said it was wrong to suggest that the North Pole had never lost its ice. \"Polar ice is always moving and these gaps can open up anywhere, including the North Pole - but it is true that there are now many more of them,\" he said. \"Our research shows the average thickness of the polar ice has reduced by 40% and its area is shrinking by 4% a year. By the end of this century it will have disappeared completely.\""}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2000 (16:32)", "body": "I posted this in Gaia (topic 4) and made note of the updating gif therein which shows how the ozone hole changes as the atmosphere changes."}, {"response": 100, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2000 (17:27)", "body": "Oops! missed that...."}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (00:47)", "body": "Not a problem....it is a different article and maybe we will get a few more readers...*hugs*"}, {"response": 102, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (04:19)", "body": "Floods spread in Mekong Delta http://uk.news.yahoo.com/000923/80/akaxd.html MEKONG DELTA, Vietnam (Reuters) - The worst floods for decades have spread to new provinces in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, where the death toll has risen to 75, mostly children, local officials said on Saturday. More than half a million homes have been flooded in the Delta, many to the rafters, and at least 150,000 people forced to flee their homes to seek refuge on crumbling earthen dykes surrounded by waters five or more metres deep. Although water levels in the three worst-hit provinces of Long And, Dong Thap and An Giang appeared to be stabilising, downstream areas have seen rises of 10 cm (four inches) a day. A combination of high sea tides and flood waters from upstream provinces had affected Vinh Long, Kien Giang, Tien Giang and Can Tho provinces, officials from the Kien Giang and Vinh Long people's committees said. Officials in Dong Thap, Long An and An Giang provinces said rises in water levels had slowed distinctly in the past two days in upstream districts bordering Cambodia. The death toll this month from the floods rose to 75 with nine more deaths reported. They were in Long An, Kien Giang and Tien Giang. The vast majority of the dead have been children. Meteorologists have warned month-end high tides in the South China Sea could prevent the floods draining away even though water levels have fallen. And relief officials worry that when the immediate danger from the flood waters passes, it will be replaced by the threat of diseases like cholera and dengue, as it could be late November or early December before the waters fully recede. The effect on Vietnam's rice output -- a key export industry -- has been limited as farmers managed to gather most of their summer-autumn crop before the worst floods hit. However, most will not be able to plant a smaller third crop and Wednesday's Vietnam Economic Times quoted the Agriculture Ministry as saying 500,000 tonnes of unhusked rice would be lost. On Friday, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific blamed deforestation for the floods that have affected millions and killed more than 200 people in Indochina and the Mekong Delta."}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (01:10)", "body": "Poor Vietnam. As if they have not had enough trouble in the 20th centurym now the Mekong delta is flooding. It is not as bad as the Pakistan and Bangladesh floods, but a disaster is all relative. It is always worse to those undergoing the misery and death. Thanks for posting the article."}, {"response": 104, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (18:00)", "body": "Saturday October 14, 10:47 PM Mudslide ravages Swiss village, three feared dead Saturday October 14, 10:47 PM GONDO, Switzerland (Reuters) - A mudslide destroyed a third of the small village of Gondo on the Swiss-Italian border on Saturday morning. Police said 18 people were missing but could not confirm reports that three had died. Some 100 people were evacuated, including a group of 40 who had sought refuge in a civil protection shelter and were unable to leave as the entrance was blocked with debris, local authorities said. The landslide was caused when an earth dam above the lower part of the village, constructed after torrential rains threatened the town in 1993, gave way under the mass of water. The mayor of Gondo told Swiss television a wall of water and mud some 30 to 40 metres wide had taken just 10 seconds to cut a swath through the village just before 11 a.m., taking houses and possibly people with it down the mountain slope. At a news conference in Sion, the capital of the canton of Valais, a police spokesman said 18 people were still missing. \"We have so far not recovered any bodies and we do not know whether there are any dead,\" he said. Local customs officer Rolf Gruber had said earlier by mobile telephone from the village that there were at least three dead. Gondo, home to some 140 people, lies 885 metres above sea level in a narrow valley between Brig in Switzerland and Domodossola in Italy, near the Simplon pass. A statement from the Valais cantonal government said a third of the village had been badly damaged and some 10 houses and the historic Stockalper tower washed away. The inhabitants were evacuated to Domodossola and the village of Simplon-Dorf. The rescue action, which was called off for fear of a possible avalanche, was to continue on Sunday with the help of the army. Heavy earth moving machines were due to be brought to the town over partially blocked roads. Heavy rainfall since Friday had swollen the Doveria river, which runs along the village. The Swiss meteorological service said more rain had fallen in the past few days than in an average month of October. The high water levels have severed some road links and telephone lines in the area. Rail traffic through the Simplon tunnel was halted as a local station was under water. In Locarno, Lake Maggiore broke its banks and the water level was still rising. Several mountain passes were closed to traffic."}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (21:02)", "body": "More mass wasting. I thought Britain had taken all of the rain out of those clouds. And, I thought we got all the rain...!"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 20, 2000 (19:33)", "body": "Kentucky Hams Help in Coal Sludge Spill Disaster Amateur Radio operators in eastern Kentucky are helping their neighbors to cope with a lack of drinking water in the wake of a coal sludge spill that has cut off water supplies. More than 200 million gallons of coal waste flooded waterways without warning October 11 after a coal plant retention pond near Inez gave way. The resulting pollution--described as being the consistency of wet cement or molasses--has forced communities in the path of the spill to close water intakes and rely on existing water supplies. The Amateur Radio Emergency Service has not yet been activated, but ARES remains on stand-by to provide emergency communication, if needed. Section Emergency Coordinator Ron Dodson, KA4MAP, says the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management has requested Amateur Radio assistance in Martin County, where the spill originated. In Lawrence County, Emergency Coordinator Fred Jones, WA4SWF, says hams are helping to supplement communication among the different agencies involved whose radios operate on a variety of different frequencies. But Jones says the primary need has been making sure affected residents have water to drink, cook, and bathe with. Jones says officials are concerned there might not be enough water to fight a fire. Another worry is that heavy rainfall could cause widespread flooding. Kentucky Gov Paul Patton declared a state of emergency Monday in a large portion of northeastern Kentucky. Affected are the counties of Boyd, Bracken, Carter, Fleming, Greenup, Lawrence, Lewis, Martin, Mason, and Robertson. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 26, "subject": "EARTHQUAKE!!!  The Sequel", "response_count": 218, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  1, 2000 (21:15)", "body": "So far the Responses were: Response 1 of 1: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (18:46) * 2 lines Updating Earthquake Map: http://maps.weather.com/images/maps/special/usa_earth_720x486.jpg Response 2 of 3: Wolf (wolf) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (21:01) * 1 lines ok, lemme say again.....this is COOL!! Response 3 of 3: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Jan 28, 2000 (23:04) * 2 lines Thank you! There are other regional ones which I shall put up one at a time. I was doing that when it refused to post the second map. That is when it froze. I am puzzled how it happened but happy you noted it and I opened this one! Response 4 of 4: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Jan 29, 2000 (13:40) * 2 lines Ok..since I have unfrozen Seismology I will just post scientific data for those who want in-depth information. This will be reserved for first-person sensory reports. If the ground starts to buckle and undulate, and a good-looking turn-on is not involved, I want to hear about it, please! (doing EarthQuake dances in preparation for the fun about to happen here)"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  1, 2000 (21:18)", "body": "UPDATING EARTHQUAKE MAP"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  8, 2000 (17:54)", "body": "Why Earthquakes? Check the maps below and notice the incidence between the plate boundaries and the occurrance of Earthquakes."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (17:56)", "body": ""}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 17, 2000 (20:12)", "body": "We have just had 2 earth quakes on Kilauea: 3.6 and 4.5 magnitude. No tsunami was generated, and I am disappointed that I missed feeling it. I was sitting here and noticed nothing. Hmmm... More usually occur and the pattern of the eruption usually changes when we get EQ's as strong as 4.5."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 17, 2000 (20:54)", "body": "There is no way to put this updating Big Island Earthquake map here so I will have to post the URL for it. http://elsei.wr.usgs.gov/results/seismic/BigIsland.html"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (00:05)", "body": "No excitement to report before I close down. No further earthquakes. I do not know the status of the eruption, which will likely change. I will find out in the morning when the first air tour flights check things out. It is possible that the current episode will stop and a new one commence in a few days. It just depends on what has happened to the structurs of the internal plumbing. More news in the morning, Hawaiian time. Aloha! and Hugs!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (18:10)", "body": "We just had another earthquake which I could not feel. It was about 3.5 on the Richter scale which is just about feelable if you are very lucky, and it was on the other side of the island."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (18:15)", "body": "The eruption of Kilauea continues at least as vigorously as it did before the Response 8 earthquakes."}, {"response": 10, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (22:50)", "body": "Well, I'm glad it didn't shake you up!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (22:53)", "body": "I always feel a little cheated when there is one I don't feel - that is, until a real bone rattler. Then, after I have anguished through whether it is ever going to stop shaking, and whether the ground is going to open up and swallow me, I promise myself never to go through another one. Then, after a while, the curious little kid in me starts to surface again... a vicious circle. Thanks for the good thoughts, though. Did you ever experience an earthquake, Ginny?"}, {"response": 12, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (23:03)", "body": "No, not yet. There have been some small tremors around here (one was centered in Littleton a couple of months ago), but I haven't felt them. I'm not complaining! I love thunder and lightning, and I don't mind hurricanes and blizzards so much (as long as I don't have to shovel or deal with floods), but I don't know if I could ever get used to earthquakes. Supposedly the Boston area is due for a big quake, which would be a disaster since most construction around here wasn't built to withstand earthquakes."}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (23:14)", "body": "Oh great! Your BigDig will get a whole lot bigger if you have a good shaker. What is supposed to be the cause of that upcoming Big One? Are the Appalachians still pushing skyward? I can't imagine anything else...!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (23:24)", "body": "I can't remember what the reasoning was, but if I find out, I will be sure to post it here! From your plate pictures, we don't seem to be on the fault line between two plates, but something did create all the mountains around here. (The White Mountains in NH are part of the Appalachian chain; not sure about the Green Mountains in VT. Actually, don't the Appalachians extend up to Maine?)"}, {"response": 15, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (23:34)", "body": "Founds some old news articles at http://www.townonline.com ; apparently there is a fault line around here! Wednesday, October 13, 1999 Minor earthquake reported ASSOCIATED PRESS (This Associated Press story was taken from the MetroWest Daily News.) LITTLETON -- A small earthquake shook a large area of central Massachusetts this morning, scientists reported. The brief tremor was felt shortly after 6 a.m., from Littleton and Acton to as far west as Worcester. John Ebel, director Boston College's Weston Observatory, confirmed that a minor quake did take place, and said scientists were in the process of analyzing data on the seismic activity. Police dispatchers in various towns reported hearing what they thought felt like an explosion. Others described it as sounding like a large truck, or low-flying jet. There were no reports of injuries, damage or power outages. Wednesday, October 13, 1999 Earthquake wakes residents Wednesday BOXBOROUGH - Residents of Boxborough and Littleton and surrounding towns got a rude awakening on Wednesday morning when an earthquake measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale was felt for a few seconds at about 6:09 a.m. There were no reports of damage although many reported hearing what sounded like an explosion. The force was enough to rattle dishes and startle pets. It lasted just a few seconds. Police departments in Boxborough, Littleton, Maynard and Westford received many calls from startled residents who thought perhaps there had been an explosion nearby. The strength of the quake was measured at the Weston Observatory. It was initially reported that it measured 2.4 but that was later upgraded to 2.9. There is a fault line that centers in the Boxborough-Littleton area, and temblors are quite frequent, having been registered from time to time. No after-shocks were reported."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (23:41)", "body": "Oh heavens, I cannot feel earthquakes below about 3.5 magnitude. Those were faint echoes of a much stronger one long ago. The Berkshires, Poconos, White mountains, Adirondaks and the rest are all foothills of the Appalachians. Mt Katahdin in Maine is the northern terminus and Mt Oglethorpe in the Carolinas is the southern terminus of that great mountain chain. Interesting about the little Boston quakes. We have several hundred of the little ones a day and no one bothers about them."}, {"response": 17, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (23:56)", "body": "I must have slept right through that one last October. (Always said I could sleep through an earthquake... ;-) Speaking of sleep, I should be heading off to bed now... 'Night!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (10:59)", "body": "G'morning, all. Any new EQ's in your area of the wiggly planet? All's quiet here. I don't think you can feel a 2.9 quake unless the situations are precisely right - origin close to you and to the surface. Mostly, you hear little things like dishes and windows rattling."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (11:01)", "body": "Oh...when there is a big one heading for you it sounds like a freight train approaching. If you listen to a radio station closer to the epicenter than you are, the announcer will mention it and a few moments later you will feel it as the waves propagate outward."}, {"response": 20, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (13:40)", "body": "Sounds delightful... ;-) I'm still looking for some info on predictions of \"the big one\" in the Boston area..."}, {"response": 21, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (14:55)", "body": "I was thinking, there were more EQs in southern Portugal when I was a child. I remember two big ones. But Marcia posted that one had taken place not far from Lisbon last summer, as I was out of the country on some vacation."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (15:17)", "body": "Gi, the Mediterranean end of the Iberian Peninsula is a plate boundary. I think there is no way to avoid earthquakes in Portugal. The good news is that it is most likely a sidways motion on plate edges - the least destructive (ask those living near the San Andreas fault!)"}, {"response": 23, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (17:09)", "body": "I remember when I was little my father telling me that the Appalachians were once as high as the Andes. The Appalachians are not just an eroded mountain range, they also consist of an eroded plateau to the west. You can tell this by the rock strata. In the eastern edge of the Appalachians the rock strata is angled indicating folding upward. To the western side the strata is horizontal, indicating an ancient plateau. About the Andes, the largest river in the world (largest not longest) the Amazon once flowed from east to west. The Andes were pushed up along the western edge of South America, (they're still growing), causing the river to blocked from its outlet. The Amazon became an inland sea until it broke through to the Atlantic."}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (18:17)", "body": "Great stuff, Cheryl! Thanks for posting that. I have not studied South American geology and that was new to me. I know the Appalachians are just the remnants of very old mountains, indeed. Btw, Mauna Loa is such a large landmass that it could hold the Applachians and several other mountain chains, as well. And that is just one mountain on this island!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (20:49)", "body": ""}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (21:00)", "body": "TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 1WEST COAST AND ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS ISSUED FEB 25 AT 0210 UTC ...THIS IS A TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN FOR ALASKA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, OREGON, AND CALIFORNIA ONLY... NO, REPEAT NO, WATCH OR WARNING IS IN EFFECT. AN EARTHQUAKE, PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE 6.8, OCCURRED AT 1644 AST ON FEB 24, OR 1744 PST ON FEB 24, OR 0144 UTC ON FEB 25. THE EARTHQUAKE WAS LOCATED IN THE GENERAL AREA OF: VANUATU ISLANDS REGION NEAR 19.5S, 174.0E. THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE A TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN FOR HAWAII AND OTHER AREAS OF THE PACIFIC. EVALUATION: BASED ON LOCATION AND MAGNITUDE THE EARTHQUAKE WAS NOT SUFFICIENT TO GENERATE A TSUNAMI DAMAGING TO CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA OR ALASKA. SOME AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA LEVEL FLUCTUATIONS. THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT BY THE WEST COAST AND ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER UNLESS CONDITIONS WARRANT.IF AVAILABLE, REFER TO THE INTERNET SITE HTTP://WCATWC.GOV FOR MORE INFORMATION.NNNN"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (22:34)", "body": "U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A major earthquake occurred IN THE VANUATU ISLANDS REGION about 295 miles (470 km) east of Isangel, Vanuatu or about 320 miles (510 km) west-southwest of Suva, Fiji at 6:44 PM MST today, Feb 24, 2000 (Feb 25 at 12:44 PM local time in Vanuatu). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 7.1 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. This earthquake is located in a remote area and no damage or casualties are expected. World Data Center A for SeismologyReply to: sedas@ghtmail.cr.usgs.gov (internet) sedas@neisb.cr.usgs.gov (internet - alternate)"}, {"response": 28, "author": "patas", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (14:24)", "body": "(MarciaH)Gi, the Mediterranean end of the Iberian Peninsula is a plate boundary. I think there is no way to avoid earthquakes in Portugal. Yes, I've seen your maps :-) What I mean is, we seem to have avoided very well for a number of years... although we are always waiting for a big one, and I made sure my building got insured against earthquake damage :-)"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (14:41)", "body": "I think the water and the situation of that fault is what keeps the stresses from building up. Something is lubricating it and I think it is in a direction in which the current plate movement is not active. That is good news all round. May it remain thus! However, you are wise about the insurance. We have it here, as well, though most of my damage will be to picture windows. The wall and garage builder living here reinforced all load=bearing members of the house and garage when he put on the hurricane \"tie-down\" straps which are supposed to keep the roof on the house during a hurricane."}, {"response": 30, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (16:31)", "body": "A question about the plate boundary at Mediterranean end of the Iberian Peninsula. At one time the Mediterranean was a dry wasteland, something like Death Valley only larger. Then there was a massive fracture in the vacinity of Gibralter, causing the Atlantic to come flooding in on the desert. Could that have been the result of an earthquake on that fault? It would have been the most enormous waterfall. One I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere near."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (16:38)", "body": "Yup...either one, or the gradual eroding of the barrier between the sea and the Mediterranean basin...or all three. It was long enough ago to have left no definitive marks that I am aware of...Please, anyone?"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (16:42)", "body": "Of course, I will hunt up the information after the softball games are over this weekend..."}, {"response": 33, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (04:32)", "body": "Two earthquakes today - 1 in East Timor and a large one of Papua New Guinea - well over 6 - 6.5 I think"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (12:11)", "body": "It has been very active down there lately. Last week we were under Tsunami watch for a 7.1 quake in Vanuatu. The place is happening...but just what it is is the mystery. (Never did get that Mediterranean mystery solved yet...)"}, {"response": 35, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (03:45)", "body": "Earthquake in Rome today - quite large for that area."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (17:41)", "body": "Thanks, Anne. Looks like I'll have to go digging for that because it is not yet on domestic news or Reuters."}, {"response": 37, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (05:14)", "body": "It was on our teletext in Oz. They are usually fairly accurate re - earthquakes cause I think they are quite interested. What they did say there was some damage in villages outside Rome - but none it seems in Rome itself - although the Pope was apologising yesterday for 2000 years of mistakes - perhaps that was enough to cause an earthquake - or should that go on geo-magnatism! Interesting huh."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (13:32)", "body": "...or mayhap on the Geo Mythology topic ;)"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (13:38)", "body": "Still have seen nothing about it except that it occurred via the list from Cal Tech whose list includes all earthquakes without comment."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 28, 2000 (12:40)", "body": "U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center A for Seismology The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A major earthquake occurred 220 miles (350 km) southeast of Iwo-jima or 940 miles (1520 km) south-southeast of Tokyo, Japan at 4:00 AM MST today, Mar 28, 2000 (9:00 PM local time in Volcano Islands). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 7.7 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. This earthquake is located in a remote area and at intermediate depth. Therefore no damage or casualties are expected. This is the largest earthquake in this general area since a magnitude 8.7 event on November 24, 1914."}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (00:41)", "body": "EARTHQUAKE - April 1, 2000 8:17 pm Hawaiian Standard time Guestimating it 5.5 magnitude More in the morning when we know what happened and any aftershocks. Near Pu'u o'o"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (11:32)", "body": "We had a quiet night, as far as I know. This was one of the strongest Earthquakes of recent times. Its epicenter was near Pu'u O'o on Kilauea's Southeast rift. It felt like some tremendously strong had shoved the entire house very abruptly - an unusual type. Usually they shake back and forth. John reported this morning \"I had dozed off and it woke me up. Certainly shook the six-story building I live in.\""}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (11:54)", "body": "This is what a 7.2 earthquake did to a house here (this was the strongest I have ever felt, and that is sufficient for the rest of my life, thank you!)"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (12:05)", "body": "The latest! http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/000402061818.HTML Great maps here. The HVO is still asleep, I think. Not much being reported yet except that the magnitude has been revised downward, per usual. I guessed at the time between 4.5 and 5. Not bad !!! The info available so far is: 00/04/02 06:18:18 UTC 19.37N 155.27W Depth: 10.0 km 4.9Mb HAWAII 25 miles (40 km) SSW of Hilo, Hawaii, Hawaii More as it becomes available."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (14:02)", "body": "If these earthquake updating maps continue to update we'll have a good resource here to check; For California For Oregon and Washington State:"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (12:38)", "body": "TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 1TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 1 WEST COAST AND ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWSISSUED MAY 4 AT 0455 UTC ...THIS IS A TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN FOR ALASKA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, OREGON, AND CALIFORNIA ONLY... NO, REPEAT NO, WATCH OR WARNING IS IN EFFECT. AN EARTHQUAKE, PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE 7.1, OCCURRED AT 2021 ADT ON MAY 3, OR 2121 PDT ON MAY 3, OR 0421 UTC ON MAY 4. THE EARTHQUAKE WAS LOCATED IN THE GENERAL AREA OF: MINAHASSA PENINSULA, SULAWESI NEAR 0.0N, 123.5E. THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE A TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN FOR HAWAII AND OTHER AREAS OF THE PACIFIC. EVALUATION: BASED ON LOCATION AND MAGNITUDE THE EARTHQUAKE WAS NOT SUFFICIENT TO GENERATE A TSUNAMI DAMAGING TO CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA OR ALASKA. SOME AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA LEVEL FLUCTUATIONS. IN AREAS OF INTENSE SHAKING, LOCALLY GENERATED TSUNAMIS CAN BE TRIGGERED BY SLUMPING. THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT BY THE WEST COAST AND ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER UNLESS CONDITIONS WARRANT.IF AVAILABLE, REFER TO THE INTERNET SITE HTTP://WCATWC.GOV FOR MORE INFORMATION."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (12:52)", "body": "EQ MAG 7.3 MINAHASSA PENINSULA, SULAWESI U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center A for SeismologyReply to: sedas@ghtmail.cr.usgs.gov (internet) sedas@neisb.cr.usgs.gov (internet - alternate) The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A major earthquake occurred IN THE SULAWESI REGION, INDONESIA about 100 miles (160 km) south-southeast of Gorontalo at 10:21 PM MDT today, May 3, 2000 (May 04 at 12:21 PM local time in Sulawesi). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 7.3 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. This earthquake is the largest in this general area since a magnitude 7.8 event on November 29, 1998 located about 130 miles (210 km) southeast of today's earthquake. The 1998 earthquake killed 41 people and injured over 160, mainly on Mangole and Taliabu. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time for today's earthquake; however, it may have caused damage due to its location and size."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (16:32)", "body": "Please check out this most important URL. My son just sent it to me and it is something you should definitely access. Thanks! http://www.intplsrv.net/jcems/californ.htm"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 19, 2000 (17:09)", "body": "Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 14:52:51 -0700 Subject: EQ MAG 5.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center A for Seismology Reply to: sedas@ghtmail.cr.usgs.gov (internet) sedas@neisb.cr.usgs.gov (internet - alternate) The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A moderate earthquake occurred IN SOUTHERN ALASKA about 65 miles (100 km) west-southwest of Homer or about 180 miles (290 km) southwest of Anchorage at 2:34 PM MDT today, May 19, 2000 (12:34 PM ADT in Alaska). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 5.8 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. The earthquake was felt at Anchorage, Eagle River, English Bay, Homer, Port Graham. Seldovia and Seward. There have been no reports of damage."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (23:37)", "body": "At 4pm Hawaiian Standard Time we had a 4.0 eaarthquake near Halemaumau (the fire pit at the summit of Kilauea Volcano). It felt like a slight shove of my chair and creaking of the furniture. Thought someone was in the bedroom shoulder surfing again."}, {"response": 51, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (02:10)", "body": "I just cannot imagine this!!! Maybe I should come and experience it!"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (15:58)", "body": "I've just been asked/told that we move to California. I am upset because it means more long-term commitment to something I do not want to do with a person who is capricious enough to leave me there and move on and I'd be stuck without home or friends...I think he is crazy! Of course California has them too, EQ's) but not nice ones."}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (16:03)", "body": "Now whatya think of my horizontal bars. Changed the background back so now we can read what is being posted..."}, {"response": 54, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (04:43)", "body": "Minor eartquake in Sydney yesterday - most unusual."}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (12:37)", "body": "Bet it surprised the inhabitants!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  4, 2000 (15:06)", "body": "U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center A for Seismology Reply to: sedas@ghtmail.cr.usgs.gov (internet) sedas@neisb.cr.usgs.gov (internet - alternate) The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A major earthquake occurred OFF THE WEST COAST OF SUMATERA, INDONESIA about 70 miles (110 km) south-southwest of Bengkulu or 335 miles (540 km) west-northwest of Jakarta at 10:28 AM MDT today, Jun 4, 2000 (11:28 PM local time in Sumatera). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 7.9 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time; however, this earthquake may have caused substantial damage and casualties due to its location and size. The earthquake was reported felt at Jakarta and in Singapore. An aftershock with preliminary magnitude of 6.7 was recorded about 11 minutes after this event."}, {"response": 57, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (06:00)", "body": "The Sumatran earthquake looks more serious than first thought. Many deaths and injuries and I suppose we will have to wait for a while before we get pictures on our T.V. of the same. 7.9 is very large."}, {"response": 58, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (07:30)", "body": "Huge, man."}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (13:10)", "body": "Having been through a 7.2, it is truly terrifying...and Hawaii building standards are quite strict. I can only imagine the destruction and the mess in the grocery stores. I will keep you updated as I find things, and Anne, please post if you hear first!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (21:37)", "body": "It looks as the death rate might soar. Apparently many are beneath rubble. Death count at present 50 - with hundreds injured. Power supplies cut and causing much disruption in rescue. Will inform if I hear more."}, {"response": 61, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (01:46)", "body": "As I feared the Earquake in Sumatra is much worse than at first though. It is now reported via the London Times - deaths are in the hundreds and injuries at least 500. Many outlying Islands have not yet been assessed. It looks as this is a bad one."}, {"response": 62, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (16:09)", "body": "I have heard that the survivors are living outside for the time being. They are too afraid to go into any structure still standing."}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (20:36)", "body": "http://www.lineone.net/cgi-bin/loadcontent.pl?page=/cgi-bin/drecgi/express/00/06/06/news/n2520earthquake-d.html Maggie, thank you! You could have posted it! Hundreds feared dead after huge undersea earthquake hits island The death toll from a massive undersea earthquake which hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday is expected to run into hundreds. The quake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, struck at night, throwing people from their beds, flattening villages and leaving many thousands homeless across six provinces. Hundreds of aftershocks added to the damage and panic. The true scale of the disaster was slow to emerge because the quake destroyed communications in the worst-affected region of Bengkulu, a province of about 1.2 million people near the epicentre. Doctors in the provincial capital of Bengkulu town decided to treat casualties in a car park, fearing that aftershocks might bring down the state hospital. They were said to have lost a number of colleagues in the disaster and had run out of blood supplies and anaesthetic due to the sheer number of casualties. \"Patients being operated on without anaesthetic could be heard screaming,\" said the state news agency Antara. Electricity and water supplies had been cut and most telephone lines were down. Rescuers frantically dug through the rubble of ruined buildings in search of bodies and trapped survivors. \"It was very panicky. People were running everywhere and screaming after the quake hit us,\" said one resident. Bengkulu airport was closed because of damage to communications equipment and to the passenger terminal. Some roads to the city were said to be blocked by landslides. \"Many houses have collapsed and the walls on bigger buildings have been fractured,\" said one survivor. \"I helped to save three of my neighbours who I found had been trapped beneath the rubble of their homes.\" There were reports that the island of Enggano, which is about 125 miles from Bengkulu town and has a population of around 1,500, had also been badly hit. \"About 90 per cent of houses on the island are damaged,\" said health department chief Ali Muchtar. A total of 60 people were confirmed dead last night and almost 500 were reported to have been injured, but the toll was expected to soar dramatically once rescue teams reach the rural areas. By comparison, last year's Turkish earthquake, in which 17,000 people died, was much less powerful, at 7.4 on the Richter scale. In addition, as a developing country, Indon-esia's emergency services are badly trained and very poorly equipped. Seismologists said that the tremor was centred 20 miles beneath the Indian Ocean - quite near the surface in geological terms - some 400 miles north-west of the Indonesian capital Jakarta. The quake was felt across much of the western half of the Indonesian archipelago, including Jakarta and neighbouring Singapore, where many residents fled their homes as the tremor rattled high-rise buildings. More than 260 smaller tremors were recorded through the day, frightening residents and hampering rescuers. \"The quake went on for many minutes,\" said Bengkulu police sergeant Hariyono. \"Dozens of homes have been destroyed and almost all houses and buildings in the city seem to have been damaged. People are terrified every time they feel aftershocks.\" Navy spokesman Rear Marshall Ontowiryo said two warships carrying food and medical supplies had been dispatched to the area. Up to 20 rescue workers from Britain's disaster relief team RAPID UK were on stand-by after the group offered to help the Indonesian authorities.Spokesman Stefan Hopkins said RAPID UK, which helped after last year's earthquakes in Turkey, could use sniffer dogs and heat-seeking equipment to find survivors. \ufffd Express Newspapers, 2000"}, {"response": 64, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (05:48)", "body": "Another huge aftershock today."}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (15:48)", "body": "It is not unusual that aftershocks are as strong or stronger than the initial quake. That is what is frightening. The first shake loosens everything. The later ones make what is loose crumble, fall down and bury the unwary who remain inside. That is why no one will go back home after a strong one! Just as the 4 or so wave in a Tsunami does the most damage, so it is with earth quakes."}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (19:18)", "body": "Strong Quake Rocks Taiwan TAIPEI (Reuters) - An earthquake rocked Taiwan early on Sunday, injuring more than 10 people, but there were no immediate reports of major damage, seismologists and media said. Semiconductor makers in northern Hsinchu Science Park, one of the world's top microchip production bases and a motor of Taiwan's export economy, were unaffected, the state-funded Central News Agency (CNA) said. The Central Weather Bureau said the quake, registering 6.7 on the Richter scale, occurred at 2:23 a.m. and was felt throughout the island. It was centered 29 miles north of the sparsely populated Jade Mountain in central Taiwan. Operations at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and United Microelectronics Corp were normal as there were no power outages at the Hsinchu Science Park Taiwan's Silicon Valley, CNA said. A killer quake last September caused widespread power outages islandwide, disrupting production at TSMC, Taiwan's leading made-to-order foundry chipmaker. On Sunday, six aftershocks measuring between 4.3 and 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted the island in the next two hours, the weather bureau said. More than 10 people were rushed to hospital after either suffering bone fractures or being cut by broken glass when they fled their homes in Puli in the central county of Nantou, independent cable broadcaster TVBS said. Three people were injured by falling rocks near Puli, CNA said. Many residents in the area were afraid to return to their homes and wandered in the streets, TVBS said. One person jumped from his second-floor home in central Taiwan and was slightly injured, the broadcaster said. Puli, close to the epicenter of the devastating September 21 earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, suffered outages. Last year's killer quake and a series of strong aftershocks killed 2,400 people and wrecked 52,000 buildings on the island. Taiwan lies on a seismically active stretch of the Pacific basin and earthquakes occur frequently."}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 17, 2000 (18:09)", "body": "The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey,National Earthquake Information Center: A strong earthquake occurred IN ICELAND, about 55 miles (90 km) east-southeast of Reykjavik at 9:41 AM MDT today, Jun 17, 2000 (3:41 PM local time in Iceland). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 6.6 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. There have been some reports of damaged roads in the area. The earthquake was felt in large parts of Iceland. This is the largest earthquake in this general area since a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on May 6,1912."}, {"response": 68, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (04:10)", "body": "Would it be to do with vulcanism. After all Sertsey was part of a volcanic eruption some years ago. I just wondered if this was a pre-a volcanic eruption?"}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (16:20)", "body": "Iceland sits astride the Mid-Atlantic Rift which is where the ocean is spreading as the Pacific gets smaller. As the crust spreads and ruptures new magma rises and eventually surfaces into a new island - which is Surtsey's story. The mid-aisan problem is a puzzle since no known fractures exist there. You can bet the latest technology and the brightest grad students are rushing there to figure out what is happening. I'll let you know as soon I hear more. NEWEST EARTHQUAKE REPORT: World Data Center A for Seismology The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A major earthquake occurred IN THE SOUTH INDIAN OCEAN, about 110 (180 km) south-southeast of the Cocos Islands or about 820 miles (1320 km) southwest of Jakarta, Indonesia at 8:44 AM MDT today, Jun 18, 2000 (9:14 PM local time in Cocos Islands). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 7.5 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. This earthquake is located in a remote area and no damage or casualties are expected. However, this is believed to be the largest earthquake on record in the area."}, {"response": 70, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (20:56)", "body": "Cocos Islands being Australian is a little more explicit, although I find it hard to fathom. (excuse pun). How can a 7.2 earthquake not cause any damage - the police apparently reported it was a very mild quake. Was it very deep seated or what. Also is it strange to have such a quake in the Indian Ocean - I don't think I have noticed such a one before."}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (23:49)", "body": "I went through a 6.8 and 7.2 magnitude. The larger one did less damage because the epicenter was in the mantle beneatth 22,000 ft of water and the crustal plate. We all shook and glassware fell off the shelves but no buildings fell down. The 6.8 one was shallower and was a nightmare to ride out!"}, {"response": 72, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (07:35)", "body": "Thank you. There was a minor quake in Western Australia today - not sure if it had anything to do with the Cocos Islands. Also they were expect tsinami to hit with 2 metre waves in North Western Australia which did not eventuate."}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (14:27)", "body": "Thank goodness for the non-tsunami events. Thanks!"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (22:51)", "body": "U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center A for SeismologyReply to: sedas@ghtmail.cr.usgs.gov (internet) sedas@neisb.cr.usgs.gov (internet - alternate) The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A strong earthquake occurred about 40 miles (70 km) east-southeast of reykjavik at 6:52 PM MDT today, Jun 20, 2000 (Jun 21 at 12:52 AM local time in Iceland). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 6.6 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. This earthquake occurred in the same general area as a magnitude 6.6 earthquake on June 17, 2000. There have been some reports of power outages in the epicentral area. This earthquake was felt strongly in Reykjavik and was felt throughout Iceland. There have been no reports of damage or casualties at this time."}, {"response": 75, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (23:51)", "body": "Marcia is that the first or second earthquake felt in Iceland - the cracks in the roads and fields were horrific as was the damage to houses - on our news this morning."}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (00:51)", "body": "Yes, and on ours. It looked all to familiar! Wednesday June 21 8:41 AM ET Earthquake Shakes Southwest Iceland REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Many Icelanders awoke with a jolt Wednesday as an earthquake shook the southwestern part of the island, knocking down a dozen houses but causing no serious injuries. The Meteorological Institute said the temblor had a magnitude of 6.6 and struck at 12:52 a.m. local time. The epicenter was close to Hestfjall, in the Grimsnes area of south Iceland. The quake apparently followed an earthquake of similar magnitude on Saturday, which caused some electrical and water outages. A bridge over the Thjorsa was temporarily closed for inspection but reopened Wednesday morning. Hot water pipes broke between the town of Selfoss and the villages of Eyrarbakki and Stokkseyri. Civil Defense officials said about a dozen houses were destroyed and twice as many seriously damaged in the Grimsnes area, a popular place for summer cottages. The U.S. Geological Survey in Washington also registered the magnitude at 6.6, and said the quake occurred 6.2 miles below ground. Before the past two quakes, the last event of that size in Iceland took place in 1910. Iceland, where there are many active volcanoes, frequently experiences minor earthquakes."}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 24, 2000 (23:00)", "body": "Welcome and aloha, Masoud...please post something!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "masoud", "date": "Sat, Jun 24, 2000 (23:12)", "body": "i am a begineer in this Site!!"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 24, 2000 (23:15)", "body": "Welcome! You did just fine. Tell us what you are studying...You are the first real person who knows about these things. We are honored!"}, {"response": 80, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (11:38)", "body": "Welcome Massoud!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 28, 2000 (14:55)", "body": "EQ MAG 4.5 MONTANA U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center A for Seismology The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A light earthquake occurred 20 miles (40km) ESE of Missoula, Montana (pop 42,000) at 8:29 AM MDT today, Jun 28, 2000 (8:29 AM MDT in Montana). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 4.5 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. This event was felt as far south as Hamilton, Montana. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  7, 2000 (23:40)", "body": "EQ MAG 6.3 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center A for Seismology The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A strong earthquake occurred IN THE RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS about 150 miles (240 km) west of Adak, Alaska or about 1320 miles (2120 km) west southwest of Anchorage, Alaska at 9:47 AM MDT today, Jul 7, 2000 (7:47 AM ADT in Alaska). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 6.3 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. This earthquake is located in a remote area and no damage or casualties are expected."}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (00:27)", "body": "****************************** Apoyo Volcano, Nicaragua ****************************** Destructive Earthquake at Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua --------------------------------------------------------------- Today, 6 of July, at 1:30 PM local time (19:30 GMT) a magnitude 5.4 earthquake occurred near the northern rim of Laguna de Apoyo (Apoyo volcano), about 32 km southeast of Managua, at 11.96 N 86.02 E, focal depth less than 1 km. The shock was felt widely in the Pacific part of Nicaragua, there are also reports from the Atlanic region. The event was felt strong in Managua (Intensidad Mercalli V-VI), very strong (VI) in the city of Masaya (5 km to the epicenter) and was destructive in the vicinities of Laguna de Apoyo. There the maximum intensity might have reached VII or VIII. Numerous landslides occurred in the crater walls, surface faulting was observed, trees and electricity lines broke, total and partial destruction of houses and electricity lines occurred. The road to the village at the beach of Laguna de Apoyo was interrupted by landslides. About 70 people were injured and four children were killed due to collapsing walls or roofs of their houses. At Masaya volcano, at about 8 km from the epicenter, minor collapses of the walls of Santiago crater occurred. No changes in the degassing activity of the volcano were observed. In Masaya, one of the mayor Nicaraguan towns, houses, walls and other constructions were damaged. Electricity and telephone networks were affected in the vicinities of Laguna de Apoyo. The cellular telephon network had a mayor blackout after the earthquake. One minute before the earthquake a precursor occurred; after the main shock a series of aftershocks was recorded by the Nicaraguan seismic network, many of them beeing felt in Masaya and even Managua. This activity is still going on. Laguna de Apoyo is a volcanic crater of 8 km diameter which was formed by large volcanic explosions several thousand years ago. No volcanic activity is known in historical times. The recent seismic activity (hopefully) has no volcanic background but is caused by mayor tectonic faults trending NNW at the northern rim of the crater. The earthquake was one of the strongest seismic events in the Nicaraguan volcanic chain in the last decades. and is comparable with the Managua earthquake 1972 (10,000 deaths), the earthquake of Rivas 1985 (minor damages), and the earthquake in the Fonseca Bay 1999. It is expected that aftershock activity continues in the next days and weeks. INETER maintains a rather dense network of seismic stations in the area between the cities of Managua, Masaya and Granada, one station is situated in the epicenter area of the Apoyo earthquake. There remain hazards from the aftershock activity, especially due to the possibility of other landslides. Government, Civil Defense, local Fire Departments and other organizations were very active attempting first aid. Local people are prepared to sleep outside their houses during the next nights, many families left their homes, temporarily. Others, especially children, were evacuated to Masaya or Granada city. See additional information at the INETER Web site: www.ineter.gob.ni/geofisica/sis"}, {"response": 84, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (06:36)", "body": "Japan has copped it today, earthquake, typhoon and volcano blew up. My opinion perhaps they should consider not killing whales. Someone indeed is giving warning."}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (12:31)", "body": "Anne, I talked last night with a Tanzania guy studying in Okinawa. He reported only a whole lot of rain. Now I awake to this new. I guess I had better check to see what David has forwarded about this latest disaster. Yup! Stop the whale killing would definitely be a great idea."}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (22:11)", "body": "TSUNAMI BULLETIN NO. 001 PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS ISSUED AT 0146Z 11 JUL 2000 THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE PACIFIC BASIN EXCEPT CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, AND ALASKA. . . THIS IS A TSUNAMI INFORMATION MESSAGE, NO ACTION REQUIRED . . AN EARTHQUAKE, PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE 6.5, OCCURRED AT 0132 UTC 11 JUL 2000, LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 57.5N, LONGITUDE 154.5W IN THE VICINITY OF KODIAK ISLAND REGION EVALUATION: A PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI WAS NOT GENERATED BASED ON EARTHQUAKE AND HISTORICAL TSUNAMI DATA. THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED UNLESS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE. . . . NO PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT . . . RECIPIENTS OF THIS MESSAGE LOCATED IN CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, AND ALASKA SHOULD REFER ONLY TO WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER MESSAGES FOR INFORMATION ABOUT ANY TSUNAMI THREAT IN THOSE AREAS. STOP"}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 17, 2000 (00:44)", "body": "California Earthquake EARTHQUAKE INFORMATIONPRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE REPORT Rapid Earthquake Location Service U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California U.C. Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, Berkeley, California Version 2: Updates lower and earlier versions of this earthquake report A MINOR EARTHQUAKE OCCURRED AT 04:56 AM PDT Saturday, Jul 15, 2000. THE MAGNITUDE 3.6 (ML) EVENT IS LOCATED 0 MILES SW OF CONCORD, CA THE HYPOCENTRAL DEPTH IS 9.2 MILES. This event has been reviewed by Steve Walter - USGS. PRINCIPAL EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS_______________________________ Magnitude : 3.61 ML Event Date & Time : 07/15/2000 04:56:39 AM PDT 07/15/2000 11:56:39 UTCLocation : 37.9730 N, 122.0355 W : (37 deg. 58.38 min. N, 122 deg. 2.13 min. W) Depth : 14.8 km. deep ( 9.2 miles) Location Quality : Excellent 1 km ( 0 miles) SW (219 degrees) of Concord, CA 3 km ( 2 miles) NE ( 38 degrees) of Pleasant Hill, CA 8 km ( 5 miles) NNE ( 18 degrees) of Walnut Creek, CA 9 km ( 6 miles) WNW (292 degrees) of Clayton, CA 10 km ( 6 miles) ESE (121 degrees) of Martinez, CA 40 km ( 25 miles) ENE ( 57 degrees) of San Francisco City Hall, CA ADDITIONAL EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS________________________________ number of phases : 176rms misfit : 0.13 seconds horizontal location error : 0.1 kmvertical location error : 0.3 km maximum azimuthal gap : 71 degrees distance to nearest station : 7. kmevent ID: 51099915"}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 17, 2000 (00:45)", "body": "Thanks, Kirk, for telling me about it. Thanks, David, for supplying the report above."}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 28, 2000 (23:41)", "body": "5.3 on 07/28/2000 05:48:42 GMT ----- BOUVET ISLAND REGION 10.0 km deep 54.24S 5.38E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.4 on 07/28/2000 12:38:32 GMT ----- SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 12.38S 166.46E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms 5.5 on 07/28/2000 20:28:11 GMT ----- TAIWAN 33.0 km deep 23.35N 120.80E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms 5.4 on 07/28/2000 20:28:11 GMT ----- TAIWAN 33.0 km deep 23.36N 120.82E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms"}, {"response": 90, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (06:07)", "body": "Is that unusual to have three earthquakes at the exact same depth?"}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (22:51)", "body": "I think so. This service gives me the EQ info as soon as it is available and is often not adjusted for accuracy yet (by correlating the data from other seismograph stations). 5.2 on 07/29/2000 15:54:20 GMT ----- ANDREANOF ISL, ALEUTIAN IS. 82.3 km deep 51.32N 179.42W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.2 on 07/29/2000 09:54:41 GMT ----- KAMCHATKA PENINSULA, RUSSIA 164.2 km deep 53.05N 157.53E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.0 on 07/29/2000 12:09:54 GMT ----- SOUTH OF PANAMA 10.0 km deep 7.23N 79.38W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.0 on 07/29/2000 11:54:47 GMT ----- SOUTH INDIAN OCEAN 10.0 km deep 13.85S 97.28E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sat Jul 29 17:01:40 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 30, 2000 (13:19)", "body": "6.4 on 07/30/2000 12:25:45 GMT ----- SOUTHEAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 33.96N 139.28E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms 5.6 on 07/30/2000 12:48:55 GMT ----- SOUTHEAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.00N 139.18E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.1 on 07/30/2000 13:16:08 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.13N 139.19E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.2 on 07/30/2000 06:03:31 GMT ----- SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 10.85S 165.93E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 30, 2000 (13:23)", "body": "Honshu us rocking and rolling today! Wonder what is happening other than the usual subduction of the plates... 5.4 on 07/30/2000 00:18:00 GMT ----- SOUTHEAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 33.98N 139.28E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (15:00)", "body": "Gi, did you feel this one? 5.3 on 07/31/2000 13:58:12 GMT ----- AZORES ISLANDS REGION 10.0 km deep 40.70N 29.36W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (19:06)", "body": "Honshu is still rocking 5.0 on 07/31/2000 04:37:06 GMT ----- OFF E COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 39.70N 143.47E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (21:21)", "body": "5.6 on 07/31/2000 23:01:53 GMT ----- KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 29.26S 176.32W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.8 on 07/31/2000 22:44:33 GMT ----- FIJI ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 16.74S 174.50E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  1, 2000 (13:39)", "body": "5.3 on 08/01/2000 07:10:47 GMT ----- LUZON, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 14.98N 122.29E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb"}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  1, 2000 (16:20)", "body": "5.1 on 08/01/2000 05:54:39 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 6.13S 151.60E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.1 on 08/01/2000 04:35:45 GMT ----- AZORES ISLANDS, PORTUGAL 10.0 km deep 38.89N 29.02W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.4 on 08/01/2000 09:21:37 GMT ----- FIJI ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 16.68S 174.28E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms 5.5 on 08/01/2000 10:19:00 GMT ----- OFF W COAST OF N SUMATERA 33.0 km deep 4.19N 93.01E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb"}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  1, 2000 (19:55)", "body": "5.0 on 08/01/2000 08:39:17 GMT ----- SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 60.31S 26.58W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.6 on 08/01/2000 18:54:46 GMT ----- MID-INDIAN RIDGE 10.0 km deep 38.82S 78.34E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  2, 2000 (15:32)", "body": "5.0 on 08/02/2000 00:23:06 GMT ----- NEAR COAST OF GUATEMALA 111.3 km deep 13.73N 90.50W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.2 on 08/02/2000 00:37:16 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS 191.0 km deep 17.92S 174.79W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.2 on 08/01/2000 18:17:31 GMT ----- SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 21.53S 169.71E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb"}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  3, 2000 (18:03)", "body": "5.1 on 08/01/2000 15:17:40 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 441.9 km deep 5.67N 124.34E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 6.8 on 08/03/2000 01:09:38 GMT ----- SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 12.09S 166.38E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mw 5.5 on 08/03/2000 13:18:09 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.24N 139.18E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.1 on 08/02/2000 21:42:27 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.11N 139.28E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  3, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "5.5 on 08/03/2000 19:22:11 GMT ----- NEAR COAST OF PERU 33.0 km deep 17.59S 71.85W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms 5.3 on 08/03/2000 17:01:57 GMT ----- SOUTH OF MARIANA ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 11.88N 143.07E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.2 on 08/03/2000 19:25:55 GMT ----- NEAR COAST OF PERU 33.0 km deep 17.67S 71.97W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.2 on 08/03/2000 19:23:38 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.13N 138.99E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.2 on 08/03/2000 05:30:12 GMT ----- KYUSHU, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 31.16N 131.35E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.1 on 08/03/2000 12:13:10 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.16N 139.08E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.1 on 08/03/2000 11:27:04 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.09N 139.15E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.0 on 08/02/2000 10:33:43 GMT ----- KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 29.07S 176.46W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  4, 2000 (23:19)", "body": "7.0 on 08/04/2000 21:13:03 GMT ----- SAKHALIN ISLAND, RUSSIA 10.0 km deep 48.85N 142.23E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms 5.6 on 08/04/2000 07:47:40 GMT ----- NORTHERN MOLUCCA SEA 82.3 km deep 0.01N 126.60E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  7, 2000 (00:48)", "body": "5.3 on 08/05/2000 08:30:12 GMT ----- BANDA SEA 152.0 km deep 6.28S 130.29E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.1 on 08/05/2000 02:55:07 GMT ----- BANDA SEA 160.2 km deep 7.28S 128.65E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.0 on 08/05/2000 06:13:32 GMT ----- EASTER ISLAND REGION 10.0 km deep 24.41S 112.10W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 6.3 on 08/06/2000 07:27:18 GMT ----- BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION 451.6 km deep 28.89N 139.46E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 7.2 on 08/06/2000 07:27:16 GMT ----- BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION 433.9 km deep 28.84N 139.52E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mw 5.3 on 08/05/2000 19:43:09 GMT ----- BANDA SEA 181.7 km deep 5.79S 130.40E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  7, 2000 (14:38)", "body": "EQ MAG 3.3 TEXAS PANHANDLE REGION U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center A for Seismology The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A minor earthquake occurred 15 miles (20 km) NNW of Amarillo, Texas. at 11:19 AM MDT today, Aug 7, 2000 (12:19 PM CDT in Texas). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 3.3 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. Felt at Amarillo. This earthquake is in the same general area as the magnitude 2.7 earthquake that occurred on August 2, 2000. There have been no reports of damage."}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  9, 2000 (14:25)", "body": "5.1 on 08/07/2000 05:23:36 GMT ----- SOUTHEAST OF RYUKYU ISLANDS 10.0 km deep 28.98N 131.18E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.1 on 08/07/2000 03:39:20 GMT ----- SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 12.04S 166.35E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.4 on 08/07/2000 15:29:50 GMT ----- SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 11.77S 165.93E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb"}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (13:20)", "body": "5.0 on 08/10/2000 07:07:09 GMT ----- SAKHALIN ISLAND, RUSSIA 10.0 km deep 48.82N 142.19E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 6.3 on 08/09/2000 22:55:59 GMT ----- FIJI ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 16.86S 174.39E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms 3.3 on 08/10/2000 14:15:15 GMT ----- 12 mi. W of Pismo Beach, CA 0.0 km deep 35.13N 120.85W Source: CALTECH Quality: D Type: ML"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 12, 2000 (12:17)", "body": "5.2 on 08/11/2000 03:09:34 GMT ----- MARIANA ISLANDS 53.4 km deep 13.08N 144.54E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.2 on 08/11/2000 17:31:13 GMT ----- NEAR COAST OF PERU 57.7 km deep 17.91S 70.25W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.7 on 08/12/2000 10:26:15 GMT ----- IRIAN JAYA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 3.10S 136.15E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms 5.0 on 08/12/2000 14:13:09 GMT ----- NORTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE 10.0 km deep 8.34N 103.98W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 14, 2000 (21:22)", "body": "5.5 on 08/13/2000 07:04:08 GMT ----- NORTH OF PANAMA 33.0 km deep 12.00N 82.66W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 4.0 on 08/13/2000 18:17:48 GMT ----- 17 km WNW of Petrolia, CA 16.9 km deep 40.37N 124.49W Source: BERKELY Quality: C* Type: Mw 5.1 on 08/13/2000 04:19:01 GMT ----- NORTHERN PERU 33.0 km deep 5.20S 77.62W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 3.1 on 08/13/2000 20:46:44 GMT ----- 4 km ( 9 mi) WSW of Ludlow, CA 5.6 km deep 34.66N 116.30W Source: WEBMINER Quality: Z Type: Z"}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 15, 2000 (19:19)", "body": "6.6 on 08/15/2000 04:30:08 GMT ----- KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION 358.0 km deep 31.52S 179.73E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mw 5.1 on 08/15/2000 15:55:26 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.09N 139.22E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.0 on 08/15/2000 15:02:59 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.18N 139.28E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.1 on 08/15/2000 17:37:11 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.04N 139.16E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.3 on 08/15/2000 17:22:28 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.20N 139.15E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.5 on 08/15/2000 20:20:43 GMT ----- KURIL ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 43.05N 146.73E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 15, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "Honshu is really rocking!!!"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 16, 2000 (00:57)", "body": "6.7 on 08/15/2000 04:30:09 GMT ----- KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION 358.3 km deep 31.52S 179.68E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mw"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 16, 2000 (21:20)", "body": "5.4 on 08/16/2000 18:34:37 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 6.43N 124.81E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.7 on 08/17/2000 00:04:29 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 21.91S 174.56W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 17, 2000 (16:33)", "body": "3.5 on 08/17/2000 14:41:39 GMT ----- 0 km ( 6 mi) N of New Idria, CA 8.6 km deep 36.50N 120.66W Source: WEBMINER Quality: Z Type: Z 5.0 on 08/16/2000 12:53:01 GMT ----- NORTHERN AND CENTRAL IRAN 33.0 km deep 36.69N 54.32E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.3 on 08/17/2000 13:59:59 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 17.05S 172.50W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms 3.2 on 08/17/2000 13:41:41 GMT ----- 31 mi. NNW of Coalinga, CA 0.0 km deep 36.53N 120.62W Source: CALTECH Quality: B Type: MC 5.5 on 08/17/2000 18:40:09 GMT ----- NORTHERN SUMATERA, INDONESIA 72.4 km deep 5.75N 94.76E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 18, 2000 (12:02)", "body": "3.1 on 08/18/2000 14:12:17 GMT ----- 1 km E of The Geysers 1.7 km deep 38.80N 122.80W Source: BERKELY Quality: A* Type: Ml 5.4 on 08/18/2000 13:21:03 GMT ----- NEAR COAST OF NORTHERN CHILE 69.2 km deep 19.13S 70.18W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.5 on 08/18/2000 01:52:20 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.10N 139.15E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 20, 2000 (00:14)", "body": "5.1 on 08/18/2000 18:15:05 GMT ----- NORTHERN ALGERIA 10.0 km deep 36.12N 5.24E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb '"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 21, 2000 (00:12)", "body": "It is so dull today that the earth is not even quaking. Only one yesterday and one today! 5.4 on 08/20/2000 07:55:48 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 169.0 km deep 7.52N 126.37E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 21, 2000 (15:29)", "body": "5.9 on 08/21/2000 09:16:28 GMT ----- SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN 33.0 km deep 53.08S 46.33W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms 6.1 on 08/21/2000 09:16:25 GMT ----- SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN 10.0 km deep 53.08S 46.32W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mw 5.4 on 08/20/2000 22:38:30 GMT ----- SULAWESI, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 1.29S 123.26E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Aug 21 14:45:46 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (17:23)", "body": "5.6 on 08/22/2000 13:51:25 GMT ----- SOLOMON ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 6.17S 154.66E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Aug 22 14:50:45 GMT 2000 5.0 on 08/21/2000 13:25:47 GMT ----- YUNNAN, CHINA 58.8 km deep 25.77N 102.33E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Aug 22 15:20:38 GMT 2000 6.1 on 08/21/2000 09:16:25 GMT ----- SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN 10.0 km deep 53.08S 46.17W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mw date: Tue Aug 22 16:20:54 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (23:43)", "body": "5.8 on 08/22/2000 16:55:16 GMT ----- TURKMENISTAN-IRAN BORDER REG 33.0 km deep 38.28N 57.11E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Tue Aug 22 18:05:48 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 23, 2000 (13:26)", "body": "5.0 on 08/23/2000 13:41:26 GMT ----- TURKEY 10.0 km deep 40.70N 30.90E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Aug 23 15:05:53 GMT 2000 5.4 on 08/23/2000 15:46:10 GMT ----- REVILLA GIGEDO ISLANDS REGION 10.0 km deep 21.22N 108.82W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.2 on 08/23/2000 16:15:31 GMT ----- NORTHERN CHILE 116.6 km deep 22.53S 68.10W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Aug 23 16:50:42 GMT 2000 5.0 on 08/22/2000 20:53:23 GMT ----- SULAWESI, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 1.41S 123.11E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Aug 23 17:05:43 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (21:01)", "body": "5.7 on 08/24/2000 11:36:44 GMT ----- SOUTHERN SUMATERA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 6.00S 102.69E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Aug 24 13:36:42 GMT 2000 5.0 on 08/23/2000 14:57:11 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.12N 139.20E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Aug 24 19:36:44 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 26, 2000 (21:03)", "body": "Weekend again - even the earth is taking a break: 5.1 on 08/26/2000 09:02:51 GMT ----- ANDREANOF ISL, ALEUTIAN IS. 222.3 km deep 53.29N 175.05W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sat Aug 26 14:20:37 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (13:48)", "body": "6.7 on 08/28/2000 15:05:51 GMT ----- SERAM, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 3.95S 127.45E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Mon Aug 28 16:05:47 GMT 2000 6.7 on 08/28/2000 15:05:51 GMT ----- SERAM, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 3.95S 127.45E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Mon Aug 28 16:05:47 GMT 2000 5.7 on 08/28/2000 03:36:57 GMT ----- TALAUD ISLANDS, INDONESIA 46.1 km deep 4.45N 126.81E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Aug 28 17:05:47 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (23:28)", "body": "6.8 on 08/28/2000 15:05:50 GMT ----- SERAM, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 4.00S 127.49E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Mon Aug 28 18:21:30 GMT 2000 6.4 on 08/28/2000 19:29:26 GMT ----- BANDA SEA 48.4 km deep 4.15S 127.21E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Mon Aug 28 20:50:54 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 29, 2000 (23:27)", "body": "5.0 on 08/29/2000 02:00:35 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.31N 139.11E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Aug 29 17:21:17 GMT 2000 5.3 on 08/29/2000 07:14:47 GMT ----- NORTHERN SUMATERA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 2.95N 96.28E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Aug 29 17:51:35 GMT 2000 5.0 on 08/29/2000 18:57:13 GMT ----- CATAMARCA PROVINCE, ARGENTINA 135.2 km deep 27.44S 67.39W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Aug 29 19:50:45 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 30, 2000 (15:03)", "body": "Mahalo to American_Patriot_1 EARTHQUAKES- August 29 2000- Indonesian Islands Jolted By Strong Quake- A magnitude 6.8 quake jolted Indonesia's Maluku Islands at 10:00 PM (22:00) on Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries but seismologists in that area predicted that a tsunami would occur. The quake was followed 33 minutes later by a magnitude 5.9 aftershock. Seismologists reported that the quake was centered about 50 miles west-southwest of the capital city of Ambon, and occurred 21 miles beneath the earth's surface. August 29 2000- Colombia Jolted By A Quake- A magnitude 4.3 quake jolted the region of Columbia on Monday afternoon, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The quake occurred 19 miles beneath the earth's surface. Last year a magnitude 6.2 quake struck the same region and killed at least 1,230 people. Also, left 250,000 homeless."}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 30, 2000 (23:19)", "body": "5.1 on 08/30/2000 00:59:40 GMT ----- KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND 148.9 km deep 29.38S 177.56W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.1 on 08/30/2000 12:17:17 GMT ----- NEAR ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 52.97N 173.18E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Aug 30 19:20:50 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 30, 2000 (23:21)", "body": "EARTHQUAKE- August 30 2000- Australians Awakened By Quake- A magnitude 4.5 quake hit SE Australia just after 11:00 PM (22:00) Tuesday night. The quake was centered near Boolarra South, about 105 miles SE of the state capital of Melbourne. This quake was by far one of the strongest quakes to ever hit Victoria mainly of the region of its capital Melbourne. The last time they ever had a quake higher than 4.5 was in 1986 under Mt. Baw Baw. (thanx, A_P1)"}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (15:19)", "body": "Earthquake Startles California's Wine Country NAPA, Calif. (Reuters) - A medium-sized earthquake jolted northern California's wine country on Sunday, causing at least one serious injury and cutting power to thousands as windows shattered, bottles crashed off store shelves and people were shaken out of their beds. ``It felt like a bolt of lightning hit the house. ... It was just crash, and everything kept on rolling,'' Napa Valley resident Brian Murdoch told KCBS radio after the quake, measuring magnitude 5.2, hit at about 1:36 a.m. (4:36 a.m. EDT/0836 GMT) near Yountville, about 50 miles (80 km) north of San Francisco. The city of Napa declared a state of emergency to cope with the aftermath of the quake, although officials said that the temblor appeared to have left more shaken nerves than actual physical destruction. ``It's a real shock and rude awakening for us,'' Napa Mayor Ed Henderson said as he inspected downtown damage. ``I think we're over the worst part. It depends on the aftershocks. They say it will take from three to seven days to determine what the aftershocks (are) or if there will be any. We're kind of gearing up for that.'' Napa County Emergency Services spokeswoman Mary Jean McLaughlin said inspectors found lots of broken windows and a few cracks in buildings but the area appeared to have escaped relatively lightly. ``Overall, there is no major structural damage,'' she said. ''The damage seems to be inside homes, inside businesses, things falling off walls. ... Having gone through the earthquake, it was scary.'' BOY HIT BY FALLING OBJECTS A young boy who was hit by falling objects during the earthquake was taken to Children's Hospital Medical Centre in Oakland, where he was reported to be in critical condition. Area hospitals treated one man for a heart attack as well as several dozen people for minor injuries after the quake. The United States Geological Survey office in Menlo Park, California, reported that the initial earthquake was followed by at least two aftershocks, both under 2 magnitude. Jonathan Franks, a spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., said that a total of about 10,000 homes lost power immediately after the earthquake, although by midmorning service had been restored to most customers. ''We've got fewer than 500 left without power, and we're guess-timating they should be hooked up by noon,'' Franks said. In the Napa Valley area, home to many of California's most famous wineries, residents reported being shaken awake by the earthquake, which was felt as far south as San Francisco. ``I woke up and jumped out of bed and screamed,'' one woman told a reporter. ``I looked out my window and just (saw) blue flashes of light all over the place.'' Employees at supermarkets were faced with aisles full of smashed bottles and toppled cans, while many local businesses reported the windows had shattered in the earthquake. ``It wasn't very long ... but it was really like jerky and shaky. It was crazy. Look at the aisles,'' Frankie Herkins said outside one supermarket. ``I went to my mom's house, which was across town, and all her dishes were destroyed,'' another resident, Brian Snook, told a television reporter outside the store. ``I came here. It's destroyed. Wine bottles everywhere. We've got canned food everywhere. It's just everything. Every aisle is destroyed.'' CLEANUP UNDER WAY Pam Cody, a spokeswoman for the city of Napa, said the cleanup was well under way, although the state of emergency would continue amid the threat of aftershocks. ``At daybreak, city assessment teams have begun to assess and repair damage to public facilities. Currently, there are 10 main water leaks, and water has been shut off,'' Cody said, adding that trash containers were being distributed throughout the city to assist with the cleanup. Henderson, who described the quake as one of the strongest he had ever felt, credited early precautions with heading off what could have been a bigger disaster. ``We've really been pushing the seismic retrofit in our city, and I think this will encourage some of the people to really come along and get on board,'' the mayor said. While local residents nursed their bruises and surveyed the damage, officials warned that more aftershocks were possible. But USGS geologist Steve Walter said the quake struck on a little-known fault and was unlikely to be a precursor of anything much more violent. ``This is a fault that in the past has not produced any earthquake larger than magnitude 3. It's unlikely that it could produce something much larger than what we've seen already,'' Walter said."}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (21:14)", "body": "U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center A for Seismology The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey: A moderate earthquake occurred about 3 miles west-southwest of Yountville, California at 2:37 AM MDT today, Sep 3, 2000 (1:37 AM PDT in California). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 5.2 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location have been computed by the USGS in Menlo Park, California, and may change slightly as additional data are received from additional seismograph stations. There have been reports of one minor injury and some damage in the Yountville area. The quake was felt widely in the San Francisco Bay area and at Sacramento."}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (21:15)", "body": "5.3 on 09/03/2000 08:21:23 GMT ----- FIJI ISLANDS REGION 364.1 km deep 20.46S 177.82W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sun Sep 3 20:21:13 GMT 2000 5.1 on 09/03/2000 11:01:28 GMT ----- KURIL ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 43.17N 146.69E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sun Sep 3 23:05:44 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (21:59)", "body": "More on the Napa California Quake: NAPA, Calif. (Reuters) - A medium-sized earthquake jolted northern California's wine country on Sunday, causing at least one serious injury and knocking out power to thousands as windows shattered, bottles crashed off store shelves and people were shaken out of their beds. ``It felt like a bolt of lightning hit the house. ... It was just crash, and everything kept on rolling,'' Napa Valley resident Brian Murdoch told KCBS radio after the quake, measuring magnitude 5.2, hit at about 1:36 a.m. PDT near Yountville, about 50 miles north of San Francisco. The city of Napa declared a state of emergency to cope with the aftermath of the quake, although officials said that the temblor appeared to have left more shaken nerves than physical destruction. ``It's a real shock and rude awakening for us,'' Napa Mayor Ed Henderson told a television reporter as he inspected downtown damage. ``I think we're over the worst part. It depends on the aftershocks. They say it will take from three to seven days to determine what the aftershocks (are) or if there will be any. We're kind of gearing up for that.'' Napa County Emergency Services spokeswoman Mary Jean McLaughlin said inspectors found lots of broken windows and a few cracks in buildings but the area appeared to have escaped relatively lightly. ``Overall, there is no major structural damage,'' she said. ''The damage seems to be inside homes, inside businesses, things falling off walls. ... Having gone through the earthquake, it was scary.'' BOY HIT BY FALLING OBJECTS A young boy, who was hit by falling objects during the earthquake, was taken to Children's Hospital Medical Center in Oakland, where he was reported to be in critical condition. Area hospitals treated several dozen people for minor injuries after the quake. The United States Geological Survey office in Menlo Park, California, reported that the initial earthquake was followed by at least two aftershocks, both under 2 magnitude. Officials at Pacific Gas and Electric Co., said that about 10,000 homes lost power immediately after the earthquake, but service had been restored to almost all customers by mid-afternoon. In the Napa Valley area, home to many of California's most famous wineries, residents reported being shaken awake by the earthquake, which was felt as far south as San Francisco. ``I woke up and jumped out of bed and screamed,'' one woman told a reporter. ``I looked out my window and just (saw) blue flashes of light all over the place.'' Jason Smith, a spokesman for the Red Cross, said that a temporary shelter in a Napa church opened and was expected to offer accommodation to about 70 people, most of them residents of a large apartment complex that had experienced masonry damage in the quake. Luckily for wine lovers and the local tourist trade, a number of wineries contacted by Reuters said they had not been impacted by the earthquake. But employees at supermarkets were faced with aisles full of smashed bottles and toppled cans, while local businesses reported that windows had shattered in the earthquake. ``It wasn't very long ... but it was really like jerky and shaky. It was crazy. Look at the aisles,'' Frankie Herkins said outside one supermarket. ``I went to my mom's house, which was across town, and all her dishes were destroyed,'' another resident, Brian Snook, told a television reporter outside the store. ``I came here. It's destroyed. Wine bottles everywhere. We've got canned food everywhere. It's just everything. Every aisle is destroyed.'' CLEANUP UNDER WAY Pam Cody, a spokeswoman for the city of Napa, said the cleanup was well under way, although the state of emergency would continue amid the threat of aftershocks. ``At daybreak, city assessment teams began to assess and repair damage to public facilities. Currently, there are 10 main water leaks, and water has been shut off,'' Cody said, adding that trash containers were being distributed throughout the city to assist with the cleanup. California's state Office of Emergency Services dispatched five response teams, including 25 fire trucks, to help local officials assess the damage. ``Today's quake is a wake-up call to Californians that earthquakes can happen at any time,'' OES director Dallas Jones said in a news release. ``All residents should heed this warning and develop home and workplace earthquake plans.'' Henderson, who described the quake as one of the strongest he had ever felt, credited early precautions with heading off what could have been a bigger disaster. ``We've really been pushing the seismic retrofit in our city, and I think this will encourage some of the people to really come along and get on board,'' the mayor said."}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (23:19)", "body": "5.4 on 09/05/2000 00:32:46 GMT ----- SOUTHERN INDIA 33.0 km deep 17.15N 73.80E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Sep 5 01:51:01 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 135, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Sep  5, 2000 (04:02)", "body": "This was sent to me yesterday - pix of the results of the Napa earthquake http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=earthquake+napa&c=news_photos"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep  5, 2000 (14:54)", "body": "Thanks, Maggie!!! David has decided there is something worse than being in a terrible earthquake...Missing it altoghther! 5.2 on 09/05/2000 08:42:59 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 21.96S 174.54W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Sep 5 16:35:52 GMT 2000 5.3 on 09/05/2000 17:48:26 GMT ----- ANDREANOF ISL, ALEUTIAN IS. 33.0 km deep 51.45N 178.46W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Sep 5 17:36:09 GMT 2000 5.1 on 09/05/2000 15:43:32 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 21.85S 174.51W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Sep 5 18:37:03 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep  5, 2000 (17:55)", "body": "More on the napa earthquake Published Tuesday, September 5, 2000 Victims seek aid to rebuild By Lisa Shafer TIMES STAFF WRITER A day after a 5.2-magnitude earthquake rocked the Napa Valley wine country, a 5-year-old boy remained hospitalized in critical condition and hundreds of property owners continued to report damage. As residents return from Labor Day weekend travels, Napa officials said they expect to get as many as 2,500 reports of structural damage. At a meeting scheduled for 3:30 p.m. today, City Council members are expected to approve a request that Gov. Gray Davis declare a state of emergency for the area. Federal relief also is expected to be sought to help with damage a county emergency official said likely would top $15 million. City officials said Monday that 72 people were injured in Sunday's earthquake. Its epicenter was along an unnamed fault three miles southwest of Yountville and six miles northwest of Napa. Most injuries were minor, but at least three people required hospitalization. The most seriously injured was Nathan Schank, 5, who was hit by up to 300 pounds of rock and mortar from a fireplace as the boy slept in his family's living room. Nathan, listed in critical but stable condition Monday night, underwent about 31/2 hours of surgery Sunday after being transferred to Children's Hospital Oakland. He will require several more surgeries to treat multiple fractures to his right forearm and a fractured pelvis, hospital officials said. \"He is in really, really critical condition,\" said nursing supervisor Luanne Palmer, adding that the boy had lost a lot of blood. A 37-year-old woman was in stable condition Monday at Queen Of The Valley Hospital in Napa. She injured her leg after being jolted as she tried to check on her children, a hospital spokeswoman said. Another victim, a 41-year-old Napa man, was discharged from a local hospital Monday afternoon after treatment for head injuries. Conditions improved Monday for many residents temporarily left homeless. A Red Cross shelter set up Sunday morning at the First Baptist Church in Napa closed Monday, but Red Cross officials said the shelter could reopen if needed. Forty-one people, mostly residents of a damaged apartment complex on South Freeway Drive, slept at the shelter Sunday, spokesman Jason Smith said. At least 34 others registered with the shelter but then found other accommodations, he said. By Monday afternoon, building inspectors had assessed 250 to 300 buildings reported damaged in the quake, said Lisa Harper, a city spokeswoman. About 95 percent of the houses inspected had at least part of a chimney topple, and she said there also were numerous reports of water heaters separated from walls. aAs residents return to damaged houses after Labor Day, and as more property owners realize the city will inspect the damage upon request, the tally of damaged buildings could reach 2,500, Harper said. The only building to initially receive a red tag -- meaning no one should enter -- was Kragen Auto Parts on Trancas Street. But a store manager allowed several reporters into the building Monday morning to show what he said was strictly \"cosmetic\" damage -- broken windows and fallen ceiling tiles. Later, city officials said they'd replaced Kragen's red tag with a yellow one, allowing limited entry. Neal O'Haire of the county's Office of Emergency Services said it is hard to gauge whether the area will receive federal disaster relief, though he is hopeful. \"It wasn't a major catastrophe,\" he said. \"But this is a relatively rare natural disaster. It's also an election year and there are a lot of people who need help.\" Napa County, he said, would seek help to pay for public expenses and damage to civic buildings, as well as loans or grants for families. Many of the Napa victims, he said, live in older homes and have low to moderate incomes. \"Even if they have earthquake insurance, the deductibles are so high,\" he said. At least one Napa resident found a silver lining as he cleaned up his house and barber shop after the quake. George Alvarez, 68, a former Richmond resident who moved to Napa 15 years ago, discovered the earthquake had jostled some of his long-lost treasures into view. Alvarez took a break from his Labor Day cleanup at George's Barber Shop to show off a few of his finds -- an old electric razor and two stuffed animals he once planned to give his grandchildren. \"That's the good thing about this earthquake,\" said Alvarez. Another discovery he made was that old bottles of hair spray in his three-chair shop might need to be pitched. After one old bottle fell during the earthquake, its contents ate a hole in the linoleum floor, he said sheepishly. Alvarez promptly nailed a velvet John Wayne painting back on the shop's wall in the hours after the quake. He did not have as much success fixing his storefront windows. The yellow pages on his barber shop counter opened to \"glass.\" Alvarez said he heard he wouldn't be able to get anyone to r"}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  6, 2000 (14:23)", "body": "5.1 on 09/06/2000 04:26:43 GMT ----- NORTHERN MOLUCCA SEA 33.0 km deep 1.48N 126.51E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Sep 6 13:06:36 GMT 2000 5.1 on 09/06/2000 07:20:39 GMT ----- SOUTHERN SUMATERA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 4.52S 101.91E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Sep 6 13:36:43 GMT 2000 3.1 on 09/05/2000 17:39:28 GMT ----- 38 mi. NW of Big Pine, CA 24.5 km deep 37.49N 118.85W Source: CALTECH Quality: C Type: ML 5.2 on 09/04/2000 17:26:00 GMT ----- OFF W COAST OF N SUMATERA 33.0 km deep 4.20N 94.91E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Sep 6 15:06:23 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 139, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep  8, 2000 (04:56)", "body": "Simulating Quakes Rocks The House Sydney - September 5, 2000 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earthquake-00b.html - Australian scientists have built a suburban house and then destroyed it with simulated cyclones and earthquakes to make future homes safer and more affordable. The scene of the destruction was the whole building test laboratory at CSIRO Infrastructure Systems Engineering at Highett, Melbourne, Australia. This facility has established a unique capability to measure the complete load distribution in a light-frame building \ufffd for the first time in the world. \"It is now possible to evaluate the performance of any component of a house and relate it to the way the rest of the structure behaves when subject to severe events such as earthquakes,\" says Dr Greg Foliente of CSIRO Infrastructure Systems Engineering. \"We can tell just which bits fail and how they hold together under severe stress \ufffd even down to a single nail. \"The entire house is fully supported by load cells (sensors) at its base with each unit capable of measuring loads in three principal directions to duplicate the forces created in a major natural isaster. A desktop computer manages the entire instrumentation and data visualisation system. \"This is the first full-scale test house in the world to be instrumented in this way, and to this extent. \"The data collected will enable combined testing and modelling for the design of new and innovative products and to determine locations in houses where they can be most effective,\" he says. Dr Foliente says that the unthinkable is now possible thanks to CSIRO's new combined capability for whole house testing and computer modelling. \"The door will soon be open to a whole host of new building materials and products, undreamt of previously,\" he says. These could include: high performance composites for building such as carbon fibres, waste plastic or even straw energy dissipation devices such as (metal) friction dampers on joists to allow movement viscoelastic dampers such as rubber shock absorbers between different materials such as wallboard and framing. \"Houses in disaster prone areas may be built of plastic or have suspension a bit like a motor car to ride out most typhoons or earthquakes with less damage and reduced injury to occupants,\" says Dr Foliente. \"The earthquake house will give a new dimension to slashing red tape for exporters trying to break into overseas markets. \"Once CSIRO's house is experimentally validated to a given construction method it will be possible to demonstrate that a new structural building product can meet local building safety requirements, or that an Australian building product can meet another country's building code. \"For example, our combined modelling and testing capability can be used to show how an Australian designed house can meet the earthquake safety requirements demanded by building codes in America or Japan,\" he says. Compliance to overseas standards and codes can be demonstrated in months instead of years, removing a major export impediment to Australian companies. The earthquake house is the result of CSIRO's international reputation in whole building testing and computer modelling and the research arm of the US National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) that commissioned this CSIRO project. \"We have a very productive collaboration with Japanese and American researchers in various aspects of the project and, in particular, North Carolina State University in the US is a close collaborator, assisting with our computer modelling and testing,\" says Dr Foliente. CSIRO Building, Construction & Engineering"}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  8, 2000 (19:47)", "body": "Sci.esa.int Esa Science News _____________________________________________________________________ Photo release: A stellar cocoon soon to hatch to a butterfly 31 Aug 2000 _____________________________________________________________________ Observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show a previously unknown richness of detail in the intriguing proto-planetary nebula CRL 618. CRL 618 is a superb example of the transition taking place in the later stages of the life of a star like the Sun after it has lost most of its mass and before it emerges as a fully-fledged butterfly-like planetary nebula. CRL 618 is evolving so rapidly that we can literally watch through Hubble's eyes the hatching of one of these heavenly butterflies from its dusty cocoon. This snapshot of cosmic evolution provides important clues for current theories of the origin and evolution of planetary nebulae. Observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show a previously unknown richness of detail in the intriguing proto-planetary nebula CRL 618. CRL 618 is a superb example of the transition taking place in the later stages of the life of a star like the Sun after it has lost most of its mass and before it emerges as a fully-fledged butterfly-like planetary nebula. CRL 618 is evolving so rapidly that we can literally watch through Hubble's eyes the hatching of one of these heavenly butterflies from its dusty cocoon. This snapshot of cosmic evolution provides important clues for current theories of the origin and evolution of planetary nebulae. The sharp vision of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope gives an unprecedented clear view of a fascinating and complex nebula undergoing rapid evolution. The nebula, CRL 618, is an example of a special type of nebula called a proto-planetary nebula. A hidden central star similar to our Sun illuminates a gaseous shell ejected a few hundred years ago by the star late in its life. The star's light escapes at the poles of a thick, dark, equatorial lane of obscuring dust. Here the dust lane is thinner so symmetric nebulous regions can form above and below the equatorial plane. The Hubble observations show a nebula with complex jet-like features protruding at different angles from the poles - telltale signs of massive outflows of material spewing out at incredible speeds. Outflow speeds of more than 700,000 km/h have been measured in earlier observations. Smoke-ring features are seen in the jets, which may arise from powerful shocks generated as gas is ejected out at irregular intervals and pushes out into the surroundings. From cocoon to butterfly Proto-planetary nebulae represent the transition phase between the last stages of a red giant star's life and the later planetary nebula phase where most of the star's mass has been ejected. Stars, like the Sun, spend most of their life quietly converting hydrogen into helium. However, when the hydrogen in the core is exhausted, they start a short phase of much more rapid evolution. They then grow in size and brightness, become cooler red giants and start to eject large amounts of gas and dust as a slow stellar wind. When the star has lost most of its mass, it heats up again and brightens so that the ejected material begins to glow. At the same time, a much faster wind starts to sweep through and clear out the cocoon of obscuring material and so a butterfly-like planetary nebula is born. Snapshots of the cosmic evolution CRL 618 is one such object in transition from a highly evolved giant star to the planetary nebula phase. The proto-planetary nebula phase is thought to take between a few hundred years and a thousand years. This, astronomically speaking, rapid evolution makes CRL 618 one of the very few astronomical objects where evolutionary changes have been observed directly over the last twenty years and where direct observations of cosmic evolution are possible. Testing theories Proto-planetary nebulae are excellent objects on which to test theories of the origin and evolution of planetary nebulae. However the enigmatic structure of this nebula remains a puzzle to astronomers and challenges their theories. This Hubble image shows that as material is ejected it forms complex shapes and symmetries, rather than the spherical structure simple theories predict. Clearly some powerful processes must be at work. Proto-planetary nebulae often show a bipolar symmetry. Current theories explain this symmetry by invoking binary stars that are rotating around each other, maybe in connection with planetary systems and strong magnetic fields, and that these processes then shape the powerful symmetric jets of ejected gas. Despite being able to observe objects like CRL 618 over periods spanning human generations, and despite its, in a cosmic context, fast changes, we are essentially still observing a snapshot in cosmic time. Alexander Tielens from the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in the Netherlands, who has studied the nebula with ground-based telescopes, "}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  8, 2000 (19:49)", "body": "Bless them at the last post (sci.esa.int) They emailed me this information with all of the HTML tags inserted!!"}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 11, 2000 (15:45)", "body": "5.9 on 09/10/2000 08:54:42 GMT ----- TAIWAN 10.0 km deep 23.85N 121.39E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sun Sep 10 10:06:14 GMT 2000 5.2 on 09/10/2000 03:16:12 GMT ----- MINDORO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 13.82N 120.37E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Sep 11 17:35:51 GMT 2000 5.3 on 09/10/2000 17:11:55 GMT ----- HALMAHERA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 1.18S 129.54E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.2 on 09/10/2000 17:08:18 GMT ----- HALMAHERA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 1.21S 129.40E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Sep 11 17:50:51 GMT 2000 5.2 on 09/09/2000 12:18:10 GMT ----- SOUTHEAST OF EASTER ISLAND 10.0 km deep 35.85S 102.75W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Mon Sep 11 19:05:56 GMT 2000 5.4 on 09/10/2000 19:45:29 GMT ----- BANDA SEA 102.7 km deep 5.56S 130.98E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Sep 11 19:36:21 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 11, 2000 (16:14)", "body": "6.3 on 09/11/2000 17:17:53 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS 116.3 km deep 15.77S 173.74W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Sep 11 20:05:53 GMT 2000 6.0 on 09/10/2000 19:06:15 GMT ----- HALMAHERA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 1.06S 129.35E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Mon Sep 11 06:50:45 GMT 2000 5.1 on 09/09/2000 10:00:33 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 22.76S 175.15W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Sep 11 16:06:01 GMT 2000 5.2 on 09/09/2000 06:01:53 GMT ----- NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION 225.9 km deep 6.41N 95.50E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Sep 11 16:20:47 GMT 2000 5.1 on 09/10/2000 21:37:42 GMT ----- NORTH OF ASCENSION ISLAND 10.0 km deep 1.81S 12.85W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Sep 11 19:50:50 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (15:33)", "body": "5.0 on 09/10/2000 22:49:45 GMT ----- NEAR S. COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 34.62N 139.18E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Sep 11 21:51:01 GMT 2000 6.1 on 09/12/2000 00:28:02 GMT ----- QINGHAI, CHINA 33.0 km deep 35.42N 99.56E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mw date: Tue Sep 12 00:50:51 GMT 2000 6.3 on 09/12/2000 00:28:01 GMT ----- QINGHAI, CHINA 33.0 km deep 35.38N 99.58E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Tue Sep 12 13:50:44 GMT 2000 5.4 on 09/11/2000 10:03:13 GMT ----- SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 57.68S 25.36W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Sep 12 14:20:50 GMT 2000 5.0 on 09/12/2000 10:54:12 GMT ----- NORTHERN COLOMBIA 163.9 km deep 6.66N 73.05W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Sep 12 16:51:02 GMT 2000 6.1 on 09/12/2000 16:27:24 GMT ----- SW OF SUMATERA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 5.42S 101.76E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Tue Sep 12 18:20:56 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "5.8 on 09/08/2000 01:34:40 GMT ----- SOUTH INDIAN OCEAN 10.0 km deep 39.83S 41.46E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Fri Sep 8 13:35:44 GMT 2000 5.6 on 09/08/2000 22:41:24 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 7.12N 122.14E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Fri Sep 8 23:35:52 GMT 2000 5.2 on 09/11/2000 19:41:58 GMT ----- SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 12.13S 166.39E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Sep 12 19:21:34 GMT 2000 5.3 on 09/13/2000 22:29:10 GMT ----- PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE 10.0 km deep 54.31S 136.80W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Mb date: Thu Sep 14 17:36:19 GMT 2000 5.1 on 09/13/2000 13:09:46 GMT ----- PERSIAN GULF 33.0 km deep 27.82N 51.70E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Sep 14 17:50:51 GMT 2000 6.2 on 09/14/2000 14:59:57 GMT ----- FIJI ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 15.65S 179.80E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms 5.2 on 09/14/2000 17:33:27 GMT ----- SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS 104.5 km deep 22.43S 176.35W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Sep 14 21:35:59 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (01:21)", "body": "EARTHQUAKES- Sept 11 2000- Taiwan Jolted By Three Aftershocks- A strong quake that caused landslides and minor damage in east-central Taiwan over the weekend was followed by three moderate quakes-which was reported Monday. The first aftershock, at magnitude 4.4, struck 11 miles NW of Hsilin late Sunday. On Monday, the same area was hit again in the morning by a magnitude 4.0 quake, followed by a magnitude 4.9 quake later that day. Sept 11 2000- Japan's Island Jolted By Quake- An earthquake preliminary magnitude of 5.2 struck a chain of volcanic islands off Tokyo on Monday, but there were no reports of damage or injuries. The quake was centered near the Izu island chain and occurred 6 miles beneath the seabed. Less powerful quakes occurred after the magnitude 5.2 quake struck. Over 13,800 quakes (number of quakes felt by humans) have occurred since Mt. Oyama became active on June 26. Sept 13 2000- NW Colombia Jolted By Strong Quake- A magnitude 5.9 quake struck the Andean mountains of NW Colombia at 5:54 AM (0554) local time on Tuesday. The quake was felt for hundreds of miles, but no reports of damage or injuries were reported. The quake was centered near the city of Los Santos in Santander Province, about 155 miles NE of the capital, Bogota. The quake was not destructive because it occurred at the depth of 102 miles beneath the earth's surface. Sept 13 2000- NW China Struck By Powerful Quake- A magnitude 6.6 quake struck China's NW province of Qinghai at 8:28 AM (0828) Beijing time on Tuesday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The quake was centered in a remote area between the cities of Xinghai and Maduo. The quake was followed by three large aftershocks, including a magnitude 5.2. --------------------------------------------- Thanks A_P !!!"}, {"response": 147, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (14:24)", "body": "5.4 on 09/16/2000 11:03:18 GMT ----- MINAHASSA PENINSULA, SULAWESI 193.0 km deep 0.32N 122.18E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sat Sep 16 16:05:44 GMT 2000 5.7 on 09/16/2000 17:26:24 GMT ----- KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND 63.6 km deep 30.17S 178.05W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sat Sep 16 21:20:46 GMT 2000 5.2 on 09/16/2000 23:04:18 GMT ----- TAIWAN REGION 75.5 km deep 23.97N 122.40E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sun Sep 17 15:50:39 GMT 2000 5.2 on 09/17/2000 09:29:56 GMT ----- E NEW GUINEA REG., P.N.G. 224.9 km deep 5.39S 146.76E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sun Sep 17 16:20:49 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 148, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (03:16)", "body": "cross posted from Geo 9 (where I put it by mistake ...sorry Marcia) Earthquake hits Warwickshire, England The biggest seismic event in Britain for 10 years .... SEISMIC ALERT: WARWICK, WARWICKSHIRE 23 SEPTEMBER 2000 04:23 UTC 4.2 ML http://www.gsrg.nmh.ac.uk/alert_info.htm BGS have received many reports, from the Police, the media, the Emergency Planning Officer and residents in Cheadle (85 km to the north), Gloucester (65 km to the south), Peterborough (95 km to the east), Birmingham, Coventry, Warwick, Rugby, and Leamington Spa, of a felt event at 04:25 UTC this morning (23 September 2000). Felt reports describe \"we were alarmed\", \"the bed moved\", \"the whole house shook\", \"we were woken from sleep\" and \"the whole building trembled\". The BGS rapid-access networks detected an event at 04:23 UTC. The following preliminary information is available for this earthquake: DATE : 23 September 2000 ORIGIN TIME : 04:23 45.8sUTC LAT/LONG : 52.28o North / 1.61o West GRID REF : 426.5 kmE / 265.0 kmN DEPTH : 13.1 km MAGNITUDE : 4.2 ML INTENSITY : 5+ LOCALITY : Warwick, Warwickshire Historically, a similar earthquake occurred near Tewksbury, some 50 km to the south west with a magnitude of 4.1 in 1768. More recently, a magnitude 3.0 earthquake was felt at Stratford-upon-Avon in May 1994, 17 km to the south west. The largest earthquake within 100 km occurred at Bishops Castle near the Welsh border in April 1990, with a magnitude of 5.1 (almost 10 times the ground movement and 30 times the energy of the Warwick earthquake). It was felt over the whole of Wales, most of England and into Ireland and Scotland Here's the list from the British Geological Society of EArthquakes in the UK this month http://www.gsrg.nmh.ac.uk/recbrit.html YearMoDy HrMnSecs Lat Lon kmE kmN Dep Mag Locality Int 20000923 042345.8 52.28 -1.61 426.5 265.0 13.1 4.2 WARWICK,WARWICKSHIRE 5+ 20000921 073048.3 56.99 -5.47 189.0 794.2 6.4 1.2 LOCH NEVIS,HIGHLAND 20000915 035724.7 52.96 -4.36 241.3 342.6 23.3 0.7 LLEYN PENIN,GWYNEDD 20000914 214946.3 52.96 -4.36 241.3 342.7 22.6 0.7 LLEYN PENINSULA 20000912 014225.6 50.11 -5.18 172.6 28.0 7.2 -0.2 CONSTANTINE,CORNWALL 20000912 001419.5 54.63 -2.43 372.3 525.7 4.8 0.8 APPLEBY,CUMBRIA 20000911 032127.2 54.81 -3.59 297.9 547.6 3.6 1.0 SOLWAY FIRTH 20000910 065255.2 52.97 -4.41 238.3 343.8 22.0 0.4 LLEYN PENINSULA 20000906 002612.3 57.58 -5.49 191.7 860.3 5.2 0.6 TORRIDON,HIGHLAND 20000830 235340.7 56.20 -2.96 340.2 700.8 3.7 1.4 EXPL-LARGO BAY,FIFE 2+ 20000824 074921.1 55.39 -5.23 195.2 615.0 19.0 2.1 ARRAN,STRATHCLYDE 20000823 071515.2 53.06 -4.55 229.0 354.5 13.2 0.6 CAERNARVON BAY,GWYNEDD"}, {"response": 149, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (03:17)", "body": "Also cross posted from Geo 9 What to do if you feel an earthquake in the UK Go to the British Geological Society site and fill in this form .... http://www.gsrg.nmh.ac.uk/hazard/quest.htm"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (12:56)", "body": "I am all curiosity... Have you ever felt an earthquake??? In Britain? I am glad you posted the article in the other EQ topic. It reminded me it was there (actually I froze it by mistake - still do no know how - and got this one going before I figured out how to unfreeze it. I will use the other one for the long posts like the articles and this one for current updates. Our next big one will have all of the discussion and what is being done and how we are coping on Seimology topic 9... Hope it is far away in time. The same goes for the ones which hit anywhere in the world where long, ongoing news items update conditions. This is the quick-fix topic...the other is the long term one. Or not... There are no hard and fast rules in Geo... just like any other place on Spring!"}, {"response": 151, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Sep 26, 2000 (05:06)", "body": "As yet I have never felt an earthquake ...in Britain or elsewhere ..... This last earthquake was of a magnitude that many people in Warwickshire and the surrounding counties not only felt it but were concerned enough to bombard the media about it ..... Thanks for clarifying about the Geo topics, Marcia, I'm not always sure where things go ...so feel free to move things if they go in the wrong place ...."}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (01:11)", "body": "There is no really right or wrong here. I'd never move your posts. In fact, it is useful to have surprising new things in old sleeping topics!!! Once you feel an earthquake, you never forget it. You DON'T want to know about what a 7.2 ones feels like in the middle of the night!"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (19:13)", "body": "Again, thanks American_Patriot EARTHQUAKES- Sept 20 2000- Northern Iran Jolted By Quake- A magnitude 5.2 quake jolted Northern Iran on Tuesday at 7:49 PM local time, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The quake was centered 50 miles north of the city of Bojnurd in Khorasan Province, in an area close to the border with the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan. Sept 25 2000- Quakes In Indonesia- Two quakes struck Indonesia on Friday and Saturday, but there were no reports of injuries or damage from either quake. A magnitude 5.8 quake struck Indonesia's Aceh Province on Friday at 7:20 AM, local time. The quake was centered 160 miles west of the regional capital of Banda Aceh and occurred beneath the seabed of the Indian Ocean. On Saturday, a magnitude 5.5 quake struck 53 miles SW of the city of Manna at 1:22 AM local time. Sept 25 2000- New Zealand's North Island Jolted- A magnitude 5.3 quake struck New Zealand's North Island on Monday at 3:26 AM, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The tremor was centered north of the city of Waiouru, about 135 miles north of the capital of Wellington. The quake occurred at a depth of 64 miles which accounted for the widespread shaking. Sept 25 2000- Russian Republic Jolted By Quake- An estimated magnitude 6.0 quake struck the southern Russian Republic of Dagestan last Friday, causing minor structual damage, but no injuries. The quake was centered between the cities of Kizil-Yurt and Dubki, in a remote western region near the border with Chechnya. Sept 26 2000- SW Japan Jolted By A Pair Of Quakes- SW Japan was rattled by two quakes on Monday, but there were no reports of damage or injuries from either quake. A magnitude 4.1 quake struck at 11:15 AM local time between the cities of Mifune and Jonan in Kumamoto Prefecture, located about 560 miles SW of Tokyo. An aftershock of magnitude 3.8 struck 8 minutes later. Sept 27 2000- Tongan Islands Shaken By Strong Quake- A magnitude 6.5 quake struck the Pacific Ocean islands of Tonga on Tuesday at 7:18 AM local time, but there were no available reports of injuries or damage. The shallow quake was centered about 105 miles north of the island of Neiafu, located in the Vava'u Islands, and about 285 miles SW of Pago Pago in American Samoa. Sept 27 2000- Taiwan Jolted By Four Quakes- Four quakes rattled the island of Taiwan on Tuesday and Wednesday, but there were no reports of injuries or damage from any of the quakes. Three consecutive quakes jolted eastern Taiwan early Tuesday morning. The quakes ranged from magnitude 2.6 to 4.0. The quakes were centered east of the city of Hualien and occurred 6 miles beneath the earth's surface. A magnitude 5.0 quake struck western Taiwan on Wednesday at 1:16 AM local time. The quake was centered in the SW part of the island near the west coast of Chiayi County. Sept 28 2000- Indonesia Shaken By Quake- A magnitude 5.4 quake jolted Indonesia's province of Bengkulu on Wednesday just after 9:00 AM, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The quake was centered 85 miles to the west of the coastal city of Manna, and occurred beneath the seabed of the Indian Ocean. Sept 28 2000- Turkey Jolted By Quake- A magnitude 4.0 quake struck Turkey's central Anatolian Province of Cankiri on Wednesday at 3:19 PM local time, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The quake was centered in Cankiri's city of Orta."}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (22:24)", "body": "5.1 on 09/28/2000 23:35:41 GMT ----- SOLOMON ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 10.24S 161.51E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Sep 29 15:36:26 GMT 2000 5.2 on 09/28/2000 23:56:03 GMT ----- NEAR E COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 35.37N 140.09E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Sep 29 16:51:26 GMT 2000 5.0 on 09/28/2000 12:37:01 GMT ----- TALAUD ISLANDS, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 3.08N 127.02E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Sep 29 18:51:26 GMT 2000 5.1 on 09/28/2000 22:02:25 GMT ----- SOUTHERN MOLUCCA SEA 33.0 km deep 0.25S 124.57E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Sep 29 19:06:15 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  1, 2000 (21:15)", "body": "5.3 on 09/30/2000 19:05:07 GMT ----- GULF OF ALASKA 33.0 km deep 57.57N 142.97W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sat Sep 30 20:06:27 GMT 2000 5.3 on 10/01/2000 00:02:46 GMT ----- IRIAN JAYA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 3.93S 136.45E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sun Oct 1 16:51:06 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/01/2000 12:38:55 GMT ----- SAMOA ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 16.12S 172.74W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sun Oct 1 17:21:12 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  2, 2000 (17:36)", "body": "5.7 on 10/01/2000 19:03:28 GMT ----- BANDA SEA 36.7 km deep 4.10S 127.37E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 2 17:21:14 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/02/2000 05:21:43 GMT ----- RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN 58.5 km deep 29.42N 129.44E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 2 17:36:11 GMT 2000 5.5 on 10/02/2000 07:29:43 GMT ----- RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 29.44N 129.44E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 2 18:36:13 GMT 2000 6.8 on 10/02/2000 02:25:27 GMT ----- LAKE TANGANYIKA REGION 10.0 km deep 7.96S 30.53E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Mon Oct 2 19:21:18 GMT 2000 5.7 on 10/02/2000 07:44:11 GMT ----- RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 29.54N 129.50E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 2 19:51:44 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/02/2000 13:46:29 GMT ----- SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 59.42S 25.86W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 2 21:21:31 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  3, 2000 (16:08)", "body": "5.1 on 10/03/2000 02:46:58 GMT ----- CHAGOS ARCHIPELAGO REGION 10.0 km deep 7.21S 68.03E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 3 18:51:25 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/02/2000 08:04:08 GMT ----- RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 29.31N 129.75E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 3 13:06:23 GMT 2000 5.1 on 09/30/2000 19:05:06 GMT ----- GULF OF ALASKA. 10.0 km deep 57.24N 142.65W Source: CANADA1 Quality: Z Type: ML date: Tue Oct 3 15:36:13 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  3, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "5.1 on 10/03/2000 03:07:28 GMT ----- NORTHERN XINJIANG, CHINA 33.0 km deep 42.03N 84.93E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 3 20:21:27 GMT 2000 5.2 on 10/03/2000 05:30:18 GMT ----- ANDREANOF ISL, ALEUTIAN IS. 58.2 km deep 51.53N 177.33W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 3 20:51:19 GMT 2000 5.7 on 10/03/2000 04:13:29 GMT ----- NEAR E COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 40.32N 142.94E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Tue Oct 3 22:21:22 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  4, 2000 (15:21)", "body": "6.8 on 10/04/2000 16:58:42 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 10.5 km deep 15.37S 166.91E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Wed Oct 4 17:36:45 GMT 2000 5.3 on 10/04/2000 13:48:59 GMT ----- SOUTH OF KERMADEC ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 33.35S 178.69W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Oct 4 19:06:32 GMT 2000 EQ MAG 6.0 WINDWARD ISLANDS U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center A for Seismology Reply to: sedas@ghtmail.cr.usgs.gov (internet) sedas@neisb.cr.usgs.gov (internet - alternate) The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A strong earthquake occurred About 35 miles (60 km) NNW of Guiria, Venezuela and 75 miles (120 km) WNW of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. at 8:38 AM MDT today, Oct 4, 2000 (10:38 AM local time in Venezuela). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 6.0 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. Felt in much Trinidad and Tobago. Also felt in northwestern Venezuela as far as Caracas. There are no reports of damage at this time. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time."}, {"response": 160, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  5, 2000 (19:17)", "body": "5.0 on 10/04/2000 02:33:59 GMT ----- TURKEY 22.0 km deep 37.81N 28.94E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Oct 4 21:22:12 GMT 2000 5.3 on 10/04/2000 20:48:24 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 10.0 km deep 15.61S 167.03E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Oct 5 15:06:21 GMT 2000 6.1 on 10/05/2000 13:39:10 GMT ----- NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE 10.0 km deep 31.64N 40.84W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Thu Oct 5 15:36:08 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/03/2000 18:04:31 GMT ----- CARLSBERG RIDGE 10.0 km deep 6.99S 67.80E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Oct 5 20:21:10 GMT 2000 5.5 on 10/05/2000 20:06:07 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 6.86N 126.81E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Thu Oct 5 21:06:13 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (14:20)", "body": "6.5 on 10/06/2000 04:30:23 GMT ----- WESTERN HONSHU, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 35.60N 133.00E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mw date: Fri Oct 6 05:36:28 GMT 2000 6.7 on 10/06/2000 04:30:19 GMT ----- WESTERN HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 35.56N 133.05E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Fri Oct 6 06:06:44 GMT 2000 5.3 on 10/06/2000 12:05:39 GMT ----- MYANMAR-CHINA BORDER REGION 33.0 km deep 24.34N 97.78E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 6 14:51:34 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/06/2000 13:09:14 GMT ----- SOUTH OF AFRICA 10.0 km deep 52.90S 27.19E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 6 15:36:24 GMT 2000 6.7 on 10/06/2000 04:30:18 GMT ----- WESTERN HONSHU, JAPAN 10.0 km deep 35.33N 133.09E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Fri Oct 6 16:37:11 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/04/2000 09:43:27 GMT ----- LOYALTY ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 20.42S 168.36E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 6 17:51:08 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  7, 2000 (22:26)", "body": "5.4 on 10/05/2000 10:44:13 GMT ----- HALMAHERA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 1.65N 127.77E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 6 20:21:19 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/05/2000 13:10:40 GMT ----- SOUTHERN MOLUCCA SEA 33.0 km deep 1.07S 124.02E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 6 20:36:18 GMT 2000 5.6 on 10/07/2000 11:57:41 GMT ----- SUMBA REGION, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 9.93S 119.35E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Sat Oct 7 15:06:09 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/07/2000 11:55:27 GMT ----- SAKHALIN ISLAND, RUSSIA 10.0 km deep 48.92N 142.27E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sat Oct 7 15:36:15 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (14:17)", "body": "5.0 on 10/08/2000 13:08:08 GMT ----- SOUTHERN SUMATERA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 4.30S 101.43E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sun Oct 8 14:21:10 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/11/2000 04:34:31 GMT ----- SULAWESI, INDONESIA 25.4 km deep 1.64S 123.36E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Wed Oct 11 13:51:13 GMT 2000 5.3 on 10/11/2000 09:42:10 GMT ----- MYANMAR 134.2 km deep 23.83N 95.02E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Oct 11 15:36:55 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (16:58)", "body": "5.2 on 10/11/2000 19:27:13 GMT ----- NORTHWEST OF AUSTRALIA 10.0 km deep 20.01S 112.96E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Oct 11 19:51:33 GMT 2000 5.4 on 10/12/2000 02:22:09 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 17.71S 173.00W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Thu Oct 12 16:52:27 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/12/2000 07:54:38 GMT ----- NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION 33.0 km deep 9.96N 92.89E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Oct 12 17:21:16 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 165, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (17:28)", "body": "5.1 on 10/12/2000 20:54:51 GMT ----- SOUTHWEST INDIAN RIDGE 10.0 km deep 28.86S 61.84E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 13 14:36:51 GMT 2000 5.5 on 10/12/2000 23:25:52 GMT ----- SAMAR, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 12.37N 124.95E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 13 14:51:27 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 15, 2000 (13:47)", "body": "4.1 on 10/14/2000 05:53:27 GMT ----- 5 km ( 9 mi) ENE of Tokop, NV 5.0 km deep 37.34N 117.09W Source: WEBMINER Quality: Z Type: Z 4.1 on 10/14/2000 04:53:27 GMT ----- CALIFORNIA-NEVADA BORDER REG 5.0 km deep 37.34N 117.10W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ml date: Sat Oct 14 15:36:07 GMT 2000 5.6 on 10/14/2000 20:02:52 GMT ----- VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION 139.0 km deep 23.57N 141.85E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sat Oct 14 22:06:19 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/14/2000 22:00:13 GMT ----- SOLOMON ISLANDS 118.9 km deep 6.24S 154.42E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sun Oct 15 16:52:05 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (17:56)", "body": "5.0 on 10/14/2000 19:57:48 GMT ----- KAZAKHSTAN-XINJIANG BDR REG. 17.9 km deep 49.95N 87.56E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 16 19:07:04 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/14/2000 20:38:56 GMT ----- SCOTIA SEA 10.0 km deep 60.20S 46.84W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 16 19:37:12 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/16/2000 18:09:31 GMT ----- SW OF SUMATERA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 5.53S 101.73E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 17 15:22:45 GMT 2000 5.5 on 10/17/2000 10:32:58 GMT ----- KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND 59.5 km deep 30.61S 178.35W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 17 18:07:49 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/17/2000 19:27:55 GMT ----- NEAR COAST OF ECUADOR 33.0 km deep 0.42S 80.93W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 17 20:07:56 GMT 2000 5.3 on 10/17/2000 20:00:37 GMT ----- MEXICO-GUATEMALA BORDER REGION 175.1 km deep 15.59N 92.12W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 17 21:52:57 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "5.1 on 10/18/2000 16:37:42 GMT ----- CENTRAL BOLIVIA 152.5 km deep 18.97S 68.00W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Oct 18 17:07:10 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/18/2000 02:34:22 GMT ----- MID-INDIAN RIDGE 10.0 km deep 10.51S 66.74E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Mb date: Thu Oct 19 14:21:58 GMT 2000 5.6 on 10/18/2000 02:43:18 GMT ----- MID-INDIAN RIDGE 10.0 km deep 10.52S 66.71E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Oct 19 15:52:17 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/18/2000 03:04:07 GMT ----- KYUSHU, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 30.87N 131.50E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Oct 19 16:22:20 GMT 2000 5.2 on 10/18/2000 06:16:45 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.14S 151.73E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Oct 19 17:07:27 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 20, 2000 (20:30)", "body": "5.0 on 10/18/2000 06:46:49 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS REGION 602.5 km deep 14.64S 171.76E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Oct 19 18:22:39 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/20/2000 19:47:24 GMT ----- CENTRAL EAST PACIFIC RISE 10.0 km deep 4.62S 106.36W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Ms date: Fri Oct 20 20:53:12 GMT 2000 5.3 on 10/20/2000 21:14:49 GMT ----- SOLOMON ISLANDS 49.9 km deep 7.77S 158.60E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 20 21:52:13 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 21, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "5.4 on 10/21/2000 15:52:45 GMT ----- GALAPAGOS ISLANDS REGION 10.0 km deep 1.74N 90.48W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Sat Oct 21 16:51:59 GMT 2000 5.3 on 10/21/2000 05:24:46 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 17.01S 175.07W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sat Oct 21 17:52:07 GMT 2000 5.7 on 10/21/2000 22:30:32 GMT ----- MINDORO, PHILIPPINES 149.3 km deep 13.70N 120.71E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sat Oct 21 23:07:09 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 22, 2000 (13:05)", "body": "5.4 on 10/22/2000 01:21:43 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 79.6 km deep 7.10N 126.70E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.3 on 10/22/2000 11:37:24 GMT ----- SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 57.18S 25.30W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms 5.2 on 10/21/2000 14:24:08 GMT ----- GALAPAGOS ISLANDS REGION 10.0 km deep 1.63N 90.84W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms 5.1 on 10/21/2000 17:39:45 GMT ----- BANDA SEA 142.3 km deep 7.46S 128.64E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.1 on 10/21/2000 08:42:56 GMT ----- NORTHWEST OF RYUKYU ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 29.57N 128.01E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sun Oct 22 16:51:55 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 23, 2000 (20:05)", "body": "5.0 on 10/22/2000 20:26:39 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 142.7 km deep 15.28S 167.79E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sun Oct 22 21:07:12 GMT 2000 5.2 on 10/23/2000 06:54:50 GMT ----- NORTHERN AND CENTRAL IRAN 33.0 km deep 31.66N 59.92E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 23 13:07:10 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/23/2000 01:25:27 GMT ----- KURIL ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 43.46N 146.84E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 23 15:36:58 GMT 2000 5.7 on 10/21/2000 11:36:00 GMT ----- SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE 10.0 km deep 47.28S 13.73W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Ms date: Mon Oct 23 17:22:32 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 24, 2000 (22:57)", "body": "5.2 on 10/24/2000 03:24:45 GMT ----- E NEW GUINEA REG., P.N.G. 70.9 km deep 5.76S 146.44E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 24 19:52:13 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/24/2000 04:53:05 GMT ----- SOLOMON ISLANDS 55.6 km deep 10.12S 161.15E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 24 20:06:56 GMT 2000 5.3 on 10/24/2000 11:09:14 GMT ----- SOUTHERN PERU 106.9 km deep 15.07S 72.47W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 24 21:21:55 GMT 2000 5.7 on 10/23/2000 23:04:12 GMT ----- BANDA SEA 33.0 km deep 4.03S 127.44E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 24 22:21:54 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 25, 2000 (18:51)", "body": "6.8 on 10/25/2000 09:32:22 GMT ----- SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 6.66S 105.55E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mw date: Wed Oct 25 10:07:02 GMT 2000 5.7 on 10/25/2000 05:26:38 GMT ----- SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE 10.0 km deep 34.63S 109.54W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Wed Oct 25 13:37:08 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/25/2000 03:09:03 GMT ----- RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 25.64N 128.36E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Oct 25 17:37:02 GMT 2000 5.7 on 10/25/2000 19:00:17 GMT ----- SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE 10.0 km deep 34.67S 109.37W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Wed Oct 25 20:22:04 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 27, 2000 (11:48)", "body": "5.5 on 10/26/2000 14:08:37 GMT ----- SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE 10.0 km deep 34.59S 109.27W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Oct 26 15:37:26 GMT 2000 6.1 on 10/27/2000 04:21:51 GMT ----- BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION 383.7 km deep 26.28N 140.52E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 27 05:08:00 GMT 2000 5.5 on 10/27/2000 00:08:53 GMT ----- SOUTHWESTERN SIBERIA, RUSSIA 33.0 km deep 54.64N 94.95E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 27 13:37:03 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/26/2000 08:54:29 GMT ----- ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION 33.0 km deep 10.48N 92.71E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 27 15:37:12 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 28, 2000 (00:37)", "body": "5.4 on 10/27/2000 19:02:53 GMT ----- LEEWARD ISLANDS 40.8 km deep 17.57N 61.25W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.0 on 10/27/2000 19:15:58 GMT ----- LEEWARD ISLANDS 43.4 km deep 17.67N 61.27W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Oct 27 20:22:05 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 29, 2000 (00:22)", "body": "5.1 on 10/28/2000 04:12:35 GMT ----- MARIANA ISLANDS 48.0 km deep 18.39N 146.49E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Sat Oct 28 14:36:55 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/28/2000 00:12:24 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 17.82S 172.88W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sat Oct 28 14:52:00 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/28/2000 15:19:20 GMT ----- MINAHASSA PENINSULA, SULAWESI 64.0 km deep 0.84N 121.73E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sat Oct 28 15:52:10 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 30, 2000 (17:04)", "body": "5.7 on 10/29/2000 22:03:56 GMT ----- EAST OF KURIL ISLANDS 49.7 km deep 47.90N 155.50E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 30 15:07:56 GMT 2000 5.4 on 10/30/2000 01:03:28 GMT ----- CENTRAL MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE 10.0 km deep 0.96N 25.59W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Mon Oct 30 15:23:04 GMT 2000 5.5 on 10/30/2000 12:01:30 GMT ----- SUMBA REGION, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 9.71S 119.14E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 30 16:52:56 GMT 2000 5.2 on 10/30/2000 16:32:16 GMT ----- NORTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND 55.9 km deep 40.58S 175.07E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 30 18:23:50 GMT 2000 5.1 on 10/28/2000 20:03:17 GMT ----- XIZANG 33.0 km deep 32.69N 92.37E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 30 19:08:11 GMT 2000 5.0 on 10/30/2000 21:12:19 GMT ----- NEAR NORTH COAST OF IRIAN JAYA 33.0 km deep 2.44S 140.20E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 30 21:37:55 GMT 2000 5.3 on 10/30/2000 20:28:45 GMT ----- SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 108.8 km deep 10.54S 165.75E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 30 21:08:05 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 31, 2000 (19:39)", "body": "5.3 on 10/30/2000 22:39:07 GMT ----- AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 38.3 km deep 37.62N 69.44E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Oct 30 22:23:09 GMT 2000 5.9 on 10/31/2000 18:43:20 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 17.86S 175.32W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 31 19:52:59 GMT 2000 5.3 on 10/29/2000 08:37:01 GMT ----- SOLOMON ISLANDS 80.0 km deep 5.15S 154.05E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Oct 31 20:38:14 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (21:20)", "body": "5.4 on 10/31/2000 18:09:36 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 17.88S 175.34W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Nov 1 19:06:58 GMT 2000 5.7 on 11/01/2000 04:27:45 GMT ----- PERU-BRAZIL BORDER REGION 151.5 km deep 7.90S 74.39W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Nov 1 20:37:20 GMT 2000 6.0 on 11/01/2000 10:35:55 GMT ----- SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND 33.0 km deep 45.15S 167.31E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Nov 1 21:22:02 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (21:57)", "body": "6.1 on 11/01/2000 10:35:56 GMT ----- SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND 33.0 km deep 45.06S 167.04E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mw date: Thu Nov 2 16:26:57 GMT 2000 5.3 on 11/01/2000 13:29:37 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 18.87S 175.66W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 2 17:57:05 GMT 2000 5.6 on 11/01/2000 04:27:45 GMT ----- PERU-BRAZIL BORDER REGION 151.2 km deep 7.89S 74.38W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.1 on 11/01/2000 23:16:36 GMT ----- KURIL ISLANDS 138.0 km deep 50.49N 155.77E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 2 18:11:53 GMT 2000 5.0 on 11/02/2000 03:39:37 GMT ----- NORTHERN AND CENTRAL IRAN 33.0 km deep 31.83N 60.08E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 2 18:26:55 GMT 2000 5.2 on 11/02/2000 07:27:11 GMT ----- SOUTHWEST OF AFRICA 10.0 km deep 52.41S 12.36E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 2 18:57:09 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  6, 2000 (13:45)", "body": "5.2 on 11/04/2000 12:38:43 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 153.1 km deep 5.69N 125.61E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sun Nov 5 18:12:56 GMT 2000 5.3 on 11/05/2000 01:53:26 GMT ----- OFF E COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 36.29N 142.22E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sun Nov 5 19:28:04 GMT 2000 5.6 on 11/06/2000 11:40:28 GMT ----- KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA 33.0 km deep 56.35N 153.43W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Mon Nov 6 13:11:49 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  9, 2000 (17:14)", "body": "5.2 on 11/07/2000 16:31:37 GMT ----- SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 55.10S 28.78W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Ms date: Tue Nov 7 18:27:13 GMT 2000 6.3 on 11/08/2000 07:00:00 GMT ----- NEAR WEST COAST OF COLOMBIA 33.0 km deep 6.97N 77.81W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Wed Nov 8 09:42:02 GMT 2000 5.2 on 11/07/2000 07:29:31 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 18.16S 168.25E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Nov 8 17:42:06 GMT 2000 5.7 on 11/08/2000 18:36:24 GMT ----- SW RYUKYU ISL., JAPAN 33.0 km deep 23.41N 124.12E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Nov 8 20:57:17 GMT 2000 5.6 on 11/09/2000 05:45:54 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS 52.5 km deep 15.37S 173.42W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 9 16:42:00 GMT 2000 5.3 on 11/09/2000 01:46:39 GMT ----- PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 5.78N 127.06E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 9 17:11:58 GMT 2000 5.4 on 11/07/2000 07:50:10 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 90.6 km deep 5.33S 153.94E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 9 18:42:36 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (19:06)", "body": "5.3 on 11/13/2000 06:46:11 GMT ----- NEAR COAST OF NORTHERN PERU 33.0 km deep 8.07S 79.85W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Mon Nov 13 15:41:50 GMT 2000 6.0 on 11/13/2000 15:57:21 GMT ----- HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION 33.0 km deep 42.62N 144.70E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Nov 13 19:27:01 GMT 2000 5.3 on 11/13/2000 21:24:09 GMT ----- ARCTIC OCEAN 10.0 km deep 81.17N 115.95W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Nov 13 23:12:07 GMT 2000 5.0 on 11/13/2000 23:17:30 GMT ----- FIJI ISLANDS REGION 655.2 km deep 21.06S 179.37W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Nov 14 00:57:16 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 185, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (19:14)", "body": "marcia marcia marcia, im me!"}, {"response": 186, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (00:53)", "body": "I did sweetie....cannot figure why I could not get through to you!!! BIG HUGS!!! Next time IM me... even if it does not look like I am online!!! My MSN is online all the time I am awake!!! So is my AOL IM and my Yahoo as most of the electrified world seems to know... Anyway, I wrote you a long letter and I am as puzzled as you are!!!"}, {"response": 187, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (07:43)", "body": "Can you find these with your email address (the one I use)?"}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 15, 2000 (18:30)", "body": "5.2 on 11/13/2000 21:24:09 GMT ----- 530 KM N FROM MOULD BAY, N.W.T. 18.0 km deep 80.94N 116.48W Source: CANADA1 Quality: Z Type: ML date: Tue Nov 14 22:27:57 GMT 2000 5.4 on 11/15/2000 15:05:39 GMT ----- TURKEY 62.9 km deep 38.65N 42.95E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Wed Nov 15 17:12:06 GMT 2000 5.5 on 11/15/2000 19:27:14 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 14.57S 166.69E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Wed Nov 15 21:42:08 GMT 2000 5.5 on 11/15/2000 09:23:38 GMT ----- PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 17.30N 119.81E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Nov 15 23:42:07 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (12:47)", "body": "8.0 on 11/16/2000 04:54:56 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 3.97S 152.32E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Thu Nov 16 06:41:55 GMT 2000 7.7 on 11/16/2000 07:42:16 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.24S 153.06E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Thu Nov 16 09:27:05 GMT 2000 5.0 on 11/16/2000 09:31:44 GMT ----- NEAR E COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 48.8 km deep 38.02N 141.29E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 10:27:02 GMT 2000 5.0 on 11/16/2000 11:33:09 GMT ----- NORTHERN ALGERIA 10.0 km deep 36.76N 4.77E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 12:56:53 GMT 2000 5.2 on 11/16/2000 03:17:05 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 14.51S 166.56E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 16:11:46 GMT 2000 5.2 on 11/16/2000 03:40:10 GMT ----- SAKHALIN ISLAND, RUSSIA 10.0 km deep 49.01N 142.11E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 17:12:19 GMT 2000 5.4 on 11/16/2000 12:14:24 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.16S 152.63E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.1 on 11/16/2000 04:07:42 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 14.61S 166.60E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (13:11)", "body": "continuing today... 6.2 on 11/16/2000 11:05:41 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.26S 152.92E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms 5.3 on 11/16/2000 13:17:56 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.58S 153.43E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.3 on 11/16/2000 13:04:43 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.03S 153.35E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 18:12:03 GMT 2000 5.3 on 11/16/2000 13:09:20 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.68S 153.32E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 18:42:41 GMT 2000 5.6 on 11/16/2000 15:23:43 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 6.10S 153.66E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 18:57:10 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (16:44)", "body": "5.2 on 11/16/2000 17:06:31 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 14.69S 166.71E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 19:27:40 GMT 2000 5.6 on 11/16/2000 11:12:33 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.06S 153.56E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 19:43:11 GMT 2000 6.1 on 11/16/2000 05:21:23 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 4.98S 153.11E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 20:57:16 GMT 2000 5.3 on 11/16/2000 15:55:03 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 14.67S 166.76E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 21:41:55 GMT 2000 5.3 on 11/16/2000 18:03:44 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 4.37S 152.79E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Thu Nov 16 22:11:54 GMT 2000 5.7 on 11/16/2000 05:18:14 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 14.70S 166.89E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Nov 16 22:27:00 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 17, 2000 (15:48)", "body": "5.7 on 11/16/2000 05:16:33 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 14.40S 166.65E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: D Type: Mb date: Fri Nov 17 15:41:49 GMT 2000 5.8 on 11/17/2000 01:37:03 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.13S 152.91E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms 5.4 on 11/16/2000 23:04:05 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.36S 153.22E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Nov 17 16:11:47 GMT 2000 5.5 on 11/17/2000 01:54:02 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.07S 153.17E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Nov 17 16:42:27 GMT 2000 5.5 on 11/17/2000 04:22:55 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 6.29S 153.39E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Fri Nov 17 17:11:51 GMT 2000 5.1 on 11/17/2000 06:30:13 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.06S 152.96E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Nov 17 17:26:45 GMT 2000 5.0 on 11/17/2000 06:09:26 GMT ----- SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA 71.3 km deep 6.41S 105.28E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Nov 17 17:57:11 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 17, 2000 (19:23)", "body": "U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center for Seismology, Denver The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A major earthquake occurred IN THE NEW IRELAND REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA about 95 miles (150 km) south southwest of Rabaul, New Britain at 2:01 PM MST today, Nov 17, 2000 (Nov 18 at 7:01 AM local time in Papua New Guinea). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 7.3 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. This earthquake is located in the same general area as the magnitude 8.0 event which occurred at 4:54 UTC on 19 November 2000 and the magnitude 7.7 event which occurred at 7:42 UTC on the same date. A local tsunami was generated by the main shock and caused some damage at Rabaul and Kokopo, New Britain. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time on today's earthquake. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time; however, this earthquake may have caused damage due to its location and size. 7.3 on 11/17/2000 21:01:56 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.49S 151.66E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mw date: Fri Nov 17 22:11:59 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "6.8 on 11/18/2000 02:05:49 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 4.88S 153.21E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Ms 6.6 on 11/18/2000 06:54:59 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.20S 151.68E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Sat Nov 18 08:57:04 GMT 2000 5.3 on 11/18/2000 08:20:31 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.46S 152.57E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sat Nov 18 09:27:00 GMT 2000 5.3 on 11/18/2000 14:59:28 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 4.50S 153.02E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Sat Nov 18 20:57:07 GMT 2000 5.8 on 11/18/2000 15:04:14 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 4.58S 153.21E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sat Nov 18 21:11:56 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 195, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 19, 2000 (15:02)", "body": "6.0 on 11/18/2000 23:05:39 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.40S 153.56E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Sun Nov 19 00:42:21 GMT 2000 ========= Recent earthquake in the world: ==================== 5.8 on 11/19/2000 02:45:27 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 52.6 km deep 5.14S 151.65E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sun Nov 19 04:26:53 GMT 2000 5.3 on 11/19/2000 05:29:22 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 4.83S 153.08E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sun Nov 19 17:57:49 GMT 2000 5.9 on 11/19/2000 05:35:18 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.65S 151.83E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms 5.2 on 11/19/2000 09:49:13 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.33S 152.97E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Sun Nov 19 18:27:49 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 20, 2000 (13:47)", "body": "5.6 on 11/19/2000 00:38:36 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 4.69S 153.06E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Sun Nov 19 21:12:20 GMT 2000 5.4 on 11/20/2000 08:49:33 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.07S 152.87E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Mon Nov 20 15:26:51 GMT 2000 5.8 on 11/19/2000 16:22:14 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 4.80S 153.18E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Mon Nov 20 17:11:50 GMT 2000 5.0 on 11/18/2000 17:44:20 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 6.35S 153.52E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Nov 20 19:12:06 GMT 2000 5.1 on 11/18/2000 19:41:46 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 6.31S 153.56E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Nov 20 19:41:57 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 21, 2000 (18:01)", "body": "5.2 on 11/21/2000 07:43:58 GMT ----- NEAR EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA 87.4 km deep 54.75N 160.50E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Nov 21 20:12:13 GMT 2000 5.9 on 11/21/2000 17:33:34 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.42S 152.11E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Tue Nov 21 21:12:32 GMT 2000 5.2 on 11/21/2000 04:44:18 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 4.46S 152.97E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Nov 21 22:12:12 GMT 2000 5.6 on 11/21/2000 20:03:48 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 3.64S 150.92E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Tue Nov 21 22:41:52 GMT 2000 5.2 on 11/21/2000 20:40:06 GMT ----- ANDREANOF ISL, ALEUTIAN IS. 69.5 km deep 51.91N 176.04W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Nov 21 22:57:09 GMT 2000 6.2 on 11/21/2000 21:21:18 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 126.9 km deep 4.93S 152.69E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Tue Nov 21 23:12:54 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  6, 2000 (13:00)", "body": "U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER World Data Center for Seismology, Denver Reply to: sedas@neis.cr.usgs.gov or neic@usgs.gov The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A major earthquake occurred about 95 miles (150 km) west-northwest of Gyzylarbat, Turkmenistan at 10:11 AM MST today, Dec 6, 2000 (10:11 PM local time in Turkmenistan). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 7.2 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time; however, this earthquake may have caused substantial damage and casualties due to its location and size."}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 11, 2000 (15:05)", "body": "5.1 on 12/09/2000 22:49:49 GMT ----- SOUTHEAST OF EASTER ISLAND 10.0 km deep 35.99S 98.42W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Dec 11 16:11:06 GMT 2000 5.0 on 12/09/2000 23:38:39 GMT ----- FIJI ISLANDS REGION 597.6 km deep 21.83S 179.58W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Dec 11 17:26:12 GMT 2000 5.8 on 12/11/2000 17:07:22 GMT ----- SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 55.57S 27.82W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Mb date: Mon Dec 11 19:56:22 GMT 2000 5.7 on 12/11/2000 17:07:33 GMT ----- SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION 126.0 km deep 55.74S 27.90W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Mb date: Mon Dec 11 20:26:12 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (12:13)", "body": "5.2 on 12/11/2000 12:58:45 GMT ----- KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 29.73S 176.85W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Dec 11 23:11:37 GMT 2000 5.1 on 12/11/2000 18:54:07 GMT ----- MONA PASSAGE 45.5 km deep 19.12N 67.11W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Dec 11 23:41:15 GMT 2000 6.0 on 12/12/2000 05:26:47 GMT ----- SOUTH OF PANAMA 33.0 km deep 5.77N 82.53W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Dec 12 07:41:16 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 16, 2000 (13:15)", "body": "5.0 on 12/13/2000 11:00:47 GMT ----- KURIL ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 47.60N 153.79E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Dec 13 15:41:10 GMT 2000 5.6 on 12/13/2000 06:10:22 GMT ----- BISMARCK SEA 33.0 km deep 3.12S 148.41E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Ms date: Wed Dec 13 16:11:21 GMT 2000 5.4 on 12/13/2000 06:46:11 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 6.15S 153.16E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb Date: Wed Dec 13 22:56:29 GMT 2000 5.1 on 12/15/2000 12:47:09 GMT ----- CHILE-BOLIVIA BORDER REGION 74.7 km deep 21.29S 68.94W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Dec 15 17:26:08 GMT 2000 5.8 on 12/15/2000 16:44:45 GMT ----- TURKEY 10.0 km deep 38.61N 31.06E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Fri Dec 15 18:11:05 GMT 2000 5.3 on 12/16/2000 11:05:28 GMT ----- EASTER ISLAND REGION 10.0 km deep 26.89S 112.55W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sat Dec 16 18:26:09 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 202, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 19, 2000 (12:05)", "body": "5.7 on 12/16/2000 21:57:59 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 3.95S 151.55E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sun Dec 17 16:41:09 GMT 2000 5.2 on 12/17/2000 01:33:57 GMT ----- NEAR EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA 33.0 km deep 54.55N 161.90E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sun Dec 17 17:11:19 GMT 2000 5.0 on 12/17/2000 02:29:09 GMT ----- KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 28.07S 177.50W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sun Dec 17 17:56:09 GMT 2000 5.0 on 12/17/2000 02:29:09 GMT ----- KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 28.07S 177.50W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb Date: Sun Dec 17 17:56:09 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 20, 2000 (16:57)", "body": "5.3 on 12/17/2000 22:24:46 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 123.7 km deep 20.55S 169.75E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Dec 19 19:11:26 GMT 2000 6.3 on 12/20/2000 11:23:57 GMT ----- OFF COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE 33.0 km deep 38.89S 74.36W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mw date: Wed Dec 20 13:11:02 GMT 2000 5.7 on 12/20/2000 09:19:49 GMT ----- NEAR EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA 67.1 km deep 53.50N 159.72E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Dec 20 11:11:11 GMT 2000 5.3 on 12/20/2000 13:28:44 GMT ----- JUJUY PROVINCE, ARGENTINA 248.1 km deep 22.25S 66.11W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Dec 20 16:56:19 GMT 2000 5.5 on 12/20/2000 16:39:26 GMT ----- SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS 68.9 km deep 23.96S 176.78W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Dec 20 18:26:03 GMT 2000 6.3 on 12/20/2000 16:49:42 GMT ----- D\\ 33.0 km deep 9.18S 154.16E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Wed Dec 20 18:41:08 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 204, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 21, 2000 (16:15)", "body": "6.1 on 12/21/2000 02:41:23 GMT ----- SOLOMON ISLANDS 385.1 km deep 5.28S 154.07E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mw date: Thu Dec 21 04:41:17 GMT 2000 5.8 on 12/20/2000 09:19:50 GMT ----- NEAR EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA 68.3 km deep 53.48N 159.76E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Dec 21 20:56:10 GMT 2000 5.2 on 12/20/2000 13:22:23 GMT ----- AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 82.7 km deep 36.83N 71.01E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Dec 21 21:41:26 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 22, 2000 (19:38)", "body": "6.1 on 12/22/2000 10:13:00 GMT ----- KURIL ISLANDS 138.4 km deep 44.86N 147.07E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mw date: Fri Dec 22 11:26:20 GMT 2000 5.0 on 12/21/2000 16:42:50 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 7.37N 126.71E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Dec 22 18:41:57 GMT 2000 5.0 on 12/22/2000 16:29:59 GMT ----- EASTER ISLAND REGION 10.0 km deep 26.55S 107.04W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Dec 22 19:11:07 GMT 2000 5.5 on 12/22/2000 08:30:39 GMT ----- SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 10.57S 164.22E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb Date: Fri Dec 22 20:11:01 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 206, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 24, 2000 (15:12)", "body": "5.6 on 12/22/2000 00:40:36 GMT ----- ALASKA PENINSULA 107.7 km deep 56.85N 158.42W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Fri Dec 22 02:41:04 GMT 2000 5.7 on 12/23/2000 07:13:24 GMT ----- ARU ISLANDS REGION, INDONESIA 62.5 km deep 7.90S 135.83E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sat Dec 23 18:41:20 GMT 2000 4.4 on 12/24/2000 01:04:21 GMT ----- 9 km ( 5 mi) W of Grapevine, CA 15.1 km deep 34.92N 119.02W Source: WEBMINER Quality: Z Type: Z 4.4 on 12/24/2000 01:04:21 GMT ----- 6 mi. W of Grapevine, CA 0.7 km deep 34.93N 119.02W Source: CALTECH Quality: A* Type: ML date: Sun Dec 24 01:26:14 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (13:55)", "body": "5.2 on 12/25/2000 05:11:59 GMT ----- FIJI ISLANDS REGION 639.0 km deep 21.16S 179.21W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Dec 25 22:11:05 GMT 2000 5.8 on 12/25/2000 13:24:22 GMT ----- SOUTH OF AUSTRALIA 10.0 km deep 42.59S 120.31E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Dec 25 21:26:15 GMT 2000 5.0 on 12/25/2000 20:43:08 GMT ----- RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 51.06N 179.92E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Mon Dec 25 21:56:03 GMT 2000 5.4 on 12/26/2000 15:21:27 GMT ----- SOUTH OF KERMADEC ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 34.84S 179.61E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Tue Dec 26 17:41:15 GMT 2000 5.8 on 12/25/2000 13:24:22 GMT ----- SOUTH OF AUSTRALIA 10.0 km deep 42.59S 120.31E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Dec 25 21:26:15 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 30, 2000 (18:26)", "body": "5.7 on 12/27/2000 07:26:31 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 4.25S 152.76E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Dec 27 16:26:30 GMT 2000 5.7 on 12/27/2000 07:03:48 GMT ----- D\\ 33.0 km deep 9.22S 154.57E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Wed Dec 27 17:11:22 GMT 2000 5.3 on 12/28/2000 18:12:33 GMT ----- TONGA ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 22.48S 174.97W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Thu Dec 28 21:41:05 GMT 2000 5.2 on 12/28/2000 21:06:54 GMT ----- MINAHASSA PENINSULA, SULAWESI 33.0 km deep 0.50S 119.82E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Dec 28 23:11:43 GMT 2000 5.2 on 12/29/2000 10:42:59 GMT ----- NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 4.24S 152.97E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Dec 29 17:41:21 GMT 2000 5.2 on 12/30/2000 07:42:47 GMT ----- SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 218.5 km deep 12.49S 167.04E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sat Dec 30 20:59:51 GMT 2000"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  1, 2001 (19:35)", "body": "updating earthquake fault map of California and Nevada"}, {"response": 210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (13:37)", "body": "ALPINE FAULT 2 ( continued from above) The next earthquake on the Alpine Fault is expected to start fires and topple some buildings in Christchurch cause liquefaction, sever infrastructure and break windows. In Blenheim it will start fires, ruptures roads, cause seiches in water bodies, topple buildings and disrupt trains (the main trunk line runs through Blenheim). The West Coast will have services disrupted, rivers may change course, essential transport links will break, seiches will affect water bodies. The following West Coast towns among others are directly threatened by the fault. They are: Haast, Fox, Franz Josef, Whataroa, Springs Junction and St Arnaud. Thanks Rob!"}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (13:44)", "body": "7.2 on 01/01/2001 06:57:03 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 6.89N 126.61E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Mon Jan 1 09:11:19 GMT 2001"}, {"response": 212, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (17:05)", "body": "5.2 on 01/01/2001 09:34:29 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 6.81N 126.66E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Mb 5.0 on 01/02/2001 13:03:35 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 93.3 km deep 14.91S 167.23E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Jan 2 20:41:09 GMT 2001 5.0 on 01/01/2001 03:48:35 GMT ----- LUZON, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 18.90N 121.31E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Jan 2 21:26:09 GMT 2001 5.0 on 01/01/2001 21:28:49 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 6.35N 126.91E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Jan 2 21:41:02 GMT 2001 5.2 on 01/01/2001 22:41:25 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 6.80N 126.80E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Tue Jan 2 22:40:58 GMT 2001 5.2 on 12/31/2000 01:45:02 GMT ----- EAST OF SEVERNAYA ZEMLYA 27.3 km deep 81.56N 120.19E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Jan 2 22:56:09 GMT 2001"}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  4, 2001 (16:38)", "body": "5.8 on 01/03/2001 14:47:49 GMT ----- KURIL ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 44.05N 147.64E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Jan 3 15:41:20 GMT 2001 5.9 on 01/02/2001 23:17:42 GMT ----- SOLOMON ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 11.01S 162.29E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: C Type: Ms date: Wed Jan 3 17:56:15 GMT 2001 5.0 on 01/03/2001 15:12:58 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 6.67N 126.81E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Jan 4 17:41:13 GMT 2001 5.4 on 01/04/2001 03:50:11 GMT ----- JAWA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 8.50S 108.24E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Thu Jan 4 18:26:14 GMT 2001 5.6 on 01/04/2001 04:18:23 GMT ----- NEAR W COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 33.0 km deep 37.07N 138.57E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Thu Jan 4 19:11:19 GMT 2001"}, {"response": 214, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  5, 2001 (13:26)", "body": "Strong Quake Jolts Japan A magnitude 5.1 earthquake rattled homes in central and western Japan on Thursday at 1:18 p.m. local time, injuring a woman who was trapped beneath fallen lockers in a ski resort restaurant in the city of Shiozawa. The quake prompted officials to halt bullet train services between Tokyo with Niigata for more than two hours as a precautionary measure. Two major highways in the region were also temporarily shut down for inspection. Shaking was widely felt throughout Niigata Prefecture and in the neighboring prefectures of Nagano, Gunma and Yamagata as well as the city of Yokohama. Thursday's quake, which was followed by a magnitude 3.8 aftershock less than two hours later, was the second to hit the region within two days. Japan's Meteorological Agency reported that the quake was centered in the central area of Niigata Prefecture and occurred approximately 13 miles (20 km) beneath the earth's surface. The seismologists reported that the tremor was not related to Tuesday's quake."}, {"response": 215, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan  6, 2001 (16:45)", "body": "5.2 on 01/05/2001 08:06:46 GMT ----- LEEWARD ISLANDS 34.9 km deep 15.91N 61.11W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb 5.1 on 01/05/2001 11:54:15 GMT ----- CENTRAL MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE 10.0 km deep 0.06S 22.02W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Jan 5 15:41:17 GMT 2001 5.1 on 01/04/2001 19:39:24 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 6.75N 126.82E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Fri Jan 5 18:11:42 GMT 2001 5.6 on 01/06/2001 04:45:28 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 6.70N 126.82E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sat Jan 6 15:41:09 GMT 2001 5.1 on 01/05/2001 22:51:47 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 6.90N 126.77E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb 5.0 on 01/05/2001 23:23:48 GMT ----- MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 33.0 km deep 6.93N 126.88E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sat Jan 6 18:41:10 GMT 2001 5.0 on 01/05/2001 13:58:05 GMT ----- NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. 33.0 km deep 5.67S 153.40E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sat Jan 6 18:56:08 GMT 2001"}, {"response": 216, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (14:22)", "body": "5.7 on 01/07/2001 12:55:46 GMT ----- JAWA, INDONESIA 33.0 km deep 8.74S 108.81E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Sun Jan 7 16:26:00 GMT 2001 5.6 on 01/07/2001 10:18:23 GMT ----- NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE 33.0 km deep 33.15S 71.29W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Sun Jan 7 17:25:57 GMT 2001 5.1 on 01/07/2001 06:26:56 GMT ----- EASTERN SIBERIA, RUSSIA 10.0 km deep 59.45N 147.12E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Sun Jan 7 18:56:09 GMT 2001 5.4 on 01/06/2001 15:55:29 GMT ----- PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 5.71N 127.27E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Ms date: Sun Jan 7 19:41:08 GMT 2001 5.0 on 01/07/2001 06:49:01 GMT ----- CASPIAN SEA 33.0 km deep 40.40N 50.15E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Jan 8 15:41:07 GMT 2001 5.1 on 01/06/2001 04:03:17 GMT ----- PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 5.77N 127.24E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Mon Jan 8 19:11:19 GMT 2001 5.2 on 01/09/2001 01:46:04 GMT ----- MEXICO-GUATEMALA BORDER REGION 33.0 km deep 15.14N 92.80W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Jan 9 16:12:09 GMT 2001 5.5 on 01/09/2001 07:52:03 GMT ----- FIJI ISLANDS REGION 33.0 km deep 18.49S 176.04E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Tue Jan 9 16:41:14 GMT 2001 6.9 on 01/09/2001 16:49:28 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 104.6 km deep 14.85S 167.05E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mw date: Tue Jan 9 18:41:09 GMT 2001"}, {"response": 217, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (14:04)", "body": "Strong Earthquake Hits Alaska Coast Reuters Jan 10 2001 2:17PM ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A strong earthquake of 6.7 magnitude rattled coastal Alaska on Wednesday, authorities said, but no significant damage or tidal wave threat was reported. The quake struck at 7:03 a.m. local time (11:03 a.m. EST), centered 65 miles southwest of Kodiak Island, Alaska, or 330 miles southwest of Anchorage, and was felt across the region, according to the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado. The West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, measured the quake at 6.9, and pinpointed it at 20 miles below the sea floor. Residents reported homes shaking as far away as Anchorage as well as in smaller coastal cities like Perryville and King Salmon. \"The ground trembled. I was still at home at the time and the blinds rattled and windows shook,\" said Paul Smith, assistant to the chief of police in Kodiak city, on the sparsely opulated island in the Gulf of Alaska. Alaska typically sees a half dozen quakes each year above magnitude 6. Wednesday's tremor was the strongest since a magnitude 7 in the same waters off Kodiak in December 1999, said geophysicist Paul Whitmore at the tsunami warning center. \"We did not feel it here, but there were reports in Anchorage and down in Seward,\" Whitmore said. The tsunami center issues tidal wave warnings after coastal quakes measuring 7.1 or higher, Whitmore said. Wednesday's quake was expected to produce aftershocks, most likely within 30 miles of the epicenter."}, {"response": 218, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (16:35)", "body": "5.2 on 01/10/2001 07:58:18 GMT ----- VANUATU ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 15.09S 168.18E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Jan 10 16:27:03 GMT 2001 6.7 on 01/10/2001 16:02:42 GMT ----- KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA 33.0 km deep 57.09N 153.62W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Ms date: Wed Jan 10 17:11:40 GMT 2001 5.2 on 01/10/2001 20:12:23 GMT ----- KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA 33.0 km deep 57.08N 153.73W Source: GLDFSCR Quality: A Type: Mb date: Wed Jan 10 21:56:21 GMT 2001 5.0 on 01/09/2001 12:53:16 GMT ----- SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 33.0 km deep 11.35S 165.59E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Jan 10 22:11:24 GMT 2001 5.1 on 01/09/2001 15:07:18 GMT ----- SOLOMON ISLANDS 71.4 km deep 10.17S 161.24E Source: GLDFSCR Quality: B Type: Mb date: Wed Jan 10 22:26:40 GMT 2001 Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 27, "subject": "Geomagnetism", "response_count": 204, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (15:20)", "body": "LeyLines, Feng Shui, polarization. Copper bracelets with magnets in them. Please let us discuss the topic from the lunctic fringe to the deadly seiously scademic."}, {"response": 2, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (16:52)", "body": "OK, Marcia. I'm here... and i still have no idea what leylines are. educate me please. :)"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (17:54)", "body": "Welcome, EsBee. Happy to oblige even though Maggie is the one with them running near her house. Mind you, I deal with scientific and proven stuff usually, but this fascinates me. So, here goes: In the early 1920's Alfred Watkins wrote a book called The Old Straight Track . One day, when he was out riding his horse across the countryside, he paused on a hill. He noticed that the entire landscape was crossed by glowing network of lines standing out like golden wires, intersecting at the sites of churches, old stones and other places of traditional sanctity. History of Ley Hunting The story of how, in the early 20th century, a Hereford miller suddenly realised that all around the countryside ancient sites, monuments, earthworks and other features could be shown to be arranged or placed in alignments, is a fascinating one. It resulted in the development of a view of prehistoric society markedly different to that held previously. The man was a native of Hereford, one Alfred Watkins. Having lived his whole life in the Herefordshire countryside, he knew it and its people intimately, and was interested in the history and folklore of the county, much of it being learnt from the village folk and farmers that he met. He was a leading figure in the local natural history society, the Woolhope Club, and a well-known County Councillor and magistrate. One interest that was put to good use when he came to write up his discovery was photography; Watkins was a pioneer in this field, inventing an exposure meter that was for forty-five years or more universally recognised as the beginner's sure guide to correct exposure. On 30th June 1921, Alfred Watkins was at Blackwardine, and was looking at a map with no particular object in mind when he noticed an alignment that passed over some hilltops and various ancient sites. All of a sudden, there occurred what can only be called a flash of insight or a revelation, and the features that he was so familiar with in the landscape became linked in a whole system. Alien Watkins in a biography of his father describes how his father's mind was \"...flooded with a rush of images forming one coherent plan. The scales fell from his eyes and he saw that over many long years of prehistory, all trackways were in straight lines marked out by experts on a sighting system. The whole plan of the Old Straight Track stood suddenly revealed\". Alfred Watkins later described this plan: Imagine a fairy chain stretched from mountain peak to mountain peak, as far as the eye could reach, and paid out till it touched the high places of the earth at a number of ridges, banks and knowls. Then visualise a mound, circular earthwork, or clump of trees, planted on these high points, and in low points in the valley, other mounds ringed with water to be seen from a distance. Then great standing stones brought to mark the way at intervals, and on a bank leading up to a mountain ridge or down to a ford the track cuts so deep so as to form a guiding notch in the skyline as you come up. In a bwlch or mountain pass the road cut deeply to show as a notch afar off. Here and there, and at two ends of the way, a beaconfire used to lay out the track. With ponds dug on the line, or streams banked up into \"flashes\" to form reflecting points on the beacon track so it might be checked when at least once a year a beacon was fired on the traditional day. All these works exactly on the sighting line..."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (18:01)", "body": "They were called \"ley\" (pronounced lee) lines because they passed through so many villages with names ending in \"ley\" indicative only that the Danes had names the place long before. There are also E line around the entire earth: http://www.surreycmc.gov.uk/outreach/roundwld.htm E-line round the world! When plotted on a globe, the E-line goes through the immediate areas of some very significant places. One is Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. Its Tibetan name \"Chomolungma\" means \"Goddess mother of the world\". Crossing the equator, the line goes right through the middle of Australia, and seems to go through the location of Ayers Rock. To the local tribes of Australian aborigines, Ayers Rock is a mount of the gods, totally enveloped in legends and myths. Caves, shelters and other minor features of the Rock are associated with memories of cultural heroes of the Dream Time, and sacred rites continually make this time operative in the present. The first and last rays of the sun seem to set the rock on fire with spectacular colour changes, and even for white Australians a trip there takes on the dimension of a pilgrimage. The line continues through the southern tip of South Island, New Zealand, then swings north again to go through the area of the famous Lines of Nazca in Peru. Lines run with bullet-like straightness across the pampa for mile after mile, and can only be appreciated properly from the air. A number of patterns and shapes are among the lines, including birds and spiders."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (23:42)", "body": "Ok all you leyline followers. I'm gonna go hunt you a map so we can all follow them."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (23:54)", "body": "The E-line, which we had been following across Surrey and Kent, goes through the chalk figure of the Giant, near Cerne Abbas when extended westwards. We found the line as wide and powerful as usual, much wider than this line plotted by Eileen on the aerial photograph which appeared in \"The Ley Hunter's Companion\" and \"The Ley Guide\", by Paul Devereux, which represents its centre. Note however that it skirts the Trendle (or Frying Pan) earthwork near the Giant. The real line would take in the whole of the Trendle. The other line is the one found by Paul Devereux."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 15, 2000 (23:56)", "body": "This map shows the Eline and the euy ines they were following in the comments above:"}, {"response": 8, "author": "Moon", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (08:50)", "body": "Fascinating Marcia, thanks! I have just returned from Santiago de Compostela, Spain (where the Apostle St. James is buried). As you know there is the famous pilgrimage from Lourdes to Santiago which pilgrims have been doing since the Crusades. These pilgrims all travel with a scallop shell which they hold towards the Sun when the Sun is at a certain angle and a line appears from the light. It deliniates the Western line that takes them to Santiago. Botticelli knew of this when he painted Venus on the scallop shell. These lines are also the ones that birds follow during their migrations. Homing pigeons have been very useful in times of war because of it as well."}, {"response": 9, "author": "Moon", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (10:48)", "body": "Here is a link with the info.: http://www.iranon.org/jacobeo/en/index.htm"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (11:32)", "body": "Moon, thanks! Indeed, these lines of magnetism do exist. Thanks for pointing out a very old and very verifiable one."}, {"response": 11, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (16:30)", "body": "Mmm thanks for creating this Marcia. The info is fascinating. Apparently most of our (English) really old churches are built on ley lines. There is certainly something going on and I suspect that there is a rational explanation if we but knew."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (17:33)", "body": "Mayhap we need to learn the knowledge we have forgotten...It is fascinating!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (17:50)", "body": "I know zip about this topic, but here goes: It concerns the magnetic lines and water, lots of water, i.e., the Pacific Ocean, how did the Polynesians and Melanesians ever find those islands in all that watery expanse? Granted New Zealand is pretty big, but some of the islands the settled are literally tiny specks of land. Did they just set out and hoped they hit land before their supplies ran out? Did they follow birds? Or did they somehow discern oceanic ley lines?"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (18:10)", "body": "The Vikings used polarizing sunstones to keep them on course. The Polynesians used the Sun in the day and stars by night and during storms tried to keep on course by lashing the rudder in place. They reinact this epic expansion almost yearly. Please check this url http://www.kitv.com/Voyage.html It is graphics intensive and takes a while to download but it tells the story better than I could. Will hunt for more things from the Polynesian Voyaging Society, the parent group of these voyages. Thanks for bringing it up."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (18:13)", "body": "This link is even better: The Polynesian Voyaging Society has maps and all sorts of good information on the voyage underway even as wel write: http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/pvs/"}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (21:37)", "body": "this is way cool. do the ley lines cross through easter island as well? oh, and the giant is fascinating. i watched a show about that on discovery. it's amazing how big he really is! and the spiders and such are equally as fascinating. suppose we link this topic with physical phenomenon in paraspring? (and how did you get your globe to show up?)"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (22:32)", "body": "The E line does. Gotta post a E line map when I find one. I think we need tolink it but since this is already established, it will create a new one on your conference just as collecting rocks and Jurassic Park did here. My globe on the cover page? I discovered it was in the cfconfig (hit the you are host in this conf to get there). Scroll down till you hit the big empty boxes in which we write commands. I found the /~cfadm file which had the globe in it and since I had downloaded it my own files, I ftp'd it to my /marcia files then went to the web got the location of the globe went back to that box and pasted the new address and deleted the old one. Hit the \"save this file\" or whatever it says..and voila! Need help? I can get into your cfconfig too and help you!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Feb 17, 2000 (08:12)", "body": "Now you have me wondering about the Bermuda Triangle and the magnetic force found there. Is it also on one of these lines?"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 17, 2000 (12:11)", "body": "There are several of these \"triangles\" around the world, and they are, as I recall, considered \"magnetic anomolies.\" Let me to some research and get back to you. Thanks for bringing it up."}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 17, 2000 (12:41)", "body": "Two of the several theories of the Bermuda Triangle from: http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/warminster/167/theori.html Theory #5 - Boom! This is a theory by the US Navy. The investigation centers on the possibility of electro-magnetic gravitational and atmospheric disturbances that might be possible for disintegrating craft. The Lost Patrol reported seeing a large ball of fire in the skies. Could 5 planes collide and then joined by a sixth? The investigation believes that the fireball was could have been created by the impact of the patrol and it's rescue ship with a disintegrating electro-magnetic force. Theory #6 - Magnetic North This is one of the most famous Bermuda Triangle theories. It has basis on the following (high school student)physics: A compass DOES NOT always point to the true north but rather to the magnetic north. This phenomenon is referred to as compass variation. As a sailor or pilots circumnavigates the earth this variation changes, at times as much as 20 degrees. The navigator must always compensate for this error he may find himself far from where he thinks he is. One interesting note (that forms the basis for this theory) is that there are two places that point to the magnetic north: the Bermuda Triangle and the Devil's Sea area. There have been reports of pilots saying that they were confused as to direction. A typical example is the reply from Lt. Charles Taylor on Flight 19 when he was asked by the radio tower as to his position. His reply was \"We are not sure... We seem to be lost..\", then a few minutes later \"We cannot be sure which way is west... everything is wrong... strange... we cannot be sure of any direction.\" Or could this simply be a disorientation in a man's own mind? Hard to say."}, {"response": 21, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb 17, 2000 (20:51)", "body": "hmmmm..... (about linking it with physical phenom)"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 17, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "Yup, and I cannot do it until I can get in there via telnet (of which they supposedly have allowed Terry one account - but I see 4 logins via telnet) I tried to telnet in from Hawaii on Line and did. But, when I try to login, I get the usual \"login invalid.\" Either we will have to wait for one of them to do it or wait till Terry finds a way to grant me telnet access to do it myself. *sigh*"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (06:16)", "body": "I believe certain points on the Earth have been discovered where in a range of about 200 yards, a compass needle will point south, for reasons that are not clear to the scientists who have tested this. From memory (I read this article years ago) one spot is in the Arizona desert, and five such spots have been claimed in mainland USA. The Bermuda Triangle could have been providing (maybe only temporarily?) a larger form of such a phenomenon, I suppose."}, {"response": 24, "author": "Moon", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (08:16)", "body": "(Wolf), (about linking it with physical phenom) This topic gets better and better. That is a great idea. I hope you are able to crack that tel net access, Marcia."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (12:10)", "body": "Mark, you are correct...those magnetic anomolies do it every time. Whenever I flew to Britain over the pole I hung a floating compass from the tray in front of me and watched it wander out of control for 5 hours as we were near the north pole. It must have been very difficult to navigate in the early days. Little wonder the early Norsemen used polarizing stones to set their course. I'll put the anomolies on my \"look up\" list. Moon, it will happen...just have to wait till Terry gets the Telnet accounts figured out or someone has the time to do it."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (14:46)", "body": "Woo Hoo, Wolfie, we are linked by the magic of our personal magician *grin* *Hugs*"}, {"response": 27, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (15:04)", "body": "this is great!!! thanks magic man!! *hugs*"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (15:32)", "body": "Anne Hale promised to post in here but until she gets around to doing so I shall post some things she sent me about ley lines in UK were she grew up: I shall if you give me the name of the topic post some more stuff on Ley lines - I visited once during my studies of the subject an Iron Age Fort on top of the North Downs near Leith Hill - the highest point in the South of England all of 965feet!! The interest is that 9 parishes met at that point - all finishing in a narrow point and radiating out into the flat lands below. The whole area around my home town is so ancient. Ashtead was a small Roman village with a tile factory, my home town Leatherhead was called Leddrede at one point in time and the historical society there has much to offer - maybe I will check to see if it is on the net. Boxhill of Emma fame too has some very interesting history - a man was buried upside down at the top many, many years ago. The walkway along the White Downs just a mile or two away from Boxhill is certain to contain Ley Lines - or at least that is what we believed when we travelled along it. my stamping ground is Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex and sometimes Kent. Denis' home town Ammanford in Dyfed has some rather scary standing stones - you get the strangest feeling there. I will try to get him to talk on the Ammanford Standing stones - they are in a circle and of course his part of Wales is full of druidical places. They are still Welsh speaking there and sometimes quite fey"}, {"response": 29, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (16:36)", "body": "Marcia, thanks for the Polynesian Voyaging Society links. Navigation by using astronomical bodies, shows a rather high degree of cultural sophistocation. I took an anthropology class which compared and contrasted 3 highly developed pre-literate societies: the Buganda of East Africa, the Tahitians, and the Hawaiians. The class did not touch on navigation though. I'm still curious if magnetism had some play in Polynesian navigation. The Giant must have been a bit of a shock to Victorian tourists. Is there another Giant (Rude Man) in Wiltshire, near the Uffingtion Horse and Stonehenge? Also what is the relationship of ley lines to prehistoric stone constructions,i.e., Stonehenge, Avebury, Carnac (Kerrec) in Brittany, and the strange stone constructs on Malta."}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (16:44)", "body": "Ah, now you are getting to my most favorite subject - Things Megalithic. They Are stone, after all! More on this in a moment... If you scroll down on the Poly Voyaging Soc site you will see the link to the Hawaiian Star chart by which they navigated. It is difficult to use magnetism over that much water. I will check it out, but I think they did not use it. They had NO iron whatever!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (16:49)", "body": "Oh, yes! The Victorians \"modified\" the giant and it was only through modern techniques that the original specifics were re-discovered. However, his 12' (3.65 M) long \"member\" is longer than originally. It now extends to his navel which it did not originally. There are several fake giants (and white horses, as well), but there is a red giant (have to look this one up for you and get back to you - I have dozens of books on these subjects!)now densely overgrown in the woods in mid-England."}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (22:00)", "body": "Lest you think all Ley Lines are in every place but USA, check this Seattle, Washington map. A larger map is available http://www.geo.org/qa.htm#tof Has anyone here read about Rennes-le-Chateau? Want to discuss that, as well?"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (22:14)", "body": "From http://www.geo.org/dowse1.htm#4 Primary water is a totally below-ground hydrological cycle and therefore is not affected by drought. Primary water is found at most ancient monuments and temples. Usually, there is a water dome or even a well or a spring at the center of the monument. A water spring, the place where water is available for use from the surface, is a natural spot for building a sacred place. By marking the site, or distinguishing it from other places, the monument becomes \"holy ground.\" The close relationship of water lines and springs with ancient monuments was established by M. Louis Merle and Reginald Allender Smith in the 1930s. Both these men were dowsers, or diviners of water; they could locate underground streams and springs without using scientific instruments. Merle established that ancient monuments were situated over the crossing of underground streams. Smith went further to say that springs are constantly present at the centers of stone circles and earthworks. This discovery indicated that the selection of sites for ancient monuments was not arbitrary, but a conscious decision based upon the presence of underground water."}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (23:11)", "body": "How about sacred geometry...?"}, {"response": 35, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (13:31)", "body": "Lest you think all Ley Lines are in every place but USA, check this Seattle, Now, that might explain the the phenomena known as Bill Gates. ;-) This discovery indicated that the selection of sites for ancient monuments was not arbitrary, but a conscious decision based upon the presence of underground water. That is exactly what happened in Bath, when the Romans settled there, they chose it because of the hot springs. The Giant is on the smaller road on the way back to London from Bath which we did and I can tell you it is an amazing site to behold. Has anyone here read about Rennes-le-Chateau? It rings a bell, Marcia, please tell us more. :-D"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (14:12)", "body": "Aloha Moon...thanks for your comments. I knew there was a good explanation of the phenomenon of Bill Gates. *lol* You are right about Bath (the origin of that \"Saturday night ritual\" in so many cowboy movies). In the Spring, there are still well-dressing festivities all over Britain, all of which have some ritual significance. Some really popular ones have been Christianized (as has everything else at Glastronbury.) Rennes-le-Chateau starred prominently in the book Holy Blood Holy Grail and deals with the Merovingian dynasty in France, the Knights Templar and ultimately with one-world government. The best part of it deals with sacred geometry and ancient things in the landscape along with the best history of early France I have ever read. The book's conclusions are odd at best, but it was intriguing enough that I bought its successor and a third by one of the same authors!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (19:43)", "body": "Congratulations, my dear! This is a great topic, and you are a vast source of knowledge, as usual."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (19:54)", "body": "Thank you, and *hugs* for saying so. I always welcome a fellow adventurer into the ancient and esoteric. Please stick around and post."}, {"response": 39, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (14:49)", "body": "I come here to be informed. As I said I know zip about this subject. Okay, I do know a little, thanks to those posting here. Please let me clarify on the subjects of the Polynesians and magnetism, I thought it might have something to do with birds. Since birds go on massive migrations using magnetic fields, among other things to guide them. That's the theory anyway. But you're right Marcia, it's pretty tough to use magnetism if you have no iron and there's that much water. Wasn't Bath a holy place to the Celtic inhabitants of Britain before the Romans arrived? They are the hottest springs in Europe. Was Aquae Sulis the Roman name for Bath? Please let us know what you uncover on the Red Giant."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (15:31)", "body": "Polynesian Navigation is ongoing as we speak as the Hokule'a sails for Hilo on the return voyage. Check it out at the Polynesian Vpoyaging Society website. Nearing Islands the Hawaiians used birds for homing in on the terra firma. That and clouds forming over mountain peaks and glows from eruptions. Any water source in Europe has been revered from time immemorial. In fact, the source of the Seine was a much visited shrine of pilgrimage. Thermal springs were more revered - especially if they were the healing sort. Bath under various names was revered way back into pre-history. Chartre Cathedral was built on a \"pagan\" shrine so popular to the mother goddess that the only way to stop them coming to visit it was to put the cathedral to a new god over it. Of course, during a later synod, they incorporated the mother goddess concept into Christianity as the Virgin Mary. (Don't flame my posts - look it up. It was NOT my doing!) Have discovered the red giant. Everyone knows of the Uffington White Horse...the oldest extant hill figure in Britain. There was supposed to be a lost red horse near Tysoe near Banbury, Warwickshire. Whilst hunting for the horse, S. G. Wildman discovered not a horse, but a whole collection of other figures - what appeared to be a human figure 160'(47 M) in height wielding a whip or rope; a bird with its head pointing upward; behind them was an unidentifiable animal. Below them all was the figure of another animal perhaps 300' (51.44 M) long. They were never excavated, but on contemporary pictures, others were able to discern them from oblique angles. (from \"Mysterious Britain\" by J&C Bord)"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (15:33)", "body": "Oh, and you are correct about Aquae Sulis being the Roman name for Bath. Translated, it is water of the Silures, a powerful Keltic tribe in the area."}, {"response": 42, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (15:34)", "body": "Chartres was very much an important site to the goddess. Interestingly, until well into the 19th century the moon was referred to as \"Notre Dame\" in very rural parts of France."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (15:40)", "body": "Very interesting! (...and how did that 's' get left off of my Chartres?!) Underneath this civilized and regimented modern facade we wear are the real roots of our knowledge of the earth and what made it special and how to be in tune with it. I hope we can tune in again before all signs and lore are gone and forgotten. However, I hasten to add that the book I cited is of what the Archaeology establishment considers \"Lunatic Fringe\" and a lot of things they espouse is a bit \"out there.\""}, {"response": 44, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (15:46)", "body": "I posted this in my Mali topic and Marcia has asked for it to be posted here as well. Comments? Dogon Theory of Creation The Dogon people are an indigeous tribe who occupy a region in Mali, south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. They live in the Homburi Mountains near Timbuktu. They are believed to be of Egyptian descent. After living in Libya for a time, they settled in Mali, West Africa, bringing with them astronomy legends dating from before 3200 BCE. In the late 1940s, four of their priests told two French anthropologists of a secret Dogon myths about the star Sirius (8.6 light years from the earth). The priests said that Sirius had a companion star that was invisible to the human eye. They also stated that the star moved in a 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius, that it was small and incredibly heavy, and that it rotated on its axis. Sirius - which we now call Sirius A - was not seen through a telescope until 1862 and was not photographed until 1970. The Dogon name for Sirius B (Po Tolo) consists of the word for star (tolo) and \"po,\" the name of the smallest seed known to them. By this name they describe the star's smallness -- it is, they say, \"the smallest thing there is.\" They also claim that it is \"the heaviest star,\" and white. The Dogon thus attribute to Sirius B its three principle properties as a white dwarf: small, heavy, white. They go on to say that it has an is elliptical orbit, with Sirius A at one foci of the ellipse (as it is), that the orbital period is 50 years (the actual figure is 50.04 +/- 0.09 years), and that the star rotates on its own axis (it does). The Dogon also describe a third star in the Sirius system, called \"Emme Ya\" (\"Sorghum Female\"). In orbit around this star, they say, is a single satellite. To date, Emme Ya has not been identified by astronomers. In addition to their knowledge of Sirius B, the Dogon mythology includes Saturn's rings, and Jupiter's four major moons. They have four calendars, for the Sun, Moon, Sirius, and Venus, and have long known that planets orbit the sun. The Dogon say their astronomical knowledge was given to them by the Nommos, amphibious beings sent to Earth from Sirius for the benefit of mankind. The name comes from a Dogon word meaning \"to make one drink,\" and the Nommos are also called Masters of the Water, the Monitors, and the Teachers. Nommos The Dogon tells the legend of the Nommos, awful-looking beings who arrived in a vessel along with fire and thunder. After they arrived here - they put out a reservoir of water onto the Earth then dove into the water. There are references in the oral traditions, drawings and cuneiform tablets of the Dogons, to human looking beings who have feet but who are portrayed as having a large fish skin running down their bodies. The Nommos were more fishlike than human, and had to live in water. They were saviors and spiritual guardians: \"The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe \"had drunk of his body,\" the Nommo also made men drink. He gave all his life principles to human beings.\" The Nommo was crucified and resurrected and in the future will again visit the Earth, this time in human form. Later he will assume his amphibious form and will rule the world from the waters. Dogon mythology is known only by a number of their priests, and is a complex system of knowledge. Such carefully guarded secrets would not be divulged to friendly strangers very easily. If the star Emme Ya is eventually discovered in the Sirius system, this would give considerably weight to the Dogon's story. The Nommos, who could live on land but dwelled mostly in the sea, were part fish, like merfolk (mermaids and mermen). Similar creatures have been noted in other ancient civilizations -- Babylonia's Oannes, Acadia's Ea, Sumer's Enki, and Egypt's goddess Isis. It was from the Nommos that the Dogon claimed their knowledge of the heavens. The Dogon also claimed that a third star (Emme Ya) existed in the Sirius system. Larger and lighter than Sirius B, this star revolved around Sirius as well. And around it orbited a planet from which the Nommos came. (Sirius A)."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (15:55)", "body": "Thanks Maggie! I appreciate that. Shoulda named this topic \"Earth Mysteries\" but I think we can cover that under the more scholarly guise, anyway. Good stuff we have going in here!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (11:51)", "body": "(Cheryl), I thought it might have something to do with birds. Since birds go onmassive migrations using magnetic fields, among other things to guide them. That's the theory anyway. But you're right Marcia, it's pretty tough to use magnetism if you have no iron and there's that much water. It is the knowledge of generations that resonate in birds. I suggest reading Rupert Sheldrake. His New Science of Life and The Rebirth of Nature. For the explanations. (Maggie), The Nommo was crucified and resurrected and in the future will again visit the Earth, this time in human form. And was he in Israel at the time? Very interesting, Maggie, thanks for posting it here. :-) They go on to say that it has an is elliptical orbit, with Sirius A at one foci of the ellipse (as it is), that the orbital period is 50 years (the actual figure is 50.04 0.09 years), The Catholic Church has special celebrations for the reconciliation ritual every 50 years too, the year 2000 is one of them. I wonder if there is a connection. The is a private library at the Vatican which is supposed to have the texts to so many mysteries. I would love to see these books."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (12:08)", "body": "Moon, if you ever get into that library, count on my being right behind you in felt slippers so we are not overheard. That Vatican also has the largest collection of Pronography, I understand. Fascinating!"}, {"response": 48, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (19:58)", "body": "this is really interesting!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (21:01)", "body": "Wolfie - go check what I just posted in Geo 17. Archaeology. Stone circles. This is where these two topics intersect. Thanks for being interested. It is a cool topic and goes as well with your Paraspring conference as here, don't you think?!"}, {"response": 50, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (17:13)", "body": "The merfolk or amphipious beings are noted in several belief systems and folklore, but so are winged beings, what many people consider angels."}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (18:34)", "body": "Then there are the dragons/worms which inhabited so much of Europe. Somewhere lost in the dim past is the truth back of this lore. And, it is another of my passions."}, {"response": 52, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (18:48)", "body": "That would bring up another subject: metamorphs. Basically it's the werewolf myth, which is pretty much universal in some form or other. It's not always wolves people turn into, depending on the culture in can be bears, foxes, leopards, jaquars, or even coyotes. Interesting that the animals involved are predators. Okay, bears are omnivores and coyotes will scavenge if they have to."}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (19:08)", "body": "This is where the linked-to-paraspring comes in. Wolf, are you listening? I believe she has werewolves on her conference: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/paraspring/7/new I think we're gonna overlap a bunch but that is good...each conference seems to reach different readers. About those morphs, is that how totem animals arose? I am fascinated and know just about nothing about them. Does it involve Shamanism?"}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (19:33)", "body": "don't totem poles depict territories and families? we can link the morphism to indians and their animal spirits. without getting high, i'd like to know how to find out what animal my spirit favors. it would be interesting and insightful."}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (19:41)", "body": "Hawaiians were really big on household or family gods. These were often shark or turtle or porpoise. Wolf, you are either lupine or delphine connected, it would seem. I seem to be connected to hard stony objects *grin*"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (19:53)", "body": "This part of the esoterica in which I am a novice. Please educate!"}, {"response": 57, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (01:57)", "body": "This also links to 'universal stories', in the sense of repeating themes in oral literature. I suppose that corresponds with myths and legends, but I tend to look at them from a linguistic point of view."}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (10:50)", "body": "I study them for the knowledge behind them and that takes me into linguistics to find out exactly the words used early on before the meaning got lost in vernacular. It is difficult in the utmost to find these early forms, however. What choice goodies have you discovered?"}, {"response": 59, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (13:01)", "body": "Mine are collected Mandinka stories. Will Start again in Mali. I have one good one somewhere if I can find it."}, {"response": 60, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "ok, to the person responsible for making this place look spiffy, HUGS thank you thank you thank you and i love the new lines!"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (17:29)", "body": "I was just going to compliment you on them. Hmmm...there is something about you I just am lacking. Topics on your conference - none on mine...Perhaps I do not yet deserve them. *sniffle* (For those wondering where the bars are, they are on Paraspring conference to which this is linked.)"}, {"response": 62, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (19:41)", "body": "? you lost me, sweetie!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (21:09)", "body": "Nah! I was just being a spoiled child (did not get the chance as a little kid). I was just noticing who created your topics and who created mine. *sigh* I seem to be the lone stranger in Geo whereas you had the master creating in yours...(see, told ya! spoiled child...now I'm gonna behave...) *hugs*"}, {"response": 64, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (11:48)", "body": "oh! is that all? *grin* k, they had a show last night on the travel channel (because of miracles like satellite tv, i was unable to watch the grammy's as originally planned) about the giant, the spider, the hummingbird, and did you know about the alien man waving to the sky? there were two shows, one was about the rocks and how they were built. pyramids, the rows and rows of pillars all facing the same direction, etc. very very neat. even heiroglyphics contained people in small capsules like they were flying. way cool. unfortunately, i was way too preoccupied with a craft project to pay complete attention so i hope they show it again."}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (12:45)", "body": "Oh, Wolfie, we got stuff time-delayed through the miracle of modern technology so you had to live in a vacuum not to know who wom before it even started...so I spent the evening with Geo and interesting people. (Yup! that's all - mostly...feeling wiser and a little foolish this morning *grin*) I did not see the program you mention last night, but it sounds suspiciously like some I have seen produced by sensationalists. One giveaway is the people they use for experts. Graham Hancock is great for casual reading, but he is no scientific and objective archaeologist who reports only certainties and not conjectures. I watched part of one I had seen before about the Mayan sarcophagus with the \"space man\" on the lid. That was on last night and I turned it off and came back to the monitor. *sigh* Btw, I have three books by Hancock and they are fascinating. But, know the facts before you start reading."}, {"response": 66, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "My last comment about metamorphs on this board. I would like to apologize to all those of Irish and or Scottish ancestry, and to my own Scotch-Irish forebearers. (I am from central PA, where almost everybody as some German and Scotch-Irish blood.) I didn't mention selkies or horse fairies. The Selkie were the seal people, they came ashore doffed there sealskins and became people. A really charming film dealing with this legend is \"The Secret of Roan Inish\". The horse fairies were horses and ponies that could become human. So not all the animals were predators. Seals are predatory if you're a fish, but horses are herbavores. Now back to geomagnetism."}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (18:34)", "body": "Piskies (yes, spelled right) are Cornish fairies. Just before they disappear altogether from human view they look like ants. it is Not a good idea to step on ants in Cornwall! (I am English/Scots-Irish/German. Join the crowd!) Geomagnetism is all about other worldly stuff...after all, ley lines follow them, no?! And, where is the interface between the real world we see and the unseen world? It is very close to the surface in the Avalon/Glastonbury area...! Cheryl, you were right at home here with your post. *smile*"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (21:59)", "body": "Geomagnetism and why it is a Good Thing: Radiation from the sun is deadly stuff to living things and to communications (with which I am getting this information to you). Solar wind is deflected by the Earth's magnetism thusly:"}, {"response": 69, "author": "Moon", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (09:02)", "body": "Solar wind is deflected by the Earth's magnetism thusly: What about the Ozone layer. Does it not help deflect the radiation from the Sun? Might it also have a magnetic field? In Ireland I always felt as if I were being watched by fairies, crazy but true. You could almost hear them wisper in the wind."}, {"response": 70, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (10:55)", "body": "Nice graphic! But the electro-magnetic field of earth doesn't deflect all the particles from the solar wind; if it did we'd never see auroras, right? Interesting...I've never heard about the fairie legends before (other than Morgan Le Fey). Never heard of leylines before this topic, for that matter. What things I learn from this conference... :-)"}, {"response": 71, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (11:15)", "body": "re: back a few posts Marcia mentioned Rennes-le-Chateau and the book \"Holy Blood Holy Grail\". I think I saw a program about this back when I had cable TV (must have been The Learning Channel or Discovery). It involved some theory about the descendants of Christ and the Knights Templars, but I don't remember the details. I do remember thinking it was very odd, and a bit \"out there\", but I am interested in hearing more about it. Can anyone post any info about this, or some good urls?"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (11:36)", "body": ""}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (12:00)", "body": "Geomagnetism: Better sources than I on this subject: http://sec.gsfc.nasa.gov/ http://ub.nmh.ac.uk/ http://geomag.usgs.gov/ Another image for you to ponder: Rennes-le-Chateau: more in next post... If you do a web search you will find oodles of off-the-wall stuff...just like the book. But, it is a fascinating read."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (12:01)", "body": "Let's try that image again..."}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (12:37)", "body": "Rennes-le-Chateau: The best overview of Holy Blood Holy Grail is found at http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/metis.htm Her website contains Steve Mizrach's discussion of the book, which is the best on the net. This URl is also part of the Rennes-le-Chateau webring. To me, the most fascinating stuff is not the Merovingian claim to have the blood of Jesus in their veins (thus divine) but the sacred geometry of the entire place and the connection with Poussin's Tomb at Arques painting The Shepherds of Arcadia"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (12:39)", "body": "Oh yes, which brings us full circle because the Merovingians are part of the One world government of which the latter-day Knights Templar (only the best and brightest, not the rank and file...)and the Trilateralists are also part. Read that website and you will be amazed (forget the bogus religious stuff - that is ridiculous in any case!)"}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (13:08)", "body": "Today's Geomagnetism report from ARRL ( American Radio Relay League) To give you some idea of what is happening out there right now... Solar flux and sunspot activity were down last week, but heading back up. Average solar flux for last week compared to the previous week was down almost 4 points, and sunspot numbers were off about 28 points. The low point was Friday, February 18, when the three solar flux measurements for the day were 139.6, 141.1 and 140.4. The noon measurement of 141.1 is the official reading for the day. Solar flux is expected to rise, with the projection for Friday through Tuesday of 197, 197, 200, 200 and 204. Solar flux for the near term is expected to peak around 205 on Wednesday or Thursday, March 1 and 2, then decline to below 170 by March 9, and bottom out near 130 around March 23 or 24. Planetary A index has been rising, due to a well-placed coronal hole streaming charged particles toward the earth. NASA has an interesting article about this as well as a dramatic photo online at http://www.spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast23feb_2.htm . Also check http://www.spaceweather.com , which on Thursday had an article about a gust of solar wind at 1430z on February 24. The projected planetary A index for Friday through Tuesday is 20, 18, 15, 13 and 10. Conditions may be disturbed again around March 4 and 5, and fairly quiet between March 13-20. Based on the current solar rotation, disturbed conditions may recur around March 22-23, and possibly quiet conditions again around March 26-29, although predictions that far in the future are more of a guess. These projections are based upon sunspots and coronal holes moving across the visible solar surface, as the sun rotates relative to earth every 27.5 days. Various features grow and fade with time, and new areas appear. Some are oriented toward earth and have a large effect, while others do not. The coronal hole that is causing the current geomagnetic disturbance has been visible for the last seven solar rotations. Doug Brandon, N6RT wrote to ask about the URL for Cary Oler's Solar Terrestrial Dispatch web site, which seemed to disappear some time back. Doug did some detective work, and found that it had moved. The new site is at http://solar.spacew.com/ . George Jacobs, W3ASK has an interesting item in his propagation column in the March issue of CQ Magazine concerning equinoctial propagation. This is about the effect that occurs in spring and fall seasons when the daylight distributed between the northern and southern hemisphere is roughly equal, dependent on how close the date is to the equinox. He says that during March intercontinental openings on 160-30 meters should peak just before local sunrise and again at local sunset. 20 meter openings should peak an hour or two after sunrise and again for an hour or so after sunset. 17-6 meter intercontinental openings should peak during daylight hours. Signals on these upper bands are stronger toward the west around and after sunset, while toward the east they are stronger before noon. He notes that signals to the south are stronger after sunrise and again late in the afternoon. W3ASK has a web site at http://www.gjainc.com/ . Sunspot numbers for February 17 through 23 were 152, 146, 126, 131, 122, 129 and 155 with a mean of 137.3. 10.7 cm flux was 168.4 141.1, 144.8, 153.3, 152.1, 172.3 and 185.1, with a mean of 159.6, and estimated planetary A indices were 6, 2, 4, 5, 15, 5 and 9, with a mean of 6.6."}, {"response": 78, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (19:08)", "body": "last night, i watched a program about the pharoahs (and queen turned king) of egypt. it seems ramses (sp?) was the unnamed pharoah during the mass exodus of the israelites from egypt. he went one on one with God. it was equally as fascinating to learn of the \"acting\" ruler of egypt in place for her stepson who, by mutual agreement, took the throne and ceremonially called herself king and wore the pharoah's clothing and a beard. she accomplished many things that the male pharoahs could not or would not. after her stepson became pharaoh (upon her death) he decided that she should not be remembered and there was evidence of her name being removed from monuments. funny, she left a message that future generations would know she ruled egypt even though the people of egypt would try to eradicate her memory. i was totally fascinated with the whole thing. would love to visit egypt and see these things for myself."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 25, 2000 (22:42)", "body": "I watched that,as well. Most fascinating about the palace intrigues and the intricate marriages arranged with next of kin. They were not subtle aobut removing all traces of Hatshepsut from the heiroglyphs."}, {"response": 80, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (10:04)", "body": "I had seen a similar story about that, a while back. Truly fascinating! Fortunatly for us, not everything about her was destroyed. Seems there is always some forgotten wall, pillar, etc. that reveals another wonderful and mysterious story!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:42)", "body": "I agree that Hatshepsut is one of the most fascinating pharaohs. Her tomb is magnificent too (I want to see it sometime)."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (21:02)", "body": "(me too...but perhaps in another life when I come back as an Archaeologist...)"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (18:21)", "body": "Meanwhile...back at the possible ley-lines, please note the following map (also posted in Archaeology). Each little red dot is a stone circle or alignment"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (18:22)", "body": "That is a clickable map from one of the best resources online for things megalithic: http://www.megalith.ukf.net/bigmap.htm"}, {"response": 85, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (09:07)", "body": "kewl!"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (10:49)", "body": "It really is! Has anyone ever figured how to post a clickable map to another website. That would be REALLY Kewl!"}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (11:34)", "body": "Hokule'a crew returns home tired but happy By Leila Fujimori A tired but happy Nainoa Thompson says it was a very special day. After an eight-month voyage to Rapa Nui and back, Hokule\ufffda is home. Shanell Ching, navigator for the final leg of the journey, said, \"It's an honor and a privilege to bring the Hokule\ufffda home.\" The 32-year-old navigated the Polynesian sailing canoe, using only traditional methods, from Tahiti to Hawaii in a record 21 days. Hokule\ufffda sailed into Kaunakakai Harbor tonight receiving a welcome of hula, chants and leis from Molokai residents, as well as crew members' friends and family. The 15 crew members first caught sight of landfall about 7:20 p.m. yesterday, when they spotted the lights of Hilo. The voyage to Rapa Nui signifies reaching the final and easternmost point in the Polynesian Triangle -- the migration routes of ancient Polynesian navigators. On Oct. 8, Hokule\ufffda arrived at Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, the most isolated and remote Polynesian island. Hokule\ufffda will depart Molokai for Oahu on March 11, in time for a homecoming celebration at Kualoa Park. The event will also mark the 25th anniversary of its launching. The formal morning program will be followed by entertainment, educational activities, food and other programs from noon to 5 p.m. Ching said exceptional conditions allowed the Hokule\ufffda to quickly sail through the doldrums, a region known for dead calms and light breezes. At times, however, Ching was challenged by rain swells and overcast skies that obscured the stars and other celestial bodies used in navigation."}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (11:38)", "body": "One of my freinds has a son on the crew of the Hokule'a. She said the only modern convenience they had was a radio-phone. No watches, no calendars, nothing modern. When they called home they were forbidden to ask the day or time or anything else which the ancient Polynesians would not have known. They really DID do it the Old-Fashioned way...very old!"}, {"response": 89, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (15:43)", "body": "Yes, it was a wonderful ocean voyage, although it did the virtual way. Thanks for the URL Marcia."}, {"response": 90, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (15:48)", "body": "oh, the Hokule`a is a ship! i was wondering there for a minute!! the only way to copy a clickable map is to do a \"view source\" and copy all the links over with it (i guess!)......"}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (16:34)", "body": "Yeah...then you duplicate someone else's website. That is a little too cheeky for even me to attempt - but I am sure you are right. I'll just use the URL and go there to do my clicking. I am just happy they put it on a transparent background. It does look lovely! Glad you enjoyed the virtual voyage. I'll let you know when the next one goes!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (00:19)", "body": "Sounds kind of like the Kon-Tiki and Ra expeditions of Thor Heyerdahl. Hard to imagine anyone crossing the open ocean in a balsawood raft, and surviving! I started looking at that Rennes-le-Chateau website you posted, Marcia. It sure sounds like the stuff I heard about on that TV show I saw a while back. That show did talk about some weird geometry and a painting. I assume it was the painting you mentioned. *Weird* stuff, but I haven't had time to read much of it, yet... Did you say there is a modern day Knights Templars organization? Do they have any real ties to the historic Templars? How do the Rosicrucians relate to them? They always seemed like a pretty bizarre group, too."}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (10:11)", "body": "The modern-day Knights Templar are part of the Freemasons of today. I think there is no connection with Rosecrutions - at least when my father was a Mason. Illuminati and the like are also suggested as connected in some way. Of this I know nothing other than what I have read by the disgruntled and the guessers. Of course, when asked, any Freemason would categorically deny any association. but that may or may not be true, as well!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (10:43)", "body": "My father was also a Mason, but naturally he wouldn't tell me any of their secrets. Seems like another odd group, from the open ceremonies I was allowed to attend. My brother was also a Mason for a while, but he hated it and let his membership lapse."}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (11:06)", "body": "Until the 60'd happened and turned the world upside down, Masonic attachment was a form of prestige. I do not know if anything internal happened to them, but Kings and Presidents were all Masons. If you were a shaker or mover, it was expected of you. My father was not a joiner, but this one he took to heart and became a 33rd degress Master Mason eventually - about as high as you can go."}, {"response": 96, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (11:20)", "body": "My brother felt the Masons were bigots and racists...maybe it was just the lodge he joined, but he felt it was part of the actual wording of the ceremonies. I got the impressions that the Masons were once a \"blue blood\" sort of organization...had to be of a certain social standing, etc., to join."}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (11:35)", "body": "Oh, indeed...one had to have proven himself a man of worth usually self-made men were most admired, but inherited status was also good (as in Kings). They are elitist, but not necessarily snobs. Shriners do a tremendous amount of good works but that branch did not appeal to my serious-minded father. All you have to be is free and accepted and believe in God. Blacks and Jews and all others that I know of were welcome. Perhaps it has changed and people are reading things into the wording of the degrees and ceremonies which meant different things in another era. I truly do not know since my father was tight-lipped about all thing Masonic."}, {"response": 98, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (12:26)", "body": "Hmm...maybe it was just the interpretations by the lodge my brother joined, then."}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (12:29)", "body": "It is entirely possible. When my Dad retired from New Rochelle, NY and eventually settled in Tucson, Arizona, he did not care for the chapter there so did not transfer his membership He remained a member in good standing and had a Masonic funeral."}, {"response": 100, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (14:46)", "body": "they're probably sworn to secrecy. another lady i work with has a masonic ring for her wedding ring. i had heard that those organizations are dark when you get into the stuff they keep hidden. the good works are only surface stuff. don't know, really, never had any associations with them. the kids love the shriners because of their cute cars. that and helping crippled children is all i can associate shriners with. how did we get on this subject? *grin*"}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (15:28)", "body": "Sacred geometry and \"Holy Blood Holy Grail\" discussion. This is the topic in Geo and Paraspring where we let it hang out and see what sort of things come to surface. Yup! Masons are sworn to secrecy...but I am sure my father would have exited immediately from any organization which worshipped the dark side or even pretended. Either some chapters have gone off on their own or others are reporting erroneous information - or both!"}, {"response": 102, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (23:28)", "body": "You have left out Surrey - in your showing of Stone Circles etc. One thing we do have is circles of ancient trees - one of which is near Polesden Lacey and is on the way to Boxhill. There definitly ley lines in Surrey - one on St. Martha's Hill a very strange place - have often picnicked there - you can actually see the ley line it is extremely magnetic and has a strange feel around it. These cirles of ancient trees - Yew most of them are also strange and much used in Witchcraft. In Bookham there is a very ancient common - woods where witchcraft is still practiced. When Heather my friend and I were searching for Ley lines we came across the circle used by them. My dog who was with us behaved in a peculiar manner, but it was he who found it. Of course they would be fully aware of the ancient ley lines and use them."}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (23:36)", "body": "Anne! How we have needed you here. Bless your new motherboard! Thanks for this posting. More!!! I did not know about the rings of trees and other wondrous things in Surrey. You have actually searched for Ley lines?! Hey, Gang! We have a real expert now! Thank you more than I can say!"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (07:04)", "body": "Leith Hill did get a mention earlier with its nine parish boundaries intersecting and the tower that ensured a viewpoint over 1,000ft high in South-East England. There is also a pond near Boxhill traditionally believed to be bottomless. Surrey is my original stamping-ground too, though I am not a big believer in ley-lines. Also I do not see why dogs would be susceptible to geo-magnetism; is the theory that humans would be, but have shut it out? An excellent walk on the Surrey/Sussex border once took us through whole groves of ancient yews (the spookiest things you ever saw) up to the Devil's Stepping Stones, a series of tumuli running along a ridge of the South Downs."}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (10:37)", "body": "*Sigh* I wish I could have tagged along on any of these hikes. Boxhill is famous in ley-hunters books. Perhaps it is time to mention the types of barrows found in that part of England. Anyone who has visited the area know exactly where Frodo was in Lord of the Rings when they were trying to evade the evils coming from the barrows (don't want to give anything away here for someone else who might like to read the books.) But, that is a topic for Archaeology (Geo 17)"}, {"response": 106, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (12:16)", "body": "mark, what you said is exactly right on. animals are very suseptible to the \"other worldly\" matters. dogs can hear their owners' vehicles up to 4 miles away! so, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they can detect strong magnetism in certain spots. we (the human animal) are so afraid to venture out into the unknown (the survival instinct) and question everything we cannot see or touch. it's amazing that we believe in aliens but question the existance of God! not trying to preach at all. love tolkein. my dad has every book that man has written plus the books with his maps and everything. ring of trees is interesting. could they have been used as territorial markers the way farmers lined their fields? and when we're talking witches, do we mean wiccan or sorcerers?"}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (13:06)", "body": "More on the insult to Stonehenge plus some fascinating material which goes along with the ley line theme: http://www.mistral.co.uk/hammerwood/earthwav.htm Buildings and landscapes, temples, Mother of all - Earth, the physics of invisible and immortal by David Pinnegar BSC ARCS URGENT SOS: THE TIMES NEWSPAPER REPORTS THAT STONEHENGE IS IN DANGER An old man once asked what was the difference between someone from the town and someone from the countryside. \"The town man\", he said, \"is clever. The country man is wise\". Town men might laugh at the bee-keeper talking to his bees or the seedsman talking to his plants and tell them that they are mad. When a swarm of wild bees in the walls of Hammerwood heard a bee-keeper proposing to kill them for fear of the spread of disease, the bees heard him and felt my fear for them! Within two hours they had fled elsewhere. Increasingly that which was unimaginable is now understandable. What would the medieval peasant have thought about that biblical story of Adam being put to sleep, cut open, the extraction of a rib and his being sewn back together, alive? In the past, life was simple - it was all a matter of belief. As we ate of the tree of knowledge, life became less clear. With imperfect knowledge Darwinists told us that we evolved from a primeval sea of life and they disrupted the faith of many. Yet scientific understanding of the DNA mechanism may yet confirm conclusively our old beliefs. If life ever evolved from chaos, the ancient myths suggest that it did so in another creation. What was light long ago has faded into darkness. Imperfect knowledge plunges us into a sea of uncertainty but in the deeper knowledge of science we rediscover the beauty of creation. The job common to artists, priests and scientists is to make that which was invisible visible. The task of the museum curator is to preserve the source materials. Astrology should by reason have no connexion with fact or science. It's apparent former connotations with spiritualists and the occult justified its treatment with the ultimate of caution and scepticism. The availability of modern computer software, however, has transformed the treatment of the subject from a dubious art to a calculated mechanism. Upon acquiring such an \"instant astrologer\" program over the recent year, purely for fun, my perception of the subject has been transformed. The results, based upon accurate information relating to the subject's time and place of birth, can often give a most remarkable insight into the characteristics of the person concerned. Their strengths and weaknesses, when revealed can be of positive benefit to them. Large commercial organisations take astrology as seriously as graphology in parallel with CVs in assessing prospective candidates for jobs. So why should it work? What connexion can there be between our destiny cast at the time of our birth and the planets and stars? The idea that gravity is involved is not new: The moon and planets all exert their gravitational forces and this has a visible effect on the tides. The connexion with the perception of water in our bodies is then derived. Epidemiologists take the subject seriously. But the effect is more than the simple alteration of water levels: each planet and astral constellation appears to exert differing characteristics which affect our behaviour. (People's behaviour, as well as the weather, is currently being influenced by a massive heavenly body which is travelling through the solar system. The effect is almost as a perpetual full moon!) We are controlled by thought and, if the results of astrology are testimony to the effect, there is an apparent communication in the control of our thought at the moment we are born. Astrology thus provides an idea that there is some influence of the heavenly bodies upon our thoughts by reason of a gravitational communication, some sort of telepathy. Matthew 17:20 If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? At risk of ridicule, an American hypnotherapist, Dolores Cannon records in her book \"Keepers of the Garden\" an account of a patient who under regression was, if you like, under the delusion that he was an extra-terrestrial upon another planet. Hiroshima sent waves to \"them up there\" and, he says, \"they\" are worried by us. Before quantum physics, conventionalists who had heard of relativity would have said it was impossible - nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. According to Cannon's patient \"them up there\" know what we are thinking: the pyramids and the Washington Monument are the earth's telepathic transmitters! Such a concept may not be as ridiculous as it seems: if telepathic waves are gravitational,"}, {"response": 108, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (13:13)", "body": "(Have just finished listening to the BBC radio dramatised version of Lord of the Rings on a set of cassettes. Enthralling if you like that sort of thing. Well, we enjoyed it anyway.) Hadn't thought of Box hill in that connection. We went there for school trips."}, {"response": 109, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (02:07)", "body": "The stone circles of The Gambia Although West Africa has no monuments comparable to the Pyramids and Temples of Ancient Egypt or the ruins of Zimbabwe, it has in the stone circles of the Senegal and the Gambia impressive remains that have puzzled the few travellers who have examined them. Stone circles of many types are found throughout Europe and the Near East, though nowhere is there so large a concentration as found on the north bank of the river Gambia. Here there are hundreds of circles containing many curious features and in particular the unique V or Lyre stones. The commonest shape is round like a pillar with a flat top. Others are square; some taper upwards. There are small stones with a cup-shaped hollow on top. Others have a ball cut in the round top of the stone. There is a recumbent stone shaped like a pillow. The Circles are composed of standing stones between ten and twenty four in any particular circle. One of the striking feature is that almost all the stones forming a given circle are of the same height and size. Their height above the ground varying between two hundred and forty five (245cm) centimeters and sixty centimeters (60cm). The diameter is from thirty centimeters (30cm) to one hundred centimeters (100cm). The largest stones which are at N'jai Kunda must weigh about ten tons each. They were brought down a steep hillside and their transportation on rollers or on hammocks must have presented formidable difficulties and have required a considerable labor force. The stone circles at Wassu As a results of Laboratory tests at the University of Dakar, the date of the sample was found to be from 750 A.D plus or minus 110 years. The stones were cut out of laterite (\" a cementation of ferruginous sandstone \") that occurs in large outcrops in this region. It is a feature of this stone that it hardens upon exposure to the air, and that prior to such exposure it is relatively easy to quarry. Where several circles are found on the same site the exterior stones form a continuos line as at Wassu. A lot of explanations have been given about the shape of the Senegambia Stone Circles by Islamic historians and wise observers. One of such explanations was revealed by the late Alhaji Kemoring Jaiteh a well known Islamic scholar of Kuntaur Fulla Kunda in Niani. According to his writings, if a small stone stands near a large one, that shows that, some one was buried with his/her child. Similarly, if the stones are V-shape, that pictures that two close relatives died on the same day and were buried together. The circles are said to be built around mounds of kings and chiefs, in the same way as royal persons were buried in the ancient empire of Ghana. Once Islam was brought into Senegambia in the 11th century, devout Muslims especially the \"Karamos\" were also buried in the same way. Consequently, some of these Circles became holy places. Today, small stones and vegetables like tomatoes are still left on the stones. Some of these stones are said to shine bright at night. from URL: http://home3.inet.tele.dk/mcacamara/stones.html"}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (11:17)", "body": "Thanks, Maggie. Thanks for getting us out of the insular mode and into the wider world of stone circles. There are even Amerindian one. Fascinating. The url is always welcome and as soon as I am fully awake I'm going there to look for pictures."}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (11:43)", "body": "Maggie's Pictures of African Stone Circles:"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (11:44)", "body": "Very interesting. Looks like they had to fabricate their megaliths out of smaller stones or bricks. Thanks! Most interesting. Are they on Ley Lines, as well?"}, {"response": 113, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (13:14)", "body": "Did you get my email? That's why I asked if there was a ley line map of Africa. I wondered if it was connected. Did the pictures send OK by email, I just lifted them off the site and they downloaded as jpeg files. These stones are made out of the stuff they make roads with. It's a red stone, I think it's cut in one piece rather than made up of lots of small stones. It just looks crumbly."}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (13:34)", "body": "I have not checked for one yet, but it is on the earth's E-Line which I mentioned above. I am sure one (leyline map for Africa) exists. Will hunt for one next. If you look at the first post I made this morning in here it contains your photos you emailed me and I put on Spring's hard drive. Thanks so much - I never would have thought of looking for stone circles in Africa. Have you seen any?"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (13:42)", "body": "This is part of a very long but fascinating article on what are ley lines and are they real. Check it out http://www.isr.umd.edu/~jasonp/leyline.html Ley Lines and Coincidence \"So, recently folks have been connecting up all these ancient sites with straight lines. They can get four, five, even six of them, all in a row.\" \"Sure, but it's all by chance, isn't it?\" Is it? Every time I brought up the ley phenomenon to the uninitiated, I was immediately cut off by this question. The English countryside is full of very ancient sites and earthworks, and many of these fall on alignments over ten miles long, with eerie accuracy. Examples can be found of these \"ley lines\" that seem to defy the law of averages, and one would be hard-pressed to believe that such cases could possibly arise by chance. This paper will explore the statistics of ley lines. Leys are a controversial topic, and objections to their being intentional have arisen from many directions. I will examine what physically constitutes a ley line and then review previous work on how likely a ley line is to arise by chance. A sizeable portion of this paper will then be devoted to my own computer experiments. Note in passing that to focus on ley statistics requires being sketchy in other areas. What's In a Ley? The simplest answer is \"prehistoric standing stones and earthworks\", but already there is controversy. Prehistory spans a very long period, and when two random \"ancient\" structures are chosen it is possible that these features were constructed in periods separated by almost 4000 years (WB 1983:31). Thus those two structures could have been constructed by very different societies, and have had nothing to do with each other. Many ley hunters when including (non-prehistoric) churches in leys, cite a letter from Pope Gregory in 601 AD stating that pagan \"temples\" ought not to be destroyed, but purified and converted to churches (Watkins 194:117). Indeed, there are standing stones in country churchyards, as Watkins shows. Including all churches because of this, however, is unrealistic. Devereux and Thomson list a ley through London that consists of five medieval churches, despite the fact that \"...the city site, while not completely de- serted...was of no special importance until the Romans founded their settlement\" (WB 1983:138) Likewise with castles: a mound is more defensible than flat ground, and many prehistoric mounds exist; castle keeps, then, belong on ley lines. It is again unrealistic, however, that all medieval nobility would have their choice of castle site dictated by existing terrain, when they could simply have the terrain modified to suit their wishes exactly. Watkins hypothesized that ley lines were the sighting points for a vast network of \"straight tracks\" that covered prehistoric England, and his book includes several crossroads used as ley points and instances of dirt pathways uncovered in the course of sewer excavation (Watkins 1948:38-39). The impression received is that deciding whether a given site is a viable candidate for being a \"ley point\" is a difficult matter and would often require archaeological evidence. Ley hunting is typically an easy matter, however. Most ley hunters would only connect the ley points on an Ordnance Service (OS) map and then confirm the ley points in the field. Most do not perform more orthodox research which would tell, for example, that the straight paths through England are mostly \"Planned Countryside\" enacted by Parliament in the 18th and 19th Centuries, while older tracks than these are \"notoriously devoid of straight lines\" (WB 1983:88). Notice also that many of the citations in this paper are from Williamson and Bellamy, both archaeologists; this is because they include historical evidence where others do not. In fairness to the existing material, \"questionable\" ley sites (small mark stones, trees, stretches of modern road) are usually ignored in a published ley. How wide must an \"old straight track\" be? Watkins insisted that ancient tracks be just wide enough to travel on foot, perhaps two to four yards (DT 1979:72). Using a very sharp pencil on an OS map produces an effective line about 30 feet wide; this would be about the best one could expect without doing fieldwork. Statistical studies often could not work with widths less than a hundred yards (see Appendix). Ley Statistics Watkins was the first (1925) to attempt answering the question of whether ley lines of significant size could arise by chance (Watkins 1948:203-204). The OS sheet of Andover contains 51 churches that can be organized into 1 five-point, 8 four-point and 29 three-point leys. To see how many leys could be expected by chance he marked out 51 crosses \"haphazardly\" on a similar size sheet, and found no five-point, 1 four-point and 33 three-point leys. He concluded from this that with 50 sites, finding a four- point ley by chance was unlikely, and a five-point ley was ironclad evidence that the placement was deliberate. From th"}, {"response": 116, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (21:05)", "body": "here's a url for crop circles (gonna post in physical phenom too): http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/1700/Crop-Circles/PB-Crop-Circles.html slow-loading so be patient!"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (21:23)", "body": "Oh yes! Loads of them...artbell.com even has a link...Loads of them around Stonehenge in the summer and early Autumn. Thanks, Wolfie...I'll post more and some pictures as well."}, {"response": 118, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (16:22)", "body": "I have a little bit of information about magnetic fields in the ocean. It seems that the lemon sharks hatched in the Bimini Lagoon unfailing return every year their natal waters to lay their own eggs. How do they find their way? Magnetic fields. It seems the sharks can sense the proper magnetic field, get onto it, and use like a highway to get to their destination. It never fails them. It would seem knowing where you're going is really important when you're a fish that can't swim backward."}, {"response": 119, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (16:25)", "body": "indeed! *lol*"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (16:51)", "body": "Right...and it just will not do for sharks to surface all that often to check polarization as Whales and Turtles and other air breathers do. Condsidering that Sharks are unchanged from the time of dinosaurs, they must have hit on the right combination early in their evolution! Thanks, Cheryl. Guess I did not know that!"}, {"response": 121, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (04:27)", "body": "Now folks a serious question to do with geomagnatism. Some years ago I was told I study Astronomy by the way and meteorology, that they couldn't find the magnetic north pole - apparantly it keeps wondering about the place - now that must have an effect on ley lines etc. The pool near Boxhill that was being talked about is called the Mill Pond it has not far from the edge and extraordinarily deep hole - and when you look at it it is coloured the deepest and most beautiful blue - and we were told as children not to swim in the Mill Pond because it was so deep. In fact for many years Leatherhead my home town had all its water from there - it was the softest, tastiest water I have ever tasted - now its been taken over and they get London water. ugh. Do you think whales beach themselves because of the change in the magnetic north sorry to switch back but strange things are happening around the world and its got my attenae working. Mark what part of Surrey are you from."}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (12:05)", "body": "Let me post this first, then I will tackle Anne's comments... http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/plate_tectonics/rift.html Rift in the ocean floor through which red-hot magma is squeezed up from the mantle. The magma solidifies with a magnetic polarity corresponding to that of the Earth's magnetic field. After a long interval of time, the Earth's polarity changes, that is, the magnetic north pole becomes the magnetic south pole, and so the polarity of the newly formed crust changes, too. As new magma is squeezed in, the older crust is moved out from the midocean ridge like a conveyor belt. This produces a series of strips of rock magnetized in opposite senses, with the magnetic stripes parallel and symmetrical to the ridges. Shallow-focus earthquakes occur on the ridge; intermediate and deep-focus earthquakes occur on the downgoing plate as it collides with another plate."}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (12:12)", "body": "Better than I could ever explain it and with great diagrams, here is the scoop on the Magnetic North Pole: http://geo.phys.uit.no/articl/roadto.html It is a super read and super easy to understand. There is some conjecture that the beached animals are already sick in such a way as to render their location-sensing system inactive or sending incorrect messages. Perhaps it is a reflex to move to a place where they will not drown if they become incapacitated. Beaching would accomplish that. But, Until we can talk to them we really won't know, I imagine!"}, {"response": 124, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (13:30)", "body": "i've heard that there is usually one animal in the group who is ill and the others follow to offer it support. interesting about the north pole moving around. maybe the magnetism has something to do with the moon (like tides)..."}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (13:44)", "body": "The moon is large enough to cause tides as it revolves around us. When it is on the same side of us that the sun is, the tidal pull is stronger and the tides higher. Spring tides are strongest because in our eliptical orbit, the sun is closest to us. It is more centrifugal - centripital force than magnetism which does the pulling."}, {"response": 126, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (16:21)", "body": "how does the moon pull then? just by the force as it runs around us? interesting....."}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "Yup! It is massive enough that it is being held into orbit by the sun pulling one way and the Earth pulling the other. That is often how they discover second stars orbiting a large star or planets orbiting a single star. The stars in question tend to have less-than-perfect orbits, and these \"Perturbations\" are due to the pull of the planets or the minor stars orbiting them."}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (19:36)", "body": "Btw, the moon is massive enough and so is the sun, that when they pull on the same side of the orbit, it will cause tides in the liquid rock on which the plates float thus bending the plates themselves (Mike? Or is is just on the crust?)"}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (19:37)", "body": "Oh yeah, there are more earthquakes at the dark of the moon (like right now) than any other time - for that very reason!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (02:22)", "body": "Well thank you all for your explanations - especially that at the dark of the moon. Also one of our weather forecasters told us the moon is nearer to us at present - or at least he said so a couple of weeks ago. That must make a difference to the liquid magma I suppose."}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (05:52)", "body": "Anne, I wish I could claim I was from 'proper' Surrey - I am in fact from Cheam (now part of Greater London). We went for a walk yesterday from Boxhill station out towards Polesden Lacey and back through Westhumble. Went past Tanners Hatch, a remote youth hostel spoiled by bombs in the War. We read that during the rebuilding in 1970, an old woman knocked on the door one evening asking the way to Wotton Hatch. She was invited in by the National Trust people and given a meal, and complimented them on the work done to the house, saying she had lived there herself long ago. When the time came for her to leave the door was opened, but she had disappeared, and an owl was sitting on the back of the chair she had been in, the same owl that had been the only creature watching the renovation work. You have to see this cottage in its little thickly-wooded valley to appreciate the spookiness of this story, however apocryphal. Nothing to do with Geomagnetism and sharks, sorry. Is magnetism the way that turtles always make it back to their home beach to lay eggs, despite travelling across oceans for years in between?"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (10:25)", "body": "Geomagnetism is usually for thin-skinned (no shell) creatures who are do not surface for air. The air-breathers are usually navigating by polarization of sunlight(which also works on cloudy days) much as the Vikings did after they figured it out...or remembered it again. Mark, that was the most incredible story! It is 6am and still dark outside; I am now full of chills of the most incredible sort. Thanks for sharing that story. I'll bet being there was even more amazing. I'll bet it was mentioned on the walk back!"}, {"response": 133, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (13:03)", "body": "that's some story, mark, an owl....the turtles use the stars (as they hatch at night) and for this reason, some are found going the wrong way because they are fooled by the street lights. i would love to sit on the beach and watch these turtles make their way home."}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (14:06)", "body": "I would love to watch the hatching little scapers, but it would be beyond me to not interfere with the little ones who go astray and that is strictly forbidden. We have them here and I guess I could arrange to be in on one. Hmmm...! Is anyone interested in experiencing something incredible? Dowsing? I am an extreme skeptic but my son taught me and it is the most astounding thing to have rods swiveling in your hands when you are not moveing them! I can tell you how and what you need..."}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (14:08)", "body": "There is conjecture that some birds use polarized light and others use star patterns as turtles do (you are right about that, Wolfie!)...and Polynesians!"}, {"response": 136, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (14:09)", "body": "Have you decided how dowsing works? - I don't think it's magic!"}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (14:17)", "body": "Not magic at all - at least the kind I will teach you - we localed the pipes and electrical circuit under our cement slab floor and out into the septic tank using this method and it works incredibly precisely!"}, {"response": 138, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (15:19)", "body": "don't you need a willow branch? the only willow in my neighborhood is in someone's yard and i don't think they'd appreciate me sneaking over there in the middle of the night to get a forked branch! dowsing amazes me though! and yes, i'd love to try, so do tell us, it'd be a \"hands on\" lesson!!"}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (16:12)", "body": "I do not know how to hunt for water with a willow branch. When I told the house male what David showed me the ever-skeptical IO said he had done it lots of time himself but did not let on he did. It worked for him, too. Get thee to a auromotive parts store or wherever you can find bronze brazing rods. Mine are about 36\" or 1 meter long. You'll need two. They are skinny so I used empty stick ball pen outsides with the ink chamber removed. You're gonna need a vise here or a pair of pliers and a strong arm 'cause you need to bend at a right angle about 4\" (10 cm) of one end. David used just his bare hands but I found it easier to hold steady with a larger thing to grip. The rods must be held loosely enough to swing freely."}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "Now that you have them in your hands and you can pivot your body without moving your feet and have the rods swing in them, we are off to try them out. Holding them so the long parts are parallel to the ground and with your elbows tight to your sides so you do not try to move the rods, consider your hands and arms extensions of your rods. Work in your house first so you know if there are pipes under you and that you are NOT moving the rods. Holding your arms and wrists rigid and holding loosely to your rods but keeping them straight out in front of you, walk slowly across the room."}, {"response": 141, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (16:20)", "body": "I'm sorry to throw the topic back to the Moon, but it is a massive sattelite to the Earth. Being 1/6 the size of the Earth makes it so large in fact that the Earth and Moon together can be considered a double planet. At one time it was much closer to the Earth, making for a year of 44 months and phenomenally high tides which rushed across the Earth's surface."}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (16:22)", "body": "You are right, of course! Thanks for bringing that up. (They are busy walking across the floor with their brazing rods...) The Moon is considered to be a captured protoplanet which did not make it. Unless there has been another theory posited since I last checked!"}, {"response": 143, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (16:38)", "body": "There is the theory that the Moon is a part of the infant Earth which was knocked loose by a comet."}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (17:10)", "body": "I have heard of that, as well, but I have not seen a good representation of what that must have looked like and I just cannot imagine the Earth as a dumb-bell. ...the inhabitants, however...!"}, {"response": 145, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:36)", "body": "wait, i haven't been to the auto parts store...what are brazing rods? and do the ends of the separate rods both go into one ball pen container? then you bend the opposite ends where you hold on?"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:19)", "body": "Thbey'll know. They are brass rods which are about the thickness of the neck wire on a wooden coar hanger...and about a yard (meter) long."}, {"response": 147, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:22)", "body": "You'll need two pen outsides. One empty ball pen or felt kiddies marker works even better in each hand."}, {"response": 148, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (20:42)", "body": "Mark, I was actually born in Epsom Hospital just up the road from you! My mother used to work in West Ewell. I also lived in Ashtead from 1979-85 where my interest in ley lines and all things odd from the past started. Mainly because of Stane Street, Roman remains in Ashtead found by St. Giles Church - they found a tiled floor of a Roman Villa - and the tile factory remains are still in Ashtead Woods - worth looking for. Ashtead woods is very ancient and you can walk there from Ashtead Station - throught the common to the wood on the other side of the station from walking into the village - well worth walking through that was my daily walk with my dog. Makes me homesick. What a story about the house - it always felt spooky that walk from Polesden Lacey to Boxhill done it lots of times. Anne"}, {"response": 149, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (20:50)", "body": "* s i g h *"}, {"response": 150, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (21:09)", "body": "There was a ford over the River Mole at Leatherhead - Mark I expect you know it the pub the Running Horse is nearby! that is really ancient - pre Iron Age even and on the way to Stonehenge. The River Mole is strange it called so because it burrows its way in and out of the ground - but is quite delightful especially at the splash in Fetcham another ancient area. Lots of funny names around too Cobham, Oxshott, Bookham, Upper and Lower, Ashtead, Upper and Lower, Effingham, all with probably anglo saxon connatations. Wooton Hatch -m mentioned by Mark. I'll think of some more later my mind's gone blank. The road to Guildford - the Hogs Back, the Devils Punchbowl on the way to Hindhead/Greyshott (Marcia will know that connection!) Stoke D'Abernon how about that one. I'll stop - but strange things do happen in places of ancient habitation."}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (21:13)", "body": "(salivating and dreaming I am there) You cannot know how happy I am that those ancient trackways and memories are in good keeping. By all means, Mark, take the kids with you and tell them all about it. Incredible. I am so envious! More! Please!"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (05:04)", "body": "I'll have to have some kids first, Marcia, before I can tell them anything! You want some more odd names Anne, how about Abinger Hammer, the lake called Friday Street, Coldharbour, Normandy, Fox Corner, Holmbury St Mary, Liphook and Churt? I went to school in Epsom and have spent most of my summer weekends playing cricket in places like Brockham, Dorking, Newdigate, Frensham, Rudgwick and Westcott (well those are the nice places, also hundreds of recreation grounds in the Surrey/London suburbs)."}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (10:43)", "body": "Oh, Mark...Dorking? Did you know the Oliviers, too? There is nothing quite as enchanting as seeing a stack of finger posts at an intersection on minor roadways. What lovely names they have on them! Straight out of a childhood book. Thanks for those names, Mark...*sigh*"}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (10:44)", "body": "Sorry I got the cart before the horse on the next generation of your family...or is that the baby carriage?!"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (11:06)", "body": "Space Science News for March 7, 2000 Lost and Found: Two moons of the gas giant Uranus have been missing for 14 years. Now scientists have re-discovered the long-lost satellites. FULL STORY at Shepherd Moons, Lost and Found SPACE WEATHER NOTE, MARCH 6/7, 2000: For the second night in a row, residents of Canada and the northern United States should be on the alert for aurora borealis. Details at SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 156, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (00:30)", "body": "Mark yes of course, my mind went blank - I do remember forty-foot recreation ground though - and it was much larger than forty-foot. Surrey and Sussex have some wonderful names havn't they. Shere, Gomshall, Hurstmonceaux, Pulborough, Horsham, Crawley, Three Bridges, have walked or cycled to them all in my youth. Abinger Hammer is very special - it has a clock with an old man and a hammer, Ill see if I have a picture of it somewhere. I have lots of Surrey Calendars about the place. All so very old and full of mystery!!"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (10:32)", "body": "oh boy!!! Good stuff continues to flow and I am scanning my Ordnance Sruvey atlas and following your treks with great relish!"}, {"response": 158, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (17:09)", "body": "The Lost Moons of Uranus Found! I've always had an affinity for Uranus. Firstly, there's no polite or unfunny way to pronounce it, and it sits on its side. It poles are from east to west, not north to south. So it has an East Pole and a West Pole. As the planets go, Uranus (however you say it) is something of a non-conformist."}, {"response": 159, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (17:29)", "body": "a planet rebel! how'd it get that name anyway?"}, {"response": 160, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (17:43)", "body": "The name is from Roman Mythology. Uranus was the father of the god Saturn and the grandfather of Jupiter. The funny thing about Uranus being a rebel is that in astrology the planet is the ruler of the 11th house, Aquarius, a sign associated with rebels. Then again Ronald Reagan was an Aquarian, go figure."}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (19:12)", "body": "(whew!) Thanks Cheryl for supplying the answer. I was laughing at the comment \"I always had an affinity with Uranus\"...it was fraught with possibilities... (none of which are useable in this conference) *grin*"}, {"response": 162, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (19:49)", "body": "*lol*"}, {"response": 163, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (15:41)", "body": "Yeah, well as an Aquarian my planetary ruler is Uranus, so I really do have an affinity with the planet. It is one of those things you have to be careful about how you say it, and to whom you say it. I am among friends, hopefully. (grin)"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (16:44)", "body": "You are among friends here *grin* I pronounce it the way it is supposed to be... Funny...if it is pronounced one way it is rectally offensive. The other way it has to do with the kidneys of two or more individuals. It is a win-win name!!!"}, {"response": 165, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (16:54)", "body": "Antiquarian?! I knew I liked you!!! Me too!! That means I have an affinity for Uranus, as well?! *giggle*"}, {"response": 166, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (17:29)", "body": "*lol* oh, this just keeps getting better. people think saying the second pronunciation is so much nicer sounding!!"}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (17:42)", "body": "I was just sitting here thinking (always a dangerous thing for me) and my mind wandered...and went places it does not usually go *lol* I'm a purist and a mythologist. The first pronounciation is the preferred one."}, {"response": 168, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (17:49)", "body": "yer anus, that is the preferred pronunciation. amazing and to think that the powers that be decided \"her a**\" should be \"hair us\"....*lol*"}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (18:20)", "body": "Everything is bass-awkward anymore. The 'f' word is used as punctuatuion but we worry about sounding vulgar with \"Her a$$\" Sumthin is seriously wrong here. Yew Ray Nus is the way to say it politely...*grin*...or impolitely!"}, {"response": 170, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (18:29)", "body": "*lol*"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (18:39)", "body": "I have been laughing at your reaponse 168 so hard I had to go wash my reading glasses. Ya made'um all blurry!"}, {"response": 172, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (18:41)", "body": "i'm glad!!"}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 10, 2000 (18:59)", "body": "*grin*"}, {"response": 174, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (21:03)", "body": "ok, chariots of the gods is on right now on TLC (the learning channel). this is the show i talked about earlier in this topic...."}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (23:42)", "body": "http://www.msnbc.com/news/379778.asp?cp1=1 March 9 \ufffd Scientists are monitoring ricocheting ripples on the sun\ufffds surface to get their first picture of what\ufffds happening on the far side. They say the technique opens the way for systems that can give an early warning about potentially disruptive solar storms a week or more before Earth feels their effects. LIKE THE UNANTICIPATED ARRIVAL of hurricanes before the advent of weather satellites, a group of previously hidden explosive regions can rotate suddenly into view as the sun turns, blazing away with threatening eruptions. The new technique opens a window to the far side of the sun using the Michelson Doppler Imager instrument on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a $1 billion satellite launched in 1995. SOHO, which is operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, monitors the sun from a stable point in space 1 million miles from Earth. \ufffdWe\ufffdve known for 10 years that in theory we could make the sun transparent all the way to the far side,\ufffd solar physicists Charles Lindsey and Douglas Braun said in a written statement released by NASA. \ufffdBut we needed observations of exceptional quality. In the end, we got them.\ufffd Lindsey and Braun described the technique in Friday\ufffds issue of the journal Science and during a NASA briefing Thursday. Lindsey is a researcher at Solar Physics Research Corp. in Tucson, Ariz., while Braun works at NorthWest Research Associates in Boulder, Colo. Their research focused on potentially explosive areas on the sun called active regions. Such regions produce solar flares and eruptions of hot, electrically charged gas called coronal mass ejections. The radiation and gas from these events sweep past Earth at more than 1 million miles an hour (1.6 million kilometers per hour), sometimes disrupting spacecraft, radio communications and power systems. Understanding and forecasting solar eruptions and their consequences has spawned a branch of science called space weather. As the sun rotates on its 27-day cycle, active regions that include concentrations of sunspots move from the far side of the sun to face Earth. But even before the active regions become visible, they send out characteristic sound waves that reverberate through the sun\ufffds interior. \ufffdThese waves reflect all the way through the sun,\ufffd Braun said. The SOHO imager can spot the ripples on the sun\ufffds surface generated by those sound waves, just as seismic instruments on Earth can pick up the reverberations of distant earthquakes. It takes the waves about six hours to rebound from the far side of the sun through the interior, along a path that ricochets off the surface. Lindsey and Braun found that active regions have strong magnetic fields that speed up the sound waves by six to 12 seconds. The difference becomes evident when sound waves shuttling back and forth get out of step with one another, they reported. SOHO data for March 28-29, 1998, revealed a sunspot group on the far side that was not plainly visible on the near side until 10 days later, they said. Observations for 24 hours were more than sufficient to detect the sunspots."}, {"response": 176, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (00:40)", "body": "Hmm, looks like we've had a little \"conversational entropy\" (which is typical for most of my conversations) while I've been away... ;-) To follow the Greek/Roman mythology thread... We could use the Greek pronounciation of Uranus - \"oo-ra-NOS\", which means \"sky\". The sky and the earth were the father and mother of the Titans, which included Kronos (Saturn), which means \"time\". Funny how one can loose two moons! (\"Now where did I put those silly things...?\") Great to see the Hubble doing its job, though!"}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (17:45)", "body": "Please do keep the other stuff going in here and I will put the extra-terrestrial stuff in geo 24 where it more properly belongs. A third and socially acceptable pronunciation of Uranus. Like it.. we are now talking about noses...rather, NOS's"}, {"response": 178, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (19:31)", "body": "the extra-terrestrial can go in para/ufo and alien theories... so now we're talking about noses?"}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "If we use the original Greek pronounciation! *lol* Soon we will not have any idea of what the other is speaking with the various \"dialects\" and socially acceptable ways of saying it. How to confuse the issue BIG time! Yup! Sending the ufos and their passengers over to you...Not my thing, actually."}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (19:40)", "body": "Actually, extra-terrestrial in Geo-terms means Beyond Earth which is why I named the topic thusly. Extra-terrestrial would have attracted much a different clientele. *grin*"}, {"response": 181, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (05:18)", "body": "Talking about beyond the earth = got into a discussion with a Jewish friend of ours on the word Nephalim - or giants who slept with the children of men. He went on to say that there was some grounds for thinking Zeus, Jupiter, Hercules etc. from Greek Mythology - perhaps even Mithras, some Egyptian Myths would refer to the same beings not from this world. They were prevalent pre-flood - and from our studies of the great rift valley near Eilat there is definite proof of a great flood of some sort some thousands of years ago. Is this relevant to this one if not please Marcia put into the relevant one. Anne."}, {"response": 182, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (05:20)", "body": "By the way it can be found in the Old Testament - Genesis in relation to Noah. Its an interesting topic and some would say the ley lines, anti-magnetic forms of travelling came from that time. I must get Elliot to perhaps share some of his thoughts. He is quite a scholar."}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (13:08)", "body": "I'm going to create a topic for creation-of-the-Earth lore and mythology. Please encourage your friend to contribute. This one is fine to start off with and please consult the newest topic Geo 28. (Happy me!)"}, {"response": 184, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (16:10)", "body": "I once took a class on the Book of Genesis. I was confused at the end of the class; I had know idea what was up with the Book of Genesis. To start with in Hebrew God is sometimes referred to as singular and sometimes as plural. (God is always referred to as masculine singular, never feminine singular.) Back to God as plural -- there is a passage where God says that we have done well. Who exactly is he talking to, can't be angels, they didn't have a hand in creation. Then there are the passages regarding the sons of God, but sometimes called the sons of the gods, who came down to Earth and lay with the daughters of men. thus giving rise to the giants who walked the Earth. Oh to backtrack, Cain is banished, goes off and founds the first city, and has a family. Where did these other people come from to populate the city and to provide Cain with a wife. Which leads to my embarassing gaffe in understanding the Scriptures. I thought Adam was practicing beastiality with the animals in the Garden, that was why God felt that it was not good for him to be alone. So God provided him with a companion. This is where things really got wierd. There is the tradition of Lilith, the first wife of Adam, who refused to assume a subserviant sexual position to Adam, fled to the Red Sea, and became the consort of Satan. To be fair the Lilith tradition states that she was created at the same time as Adam and as she fled Eden before the Fall retained her immortality. Then there is the tradition of the first Eve, she was created after Adam, from the same dust as he. God did not cause Adam to sleep and he saw her entire creation. It disgusted him, so much he wouldn't even go near her. I have no idea what happened to the first Eve so the way could be open for the second Eve. She who is said to be the Mother of Us All, although maybe not of Cain's wife."}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "Right you are..Cheryl! I tool OT as literature in College just prior to taking OT archaeology. Elohim is plural! Gods made heaven and earth. We need to take this discussion to Geo 28... May I transplant your comments there?"}, {"response": 186, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (16:19)", "body": "Yes, feel free to move them."}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (16:32)", "body": "Thanks - I just did =) I opened a most interesting topic, I think. Now, if we can just keep from offending anyone..."}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (11:10)", "body": "The LeyLines should be hopping this week: SPACE WEATHER NEWS : On March 25, 2000, a solar flare erupted near the center of the Sun's disk. It appears that a coronal mass ejection was launched toward Earth. An interplanetary shock wave could pass our planet during the next 24 to 48 hours, triggering moderate geomagnetic activity and aurorae. For more information and daily updates please visit http://www.spaceweather.com ."}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (14:07)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 25, 2000 Stargazers around the globe were treated to an unexpected and rare display of red-colored aurora on April 6-7, 2000, after a vigorous interplanetary shock wave passed by Earth. This story includes a gallery of more than 40 images showing the aurora borealis from Europe and over parts of the United States as far south as Florida. FULL STORY at http://www.spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast25apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (14:28)", "body": "Alabama Germany Texas Larger images are available of the above pictured posted above. Brushfires in the Sky Stargazers around the globe were treated to an unexpected and rare display of red-colored aurora on April 6-7, 2000. April 25, 2000 -- Two weeks ago star gazers around the world were outdoors in force. The moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars were clustered together in the evening sky on April 6 for a picturesque display just after sunset. With cameras poised to record the spectacle, observers were treated to a dazzling show -- but it wasn't the show they expected. The sky, instead of darkening as the sun sank below the western horizon, turned vivid red, then green and shimmering yellow. It was a rare and unexpected display of aurora borealis seen as far south as Texas and Florida. \"My intent was to capture the crescent moon along with Saturn, Jupiter and Mars,\" said Keith Cooley, an amateur astrophotographer in Athens, Alabama. \"The aurora flare up was sudden and without warning! It was my first observation ever of such an event.\" Above: Keith Cooley captured this photo of the planets against a backdrop of reddish-colored Northern Lights from his backyard in Athens Alabama on April 6, 2000, at 8:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time. (Camera: Cannon AE-1; F-stop: 1.8; film: Polaroid 400 ASA; exposure time: 10-20 seconds) The celestial display started around 1630 UT on April 6 when a powerful interplanetary shock wave passed by the Earth. Aurora borealis were observed almost immediately over Asia and Europe. Auroras, or \"Northern Lights\", are usually confined to high latitudes, but this was the biggest geomagnetic storm in years. By 2000 UT, observers in central Europe were reporting colorful lights in the sky. \"Aurora borealis is a rare event in our area, so to see it for the very first time is impressive -- to see a display like [this was] really dazzling!\" recounted Ron Baart of Warmenhuizen, Holland. \"It was about 8:55 p.m. local time [on April 6] that we saw a pillar of red light in the northern sky ....also green-blue to white features could be seen dancing in the heavens.\" Left: Juergen Rendtel snapped this photo from Marquardt (near Potsdam), Germany. (camera: f/4, f=20 mm lens; film: Ektapress 1600; exposure time: 15-30 seconds). By the time night fell over North America, the geomagnetic storm was beginning to subside, but not before auroras were spotted in at least 23 states. Reports poured in from as far south as Florida and as far west as Utah. \"Most of northwest Colorado was cloud-covered the night of April 6,\" recalls James Westlake, Professor of Astronomy at Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs, CO, \"so I took a group of SKY Club members ... west into Utah. We weren't disappointed. From near Moab, Utah, we watched the pink and green fountains spurt above the northern horizon for several hours around midnight!\" In the Big Bend region of Texas, observers at the McDonald Observatory were surprised when the sky suddenly turned red during a star party. \"Sometime between 9:30 and 10 p.m. CDT, one of [the Observatory's] Public Affairs staff, Mr. William Wren, was doing a private star party for some folks when he spotted what he at first thought to be a brush fire,\" wrote Frank Cianciolo, a public affairs officer at the University of Texas. \"He quickly realized the truth of the matter, grabbed our digital still camera and popped off a small panoramic showing the aurora and one of our public domes (pictured above).\""}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (14:30)", "body": "Texas"}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 17 - April 28, 2000 Sunspots and solar flux were up this week. The average sunspot number was up over 40 points and average solar flux rose over 30 points over the past week. Geomagnetic indices have been mostly quiet, with April 24 the most active day. Last week's bulletin ARLP016 said that the solar flux should be up around 220 this weekend, but conditions are not cooperating. Although activity has been higher this week than last, it is not as high as expected. Solar flux is expected to hover around 175 to 185 until April 8, then dip below 170, and rise to around 200 from May 19 through 28. The planetary A index prediction indicates unsettled conditions for Friday. The A index should stay quiet from this weekend until May 6 and 7, when it may rise to 15. Predicted solar flux for the next five days, Friday through Tuesday is 180, 175, 175, 180 and 180. Sunspot numbers for April 20 through 26 were 179, 211, 226, 252, 222, 229 and 197 with a mean of 216.6. 10.7 cm flux was 180.6, 187.3, 201.8, 206.1, 205.6, 202.5 and 189.9, with a mean of 196.3, and estimated planetary A indices were 14, 10, 7, 8, 21, 6 and 4, with a mean of 10."}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (22:41)", "body": "these were posted in the Radio Conference but I am moving them here where they are more like what Geomagnetism is all about: _cosmo_ (aa9il) * Mon, May 1, 2000 (22:05) * 22 lines Hi Marcia This is a bit of a stray from the boatanchor thread but another interest of mine is in VLF, ELF, and down. There is an interesting club called the LWCA (Long Wave Club of America) - there is a 'Sounds of Natural Radio' section which deals with sferics, whistlers, dawn chorus, etc. There are some experimenters who monitor the SLF frequencies for signals generated by Mother Earth (earth quakes, the magnetosphere, etc...) This is much more suited for the Geo section where I can move this thread to. The only radio I have that goes down that low is a Watkins Johnson set that tunes down to 6khz. Have never heard anything down there except for Omega navigation. There is also FSK and CW signals from the Navy which uses the low frequencies to transmit to subs. I think there was once an ELF transmitter in Wisconsin who's antenna covered lots of miles. There are man made signals from 1khz down to 1hz no doubt but you do not read about them in the paper... 3's and 8's de secret agent mike Marcia: * Mon, May 1, 2000 (22:38) * 3 lines Oooh! Great stuff, Mike! you can also hear distant lightning as it strikes the ground, with the right frequency terraphones. Love this thread and no one has discussed anything like it in Geo, though that is why I set up Geomagnetism (topic 27) wanna continue there? I'll paste these two posts there and continue. 3's n 8's Marcia, who's delighted..."}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (22:45)", "body": "I should have created GeoPhonics just for Mike. Too slow on the switch tonight. We had a Loran station at the north tip of this island, and for miles, any radio would pick it up. Most obtrusive. Those sub communication arrays do use up huge areas of land and broadcast some where around 7 Hz (or is that MHz?) Have only heard them once, but it is a curious sound. Then there are those who are sure teh Tesla folks are changing the weather using other aesoteric frequencies."}, {"response": 195, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (21:45)", "body": "Hi Marcia Ok, finally made it here.... First, regarding the Ley lines - saw an interesting journal out of the UK called \"Ley Hunter\" which provided serious research towards the study of ley lines. There was mention of a study of the earth mounds in Wisconsin which showed some ley line characteristics. The area where I live was a much traveled area for the ancient tribes (north/south waterways). Of course, there is also Lake Michigan... I am pretty sure there are ley lines running through the geographical area of Enchanted Rock near Fredricksburg Texas as well as the West Texas regions where the rock walls are covered with pictographs. Re the ELF stuff - I will have to find the web pages regarding this but there are groups that study pressure waves, earthquakes, etc - there are super low frequency receivers (actually amplifiers) that integrate signals over long periods of time - the resulting data is then 'spead up' to reveal acoustic tweeks and such. No doubt there are man made signals in the below 1khz range although the data rate would be very slow (hence the long integration time) Not quite sure what kind of valid data could be sent aside from three letter code groups or something. The natural signals are probably alot more fun to listen to. For a good receiver design, do a web search on project INSPIRE which was a Nasa experiment that involved vlf signals sent from the space shuttle - I think the project didnt work but so many people were listening to the receivers during that time that it was the first instance such large amounts of data was collected of natural radio signals. Finally, will have to save a posting on Tesla experiments although I would like to build a high power tesla coil to goof around with. mike aka cosmo AA9IL"}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (22:00)", "body": "Gads! So much good stuff in your post, Mike! Aloha and big thanks. Want to take it to Radio conference and name it.... (your call - !) Tesla probably belongs there too, unless you want one in here called Sounds of the Earth (or whatever) I have heard of The Ley Hunter and there are websites all over the net concerning them. There are also E lines (look back through this topic - there are maps and people from England who posted their experiences with ley lines) Any thoughts on Crop Cicrles? I created Earth Mysteries for the far outside of \"scientific\" thought. I posted a fractal which will knock your sox off! I am SO delighted to know the various interests which entertain you - they also fascinate me!"}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (18:00)", "body": "http://www.cryptome.org/twa800-emi.htm Special Supplement The Fall of TWA 800: The Possibility of Electromagnetic Interference By Elaine Scarry Elaine Scarry teaches at Harvard University, where she is Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value. Her writings include The Body in Pain and articles on war and the social contract. Reconstructing the wreckage of TWA 800 in a Long island hangar, November, 1997. The piles of wire visible in the foreground are only a part of the plane's 150 miles of wiring. For more than a year, the inquiry into the fall of TWA 800 has addressed three questions: whether mechanical trouble can be ruled out, whether a bomb inside the plane can be ruled out. whether a missile or other high-velocity object (such as a meteorite) can be ruled out. But there is a fourth possibility that has been ignored and that needs to be raised in the inquiry. To a civilian, the phrase \"electromagnetic interference\" may at first sound puzzling, even though every commercial flight begins with the instruction to passengers to turn off during takeoff all computers, headsets, radios, and telephones. The power radiated by these objects is tiny. But their emissions can travel out of the cabin windows to the antennas on the outer body of the plane; therefore the FAA regulation requiring airlines to prohibit passenger use of such objects has remained firmly in place.1 Interference from military equipment can be thousands, even millions, of times as great,2 and can have much more serious consequences for airborne planes. Because ten military planes and ships were in the vicinity of TWA 800 that night, we need to ask the airmen and sailors on the planes and ships to describe with precision the pieces of equipment that were in use. HOW REAL IS THE PROBLEM OF HIGH INTENSITY RADIATED FIELDS? Much more follows - please visit the url and let me know what you think."}, {"response": 198, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (02:09)", "body": "Hi, reminded me of a frightening experience my husband I had coming out of Israel in the early 1980's. New plane, new electonics, everything supposed to be perfect but just before crossing over Cyprus everything went off. The pilot himself came out and send nothing to worry about! That was it we all worried. We managed to land in Nicosia Airport to ostensibly refuel. We took off again - things seemed to be going okay until time to land at Gatwick. A friend was watching us land as he had brought our car with him. No lights could be seen on the plane except inner lighting - and it become obvious the pilot was concerned after we landed. They theorised later someone in the plane was using their eletronic equipment!!! It had messed up the electrics in the plane and we were apparently lucky to arrive at our destination so they said! Okay it was a long time ago - but the memory remains - I wonder on reading that article whether or not it was an outside influence too."}, {"response": 199, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (02:10)", "body": "P.S. Elaine Scarry has an appropriate name!!!!"}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (12:57)", "body": "Ms Scarry does have an appropriate name. If you ever beome a white-knuckle flier, you have plenty of excuses. That must have been worrisome in the least and frightening at worst!"}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  7, 2000 (15:29)", "body": "http://www.sciencenews.org/20000506/fob5.asp Intergalactic magnetism runs deep and wide P. Weiss Hunting for magnetic energy in intergalactic space, researchers have found an unexpected motherlode of it. Both in the gaps between galaxies that are clustered and in the lonelier neighborhoods outside those clusters, magnetic fields are remarkably strong, a scientific team reports. As their hunt widens, the scientists find that they are detecting more extensive fields, says Philipp P. Kronberg of the University of Toronto, leader of the decades-long search. Kronberg reported the results April 29 at an American Physical Society meeting in Long Beach, Calif. This is evidence of a tremendous energy source that astronomers have overlooked, comments theorist Stirling A. Colgate of Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory. At the meeting, he argued that enormous dynamos powered by black holes have cranked up these intergalactic magnetic fields. Other researchers suspect instead that the fields arose during the early history of the universe. The magnetic field observations might help researchers understand the origins of the highest-energy cosmic rays and, ultimately, sort out whether magnetic fields have helped shape the universe. One way that astronomers measure cosmic magnetic field strengths is by detecting how light from more distant quasars rotates its angle of polarization as it travels through a region of interest, say a galaxy or galaxy cluster. The stronger the magnetism there or the denser the gas that the field pervades, the more the field rotates the light's polarization. To estimate the magnetic field strength, researchers compare the polarizations of quasar light that does and doesn't pass through the region, and they use data from an X-ray telescope to determine the density of the region's gas. A decade ago, Kronberg and other coworkers made such a calculation for Earth's largest nearby galaxy cluster\ufffdthe Coma cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices. This cluster lies about 300 million light-years away. The scientists found to their surprise that the cluster's dilute intergalactic gas had magnetic fields of 2 to 3 microgauss (\ufffdG), similar in strength to those in the Milky Way. Because the Coma cluster has some unusual traits, the investigators remained uncertain about whether most clusters have potent magnetic fields. Other research groups have since measured other cluster fields. Some have reported still higher magnetic fields in regions where gravity strongly compresses a cluster's gas. At this week's meeting, Kronberg described extending the Coma cluster experiment to 24 clusters near Earth, purposely avoiding compressed regions. He finds on the average even higher field strengths, about 5 \ufffdG, than he did a decade ago. \"That tells us there's significant energy in space contained in the [intergalactic] magnetic fields,\" he says. \"I'm surprised, very surprised,\" says Russell M. Kulsrud of Princeton University, adding that he harbors some doubts that the strengths \"are quite as high as [Kronberg] said.\" But even if the field strengths are a bit smaller, he adds, \"they are still . . . very difficult to explain.\" To investigate the spatial extent of intergalactic fields, the researchers took a different tack. In the presence of a magnetic field, charged particles moving at velocities near the speed of light give off so-called synchrotron radiation. Mapping synchrotron radiation from a patch of sky with a radio telescope indicates both where and how strong magnetic fields are. About a decade ago, Kronberg and his coworkers had picked up synchrotron-radiation signals indicating field strengths outside the Coma cluster of a hundredth to a few tenths of the cluster's field strengths. Those first fields to be detected outside a cluster extended millions of light-years beyond the cluster's bounds. Radio-telescope improvements since then have made it possible for researchers to search for magnetic fields across a much larger patch of sky and to do so at lower frequencies, which are sensitive to weaker radiation, Kronberg says. In a test of that capability, he and his colleagues used the Very Large Array of radio dishes at Socorro, N.M., to look again at the environs of the Coma cluster. The new radio image shows essentially the same pattern of extended fields. However, it also contains patches of fields having roughly equivalent strength much further from Coma and extending into the surrounding population of galaxies. The image \"confirms that these magnetic fields really exist in intergalactic space,\" Kronberg claims. Calling both sets of findings \"very intriguing,\" Eugene N.Parker of the University of Chicago insists they offer no easy answers about the origins and influences of cosmic magnetic fields. Rather, he says, they are \"a warning flag\" indicating that scientists don't really understand how magnetic fields work."}, {"response": 202, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, May  7, 2000 (22:24)", "body": "Greetings all The Longwave Club of America has a web page check out: www.lwca.org The club membership is $18 a year (US) and includes the LowDown magazine. Most excellent Membership address is: Long Wave Club of America 45 Wildflower Road Levittown PA 19057-3209"}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  7, 2000 (22:28)", "body": "Thanks, Mike! I'll make that a hotlink... The Longwave Club of America has a web page check out: http://www.lwca.org I expect I shall join, if the magazine is most excellent. High praise, indeed!"}, {"response": 204, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  7, 2000 (22:31)", "body": "Something like telling them how to hear the remnants of The Big Bang should bring in some eager followers of the casual Geo visitors and lurkers. Or is that not what those sounds are thought to be nowadays? You tell'um. They'll be amazed! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 28, "subject": "Geo Mythology", "response_count": 192, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (14:30)", "body": "Geo 27 touched on the mythology of creationism and how humans got here. The topic became so diverse and threads got so tangled that I created this topic just for the mythology of what exists on the Earth and about the Earth, itself."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:22)", "body": "To get this topic up to speed, these are comments from Geo 27: anne hale (ommin) * Mon, Mar 13, 2000 Talking about beyond the earth = got into a discussion with a Jewish friend of ours on the word Nephalim - or giants who slept with the children of men. He went on to say that there was some grounds for thinking Zeus, Jupiter, Hercules etc. from Greek Mythology - perhaps even Mithras, some Egyptian Myths would refer to the same beings not from this world. They were prevalent pre-flood - and from our studies of the great rift valley near Eilat there is definite proof of a great flood of some sort some thousands of years ago. Is this relevant to this one if not please Marcia put into the relevant one. Anne. anne hale (ommin) * Mon, Mar 13, 2000 By the way it can be found in the Old Testament - Genesis in relation to Noah. Its an interesting topic and some would say the ley lines, anti-magnetic forms of travelling came from that time. I must get Elliot to perhaps share some of his thoughts. He is quite a scholar. Cheryl (CherylB) * Mon, Mar 13, 2000 I once took a class on the Book of Genesis. I was confused at the end of the class; I had know idea what was up with the Book of Genesis. To start with in Hebrew God is sometimes referred to as singular and sometimes as plural. (God is always referred to as masculine singular, never feminine singular.) Back to God as plural -- there is a passage where God says that we have done well. Who exactly is he talking to, can't be angels, they didn't have a hand in creation. Then there are the passages regarding the sons of God, but sometimes called the sons of the gods, who came down to Earth and lay with the daughters of men. thus giving rise to the giants who walked the Earth. Oh to backtrack, Cain is banished, goes off and founds the first city, and has a family. Where did these other people come from to populate the city and to provide Cain with a wife. Which leads to my embarassing gaffe in understanding the Scriptures. I thought Adam was practicing beastiality with the animals in the Garden, that was why God felt that it was not good for him to be alone. So God provided him with a companion. This is where things really got wierd. There is the tradition of Lilith, the first wife of Adam, who refused to assume a subserviant sexual position to Adam, fled to the Red Sea, and became the consort of Satan. To be fair the Lilith tradition states that she was created at the same time as Adam and as she fled Eden before the Fall retained her immortality. Then there is the tradition of the first Eve, she was created after Adam, from the same dust as he. God did not cause Adam to sleep and he saw her entire creation. It disgusted him, so much he wouldn't even go near her. I have no idea what happened to the first Eve so the way could be open for the second Eve. She who is said to be the Mother of Us All, although maybe not of Cain's wife."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "Then there is the gap theory between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 where in God recreated the Earth and Heaven. There is also the problem of the \"sons of heaven\" looked at the daughters of Earth and saw they were exceeding fair and bred a race of giants... Who were these sons of heaven (oh no...here come the space men again!)??!!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:27)", "body": "Of course...there IS the big problem of Lilith..."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:55)", "body": "One day in the Garden of Eden, Eve calls out to God... \"Lord, I have a problem!\" \"What's the problem, Eve?\" \"Lord, I know you've created me and have provided this beautiful garden and all of these wonderful animals, and that hilarious comedic snake, but I'm just not happy.\" \"Why is that, Eve?\" came the reply from above. \"Lord, I am lonely. And I'm sick to death of apples.\" \"Well, Eve, in that case, I have a solution. I shall create a man for you.\" \"What's a 'man,' Lord?\" \"This man will be a flawed creature, with many bad traits. He'll lie, cheat, and be vainglorious; all in all, he'll give you a hard time. But he'll be bigger, faster, and will like to hunt and kill things. He will look silly aroused, but since you've been complaining, I'll create him in such a way that he will satisfy your ah, physical needs. He'll be witless and will revel in childish things like fighting and kicking a ball about. He won't be too smart, so he'll also need your advice to think properly.\" \"Sounds great,\" says Eve, with an ironically raised eyebrow. \"What's the catch, Lord?\" \"Yeah, well.... you can have him on one condition.\" \"What's that, Lord?\" \"As I said, he'll be proud, arrogant, and self-admiring...So you'll have to let him believe that I made him first...So, just remember... it's our secret...Woman-to-woman!\""}, {"response": 6, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (18:06)", "body": "Of course it is. That's the secret held by all women. It's why men are prone to whine, \"Women! Who can understand them. What do they want? They're so illogical!\" Well, excuse me sirs -- we are not at all illogical, speak for yourselves."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (18:20)", "body": "Yup! It's that \"Why?!\" chromosome."}, {"response": 8, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (18:24)", "body": "Too funny!!! I'm convinced men think they're the superior sex because they can urinate standing up. Sorry if I offended anyone."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (18:30)", "body": "Nope! They know it...same as we do...But, there are such charming ones out there who steal their way into your heart and mess around in there until we are changed but they remain the same. Amazing... and it makes me crazy sometimes!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (18:33)", "body": "The little devils. It's true they don't really change, nor ever really grow up. For some of them that's part of their charm."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (18:45)", "body": "Precisely what I told one of the most charming and dangerous man for that very fact. The alternative does not do it for me. They are totally and damnably unforgettable. * s i g h * What is it they say...can't live with them and can't live without them...!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (18:49)", "body": "Too true."}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (19:33)", "body": "(pardon the syntax in my last post...I told you they made me irrational...and far too foolish) I shall hunt up the Hawaiian creation of the earth story. I do not recall ever hearing one. Mankind, yes... I emailed John, my local encyclopedia."}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (19:44)", "body": "i've never heard of lilith until the lilith concerts. i believe the bible creation story........(this is not to start an argument because we are above that) but it's open to discussion...."}, {"response": 15, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (19:44)", "body": "Revisiting the Garden of Eden again, there is also the theory of how the serpent and Tree of Knowlege tie into ancient Middle Eastern Goddess based religions. The serpent is a symbol of wisdom closely associated with the Goddess, particularly on Crete. The Philistines may have been displaced Minoans, who brought the worship of their Serpent Goddess with them. Also, there is a kind of fig in the Middle East which grows in bunches on the tree. This particular fig is associated with the Goddess, to eat of the tree is to partake of the flesh and fluid of the Goddess."}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (19:45)", "body": "how interesting...."}, {"response": 17, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (19:46)", "body": "and the garden of eden was in egypt if it was at the euphrates river..."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (19:58)", "body": "Discussions only, Wolfie. This is not for pounding belief-systems. We are all struggling up the same mountain toward the same God...we just have tunnel-vision on occasion. *hugs* John and I agree on this much of Hawaiian cosmogony:...In the beginning there was the sea and the demigod Maui, who rode a dolphin and made ti leaf lasso and pulled the islands up from under the ocean's surface...where he got the ti leaf, we dunno."}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (20:05)", "body": "i think it's neat how different cultures express their creation. to me, the stories are different and the same, you know? (please don't think i was trying to pound my belief, i am open to learn new things)"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (20:43)", "body": "Never, Wolfie! Not from a gentle as a lamb Wolf like you! *hugs* Where else could there be a ti-leaf rope?! Hawaii did not have anyting but sennet for rope (coconut fiber) and ti leaves are sacred here. All blessings, Christian or not, as done with the sprinkling of water with ti leaves!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (20:46)", "body": "where do ti leaves originate?"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "I think they brought them with the original migratory canoes. If that is so, the place of origin is probably Asia, utimately. None of the Polynesian islands had their own plants...they had to come from some continental source. Asia is the closest and the islands are in the air and sea currents taking them in that direction."}, {"response": 23, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (21:00)", "body": "ok, ti leaves, they're the leaves of a dumb cane, right? yup, they're from the dracaena group (usually grown straight up with a bunch of striped leaves at the top, looks like corn). but there are lots of species of dracaena. i believe they are from asia. since he is a demigod, perhaps he was able to procure a few leaves before making hawaii...."}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (21:09)", "body": "Ok, looked it up (when all else fails...) Ti plants are indigenous to Tropical Asia and Australia and realtives of Hawaiian Ti are found in New Zealand. It is in the lily family, which is so big it includes onions!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (21:11)", "body": "Dumb cane is dieffenbachia and don't get it anywhere near food, eyes, children or animals. Hawaiians use ti leaves to cook in - they bundle meat and veggies into bundles secured with twine and popped into the hot cooking pit with the other food."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (21:13)", "body": "Going out to dinner and going to pick up a book on Hawaiian creation lore. More tomorrow! Bye for now!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (21:13)", "body": "yep, i got dumb cane mixed up with the dracaena. dumb cane is definitely poisonous."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (12:51)", "body": "Ti is a relative of dracena. Got that right (and please - never mix up dieffenbachia with ti in real life. Oxalic acid crystals will make your life miserable under those circumstances! The happy news is that I came home with two books on Hawaiian cosmogony. The first is the creation chant translated from the ancient chants taught to her by her high priestess grandmother by Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii. The other is by King Kalakaua of Hawaii which covers all of the myths and legends in story form. I will be reading and posting these as soon as I can. Does anyone have AmerIndian or AustraloAborigines legends or other lore ? In basic information, they seem to agree surprisingly well!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (18:42)", "body": "The Kumulipo: An Hawaiian Creation Myth THE FIRST AGE Verse 1 At the time that turned the heat of the earth, At the time when the heavens turned and changed,' At the time when the light of the sun was subdued To cause light to break forth, At the time of the night of Makalii (winter) Then began the slime which established the earth, The source of deepest darkness. Of the depth of darkness, of the depth of darkness, Of the darkness of the sun, in the depth of night It is night, So was night was born. Verse 2 Kumulipo was born in the night, a male Poele was born in the night, a female. (it continues on to creation of all of the shell-fish worms, sea creatures) Kane was born to Waiololi, a female to Waiolola. (seaweeds and grasses created and forests) It seems not to mention who did the creating. But that is the beginning word for word except for what I put in ( )."}, {"response": 30, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:09)", "body": "i'm gonna have to go back and do some looking....on the creation story i know. most beliefs are that the redeemer will come back again and in christianity that's the christ, which is why i believe that the creation stories run along the same lines, put into parables that can be understood by the people for whom the story is meant..... the first age is rather poetic, isn't it?"}, {"response": 31, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:11)", "body": "oh, and the \"we\" that was being referred to up a bit is God and the angels. angels were with God before the earth was created.....they are in heaven, but the heavens and the earth that were created was the sky and the actual earth..."}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:13)", "body": "you know, marcia, your creation of this topic could be a good for my faith, causes me to delve deeper into what i know....you know what i mean?"}, {"response": 33, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "to put away the belief that we evolved from fish, if you believe in the creation story, the water put forth creatures with which the waters swarm, and the earth to bring cattle, creepy things, and wild animals. (comes from genesis 1:20 and 24)...but if you continue reading, it looks as though one set of animals existed but because there was no one to take care of the earth (i.e., work the land, etc.) the earth was fruitless. so He made man and the garden of eden. saw that man had no one to help him work the earth, brought forth birds and animals of the field. so what if the dinosaurs were the first set of animals and man was created later (as history suggests) and our modern day animals (more or less).... this is interesting...i'm sitting here delving through genesis like a sleuth (which is what i've never done before)......"}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:27)", "body": "oh, and the fish were left alone (including sea monstors, it's there!)"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:29)", "body": "Indeed - it could be good for me, as well. I never knew about the Hawaiian creation story and there is no better authority than the Queen herself (or king) who are actually the repository of the chants and history of the people. Like anointed kings everywhere, it makes them semi-divine!!!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:33)", "body": "i know and they had the forethought to write down their history! for us to learn and marvel over...."}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:33)", "body": "I think much is reworked from the original creation story which has been lost and what we have is the rehash of what is remembered when they got around to writing it down....not all that long ago, actually! There is no reason God could not have set up evolution and watched to see the choices made of free will from the very beginning!! Have you any Native American knowledge of creation?"}, {"response": 38, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:39)", "body": "no, i know they had spirits of the earth and such. you're right about God's method. it is not told how these things were done, why should it be? and evolution is a natural process of adaptation. perhaps not as radical as some would have you believe, i.e., apes and the missing link....you know, i learned in a biology class (college) that darwin was approached by someone who sneered at him that the next thing he would know is that he came from apes. and for some reason, people had hung on to that as truth. but it's not what darwin was theorizing."}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:49)", "body": "Thank you for saying that. It makes me crazy when people blindly mis-state Darwin's theory. Arrrrrgh! After all, if we are God's creation and He made our brains capable of understanding and thinking complex things (of course He did!)He would expect us to use them as fully as we could as we developed in wisdom and understanding. I would never put limits on God's ingenuity and ability to challenge our intelligence. I have problems with people who do!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:01)", "body": "me too! and all this missing link stuff, yes, there's a missing link, because it never happened!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:03)", "body": "Yup!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:10)", "body": "you know, after that class, i was burning with the desire to get a hold of darwin's book. but being so busy, i've not done it yet. it's on my list though."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:23)", "body": "It is a fascinating read - but not a really fast one. It is good to chew on!"}, {"response": 44, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:25)", "body": "well, all those science books are that way. but they're sooo interesting. i loved to thumb through that biology book (had to, it cost so darned much *wink*)......"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (22:30)", "body": "That is where it benefited me to be married to a college professor. Book dealers could not wait to send me the latest books on thing I was interested in whether or not I was teaching a course in it. I gotta lot of them!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (00:36)", "body": "You were asking about Australian Aboriginal myths - the dreaming time it is called - it is often tied up with the serpent the Woggle (I am not sure how it is spelt)and must be careful not to offend. The stories are now on paper and are often told on the ABC television on a Saturday evening at 6.50 just before the news. Some of the stories are fascinating - and once again the myth of creation of man comes in. It is interesting how a snake or serpent comes into so many of the creation stories. Most of the dreaming time stories have a good moral to them - and have been told hand to mouth over 40,000 years. Unfortunately I am not too clued up on them - and as I said before would not offend Aboriginal culture by saying too much. Ideally what's needed is someone on line who knows far more than I. The dreaming time concept is different I think to other cultures, especially the amount of years it has been told over and over again."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (00:47)", "body": "Thank you, Anne. I was thinking the same thing about Hawaiian creation myths but no one ventured forth, so I used the highest source I could possibly find - their Queen and High Priestess (even though Christianized) Let's hope other ethnic groups volunteer their creation stories."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (18:18)", "body": "Maggie originally posted this information in Travel Conference under Mali Dogon Theory of Creation The Dogon people are an indigeous tribe who occupy a region in Mali, south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. They live in the Homburi Mountains near Timbuktu. They are believed to be of Egyptian descent. After living in Libya for a time, they settled in Mali, West Africa, bringing with them astronomy legends dating from before 3200 BCE. In the late 1940s, four of their priests told two French anthropologists of a secret Dogon myths about the star Sirius (8.6 light years from the earth). The priests said that Sirius had a companion star that was invisible to the human eye. They also stated that the star moved in a 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius, that it was small and incredibly heavy, and that it rotated on its axis. Sirius - which we now call Sirius A - was not seen through a telescope until 1862 and was not photographed until 1970. The Dogon name for Sirius B (Po Tolo) consists of the word for star (tolo) and \"po,\" the name of the smallest seed known to them. By this name they describe the star's smallness -- it is, they say, \"the smallest thing there is.\" They also claim that it is \"the heaviest star,\" and white. The Dogon thus attribute to Sirius B its three principle properties as a white dwarf: small, heavy, white. They go on to say that it has an is elliptical orbit, with Sirius A at one foci of the ellipse (as it is), that the orbital period is 50 years (the actual figure is 50.04 +/- 0.09 years), and that the star rotates on its own axis (it does). The Dogon also describe a third star in the Sirius system, called \"Emme Ya\" (\"Sorghum Female\"). In orbit around this star, they say, is a single satellite. To date, Emme Ya has not been identified by astronomers. In addition to their knowledge of Sirius B, the Dogon mythology includes Saturn's rings, and Jupiter's four major moons. They have four calendars, for the Sun, Moon, Sirius, and Venus, and have long known that planets orbit the sun. The Dogon say their astronomical knowledge was given to them by the Nommos, amphibious beings sent to Earth from Sirius for the benefit of mankind. The name comes from a Dogon word meaning \"to make one drink,\" and the Nommos are also called Masters of the Water, the Monitors, and the Teachers. Nommos The Dogon tells the legend of the Nommos, awful-looking beings who arrived in a vessel along with fire and thunder. After they arrived here - they put out a reservoir of water onto the Earth then dove into the water. There are references in the oral traditions, drawings and cuneiform tablets of the Dogons, to human looking beings who have feet but who are portrayed as having a large fish skin running down their bodies. The Nommos were more fishlike than human, and had to live in water. They were saviors and spiritual guardians: \"The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe \"had drunk of his body,\" the Nommo also made men drink. He gave all his life principles to human beings.\" The Nommo was crucified and resurrected and in the future will again visit the Earth, this time in human form. Later he will assume his amphibious form and will rule the world from the waters. Dogon mythology is known only by a number of their priests, and is a complex system of knowledge. Such carefully guarded secrets would not be divulged to friendly strangers very easily. If the star Emme Ya is eventually discovered in the Sirius system, this would give considerably weight to the Dogon's story. The Nommos, who could live on land but dwelled mostly in the sea, were part fish, like merfolk (mermaids and mermen). Similar creatures have been noted in other ancient civilizations -- Babylonia's Oannes, Acadia's Ea, Sumer's Enki, and Egypt's goddess Isis. It was from the Nommos that the Dogon claimed their knowledge of the heavens. The Dogon also claimed that a third star (Emme Ya) existed in the Sirius system. Larger and lighter than Sirius B, this star revolved around Sirius as well. And around it orbited a planet from which the Nommos came. (Sirius A)."}, {"response": 49, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (00:26)", "body": "so again - something like the Nephalim in the Bible. Fascinating isn't it. There are some strange pictures in the far North West of Western Australia of men with what looks like space suits and helmets on - I believe they are very old. Has anyone else more information on these."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (04:16)", "body": "Is it too implausible (or downright cheeky) to speculate that the four Dogon priests in the 1940s had got hold of some astronomical information, and wove their own culture's \"creation story\" around it? Just to impress the researchers... Yours sceptically"}, {"response": 51, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (11:02)", "body": ""}, {"response": 52, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (11:07)", "body": "Given the remoteness of that area then,and what I know so far of the character of the people - you suggestion seems reasonably implausible. Not that it hasn't been conisidered, and we have to remember the humanity of the researchers and what they got out of the publication! if I find out more I'll let you know."}, {"response": 53, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (04:18)", "body": "This is what I've come up with so far. (Wolfie - this is on your head!!! *grin*) From New international Version Study Bible Genesis Chapters 1-38 reflect a good deal of what we know from other sources about ancient Mesopotamian life and culture, creation, genealogies, destructive floods, geography and map making. Construction techniques, migration of peoples, sale and purchase of land, legal customs and procedures, sheep and cattle farming \ufffd all these subjects and many others were matters of vital concern to the peoples of Mesopotamia during this time. The closest ancient literary parallels to Genesis 1-38 also come from Mesopotamia. Enuma elion, the story of the god Marduk\ufffds rise to supremacy in the Babylonian pantheon, is similar in some respects to the Genesis 1 creation account. Some of the features of certain king lists from Sumer bear striking resemblance to the genealogy of Genesis 5. The eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh epic is quite similar in outline to the flood narrative in Genesis 6-8. Several of the major events of Genesis 1-8 are narrated in the same order as similar events in the Atrahasis epic. In fact, the latter features the same basic motif of creation \ufffd rebellion \ufffd flood as the biblical account. Clay tablets found recently at the ancient ( c2500-2300 BC) site of Ebla (modern Tell Mardikh) in northern Syria may also contain some intriguing parallels. Genesis is divided into 10 main sections each beginning with the word \ufffdaccount\ufffd (2:2; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10; 11:27; 25:12; 25:19; 36:1 repeated for emphasis at 36:9 and 37:2). The first 5 sections (1:1-11:26) can be grouped together and along with the introduction to the book as a whole 1:1-2:3) can be appropriately called \ufffdprimeval history\ufffd. From Berkhof 1971, Systematic Theology Genesis 2 is not and does not pretend to be a narrative of creation. The superscription eleh toledoth which is found ten times in Genesis never refers to the birth or origin of things but refers to its history. The expression dates from a time when history still consisted of the description of generations. The second chapter of Genesis begins the description of the history of man, arranged its materials also to suit this purpose, and only repeats so much of what was said in the previous chapter without any consideration of chronological order as necessary for the author\ufffds purpose."}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (11:20)", "body": "maggie, i'm glad you posted this!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (16:05)", "body": "Kramer's Translation of a Gilgamesh Prologue This passage, as understood and translated by Samuel Kramer, would include the oldest known reference to Lilith. The translation is from Kramer38:1f After heaven and earth had been separated and mankind had been created, after An\ufffdum, Enlil and Ereskigal had taken posesssion of heaven, earth and the underworld; after Enki had set sail for the underworld and the sea ebbed and flowed in honor of its lord; on this day, a huluppu tree which had been planted on the banks of the Euphrates and nourished by its waters was uprooted by the south wind and carried away by the Euphrates. A goddess who was wandering among the banks siezed the swaying tree And -- at the behest of Anu and Enlil -- brought it to Inanna's garden in Uruk. Inanna tended the tree carefully and lovingly she hoped to have a throne and a bed made for herself from its wood. After ten years, the tree had matured. But in the meantime, she found to her dismay that her hopes could not be fulfilled. because during that time a dragon had built its nest at the foot of the tree the Zu-bird was raising its young in the crown, and the demon Lilith had built her house in the middle.[1] But Gilgamesh, who had heard of Inanna's plight, came to her rescue. He took his heavy shield killed the dragon with his heavy bronze axe, which weighed seven talents and seven minas. Then the Zu-bird flew into the mountains with its young, while Lilith, petrified with fear, tore down her house and fled into the wilderness http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/Lilith/gilgamesh.html"}, {"response": 56, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (16:07)", "body": "Here's another one to consider: Ra and the Serpent Egyptian myth of creation Introduction and paraphrase prepared by Angelo Salvo Ra the Sun, the Supreme Lord of Egypt, the great Neb-er- tcher, spoke these words after appearing: I am the one who came into being as Khepri the Lifegiver! I was the creator of all forms of life which now exist, I was the first one to emerge from primeval matter, After I appeared all forms of life eventually appeared for the first time, Just after I appeared I was alone and I raised up my hand, For neither heaven nor earth existed, and there weren't any plants or dry land or reptiles in Egypt. Then, I spoke and living creatures arose from out of Nun the primeval sea. I put all the creatures back to a state of rest in Nun so I could find a place to stand. I made up a plan of creation in my heart, and I started my work by laying a foundation in Egypt. I designed every living creature by myself. I was still alone, for I had not exhaled Shu the Wind and I had not spat Tefnut the Rain. I wanted to have a multitude of living creatures-I wanted then to reproduce so they had children and grandchildren In order to do that, I formed a physical union with my fist. I masturbated with my own hand, and I ejaculated the seed into my own mouth. I exhaled Shu the Wind and spat Tefnut the Rain. Old Man Nun, my father, raised Shu and Tefnut and my Eye, an overseer, looked after them during the times when I was away. Old Man Nun told me: \"At first, you Ra the Sun were the only god who existed. Two other gods have emerged from you-so now there are three. Though you appeared on dry earth, Shu and Tefnut play together in Nun the primeval sea.\" Shu and Tefnut brought me the Eye that looked after them, and I gathered with them and wept for joy. Human beings emerged from the tears that I shed. Eye the Overseer was angry with me for replacing it with Eye the Glorious. As a sincere apology to my Eye, I made Eye the Overseer a place of honor by making him the ruler of all Egypt. The Eye's tears of anger became tears of joy, and with Eye's tears of joy I created all the Reptiles and their companions, and I created plants and bushes as well. Afterward, Shu the Wind and Tefnut the Rain gave birth to Geb the Earth and Nut the Sky. Geb and Nut gave birth to the brothers Osiris and Seth and their wives Isis and Nepthys. Osiris and Isis had a son named Horus-khent-an- maati, who was the Sun God. One was born right after another from Geb the Earth, and they then gave birth to the people of Egypt who multiplied and fluorished. COMMENTARY There is, to some extent, a cross-influence between the Old Testament story of creation and the story of \"Ra and the Serpent\". Like the beginning of the ancient Hebrew story of creation, the Egyptian story of creation begins with the Supreme Lord being all by himself in a dark void without even the Earth, the Sky, or the seas. However, in many specific details the Egyptian creation story does not follow the same route as the Old Testament. In the story \"Ra and the Serpent\", Ra does not directly create the earth(land) or the sky as the Hebrew god does after creating Day and Night, or Light and Darkness. The Egyptians assigned a wide diversity of gods and goddesses to such basic phenomena as the sky, earth, and seas. Ra produced Geb and Nut, the earth and the sky, indirectly through the wind deity Shu and the rain deity Tefnut. There is a difference between the Egyptian story and the Hebrew story in the way vegetation was created. In the Egyptian tale, Ra created vegetation directly through the tears of Eye the Overseer. However, in the Old Testament, the one and only God created vegetation indirectly by empowering mother earth to do so. The Old Testament story is more specific than the Egyptian story in its detailing of the creation of land creatures. The Egyptian merely talks about the creation of reptiles and all related creatures or companions through the tears of Eye. In the Hebrew tale, God first created fish to live in the waters and birds to fly in the sky. On a separate occasion, the Hebrew god produced all sorts of cattle and wild animals that roamed the earth, including things like reptiles, snakes, insects, and rodents. Afterward, God according to Hebrew tradition created humankind in his image with the intention of making them pre-eminent to all other living creatures. God's creation according to Hebrew tradition occured step by step and every detail was made on purpose. Although Ra did make up a schematic plan of creation in the Egyptian tale, the various steps of creation did not occur on purpose. The creation of living creatures in the Egyptian tradition occured more in line with spontanuity than Ra's plans. For example, human beings in Egypt were a result of the tears Ra shed when he wept for joy at being united with Shu and Tefnut. Ra spontaneously began to create reptiles, other wild animals, and vegetation when Eye the Oversser began to weep tears of joy at being m"}, {"response": 57, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (21:13)", "body": "both of these passages provoke thought. thanks, maggie. i wish those scholars would speak in layman's terms so sillies like myself can really grasp what they're saying!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (21:24)", "body": "Perhaps that is the way they cover their back sides...if they understood it better they would not have to use such a high fog index. Gonna post a long one from Maggie, who was afraid it was too long to post - but I'm gonna do it as it is really interesting! Part 1 The Atra-hasis Epic http://www.biblicalresource.com/texts/atrahasis.html Tablet I The gods have been assigned hard labor for the major gods in the Babylonian pantheon. After bickering and complaining, they rebel. As a concession to the lesser gods, humans are created. We pick up the narrative just after the rebellion. \"Every single one of the gods 160together, we have declared war We placed....in the excavation The excessive labor killed us. Our work was heavy, the difficulty great So every single one of the gods 165have brought the complaint against Enlil. When he heard that word His tears flowed Enlil....his word He addresses the hero Anu: 170\"Noble One, carry your authority take your power with you to heaven. The Anunnaki dwell before you. Call one god, and let him be thrown to death.\" Anu speaks, and 175Addresses the gods, his brothers: \"What are we charging them with? Their work was heavy, their distress great Daily.... The lamentation was heavy, we heard the noise! 180..................................to do ........................................the assigned task Fragment K 8562 (S), ii. 1............................................. \ufffdlet me.................................... you......................................... take........................................ 5The Anunnaki sit before you Beleti, the birth goddess is present. Summon one and throw him to death.\" Anu opens his mouth, he speaks, he addresses: \"Nusku, open your gate, take your weapons. 10Bow down in the assembly of the great gods. Speak to them...... 'Anu, your father, has sent me Your advisor, the hero, Enlil.....'\" Fragment BM 78257 (G) ii 1Ea used his mouth and addressed the gods, his brothers: \"Why are we laying the charge on them? Their work is heavy, the distress is great 5Daily....................................................... The lamentation was heavy..... There is...................................................... Beleti, the birth goddess sits Let her create Lulla-man 10Let him bear the yoke Let man carry the hod of the gods. Fragment K 6634 (v): Obverse 1The mistress of the gods, The Womb, is here Let The Womb create Lullu Let the human carry the toil of the gods Let here create Lullu-humanity 5Let it bear the yoke Let it bear the yoke Tablet I (While) Belet-Ili, The Womb, is present 190Let The Womb put down here, let her create, so that humanity may carry the toil of the gods.\" They summoned and asked the goddess, The Midwife of the gods, Wise Mami, \" You are The Womb, the creatress of humanity. 195Create Lullu, that they might carry the yoke. Let them carry the yoke, the assigned task of Enlil The toil of the god Enlil let humanity carry.\" Nintu used her mouth And addresses the great gods: 200\"It is not right for me alone to do. With Enki, too, there is a task at hand. He alone can purity everything. Let him give me the clay, that I may act.\" Enki used his mouth 205And addresses the great gods. \"On the first, seventh and fifteenth day of the month I will institute a purifying bath. Let one god be slaughtered And let the gods be cleansed by immersion. 210From his flesh and blood Let Nintu mix the clay That god and humanity may be mixed all together in the clay. For all future days may we hear the drum. 215Let there be a ghost ( etemmu) in the flesh of the god Let it proclaim a living one as its sign Let the etemmu remain, that we might not forget.\" In the great assembly, they answered \"Yes!\" The great Anunnaki 220Who are in charge of destinies. On the first, seventh, and fifteenth day of the month He established a purifying bath. We-ila, the god who had intelligence in their assembly, they slaughtered. 225From his flesh and his blood, Nintu mixed the clay. For all future days they heard the drum. The etemmu was in the flesh of the god It proclaimed the living one as its sign 230The etemmu existed, to prevent forgetting. When the two of them had mixed that clay She summoned the Anunnaki, the great gods, The Igigi, the great gods Threw spit upon the clay. 235Mami used her mouth, And addresses the great gods: \"You assigned me a task And I completed it. You slaughtered the god with its intelligence."}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (21:28)", "body": "A secod part - it is too long to post in entirety but do see the rest at the url given in the posting above. 240I have caused your heavy labor to be removed I have imposed your toil on humanity. You have raised a cry for humanity I have loosed the yoke; I have established freedom.\" They heard this speech of hers. 245They ran free and kissed her feet. \"Previously, we called you Mami. Now let your name be Mistress-Of-All-The-Gods!\" They entered the house of destiny 250Prince Ea and Wise Mami. The birth goddess assembled The wombs trampled the clay in her presence. She kept on reciting the incantation. Ea, seated before her, was prompting her 255When she finished her incantation She pinched off 14 nips of clay Seven pieces on the right, And seven pieces on the left, she put. Between them she put the brick 260..................the umbilical cord. Fragments K3399 and 3934 Prince Ea spoke. He was prompting her. She recited the spell. After she recited her spell She put out her hand upon her clay. 5Fourteen pieces she nipped off, seven pieces on the right she put, Seven pieces on the left, she set; between them she put the brick. A reed-sliver of a swamp-reed that severs the umbilical cord, she opened toward it She summoned the wise and the learned. Seven and Seven Wombs. Seven were creating males 10Seven were creating females. The Womb, the Creatress of destiny They were covering them in pairs, They were covering them in pairs before her ............................................................... 15In the house of the women giving birth Seven days let the brick be placed.... Tablet I ...........................................her breasts ...........................................beard ......................................cheek of the young man 275..................................open air shrine and street .........................................wife and husband The wombs were gathered And Nintu sat Counting the months. 280....................of destiny. They summoned the tenth month The tenth month came The palu was inserted, the womb opened Her joyful face was beaming She covered her head 285She performed the midwifery. She girded her loins; she pronounces the blessing. She made a drawing in the flour, and she put the brick in place \"I myself have created, with my own two hands I have done it. 290Let the midwife rejoice in the house of the qadishtu-prostitute Where the mother gives birth. The mother of the babe Gives birth on her own. Let the brick be put in place for nine days; 295Let Nintu, The Womb, be honored. May they call out 'Mami.' Let them praise The Womb, May they praise Kesh. When the bed is set 300Let Husband and wife At the time of marriage Let Ishtar rejoice in the house..... Let rejoicing be established for nine days. Let Ishtar be called Ishhara In the destined moment......\" Lines 306-327 are too broken to translate. man cleanse the dwelling 330The son to his father They sat and He was carrying He saw and 335Enlil They held each other They made new hoes and spades They built the large canal ditches For the hunger of the people For the sustenance of the gods Lines 340 to 351 are badly broken 1200 years had not come The people became numerous, the people multiplied The people were crying out like a bull 355The god became disturbed by their din Enlil hears their noise And addresses the great gods: \"The noise of humanity has become burdensome to me I am deprived of sleep because of their din. 360Let there be chills ......................... their \" And he, Atra-hasis 365was bringing a report to Enki, his god. He spoke with his god And his god spoke with him. Atra-hasis used his mouth And addresses his lord: 370\"How long And how long will they impose sickness on us?\" Enki used his mouth and Addresses his slave: \"Call the elders, the seniors. 375Bring them together in the house of counsel. Command, and let the heralds proclaim\ufffd Let them make a loud cry in the land\ufffd 'Do not revere your gods; Do not pray to your goddesses. 380Seek the gate of Namtara Bring a baked loaf to him. Let the flour offering come to him. Let him be put to shame by the gift, That he might take away his hand (i.e., the plague)' \" 385Atra-hasis agreed to the command And gathered the elders to his gate. Atra-hasis used his mouth And addressed the elders: \"O Elders, O Seniors. My master said to me, in his temple: 'Command the heralds to proclaim\ufffd Let them make a loud cry in the land!\ufffd \"Do not revere your gods; Do not pray to your goddesses."}, {"response": 60, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (05:21)", "body": "Do you want me to try and decipher what I think those other guys were saying. I'm not too bad at translating academic speak. BTW Marcia did you notice they're U. Penn lecture notes!!!!"}, {"response": 61, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (12:14)", "body": "you know what i find interesting in all this? the number 7. it seems that most theories attribute something with the number 7, just like in christianity."}, {"response": 62, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (12:14)", "body": "maggie, decipher away!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (13:29)", "body": "Yes, Please!"}, {"response": 64, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (14:33)", "body": "OK but be patient. gotta do some work tomorrow for \ufffd\ufffd\ufffds"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (15:50)", "body": "Yes Ma'am...!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (19:07)", "body": "oh yes, go get paid first! *grin*"}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "i got this in the mail from a friend and am going to post it here. if it's not appropriate, please scribble! ***** One day in the Garden of Eden, Eve calls out to God... \"Lord, I have a problem!\" \"What's the problem, Eve?\" \"Lord, I know you've created me and have provided this beautiful garden and all of these wonderful animals, and that hilarious comic snake, but I'm just not happy.\" \"Why is that, Eve?\" came the reply from above. \"Lord, I am lonely. And I'm sick to death of apples.\" \"Well, Eve, in that case, I have a solution. I shall create a man for you.\" \"What's a 'man,' Lord?\" \"This man will be a flawed creature, with many bad traits. He'll give you a hard time. But, he'll be bigger, faster, and will like to hunt and kill things. He'll be witless and will revel in childish things like fighting and kicking a ball about. He won't be too smart, so he'll also need your advice to think properly. \"Sounds great,\" says Eve, with an ironically raised eyebrow. \"What's the catch, Lord?\" \"Yeah, well ... you can have him on one condition. \"What's that, Lord?\" \"As I said, he'll be proud, arrogant, and self-admiring...So you'll have to let him believe that I made him first...So, just remember it's our secret... Woman-to-woman!\" **************"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (13:54)", "body": "Totally appropriate, and I think I know who your friend is =) I love that!!!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (19:03)", "body": "no, it was from a co-worker *grin*"}, {"response": 70, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (19:04)", "body": "now that i think about it, i believe i've received several copies of this poem but when i got it at work, i thought, this would be perfect for geomyth...."}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (19:14)", "body": "I also posted it in Screwed when mine arrived last week."}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (19:16)", "body": "It IS perfect for here - I just did not think of it! Thanks, Wolfie *hugs*"}, {"response": 73, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (19:26)", "body": "well, just to keep the mood in check. this is a very heavy topic! *hugs back atcha*"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (19:41)", "body": "Good idea - there are already too many people afraid of this conference because it \"sounds\" so serious. They should see some of the Jewelry stuff! Nothing gets Karen out of drool quicker than posting in Geo 8 or 18...*grin*"}, {"response": 75, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (19:46)", "body": "If were so serious I couldn't be posting here."}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (19:50)", "body": "Thanks, Cheryl - but you'd be amazed/appalled/incredulous over how many people have said that about Geo without ever reading anything. The just look at the topic titles and run screaming back to Drool. I shoulda made them more sensational sounding than I did...*sigh*"}, {"response": 77, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (20:02)", "body": "What could be more sensational than the Earth, the weather, and the solar system. Not to mention mythology. The \"Epic of Gilgamesh\" is the oldest written story, and a lot of stories still borrow from it."}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (20:38)", "body": "Indeed! That's what I thought when a conference of my chosing was offered to me. Imagine the nerve I must have had taking on the entire Earth! Like Topsy, it grewed from there. I am delighted you find it as enthralling as I do!"}, {"response": 79, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (21:07)", "body": "Dearest Marcianess, please include me as an enthralled one. ;-) I like all your topics and I do catch up on them. I am very busy right now and peek when I can. Blesings to you."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2000 (21:15)", "body": "Oooh, Yes! Thanks for that, Moon! Please feel free to wander around and post when the spirit moves you and you have the time. (Yippee!)"}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/loreindx.html Yellowstone Valley and the Great Flood Cheyenne Native American Lore \"I have heard it told on the Cheyenne Reservation in Montana and the Seminole camps in the Florida Everglades, I have heard it from the Eskimos north of the Arctic Circle and the Indians south of the equator. The legend of the flood is the most universal of all legends. It is told in Asia, Africa, and Europe, in North America and the South Pacific.\" Professor Hap Gilliland of Eastern Montana College was the first to record this legend of the great flood. This is one of the fifteen legends of the flood that he himself recorded in various parts of the world: He was an old Indian. his face was weather beaten, but his eyes were still bright. I never knew what tribe he was from, though I could guess. Yet others from the tribe whom I talked to later had never heard his story. We had been talking of the visions of the young men. He sat for a long time, looking out across the Yellowstone Valley through the pouring rain, before he spoke. \"They are beginning to come back,\" he said. \"Who is coming back?\" I asked. \"The animals,\" he said. \"It has happened before.\" \"Tell me about it.' He thought for a long while before he lifted his hands and his eyes. \"The Great Spirit smiled on this land when he made it. There were mountains and plains, forests and grasslands. There were animals of many kinds--and men.\" The old man's hands moved smoothly, telling the story more clearly than his voice. The Great Spirit told the people, \"These animals are your brothers. Share the land with them. They will give you food and clothing. Live with them and protect them. \"Protect especially the buffalo, for the buffalo will give you food and shelter. The hide of the buffalo will keep you from the cold, from the heat, and from the rain. As long as you have the buffalo, you will never need to suffer.\" For many winters the people lived at peace with the animals and with the land. When they killed a buffalo, they thanked the Great Spirit, and they used every part of the buffalo. It took care of every need. Then other people came. They did not think of the animals as brothers. They killed, even when they did not need food. They burned and cut the forests, and the animals died. They shot the buffalo and called it sport. They killed the fish in the streams. When the Great Spirit looked down, he was sad. He let the smoke of the fires lie in the valleys. The people coughed and choked. But still they burned and they killed. So the Great Spirit sent rains to put out the fires and to destroy the people. The rains feil, and the waters rose. The people moved from the flooded valleys to the higher land. Spotted Bear, the medicine man, gathered together his people. He said to them, \"The Great Spirit has told us that as long as we have the buffalo we will be safe from heat and cold and rain. But there are no longer any buffalo. Unless we can find buffalo and live at peace with nature, we will all die.\" Still the rains fell, and the waters rose. The people moved from the flooded plains to the hills. The young men went out and hunted for the buffalo. As they went they put out the fires. They made friends with the animals once more. They cleaned out the streams. Still the rains fell, and the waters rose. The people moved from the flooded hills to the mountains. Two young men came to Spotted Bear. \"We have found the buffalo,\" they said. \"There was a cow, a calf, and a great white bull. The cow and the calf climbed up to the safety of the mountains. They should be back when the rain stops. But the bank gave way, and the bull was swept away by the floodwaters. We followed and got him to shore, but he had drowned. We have brought you his hide.\" They unfolded a huge white buffalo skin. Spotted Bear took the white buffalo hide. \"Many people have been drowned,\" he said. \"Our food has been carried away. But our young people are no longer destroying the world that was created for them. They have found the white buffalo. It will save those who are left.\" Still the rains fell, and the waters rose. The people moved from the flooded mountains to the highest peaks. Spotted Bear spread the white buffalo skin on the ground. He and the other medicine men scraped it and stretched it, and scraped it and stretched it. Still the rains fell. Like all rawhide, the buffalo skin stretched when it was wet. Spotted Bear stretched it out over the village. All the people who were left crowded under it. As the rains fell, the medicine men stretched the buffalo skin across the mountains. Each day they stretched it farther. Then Spotted Bear tied one corner to the top of the Big Horn Mountains. That side, he fastened to the Pryors. The next corner he tied to the Bear Tooth Mountains. Crossing the Yellowstone Valley, he tied one corner to the Crazy Mountains, and the other to Signal Butte in the Bull Mountains. The whole Yellowstone Valley was covered by the white buffalo skin. Thoug"}, {"response": 82, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (01:20)", "body": "That is most interesting - when we visited the great rift valley in Israel we found in the strata, sea shells etc. The guide told us it came from the great flood. As I think I mentioned before there is proof of a great inland sea in Australia. I wonder if the aboriginals have a dreaming time story about it. The flood seems almost universal doesn't it."}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (01:48)", "body": "Indeed, seemingly every culture has creation, flood, fall and end of time stories with all sorts of fun things (romping gods and goddesses for example)mixed in. There are many more on that Cherokee lore site which I will post as they come up."}, {"response": 84, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (07:59)", "body": "Marcia that would be most interesting. When we travelling from Seattle to San Francisco on a greyhound bus! We had a most interesting time talking to a Cherokee Indian lass who gave us quite a lot of info about Cherokee folklore - much of which sadly I have forgotten so I shall look forward to what you have to say."}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (13:50)", "body": "Thanks, Anne...it just might jog your memory as I post them....or you could go to the website (oddly located here in Hawaii) which is probably not as much fun as reading in here *smiling hopefully*"}, {"response": 86, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (22:28)", "body": "Sadly mostly what I remember is learning some of the language and the treatment they received much like the Aborigines here. The stories - I will not try to tell them cause I can't remember enough to be accurate."}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (23:05)", "body": "They must be available on the net. Gonna check and report back."}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (23:08)", "body": "http://www.ozemail.com.au/~reed/global/baiame.html The First Men and Women - an Australian Aboriginal Legend AND again like the Lord God, Baiame walked on the earth he had made, among the plants and animals, and created man and woman to rule over them. He fashioned them from the dust of the ridges, and said, 'These are the plants you shall eat--these and these, but not the animals I have created.' Having set them in a good place, the All-Father departed. To the first man and woman, children were born and to them in turn children who enjoyed the work of the hands of Baiame. His world had begun to be populated, and men and women praised Baiame for providing for all their needs. Sun and rain brought life to the plants that provided their sustenance. All was well in the world they had received from the bountiful provider, until a year when the rain ceased to fall. There was little water. The flowers failed to fruit, leaves fell from the dry, withered stems, and there was hunger in the land--a new and terrifying experience for men, women, and little children who had never lacked for food and drink. In desperation a man killed some of the forbidden animals, and shared the kangaroo-rats he had caught with his wife. They offered some of the flesh to one of their friends but, remembering Baiame's prohibition, he refused it. The man was ill with hunger. They did their best to persuade him to eat, but he remained steadfast in his refusal. At length, wearying of their importunity, he staggered to his feet, turning his back on the tempting food, and walked away. Shrugging their shoulders, the husband and wife went on with their meal. Once they were satisfied, they thought again of their friend and wondered whether they could persuade him to eat. Taking the remains of the meal with them, they followed his trail. It led across a broad plain and disappeared at the edge of a river. They wondered how he had crossed it and, more importantly, how they themselves could cross. In spite of the fact that it had dwindled in size, owing to the prolonged drought, it was running too swiftly for them to wade or swim. They could see him, some little distance away on the farther side, lying at the foot of a tall gum tree. They were on the point of turning back when they saw a coal-black figure, half man half beast, dropping from the branches of the tree and stooping over the man who was lying there. They shouted a warning, but were too far away for him to hear, even if he were awake. The black monster picked up the inert body, carried it up into the branches and disappeared. They could only think that the tree trunk was hollow and that the monster had retreated to its home with his lifeless burden. One event succeeded another with bewildering rapidity. A puff of smoke billowed from the tree. The two frightened observers heard a rending sound as the tree lifted itself from the ground, its roots snapping one by one, and soared across the river, rising as it took a course to the south. As it passed by they had a momentary glimpse of two large, glaring eyes within its shadow, and two white cockatoos with frantically flapping wings, trying to catch up with the flying tree, straining to reach the shelter of its branches. Within minutes the tree, the cockatoos, and the glaring eyes had dwindled to a speck, far to the south, far above their heads. For the first time since creation, death had come to one of the men whom Baiame had created, for the monster within the tree trunk was Yowee, the Spirit of Death. In the desolation of a drought-stricken world, all living things mourned because a man who was alive was now as dead as the kangaroo-rats that had been killed for food. Baiame's intention for the men and animals he loved had been thwarted. 'The swamp oak trees sighed incessantly, the gum trees shed tears of blood, which crystallised as red gum,' wrote Roland Robinson, in relating this legend of the Kamilroi tribe in his book Wandjina.* 'To this day,' he continued, 'to the tribes of that part is the Southern Cross known as \"Yaraandoo\"--the place of the White Gum tree--and the Pointers as \"Mouyi\", the white cockatoos.' It was a sad conclusion to the hopes of a world in the making, but the bright cross of the Southern Cross is a sign to men that there is a place for them in the limitless regions of space, the home of the All-Father himself, and that beyond death lies a new creation. * Lansdowne Press."}, {"response": 89, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2000 (02:47)", "body": "That is amazing - not so very different from the Biblical version. Thank you - its most interesting to read these different myths and compare them. I can almost hear the soft aboriginal accent of someone reading it."}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "There are more out there, but this was the first one I came upon. I shall look up more. I was actually looking for the origin of the Earth myth. It seems that many cultures understood that it was always here."}, {"response": 91, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (10:59)", "body": "This Aboriginal dreaming from Bruce Chatwin's book The Songlines, pages 80-82 IN THE BEGINNING In the Beginning the Earth was an infinite and murky plain, separated from the sky and from the grey salt sea and smothered in a shadowy twilight. There were nejiher Sun nor Moon nor Stars. Yet, far away, lived the Sky-dwellers: youthfully indifferent beings, human in form but with the feet of emus, their golden hair glit-tering like spiders\ufffd webs in the sunset, ageless and unageing, having existed for ever in their green, well-watered Paradise beyond the Western Clouds. On the surface of the Earth, the only features were certain hollows which would, one day, be waterholes. There were no animals and no plants, yet clustered round the waterholes there were pulpy masses of mat-ter: lumps of primordial soup \ufffd soundless, sightless, unbreathing, unawake and unsleeping \ufffd each con-taining the essence of life, or the possibility of becoming human. Beneath the Earth\ufffds crust,. however, the constellations glimmered, the Sun shone, the Moon waxed and waned, and all the forms of life lay sleeping: the scarlet of a desert-pea, the irridescence on a butterfly\ufffds wing, the twitching white whiskers of Old Man Kangaroo \ufffd dorm-ant as seeds in the desert that must wait for a wandering shower. On the morning of the First Day, the Sun felt the urge to be born. (That evening the Stars and Moon would follow.) The Sun burst through the surface, flooding the land with golden light, warming the hollows under which each Ancestor lay sleeping. Unlike the Sky-dwellers, these Ancients had never been young. They were lame, exhausted greybeards with knotted limbs, and they had slept in isolation through the ages. So it was, on this First Morning, that each drowsing Ancestor felt the Sun\ufffds warmth pressing on his eyelids, and felt his body giving birth to children. The Snake Man felt snakes slithering out of his navel. The Cockatoo Man felt feathers. The Witchetty Grub Man felt a wriggling, the Honey-ant a tickling, the Honeysuckle felt his leaves and flowers unfurling. The Bandicoot Man felt baby bandicoots seething from under his armpits. Every one of the \ufffdliving things\ufffd, each at its own separate birthplace, reached up for the light of day. In the bottom of their hollows (now filling up with water), the Ancients shifted one leg, then another leg. They shook their shoulders and flexed their arms. They heaved their bodies upward through the mud. Their eyelids cracked open. They saw their children at play in the sunshine. The mud fell from their thighs, like placenta from a baby. Then, like the baby\ufffds cry, each Ancestor opened his mouth and called out, \ufffdI AM!\ufffd \ufffdI am \ufffd Snake Cockatoo ... Honey-ant... Honeysuckle ...\ufffd And this first \ufffdI am!\ufffd, this primordial act of naming, was held, then and forever after, as the most secret and sacred couplet of the Ancestor\ufffds song. Each of the Ancients (now basking in the sunlight) put his left foot forward and called out a second name. He put his right foot forward and called out a third name. He named the waterhole, the reedbeds, the gum trees \ufffdcalling to right and left, calling all things into being and weaving their names into verses. The Ancients sang their way all over the world. They sang the rivers and ranges, salt-pans and sand dunes. They hunted, ate, made love, danced, killed: wherever their tracks led they left a trail of music. They wrapped the whole world in a web of song; and at last, when the Earth was sung, they felt tired. Again in their limbs they felt the frozen immobility of Ages. Some sank into the ground where they stood. Some crawled into caves. Some crept away to their \ufffdEternal Homes\ufffd, to the ancestral waterholes that bore them. All of them went \ufffdback in\ufffd."}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (15:34)", "body": "Fascinating, Maggie. Thanks for taking the time to post all of that here. Excellent and intriguing."}, {"response": 93, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (09:18)", "body": "Belated thank you Maggie for that information."}, {"response": 94, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (15:42)", "body": "Alexander says that some of Chatwin's info has since been proved to be not as accurate as was once thought - but the story is good anyway!"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (16:59)", "body": "A good story is always a good story. Read it for that value - but post his stuff in Books rather than here, please! It his hard enough to find authentic creation mythology as it is. Thanks for bringing that up."}, {"response": 96, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (18:10)", "body": "I posted that aboriginal story in good faith - it is presented as an authentic creation story, not the invention of the travel writer. From my own experience in collecting this kind of oral material from individuals who are living resources, there will always be questions of full authenticity, and other 'living resources' may disagree with details of the story. Hence, my follow on caveat."}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (18:57)", "body": "That is how I did read it - and I see how miserable I was feeling yesterday...Sorry Maggie. I sounded much harsher than I intended to. Please forgive!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (19:40)", "body": "Apology accepted. It did make me jump a bit though, although i wouldn't post something I thought was iffy."}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (20:48)", "body": "I know you wouldn't...I cannot imagine what (oh yes, I can...) was bothering me. *hugs* Maggie...*BIG hugs*!"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (20:18)", "body": "from Maggie: Hermaphroditism is portrayed in the sculpture of some African peoples, including Dogon of Mali and Luba-Katanga of Congo/Kinshasa. References may be made to the cosmological origins of categories and classifications, but there can be more specific meanings as well. Luba consider political authority and power to transcend the confines of ordinary definitions, gender or otherwise, and while most sculpture depicts women, the reference is to male office. In effect, \"the king is a woman,\" for only women have the strength to hold, preserve, and convey the secrets of political life. Hermaphroditic figures, although uncommon, do make this intimate relationship both conceptually and visually accessible. A further sense of the empowering transcendence of gender is available in everyday life through spirit possession. These matters are discussed in _Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History_ by Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts (1996, Prestel). Such intellectual concerns do not mean that the physical anomalies of individuals encountered in real life are treated any more sympathetically by Luba than by people the world over, however. H-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU email list."}, {"response": 101, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (03:09)", "body": "I found a Bambara (Mali) creation story in a book of published stories I have. Trouble is the gloss is in French, so i shall have to translate it. If i write it up, I'll get it checked by autumn and then post it. It's very different to the others we've seen."}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (12:31)", "body": "Can't wait! The Dogon was the most \"far out\" one I have heard of so far. Their ancestors came from a planet circling Sirius b..."}, {"response": 103, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (14:30)", "body": "From what i can make out so far without a dictionary, this one is a chicken and egg story! I do my best!!!!! *big grin*"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (14:59)", "body": "Curious to know which came first, we wait with as much patience as we can muster."}, {"response": 105, "author": "ommin", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (07:13)", "body": "I really is an imponderable - either God is or............"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (14:51)", "body": "Yes! I am interested in the take on it from this other culture's traditions."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (14:53)", "body": "Anne, God would figure in it in any case. HE could have created either one and let it go from there, is that not so?!"}, {"response": 108, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2000 (14:20)", "body": "Ok, here's my translation of the story I promised. It's a fairly literal translation, someone else could probably do better. I've written it out like it appeared in the original. The epithet 'a little tale, a little tale' and the end one 'I have left this small tale where I found it' appear frequently in oral stories (we have something similar in Mandinka stories). A Bambara creation story from Mali A little tale. A little tale The egg and the chick went to pick lemons. The chick said to the egg, \ufffdClimb up the lemon tree and pick the lemons\ufffd. The egg responded that he couldn\ufffdt climb. The chick climbed and shook the lemon tree. The lemons fell. They ate them. The egg in his turn climbed, telling the chick to collect the dust and spread it out under him, so that if he fell he would not break. The chick collected the dust and spread it under the tree, but a small stone was hidden in the dust. The egg shook the tree and fell on the small stone, splat! And he broke himself. And the chick laughed, and laughed and laughed. But a branch cut off the chick\ufffds head. And the branch laughed, and laughed and laughed. The fire burnt the branch. And the fire laughed, and laughed and laughed. The water extinguished the fire. And the water laughed, and laughed and laughed. The earth absorbed the water. And the earth laughed, and laughed and laughed. The earth and God quarrelled. God picked up the earth and dropped it. It is since that day that the earth is in her place. I have left this small tale where I found it. (Gorog-karady, V. and Meyer, G. 1985, Contes bambara, Mali et Senegal oriental, Conseil International de la langue francaise) (translated from the French by Maggie Canvin)"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2000 (15:40)", "body": "DNA research links genes of Jews, Palestinians Associated Press JERUSALEM - Tradition says the biblical patriarch Abraham fathered both the Jewish and Arab nations. Now, new DNA-based research reveals a genetic link between Jews and Palestinians, suggesting the two peoples, locked in a bitter struggle for more than a century, indeed share a common ancestry dating back 4,000 years. The study, published Tuesday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., says the Y chromosome found in Jewish men may go back to a common pool of Middle Eastern ancestors. After the first major Jewish exile of 586 B.C., when Jews dispersed across Europe and North Africa, Jews largely retained their genetic identity, one that was formed in the Middle East, according to the study, led by Michael Hammer of the University of Arizona. Even after centuries of exile, Diaspora Jews remained closer to each other and more similar to Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese in terms of shared Y chromosome characteristics than to people in their host countries, the study says. \"Eventually people will realize that they are not that different,\" said Batsheva Bonne-Tamir, a geneticist from Tel Aviv University who participated in the study. Still, she cautioned that the techniques were new and that until the human genome is mapped, it will be difficult to be certain about the conclusions. The study compared the male, or Y, chromosome, which is passed from father to son, in 1,371 males from seven groups of Israeli Jews of various origins and 16 non-Jewish groups in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Mr. Hammer identified 19 variations of the Y chromosome, including eight lineages found to varying degrees among Jews and Arabs. Based on this measure, the study found that despite the many centuries their ancestors had spent in exile in different parts of the world, the Israeli Jews in the sample had the closest genetic links. Next in genetic affinity to Jews were Palestinians and Syrians, followed by Saudi Arabians, Lebanese and Druse, a Middle Eastern sect that practices a secret form of Islam. According to the research, in one of the lineage branches, the variation in the Y chromosome between Jews and Palestinians differed by only 1 percent, compared with a difference of 5 percent between Jews and Europeans. A low rate of intermarriage between Diaspora Jews and gentiles was a key reason for the continuity, Ms. Bonne-Tamir said. For example, since Jews first settled in Europe 80 generations ago, the intermarriage rate was estimated to be only about 0.5 percent in each generation. Hebrew University geneticist Howard Cedar said even though Y chromosomes are considered the best tool for tracing genetic heritage, researchers still don't know what the history is behind the variations. As a result, it is difficult to draw conclusions about genetic affinity. \"The problem is in the interpretation,\" Mr. Cedar said. \"It's very difficult to reconstruct the histories of these events; it's difficult to interpret.\" Ms. Bonne-Tamir, who heads the National Laboratory for the Genetics of Israeli Populations, said that until recently, such research on genetic affinity was limited to classical markers, such as blood groups and enzymes. The genetic link between Jews and Arabs suggested by the study is reflected in the biblical account in Genesis of how Abraham fathered two sons: Ishmael by his wife's maid Hagar, and then, when Sarah was able to conceive, Isaac. Although Muslims give a different version of the story, they revere Abraham and Ishmael or Ibrahim and Ismail, - just as Jews do Abraham and Isaac."}, {"response": 110, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (06:44)", "body": "Now as a Christian I never had any doubts about it; but it is most interesting to have it proved! I have visited Israel twice met Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth, spoke with some length to both Arab and Jew and never had any doubt to their kinship! Yusef our driver and Ahouva our guide in our tour were most interesting. Yusef was a Christian Palestinian and Ahouva a Major in the Israeli army - an interesting combination but it worked when they were prepared to work together. Its politicians as usual that mess everything up. What is your opinion?"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (12:23)", "body": "Agree with you entirely - no doubts whatsoever!"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (16:09)", "body": "In the beginning, the Cherokee believed that the earth was covered with water and that beavers came from the sky to drag the mud from the oceans bottom and bring it to the top. The beavers attached it to the sky and created the land. The \"great buzzard\" then flew to the ground where he flapped his wings and the valleys and mountains were formed. It was on one of these flights that the \"great buzzard\" created the land on which the Cherokees lived."}, {"response": 113, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (17:32)", "body": "Where did that come from ? (i.e. where did you find it?)"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (17:36)", "body": "I got it in \"forgotten news\" - the rest of that story is posted in History conference topic 6"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (17:56)", "body": "In Honor of John, who is part Cherokee, I present the following: Yellowstone Valley and the Great Flood \"I have heard it told on the Cheyenne Reservation in Montana and the Seminole camps in the Florida Everglades, I have heard it from the Eskimos north of the Arctic Circle and the Indians south of the equator. The legend of the flood is the most universal of all legends. It is told in Asia, Africa, and Europe, in North America and the South Pacific.\" Professor Hap Gilliland of Eastern Montana College was the first to record this legend of the great flood. This is one of the fifteen legends of the flood that he himself recorded in various parts of the world: He was an old Indian. his face was weather beaten, but his eyes were still bright. I never knew what tribe he was from, though I could guess. Yet others from the tribe whom I talked to later had never heard his story. We had been talking of the visions of the young men. He sat for a long time, looking out across the Yellowstone Valley through the pouring rain, before he spoke. \"They are beginning to come back,\" he said. \"Who is coming back?\" I asked. \"The animals,\" he said. \"It has happened before.\" \"Tell me about it.' He thought for a long while before he lifted his hands and his eyes. \"The Great Spirit smiled on this land when he made it. There were mountains and plains, forests and grasslands. There were animals of many kinds--and men.\" The old man's hands moved smoothly, telling the story more clearly than his voice. The Great Spirit told the people, \"These animals are your brothers. Share the land with them. They will give you food and clothing. Live with them and protect them. \"Protect especially the buffalo, for the buffalo will give you food and shelter. The hide of the buffalo will keep you from the cold, from the heat, and from the rain. As long as you have the buffalo, you will never need to suffer.\" For many winters the people lived at peace with the animals and with the land. When they killed a buffalo, they thanked the Great Spirit, and they used every part of the buffalo. It took care of every need. Then other people came. They did not think of the animals as brothers. They killed, even when they did not need food. They burned and cut the forests, and the animals died. They shot the buffalo and called it sport. They killed the fish in the streams. When the Great Spirit looked down, he was sad. He let the smoke of the fires lie in the valleys. The people coughed and choked. But still they burned and they killed. So the Great Spirit sent rains to put out the fires and to destroy the people. The rains feil, and the waters rose. The people moved from the flooded valleys to the higher land. Spotted Bear, the medicine man, gathered together his people. He said to them, \"The Great Spirit has told us that as long as we have the buffalo we will be safe from heat and cold and rain. But there are no longer any buffalo. Unless we can find buffalo and live at peace with nature, we will all die.\" Still the rains fell, and the waters rose. The people moved from the flooded plains to the hills. The young men went out and hunted for the buffalo. As they went they put out the fires. They made friends with the animals once more. They cleaned out the streams. Still the rains fell, and the waters rose. The people moved from the flooded hills to the mountains. Two young men came to Spotted Bear. \"We have found the buffalo,\" they said. \"There was a cow, a calf, and a great white bull. The cow and the calf climbed up to the safety of the mountains. They should be back when the rain stops. But the bank gave way, and the bull was swept away by the floodwaters. We followed and got him to shore, but he had drowned. We have brought you his hide.\" They unfolded a huge white buffalo skin. Spotted Bear took the white buffalo hide. \"Many people have been drowned,\" he said. \"Our food has been carried away. But our young people are no longer destroying the world that was created for them. They have found the white buffalo. It will save those who are left.\" Still the rains fell, and the waters rose. The people moved from the flooded mountains to the highest peaks. Spotted Bear spread the white buffalo skin on the ground. He and the other medicine men scraped it and stretched it, and scraped it and stretched it. Still the rains fell. Like all rawhide, the buffalo skin stretched when it was wet. Spotted Bear stretched it out over the village. All the people who were left crowded under it. As the rains fell, the medicine men stretched the buffalo skin across the mountains. Each day they stretched it farther. Then Spotted Bear tied one corner to the top of the Big Horn Mountains. That side, he fastened to the Pryors. The next corner he tied to the Bear Tooth Mountains. Crossing the Yellowstone Valley, he tied one corner to the Crazy Mountains, and the other to Signal Butte in the Bull Mountains. The whole Yellowstone Valley was covered by the white buffalo skin. Though the rain"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (18:04)", "body": "Why the Opussum's Tail Is Bare (Cherokee) In the beginning all living things - men, animals, plants and trees - spoke the same language and behaved in much the same way. Animals, like people, were organized into tribes. They had chiefs, lived in houses, held councils and ceremonies. Many animals had characteristics which we would not recognize today. The rabbit, for example, was fierce, bold and cunning, and a great mischief maker. It was through Rabbit's tricks that the deer lost his sharp wolf-like teeth, the buzzard his handsome topknot of feathers and the opossum his long, bushy tail. Opossum was very proud of his tail which, in those days, was covered with thick black fur. He spent long hours cleaning and brushing it and composing songs about its beauty and vigour. Sometimes, when he walked through the village, he carried his tail erect, like a banner rippling in the breeze. At other times, he swept it low behind him, like a train. It was useful as well as beautiful, for when Opossum lay down to sleep, he tucked it under him to make a soft bed, and in cold weather he folded it over his body to keep himself warm. Rabbit was very jealous of Opossum's tail. He, too, had once had a long bushy tail but, during the course of a a fight with Bear, he had lost most of it and now had only a short fluffy tuft. The sight of Opossum strutting before the other animals and swirling his tail ostentatiously, filled Rabbit with rage and he made up his mind to play a trick on him at the first opportunity. At this time, when the animals still lived harmoniously together, each had his appointed station and duty. Thus, Frog was leader in the council and Rabbit, because of his speed, was employed to carry messages and announcements to the others. As was their custom from time to time, the animals decided to hold a great council to discuss important matters and Rabbit, as usual, was given the task of arranging the gathering and delivering the invitations. Councils were also occasions for feasting and dancing and Rabbit saw a way of bringing about Opossum's downfall. When Rabbit arrived with the news of the meeting, Opossum was sitting by the door of his lodge engaged in his favourite occupation - grooming his tail. 'I come to call you to the great council tomorrow, brother Opossum,' said Rabbit. 'Will you attend and join in the dance ?' 'Only if I am given a special seat,' replied the conceited Opossum, carefully smoothing some untidy hairs at the tip of his tail. 'After all,' he went on, grinning maliciously at Rabbit, 'I have such a beautiful long tail that I ought to sit where everyone can see and admire it.' Rabbit was almost beside himself with fury, but he pretended not to notice the jibe and said, 'But of course, brother Opossum! I will personally see to it that you have the best seat in the council lodge, and I will also send someone to dress your tail specially for the dance.' Opossum was delighted by this suggestion and Rabbit left him singing the praises of his tail even more loudly than usual. Next, Rabbit called on the cricket, whom Indians call the barber, because of his fame as an expert hair-cutter. Cricket listened with growing amazement as Rabbit recounted his conversation with Opossum. Like all the other animals, he found Opossum's vanity and arrogance very tiresome. He began to protest, but Rabbit held up a paw and said, 'Wait a moment. I have a plan and I need your help. Listen...', and he dropped his voice as he told Cricket what he wanted him to do. Early next morning Cricket presented himself at Opossum's door and said that he had been sent by Rabbit to prepare the famous tail for the council that evening. Opossum made himself comfortable on the floor and stretched out his tail. Cricket began to comb it gently. 'I will wrap this red cord round your tail as I comb it,' he explained, 'so that it will remain smooth and neat for the dance tonight.' Opossum found Cricket's ministrations so soothing that he fell asleep, awakening just as Cricket was tying the final knot in the red cord which now completely swathed his tail. 'I will keep it bound up until the very last moment,' thought Opossum gleefully. 'How envious the others will be when I finally reveal it in all its beauty!' That evening, his tail still tightly wrapped in the red cord, Opossum marched into the council lodge and was led to his special seat by a strangely obsequious Rabbit. Soon it was time for the dancing to take place. The drums and rattles began to sound. Opossum stood up, loosened the cord from his tail and stepped proudly into the centre of the dance floor. He began to sing. 'Look at my beautiful tail!' he sang as he circled the floor. 'See how it sweeps the ground!' There was a great shout from the audience and some of the animals began to applaud. 'How they admire me!' though Opossum and he continued dancing and singing loudly. 'See how my tail gleams in the firelight!' Again everyone shouted and cheered. Opossum began to have just "}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "http://www.nativenashville.com/History/first_woman.htm The Legend of the First Woman (Cherokee) - As Told by Mary Ulmer Chiltoskey For a time the man was very happy on earth. He roamed around and ate the fruits and berries and he visited the animals and he saw all his homeland. There was much to learn and the earth was beautiful. But before long the man grew discontented and he became very unhappy. He didn't know what this disease was, bit it was a disease that we still have. He was bored. When he got bored, he used his mind and his strength differently. he shot arrows at the deer without really needing to. He picked the plants and didn't use them. He tore up the animals' dens just to see if he could do it. And soon the animals became concerned about the new creature. The animals called a council meeting to try to determine what to do. They said they thought this creature was supposed to have respect for other creatures, that he was given a mind. A little insect said, \"Wait, you haven't thought this out. The Great One made him; let's ask him what to do.\" This seemed to be a good idea. They called to the Great One to help them with the new \"superior\" creature. The owl said, \"You told us the man has a mind and he is to respect us.\" The deer said, \"I don't want to be disrespectful, but you told us the man would need more of us deer than any other animal. If he keeps killing us like he is now, very soon he won't have any deer left.\" \"Oh,\" said the Great One, \"thank you, thank you. I had not thought about something I left out in this man.\" The bear said, \"Look at him right now. He's lying out in the sun with his face up. No animal will sleep right out in the open. We all know to go into a private, guarded place to rest.\" The Great One said, \"Yes, there is something missing because I was in such a hurry to make him. But I know what is missing.\" \"Stand back,\" he said. He made a green plant to grow up tall. The plant grew up right over the man's heart, up toward Galunlati. It was a plant with long, graceful leaves and then an ear and a golden tassel. Above the tall plant was a woman, a beautiful, tall, brown woman growing from the stalk of strong corn. The man woke up and thought he was dreaming. He rubbed his eyes and said, \"This is not true. In a minute I'll wake up and be just as bored as I was before. Oh, I am so lonely.\" The Great One sort of kicked him in the behind. \"Get up you lazy thing,\" the Great One said. \"Be a man for your lady\" Now no one had any reason to think this man was a mannerly individual. Recently he had certainly not been acting like a real gentleman. But we don't have to be taught manners: We need someone to expect the best from us and we use the manners the Great One has already given us. So the man got up, brushed himself off, and gallantly offered his hand to the woman who came down from the stalk of corn. The woman said, \"No, wait a minute.\" The man didn't argue or huff. He just waited as she asked. She reached up and pulled two good ears of corn to take with her. Then she said, \"I'm ready.\" Do you know why she wanted the corn? She couldn't have known yet that the corn would be an important food. She just knew that she had sprung from the corn and she needed to take something of her heritage with her. The Great One remembered that although each man will sometimes need to be alone, each man will also need companionship to be his best. Over a period of time, the man and the woman built a home where they kept the corn for planting. The next spring she planted her corn and it grew into a beautiful plant. It was probably the next year that she noticed a large bird who became sacred to the Cherokee because they could watch what he ate, and they would then know it was safe to eat. One morning the woman noticed the turkey eating the tender corn. She knew then the corn was food and it was time to eat the corn. That evening she set a pottery pot of corn in the middle of her cook fire. She covered the pot with a curve of chestnut bark. When the man came in to eat his fish stew, she didn't tell him what she had cooked. She just pulled an ear of corn from the pot and pealed it back so he could smell it. he thought it was the best aroma he had ever smelled and he began to eat the first corn of the spring. Note: Cherokee women now never tell their men when they will serve the first corn of the season. They believe if they say it, bad luck will happen. One year not long ago, Aunt Mary's husband overheard her tell a visitor when they would have the first corn of the season. Before the corn was good and ripe, wild hogs ate nearly all of it! From Aunt Mary, Tell Me A Story - A Collection of Cherokee Legends and Tales as told by Mary Ulmer Chiltoskey, edited and compiled by Mary Regina ulmer Galloway. Copyright 1990 Cherokee Communications, P.O. Box 507, Cherokee North Carolina 28719 (704) 497-5510. ISBN 0-962863009."}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (18:45)", "body": "Another version of the Cherokee Creation myth http://www.cybercomm.net/~grandpa/cretion.html Long, long ago, a great island floated in a giant ocean. This island hung from four thick ropes from the sky, which was solid rock. There were no peoples and it was always dark. The animals could not see so they got the sun and put it in a path that took it across the island from east to west each day. The animals and plants were told by the Great Spirit to stay awake for seven days and seven nights but most could not and slept. Those plants that did stay awake, such as the pine and cedar and those few others were rewarded by being allowed to remain green all year. All the others were made to lose their leaves each winter. Those animals that did stay awake, such as the owl and the mountain lion and those few others were rewarded with the ability to go about in the dark. Then the people appeared. That is another story."}, {"response": 119, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (18:49)", "body": "Interesting tales, Marcia. We have so many opossums here. We even caught one in our small attic. It made so much noise. We often have a trapper come by to set traps around the house. He takes them to the Everglades and releases them there. I do not like opossums at all. My husband is friendly with the Shaman of the Miccousuki tribe here, who has Chief Oseola's tomahawk, the one which has cracked so many heads. My DH was allowed to hold it, not something the Shaman lets anyone do. My husband loved it."}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (18:56)", "body": "Thanks for sharing that. Your DH must be greatly esteemed in the tribe and by the Shaman. How extraordinary to be allowed to hold such a sacred object. I am all chills thinking about it. Did you see elsewhere that 42 newborn opossum babies would fit into a teaspoon?!"}, {"response": 121, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (06:35)", "body": "Another Malian creation story for you. African creation stories are as varied and imaginative as elsewhere in the world. According to nearly all African mythologies, God first agreed to give man eternal life, but his message was perverted through the stupidity or malice of the messenger. Several hundred African variants of the myth of the perverted message are known. http://africancultures.about.com/culture/africancultures/library/extras/myths/blcreation.htm Fulani of Mali Creation Myth http://africancultures.about.com/culture/africancultures/library/extras/myths/blfulani.htm At the beginning there was a huge drop of milk. Then Doondari came and created the stone. Then the stone created iron; And iron created fire; And fire created water; And water created air. Then Doondari descended the second time. And he took the five elements And he shaped them into man. But man was proud. Then Doondari created blindness and blindness defeated man. But when blindness became too proud, Doondari created sleep, and sleep defeated blindness; But when sleep became too proud, Doondari created worry, and worry defeated sleep; But when worry became too proud, Doondari created death, and death defeated worry. But when death became too proud, Doondari descended for the third time. And he came as Gueno, the eternal one, And Gueno defeated death. (Eng. trans. by Ulli Beier in The Origin of Life and Death, 1966)"}, {"response": 122, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (13:18)", "body": "More West African Creation myths: http://www.fandm.edu/departments/Anthropology/Bastian/ANT269/cosmo.html West African Cosmogony Origin Myths of Mande, Yoruba, and Cameroon The creation myths of Africans are as varied as the many cultures which inhabit the continent. Cosmogony mythologies play an important role in West African societies; they set up the framework of the social, political, and even economic structure of society. I. Mande Creation Myth The creation myth of Mande-speaking people of southern Mali is an example of what is called a \"cosmic egg myth.\" As reflected in their culture, the creation myth has elements of an imperfect creation as a result of incest. Here, we present one of many versions of the creation myth as told to us by Professor Bastain in our AFS/ANT267 class. In the beginning, there was only Mangala. Mangala is a singular, powerful being who is perceived to be a round, energetic presence. Within Mangala existed four divisions, which were symbolic of, among many things, the four days of the week (time), the four elements (matter), and the four directions (space). Mangala also contained two sets of dual gendered twins. Mangala was tired of keeping all of this matter inside, so the god removed it and compiled it into a seed. The seed was his creation of the world. The seed however did not hold together well and blew up. Mangala was disappointed with this and destroyed the world he created. Mangala did not loose hope; the creator began again, this time with two sets of twin seeds. Mangala planted the seeds in an egg shaped womb where they gestated. Mangala continued to put more sets of twin seeds in the womb until he had 8 sets of seeds. In the womb, the gestating seeds transformed themselves into fish. The fish is considered a symbol of fertility in the Mande world. This time, Mangala's creation was successful. This is important, because it illustrates the idea of dual gendered twinship, an idea that permeates Mande culture. Mangala tried to maintain this perfect creation, but chaos crept in; one of the male twins became ambitious and tried to escape from the egg. This chaotic character is called Pemba. He is a t trickster figure who symbolizes the mischievousness of humans. Pemba's first trick was to steal the a piece of the womb's placenta and throw it down. This action made the the earth. Pemba then tried to refertilize what was left of the womb, committing incest against his mother, the womb. Mangala decided to sacrifice Pemba's brother Farro to save what was left of his creation. He castrated him and then killed in order to raise him from the dead. Mangala took what was left of the placenta and transformed it into the sun, thus associating Pemba with darkness and the night. Farro was transformed into a human being and was taught the language of creation by Mangala. Farro's knowledge of words is very powerful and the tool he used to defeat Pemba's mischief. Farro and his newly created twins came to Earth and got married (not to each other) and became the horonw. This is the basis for the foundation of exogamy in Mande. Next, an unknown being named Sourakata arrived from the sky with the first sacred drum, hammer, and the sacrificed skull of Farro. Sourakata began to play on the drum and sung for the first rain to come. Sourakata is a magical being who can control nature, and he taught Farro and his followers. He is the origin of the nyamakalaw. As one can see from the origin myth, the horonw are the people of the earth. They were destined to become farmers and well-bred aristocracy. The nyamakalaw, on the other hand, were destined to be primal and mysterious. They understand nature and are able to use it to their benefit. These roles are exactly what we see in the horonw and nyamakalaw relations in Mande society today."}, {"response": 123, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (13:22)", "body": "II. Yoruba Creation Myth http://www.fandm.edu/departments/Anthropology/Bastian/ANT269/cosmo.html This is just one example of how a cultures origin myths are embedded in the social framework. The Yoruba of what is now Nigeria also conduct their practices in accordance with their cosmogony. The Yoruba creator is called Olurun or Olodumare and is often assisted by the lesser god, Obatala. In the beginning, there was only water and chaos. The supreme being sent Obatala or Orishanla down from the sky to create some land out of the chaos. He descended on a long chain (umbilical cord) and brought with him a rooster, some iron, and a palm kernel. First, he put the metal on the earth and the rooster on top of that. The rooster scratched the metal and spread it out to create land. Then he planted the palm seed and from it grew the earth's vegetation. Olurun named earth \"Ife\" and the first city \"Ile-Ife.\" Orshilana created humans out of the earth and got Olurun to blow life into them."}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  9, 2002 (19:24)", "body": "Greek Superstition: The Evil Eye This is by far the most famous of all Greek superstitions with very old roots in Hellenic culture from the time of paganism. Paintings of Greek triremes over two thousand years ago have an eye painted at the front of the trireme in an attempt to ward off the Evil Eye. The Evil Eye is known widely throughout Greece and the Greek Islands. The Evil Eye is said to be able to strike anywhere without notice and no one can be the wiser. Think back to a time when someone complemented you on how nice you looked only for you to have a painful headache immediately after. Happenings such as this are attributed to the Evil Eye. To ward off the Evil Eye several things can be done. An eye is painted into the middle of a blue charm, this charm is then worn as a necklace or as a bracelet. Blue beads can also be worn instead of the eye charm in the form of a necklace or bracelet. The reason the color blue and the painted eye are used is that both are thought to ward off the evil of the eye. Unfortunately people who have blue eyes are thought to be exceptional givers of it. In such, believers of the Evil Eye are weary of compliments received from a blue eyed person. It is also said that a clove of garlic has the ability to ward of the evil eye. Many people keep the clove of garlic in their clothes or in their pockets. It is customary for Greeks to spit towards someone if they pay them a compliment. Sometimes they will spit three times, a symbolism of the using of the Holy Trinity to defend against the eye. This custom of spitting has its roots in the Evil Eye. The spitting is an attempt to ward of the evil of the eye. The Greek Orthodox Church also believes in the evil eye, and they refer to it as \"Vaskania\". There are people who are said to know how to remove the eye from someone who is affected. The Greek Orthodox church strictly forbids this. The church sees this as dangerous ground, and only a priest has the power to read a person in an attempt to remove the eye. However, Greeks openly practice the removing off the eye against the wishes of the Church. The church fears that attempts to remove the eye can result in possession. Believers of the evil eye should understand that the person who is attempting to remove the eye should be using the method that the church uses, and not some custom that has been passed down generation to generation. Many of the readings that are passed down have their roots in paganism and do not adhere to Orthodoxy, the church attempts to guard against these readings. http://www.greekspider.com/superstitions/greek_superstitions9.htm *You don't have to tell me about Blue Eyes being evil - HM has blue eyes, Wolfie!"}, {"response": 125, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (02:25)", "body": "How much old belief is the Evil Eye? Particular folklore importance presents the Evil Eye in ancient Greece because exist written reports on this. Sokrates say: \ufffdDo not say big word, in order cannot the Evil Eye destroy the future word \ufffd (Platon. \ufffdPhaedon\ufffd 95b). (\ufffd\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd, \ufffd\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd (\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd: \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd 95\u00bb). Demosthenes, denounces many times and with big insistence the Evil Eye that causes infelicity and failure of efforts. Stravon (63 - 25 BC.) it reports that according to Artemidoros, the historiographer Timeos the Tauromeneas was ill-wisher person who it can cause Evil Eye. Ploutarchos, mentioned in his \ufffdSymposiaka\ufffd a discussion about those that have the faculty to cause Evil Eye. He also reports the case of self-Evil Eye. Philarhos, Greek historiographer reports that certain populations, that live near the Black Sea, they causes even the death in children but also in men with their look only. John"}, {"response": 126, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (13:26)", "body": "my son has blue eyes (well, blue-hazel)! now the evil eye is different from the eye at the top of the pyramid, right?"}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (21:02)", "body": "Oh Wolfie, I hope the eye at the top of the pyramid is different - it is supposedly the all-seeing eye of GOD. The Celts and all early societies had some sort of idea of evil eye. That is why we cross our fingers for \"goood luck\" Thank you, John! I find that the more we diverge from one another on the surface (languages and appearances)the more truly one universal human kind we truly are. I embrace all that is sentive nature in each of us. How wonderful is the continuance of knowledge and lore. I wonder how many other cultures shared this evil eye dread. I suspect many, if not all!"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (21:05)", "body": "So, I looked it up... http://www.discovery.com/area/skinnyon/skinnyon970425/skinny1.html True terror resides in the eye. It has always been this way, or at least as close to always as we can tell. The theme of the Evil Eye runs deep and wide in human history. Universally it describes a look inspired by maliciousness or jealousy. Also universally it is blamed for causing everything from garden-variety bad luck to toothaches, headaches, disease and death. An envious Evil Eye falling on your pigs may presage an impending sausage shortage. And to this day in Turkey, many parents keep new babies under wraps for 40 days, for fear that their defenseless beauty will inspire a jealous glance. Many Turks still use blue-glass \"eye\" brooches to ward off the gruesome gaze. \"Silly them,\" you say, but you may be wearing an Evil Eye charm, too. Here's a partial list of items whose roots may be anti-ophthalmological: Lockets One old European Evil Eye defense was to write spells or prayers on a piece of paper, and stuff it in a little container to wear on your body. Colonial Americans were partial to heart-shaped containers. Battle decorations Warriors believed that distracting and flashy decor on helmets and shields would derail the enemy's perilous peepers. Eye make-up Indian women drew black lines around their eyes not only to shield themselves from the Evil Eye, but also to ensure that they didn't accidentally inflict the Evil Eye on their friends. Harness gew-gaws Livestock, which incited envy in days of yore just as surely as do Mercedes and Porsches today, were equally vulnerable to the Evil Eye. Baubles and red yarn distracted the green-eyed gaze. (Jealousy is said to be green-eyed; likewise, blue and green eyes are often suspected of being the evil ones.) Animal brooches and charms Animals with unusual eyes -- foxes, grasshoppers, snakes, fish, snails, toads -- were often accused of wielding the Evil Eye. But, perversely, their images, worn on the body, evolved into protections against it. Why the eye? . \"Staring is a way of asserting one's dominance and of expressing interest in another person,\" says Ohio State University psychologist Gerald Winer. \"It can be viewed as an intrusion. And it's a short step from casting a glance to casting a spell.\" Winer's research has shown that many children -- and even college students -- believe some type of emanation from the eye facilitates the process of seeing, a belief that mirrors ancient theory. Furthermore he speculates that the act of looking, which is more obviously focused than the act of, say, listening, makes it seem more invasive. These aspects of looking, plus all that emotional \"window of the soul\" stuff. more on the link above"}, {"response": 129, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (19:14)", "body": "Very interesting. One thing I know about eyes is that you shouldn't look directly into a dog's eyes. The dog will percieve it as a challenge and dogs are territorial. If it's your very own pet dog, you probably can look him or her directly in the eyes."}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (20:18)", "body": "I've also heard about the looking directly into the eyes of a dog not your own. It IS taken as a challenge, I understand. Never worry about that. Eye-level dogs I tend to avoid. I was traumatized as a very small child by a dog licking my face. I don't need that to happen again. He was tasting me to see if I was worth the effort of eating me? I don't even want to think about it. But I can still remember it was a German Shepherd!"}, {"response": 131, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 15, 2002 (17:59)", "body": "*laugh* poor marcia, i can see how you took it that way!! german shepherds by nature invoke awe and respect. it is true that upon coming upon a strange dog, avert your eyes (we had this discussion in springark). my dogs are funny when i stare them in the eye--they'll wink at me or think it's play time!!"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 15, 2002 (18:38)", "body": "Is THAT the reason our little furball winks one eye at us? This little dog who has adopted me stares holes in you if you don't look back. If you hold her, she looks up with her head upside down - she is slightly exopthamic anyway. Big liquid brown eyes - how can I NOT look at her?! If she wants to end the stare, she turns around and prances back out of the room, or buries her head on her paws and pretends to sleep."}, {"response": 133, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (12:21)", "body": "The Muses from Greek Mythology Athena visits Apollo and the Muses Bartholomeus Spranger (XVI cent.) The Muses are the Greek goddesses who preside over the arts and sciences and inspire those who excel at these pursuits. Daughters of Zeus, king of the gods, and Mnemosyne (\"memory\"), they were born at Pieria at the foot of Mount Olympus. Their nurse, Eupheme, raised them along with her son, Crotus the hunter, who was transported into the sky as Sagittarius upon his death. Their name (akin to the Latin mens and English mind) denotes 'memory' or 'a reminder', since in the earliet times poets, having no books to read from, relied on their memories. The Romans identified the Muses with certain obscure Italian water-goddesses, the Camenae. The original number of muses and their names varies in earlier times as their evolution blossomed in Greek mythology. At first, three muses were worshipped on Mount Helicon in Boeotia: Melete (\"meditation\"), Mneme (\"memory\"), and Aoede (\"song\"). Another three were worshipped at Delphi and their names represented the names of the strings of a lyre: Nete, Mese, and Hypate. Several other versions were worshipped until the Greeks finally established the nine muses in mythology as: Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania. The Muses had several epithets, which usually referred to places where they had settled. Ephialtes and Otus, who also founded Ascra, were the first to sacrifice on Helicon to the Muses and to call the mountain sacred to the Muses. Sacrifices to the Muses consisted of libations of water, milk, or honey. Their companions are the Charities, the Horae, Eros, Dionysus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Harmonia, and Himerus (Desire). Apollo is the leader of the choir of the Muses and consequently he has the surname Musagetes. Athena caught and tamed the winged horse Pegasus and gave him to the Muses. Some of their disciples included the Sphinx who learned her riddle from the Muses, Aristaeus, who learned the arts of healing and prophecy from them, and Echo, who was taught by them to play music. In Plato's Phaedrus 259c, Socrates says the locusts used to be men before the birth of the Muses. When song appeared when the Muses were born, some men were so overcome with delight that they sang constantly, forgetting to eat and drink until they eventually died. These dead men became locusts with a gift from the Muses allowing them to sing continuously from their birth until death without the need of sustenance. When they die, the locust go to the Muses and report which men on earth honors each, endearing a worshipper to the Muse he follows. The Muses could be vindictive like in the story of the contest with Thamyris. Thamyris who excelled in minstrelsy challenged the Muses to a musical contest at Dorium in Messenia, the agreement being if he won he would take pleasure from all of them. The Muses won the contest, and bereft Thamyris of his eyes and minstrelsy. In another story, the king of Emathia (Macedonia) and his wife Euippe had nine daughters and named them after the Muses. The daughters entered a contest with the Muses, were defeated and were metamorphosed by the Muses into birds called Colymbas, Iynx, Cenchris, Cissa, Chloris, Acalanthis, Nessa, Pipo, and Dracontis. These names were taken from actual names of birds such as the wryneck, hawk, jay, duck, goldfinch, and four others with no recognizable modern equivalents. In yet another myth, it was said Hera, queen of the gods, persuaded the Sirens, who were described in early Greek mythology as having the bodies of birds and heads of beautiful women, to enter a singing contest with the Muses. The Muses won the competition and then plucked out all of the Sirens' feathers and made crowns out of them. Many places were dedicated to the Muses such as the famous Valley of the Muses - Thespies on the eastern slopes of Mt. Helikon began it's \"Mouseai\" festivals in the 6th c. B.C. It was organized every 5 years by the Thespians. Poets and musicians from all over Greece also participated in various games (epic, poetry, rapsodia, kithara, aulos, satyric poetry, tragedy and comedy). It was common for ancient schools to have a shrine to the Muses called mouseion, the source of the modern word 'museum.' The famous Museum of Alexandria, founded by Ptolemy I, was a temple dedicated to the Muses. Before poets or storytellers recited their work, it was customary for them to invoke the inspiration and protection of the Muses. http://www.eliki.com/portals/fantasy/circle/define.html John"}, {"response": 134, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (12:43)", "body": "Find your \"MUSA\" in the above site. Everything had their face in the ancient Greece. John"}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (13:08)", "body": "Warmest thoughts to you, and Geo's greatest sympathies on the death of your Uncle. He lived 94 years. May you live even longer and in great health and happiness. I'll go back through this topic looking for my \"MUSA\" (Muse in English) I suspect he is far away in the midst of great antiquites and his children this week."}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (13:31)", "body": "The Painting is beautiful. The mythology surrounding the MUSAE (is that the plural in Greek - I think it is probably Latin) is fascinating and I had forgotten much of it. Athena needs some clothing. I guess when one is born fully grown from the mind of your father, all you need is Helmet and shield. Interesting about the \"Halo\" depiction which, I am assuming, denotes Athena's place in the Pantheon. And, you thought it was invented for Christian art! I have at least nine muses, and far more humans who inspire the best in me. The arts at which I do not excel, I appreciate - which is most of them. I figure that someone has to buy the tickets and sit in the audience!"}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (13:34)", "body": "I also find it amusing and entirely appropriate that the mythology of the muses has inspired so much great art in the Western world. My thanks again to the heritage left for us by the great minds of Greece."}, {"response": 138, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar 20, 2002 (16:15)", "body": "Marcia, I think that Athena is depicted fully clothed, including her helmet, in the background of the painting. As far as I know, Athena was always depicted as being clothed. The nude figure playing the viol is supposed to be Apollo. He is, however, wearing a cape and shoes, actually they're sandals."}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 21, 2002 (00:32)", "body": "I definitely need to look at that again. I have a Rembrandt painting stuck in my memory of Diana and her company of sylphs."}, {"response": 140, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Mar 21, 2002 (05:11)", "body": "What's a sylph?"}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 21, 2002 (14:12)", "body": "The sylphs were volatile, changeable entities, passing to and fro with the rapidity of lightning. They work through the gases and ethers of the earth and are kindly disposed toward human beings. They are nearly always represented as winged, sometimes as tiny cherubs and at other times as delicate fairies. http://www.prs.org/books/book367.htm Rembrandt seemed to like them and especially mostly naked. Women were not underfed in those paintings!!!"}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 21, 2002 (14:30)", "body": "http://www.theartgallery.com.au/ArtEducation/greatartists/Rembrandt/diana/index.html I was previously described as Diana and her sylphs, but this translation call it \"Diana and her Nymphs\" Enjoy!"}, {"response": 143, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar 21, 2002 (19:44)", "body": "i thought i've seen athena without her helmet before as well, perhaps i'm getting them confused!"}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 21, 2002 (20:34)", "body": "From the artwork of John - Athena I don't know which lady in that psinting John posted is Athena. Apollo is obviously the one with the sun rays. However, I shall look further for the lovely and powerful protectress of Athens. He is guarding him this week. The statue in the Parthenon had golden *armor* helmet and shield. I have never seen her unclad that I can recall. I'll look further."}, {"response": 145, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (15:47)", "body": "In reality, mythology of muses has created to personalize art and basic human expressions in the ancient world. Ancient humans they had this way to understand or to explain everything that was special. Later, this fact has inspired great art in the Western world. I think that great minds blooming in the garden of the necessity rather than in the society of the abundance. John"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (18:16)", "body": "Your point is well taken. Is it not also true of all belief structures? Art imitating life as an allegory. In a very dangerous and uncertain world, there is a great need to try to put a \"face\" on the enemy by whom we are threatened. The more limited our science to explain, the more elaborate our art becomes. I wonder if that is not the reason our art and music have become less than memorable. We know much but understand less. Even more is taken for given. I wonder what the new religions which will surely come will worship and hold dear."}, {"response": 147, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (04:01)", "body": "Art is affected by the miracle of life and intellection. Time is a determinative factor that describes the level of knowledge and the distance between the power of technology and humans life for each epoch. Life's rhythm together with human's point of view is directly delineated in our music. Our epoch is the epoch of the contestation for all. Even for the existing religions too. I am not sure that next generations would follow so derogative rhythms of life without beliefs to a supreme force. Except if they become robots. John"}, {"response": 148, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (06:18)", "body": "You are right Cheryl: Athena was a virgin goddess and is always represented fully clothed, usually in armour and often holding a spear. Athena's statue was housed in the centre of the Parthenon. It was made of ivory and gold. Her face and arms were made of ivory to symbolize virginity and wealth and the rest of her garments and armour were made of gold. Her statue stood twelve meters tall. Citizens of Athens were not allowed to enter the temple, however. They were to worship and pray to the goddess outside her temple. Image from http://www.cadvision.com/calcoin1/reference/myth/myathena.htm The tetra-drachm coin of Athens (above) shows many of her attributes. On the obverse one sees her head wearing a military helmet symbolizing her warrior aspect as protector of the city. On the reverse are her sacred bird, the owl, and symbolizing wisdom and above, to the left, is an olive sprig symbolizing her agricultural duties. Just behind the owl's back is a small crescent moon, supporting the idea that she may have originated as a lunar goddess. John"}, {"response": 149, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (14:30)", "body": "Thank you, John, for the information on Athena, the namesake and patron goddess of Athens. Didn't she become the city's protectors as the result of a contest between her and Posiedon? The city's founders were given the gift of the horse by Posiedon; while Athena gave them the olive tree. The future Athenians thought the olive tree to be the more useful gift and honored Athena by naming their city after her. Historically speaking the olive oil of Attica made Athens rich."}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (17:49)", "body": "I am so glad John has joined us in Geo! (I also had never heard of Athena being undressed. If it is so in some art, it is NOT correct.) I have also heard of the olive tree and Posiedon and the contest for the protection of Athens. Beyond that I leave to those not involved in 3 hours of lecture notes taken this morning on the eruption of super-Plinean Thera. I have much work to do to transcribe the notes into usable form. I have all 8 types of eruptions in hand and their examples, but that is for another topic."}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 15, 2002 (18:51)", "body": "According to a Greek myth, when god created the world he distributed all the available soil through a sieve and when he had provided every country with enough of it he tossed the remaining stones from the sieve over his shoulder - and there was Greece. http://www.nafpaktos.com/map_of_the_world.htm"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 16, 2002 (21:30)", "body": "According to ancient mythology, the (Easter) bunny was origi- nally a sacred bird that belonged to the spring goddess, Eostre. In a fit of anger, she transformed him into a rabbit."}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 16, 2002 (21:30)", "body": "*sigh*"}, {"response": 154, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (14:24)", "body": "According to mine beliefs, entertainment and strong emotions are absolutely necessary for a human balanced life. So, local morals, mores, beliefs, religion, mythology have created the appropriate ritual attached to life of the local peoples. Many myths are real stories but they are presented in a way that will make them understandable from people that they cannot easily understand. John"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 19, 2002 (00:22)", "body": "Humans need rites of passage and celebrations to mark their year. Far before a calendar was organized into months, the growing year was established by watching the sky for signs. The collapse of order and the rise of chaos begins when respect for the celebrations are abandoned. It is not as important to know the exact reason for the rituals as it is to perform them. From generation to generation, it is the glue that binds the civilizations together."}, {"response": 156, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (07:46)", "body": "Orpheus The greatest of all musicians was named Orpheus. He sang a wide variety of songs. Sometimes he sang high-pitched songs about the mystical creation of the universe. Other times he played low notes on his lyre as he sang of the battles of Zeus ad the Olympians gods who clashed against the Titans. Orpheus even had songs about people who were changed into flowers or birds. But whatever he sang, the rich clear words and the silvery notes from his harp were so enchanting that they always had a magical effect on everything around him. His songs could charm even rocks and rivers as well as humans and animals. Once when Orpheus was playing his splendid music in the forest, the oak trees pulled up their roots. They followed him down the mountainside and planted themselves by the seashore where Orpheus ended his song. When the great adventurer Jason was about to set out on his search for the Golden fleece, Orpheus was invited to go along. Orpheus proved to be of great help on the long journey. When the tempers of the heroes of the ship flared up, Orpheus would sing a peaceful song and calm those who had been arguing. Sometimes when the rowing was long and tedious, Orpheus would begin to stroke his lyre. Then time would seem to float by and the rowers would not feel tired and they listened to the soft rippling music. The time came when Jason and the Argonauts had to sail past the dangerous isle of the Sirens. The Sirens were beautiful creature who were part human, part bird. Their songs were so wonderful that any person who heard them would become enchanted. All the sailors who heard the Sirens' songs would hurl themselves overboard and swim to the island of the Sirens'. Lured by these strange maidens the men would die upon the jagged rocks around the isle. But as the argonauts came close to the rocky island of the Sirens, Orpheus began a splendid song of his own. Jason and this crew did not listen to the Sirens and were able to sail past the island unharmed. After the Argonauts returned to Greece, Orpheus fell in love with a beautiful woman names Eurydice. They were married and a great feast was held in their honor. On the day of their wedding, Eurydice strolled through a nearby field and talked joyfully with her friends. But as she walked through the bright green meadow, she stumbled upon a poisonous snake. The huge serpent bit her and she died. Orpheus was heartbroken over this cruel fate. He had been married and widowed on the same day. After many weeks of mourning, he decided that he would go to Hades,the land of the dead. There he would plead for his wife. He came to the gates that lead to the underworld, playing on his harp. No living mortals were allowed to cross into the shadowy regions of the underworld. But Orpheus' sweet dad music moved the ferry and of the dead and he gave Orpheus a ride across the dark murky river Styx. Thus Orpheus entered the purple-darkened realm of the dead. Formless ghosts and spirits gathered around him. But Orpheus was unfrightened and continued to play his slow music about his lost wife. The Spirits began to weep and the huge vultures of the underworld listened to his song.The three-headed dog that guarded the Underworld stopped growling and laid down and whimpered at the dad tine. Orpheus passed by the coal-black stallions that pulled the chariot of Pluto. The horses' ears stood straight up when they heard the enchanting song. Finally the musician came before Pluto, King of the Underworld called Hades. All the jewels and precious metals that lie in the ground rightfully belonged to Pluto's domain. Thus he and his wife Perseph ne, sat on the most magnificent thrones imaginable.Beside Pluto lay a magic helmet that would make anyone who wore it invisible. Here, before the King and Queen of Hades, Orpheus sang his sad, sweet song and pleaded to have his bride back. Even the rulers of the underworld were moved by h is music. Eurydice was called forth and she came still limping from the wound where the serpent had bitten her. The gods of Hades agreed that Orpheus could have his wife back, but only on the condition that he did not look back until he had reached the land of the living. Orpheus began walking up the long steep path that led to the sunlit world of men. The winding pathway was gloomy and silent. Behind his in the darkness he could hear the soft pad of Eurydice's bare feet upon the rocky steps. At last Orpheus saw sunlight coming through the opening to the overworld. he forgot himself and turned to look at his wife. There stood Eurydice, as lovely as a Spring morning with her dark wavy hair and her snowy cheeks. But as he looked Orpheus saw his lovely wife begin to fade. He desperately tried to embrace her but she only had time to whisper \"Farewell\" before she vanished. Orpheus once again tried to cross the River Styx in hopes of regaining his wife. But the ferryman would not listen to Orpheus' enchanting music this time and he soul not cross the river. He sadly retur"}, {"response": 157, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (11:48)", "body": "so they're residing in hades forever? at least they're together (or not?)"}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (14:53)", "body": "*sigh* This is such a sad tale. I have read it since childhood and felt the pangs of unfulfilled anguish each time. Now you know why some of our theaters are named Orpheum. Remember RKO? That is what the O stood for. Music of all sorts, not just dirges. Now is when I wish I had IM. Wolfie, I need to talk to you!"}, {"response": 159, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (17:33)", "body": "email me sweetheart!!!"}, {"response": 160, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (10:57)", "body": "Wolfie, laptop arrives today (I can't remember your email address - it went with the hard drive when it died.) I'll get online as soon as possible when it arrives! David was kind enough to install Yahoo for me so it would be up and running when I got it hooked into the system here. MSN I will load ASAP."}, {"response": 161, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:37)", "body": "mswolf68@hotmail.com"}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:54)", "body": "Thanks! will email you now!"}, {"response": 163, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (06:12)", "body": "Apollo The Greek god who personified youthful masculinity. Also was a god of many roles, including prophecy, music, medicine and hunting. Source: Dr. Vollmer's W\ufffdrterbuch der Mythologie aller V\ufffdlker. Stuttgart: Hoffmann'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1874. http://www.pantheon.org/areas/gallery/mythology/europe/greek/ John"}, {"response": 164, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Jul 14, 2002 (08:04)", "body": "Marcia .. email me sometime please! sociolingo@hotmail.com"}, {"response": 165, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (20:21)", "body": "I will do so right away, Maggie, but I did respond to one of your letters earlier in the day when I finally got everything working again. Apollo was a wondrously endowed god... Not unlike other Greeks I could mention... Thank you for keeping the t\\opic awake and functioning. *HUGS* forever for your heroic efforts!"}, {"response": 166, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (20:40)", "body": "hi maggie! apollo and david *sigh*"}, {"response": 167, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (06:03)", "body": "Has someone any idea for the number TWELVE in human history? There are twelve hours in a day and twelve hours in a night. There are twelve months in a year. There are twelve apostles; Twelve astrological signs; Twelve gates in the city of Jerusalem; Twelve lost tribes of Israel; Gods of Olympus were 12: I heard for 12 ancient plates in Tibet with unknown alphabetise; Constellations are 12; Feats of Hercules were 12; Etc Is this number magic? John"}, {"response": 168, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (15:06)", "body": "Greetings 12 is considered to be a 'perfect' number. This could lead to the reason why 13 is considered unlucky as this is a disturbance to perfection. A similar analogy would be the use of 40 days/nights in the Old Testament. 40 days implies a very long time. I personally find 13 to be very lucky for me and have no problems when it turns up. Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (16:31)", "body": "Thirteen considered unlucky - I have heard two different reasons. One is that the Celts held it sacred and they were thebiggest obstacle to the promotion of Christianity in Europe.Thus anything concerned with their practices were declared anathema to The Church.(However, we still celebrate their holidays in disguis!) The second reason I heard was that the Pope and King of France had Jaques Demolay burnt at the stake on Friday the 13th. That was surely unlucky!"}, {"response": 170, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (17:28)", "body": "Hi all Yep, 13 has special 'good' significance to the old world religions. Mike"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (18:51)", "body": "That's why I LIKE IT!!! Thirteen can be lucky if you want it to be. What is luck anyway other than casual happenstance or work well-planned? Soemtimes you make your own luck! But old religion stuff is not all bad, depite the propaganda to the contrary."}, {"response": 172, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (19:19)", "body": "you got it marcia!! 7 is also a perfect number (7 days, 7 seals, etc)"}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (20:05)", "body": "so is 3. John can attest to the meaning of 7 in regards to his unhappy new year accident."}, {"response": 174, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (22:59)", "body": "Hi all, I am back to my base. I have a very bad experience that is strongly connected (by luck?) with number seven. I can\ufffdt explain it. But I can\ufffdt believe (without prove) any theory. I am like doubting Tomas. John"}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (00:29)", "body": "HUGS John, we all are seekers of truth. It is our minds which make us work extra to learn the mysteries we do not know. You have company onyour quest!"}, {"response": 176, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (10:00)", "body": "Nice to hear from you John. I have always thought number 7 to be connected with good luck."}, {"response": 177, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (07:19)", "body": "Hi friend Sikander I had a strongly bad experience with a long sequence of the number 7 in the first days of my accident in the last January. For example, even if 7th of January is my name day I ware in the operating theatre of the local hospital. John"}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (14:24)", "body": "John, I am assuming that the fates have had their time playing with your mind and determination. I truly hope you have a much better life from now on. Occasionally we seem to need reminding how mortal we really are. No, thank you. I can remember all too well. May the fates go elsewhere for their caprices from now on!"}, {"response": 179, "author": "BeardedOne", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (14:11)", "body": "In reference to this partial statement from Topic 28 of 80 [Geo]: Geo Mythology Response 46 of 178: anne hale (ommin) * Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (00:36) * 1 lines \"You were asking about Australian Aboriginal myths - the dreaming time it is called - it is often tied up with the serpent the Woggle...\" A woggle is a boy scouts folded handkerchief http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Woggle however, A Warrigal is a Dingo, or Wild Dog of Australia. http://www.google.com/search?q=Aboriginal+legend+Warrigal&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1 The Serpent was the Rainbow Serpent http://www.google.com/search?q=Aboriginal+rainbow+serpent&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1 more Aboriginal legends http://www.crystalinks.com/dreamtime.html http://www.astronomy.pomona.edu/archeo/Other%20student%20web%20sites/Alex%20N%20Smith/aborigines/baiameandman.htm The Aborigine was here long ago and the dreamtime stories have been handed down since before the beginning , or so it almost seems.. and we are constantly pushing back the time envelope . Many now believe that there is scientific evidence for the Aborigine to have existed in Australia at least 175,000 years and more, ago."}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (16:58)", "body": "Aloha, BeardedOne and welcome to Geo. Thanks for your imput. I had no idea what a woggle was. Now I know. I'm sure they are called something exotic in Hawaii, also, but off hand I cannot remember what it is. I'll check!"}, {"response": 181, "author": "BeardedOne", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (21:44)", "body": ":) Yes well, I was searching for an accurate account of a legend I was told as a child. I found this page, read it and felt I had to make a comment.. I must say that the internet gets stuck on things that are sometimes not totally correct. The only accurate way of learning about the dreamtime is to be with Aborigines and even that has become difficult due to the overpowering erasure of indigenous belief systems by the various Church Missions and the degradation of indigenous peoples by the invasion of modern cultural habits. However I still remember a version of the First Man and Woman story that includes the first man and woman being let out of a tree which Baiame had landed. It to my knowkledge was the beginning of the account which ends in the Yowee story, where a tree took off again and flew into being the Southern Cross. A version which adds a strong offworld/or parallel universe theme to the description of the beginning. I do not however, have a written account or verification by other parties to add, at present."}, {"response": 182, "author": "BeardedOne", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (21:45)", "body": ""}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (22:50)", "body": "I think we have not yet had the Australian Aboriginal creation stories. I missed not having them and doubted my ability to tell what was real and what was just patronizing on the internet. I am delighted you have returned. I like having an Aussie onboard even though I have to remain neutral between you and the kiwis during cricket matches."}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (23:06)", "body": "How is this site as to reliability of text? I need The Bearded One's expertise on this http://www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_13.html"}, {"response": 185, "author": "BeardedOne", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (00:27)", "body": "Interesting as it may seem, the Aborigine had Women's business and Men's business. This aspect of two secret societies each apart from the other.. along with the scurge of the White man's changes and translations, both may heve led to the destructuring and rearrangement of some of these dreamtime stories. I do believe that this is fairly accurate but I will have to check local sources, as I can see possible embellishment here. By the way, I come from Murrumbidgee."}, {"response": 186, "author": "BeardedOne", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (00:33)", "body": "so I lean towards this story. [img] http://www.crystalinks.com/dreamtime.jpg[/img ] How The Sun Was Made For a long time there was no sun, only a moon and stars.\ufffdThat was before there were men on the earth, only birds and beasts, all of which were many sizes larger than they are now. One day Dinewan the emu and Brolga the native companion were on a large plain near the Murrumbidgee. There they were, quarrelling and fighting.\ufffdBrolga, in her rage, rushed to the nest of Dinewan and seized from it one of the huge eggs, which she threw with all her force up to the sky. There it broke on a heap of firewood, which burst into flame as the yellow yolk spilled all over it, and lit up the world below to the astonishment of every creature on it. They had been used to the semi-darkness and were dazzled by such brightness. A good spirit who lived in the sky saw how bright and beautiful the earth looked when lit up by this blaze. He thought it would be a good thing to make a fire every day, and from that time he has done so. All night he and his attendant spirits collect wood and heap it up.\ufffdWhen the heap is nearly big enough they send out the morning star to warn those on earth that the fire will soon be lit. The spirits, however, found this warning was not sufficient, for those who slept saw it not. Then the spirits thought someone should make some noise at dawn to herald the coming of the sun and waken the sleepers. But for a long time they could not decide to whom should be given this office. At last one evening they heard the laughter of Goo-goor-gaga, the laughing jackass, ringing through the air. \"That is the noise we want,\" they said. Then they told Goo-goor-gaga that, as the morning star faded and the day dawned, he was every morning to laugh his loudest, that his laughter might awaken all sleepers before sunrise. If he would not agree to do this, then no more would they light the sun-fire, but let the earth be ever in twilight again. But Goo-goor-gaga saved the light for the world. He agreed to laugh his loudest at every dawn of every day, and so he has done ever since, making the air ring with his loud cackling, \"Goo goor gaga, goo goor gaga, goo goor gaga.\" When the spirits first light the fire it does not throw out much heat.\ufffdBut by the middle of the day, when the whole heap of firewood is in a blaze, the heat is fierce.\ufffdAfter that it begins to die gradually away until, at sunset, only red embers are left.\ufffdThey quickly die out, except a few the spirits cover up with clouds and save to light the heap of wood they get ready for the next day. Children are not allowed to imitate the laughter of Goo-goor-gaga, lest he should hear them and cease his morning cry. If children do laugh as he does, an extra tooth grows above their eye-tooth, so that they carry the mark of their mockery in punishment for it.\ufffdWell the good spirits know that if ever a time comes when the Goo-goor-gagas cease laughing to herald the sun, then no more dawns will be seen in the land, and darkness will reign once more."}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (01:50)", "body": "The http://www.crystalinks.com/dreamtime.jpg image you posted is amazingly cosmic and New Age in appearance. Lovely graphic! Might I assume there is some aboriginal blood in your background? If so, all the better! I particularly cherish authenticity and we can use your input to everyone's better understanding. Thank you again for being so willing to share fascinating posts affording a glimpse the rest of us will not have any other way. I would post the image here in a bit of a borrow with credits, but I hesitate to do so. Crystal is both talented and lovely. Again, thanks!"}, {"response": 188, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (10:43)", "body": "i believe i saw something on dreamtime and the aborigines on Discovery. i think the story you posted was told there as well. thanks!"}, {"response": 189, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (17:57)", "body": "Welcome in Geo BeardedOne. Best regards from Greece. John"}, {"response": 190, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (19:11)", "body": "Welcome and thank you for the recounting the creation stories, BeardedOne. I remember reading that Australia might be considered the Land of the Snake, in that according to Aboriginal belief Australia was created by the Rainbow Serpent. Also, there are believed to be atleast 190 different species of snake native to Australia; about 130 of them are venomous."}, {"response": 191, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jun 13, 2004 (14:08)", "body": "http://www.eartherotica.com/gallery1.html Proving that rocks can be erotic."}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 25, 2004 (20:59)", "body": "There are two rocks on Molokai that are not only erotic, they are downright exhibitionistic (is that a word?) I'll watch for shoulder surfers while I hunt for your url. Thanks! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 3, "subject": "Rock Hounding: Where do you go and what do you find there", "response_count": 23, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (18:38)", "body": "On the Island of Hawaii in the Hawaiian Islands, there is lava so fresh it is still molten. Perfect specimens of a'a and pahoehoe lava is everywhere on the flanks of Kilauea, but it is very bad luck to take it with you. Other places on the island you can find peridotite (chunks of the Earth's mantle brought to the surface during explosive eruptions); obsidian deposits on Hualalai; and black and green sand beaches - the latter is entirely made from tiny crystals of olivine, the non-precious form of Peridot - August's Birthstone."}, {"response": 2, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (10:38)", "body": "so how many types of lava are there?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (12:32)", "body": "Two types of surface lava flows: a'a which is clinkery and jagged on the surface while having a very dense hot core which can be many meters in thickness. This is the flow which mows down existing structures by the sheer force of its weight and momentum. It is is pasty in texture and relatively slow-moving. The second type of laval flow is pahoehoe which is much less vicsous,is flat or ropy when it solidifies, and can flow down a mountain in great volume and with considerable speed."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (14:48)", "body": "Other forms of lava are Ash , Pumice and Pele's Hair . Ash looks like fine gray grit and is ejected during explosive eruptions - such as Mt St Helens' recent eruption. Pumice resembles a molasses sponge which is glassy and crumbly here, but on other volcanoes can be gray. It is light with a lot of air mixed into it, and it often floats on the water. Pele's hair forms during episodes of high fountaining. Our lavas are silica-rich, so these are like spun glass and again the color of m lasses. It can be carried long distances on the wind. You do not want to be in the fallout zone with this stuff. When it gets down your neck it is most unpleasant. I can vouch for that! (Pele is the Hawaiian Goddess of the Volcanoes."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 14, 1999 (19:24)", "body": "Wolf set up a Rock Collecting Topic in the Collecting Conference for me. We will continue it here, but that is a good place to start. Please check it out, and check the rest of her other topics, as well. http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/collecting/41"}, {"response": 6, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (08:21)", "body": "I had no idea about all these kinds of lava. Mine is not a volcanic country, except for the Azores islands. My knowledge of eruptions is better related to the Ancient History - Pompeii and Herculanaeum, which I have visited. I don't usually collect things, much less rocks, but found some very pretty stones on a beach in Cyprus and brought some back home. They look better wet than dry. They are all different, and I'm sure some contain iron, because I built an artificial aquarium around them, with glass fish, and there is rust at the bottom!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (09:52)", "body": "that sounds way cool gi!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (12:17)", "body": "Nice effect, Gi. If you want them in a dish and looking wet, dilute colorless nail polish and coat them. They will look wet without the fake shiny look that spray acryllic gives, and it might seal in the iron."}, {"response": 9, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:28)", "body": "Can I do that and still put them in the water?"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:38)", "body": "Sure! To insure they do not peel, wash them in detergent to remove any oils and be sure they are thoroughly dry before coating. Thin the polish with oil-less thinner or remover."}, {"response": 11, "author": "Banise", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (16:15)", "body": "hi"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (16:29)", "body": "Aloha Bernice...are you new here? Welcome, if that is so, and stay a while."}, {"response": 13, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (16:30)", "body": "yes, please!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (17:24)", "body": "yes, hi bernice!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (23:47)", "body": "One really good place to rockhound (where you can go and what you find there)is a museum. If you are new to the area in which you will be hunting for specimens, visit the local museum and look at their collection. Note the textures and note the names. They might even have a little booklet you can obtain for a small price. Pictures to follow of just such a trip..."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (22:20)", "body": "Ok, Mike...You need a piece of Peridotite? I can send you a chunk and some lava bombs - all from Mauna Kea - or anything else Hawaii-igneous. I am rather hesitant to send you anything from Kilauea or Mauna Loa. They are active and I worry about sending you bad luck.(Yes, I am a scientist first, but I have a box of rocks which was recently shipped to me from Canada from someone who took them home and had appalling luck \"as a result.\" I figure...just in case...it is better to err on the side of caution!) You cannot believe how delighted I am that you finally found your way here. It is the middle of the night for you and I cannot wait for you to wake up and boot that computer!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (22:22)", "body": "Looks like I'd better get out David's specimen pix and post them...as I promised to do in November!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "that box of bad luck lava wasn't from this guy we saw on tv who took some as a souvenir? (can't remember anything about him or where he's from). he said everything went on the fritz after he took that stuff. as soon as he sent it back, his luck changed back to good. *amazing*"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:38)", "body": "I have a box from Canada which we will take to the volcano...the person who collected it had a terrible time....Hope she is doing better. Anne Hale knows of another person who took some and has had appalling thing happen - but he did not know about the curse. Ignorance of the law not being an adequate excuse extends far beyond the legal system! Notice, Mike did not take me up on my offer?!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:39)", "body": "Not that I know of, the sender has not been on tv, but it happens a lot. The park gets dozens of return boxes during the year!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:41)", "body": "haha! they should put them on display to show how many people didn't believe the curse and found out the hard way! maybe it could prevent future lava removal!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:19)", "body": "They do, actually, and sample letters which outdo all soap opera stories. Incredible - they think just the other guy is superstitious! Until ill befalls them...!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:22)", "body": "Funny thing is, David has my obsidian collection from all over the world including some from the Urals. Nothing bad has happened to him, but he also has not one bit of Hawaiian Lava in his collection! Core drillings from the coral reefs, but, no igneous rock! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 30, "subject": "Geothermal Activity", "response_count": 29, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (20:47)", "body": "great topic!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (20:48)", "body": "************************ New Zealand activity ************************ ---------- Geysering in Rotorua ---------- On 7,8,12 April, geysering took place from Spring 653 at Rotorua, very close to homes on Tarewa Road. Similar activity at this spring in Nov 1999 and Jan 2000. This information comes from the New Zealand Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences at: http://www.gns.cri.nz/ . The full text is below. April 7 \"Intermittent minor eruptions are continuing at White Island, with a steam and gas plume rising to an altitude of 1500 metres. The eruptions are coming from a ridge vent that has enlarged since activity began on 7 March. Only minor amounts of ash are being emitted and there is little seismic activity, so White Island remains at Alert Level 1 (minor signs of volcano unrest). Seismic activity is low and there is little sign of volcanic activity.\" April 14 \"A small amount of ash has erupted from White Island this week between 11 and 14 April, with the ash cloud rising to 1,500 metres. The eruption has been accompanied by seismic activity. White Island remains at Alert Level 1 (minor signs of volcano unrest). Mount Ruapehu had a period of moderate volcanic tremor on Monday 10 April, with some weaker tremors since then. This follows several months of very low seismic activity. There is little sign of surface activity, so Mt Ruapehu remains at Alert Level 1. All other New Zealand volcanoes are at Alert Level 0 (dormant or quiescent). Geothermal Activity On 7, 8 and 12 April, geysers erupted from Spring 653 in Rotorua. The spring is in a Maori thermal reserve, but very close to homes on Tarewa Road. Boiling water erupted for up to an hour to heights of about 10 metres. This spring also had geyser activity in November 1999 and January 2000\""}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (20:50)", "body": "Wolfie! Welcome *grin* You beat me to the punch for the first posting. Mahalo plenty."}, {"response": 4, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (20:51)", "body": "(you ok?)"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (20:54)", "body": "Yeah...(it's been a rough day) Thanks for asking. I've been to Calistoga in California - my first real geyser. The Island of Hawaii gets a good percentage of its electric power from geothermal wells just southeast of Hilo."}, {"response": 6, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "well, hope tomorrow is better! i've never been to a geyser."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (20:58)", "body": "Gotta check up on Yellowstone and places like that for pics...and David for the Calistoga ones - he's the one who took me there! Oooh, that's right...he has Yellowstone, as well. Happy Mom!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (20:59)", "body": "(bound to be, Sweetie!)"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (21:00)", "body": "good! i gotta run, am watching qvc *grin*"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (21:04)", "body": "Get lotsa good stuff! and share your loot with us cyberly..."}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (21:06)", "body": "not able to get anything, every last piece is selling out. it's stuff called kirk's folly. really whimsical pieces but well done and detailed. relatively affordable as well."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (21:09)", "body": "Jewelry, I gather..."}, {"response": 13, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (21:10)", "body": "yes, pins, earrings, necklaces and bracelets. lemme find something to show you..."}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (21:16)", "body": "here's a taste (wrong topic i know)"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (21:20)", "body": "Ooooooo! Real stuff? Where is Lance when we need him...! John says 10% max electric power supplied on this island by geothermal. Most of our power usage could be met by such sources on Island, but the housing subdivision near it pickets any attempts to put more power online. Of course, the houses came AFTER the wells were drilled..."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (21:32)", "body": ""}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (21:34)", "body": "(This has not been my best day...) http://www.oldfaithfulgeyser.com/ Ths Calistoga Geyser in Central California's Napa Valley"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (21:43)", "body": "How to make your own geyser: (I'd put it on the Geosites for Kids but they need adult supervision for this one. Lots of other good stuff there, too. http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/geyser/ World Geyser Links: This is the ultimate site for geyser information and links to pictures and all things geyserly in the entire world. http://www.web-net.com/jonesy/worldgeyserlinks.htm"}, {"response": 19, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (01:16)", "body": "I've only seen geysers on films and TV. Great topic. HUG"}, {"response": 20, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (11:25)", "body": "picture on 17 is great! (no, the gems aren't real but they're sure pretty and i didn't buy anything, couldn't stay up long enough)"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (15:14)", "body": "STEAMBOAT, WORLD'S TALLEST GEYSER, ERUPTS AFTER NINE YEAR HIATUS - May 2, 2000 Early this morning, around 5 a.m., the world's tallest active geyser, Steamboat, gave early morning visitors a rare opportunity to view it in major eruption. Eruptions of Steamboat Geyser (located at the Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park) are entirely unpredictable, with the last eruption on October 2, 1991. At around 7 a.m., a National Park Service employee traveling to work spotted a very tall vapor column as he neared the geyser basin and-suspecting a possible eruption-stopped to investigate. Two park visitors, sleeping in their pickup camper truck at the Norris parking area, stated that they were abruptly awakened about 5 a.m. by what they thought was an earthquake. Frightened, they drove south toward Madison, but upon looking back noted the huge vapor plume and returned to the geyser basin. By the time the park employee arrived, a very heavy, wet mist enveloped most of the area to the geyser, and Steamboat-emitting a tremendous roar-was in the full steam phase with a huge vapor plume approximately 500 feet tall (we have no estimate of the height of the water plume). Steamboat Geyser rarely erupts in major phase. More commonly, Steamboat ejects water in frequent bursts of 10-40 feet. During a major eruption, Steamboat can reach heights of over 300 feet, showering viewers with mineral-rich waters. For hours following its rare 3-40 minute major eruptions (water phase), Steamboat thunders with powerful jets of steam; this steam phase can continue as long as 12 hours after the water cessation. Steamboat's unpredictability makes today's observance even more rare. Intervals vary from three days to fifty years (Steamboat was dormant from 1911-1961). In recent years, Steamboat has erupted in 1989 (3 times), 1990 (1 time), and 1991 (1 time). -NPS- Pictures of today's eruption of Steamboat Geyser (steam phase) are available on the internet at the following address: http://www.nps.gov/yell/press/images/steamboatpics/index.htm ."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 10, 2000 (16:24)", "body": "Yellowstone Geyser Awakens Steamboat's First Major Eruption Since 1991 It Once Lay Dormant For Fifty Years Burst Of Hot Water Awoke Campers At 5 A.M. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo.(CBS) Yellowstone National Park's Steamboat Geyser, the world's largest, had its first major eruption Tuesday since Oct. 2, 1991, according to park officials. Two people sleeping in a camper said they were awakened around 5 a.m. by what they thought was an earthquake, park spokeswoman Marsha Karle said. Frightened, they drove south toward Madison, but looked back and saw Steamboat Geyser emitting a vapor plume about 500 feet high. A heavy mist meanwhile settled over the Norris Geyser Basin about 30 miles north of Old Faithful. The unpredictable geyser can spout water more than 300 feet, although there was no estimate of the water plume height Tuesday, park officials said. Steamboat Geyser's intervals between major eruptions can vary from three days to 50 years, including a dormant period from 1911-1961. Bursts of 10-14 feet are more common. In recent years, the geyser had three major eruptions in 1989, one in 1990 and one in 1991. Major eruptions are typically followed by steam bursts that can last up to 12 hours after the water stops spouting. A geyser is a hot spring encased in volcanic rock. Water trickles down through the rock until it touches lower rock layers heated by volcanic magma. The contact with the hot rocks heats the water, turning it into water vapor, and sending the steam upward through cracks and fissures in the rock. Major eruptions occur when the steam cannot escape through the surface, and pressure builds up underground. Geysers are very rare\ufffdsome scientists say there are only 700 on earth\ufffdbut Yellowstone claims at least 400 in seven major geyser basins. Yellowstone Park, the first national park established anywhere in the world, welcomed 3 million visitors in 1998."}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (12:24)", "body": "Where was the first geothermal electricity generated? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In 1904, the world's first geothermal electric generator went into operation at Italy's Larderello Hot Springs. Using pressurized steam from underground, the original plant was able to generate about 250 kilowatts, barely enough to run one modern home. Electricity was not the first use of the hot springs at Larderello. Hot water was used in 1777,and starting in 1790 brine from the springs was processed to extract boric acid and other compounds of boron. Today, Larderello has 300 wells as deep as 700 meters (2300 feet), which yield ultra-hot water at 235 degrees Celsius (455 F) and a pressure of 30 atmospheres. The site now produces 300-400 megawatts of power. More about geothermal energy and how it is used: http://geothermal.marin.org/pwrheat.html http://wwwphys.murdoch.edu.au/acre/refiles/geo/text.html Another place where geothermal energy is important: http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1997/05/02.html Why do we use alternating current (AC) electricity? http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1999/10/14.html"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (12:03)", "body": "Three Mistakenly Jump Into Yellowstone Thermal Pool, One Killed YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) - Three young park concession employees on a late-evening outing jumped into a 178-degree hot spring, thinking it was an ordinary coldwater pond, a doctor said. One died and two were in critical condition Wednesday. The three were burned late Monday in the Cavern Spring, a 10-foot-deep pool in the Lower Geyser Basin, seven miles north of Old Faithful in the middle of Yellowstone National Park. They were returning from a swim in the Firehole River when friends heard their cries, park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said. \"These three teen-agers jumped into the pool thinking it was cold water and got quite a shock,\" Dr. Jeff Saffle, treating the survivors at a Salt Lake City hospital, said Wednesday. Yellowstone's thermal pools are often surrounded by thin, fragile crusts. Numerous warning signs are posted. Visitors to the Lower Geyser Basin are urged to stay on a half-mile boardwalk over the treacherous terrain. \"I would not venture off this boardwalk. You couldn't pay me enough to set foot off this,\" said Carla Wilson, a visitor from Denver. Sara Hulphers, 20, of Oroville, Wash., was burned over her entire body and died a few hours later at the University of Utah's Intermountain Burn and Trauma Center in Salt Lake City. Tyler Montague, 18, of Salt Lake City and Lance Buchi, 18, of Sandy, Utah, were in critical condition. Saffle said Montague and Buchi were in shock and barely coherent after being rescued but told doctors that they dove into the pool on purpose. He estimated their changes of survival at 30 percent to 40 percent. \"It is way too early for us to be optimistic,\" Saffle said. Rangers don't think alcohol was a factor, park officials said. Matthews said such accidents are infrequent. In 1998, a man fell into a thermal pool and suffered second-degree burns. In Oroville, in north-central Washington, high school teacher George Thornton remembered Hulphers as \"very outgoing, friendly, very accepting of others.\" \"She's one of the good kids, really neat, just a treasure of a kid,\" he said, his voice choking. \"You work very hard as a teacher, and every once in a while you get a great kid, one you know will be a great person and a great parent. This is just tragic. She was a great person.\" The three teens worked in the Old Faithful area, Hulphers and Buchi in the Old Faithful Inn and Montague at the Old Faithful Lodge."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (18:28)", "body": "Calistoga Geyser...Man Made?! Old Faithful \"Geyser\" of California (also known as Calistoga \"Geyser\", Little Old Faithful, or Mt. Saint Helena \"Geyser\") is a popular tourist attraction found at the head of the Napa Valley near Calistoga California. Contrary to the belief of many this \"geyser\" is man-made. The photos above show the \"geyser\" at the turn of the century erupting from the casing of the a well drilled in the late 1800's. Old faithful of California is one of several artificial \"geysers\" found around the world. It may be best classified, not as a geyser, but as an erupting geothermal well. There were at least two such wells drilled at the site of Old Faithful of California as documented in old photographs. Dr. John Rinehart in his book, A GUIDE TO GEYSER GAZING,1976 p.49 concedes that the feature called Old Faithful is a drilled well even though he starts by saying \"There has always been some question as to whether the geyser is in reality a natural one or a drilled well.\" He continues \"In any event according to to accounts, an early settler was nearly blown to bits when it began erupting while he was drilling\" (probably for water). Rinehart, then speculates that the settler may have \"simply opened up a dead geyser\". Certainly legends and rumors of geysers in this part of California have existed since the early settlers and the opening of a dead geyser is a possibility. However all indications are that no geyser was reported until after the well was drilled sometime around the turn of the century. Reinhart also confirms that there was casing in the 70 meter deep well. Fran Rache and his wife Grace observed this geyser starting in 1906 and according to Rinehart kept it alive. Rinehart reports \"the geyser, because it sits in a sedimentary basin\" (I read pool here), \"fills up with debris every few years, closing off the well casing at about the 13 meter level\". Fran would clean it out by reaming it. Reinhart continues \"However in 1970, he (Fran) did a major overhaul after some boys stopped the geysers action entirely by jamming the opening with broken pop bottles\". What exactly Fran did is not clear in Reinhart's book but he apparently fixed the sediment problem and restored the \"geyser\" eruptions. Current photographs show a cone sitting in the runoff pool. In 1974 The Rashes sold their ranch and geyser to Howard and Olga Cream, two avid geyser gazers, who converted it in to the tourist attraction it is today. The Cream's successful development of the site was not the first attempt to draw tourists. Old postcards, such as the one shown below, document an earlier attempt by E. T. Plummer to commercialize the erupting well . However, even though the \"geyser\" vent is artificial, it tapped into a natural hydrothermal system. Recent reports indicate that behavior of this geyser may change prior to earthquakes. Further studies are underway to see if geyser behavior may be an indicator of impending earthquakes. This very significant theory is based on detailed observations of the \"geyser\" made by the Olga (Cream) Kolbeck and other gazers starting in 1974. Old Faithful of California though not of natural birth is an important thermal feature."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (18:32)", "body": "More on th4 Calistoga Geyser and pictures http://www.web-net.com/jonesy/of_califonia.htm Thanks, David!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (07:00)", "body": "I've seen this one first hand, at least driven by it on the way to Harbin Hot Springs in Lake County, a famous Northern California spa and retreat."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (13:37)", "body": "I have, as well. In fact, Calistoga is about the only geyser I have seen with the exception of one tiny one in a hot river near Mammoth Lakes. It is one of the first short trips David took me on when I visited him in California - just after he took his non-driking mom through Napa Valley. It is beautiful all around there."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (20:39)", "body": "************************************ White Island and Pohuto Geyser, NZ *********************************** For the week ending 24 November, White Island continued to fume and degas and Ruapehu had low levels of volcanic tremor. And, in Rotorua, the Pohutu Geyser has now been in continuous eruption for 251 days, a new and ongoing record for New Zealand. From: http://www.gns.cri.nz/hazardwatch/latest/gweekvo.htm 24/11/2000 White Island and Ruapehu White Island continues to emit minor amounts of steam and gases. At Ruapehu low background levels of volcanic tremor continue to be recorded. Both White Island and Ruapehu remain at Alert Level 1 (signs of volcano unrest). Other volcanoes All other New Zealand volcanoes are at Alert Level 0 (dormant or quiescent). Geothermal activity Pohutu Geyser at Whakarewarewa in Rotorua continues its record-breaking display. The geyser has now been in continuous eruption for 251 days. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 31, "subject": "Geo Mysteries", "response_count": 136, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (10:58)", "body": "we didn't get linked in paraspring (i think i have a topic on atlantis there)... do we also get to talk about the 7 Wonders?"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (12:56)", "body": "Absolutely you can talk about anything in here from the wild theories of spaces hips coming out hole in the polar regions to anything else of interest which does not seem to fit anywhere else. Get out your Pyramidology books and have at it. I also think this is a natural one to be linked to Paraspring, but I cannot do it anymore and none of my prior requests have been done...*sigh*"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (12:57)", "body": "That should be space ships...*sigh*"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (17:38)", "body": "Stonehenge Crop Circles http://cropcircleconnector.com/"}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (18:20)", "body": "that last one is soooo cooooool!!!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (18:40)", "body": "It is all ONE photograph...and Stonehenge seems to attract them for whatever the reason. I'll post more as I find them. This was a particularly stunning one!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (20:14)", "body": "Crop Circle Reports from last year (add your own to these - they are just as valid!) http://cropcircleconnector.com/1999/rumours99a.html Rousdon, nr Seaton, Devon. Reported Sunday 22nd August. I was surprised to see no mention of the formation which occured at Rousdon (nr Seaton) in Devon in mid July. A friend of mine visited it, and according to him it was documented in the local papers down there (including a picture). Perhaps you could follow that up. Reported by John Culmer Longbridge, nr Warwick, Warwickshire. Reported 29th July. NEEDS INVESTIGATING Another report of a bigger formation 3 niles to the north just south of Warwick on the M40/A46 junction. Reported by Antony Horn Rabley Wood, nr Marlborough, Wiltshire. Reported 22nd July. I have read a couple of e-mails from this guy called Steve re a formation on Rough Down. I looked for it last week but found nothing, he now says it is near Rabley Wood, any ideas? The formation ! saw over a week ago is near Rabley Wood near Marlborough I was a long way away so I can't tell you what shape it is. Reported by Antony Horn. M4, nr Reading, Berkshire. Reported 15th July. A friend has just informed me of a large formation visable from the M4 near Reading??! Sound like a large flower type formation....I have not heard of anything around this area....is this new? Reported by Antony Harding Bungay, nr Beccles, Suffolk. Reported 8th July. UPDATE After E-Mailing yesterday, I went up to the field that housed the circle. I couldn't find anyone to gain permission from so I carefully went up a footpath to have a look. However, after checking to see if I was being watched, I saw someone staring at me from a nearby house (who hadn't answered the door to me when I'd called 5 minutes earlier). So I was unable to enter the formation but from what I saw (and from my limited experience of crop formations (while on holiday in Wessex once a year)) it appears quite old (the crop is 'springing up' in places), it has a clockwise swirl with an outer ring (also clockwise) and has a diameter of approx. 50 ft. Well, I'll keep looking for any further East Anglian circles. If you a sent any info from any other croppies regarding this formation, I would greatly appreciate your forwarding it to me too. Hello. After my flatmate's morning cycle ride (July 8) he told me of what he believed to be a crop circle. I promptly went to the area he described and, yes, sure enough there is a 50ft circle with an outer ring in a field in Suffolk (shock). I haven't entered the circle yet as there are far to many farms in the area and would rather have permission than get shot at ! If you want to post this on CCC site the circle can be found here: Take the Beccles Road out of Bungay towards the Watchouse PH. Take the Mettingham Low road (Not Pirnow St or the main Beccles Road).Proceed about 500 yards and in the top right-hand corner of the only field of wheat (on the right) is the small circle. It is very difficult to see from the road but for a good view, take Pirnow Road past Crisp Maltings (over the three bridges) and keep checking through the gaps in the trees to your right. I can't recall there ever being a circle in this area even in the early 90s. Perhaps a true, unhoaxed specimen of the genuine phenomena.Feel free to E-mail me but I will send more details /photos when I've spoken to the land owner. Reported by Ben Leah Stanbury, nr Haworth, West Yorkshire. Reported 26th June. Sighted crop circle near reservoir at Stanbury yesterday afternoon 26th June. Reported by Varaly Thome. Herewith some data passed on to me by Michael Green from Tony Caldicott (East Midlands Co-ordinator. Derbys: @ SK 451 631 near Junc.28 (4m North), of M1 on same site as 1993 - a ringed circle with crescents. S. Yorks: @ SE 305 095 near Junc 38 of M1 (To the West), a chain of circles. Regards George Bishop I have heard there is a formation at Bicester and a fourth formation at Toot Balden both these reports have to be confirmed. (UPDATE) Last night Geoff and I looked at the formation near Oxford airport (which is not near Enstone - Enstone is a separate air field) more details about it will send you further details in due course. We went looking for the formation at Bicester and think it was a duff report. Geoff will look for the fourth Toot Balden formation this weekend. Reported by Jeremy Kay Bruton, nr Wincanton, Somerset. Reported 9th June A crop circle has appeared just outside Bruton (off the A303 near Wincanton Somerset. It is situated on the Right side of the road on the Godminster Lane leading out of Bruton on the Godminster Road. It's been there since Wednesday 9th June. It's shape is long and Scorpion like. It's hard to see it from a good vantage point, the Bruton Dove Cote Hill might be a good position with a pair of binoculars; otherwise you can just peer over the Right side Hedge and get a sense of it. The corn seems to have literally and organically bent at the node points over night without any trauma to the "}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (20:21)", "body": "Three lovely ones from last year http://cropcircleconnector.com/1999/1999.html"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (22:47)", "body": "those HAVE to be man-made. i mean, look at them. but they're so precise. i don't get it...."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (22:48)", "body": "The caption for the central crop circle above (response 8) follows: This formation was located in quite a remote part of the Avebury landscape, it was positioned about a couple of hundred yards at the back of West Kennett Long Barrow, just one field over from the Flying Duck formation in 1994. A UFO sighting may have been associated with the appearance of this formation, but more information is still needed at this time. This particular place is extremely quiet, and certainly has an air of mystery and in someway a sacred atmosphere to it. The formation itself, is nothing we haven\ufffdt seen before, another fine addition to the Koch designs we have been witnessing over the last three years. The season of 1999 will certainly be remembered as the year of the square. It has featured in many the major designs this year; none more so than this pattern at West Kennett. The usual perimeter circles on the outside are present, with a wonderful three-dimensional floor pattern in the middle. The floor isn\ufffdt raised, but the overall floor construction can only be appreciated from the sky, with correct shadows, the effect can be witnessed. It was positioned on a slight brow of the hill, as it slopes down an incline, but the formation cannot be seen from the road, or from any advantage point. Only people standing in the design would pinpoint its location. The square geometry has been a main feature on the formations of 1999; the Silbury Hill formation was also created on a similar vein. Five main squares are involved in the construction of the design, with the hidden squares creating the outer edge of the pattern. The circles placed on the perimeter were well formed, but visiting a formation this stage in the season seems to create a messy floor construction, the plants are nott quite so supple as they would be earlier on in the season. A well formed formation, placed in a peaceful and remote location. http://cropcircleconnector.com/1999/EastKennett/EastKennett99c.html"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (22:50)", "body": "Yup, but even man-made, they are amazing. And, of course, this one is right near the gigantic Avebury Stone Circle, West and East Kennet Long Barrows, and the associated goodies of inestimable (well, they are estimable - but old!) age."}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (22:53)", "body": "they are amazing, indeed, and i like the symmetry."}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (22:55)", "body": "Engineering students from Cambridge or Oxford out on a lark to mess with the minds of the gullible and uninformed?! I wonder if the farmers are angry about what has happened to their crops?"}, {"response": 14, "author": "Weatherlawyer", "date": "Fri, Jan 18, 2002 (14:05)", "body": "They have competitions now that rival ploughing matches for popularity, to see which team can creat the best ones. I believe the e mphasis is not only on the artwork but emphasises the stealth of technique. Has anyone done a searh on that?"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 18, 2002 (16:43)", "body": "Yes! Mike, I saw a program about crop circles last night. It seems college students have far too much time on their hands. Just as when I was a college student! Fractals seem to be the style lately, or are they advancing into other \"fields\" (sorrym, I couldn't resist)"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  8, 2002 (21:29)", "body": "http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_538533.html Hundreds report UFO sighting in Yugoslavia Authorities are investigating after hundreds of people in a Montenegrin village reported seeing a cluster of giant UFOs. People in Godijevo say they rushed out of their homes after hearing a series of loud blasts and saw huge illuminated objects seemingly hovering overhead. Officials are investigating numerous recorded sightings, but have been unable to offer an explanation so far. According to the newspaper Vijesti, many witnesses claim the UFOs changed shape before heading off into the sky and out of sight. They couldn't tell how high in the night sky the lights were. \"I went outside after hearing a commotion and when I looked up into the night sky there were around twenty large luminous circles, it was as if a UFO was hovering over our heads. The sky must have been lit up for hundreds of metres,\" said Sead Hodzic. Suggestions the lights may have come from nearby nightlife have been dismissed because there are no discos in the vicinity of Godijevo and little in the way of hi-tech facilities which could generate such lights."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  8, 2002 (21:30)", "body": "I have heard at least one person suggest the above article is describing earthquakes lights. Since the person suggesting this is not known personally to me or to Geo, I will reserve my thoughts on her opinion. Just thought I might mention it."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  8, 2002 (23:09)", "body": "I thought this was found to be a pigmy elephant: \ufffdCyclops skulls\ufffd baffle tribal folk By Perseus Echeminada Publish Date: [Sunday, February 24, 2002] Ancient skulls bearing a single eyeball socket found in limestone caves have baffled tribal folk in the hinterlands of Bohol, Bukidnon and Agusan, reports said. The existence of the skulls, which resemble those of the cyclops, a race of giants in Greek mythology with a single eye in the middle of the forehead, has triggered speculations that one-eyed ancient settlers once roamed the country\ufffds southern islands. The strange skulls were reportedly found in limestone caves in the hinterlands of Bohol, at Mt. Palaupau in Sumilao, Bukidnon, and in some parts of Agusan. Tribal folklore has it that giants once roamed the plains of Central and Northern Mindanao, the most popular of whom, according to Bukidnon legend, was \"Agyo\" who fought against the first Spanish conquistadores. Bukidnon\ufffds tribal folk are reportedly keeping skeletal remains which they believe to be Agyo\ufffds as an object of worship in a sacred cave. Reports about the strange skulls had prompted archeologists of the National Museum to launch an excavation in Bohol and they, indeed, found one such skull. Archeologist Rey Santiago said intensive study on the skull showed it belonged to an ancient settler. He, however, theorized that limestone in caves where the \"cyclops skulls\" were discovered could have triggered a chemical reaction in the skeletal part, creating a new eyeball socket. \"Human bones and limestone have similar (composition),\" he said. Despite Santiago\ufffds explanation though, tribal folklore maintain there were two races of giants in ancient times \ufffd the kapre who were associated with evil, and the one-eyed giants whom early settlers regarded as their heroes. http://www.philstar.com/philstar/show_content.asp?article=68822"}, {"response": 19, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (11:28)", "body": "I wonder if I found some \"sub-mystery!\". Do you remember this \"strange\" satellite picture? We wondered at that time for what really is this long line. Recent corresponding pictures are not the same! Recent satellite pictures are pseudo colored or they are worked pictures. Satellite images for all planet disappeared from the web. I wonder also if the change is outcome of our questions. This is the new corresponding picture. Surely it needs some additional work. John"}, {"response": 20, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (12:27)", "body": "About earthquakes lights I have pinpoint this report of newspaper \"\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd of Athens\" of 18-09-99 In enough cases and in Japan were mainly reported luminous shines in air just before big earthquakes. (I notice that West of Almyros city were observed similar luminous shines on the slope of the Mt. Othris, that is near the epicentre of Magnesia EQ in 1980, M=6.3R as they published local newspapers. These luminous shines, like sparks, were observed a few seconds before and during the EQ.) In 1996 the Japanese researcher Josizo Kavakoutzi, from the Japanese Institute of Industrial Researches, attributed brilliancies in the fracture of rocks with silicon dioxide. (Most rocks contain quartz.). According to Kavakoutzi, one of millionth second afterwards the fracture of quartz is presented a red shine with length of wave 650 nm. Ten thousandth second later, the light becomes blue and his emission is continued for 100 thousandth the second roughly. John"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (14:43)", "body": "As regards the satellite maps, I suspect added security has made the satellite maps very scarce. The Doppler radar and other weather satellite maps are colored to indicated height and temperature of air masses. They also disguise anything \"we\" don't need to see. Alas, the truly evil will always find a way to see these things. We will not. Have you a source for the top image? I was never able to find it. Japanese, if I remember correctly."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (15:02)", "body": "The big earthquakes occur in Hawaii when the mass of the volcanic cone pushes down and out on the plane of the Pacific tectonic plate on which it sits. The Pacific plate is pushing in a northwestward direction. Pressure builds up and the earth at the outer edges of the volcano land mass snaps and crumbles as slippage occurs. The most destructive earthquake in Hawaii happened April 2, 1868 on the Kona coast and more than 81 people died. The quake caused damage around the entire island and destroyed more than 100 homes. The magnitude 7.9 earthquake was felt as far away as the island of Kauai. The area most affected was the Ka'u district where a resulting landslide of mud generated a 15-meter tsunami. During the early morning hours of November 29, 1975. At 3:35 a.m., a magnitude 5.7 jolted the Big Island of Hawaii. There were no reports of severe damages, however, many were frightened. This event would prove to be merely a foreshock. By 4:47 a.m., everyone had fallen back to sleep, only to be awakened once more by a larger, even more frightening magnitude 7.2 shock. \"Earthquake lights\" of white to bluish flashes or glows lasting several seconds were reported by a number of observers. Earthquake lights are associated with major earthquakes and have been observed in Japan and California. The lights are believed to be results of earthquake-induced distortions of the atmosphere. This type of destructive earthquake generally occurs about once every ten years. The most recent large earthquake in this area had a magnitude of 6.7, occuring in 1983 and causing $6 -$7 millions in damage. On rare occasion an earthquake not related to volcanic activity can happen on the island of Hawaii. In 1973 a magnitude 6.2 happened north of Hilo, injuring 11 people and causing $5.6 millions worth of damage. Earthquakes like these are hard to predict. http://library.thinkquest.org/J003007/Disasters2/earthquake/earthofhi.html I was here for these quakes and I did see the bluish white flashes. I thought it might have been power transformers arcing out, but they were not the same color."}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (22:54)", "body": "Probe Into Cuba's Possible 'Sunken City' Advances Reuters Mar 29 2002 6:14PM HAVANA (Reuters) - Scientific investigators said on Friday they hope to better determine later this year if an unusual rock formation deep off Cuba's coast could be a sunken city from a previously unknown ancient civilization. \"These are extremely peculiar structures ... They have captured all our imagination,\" Cuban geologist Manuel Iturralde said at a conference after a week on a boat over the site. \"If I had to explain this geologically, I would have a hard time,\" he told reporters later, saying examination of rock samples due to be collected in a few months should shed further light on the formation off the Guanahacabibes Peninsula on Cuba's western tip. Iturralde, research director of Cuba's Natural History Museum, has joined Canadian exploration company Advanced Digital Communications (ADC) in efforts to solve the mystery of the smooth, geometrically shaped, granite-like rocks. They are laid out in structures resembling pyramids, roads and other structures at more than 2,000 feet in a 7-3/4 mile-square area. ADC has suggested they might belong to a civilization that colonized the American continent thousands of years ago, possibly sitting on an island that was sunk to great depths by cataclysmic earth movement such as an earthquake. That theory, and its inevitable parallel with the myth of the lost city of Atlantis, has provoked skepticism from some scientists around the world who say the depth and age -- ADC has spoken of at least 6,000 years' old -- were not credible. Some European archaeologists said the stones, stumbled upon in July 2000 while ADC was hunting with sonar equipment for treasure and sunken Spanish galleons, could be formed by natural limestone. But Iturralde's conclusion that there is no immediately apparent natural explanation for the rocks has lent credence to ADC's theory. \"NEED FOR OPEN MIND\" \"It appears like there is some kind of intelligent design in the structure's configuration and planning,\" ADC's Soviet-born Canadian ocean engineer, Paulina Zelitsky, said on the sidelines of the geophysical conference in Havana. \"I have worked in this field over 30 years and I have never before seen natural structures shaped with such intelligent symmetry and plan. From the very first moment, I was suspecting that these structures were not natural.\" While Iturralde gave evidence in his paper on Friday for seismic movement at the site, and possible submerging of the land, he drew short of definitively concluding the rocks were not shaped by nature. If, however, that theory was proven, it would revolutionize understanding of the history of the Americas, he told reporters. \"It would change a lot our knowledge of humans and the evolution of the Americas,\" Iturralde said. \"Recently, a French archaeologist found some evidence of people being here in South America 40,000 years ago, something we never expect, so you need to be always open to things that you are not expecting, that are not in the framework of present-day knowledge ... We may have found something that nobody has thought about.\" ADC plans to take a specially designed robot to the site in a few months to take samples of the rocks and the sediment they are embedded in to try to date them and seek signs they may have once been on dry land. They will also be searching for any sign of human life such as drawings, sculptures or artifacts. \"To drill samples from these structures is not easy because they look like granite. And to drill granite at a depth of 600 meters is very difficult,\" Zelitsky said. She said their discoveries could make history. \"I think we are talking about the origins of the American continent. There are many hypotheses about how the continent was colonized ... There is quite a controversy, and I think our discovery will be the first physical evidence of the true origins of developed civilization in the Americas.\""}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (22:58)", "body": "There are a lot of block flows and pillow lavas on the sea floor which look like what active imaginations want them to look like. I think they will again come up with only theories and sell more books to the easily swayed."}, {"response": 25, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (19:11)", "body": "Like the Bimini Wall. Wasn't that at first considered to have been a submerged ancient roadway? Another Atlantis theory which turned out to be a natural structure."}, {"response": 26, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (20:38)", "body": "Cheryl, have you seen the atlantea.com website we're hosting? What is your honest opinion of this site?"}, {"response": 27, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (20:40)", "body": "we have an atlantis website? oh, and don't forget paraspring's topic for atlantis! i think i heard the same thing about the roadway but didn't know it had a name, thanks cheryl."}, {"response": 28, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (21:07)", "body": "We host it. It's Roger Didio's website, a NY kind of guy who I used to work with at IBM. He's still at IBM up in the NY area."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (23:30)", "body": "Bimini Roads and those great slabs around Japanese islands... the Canary Islands, and even Lyonesse sunken off Cornwall in England have all been candidates for Plato's allegories. Too bad we keep chasing what isn't there and try harder to understand and preserve the world we now have...!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (20:15)", "body": "Back to Ley Lines for a moment. The only information I can find about the now mostly vanished Marden Henge is that is lies on Silbury Hill Ley in Wiltshire. With a 36 acre internal measurement and a great barrow associated with it, that is a difficult thing to do. Now, it is mostly wooded by new growth trees and the roadway goes straigh through it just as do the roads through Durrington Walls and Avebury. Very strange, indeed! http://www.leyhunter.com/arch/tlh13.htm I did not photograph it when I visited Marden simply because what I could imagine of the remaining bank and ditch is in the dark woods and would not show up well on a photograph. Apparently this is a common agreement. I can find neither photo of the area nor ground plan sketch. It is there, though. And, it is still fascinating me."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (20:17)", "body": "The final ley marker is Marden Henge (09175820). Enclosing 35 acres, it is the largest henge yet discovered. Its bank and the ditch did not complete a full circuit. Excavations have revealed grooved ware, suggesting a Neolithic origin. The ley enters the henge where the road cuts its N bank and would almost certainly have passes through the no longer extant Hatfield Barrow that once stood within the henge. This was said to be well over 400 feet in diameter and according to tradition, concealed a treasure. Pots of gold, it seems, are found at the ends of leys as well as rainbows!. http://www.leyhunter.com/arch/tlh13.htm"}, {"response": 32, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (16:27)", "body": "Hi all, We are thinking many times why some mysteries insist mysteries for years. It is easy to say something absolutely not provable. You can make a story and people perhaps will love it. And you are safe. But, why these mysteries insist mysteries? What we can do to solve insolvable problems? Come and find it below! Accept it as a test for fun! You can find what you must do in this case, if you delete thirteen letters in the row below. TDHELIETNEKTHIORTUTEENOLFETTHTEBOXERS John"}, {"response": 33, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (16:35)", "body": "well, i got Think Out Of The Box - but had to take away more than 13 letters.... do i get the booby prize?"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (17:31)", "body": "EsBee, you get a lei from me. As soon as someone presents me with a problem like that my mind goes blank and I see way too many things which do not appertain thereto. I suspect you are correct. I am pulling the lid back onto my box."}, {"response": 35, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (18:03)", "body": "LOL - but i cheated. :-) i took away to many letters. still, i'll take the lei ~mahalo *hug* -what's this? There's diamonds scatter all though the flowers! Marcia, how kind. You shouldnt have. *grin*"}, {"response": 36, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (20:22)", "body": "*laugh* i thought it was something in greek and john was cursing!!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (00:05)", "body": "John, you're allowed to laugh at our playing with you puzzles. Life is too serious and Wolfie and Esbee are too enchanting to do anything else but to join them in their humor. As for me, I could not think of what it might be. I am the one who must remain after school is out to learn my lessons better. *;)"}, {"response": 38, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (04:49)", "body": "Hi good company! Suppose that I sell a thing (let's say a book) for $50. Suppose also that Marcia and Wolfie want to buy it. They give me $25 each one and they buy it. After one day I am thinking that I made mistake and the price of the book is not $50 but is $45. I am searching but I can't find them. I found their friend Julie! Then I give to Julie $5 in order she give $2.5 to each one. But she lost $2 and she give $1.5 to Marcia and $1.5 to Wolfie. (Totally $3). Come to see what happened. Marcia spends 25-1.5=$23.5 Worfie spends 25-1.5=$23.5 (the same) Both, they spend 23.5+23.5=$47 totally. Look! Marcia and Wolfie they spend $47. If you add the $2 that has lost Julie, the result is $49!!!!! And not $50!!!!! Where is $1? Can you find it? John P.S. This is big problem if you play with million dollars."}, {"response": 39, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (04:57)", "body": "Indeed. Life is too serious but we need some delectable breaks. Otherwise we will have serious problems. Can you try a break? John"}, {"response": 40, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (05:12)", "body": "Hi all. I will try giving you a second different break. Can you draw only 4 beelines, which will pass over all these red dots without stop? (Without uplift the pencil from the paper). You can start everywhere. John P.S. SMILE! Laugh gives us years of life!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (11:03)", "body": "Ack! a math word problem! *trembling as assailed with memories of 5th grade* am excusing myself from the word problem as too many trains leaving different stations at different times traveling at different speeds has left me mentally crippled in this area. (John -do they torrment young children with word problems in Greece as well?) Know the answer to the second one - but dont know how to draw the lines. (have seen this one before in any case.) :-)"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (14:27)", "body": "This reminds me of two gentlemen sharing a hotel room and how they pay the porter who brought up their luggage and arrange to come out even. In that case we are tempted to count the $5 difference twice. There is another case of counting your fingers and finding they total 11. Counting backward on the first hand you get 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 and add the other hand to it which we know has 5 fingers. 6 + 5 = 11. That is the sum total of my math. Had I been more skilled at it, I would NOT be writing for a living!"}, {"response": 43, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (18:12)", "body": "i don't like the missing $1 word problem--i've heard the same thing but it was done using the purchase of a hotel room. doesn't it have something to do with the fact that you can't divide an odd number by two or am i completely lost? where's that algebra book!! and i'm having a hard time drawing on the screen of my computer!"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (22:15)", "body": ""}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (23:58)", "body": "I also had difficulties with drawing on my monitor. So I packed my water-proof suitcase and laptop, put on my industrial-sized water-wings and flung myself off an eastward-looking cliff. Battling mightily against tides and sharks I struggled to the west coast. Ducking cars, climbing mountains, I kept remembering I was expected to solve the dots problem by the resident seismic expert of Geo. I hate letting people down, so I stove mightly against the elements and the size of the earth. Eventually I arrived at the Mediterranean and swam past the archetyal volcanoes not daring to stop. I struggled ashore in Greece and climbed the marble mountain of Mt Pelion where the Oracle of Volos was presided over by the High Priest who could tell me the answer I sought. Iplaced the offerings of Maile leis and Macadamia nuts on his altar and waited for him to grant me an interview. Then he gave me the truth on a bit (or byte) of paper and with great thanks, I returned to my computer to post the answer. See? I figured it out all by myself, just as I was told to say *;)"}, {"response": 46, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, May  6, 2002 (10:39)", "body": "*clapping*"}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  6, 2002 (14:10)", "body": "*Taking a bow for the man who told me the answer* It is bad enough that the Greeks invented geometry and calculus plus just about everything else. They have been keeping all of the genes for this expertise to themselves. Either that, or my ancestors were hiding under a rock when this particular talent was being passed around. There MUST be something I am good at doing. I'll keep trying to find what it is."}, {"response": 48, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, May  6, 2002 (17:50)", "body": "You're good at being my friend. :-) number one at the top of a long list....."}, {"response": 49, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May  6, 2002 (18:11)", "body": "mine too!! i was gonna say the same thing *HUGS*"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (00:59)", "body": "*Geo-sized hugs* Must be because I had such good people to become friend with! Someone's gotta do it. That's my expertise! That and insatiable curiosity. And, for EsBee, the funniest sounding board around."}, {"response": 51, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (11:35)", "body": "*grin* This is true! *hug*"}, {"response": 52, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (02:42)", "body": "I was sitting on a comfortable chair near the sea looking at the Pagasitic gulf the last breathlessness hot night. Full Moon was glass on the quiet sea. I observed something strange. The reflecting on the sea light was making beautiful games but the shape was not straight. It was a non-stable crooked shape. I had the impression that Pagasitic gulf was like a slinky dishpan. I never observed something like this. Have anyone idea why? John"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (14:54)", "body": "Was it phosphorescent? Did it glow in the dark on its own? If so you wer seeing a gathering of tiny little animals (plankton) This phenomenon often follows the wake of a ship. It is hot here, too, John, but I am far from the sea. I look at the moon and think of you often. We share the same stars and other celestial things as well of the more earthly kind. I miss talking to you! Very Much *Sigh*"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (14:57)", "body": "Another guess, if it was not producing its own light but was distoring the moonlight was a surface feeding or spawning \"school\" of sea creatures or fish. I will attempt to see how many of them spawn or swarm at the summer solstice under a full moon. As I recall, many of them do!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (04:56)", "body": "The strange phenomenon was not phosphorescent or bio-light. I was seeing the reflected Moonlight on the sea surface. It I had the impression that the sea surface was not flat but in a strange motion. I was seeing it for more than two hours. The next nights nothing strange observed. Everything became normal and very romantic. Pagasitic gulf is a wide closed sea with only one small opening to Aegean Sea. It is like a lake or a very big volcano crater in the sea. John"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (14:10)", "body": "I have seen your Gulf on the map and it does seem like a volcanic remanat of some sort. Romantic? Alas I am so far away and nothing much in this area is romantic, though I did listen to live music performance in a warm clear night under the stars and was enraptured! *Sigh* I am at the wrong place, now, I guess. I will return to Hawaii and my normal self soon. Please be patient with me. I do wonder at the subsurface anomalies you noticed. Not schools of mating or spewning sea creatures? Then I have no idea what it could be! I am fascinated though. Do you have a legendary monster living in your gulf?"}, {"response": 57, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (05:20)", "body": "We have not monsters living in Greece. They are retired in the ancient history. They are in the correct place now. Possibly it was a phenomenon that is associated with the increasing of Earth\ufffds velocity just afterwards the Solstice! Perhaps\ufffd Do not say that you are in an incorrect place Marcia. Simply put on the one disk what good you found there and on the other disk what bad. I am sure that the balance of justice has down the disk of good. John"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (14:10)", "body": "The disk of good is full. The only negative I have discovered is that I am separated from the people who mean the most to me and I cannot talk to them as I used to do. That should be rectified in the near future. I guess I fear the loss of you more than I fear anything else at the moment. But, Aside from that and my dislike for eating Hominy (a southern staple not even my host will eat) my disk of good things is always fuller, and for that I am grateful. However, the acute pain of separation remains. I will do something about it this following week or die in the process (ONLY a figure of speech!)"}, {"response": 59, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (04:39)", "body": "Very Good! Now you have to copy, paste and save the content of the good disk into your mental world. You can overwrite everything that you don't like. You will feel more free and hopeful. John"}, {"response": 60, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jul  1, 2002 (01:51)", "body": "I present you this part of an e-mail to me from a Turkish friend: ...There was a strange phenomena in Izmir at 18th April,2002 (and also in Bodrum). The sea level was decreasing 50cm in every 45 minutes. It lasted two days and after that it set quiet. No body could explain it... This is one absolutely physical periodic phenomenon George. It is unbelievable but real\ufffd Have you some explanation? I remind to all of you that the Ismit in Turkey was the place of the epicenter of the deadly EQ on August 17th 1999 with a magnitude of 7.8R. It is located on the great Anatolian fault. Can anyone other explain it? Perhaps you have similar observations of strange phenomena. Please inform us. John"}, {"response": 61, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jul  1, 2002 (04:02)", "body": "I present you this article even if it is enough scientific. It summarises the unique properties of the water on which is based the life on Earth. Water structure and behavior Water (H2O) is the most remarkable substance. However, water is often perceived to be pretty ordinary. We wash in water, fish in water, swim in water, drink water and cook with water, although probably not all at the same time. We are about two-thirds water and require water to live. Life as we know it could not have evolved without water and dies without it. Droughts cause famines and floods cause death and disease. Because of its clear importance, water is the most studied material on Earth. It comes as a surprise, therefore, to find that it is so poorly understood, not only by people in general, but also by scientists working with it everyday. Water seems, at first sight, to be a very simple molecule, consisting of just two hydrogen atoms attached to an oxygen atom. Indeed, there are very few molecules that are smaller. The size of the water molecule, however, belies the complexity of its properties and these properties seem to fit ideally into the requirements for life as can no other molecule. Water: The Thirty-seven anomalies of water It has often been stated that life depends on the anomalous properties of water. In particular, the large heat capacity and high water content in organisms contribute to thermal regulation and prevent local temperature fluctuations. The high latent heat of evaporation gives resistance to dehydration and considerable evaporative cooling. Water is an excellent solvent due to its polarity, high dielectric constant and small size, particularly for polar and ionic compounds and salts. It has unique hydration properties towards biological macromolecules (particularly proteins and nucleic acids) that determine their three-dimensional structures, and hence their functions, in solution. This hydration forms gels that can reversibly undergo the gel-sol phase transitions that underlie many cellular mechanisms. Water ionizes and allows easy proton exchange between molecules, so contributing to the richness of the ionic interactions in biology. The density maximum at 4\ufffdC and low ice density results in (i) the necessity that all of a body of water (not just its surface) is close to 0\ufffdC before any freezing can occur, (ii) the freezing of rivers, lakes and oceans is from the top down, so insulating the water from further freezing and allowing rapid thawing, and (iii) density driven thermal convection causing seasonal mixing in deeper temperate waters. The large heat capacity of the oceans and seas allows them to act as heat reservoirs such that sea temperatures vary only a third as much as land temperatures and so moderate our climate. The compressibility of water reduces the sea level by about 40 m giving us 5% more land. The anomalies Water has unusually high melting point. Water has unusually high boiling point. Water has unusually high critical point. Water has unusually high surface tension and can bounce. Water has unusually high viscosity. Water has unusually high heat of vaporization. Water shrinks on melting. Water has a high density that increases on heating (up to 3.984\ufffdC). The number of nearest neighbors increases on melting. The number of nearest neighbors increases with temperature. Pressure reduces its melting point (13.35 MPa gives a melting point of -1\ufffdC) . Pressure reduces the temperature of maximum density. D2O and T2O differ from H2O in their physical properties much more than might be expected from their increased mass; e.g. they have increasing temperatures of maximum density (11.185\ufffdC and 13.4\ufffdC respectively). Water shows an unusually large viscosity increase as the temperature is lowered. Water's viscosity decreases with pressure (at temperatures below 33\ufffdC). Water has unusually low compressibility. The compressibility drops as temperature increases down to a minimum at about 46.5\ufffdC. Below this temperature, water is easier to compress as the temperature is lowered. Water has a low coefficient of expansion (thermal expansivity). Water's thermal expansivity reduces increasingly (becoming negative) at low temperatures. The speed of sound increases with temperature (up to a maximum at 73\ufffdC). Water has over twice the specific heat capacity of ice or steam. The specific heat capacity (CP and CV) is unusually high. The specific heat capacity (CP) has a minimum (36\ufffdC). NMR spin-lattice relaxation are very small at low temperatures. Solutes have varying effects on properties such as density and viscosity. None of its solutions even approach thermodynamic ideality; even D2O in H2O is not ideal. X-ray diffraction shows an unusually detailed structure. Supercooled water has two phases and a second critical point at about -50\ufffdC. Liquid water may be supercooled, in tiny droplets, down to about -70\ufffdC. It may also be produced from glassy amorphous ice between -123\ufffdC and - 149\ufffdC [74] and may coexist with cub"}, {"response": 62, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul  1, 2002 (16:37)", "body": "John, I remember reading somewhere that distilled water is the ultimate cleaning solution. It will eventually work it's way through any stain."}, {"response": 63, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul  1, 2002 (18:40)", "body": "that's some interesting stuff, john and cheryl!"}, {"response": 64, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul  2, 2002 (05:58)", "body": "Hi Cheryl and Wolfie, Distilled water is a perfect dissolvent processor. I remember my grandam using rainwater (it is very soft) for washing. It is good but surely is not a cure-all. I am sorry but I have not enough experience on cleanings. However, I have to say some things for distilled water and soft water if it is used as drinking water. (Distilled water is extremely soft). Drinking distilled water on a regular, daily basis is potentially dangerous. Fasting using distilled water can be dangerous because of the rapid loss of electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride) and trace minerals like magnesium, deficiencies of which can cause heart beat irregularities and high blood pressure. Distilled water is an active absorber and when it comes into contact with air, it absorbs carbon dioxide, making it acidic. The more distilled water a person drinks, the higher the body acidity becomes. Notably, carbon dioxide from the air is rapidly absorbed, making the water acidic and even more aggressive. Many metals are dissolved by distilled water. There is a correlation between the consumption of soft water and the incidence of cardiovascular disease. Cells, tissues and organs do not like to be dipped in acid and will do anything to buffer this acidity including the removal of minerals from the skeleton and the manufacture of bicarbonate in the blood. I hope that it is equally interesting. John"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (19:35)", "body": "John you are right about depletion of nutrients from the body by drinking distilled water. It is just plain dangerous!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (19:40)", "body": "I am currently drinking the Ohio River. I looked at it and then thought better of it. I am better off not knowing what is in there besides the minerals and other electrolytes."}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  4, 2002 (13:15)", "body": "take along a brita!! how do we get distilled water? it's not boiled tap water right?"}, {"response": 68, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (22:51)", "body": "probably multiple filtered - Ive seen some camping demos where you basically pour in pond sludge and out comes clean water - have not tried THAT experiment yet.... Mike"}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (19:15)", "body": "Distilled water is boiled and the condensate water is separated from all othere things in the water including minerals we need. It tastes flat and rather awful even cold. Haizone tablets are still the thing for drinking water of dubious quality. Chlorine in tablet form. Mike, watch for those filters. They remove stuff from commercially filtered water in the US, but that is mostly purified anyway. Really nasty things like filterable disease vectors cannot be removed by Britta or any other such filters. Boil it for 20 minutes or add sufficent chlorine!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (19:18)", "body": "I've also seen those demonstrations. Bweware. What you cannot see CAN hurt you or cause your death. Horribly! Typhus, typhoid fever and cholera are just some of the fun lurking in that sludge!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (11:51)", "body": "not to mention legionnaires disease (which was found in a local hospital's drinking water). Britta gets rid of the yucky taste of tap water. thanks for clarifying the distilled water thing. irons work better with distilled water because all the calcium and junk is removed and doesn't get stuck to the iron's innards. distilled water works well for orchids and other houseplants."}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (14:59)", "body": "You're right about steam irons and watering plants. Just make sure you feed the plants if you use distilled water. Rainwater in its purest form is close to being distilled water. That is why your grandmother washed her hair in it because it was soft and left her hair soft, too. In Hawaii, the water comes from the sky straight to our catchments and then to us, Little or nothing is added and it tastes fantastic. Just enough good stuff comes from the lava tubes channelling it into the reservoirs to make it tasty without being hard. You have to watch how much soap you use or you will have far more bubble to wash out of whatever is being washed than anticipated. Hard water makes few bubbles! The river water we drink in Kentucky is soft and pleasant do drink as is."}, {"response": 73, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:53)", "body": "Our well water in Tx is kinda mineraly (right word?) but still tastes very good. Much better than the sulphur water that pops up in some spots! We have Lake Michigan water here but run it through the Brita just the same. Mike"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:59)", "body": "I run the Hilo water through a filter just to remove pipe metal elements and algae which runs rampant in all water sources in the tropics. I'd like to get one for here. I have no idea what is in the water of the Ohio River. I will buy a Britta pitcher, I think! Minerally sound about right. People actually pay money to drink the water of sulpherous springs as a tonic. *shudder* It sounds like kids who will eat dirt but not their vegetables!"}, {"response": 75, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (06:21)", "body": "This is an answer on what you wrote in topic 78, about my whole-night discussion Marcia. My new friend, the whole-night interlocutor, was thesaurus and monster of knowledge. He can chorus ILIAD of Homer without reading it somewhere. We were discussing several topics of it. I heard also some interesting stories-experiences from him. He was speaker in some seminar in the Ohio, USA area. He told me a strange experience with an Indian old man, chief of tribe Sioux there. He was answering to the old man in many questions about Greece. Later, when he returned back in Greece, he comprehended that never was heard any word from that old man! INCREDIBLE! (Note: Was after midnight and our voices covered only the song of a grasshopper.) How you can comprehend the time during similar discussions? John"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:03)", "body": "You are right, John. I recall not so long ago thinking of such conversations as impossible. Now you have also had the wonderful experience. We also cover many subjects - often one leading to the next as in a chain reaction. The tale of the Old Sioux Indian man was fascinating. I do not doubt it in the least. Some things need not be spoken at such hours. Subliminal suggestion is very strong when all but the grasshoppers sleep. Mine was accompanied by them and a few fireflies. I can sleep all morning. Don must go to work. We must figure out a better way to dicuss things. Over long evening meals is currenly our favorite way. I am so very happy you had this experience. I did not wish for you to think my host was unkind. I was as much a participant as he. But, you do understand this now!"}, {"response": 77, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (04:08)", "body": "TALOS THE FIRST ROBOT Talos, or Talus, was a giant creature made of bronze that some writers say was the last survivor fo the bronze age. Talos was given to Europa by Zeus. Talos guarded the island of Crete. According to others, Talos was designed by Hephaestus, who gave the robot to King Minos. Hephaestus' robot guarded Crete by walking around the perimeter of the island three times a day and throwing rocks and other debris at ships so that they would not land on the island. Talos was a very strong creature who had but one weak spot on his body, the vein in his ankle. His bronze body was kept alive by an ichor contained in that single vein. The Argonauts encountered Talos on their way home from Libya. Medea convinced Talos that she would give him a secret potion that would make him immortal if he would let her stop on the island. Talos agreed and drank the potion and it made him fall asleep. Medea went to him in his sleep and pulled the plug in his ankle, whereupon Talos bled to death. Other stories say that when Medea tried to land on the island, Talos scraped his ankle on a rock while trying to fight her off and bled to death. According to an entirely different version, Talos was killed by an Argonaut Poeas, who shot him in the ankle with an arrow. http://www.dl.ket.org/latin1/mythology/2creatures/talos.htm John"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (16:39)", "body": "There have been many science fiction stories that included Talos. I never thought to question what it really was or the origin of the name. Thank youf for sharing this. It makes perfect sense! Star Trek fans will recognize it!"}, {"response": 79, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (20:17)", "body": "Hi John. I just read your observations in response 52 and the discussion that followed. As you know, on June 24th I was at the Gulf of Kyparissia (in western Greece)and, naturally enough, I spent the evening by the sea-side, in the company of my family and a few good friends, enjoying the full moon and a wonderful gentle sea-breeze. At some point our discussions came to wave and current patterns in the sea and to your signals (you know why...), but that's another story. The sea-breeze made the reflections of the moonlight rather chaotic, so I had a completely different view from what you had in Pagasitic Gulf. Anyway, I have a number of possible explanations for what you observed: 1)Swell or long-period waves coming into the gulf. These waves would produce more or less periodic distortions of the moonlight reflection. Swell waves are wind-generated waves that have formed far away from the point of observation, have left their area of formation (somewhere in the Aegean) and travel into calm areas, almost unchanged until they reach shallow water (in this case in Pagasitic Gulf). Long-period waves are usually produced by distant storms, passage of weather fronts or sudden atmospheric pressure changes. They have much longer wavelengths and periods than swell waves and travel mostly unobserved until they reach shallow water. 2)Enclosed gulfs like the Pagasitic develop complex water circulation patterns. The water circulation pattern is the result of the combined effects of tides, currents due to density differences between water masses of different temperatures and currents produced by sea waves that reach the shoreline at an angle. The combined effects of tides and currents may produce water setup (piling up of water masses) at certain locations along the shoreline and the sea surface is not plane any more. 3)You could be observing the development of an amphidromic system. Water entering the gulf during flood tide is deflected to the right by the Coriolis force and is piled up on the eastern coast. In the same way, water leaving the gulf during ebb tide is deflected to the right and is piled up on the western coast. The result is a tidal wave in the gulf that travels anticlockwise. The tidal crest (and the sea surface) is sloping at all times from the shoreline to the rotational center (the amphidromic point), somewhere towards the center of the gulf. 4)You could be observing a seiche, standing waves in the gulf, similar to those produced if you move your hand to and fro in a water-filled bathtub. 5)There are a number of other more \"exotic\" oscillations, like internal waves and ifragravity waves, that could produce irregular sea surface elevations. My best guesses are numbers 2 and 3. If you can send me a rough sketch of what you observed, I might be able to give you a more definitive answer. Now that I think of it, I must have observed (and photographed) a strange circulation pattern in Pagasitikos about two years ago, while being at Pilion for Christmas. If I find that photo I'll send it to you. I also have an explanation for the observations of your turkish friend, but I'll need some help in posting a couple of graphs."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (01:07)", "body": "George, welcome back. What a fascinating post you just entered. Thank you! Either john or I can assist you in posting your graphs. I am also waiting to hear from John- but I will let him assist you if he has the time. Do you need the html commands? I can eamil them to you easily enough."}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (01:10)", "body": "That was the most confusing post I have ever entered. I think I need some sleep. John, will you assist George or shall I?"}, {"response": 82, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (19:40)", "body": "Thank you very much, Marcia, for your offer to help and thank you even more for your never-ending efforts to keep this great conference running smoothly. It would really save me some time studying html, if either you or John could send me the commands required for posting graphs. I have developed a bad habit of digging out John's postings one or two at a time (I just found the additional information on his observations of Pagasitikos Gulf in Geo 78/resp. 2 and 5).This information is very interesting, John. The 5 min period points to seiches and storm surges (numbers 4 and 1 respectively in my previous response). The 5 meter elevation changes are too much for Pagasitic gulf (just imagine what would happen at the coastline!). Fishing boats are usually equipped with echo sounders optimized for the detection of fish and other targets in the water column and not with hydrographic-grade bathymeters. As the speed of sound in water changes with density and temperature, it is possible that the depth reading of the echo sounder varied as the boat drifted slowly into and out of an area of colder water. The observed elevation changes could be attributed solely to temperature and density differences if the water depth was sufficiently large, or to a combination of the above and long period waves. There are two more observations: the GPS readings changed and the water temperature changed. If only the elevation readings of the GPS changed, were the changes equal to the changes of the echo sounder depth readings? If yes, you probably have a Geo Mystery (or an extreme case of number 3)! If no (more likely), much of the observed phenomenon was due to different water masses with significant temperature and density differences. I suspect that the position fix readings of the GPS changed as well. If that was the case, then the boat was definitely moving into and out of an area of colder water and that leads us to explanation number 2 of my previous response. Indeed, we know that, under certain circumstances, cold and eutrophic water masses coming out of the Dardaneles may enter Pagasitic Gulf. It seems, John, that your turkish friend missed the opportunity to send you a message in a bottle!"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (23:54)", "body": "George, This is the site I particularly find easy to use and quick to findthe commands I need: http://www.austen.com/tutorial/ I will also email you with the simple instuctions we use. Thank you for the kind words. It is more than a little pleasing to have so much activity in Geo after years of talking to myself. I am delighted you came back!"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (23:59)", "body": "*smile* JOhn will do it. He is much better than I am !"}, {"response": 85, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (07:27)", "body": "George is already in his summer vacations with his family. We have to discuss many interesting things with him but not now. He hugs the Aegean Sea for the moment. John"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (14:27)", "body": "...and the Aegean Sea hold him and his family in her warm salty embrace like the primordeal sea from which we were each born in our time. Happy Vacation, George. Thank you, John, for emailing him with the codes for posting images and such."}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (13:28)", "body": "This was forwarded to me by my son.I had seen a small article about it and sent it to him for his opinion. He forwarded to me, the following details: September 1st Fairfield Sighting - Eyewitness Account Recital From \"John\" This is a summary of John's description and accounting, as related to me by him personally on 9-20, of a sighting he witnessed at aprox. 9:30 P.M. on 9-1. John was traveling north on highway 113, off of highway 12, heading toward Vacaville. It was a clear evening and there was no other traffic on the road. This is a rural area on the outskirts of the city, and is relatively un-travelled in the evening hours. As he was approaching Vacaville, close by Hay Rd., he noticed a craft flying east toward Sacramento, out his left driver's side window. Eventually the craft crossed in front of him. He estimated the craft was aprox. 1/4 mile if front of him and under 1000' elevation in the sky. His first thought was it was a C-5 as it was traveling pretty slow, however as it passed in front of his car he noticed a trail, or something, coming off of this object he referred to as 'stardust', as the tail of a comet may look. At first he thought it must be coming off the exhaust, which he realized was extremely odd. In trying to gain a better view he almost drove off the road so he stopped and rolled down his passenger window and looked out. Though he was running late he realized that he was viewing something extraordinary, so he shut off his engine and took a minute to view the spectacle. He describes the craft as definitely bigger then a C-5 and totally silent with no sound of jet exhaust. He was adamant that it was not a C-5 as he was well familiar with the Galaxy transport aircraft, and had reported and flown in them before. In his mind this was something that was 'extremely weird' that he might never see again. In comparing it to a C-5 that might be flying in the same space he stated that the object was aprox. 3-4 times larger. When I asked for more details regarding tail, or trail, of the 'stardust' he had referenced, he humorously stated that part of the problem was he shouldn't have read the story, because he felt his mind was contaminated by it. I found his awareness of this factor intriguing though, as it was clear his recollection was kept in check by it. He stated that the tail was a light colored, or a star color, and that it didn't just come out of what he might of considered to be the exhaust, but came off the entire surface object and quite a ways back, longer then the actual object. He stated it was like a trail or something. He described the trail having a luminescent sparkling effect which just randomly dissipated off behind the object. He compared it to sparks coming off a campfire at night and disappearing into sky. However he did not get the impression it was a flame. When asked about any discernible geometric shape or solidity he stated it was a very dark night, and that if not for this erie trail which followed it, it might have gone unnoticed. He stated it was almost as if you could see through parts of it. He described it as having a ghost type effect.. That you could see the outline of it, but it was hard to tell where the object ended and space began. He speculated that this was due to the tails erie effect however. He mentioned having the distinct impression there was definitely a controlled solid object. No lights were noticed on the craft itself, and the only lighting effect was in the sparkling luminescence of the trail behind it. Overall he mentioned that the object was unusual enough for him to stop and turn off his engine to view it. He stated hat in itself was unusual for him to do because he is a reporter always under pressure and a deadline. Because of this he really didn't want to stop but he thought \"I've got to see this thing, I just can't believe it.\" He mentioned after viewing it for around a minute or so it sort of disappeared, not that it was going fast or anything, just that he didn't think the light wasn't reaching it anymore. His feeling was that it didn't literally disappear, but kind of dissipated, like an object going off into a fog or something. Before it totally disappeared he saw at least 1 and possibly 2 incoming 'meteor' trails right above it, which had a duration of a second or less. He stated that if these events were totally separated that he would have considered these to just be 'shooting stars'. However it was odd because the object disappeared within 2-3 seconds after this occurred. The object was last seen heading toward Sacramento. When he got back to the office he told his associates at the newspaper about it. He got a skeptical non-believing reaction in return with humorous comments that he must have had to much to drink or something. He further stated if he hadn't of read the story, nothing else would have been mentioned about it to anybody. His overall feel for the sighting was that it didn't raise any level of fear in him. In fact he n"}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (14:01)", "body": "There is another eye-witness account but the second one is less reliable. Chech the following website for more: http://psi-app.com/SeptSightingD.htm"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (14:03)", "body": "Huge Triagle website with \"analysis\" http://psi-app.com/SeptSightingA.htm"}, {"response": 90, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (20:58)", "body": "cool beans (don't forget paraspring!)"}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (22:40)", "body": "Oooh yes! Wge are not linked with these two topics? I'll post more there. My son's remark was that he hoped it was a new generation of aircraft since it has been a long time (relatively) since stealth technology was invented."}, {"response": 92, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (04:07)", "body": "I wonder what believe each one of you for similar attestations. I wonder also why do not exist similar reports from professional or amateur astronomers, which are observing the sky with its own telescopes around the Earth. What is David\ufffds opinion on the above story? Unfortunately or Happily, human senses are limited inside small windows. Science has also its own limits of knowledge and always has the necessity to prove with experiments. Only our imagination is absolutely free. Why we have the tendency to impress our friends in the name of thunder..? John"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (21:16)", "body": "David is like his mother. He wants to SEE it for himself. That does not mean he rejects the findings. He is just witholding his judgment and waiting to either see it for himself or read some \"reliable authority\"'s report. This may take years as in with the stealth bomber. Why do we do this? I suspect much of it is wishful thinking of people who live very dull lives. It is about the only excitement they have. This alone is unfortunate!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (23:20)", "body": "perhaps folks without a scientific mind, an innocent mind, if you will, are more prone because they are open to things that aren't necessarily proven."}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (00:25)", "body": "Ah yes. I wish we could be more innocent for many reasons. Our prejudices lock certain things out of our minds automatically. That is truly a pity."}, {"response": 96, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (06:33)", "body": "Innocence is very dangerous in today\ufffds world. But, you can say to me: What we must do? Sokrates, the Greek ancient philosopher, was saying: If you have some problem you must ask an expert. For example, you must ask a doctor if you have a health problem, you must ask a lawyer if you have a law problem, you must ask the corresponding technician if you have a technical problem, etc. But if does not exist the corresponding expert you must use logic. Do you think some other way for answering on complicated questions about the UFO\ufffds? Personally, I accept what exactly means the term Unidentified Flying Objects and nothing more. John"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (18:37)", "body": "As citizens of the 21st century, we are required to make ourselves as well informed as possible. This is what adults do! We vote and pay taxes and it is best if we know what is happening. However, in certain things as technology, I suspend belief for the interim and do not make decisions other than to ignore the wildly uninformed guessing and observations made by novices. Absolutley, UFOs are UNIDENTIFIED Flying Objects. I see them every day and each and every one of them lands at a nearby airport. Thanks, John! Your wisdom and insight is always right!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (18:55)", "body": "i suppose my use of the word \"innocent\" wasn't conveyed the way i had hoped. of course we must seek experts for things beyond us and yes, UFO's mean exactly what you say. i believe these folks believe they saw whatever it is in their mind they thought they saw. i believe they will fight you over it too because they are so convinced of it. i saw a UFO that turned out to be a mylar balloon that had escaped. it had floated in the air to a place where there weren't even mylar balloons on sale (out in the middle of nowhere at a drive-thru wildlife park). in that case, it became an IFO! on the other hand, i have seen things in the sky that i can't answer what is was or how it happened. not a flying object, but still the same."}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (19:09)", "body": ""}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (19:11)", "body": "Don and I saw a UFO a few weekends ago. We were getting resfreshments at a small diner in the countyside. As we cooled down from fossil hunting he noted a brilliant Brighter_than_Venus object in the sky. I was stationary. I looked. It seemed to brighten as time passed. It was steady and brilliant. We puzzled and I made mental notes \"just in case.\" Then, I happened to notice that the nearby power pole was reflected in the window through which we were looking. I still did not catch on. Then, I turned to look at the power pole and was blinded by a glint from sun reflection on a parked car's chrome headlight surround. Eureka! THERE was my INDENTIFIED non-flying object. I must say, it had me more than a little puzzled and concerned as I KNEW these things do not exist. David has also seen something over the Nevada deserts he could not identify. He is not buying the idea that it was extra-terrestrial, but he is certain he could not identify what it truly was. Keep informed and your eyes open. If you see anything peculiar, take good mental notes to store for later study. Life has many adventures. Even the solvable ones can be wonderful adventures!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Aug 22, 2002 (03:55)", "body": "Splendid experiences Marcia. Thank you for publishing it here. Are you feeling disappointment finally? John"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (00:48)", "body": "Not really disappointment - more like a feeling of relief. Don suggested that it is a case of Unidentified Flying Hypotheses that get us into trouble with these phenomena. I agree. UFH it is for me. I am more than a little distressed when such things happen to me. I KNOW they cannot be so my mind switches into hyper-gear and runs frantically hunting for a reasonable explanation. I am happy to report that in my experience, there are no UFOs of an extraterrestrial nature."}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (00:49)", "body": "..yet...!"}, {"response": 104, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (02:23)", "body": "Dear Wolfie I must apologise for the way of my expression. I completely understood what you were meaning. But I fear that trying to express thrifty sentences, I become more than needed simple. It is mine personal choice because I believe that we must expresses essentially rather than using complicated thoughts and sentences. Please think also my real difficulties with English language and the different Greek way of expression. Please forgive my errors. I never learned correct English. I'm truly sorry! I ask your leniency. John"}, {"response": 105, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (05:42)", "body": "We are 2.5 dimensional existences. We have finite knowledge, logic and estimation. But we have the tendency to learn and explain every thing. Our technology has also its limits. Unfortunately we are completely conditional upon it. My poor opinion is that it is impossible to not exist extraterrestrial life but is equal impossible that we can have any contact with it. We must accept that we cannot answer in all possible questions. Simply we cannot know. The point isn\ufffdt on how SIMPLE or INGENUOUS we are but on what we believe that we know. You are correct Marcia and Wolfie. John"}, {"response": 106, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (12:50)", "body": "*HUGS* John, no need to apologize to me. We are all going to misunderstand each other once in awhile. I believe in things unseen. But that doesn't mean that I'm gullible either. I have experienced unexplainable phenomenon which is why I asked that ParaSpring be created. There are things we simply cannot know. We don't have the brains to fathom certain things. And since we don't know everything about science, we don't know what science can prove. And this is OK by me. I don't HAVE to know why things are the way they are. I'm simply curious."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (21:52)", "body": "Wolfie: I don't HAVE to know why things are the way they are. I'm simply curious. This is precisely the way I conclude my thoughts on things unseen and unknown. John's correct about there being things we cannot explain. Things we cannot know, yet reason tells us that it is so even if it is unprovable. Like life elsewhere in the Universe.Of course it is there. Can we know it? I sincerely doubt it."}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (19:02)", "body": "India UFO attacks 'are coloured lightning balls' A scientist claims the 'UFOs' behind a series of attacks on Indian villagers are just balls of lightning. Professor Ravindra Arora says the coloured balls ranging from tennis to football size are caused by dry weather. Villagers in Uttar Pradesh claim they're being attacked by flying spheres emitting red and blue lights. At least seven people have died of unexplained injuries and others have suffered scratches and burns in the last week. Police say a 9cm-long winged insect may be responsible for the attacks while doctors think the wounds are self-inflicted. Professor Arora, of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, told Rediff.com: \"I have sufficient reason to believe that the burn injuries on the faces of victims were caused by nothing other than these lightning balls. \"Dry spells increase the soil resistance while decreasing its conductivity, and in the process attract lightning balls that emit different colour lights - mostly blue, green, yellow or red. \"There is constant evidence of these balls over the ages. In all cases, people can see a ball-like object travelling sideways in the air that can produce up to 100 watts of current.\" One Uttar Pradesh villager, who claims to have been attacked, said: \"I can't sleep because of the pain. It was like a big soccer ball with sparkling lights.\" Professor Arora says the problem should disappear once heavy rains arrive in the region. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_650903.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.phenomena"}, {"response": 109, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Aug 26, 2002 (00:41)", "body": "Meteorite changed Earth's history The impact would have created colossal tidal waves Scientists say they have found evidence that a gigantic meteorite, twice as big as the one which is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs, collided with Earth billions of years ago. Deposits of the rock were found in South Africa and Australia, said a report in the Science journal. The 20-kilometre (12-mile) wide asteroid is believed to have hit the planet with such force that it would have caused tidal waves kilometres high and torn up the bottom of the ocean. Researchers from Stanford University in California and Louisiana State University say the cataclysmic event happened about 3.4 billion years ago, before continents were formed and when only bacteria existed. It is not known exactly where the giant meteorite hit as the scientists have not yet located a crater which would have been left by the impact. Evolution altered The report said the rock probably came from an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Researcher Gary Byerly said the object was likely to have been part of a shower of meteorites, some as wide as 50km (30 miles). \"These impacts were very large. They really changed the course of the evolution on Earth,\" he said. The report does not say what changes the impact might have affected. \"There isn't a big extinction event you can identify as cut-and-dried as the extinction of the dinosaurs,\" said co-author, Donald Lowe. Incredible tsunamis Mr Lowe said it would have taken the rock less than two seconds to pass through the ocean and slam into the sea bed. \"That would generate enormous waves kilometres high that would spread out from the impact site, sweep across the ocean and produce just incredible tsunamis - causing a tremendous amount of erosion on the microcontinents and tearing up the bottom of the ocean,\" he said. Geologists found traces of the meteorite in South Africa's Barberton greenstone belt and Pilbara block in western Australia. The sites contain rocks formed more than three billion years ago and which contain information dating back to the beginning of the solar system. Source: BBC NEWS"}, {"response": 110, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (11:20)", "body": "I think there is also a theory which maintains that a meteorite crashing into the young Earth caused part of the forming planet to break off and become the Moon."}, {"response": 111, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (17:24)", "body": "That is correct. One of the scenarios is described in: HREF=http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/moon_making_010815-1.html>24 Hours of Chaos: The Day The Moon Was Made Large number of asteroids continued to hit the newly formed Earth and Moon during the Late Heavy Bombardment period. Many scientists believe that rocks and dust blasted from Earth by asteroid impacts have landed on the Moon's surface. If such samples are retrieved from the Moon's surface, they can reveal a lot about the early history of Earth and the Solar system (See: HREF=http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/moon_earth_020723.html>Moon Holds Earth's Ancient Secrets )"}, {"response": 112, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (17:34)", "body": "I would be surprised if my first attempt to add links to a response was successful. It would be a serious violation of Murphy's Law..."}, {"response": 113, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (18:38)", "body": "Second attempt: 24 Hours of Chaos: The Day The Moon Was Made Moon Holds Earth's Ancient Secrets"}, {"response": 114, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (18:51)", "body": "Good! That's what happens if you don't listen to Marcia (who suggested using http://www.austen.com/tutorial/ ) and think that the example under \"Adding HTML to Your Response\" in http://www.spring.net/help/responding.html is clear enough. The quotation marks are missing..."}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (22:37)", "body": "Those internal little intricacies is what makes HTML programming such a challenge. Frustration is a common side-effect! 'Meteorite' hits girl Siobhan Cowton: \"I saw it fall from above roof height\" The odds against being hit by a meteorite are billions to one - but a teenager in North Yorkshire may have had one land on her foot. Siobhan Cowton, 14, was getting into the family car outside her Northallerton home at 1030 BST on Thursday when a stone fell on her from the sky. Noticing it was \"quite hot\", she showed it to her father Niel. The family now plan to have the stone analysed by scientists at Durham University. \"I saw it fall from above roof height,\" Siobhan told BBC News Online. \"It looked very unusual, with a bubbled surface and tiny indentations like volcanic lava. 'Shiny' \"It was shiny on one side and looked rusty as if it contained iron. \"I've seen shooting stars before - but nothing like this. This does not happen very often in Northallerton.\" Mr Cowton, 45, told BBC News Online he would take the stone to be analysed himself. \"It is not going to leave my sight because it is a very rare find,\" he said. \"It is worth a lot to Siobhan. \"We will have it mounted in a glass presentation case so she can keep it for the rest of her life. \"After all it is not every day you get hit by a meteorite. \"The odds of winning the Lottery are better.\" The stone could have come from Mars, according to expert on Earth impacts Dr Benny Peiser, of Liverpool John Moores University. \"It could be billions of years old and come from the earliest formation of the solar system,\" he told the Daily Mail newspaper. Most meteors are between five and 60 centimetres (1.95 in and 1 ft 11.5 in) long, according to Durham University physical geography lecturer Dr Ben Horton. \"Sometimes they have shallow depressions and cavities,\" he said. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2218755.stm"}, {"response": 116, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (07:50)", "body": "http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/outreach1/expmetmys/expmetmys.htm a course in \"meteorite mysteries\"."}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (15:20)", "body": "That is an excellent source of easy information on meteorites! Thank you for posting it. I still want to add a meteorite to my collection..."}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (17:45)", "body": "Woman reunited with ring in apple after 27 years A woman has been reunited with a gold ring found inside an apple, 27 years after she says she lost it. Twelve-year-old Jamie-Louisa Arnold discovered the ring when she bit into an apple. Rosalind Pike, now 37, says she was given the \ufffd5 ring by her parents while on holiday. She lost it at a pool in Colchester, Essex, when she went swimming with her primary school in 1975. A gardening expert says it could have been dropped in a tree, by a bird or orchard worker, and the fruit formed around it. Rosalind told The Sun, which reported on the find earlier this week: \"I couldn't believe it when I saw the picture of the ring - I just knew it was the same one I lost all those years ago. To see it inside an apple was incredibly spooky. I never thought I'd see it again.\" She added: \"I knew it was mine because it had the same markings inside the band. It's an unusual design. My mum and dad bought me that ring when I was very young and I treasured it. I just can't believe I have found it after all these years. \"I left the ring on my towel at the side of the pool but when I came out it had gone. I just assumed it had been lost. I just wish the ring could talk and tell me exactly what has happened over the years.\" Jamie-Louisa, from Cowlinge, Suffolk, bit on the ring while eating an apple at a holiday park near Colchester. She said: \"I feel very happy that Rosalind saw the story and has claimed it.\" The Sun's gardening expert Peter Seabrook said the ring could have been dropped in a tree. Orchard workers often thin apple crops by hand, flicking off under-sized fruits with their fingers so that the others can grow bigger. Mr Seabrook said: \"The apple is only the size of a thumbnail at this time. A ring could fall off on to the fruitlet. The odds are long - but it is possible the fruit could seal around the ring.\" http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_655818.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.phenomena"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (18:04)", "body": "Lost city in Georgia resurfaces again A city in Georgia which was flooded 50 years ago to make way for a lake has begun emerging again. Petersburg was once the state's second largest city and has resurfaced amid the sinking waters of Thurmond Lake. Army Corps of Engineers flooded 72,000 acres to build the Lake in the early 1950s. Most of the city's ruins still lie beneath the lake's waters, which have sunk more than 14 feet , exposing old roadbeds, fence lines and brick foundations. There's also historical litter, such as rusty spikes and broken glass. \"We get a lot of questions, and we have a few people who come all the way out here just to see it,\" said Jerry Cook, assistant manager at Bobby Brown State Park, which straddles Thurmond Lake's shoreline. Petersburg was founded as a tobacco town in the late 1700s and peaked in 1809, when 45,000 people lived in the Broad River Valley. But then the economy dried up and the settlement dwindled as quickly as it had grown. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_665946.html?menu ="}, {"response": 120, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Sep 17, 2002 (04:57)", "body": "Is life the rule or the exception? The answer may be in the interstellar clouds Some scientists have theorised that life on Earth began when amino acids, the building blocks of life, were delivered from space by comets and asteroids. The European Space Agency is planning two missions to help gather more evidence. Rosetta, due for launch in 2003, will study the composition of gas and dust released from a comet to sense what kinds of organic molecules they contain, while Herschel, due for launch in 2007 will focus on the chemistry of interstellar space, searching for traces of the material in distant clouds of dust. [ Visit News Source ] Complete story in ESA portal"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 18, 2002 (20:49)", "body": "Rosetta seems to be the catchword for any new technology to seek out information. Of course, anyone watching the big buildup for little results of the pyramid television program this week will know that without the Rosetta stone we could not read heiroglyphics - or perhaps we could. Did anyone find that program interesting. I got rather tired of seeing that Egyptian archaeologist (known in certain circles as a \"glory hound\") use most of the time talking about how great his ancestors were. I wonder if DNA proves that. Just curious."}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (23:24)", "body": "Mystery Object Orbits Earth NASA Science News for September 20, 2002 A puzzling object that recently entered Earth orbit appears set to leave again soon. What is it? Researchers believe it's an Apollo rocket on a fantastic journey through the solar system. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/20sep_mysteryobject.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 123, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 2002 (03:38)", "body": "Mirror matter mystery By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Two Australian scientists believe they have found evidence of a parallel universe of strange matter within our own Solar System. Dr Robert Foot and Dr Saibal Mitra, of the University of Melbourne, report that close-up observations of the asteroid Eros by the Near-Shoemaker probe indicate it has been splattered by so-called \"mirror matter\". Mirror matter is not anti-matter, it is altogether weirder. It is somehow a \"reflection\" of normal matter, a sort of parallel series of particles required to restore the balance of the Universe. Sounds far-fetched - some believe so. However, experiments are underway to confirm or deny the existence of this strange, potentially significant but as yet undetected component of the cosmos. Source and complete document: BBC NEWS, Science/Nature"}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (18:26)", "body": "Mirrors? Imagine the possibilities! Thank you for that,John. I have been a little out of the loop lately, but that is about to change. At least, in theory. I will get some time each day on the modem until I leave here, then I will have full time. Thank you all for hanging in there with me. This has been VERY difficult."}, {"response": 125, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Nov 25, 2002 (20:31)", "body": "\"Through the Looking Glass\", indeed."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 25, 2002 (02:49)", "body": "100,000 tourists flock to see mysterious Thai fireballs More than 100,000 tourists flocked to a remote part of Thailand to see a mysterious phenomenon in which coloured fireballs shoot into the sky. more and pictures... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_694513.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.phenomena"}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 11, 2003 (17:08)", "body": "I will be in this area in two weeks. I'll report what I might discover other than the fact that it is a hoax: It's a hoax! The names of the teenagers in this story have been changed to protect their identities - Editor. Four Fairfield teenagers claim they created the mysterious crop circles that popped up in a Rockville Road wheat field in June, drawing thousands of curious onlookers and nationwide media attention. http://www.thereporter.com/"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 29, 2003 (15:33)", "body": "Did I post this before? Pictures are on the link. Archaeologists examine 'pre-historic stone faces' Archaeologists say five stones with faces carved into them - which have been ignored for decades after being found in Massachusetts - could be prehistoric relics. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_784886.html?menu ="}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 29, 2003 (15:37)", "body": "About those crop circles... they suddenly stopped appearing. It seems the police caught the kids making them."}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 29, 2003 (15:40)", "body": "Thus, the new agers and their $$ for local establishments disappeared, too."}, {"response": 131, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jul 29, 2003 (15:57)", "body": "Hi Marci! Still around but have been 'slightly preoccupied'. I did get to pay a brief visit to Salem, MA last week while on a business trip - cool place to visit - interesting ambience. 73 de AA9IL Mike"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 29, 2003 (19:17)", "body": "Hi Mike! Did you sample the witches? I heard that was a requisit activity in Salem. MA. It is a very interesting town! Different...! Drop in anytime. We're happy to hear anything from you whenever you can manage it. Enjoy the lack of snow while you can. I am enjoying the 100 which feels like 116 temperatures in California. But, no crop circles!"}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 2003 (20:11)", "body": "Another Atlantis? Divers find ruins of mythical city off India Explorers believe they have discovered remains of a mythical city off the coast of India. According to legend it was swallowed up by the sea about 2,000 years ago. photos and more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_563330.html"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 2003 (20:14)", "body": "This article goes on to mention Graham Hancock. I have two of his books. Take them with the proverbial grain of salt."}, {"response": 135, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2007 (09:55)", "body": "Lake disappears suddenly in Chile Scientists in Chile are investigating the sudden disappearance of a glacial lake in the south of the country. When park rangers patrolled the area in the Magallanes region in March, the two-hectare (five-acre) lake was its normal size, officials say. But last month they found a huge dry crater and several stranded chunks of ice that used to float on the water. One theory is that an earthquake opened up a fissure in the ground, allowing the lake's water to drain through. \"In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal,\" Juan Jose Romero from Chile's National Forestry Corporation, Conaf, said. \"We went again in May and to our surprise we found that the lake had completely disappeared. All that was left were chunks of ice and an enormous fissure.\" Geologists and other experts are being sent to the area, which is some 2,000km (1,250 miles) south of the capital, Santiago, to investigate. The region is shaken by frequent earth tremors and one idea is that a strong quake which hit the neighbouring region of Aysen in April opened up the fissure in the bottom of the lake. A glacier specialist, Andres Rivera, told Chilean newspaper La Tercera that the lake's disappearance seemed to be part of the continual reforming of the landscape. The Magallanes area \"has seen interesting changes in the last few decades,\" he said, noting that the lake itself had not been there 30 years ago. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6225676.stm"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (12:28)", "body": "This lake appears to be the sort of Gacial artifact that appear seeminly suddenly and disappear the same way. It will be interesting to watch this. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 32, "subject": "Aesthetics of Earth", "response_count": 34, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (01:09)", "body": "Nothing is worse than a title spelled incorrectly. I have deleted Topic 29 and replaced it with this one. A summary of the posts on the previous topic are found below: Response 1 of 1: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (21:25) * 1 lines There are so many things I could put here that it would be easier to put what does not please me aesthetically than what does. For starters, a night eruption of Kilauea where fountain pulses toward the stars. The roar and aroma and taste make it a total experience of the genesis of a mountain. The ground shaking beneath your feet just add to the feeling...especially if you have been fortunate enough to have been there all night. As dawn slowly awakens the day, it is as though you are seeing the Earth on the very first day and the hand of God is very near. Since I am not gifted enough to paint it, I engrave it on my mind and soul and hope others can capture the feeling for me. Response 2 of 2: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (23:05) * 1 lines Actually, I created this topic with one \ufffdesthete in mind. He thought there would be nothing he could add to the conversations in Geo. He speaks so eloquently with brush and canvas that words are unnecessary - though he is gifted with the English language, as well. He is away from his computer for a few weeks, so until he returns, and I can work on enticing him to post, I shall write more of the places which stir my soul and hope you will join me in whatever medium you choose. Response 3 of 3: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (21:05) * 4 lines With the thought that I know someone who can - and very well, indeed, I give you a quote from someone who cannot: \"It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it.\" -- Steven Wright Response 9 of 10: Maggie (sociolingo) * Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (13:20) * 5 lines This is from Elizabeth Goudge: The Herb of Grace, it just fitted so well here, and expresses some of what I was trying to earlier. \"Ben decided, not for the first time, that all his family were quite mad, and turned his attention, as Grandmother had advised, to the view. It rewarded his observation, and in five minutes he had fortotten his family, the car, their destination - everything whatever except the ebb and flow of colour, the strong swing of the sky overhead, the circling of clouds and bird's wings, the flowing green curve of the meadows and the deep-welling life within him beating almost painfully against some closed door inside; until the door yielded and he poured himslef out, drawing in again in exchange the colour into his blood, the movement into his muscles, the strength into his bones and the quality of this spring world into his quality, to be part of him for ever. When he got home again he would try to paint what he had seen, or write a poem about it, letting the colour and movement and strength flow out of his blood and muscles and bone upon the paper. \" Response 10 of 10: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (19:51) * 3 lines We each express this overwhelming feeling with what gifts we have been given. Some more eloquently and movingly than others, but whatever the means - even tears - says it all and we come to appreciate the infinite beauty of the earth more each time it happens. There is an incredibly beautiful statement about this process of causing us to create beauty to mirror nature's, but until I can get him to post it, I shall just let it rest quietly and eloquently. Thank you, Maggie. That was spot-on! Response 11 of 12: Wolf (wolf) * Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (20:54) * 1 lines yes, i have cried just giving thanks for the beauty and for witnessing beautiful things. (am a sap, i know) Response 12 of 12: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (21:03) * 1 lines No you are not! I do that on occasion, as well. Great music can do it to me, as well. I am almost to the stage where great art can, also. Response 13 of 14: Wolf (wolf) * Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (21:06) * 1 lines i know what you mean! i bawled in a mall while some lady played the piano in a music shop. haha!! i get goosebumps anytime i hear anything or see anything that comes across as pure. Response 14 of 14: Marcia (MarciaH) * Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (21:07) * 2 lines Me too...but I am not surprised, my twin sister *hugs* Response 15 of 15: Wolf (wolf) * Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (21:09) * 1 lines *grin* Response 16 of 17: Maggie (sociolingo) * Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (02:44) * 1 lines Rejoice with us - the bluebells are out, and the woods will shimmer with a magical blue haze. It's so special it makes my heart sing. Response 17 of 17: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (15:54) * 1 lines * s i g h * It sounds incredible. Wish I could see it. Response 18 of 19: Maggie (sociolingo) * Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (07:01) * 1 lines If the light is right I will try and take photos and you can put it in english gardens, but somehow I never suceed in capturing the magic. No option - you'll have to come and see! Response 19 of 19: Marcia (MarciaH) * Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (12:57) * 1 lines *grin* What "}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (01:23)", "body": "*Whew*"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (01:24)", "body": "Ok, Wolfie, do you know why I created this topic? A simple yes or no will suffice...*smile*"}, {"response": 4, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (06:57)", "body": "I don't know about Wolfie... but I'm with you on this Marcia :)"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (12:29)", "body": "Welcome, Gena. I thought it was a good idea...especially when we complain about the weather like it was supposed to be to our liking, and worry about astromical alignments...It was a nnatural to create a topic for admiration and worship of thing with which we had nothing to do but to admire. What sorts of scenery does it for you? Living in New England, there are lots of opportunities for admiration."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (14:00)", "body": "I have walked in his footsteps, as others have, and been mute in the face of such magnificence: \"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.\" --John Muir"}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (17:58)", "body": "um, i think so, marcia! i was wondering why my conference list was showing a new topic here. hadn't noticed any misspelling."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (18:12)", "body": "Well, Maggie noted the oddness of the spelling, but I left it until a distinguished artist spelled it differently, as well. I researched it last night and decided I could not leave it improperly spelt when he finally comes in to see and - with extraordinay luck - to post. Actually, esthetics is listed as a variation of aesthetics - and I thought I would be making it sound too serious when I first created the topic, to put the \ufffd in the beginning. I shoulda...!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (18:14)", "body": "haha!! understand completely..."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (18:38)", "body": "*grin* I knew you would...!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (23:28)", "body": "Where do I put this - on which conference where he will see it... \"Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.\" -- Tom Stoppard, Artist Descending a Staircase, 1972"}, {"response": 12, "author": "Ommin", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (04:20)", "body": "I am amused by the spelling - I thought the American word left out the e! Ha - Its good to see - as for the bluebells - that is my favourite. Two years ago I want back to Ranmore just beyond the A25 and found my favourite bluebell wood in Surrey. It makes me rather homesick or as they say in Welsh Hierath - the smell of bluebells, the haze of the blue is almost unearthly, magic and wonderful."}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (12:15)", "body": "The American version leaves off the A, which is what I did in the original. How could one not be enamored of a field of bluebells. It sounds like a French Impressionist Painting!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (21:58)", "body": "Yes Marcia, thats it exactly. My sister-in-law and my nieces had a most spiritual experience last week. They spent the morning playing with wild dolphins. The video they took was wonderful and the underwater photogaphy - what could be more magic than that."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (23:17)", "body": "Beyond words to describe it are the feelings you get with an experience like that. I know, and I have the \"chicken skin\" to prove it!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (16:57)", "body": "In the interests of Aesthetics, I have changed the wallpaper. Opionions are welcome!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "ommin", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (06:12)", "body": "Looks okay to use a prosaic word! Most tasteful."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (13:43)", "body": "Mahalo, Anne. I am mostly concerned that becuase the original marble wallpaper was found for me by a very special person who I would rather die than hurt, I really am hoping he gives me some sign of approval... Otherwise it is back to his."}, {"response": 19, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (10:57)", "body": "As we look at a beautiful sunset, we hear the wind sighing through the tree-tops, and we see beauty in our surroundings, our minds become flooded with emotion. It is this feeling that the spirit of the scene is speaking to our spirit, and that there is an energy in it that corresponds to an energy within ourselves. This feeling of communion of spirit can be so irresistible that we long to share it with another, by words, by paint or by sound, and we cannot rest until we have communicated it."}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (14:36)", "body": "...yes....!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (17:13)", "body": "I guess this sorta goes here too. MY PICTURE I have a small canvas of mine that is the family 'treasure', it goes wherever we are. It is my soul in paint, and reminds me everyday day of where I've been and where I'm going and speaks to me of growth and movement, yet there is a dark heart of unknowing. It's not a true landscape in that it was sparked by some wood and developed as a sort of journey in paint. Everytime I look at it I can trace the journey. I guess it's a bit like an australian aboriginal dreaming picture, a songline. I painted it in anguish at 17 on unprimed canvas stretched over an old picture frame. It is oils and polyfilla. It's there on the wall for people to see, still unframed after all these years, but, just like 'me', the meaning is hidden unless you look with different eyes."}, {"response": 22, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (22:31)", "body": "It's your signature work?"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (22:42)", "body": "Not exactly my signature work. I found it elsewhere and \"borrowed it. It is here only until I get word from the original creator as to its acceptability. It must pass his critical eye. But, since you did not go see him yet, and I am flying unaided in here right now...I am asking for others opinions. The family geologist likes it very much and his prof emeritus father likened it to real marble. I rather liked the color and \"marbling effect\" but I have the original saved just in case. If the original creator is not interested, then it stays here... The best part is that his clipart globe on the cover page seems to be suspended this side of the wallpaper and not glued thereon. Your opinion?"}, {"response": 24, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sun, May  7, 2000 (11:02)", "body": "Are we going to get to see it?"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  7, 2000 (12:05)", "body": "Not sure what it is you want to see, but you gotta get out of telnet and into Windows to see anything, unfortunately, other than text and some html stuff in pointy brackets. (Almost anything...Of course you might see it, whatever \"it\" is...)"}, {"response": 26, "author": "livamago", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (18:59)", "body": "I like this topic, dear. You are getting better and better!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (20:34)", "body": "Thank you! You are very kind. I though it was high time to let Gaia know how much we appreciated her for what she is not just what she could do for us!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (20:36)", "body": "Pardon the sytax or lack of it altogether, but the sentiment remains the same. Have another banquet to attend...*sigh* If it is more teriyaki chicken, I'm leaving!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, May 31, 2000 (13:48)", "body": "Hello all. I haven't in Geo for a while, but this topic's name could not but call out for me. Are we allowed to post pics of enchanting places?"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (12:22)", "body": "Please! That is what I created it for. Seeing the world through your soul rather than just your eyes and anylitical brain. I created it with artists in mind, actaully, and Here you are! Your Home on Geo~!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (12:24)", "body": "Gi, you may do whatever you wuld like to do in Geo - Please post pictures!!!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  7, 2000 (18:21)", "body": "\"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched -- they must be felt with the heart.\" -- Hellen Keller \"Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.\" N.B.: This famous aphorism is often misquoted, \"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.\" -- Plato, Symposium"}, {"response": 33, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (03:34)", "body": "A lovely word picture of where I live. It goes so well with the pictures we posted in Travel and inspires me to paint. ENGLAND We have been dwellers in a lovely land; A land of lavish lights and floating shades, And broad green flats, bordered by woody capes That lessen ever as they stretch away Into the distant blue. A land of hills; Cloud-gathering ranges, on whose ancient breast The morning mists repose; each autumn tide Deep purple with the heath-bloom; from whose brow We might behold the crimson sun go down Behind the barrier of the western sea; A land of beautiful and stately lanes Aerial temples most magnificent, Rising with clusters of rich pinnacles And fretted battlements; a land of towers., Where sleeps the music of deep-voiced bells, Save when in holyday time the joyous air Ebbs t o the welling sound; and Sabbath morn, When from a choir of hill-side villages The peaceful invitation chimes. So were our souls brought up to love this earth, And feed on natural beauty; and the light Of our own sunsets, and the mountains blue That girt around our home, were very parts Of our young being; linked with all we knew; Centres of interest for undying thoughts, And themes of mindful converse. Happy they Who in the fresh and dawning time of youth Have dwelt in such a land, turning their souls To the deep melodies of Nature\ufffds laws, Heard in the after-time of riper thought, Reflective on past seasons of delight. (Henry Alford (1810-1871, a friend of Tennyson)"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (15:53)", "body": "Feelings of longing to reunite my soul with my genetic code imbedded in the landscape of England are sometimes overwhelming. This lovely bit on Britain is wonderful. Thank you for sharing. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 34, "subject": "Space Science News", "response_count": 777, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (13:31)", "body": "Space Science News for March 22, 2000 The Earth's magnetosphere is being buffeted by high-speed solar wind particles from a coronal hole straddling the center of the Sun's disk. The solar wind velocity has increased from 350 to 600 km/s during the past 12 hours. Follow the action at http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com MORE SPACE SCIENCE NEWS : #1 Curiouser and Curiouser: The exotic world of gamma-ray astronomy has taken yet another surprising turn with the revelation that half the previously unidentified high-energy gamma ray sources in our own galaxy actually comprise a new class of mysterious objects. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast23mar_1m.htm Curiouser and Curiouser #2 Solar Cycle Update: Is the real Y2K problem just starting? The solar cycle appears to be on schedule for a peak in mid-2000. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast22mar_1m.htm Solar Cycle Update"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (15:37)", "body": ""}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (15:39)", "body": "Space Science News for March 24, 2000 The Compton Gamma-ray Observatory is destined for a watery grave in the remote Pacific on June 3, 2000. At a press conference today, NASA officials cited human safety concerns in explaining their decision to de-orbit the satellite, which has revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos during a highly successful 9 year mission. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast25mar_1m.htm Farewell Compton MORE NEWS : The RADAR Cop in Space -- NASA's IMAGE satellite scheduled for launch on March 25 will revolutionize our understanding of Earth's magnetosphere and improve space weather forecasting. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast24mar_1m.htm The RADAR Caop in Space"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (12:07)", "body": "SPACE WEATHER NEWS : On March 25, 2000, a solar flare erupted near the center of the Sun's disk. It appears that a coronal mass ejection was launched toward Earth. An interplanetary shock wave could pass our planet during the next 24 to 48 hours, triggering moderate geomagnetic activity and aurorae. For more information and daily updates please visit http://www.spaceweather.com . SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (16:50)", "body": "NASA Science News for March 29, 2000 With the discovery of extrasolar planets smaller than Saturn, astronomers are increasingly convinced that other stars harbor planetary systems like our own. FULL STORY at http://www.spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast30mar_1.htm Planet Hunters on Safari"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "Space Weather News for March 29-30, 2000 Aurora Watch: Skywatchers in northern Europe, Canada, Alaska, and the northermost tier of US states could be treated to a display of aurora borealis tonight thanks to elevated levels of geomagnetic activity late in the day on March 29. Also today, the SOHO spacecraft captured beautiful images of a full-halo coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun. Full-halo CMEs are massive bubbles of hot gas headed either directly toward or away from Earth. This one appears to have erupted on the back side of the Sun and is proceeding away from our planet. Details on both are available at http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (18:15)", "body": "NASA Science News for March 30, 2000 Next Thursday, April 6, three planets and the thin crescent Moon are going to put on a memorable sky show when the quartet converge inside a circle 9 degrees across. The grouping is just the prelude to a grander alignment of planets on May 5, 2000. Is doom at hand, as many mystics assert? Find out by reading the FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast30mar_1m.htm Planets for Dessert Also, for kids and kids-at-heart, a younger person's version of this article is available at the NASA Kids web site: http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2000/news-planetalign.asp?se The Planets Line Up"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (18:01)", "body": "Propagation Report from ARRL Geomagnetic indices did rise last Friday, the day before the contest, but even then the planetary K index rose only briefly to 4. On Saturday and Sunday the planetary K index was mostly 1 or 2, and during one period was even 0. What is really interesting is that the College K index, measured in Alaska where the geomagnetic activity is higher due to proximity to the polar region, was actually 0 over six 3 hour periods on Saturday and Sunday. Solar flux and sunspot numbers were higher this week than last, with average sunspot numbers up 54 points and average solar flux rising several points. Solar flux actually peaked for the short term during the previous week on March 22, when the noon reading at Penticton was 233.8 and the reading two hours later was 235.6. The low for week was Tuesday, when solar flux was 200.9. It may go lower this weekend, if solar flux this Sunday goes below 200. The predicted solar flux for the next five days, Friday through Tuesday, is 205, 200, 195, 205 and 210. Flux values may again dip below 200 around April 10-16, then peak near 250 around April 22 or 23. Possible days of geomagnetic upset, based on the solar rotation are April 18 and 19 and April 28. MSNBC ran another story this week on the so-called solar heartbeat. You can see the article at http://www.msnbc.com/news/389042.asp , which explains a theory concerning how layers of gas rotating at different speeds may affect the formation of sunspots and solar flares. MSNBC also ran a story about a new solar satellite that was launched last Saturday. Called IMAGE, or Imager for Magnetosphere-to-Aural Global Exploration, it will be used to study the relationship between solar wind and the earth's magnetosphere. It will deploy four wire antennas that are each 820 feet long, making it the longest artificial object in space. Read about it at http://www.msnbc.com/news/386647.asp?0a=235A162 . NASA also ran a story on the IMAGE at http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast27mar_1m.htm . Sunspot numbers for March 23 through 29 were 236, 230, 243, 255, 227, 232 and 238 with a mean of 237.3. 10.7 cm flux was 224.1, 218.9, 205.1, 211.3, 204.9, 200.9 and 208.8, with a mean of 210.6, and estimated planetary A indices were 11, 10, 8, 5, 5, 5 and 9, with a mean of 7.6."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (20:13)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 1, 2000 On April Fools Day, 2000, NASA researchers are questioning the fate of five high-flying sweet treats that disappeared after a meteor balloon flight in April 1999. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast01apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (14:51)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 3, 2000 Like blood pulsing in an artery, newly discovered currents of gas beat deep inside the Sun, speeding and slackening every 16 months. The solar \"heartbeat\" throbs in the same region of the Sun suspected of driving the 11-year cycle of solar eruptions. Scientists are hopeful that this pulse can help them unravel the origin and operation of the solar cycle. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast03apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2000 (00:10)", "body": "Space Weather News for April 4-5, 2000 The interplanetary magnetic field in the vicinity of Earth turned southward on April 4. This condition often creates a weak point in our planet's magnetospheric shielding against the solar wind. Geomagnetic activity is currently high. If active conditions continue, observers in northern Europe, Canada, Alaska and the northern tier of US states could be in for a display of aurora borealis around local midnight on April 5 (when April 4 turns into April 5). The Moon is just one day past New, meaning that even very faint Northern Lights could be visible against tonight's dark skies. For more information see: http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2000 (15:20)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 5, 2000 The Boulder sunspot number exceeded 300 this week as the sunspot cycle continued its march toward Solar Max. Do these high sunspot counts mean that the solar maximum will be bigger than expected? Find out the answer by reading the FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast05apr_1m.htm REMINDER: On April 6, 2000, the Moon, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn will put on a beautiful after-dinner sky show. DETAILS at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast30mar_1m.htm"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (16:02)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 6, 2000 During an unplanned rendezvous, the Ulysses spacecraft found itself gliding though the immense tail of Comet Hyakutake, revealing that comet tails may be much, much longer than previously believed. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast06apr_2.htm"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (16:25)", "body": "Space Science News - April 6, 2000 An interplanetary shock front passed NASA's ACE spacecraft around 1630 UT on April 6, 2000, abruptly raising the solar wind velocity from 375 to nearly 600 km/s. Usually such disturbances arrive at Earth about one hour after they pass ACE. Aurorae at middle latitudes could be in the offing tonight. Follow this developing story at http://www.spaceweather.com ."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  7, 2000 (13:16)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 7, 2000 Subject: Geomagnetic Storm A major geomagnetic storm hit our planet on Thursday after an interplanetary shock wave passed by Earth on April 6, 2000. Displays of aurora borealis were spotted in Europe, Asia, Canada, Alaska and in the continental US as far south as North Carolina. The storm appears to be subsiding, but forecasters note that more aurorae might be visible Friday night. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast07apr_2m.htm"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  7, 2000 (23:36)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 14 April 7, 2000 The sunspot number took a big leap this week, rising to 301 on Sunday. It has not been this high since November 12 of last year, when it was 324. Two days prior on November 10 meters the solar flux was 343, which is still the record for this cycle. The average sunspot count for the week was only up about 8 points though, and average solar flux was about the same as last week. Solar flux is a measurement of 2.8 GHz energy from the sun, measured at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory operated by the National Research Council Canada in Penticton, British Columbia. You can visit the observatory web site at http://www.drao.nrc.ca/ . Sunspot numbers are calculated by multiplying the number of visible sunspot groups by 10, and adding the number of individual spots in all the groups. A multiplication factor is also used, and it differs for each observatory. You can see a complete explanation for sunspot numbers and their derivation at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast05apr_1m.htm . Geomagnetic indices have been high this week, with the average planetary A index almost double last week's number. The A index was in double-digits every day, with April 4 being the most disturbed. The planetary A index was 21, with planetary K indices as high as 5, and the mid-latitude index at 6 during the same period. Coming up on Saturday and Sunday is the HF CW weekend for the Japan International DX Contest. Unfortunately, as this bulletin is being written on Thursday night, a major geomagnetic storm is raging. An interplanetary shock wave passed earth at 1730z on April 6, and Aurora have been spotted in North America as far south as North Carolina. The planetary K index for the end of thez day on Thursday was 8, and the A index was 56. The Boulder K index at 0300z on Friday is also 8. A severe geomagnetic storm began at 0100z on April 7. For the next five days, Friday through Tuesday, the expected planetary A index is 30, 20, 15, 10 and 7. The predicted solar flux for the same five days is 175, 180, 180, 175 and 170. Solar flux is expected to rise above 200 again around April 14 and stay there well into the month of May. Sunspot numbers for March 30 through April 5 were 225, 248, 287, 301, 252, 184 and 221 with a mean of 245.4. 10.7 cm flux was 205.5, 225.4, 222.9, 219.3, 215.4, 206.7 and 194.4, with a mean of 212.8, and estimated planetary A indices were 10 meters, 19, 14, 16, 12, 21 and 12, with a mean of 14.9."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (14:20)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 10, 2000 On the heels of NASA's 7th annual Great Moonbuggy Race, engineers from the Apollo program discuss the challenges of building the original Lunar Rover. This story includes RealVideo of one of the original rovers in action on the Moon. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast10apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (17:29)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 11, 2000 Where's the Edge?: Will humans always be confined to the Solar System? Not if NASA's Advanced Space Transportation Program has a say in the matter! Find out how scientists are working to turn science fiction into standard practise with new and innovative ways to reach the stars. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast11apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (12:48)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 12, 2000 A group of volunteer scientists is converging on Huntsville for an out-of-this-world meeting -- the High Energy Astrophysics Workshop for Amateur Astronomers. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast12apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2000 (14:47)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 14, 2000 The sled dogs of California's Eastern Sierra are unhappy. Why? A persistent La Ni\ufffda condition in the Pacific has left the mountain range with less than its usual supply of snow. As data continue to flow in from Earth orbit, NASA scientists are working to understand how El Ni\ufffdo and La Ni\ufffda affect our global climate. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast14apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (13:35)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 17, 2000 NASA's Cassini spacecraft, currently en route to Saturn, has successfully completed its passage through our solar system's asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. FULL STORY at http://www.spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast17apr_3.htm"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (20:40)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 18, 2000 April's Lyrid Meteor Shower : The oldest known meteor shower peaks on the morning of April 22. Bright moonlight will reduce the number of shooting stars that are easy to see, but many meteor enthusiasts will be watching anyway because it's been over 3 months since the last major meteor display. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast18apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (15:37)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 21, 2000 Amateur astronomers attended a unique meeting in mid-April to learn about high-energy astrophysics and how they can participate in it. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast21apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (13:05)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 24, 2000 Like an excited kid hoping to snag a fly ball at a professional baseball game, NASA's Stardust spacecraft has extended its high-tech \"catcher's mitt\" to collect a valuable space souvenir -- a batch of interstellar dust particles. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast24apr_1.htm"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (15:05)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 25, 2000 Stargazers around the globe were treated to an unexpected and rare display of red-colored aurora on April 6-7, 2000, after a vigorous interplanetary shock wave passed by Earth. This story includes a gallery of more than 40 images showing the aurora borealis from Europe and over parts of the United States as far south as Florida. FULL STORY at http://www.spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast25apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (01:09)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 26, 2000 Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of scientists has attacked one of astronomy's oldest and thorniest problems, determining the distance to a cosmic object. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast26apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (13:32)", "body": "EXPLODING STAR FEATURED ON WEB SITE Wednesday, April 26, 2000 16:04 A spectacular view of an exploding star was released today on a new web site launched to mark the Hubble Space Telescope's 10th year in orbit. The multi-coloured fireball, some 6,500 light years from Earth in the constellation Aquila, looks like a giant eye in space. A few thousand years ago a dying star about the same size as the Sun erupted and threw off its outer layers to create the \"planetary nebula\" NGC 6751. Shells of gas were hurled into space at speeds of 25 miles per second, glowing with the strong ultra-violet radiation emitted by the star's hot exposed core. The celestial cataclysm offers a sobering vision of what is in store for us. Our own Sun is predicted to undergo the same death throes in about six billion years' time. When it happens nothing in the Solar System, including the Earth, will escape destruction. The image is one of a number of dramatic pictures now available on the new Internet site http://hubble.stsci.edu Others include infant galaxies that existed billions of years ago, and tall, gaseous pillars that serve as incubators for embryonic stars. NGC 6751 shows several poorly understood features. Blue regions mark the hottest glowing gas, forming a ring around the central stellar remnant. Orange and red colours mark the locations of cooler gas, which tends to lie in long streamers pointing away from the central star, and in a tattered ring around the edge of the nebula. The origin of the cooler clouds within the nebula is still uncertain, but the streamers are evidence that they are affected by radiation and raging winds from the hot star at the centre. The star's surface temperature is estimated to be a scorching 140,000C. Hubble will be decommissioned in 2010 and replaced by the even more powerful Next Generation Space Telescope. \ufffd Press Association Thanks for this, Maggie *"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (14:27)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 27, 2000 An international team of cosmologists has released the first detailed images of the universe in its infancy. Analysis of the images is already shedding light on some of cosmology's outstanding mysteries -- the nature of the matter and energy that dominate intergalactic space and whether space is \"curved\" or \"flat.\" FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast27apr_1.htm"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (01:24)", "body": "NASA Science News for April 28, 2000 NASA scientists are working to solve the need for computer speed using light itself to accelerate calculations and increase data bandwidth. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast28apr_1m.htm"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 17 - April 28, 2000 Sunspots and solar flux were up this week. The average sunspot number was up over 40 points and average solar flux rose over 30 points over the past week. Geomagnetic indices have been mostly quiet, with April 24 the most active day. Last week's bulletin ARLP016 said that the solar flux should be up around 220 this weekend, but conditions are not cooperating. Although activity has been higher this week than last, it is not as high as expected. Solar flux is expected to hover around 175 to 185 until April 8, then dip below 170, and rise to around 200 from May 19 through 28. The planetary A index prediction indicates unsettled conditions for Friday. The A index should stay quiet from this weekend until May 6 and 7, when it may rise to 15. Predicted solar flux for the next five days, Friday through Tuesday is 180, 175, 175, 180 and 180. Sunspot numbers for April 20 through 26 were 179, 211, 226, 252, 222, 229 and 197 with a mean of 216.6. 10.7 cm flux was 180.6, 187.3, 201.8, 206.1, 205.6, 202.5 and 189.9, with a mean of 196.3, and estimated planetary A indices were 14, 10, 7, 8, 21, 6 and 4, with a mean of 10."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (01:23)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 1, 2000 One year ago this week killer tornadoes raged across Oklahoma. Now, NASA scientists are figuring out how to predict such storms using lightning data from Earth-orbit. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast01may_1m.htm"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (02:59)", "body": "Space Weather News for May 1, 2000 A coronal mass ejection (CME) from a small sunspot group was recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory on April 30, 2000. If material from the eruption is heading toward Earth, as animations of the CME suggest, then the shock wave will probably arrive late on May 2nd or sometime on May 3rd. Forecasters estimate a 30% chance of active geomagnetic conditions at middle-latitudes on May 3, 2000. For more information, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (03:25)", "body": "Since no one apparently cares to read about this in News I ave created a new topic in Geo for it. Too bad I could not telnet and link the two of them together. But, that is the way it is, and no one seems willing to do it for me. http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/33/new"}, {"response": 34, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (09:29)", "body": "I'll do it ! Just email me or ask. In the instructions say \"link news topic 21 to science\" or whatever it is."}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (14:51)", "body": "Please link this topic to Geo... I am most grateful. If you want to link it to science that is ok, too, but too many duplicates mess up my hot list! Mahalo plenty!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (15:23)", "body": "Linkage complete."}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (15:52)", "body": "*Big Hugs* Mahalo!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (14:21)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 2, 2000 The eta Aquarid meteor shower, caused by bits of debris from Halley's Comet, will peak on May 5-6, 2000. Lunar observers will be watching the Moon on the nights after the shower for possible signs of meteorite impacts. FULL STORY at http://www.spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast02may_1.htm"}, {"response": 39, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (16:57)", "body": "I couldn't see this posted elsewhere, sorry if i've duplicated, I only just picked it up. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000413/sc/space_quasar.html Astronomers Spot Most Distant Quasar Ever Observed WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers peering across the universe have spotted the most distant object ever observed, a quasar 26 billion light-years away, researchers said on Thursday. This quasar, confirmed as the most faraway object by scientists working with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, probably started sending its light in Earth's direction when the universe was less than a billion years old, the researchers said in a statement. The universe is thought to be about 14 billion years old now, give or take a couple billion years. And it has been expanding since the theoretical Big Bang that started it all. Quasars are extremely bright but extremely compact objects thought to be powered by matter-sucking black holes as massive as a billion suns. Michael Turner, a spokesman for the Survey at the University of Chicago, said this means that the quasar is about 26 billion light-years away now, but because of the expansion of the universe, it used to be a lot closer. ``When it emitted the light, it was only about 4 billion light-years from the space in the universe where Earth would be eventually,'' Turner said in a telephone interview. ``It's only when we talk about the most distant objects that we have to take the expansion of he universe into account.'' A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles. Another way to think about cosmic distances and ages is to determine how bent the light gets as the universe expands. The more bent it gets to the red end of the spectrum, the older the object is determined to be. This is known as redshift. This newly observed object has a redshift of 5.8, the highest ever measured. It is in fact too red to be seen by the human eye, even with the most sophisticated equipment. But it was observed through data gathered by the Sky Survey last month, and scientists confirmed its distance last week. An image of the distant quasar can be viewed on the World Wide Web at http://www.sdss.org ."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (17:06)", "body": "Interesting. I wonder if it is the same things as the Keck found a couple of weeks ago. I shall hunt it up and see. Thanks, Maggie!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2000 (17:13)", "body": "A suggestion - please! We post articles and comments of length in Geo 24 for space stuff and this should just be for posting the news releases. Does that sound ok?"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (15:54)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 3, 2000 A team of explorers including astrobiologist Richard Hoover and astronauts Jim Lovell and Owen Garriott traveled to Antarctica in January 2000 to search for meteorites and extreme-loving microbes. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast03may_1m.htm"}, {"response": 43, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (16:01)", "body": "The gps devices just got accurate down to 5 to 10 feet or better. A friend says he can see when he changes lanes on his now!"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (16:06)", "body": "GPS stuff has gotten very sophisticated with an enormous constellation of satellites tracking your every move. Great stuff! That is the next thing on my son's wish list - he has installed ground monitors on Kilauea to check for movement in the surface (Supposedly, the entire seaward flank of Kilauea is gonna break off and we will all be dead from the terific tsunami generated thereby!)"}, {"response": 45, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (19:35)", "body": "Will you let us know when the tsunami heads this way so we can climb up onto some hills?"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2000 (19:43)", "body": "If you get a tsunami, I shall call you live and direct as you are fleeing! Count on it - and you'd better take my buddy with you *grin* You are both crucial to my well-being! (You gotta see this wallpaper on a good monitor! It is gorgeous! Hope he likes it, as well...)"}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (15:55)", "body": "Thursday's Classroom for May 4, 2000 The Amazing Moon Buggy + Planetary Alignment lessons This week, Thursday's Classroom takes a wild ride on the original interplanetary Sport Utility Vehicle: the amazing Apollo Moon Buggy. Students will tap their toes to the beat of the \"Moon Buggy Boogie,\" play a stimulating game of \"Lunar Rover Lunacy,\" covert measurements from English to metric units in \"Moon Math,\" and more... Please visit: http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Thursday's Classroom Also, a note for recent subscribers: The March 30, 2000, episode of Thursday's Classroom features lessons and activities related to the May 5, 2000, planetary alignment. See: http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com/index_30mar00.html Planetary Alignments"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (15:59)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 4, 2000 Interplanetary Low Tide Tidal forces on Earth caused by other planets in the solar system will be at a low point this week when Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn \"line up\" on the far side of the Sun. The alignment won't be visible to the naked-eye, but there will be a meteor shower that could produce a nice sky show. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast04may_1m.htm Interplanetary Low Tide See also: http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast02may_1.htm 5/5/2000: The Meteor Shower"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2000 (18:17)", "body": "Three Planets and a Coronal Mass Ejection Space Weather News for May 4, 2000 The planets Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn have entered the field of view of instruments on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory as they approach the Sun for Friday's much-touted conjunction. Animations of this rare event include two coronal mass ejections with three planets in the background. For more information, please see http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  5, 2000 (15:25)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 18 - May 5, 2000 It seems odd to view the solar disk at the peak of the solar cycle and see few sunspots, but that was the case this week. Solar flux, a measure of 2.8 GHz energy from the sun which correlates roughly with sunspots and the ionization of the particles which reflect HF radio waves, were down sharply this week. On Thursday, when this bulletin was written, the thrice daily solar flux numbers were 133, 134.5 and 134.7. Solar flux has not been this low since January. Average solar flux for this week dropped over thirty points, and average sunspot numbers were down over seventy points, when compared to the previous week. Geomagnetic conditions were fairly unsettled as well, with planetary A indices in the double-digits throughout the week, and K indices often as high as 4. There weren't any severe geomagnetic storms, but geomagnetic conditions were rarely quiet. Looking at monthly trends, the average monthly solar flux for January through April was 159, 174.1, 208.2 and 184.2. The lower activity should continue for the next few days. Predicted solar flux for Friday, May 5 through the following Tuesday is 130, 130, 135, 145 and 150. The predicted planetary A index for those days is 10, 15, 12, 10 and 10. KA5WQM wrote to remark on poor 10 meter conditions. He said that in central Oklahoma the band has been unusable since last Thursday. There are a couple of influences to consider. One is the season. Ten meters is much better right around the equinox, and we are moving every day closer to summer conditions when occasional short skip via sporadic E-layer propagation will be the norm. Of course the other factor is the lower sunspot activity and solar flux. Doing a path projection from Oklahoma to Hawaii with a solar flux of 230, there is a good bet for strong openings on 10 meters from 1800 to 2230z. Lower the solar flux to 170, and the period in which strong signals are likely over that path shrinks to 1930 to 2130z. With the solar flux at 130, communication is possible, but strong openings are much less likely. During this month 15 meters should be far better for long distance HF communications than 10. Sunspot numbers for April 27 through May 3 were 163, 238, 142, 126, 121, 108 and 113 with a mean of 144.4. 10.7 cm flux was 183.5, 183.4, 174.9, 169.5, 157.7, 152.8 and 137.3, with a mean of 165.6, and estimated planetary A indices were 13, 17, 12, 11, 14, 18 and 15, with a mean of 14.3."}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2000 (12:08)", "body": "Space Weather News for May 6, 2000 The wide field coronagraph on board the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded a series of dazzling coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on May 5, 2000, with Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn in the background. These eruptions apparently came from active sunspot groups that are just over the Sun's western limb. CMEs like these, seen in profile, are unusually beautiful. This weekend the visible disk of the Sun is remarkably devoid of large sunspots as we approach the peak of the sunspot cycle in mid-2000. For more information and images please visit: http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (00:13)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 8, 2000 NASA astronomers have collected the first-ever radar images of a \"main belt\" asteroid. It's a metallic, dog bone-shaped rock the size of New Jersey, an apparent leftover from an ancient, violent cosmic collision. The asteroid, named 216 Kleopatra, was discovered in 1880, but until now, its shape was unknown. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast08may_1.htm An Asteroid goes to the Dogs"}, {"response": 53, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (17:47)", "body": "I saw it, it does look like a giant dog bone."}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (17:53)", "body": "Yup! Like the North American Nebula looks like its name, and the Owl Nebula and other goodies up there! Thanks for looking!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (16:48)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 9, 2000 The Sun appeared nearly featureless this weekend as the sunspot area dropped 10 times below its average value. Nevertheless, scientists say Solar Max is still on the way. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast09may_1m.htm Solar Ups and Downs"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2000 (16:10)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 11, 2000 Images made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show for the first time the full impact of the actual blast wave from Supernova 1987A. The observations are the first time that X-rays from a shock wave have been imaged at such an early stage of a supernova explosion. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast11may_1m.htm Impact! Chandra images a young supernova blast wave"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2000 (17:18)", "body": "Space Weather News for May 11, 2000 Material from a coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on May 8 is expected to pass by our planet late on May 11 or early May 12. Depending on the characteristics of the magnetic field within the disturbance, it could trigger minor geomagnetic storms on Earth. There is a slim chance of aurorae at mid-latitudes, but auroral activity will more likely be concentrated over high latitude regions including northern Europe, Canada and Alaska. Visit http://www.spaceweather.com for more information and updates. SpaceWeather.com ---"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 12, 2000 (16:13)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 12, 2000 NASA scientists have discovered unexpected spiral-shaped flames on Earth. By studying these peculiar flames, researchers hope to mitigate fire hazards on spacecraft and gain new insights about complex systems in nature. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast12may_1.htm Not Just Another Old Flame"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (01:05)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 15, 2000 A black hole binary star system called XTE J1550-564 has recently become one of the brightest sources in the x-ray sky. Astronomers are fascinated by fluctuations in the x-ray emission from this source, which if converted to sound waves would feel like the deep rumbling vibrations from a bass speaker at a rock 'n roll concert. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast15may_1m.htm The Humming Black Hole"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (01:33)", "body": "Aurora Watching The Sun is currently entering a peak of storminess, part of a cycle that lasts 11 years. This causes a stronger \"solar wind,\" which is a constant stream of charged particles. When these particles hit the Earth's magnetic field, the interaction releases visible light, which we in the north know as the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights (there's the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, Down Under). During these storm peaks, the spectacular auroras can be visible much further south than usual. You can learn more about auroras, check out the space weather forecast, and download aurora videos at http://www.sec.noaa.gov/ Click here to learn more about auroras. http://dac3.pfrr.alaska.edu/~pfrr/AURORA/INDEX.HTM"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (17:00)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 16, 2000 The planets Venus and Jupiter will pass less than 42 arcseconds apart on May 17. Because the pair is so close to the Sun, only the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory will have a good view of the close encounter, which is similar to the \"Christmas Star\" conjunction of 2 BC. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast16may_1.htm?list A Christmas Star for SOHO"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (01:44)", "body": "Full Halo Coronal Mass Ejection Space Weather News for May 16, 2000 On May 15 a coronagraph on the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory captured rare images of a full halo coronal mass ejection with 4 planets and the Pleiades in the field of view. Material from the eruption could arrive in the neighborhood of Earth on May 17 or 18. For more information and animations, visit http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2000 (01:12)", "body": "Students take control of a prototype Mars Rover NASA Science News for May 17, 2000 Students from around the country will take control of a prototype Mars rover named FIDO as it explores a western Nevada desert. The FIDO rover is a testbed for future missions, including the proposed Mars Mobile Lander that is currently under study for a possible launch in 2003. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast17may_1.htm?list Heel, FIDO, Heel!"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2000 (21:17)", "body": "Gravitational Lenses The hallmark of a scientific theory is that it makes predictions about the real world that can be tested. Interestingly, Einstein's theory of general relativity posed major problems for verification: The differences it predicted from Newton's laws were so small they were extremely difficult to measure -- especially with the technology available in the early part of the twentieth century. One prediction that could be checked concerned a gravitational field's ability to bend light rays, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. Sir Arthur Eddington used a solar eclipse in 1919 to test the theory. He looked at the position of a distant star in line with the edge of the sun during the eclipse (allowing it to be observed in the daytime). It appeared to be shifted 1.75 arc seconds from its actual place in the sky. The gravitational field of the sun was bending the light arriving from that star, providing an early confirmation of Einstein's theory."}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (01:09)", "body": "To Be or Not to Be, La Nina? NASA Science News for May 18, 2000 Just last month, scientists were predicting that current La Ni\ufffda conditions would persist, but now data from Earth-orbiting satellites show that it may be on the decline. Is it too soon to revise the 2000 hurricane forecast? FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast18may_1m.htm To Be or Not to Be, La Ni\ufffda?"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (01:43)", "body": "I could not resist posting this image. The solar coronal outburst framed the items you can see listed behind the solar image. Quite extraordinary! Why were conditions so rough on HF? Noise can get very high, especially here in the Pacific North West. Signals get weaker than normal on some bands, and deep fades occur. Why? CME -- that's why. What's a CME? A coronal mass ejection is a huge (like, larger than earth... or bigger!) gas bubble threaded with magnetic field lines. This bubble is ejected from the Sun. This ejection of gas lasts for several hours, and if it is directed toward the earth, can result in a very high energy bombardment into our atmosphere and ionosphere. And our Geomagnetic field becomes very active. A highly active Geomagnetic field degrades radio communications http://hfradio.org/propagation.html#CME1"}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (23:56)", "body": "Great Ganymede! NASA Science News for May 19, 2000 This weekend NASA's Galileo spacecraft will pass 808 km above the surface of our solar system's largest moon, Ganymede. The spacecraft will hunt for signs of mysterious \"cryptovolcanoes\" and collect new data on Ganymede's unique magnetic field. This story includes plasma wave audio sounds from Ganymede's magnetosphere recorded during a previous flyby. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast19may_1.htm Great Ganymede! __"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 19, 2000 (15:23)", "body": "The Secret Lives of Alien Volcanoes NASA Science News for May 19, 2000 The latest images of Io from NASA's Galileo spacecraft reveal a bizarre world of hot volcanoes, sulfurous snowfields, and slip-sliding mountains. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast19may_2.htm?list The Secret Lives of Alien Volcanoes"}, {"response": 69, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sat, May 20, 2000 (01:17)", "body": "Here's some more info on \"dark matter\". http://dmtelescope.org http://www.bell-labs.com/org/physicalsciences/projects/darkmatter/darkmatter.html"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 20, 2000 (01:43)", "body": "Ooh - good stuff to read on a dark Friday night. But, I am stuck with the W3.1 laptop because my newly installed norton antivirus has frozen the entire computer and everytime it come time to boot the task bar it shuts it down again. and we scandisk and try again with the same results. Now, what do I do?"}, {"response": 71, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sat, May 20, 2000 (02:03)", "body": "Yikes, NORTON is hanging your system? I know you mentioned that McAfee caused problems, but I'm surprised about Norton. There's a way to boot the computer up in \"windows safe mode\", so you can uninstall whatever is causing problems...let me go look it up."}, {"response": 72, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Sat, May 20, 2000 (02:15)", "body": "OK, here's the info from my Windows 95 guide (the one distributed with new PCs). 1. Restart your computer. 2. When you see the following text: \"Starting Windows 95...\", press and release the F8 function key. This should display a menu. 3. Type the number for the option you want (or select it with the down arrow key). I would try the \"Safe mode\" option, that boots Windows with a minimal configuration, and try uninstalling Norton. Hopefully you'll be able to boot the system normally after that. Then I'd call Norton to complain. Who needs an anti-virus program that causes more problems than an actual virus?? Good luck!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, May 20, 2000 (06:34)", "body": "Good advice about booting in to Safe Mode. Sometimes this alone will fix some problems."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 20, 2000 (19:45)", "body": "That's what I did - as I wrote in computer conf/virus topic, I think the problem might just be the factthat I enabled Norton to check all drives at startup. There is one imbedded (know how to rid of them?!) program which is the first to load on the task bar and that is precisely where the problem came and it would shut down completely each time. I slept on it and came up with the same idea as you did and you can see that it worked. I deleted the Norton but kept the zipped download so I can reinstall it if my conclusions are correct - and have it not examine the drives until everything is up and running. However, if it still has a problem with that particular program (which I never use - an internet connection which I do not prefer but NEC did...), it will continue to shut down my computer at every encounter?! Yes?"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 20, 2000 (19:53)", "body": "Someone even gave me a crutch I did not remember till just now...Your computer's FATE lies in F8. It is a good one to remember!"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (14:44)", "body": "Radio JOVE -- NASA helps students tune in to radio bursts from Jupiter Jupiter is a source of powerful radio bursts that can produce exotic sounds on common ham radio receivers. NASA scientists are helping students tune in to the giant planet as part of an innovative educational program called Radio JOVE. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast22may_1.htm?list Radio JOVE"}, {"response": 77, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (13:47)", "body": "Do you know the name of the embedded program? If it's in your Startup folder, you should be able to delete it from the Startup folder to keep it from running. If it's not there, it might be in the win.ini or system.ini file; at least I think Windows 95/98 still has those files...they would be in the c:\\windows or c:\\windows\\system directory. The only other place I can think of would be the Windows Registry, but you'd have to hunt through the Registry keys for it. There should be a Registry Editor program (regedit.exe or regedt32.exe) in the c:\\windows or c:\\windows\\system directory. (I'm not sure exactly where it is on Windows 95/98, and I'm on and NT system right now.)"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (17:03)", "body": "(Answered the above in The Software/Computer conference) Galileo swoops by the largest moon in the Solar System NASA Science News for May 23, 2000 On Saturday, May 20, 2000, NASA's Galileo spacecraft successfully flew past the largest moon in our solar system -- Ganymede, which orbits around Jupiter. Galileo dipped to 809 kilometers (503 miles) above the surface in the spacecraft's first flyby of Ganymede since May 7, 1997. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast23may_1.htm?list A Big Moon Close Up"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (17:06)", "body": "Ginny, the really odd thing is that it does not show up in the taskbar remove/add nor in the start/startup folder... it is so exasperating!"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 24, 2000 (17:41)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 24, 2000 Crystal balls rarely have anything to do with science, but soon NASA researchers will be using a set of quartz spheres to examine one of the last, untested portions of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. The spheres make up four extraordinary gyroscopes heading for Earth orbit on board the Gravity Probe B mission in 2002 to measure the twisting and compression of space and time around our rotating planet. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast24may_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 26, 2000 (15:42)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 26, 2000 The pioneering space station concepts of the mid-1950's don't look much like the erector-set habitat in orbit today. Read about Werner von Braun's early designs for an outpost in space and how he advocated his ideas to the public 50 years ago. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast26may_1m.htm?l=NzMwMjk2IG1hcmNpQEFMT0hBLk5FVCBTTkdMSVNUIC66FwsfrRgz"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (01:19)", "body": "What's the Matter with Antimatter? NASA Science News for May 29, 2000 Antimatter -- it may be the ultimate fuel for space travel, but right now it is fleeting, difficult to work with and measured in atoms instead of kilograms or pounds! In this two-part story we'll explore what antimatter is, and how it may be used for space propulsion. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast29may_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (14:00)", "body": "Solar Activity Puffs Up Earth's Atmosphere NASA Science News for May 30, 2000 As a result of the approaching solar maximum, Earth's atmosphere is puffed up like a marshmallow over a campfire leading to extra drag on Earth-orbiting satellites. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast30may_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 31, 2000 (01:36)", "body": "Advanced Space Propulsion Workshop begins this week NASA Science News for May 31, 2000 Scientists and engineers are gathering in Pasadena today to discuss cutting-edge research in space transportation at a workshop sponsored by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast31may_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (14:36)", "body": "Arctic Asteroid! NASA Science News for June 1, 2000 In January, 2000, a seven meter, 200 metric ton rock from space streaked across the skies of western Canada. The meteor was at least as bright as the Sun before it exploded over the Yukon Territory. Scientists have recovered fragments of the carbon-rich rock, which researchers say is the most valuable meteorite find in at least 30 years. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast01jun_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (14:39)", "body": "Yukon Meteor Blast Thursday's Classroom for June 1, 2000 On January 18, 2000, a \"small\" 200 metric ton asteroid streaked across the skies of western Canada and exploded in the atmosphere. Now, scientists have recovered fragments of the space rock and discovered that they are members of a rare class of meteorites possibly containing amino acids and other organic compounds. In this week's episode of Thursday's Classroom, students can learn more about the Yukon meteor by attending a \"Cosmic BBQ,\" calculating \"Fractions of a Meteorite\" and more. VISIT: http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Thursday's Classroom: Yukon Meteor Blast"}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  2, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "Mercury Rising -- see Mercury and the Moon this Saturday NASA Science News for June 2, 2000 There are two really good times to see Mercury this year and next week is one of them. Good Mercury-watching begins this Saturday evening, June 3, when a slender crescent Moon and the elusive planet appear together for stargazers just after sunset. Mercury's apparition as an evening star will continue through mid-June. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast02jun_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (13:32)", "body": "First Light for a Space Weather Satellite NASA Science News for June 5, 2000 NASA's IMAGE mission, a unique satellite dedicated to the study of space storms, has returned its first pictures of electrified gas surrounding our planet. Using antennas as large as the Empire State Building, IMAGE is taking an unprecedented look at Earth's magnetic environment and its response to fierce gusts of solar wind. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast05jun_1m.htm?list __"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "June's Invisible Meteors NASA Science News for June 6, 2000 During the next week thousands of meteors will streak through the sky, but don't expect to see many. They are the Arietids and zeta Perseids -- the most intense daytime meteor showers of the year. The best way for many meteor enthusiasts to enjoy the show is by listening to meteor echoes on a common FM or ham radio. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast06jun_1m.htm?list __"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (00:53)", "body": "Solar activity report for 6/5/00 Region 9026 continues to produce M-class flares, and the A index increases. Sunspots : 132 SFI : 171 A index : 21 K index : 3 Conditions for the last 24 hours : Solar activity was moderate. The geomagnetic field was unsettled to active. Forecast for the next 24 hours : Solar activity will be moderate to high. The geomagnetic field will be unsettled to active. Solar activity forecast SOLAR ACTIVITY IS EXPECTED TO BE AT MODERATE TO HIGH LEVELS. REGION 9026 WILL LIKELY PRODUCE M-CLASS FLARES WITH AN ISOLATED CHANCE OF AN X-CLASS FLARE. Geomagnetic activity forecast : THE GEOMAGNETIC FIELD IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE AT UNSETTLED TO ACTIVE CONDITIONS THROUGH DAY ONE. MOSTLY QUIET TO UNSETTLED LEVELS ARE EXPECTED ON DAY TWO. UNSETTLED WITH OCCASIONAL ACTIVE PERIODS ARE LIKELY ON DAY THREE DUE TO A FAVORABLY POSITIONED CORONAL HOLE AND THE POSSIBILITY OF EFFECTS FROM THIS MORNING'S C4/CME AT 05/0325Z."}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (01:00)", "body": "The above post was from a Yahoo weather club of which I am a memeber. There is another club I'd like you to consider if you are logged into Yahoo, Jack and I would be happy for you to join the conversation going on in there. http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/seti2000"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (18:15)", "body": "Here Comes the Sun! Space Weather News for June 6, 2000 An intense \"X-class\" solar flare today was followed by a full-halo coronal mass ejection. Material from the leading edge of the disturbance is expected to arrive on Thursday, June 8, with possible auroral displays to follow. For images and updates please visit http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  7, 2000 (21:34)", "body": "More Solar Eruptions on June 7, 2000 Space Weather News for June 7, 2000 Following close on the heels of yesterday's two X-class solar flares, a third powerful X-class flare erupted today at approximately 1545 UT. Soon afterward, coronagraphs on the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory detected a faint full halo coronal mass ejection. It appears to be heading in the direction of Earth at ~800 km/s. This latest full halo CME will probably extend the geomagnetic disturbances expected to begin on Thursday when an interplanetary shock wave spawned by a CME on June 6 collides with our planet's magnetosphere. Aurora watchers are advised to be on the alert for Northern Lights beginning after sunset on Thursday, June 8. For more information, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "Impact: An Interplanetary Shock Wave Passes Earth Space Weather News for June 8, 2000 A vigorous shock wave passed NASA's ACE solar wind monitoring spacecraft this morning at 0842 UT. Disturbances detected by ACE usually reach Earth about an hour later. This disturbance was the leading edge of a gigantic bubble of gas ejected from the Sun on June 6. It's been expanding toward our planet for the past day and a half. For more information and updates please visit http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (18:25)", "body": "Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 16:40:9 Subject: Solar Storms A'brewing Thursday's Classroom for June 8, 2000 This morning an interplanetary shock wave hit Earth's magnetosphere triggering aurora over some parts of our planet. In this episode of Thursday's Classroom, students can learn more about space storms and aurora by calculating the speed of a coronal mass ejection, playing Sunspot Twister, or producing their own Space Weather report. For more information and activities, please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Thursday's Classroom"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (22:18)", "body": "A Little Physics and A Lot of String NASA Science News for June 9, 2000 One day space tethers may be used for boosting orbits, powering satellites, and even sending payloads to the Moon or Mars -- all without the expense of conventional propellants. Scientists discussed this innovative technology at the recent Advanced Space Propulsion Workshop held in Pasadena, CA. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast09jun_1.htm?list __"}, {"response": 97, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (08:23)", "body": "From that article: \"In one variant of a momentum-exchange tether, the faster-moving tether system grabs a slower-moving satellite in a lower orbit using a grapple at the end of a tether line between 20 and 200 kilometers long. After orbiting around the Earth once together, the rotating tether system tosses the satellite forward into a higher orbit, somewhat like a roller derby skater grabbing a teammate and slinging them forward. The first skater transfers some of their momentum to the second skater, leaving the first skater going slower afterward. Similarly, the tether system gives some of its momentum to the satellite, ending up in a lower orbit.\""}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (14:00)", "body": "A friend made this comment in email this morning: They used to think about a tether attached to the surface of the earth with the outer end 100's of miles into space. Theoretically the outer end would have orbiting velocity. Objects could climb up the tether into orbit. The problem was the strength and weight of such a tether; probably impossible. These present suggested uses for tethers may be more practical."}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (22:55)", "body": "A solar flare, a CME, and a solar wind disturbance -- all in one day! Space Weather News for June 10, 2000 The prolific flare-producing sunspot group #9026 unleashed another moderately strong solar flare today. The eruption was accompanied by a partial halo coronal mass ejection (CME) that might be Earth-directed. If so, material from the CME would arrive in the vicinity of our planet on June 12 or 13. A SOHO coronagraph animation of the event shows a beautiful billowing CME peppered by speckles and meteor-like streaks resulting from energetic particles hitting the spacecraft's camera. Earlier in the day, as predicted, a solar wind disturbance from a CME on June 7 struck Earth's magnetosphere. Active geomagnetic conditions were observed for about nine hours, but have since subsided. For more information and pictures, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (14:09)", "body": "Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 08:30:40 -0700 SFI=187 | A=24 | K=3 up from 2 at 1500 on 12 June. SAF: moderate, GMF: at quiet to minor storm levels Aurora Level: 4 Solar Wind: 469.6 km/s at 1.3 protons/cc More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 13, 2000 (01:29)", "body": "From the Drawing Board to the Stars NASA Science News for June 13, 2000 In this scientific human interest story, Dr. Jim Burch, principle investigator for NASA's IMAGE space weather satellite, describes what it's like to visualize a modern space mission and then, years later, to make it happen. Burch shares his experiences as a competitor for mission funding, as a coordinator of far-flung personnel and institutions, and as an onlooker during the anxious moments of launch. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast13jun_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 13, 2000 (17:06)", "body": "Solar wind disturbance passes Earth Space Weather News for June 13, 2000 The shock front from a beautiful full-halo coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on June 10 apparently passed by Earth at approximately 2200 UT on June 12. Although the solar wind velocity increased substantially, geomagnetic disturbances so far have been mild. The chances for widespread aurora tonight are low. For more information please see http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com ---"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (02:27)", "body": "Solstice Moon NASA Science News for June 14, 2000 This week's full Moon, which takes place just four days before the June solstice, will appear unusually big and colorful to observers in the northern hemisphere. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast14jun_1.htm?list __ You are subscribed to Science.NASA.gov NASA Science News mailing list with the address marci@ALOHA.NET."}, {"response": 104, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (09:14)", "body": "Any solstice celebrations planned, anyone?"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (16:21)", "body": "Ocean Tides Lost and Found NASA Science News for June 15, 2000 Lunar tides impart tremendous energy to Earth's oceans, but where does it all go? Scientists studying data from the orbiting TOPEX/Poseidon satellite believe they now have an answer. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast15jun_2.htm?list __"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (18:27)", "body": "Thursday's Classroom for June 15, 2000 This month's full Moon will appear bigger and more colorful than usual because it occurs so close to the northern summer solstice. Students can learn more about the Moon and the famous illusion that makes the Moon appear larger when it's near the horizon by making an edible Moon Munchie spyglass, calculating Loony Basketball Math, and reciting \"Full Moon Wherewolf\" homonym poetry. For more information, please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Thursday's Classroom Note: These lessons are relevant even after this week's full Moon. For several days following June 16, the Moon will appear nearly full and, of course, there's another full Moon every month. Each one hovers above the horizon for a while as it rises, triggering the 'Moon Illusion.' The illusion simply lasts longer for northern observers near the time of the summer solstice."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (01:30)", "body": "The Incredible Ions of Space Transportation NASA Science News for June 16, 2000 After nearly 40 years of development and the successful flight of Deep Space 1 in 1998-1999, ion propulsion has now entered the mainstream of propulsion options available for deep-space missions. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast15jun_1.htm?list __"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (17:53)", "body": "From: NASA Science News Precedence: Bulk Space Lasers Take Aim at the Wind NASA Science News for June 19, 2000 NASA scientists are studying a type of radar that uses laser light instead of microwaves to provide snapshots of the winds that travel the globe. Knowing the wind's speed and direction over large areas could help meteorologists answer the riddle of tomorrow's weather and benefit many areas of the world's economy. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast19jun_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (01:30)", "body": "Scientists Discover Sugar in an Interstellar Cloud NASA Science News for June 20, 2000 Scientists have discovered a molecular cousin to table sugar in a giant interstellar cloud known as Sagittarius B2. The discovery of this sugar molecule in a cloud where new stars are forming means it is increasingly likely that chemical precursors to life are formed in such clouds long before planets develop around stars. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast20jun_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (01:25)", "body": "Asteroids Have Seasons, Too NASA Science News for June 21, 2000 Earth isn't the only world where seasons are changing this week. Millions of miles from our planet, southern winter is giving way to spring on asteroid 433 Eros. As the Sun rises over the south pole of Eros, instruments on NASA's NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft will catch a glimpse of never-before-seen terrain. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast21jun_1.htm?list __"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (00:41)", "body": "Coming Soon: Better Solar Storm Warnings NASA Science News for June 22, 2000 In the past, predicting the onset of a geomagnetic storm was difficult. Forecasters couldn't say with much precision how long it would take for a solar coronal mass ejection to reach Earth. Now scientists have created a model that reliably forecasts the arrival of these billion-ton gas clouds. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast22jun_1m.htm?list __"}, {"response": 112, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (09:40)", "body": "I heard on the news on the radio on the way to work that they've found water on Mars."}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (13:09)", "body": "Indeed.......here is the NASA press release: Mars Surprise -- images reveal signs of recent water flow on Mars NASA Science News for June 22, 2000 In what could turn out to be a landmark discovery in the history of Mars exploration, scientists using data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have observed features that suggest current sources of liquid water at or near the surface of the red planet. NASA scientists compare the features to those left by flash floods on Earth. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast22jun_2.htm?list __"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 26, 2000 (13:58)", "body": "The Ups and Downs of Ozone NASA Science News for June 26, 2000 Scientists are watching carefully as the ozone layer, which protects animal and plant life from harmful solar ultraviolet radiation, begins an uncertain recovery. Ozone destroying chemicals in the atmosphere are on the decline, but the timing and nature of the expected recovery -- and even whether a recovery is occurring at all -- are controversial topics. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast26jun_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 27, 2000 (16:00)", "body": "Giant Planet Power Breakfast NASA Science News for June 27, 2000 Jupiter and Saturn have spent much of the last few months hidden in the bright glare of the Sun. Now they are rising before dawn and are visible again with the naked eye. This week the slender crescent moon will join the pair for a dazzling show in the sky before sunrise. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast27jun_1.htm?list __"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 28, 2000 (18:20)", "body": "Setting Sail for the Stars NASA Science News for June 28, 2000 Scientists met last month to discuss the latest developments in solar sail technology. A new mission, the Interstellar Probe, could carry a spacecraft beyond the edge of the solar system by 2018. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast28jun_1m.htm?list __"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 29, 2000 (17:18)", "body": "Making a Splash on Mars NASA Science News for June 29, 2000 On a planet that's colder than Antarctica and where water boils at ten degrees above freezing, how could liquid water ever exist? Scientists say a dash of salt might help. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast29jun_1m.htm?lis"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 30, 2000 (15:15)", "body": "Earth reaches its greatest distance from the Sun on the 4th of July NASA Science News for June 30, 2000 The Earth will reach its greatest distance from the Sun this year on the 4th of July, but don't expect a break from the heat of northern summer. This article discusses Earth's slightly elliptical orbit and the effects (some negligible, some substantial) that lopsided orbits have on planets around the solar system. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast30jun_1m.htm?list __"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  3, 2000 (23:42)", "body": "Mars passes by the Sun Space Weather News for July 3, 2000 Solar activity was low over the weekend and is expected to remain so for the next 24 to 48 hours. Nevertheless, on July 1st and 2nd coronagraphs on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory captured a beautiful sequence of images showing Mars as it passed less than one degree from the Sun. The animation includes several coronal mass ejections associated with small solar flares. For more information visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  6, 2000 (13:29)", "body": "Here Comes Comet Linear NASA Science News for July 05, 2000 Comet 1999 LINEAR S4, which can already be seen through binoculars, is expected to become a faint naked-eye object similar in appearance to the Andromeda Nebula as it glides by the Big Dipper this month. Maximum brightness is expected on July 23, 2000."}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  7, 2000 (01:24)", "body": "Some Comets Like it Hot NASA Science News for July 07, 2000 Amateur astronomers are discovering pieces of a giant comet that broke apart in antiquity as the fragments zoom perilously close to the Sun. You can join the hunt, too. All you need is a computer and an internet connection to view realtime data from the orbiting ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast07jul_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul  8, 2000 (15:01)", "body": "Space Weather News for July 8, 2000 Coronagraphs on board the orbiting ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded a full halo coronal mass ejection (CME) on July 7th. Forecasters estimate that material from the CME will arrive in the neighborhood of Earth on July 11th. While the CME was ongoing, SOHO's wide field coronagraph also captured the planet Mercury racing by the Sun twice as fast as the drifting field of background stars. Mercury joined two other planets, Mars and Venus, in the coronagraph's field of view. For animations and more information, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (13:25)", "body": "A solar wind disturbance arrives at Earth Space Weather News for July 10, 2000 The shock front from a July 7th coronal mass ejection has apparently reached our planet about a day earlier than expected. The disturbance, recorded by NASA's ACE spacecraft at 0600 UT on July 10, was not extraordinarily vigorous. Nevertheless, skywatchers are advised to be on the alert for aurora. For more information please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (17:02)", "body": "Cosmic Light Pollution NASA Science News for July 10, 2000 A series of unmanned balloon flights will measure the subtle ultraviolet glow of the night sky and help unravel one of the most perplexing mysteries of astrophysics -- the origin of ultra high-energy cosmic rays. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast10jul_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (18:13)", "body": "The propagation continues upward: SFI=225 up from 215 | A=28 up from 18 | K=3 down from 4 at 2100 on 11 July. SAF: moderate to high, GMF: at active to minor storm levels Aurora Level: 5 Solar Wind: 543.3 km/s at 5.7 protons/cc More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (18:20)", "body": "Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 15:26:37 -0500 From: NASA Science News Comet Borrelly or Bust NASA Science News for July 11, 2000 NASA's experimental Deep Space 1 probe --left for dead after a guidance system failure in late 1999 -- was revived last month in a thrilling cross- the-solar-system rescue conducted by JPL engineers. The craft set sail again on June 28, 2000, just in time for a planned rendezvous with periodic comet Borrelly in 2001. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast11jul_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 12, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "Brown Dwarf Solar Flare NASA Science News for July 12, 2000 The Chandra X-ray Observatory has detected the first-ever flare from what's known as a brown dwarf, or failed star. Scientists were surprised at the outburst, which unleashed an amount of energy comparable to a small solar flare. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast12jul_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 13, 2000 (18:36)", "body": "Aurora Warning Space Weather News for July 13, 2000 Stargazers in both hemispheres are advised to watch for auroras tonight as the result of a strong solar wind disturbance that struck Earth's magnetosphere at approximately 0940 UT (5:40 a.m. EDT) on July 13th. The strong geomagnetic storm that started this morning may now be subsiding, but another interplanetary shock wave is expected to arrive on July 14th and extend the current period of geomagnetic unrest. Auroral displays at middle latitudes are possible (but by no means guaranteed) around local midnight on July 13th through 15th. For more information please visit http://www.spaceweather.com Photographers who capture pictures of Northern or Southern Lights during the next few days are invited to send their images as attachments to webmaster@spaceweather.com for display on SpaceWeather.com."}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 13, 2000 (19:06)", "body": "SFI=232 up from 230 | A=31 up from 12 | K=2 down from 5 at 2100 on 13 July. SAF: moderate to high, GMF: at unsettled to minor storm levels Aurora Level: 7 Solar Wind: 618.4 km/s at 3.6 protons/cc More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (02:18)", "body": "Pacific Lunar Eclipse NASA Science News for July 14, 2000 This weekend the Moon, the Sun and the Earth will align for the longest total lunar eclipse in 140 years. The best places to see the event are in and around the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii and Australia. Observers along the west coast of North America will be able to see a partial eclipse just before the Moon sets on Sunday morning. During totality skywatchers may also be able to spot the asteroid 4 Vesta, which coincidentally makes a rare appearance as a naked-eye object during the days around the eclipse. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast14jul_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (15:56)", "body": "Powerful Solar Flare Triggers Radiation Storm Space Weather News for July 14, 2000 This morning an X5-class solar flare, one of the most powerful flares of the current solar cycle, triggered a proton storm in the neighborhood of our planet. Just after the eruption, coronagraphs on board the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded a full halo coronal mass ejection heading toward Earth at greater than 1000 km/s. Please visit http://www.spaceweather.com for details and updates on this developing story."}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (20:20)", "body": "The following Alerts and Warnings are in effect: sr@hfradio.org The following Alerts and Warnings are in effect: Magnetic A-Index greater than 50 Watch for 15 Jul 2000 UT Comment: K-indices of greater than 6 are possible beginning at 1800 UT on 15 July Magnetic A-Index greater than 50 Watch for 16 Jul 2000 UT Comment: K-indices of greater than 6 are possible beginning at 1800 UT on 15 July Magnetic A-Index greater than 50 Watch for 17 Jul 2000 UT Comment: K-indices of greater than 6 are possible beginning at 1800 UT on 15 July Magnetic K-Index of 6 Observed 14 Jul 2000 from 15:00 to 18:00 UT Comment: None More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "A Solar Radiation Storm NASA Science News for July 14, 2000 A powerful solar flare on July 14th triggered an intense radiation storm in the vicinity of Earth. The eruption was followed by a fast-moving coronal mass ejection that is expected to strike Earth's magnetosphere as early as Saturday. The impact could trigger Northern and Southern Lights bright enough to be seen in spite of this weekend's brilliant full Moon. Such a display is by no means guaranteed, but it is possible. Observers across the Pacific could be in for a very rare treat: the sight of shimmering colorful aurora during the total lunar eclipse of July 16, 2000. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast14jul_2m.htm?list __"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (14:57)", "body": "Solar Wind data is incorrect due to proton overload of the sensors on the spacecraft. True solar wind speed is approx. 775 to 800 km/s with a density of approx. 25 to 30 protons/cm3 ADVISORY: The shock wave from Friday's fast-moving coronal mass ejection could arrive as early as 1900 UT. ALERT(S): Magnetic A-Index Greater than 50 Watch for 15 Jul 2000 UT Comment: K-indices of Greater than 6 are possible beginning at 1800 UT on 15 July Magnetic A-Index Greater than 50 Watch for 16 Jul 2000 UT Comment: K-indices of Greater than 6 are possible beginning at 1800 UT on 15 July Magnetic A-Index Greater than 50 Watch for 17 Jul 2000 UT Comment: K-indices of Greater than 6 are possible beginning at 1800 UT on 15 July Magnetic K-Index of 6 Observed 14 Jul 2000 from 15:00 to 18:00 UT Comment: None Magnetic A-Index Greater than 30 Warning valid from 15 Jul 2000 0000 to 0600 UT Comment: None The following Warning was EXTENDED at 0000 UT on 15 Jul 2000 and is now valid through 0000 UT on 17 Jul 2000 Magnetic K-Index Greater than 6 Warning valid from 13 Jul 2000 1438 to 15 Jul 2000 0000 UT Comment: None The following Alert was CONTINUED at 0100 UT on 15 Jul 2000 Protons Event Greater than 10 MeV @ Greater than 10pfu BEG 14 Jul 2000 1050 UT Comment: The current proton flux is approximately 8500 pfu's. The following Alert was CONTINUED at 0100 UT on 15 Jul 2000 Proton event Greater than 100 MeV @ Greater than 1pfu BEG 14 Jul 2000 1040 UT Comment: The current proton flux level is approximately 100 pfu's . A maximum proton flux of approximately 400 pfu's was reached at 1620 UT on 14 July. Magnetic A-Index Greater than 30 Observed 15 Jul 2000 0600 UT Comment: None Type II Radio Emission 15 Jul 2000 1433 UT Comment: Estimated shock velocity = 788 km/s More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (20:16)", "body": "An Extreme Geomagnetic Storm is Underway Space Weather News for July 15, 2000 A powerful shock wave from the fast-moving July 14th coronal mass ejection has arrived in the neighborhood of Earth. An extreme geomagnetic storm was underway at 1900 UT (3:00 p.m. EDT) on July 15th. If conditions persist as they are now, aurora could be visible at middle (and possibly even equatorial) latitudes. The best time to view aurora is usually near local midnight. In this case, sky watchers are advised to look for aurora as soon as night falls. For more information and updates please visit http://www.spaceweather.com Readers are invited to send pictures of tonight's aurora and the July 16, 2000, total lunar eclipse (visible across the Pacific Ocean) as an email attachment to phillips@spacescience.com for possible posting on spaceweather.com and/or spacescience.com. For more information about the lunar eclipse: Pacific Lunar Eclipse http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast14jul_1m.htm ************************** SEVERE GEOMAGNETIC STORM: Kp Index is at 9. A Index is 118. We are in a catagory G5 Storm. NOAA's Space Weather scale indicates the following effects: Power systems: grid systems can collapse and transformers experience damage. Spacecraft operations: extensive surface charging, problems with orientation, uplink/downlink, and tracking satellites. Other systems: pipeline currents reach hundreds of amps, HF (high frequency) radio propagation impossible in many areas for one to two days, satellite navigation degraded for days, low-frequency radio navigation out for hours, and the aurora seen as low as the equator. The Proton Monitor on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory is registering solar wind speeds in excess of 900 km/s The wave of solar particles - known as a solar proton event - is already four times more intense than any other event detected since the launches of SOHO in 1995 and ACE in 1997. At mid-afternoon (UT) on July 14th, the storm of particles from the Sun was still intensifying. More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 18, 2000 (02:00)", "body": "X-ray Star Stuff NASA Science News for July 18, 2000 Astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory are seeing how supernovae spray the essential elements of rocky planets and life into interstellar space. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast18jul_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 20, 2000 (02:01)", "body": "Unveiling the Infrared Sky NASA Science News for July 20, 2000 Your home computer can become a portal to a wonderland of stars, thanks to a massive release of images from an infrared sky survey sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation. The current release is based on a volume of data several hundred times larger than that contained in the human genome! FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast20jul_1.htm?list __"}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 21, 2000 (13:02)", "body": "Coronal Mass Ejection 21 July 2000 There is high probability that the CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) from the major M-class solar flare of 19 July 2000 will arrive today. It is expected to hit the Earth almost head-on. It is not expected to be as intense as this last weekend's event. Auroral activity is expected to increase to storm levels on 21 July 2000. There is a good chance for observations of auroral activity from many dark-sky middle latitude regions, particularly prior to midnight when the moon is still below the horizon and optimal observing conditions exist. Moonrise occurs near local midnight. TWO ADDITIONAL M-Class flares occured today: :ALERTS: X-Ray event M5/1B/S12W14 BEG 20 Jul 2000 2022 MAX 20 Jul 2000 2025 END 20 Jul 2000 2028 UT Comment: None X-Ray event M5.5 BEG 21 Jul 2000 1430 MAX 21 Jul 2000 1437 END 21 Jul 2000 1443 UT Comment: None More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 21, 2000 (13:02)", "body": "Watch for Aurora tonight!!!"}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 21, 2000 (13:25)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 29 - July 21, 2000 This has been quite a week for solar activity, with blasts of solar wind dominating space weather news. Saturday was the big day for HF radio blackouts and aurora, with the planetary A index jumping to an incredible 152 and the mid-latitude A index at 148. The planetary K index, updated every three hours, was at 9 for three readings on Saturday. A K index reading of 9 over a 24-hour period would be equivalent to an A index of 300. This is big, really big. These numbers are associated with an extreme geomagnetic storm that was nearly off the scale. On Friday one of the most powerful solar flares of the current cycle triggered a storm of protons directed toward earth. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded a full halo coronal mass ejection heading toward earth at greater than one-million meters per second. Check out animations of this event at http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/CME/ . There are only a few events of this magnitude in the average solar cycle. The only factor that probably impeded a spectacular aurora visible far down into the U.S. was that this is the summer season. A dark evening sky would reveal a rich tapestry of northern lights. Of course, it being winter in the southern hemisphere, bright displays were reported in Australia and New Zealand. The author made a weak attempt Saturday night, walking barefoot into the middle of the street and trying to peer north past city lights, but no auroral glow was visible. Seattle is north of the 47th parallel, and although there were no local reports of aurora, there were observations as far south as 40 degrees in Europe, Asia, and parts of Eastern North America. If you point your web browser toward http://www.sec.noaa.gov/info/kp-aurora.html you will see a nice map from the June, 1968 issue of Sky and Telescope which shows how far south aurora may be visible depending on the planetary K index. What is not clear from this map is whether it shows how far south the edge of the aurora extends, or how far south it is visible when looking north. Another coronal mass ejection emerged on Wednesday, July 19, but the predicted effect is uncertain because the ejection may not be aimed squarely at earth. On Thursday the planetary K index went up to 6 for several hours, but by the end of the UTC day it was 3. The planetary A index for Thursday was 43, and the College A index, recorded in Alaska, was 57. The latest forecast shows the planetary A index rising to 50 on Friday, then dropping to 20 and 15 and then 10 on Saturday through Monday. Solar flux peaked for the recent short term at 252.9 on Thursday, and is expected to drop to 245, 235, 230 and 225 on Friday through Monday. The next short term minimum is predicted around July 28 at 170, followed by another peak above 200 around August 6-9. The author has received many more inquiries recently asking for explanations of the various parameters reported in this bulletin. Although the explanations were repeated six weeks ago, it is probably time to run them again, and they follow this paragraph. Feel free to send questions to the author via k7vvvarrl.net. Amateur Radio operators who use HF generally like increased sunspots because they correlate with better worldwide radio propagation. When there are more sunspots, the sun puts out radiation which charges particles in the earth's ionosphere. Radio waves bounce off of these charged particles, and the denser these clouds of ions, the better the HF propagation. When the ionosphere is denser, higher frequencies will reflect off of the ionosphere rather than passing through to space. This is why every 11 years or so when this activity is higher, 10 meters gets exciting. 10 meters is at a high enough frequency, right near the top of the HF spectrum, that radio waves propagate very efficiently when the sunspot count is high. Because of the wavelength, smaller antennas are very efficient on this band, so mobile stations running low power on 10 meters can communicate world wide on a daily basis when the sunspot cycle is at its peak. There are also seasonal variations, and 10 meters tends to be best near the spring or fall equinox. The sunspot numbers used in this bulletin are calculated by counting the sunspots on the visible solar surface and also measuring their area. Solar flux is measured at an observatory in British Columbia using an antenna pointed toward the sun tuned to 2.8 GHz, which is at a wavelength of 10.7 cm. Energy detected seems to correlate with sunspots and with the density of the ionosphere. Other solar activity of concern to HF operators are solar flares and coronal holes, which emit protons. Since the charged ions in the ionosphere are negative, a blast of protons from the sun can neutralize the charge and make the ionosphere less reflective. These waves of protons can be so intense that they may trigger an event called a geomagnetic storm. The Planetary A index relates to geomagnetic stability. M"}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 22, 2000 (22:15)", "body": "Contrary Thermometers NASA Science News for July 21, 2000 Scientists are working to understand why the lower atmosphere isn't heating up as fast as some global warming models predict. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast21jul_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (18:20)", "body": "Station Sightings NASA Science News for July 24, 2000 Thanks to a new NASA web site, stargazers can track the progress of the growing International Space Station (ISS) from their own backyards. Because it reflects sunlight down to Earth, the ISS often looks like a slow-moving star as it crosses the sky. It can even appear as bright as the star Sirius if you know when and where to look. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast24jul_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (18:23)", "body": "Camping Out with the Planets NASA Science News for July 25, 2000 Earth's slender crescent Moon will glide by two brilliant planets in the dawn sky this week as it heads for a close encounter with Mercury on July 29th. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast25jul_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 144, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (20:46)", "body": "You can tell when you look into the night sky which are stars and which are satellites. the satelittes are brighter and move across the sky. I don't get to see much of the night sky right now with this weather. I don't even get to use my pc in the evening, there is so much lightening that I have to unplug it."}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 27, 2000 (11:36)", "body": "Yikes, Dear!!! Blessed be the laptops which enable use even with lightning... but not connected to a modem. Alas, you are in down-time summer I guess. A Lot Less Snow NASA Science News for July 27, 2000 An instrument on board NASA's Terra satellite recorded much less snow than usual over parts of North America during the winter of 1999-2000. This story includes a snow map of North America in March 2000 and sample pictures from Terra's snow-mapping \"MODIS\" instrument. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast27jul_2m.htm?list"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (00:24)", "body": "Comet LINEAR Misbehaves NASA Science News for July 28, 2000 Although comet LINEAR was not bright enough to see with the unaided eye when it passed by Earth this week, the comet is grabbing the attention of astronomers with peculiar behavior, including orbit-altering jets and fragments breaking away from its nucleus. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast28jul_1m.htm?list __"}, {"response": 147, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (00:36)", "body": "Comet LINEAR breaks apart Space Weather News for July 28, 2000 There is growing evidence that comet LINEAR, which made its closest approach to the Sun earlier this week, is disintegrating. Today's spaceweather.com features images and animations of the apparent breakup. Also, an interplanetary shock wave struck Earth's magnetosphere on July 28, 2000, triggering minor geomagnetic activity. For more information please visit http//www.spaceweather.com http//www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (00:58)", "body": "Back to the Future on Mars NASA Science News for July 28, 2000 In 2003, NASA plans to launch a relative of the now-famous 1997 Mars Pathfinder rover. Using drop, bounce, and roll technology, this larger cousin is expected to reach the surface of the Red Planet in January 2004 and begin the longest journey of scientific exploration ever undertaken across the surface of that alien world. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast28jul_2m.htm?list __"}, {"response": 149, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (14:25)", "body": "The Stuff Between the Stars NASA Science News for July 31, 2000 The cosmos is laced with tiny specks of dust that decide the fate of young stars and planets. Now, NASA scientists can study the properties of far-flung space dust using special laboratory facilities at the Marshall Space Flight Center. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast31jul_2m.htm?list _"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (14:41)", "body": "Meltdown! Comet LINEAR comtinues to disintegrate.... NASA Science News for July 31, 2000 Comet LINEAR continued to blow itself apart this weekend as astronomers around the world monitored the action. The comet is still bright enough to see through amateur telescopes, but it's fading fast. This story compares the breakup of comet LINEAR with another famous fragmented comet, Shoemaker-Levy 9, that collided with Jupiter six years ago. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast31jul_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  2, 2000 (21:35)", "body": "Looking Forward to the International Space Station NASA Science News for August 02, 2000 Scientists at a recent media forum said they are eager to begin using the International Space Station as an innovative orbiting research laboratory. \"The Hubble Space Telescope is to astrophysicists as the International Space Station will be to other researchers -- a working science laboratory in space,\" noted one participant. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast02aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  4, 2000 (15:24)", "body": "Watching Wildfires from Space NASA Science News for August 04, 2000 NASA satellites are keeping a close eye on wildfires raging across the Western US. Every few hours, a global map of smoky aerosols is updated at the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer web site. Now, anyone with a connection to the Internet can share the same \"bird's eye\" view enjoyed by NASA scientists. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast04aug_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  4, 2000 (15:26)", "body": "A Comet Comes Apart Thursday's Classroom for August 3, 2000 http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com Late last month stargazers were eagerly anticipating the arrival of Comet LINEAR, which was expected to become the first naked-eye comet in three years. But the comet surprised observers by blowing apart as it passed near to the Sun. Even now, astronomers are watching intently as Comet LINEAR dissolves into a haze of gas and dust. This week's episode of Thursday's Classroom features stories for kids and educational lesson plans about comets and Comet LINEAR. Activities include: * Comet Cones -- Kids who sample one of these delicious treats will never forget the \"dirty snowball\" model for comets. * Really Big Numbers -- How many zeros are in Comet LINEAR's distance from Earth? Kids find out in this lesson about scientific notation. * The Comet Coloring Book -- Students can color original art by Duane Hilton as they follow along with this week's lessons. ...and more! Please visit http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com"}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  4, 2000 (16:33)", "body": "Space Weather News for August 4, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com Comet LINEAR blew apart so thoroughly last week that astronomers can't find any sizable pieces from its fractured icy core. New groundbased images of the comet posted today revealed no fragments brighter than 22nd magnitude. The new data are fueling speculation that Comet LINEAR itself might have been the fragment of a larger body that passed through the inner solar system centuries ago. On a related note, SpaceWeather.com is pleased to announce a new feature: the weekly Meteor Outlook by Robert Lunsford, secretary general of the International Meteor Organization. Updated every Friday, the Outlook offers a comprehensive preview of likely meteor activity suitable for novices and experts. This week's update describes the growing rate of pre-dawn Perseid meteors leading up to the shower's maximum on August 12th."}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  8, 2000 (23:53)", "body": "Perseid Dawn NASA Science News for August 08, 2000 The Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12, 2000. This year the bright, nearly-full Moon will outshine the Perseids most of the night, but for an hour between moonset and sunrise on Saturday morning, star gazers could witness a brief but beautiful meteor shower. The setting Moon may put on a show of its own Saturday. Wildfires and dust storms have filled parts of our atmosphere with aerosols. A low-hanging Moon seen through such dusty air can take on a beautiful pink or orange hue. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast08aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  9, 2000 (19:42)", "body": "Meteors and a Full-halo Coronal Mass Ejection Space Weather News for August 9, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com SOLAR ACTIVITY: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded a full-halo coronal mass ejection today from sunspot group 9114, near the center of the Sun's visible disk. Material from the eruption could trigger geomagnetic activity when it arrives in the vicinity of Earth in approximately three days. NEW ONLINE METEOR COUNTS: As part of our expanding coverage of meteor and comet activity, spaceweather.com will now feature daily meteor counts reported by a network of observers across North America. The daily-updated data includes visual and radio meteor detections. COMET LINEAR: A new picture from the ESO Very Large Telescope shows mini-comets inside Comet LINEAR's disintegrating core. For images, animations and expanded coverage of these items, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 11, 2000 (18:45)", "body": "Perseid meteor update + an ongoing geomagnetic storm Space Weather News for August 11, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com On the eve of the Perseid meteor shower, sky watchers report seeing 10 to 15 meteors per hour streaming from the constellation Perseus. That's consistent with an expected peak rate between 30 and 50 visual meteors per hour before dawn on August 12th. The projected maximum is somewhat weaker than Perseid maxima of recent years, but observers are also reporting that this year's Perseid meteors have been pleasantly bright. The shower should put on a good show for northern hemisphere observers this Saturday morning. Readers are invited to send their photos of the 2000 Perseids to phillips@spacescience.com (Tony Phillips). There is a chance that Saturday morning sky watchers at higher latitudes could spot colorful auroras during the Perseid meteor shower. Our planet is experiencing an ongoing geomagnetic storm triggered by a southward-pointing interplanetary magnetic field in the vicinity of Earth. If conditions persist, high latitude (and possibly even mid-latitude) auroras are possible. For more information, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 11, 2000 (18:46)", "body": "Twin Rovers Headed for Mars NASA Science News for August 10, 2000 The traffic on Mars is expected to double in the near future. NASA today announced plans to launch two large scientific rovers to the red planet in 2003, rather than the original plan for just one. This story includes a striking new video of the planned Mars 2003 rover mission. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast10aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 12, 2000 (18:34)", "body": "Aurora & Meteor Alert Space Weather News for August 12, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com Last night, during the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, a shock wave from the Sun set off a beautiful display of aurora borealis. Observers in dark-sky areas across Canada and much of the United States were treated to the unusual spectacle of meteors seen against a backdrop of colorful Northern Lights. Auroras were spotted as far south as Los Angeles, CA. Conditions remain favorable for more aurora borealis Saturday night and Sunday morning. Plus, the Perseid meteor shower is not entirely over. Stargazers could see as many as 25 meteors per hour before dawn on Sunday, Aug. 13. If you have pictures of weekend auroras and/or Perseid meteors, we invite you to submit them to SpaceWeather.com as an email attachment sent to phillips@spacescience.com (Tony Phillips). For more information, including pictures of last night's aurora and the coronal mass ejection that energized the ongoing geomagnetic storm, please visit http://spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 160, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 15, 2000 (14:19)", "body": "The Extraordinary Geomagnetic Perseid Meteor Shower NASA Science News for August 14, 2000 An interplanetary shock wave from the Sun struck Earth's magnetosphere just before the peak of the Perseid meteor shower on August 12, 2000, triggering a powerful geomagnetic storm. Stargazers across Canada and the United States were treated to the rare spectacle of a meteor shower seen against the backdrop of colorful Northern Lights. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast14aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 17, 2000 (13:29)", "body": "NASA goes on SAFARI NASA Science News for August 16, 2000 Southern Africa offers a unique climate sub-system where scientists can study the effects of industrial activity, biomass burning and changing patterns of land usage on the environment. Last weekend an international team of scientists launched an intensive campaign -- part of the SAFARI 2000 project -- to study this complex region from the ground, the air and from space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast16aug_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 18, 2000 (00:42)", "body": "The Indefatigable Ions of Deep Space 1 NASA Science News for August 17, 2000 NASA's Deep Space 1 probe, en route for an encounter with Comet Borrelly, has run its unique propulsion system for more than 200 days -- longer and more efficiently than anything ever launched. The almost imperceptible thrust from the system is equivalent to the pressure exerted by a sheet of paper held in the palm of your hand. The ion engine is very slow to pick up speed, but over the long haul it can deliver 10 times as much thrust per pound of fuel as more traditional rockets. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast17aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (00:25)", "body": "Arctic Ice Revealed NASA Science News for August 22, 2000 An orbiting radar has cut through clouds and dark of night to monitor the ebb and flow of Arctic ice. Scientists say the data could reveal important trends in global climate change. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast22aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 23, 2000 (14:22)", "body": "Hot X-rays from a Cold Comet NASA Science News for August 23, 2000 Normally, x-ray astronomers concern themselves with the most violent and fiery denizens of the Universe. Colliding galaxies, supernova explosions and black holes are common targets for x-ray telescopes like NASA's powerful Chandra X-ray Observatory. But, last month researchers solved a cosmic mystery when they turned Chandra toward Comet LINEAR, a chilly snowball from the outer solar system. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast23aug_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 165, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 24, 2000 (20:10)", "body": "Counting Brown Dwarfs NASA Science News for August 24, 2000 Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken attendance in a class of brown dwarfs and found indications that these odd and elusive objects also tend to be loners. The Hubble census -- the most complete to date -- provides new and compelling evidence that stars and planets form in different ways. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast24aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (12:50)", "body": "Antibiotics in Orbit NASA Science News for August 25, 2000 Pilot studies indicate that microbial antibiotic production can be increased by up to 200 percent in space-grown cultures. Scientists who studied such antibiotics during the \"John Glenn\" shuttle mission in 1998 are looking forward to more low-gravity experiments on the International Space Station. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast25aug_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (15:57)", "body": "New Evidence for an Alien Ocean NASA Science News for August 28, 2000 Fluctuations in the magnetic field surrounding Jupiter's moon Europa are a telltale sign of salty liquid water beneath the moon's icy crust. Europa could harbor the solar system's largest ocean. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast28aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (20:14)", "body": "Comet Champion of the Solar System NASA Science News for August 28, 2000 Less than seven months after the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory registered its 100th comet discovery, amateur astronomers help SOHO double its record-setting total. Scientists think that most of SOHO's comets are fragments from the breakup of a single giant comet long ago. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast28aug_2.htm?list"}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 30, 2000 (00:06)", "body": "Culprits of Climate Change NASA Science News for August 29, 2000 For many years, researchers agreed that climate change was triggered by \"greenhouse gases,\" with carbon dioxide from burning of fossil playing the biggest role. However, NASA funded scientists suggest that climate change in recent decades has been mainly caused by air pollution containing non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast29aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 31, 2000 (22:51)", "body": "Evil-doers Beware! Space Scientists are on the Case NASA Science News for August 31, 2000 Two NASA scientists are working with the police and the FBI to track down criminals using out-of-this-world video technology. The new technique, called VISAR, is also expected to improve military reconnaissance, medical research and video on home computers. This story includes pictures and video of VISAR in action. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast31aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  1, 2000 (15:21)", "body": "A Close Encounter with a Space Rock NASA Science News for September 01, 2000 This morning a half-kilometer wide space rock is zooming past Earth barely 12 times farther from our planet than the Moon. In cosmic terms, it's a near miss, but there is absolutely no danger of a collision. Instead, the encounter offers astronomers an unusually good opportunity to study a near-Earth asteroid. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast01sep_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  6, 2000 (15:19)", "body": "Sunbathing at Solar Maximum NASA Science News for September 05, 2000 NASA scientists say that Solar Maximum is now in full swing. Does that mean you're more likely to catch a sunburn at the beach? The answer is \"no,\" and this story explains why. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast05sep_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 173, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Sep  6, 2000 (15:24)", "body": "It's very hot in Austin right now, two days ago was the hottest day in history, About 110. And we're in solar max to boot!"}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  6, 2000 (15:36)", "body": "I noted it was 112 in Austin tying the all time record and 115 in San Antonio. That is not civilized!!! How does that feel?? Instant mummification??!!"}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  8, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "Ozone Hole Update NASA Science News for September 08, 2000 Antarctica's ozone hole now covers an area three times larger than the entire land mass of the United States - the largest such ozone-depleted region ever observed. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast08sep_1.htm?list There is a graphic: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/4.2"}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  8, 2000 (21:35)", "body": "Audacious & Outrageous: Space Elevators NASA Science News for September 07, 2000 Science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke was once asked when the \"space elevator,\" a notion he helped to popularize, would become a reality. Clarke answered, \"Probably about 50 years after everybody quits laughing.\" Nowadays NASA scientists are taking the idea seriously. In fact, they've compiled plans that could turn the space elevators of science fiction into a real-life mass transportation system to space by the end of the 21st century. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast07sep_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (01:49)", "body": "Watch Out for the Harvest Moon NASA Science News for September 11, 2000 The Harvest Moon, arguably the most famous Full Moon of the year, arrives on Wednesday, Sept. 13th. Check out this story to discover what makes the Harvest Moon special and to ponder the possibility of Harvest Moons on another planet. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast11sep_2.htm?list"}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (01:55)", "body": "Where did all the sunspots go? Space Weather News for Sept 12, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com Telescopes monitoring the Sun recorded something extraordinary yesterday -- the solar disk was nearly devoid of spots. With solar maximum in full swing, the Boulder sunspot number dropped to its lowest value of the year. In spite of the \"blank Sun,\" our planet could be in for a bit of space weather on Tuesday if, as expected, a solar coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on Saturday strikes a glancing blow to Earth's magnetosphere. The impact could trigger modest geomagnetic activity. In other space weather news, astronomers have discovered a bright Near Earth Asteroid that will pass by our planet on Sept. 17. Amateur astronomers can monitor the fast-moving space rock in 8-inch or larger telescopes. For more information, please visit http://SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (14:06)", "body": "Three Coronal Mass Ejections and a Near-Earth Asteroid Space Weather News for Sept. 17, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com No fewer than 3 coronal mass ejections appear to be heading toward Earth following solar eruptions on Friday and Saturday. The CMEs could trigger aurora at middle-latitudes when they arrive during the next few days. We invite aspiring aurora photographers to visit our online aurora gallery, which includes photo settings that worked well during the geomagnetic storm of August 12, 2000. Also, the bright Near-Earth asteroid 2000 RD53 will fly by our planet on September 17, barely 11 times farther away than the Moon. Amateur astronomers with 8 inch or larger telescopes can spot the space rock as it zooms by. (Note: There is no relationship between the asteroid and the CMEs.) For more information please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (00:48)", "body": "A Good Month for Asteroids NASA Science News for September 20, 2000 September has been a good month for astronomers studying Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). No fewer than five sizable minor planets have flown past our planet since the beginning of the month, affording astronomers a close-up look at these ever-scary space rocks. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast20sep_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 181, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (11:42)", "body": "from the cool astronomy picture of the day site, \\ src=\" http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0009/spirograph_heritage.jpg\" >"}, {"response": 182, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (11:44)", "body": "http://www.heavens-above.com/ GSOC satellite tracking pages, good stuff! Tells you when to spot the shuttle, Mir, and other satellites."}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (18:25)", "body": "Thanks for that...it is a great url to add to the bookmark list!!! I have used it to watch them go overhead. You can really see them just after it gets dark in the evening and same with the morning!"}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (21:17)", "body": "HAPPY AUTUMNAL EQUINOX Interplanetary Fall NASA Science News for September 22, 2000 Today Earth joins two other worlds in the solar system where it is northern autumn. Read this story to learn more about Earth's September equinox and to ponder the bizarre seasons of other planets. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast22sep_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 185, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (11:21)", "body": "I'm a day late, but I hope everyone (in the Northern Hemisphere) did have a Happy Autumnal Equinox. For those south of the Equator it was, of course, their Vernal Equinox."}, {"response": 186, "author": "Carys", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (11:23)", "body": "What about the people that live on the Equator? I quess everyday is pretty much the Equinox for them."}, {"response": 187, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (11:28)", "body": "It might be. Maybe Marcia can clear up what it would be."}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 24, 2000 (22:53)", "body": "Since it is \"an imaginary line\" encircling the globe - much like other latitude and logitude lines - it is likely and \"imaginary\" equinox! Can one stand on an imaginary line since it is just there - no width, no depth? Hmmm...Virtually, perhaps? I am devoid of incoming mail so I am back to using telnet to Hawaii on Line and Pine for email. The virtual stone age is back. They are going to get a call from me in the morning!"}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (21:58)", "body": "Mail returned to normal... Bright Planets and Random Meteors NASA Science News for September 28, 2000 This week's new Moon sets the stage for a \"sporadic\" meteor show featuring a cast of eye-catching stars and planets. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast28sep_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  2, 2000 (19:24)", "body": "Peering into the Ozone Hole NASA Science News for October 02, 2000 Concentrations of ozone-destroying gases are down, but the Antarctic ozone hole is bigger than ever. It turns out there's more to ozone destruction than just CFCs. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast02oct_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (22:19)", "body": "The Moonlit Leonids 2000 NASA Science News for October 10, 2000 Our planet is heading for a minefield of cosmic dust streams laid down by periodic comet Tempel-Tuttle. The result could be a series of meteor outbursts on Nov. 17 and 18, 2000. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast10oct_1.htm?list ---"}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (19:59)", "body": "Sun Sample Return Mission Nears Launch NASA Science News for October 12, 2000 The science payload for NASA's Genesis spacecraft, which will collect samples of the solar wind and return them to Earth, is now complete. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast12oct_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 193, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (08:37)", "body": "Aren't they going to do some work on the space station, also?"}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (14:28)", "body": "I think that is also planned. Provinding they can move around in there once it is entirely stocked. Sounds claustrophobic... They will be in the direct path of solar wind and it behooves them to study it, certainly!"}, {"response": 195, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (06:10)", "body": "I guess the 100th Shuttle is up there now, right?"}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (15:27)", "body": "Shuttle finally got off the ground after the hurricane and mysterious pin kept it grounded. Check NASA tv to watch their goings-on http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/video45m.html Backyard Gamma-ray Bursts NASA Science News for October 16, 2000 With the successful launch of NASA's HETE-2 satellite, amateur astronomers will soon be able to spot the most powerful explosions in the Universe from the comfort of their own back yards. Professionals are also looking forward to the new data, which they hope will unravel the mysteries of gamma-ray bursts. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast16oct_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 197, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (08:14)", "body": "Number 100?"}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (22:15)", "body": "A Close Encounter with Asteroid Eros NASA Science News for October 26, 2000 5:00:00 PM NASA's NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft swooped 5 kilometers above the surface of 433 Eros on Oct 26th, marking its closest-ever approach to the tumbling space rock. Scientists hope the flyby will uncover clues about extra boulders and missing craters on the near-Earth asteroid. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast26oct_2.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (22:19)", "body": "Think so the 100th shuttle mission...and back down again."}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 31, 2000 (17:44)", "body": "Trick or Treat: It's Toutatis! NASA Science News for October 31, 2000 NASA scientists are monitoring a large near-Earth asteroid that tumbled past our planet on the morning of Halloween 2000. Amateur astronomers can spot it for themselves in telescopes later this month and through binoculars when it passes even closer to Earth in Sept. 2004. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast31oct_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (22:58)", "body": "Water on the Space Station NASA Science News for November 2, 2000 Rationing and recycling will be an essential part of life on the newly-populated International Space Station. In this article, the first of a series about the challenges of living in orbit, Science@NASA explores where the crew will get their water and how they will (re)use it. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast02nov_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 202, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (08:01)", "body": "They picked the callsign \"alpha\" in a jublilant video conference to Mission HQ. It's the beginning of man in space for perhaps the rest of history, there may never be a time when man is not in space from now on."}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (16:27)", "body": "Much Ado about 2000 SG344 NASA Science News for November 7, 2000 Later this century a relic from NASA's earliest space exploration efforts might return to Earth, if current estimates are confirmed. The near-Earth object, which follows an orbit almost identical to our planet's, looks like an asteroid but may be an Apollo-era rocket booster. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast06nov_2.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 204, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  9, 2000 (12:28)", "body": "Space Weather News for Nov. 9, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com RADIATION STORM: High-energy particles are bombarding satellites this morning after a solar eruption unleashed a strong radiation storm. Radio blackouts and minor satellite glitches are possible while the storm persists. NEAR-EARTH ASTEROID 2000 UG11: A 250-meter asteroid zoomed past Earth on Tuesday just 6 times farther from our planet than the Moon. New video clips show the space rock racing through the sky on Nov. 1st - 7th. AURORA BOREALIS: Geomagnetic storms on November 3rd and 6th triggered widespread aurora. Pictures of the Northern Lights are now available on SpaceWeather.com. For more information and images please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 10, 2000 (12:00)", "body": "Aurora Alert Space Weather News for Nov. 9, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com The Nov. 8th solar eruption that triggered an ongoing radiation storm around Earth also launched a coronal mass ejection (CME) that appears to be heading in the direction of our planet. The CME raced away from the Sun traveling faster than 2000 km/s and it could strike Earth's magnetosphere late Friday or Saturday. Forecasters estimate a 25% chance of severe geomagnetic storms at middle latitudes during the next 48 hours. Stay tuned to http://spaceweather.com for continuing coverage. Photographers who capture images of the aurora are invited to send them as email attachments to webmaster@spaceweather.com for display on SpaceWeather.com."}, {"response": 206, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (18:37)", "body": "Breathing Easy on the Space Station NASA Science News for November 13, 2000 Life support systems on the International Space Station provide oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, and manage vaporous emissions from the astronauts themselves. It's all part of breathing easy in our new home in space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast13nov_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 15, 2000 (19:14)", "body": "Wanted: Leonid Meteor Spotters Space Weather News for Nov. 15, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com The 2000 Leonid meteor shower is just around the corner. Forecasters expect at least two outbursts of shooting stars as Earth passes through debris from comet Tempel-Tuttle this Friday and Saturday. Spaceweather.com will post current meteor counts and reports from around the world beginning Thursday and continuing through the end of the shower. We invite all our readers to participate and report what they see. All you need are clear skies! Visit http://www.spaceweather.com for more information and observing tips. And don't forget NASA's live webcast of the Leonids from the stratosphere! Visit http://www.leonidslive.com for details."}, {"response": 208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (19:22)", "body": "Lighting Up the Ecosphere NASA Science News for Nov. 15, 2000 Using satellite images of city lights at night, NASA scientists are mapping the spread of urban areas around the globe and monitoring their impact on our planet's ecosystem. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast15nov_1.htm"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 17, 2000 (19:19)", "body": "Flowing Sand in Space NASA Science News for Nov. 17, 2000 NASA scientists are sending sand into Earth orbit to learn more about how soil behaves during earthquakes. Their results will help engineers build safer structures on Earth and someday on other planets, too. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast17nov_1.htm"}, {"response": 210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 22, 2000 (20:09)", "body": "A Solar Flare Stuns Stardust NASA Science News for November 22, 2000 Earlier this month one of the most intense solar radiation storms in decades temporarily blinded NASA's Stardust spacecraft, which is heading for a rendezvous with comet Wild-2. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast22nov_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 24, 2000 (16:02)", "body": "Weekend Aurora Warning; Asteroid Toutatis Brightens Space Weather News for Nov. 24, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com SOLAR FLARES: This morning, two powerful solar flares triggered an ongoing radiation storm around Earth. The eruptions from a sunspot group near the center of the Sun's visible disk also launched two coronal mass ejections toward our planet. Sky watchers should be alert for aurora when the CMEs strike Earth's magnetosphere later this weekend. ASTEROIDS: Near-Earth asteroid Toutatis, which passed close to Earth on Halloween, is actually brightening as it moves away from our planet. Amateur astronomers can spot the space rock in 8- to 10-inch telescopes as it reaches peak brightness next week. For more information, visit http://www.SpaceWeather.com ."}, {"response": 212, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (12:37)", "body": "Microscopic Stowaways on the ISS NASA Science News for November 26, 2000 Wherever humans go microbes will surely follow, and the Space Station is no exception. In this article, NASA scientists discuss how astronauts on the ISS will keep potentially bothersome microorganisms under control. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast26nov_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 213, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (12:51)", "body": "That was pretty interesting. It shows that there is so much more think about than you first realise when going into space. I always thought it was a case of piling five guys into a rocket and shooting them up to an orbiting spacecan. I guess it's not that simple..."}, {"response": 214, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (14:51)", "body": "Nope, or we would have done it long ago... and a lot more guys would have died..."}, {"response": 215, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 29, 2000 (17:35)", "body": "Sky show tonight: a close encounter between Venus and the Moon Space Weather News for Nov. 29, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com The recent spate of geomagnetic disturbances produced auroras mainly at high latitudes. Middle- and low-latitude observers didn't see much in the way of Northern Lights. But tonight there's a sky show that anyone can enjoy: a dazzling close encounter between Venus and the crescent Moon. Visit http://www.spaceweather.com for details about that and to view a gallery of pictures captured during this week's geomagnetic storms."}, {"response": 216, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  1, 2000 (02:18)", "body": "Far-out Housekeeping on the ISS NASA Science News for November 29, 2000 Life in space is a daring adventure, but somebody still has to cook dinner and take out the trash. Science@NASA interviews two astronauts about the thrill and routine of daily life in orbit. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast29nov_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 217, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Dec  1, 2000 (08:03)", "body": "The ham satellite (the big one the hams have been waiting for) is succesfully up! Any news on this Marci?"}, {"response": 218, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Dec  2, 2000 (10:35)", "body": "Oh, I forgot to mention, someone pointed out Jupiter to me when I was in Japan. Is it possible to see Jupiter with the naked eye??? I was unconvinced but secretly impressed :-)"}, {"response": 219, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Dec  2, 2000 (13:43)", "body": "Of course it is, Jupiter can be very visible."}, {"response": 220, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Dec  2, 2000 (16:49)", "body": "Well I wasn't sure :-) Cool, I've seen Jupiter :-)"}, {"response": 221, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  4, 2000 (20:45)", "body": ""}, {"response": 222, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  4, 2000 (20:52)", "body": "Get a cheap pair of binoculars, Mike - you can see the four Galillean moons easily. And, they change from night to night as you watch them orbit!!!"}, {"response": 223, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  4, 2000 (20:54)", "body": "EO-1: It's not just a good idea, it's the law! NASA Science News for December 4, 2000 NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite blasted off last week with a payload of new instruments that could revolutionize remote sensing. The work of the new satellite is regarded as so important it's actually required by law. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast04dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 224, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  4, 2000 (20:56)", "body": "Sedimentary Mars NASA Science News for December 4, 2000 4:00:00 PM New Mars Global Surveyor images reveal sedimentary rock layers on the Red Planet that may have formed underwater in the distant martian past. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast04dec_2.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 225, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Dec  5, 2000 (08:42)", "body": "So, they're debating how much water may have been on Mars, and whether the liquid was water (probably), these sedimentary layers were found on the giant canyon that would stretch from NY to California. They should drop the next lander in this sediment!"}, {"response": 226, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  5, 2000 (16:01)", "body": "..but only if they are sure it would be able to hear their commands. We lost the last one that way... I'd like a specimen for my collection, thank you!!! Santa,I have been naughty but soooo nice this year..."}, {"response": 227, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Dec  6, 2000 (09:37)", "body": "The best of both worlds, right? Which is more important, this sedimentary area or the ice cap areas where there may be water for a landing? And when is the next Mars launch?"}, {"response": 228, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  6, 2000 (15:55)", "body": "I'll let you know when I know - stay tuned... A Disintegrating Glacier NASA Science News for December 6, 2000 Recent satellite images reveal two new icebergs floating off the Antarctic coast. The icy behemoths are fragments of the Ninnis Glacier. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast05dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 229, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  6, 2000 (16:05)", "body": "Latest Mars updates are available at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/"}, {"response": 230, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Wed, Dec  6, 2000 (18:27)", "body": "Get a cheap pair of binoculars, Mike - you can see the four Galillean moons easily. And, they change from night to night as you watch them orbit!!! That is cool, Marcia!! When I was in school I dropped Astro so that I could concentrate on other stuff (like smashing rocks to pieces with hammers and blowing up alternate universes with Quantum singularities... :-) I should definitely start checking out the sky a bit more. Trouble is it means going outside at night when it's all cold. Still, I guess in the summer it could be a joint trip with one of my lady friends.... :-)"}, {"response": 231, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Dec  6, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "One of the brightest objects in the sky will be the space station with the solar panels unfurled. Has anyone seen this yet or does anyone know a website for times, dates to view it?"}, {"response": 232, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  7, 2000 (01:31)", "body": "Terry, I posted the satellite tracking and spotting of ISS back a few... for all satellites: http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JTrack/ For ISS and such: http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JTrack/Spacecraft.html"}, {"response": 233, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Dec  7, 2000 (08:38)", "body": "Cool, I'll check it out, have you seen it yet?"}, {"response": 234, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (16:57)", "body": "ISS updates http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/status.html This is Shuttle mission 97"}, {"response": 235, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (16:58)", "body": ""}, {"response": 236, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (17:01)", "body": "Have not yet seeen it. The last time I looked I saw the space junk re-entry. That was REALLY neat!!! ISS seems to orbit so they are over Hawaii quite frequently, so I'll hunt again. Did see the Shuttle and MIR linked up - brilliant like Venus!!!"}, {"response": 237, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "Pass the Can Opener, Please In early December engineers in Waco, Texas, will cut a hole big enough to drive a truck through in the aft fuselage of a 747SP jumbo jet. It's a key step in converting the airliner into the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), whose 2.5-meter (98-inch) telescope will peer at the heavens from an altitude of 41,000 feet beginning in 2003. A Yuletide Partial Solar Eclipse During the partial eclipse of the Sun on December 25, 2000, the Moon passes slightly north of the Sun's center as seen from nearly all parts of North America south of the Arctic Circle. A Passing Affair Cassini will pass 9.8 million km from Jupiter, en route to Saturn, on December 30th."}, {"response": 238, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (17:33)", "body": "The Baffling Geminid Meteor Shower NASA Science News for December 8, 2000 Most meteor showers are caused by comets, but the Geminid meteor shower, which peaks next Wednesday morning, seems to come from a curious near-Earth asteroid. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast08dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 239, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (11:06)", "body": "Curious indeed!"}, {"response": 240, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (11:23)", "body": "Marcia, maybe Santa Claus will bring you that Martian rock for Christmas this year. Do you have a Lunar rock to go with it? Just kidding. On the disintergrating glazier, a few years ago an iceberg broke off the Anarctic Ice Shelf that was slightly smaller than the state of Rhode Island. Suffice to say, it was easily visible from space."}, {"response": 241, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (13:18)", "body": "It's probably still afloat?"}, {"response": 242, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 10, 2000 (00:23)", "body": "That, or fused into the polar ice sheet next winter...."}, {"response": 243, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 10, 2000 (18:08)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Sunday, December 10, 2000 @ 0557 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, SHUTTLE DEPARTS STATION --------------------------------------------- With hugs and handshakes, the Endeavour astronauts bid farewell to the crew of space station Alpha Saturday, closed hatches between the two spacecraft and undocked to wind up an edge-of-the-seat mission to install a huge set of solar arrays. http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/001209fd10/ Follow the mission's progress in our status center: http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/status.html Watch video clip of shuttle crew departing station: http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/video/001209farewell_qt.html FOUR ADDITIONAL MOONS DISCOVERED ORBITING SATURN ------------------------------------------------ An unprecedented surge in planetary moon discoveries continued this week as astronomers reported the discovery of four more moons orbiting Saturn, bringing the total number of moons found around the planet since October to ten. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/10saturnmoons/ DELAYED ARIANE 4 ROCKET LAUNCH RESET FOR MONDAY ----------------------------------------------- After a postponement to double-check the rocket's nose cone, Arianespace has rescheduled the flight of Ariane 4 launcher carrying the Eurasiasat 1 communications satellite for Monday evening from South America. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v137/status.html"}, {"response": 244, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (17:58)", "body": "The Incredible Shrinking Ozone Hole NASA Science News for December 12, 2000 After reaching record-breaking proportions earlier this year the ozone hole over Antarctica has made a surprisingly hasty retreat. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast12dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 245, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "Christmas Eclipse NASA Science News for December 14, 2000 A solar eclipse is coming on Christmas Day, 2000. The winter landscape across parts of North America will assume an eerie cast, and cooler-than-usual winds might swirl, as the New Moon glides across the face of the Yuletide Sun. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast15dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 246, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (08:59)", "body": "src=\"http://a799.ms.akamai.net/7/799/388/a22603ce3aeabf/www.msnbc.com/news/719513.jpg\" align=\"left\"> This Mars life story is *new*, as reported by MSNBC today. \"Dec. 13 \ufffd A new scientific report offers compelling evidence that primitive life existed on Mars, NASA says. Researchers report that tiny magnetite crystals, identical to those used by aqueous bacteria on Earth as compasses to find food and energy, have been found in the Martian meteorite ALH84001.\""}, {"response": 247, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (13:55)", "body": "Really nice!!!! Thank you Big Time for posting that image!"}, {"response": 248, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (13:56)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, December 15, 2000 @ 1612 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now HUBBLE SEES SATELLITE FOOTPRINTS IN JUPITER AURORA -------------------------------------------------- Check out a spectacular Hubble Space Telescope close-up view of an electric-blue aurora that is eerily glowing one half billion miles away on the giant planet Jupiter. Auroras are curtains of light resulting from high-energy electrons racing along the planet's magnetic field into the upper atmosphere. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/15hubble/ UNIVERSE'S MOST MASSIVE SPIRAL GALAXY REVEALED ---------------------------------------------- The most massive spiral galaxy known so far in the Universe has been discovered by a team of astronomers. This galaxy is located at a distance of approximately 6 billion light-years and its measured mass is more than 1,000 billion times that of the Sun. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/15spiral/ TWIN TELESCOPES POISED TO EXPLORE STRUCTURE OF UNIVERSE ------------------------------------------------------- More than 300 people traveled thousands of miles to a remote mountaintop in Chile for the dedication of two of the most powerful survey instruments ever built: the Baade and the Clay 6.5-meter reflecting telescopes. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/15carnegie/"}, {"response": 249, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (19:49)", "body": "Weekend Aurora Watch Space Weather News for Dec. 14, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com A coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on Thursday appears to be heading for Earth. The disturbance could trigger aurora late Saturday or (more likely) Sunday when it strikes our planet's magnetosphere. For details and animations please visit http://www.spaceweather.com ."}, {"response": 250, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 16, 2000 (13:17)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Saturday, December 16, 2000 @ 0520 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CHINA PLEDGES DEVELOPMENT OF MANNED SPACE PROGRAM ------------------------------------------------- China is poised to launch the second test flight of its Shenzhou spacecraft -- an orbiter capable of carrying an astronaut into space -- a Chinese official said this week in his year-end press briefing in Washington. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/15china/ STATION CREW AWAITS SPARE PARTS FOR AIR SCRUBBER ------------------------------------------------ The international space station's air purification system is working smoothly, NASA's lead flight director said Friday. But unexpected equipment failures during the crew's first six weeks in space have left the astronauts just one failure away from a possible forced evacuation. http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/001216scrubber/ KENNEDY SPACE CENTER CELEBRATES ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF 2000 ------------------------------------------------------- During the past year, NASA's Kennedy Space Center began an ambitious schedule of Space Shuttle launches as construction of the International Space Station shifted into high gear, plus managed six rocket launches and formed partnerships across the board. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/16ksc2000/"}, {"response": 251, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 16, 2000 (20:20)", "body": "CHRISTMAS SOLAR ECLIPSE http://www.skypub.com/sights/eclipses/solar/001225partial.html"}, {"response": 252, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (01:02)", "body": "Learning from Lightning NASA Science News for December 17, 2000 Little by little, lightning sensors in space are revealing the inner workings of severe storms. Scientists hope to use the technique to improve forecasts of deadly weather. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast17dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 253, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 19, 2000 (23:15)", "body": "Geomagnetic activity alert + near-Earth asteroid news Space Weather News for Dec. 19, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com METEORS & AURORA: Sky watchers who venture outside to view the Ursid meteor shower Thursday night or Friday morning might also spot aurora borealis. A coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on Monday is likely to buffet Earth's magnetosphere later this week. Forecasters estimate a 20% chance of severe geomagnetic activity when the CME arrives. NEAR-EARTH ASTEROIDS: A newly-discovered near-Earth asteroid, 2000 YA, will pass just two lunar distances from Earth on Dec. 22nd. There's no danger of a collision, say scientists, but the small space rock will be near enough to see through large amateur telescopes or through small telescopes equipped with CCD cameras. For more information, images and animations, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 254, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Dec 20, 2000 (10:00)", "body": "There was a very interesting piece this morning on NPR on the Saturn moon, Euuropa. It seems there may be water beneath the ice that may support life. Even though the sun's energy is very distant, there is some kind of gravitational tide effect from Saturn and other moons that may be enough to generate higher temperatures and enable liquids under the icy surface. There is some kind of underwater sub expedition planned by NASA in the next 10 years. This could be an exciting development, I haven't searched o the net yet, but I'm sure there's more out there on this, on NPR.org's site for sure."}, {"response": 255, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Dec 20, 2000 (10:06)", "body": "Correction, substitute Jupiter for Saturn. Big detail. EUROPA & HOW LIFE BEGINS $ NPR's Richard Harris explores what it would take for life to begin elsewhere in the solar system. Pictures released yesterday of Jupiter's moon Europa suggest that the chemicals necessary for life may exist in large frozen oceans there -- just waiting for the right conditions to sprout life. On Earth, oceanographers think that life may have begun in a similar primordial soup at the bottom of the ocean. They're looking at unique heat-resistant organisms that live next to hot-gas vents on the ocean floor."}, {"response": 256, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 20, 2000 (14:20)", "body": "I posted that bit of info in Geo 24 - the astronomy topic update. Fascinating stuff! (...and we knew which planet you meant *hugs*)"}, {"response": 257, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 20, 2000 (18:02)", "body": "Martian Micro-Magnets NASA Science News for December 20, 2000 Certain types of bacteria on Earth are atomic engineers -- atom by atom they build tiny magnetic crystals to help themselves follow our planet's magnetic field. Now scientists have found such crystals in an unlikely place: a martian meteorite! FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast20dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 258, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 22, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "Watching the Angry Sun NASA Science News for December 22, 2000 As the Sun's stormy season approaches its zenith, solar scientists have the best seat in the house, using the largest coordinated fleet of spacecraft and ground observatories ever assembled to observe angry outbursts of solar radiation. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast22dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 259, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 22, 2000 (21:47)", "body": "A meteor outburst, after all.... Space Weather News for Dec. 22, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com METEORS: Sky watchers in Europe and on the US west coast spotted a modest outburst of Ursid meteors Thursday night. Astronomers had hoped for a more impressive display, but the flurry of faint shooting stars was nevertheless welcomed because it confirmed a new model of cometary debris streams. AURORA WATCH: Conditions may be favorable for high-latitude auroras tonight. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near Earth turned sharply southward after a solar wind disturbance arrived in the neighborhood of our planet. South-pointing IMFs make our magnetosphere more vulnerable than usual to solar wind gusts -- additional gusts could trigger Northern Lights. For more information visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 260, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 24, 2000 (21:35)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, December 25, 2000 @ 0050 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now AN OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD HOLIDAY GREETING ------------------------------------- The international space station crew offer the people of planet Earth greetings for the holiday season in a message from their orbiting home 235 miles up. The three men are the first residents of the new station, beginning what is planned to be a continuous human presence in space for the 21st century. Watch video message: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/video/001224greetings_qt.html Astronauts report first Santa sighting: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/video/001224santa_qt.html CARGO SHIP SET FOR REDOCKING TO SPACE STATION --------------------------------------------- Spaceflight Now will have complete live coverage of Tuesday's redocking of the Progress M1-4 cargo freighter to the international space station. Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko will manually guide the craft to the orbital linkup using two joysticks and a television picture. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html See our timeline of the redocking sequence: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/fdf/redocking.html RARE CHRISTMAS ECLIPSE VIEWABLE IN NORTH AMERICA ------------------------------------------------ On Christmas Day, step outside and get a rare Christmas present-a partial solar eclipse! Sky watchers living in the continental United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean will have a perfect view of the partially eclipsed Sun. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/24eclipse/ SANTA BECOMES TEST PILOT AT FLORIDA'S SHUTTLE LANDING SITE ---------------------------------------------------------- Not only does Santa Claus know when you are sleeping or awake -- bad or good, he also knows with pinpoint accuracy the exact location of each planned delivery stop. With newly-installed GPS on his sleigh, Santa plans to fly by the Kennedy Space Center to test his space-age equipment. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/24santaslf/ OBSERVATIONS CONFIRM THE UNIVERSE WAS HOTTER IN PAST ---------------------------------------------------- A fundamental prediction of the Big Bang theory has finally been verified. For the first time, an actual measurement has been made of the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation, at a time when the Universe was only about 2.5 billion years old. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/24vlthot/ SCIENTISTS DELIGHTED BY FIRST IMAGES FROM EO-1 SATELLITE -------------------------------------------------------- Scientists have seen the first images from NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) spacecraft launched last month and now flying in formation with the Landsat 7 satellite. Researchers say they are excited with the performance of the instruments on the EO-1 technology demonstrator. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/23eo1first/ SPACEHAB RESEARCH MODULE TO FLY ON '02 SHUTTLE MISSION ------------------------------------------------------ A commercial Spacehab Research Double Module will be flown aboard a space shuttle in 2002 for a NASA science flight. Spacehab is marketing a portion of space in the module to commercial users, including other national space agencies. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/23sts112/"}, {"response": 261, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (16:29)", "body": "too bad it's rainy here, we won't be able to witness the christmas eclipse *frown*"}, {"response": 262, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (16:53)", "body": "check in Geo 24 for my ex's Pennsylvania shots."}, {"response": 263, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (17:23)", "body": "did, thanks sweetie! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 264, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (18:35)", "body": "Merry Christmas Dear - and *Happy Hugs* to go with it. What was your surprise??? (We need to talk, I think)"}, {"response": 265, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (19:18)", "body": "yes--did you get my msn invite? (for IM?)"}, {"response": 266, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 25, 2000 (19:29)", "body": "nope!!! I'll send you one!!! I had this problem with B earlier."}, {"response": 267, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (06:35)", "body": "Wolfie, I was in up in your 'hood yesterday, Shey and I went to Tyler to see mjy dad, but we had a short visit as we were trying to get home before any of the heavy weather predicted for today."}, {"response": 268, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (14:45)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, December 26, 2000 @ 1510 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now BRIEF LOSS OF CONTACT RAISES FEARS ABOUT MIR STATION ----------------------------------------------------- Contact with the unmanned Russian Mir space station was briefly lost today. While normal communications later were restored, the incident heightened concern about the Russians' ability to precisely control the abandoned station's upcoming re-entry and breakup. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/26mir/ CARGO SHIP REDOCKS TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ------------------------------------------------- Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko remotely piloted an unmanned Progress supply ship to a trouble-free manual redocking with the international space station today as the two spacecraft sailed 230 miles above Mongolia. Includes video clips. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/001226redock/ OCEAN-HARBORING MOON GANYMEDE SEEN BY CASSINI --------------------------------------------- The solar system's largest moon, Ganymede, is captured here alongside the planet Jupiter in a color picture taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft earlier this month at a distance of 16.5 million miles. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/26cassgany/ LAUNCH SCHEDULE --------------- See our Tracking Station for a the latest listing of upcoming space launches for the New Year. http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/"}, {"response": 269, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (17:05)", "body": "Solar Eclipse Pictures Space Weather News for Dec. 26, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com If bad weather, over-sleeping, or simply not living in North America prevented you from seeing the Christmas 2000 solar eclipse, now you have a second chance. The SpaceWeather.com eclipse gallery features dozens of images captured by sky watchers using everything from professional hydrogen-alpha telescopes (that show sunspots and solar filaments) to makeshift solar filters assembled from computer CDs. Visit http://spaceweather.com for more..."}, {"response": 270, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 30, 2000 (01:08)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Saturday, December 30, 2000 @ 0505 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CASSINI HAS CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE JOVIAN KIND TODAY ---------------------------------------------------- NASA's Cassini space probe makes its 6-million mile flyby of Jupiter today at 1012 GMT (5:12 a.m. EST). The encounter acts as a gravity-assisted sling-shot, boosting the craft's speed by 2,500 mph to over 30,000 mph for its continued trek to Saturn. We'll have a wrap up story following a news conference later today. http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/ CASSINI EYES JUPITER'S CLOUDS IN GREAT DETAIL --------------------------------------------- Images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft using three different filters reveal cloud structures and movements at different depths in the atmosphere around Jupiter's south pole. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/30cassclouds/ HEAVY DOSE OF RADIATION CAUSES GALILEO GLITCHES ----------------------------------------------- NASA's Galileo spacecraft passed through the highest radiation environment it will experience in its current orbit of Jupiter late Thursday. The exposure caused an alarm from the probe's camera system and a computer reset in another portion of the spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/30galileorad/ SPACE STATION RESIDENTS GIVE NEW YEAR'S MESSAGE ----------------------------------------------- The Alpha astronauts beamed down New Year's greetings Friday, saying \"let the real space odyssey 2001 proceed.\" Commander William Shepherd, flight engineer Sergei Krikalev and Soyuz pilot Yuri Gidzenko fielded questions from reporters in an early morning communications session, saying they plan to mark the arrival of the new year with at least one - and probably two - special meals. (Includes video clip!) http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/001229greet01/"}, {"response": 271, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 30, 2000 (14:34)", "body": "Galileo Looks for Auroras on Ganymede NASA Science News for December 28, 2000 NASA's durable Galileo spacecraft flew above the solar system's largest moon this morning in search of extraterrestrial Northern Lights -- a telltale sign of Ganymede's unique magnetic field. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast28dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 272, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 30, 2000 (19:12)", "body": "New color movie stars Jupiter's clouds / Galileo's dark encount NEWSALERT: Thursday, December 28, 2000 @ 0525 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CASSINI MAKES FIRST COLOR MOVIE OF JUPITER'S CLOUDS --------------------------------------------------- Imagery from NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been used to generate this first color movie of Jupiter's horizontal bands of clouds from the Saturn-bound probe. The orange and white bands slide in opposite directions from each other and a swirl of winds gyrate around Jupiter's Great Red Spot. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/28jupmovie/ GALILEO HAS DARK ENCOUNTER WITH JOVIAN MOON GANYMEDE ---------------------------------------------------- NASA's intrepid Galileo spacecraft zips past Ganymede on Thursday for a unique close encounter that provides a chance to study the faint auroral glows on the solar system's largest moon. (Includes video clips!) http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/28ganyflyby/ MARTIAN WATER MAY BE ICE IN PLANET'S INTERIOR --------------------------------------------- Liquid water that once flowed on the surface of Mars could now be locked up deep in the planet's interior as an unusual form of ice, scientists reported earlier this month. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/28marsice/ SURPRISE SWITCH FOR MIR EMERGENCY CREW -------------------------------------- Russian space managers have changed the makeup of a two-man cosmonaut crew on standby for a flight to the abandoned Mir space station in the event of any future emergency that might cause an uncontrolled re-entry. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/001227mircrew/ RESEARCHER PROPOSES DARING ASTEROID SAMPLE RETURN ------------------------------------------------- In the wake of NASA's successful Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous space mission, a University of Arkansas researcher is putting together a team of scientists to take asteroid research to the next level -- bringing asteroid samples back to Earth. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/27asteroid/ CONTACT RESTORED WITH NEW AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITE ------------------------------------------------- The amateur radio community received a welcome Christmas present Monday when workers were able to restore contact with the AMSAT-OSCAR 40 satellite that had been silent for nearly two weeks. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/27ao40/ IRIDIUM SATELLITES USED TO MAP GLOBAL SPACE WEATHER --------------------------------------------------- Scientists are now able to simultaneously measure the magnetic and electrical fields over large areas of the ionosphere above the Earth's polar regions, allowing great improvement in the understanding and forecasting of global space weather and helping prevent disruption of communication and power systems. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/27iridiumsci/ RUSSIANS LAUNCH SIX COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES --------------------------------------------- A Ukrainian-made Tsyklon 3 rocket loaded with six Russian communications satellites blasted off Wednesday. The launch occurred at approximately 1900 GMT (2 p.m. EST) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0012/27tsyklon/"}, {"response": 273, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 30, 2000 (20:19)", "body": "More Cassini URLs NASA Jupiter Millennium Flyby: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby/ Cassini mission site: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini Cassini imaging science team: http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/"}, {"response": 274, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 30, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "Retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet NASA Science News for December 27, 2000 Scientists say that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is retreating more slowly than they thought. In fact, it may have been growing just 8,000 years ago -- long after the end of the most recent Ice Age. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast27dec_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 275, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (10:40)", "body": "Wow, what a plethora of space news today. Great work, gleaning all this Marci!"}, {"response": 276, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (15:07)", "body": "Get our your receivers tonight - over 100/hour expected!! I am delighted you find it interesting - lots of goodies in there! Listen to the Quadrantids tonight Space Weather News for January 2, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com The Quadrantid meteor shower will peak over North America before dawn on Wednesday morning, January 3rd. No matter where you live you can listen to the shower by tuning in to a radio meteor listening station at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The installation, located in Huntsville, AL, is perfectly situated to detect a Quadrantid outburst. For more information and realtime audio please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 277, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2001 (15:12)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, January 2, 2000 @ 0541 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now STATION SKIPPER WRITES POEM TO USHER IN THE NEW YEAR ---------------------------------------------------- The international space station's Exedition One commander, Bill Shepherd, has written a poem capturing his thoughts and reflections, as he and Russian shipmates, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, usher in 2001. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/001231poem/ SHUTTLE ATLANTIS GOES FOR SIX HOUR RIDE TO PAD TODAY ---------------------------------------------------- Rolling along at speeds reaching one-mile per hour, space shuttle Atlantis will be transported from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to the seaside launch pad 39A after sunrise today. Atlantis is due for blastoff later this month on a space station assembly mission. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html DESPITE PUMMELING, EARLY EARTH CONDITIONS RIPE FOR LIFE ------------------------------------------------------- Even during an extraordinarily violent era in Earth's early history, when our young planet was being whacked by asteroids and comets so frequently that scientists refer to it as \"Late Heavy Bombardment,\" conditions most of the time at the Earth's surface were quite hospitable for the microbes that lived here, according to new research. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/01earlyearth/ SEA LAUNCH TO LOFT RADIO BROADCASTING SATELLITE ----------------------------------------------- The Sea Launch command ship and Odyssey platform are sailing to the equatorial waters of the Pacific Ocean for next week's flight of a Zenit 3SL rocket with the first of two broadcasting spacecraft for XM Satellite Radio. http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html THERE WERE A LOT SPACE HEADLINES OVER THE HOLIDAYS! --------------------------------------------------- Do you need to catch up on the news that occurred over the holidays? Check out our weekly archived reports for all the space headlines, including Cassini's beautiful pictures and movies of Jupiter from its recent flyby, the new fears about Mir, NASA's revived mission to Pluto and the latest with the international space station. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/breaking_archive.html LAUNCH SCHEDULE --------------- See our Tracking Station for a the latest listing of upcoming space launches for the New Year. http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/"}, {"response": 278, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  3, 2001 (18:11)", "body": "A New Look for the New Year NASA Science News for January 3, 2001 The Science@NASA home page has a new look and we're pleased to offer a host of new services as well, including Spanish-language science stories ... and more! FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast03jan_1.htm?list89800 ---"}, {"response": 279, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  3, 2001 (18:14)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, January 3, 2001 @ 0601 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN DISTANT GALAXIES MEASURED ----------------------------------------------------- Two astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin, working with an international team of collaborators, have shown that they can provide reliable measurements of black hole masses for active galactic nuclei such as quasars even at great distances. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/03holemeasure/ NEXT TEST FLIGHT OF CHINESE CAPSULE EXPECTED SOON ------------------------------------------------- Amid much speculation regarding a possible launch date for China's second prototype manned spacecraft, called Shenzhou, the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po newspaper is reporting that workers are readying the spacecraft for a launch some time in early January, possibly this week. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/03china/ COMPUTER TROUBLE FORCES HALT TO ATLANTIS ROLLOUT ------------------------------------------------ A problem with the main computer inside the crawler-transporter Tuesday forced NASA to stop the rollout of space shuttle Atlantis from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to the seaside launch pad 39A. Atlantis was returned to the VAB for swap-out of the crawler. Rollout is now set for Wednesday. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010102rollout/ THERE WERE A LOT SPACE HEADLINES OVER THE HOLIDAYS! --------------------------------------------------- Do you need to catch up on the news that occurred over the holidays? Check out our weekly archived reports for all the space headlines, including Cassini's beautiful pictures and movies of Jupiter from its recent flyby, the new fears about Mir, NASA's revived mission to Pluto and the latest with the international space station. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/breaking_archive.html LAUNCH SCHEDULE --------------- See our Tracking Station for a the latest listing of upcoming space launches for the New Year. http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/"}, {"response": 280, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  4, 2001 (15:58)", "body": "Earth at Perihelion NASA Science News for January 4, 2001 This morning at 5 o'clock Eastern Standard time Earth made its annual closest approach to the Sun. Although sunlight falling on our planet is 7% more intense today than it is in July, northerners shouldn't expect any relief from winter. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast04jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 281, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  5, 2001 (18:43)", "body": "The Case of the Missing Mars Water NASA Science News for January 5, 2001 Plenty of clues suggest that liquid water once flowed on Mars --raising hopes that life could have arisen there-- but the evidence remains inconclusive and sometimes contradictory. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast05jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 282, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan  6, 2001 (19:23)", "body": "Russian PM Orders Demise of Aged Mir Space Station - Jan 5 2001 7:01AM MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has signed a resolution ordering that the aged Mir space station be taken out of orbit and sunk into the ocean early this year, the Russian space agency said Friday. A spokesman for space agency Rosaviakosmos said that Kasyanov had signed the document on Dec. 30, formalizing a government decision from November to take the nearly 15-year-old Mir, originally intended to orbit Earth for just five years, out of service due to a lack of funding. The order calls for establishing a commission to determine how Mir will be brought down, and also says that resources that had been dedicated to the orbiter were to be focused on the $60 billion International Space Station (ISS). The ISS, a 16-nation venture, uses technology developed for Mir, which for years was the world's only manned space station. During its lifetime Mir helped Soviet and Russian cosmonauts set a string of space endurance records that have been the nation's pride -- and the envy of the envy of the better-funded United States. But in recent years a spate of mishaps dulled the revolutionary space station's image, including a near-catastrophic collision with a cargo craft and a communications failure on Christmas day last month that sparked fears that Mir was spinning out of control. U.S. space officials have pushed Russia to dump Mir, saying it drained sparse resources that would be better spent on Russia's role in the International Space Station."}, {"response": 283, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (15:14)", "body": "Aurora Watch and Lunar Eclipse Photos Space Weather News for January 11, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com AURORA WATCH: SOHO coronagraphs recorded a full-halo solar coronal mass ejection (CME) on Wednesday that could hit Earth's magnetosphere by week's end. Our planet is already inside a faster-than-usual solar wind stream that could set the stage for auroras when the CME arrives. Visit SpaceWeather.com for details and animations of the CME. LUNAR ECLIPSE: While you're at spaceweather.com, check out our growing gallery of images from Tuesday's total lunar eclipse. Pictures include shots of the copper-colored Moon seen over Europe, Asia and the Middle East as well as striking views of a partially-eclipsed Moon rising over the eastern parts of the USA. Visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 284, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (23:32)", "body": "Chandra Links Pulsar to Historic Supernova NASA Science News for January 11, 2001 New evidence from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggests that a known pulsar is the present-day leftover from a stellar explosion witnessed by Chinese astronomers in 386 AD. The discovery could force astronomers to rethink what they know about the ages of neutron stars. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast11jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 285, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (23:33)", "body": "Ballooning for Cosmic Rays NASA Science News for January 12, 2001 12:00:00 PM Astronomers have long thought that supernovas are the source of Galactic cosmic rays, but there's a troubling discrepancy between theory and measurements. An ongoing balloon flight over Antarctica could shed new light on the mystery. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast15jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 286, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (17:33)", "body": "CME buffets Earth; Stardust flyby Monday morning Space Weather News for January 13, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com AURORA WATCH: As expected, the leading edge of a coronal mass ejection that billowed away from the Sun on January 10th reached our planet today. Although conditions seemed favorable for auroras, the passing shock wave did not trigger substantial geomagnetic activity. STARDUST: On Monday morning, NASA's Stardust spacecraft will fly by Earth for an orbit-altering gravity assist maneuver designed to send Stardust on its way to comet Wild 2. Amateur astronomers with mid-sized or large telescopes might be able to spot the spacecraft as it races by and brightens, perhaps, to 10th or 12th magnitude. Visit http://www.spaceweather.com for details."}, {"response": 287, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (17:37)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Saturday, January 13, 2001 @ 0558 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CHANDRA FINDS EVIDENCE OF BLACK HOLE 'EVENT HORIZONS' ----------------------------------------------------- Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to study some of the darkest black holes yet observed. Their work strongly confirms the reality of the \"event horizon,\" the one-way membrane around black holes predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/13chandrahole/ REMAINS OF OUR GALAXY'S 'LAST MEAL' DISCOVERED ---------------------------------------------- A telltale bulge in the disk of the Milky Way galaxy may be the remnants of a smaller galaxy consumed billions of years ago as our galaxy formed, astronomers announced this week. The discovery may provide scientists with new data to support -- or challenge -- existing models of how galaxies are created. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/13galremains/ STARDUST'S BLURRY VISION FIXED AS CRAFT NEARS EARTH --------------------------------------------------- As NASA's Stardust comet probe barrels towards Earth for a close encounter flyby on Monday, its navigation camera appears to be working again after an apparent post-launch contamination of the device. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/13stardustflyby/ NEWBORN STAR OFFERS INSIGHT INTO OUR SOLAR SYSTEM'S PAST -------------------------------------------------------- Evidence that small dust grains are agglomerating into larger blocks inside a persistent shell of gas and dust around a young, nearby star is giving a team of astronomers a rare glimpse into the process that likely formed our solar system. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/13newborn/ EARLIER HEADLINES ----------------- REPORT: U.S. NEEDS STRONGER DEFENSE ROLE IN SPACE http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/12milspace/ NEW IMAGES SHOW DETAIL OF NEIGHBOR GALAXY'S GAS http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/12galaxygas/ ROCKET STAGE REPLACEMENT ON TAP FOR SEA LAUNCH ZENIT http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html"}, {"response": 288, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (19:57)", "body": "New Evidence for Black Holes NASA Science News for January 12, 2001 By seeing almost nothing, astronomers say they've discovered something extraordinary: the event horizons of black holes in space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast12jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 289, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (19:58)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, January 12, 2001 @ 0527 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now HUBBLE FINALLY MAY HAVE PROOF BLACK HOLES DO EXIST -------------------------------------------------- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope may have, for the first time, provided direct evidence for the existence of black holes by observing the disappearance of matter as it falls beyond the \"event horizon.\" http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/11hubblehole/ REPORT: U.S. NEEDS STRONGER DEFENSE ROLE IN SPACE ------------------------------------------------- Calling space a \"top national security priority,\" an independent commission chaired by the nation's next Secretary of Defense concluded in a report released Thursday that the United States military needs to take a more active and better focused role in Earth orbit. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/12milspace/ NEW IMAGES SHOW DETAIL OF NEIGHBOR GALAXY'S GAS ----------------------------------------------- Using radio telescopes in the U.S. and Europe, astronomers have made the most detailed images ever of Hydrogen gas in a spiral galaxy other than the Milky Way -- the galaxy M33, known to amateur astronomers as the Pinwheel Galaxy. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/12galaxygas/ NEARBY GALAXIES YIELD CLUES TO EARLY UNIVERSE --------------------------------------------- Astronomers are using these three NASA Hubble Space Telescope images to help tackle the question of why distant galaxies have such odd shapes, appearing markedly different from the typical elliptical and spiral galaxies seen in the nearby universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/11hubbleuv/ ROCKET STAGE REPLACEMENT ON TAP FOR SEA LAUNCH ZENIT ---------------------------------------------------- The Sea Launch vessels have set sail for home, departing the equatorial waters of the Pacific Ocean on a voyage back to the United States so a portion of the Zenit 3SL rocket can be replaced in the wake of an aborted engine ignition sequence this week. http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html U.S. FIRM TO BUILD CHINESE COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE --------------------------------------------------- Space Systems/Loral announced this week that it had received a contract from a Hong Kong-based satellite operator to build Apstar 5, a replacement for the aging Apstar 1 communications spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/12apstar5/"}, {"response": 290, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 15, 2001 (23:34)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, January 15, 2001 @ 1757 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ENGINEERS ASSESS NEW BOOSTER WIRING ISSUE ----------------------------------------- With shuttle Atlantis poised for launch Friday on a critical space station assembly mission, NASA managers plan to meet late today to assess the resolution of booster wiring problems and the results of weekend inspections that have raised additional concerns. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010115srb/ Watch our Mission Status Center for updates today: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html"}, {"response": 291, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 15, 2001 (23:35)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, January 15, 2001 @ 0528 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SUPERNOVA MAY CONTROL THE CENTER OF OUR GALAXY ---------------------------------------------- Scientists using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered that an apparent supernova remnant in the center of our galaxy might help regulate a nearby supermassive black hole and that such relationships between supernova remnants and black holes might be common throughout the universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/15galaxycenter/ MARS ORBITER CHECKS OUT LANDING SITE FOR FUTURE PROBE ----------------------------------------------------- The European Space Agency has announced the selection of a landing site for the British Mars lander, Beagle 2, that will be carried to the red planet aboard ESA's Mars Express orbiter in 2003. Newly released images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows the landing zone. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/15beagle2/ BRITISH AND CHINESE SATELLITES HEAD FOR SPACE RENDEZVOUS -------------------------------------------------------- A tiny British-built spacecraft is achieving a variety of firsts in the nanosatellite technology field. SNAP-1 will finish off this series of ground-breaking accomplishments in the next few months as it approaches a rendezvous with another satellite. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/15snap1/ ATLANTIS ASTRONAUTS BOUND FOR CAPE ---------------------------------- The five astronauts that will ride space shuttle Atlantis into orbit later this week to attach the U.S. Destiny laboratory to the international space station are scheduled for arrival at Kennedy Space Center on Monday evening. Launch is scheduled for early Friday morning from Florida. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html"}, {"response": 292, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 16, 2001 (01:02)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 @ 0500 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now WIRING CHECKS DELAY SHUTTLE ATLANTIS LAUNCH TO FEBRUARY ------------------------------------------------------- On the eve of shuttle Atlantis' countdown to launch Friday, NASA managers on Monday instead ordered engineers to haul the spacecraft back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for work to test suspect wiring in the ship's booster separation system. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010115srb/ MOST DETAILED VIEW INTO DARK CLOUD UNVEILED ------------------------------------------- Astronomers have just taken an important step towards answering the fundamental question of which processes are responsible for transforming a dark and diffuse interstellar cloud of gas and dust into a much denser, shining object. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/16eso/ STARDUST SLING-SHOTS PAST EARTH ON COURSE TO COMET -------------------------------------------------- Officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California say that Stardust is now on course to Comet Wild 2, where it will collect dust samples for return to Earth. That word comes after a close encounter with Earth early Monday, marking the completion of the craft's first solar orbit since its launch in 1999. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/16stardust/ A SHOCKING TIME FOR CLUSTER 2 ----------------------------- Studies of near-Earth space will never be the same again. For the first time in the history of space exploration, identical instruments on four spacecraft have begun to return simultaneous measurements of a region of space known as the bow shock. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/16cluster/ GALILEO KEEPS PROBING JOVIAN MAGNETOSPHERE ------------------------------------------ This week finds Galileo completing week 12 of a 14-week-long survey of the Jovian magnetosphere. Playback of data stored during the spacecraft's December 2000 passage through the Jupiter system is not scheduled to start until early next month. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/16galileothisweek/"}, {"response": 293, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 17, 2001 (00:18)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 @ 0426 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NASA'S SHUTTLE CHIEF DEFENDS ROLLBACK DECISION ---------------------------------------------- Launch of the next space shuttle mission has been delayed from Friday to no earlier than Feb. 6. NASA's shuttle program manager said in the end, the launch team had little choice after problems surfaced with wiring. \"I guard against the phenomena of 'go fever' like it was the plague. And you have to be very sensitive as you get closer to launch.\" http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010116dittemore/ Station 'Alpha' reacts to shuttle delay: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/video/010116shepreax_qt.html CHINA'S SHENZHOU 2 CAPSULE RETURNS TO EARTH SAFELY -------------------------------------------------- The Shenzhou 2 spacecraft returned safely to Earth Tuesday, touching down in China's inner Mongolian region at 1122 GMT after making 108 orbits. The mission paves the way for a future manned mission by the Chinese. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/16china/ INDIVIDUAL STARS SPOTTED IN ANDROMEDA'S BULGE --------------------------------------------- An individual team, including an astronomer of Observatoire de Paris, has recently observed for the first time individual stars in a very dense -- but very interesting -- zone of an external galaxy, enabling for the first time an eagerly awaited comparison with the corresponding zone (bulge) of our Milky Way galaxy. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/17andromeda/ SPACE TUG POISED FOR LAUNCH TO RUSSIA'S MIR STATION --------------------------------------------------- The Progress M1-5 cargo ship, the last spacecraft to visit Russian Mir space station, rolled out to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Tuesday. Blastoff is scheduled for early Thursday. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010116progroll/ NASA OPENS 2ND GENERATION REUSABLE ROCKET PROGRAM ------------------------------------------------- NASA has created a new program office to lead its effort to enable development of a new reusable launch vehicle for flight in 2010 that will be dramatically safer and less expensive than today's rockets. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/17rlv2/ THE EASTERN U.S. KEEPS ITS COOL WHILE THE WORLD WARMS ----------------------------------------------------- Much of the Earth has warmed over the last half-century, but the eastern half of the United States has shown a cooling trend. NASA-funded research indicates cooler temperatures in the eastern U.S. are caused by an increase in sun-shielding clouds produced by warmer ocean temperatures in the Pacific. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/17easttemp/"}, {"response": 294, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 17, 2001 (18:26)", "body": "Russia to Lauch Mir Space Station's Nemesis BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Russia launches a cargo rocket on Thursday to help it bury the last vestige of the Soviet Union's ambitious space exploration program -- the record-breaking Mir space station. The unmanned Progress M1-5 vessel, one of the craft that were used to ferry food and water to Mir, will this time only carry enough fuel for its own engines to guide Mir out of orbit and into the Pacific Ocean. The rocket is due to blast off from Kazakhstan's windswept Baikonur cosmodrome at 0656 GMT. It is scheduled to dock four days later with the 130-tonunmanned space station. In early March, both will crash into the ocean. Space officials have said up to 40 tonnes of debris will reach the earth's surface at a speed high enough to smash through two meters (6.5 feet) of reinforced concrete. Russia has said it expects Mir to hit earth on March 5-6 but the precise date and time will depend on solar activity and the success of the Progress mission. If the automatic docking controlled from the earth fails, a Russian crew of Gennady Padalka and Nikolai Budarin is ready to take off in 12 days to guide the station out of orbit manually. This would end the 15-year history of Mir, whose first part was launched into orbit on February 20, 1986, with an originally designed life-span of just three years. Russia, struggling to overcome an economic crisis after almost a decade of steep recession, could not find $200 million needed to maintain the station. It decided in November to dump Mir into the ocean on its 15th birthday. Yuri Koptev, head of Russia's space and aviation agency, said last month there was little point in maintaining a station where cosmonauts spent 80 percent of their time on repairs. Cash-strapped Russia, where power cuts regularly plunge whole regions into darkness and many people use kerosene lamps and home-made stoves to survive the winter, has long regarded the station as an example of its technological genius. MANY RECORDS SET The station, visited by 28 long-term expeditions with a total of 106 cosmonauts, has set many records. Kazakh cosmonaut Talbat Musabayev spent more than 30 hours in one month working outside the station to secure his place in the Guinness Book of Records. Russian Sergei Avdeyev, who spent 747 days in space, remains the only cosmonaut in the world to have toasted the New Year three times in orbit. But Mir has also seen a number of frustrating glitches. In February 1997, fire broke out when cosmonauts tried to change an air filter. A few months later, Mir's energy supply fell dramatically after a Progress cargo craft hit it during docking and damaged its solar batteries. In September 1997, a computer failed, leaving Mir spinning aimlessly. Two years later, the station went into hibernation after Mission Control shut down its main computer by accident. After the dumping of Mir, Russia will focus on the ambitious $60 billion, 16-nation venture to build the International Space Station (ISS). But for many who remember the heyday of the Soviet space industry, when state funds were spent generously on the sector to dazzle the West with its achievements, the dumping of Mir will mean the end of an epoch. \"Thursday's launch would have been nothing out of the ordinary if it wasn't aimed at guiding Mir out of its orbit,\" Nikolai Zelenshchikov, first deputy head of the Energiya corporation that runs Mir, told Reuters. \"This is sad, but we understand that Mir's work must come to an end and we should then switch over to building the ISS.\""}, {"response": 295, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 17, 2001 (19:02)", "body": "Precocious Earth NASA Science News for January 17, 2001 Tiny zircon crystals found in ancient stream deposits suggest that Earth harbored continents and liquid water remarkably soon after our planet formed. Life could have established a foothold on Earth 400 million years earlier than expected. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast17jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 296, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 18, 2001 (21:46)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, January 18, 2001 @ 0220 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ICE MAY HAVE FORMED MARTIAN CHANNELS ------------------------------------ Some channels on the surface of Mars believed to have been formed by running water may have instead been carved by streams of ice. Channels in one region of Mars share a number of key characteristics with those created by ice streams that flow beneath Antarctica's surface and empty into the surrounding oceans. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/18marsice/ U.S. WEATHER SATELLITE LAUNCH BUMPED TO SATURDAY ------------------------------------------------ A vintage Titan 2 rocket built in the 1960s is poised for a $430 million launch before sunrise Saturday from Central California carrying a crucial replacement global weather satellite for the U.S. military. The liftoff was delayed 24 hours so workers could replace a faulty cabling used in pre-flight rocket testing. http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/g9/preview.html CASSINI PROBE FAILS TO FIND LIGHTNING ON VENUS ---------------------------------------------- Space physicist Donald Gurnett says that a search for lightning on Venus in 1998 and 1999 using the Cassini spacecraft failed to detect high-frequency radio waves commonly associated with lightning. The possible existence of lightning at Venus has long been controversial. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/18cassvenus/ GLOBALSTAR ACTS TO ASSURE FUNDS FOR FURTHER OPERATIONS ------------------------------------------------------ Globalstar has announced that, in order to have sufficient funds available for the continued progress of its marketing and service activities, it has suspended indefinitely principal and interest payments on all of its funded debt and dividend payments on its preferred stock. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/18globalstar/ EXPERIMENTAL EUROPEAN SATELLITE SWITCHES ROCKETS ------------------------------------------------ Europe has officially dropped a previous agreement with Japan to launch the Artemis experimental communications satellite aboard the unproven H-2A rocket in favor of using an Ariane 5 booster. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/18artemis/"}, {"response": 297, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 18, 2001 (21:52)", "body": "The Eastern U.S. Keeps Its Cool NASA Science News for January 18, 2001 While surface temperatures across most of the globe are on the rise, the eastern U.S. appears to be slowly cooling. Scientists say the trend could be a result of increasing cloud cover triggered by warming Pacific waters. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast18jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 298, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 19, 2001 (16:13)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, January 19, 2001 @ 0606 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now REMARKABLE NEW VIEWS CAPTURES OF ORION NEBULA --------------------------------------------- Orion the Hunter is perhaps the best known constellation in the sky, well placed in the evening at this time of the year for observers in both the northern and southern hemispheres, and instantly recognizable. The new pictures captured by astronomers are a must see! http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/19orion/ NUCLEAR ENGINE PROMISES TO SLASH TRAVEL TIMES TO MARS ----------------------------------------------------- A novel type of nuclear reactor could cut make it possible for spacecraft to travel from the Earth to Mars in as little as two weeks, one Israeli researcher has found. A little-known isotope of an artificially produced element could power future robotic or human spacecraft far more efficiently than chemical or other nuclear propulsion sources. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/19marsnuclear/ SPACE STATION CREW FACES TOUGH SCHEDULE --------------------------------------- An 18-day delay for the next space station assembly mission has thrown a wrench into the on-board crew's timeline, compressing an already busy schedule of work that must be completed before arrival of their replacements in early March, officials said Thursday. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010118issupdate/ LAUNCH OF PROGRESS FREIGHTER TO MIR SCRUBBED -------------------------------------------- Orientation troubles aboard the abandoned Russian space station Mir forced officials to scrub Thursday's planned launch of an unmanned freighter that will ultimately deorbit the outpost in March. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010118scrub/ TITAN ROCKET TO LAUNCH WEATHER SATELLITE SATURDAY ------------------------------------------------- The 26-hour countdown is scheduled to begin this morning at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California leading to Saturday's launch of a U.S. military weather satellite aboard a refurbished Titan 2 rocket booster. We will have live coverage launch! http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/g9/status.html STARDUST LOOKS DOWN ON MOON'S NORTH POLE ---------------------------------------------- Just after NASA's Stardust spacecraft successfully flew by the Earth on Monday to use the planet's gravity to change its orbit, the comet-bound probe took a series of images of the Moon to calibrate its onboard camera. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/19stardustlunar/ LEONIDS ROSE TO OCCASION, DESPITE BAD WEATHER --------------------------------------------- Read about the adventures and results of European astronomers as they attempted to image the Leonids meteors by splitting up into teams and working from different locations to create stereo observations. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/19leonids/ CASSINI SPACE PROBE JOURNEYS INTO JUPITER'S MAGNETOSPHERE --------------------------------------------------------- NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows that the craft recent was inside Jupiter's magnetosphere at the same time the Galileo probe flew within the vast surrounding environment of charged particles moving under the influence of the planet's magnetic field. This marks the first time humankind has placed two spacecraft within the magnetosphere of an outer planet at the same time. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/19jupmagnet/"}, {"response": 299, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Jan 20, 2001 (12:31)", "body": "Wow, Mirs finally coming down in March."}, {"response": 300, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 25, 2001 (16:40)", "body": "Yup - hope their aim is good!!! Layers of Mars Last year NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft spotted mysterious layered regions on Mars. If the layers are sedimentary deposits that formed underwater, as some scientists suspect, they could be the best places to hunt for elusive Martian fossils. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 301, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 25, 2001 (22:55)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, January 26, 2001 @ 0257 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now Sponsored by European AstroFest 2001 http://www.astronomynow.com/astrofest WORLD'S LARGEST HUMAN GATHERING SEEN FROM SPACE ----------------------------------------------- Space Imaging's Ikonos satellite has taken a detailed color photograph of the largest human gathering in the history of the world, the Maha Kumbh Mela, a spiritual event held every 144 years in Northern India. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/26ikonos/ NASA SETTLES ON NEW SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH SCHEDULE ------------------------------------------------- As expected, NASA managers Thursday agreed on a revised near-term shuttle launch schedule, delaying the next flight one day to February 7 and the flight after that from March 1 to March 8. Other downstream flights face delays of several weeks and two space station crew rotation missions are under review. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010125sked/ See our updated master timeline of Atlantis' flight: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/fdf/98plan.html OLD CARGO SHIP LEAVES MIR TO MAKE WAY FOR NEW ONE ------------------------------------------------- The Progress M43 cargo ship departed the Mir space station Thursday. The craft, which joined Mir last October, left from the Kvant-1 module to free up the docking port for arrival of Mir's deorbiting tug launched Wednesday. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010125progm43/ NASA CRAFT REVEALS EARTH'S INVISIBLE MAGNETIC TAIL -------------------------------------------------- The first large-scale pictures of the hidden machinations of the Earth's magnetic force-field are now available, including confirmation of a suspected but previously invisible \"tail\" of electrified gas. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/26image/ EUROPE'S SATELLITES TRACK CLIMATE CHANGES ----------------------------------------- In July an Ariane 5 launcher will send into orbit Europe's big new environmental satellite, Envisat. Scientists will expect fresh insights into how the world is changing from the 8-tonne spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/26esaearth/ SCIENTISTS RUSH TO PROPOSE PLUTO MISSION ---------------------------------------- On December 20, NASA announced that it would be soliciting proposals for a mission to the Pluto-Charon system and the Kuiper Belt beyond to arrive at Pluto by 2015. The formal announcement of opportunity was released January 19. Proposals are due on March 21. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/26plutorush/"}, {"response": 302, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 26, 2001 (00:14)", "body": "Earth's Invisible Magnetic Tail NASA Science News for January 25, 2001 The first global views of our planet's magnetosphere, captured by NASA's IMAGE spacecraft, reveal a curious plasma tail that stretches toward the Sun. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast25jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 303, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 27, 2001 (21:56)", "body": "Greening of the Red Planet A hardy microbe from Earth might one day transform the barren ground of Mars into arable soil. Scientists discussed the possibility at a recent NASA-sponsored conference FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast26jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 304, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 27, 2001 (22:56)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Saturday, January 27, 2001 @ 0610 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now Sponsored by European AstroFest 2001 http://www.astronomynow.com/astrofest DEORBITING TUG ARRIVES AT SPACE STATION MIR ------------------------------------------- After a three-day chase, an unmanned cargo ship successfully reached Russia's space station Mir today, becoming most likely the last arrival from Earth to the outpost. The Progress M1-5 spacecraft, carrying propellant for Mir's deorbiting, docked to the station at 0534 GMT (12:34 a.m. EST). http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010127dock/ TECHNICAL SNAG HITS NASA'S MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR ----------------------------------------------- One of the orientation-controlling reaction wheels has failed aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet, the space agency says. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/27mgswheel/ ATLANTIS RETURNS TO PAD AFTER BOOSTER CHECKS -------------------------------------------- Space shuttle Atlantis is back on its seaside launch pad for the first human spaceflight of 2001. The shuttle was rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building on Friday after precautionary cable inspections on the spaceship's twin solid rocket boosters. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html BOEING'S DELTA 2 ROCKET TO FLY TUESDAY -------------------------------------- The first Delta rocket launch of 2001 is scheduled for early Tuesday from Cape Canaveral with a replacement Global Positioning System military navigation satellite onboard. http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d283/status.html AOL USERS --------- The links below should make it easier for AOL users to reach our stories. DEORBITING TUG ARRIVES AT SPACE STATION MIR TECHNICAL SNAG HITS NASA'S MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR ATLANTIS RETURNS TO PAD AFTER BOOSTER CHECKS BOEING'S DELTA 2 ROCKET TO FLY TUESDAY"}, {"response": 305, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 29, 2001 (01:02)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, January 29, 2001 @ 0226 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now Sponsored by European AstroFest 2001 http://www.astronomynow.com/astrofest DELTA 2 ROCKET POISED TO CARRY GPS SATELLITE -------------------------------------------- A Boeing Delta 2 rocket stands ready for an overnight liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Tuesday with a replacement NAVSTAR Global Positioning System military navigation spacecraft. We will have live coverage! http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d283/status.html Watch our live streaming Webcast: http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d283/live_qt.html 15 YEARS AFTER CHALLENGER ------------------------- On a bitterly cold January morning 15 years ago Sunday, space shuttle Challenger and her seven-member crew made a fateful voyage into history. Spaceflight Now marked the anniversary with a comprehensive timeline of the events of that day. (Includes video and audio clips) http://spaceflightnow.com/challenger/timeline/ ULYSSES SOLAR EXPLORER DETECTS MAGNETIC SHIFT --------------------------------------------- An intriguing change in the Sun's magnetic field has been spotted by the solar probe Ulysses. Although the shift had been previously known by scientists, this is the first time the event has been detected by a spacecraft out of the elliptic plane of the solar system, where all planets but Pluto orbit. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/28ulysses/ VIRTUAL RAINS HERALD DAWN OF NEW CLIMATE UNDERSTANDING ------------------------------------------------------ Weather prediction is hard enough. But what are the possibilities for predicting events related to weather? With new tools being developed at Goddard Space Flight Center, and NASA's ever increasing suite of Earth observations, scientists just might be on the road to estimating future weather-related incidents. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/29virtualrain/ COMPANIES JOIN FORCES TO CREATE 2ND GENERATION RLV -------------------------------------------------- Kelly Space and Vought Aircraft Industries jointly announced last week that the two companies had signed a teaming agreement and submitted proposals to develop, in cooperation with NASA, a 2nd Generation Reusable Space Launch Vehicle. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/28sli/ NEXT ARIANE 4 ROCKET IS ON THE LAUNCH PAD ------------------------------------------ A pair of European military communications satellites are almost ready to take to the skies aboard an Ariane 4 launch vehicle that is currently undergoing final tests at its South American launch pad. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v139/status.html 'PSEUDOGYRO' CAN SAVE SATELLITES FROM FAILURE --------------------------------------------- Software developed by The Aerospace Corporation can save satellites from failure, extend the on-orbit life of satellites with ailing hardware gyros, and save large sums of money in insurance costs, among other benefits. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/29pseudogyro/"}, {"response": 306, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Jan 30, 2001 (08:53)", "body": "Wow, a new shuttle (rlv? is that like an suv?) wonder what it will look like?"}, {"response": 307, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 30, 2001 (18:04)", "body": "From the drawings I have seen, it looks very much like the current one but more swept-back angle to the tail. High-latitude Aurora Warning Space Weather News for January 30, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com A coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on Sunday could buffet Earth's magnetosphere late Tuesday or perhaps Wednesday. Sky watchers at higher latitudes (including places like Canada, Alaska, and the northern tier of US states) should be alert for auroras after local nightfall for the next two days. For more information please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 308, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 31, 2001 (15:40)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 @ 0647 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now Sponsored by European AstroFest 2001 http://www.astronomynow.com/astrofest PIN-POINTING BLACK HOLES IN DISTANT GALAXIES -------------------------------------------- The most detailed images ever made of faint, distant radio galaxies, located billions of light years from Earth, reveal that many of them harbor central massive black holes. It adds further support to the belief that super-massive black holes are inextricably linked with the way galaxies formed in the early universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/31pinpoint/ ASTRONOMERS TAKE THE PULSE OF A SUN-LIKE STAR --------------------------------------------- A team of astronomers has precisely measured the 'throbbing' of a Sun-like star that lies 24 light-years away. The slow 'pulse rate' of the star confirms ideas of what the Sun will be like a few billion years from now. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/31pulsating/ CASSINI UNCOVERS JUPITER'S MAGNETIC BUBBLE ------------------------------------------ NASA's Cassini space probe had made the huge magnetosphere surrounding Jupiter visible in a way no previous spacecraft has been able to do. The magnetosphere is a bubble of charged particles trapped within the magnetic environment of the planet. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/31jupmag/ X-RAY VIEW INTO A STARBURST --------------------------- Luminous starburst galaxies are where a lot of young stars are currently forming. They come in different varieties including those where creation is concentrated at its nucleus and activity at the center is so intense that fantastic 'bubbles' are created giving rise to streams of hot gas, or 'superwinds'. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/31starburst/ THE FIRST 'RINGED MOLECULE' FOUND AROUND STARS ---------------------------------------------- Life as we know it is based on the ability of the carbon atom to form ring-shaped molecules. But rings of carbon are not exclusive to Earth, as experts in space chemistry now know. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/31ringed/"}, {"response": 309, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 31, 2001 (19:39)", "body": "The Solar Wind at Mars NASA Science News for January 31, 2001 Scientists think Mars once had a thicker atmosphere than it does today, perhaps even comparable to Earth's. But where did all that Martian air go? New evidence from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft supports a long-held suspicion that much of the Red Planet's atmosphere was simply blown away -- by the solar wind. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast31jan_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 310, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 31, 2001 (20:23)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 @ 1200 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now Sponsored by European AstroFest 2001 http://www.astronomynow.com/astrofest BOEING DELTA 2 ROCKET LOFTS ANOTHER GPS SATELLITE ------------------------------------------------- Exactly ten years after the U.S. military troops reaped the benefits from the Global Positioning System while fighting the Gulf War in featureless deserts, a new satellite was launched into orbit today to keep the constellation going. http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d283/ Also see our Mission Status Center: http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d283/status.html BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LIFE MAY HAVE COME FROM OUTER SPACE ------------------------------------------------------- The chemical building blocks necessary for the formation of life on Earth, as well as rudimentary structures that could have been the basis for the first cells, may have come from outer space, one group of scientists has concluded. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/30spacelife/ CHANDRA SEES MULTITUDE OF NEW STARS FORMING NEARBY -------------------------------------------------- NGC 3603 is a bustling region of star birth in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, about 20,000 light-years from Earth. For the first time, this Chandra image resolves the multitude of individual X-ray sources in this star-forming region. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/30chandra/ MIR IN STABLE MODE AS DISCARDED FREIGHTER REENTERS -------------------------------------------------- The Progress M43 cargo spacecraft, which undocked from Russia's space station Mir last week, reentered Earth's atmosphere Monday where it burned up. The supply ship was replaced with a fresh craft over the weekend that carries the fuel needed to deorbit Mir in March. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010129progm43/ GALILEO WRAPPING UP JOVIAN MAGNETOSPHERE STUDY ---------------------------------------------- This week, Galileo winds down on its 14-week-long successful collaboration with the Cassini spacecraft to study the influence of the solar wind on the Jovian magnetosphere. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/30galileothisweek/ NASA NAMES STS-108 SHUTTLE MISSION ASTRONAUTS --------------------------------------------- Astronauts have begun training for the STS-108/Utilization Flight-1 mission to rotate International Space Station crews and to deliver experiments and scientific racks for the station's U.S. Laboratory, Destiny. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/30sts108crew/"}, {"response": 311, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, Feb  1, 2001 (12:32)", "body": "I was reading yesterday that a New York museum has de-classified Pluto, stripping it of planetary status. Apparently Pluto is twice as big as the next biggest asteroid in the Kuiper Belt (not sure of my terms here, memory plays trick), but only about an eighth as big as Uranus. So the museum's exhibit shows only 8 planets, and they reckon Pluto will be \"happier as the king of the Kuiper Belt rather than the smallest, furthest planet\". Who even knew that asteroids orbited the sun beyond the planets? Not me."}, {"response": 312, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Feb  1, 2001 (15:16)", "body": "I was reading yesterday that a New York museum has de-classified Pluto, stripping it of planetary status. WOT? New Yorkers! They seem to think they are the center of the world. ;-) I don't think Astrologers will dare remove Pluto from natal charts."}, {"response": 313, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  1, 2001 (20:06)", "body": "Astronomers have considered Pluto an escaped Uranian moon for years... Astrologers are in an entirely different universe from astronomers...are they not??? Hubble gives preview to death of our Sun NEWSALERT: Thursday, February 1, 2001 @ 0602 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now Sponsored by European AstroFest 2001 http://www.astronomynow.com/astrofest ANT-LIKE SPACE STRUCTURE PREVIEWS DEATH OF OUR SUN -------------------------------------------------- This dramatic Hubble Space Telescope image, showing 10 times more detail than ground-based views, reveals the \"ant nebula\" -- a dying, Sun-like star. Hubble directly challenges old ideas about the last stages in the lives of stars. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/01hubble/ JUPITERS MAY BE CRITICAL IN FORMING HABITABLE WORLDS ---------------------------------------------------- If you're looking for solar systems with Earth-like planets that could harbor life, one scientist believes you should first look for planets with the mass and orbit of Jupiter that could nurture smaller worlds. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/01habitable/ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR COMPLETES PRIME MISSION -------------------------------------------- NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which has collected more information about the red planet than all previous missions combined, completed its primary science mission Wednesday and now begins a new era of continued exploration. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/01mgs/ SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER MAKERS MERGE AS ALLIANT BUYS THIOKOL --------------------------------------------------------- Rocket motor maker Alliant Techsystems announced Wednesday it had reached an agreement to purchase Thiokol Propulsion for $685 million in cash. Alliant builds the solid-fueled boosters for Delta, Titan 4B, Pegasus and Taurus rockets; Thiokol manufactures the space shuttle solid rocket boosters. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/01alliant/ JET PROPULSION LABORATORY GETS NEW LEADER ----------------------------------------- Dr. Charles Elachi has been named the new director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, replacing Dr. Edward C. Stone effective May 1. Elachi has served in a variety of research and management positions at JPL since 1971. Most recently, he has been director for space and Earth science programs. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/01jplchief/"}, {"response": 314, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb  4, 2001 (20:28)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Saturday, February 3, 2001 @ 1844 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now TAKE A PEEK AT THE RED PLANET'S FRETTED TERRAIN ----------------------------------------------- Martian \"fretted terrain\" occurs in regions of buttes and mesas that stand at the erosional margin where northern low-lying plains meet the higher-standing cratered uplands. Found mostly in the mid-northern latitudes, some of the best examples of fretted terrain occur in Deuteronilus Mensae, as seen here. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/03mgslyot/ SPACESUIT CONCERN ARISES AS ATLANTIS NEARS LAUNCH ------------------------------------------------- Two EVA spacesuits packed aboard space shuttle Atlantis will have to be replaced before launch next week after concerns were raised about their integrity. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html COMET COLLISIONS: ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVED? ------------------------------------------- Recurring collisions between comets during the solar system's formation may have ground smaller comets to bits, leaving only big comets larger than 20 kilometers (12 miles) to survive. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/03oort/ CLUSTER 2 CLEARED FOR SCIENTIFIC WORK -------------------------------------- Cluster's unique mission formally got under way this week when the European Space Agency Commissioning Review Board gave unanimous approval for the start of scientific operations. Cluster's mission is to explore the magnetosphere - the region of space dominated by Earth's magnetic field. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/03cluster/"}, {"response": 315, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Feb  5, 2001 (10:25)", "body": "I heard on NPRs Earth and Sky this morning that the red dwarf stars, which are 80% of the stars in the Universe, are extrememly low energy. This is why we can't see even the closest one, Proxima Centauri. But they've revised the view that they could have planets with life, now they believe it's possible for life supporting planets to revolve around the red dwarfs. It was in interesting commentary."}, {"response": 316, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb  5, 2001 (16:48)", "body": "Fascinating! I think I posted something about it back a few or on Geo 24 NEWSALERT: Monday, February 5, 2001 @ 0601 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now STATION'S DESTINY RIDES ON LABORATORY ATTACHMENT ------------------------------------------------ The shuttle Atlantis is set for launch Wednesday on a critical mission to deliver the $1.38 billion U.S. laboratory module, Destiny, to the international space station, finally clearing the way for the start of orbital research later this year. Read our comprehensive six-part mission preview report: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010204preview/ ASTRONAUTS FLY TO FLORIDA, COUNTDOWN BEGINS ------------------------------------------- With the five-member crew of space shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center, the launch team inside Complex 39's Firing Room 3 started the countdown on schedule Sunday night leading to liftoff at 6:11 p.m. EST (2311 GMT) on Wednesday. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html See our countdown timeline chart: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/fdf/98countdown.html NASA OPENS SPACE STATION SCIENCE COMMAND POST --------------------------------------------- The command and control center for scientific research aboard the international space station is open for business. The science command post linking Earth-bound researchers with their experiments and astronauts in orbit was commissioned Friday during ceremonies at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/04isspoc/ SAND DUNES LOOK LIKE SHARKS' TEETH IN MARS CRATER ------------------------------------------------- Sometimes, pictures received from Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera are \"just plain pretty.\" This image, taken in early September 2000, shows a group of sand dunes at the edge of a much larger field of dark-toned dunes in Proctor Crater. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/04mgsshark/ HUYGENS RELAY LINK MYSTERY FULLY UNRAVELLED ------------------------------------------- A special calibration test is being conducted with the Huygens receivers on board the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft. The test results will provide a solid engineering basis for the design of new mission scenarios which can recover the Huygens relay link performance following a problem uncovered previously. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/04huygens/"}, {"response": 317, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb  5, 2001 (17:16)", "body": "Carbonated Mars NASA Science News for February 5, 2001 Here on Earth the only way to make carbonate rocks is with the aid of liquid water. Finding such rocks on Mars might prove, once and for all, that the barren Red Planet was once warm and wet. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast04feb_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 318, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb  5, 2001 (19:57)", "body": "Aren't there supposed to be signs on Mars of terrain forms which could only have been created by water erosion."}, {"response": 319, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  8, 2001 (00:15)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, February 7, 2001 @ 0538 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now LAUNCH DAY ARRIVES FOR ATLANTIS AND DESTINY LAB ----------------------------------------------- The trouble-free countdown continues at Kennedy Space Center as Atlantis nears its sunset launch today at 6:11 p.m. EST (2311 GMT), but weather at overseas emergency landing sites could be a stumbling block in getting the shuttle airborne with the Destiny laboratory module for the international space station. We will have extensive live coverage starting at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) today! http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html Read our six-part mission preview report: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010204preview/ SPECTACULAR LAYERS OF MARS EXPOSED IN BECQUEREL CRATER ------------------------------------------------------ Toward the end of its primary mapping mission, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor acquired one of its most spectacular pictures of layered sedimentary rock exposed within the ancient crater Becquerel. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/07mgsbecquerel/ ARIANE 4 POISED FOR TONIGHT'S MILITARY MISSION ---------------------------------------------- Two European military communications satellites are stacked atop the most powerful version of Arianespace's Ariane 4 rocket for liftoff today from the jungle launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v139/status.html TITANIC COLLISION SEEN IN DISTANT UNIVERSE ------------------------------------------ A student astronomer in Australia has discovered the \"wreckage\" of a vast collision between two giant clusters of galaxies. The finding changes scientists' views of how clusters and individual galaxies evolve. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/07collide/ NASA PICKS BOEING DELTA 2 TO LAUNCH WEATHER SATELLITE ----------------------------------------------------- NASA has exercised a contract option to launch the NOAA-N polar-orbiting weather satellite aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket in January 2003 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/07noaan/"}, {"response": 320, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  8, 2001 (13:22)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, February 8, 2001 @ 0740 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now LIFTOFF OF ATLANTIS! -------------------- Putting on a dramatic sunset sky show, the shuttle Atlantis blasted off and rocketed away after the international space station Wednesday, carrying a $1.4 billion module that will serve as the station's main laboratory and central control center. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010207launch/ Watch our Mission Status Center for live updates: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html EUROPE'S ARIANE 4 CARRIES OUT MILITARY MISSION ---------------------------------------------- Arianespace launched its first double military payload Wednesday, lofting a pair of communications relay satellites for the British and Italian defense ministries. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v139/ U.S. COMMERCIAL SPACE INDUSTRY WORTH $61 BILLION ------------------------------------------------ The American commercial space industry generated $61.3 billion in direct and indirect economic effects in 1999, putting it on a par with many existing conventional industries, a new federal study concluded Wednesday. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/08faaforecast/ CONGRESS' SPACE POLICY: SUPPORTIVE BUT CAUTIOUS ----------------------------------------------- While the new Congress and the new President are both strong supporters of NASA and space exploration, don't except any major new initiatives from either in the immediate future, a key Congressman cautioned Tuesday. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/07congspace/ WHY DAZZLING STARS ARE GIVEN BORING BUT USEFUL NAMES ---------------------------------------------------- Of the 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy, only a handful have colorful names, while the rest are designated by letters and numbers that are the stellar equivalent of a Social Security card. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/08naming/"}, {"response": 321, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  9, 2001 (00:23)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, February 9, 2001 @ 0411 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ATLANTIS TO RENDEZVOUS WITH SPACE STATION TODAY ----------------------------------------------- Space shuttle Atlantis is nearing the completion of its two-day pursuit to catch the international space station with the orbital linkup scheduled for 1650 GMT (11:50 a.m. EST) today. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010209dock/ Live coverage of docking: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html OLD BROWN DWARF-LIKE STARS DISCOVERED ------------------------------------- Astronomers have discovered a kind of star never previously observed. These small, cool stars look superficially like brown dwarfs but are actually the remnants of ordinary stars that have been whittled down to cool Jupiter-sized bodies over billions of years by spilling material over to a white dwarf companion star. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/09dwarf/ X-33 ENGINES PASS TEST ---------------------- Qualification test firings of the unique engines designed to propel America's X-33 space plane into high-speed, suborbital flight in 2003 began Tuesday at NASA's Stennis Space Center. The ignition test went the full scheduled duration of 1.1 seconds with no observed anomalies. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/09aerospike/ SPACE VIEWS OF EL SALVADOR SAVE LIVES AFTER EARTHQUAKE ------------------------------------------------------ Digital damage maps derived from satellite images are helping the teams clearing up after the disastrous earthquake in El Salvador. For the second time in a few short weeks, the recently-signed 'Charter on Disaster Relief' has swung into action to bring the satellite resources of the European, French and Canadian space agencies. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/09spot/"}, {"response": 322, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Feb  9, 2001 (11:33)", "body": "What did you think about the red dwarf reassessment, Marci?"}, {"response": 323, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  9, 2001 (18:36)", "body": "Not sure. It will be an interesting and lively intellectual discourse as they try to sort out the what-ifs and where-ases of the theory. Since our sun is headed in that direction in another few billion years, it may be of some relevance. Here is something I refuse to take the blame for: Global Warming on Mars NASA Science News for February 9, 2001 Artificial greenhouse gases that are bad news on Earth could provide the means to make Mars a more comfortable place for humans to live. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast09feb_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 324, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  9, 2001 (21:08)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, February 6, 2001 @ 0521 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SECRETS OF THE MARTIAN NOACHIAN HIGHLANDS ----------------------------------------- Among the most exciting places that the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera has photographed during its three and a half years in orbit has been this crater in central Noachis Terra. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/06mgsnoachis/ ATLANTIS COUNTDOWN ROLLS ON --------------------------- The countdown ticked along smoothly at Kennedy Space Center on Monday as engineers focused on loading Atlantis' three power-generating fuel cells. With a favorable weather forecast, the shuttle remains set for blastoff at 6:11 p.m. EST (2311 GMT) on Wednesday. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html See our complete STS-98 mission coverage: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/ TITAN 4 ROCKET COULD LAUNCH NEXT TUESDAY AT EARLIEST ---------------------------------------------------- A puzzling problem with a guidance computer is keeping a U.S. Air Force Titan 4B rocket and its sophisticated communications satellite cargo grounded at Cape Canaveral, Florida. http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/b41/010205inu.html ATLAS 3B AND PROTON ROCKETS PICKED BY ECHOSTAR ---------------------------------------------- The rockets that will loft the next two EchoStar direct-to-home TV broadcasting satellites were picked Monday and the joint U.S.-Russian venture International Launch Services won both contracts. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/06echostar/ ARIANE 4 PREPPED FOR ALL-MILITARY LAUNCH ---------------------------------------- Arianespace officials have cleared Ariane 4 rocket with a pair of European military communications satellite for launch on Wednesday evening at 2228 GMT (5:28 p.m. EST), the opening of a one-hour window. Liftoff will take place from ELA-2 at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v139/status.html"}, {"response": 325, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Fri, Feb  9, 2001 (21:17)", "body": "The Atlantis launch was really spectacular Wednesday. The con trail was colored almost like a rainbow. It seemed to go up faster this time."}, {"response": 326, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 12, 2001 (01:14)", "body": "It was stunning and I hope they make a poster out of it as it crossed the terminator and into sunset and full daylight as it rose. Did you see it go up, Lucie? How envious I am!!! Halo Coronal Mass Ejection Space Weather News for February 11, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com A beautiful coronal mass ejection billowed away from the Sun early Sunday. Although the bulk of the explosion was directed away from Earth, it appears that some of the ejecta is nevertheless heading our way. The edge of the expanding cloud will likely reach Earth on Tuesday and could trigger auroras at high latitudes. For more information, including movies of the event, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com ."}, {"response": 327, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 12, 2001 (14:21)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, February 12, 2001 @ 0237 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now PROBE TO ATTEMPT FIRST LANDING ON ASTEROID TODAY ------------------------------------------------ NASA's $223 million mission to get up-close and personal with an asteroid goes out with what could very well amount to a bang as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft heads for an unprecedented landing on Eros today. http://spaceflightnow.com/near/status.html Tune into our live Webcast of the landing: http://spaceflightnow.com/near/live_qt.html SHUTTLE DOCKING PORT TO BE ADDED TO DESTINY TODAY ------------------------------------------------- Atlantis' spacewalking astronauts Tom Jones and Bob Curbeam plan to step outside the shuttle again on Monday to lend a hand attaching a cone-shaped docking port to the newly-installed Destiny lab. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010212fd6/ We will have live updates throughout the spacewalk: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html NASA DELIGHTED BY SMOOTH DESTINY LAB ACTIVATION ----------------------------------------------- The Atlantis astronauts and the international space station's three-man crew floated into the $1.4 billion Destiny module for the first time Sunday and sailed through the new laboratory's initial activation and check out. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010211fd5/index2.html LAUNCHES OF XM RADIO SATELLITES SHUFFLED ---------------------------------------- Sea Launch has decided to flip-flop the flights of its Zenit 3SL rocket carrying the two broadcasting spacecraft for XM Satellite Radio in the continuing wake of an aborted countdown January 8. http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html"}, {"response": 328, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Feb 12, 2001 (15:38)", "body": "Wow, live webcast of the Eros asteroid landing. What time?"}, {"response": 329, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 12, 2001 (16:19)", "body": "NEAR Spacecraft Leaves Orbit to Land on Asteroid LAUREL, Md. (Reuters) - Space probe NEAR Shoemaker left its yearlong orbit of monster asteroid Eros and headed toward the big rock's surface on Monday, the first time any craft tried to land on this kind of cosmic object. \"We're on a flight path now that will take us to the surface,\" mission Director Bob Farquhar said in an update from the project's headquarters outside Washington. The bus-sized spacecraft was never meant to land -- it orbited the 21-mile-long asteroid for a year, taking some 160,000 images and beaming them back to Earth -- but it was at the end of its expected life and had satisfied all its objectives, so Farquhar and others decided a landing attempt could provide some \"bonus science.\" To get the solar-powered ship out of its 21-mile-high orbit, thrusters were fired around 10:31 a.m. EST to send it toward the asteroid. Four more burns were scheduled to slow NEAR to what scientists hoped would be a soft landing. The landing was scheduled for about 3 p.m. EST, but because it will take 17.5 minutes for light to travel the 196 million miles from the craft to Earth , scientists at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel said they would not have much information at the exact instant of touchdown. NEAR Shoemaker -- short for Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous and in honor of the late astronomer Gene Shoemaker -- was supposed to come down to Eros at a leisurely speed of from 2 to 7 mph. However, if things went awry during the complicated maneuver, the landing could be much faster and much harder. The craft could be flattened on impact. If all went as planned, however, NEAR would take images as it edged closer to Eros and send them back to Earth, as it has since it first started orbiting the asteroid on Valentine's Day 2000. When it landed, NEAR could hit one of the huge boulders that dot the asteroid's surface, or become buried in one of the so-called sand ponds. Or it could go into \"ostrich mode\" and turn its antenna toward the surface and away from Earth, and never be heard from again. It took NEAR about four years to travel a 2 billion-mile, looping route to Eros, named for the Greek god of love. At a cost of $223 million, the mission is considered a model for the cheaper, faster space flights envisioned by NASA. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has already rated the mission a success for the data it has collected about Eros, a so-called near-Earth asteroid that has the potential to collide with the planet in 1.5 million years or so. If Eros ever did hit Earth, the results would be catastrophic; indeed, a much smaller space rock is thought to have been responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Astronomers were also interested in the composition of this rock because it is probably a remnant from the formation of the rocky inner planets of our solar system some 4.5 billion years ago."}, {"response": 330, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 12, 2001 (17:06)", "body": "NEAR Spacecraft Lands on Asteroid COLUMBIA, Md. (AP) - The NEAR spacecraft touched down on the barren, rocky surface of Eros, successfully completing history's first landing on an asteroid. NEAR's landing at about 3:05 p.m. EST Monday was confirmed when Mission Control received a beacon signal from the craft resting on the surface of Eros, some 196 million miles from Earth. ``I am happy to report that the NEAR has touched down,'' said Robert Farquhar, mission director. ``We are still getting signals. It is still transmitting from the surface.'' Engineers watching from monitors from Mission Control broke into applause at confirmation of history's first landing of a manmade object on an asteroid. The mission, controlled by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, also was the first into deep space operated by a non-NASA center. NEAR flawless performed five rocket firings, starting Monday morning, to drop it out of a 15-mile orbit of Eros and slow it toward the surface. Early indications are that Mission control completed its plan to guide NEAR to a feather-like touchdown by slowing its velocity, relative to the surface of the asteroid, to about the speed of a fast walk, 3 to 5 miles an hour. The landing completes a five-year, 2-billion-mile mission for the robot craft and boosts the technical experience in putting spacecraft on objects with extremely light gravity. ``This gives us a lot of practice,'' said Ed Weiler, NASA's chief scientist. ``We'll eventually want to land on comets because they hold the clues to beginnings.'' Weiler said the experience gained in the NEAR landing attempt on Eros can be applied in about a decade when NASA may launch a landing mission to a comet. NEAR became the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid when it arrived at Eros, an object named for the Greek god of love, on Valentine's Day last year. The mission had been scheduled to end on Wednesday, anniversary of achieving orbit. Farquhar said it was decided to attempt the landing to squeeze a final bit of science out of the $223 million mission. No matter how the landing attempt ended, Weiler said, earlier, NEAR was ``a total success. It returned 10 times more data than expected.'' Officials targeted NEAR to land on Eros at the edge of a deep depression called Himeros. Scientists picked this spot because it is thought to be on the edge of two different geologic formations. During the final hours of its descent, NEAR furiously took pictures of Eros' surface as it drew closer and closer. Scientists hoped the final shots before impact would clearly show rocks as small as a fist, an unprecedented close-up view of an asteroid. ``In those final images, we'll be seeing objects that are just a few inches in resolution,'' said Andrew Cheng, chief project scientist of NEAR. Farquhar had warned in advance that landing NEAR n Eros is exquisitely ``tricky.'' NEAR was not designed to land anywhere. Shaped like tin can attached to four solar panels, the craft was not equipped with wheels or braces to absorb the landing force. Weiler commented, ``This is not a landing. It is a controlled crash.'' Eros has very light gravity, about one-thousandth that of Earth, which means that an object, such as NEAR, weighing 1,100 pounds on Earth, would weigh only slightly over a pound in the gravity field of Eros. A quarter, dropped from head-high on Eros, would take five seconds to fall to the surface. Weiler said the final descent of NEAR was actually slower than the asteroid's rotation and there was risk that the spinning space rock could actually swat the craft back into orbit. NEAR traveled more than 2 billion miles during its five-year mission. It was launched Feb. 17, 1996, into an independent solar orbit. NEAR swung by the Earth once to pick up speed and then streaked outward toward Eros, an asteroid in an elongated orbit that nears Mars and approaches Earth's orbit. In December 1998, a rocket firing designed to put the craft into orbit of Eros failed and NEAR sped past the asteroid. A second rocket firing series was successful and the spacecraft eventually returned to Eros and slipped into history's first orbit of an asteroid. The craft spent the last year snapping photos of Eros, second- largest of the asteroids that approach the Earth's orbit. The NEAR instruments also gathered information about the asteroid's composition, structure, size and shape. NEAR was built and operated under a faster-better-cheaper space exploration philosophy developed at NASA. Under the direction and control of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the spacecraft was designed, built and launched in just 26 months. Some deep space explorations have taken a decade or more to mount. NEAR is also the first deep-space mission to be operated by a non-NASA space center. On the Net: Mission site: http://near.jhuapl.edu/media/index.html"}, {"response": 331, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 12, 2001 (18:50)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, February 12, 2001 @ 2100 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NEAR SHOEMAKER SURVIVES ASTEROID LANDING ---------------------------------------- The NEAR Shoemaker probe is apparently alive and well after touching down on the surface of asteroid Eros today. The spacecraft returned remarkable close up views of the asteroid's surface as it swooped down to its historic landing. Check our home page for the latest news and pictures. http://spaceflightnow.com/"}, {"response": 332, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Feb 13, 2001 (08:53)", "body": "Pretty neat, they landed a craft not designed to land and a beacon kept sending back signals. The close ups are very clear and show some good size boulders ona very solid asteroid, not a pile of rubble or block of ice."}, {"response": 333, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 13, 2001 (13:34)", "body": "Looks amazing, doesn't it?! I NEED a litle piece for my collection!!! NEWSALERT: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 @ 0439 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NEAR PROBE MAKES HISTORIC LANDING ON ASTEROID EROS -------------------------------------------------- NASA's $223 million mission NEAR Showmaker spacecraft made an unprecedented landing on the surface of asteroid Eros Monday, returning spectacular pictures on the way down. Check our home page for the latest news, pictures and video. http://spaceflightnow.com/ ASTRONAUTS SAIL THROUGH 2ND SUCCESSFUL SPACEWALK ------------------------------------------------ The Atlantis astronauts staged a near-perfect spacewalk Monday, connecting a shuttle docking port to the $1.4 billion Destiny laboratory module, installing a mounting fixture for a new robot arm and opening the lab's picture window on the world. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010212fd6/index2.html Latest updates in our status center: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html EXPERIMENTS TO STUDY FAILURES ON SMALL SATELLITE ------------------------------------------------ NASA experiments on a small British satellite are studying the effects of radiation on the various systems that make up each experiment. To yield this information, engineers are actually hoping for the components to fail. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/13strv/ GALILEO PLAYING BACK RECORDED OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------ It is going to be a relatively quiet week for the Galileo spacecraft. On Friday, the spacecraft performs standard maintenance on its propulsion systems. Other than that, playback of the data stored on the on-board tape recorder continues. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/12galileothisweek/"}, {"response": 334, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 15, 2001 (17:52)", "body": "The Sun Does a Flip NASA Science News for February 15, 2001 NASA scientists who monitor the Sun say that our star's awesome magnetic field is flipping -- a sure sign that solar maximum is here. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast15feb_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 335, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Thu, Feb 15, 2001 (20:13)", "body": "I am waiting, not so patiently for the pictures the camera will send back from the asteroid. They had better success there than on Mars and this one wasn't intended to be."}, {"response": 336, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 16, 2001 (13:52)", "body": "I agree, Lucie!!! NEWSALERT: Friday, February 16, 2001 @ 1800 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ATLANTIS DEPARTS STATION AFTER FLAWLESS LAB DELIVERY ---------------------------------------------------- The shuttle Atlantis undocked from the international space station today, leaving the outpost behind with a new $1.4 billion laboratory module and some 3,000 pounds of equipment and supplies. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010216undock/index2.html See our status center coverage of the mission: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html CHANDRA FINDS MOST DISTANT X-RAY GALAXY CLUSTER ----------------------------------------------- The most distant X-ray cluster of galaxies yet has been found by astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Approximately 10 billion light years from Earth, the cluster 3C294 is 40 percent farther than the next most distant X-ray galaxy cluster previously known. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/16chandra/ MARTIAN SEDIMENTARY ROCK FOUND IN UNLIKELY PLACE ------------------------------------------------ Although most of the best examples of layered sedimentary rock seen on Mars are found at equatorial and sub-tropical latitudes, a few locations seen at mid- and high-latitudes suggest that layered rocks are probably more common than we can actually see from orbit. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/16mgsspall/ FIRST CANADIAN ASTRONAUT GETS A PROMOTION ----------------------------------------- The Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for the Canadian Space Agency has announced the appointment of astronaut Marc Garneau as Executive Vice-President of the CSA. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/16garneau/ LAUNCH SCHEDULE --------------- Keep up-to-date with planned space shuttle and rocket launches from around the globe with our Worldwide Launch Schedule page http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/"}, {"response": 337, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 16, 2001 (14:09)", "body": "SEMI-LIVE PICTURES FROM EROS ASTEROID http://near-mirror.boulder.swri.edu/iod/descent_image/image.jpg"}, {"response": 338, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 17, 2001 (01:04)", "body": "Weekend Aurora Watch Space Weather News for Friday, Feb. 16, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com SOHO coronagraphs spotted a full-halo solar coronal mass ejection on Thursday that appears to be Earth-bound. The expanding cloud will likely reach our planet during the weekend and could trigger geomagnetic activity when it arrives. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for possible auroras. Meanwhile, in an unrelated development, NASA scientists say the Sun's enormous magnetic field is flipping! For more information please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 339, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 17, 2001 (14:26)", "body": "=========================================================== SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN - FEBRUARY 16, 2001 =========================================================== For images and Web links for these items, visit http://www.skypub.com =========================================================== \"Astronomy: An Immersive Journey Through the Universe\" is set of CD-ROMs that makes astronomy accessible to beginners and delivers the high accuracy required by serious astronomy enthusiasts. Use it to chart the positions of more than a million objects, take more than 60 expertly narrated tours, and enjoy thousands of graphics and photos. To order your copy for $29.95, visit Sky Publishing's online store ( http://store.skypub.com/skypub/default.asp?links=REDAC ) or call 800-253-0245. =========================================================== NEAR AND EROS MEET Although given no better than a 1-in-100 chance of survival, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft thumped onto the dusty, boulder-strewn surface of minor planet 433 Eros on Monday and lived to tell about it. The spacecraft continued to broadcast to Earth after touching down at an estimated 1.5 meters per second at 3:05 p.m. EST (20:05 Universal Time). As mission personnel looked on anxiously, NASA tracking stations in California and Spain continued to receive a low-power signal (but no data) after the first-ever landing on a small solar-system body. The landing sequence began about 4 hours earlier, as a rocket firing forced NEAR-Shoemaker out of its 35-kilometer-high orbit and sent it on a collision course with Eros. Four more rocket firings, beginning at altitude of 5 km, slowed the craft during its 47-minute freefall. Engineering data and altitude measurements showed that the spacecraft descended to the surface just as planned, perhaps bouncing once before settling down tipped to one side and resting on the corners of two solar-cell panels. The touchdown site is on the shoulder of Himeros, a broad depression in the southern hemisphere. NEAR Shoemaker's onboard camera radioed more than 50 pictures as the surface drew closer. The landscape looked smooth and dust-covered for the most part, peppered with myriad boulders ranging from house- to fist-size. But mission scientists were most surprised by the lack of small impacts. \"We are absolutely amazed by the absence of small, fresh craters,\" exclaimed imaging-team leader Joseph Veverka, as well as by numerous shallow sinkhole-like depressions. The final frame, taken from a height of 125 m, showed an area 6 m wide and revealed details only about 1 centimeter across. NASA had intended to cease tracking the spacecraft on February 14th, when the mission was to officially end. However, since the spacecraft survived, it has been granted a reprieve as scientists try to glean more useful data from the probe. LIFE UNDER FROZEN MARTIAN LAKES? The Antarctic lake Vostok, has received much attention for being an analog to the Europan surface. Scientist believe that the lake, covered by nearly 4 kilometers of ice, closely resembled the proposed ocean on Jupiter's frozen moon. Both bodies of water seemed to have formed by geothermal heating, and because the ice above is so thick, both seas remained sealed from sunlight and air for millions of years. Thus, if life exists in Lake Vostok (drilling missions have yet to reach the liquid layer), it's plausible that life could also exist on Europa. However, scientists now believe that Vostok better resembles another planet suspected of once harboring life: Mars. Natalia Duxbury (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and her colleagues suggest that Vostok did not form by geothermal heating after all. Instead models of Vostok created by the researchers imply that the Antarctic lake was originally an open body of water that froze over between 5 and 30 million years ago. And as such, any life found inside the lake would be older than the Antarctic ice sheet. This model bares a striking resemblance to the red planet. The Martian north pole is known to be covered with ice. However, Mars's axial tilt has changed dramatically throughout the planet's lifetime and the current polar regions were once much warmer. Therefore it is easy to assume that sometime in Martian history, the poles, like Duxbury's model of Vostok, were once open bodies of water that later froze over. Assuming life was present while Vostok was an exposed lake, and assuming life is seen the lake today, it seems possible that if life existed in an ancient Martian polar lake, it may still be there too. The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, scheduled for launch in 2003, will examine the Martian poles for buried liquid water. A similar experiment will eventually be flown to Europa as well. Details of the study can be found in the January 25th Journal of Geophysical Research. PLUTO'S PALETTE REVEALED During the 1980s Pluto and its satellite Charon repeatedly passed in front of and behind one another as seen "}, {"response": 340, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 20, 2001 (21:35)", "body": "Blazing Venus NASA Science News for February 20, 2001 Fiery Venus is a wonderful planet to look at, but you wouldn't want to live there! This is a good time to keep an eye on the second planet from the Sun as it approaches Earth and delivers a dazzling sky show. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast20feb_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 341, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 21, 2001 (18:09)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 @ 1612 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ATLANTIS TAKES DETOUR TO MOJAVE DESERT LANDING ---------------------------------------------- Running two days late, the shuttle Atlantis dropped out of a cloudy Mojave Desert sky and glided to a smooth landing Tuesday at Edwards Air Force Base to wrap up an extended space station assembly flight. (Includes video!) http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010220landing/ Read our call of the landing: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html RUSSIAN MIR SPACE STATION REACHES 15TH ANNIVERSARY -------------------------------------------------- The Mir space station marked its 15th anniversary in orbit on Tuesday, one day after the captains of the Russian space program defended their decision to deorbit the pioneering outpost. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010220anni/ RESEARCH DETERMINES HOW PLANTS TELL WHICH WAY IS UP --------------------------------------------------- Scientists are expanding the understanding of how gravity affects plant growth, which has implications for agriculture and space travel. Extended space missions will need to use plants and know how gravity affects the growth of plants. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/21plants/"}, {"response": 342, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 22, 2001 (00:08)", "body": "Nature's Tiniest Space Junk NASA Science News for February 21, 2001 NASA scientists are using an experimental radar to monitor a swarm of space dust surrounding our planet -- cosmic junk that can pose an electrical hazard to satellites. Now anyone can listen to the radar echoes, live on the Internet! (This story also includes an unusual radar movie of a 2000 Leonid meteor.) FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast21feb_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 343, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Feb 23, 2001 (12:36)", "body": "Any news on the status of Mir, Marci?"}, {"response": 344, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 23, 2001 (16:19)", "body": "Not yet other than it will take a different trajectory than originally planned! NEWSALERT: Friday, February 23, 2001 @ 1518 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now TITAN 4 ROCKET LAUNCH ON HOLD ----------------------------- Saturday's scheduled launch of an Air Force Titan 4B rocket from Cape Canaveral has been postponed due to a vehicle issue. Further details on the problem and when the launch might be rescheduled are expected later today. http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/b41/status.html We'll have a live video Webcast of launch: http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/b41/live_qt.html ASTEROID OR COMET BLAMED FOR MASS EXTINCTION -------------------------------------------- Earth's most severe mass extinction - an event 250 million years ago that wiped out 90 percent of all marine species and 70 percent of land vertebrates - was triggered by a collision with a comet or asteroid, according to new findings. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/23extinct/ COLUMBIA UNVEILING DELAYED -------------------------- The overhauled space shuttle Columbia is being kept inside Boeing's assembly plant in Palmdale, California, longer than planned today because of bad weather. After nearly a year-and-a-half of major modification and inspection work, Columbia is due for rollout today to be mounted atop a 747 carrier aircraft for the trek back to Kennedy Space Center. http://spaceflightnow.com SOHO WATCHES KAMIKAZE COMET AS IT PLUNGES INTO SUN -------------------------------------------------- A comet that fell into the Sun on February 7 was tracked by two different instruments on the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft, enabling scientists to characterize it quite precisely. This was just one of nearly 300 comets discovered by SOHO since 1996! http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/23soho/ SPACE STATION RESIDENTS TO TAKE WEEKEND GETAWAY ----------------------------------------------- The three-man Expedition One crew living aboard the international space station will depart the orbiting outpost for a short time Saturday to move their Soyuz capsule to a different docking port. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html NEW TELESCOPE MAKES BLACK HOLE DISCOVERY ---------------------------------------- Working independently, two teams of astronomers have used the new 6.5-meter telescope at the MMT Observatory on Mount Hopkins, Ariz., to discover a massive black hole -- the first ever found in the galactic halo, thousands of light years above the Milky Way galactic plane. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/23mmt/"}, {"response": 345, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 23, 2001 (20:38)", "body": "The Great Moon Hoax NASA Science News for February 23, 2001 12:00:00 PM Yes, there really is a Moon hoax, but the prankster isn't NASA. Moon rocks and common sense prove Apollo astronauts really did visit the Moon. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 346, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 23, 2001 (20:45)", "body": "Apocalypse Then NASA Science News for February 23, 2001 They say lightning never strikes twice. Well, how about asteroids? A violent collision with a space rock, like the one that doomed the dinosaurs, may have also caused our planet's greatest mass extinction 250 million years ago. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 347, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 24, 2001 (15:25)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Saturday, February 24, 2001 @ 1114 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SPACE STATION RESIDENTS TAKE WEEKEND GETAWAY -------------------------------------------- The three-man Expedition One crew living aboard the international space station departed the orbiting outpost for a short time this morning to move their Soyuz capsule to a different docking port. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html See a graphic illustrating the flyaround: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010224flyaround/graphic.html NEAR MISSION EXTENDED THROUGH END OF THE MONTH ---------------------------------------------- NASA granted an additional four-day extension for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker mission on Friday so that the spacecraft can return additional data from the surface of the asteroid Eros through the end of the month. http://spaceflightnow.com/near/010223extend/ Previous coverage of NEAR Shoemaker's landing: http://spaceflightnow.com/near/status.html TITAN 4 LAUNCH DELAYED FURTHER ------------------------------ Launch of the $455 million Titan 4B rocket carrying a $750 million Milstar military communications satellite has been pushed back to Tuesday at the earliest. The extra time is needed so technicians can further study and fix a problem with the rocket's telemetry system. http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/b41/status.html JOHNSON SPACE CENTER CHIEF GEORGE ABBEY OUSTED ---------------------------------------------- NASA announced late Friday that George Abbey, one of the most powerful and enigmatic figures in the space program, was being replaced as director of the Johnson Space Center. Abbey, who becomes a special advisor to the NASA Administrator, was ousted in the wake of huge cost overuns in the international space station program. Read the NASA news release: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/23abbey/"}, {"response": 348, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 26, 2001 (19:56)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, February 26, 2001 @ 1100 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now BRITISH GOVERNMENT RESPONDS TO NEO TASK FORCE --------------------------------------------- The British government issued a response Saturday to a task force report on the threat posed by near-Earth asteroids and comets, concurring with many of the recommendations in the report but promising little in the way of immediate, concrete action. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/26neo/ RUSSIANS LAUNCH SUPPLY SHIP FOR SPACE STATION ALPHA --------------------------------------------------- The Progress M-44 cargo freighter is bound for the international space station today after being propelled into orbit by a Russian Soyuz-U rocket. On Saturday, the three-man Expedition One departed the orbiting outpost for a short time to move their Soyuz capsule to a different docking port to make way for the Progress. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html CANADA STUDIES THIRD-GENERATION RADARSAT SATELLITE -------------------------------------------------- Work on the third Radarsat remote sensing satellite has officially gotten underway as the Canadian Space Agency issued a feasibility studies contract to MacDonald, Dettwiler, and Associates. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/26radarsat3/ GLITCH WITH TITAN 4 ROCKET RESOLVED, LAUNCH DATE SET ---------------------------------------------------- The Titan 4B rocket has been cleared for liftoff Tuesday with the Milstar communications satellite cargo, the Air Force announced Saturday after isolating and correcting a problem with the vehicle's first stage telemetry relay system. http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/b41/status.html GALAXY GROUPS SURVEYED BEYOND LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD ------------------------------------------------ In a cosmically short time, probably in a few billion years, our Milky Way galaxy will smash into the Andromeda galaxy. Pulled together by gravity, the two spiral galaxies will violently merge perhaps into another kind of galaxy, an elliptical galaxy. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/25groups/ HOW DID MATTER COME TO DOMINATE THE UNIVERSE? --------------------------------------------- The seemingly unremarkable fact that the universe is full of matter turns out to be something physicists can't quite account for. According to the big bang theory, equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created at the birth of the universe, but precious little antimatter is to be found in the universe today. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/25matter/"}, {"response": 349, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 27, 2001 (14:00)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 @ 1109 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now TITAN 4 ROCKET STANDS POISED FOR BLASTOFF TODAY --------------------------------------------------- There is $1.2 billion on the line today at Cape Canaveral where a powerful Titan 4B rocket awaits an afternoon launch carrying a crucial U.S. military communications satellite that will serve as a switchboard-in-the-sky. We will the most comprehensive live coverage throughout the day in our status center and Webcast. http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/b41/status.html Live streaming broadcast of the launch: http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/b41/live_qt.html NEW EVIDENCE FOUND TO SUGGEST ANCIENT MARS LIFE ----------------------------------------------- Crystals of the mineral magnetite, embedded within a famous Martian meteorite, have provided scientists with the latest evidence that primitive life once existed on Mars. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/27marslife/ GRISSOM 'FLIES' ONE LAST TIME AT CAPE CANAVERAL ----------------------------------------------- Lt. Col. Virgil \"Gus\" Grissom, one of America's first astronauts, will once again fly from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Grissom's \"flight\" is possible because the Air Force's Titan 4B rocket scheduled for launch today has been named \"Gus\" in honor of him. http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/b41/010226patch.html STRESS, CHAOS FORM SOLAR SYSTEM'S TALLEST MOUNTAINS --------------------------------------------------- Researchers studing images taken by the Galileo and Voyager spacecraft have found that enigmatic mountains on Jupiter's moon Io may be the combined result of heating, melting and tilting of giant blocks of crust. The moon has some of the tallest mountains in our solar system. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/27iomount/"}, {"response": 350, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  1, 2001 (12:38)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, March 1, 2001 @ 1145 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NEAR SHOEMAKER PHONES HOME FOR THE LAST TIME -------------------------------------------- NASA's NEAR Shoemaker -- the intrepid space probe that provided the first intensive examination of an asteroid -- has finally reached the end of its five-year adventure. http://spaceflightnow.com/near/010228end/ STATION, SCIENCE SQUEEZED IN NASA BUDGET PROPOSAL ------------------------------------------------- President George W. Bush's 2002 budget proposal, released Wednesday, provides essentially no increase in funding for NASA while mandating serious reforms to the international space station and the cancellation of two planetary science missions. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/01budget/ HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE SPOTS A GALAXY ON THE EDGE ------------------------------------------------- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped this remarkable view of a perfectly \"edge-on\" galaxy. This new Hubble picture reveals with exquisite detail huge clouds of dust and gas extending along, as well as far above, the galaxy's main disk. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/01hubble/ JUPITER'S LARGEST MOON MAY BE A WET, SLUSHY PLACE ------------------------------------------------- Planetary scientists studying Jupiter's icy moon Ganymede have combined stereo images from the Galileo and Voyager missions and found provocative features on the moon. They have mapped long swathes of bright flat terrain that they think is evidence of water or slush that emerged one billion years or so ago. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/01ganymede/"}, {"response": 351, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  2, 2001 (15:47)", "body": "Buck Rogers, Watch Out NASA researchers are studying insects and birds, and using so-called smart materials with uncanny properties to develop mindboggling new aircraft designs. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast01mar_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 352, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  2, 2001 (16:21)", "body": "Sunspots and a Coronal Mass Ejection Space Weather News for March 2, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com SOLAR ACTIVITY: This week the face of the Sun looked remarkably blank as the sunspot number dropped to its lowest level in three months. But there's more to solar activity than sunspots! On February 28th a filament collapsed on the Sun and the eruption sent a coronal mass ejection toward Earth. The expanding cloud will likely reach our planet on Saturday, March 3rd, and trigger high latitude auroras. For more information about this and other space weather news, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com ."}, {"response": 353, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  4, 2001 (14:33)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, March 2, 2001 @ 1107 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NASA KILLS X-33 AND X-34 ------------------------ NASA announced Thursday that it would not provide any additional funding for the X-33 or X-34 launch vehicle technology demonstration programs, effectively killing both projects before either made its first flight. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/01x33/index2.html SETTING SAIL THROUGH SPACE -------------------------- The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios are ready to test the first solar sail ever deployed in space later this year. Solar sails are seen by many space observers as the \"wave of the future\" that will revolutionize space flight as spacecraft travel beyond the solar system. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/02sail/ CALLING PIONEER 10 ------------------ The longest operating deep-space probe is getting at least one more chance for life as project managers have secured observation time with radio antennas to try to contact the spacecraft for the first time since last summer. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/02pioneer10/ RARE METEORITES REKINDLE SOLAR SYSTEM BIRTH DEBATE -------------------------------------------------- A new meteorite study is rekindling a scientific debate over the creation of our solar system. The study is based on the microscopic analysis of two rare meteorites recently discovered in Antarctica and Africa. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/02meteor/"}, {"response": 354, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  6, 2001 (13:00)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, March 5, 2001 @ 1348 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SHUTTLE DISCOVERY SET FOR SUNRISE LAUNCH THURSDAY ------------------------------------------------- The seven astronauts who will ride shuttle Discovery into space made a late-night arrival at Kennedy Space Center on Sunday as preparations remain on schedule to start the countdown today. The shuttle is poised for liftoff Thursday at 6:42 a.m. EST (1142 GMT). http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html STS-102 MISSION THEATER ----------------------- From countdown to touchdown we will provide the internet's most comprehensive video coverage of Discovery's mission to the International Space Station. Subscribe to the Mission Theater today! http://spaceflightnow.com/theater/theater.html VOLCANIC IO ERUPTS ------------------ Newly released images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft captures a dynamic eruption at Tvashtar Catena, a chain of volcanic bowls on Jupiter's moon Io, and changes in the largest active field lava flows in the solar system, the Amirani flow. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/04ioerupt/ PLUTO MISSION CLINGS TO LIFE ---------------------------- NASA will continue to accept proposals for a mission to Pluto at the request of Congress despite a proposed budget that includes no funding for such a mission, agency officials confirmed Friday. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/03pluto/ DID COMETS WATER EARTH? ----------------------- A physics professor at the University of Iowa says that he has found new evidence to support his theory that the water in Earth's oceans arrived by way of small snow comets. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/05smallcomet/ EUROPE, JAPAN PLAN JOINT MARTIAN OBSERVATIONS --------------------------------------------- Japanese and European Mars orbiters will keep each other company once they arrive at the red planet in 2003 and 2004. A recent meeting between the Mars Express and Nozomi teams forged an agreement to work together once their respective probes arrive in Martian orbit. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/05marscoop/ COMMERCIAL SATELLITE TO SCAN ALL OF JAMAICA ------------------------------------------- Space Imaging has signed an agreement with the government of Jamaica to take 1-meter, high resolution satellite images with the orbiting Ikonos spacecraft of the entire country to be used by land-related and mapping agencies. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/04jamaica/ EUTELSAT LOOKS ACROSS ATLANTIC TO BUY NEW SATELLITE --------------------------------------------------- EUTELSAT, the 48-member European Satellite Telecommunications Organization, has signed a contract for a broadband communications satellite from Boeing Satellite Systems Inc. The satellite, to be known as e-BIRD, is a spin-stabilized Boeing 376 HP model. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/03ebird/ To Subscribe: mailto:newsalert-on@astrolists.com"}, {"response": 355, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  7, 2001 (14:33)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, March 7, 2001 @ 0327 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now DISCOVERY 'GO' FOR LAUNCH AMID STATION BUDGET TROUBLE ----------------------------------------------------- With the shuttle Discovery poised for launch Thursday on the next space station assembly mission, senior NASA managers Tuesday attempted to downplay the potential impact of a projected $4 billion budget shortfall, calling an expected down-sizing a \"minor adjustment.\" http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010306iss/ COUNTDOWN ROLLS ON FOR THURSDAY'S SHUTTLE LAUNCH ------------------------------------------------ The trouble-free countdown continues at Kennedy Space Center for shuttle Discovery's sunrise blastoff Thursday. The weather forecast is generally favorable with the only concern being unseasonably cold temperatures. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010306count/ STS-102 MISSION THEATER ----------------------- From countdown to touchdown we will provide the internet's most comprehensive video coverage of Discovery's mission to the International Space Station. Subscribe to the Mission Theater today! http://spaceflightnow.com/theater/theater.html RUSSIA OFFERS MODULE, EXTRA SOYUZ CAPSULE TO PARTNERS ----------------------------------------------------- Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Rosaviacosmos, has endorsed the development of the first commercially operated module of the international space station in hopes of charging rent to its partners. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/06enterprise/ CHECKING ON AN OLD AND ACTIVE COMETARY FRIEND --------------------------------------------- When Comet Hale-Bopp passed through the inner solar system in early 1997, it was admired in the sky as a \"classical\" comet, with a bright head and an enormous, multi-colored tail. Now four years later, astronomers have captured new views of the comet. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/07halebopp/ CHANDRA SNAPS REMARKABLE IMAGE OF GALAXY GROUP ---------------------------------------------- A new Chandra image reveals great detail and complexity in the central region of the compact galaxy group known as HCG 62. Such galaxy groups, which contain fewer galaxies than the better-known galaxy clusters, are an important class of objects because they may serve as cosmic building blocks in the large-scale structure of the Universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/07chandra/ UNIQUE DOUBLE-HEADER AS TWO SHUTTLES GRACE CAPE SKIES ----------------------------------------------------- Space shuttles Atlantis and Columbia made it back to Florida's Space Coast on Monday after lengthy cross-country ferry flights from California, but there wasn't enough parking spots at Kennedy Space Center for both spaceplanes and their carrier aircraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/06ferryflights/ BOEING'S DIGITAL CINEMA READY FOR VIEWING ----------------------------------------- Boeing digital cinema, a capability that enables same-day delivery of digital media via satellite to multiple movie theaters, is ready for viewing. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/06cinema/"}, {"response": 356, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Mar  7, 2001 (15:26)", "body": "Digital cinema, wow. What clever cracker will be first to break this for home consumption?"}, {"response": 357, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  8, 2001 (14:10)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, March 8, 2001 @ 0545 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NASA COUNTS DOWN TO DISCOVERY'S SUNRISE LAUNCH ---------------------------------------------- The shuttle Discovery has been fueled for blastoff today on a flight to deliver the international space station's second full-time crew and nearly five tons of supplies and equipment, including the lab's first suite of scientific experiments. We are providing continuous live coverage in our status center: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html Read our comprehensive mission preview: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010307preview/ STS-102 MISSION THEATER ----------------------- From countdown to touchdown we will provide the internet's most comprehensive video coverage of Discovery's mission to the International Space Station. Subscribe to the Mission Theater today! http://spaceflightnow.com/theater/theater.html HUBBLE SPIES HUGE CLUSTERS OF STARS FORMED IN ANCIENT CRASH ----------------------------------------------------------- Studying galactic interactions is like sifting through the forensic evidence at a crime scene. Astronomers wade through the debris of a violent encounter, collecting clues so they can reconstruct the celestial crime to determine when it happened. Take the case of M82, a small, nearby galaxy that long ago bumped into its larger neighbor, M81. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/08hubble/ MIR REENTRY TARGET DATE SET --------------------------- Russian space officials decided to postpone the deorbiting of the Mir space station to around March 20 to save the propellant onboard the Progress spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010308reentry/ ARIANESPACE TO LAUNCH FIRST ARIANE 5 ROCKET OF 2001 --------------------------------------------------- The Ariane 509 rocket was rolled to its South American launch pad Wednesday in final preparation for liftoff this evening to deliver European and Japanese telecommunications satellites into orbit. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v140/status.html"}, {"response": 358, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 11, 2001 (00:02)", "body": "The End is Mir NASA Science News for March 10, 2001 Space station Mir, the heaviest thing orbiting our planet other than the Moon itself, will return to Earth around March 20th. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast10mar_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 359, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 12, 2001 (13:16)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, March 12, 2001 @ 0703 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ITALIAN-MADE 'MOVING VAN' DOCKED TO SPACE STATION ------------------------------------------------- The Leonardo Multipurpose Logistics Module has been mounted to the international space station with its 9,993 pounds of equipment and experiments for the U.S. Destiny laboratory. The astronauts are slated to enter the $150 million pressurized module in a few hours, then start unpacking its contents on Monday night. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010312fd5/ MARATHON SPACEWALK SETS NEW ENDURANCE RECORD -------------------------------------------- In a marathon spacewalk marked by unexpected glitches and lost hardware, two astronauts mounted critical equipment on the hull of the international space station Sunday. The 8-hour 56-minute long excursion, was the longest in spacewalk U.S. history. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010311fd4/ DISCOVERY MAKES BELATED DOCKING WITH STATION -------------------------------------------- The shuttle Discovery glided to a delayed-but-successful docking with the international space station early Saturday to deliver the first of three new crew members after flight controllers finally managed to lock down a possibly free-swinging solar panel. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010310fd3/ STS-102 MISSION THEATER ----------------------- We are providing the internet's most comprehensive video coverage of Discovery's mission to the International Space Station, including multiple views of Thursday's launch, extraordinary onboard video, daily news conferences and the mission highlights. Subscribe to the Mission Theater today! http://spaceflightnow.com/theater/theater.html REPORT: CHINA PLANS FIRST MANNED MISSION NEXT YEAR -------------------------------------------------- China plans to launch its first astronauts in late 2002 following more unmanned test flights of the Shenzhou test capsule, according to Japanese news reports. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/11china/ TWO SPACECRAFT REVEAL NEW DETAILS OF JUPITER'S AURORA ----------------------------------------------------- Bright auroras on parts of Jupiter where those shimmering glows have not previously been seen appear in new images taken from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The research is part of a joint study with Cassini to examine how the aurora is affected by the solar wind. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/10jupaurora/ UNIVERSE PUT ON THE SCALES -------------------------- Only 35 percent of the Universe's contents is in the form of matter, according to new findings. The rest is believed to be in the form of 'dark energy'. This measurement, the most accurate to date, is based on data from 141,000 galaxies. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/10weigh/"}, {"response": 360, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 14, 2001 (22:33)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, March 14, 2001 @ 1921 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now VOLCANOES MAY HAVE PLAYED ROLE IN MARTIAN LIFE ---------------------------------------------- Two of the oldest volcanoes on Mars, which have been active for 3.5 billion years, are providing clues to the possibility of life on the planet, according to preliminary analysis by geologists of new data from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/14marsvolcano/ STATION CREW ROTATION COMPLETE ------------------------------ Astronaut Susan Helms moved aboard the international space station today, completing the lab's first crew rotation and becoming the first woman to live aboard the outpost. The astronauts are ahead of schedule unloading the Leonardo cargo carrier. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010314fd7/ STS-102 MISSION THEATER ----------------------- We are providing the internet's most comprehensive video coverage of Discovery's mission to the International Space Station, including multiple views of liftoff, extraordinary cockpit launch video, daily news conferences and the mission highlights. Subscribe to the Mission Theater today! http://spaceflightnow.com/theater/ DEEP X-RAYS SHOW UNIVERSE TEEMING WITH BLACK HOLES -------------------------------------------------- For the first time, astronomers believe they have proof black holes of all sizes once ruled the universe. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory provided the deepest X-ray images ever recorded, and those pictures deliver a novel look at the past 12 billion years of black holes. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/14chandra/ ASTRONOMERS FIND MISSING TYPE OF QUASAR --------------------------------------- Astronomy's \"most wanted\" list shortened by one this week when researchers announced that they had spotted the first type II quasar, an object on the fringes of the known universe whose existence they had suspected for two decades. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/14quasar/"}, {"response": 361, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 14, 2001 (22:47)", "body": "Home, Space Home NASA Science News for March 14, 2001 On the ground, the International Space Station would be an odd looking building -- but space is an odd place to live! Find out how space weather, orbital free fall, and the Space Shuttle's payload bay shapes the architecture of the ISS. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast14mar_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 362, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Mar 15, 2001 (09:37)", "body": "So Mir's going to crash somewhere in Australia. Will it land on the locale of Survivor?"}, {"response": 363, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 15, 2001 (19:39)", "body": "What a thought - and could they have envisioned a more spectacular ending for the series?! Welcome Interference -- astronomers get a new tool in the hunt for planets NASA Science News for March 15, 2001 NASA scientists have combined starlight from the two largest telescopes on Earth to form an extraordinary optical interferometer -- a powerful tool in the search for planets outside the solar system. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast15mar_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 364, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 15, 2001 (19:48)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, March 15, 2001 @ 1700 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now RUSSIANS REFINE PLAN FOR REENTRY OF SPACE STATION MIR ----------------------------------------------------- After weeks of uncertainty, Russian space officials have set the early hours of March 22 as the definitive target for the Mir's fiery reentry into Earth's atmosphere. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010314date/ SPACE STATION CARGO TRANSFER IN HIGH GEAR ----------------------------------------- The Discovery astronauts spent the day repacking the Leonardo cargo module with space station trash and discarded equipment while the lab's departing crew members briefed their replacements on the finer points of operating the growing outpost. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010315fd8/ NOW SHOWING: MORE THAN A DOZEN SHUTTLE LAUNCH VIEWS --------------------------------------------------- Spaceflight Now's STS-102 Mission Theater is now showing more than a dozen varied views of shuttle Discovery's spectacular sunrise blast off last week. Among the 50 other clips available, are daily reports and mission highlights. Subscribe to the Mission Theater today! http://spaceflightnow.com/theater/ VOLCANOES ON JOVIAN MOON IO TRY ERASING THEIR AGE ------------------------------------------------- The amount of lava gushing from individual volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io dwarfs earthly comparisons, and the pace at which lava is repainting Io's surface suggests a novel technique for determining the relative ages of surface regions there. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/15io/"}, {"response": 365, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Mar 16, 2001 (08:05)", "body": "I watched a little bit of Mission to Mars last night, have you seen this Marci? How accurate is this movies portrayal of the technology we'd actually use on a mission like this?"}, {"response": 366, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 16, 2001 (13:14)", "body": "Propagation from ARRL Solar flux declined this week, having reached a short-term peak a week prior to Wednesday. But average daily solar flux and sunspot numbers were higher this week than last. Daily sunspot numbers reached a peak of 174 on Monday. This is the highest it has been since February 9, when it was 179, or January 23, when it was 178. Geomagnetic conditions have been quiet, with A indices in the single-digits. Quiet conditions should continue, although there is a possibility that sunspot group 9373, currently at the center of the solar disk oriented toward earth, could produce some solar flares on Thursday or Friday. You'll hear the results on the WWV reports a few days later if the K index rises above 3. Solar flux is expected to be around 135 on Friday and 130 for the following few days, then rise to around 145 on March 22-24. By comparison, a year ago the average sunspot number and solar flux reported in this bulletin (ARLP011) was respectively 193.4 and 194.9. Scott Craig has a revised version of his Solar Data Plotting Utility, which works with the data presented in this bulletin. The new version was released last week, and has a new feature which can connect to the internet and automatically download the solar data from an ARRL FTP site. His website is at http://www.craigcentral.com , and the software is at http://www.craigcentral.com/sol.htm . Next week is the spring equinox, with anticipated spring propagation conditions. 15 and 20 meters should be open later into the evening, with 20 meters possibly open all night. 10 meters should improve around the change of seasons, but will probably degrade for worldwide propagation as spring moves toward summer. Sunspot numbers for March 8 through 14 were 98, 113, 131, 139, 174, 110 and 159 with a mean of 132. 10.7 cm flux was 167.2, 161.4, 160.1, 157.8, 157.6, 147.3 and 142.2, with a mean of 156.2, and estimated planetary A indices were 6, 6, 5, 4, 10, 7 and 7 with a"}, {"response": 367, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 16, 2001 (18:36)", "body": "List-Subscribe: NEWSALERT: Friday, March 16, 2001 @ 1854 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now DISCOVERY TO STAY AN EXTRA DAY AT SPACE STATION ----------------------------------------------- Mission managers have decided to extend Discovery's stay at the International Space Station by one day. Meanwhile, the station's first crew looks forward to homecoming, if not Earth's gravity. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010316fd9/ GALILEO GETS FINAL REPRIEVE BEFORE CRASH INTO JUPITER ----------------------------------------------------- The resilient Galileo spacecraft doesn't know when it call it quits. So, NASA has outlined the details of one last mission extension, which includes five more flybys of the Jovian moons before a final plunge into the crushing pressure of the giant planet's atmosphere. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/16galileo/ WALKER SAYS NO TO NASA ADMINISTRATOR JOB ---------------------------------------- A former Congressman who had been considered as a leading candidate to succeed Dan Goldin as NASA administrator said Thursday he has no interest in the position. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/16walker/ SEA LAUNCH TO LOFT RADIO RELAY SATELLITE SUNDAY ----------------------------------------------- The countdown got underway Thursday for Sea Launch's planned Sunday mission to place the first digital audio relay spacecraft into orbit for XM Satellite Radio, a company that aims to broadcast music, news and entertainment programming directly to cars across America starting this summer. http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm2/status.html TWIN TELESCOPES TEAM UP TO SHARPEN THEIR FOCUS ---------------------------------------------- The two largest telescopes in the world were linked together this week for the first time, a key step forward for efforts to directly observe extrasolar planets. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/16keck/ TWO ASTEROIDS GET IRISH TOUCH ----------------------------- Two asteroids have been given Irish names in time for St. Patrick's Day. Discovered in July 1987 by famed asteroid hunter and planetary astronomer Eleanor Helin, the asteroids have been officially christened by the International Astronomical Union and honor Irish contributions to astronomical research. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/16irish/ NOW SHOWING: MORE THAN A DOZEN SHUTTLE LAUNCH VIEWS --------------------------------------------------- Spaceflight Now's STS-102 Mission Theater is now showing more than a dozen varied views of shuttle Discovery's spectacular sunrise blast off last week. Among the 50 other clips available, are daily reports and mission highlights. Subscribe to the Mission Theater today! http://spaceflightnow.com/theater/"}, {"response": 368, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 19, 2001 (15:52)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, March 19, 2001 @ 0718 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now DISCOVERY DEPARTS THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ------------------------------------------------- The international space station's first commander formally turned the ship over to his replacement Sunday night, wishing the lab's second three-person crew good luck aboard the orbital outpost and urging them to \"sail her well\" during their four-and-a-half-month stay. Discovery then undocked to bring the Expedition One crew home. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010318fd12/ COMPUTER ISSUE RESOLVED AS MODULE RETURNS TO SHUTTLE ---------------------------------------------------- The Leonardo \"moving van\" was pulled away from the space station and returned to Discovery's payload bay Sunday morning after delivering five tons of equipment and supplies to the orbiting outpost. The move followed intensive troubleshooting to verify the health of the shuttle's flight computers. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010318fd11/ SATELLITE LAUNCHED TO BEAM DIGITAL RADIO ACROSS AMERICA ------------------------------------------------------- American motorists seeking something new from their car radios received a boost Sunday when a rocket launched from a platform in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and delivered a digital audio broadcasting satellite into orbit. http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm2/ Read our call of the countdown and launch: http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm2/status.html MIR VETERANS RECALL STATION'S GLORY, LAMENT ITS PASSING ------------------------------------------------------- As the shuttle and station crews wrapped up a quiet but productive day in space, four of the five Mir veterans on board reflected on the upcoming demise of the old Russian station, lamenting its passing but looking forward to the future. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010317fd10/ GROUND CONTROL PREPARES TO BOOST MIR'S POWER SUPPLY --------------------------------------------------- Russian mission controllers in Korolev plan to restart space station Mir's orientation system on Wednesday, or around 24 hours prior to the complex's scheduled deorbiting, officials said Friday. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010317control/ U.S. PROVIDES DATA TO RUSSIA FOR MIR SPLASHDOWN ----------------------------------------------- United States space specialists are providing Russian technicians with Mir space station positional data to help ensure the vehicle's safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010317usaf/ U.S. TO BUILD CONSTELLATION OF SATELLITES FOR TAIWAN ---------------------------------------------------- Taiwan has chosen Orbital Sciences to build a fleet of six microsatellites that aims to study Earth's atmosphere to aid scientists in weather and climate forecasting and ionosphere and gravity research fields. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/18rocsat/ To subscribe send email to newsalert-on@astrolists.com"}, {"response": 369, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Mar 19, 2001 (23:07)", "body": "Marcia, did you see the Wired article on the new rocket technology they want to use to send men to Mars, the propellant reaches a temperature of a million degrees and is contained by magnetic force. I think they said it could reach Mars in about 4 months. Pretty amazing."}, {"response": 370, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 20, 2001 (00:32)", "body": "No, but I will look for it and report back! Thanks! 2001 Mars Odyssey: Coming soon to a launch pad near you! NASA Science News for March 19, 2001 NASA's latest mission to Mars, an orbiter scheduled for launch on April 7, 2001, will seek out underground water-ice and explore space weather around the Red Planet -- and that's not all! FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast19mar_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 371, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 20, 2001 (00:42)", "body": "Sprin5 , I searched Wired and subscribed to their news...could not find the article. Will look elsewhere but am most interested! Thanks for the Wired suggestion. I had forgotten it existed!"}, {"response": 372, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Mar 20, 2001 (08:21)", "body": "I actually read it in their magazine, I don't know if they carried it online. 140 days or so is a very fast trip to Mars considering current technology takes about 9 months."}, {"response": 373, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 20, 2001 (13:52)", "body": "That is truly incredible. I searched their site and weent back to the last century and did not find the article. I am sure more will be written about it, and when I find it, I will put it in here! Geomagnetic Storm Space Weather News for March 20, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com AURORA WATCH: A moderate geomagnetic storm that began Monday when a solar coronal mass ejection buffeted Earth's magnetic field shows no immediate signs of abating. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras after local nightfall. HERE COMES THE SUN: Another coronal mass ejection is heading our way. SOHO coronagraphs spotted a very faint CME on Monday that could arrive in the neighborhood of our planet on March 22nd or 23rd. For updates and more information please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 374, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Mar 20, 2001 (22:40)", "body": "It's in the light green Jan 2001 Wired that says \"Touch me all over\" on the cover. Zip Drive! Building the Fast Track to Mars. Page 96. Aa rocket that runs on million degree plasma and could someday fuel a fast track trip to Mars. VASIMR - variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket."}, {"response": 375, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Mar 21, 2001 (08:51)", "body": "Taco Bell is going to give us all free tacos if the Russians can hit a target with the re-entering Mir: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010320/sc/taco_bell_mir.html"}, {"response": 376, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 21, 2001 (20:41)", "body": "Ok will look for the Wired article online...thanks, Terry! NEWSALERT: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 @ 0825 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now TITO CONTROVERSY HEATS UP ------------------------- In an escalating battle of wills, NASA is staging a news conference today to discuss its opposition to Russian plans for launching American millionaire Dennis Tito to the international space station next month as history's first space tourist. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/20tito/ Read NASA news release on Tito training: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/20tito/index2.html STORMY WEATHER THREATENS SPACE SHUTTLE'S HOMECOMING --------------------------------------------------- The Discovery astronauts tested the shuttle's re-entry systems late Monday and packed up for landing early Wednesday to bring the international space station's first crew back to Earth after 141 days in the weightlessness of space. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010320eom/ We will have live landing coverage: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html See a detailed entry timeline: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/fdf/102entry.html FIRE ALARM SENDS STATION CREW SCRAMBLING ---------------------------------------- A fire alarm went off in the Destiny laboratory module of the international space station Monday. It turned out to be a false alarm, but it shut down ventilation systems, computers dropped off line and the station's new crew was unable to find the documentation needed to reactive critical systems. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010319falsealarm/ SPACE STATION MIR TO REMAIN ALOFT FOR AN EXTRA DAY -------------------------------------------------- Russian space officials have postponed the deorbiting of the Mir space station by 24 hours to Friday. The decision to delay the reentry was caused by lower than expected descent rate of the station in the upper atmosphere. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/010319date/ LOCKMART'S ATHENA ROCKET WELCOMED BACK AT NASA ---------------------------------------------- Lockheed Martin's Athena rocket, facing a very uncertain future after being left out of a NASA launch services contract two years ago, received favorable news from the space agency Monday. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/20athena/ STARDUST COMET PROBE'S VISION GETS FUZZY AGAIN ---------------------------------------------- In December, Stardust, the mission to Comet Wild 2 to capture dust particles and return them to Earth, cleared a coating that was clouding its camera optics by applying heat. Today, team members are investigating the reappearance of the coating, which is similar to the frost on a car windshield. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/20stardust/ ORBITAL PICKED TO BUILD THREE TV SATELLITES FOR PANAMSAT -------------------------------------------------------- PanAmSat has announced a new multi-spacecraft agreement with Orbital Sciences Corporation for the development of the next generation of Galaxy cable satellites. The contract solidifies Orbital as a major supplier in the world market for GEO communications satellites. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/20oscpas/"}, {"response": 377, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Mar 21, 2001 (22:06)", "body": "That %#*&%*# shuttle woke me up this morning at 2:30. I thought a tree had fallen on the house, it was so loud. When I got awake enough to start to think I realized what it was but the blasted thing raised me right up out of the bed. When it hits the earth's atmosphere it sounds like someone set off a pair of cannons in the back yard. This time it must have entered right over Polk county. Pleasant dreams."}, {"response": 378, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 22, 2001 (12:36)", "body": "Grumble grumbel - I'll trade you a few earthquakes and a volcanic eruption to hear that and watch a launch...*sighing with envy* Thanks for reporting! New Aurora Photos + A Geomagnetic Activity Alert Space Weather News for March 21, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com AURORA PHOTOS: The intensity of this week's strong geomagnetic storm surprised many forecasters. Nevertheless, quick-witted photographers around the world were able to capture beautiful photos of the aurora borealis. You can see some of the best images in our March 20th aurora gallery. GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY WARNING: Coronal mass ejections that left the Sun on March 19th and 20th could buffet Earth's magnetosphere before the weekend. Our planet may also be heading for an encounter with a solar wind stream. Together these events could trigger another round of geomagnetic activity. NEAR-EARTH ASTEROID: A newly-discovered asteroid will pass by Earth on March 23rd four and a half times farther away than the Moon. There's no danger of a collision, but the space rock (about the size of a football field) will be close enough for amateur astronomers to spy through properly-equipped telescopes. For more information please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 379, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 22, 2001 (12:46)", "body": "Staying Cool on the ISS NASA Science News for March 21, 2001 In a strange new world where hot air doesn't rise and heat doesn't conduct, the International Space Station's thermal control systems maintain a delicate balance between the deep-freeze of space and the Sun's blazing heat. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast21mar_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 380, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 22, 2001 (13:40)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, March 22, 2001 @ 1650 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now FINAL HOURS COUNTING DOWN FOR SPACE STATION MIR ----------------------------------------------- The space station Mir -- a relic of the once grand Soviet space program that later served as a stepping stone to today's world cooperation in orbit -- is making its final laps around Earth. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/status.html STATION PIONEERS BACK ON EARTH AFTER HISTORIC VOYAGE ---------------------------------------------------- After a dramatic reversal of fortune, the shuttle Discovery dropped out of orbit and glided to a pre-dawn landing at the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, bringing the international space station's first full-time crew back to Earth after a 141-day space odyssey. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a1/010321land/ NASA CONTINUES PROTESTING SPACE JOYRIDE OF DENNIS TITO ------------------------------------------------------ NASA managers vow to continue efforts to convince their Russian counterparts not to launch U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito to the international space station next month, saying the would-be space tourist has not been properly trained and represents a clear safety threat to the multi-billion-dollar station and its crew. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/20tito/ RUSSIA STANDS FIRM ON TITO; COSMONAUTS RESUME TRAINING ------------------------------------------------------ The Russian Aviation and Space Agency ordered the Russian Soyuz taxi crewmembers to resume training at the Johnson Space Center on Tuesday but remained adamant that Dennis Tito would fly with to the space station with or without NASA's consent. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/20tito/russianreax.html DEEP SPACE 1 PROBE LOADS UP FOR TREK TO COMET --------------------------------------------- NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft, sailing through the solar system today, has taken delivery of a new cargo: the latest software for its ambitious encounter with Comet Borrelly this September. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/21ds1/ BLINKING STAR EXPLAINS MYSTERY ABOARD GALILEO --------------------------------------------- When a star tracker on NASA's Galileo spacecraft temporarily lost a star being used as a reference point for monitoring the spacecraft's attitude, engineers suspected an aberration in the equipment, not in the star. After all, this particular star is one of the 50 brightest in the sky. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/22galblink/ X-RAY TELESCOPE PROVIDES WEALTH OF DATA ABOUT COMET --------------------------------------------------- Most of their time is spent frozen in the outer reaches of the solar system. But when these balls of ice and dust, which we know as comets, decide to make an appearance, the spectacle is often grandiose. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/22comet/ POLAR TELESCOPE SIGHTS FIRST HIGH-ENERGY NEUTRINOS -------------------------------------------------- A novel telescope, buried deep in the Antarctic ice at the South Pole, has become the first instrument to detect and track high-energy neutrinos from space, setting the stage for a new field of astronomy that promises a view of some of the most distant, enigmatic and violent phenomena in the universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/22polar/ NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES NEW TEAMS ----------------------------------------------- NASA has selected four new teams to become part of the agency's Astrobiology Institute (NAI), a national and international research consortium that studies the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life on Earth and in the universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/21astrobio/"}, {"response": 381, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 23, 2001 (15:07)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, March 23, 2001 @ 1624 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now MIR DIVES INTO PACIFIC ---------------------- The 15-year odyssey of the Russian space station Mir ended in an extraordinary fireball in Earth's atmosphere today. Fiery debris rained down on the South Pacific Ocean after a successful controlled reentry of the station. http://spaceflightnow.com/mir/status.html DELTA 2 ROCKET PICKED TO LAUNCH QUICKBIRD 2 SATELLITE ----------------------------------------------------- A commercial eye-in-the-sky with better vision than any other Earth imaging satellite will be lofted into space by a Boeing Delta 2 rocket this fall, officials announced Thursday. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/23quickbird2/ WHITE DWARFS SHED LIGHT ON DARK MATTER -------------------------------------- Some of the invisible \"dark matter\" that makes up most of the mass of our galaxy may be in the form of previously undetected white dwarf stars, astronomers reported this week. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/23darkmatter/ LAUNCH SCHEDULE UPDATES ----------------------- Our Worldwide Launch Schedule is updated regularly to reflect the latest news on human and unmanned rocket flights planned from spaceports around the globe. Today you can find out about newly announced delays for this June's space shuttle mission and the next two Titan 4 rocket launches. http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/"}, {"response": 382, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 23, 2001 (15:27)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * First sighting of dark matter: (22 Mar) Astronomers have seen dark matter directly for the first time. Ben Oppenheimer of the University of California at Berkeley and colleagues in the US and UK have discovered a new kind of white dwarf that could account for up to a third of the 'dark' matter in the Universe. The extremely dim burnt-out stars were found in the 'galactic halo' that surrounds the Milky Way. Oppenheimer's team believes they represent part of the invisible matter - proposed to exist 70 years ago - that binds together galaxies and galaxy clusters with its gravitational pull (B R Oppenheimer et al 2001 Science at press). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/10 ] ----------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 383, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 24, 2001 (17:47)", "body": "Beam it Down, Scotty! NASA Science News for March 23, 2001 Solar power collected in space and beamed to Earth could be an environmentally friendly solution to our planet's growing energy problems. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23mar_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 384, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 28, 2001 (13:57)", "body": "Cannibal Coronal Mass Ejections NASA Science News for March 27, 2001 Fast-moving solar eruptions that overtake and devour their slower-moving kin can trigger long-lasting geomagnetic storms --and dazzling auroras-- when they strike Earth's magnetosphere. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast27mar_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 385, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 28, 2001 (14:05)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, March 27, 2001 @ 0754 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NASA AND MILITARY CONTINUE SEARCH FOR MARS LANDER ------------------------------------------------- NASA said Monday that it would begin a joint review with a military mapping agency to investigate images that may have pinpointed the location for the lost Mars Polar Lander spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/27mpl/ NASA TESTS ROCKET MODEM USING GLOBALSTAR SATELLITES --------------------------------------------------- Imagine a day when self-diagnostic tools allow future rockets to phone home with vital information about their condition, location and performance. NASA engineers believe the technology could replace expensive ground systems, reducing the cost of space flight. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/25modem/ U.S. NAVY SATELLITE TO LAUNCH ATOP ATLAS 3 ROCKET ------------------------------------------------- Lockheed Martin's Atlas 3 rocket will be used to loft the U.S. Navy's eleventh satellite for the UHF Follow-On communications network, officials announced Monday. Scheduled for blastoff in 2003 from Cape Canaveral, the commercial mission will be managed under the auspices of International Launch Services. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/27atlas3uhf/ SPACE TELESCOPE USING MEMBRANES STUDIED --------------------------------------- Lockheed Martin has been contracted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to conduct a study on a low-mass membrane telescope for NASA's New Millennium Program. The telescope concept would allow construction of an orbiting observatory with reduced weight and cost. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/26dart/ FINAL CREW MEMBERS NAMED TO HUBBLE OVERHAUL MISSION --------------------------------------------------- Three astronauts have been named to complete the STS-109 crew already in training for a mission that will feature five spacewalks to upgrade NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in late 2001. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/27sts109crew/ NASA NAMES FUTURE SPACE STATION EXPEDITION CREWS ------------------------------------------------ As the Expedition Two crew gets settled aboard the International Space Station, American crew members for future space station missions have begun formal training to meet launch dates, beginning in 2002. The 14 astronauts, six assigned to primary crews and eight assigned to backup crews. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/24expcrews/ MOVEMENT OF EARTH'S CRUST CAN BE DETECTED WITH GPS -------------------------------------------------- The same type of technology used by motorists to help them navigate city roadways can now be used to detect and measure the smallest movements in the Earth's crust, an international group of scientists has found. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/25gps/ TRW TO CONDUCT GOES-R WEATHER SATELLITE STUDY --------------------------------------------- TRW's weather systems business took another step forward with the award of a contract to study how to accommodate advanced sensors onto the next series of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, starting with GOES-R, for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/27goesr/ VETERAN SATELLITE TESTBED GETS NEW LEASE ON LIFE ------------------------------------------------ A NASA experimental satellite that completed its mission to test futuristic communications technologies has been given to a university-led consortium for use in educational studies. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/24acts/ STUDENT EXPERIMENTS TO FLY HIGH THANKS TO NASA ---------------------------------------------- A NASA education program will give high school students from across the country the opportunity for their dreams to literally take flight when experiments designed by the students fly on either a Space Shuttle or sub-orbital rocket. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/24kidexp/ NEW NASA 'TRAFFIC LIGHT' ACCELERATES COMPUTERS ---------------------------------------------- A new \"traffic light\" for computers, originally developed by NASA scientists, offers the potential to increase their speed and efficiency by prioritizing computer programs. The Portable Batch System enables system administrators to specify the order in which individual programs should be processed. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/26comp/"}, {"response": 386, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 28, 2001 (14:08)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - Detecting Planet Killers as a Sideline http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-01c.html - Finding Your Own Cloud Nine http://www.spacedaily.com/news/future-01b.html - India In High-Stakes Bid To Join Global Satellite Launch Club http://www.spacedaily.com/news/india-01b.html - Home, Space Home http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iss-01m.html - NASA And NIMA Continue Joint Review Of Mars Polar Lander Search Analysis http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-polar99-01a.html - Engineering a Better Faster Risotto http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-01a.html - A Constellation Of Orbital Power http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ssp-01b.html - World's Largest Plasma Wind Tunnel Reaches Completion http://www.spacedaily.com/news/windtunnels-01a.html ------------------ HEADLINES IN BRIEF March 27, 2001 ---------- SPACEGUARD - Detecting Planet Killers as a Sideline http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-01c.html Paris (ESA) March 27, 2001 - A 100 metre-wide space rock known as 2001 EC16 paid a passing visit to Earth's vicinity last Friday. As it swept by at a little over 1.7 million km from Earth - approximately four and a half lunar distances - the only people to pay it much attention were a dedicated band of astronomers. ---------- TECH SPACE - Finding Your Own Cloud Nine http://www.spacedaily.com/news/future-01b.html Pasadena - March 26, 2001 - In the continuous quest to find cost-effective methods to explore the planets, NASA engineers have risen to the occasion by developing a variety of new balloon methods inspired by centuries-old, solar-heated hot-air balloons, as well as by conventional helium light-gas balloons. ------------------- ADVERTISEMENT --------------------- The Door Is Open To Cutting Edge Technologies MSU TechLink can help your company develop strategic partnerships between Department of Defense laboratories and aerospace companies in the Northwest. Partnering with DoD will help leverage R&D investments and enhance commercialization opportunities. Visit Techlink Today -- http://techlink.msu.montana.edu/aero.html -- ------------------------------------------------------- --------- SPACEMART - India In High-Stakes Bid To Join Global Satellite Launch Club http://www.spacedaily.com/news/india-01b.html Sriharikota (AFP) March 27 - 2001 - India will make its bid for membership of the exclusive global club of commercial satellite launchers on Wednesday with the long-awaited maiden mission of its newly-developed delivery rocket. The blandly-named Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is the most technologically challenging project so far undertaken by the Indian space programme and carries the hopes and aspirations of thousands of scientists, engineers and industrialists. ------------ STATION NEWS - Home, Space Home http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iss-01m.html Huntsville - March 27, 2001 - Homes on Earth provide shelter from the wind and rain. But a home in Earth orbit must shield its occupants from the solar wind, and it must withstand a steady rain of dust-sized meteoroids, many moving faster than a speeding bullet! --------- MARSDAILY - NASA And NIMA Continue Joint Review Of Mars Polar Lander Search Analysis http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-polar99-01a.html Washington - March 26, 2001 - NASA and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) today said researchers from the two agencies will continue a joint review of the initial results of NIMA's search for the missing Mars Polar Lander. This analysis is extremely challenging, and has thus far produced no definitive conclusions. ------------- OPINION SPACE - Engineering a Better Faster Risotto http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-01a.html Herndon - March 27, 2001 - One of my nephews, due to circumstances beyond his control, ended up for a while in a very selective school. While he is blessed with many wonderful attributes, superior academic achievement isn't, and may not ever be, one of them. The faculty, quickly realizing this, spent an entire academic year not attempting to rescue him from drowning in academic quicksand, but rather figuring out how to get him to leave. ------- \"SMALLER SATELLITES: BIGGER BUSINESS?\" ------ Strasbourg will be the setting for the International Space University's 6th Annual Symposium. This year's theme will be small satellites with an emphasis on concepts, applications and markets. Join some of the world's leading experts, manufacturers and users in interdisciplinary presentations and discussions on a wide variety of issues pertaining to small satellites Strasbourg - May 21-23 - 2001 --------- http://www.isunet.edu/Symposium/ ---------- SPACEMART - A Constellation Of Orbital Power http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ssp-01b.html Huntsville - March 27, 2001 - It's December 2000 and the governor of California flips a switch illuminating the state Christmas tree on the capital lawn. Twenty minutes later, he orders aides to pull the plug. Why? Statewide power shortages. ---------- TECH SPACE - World's Largest Plasma"}, {"response": 387, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 28, 2001 (14:12)", "body": "Solar activity is on the rise... Space Weather News for March 27, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com SOLAR ACTIVITY: In recent days the Boulder sunspot number has rocketed to 339, its highest level since July 2000. At least one large sunspot group has a complex magnetic field that could harbor energy for powerful solar flares. Forecasters estimate a 20% chance of an X-class eruption during the next 24 hours. AURORA WATCH: An interplanetary shock wave buffeted Earth's magnetosphere Tuesday morning and another may be following close behind. A coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on March 25th will arrive late Tuesday or Wednesday and possibly trigger additional geomagnetic disturbances. In recent days Alaskan sky watchers have enjoyed some of the best auroras of the current solar cycle. Check out our gallery of aurora photos for the latest images. For more information and updates, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 388, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 28, 2001 (16:32)", "body": "-------------------------------------------- SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - March 28, 2001 ** forward SpaceDaily Express to a friend ** -------------------------------------------- ----------- QUICK SPACE - What Should We Tell The Universe? http://www.spacedaily.com/news/outerplanets-01c.html - US and Taiwan Go COSMIC Over Atmospheric Studies http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cosmic-01a.html - TechLink Helps Companies in Northwest Blast Into AeroSpace http://www.spacedaily.com/news/techlink-01a.html - Staying Cool on the ISS http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iss-01n.html - When Will Television Invades Mars http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-general-01b.html - Can Liquid Water Still Exist On Mars http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-water-science-01e.html - Failure IS an Option http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-01b.html ------------------ HEADLINES IN BRIEF March 28, 2001 ------------- SPACE SCIENCE - What Should We Tell The Universe? http://www.spacedaily.com/news/outerplanets-01c.html Pasadena - March 28, 2001 - NASA's embattled mission to Pluto and the Kuiper belt isn't on firm ground at the moment, but it's far from being totally dead. Even if the project is officially terminated in the short term, the possibility of resurrecting this mission in the future has not been eliminated. --------- SPACEMART - US and Taiwan Go COSMIC Over Atmospheric Studies http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cosmic-01a.html Boulder - March 28, 2001 - COSMIC is a joint U.S.-Taiwan scientific project, with a goal to launch a constellation of six microsatellites to collect atmospheric sounding measurements. The scientific foundation for COSMIC is the radio occultation (limb sounding) technique developed by JPL and Stanford University in the late 1960s to study planetary atmospheres. - TechLink Helps Companies in Northwest Blast Into AeroSpace http://www.spacedaily.com/news/techlink-01a.html Bozeman - March 27, 2001 - The TechLink Center at Montana State University is helping companies throughout the Northwest establish productive technology development and commercialization partnerships with NASA, the Department of Defense (DoD), and other federal agencies. ------------ STATION NEWS - Staying Cool on the ISS http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iss-01n.html Huntsville - March 28, 2001 - The universe is a place of wide extremes: light, dark.. wet, dry.. air, vacuum.. hungry, fed. Human life tends to flourish in the balance. We feel most comfortable in places that are not too hot or too cold, not too light or too dark -- in other words, places that are \"just right.\" --------- MARSDAILY - When Will Television Invades Mars http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-general-01b.html Miami - March 28, 2001 - If you like TV, you'll love the Mars Channel. Take your seats for the network premiere of interplanetary telly - Can Liquid Water Still Exist On Mars http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-water-science-01e.html Moffett Field - March 28, 2001 - In 1998, NASA's Associate Administrator Wesley Huntress, Jr., stated, \"Wherever liquid water and chemical energy are found, there is life. There is no exception.\" ------------- OPINION SPACE - Failure IS an Option http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-01b.html Boise - March 28, 2001 - In the months since the twin failures of the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Climate Orbiter, NASA has profoundly changed the manner in which it applies the \"Faster, Better, Cheaper\" philosophy of space exploration. --------------------------------- SPACEDAILY EXPRESS LIST NOTES -------------------------------------------- SpaceDaily Express is issued daily and lists all new postings to www.SpaceDaily.com Subscription is free: subscribe@spacer.com or remove@spacer.com ------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 389, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 28, 2001 (17:25)", "body": "The Lure of Hematite: Curious deposits of rust on Mars hint at ancient water NASA Science News for March 28, 2001 On rusty-red Mars, a curious deposit of gray-colored hematite (a mineral cousin of common household rust) could hold the key to the mystery of elusive Martian water. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast28mar_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 390, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 29, 2001 (20:51)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, March 29, 2001 @ 0705 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now IRIDIUM SYSTEM COMPLETES ITS MIRACLE RESURRECTION ------------------------------------------------- Back from the brink of impending destruction, the reborn Iridium telephone satellite system relaunched commercial service Wednesday as the network's new owners prepare to debut data relay services via the orbiting constellation in June. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/29iridium/ LAST-SECOND ABORT GROUNDS FIRST FLIGHT OF INDIAN ROCKET ------------------------------------------------------- India's newest rocket was one second away from launch Wednesday on its inaugural flight when computers detected a malfunctioning engine and aborted the liftoff. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/28gslvd1/ TWO SPACE PROBES SEE GIANT PLUMES ON VOLCANIC MOON IO ----------------------------------------------------- Two tall volcanic plumes and the rings of red material they have deposited onto surrounding surface areas appear in images taken of Jupiter's moon Io by NASA's Galileo and Cassini spacecraft in late December 2000 and early January 2001. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/28galcassio/ MASSIVE INFANT STARS ROCK THEIR CRADLE -------------------------------------- A new Hubble image has helped to decipher the complex interplay of gas and radiation of a star-forming region in a nearby galaxy. The image graphically illustrates just how these massive stars sculpt their environment by generating powerful winds that alter the shape of the parent gaseous nebula. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/29hubble/ NEW SKIES SELECTS BOEING SATELLITE TO EXPAND FLEET -------------------------------------------------- New Skies Satellites N.V. has ordered from Boeing a power-house communications spacecraft with 88 transponders that will provide a wide-range of television, internet and multi-media services across North America. Sea Launch has been tapped to loft the craft in 2003. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/29nss8/ BOEING SATELLITE ARM PICKS SEA LAUNCH FOR SPACEWAY -------------------------------------------------- Boeing Satellite Systems on Wednesday announced that a pair of Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rockets will carry the two Spaceway broadband communications spacecraft into orbit in 2002 and 2003. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/29spaceway/ SCIENTISTS UNRAVEL THE KINKS IN SOLAR WAVES ------------------------------------------- Kinks in the Sun's magnetic field have puzzled scientists since they first started studying the solar wind, and now researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found the reason: they are caused by the evolution of a type of magnetic wave called Alfven waves. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/29kinks/ AFTER LOFTING DESTINY, ASTRONAUTS VISIT WEST WING ------------------------------------------------- It was a Texas reunion of sorts at the White House Wednesday as the crew of STS-98 and their families got an opportunity to spend some time with the President of the United States. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/29sts98potus/ COLLIDING SOLAR ERUPTIONS PACK POWERFUL PUNCH --------------------------------------------- Fast-moving solar eruptions apparently overtake and often devour their slower kin. This discovery was made by a team of astronomers working with tandem NASA spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/28cme/ SBIRS HIGH PAYLOAD SUCCESSFULLY PASSES KEY TEST ----------------------------------------------- Senior leaders from the Air Force recently observed a key test sequence of hardware for the next-generation missile warning satellite system known as SBIRS at the Lockheed Martin Sunnyvale facility. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/28sbirs/ HORMONE MAY PREVENT BONE BEING LOST IN SPACE -------------------------------------------- The reality of long-term space travel is raising questions about how to deal with the impact of long-term weightlessness on the body. Researchers say that one of the destructive results -- accelerated and significant loss of bone density -- may be thwarted by a hormone secreted by the gut to help the body use food as fuel. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/28bone/"}, {"response": 391, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 30, 2001 (17:18)", "body": "Massive Sunspot May Lead to Geomagnetic Storms The Sun has developed the largest sunspot seen in 10 years according to images from SOHO, a satellite that monitors the Sun. The size of this enormous spot is equivalent to the total surface area of 13 Earths. The sunspot region has already produced a coronal mass ejection and a powerful solar flare, and these are likely to lead to geomagnetic storms. The worldwide network of Magnetic Observatories operated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is monitoring the geomagnetic field that is expected to become quite disturbed as result of this solar activity. While geomagnetic storms give rise to the beautiful Northern lights, they can also pose a serious threat for commercial and military satellite operators, power companies, astronauts, and they can even shorten the life of oil pipelines in Alaska by increasing pipeline corrosion. Geomagnetic storms occur when plasma, a hot ionized gas of charged particles produced by eruptions on the Sun, impacts the Earth's magnetic field causing it to fluctuate wildly. These fluctuations cause currents to flow in conductors on the ground and in space. Solar eruptions can produce billions of tons of plasma traveling at speeds in excess of a million miles an hour. The first eruption should hit the Earth's magnetic field some time on Friday, March 30, and the second on Saturday. The geomagnetic field will likely become very active and there is a strong chance of Aurora sightings The USGS provides valuable geomagnetic data to a wide variety of users and organizations that are affected by geomagnetic storms. The agency operates a network of 14 magnetic observatories that continuously monitor the Earth's magnetic field. The data are collected in near-real time via satellite to a downlink center located in Golden, Colo., and provided to numerous customers including NOAA's Space Environment Center and the U.S. Air Force Space Command Center. Plots of the data from these observatories can be seen on-line at: http://geomag.usgs.gov/frames/plots.htm The SOHO satellite is operated jointly by the European Space Agency and NASA. As the nation's largest water, earth and biological science, and civilian mapping agency, the USGS works in cooperation with more than 2000 organizations across the country to provide reliable, impartial, scientific information to resource managers, planners, and other customers. This information is gathered in every state by USGS scientists to minimize the loss of life and property from natural disasters, to contribute to the conservation and the sound economic and physical development of the nation's natural resources, and to enhance the quality of life by monitoring water, biological, energy, and mineral resources. ### USGS ###"}, {"response": 392, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 30, 2001 (20:02)", "body": "Back-to-School Time for Astrobiologists NASA Science News for March 30, 2001 NATO and NASA are joining forces to host an Advanced Study Institute for astrobiology in Crete, Sept 29-Oct 10, 2001. A diverse group of the world's most prominent scientists will share with students what they have learned lately about life in the Universe. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast30mar_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 393, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 31, 2001 (17:44)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Saturday, March 31, 2001 @ 2029 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ALPHA CREW PROMISES WARM WELCOME FOR TITO ----------------------------------------- The space station's crew will welcome U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito aboard Alpha next month if the Russians proceed with plans to launch him - over NASA's objections - as part of mission to deliver a fresh Soyuz lifeboat. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage6a/010330briefing/ LARGEST SUNSPOT IN 10 YEARS BLAZES AWAY WITH ERUPTIONS ------------------------------------------------------ A huge sunspot over a dozen times larger than the surface area of the Earth and growing, has now rotated with the Sun to face our planet. The sunspot, which is the largest of the current solar cycle, is also the largest to appear in a decade. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/31sunspot/ FIRST BLACK HOLE DISCOVERED IN GALACTIC HALO -------------------------------------------- A professor at the University of Southampton is part of an international team which has discovered a stellar mass black hole -- the first ever found in our galactic halo. This region of space lies above and below the main spiral arms of our galaxy, thousands of light years above the Milky Way galactic plane. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/31galactichalo/ A NEW MARTIAN ODYSSEY IS ABOUT TO BEGIN --------------------------------------- With memories of recent back-to-back failures still painfully fresh, NASA is leaving no stone unturned to make sure the $305 million Mars Odyssey probe makes it safely into orbit around the Red Planet later this year. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch April 7 atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket. http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d284/010330preview.html AIR FORCE MILSTAR 2 SATELLITE BEGINS ON-ORBIT TESTING ----------------------------------------------------- A combined MILSATCOM Joint Program Office/Lockheed Martin team has begun on-orbit testing of the first U.S. Air Force Milstar 2 communications satellite following the successful February 27 launch and activation of critical spacecraft systems. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/30milstar/ BOEING BOOKS ASTRA SATELLITE TO RIDE ARIANE 5 ROCKET ---------------------------------------------------- Arianespace, Boeing Satellite Systems and Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) have announced the signing of a contract to launch the Astra 3A telecommunications spacecraft on an Ariane 5 heavy-lift vehicle. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/30astra3a/ SBIRS FACILITY OPENS IN COLORADO -------------------------------- The Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command and Lockheed Martin took a giant step toward building greater unity and teamwork as the Space Based Infrared Systems Combined Task Force opened Thursday at a ceremony in Boulder, Colo. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/30sbirs/ List-Subscribe:"}, {"response": 394, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  3, 2001 (13:23)", "body": "A Record-Setting Solar Flare Space Weather News for April 3, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com The biggest sunspot of the current solar cycle unleashed the most powerful solar flare in at least 12 years yesterday. The \"X17\" class eruption blasted a coronal mass ejection into space and triggered an ongoing solar radiation storm around our planet. For details and updates please visit http://SpaceWeather.com ."}, {"response": 395, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  3, 2001 (13:38)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, April 3, 2001 @ 0512 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SUPERNOVA FOUND TO CONFIRM ACCELERATING UNIVERSE ------------------------------------------------ The serendipitous discovery of a distant supernova has confirmed that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate because of the presence of a pervasive, mysterious \"dark energy,\" astronomers reported Monday. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/03supernova/ EXOTIC CO2 PROCESS MAY HAVE CARVED MARTIAN GULLIES -------------------------------------------------- Liquid carbon dioxide breakouts rather than water probably created the Martian gullies discovered last summer in high-resolution images from the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter camera, some scientists say. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/01co2gullies/ OBSERVATORY SEES VISTAS IN HEART OF ORION NEBULA ------------------------------------------------ A new astronomical instrument has been installed on the European Southern Observatory telescope at La Silla. It is well suited for studying the complex processes that take place in the innermost regions of star-forming clouds. Among the first images are some of the most penetrating, mid-infrared views ever obtained of the central region of the Orion Nebula. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/02orion/ NEW EXPLORERS: SELF-INFLATING SOLAR-HEATED BALLOONS --------------------------------------------------- In the continuous quest to find cost-effective methods to explore the planets, NASA engineers have risen to the occasion by developing a variety of new balloon methods inspired by centuries-old, solar-heated hot-air balloons, as well as by conventional helium light-gas balloons. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/03balloon/ COLD POLAR RINGS HELP FORM CLOUDS THAT DESTROY OZONE ---------------------------------------------------- Newly discovered, narrow rings of cold air over Earth's poles help form colorful clouds that destroy ozone, according to a new report. The ozone layer protects life on Earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation that could cause skin cancer in humans and biological damage to living things. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/02polarrings/ JUPITER RADIATION BELTS HARSHER THAN EXPECTED --------------------------------------------- New measurements from NASA's Cassini spacecraft indicate that any future spacecraft venturing very near Jupiter would be zapped by the radiation belts there even more severely than had been previously estimated. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/01jupbelts/ GALILEO CONTINUES REPLAY OF JOVIAN MOON DATA -------------------------------------------- There are no engineering activities scheduled this week, so the spacecraft can concentrate on playing back the data stored on the on-board tape recorder during its December flyby of Ganymede. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/03galileothisweek/ BOEING AND ALENIA SPAZIO SIGN TRADING AGREEMENT ----------------------------------------------- Officials from Boeing and Alenia Spazio signed an agreement whereby Boeing will purchase fuel tanks from Alenia Spazio for the upper stage of the Boeing Delta 2 launch vehicle. Alenia Spazio has agreed to purchase Delta launch services for its satellite program. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/02boeingalenia/"}, {"response": 396, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  3, 2001 (13:51)", "body": "A Supernova Sheds Light on Dark Energy NASA Science News for April 3, 2001 A discovery by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope supports the notion that the Universe is filled with a mysterious form of \"dark energy\" -- a possibility first proposed, then discarded, by Albert Einstein early in the last century. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast03apr_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 397, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  4, 2001 (00:07)", "body": "Plumbing the Space Station NASA Science News for April 3, 2001 12:00:00 PM Nothing goes to waste on the International Space Station - nearly everything is recycled. What makes this ecologist's dream world work? Some of the fanciest plumbing in the solar system! FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast03apr_2.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 398, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  4, 2001 (16:09)", "body": "Super-flare coronal mass ejection reaches Earth Space Weather News for April 4th 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com Monday's super solar flare hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space that was mainly -- but not entirely -- directed away from Earth. The edge of the expanding CME passed our planet at approximately 1500 UT (11 am EST) on April 4th. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras after local nightfall. Almost certainly, this geomagnetic storm will be less intense than the one on March 31st that spawned \"Northern Lights\" as far south as Mexico. Nevertheless, isolated severe storms are possible. Check SpaceWeather.com for details and updates."}, {"response": 399, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  6, 2001 (17:14)", "body": "Was Johnny Appleseed a Comet? NASA Science News for April 5, 2001 A new experiment suggests that comet impacts could have sowed the seeds of life on Earth billions of years ago. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast05apr_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 400, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Apr  7, 2001 (19:19)", "body": "Odyssey is on the way to Mars!"}, {"response": 401, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  9, 2001 (21:21)", "body": "YES!!!! Up Up and Away!!!"}, {"response": 402, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Apr 10, 2001 (09:33)", "body": "http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20010406/imdf06042001011516a.jpg Hubble shot of galaxies intermingling."}, {"response": 403, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Apr 10, 2001 (09:33)", "body": "Eleven new planets (as reported by CNN): http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/04/05/new.planets/index.html?s=2"}, {"response": 404, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Apr 10, 2001 (09:34)", "body": "Really nice shot of the space station."}, {"response": 405, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Apr 10, 2001 (09:35)", "body": "And, since I'm on such a roll, here's the log of the space station for the last couple of months. If you really want the nitty gritty of what goes on up there."}, {"response": 406, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 10, 2001 (19:42)", "body": "Here Comes the Sun (again!) Space Weather News for April 10, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com A powerful X-class solar flare erupted Tuesday morning, triggering radio blackouts and a minor radiation storm. The explosion also hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth. Today's CME joins another already en route to our planet. Forecasters estimate a 25% chance of severe geomagnetic activity at middle latitudes when the CMEs arrive late Wednesday or Thursday. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras after sunset on Wednesday. Tune in to SpaceWeather.com for details and updates."}, {"response": 407, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 10, 2001 (19:50)", "body": "Leafy Green Astronauts NASA Science News for April 9, 2001 NASA scientists are learning how to grow plants in space. Such far-out crops will eventually take their place alongside people, microbes and machines in self-contained habitats for astronauts. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast09apr_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 408, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 10, 2001 (21:39)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, April 9, 2001 @ 1427 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ODYSSEY SPACECRAFT HEADS TO MARS IN SEARCH OF WATER --------------------------------------------------- When the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft enters orbit around Mars later this year, it will kick off a restructured Mars science program that focuses on the search for water on the Red Planet, past and present. http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/010408science.html On Sunday NASA gave an Odyssey status update: http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/status.html INDIA RESCHEDULES DEBUT LAUNCH OF ITS GSLV ROCKET ------------------------------------------------- The first development launch of Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle has been set for April 18. The original launch attempt of GSLV was aborted one second before the liftoff on March 28 because an engine failed to develop the required thrust. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/09gslv/ NEW INTERNATIONAL SATELLITE TO STUDY OUR EXPLOSIVE SUN ------------------------------------------------------ Life on Earth would be impossible without the light and heat generated by our nearest star, the Sun. However, this giant ball of hydrogen and helium gas can affect our world in many different ways. Not surprisingly, scientists want to learn as much as possible about our erratic neighbor, so spacecraft that can observe the Sun continuously are essential tools. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/09solarb/ SPACECOM CHIEF: SPACE MUST BE TOP NATIONAL PRIORITY --------------------------------------------------- American military involvement in space will become more critical to national security in coming years, says U.S. Space Command's top officer Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/09milspace/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HUBBLE CALENDAR FOR 2001 -- AVAILABLE NOW! This remarkable calendar features stunning images of planets, stars, gaseous nebulae, and galaxies captured by NASA's orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, which is one of the most important scientific instruments of our time. http://astronomynowstore.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- AOL USERS --------- The links below make it easier for AOL users to reach our stories. ODYSS EY SPACECRAFT HEADS TO MARS IN SEARCH OF WATER OUR MARS ODYSSEY MISSION STATUS CENTER INDIA RESCHEDULES DEBUT LAUNCH OF ITS GSLV ROCKET NEW INTERNATIONAL SATELLITE TO STUDY OUR EXPLOSIVE SUN SPACECOM CHIEF: SPACE MUST BE TOP NATIONAL PRIORITY"}, {"response": 409, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 11, 2001 (00:59)", "body": "-------------------------------------------- SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - April 9, 2001 ** forward SpaceDaily Express to a friend ** -------------------------------------------- ------------------ ADVERTISEMENT -------------------- The London Satellite Exchange - Buy or sell satellite capacity - Capacity on NewSat-I is available soon, and will provide attractive pricing combined with excellent coverage. The satellite is the former Palapa B2R, now in inclined orbit at 42.5 degrees East. Contact the traders +44 207 680 7268 -------------------- www.e-sax.com ------------------- ----------- QUICK SPACE - 2001 Mars Odyssey probe to launch new era in Mars exploration http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010406133440.2lt8wb65.html - India To Relaunch Failed Satellite Rocket April 18 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/india-01c.html - Russia launches new Proton rocket http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010407071752.r8b9p1f0.html - Endeavour Launch Set For April 19 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-01h.html ---------------- MORE QUICK SPACE - A European Mars Moving Ahead http://www.spacedaily.com/news/marsexpress-01a.html - Search for water on Mars goes on http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010406133404.yb30ugde.html - From triumph to catastrophe: NASA's missions to Mars http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010406133339.ko8wpfcq.html - Space Critical For US Forces http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-01k.html - A Nukeless Ukraine Backs Current ABM Treaty Arrangements http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-01z.html - Russian General Touts Western Support For Euro-Shield http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-01za.html - Computer Security Threat Is Real Warns Space Command Chief http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cyberwar-01a.html - North Korea sold 540 missiles to Mideast countries: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010406053343.iwdiyzpx.html - Delta IV RS-68 Engine Fires Up For Extended Test http://www.spacedaily.com/news/delta4-01c.html - EU launches satellite navigation system to rival GPS http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010405165455.zvkd6rgz.html - Bonnet Calls For More European Investment In Space Science http://www.spacedaily.com/news/esa-general-01a.html - Competition Heats Up For GLAST http://www.spacedaily.com/news/glast-01a.html - Japan to join project to build giant space telescope http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010406085455.zrbfuo02.html - Tropical Ocean Warming Driving Recent Northern Climate Change http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-01l.html - Understanding Two Big Ice Cubes http://www.spacedaily.com/news/icesat-01a.html - Hitchhiking Molecules On Comets Can Survive Impacts With Earth http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01l.html - Man in space: \"the greatest event in the history of the world\" http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010407022221.l3jqoj70.html - 40 years after Gagarin, space remains the final frontier http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010407013005.kvns1a0k.html ------------------ HEADLINES IN BRIEF April 9, 2001 --------- MARSDAILY - A European Mars Moving Ahead http://www.spacedaily.com/news/marsexpress-01a.html London - April 9, 2001 - If you live in Europe, there's almost certainly a research institute or industrial company near you that is contributing materials or expertise to Mars Express, Europe's first mission to the Red Planet. ----------------------- MARS 2001 LAUNCH SEASON - 2001 Mars Odyssey probe to launch new era in Mars exploration http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010406133440.2lt8wb65.html - Search for water on Mars goes on http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010406133404.yb30ugde.html - From triumph to catastrophe: NASA's missions to Mars http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010406133339.ko8wpfcq.html -------- SPACEWAR - Space Critical For US Forces http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-01k.html Washington - April 9, 2001 - American military involvement in space will become more critical to national security in coming years, said U.S. Space Command's top officer. - A Nukeless Ukraine Backs Current ABM Treaty Arrangements http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-01z.html Kiev (Interfax) April 8, 2001 - Ukraine is convinced that the ABM Treaty, the nucleus of the existing strategic arms limitation system, must be preserved, well-known Ukrainian military expert and Chairman of the State Commission for the Defense-Industrial Complex Vladimir Gorbulin writes in an article published by the Ukrainian newspaper Zerkalo Nedeli on Saturday. - Russian General Touts Western Support For Euro-Shield http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-01za.html Moscow (Interfax) April 8, 2001 - Leonid Ivashov, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry's main department for international military cooperation, said the West has expressed an interest in Russia's proposals on the creation of a European ballistic missile defense system. - Computer Security Threat Is Real Warns Space Command Chief http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cyberwar-01a.html Washington - April 9, 2001 - The four-star general whose organization is responsible for DoD computer security says the \"c"}, {"response": 410, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 11, 2001 (13:13)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 @ 1433 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now GIOTTO'S LEGACY IN THE EXPLORATION OF COMETS -------------------------------------------- Almost 15 years ago, ESA's Giotto spacecraft made history by obtaining the first close-up pictures of a comet's black, icy nucleus. Recently scientists and engineers who worked on the pioneering deep space mission came together to reminisce about past triumphs and to look forward to the next generation of comet explorers. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/11giotto/ WHITE HOUSE PROPOSES $14.5B NASA BUDGET FOR '02 ----------------------------------------------- NASA administrator Dan Goldin said Monday that the agency faces \"difficult decisions\" in a number of programs in the near future despite a 2002 budget request that gives the agency a modest funding increase. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/10nasabudget/ XEUS: A NEW CONCEPT IN EXPLORING X-RAY UNIVERSE ----------------------------------------------- Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Or, in the case of the Universe, was it massive black holes or galaxies? To answer this question by studying black holes in the early Universe requires an extremely sensitive X-ray telescope. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/10xeus/ GALILEO BUSY BEAMING DATA ------------------------- Another quiet engineering week sees the spacecraft concentrate once again on data playback from the tape recorder. These data were recorded when Galileo flew through the depths of the Jupiter system last December. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/10galileothisweek/ XM SATELLITE RADIO LOOKS FORWARD TO NEXT LAUNCH ----------------------------------------------- XM Satellite Radio reports that its first spacecraft is performing well during initial testing and checkout in orbit while preparations continue for the launch of the sister digital radio broadcasting craft next month. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/11xmupdate/ GOES-M WEATHER SATELLITE ARRIVES IN FLORIDA FOR LAUNCH ------------------------------------------------------ The GOES-M environmental weather satellite, currently targeted for launch July 12, arrived Tuesday by C-5 air cargo plane at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility from the manufacturing plant in Palo Alto, Calif. http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/ac142/010411arrive/ TRMM SATELLITE CRITICAL TOOL IN MONITORING HURRICANES ----------------------------------------------------- As the 2001 Hurricane Season approaches, forecasters will once again rely on high-resolution rain data from a NASA satellite in its arsenal of tools used to monitor the size, location, and strength of hurricanes and tropical storms. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/10trmm/"}, {"response": 411, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 11, 2001 (17:26)", "body": "Severe geomagnetic storming on Wednesday, April 11th Space Weather News for April 11, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com A strong solar wind disturbance hit our planet's magnetosphere around 1400 UT (noon EDT) on Wednesday, April 11th, triggering a severe geomagnetic storm. If the storm continues unabated, middle-latitude sky watchers could spot auroras tonight. Usually the best time to look for \"Northern Lights\" is around local midnight. In this case, it might be better to go outside not too long after sunset -- before the storm subsides and before the bright Moon rises. Visit spaceweather.com for updates and images from the ongoing storm."}, {"response": 412, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 11, 2001 (17:53)", "body": "Severe geomagnetic storming on Wednesday, April 11th (corrected) Space Weather News for April 11, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com A strong solar wind disturbance hit our planet's magnetosphere between 1300 and 1400 UT (9 to 10 a.m. EDT) on Wednesday, April 11th, triggering a severe geomagnetic storm. If the storm continues unabated, middle-latitude sky watchers could spot auroras tonight. Usually the best time to look for \"Northern Lights\" is around local midnight. In this case, it might be better to go outside not too long after sunset -- before the storm subsides and before the bright Moon rises. Visit spaceweather.com for updates and images from the ongoing storm. NOTE: Some subscribers may have received an earlier version of this announcement citing an incorrect time for the onset of the geomagnetic storm. This updated notice is correct. ---"}, {"response": 413, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 12, 2001 (13:16)", "body": "-------------------------------------------- SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - April 12, 2001 ** forward SpaceDaily Express to a friend ** -------------------------------------------- MAIN SPACE - Russia Clears Tito For April 28 Flight To ISS http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-01m.html - Japan's Space Agencies Under Mounting Pressure To Merge http://www.spacedaily.com/news/japan-general-01a.html - Defense Satellite Concerns May Kill SingTel Takeover of Optus http://www.spacedaily.com/news/optus-01a.html - Indonesia to launch telecom satellite in 2003 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010411032252.ki5wswmd.html ---------- MORE SPACE - Space legend lives on as Russia remembers Gagarin http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010411031049.gab5towd.html - Soviet Space Feats http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010411024158.zx661hjx.html - NASA's space shuttle program turns 20 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010411192826.dt8sx63k.html - Russia launches space conference despite snub by US, Britain http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010411153526.0egmlwn3.html - Russia mulls rapid reaction force for missile defense shield http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010410180103.z8jb5zmj.html - Cuban Missile Crisis Veterans Warn of \"Nuclear Folly\" http://www.spacedaily.com/news/icbm-01f.html - Cooperation, not confrontation serves Europe-US relations better http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010412020629.61wrczzo.html - Concerned world looks on as Bush pursues foreign policy agenda http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010412024051.z4pp0bts.html ------------------ HEADLINES IN BRIEF April 12, 2001 ------------ SPACE TRAVEL - Russia Clears Tito For April 28 Flight To ISS http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-01m.html Moscow - April 11, 2001 - Russian space officials have announced the go ahead for Dennis Tito's flight to the space station via a Soyzu-TM taxi flight set for liftoff April 28. NASA remains opposed to the flight, but realizes it has little option but to accept the unilateral move by Russia to commercialize the station ahead of its own belated plans. ----------- JAPAN SPACE - Japan's Space Agencies Under Mounting Pressure To Merge http://www.spacedaily.com/news/japan-general-01a.html Tokyo - April 11, 2001 - Japan's three major space agencies have taken the first tentative steps to a possible merger later this decade with an agreement to establish an initial joint program office to coordinate launch vehicle development, along with the sharing of ground facilities such as tracking stations and IT support services. ------------- SPACE HISTORY - Space legend lives on as Russia remembers Gagarin http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010411031049.gab5towd.html Gagarin - (AFP) Apr 11, 2001 - Russians above a certain age can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard that Yury Gagarin had died. And as with US president John F. Kennedy, the circumstances of the cosmonaut's death are shrouded in uncertainty, giving rise to outlandish conspiracy theories. - Soviet Space Feats http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010411024158.zx661hjx.html - NASA's space shuttle program turns 20 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010411192826.dt8sx63k.html Washington (AFP) Apr 11, 2001 - NASA marks 20 years of space shuttle flights Thursday -- an era of remarkable successes tainted by the tragedy of the Challenger explosion -- amid uncertainty over the future of the program. YURI'S NIGHT - Man in space: \"the greatest event in the history of the world\" http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010407022221.l3jqoj70.html - Key dates in the history of space flight http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010407013207.yyf5ftfl.html - 40 years after Gagarin, space remains the final frontier http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010407013005.kvns1a0k.html - Cosmonauts biographies published in Gagarin anniversary volume http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010406165110.gcrajr7s.html - Official Celebration Site http://www.yurisnight.net --------- SPACEMART - Defense Satellite Concerns May Kill SingTel Takeover of Optus http://www.spacedaily.com/news/optus-01a.html Sydney - April 11, 2001 - A takeover bid of Australia's number two telecom carrier Cable and Wireless Optus, by Singapore's majority state owned telecom firm SingTel is under growing pressure following concerns over a conflict of interest. - Indonesia to launch telecom satellite in 2003 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010411032252.ki5wswmd.html Jakarta (AFP) Apr 11, 2001 - The state-run PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (PT Telkom) is planning to launch its Telkom-2 telecommunications satellite in 2003 to replace the Palapa B4, a report said Wednesday. -------- SPACEWAR - Russia launches space conference despite snub by US, Britain http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010411153526.0egmlwn3.html Moscow (AFP) Apr 11, 2001 - An international conference aimed at outlawing a military build-up in space opened here Wednesday amid Russian anger that the United States and Britain had apparently snubbed a forum held at President Vladimir Putin's initiative. - Russia mulls rapid"}, {"response": 414, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 13, 2001 (00:03)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, April 13, 2001 @ 0257 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now MOLECULES HITCHHIKING ON COMETS MAY SURVIVE IMPACTS --------------------------------------------------- Simulating a high-velocity comet collision with Earth, a team of scientists has shown that organic molecules hitchhiking aboard a comet could have survived such an impact and seeded life on this planet. The results give credence to the theory that the raw materials for life came from space and were assembled on Earth into the ancestors of proteins and DNA. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/13molecules/ ODYSSEY'S LAUNCH PUT SPACECRAFT ON GOOD COURSE ---------------------------------------------- NASA has decided to postpone the first trajectory tweaking maneuver by the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft that was envisioned for next Monday, officials announced Thursday. http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/status.html EXPEDITION TWO CREW WORKS AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL --------------------------------------------- The international space station's Expedition Two Crew spent this week loading the Progress supply craft with trash and unneeded items in preparation for its undocking next week to clear the aft port on the Zvezda module for the relocation of the Soyuz capsule. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html ACCIDENT DELAYS COSMOS 1 SOLAR SAIL PROJECT LAUNCH -------------------------------------------------- The Planetary Society disclosed Wednesday that it's plans to launch a solar sail demonstration satellite later this month would be delayed indefinitely due to a testing accident that damaged the spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/12cosmos1/ SUN TAKES ANOTHER SOLAR SHOT, THIS TIME AT EARTH ------------------------------------------------ An angry Sun fired off another powerful X-class flare Tuesday. X-class flares are the most powerful classification, and this flare, rated X-2, was the most recent in a series that included one of the most powerful solar blasts in 25 years. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/12flare/ FIRST MEASUREMENTS MADE OF COLD WATER IN MILKY WAY -------------------------------------------------- The search for water in space goes on. Using ESA's Infrared Space Observatory, astronomers have for the first time measured the total amount of water in cold regions of our galaxy. This is especially interesting because these regions are the birthplace of stars like the Sun, and Solar Systems like our own. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/12coldwater/ NASA TO TRACK MORE ASTEROIDS WITH NEW CAMERA -------------------------------------------- Asteroid search efforts got a boost from a new, improved camera installed this week for NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Tracking system on the 1.2-meter Oschin telescope at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego, Calif. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/13neat/ NEW WAY TO STUDY EVOLUTION OF WHITE DWARF STARS ----------------------------------------------- The Joint Astrophysical Plasmadynamic Experiment (J-PEX) recently launched successfully on a NASA sounding rocket. The J-PEX objective is to produce the first high-resolution spectrum of a white dwarf star at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/13jpex/ PRATT TO DEVELOP NEW UPPER STAGE ROCKET ENGINE ---------------------------------------------- Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion operations announced this week its plans to begin development of a full-scale engine demonstrator for a next generation high-performance liquid-hydrogen-fueled 60,000 pound-thrust-class rocket engine, designated the RL60. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/12rl60/"}, {"response": 415, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 13, 2001 (12:52)", "body": "Interplanetary shock wave passes Earth, triggers magnetic storm Space Weather News for April 13, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com AURORA ALERT: An interplanetary shock wave struck Earth's magnetosphere early on Friday the 13th and triggered a strong geomagnetic storm. Forecasters anticipate that a second shock wave will arrive later Friday or Saturday, possibly intensifying the ongoing disturbance. Middle-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras after local sunset. AURORA GALLERY: A pair of coronal mass ejections that hit Earth's magnetosphere on April 11th sparked an intense display of auroras. Sky watchers in the United States saw \"Northern Lights\" as far south as the New Mexico-Texas border. Check out our aurora gallery for more than 50 images of the storm. Visit http://SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 416, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 13, 2001 (16:09)", "body": "Life as We (Didn't) Know It NASA Science News for April 13, 2001 Biologists always thought life required the Sun's energy, until they found an ecosystem that thrives in complete darkness. A team of scientists including members of the NASA Astrobiology Institute are sailing the high seas on a daring expedition to explore this strange new world -- right here on our own planet. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast13apr_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 417, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 14, 2001 (17:58)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Saturday, April 14, 2001 @ 1750 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now A VIRTUAL COLUMBIA ON ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY ------------------------------------------ Spaceflight Now toured the space shuttle Columbia at the Kennedy Space Center this week to mark the 20th anniversary of its maiden flight and captured the scene in two virtual reality panoramas. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/14ov102/ EUROPE GOES TO MARS ------------------- If you live in Europe, there's almost certainly a research institute or industrial company near you that is contributing materials or expertise to Mars Express, Europe's first mission to the Red Planet. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/14marsexpress/ TURNING DIAMOND FILM INTO SOLAR CELLS ------------------------------------- Timothy Fisher is taking a Tiffany's approach to converting sunlight into electricity: with a $348,000 grant from National Reconnaissance Office, the assistant professor of mechanical engineering is exploring the use of polycrystalline diamond as a replacement for the silicon solar cells currently used in many space applications. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/14diamondarrays/"}, {"response": 418, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 16, 2001 (19:04)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, April 16, 2001 @ 1651 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SHUTTLE ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE IN FLORIDA FOR LAUNCH ----------------------------------------------- Astronauts representing four countries -- the most diverse for any one crew -- flew to Kennedy Space Center today in preparation for blastoff aboard space shuttle Endeavour on Thursday bound of the international space station. Meanwhile, a Russian cargo ship undocked from the station earlier today. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html STS-100 MISSION THEATER IS NOW OPEN ----------------------------------- Sign up today for Spaceflight Now's Mission Theater Package, your front row seat for video coverage of shuttle Endeavour's mission to deliver the Canadian-made robotic arm to the International Space Station. You will gain access to online video clips, plus receive an embroidered mission patch like those worn by the astronauts and a VHS tape featuring the daily mission highlights and additional launch and landing footage. http://spaceflightnow.com/theater/sts100/pack.html CLIMATE CHANGE LINKED TO ANOMALY IN EARTH'S ORBIT ------------------------------------------------- About 23 million years ago, a huge ice sheet spread over Antarctica, temporarily reversing a general trend of global warming and decreasing ice volume. Now a team of researchers has discovered that this climatic blip corresponded with a rare combination of events in the pattern of Earth's orbit around the Sun. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/16anomaly/ X-40A CRAFT PAVES WAY FOR NASA'S X-37 SPACE PLANE ------------------------------------------------- The X-40A vehicle successfully performed a second free flight test on April 12 at Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif. The X-40A was lifted by an Army Chinook helicopter and released. The craft made a smooth touchdown shortly thereafter. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/15x40a/ ANTIBIOTIC EXPERIMENT HEADING FOR SPACE STATION ----------------------------------------------- The University of Colorado at Boulder-based BioServe Space Technologies Center is sending an intriguing biomedical experiment to the international space station April 19 to test the effects of long-term weightlessness on antibiotic production. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/15issbioserve/ NASA SHOWS EARTH'S GLOBAL HEAT ENGINE DRIVING PLANTS ---------------------------------------------------- Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have assembled the first long-term global data set that demonstrates the connection between changing patterns of sea surface temperature and patterns of plant growth across the Earth's landscapes. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/15plantgrowth/"}, {"response": 419, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 17, 2001 (14:27)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 @ 1508 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now STATION TO GROW TWO-HANDED ARM DURING SHUTTLE VISIT --------------------------------------------------- The shuttle Endeavour stands poised for blastoff Thursday on the most complex space station assembly flight yet attempted, a two-spacewalk mission to install a $900 million Canadian robot arm able to move around the station's exterior like a 58-foot-long mechanical inchworm. Read our multi-part mission preview! http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage6a/010416preview/ See the astronauts' master flight plan: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage6a/fdf/100plan.html LAUNCH COUNTDOWN CONTINUES SMOOTHLY ----------------------------------- Endeavour's countdown began on schedule Monday evening and continued smoothly overnight. NASA officials report there are no technical problems standing in the way of liftoff on Thursday. You can follow the three-day countdown in our Mission Status Center: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html STS-100 MISSION THEATER IS NOW OPEN ----------------------------------- Sign up today for Spaceflight Now's Mission Theater Package, your front row seat for video coverage of shuttle Endeavour's mission to deliver the Canadian-made robotic arm to the International Space Station. You will gain access to online video clips, plus receive an embroidered mission patch like those worn by the astronauts and a VHS tape featuring the daily mission highlights and additional launch and landing footage. http://spaceflightnow.com/theater/sts100/pack.html CONTRACTS AWARDED FOR MARS SAMPLE RETURN STUDIES ------------------------------------------------ NASA's Mars Exploration Program has awarded four industry team contracts to conduct initial studies of specific implementation scenarios for a first Mars sample return mission that might be launched as early as 2011. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/17marssample/ NANOTECHNOLOGY GETS A BOOST --------------------------- In the forefront of nanotechnology development, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has acquired one of the world's finest electron beam lithography systems, one that will allow researchers to work on the sub-molecular scale. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/17nanotech/"}, {"response": 420, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 17, 2001 (14:36)", "body": "-------------------------------------------- SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - April 17, 2001 ** forward SpaceDaily Express to a friend ** -------------------------------------------- -------------- Micro Satellite Tender --------------- COSMIC is a joint U.S.-Taiwan scientific project that will use a constellation of six microsatellites to collect atmospheric sounding measurements. Industry partners to build and deliver six GPS receivers, six solid-state recorders plus payload computers are now being sought by the University Corporation. ----------- http://www.ucar.cosmic.edu/ ------------ ----------- QUICK SPACE - US space tourist flies to Baikonur to try out spacesuit http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010416133936.mnpr8ga4.html - India Set For Second Launch Bid http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010417011036.jwv9erln.html - Diamonds In The Sun http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarcell-01b.html - Endeavour Launch Set For April 19 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-01h.html - Turning Stars Into Gold http://www.spacedaily.com/news/neutron-star-01a.html - Satellite Industry Turns Over $80 Billion Annually http://www.spacedaily.com/news/satellite-biz-01e.html - Mutual Inspection Of Compliance For Missile Destruction Treaty Ends http://www.spacedaily.com/news/icbm-01g.html ------------------ HEADLINES IN BRIEF April 17, 2001 --------- SPACEMART - India Set For Second Launch Bid http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010417011036.jwv9erln.html Bangalore (AFP) April 17, 2001 - The India Space Research Organization was counting down Tuesday for its second attempt at launching a new rocket that carries the country's hopes of entering the commercial launch market. Countdown began early Monday with take-off scheduled for 3:43 pm (1013 GMT) Wednesday. - Satellite Industry Turns Over $80 Billion Annually http://www.spacedaily.com/news/satellite-biz-01e.html New York - April 9, 2001 - The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) latest annual survey found a 17 percent increase in revenues for 2000, with the commercial satellite industry now generating over $80 billion in revenues annually. ---------- TECH SPACE - Diamonds In The Sun http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarcell-01b.html Nashville - April 10, 2001 - Timothy Fisher is taking a Tiffany's approach to converting sunlight into electricity: with a $348,000 grant from National Reconnaissance Office, the assistant professor of mechanical engineering is exploring the use of polycrystalline diamond as a replacement for the silicon solar cells currently used in many space applications. ------------- SPACE SCIENCE - Turning Stars Into Gold http://www.spacedaily.com/news/neutron-star-01a.html Leicester - April 15, 2001 - Many common elements, such as oxygen and carbon, are known to be made in stars and distributed through the Universe when a star explodes as a supernova. This is the origin of most of the material that makes up the Earth. -------- SPACEWAR - Mutual Inspection Of Compliance For Missile Destruction Treaty Ends http://www.spacedaily.com/news/icbm-01g.html Almaty (Interfax) April 11, 2001 - The United States, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine will end on May 31, 2001 the mutual inspection activities that have lasted for 13 years to check compliance with the treaty on elimination of medium and shorter range missiles. --------------------- YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES - Final Decision On Tito Flight Tuesday http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-01n.html - Was The Big Bang A Big Bump http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cosmology-01b.html - Can Europe's RLV Plans Rise Like A Phoenix http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rlv-01c.html - Delayed Funding Could Torpedo Russia's ISS Contribution http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iss-01q.html - NASA Beefs Up Asteroid Tracking With NEAT New Camera http://www.spacedaily.com/news/asteroid-01d.html - Violet Will Enable Chips Of Ultra New Level http://www.spacedaily.com/news/chip-tech-01a.html - Climate Wobble Linked To Rare Anomaly In Earth's Orbit http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iceage-01a.html - Khrunichev Space Center To Supply Rocket Boosters To India http://www.spacedaily.com/news/india-01d.html"}, {"response": 421, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 17, 2001 (18:37)", "body": "Solving Charles Darwin's 'Abominable Mystery' NASA Science News for April 17, 2001 About 130 million years ago the first flowering plants suddenly appeared -- an event Charles Darwin described as an 'abominable mystery.' Now, scientists using chemical fossils are unraveling this ancient puzzle. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast17apr_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 422, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 18, 2001 (16:23)", "body": "The Amazing Canadarm2 NASA Science News for April 18, 2001 9:00:00 AM Crawling around the International Space Station like an agile worm, the newest Canadian robotic arm will be essential for building and maintaining the ISS. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast18apr_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 423, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 18, 2001 (16:25)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 @ 1519 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now EXPEDITION TWO CREW LEAVES STATION FOR SHORT TRIP ------------------------------------------------- For the Expedition Two astronauts today wasn't just another day aboard their orbiting outpost. The three-person crew left the station for a short time to move their escape capsule to a different docking port. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html STATION TO GROW TWO-HANDED ARM DURING SHUTTLE VISIT --------------------------------------------------- The shuttle Endeavour stands poised for blastoff Thursday on the most complex space station assembly flight yet attempted, a two-spacewalk mission to install a $900 million Canadian robot arm able to move around the station's exterior like a 58-foot-long mechanical inchworm. Read our multi-part mission preview! http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage6a/010416preview/ STS-100 MISSION THEATER IS NOW OPEN ----------------------------------- Sign up today for Spaceflight Now's Mission Theater Package, your front row seat for video coverage of shuttle Endeavour's mission to deliver the Canadian-made robotic arm to the International Space Station. You will gain access to online video clips, plus receive an embroidered mission patch like those worn by the astronauts and a VHS tape featuring the daily mission highlights and additional launch and landing footage. http://spaceflightnow.com/theater/sts100/pack.html NEW INDIAN ROCKET MAKES SUCCESSFUL INAUGURAL FLIGHT --------------------------------------------------- India's fledgling space program experienced a major boost Wednesday as the maiden Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle took to the skies and successfully delivered an experimental communications satellite into orbit. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/18gslv/ MOON'S DARK SIDE YIELDS CLUES TO EARTH'S CLIMATE ------------------------------------------------ Scientists have revived and modernized a nearly forgotten technique for monitoring Earth's climate by carefully observing \"earthshine,\" the ghostly glow of the dark side of the moon. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/18earthshine/ PROGRESS REPORT ON GALILEO -------------------------- The pace of activity onboard NASA's Galileo spacecraft picks up a bit this week during the relatively quiet cruise portion of an orbit in order to maintain the health of the thrusters and of the tape recorder for when they are needed the most -- during the intense activities of the close satellite encounters. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/18galileothisweek/"}, {"response": 424, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 23, 2001 (04:00)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, April 23, 2001 @ 1514 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now TWO ROBOTIC ARMS AT WORK IN SPACE TODAY --------------------------------------- The Canadarm2 took its first step today by detaching one hand from its launch container and grabbing the international space station's Destiny module. Endeavour's robot arm is also in use today, hoisting the Raffaello cargo module for docking to the station. See our Status Center for live updates: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html CANADA'S ROBOT ARM INSTALLED ON STATION --------------------------------------- The Canadian-made space station robotic arm was attached to the orbiting outpost by spacewalking astronauts Sunday and moved its joints for the first time in space. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage6a/010422fd4/ PROBE SHOWS EROS' SURFACE THE RESULT OF IMPACTS ----------------------------------------------- NEAR mission science team members have concluded that the majority of the small features that make up the surface of asteroid Eros more likely came from an unrelenting bombardment from space debris than internal processes. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/23near/ ESA AND CHINESE EXPLORE JOINT SPACE MISSION ------------------------------------------- A new East-West scientific collaboration recently took a further step towards acceptance when a group of European Space Agency delegates and space scientists travelled to Beijing to meet their Chinese counterparts. Under discussion was possible European participation in a dual-spacecraft mission known as Double Star. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/23esachina/ PANAMSAT LANDS IN KAZAKHSTAN FOR LAUNCH --------------------------------------- PanAmSat announced that the company's new PAS-10 Indian Ocean Region satellite has arrived in Kazakhstan in preparation for its May launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. PAS-10 will be rocketed into space aboard a Proton launch vehicle and will provide digital video, data and Internet services throughout a 30-million square mile footprint. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/23pas10/"}, {"response": 425, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 23, 2001 (06:24)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Sunday, April 22, 2001 @ 0910 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ACTION-PACKED DAY AHEAD IN SPACE FOR ASTRONAUTS ----------------------------------------------- The Canadian-made space station robotic arm, folded up in a pallet, is scheduled for attachment onto the orbiting outpost today as two spacewalking astronauts step outside Endeavour for a dramatic 6.5-hour excursion to assemble the $900 million limb. We have complete live coverage in the Status Center: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html See the astronauts' detailed timeline: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage6a/fdf/100plan.html ENDEAVOUR ARRIVES AT SPACE STATION TO DELIVER ROBOT ARM ------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle skipper Kent Rominger guided Endeavour to a glacial docking with the international space station Saturday as the two spacecraft sailed 243 miles above the south Pacific Ocean at five miles per second. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage6a/010421fd3/ A WRINKLE IN SPACE MAY GROUND LIGHTWEIGHT MIRRORS ------------------------------------------------- Inflatable structures are ideal for many space applications, but very small wrinkles may make enormous mirrors impractical, says a researcher. Wrinkles make the polymer membranes currently used for space-based inflatable structures unsuitable for use as mirrors. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/22inflate/ HONING IN ON IMPACT OF NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS IN SPACE -------------------------------------------------- Determining how nuclear explosions in space affect U.S. defense systems is what an Arnold Engineering Development Center team hope to determine using its new plasma radiation source \"cold\" X-ray test capability. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/21nukes/ NEW SPIN PUT ON MYSTERY OF MISSING SOLAR NEUTRINOS -------------------------------------------------- Every day the sun spews out subatomic particles called neutrinos, and instruments count how many make their way to Earth. But the instruments only detect half as many neutrinos as scientists expected to see. Where did all the neutrinos go? In recent years, scientists worldwide have converged on an answer. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/21neutrinos/ PRINCETON SCIENTISTS DESIGN TELESCOPE FOR NASA CONTEST ------------------------------------------------------ It is possible that human beings are only a decade away from finding out whether or not it is alone in the Universe, and Princeton University is playing a large role in this potential discovery. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/22planetfinder/"}, {"response": 426, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Apr 23, 2001 (12:24)", "body": "There was a theory concerning the extinction of the dinosaurs being linked to the appearance of flowering plants. It seems that the dinosaurs digestive systems weren't up to handling the new type of plants, consequently they died off from really bad constipation, more or less."}, {"response": 427, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 23, 2001 (17:15)", "body": "Thanks for reposting that - I went back to the old url to try to see what I could retrieve. You saved me from having to do that. I will repeat Terry's cooment that it will likely end up as part of a Jay Leno routine. Look Ma -- No Hands! Containerless Processing at MSFC NASA Science News for December , 20 Using a force field to float molten test samples precisely in mid-air, NASA's Electrostatic Levitator creates a unique environment for space-age materials processing. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23apr_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 428, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 24, 2001 (11:04)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - Global Hawk Makes Historic First Unmanned Flight To Australia http://www.spacedaily.com/news/uav-01d.html - Boeing Signs Brazil For Delta 4 Comsat Launch http://www.spacedaily.com/news/delta4-01d.html - Astronauts work aboard space station http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010423214916.zwg7bj0k.html - Space tourist to make trip despite US reluctance: Russia http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010423202630.dx0jsorn.html - Space tourist Tito \"happiest man in the world\" http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010423143724.hbl3b49r.html - Human Evolution Punctuated By Cosmic Impacts http://www.spacedaily.com/news/asteroid-01e.html - Nanotechnology Gets A Boost With Purchase Of EB System At JPL http://www.spacedaily.com/news/chip-tech-01b.html - Boeing Rocketdyne RS-68 Engine Triumphs In 10k Run http://www.spacedaily.com/news/delta4-01e.html - Air Pollution Control Could Impact Global Warming Trends http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-01m.html - Wetter Upper Atmosphere May Delay Global Ozone Recovery http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ozone-01d.html ------------------ HEADLINES IN BRIEF April 24, 2001 -------- SPACEWAR - Global Hawk Makes Historic First Unmanned Flight To Australia http://www.spacedaily.com/news/uav-01d.html Adelaide - April 23, 2001 - The United States\ufffd Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Global Hawk made international aviation history Monday when it completed the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean by an autonomous aircraft, flying from Edwards Air Force Base on the west coast of the U.S. to RAAF Base Edinburgh, South Australia - Raytheon To Develop And Validate Milstar Upgrade For SMART-T http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milstar-01b.html --------------------------------------------- - Advertise On SpaceDaily For One Year - $12,600 All Inclusive http://www.spacedaily.com/ad-deals-to-go.html email: advertise@spacer.com --------------------------------------------- --------- SPACEMART - Boeing Signs Brazil For Delta 4 Comsat Launch http://www.spacedaily.com/news/delta4-01e.html Huntington Beach - April 23, 2001 - Boeing and Space Systems/Loral officials confirmed today that a Brazilian telecommunications satellite will be launched on a Delta IV rocket next year. The launch of Estrela do Sul, which will provide telecommunications services to North and South America, is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., during the second half of 2002. Loral Skynet will operate the satellite built by Space Systems/Loral. - Boeing Rocketdyne RS-68 Engine Triumphs In 10k Run http://www.spacedaily.com/news/delta4-01d.html Canoga Park - April 23, 2001 - The Rocketdyne RS-68 engine, being developed by The Boeing Company for the Delta IV family of launch vehicles, has achieved a major milestone in logging more than 10,000 seconds of accumulated hot-fire test time. The engine program is on track for first launch of the Delta IV in early 2002. ------------ STATION NEWS - Astronauts work aboard space station http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010423214916.zwg7bj0k.html - Space tourist to make trip despite US reluctance: Russia http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010423202630.dx0jsorn.html - ISS fitted out with Canadian, Italian contributions http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010423181730.0jjqfkdn.html - No decision on controversial space tourist flight: NASA http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010423160942.ke7mv69v.html - NASA agrees to controversial space tourist flight http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010423152617.20stzgko.html - Space tourist Tito \"happiest man in the world\" http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010423143724.hbl3b49r.html ---------- SPACEGUARD - Human Evolution Punctuated By Cosmic Impacts http://www.spacedaily.com/news/asteroid-01e.html Liverpool - April 24, 2001 - The theory of gradual and uninterrupted human evolution has been called into question after two researchers found that human evolution has been repeatedly punctuated by large-scale cosmic catastrophes. ---------- TECH SPACE - Nanotechnology Gets A Boost With Purchase Of EB System At JPL http://www.spacedaily.com/news/chip-tech-01b.html Pasadena - April 23, 2001 - In the forefront of nanotechnology development, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., has acquired one of the world's finest electron beam lithography systems, one that will allow researchers to work on the sub-molecular scale. ---------- TERRADAILY - Air Pollution Control Could Impact Global Warming Trends http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-01m.html Irvine - April 23, 2001 - Climate researchers are warning that efforts to reduce air pollution could, if not well designed, make global warming worse. Limiting emissions of man-made nitrogen oxides, a strategy to control ozone in the lower atmosphere, would result in increased methane abundance and lead to additional greenhouse warming. - Wetter Upper Atmosphere May Delay Global Ozone Recovery http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ozone-01d.html Greenbelt - April 23, 2001 - NASA research has shown that increasing "}, {"response": 429, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 24, 2001 (11:05)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 @ 1734 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SPACEWALKERS PLAY ELECTRICIANS OUTSIDE STATION ---------------------------------------------- Endeavour astronauts Chris Hadfield and Scott Parazynski have embarked a 6.5-hour spacewalk today to re-wire the Canadarm2 so it can operate from its new home on hull of the international space station's Destiny lab module. We have live coverage in the Status Center: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html THE RATIONALE BEHIND OUR MISSION THEATER ---------------------------------------- MARS ODYSSEY TAKES SNAPSHOT OF EARTH ------------------------------------ NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft turned its multipurpose camera homeward last week and took its first picture -- a shot of a faint crescent Earth -- as the spacecraft heads off toward its destination, the planet Mars. http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/010424earth/ TWO U.S. COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES SUFFER DISRUPTIONS ----------------------------------------------------- Loral's Telstar 6 and PanAmSat's Galaxy 3R telecommunications satellites each went dark for a time over the weekend due to internal computer failures. Both craft, however, were working on backup systems by Monday. Telstar 6 story: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/24telstar6/ Galaxy 3R story: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/24g3r/ ALCATEL TO BUILD NEW GE CRAFT; ILS TO LAUNCH THEM ------------------------------------------------- France-based Alcatel Space has signed a contract with International Launch Services (ILS) for launch of two spacecraft for GE American Communications Inc. in 2002 and 2003. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/24geils/ GALILEO UNDERGOES CALIBRATION ----------------------------- This week on NASA's Galileo spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter sees the continuation of the set of instrument calibrations that began on Sunday. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/24galileothisweek/"}, {"response": 430, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 25, 2001 (17:06)", "body": "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: The Webcast NASA Science News for April 25, 2001 Astrobiologists are visiting the Indian Ocean to explore a bizarre undersea ecosystem that doesn't need sunlight to flourish. You can join them via a live webcast on April 26th! FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast25apr_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 431, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 25, 2001 (17:08)", "body": "-------------------------------------------- SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - April 25, 2001 ** forward SpaceDaily Express to a friend ** -------------------------------------------- ---------------- Space Transportation Summit --------------- The 2001 World Summit on the Space Transportation Business brings together the key players of the space launch industry to focus on the principal strategic issues of the business -- http://www.euroconsult-ec.com/web/space/space_h_ws.htm -- Hotel Inter-Continental Thursday 17 & Friday 18 May 2001 Paris ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------- QUICK SPACE - India's experimental satellite runs into minor snags http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010424155415.dnahk40o.html - Canadarm2's Installation Complete During Hadfield's Second Spacewalk http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iss-01s.html - \"Space tourist\" delighted with NASA green light http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010425085931.47nejdq1.html - Russia To Propose Non-Strategic Missile Defense For Europe http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-01zc.html - China To Develop Civil Satellite Technology Base http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-01zb.html - Boeing Signs Brazil For Delta 4 Comsat Launch http://www.spacedaily.com/news/delta4-01e.html - Boeing Rocketdyne RS-68 Engine Triumphs In 10k Run http://www.spacedaily.com/news/delta4-01d.html - Eutelsat Order New GEO Bird From Astrium http://www.spacedaily.com/news/satellite-biz-01f.html - Malaysian satellite operator gets backdoor listing in takeover bid http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010425071737.lahvh8qk.html ---------------- MORE QUICK SPACE - Tito To Take Space Taxi To ISS http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-01q.html - Green light given for space tourist's trip: NASA http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010425022847.xqathrhl.html - Endeavour astronauts complete second spacewalk http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010425022352.xs5ov87d.html - Keep Galileo's Eyes Open, Say Petitioning Scientists http://www.spacedaily.com/news/galileo-01g.html - Japan To Test Hyper Plane At Woomera http://www.spacedaily.com/news/japan-hyperx-01a.html - MAP Spacecraft Arrives At KSC To Begin Launch Preparations http://www.spacedaily.com/news/map-01a.html - Impacts Shaped Eros Topography http://www.spacedaily.com/news/near-01n.html - 15 years later, nuclear industry struggles with Chernobyl's legacy http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010425030348.wg469tva.html - Thinning of ozone layer over Arctic eases: meteorological agency http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010424143450.wnhc31hf.html ------------------ HEADLINES IN BRIEF April 25, 2001 --------- SPACEMART - Boeing Signs Brazil For Delta 4 Comsat Launch http://www.spacedaily.com/news/delta4-01e.html Huntington Beach - April 23, 2001 - Boeing and Space Systems/Loral officials confirmed today that a Brazilian telecommunications satellite will be launched on a Delta IV rocket next year. The launch of Estrela do Sul, which will provide telecommunications services to North and South America, is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., during the second half of 2002. Loral Skynet will operate the satellite built by Space Systems/Loral. - Boeing Rocketdyne RS-68 Engine Triumphs In 10k Run http://www.spacedaily.com/news/delta4-01d.html Canoga Park - April 23, 2001The Rocketdyne RS-68 engine, being developed by The Boeing Company for the Delta IV family of launch vehicles, has achieved a major milestone in logging more than 10,000 seconds of accumulated hot-fire test time. The engine program is on track for first launch of the Delta IV in early 2002. - Eutelsat Order New GEO Bird From Astrium http://www.spacedaily.com/news/satellite-biz-01f.html Paris - April 23, 2001 - Eutelsat has signed contracts with Astrium Space Industries for the delivery of a new satellite called W3A. The procurement of this new 50-transponder spacecraft will meet Eutelsat's ambitions to consolidate its market position in Europe for multimedia services, reinforce its expansion path into Africa and strengthen its in-orbit redundancy programme. - Malaysian satellite operator gets backdoor listing in takeover bid http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010425071737.lahvh8qk.html - India's experimental satellite runs into minor snags http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010424155415.dnahk40o.html ------------------ ADVERTISEMENT -------------------- The London Satellite Exchange - Buy or sell satellite capacity - Capacity on NewSat-I is available soon, and will provide attractive pricing combined with excellent coverage. The satellite is the former Palapa B2R, now in inclined orbit at 42.5 degrees East. Contact the traders +44 207 680 7268 -------------------- www.e-sax.com ------------------- ------------ STATION NEWS - Canadarm2's Installation Complete During Hadfield's Second Spacewalk http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iss-01s.html Saint-Hubert - April 24, 2001 - Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Chris Hadfield and NASA's Scott Parazynski stepped out of the Shuttle Endeavour f"}, {"response": 432, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 25, 2001 (17:10)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 @ 1319 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NASA LOSES BID TO STOP JOYRIDE FLIGHT OF DENNIS TITO ---------------------------------------------------- Faced with no options, the NASA-led panel that manages the International Space Station granted the Russians an exemption on Tuesday to fly tourist Dennis Tito to the orbital outpost. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/soyuz2s/010424titogo/ TITO ARRIVES IN BAIKONUR ------------------------ Aspiring space tourist Dennis Tito and his two Russian crewmates are at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today in preparation for launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on Saturday. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/soyuz2s/010424titogo/index2.html SPACE STATION SUFFERS COMPUTER TROUBLES TODAY --------------------------------------------- Problems with two command and control computers aboard the international space station have delayed the start of today's robot arm operations. The station's new robot arm is supposed to be put to the test today, maneuvering a 3,000-pound cargo pallet about to make sure it can do the heavy lifting required for future assembly flights. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html SPACEWALKERS PLAY ELECTRICIANS OUTSIDE STATION ---------------------------------------------- Two spacewalking electricians wired the international space station's new robot arm into the lab's power grid Tuesday, completing the $900 million crane system's initial installation after extensive troubleshooting to activate an initially dead backup circuit. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage6a/010424fd6/ HUBBLE MAKES POPULAR OBSERVATION FOR ITS BIRTHDAY ------------------------------------------------- Rising from a sea of dust and gas like a giant seahorse, the Horsehead nebula is one of the most photographed objects in the sky. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took a close-up look at this heavenly icon. The detailed view was released to celebrate the orbiting observatory's eleventh anniversary. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/25horsehead/ NEW SATELLITE TO REINFORCE EUTELSAT'S EXPANSION PATHS ----------------------------------------------------- Eutelsat has announced that it has signed a contract with Astrium Space Industries for the delivery of a new satellite called W3A. The 50-transponder spacecraft will meet Eutelsat's ambitions to consolidate its market position in Europe for multimedia services, reinforce its expansion path into Africa and strengthen its in-orbit redundancy program. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/25w3a/"}, {"response": 433, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 27, 2001 (05:32)", "body": "The Mysterious Case of Crater Giordano Bruno NASA Science News for April 26, 2001 A band of 12th century sky watchers saw something big hit the Moon 800 years ago. Or did they? A new study suggests the event was a meteoritic trick of the eye. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast26apr_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 434, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 27, 2001 (05:33)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, April 26, 2001 @ 2346 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now STATION COMPUTER FAILURES DELAY SHUTTLE DEPARTURE ------------------------------------------------- Mission managers have decided to keep shuttle Endeavour docked to the international space station two extra days, as controllers struggle to regain use of the command computers in the Destiny lab. Earlier this afternoon two more computers unexpectedly shut down. With the station computers crippled, NASA has requested that the Russians postpone Saturday's planned launch of the Soyuz spacecraft carrying U.S. space tourist Dennis Tito. Follow this developing story our space station mission status center: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html Tito's Soyuz rocket was rolled to the launch pad early Thursday: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/soyuz2s/010426rollout/"}, {"response": 435, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 27, 2001 (08:35)", "body": "The Transparent Sun NASA Science News for April 27, 2001 Giant sunspot 9393 is making a rare second transit across the face of the Sun. Its unusual reappearance came as no surprise to scientists who tracked the behemoth by peering right through our star! Now, thanks to SOHO instrument teams, you too can see the hidden side of the Sun on the internet. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast27apr_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 436, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 28, 2001 (07:10)", "body": "Weekend Aurora Watch Space Weather News for April 27, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com AURORA WATCH: Giant sunspot 9393 unleashed a powerful solar flare and hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space on Thursday, April 26. The CME will probably hit Earth's magnetosphere on Saturday or, perhaps, early Sunday. NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% chance of a major geomagnetic storm at middle latitudes. Stay tuned to http://SpaceWeather.com for updates."}, {"response": 437, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 30, 2001 (12:11)", "body": "Tourist Tito boards international space station NEWSALERT: Monday, April 30, 2001 @ 1435 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SPACE TOURIST TITO CHECKS IN AT THE 'HOTEL ALPHA' ------------------------------------------------- The Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft carrying U.S. millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito and two cosmonaut crewmates successfully docked with the international space station today as the two vehicles sailed 240 miles above central Asia. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage6a/010430fd12/"}, {"response": 438, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 30, 2001 (12:13)", "body": "-------------------------------------------- SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - April 30, 2001 ** forward SpaceDaily Express to a friend ** -------------------------------------------- Hi Folks, We have been busy the past week moving servers and were unable to send out the newsletter until today. If you have any problems with accessing SpaceDaily.com this week please let us know. Thanks, Simon Mansfield ----------- QUICK SPACE - Technique Detects When Satellites Are Low On Fuel http://www.spacedaily.com/news/fuel-01d.html - Galileo Forges Ahead With New Release Of Funds http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gps-euro-01d.html - Clues To The Universe From Canada's First Microsatellite http://www.spacedaily.com/news/microsat-01d.html - Intelligent Nanostructures React To Environmental Changes http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-01g.html - A Wrinkle In Space May Ground Lightweight Mirrors http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ngst-01b.html - College Students Take Once-In-A-Lifetime Ride On Vomit Comet http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-01r.html - MicroMachines Key To Maintaining Large Space Structures http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-01h.html - Gazkom Plans To Launch Two New Yamal Satellites In 2002 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/launcher-russia-01f.html - ESA May Consider Soyuz Launches From Kourou Space Center In November http://www.spacedaily.com/news/launcher-russia-01g.html - Test Facility Hones In On Impact Of Nuclear Explosions In Space http://www.spacedaily.com/news/radiation-01c.html - Japanese consortium sets up satellite launch venture http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010426023507.rnaf0mq7.html - China plans to launch space telescope in 2005 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010425145037.5h9g2d9v.html - Arabsat to look into launch on world stage http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010428175141.c85qq0gc.html ------------------ HEADLINES IN BRIEF April 30, 2001 ---------- TECH SPACE - Technique Detects When Satellites Are Low On Fuel http://www.spacedaily.com/news/fuel-01d.html West Lafayette - April 25, 2001 - A computer model originally applied to such theoretical problems as understanding the mathematics behind soap bubble formation could be worth millions of dollars for companies that operate communications satellites. - A Wrinkle In Space May Ground Lightweight Mirrors http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ngst-01b.html Fayetteville - April 25, 2001 - Inflatable structures are ideal for many space applications, but very small wrinkles may make enormous mirrors impractical., says a University of Arkansas researcher. Bob Reynolds, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has determined that wrinkles make the polymer membranes currently used for space-based inflatable structures, such as reflectors or communications antennae, unsuitable for use as mirrors. ---------- NANO SPACE - MicroMachines Key To Maintaining Large Space Structures http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-01h.html Fayetteville - April 25, 2001 - Tiny micro electro-mechanical systems dubbed MEMS may be the key to maintaining giant space-based structures, according to U of A researchers Steve Tung and Larry Roe. Although space-based solar collectors or antenna arrays can be many square miles in size, tiny MEMS devices can keep them oriented correctly to ensure their long-term operation. - Intelligent Nanostructures React To Environmental Changes http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-01g.html Albuquerque - April 25, 2001 - Intelligent nanostructures that report on their environment by changing color from blue to fluorescent red under mechanical, chemical, or thermal stress have been created by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico. -------------- MICROSAT BLITZ - Clues To The Universe From Canada's First Microsatellite http://www.spacedaily.com/news/microsat-01d.html Toronto April 25, 2001 - Clues to some of the universe's enduring mysteries could soon be captured, thanks to a space telescope and microsatellite set to go into space next year -- a Canadian first that is now being built by a team of U of T aerospace researchers. ------- \"SMALLER SATELLITES: BIGGER BUSINESS?\" ------ Strasbourg will be the setting for the International Space University's 6th Annual Symposium. This year's theme will be small satellites with an emphasis on concepts, applications and markets. Join some of the world's leading experts, manufacturers and users in interdisciplinary presentations and discussions on a wide variety of issues pertaining to small satellites Strasbourg - May 21-23 - 2001 --------- http://www.isunet.edu/Symposium/ ---------- --------- SPACEMART - Gazkom Plans To Launch Two New Yamal Satellites In 2002 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/launcher-russia-01f.html Moscow (Interfax) April 25, 2001 - Gazkom, the operator of the Gazprom satellite network, plans to launch two new Yamal communications satellites at the end of next year, company Deputy General Director Andrei Shestakov said at a conference of operators and users of "}, {"response": 439, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  2, 2001 (12:59)", "body": "The Crumbling Comet LINEAR A Space Weather News for May 2, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com Yesterday astronomers reported that the nucleus of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) has apparently split in two. This icy visitor from the outer solar system is growing in brightness as it approaches the Sun and could soon become a faint naked-eye object. Sky watchers with modest telescopes or binoculars can spot the fuzzy fragmenting comet near the feet of Orion after sunset. The comet is rapidly gliding toward southern skies, so southern hemisphere observers will enjoy the best views in the days and weeks ahead. For more information please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 440, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May  4, 2001 (00:55)", "body": "Any discussion of Dennis, the $10 million dollar spaceman? They had a funny parody on him on NPR this morning, his fake voice \"they're sening me home on this new re-entry vehcile, it's called \"tinfoil\" they say it's safe because it's over water, they tell me I should reach a pretty good speed.\" NASA definitely has been stodgy on space tourism, maybe this will loosen them up a bit."}, {"response": 441, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  4, 2001 (15:00)", "body": "The eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks this weekend Space Weather News for May 4, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com This weekend our planet will pass through a trail of dusty debris from distant Comet Halley, triggering the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. The nearly-full Moon will reduce the visibility of this year's eta Aquarid shower. Nevertheless, southern observers could spot as many as 10 meteors per hour before local dawn on Saturday and Sunday. Meteor enthusiasts can also try listening to the shower by tuning in to NASA's online meteor radar. For more information please visit http://SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 442, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  4, 2001 (15:06)", "body": "Funny you should ask, Terry: - US space tourist Tito denies causing problems on ISS http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010504112923.2pgei1tt.html I have avoided posting much about him. Not that I am not envious - he just annoys me. I watched his interview with Larry King. Eech!"}, {"response": 443, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  4, 2001 (15:55)", "body": "Seven Billion Miles and Counting Last week NASA received a weak signal from Pioneer 10, twice as far from the Sun as Pluto and speeding toward the constellation Taurus. The well-traveled spacecraft is currently exploring the outer heliosphere, but soon it will take on a new job: ambassador to the stars. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast03may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 444, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  4, 2001 (15:57)", "body": "Space Weather on Mars Future human explorers of Mars can leave their umbrellas back on Earth, but perhaps they shouldn't forget their Geiger counters! A NASA experiment en route to the Red Planet aims to find out. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast01may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 445, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  4, 2001 (15:58)", "body": "The Phantom Torso An unusual space traveler named Fred is orbiting Earth on board the International Space Station. His job? To keep astronauts safe from space radiation. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast04may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 446, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  4, 2001 (16:00)", "body": "--------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now COMMERCIAL EXPERIMENTS UNDERWAY ABOARD STATION ---------------------------------------------- Three new commercial experiments are getting started on the international space station, marking a major milestone for NASA's Commercial Space Centers -- 17 centers across the United States that help industry conduct space experiments. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/04isscomm/ NASA ISSUES ENDEAVOUR DAMAGE REPORT ----------------------------------- Inspections have revealed space shuttle Endeavour suffered the expected number of debris hits during its just-completed voyage into orbit, NASA said Thursday. The shuttle is undergoing work to prepare for next week's cross-country trek from Edwards Air Force Base in California back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html ODDS OF PLANET FORMATION IN ORION NEBULA REDUCED ------------------------------------------------ In 1993, when the Hubble Space Telescope surveyed the Orion nebula for the first time, its images provided a substantial boost for the argument that stars with planetary systems are commonplace in the galaxy. Now, however, the most recent analyses of one the youngest, closest and brightest nebulae suggest that planets may be far rarer than thought. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/03orion/ FUTURE AIRCRAFT MIGHT MORPH ITS FEATURES IN FLIGHT -------------------------------------------------- A future aircraft might morph its wings, use smart sensors and actuators and more accurately mimic nature's methods of flight. NASA Administrator Dan Goldin described the aircraft as one of the linchpins of the Agency's aerospace research for the next 20 years. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/03morph/ COLLIDING GALAXIES PROVIDE CLUES TO STAR FORMATION -------------------------------------------------- By comparing computer simulations of a galaxy collision with actual observations, astronomers at the University of Illinois have found discrete star-formation episodes that may help explain the prodigious star-formation rates that occurred in the early universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/03colliding/ NEW JPL DIRECTOR ANNOUNCES LAB REORGANIZATION --------------------------------------------- A reorganization designed to position the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a new generation of challenges in space exploration has been announced by incoming Director Dr. Charles Elachi. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/03jpl/"}, {"response": 447, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  5, 2001 (15:59)", "body": "Space Tourist Tito Heads Home After Historic Trip Reuters May 5 2001 10:48PM ASTANA, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Dennis Tito, the world's first paying space tourist, is due back on Earth on Sunday after fulfilling a lifelong ambition but also sparking a cosmic quarrel between erstwhile spacemates Russia and the United States. more... http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0600&id=0105052248398232"}, {"response": 448, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, May  6, 2001 (13:37)", "body": "Lighten up, NASA!"}, {"response": 449, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  7, 2001 (14:29)", "body": "So much for Private enterprise. We should have taken his $20 million. Oh well!"}, {"response": 450, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  7, 2001 (14:36)", "body": "Terry, get William to fix confifty please. I am lost!!!"}, {"response": 451, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, May  7, 2001 (23:39)", "body": "Why don't you email Kaylene about the specific problem with confifty and copy me on it, I think that KarenR is having a similar problem with the last six responses item on the drool page. OK?"}, {"response": 452, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  8, 2001 (09:38)", "body": "Will do, but miss William nonetheless... NEWSALERT: Tuesday, May 8, 2001 @ 1542 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now HEART OF BOEING'S DELTA 4 ROCKET PUT TO THE TEST ------------------------------------------------ The new rocket stage and liquid-fueled main engine that are the essence of Boeing's next-generation Delta 4 commercial launcher have, in all likelihood, completed a round of crucial firings at the same complex where NASA tested its Saturn 5 rocketships that carried men to the moon more than 30 years ago. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/08delta4/ SEA LAUNCH TO LOFT XM RADIO SATELLITE TODAY ------------------------------------------- A Ukrainian/Russian Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket is slated to haul the second XM Satellite Radio spacecraft into orbit today from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean. Liftoff is scheduled for 2210 GMT (6:10 p.m. EDT) and we will have live coverage. http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html U.S. WEATHER SATELLITE BOOSTED TO GRAVEYARD ORBIT ------------------------------------------------- The American GOES-2 weather satellite was officially retired Saturday after controllers guided the 24-year old spacecraft out of its geostationary orbit. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/08goes2/ EDGE OF ACCRETION DISK FOUND AROUND BLACK HOLE ---------------------------------------------- Using four NASA space observatories, astronomers have shown that a flaring black hole source has an accretion disk that stops much farther out than some theories predict. This provides a better understanding of how energy is released when matter spirals into a black hole. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/08chandra/"}, {"response": 453, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  8, 2001 (09:47)", "body": "Wolfie says \"Hi\" to everyone (you know who you are!) She asked me to do so for her since she is working 12 hour shifts. Our tax dollars definitely at work!!!"}, {"response": 454, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  8, 2001 (11:06)", "body": "NASA Science News for May 8, 2001 What makes the Red Planet red? Right now the answer is iron oxide, but one day it could be roses say NASA scientists debating the prospects for plant life on Mars. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast08may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 455, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  9, 2001 (05:39)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, May 9, 2001 @ 1412 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SEA LAUNCH ROCKET LOFTS SECOND XM RADIO SATELLITE ------------------------------------------------- \"Long live Rock and Roll!\" A jubilant launch team member made that exclamation on Tuesday after a Zenit 3SL rocket successfully carried XM Satellite Radio's second powerhouse broadcasting spacecraft into orbit from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean. http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/ Read our call of the countdown and launch: http://spaceflightnow.com/sealaunch/xm1/status.html PENTAGON ANNOUNCES MILITARY SPACE REFORMS ----------------------------------------- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced Tuesday a series of reforms first suggested by a panel he once chaired that will increase the importance of space within the American military. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/09milspace/ SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR DUE HOME TODAY -------------------------------- Riding piggyback atop a modified Boeing 747 jet, space shuttle Endeavour left Edwards Air Force Base in California on Tuesday for its cross-country ferry flight back to Florida. Arrival at Kennedy Space Center is expected today, weather permitting. Check our status center for updates: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html X-40A PERFORMS COMPLEX MANEUVERS DURING FIFTH FLIGHT ---------------------------------------------------- The X-40A vehicle successfully performed a fifth free flight test on Tuesday. The craft was carried aloft by an Army Chinook helicopter and dropped to test its flight computer's ability to maneuver the vehicle to a straight approach to the landing site. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/09x40a/"}, {"response": 456, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  9, 2001 (10:53)", "body": "SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - May 9, 2001 - sponsored by - The London Satellite Exchange http://www.e-sax.com --------------------------------------------- ---------------- Space Transportation Summit --------------- The 2001 World Summit on the Space Transportation Business brings together the key players of the space launch industry to focus on the principal strategic issues of the business -- http://www.euroconsult-ec.com/web/space/space_h_ws.htm -- Hotel Inter-Continental Thursday 17 & Friday 18 May 2001 Paris ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------- QUICK SPACE - Humans could set foot on Mars by 2020: NASA chief http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010509063324.phx7xydz.html - Genetically Modified Earth Plants Will Glow From Mars http://www.spacedaily.com/news/food-01c.html - A Rusty Old Rose http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-terraform-01b.html - No More Space Tourism For At Least Two Years: Russia http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-01w.html - US Space Tourist Tito Hopes To Blaze Trail For Other Cosmic Trippers http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-01v.html - X-40A Free Flight Successful http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rlv-01e.html - Nature's Atmospheric Cleanser Needs Closer Look http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-01o.html - US can produce more energy and protect the environment: Bush http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010509012853.m29th2on.html - XM Radio Bird Rolls Into Orbit http://www.spacedaily.com/news/xm-radio-01d.html - Rumsfeld To Reorganize Military Space Programs http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-01o.html - Rumsfeld Announces Space Management Shakeup http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-01p.html - US air force to coordinate military operations in space http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010508215247.hxq48pis.html - US launches worldwide missile defense road show http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010508161442.whd5jj4n.html - US-Russia missile talks in Moscow Friday http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010508115005.ipj541ef.html"}, {"response": 457, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 10, 2001 (13:52)", "body": "Teaming Up on Space Plants NASA Science News for May 10, 2001 This week students, scientists, and astronauts will join forces to learn more about how plants grow on the International Space Station. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast10may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 458, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 10, 2001 (16:27)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, May 11, 2001 @ 0335 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NEW RADIO TELESCOPE MAKES FIRST SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS ------------------------------------------------------- The world's two largest radio telescopes have combined to make detailed radar images of the cloud-shrouded surface of Venus and of a tiny asteroid that passed near the Earth. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/11nrao/ THE HARSH DESTINY OF A PLANET? ------------------------------ Did the star HD 82943 swallow one of its planets? What may at a first glance look like the recipe for a dramatic science-fiction story is in fact the well-considered conclusion of a serious scientific study, to be published by a group of astronomers in Switzerland and Spain. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/10destiny/ ENDEAVOUR IS HOME ----------------- Riding piggyback atop a modified Boeing 747 jet, space shuttle Endeavour arrived at Kennedy Space Center Wednesday after a two-day cross-country ferry flight from Edwards Air Force Base in California. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html NASA SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY GOES DOWN ON THE FARM ----------------------------------------------- Some of the people closest to the land will be the first to benefit from a new global positioning technology developed to make NASA satellites more efficient and cost-effective. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/11farm/ MARS-BOUND ODYSSEY TESTS THE HIGH-GAIN ANTENNA ---------------------------------------------- NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey space probe tested its high-gain communications antenna on Wednesday, sending and receiving commands. Since launch, the spacecraft has been receiving commands over its low-gain antenna and transmitting signals via its medium-gain antenna. http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/status.html DEEP SPACE NETWORK UPGRADING FOR 'CRUNCH TIME' ---------------------------------------------- Preparing for the communication needs of an expected population boom in interplanetary spacecraft, NASA has selected a builder to add an advanced dish antenna, 112 feet in diameter, near Madrid, Spain, one of the three sites of the agency's Deep Space Network. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/10dsn/ INDIA AND FRANCE TO CONDUCT ATMOSPHERIC MISSION ----------------------------------------------- The Indian Space Research Organization and the French Space Agency have entered into a deal to design of a joint satellite mission, called Megha Tropiques, for atmospheric research. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/10isrocnes/"}, {"response": 459, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May 11, 2001 (00:36)", "body": "Do you have a gps, Marci?"}, {"response": 460, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 11, 2001 (10:02)", "body": "My son has and now with software and a laptop you can get them for uner $100. Which I intend to do. The one David has is the size of a TV remote control and about twice as thick. Quite amazing actually! Are you considering purchasing one? http://www.thegpsstore.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/site/productcatalog.htm?L+thegpsstore+ogow3540+970797630"}, {"response": 461, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May 11, 2001 (15:41)", "body": "One of these days, next time I take a long trip. I don't really need it around Austin, I know the place so well."}, {"response": 462, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 12, 2001 (06:53)", "body": "I was planning a trip back east and thought my laptop and the $99 GPS would do me just fine. Going into the woods with wildlife and archaeology guys can get me lost and I want to be able to remember the trip! GeoStorm Warning, plus a crumbling comet and a durable sunspot Space Weather News for May 12, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com GEOMAGNETIC STORM WARNING: Our planet entered a high speed solar wind stream on Saturday, May 12th, which triggered a moderate geomagnetic storm. Sky watchers, especially those at high latitudes, should be alert for glowing auroras tonight near local midnight. THE SUNSPOT THE WOULDN'T DIE: Holographic images of the far side of the Sun reveal an old friend: active region 9393, the largest sunspot of the current solar cycle and the source of the most powerful x-ray solar flare ever recorded. The giant spot, which is probably now just a shadow of its former self, has already transited the Earth-facing side of the Sun twice. If AR9393 persists for another week it will emerge into direct view for a rare third transit. BRIGHTENING COMET: Southern hemisphere observers report that comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR), which split into two pieces last month, has surged in brightness again. For more information and updates, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 463, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, May 14, 2001 (10:33)", "body": "\"holographic images of the far side of the sun\"; wonder how they do this?"}, {"response": 464, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 14, 2001 (15:58)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, May 14, 2001 @ 0414 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now COMMERCIAL PROTON ROCKET PREPARED FOR LAUNCH -------------------------------------------- The 20th Proton rocket to be flown under the joint Russian-American International Launch Services banner is poised for blastoff carrying a PanAmSat telecommunications satellite destined to serve three continents in a 30-million square mile footprint. Launch is set for 9:11 p.m. EDT tonight (0111 GMT Tuesday) and we will have live coverage. http://spaceflightnow.com/proton/pas10/status.html ASTRONOMERS FIND KEY TO X-RAY MYSTERY OF BLACK HOLES ---------------------------------------------------- Astronomers at the University of Southampton have made a discovery that promises to explain why X-ray binary stars are so variable -- a phenomenon that has been a long-standing mystery in X-ray astronomy. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/13blackhole/ RUSSIANS ASK WHETHER EARTH WILL SHARE THE FATE OF SATURN -------------------------------------------------------- Is it possible that space exploration will result in the formation of a ring around the Earth similar to the Saturn ring? All these satellites and debris can severely impede space flights in future, as plenty of objects brought out into space would stay in the near-earth orbit for hundreds and even thousands of years. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/12earthring/ PEROXIDE ENGINE BEING DEVELOPED FOR SPACEPLANE ---------------------------------------------- Aerojet has received a contract from the Air Force to develop the propulsion engine for the Air Force's Space Maneuvering Vehicle, a small reusable craft that could perform a variety of missions for the Department of Defense. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/14smv/ COLLAPSE OF SIMPLE LIFE FORMS LINKED TO MASS EXTINCTION ------------------------------------------------------- A mass extinction about 200 million years ago, which destroyed at least half of the species on Earth, happened very quickly and is demonstrated in the fossil record by the collapse of one-celled organisms called protists, according to new research led by a University of Washington paleontologist. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/13extinct/ STATUS CHECK ON SPACE STATION SCIENCE WORK ------------------------------------------ The Expedition Two crew and ground controllers activated five more experiments during the past week and continue troubleshooting work with two others. The Advanced Astroculture experiment activated Thursday, one of the three commercial experiments onboard, seeks to grow plants through an entire life cycle. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html"}, {"response": 465, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 14, 2001 (16:15)", "body": "Terry, I wonder that as well, but considering that the sun rotates before our very eyes, a series of photographs taken in one revolution could be merged into one image holographically. The moon is a whole different problem. It does not rotate and remains with the same hemisphere always pointing toward Earth."}, {"response": 466, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Fri, May 18, 2001 (16:55)", "body": "NASA's Ames Research Centre Sponsors New Interactive Research Project NASA's Ames Research Centre is sponsoring a new interactive research project to help identify, map, and classify impact craters on the surface of the planet Mars; the project is modelled on the popular SETI@Home project which employs personal computers to scan for possible intelligent radio signals from extraterrestrial civilisations. In the Ames project, participants are taught how to identify and mark impact craters in photographs obtained from the Viking 1 & 2 Orbiters, as well as from the Mars Global Surveyor Spacecraft currently in orbit around the Red Planet. Using their computer's mouse, the \"ClickWorkers\" as they're called, select four points around the crater's rim, which the computer uses to draw a circle based on the points selected. With this, the computer logs the size of the crater as well as it's longitude and latitude. The purpose behind this exercise is to catalogue the huge volumes of data that have be gathered over the years by the various probes to Mars, but NASA is suffering from an embarassment of riches that would easily swamp individual researchers; so by employing the computer power spread around the world amongst private citizens, NASA can use many people to tackle the problem in parallel. The project's current status is experimental, but if it's successful, it's scope maybe expanded to include other martian surface features, and may even go on to include other solar system bodies, including Io and Europa. The project can be found at http://clickworkers.arc.nasa.gov but there are two proviso's in accessing it; first, it requires Netscape 6 to run, and secondly, the site is extremely popular amongst people who want to make a real contribution to planetary science, so it can be very difficult to access at times. But if you're interested in helping build up our knowledge on Mars, and maybe familiarizing yourself a little more with it, check it out!"}, {"response": 467, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 20, 2001 (23:56)", "body": "Looks like I'd better reinstall my Seti@home and get crunching data once again. However, until Netscape gets the bugs out of Netcape 6.0 I am going to ope out of it. Anyone have reports of how well things are going? Thanks, Neil *HUGS*"}, {"response": 468, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 20, 2001 (23:58)", "body": "The Great Mars Rush NASA Science News for May 15, 2001 Hurtling toward Mars at 22,000 mph, Earth is heading for its closest encounter with the Red Planet in a dozen years. Mars is already a brilliant morning star and it will soon become a dazzling all-night spectacle. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast15may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 469, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 20, 2001 (23:59)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - Gilat To Plug 100,000 Europeans Into Satellite Backbone http://www.spacedaily.com/news/vsat-01f.html - DirecTV Files Federal Suit Against Satellite Piracy Ring http://www.spacedaily.com/news/satellite-biz-01h.html - Two Billion To One And The Primordial Odds Get Heavy http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cosmology-01b.html - ATK Completes Static Tests of Nozzle For RS-68 Engine http://www.spacedaily.com/news/delta4-01h.html - TRW-Built NRO GeoLITE Satellite Slated for Launch on May 17y http://www.spacedaily.com/news/geolite-01a.html - Olof Lundberg Named Chairman And CEO of Globalstar http://www.spacedaily.com/news/globalstar-01c.html - Germany Commits Billions To Galileo Navigation Project http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gps-euro-01e.html - Australia says Kyoto Protocol \"all over\" http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010517035823.fwtpumsj.html - Top Polish general sees \"no obstacles\" to missile shield bases http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010516175047.2oj3pazz.html"}, {"response": 470, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 21, 2001 (00:03)", "body": "The Pacific Dust Express NASA Science News for May 17, 2001 North America has been sprinkled with a dash of Asia! A dust cloud from China crossed the Pacific Ocean recently and rained Asian dust from Alaska to Florida. Scientists say that air pollution often travels this same Pacific Express. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast17may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 471, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 21, 2001 (00:04)", "body": "A Taste for Comet Water NASA Science News for May 18, 2001 When Comet LINEAR broke apart last year it revealed what many scientists thought all along: Water in Earth's oceans could have come from outer space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast18may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 472, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (00:34)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - Australia Signs Space Launch Agreement With Russia http://www.spacedaily.com/news/aust-01a.html - APT Satellite sees lower transponder rentals due to competition http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010522102006.0agymzy2.html - MirCorp Claims To Soyuz Flight Disputed By Russia http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-01x.html - Global Hawk Clocks Up 1,000 Hours http://www.spacedaily.com/news/uav-01f.html - High-Tech Helium Tricks May Benefit Earth And Space http://www.spacedaily.com/news/superfluids-01a.html - New Shuttle Booster Engines Ready For Full Duration Test http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-01i.html - Russian supply vessel docks with international space station http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010523004805.qiyeu8hn.html - Bush hopes to unveil Kyoto alternative by June http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010522164330.0tgyl1fm.html"}, {"response": 473, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (00:35)", "body": "Water-Witching From Space NASA Science News for May 23, 2001 9:00:00 AM Farmers will soon have a new tool for getting the most out of their fields. NASA's Aqua satellite will provide crucial information about the water in the ground and the weather on the horizon. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 474, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (00:38)", "body": "Dust Begets Dust NASA Science News for May 22, 2001 Everyone knows that dry weather leads to dusty soils, but new research suggests that dust might in turn lead to dry weather. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast22may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 475, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (00:41)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - Magellan Brings Three Meter Accuracy To Handheld GPS http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gps-01e.html - ESA's Artemis Telecommunications Satellite To Be Launched In July http://www.spacedaily.com/news/artemis-01a.html - Changes In Sun's Intensity Tied To Recurrent Droughts In Maya Region http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-01f.html - Saddam Drains Ancient Culture Away In A Decade http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-01e.html - Lockheed Martin Goes Live With Real-Time EO Datastream http://www.spacedaily.com/news/eo-01d.html - Getting In A Twist Over Time http://www.spacedaily.com/news/timetravel-01a.html - Cluster Quartet Move In Step http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cluster2-01a.html - ESA Books A Russian Taxi To ISS http://www.spacedaily.com/news/launcher-russia-01i.html - Artificial Enzyme Able to Synthesize RNA http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01n.html - Blair Election Rival Jailed For Anti-Missile Protest http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010521172453.kf3kr12u.html - Top Russian General Rejects US Missile Defence Plan http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010521164127.5anrxuxa.html"}, {"response": 476, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (14:10)", "body": "Binary asteroid to fly by Earth this weekend Space Weather News for May 24, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com Late Friday, May 25th, the near-Earth asteroid 1999 KW4 will fly by Earth 13 times farther from our planet than the Moon. The space rock will be brighter than 11th magnitude for much of the time between now and May 28th, making it an easy target for amateur astronomers with mid-sized telescopes and CCD cameras. Yesterday, radar astronomers using NASA's Goldstone Planetary Radar to monitor the approaching asteroid announced that 1999 KW4 is a binary system. Visit spaceweather.com for more information and (possibly) images of the asteroid as it passes our planet."}, {"response": 477, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (00:28)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, May 29, 2001 @ 0206 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now THE NEWSALERT IS BACK! ---------------------- After a two-week hiatus caused by a technical problem beyond our control, the NewsAlert returns today to provide you with a snapshot of the day's spaceflight and astronomy news. See our Breaking News page for a listing of all the stories from the past couple of weeks: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/ PROBE SPOTS NEWLY FORMED STREAKS ON MARTIAN SLOPES -------------------------------------------------- NASA's Mars Global Surveyor is currently searching for changes that have occurred in the past martian year on the Red Planet. In a rugged, ridged terrain north of the Olympus Mons volcano one such change is avalanching of dust as seen here. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/29marsstreak/ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR SPOTS A MID-SUMMER'S DUST DEVIL ---------------------------------------------------- One objective for the Mars Global Surveyor's extended mission is to continue looking for changes and dynamic events taking place on the Red Planet. The feature shown here -- a dust devil -- elicited gasps of excitement among the camera operations staff when it was received. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/28dustdevil/ NASA APPROVES ROBOTIC MISSION TO BLAST A COMET ---------------------------------------------- Imagine intercepting a comet in deep space and using a heavy projectile to blow a hole in the celestial body, some seven stories deep and about the size of a football field. In a space exploration first, NASA's Deep Impact Mission will attempt to use a probe to collide with a comet in an attempt to peer beneath its surface. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/28deepimpact/ EVIDENCE FOUND FOR ACOUSTIC OSCILLATIONS IN EARLY UNIVERSE ---------------------------------------------------------- Astrophysicists say they have confirmed the existence of acoustic oscillations generated shortly after the explosive birth of the universe. Their evidence links the existence of acoustic oscillations, or wiggles, in the distribution of both the cosmic microwave background radiation and the distribution of matter throughout the universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/29oscillations/ SOLAR WIND FIND MAY HELP SPACE WEATHER FORECASTING -------------------------------------------------- Scientists have confirmed the existence of and imaged \"free spirit\" atoms in the solar wind for the first time. They hope to use the observations to better estimate the arrival time of solar storms and to estimate the amount of dust left over from the solar system's birth. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/28solarwind/"}, {"response": 478, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (09:22)", "body": "That comet blasting mission sounds like it could use Bruce Willis and the crew of Armageddon. That's pretty wild stuff."}, {"response": 479, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (17:41)", "body": "It IS amazing! Hollywood will find a use for it. Count on that! QUICK SPACE - US Senate Switch Could Get Bush Off The Hook On Missiles http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-01zi.html - Course Trains 'Space Cowboys' http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-01s.html - Galileo Comes Alive On Callisto Final Approach http://www.spacedaily.com/news/galileo-01h.html - IBM's 'Pixie Dust' Breakthrough to Quadruple Disk Drive Density http://www.spacedaily.com/news/materials-01m.html - Rocks From Mars http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunarplanet-2001-01a8.html - Fengyun 1-C Stars In Environmental Monitoring As Sandstorms Rage http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-01zf.html - Satellite Broadband Could Solve Digital Divide http://www.spacedaily.com/news/internet-01i.html - US to make Moscow offer to abandon ABM treaty: report http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010528082526.hrcyeqe4.html - Senate Democrat promises review of Bush's anti-missile program http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010525173631.atl9vrma.html - Atlantis launch scheduled for June 20 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010525151354.fxvtoili.html - NASA high-resolution photograph dispels \"Face on Mars\" myth http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010525104821.bn6teg09.html"}, {"response": 480, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (19:54)", "body": "Wow, the face on Mars has been dispelled, there goes another Art Bell late night topic.."}, {"response": 481, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (21:03)", "body": "Even Art Bell argued with Richard Hoagland the other night. Art can no longer see the face at all and is highly skeptical. Looks like another of his topics did indeed bite the dust."}, {"response": 482, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (21:07)", "body": "Brainy 'Bots NASA Science News for May 29, 2001 NASA's own 'Bionic Woman' is applying artificial intelligence to teach robots how to behave a little more like human explorers. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast29may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 483, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (22:23)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - Cassini's Tour de Saturn http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-01f1.html - Weather Directorate Strengthens International Relations http://www.spacedaily.com/news/dmsp-01b.html - Russia successfully launches Soyuz rocket with military satellite http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010529194547.398ukgc5.html - US to make Moscow offer to abandon ABM treaty: report http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010528181752.s1cysn6b.html - Martian Cook Up Closer Than Ever http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-life-01e.html - Orbital Offloads Navigation Business To Thales http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gps-01f.html - Prepare Now For Martian Samples Warns Scientists http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-life-01f.html - Send In The Robots http://www.spacedaily.com/news/robot-01b.html - Artificial Intelligence Software to Command Mission http://www.spacedaily.com/news/software-01a.html - Industrialized states postpone climate consultations http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010529115252.zw9x1cog.html"}, {"response": 484, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (15:24)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, May 30, 2001 @ 0442 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SHUTTLE LAUNCHES MIGHT BE SHUFFLED TO FIX STATION ARM ----------------------------------------------------- Shuttle Atlantis rolled out of its hangar and into the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, but when the ship will be allowed to launch an airlock to the international space station hinges on work to fix the outpost's new robotic arm. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage7a/010529arm/ BOEING'S DELTA 4 TESTING ROCKET ARRIVES IN FLORIDA -------------------------------------------------- Fresh off its series of critical test firings, Boeing's Delta 4 pathfinder rocket has arrived at Cape Canaveral to ensure the state-of-the-art launch facilities being built at Complex 37 are ready to handle the maiden flight of the next-generation launcher in March. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/29delta4/ REPORT RECOMMENDS QUARANTINE OF MARS SAMPLES -------------------------------------------- A report released Tuesday urges NASA to begin planning a system to quarantine Martian samples even through missions to return such samples are at least a decade in the future. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/30marsclean/ RUSSIAN SOYUZ ROCKET LOFTS MILITARY SATELLITE --------------------------------------------- Russia launched an unmanned Soyuz U rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Tuesday carrying a classified military spacecraft believed to be an imaging spy satellite. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/29soyuz/ ALL QUIET ON THE GALILEO FRONT ------------------------------ The excitement of the encounter week has settled down now, and activity levels drop to the quiet murmur which is usual for the cruise portion of an orbit. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/30galileothisweek/"}, {"response": 485, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (02:04)", "body": "What Space Needs: The Human Touch NASA Science News for May 30, 2001 NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) enterprise tackles one of the toughest and most redeeming problems of all: sending humans into space. This feature story also includes lessons and activities for educators. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast30may_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 486, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Jun  1, 2001 (17:06)", "body": "The Face on Mars has been discredited. Does this mean the internet will cease to have those insisting that it is a portrait of Elvis cluttering up cyberspace."}, {"response": 487, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  1, 2001 (20:11)", "body": "I thought all the Elvissses in the Universe were in Las Vegas! Do you mean there are some who suggested that? Lolol - worse than Art Bell! Jellyplants on Mars NASA Science News for June 1, 2001 Scientists are creating a new breed of glowing plants --part mustard and part jellyfish-- to help humans explore the Red Planet. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast01jun_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 488, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  1, 2001 (20:29)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - JPL Radar Scans Asteroid Moon During Earth Flyby http://www.spacedaily.com/news/asteroid-01f.html - Galileo Gets One Last Frequent-Flyer Upgrade http://www.spacedaily.com/news/galileo-01i.html - X-43A Nears First Hypersonic Flight http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rlv-01l.html - TIMED Satellite Transported to Vandenberg for Upcoming Launch http://www.spacedaily.com/news/eo-timed-01a.html - Cellular Grab For 2Ghz Harms Rural Satellite Consumers: SIA Report http://www.spacedaily.com/news/internet-01j.html - Iranians View Russian Telecommunications Satellite Plant http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010530142208.ffpgd06e.html - The Quarantine And Certification Of Martian Samples http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-life-01g.html - Tropical Glaciers Formed While Earth Was Giant Snowball http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iceage-01c.html - US Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch Delayed http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010530230011.uqmguivt.html - Russia Considering Applications From Would-Be Space Tourists http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010530115951.dq3xuc2j.html - Moscow Wants Dialogue With US, China, India on Missile Defence http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010531101942.gk8jrtyo.html - Iran Test Fires New Missile http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010531104225.85scojfo.html"}, {"response": 489, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  1, 2001 (20:33)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, May 31, 2001 @ 0541 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ATLANTIS DELAYED TO JULY IN WAKE OF STATION ARM TROUBLE ------------------------------------------------------- Problems with the international space station's new robotic arm has forced NASA to delay the next space shuttle flight, and the possibility is growing that a daring repair mission to replace one of the crane's joints might be needed before construction of the outpost can continue. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage7a/010529arm/ NEAR-EARTH ASTEROID FOUND TO BE TWO CHUNKS IN ONE ------------------------------------------------- The clearest radar pictures of a near-Earth double asteroid system were taken by astronomers last week using NASA's Goldstone radar telescope, revealing clues to the system's current structure but raising questions about its origin and future. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/31chuncks/ WHY DOESN'T EROS HAVE A MAGNETIC FIELD? --------------------------------------- Scientists said this week that they may know the reason why the asteroid Eros appears to lack a measurable magnetic field. Eros was the subject of detailed study for over a year by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/31eros/ QUASAR'S IDENTITY MAY SIMPLY BE IN EYE OF BEHOLDER -------------------------------------------------- Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have made the first detailed study of a peculiar type of quasar that is shrouded in clouds of gas and dust flowing outward at millions of miles per hour. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/31chandraeye/ MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR CAPTURES DUST STORMS ----------------------------------------- Daily global maps, created with images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, provide a moving picture of Martian weather during 1999-2000 similar to the familiar satellite weather maps we see of Earth. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/31mgsdust/ AEROJET STUDIES NEW NOZZLE DESIGN FOR SHUTTLE MAIN ENGINE --------------------------------------------------------- Aerojet has won an eight-month, $5 million contract from NASA to study the feasibility of developing a channel wall nozzle to replace the tube nozzle in the Space Shuttle Main Engine. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/31ssmenozzle/"}, {"response": 490, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  2, 2001 (12:48)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Saturday, June 2, 2001 @ 0324 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now X-43A CRAFT TO MAKE FIRST HYPERSONIC FLIGHT TODAY ------------------------------------------------- Imagine an aircraft that can fly at rocket speeds, seven times the speed of sound. Engineers are preparing for the first test flight of NASA's scramjet-propelled aircraft atop a Pegasus rocket on Saturday over the Pacific Ocean. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/02x43a/ HUBBLE TELESCOPE UNVEILS A GALAXY IN LIVING COLOR ------------------------------------------------- In this incredible view of the center of the magnificent barred spiral galaxy NGC 1512, the Hubble Space Telescope's broad spectral vision reveals the galaxy at all wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared. The colors map where newly born star clusters exist in both \"dusty\" and \"clean\" regions of the galaxy. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0105/31hstcolor/ SPECTACULAR PHOTO CATCHES HUNGRY QUASAR IN THE ACT -------------------------------------------------- A new image of a distant quasar -- the luminous core of an \"active\" galaxy -- shows that it is engaged in a gravitational battle with its neighboring galaxies. It also provides information on how supermassive black holes present in the center of quasars are fed. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/01hungry/ ESCAPE ROUTE FOUND FOR JUPITER'S PARTICLES ------------------------------------------ Jupiter's magnetosphere, an ionized-gas bubble encasing the planet, is lopsided and leaky, with an unexpected abundance of high-energy particles bleeding out of one side, according to recent measurements by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/01cassjup/ SATELLITE MAPS PROVIDE BETTER URBAN SPRAWL INSIGHT -------------------------------------------------- A major advance in satellite-based land surface mapping has led to the creation of more accurate and detailed maps of our cities. These maps provide urban planners with a better understanding of city growth and how rainfall runoff over paved surfaces impact regional water quality. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/02landsat/ ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO COMMAND SATELLITE MISSION ---------------------------------------------------- NASA software that thinks for itself and makes decisions without help from ground controllers will fly as the brains of triplet satellites in 2002. The spacecraft will be launched from the space shuttle in a stack configuration and fly in formation as part of the Three Corner Sat mission. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/01threecornersat/"}, {"response": 491, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun  2, 2001 (16:32)", "body": "I think that the suggestion that the Face on Mars was a portrait of Elvis was supposed to be a joke. Yes, someone did suggest that, but I think he was making fun of those who thought that a giant face had been carved on Mars. However, there are those who think that Elvis was a Venusian. Okay, these people think that they're from Venus too."}, {"response": 492, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  2, 2001 (21:38)", "body": "Nah, women are from Venus. He has to be from Mars!!!"}, {"response": 493, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (00:40)", "body": "Blame Canadarm: Space Station Crew Waits for Fix The International Space Station's current crew will probably stay aloft longer than planned as ground controllers work to fix the billion outpost's robotic arm, crew members said on Friday. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010601/sc/space_station_dc_1.html"}, {"response": 494, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (19:32)", "body": "- Test flight of hypersonic plane fails http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010603011442.pnzc6jhd.html - US demands back space debris that landed on S. African farm http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010603131813.g3a3h4dg.html - Russian military space force becomes operational http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010601150408.sqk5l00o.html - India approves development of nuclear-capable missile: report http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010531140524.e6i83sxb.html - Japan FM says Bush missile plan influenced by oil money: reports http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010602095847.epo5e233.html - Japanese foreign minister denies anti-US missile reports http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010603044056.ekmcyjff.html - No sex please, we're cosmonauts http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010601113838.sl06p9cz.html - French Arianespace hopes to ink satellite deal with Indonesia http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010601040941.rw06gkks.html"}, {"response": 495, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  4, 2001 (01:01)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, June 4, 2001 @ 0348 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NASA'S X-43A CRAFT DESTROYED IN LAUNCH FAILURE ---------------------------------------------- NASA's bid to test a revolutionary scramjet aircraft on Saturday failed even before it began when the Orbital Sciences-built Pegasus rocket launching the X-43A vehicle veered off course and exploded only moments into flight. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/02x43failure/ BRITISH CRAFT ENDS MISSION AFTER MISSED RENDEZVOUS -------------------------------------------------- The United Kingdom's first nanosatellite has failed in its daring rendezvous attempt with a Chinese craft, but scientists say the mission's other tests and demonstrations of nanotechnology were successfully completed. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/04snap1/ SPACE TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS KEEP SATELLITES SAFE ---------------------------------------------- A bullet fired on Earth travels 2,700 miles per hour and can do damage for up to 1,000 yards before it stops. A loose bolt in space hits at 17,000 miles per hour, goes through a spacecraft and keeps going. It's one office's job to make sure such a catastrophe doesn't happen. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/03spacecontrol/ SATELLITE FORMATION FLYING CONCEPT BECOMING A REALITY ----------------------------------------------------- The intensive planning activities and calculations that are currently done in control rooms on Earth in preparation to maneuver Earth-orbiting research satellites are about to become a thing of the past. NASA's first-ever autonomous formation flying mission is now under way as part of the EO-1 satellite program. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/04formation/ DUO UNTANGLE MYSTERIES OF JUPITER'S MAGNETIC FIELD -------------------------------------------------- In a series of presentations this week at the American Geophysical Union spring meeting in Boston, space scientists have shown how data from the two spacecraft have revealed new features and explained old mysteries about Jupiter's magnetic field. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/03jup/ GIFT OF GALAXIES WILL FUEL NEW FINDINGS --------------------------------------- Redshift data and spectra from the first 100,000 galaxies measured by the 2dF (Two-degree Field) Galaxy Redshift Survey will be released to the world astronomical community on June 30. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/04galaxygift/"}, {"response": 496, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (15:01)", "body": "The Arietid Meteor Shower Peaks This Week Space Weather News for June 5, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com The annual Arietid meteor shower peaks this week on Thursday, June 7th. The Arietids are unusual because they are daytime meteors -- most of them streak through the sky unnoticed while the bright Sun is overhead. Nevertheless, early risers on Thursday could spot some beautiful \"Earthgrazing\" Arietids during the dark hours before dawn. Later in the day, after the Sun rises, you can listen to the shower by tuning in to NASA's online meteor radar. For details and updates visit http://www.SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 497, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (15:03)", "body": "SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - June 5, 2001 - sponsored by - APSC - Satellite Launching, Simplified http://www.apsc2orbit.com --------------------------------------------- ----------- QUICK SPACE - Touch the Universe http://www.spacedaily.com/news/braille-01a.html - Did Hades Freeze Over? http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01d.html - Asteroids Belt Around Nearby Star Zeta Lep Spotted http://www.spacedaily.com/news/extrasolar-01d.html - Mars Invades Earth http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01p1.html - Active Volcanism On Mars And The Search For Water http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-volcano-01a1.html - Dust Devils At Arizona Targeted For Mars Experiment This Week http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-atmosphere-01a.html - Atlantis Shuttle Launch Delayed Until July 2 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010605041953.jkxw47gh.html - Ambassador Says Canada's Hand Influential In Missile Debate http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010604203340.rziishg4.html"}, {"response": 498, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (15:05)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Tuesday, June 5, 2001 @ 0411 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SEARCH BEGINS FOR CAUSE OF X-43A LAUNCH MALFUNCTION --------------------------------------------------- Video shot during Saturday's doomed launch of a Pegasus booster with NASA's X-43A experimental aircraft shows what might be one of the rocket's aerosurfaces breaking off moments before the vehicle goes into an uncontrolled tumble through the sky. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/04x43/ Watch video of launch failure: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/04x43/010604x43video_qt.html NEXT PEGASUS ROCKET LAUNCH DELAYED IN X-43A AFTERMATH ----------------------------------------------------- NASA has postponed this week's planned flight of the Pegasus rocket carrying a Sun-studying probe while investigators determine what went wrong during Saturday's X-43A launch that used a similar booster. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/04hessidelay/ ASTRONOMERS DISCOVER EXTRASOLAR ASTEROID BELT --------------------------------------------- Astronomers announced Monday that they had found evidence for what could be a belt of asteroids forming around another star, a discovery that may help them better understand how solar systems like our own form. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/05exoasteroids/ QUIET TIMES ON GALILEO PROBE ---------------------------- Galileo, the spacecraft, is now settling into a three-week period of extreme rest, even while Galileo, the flight team, is gearing up in planning for the next flyby in early August. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/05galileothisweek/"}, {"response": 499, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (16:19)", "body": "Bracing for an Interplanetary Traffic Jam NASA Science News for June 6, 2001 NASA's is improving its already-extraordinary traffic control system for interplanetary spacecraft, the Deep Space Network, in preparation for a flurry of activity in deep space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast06jun_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 500, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (16:20)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, June 6, 2001 @ 0311 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now RESEARCHERS SEEK OCEAN ON EUROPA THROUGH ITS SOUNDS --------------------------------------------------- Acoustic techniques used by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers to explore the Arctic Ocean may help determine whether there is a vast liquid ocean under the ice blanketing Jupiter's moon, Europa. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/06europasound/ WEALTH OF BLACK HOLES FOUND IN STAR-FORMING GALAXIES ---------------------------------------------------- NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has found new populations of suspected mid-mass black holes in several starburst galaxies, where stars form and explode at an unusually high rate. Although a few of these objects had been found previously, this is the first time they have been detected in such large numbers. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/06chandra/ METHOD TO MADNESS OF BLACK HOLE, NEUTRON STAR ERUPTIONS ------------------------------------------------------- In the fiery machinery of the night sky, where neutron stars and black holes wrapped in binary systems can flare and burst randomly, astronomers have uncovered a predictable mathematical pattern in the X-ray light emitted over time. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/06madness/ ARIANESPACE CLEARS ARIANE 4 ROCKET FOR FRIDAY LAUNCH ---------------------------------------------------- After a three-month lull in flights, Arianespace has entered the final stretch of preparations for Friday's predawn launch of an Ariane 4 rocket carrying the Intelsat 901 telecommunications satellite. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v141/status.html"}, {"response": 501, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (19:30)", "body": "I heard something about the government building some kind of decontamination chamber for stuff coming from Mars missions ... heard anything about this?"}, {"response": 502, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (21:52)", "body": "Not yet. If it deals with space it goes from all over the world (Cannada, UK and USA) to my email to you..... will check and let you know ASAP. Interesting!"}, {"response": 503, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (21:37)", "body": "Where No Telescope Has Gone Before NASA Science News for June 7, 2001 Whenever astronomers see the sky for the first time in a new part of the electromagnetic spectrum, they inevitably spot something they didn't expect -- from black holes to pulsars to planet-forming disks, there's always a surprise. Now NASA astronomers have captured the first focused images of any astronomical object at hard x-ray wavelengths. The eye-opening advance will finally reveal what the hard x-ray sky looks like in crisp detail -- and perhaps uncover a new batch of astronomical wonders. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast07jun_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 504, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (23:40)", "body": "----------- QUICK SPACE - NASA Selects Two Pups For Pluto-Kuiper Tryouts http://www.spacedaily.com/news/outerplanets-01a.html - Boeing Outlines New Concepts For Air Traffic Management http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gps-01g.html - HESSI Solar Explorer Delayed In Wake Of Pegasus Failure http://www.spacedaily.com/news/hessi-01a.html - Iridium Launches Global Satellite Data and Internet Services http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iridium-01c.html - Congress Asked To Boost Funds For Anti-Missile Laser http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010607054732.1qlx2abn.html - MIT Researchers Seek Ocean On Jupiter's Moon Through Its Sounds http://www.spacedaily.com/news/jupiter-europa-01a.html - New Study Indicates Planet Formation May Be Rare In Universe http://www.spacedaily.com/news/extrasolar-01e.html - White House-Appointed Panel Confirms Global Warming http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010607063146.r83fb4ns.html - Korea High On Agenda For EU-US Summit In Sweden http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010605122041.40xub8ng.html - Space-Age Russian Pop Group Hopes To Rocket Up The Charts http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010605231901.r3bu5h5q.html"}, {"response": 505, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (23:42)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, June 7, 2001 @ 1302 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NASA SELECTS TWO PLUTO MISSION PROPOSALS ---------------------------------------- NASA announced Wednesday that it had chosen two proposals for a mission to Pluto for additional study despite the fact that no funds for such a mission exist in the agency's budget for next year. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/07pluto/ INVESTIGATORS NAMED TO PROBE X-43A LAUNCH FAILURE ------------------------------------------------- NASA has announced the five-person accident investigation panel that will determine what caused the Orbital Sciences Pegasus booster with the agency's X-43A aircraft to malfunction during a botched launch Saturday. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/06x43board/ SENATE REPORT SLAMS NASA MANAGEMENT PRACTICES --------------------------------------------- A Senate committee report released this week -- entitled \"Government at the Brink\" -- sharply criticized NASA's handling of key programs, calling it one of the worst examples of mismanagement in the entire federal government. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/07senate/ IRIDIUM LAUNCHES GLOBAL DATA, INTERNET SERVICES ----------------------------------------------- Iridium Satellite LLC announced Wednesday the commercial availability of its mobile satellite data services, including dial-up connectivity and direct-Internet connections. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/07iridium/ STAR FACTORY NEAR GALACTIC CENTER BATHED IN X-RAYS -------------------------------------------------- Near the crowded core of the Milky Way galaxy, where stars shine so brightly and plentifully that planets there would never experience nighttime, astronomers have found a new phenomenon: a cauldron of 60-million-degree gas enveloping a cluster of young stars. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/07chandra/ PIONEER 10 STATUS CHECK ----------------------- New data from the Geiger Tube Telescope instrument aboard NASA's Pioneer 10 space probe has been analyzed. The report is cosmic ray intensity has continued to decrease. The craft is currently 7.34 billion miles from Earth. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/07pioneer10/"}, {"response": 506, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (20:24)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, June 8, 2001 @ 1612 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SPACEWALK OCCURS INSIDE SPACE STATION ALPHA ------------------------------------------- The first spacewalk staged from the international space station was successfully performed today as Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev and American astronaut Jim Voss manually repositioned a 150-pound, three-foot diameter docking mechanism. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html ARIANE 4 LAUNCH DELAYED ----------------------- Arianespace scrubbed this morning's scheduled liftoff of an Ariane 4 rocket carrying the Intelsat 901 telecommunications satellite due to unfavorable high-altitude winds above the South American launch base. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v141/status.html SHUTTLE LAUNCH DELAYED AMID STATION ARM MYSTERY ----------------------------------------------- NASA officials have again postponed the launch of space shuttle Atlantis on the next international space station construction mission while engineers struggle to understand problems with the outpost's new robotic arm. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage7a/010607newdelay/ SATURN'S CHANGING SEASONS ------------------------- Looming like a giant flying saucer in our outer solar system, Saturn puts on a show as the planet and its magnificent ring system nod majestically over the course of its 29-year journey around the Sun. These Hubble images, captured from 1996 to 2000, show Saturn's rings open up from just past edge-on to nearly fully open as it moves from autumn towards winter in its Northern Hemisphere. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/08saturn/ NASA GIVES OFFICIAL NOD TO ROBOTIC MISSION TO MERCURY ----------------------------------------------------- NASA has given the first Mercury orbiter mission the go-ahead to move into full-scale spacecraft development -- setting up the first trip to the Sun's closest neighbor in more than a generation. Launch of the MESSENGER probe is set for March 2004. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/08messenger/"}, {"response": 507, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (19:07)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Saturday, June 9, 2001 @ 1657 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ARIANE 4 ROCKET LAUNCHES NEW ERA FOR INTELSAT --------------------------------------------- A predawn launch of a European Ariane 4 rocket today delivered into space the first in a new series of communications satellites to beef up Intelsat's orbiting fleet with more powerful and higher capacity craft. http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v141/ Read our call of the countdown and launch: http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v141/status.html NEXT PEGASUS ROCKET LAUNCH REMAINS GROUNDED ------------------------------------------- It will be June 20 at the earliest before NASA's HESSI solar imaging satellite is hauled into space by an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket as the investigation continues into last Saturday's X-43A launch failure, officials said Friday. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/08hessi/ NEW X-RAY WINDOW TO THE UNIVERSE IS OPENED ------------------------------------------ Using a telescope containing unique X-ray mirrors, a team from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has obtained the world's first focused high-energy X-ray images of any astronomical object. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/09hardxrays/"}, {"response": 508, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 11, 2001 (16:26)", "body": "SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - June 11, 2001 - sponsored by - APSC - Satellite Launching, Simplified http://www.apsc2orbit.com --------------------------------------------- ----------- QUICK SPACE - China Moves Towards New Generation Metsats http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-01zg.html - Recipe For Deep Space - 'Microwave At 1,100 Degree C For X years' http://www.spacedaily.com/news/fuel-01e.html - Protecting Biospheres Beyond Earth http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01q1.html - Mars Express Will Put Phobos In The Spotlight http://www.spacedaily.com/news/marsexpress-01b.html - Forget The Barbed Wire This Is Concrete http://www.spacedaily.com/news/materials-01o.html - US-EU summit a chance for Bush to estabish global credentials http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010611013211.3pr88hck.html - Bush Urges \"Rouge\" Rather Than \"Cold War Mentality\" http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010608195638.66xf2f2j.html - US plans \"science-based solution\" to global warming: official http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010610233111.dynnvnno.html - ISS set to receive new Russian module at year end http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010609135111.y1emrcwu.html - ISS crew to install docking system for new Russian module http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010608150014.uhgkz71u.html - Atlantis launch pushed back again http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010608140634.2vophp4a.html"}, {"response": 509, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 11, 2001 (16:28)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, June 11, 2001 @ 0254 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now EUROPE'S MARS EXPRESS WILL INVESTIGATE PHOBOS --------------------------------------------- Phobos, the tiny innermost moon of Mars, is to come under unprecedented scrutiny after Europe's mission to Mars goes into orbit around the Red Planet late in 2003. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/10phobos/ GOLDIN TELLS GRADUATES HUMANS ON MARS IN 20 YEARS ------------------------------------------------- NASA administrator Dan Goldin told graduates of one of the nation's leading universities Friday that humans would walk on Mars within the next 20 years. Goldin described the unofficial but widely-accepted long-term goal of the agency's human spaceflight program. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/10goldinmit/ X-RAY NOVA, PULSATING WHITE DWARF FOUND IN ANDROMEDA ---------------------------------------------------- In its first look at the Andromeda Galaxy, Europe's XMM satellite has revealed several unusual X-ray sources, including a bright spot created by an enormous X-ray nova outburst and one of the \"coolest\" sources of the central region that appears to be a luminous white dwarf. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/11whitedwarf/ WIND BUBBLE FOUND AROUND YOUNG SUPER STAR CLUSTER ------------------------------------------------- An international team of astronomers has detected a wind bubble associated with a super star cluster in a nearby galaxy -- a key indicator that helps explain how this extremely young cluster is evolving. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/11bubble/ ENGINEER BRINGS COST OF EXPERIMENTS DOWN TO EARTH ------------------------------------------------- A Purdue University engineer is saving NASA millions of dollars by devising a method to test a new type of solar-power system on Earth instead of in the ultra-expensive environment of space. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/11solarexperi/ GAMMA-RAY BURST REVEALS SECRETS OF HOST GALAXY ---------------------------------------------- Five years ago, astronomers knew almost nothing about gamma ray bursts. Now, a team of observers has used a gamma-ray burst as a powerful tool to unveil the nature of the galaxy in which it occurred, more than 7 billion light-years away. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/10hostgalaxy/ BRIGHTEST QUASARS INHABIT GALAXIES WITH STAR-FORMING GAS CLOUDS --------------------------------------------------------------- A team of scientists at the California Institute of Technology and the State University of New York at Stony Brook has found strong evidence that high-luminosity quasar activity in galaxy nuclei is linked to the presence of abundant interstellar gas and high rates of star formation. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/10brightquasars/"}, {"response": 510, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jun 12, 2001 (09:38)", "body": ":::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Scientists Claim to Revive Alien Bacteria By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News May 10 \ufffd Italian researchers claim to have found conclusive evidence that life on Earth arrived from outer space. Bruno D'Argenio, a geologist working for the Italian National Research Council, and Giuseppe Geraci, professor of molecular biology at Naples University, identified and brought back to life extraterrestrial microorganisms lodged inside 4.5 billion-year-old meteorites kept at Naples' mineralogical museum. \"When in contact with a physiological solution, they became visible and began to move,\" D'Argenio said while presenting the finding at the Italian Space Agency yesterday. The bacteria, called \"cryms\" (for crystal microbes) by the researchers, remained dormant for billions of years and survived extreme ambient conditions \ufffd a clear indication, according to the researchers, that \"life can exist everywhere in the solar system, though in a quiescent state.\" Once brought back to life, the cryms were cloned by the researchers and their DNA analyzed. cointinued @ I can the National Inquirer Headline Aliens Cloned in Italian Lab!!!!"}, {"response": 511, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 12, 2001 (14:19)", "body": "Yup, it HAS to Happen. At your grocer's check-out stand now!!! The Biggest Explosions in the Solar System NASA Science News for June 12, 2001 Solar flares have vexed astronomers since they were discovered nearly a century and a half ago. The powerful explosions do things we simply don't understand. NASA's upcoming HESSI mission might finally solve the riddle of flares by making x-ray and gamma-ray pictures of the eruptions. What we learn could have down-to-Earth benefits and shed light on mysterious happenings far outside the solar system. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast12jun_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 512, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 12, 2001 (15:29)", "body": "SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - June 12, 2001 - sponsored by - APSC - Satellite Launching, Simplified http://www.apsc2orbit.com --------------------------------------------- ---------- QUICK SPACE - Space Insurance Goes Online http://www.spacedaily.com/news/internet-01k.html - Life's Rocky Road Between Worlds http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01r.html - Chinese Metsat Program Long March To Success http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-01zh.html - Engineer Brings Cost Of Experiments Down To Earth http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarcell-01d.html - Japan stands by Kyoto Protocol in face of new US proposal http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010612065530.ci804ki3.html - Bush arrives in Europe to bridge growing differences http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010612083621.wae4czsg.html"}, {"response": 513, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (14:37)", "body": "----------- QUICK SPACE - Japan delays launch of two spy satellites http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010613070624.jpdugptm.html - S.African millionaire bidding to become second space tourist: report http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010612190719.qyesusbc.html - Newly-found meteorite may point to water under Martian surface http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010612160555.cs3jd2m3.html - Russia's military satellites no longer reliable: space chief http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010613121247.ycdlmfyu.html"}, {"response": 514, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (15:09)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, June 14, 2001 @ 0553 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now EVIDENCE FOUND FOR RECENT SHALLOW GROUND ICE ON MARS ---------------------------------------------------- New high-resolution images from Mars Global Surveyor show evidence of ground ice on Mars as recently as 10 million years ago. More striking is that the signs of geologically recent ground ice deposits are near the equator, where ice was probably no deeper than 15 feet. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/14marsice/ INVESTIGATORS PREPARE TO OK NEXT PEGASUS ROCKET LAUNCH ------------------------------------------------------ NASA's $85 million HESSI mission designed to study solar flares could be launched next Thursday if engineers can finish their investigation to prove the satellite's ride to space -- an Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket -- is fit to fly. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/14hessi/ NASA SELECTS FIRST MARS SCOUT CONCEPTS FOR STUDY ------------------------------------------------ The ten most promising mission concepts of the 43 proposed to NASA for possible launch to Mars in 2007 were selected Wednesday for continued studies. The missions include networks of small landers, orbiting constellations of small craft and a rover that would attempt to establish absolute surface ages of rocks and soils. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/14marsscout/ BRIGHTER, REDDER MARS TO ILLUMINATE SUMMER NIGHTS ------------------------------------------------- Hold on to your hats and keep a pair of binoculars handy: After a 26-month sprint around the track of the solar system, we are about to lap Mars again. The red planet is in \"opposition,\" an event that puts Earth between Mars and the Sun. And next week, Mars will be at its closest distance from Earth since 1988. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/14marsopp/ REPAIRED SOLAR SAIL NOW READY FOR TEST LAUNCH --------------------------------------------- A suborbital demonstration flight of a solar sail is back on track for launch after a botched test damaged the craft. With repairs completed, the mission is expected to occur this summer aboard a Russian Volna rocket launched from a submarine in the Barents Sea. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/13solarsail/ JUPITER'S AURORAE, VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS ON IO REVEALED ---------------------------------------------------- Impressive thermal-infrared images have been obtained of the giant planet Jupiter during tests at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. They show the full extent of the northern auroral ring and part of the southern aurora. A volcanic eruption was also imaged on Io, the very active inner Jovian moon. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/12irjup/ NEW STUDY STIRS OLD DEBATE ABOUT GALAXIES ----------------------------------------- Using a technique that peeks over obscuring rings of dust and gas and into the hearts of distant galaxies, a researcher has found evidence suggesting that as many as half of the bright, active galaxies known as Seyfert 2 galaxies may have significantly less active central black holes. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/13debate/ OTHER HEADLINES --------------- NEW FACILITY TO IMPROVE AIRBORNE TELESCOPE'S CLARITY http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/13sofia/ OBSERVATIONS SHOW BROWN DWARFS FORM LIKE STARS http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/12browndwarf/ THE 'INS AND OUTS' OF A CELESTIAL DANCE BY CLUSTER 2 http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/12clusterdance/"}, {"response": 515, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (10:04)", "body": "Wow, ice on Mars!"}, {"response": 516, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (14:53)", "body": "They've been seeing it for ages. Of its composition they were never certain. And, at the Martian equator, never! 15 feet (4 1/2 meters) thick, no less! I am most eager to know what they discover. Some planets in the solar system have methane ice. Not the sort you want in your summer cooler!"}, {"response": 517, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (16:40)", "body": "No I'll take regular ice in my iced tea, please."}, {"response": 518, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (19:03)", "body": "I think I will join you in that! A sprig of fresh mint, too! NEWSALERT: Friday, June 15, 2001 @ 0554 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ROBOT ARM BUMPS INTO STATION, BUT PASSES KEY TEST ------------------------------------------------- American astronauts aboard the international space station gave the outpost's new robotic arm a thorough workout on Thursday by successfully rehearsing the job of installing a 12-ton airlock during the next planned shuttle visit. But the test started off with the arm's free end striking the station. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage7a/010614dryrun/ PROTON ROCKET NEARS LIFTOFF --------------------------- A new spacecraft for Europe's ASTRA direct-to-home TV and radio satellite system is ready to rocket into orbit aboard a commercial Russian Proton booster. Launch is planned for 0149 GMT Saturday (9:49 p.m. EDT Friday). http://spaceflightnow.com/proton/astra2c/status.html HIDDEN OCEANS ON EUROPA COULD STILL SUPPORT LIFE ------------------------------------------------ Could life thrive where the Sun never shines? The answer to this unorthodox question bears directly on the tantalizing possibility that life exists in the hidden, perpetually dark oceans that are thought to shroud some of Jupiter's moons, most prominently Europa. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/15europa/ PROBE TO TAKE 'FINGERPRINT' OF COMET NUCLEUS -------------------------------------------- Instruments aboard a spacecraft that will be launched next year to explore two, and perhaps three or more, comets in the solar system will for the first time provide a \"fingerprint\" of the surface of cometary nuclei, giving the first firm evidence of the composition of the icy, rocky objects. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/15contour/ EVIDENCE SUGGESTS ALL RADIO-LOUD QUASARS MAY BE BLAZARS ------------------------------------------------------- Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have found new evidence to suggest that all radio-loud quasars may be blazars -- and the differences between them may be related to the angle from which they are viewed. Quasars are quasi-stellar objects found in distant reaches of the universe and blazars are much brighter types of quasars. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/15blazars/"}, {"response": 519, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (19:36)", "body": "Wow, that proton rocket may mean that we can start getting satellite radios in our cars. I'm pretty happy with local stuff, local weather and talk shows, etc. but maybe they will develop more compleling contenet with the advent of csatellite radio."}, {"response": 520, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (20:03)", "body": "I am simply delighted to listen to NPR finally. But access to any radio station on the internet would be awesome. Of course you have heard John Burnett on the Hilo radio station over the net. Imagine summoning wherever you wanted no matter where in the world you were! I like it!"}, {"response": 521, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (19:35)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Thursday, June 14, 2001 @ 0553 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now EVIDENCE FOUND FOR RECENT SHALLOW GROUND ICE ON MARS ---------------------------------------------------- New high-resolution images from Mars Global Surveyor show evidence of ground ice on Mars as recently as 10 million years ago. More striking is that the signs of geologically recent ground ice deposits are near the equator, where ice was probably no deeper than 15 feet. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/14marsice/ INVESTIGATORS PREPARE TO OK NEXT PEGASUS ROCKET LAUNCH ------------------------------------------------------ NASA's $85 million HESSI mission designed to study solar flares could be launched next Thursday if engineers can finish their investigation to prove the satellite's ride to space -- an Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket -- is fit to fly. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/14hessi/ NASA SELECTS FIRST MARS SCOUT CONCEPTS FOR STUDY ------------------------------------------------ The ten most promising mission concepts of the 43 proposed to NASA for possible launch to Mars in 2007 were selected Wednesday for continued studies. The missions include networks of small landers, orbiting constellations of small craft and a rover that would attempt to establish absolute surface ages of rocks and soils. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/14marsscout/ BRIGHTER, REDDER MARS TO ILLUMINATE SUMMER NIGHTS ------------------------------------------------- Hold on to your hats and keep a pair of binoculars handy: After a 26-month sprint around the track of the solar system, we are about to lap Mars again. The red planet is in \"opposition,\" an event that puts Earth between Mars and the Sun. And next week, Mars will be at its closest distance from Earth since 1988. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/14marsopp/ REPAIRED SOLAR SAIL NOW READY FOR TEST LAUNCH --------------------------------------------- A suborbital demonstration flight of a solar sail is back on track for launch after a botched test damaged the craft. With repairs completed, the mission is expected to occur this summer aboard a Russian Volna rocket launched from a submarine in the Barents Sea. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/13solarsail/ JUPITER'S AURORAE, VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS ON IO REVEALED ---------------------------------------------------- Impressive thermal-infrared images have been obtained of the giant planet Jupiter during tests at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. They show the full extent of the northern auroral ring and part of the southern aurora. A volcanic eruption was also imaged on Io, the very active inner Jovian moon. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/12irjup/ NEW STUDY STIRS OLD DEBATE ABOUT GALAXIES ----------------------------------------- Using a technique that peeks over obscuring rings of dust and gas and into the hearts of distant galaxies, a researcher has found evidence suggesting that as many as half of the bright, active galaxies known as Seyfert 2 galaxies may have significantly less active central black holes. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/13debate/ OTHER HEADLINES --------------- NEW FACILITY TO IMPROVE AIRBORNE TELESCOPE'S CLARITY http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/13sofia/ OBSERVATIONS SHOW BROWN DWARFS FORM LIKE STARS http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/12browndwarf/ THE 'INS AND OUTS' OF A CELESTIAL DANCE BY CLUSTER 2 http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/12clusterdance/"}, {"response": 522, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (15:12)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, June 18, 2001 @ 0456 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ATLAS ROCKET TO PUT FIRST ICO SATELLITE INTO SPACE TONIGHT ---------------------------------------------------------- The foundation upon which the ICO global telephone and data relay satellite system will be built is awaiting a late-night liftoff atop a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/ac156/status.html PROTON ADDS NEW CRAFT TO ASTRA SATELLITE SYSTEM ----------------------------------------------- A new broadcasting spacecraft was propelled into Earth orbit on Saturday to join the ASTRA direct-to-home TV satellite system serving over 87 million homes across Europe. http://spaceflightnow.com/proton/astra2c/status.html XMM-NEWTON OBSERVATORY PEERS INTO A STELLAR COFFIN -------------------------------------------------- Astronomy is a painstaking discipline, requiring time and patience. Yet once in while, a string of discoveries using different telescopes occur in the same domain, each following hot on the heels of one another. Now, XMM-Newton adds the latest chapter to the story of IC443, one of the most studied supernova remnants. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/17xmm/ VETERAN SPACE SHUTTLE COMMANDER RETIRES --------------------------------------- Four-time space shuttle flier Brian Duffy (Col., USAF) has retired from the astronaut corps to accept a senior management position at Lockheed Martin. Duffy also will retire from the U.S. Air Force at the end of June. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/16duffy/ TAURUS XL ROCKET WINS COMMERCIAL LAUNCH ORDER --------------------------------------------- Orbital Sciences has sold its first Taurus XL rocket, a more powerful version of the company's ground-launched vehicle. The mission will carry a Taiwanese remote sensing satellite into orbit in 2003 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/18rocsat2/ SPROUT WINGS AND FLY -------------------- Engineers at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center have been flying a deployable, inflatable wing technology demonstrator experiment using a radio controlled airplane. The project's number one flight research question: \"will it fly as the wings deploy in flight?\" http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/17inflate/ SPACE TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES VIEW OF GIANT TELESCOPE ------------------------------------------------- NASA engineers in Alabama have been climbing a Texas mountain for the past year to help astronomers reach deeper into space with the world's third-largest telescope at the McDonald Observatory on Mount Fowlkes. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/16msfcscope/"}, {"response": 523, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (14:08)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - UAV Stealth Plane Gets X Rating http://www.spacedaily.com/news/plane-x47a-01a.html - Global Hawk Production Ramps Up Begins http://www.spacedaily.com/news/uav-01g.html - The Aerover Blimp: The Ultimate All-terrain Vehicle http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ballon-01b.html - Tecstar Reclaims Technology Lead For Solar Cells http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarcell-01e.html - Boeing-Built ICO Satellite Scheduled to Launch http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ico-01a.html - Thuraya Satellite Begins Commercial Mobile Phone Service http://www.spacedaily.com/news/thuraya-01b.html - Loral Skynet Offers Antenna-Seeding Program For Growing Cable Zone http://www.spacedaily.com/news/satellite-biz-01i.html - Hidden Oceans On Jupiter's Moons Could Support Life http://www.spacedaily.com/news/jupiter-europa-01b.html - Swiss geologists find Mars meteorite in the Sultanate of Oman http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-meteorite-01b.html - Xybernaut's Wearable Computers To Be Trialed For Mars Explorers http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-manned-01e.html - X-43A Mishap Investigation Update http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rlv-01o.html"}, {"response": 524, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (14:48)", "body": "Interplanetary shock wave triggers Northern Lights Space Weather News for June 19, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com AURORA YESTERDAY: A dense interplanetary shock wave buffeted Earth's magnetic field on Monday and lit up the midnight skies of North America with aurora borealis. Sky watchers saw the show despite the lengthening twilight of northern summer, which begins officially this Thursday. Visit spaceweather.com for images of the display. AURORA TODAY? Another solar wind disturbance swept past our planet on Tuesday; the impact might trigger renewed geomagnetic activity. Mid- and high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for (the slim chance of) auroras around local midnight. Visit http://SpaceWeather.com for more information and updates."}, {"response": 525, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (19:50)", "body": "Eclipse Safari NASA Science News for June 19, 2001 On Thursday, June 21st, the Moon's shadow will race across southern Africa for the only total solar eclipse of 2001. Read this story to learn why eclipses happen, what animals do when the Moon's shadow sweeps by, and what astronomers hope to learn by observing the event. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast19jun_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 526, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 20, 2001 (17:33)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 @ 1707 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now PEGASUS LAUNCH OF HESSI POSTPONED INDEFINITELY ---------------------------------------------- NASA has halted plans to fly its HESSI solar probe aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket until investigators determine what likely caused the botched X-43A launch earlier this month. When HESSI will be launched is unknown. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/19hessi/ ATLAS LAUNCHES FOUNDATION OF ICO SATELLITE SYSTEM ------------------------------------------------- The orbital assembly of a new wireless telephone and data relay satellite network began Tuesday when a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS rocket successfully launched the cornerstone spacecraft for the ICO system. http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/ac156/ Read our call of the countdown and launch: http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/ac156/status.html XMM SNAPS STRIKING IMAGE OF STELLAR ACTIVITY, BLACK HOLE -------------------------------------------------------- Europe's orbiting XMM-Newton telescope has obtained one of the most striking ultraviolet pictures ever taken of the galaxy M81. Strong ultraviolet emission is a feature of star formation, supernova explosions and the accretion of matter by a supermassive black hole. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/20m81/ DEFROSTING MARTIAN SAND DUNES LOOK LIKE VEGETATION -------------------------------------------------- As winter gives way to spring in the Martian southern hemisphere, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor is observing the retreat of the south polar frost cap. One of the most aesthetically-pleasing aspects of the spring defrosting process is the pattern that is created on the sand dune fields. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/19dunes/ SOLAR NEUTRINO PROBLEM SOLVED ----------------------------- Data from an unusual underground observatory have helped scientists solve a key mystery about the Sun, but have in turn raised new questions about fundamental particle physics, scientists announced Monday. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/20sno/ THURAYA BEGINS COMMERCIAL SATELLITE PHONE SERVICE ------------------------------------------------- Thuraya -- the satellite-based regional mobile communications system -- has started rolling out its service with the ultimate goal of covering a region encompassing approximately 2.5 billion people in 100 countries across the Middle East, North and Central Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/19thuraya/"}, {"response": 527, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 20, 2001 (18:04)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - Atlas Launches ICO Into Medium Earth Orbit http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ico-01b.html - Russia Plans Flyback Booster http://www.spacedaily.com/news/launcher-russia-01j.html - NSA certifies Iridium Security Module http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iridium-01d.html - Logicon To Supply Software For Missile Shield http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-01zj.html - Air Force Begins Independent Test Of SBIRS Ground Station http://www.spacedaily.com/news/sbirs-01d.html - NASA To 'Map' Big Bang Remnant To Study Early Universe http://www.spacedaily.com/news/map-01b.html - Planetary Hit-and-Run Among Creative Ideas Nudged by NASA http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-scouts-01a.html"}, {"response": 528, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 25, 2001 (02:03)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - Australian Government To Fund New Indian Ocean Launch Center http://www.spacedaily.com/news/aust-01b.html - Vegetation Key to Accurate Climate Modeling http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-01h.html - Putin Warns Of Arms Buildup If US Drops Abm Treaty http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010623151328.a3wxqofv.html - AFA Conference Brings Space Stars Together http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-01t.html - Future Army Could Run On Alternative Fuels http://www.spacedaily.com/news/future-01g.html - Boeing Delta-4 To Launch DSCS-3 A3 Satellite For US Air Force http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-comms-01e.html - AeroAstro Reviews Malaysian SPORT http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanosat-01c.html - Radiation-Resistant Chips for Sturdier Satellites http://www.spacedaily.com/news/radiation-01h.html - What's Real, What's Science Fiction? http://www.spacedaily.com/news/robot-01c.html"}, {"response": 529, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 25, 2001 (02:11)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, June 25, 2001 @ 0130 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now TEMPERATURE MAP OF IO PRESENTS A PUZZLE --------------------------------------- Earth's tropics are hotter than the polar regions for a good reason, so scientists are puzzled that the same pattern doesn't show on Jupiter's moon Io. Powerful volcanoes and the previous day's sunshine warm the nighttime surface of Jupiter's moon Io, as seen in this image from NASA's Galileo spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/24iomap/ EUROPA'S FROZEN SURFACE ----------------------- Europa, a moon of Jupiter, appears as a thick crescent in this enhanced-color image from NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Reddish linear features are some of the cracks and ridges, thousands of kilometers long, which are caused by the tides raised by the gravitational pull of Jupiter. Also visible are a few circular features, which are small impact craters. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/24europa/ COMPANIES USE AIR SHOW TO ANNOUNCE LAUNCH DEALS ----------------------------------------------- Arianespace, Boeing and International Launch Services announced a batch of new contracts last week at the Paris Air Show. Here are the three respective corporate releases describing the deals. ARIANE SIGNS 8 NEW LAUNCH CONTRACTS: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/25ariane/ BOEING/MELCO DEAL WORTH UP TO 6 DELTA 4s: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/25boeing/ ILS ATLAS 5 APPROVED BY INMARSAT VENTURES: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/25ils/ ROSETTA - A SPACECRAFT IN SEARCH OF PRISTINE MATTER --------------------------------------------------- In January 2003 the European spacecraft Rosetta is to launch on atop an Ariane 5 to comet \"Wirtanen\" in search of pristine matter. For a year, it will orbit this tailed star at a distance of one kilometer and explore it in detail. At the same time, a probe will land on the comet's surface for surface-science investigations and analysis. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/23rosetta/ UNIQUE LINK FOUND BETWEEN STELLAR DEATH AND BIRTH ------------------------------------------------- Astronomers from the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of California at Berkeley have discovered a key building block for new stars in the rapidly expanding remains of an ancient stellar explosion. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/23fuse/ ADOLESCENT INTERSTELLAR CLOUD SET FOR STAR FORMING -------------------------------------------------- Astronomers have discovered a highly unusual, massive interstellar cloud that appears poised to begin a burst of star formation. The cloud may be the first ever to be detected in the transition between atomic and molecular states. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/25cloud/ X-RAY VIEW OF A YOUNG PLANETARY NEBULA -------------------------------------- Chandra's image of NGC 7027 represents the first detection of X-rays from this young planetary nebula that is about 3,000 light years from Earth. A bubble of 3 million degree Celsius gas with a length about a hundred times that of our solar system is shown in the image. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/25chandra/ CELLULAR, MACROMOLECULAR BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH PROPOSALS PICKED ---------------------------------------------------------------- NASA has selected 43 researchers to receive grants totaling approximately $27 million over four years to conduct biotechnology research on Earth and in space. This research will create knowledge in important areas of biotechnology such as tissue engineering, gene expression and biosensor technology. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/24biotech/ ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: IT'S MORE THAN A MOVIE ----------------------------------------------- Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will talk about the real artificial intelligence work that takes place at NASA in a live webcast, scheduled for June 29, at 11 a.m. Pacific Time. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/23artintell/"}, {"response": 530, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 26, 2001 (16:46)", "body": "A Meteor Shower This Week? Space Weather News for June 25, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com METEOR SHOWER: On June 26th and 27th Earth will pass through the dusty debris trail of comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke, triggering the annual \"June Bootid\" meteor shower. Most years the June Bootids are meek: a typical shower consists of only a few visible meteors each hour -- but not always. In 1998 sky watchers enjoyed an intense Bootid outburst. What will happen this year? No one knows, but meteor enthusiasts will be watching the heavens for a possible flurry of shooting stars. Tune in to SpaceWeather.com for observing tips and more information about the shower. And don't forget to try listening to the June Bootids using our online meteor radar. SOLAR ECLIPSE: SpaceWeather.com's growing gallery of images from last week's solar eclipse now includes sounds as well. Listen to audio clips that reveal the excited reactions of onlookers before and during totality. Visit http://SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 531, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jun 26, 2001 (19:02)", "body": "What's up with the decimated ham radio satellite? Any more news on this? The guys on the 442.475 repeater were bemoaning the fact that some super cold liquid may have leaked and jammed up most of the communications gear."}, {"response": 532, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 26, 2001 (20:13)", "body": "This is the last I heard from them: seeks 80-meter bulletin reports A change has been made to the 80-meter bulletin antenna system. W1AW is requesting from amateurs who listen to the 80-meter transmissions send in signal reports. Please note QTH, time of reception, mode, signal strength and quality. Use of the standard RST system is acceptable. Mail your report on a postcard to W1AW 80-meter reports, 225 Main Street, Newington, Connecticut, 06111. Email reports may be sent to w1aw@arrl.org. The complete W1AW Operating Schedule appears in July QST, page 105, or on the web at http://www.arrl.org/w1aw.html ."}, {"response": 533, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 26, 2001 (23:34)", "body": "All the World's a Stage ... for Dust NASA Science News for June 26, 2001 Tune in to a NASA website and watch giant dust clouds as they ride global rivers of air, cross-pollinating continents with topsoil and microbes. This story includes movies of an African dust cloud blowing westward to North America in June. It also addresses questions like: Where does topsoil for Caribbean islands come from? And, are sneezes in Florida triggered by allergens from other continents? The answers may surprise you! FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast26jun_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 534, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 26, 2001 (23:48)", "body": "----------- QUICK SPACE - Ringing Out The Bugs On Route To Saturn And Titan http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-01g1.html - US May Still Decide Against Missile Defense: Russian Minister http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010625140642.et8cy2ut.html - Taiwan Secretly Developing Cruise Missile: Report http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010626063827.gjvjk3z4.html - Georgia Supports US Missile Defence Shunning Russian Concerns http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010625150543.m1yzqpsh.html - Chinese Scientists Gravitate Towards African Solar Eclipse http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-01zi.html - Cluster's Whispers Probe The Electrifying Plasmasphere http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cluster2-01b.html - Rime of the ancient Mariner: NASA looks back to Mercury http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010625113444.hjxemcxr.html - Refining Estimates For The North American Carbon Sink http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-01p.html - German Government, Energy Bosses Agree To C02 Emission Cut http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010625160336.rcbrap9j.html - Telesat Increases Equity Stake In Wildblue http://www.spacedaily.com/news/internet-01m.html"}, {"response": 535, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 27, 2001 (21:19)", "body": "Spacedaily Express - June 27, 2001 QUICK SPACE - NASA-Tito Discord Over Space Tourism Remains http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010627013535.rme0do06.html - SEAKR Offers Compact Flash Memory Pak For Space Applications http://www.spacedaily.com/news/space-electronics-01g.html - Space Probe To Glimpse Infancy Of The Universe http://www.spacedaily.com/news/map-01c.html - New Solar-Powered Hyperion Robot Stays In Sync With The Sun http://www.spacedaily.com/news/robot-01d.html - China Kicks Off World Space Week 2001 Promo Campaign http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-01zj.html - Russia Under Greater Threat From Missile Attack Than US: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010626131926.pf3wy6bv.html - Nuke Sub Missiles Notch Up Three More Successful Tests http://www.spacedaily.com/news/icbm-01h.html - Taiwan Secretly Developing Cruise Missile http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010626063827.gjvjk3z4.html - El Nino Link To Southern Ocean Currents http://www.spacedaily.com/news/pacific-01b.html - Japan, US To Develop Technology To Cut CO2 Emissions http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010627043220.x5odpsdz.html - G8 leaders to be unwitting participants in WWF campaign http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010626190948.el2o0x1c.html - Kyoto rescue effort runs into money problems http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010626162759.e3m4nq2q.html"}, {"response": 536, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 27, 2001 (21:21)", "body": "Satellite snaps 'before' and 'after' photos of tornado path NEWSALERT: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 @ 0455 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now SATELLITE IMAGES TELL TALE OF WISCONSIN TORNADO ----------------------------------------------- The morning after the northwestern Wisconsin town of Siren was leveled by a devastating tornado, the federal Landsat-7 satellite captured its destructive path from space. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/27tornado/ 'GRACE TWINS' TO INVESTIGATE THE EARTH SYSTEM --------------------------------------------- The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite duo is being prepared for launch to carry out gravimetric measurements of the Earth with an unprecedented accuracy, allowing for detection of minor changes in the gravity field caused by the circulating magma in the planet's interior, melting glaciers or changing ocean currents. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/27grace/ CLUSTER'S WHISPERS PROBE ELECTRIFYING PLASMASPHERE -------------------------------------------------- An astronaut who exits a spacecraft without a spacesuit will die very quickly because there is no air to breathe. However, although space is often regarded as an airless vacuum, it is by no means empty. Spacecraft such as Cluster are built to detect and study the sparse 'soup' of electrified plasma that populates near-Earth space. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/27cluster2/ INTERSPUTNIK REPORTS FAILURE OF EXPRESS-2 SATELLITE --------------------------------------------------- The Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications announced Monday that the Express-2 satellite had undergone an emergency de-activation as a result of technical problems with its Earth-orientation system. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/26express2/ SOLAR CONJUNCTION COMING TO END FOR GALILEO ------------------------------------------- This week the Galileo spacecraft peeks back out from behind the Sun. For about the last three weeks, Jupiter, with Galileo in orbit around it, has been blocked from view by the Sun. During this period of solar conjunction, the radio signal from the spacecraft must pass through the turbulent atmosphere of the Sun. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/26galileothisweek/ ESA AWARDS GIANT CONTRACT FOR NEW ASTRONOMY SATELLITES ------------------------------------------------------ The largest contract ever in the history of European space astronomy has been awarded by ESA to an industrial consortium led by Alcatel Space Industries for the manufacture of two astronomy satellites, the Herschel Space Observatory and Planck. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/26esaaward/ BOEING DELTA 4 TO LAUNCH DSCS-3 A3 FOR USAF ------------------------------------------- Boeing officials have announced that the U.S. Air Force has assigned a second launch of a Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) satellite aboard a Boeing Delta 4 rocket. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/26dscs3a3/"}, {"response": 537, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 27, 2001 (21:43)", "body": "don't forget the meteor shower, look out west and don't forget mars in the southern sky. the meteor shower is supposed to last a week (through Jul 2). get comfy and watch the sky!"}, {"response": 538, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 28, 2001 (19:29)", "body": "Yup, I posted it on 24 ..... thanks for the reminder. Go out, look and enjoy then come back to report your sightings!"}, {"response": 539, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 28, 2001 (19:45)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - .COM for Satellite Control Center Automation? http://www.spacedaily.com/news/industry-01a.html - DirecTV Shuts Down Satellite Pirates http://www.spacedaily.com/news/satellite-biz-01j.html - Boeing Rocketdyne RS-68 First Flight Engine Go for Launch http://www.spacedaily.com/news/delta4-01j.html - The Goldilocks Effect: How Other Earths Form Just Right http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01e.html - Where There's Soup, There's Life http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01w.html - Rare Orbital Anomaly May Have Caused Global Cooling http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-01q.html - Subglacial Volcanoes On Mars http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-volcano-01b.html - Russia To Bring Space Shuttle Back From The Grave http://www.spacedaily.com/news/russia-space-general-01m.html - My Way or the SKYway http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-01y.html - Russia Test Launches RS-18 ICBM http://www.spacedaily.com/news/icbm-01i.html"}, {"response": 540, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun 28, 2001 (21:45)", "body": "i was too sleepy to catch them last night plus we were rather overcast. sooooo....am gonna try again tonight. will let you know what i see."}, {"response": 541, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 28, 2001 (22:31)", "body": "Look for the comet, as well!!!"}, {"response": 542, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jun 29, 2001 (10:19)", "body": "comet? it was overcast again last night *frown* but i think i accidentally saw mars! is it slightly orange? (no, it's not the sun!!)"}, {"response": 543, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 29, 2001 (13:53)", "body": "Mars is very orane compared with other things in the nigth sky. I am hoping tonight will be my turn to see it. Yup, Comet Linear. Go take a look at the Sky and Telescope page I posted yesterday - or see below! COMET LINEAR HEADING INTO NORTHERN SKIES Northern Hemisphere observers should finally get a peek at Comet LINEAR (C/2001 A2) later this week as it quickly moves through Cetus. The comet was closest to the Sun on May 24th, but will be closest to the Earth on June 30th (37 million kilometers). Observers at midnorthern latitudes will see the comet climb higher above the east-southeast horizon each morning. By the end of the week, Comet LINEAR should be 10 to 25 deg. high (depending on your latitude) by the first hints of dawn. LINEAR has faded a little since reaching 3rd magnitude last week, but it remains a naked-eye object. In a week's time, however, the comet could fade even more or have yet another outburst. The comet remains high in the morning sky for Southern Hemisphere observers, where it will be more than halfway to the zenith in the eastern sky before dawn. Here are coordinates for Comet LINEAR for 0 hours Universal Time (in 2000.0 coordinates) for the coming week: R.A. Dec. Jun 23 2h 12m -17.8 deg. 25 1 50 -15.0 27 1 27 -11.9 29 1 04 - 8.5"}, {"response": 544, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 29, 2001 (14:27)", "body": "Wandering Mystery Planets NASA Science News for June 29, 2001 The word 'planet' comes from the Greek word 'wanderer,' but the planets in our solar system aren't true nomads. They stay close to home, always circling the Sun. This week scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope may have discovered a class of genuine planetary wanderers. It seems that mysterious objects smaller than Jupiter are running loose in globular cluster M22! Are they planets? No one knows, but astronomers are planning to find out. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast29jun_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 545, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 29, 2001 (15:22)", "body": "----------- QUICK SPACE - Europe Steps Up Satellite Piracy Crackdown http://www.spacedaily.com/news/satellite-biz-01k.html - XM Radio Birds Operating Perfectly http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01t.html - AsiaSat and Telstra link to stream broadband services to Australia http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010628055513.oso6ra9u.html - Venus Holds Clues To Finding Earth's Platinum And Diamonds http://www.spacedaily.com/news/venus-01b.html - Russia, US to discuss missile defense row in coming days http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010628220024.dapgh4fe.html - Common Ground Sought for Nuclear Security in 21st Century http://www.spacedaily.com/news/icbm-01j.html - Iridium Beefs Asia Pacific Push http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iridium-01e.html - Mass Extinction At The Triassic-Jurassic Boundary http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01t.html - Did A Disturbance In The \"Force\" Caused The K-T Impact? http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01u.html - How Trees Changed The World http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01v.html - Unlocking The Mystery Of Recurring Sea Ice Holes http://www.spacedaily.com/news/antarctic-01d.html - UN climate talks show big gaps, storm over US, Japan http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010628203836.vsajplp4.html - Britain's BNFL eagerly anticipates nuclear power \"renaissance\" http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010628115256.m4lnqbjs.html"}, {"response": 546, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 29, 2001 (15:23)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Friday, June 29, 2001 @ 0637 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now NASA NAMES THE LAUNCH DAY FOR SHUTTLE ATLANTIS ---------------------------------------------- NASA officials gathered on Thursday for the traditional Flight Readiness Review and affirmed July 12 as the launch date for Atlantis' 11-day mission to deliver the Joint Airlock to the international space station. Liftoff is planned for 5:04 a.m. EDT (0904 GMT). http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage7a/010628frr/ HINTS OF PLANET-SIZED DRIFTERS BEWILDER SCIENTISTS -------------------------------------------------- Piercing the heart of a globular star cluster with its needle-sharp vision, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered tantalizing clues to what could potentially be a strange and unexpected population of wandering, planet-sized objects. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/27hubble/ NASA'S MAP PROBE SET FOR WEEKEND LAUNCH --------------------------------------- Boeing's Delta 2 rocket is slated for launch Saturday to propel a NASA spacecraft on a journey to detect the afterglow of the Big Bang, which scientists hope will shed light on age-old questions about the content, shape, history and the ultimate fate of the universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d286/status.html SPACE TOURISM HEARING TURNS INTO STATION DEBATE ----------------------------------------------- A Congressional hearing on the nascent space tourism industry Tuesday turned into a debate between Dennis Tito and a NASA official regarding how many people the International Space Station can accommodate. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/27tourism/ CANADA BUYS LOCKHEED MARTIN SATELLITE AND LAUNCH ------------------------------------------------ Telesat Canada has bought a new direct-to-home TV broadcasting satellite and a rocket to launch the craft from Lockheed Martin. The Nimiq 2 spacecraft is due for liftoff from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas 5 booster in the fourth quarter of 2002. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/29nimiq/ ESA SOLAR MISSION ATTRACTS FOLLOWERS TO TENERIFE ------------------------------------------------ The launch date of Solar Orbiter, ESA's next mission to study the Sun, should be no later than 2010. This was one of the key messages to emerge from the first Solar Orbiter workshop which was held in Tenerife last month. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/29solarorbiter/ FIRST BOEING DELTA 4 ROCKET FLIGHT ENGINE 'GO FOR LAUNCH' --------------------------------------------------------- The liquid-fueled main engine that will power the first Boeing Delta 4 rocket off the launch pad next spring has completed acceptance testing, clearing the way for the powerplant's attachment to the vehicle in the factory. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/28rs68/ PIONEER OF U.S. HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT DIES --------------------------------------- John F. Yardley, a leading figure in the early days of human space flight and the Space Shuttle program, died early Tuesday. He was 76. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/28yardley/"}, {"response": 547, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jun 29, 2001 (20:06)", "body": "am hoping to catch the meteor shower tonight--well, maybe not, i just looked outside to remind myself what the sky was doing and it's overcast again. we need the rain and the nice low humidity but I WANNA SEE THE METEORS! *grin*"}, {"response": 548, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 30, 2001 (00:25)", "body": "I also WANNA SEE THE COMET!!! but I gotta go out before dawn to see it. *sigh*"}, {"response": 549, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 30, 2001 (12:12)", "body": "k i went out for a bit last night and saw nothing but satellites and high aircraft. the dogs wanted out at 4, so bleary-eyed i looked at the stars and saw nothing again! *frown* but i shall not give up, this thing is supposed to last through Monday!"}, {"response": 550, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 30, 2001 (16:39)", "body": "Wolfie, at 4am you should have seen the COMET!!! I was awake and I am sure the view from the summit of Mauna Kea was spectacular, but... It is so depressing looking at the underside of clouds when there are such great things going on on the other side! Satellites??? You did not do so bad. This is not one of the better meteor showers. I got my brand new husband out of bed to watch the Geminids which will occur again next month. Wait for them. They are usually spectacular!!!"}, {"response": 551, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 30, 2001 (16:57)", "body": "you got your WHO out of bed?"}, {"response": 552, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 30, 2001 (17:20)", "body": "A bunch of years ago - I was on my honeymoon. My ex was just as curious as I was and we saw nothing but Maine fog! Sorry, I did not make it clear about the time-frame involved. I am not married!"}, {"response": 553, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 30, 2001 (21:14)", "body": "*laugh* think i'm gonna have trouble seeing anything tonight too as the sky has been cloudy all day threatening rain!"}, {"response": 554, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jul  1, 2001 (11:29)", "body": "Same here, pretty cloudy."}, {"response": 555, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul  1, 2001 (14:26)", "body": "well, the clouds were starting to break up last night but it is overcast again today. did catch a glimpse of mars again (isn't it in the southern sky?)...did have fantastic dreams about the meteors though! *laugh* will check out the night sky again and let you know!"}, {"response": 556, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  1, 2001 (14:38)", "body": "I looked for Mars again last evening. I managed to see the moon though the partial cloudiness, but nothing else. Cloudy this morning so no comet-hunting. ( Mars is the biggest brightest orange thing up there. )"}, {"response": 557, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul  1, 2001 (14:53)", "body": "this is the only orange orb in my sky anyway and it is sort of high on the horizon and is south to southeast."}, {"response": 558, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  1, 2001 (18:00)", "body": "Yup that's it! Please, no beaming up or letting little green men (otherwise know as BEMs) come get you! Unless, of course, they are your relatives =)"}, {"response": 559, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul  1, 2001 (19:04)", "body": "*laugh* only if they let me bring you with!"}, {"response": 560, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  1, 2001 (22:05)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Monday, July 2, 2001 @ 0019 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now CRAFT LAUNCHED TO UNLOCK SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE ------------------------------------------------ A NASA space probe designed to map the afterglow of the Big Bang -- the fossil light from the creation of the universe 14 billion years ago -- was launched into space on Saturday atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket. http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d286/ Read our call of the countdown and launch: http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d286/status.html ESA AND NASA SET NEW CASSINI-HUYGENS PLAN ----------------------------------------- Managers for an international mission to Saturn have announced a revised plan to work around a telecommunications problem and avoid loss of scientific data after the Cassini spacecraft releases the Huygens probe to descend to the surface of Titan, Saturn's biggest moon, in 2005. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/30huygensfix/ GLITCH HALTS FREE FLIGHT TEST OF NASA'S X-38 -------------------------------------------- NASA X-38 program engineers decided to postpone the seventh free flight of an X-38 vehicle on Friday. The halt came after the X-38, still secured to a wing pylon on NASA's B-52B mother ship, was already airborne. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/30x38delay/ ORBITAL ANOMALY MAY HAVE CAUSED GLOBAL EARTH COOLING ---------------------------------------------------- A rare coincidence of orbital cycles may have caused sudden global cooling 23 million years ago, according to scientists, who used high resolution records and new techniques that allow astronomical calibration to be extended much further back in time. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/02anomaly/ GIANT 'EYEBALL' FURTHERS MEGA-TELESCOPE CONCEPT ----------------------------------------------- A satellite receiver that works like a giant eyeball has arrived in Sydney for testing, bringing a step closer one idea for the world's next 'mega-telescope' -- an army of giant spheres to collect radio waves from the cosmos, dotted in patches across the landscape. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/02eyeball/ SPACE STATION SENDS BACK FIRST RADIATION DATA --------------------------------------------- The first series of radiation data collected inside the International Space Station has been transmitted from space to scientists on Earth eager to assess its potential biomedical impacts and implications for future research. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/01issrad/ EXPEDITION TWO SCIENCE OPERATIONS STATUS REPORT ----------------------------------------------- An experiment that could make the Space Station an even better place to conduct microgravity experiments was undergoing tests this week in the orbiting laboratory. The Active Rack Isolation System is designed to act like a powered shock absorber to dampen vibrations from powered equipment and crew activities. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0106/30isssci/"}, {"response": 561, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  1, 2001 (22:07)", "body": "I'm packing, Wolfie. They want your new ring (now posted on Geo 8)"}, {"response": 562, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul  1, 2001 (22:37)", "body": "*laugh* they wanna see if it's a fake or not! saw in the paper about a probe thing launched this weekend--yeah, that's the one you mentioned in 560--it's a Microwave Anisotropy Probe....hmmm...wonder if it'll work better than the hubble (wasn't that sent to do the same thing?)."}, {"response": 563, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  2, 2001 (00:38)", "body": "We'll ask Cosmological Mike to take a bearing on it and download the goodies for us. It was a beautiful launch from what I saw on CNN. It covers much different range of the spectrum from what I understand. Fall out and stand by - will check it in the morning when y'all are wider awake!"}, {"response": 564, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul  3, 2001 (10:28)", "body": "Wednesday, 27 June, 2001, 08:23 GMT 09:23 UK Strange glows on Jupiter moon The white dots seen near the equator are volcanoes By BBC News Online science editor Dr David Whitehouse Strange glows have been seen dancing over Jupiter's moon Io. They were recorded during an eclipse of Io in January, witnessed by the Cassini spacecraft that was on its way to Saturn. Cassini's camera captured images of the eclipsed Io in several colours, ranging from the near-ultraviolet to the near-infrared. The colour of the diffuse glows tells scientists what elements are responsible; oxygen and sulphur are the best candidates. Some of the glows are associated with volcanic eruptions; others are auroral in nature being caused by Jupiter's titanic magnetic field wafting over the tiny moon. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1409000/1409117.stm ,.\b"}, {"response": 565, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul  3, 2001 (10:30)", "body": "Monday July 2 10:20 PM ET Astronomers Find Solar System Body By ANDREW BRIDGES, AP Science Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) - Astronomers announced Monday they have discovered an icy body that rivals Pluto's moon in size and hints that other planets may lurk within the far reaches of our solar system. The object, 2001 KX76, appears to be between 595 and 788 miles across, making it larger than any known asteroid and, perhaps, even Pluto's moon Charon. Charon is estimated to be 744 miles in diameter. A team of astronomers used the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile to find the object in images taken on May 22. It orbits the sun at a distance of about 4 billion miles in the Kuiper Belt of objects beyond Neptune. The new object apparently trumps in size all other known objects beyond the orbit of Neptune, except Pluto itself."}, {"response": 566, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul  3, 2001 (10:30)", "body": "Varuna points way to 10th solar planet PARIS: A large asteroid, named Varuna after the lord of the cosmos in Hindu mythology, has been spotted in the outer fringes of the Solar System, a discovery which suggests the Sun may have more than nine planets, astronomers say. Varuna was detected last November by Arizona-based astronomers in the Spacewatch Project, a scheme aimed at scouring the asteroid belts to look, in part, for rogue rocks that could be a potential threat to Earth. The spherical object is 900 km in diameter, which makes it only a tad smaller than Charon, the tiny moon that orbits Pluto, the most distant of the Sun's nine known planets. The discovery, by a team led by David Jewitt of the Institute of Astronomy in Honolulu, is reported last week in Nature, the British science weekly. http://www.timesofindia.com/280501/28hlth3.htm"}, {"response": 567, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jul  3, 2001 (16:05)", "body": "Is Pluto still considered a planet? Wasn't there some theory which denied that Pluto was actually a planet, due to its unusual orbit, or something?"}, {"response": 568, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  3, 2001 (22:28)", "body": "interesting question, cheryl--i think i heard the same thing but never found out the outcome either. marcia, can you post the dates for the geminoid meteor shower again? (thanks!)"}, {"response": 569, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  4, 2001 (21:32)", "body": "QUICK SPACE - Telesat Buys LockMart Bird And Launch Package http://www.spacedaily.com/news/telesat-01a.html - Putin Warns \"Fate Of Mankind\" Rests On Missile Talks http://spacedaily.com/news/010702152308.ernkhxkb.html - DS1 Closing In For Final Act http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deep1-01e.html - NASA Opens The Door Atlantis July 12 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iss-01t.html - Kuiper Belt Object found possibly as large as Pluto's moon http://www.spacedaily.com/news/kuiper-01f.html - Space Station Sends Back First Radiation Data http://www.spacedaily.com/news/radiation-01i.html - NASA Taps Hopkins' Applied Physics Lab To Develop Solar Missions http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solar-program-01a.html - Giant Eyeball Will Focus MegaScope http://www.spacedaily.com/news/telescopes-01a.html - Inter-Governmental Conference on Space Applications Opens in Vietnam http://www.spacedaily.com/news/unspace-01a.html"}, {"response": 570, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  4, 2001 (22:24)", "body": "Pluto is a moon that went off course. Habit keeps it in the planet category. Good point. Terry, interesting articles. I noted them as well but was sidetracked by Wolfie and the rc files for Geo. I did get my little earth logo back, though. Thanks, Wolfie - you reminded me not all commands were in the rc file. *Hugs* Metoer shower list next"}, {"response": 571, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  4, 2001 (22:36)", "body": "As Promised all meteor showers (and there are dozens of them ) are listed with the radiants position illustrated for each one for 2001 along with moon phase: http://www.imo.net/calendar/cal01.html Some of the better-known meteor showers and their approximate dates are: Lyrids, Apr. 21; Perseids, Aug. 12; Orionids, Oct. 20; Taurids, Nov. 4; Leonids, Nov. 16; Geminids, Dec. 13."}, {"response": 572, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  4, 2001 (22:37)", "body": "Remember, those dates are for midnight, so to watch the Perseids in August you might start looking late the evening of the 11th, and so on."}, {"response": 573, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Jul  4, 2001 (23:45)", "body": "Howdy all One of the cool things about meteor showers is that it provides yet another propagation mode for VHF and up (somewhat). This is in the form of meteor scatter where you bounce signals off the ionized particles in the upper atmosphere - the trick here is that you only have a small window of time to send a signal since the 'mirror' does not last that long. Most if not all meteor contacts use time slots for stations to transmit and receive and it might take several slots to make a contact. Another, even more exotic mode, is high speed meteor scatter where you send a burst of data off the ionized air. The basic contact calls for high speed cw (possibly voice?) and the burst mode is a cw message speed up superfast and sent via computer. Ive only tried a meteor contact once on voice since my cw is not quite what it used to be. I did hear a brief voice burst from the station I was trying to contact 1200 miles away. Neat stuff but Im busy with enuf distractions right not to take up another facet of the hobby. 73 de AA9IL Mike radio cosmo international p.s. just got my satellite tracking software loaded up and the latest keps so now I can start doing some sat contacts again!"}, {"response": 574, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  5, 2001 (00:14)", "body": "Cosmic One, you need not tell me. My father (W2CWR) had me climbing trees with antennas and doing sightings out the window with a makeshift telephone rig he had hooked up to synchronize the meteors and his reception of the sound. We did it with Aurorae too... Fantastic about the satellite stuff being up and running again. Meteors are a lot smaller things to aim at than EME transmissions, but are they basically the same? It's all in the timing! And precision aiming of the antennas....and so on and so forth. This is not easy stuff gang!"}, {"response": 575, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  5, 2001 (00:15)", "body": "Aphelion Away! Earth is far from the Sun on the 4th of July On the 4th of July, Earth will lie at its greatest distance from the Sun -- an annual event astronomers call 'aphelion.' But don't expect any sudden relief from the heat. Indeed, say researchers, our planet is actually warmer when we're farther from the Sun than at any other time of year -- an earth science curiosity that this story explains. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast03jul_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 576, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  5, 2001 (11:14)", "body": "along with cosmo's VHF stuff, meteor showers are also a good way to have some perspective on the fact that Earth is indeed a planet and we are floating around in space! sometimes folks think that space is \"out there\" like a trip to see long lost relatives or going across the ocean, when indeed, we are in the middle of it."}, {"response": 577, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  5, 2001 (11:14)", "body": "(thanks for the meteor dates, marcia!)"}, {"response": 578, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  5, 2001 (14:28)", "body": "NEWSALERT: --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now ASTRONOMERS DISCOVER GIANT KUIPER BELT OBJECT --------------------------------------------- Astronomers announced Monday that they have discovered an object in the distant Kuiper Belt that could rival Pluto's moon in size. The discovery of is more ammunition in the debate regarding the classification of Pluto, the smallest and most distant planet. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/03kbo/ Read news release announcing discovery http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/03kbo/index2.html SHUTTLE LAUNCH PADS FILLED FOR SUMMER STATION MISSIONS ------------------------------------------------------ For the first time in 18 months both space shuttle launch pads at Kennedy Space Center are occupied following Monday's rollout of Discovery in preparation for blastoff in August on a mission to exchange the resident crew aboard the international space station. Discovery joins sistership Atlantis, which was rolled out June 21. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage7a1/010702rollout/ MARS-BOUND PROBE ADJUSTS ITS TRAJECTORY --------------------------------------- NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft fine-tuned its flight path on Monday for arrival at Mars in October as it performed its second trajectory correction maneuver, changing its velocity by about two miles per hour. http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/odyssey/status.html BROWN DWARFS ARE STELLAR EMBRYOS EVICTED BY SIBLINGS ---------------------------------------------------- Brown dwarfs, essentially stunted stars, were most likely ejected from newborn, multiple-star systems before they had a chance to accumulate enough mass to ignite the hydrogen in their interiors and flower, according to a new study. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/03evicted/ GALILEO IN QUIET CRUISE MODE ---------------------------- This holiday week sees the Galileo spacecraft continue its normal cruise activities. On Thursday, a standard test of the on-board gyroscopes is performed. Due to repeated dosages of the intense radiation near Jupiter, some of the electronic components used to report data from the gyros have degraded. These periodic tests check the current health of the electronics, and also determine if updates are needed to software parameters. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/03galileothisweek/"}, {"response": 579, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  6, 2001 (19:06)", "body": "Even Homes in Space Need a Door The International Space Station may be the most technologically advanced house ever built, but at the moment it lacks something found in every home on Earth -- a front door! But not for long. Later this month the space shuttle is slated to deliver a 6-ton airlock to the ISS. US-suited astronauts will finally be able to cross the threshold of their own doorway to space for critical assembly and maintenance tasks -- and for the most thrilling experience of all: spacewalks. This story includes animated tours of the new airlock and a movie showing how the station's robotic arm will install the new chamber. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast06jul_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 580, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul  6, 2001 (21:14)", "body": "will it have a welcome mat too? oh yeah, and a seasonal wreath?"}, {"response": 581, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul  7, 2001 (14:19)", "body": "A Big Wreath with Twinkling lights and maybe those infernal chip-controlled Christmas tunes which can be so irritating. Stand by for the manger scene! This weekend on SPACE.com: STS-104 Coverage Kick-off ------------------------------------- Come back Sunday for a preview of the upcoming Space Shuttle Atlantis mission. Check out our mission preview, crew bios, countdown clock and more! Images from Space ------------------------------------- * New Image Gallery: Chandra's First Two Years http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/ The Chandra X-Ray Observatory stunned scientists in its first two years of exploring deep space, revealing sights and cosmological insights few had even dared to anticipate. * New! Thirty satellite views from Space just added! http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagepump/ Check out thirty stunning new satellite images courtesy of Space Imaging. We've added wonderful views of Washington State, incredible images of Italy, and more! Zoom in today! SPACE.com TV ------------------------------------- * Rockets Red Glare http://www.space.com/spacetv/ Still can't get enough of the July 4th celebration? Join us this weekend for at retro-rockets!"}, {"response": 582, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul  7, 2001 (14:47)", "body": "NEWSALERT: Saturday, July 7, 2001 @ 1430 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now HUBBLE CAPTURES BEST VIEW OF MARS OBTAINED FROM EARTH ----------------------------------------------------- Frosty white water ice clouds and swirling orange dust storms above a vivid rusty landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic planet in this sharpest view ever obtained by an Earth-based telescope. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/05hstmars/ OUR GALAXY'S SISTER IS A CANNIBAL, ASTRONOMERS SAY -------------------------------------------------- The large spiral galaxy called Andromeda is devouring a couple of small neighboring dwarf galaxies, astronomers report. The evidence of galactic dismemberment is a stream of stars on the outskirts of Andromeda that appears to have been stripped from two dwarf galaxies by their larger companion. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/06cannibal/ FIRST SPACE STATION PLANTS, SEEDS HEADED TO EARTH ------------------------------------------------- The Expedition Two crew continued to prepare the first plants and seeds produced on the International Space Station for their return trip on shuttle Atlantis set to visit the orbiting laboratory next week. The plants are the first to successfully go through germination, growth and seed development aboard the station. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/06isssci/ SOUNDS OF A STAR ---------------- Sound waves running through a star can help astronomers reveal its inner properties. In the case of our Sun, such waves have greatly improved our knowledge about what is going on inside. However, because they are much fainter, it has turned out to be very difficult to detect similar waves in other stars. But now waves have been detected in a solar-twin star. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/06astroseismology/ HOW FAST DOES THE WORLD TURN? ----------------------------- A discovery that may someday help measure how clouds and earthquakes change Earth's rotation has come from an experiment that made friction-free helium whistle. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/06worldturn/ RAPID HEARTBEAT IN ANDROMEDA YIELDS DISCOVERY --------------------------------------------- There are many kinds of celestial objects in the Universe but we are far from knowing them all. XMM-Newton may have discovered a new one: a very luminous soft X-ray source that is pulsating extremely rapidly in the central region of the Andromeda galaxy. This unusual object could be a new kind of accreting white dwarf. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/05andromeda/ 'STAR WARS' CRYO TANK GETS NEW LIFE WITH NASA --------------------------------------------- A multi-million-dollar cryogenic chamber, erected as part of Air Force research for President Reagan's 1980s Strategic Defense Initiative, will soon be helping NASA develop space science capabilities for the 21st century. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/05cryotank/ EATING RIGHT FOR LONG-DURATION SPACE MISSIONS --------------------------------------------- A study released of astronauts who lived aboard the Russian space station Mir, and counterparts living in seclusion on Earth, has validated a tool for measuring astronauts' dietary intake during long space flights. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/04spaceeat/ NASA NAMES CREW TO STS-111 SPACE STATION MISSION ------------------------------------------------ NASA has named three astronauts to the crew of space shuttle mission STS-111, scheduled to launch in 2002 to deliver a new International Space Station resident crew and a Canadian-built mobile base for the orbiting outpost's robotic arm. STS-111 is also the second space shuttle mission dedicated to delivering research equipment to the space platform. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/04sts111/ EUTELSAT SETS NEW COURSE AS A PRIVATE COMPANY --------------------------------------------- The assets and activities of the European Telecommunications Satellite intergovernmental organization were transferred on July 2 into Eutelsat S.A., a limited liability company headquartered in Paris. This establishes Eutelsat on a level playing field for furthering its expansion in the global telecommunications market. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/04eutelsat/"}, {"response": 583, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jul  7, 2001 (16:31)", "body": "Marcia, on the subject of \"those infernal chip-controlled Christmas tunes which can be so irritating\"; since space is a vacuum and sound isn't supposed to travel in a vacuum. Well, they could always hang the wreath with the offending seasonal music on the inside of the \"front door\"."}, {"response": 584, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul  7, 2001 (17:17)", "body": "off the subject but--is anyone else having trouble seeing the new posts when they open up a conference? i found this one answering another topic, same conference, by scrolling all the way down to see the last 5 posts."}, {"response": 585, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  8, 2001 (01:33)", "body": "Yes, Cheryl! But, since Space abhors a vacuum, the sound will again fill the void. We are doomed to chiped Christmas tunes unless we remove the chips (have done that more than a few times!) Wolfie, not so far and you are sound asleep now. Perhaps Spring misses The Master?!"}, {"response": 586, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  9, 2001 (14:45)", "body": "SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - July 9, 2001 - sponsored by - APSC - Satellite Launching, Simplified http://www.apsc2orbit.com --------------------------------------------- ----------- QUICK SPACE - Artemis On Course For Launch Thursday http://www.spacedaily.com/news/artemis-01b.html - Japan to launch H-2A rocket on August 25 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010704102207.11nsyx4i.html - NASA plans test flight for solar-powered wing http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010705231718.9gvhiglf.html - Hubble Captures Best View Of Mars Ever Obtained From Earth http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-general-01f.html - Ancient Volcanoes Were A Wipe Out http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01f.html - System Would Harness GPS Signals To Study Environment http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gps-01i.html - Nigeria Establishes Space Office http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nigeria-01a.html - Japanese Tourist Operator Opens Space Division http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-01z.html - Iraq tests modified anti-aircraft missile: Kuwaiti paper http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010708085346.y4cckgwo.html - Pentagon to conduct missile-interception test on July 14 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010707003815.9rsgo4wu.html - Schweizer Ships UAV Prototype To Northrop Grumman http://www.spacedaily.com/news/uav-01h.html"}, {"response": 587, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  9, 2001 (14:46)", "body": "Today in Science/Astronomy: * Images Stir Life on Mars Debate http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/clarke_mars_banyon_010709-1.html Mars has turned into a red planet Rorschach test. Depending on who is doing the looking, pictures snapped by the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) clearly show a world of big time biota, from fields of vegetation and towering Banyan trees, to blotches of bacteria and even a giant circuit board. * Hubble Views Mars at its Closest to Earth http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_hubble_010705.html The powerful Hubble Space Telescope has snapped the best images of Mars ever taken from Earth. Sharp-eyed optics on the orbiting facility resolved features on the red planet as small as 10 miles (15 kilometers) across. * New Image Gallery: Chandra's First Two Years http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/ The Chandra X-Ray Observatory stunned scientists in its first two years of exploring deep space, revealing sights and cosmological insights few had even dared to anticipate. ----------------------------------- Today in Missions/Launches: * Complete Coverage: STS-104 Atlantis Mission to Station Alpha http://www.space.com/shuttlemissions/ Shuttle Atlantis and five astronauts are poised to blast off this week on a mission to deliver an airlock to the International Space Station, capping the first full phase of a $60 billion orbital construction project. Check out our mission preview, live video, countdown clock and more! * Apparent Illegal Aliens Captured Near Shuttle Launch Pads http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/launches/ksc_security_010706.html More than a dozen young Asian men and women that appeared to be illegal aliens were apprehended Friday within scant miles of NASA space shuttle launch pads at Kennedy Space Center, security officials said. ------------------------------------ Today in Business/Industry: * NASA Reviews Proposal Expanding X-37 Project http://www.space.com/spacenews/americas/x37_070601.html As the U.S. Air Force considers taking a larger role in the X-37 experimental space vehicle effort, NASA is weighing a Boeing proposal that would expand the program to include a second flight unit. One of the vehicles under Boeing's proposal would be used for atmospheric testing only, program officials said. ------------------------------------ * SpaceTV: http://www.space.com/spacetv/index.php3 * Space Age Gear: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_gear-1.html * SpaceWatch: http://www.space.com/spacewatch/index.html * Uplink: Share your opinion! http://uplink.space.com/index.html ------------------------------------- SOLAR and SPACE WEATHER (July 9, 2001) 3-Day Solar Forecast Solar activity is expected to be low. But Sunspot Region 9531, which was numbered over the weekend and has been growing rapidly, is a likely source of additional low-level (C-class) solar flares. 3-Day Aurora Forecast Earth's geomagnetic field is expected to be mainly quiet to unsettled for the next three days. Isolated active periods may also occur as the speed of the solar wind fluctuates. Solar Data The current sunspot number is 101, and the solar wind speed recently clocked in at 416 kilometers per second (930,563 mph). The solar wind density was 5.3 protons per cubic centimeter. (Speed and density values are snapshots in time and change during the day.) http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_weather.html ------------------------------------- Sign up to become part of the greatest search in history! Join TeamSETI:"}, {"response": 588, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "Space news Just in time for summer, Space Adventures, Ltd. invites you to lose some weight... in fact, lose it all! With programs scheduled for July and August, Space Adventures Zero-Gravity flights can free you of your extra pounds multiple times in one hour, for 30 seconds intervals: http://www.spaceadventures.com/zerog/index_space.html"}, {"response": 589, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (19:39)", "body": "New CME to worry about... The current X-2 Solar Flare today has a lot in common with this one described more fully by Spaceweather.com for the X-6 Class solar flare on July 14, 2000. It also came from the middle of the sun as it faced us. Just thought you might like to see it. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast14jul_2m.htm"}, {"response": 590, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (19:42)", "body": "Space Weather News for July 16, 2002 http://www.spaceweather.com A remarkable sunspot is crossing the face of the Sun. The large active region stretches 15 Earth-diameters from end-to-end and poses a threat for powerful flares. Indeed, on July 15th, twisted magnetic fields above the spot erupted. The explosion sparked an X-class solar flare and hurled a coronal mass ejection into space. As a result, sky watchers on Earth might spot auroras on Tuesday or Wednesday night. Visit spaceweather.com for more information and updates."}, {"response": 591, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (13:54)", "body": "Today in Science/Astronomy: * Moon Holds Earth's Ancient Secrets http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/moon_earth_020723.html Tons of rocks and dust long ago blasted from Earth by asteroid impacts lay on the Moon's surface and could hold secrets to our home planet's early history and the origin of life. * Astronotes: The 'Winners' of the Caption Competition http://www.space.com/news/astronotes-1.html OK, \"contestants\" implies that those who responded to SPACE.com 's little game (see Tech Today - iSun) were actually going to win something. Well, they have! we proudly presents the three funniest entries in our rather impromptu \"Write the Caption\" competition. * Stolen Apollo Moon Rocks Recovered by FBI in Florida http://www.space.com/news/ap_moonrocks_020723.html Three employees of the Johnson Space Center in Houston and another man were charged in an alleged plot to sell stolen moon rocks from the Apollo missions for $1,000 to $5,000 a gram, the FBI said. * True Tally of Asteroids Probably at High End of Estimates http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/asteroid_tally_020723.html The continued rapid pace of discovery for large asteroids in relatively close proximity to Earth suggests there may be more of them than some scientists have predicted. The speculation, from one of the astronomers who helps count the rocks, does not imply a significantly increased threat to Earth, but it does extend a long-running debate over just how many of these space rocks exist. * Celebrating 30 Years of Imaging the Earth http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetearth/landsat_anniversary_020723.html NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) this week celebrate Landsat's 30th anniversary of imaging the Earth."}, {"response": 592, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (14:01)", "body": "/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/ MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT ISSUED: 00:50 UTC, 21 JULY 2002 /\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/ A major class X3.3 solar flare was observed at 21:30 UTC on 20 July. This event was accompanied by strong radio emissions (a 2600 sfu tenflare, 20,000 sfu intensity at 8.8 GHz and 43,000 sfu at 15.4 GHz), a Type II sweep (estimated shock velocity 515 km/sec - preliminary), and a strong loop prominence on the southeast limb. In addition, an interesting and h-alpha wave is visible propagating onto the visible solar disk to the northwest of the flaring center. Although this is well time correlated with the presumed onset of the flare start, it may be an independent phenomena as opposed to a Moreton-type wave related directly to the flaring site. Nevertheless, it is interesting to speculate. The x-ray and radio signatures of this event suggest it was a probable proton producing flare. However, no significant flux enhancements are expected in the near-Earth space environment due to its present poor location. X-ray fluence with this event was modestly respectable at near 0.75 Joules. The southeast limb has been teeming with activity. Frequent and occasionally fairly strong surging has been observed over the last 24 hours. Additional major levels of solar flare activity are expected from this spot complex as it continues to approach and (within the next 24 to 48 hours) rotate into view. Region 10036 is still considered a possible site for major flaring. It has experienced renewed growth over the last 24 hours. Although magnetic gradients and shear are not as strong as in Region 10030, the spot complex may still produce an isolated major event over the next several days. Flare activity from Region 10036 is expected to be fairly infrequent unless more rapid growth and dynamic flux emergence occurs. It is expected to take a back seat to the activity in the region due to rotate around the southeast limb. ** End of Notice **"}, {"response": 593, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (21:08)", "body": "More Spaceship Sightings Beginning this week, the International Space Station will make a series of eye-catching passes over North America. The bright spaceship is easy to see from your own backyard--and it looks great through a telescope, too. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/24jul_spaceship2.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 594, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 25, 2002 (14:23)", "body": "http://www.space.com/news/nasa_plutonium_020724.html Earl Wahlquist, associate director of the Department of Energy\ufffds Space and Defense Power Systems Office, said July 23 that 7 kilograms of Plutonium 238 \ufffd slightly more than half of the U.S. inventory \ufffd is being reassigned for use by an undisclosed national security agency. The 7-kilogram parcel of Plutonium is due to be removed from a spare RTG the Department of Energy built for NASA as part of the Cassini and Galileo programs."}, {"response": 595, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 26, 2002 (11:19)", "body": "Caveat Impactor An asteroid with almost no chance of hitting Earth made big headlines this week. Were we ever in danger? Read this story and find out. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/26jul_nt7.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 596, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 30, 2002 (18:17)", "body": "View Near-Earth Asteroid There's no danger of a collision. Even so, a big space rock will soon come so close to Earth that sky watchers can see it through binoculars. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/30jul_ny40.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 597, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jul 31, 2002 (11:19)", "body": "Is this the 1 on 250,000 rock?"}, {"response": 598, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 31, 2002 (22:42)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (07/30/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Reference: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/ * CALIPSO: A Global Perspective of Clouds and Aerosols from Space http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/CALIPSO Two of the biggest uncertainties in understanding and predicting climate change are the effects of clouds and aerosols (airborne particles). The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite mission, currently under development, will help scientists answer significant questions about climatic processes by providing new information on these important atmospheric components. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Fire: Fires Scorch Oregon http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4650 Unique Imagery: Smoke, Clouds and Ship Tracks Off California Coast http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4651 Unique Imagery: Bright Water Off Newfoundland http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4652 Dust and Smoke: Smoke from Canadian Fires Blankets Eastern U.S. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4653 Fire: McNalley Fire in Sequoia National Forest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4648 Fire: Fires in Central and Southern Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4647 Volcano: Nyamuragira Volcano Erupts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4643 Storm: Super Typhoon Fengshen http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4638 Storm: Hurricane Elida off Central America http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4639 Storm: Severe Snowstorm in Lesotho http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4640 Storm: Hurricane Douglas South of Baja California http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4633 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Aqua CERES First Light http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10273 Nyamuragira Volcano Erupts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10272 Konari, Iran http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10271 Summit Crater of Mauna Loa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10270 Three Gorges Dam, China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10268 Distinguishing Clouds from Ice over the East Siberian Sea, Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10267 Hyacinths Choke the Rio Grande http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10265 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - At Five-Year Anniversary, Conference Considers Satellite's Contributions to Understanding Global Energy, Water Cycle * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Increased Strength in Asian Southwest Monsoon May Be Result Of Warming, Say Researchers - Global Warming May Push Bats to the Low Arctic * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Monsoon Intensity Increasing as Earth Warms - Record Sea Temperatures Threaten Great Barrier Reef - Slowest U.S. Tornado Year Since 1988 - Indian Government Says Lack of Rain Worst in Decade - Landsat Paints a Portrait of Our Changing Planet - Air Pollution Changes Rainfall, May Cause Drought - Unlocking the Storm Code - Ice Crystals Clues to Climate - West Nile Virus Spreads Westward into 26 States - Study Finds Alaska Glaciers Melting at Higher Rate - China?s Pollution Found in Hawaii - NASA Turns New Weather Bird Over to NOAA - Cause and Effect Across 70,000 Years of Atmospheric Chaos --------------------------------------------------------------------- Earth Observatory weekly mailing -- http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/"}, {"response": 599, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug  6, 2002 (20:14)", "body": "ok, what is wrong with this topic? it keeps showing up with a blank message spot and i've tried to hit the \"forget\". maybe my actually typing something in here will straighten it out......."}, {"response": 600, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (15:38)", "body": "This topic continues to appear as having new posts when it does not. I wonder why!"}, {"response": 601, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (19:31)", "body": "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm"}, {"response": 602, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (22:52)", "body": "* Investigation Casts Light on the Mysterious Flying Black Triangle http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/black_triangle_020805.html They are big, black, and triangular. In UFO folklore they are proof-positive that planet Earth is a rest stop for joyriding, but road-weary, extraterrestrials. * Brown Dwarfs Born Like Stars, Study Shows http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/brown_dwarfs_020805.html In size and mass, brown dwarfs fit somewhere between stars and planets. While they are too small to start or sustain the nuclear reactions that characterize stars, unlike planets they do create internal energy that's detectable to astronomers. In how they are formed, though, scientists believe brown dwarfs are more like stars. * Closet Star Cluster: The Obscure Coat Hanger Star Pattern http://www.space.com/spacewatch/coat_hanger_020802.html One of the most pleasing sky sights through binoculars or a small telescope can be found nearly overhead in our late evening midsummer sky. With the Moon out of the way this week, it is a good time to seek it out. ----------------------------------- Today in SpaceFlight: * NASA Officials Set Plan for Resuming Shuttle Flights http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts112_update_020802.html Plans to repair tiny cracks within the space shuttle fleet by welding them and resume flying by late September or early October were formally approved by NASA program officials as expected on Friday. * 'Picky' Inspector Might Have Saved Shuttle Program http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts_ap_020801.html Did a 27-year-old with perfect vision and admitted pickiness help prevent disaster on the space shuttle? * NASA's Robotic Return Mission to the Moon http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/robotic_moon_020801.html Scientists have called for NASA to mount a robotic return mission to the far side of the moon to collect samples from the solar system's own \"big dig\" - the oldest and deepest impact crater basin known. This giant site is known as South Pole-Aitken Basin. ------------------------------------ Today in Business/Industry: * Finmeccanica Purchases Marconi Mobile, Telespazio http://www.space.com/spacenews/ Finmeccanica, Rome, has acquired defense communications company Marconi Mobile and satellite service provider Telespazio in separate transactions, the Italian aerospace and engineering group announced Aug. 2"}, {"response": 603, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (13:52)", "body": "Hi all - now this sounds like extreme moonbounce! 73 de Mike From the ARRL web page Amateurs Invited to Listen for Radio Signals Bounced Off Asteroid (Aug 15, 2002) -- Amateur Radio operators have been invited to listen in as scientists bounce radio signals off an asteroid that's about to make a \"flyby\" of Earth. The so-called 2002 NY40 asteroid will come close enough to Earth that it will be visible to sky watchers using binoculars. But because asteroids reflect but a tiny fraction of the light that strikes their surface, a team at the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico will attempt to \"ping\" the satellite with radio signals as it approaches Earth. \"We will be transmitting about 900 kW with 73 dB of gain towards the asteroid,\" Mike Nolan of the Arecibo Radio Observatory told ARRL. \"The transmitted signal will be such that the received signal comes back centered at 2380.0000000 MHz at the ground station we're aiming for--usually either Arecibo or the Green Bank Telescope.\" Nolan said the signal would be either CW or phase-coded at a bandwidth of up to 20 MHz. \"We will be transmitting most of the time when the asteroid is within 20 degrees of zenith at Arecibo on August 15-20.\""}, {"response": 604, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (10:43)", "body": ",,,,,,"}, {"response": 605, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (14:04)", "body": "Thanks for testing this topic, Wolfie. I cannot think why it is continuing to show new activity when there has been none."}, {"response": 606, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (16:32)", "body": "The Voyagers, aren't they amazing. Still beaming back and they're way beyond Pluto. Still giving us great data. This is NASA's wisest inventment of all times."}, {"response": 607, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (16:47)", "body": "Absolutely correct about the bang for the buck ratio with Voyager. It was brilliant and surpasses anything they anticipated. Kudos!"}, {"response": 608, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (04:52)", "body": "They're sending us data now about the very outer region of our solar system. The sun, to the Voyagers I and II must be a tiny little orb. They running a 25 watt transmitter, less than I use in my mobile rig around Austin. I wonder when they're power will finally go cold?"}, {"response": 609, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (22:16)", "body": "I recall their mentioning that a backward look at Pluto would be the last they expected to hear from Voyager. I also wonder how long their little batteries will last though it was expected to be long enough to maintain the memory for anyone in future worlds to download. Good luck if they did it on 8-track tape and they are using some sort of super digital mode."}, {"response": 610, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (22:17)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (08/20/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * The Migrating Boreal Forest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/BorealMigration/ Since the last ice age, forest species across North America have migrated back and forth across the continent. At one point cold-adapted species such as spruce lived as far south as the Gulf Coast. Comapred to past climate fluctations, current warming is happening very rapidly, and modern forests may be unable to migrate or adapt fast enough to keep up. Large nature reserves that encompass different climatic zones may increase forests' genetic diversity and increase the chances that forest species can adapt and migrate in response to cliamte change. * Fish Kill in the Gulf of Oman http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/oman When fish began dying in droves off the coast of Oman, local media reported it was due to contaminated ballast water from a U.S. tanker while authorities feared that a toxic algal bloom was to blame. Neither was true. Using data from NASA's Terra and SeaWinds missions, a team of scientists demonstrated the fish kill was due to a series of natural environmental changes. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Fire: Widlfires and Haze over Borneo http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4703 Fire: Fires along Lena River near Yakutsk http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4699 Fire: Fires and Deforestation in Brazil http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4695 Fire: Fires Scorch Oregon http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4696 Fire: McNalley and Pines Fires in California http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4697 Storm: Typhoon Phanfone http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4698 Volcano: Eruption of Pago http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4700 Flood: Flooding on Elbe River http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4701 Flood: Flooding along Danube River http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4702 Unique Imagery: Black Water off the Gulf Coast of Florida http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4689 Storm: Tropical Storm Cristobal http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4688 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: The Migrating Boreal Forest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10295 Floods in Germany http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10294 Contrail Web over the Central Rh\ufffdne Valley, Eastern France http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10293 Still Watching for the Next El Ni\ufffdo http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10292 Lena River Delta http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10291 Biscuit Fire, Oregon from NASA\ufffds New Satellite\ufffdAqua http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10290 Cloud Arcs in the Western Pacific http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10289 New Land Cover Classification Maps http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10288 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Instrument Aboard NASA's Aqua Satellite Joins Twin to Begin Comprehensive Global Coverage * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Songbird Population Declines Linked to Acid Rain - Air Pollution Cleansed Through Ocean Cloud Processes, Say Hebrew University Scientists * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Oceans May Help Clean the Air - Terra Satellite Refines Map of Global Land Cover - Global Warming Threatens Ocean Ecosystems - Scientists Cautious About Global Warming Link to Flood Disasters - El Nino Blamed for Weather Chaos - Asian Haze Poses \ufffdWidespread Threat\ufffd - Plankton Loss Potential Threat to Seas, Climate - NASA: Eastern U.S. Smokeout in Early July Set Record - Jet Contrails Leave Their Mark on Climate - Global Warming is Changing Tropical Forests - Satellite Sees Through Smoke to Help Track Wildfires - Wildfires May be a Taste of Global Warming - West Nile Will Sweep Across Whole US - Satellites Reveal A Mystery Of A Large Change In Earth\ufffds Gravity Field - Monsoon Intensity Increasing as Earth Warms"}, {"response": 611, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (22:21)", "body": "Today on SPACE.com -- Tuesday, August 20, 2002 -- http://www.space.com/ In today's issue: /------------------------------------- Capture the Solar System with the Coolpix System! http://www.nikoncoolpix.com/ -------------------------------------/ Featured Space Store Product * Astronaut Ice Cream Science/Astronomy: * SPECIAL REPORT: 2002 Leonid Meteor Shower * Behind the Pictures: Top 10 Voyager Facts * Mars-like Lab Conditions Support Life SpaceFlight: * Vigil for CONTOUR Spacecraft Continues * New Image Gallery: Voyager's Photo Legacy * Astronotes: Lance Bass Given Until August 23 to Produce Payment for ISS Trip Business/Industry: * Spot Names Replacement for Departing Chief Executive Plus... * SpaceTV, SpaceWatch * Solar and Space Weather * Starry Night, TeamSETI * Space Age Jobs ----------------------------------- Featured Space Store Product * Astronaut Ice Cream http://www.space.com/spaceagegear/ Just what you need after a hard day on orbit! Just kick back and enjoy this freeze dried ice cream while the planet gently spins below you. Everyone loves this one! (one serving) ----------------------------------- Today in Science/Astronomy: * SPECIAL REPORT: 2002 Leonid Meteor Shower http://www.space.com/spacewatch/leonids_2002.html Fast on the heels of the summer Perseids, it's time to look ahead to the current king of meteor showers, the Leonids. While the 2002 peak on Nov. 19 won't equal last year's stunning display, it will still be a remarkable storm that even casual skywatchers should not miss. Unless you plan to wait for 2033. * Behind the Pictures: Top 10 Voyager Facts http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/top10_voyager_020820-1.html Looking back over the 25 years since the first Voyager launch on Aug. 20, 1977, the twin spacecraft are remembered first and foremost as our emissary eyes in deep space. * Mars-like Lab Conditions Support Life http://www.space.com/searchforlife/mars_conditions_020819.html A laboratory experiment simulating conditions on Mars found that certain terrestrial microorganisms called methanogens can survive in extreme Mars-like conditions involving low air pressure. ----------------------------------- Today in SpaceFlight: * Vigil for CONTOUR Spacecraft Continues http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/contour_vigil_020819.html The CONTOUR mission team clings to the hope they'll hear from the still-silent comet probe. The spacecraft is now more than 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) from Earth. * New Image Gallery: Voyager's Photo Legacy http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/ Younger generations might think of the twin Voyagers as two way-out-there spacecraft. But space buffs from the 70s and 80s remember Voyager for its unbelievable stream of pictures. * Astronotes: Lance Bass Given Until August 23 to Produce Payment for ISS Trip http://www.space.com/news/astronotes-1.html The Russian space agency has given 'N Sync singer Lance Bass five days to come up with payment for a trip to the international space station this fall, a spokesman said Monday. ------------------------------------ Today in Business/Industry: * Spot Names Replacement for Departing Chief Executive http://www.space.com/spacenews/ Spot Image Corp. of Chantilly, Va., has tapped veteran company executive Neal Carney to replace Gene Colabatistto as its chief executive officer. ------------------------------------ * SpaceTV: http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/spacetv/ * SpaceWatch: http://www.space.com/spacewatch/ * Space Age Jobs http://www.spacejobs.com/ * Uplink: Share your opinion! http://uplink.space.com/ ------------------------------------- SOLAR and SPACE WEATHER (August 20, 2002) 3-Day Solar Forecast Solar activity is expected to be moderate to high. Region 69 has the potential for major flare activity. 3-Day Aurora Forecast Earth's geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to active with a chance of isolated minor storming. Active levels are expected Monday. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected Tuesday and Wednesday. Solar Data The current sunspot number is 308, and the solar wind speed recently clocked in at 505 kilometers per second. The solar wind density was 8.4 protons per cubic centimeter. (Speed and density values are snapshots in time and change during the day.) http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_weather.html"}, {"response": 612, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (18:02)", "body": "A s t r o A l e r t Sun-Earth Alert Solar Terrestrial Dispatch http://www.spacew.com/astroalert.html 21 August 2002 02:00 UTC (10 pm EDT) HEADS UP! AURORA MAY BE VISIBLE IN NORTH AMERICAN MIDDLE LATITUDES Auroral activity is becoming visible across many middle latitude regions at the time of this writing - for North American observers. The latest unconfirmed sighting is from New Hampshire, reporting brief tall rays and a diffuse glow to the north. A middle latitude auroral activity watch was issued several hours ago, but a posting here was held off until we could ascertain that conditions would hold up. It appears the Earth is imbedded in a stable solar wind stream capable of producing enhanced substorm activity. This disturbance is related to another coronal mass ejection disturbance thought to have originated from active sunspot complex 10069. Happy hunting! /\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/ MIDDLE LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY WATCH WATCH ISSUED: 20:30 UTC, 20 AUGUST 2002 /\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/ VALID BEGINNING AT: IMMEDIATELY VALID UNTIL: 19:00 UTC (3 pm EDT) ON 21 AUGUST HIGH RISK PERIOD: 20 AUGUST (UTC DAYS) MODERATE RISK PERIOD: 20-21 AUGUST PREDICTED ACTIVITY INDICES: 25, 15, 14, 12 (21 AUGUST - 24 AUGUST) POTENTIAL MAGNITUDE OF MIDDLE LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY: LOW TO MODERATE POTENTIAL DURATION OF THIS ACTIVITY: MAIN BELT = 12 HOURS MINOR BELT = 12 TO 24 HOURS ESTIMATED OPTIMUM OBSERVING CONDITIONS: NEAR LOCAL MIDNIGHT EXPECTED LUNAR INTERFERENCE: MODERATE OVERALL OPPORTUNITY FOR OBSERVATIONS FROM MIDDLE LATITUDES: FAIR TO POOR AURORAL ACTIVITY *MAY* BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM... WASHINGTON STATE TO IDAHO TO NORTHERN WYOMING TO SOUTH DAKOTA TO NORTHERN IOWA TO NORTHERN ILLINOIS TO NORTHERN INDIANA TO NORTHERN OHIO TO PENNSYLVANIA TO DARK-SKY SITES OF NEW JERSEY. ACTIVITY *MAY* ALSO BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM... ENGLAND TO NORTHERN BELGIUM TO NORTHERN GERMANY TO NORTHERN POLAND TO LITHUANIA TO SOUTHERN LATVIA TO NORTHERN RUSSIA. NEW ZELAND AND EXTREME SOUTHEASTERN REGIONS OF AUSTRALIA MAY ALSO OBSERVE PERIODS OF ACTIVITY. SYNOPSIS... A second very mild shock presumeably from activity associated with Region 10069, arrived at the Earth near 15:48 UTC on 20 August. The disturbance started out with a northward turning of the IMF. However, over the last 2 hours, the IMF has swung toward a more southward orientation. Isolated moderate to strong high latitude substorming is currently being observed. These conditions may provide some dark-sky middle latitude observers with a chance to glimpse periods of auroral activity over the next 12 hours - provided solar wind conditions remain favorable. This watch will remain valid through 19:00 UTC (3 pm EDT) on 21 August. It will then be updated or allowed to expire. For updated information, visit: http://www.spacew.com/aurora/forum.html PLEASE REPORT OBSERVATIONS OF AURORAL ACTIVITY TO: http://solar.spacew.com/submitsighting.html Observations reported here are permanently recorded for future study and are immediately made available in real-time to a large network of observers world-wide via the Internet, e-mail and pager. If you observe activity, your assistance to contribute to this database would be appreciated. A FREE trial of the space weather \"SWIM\" software package is now available at: http://www.spacew.com/swim . Use it to monitor current conditions. It may also be used to monitor any image resource you find on the Internet (including almost any type of 'cam' or \"pictures of the day\" you can find). ** End of the AstroAlert Bulletin **"}, {"response": 613, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (22:14)", "body": "PLUTO EVENTS PERPLEX ASTRONOMERS The last two months have been good ones for Plutophiles. In July a U.S. Senate subcommittee fortified NASA's budget with $105 million to continue work on the New Horizons mission, which could be launched toward the distant planet as soon as 2006. And during the past five weeks telescopes have captured the passage of Pluto in front of not one, but two faint stars. Although analysis of the stars' brief disappearances has only begun, it is already clear that observing teams from the United States and Europe have come to very different conclusions about the state of Pluto's atmosphere. During the first event, on July 20th (Universal Time), Pluto's shadow crossed South America and, unfortunately, barely missed passing over a string of major observatories in the Andes. The only \"hits\" came from astronomers with portable setups: Marc Buie and Oscar Saa used a 14-inch Celestron and a CCD camera near the small Chilean town of Mami\ufffda, while Francois Colas had a video-equipped 12-inch telescope a little farther north near Arica. According to Bruno Sicardy, who coordinated the European effort, seven other ground teams in Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela were either clouded out or experienced technical difficulties. Fortunes improved for the August 21st occultation, as the broad path passed over observatories in Hawaii and the Far West.... http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/current/article_718_1.asp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FIRST VIEW OF MARS IN X-RAYS On July 4, 1997, Mars Pathfinder helped humanity see the red planet in a whole new light. Exactly four years later, astronomers again saw Mars anew, when Konrad Dennerl (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics) pointed the Chandra X-ray Observatory at Mars and obtained the first ever X-ray image of our rusty neighbor. The realization that Mars has a high-energy glow is not surprising. Venus, Jupiter, Earth, Saturn, and even comets shine (albeit faintly) in X-rays. And, as with those bodies, the source is fluorescing oxygen atoms. Near heights of 80 kilometers in the Martian atmosphere, solar-wind particles strike oxygen atoms with enough energy to tear away their electrons. But these ions soon recombine with other electrons and return to their original, unexcited state, emitting X-rays in the process.... http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/current/article_715_1.asp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ASTEROID FLYBY SEEN WORLDWIDE From Uzbekistan and the Crimea to the UK, across North America, and on to Hawaii, amateur astronomers around the world had fine views of the close flyby of asteroid 2002 NY40 during the evening of August 17-18, 2002. The experience of David Nance (Huntsville, Alabama) was typical of the many reports received at Sky & Telescope. He wrote: \"I found 2002 NY40 easily and followed it for about 30 minutes. It was very bright (I'd estimate it at magnitude 9.5), and it was really spectacular sailing through the eyepiece, changing the patterns I formed with it and the framework of stars. My wife thought it was neat since it was so obviously not a 'fixed' star ... it looked a lot like a slow moving satellite on a really weird trajectory....\" http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/objects/asteroids/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CONTOUR'S FATE LOOKS \"BLEAK\" Although efforts to reestablish contact with the Contour spacecraft continue, mission managers now suspect that the craft was destroyed during a rocket firing on August 15th. Convincing evidence came from images acquired by the Spacewatch telescope about 20 hours afterward, showing two objects separated in the sky by about 460 kilometers and located some 460,000 km from Earth.... Mission mananger Robert W. Farquhar and his team received the Spacewatch image in response to a call to professional and amateur astronomers to help locate the spacecraft. The image shows a pair of 18th-magnitude objects, one approximately three times brighter than the other. According to David W. Dunham, head of the mission-design team, the objects were then within 0.6 degrees of where Contour would have been if on its correct interplanetary trajectory, and their positions suggest that Contour's solid-fuel STAR-30 rocket motor provided about 3 percent less total thrust than expected. Dunham estimates that \"Contour A\" and \"Contour B\" are moving apart at roughly 6 meters per second (14 miles per hour). It is not yet clear what the two pieces might be. \"The spacecraft was built around the STAR motor,\" Dunham notes, \"and they weren't supposed to separate....\" http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/current/article_712_1.asp ========================================================================= HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY * Last-quarter Moon on August 30-31. * Comet SWAN is low in the eastern sky around the time morning twilight begins for observers in the Northern Hemis"}, {"response": 614, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (22:14)", "body": "Today in Science/Astronomy: * Three Small Constellations: The Dolphin, the Fox and the Arrow http://www.space.com/spacewatch/little_constellations_020823.html Between and around the three great constellations of the Summer Triangle (Lyra, the Harp; Cygnus, the Swan, and Aquila, the Eagle), there are three little ones. * Antarctic Sea Ice Increases over Past Two Decades http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/antarctic_020822.html In a surprising departure from other findings that point to a warming planet, a NASA researcher has found that the amount of ice in the Antarctic increased from 1979 to 1999, as measured by satellites. * Evidence for Oldest Meteor Impact Tied to Two Continents http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/earliest_impact_020822.html A cosmic impact thought to have occurred about 3.5 billion years ago was so incredible it covered the entire Earth with ejected material and generated ocean waves that soared more than half a mile high (1 kilometer) when they reached the shore. * Moon Seen As Nuclear Waste Repository http://www.space.com/news/nuclear_moon_020822.html As the debate rages over using the Yucca Mountain as a burial ground for thousands of tons of radioactive material, a better site for unwanted nuclear waste holds its mute vigil in the skies above the Nevada desert: the Moon."}, {"response": 615, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Sep  3, 2002 (02:55)", "body": "Sun gives up secrets The huge ejections contain twisted solar material The Sun spits out huge bubbles of super-hot electrified gas. The solar eruptions blast out into space at speeds thousands of times faster than Concorde. Sometimes they can even disrupt the Earth's magnetic field, leading to power black-outs. They are also behind the most dramatic spectacle in the sky - the northern (and southern) lights. The colourful light shows happen when solar eruptions strike the region of space shielded by our planet's magnetic field. But despite their impact on Earth, it is not known exactly how the Sun spews out the giant bubbles of gas, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Now UK astrophysicists have found new clues. They think twisted magnetic fields deep within our star could be the driving force. The evidence comes from data gathered by the SOHO and Yohkoh satellites. Twisted structures Twists within the Sun's magnetic field were studied by a team at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) in Surrey. One theory is these twisted structures are caused by the Sun rotating faster at the equator than the poles, says Dr Lucie Green of MSSL. But the new study, carried out with colleagues in France and Argentina, suggests a second option is more likely. \"The magnetic field doesn't get twisted enough by the differential rotation that happens on the surface,\" Dr Green told BBC News Online. \"The implication is that the magnetic field must get twisted deep within the Sun itself.\" Scientists hope it will one day be possible to predict when the Sun is likely to emit CMEs as part of space weather forecasts. \"Prediction of space weather is still a long way off but our research is helping us understand why CMEs happen in the first place,\" says Dr Green. Source: BBC NEWS John"}, {"response": 616, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep  3, 2002 (17:38)", "body": "That is an amazing photograph. I was hoping it would be posted by one or the other of us. Space Power This month Science@NASA will publish a series of stories about the technology of space exploration--and what advances in technology are needed to send human and robotic explorers across the solar system. Today's installment, the first, is about space power. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/03sept_spacepower.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 617, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (14:53)", "body": "More aurora for us to hunt for: Aurora Alert: Saturday, Sept. 7th Space Weather News for Sept. 7, 2002 http://www.spaceweather.com AURORA WARNING: A solar wind shock wave swept past Earth on Sept. 7th at approximately 1630 UT (12:30 EST). The interplanetary magnetic field turned sharply south when the wave arrived, which means a geomagnetic storm is likely. Sky watchers in New Zealand and southern Australia, where it was nighttime when the shock wave struck, have a good chance of seeing Southern Lights. Observers in northern Europe, and perhaps Canada and northern US states, might see Northern lights after local nightfall on Saturday. Stay tuned to spaceweather.com for updates."}, {"response": 618, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (15:21)", "body": "A s t r o A l e r t Sun-Earth Alert Solar Terrestrial Dispatch http://www.spacew.com/astroalert.html 07 September 2002 MIDDLE LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY WARNING - 07 SEPTEMBER A powerful and high velocity coronal mass ejection was observed on 05 September that involved the violent ejection of a solar filament (a string of cooler gas suspended above the surface of the Sun). The ejection resulted in a high velocity CME travelling near 1700 km/sec toward the southeast of the Earth. However, a portion of the CME was also Earthward directed. The leading edge of this coronal mass ejection was observed impacting the Earth near 16:37 UTC on 07 September (12:37 pm EDT). This disturbance has the potential to drive moderate to strong levels of auroral storming over the high latitude regions. Middle latitude observers are also expected to observe some of the activity, particularly observers in Europe and north to central Russia where the timing of the arrival of this disturbance will probably be best for them. There is debate as to whether the disturbance will last long enough to produce visible activity by the time night falls for North America. Nevertheless, observers are encouraged to keep a close eye on the sky and current conditions. Current sighting reports are available at: http://www.spacew.com/www/auroras.html Current discussion of activity and the latest forecast notes are at: http://www.spacew.com/aurora/forum.html *NEW* A new real-time image publishing server is now operational that will permit people to publish images of astronomical or aurora events within 1 to 2 minutes of submitting them. This is an ideal avenue to publish images of observed activity in near real-time so others can see what you are seeing, or to showcase your own images in real-time. Details and instructions on how to use the new service are available at: http://www.spacew.com/gallery/help.html . The Gallery itself can be found at: http://www.spacew.com/gallery The official mid-latitude auroral activity warning report is included below: /\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/ MIDDLE LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY WARNING UPDATED: 16:30 UTC, 07 SEPTEMBER 2002 /\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/ *** DISTURBANCE ARRIVAL ALERT *** *** POTENTIAL FOR MODERATE TO HIGH ACTIVITY EXISTS *** For North Americans, begin watching TONIGHT, the evening of 07 September. VALID BEGINNING AT: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY VALID UNTIL: 19:00 UTC ON 08 SEPTEMBER HIGH RISK PERIOD: 07 SEPTEMBER (UTC DAYS) MODERATE RISK PERIOD: 07 - 08 SEPTEMBER PREDICTED ACTIVITY INDICES: 35, 20, 12, 12 (07 SEP - 10 SEP) POTENTIAL MAGNITUDE OF MIDDLE LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY: MODERATE TO HIGH POTENTIAL DURATION OF THIS ACTIVITY: MAIN BELT = 12 TO 18 HOURS MINOR BELT = 18 TO 24 HOURS ESTIMATED OPTIMUM OBSERVING CONDITIONS: NEAR LOCAL MIDNIGHT EXPECTED LUNAR INTERFERENCE: NONE OVERALL OPPORTUNITY FOR OBSERVATIONS FROM MIDDLE LATITUDES: FAIR TO GOOD AURORAL ACTIVITY *MAY* BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM... OREGON TO SOUTHERN IDAHO TO EXTREME NORTHERN UTAH TO SOUTHERN WYOMING TO NEBRASKA TO IOWA TO NORTHERN ILLINOIS TO INDIANA TO OHIO TO NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. ACTIVITY *MAY* ALSO BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM... EXTREME NORTHERN FRANCE TO BELGIUM TO CENTRAL GERMANY TO CENTRAL POLAND TO BELARUS TO CENTRAL RUSSIA. SYNOPSIS... A moderately strong interplanetary shock was observed passing the ACE spacecraft near 16:18 UTC (12:18 pm EDT) on 07 September. The disturbance has good characteristics that are expected to help drive periods of intensified auroral storm activity. Middle latitude observers are encouraged to keep a close eye on conditions. European and Russian observers will be optimally placed for observing activity. There is some doubt as to whether the activity will remain strong enough to permit widespread middle latitude sightings by the time North America sees darkness. Keep a close eye on current conditions by visiting: http://www.spacew.com/aurora/forum.html and http://www.spacew.com/www/auroras.html where reports of activity will be displayed. The new phase of the moon will allow unrestricted and optimal observations of activity under dark skies - ideal conditions for observing the intricate details of auroral activity. This warning will remain in effect until 19:00 UTC on 08 September. It will then be updated or allowed to expire. Please note that a new real-time aurora image gallery is available for public use at: http://www.spacew.com/gallery . This service is capable of publishing imagery within 1 to 2 minutes of the receipt of the images. As a result, it is an ideal way for people to show others what they are seeing. If you have a digital camera and are able to take a snapshot of auroral activity, send your image to the gallery so other's who may be less fortunate can observe what you are seeing. If you are taking pictures with film, please feel free to submit your images after you have developed your film. For help and i"}, {"response": 619, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (19:48)", "body": "It was a typical night for Alaska. The sky was filled with auroras; intense waves of red and green and violet light shimmered hypnotically overhead. But it wasn't Alaska. It was Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington and other continental US states, where surprised sky watchers saw Alaska-style auroras just yesterday. An unexpected geomagnetic storm ignited auroras over Europe, much of Canada and the United States on Sept. 3rd and 4th. Visit spaceweather.com to learn more about the storm and to see pictures of the auroras. http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 620, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Sep 17, 2002 (04:59)", "body": "Research Uncovers New Kuiper Belt Mystery Although the Kuiper Belt, a region of icy objects located past the orbit of Neptune, was only discovered in 1992, it's already presented a host of mysteries. One mystery is why an unusually large number of these objects have small satellites orbiting them - 8 out of the 500 objects discovered so far have had satellites. The high number brings into question the traditional theory that they're caused by collisions. Complete story in Southwest Research Institute News"}, {"response": 621, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 18, 2002 (23:06)", "body": "Is this where we got our second and third moons? The Kuiper Belt? We are just beginning to learn about what is just beyond our own atmosphere. How wonderful to know there are always more universes to conquer with our imaginations! Thank you, John. I would share it with you if it were possible."}, {"response": 622, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (10:24)", "body": "A Shocking Space Movie NASA Science News for September 19, 2002 Astronomers have captured extraordinary footage of a Manhattan-sized star rotating and spewing antimatter jets into space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/19sep_crabmovie.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 623, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (23:27)", "body": "Today in Science/Astronomy: * Harvest Moon for Skywatchers, Birdwatchers and Farmers http://www.space.com/spacewatch/harvest_moon_020920.html The Full Moon of Saturday, Sept. 21 also carries the title of the Harvest Moon for those living in the Northern Hemisphere. It has a long history of importance for farmers and birdwatchers, which we'll explain below. First, let's look at what's different about a Harvest Moon. * Stunning New View of Energetic Crab Pulsar http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/crab_pulsar_020919.html Combining the power of the Hubble Space Telescope with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, researchers have made a short movie of a massive rotating star that provides new clues about how the powerful object works. * Crab Pulsar Close-up http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagepump/ Zoom in on the recent Crab Pulsar image! * Film Director Ron Howard Talks Space as His Apollo 13 Premieres in IMAX Theaters http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/crab_pulsar_020919.html With the IMAX theater giant screen premiere of his 1995 film Apollo 13, Academy Award winning director Ron Howard says that's about as close to outer space as he is likely to get. ----------------------------------- Today in SpaceFlight: * Air Force Marks the 100th Launch it Didn't Goof Up http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/range_milestone_020919.html You can't blame the U.S. Air Force for delaying launches from the Cape -- at least not for the past 100 shots. * New Space Junk Satellite Will Leave Earth's Grasp http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/space_junk_020919.html That mysterious object discovered in orbit around Earth on September 3 is likely not to hit the Moon. Rather, the suspected Saturn IVB upper stage will swing back into orbit around the Sun, scientists said today. * Delta 4 Still Aiming for November Launch but Problems Persist http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/delta4_update_020919.html Preparations to launch the first Delta 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in early November are continuing but engineers still haven't resolved a problem with the software to be used during the countdown, Boeing officials said Thursday. ------------------------------------ Today in Business/Industry: * CNES Director-General Resigns http://www.space.com/spacenews/ Gerard Brachet has resigned as director-general of the French space agency, CNES, and will seek appointment as director of a new organization managing Europe's Galileo satellite navigation project. ------------------------------------ * SpaceTV: http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/spacetv/ * SpaceWatch: http://www.space.com/spacewatch/ * Space Age Jobs http://www.spacejobs.com/ * Uplink: Share your opinion! http://uplink.space.com/ ------------------------------------- SOLAR and SPACE WEATHER (Septemebr 20, 2002) 3-Day Solar Forecast Solar activity is expected to be low to moderate through Friday. 3-Day Aurora Forecast Earth's field is expected to be mostly unsettled through Friday. Solar Data The current sunspot number is 228, and the solar wind speed recently clocked in at 525 kilometers per second. The solar wind density was 1.4 protons per cubic centimeter. (Speed and density values are snapshots in time and change during the day.) http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_weather.html"}, {"response": 624, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  5, 2002 (20:26)", "body": "Space Medicine So you think a 6-hour car trip is tough on your body? How about a six-month trip to Mars? In this story, researchers discuss how to keep astronauts safe and healthy during long trips through the solar system. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/30sept_spacemedicine.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 625, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  5, 2002 (22:40)", "body": "AMATEURS TO HELP DISCOVER EXTRA-SOLAR PLANETS --------------------------------------------- Astronomers at NASA and the University of California at Santa Cruz have launched a Web-based project that has amateur astronomers lining up to have a chance to discover extra-solar planets that 'transit' or pass in front of their parent stars. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0210/06planets/ TEAM TO DEVELOP NUCLEAR ELECTRIC POWER FOR SPACE ------------------------------------------------ A team of government, industry and academia, under the leadership of The Boeing Company, has been awarded a NASA contract to meet the challenge of developing nuclear electric power for deep space exploration. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0210/06boeingpower/ ASTRONOMERS PUT QUASARS IN THEIR PLACE -------------------------------------- A team of UK astronomers has made a decisive step toward resolving an argument that has rumbled on in the astronomical community for decades. The scientists from the University of Nottingham have been investigating the properties of quasars and nearby galaxies. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0210/05quasars/ NASA HOPEFUL FOR MONDAY SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH -------------------------------------------- NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston has taken back command of the international space station from Moscow following last week's hurricane alert. At Kennedy Space Center, Atlantis remains in good shape for launch Monday. The weather forecast, however, is somewhat iffy. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/status.html ARE LANDCOVER CHANGES ALTERING EARTH'S CLIMATE? ----------------------------------------------- While many scientists and policy makers have focused only on how heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide are altering our global climate, a new NASA-funded study points to the importance of also including human-caused land-use changes as a major factor contributing to climate change. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0210/05landcover/"}, {"response": 626, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  5, 2002 (22:44)", "body": "Today in Science/Astronomy: * Upgrades to Boost SETI@home Alien Search http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscience/seti_021001-1.html The world's most popular ET-hunting program for home users is about to get upgrades of both its software and the telescope that feeds data into it. * Starry Night's Fall Sky Tour: Easy Targets in the Northern Sky http://www.space.com/spacewatch/easy_north_021001.html While much of the sky offers daunting challenges to backyard astronomers, the northern fall sky includes familiar stars and star patterns that will make even the most causal stargazer feel comfortable. * NEW! Wallpapers for your Desktop http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/downloads/wallpapers/ A new collection of images from Space Artist John Catraham, 'The Early Works' * Astronotes: Soccer Mom's Space Bid on Hold http://www.space.com/news/astronotes-1.html A Long Beach woman said this week that her bid to become the third space tourist is on hold, as pop star Lance Bass' quest to do the same stumbles forward. ----------------------------------- Today in SpaceFlight: * Mission Atlantis: Meet the Crewmembers of STS-112 http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts112_preview_021001.html Call them the leader, the mother, the organizer, the mentor, the ice breaker and the brother. * Hurricane Lili still a concern for launch http://www.space.com/shuttlemissions/ Hurricane Lili is heading toward the U.S. Gulf coast and there is enough uncertainty in its track that shuttle Atlantis' launch could be delayed -- not because of bad weather at the Cape but because of a potential threat to Mission Control in Houston. * Mission Atlantis: Helping the Station Keep its Cool http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts112_preview_020930.html With its cracked plumbing repaired and a much-anticipated television camera mounted to its exterior, shuttle Atlantis is ready to blast off this week on a complex 11-day assembly mission to the International Space Station (ISS). ------------------------------------ Today in Business/Industry: * Alcatel Finalizes Satellite Contract with China http://www.space.com/spacenews/ Alcatel Space has finalized a contract to provide the Chinese government with an electronics package for a large telecommunications satellite for launch in 2005 aboard a Chinese rocket, Alcatel Space announced Sept. 27. ------------------------------------ * SpaceTV: http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/spacetv/ * SpaceWatch: http://www.space.com/spacewatch/ * Space Age Jobs http://www.spacejobs.com/ * Uplink: Share your opinion! http://uplink.space.com/ ------------------------------------- SOLAR and SPACE WEATHER (October 1, 2002) 3-Day Solar Forecast Activity is expected to be low to moderate through Wednesday. 3-Day Aurora Forecast Earth's geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet to unsettled, with some active periods possible Monday and Tuesday. Solar Data The current sunspot number is 157, and the solar wind speed recently clocked in at 315 kilometers per second. The solar wind density was 4.3 protons per cubic centimeter. (Speed and density values are snapshots in time and change during the day.) http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_weather.html"}, {"response": 627, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct  7, 2002 (19:17)", "body": "http://64.4.14.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=df9b86cc32916c06832cb16969fe06c5&lat=1034032623&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ecnn%2ecom%2f2002%2fUS%2fWest%2f10%2f07%2fmeteor%2esighting%2eap%2findex%2ehtml"}, {"response": 628, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (19:47)", "body": "Sweetie, that link does not work anymore. What was it??? The shuttle is up. I have not seen NASA TV on mylaptop....."}, {"response": 629, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (19:58)", "body": "NASA TV links http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/ntvweb.html"}, {"response": 630, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 14, 2002 (00:21)", "body": "Urban Sprawl: the Big Picture Earth-orbiting satellites have a wonderful view of our planet's fast-growing cities, but most city planners don't have access to this \"big picture\" from space. NASA-supported scientists are working to change that. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/11oct_sprawl.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 631, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (22:00)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (10/29/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/BAER The aftermath of a wildfire can be as dangerous as the blaze itself. The charred landscape is prone to flooding and erosion, and natural resource experts usually have only one week to assess the damage and propose steps to mitigate disaster. Satellite mapping of burned areas can save crews time and money by helping guide field crews to the most crucial areas. USDA Forest Service and University of Maryland scientists are partnering up in a project to collect ground-based data to check the accuracy of their satellite-based Burn Severity maps. -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Eruption of Sicily's Mt. Etna http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10804 Monster Hurricane Kenna Poses Severe Threat to Mexican Coast http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10803 Space Shuttle view after Kolka Glacier Collapse http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10802 \"The Optimist,\" Kalahari Desert, Namibia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10801 Burn Severity for Oregon's Biscuit Fire http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10800 Where on Earth...? MISR Mystery Image Quiz #11 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10799 Tarpum Bay, Bahamas http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10798 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Computer Model Suggests Future Crop Loss Due to Potential Increases in Extreme Rain Events Over Next Century - NASA to Develop Biohazard 'Smoke' Detector - Shuttle Radar Clears the Air on Central America\ufffds Topography * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Detection, Not Warming, Behind Increase in Antarctic Icebergs - U.S. Bird Species Declining - People Use 83 Percent of Land Surface - Belize Cave Records El Ni\ufffdo Events - NASA\ufffds EO Data Put the Surveillance on the Mosquito - Cosmic Rays Linked to Clouds --------------------------------------------------------------------- Earth Observatory weekly mailing -- http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/"}, {"response": 632, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  7, 2002 (12:48)", "body": "What a great combination of earth and space science! This is geosynthesis at it's finest."}, {"response": 633, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (22:43)", "body": "http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20021122/UASTEB1/Science/science/science_temp/2/2/3/ An article about medium sized objects that might hit the earth. \"Small meteors more likely to leave deadly trail of destruction on Earth, scientists say By STEPHEN STRAUSS Friday, November 22, 2002 \ufffd Page A21 Anyone who has ever been frightened by the Hollywood movie concept of an asteroid smashing into Earth can rest a little easier because of Canadian-led research published yesterday. Scientists have used previously secret U.S. military satellite data to estimate that a destructive impact will occur an average of once every 1,000 years. Previous estimates had suggested that an asteroid could strike once every 200 to 300 years. \"Most of our attention has focused on the bigger guys which can cause global damage, but the mean time of them occurring is about 700,000 years. However, the smaller guys can cause significant regional damage and do it much more often,\" said Peter Brown, an astronomer at the University of Western Ontario in London, who is the lead author of a new paper on the subject published in yesterday's issue of the journal Nature."}, {"response": 634, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (20:05)", "body": "I hope, if I die, I get to see it on the way down!"}, {"response": 635, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Dec 18, 2002 (11:27)", "body": "Ancient, Frozen Antarctic Life Revived, Along with Hopes for Life on Mars By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer 16 December 2002 Within ice that covers a salty, liquid Antarctic lake scientists have found and revived microbes that were at least 2,800 years old. The discovery, announced today, points to probable life within the underground lake and suggests the sort of ecosystem that might exist on Mars. The ancient microbes were in a state of suspended metabolism, similar to dormancy, said study team member John Priscu of Montana State University. \"They're in a frozen state,\" Priscu said in a telephone interview. \"They'll come back to life if you add water.\" Priscu and his colleagues camped out on the ice above 2.5-mile-long (5-kilometer) Lake Vida for about two weeks back in 1996. They drilled down about 50 feet (15 meters) to collect the aged bacteria. They were just reaching the briny slush of the lake, said to be seven times saltier than the ocean and able to remain liquid even at temperatures lower than -10 Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit). \"It was hard drilling,\" Priscu said. \"It was 40 below. It was a real tough job. The next step was to get to the brine.\" However, to prevent contaminating the pristine lake, the drilling system was back-pressured with de-ionized water. Seals began to fail, and the system started to leak. The researchers were forced to stop. Priscu thinks the lake holds live organisms. Life has been found in similar salty conditions, such as the Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea. And his lab work shows organisms can thrive in the frigid temperatures presumed for Lake Vida. His team has frozen blocks of organisms to -15 Celsius and kept them alive. Confidence for life on Mars Further, he said similar pockets of ice or briny water on Mars almost surely hold life, or at least signs of it. Other researchers are typically more reserved about their speculation of possible life on Mars. But Priscu has seen the living, up close, in the harshest conditions our own planet has to offer. Critters called cyanobacteria dominate life at these extremes. Another Antarctic Lake, called Vostok, has been under similar study and organisms have been found in the ice above it. And several research teams have examined cyanobacteria in easier-to-reach pockets of polar ice. The creatures are innovative enough to generate their own sunscreen -- a handy ability to have on Mars, where radiation is harsher than on Earth. The Lake Vida creatures are unique for their age, determined by the age of ice in which they were embedded. Other similar studies have involved ice that is frequently replenished and not as old. Frozen polar regions on Mars might contain organisms similar to those Priscu and his colleagues have been studying over the years, he said. Or deep underground pockets of ice -- or even water -- could support them. In Priscu's mind, the question of finding life on Mars is only whether it will be crawling around or hung in a sort of natural ice museum. \"It's either extinct or extant,\" he said, alliteratively ruling out the possibility of coming up entirely empty in the search for past or present life on the Red Planet. Just thaw them out He said data his team has collected suggest bacteria and their DNA can remain viable for up to a million years. Ice is a good preservative, he said. Add a little water -- which even in a deep freeze can occur in layers where frictional energy melts ice for brief periods -- and organisms might maintain and repair their blueprints for life for many millions of years. \"If they're frozen [on Mars] and younger than 1 million years,\" Priscu said, \"give them some water and they probably would come back.\" The research, funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA, is reported in the Dec. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Peter Doran of the University of Illinois at Chicago is the lead author of the paper. When the study began, the scientists had thought Lake Vida might be a frozen chunk of ice, like other known \"lakes\" in the region. But the ice cores, along with ground-penetrating radar and long-term temperature data, revealed that Vida has a thick, light-blocking ice cover, vast amounts of ancient organic material and sediment, and the liquid zone underneath. \"Mars is believed to have a water rich past, and if life developed, a Lake Vida-type ecosystem may have been the final niche for life on Mars before the water bodies froze solid,\" Doran said in a statement. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/antarctic_life_021216.html"}, {"response": 636, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (02:37)", "body": "A new NASA mission named \"CHIPS\" will soon leave Earth to study the remains of some uncomfortably close supernova explosions. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/06jan_bubble.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 637, "author": "ramesh2005", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (02:54)", "body": "it good"}, {"response": 638, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (15:33)", "body": "Welcome and Aloha Ramesh. I am assuming you are somwhere in the Pakistan or India area. Please tell us more about you!"}, {"response": 639, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 17, 2003 (17:17)", "body": "SHUTTLE COLUMBIA ROCKETS INTO ORBIT FOR SCIENCE FLIGHT ------------------------------------------------------ With fighter planes and radars scanning the sky for intruders, the shuttle Columbia thundered away on a marathon 16-day science mission Thursday, carrying a crew of seven - including the first Israeli astronaut - scores of experiments and a menagerie of animal and insect research subjects. http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030116launch/ Watch it on Nasa TV on your computer: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/ntvweb.html"}, {"response": 640, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Feb 28, 2003 (11:47)", "body": "Ask yourself, what would really get Marci's juices going? Answer: a news story that combines space and volcanoes. At the edge of space \ufffd the same cold region where space shuttle Columbia broke up into a trail of debris \ufffd shiny, silvery blue clouds have been hovering. The high-altitude ice clouds are called noctilucent or \"night-shining\" clouds, and astronauts as well as Earth-bound scientists have been puzzled by their growing abundance. The clouds are visible from space and from the ground over areas that are experiencing summer weather. Astronauts on the space station are seeing them over the southern hemisphere where it's now warm. \"We've seen definite changes,\" said John Olivero, a professor of physical science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. \"It appears the particles that make up the clouds have gotten slightly bigger with time and it appears the clouds are now visible further away from the poles than they have been before.\" Volcanic Beginning The last time these high, shiny clouds appeared in great numbers was after the 1883 eruption of the island volcano, Krakatoa, in Indonesia. The explosion hurled plumes of ash up to 50 miles into the air and caused spectacular sunsets. The ash particles also served as rare anchors to water vapor at high altitudes and the vapor condensed to ice, forming the brilliant blue clouds. Sky gazers who stayed up late following the eruption reported seeing wispy, glowing streaks in the night sky. Before this incident there were no reported sightings of noctilucent clouds. But why so many night shining clouds now? \"It's still being debated,\" says Chester Gardner, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana. One reason scientists are having such a hard time understanding the shimmering clouds is their location. At 30-60 miles above Earth, the mesosphere is also known as the \"ignorosphere\" due to its inaccessibility. The region is too far to reach by weather balloon and yet it sits below where orbiting satellites or other craft might orbit because its heavier atmosphere would cause too much drag. The rest of the story at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/nighshiningclouds030228.html"}, {"response": 641, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  1, 2003 (19:13)", "body": "Thank you, Terry! You knnow me very well. Most interesting! A Most Surprising Observation \"Quite by accident, we have made a most surprising observation,\" reports Don Pettit, the science officer of the International Space Station. It happened during his spare time on a Saturday morning last month. Pettit was preparing to make some weightless soap bubbles--just for fun--when he discovered a very curious property of water in space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/25feb_nosoap.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 642, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  1, 2003 (19:15)", "body": "Interesting Clouds Astronauts onboard the International Space Station have been observing strange electric-blue clouds hovering near the edge of space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/18feb_nlc.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 643, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (10:49)", "body": "Today on SPACE.com -- Friday, March 7, 2003 -- http://www.space.com/ In today's issue: /------------------------------------- Interstellar Flight Be part of a real mission to the stars! Include your photo, message and DNA on board Humanity's First Starship. Makes a great gift! http://www.space.com/teamencounter/ -------------------------------------/ Featured Products * The Space Store Investigation Columbia: Newest Developments in Shuttle Inquiry http://www.space.com/columbiatragedy/ Spaceflight: * Model Rocket Engine Size Matters to Government Regulators * Russia Insists It Needs Cash from Space Station Partners Soon * Columbia Accident Hearing Probes NASA Workforce Erosion, Shuttle Safety Issues Technology: * Space Shuttle Tile System Unique, Future Could Bring Alternatives * Tech Today: Home Theater Made Easy Science/Astronony: * Fact vs. Fiction: Reading Weather in the Sun, Moon and Stars * The Big Rip: New Theory Ends Universe by Shredding Everything * Mars Core Squishy, Goes with the Tidal Flow * New Views of Jupiter Force Rethink of Cloudy Theories Recent Headlines: * Three Members Added to Columbia Investigation Panel * Columbia Public Hearing to Include Experts on Foam, Shuttle Systems * Molten Aluminum Found on Columbia Tiles * NASA: No Internal Shuttle Policy Changes Ahead of Probe Findings * China Outlines its Lunar Ambitions * Pioneer 10: Farewell to an Old Friend * Seven Newfound Moons of Jupiter Bring Tally to 47 * Radio Star: ALMA Telescope to See Stellar Birth, Galactic * Powerful Space Bursts Reflect Two Ways to Make Black Holes Plus... * SpaceTV, SpaceWatch * Solar and Space Weather * Starry Night, TeamSETI -----------------------------------"}, {"response": 644, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  8, 2003 (17:04)", "body": "Busy Sky: Jupiter, Mars and Comet NEAT Space Weather news for March 8, 2003 http://www.spaceweather.com MARS: Mars and Earth are converging for an extraordinary close encounter later this year. The approaching red planet is now brighter than a 1st-magnitude star--it's gliding through the star fields of Sagittarius in the morning sky. JUPITER: The brightest \"star\" in the evening sky is Jupiter. This month the giant planet is gliding by the Beehive Cluster of stars in the constellation Cancer. The view through binoculars is splendid! COMET NEAT: After a close encounter with the Sun last month, Comet NEAT is emerging from the Sun's glare into the evening skies of the southern hemisphere. Sky watchers in Argentina, Australia and New Zealand (among other places) say the comet is dim yet visible to the unaided eye with a tail that looks nice through small telescopes and binoculars. AURORAS: Solar wind gusts buffeted Earth's magnetic field last week and sparked auroras at high latitudes. The next series of geomagnetic storms could begin around March 15th. Visit spaceweather.com for images, sky maps and more information."}, {"response": 645, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  9, 2003 (16:47)", "body": "The Oldest Light in the Universe A NASA satellite has taken a picture of the Big Bang's ancient afterglow. Scientists have analyzed the data and learned that the universe is 13.7 billon years old (plus or minus 1 percent)and that the first stars appeared only 200 million years after the Big Bang. These results are a milestone in cosmology, says the NASA director of astronomy and physics. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/11feb_map.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 646, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  9, 2003 (16:48)", "body": "Living up to the Hype: Superconductors Thanks to years of research involving experiments flown on the space shuttle, NASA-supported scientists are closer than ever to unlocking the amazing potential of high-temperature superconductors. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/05feb_superconductor.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 647, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 10, 2003 (16:25)", "body": "Today on SPACE.com -- Monday, March 10, 2003 * Columbia's Final Data Transmission Sends Mixed Signals http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_data_030310.html In the moments before Columbia broke apart over Texas, an attempt may have been made to override the shuttle's autopilot, based on an exhaustive analysis of the final bits of data, officials say. * Apollo Moonwalkers: Vision Needed in Columbia Aftermath http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_vision_030310.html Apollo astronauts from the first and last expedition to the Moon see far-reaching consequences rippling through America's space program due to the loss of Columbia and its seven-person crew. * NASA Investigates Dozens of Scenarios, Though Odds of Foam Damaging Orbiter Remote http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_search_030308.html A NASA-wide campaign is underway with technical teams sifting through data and debris in an attempt to find the cause behind the loss of Columbia and its crew. * Shuttle Probe to Study NASA Communication http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_communication_030308.html A new team will look into NASA's internal communications, including e-mails and management directives, as part of the investigation into what caused the breakup of the space shuttle Columbia last month. * Shuttle Flight Plans in Work; NASA Aims for Launch by Summer 2004 http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_fleet_030308.html NASA and its contractors already are doing the planning and engineering work necessary to launch another shuttle no later than summer 2004, shuttle program sources told Florida Today. * Russian Imaging Satellite To Serve Civil, Commercial Users http://www.space.com/spacenews/spacenews_businessmonday_030310.html Russia's TsSKB Progress organization of Samara is building what program officials say is the country's first civilian imaging spacecraft capable of transmitting high-resolution digital pictures to ground stations as it passes overhead."}, {"response": 648, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 11, 2003 (16:28)", "body": "From NASA science news : From Feb. 4th, 2003: At the dawn of the space age some 40 years ago, we always knew who was orbiting Earth or flying to the Moon. Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn. They were household names--everywhere. Lately it\ufffds different. Space flight has become more \ufffdroutine.\ufffd Another flight of the shuttle. Another visit to the space station. Who\ufffds onboard this time? Unless you\ufffdre a NASA employee or a serious space enthusiast, you might not know. Dave Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson, William McCool, and Ilan Ramon Now we know. Those are the names of the seven astronauts who were tragically lost on Saturday, Feb. 1st, when the space shuttle Columbia (STS-107) broke apart over Texas. Before the accident, perhaps, they were strangers to you. But if that's so, why did you have a knot in your gut when you heard the news? What were those tears all about? Why do you feel so deep-down sad for seven strangers? Astronauts have an unaccountable hold on us. They are explorers. Curious, humorous, serious, daring, careful. Where they go, they go in peace. Every kid wants to be one. Astronauts are the essence of humanity. They are not strangers. They are us. While still in orbit Dave Brown asked, jokingly, \ufffddo we really have to come back?\ufffd No. But we wish you had. The Science@NASA team, as does all of NASA and the world, extends heartfelt sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of the STS-107 crew. Please see the NASA Home Page ( http://www.nasa.gov ) for more information on the Columbia Investigation. --Tony Phillips, Ron Koczor, Bryan Walls, Becky Bray, Patrick Meyer."}, {"response": 649, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (18:36)", "body": "Aurora Blues Astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) have seen a lot of auroras in recent months. They've even flown through some. Usually the lights are green; sometimes they're red. Other colors are rare. So when ISS science officer Don Pettit looked out the window on March 29th and saw vivid blue-rimmed auroras, he had to grab his camera and take a picture. Read the FULL STORY to find out what makes these Northern Lights so blue: http://science.nasa.gov/ppod/y2003/09apr_aurorablues.htm"}, {"response": 650, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (18:37)", "body": "Supernova On March 29, 2003, in the constellation Leo, something exploded--bright enough to see through small telescopes in brightly-lit cities. Astronomers who have collected data from the event say it provides the long-sought link between supernovas and mysterious gamma ray bursts. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/10apr_grb.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 651, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (18:42)", "body": "It's a Supernova! Source: NASA Posted: 4/10/2003 On March 29, 2003, in the constellation Leo, something exploded--bright enough to see through small telescopes in brightly-lit cities. Astronomers say it provides the long-sought link between supernovas and mysterious gamma ray bursts. Full story..."}, {"response": 652, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (18:44)", "body": ""}, {"response": 653, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Apr 15, 2003 (22:35)", "body": "Delay to US Mars mission By Helen Briggs BBC News Online science reporter The US space agency Nasa has been forced to delay the launch of the first of the two rovers it is sending to Mars this summer. The take-off has been put back by a week or so to allow electrical repairs to be made to the identical rovers. The rover will act as a 'robot geologist' Pre-launch tests at the weekend raised concerns that they might be vulnerable to a computer glitch. The spacecraft will now have to be taken apart at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. George Diller of the Kennedy Space Center said an electrical circuit board needed to be modified. \"It'll be a fairly easy thing to fix but it does mean going into both of the rovers, removing the circuit card and making some modifications to it,\" he told BBC News Online. The first Mars Exploration Rover was set to be launched by a Delta 11 rocket on 30 May. It will now take off between 6 June and 19 June. The second spacecraft will be launched 10 days after the first. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2950395.stm"}, {"response": 654, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 19, 2003 (17:45)", "body": "Oooh I remember that little rover. They ran it around the lava beds here for a while to see how it would perform."}, {"response": 655, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (21:59)", "body": "Wow, did you see that?"}, {"response": 656, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:36)", "body": "alas no. I did get to have dinner with the astronauts who were also practicing for an ashy landing. I think having dialogue with three of my very own immediate astronauts was one of those nights one does not forget!"}, {"response": 657, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:38)", "body": "Some of the NASA stuff done here during the early stages of the space race were so classified as to be off limits to the public - even those with connections. Scandia Lab was running a lot of the experiments. And, you know how secret they can be!"}, {"response": 658, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 21, 2003 (11:41)", "body": "Dinner with the astronauts! Wow. That's great. What did you talk about?"}, {"response": 659, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  2, 2003 (19:07)", "body": "Talking shop was what I wanted out of them, but instead they ended up picking my brains about what was edible on the \"exotic\" Japanese dinner buffet. This was pre-sushi days, so the thought of eating seaweed and raw fish scared them to death. They would go the moon strapped to a firecracked, but NOT eat weird food. One noticed a big bowl of eggs. He commented that at least they knew how to eat hard boiled eggs! I hated to tell them, but those eggs were also raw! Used to cool off blistering hot soups, they end up like thin scrambled eggs. It was great fun. We talked about all sorts of things. I wondered to them if the constellations were as hard to define from 35,000 feet as it was beyond. I never heard the answer."}, {"response": 660, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, May  3, 2003 (17:02)", "body": "What a great question for them."}, {"response": 661, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  4, 2003 (01:20)", "body": "I had trouble seeing anything recognizable even at 20,000 feet. I wonder what the altitude is for losing the perspective we have here on earth. Of course, everything we see from here is at different distances and moving independently. What we see today will not look like it will look in the future, not like it looked in ancient times! ISS science officer Don Pettit's latest \"Saturday Morning Science\" experiment reveals something oddly familiar about boiling water in space. FULL STORY (WITH MOVIES) http://science.nasa.gov/ppod/y2003/01may_boiling.htm"}, {"response": 662, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  4, 2003 (01:21)", "body": "Geomagnetic activity surged for a while on Monday, April 28th, when Earth glided through a solar wind stream. Northern Lights in the United States descended as far south as Wisconsin. More auroras are possible on May 1st when our planet is expected to encounter another solar wind stream flowing from a coronal hole on the sun. Meanwhile, the sunspot number is rising. The face of the sun is peppered with active regions--one stretching nearly 10 Earth-diameters from end to end. The impressive sunspot group is easy to observe using safe solar projection methods. Visit spaceweather.com for images and more information"}, {"response": 663, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  9, 2003 (18:06)", "body": "Space Weather News for May 9, 2003 http://spaceweather.com SUN MOVIE: On May 7th German astronomers witnessed something remarkable: a spacecraft and a planet crossing the face of the Sun at the same time. The planet was Mercury. The spacecraft was the International Space Station. Visit spaceweather.com to view a movie of this unprecedented double solar transit. AURORA WATCH: Earth is still inside a high-speed solar wind stream that has triggered mild geomagnetic storming since May 7th. High-latitude auroras are possible this weekend. Visit spaceweather.com for images and updates."}, {"response": 664, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (16:24)", "body": "MARTIAN VIEW OF EARTH --------------------- Have you ever wondered what you would see if you were on Mars looking at the Earth through a small telescope? Now you can find out, thanks to a unique view of our world recently captured by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft currently orbiting the Red Planet. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0305/22earthmgs/ HUBBLE SEES THE MYSTERIOUS 'GARDEN-SPRINKLER' NEBULA ---------------------------------------------------- There are many mysterious objects seen in the night sky which are not really well understood. For example, astronomers are puzzled by the \"jets\" emerging from planetary nebulae. However, the S-shaped jet from Henize 3-1475 is the most perplexing of all. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0305/22sprinkler/ THE UNIVERSE'S BIGGEST CONSTRUCTION SITES ----------------------------------------- Images made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have revealed two distant cosmic construction sites buzzing with activity. This discovery shows how super massive black holes control the growth of massive galaxies in the distant Universe. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0305/21construction/ FROZEN LIGHT RESEARCH HOLDS PROMISE, NASA SAYS ---------------------------------------------- NASA-funded research at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., that literally stops light in its tracks, may someday lead to breakneck-speed computers that shelter enormous amounts of data from hackers. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0305/21frozen/ SLAG ON SHUTTLE DEBRIS SUGGESTS LOCATION OF BREACH -------------------------------------------------- Based on chemical analysis of slag found on the back side of a wing leading edge fragment, investigators now believe the breach that destroyed the shuttle Columbia occurred at or very near the lower inboard corner of reinforced carbon carbon panel No. 8, very close to where a so-called T-seal was mounted between RCC panels 7 and 8. http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/030520slag/ NEWLY-DISCOVERED STAR MAY BE THIRD-CLOSEST TO US ------------------------------------------------ The local celestial neighborhood just got more crowded with a discovery of a star that may be the third closest to the Sun. The star, \"SO25300.5+165258,\" is a faint red dwarf star estimated to be about 7.8 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Aries. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0305/20closestar/ FIVE SPACECRAFT JOIN TO SOLVE AN AURORAL PUZZLE ----------------------------------------------- Five spacecraft have made a remarkable set of observations, leading to a breakthrough in understanding the origin of a peculiar and puzzling type of aurora. Seen as bright spots in Earth's atmosphere and called \"dayside proton auroral spots,\" they are now known to occur when fractures appear in the Earth's magnetic field, allowing particles emitted from the Sun to pass through and collide with molecules in our atmosphere. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0305/20auroral/ AIR FORCE WEATHER SATELLITE LAUNCH RESCHEDULED ---------------------------------------------- The long-delayed launch of the U.S. military's next polar-orbiting weather satellite is being targeted for this summer, the Air Force says. http://spaceflightnow.com/titan/g9/030519reset.html"}, {"response": 665, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (11:39)", "body": "GIANT GAS CLOUD MADE OF ATOMS FORMED IN FIRST STARS --------------------------------------------------- Astronomers studying the most distant quasar yet found in the Universe have discovered a massive reservoir of gas containing atoms made in the cores of some of the first stars ever formed. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0307/25atoms/ TROUBLES STRIKE LANDSAT 7 ------------------------- Officials with the Landsat 7 Earth-watching satellite program have now spent almost two months struggling with a problem that significantly degrades the scientific value of images from the observatory. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0307/27landsat7/ SPACE ENTREPRENEURS SEEK REGULATORY RELIEF ------------------------------------------ Entrepreneurs creating new commercial space companies as well as those interested in investing in those companies said this past week that Congress needs to take several steps to improve regulations to allow those companies to flourish. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0307/26hearing/ INTRIGUING CELESTIAL IMAGES ARRIVE FROM GALEX --------------------------------------------- NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has beamed back revealing images of hundreds of galaxies to expectant astronomers, providing the first batch of data on star formation that they had hoped for. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0307/27galex/ NEXT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CREW NAMED ------------------------------------------- Veteran NASA astronaut Michael Foale and seasoned Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri are set to be the eighth crew to live aboard the International Space Station. They're scheduled to begin their mission in October, when they launch into space aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0307/26exp8crew/ CANADIAN TEAM MAPS HALOS AROUND GALAXIES ---------------------------------------- Two University of Toronto astronomers and a U.S. colleague have made the first measurements of the size and shape of massive dark matter halos that surround galaxies. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0307/25halos/"}, {"response": 666, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (11:42)", "body": "Spaceflight: * X-43A: High Hopes For Return to Flight http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/x43a_return_030728.html As NASA prepares a return-to-flight of its X-43A Hyper-X vehicle, the agency is holding its collective breath about the future of \"air-breathing\" engine technologies. A second vehicle is now being prepped to fly no later than mid-November. * Fixing Landsat 7 Taking Longer Than Expected http://www.space.com/spacenews/spacenews_businessmonday_030728.html Efforts to fix the Landsat 7 Earth observation spacecraft are taking longer than expected, and now the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is preparing for the possibility that the problem may be permanent, a USGS spokesman said. * Poll: Support for Space Program Steady http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_poll_030728.html Two-thirds of Americans say the space shuttle should continue to fly despite two disastrous accidents, but enthusiasm for putting civilians aboard is declining, an Associated Press poll finds * NASA Pluto Mission to Rely on Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/atlas5_pluto_030725.html Humanity's first probe to take an up-close look at Pluto and its moon Charon will be launched in January 2006 on an Atlas 5 rocket, NASA officials announced Thursday. * U.S. Air Force Lowers Boom on Boeing Delta Program http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/boeing_eelv_030724.html Boeing Co. will forfeit $1 billion in Pentagon launch business and be suspended from upcoming launch competitions as punishment for cheating in a 1998 U.S. Air Force rocket procurement, a senior service official said. * Tech Today: Lights, Camera, Action! The New Palm Zire 71 http://www.space.com/techtoday/tech_today.html After years of so-so new PDAs, Palm is finally aiming for the top with its fun-loving Zire 71 ----------------------------------- Science/Astronomy: * Space Mailbag: Suggestions for Renaming the Moon -- Or Not http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/space_mailbag_moon_030725-1.html The Space Mailbag is stuffed with suggestions about what (or whether) to rename the Moon. * New Map of Water Ice on Mars http://www.space.com/marsrover/ A new global map of Mars shows likely locations of water ice based on observations of hydrogen made by NASA's Odyssey spacecraft. * Image of the Day: Handle With Care http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_030728.html After several delays, NASA's last Great Observatory, Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) is scheduled to launch on August 23. * Astronotes: Catch a Shooting Star Near Mars http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html This is a great week to see shooting stars, and Tuesday morning offers a good opportunity to pair meteor watching with planet hunting. ---------------------------------- Recent Headlines: * U.S. Air Force Lowers Boom on Boeing Delta Program http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/boeing_eelv_030724.html * Dennis Tito Ready to Invest in Suborbital Rocket, But Wary of Gov't. Regulations http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/tito_regulations_030724.html * Debate Intensifies for Simple Vs. Advanced OSP Design http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/osp_debate_030724.html * X Prize Entry Starchaser Successfully Test Drops Piloted Capsule http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/starchaser_test_030424.html * Gravity's Rainbow: GRACE Mission Pushes Forward http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/gravity_map_030725.html * Undersea World Points to Possible Origin of Life, Maybe Even ET http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/lost_city_030724.html * Panspermia: Spreading Life Through the Universe http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_panspermia_030724.html"}, {"response": 667, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug 16, 2003 (12:52)", "body": "Roll your own radio telescope from an old satellite dish. http://radio.uindy.edu/radio/cheap.htm"}, {"response": 668, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 26, 2003 (21:11)", "body": "mars mars and mars!!!!!!!!!! you guys look for the red \"star\" and with a telescope, it'll look like a full moon (tonight is the best night for viewing-southern)"}, {"response": 669, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 26, 2003 (21:12)", "body": "southern portion of the sky, i should've said, time depends on your location--nasa has info on it and you can type in 'mars' on google and get a load of info"}, {"response": 670, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Aug 27, 2003 (00:31)", "body": "I can see it, I can see it! Was going to take the kids to the CU telescope tonight but... too many meltdowns this afternoon... just wasn't worth it to me. Although it is kind of cloudy here tonight, the clusters of clouds break up nicely and allow a great view of what looks like the brightest (and kind of pink) star I've ever seen! Too neat!"}, {"response": 671, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Aug 27, 2003 (12:26)", "body": "Hi all The sun has been active too so possibility of aurora? Look to the northern skies! de Mike"}, {"response": 672, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  3, 2003 (22:04)", "body": "Yay! Fun in the sky for everyone! Too bad monsoons have socked us in for the last week or more. All it does is make the grass grow faster and the tide gauges rise faster. Hmmm... surf may be up on the River, too...! Who has an old satellite dish? I hear they are pretty available at the larger rubbish tips around the nation nowadays. Happy hunting!"}, {"response": 673, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 10, 2003 (22:46)", "body": "A 53-hour Chandra observation of the central region of the Perseus galaxy cluster (left) has revealed wavelike features (right) that appear to be sound waves. The features were discovered by using a special image-processing technique to bring out subtle changes in brightness. Illustration of Ripples in Perseus These sound waves are thought to have been produced by explosive events occurring around a supermassive black hole (bright white spot) in Perseus A, the huge galaxy at the center of the cluster. The pitch of the sound waves translates into the note of B flat, 57 octaves below middle-C. This frequency is over a million billion times deeper than the limits of human hearing, so the sound is much too deep to be heard. The image also shows two vast, bubble-shaped cavities, each about 50 thousand light years wide, extending away from the central supermassive black hole. These cavities, which are bright sources of radio waves, are not really empty, but filled with high-energy particles and magnetic fields. They push the hot X-ray emitting gas aside, creating sound waves that sweep across hundreds of thousands of light years. Animation of Sound Waves Generated in Perseus Cluster The detection of intergalactic sound waves may solve the long-standing mystery of why the hot gas in the central regions of the Perseus cluster has not cooled over the past ten billion years to form trillions of stars. As sounds waves move through gas, they are eventually absorbed and their energy is converted to heat. In this way, the sound waves from the supermassive black hole in Perseus A could keep the cluster gas hot. The explosive activity occurring around the supermassive black hole is probably caused by large amounts of gas falling into it, perhaps from smaller galaxies that are being cannibalized by Perseus A. The dark blobs in the central region of the Chandra image may be fragments of such a doomed galaxy. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/perseus/"}, {"response": 674, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 2003 (19:14)", "body": "Spectacular, Terry! I need to get out there and look at the sky again!"}, {"response": 675, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov  5, 2003 (09:24)", "body": "http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solar_flare_031104.html Biggest solar flare ever. Let the above picture load, it takes a while."}, {"response": 676, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov  5, 2003 (09:25)", "body": "Then the corona was hurled in to space."}, {"response": 677, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov  5, 2003 (23:54)", "body": "http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/11/05/voyager.solar.boundary.ap/ Travelling one million miles a day, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is now out at the solar system's edge."}, {"response": 678, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov  6, 2003 (12:09)", "body": "awesome!"}, {"response": 679, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  6, 2003 (14:04)", "body": "And get this, from the article. Get this... The sun sends out a stream of highly charged particles, called the solar wind, that carves out a vast bubble around the solar system. Beyond the bubble's ever-shifting boundary, called the termination shock, lies a region where particles cast off by dying stars begin to hold sway. That region, called the heliopause, marks the beginning of interstellar space and the end of our solar system. Whether Voyager 1 reached that mark or is still on approach remains unclear, with scientists providing evidence for both claims. Details appear Thursday in the journal Nature. \"Neither explanation is certain,\" writes Len Fisk, of the University of Michigan, in an editorial accompanying the two studies. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in. Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions. Manage alerts | What is this? Scientists have long theorized that a shock wave exists where the hot solar wind bumps up against the thin gas of the interstellar medium. A similar shock wave precedes aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound, causing a sonic boom. In space, the violent encounter slows the solar wind from supersonic velocity to subsonic speed, and causes a pileup of particles. As they accumulate, the particles increase in temperature. Also, as they skip back and forth across the shock boundary, they are accelerated and energized. Scientists have pored over data from Voyager 1 for evidence of any of those activities, which would suggest the one-ton spacecraft has reached the termination shock. The one instrument that could measure the solar wind velocity and give somewhat of a definitive answer ceased working years ago. One team, studying lower energy particles, inferred that the solar wind velocity did tail off beginning in August 2002, suggesting Voyager 1 temporarily reached the termination shock."}, {"response": 680, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  6, 2003 (17:33)", "body": "termination shock Does not sound fun."}, {"response": 681, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Nov  8, 2003 (12:20)", "body": "Tonight, November 8, there will be an eclipse of the moon, visibile in whole or in part throughout the continental United States."}, {"response": 682, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov  9, 2003 (09:48)", "body": "we missed it (it was 8PM EST but we're PST)"}, {"response": 683, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov 24, 2003 (20:38)", "body": "oh, and i missed the meteor shower *sigh* where's marcia? i sent her an email but don't know if it made it. marcia, you take care of my twin!!"}, {"response": 684, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 25, 2003 (13:02)", "body": "Where's Marcia? Beaming good energy her way."}, {"response": 685, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 27, 2003 (03:46)", "body": "This true color mosaic of Jupiter was constructed from images taken by the narrow angle camera onboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft on December 29, 2000, during its closest approach to the giant planet at a distance of approximately 10 million kilometers (6.2 million miles). It is the most detailed global color portrait of Jupiter ever produced; the smallest visible features are approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) across. The mosaic is composed of 27 images: nine images were required to cover the entire planet in a tic-tac-toe pattern, and each of those locations was imaged in red, green, and blue to provide true color. Although Cassini's camera can see more colors than humans can, Jupiter's colors in this new view look very close to the way the human eye would see them. Everything visible on the planet is a cloud. The parallel reddish-brown and white bands, the white ovals, and the large Great Red Spot persist over many years despite the intense turbulence visible in the atmosphere. The most energetic features are the small, bright clouds to the left of the Great Red Spot and in similar locations in the northern half of the planet. These clouds grow and disappear over a few days and generate lightning. Streaks form as clouds are sheared apart by Jupiter's intense jet streams that run parallel to the colored bands. The prominent dark band in the northern half of the planet is the location of Jupiter's fastest jet stream, with eastward winds of 480 kilometers (300 miles) per hour. Jupiter's diameter is eleven times that of Earth, so the smallest storms on this mosaic are comparable in size to the largest hurricanes on Earth. Unlike Earth, where only water condenses to form clouds, Jupiter's clouds are made of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and water. The updrafts and downdrafts bring different mixtures of these substances up from below, leading to clouds at different heights. The brown and orange colors may be due to trace chemicals dredged up from deeper levels of the atmosphere, or they may be byproducts of chemical reactions driven by ultraviolet light from the Sun. Bluish areas, such as the small features just north and south of the equator, are areas of reduced cloud cover, where one can see deeper. For more information, see the Cassini Project home page, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04866"}, {"response": 686, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 29, 2003 (17:48)", "body": "Solar maximum is years past, yet the sun has been remarkably active lately. Is the sunspot cycle broken? FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/12nov_haywire.htm?list89800 ***************** A RECORD-BREAKING SOLAR FLARE & MID-LATITUDE AURORA WATCH At approximately 19:47 UTC (2:47 pm EST) on 04 November, active sunspot complex 10486 spawned what is probably the most intense x-ray flare in history. X-ray sensors on-board the GOES spacecraft are only capable of registering x-ray intensities up to a class X17.4 level. X-ray intensities beyond this level saturate the detectors. This solar flare saturated the x-ray detectors for 11 minutes, leaving space weather forecasters and scientists with some work to try and extrapolate the true intensity of the event. Based on a preliminary extrapolation, it appears that this x-ray flare peaked somewhere between the X30 and X40 levels, which was unheard of until yesterday and is possibly as much as twice as energetic as the X17 solar flare observed on 02 November. To place this event into historic perspective, it very likely ranks as the most powerful x-ray flare ever observed. During the last two weeks, active Region 10486 has produced three x-ray flares that have ranked within the top 10 of the most intense events in history. It has been quite a ride! Region 10486 has now rotated behind the western limb and out of view. It will now spend the next two weeks traversing the far side of the Sun. Whether it survives its passage on the far-side and returns to the eastern limb in two weeks in a form still capable of producing energetic events remains unknown. It is possible it could return in a form still capable of producing energetic events, but the odds are against it. Although only time will tell, observers on Earth will be able to monitor its progress indirectly by watching for coronal mass ejections that occur on the far side of the Sun, but are still visible from Earth via the SOHO LASCO cameras. Spectacular imagery of this solar flare and the associated high velocity coronal mass ejection are available from the SOHO web site: http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots A movie of the event in the light of hydrogen is also available from: http://www.spacew.com/x30ha.gif It is known that yesterdays remarkable solar flare was associated with a coronal mass ejection. The vast majority of mass thrown out was directed well to the west of the Earth. However, a small portion was also directed Earthward. That portion is expected to impact the Earth on 06 November. After the disturbance arrives, it may be capable of producing periods of minor to major geomagnetic and auroral storm activity. A disturbance as large as was observed on 29 and 30 October is not expected. Nevertheless, auroral activity could become visible from many middle latitude locations. A middle latitude aurora watch is active for 06 November. For North Americans, that is TONIGHT. Late tonight, near or after local midnight. Interference from the near-full moon will hamper attempts to view activity. /\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/ MIDDLE LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY WATCH WATCH ISSUED: 20:15 UTC, 05 NOVEMBER 2003 /\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/ VALID BEGINNING AT: 00:00 UTC ON 06 NOVEMBER VALID UNTIL: 23:00 UTC (7 pm EDT) ON 07 NOVEMBER PREDICTED IMPACT TIME OF DISTURBANCE: APPROX. 07:00 UTC ON 06 NOVEMBER, +/- AT LEAST SEVERAL HOURS SEVERAL HIGH RISK PERIOD: 06 NOVEMBER (UTC DAYS) MODERATE RISK PERIOD: 06 - 07 NOVEMBER PREDICTED ACTIVITY INDICES: 12, 35, 20, 15 (05 NOVEMBER - 08 NOVEMBER) POTENTIAL MAGNITUDE OF MIDDLE LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY: MODERATE POTENTIAL DURATION OF THIS ACTIVITY: MAIN BELT = 06 TO 12 HOURS MINOR BELT = 12 TO 18 HOURS ESTIMATED OPTIMUM OBSERVING CONDITIONS: NEAR AND AFTER LOCAL MIDNIGHT EXPECTED LUNAR INTERFERENCE: MODERATE OVERALL OPPORTUNITY FOR OBSERVATIONS FROM MIDDLE LATITUDES: FAIR TO GOOD AURORAL ACTIVITY *MAY* BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM... NORTHERN OREGON TO NORTHERN WYOMING TO SOUTH DAKOTA TO SOUTHERN MINNESOTA TO WISCONSIN TO MIGHIGAN TO NEW YORK STATE TO NEW HAMPSHIRE. ACTIVITY *MAY* ALSO BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM... IRELAND TO CENTRAL UNITED KINGDOM TO EXTREME NORTHERN NETHERLANDS TO EXTREME NORTHERN GERMANY TO SOUTHERN SWEDEN TO SOUTHERN FINLAND TO NORTHERN RUSSIA. ACTIVITY *MAY* ALSO BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY SOUTH OF A LINE FROM... NEW ZEALAND AND EXTREME SOUTHEASTERN AUSTRALIA. SYNOPSIS... Effects of perhaps the largest x-ray solar flare on record are expected to impact the Earth sometime near 07:00 UTC on 06 November, give or take several hours. The solar flare occurred on the western limb of the Sun and as a result is not expected to produce significant effects at the Earth. However, the disturbance should have the strength to produce periods of auroral storming over the high and middle latitude regions. This watch will remain valid through 23:00 UTC (7 pm EDT) on 07 November. It will then be upda"}, {"response": 687, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 29, 2003 (17:50)", "body": "Thanks for posting the events, Terry! This was fantastic!!! Propagation was a poor as I thought it might be and airliners were kept below 25,000 feet and away from the poles to protect the passengers. I did hear that discussed by pilots and routing people."}, {"response": 688, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 29, 2003 (17:51)", "body": "DARK MATTER FORMS A GHOST UNIVERSE, NEW THEORY SHOWS ---------------------------------------------------- The \"dark matter\" that comprises a still-undetected one-quarter of the universe is not a uniform cosmic fog, says a University of California, Berkeley, astrophysicist, but instead forms dense clumps that move about like dust motes dancing in a shaft of light. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0311/06ghost/ TURBULENT NEIGHBORHOOD SEEN NEAR ERUPTIVE STAR ---------------------------------------------- A small portion of the rough-and-tumble neighborhood of swirling dust and gas near one of the most massive and eruptive stars in our galaxy is seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image. This close-up view shows only a three light-year-wide portion of the entire Carina Nebula, which has a diameter of over 200 light-years. Located 8,000 light-years from Earth, the nebula can be seen in the southern sky with the naked eye. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0311/06eruptivestar/ VOYAGER APPROACHING SOLAR SYSTEM'S OUTER LIMITS ----------------------------------------------- NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is about to make history again. It is the first spacecraft to enter the solar system's final frontier, a vast expanse where wind from the sun blows hot against thin gas between the stars: interstellar space. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0311/05voyager/ ROSES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY ------------------------- The two best known satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds, are located in the southern sky at a distance of about 170,000 light-years. They host many giant nebular complexes with very hot and luminous stars whose intense ultraviolet radiation causes the surrounding interstellar gas to glow. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0311/05roses/ PROPOSED NASA EXPLORER MISSIONS SELECTED FOR STUDY -------------------------------------------------- NASA recently selected candidate mission proposals that would study the universe, from Jupiter and the sun to black holes and dark matter. The proposals are candidates for missions in NASA's Explorer Program of lower cost, highly focused, rapid-development scientific spacecraft. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0311/05smex/"}, {"response": 689, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov 30, 2003 (21:06)", "body": "Where's the best place in Geo, Marci, to talk about the Earth's magnetic storms. Is this topic worthy?"}, {"response": 690, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec  1, 2003 (20:39)", "body": "http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3251382.stm Dusty disc may mean other Earths By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Astronomers say they have evidence for Earth-like planets orbiting a nearby star, making it more like our own Solar System than any yet discovered. The star, Vega, is one of the brightest in the sky, only 25 light-years away. It is three times larger than our Sun and, at 350 million years old, much younger as well. Vega has a disc of dust circling it, and at least one large planet which could sweep debris aside allowing smaller worlds like Earth to exist."}, {"response": 691, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (14:51)", "body": "Here, or Mike's Gaia toopic. His is dedicated to ionospheric things and electromagnetic phenomena. In a day or two, more CME ionization should reach us. Aurora watch!"}, {"response": 692, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (14:52)", "body": "I did hear about the Vega system - on Art Bell's program, no less."}, {"response": 693, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (17:33)", "body": "Vega was also the signal source area from 'Contact' Also, the source for the Chevy Vega... ;) de Mike"}, {"response": 694, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (19:02)", "body": "Wow, Mike. That's right about the movie. Jodie Foster went to the Vegan system. Or did she?"}, {"response": 695, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 16, 2003 (15:55)", "body": "Black holes are raining down on Earth and exploding! http://uk.news.yahoo.com/031204/12/eg99n.html Are mini black holes raining down through the Earth's atmosphere? It is possible, says a team of physicists. They think this could explain mysterious observations from mountain-top experiments over the past 30 years. Ordinary black holes form when stars explode at the end of their lives. The heavy stellar core can collapse into a superdense \"singularity\" whose gravity is so strong that nothing - not even light - can escape. If some of physicists' favourite theories about extra dimensions are correct, it would also be possible for high-energy cosmic-ray particles from space to create black holes when they collide with molecules in the Earth's atmosphere ( New Scientist print edition, 29 September 2001). These black holes would be invisibly small, with a mass of only 10 micrograms or so. And they would be so unstable that they would explode in a burst of particles within around a billion-billion-billionth of a second."}, {"response": 696, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Dec 17, 2003 (22:14)", "body": "a superdense \"singularity\" whose gravity is so strong that nothing - not even light - can escape finally, an explanation for bill o'reilly"}, {"response": 697, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 18, 2003 (07:25)", "body": "That's good Nick. That's good."}, {"response": 698, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Dec 20, 2003 (11:55)", "body": "The Euro Mars Mission will land Christmas Day: http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html The lander sports \"a pair of stereo cameras, a microscope, two types of spectrometer (Mossbauer and X-ray) and a torch to illuminate surfaces. The PAW also houses the corer/grinder and 'the mole', two instruments for collecting rock and soil samples for analysis.\" The NASA rovers will land Jan 3 and Jan 24: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer"}, {"response": 699, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:36)", "body": "Christmas Sunset Look west as night falls on Dec. 25th for a lovely pairing of brilliant Venus and the crescent moon. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/09dec_sunset.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 700, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:40)", "body": "Thanks for the story on Mars landing. I deleted mine by accident!"}, {"response": 701, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:41)", "body": "This one makes me slightly ill since we had such bad weather Dixieland Auroras On Nov. 20, 2003, a modest solar explosion sparked bright auroras in some unusual places. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/05dec_dixieland.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 702, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 23, 2003 (23:56)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (23 December 2003) * Weighing Earth's Water from Space http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/WeighingWater/ Launched in 2002, a pair of identical satellites that make up NASA's Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) are tackling the problem in an unexpected way: they are weighing Earth's fresh water from space. Serving as a sort of \"divining rod\" in space that moves in response to a powerful, fundamental force of nature--gravity--the satellites respond to changes in Earth's gravitation field that signal shifts in the movement of water a cross and under Earth's surface * Latest Images: Soot and Global Warming http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16404 Landslides in the Philippines http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16403 Lake Titicaca http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16400 Waimea Canyon, Kaua\u2018i http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16399 Waiting for More Rain in South Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16397 Igua\u00e7u Falls and Itap\u00fa Reservoir http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16396 Tropical Cyclone Hits East Coast of India http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16395 Dust Storm over Texas http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16394"}, {"response": 703, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 26, 2003 (13:22)", "body": "Scheduled times for listening-out by the US orbiter Odyssey and the UK ground station at Jodrell Bank over the next couple of days (GMT is eight hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time, and the Odyssey times don't include transmitting and processing lags): 26th Dec 17:33:49 -18:53:49 GMT Odyssey 23:00:00 - 00:20:00 GMT Jodrell Bank Observatory (UK) 27th Dec 06:17:46 - 07:37:46 GMT Odyssey 22:56:00 - 00:16:00 GMT Jodrell Bank Observatory (UK) Excerpted from: http://www.beagle2.com/landing/timeline.htm"}, {"response": 704, "author": "bush2004com", "date": "Mon, Dec 29, 2003 (11:34)", "body": "In a move that may or may not help them wake up the Mars lander but will definitely cause cat-person vs. dog-person tension throughout the space-interested world, the Brits have put together a \"Tiger\" team to work on waking up the Beagle 2. No signals from the lander during Odyssey fly-overs again Sunday, and hopes continue to be fixed on next weekend's arrival of the European orbiter in its listening orbit. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3352521.stm"}, {"response": 705, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec 29, 2003 (13:18)", "body": "Where it landed. The lander may be shadowed by this crater. It can't power up yet."}, {"response": 706, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 31, 2003 (12:37)", "body": "http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3359273.stm Beagle to begin 'frequent calls' If Beagle is alive, it will call more frequently British-built Mars probe Beagle 2 is due to switch into a communications mode on Wednesday that increases the chances of contact being made with it. If Beagle is intact on the Martian surface, it will automatically begin \"calling\" Earth more frequently. Two further attempts were made on Tuesday to contact Beagle with the Mars Odyssey craft in orbit around the Red Planet, but with no positive result."}, {"response": 707, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan  4, 2004 (16:41)", "body": "A traveling robotic geologist from NASA has landed on Mars and returned stunning images of the area around its landing site in Gusev Crater. Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully sent a radio signal after the spacecraft had bounced and rolled for several minutes following its initial impact at 11:35 p.m. EST (8:35 p.m. Pacific Standard Time) on January 3. \"This is a big night for NASA,\" said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. \"We're back. I am very, very proud of this team, and we're on Mars.\" Members of the mission's flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., cheered and clapped when they learned that NASA's Deep Space Network had received a post-landing signal from Spirit. The cheering resumed about three hours later when the rover transmitted its first images to Earth, relaying them through NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. \"We've got many steps to go before this mission is over, but we've retired a lot of risk with this landing,\" said JPL's Pete Theisinger, project manager for the Mars Exploration Rover Project. Deputy project manager for the rovers, JPL's Richard Cook, said, \"We're certainly looking forward to Opportunity landing three weeks from now.\" Opportunity is Spirit's twin rover, headed for the opposite side of Mars. Dr. Charles Elachi, JPL director, said, \"To achieve this mission, we have assembled the best team of young women and men this country can put together. Essential work was done by other NASA centers and by our industrial and academic partners. Spirit stopped rolling with its base petal down, though that favorable position could change as airbags deflate, said JPL's Rob Manning, development manager for the rover's descent through Mars' atmosphere and landing on the surface. NASA chose Spirit's landing site, within Gusev Crater, based on evidence from Mars orbiters that this crater may have held a lake long ago. A long, deep valley, apparently carved by ancient flows of water, leads into Gusev. The crater itself is basin the size of Connecticut created by an asteroid or comet impact early in Mars' history. Spirit's task is to spend the next three months exploring for clues in rocks and soil about whether the past environment at this part of Mars was ever watery and suitable to sustain life. Spirit traveled 487 million kilometers (302.6 million) miles to reach Mars after its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on June 10, 2003. Its twin, Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, was launched July 7, 2003, and is on course for a landing on the opposite side of Mars on Jan. 25 (Universal Time and EST; 9:05 p.m. on Jan. 24, PST). The flight team expects to spend more than a week directing Spirit through a series of steps in unfolding, standing up and other preparations necessary before the rover rolls off of its lander platform to get its wheels onto the ground. Meanwhile, Spirit's cameras and a mineral-identifying infrared instrument will begin examining the surrounding terrain. That information will help engineers and scientists decide which direction to send the rover first. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. Additional information about the project is available from JPL at: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., at: http://athena.cornell.edu . ### Guy Webster (818) 354-6278 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. JPL Newsroom (818) 354-5011 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. NEWS RELEASE: 2004-003 http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20040104a.html"}, {"response": 708, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jan  9, 2004 (14:07)", "body": "JPL engineers played Bob Marley's \"Get Up, Stand Up\" in the control room as they watched new images confirming that the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully stood up on its lander late Thursday night Pacific time, a major step in preparing for egress. This image from the rover's front hazard avoidance camera shows the rover in the final stage of its stand-up process. The two wheels on the bottom right and left are locked into position, along with the suspension system. The martian landscape is in the background."}, {"response": 709, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jan 14, 2004 (17:25)", "body": "http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mgs_mpf_viking_040107.html Orbiter Photographs Viking 1 and Pathfinder Landers on Mars' Surface"}, {"response": 710, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jan 19, 2004 (16:24)", "body": "Mars terrain in 3d http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05095 Get your 3D glasses: https://www.stereoscopy.com/reel3d/anaglyph-glasses.html"}, {"response": 711, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 23, 2004 (20:24)", "body": "gwb, welcome. (I like your sympathies!) There is a setup at the University of Louisville science center to view the latest downloads and accompanying 3-D glasses."}, {"response": 712, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jan 26, 2004 (15:20)", "body": "Spirit rover overloaded with files http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/01/26/mars_rovers040126 Too many data files may have led to the crippling of NASA's Spirit rover last week, the U.S. space agency said Monday. Engineers weren't aware the hundreds of the data files would lead to a major technical difficulty for Spirit. Since Jan. 22, the Mars robot has been unable to send scientific data and images. Now that NASA is aware of the limit, the files will be deleted from Spirit and engineers will take care not to run into the same problem on its twin, Opportunity, said Jennifer Trosper, mission manager for operations on Mars' surface. Problem solved? NASA scientists are giddy! I found out the Mars day is just about an hour longer than the earth day. And some folks are downloading \"Mars clocks\"."}, {"response": 713, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 10, 2004 (20:53)", "body": "*grin* yes, how to confuse the already time-handicapped! Just one planet away and so close to our own time. This does not bode well unless you distinguish that only on Mars is that clock useful!"}, {"response": 714, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar 10, 2004 (07:50)", "body": "Hubble finds farthest galaxies http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/09/hubble.farthest/ Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) unveiled the deepest look into the universe yet, a portrait of what could be the most distant galaxies ever seen. The new image, called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), includes objects that until now have been too faint to be seen and includes ancient galaxies that emerged just 700 million years after the Big Bang theory from what astronomers call the \"Dark Ages\" of the universe."}, {"response": 715, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 19, 2004 (13:57)", "body": "I truly hope we do not abandon the Hubble before it is exhausted. Amazing discoveries. Thanks, Terry!"}, {"response": 716, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 19, 2004 (14:25)", "body": "Scientist attacks alien claims on Mars By Robert Roy Britt SPACE.com Thursday, March 18, 2004 Posted: 5:25 PM EST (2225 GMT) Richard Hoagland claims that NASA refuses to acknowledge evidence of alien \"artifacts\" on Mars. SPACE.COM: War of words to debunk aliens (SPACE.com) -- Astronomer Philip Plait is tired of radio personality Richard Hoagland's claims. He's had enough of Hoagland's assertions that NASA is covering up evidence of extraterrestrial life, that the infamous Face on Mars was built by sentient aliens and, of late, that otherworldly machine parts are embedded in the Red Planet's dirt. And then there's the mile-long translucent martian worm. On Hoagland's Web site, there are several images from various space probes said to possibly show evidence for ETs. Recent Mars rover photos include not just rocks, Hoagland and other contributors maintain, but common objects that might tell of an alien civilization -- a bowl, a stove, a piston. more http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/17/alien.debunk/"}, {"response": 717, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 19, 2004 (14:27)", "body": "Since 1983, Hoagland said he has led \"an outside scientific team in a critically acclaimed independent analysis of possible intelligently-designed artifacts\" on other worlds, using spacecraft data from NASA and other missions. Plait, author of \"Bad Astronomy\" (Wiley & Sons, 2002), which debunks space myths and common factual misconceptions, had for years not countered Hoagland directly, because he did not want to give a man he calls a \"pseudoscientist\" the \"air time that he so desperately seeks.\" But last week Plait took his intellectual gloves off. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/17/alien.debunk/"}, {"response": 718, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Mar 22, 2004 (10:41)", "body": "http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/22/1079939580572.html Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen has donated 13.5 million to help fund the search for extraterrestrial life."}, {"response": 719, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  8, 2004 (07:28)", "body": "I'msure they will find some sort of life up there. Just read Hoagland with a huge helping of scepticism. He is an Art Bell favorite, and that should say it all...!"}, {"response": 720, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 20, 2004 (16:06)", "body": "Mystery in a Cup of Tea Using odds and ends from the space station pantry, researchers have learned something new about fluid physics. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/09apr_tea.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 721, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 26, 2004 (17:05)", "body": "Has anyone seen this yet? I am rarely up at dawn, but I can make the effort... Morning Comet Space Weather News for April 25, 2004 http://spaceweather.com If you have wake up before dawn this week for work or school, take a pair of binoculars outside and scan the eastern horizon. You might see Comet Bradfield. The comet, which had a close encounter with the sun on April 17th, is now emerging from the sun's glare. Although it's too dim to see with the unaided eye, at least for most people, by all accounts Comet Bradfield is a beautiful sight through binoculars, its long tail stretching 10 degrees above the rosy glow of the rising sun. Visit Spaceweather.com for pictures and a sky map."}, {"response": 722, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 26, 2004 (17:18)", "body": "A Gathering of planets Four planets, six moons, Earthshine, lunar mountains, the phases of Venus, a planet-sized hurricane and Saturn's rings: you can see them all this week and next. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/21apr_planets2.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 723, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 26, 2004 (17:19)", "body": "Our weather has been rainy and overcast. Of course, it has!! There are good things to see in the sky! Please, no more rain dances until the meteor shower is over... see below."}, {"response": 724, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 26, 2004 (17:20)", "body": "Ah well, that was on the 22nd of the month - they Lyrid meteors. Did anyone catch them?"}, {"response": 725, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 15, 2004 (17:39)", "body": "Space Weather News for May 14, 2004 http://spaceweather.com SUNSPOT 609 : Yesterday, sunspot group 609 was almost invisible; today it's many times wider than Earth and visible without a telescope. If you want to see this fast-growing spot, you can, but never stare directly at the sun. Avoid eye damage using the safe solar observing techniques described at Spaceweather.com. COMET NEAT AND THE BEEHIVE: Comet NEAT is still bright enough to see with the unaided eye from dark-sky sites. Tonight and tomorrow, the comet glides by the Beehive star cluster in Cancer. The Beehive is about as bright as Comet NEAT, and the pair will make an attractive target for photographers or amateur astronomers with small telecopes. Visit http://spaceweather.com for sky maps, movies and more information"}, {"response": 726, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 14, 2004 (09:59)", "body": "http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=5315239 \"NASA is looking for a space-faring robot to help fix the aging Hubble Space Telescope, the U.S. space agency's chief told astronomers on Tuesday. NASA chief Sean O'Keefe called for proposals for a robotic repair mission to the orbiting telescope, about six months after deciding that no future shuttle astronaut missions will be sent to Hubble. \"Our confidence is growing that robots can do the job,\" O'Keefe told a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Denver.\""}, {"response": 727, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 25, 2004 (21:18)", "body": "I do hope so much that they keep Hubble working as long as possible. Wehave seen amazing things from that trail blazing telescope."}, {"response": 728, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 28, 2004 (11:42)", "body": "Look what the rover stumbled across."}, {"response": 729, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 28, 2004 (11:48)", "body": "A 'Pot of Gold' Rich with Nuggets (Sol 163) This close-up image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit highlights the nodular nuggets that cover the rock dubbed \"Pot of Gold.\" These nuggets appear to stand on the end of stalk-like features. The surface of the rock is dotted with fine-scale pits. Data from the rover's scientific instruments has shown that Pot of Gold contains the mineral hematite, which can be formed with or without water. Scientists are planning further observations of this rock, which they hope will yield more insight into the hematite's origins as well as how the enigmatic nuggets formed. This image was taken by Spirit's microscopic imager on sol 163 (June 18, 2004). The observed area is 3 centimeters by 3 centimeters (1.2 inches by 1.2 inches). Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS"}, {"response": 730, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  6, 2004 (20:42)", "body": "That is amazing!!! Wow! Gold in them thar hills! Thanks for posting the images, Terry! I'd like that one for my collection...perhaps?!"}, {"response": 731, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 2004 (14:44)", "body": "NASA's Aura Spacecraft Launches from Vandenberg By Kirk L. Kroeker TechNewsWorld 07/15/04 9:58 AM PT \"This moment marks a tremendous achievement for the NASA family and our international partners,\" said NASA Associate Administrator for Earth Science Dr. Ghassem Asrar. \"We look forward to the Aura satellite offering us historic insight into the tough issues of global air quality, ozone recovery and climate change.\" Aura, a NASA mission dedicated to the health of Earth's atmosphere, successfully launched today at 3:01:59 a.m. Pacific Time from the Western Range of Vandenberg Air Force Base, aboard a Boeing (NYSE: BA) Delta II rocket. Spacecraft separation occurred at 4:06 a.m. Pacific Time, inserting Aura into a 438-mile (705-kilometer) orbit. As NASA's latest Earth-observing satellite, Aura will help us understand and protect the air we breathe. 'Tremendous Achievement' This moment marks a tremendous achievement for the NASA family and our international partners,\" said NASA Associate Administrator for Earth Science Dr. Ghassem Asrar. \"We look forward to the Aura satellite offering us historic insight into the tough issues of global air quality, ozone recovery and climate change. http://www.technewsworld.com/story/35136.html"}, {"response": 732, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 23, 2004 (00:41)", "body": "I am really eager to see what AURA discovers. Thanks, Cheryl! I have stuff to post but it will be in another entry as I am downloading a hurricane tracking program and can't open the information I want to post."}, {"response": 733, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  1, 2004 (00:05)", "body": "heard the saying \"once in a blue moon\" right? well, tonight is the night for blue moons! doesn't really look blue to me but it's certainly full and got my attention!!"}, {"response": 734, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:41)", "body": "Blue moon is two full mooons in one calendar month. It isn't as rare as one might think. Last year there were several of them. Some years there are none. Enjoy it, but don't be too disappointed by the color. Harvest moons are always brighter. The moon is closer during these months and make notable evenings."}, {"response": 735, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 2004 (19:45)", "body": "Halloween Aurora Space Weather News for Oct. 30, 2004 http://spaceweather.com SOLAR FLARES: Solar activity increased sharply on Oct. 30th. The source is fast-growing sunspot 691, which has unleashed several strong flares, including a brief X-flare. Some of these explosions may have hurled coronal mass ejections (CMEs) toward Earth; if so, sky watchers at high latitudes might see spooky auroras in the nights ahead. HALLOWEEN: Believe it or not, Halloween has roots in astronomy: it's a \"cross-quarter\" holiday approximately midway between an equinox and a solstice. Get the details at http://www.spaceweather.com ."}, {"response": 736, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 2004 (21:57)", "body": "and, believe it or not, halloween has nothing to do with worshipping or celebrating the devil... Happy Halloween y'all!"}, {"response": 737, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 10, 2004 (14:22)", "body": "Halloween is WAY older than the devil legends. It is in fact a sort of Thanksgiving (OLD style) enjoy your candy and little trick or treaters!"}, {"response": 738, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 10, 2004 (21:34)", "body": "exactly.....i even read a research paper by a Christian fundamentalist. like marcia says, it was a celebration of harvest. and if you really look, you'll see that it coincides with celtic fire celebrations where because it was getting darker earlier (days growing shorter), they wanted to ensure the sun kept burning and didn't die out. interesting to say the least."}, {"response": 739, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 2004 (16:43)", "body": "*APPLAUSE* Wolfie is absoulutely correct. Most of our traditions go back in our cultural memory way further than one might think. Much of the Christian structure was done to supplant ancient pagan traditions they could not change."}, {"response": 740, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jan 15, 2005 (22:29)", "body": "\"Something odd is circling our planet. It's small, perhaps only 60-ft long, and rotates once every minute or so. Amateur astronomer Bill Yeung first spotted the 16th magnitude speck of light on Sept. 3rd in the constellation Pisces. He named it J002E3. Automated asteroid surveys scan the skies every few weeks, yet there was no sign of Yeung's object earlier this year. \"It must have entered Earth orbit recently,\" says Paul Chodas of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at JPL. \"But it doesn't match any recently-launched spacecraft.\" Could it be an alien spaceship? \"If it is,\" says Chodas, \"the aliens aren't good pilots. J002E3 is in a chaotic orbit. It loops around Earth once every 48 days or so, coming as close to our planet as the Moon and ranging as far away as two lunar distances.\" There's no evidence that the speck is moving under its own power. The orbit is constantly changing because of gravitational perturbations by the Sun and Moon. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/20sep_mysteryobject.htm"}, {"response": 741, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2005 (16:40)", "body": "it's gonna take another 30 years for it to be back in earth's orbit!"}, {"response": 742, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 27, 2005 (03:40)", "body": "Two years after the Columbia disaster delayed construction of the international space station, the world's top space programs backed NASA's plan Wednesday to finish building the orbital outpost ... http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/space/iss/3011035"}, {"response": 743, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 27, 2005 (09:38)", "body": "Meteorite hits Cambodia, sparks fires http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/01/26/cambodia.meteorite.reut/ A 4.5 kg (10 lb) meteorite which landed in a former Khmer Rouge zone of northwest Cambodia started fires across rice fields and prayers from villagers who saw it as a divine omen of peace. \"Some farmers are angry with the rock because it caused fires and destroyed several hundred hectares of their paddy fields,\" said Sok Sareth, police chief of Banteay Meanchey province, around 200 miles northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh. \"But others asked the police to leave it where it landed and put it on shrine to pray for peace,\" he told Reuters on Wednesday."}, {"response": 744, "author": "mysterystevenson", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2005 (19:51)", "body": "NASA's Gravity -B. Could it have been effected by the great quake that caused so much damage and the Tsunami here on earth? Postulate; Gravitational Shock Wave generated by event hits experiment, results? I asked NASA, they responded that they would respond... link to letter; http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gravitationalpropulsionstevenson/message/202 Mystery"}, {"response": 745, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2005 (12:03)", "body": "NEWS BRIEF: Celestial Fastball Finds Need for Speed: 1.5 Million MPH By Jules Crittenden Boston Herald 02/11/05 7:48 AM PT Warren Brown, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has hypothesized that about 80 million years ago, Outcast was orbiting near the Milky Way's black hole, where it picked up speed and momentum as part of a paired binary system. So long, SDSS J090745.0+24507! Don't forget to write! The celestial body also known as the Outcast Star is rocketing its way out of the Milky Way at a searing 1.5 million miles an hour, and hasn't looked back. \"It's in the distant outskirts of the Milky Way,\" said Warren Brown, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, which has been plotting the renegade star and waving bye-bye since last year. \"This star is moving at a speed no one's ever seen before,\" Brown said. He explained that although stars orbiting the suspected massive black hole at the center of the galaxy reach speeds of up to 15 million miles an hour, stars orbiting in the mid- to outer reaches like our own sun normally putt along like Sunday drivers at a relaxed 500,000 miles per hour. Brown has hypothesized that about 80 million years ago, Outcast was orbiting near the Milky Way's black hole, where it picked up speed and momentum as part of a paired binary system. When its sister star got swallowed, it continued on and was whipped outward. Once out of the galaxy, it will roam the empty intergalactic void, all alone. Outward bound with the hammer down! - ptw"}, {"response": 746, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2005 (21:00)", "body": "Oh my Goodness! That is way too large of a scale for mere mortals to understand in a substantive way. Millions of miles per hour? !! On a slightly more lowly layer of space comes satellite images of the earthquake damage in the Sumatra area in December: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/2005/2005011018159.html"}, {"response": 747, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar  5, 2005 (17:40)", "body": "World Wind lets you zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth. Leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, World Wind lets you experience Earth terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really there. Virtually visit any place in the world. Look across the Andes, into the Grand Canyon, over the Alps, or along the African Sahara. http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/"}, {"response": 748, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 10, 2005 (23:30)", "body": "Thanks for the link. Amazing!!"}, {"response": 749, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (11:35)", "body": "Fascinating news from Mars. New images show glacial, volcanic and fluvial activity. The new images show fields of volcanic cones at the north pole. Some awesome pictures at: http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEMX67D3M5E_index_0.html"}, {"response": 750, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (11:38)", "body": "Looks some good skiing? What an extreme sport: skiing on Mars."}, {"response": 751, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:19)", "body": "am glad to see some new pics of mars, it just faded out of the news didn't it? like the tsunami..."}, {"response": 752, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:55)", "body": "Like everything fades out of the news except for Michael Jackson."}, {"response": 753, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 13, 2005 (19:25)", "body": "i am so tired of hearing about that. just do the trial and get on with it!"}, {"response": 754, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Mar 17, 2005 (08:35)", "body": "http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7140 Martian dust devils finally caught on camera Furthermore, a separate dust devil has apparently swept the rover clean. The power output of the rover's solar panels had been reduced by almost half because of a year's worth of accumulated dust. But on 9 March, the output shot up to 93% of its initial level, giving it more power for future exploration."}, {"response": 755, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (13:26)", "body": "If you are in the southern hemisphere, look for a solar eclipse on April 8th. Only the most southern parts of the US will see any of it."}, {"response": 756, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (14:18)", "body": "Howdy Marci and Geoites In the background but will get back to posting suff. de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 757, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (18:48)", "body": "thanks for the info on the eclipse! do you happen to know about what time to look for it?"}, {"response": 758, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr  8, 2005 (09:50)", "body": "April 9, 2005 from New Scientist Print Edition Marcus Chown The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) could be taking the wrong approach. Instead of listening for alien radio broadcasts, a better strategy may be to look for giant structures placed in orbit around nearby stars by alien civilisations. \"Artificial structures may be the best way for an advanced extraterrestrial civilisation to signal its presence to an emerging technology like ours,\" says Luc Arnold of the Observatory of Haute-Provence in France. And he believes that the generation of space-based telescopes now being designed will be able to spot them. the rest of the story at http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624944"}, {"response": 759, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 20, 2005 (12:20)", "body": "THAT would be amazing !!"}, {"response": 760, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Aug 11, 2005 (07:44)", "body": "Two days after bringing Discovery home, NASA prepared Thursday to launch a spacecraft to Mars with new tools designed to gather more data on the planet than all previous Martian missions combined. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is expected to spend four years circling Mars, collecting information that will help NASA plan where to land two robotic explorers later this decade and possible future human exploration of the Red Planet."}, {"response": 761, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (19:00)", "body": "The pictures they took there look exactly like ones I have taken at the summit caldera of Kilauea volcano. I guess the astronauts will be back to the Big Island of Hawaii to test their footing. I'm sorry I won't be there to dine with them this time. I am guessing there will be more landable places than not on Mars but you sure don't want to be in the middle of their erupting volcanoes. !!"}, {"response": 762, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (22:05)", "body": "the 10th planet has a moon..... http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/ap10-01-170832.asp?t=apnew&vts=10120051827"}, {"response": 763, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (18:34)", "body": "Today on SPACE.com --- Tuesday, October 4, 2005 -- http://www.space.com/ In today's issue: Science/Astronomy: * Test Equipment Finds Life in Mars-like Conditions * Delving into Dust Devils * Image of the Day: Supernova Signals Spaceflight: * Rocketeers Rev Up For X Prize Cup * The Space Cycle: New Way to Exercise in Orbit * NASA Chief Clarifies Comments on Shuttle, Space Station * ASTRONOTES: Director of Johnson Space Center Resigns * Rocket Racing: New League Promotes High-Flying Contest * Third Space Tourist, Expedition 12 Crew Dock at Space Station * NASA Propulsion Strategy Reaches Back While Looking Ahead * NEW! Daily Space Trivia NEW! LiveScience.com * Under the Pacific: Images from the Visions 2005 Project * LiveScience Amazing Images: Upload Your Cool Pictures Now! * Schemes to Control the Weather Clouded by Failure * New Hurricane Forecast Calls for Busy October * Study: Sun's Changes to Blame for Part of Global Warming * Image of the Day: Best Science Photography of 2005 NEW! Cool Stuff: * Amazing Images: Summer under the Stars Contest * Mars Madness: A Multimedia Adventure! * New Gallery: Space Tourist Greg Olsen prepares for launch * Gallery: Hubble's New Views of the Universe * Visit Our Collection of Space Wallpapers * DOWNLOAD NOW! Ad Astra Magazine's Star Planner Calendar * Get the weather from anywhere on Earth...with WeatherBug! * New! Search for Your Next Hi-Tech Job Opportunity Now! Entertainment: Movies, Television, DVD, Games and much more... * Joss Whedon's 'Serenity' is Sci-Fi Resurrected * VOTE NOW: Rate Your Favorite Space Movies * Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' Returns to Television * Gallery: Walking on the Moon in 3D * 'Magnificent Desolation' Brings the Moon Down to Earth * New Songs Added...Explore the SpaceBox! Recent Headlines: * Wraps Come Off Cold War Spyat Program * Scientists Discover 10th Planet's Moon * Soyuz 15 Cosmonaut Sarafanov Dies at 63 * NASA Devises Shuttle External Tank Foam Fix * New Pictures of Saturn's Battered Moons * Cassini's Journeys: Headquarters for mission news, Saturn and more * Latest News and Updates on the Mars Rovers Plus... * Uplink, SPACE.com TV and NightSky * Starry Night, TeamSETI ----------------------------------- Science/Astronomy: * Test Equipment Finds Life in Mars-like Conditions http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/051004_mars_like.html In a test of equipment that might one day be used to search for biological activity on Mars, researchers discovered life tucked deep inside a frozen Norwegian volcano. * Delving into Dust Devils http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/051003_dust_devils.html Dust devils on Earth and Mars are often likened to tornadoes. But in fact the mechanism behind them is completely different. * Image of the Day: Supernova Signals http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_051004.html Two space-based observatories peer deep into a supernova remnant to glean insight on its origin. ----------------------------------- Spaceflight: * Rocketeers Rev Up For X Prize Cup http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/051004_xprize_cup.html Preparations are in full swing for the Countdown to the X Prize Cup\ufffda celebration of a new generation of private passenger-carrying spaceships built for speed and to foster space tourism. * The Space Cycle: New Way to Exercise in Orbit http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/051004_space_cycle.html Researchers have developed a two-person, centrifuge-like, one-stop workout machine that makes its own gravity. * NASA Chief Clarifies Comments on Shuttle, Space Station http://www.space.com/news/ft_051004_griffin_shuttle.html Saying he \"didn't handle the situation well,\" NASA Administrator Mike Griffin sent out an agencywide e-mail Monday to clarify controversial comments on the space shuttle and International Space Station programs. * ASTRONOTES: Director of Johnson Space Center Resigns http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html The head of NASA's Johnson Space Center is leaving the agency and heading back to a University of Texas classroom. * Rocket Racing: New League Promotes High-Flying Contest http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/051003_rocket_racing_league.html Traffic cops beware, there's a whole new league of speed demon in town. * Third Space Tourist, Expedition 12 Crew Dock at Space Station http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/051003_exp12_olsen_dock.html A fresh astronaut crew and U.S. space tourist Gregory Olsen arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) early Monday after their Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked flawlessly at the orbital laboratory. * NASA Propulsion Strategy Reaches Back While Looking Ahead http://www.space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_051003.html The initial propulsion work in support of NASA's bid to return to the Moon and go on to Mars will focus primarily on adapting space shuttle systems and developing methane-fueled engines, a technology with which the United States has little experience. * NEW! Daily Space Trivia http://www.space.com/php/trivia/ One of Today's 5"}, {"response": 764, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (21:50)", "body": "Today on SPACE.com --- Thursday, October 6, 2005 -- http://www.space.com/ ----------------------------------- Science/Astronomy: * Cranking Up the Allen Telescope Array http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_igps_one_051006.html Three dozen metal mushrooms have sprouted near the modest village of Hat Creek, and are turning their aluminum eyes skyward. * How to: Viewing Mars http://www.space.com/media/pdf/UST_viewing_mars.pdf A user's guide to viewing Mars from your telescope, binoculars, or with the naked eye. * Colliding Stars Behind 35-year-old Mystery http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/051005_short_bursts.html The most intense explosions in the universe come in two varieties. One type lasts several seconds, and the others are gone in less than a second. * Image of the Day: Solar Eye http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_051006.html A sunspot appears as an unblinking eye in this close-up view of the surface of the Sun. ----------------------------------- Spaceflight: * Delta 4 Rocket's West Coast Debut Enters Extended Delay http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sfn_051006_delta4_delay.html California's debut launch of the Boeing Delta 4 rocket is facing an extended delay -- perhaps six weeks -- while engineers try to reconcile differing predictions of sloshing fuel inside the booster during flight. * ASTRONOTES: NASA to Honor Apollo 7 Astronaut http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html NASA will honor former astronaut Walt Cunningham as an \"Ambassador of Exploration,\" an award which provides recognition for the astronauts of the space agency's first manned spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. * NASA ISS Astronaut Has No Worries Over Earth Return http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/051005_mcarthur_phillips.html A NASA astronaut riding aboard the International Space Station (ISS) said Wednesday that he is not concerned with his eventual return to Earth, despite questions over which spacecraft will transport home back from the orbital laboratory. * SpaceShipOne Donated to Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/ap_051005_sso_smithsonian.html The first private space ship took its place Wednesday next to Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, praised by its designer as a symbol of a new era of space tourism alongside the icon of trans-Atlantic flight. * Japan's Asteroid Sample-Return Mission Has Problems http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/051005_hayabusa_update.html Japan's Hayabusa asteroid sample-return spacecraft has lost the use of a second reaction wheel, forcing increased reliance on its chemical-propellant thrusters for attitude control and raising questions about whether it can make its planned asteroid touchdown in November. * NASA Official Offers Shuttle Foam Loss Theory http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/ap_051005_shuttle_foam.html Workers may have accidentally cut or crushed the section of foam that broke off Discovery's fuel tank during its launch two months ago\ufffda mishap that threatened the safety of the astronauts and grounded the shuttle fleet. * NEW! Daily Space Trivia http://www.space.com/php/trivia/ One of Today's 5 New Questions: What is the name of the rock and roll band whose players are all astronauts? ---------------------------------- NEW! LiveScience.com http://www.livescience.com/ * New Gallery: Racing Robots: DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/ Cool photos of the creative robots that are competing for the $2 million prize. * LiveScience Amazing Images: Upload Your Cool Pictures Now! http://www.livescience.com/amazingimages/ Upload your cool pictures of exotic locales, nature, weather, creatures and more! * Great White Shark Sets Ocean-Crossing Record http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/051006_shark_migration.html The great white shark swam to Western Australia and back in nine months. * Duped and Clueless: How Easily We Fool Ourselves http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/051006_choice_blindness.html Do you always get what you ask for? A new study finds that when you don't, you might not even notice the difference. * Submissive Canadians? Efficient Germans? Yeah, Right http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/051006_nat_stereotypes.html Such national stereotypes are common, but they are highly mistaken, a new study shows. * The World's Smallest Fountain Pen http://www.livescience.com/technology/051006_smallest_pen.html Researchers have created the world's smallest fountain pen with a tip so tiny it can draw lines a hundred times thinner than a red blood cell. * Robots Race for $2 Million Prize Saturday http://www.livescience.com/technology/ap_051006_darpa_update.html A driverless red Hummer snagged the pole position Wednesday in a government-sponsored sequel race across the Mojave Desert that will pit 23 robots against one another. * Python Eats Gator, Explodes http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/ap_051006_python.html The alligator has some foreign competiti"}, {"response": 765, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 20, 2005 (23:00)", "body": "Today on SPACE.com --- Thursday, October 20, 2005 -- http://www.space.com/ In today's issue: Science/Astronomy: * Cracking the Code of Pre-Earthquake Signals * Hubble Searches for Oxygen on the Moon * Craters in Planets and Moons Not What They Seemed * Image of the Day: Dione's Ringside Seat Spaceflight: * The Making of 'Race to the Moon': Apollo 8 Documentary Producer Tells All * NASA's Spirit Rover Descends From Martian Hilltop * NASA, Air Force Team Up on Next Generation Rocket Engine * Last Titan Rocket Successfully Orbits Reconnaissance Satellite * Russian Spacecraft Fails to Boost ISS into Higher Orbit * ASTRONOTES: Earth-watching Spacecraft is Lost, Russian Space Agency Says * NEW! Daily Space Trivia NEW! LiveScience.com * LiveScience Amazing Images: Upload Your Cool Pictures Now! * Hurricane Wilma Aims at Florida * Hurricanes from Above: See Nature's biggest storms * Your Brain Remembers What You Forget * World's Most Elusive Rat Dead After 18-Week Chase * Military: New Aluminum Windows Stop .50-Caliber Bullet NEW! Cool Stuff: * Build your own Bot in the Botshop! * NEW! Enter for a chance to WIN Great Prizes! * Amazing Images: Summer under the Stars Contest * Exclusive Zero Gravity Adventure! * Mars Madness: A Multimedia Adventure! * Gallery: Hubble's New Views of the Universe * Get the weather from anywhere on Earth...with WeatherBug! * New! Search for Your Next Hi-Tech Job Opportunity Now! Entertainment: Movies, Television, DVD, Games and much more... * VOTE NOW: Rate Your Favorite Space Movies * Discovering the Man Behind 'First Man' * Film Review: 'Curse of the Were-Rabbit' is Howling Good Fun * Joss Whedon's 'Serenity' is Sci-Fi Resurrected * Gallery: Walking on the Moon in 3D * New Songs Added...Explore the SpaceBox! Recent Headlines: * Russia Agrees to Launch Brazil's First Astronaut to ISS * Life's Building Blocks 'Abundant in Space' * After ISS Flight, U.S. Space Tourist Returns Home * A Wet Tradition Returns to European Launch Facility * Northrop Grumman/Boeing Team Unveils CEV Design * Cassini's Journeys: Headquarters for mission news, Saturn and more * Latest News and Updates on the Mars Rovers Plus... * Uplink, SPACE.com TV and NightSky * Starry Night, TeamSETI ----------------------------------- Science/Astronomy: * Cracking the Code of Pre-Earthquake Signals http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_freund_quakes_051020.html Our Earth is a restless planet. Occasionally \ufffd quite often, in some regions of the world \ufffd the restlessness turns deadly. Of all natural hazards, earthquakes are the most feared. * Hubble Searches for Oxygen on the Moon http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/051019_hubble_moon.html This summer, scientists pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at the Moon to take a closer look at its soil. * Craters in Planets and Moons Not What They Seemed http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/051019_crater_count.html A hole in a moon or planet does not always mean what astronomers thought. * Image of the Day: Dione's Ringside Seat http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_051020.html Saturn's moon Dione appears to hover over its parent planet's rings in this color view caught by the Cassini probe during a flyby this month. ----------------------------------- Spaceflight: * The Making of 'Race to the Moon': Apollo 8 Documentary Producer Tells All http://www.space.com/adastra/adastra_apollo_8_051020.html What I encountered in producing \ufffdRace to the Moon\ufffd echoed what William Styron wrote about Apollo 8 at the time: \ufffdIt was a moment that was depthless and inexpressible.\ufffd * NASA's Spirit Rover Descends From Martian Hilltop http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/051020_rover_updates.html After nearly one year of rolling and scrambling up Husband Hill, NASA's Mars rover Spirit is headed back down towards new and rocky pastures. * NASA, Air Force Team Up on Next Generation Rocket Engine http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/051019_ipd.html A next-generation liquid-fuel engine being jointly developed by NASA, the U.S. Air Force and two prime aerospace contractors is scheduled to resume testing after being temporarily suspended due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. * Last Titan Rocket Successfully Orbits Reconnaissance Satellite http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sfn_051019_titan4_cntdn.html The mighty Titan -- a pillar in American rocketry for five decades -- flew into orbit for the final time Wednesday, capping a distinguished career of heavy-lifting that has spanned the nation's space age. * Russian Spacecraft Fails to Boost ISS into Higher Orbit http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/051019_exp12_issreboost.html A Russian spacecraft stopped short of boosting the International Space Station (ISS) into a higher orbit Tuesday when its engines unexpectedly shut down in mid-maneuver, Russian space officials said. * ASTRONOTES: Earth-watching Spacecraft is Lost, Russian Space Agency Says http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html Control of the Monitor-E satellite has been lost"}, {"response": 766, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jan  2, 2006 (08:59)", "body": "Remember those Mars Rovers? They're like the Energizer bunnies. After 21 months, they're still ticking. Amazing!"}, {"response": 767, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  3, 2006 (20:42)", "body": "really? did they ever find anything significant?"}, {"response": 768, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 13, 2006 (17:20)", "body": "----------------------------------- Science/Astronomy: * Space Tornado! Cosmic Front Packs a Punch http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060112_space_tornado.html High-energy particles spewing out of a young star in a nearby stellar nursery are plowing through interstellar clouds and creating a giant spiral structure in space that looks like a glowing, rainbow-colored tornado, scientists said today. * Transmitting to a Million Worlds http://www.space.com/searchforlife/060112_shostak_transmit.html SETI researchers have typically looked at any particular star system (at a given frequency) for only a few minutes, at most. But what are the chances that an alien signal has been sent our way just at the right moment to splash upon our antennas during that brief interval? * Worlds With Multiple Suns Abundant http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060112_binarystar_planets.html Two new studies suggest that planet formation around multiple star systems may be more common than previously thought. * The Splendor of Orion: A Star Factory Unveiled http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060111_orion_news.html Scientists have created the most detailed portrait ever of the closest known star factory, the Orion Nebula. They have also uncovered new details about the stellar winds responsible for carving out the nebula's ghostly shapes. * Mercury a Possible Hit-and-Run Planet http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060111_hit_and_run.html New computer modeling shows that the planet Mercury might have formed in a hit-and-run collision that stripped off its outer layers. * Astronomers See 'Star Formation on Steroids' http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060111_star_clusters.html Astronomers have found evidence in a dozen nearby galaxies for \"super star clusters\" that look to be young hotbeds of star formation. * Space Tadpoles Signal Black Hole Mergers http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060110_blackhole_merger.html Scientists have found the first strong evidence that supermassive black holes at the hearts of some galaxies weren't born big, but grew to their monstrous sizes through the mergers of smaller galaxies. * Image of the Day: Neon Cartwheel http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_060112.html The Cartwheel Galaxy lights up the sky in this composite view assembled by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. ----------------------------------- Spaceflight: * E-Weapons: Directed Energy Warfare In The 21st Century http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/060111_e-weapons.html There is a new breed of weaponry fast approaching\ufffdand at the speed of light no less. They are labeled \"directed-energy weapons\" and may well signal a revolution in military hardware\ufffdperhaps more so than the atomic bomb. * Stardust@home Project Brings Cosmic Dust to Your Desktop http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060110_stardust_athome.html Finding a piece of the cosmos may be as easy as logging onto the Internet for amateur sleuths bent on aiding NASA's Stardust mission. * ASTRONOTES: Former NASA Engineer, Stunt Pilot Dies in Crash http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html Eric Anthony Beard, a former NASA engineer and lifelong aviation enthusiast who thrilled crowds around the country as a stunt pilot, was killed in a crash during a routine flight, authorities said. * NEW! Daily Space Trivia http://www.space.com/php/trivia/ One of Today's 5 New Questions: Which astronaut became president of Eastern Airlines? ---------------------------------- NEW! LiveScience.com http://www.livescience.com/ * Vote Now: The Biggest Popular Myths http://www.livescience.com/bestimg/?cat=myths LiveScience explores some of the most familiar wives tales and urban legends, plus some that sound dubious but which turn out to be true. Vote for your favorite. * More Frogs Dying as Planet Warms http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060112_frog_warming.html Global warming is now believed to have set off a chain reaction wiping out entire frog populations and could possibly drive many species to extinction, a new study suggests. * Geniuses are Just Like Us http://www.livescience.com/history/060111_genius_like_us.html Genius Month continues on LiveScience with a look at the ordinary and extraordinary quirks of a few great minds. You'll be surprised to learn \ufffd * Not a Hoax, One-Eyed Kitten Had Bizarre Condition http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060111_ap_cyclops_cat.html A photo of a one-eyed kitten named Cy drew more than a little skepticism when it turned up on various Web sites, but medical authorities have a name for the bizarre condition. * Scientists Drill Possibly World's Smallest Holes http://www.livescience.com/technology/060111_small_hole.html Using new machinery, researchers have drilled holes narrower than a human hair in stainless steel and other materials. They say the holes are likely the smallest ever made by humans. * LiveScience.com: Cool Science Galleries http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/ Where Science comes to Life...Visit our Im"}, {"response": 769, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan 22, 2006 (11:20)", "body": "Any comments on the pluto mission. Sending a plutonium powered vehicle to Pluto. It's going to take 9 years so we have lots of time to discuss this, but at least it's out of the atmosphere and on it's way. It's the fastest space craft ever I heard."}, {"response": 770, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan 22, 2006 (17:48)", "body": "is it going to come back from pluto or is it supposed to go on out to the 10th planet?"}, {"response": 771, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2006 (02:51)", "body": "Good question, Wolfie. I suspect the engineering and trajectories were long ago worked out whereas the discovery of the 10th planet has been so recent I wonder if there had been time to reprogram it. I also wonder if it would even be possible. Where are the engineers when you need one?"}, {"response": 772, "author": "weroland", "date": "Sat, Apr  8, 2006 (23:15)", "body": "Space News"}, {"response": 773, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (14:29)", "body": "Ok, I guess this means I need to copy and paste Topix link to archaeolgy unless wer beats me to it. Mahalo plenty. With these links you won't need me anymore *;)"}, {"response": 774, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (14:45)", "body": "Not true...things scroll and go off into oblivion if one doesn't go back up the conversations...you're needed to keep things fresh!"}, {"response": 775, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (14:51)", "body": "I guess you're right. Thanks. I just needed to hear it. Meanwhile I start the journey to a new eruption on Kilauea as I remember them. See y'all there."}, {"response": 776, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2006 (13:55)", "body": "Nifty Spitzer Space telescope slide show: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/slideshows/spitzer-200605/"}, {"response": 777, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (18:35)", "body": "OH Indeed ! JPL is in the position to get the best of the best images. I'm just delighted they share them with us. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 35, "subject": "Gaia Magnetosphere", "response_count": 228, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (20:41)", "body": "including SETI???"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (20:42)", "body": "Mike! Aloha! Off to do a google search for a good diagram to show what we (YOU?!) are talking about! (Yippee!!!)"}, {"response": 3, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (21:18)", "body": "SETI? Ya, sure... Makes it more easy to sneak in comments from the radio astronomy side.... Mike"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (21:31)", "body": "Excellent! *delighted grin* Love the name you chose, Mike! Perfect!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (21:36)", "body": "http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/cowley.html It begins: A Beginner's Guide to the Earth's Magnetosphere Earth in Space Vol. 8, No. 7, March 1996, p.9. \ufffd 1996 American Geophysical Union. Permission is hereby granted to journalists to use this material so long as credit is given, and to teachers to use this material in classrooms. The magnetosphere is the region of space to which the Earth's magnetic field is confined by the solar wind plasma blowing outward from the Sun, extending to distances in excess of 60,000 kilometers from Earth. Much has been learned about this dynamic plasma region over the past 40 years, since the first direct measurements were made by the early Sputnik and Explorer spacecraft. by Stanley W. H. Cowley, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom The Earth's magnetosphere is formed from two essential ingredients. The first is the Earth's magnetic field, generated by currents flowing in the Earth's core. Outside the Earth this field has the same form as that of a bar magnet, a dipole field, aligned approximately with the Earth's spin axis. The second ingredient is the solar wind, a fully ionized hydrogen/helium plasma that streams continuously outward from the Sun into the solar system at speeds of about 300\ufffd800 kilometers per second. This wind is therefore composed of protons and alpha particles, together with sufficient electrons that it is electrically neutral overall. The solar wind is also pervaded by a large-scale interplanetary magnetic field, the solar magnetic field transported outward into the solar system by the solar wind plasma. There is a third ingredient that also plays an important role: the Earth's ionosphere. The upper atmosphere is partially ionized by far-ultraviolet and X rays from the Sun above altitudes of about 100 km. The resulting ionosphere forms a second source of plasma for the magnetosphere, mainly of protons, singly charged helium and oxygen, and the requisite number of electrons for electric charge neutrality."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (21:45)", "body": ""}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (21:53)", "body": "The Earth's Magnetic Field The Earth has a magnetic field with north and south poles. The Earth's magnetic field reaches 36,000 miles into space. The magnetic field of the Earth is surrounded in a region called the magnetosphere. The magnetosphere prevents most of the particles from the sun, carried in solar wind, from hitting the Earth. Some particles from the solar wind can enters the magnetosphere. The particles that enter from the magnetotail travel toward the Earth and create the auroral oval light shows. The Sun and other planets have magnetospheres, but the Earth has the strongest one of all the rocky planets. The Earth's north and south magnetic poles reverse at irregular intervals of hundreds of thousands of years. Lots of links on this url - all are worth a look http://www.windows.umich.edu/cgi-bin/tour_def/earth/Magnetosphere/overview.html"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2000 (22:12)", "body": "*Whew* Ok. Mike, it's your sand box. I'll try to stay out of it as much as possible. Enjoy! (Isn't that a killer diagram? I liked it so much I had to delete the post with the pix from the web and save it on my space on Spring's hard drive...)"}, {"response": 9, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (13:48)", "body": "Greetings all Well thats a good start! An interesting tool that is available for the analysis of whistlers is a FFTDSP program that runs on your PC. Check out www.webcom.com/af9y/ for information on this application. Also on this page is some good info on Earth Moon Earth communications and other weak signal applications. Mike"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (13:57)", "body": "Mike, I think you're gonna have to write out what FFTDSP means (I'm gonna look it up 'cause I don't remember. About the EME communications, there is a rather lively group on the 14 MHz band which sets up schedules for folks to work in pairs so they know to listen very carefully. One sends the signal (often CW or Morse Code) to the moon at such an angle that the other guy with a calculated amount of time lapse for the signal to travel can receive the bounced signal. I think that is truly amazing. I have listened for it, but my antenna is all wrong for those frequencies they work. Going to check out the program you suggest."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (14:28)", "body": "http://www.webcom.com/af9y/ is a totally amazing place. That one little program ($32 US to get by email) will allow you to \"see\" signals from NASA's Lunar Prospector, EME signals(see above), And has SETI applications. There is a month's free trial also available. Kew Features are available on http://www.webcom.com/af9y/radio10.htm Check it out! Thanks, Mike!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2000 (20:40)", "body": "Solar Flux is on the rise! This morning it was 137. This just came in: SFI=150 | A=10 down from 11 | K=1 down from 2 at 0000 on 10 May. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: quiet to unsettled Aurora Level: 7 More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2000 (15:22)", "body": "Check out posting http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/geo/2.180 I wonder how much of that stuff will interefere with our global well-being and wave propagation. Never heard of ejecta from anything but out Sun having an effect on terrestrial matters. Mike, do you know? SFI=179 | A=3 | K=1 down from 2 at 1800 on 11 May. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: quiet to active Aurora Level: 5"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2000 (15:47)", "body": "Mike, gotta few questions for you since you are going to be making the array to detect these things and please let us know what you are doing and how it is progressing. It will be like being at Genesis 1:1 You must not live in an urban stetting if a radio-telescope dish is in your future. What size are you planning and is it gonna be one of those altasimuth mounts or are you opting for a U-shaped movable yoke? Clock drive is imperitive, of course. This will be for the Project SETI observations. What sort of antennas are you going to need for the ELF and EME listening? You must be building the world's most amazing antenna switch! Please let us hear your thinking and planning for these prohjects. That is almost the most exciting part - aside from actually capturing the signals themselves!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2000 (16:13)", "body": "Space Weather News for May 11, 2000 Material from a coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on May 8 is expected to pass by our planet late on May 11 or early May 12. Depending on the characteristics of the magnetic field within the disturbance, it could trigger minor geomagnetic storms on Earth. There is a slim chance of aurorae at mid-latitudes, but auroral activity will more likely be concentrated over high latitude regions including northern Europe, Canada and Alaska. Visit http://www.spaceweather.com for more information and updates. SpaceWeather.com ---"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 12, 2000 (14:36)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 19 - May 12, 2000 Solar flux and sunspot numbers were sharply lower over the past ten days, but are now heading higher. Solar flux reached a low on Saturday, May 6, when the three readings for the day were 126.3, 126.8 and 126.7. The noon 126.8 reading is the official flux for the day. Daily solar flux values have not been this low since October 2, 1999, when it was 126.3. Average solar flux for the past week was off by over 30 points when compared to the previous week, and average sunspot numbers were down by nearly 13. Another interesting number to look at is the total sunspot area visible on the solar disk. These numbers are expressed as millionths of a hemisphere, and you can see the daily value along with the solar flux and sunspot numbers online at gopher://sec.noaa.gov/00/indices/DSD . We reached a low of 130 for visible sunspot area on May 7. Sunspot area has not been this low since September 30 and October 1, 1999. This value represents a nearly spotless sun, and is actually equivalent to .013 percent of the visible surface. Contrast this with a short time back, April 23, when the sunspot area number was 2860, representing 22 times the visible area of the May 7 value. All of this does not mean that we have passed the peak of the solar cycle, however. Activity jumps around quite a bit, even during a peak year of the cycle such as this one. It is only later when viewing smoothed numbers on a graph that the progress of a cycle looks steady. For more information, read Solar Ups and Downs at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast09may_1m.htm . As this bulletin is written on Thursday evening, the solar flux seems to be ramping upward. It is measured three times per day in Penticton, British Columbia at 1700, 2000 and 2300z, and the last four values measured, from 2300z Wednesday through 2300z Thursday are 167.7, 177.7, 177.7 and 186.5. The predicted solar flux for the next five days, Friday through Tuesday, are 190, 195, 200, 200, and 205. Solar flux is expected to peak for the short term around 220 on May 18, then drop down around 130 from June 1-3. Unfortunately, this weekend there may be effects from a coronal mass ejection that occurred on May 8. Predicted planetary A index for Friday through Tuesday is 20, 20, 15, 8, 8 and 8. Sunspot numbers for May 4 through 10 were 105, 122, 111, 130, 131, 149 and 174 with a mean of 131.7. 10.7 cm flux was 134.5, 129.8, 126.8, 130.9, 137, 149.5 and 179.2, with a mean of 141.1, and estimated planetary A indices were 8, 14, 12, 7, 6, 11 and 7, with a mean of 9.3."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 12, 2000 (16:46)", "body": "Mike! Look!!! You should get all sorts of stuff tonight on short wave. Pop the BFO and enjoy! I plan to SFI=190 up from 178 | A=15 up from 5 | K=2 at 2100 on 12 May. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: quiet to active Aurora Level: 7"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 12, 2000 (16:47)", "body": "Of course, it'll be really noisy with the A index so high. The lower the better with that and the K."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 12, 2000 (17:35)", "body": "The Cosmos Was Alive With the Sound of Matter By K.C. COLE When the universe speaks, astronomers listen. When it sings, they swoon. That's roughly what happened late last month when a group of astronomers led by Caltech's Andrew Lange published the most detailed analysis yet of the cosmos' primordial song: a low hum, deep in its throat, that preceded both atoms and stars. It is a simple sound, like the mantra \"Om.\" But hidden within its harmonics are details of the universe's shape, composition and birth. So rich are these details that within hours of the paper's publication, new interpretations of the data had already appeared on the Los Alamos web for new astrophysical papers. \"It's stirred up a hornet's nest of interest,\" said UCLA astronomer Ned Wright, who gave a talk to his colleagues on the paper the next week. So what is all the fuss about? Why are astronomers churning out paper after paper on what looks to a lay person like a puzzling set of wiggly peaks--graphic depictions of the sound, based on hours of computer analysis? Because there's scientific gold in them there sinusoidal hills. The peaks and valleys paint a visual picture of the sound the newborn universe made when it was still wet behind the ears, a mere 300,000 years after its birth in a big bang. Nothing existed but pure light, speckled with occasional subatomic particles. Nothing happened, either, except that this light and matter fluid, as physicists call it, sloshed in and out of gravity wells, compressing the liquid in some places and spreading it out in others. Like banging on the head of a drum, the compression of the \"liquid light\" as it fell into gravity wells set up the \"sound waves\" that cosmologist Charles Lineweaver calls \"the oldest music in the universe.\" * * * Then, suddenly, the sound fell silent. The universe had gotten cold enough that the particles, in effect, congealed, like the salad dressing left in the fridge; the light separated and escaped, like the oil on top. The rest is the history of the universe: The particles joined each other to form atoms, stars and everything else, including people. \"The universe was very simple back then,\" said Lange. \"After that, we have atoms, chemistry, economics. Things go downhill very quickly.\" As for the light, or radiation, it still pervades all space. In fact, it's part of the familiar \"snow\" that sometimes shows up on broadcast TV. But it's more than just noise: When the particles congealed, they left an imprint on the light. Like children going after cookies, the patterns of sloshing particles left their sticky fingerprints all over the sky. The pattern of the sloshes tells you all you need to know about the very early universe: It's shape, how much was made of matter, how much of something else. The principle is familiar: Your child's voice sounds like no one else's because the resonant cavities within her throat create a unique voiceprint. The large, heavy wood of the cello creates a mellower sound than the high-strung violin. Just so, the sounds coming from the early universe depend directly on the density of matter, and the shape of the cosmos itself. Astronomers can't hear the sounds, of course. But they can read them on the walls of the universe like notes on a page. Compressed sound gets hot, and produces hot splotches, like a pressure cooker. Expanded areas cool. Analyze the hot and cold patches and you get a picture of the sound: exactly how much falls on middle C, or B flat. What they've seen so far is both exciting and troubling. The sound suggests that the universe is a tad too heavy with ordinary matter to agree with standard cosmological theories; it resonates more like an oboe than a flute. Something's going on that can't be explained. The answers may come when an even more ambitious probe launches into space later this year. Lest you think these sounds are music only for astronomers' ears, consider: The same wrinkles in space that created the gravity wells that gave rise to the sounds also blew up to form clusters, galaxies, stars, planets, us. Even Hare Krishnas murmuring: Om. ....and Mike and we are listening, too *grin*"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 12, 2000 (19:35)", "body": "SFI=190 | A=17 up from 15 | K=4 up from 2 at 0000 on 13 May. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: quiet to active, Aurora Level: 8"}, {"response": 21, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, May 12, 2000 (22:04)", "body": "FFTDSP - Fast Fourier Transform Digital Signal Processing Spectral Analysis using software algorithms.... Re the SETI, EME, and ELF stuff EME calls for very large (for lower frequencies) antenna arrays althogh some single yagi type arrays have been used at 144mhz. At 1.2ghz, some EME antennas are yagi type antennas but the dish starts coming into play - a large dish however..... My initial dish is a reinforced solid aluminum 9ft dish that came from a nondisclosed defense contractor antenna test range. It is currently residing behind a garage covered with decaying leaves... My goal would be to put up a 5meter or larger dish but the backyard would be obscured - I was told to just put the thing up and quit asking about it. The neighbors couldnt tell an L-band feed from a hole in the ground.... As far as steering the antenna goes, I plan to use an AZ-EL although the cheap alternative is to fix the position and just do drift scan. Its ok as long as I do not clutter too much of the yard - kind of interferes with summer parties. The VLF antenna is actually quite small - just a short whip connected to a high gain amplifier. Other experimenters have used long wires. The design I have will get by with a small vertical."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 12, 2000 (22:16)", "body": "How nice - you already have the Big stuff in the back yard, and what a conversation piece for your summer parties! Just a short whip? Not a rubber duckie coiled miles of antenna wire into a little space? A real little whip? That must be some high-gain amplifier you have (and I have no reason whatever to question you on it - you are the expert and I am the novice in here). How are you going to record the stuff - rolls of paper like seismographs, autio tape, other I cannot imagine? Ummm...I like the idea of the 5 meter dish (or larger!) Your less with-it neighbors are gonna want to know what TV programs you get on that dish! EME stuff is line-of-sight... How many of the others you are planning depend on propagation rather than line-of-sight? I wish I knew more to ask more intelligent questions. But, I'll work on it! Thanks, Mike!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 12, 2000 (22:21)", "body": "Off to find an english (simple, hopefully) explanation of \"FFTDSP - Fast Fourier Transform Digital Signal Processing Spectral Analysis using software algorithms.... \" I've heard it discussed often enough between two people who already knew what they were talking about. Off to try to teach myself a few new things...!"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 13, 2000 (16:33)", "body": "SFI=217 up from 190 | A=14 down from 17 | K=3 at 2100 on 13 May. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: quiet to active, Aurora Level: 7"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (16:35)", "body": "SFI=233 up from 217 | A=16 up from 14 | K=2 at 2100 on 14 May. SAF: moderate, GMF: quiet to unsettled, Aurora Level: 5 More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (16:43)", "body": "SFI=244 up from 233 | A=13 down from 15 | K=2 down from 3 at 2100 on 15 May. SAF: high, GMF: quiet to active, Aurora Level: 7"}, {"response": 27, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (13:37)", "body": "How's the radio telescope project, Mike?"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (16:34)", "body": "SFI=259 up from 244 | A=15 up from 12 | K=2 down from 3 at 2100 on 16 May. SAF: moderate, GMF: quiet to active, Aurora Level: 6 Ok guys, how high can this go? Another coronal outburst is due to hit May 17-18"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 18, 2000 (00:45)", "body": "Please check post http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/34.66"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (13:45)", "body": "Radio JOVE -- NASA helps students tune in to radio bursts from Jupiter Jupiter is a source of powerful radio bursts that can produce exotic sounds on common ham radio receivers. NASA scientists are helping students tune in to the giant planet as part of an innovative educational program called Radio JOVE. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast22may_1.htm?list Radio JOVE"}, {"response": 31, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (19:27)", "body": "Greetings all Back from the bog..... Well, some of the obnoxious distractions are behind me so I can focus on the more important things like building equipment - as far as the ELF monitoring equipment goes, the antenna is a 57 inch steel whip that is part of an E-field preamp - this was a construction project in the July 1999 'Lowdown' publication (Longwave Club of America). This might take a back seat to my 24ghz transmit/receive system which I need to get to building. I will post more info as time allows - also check out: www.triax.com/vlfradio/ which is a webpage dedicated to VLF monitoring along with actual recordings of whisters. Finally, regarding the radio telescope project - I need to come up with some designs for the down converter and receiver assembly then how to log the data - plus have to get that 8ft dish moved over.... The first stage is (other than the dish, feed, LNA, AZ EL, etc...) is to build a stable L band (1.4ghz) down converter which will feed some type of analogue to digital converter which then feeds the PC doing data logging. This is a very long term project with the end not in sight at the moment. Not to say that components will not be built up and integrated - the dish will allow for some satellite or EME experiments as well. Re the Jovian experiments - listening to Jupiter is one of the initial steps in radio astronomy and can be copied on radio receivers that tune 21Mhz. The next would be a simple 12ghz solar observatory using available ku band satellite tv components. With the arrival of new surplus components, the 24ghz project beckons... radio free cosmo"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (19:57)", "body": "Yay! Mike is back. Terry and I were about to send out a posse to rescue you! Now to read what you posted. We thought mebbe a DXpedition or a swap meet had taken you hostage...*grin* It is great to have you back. Now, I'm gonna read what you wrote...!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (20:04)", "body": "Have the receiver with the 21 MHz band right beside me - surely not in SSB or is it? Know any freq's off hand for the Jovian listening (or I could hunt at the url I posted above - which is what I should be doing...) It is really great to have such great long-term projects which will interface. I know Terry is eager to know what you are doing and I am sure you will be seeing his posts in here. The propagation was out of sight last week and weekend - and I could get stations in daylight which I normally do not get. It was interesting and not too noisy - something of a surprise!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (20:21)", "body": "Check out Mike's suggested url http://www.triax.com/vlfradio/ Lots of what he will be talking about is there and a terrific photo of an Aurora over Canada. Too bad it is black and white!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (20:22)", "body": "but keep going... http://www.triax.com/vlfradio/sndbites.htm is the sound page and it is in color there! Absolutely spectacular. Thanks for the URL !"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "The sounds are phenomenal. Have you ever heard Aurora sounds, Mike? How loud are they and how much like this wav file do they sound?"}, {"response": 37, "author": "Passionata", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (22:35)", "body": "Testing"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (22:38)", "body": "Coming in loud and clear. Welcome!"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (19:04)", "body": "Mike, I am downloading and installing SETI@home software http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/windows.html There is a topic concerning this software and what it does http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/software/172/new"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (19:08)", "body": "I am up and running! I signed in and now it is data crunching. I feel joined to the cosmos!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (22:09)", "body": "Im still here for the moment but will have to observe radio silence for a bit - no need to call out the rescue units (grin) Will try to check in if possible. Re Aurora - a popular mode of communcating amongst the VHF and up crowd is Aurora scatter - point the antenna at the aurora and use it as a giant reflector - have not heard cw signals from aurora propagation but I think it has a raspy note to it (?) I have listened to microwave signals using rain scatter - once during the June VHF contest, I listened to 5ghz ssb signals from a station 35 miles to the west (off the back of my dish) talking to a station across the lake in central Michigan - neat stuff. This type of propagation also can happen in snow blizzards. The mode I want to work on is tropo-ducting where the hot and cold air near the lake surface form a 'duct' that acts as an excellent propagation medium. For 24ghz, I will have to rely on dry days with little humidity due to the absorption problems caused by moisture. Anyway, be back sometime in the near future.... Mike AA9IL"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 24, 2000 (12:06)", "body": "Good business, Mike. I have heard tropr-ducting across a small lake in upper NY State. We could hear quite plainly the voices and allied noises of the people across the lake who were making breakfast and using china plates. It is amazing how loud and clear it is. How is skip doing these days? It has been years since it was worth the effort. My SETI software is still crunching numbers from Arecibo. This is the most fascinating program I ever downloaded! Take care - we await your next post 3's n 8's Marcia"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 26, 2000 (00:20)", "body": "Here's another interesting monitoring and data crunching possibillity: From: Glenn Thompson - glenn@mvomrat.com With a single PC workstation it is now possible to compute plots (e.g. spectrograms) of continuous seismic data for dozens of stations and display these on the World-Wide Web within minutes. Web-based seismic monitoring of volcanoes offers several advantages, perhaps the main one being that a person on beeper duty can respond to an alarm without having to leave home in the middle of the night. It also makes it easy to share data with other scientists and schools. I spent the last two years developing a Web-based system to monitor the seismicity at Alaskan volcanoes. I am curious to learn what other systems exist out there. I would be very grateful if the creators of such systems would get in touch with me and give me a short (a paragraph would be fine) description of your system (would be helpful if you included URL and related publications if any). I would also be happy to hear from anyone who is currently developing (or thinking about developing) such a system, or anyone's views on the future of Web-based monitoring of volcanoes (including web-cams, satellite data etc.). Many thanks, Glenn Thompson (glenn@mvomrat.com) Seismologist Montserrat Volcano Observatory"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  3, 2000 (23:41)", "body": "Lack of coronal outbursts lately caused the solar flux to plummet. They are recovering nicely, now - and they have added another parameter to their reports: SFI=166 | A=11 | K=2 down from 3 at 0300 on 4 June. SAF: moderate to high, GMF: quiet to unsettled Aurora Level: 4 Solar Wind: 443.1 km/s at 3.5 protons/cc More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  5, 2000 (14:21)", "body": "First Light for a Space Weather Satellite NASA Science News for June 5, 2000 NASA's IMAGE mission, a unique satellite dedicated to the study of space storms, has returned its first pictures of electrified gas surrounding our planet. Using antennas as large as the Empire State Building, IMAGE is taking an unprecedented look at Earth's magnetic environment and its response to fierce gusts of solar wind. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast05jun_1m.htm?list __"}, {"response": 46, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (19:28)", "body": "Ok, back again.... The seismic monitoring seems tres kewl - have to dig up that web page and give it a look-see. First on the list is some goofy microwave stuff but I need to build up the final parts for a project INSPIRE receiver to take out into the country for Whistler monitoring. Free time, what is that? Let Chaos Reign! Hail Eris! Mike"}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  6, 2000 (19:45)", "body": "Mike! There you are! Another solar burst is on its way - use your cosmic umbrella this week. I am just about finished crunching my 8th block of SETI data. Welcome home. Of course, Chaos reigns... and there is even order in Chaos!"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  7, 2000 (14:13)", "body": "Solar Storm Warnings Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 12:30:08 -0500 From: NASA Science News NASA Science News for June 7, 2000 An interplanetary shock wave from a solar coronal mass ejection is expected to pass our planet this Thursday, possibly triggering aurora at middle-latitudes. This story includes animations of the solar eruption as well as aurora borealis observing tips. Note: Science@NASA readers who capture photos of the aurora are invited to send them as email attachments to phillips@spacescience.com for possible inclusion in a follow-up web story. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast07jun_1m.htm?list __"}, {"response": 49, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (19:31)", "body": "Anyone going out tonite to watch for the Aurora? - In the VLF communications area, another organization that is doing research in VLF communications is AMRAD - the Amateur Radio Research and Development Corporation. See their web page at www.amrad.org 73's de Mike"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  8, 2000 (20:07)", "body": "Thanks mike - my ex is gonna try!!! I posted the coronal storms on Geo 34 I'll try but we are pretty far south..."}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (11:23)", "body": "June 8-9 Aurora Update Space Weather News for June 8-9, 2000 Geomagnetic disturbances are finally subsiding after an interplanetary shock wave struck Earth's magnetosphere around 930 UT on June 8. The event triggered intense aurora over sparsely-inhabited regions of northern Asia and the Pacific. However, by nightfall over North America conditions had quieted. There is still a chance for isolated auroral substorms that might be visible tonight (June 8-9) at middle latitudes. The next opportunity for viewing aurora borealis may arrive as soon as June 10, when another solar wind disturbance is expected to reach Earth. For more information and updates please visit http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (12:25)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 23 - June 9, 2000 A large coronal mass ejection on June 6 is raising havoc with HF propagation. Geomagnetic conditions were rough on Wednesday, with K indices of 3 and 4, but the big effect was measured on Thursday, when the planetary K index was 7 at 0900 and 1200z, followed by 6 at 1500z. The planetary A index for Thursday was 53, while the College A index (in Alaska) was 79. This indicates a severe geomagnetic storm, which should disrupt HF communications but may provide interesting auroral communication opportunities for VHF enthusiasts. Regarding visible aurora effects, the chances over North America are declining on Friday morning, although earlier in the day there was an intense aurora visible over Asia. To add to the excitement, there was another coronal mass ejection on Wednesday, June 7. The latest word has solar wind providing another disruption on Saturday, June 10. Planetary A index should rise on Friday to 75, then drop to 40 on Saturday, 25 on Sunday, 18 on Monday and 15 on Tuesday. Solar flux is expected to rise over the same period, to 185 on Friday, 190 on Saturday, 200 on Monday and 210 on Tuesday. Solar flux is expected to peak over the short term around 245 on June 16. Last week's bulletin mentioned monitoring WWV for the latest solar and geophysical numbers, and both WB6RIB and W9LYN wrote to suggest the URL of ftp://ftp.sel.noaa.gov/pub/latest/wwv.txt for the latest text of the WWV bulletin that appears at 18 minutes after every hour."}, {"response": 53, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, Jun  9, 2000 (22:10)", "body": "No aurora here but plenty of mosquitos. Took the high tech scooter around the neighborhood and barely made it to the door alive. Oh well, see what happens on 6-10 with the solar wind blast. de Mike Radio Cosmo International"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (00:08)", "body": "Thanks for reporting in, Mike. My respondants reported city light glare, clouds and rain but no aurora. Don't think my message got to the European contingent. I had a transfusion when I got back as well. Eruptions are much nicer. They smell bad enough and are hot enough to discourage mosquitoes. Maybe you need to burn mosquito coils on your high-tech scooter?!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "The solar storm has hit us: SFI=180 up from 169 | A=25 up from 7 | K=3 at 2100 on 10 June. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: quiet to active Aurora Level: 9 Solar Wind: 460.7 km/s at 1.6 protons/cc More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 56, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (21:09)", "body": "Well, did some VHF/UHF operating during the June ARRL contest. Worked across the lake into Michigan on 144Mhz and heard some bursts on 223Mhz. Someone else was working 6 meters (50Mhz) but the band did seem open - most likely sporadic E propagation although maybe F??? No Aurora but plenty of storm clouds to the North. Brought the 5.7ghz transverter out for show and tell - need to hook that thing up and operate! 73 de Mike AA9IL"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (21:19)", "body": "Let me know when you are GOING to be on (rather than after it) - would love to hear your voice... the 14 MHz is sort of dead but there is a huge pile up on 14.204. Pretty quiet, actually!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (21:55)", "body": "A solar flare, a CME, and a solar wind disturbance -- all in one day! Space Weather News for June 10, 2000 The prolific flare-producing sunspot group #9026 unleashed another moderately strong solar flare today. The eruption was accompanied by a partial halo coronal mass ejection (CME) that might be Earth-directed. If so, material from the CME would arrive in the vicinity of our planet on June 12 or 13. A SOHO coronagraph animation of the event shows a beautiful billowing CME peppered by speckles and meteor-like streaks resulting from energetic particles hitting the spacecraft's camera. Earlier in the day, as predicted, a solar wind disturbance from a CME on June 7 struck Earth's magnetosphere. Active geomagnetic conditions were observed for about nine hours, but have since subsided. For more information and pictures, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 10, 2000 (22:06)", "body": "This rare red-colored aurora over North Carolina was photographed by Chuck Adams on April 6, 2000. The bright object near the horizon is the Moon. Also visible in the background are the Pleiades, Taurus, and Orion. The photographer used a Nikon FM2 camera equipped with a 28mm f/2 lens. The exposure time was one minute on Kodak Elite 100 slide film. (Copyright 2000, Chuck Adams, all rights reserved.)"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 11, 2000 (16:52)", "body": "The storm is approaching: Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2000 14:31:21 -0700 SFI=187 up from 180 | A=25 up from 23 | K=5 up from 4 at 2100 on 11 June. SAF: moderate, GMF: at unsettled to minor storm levels Aurora Level: 9 Solar Wind: 569.3 km/s at 7.2 protons/cc More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (18:56)", "body": "Wonder how high its going to go.... Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 14:30:44 -0700 SFI=193 up from 187 | A=16 down from 24 | K=3 down from 4 at 2100 on 12 June. SAF: moderate, GMF: at unsettled to minor storm levels Aurora Level: 7 Solar Wind: 466.1 km/s at 1.5 protons/cc More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 62, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "Greetings all In the most recent Lowdown (Long Wave Club of America), there was a short description of a ELF/ULF/SLF receiver built by John WB7TQT. - frequency range 0.03 to 300Hz - 47000 turn loop. John has tapes available of the signals heard at these frequencies. I will post the address once I find it. 73 de AA9IL Mike"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 12, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "Great news. The last ones you posted the urls for were spectacular!"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 13, 2000 (19:40)", "body": "Supposedly the solar storm has passed us (see Geo 34 today) but the numbers keep going up. The latest: SFI=199 | A=16 | K=3 up from 2 at 0000 on 14 June. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: quiet to unsettled Aurora Level: 6 Solar Wind: 433.5 km/s at 8.5 protons/cc More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (19:09)", "body": "Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 14:32:20 -0700 SFI=201 up from 199 | A=17 up from 16 | K=4 at 2100 on 14 June. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: quiet to active Aurora Level: 6 Solar Wind: 447.0 km/s at 41.7 protons/cc More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "Note the increase of velocity of the solar wind. I think it is not over yet..."}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 15, 2000 (21:26)", "body": "Check the sunspots with this amazing little updating image:"}, {"response": 68, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (20:52)", "body": "Howdy all Well, just finished a neat book - 'Boffin' which was a historical account of early radar during WWII. Also some neat info about the early experiments at Jodrell Bank and design work on interferometers. I know book reviews should be in the Books section but this should appeal to the Geo crowd. BTW, the author is R Hanbury Brown. Currently plodding through 'Gravity's Rainbow' and will also be starting up on the history of the crypto group at Bletchley Park that cracked the Enigma Cipher. 73 de Mike Radio Cosmo International"}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (22:34)", "body": ""}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (22:36)", "body": ""}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 16, 2000 (22:55)", "body": "HanaHou...... Mike! Been there and seen them. Amazing stuff Gotta get that book. Was at your webpage today. Really great antenna you have and it is widely used here with palm trees at the corner posts and the ubiquitous chain link fence below. Check AA9IL http://www.qsl.net/aa1ll/"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 23, 2000 (17:39)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 25 - June 23, 2000 Average solar flux and sunspot numbers rose slightly this week, and geomagnetic indices were lower. Planetary and mid-latitude A indices have been mostly in the single digits. Unfortunately, geomagnetic conditions may be a bit more active for Field Day this weekend. The predicted planetary A index for Friday through Tuesday is 15, 15, 20, 20 and 12, but no major disturbance is likely. Solar flux for the same period is expected to be around 175, 175, 170, 165 and 165, and should begin rising again around July 1. The short term outlook is for flux values to slowly rise and then peak around 200 before the middle of next month. NASA has an article this week on a proposed model for better predicting the arrival time of the effects from Coronal Mass Ejections. You can see the NASA article at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast22jun_1m.htm?list and see more info from a solar physics meeting at http://www.lmsal.com/spd/Press/ ."}, {"response": 73, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (12:55)", "body": "Greets to all Well, back again after another week of silliness. Did pick up some microwave goodies tho and visit with a fellow radio op regarding mysterious signals on the HF bands - primarily Numbers Stations and bizarre digital modes. Also, discussion on a cw 'beacon' that transmits at intervals on 10.106 Mhz in the 30 meter band. Strange slow cw text that could be a prank or a coded message? (ooooh...) No luck hearing it now since it is early afternoon - will have to try again at sunset due to propagation. Speaking of propagation, an interesting book to read is 'Beyond Line of Sight' by Emil Pocock and is published by the ARRL. This is a series of reprints from QST covering VHF and up progagation studies. Kewl Stuph Also, checked out the web page listed above (AA1LL) - not mine but does have some interesting links plus a picture of a bug semi auto key similar to one that I have. 73 de Mike Radio Cosmo International"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (14:56)", "body": "No wonder I had trouble connecting it with you.....you are AA1IL......sigh. I did note the big brass bug and though it would be an object of envy for sure. Ever catch those voice 'number stations' which recite two number units on and on?? It has been suggested that it is the method of choise to covey covert information - I have heard all accents but the numbers are always in English."}, {"response": 75, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (19:59)", "body": "Ok, looks like another hot thread with number stations - will have to move that to the 'Radio' page. I have listened to Spanish speaking number stations - might have heard some in English as well in my far distant past... The ones I remember the best are the Spanish ones tho... There are many theories regarding the purpose of the stations - most likely a means of passing secret info to operatives in the field. Not likely a hoax...? It is just about nitefall here where there will be a peak in grey line propagation - the HF rig is tuned to 30M but all I hear is static - the HF bands were kind of poor today to begin with. Well, back to the listening post. 73 de Secret Agent Mike"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (20:15)", "body": "I kept a list of frequencies a few years ago...must dig it out and post it. Wow, I wonder what reminded of them... No hoax... You are right about to operatives in the field and every country did it... Read an article a few years back by an ex CIA operative writing in a Ham-trade magazine (not sure now which one) The code changes daily and an hour which varies from day to day."}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "Please create the new topic in radio while I hunt for my list... Meet you there!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (20:38)", "body": "50291 39710 71002 52983 47016 84392 91023 62091 89015 39102 75223 97738 ..... Well, I can see that even my pseudo random key strokes are hardly pseudo random - you can notice a distinct frequency of 1-0's plus a pattern of upper 5 digits alternating with lower 5 digits. The Cray's do have job security, dont they..... Thought I heard some possible traffic of interest on the target frequency but was just someone calling CQ. Shades of the monitoring stations in the Mediterranean that would copy diplomatic traffic up and down the coast along with a bit of intercept of North African signals to liven things up a bit. Ok, back to the static - will have to move this to the radio page if this keeps up. RYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRY"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (20:41)", "body": "You have a pretty good fist and you came up with those results? Amazing! It is very funny that the guy calling CQ was so bad you mistook it for something else. Talk about Novice Class...! Hey, we can topic drift right here. All that stuff was bounced off the Kennelly-Heavyside Layer, anyway....."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (20:42)", "body": "RY? aa9il, what is RY? (I'll get your call right one of these days...sorry!)"}, {"response": 81, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (20:53)", "body": "Howdy again RY harkens back to ye olden days of teletype where commercial stations would send a string of RY's on their channel in between traffic. Also, (not quite memorized the Baudot) I think the letters R and Y mirror themselves - kind of like 73 which would be: _ _ ... ... _ _ Have to look up the baudot sheet for that. Also, regarding the chap sending CQ - heard a faint cw signal down in the noise floor - got my attention never the less... Probably the same effect of trying to pull cw signals out of the noise on microwave or EME. During the June contests years ago, I could have sworn I was hearing CW down in the noise floor on 5.7 GHz. Sleep depravation more likely. 73 de Mike Radio Cosmo International"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (21:03)", "body": "Sleep Depravation can make for interesting notes in the log book, never again to be duplicated. I remember doing it for my Dad when I was the little kid in the family. But, never do I recall anything like in the GHz range. The old HRO just did not have that capacity and I don't think anyone was broadcasting in that range in any case. Not when I was a little kid. Oh Yeah, *That* RY... Yes! I think you are correct about the mirror image call"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (21:08)", "body": "Regarding Number Stations (I recall hearing them in the 6MHz band) Number Stations Timothy Lehto 1. Introduction When listening around the lower frequencies of the international shortwave bands, one may hear stations, usually weak, reciting endless groups of numbers (usually groups of five, with a letter at the end of each group). These stations, dubbed \"number stations\" have been found to be radio stations, operated by foreign governments for the purpose of communicating to their field agents. Yes, folks, spy radio, and you can listen in! The first thing you must realize is that, there is no given frequency for certain number stations. They do change frequency when they feel that security is being compromised. However, they do tend to stay in the lower frequencies for two reasons. One reason is that at night, an enormous amount of range can be achieved with low power output on low frequencies. Another is that, for the most part, international broadcasts are above 7 MHz (giving ham operators headaches). 2. Where and when to look The best range of frequencies to hunt in is anywhere from 2 MHz to 6.5 MHz. And the best time of day to go hunting for them is at night. However, it is not impossible for you to hear these clandestine broadcasts during the day -- you just have to look harder. 3. Listening tips It is useful to write down the beginning and the end of the broadcasts. Some people are saying that there is a form of identifier for the station, and it is usually at the beginning or end. Keep a careful log of where you heard the station, and at what time. Over a period of a few weeks, you may notice a pattern that will make monitoring easier. And you will be able to determine what part of the world they are communicating with, the day of the week and time at which they communicate, and if you are lucky, figure out a frequency pattern so that you can make listening regular. more at: http://www.tdyc.com/archive/radio/number.html"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 25, 2000 (21:13)", "body": "The Ultimate Frequency list for the Number Stations: http://www.btinternet.com/~simon.mason/page51.html This guy thinks they're fake http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hall/5751/what.html And, if you are truly interested in this subject, I did a google.com search and they came up with 421,997 hits for Number stations."}, {"response": 85, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Jun 26, 2000 (21:54)", "body": "I guess the secret on number stations is out judging from the number of hits. But has anyone cracked the code yet? Most likely one time pad ciphers... Anyway, working back towards earth science, saw a nice picture of the Aurora in the July issue of CQ. This was a red one. The only Aurora I ever saw was out a plane window on the way to Seattle. Looked out and saw this powder blue curtain in the sky - a few seconds later, the captain announced over the PA that the Aurora was visible - seconds later after that it was gone. Just thought of another interesting theory about whistlers - there was an article in a book titled RadioText(e) published by Semiotext(e) about an experiment to correlate whistlers with the Marfa lights. The Marfa lights was a strange visible phenomenon that occurred in Marfa, Tx (natch...) - strange orbs of light that would jet across the ground. Speculation ranged from ball lightning, to ghosts, to strange plasma balls formed from intense geological pressure on rocks (quartz fissures perhaps?). No end conclusions but interesting none the less. Closest I ever came to ball lightning was once witnessing the plasma dissipation after a close lightning strike. Sort of like strings of lightning pearls. 3's de Mike radio cosmo international p.s. - never saw the Marfa lights but did see hundreds of jack rabbits along the road side during one night of an epic road trip through West Texas...."}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 26, 2000 (23:08)", "body": "Interesting and nice try, Mike! (random coeds no cracking re number stations) Your near-ball lightning reminds me of my experience with it. Purple sheet lightning succeeded by these odd plasma pearls (good name for them). Don't ever want to be that close to them again. The best aurora pix from the latest coronal ejections I posted the best on http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/geo/35.59"}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 26, 2000 (23:12)", "body": "Make that Random CODES not coeds......*grin*"}, {"response": 88, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jun 27, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "Random coeds - ah yes, shades of my college days.... :-)"}, {"response": 89, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jun 27, 2000 (19:50)", "body": "anyway... Another interesting form of lightning that has been more in the news in the past decade are the 'sprites' and 'jets'. These were observed by astronauts and pilots as upward charges that flare up from the top of a cloud during a strike. These can be seen as red tendrils and white bursts - must have to do a search on these as to what is the theoretical (or actual) cause. One other interesting form of lightning I had a chance to witness (although, given the circumstances, rather had not...) was some of the cloud to cloud bursts that would light up the night sky while viewed from an airplane window. Intense beauty but rather un-nerving - flying by storms aint much fun. 73 de mike radio cosmo...."}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 27, 2000 (20:52)", "body": "You're right about flying in storms. Ain't fun. Did that landing in Tucson once. Blind lighning everywhere. Have NO idea how the pilot landed the place but we gave him a hearty ovation when he emerged from the cockpit! I've seen NASA footage of Elfs and Sprites and jets. Truly amazing - and colors too. Wonder if I can find pix of them to post...going hunting!"}, {"response": 91, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jul  4, 2000 (21:35)", "body": "And howdy once again.... Got the latest Lowdown yesterday - why is it when I finally hunker down to work on one project - I get some info on something completely different that distracts me. This issue had a discussion on SLF continuous and irregular pulsations. Frequency range is in the 0 to 3hz range. I guess I'll have to do some web searches and find some design criteria for receivers or tunable amplifiers that work at that low frequency. Then, off to the surplus store to by a 10lb spool of #30awg copper wire to wind up a 50000 turn pickup loop. Until then, packaging on the 10ghz transverter will continue.... Talk about interests at the opposite ends of the spectrum. At least I have not decided to move up to the THz range and experiment with long range laser communications and optical cloud bounce. Stay tuned.... 73 de Mike Radio Cosmo International"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  4, 2000 (22:52)", "body": "No middle of the road for you, Mike! 10 GHz is WAY up there! I have wound transformers with my Dad - that is a really laborious task. How tedious is winding that loop?"}, {"response": 93, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Jul  6, 2000 (21:14)", "body": "Hi Marcia and Geo-ites I need to do some web research on these loops - I remember from an old Scientific American book that included a chapter on amateur seismology that the pickup loop was wound on a large bobbin which was balanced between the polls of a magnetron magnet. The balance was fixed to a large concrete pier which picked up the activity by moving the coil up and down between the magnet poles - awesome book - wished I could find a copy. The coil for this receiver will probably be wound on a good dielectric former - not sure if it is an air coil or has a ferro-magnetic core - probably does. Needless to say, 50000 turns will require automation! 73 de Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  6, 2000 (21:45)", "body": "Aloha Mike! Wow!!! 50000 turns....indeed! I shall hunt too for that book. One of us should find what you are looking for. They are reissuing those old but great Scientific American books. Gotta check on the web to see what is available. I would like it as well to make the seismology loop. When my son was young we looked everywhere for that book, but have not looked recently... And, if it as elaborate as you say, it is not a job for a novice former transformer winder!"}, {"response": 95, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, Jul  7, 2000 (18:22)", "body": "The title of the book is: \"The Scientific American Book of Projects for the Amateur Scientist\" or something close to that - the book was written by CL Stong and sadly it is out of print. This was one of those 'mad scientist' books which included articles on model rocketry (not Estes!), building Van de Graff generators, particle accelerators, X Ray machines and other way cool gadgets that, if printed today, would cause litigation jittery folks to excrete bricks. This is hard core science in the classic sense and not for the weak of heart. - I.e. you could either get a cool project up and running or kill yourself in the process. Now, this is what I call a science book. The lilly livered can stick to making plaster of paris volcanos that use baking soda and vinegar. Anyway, there was a whole section on amateur seismology including mechanical and electrical designs. Of course, today, you can build up the system using OP Amps but the pickup coil and pivot/balance should still apply. Speaking of cool old books - there is an outfit called Lindsay Publications that puts out books on lost technology - stuff like how to build steam engines, lathes, tesla coils, and other weird science stuff. They seem to have quite a bit on Tesla - would like to build up something that generates a couple of MEV and throw lightning bolts around the basement. I found a perfect corona discharge orb at a ham fest once and just need to get a large plexiglass pipe to wind the coil. Kewl stuff. 73 de Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  7, 2000 (21:49)", "body": "For out of print books and rareties: http://abebooks.com/ The things of which dreams are made - Mine, anyway...Van de Graf Generator, Tesla Coil, wood-panelled library with a ceiling orerary. Never mind the rest of the house...I definitly need to find that book! Particle accellerators?! Mike, if you have not been the British Museum of Science off Cromwell Road in London, get thee hither and watch the lightning in there. What a show - and what a bang! oh, I also need a full length Foucault Pendulum...and...and..."}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul  8, 2000 (14:47)", "body": "Coronagraphs on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded a full halo coronal mass ejection (CME) on July 7 at 1030 UT (6:30 a.m. EDT). Forecasters estimate that material from the CME, which was expanding away from the Sun at 455 km/s, will arrive in the vicinity of Earth on July 11, 2000."}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul  8, 2000 (18:32)", "body": "And the propagations rises: SFI=210 up from 187 | A=7 | K=2 down from 3 at 2100 on 8 July. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: quiet to unsettled Aurora Level: 5 Solar Wind: 368.6 km/s at 3.4 protons/cc More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 99, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (23:03)", "body": "Got a chance to go to the Science Museum last time I was in London. Way cool stuph. Only had a short time and focused on the space section and the telecom/wireless section. Even got to see an Enigma machine and did also see the pendulum. Missed the lightning show. Anyway, I'll have to do some rare book searches for the Sci American book. Probably alot of updated info already exists on the web. Still need to do some searches on ELF and SLF monitoring and the integration and/or DSP methods used to extract data. Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 10, 2000 (00:14)", "body": "Mike, you gotta to the the top floor and look at the old boat anchors - there is my dad's HRO there!!! On the same floor and room as the Enigma Machine!!! The lightning generator was in the next building back I think - science and technology. Really great stuph in there!!! Good luck on your searches!!!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (12:01)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 28 - July 14, 2000 Solar activity rose substantially this week. Average sunspot numbers compared to the previous week rose nearly 68 points to 244.6, and average solar flux rose nearly 39 points to 207.5. A strong solar flare around 1037z on Wednesday sent a bubble of electrified gas, or plasma, toward the earth at more than 2 million miles per hour. Effects of the blast are being felt on Thursday, and a second more powerful wind is expected to arrive on Friday. This could be bad news for the Pacific 160 Meter Contest this weekend, although possible aurora could prove interesting for the 6 Meter Sprint. There is a good chance that any geomagnetic upset may decline through the weekend though. These flares originate in sunspot group 9077, which is large and magnetically complex. It harbors energy for powerful solar flares which could erupt on Thursday or Friday. For late updates, visit www.spaceweather.com. Another URL that bears checking is www.qsl.net/w3df. Dan has put together some great links of interest to propagation and sun watchers, including a chart which compares solar cycles 19 through 23. Go to http://www.qsl.net/w3df/sol_f0.html and click on ''Cy 19-23 Comparison.'' You will see that the current cycle is not as bad as cycle 20, but weaker than cycles 21 or 22, and of course nowhere near the biggest one of all, cycle 19. The author suffered through cycle 20 as a teenaged ham in the 1960s, but as a small child heard the effects of cycle 19, which peaked in the late 1950s. Father's low band VHF FM business radio in the company car brought in unfamiliar voices from all over the country to our home in California's San Joaquin Valley. The three daily 2000z flux values reported by the Penticton observatory for July 10-12 were 244.5, 241.6 and 314.6. Because they were flare enhanced, the NOAA Space Environment Center and the U.S. Air Force collaborated to come up with more realistic solar flux numbers, which were 215, 225 and 230. The lower numbers are the ones used here in our weekly summary. The latest prediction shows solar flux peaking on Friday around 230, then drifting down below 200 by July 18, and reaching a short term minimum around 165 from July 23-26. The next expected peak in solar flux is around August 6-9. Expect geomagnetic conditions to remain active. Based on the previous solar rotation, there are no predicted days over the next month when the planetary A index is expected to be in the single digits. Sunspot numbers for July 6 through 12 were 210, 226, 260, 262, 232, 281 and 241 with a mean of 244.6. 10.7 cm flux was 174.3, 187.1, 210, 211.3, 215, 225 and 230, with a mean of 207.5, and estimated planetary A indices were 7, 8, 7, 7, 19, 31 and 12, with a mean of 13."}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (14:55)", "body": "Powerful Solar Flare Triggers Radiation Storm Space Weather News for July 14, 2000 This morning an X5-class solar flare, one of the most powerful flares of the current solar cycle, triggered a proton storm in the neighborhood of our planet. Just after the eruption, coronagraphs on board the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded a full halo coronal mass ejection heading toward Earth at greater than 1000 km/s. Please visit http://www.spaceweather.com for details and updates on this developing story."}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "The following Alerts and Warnings are in effect: sr@hfradio.org The following Alerts and Warnings are in effect: Magnetic A-Index greater than 50 Watch for 15 Jul 2000 UT Comment: K-indices of greater than 6 are possible beginning at 1800 UT on 15 July Magnetic A-Index greater than 50 Watch for 16 Jul 2000 UT Comment: K-indices of greater than 6 are possible beginning at 1800 UT on 15 July Magnetic A-Index greater than 50 Watch for 17 Jul 2000 UT Comment: K-indices of greater than 6 are possible beginning at 1800 UT on 15 July Magnetic K-Index of 6 Observed 14 Jul 2000 from 15:00 to 18:00 UT Comment: None More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (16:36)", "body": "An Extreme Geomagnetic Storm is Underway Space Weather News for July 15, 2000 A powerful shock wave from the fast-moving July 14th coronal mass ejection has arrived in the neighborhood of Earth. An extreme geomagnetic storm was underway at 1900 UT (3:00 p.m. EDT) on July 15th. If conditions persist as they are now, aurora could be visible at middle (and possibly even equatorial) latitudes. The best time to view aurora is usually near local midnight. In this case, sky watchers are advised to look for aurora as soon as night falls. For more information and updates please visit http://www.spaceweather.com Readers are invited to send pictures of tonight's aurora and the July 16, 2000, total lunar eclipse (visible across the Pacific Ocean) as an email attachment to phillips@spacescience.com for possible posting on spaceweather.com and/or spacescience.com. For more information about the lunar eclipse: Pacific Lunar Eclipse http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast14jul_1m.htm"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (18:01)", "body": "SFI=213 up from 204 | A=118 up from 29 | K=9 up from 8 at 2100 on 15 July. SAF: moderate to high, GMF: at minor to severe storm levels Aurora Level: 10 Solar Wind: 257.2 km/s at 0.7 protons/cc More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (18:07)", "body": "SEVERE GEOMAGNETIC STORM: Kp Index is at 9. A Index is 118. We are in a catagory G5 Storm. NOAA's Space Weather scale indicates the following effects: Power systems: grid systems can collapse and transformers experience damage. Spacecraft operations: extensive surface charging, problems with orientation, uplink/downlink, and tracking satellites. Other systems: pipeline currents reach hundreds of amps, HF (high frequency) radio propagation impossible in many areas for one to two days, satellite navigation degraded for days, low-frequency radio navigation out for hours, and the aurora seen as low as the equator. The Proton Monitor on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory is registering solar wind speeds in excess of 900 km/s The wave of solar particles - known as a solar proton event - is already four times more intense than any other event detected since the launches of SOHO in 1995 and ACE in 1997. At mid-afternoon (UT) on July 14th, the storm of particles from the Sun was still intensifying. More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 21, 2000 (12:14)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 29 - July 21, 2000 This has been quite a week for solar activity, with blasts of solar wind dominating space weather news. Saturday was the big day for HF radio blackouts and aurora, with the planetary A index jumping to an incredible 152 and the mid-latitude A index at 148. The planetary K index, updated every three hours, was at 9 for three readings on Saturday. A K index reading of 9 over a 24-hour period would be equivalent to an A index of 300. This is big, really big. These numbers are associated with an extreme geomagnetic storm that was nearly off the scale. On Friday one of the most powerful solar flares of the current cycle triggered a storm of protons directed toward earth. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded a full halo coronal mass ejection heading toward earth at greater than one-million meters per second. Check out animations of this event at http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/CME/ . There are only a few events of this magnitude in the average solar cycle. The only factor that probably impeded a spectacular aurora visible far down into the U.S. was that this is the summer season. A dark evening sky would reveal a rich tapestry of northern lights. Of course, it being winter in the southern hemisphere, bright displays were reported in Australia and New Zealand. The author made a weak attempt Saturday night, walking barefoot into the middle of the street and trying to peer north past city lights, but no auroral glow was visible. Seattle is north of the 47th parallel, and although there were no local reports of aurora, there were observations as far south as 40 degrees in Europe, Asia, and parts of Eastern North America. If you point your web browser toward http://www.sec.noaa.gov/info/kp-aurora.html you will see a nice map from the June, 1968 issue of Sky and Telescope which shows how far south aurora may be visible depending on the planetary K index. What is not clear from this map is whether it shows how far south the edge of the aurora extends, or how far south it is visible when looking north. Another coronal mass ejection emerged on Wednesday, July 19, but the predicted effect is uncertain because the ejection may not be aimed squarely at earth. On Thursday the planetary K index went up to 6 for several hours, but by the end of the UTC day it was 3. The planetary A index for Thursday was 43, and the College A index, recorded in Alaska, was 57. The latest forecast shows the planetary A index rising to 50 on Friday, then dropping to 20 and 15 and then 10 on Saturday through Monday. Solar flux peaked for the recent short term at 252.9 on Thursday, and is expected to drop to 245, 235, 230 and 225 on Friday through Monday. The next short term minimum is predicted around July 28 at 170, followed by another peak above 200 around August 6-9. The author has received many more inquiries recently asking for explanations of the various parameters reported in this bulletin. Although the explanations were repeated six weeks ago, it is probably time to run them again, and they follow this paragraph. Feel free to send questions to the author via k7vvvarrl.net. Amateur Radio operators who use HF generally like increased sunspots because they correlate with better worldwide radio propagation. When there are more sunspots, the sun puts out radiation which charges particles in the earth's ionosphere. Radio waves bounce off of these charged particles, and the denser these clouds of ions, the better the HF propagation. When the ionosphere is denser, higher frequencies will reflect off of the ionosphere rather than passing through to space. This is why every 11 years or so when this activity is higher, 10 meters gets exciting. 10 meters is at a high enough frequency, right near the top of the HF spectrum, that radio waves propagate very efficiently when the sunspot count is high. Because of the wavelength, smaller antennas are very efficient on this band, so mobile stations running low power on 10 meters can communicate world wide on a daily basis when the sunspot cycle is at its peak. There are also seasonal variations, and 10 meters tends to be best near the spring or fall equinox. The sunspot numbers used in this bulletin are calculated by counting the sunspots on the visible solar surface and also measuring their area. Solar flux is measured at an observatory in British Columbia using an antenna pointed toward the sun tuned to 2.8 GHz, which is at a wavelength of 10.7 cm. Energy detected seems to correlate with sunspots and with the density of the ionosphere. Other solar activity of concern to HF operators are solar flares and coronal holes, which emit protons. Since the charged ions in the ionosphere are negative, a blast of protons from the sun can neutralize the charge and make the ionosphere less reflective. These waves of protons can be so intense that they may trigger an event called a geomagnetic storm. The Planetary A index relates to geomagnetic stability. M"}, {"response": 108, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (19:39)", "body": "And, back again.... No real activity during the last geo storm - there was supposedly band openings in TX but I didnt work any and no contacts on 2m SSB. when is the next one? de AA9IL"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (20:58)", "body": "Soon, Mike, and I shall let you know as soon as I do!! I stayed up looking for both Comet Linear and the Aurora and saw nothing."}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 27, 2000 (12:48)", "body": "(If I could predict the next coronal mass ejection (CME) I would be a wealthy and classified person!)"}, {"response": 111, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, Jul 28, 2000 (18:20)", "body": "If you could predict CME's, Id think you were working on the HAARP project. Or, at least simulating geo storms in the upper atmosphere. Back down on earth, the need to do the across the lake propagation experiments is high on the list. The weather just seems right for such stunts. Just need to schedule with someone on the Michigan side. Speaking of HAARP and such, ever heard of the International Tesla Society - used to publish a magazine on weird science stuff including those govt conspiracy projects. There is probably a web page covering this group. Needless to say, a good place to look for info on Scalar Waves and generating signals at the earth's resonant frequency. de Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 28, 2000 (23:49)", "body": "Yup....plenty of weird stuff in the \"real\" world about Tesla including \"the Philadelphia project. Protecting my identity by assuming the guise of a mild-mannered Geo conference host...Maaarcia"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  2, 2000 (16:51)", "body": "Mike, here's one for you, or did you know about this frequency?! Unknown Submarine Volcano Volcano Islands, Japan 22-27 N, 138-141 E Robert Dziak at the NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Newport, Oregon reported that 10 Hz band -limited tremor was detected from the Volcano Islands area after a 6 month hiatus (Bulletin, v. 24, nos. 11 and 12). The current episode of signals began at 0800 UTC on 13 June, but were loudest at 0100-0200 UTC on 14 June. The tremor tracks to presumed submarine volcanism at an uncertain volcano. Information Contact: Robert P. Dziak, Oregon State University/NOAA, Hatfield Marine Science Center, 2115 SE OSU Drive, Newport, OR 97365 USA (Email: dziak@pmel.noaa.gov; URL: http://newport.pmel . Noaa.gov/)."}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  4, 2000 (20:48)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 31 - August 4, 2000 Solar activity for last week (July 28 - August 3) was mostly at low levels. A minor M-class flare from region 9090 occurred on July 28. Several new regions (9110, 9111, 9112, 9113, 9114, and 9115) emerged later in the week. Region 9114 produced a C7 flare and associated CME on August 2. The 10.7 cm solar flux, following the sun's 27-day rotation period, decreased to a minimum of about 155 at the beginning of last week. Solar flux is forecasted to steadily climb to a maximum of about 240 around mid-August. A comment about 10.7 cm solar flux - although 10.7 cm solar flux is easy to measure because the Earth's atmosphere is transparent at that wavelength, energy at 10.7 cm is about 1 million times less energetic than the true ionizing energy. Thus 10.7 cm solar flux contributes nothing to the formation of the ionosphere. But it is an indicator of the general activity level of the sun, and smoothed solar flux values (a 12 month running average) correlate very well with smoothed sunspot numbers (SSN). Solar activity for next week (August 4 - August 10) is expected to be at moderate to high levels. Isolated M-class flares are expected, along with a chance for an isolated major flare. Historically the equinox months (September and March) give us the greatest amount of magnetic storms due to the orientation of the Earth at these times with respect to the solar wind. Thus expect an increase in storms up to mid-September, then a gradual decrease after that to a minimum in December. Cycle 23 continues its march upward, with a peak forecasted by the end of the year. For details, see the web site referenced in last week's bulletin ( http://www.sec.noaa.gov/weekly/index.html) . The latest SSN data is 113 for January 2000. The estimated SSN for the month of August is 120. Cycle 23 appears to be similar to, but just a bit higher than, Cycle 20, which peaked at an SSN of 110. This level of activity, while not approaching that of Cycles 22 and 21, will still give us excellent conditions on the higher HF bands as we progress from Summer to Fall and into Winter. Sunspot numbers for July 27 through August 2 were 174, 163, 183, 138, 123, 139 and 153 with a mean of 153.3. 10.7 cm flux was 162.4, 157.8, 153.2, 149.9, 147.9, 149.4 and 150.6, with a mean of 153, and estimated planetary A indices were 9, 30, 27, 10, 19, 15 and 14, with a mean of 17.7."}, {"response": 115, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Aug  9, 2000 (19:11)", "body": "Greetings All I would suspect the SLF crowd and earthquake monitoring bunch got some good integration signals from that volcano. New web page - check oug www.vlf.it No new info otherwise on this end - started pulling out parts for a 5.7ghz transverter that is close completion. Weird weather info tho - we have been having some strong thunder storms pass through the area. One day, it was very balmy and hot prior to a big storm front pushing through. Went driving and watched the outside temp shoot from the 80's to 101 in one area - some kind of heat cell? Of course, after the storm hit, the temp dropped down to the 70's. Have to do some research on that. 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  9, 2000 (23:55)", "body": "WOW!!! The conspiracy theorists would have a field day with temperature inversions like that! Let us know what you discover! You do know about the mass coronal emissions headed this way?! Posted it next door on 34 today."}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 11, 2000 (21:12)", "body": "and yet another one... SFI=187 up from 181 | A=49 up from 26 | K=3 at 2100 on 11 August. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: at active to minor storm levels Aurora Level: 9 Solar Wind: 645.3 km/s at 4.0 protons/cc SFI=187 | A=56 up from 49 | K=6 up from 3 at 0000 on 12 August. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: at active to major storm levels Aurora Level: 10 Solar Wind: 627.8 km/s at 10.8 protons/cc"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 21, 2000 (14:46)", "body": "Ham Radios in Space NASA Science News for August 21, 2000 Ham radio operators are notorious for their love of long-distance radio chats. Now, thanks to NASA's SAREX program, hams and students on Earth can enjoy the ultimate long-distance radio experience by contacting astronauts in orbit. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast21aug_1.htm?list"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 25, 2000 (11:56)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 34 - August 25, 2000 Solar activity took a big dive over the past week, with sunspot numbers dropping to 84 on August 22 and 23. Although NASA's Spaceweather.com reported that the Boulder sunspot number has not been this low in this calendar year, our records from past bulletins show that it has been lower than this several times in January. Boulder sunspot numbers, which are the ones reported weekly in this bulletin, were 69 on January 1 and 2, 77 on January 3, 81 on January 29 and 82 on January 31, 2000. Does this drop mean that the peak for the current cycle has passed? Not at all. There are many wild variations in solar activity over the course of the average 11 year cycle, and the only real way to determine the peak or the minimum is to look back at a moving average many months later. The quieter sun did present some advantages for HF operators, because while the activity was lower, the earth's geomagnetic conditions were quieter as well. The College A index, from Fairbanks, Alaska, was mostly in the single digits, and there were 19 three-hour periods over the week when the College K index was actually 0, lower than the planetary K index at any time. This is significant because the higher latitudes have greater geomagnetic instability at times of heightened solar activity. During this week the area near the Arctic Circle, at least in Alaska, was quieter than the average for the entire planet. Conditions look quieter for the near term as well. Solar flux is probably bottoming out over the next few days, with predicted values for Friday through Tuesday at 128, 128, 130, 132, and 135. Predicted planetary A index looks quiet as well, with unsettled conditions possible for August 30 through September 3. Solar flux for the next few weeks is expected to peak at only 175 near September 7-9. This is based only on what is known about activity during the previous rotation, and any new activity could change this. The fall equinox is less than one month away (September 22), and soon we should see a transition from summer to fall conditions. Daytime absorption on the upper bands and atmospheric noise on lower frequencies should be lessened, and stronger signals should be the rule for this equinox at the peak of solar cycle 23. AE4TM sent along a web link for his experiments using Pactor with ionospheric observations. Check out his web page at http://home.earthlink.net/~ae4tm/hamradio.html and send him your feedback. Another interesting link was received this week. Check http://www.discovery.com/cams/sun/uv.html to see a live webcam from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory which is updated every 12 minutes with a new ultraviolet solar image. Sunspot numbers for August 17 through 23 were 252, 231, 209, 150, 132, 84 and 84 with a mean of 163.1. 10.7 cm flux was 177.1, 169.5, 157.1, 152.4, 151.4, 144.2 and 136.9, with a mean of 155.5, and estimated planetary A indices were 11, 6, 6, 7, 12, 5 and 11 with a mean of 8.3."}, {"response": 120, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (12:19)", "body": "Ok, and back again.... Another part of the radio telescope has been found - a 1.1 to 1.2 GHz phase locked brick oscillator - this requires an external source to get lock. Hopefuly this is a 'quiet' oscillator (i.e. low phase noise) otherwise I will have to resort to 'plan B' whatever that is.... This oscillator will be good for a hydrogen line receiver (1.4ghz). With fall/winter coming up, plenty of time to be cooped up in the house to work on projects. 73 de Mike p.s. - most recent Sky and Telescope has an interesting article on detecting gravity waves - more details to follow...."}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (12:59)", "body": "How fantastic that progress is by leaps and bounds now rather than by things measured by micrometers! You will know soon enough if you are doing your searching \"silently\" - neighbors seldom suffer in silence! I found another site to listen to some of the goodies Mike will be hearing in his quest of things not normally discernable by the human ear... http://216.156.129.123/home/"}, {"response": 122, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (15:34)", "body": "Howdy howdy Yea, it will be interesting to see the reaction to the 8 foot solid aluminum dish in the back yard. Thats scheduled for after the spring thaw tho... (2001 - an appropriate year to start the search) Until then, all the work will be indoors - building receivers and such - I might try to whip together a VLF loop antenna for winter listening. BTW, there is quite a bit of VLF activity in the UK on 137khz. There has also been research on VLF beacons conducted by AMRAD - dont have their URL but a search on AMRAD will turn up the pages. Finally, a couple of good articles on the Magnetosphere in CQ magazine. 73 de Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (16:01)", "body": "Aloha Mike, the man from RCI, Thanks for the heads-up on the activity in the UK (from whence commeth your latest hernia and boat anchor...) I think I need to climb back onto the roof with emery paper, sharp knife, wire strippers and soldering iron plus a bunch of shrink tubing and duct tape to fix the corroded antenna downlead connection to the rooftop trap dipole. It has gotten to the point where wiggling does not work and I am sure the next time I wiggle it will disconnect it altogether. Marcia, fluxing my way to aural fulfillment...."}, {"response": 124, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (16:29)", "body": "Hey Marcia I take it that you are crunching for seti@home? Might be phun to post what part of the sky you are doing analysis on. Oy - forget what its like to have salt air to corrode the antenna - we just have acid rain from Chicago. Get hold of some RTV cement and liberally coat the solder connections. That should help. 73 de Mike radio cosmo international currently crunching: from 18hr 23' 56\" RA 13deg 35' 24\" 1.419472626Ghz (splish splash in the water hole...)"}, {"response": 125, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (20:18)", "body": "Well, judging how fast the old P90 is cranking, this data reduction will take a while.... Good reason to get a Beowulf cluster up and running.... crunch crunch crunch pull back mechanical tabulation handle crunch crunch.... de Mike"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "Currently crunching my 76th block of data (1193 hours on...) 5 hr 3' 7\" Right Assention, +10\ufffd 13' 47\" Declination recorded on Fri, June 16th 16:15:03 GMT Thanks for the tip on protecing the new solder joint... Yeah not only do we have salt air, we also have mother nature's very own acid rain when the volcano fumes are wafted in this direction and it rains. Cannot believe how it corrodes glass! I hate to think of metals which are so much more reactive..."}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "sigh...Ascention..."}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (20:40)", "body": "Base Frequency: 1.420556641 GHz Doppler drift rate: -6.7730 Hz/sec Best Gaussian: power 1.49, fit 5.172 (have no idea what that last refers to... what is a fit??!) I gather you are also receiving data from Arecibo?!"}, {"response": 129, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (20:03)", "body": "Yep, the data is from Arecibo. Just started crunching on data again but this is gonna take a while. I figure it will be nice to analyze data parallel to building my system. Of course, the frequency stability and sensitivity will be a far cry from the big dish but it should collect some good sky data (given I overcome drifty receivers, man made noise, internal system noise, dish pointing, etc. etc. etc....) Should be fun! 73 de Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  8, 2000 (00:53)", "body": "Looking forward to seeing how your dish data compares with Arecibo's...hardly in the same league of course. Not eveyone has has a bunch of mountains in their back yard into which to set a super-sized radio telescope dish...!!! Please let us know how it progresses. I am salivating at the thought and I can see atleast 7 world class telescopes from my front yard!!! If only they'd build one closer to the house..."}, {"response": 131, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sat, Sep  9, 2000 (13:25)", "body": "Howdy howdy Marcia and Geo-ites Well, still cranking on the FFT's - so far no unique modulation patterns although there is some distinct noise sources that are showing up - have to take the RA/DEC coordinates from Arecibo and see what part of the sky they are pointing at. I wonder what the data display looks like for folks who are actually pointing at galactic noise sources. Seven telescopes? Tres cool. One of the neat things about living near a major research site. Lots of inspiration. Next on my 'to buy' list will be an A to D converter to collect data to load on my PC. The ones with low resolution are not too expensive - have to check out the radio astronomy parts web pages. Then, get a feed horn for the dish - I could build one if I had some reasonable metal working skills but I dont... I could solder a couple of coffee cans together since they are at about the right frequency. Major inspiration for me today was driving around and listening to Pink Floyd's 'Astronomy Domine' and 'A Saucerful of Secrets'. Appropriate space music.... 73 de Mike Radio Cosmo International"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  9, 2000 (15:41)", "body": "Pink Floyd ain't all that bad, but I am giving Napster a real go through getting my stock of 80's rock from Moody Blues to Arrowsmith and Elton John. They can inspire the most primal and lofty urges depending on the company I am keeping and the job at had at the moment....=) Arecibo is sending me 6hr 34min 22 sec RA..... +9 degrees 6 minutes 35 seconds Declination at the moment. How odes that compare with yours??? Wonder if my low latitude matters compared with yours...!"}, {"response": 133, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sat, Sep  9, 2000 (21:35)", "body": "The 'Floyd is for those spacey pondering moments. Tonite I picked up some techno and dance remix stuff plus some rowdy garage punk at a Chicago northside cd store before going to the local used book place to sift through astronomy text books and chess strategy tutorials. Guess I shift on musique tastes quite a bit... BTW, the date on my data block was June 15 04:38:03 2000 - still crunching the same block from a couple of postings ago. One thing Im going to save some extra $$ for is a faster CPU! If you check out the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers home page, there is a link to a radio astronomy supplies to get an idea of some of the components available. These include hydrogen line receivers and Jupiter receivers. I will probably buy the feed horn and A-D converter but will build up the receiver from scratch. The LNA will be in kit form if I can find it otherwise will have to go with factory built. Rock On! de Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 10, 2000 (20:53)", "body": "You sound as eclectic in music as I am. I used be entirely classical - Bach and Telemann up reluctantly through Stravinsky and Copland. Lately I have discoverd how great some of that 80's stuff really is..and since I also love baseball I have Dan Fogarty's Centerfield Hey, the Moody Blues used the London Symphony Orchestra for their background music!!! Will be eager to know when you get higher power for your CPU. 700 MHz sucks the data out of the air. Tis a wonderful thing, power!!!"}, {"response": 135, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (18:15)", "body": "I had the hardest time with classical music of the Early Twentieth Century, such as Schoenberg and Charles Ives. To me it sounded, at first, like a cross between a jackhammer and sewer backing up. It is what can be termed an \"acquired taste\"."}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (23:51)", "body": "Spectacular Solar Eruption on Sept 12, 2000 Space Weather News for Sept 12, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com On Tuesday, Sept. 12, less than 24 hours after the sunspot number plunged to its lowest value of the year, the Sun unleashed a surprising full-halo coronal mass ejection (CME). The leading edge of the CME could reach Earth on Thursday, Sept 14. Forecasters estimate a 30% chance of severe geomagnetic disturbances (possibly including aurora) at middle latitudes when the shock front arrives. For more information and images, please visit http://spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 13, 2000 (00:31)", "body": "Cheryl, that is hilarious!!! My thoughts exactly. I was offended by the composer who wrote \"7 minuites of silence\" until I heard \"avant guarde\" music. Oxymoron of the most nasty sort. I was offended more by the noise than the silence!"}, {"response": 138, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Sep 13, 2000 (03:16)", "body": "Oops! Not sending you my composition 'noise and misunderstanding' then. definitely a child of the 60s!"}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (16:38)", "body": "The CME has entered the Ionosphere! Look for Aurura tonight!!! SFI=151 up from 133 | A=7 down from 9 | K=1 at 2100 on 14 September. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: at quiet to major storm levels Aurora Level: 7 Solar Wind: 333.2 km/s at 1.7 protons/cm3 More Info and Unsubscribe at http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 140, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (19:28)", "body": "There was supposed to have been a geomagnetic storm within the last 24 hours. Does anybody know anything about it?"}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (20:21)", "body": "Yup....read the above two posts. the was a major CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) on the 12th..."}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (17:43)", "body": "Check for Aurora tonight!!! SFI=175 up from 159 | A=18 up from 12 | K=3 down from 4 at 2100 on 16 September. SAF: moderate to high, GMF: unsettled to active Aurora Level: 8 Solar Wind: 386.0 km/s at 10.4 protons/cm3 More Info and Unsubscribe at http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (19:36)", "body": "16 September, 2000 Two full-halo coronal mass ejections (CMEs) occurred on September 15, 2000, and a third CME on September 16, 2000 has been observed as the brightest of the three. These were associated with solar flares (M5-class for the latest of the three CMEs). Due to the complex delta magnetic field in the Sunspot group 9165, there is a good chance for further eruptions. Those who wish to experience Aurora (visual as well as the radio propagation mode) should be on the lookout from this point forward. At the time of writing, the Aurora index is 10, the highest level. :ALERTS: Magnetic K-Index of 4 Warning valid from 16 September, 2000 1800Z to 17 September, 2000 1500Z. Magnetic A-Index greater than=30 Watch for 19 September, 2000Z. Magnetic A-Index greater than=30 Watch for 20 September, 2000Z. Report by NW7US More: http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (17:47)", "body": "All I can tell you from the Latitude of Hawaii is that Radio Australia was almost intelligible last night (listening to the Olympics) due to the \"noise\" Aurora level is down but the solar flux is higher than ever...! SFI=204 up from 182 | A=33 up from 28 | K=2 down from 5 at 2100 on 18 September. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: at active to minor storm levels Aurora Level: 5 Solar Wind: 667.8 km/s at 0.8 protons/cm3 More Info and Unsubscribe at http://hfradio.org/propagation.html"}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (22:31)", "body": "Mike, how's your Seti@home doing? Mine is working on its 92nd block of data (almost finished) in 1406 hours 57 minutes 22hr 15' 10\" RA + 25 deg 45' 0\" Dec 1.420800761 GHZ Be sure you are running the 2.04 version - is is much speedier!"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (22:33)", "body": "Does anyone know how or if the current Geomagentic storm affects these transmissions? It certainly must...!"}, {"response": 147, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2000 (15:22)", "body": "A Whale of a Sunspot Space Weather News for Sept. 21, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com The biggest sunspot to come along in 9 years is now rotating toward the center of the Sun's disk. Visit http://www.spaceweather.com to find out how this huge spot compares to other sunspots in history and how to safely view the sunspot for yourself. SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2000 (15:27)", "body": "check it out here"}, {"response": 149, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2000 (15:28)", "body": "or.... http://sec.noaa.gov/solar_images/current_fdha_stamp.gif"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (00:10)", "body": "Aloha Mike...I need you input. I get a guy in California running Seti@home now and he has a few questions - some a little tongue-in-cheek, but I told him I'd ask the resident expert. Will you let me know what to tell him...Please? * What makes them think ET transmits on normal frequencies... I mean even Star Treck uses sub space... a feasible concept. * Ask him why the Seti's think ET would use technology we are familiar with * If someone shot a standard radio signal into space, I think it would decay before it got out of the galaxy *I would think that cosmic radiation would fairly much wipe out a signal Mahalo for thinking about it..."}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (00:58)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 38 - September 22, 2000 Last week's bulletin reported that the sun was almost spotless, with one day's sunspot number the lowest since February of last year. Now this week we can report the appearance of sunspot 9169, the largest observed in nine years. The area of this spot is a dozen times the area of the earth's surface, and what should make it interesting for HF radio is that it is rotating toward the center of the sun's earth-facing hemisphere, which aims its effects right toward us. A large sunspot such as this can produce big solar flares, but so far this one, although magnetically complex, seems quiet. This week's big one measures 2,140 millionths of the visible solar disk. The largest sunspot recorded in the twentieth century was in 1947, and it measured 6,132 millionths of the solar disk. You can see more information about big sunspots at http://www.spaceweather.com/sunspots/history.html . Solar flux has been much higher this week than predicted. Last week's bulletin projected a solar flux around 170, but by Sunday it was above 180 and the next day over 200. The projected solar flux for the next five days, Friday through Tuesday, is 230, 235, 235, 230 and 225. Planetary A index for those same days is expected to be around 10, 10, 10, 15 and 12. So for this weekend we not only have the autumnal equinox, which is a great time for HF propagation, but solar flux and sunspot numbers are increasing as well. This means good conditions, as long as geomagnetic activity stays low. Geomagnetic activity was anything but low on Sunday and Monday, when the effects of several solar flares were felt. Planetary A index for both days was 40 and 45, and K indices were as high as 7. The College A index, recorded in Alaska, was 59 on September 17, and the College K index was 8 during one period. This was indicative of a severe geomagnetic storm as well as an aurora at that time. Over the next few weeks expect the higher frequencies, especially 10 meters, to improve as we change to fall conditions. Last week's bulletin mentioned a chart showing solar cycle progress. Check out another chart showing activity over the past few months on Jan Alvestad's Solar Activity Report at http://www.dxlc.com/solar/ , or the past year of Daily Effective Sunspot Numbers at the NW Research Associates site at http://www.nwra-az.com/spawx/ssne-year.html . For an explanation of Effective Sunspot Numbers, which are based on ionospheric F-layer observations rather than solar observations, see http://www.nwra-az.com/spawx/ssne.html . Sunspot numbers for September 14 through 20 were 109, 113, 148, 146, 154, 140 and 171 with a mean of 140.1. 10.7 cm flux was 150.8, 159.4, 174.6, 181.5, 203.8, 207.1 and 211.4, with a mean of 184.1, and estimated planetary A indices were 6, 10, 21, 40, 45, 27 and 13 with a mean of 23.1."}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 26, 2000 (19:03)", "body": "Possible aurora this week Space Weather news for Sept. 26, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com A solar coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on Sept. 25th could strike Earth's magnetosphere on Wednesday and trigger mid-latitude aurora. The timing is good because the Moon will reach its new phase on Sept. 27th, affording dark skies for aurora watchers. For more information, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (14:56)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 39 - September 29, 2000 Solar flux and sunspot numbers were up over the past week, while average geomagnetic indices were lower, which is always a happy condition for HF radio enthusiasts. Solar flux peaked at 232.2 on Friday and sunspot numbers peaked at 255 on Sunday. Average sunspot numbers for the week were up nearly 87 points, and average solar flux rose by almost 39 points, when compared to the previous week. The sunspot number is calculated by counting the visible sunspots and factoring in their size, so a significant factor was sunspot 9169, reported in last week's Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP038 as one of the largest seen in many years. It is now fading as it rotates off of the visible solar disk. We were lucky not to have a great deal of flare activity from this magnetically complex spot. K4WY sent a web reference concerning this particular sunspot. Check http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000925.html . The most active geomagnetic day over the past week was Tuesday, when the planetary A index was 21. Planetary K index was 4 during most of the day, but Alaska's College K index, which is usually higher because of the polar region proximity, was as high as 6. College A index was 37 for the day. Friday and Saturday were the quietest geomagnetic days, with A indices in the single-digits, Planetary K indices at 2 and 3, and mid-latitude K indices at 1 and 2. Fortunately for HF enthusiasts, this was also the period when the sunspot count and solar flux were the highest, which often is not the case. Geomagnetic indices should remain stable over the next few days, with planetary A indices predicted at around 10. On Monday through Wednesday the A index is forecast at 12, 15 and 12, probably based on the previous solar rotation. This indicates an unsettled to active geomagnetic conditions, with higher absorption of HF radio signals, particularly in the higher latitude or polar paths. Solar flux is expected to decline over the next few days, with Saturday at 190 and Sunday around 180. For the short term, flux values should reach a minimum near 155 around October 7-9, then head above 200 again around mid-month. We have now passed the autumnal equinox, and are experiencing Fall HF conditions. 10 and 12 meter operators should expect great propagation, at least when the K index as reported by WWV is 3 or less. Openings follow the sunlight, with propagation to the east in the morning and toward the west later in the day. 15 meters should offer plenty of worldwide openings as well, but also later into the evening after 10 meters has closed. Worldwide 20 meter openings should be available around the clock. As the northern hemisphere moves further from the summer season, 160 and 80 meters should improve with shorter days and less of the static commonly associated with summer. Judging by recent email, it is time to repeat the occasional explanation of the various numbers and indices that are cited in this weekly bulletin, which appears below. Questions and comments are always welcome at k7vvv@arrl.net. Amateur Radio operators who use HF generally like increased sunspots because they correlate with better worldwide radio propagation. When there are more sunspots, the sun puts out radiation which charges particles in the earth's ionosphere. Radio waves bounce off of (refract from) these charged particles, and the denser these clouds of ions, the better the HF propagation. When the ionosphere is denser, higher frequencies will refract from of the ionosphere rather than passing through to space. This is why every 11 years or so when this activity is higher, 10 meters gets exciting. 10 meters is at a high enough frequency, right near the top of the HF spectrum, that radio waves propagate very efficiently when the sunspot count is high. Because of the wavelength, smaller antennas are very efficient on this band, so mobile stations running low power on 10 meters can communicate world wide on a daily basis when the sunspot cycle is at its peak. There are also seasonal variations, and 10 meters tends to be best near the Spring or Fall equinox. The sunspot numbers used in this bulletin are calculated by counting the sunspots on the visible solar surface and also measuring their area. Solar flux is measured at an observatory in British Columbia using an antenna pointed toward the sun tuned to 2.8 GHz, which is at a wavelength of 10.7 cm. Energy detected seems to correlate with sunspots and with the density of the ionosphere. Other solar activity of concern to HF operators are solar flares and coronal holes, which emit protons. Since the charged ions in the ionosphere are negative, a blast of protons from the sun can neutralize the charge and make the ionosphere less refractive. These waves of protons can be so intense that they may trigger an event called a geomagnetic storm. The Planetary A index relates to geomagnetic stability. Magnetometers around the world are used to generate a number ca"}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  3, 2000 (14:14)", "body": "Aurora Watch + An Unusual Asteroid Space Weather News for Oct. 3, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com Ongoing geomagnetic activity could intensify on Wednesday or Thursday when an Earth-directed solar coronal mass ejection arrives in the neighborhood of our planet. With the Moon just past New, it may be a good time for stargazers to watch for dark-sky aurora. In other news, a Near-Earth Asteroid that passed our planet in September appears to be a binary space rock. See http://spaceweather.com for amateur video of the asteroid racing through the sky on October 2nd. For more information and images, please visit http://SpaceWeather.com"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (14:40)", "body": "A Geomagnetic Storm on October 5th Space Weather News for Oct. 6, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com An interplanetary shock wave buffeted Earth's magnetosphere on October 5th and triggered a strong geomagnetic storm. Skywatchers in Canada and the northern tier of US states spotted red- and green-colored aurora for hours before local dawn on Thursday. The disturbance subsided after nearly 21 hours of high activity. For more information about the event and pictures of the aurora, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com ."}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (22:21)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 40 - October 6, 2000 Average solar flux and sunspot numbers were off for the week, while geomagnetic indices were up, the result of coronal mass ejections and the subsequent solar wind. Average sunspot numbers were off by nearly 43 points and solar flux was down nearly 28 points. A series of coronal mass ejections kept things lively, with two days (Saturday and Wednesday) when the planetary A index reached 45. This is an indication of a geomagnetic storm. Until daybreak on Thursday, October 5, auroral lights were spotted as far south as latitude 43 degrees. This was probably the result of a solar coronal mass ejection on October 2. The NASA ACE spacecraft recorded an interplanetary shock wave at 0240z on October 5. Effects are expected to fade over the next few days, with the planetary A index predicted for Friday through Wednesday at 35, 15, 10, 10, 12 and 12. Solar flux is expected to reach a minimum during this period with a 10.7 cm flux value at 150. Predicted flux values for Friday through Wednesday are 170, 160, 150, 150, 150 and 160. Solar flux is expected to rise above 200 again after October 16, and peak around 215 from October 18-22. Because September 30 marked the end of the third calendar quarter of 2000, it is time to review quarterly averages of solar flux values. The average daily solar flux for July 1 through September 30 was 181.9, one point lower than the earlier quarter, 182.9. The first quarter of this year had an average daily solar flux value of 180.5. This seems to indicate a fairly flat average solar flux value for this year, which was predicted to be the peak year for this solar cycle. These values are higher than the solar flux levels for 1999. Average solar flux for September was 182.1, which is an improvement over August, which was 163.1. Average monthly solar flux values since the beginning of this year were 159, 174.1, 208.2, 184.2, 184.5, 179.8, 200.5, 163.1, and 182.1. Readers who use Scott Craig's Solar Data Plotting Utility noticed that it would not suck up data from last week's Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP039. This is because of wording in the bulletin that confused the automatic data gathering feature in the software. Scott is writing a revision to the code so that it will not have that problem in the future, if ever that particular sequence of words that caused the problem is used again. Of course you can manually edit the data file to update the solar flux and sunspot numbers. You can also check http://edge.net/~scraig/index.html or specifically http://edge.net/~scraig/sol.htm for an update. Look for something beyond the current version, which is 3.08w. G3LDI wrote to inquire about a source for solar flux, A index and K index data over the past year. To get this data, go to the Space Environment Center's FTP server at http://sec.noaa.gov/getftp.cgi , then click on the Indices, Events and Region Data line, then click on Solar, Particle and Geomag Indices beginning Jan 1994. Sunspot numbers for September 28 through October 4 were 211, 164, 155, 157, 190, 196 and 216 with a mean of 184.1. 10.7 cm flux was 202.3, 192, 193.6, 201.6, 202.6, 192 and 184.1, with a mean of 195.5, and estimated planetary A indices were 12, 7, 45, 13, 11, 37 and 45 with a mean of 24.3."}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (14:10)", "body": "Here Comes the Sun (again) Space Weather News for Oct. 10, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com Early this morning magnetic fields around sunspot AR9182 became unstable. A nearby solar filament explosively collapsed and a coronal mass ejection is now heading toward Earth. There could be aurora and other geomagnetic disturbances later this week when the leading edge of the CME hits our magnetosphere. For more information and animations, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com -"}, {"response": 158, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Oct 10, 2000 (22:49)", "body": "Greetings Marcia and the Geoites Sorry for falling off the face of the Earth but have been slightly distracted with work (annoying but it does pay the bills...), grad school, and a trip to PA for Microwave Update 2000. Got lots of neat mmWave components to fuel the passion and projects. Anyway, to answer your questions... Why the frequencies we use.... When the search started years ago, it was logically decided to check around the 'water hole' frequencies (1.4ghz) bounded by the resonant frequency of hydrogen and hydroxyl. Plus, the available dishes/receivers were already set up for those frequencies. Why would 'ET' use technology we are familiar with? Well, we are using the technology we have available for galactic monitoring - microwave, mmWave, Xray, UV, optical. Would the radio wave diminish in the galaxy? No - The radio astronomy community has equipment that monitors signals light years away. If signals faded within the bounds of a galaxy, then we would never see any stars or other sources beyond our own. Would the signal be lost in cosmic noise? Thats one of the interesting things about radio astronomy. You are basically listening to -Noise-. Thus, one has to differentiate between man made and terrestrial noise sources and those that are galactic. You are listening to noise on top of noise.... But since the noise sources are 'loud' against a 'cold' sky, one can pick them out, so to speak... These are ultra distilled answers to complicated questions. I would suspect checking with web sites such as the seti league and seti.org as well as the NRAO and Society for Amateur Radio Astronomers web pages for a more complete (and probably enlightening) discussion. Anyway, glad to be back into the fray - will try to be a bit more frequent in the future - plus have some results on the 24ghz system and another distraction - the interface of a GPS engine to a PC for various and arcane experiments.... 73 de Mike Radio Cosmo International"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (12:49)", "body": "I knew you'd come up with all the Right Stuff! Thanks, Mike... Some answers I knew but could not have put as well, and others escaped me. Now were all sitting at your enlightened feet (ow wherever they sit for enlightenment...) Many thanks! Grad school and you are NOT at Penn State??? *gasp* Oh well, if you are brilliant (as I know you to be) any source of degree will stand you in good stead. Wondering what the advanced work entails... MS in some sort of Engineering would be my guess. PhD? Go, Mike!"}, {"response": 160, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (20:22)", "body": "Howdy Marcia and the Geo-ites Boy - kinda wish I was going for the PHd now... but the MS CS is keeping me busy ;) After looking at my hastily compiled answers, I realized I didnt adequetly answer a couple of them. So, anyway - some more mumbo jumbo... If someone did shoot a regular radio signal, would it ever get out of the galaxy? Well, depends on what you mean by a 'regular' signal - Watts, Kilowatts, Megawatts, etc.... Humans have been sending signals into space since the invention of radio. Now, radio signals do diminish over distances. Lets treat space as a perfect medium for the propagation of radio signals (which, it does a pretty good job....) Anyway, what you get into is what type of receiver on the other end is there to pick up that signal? What is its MDS (minimum discernable signal) it can hear - this will depend on several things - the noise figure of the receive system, the gain of the antenna, integration times, etc. I think we are still getting signals back from Pioneer - it should be out of our solar system by now. I think the power output is 10 watts in the X band (9-10ghz). What this is all leading to is if 'ET' is transmitting a beacon - would they use very high power and a substantial antenna. Is it omni directional or tightly focused in a beam from a cluster of dishes? If the answer is yes to both, and the signal originates reasonably close star clusters, then our largest dishes could possibly pick up a signal. If the signal originates from 'close in' (in space terms) and the power was significant, then maybe even the smaller SETI dishes will pick it up as well. I once read an article about what distances an Arecebo dish could communicate with a comparable system - have to look that up sometime.... Of course, then you get into all the unknowns - what is the modulation scheme, what frequency is it on, etc. A nice fantasy would be that Pulsar stars were 'created' for the sole purpose of being a beacon using natural materials..... How do you tell that the signal is intelligent and extraterrestrial? Well, you have to look at the pattern of the signal - does it have a fast or slow doppler shift, can it be confirmed by multiple stations in different parts of the world that can also confirm the signal characteristics and origin from their respective locations. If you search the Seti League page, there should be an article on 'Anatomy of a SETI Hoax' where there are good discussions with example data of what an ET signal is NOT. So, a little more data or mumbo jumbo for what its worth.... 73 de Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (22:50)", "body": "Oh Mike!!! You did it!!! Thank you! *gratutde by the bucketsful* and a big *HUG* for your attention to details. THanks (knew most of that but cvould not have put it so well...) Onem ust MS the CS before he can PhofD...one step at a time, m'dear, and all good wishes!"}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (23:30)", "body": "Holy cow...been at this for far too long today... Mike, One must MS the CS before he can Ph of D... and I am stll trying to get voice on line..."}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (19:03)", "body": "Sun Sample Return Mission Nears Launch NASA Science News for October 12, 2000 The science payload for NASA's Genesis spacecraft, which will collect samples of the solar wind and return them to Earth, is now complete. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast12oct_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (20:24)", "body": "Interplanetary Shock Wave Passes Earth -- Aurora Likely Space Weather News for Oct 12, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com NASA's ACE spacecraft recorded an interplanetary shock wave heading toward Earth on October 12th at 2145 UT (5:45 pm EDT). Sky watchers should be on the alert for aurora between the times of local sunset on Oct. 12th and sunrise on Oct 13th. The bright full Moon will likely outshine faint aurora, but intense geomagnetic storms can produce auroras that are visible in spite of lunar interference. For more information, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 165, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (07:38)", "body": "Cool an aurora! I saw them when I lived up in Ettrick Wisconsin many years ago. It was an awe inspiring sight. We lived up on a ridge in a 16 by 32 army tent way out in the woods. And the sky was so incredibly clear that far out in the boonies."}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (13:24)", "body": "I saw red and green aurora in Ohio when I was just out of college - and out in the boonies visiting my sister. Amazing to see! Would love to hear the booming noises they make (audible not radio interference)... maybe some time..."}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 20, 2000 (19:15)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 42 - October 20, 2000 The rise in solar flux for that was predicted this week in last week's Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP041 did not happen. Last week's bulletin stated that by October 18 and 19 we should see a short term peak in solar flux around 220. Instead, solar flux rose slightly over the weekend, then dropped below 160, and on October 18 and 19 it was 151.1 and 157.8. These short range predictions are based upon the previous solar rotation, plus what sunspot regions can be seen rotating toward the center of the solar disk, as well as a bet placed upon whether the activity in each region is increasing or decreasing. The current outlook is for a slowly and modestly rising solar flux, with the values for Friday through Monday at 160, 160, 165 and 170. The latest best guess is for solar flux to peak for the short term at only 190 on October 29 and 30, then decline to 145 around November 5. Geomagnetic conditions are expected to remain fairly stable on Friday and Saturday, but planetary A index my rise to 20 and 25 on Sunday and Monday. Geomagnetic indices are expected to calm down after that, but become unsettled to active around October 30 through November 1. It has been some time since Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP032 on August 11 when we last presented a path projection. This weekend we have two. One is for the VK/ZL Oceania CW Contest, and the other is for the RSGB 21/28 MHz CW Contest. The points of origin for each path will be pretty general, one for the center of the continental U.S.A, one for the East Coast, the other for the West Coast. The solar flux value used will be 160, which represents an average of values over ten days, including the projected values for October 20 and 21. The date used for the prediction is October 21."}, {"response": 168, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (20:53)", "body": "And, back again.... Finally tested out the new 10ghz transverter on receive - next comes packaging and hopefuly a test before the winter winds blow off the lake and no more outdoor radio foolishness until 2001. 24ghz is next on the complete list - just need to kit out the oscillator and start bolting waveguide. And, just crunching away on Seti data.... 73 de Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (20:58)", "body": "You...me too re SETI... Wheee!! Amazing what 700MHz will do for your crunching!!! Great to hear you are getting data with you 10 ghz lashup. What does winter have to do with it? I know it affects transmissions but I never noticed the difference here. Is that because I am in the tropics and therefore hopeless?! Watch out for the CME."}, {"response": 170, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (21:18)", "body": "700mhz would be very cool. Ok, big debate question - more radio parts or a faster computer? Thats a tough one. re winter: -40 degree windchill is enough to keep me away from the lake. Although.... 24 and 47ghz are great bands during low humidity days (especially when all the moisture is frozen out) Enjoy those warm january days - I'll be huddled in front of the fire bottle gear listening to 160 and 75 meter AM. Of course, there will be plenty of time to build up the rest of the microwave gear. There IS a contest in January for VHF and up - roving during that one is kind of like the Iron Man and Iditarod of the vhf-microwave radio world. 73 de Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (21:55)", "body": "decisions...decisions... Yes..alas Why does it have to be OR instead of AND?! Reality check dictates such things. Let's see, one trip across the pond and a nice boat anchor...hmmm.... no, would have done as you did. I did not have the other choice. Enjoy your bottle gear and let us know how the sensitivity to aurorae is. should be really active tomorrow... What is this stuff about negative figues as regards wind chill temperatures? Another planet? Will my warm thoughts help? You have them!"}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 26, 2000 (21:58)", "body": "Geez, you roam in wx like that? I'll be listening and running ice cubes down my arms trying to 'feel your pain'..."}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 27, 2000 (13:21)", "body": "I'm glad he clarified this: Thought for Friday, Oct 27, 2000 TFTD-L@TAMU.EDU * Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio, replied: \"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.\""}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 27, 2000 (14:04)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 43 - October 27, 2000 Average solar flux for the past week was exactly the same as the previous week. It was 160.9 for the past week, and 160.2 for the week previous. Average sunspot numbers dropped about ten points. Solar flux is rising, and is expected to peak on November 2 around 190. But the main interest among many radio amateurs is the forecast for this weekend, when the CQ Worldwide DX Phone Contest commences. Unfortunately, on October 25 a full halo coronal mass ejection was detected blasting away from the sun, and effects may be felt this weekend. The predicted planetary A index for Friday through Monday is 10, 15, 15 and 12. This does not signal terrible conditions, but the outlook for Saturday and Sunday is for unsettled to active geomagnetic conditions. Solar flux for the same four days is predicted at 175, 175, 180 and 180. After the November 2 peak in activity, solar flux is expected to bottom out around 155 on November 6 or 7."}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 28, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "We are into the initial stages of the CME. These two arrived almost simulatneously! SFI=182 up from 176 | A=12 up from 4 | K=2 down from 3 at 2100 on 28 October. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: unsettled to active Magnetic K-Index of 4 Warning valid from 28 Oct 2000 0700 to 29 Oct 2000 1500 UT Aurora Level: 7 Solar Wind: 400.9 km/s at 15.1 protons/cm3 More Info http://hfradio.org/propagation.html SFI=182 | A=17 up from 12 | K=5 up from 2 at 0000 on 29 October. SAF: low to moderate, GMF: at active to minor storm levels Magnetic K-Index of 4 Warning valid from 28 Oct 2000 0700 to 29 Oct 2000 1500 UT Aurora Level: 7 Solar Wind: 402.4 km/s at 10.2 protons/cm3"}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (17:52)", "body": "All-Ham Crew is ISS-Bound A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying the all-ham International Space Station Expedition 1 crew blasted off October 31 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Amateur Radio operation from the ISS is expected to debut by mid-month. The crew will spend four months aboard the ISS. On board the Soyuz are US astronaut and Expedition 1 Commander William ''Shep'' Shepherd, KD5GSL, and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR. The Soyuz is expected to dock with the ISS November 2. Shepherd, 51, is only the second US astronaut to go into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle. The Soyuz lifted off from the same launch pad where the space race began 43 years ago this month with the launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite. The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station--or ARISS--initial station gear already is aboard the space station. It will be installed temporarily in the Zarya Functional Cargo Block of the ISS and will permit operation on 2 meters--FM voice and packet. Tentative operating frequencies are: Worldwide downlink for voice and packet, 145.80 MHz: worldwide packet uplink, 145.99 MHz; Region 1 (Europe) voice uplink: 145.20 MHz; Region 2 and 3 voice uplink, 144.49 MHz. Crew members may use their personal call signs or one of the ''club station'' call signs issued for ISS use--NA1SS, RZ3DZR, or DL0ISS. For ARISS information and updates, visit the ARISS Web site, http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ."}, {"response": 177, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (18:49)", "body": "Cool, I'll be listening on 145.55, the freq the astronauts use. And the ones you mention of ours. 145.2 and 144.49. Wow! Good stuff Marci!"}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (20:56)", "body": "Thanks! I'll be listening, too! Thanks also for the additional frequency!"}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (21:10)", "body": "For those wishing to watch live coverage http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/video45m.html"}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (22:13)", "body": "Previous article posted in Radio Conference of interest here: Get your ears on! ISS ham gear cleared for takeoff The way has been cleared for the Amateur Radio gear destined for use aboard the International Space Station to be launched into space. The initial amateur gear is scheduled go up to the ISS on mission STS-106 aboard the shuttle Atlantis on September 8. As part of the multinational Amateur Radio on the International Space Station project, the gear will be stowed aboard the ISS for use by the Expedition 1 crew, set to come aboard in late October. ''We have been working for years to bring the first ISS hardware to fruition,'' ARISS Administrative Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said this week. ''It looks like the final issues that have held us back are now over, and we are moving ahead toward the launch of the initial hardware on STS-106.'' Bauer said three events over the past couple of weeks were key to moving the ARISS project forward. The first was the launch and docking of the Russian-built Zvezda Service Module that eventually will house the ARISS gear. In addition, Bauer said, a series of RF, power-up and other tests on the amateur equipment were successfully completed in Russia, thanks to Lou McFadin, W5DID, of ARISS and AMSAT and Carolynn Conley, KD5JSO, of NASA. He said NASA also signed off on the required flight safety package, giving the go-ahead to release the amateur hardware for flight aboard the upcoming shuttle mission. The Expedition 1 crew will consist of three amateurs: US astronaut Bill Shepherd, KD5GSL, and Russian Cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, and the recently licensed Yuri Gaidzenko, whose call sign was not available. To be available to the first crew, the ARISS initial station gear will be installed temporarily aboard the ISS Functional Cargo Block. It will use an existing antenna that's being adapted to support FM voice and packet on 2 meters but not on 70 cm. Eventually, the ARISS gear will find a more-permanent home aboard the Zvezda Service Module. A Russian call sign, RZ3DZR, has been issued for the ISS ham radio station. The ARRL and AMSAT have been providing leadership and consulting services for ARISS. ARRL Field and Educational Services Manager Rosalie White, K1STO--a member of the Space Amateur Radio EXperiment Working Group--says this is an exciting moment for the project, which has one goal of letting students on Earth communicate with the ISS inhabitants via Amateur Radio. ''All of the hard work from the many volunteers is starting to pay off,'' she said. ''We have so many people to thank--all of the AMSAT volunteers, ARRL people, the NASA folks--so many of whom are hams. But seeing the youth of the United States and other countries benefit is our reward.'' Bauer says the astronauts and cosmonauts plan to take some time off for educational outreach contacts with schools, even during the busy years of ISS construction that lie ahead. Bauer says access to Amateur Radio also is considered a morale booster for ISS crew members who will be in space many weeks at a time. As the International Space Station takes its place in the heavens,'' Bauer said, ''the Amateur Radio community is prepared to do its part by helping to enrich the experience.''"}, {"response": 181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (17:43)", "body": "Asteroids Galore (and a coronal mass ejection) Space Weather News for Nov. 2, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com While asteroid Toutatis garnered plenty of attention as it passed by Earth on Halloween, a newly-discovered space rock named 2000 UK11 glided by almost 10 times closer than Toutatis during the early morning hours of Nov. 1st. Asteroid 2000 UK11, which was briefly visible through amateur telescopes, is rapidly fading. But if you missed it, don't worry. There's an even brighter near-Earth object (NEO) on the way: 2000 UG11. Like Toutatis and 2000 UK11, there is no danger of a collision with 2000 UG11, which will pass 6 times farther from Earth than the Moon. Amateur astronomers with 8 inch or larger telescopes and CCD cameras can spot the fast-moving NEO early next week as it grows brighter than 14th magnitude. In other news for sky watchers, SOHO coronagraphs recorded a solar coronal mass ejection yesterday that could strike Earth's magnetosphere and trigger geomagnetic activity this weekend. For images and animations of the asteroids and yesterday's CME, please visit http://www.spaceweather.com ."}, {"response": 182, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (07:02)", "body": "These are not colorful names like Lowell-Biederman or something. I thought they named them after the discoverers."}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (13:33)", "body": "They name them after prominent astronomers...living or dead. Comets are always named after their discovers."}, {"response": 184, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (21:41)", "body": "Howdy howdy A good investment (or freeware if you can find it...) is a satellite tracking package. One such is Instantrack which is described at the AMSAT web page www.amsat.org With this application, you can track satellites including MIR, the ISS, and the amateur satellites. The amsat board also has the kep elements to load into the tracking software. I have used this software to track low earth orbit satellites - nothing like watching the satellite footprint cross into my geographic area and hearing the satellite beacon coming in on the downlink - then 15 minutes of high speed QSO's with other hams on the satellite. This would comprise of sending a burst of 'dits' and spinning around the frequencies until finding my signal - then calling CQ. This madness would go on until loss of signal. Anyway, once the ISS is operational, the tracking software will come in handy for predicting when the space station will make a flyover. Since the station will be line of sight, signals will be very strong - simple 5/8 wave verticals on 2 meters will provide a good signal. 73 de mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (22:08)", "body": "Thanks Mike!!! Here are a few satellite tracking URLs to try out for your area http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Instructional.Materials/Multimedia/Satellite.Tracking/.index.html and this killer site: http://www.nlsa.com/"}, {"response": 186, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (22:10)", "body": "Good point you made about listening to the frequencies I listed above. They are FM frequencies and are strictly line of sight. If you cannot see the satellite or space station, neither can your radio."}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (22:17)", "body": "http://www.amsat.org and I will post the Keplerian data here from now on: Keplerian Bulletin 84 - November 3, 2000 Decode 2-line elsets with the following key: 1 AAAAAU 00 0 0 BBBBB.BBBBBBBB .CCCCCCCC 00000-0 00000-0 0 DDDZ 2 AAAAA EEE.EEEE FFF.FFFF GGGGGGG HHH.HHHH III.IIII JJ.JJJJJJJJKKKKKZ KEY: A-CATALOGNUM B-EPOCHTIME C-DECAY D-ELSETNUM E-INCLINATION F-RAAN G-ECCENTRICITY H-ARGPERIGEE I-MNANOM J-MNMOTION K-ORBITNUM Z-CHECKSUM AO-10 1 14129U 83058B 00305.01290756 -.00000384 00000-0 10000-3 0 7100 2 14129 26.7222 303.7829 6009247 97.2062 330.5402 2.05870124102757 UO-11 1 14781U 84021B 00308.21668696 .00004235 00000-0 66836-3 0 3452 2 14781 98.0013 268.9945 0011412 24.6167 335.5585 14.72865666892769 UO-14 1 20437U 90005B 00308.55830010 .00000606 00000-0 24845-3 0 5650 2 20437 98.3934 10.8160 0010847 159.4099 200.7553 14.30555357562796 AO-16 1 20439U 90005D 00307.76197337 .00000716 00000-0 29008-3 0 3636 2 20439 98.4332 17.1082 0010810 165.7762 194.3728 14.30645995562702 LO-19 1 20442U 90005G 00306.74375718 +.00000738 +00000-0 +29718-3 0 03696 2 20442 098.4510 019.6823 0011630 168.3007 191.8450 14.30881732562644 FO-20 1 20480U 90013C 00306.91012867 -.00000005 +00000-0 +53304-4 0 02819 2 20480 099.0728 051.6432 0540584 103.4921 262.6980 12.83282019502947 RS-12/13 1 21089U 91007A 00306.90858958 +.00000191 +00000-0 +18565-3 0 02877 2 21089 082.9188 083.6059 0030180 100.0802 260.3761 13.74228202488592 UO-22 1 21575U 91050B 00306.93976715 +.00000803 +00000-0 +27934-3 0 00946 2 21575 098.1424 327.2835 0008109 138.8672 221.3129 14.37885820487716 AO-27 1 22825U 93061C 00308.51819640 .00000562 00000-0 24218-3 0 8502 2 22825 98.3892 0.2506 0007834 208.6031 151.4723 14.28261526370364 IO-26 1 22826U 93061D 00308.16976623 .00000645 00000-0 27451-3 0 8435 2 22826 98.3929 0.6094 0008033 214.4539 145.6118 14.28417132370349 KO-25 1 22828U 93061F 00306.69662848 +.00000676 +00000-0 +28480-3 0 08284 2 22828 098.3880 359.3791 0009012 197.6165 162.4707 14.28826398338309 RS-15 1 23439U 94085A 00308.12578659 -.00000024 00000-0 52829-3 0 4992 2 23439 64.8185 315.7925 0167904 265.3795 92.7930 11.27539717241179 FO-29 1 24278U 96046B 00306.76524319 +.00000076 +00000-0 +11585-3 0 04018 2 24278 098.5742 196.4603 0350592 230.7887 126.1640 13.52745288207899 TO-31 1 25396U 98043C 00308.56470039 -.00000044 00000-0 00000+0 0 4043 2 25396 98.7105 22.5581 0003023 57.0700 303.0771 14.22799728120473 GO-32 1 25397U 98043D 00306.90738260 -.00000044 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 03773 2 25397 098.7091 020.6270 0002514 087.1820 272.9655 14.22480512120241 ISS 1 25544U 98067A 00308.81250000 .00018454 00000-0 21627-3 0 2454 2 25544 51.5723 149.6973 0005972 139.0991 37.7385 15.61556636111818 SO-35 1 25636U 99008C 00307.92723670 .00001347 00000-0 36786-3 0 2489 2 25636 96.4517 118.4091 0153521 102.3162 259.5272 14.41540289 89076 UO-36 1 25693U 99021A 00308.38529108 -.00000140 00000-0 24524-6 0 3558 2 25693 64.5616 45.8793 0050460 277.5124 82.0271 14.73543462 82812 Keplerian bulletins are transmitted twice weekly from W1AW. The next scheduled transmission of these data will be Tuesday, November 7, 2000, at 2330z on Baudot and AMTOR."}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (22:23)", "body": "ok...next time just posting the ISS and the decoder...."}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  4, 2000 (19:49)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin - November 4, 2000 Solar activity was up for the past week. During the CQ Worldwide DX Phone Contest, geomagnetic activity rose through the weekend, reaching storm levels on Sunday. Both the mid-latitude and planetary K indices reached 5, and the A indices were 24 and 26, respectively. The Alaskan College K index, which is higher during high geomagnetic activity due to its high latitude, was 6 over two periods and the A index was 41 for Sunday, indicating a severe geomagnetic storm. No doubt contest operators in Fairbanks experienced dead HF conditions. Average sunspot numbers were up nearly 19 points and average solar flux was up nearly 26 points compared to the previous week. Last week's Propagation Forecast Bulletin ARLP043 mentioned a predicted solar flux peaking around 190 on November 2. The noon flux reading at Penticton on Thursday was 196.3, but flux values are now expected to peak around 200 on November 3 or 4. Solar flux is expected to decline below 190 by November 8, then reach a broad minimum around 160 between November 11-17. A coronal hole has been developing in the center of the solar disk facing earth, and this could cause some unsettled geomagnetic conditions over the next few days. Currently the planetary A index is predicted at 20 for November 4 and 15 for the next day, followed by quiet conditions until November 10 when it may be 15 again. A planetary A index of 15 is also predicted for November 13 and 15, and on November 17 and 18 the projected A index is 20 and 25, based on the previous solar rotation. Average solar flux for October was 167.7. For June through September it was 179.8, 200.5, 163.1 and 201.7."}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  9, 2000 (16:27)", "body": "Leonid Meteor Balloon Rises Again NASA Science News for November 9, 2000 A team of NASA scientists and ham radio amateurs will loft a weather balloon toward the stratosphere on Nov. 18th to record the sights and sounds of the 2000 Leonid meteor shower. Readers can follow the balloon flight thanks to a live webcast at LeonidsLive.com. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast09nov_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 191, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sat, Nov 11, 2000 (19:23)", "body": "Hey Marcia and Geoites Another cool balloon site to check out is EOSS Edge of Space Sciences - there is a whole ham radio subsect interested in balloon launches, transmitting environmental data, video, and gps tracking information. This page will lead to other interesting balloon topics/pages as well. Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 11, 2000 (22:08)", "body": "Thanks, Mike! http://www.eoss.org/ Check out the links! There is great stuff in there!"}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 11, 2000 (22:42)", "body": "Mike, I have been remiss. Now you are properly Lei'd. My gratitude expressed in flowers fragrant and fresh from Hawaii to the cold north He'e (red) Muck Orange (green) Tuberose (white)"}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (18:02)", "body": "ISS crew completes installation of Amateur Radio hardware According to Will Marchant, KC6ROL, the International Space Station crew has completed installation of the Amateur Radio hardware in the Functional Cargo Block. With the successful execution of engineering tests today, the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) project has passed a significant milestone. The initial two passes were tested at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) ham shack R3K in Star City near Moscow. The control operators were Sergej Samburov, RV3DR, and Vladimir Zagainov, UA3DKR. Sergej is the Russian delegate to the ARISS team. Subsequent tests at the NN1SS station at the Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD) and the W5RRR station at Johnson Space Center (Houston, TX) were equally successful. Engineering tests with the packet rig still need to be organized. The crew, while still very busy, expressed their interest and support of Amateur Radio activities on the ISS. It seems likely that over the next few weeks, as the crew's schedule settles out, amateurs may be able to look forward to more Amateur Radio activity from humanity's latest foothold in space."}, {"response": 195, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (23:18)", "body": "Phase 3D Launch Slipped By One Day The highly anticipated launch of the AMSAT Phase 3D Amateur Radio satellite has been delayed by a last-minute technical glitch. Acting Phase 3D Project Leader Peter Guelzow, DB2OS, reported from the launch site at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, that a problem with a microwave link has delayed the launch for 24 hours. The satellite was to go into space early on November 15 UTC. The troublesome link only affected the telemetry between the PanAmSat PAS 1R commercial payload and the ground facility. It had nothing to do with the operation of Phase 3D. PAS-1R is the mission's primary payload. Guelzow said the telemetry link problem was promptly repaired, but by then, it was too late to resume the countdown to make the required launch window. The launch agency Arianespace described the problem as an ''anomaly in the ground-based telemetry system'' for the PanAmSat PAS-1R satellite, which is installed atop the Ariane 5. Jean-Charles Vincent, the head of Arianespace's Kourou facility, said the problem was pinpointed in the umbilical mast on the Ariane 5 mobile launch table. ''We detected the anomaly this afternoon, and decided on the one-day postponement to provide sufficient time to resolve it,'' he said Tuesday. The decision to delay happened before Arianespace crews began fueling the main stage. Also aboard the launch vehicle with P3D and the huge PAS-1R communications satellite are the smaller British STRV-1C and 1D mini-satellites. Vincent said both the launcher and its multisatellite payload are in a safe mode, enabling the countdown to begin again Thursday. The launch window remains the same--opening at 0107 UTC and closing at 0203 UTC (10:07 PM until 11:03 PM Kourou time) on November 16. In the planning, design and construction phases for the past several years, Phase 3D promises to usher in a new era in Amateur Radio communication. Once in its final orbit high above Earth, Phase 3D--the largest Amateur Radio satellite ever built--will offer capabilities unavailable on current amateur satellites."}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 14, 2000 (23:20)", "body": "Anyone heard the ISS Hams yet? I have not...."}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 15, 2000 (17:38)", "body": "W1AW to participate in meteor scatter/APRS experiment ARRL Maxim Memorial Station W1AW again will participate in a meteor-scatter experiment by attempting to bounce APRS packets off the ionized particles resulting from the Leonids meteor shower. Beginning at 2100 UTC on November 17 through November 20, W1AW will operate WinAPRS-equipped stations on 6 and 2 meters. W1AW will monitor and beacon on 53.530 MHz and 147.585 MHz continuously, transmitting its grid square. On 6 meters, W1AW will use an ICOM IC-756 running 100 W with an MFJ-1278 TNC. On 2 meters, W1AW will use an ICOM IC-271 at 45 W with a AEA PK232 Multimode controller. An article ''Leonids Meteors for the Regular Guy'' by Ev Tupis, W2EV, is available to ARRL members on the ARRL Web site, http://www.arrl.org . Also see ''An Automated Meteor-Scatter Station'' by Tupis in November 1999 QST. QSLs will be available for all stations receiving W1AW's APRS beacons. An SASE is requested."}, {"response": 198, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Nov 15, 2000 (20:31)", "body": "WOO HOO! Phase 3D is up! For the complete scoop, check out www.amsat.org Its going to be a bit of time before the transponders are switched on (talking months) since the satellite has to be positioned into its proper orbit. Then the systems will have to be activated and tested out. Now time to get the mode S (2.4ghz) and mode L (1.2ghz) transverters up and running. de AA9IL Mike"}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "Yes indeedy!!! Phase 3D is In Orbit! In what was described as a ''spectacular nighttime launch,'' the next-generation AMSAT Phase 3D Amateur Radio satellite blasted off from Earth on schedule November 16 at 0107z. Hitching a ride aboard an Ariane 5 vehicle, Phase 3D was among four satellite payloads heading off into orbit from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana--just five degrees north of the equator. ''It was a textbook launch,'' said Phase 3D Mission Director and AMSAT-DL Executive Vice President Peter Guelzow, DB2OS. Guelzow, who's filling in for Phase 3D Project Leader Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC, said that from launch through separation about 45 minutes later, ''all received telemetry indicates the launch went perfectly, and our satellite appears to be in very good health.'' When Phase 3D was successfully deployed by the Ariane 5 launcher at 0153z, cheers erupted from the AMSAT team monitoring the flight's progress from the Arianespace control room. Newly elected AMSAT-NA President Robin Haighton, VE3FRH, hailed the news of the launch. ''You know, this really is the start of a new era in ham radio,'' Haighton said. He called the design, building and financing of P3D by international volunteers ''a great achievement.'' A ''general beacon'' was said to be transmitting on approximately 435.450 MHz. Earlier today, the Phase 3D PSK beacon turned up on 145.898 MHz--slightly different from the expected frequency. It was monitored by Norbert Nothoff, DF5DP, transmitting telemetry--including text blocks. ''We had some concern earlier this morning because the satellite didn't show up on the expected frequencies and hence missed any sign of life from the bird,'' Nothoff said. The Ariane 5 placed Phase 3D into geostationary transfer orbit, from where it will be nudged into its final elliptical orbit. It was the last of the four payloads to be ejected into orbit by the launch vehicle. The satellite is not expected to be ready for general use for about nine months. Initial housekeeping tasks were under way in the hours following the launch and separation. To move P3D from the geostationary transfer orbit, the satellite's onboard arcjet motor will burn intermittently at perigee over a 270-day period, with final inclination and apogee adjustments made by the spacecraft's 400 Newton motor. Once these maneuvers are completed and three-axis stabilization is achieved, the solar panels will be deployed. At that point, Haighton said, it's anticipated the satellite will be fully operational for use by Amateur Radio operators around the world. The satellite's initial orbit puts it some 585 miles above Earth at the closest point. Phase 3D's final elliptical orbital configuration will put the satellite some 2500 miles away from Earth at its nearest point, and some 29,500 miles at its farthest. At 630 pounds and some 20 feet across when the solar panels are deployed, Phase 3D is the largest Amateur Radio satellite ever put into space. The launch culminates years of planning, design and construction as well as an ambitious fundraising campaign. The ARRL was among the major contributors to the Phase 3D project. Three other satellites--the giant PanAmSat PAS-1R communications satellite and the smaller STRV-1C and 1D satellites--joined AMSAT Phase 3D for the ride. Haighton's immediate predecessor as AMSAT-NA president, Keith Baker, KB1SF, told AMSAT News Service that he was ''delighted'' by the news of the Phase 3D launch. ''I have no doubt that today will be regarded as one of the greatest days in the history of Amateur Radio,'' he said. AMSAT-NA Board Chairman and past AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan, W3XO, was among those keeping a close ear on the launch activities and participating in the AMSAT Launch Information Service. ''I can't begin to tell you how happy I am to see P3D in orbit,'' said Tynan. ''It's been a long time, a long road--a bit rough at times,'' Tynan observed. For more information, visit the AMSAT-NA Web site, http://www.amsat.org ."}, {"response": 200, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Nov 16, 2000 (21:39)", "body": "Yes indeed-ie! I guess I can wait a few more months to get the transverters built up (have almost all the parts...) Getting too cold to do anything outside anyway - today, the WX was 31 deg F with snow flurries. The one neat thing is that there will be some great nights for sky watching when the temp goes sub zero (usually -25 degrees without the windchill). All the moisture and gunk in the sky just seems to vanish and the stars look incredible. Aside from LEO satellite contacts, the last major DX I did was on AO-13 several years ago. Using mode B, I was able to hear some interesting (and work as well) DX. Cant wait till P3D is fully functional. The portable sat microwave station can finally be realized. 73 de Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 17, 2000 (12:31)", "body": "Did anyone DX the Leonids last night?? Good on ya, Mike! Toast those marshmallows and hunker down by the bottle rig!"}, {"response": 202, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 17, 2000 (21:32)", "body": "Listen to the Leonids Tonight Space Weather News for Nov. 17, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com Scientists at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama are operating a radio meteor detection system that records audible echoes as meteors streak by. During the Nov. 18th Leonid meteor shower (Friday night and Saturday morning) sounds from the system will be available live on the web at http://www.spaceweather.com and http://www.leonidslive.com . Every ping you hear corresponds to a meteor over the Eastern U.S.! For more information visit SpaceWeather.com."}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (13:04)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 46 - November 17, 2000 Sunspot numbers and solar flux were down over the past week. Average sunspot numbers were down over 40 points and average solar flux was off by 36 points relative to the previous week. The expected geomagnetic disturbance arrived earlier than predicted, with Friday being the worst day, with a planetary A index of 41. Planetary K indices reached 6 for several periods on Friday. Saturday was fairly quiet, and Sunday was fairly active with the planetary K index at 20. Following the weekend the geomagnetic conditions have been quiet. Solar flux probably reached a short term minimum of 143.7 on Monday, and is now rising. Flux values for Friday through Tuesday are expected to be 155, 155, 160, 160 and 165. Solar flux is expected to peak around 200 from November 27-29. Expected planetary A index values for Friday through Tuesday are 12, 10, 20, 12 and 10, so the current predicted value for this Sunday is nearly identical to last Sunday. The unsettled conditions on Sunday will probably be due to a solar flair that occurred early Thursday. Beyond the weekend, the next predicted unsettled day is November 29, and December 5 looks like an active geomagnetic day, as well as December 8 and 9. Of course this is based upon the previous solar rotation. Look at the chart at http://www.wm7d.net/hamradio/solar/ . It looks as if solar flux and sunspots generally declined over the past six months. Sunspot numbers for November 9 through 15 were 149, 141, 128, 112, 99, 131 and 144 with a mean of 129.1. 10.7 cm flux was 166.2, 153.4, 149.6, 146.6, 143.7, 148.6 and 146.5, with a mean of 150.7, and estimated planetary A indices were 11, 41, 12, 21, 8, 5 and 5 with a mean of 14.7."}, {"response": 204, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 21, 2000 (18:22)", "body": "Did you catch any, Mike? Anyone? We caught raindrops...! NASA Science News for November 21, 2000 The art of predicting Leonid meteors officially became a science this weekend as sky watchers around the globe enjoyed three predicted episodes of shooting stars. This story includes video and some unusual pictures of Leonid fireballs. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast21nov_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 22, 2000 (19:01)", "body": "Shepherd makes first casual QSOs from ISS The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station program has announced that Commander William ''Shep'' Shepherd, KD5GSL, has made the first casual Amateur Radio contacts from Space Station Alpha. Shepherd reports that he was able to take a few minutes out of his busy schedule on Friday, November 17, to engage in contacts with a few lucky hams. Before then, the only Amateur Radio contacts involved engineering test passes between the ISS and Russian and US amateur facilities. ARISS spokesman Will Marchant, KC6ROL, says that with the recent arrival at ISS of a Progress cargo craft, the crew will have to redouble its work pace. The space shuttle Endeavour STS-97 mission to the ISS will launch November 30, so the Expedition 1 crew will continue to put in some long hours preparing for its arrival. Endeavour is carrying a large new solar panel for the ISS that will permit the station to be fully powered for the first time. More information about Amateur Radio on the International Space Station is available on the ARISS Web site, http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ."}, {"response": 206, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 22, 2000 (19:13)", "body": "Limited AO-40 use possible in near future Plans are in place to make AO-40 available for a limited period of general amateur use ''possibly within a week or two,'' says AMSAT-NA President Robin Haighton, VE3FRH. Launched November 16, the next-generation Amateur Radio satellite formerly known as Phase 3D remains for now in a geostationary transfer orbit while initial housekeeping and checkout procedures are under way. Just when and how the ''limited operation'' will occur is up to the ground controllers, Haigton said. The provisional operation would involve ''one or two bands at a time.'' Since the satellite's solar panels will not be deployed until AO-40 is in its final orbit, full power will not be available. Haighton said the most likely configurations for the limited test period would be 70 cm up and 2 meters down and 1.2 GHz up and 2.4 GHz down, SSB and CW. Details of the limited test period will be announced. AMSAT has stressed that the Phase 3D/AO-40 controllers are closely monitoring the power budget and the satellite's current orbital parameters. ''These two areas will be among the most important factors that determine what happens with P3D in the near future,'' AMSAT said this week. From all indications, most AO-40 systems are working properly at this point, with the possible exception of the 70-cm transmitter. Phase 3D Project Manager Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC, says ''a problem with the 70 cm transmitter'' led controllers to shift the telemetry downlink from 70-cm to 2 meters, 145.898 MHz. Phase 3D will not be opened for full amateur use until it's been placed in its final orbital configuration. That's expected to take about nine months. For more information, visit the AMSAT-NA Web site, http://www.amsat.org/ ."}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 26, 2000 (18:47)", "body": "Interplanetary shock wave hits Earth; more to come.... Space Weather News for Nov. 26, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com The first of several coronal mass ejections now heading toward Earth hit our planet's magnetosphere between 0500 and 0600 UT on Nov. 26th. Geomagnetic activity could become severe during the next 48 hours as one shock wave after another reaches Earth. We encourage sky watchers to be alert for auroras at middle- and perhaps even low-latitudes. The new Moon will afford dark skies for spotting faint Northern Lights. Visit http://www.spaceweather.com for details and updates."}, {"response": 208, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Dec  3, 2000 (17:24)", "body": "Howdy All Sorry for falling off the face of the earth but those ledges at the prime meridian are not well marked and there is NOT a guard rail either.... Anyway, with grad skool complete for this semester, I actually have time to do stuff including finally bolting my 24 and 47 ghz up/down converters to their respective antenna switch assemblies. The main reason for this post is that I finally got the address for the SLF/ELF audio recordings - these are time compressed onto a 90 minute cassette and cover signals below 3 Hertz. The tape costs $10 money order mailed to John M. Lauerman 26810 S.E. Duthie Hill Road Issaquah, WA 98029 73 de Mike Radio Cosmo International"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  3, 2000 (18:50)", "body": "Mahalo Mike! Welcome out of your Ivory Tower Dungeon for the holidays."}, {"response": 210, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Dec  5, 2000 (20:13)", "body": "Howdy Marcia and Geo-ites Yea, Ivory Tower Dungeon is an apt term - good thing I like going to school. Now, if I could just figure out how to do school full time and not have to work... Anyway, no exciting signal reports as of yet since I have not been listening to the radio much. The R390A got shipped off for restoration and the SP600 has been pressed into backup duty. It fired right up despite sitting dormant for a year. (No telling how long it sat dormant in a surplus warehouse... I plugged it in and it came right back to life. Ah, good ol tube gear....) Right now, catching up on microwave stuff which seems to have piled up again (and again and again...) Cheers from the radio room de Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  5, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "wishing I were a mouse in the corner so I could listen, too... I'd even share my cheese with you!!!"}, {"response": 212, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (18:21)", "body": "Propagation - December 8, 2000 Average solar flux was down and sunspot numbers were up this week. At least there weren't any major geomagnetic disturbances. Quiet and stable conditions prevailed, with A indices in the single digits. Solar flux probably reached a short term minimum at 1800z on December 6 of 140.2, and at the 1800z reading the next day it was 140.8. The official daily readings are at 2000z, which is why you won't see those numbers reported here in the summary at the end of this bulletin. After the low flux numbers for the previous two days, solar flux is expected to rise to a peak near 200 around December 20-23. Current prediction shows flux values for Friday through Tuesday, December 8-12 at 145, 150, 150, 155 and 160. The next short term minimum for solar flux is predicted for after the new year. Unfortunately for hams looking forward to the 10-Meter contest this weekend, the quiet conditions will probably not continue. The predicted planetary A index for Friday through Tuesday is 15, 25, 15, 12 and 10. The active conditions in this weekend's forecast are probably due to a coronal hole in the center of the visible solar disk. This will be a problem for high latitude and east-west propagation. There was also a solar flare toward the end of the UTC day on December 6. Sunspot numbers for November 30 through December 6 were 191, 157, 141, 186, 120, 90 and 99 with a mean of 140.6. 10.7 cm flux was 192.3, 184.5, 167, 163.6, 152, 147 and 141, with a mean of 163.9, and estimated planetary A indices were 6, 6, 4, 12, 10, 4 and 7 with a mean of 7."}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 11, 2000 (15:42)", "body": "Listen to the Geminids Space Weather News for Dec. 11, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com GEMINID METEOR SHOWER: Scientists at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center have established a radio meteor detection system to monitor this week's Geminid meteor shower. Although the shower doesn't peak until December 13th, plenty of Geminid meteoroids are already streaking through Earth's atmosphere. You can listen to their eerie-sounding radio echoes in realtime at http://www.spaceweather.com . SUBMIT YOUR PHOTOS: The glare from this week's nearly-full Moon will substantially reduce the number of visible Geminid meteors. Nevertheless, sky watchers in rural areas will likely spot 20 or more shooting stars per hour -- a fairly pleasing shower. We invite photographers who capture images of Geminid meteors to submit their photos for display on spaceweather.com. Simply send your files as email attachments to webmaster@spaceweather.com."}, {"response": 214, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (15:37)", "body": "PROJECT SETI@HOME UPDATE PROJECT STATUS Halfway through our second year of operation, SETI@home has processed over 7000 hours of digitally-recorded signals from the Arecibo radio telescope, using the power of millions of Internet-connected computers. As this processing continues, SETI@home's own computers are doing the next phase, in which we separate man-made radio signals from those originating outside our solar system. Our goal is to detect signals from other civilizations. By using the Internet to form the world's most powerful computer, SETI@home has inspired other scientific computing projects, and is often credited (along with Napster) with defining a new generation of computer system design, called \"peer-to-peer\". Because of the strong continued interest in SETI@home, the project will continue for at least a year beyond its original ending time. Plans are not finalized, but we hope to expand our search to the southern-hemisphere sky, and to search new frequency bands. We will also try to make SETI@home more fun and interesting by adding new content and features to our web site. Our small but hard-working staff (5 part-time members) has had little time to work on this area, but we're expanding our efforts. -------------------------- RELEASE OF VERSION 3 SOFTWARE After almost a year of testing and debugging, we recently released a major new version of our screensaver program. The new version does much better signal analysis; it looks for two new types of signals (pulses and triplets) and it covers a wider range of drift rates. As a result, it takes more time to process each work unit. The old version of SETI@home should automatically notify you when it's time to upgrade to the new version. You can download and install it from our web site: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/download.html -------------------------- NEW SPONSORSHIP FROM ONE COSMOS NETWORK AND THE PLANETARY SOCIETY We're proud to announce an alliance of SETI@home with One Cosmos Network and The Planetary Society. This alliance will give us the financial support necessary to continue and expand SETI@home, as well as enabling us to provide a richer Web experience. Founded by Internet executive Joe Firmage and Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan's wife and collaborator of 20 years, One Cosmos Network is dedicated to carrying on Sagan's effort to humanize science and bring it to people everywhere. Toward this end, One Cosmos is constructing an Internet portal, OneCosmos.net, and a production studio, Cosmos Studios, which will create compelling science-based entertainment for television and film. Their first release is an updated, digitally remastered Collector's Edition of the Emmy and Peabody Award winning 13-hour television series, \"Cosmos.\" The series is currently available for purchase in DVD or VHS format, with \"The Music of Cosmos\" available separately in a double-CD format; find them at http://OneCosmos.net . The Planetary Society is the founding sponsor of SETI@home, and its membership is open to anyone who shares the goals of exploring our solar system and searching for extraterrestrial life. In fact, the Society supports six different SETI efforts, along with many other projects in space exploration. We encourage you to join The Planetary Society and help advance their many worthy programs at http://planetary.org/html/member/JoinUs.html We are also extremely grateful to our other sponsors, including the University of California Digital Media Innovation Program, Sun Microsystems, Fuji Film Computer Products, Quantum, and the SETI Institute. Thanks also to the hundreds of individuals who have made contributions to SETI@home. Their names are listed at http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donorlist.html SETI@home is free for everyone, but if you can consider making a tax-deductible donation to SETI@home, please visit http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donor.html . -------------------------- NEW SETI@HOME GEAR IS HERE While our goal is to detect life in outer space, we can't do that without the support of our fellow Earthlings. Last year, we introduced several SETI@home products in our online store. The response was so great that this year we've expanded the product line. There are great new sweatshirts, mugs, T-shirts, jackets, desk clocks, lapel pins, patches, and even a heat-sensitive mouse pad. Want more? How about your very own, very elegant, blown-glass globe? Or (our personal favorite) a stylus, red and black pens, and mechanical pencil packed into one very cool gravity-fed tool. You'll find them all online at http://www.exploratoriumstore.com/setihome.html . The profits from each sale help fund the SETI@home project."}, {"response": 215, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 18, 2000 (21:32)", "body": "AMSAT OSCAR-40 remains silent , and command stations on the ground still have been unable to reestablish contact with the Amateur Radio satellite. It had been hoped that an onboard computer timeout expected on or about December 16 would restart the beacon telemetry and give the ground crew some clues as to why AO-40 suddenly stopped transmitting on December 13. AMSAT-Germany's Peter Guelzow, DB2OS, of the AO-40 team, said nothing was heard over the weekend, and command stations tried to re-establish communication by sending blind commands. If the reset had occurred, the satellite would have been restored to its post-launch configuration and attempt to transmit on 70 cm. However, the 70-cm transmitter has been problematic, and the satellite likely still would need to be reconfigured for 2-meter transmission at that point to be heard on Earth. The AO-40 team is continuing to investigate reports of weak signals on the 2-meter downlink frequency of 145.898 MHz that seem to be coming from AO-40, but it has discounted reports of telemetry heard there as a hoax. Other reports persist of a weak, unmodulated carrier, however. Guelzow said today that the AO-40 team is encouraged by a report from the North American Air Defense Command--NORAD. The report indicates that AO-40 was found to be in one piece, that the orbit was exactly were it should be, that the radar cross-section was as expected, and that no other pieces were found. Guelzow said the NORAD data counter rumors ''which no one on the inner team believed'' that AO-40 might have exploded. AMSAT-NA President Robin Haighton said ground controllers were exploring several options. When and whether the satellite will be heard from again depends, in part, on whether AO-40 has picked up any of the ''blind commands'' sent by ground controllers. Guelzow says that if no commands were accepted by the IHU-1 onboard computer since contact was lost December 13, then a ''command-assist'' watchdog routine on December 21 will cycle the satellite through various receive, transmit, high-gain and low-gain antenna modes. If AO-40 did pick up some commands, Guelzow said, the command-assist watchdog will be reset for another 10 orbits. That could extend the wait until sometime after Christmas. Guelzow says the ''watchdogs'' are software resets. Ground controllers want to avoid doing a hard re-boot of the main computer, which is considered a last resort. ''There is no need to hurry, and the command team doesn't want to miss any option,'' he said."}, {"response": 216, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 24, 2000 (19:13)", "body": "Propagation Forecast Bulletin 51 - December 22, 2000 Average solar flux and sunspot numbers were up sharply this week. The solar flux average for the week was up over 47 points and sunspot numbers rose over 85 points. It has been a quiet week geomagnetically, with planetary A indices in the single digits. Solar flux probably peaked at 2200z on December 20, when it reached 207.7. Solar flux is predicted over the next few days, Friday through Monday at 195, 195, 190 and 190. The planetary A index for those days is predicted at 12, 15, 15 and 12. The reason for the unsettled geomagnetic condition is a coronal mass ejection on December 18 that is expected to cause a weak disturbance. Beyond this weekend look for solar flux to drop to a short term minimum of 140 around January 3-5. The next peak is expected from January 16-19. Check the bottom of Jan Alvestad's Solar Terrestrial Activity Report at http://www.dxlc.com/solar/ . He has a table showing monthly averages of solar flux and sunspot numbers, as well as a smoothed sunspot number. According to his table, the highest average monthly solar flux was in March of this year, although July was almost as high. The highest sunspot number was in July, and during April he shows a smoothed sunspot number of 120.8, which may be the peak of this solar cycle. The peak of cycle 23 has probably passed, although we could get an increase in activity which would extend the peak. Fortunately, sunspot cycles seem to go up faster than they decline. Sunspot numbers for December 14 through 20 were 157, 181, 217, 229, 174, 163 and 183 with a mean of 186.3. 10.7 cm flux was 182.2, 187.8, 190.5, 196.7, 198, 198.6 and 201.3, with a mean of 193.6, and estimated planetary A indices were 4, 3, 4, 8, 10, 5 and 4 with a mean of 6.3."}, {"response": 217, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 26, 2000 (17:00)", "body": "Space Bulletin 027 - December 22, 2000 It was a historic moment for Amateur Radio. Some 200 youngsters, teachers, parents, and news media representatives were on hand at Luther Burbank Elementary School near Chicago December 21 to witness the first successful Amateur Radio on the International Space Station school contact. Several pupils plus one teacher got to chat with Space Station Alpha Commander William ''Shep'' Shepherd, KD5GSL, via ham radio. Earlier attempts by the school on December 19 were unsuccessful, despite the extensive technical preparations. On December 21, however, Shepherd, using the special NA1SS call sign, came right back to a call from veteran SAREX/ARISS mentor Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, at the school. Sufana and his ARISS team had spent the better part of two weeks setting up gear and antennas for the scheduled contact. Antenna setup was hampered by repeated snowstorms and frigid temperatures, but the efforts paid off. ''I'm happy that we were able to pull it off,'' Sufana said. ''The kids were bouncing off the walls.'' During the 10-minute pass, 14 first through eighth graders plus science and math teacher Rita Wright got a chance to pose questions about life aboard Space Station Alpha to Shepherd. Shepherd said he especially enjoyed being able to float around in the space station. He said the crew is keeping detailed logs about life on the space station, and that the crew was enjoying taking pictures of Earth from space, ''because you can see things that you can't see from the ground.'' Shepherd also explained that about 90 percent of water in the air inside the space station is recovered and reused. At the conclusion of the successful contact, the grateful crowd applauded loudly and offered up a hearty ''thank you!'' and ''73!'' to Shepherd and his Russian crewmates. Shepherd said he was looking forward to future school contacts. Another two dozen schools are under consideration for ARISS school contacts. Schools in Virginia and New York are tentatively scheduled for contacts next month. More information about requesting dedicated contacts is available on the ARISS web pages, http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ."}, {"response": 218, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (04:10)", "body": "That's great, I'd like to find the frequencies they're on and post them here. Or maybe you know the recent schedule, Marci?"}, {"response": 219, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (14:19)", "body": "I'll see what I can find Terry! FCC Requests Voluntary Communications Emergency in and around TEXAS The FCC has requested that Amateur Radio operators in and around Texas voluntarily relinquish the use of 3870 to 3878 kHz to enable the handling of emergency traffic. Ice storms have disrupted power and communication and made for hazardous travel conditions in the region. Amateur Radio operators have activated the Emergency and Tactical Traffic Net to handle traffic related to the weather emergency. At the request of ARRL South Texas Section Manager Ray Taylor, N5NAV, Leroy Pittman of the FCC has asked the amateur community to cooperate in recognizing the existence of a voluntary communications emergency and to stay clear of the specified 75-meter frequencies. Taylor reports that Amateur Radio operators already have helped with hospital communications after hospital telephones were knocked out. A net on 7285 kHz has been handling much of the winter storm-related traffic during daylight hours. A copy of Pittman's request to voluntarily relinquish use of the specified 75-meter frequencies was sent to the FCC's HF Direction Finding facility in Columbia, Maryland."}, {"response": 220, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Dec 28, 2000 (20:42)", "body": "Howdy All Well, one very good bit of news. Control stations were able to jump start AO40 and its transmitting with its mode S (2.4ghz) beacon. There is hope for the satellite future! Of course, way too busy as of late but progress has been made on the 5.7ghz system and some tests were run on a cobbled together 24ghz receive system. Plus playing with the new Christmas toy - a Garmin GPS receiver. Anyway, back to the lab. Happy Holidays from the Radio Cosmo Collective"}, {"response": 221, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 28, 2000 (23:45)", "body": "Yes, Mike!!! Good show and great news about AO40. Much concern about that. Happy New Year *hugs* for keeping us up to date"}, {"response": 222, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  4, 2001 (16:11)", "body": "AO-40 Recovery Continues - January 4, 2001 Efforts continue to assess the status of AO-40 following a resumption of telemetry transmissions. AO-40 went silent December 13, but ground controllers successfully reset the main computer on Christmas Day and got the satellite transmitting again. Ground controllers now are analyzing the telemetry sent via the S2 beacon on 2401.305 MHz. AMSAT-NA President Robin Haighton, VE3FRH, says the command team worked through the holidays in an effort to determine just what went wrong aboard AO-40. Among other things, ground controllers would like to know what actually happened on December 13 and why, as well as which telemetry functions are known to be correct and which data are suspect and why. The satellite went silent during maneuvers to test its onboard 400-Newton propulsion system following an earlier orbit-shifting burn. Ground controllers also want to know the spacecraft's actual attitude with respect to Earth--and if it has changed attitude. Other parameters they'll be examining include spin velocity, the status of batteries, battery chargers and regulators, and what happened to the onboard computers, IHU-1 and IHU 2, and why. The AO-40 command team also wants to find out if all the antennas are operational and what can be done next to improve communications, and if there are any risks involved in attempting to restart onboard systems. So far, the 2-meter beacon transmitter has remained off the air since AO-40 was returned to ground control on Christmas Day. It's believed that problems with the 70-cm transmitter developed shortly after launch. The 2.4 GHz transmitter appears to be operating ''nominally,'' however. ''When questions such as these--and others--are answered, it may be possible to determine the working capability of the spacecraft, and, if appropriate, to start to try operation on other bands,'' Haighton said. He said critical decisions will be made over the next week or two ''based on the results of the analysis and much discussion among the command team.''"}, {"response": 223, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  5, 2001 (16:55)", "body": "AO-40 Could Be Leaking AO-40 team member Peter Guelzow, DB2OS, says a small leak on AO-40 could account for the higher spin rate ground controllers have noticed since the satellite resumed telemetry transmissions on Christmas Day. Guelzow called on the amateur community to be patient during the AO-40 recovery. ''The good thing is that AO-40 seems to be in a very stable condition, and there are no signs of further damage,'' Guelzow said today in a posting to the AMSAT bulletin board. ''However, there is a sign of a small leak.'' Ground controllers continue to look into the reason for the higher spin rate as well as into other items under investigation, Guelzow said, and the results will be reported when the AO-40 team reaches its final conclusions. He said the priority for now is to get AO-40 back to normal as soon as possible. AO-40 went silent December 13 while ground controllers were testing the onboard 400-newton propulsion system. Guelzow's posting did not indicate whether he thought that propulsion system fuel or some other substance was escaping through the suspected leak. A computer reset command Christmas Day brought the satellite back to life, but telemetry data suggest that AO-40 suffered some damage. Since Christmas, the AO-40 ground team has been analyzing telemetry sent via the 2.4 GHz beacon--the only transmitter now operating--to determine the status of AO-40's onboard systems. Guelzow said that once the AO-40 team has a handle on the antenna situation it might attempt to get the 2-meter and possibly the 70-cm transmitters working. Until then, he said, AO-40 will continue to use the 2.4 GHz downlink. Guelzow said that because of the currently limited downlink capabilities, uploading of new commands and analyzing the results is taking somewhat longer than it would under normal circumstances. The AO-40 team also is evaluating the satellite's magnetorquing attitude control system and wants to spin down the spacecraft and adjust AO-40's attitude for better sun and squint angles. In addition, ground controllers will be taking a close look at various other systems and experiments onboard, including the arcjet and the stabilization wheels. ''Once this is completed and we have a complete overview, then we can declare the spacecraft to work normally and perhaps think about re-defining the mission of AO-40, whatever it will be,'' Guelzow said."}, {"response": 224, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Jan  7, 2001 (18:46)", "body": "Hey Kids Well, still waiting for the AO40 reports to trickle in. The way things are looking, I will have plenty of time to cobble bits together in time for the spring thaw. (Got up to 32 deg today - yow!) Playing with some new toys from the most recent ham fest. One step closer to amateur television with the new CCD camera unit (in CosmoVision, of course....) Also picked up a Delorme Tripmate GPS unit very cheap. Hooked it up to the pc and ran a terminal emulator - after goofing around for a bit, got the unit to come to life by sending over the correct init code which resulted in the unit spewing over raw GPS data. Finally, a multimode RF data modem so I can play with Packet, Amtor, RTTY, APRS, etc.... enuf stuff to keep me humored/annoyed for a while.... 73 de AA9IL Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 225, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  7, 2001 (22:15)", "body": "Mike! Fantastic - now just hook up your little computer tv cam and we can watch you do all this stuff! Seems as though cabin fever is held in abeyance by your soldering finger together and fluxing... thanks for sharing! Seti settings currently for me: 179 blocks of data crunched 16 hr 45' 28\" RA +9\ufffd 3' 36\" Dec 1.420664063 Ghz"}, {"response": 226, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (19:12)", "body": "Yow! 179 blocks? I wont say what my piss weak P90 has finally completed. I guess there is justification for shelling out some bucks for a 1GHz system. Either that, or hit all the local garage sales, buy a bunch of P90's and build up a Beowulf cluster. While I was at the last ham fest, I saw P90 boards with CPU -and- memory for less than $50. You can guess what I payed for mine all those years ago. Sort of like back in ye olden daze when 386's were being taken over by the 486 and folks spend a couple thousand for that tricked out 386 that was destined to be a big paperweight for the desk.... Oh well, progress.... 73 de AA9IL Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 227, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (22:00)", "body": "Yup...technology has struck again - I started out on a Commodore which we upgraded to 64! Before that we had to load programs via tape - it HAD no memory. Uh huh...this is my 6th genereation computer is about 10 years... I have a thief to thank for one upgrade..."}, {"response": 228, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (22:01)", "body": "183 blocks completed now... Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 36, "subject": "Oceanic Geo", "response_count": 13, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (21:44)", "body": "Sonar affects whales\ufffd song, study shows Associated Press A powerful new sonar being tested by the Navy affects the length of humpback whale songs but doesn't seem to lead to any other extreme behaviors, according to a new study. Scientists reported today that the low-frequency, high-range sonar used to detect submarines extended the mating songs of some humpbacks while others stopped singing altogether. \"We looked for any sorts of extreme responses like breaching, where the animal would jump out of the water and swim rapidly away from the sonar,\" said Patrick Miller, the study's lead author and a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. \"We didn't observe any sorts of extreme reactions.\" The new sonar has come under greater scrutiny after a biologist hired by the National Marine Fisheries Service suggested a possible link between Navy traditional sonar tests and ear hemorrhages that fatally disoriented the animals. In March, 16 whales of four different species beached themselves in the Bahamas. Seven died, and initial autopsies suggested the deaths might have been linked to the Navy tests. The latest research took place off Hawaii in 1998. Miller and his colleagues first recorded the whale songs without the sonar and later asked the Navy to transmit the signals. Of the 16 whales monitored, five stopped singing altogether. The remainder sang on average 29 percent longer when the sonar was activated than without it. The findings appear in today's issue of the journal Nature. The research, sponsored by the Navy but conducted by independent scientists, said it wasn't clear how much of a threat the sonar and its effects on mating songs pose to whales. But Miller said the Navy should avoid active breeding areas when using the new sonar."}, {"response": 2, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Jun 23, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "Do you think the whales in the Bahamas were frightened and disoriented by the Navy sonar tests? I remember posting something about this at the Marine Mammals topic on the SpringArk board."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 23, 2000 (17:01)", "body": "Yup, I remember and though adding this topic here would get wider readership. Post your Spring ark one here - copy and paste it! It is interesting and not impossible! I believe I posted something there as well. Have to go look!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun 24, 2000 (10:27)", "body": "This was originally posted to [SpringArk]: Marine Mammals on Mon, Apr 17, 2000 Last month the were about 14 whales which beached themselves in the Bahamas; 9 of them were freed back into the ocean. The problem, according to some marine biologists, was that the US Navy was conducting sonar detection testing in the area. The Navy says it doesn't think the testing of its equipment had any effect on the whales. The biologists think it may well have disoriented and frightened the whales. Their reasoning is that just as humans depend to much on sight and are in fact highly visual creatures; whales are extraordinarily acoustical creatures. The marine biogists also noted whale beachings in the Canary Islands about 4 years ago, and in Florida slightly before that, while the Navy was carrying out the same sorts of tests in those areas."}, {"response": 5, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Jun 26, 2000 (13:45)", "body": "Efforts Intensify to Rescue South African Penguins http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000626/sc/safrica_penguins_dc_3.html By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - Efforts to rescue thousands of jackass penguins from a murky death intensified on Monday after an oil spill off the Cape Town coast. Environmentalists said that over 2,000 oil-covered penguins had been plucked from Robben Island by late Monday and the whole colony -- an estimated 20,000 birds including 6,000 chicks -- would be evacuated over the next week. The affected birds are being cleaned at the South African National Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds' (SANCCOB) rehabilitation center in Cape Town. The ecological disaster began unfolding Friday when the freighter Treasure, carrying a cargo of iron ore from Brazil to China, sank off Cape Town. The spill coincided with the start of the breeding season, adding to the urgency of the situation. ``Nearly 70 percent of Robben Island's adult penguin colony has been affected by the devastating spill,'' SANCCOB said. ``Unoiled birds that have been rescued from the island will be airlifted to Cape Recife, near Port Elizabeth, Tuesday for release,'' the organization said in a statement. According to reports last week, the ship was ordered out of South African waters after a failure to agree to a plan to unload the Treasure's 1,400 tons of fuel -- highlighting the difficulties ships in distress have in finding safe havens. Christina Pretorius, a spokeswoman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), told Reuters the South African Airforce was assisting in the airlift. She said it would take the birds 10 to 12 days to swim back to Robben Island -- enough time to hopefully clean up the mess on the island's beaches and shoreline. Wildlife experts from the U.S. and Britain have been arriving since Sunday to help with the penguin clean-up, the SANCCOB statement said. A large team of volunteers has been helping in the effort. SANCCOB said the scale of the disaster exceeded the 1994 spill from the sinking of the Apollo Sea, which triggered one of the world's largest seabird rescue operations in which 10,000 oil-covered penguins were retrieved and cleaned. Although less than half survived, birds were returned successfully to the wild and have been breeding ever since. Jackass penguins, also known as African penguins, are the continent's only penguins and are endemic to South Africa's coasts. They number around 150,000. Robben Island, a World Heritage Site, has the third largest colony of the birds. Former South African President Nelson Mandela spent most of his 27 years in prison on the island."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 26, 2000 (15:31)", "body": "Interesting, Maggie. Thanks!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2000 (00:08)", "body": "Science News - Week of July 15, 2000; Vol. 158, No. 3 Ultimate Sea Weed Loose in America J. Raloff On June 12, while surveying a private lagoon in San Diego County, biologists ran across a strange, 14-inch-high mat of algae. Not only did it look unlike anything they had seen before, but it had infiltrated, squashed, and killed a 30-by-60-foot patch of 4-foot-high eelgrass. Rachel Woodfield, part of the research team that made the discovery, sent a specimen to seaweed taxonomist Paul C. Silva of the Jepson Herbarium at the University of California, Berkeley. \"I took one look,\" he recalls, \"and it just screamed, 'I'm a weed! Get out of my way!'\" Without question, Silva says, \"this was the so-called killer alga\" that has been progressively smothering the Mediterranean seafloor (SN: 7/4/98, p. 8). More: http://www.sciencenews.org/20000715/fob1.asp"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 22, 2000 (23:32)", "body": "SING OUT LOUD, SING OUT LONG Some male humpback whales lengthened their songs while others ceased to sing altogether when exposed to low-frequency sonar tests off the coast of Hawaii in 1998, suggesting that sonar transmissions by the U.S. Navy could disrupt whale breeding and cause other behavioral changes, according to a new study published in the journal Nature. On average, the whales' songs were 30 percent longer than normal, a strong shift given that the sonar was tested at less than full strength, said Patrick Miller, lead study author and a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Still, he said the researchers didn't notice any \"extreme reactions\" in the whales such as breaching. Many environmentalists are calling on the Navy to end some of its uses of sonar, saying that it can disorient and killwhales. BBC News, 06.22.00 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_801000/801458.stm"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 27, 2000 (21:38)", "body": "unless, it's as they say, a leader of the group becomes ill and beaches to end the suffering and the others come along for comfort. but i do think that the sonar can confuse them."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 27, 2000 (23:43)", "body": "I think they have established that. Sort of like hearing strange noises in your house and cutting your finger as you slice veggies when your concentration shifts... Only, this is on a much larger scale with much more serious ramifications..."}, {"response": 11, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "There is a theory that it is much worse for whales because they are acoustical creatures, much in the way humans are visual creatures. Hearing is the sense the sense upon which they rely most heavily. So it might be like seeing strange things in your house, or a profound shift in your visual perception. In which case, you probably would cut your finger when you slice veggies, not being able to properly gauge distances."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (23:31)", "body": "Good point. I am sure you are right. They use sound for everything from navigation to locating their babies to finding food. I would surely be blind and fingerless by now!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Sep 17, 2000 (04:52)", "body": "Dolphins to desert dying British seas Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor Sunday Times 17th Sept http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/ DOLPHINS and porpoises could soon disappear from the seas around Britain, driven away by overfishing and pollution, says a report out this week. It predicts that large parts of the English Channel could become a dead sea, and re-veals that fish in the Irish and North Seas have been devastated, with birds, shellfish and many plankton species also threatened. The report, for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), studied 10 key species, including dolphins, porpoises, cod, salmon and oysters. It also looked at coastal habitats, including mudflats, rocky reefs and salt marshes. It concludes that two-thirds of the species fished for food are overexploited, and that without tougher controls on fishermen and industry some will disappear. The WWF said: \"Cod has been fished unsustainably for years. It is threatened with commercial extinction.\" However, figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food reveal that fishermen are stripping more life from the sea than ever, taking 772,000 tons of fish and shellfish last year, up from 600,000 in 1990. The ministry says the en-dangered species include cod, monkfish and nephrops, otherwise known as scampi. The decline of dolphins and porpoises is perhaps the most obvious sign of damage. Populations of bottlenose dolphins around Britain were stable until they recently suddenly started falling. Destruction of their food supplies through overfishing is a big factor, but many also drown after being caught in nets. The effect of pollution is also severe. Scientists said a baby bottlenose dolphin washed ashore in Cardigan Bay was one of the most polluted animals ever found. Inland, wild salmon are disappearing from many British rivers largely because of fish farming, the report warns. The WWF wants changes in legislation to halt the damage and give threatened species a way of recovering. These include turning some of the waters around Britain into protected areas where fishing and other commercial activities are banned, and an oceans act to protect the coast, seas and sea bed. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 37, "subject": "Mystical woodland walks", "response_count": 43, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2000 (23:31)", "body": "These walks I know well. One springs to mind from long ago in the remotes West Virginia. Cathedral arched created by great lacy elms. Mossy rocks held the banks of the clearest stream on earth. An ethereal calm and peace descends on you in there. Senses sharpened not in fear but in some sort of communion with the entire surrounding nature. I always thought it the lovliest place on earth and perfect for a wedding. More recently i felt that affinity on a hike through the High Sierra of California surrounded by the most incredible trees I have ever seen. Sequoia! You think you are prepared for them by reading the literature and seeing so many pictures. Wrong! It is a profoundly moving experience just to dwell in their shade for a little while. Americ, thank you for creating this wonderful topic. Geo is Honored to have you here! Aloha"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 12, 2000 (00:16)", "body": "Have you visited the Ent Woods? I think they would be very like your mystical woodland walks..."}, {"response": 3, "author": "americ", "date": "Wed, Jul 12, 2000 (09:33)", "body": "Where are the Ent Woods?"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 12, 2000 (12:55)", "body": "The Ent Forest lives in \"The Lord of the Rings\". Guess that must have gotten past you in your youth. I discovered it in college and have bound copies... It has all the elements of wisdom and ethereal ancientness which my mystical woodlands need. Some time when you have lots of time..."}, {"response": 5, "author": "americ", "date": "Thu, Jul 13, 2000 (09:30)", "body": "Actually, I did read Rings . Thank you for reminding me. One of the most magical periods of my life."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 13, 2000 (12:24)", "body": "Thought you might have. I think it is time I got my copies out and reread them. I have been dealing in reality intensively lately. A need a break! Nuthing like a good read to put a little magic back into our lives!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Jul 13, 2000 (20:33)", "body": "When I lived in the U.K. I dwelt within a short distance of a large woodland mainly oak trees. It was magic. Especially in winter - here I imagined myself as Frodo, or Bilbo or whatever wandering through ancient Middle Earth woodland. Roman remains there too- a tile factory is within and has been overgrown with oaks and bushes. It has such an ancient feel and although at times extremely muddy and wet is wonderful to wander through. When snow has fallen, the ruts and puddles frozen over, a golden retriever by your side - chasing birds and I know not what. That is magic."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 13, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "Oh My Heavens.......I could get happily lost there forever, I think!!!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "americ", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (11:30)", "body": "Marcia & Anne -- could I copy and quote your comments above in a book I am writing??? I happen to be writing a book about Time, Love, and Money in the Internet Age -- and this theme of earth and woods is part of it."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2000 (12:35)", "body": "Americ, you have my permission, of course. Let us know how the book is going and when we may all read it. I am a big supporters (morale wise) of those who write for publilcation. I am delighted and pleased!!!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "americ", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (11:55)", "body": "Thank you!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (14:34)", "body": "*rubbing hands in acticipation of a good read. I know he can write - have read his conference...*"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (14:35)", "body": "I will contact Anne for you, Americ, but I think once it is on the internet, it is fair game. (Yes, it is polite to ask permission!)"}, {"response": 14, "author": "americ", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (22:48)", "body": "Thank you. You are very kind."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (23:16)", "body": "It is the least I can do for someone thoughtful enough to be interested in my little conference and great enough to create his own topic. I am enchanted to have you here. I appreciate and applaud the way you think."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (23:17)", "body": "By the way, the letter to her was dispatched via email this morning. We should be hearing from her shortly."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2000 (23:41)", "body": "Americ, I have just spoken with Anne and she gives her permission to use her musings in your book."}, {"response": 18, "author": "americ", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2000 (09:52)", "body": "Great...I have just incorporated both your comments into this section."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2000 (13:16)", "body": "When I return from Sequoia country in a few weeks I will have more comments to make. There is nothing quite like hiking the High Sierra with the biggest trees on earth surrounding you."}, {"response": 20, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2000 (15:17)", "body": "If those trees could talk, just think of all the history they could tell you."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2000 (16:04)", "body": "Dendrochronology is as close to getting them to talk as they have come so far..."}, {"response": 22, "author": "ommin", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2000 (20:36)", "body": "I used to imagine when walking in woodland that the trees could talk. I used to talk to them, (I am quite crazy) expecting them to answer. I used to touch the smaller oak trees and wish them a long life. But am a Narnia fan and I used to imagine I was in a Narnian wood and the trees were talking to each other as you could hear the hiss of the wind. But whos to say they don't!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 17, 2000 (16:43)", "body": "They may well talk to each other, but we just can't hear it. Even if we could, we probably wouldn't understand. You are right, Marcia. We can learn a lot from the cores taken from trees."}, {"response": 24, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (19:48)", "body": "Greetings all Two walks come to mind... Both are from the TX hill country - when I lived in Austin, I used to wander the trails of the Barton green belt. I found a dry creek off the trail and would sit. On the ground were little fossil shells scattered about - really cool. The other was when I would wander off to Enchanted Rock and scramble about the giant granite domes. There were quartz veins in the rock and I even had a special boulder at the top where I would sit and stare off into the distance. A nice place to just 'be' Mike"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (20:56)", "body": "I have just been in the environs of the Ponderosa, Coastal redwoods and the Sequoia. Took lots of pictures and will post them directly, or as soon as I return from California Mike! Fossils?! Too good!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (20:59)", "body": "marcia????????"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (22:29)", "body": "Yo Wolfie!!! Talking to you on my new laptop!!!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul 26, 2000 (22:48)", "body": "oh i'm so glad, i miss you girl!!!!!!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 27, 2000 (12:40)", "body": "Have not downloaded MSN to this laptop but will be home tomorrow... Then I shall post my spledid tree pix. I took a bunch!!! I miss you, too!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (12:22)", "body": "Where are the tree pictures?"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 29, 2000 (22:48)", "body": "On the CD David burned for me. I have a huge fever....give me a few days to recover before I attempt to put CuteFTP on the new computer and all the rest. This laptop is good, but not sure it could handle it. Patience, my dear Cheryl!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (16:54)", "body": "Get well soon. I can wait."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (17:32)", "body": "Thanks...we burned them all onto a CD and this new PC is having trouble accessing them. Any my voice does not work so I am without means of exhorting the processor to get on with it and gimme my pictures!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (19:32)", "body": "The wonders of technology."}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (23:15)", "body": "Tell me about it! Will check on it tomorrow and plead with son for another attempt if this one fails. I think it was just my new PC not finding my Q drive, so I played a musical CD on it and know it works."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (16:16)", "body": "My initial trip into the High Sierra mountain range in California involved a throw-away panoramic camera and some binoculars. I wanted, more than just about anyting else besides huge trees, to see a Bald Eagle. I did not, but then I got my pictures back this is one I noted right away. I was trying to photograph the clouds rolling into the valley at the left and used the dead tree for the right hand frame...out of the corner of my eye. Look what I found on that dead tree! I cannot claim him on my life list nor can I say I ever saw onem, but apparently I did..."}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (16:19)", "body": "The next place we went was to Sequoia National Park which has just been added to the protective list of National landmarks. I REALLY wanted to see a Giant Sequoia. This was the first one right inside the entrance with a convenient normal-sized park ranger standing beside it. Note: This tree is about 1/2 as tall as it should be - having been topped at an early age by storm or lightning."}, {"response": 38, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (16:46)", "body": "Marcia, you did well with your throw-away panoramic camera. *clap* *clap* Lovely!"}, {"response": 39, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (18:50)", "body": "Marcia, the pictures are beautiful. You're right that is a bald eagle sitting on the dead tree. It's white feathered head can be made out. The Sequoia tree is still impressive, even at half of its possible height."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (19:53)", "body": "I know...I know....My eagle!!! How could I have missed it??!! It could not have been more obvious! If I have to breathe California air I want to see Sequoias, too. They are the most astounding things I have ever seen. They are so enormous that seeing them is very emotional for me - almost like hearing great music. It moves me in ways hard to put into words. And, that was not even a particularly huge sequoia in my picture - I will hunt for others..."}, {"response": 41, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (21:51)", "body": "I have the same feeling when seeing a vast Oak, or in particular a Karri or Tingle tree. The Karri - you too can drive through. I touch them and feel they are alive - they have seen so much more than I can ever see - and I feel like weeping with them when they are cut down."}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  8, 2000 (00:54)", "body": "Yes...precisely! Far too majestic to suffer a fate so mundane. I agree!"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (17:51)", "body": "Limiting Sierra Nevada Logging Urged SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The U.S. Forest Service issued a plan Friday to safeguard a huge swath of the Sierra Nevada, proposing dramatic restrictions on logging and new protections for water and wildlife in 11 national forests. Environmentalists welcomed the blueprint, while the timber industry was critical and charged that the plan was pushed through in the waning days of the Clinton administration as part of the president's attempt to build an environmental legacy. ``It will all but eliminate logging in the national forests,'' said Chris Nance of the California Forestry Association, which represents mills, foresters, wood-products manufacturers, forest owners and others. The proposal, the product of years of study and hearings, bars logging of old-growth and big trees, protects areas near streams and meadows and calls for thinning of small-diameter trees near inhabited areas to prevent wildfires. The plan covers 11.5 million acres of federal forests, and includes protections for the California spotted owl and other species. Opponents have 90 days to appeal to the chief of the Forest Service, Mike Dombeck, a Clinton administration appointee who is expected to be in office for another four months. If Dombeck upholds the rules, opponents could pursue further appeals in court. The Sierra, a spectacular 500-mile-long mountain range that includes Mount Whitney, Lake Tahoe, and Yosemite and Sequoia national parks, has suffered environmental damage for years from logging, a growing population, traffic and increasing numbers of visitors The Forest Service plan covers about 40 percent of the Sierra. It does not apply to private or state property. Environmentalists said the 1,800-page proposal marks a welcome shift by the government toward conservation. ``It is a shift in the Forest Service's fundamental goal of forest management,'' said Jay Watson of The Wilderness Society. ``The shift is from logging to what will now be a focus on old-growth protections and reducing the risk of wildfire.'' Nance, the timber industry representative, said the plan would limit logging to 50 million to 100 million board feet annually. The Forest Service's numbers were higher - 191 million board feet during the first five years, and just over 100 million board feet after that. But federal authorities, environmentalists and timber interests agreed that under the new plan, logging would be dramatically limited. At logging's height, in the late 1980s, timber harvesting reached an estimated 900 million board feet. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 38, "subject": "THE GREAT WORK: Our Way into the future -- by Thomas Berry", "response_count": 10, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (16:04)", "body": "Thanks, Americ!!! You have returned so I shall work on posting the pix of the wonderous forests in the High Sierra of California. They are burned into my mind and onto a CD and they were, indeed, magical! Have not read this book, but for you I shall hunt it down and do so! Thanks for creating the topic!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (17:16)", "body": "are we gonna get rid of one of them? (they're are two!!) what an interesting title. may have to hunt it down myself!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (19:04)", "body": "Fro Americ I will hunt down unicorns! Yes, I am gonna kill 39 now..."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  3, 2000 (19:06)", "body": "Done... and that was supposed to read...For Americ...but, you knew that!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Sep  4, 2000 (16:50)", "body": "yes i did! *grin*"}, {"response": 6, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (18:52)", "body": "Are you really going to kill 39 unicorns, Marcia? What is the significance of this? A virtual hunt for mythical beasts."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  8, 2000 (01:15)", "body": "Oh heavens, no! Topic 39... It was a duplicate of Topic 38 and Hosts like me have \"Kill\" buttons which enable us to make entire topic disapppear forever. I am VERY careful about that button!!! If I see even one unicorn I will try to convince it of my chastity and be most tender and kind. Hast thou seen the beast who missed the Ark?? The closest I have ever been to them was the Unicorn Tapestries at The Cloisters in New York City!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Sep  9, 2000 (09:34)", "body": "The tapestries are beautiful. The Cloisters is must see when in New York. It sits in a really beautiful park, Fort Tryon State Park, I think. Both the park and the museum are worth the trip to Washington Heights. Back to the unicorns, after you've convinced the lovely beast that you are pure of heart, be sure to note if it really does have blue eyes. I remember reading that unicorns should have dark blue eyes."}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (18:45)", "body": "remember marcia, that pure of heart doesn't mean virginal necessarily *grin*"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (22:16)", "body": "*sigh* I will remember that. Now, if only I would do my duty as hostess and read this book and download more pictures of the magical woodlands... Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 4, "subject": "Gaia:  Geological Ecology", "response_count": 96, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 17, 1999 (17:24)", "body": ""}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 17, 1999 (17:25)", "body": "This is an attractive source for kids and adults. It contained the image above. http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/ A good resource page with great links (including the one above) http://www.ucsusa.org/resources/ozone.resources.html"}, {"response": 3, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 17, 1999 (19:15)", "body": "and the conference fills in...*wheee!*"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 17, 1999 (19:22)", "body": "I am trying...keeps me thinking and hunting. I am delighted you like it so far."}, {"response": 5, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (12:19)", "body": "Great conference, Marcia, I\ufffdm full of awe!! And what a brave start......\ufffdWhat we are doing to Earth and what we can do about it\ufffd is of course the question above all other questions. Terrible is that most people give a sh** to what we are doing to it. Life is short!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (12:32)", "body": "Thanks for visiting and posting. The Earth is really all there is. It is worse than animals living in their own filth because they do not know any better; we are doing it and can prevent it and clean up the rest. I guess beside giving up in futility, one corner of your world is the best way to begin. We could make great progress if we stopped triple-packaging everything and stuffing the landfills with plastic. Recycle, and really mean it! Come back often, please!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (12:46)", "body": "and not because it's the thing to do, but because it makes sense!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (13:49)", "body": "It means our survival. Quite plainly stated, either we learn to exist with the planet, or we will lose and not exist at all!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (14:09)", "body": "So, what DO we do about it??!! Can\ufffdt boast with anything much I\ufffdm afraid......all right I\ufffdm in the habit of talking, reading and writing about environmental problems a lot, isn\ufffdt that something? :-)"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (14:45)", "body": "What sort of things are you discovering in your reading and what are you writing about? Finland must have some unique problems plus the ones we all share. (yeah, and you did not know I was so keen on rocks, either...Surprise!)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "Elena", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (15:28)", "body": "Oh I knew you had a thing for rocks, why wouldn\ufffdt I?? I like big ones especially (Surprise!) Recently made a story about the erratic boulders that the continental glacier scattered here and there in the landscape. I found an amazing specialist who knew practically everything about every big boulder in the country. I also talked to a guy who managed to get his beloved boulder protected and not being destroyed by a new motorway."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 21, 1999 (21:58)", "body": "Sounds like Finland was at the top of the Glacier if the boulders are huge. Actually, Stonehenge is built of glacial debris as is Avebury ( and most likely the rest of the stone circles and standing stones of Britain and Europe.)"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 21, 1999 (22:02)", "body": "Let's hear it for the guy who beat the system and kept his boulder patch intact!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 22, 1999 (10:23)", "body": "speaking of boulders--there's a place in Kansas that has the most unique looking piles of rock i've seen. they're nearly perfectly round with deep grooves in the surface. i can't remember where we saw them (i was much younger then!). i'll do some checking and let y'all know..."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 22, 1999 (11:54)", "body": "Got any pictures or the the name of the place? Thanks for hunting for the info. Somehow, boulders and Kansas never went together in my mind!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 22, 1999 (12:48)", "body": "which is what makes it so unique! the pictures we have are at my folks' home...."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 22, 1999 (13:50)", "body": "Hustle your scanner over there and post them....please?!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 22, 1999 (14:04)", "body": "can't do that in a quick and efficient manner as they are 12 hours away. anyway, will work with them on getting the pics and will do some serious searching on the net :)"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 22, 1999 (14:16)", "body": "Thanks - I would do it, but I no nothing of the area, so I appreciate your help. Meanwhile I am off to check the net for a good webring to join. Our first choice was locked..."}, {"response": 20, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (08:25)", "body": "I learn things at each of your topics, Marcia... Fantastic work!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (12:23)", "body": "Thank you, Dear! It keeps me reading and researching - some of my favorite things to do. This entire enterprise has been such fun, and it is keeping me up on the entire field, which is a real plus. Return often!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 28, 1999 (13:06)", "body": "The Weastern states of the US are experiencing serious wild fires: Wildland Fire Update Check Out the Large Fire Map August 28, 1999 -- Good progress was made on several large fires in the West with full containment expected tomorrow on nine large fires in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas. Approximately 460 new small wildland fires were reported nationwide yesterday. As containment is met on large fires, resources are being released to respond to new and ongoing fires. Six military C-130 aircraft, converted to airtankers by the Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems (MAFFS), are assisting suppression efforts in northern California. There are currently 19 large fires in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas for a total of 200,958 acres. Nearly 12,000 firefighters are battling blazes throughout the West and are supported by 910 engines, 118 helicopters, 19 airtankers, and 1,885 support personnel. Fire Weather Outlook Scattered, mostly wet, thunderstorms are expected in Montana, eastern Idaho and Wyoming today. California and Nevada will be clear with continued hot temperatures. See the National Weather Service Fire Weather Web Page for more detailed fire weather information. Large Fires California See map for fire locations 13 Large fires/complexes; 117,178 acres; more than 7,000 firefighters committed supported by 657 engines, 75 helicopters, 16 airtankers, and 1,461 support personnel Lots of good information and fire location details at http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 28, 1999 (13:36)", "body": "For some really great information on the aerial firefighting equipment see http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/aviation/id.html"}, {"response": 24, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 12, 1999 (14:30)", "body": "haven't been watching the news the last couple of days, thanks for the info!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  1, 1999 (13:33)", "body": "From the BBC: Japanese officials struggling to contain the worst nuclear accident in the country's history say they believe the situation has now stabilised. More than 300,000 people living in the area have been told they can leave their homes but there is still a 350-metre \"exclusion zone\" around the plant. However, fears persist over the effects of fallout from the accident. Officials told residents caught out in Thursday evening rain showers to wash their clothing and said locally grown vegetables should not be eaten. Radiation levels soared to 15,000 times the normal level just after the accident - schools were shut, train services halted and farmers were warned not to harvest their crops until safety checks had been carried out. But officials say radiation levels outside the plant have now returned to normal, and local residents are no longer at serious risk. They issued the statement after operators drained coolant water and carried out a number of other measures to reduce the risk of contamination resulting from a leak inside the uranium processing plant. The Governor of Ibaraki Prefecture, Masaru Hashimoto, said he had received confirmation at 0615 (2115GMT) that the nuclear chain reaction at the uranium processing plant had stopped. The aftermath of the accident coincided with the arrival on Friday of a second British ship carrying a cargo of plutonium for Japan's nuclear power industry. The Pacific Pintail docked in Takahama, 400km (248 miles) southwest of Tokyo. More than 30 workers at the Tokaimura plant are thought to have been exposed to radiation. Two are in a critical condition and are expected to be given bone marrow transplants. The victims include builders who had been working at the plant, people who live nearby and firemen who helped in the rescue. Human error Officials said workers had caused the accident at the plant by pouring too much uranium solution into a tank. Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi criticised the response to the accident, saying it had taken too long for experts to assess the seriousness of the situation. He also held an emergency meeting of the cabinet which set up a special task force - the first time it has taken such a measure after a nuclear accident. Washington has meanwhile announced that a joint American and Russian team is being sent to Japan. Criticality Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said it was very likely there had been a \"criticality incident\" at the plant. Criticality is the point at which a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining. The French nuclear institute said the incident was the 60th in the world since 1945, following 33 such accidents in the United States and 19 in the former Soviet Union. One of the workers reportedly told an official that he had used about 16kg of uranium - nearly eight times the normal amount - during the process just before the accident. Workers normally use up to 2.3kg of uranium in each procedure to prevent a criticality accident, officials said."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (17:12)", "body": "HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK Saving an Ecosystem HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK is an island within an island. It is a shelter for what remains of the once-rich tapestry of Hawaiian life -- a tapestry unraveled by alien species. In some areas of the park, natural habitats are damaged beyond recovery. The park concentrates its energies on the most biologically diverse habitats and those that offer the best chance for successful restoration. The immediate strategy is to control or eliminate the most disruptive alien plant and animal invaders. Park crews erect fences to keep out feral animals; hunt feral pigs; and pull out or cut down firetree, banana poka, guava, and ginger. As native plant communities reestablish themselves populations of Hawaiian honeycreepers, nene, Kamehameha butterflies and happyface spiders once again flourish. In recognition of its outstanding natural values, Hawaii Volcanoes has been honored as an International Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site. The park continues to mend the fabric and promote the lasting vitality of this remnant of pristine Hawai'i."}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 1999 (17:13)", "body": "From the BBC : Secret Britain - When you take a peek inside Britain\ufffds natural treasure trove, you\ufffdll find a cache of irresistible but unsung wildlife gems. By Simon Bell. Wildlife migrates over majestic plains, soars above rolling deserts and traverses swathes of impenetrable forest. But not in Britain. The thing about Britain is that nothing can roam, soar or traverse for long without falling off the edge. It\ufffds small, compact, bijou. Tiny, but fashioned with incredible attention to detail - and detail is where the British landscape excels. Not for us the huge, impressive panoramas. Like the crowded backroom of an antiques shop, our countryside is crammed with prehistoric trinkets, imported exotics, relics from an icy age and treasures known and forgotten and, perhaps, some yet to be discovered. We have only geology, meteorology and ourselves to blame. Our landscape is prone to twisting, folding, collapsing, erupting and heaving itself out of and into the sea at a moment\ufffds geological notice. Our climate is described as temperate but rarely seems to exercise either moderation or restraint. Thanks to our own actions, our immediate biosphere has had its original, all- pervading wildwood transformed beyond recognition into a patchwork of farmland, heath, ancient grassland and coppiced woodland. Britain's charm lies in its unpredictability, in its intricacies, in the myriad puzzle-like pieces that make up its whole. This landscape is, in turn, reflected in the naturalists who explore it - the stone-turners, the crawlers on their hands and knees, and those with a predilection for powerful optics. It's a landscape that has engendered a preoccupation with the small and the beautiful. This is not to say that Britain lacks great wildlife spectacles. Half the world\ufffds grey seals seek shelter on our shores. We are home to spectacular seabird colonies, including 70 per cent of the world\ufffds gannets. Thousands of wildfowl find our mild climate preferable to the severe winters of their summer breeding grounds. Carpets of bluebells are almost uniquely a British preserve. But spectacle is not what Britain is really about. We\ufffdre an understated people, possessed of a quiet reserve. We don\ufffdt tend to shout about our achievements, and so is it any wonder that there are so many treasures that remain hidden and unappreciated? What follows is an unashamedly personal choice of some British wildlife gems. It\ufffds a reminder that what we have on our doorstep can be just as fascinating and extraordinary as the wildlife in far-flung places that we hear so much about."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 24, 1999 (19:20)", "body": "Oil From Sunken Tanker Hits French Coast NANTES, France (Reuters) - An oil slick from a sunken tanker began washing up on France's Atlantic coast Friday, bringing a grim Christmas for an area which lives by its fisheries, oyster farms and tourism. As the first blobs of oil soiled the shore in the Finistere region near the southern tip of Brittany, affecting a 40-mile stretch of coast, volunteers fanned out for a clean-up operation in what could be the start of an economic as well as ecological catastrophe. Pushed by gale-force winds, the main spill from the Erika tanker, which broke in two and sank in stormy seas on December 12 carrying 25,000 tons of viscous fuel oil, is expected to hit Belle-Ile island, to the southeast, within hours. Tests confirmed that the oil washing up in Finistere was also from the Erika. Officials had earlier said it could have come from another tanker cleaning up its holds. Oil giant TotalFina, under fire for its handling of the spill, pledged to clean up the mess and said thousands of tons of oil trapped in the vessel, lying 45 miles south of Finistere, should be pumped out. Meteo France said most of the 8,000 tons of fuel oil spilled from the 25-year-old tanker, broken up into slicks some 37 miles long, was 9.4 miles south of Belle-Ile. It said it could reach the island during the night and the mainland at Le Croisic, near Nantes, Saturday. Authorities along hundreds of kilometers of Atlantic coast have taken emergency measures to fight the feared environmental disaster. MINISTER CRITICIZED Environment Minister Dominique Voynet cut short a vacation following criticism of her absence. Her office said she would visit volunteers treating oil-soaked seabirds Saturday. Philippe de Villiers, head of the regional council of Vendee, had earlier demanded that she be sacked. The oil poured into the sea after the Maltese-registered Erika broke in two. Charterer TotalFina has insisted it is not responsible for the spill, but the disaster has proved a public relations embarrassment for the firm and chairman Thierry Desmarest sought to curtail criticism by offering aid. ``We pledge to restore completely the ecological balance in the coastal waters which could be affected,'' Desmarest told RTL radio. ``We will do everything needed to restore confidence.'' An international flotilla of pumping vessels, battling bad weather, has only been able to mop up some 1,000 tons of oil. Around 100 soldiers were on Yeu island to help and a further 120 were stationed in Vendee. Reinforcements were on alert. OIL STILL IN SUNKEN SHIP A Vendee court ordered local authorities to appoint experts to assess the cost of possible pollution damage. Council chief de Villiers had wanted TotalFina to pay. Around 15,000 tons of oil remained in the holds of the wrecked Erika and maritime authorities feared some of the fuel may be seeping out, threatening further environmental havoc. TotalFina boss Desmarest said the cold temperatures on the ocean floor should help solidify the oil. ``However, it does not seem reasonable to us ... to leave the fuel in the holds of the two halves of the tanker indefinitely. Without doubt an operation will have to be launched to pump it out. It is complicated,'' he said. De Villiers called for pumping to start at once. Government ministers have demanded an urgent review of maritime transport laws. Transport Minister Jean-Claud Gayssot said several oil companies including TotalFina had responded positively to his proposal for talks on shipping safety."}, {"response": 29, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:13)", "body": "Awful! Remember the pics of oil covered birds in the Persian Gulf after the war?"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:35)", "body": "Yes, and those in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez ran aground...ghastly! How are you doing with that terrible storm in Europe? Did it get as far south as Lisbon and Albufeira?"}, {"response": 31, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:54)", "body": "There have been showers and some wind at different times here in Lisbon and in Albufeira. We were afraid the storm would hit us for New Year's Eve but I checked the weather channel online just now and it is supposed to get better for friday."}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (16:10)", "body": "Excellent news. I can ease off on the worrying a little. Keeping my eye on that European weather map, however...I just don't trust it!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (15:24)", "body": "A few years ago I was working for an environmental group called Clean Water Action, they got the name from the Clean Water Act which was one of the first causes on which they'd worked. One of the things we were doing when I was there was calling people to back legislation for fish testing. Who knows exactly what get dumped into the oceans? But fish and seafood can be sold to consumers without being tested. We also had a list of how different types of fish ranked in terms of safety, i.e., salmon was near the bottom of the list safetywise because it spends part of its life in fresh water, whereas cod which lives in very cold, relatively deep ocean water was at the top. I remember calling this one man who lived in Massachusetts and asking for his support on the issue. He was interested and did support fish testing. (New Englanders are very politically involved generally.) So we got to talking about the safer varieties of fish and I mentioned cod was about the safest. He then told me that there weren't many cod ish left, atleast not in the Grand Banks. That was a shock. When the first European explorers got the Grand Banks they were amazed that they could dip baskets into the water, then pull them out full of codfish. But as he noted several hundred years of overfishing and then polution were bringing a big decline in the cod population. Among those most adversely affected were fisherman, something of an irony."}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (22:15)", "body": "Codfish overfishing has gone on for most of the 20th century if not before. They were considered almost a trash fish until recently when their rarity beccame widely known. Now it is polution. We are poisoning ourselves! Again! The best way to indicate love of the Earth other than tending her more carefully is this little offering to those who share my feelings."}, {"response": 35, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (17:59)", "body": "Your graphic reminded of a cartoon of the Earth I once saw. The Earth is sitting in a rocking chair, wrapped in a blanket, wheezing and shuddering, and the caption had the Earth asking, \"Is this any way to treat your mother?\" It's not that your Earth looks similar, just the thought to love and care for it better."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (18:13)", "body": "*lol* This is true! It was chosen for me since I had no idea then what to put there. I fell in love with it immediately, and since I have the new buttons up and changed the color of the hot links to match, I thought I should try one more time to make it work. It did! Thanks for noticing...(*jumping up and down quietly bearly able to contain my glee*)"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (18:16)", "body": "oops...you were speaking of the hearts circling the world graphic. I thought you meant the cover page one. If you ever see that earth in a rocking chair again on the net, please post the url for it. Thanks!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (18:25)", "body": "Don't stop jumping, I did notice the graphic on the page. Gaia, herself, would be happy with the likeness."}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 14, 2000 (18:38)", "body": "Delighted you liked it. *BIG smile and dancing a special hula in appreciation!*"}, {"response": 40, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (17:13)", "body": "Maybe you could do a graphic of a lei bedecked Earth dancing a hula; although, that would be tough as the Earth has no arms. Can't tell the story, aren't the hula dancers arms and hand supposed to tell a story? Besides, rotation is enough."}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (17:40)", "body": "...\"keep your eyes on the hands..\" as the song goes. I'll look for one like that *lol* There is a good probability that a global flower shipper has such a graphic. Thanks for the suggestion!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2000 (00:19)", "body": "U.S. Announces Program to Restore Chesapeake Bay WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Clinton administration Wednesday announced a $91 million program to restore up to 35,000 acres of environmentally sensitive land along the Chesapeake Bay and many of Virginia's streams and rivers. The project aims to restore wetlands and wildlife habitats for native creatures, including the Peregrine falcon and the Virginia big eared bat both endangered species. The conservation program will also seek to reduce nitrogen, phosphorous and sediments in streams and rivers. ``The Chesapeake Bay is a unique and valuable natural resource,'' Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said in a statement. ``Thousands of people make their living from it, and many more use it for recreation.'' The total cost of the program is expected to reach $91 million over 15 years. Of that amount, $68 million will come from the federal government and $23 million from Virginia."}, {"response": 43, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (15:32)", "body": "The Chesapeake is beautiful. I hope the animals get more regard than the tourists. Don't get me wrong, when I go to Baltimore there'a nothing I like more than -- crabcakes! I love crabcakes; however, it would be nice for everybody if the crabs were living in clean water."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (22:14)", "body": "I was hoping Autumn would read this - she lives there. I learned to sail on the Chesapeake. It was a long time ago and had lots of backwater areas which were teaming with wildlife. I hope they can save it!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (18:53)", "body": "This concerns the re-introduction of the red wolf into one of its former habitats, North Carolina. The red wolf is being re-introduced into the Alligator River Preserve; however, there is a threat to the red wolf's survival as a species. The threat is the coyote. The problem is with the virtual inihilation of the red wolf from its habitat a vacuum was created, which was filled by the coyote. Unfortunately for the coyote offspring produced by the red wolf/coyote mating are fertile. The red wolves being reintroduced to Alligator River are bred by a team of biologists on St. Vincent's Island off the coast of Florida. When the wolves are released in Alligator River they do sometimes mate with coyotes, upsetting the genetic integrity of the endangered species (red wolves). Their is controversy about this though. Biologists in Canada, when there still are intact wild populations of red wolves, contend that thier data indicates that red wolves carry coyote genes because the two types have bred together for millenia. In fact, they are closely related branches of the same type of canid, accounting for the reproductive viability of their offspring. Another group of biologists in the United States believes the red wolf/coyote hybrid is nature's way of trying to redress a balance caused by humans. The red wolf was trapped, poisoned, and shot, those that survived had their habitat divided into suburbia and shopping malls, the result the more adaptable and opportunistic coyote moved in. The hybrid is nature's way to solve the problem. However, back at Alligator River aggressive coyotes are being sterilized and any hybrid litters born to the red wolves are put to sleep."}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (18:59)", "body": "This is a no-win situation which is sure to rile both sides. Is there no option aside from killing other animals to establish a viable population - perhaps in another place?! We cannot redress one problem by causing another. Auwe!"}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (18:15)", "body": "Monday, April 17, 2000 Deformed frogs create concerns By MEREDITH GOAD, Staff Writer Copyright \ufffd 2000 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. Portland, Maine Press Herald Some had a third hind leg, others had 12 toes on one foot. There were extra bones in their feet, and extra sheaths of skin that made it difficult for them to hop in the right direction. A new study of deformed frogs has found these and other malformations in northern leopard frogs collected from Maine. The study, conducted by the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisc., used sophisticated X-rays to examine deformities in 180 frogs collected at 16 sites in Maine, Minnesota and Vermont; it represents the most extensive look to date at the bone structures of malformed frogs. Carol Meteyer, a veterinary pathologist and the lead researcher on the project, says she wanted to look beyond deformed frogs' external oddities to survey their joints, bones and other internal structures. Meteyer says she hopes the new images will give other researchers clues to what is going awry in the frogs' development from tadpoles. In her own analysis of the X-rays, Meteyer found compelling patterns of abnormalities, particularly in the Maine frogs. These findings, she said, suggest the frogs' deformities are tied to both where they live and the stage of development at which they were damaged. She is now pursuing a theory that the malformations in the Maine frogs may have been caused by a parasitic worm that gets into the skin of tadpoles. The deformed Maine frogs were collected at Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, a 9,000-acre refuge on Sunkhaze Stream in Milford, just a few miles north of Bangor. Frogs were also collected in Pittsfield and Orono. Bizarre malformations have now been found in 38 species of frogs and 19 species of toads in 44 states. The scope and nature of the deformities alarm scientists because amphibians are considered to be barometers of potentially serious environmental problems. Biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first discovered deformities in young frogs at Sunkhaze Meadows in 1997. Last year, in their own study of Maine and New Hampshire wildlife refuges, they also found deformities in green frogs, pickerel frogs, bullfrogs, northern leopard frogs and American toads at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Wells and at Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Newington, N.H. The frogs at Rachel Carson had missing eyes, missing hind legs, \"double feet\" \ufffd one foot growing on top of another \ufffd and other deformities. The type of deformity a frog has affects how well it's able to hop, catch flies and carry out essential activities of frog life. \"We noticed that when they had extra limbs, those limbs did move but they weren't coordinated with the two normal ones,\" Meteyer said. \". . . It was more than dead weight, it was getting in their way.\" Frogs with skin webs also had problems moving around. \"They can't stretch their leg,\" Meteyer said. \"It's like a tight band of skin that holds the ankle up to the hip, and so they can't really jump very well. It also causes rotation of that leg, which causes them to jump in the wrong direction. They think they're going straight, and they're actually going off at an angle.\" Because of these problems moving around, deformed frogs are pretty much doomed to short lives. Researchers rarely find malformed frogs breeding in the spring, implying that they're either easy targets for predators or poor food gatherers. \"They can't catch insects very well, so they don't put on very good fat stores and they don't make it through hibernation,\" Meteyer said. Meteyer says the precision and patterns of some of the abnormalities she found in her study were striking. All the tadpoles at a single site seemed to have received the same type of damage at the same stage of development. \"One of the reasons that the Maine site was so important is it had a characteristic signature of malformations,\" she said. \"It was one of only three sites we looked at where the frogs had multiple rear legs. Only 5 percent of all the frogs we looked at had multiple rear limbs.\" There were also other patterns. Frogs with extra rear legs also had extra toes and extra bones in their feet, she said. Frogs that had extra bones in their ankles also had extra toes. In Vermont, every study site had frogs with missing bones, \"and that was as extreme as having no hip bone development on one side and no limb on one side,\" Meteyer said. Meteyer said developmental patterns are set by mid-June, well before the young frog hops out of its pond in August. What could be causing the deformities in Maine frogs? Scientists have come up with several possible explanations. Some hypothesize that chemicals in the environment might be the culprit. Other possibilities are the effects of ultraviolet rays from the sun, physical trauma, or infection with a parasitic worm. At Rachel Carson and Great Bay, researchers found that frogs and toads were inf"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (18:03)", "body": ""}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "Thanks, Cheryl"}, {"response": 50, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "You're welcome."}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (21:01)", "body": "oh, i like it too!"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (21:02)", "body": "Yup...it's the only one we have (Earth, that is...)"}, {"response": 53, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (21:04)", "body": "you're right and we'd better take care of it for our sake. (as george carlin so eloquently put it, the earth will live without us, we need to recycle to save ourselves! --ok, something to that effect)"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (22:06)", "body": "Thanks for that timely posting. I had forgotten. The man was a genius who could make you laugh and think at the same time. I'm doing what I can...but I think more than one other person is undoing what I am doing...*sigh* All you have to do it watch a little NASA Tv feed when the shuttle is up there and see how tiny and thin that layer of sustaining air really is."}, {"response": 55, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (20:58)", "body": "to me, it just flat out makes sense. we've always had whip cream containers and butter pots around and i'm carrying on the tradition. even saving pudding cups (which we don't have a recycling deal for) and using them for seedlings. cake pans (the kind you get when you buy from the bakery or grocery store) can be used as mini greenhouses to help get your seedlings going. use your noggin and be creative!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (21:16)", "body": "Oh man, are you sure we weren't cloned or something. I do the same things! Yay, Wolfie!!!"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (21:20)", "body": "I am off to Baseball...we're gonna get beaten! By Fresno State!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (10:23)", "body": "Just before I go off to Mom's for Easter, I'd like to wish everyone at Geo a Happy Earth Day. Also a Happy Easter to those who celebrate it. Now for a few words about Mom. My mother has had a package of Ziplock bags for at least five years. She keeps washing them out and reusing them. When I was growing up I thought it was so embarassing that we took our own bags when we went grocery shopping. Then I got a little older and learned it was the better way. We don't have a spare Earth. We have to love and respect the won we have."}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (14:30)", "body": "Give your mom our best wishes for Easter and congratulate her for being on the cuttting edge of taking care of the earth. Wish there were more mom's like that. My biggest pet peeve is disposible diapers. Did not use them and would not even now. HAPPY EASTER"}, {"response": 60, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (20:54)", "body": "i did use dd's and i don't wash out the ziploc bags...we really don't use them that often. but my mom asked us to bring them home."}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (21:14)", "body": "Yeah...ziplocks have a finite life, but those with the zippers on them get my craft stuff and I use them for as long as they hold the stuff. I am still using the first ones. We need a crafts conference. Now that Terry is back, perhaps he will make us one...!!!"}, {"response": 62, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (21:28)", "body": "i use mine for craft stuff as well. and also to store some of the barbie stuff my daughter has. of course, who stuff is now in a plastic box! clothes in one, dolls in another!! oh, and glass spaghetti jars, picante jars, etc. make great vases as well as for rooting plants!!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (22:55)", "body": "Your glass spaghetti comes in Jars? Ours comes all dried out and wrapped in celophane ( not plastic) and has a label I cannot read. Like a little bundle of really skinny white shoelaces. They are called bean threads. Picante Jars with the \"waist\" nipped in part way up make pretty vases for rooting plants."}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (22:58)", "body": "oops, Wolfie, were you talking about glass jars containing regular spaghetti or glass noodles in Jars? I think I was all confused...*sigh* It must be my turn."}, {"response": 65, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (09:57)", "body": "spaghetti sauce jars, yup. *laugh*"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (11:59)", "body": "Silly me! Thanks for the clarification."}, {"response": 67, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (16:55)", "body": "Our local council is getting quite good on recycling now. We take the papers to the containers in the gym car park, and bottles, jars etc. At times it seems like a losing battle with plastic waste. I reuse what I can, but there is always so much packaging. I can't get into my garden shed, so I'm not growing any seeds this year and so won't use things up that way. Disappointing. I wish someone could get through to marketing managers that we don't want all this disposable packaging."}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (18:27)", "body": "They are very poor at it here on this finite Island, and there are things I simply will not buy because of triple or worse packaging."}, {"response": 69, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (18:49)", "body": "It was part of my reverse culture shock here when we came baak from Africa. i could not believe the waste!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (19:29)", "body": "Indeed! I know disposable diapers are a God-send, but they are an anathema to me and anyone else who really cares about the waste management problem and can afford the time to wash and dry diapers like our grandmothers did... Sadly, most of the trash around Hawaii is tossed by local people. (They like to blame the tourists, but that simply is NOT the case!)"}, {"response": 71, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "I've always felt that really great gift for a new mom is a diaper service. I know they're expensive. Instead of having a lot of people coming to a baby shower each buying a different gift; why not pool your finances on a diaper service. We did it for a friend of mine, and she said the service was the greatest thing."}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (19:19)", "body": "That is brilliant, Cheryl! May I add that I agree entirely with that, though I did not have it, my sister did and loved it."}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 13, 2000 (15:02)", "body": "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, GAIA !"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 13, 2000 (16:16)", "body": "More bureaucratic stupidity: Inspectors who monitor long-line fishing are laid off : There won't be a check to see if endangered species are caught The federal government has dramatically cut back the number of observers monitoring long-line fishing boat to see if they snag green sea turtles, monk seals and other endangered creatures. The National Marine Fisheries Service has laid off 12 of 14 inspectors Tuesday. Carroll Cox, head of EnviroWatch Inc., said the 14 positions provided monitoring for only 3 percent to 5 percent of the state\ufffds 118 long-line vessels. Long-line fishing vessels inadvertently snare endangered species such as turtles, dolphins, albatrosses, and monk seals. At a news conference today, Cox said the Hawaii Longline Observer Program under the Fisheries Service was \ufffdnever funded adequately.\ufffd He is afraid the drastic cut signals the death of the program and from now on \ufffdwe will only be guessing\ufffd at what goes on at sea. Charles Karnela, administrator of the Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Area Office, said the positions were cut because of a lack of funding and \ufffdno money is in the budget for next year.\ufffd Karnela said it is with \ufffdgreat regret that this is being done\ufffd because \ufffdit\ufffds everybody\ufffds feeling that we should have more observers.\ufffd Karnela and Cox disagreed about whether the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act mandate an observer program. Jonathan Lono Kane, regional director of the Inlandboatmen\ufffds Union of the Pacific, said the layoff showed a \ufffdtotal disregard for labor laws\ufffd as the union has been negotiating a contract in behalf of the observers for the last year, and working conditions must stay the same until it is finalized. Kane said he is planning to file unfair labor practice charges against the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, the Fisheries Service parent agency, which has not yet responded to his calls. Karnela said he was not aware that anything illegal was done by putting the observers on indefinite leave without pay, and that \ufffdour attorneys are aware of what we are doing.\ufffd Cox said his group is afraid future monitoring will depend on the long-line vessels\ufffd own documentation of interaction with marine mammals, which might not be accurate. The vessels would not want to jeopardize their own interests by reporting any negative impact on endangered species. \ufffdIf an observer is not aboard the boat, how would we know they\ufffdre adhering to the rules?\ufffd he asked."}, {"response": 75, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (13:56)", "body": "Happy Mothers' Day, Gaia! You are the Mother of Us All."}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (14:02)", "body": "Indeed! Thanks Cheryl. Did you see the wishes and gif I set up for Gaia two posts prior to yours? I decided to make my own since no one else had anything appropriate!"}, {"response": 77, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (14:09)", "body": "Yes. Lots and lots of hearts for a beloved mother."}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (14:21)", "body": "yup! At least one from each of us circling her like a huge hug. I liked that thought!"}, {"response": 79, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (18:47)", "body": "This excerpt is from the TIME special Earth Day Issue. Avoid Eating Seafood From Endangered Populations. Like fish but don't want to help wipe out species? The Monterey Bay Aqaurium has published a menu of dos and donts. It's available at http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/ Some excerpts: BEST CHOICES Dungeness crab Halibut (Alaska) Mahi-mahi Salmon (Alaska, wild caught) Tilapia Striped Bass BAD CHOICES Atlantic Cod Orange Roughy Chilean Sea Bass Shark Shrimp Swordfish FOR MORE ADVICE Environmental Defense - http://www.environmentaldefense.org/ Audubon Guide to Seafood - http://audubon.org/campaign/lo Marine Stewardship Council - http://www.msc.org/"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (19:18)", "body": "I have that issue on the desk right beside me. Thanks for posting some of the information and the great links. Definitely eat Mahimahi..but Tilapia?! They are teeny and all bones. Unless you like picking your way painfully slowly through your meal so you don't choke on the bones, stay away from the latter."}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  3, 2000 (17:37)", "body": "Science News Week of June 3, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 23 Future Looks Cloudy for Arctic Ozone J. Gorman This week at the spring meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., scientists announced that more polar stratospheric clouds formed in Arctic skies last winter than had ever been recorded previously and that the clouds lasted longer. Meanwhile, researchers say, they observed significant ozone loss. Polar stratospheric clouds hit the ozone layer with two punches. \"These are the culprits in ozone loss,\" says NASA's Michael J. Kurylo of Washington, D.C., who is a leader of the project known as the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE). On the surfaces of particles within the clouds, inactive chlorine compounds derived from humanmade chlorofluorocarbons convert into a reactive form that destroys ozone. If they linger, the clouds also drip nitric acid, lowering the nitrogen concentration in the stratosphere. Nitrogen mitigates chlorine's power to destroy ozone, and nitrogen loss\ufffda process called denitrification\ufffdleaves chlorine free to attack ozone. At the meeting this week, one international group of researchers reported preliminary results from last winter indicating more and longer-lived polar stratospheric clouds in the Arctic than they had expected. The data, obtained between December 1999 and March 2000, came from SOLVE instruments on aircraft. \"We did see patchy, severe denitrification,\" says SOLVE team member Eric J. Jensen of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. However, he adds, the team must analyze more data before speculating on how widespread the phenomenon was and whether it might have contributed to the ozone losses observed last winter. Computer models suggest that even without denitrification, other processes can cause the lower stratosphere to lose 40 to 50 percent of its ozone, says Katja Drdla of Ames. With severe denitrification, she says, the loss can total 60 to 80 percent. Also at the meeting, Azadeh Tabazadeh of Ames presented independent satellite measurements from the latest Arctic winter. Her group found that polar stratospheric clouds persisted 1.2 to 1.5 times as long as they did during the coldest winters of the 1990s. Her team reports signs of denitrification, \"but it's not severe,\" Tabazadeh says. She adds, \"Most of the [ozone] loss actually during this winter I don't believe was due to denitrification.\" The reports follow a study by Tabazadeh and her colleagues in the May 26 Science that warned of unusually long-lived polar stratospheric clouds in the Arctic. They examined satellite measurements from a typical Antarctic winter in the 1990s and the two coldest Arctic winters of the decade. Tabazadeh's group found that polar stratospheric clouds lasted half as long in the Arctic as in Antarctica. Mathematical modeling by Tabazadeh's group suggests that if Arctic stratospheric cooling continues at 2\ufffdC per decade, such clouds could last twice as long in the Arctic during the coldest winters of the decade that will begin in 2010. The date could slip to the 2030s if cooling slows to 1\ufffdC each decade. Severe denitrification could increase Arctic ozone loss by 30 percent once polar stratospheric clouds become twice as persistent, Tabazadeh's team speculates."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  3, 2000 (19:36)", "body": "Reuters via ExciteNews, June 1 2000 Report of millions of fish falling from the sky in southern Ethiopia. ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Drought-stricken peasant farmers tending their fields in southern Ethiopia got a nasty shock when the heavens opened and they were pelted by fish, a local newspaper reported Wednesday. \"The unusual rain of fish which dropped in millions from the air -- some dead and others still struggling -- created panic among the mostly religious farmers,\" the weekly Amharic newspaper said. Saloto Sodoro, a fish expert in the region, attributed the phenomenon to heavy storms in the Indian Ocean which swept up the fish before shedding them on the unsuspecting farmers. Southern Ethiopia has been in the grip of a severe drought for two years which aid officials say threatens the lives of up to 8 million people."}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (18:26)", "body": "Science News - Week of June 17, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 25 Excreted Drugs: Something Looks Fishy J. Raloff Doctors recommend drinking plenty of water to replenish lost fluids and wash away wastes. Just where do the excreted wastes go? At least a few, including hormones and heart drugs, end up in streams\ufffdand eventually someone else's drinking water, a new study finds. Though the amounts detected in water from a Louisiana tap were small\ufffdjust a few parts per trillion (ppt)\ufffdthey can be biologically active, another study finds. At these concentrations, one of the hormones measured and another found in birth control pills alter the apparent gender of fish and, possibly, their fertility. In a suite of yet more studies, collaborating state, federal, and university scientists report finding male carp and walleyes in Minnesota that were producing \"sky-high\" quantities of vitellogenin, an egg-yolk protein normally made only by females. Such feminization might explain the suspected inability of some adult male fish to make sperm. The researchers had caught the walleyes in the effluent of a sewage-treatment plant\ufffda type of facility that others have shown can release estrogenic pollutants (SN: 3/21/98, p. 187). Researchers reported all these findings last week in Minneapolis at a meeting sponsored by the National Ground Water Association. More... http://www.sciencenews.org/20000617/fob1.asp"}, {"response": 84, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (20:58)", "body": "now i don't understand this: drugs that are taken are used in the body, right? are they saying that if one drinks water in an effort to rid their bodies of toxins, they are flushing the beneficial drugs out and into our drinking water where they aren't beneficial at all? (just thinking out loud, a dangerous thing for me)"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (23:45)", "body": "That about says it. Your absorption rate is different from everyone else's and different for each medication. It also varies with what you eat. Consuming mineral oil will just about eliminate all absorption...and we ingest it second hand in the water we drink because it is eliminated by other animals as well as us."}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  3, 2000 (23:48)", "body": "United Nations Takes in World Biodiversity Watchdog By Neville Judd CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, July 3, 2000 (ENS) - A United Nations body faced with the daunting task of monitoring and assessing the health of the planet's species and ecosystems opened in the UK today. When the blue UN flag rose over the World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC) in Cambridge this morning it marked the opening of the first UN institute in the United Kingdom for 50 years. Endangered white rhinos in Africa (Photo by Steve Bailey courtesy Wildnet Africa) The WCMC joins the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as its global biodiversity information and assessment centre. Alternatively known as the Center for World Biodiversity Information and Assessment, it will help nations create their own biodiversity information systems, enabling them to develop science based policy and regulations for the environment. \"As part of the UN Environment Programme, you will help the world community confront one of its most daunting challenges: protecting the Earth's precious biodiversity,\" said UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, in his video address to the opening ceremony. \"We may be at the dawn of a new millennium, but the environmental problems we face are painfully familiar. They may even be getting worse.\" UNEP's executive director Klaus Toepfer said the Earth's biodiversity is being lost to unsustainable consumption levels in industrialized countries and poverty in developing countries. \"Overall, ecosystems and species populations have declined by 30 percent in the past 30 years and the trend is continuing,\" he said. Mark Collins, the center's UNEP director, said the WCMC would provide the accurate, accessible scientific based information vital for informed decision making on biodiversity issues. \"WCMC is ideally placed to make a major contribution to the worlds understanding of our precious living resources,\" said Collins. \"WCMC provides information about the living world, on which we all depend for the basics of life. The center provides the objective environmental data that governments, businesses and other organisations require to make strategic decisions. It also monitors changes in the natural environment to provide early warning of potential crisis,\" said Collins. Golden lion tamarin found in Brazil (Photo by Russell Mittermeier courtesy Conservation International) \"Becoming part of the United Nations is important to us because it gives international recognition of our work. It will enable us to operate at higher levels making our data more accessible to policy makers and organisations involved in environmental planning. It gives us better access to the data that has been compiled in countries by their governments. We hope to include this detailed work into our information systems and make it globally available.\" As well as working with governments, the WCMC works with the private sector, providing biodiversity information, such as the presence of threatened species and the location of protected areas. Mining companies like Rio Tinto consult WCMC when deciding whether to progress with initial exploratory work. \"This type of intelligence is invaluable, and has provided strategic input to our development plans,\" said John Roskam, Rio Tinto corporate affairs adviser. \"For example, at one stage we were on the point of signing a joint venture agreement, when WCMC alerted us to the fact that the area had just been designated a World Heritage Site and we were able to withdraw from the deal.\" The WCMC's roots go back to 1979, when it was founded by the IUCN World Conservation Union as the Conservation Monitoring Center. In 1988 the World Conservation Monitoring Center was created jointly by IUCN, Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and UNEP. In April 1999, UNEP, IUCN and the UK government decided the WCMC, already a world centre of biodiversity information, would be ideally suited as the nucleus of a sorely needed global facility. Hawai`i's State Flower, Hibiscus Brackenridge, is an endangered species. (Photo by D. Herbst courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) In recognition of its expertise, UNEP turned WCMC into its Center for World Biodiversity Information and Assessment. The revamped center will expand and emphasize its role in advice, technical assistance and training. It will help developing countries gather and handle biodiversity data while seeking partner organizations to enhance and promote its work. The center will negotiate agreements with relevant international conventions, including the Biodiversity Convention, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the Convention on Migratory Species, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the World Heritage Convention."}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  9, 2000 (18:24)", "body": "Help Plant A Tree With Just A Click One click a day. It'free. http://www.webreleaf.com/"}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 17, 2000 (12:34)", "body": "NASA goes on SAFARI NASA Science News for August 16, 2000 Southern Africa offers a unique climate sub-system where scientists can study the effects of industrial activity, biomass burning and changing patterns of land usage on the environment. Last weekend an international team of scientists launched an intensive campaign -- part of the SAFARI 2000 project -- to study this complex region from the ground, the air and from space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast16aug_1m.htm?list"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  8, 2000 (19:56)", "body": "Ozone Hole Update NASA Science News for September 08, 2000 Antarctica's ozone hole now covers an area three times larger than the entire land mass of the United States - the largest such ozone-depleted region ever observed. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast08sep_1.htm?list There is a graphic: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/4.2"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 13, 2000 (15:14)", "body": "From Maggie: uesday September 12, 2:58 PM ZDNet UK - Silicon.com - BBC - New Scientist Bacteria 'hasten climate change' By environment correspondent Alex Kirby in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard A Swedish scientist working in the Arctic circle says he believes he has found a way in which nature is speeding up the rate of global warming. He says more carbon dioxide (CO2) is being released by bacteria in the soil to add to that resulting from human activity. Dr Kim Holmen has also found levels of another greenhouse gas, methane, are increasing fast. He believes his discoveries probably mean some disturbing news ahead. Dr Holmen is associate professor of global change studies and greenhouse gases in the department of meteorology at Stockholm University. He chairs the greenhouse gas monitoring programme of the World Meteorological Organisation, is working at the Mount Zeppelin air monitoring station at Ny-Alesund, the world's most northerly settlement. Sensitive It has a population of about 60 scientists, and is on the west coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard group, about 600 miles from the North Pole. The Mount Zeppelin station has instruments sensitive enough to detect cigarette smoke two kilometres away. Dr Holmen has been using them to monitor the increase in the atmosphere of several greenhouse gases. Using as a baseline the amount of CO2 in 1860 (the earliest reliable date, he says) as 290 parts per million (ppm), he has found that it has now reached an annual average of 375 ppm. The figure fluctuates a little according to the season. Molecule for molecule, methane is 30 times as potent a greenhouse gas as CO2. Dr Holmen has used analysis of Greenland ice cores to establish a baseline for atmospheric methane in 1800 of 700 parts per billion. In August 2000, he measured it on Mount Zeppelin at 1,850 ppb. Speaking from Mount Zeppelin, Dr Holmen said: \"The increase in the amount of CO2 and methane in the atmosphere is very rapid. Feeding on itself \"It's quite extraordinary, and we must expect surprises, probably nasty surprises.\" Dr Holmen believes he has also found what scientists call a positive feedback - a way in which global warming triggers processes which intensify its effects. Ten years ago, he says, we knew that pollution was helping to warm the atmosphere. Then, in 1993, the Phillipines volcano Mount Pinatubo erupted, spewing out aerosols which cooled the atmosphere during the two following years. Human influences continued unabated, but were not enough to outweigh Pinatubo's cooling effect. So Dr Holmen concluded that there must be another factor at work as well. In 1996 the cooling gave way to renewed warming. But Dr Holmen says only part of that is attributable to pollution. The rest, he believes, shows nature taking a hand. He says: \"An outstanding feature of the global carbon cycle has been discovered because of the climatic fluctuation caused by the Mount Pinatubo eruption. \"We've a positive feedback mechanism. We think it releases more CO2 because of the respiration rates of bacteria in the soil. The natural system accelerates global warming.\" Uncertainty He is also concerned at the effect on the atmosphere of aircraft, which can cause high, thin clouds to form. These trap the Sun's heat and also enhance the greenhouse effect. \"The greatest uncertainty is clouds\", he says. \"An error of one or two per cent by a computer looking at clouds can make the difference between a warming and a cooling world.\""}, {"response": 91, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (12:30)", "body": "Countries Struggle Toward Global Climate Deal http://2kj.com/news.html LYON, France, September 15, 2000 (ENS) - Two weeks of international talks aimed at developing detailed rules for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change ended today in Lyon, France, with no breakthroughs reported on the key political issues that continue to divide countries. Michael Cutajar is executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin) Whether even last minute ministerial negotiations now due to take place in November in the Hague will succeed in overcoming the obstacles remains unclear. Here are the main Kyoto protocol-related issues that were debated in Lyon: The CDM, or clean development mechanism for transferring technology to developing countries: The focus of discussion is which technologies will be eligible under the CDM. Some countries want to limit eligibility to a \"positive list\" of renewable energy and demand-side technologies. The EU is broadly supportive of an early start for the scheme, but even it is divided over whether nuclear should be excluded. Land-use change and forestry sinks: At issue is the accountability of practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While urging caution over the inclusion of sinks in the protocol, the EU is again split. The Lyon-conference developed draft texts on the relevant articles, but they still contain numerous \"square brackets,\" denoting disputed options. Environmental NGOs have criticised proposals by the USA and other countries, that they say would enable emissions credits to be sought for land practices that have been conducted for many years. Compliance: Likewise, the key question of what should happen if a country fails to comply with Kyoto protocol rules or its own commitments. Delegations agreed on a framework containing both enforcement and facilitative elements, and that failures to meet gas reduction commitments should be dealt with through the former. However, Russia, Japan and Australia continued to oppose so-called \"binding consequences\" for non-compliance. Joint implementation projects between industrialised countries: Parties failed to agree on a proposed \"positive list\" of sustainable projects. Meanwhile, it emerged that Russia, where many JI projects could be sited, has failed to supply required annual reports since 1997. Environmentalists estimate that official figures in fact overestimate by a factor of 40 the potential carbon emissions cuts from projects supposedly under way. Emissions trading: After much bickering, the EU and the USA are reported to have agreed on eligibility criteria for engaging in an international trading system. There is still no progress on the EU's demand that access to emissions trading and the other \"flexible mechanisms\" should be legally capped. {Published in cooperation with ENDS Environment Daily, Europe's choice for environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London. Email: envdaily@ends.co.uk}"}, {"response": 92, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (12:03)", "body": "Benign Urine Industrial cotton is the world's favourite - and most polluting - fabric fibre. As David Hecht reports from Senegal, small farmers have good reason to seek out 'eyes-on' methods for growing the raw material of denim. Research by Georges Badiane. http://www.oneworld.org/ni/issue302/cotton.html Every day Dass Sangare collects the urine of his seven cows. \ufffdIt\ufffds not exactly a pleasant job,\ufffd he says, sitting in the shade beside his hut surrounded by one-and-a-half hectares of cotton. \ufffdThey usually go in the morning just before they\ufffdre milked. If you don\ufffdt get a bucket under them in time you miss most of it.\ufffd Sangare then leaves the urine to ferment for a few days, dilutes it with water and sprays it over his cotton plants. \ufffdIt\ufffds one of the best insecticides there is,\ufffd he says. \ufffdIt\ufffds also a herbicide and fertilizer, and its free.\ufffd Most important, the urine repels whiteflies (bemissia tabacci) which in 1997 were responsible for a 36-per-cent fall in Senegal\ufffds cotton production. Most Senegalese farmers spray their cotton with substances like Politrine N, Tamaron 400CE, Sherpa Monochrotophos, Nivacron and Asodrine. None have worked. \ufffdIf they would just spray cow urine once a week,\ufffd says Sangare, \ufffdtheir whiteflies would go away.\ufffd Organic-cotton farmers have had yields of up to 1.8 tonnes per hectare \ufffd almost double the national average \ufffd with no whiteflies. Helped by a non-governmental organization, Enda-Pronat, more than 500 cotton farmers around the village of Koussanar (in the region of Tambacounda, southeast Senegal) last year stopped using any chemicals to protect their crops. \ufffdAnd more want to convert. We just don\ufffdt have the support system,\ufffd says Mohamedoun Ag Mohamed Abba, an Enda-Pronat agronomist. Abba says farmers don\ufffdt just stop using chemicals \ufffd they have to have a whole new approach. \ufffdYou can\ufffdt get around the fact that soils and plants need help,\ufffd he says. \ufffdThe difference is that conventional, chemical methods attempt to transform fields into controlled environments, eliminating everything that does not maximize the growth of one plant. Organic methods, on the other hand, focus on using elements in the environment to promote the natural health of the selected plant, so that it effectively resists insects, weeds and diseases.\ufffd To see a dramatic demonstration of the results of organic methods, farmers just take a short walk down a dirt track leading away from Koussanar. There are two of Abba\ufffds experimental cotton fields next to each other, only one of which is sprayed with cow urine. The plants on one are bright and bushy-green; on the other they are grey and straggly. It is hard to believe they are the same species. \ufffdMinerals like iron, potassium and magnesium in urine act as fertilizer, while its acidity kills newly sprouting weeds,\ufffd says Abba. But he admits research is not conclusive on why only the urine repels whiteflies. \ufffdIt seems a hormone in the cow urine is the active ingredient,\ufffd he says. \ufffdWe\ufffdre also finding that the urine of female goats and sheep works \ufffd and even the urine of women has similar properties.\ufffd Women\ufffds urine has the advantage that it is easier to collect. The secret of Koussanar\ufffds success is more than just urine. Potions are made from an unlikely array of raw materials \ufffd burnt animal bones, wood ash, chilli powder, garlic and the leaves, roots and fruits of dozens of local plants. One of the most remarkable is a plant called neem, which is abundant in much of sub-Saharan Africa and is used extensively by African herbalists to cure everything from malaria to dandruff. Recent experience of neem in the West has confirmed what traditional healers have known for centuries. The farmers in Koussanar use neem to make insect repellent from the leaves and nuts, and fertilizer from the nut shells. Such techniques were largely replaced in Africa after 1945, when Western chemicals became readily available even to poor peasant farmers. For decades Senegal\ufffds Government marketing board, SODEFITEX, has given chemicals to cash-crop farmers on condition that they sell their produce back to the board. The cost of the chemicals is then deducted from their profits from the harvest, at times leaving them with nothing. Alternatives to growing cotton with chemicals were all but forgotten in Africa until 1993, says Abba. Now organic-cotton production has also begun in Benin, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda and Zimbabwe, with plans for Ghana and Mali as well. Organic cotton still only amounts to 0.08 per cent of all the cotton in the world, but that figure is on the rise, says N\ufffdGone Toure, a co-ordinator at Enda-Pronat: \ufffdMore importantly, a few years ago the experts said it was impossible to avoid artificial inputs. Now many are changing their mind.\ufffd"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (22:46)", "body": "Amazing! And, totally organic! Remember that next time you eat your organically raised veggie salad...!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Sep 24, 2000 (07:14)", "body": "The Romans used human urine as part of the tanning process. Collecting jars were left at strategic points all over town ....the snippet courtesy of the Roman Army museum on Hadrians wall and the Vindolanda site museum."}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (01:14)", "body": "Urine from any source is still used in \"third world\" countries. By the time it is dyed, scraped, pounded, sewn and tooled, does it really matter with what it was tanned? As long as I do not get odd stares, it is ok with me!"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 24, 2000 (13:59)", "body": "Climate Talks Falter, Broad Deal Now Sought THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The world's first effort to agree practical measures to fight global warming stumbled in its final stages on Friday as U.N. officials said time to seal a detailed and comprehensive pact had run out. Delegates at U.N. climate talks in the Hague said however they would try until the last minute to agree a pact on emissions controls and that a workable deal on practical steps was possible before the conference winds up on Saturday afternoon. But U.N. officials said the more modest goal was now only a broad political accord mapping out a final route to emission controls, rather than a detailed agreement. Their comments dimmed prospects of achieving the conference's formal purpose -- a legally-binding technical pact setting out concrete measures by developed countries to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases implicated in global warming. A European expert said a political agreement in preparation would be detailed enough to allow countries to start implementing some measures to fight emissions. \"It will be a detailed political statement that would be sufficiently detailed to attach to the Kyoto protocol to show how to implement the accord and give it practical effect,\" said Michael Grubb, Professor of Energy Policy and Climate Change at London's Imperial College. \"I still think the will to reach an agreement is palpable and universal, with the possible exception of a couple of countries in OPEC,\" said British Environmental Minister Michael Meacher, referring to the oil exporting cartel. The conference is trying to agree steps to implement a 1997 pact agreed in Kyoto, Japan, that called for a five percent average cut in developed nations' 1990 levels of emissions by 2010. It also wants to help poor nations avoid becoming big emitters themselves as they develop, for example by adopting clean energy technologies or planting forests to soak up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. International concern over the climate has risen in recent years with experts pointing to global warming as the culprit in increasingly erratic weather events like the floods ravaging some Asian nations and Australia this week. The officials in The Hague did not detail the reasons why negotiations had made slow progress but delegates said this was due to intractable disagreements between the big players at the talks, the European Union and the United States. U.N. spokesman Michael Williams said conference chief Jan Pronk had told government ministers that he considered no final technical deal was possible at the two-week talks even though he had extended the finish by 24 hours to Saturday. \"Ideally Mr. Pronk is hoping we can have a political agreement on this document that will have the broad outline of what we need,\" Williams said, referring to a paper by Pronk containing compromise proposals. \"We would take the broad-based political agreement (from The Hague talks) and (later) translate this into technical detail,\" he added. Williams said a broad political pact would have to be robust enough to stop any later renegotiation of key political aspects but allow enough negotiating space to clinch technical points. Signaling the sheer complexity of global warming and the political sensitivities surrounding plans to fight it, Williams added: \"All these things are so complicated that they cannot be put into one paragraph.\" The EU-U.S. row centers on a U.S. plan to allow developed nations to count carbon dioxide soaked up by forests, so-called carbon sinks, against emissions reduction targets set in Kyoto. The plan would let developed countries claim credit both for planting such forests at home and for paying developing nations to expand their own forests, although Pronk's proposal does not permit this practice to the extent demanded by Washington. EU officials say the plan promoted by the United States, the world's biggest polluter, would result in an increase in global emissions of the greenhouse gases implicated in climate change, rather than a drop as mandated by the U.N. environmental accord sealed in Kyoto. France as president of the 15-nation EU slammed U.S. proposals, saying they would actually lead to a rise in emissions of the greenhouse gases implicated in global warming. \"We are not taking a step in the right direction. We are taking a step backwards,\" said French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet amid last-minute efforts to clinch a deal. A chorus of anti-U.S. protest swelled as Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and Sweden battled floods seen by activists as the kind of damage in store if humanity keeps using fossil fuels. Those weather woes follow hard on the heels of flooding this year in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh and eastern India that has killed hundreds of people and left millions homeless. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 40, "subject": "Geo in the News", "response_count": 179, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 15, 2000 (13:54)", "body": "This is a good report on the fuel protests here. Most garages remain closed today, the odd one or two that have managed to obtain petrol run out very fast and are supplying only essential services with police monitoring. Supermarket shelves are emptying .... Think of Hannah trying to get home today by public transport from the depths of the Cotswolds. We will take her back to the accountancy college on Sunday a pubic transport of likely to be very limited then. (Maggie, thanks again!) Visit original page at LineOne: http://www.lineone.net/cgi-bin/loadcontent.pl?page=/cgi-bin/drecgi/express/00/09/15/news/n0620-d.html WE DID IT: Protesters claiming victory despite oil tankers leaving a plant in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, yesterday A disaster Blair should have seen as it thundered closer BY PATRICK O'FLYNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT WHEN Transport Minister Gus MacDonald was pressed last Friday about disquiet over fuel prices, he felt able to offer a light-hearted response. Although farmers and truckers had blockaded an oil refinery in Cheshire the night before, he was confident that would prove a temporary aberration. Challenged about the possibility of Britain following the French example, he dismissed the idea, joking that \"dump the pump\" day in August had received a \"very British response\". But \"dump the pump\" flopped because it tried to cut the insatiable demand for petrol. This week campaigners had the much more potent idea of cutting the supply. Fewer than 2,000 protesters were needed to blockade a few dozen key installations and bring Britain to a halt. The protesters found key groups were on their side. Oil company bosses did not seem keen to force tanker drivers to cross relatively token picket lines. The tanker drivers - many of them former hauliers - were largely in agreement with the protesters. Police, too, seemed unwilling to impose themselves on demonstrators who were often given free rein to obstruct refinery gates. Most importantly, the public overwhelmingly backed the protest. While individual motorists had been apathetic towards \"dump the pump\" in August, here was a dramatic demonstration that they could actually contribute towards by embracing the pump and buying fuel. The public have seen little evidence of either violence or intimidation on the picket lines and the mild September weather has reduced their need for fuel. To many the lack of petrol has simply provided an excuse for a day off work. But another, more political force was also at work. Last week did not show Tony Blair's administration in its best light. The downfall of Mo Mowlam brought tales of poisonous egos. The Dome fiasco was a cause of public fury. Lumbered with a pathetic official opposition, perhaps the public was in the mood to teach Blair a lesson itself. Although the fuel crisis came close to disaster, it hasn't done so yet. We are near the edge of the cliff but there are signs the demonstrators are cute enough not to throw us on to the rocks below. In the meantime, many people have enjoyed the spectacle of the Prime Minister squirming. It is a lesson from the governed to the Government. So why did petrol spark this uprising? One reason successive Governments have piled duty on petrol is that they believed it was a relatively invisible way of raising revenue. High fuel duties also have the virtue of taxing pollution rather than work. But this ignores the fact that for millions of Britons, driving remains the only practical way of getting around. Throw in crude oil price rises and soaring insurance premiums - in part due to another stealth tax - and it is easy to understand why \"Mondeo man\" has reached the end of his tether. Since 1996 the price of petrol has soared 48 per cent. Yet ministers assumed motorists would continue to tolerate being treated as cash cows. By Monday night, Mr Blair was on the case. Four days after news of the first blockade, emergency powers had been invoked. In Whitehall, that is a lightning response. Shockingly, it was not fast enough. Modern businesses do not tie up working capital in stock. They have developed delivery systems which get goods to the shelves \"just in time\". Normally this cuts out waste. But it leaves retailers hugely vulnerable. In part, ministers failed to pick up on rising resentment as they are insulated from ordinary life. All week they are zoomed around in chauffeur-driven cars. At weekends they have free flights and train tickets to get to constituencies. For those who drive, a generous mileage rate more than covers the cost. So when the barricades went up they were as non-plussed as Marie Antoinette in the French Revolution. So much to learn and so little time. Countdown to a trauma that kept growing each day FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8: Farmers and lorry drivers set up blockades at Stanlow, in Cheshire, and Hemel Hempstead, in Herts. Truckers brought the A1M to a standstill near Newcastle. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9: The Daily Express says in a front-page report: \"Demonstrators "}, {"response": 2, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 16, 2000 (13:07)", "body": "Saturday September 16 11:29 AM ET European Fuel Protests Wane, Britain Recovers http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20000916/wl/energy_europe_dc_28.html By Clifford Coonan BERLIN (Reuters) - The wave of fuel price anger sweeping through Europe slowed Saturday but sporadic protests continued in Germany and Sweden. Swedish demonstrators blocked a ferry terminal and more disruptive action was planned for Monday in Norway. In Britain, fuel-starved motorists laid siege to petrol pumps as supplies started trickling back to filling stations after a week of paralyzing protests. Businesses across Europe counted the cost of a week of chaos which caused huge traffic disruption and badly shook several governments. Britain's Institute of Directors said UK companies could face a $1.41 billion bill, with hotel, manufacturing and transport businesses particularly hard hit by lost output and lay-offs. British Prime Minister Tony Blair refused to bow to demands for a cut in fuel taxes but a newspaper poll Saturday showed widespread criticism of his handling of the crisis. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has been similarly steadfast and his Social Democratic Party reiterated its plans to raise energy taxes. Saturday's protests in Germany focused on Schroeder's home town of Hanover, where some 150 trucks rumbled through the streets in a giant convoy, police reported. Truckers also staged a symbolic motorway go-slow near Ulm in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Interior Minister Otto Schily warned Saturday he would have no hesitation in deploying police if the situation should escalate. The Swedish protests centered on the western port of Helsingborg which runs ferries to the Danish port of Helsingor (Elsinore), north of Copenhagen, and is one of the main links between Sweden and the rest of Europe. Heidi Bodensjo, a spokeswoman for the blockade, said the protesters were letting through trucks carrying perishable food or medicine, private cars and tourist buses, but were waving other trucks to one side. Taking Stock In Ireland, where thousands of lorries clogged major roads around five cities Friday, truckers met to consider their next step. They said they wanted more talks with the government but did not plan to continue their protests. Dutch truckers were due to meet government officials after big protests in The Hague. Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm, preparing next week's 2001 budget, said the government representatives would ``not come empty-handed,'' ANP news agency said Friday. France and Italy have made concessions on fuel prices to stop the protests. But British Chancellor (Finance Minister) Gordon Brown reiterated his rejection Saturday of any knee-jerk cut in fuel duties in response to the protests and said the public backed him. However he said the government, which has set up a task force to avoid a repeat of the protests, was listening and would take a decision on fuel duties in the normal budget process. Brown also repeated his call for more pressure on OPEC oil exporters to open their taps and bring down the price of world oil, which has soared to over $30 a barrel."}, {"response": 3, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (09:35)", "body": "Cross post this elsewhere Marcia, if you think it fits better.... From Tony .... Areas of Britain threatened by environmental problems Sunday Times, Sept 17 Pollution, flooding and subsidence are blighting millions of homes. Sarah Toyne explains how to tell if you are affected Is your home on environment blacklist? Dampener: the Environment Agency says that today's extreme floods could become tomorrow's norm A HOME on the river bank or by the sea may sound idyllic, but global warming is threatening many such properties with flooding. Millions of homes in Britain are being blighted by this and other environmental problems. Finding out whether your home is at risk from flood or wind damage, is built on a polluted site, or lies in an area of high radon levels is becoming as important as checking whether the structure of the property is sound. Owners of blighted homes are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain insurance. They may also have to pay to clean up pollution and even their health may be jeopardised. However, the internet is making it easier than ever to check the environmental status of your home, and most surveyors should be able to commission a specialist search on your behalf. If you buy a home now without checking, it may be difficult to sell in the future when such surveys become a routine part of buying a house. Last week the Environment Agency held its second annual Flood Action week. More than 5m people are now affected by the risk of flooding and 1.85m business and residential properties are blighted. Sir John Harman, chairman of the Environment Agency, says: \"Flood risk is now a fact of life. Looking at recent history, floods are on average nearly twice as frequent as they were 100 years ago. \"A typical flood that may now happen on average once in 100 years could occur as frequently as every 10 or 20 years in future. In short, today's extreme floods could become tomorrow's norm.\" The agency has written to 800,000 of the worst-affected homes and businesses. It has also set up Floodline (0845 9881188) where those affected can get advice on how to protect their homes. Alternatively, anyone online can visit its website at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/flood and get practical information. One of the big problems, according to the agency, is that only 5% of the 1.85m properties that are at risk are adequately protected - many are either not insured or under-insured. According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the average claim for flood damage is \ufffd6,000. It admits that people living in high-risk flood areas are likely to pay higher premiums. However, many may have problems obtaining cover at all as most insurers have bought sophisticated flood-risk data.The Environment Agency is calling on insurers to offer lower premiums to prudent homeowners who take precautions against flooding. It says that people who take steps such as moving electricity and gas meters upstairs, or mount electrical equipment such as televisions high on the wall should be rewarded. It also believes insurance companies should provide a flood-only insurance option for homeowners, particularly those on low incomes who cannot afford comprehensive cover. But flooding is just one of the many hazards that can affect your house price as well as your health and insurance premiums. There are 166,500 homes in Britain within a mile and a half of sites that are releasing substances that may cause cancer. More than 300 factories are releasing substances such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, mercury and particulates. Changes in legislation now mean that by law you must be told if your property is built on contaminated land. But for any other environmental risks it will depend on how thorough solicitors or surveyors have been when they did their searches. If you live on contaminated land, you may be liable for the costs of cleaning up the problem if the original polluter cannot be found. One of the most harmful chemicals is radon, the second biggest cause of lung cancer in Britain. Some of the worst affected areas are in Plymouth, Swansea and Northampton (see map). However, in simple cases the problem can be solved by installing extractor fans in your home. One in 50 properties suffers subsidence problems. There are almost 8,000 postcodes in Britain that are at risk from subsidence, with 295 at a very high risk. Areas with the largest potential number of homes with a high risk from subsidence include parts of Guildford, Southend-on-Sea, Preston and east London. Southend is also an area with a large proportion of homes at risk from landslides. Parts of Cardiff, Canterbury and Bristol have the same problem. CONTACTS www.abi.org www.environmentagency.gov.uk/flood www.fish4homes.co.uk www.homecheck.co.uk www.homesight.co.uk www.upmystreet.com"}, {"response": 4, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (09:37)", "body": "How to do your own environmental check in Britain The good news is that it is now much easier for homebuyers to carry out their own environmental checks. Homecheck (www.homecheck.co.uk) collates information about environmental hazards, such as air pollution, subsidence and proximity to landfill sites. By simply inputting your postcode into the website, you can find out for free what the environmental risks are in your area. It will then rate your property according to a whole range of hazards. The site is proving popular - it has registered 2m searches since it was launched three months ago. Brendan Doyle, chief executive of Homecheck, says: \"Most housebuyers look at 10 properties but commission surveys on one. People can not only assess risks before they commit themselves to a contract but obtain a range of data, which may not be included in conventional searches.\" By Christmas, Homecheck will offer an e-mail alert service that will notify you of new hazards, such as planning applications or landfill sites. Anyone concerned about radon should contact the National Radiological Protection Board on 0800 614529 to arrange an assessment and advice about how to fix the problem."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 18, 2000 (22:14)", "body": "Wow!!! Maggie...great stuff right here!!! Mucho Mahalos for those scary posts!!!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (21:25)", "body": "Maggie sent this wondering where to post it. I wonder about it, too... Satellite technology is being used to assess the prevalence of a parasitic worm which could prove a threat to life. A research team, based at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, used images taken from space to work out exactly which parts of a large tract of Africa were most likely to be harbouring the worm, called Loa Loa. Although human infestation by Loa Loa, or eyeworm, can cause health problems, the satellite mapping was needed because the creature is impeding efforts to eradicate a separate illness, called river blindness. more... http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_936000/936163.stm"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 22, 2000 (21:28)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 9/22/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ BLACK DEATH! It came in the 14th century, with unspeakable horror. By the time it left, it had taken a third of the known world with it. How did it start ... and why didn't it kill everyone? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=79142&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S You're at the Salem Witch Trials It's 1692 in Salem, Mass., and the slightest accusation of witchcraft could get you hanged or crushed under massive rocks. Enter a world of fear and madness the likes of which the world has never seen. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=79142&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S The Day the Sky Went Dark On Palm Sunday in 1935 farmland turned to desert, as the Dust Bowl was born. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=79142&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Terror at the Olympics Palestinian terrorists in 1972. An unknown bomber in 1996. Brutality played out on the world's largest stage. Find out what's being done to make sure that Sydney isn't added to that horrible roll call. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=79142&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Bring the \"Extreme Australia\" Video Home Learn all about Australia \"Discovery\" style; you'll be introduced to the creatures and geologic oddities unique to this remarkable continent. Explore the delicate beauty of the Great Barrier Reef and much, much more. Pre-order your copy today at the Discovery Store. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=79142&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED ... Why traffic stops for no apparent reason? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=79149&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Why Teflon sticks to the pan? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=79149&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Why some people can roll their tongue and some can't? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=79149&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S How they test sunscreen? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=79149&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Why the water in your toilet twirls clockwise? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=79149&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Where fruit flies come from? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=79149&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S How the \"evil eye\" got started? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=79149&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Why sneezes come in bunches? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=8&c=79149&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= WHY DIDN'T I HEAR ABOUT THIS BEFORE? It really happened, but you probably never heard about it. Get the story behind the airplane that crashed into the Empire State Building, and the mayor who climbed 79 flights of stairs to see it. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=79154&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S White House or Animal House? If you think that politics is a tough business today, take a look at the slings and slurs of 19th-century elections, and Andrew Jackson's particular way of opening up the White House to the common folk. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=79154&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S It Came From Hollywood! Their job is to deceive us and make us love it. Get the secrets behind some of the greatest movie special effects ever, then watch Buster Keaton's classic film, \"The General,\" in its entirety. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=79154&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=79154&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Fractal Music: The Sound of Chaos Catch a preview of the music that your kids just may use to drive you crazy, then find out about the pioneers you can blame from your asylum. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=79154&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S PLAY OUR NEWEST GAMES It's Not Your Mom's Solitaire It may have been your very first computer experience, but wait until you see what Discovery.com has done with Solitaire, the game that used to be just a great way to kill time. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=79332&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Can You Give Us the Missing Link? What historical figure linked presidential candidate Alf Landon with dancing legend Bill \"Bojangles\" Robinson? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=79332&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S The Appraiser's Corner Is your fortune gathering dust in the attic? Is Aunt Edna's Robert E. Lee brooch really just a cheap trinket? Our online appraiser will give it to you straight. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=79332&pr=445&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Wanted: Mother Nature's Assistant Let's say the old girl is cutting back on her work day, and she's looking for someone who can take up the slack. See i"}, {"response": 8, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (04:22)", "body": "Good grief!!! now I'm brain dead after looking at that lot!!!! The banners on Discovery channel are a pain when you only have a small laptop screen (and mine is 15\") ...."}, {"response": 9, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (07:00)", "body": "Couldn't decide where to put this, so put it here, cross post Marcia if I got it wrong ... Saturday, 23 September, 2000, 10:16 GMT 11:16 UK African dust 'killing Caribbean coral' Bacteria in the African dust damages the Sea Fan coral http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_938000/938670.stm By Iain Haddow in Miami , Researchers in the United States say they suspect dust clouds which originate in North Africa could be to blame for a decline in the coral reefs in the Caribbean. A team of scientists based in Florida found that bacteria contained in the dust was responsible for a sharp drop in one type of coral found in the region. Global warming and pollution have long been thought to cause damage. Many factors are thought to be behind the gradual decline in coral reefs - the fragile underwater ecosystems which exist in warm-water coastal areas around the world. But drought in Africa is not traditionally one of them. That is until a team of researchers, led by Gene Shinn of the United States Geological Survey, began looking into the large dust clouds blown across the Atlantic Ocean from North Africa every year. Bacteria They have linked bacteria present in the dust to a sharp decline in a coral called the sea fan. One drop coincided with a year of extreme drought in the Sahel, which caused a large increase in the amount of dust arriving in the Caribbean. Hundreds of millions of tonnes of the dust particles are carried over the ocean every year, and Mr Shinn says the US space agency Nasa is now investigating to see whether the dust is causing respiratory problems in the Caribbean islands. \"We've learned that there's a high incidence of asthma in the Caribbean, especially among children,\" Mr Shinn said. \"That's the thrust of the Nasa-funded work - it's to see what's in the dust, to see if it could be causing some of the problems,\" he added. Mr Shinn says the findings could change the way scientists look at coral reef systems. Until now, global warming and pollution were considered to be mainly responsible for the world's shrinking coral reefs. But just as acid rain was eventually shown to cause deforestation across whole continents, the dust particles in Africa could prove to be much more harmful than previously thought"}, {"response": 10, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (11:26)", "body": "A reef off Jamaica which is now considered pretty much dead, was said to have been doing well back in the 1970's. That wasn't that long ago, and entire coral reef killed in less that 30 years."}, {"response": 11, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (11:41)", "body": "yes, it's SO sad to see. Coral which is living is so beautiful, and an amazing sight (although I have ever only seen it on TV I'm afraid), whilst patches of dead coral deaden the heart. It is not only the death of the coral but the reeflife that it supports that is of concern."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (02:21)", "body": "We have thriving coral! I will give it your regards and so on as it slices my foot open (I do my snorkeling wearing old sneakers.) Just as the reef-eating starfish attracted attention and alarm several years ago, it was discovered that it was cyclical and it has not been an issue for years. Africa is not a new continent and the grit it has blown in the westerly direction is as old as the earth itself. I think it might be cyclical, as well, unless the people and animals have denuded the place so severely that nothing will ever hold the soil in place again. In that case, adaption will take over and new forms of life will replace what was there."}, {"response": 13, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (03:46)", "body": "Yes, the denuding of West Africa in particular is a current concern ....desertification is creeping south at an alarming rate. I'm not convinced the 'problem' described above is cyclic as far as the African dust is concerned. As desertification increases, the dust storms have also increased which I think, in my ignorance, means that airborne and seaborn dust increases. Huge tracts of land in Northern Senegal for example are now deserts and infertile. The govt has acted to try and stem the loss of trees, but as there is very little other fuel, people will collect what they can in order to cook and survive."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (14:02)", "body": "This is going to pose a question no one wants to discuss, but someone must. You have been there, so I am asking you and all others who have opinions The USA and other countries have been saving the starving of Africa since I can remember. I never stops. If we have succeeded in saving the children from starvation, they will mature and have more children which will exacerbate the problem. Ok, gang... moral dilemma. What do we do and where does it stop?!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (21:56)", "body": "well, no offense to our fellow africaans-but the US needs to feed its own children. and i know that sounds cruel. but, believe it or not, we do have a starvation issue in this country. it just doesn't get the publicity our \"international causes\" do. i don't understand how we can send so much food abroad when our farmers lose their crops because of severe weather. where does it come from? and then, how do people in saudi and the middle east survive when they are desertified as well? we know that they have desalienation plants and they are making efforts to take the desert back. this does cost lots of money. but it's worth it."}, {"response": 16, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Sep 26, 2000 (18:15)", "body": "It is a very difficult issue to address. As Wolf noted there is a problem with malnutrition and hunger within the United States. The problem with international issues of starvation is that it is often exacerbated by other causes; sometimes even the outcome and/or device of something else. The famous famine in Ethiopa in the 1980's was part of policy of attrition carried out within the framework of that country's civil war. I honestly don't know what can be done or when it will stop. The Earth does contain finite resources; it can only maintain a limited amount of all lifeforms, both plant and animal. There is a limit on how much population the Earth can sustain."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (02:18)", "body": "Indeed! One day, God willing, someone will have learned a lesson from our misuse of our resources. And... breeding ourselves into oblivion!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (00:32)", "body": "This from Maggie - could fit anywhere, as she pointed out! Thursday September 28 12:28 AM ET Antarctic Study Paves Way for Search for Martians LONDON (Reuters) - Experiments in Mars-like areas in Antarctica could provide clues about how best to search for signs of life on the inhospitable red planet, U.S. scientists said on Wednesday. Scientists from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) found that mysteriously high salt concentrations in the exposed soils of Antarctica's Dry Valleys -- areas perennially devoid of snow and ice cover -- were due to sulfur-emitting marine algae. In a discovery important for Martian exploration, the scientists also found that digging more deeply into the soil of the Dry Valleys yielded higher concentrations of biologically produced sulfates. This might be because these sulfates migrate down through the soil, the scientists said in the science journal Nature. ``What this tells us is that when we go to Mars to retrieve soil samples, we're going to have to go below the surface to retrieve samples, because these sulfates may migrate,'' Mark Thiemens, dean of UCSD's division of physical sciences, said in a statement. ``By studying the soil of the Dry Valleys, you really have a good glimpse of what can happen on Mars. The conditions of the Dry Valleys are about as close as you're going to get to the conditions on Mars,'' he added. A spokesman for the National Science Foundation, which part funded the UCSD study, said the research would prove invaluable. ``It is very important in helping us to design experiments for spacecraft that may one day visit other planets,'' said Scott Borg, who manages the NSF's Antarctic geology and geophysics program."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (14:15)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 9/29/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ MUMMIES THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD! Over a thousand years old, these mummies should have decayed long ago. So, why didn't they? And what can they tell us about our ancient past? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=84280&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Meet a Mummy Face to Face Now researchers can put a face on the ancient Egyptians and see how they looked before they were mummies. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=84280&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Bring a Piece of Egypt into Your Home Did you know the linen used to wrap one ancient Egyptian mummy could stretch almost an entire mile? While we can't offer you an original, the Discovery Store has something to satisfy any Egyptophile, from unique statues to replica artifacts. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=84280&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S HUBBLE'S GREATEST PHOTOS Our first glimpses of the distant universe have not disappointed. Check out our gallery of the galaxy, and beyond. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=84317&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Life on Mars? Attention, Earthlings. Does evidence of liquid prove that there was Martian life? We have the latest thinking, and while you're here, why not take our quiz to see how much you really know about the Red Planet? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=84317&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=84317&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Who Owns the Moon? Despite the disappointing lack of cheese, the moon is full of resources that we could use. The question is: Who has the rights to profit from the moon? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=84317&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= STREAMING VIDEO SHOWCASE Live From the Civil War? What if the War Between the States were televised? Check out our interviews with Union and Confederate soldiers, and witness the bizarre demise of Stonewall Jackson. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=84320&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Sleep With the Fishes Actually, it's not quite THAT relaxing. Now you can hang out with sharks at the top of the ocean food chain, without fear of losing your life or your limbs. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=84320&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Your Date with a Gorilla No appointment necessary. Drop by whenever you can and spend a little time with the gorillas from a Boston Zoo. But be careful, you may fall in love with the big lugs. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=84320&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S What's Up at the Airport? Go live to Boston's Logan Airport to see take-offs and landings all day long. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=84320&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S CROSSWORDS: YOU CHOOSE THE THEME! Is today a dinosaur day or a dating day? Would you prefer to tease your brain with lizards or facts about London? Test your word power and worldly knowledge all at once with our themed crossword puzzles. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=84326&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Put \"Anagram Solver\" to Work Not sure if you're up to the challenge of scrambled words? We specialize in bringing order to chaos and confusion. Find the solution to any anagram here. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=84326&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Words to the Wise: Start Scramblin\ufffd Got a way with words? Then play Scramblin'. The challenge is to scramble the letters of one word to make as many new words as you can! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=84326&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S NEW LIVE CAMS Baby Cam http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=84328&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Hippo Cam http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=84328&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Kodiak Bear Cam http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=84328&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S SPIDERS: A TRUE ADVENTURE Spiders Down Under Australia may be a modern, hospitable place if you're an Olympic athlete, but if you're searching for new spider species in the Outback, things can get a little sticky. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=84462&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S See Our Gallery of the Coolest Spiders! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=84462&pr=491&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Watch Eco-Challenge Any Time You Want You saw the thrilling, suspenseful action on Discovery Channel, now take home the video that captures it all! Competitors penetrate dense forests, navigate wild rapids, kayak a glacial fjord and climb a 12,000-foot summit mantled by ancient glaciers, all while braving the intense Patagonia terrain and weather. Visit the Discovery Store to order your copy today. http://ww9.lf"}, {"response": 20, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Sep 29, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "Whew!!! this is so much stuff my head's spinning .. Will look later when it is not 12.30 am and I am so tired ... Good stuff! HUGS"}, {"response": 21, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Oct  2, 2000 (14:36)", "body": "If you're going to ever physically hang out with the gorillas, you should make sure that you're in good health. Gorillas can catch just about any diseases humans carry."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (22:12)", "body": "This isn't really Geo but trather of world importance. I have seen the Enigma Machine and it is a world treasure, Indeed! Museum to Pay Ransom for Nazi Decoder LONDON (Reuters) - A former British spy center said on Thursday it plans to pay a ransom of 25,000 pounds ($36,300) to recover a stolen Enigma coding machine used by the Nazis. The author of the ransom note, who claims to be acting on behalf of someone who innocently bought the rare typewriter-like device, has threatened to destroy the Enigma unless the money is paid by midnight on Friday. ``It strikes us that this is the best chance of getting it back,'' Christine Large, director of the trust that runs the once top-secret Bletchley Park estate as a museum, told Reuters. ``It would be historical vandalism if this machine is destroyed.'' Police and Bletchley Park officials believe the note is genuine because the author, who has written other letters about the Enigma, used a designated codeword. Police hope the author will contact them directly to arrange details of the swap. The Enigma, one of only three in the world, was lifted from a display cabinet in April during an open day at the estate northwest of London -- code-named ``Station X'' during World War Two -- where the Nazi code was broken."}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 20, 2000 (20:06)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 10/20/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ HALLOWEEN CENTRAL: YOUR FEARS ARE REAL You don't need fictional characters to get into the Halloween spirit. We have true stories of witches, bats, mummies and more, guaranteed to scare your socks off. (Disclaimer: Remove shoes for best sock extraction results.) http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=97642&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Make Your Halloween Special! Create your own costume, carve a pumpkin or check out our frighteningly delicious recipes from \"Great Chefs\". http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=97642&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Confessions of a Chocolate Gourmet Meet Joan Steuer, who is to chocolate what a somalier is to fine wine (but without the attitude). She may be able to shed some light on why you can't seem to leave your Halloween candy alone. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=97642&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Check Out a Goblin Shark They're rarely seen, but with a name like this, how could we leave these creatures out of our Halloween fun? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=97642&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S FREE Clip Art! There are enough things to be afraid of at this time of year without fear of that big report due or Halloween card you promised to make. Use our FREE animations and clip art to spice up your presentation. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=97642&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Bring the Greatest Dinosaur Video Home! It's the ultimate journey back in time! State-of-the-art digital effects and animatronics combine to form the living, breathing images that put you in the scene of a virtual lost world in Discovery Channel's \"Walking with Dinosaurs.\" Visit the Discovery Store and secure your own copy of the original BBC version today! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=97642&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ARE YOU BEING SPIED ON? Inside the CIA Created as a reaction to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Central Intelligence Agency is more secretive than Tony Soprano's psychiatrist. Until now, that is. Follow the organization's timeline and get a rare glimpse at its inner workings. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=97643&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Want to Buy a Satellite Photo? What is your neighbor building behind that fence? You just may be able to find out from space, now that a private company is in the long-range surveillance business. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=97643&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Could That Housefly Be a Spy? The science of building small is called nanotechnology, and it may lead to espionage methods that James Bond could only have dreamed about. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=97643&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Cyberspies Some of those on your trail have good intentions and some do not. Either way, anyone on the Internet should be aware of the ways a Web surfer can be tracked and traced. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=97643&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= GREAT ESCAPES TO FREEDOM From slavery to the Iron Curtain, there are always forces that seek to corral the human spirit. Prepare to be inspired by stories of men's and women's incredible instinct for freedom. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=97648&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S GET INTERACTIVE ... DEFEAT THE BERLIN WALL Hundreds of people defied intimidating odds to escape East Berlin between 1961 and 1989. To get an idea of what they were up against, try our simulation and see if you can beat the Wall. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=97666&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Can You Solve the Riddle of the Sphinx? Answer the Sphinx's three riddles and you're on your way. (And we never thought we'd say this, but if you're stuck you can always get a hint from the donkey.) http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=97666&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Watch a Baby Grow! You went through it yourself, of course, but your womb memories are probably fuzzy at best. So here's your chance to relive those carefree days when Mom took care of your every need. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=97666&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Build a Roller Coaster We've come up with a relatively harmless way to vent that sadistic streak in all of us. See if you can create a terrifying roller coaster experience! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=97666&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Planet Earth: You're in Charge Turn the temperature up or down. Tilt the axis or adjust the rotation. Then see what your fine tuning has wrought! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=97666&pr=658&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Play Mummy Match Game They're faces that only a mummy "}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Wed, Oct 25, 2000 (08:29)", "body": "Further to the Enigma Machine story above, the machine was returned anonymously to a famous TV presenter last week, presumably implying that the ransom has been paid. Jeremy Paxman said: \"I have no idea why it was sent to me. As far as I know, I don't have a reputation as a receiver of stolen property.\" 3 of the 4 code-wheels (all of which are crucial to make the machine work) are still missing."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 25, 2000 (14:14)", "body": "Oh dear! Thanks for updating us, Mark!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 27, 2000 (16:28)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 10/27/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ SEND FREE HALLOWEEN E-CARDS! Nothing says \"I'm thinking of you\" like a good, old-fashioned scare. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=101486&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Go on a Haunted Holiday We all have our share of vacation horror stories. Well, take a look at a few destinations that are MEANT to be scary. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=101486&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Bloodsuckers: The Live Webcast A moth that drinks blood? A vampire finch? Check them out on Discovery Channel's \"Bloodsuckers,\" Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT, then stop by here for the live Webcast with folks you saw on the show. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=101486&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Kangaroo Terrorizes London Golfers and early morning dog-walkers have been losing that famous British cool at the sight of a six-foot marsupial intruder. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=101486&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Chill Out! Enough of the scary stuff. Now you need to kick back a little. Find a wide selection of relaxation products at the Discovery Store. From fountains and zen gardens to yoga and chi videos, you're sure to find that perfect gift ... or treat yourself! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=101486&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S DISCOVERY KIDS WELCOMES YUCKY.COM! The coolest kids site on the Internet is here. Meet Wendell, the ace worm reporter, and Dora, his human sidekick, and discover everything you'd ever wanted to know about your Gross & Cool Body. Play Whack-A-Roach until you're blue in the face, or create some of the ickiest experiments that'll make your friends' skin crawl! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=101488&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= MARS ON EARTH: WATCH THE VIDEO Earthlings are not yet treading on the Red Planet, but that doesn't mean we're not training for that day. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=101491&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S The International Space Station: Move-In Day Is Near No, they weren't uncovering the furniture and cleaning out the screen windows. Find out what they were doing up there this past week. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=101491&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Space Camera Finds Frog Habitats In Yellowstone National Park, the frogs may be wondering just what you have to do to get a little privacy. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=101491&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Take the Space Travel Quiz From Kirk to Krypton, science fiction has offered us a glimpse at the future in space. See how much you know about the sci-fi trivia. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=101491&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S SpaceRef: All Space, All the Time News, references, history, mission information. If it's about space, it's about time you visited the one place you'll find it all. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=101491&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Hubble's Greatest Photos Our first glimpses of the distant universe have not disappointed. Check out our gallery of the galaxy, and beyond. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=101491&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Now You're the Astronomer New Meade ETX 60 telescope arrives at the Discovery Store! This new Meade telescope incorporates ETX technology with a great price. Ideal for the introductory student of astronomy or for the casual observer, be sure to check it out today! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=101491&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S BECOME INSTANTLY POPULAR! Nicholas Boothman believes that being likeable, when you first meet someone, opens doors to success. And he can show you how to accomplish that in 90 seconds. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=101499&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Secrets of a Professional Matchmaker Maybe you've dabbled in Leora Hoffman's profession, but we'll bet your success rate can't match hers. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=101499&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Raising Teens, Staying Sane These are no longer mutually exclusive activities. Let Cathy Grubman's journal get you through to the later years, when your children realize just how smart you really are. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=101499&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S CAN YOU TRUST PRESIDENTIAL POLLS? George W. Bush is way ahead with shorter-than-average blond plumbers. Al Gore soars with green-eyed accountants whose parents were cannibals. Can pronouncements like these actually change the outcome of an election? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=101501&pr=727&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Send Your Wedding Cam Sightings Picture Have you seen an incredible Vegas wed"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "Clinton Declares NJ Disaster Area WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton declared Wednesday that an emergency exists in New Jersey and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area affected by the West Nile virus since Aug. 5. The president's action authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide up to $5 million to local governments to help protect life, property and public health and safety in 21 counties. The counties covered by the declaration are: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren. The virus, transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, has been detected in birds in states, including Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. It can cause encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, as well as meningitis, the swelling of the lining of the brain and spinal cord. Last year, seven people died and 55 others were infected in the New York metropolitan area during the first known appearance of the virus in the Western Hemisphere. Its first victim this year was an 82-year-old from New Jersey."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  3, 2000 (15:16)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 11/3/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ TOUR EARTH'S FIRST OFF-WORLD OUTPOST Meet the astronauts or hop on our virtual tour of humanity's first permanently occupied space station. And find out what it's like up there by going on an interactive spacewalk. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=105692&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=105692&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=105692&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Satellite Eyes Coral Reefs NASA isn't just for space exploration any more. Now it's helping monitor coral reefs on a global scale. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=105692&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S MEANWHILE, DISASTERS HIT PLANET EARTH Keep track of nature's wrath on the home world, like the Ebola outbreak in Uganda and a monster storm raging over Europe. And what could it mean when seagulls are harrassing whales off the coast of Argentina? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=105730&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=105730&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=105730&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=105730&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= USS INDIANAPOLIS CAPTAIN IS CLEARED It took 55 years, but Congress and President Clinton have found that Charles Butler McVay III was not at fault in the Navy's worst-ever maritime disaster. Get the full story of men stranded in shark-infested waters, that was made famous in the movie \"Jaws,\" including survival stories from the actual crewmen. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=105740&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=105740&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=105740&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S IT'S HERE! OUR NEW RICH MEDIA SHOWCASE The promise of the Internet is here today. If your connection is 56K or above, visit the Rich Media Showcase for a peek at what the future holds. What will you find there? A helicopter flight over Hawaii that YOU steer, a chance to swim with the sharks, and scientists' best guess at what dinosaurs sounded like, to name just a few. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=105749&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=105749&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=105749&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=105749&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S CHECK OUT BLAIR WITCH'S HOMETOWN Burkittsville, Md., had quite a history even before it became THE place to visit for The Blair Witch Project's biggest fans. Find out what you shouldn't miss if you go there, then see how you do with our Scary City Crossword Puzzle. (And if you're still spooked by that movie, there's a recent finding of an anti-witch device to tell you about.) http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=105759&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=105759&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=105759&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S WHAT HAPPENED TO DIAN FOSSEY'S GORILLA FRIENDS? Many believed that after her death the apes would once again fall victim to poachers. Instead, they're thriving. Check out streaming video of one of Fossey's pals grabbing a bite to eat, and a family that definitely believes in playing together. And don't miss the live Webcast with the folks carrying on Dian Fossey's legacy, this Monday at 11 p.m. ET. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=105803&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=105803&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=105803&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Do Birds Dream? Would it surprise you to learn that they dream of ... singing? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=105803&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON IN THIS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? First, we ask you to tell us which of the two leading candidates you prefer, then we'll fill you in on how they're both going after women voters, show you how they may be molding themselves to be who you want them to be, and finally, let you in on ways you can get over the political blues that overwhelm many of us at this time of year. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=105805&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=105805&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=105805&pr=785&cf=1&pa=41&e=S h"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 10, 2000 (19:56)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 11/10/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ IT'S THE NEW DISCOVERY CHANNEL ADVENTURE RACE! Follow the grueling competition live from New Zealand starting Sunday, but you can meet the 58 teams now, and find out how they plan to race for days without sleep. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=109845&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=109845&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=109845&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S MEN OF HONOR: WIN A MOVIE POSTER! In honor, so to speak, of the movie \"Men of Honor,\" we'll give away 10 posters signed by Carl Brashear, the diver portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr. in the movie. Uncover the true story behind the movie. You can watch a video narrated by Carl Brashear, the subject of the film, and find out how the Mark V diving suit really works. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=109846&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Does Hollywood Ever Get It Right? Dramatic license can turn a \"true\" story into something unrecognizable to people in the know. Take a look at some cinematic fibs and flubs, then give us YOUR best examples. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=109846&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S The Great Moon Hoax, at History Buff! Check out the scam that fooled a New York newspaper, then see how the phrase \"that's old news\" is a good thing for those who feel the allure of vintage newspapers. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=109846&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ASK AN ASTRONAUT Do you have a question for space station astronauts? Well, here's your chance. Submit your question online, and, if selected, you'll find the answers the night of the world premiere of Inside the Space Station on Discovery Channel, Sunday, Dec. 10, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. While you're there, let us know what you would bring to the space station, by taking our Discovery Channel/USA Weekend poll. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=109855&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=109855&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= SNEAK PREVIEW: NEW DETECTIVES/FBI FILES ONLINE Get a jump on the new site for \"The New Detectives\" and \"FBI Files\" before anyone else! (Nonsubscribers will have to wait until Monday.) And while you're checking out the online package, email a question to forensic artist Karen Taylor, featured in \"The New Detectives: Cold Cases\" airing on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Then look for her answers starting on Wednesday! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=109864&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S GO TO SPY SCHOOL Meet the masters of deception, tour a secret spy museum and learn the tricks of their treacherous trade. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=109998&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Products to Explore Your World Be sure to stop by the Discovery Store to check out our new look. We've made it easier than ever for you to pursue your passions with over 2,500 products to choose from. With 3-4 day standard shipping, 24/7 customer service, online order status and a host of other great features, the Discovery Store will be your one-stop shop this holiday season! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=109998&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S SEX AND STEREOTYPES Are men necessarily more oriented to the physical? Do women need an emotional bond? Much of what you thought was genetic may be the result of our social structures. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=109999&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Dealing With Bullies Many of us lost our lunch money, and more than a little self-esteem, to bigger, more aggressive children at school. What should you tell your sons or daughters who are confronted with that situation today? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=109999&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Is Your Food Genetically Modified? Labeling is not required in the United States, so can you really be sure that what you're eating doesn't come from the scientist as well as the farmer? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=109999&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S 15 MINUTES OF FAME CAM Live from the Discovery Channel store in Santa Monica, Calif. ... regular folks are mugging it up for your Internet pleasure! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=110031&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Surf Cam Vacation vicariously as sun worshippers frolic on the beach in La Jolla, Calif. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=110031&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Pet Cam It's cute kittens and cuddly puppies ... and no cleaning up after them! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=110031&pr=857&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Loosen Up at the Discovery Store! Find a wide selec"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (18:21)", "body": "Hauoli Na Hanau, Neil White tuberose mixed with orange ilima blossoms. Very fragrant. ...keep looking... where there are more babes than rocks..."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 15, 2000 (17:21)", "body": "Ant-Eating Flies May Rescue South WASHINGTON (AP) - A tiny Brazilian fly whose larvae literally eat the heads off of fire ants will be unleashed across the South under a government program to control the vicious ants that are a spreading menace to homeowners, farmers and wildlife. The Agriculture Department, which claims the gnat-like phorid fly is of no danger to anybody or anything other than fire ants, announced plans Wednesday to release hundreds of thousands of them in the South and possibly in California, where the ants have now spread. ``It is a self-sustaining biocontrol,'' said Richard Brenner, who leads a USDA research team in Florida. ``Twelve sites per state could blanket the state within five years.'' Fire ants can make life miserable for homeowners and gardeners and cause billions of dollars in damage every year to air conditioners, electrical equipment and farms, experts say. The ants can blind and even kill livestock and wildlife, and the sting is occasionally fatal to humans. The ants, which are native to South America, have no natural enemies in the United States. Chemical treatments are only effective temporarily. ``Anything that will take care of these fire ants will be fine with me, as long as it doesn't hurt anything else or the environment,'' said Kym Bell, a Cottondale, Ala., woman whose 5-year-old daughter missed several days of kindergarten this fall because of repeated ant bites on her school playground. The stings left welts the size of a half dollar on her skin. The phorid fly helps keep the ants under control in Brazil and Argentina, where infestation levels are far lower than they are in the United States. The flies hover over ant mounds before darting down and injecting a torpedo-like egg into the ants. After one of the eggs hatches, the maggot decapitates the ant by eating the brain and other contents of the head. The maggot later turns into a fly and the cycle is repeated. The flies don't kill enough of the ants to destroy colonies, but they do cause enough panic to keep the ants in check, Brenner said. The ants, which have an innate fear of the flies, stop foraging and flee when they spot them, giving native ants a chance to move back into the territory. Some scientists are skeptical that there are enough native ants in the South to compete with the fire ants. The natives have either been poisoned by humans or driven away by fire ants. ``You've got to have a really good competing ant population for the phorid flies to have an effect,'' said Brad Vinson, an entomologist at Texas A&M University. Scientists also are studying other biological enemies of the fire ant, including a microorganism and a parasitic ant. The Agriculture Department started studying the flies in 1993 to see if they could harm anything other than fire ants. Nothing other than the fire ants would attract them, including animal dung or human waste, so the government is confident they will be completely safe for the environment, Brenner said. The flies were released at four sites near Gainesville, Fla., three years ago and now have spread to 700 square miles. USDA scientists are now studying the area to see how the flies have affected ant populations. As part of the federal project, Florida's agriculture department will begin mass-rearing the flies next spring and will ship them to field sites in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. The project will cost USDA about $100,000. Discussions also are under way about releasing the flies in California, where parts of the Los Angeles area are under a federal quarantine intended to keep the ants from spreading. ---= On the Net: USDA's Agricultural Research Service: http://www.ars.usda.gov Texas A&M University fire-ant site: http://fireant.tamu.edu"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 23, 2000 (22:14)", "body": "From The Honolulu Star-Bulletin - November 23, 2000 More than a century after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and more than 40 years since statehood, an agent for the acting Hawaiian kingdom plans to defend the nation next month in oral hearings set before an international court at The Hague, Netherlands. The World Court\ufffds Permanent Court of Arbitration will hold an initial round of oral arguments on Dec. 7, 8, 11 and 12 to decide whether the United States should be involved when three international arbitrators resolve a dispute between Lance P. Larsen, a Big Island resident and proclaimed Hawaiian subject, and the acting Hawaiian Kingdom, represented by agent David Keanu Sai. While the outcome has no legal bearing beyond the case, Sai said the arguments will raise international attention on the United States\ufffd role in the demise of the Hawaiian nation. Sai, a former Army captain, believes the kingdom still exists but is under a prolonged U.S. occupation following what he called the \ufffdfailed revolution\ufffd of January 1893. \ufffdWe\ufffdre not asking to end the occupation now,\ufffd he said. \ufffdWe\ufffdre treating the occupation as a matter of fact...But the question will always arise, why isn\ufffdt the United States involved?\ufffd Larsen\ufffds attorney, Ninia Parks, could not be reached for comment today afternoon. Larsen was arrested and spent 30 days in jail in October 1999 for driving his car in Hilo without a license, license plate, safety check and registration. He believes old kingdom law still applies under a U.S.-occupied Hawaiian nation and that his rights were violated. He filed a federal lawsuit that accused both the kingdom and the U.S. of not protecting him as a Hawaiian subject. U.S. Senior District Judge Samuel P. King dismissed the complaint last Oct. 29 after Larsen and the kingdom agreed to seek binding arbitration in the World Court. The court receives funding from dozens of nations, including the U.S., that endorse its system for resolving disputes. The international proceedings began in November 1999 and there have been three rounds of pleadings filed. Sai said today the parties will ask the court to determine the relationship between a Hawaiian subject and an acting government of the Hawaiian kingdom. \ufffdThe court will either say they have the jurisdiction to hear the case between the government and a national, or they\ufffdll say they don\ufffdt have jurisdiction because the United States has to be involved,\ufffd Sai said. \ufffdEither way, it\ufffds good. See, now we go to the next step to get America involved,\ufffd he said. Sai said kingdom records show Hawaii was recognized as an independent nation in 1843 and under international law, one country cannot colonize another country. Moreover, the U.S. should have governed Hawaii under kingdom law, not U.S. law, after its occupation began in 1893, he said. This same argument was used by Sai as co-founder and researcher of the now-defunct Perfect Title Co., which based land titles on 19th century kingdom law. \ufffdThe nationals in Europe, they understand occupation because Germany was not too far away. America, Hawaii, they have no idea what occupation law means,\ufffd he said."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  2, 2000 (15:51)", "body": "Shades of Karen's Chicago Cows: The Antler, My Friend, Is Blowing In The Wind ... They\ufffd re making the moosed of their Christmas collection at Nathan Phillips Square. That\ufffds where the process of auctioning off the city\ufffds moose collection has begun. It\ufffds called the \ufffd12 Moose Of Christmas\ufffd, and proceeds from the sale are going to be \ufffdherd\ufffd far and wide \ufffd they\ufffdre going to the United Way. Oddly, none of the moose are on the loose \ufffd they\ufffdre in a secret hiding place, getting spiffed up for the bidders. To get your hands on one, all you need is a love of antlers, and a mouse in your house. That\ufffds because they\ufffdre being auctioned off on e-bay.ca. \ufffdThe bidding will start at a dollar,\ufffd explains the site\ufffds Lorna Borenstein. \ufffdNot only can you bid on any moose, you can bid on all of them if you like. It would be great if we were able to raise close to $100,000.\ufffd But don\ufffdt moose your opportunity. The auction is only online until the 10th of December."}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (15:14)", "body": "DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 12/8/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ YOUR LIFE ON THE SPACE STATION Get ready for Sunday's \"Watch With the World\" event on Discovery Channel by touring our first outpost in space, going for a virtual stroll outside the station or creating an animation of your own alien world. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=124145&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S CHAT WITH A NASA ASTRONAUT AFTER THE SHOW It starts at 10:15 p.m. ET, and International Space Station astronaut Dan Bursch will answer your questions live. Don't miss the chance to talk with one of Earth's first off-world residents. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=124147&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= MR. AND MRS. PANDA GO TO WASHINGTON Groundbreaking symbols of international cooperation, or just black and white and cute all over? The newest residents of the National Zoo are America's latest celebrities. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=124183&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Join in the Panda Fun and Games Check out the panda-themed crossword puzzle, then we dare you not to let out a big \"Aaaahhhhh,\" at the sight of newborn pandas. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=124183&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=124183&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ASK THE MURDER INVESTIGATOR You asked forensic artist Karen T. Taylor about her part in catching killers, and her answers are in! And now you can email a question to forensic expert Deborah Hewitt, featured in \"The New Detectives: For Love or Money,\" airing on Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Then look for her answers on Friday! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=124185&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S GET TO KNOW THE DISCOVERY FAMILY OF PERSONALITIES Steve Irwin IS the Crocodile Hunter No one knows wildlife like Steve, and once you've seen him you will never forget him. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=124191&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Christopher Lowell and Behold! Drab surroundings make for drab people. But Christopher's crowd has wiped out drab with his one-of-a-kind \"You Can Do It\" attitude. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=124191&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Lynette Jennings: The Chic Will Inherit the Earth Go behind the scenes with the queen of class and crafts, and don't forget to take her poll while you're there! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=124191&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S TO YOUR HEALTH, FROM DISCOVERY! Is Lasik Surgery for You? Should you say goodbye to glasses along with 750,000 other people this year? See for yourself the pros and cons of Lasik. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=124194&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Help for Preemies on the Web Check on your premature infant from your home computer, and get information on how to care for your preemie at home. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=124194&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Inside Alternative Medicine Magnets for depression. Herbs for pregnancy. Enzymes for cancer. The Discovery Health Channel uncovers the world of alternative medicine. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=124194&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Curious Gifts for Curious Kids! Zip around on a razor scooter, pet the perfect teckno puppy, listen to the magic of finger beatz, spy around the neighborhood with nightime vision goggles ... hundreds of unique gift ideas for kids of all ages! Come to Discovery Store for cool kid gifts this holiday season! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=124194&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ======================= INTERACTIVE MINDERS ======================= ***Send a Discovery E-Card*** http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=123943&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Wild California http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=123943&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Desert Mummies http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=123943&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Vintage Baseball Cards http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=123943&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Animals http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=123943&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Discovery http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=123943&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Lifestyles http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=123943&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Kids http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=8&c=123943&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Travel http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=9&c=123943&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Greetings http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=10&c=123943&pr=1066&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Travel Channel, Friday, \"Coney Island\" We'll take"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 11, 2000 (20:52)", "body": "The Twelve Days of Christmas, Hawaiian style: \"Numbah 12 day of Christmas, my tutu give to me, Twelve television. . . .\""}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (14:48)", "body": "Woman Killed by Crocodile After Night Swim JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African woman was killed by a crocodile late Friday night while taking a romantic midnight swim, a local newspaper said Tuesday. The Star newspaper said the dismembered remains of 22-year-old Tracy Hunt were recovered by wildlife officers and police Sunday in Lake St. Lucia, 36 hours after her boyfriend reported the attack. The pair were having a romantic dip shortly before midnight Friday when Hunt screamed out in pain. Her boyfriend, Claudio Celestino, turned and saw Hunt disappear beneath the water. He also reported seeing a crocodile. They were swimming at the mouth of the lake where it meets the ocean, an area where sharks and crocodiles are often seen. Lake St. Lucia's waters are infested with crocodiles and hippopotamuses -- which kill more people than any other wild mammal in Africa. The lake has several signs warning visitors about the dangers."}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (16:06)", "body": "CALIFORNIA POWER CRISIS: December 14, 2000 Steady bleeding over the past six months has brought two of California's largest utilities near bankruptcy and created a crisis in confidence that nearly shut lights out Wednesday, officials said. Earlier in the week, about a dozen companies that generate and market power told the state's grid operators they would not sell electricity in California's spot market without cash or some other financial assurance from Pacific Gas & Electric and other buyers, according to Gov. Gray Davis' office. PG&E has been losing $1 million an hour, around the clock, to high wholesale electricity costs for which it has been unable to charge customers over the last six months. On Monday, its credit rating was downgraded for the second time in four months, along with Southern California Edison's, partly because state regulators have not acted on a PG&E request to raise rates. Unwilling to bank on the utilities' credit, power-producing companies threatened to withhold power, leading to the prospect that grid operators would be unable to get enough electricity to prevent rolling blackouts. Davis and others intervened into a statewide power crisis that is looking increasingly dire. Davis and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement that high wholesale electricity prices \"may very well bankrupt\" PG&E and Edison. Davis and Feinstein added that without strong regulatory intervention, \"the lights throughout major areas of California may well go out.\" State regulators also announced Wednesday they would reconsider PG&E's plan to raise rates next month. Those developments, along with other moves by state and federal energy officials and politicians, were seen as good news by Lori R. Woodland, an analyst with Fitch Investors Service in Chicago, which downgraded the utilities' credit ratings Monday. Without state and federal intervention, \"solvency would have been an issue,\" Woodland said. \"What it says to me is that finally the people that matter are recognizing the problems and they are not willing to let these utilities fall apart,\" Woodland said. \"That's a good sign.\" Others were less optimistic. \"I haven't seen anything today that will address creditworthiness concerns,\" said Mark Palmer, a spokesman for Houston-based Enron Corp., which was among those companies listed by Davis as refusing to sell electricity in California without increased financial assurances. Palmer said his company sells relatively little power into the spot market that was affected Wednesday, but added, \"We may have had a conversation with them about creditworthiness.\" \"Compelling people to sell power, and trying to shift blame, doesn't do anything to solve California's problems,\" Palmer said. Before May, things were going along fine for PG&E. It was buying electricity for 3 cents or 4 cents a kilowatt-hour and selling it for a couple of pennies more. Then things spiraled out of control. The kilowatt-hour prices PG&E was paying were bumped up to 16.3 cents in May and hovered around that figure until last month. That is when prices skyrocketed again, so that over the past four weeks the utility has been paying an average of 27.9 cents for a kilowatt-hour. The problems for PG&E is that it is prevented, for now, from charging more than 5.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. The company is trying to lift that price cap, and it hopes to collect the $4.6 billion it has lost as of Nov. 30 to unreimbursable high wholesale costs from its 4.6 million customers in Northern and Central California. Although those figures average out to $1,000 per customer that PG&E hopes to collect for electricity that has already been used, residential customers would pay less than that because businesses use about two-thirds of the utility's electricity. PG&E spokesman Ron Low said the company continues to have the credit needed to buy power. Asked about the prospect of bankruptcy, Low said, \"That is not a question that we can answer. The financial institutions that lend us money will continue to do so as long as we are a prudent investment.\" Part of the rationale Fitch used in downgrading the utilities' credit ratings Monday was that state Public Utilities Commission President Loretta Lynch just last Thursday halted regulators' work on a plan by PG&E to raise rates in January."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 21, 2000 (00:52)", "body": "I BET YOU ALWAYS THOUGHT GREEN SNAKES WERE OK -- RIGHT? WELL, READ ON........ Green Garden Grass snakes can be dangerous, Yes, grass snakes, not rattlesnakes. A couple in Sweetwater, Texas had a lot of potted plants, and during a cold spell, the wife was bringing a lot of them indoors to protect them from a possible freeze. It turned out that alittle green garden grass snake was hidden in one of the plants and when it had warmed up, it slithered out and the wife saw it go under the sofa. She let out a very loud scream. The husband who was taking a shower ran out into the living room naked to see what the problem was. She told him there was a snake under the sofa. He got down on the floor on his hands and knees to look for it. About that time the family dog came and cold-nosed him in the butt. He thought the snake had bitten him and he fainted. His wife thought he had a heart attack, so she called an ambulance. The attendants rushed inand loaded him on the stretcher and started carrying him out. About that time the snake came out from under the sofa and the Emergency Medical Technician saw it and dropped his end of the stretcher. That's when the man broke his leg and why he is in the hospital. The wife still had the problem of the snake in the house, so she called on a neighbor man. He volunteered to capture the snake. He armed himself with a rolled-up newspaper and began poking under the couch. Soon he decided it was gone and told the woman, who sat down on the sofa in relief. But in relaxing, her hand dangled in between the cushions, where she felt the snake wriggling around. She screamed and fainted, the snake rushed back under the sofa, and the neighbor man, seeing her laying there passed out tried to use CPR to revive her. The neighbor's wife, who had just returned from shopping at the grocery store, saw her husband's mouth on the woman's mouth and slammed her husband in the back of the head with a bag of canned goods, knocking him out and cutting his scalp to a point where it needed stitches. An ambulance was again called and it was determined that the injury required hospitalization. The noise woke the woman from her dead faint and she saw her neighbor lying on the floor with his wife bending over him, so she assumed he had been bitten by the snake. She went to the kitchen, brought back a small bottle of whiskey, and began pouring it down the man's throat. By now the police had arrived. They saw the unconscious man, smelled the whiskey, and assumed that a drunken fight had occurred. They were about to arrest them all, when the two women tried to explain how it all happened over a little green snake. They called an ambulance, which took away the neighbor and his sobbing wife. Just then the little snake crawled out from under the couch, One of the policemen drew his gun and fired at it. He missed the snake and hit the leg of the end table that was on one side of the sofa. The table fell over and the lamp on it shattered and as the bulb broke, it started a fire in the drapes. The other policeman tried to beat out the flames and fell through the window into the yard on top of the family dog, who startled, jumped up and raced out into the street, where an oncoming car swerved to avoid it and smashed into the parked police car and set it on fire. Meanwhile the burning drapes had spread to the walls and the entire house was blazing. Neighbors had called the fire department and the arriving fire truck had started raising his ladder as they were halfway down the street. The rising ladder tore out the overhead wires and put out the electricity and disconnected the telephones in a ten-square city block area. Time passed. . . Both men were discharged from the hospital, The house was re-built, The police acquired a new car, and all was right with their world . . . Last night they were watching TV and the weatherman announced a cold snap for that night. The husband asked his wife if she thought they should bring in their plants for the night. She shot him dead."}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 24, 2000 (23:11)", "body": "Templar Treasures Hidden on Baltic Sea Island? COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant may have been hidden by a secretive religious order of crusaders, the Knights Templar, on the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm some 830 years ago, according to a new book. The whereabouts of the grail and the ark -- legendary religious relics of immeasurable value to Christian and Jewish believers -- have intrigued historians and archaeologists for centuries and films about quests to locate them, notably the \"Indiana Jones\" series, have thrilled movie audiences worldwide. No one knows exactly what the relics actually are but the ark is believed a box-type container that held the stone tablets inscribed with the 10 commandments which Moses received from God on Mount Sinai. Legends differ about the Holy Grail but it is most widely thought to be the chalice which Jesus and his apostles drank from at last supper before he was crucified. Some scholars speculate that treasures amassed by the Knights Templar ended up in Rosslyn chapel in Scotland. Others have hinted at locations in Ethiopia, Spain and Canada. In a 194-page book \"The Templars' Secret Island,\" Denmark's Erling Haagensen and Henry Lincoln of Britain say medieval round churches were built at sites on Bornholm based on the sacred geometry used by the Knights Templar elsewhere in Europe, most famously at Rennes-le-Chateau in southern France. The book, studded with graphs, plots the churches' geometric layout with mathematical precision and the authors suggest the design may be a map to hidden treasures. The Danish archbishop Eskil visited Knights Templar Grand Master Bertrand de Blanchefort in France in 1162, nine years after the death of his predecessor Bernard of Clairvaux. The historically recorded purpose of Eskil's visit -- coming at a time when the Knights Templar may have feared becoming vulnerable because of the influential Bernard's demise -- was to prepare a crusade against pagans inhabiting the Baltic Sea's northeastern coast in what is today Estonia and Latvia. The book suggests that Knights Templar who joined the Baltic crusade built Bornholm's churches and may have taken the opportunity to stash some treasures there. \"The need for a secure hiding place would have been paramount...It would make sense to conceal whatever may have been the Order's treasures in more than one place. \"Better still to provide a hiding place which was remote and had no apparent connection with the Order. Bertrand's involvement in the planning for the Baltic Mission would have offered him the perfect opportunity. Bornholm...now becomes a trump card,\" says the book. \"It was small and easily controlled and protected. Above all, it was remote, unknown, unlikely to be disturbed, not big enough or rich enough to attract an errant warrior intent on carving out a kingdom,\" it continues. UNIQUE CHURCHES LASTING HERITAGE The European Templar Heritage Research Network (ETHRN), a non-profit making association of scholars not affiliated to any religious or political group, says it has been historically documented that the order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon -- the full name of the Knights Templar -- was founded by aristocrats from the French region of Burgundy early in the 12th century. The order's classic round churches founded on octagonal geometry, supposedly based on the design of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, are a lasting heritage of the Knights Templar era, the ETHRN says. Historical records and 20th century archaeological digs indicate that a group of Knights Templar were searching for something under Jerusalem's Temple Mount between 1118 and 1127. Haagensen and Lincoln say that on returning to France in 1127 the crusaders reported to Bernard of Clairvaux that their \"mission\" had been accomplished. A carving on a pillar at the cathedral in Chartres, France, suggests the mission had been to find the Ark of the Covenant. Legends say Mary Magdalen, to this day the village saint of Rennes-le-Chateau, and Joseph of Arimathea, who according to the Bible buried Jesus, took the Holy Grail to France. Evidence of the belief in this tale is found in historical records about the Nazis searching for the Holy Grail at Rennes-le-Chateau during World War Two. Backing up the theory that Knights Templar treasures may have been hidden on Bornholm, the book says ancestors of the noblemen who founded the order lived on this rocky 587 square km (226.7 square miles) island, now part of Denmark and home to some 45,000 people. BURGUNDIANS CAME FROM BORNHOLM The authors point to a find of nearly 3,000 tiny, intricately carved golden figures unearthed in a 1985-86 excavation of a Bornholm field as lending credibility to their claim of a Bornholm connection. The golden figures have been dated to AD 400-600 when the Merovingians -- a clan of Frankish kings who claimed to be, like Jesus, of the house and lineage of the Bible's King David -- were at"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 24, 2000 (23:42)", "body": "Shades of King Hemming of Denmark..."}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (22:51)", "body": "Baffling Explosions in the Sky SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian authorities were baffled by overnight reports of bright lights and booming noises in the sky which shook some houses and prompted fears of falling space junk or meteorites. Police said they received numerous reports of \"explosions in the sky, sonic boom-type noises and flare-type lights\" over a two hour period on Tuesday night from residents along a 124-mile stretch of the country's east coast. \"There was a huge bang which shook my house,\" one resident of Bateman's Bay, 175 miles south of Sydney, told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. \"I thought the house next door had blown up.\" Police said they had contacted meteorology, air safety, emergency, and defense experts, but were unable to come up with any official reason. A number of small grass fires were also sparked around the nearby capital of Canberra. Australia's Deep Space Communications Complex said a small meteorite was the most likely explanation for the sightings."}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  5, 2001 (14:21)", "body": "Discovery Channel Online - January 5, 2001 IN THE SPOTLIGHT Next Stop ... Saturn! The Casini spacecraft got a little help from Jupiter on its way to the ringed planet. Search the Virtual Sky Point-and-click to celestial phenomena online, then see if you can find them in the real-life night sky. Go Inside the Space Station ... At Discovery Store! Be the first to explore the Space Station, it may be your future home. Check out this exciting video and other cool space products! E-mail this to a friend You Big Ape! We mean that in a GOOD way. Visit the gorillas in live streaming video at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. What Kind of Gorilla Would YOU make? At last, we can help you answer the question that any self-respecting human eventually confronts. E-mail this to a friend MAIN FEATURES Before There Were Pyramids ... \"Ancient\" is a relative term, as evidenced by new findings of artwork drawn by the ancestors of pyramid-builders about 6,000 years ago. What Was it Like to Live in Egypt? Walk in the sandals of an ancient Egyptian, or find out how to join an archeological dig there right now."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 17, 2001 (17:09)", "body": "From: Governor's Office of Emergency Services SACRAMENTO-In response to the Cal ISO declaration of a Stage 3 Electrical Emergency issued today at 0145 thru 2400, the State OES has issued the following message to all California emergency services personnel. 'Critical Information Please notify Emergency Services Managers, Fire and Law Enforcement agencies: Emergency services personnel (Law-Enforcement, Fire, EMS, and Local Offices of Emergency Services) throughout California should be advised that the California Independent System Operator, the entity that coordinates statewide flow of electrical supply, did declare a Stage 3 Emergency effective today's date at 0145 thru 2400HRS. At this time PG&E is dropping firm load of 500 mega watts in Northern California (Rolling Black-outs). We do not have information on specific areas effected. All Law Enforcement, Fire, EMS, and Offices of Emergency Services management personnel should be notified of this message, as incoming call volumes and requests for assistance may increase during this time. Local energy suppliers may be able to provide more detailed information on potential or actual local impacts.'"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb  4, 2001 (20:16)", "body": "Discovery Online IN THE SPOTLIGHT Do You Speak Dog? Scientists at the Moscow Zoo believe they have deciphered some sounds that wild dogs, known as \"dholes\" use to communicate with one another. E-mail this to a friend Human Cloning Is in the Works Since news about the creation of \"Dolly\" the sheep, many in the scientific community have believed that human cloning was inevitable. Now an organized effort has begun. Valentine Gifts For HER at Discovery Store! Pamper her with worldly gifts from Discovery Store this Valentine's Day. Select from an array of fountains, massage gift sets, beautiful jewelry, and even more unique gifts for her! A Perfect Valentine for HIM at Discovery Store! Intrigue him with unique gifts from Discovery Store. Select from a collection of aviator watches, telescopes, expedition apparel, his favorite videos, and more! E-mail this to a friend What Did You Look Like in the 70s? Did you wear bell bottoms when they were allegedly cool (for the first time)? Is there a mauve leisure suit hanging in your closet? Maybe an \"I'm With Stupid\" T-shirt? We're looking for photographs of the most neato 70s fashions, and personal stories from the people who wore them. So email your images and reminiscences, and we promise not to make fun of them (unless, perhaps, you were an actual member of The Village People). E-mail this to a friend MAIN FEATURES Did the Crocodile Hunter Really Do That? No one puts the \"wild\" in wildlife quite like the great Steve Irwin does! Now you can discuss his most perilous close encounters on the \"Dangerous Moments\" bulletin board. E-mail this to a friend Christopher Lowell Lovers Meet Here! Read Christopher's New Years message, find out how to make his room divider or check out where he'll be appearing next! E-mail this to a friend Probe the Criminal Mind Watch The New Detectives and The FBI Files, and you might help to solve a crime online. Or go \"through the lens\" to see the amazing microworld that crime-solvers see. New Discovery Channel Gulf War Video - Now Available at Discovery Store Get inside the critical decision-making and masterful military strategies that guided the Gulf War effort. Inside the Kill Box: Fighting the Gulf War video is now available. Fly through this and other new video releases from Discovery Store. E-mail this to a friend Planet Ocean: Where Most \"Earthlings\" Really Live Discover blue whales, barracudas and tubeworms that populate the strange world that covers most of the Earth. E-mail this to a friend Lost Vegas? Step away from the slots and see the Las Vegas that lives beyond the strip. E-mail this to a friend"}, {"response": 45, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb  5, 2001 (20:00)", "body": "About the Crocodile Hunter, someone at work said that he was going to out for six weeks of treatment for having recently been bitten by a crocodile. Is that true?"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  6, 2001 (20:18)", "body": "Have not heard that... will check and get back to you! Yikes! When he looks at the camera instead of the menace in front of him he drives me crazy. I am not a huge fan of his - much preferred Harry Butler!"}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 12, 2001 (16:06)", "body": "The human genome, the book of life, will change the way scientists do research and revolutionize medicine by increasing knowledge about what makes us human. Already it is has shown that humans have far fewer genes, 30,000 to 40,000, and only about twice as many as a fly or worm. But many of them work very differently. It is a treasure chest of information that scientists have just opened and are only beginning to understand. But researchers are at odds about how the information should be made available. \"It really is a gift to the world,\" Dr. Mike Dexter, the director of the Wellcome Trust charity which contributed to the Human Genome Project, told a news conference. \"It should be available for all to use and to update and to fill in the extra details.\" The Human Genome Project, a publicly funded consortium of hundreds of scientists around the world, published their sequence of the human genome in the journal Nature. It is freely available on genome databases for use by all scientists. By contrast Celera Genomics Inc., the privately funded competing team, reported their work in the journal Science with restrictions on redistribution. RESTRICTING INFORMATION HAMPERS SCIENCE Scientists working on the Human Genome Project believe that restricting the use of information about the human genetic code will hamper medical research, particularly in the developing world. In the past two months, scientists have accessed information from the public genome database hundreds of thousands of times but data from Celera Genomics has been used by less than 50 subscribing organizations. Pay per view arrangements, so popular for major sporting events, are not right for the human genome, the scientists argue. \"By maintaining the principle of equal and free access to all we are helping to lessen the gap between the rich countries of the west and our colleagues in the poor parts of the world,\" Dexter added. Dr. John Sulston, the leader of the British effort to sequence the genome, said the information in the human genetic code is relevant to all people and must be used to benefit all. \"The human genome is internationally, publicly owned. That is what we are celebrating today. Freedom of information and freedom of access,\" said Sulston. \"It would have been criminal to prevent the access to this information.\" NOT HOLDING ANYTHING BACK Celera's Craig Venter defended his company's handling of the sequence and its publication in Science. He also denied that their information was being restricted. \"Our data is freely available to scientists anywhere,\" he told BBC radio. \"There are no restrictions on the discoveries or the patentability or the publication of it. What they (researchers) can't do is take our data and try to set up a business to redistribute it to compete with Celera, which paid for it using its own money.\" Sulston admitted that the Celera sequence is bigger, or has more information, but he added that half of data had come from the public domain. Without the publicly funded effort he said, \"not only would we have a privatized genome, we would have no genome at all.\""}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 12, 2001 (16:12)", "body": "Junk DNA May Not Be Such Junk, Genome Studies Find WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first in-depth look into the human genome shows it is much more complicated than the clear blueprint of how to make a human that scientists had hoped for. Instead of having DNA packed with tens of thousands of new genes that make people different from mice, fruit flies and worms, it seems we have relatively few genes -- just 30,000 or 40,000, researchers will announce later Monday. Earlier estimates had ranged from 60,000 to 100,000. The two separate teams of scientists, who say they were shocked and awed by their findings, say this means that genes may not be the be-all and end-all of what makes an organism. They know that each gene \"expresses\" or controls a protein. And they now know that the proteins must mix and match in ways more important than previously thought. But they also know they are going to have to go back and dig through the trash can of the genome -- the so-called \"junk DNA\" that many had believed played no important role at all. \"I call it the alleged junk,\" Eric Lander, head of genome sequencing at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in a telephone interview. \"The junk is amazing.\" LOOKING LONG AND HARD AT THE JUNK Lander, whose institute, part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, played a large role in the publicly funded Human Genome Project, said researchers will be taking a long hard look at the junk. When the two efforts, public and private, announced the first step, the sequence of the human genome last June, they knew little more than that there were 3.1 billion base pairs of DNA in the human genome. This amounted basically to a read-out of the A's, C's, T's and G's -- the nucleotides that form the rungs in the twisted double helix of DNA. If the right combinations of letters are together, say an A, and T and a G plus an A, G and C, they make an amino acid. There are 20 different amino acids, and these can join up in a variety of ways to make 250,000 different proteins. There is no set number of amino acids needed to make a protein, thus the variety. Each of the body's 100 trillion cells, except for red blood cells, has a full copy of this complement of DNA. But each cell does not express all of them. Brain cells need to express certain proteins, muscle cells and immune cells need to express others. Genes sometimes control what is expressed by other genes, but it could be the \"junk\" DNA plays a role as well, said the scientists who publish their findings in the journals Science and Nature this week. Their surprising finding is that the relatively few genes found in the 3.1 billion base pairs are clumped up. In between are vast spaces of \"desert,\" repeats of nucleotides that look like meaningless stutters. However, Lander said some of these, which often repeat the same sequence over and over again, look like guideposts to evolutionary history. \"By taking all the repeat elements in genome, we can put them together into a family tree,\" Lander said. GENOME BECOMES A FOSSIL RECORD \"The genome now becomes a fossil record.\" It had been known that viruses known as retroviruses could make their DNA a permanent part of ours -- and also of all the other mammals -- but the scientists found evidence that bacteria did the same thing. Lander said his team can already tell that, way back before humans became humans, our ancestors stopped getting so many new genes from viruses and bacteria and stopped moving genes around inside the genome, a process known as transposition. \"The rate of transposition, the rate of hopping, has plummeted in recent times, in the past 30 million to 40 million years,\" Lander said. \"We don't know why. This hasn't happened in the mouse. Entire classes of junk DNA have gone extinct.\" But other junk DNA thought to have been useless, hints at being very important. One example is a piece of repetitive DNA called an AL sequence. \"It turns out the genome cares a lot about getting the Alums to be near genes,\" he said. The Alums seem to have come into the genome fairly recently, and into gene-poor areas. But the transposition process moves them closer to actual working genes. \"If they are selected for, they have a function,\" he said. One possibility is dealing with stress. \"Suppose you need to regulate proteins under stress -- do you want to use a protein? No,\" he said. Any regulatory protein would also get stressed. \"You'd want something that was extremely abundant and near genes. Maybe it turns out AL is our friend. We have been calling it junk for all these years.\" So perhaps humans have learned to make so with so few genes by using other DNA elements to help them out."}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 12, 2001 (20:34)", "body": "Marshall, I'd create a genetics topic for you if you would only post once in a while...(yes Iknow you're busy!!) Celera Genomics Says Finishes Mouse Genome WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Celera Genomics Inc., the private company that joined public scientists in announcing it had mapped and started to read the human genome, said on Monday it had finished the mouse genome, too. Celera will freely publish some of the information and sell the rest to subscribers, who can use it to try and find insights into the human genetic code, or to use in breeding special mice for laboratory research. At a news conference Mark Adams, vice president at Celera, said human and mouse are quite similar to one another. Earlier, Celera said humans had only a few hundred genes that mice do not have, and they are laid out in a similar manner. But Adams said it appears that human cells do more with their genes than mouse cells do. \"The genes are larger,\" he said. And sometimes human genes can perform more than one function,\" Adams added. Much more is known about mouse genes than human genes, because mice are studied so extensively and because they breed so quickly. Scientists hope they can compare known mouse genes to similar human genes and better understand what they do. Adams said Celera would annotate, or analyze, the mouse genome over the coming weeks. Scientists leading the publicly funded genome sequencing effort said they would finish their own version of the mouse genome by April and would publish it on the Internet."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 14, 2001 (15:30)", "body": "Important HTML programming site which keeps changing. Think this is bookmarkable. I use it to make Geo pretty. http://www.hypersolutions.org/rgb.html"}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 16, 2001 (16:39)", "body": "Laser smashes light-speed record [19 Jul 2000] One of the most sacred laws of physics is that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum. But this speed limit has been smashed in a recent experiment in which a laser pulse travels at more than 300 times the speed of light (L J Wang et al. 2000 Nature 406 277). However, the laws of physics remain intact because Lijun Wang and colleagues at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton in the US are able to explain the results of their experiment in terms of the classical theory of wave propagation. Special relativity prevents any object with mass travelling at the speed of light, and the principle of causality - the notion that the cause comes before the effect - is used to rule out the possibility of superluminal (faster-than-light) travel by light itself. However, a pulse of light can have more than one speed because it is made up of light of different wavelengths. The individual waves travel at their own phase velocity, while the pulse itself travels with the group velocity. In a vacuum all the phase velocities and the group velocity are the same. In a dispersive medium, however, they are different because the refractive index is a function of wavelength, which means that the different wavelengths travel at different speeds. Wang and colleagues report evidence for a negative group velocity of -310c, where c (=300 million metres per second) is the speed of light in vacuum. Their experimental set-up is remarkably similar to that used to slow light to a speed of just 17 metres per second last year. It relies on using two lasers and a magnetic field to prepare a gas of caesium atoms in an excited state. This state exhibits strong amplification or gain at two wavelengths, and highly anomalous dispersion - that is, the refractive index changes rapidly with wavelength - in the region between these two peaks. Wang and colleagues begin by using a third continuous-wave laser to confirm that there are two peaks in the gain spectrum and that the refractive index does indeed change rapidly with wavelength in between. Next they send a 3.7-microsecond long laser pulse into the caesium cell, which is 6 centimetres long, and show that, at the correct wavelength, it emerges from the cell 62 nanoseconds sooner than would be expected if it had travelled at the speed of light. 62 nanoseconds might not sound like much, but since it should only take 0.2 nanoseconds for the pulse to pass through the cell, this means that the pulse has been travelling at 310 times the speed of light. Moreover, unlike previous superluminal experiments, the input and output pulse shapes are essentially the same. There is no widespread agreement among physicists about the speed at which information is carried by pulses in such experiments. One definition is that it is the speed at which the point of half the maximum intensity on the leading edge of the pulse travels, but this velocity is superluminal in the Princeton experiment. The team intend to analyse this further, including cases in which the pulse contains only a few photons. http://physicsweb.org/article/news/04/7/8"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 20, 2001 (20:11)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Heat leaves atom clusters cold: (15 Feb) When a system gains energy, its temperature rises - or so we are taught. But about a decade ago it was predicted that, on very small scales, some materials could get colder when they receive energy. Hellmut Haberland and co-workers from the University of Freiburg in Germany have now observed this negative heat capacity for the first time in clusters of sodium atoms (M Schmidt et al 2001 Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 1191). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/2/8 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- * Beating the femtosecond limit: (15 Feb) The quest for ever-shorter laser pulses inevitably results in each pulse containing fewer and fewer oscillations of the laser field. Indeed, the shortest visible and infrared laser pulses are typically just a few femtoseconds (10-15 seconds) in duration and contain just a few cycles of the laser field. However, there is a need for even shorter pulses to study fundamental physical, chemical and biological processes on shorter and shorter timescales. Moreover, many applications require photons with higher energies, so there is a corresponding need for ultrashort pulses at shorter wavelengths in the extreme ultraviolet and X-ray regions of the spectrum. Ferenc Krausz of the Technical University of Vienna and co-workers in Germany and Canada have now taken a major step in this direction (M Drescher et al 2001 Science 291 to appear). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/2/9 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- * Leonard Mandel and Ugo Fano die: (20 Feb) Two of the world's leading atomic and optical physicists - Leonard Mandel of the University of Rochester and Ugo Fano of the University of Chicago - have died in the past two weeks. Mandel, a pioneer in the field of quantum optics, died on February 9 at the age of 73. Fano, who made numerous contributions to the theory of atomic and radiation physics, died on February 13. He was 88. [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/2/10 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- * The hunt for new dimensions: (20 Feb) For decades physicists have toyed with the idea that the universe may contain extra dimensions beyond the familiar four dimensions of space and time. This idea has been proposed to account for the exceptional weakness of gravity. But remarkably, nobody has measured the strength of gravity on scales much less than a centimetre - and that is exactly where theorists believe the extra dimensions could be hiding. Now Eric Adelberger and co-workers at the University of Washington in the US have measured for the first time the gravitational attraction between objects just 0.2 mm apart - and concluded that any new dimensions must be concealed on even smaller scales (C D Hoyle et al 2001 Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 1418). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/2/11 ] ----------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 53, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Feb 21, 2001 (09:33)", "body": "r\u007f http://geocities.com/brojongazette/frontpage/bj0201.html About HAARP the signal Art Bell is trying to find. 3.39 MHz"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 21, 2001 (19:37)", "body": "yup... heard him last night...! ---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Turbulent times for fluids : (21 Feb) Physicists in the US have borrowed technology normally used in high-energy physics to gain a better picture of turbulence - a phenomenon that is still not well understood. Eberhard Bodenschatz and colleagues at Cornell University found that particles in swirling fluids undergo a flabbergasting range of accelerations within extremely short distances and times (A La Porta et al 2001 Nature 409 1017). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/2/12 ] ----------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 23, 2001 (21:31)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Busquin calls for EU Framework increase: (23 Feb) The European Commission has proposed a 17% increase in the budget of the next framework programme for research and innovation. Philippe Busquin, the commissioner for research, has called for a budget of EUR 17.5 billion for the sixth Framework programme, which will cover the period 2003-2006. The proposal will be discussed at the EU summit in Stockholm on March 23 and 24. [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/2/13 ] ----------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 24, 2001 (20:52)", "body": "Mouse with Human Brain Cells Does anyone remember the movie \"The Mouse That Roared\"? We just mightbe making a real one! U.S. Scientists Craft Mouse with Human Brain Cells Reuters Feb 23 2001 9:18PM SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have produced laboratory mice with human brain cells, marking a potential step toward developing treatments for human brain disease like Alzheimer's but promising to fuel fresh debate over the evolving ethics of bioengineering. The research at California biotechnology company StemCells Inc. breaks new ground by demonstrating that human brain stem cells can be induced to grow within a mouse's skull, scientists said on Friday. \"We are not recreating a human brain. We're really just trying to understand how these stem cells can function, and how they can be used in the treatment of specific diseases,\" said Ann Tsukamoto, vice president of scientific operations at StemCells Inc. Irving Weissman, a Stanford university professor involved in the two-year research project, said the next step could be to produce mice with brains made up almost entirely of human cells -- although he said there would have to be a thorough ethical review before this step is taken. \"You would want to ask the ethicist what percentage of the brain would be human cells before you start worrying, and if you start worrying, what would you start worrying about,\" Weissman said. The California study involved isolating human stem cells in the laboratory and then introducing them into mice. As the mice matured, the human stem cells -- \"master cells\" that can develop into any other type of cell -- grew into a full range of specialized cells throughout each mouse brain. \"It looks like human cells can follow the developmental instructions put in by the mouse brain. They are making human components in what is clearly a mouse brain,\" Weissman said. The researchers believe that these mice could be used to test treatments for human brain diseases such as Parkinsons and Alzheimer's, although these tests have not yet been undertaken. Tsukamoto added that the experiment also demonstrated that StemCell Inc's process for isolating and developing human stem cells was viable, and that cell banks could be established for future transplantation into humans. \"We're of course moving this into the development phase, and looking at which disease indications these cells would be best used for in preclinical trials,\" she said. Both scientists stressed that their research, while marking a new breakthrough in the controversial world of stem cell research, was in no way aimed at blurring the lines between human and animal. But Weissman added that he had already requested a review panel to look at the research to determine if there may be ethical problems in taking the work further. \"It is not the objective to go make mice with human brains,\" Weissman said. \"(But) it is in the domain of the ethicists, not the experimenters, to figure out what our limits are.\""}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 24, 2001 (22:15)", "body": "Smallest' robot to take world by swarm (CNN) -- Engineers with a government national security laboratory have created what they think could be the world's smallest robot -- a brainy, mobile machine that can stop and almost sit on a dime. Sporting track wheels and an 8K ROM processor, it could someday perform a host of arduous tasks like disabling land mines or searching for lost humans, scientists said. The diminutive droid, which weighs less than 1 ounce (28 grams) and is 1/4 cubic inch (4 cubic cm) in size, could be equipped with a camera, microphone and chemical micro-sensor. \"This could be the robot of the future,\" said Ed Heller, a project researcher with the Sandia National Laboratory, which works under the direction of the U.S. Department of Energy. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the lab also developed what it calls the fastest gun in the world, a machine that propels material 20 times faster than a rifle. Journey into small spaces The mini-machines could travel in swarms like insects and go into locations too small for their bulkier cousins, communicating all the while with each other and human operators in a remote location. Eventually fleets of the robots could scamper through pipes looking for chemical releases or patrol buildings in search of prowlers. \"If you take smaller ones, you can take more of them out and have better chances of finding what you are looking for,\" Heller said Friday. The robot has already navigated a field of coins, puttering along at 20 inches (50 cm) a minute on track wheels similar to those on tanks. The treads give added mobility over predecessors with conventional wheels, allowing it to travel over thick carpet. \"It can't zip along as fast as a spider or ant yet. The speed was just for demonstration,\" Heller said. With modifications it could go up to five times faster. Covert uses possible The size of the robot is limited by the size of its power source. The frame must be large enough to hold three watch batteries, which drive its motors and instruments. Instead of \"Big Brother,\" some unsavory types might have to worry about the littlest robot; the machine could play a major role in intelligence gathering, according to the lab, which specializes in research to protect U.S. military and economic interests. Heller and colleagues plan to outfit the mini-robot with impressive options over the next several years, including miniature video cameras and infrared or radio wireless two-way communications. \"You might have to worry about what's sitting under your desk,\" Heller joked."}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 26, 2001 (20:43)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Exciting times for superconductors: (26 Feb) The physics community was stunned in January when Jun Akimitsu of Aoyama-Gakuin University in Tokyo and co-workers discovered superconductivity in a simple metallic compound at 38 K - twice the previous record for a metallic superconductor. Akimitsu's group publishes its method and results this week, although several groups have already verified that magnesium diboride can indeed support resistance-free current flow (J Akimitsu et al 2001 Nature 410 63). Amid a flurry of activity, evidence is now emerging that - contrary to initial expectations - the traditional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity can explain the new effect (S L Bud'ko et al 2001 Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 1877). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/2/14 ] ----------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  2, 2001 (14:28)", "body": "Tiny primate fossils discovered The Associated Press March 15 \ufffd Some ancestors of monkeys, apes and humans were so tiny that they could have stood atop a person\ufffds thumb \ufffd a new finding astonishing even to anthropologists. Fossilized foot bones from two species smaller than any other known creature on the primate family tree were found at a limestone mine in eastern China. The bones are each about the size of a grain of rice. \ufffdThis discovery reinvents our definition of what the primate order is all about and how it arose,\ufffd said Richard Stucky, curator at the Denver Museum of Natural History. He said he was \ufffdalmost at a loss for words.\ufffd Smaller Than Smallest At one-third of an ounce \ufffd the weight of a couple of pencils \ufffd the smaller of the two species is dwarfed by the 1-ounce Madagascar mouse lemur, the smallest known primate alive today. The two lived in a rain forest about 45 million years ago, feeding on insects and sap. Scientists from Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Northern Illinois, Northwestern and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing detail the species in this week\ufffds Journal of Human Evolution. In a separate article in the journal Nature, the group reported on more fossils from a previously discovered third primate called Eosimias centennicus. They had discovered its teeth and jaws in the mid 1990s. Now they\ufffdve got ankle bones, which they say backs up their controversial claim that Eosimias is an early ancestor of humans. Eosimias and the two new tiny species all lived together around the time when lower primates split from the higher primates. Where the Family Tree Branched Lower primates include lemurs. Higher primates include humans. The split happened 40 million to 50 million years ago. At 3 ounces, Eosimias was larger than the tiny species, which have not been named. The smaller of the two new species might have been below Eosimias on the evolutionary branch, a common ancestor of higher primates and some lower primates, said Chris Beard of the Carnegie Museum. The larger one \ufffd weighing half an ounce \ufffd appears to be a higher primate, perhaps in the same family as Eosimias. \ufffdNobody would have believed that as recently as 45 million years ago, our ancestors were about the size of a shrew,\ufffd Beard said. Anthropologists expected to find a smallish creature at the fork between higher and lower primates. Voracious Eater Because it would have needed to eat insects voraciously to keep up with an overheated metabolism, it would have had higher primate features: two eyes facing forward and soft hands without claws, all the better to focus on and grab bugs. \ufffdThat said, these are really tiny,\ufffd said Brian Richmond, a George Washington University researcher. Unlike modern higher primates, which are social and move about in the daytime, these creatures\ufffd tiny size would have forced them to hide during the day and feed at night. The tiny species are the smallest of 12 to 16 species of little primates found at the Chinese mine. Eosimias is among them. Its ankle bones are further proof the creature was a higher primate, Beard said. It apparently walked on all fours, because like monkeys that scurry atop tree branches, their feet faced downward. Lower primate cling to tree trunks, so their feet face inward. But the evidence of Eosimias\ufffd status as a higher primate is still not conclusive. Richmond said it is possible Eosimias was a lower primate that evolved a few characteristics similar to higher primates. Also, Beard\ufffds team has not found a skull or full skeleton. They inferred the ankle fossils to be Eosimias\ufffd based on where they were found. Stucky is convinced, calling it \ufffdsignificant, additional evidence\ufffd that Eosimias is a higher primate."}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  2, 2001 (21:21)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * B factories go into overdrive: (2 Mar) Particles called B mesons do not decay at the same rate as their anti-particles, according to the first results from experiments in Japan and the US. But it is not yet clear if the difference is big enough to explain why the universe is dominated by matter. Preliminary results from two high-energy experiments - dubbed 'B factories' because they generate huge numbers of B mesons - have been submitted to Physical Review Letters and are currently available on the Los Alamos preprint server. [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/1 ] ----------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  6, 2001 (19:31)", "body": "**Sprin5 posted this elsewhere but it goes here as well, I think...** IT's heeeeere!: IT's a hydrogen-powered scooter, running on a pollution-free Stirling engine. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-06-2001/0001441589&EDATE = Investigative reporter and [INSIDE] contributor Adam Penenberg has unearthed revealing new information including trademark and patent filings, domain registrations, financial transactions, factory blueprints, and a hitherto unknown company linked to \"Ginger\" inventor Dean Kamen, among other evidence. His findings, featured as a print-only exclusive [INSIDE] cover story, include: * As many have guessed, \"Ginger\" has to do with a ground-breaking, scooter-type vehicle that can balance on two wheels. But the real revelation is the power behind it - hydrogen, which runs basically emission-free. \"Ginger\" represents the first generation of a new mode of transportation that will compete with and possibly replace automobiles. The ramifications of a \"hydrogen economy\" would be profound on everything from the environment to the energy business to global politics."}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  7, 2001 (21:25)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * LED could signal silicon laser: (7 Mar) A light-emitting diode made from silicon that efficiently emits light at room temperature could revolutionize communications technology. It is the latest in a string of attempts to create a light emitter compatible with existing silicon-based technology. Kevin Homewood of the University of Surrey, UK, and colleagues created the device - which could be the precursor of a silicon laser - by bombarding silicon with boron ions (W L Ng et al 2001 Nature 410 192). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/2 ] ----------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  8, 2001 (23:07)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Cosmological model gets a boost: (8 Mar) Standard models of cosmology, which link the cosmic microwave background with conditions in the early universe, have been boosted by new data. The new Cosmic Background Imager in Chile has measured the microwave signals more precisely than ever before and has detected a dip in the 'power spectrum' predicted by current theories of the evolution of the universe (S Padin et al 2001 Astrophys. J. Lett. 549 L1). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/3 ]"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  9, 2001 (15:27)", "body": ""}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  9, 2001 (21:50)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Physicists create first superconducting polymer: (9 Mar) A superconducting polymer is the latest innovation to emerge from the recent explosion of research into organic superconductors. Bertram Batlogg and colleagues at Bell Laboratories in the US have achieved resistance-free current flow in poly(3-hexylthiophene) at 2.35 kelvin. The advance is a fundamental step towards cheaper mass-produced electronics (J H Schon et al 2001 Nature 410 189). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/4 ] ----------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 14, 2001 (22:51)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Success for Irish physicist: (14 Mar) A physicist has been elected as the provost of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland's most prestigious university. John Hegarty, a laser physicist, beat four other candidates in the election and will start his 10-year term as provost in August. He has promised to encourage innovation in teaching, increase the number of students from under-represented groups and to promote excellence in research. [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/5 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- * X marks the atom: (14 Mar) Physicists have taken a direct picture of the atoms inside a crystal of silicon with X-rays for the first time. The 'atomic camera' devised by Pawel Korecki and Gerhard Materlik of HASYLAB, Hamburg, Germany, adds together the diffraction patterns that arise as the X-rays criss-cross the crystal to create a three-dimensional picture (P Korecki and G Materlik 2001 Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 2333). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/6 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- * Astronomers tune in to brown dwarf : (14 Mar) American astronomers have picked up radio waves from a 'brown dwarf' - an object that is bigger than a planet but smaller than a star - for the first time. Edo Berger of the California Institute of Technology and colleagues detected the surprising signal from a nearby brown dwarf known as LP944-20 (E Berger et al 2001 Nature 410 338). The discovery could provide important insights into the nature of these mysterious bodies. [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/7 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- / This alert was generated according to your settings. | To change your alerting settings visit User Options at \\ http://PhysicsWeb.org/users/options/alert ========================================================== Copyright (C)IOP Publishing Ltd. 2001. All rights reserved."}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 15, 2001 (19:40)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Deepest ever picture of the universe reveals new quasar : (15 Mar) Astronomers have peered deeper into the universe than ever before - and discovered a new type of quasar 12 billion light years away. The joint venture between the space-based Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Telescope in Chile also found that giant black holes were far more active in the early universe than they are today. The collaboration originally aimed to establish the origin of cosmic X-ray background. A preprint of the groups' work is on the Los Alamos server (astro-ph/0007240). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/8 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- / This alert was generated according to your settings. | To change your alerting settings visit User Options at \\ http://PhysicsWeb.org/users/options/alert ========================================================== Copyright (C)IOP Publishing Ltd. 2001. All rights reserved."}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 22, 2001 (13:45)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Neutrino messages from across the Universe: (21 Mar) Astrophysicists expect their best-ever view of remote cataclysmic events that send neutrinos cascading across space after the successful trial of a new neutrino detector. Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin in the US led the international team that developed the experiment, which is buried deep in the Antarctic ice. The prototype is now being scaled up to capture neutrinos arriving on Earth from deep space (E Andres et al 2001 Nature 410 441). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/9 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (C)IOP Publishing Ltd. 2001. All rights reserved."}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 23, 2001 (22:58)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Linear collider race gets serious: (23 Mar) The DESY laboratory in Germany has revealed plans for a next-generation electron$positron linear collider and X-ray source that will cost $2.8bn. Edwin Cartlidge reports on the plans. [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/11 ] Copyright (C)IOP Publishing Ltd. 2001. All rights reserved."}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 29, 2001 (20:53)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Lithography teams up with liquid crystals: (29 Mar) The unusual optical features of liquid crystals make them indispensable in many technologies, including displays and optoelectronics. Now Baek-woon Lee and Noel A Clark of the University of Colorado, US, have developed a 'patterned' base layer for liquid crystals that overcomes a long-standing difficulty in controlling the molecules in the liquid crystal. The new technique is an important step towards the simple fabrication of highly intricate liquid-crystal devices using lithography (Baek-woon Lee and Noel A Clark 2001 Science 291 2576). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/3/14 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (C)IOP Publishing Ltd. 2001. All rights reserved."}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  2, 2001 (17:42)", "body": "April National Geographic Educator E-Newsletter This April, as Earth Day approaches, check out our EarthPulse Conservation Features. Use our Interactive Conservation Atlas to examine environmental issues and sharpen your students' map skills before standardized tests. And get a head start on planning for next fall by ordering National Geographic for Kids, our new classroom magazine. Hot This Month VIRTUAL COLUMBIA RIVER http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/columbia Take a virtual trip down the Columbia and discover the debate surrounding this mighty river. MARS MISSION ACTIVITY http://www.nationalgeographic.com/familyxpeditions Help NASA plan its next mission to Mars! Uncover the secrets and history of the red planet in our latest Family Xpedition. Online Adventure GRIMMS' FAIRY TALES http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/ Happily ever after? Not according to the Brothers Grimm! Fasten your seatbelts for a journey through the dark twists and turns of these original folktales. Maps & Geography INTERACTIVE CONSERVATION ATLAS http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld Get maps and facts about the world's ecoregions, and explore the environmental issues facing each one with our Wild World Atlas. Lesson Plans GEOGUIDE: DAMS http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geoguide/dams/ After exploring the Columbia River, learn more about dams with these innovative activities. Teacher Store NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR KIDS--COMING THIS FALL http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education/teacher_store/product_lines/ngk.html Introducing our new classroom magazine for students in grades 3-6! Please call 800 368 2728 for information or to subscribe now for fall 2001. Teacher Community GEOGRAPHY ALLIANCES http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education/teacher_community Your local geography alliance offers workshops, field trips, mentoring, and grants to support your efforts in the classroom. Join us today! EDUCATION SITE: get fresh ideas every week http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education E-MAIL US education@nationalgeographic.com SIGN UP for Other National Geographic E-Mail Newsletters http://www.nationalgeographic.com/community/register.html"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 23, 2001 (16:57)", "body": "SCICENTRAL NEWS ALERT brought to you by [1]SciQuest Friday, April 20, 2001 Edition _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/ [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Talking Heads (Special Report) * Founder Populations Fuel Gene Discovery * Researchers Find Important Clue in the Evolution of Plants * Pyramids and Sphinx Both Inspired by Desert Landforms * Digging for Genetic Fossils: Researchers Solve Structure of Ancient Biological Molecule * Scientists Worried About Rush to Find Neanderthal DNA * Comfort Feeding * Boiling Brains * Explorer Unveils Lost City of Alexandria * What Was Eating Clams and Brachiopods 250 Million Years Ago, Before Modern Predators Existed? * Men Fish for Compliments * Brazilians Meet New Amazon Tribe References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]MARINE BIOLOGY * Great Barrier Reef Choking to Death * Ships to Probe Biological Enigmas of the Frozen Southern Ocean * Scientists Determine How Chemistry Keeps Weird Worms \"Out of Hot Water\" at Steaming Deep-Sea Vents References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-marbio [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Once Thought Extinct, Siamese Crocodile Is Photographed in Siam * Study Explores Social Memory in Elephants * Chimps Touched by Television * U.S. Geologic Survey Issues Wildlife Health Alert for Foot-and-Mouth Disease * Congo War Devastating Endangered Wildlife * Aping Others: The Transition to Culture * Measuring the Muscle: New Depicts How the Tuna's Body Is Built for Speed * Lifestyles of the Bright and Toxic Overlap * Everything You Need to Know About Survival You Can Learn From an Alligator * Sex Lives of Wild Fish: Genetic Techniques Provide New Insights * Owls Have \"Surround Sound\" * Coal Mines Bring Fish Industry Life References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Astronomers Find Distant \"Double Planet\" * Orphan \"Planet\" Findings Challenged by New Model * Cosmologist Explains Dust in Eros Craters * NASA to Track More Asteroids With New NEAT Camera * Asteroid Eros: Most Detailed Analysis of Up-Close Images * Exploratorium Webcast on Hubble Telescope April 19-24 * Hubble Spots Mysterious Flash of Light on Jupiter * 40 Years of Human Spaceflight * Eyes Down to Look Up at the Heavens * Blank Line * U.S. Mars Agenda on Slow but Steady Course * Europe, Japan and North America Prepare for Joint Construction of the Giant Radio Telescope \"ALMA\" in Chile References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOGRAPHY/GIS * City Limits References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geogra [1]GEOLOGY * Ancient Climate Excursion Linked to a Rare Anomaly in Earth's Orbit * Geologists' Discoveries of How Sandstone Traps Riches Will Help Oil, Gas Explorers References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Damaged Chimneys and Unexpected Liquefaction From Nisqually Temblor Yield Earthquake Insights * Earthquake Hunters * Earthquakes Shake, Rattle, and Roll * Researchers Solve Century-Old Earthquake Mystery in India * Understanding Two Big Ice Cubes References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * Air Pollution Control Efforts Will Add to Global Warming if Carbon Monoxide Is Not Curbed Along With Nitrogen Oxides * Scientists Suggest New Index to Capture \"Flavors\" of El Ni\ufffdo * Miniature Unmanned Planes Descend on Arctic for Research * Researchers Achieve Best Global Picture Ever of Climate-Modifying Aerial Particles * Human-Induced Greenhouse Warming Pumps Heat Into Oceans * Scientists Watch Dark Side of the Moon to Monitor Earth's Climate * Wetter Upper Atmosphere May Delay Global Ozone Recovery * U.S. Needs Major Steps to Overtake European Climate Research * Bright Sky, Dirty City? * NASA Demonstrates How Earth's Global Heat Engine Drives Plant Growth * Colorado State's Hurricane Update Calls for Slightly More Storms but a Season That Still Remains Close to Average * Human-Induced Greenhouse Warming Pumps Heat Into Oceans References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * Satellite Spots Unique Ocean Eddy and a Bounty of Food for Fish * First Automated Floats for Monitoring Ocean Carbon Launched in North Pacific * Human-Induced Greenhouse Warming Pumps Heat Into Oceans * NSF Ships to Probe Biologica"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 23, 2001 (17:12)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * New 'light transistor' for optical circuits: (19 Apr) A gadget that boosts a laser signal by a factor of 60 - based on the transfer of photons rather than electrons - could seed a new generation of ultrafast components for optical circuits. Junji Tominaga of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science in Japan and colleagues developed the device, which paves the way for all-optical circuits that transmit information at - literally - the speed of light. (J Tominaga et al 2001 Appl. Phys. Lett. 78 2417). The new 'photonic transistor' would be just nanometres thick, unlike existing devices that rely on long optical fibres to produce the gain. [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/4/8 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- * Zooming in on the Eros asteroid: (19 Apr) Astronomers reveal this week that the terrain of Eros - far from being smooth and featureless - is dominated by dust-covered impact craters and scattered rocks. Two teams of US scientists are piecing together evidence from the most detailed pictures ever taken of an asteroid, which were captured as the NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft skimmed the surface of Eros in October 2000. The history of the asteroid is expected to shed light on the early evolution of the solar system (J Veverka et al 2001 Science 292 484; A F Cheng et al 2001 Science 292 488). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/4/9 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- * Moon illuminates climate study: (19 Apr) The amount of sunlight reflected by the Earth is a key factor in monitoring our climate. But current satellite observations cover little of the Earth's surface and are difficult to maintain over the extended periods required in climate studies. Now Philip Goode of the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the US and colleagues have resurrected an old technique to accurately measure the Earth's reflectance from 'earthshine' - the illumination of the dim portion of the Moon's disk by sunlight reflected from the Earth. They have also found evidence to support the theory that the solar cycle affects our climate (P R Goode et al 2001 Geophys. Res. Lett. 28 1671). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/4/10 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- / This alert was generated according to your settings. | To change your alerting settings visit User Options at \\ http://PhysicsWeb.org/users/options/alert ========================================================== Copyright (C)IOP Publishing Ltd. 2001. All rights reserved."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 27, 2001 (08:31)", "body": "SCICENTRAL NEWS ALERT brought to you by [1]SciQuest on Friday, 27-Apr-2001 09:38:23 AM EDT 1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Oldest Evidence of City Life in the Americas Reported * Mesquite: A Modular System for Evolutionary Analysis (Selected Site) * First Dinosaur Found With Its Body Covering Intact; Displays Primitive Feathers From Head to Tail * Perfect Skin * New Research Confirms That Natural Selection Is Acting on the Current Human Population References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]MARINE BIOLOGY * Field Guide to Anemone Fishes and Their Host Sea Anemones (Selected Site) References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-marbio [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Mammal Species of the World (Database) * Endangered Cats of North America (PDF) (Special Report) * At Sea, At Risk * Could Minnesota Forestry Save the Siberian Tiger? * Preserving Salmon Biodiversity (Special Report) * Gulp! Professor Studies How Sharks Eat * Gourmet Kangaroos Face Extinction References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Home Alone * Seeking Life's Chemical Fingerprints With the \"Raman Effect\" * VLT Spectra \"Resolve\" a Stellar Disk at 25,000 Light-Years Distance * Eleven Years in Orbit: Hubble Observes the Popular Horsehead Nebula * Keep Galileo's Eyes Open, Say Petitioning Scientists * Red Planet Scouts: Seeking Unexpected Discoveries on Mars * NEAR Team Studies Small-Scale Features on Eros * What People Saw in 1178 A.D. Didn't Cause Lunar Crater * Distant Comet Tangoes With Satellite References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOLOGY * Solving a Tibetan Mystery * Origin of Mid-Ocean Ridge Basalts * Numerical Modeling of Geological Deformation Processes References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Using Unique Seismometer Array, Seismologists Map Mantle Flow * A \"Four-Piston Engine\" Drives Earth From the Inside, New Study Shows * Two New Seismic Source Technologies Developed for Safer and Less Costly Deep-Ocean Exploration * Researchers Report First Simulations of Ground Motions From 1906 San Francisco Earthquake References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * Records \"Show Strong Recent Warming\" * Most-Serious Greenhouse Gas Is Increasing, International Study Finds * Researchers Prove Past Cooling Trend Caused by Move From Forests to Agriculture * Climatologist Predicts Increase in Hurricane Activity * Greenhouse Gases Main Reason for Quicker Northern Winter Warming * Asian Storms Make Their Way to the East * Big Dam in China May Warm Japan References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * Using Unique Seismometer Array, Seismologists Map Mantle Flow * A Better Understanding of Equatorial Atlantic Deep Currents * Two New Seismic Source Technologies Developed for Safer and Less Costly Deep-Ocean Exploration * Converging on Marine Reserves * Life as We Didn't Know It References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * Aussie Radar Detects the Invisible * Ultrawideband Watches Over Firefighters References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * Solution to Some of Country's Energy Woes Might Be Little More Than Hot Air * Findings May Boost Efforts to Destroy Pollutants With Ultrasound * Waste Not: Once-Discarded Fly Ash Now Being Used to Clean Contaminated Water References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ \ufffd Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. To register, modify your selection of topics, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: [1] http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi _____________________________________________________________"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 27, 2001 (08:33)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Lagging behind the solar cycle: (26 Apr) The intensity of galactic cosmic rays measured on Earth is related to the Sun's cycle of activity, which is well known by astronomers. The solar magnetic field flips every 11 years and the number of sunspots and 'coronal mass ejections' rises and falls twice in each complete 22-year cycle. The cosmic ray intensity on Earth also peaks twice every 22 years in time with the solar cycle. Now two US astronomers have discovered a quirk in this pattern - and they believe that drifting coronal mass ejections could be to blame (E W Cliver and A G Ling 2001 Astrophys. J. Lett. 551 L189). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/4/11 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- * Nanotube devices in the pipeline: (26 Apr) The features of conventional microelectronic circuits are getting smaller and smaller - and they will soon reach the limit imposed by the fundamental properties of silicon. Although physicists are optimistic that carbon nanotubes could step into the breach, their electronic properties are not well established and the nanotubes are hard to manipulate. Now two teams in the US have made substantial headway. Charles Lieber's team at Harvard University has uncovered the electronic behaviour of several types of nanotube. Meanwhile, Phaedon Avouris and colleagues at IBM have devised a technique to separate metallic and semiconducting nanotubes (Min Ouyang et al 2001 Science 292 702; P G Collins et al 2001 Science 292 706). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/4/12 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- / This alert was generated according to your settings. | To change your alerting settings visit User Options at \\ http://PhysicsWeb.org/users/options/alert ========================================================== Copyright (C)IOP Publishing Ltd. 2001. All rights reserved."}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  5, 2001 (16:01)", "body": "---------------------------------------------------------- / PHYSICSWEB: E-mail alert \\ ( http://PhysicsWeb.org ) ========================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------- | News ========================================================== * Particle beams that bend like light: (2 May) An electron beam that is powerful enough to pierce several millimetres of steel can - remarkably - be reflected by a layer of gas that is a million times thinner than air. Thomas Katsouleas of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and colleagues demonstrated the phenomenon - which is similar to the refraction of light at a boundary - at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in the US. The team believes the technique could be used to control beams of particles inside particle accelerators more efficiently than existing methods based on magnets (P Muggli et al 2001 Nature 411 43). [ http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/5/5/2 ] ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- / This alert was generated according to your settings. | To change your alerting settings visit User Options at \\ http://PhysicsWeb.org/users/options/alert ========================================================== Copyright (C)IOP Publishing Ltd. 2001. All rights reserved."}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 21, 2001 (00:30)", "body": "1. http://www.sciquest.com/ [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Study Offers Insights Into Evolutionary Origins of Life; Artificial Enzyme Able to Synthesize RNA * Maya Civilization Done In by Brightening of the Sun * Baby's Sex Not Linked to Shape of Mother * Shopping for Clothes Is in Men's Genes * The Living Dead * Climatologists Pore Over Past * Rough Justice * Paleontologists Develop Major New Fossil Database: Preliminary Analysis Questions Reality of Recent Global Radiation * Mother of T. rex * Scientists Find Link Between Indian Caste Rank and Genetic Similarity to Europeans References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]MARINE BIOLOGY * Discovery of a Unique Symbiosis Between Bacteria and a Marine Worm * Stressed Oysters Sicken References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-marbio [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Birds Answer Mobile Phones * Flycatchers Caught on the Hop * Rough Justice * No Danger * Female Cardinals Learn Songs in One-Third Time of Male Birds -- Largest Learning Difference Ever Found Between Sexes * Snails Shoot to Fill * \"Fossil Fish\" Hits the Web * Stressed Oysters Sicken References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Comet's Spectacular Death May Illuminate Birth of Solar System * Earth's Growing Orbital Ring of Machines and Debris * DS1 On Track for Comet Flyby * Seeking the Solar System's Origin * Study Suggests Massive Water Erosion of Mars' Highlands * The Great Mars Rush * A Few Assorted Gullies * Moon Helps Hunt for Mystery Particles * Astronomers Find \"Spaghetti\" Twirling Around in Galaxy * Radar Looks for Changes on Venus * Alien Visitors * Asteroid May Have Flung Pieces of Earth, Dinosaurs to Moon, Mars References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOGRAPHY/GIS * Virtual Reconnaissance of Geospatial Data Using Flight Simulators * The Creation and Use of Imagery for Cellular Network Planning References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geogra [1]GEOLOGY * Fossil Leaves Confirm Ancient Greenhouse * Paleontologists Develop Major New Fossil Database: Preliminary Analysis Questions Reality of Recent Global Radiation * New Research Documents Extremely High Atmospheric Carbon 14 During Last Ice Age References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Not All Subduction Zones Are Equal in Carbon Dioxide Generation References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * Droughts Aggravated by Dust in the Wind * Hurricanes' Full Havoc Yet to Be Felt References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * Robotic Floats for Monitoring Ocean Carbon Launched in Pacific * Big Bergs Ahoy! References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * ESA Takes First Step to a New Era in Environmental Monitoring References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * Trees Toppled * ORNL Technology Puts Power of Lab Into the Field References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ \ufffd Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. To register, modify your selection of topics, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: [1] http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi __________________________________________________________"}, {"response": 78, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, May 21, 2001 (23:26)", "body": "Op-ed piece from the NY Times: Comments? LIBERTIES By MAUREEN DOWD WASHINGTON \ufffd We want big. We want fast. We want far. We want now. We want 345 horsepower in a V-8 engine and 15 miles per gallon on the highway. We drive behemoths. We drive them alone. This country was not built on H.O.V. lanes. We don't have limits. We have liberties. If we don't wear our seat belts, it doesn't matter, because we have air bags. If the air bags don't deploy, it doesn't matter, because our cars are so beefy, we'll never get bruised. If we need to widen the streets for our all- wheel drives, we will. If we need to reinforce all the bridges in the country, so that they don't buckle and collapse under our 5,800-pound S.U.V.'s, our engineers will do that. We'll bake the earth. We'll brown & serve it, saut\ufffd it, simmer it, sear it, fondue it, George-Foreman-grill it. (We invented the Foreman grill.) We might one day bring the earth to a boil and pull it like taffy. (We invented taffy.) If rising seas obliterate the coasts, our marine geologists will sculpt new ones and Hollywood will get bright new ideas for disaster movies. If we get charred by the sun, our dermatologists will replace our skin. If the globe gets warmer, we'll turn up the air-conditioning. (We invented air-conditioning.) We'll drive faster in our gigantic, air-conditioned cars to the new beaches that our marine geologists create. We will let our power plants spew any chemicals we deem necessary to fire up our Interplaks, our Krups, our Black & Deckers and our Fujitsu Plasmavisions. We will drill for oil whenever and wherever we please. If tourists don't like rigs off the coast of Florida, they can go fly fishing in Wyoming. We won't be deterred by a few Arctic terns. We don't care about caribou. We don't care for cardigans. Give us our 69 degrees, winter and summer. Let there be light \ufffd no timers, no freaky- shaped long-life bulbs. (We invented the light bulb.) We want our refrigerators cold and our freezers colder. Bring on the freon. Banish those irritating toilets that restrict flow. When we flush, we flush all the way. We will perfect the dream of nuclear power. We will put our toxic waste wherever we want, whenever we waste it. We have whole states with nothing better to do than serve as ancestral burial grounds for our effluvium. It can fester in those wide open spaces for thousands of years. We will have the biggest, baddest missiles, and we will point them in any direction we like, across the galaxies, through eternity, forever and ever. We will thrust as many satellites as we want into outer space, and we will surround them with a firewall of weapons for their protection. We will guarantee broadband and fast connections to the Internet. We will not permit anybody, anywhere, at any time to threaten the delivery of all the necessities to computers, Palm Pilots and BlackBerrys: stock quotes, sports scores, real estate listings, epicurean.com recipes, porn. (O.K., so we didn't invent porn.) By arming space, and protecting satellites, we ensure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness \ufffd our 500 TV channels drawn from the ether. We will secure the inalienable right of every citizen driving by himself in his big car to be guided by a global positioning system. Nobody should have to call in advance for directions to a party when the satellite can show the way. We will modify food in any way we want and send it to any country we see fit at prices that we and we alone determine in the cargo ships we choose at the time we set. Our international banking arm \ufffd the World Bank and the I.M.F. \ufffd will support whatever dictatorships suit us best. We will fly up any coast of any nation on earth with any plane filled with any surveillance equipment and top guns that we possess. We will build superduperjumbo jets so Brobdingnagian that runways will be crushed under their weight at the most congested airports in the history of aviation. (We invented aviation.) We will buy, carry, conceal and shoot firearms whenever and wherever we want, as is our constitutionally guaranteed right. (We invented the Constitution.) We will kill any criminal we want, by lethal injection or electrocution. (We invented electricity.) We are America. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/opinion/20DOWD.html?ex=991399344&ei=1&en=21c988f0da29a57b"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 22, 2001 (14:58)", "body": "This is true and this is also frightening. With great resources comes great responsibilities. Whatever happened to the responsibility part? We know what we did with all of our resources! Thanks, Terry!"}, {"response": 80, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (01:39)", "body": "Good one Terry ... makes you think doesn't it!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (15:26)", "body": "News Release U.S. Dept. of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Fri., May 25, 2001 Science on the Beach in North Carolina How much water is there, how long will it last, and where is it, are questions that scientists are trying to answer as they drill holes this summer in North Carolina. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey are drilling a core hole at Kure Beach near the Ft. Fisher Historical Site that will be the first step in a statewide program to document and describe the subsurface geology of the North Carolina Coastal Plain. The goal of the drilling project is to develop a better understanding of the size and geographic extent of the water aquifers and the relationship between the aquifers, geology, and water quality in the state. \"Most geologists used to assume that the geology of the Coastal Plain was quite simple, like a stack of blankets on a bed,\" says USGS scientist Robert E. Weems. \"Over time, however, USGS drilling and research in South Carolina and Virginia has shown that the actual buried patterns in this area are more complex than we thought. As a result of sea level changes, a cut-and-fill pattern of sedimentation is repeated up and down the Coastal Plain in South Carolina and Virginia, which has produced earth layers that fit together much more like a patchwork quilt than a stack of blankets. This complex pattern makes understanding aquifers and water quality much more challenging than was previously thought. There is every reason to believe that we will find the same kinds of patterns in North Carolina.\" The USGS research at Kure Beach involves drilling a 1,500-foot hole in the Earth, bringing up an intact core (underground sediment and rock) for analysis, and installing a deep probe in basement rocks in order to monitor seismic activity in the region. The drilling began this week and will continue until the end of July. Barbara Hoppe, Director of the Ft. Fisher Historical Site, said, \"We look forward to working with the USGS and the state agencies that are involved in this cooperative effort to gather important data on coastal geology and water resources. The information that is gathered will be beneficial to us all.\" Results of the project, which is supported and partially funded by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Division of Water Quality and Water Resources, the North Carolina Geological Survey, the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and the USGS, will assist local and state water resources managers in making better decisions concerning the availability and use of ground water. A similar study was conducted in the Coastal Plain of South Carolina and resulted in the creation of a comprehensive database of geologic and hydrologic information that is used by state agencies and private industry. The USGS serves the nation by providing impartial scientific information to describe and understand the Earth, its resources and processes; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life. * * * USGS * * * This press release and in-depth information about USGS programs may be found on the USGS home page: http://www.usgs.gov . To receive the latest USGS news releases automatically by email, send a request to listproc@listserver.usgs.gov. Specify the listserver(s) of interest from the following names: water-pr: geologic-hazards-pr; biological-pr; geologic-pr; mapping-pr; products-pr; lecture-pr. In the body of the message write: subscribe (name of listserver) (your name). Example: subscribe water-pr joe smith."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 26, 2001 (21:53)", "body": "SCICENTRAL NEWS ALERT brought to you by [1]SciQuest on Friday, 25-May-2001 09:31:23 AM EDT Friday, May 25, 2001 Edition _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/ [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * What It Means to Be a Mammal: New Clues From Tiny Fossil Described * Bibliography of Genetic Variation in Natural Populations (Database) * Discovery of Prehistoric Domesticated Sunflower Seeds Challenges Widely Accepted Theory of Plant Domestication in North America * Standing Tall: Plains Indians Enjoyed Height, Health Advantage Over European-Americans * Shift in Eating Habits of Early Modern Humans References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]MARINE BIOLOGY * Study Finds Wind, Currents Play Key Role Where Young Fish Settle * Great Barrier Reef Not So Old References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-marbio [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Study Shows Age, Sex, Weather, Factors in Fluctuating Soay Sheep Population * Study Finds Wind, Currents Play Key Role Where Young Fish Settle * Unfair Game * Journey of the Nectar Bats * Great Apes in Peril References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * When It's Dry Follow the Rocks * Pluto Has Big Shiny Colleague * Cassini's Epic Tour of the Rings * Discovery Brightens Odds of Finding Another Pluto * \"Tadpole Hunters\" May Net Forming Planets * Europe Launches Into Astrobiology * Galileo Gets One Last Close Encounter with Jupiter's Callisto * Menagerie of Mars Scouts: Bold New Proposals for Exploring The Red Planet * A Glimpse of the Very Early Universal Web * Cosmic Chemistry Gets Creative * A Taste for Comet Water * Counting All the Light in Deep Space References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOGRAPHY/GIS * Magellan Brings Three Meter Accuracy to Handheld GPS * Video Flies Along the Santa Barbara Coast and Mountains * Lockheed Martin Goes Live With Real-Time EO Datastream References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geogra [1]GEOLOGY * Antarctic Lake Disappoints References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Established References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]HYDROLOGY * The Fertile Crescent, One of the World's Most Important Wetlands, Devastated by Drainage References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-hydrol [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * Water-Witching From Space * Dust Begets Dust * The Pacific Dust Express References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * Giant Lava Lake Found References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * TERRA Captures Wildfires Raging Across Florida * Water-Witching From Space * Archaeologists Dig Space * Cluster Quartet Move in Step References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * Scientists Seek to Test Rocket Technology to Produce Pollution-Free Electricity * Web Site Advises Californians How to Cut Energy Use by 20% * \"Carbon Farming\" May Help Curb Global Warming * Carbon Sunk * Scrubbing Up * Bag of Tricks References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ \ufffd Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. To register, modify your selection of topics, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: [1] http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi _________________________________________________________________"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (17:13)", "body": "Thanjk 'orrible for this one: SCIENTISTS have taken a snapshot of the most sophisticated machine on the planet, a fundamental advance that could underpin a range of developments, from new antibiotics to detergents. A team, including scientists from Cambridge, has laid bare crucial details of a piece of living machinery, the ribosome, a particle that makes the thousands of proteins that are required for the structure and function of each and every living cell in the body. More.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=004826292612046&rtmo=VrgfwDsK&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/99/10/7/ecfprot07.html"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  1, 2001 (20:48)", "body": "SCICENTRAL NEWS ALERT brought to you by [1]SciQuest Friday, June 1, 2001 Edition _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/ [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Ancient Oceans Experienced a Surge in Biological Productivity * Paleontologists Locate a New Genus of Colossal Dinosaur Along an Ancient Coastline * Tours Power Tools * Triceratops Is No Slouch References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Study of Marine Snail Suggests Conservation Efforts Should Consider Factors Beyond Genetic Diversity * Saving the Siberian Tiger * Fragmentation Linked to Stress in Birds * Pet Trade Wrong: Poaching Major Threat to Parrots * Fragmentation May Limit Songbird Sex Lives References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Hubble Unveils a Galaxy in Living Color * Near-Earth Asteroid Is Two Chunks in One * Under Wraps * Moon Seen as Haven for Protolife * Life, the Universe and Everything Discussed in Frascati * Unmasking the Face on Mars * Captured on Camera: Are They Planets? * New Images of Martian Dust Devils, Dunes and \"The Face\" * NASA Gives Go-Ahead to Build \"Deep Impact\" Spacecraft * In Search of the Milky Way's Habitable Zone References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOGRAPHY/GIS * Remote Sensing Study Defines \"Edgy\" Cities * High-Resolution DEMs Used in 3D Visualization, Image Processing and GIS * Internet GIS Supports Environmental Impact Assessment in Northern Alberta References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geogra [1]GEOLOGY * Ancient Oceans Experienced a Surge in Biological Productivity * International Scientists Probe Unsolved Puzzles of the Earth and Beyond at \"Earth System Processes\" * New Research Shows Mountain Glaciers Shrinking Worldwide * Tropical Glaciers Formed While Earth Was a Giant Snowball References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * Migrating Impurities in Ancient Ice Can Skew Climate Research Findings * Vegetation Key to Accurate Climate Modeling * El Ni\ufffdo Link to Southern Ocean Currents * Melting Glaciers Signal Global Warming References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * Ancient Oceans Experienced a Surge in Biological Productivity * El Ni\ufffdo Link to Southern Ocean Currents * Unusual Source of Ocean Water Contamination May Rewrite Environmental Textbooks * Great Barrier Reef Not So Old References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * \"Landsat on Steroids\": Looking at the Urban Impact on Earth From Space * New NASA/CSA Monitor Provides Global Air Pollution View From Space * Artificial Intelligence Software to Command Mission * An Improved Method for Monitoring National and Global Deforestation * New Satellite Study Shows Vegetation Increases in U.S. * HOPE for Detecting Landmines * Fengyun 1-C Stars in Environmental Monitoring as Sandstorms Rage References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * Arsenic-Catchers Could Help Communities Supply Safer Drinking Water Affordably * New NASA/CSA Monitor Provides Global Air Pollution View From Space * Ill Winds Carry Toxic Dust * An Improved Method for Monitoring National and Global Deforestation * Unusual Source of Ocean Water Contamination May Rewrite Environmental Textbooks * One Hour of Grass Cutting Equals 100 Miles Worth of Auto Pollution References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ \ufffd Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. __________________________________________________________"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  4, 2001 (17:23)", "body": "Thanks, Horrible Horace, I apppreciate this from: http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id/ Launch fear An Australian deal to launch Russian satellites from an island in the Indian Ocean threatens unique species Shocking games A computer game controller that can deliver electric shocks to players is being developed in the US Radiation revelation Scientists' requests for blood tests on servicemen taking part in British nuclear tests in the 1950s were overruled by military commanders On the beat People really do have an innate sense of rhythm, research on finger-tapping reveals Out of control NASA is forced to destroy an experimental hypersonic jet after it careers off course Hide and seek A device capable of detecting concealed weapons in a crowd is being developed by US researchers Balancing act Zapping your head with electricity could help you keep your balance Burning issue Senior UK government officials admit to failing to follow advice on how to safely dispose of animals culled during the foot and mouth outbreak On the record Russian scientists must now report all foreign contacts - but the move might actually protect researchers Alien invaders A distributed computing project to look for signs of extraterrestrial life is hijacked by human invaders Road warrior A gadget-packed truck inspired by Bond movies is unveiled by the US Army Lost world The skeleton of a giant sauropod is found in what was once \"dinosaur heaven\" Stiff competition A fast-acting rival to the anti-impotence pill Viagra is approved for sale in Europe Portable privacy A mobile phone that protects transmissions from sophisticated eavesdropping is launched in Germany Raging bull Cattle's coiffure reveals how likely an animal is to overreact to unfamiliar situations Worst nightmare Terrorists could easily make an atomic bomb from MOX fuel, says a confidential report Space revolution Smart satellites due for launch next summer will be able to plan their own missions Tagged for death Abnormalities found in the DNA of cloned embryos could explain why so many die Meltdown Glaciers all over the world are shrinking, a new satellite survey reveals Plunging salmon Stocks of wild Atlantic salmon are at their lowest ever levels, says conservation group Armlock A giant arm on the International Space Station has seized up, delaying the next shuttle flight Occupational hazard Sports injuries don't just affect athletes - furry-costumed mascots are also highly susceptible Home from home An endless stream of other people's home movies will soon be beamed directly into your home Inside job Doctors perform the first heart bypass that does not require open-heart surgery Under wraps NASA must start planning a quarantine facility for Martian samples now, says an expert panel Watching worm A new computer worm that seeks out and reports child pornography is criticised for being too unsubtle Daily News Archive"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (17:44)", "body": "If you would like to view this email in html, please click here. Virtual Congo Search a lifelike 360\ufffd image for animals and objects, then click for videos and stories from conservationist Michael Fay's 15- month trek through extreme Africa. SeaLab: Antarctica Aboard an icebreaker, nationalgeographic.com's Mark Christmas is spending 40 sun-starved days off the coldest continent--and sending back photos, research updates, and more. Interested in visiting the vast wilderness of Antarctica? Find trip suggestions here. National Geographic Store Shop National Geographic online! Click here to discover great, affordable products that bring the world and its wonders to you. Book: \"Shackleton--The Antarctic Challenge\" Illustrated with historical and modern photographs, this volume recounts Ernest Shackleton's four journeys to Antarctica. Destination Map: Great Smoky Mountains National Park More than a map, this durable resource includes travel itineraries, a complete listing of visitor services, vivid descriptions of the park's ecology and geology, and more. Maps Made Easier We've simplified our Maps and Geography page and added handy new tools--just in time for summer travel. Map Machine: Pinpoint any place on Earth Atlas Updates: Download patches incorporating recent changes Star Chart: Scan summer skies with our map of the heavens MapXchange: Download or post maps for use with TOPO! CD-ROMs Scenes From Small-Town Greece Gunshots, goat testicles, high-flying hoofing--on Crete, correspondent Jim Metzner chronicled just how far, and high, locals go to celebrate the spring cherry harvest. HREF=\"http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;2859240;5816404;j?http://209.167.164.66/brand/container.jsp?/models/main.jsp&modelCode=SLK230K\"> New Mercedes-Benz SL-Class Imagine dancing from curve to curve on an undulating ribbon of pavement in an exotic European sports GT. Few images in life evoke such desire. Introducing the 2002 SL-Class from Mercedes- Benz. Visit www.MBUSA.com to see it now. Heroes for the Planet Win a chance to join National Geographic in the field! You could join renowned marine biologist and National Geographic Explorer- in-Residence Sylvia Earle on an unforgettable trip. Just enter the Ford Motor Company's Heroes for the Planet conservation contest. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Magazine: Asia's Last Lions Go beyond the new article with online-only photos and field notes, a slide show, and more. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER Magazine: Virtual Flight Over the Smokies Soar over Tennessee and North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains National Park. ADVENTURE Magazine: How I Broke Into High-Speed Sailing In less than a year writer John Vaillant went from sailing novice to salty dog, then sped off to cover one of sailing's fastest races. Have comments about our newsletter? E-mail: online@nationalgeographic.com."}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (17:47)", "body": "Thanks for the above, Ian. Great stuff there! Ian's son, Lewis, just made the England Archery team for an International Contest in July. Cheers to Lewis and his father, the Archery Judge and whistle blower who has hung up said whistle to become a geologist."}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (17:52)", "body": "SCICENTRAL NEWS ALERT brought to you by [1]SciQuest Friday, June 8, 2001 Edition _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/ [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Humans Hunted Mammals to Extinction in North America * Earliest Chewing Herbivore Ever Found Spurred Animal Life on Land * Ancient DNA Evidence Could Settle Dispute About Prehistoric Native American Migrations * Fossilized Trees May Hold Key to Past Climates * Evolution at a Snail's Pace: It's Faster Than You Think References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]MARINE BIOLOGY * New Instrument Enables Remote Detection of Toxic Algae in Real Time References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-marbio [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Taking a Dive * Killer Whale * Chilean Oil Spill Damages Birds, Salmon Farm * Researchers Find Mixing Between California Spotted Owls and Northern Spotted Owls * Will Drilling for Oil Disrupt the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? * Problems and Promise in the Land of the 'Hooch * In Search of Arizona's Elegant Visitor * Scientists Record Extraordinary Sounds Made by Minke Whales References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Early Results From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: From Under Our Nose to the Edge of the Universe * NTT Observations Indicate That Brown Dwarfs Form Like Stars * Aurorae and Volcanic Eruptions * A Change of Seasons on Saturn * New Map of the \"Nearby\" Universe Reveals Large-Scale Structure of Galaxies * Active Volcanism on Mars and the Search for Water * Bigger, Better Catalog Unveils Half a Billion Celestial Objects * New Study Indicates Planet Formation May Be Rare in Universe * Massive Star Clusters Swaddled in Huge Cocoons During Infancy * Jellyplants on Mars * NASA's Mars Global Surveyor Captures Dust Storms * Crescents Slice the Darkness in \"Farewell Jupiter\" Picture by Cassini References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOLOGY * Did Hades Freeze Over? References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Smoke on the Peninsula * Crackling Noise in Cereal and Magnets Aids Study Of Earthquakes References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]HYDROLOGY * Enhanced Model Better Assesses Impact of Climate Variability References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-hydrol [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * A Closer Look at Global Warming (Special Report) * Graziers Flock to Block Burps * New Research Can Improve Regional U.S. Snowfall Forecasts During El Ni\ufffdos and La Ni\ufffdas Winters * Climate Sensitivity May Be Higher Than Many Think * Shift From Forest to Crops Lowers Daytime Temperatures in the Midwest References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * New Instrument Enables Remote Detection of Toxic Algae in Real Time References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * Reducing Primary Chemical Emissions Does Not Always Reduce Pollution * Gas Cap * Cleaning Up Dioxin With Nanotubes * Do We Need Nuclear Power? References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ \ufffd Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. To register, modify your selection of topics, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: [1] http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi _________________________________________________________________"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (14:39)", "body": "Yahoo! News Bulletins: Reuters Science News Wed 13 2001 5:00 AM ET Japan Group Urges Govt. to Stamp Out Tiger Products Japan remains a haven for illicit sales of products containing tiger penises and other body parts, despite a new law intended to help protect the endangered animal from poachers, a Japanese conservation group said on Wednesday. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010613/sc/environment_japan_tiger_dc_1.html ____________________________________ U.S. Scientists Solve Texas Outlaw Mystery Smithsonian scientists said on Wednesday they had solved a 123-year-old mystery over whether a legendary Texas outlaw, ``Wild Bill'' Longley, managed to escape his hanging in 1878. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010613/sc/life_outlaw_dc_1.html ____________________________________ Sri Lanka Plans Radical Revamp of National Parks Sri Lanka, with one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, announced plans on Wednesday to radically reorganize its national parks and zoos to help protect wildlife, particularly elephants. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010613/sc/srilanka_parks_dc_1.html ____________________________________ Experts to Warn Against Mad Cow Complacency An international conference on mad cow disease will urge all countries to take pre-emptive measures to combat the fatal, brain-wasting illness, a participant said on Wednesday. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010613/sc/madcow_conference_dc_1.html ____________________________________ Vanuatu Volcano Spews Ash, Smoke in South Pacific A volcano on the uninhabited Vanuatu island of Lopevi has been spewing ash and smoke since last Friday and has caused cracks in the tiny South Pacific island, local media reported on Wednesday. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010613/sc/vanuatu_volcano_dc_1.html ____________________________________ Spacecraft Aims to Snap Big Bang 'Baby Picture' A spacecraft that looks a bit like a foil-covered umbrella aims to take the ``ultimate baby picture'' of remnants of the theoretical Big Bang that gave birth to the universe, astronomers said on Tuesday. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010612/sc/space_map_dc_3.html ____________________________________ Gene May Protect Women Against Breast Cancer A form of a gene that helps control cell growth may inhibit the development of breast cancer, at least among older white women, a study said on Tuesday. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010612/sc/health_cancer_dc_4.html ____________________________________ Antibiotic Prevents Lyme Disease if Given Quickly A one-dose treatment with the antibiotic doxycycline, given soon after the bite of a deer tick, can prevent Lyme disease, researchers reported on Tuesday as the season for getting the crippling ailment draws near. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010612/sc/health_lyme_dc_1.html"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (21:30)", "body": "From: NAU Geology Northern Arizona University One-year mineralogy-petrology position The Department of Geology at Northern Arizona University is conducting a search to fill a one-year position at the rank of instructor or visiting assistant professor with a start date of August 20, 2001. Candidates must have a completed Masters degree in Geology by the start date. All-but-dissertation or PhD is preferred. The candidate must have expertise in mineralogy, optical mineralogy, and igneous and metamorphic petrology, demonstrated through course work and prior teaching experience and/or research. The candidate will teach undergraduate classes in mineralogy, optical mineralogy, petrology and the laboratory sections associated with these classes with the support of a Graduate Assistant. Additionally, s/he may also be expected to teach introductory geology courses including Introduction to Geology , Physical Geology, and Introduction to Field Methods. We prefer applicants who have experience teaching diverse student populations. Applications should be sent via e-mail as soon as possible to thomas.hoisch@nau.edu. Please include a letter of application, a current CV, and the names and addresses (postal and e-mail) of at least three referees. The position will remain open until filled. Review of applications will begin immediately, but all applications received through June 30, 2001 will be considered. Northern Arizona University offers unique opportunities for geologic studies in the unparalleled setting of the Colorado Plateau. Located at an elevation of 7,000 feet in the city of Flagstaff, NAU is situated within the San Francisco volcanic field along the southern flanks of the San Francisco Peaks. The \"peaks\" boast the highest point in Arizona and provide an alpine terrain for skiing and year-round hiking, biking, etc. Flagstaff is the home of the Museum of Northern Arizona and the U.S. Geological Survey Flagstaff Field Center. Seven national parks and monuments are located with a 100-mile radius of Flagstaff, including the Grand Canyon. Additional information is provided on the department's web page at http://vishnu.glg.nau.edu . Northern Arizona University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Minorities, women, persons with disabilities and veterans are encouraged to apply."}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 20, 2001 (18:01)", "body": "For a wee bit of Irish Bragging from Liam (or is that notoriety?!) The grisly tale of two Irish anatomical entrepreneurs http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/science/2001/0614/sci4.htm On A recent tour of Edinburgh our guide pointed out where the infamous William Burke and William Hare had plied their grisly trade of supplying cadavers to the anatomical dissection classes of Dr Robert Knox. Later, when casually following up the story of Burke and Hare I discovered that both were Irish. In the late 18th and the 19th centuries, anatomists and surgeons faced a severe shortage of cadavers, necessary to further medical science and to teach anatomy. In Britain the only legal source was the gallows but supply fell well short of demand. And so, in order to meet the shortfall, the \"profession\" of grave-robber was born. The grave-robbers caused widespread anxiety. Friends and relatives of the deceased felt obliged to stand guard over the grave. Special watch-houses were built to secure the grave until the interred body had deteriorated to a stage where it was no longer medically useful. Grave-robbing had become a considerable business by 1820. Edinburgh with its many anatomy schools provided the biggest market and such was the demand that corpses reached that city from as far afield as Dublin. Prices ranged from \ufffd4 to \ufffd14. The most eminent anatomist and surgeon in Edinburgh was Dr Robert Knox (1701-1862). In 1825 he established an anatomy school which quickly attracted the largest enrolment (500) in Britain. This called for a proportionally high supply of bodies. Knox paid up to \ufffd800 per year for bodies. In 1827, Burke and Hare started to do business with Knox's school, delivering corpses of remarkable freshness. William Burke was born in 1792 to peasant parents at Orrery, Co Cork. He moved to Scotland in 1818 to labour on the construction of the Union Canal linking Glasgow to Edinburgh. He took up with a young Scottish prostitute, Helen McDougal. William Hare was born in Derry in 1790. He moved to Scotland and, like Burke, laboured on the Union Canal. He moved in with Margaret Laird, a widowed lodginghouse keeper in Edinburgh. In 1827, Burke and McDougal moved into the lodging-house run by Hare and Laird. Shortly afterwards, an elderly pensioner died in the house owing \ufffd4 rent arrears. To make good his loss, Hare, with Burke's assistance, sold the corpse to Dr Knox's school for \ufffd7 5 shillings. Both men were struck by the opportunity to make easy money. They decided to take an active approach and, over the next year, killed at least 15 people, many of them lodgers at Hare's establishment. Their usual modus operandi was to get their victim drunk and then to kill him/ her by smothering. As time went on they became careless and things came to a head when neighbours, suspicious at the sudden disappearance of a Mrs Docherty, entered Burke's house. Burke and McDougal were arrested for murder. The police later found Mrs Docherty's body in the Knox Anatomy School and, after interrogating the porter, they also arrested Hare and Laird. Only Mrs Docherty's body was available as physical evidence. The police were certain that their prisoners were guilty of many murders but couldn't prove this and, of course, their prisoners denied the charges. They decided that the only way to make progress was to offer immunity from prosecution to whichever of the accused would give up the others. Hare agreed to co-operate on condition that he and Laird were granted safety from prosecution. Burke and McDougal were tried on Christmas Eve 1828 on three charges of murder. McDougal was indicted only on the charge of murdering Margaret Docherty. The jury found Burke guilty but decided that the case against McDougal was not proven. Burke was sentenced to be hanged on January 28th, 1829, and his body to be given to the surgeons for dissection. Burke confessed to his crimes. He declared that McDougal and Laird knew nothing of what was going on. Burke and Hare had told the anatomists that they purchased the bodies from relations and others about Edinburgh. Killing by suffocation left no marks on the bodies and aroused no suspicions on the part of the doctors. At least 20,000 people turned out to see Burke hanged. Burke declared he was glad he had been brought to justice and that he depended on the atonement of the Saviour for salvation. The crowd greeted Burke's appearance on the gallows with roars of - \"Burke him, Burke him - give him no rope\". They also shouted for Hare to be hanged. After Burke was hanged the officials struggled among themselves to get scraps of the hanging rope and other relics of the occasion. Helen McDougal was released from jail on St Stephen's Day, but was recognised and forced to run for her life from a mob. She may have ended her days in Australia. When Hare was released from prison he went to work in a lime-kiln in England, but when his fellow workers discovered who he was they blinded him by throwing lime in his eyes. He ended h"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 23, 2001 (00:35)", "body": "SCICENTRAL NEWS ALERT brought to you by [1]SciQuest Friday, June 22, 2001 Edition _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/ [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Plant/Pathogen Evolutionary Dynamic Defies Simple Arms Race Model * Off With Their heads * War of Words * More Feathered Dinosaurs Found * The Flat Faced Man of Kenya (Special Report) References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Butterflies Fall in Flanders Fields * Lights Out * Whale of a Problem * Fish Fission Found * Tundra Birds Get Down and Dirty * Cheering News for Depressed Mussels * Asian Bird Species Threatened * Sigma Chi Chimpy References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Total Solar Eclipse 2001 Special Report * A Close Encounter With Mars * Striking Ultraviolet Images From XMM-Newton: Extreme Stellar Activity and the Supermassive Black Hole in M81 * NASA to \"Map\" Big Bang Remnant to Study Early Universe * Hardy Craft to Complete Map of Blistering Mercury * Mars Odyssey Cruising Along * Cosmic Cannon: How an Exploding Star Could Fry Earth References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOLOGY * New Maps/Report by USGS Scientists Show Underwater Features of Crater Lake in Unprecedented Detail References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Seismic Hazard on South Hawaii Island Rivals That of Los Angeles * Seismological Field Study Confirms Asymmetry in Thrust Fault Behavior * Pinatubo: 10 Years After the Big One References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]HYDROLOGY * In a Dry Land References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-hydrol [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * Method for Identifying Chaotic Atmospheric \"Hot Spots\" May Be Key to Better Weather Forecasts * Scientists Reconcile Opposing Views of U.S. Role in Greenhouse Gas Problem * Scientist Seeks Improved Methods for Weather Prediction in Southeast U.S. * Climate Changes Involve All of the Atmosphere * Mobile Homes for Microbes * Satellites Reveal Hawaiian Isles' Long Tail of Wind and Water References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * Pacific Remains Locked in Three-Year-Old Pattern * Bubbling Under * Satellites Reveal Hawaiian Isles' Long Tail of Wind and Water * Norwegian Sea Proposed as Storage Site for Carbon Dioxide References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * Study Reveals Critical Factors Affecting Levels of Carbon Monoxide, Ozone in American Cities * Bubbling Under * Marsh Spews Bacteria Onto Beach * Norwegian Sea Proposed as Storage Site for Carbon Dioxide * Muddy Waters: Letting the Gulf of Mexico Breathe Again * Shrinking the Dead Zone * Is Dilution the Solution to Pollution? References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ \ufffd Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. To register, modify your selection of topics, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: [1] http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 29, 2001 (14:33)", "body": "SCICENTRAL NEWS ALERT brought to you by [1]SciQuest Friday, June 29, 2001 Edition _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/ [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Identification of Mating Genes Provides Clues to Evolution * Where There's Soup, There's Life * Salamanders Stretch Themselves Thin References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * First Dolphins Born by Artificial Insemination * Not Always More Fish in the Sea * Peruvian Area Has More Mammal Species Than Any Other * Poaching Threatens \"Smart\" Guinean Chimpanzees * Analysis of Impact Studies Reveals How Bottom Fishing Affects Seafloor Denizens * Birds Accept Sweets From Strange Flowers * The \"Corn Crake\" Operation References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Hint of Planet-Sized Drifters Bewilders Hubble Scientists * Chandra Captures First X-Rays From Young Planetary Nebula * Ringing Out the Bugs on Route to Saturn and Titan * Catching Dust Devils on Mars * Temperature Map of Volcanic Moon Io Presents a Puzzle * Mars Express: Europe Conquers the Red Planet References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOLOGY * Chaos Killed the Dinosaurs * Snowball Fight in Edinburgh * Modeling Creates Clearer Picture of Pre-Oxygen Archean Atmosphere * Rare Orbital Anomaly May Have Caused Global Cooling 23 Million Years Ago * Silica Not Solely Responsible for Ice Age CO2 Levels * How Trees Changed the World * Ancient Peruvian Civilization May Have Fallen Foul of El Ni\ufffdo * Mountains Crumble Fast, Catastrophically References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Student Confirms Asteroid Impact Site in Panama * Geologist Believes He Knows the True Nature of the Loch Ness Monster * Hot-Spot Theory and the Origin of the Hawaiian Islands * Elastic Lava Blows Its Top * Cluster's Whispers Probe the Electrifying Plasmasphere * Philippines Volcano May Erupt \"For Weeks\" References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]HYDROLOGY * Giant Rain Gauges Reveal Record of Past Climate References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-hydrol [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * El Ni\ufffdo Repellent? * All the World's a Stage... for Dust * I've Looked at Clouds From Both Sides Now: A Perspective From the Warm Pool References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * Climate Change and Coral Reefs References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * Lots O' Vision * All the World's a Stage... for Dust References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * Bugs Make a Meal of Benzene * Amazon Rainforest Could Be Unsustainable Within a Decade * Put a Lid on It * Power, Heat and Cooling From Manure * Fungus \"Eats\" CDs References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ \ufffd Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. To register, modify your selection of topics, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: [1] http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  6, 2001 (23:54)", "body": "SCICENTRAL NEWS ALERT brought to you by [1]SciQuest Friday, July 6, 2001 Edition _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/ [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * The Invasion of the Giant Clams * Study of Aquatic Bird Genes Reveals Surprising Relationships and Evolutionary History * Cave Reveals Spectacular Secrets * Kangaroo, Platypus Are Not Related After All; Scientists Refute Current Molecular Method of Classifying Mammals References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]MARINE BIOLOGY * Researchers Discover New Photosynthetic Bacteria That Appear to Be Significant Component of Ocean's Carbon Cycle * The Invasion of the Giant Clams * Study for Products, Drugs From Sea Bonds Sponge, Bacteria * Humans to Blame for Coral Decline References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-marbio [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Is the Clock Ticking for the Cuckoo? * Meet \"Henry and Nick,\" Seals Featured in Study * Dormice Head Back to the Woods * Most Mammal Species Found in Peruvian Amazon References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Cannibalism Feeds Growing Galaxies * Kuiper Belt Object Found Possibly as Large as Pluto's Moon * Lasers Help Show Stars Are Larger Than Thought * Wandering Mystery Planets * Big Moon-Sized Object Found Beyond Neptune * A \"Gift of Galaxies\" * Europe and NASA Set New Cassini-Huygens Plan * Eye Site * Venus Holds Picture of Baby Earth References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOLOGY * Carbon Dating \"Might Be Wrong by 10,000 Years\" * NOAA Paleoclimatology Program (Selected Site) * Stalagmite Has Climate Warning * Researcher Unlocks Mystery of Recurring Hole in Antarctica's Sea Ice References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Ancient Volcanoes * All Earthquake Fault Lines Not Equal * Scientists Find Evidence of Highly Oxidizing Environment Over the South Pole * Discovery of Stagnant Lithosphere Says Less Mixing Occurs in Earth References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * Arctic Oscillation Has Moderated Northern Winters of 1980s and '90s * NOAA Paleoclimatology Program (Selected Site) * Water Cools the World * Researchers Determine Global Warming During the 20th Century May Be Slightly Larger Than Earlier Estimates References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * Researchers Discover New Plant-Like Bacteria That Appear to Be Significant Component of Ocean's Carbon Cycle * Water Cools the World * Humans to Blame for Coral Decline * Researcher Unlocks Mystery of Recurring Hole in Antarctica's Sea Ice References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * High Speed Satellite Secrecy a Step Closer * XM Radio Birds Operating Perfectly * System Would Harness GPS Signals to Study Environment References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * Coping With Swine Manure * The Arsenic Threat Worsens * Assessing the Risk of Estrogenic Chemical Mixtures * System Would Harness GPS Signals to Study Environment References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ \ufffd Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. References 1. http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi"}, {"response": 95, "author": "dot", "date": "Sun, Jul  8, 2001 (10:53)", "body": "Columbia's http://www.earthscape.org/news1frame.html just may be a great resources to draw on in this conference. A sample from today: Breaking News & Video: July 6, 2001 IN THE NEWS, as described in exclusive videos from the American Museum of Natural History and ABC NewsOne\ufffdin the drought-ridden Pacific Northwest, farmers and environmentalists struggle over scarce water and the fate of salmon. Meanwhile, in the wake of rolling blackouts, California turns to water, too, for energy from the sea. The West already looks to fuel cells, and critics of President Bush's energy plans similarly press for alternative-energy sources. Also in the news, as described in more exclusive video\ufffdmovements deep within the Earth trigger geologic hazards half a world apart. An earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on the Richter scale injures hundreds in Peru, while in the Philippines the Mayon volcano leaves a blinding aftermath of ash and dust. For more related stories, check out the headlines just below and an in-depth feature of Today's Earth News, Analysis & Perspective. Looking for extensive resources on marine life, oceans, earthquakes, and volcanoes? Turn to the unveiling of big changes in our columbia earthscape education pages, with unique mini-courses in geologic hazards, Earth's climate, and now water resources! Look here first for classroom ideas and resources on the Earth's structure and plate tectonics, global warming, and the risks to humans and ecosystems. You'll find dozens of lectures, images and videos, projects and exercises, links to real-time data, and more. Find out why Choice magazine says that \"few measure up\" to columbia earthscape among sites devoted to the Earth. Find out, too, why we have been featured in the Scout Report for top Web sites in the sciences\ufffdand won the Association of American Publisher's annual award for \"best new Internet-based electronic product\" in mathematics and science. Then join an online discussion about the Earth! The Headlines Today's columbia earthscape feature headlines make a great resource\ufffdbut be sure to follow our comprehensive archive, for each subject, of related research reports and classroom models. The headlines come from these top sources: BBC Science News Environmental News Network (ENN) Environment News Service (ENS) New York Times Science News Today@NASA.gov U.S. EPA in the News Definitely worth checking out. http://www.earthscape.org/"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (22:09)", "body": "AUSTRALIA, JAPAN BACK AWAY FROM KYOTO CLIMATE PROTOCOL TOKYO, Japan July 9, 2001 (ENS) - A high level delegation from the European Union has failed to win unequivocal Japanese and Australian support for ratification of the Kyoto Protocol without U.S. involvement. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-01.html *********************************************************************** U.S. FOREST SERVICE BEGINS ROLLBACK OF ROADLESS RULE WASHINGTON, DC, July 9, 2001 (ENS) - The U.S. Forest Service has begun reevaluating the roadless rule, a Clinton administration regulation aimed at protecting roadless areas of national forests. The agency says it will not appeal a federal court decision halting implementation of the rule, and will seek additional public comments before modifying and perhaps scaling back the rule to satisfy the timber industry. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-06.html *********************************************************************** UN AGENCIES CALL FOR SAFETY TESTING OF BIOTECH FOODS GENEVA, Switzerland, July 9, 2001 (ENS) - A United Nations commission has agreed on the first global principles for assessing the safety of genetically modified foods, the two agencies organizing the effort announced on Friday. The proposed rules could some day prompt governments to call for increased safety testing of foods and food ingredients created through biotechnology. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-07.html *********************************************************************** NORTHERN CONGO RAINFOREST SPARED BY GERMAN LOGGERS NEW YORK, New York, July 9, 2001 (ENS) - One of the last pristine rainforests in Africa will not be logged by a German timber company. Known as the Goualogo Triangle, the 100 square mile forest in the Republic of Congo contains some of the highest densities of gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants in central Africa. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-03.html *********************************************************************** MULTINATIONAL OIL GIANT SEEKS TO BUILD WIND FARM OFF BELGIUM PARIS, France, July 9, 2001 (ENS) - The giant oil and chemicals company TotalFinaElf is planning to build a wind generation facility in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Belgium. Through its subsidiary Fina Eolia S.A./N.V., TotalFinaElf has applied to the Belgian Electricity and Gas Regulatory Commission for a concession to build and operate a wind farm in Belgian waters. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-02.html *********************************************************************** ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 9, 2001 Robert Kennedy Jr. Jailed for Vieques Protest Russian Caviar Smuggler Lands in U.S. Jail Sea Lion Protection Efforts May Be Misguided Planned Montana Mine Could Be Environmental Disaster Rule Will Protect Miners from Diesel Pollution California Nuclear Plant to Boost Power Output Bill Proposes Tax Credit for Home Windmills Pollution Protesters Target West Virginia Power Plant New Zoo Exhibit Promotes Sport Hunting Missouri Halts Elk Restoration Effort For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-09.html Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved. *********************************************************************** SEND NEWS STORY TIPS TO news@ens-news.com *********************************************************************** E-Wire is a paid press release distribution service. Responsibility for the factual accuracy of each press release rests entirely with the individuals or organizations identified on the release. **************************************************************************** E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE **************************************************************************** TO NATIONAL, POLITICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS: GSA Publishes Lorton Environmental Assessment WASHINGTON, D.C., Jul. 9 -/E-Wire/PR Newswire/-- The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) today announced that 552 acres are a historic district, eligible to be listed on the National Register, under an agreement signed as part of the Environmental Assessment of the Proposed Disposal of the Lorton Correctional Complex, Fairfax County, Va. /CONTACT: Viki Reath of U.S. General Services Administration, 202-501-1231, or viki.reath@gsa.gov// /Web site: http://www.gsa.gov http://propertydisposal.gsa.gov/lorton/ / For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/July01/09July0113.html **************************************************************************** E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE **************************************************************************** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Trimol Group Enters Into Cooperation Agreement Wi"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 12, 2001 (01:14)", "body": "NEW SCIENTIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER No. 93, 14 July 2001 Bringing you the top headlines from all sections of New Scientist.com each week Efforts to harness nuclear fusion hot up http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns9999999 Are we facing an epidemic of twins and triplets? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991001 Why some people are destined to divorce http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991002 Chameleon code makes hackers invisible http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991000 Oldest human is Ethiopian http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns9999995 Has the US gone wobbly over biological weapons? http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns22995 Patenting the wheel http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opfeedback.jsp?id=ns229999#15 How James Joyce can help you lose weight http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/answers/766body.jsp"}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 13, 2001 (17:18)", "body": "SciCentral News Alert for Friday, 13-Jul-2001 09:38:55 AM EDT [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Paleoanthropologists Find Oldest Human Ancestor in Ethiopia * Soil Suggests Early Humans Lived in Forests Instead of Grasslands * Lost City of Atlantis Vents Its Secrets * Farming's Roots Pushed Back * Becoming Human (Selected Site) * Sexual \"Arms Race\" Drives Species Evolution in Desert Fruit Flies * The Origin of Sex: Cosmic Solution to Ancient Mystery * Hormones Change in Fits and Starts References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]MARINE BIOLOGY * Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (Selected Site) * Nets Linked to Sea Turtle Deaths References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-marbio [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * New Great White Shark Study Has Conservation Implications * Missouri Halts Elk Restoration Effort * Rats Go Bats Down by the Canal * Fish Feel a Little Tenderness * Fish Physiology and Climate Change * Snail Sex Improved by Love Dart * Nets Linked to Sea Turtle Deaths * Pollution \"Poses New Threat to Whales\" References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Sizzling Comets Circle a Dying Star * NASA to Launch Genesis -- Robotic Space Explorer to Collect Piece of Sun * Most Distant Objects Observed * Moon-Count Rises on Saturn * S-Cam, the World's Most Advanced Optical Camera, Captures Eclipse of Binary Star * The Moon and Plate Tectonics: Why We Are Alone * Dust Storm Swallows Half of Mars * Hubble Images Remarkable Double Cluster * Morning Coffee and Planets * Hubble Captures Best View of Mars Ever Obtained From Earth References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOGRAPHY/GIS * World Land Database Charts a Troubling Course References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geogra [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Scientists Devise Technique That More Accurately Estimates Age of Shallow Faults Near Earth's Surface * Scientists Witness Underwater Alchemy * A New Southern California GPS Network to Advance the Study of Earthquakes -- The SCIGN \"Unveiling\" Event * Snow Knowing * How Fast Does the World Turn? New Quantum Gyro May Tell Us References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * Increasing Asian Smog Blocks Out the Sun * Planting Northern Forests Would Increase Global Warming * Climate Widens the Gulf * The Wild Card in the Climate Change Debate * Scientists Study Why More Storms Form in the Sandhills in Summer * Carbon Sinks \"Little Help to Climate\" * Biosphere 2 Redux References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * Scientists Seeking Secrets of \"Lost City\" * Scientists Witness Underwater Alchemy * Scientists to Test-Drive Advanced Coastal and Ocean Data Gathering System References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * World Land Database Charts a Troubling Course * Turning Trash Into Treasure * Carbon Sinks \"Little Help to Climate\" * Landfills Make Mercury More Toxic References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ \ufffd Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. To register, modify your selection of topics, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: [1] http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi"}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (20:36)", "body": "ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS) http://ens-news.com \"We Cover the Earth For You\" *********************************************************************** POWER LINES, WIRING POSE HEALTH RISKS SACRAMENTO, California, July 16, 2001 (ENS) - Added risk of miscarriage, childhood leukemia, brain cancer and greater incidence of suicide are some of the health risks associated with exposure to electric and magnetic fields such as those that radiate from power lines, according to a California health department review. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-16-02.html *********************************************************************** NORTON DENIES PETITION CHALLENGING KLAMATH WATER DIVERSIONS WASHINGTON, DC, July 16, 2001 (ENS) - Interior Secretary Gale Norton has turned down a request by drought stricken farmers in the Klamath Basin to reexamine a decision to withhold their irrigation water to aid endangered fish. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-16-06.html *********************************************************************** FORECASTING WILDFIRES SAN DIEGO, California, July 16, 2001 (ENS) - For the first time this fire season, instead of just reacting to the fire alarms and second guessing the weather, wildland firefighters will have a look ahead on where future fires may start. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-16-01.html *********************************************************************** AMERICAN SOLAR CHALLENGE RUNS ROUTE 66 ST. LOUIS, Missouri, July 15, 2001 (ENS) - Twenty-eight solar powered cars that raced away from Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry Sunday heading 2,300 miles across the country have reached the University of Missouri. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-16-05.html *********************************************************************** KENYA'S PINK FLAMINGOS WEIGHED DOWN BY HEAVY METALS By Jennifer Wanjiru NAKURU, Kenya, July 16, 2001 (ENS) - Veterinary pathologists in Kenya have identified heavy metals as the leading cause of massive deaths of flamingos in two Rift Valley Lakes of Kenya, and warned that the scenic pink birds of Lakes Nakuru and Bogoria remain threatened unless the lakes are cleared of pollutants. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-16-04.html *********************************************************************** 19 EUROPEAN CITIES CLEAN UP URBAN TRANSPORT BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 16, 2001 (ENS) - The European Commission has today revealed the names of the 14 EU pilot cities which will benefit from 50 million euros in funding to implement radical improvements of their urban transport systems. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-16-03.html *********************************************************************** ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 16, 2001 Radioactive Scrap Recycling Reexamined BP Joins Alliance to Save Energy Shark Finning Ban Regulations Introduced Protesters Trail Bush Officials on Energy Tour Texaco Agrees to Install Pollution Control Equipment Environmental Groups Can Intervene in Monument Lawsuit Two Pennsylvania Nuclear Plants to Increase Power Output Honda Opens Hydrogen Production, Fueling Station Caterpillar Awards $625,000 Grant to The Nature Conservancy Planes Could Take Efficiency Lessons from Geese For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-16-09.html Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved."}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (20:30)", "body": "NEW SCIENTIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER No. 94, 21 July 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------- Bringing you the top headlines from all sections of New Scientist.com each week What's yellow, bent and about to spill all its secrets? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991037 A whiff of pheromones might fix premenstrual syndrome http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991041 The artificial passenger who keeps long-distance drivers awake http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991039 Are non-stick frying pans polluting our towns and cities? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991036 Pain-free lasers replace the dreaded dentist's drill http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991040 Arm patch tells drinkers how well their bodies cope with alcohol http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991038 AND FINALLY... The armed Russian who posted the following ad on the Net advertising his services was deadly serious: \"Will help retire from life, possibly without patient's consent.\" Unfortunately for the would-be assassin, the only people interested in his offer were the police. http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opfeedback.jsp?id=ns230099#20"}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 20, 2001 (17:13)", "body": "SCICENTRAL NEWS ALERT brought to you by [1]SciQuest Generated for Marcia Hemming on Friday, 20-Jul-2001 10:47:50 AM EDT Friday, July 20, 2001 Edition _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Ancient Crustacean Raises New Questions * Jurassic Chicken \"50-100 Years Off\" * Digital Organisms Used to Confirm Evolutionary Process References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]MARINE BIOLOGY * Scientists Identify Methane-Consuming Microbes From Ocean Depths * The Physics of ... Deep-Sea Animals: They Love the Pressure * Coral Reefs Ruined by Global Warming Will Take at Least a Century to Recover References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-marbio [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Ant Group Dynamics * Gorillas Make an Impressive Splash * A Wallaby School of Self-Defense * Mother Hens Dictate Diet * New Musk Ox and Reindeer Feed Now Available in Alaska * Birds Feel the Rub * Farmers Can Help Reverse Declining Quail Population * Fishing Changes Population * The Trouble With Turtles References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Star Clusters Born in the Wreckage of Cosmic Collisions * A Propitious Alignment of Planets * Seventy-Day Jupiter Movie Pulls Patterns Out of Chaos * Watch Global Warming Happen in Real Time -- On Mars * Inside JPL: Technologists, Their Toys and Troubled Times (Special Report) * Planet Gobbling Dust Storms * Telescope Array to Unlock Secrets From Duplicitous Stars * Zooming In on Mars: The Road to Human Missions * Astronomers Find Link Between Earliest Illustration of Sunspots in Medieval Britain and an Observation of Aurora in Medieval Korea References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Volcano Research Erupts in Space * Ancient Cities Vanished Into Muddy Morass * Oracle's Secret Fault Found * Surfing and Diving in the Earth's Magnetosphere, Cluster Celebrates One Year of Science in Orbit * Geologists Explain New Happenings at Kilauea Volcano References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * Earth Likely to Warm 4-7 Degrees by 2100 * Greater Solar Activity May Bring U.S. More Gray Days * Climate Change in Atlantic Larger Than Previously Thought References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * Marine Methane Consumed by Consortia of Bacteria * Climate Change in Atlantic Larger Than Previously Thought References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * Volcano Research Erupts in Space * Project to Provide Quick Access to Satellite Data to the Public Through RAPID-AmericaView * HOPE on Trial in Bosnian Mine Fields * Artemis Satellite Safely Under Full Control * Rohini Satellite Completes Mission References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * New System Developed for Removing Contaminants From Storm Run-Off * Power Station on Salt Water * Fresh Air for the Coliseum * Greenhouse Effect, R.I.P. * Researchers Create Fluorescent Molecules That Detect Metal Pollutants in Water, Waste * Researchers Unveil the First Comprehensive Wildfire Forecast for the Western United States * DDT Use in U.S. Linked to Premature Births in the 1960's * The Apparent Energy Shortage References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ \ufffd Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. To register, modify your selection of topics, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: [1] http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi _________________________________________________________________ References 1. http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  1, 2001 (22:23)", "body": "NEW SCIENTIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER No. 96, 4 August 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------ Change your newsletter subscription details at: http://www.newscientist.com/sub.jsp?id=361904&e=marci%40aloha.net ------------------------------------------------------------ Bringing you the top headlines from all sections of New Scientist.com each week The new powder that guarantees a sunny day http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991101 Is burning incense as bad as smoking? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991100 Intrusive breast biopsies could become a thing of the past http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991104 Why teachers are more at risk of autoimmune disease http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991106 Could this be the most powerful explosive ever discovered? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991103 US heads for total ban on human cloning http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991099 Lightning may spark evolution http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991102 AND FINALLY... What do a packet of cigarettes and a Taiwanese temple have in common? This week's New Scientist has evidence that burning incense may soothe your soul, but it could be playing havoc with your chest. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991100 ************************************************************************* Discover how five individuals have dedicated their lives to preserving and understanding the animal kingdom. Their unique projects, supported by the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, include elusive snow leopards, unique seahorses, colourful seabirds, majestic griffon vultures, and industrious ground beetles - some of the world's living wonders. http://www.rolexawards.com/special-feature/creatures/index.html *************************************************************************"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug  4, 2001 (17:07)", "body": "**************************************** Chinese Checker? Where's Ralph Nader? **************************************** Pajero Victim for Compensation Turned Down by Japanese Car Company Lu Hui, was severely injured by a Pajero V31 automobile because the brakes on the car failed. She was rushed to the hospital but later had to leave on Thursday because her medical expenses were too high. Pajero V31, a model produced by the Japanese Mitsubishi Motor Vehicle Co., has defective brakes that will lead to a brake malfunction or even failure while driving. The design flaw was found last September since several accidents had occurred in Yunnan Province and other places due to the poor quality of Pajero brake system. Zhou Jianhong, Lu's husband, had informed the company's Beijing office time after time that they couldn't afford the medical costs, hoping Lu's treatment would not be delayed. Although Mitsubishi, Thursday, apologized to Chinese consumers for its defective cars, the company turned a deaf ear to Zhou's requirement for immediate compensation. Previously, Mitsubishi had been in trouble due to an outbreak of nationwide discontentment with their refusal to formally apologize and provide compensation. Zhou said in order to raise money for Lu's medical treatment, he has sold his laundry shop, on which the whole family relies on for income. Lu was knocked down by a Pajero when its brakes failed on December 25, 2000 in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan province. Later she was diagnosed as first-degree handicapped because she was paralyzed as a result of the accident. *from Liam, of course*"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 13, 2001 (17:18)", "body": "RUNWAYS REFUSE DEFENCE Hi-res radar scans for runway rubbish. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-6.html LEFT IN MUSIC Musicians' brains may use language modules listening to music. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-4.html FIRE'S SPREAD LOOKS FRACTAL Fight forest fire's fringes first, suggests new model. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-5.html GREAT EXPECTATIONS Placebo mimics drug effects on Parkinson's brains. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-1.html PLANTS' ROOTS PUSHED BACK Earth might have turned green earlier. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-2.html SOLAR POWER SURGE Self-assembling organic solar cells could harness sunlight cheaply. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010816/010816-3.html VIBRATOR BOOSTS BONE Sheep shake a leg and strengthen thighs. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-10.html NANO FIXERS BALANCE BOOKS Single-celled microbes fertilize the oceans. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-11.html GRANDMASTERS MATE FROM MEMORY Chunky chess theory shows how best brains battle. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-13.html PHYSICISTS PLAY THE NANOPIPE Electrons caught making waves in carbon nanotubes. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-12.html STATS SAY AYE TO ID EYE Iris patterns prove their unique credentials. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-8.html FUTURE GOES TO MARKET Focus group predictions improve when money is at stake. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-9.html VACCINE FROM FLY SPIT Fly saliva could protect us from a dangerous disease. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-7.html NIGHT IN BRIGHT LIGHT PLIGHT Light pollution threatens amour and astronomy. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-6.html BATS EAT BIRDS ON THE WING Migrating birds should beware of high-flying bats. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010809/010809-5.html"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 20, 2001 (18:44)", "body": "From the indefatigible Liam - Unhappy birthday for the PC By Andy Goldberg in Silicon Valley THE 20-year anniversary of the personal computer, supposed to be a celebration of Silicon Valley's successes, has deteriorated into an unseemly row about who invented it first. The elite of the high-tech industry were set to appear in their black-tie finery last night for a party celebrating the 20th anniversary of the personal computer, but the birthday bash led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Intel boss Andy Grove is reviving the bitterest rivalry in computer history. The event marks the debut on August 12 1981 of the IBM personal computer, a clunky machine that sold at the time for $2,665, powered by the Intel 8088 chip and containing a measly 64 kilobytes of memory - one thousandth the power of today's typical model. more... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected?ac=005740803956591&rtmo=rQhbk2rX&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/8/9/ecnbday.html"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 22, 2001 (19:49)", "body": "NEW SCIENTIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER - No. 99, 25 August 2001 We talk to \"the Isaac Newton of the 21st century\" http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns230516 Los Angeles is on the move - but it's not a quake http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991184 A genetic mutation is to blame for panic attacks http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991185 Telescopes may soon be able to \"see\" dark matter http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991187 Primitive sea creatures put our finest optical systems to shame http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991183 How would you like to live over a nuclear power plant? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991186 AND FINALLY... In November 1995, Londoners contacted Scotland Yard claiming they had experienced an earthquake tremor. Investigations revealed that 20,000 rock fans had been jumping up and down at an Oasis concert in Earl's Court, and tremors were being reported up to one mile away. Be warned. At 11am on 7 September 2001 hundreds of thousands of British schoolchildren hope to make the Earth move with \"the greatest simultaneous jump in history\"... http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opfeedback.jsp?id=ns230599#43 ************************************************************************* Discover how five individuals have dedicated their lives to preserving and understanding the animal kingdom. Their unique projects, supported by the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, include elusive snow leopards, unique seahorses, colourful seabirds, majestic griffon vultures, and industrious ground beetles - some of the world's living wonders. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;3152517;6044940;c?http://www.rolexawards.com ************************************************************************* Comments on this newsletter can be sent to newsletter@newscientist.com For people who love ideas, subscribe to New Scientist and have it delivered to your door every week, at: http://www.newscientist.com/subscribe/subs_home.jsp?source=newsletter Looking for a new job? Check out more than 1500 international science jobs each week at http://www.newscientistjobs.com Are you a US-based bioscientist or chemist looking for a new job? Check out http://www.sciencejobs.com , a US jobs website produced by New Scientist, Cell Press, BioMedNet, and ChemWeb.com."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 29, 2001 (15:19)", "body": "Nature Science Update Highlights: 29 August 2001 MAGNET LIFTS LID ON HALF-LIFE Virtual injury catches the brain's halves competing for attention. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-5.html HUMAN GENE NUMBER CLIMBS New estimate ups our gene number by a third. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-4.html GENES REVEAL JUMBO SCHISM Elephants from Africa's plains and forest might be two different species. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-1.html HIMALAYAS ON ALERT The recent earthquake in India killed thousands, but far worse may be in store. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-2.html POTS PAN BUGS Copper kitchenware may lower food-poisoning risk. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-3.html http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-12.html EYES IN THEIR STARS Engineers envy brittlestar bones' built-in lenses. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-11.html PEAT FEELS THE HEAT Global warming speeds wetlands carbon leaching. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-13.html KYOTO BEGINS AT HOME Family values could help cut greenhouse gases. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-9.html SWAYING COMES BEFORE A FALL Fall prediction gets off to a standing start. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-8.html CHIPS KEEP THE CHANGE New circuits rewire themselves and don't go blank when switched off. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010823/010823-7.html ===================================================================== Nature Science Update is produced by the Nature News Service -- the popular science news syndication arm of the leading international science journal Nature. To find out about buying news and features like this for your website or news paper please e-mail: mailto:syndication@nature.com."}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 31, 2001 (21:18)", "body": "SciCentral News Alert for Friday, 31-Aug-2001 [1]EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Dinosaur Expert Describes Unusual Feeding in Carnivorous Dinosaur * Permian Extraterrestrial Impact Caused Largest Mass Extinction on Earth * How Did an Infertile Fruit Get to Africa So Soon? * How Well Could Dinosaurs Corner? * Mystery Surrounds the Death of Australia's Megafauna References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut [1]MARINE BIOLOGY * Dust From Africa Leads to Large Toxic Algae Blooms in Gulf of Mexico * Wanted: Reef Cleaners * Article Explores Rebirth of Aquatic Life After Deep-Sea Volcanic Eruption References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-marbio [1]WILDLIFE & FISHERIES * Right Whale Has the Wrong Stuff in Terms of Buoyancy * New Mimic Octopus Survives by Changing Its Identity * Genes Reveal Jumbo Schism * Fungal Enemy Could Explain Worldwide Amphibian Die-Off * Steller Sea Lions Beleaguered by Salmon Farmers and Commercial Fisheries * Technology Hope for Turtles References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-wildfi [1]ASTRONOMY * Europe to Identify Underground Water on Mars * SETI@home: Signal Crunching Yields Little So Far * Astronomers Discover Six-Image Gravitational Lens * Virtual Telescope Observes Record-Breaking Asteroid * The Strange Spires of Callisto * Burst of Star Formation Drives Bubble in Galaxy's Core * Scientists Identify Tagish Lake Meteorite's Origin in Space * A New Comet * Signs of Comets Spotted Around Another Star * Model Describes Birth of the Moon * New Light Pollution Atlas of World Shows Dark Skies Are Rare * The Dilemma of Mars Sample Return References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-astron [1]GEOLOGY * Clocking Ocean Circulation Over One Million Years * NASA Scientists Propose New Theory of Earth's Early Evolution References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog [1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Etna in Identity Crisis * Solar Max is Over, Earth's Future Looks Brighter * Is Earth's Magnetic Field Failing? * Researchers Fail to Find Alternatives to Huge India Earthquake * Seismologist Shows Deep Earthquakes Come in Pairs * Water Thrown on Earthquake Prediction References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy [1]METEOROLOGY & CLIMATOLOGY * \"Weaker\" El Ni\ufffdo Is Coming * Warmer Periods in Alaskan Area Not Confined to Modern Times * Tiny, Unmanned Planes in Florida Help Researchers Assess Storms, Hurricanes * Into the Storm * Peat Feels the Heat * New NASA Satellite Sensor and Field Experiment Shows Aerosols Cool the Surface but Warm the Atmosphere References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-meteo [1]OCEANOGRAPHY * New Scripps Monitoring Devices Set to Detect Clandestine Nuclear Weapons Testing * Clocking Ocean Circulation Over One Million Years * Scientists Explore Underwater Canyon Off New York-New Jersey Harbor * Peat Feels the Heat * Oceans of Power References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-oceano [1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * Fighting Wildfires Before They Start * New Scripps Monitoring Devices Set to Detect Clandestine Nuclear Weapons Testing * NASA Satellite, University of Maryland and U.S. Forest Service Provide Rapid Response to Wildfires * U.S., China, G7 Countries Flout Satellite Registry * Things That Matter: Eco-logic References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem [1]ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & BIOREMEDIATION * Why Burn Coal When Wind Power Is Cheap and Plentiful? * Novel Surface Analyzer Effective in Detecting Chemical Warfare Agents * New Light Pollution Atlas of World Shows Dark Skies Are Rare * Oceans of Power References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=E-enviro _________________________________________________________________ \ufffd Copyright 2001 SciQuest, Inc. To register, modify your selection of topics, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit: [1] http://newsletter.scicentral.com/cgi-bin/register.cgi _________________________________________________________________"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  3, 2001 (20:56)", "body": "NEW SCIENTIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER No. 100, 1 September 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------ Change your newsletter subscription details at: http://www.newscientist.com/sub.jsp?id=361904&e=marci%40aloha.net ------------------------------------------------------------ Bringing you the top headlines from all sections of New Scientist.com each week Bush's missile defence system could cause US-bound warheads to drop on Europe and Canada instead http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991210 Machines will be making a song and dance about their work http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991209 Meet the man who's fighting disease--with numbers http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns23065 Dads who smoke cannabis are putting their babies at risk http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991213 Using an ulcer drug for abortions is leaving a terrible legacy http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991212 Human speech may be a side effect of our male ancestors trying to intimidate their rivals http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991211 AND FINALLY... NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter came to grief when the craft's designers mixed up metric with imperial units. We're glad to announce that there'll be no such problem at Butlin's Holiday camp at Minehead in Somerset. Swimmers there are told the depths of water in the various pools. In one case the water level is a whole '0 m' deep. Just in case any spacecraft designers decide to holiday in Minehead, this is tactfully converted to '0 ft 0 in'. http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opfeedback.jsp?id=ns230699#30"}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep  4, 2001 (19:14)", "body": "Nature Science Update Highlights: 3 September 2001 IS THAT STUDY REALLY NECESSARY? Economics helps decide if we should put our money where researchers' mouths are. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010906/010906-3.html APPELLATION MISSION CONTROLL\ufffdE Space agency helps wine growers blend a better bottle. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010906/010906-4.html VIRUSES SOUNDED OUT Researchers hope to hear HIV, hepatitis and 'flu. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010906/010906-1.html MERCURY FALLING INTO FOOD CHAIN Sun, sea and snow bring mercury down to Earth. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010906/010906-2.html PARASITE CORRALS COMPUTER POWER You can trick someone else's computer into solving your problems. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-8.html INFECTION KILLS CANCER Virus exploits cancer's common tag. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-9.html ETNA IN IDENTITY CRISIS Sicily's volcano could be getting more violent. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-10.html PRION PAIR PICTURED Domain swapping could be prion couples' downfall. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-6.html NERVE CHIP GOES LIVE First nerve cell-silicon microchip built. http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-7.html"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (22:31)", "body": "A swig of beer could one day protect you from HIV http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991286 The sweaty secrets behind midge bites http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991287 How a roadside robot could save lives http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991290 The inner strength that helps women live longer http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991288 Why molasses gets rid of rust http://staging.newscientist.com/lastword/ A. I. Artificial Intelligence: what Brian Aldiss has to say about the movie http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/ai/likehuman.jsp AND FINALLY... Nobody looks forward to seeing you. Small children sometimes burst into tears at the mere sight of you. No wonder dentists are often said to have a high suicide rate. This week, however, we have news which may improve the popularity of members of this profession - a vaccine which could make toothache and fillings a thing of the past... http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991289"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (01:47)", "body": "******************************* HIGP Postdoctoral Fellowship ******************************* From: Andy Harris Postdoctoral Fellowship The Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) University of Hawaii at Manoa. HIGP has an immediate opening for one postdoctoral fellow (physical volcanology) to work on conduit processes at persistently active basaltic systems. The fellowship is for 1 year with a possible extension to 3 years, subject to availability of funds. Research will use multiple geophysical data sets to search for cycles in mass fluxes at erupting basaltic systems over a variety of time scales. Data from field work on one or a number of the following volcanoes will be considered: Kilauea (Hawaii), Villarrica (Chile), Strombol and Etna (Italy), and Masaya (Nicaragua). Follow up work will include the derivation and application of conduit convection models to explain any observed trends. A Ph.D. in geology, geophysics or related fields is required. An interest in areas such as conduit convection, degassing, magma/lava rheology, effusive volcanism, strombolian systems; and experience in the gathering and analysis of multiple geophysical data sets at active volcanoes are preferred. This position will include field work on active volcanoes, and so previous field experience would be desirable. A degree of computer literacy, and an interest in conduit convection and rheological modeling would also be useful. To apply, submit a resume including a list of publications and the names, addresses, e-mail, and fax numbers of at least 3 referees by October 15, 2001, to Dr Andrew Harris, HIGP/SOEST, University of Hawaii, 2525 Correa Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. The University of Hawaii at Manoa is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. For more details, please contact Andy Harris (harris@higp.hawaii.edu) ******************************* SWRI Volcanologist ******************************* From: Brittain Hill VOLCANOLOGIST, LIMITED-TERM We are looking for a highly motivated and self-directed Research Scientist to help the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission evaluate the probability and consequences of volcanic activity affecting the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The successful applicant will have an important and visible role in a program of national impact. This position requires interest and experience in the quantitative modeling of volcanic processes, such as magma ascent, tephra dispersal, flow phenomena, or probabilistic risk assessments. Excellent mathematical and computer skills are required. Experience or training in geophysical applications to igneous processes is a plus. In addition to conducting technical investigations, the candidate will participate in document and program reviews, report preparation, and interactions at public meetings. The work environment will include both independent and team-based investigations, and may include field investigations in remote areas. This person also is expected to help develop and contribute to work for various commercial clients, especially in the area of natural hazard and risk assessment. This position complements existing strengths in physical volcanology, petrology, risk assessment, GIS/RS, structural geology, hydrology, geochemistry, and engineering. Requirements include a Ph.D. or M.S. with three years of experience in igneous processes. The successful applicant will be expected to present results of investigations in publications and presentations and therefore should possess outstanding oral and written communication skills. NOTE: All applicants must pass a conflict of interest evaluation and be qualified for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission clearance. This is a 2 year limited-term, full-time position with competitive salary and benefits. Southwest Research Institute is an independent, nonprofit, applied engineering and physical sciences research and development organization with nine technical divisions. The Institute occupies 1,200 acres and provides nearly two million square feet of laboratories, test facilities, workshops, and offices for more than 2,700 employees who perform contract work for industry and government clients. Please submit resumes to bhill@swri.edu or faxed to (210) 522-5155. Resumes also can be mailed to Dr. Brittain Hill, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, Texas 78228-0510, or submitted through the Southwest Research Institute job site at www.swri.org"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  9, 2001 (22:18)", "body": "Can bubbles explain the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991350 Beam me up: teleportation comes closer http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991346 How urine could cut diesel pollution http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991347 Laughing aloud - women giggle, men snort http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991348 The man who wants to bring back wolves http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns23105 AND FINALLY... Rain bouncing off power lines causes a low humming noise, reports this week's Last Word. And it seems that the heavier the rain, the louder the noise. The wires are live with the sound of music? Perhaps not... http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  2, 2001 (19:20)", "body": "USGS Scientists To Discuss Breaking Science News What: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists from around the nation will gather next week in Boston to discuss current and breaking science news with colleagues from around the world. Where: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting will be held from November 5 through November 8 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. Media Availabilties: America's Coastal Crisis ? How to Protect Coastal Resources: discuss erosion of U.S. shorelines. Assuming no additional beach nourishment or other protective measures are taken, the nation will lose 1,500 homes each year to coastal erosion. Monday, November 5, 12:30 p.m., Room 109 Energy Resources on Federal Lands: 70 percent of clean coal resources and most onshore oil areas in Northern Alaska are on Federal lands. Discuss with the experts. Tuesday, November 6, 10 a.m., Room 109. Seismic Does Matter ? Even in Boston: USGS Associate Director for Geology, Dr. P. Patrick Leahy will be on hand to discuss current work being done by USGS and how new tools are being developed to give advance warnings on earthquakes. This year, the Advanced National Seismic System, which gives emergency responders real-time earthquake information is being installed in Boston and New York! Wednesday, November 7, 11 a.m., Room 108. Call Carolyn Bell in the GSA newsroom at 617-954-3214 for details. Highlights: America's Coastal Crisis ? a discussion about critical geoscience information needed to conserve and protect America's coastal resources will be help Monday, November 5 at 8 a.m. in Room 112. Changing Geology of Appalachia ? A new USGS video about the geology of the Southern Appalachian Mountains will be showcased on Monday, November 5 at 3 p.m. in Room 304. Using LIDAR to Map Coastal Change: Learn how USGS scientists and others are using new remote sensing-based capabilities for coastal studies and natural resources management. Tuesday, November 6, 2001 at 9:15 a.m., Room 210. Florida Bay Restoration ? Recent evidence collected by USGS scientists from the muddy bottom of Florida Bay shows that some changes in the ecosystem are natural, but some are not. Tuesday, November 6 at 11:45 a.m. in Room 210. Chesapeake Bay Crater ? What happens when a mile-wide rock slams into the earth at supersonic speed? USGS scientists discuss what they've learned so far about the monster rock which changed America thousands of years ago. Three different sessions: Tuesday, November 6 at 4:45 p.m. in Room 202; Thursday, November 8 at 2:45 p.m. in Room 200 and at 4:15 p.m. in Room 304. Energetic Discussion of Coal, Oil and Gas ? As America's need for energy increases, science plays a critical role in providing information necessary for resource managers to make good decisions. Hear top experts discuss how American can meet the energy challenge. Two discussions: Northern Alaska Oil ? Wednesday, November 7 at 2:15 p.m. in Room 313; Coal in Western States ? Wednesday, November 7 at 3:35 p.m. in Room 313. Florida Sand Reveals Ancient River ? A huge sand delta in Southern Florida, discovered in 1999 by USGS scientists and others, reveals that an ancient river, larger than any current Florida river, once flowed through the state. Thursday, November 8, at 1:30 p.m. in Convention Center Hall D. For more information on any of these events or other USGS science, visit our webpage at http://www.usgs.gov The USGS serves the nation by providing reliable scientific information to: describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life. *** USGS ***"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  7, 2001 (22:06)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (11/6/2001) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * New Light on Ice Motion (DAAC Study) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Antarctica/ MODIS' unprecedented high resolution reveals clues to antarctic topography and ice history. -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Hurricane Michelle http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5209 Pi\ufffdon Canyon Region, Colorado http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5208 Napoli and Volcanism - Vesuvius and Mt. Etna http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5207 Where on Earth...? MISR Mystery Image Quiz #4 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5206 Falkland Islands http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5204 Lake Chad and the Sahel http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5199 Dust Blankets the Mediterranean http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5198 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Satellites Shed Light on a Warmer World * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Greenland Ice Sheet Melting - NASA Helps Map Flood Zones - British Butterflies in Decline - Nature Reveals Evidence of a Warming World - Storms Lower Ozone Levels - Global Warming Alert Issued for U.S. Gulf States * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: 4km TRMM Fires data for October 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/fires.trmm.html Precipitation data for July 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/rainfall.gpcp.html - Earth Observatory Announcements http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov To unsubscribe: send body \"unsubscribe eo-announce \" to majordomo@eodomo.gsfc.nasa.gov"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 26, 2001 (20:27)", "body": "Nature Science Update Highlights: 26 November 2001 SUN SUCKS UP GAS Solar swirls may predict space weather. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-5.html DNA REPAIR COULD REDUCE SUNBURN An immune system chemical may undo skin damage by sunlight. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-6.html FORTIFIED FLOUR FRACAS Compulsory folic acid supplementation may hold risks. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-4.html CLONED COWS IN THE PINK Healthy cows buck the trend for sickly clones. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-1.html BSE'S EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS While prion diseases seem to be waning in humans, they could be waxing in sheep. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-2.html MATERIAL BONES UP Programmed molecules build themselves into a bone-mimic. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-3.html WATER DROP HOLDS A TRILLION COMPUTERS Devices with DNA software may one day be fitted into cells. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-11.html LOGGING FUELS FIRE Felling trees raises rainforests' risk of burning. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-12.html THIEVES NOT THICK Criminal behaviour suggests birds' brains are more sophisticated than we thought. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-13.html STIFF CHALLENGE TO INSTABILITY The secret of a steady hand is tightening the right muscles. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-15.html DECEPTION FUELS DOMESTIC BLISS Evolution may make men ignorant and gullible. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-9.html HIV SKIPS SHRINKING RAFTS Cholesterol capping limits HIV replication. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-8.html FRIENDS ARE STRANGER THAN STRANGERS If your friends were normal people they would not know you. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-7.html ===================================================================== SPECIAL FEATURES: THE REGENERATION GAP Newts grow new legs, Hydra new heads. These remarkable creatures may hold clues for researchers developing human cellular therapies. But the connections are only now starting to be made. Helen Pearson reports. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011122/011122-14.html"}, {"response": 117, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Nov 26, 2001 (21:17)", "body": "Are these National Inquirer Headlines?"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 26, 2001 (23:07)", "body": "NO !!! http://www.nature.com/nature/ NATURE is a very august and learned Journal from the UK. (That means it is difficult to read, has long colvoluted sentences, and the topics are abstruse.) But.... you can trust what it prints!"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 29, 2001 (21:50)", "body": "A camouflage make-up protects soldiers from the heat of battle http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/tech/ Whales show the way to a cleaner, greener boat http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991616 Use your cellphone to name any song in three seconds flat http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991619 Is carbon the key to superconductors that work at room temperature? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991618 Have mosquitoes finally met their match? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991615 Tiny black holes may be exploding in our cosmic backyard http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991617 AND FINALLY... At the ripe old age of eight, Cog is still one of the world's most famous humanoid robots. For science reporters who gain entry to MIT's Media Lab in Cambridge, an audience with this celebrity resident is akin to a music fan meeting Mick Jagger. Sadly, however, Cog is not himself at the moment. This week's Feedback column is alarmed to hear that he has been decapitated - and even more alarmed to learn this head head has been replaced with that of a mechanical ant... http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opfeedback.jsp?id=ns231999#31 ************************************************************************* Whether you want to brush up your French for a holiday, get fluent in Italian or start Arabic from scratch, there's a course for you at Linguaphone. Choose from over 500 courses in 30 languages and decide how fast you want to take it. Click here now and start to enjoy learning a new language - http://www.panpartnership.co.uk:80/do/session/new/vsid/871647"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  6, 2001 (19:57)", "body": "NEW SCIENTIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER No. 114, 8 December 2001 Bringing you the top headlines from all sections of New Scientist.com each week Higgs boson: are physicists spending billions on a wild goose chase? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991649 Like it or not Britain's economy is already bound up with the Euro http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991651 Why do sheep glow in the dusk? http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/ Severed optical nerves can be made to grow again http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991646 Does Europa's rosy glow betray a flourishing colony of bugs? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991647 Ultrasound could target drug delivery in the brain http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991644"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 10, 2001 (22:28)", "body": "FIT RATS GET ROUND THE BENDS Physical exercise could stave off decompression sickness. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-4.html MARS TAKES ITS CAP OFF Mars' polar ice caps are slowly melting. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-1.html NEW NERVES WIPE MEMORY Nerve cells can break memories, as well as make them. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-2.html POT-BELLIED MICE MIMIC OBESITY Genetically engineered mice get fat like we do. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-3.html ANCESTORS SKIP ADOLESCENCE Dental diary of a teenage hominid aged 1.5 million years. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-10.html WATER POWER A new material helps to make clean fuel from water. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-11.html FLESH-EATERS MAKE SKIN CREEP Bacteria give skin cells their marching orders. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-12.html WHO WANTS TO BE A COSMONAUT? Russians start countdown to space game show. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-8.html LESSONS IN LANDSCAPE Keeping parks pretty means tailoring the trees to their source of water. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-9.html RADIATION ZAPS BYSTANDERS Radon may pose a greater cancer threat than has been thought. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-7.html QUANTUM COMPUTERS SPREAD THE RISK A balanced portfolio of programs could mean a faster quantum computer. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-6.html ===================================================================== SPECIAL FEATURE: THE BUDDING AMATEURS From the results of an annual Alaskan betting contest to sightings of migratory birds, ecologists are using a wealth of unusual data to predict the impact of climate change. John Whitfield rummages in the archives. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-13.html ===================================================================== Nature Science Update is produced by the Nature News Service -- the popular science news syndication arm of the leading international science journal Nature."}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 11, 2001 (21:56)", "body": "* Earth's Magnetic Field Really Did Reverse Itself * Melting Glaciers Diminished Gulf Stream, Cooled Western Europe, During Last Ice Age * Global Warming More Common Than Thought, Deep-Sea Drilling Off Japan Now Demonstrates References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geolog"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (22:00)", "body": "GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY NEWS * Researchers Investigate Mysteries of the African Rift * Fractal Models of Blue Jets, Blue Starters Show Similarity, Differences to Red Sprites * Well-Studied Volcano May Be Clue to Better Modeling * Scientist Anticipates Major Eruption of Peru's El Misti Volcano * Lifting the Veil on Black Aurorae * U.S. Earthquake Monitoring, Reporting Severely Hampered by Shutdown of Department of Interior Internet Connections * Deepsea Cores Offer New Clues to Earthquake Cycles * Where Lightning Strikes * The Sun's Chilly Impact on Earth * TIMED Atmospheric Spacecraft Successfully Launched References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy"}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (23:14)", "body": "New Scientist Newsletter 15 December 2001 A tasteless additive could give an extra zing to drinks http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991677 How does bone manage to be so tough? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991682 Our best defence against a bioterrorist attack http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991683 Smallpox: if the virus ever gets out... http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991680 Why an IVF technique could be riskier than we thought http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991678 How did people draw straight lines before they had rulers? http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/ AND FINALLY... If you've ever found yourself wrestling with a pot of strawberry conserve at 4 am after one sambuca too many, we've got some good news for you. Scientists have finally found a way to make jars easier to open... http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991684"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (23:55)", "body": "The littlest lizard World's smallest reptile is discovered in the Caribbean forest. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-3.html Good vibrations Honeycomb geometry helps dancing bees gather an audience. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-4.html Exercising your genes Researchers are homing in on the genetics of physical ability. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-5.html Reserves raise fish stocks Fishing thrives alongside protected areas. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011206/011206-1.html Catch figures fishy Recalculation reveals falling global fish stocks. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-12.html Massive hole makes theories leaky Surprising black hole weigh-in has astronomers scratching their heads. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-13.html Mothers could save the whale Sparing a few right whale mums could keep the species from extinction. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-14.html Exorcising Einstein's spooks Is there another layer of reality beyond quantum physics? http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-15.html Human clone not miracle cure Rewiring the egg: mechanism remains murky. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-9.html Feel the music Deaf people use 'mind's ear' to process vibrations. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-10.html Distant starlight reveals alien atmosphere Hubble spots atmosphere on planet 150 light years away. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-11.html Global goal frenzy It's official: English football teams score fewer goals. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-8.html Neutrinos feel the force The orthodox worldview of fundamental physics is challenged by new experiments. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-7.html DNA repair could reduce sunburn An immune system chemical may undo skin damage by sunlight. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011129/011129-6.html ===================================================================== Nature Science Update is produced by the Nature News Service -- the popular science news syndication arm of the leading international science journal Nature."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 17, 2001 (19:57)", "body": "Nature Science Update Highlights: 17 December 2001 Another nanobrick in the wall Chemists make the world's smallest building blocks. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-6.html Space probe shows comet sense Deep Space 1 reveals Borrelly's dark secrets. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-5.html Cosmos to freeze-frame The Universe could be slipping away from us forever. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-4.html Abrupt climate change likely Report calls for research and policy to cope with volatile climate. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-3.html Blame it on the bugs Squid harbour live-in lighting to keep predators in the shade. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-2.html Holes barred by protein purse-string Suicidal cells are squeezed out of the way. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-1.html Vaccines breed viciousness Vaccinations may increase death toll. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-14.html Smallpox, big problem? Smallpox would spread rapidly through an unprotected world. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-15.html Turkeys gobble young Big Christmas birds start eating early. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-13.html Cells' generators star in action movie Microscope captures mitochondria bopping to a beat. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-12.html Broken seesaw warms North Pressure system secrets could help long range forecasts. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-11.html Space weather forecast step closer The Sun's violent outbursts have deep and twisted origins. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-7.html Bladder control works at a stretch Recycling cell membranes help the bladder go from walnut to basketball sized. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-8.html Muscle is plastic fantastic Stem cells' fates are a multiple choice. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-9.html Unveiling the aurora Satellites have detected the shifting forces that weave the Northern Lights. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-10.html Grubs up grains' protein Pest could give grains a nutritional boost. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-6.html ===================================================================== Nature Science Update is produced by the Nature News Service -- the popular science news syndication arm of the leading international science journal Nature."}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (22:21)", "body": "Early Christians hid the origins of the Bethlehem star http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991713 Belize dam is all set to go ahead despite danger to wildlife http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991716 James Bond's Q would be proud of the toy US coastguards want for Christmas http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991715 Home phones get bitten by the texting bug http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991714 2001 set to be second warmest year on record http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991710 Anthrax vaccination offered to exposed US workers http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991712 Grossology. It's the science of really gross things... http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns232216 AND FINALLY... Not everybody enjoys sniffing cocaine or \"flying too high with some guy in the sky\". But with the exception of Cole Porter, most people claim they get a \"kick\" from champagne. They say it goes \"straight to their head\", making them giggly and light-headed. And they're right. This week's New Scientist has the first evidence that the bubbles in this most celebratory of tipples really do get you drunk more quickly. Happy New Year... http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991717 ************************************************************************* HOW 8000 OF THE WORLD'S TOP SCIENTISTS ARE GETTING CLOSER TO BUSINESS After inventing the jet engine, radar and LCDs, QinetiQ is now creating competitive advantage for businesses large and small. QinetiQ is Europe's largest science and technology organisation formed from the major part of DERA, the British Government's defence research and development organisation. With experience spanning aviation, transport, healthcare, telecommunications, materials and more, it is also behind, QinetiQ 1, the next attempt on the world altitude record for a manned balloon. http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/clk;3623115;6659265;l?http://www.qinetiq.com"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (22:25)", "body": "PREDICTION IS BETTER FOR CURE Gene screen could offer cancer patients tailor-made treatments. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-7.html DON'T STEP ON IT THIS HOLIDAY Smooth driving is the key to fewer traffic jams. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-6.html MUSCLES DAMP BAD VIBRATIONS Tiny fibres ensure racehorses don't bounce themselves to bits. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-5.html MAN'S IMPACT ON PLANET ENIGMATIC Environmental even keel or global crisis - no one knows. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-4.html NEW SQUID ON THE BLOCK Deep-sea submersibles meet a six-metre squid. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-3.html FUNNIEST JOKE FOUND First results in from largest-ever look at humour. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-1.html CONSERVATIONISTS PATCH IT UP Urban wildlife may not use green corridors. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-14.html CHANNEL TOUCHES A NERVE Pore removal makes mice touchy but not feely. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-15.html SHOOTING STARS SUGAR COATED Meteorites could have sweetened the earliest life. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-11.html MOLECULES BRING ABOUT FACE A small chemical change has a big effect on a developing face. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-12.html WINE FIGHTS HEART FOE Red wine may suppress one of the main chemical culprits in heart disease. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-13.html IT'S THE DRINK TALKING Tripping tongues betray tipsiness. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-10.html FLICKERING SUN SWITCHED CLIMATE A solar slump may have chilled the Northern Hemisphere. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-9.html RACEHORSE RELATIONS Modern thoroughbreds run on narrow genetic lines. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-8.html WAVES MAKE BUG BREAK POINT Sloshing proteins help bacteria find their waists. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011220/011220-7.html ===================================================================== FOCUS: INDULGENCE INVESTIGATED Nature Science Update's round-up of stories for the forthcoming holiday season. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-2.html ====================================================================="}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 14, 2002 (16:42)", "body": "GENOME EXPOSES BURIED BUGS Knowing the human genetic sequence helps unearth invaders. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-14.html RING OF TRUTH TO OLD WIVES' TALE? 'Feed a cold, starve a fever' may make sense, say immunologists. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-13.html ART HISTORY DOUBLES Engraved stones from South Africa could be the oldest works of art. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-11.html CAUSE OF SICK CLONES CONTESTED Tentative diagnosis of clones' complaints. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-10.html SEAWEED INSPIRES ANTIBACTERIAL Stopping bugs communicating can keep them apart. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-12.html SHEEP THREAT FENCED OUT Estimates of CJD risk from sheep remain woolly. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-7.html HUBBUB AT GALACTIC HUB X-rays show the centre of our Galaxy to be full of furious activity. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-9.html BALLAST PURGE SCUPPERS INVASIONS A new way to stop ships rusting could also benefit the environment. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-8.html PROSPERITY THROUGH PUNISHMENT Retribution can breed cooperation. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-6.html PROTEOME REVEALS PROMISCUITY Proteins' complex social habits exposed. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-5.html COWS COULD FOSTER FLU PANDEMICS Cattle join farmyard of potential influenza carriers. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-4.html ELECTRONIC TONGUE HAS GOOD TASTE Hand-held tasting device displays highly discriminating palate. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-3.html SOLID STOPS LIGHT A crystal that holds light could facilitate quantum computing. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-2.html OBSERVATORY COULD DETECT HIDDEN DIMENSIONS Cosmic rays could find holes in Standard Model of particle physics. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-1.html ===================================================================== Nature Science Update is produced by the Nature News Service"}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb  2, 2002 (18:47)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (01/29/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ *Latest Images: Volcanoes: R\ufffdunion Island Volcano Erupts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img _ id=1613 Volcanoes: Nyiragongo Volcano Erupts in the Congo http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img _ id=1612 Severe Storms: Tropical Cyclone 10s (Dina) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img _ id=1614 In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Perspective View, Mount Shasta, California http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7273 McMurdo Dry Valleys http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7272 Shrimp Farms and Mangroves, Gulf of Fonseca http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7271 R\ufffdunion Island Volcano Erupts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7270 Balance of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7268 Volga Delta and the Caspian Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7267 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - New Satellite Maps Reveal Where in the World Lightning Strikes - U.S. Ecology Dramatically Altered by Fertilizers and Acid Rain * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Climate Change Following Collapse Of The Maya Empire - The K-T Impact Extinctions: Dust Didn't Do It - Counterintuitively, After Extreme Droughts, Wading Birds Flourish * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Antarctic Island Called a Unique Climate Change Lab - Dead Sea Keeps Falling - United Kingdom Faces Summers of Malaria - Massive Ice Cap Could Almost Disappear By 2100 - Study Links El Nino to Deadly South American Disease - Climate Change May Bring More Winter Floods in California * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (15:53)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (02/5/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Hantavirus Risk Maps (DAAC Study) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Hanta/ Satellite and ground truth data help scientists predict the risk of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. * Tracking a Volcano: Satellite Observations of Piton de la Fournaise http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ReunionIsland/ NASA satellite data from Terra and Landsat provide a unique perspective on the current eruption of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Dust and Smoke: Dust Storm Off Southern Coast of Iceland http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?i http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img _ id=1616 Volcano: Nyiragongo Volcano Erupts in the Congo http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?i http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img _ id=1615 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Snow and Ice Storm in the Midwest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7281 Nyiragongo lava flows http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7280 Plant Productivity in the West Indian Ocean http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7279 New Orleans, Louisiana http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7278 Northern Patagonian Ice Field, Chile http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7277 Watching the World Rev its Heat Engine http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7276 Coccoliths in the Celtic Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7275 Sulfur Dioxide Emissions from Congo Volcanoes http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7274 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Satellites vs. Mosquitoes: Tracking West Nile Virus in the U.S - Satellites Tracking Climate Changes and Links to Disease Outbreaks in Africa - Fewer Clouds Found In Tropics: NASA scientists discover new evidence of climate change * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: TOMS Aerosol Index data for December 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/aerosol.toms.html 4km TRMM Fires data for November 2001 - January 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/fires.trmm.html Ozone data for December 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/ozone.toms.html Sea Surface Temperature data for November 1999 - December 1999 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/sst.avhrr.html UV Radiation Exposure data for December 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/uv.toms.html - Earth Observatory Announcements http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (23:37)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (02/12/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Special Imagery: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/ This spectacular \ufffdblue marble\ufffd image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet. Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Dust and Smoke: Plumes over Baja California http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1620 Dust and Smoke: Smoke Over Southern Andes Mountains http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1618 Volcano: Colima Volcano Erupts in Mexico http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1619 Storm: Cyclone Chris Hits Australia http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1617 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Smoke from the Fallbrook Fire and Dust from Baja http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7287 The Blue Marble http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7286 Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7285 Salt Lake City, Utah, Perspective View http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7284 Monitoring the Spread of West Nile Virus with Satellite Data http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7283 Winter and Summer Views of the Salt Lake Region http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7282 Snow and Ice Storm in the Midwest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7281 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Thrusters Precisely Guide EO-1 Satellite In Space First - NASA Images Capture Golds, Silvers and Bronzes of Utah Olympic Site * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - High CO2 Levels Hamper Nitrate Incorporation by Plants * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - New Iceberg Breaks Free in Antarctica - Equatorial Water Belt Slackens - Satellites Help Track Disease Epidemics - El Ni\ufffdo Taking Baby Steps - Climate Threat to Australian Forests - Calibrating the Human Impact Within Earth's Climate Record - Ecology Dramatically Altered by Fertilizers, Acid Rain * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/"}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 20, 2002 (20:50)", "body": "Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Fire: Wildfires in Chile http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1623 Dust and Smoke: Massive Dust Plume Emanates from China http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=1622 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Fires in Chile http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7757 Western United States Beyond the Four Corners http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7756 Mosaic of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7755 Perspective View: San Diego, California http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7291 A Better Global Thermometer http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7290 Where on Earth...? MISR Mystery Image Quiz #6 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7289 Saharan Dust over the Atlantic http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7288 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Snow Science, Not Sport, in the Rockies - Highlights From NASA Presentations at AAAS Symposium - Terra Measures Sea Surface Temperature with Unprecedented Detail * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Global Warming Lengthens Day"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 25, 2002 (21:11)", "body": "YUM, AMINO ACIDS Molecules with a taste for monosodium glutamate give protein flavour http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-21.html STOP AND SEARCH Glowing nanobots map microscopic surfaces. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-19.html REALITY CHECK FOILS SPIDER-MAN Captain America wins superhero networking crown. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-17.html BATH TOYS SHOW STRENGTH IN NUMBERS Miniature floating craft can be programmed to move and assemble in complex ways. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-18.html LINK BETWEEN CLIMATE AND MALARIA BROKEN Africa's malaria resurgence isn't down to global warming. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-12.html FISSION STATEMENT Alternative yeast joins genome party. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-13.html ACID COULD WRECK WRECK Raised warship's quandary underlines need to let sunken ships lie. http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-15.html"}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 27, 2002 (15:52)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (02/26/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Reference: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/ * Weather Forecasting Through the Ages http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/WxForecasting/ Only fifty years ago, weather forecasting was an art, derived from the inspired interpretation of data from a loose array of land-based observing stations, balloons, and aircraft. Since then it has evolved substantially, based on an array of satellite and other observations and sophisticated computer models simulating the atmosphere and sometimes additional elements of the Earth's climate system. The AIRS/AMSU/HSB combination on board the [soon to be launched] EOS Aqua satellite should further these advances, enabling more accurate predictions over longer periods. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Volcano: Smoke Plume from Mt. Oyama http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2109 Dust and Smoke: Dust Over Great Australian Bight http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2110 Storm: Cyclone Guillaume Off Reunion Island http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2107 Storm: Low-pressure System Off Australia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2108 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: NASA's Quikscat Spacecraft Turns Operational http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7764 Akpatok Island http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7763 Santa Maria Volcano, Guatemala http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7762 Open-cell cloud formation over the Bahamas http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7761 Cyclone Guillaume http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7760 Dusty Skies over Southern California http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7759 Wintertime in the Western U.S. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7758 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - New NASA Global Change Master Directory Available - Santa Ana Winds Swirl Through the Southland - NASA's Quikscat Spacecraft Turns Operational * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Snow-Pit Project to Predict Flooding - Fish Bones Give Clues to the Beginning of El Nino - Polar Warming Continues With Ice Mass Losses - Global Warming Will be Around the Next 100 Years - Pollution Drying Up Rainfall - Sea Level Set To Rise Dramatically - Forecasters Get New Ally - Terra Takes Sea Surface Temperature With Precision - Links Between El Nino, Disease - A Satellite With an Icy Mission * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- Data and Images http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ *New Data: Snow Cover and Ice Depth data for January 1978 - December 1996 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/snow_ice.smmr.html * Updated Data: TOMS Aerosol Index data for January 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/aerosol.toms.html Ozone data for January 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/ozone.toms.html UV Radiation Exposure data for January 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/uv.toms.html"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (16:30)", "body": "The Deep Lake Drilling Project You've heard of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, the most fruitful scientific research program ever carried out. An inspired young man named Kerry Kelts re-created it on land, which involved not only building a collapsible drilling ship but inventing a whole new branch of science. Kelts died too young, but he lived to see it happen. http://geology.about.com/library/weekly/aa031002a.htm"}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 13, 2002 (14:03)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (03/12/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Webcast of the GRACE Satellite Launch! The twin satellites named GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) are being launched to make detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field. *Make sure to watch the launch at 4:23AM EST, Saturday, March 16 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. The webcast will be broadcast on the following websites: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.nasa.gov/ntv http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/ New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Testing the Waters http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/WaterQuality/ In the Upper Midwest, lakes are central to people's lives. Unfortunately, monitoring water quality for 30,000 plus lakes in the region has never been possible. Water quality measurements have always been taken by hand, and the states have traditionally had the resources to monitor only a small percentage. Now with the backing of NASA, scientists at the Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin have begun using satellite data to measure lake quality. Within the next three years, they should be able to create a comprehensive water quality map for the entire Great Lakes region. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Unique Imagery: \ufffdBull\ufffds Eye\ufffd \ufffd The Richat Structure, Mauritania http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2124 Fire: Fires and Heavy Smoke in Sumatra http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2123 Storm: Cyclone Hary Approaches Madagascar http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2121 Unique Imagery: Red Tide Strands South African Rock Lobsters http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2120 Storm: Typhoon Mitag Northeast of the Philippines http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2122 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Twin Cyclones Result From Shift in the Trade Winds http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7779 Typhoon Mitag Northeast of the Philippines http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7778 Araca River http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7777 Shiveluch\ufffdKamchatkan volcanoes http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7776 Boston, Massachusetts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7774 Red Tide Strands South African Rock Lobsters http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7773 Early Spring Dust over the Mediterranean Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7772 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Digital Photos from Solar Airplane to Improve Coffee Harvest - Grace Space Twins Set to Team Up to Track Earth's Water and Gravity - NASA Study Links El Nino and Southern Ocean Changes * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Hurricane floods pose risk to environment, health, new research on 1999 storm reveals * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Global Warming May Not Harm Marine Food - Why It's Dry - Signs of New El Ni\ufffdo Strengthen - 'Snowball Earth' Theory Melted - NASA Study Links El Ni\ufffdo and Antarctic Sea Ice - Global Warming to Raise Sea Level - Global Warming Threatening State Birds? - Global Warming Creates Grim Future for Forests - Global Warming Stalks Small Commonwealth States - Future Volcanic Eruptions May Cause Ozone Hole Arctic - Ozone Layer Will Thin Even as Holes Heal - Drought Grips Much of USA, Stirs Water Supply Fears * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/"}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 13, 2002 (23:41)", "body": "I don't know where to put this - It worries me exceedingly: Huge lung cancer rise in Greece Smoking is the main cause of an increase in recorded incidences of lung cancer in Greece, where up to 6,000 sufferers die every year, according to research by the European Pneumonological Society. It was made public yesterday ahead of a conference on \ufffdLungs and the Environment\ufffd starting in Athens on Friday. \ufffdThere has been a 50 percent increase over the last 30 years, and this reflects the spread of the disease to the female population,\ufffd Professor Panayiotis Behrakis said. Another 20 percent is attributed to atmospheric pollution, Greeks are diagnosed with lung cancer at a higher rate than their European counterparts, with 3 percent more cases recorded every year. Greek women more vulnerable than European women and Greek men under 44 more likely targets than other European men of the same age. Greek men and women are younger \ufffd between 40 and 45 \ufffd when they contract lung cancer. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_4170118_13/03/2002_14347"}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 19, 2002 (00:59)", "body": ""}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 20, 2002 (15:11)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory(03/19/2002) New Reference: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/ * GRACE Fact Sheet http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/GRACE/ The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment is the inaugural mission of the Earth System Science Pathfinder program. Launched in March 2002, it is a five-year mission intended to produce maps of the Earth's gravity field with unprecedented precision and resolution. Not only will GRACE benefit studies in the field of geodesy, but also, the Earth Science community eagerly anticipates the mission. More precise gravity measurements will improve the accuracy of inputs into models used by many disciplines that study Earth's climate - including hydrology, oceanography and studies of the solid earth. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Dust and Smoke: Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2609 http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2609 Unique Imagery: Snow Cover Across Scandinavia http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2611 Fire: Fires and Smoke in Thailand http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2608 Fire: Fires and Heavy Smoke in Sumatra http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2127 Dust and Smoke: Smog Obscures Chinese Coast http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2126 Storm: Cyclone Hary Off Madagascar http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2125 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Spring Dust Storm Smothers Beijing http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8256 Caman\ufffd, Peru, and Tsunami Vulnerability http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7785 Water Quality Monitoring http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7784 Atlas Mountains http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7783 Fires and Heavy Smoke in Sumatra http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7782 A Vortex Street in the Arctic http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7781 Meteor Crater, Arizona http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=7780 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Red Tide Strands Lobsters - NASA Technology Transfer Project Offers Dramatic Agricultural Benefits - Scientists Say 'Grace' as Water-Sensing Satellites Lift Off - Recent Shifts in Pacific Winds May Support El Ni\ufffdo Formation * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Behind the Big Dry - Researchers Capture Unusual Sprite-like Blue Jet - U.S. Forests May Be Products of Pollution * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Climate Change Starves Southern Ocean of Oxygen - How's the Weather? - Drought Bringing Early Allergies - More Carbon Dioxide Effects Plants Ability to Use Nitrogen - Earth Observatory Announcements http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov"}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 28, 2002 (14:45)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (03/26/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Highways of a Global Traveler - Tracking Tropospheric Ozone http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/GlobalTraveler/ Ozone in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) is toxic to human beings and to many other living things that breathe it. After combining satellite observations with data-rich models that simulate the atmosphere's chemistry and dynamics, scientists are finding tropospheric ozone in some unexpected places. Tropospheric ozone turns out to be an intercontinental traveler, crossing geographic and political boundaries. Where ozone forms and where it travels have become key concerns for international health and economic policy-making. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Fire: Fires and Heavy Smoke in Sumatra http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2621 Dust and Smoke: Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2622 Dust and Smoke: Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2622 Unique Imagery: Black Water off the Gulf Coast of Florida http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2620 Dust and Smoke: Dust Over East Africa and Israel http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2618 Dust and Smoke: Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2622 Unique Imagery: Black Water off the Gulf Coast of Florida http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2620 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Model Forecasts of the Tropical Pacific http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8263 Kiritimati, Kiribati (Christmas Island) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8262 Dust Obscures Korea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8261 Bolivia Deforestation http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8260 Mysterious Black Water off Florida's Gulf Coast http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8259 Smoke over Sumatra, Indonesia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8258 Breakup of the Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8257 * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - For the First Time in 30 Years, Some New York Lakes Failed to Freeze This Past Winter - Report Supports Sustainable Food Production - Pollen Production-and Allergies-May Rise Significantly Over Next 50 Years - Riverways Create as Much Pollution as Highways - 'Mercury Sunrise' Phenomenon Found in Antarctica - Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses in Largest Event of Last 30 Years * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Tree-ring Study Raises Greenhouse-theory Questions - Pollen Levels and Allergies to Rise Significantly - Global Warming Blamed as Huge Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses - Recent Shifts in Pacific Winds May Support El Nino Formation - Russia Launches Satellites on US-German Climate Mission - Warming World 'Means Longer Days' - Satellites Blow the Surprises of World's Wild Weather - Reduced Carbon Dioxide Feedback to Atmosphere from Oceans - A Chilling Effect on the Global Melt - Growth of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Have Slowed - New Scheme Could Improve Weather Forecasting - SeaWinds Satellite Provides Faster Cyclone Warnings - Warming Trend Seen for the Northeast * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: TOMS Aerosol Index data for February 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/aerosol.toms.html 4km TRMM Fires data for February 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/fires.trmm.html Precipitation data for September - October 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/rainfall.gpcp.html UV Radiation Exposure data for February 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/uv.toms.html - Earth Observatory Announcements http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov"}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (17:51)", "body": "* Global Warming Fact Sheet http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/GlobalWarming/ With the possible exception of another world war, a giant asteroid, or an incurable plague, global warming may be the single largest threat to our planet. For decades human factories and cars have spewed billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the climate has begun to show some signs of warming. Many see this as a harbinger of what is to come. If we don't curb our greenhouse gas emissions, then low-lying nations could be awash in seawater, rain and drought patterns across the world could change, hurricanes could become more frequent, and El Ni\ufffdos could become more intense. On the other hand, there are those, some of whom are scientists, who believe that global warming will result in little more than warmer winters and increased plant growth. In truth, the future probably fits somewhere between these two scenarios. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Unique Imagery: Black Water off the Gulf Coast of Florida http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2640 Dust and Smoke: Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2639 Unique Imagery: NASA Images Confirm New York Drought http://eob.gsfc.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=2637 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Terra Data Confirm Warm, Dry U.S. Winter http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8278 Ash and Steam, Soufriere Hills Volcano, Monserrat http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8276 Airborne Sea of Dust over China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8275 Guinea-Bissau http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8274 Terra Images Confirm New York Drought http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8273 Where on Earth...? MISR Mystery Image Quiz #7 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8272 Fires in Central America http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8271 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Terra Satellite Data Confirm Unusually Warm, Dry U.S. Winter - NASA Images Confirm What New Yorkers Already Know: It's Dry"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (19:10)", "body": "Hydrogen metal on the horizon (Apr 10) http://physicsweb.org/article/news/6/4/6 Scientists have long expected solid hydrogen to become a metal when it is compressed, but so far electrical conductivity has only been detected in liquid hydrogen. Now an experimental study of solid hydrogen at pressures up to 320 GPa predicts that it will become metallic at a pressure of 450 GPa - over four million times atmospheric pressure. Ren\ufffd LeToullec and co-workers at the CEA in France also found that solid hydrogen becomes opaque - or `black' - under compression (P Loubeyre et al 2002 Nature 416 613)."}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 21, 2002 (16:39)", "body": "At 35.6 trillion calculations a second, the computer has the Earth at its feet Robin McKie, Science Editor Sunday April 21, 2002 The Observer It is the ultimate virtual reality ride, a machine so powerful it recreates the entire planet in 'an Earth simulator.' And now, to the chagrin of US scientists, Japan's newest supercomputer has been rated the world's fastest. The machine, built by the NEC corporation, matches the combined raw processing power of the previous 20 fastest computers and far outstrips the previous leader, an IBM device. For the first time in a decade, Japan has scored a major technological victory over the United States. 'These guys are blowing us out of the water, and we need to sit up and take notice,' said supercomputer designer, Thomas Sterling, of the California Institute of Technology. This triumph has been achieved in a way that contrasts starkly with America's computer priorities. While US engineers have focused their skills on developing computers that can simulate weapons and their effects, Japanese scientists have concentrated on making machines that can analyse a far more complex problem: the weather. These separate approaches can be traced to the different fears that obsess US and Japanese society. While America is consumed by worries about terrorist raids and attacks by renegade states, Japan faces more immediate dangers from typhoons that sweep across its densely populated countryside, and from rising sea levels triggered by global warming. For this reason, it has concentrated its computer efforts on constructing advanced machines that will help scientists understand the behaviour of the climate, and learn what the world will look like under various climatic conditions. The end result is the new supercomputer, put together at the Earth Simulator Research and Development Centre in Yokohama, which uses 5,104 processors that are stored in cabinets covering the space of four tennis courts. When working at full tilt, the Earth simulator can carry out 35,600,000,000,000 (35.6 trillion) mathematical operations a second. By contrast, America's fastest machine the ASCI White Pacific computer, built by IBM at the Lawrence Livermore defence laboratory in California, can carry out only 7 trillion operations a second. Not surprisingly, this level of performance has stunned, and dismayed, US researchers, who had considered their computer development programmes the best in the world. To them, the Earth simulator has raised the same level of alarm as the Soviet Union's Sputnik satellite did in 1957. As Tennessee University's Jack Dongarra, who tracks the performance of the world's fastest computers, puts it: 'We have a Computenik on our hands.' http://observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,688091,00.html"}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (19:44)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (04/23/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Reference: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/ * The Ozone We Breathe http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/OzoneWeBreathe Ozone in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) is toxic to human beings and many species of plants, causing harm without visible symptoms. The Ozone We Breathe focuses chiefly on the ozone's effects on human respiratory health and and the productivity of agricultural crops. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Dust and Smoke: Dust Storm over the Mediterranean Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/index.php3?img_id=2654 Fire: Biomass Burning in Southeast Asia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/index.php3?img_id=2655 Fire: Biomass Burning in Southeast Asia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/index.php3?img_id=2655 Volcano: Smoke Plume from Mount Etna http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/index.php3?img_id=2652 Volcano: Chiliques Volcano, Chile http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/index.php3?img_id=2653 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Fog Plumes over the Great Lakes http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8291 Coastal Fog, South Peruvian Coast at Pisco http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8290 Long Dormant Volcano Shows Signs of Life http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8289 Smoke and Sediments in Sicily http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8288 Chilean Volcanoes http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8287 Southern Florida's River of Grass http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8286 Fires Throughout Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8285 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Massive Icebergs May Affect Antarctic Sea Life and Food Chain * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Complex Weather Study to Target Summer Storm Forecasting - Extensive Research Survey Confirms Life on Earth Now Being Affected by Global Warming * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Oceans Swell Towards New El Nino - Amazon River Exhaling Excessive CO2 - Climate Change Will Unbalance Ecosystems - Global Warming Brings Half World's Population Under Disease Threat - Forecaster Trims Hurricane Prediction, Expects Active Season * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (23:26)", "body": "Glaciers and National Security, How Much Oil, Fighting Natural Hazards and Terrorism . . . USGS Presents a World of Science at AGU Note to Editors: Interviews with the scientists during the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference can be arranged by contacting Diane Noserale in the AGU newsroom, phone: 202-371-5016. Is the World Running Out of Oil?: Where will future oil and gas supplies come from? Of the oil and gas endowment of about 5.6 trillion barrels of oil, USGS estimates that the world has consumed about 18 percent, leaving about 82 percent to be used or found. USGS scientist Thomas Ahlbrandt will discuss frontiers in fossil fuel exploration, nonconventional oil and gas, alternatives to oil and gas, and time frames for potential shortfalls. \"Future Oil and Gas Resources of the World: A Coming Supply Crisis?,\" in Session U32A, is scheduled for 1:50 pm on Wednesday, May 29, Washington Convention Center Room 30. Please note: A news conference on this session is scheduled for 9:00 am on Wednesday, May 29 in the Press Briefing Room, Washington Convention Center Room 1. Digital products from the World Energy Project may be downloaded at: http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/energy/WorldEnergy/WEnergy.html Vanishing Glaciers -- New Alliances or More Conflict in Central Asia?: Throughout the world, glaciers are shrinking. Some of the fastest retreat is in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region, where scientists expect that more than 15,000 square miles of glaciers will disappear during the 21st century, particularly in major valleys and low mountain passes. Glaciers supply much of the fresh water and hydroelectric power in South and Central Asia. Will shared economic interests in water, hydroelectricity, and the mitigation of flood hazards improve relations among Central and South Asian nations? Will the disappearance of this natural barrier open new corridors for trade and cultural exchange and forge new economic, military and political alliances in the region, or will it simply open transit routes for militants and for military offensive action? Will terrorists find it harder to hide but easier to move? Glaciers are relevant to the conflict in Kashmir, to security in Afghanistan, and to the current insurgency in Nepal. USGS scientist Jeffrey Kargel will discuss a joint USGS/NASA Pathfinder project and its global consortium of glaciologists who are using satellite remote sensing to map and monitor the HKH glaciers and other glaciers throughout the world. \"Glaciers in 21st Century Himalayan Geopolitics,\" in Session U22A, is scheduled for 3:25 pm on Tuesday, May 28, Washington Convention Center Room 30. Please note: A news conference on this session is scheduled for 9:00 am on Tuesday, May 28 in the Press Briefing Room, Washington Convention Center Room 1. For more on the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS), please see: http://wwwflag.wr.usgs.gov/GLIMS/ More on Vanishing Glaciers: As glaciers retreat, new land uses become possible: Transportation corridors may open; previously inaccessible energy and mineral resources may become available; new wildlife habitat and migration routes may develop, and for a time, more fresh water and hydropower will be available. In Alaska, more than 7,700 square miles of land are expected to emerge from beneath ice over the next century, producing a potential economic windfall estimated at $360 million per year. In western China, the economic development and well-being of the populace is partly dependent on melting glaciers. In India, melting glaciers and snowfields account for about $4 billion per year of hydroelectric power (at $0.03/kW-hr), more than $400 million of which results from the net loss of glacial mass that the region is currently experiencing. What about the future? The rapid retreat of Hindu Kush-Himalaya glaciers will eventually result in more water shortages in a region where clean water already is in short supply. And because many glaciers store large amounts of meltwater and release it suddenly, lives downstream will be lost. Rising sea level could displace many and destroy property in coastal areas throughout the world. The net loss or benefit of receding glaciers has not been calculated, but the effect is apt to be sharply negative. USGS scientist Jeffrey Kargel will discuss these issues. \"A World of Changing Glaciers: Hazards, Opportunities, and Measures of Global Climate Change,\" in Session U31A, is scheduled for 9:45 am on Wednesday, May 29, Washington Convention Center Room 30. Please note: A news conference on this session is scheduled for 9:00 am on Tuesday, May 28 in the Press Briefing Room, Washington Convention Center Room 1. For more on the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS), please see: http://wwwflag.wr.usgs.gov/GLIMS/ Measuring Subtle Changes from Space to Understand Earthquakes: To resolve major questions about earthquakes and continental tectonics, researchers need increasingly accurate and detailed measurements of the ground "}, {"response": 147, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 30, 2002 (18:56)", "body": "Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Fire: Fires Scorch Oregon http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4650 Unique Imagery: Smoke, Clouds and Ship Tracks Off California Coast http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4651 Unique Imagery: Bright Water Off Newfoundland http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4652 Dust and Smoke: Smoke from Canadian Fires Blankets Eastern U.S. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4653 Fire: McNalley Fire in Sequoia National Forest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4648 Fire: Fires in Central and Southern Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4647 Volcano: Nyamuragira Volcano Erupts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4643 Storm: Super Typhoon Fengshen http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4638 Storm: Hurricane Elida off Central America http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4639 Storm: Severe Snowstorm in Lesotho http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4640 Storm: Hurricane Douglas South of Baja California http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4633 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Aqua CERES First Light http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10273 Nyamuragira Volcano Erupts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10272 Konari, Iran http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10271 Summit Crater of Mauna Loa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10270 Three Gorges Dam, China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10268 Distinguishing Clouds from Ice over the East Siberian Sea, Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10267 Hyacinths Choke the Rio Grande http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10265 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - At Five-Year Anniversary, Conference Considers Satellite's Contributions to Understanding Global Energy, Water Cycle * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Increased Strength in Asian Southwest Monsoon May Be Result Of Warming, Say Researchers - Global Warming May Push Bats to the Low Arctic * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Monsoon Intensity Increasing as Earth Warms - Record Sea Temperatures Threaten Great Barrier Reef - Slowest U.S. Tornado Year Since 1988 - Indian Government Says Lack of Rain Worst in Decade - Landsat Paints a Portrait of Our Changing Planet - Air Pollution Changes Rainfall, May Cause Drought - Unlocking the Storm Code - Ice Crystals Clues to Climate - West Nile Virus Spreads Westward into 26 States - Study Finds Alaska Glaciers Melting at Higher Rate - China?s Pollution Found in Hawaii - NASA Turns New Weather Bird Over to NOAA - Cause and Effect Across 70,000 Years of Atmospheric Chaos"}, {"response": 148, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 13, 2002 (09:35)", "body": "Posted on Tue, Aug. 13, 2002 Fires Stoke Tensions Over Policy MATTHEW DALY Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The spate of wildfires this summer is inflaming more than just the Western landscape. Longtime allies are turning into adversaries as the fires stoke tensions between environmentalists and some normally supportive Democrats in Congress. Environmentalists who had long sought a bill to protect old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest are now vowing to oppose it, accusing Senate Democrats of undercutting conservation in the name of wildfire prevention. Republicans and representatives of the timber industry say it is environmentalists who have a credibility problem. The fires now raging in the West are helping build public support for more logging to thin overstocked forests after decades of fire suppression, they say. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and other Western senators are leading an effort to loosen federal restrictions that have allowed dry tinder to build up in the national forests, fueling the devastating blazes. \"You've got forests that don't look like forests anymore,\" Domenici said. \"They're totally built up with undergrowth. You try to do something about it, you're in court - it takes forever. We want to change that and I think we're going to do it.\" Among those caught in the shifting political winds is Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. A longtime friend of the environmental movement, Wyden now finds himself under attack from it because he's willing to allow increased logging in some areas to reduce the fire threat in exchange for GOP support of bill to ban timber harvesting in old-growth forests in western Oregon. With much of his state on fire, Wyden was under pressure to do something, said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a Portland-based timber group. So Wyden agreed to allowing expedited thinning in dry areas east of the Cascades to win Republican support for his plan to ban logging in areas where trees are more than 120 years old. With a Republican-controlled House and a closely divided Senate such a compromise was essential for Wyden's old-growth bill to have a chance of becoming law, West said. Jasmine Minbashian, coordinator of the Northwest Old Growth Campaign, called Wyden's proposal \"somewhat shocking.\" Conservationists will not agree to a \"divide and conquer approach\" that sacrifices eastern trees in return for protection of older, western trees, she said. Wyden is not alone among Senate Democrats in challenging the conventional environmentalist line that prohibitions on logging represent the best forest policy. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota moved quietly last month to exempt some areas of his home state from environmental constraints on tree cutting. Daschle attached a rider to an emergency spending bill to allow some logging in areas of South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest. The measure waives key restrictions on forest thinning and blocks court challenges by logging opponents - a heresy the environmental movement fears will spread to forests throughout the West. Republican lawmakers quickly seized on Daschle's measure, calling it a model for allowing speedy action on thinning other national forests. Domenici and Republican Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Larry Craig of Idaho have vowed to introduce legislation that would allow up to 24 million acres of federal timberland with high fire potential to be thinned without going through standard environmental reviews. \"If it can happen in South Dakota it should happen in all of the West,\" the three senators said in a statement. Daschle, in a letter last month to Republican lawmakers, defended his measure, saying it was the product of months of negotiations that involved all sides, including local chapters of the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society and other environmental groups. \"If Congress is ever to succeed in resolving the ongoing national debate over forest management ... it should foster more consensus-based decision-making like the one that produced the Black Hills agreement,\" Daschle wrote. Some environmentalists are not convinced. Measures similar to Daschle's could be used to bypass environmental laws \"and log old-growth forests in the name of fire protection,\" said Joseph Vaile of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Oregon. \"It's pretty scary.\" Those fears were exacerbated when Wyden and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., appeared at an Aug. 1 news conference with Domenici. Wyden did not speak in favor of the forest-thinning plan, but his presence - coupled with his proposal for expedited logging east of the Cascades - was troubling, Vaile said. Wyden declined to be interviewed for this story. But his chief of staff, Josh Kardon, said his office was \"a little surprised that some of the groups seem to prefer to clear-cut the senator's proposal instead of selectively thinning what they don't like.\" \"Unless you are willing to compromise,\" Kardon said, \"you are resi"}, {"response": 149, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (19:24)", "body": "The satellite imagry in this url is truly amazing! Unique Imagery: Coccolithophores in the Barents Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4718 Storm: Hurricane Fausto http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4717 Flood: Flooding in Central China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4712 Fire: Fires Scorch Oregon http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4705 Flood: Flooding on Elbe River http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4714 Flood: Flooding along Danube River http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4715 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Flooding in Germany http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10301 MacDonnell Ranges http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10300 Anvil Tops of Thunderstorms http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10299 Hurricane Andrew http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10298 Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10297 MISR Global Images See the Light of Day http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10296 The Migrating Boreal Forest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10295 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - NASA Satellites Help Hurricane Forecasters Since 1992's Destructive Hurricane Andrew - Satellites Show Overall Increases in Antarctic Sea Ice Cover * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Scientists Confirm Age of the Oldest Meteorite Collision on Earth - Livermore Researchers Show Depth of Injected CO2 into the Ocean Critical as a Global Warming Solution * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Global Warming Might Stall the Next Ice Age - Antarctic Sea Ice Increases Over the Past 20 Years - Satellites Help Show Half of U.S. Gripped by Drought - West Nile Virus Claims More Lives - Satellite Data Informs Wildfire Recovery - Soil Study May Yield Harvest of Water Cycle Data - Mild Winters, Dust and Floods in New Places: China - Cosmic Rays, Global Warming Linked * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 10, 2002 (21:35)", "body": "New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Dropping in on a Hurricane (DAAC Study) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/camex4/ By dropping small sensors into hurricanes from above, scientists are acquiring data at high altitudes that will help them better unde rstand the structure and dynamics of hurricanes. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Storm: Typhoon Sinlaku http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4755 Fire: Widespread Burning across South Central Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4754 Storm: Tropical Storm Fay http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4752 Storm: Typhoon Ele http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4750 Storm: Tropical Storm Edouard http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4749 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Dongting Lake Flooding in China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10316 Iturralde Crater, Bolivia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10315 Mayn River, Siberia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10314 Petroleum Infrastructure, Denver City, Texas http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10313 South Georgia Island http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10312 Rainfall Inside Hurricane Hernan http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10311 Where on Earth...? MISR Mystery Image Quiz #10 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10310 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - NASA Scientists Determined to Unearth Origin of the Iturralde Crater * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - New Amazon Forest Monitoring Team: RAINFOR * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Warming Waters Affect Lobsters - Atmospheric Wave Linked to Sea Ice Flow Near Greenland - Satellites Show Overall Increases In Antarctic Sea Ice Cover - Climate and Cholera: An Increasingly Important Link - Satellite Trio Helps Track Hurricanes -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: Aerosol Optical Depth data for January 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/aer_od.modis.html Cloud Radiative Forcing data for July 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/cldforc.erbe.html Outgoing Longwave Radiation data for July 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/lwflux.erbe.html Net Radiation data for July 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/netflux.erbe.html Reflected Shortwave Radiation data for July 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/swflux.erbe.html UV Radiation Exposure data for March 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/uv.toms.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- Earth Observatory weekly mailing -- http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ To unsubscribe, e-mail: eo-announce-unsubscribe@eodomo.gsfc.nasa.gov For additional commands, e-mail: eo-announce-help@eodomo.gsfc.nasa.gov"}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 18, 2002 (20:42)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (09/18/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Locust! http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Locusts/ A little bit of overcrowding can transform a population of solitary desert locusts into a marauding mob with a voracious appetite. By tracking rainfall-induced changes in vegetation in the desert locust's habitat, scientists can help predict when conditions are becoming ripe for the formation of a plague. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Flood: Flooding in Indochina http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=5115 Fire: Fires in Central and Southern Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4764 Unique Imagery: New York City http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4765 Flood: Flooding in Southern France http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4766 Fire: Fires in Western Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4760 Fire: Fires and Deforestation in Brazil http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4762 Storm: Tropical Storm Gustav http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4759 Storm: Tropical Storm Hagupit http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4761 Fire: Fires in Argentina http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=4763 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Distinguishing Natural Aerosols from Human Pollution http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10762 Topographic Map of the Iturralde Structure, Bolivia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10761 Kanaga Volcano, Alaska http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10321 Slash and Burn Agriculture in Brazil http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10320 Namaqualand, South Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10319 Ocean Sand, Bahamas http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10318 Typhoon Sinlaku http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10317 Dongting Lake Flooding in China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10316 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - NASA Scientists Use Satellites to Distinguish Human Pollution from Other Atmospheric Particles - From Satellites to Sea: JPL Scientists Map Ocean Eddies - New Gravity Mission on Track to Map Earth's Shifty Mass * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Interpreting a Climate Record from 10,000-year-old Migrating Waters * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Summer Was Third Warmest on Record - EO Birds Confirm Rapid Changes in Earth's Polar Ice Sheets - Warming Could End Antarctic Species - Goodbye to Glaciers - Team Determined to Unearth Origin of Iturralde Crater * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (20:14)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (12/10/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Phytoplankton Thrive around the Falkland Islands http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10846 Emi Koussi Volcano, Chad, North Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10845 Apollo 17 Anniversary http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10844 Jau National Park, Brazil http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10843 Total Eclipse of the Sun http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10842 Fluctuations of Lake Eyre, South Australia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10841 Sediment Clouds the Caspian Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10840 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Arctic Sea Ice Shrinking, Greenland Ice Sheet Melting, According to Study * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Climate Change Will Affect Carbon Sequestration in Oceans, Scientists Say - Satellite Images Predict Hantaviral Transmission Risk"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 23, 2003 (14:57)", "body": "In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Tropical Cyclone Erica Off New Caledonia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11279 Buenos Aires at Night http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11278 Chicago, Illinois http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11277 Dust Streamers Over Gulf of Alaska http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11276 Shenandoah National Park, Virginia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11275 Casting Light and Shadows on a Saharan Dust Storm http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11274 Ice Covers the Great Lakes http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11273 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Welcome the Sun With Understanding - The 1991 Mt. Pinatubo Eruption Provides a Natural Test for the Influence of Arctic Circulation on Climate - Educator Astronaut Report Card: Science Teachers Express Support * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Clouds Mitigate Effects of Warming on Arctic - Global Warming Could Trigger Cascade of Climate Changes - Improved Ocean Color Mapping When the NIST SIRCUS Is in Town * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Drought May Have Aided Fall of Maya Civilization - 3 Great Lakes Frozen Over, First Time Since 1994: Environment Official - Pinatubo Eruption Affected Arctic Climate - Greenland Cools as World Warms - Warmer Climate to Soak California - Chemists Make Air Quality Discovery - Rain Kills Reindeer - Changes in the Earth's Rotation Are in the Wind - Weak El Ni\ufffdo Means Less Snow in West - Climate Changes May Increase Extreme Rain/Snow Events in California - El Ni\ufffdo Weakening, Experts Say - Changes in the Earth's Rotation Are in the Wind - Climate Studies Hold Key to Future of Desalination Plant - Winter Weather Won't Replenish Great Lakes - Winter's Engine? * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/"}, {"response": 154, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar 30, 2003 (11:54)", "body": "Where did the rain kill the reindeer?"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  1, 2003 (01:27)", "body": "Rain Kills Reindeer March 10 \ufffd The reindeer, caribou and elk that many indigenous peoples depend upon starve when it rains on snow-covered land in Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska. (Nature)"}, {"response": 156, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Mar  6, 2005 (12:31)", "body": "Welcome To The GeoCommunity The GeoCommunity\ufffd is THE place for the Geographic Information Systems (GIS), CAD, Mapping, and Location-Based industry professionals, enthusiasts, and students to gather. The GeoCommunity is by far THE leading GIS online portal and daily publication reaching 37,000+ subscribers to our Daily SpatialNews NewsWire. It's at http://www.geocomm.com/ and the news is at http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/features/ GIS Reponse to Terrorism News & Resources You won't find this data ANYWHERE ELSE! Analyze the Presidential election results for yourself. GIS data coverage, by county, of the 2000 US Presidential election results. Coverage includes Florida recounts certified Nov 26. The folks at Caliper describe how they produced an interactive WebMapping site highlighting the 2000 US Presidential election results by County. Using Digital Orthophotos to Support Land Registration on large areas (7000 hectares) where ownership has never previously been registered. The US Air Force has developed a predictive Bird Avoidance Model (BAM) using GIS technology. Maps of the 2000 Olympics - Maps, imagery, data and photos of Sydney, Australia The History and Application of GIS in Education - focuses on the history and application of GIS as a tool of data analysis in K-12 Education GenaMap creates GIS for Red Hat Linux - Mapping The Route To A Better Product Real-Time GIS Assists South Carolina in Managing Hurricane Floyd Evacuation GIS Proves Valuable During Alaska Airline Tragedy at Channel Islands A Tapestry of Time and Terrain - One of the most dramatic and beautiful maps of the United States, ever published."}, {"response": 157, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Mar  6, 2005 (12:32)", "body": "TAPESTRY OF TIME AND TERRAIN NOT JUST ANOTHER MAP By combining techniques developed by Leonardo da Vinci with today's computer applications, an artist and two scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., have produced one of the most dramatic and beautiful maps of the United States, ever published. Fittingly titled, \"A Tapestry of Time and Terrain,\" the map weaves together, in vivid colors and shadings, the topographical and geological components of the lower 48 states, as well as the geologic age of those components. This union of topographic texture with the patterns defined by units of geologic time creates a visual synthesis that has escaped most prior attempts to combine shaded relief with a second characteristic shown by color. The colorful map is an excellent teaching tool, and comes with an interpretive booklet that explains how the map was made, and describes in brief narrative, 48 of the physical features portrayed on the map."}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 10, 2005 (23:35)", "body": "Oh wow! I usually try not to say that, but it is justified this time. Mahalo nui!"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 10, 2005 (23:38)", "body": "Any suggestions as to which map program I should get for my GPS? It is still sitting in the box unused and this summer we want to use it to define sites we are writing about. Suggestions are most appreciated."}, {"response": 160, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (10:01)", "body": "You're going to have to google for this. What brand is your gps? What model?"}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (16:14)", "body": "David uses Magellan . I'll report back on my make and model. I only remember that it fits onto my PDA."}, {"response": 162, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Mar 14, 2005 (13:23)", "body": "Let us know your google results!"}, {"response": 163, "author": "weroland", "date": "Sat, Apr  8, 2006 (23:12)", "body": "Geology News"}, {"response": 164, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (13:00)", "body": "how'd you do that?"}, {"response": 165, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (13:36)", "body": "cut and paste"}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (14:27)", "body": "Thanks for that. Now I will go look at it. I am ashamed to say I only looked at their archaeology links on that website and did not know if it was possible to link it here, Again, Thank you! (He is responsible for getting me this blank sheet of the internet to write Geo upon. I think he walks on water, too...)"}, {"response": 167, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (14:48)", "body": "*blush* Nope, I even broke the new cooking conference, and don't have all the access I did once upon a time, and am patiently waiting for my mistake to be fixed as I can't before anyone sees I messed up."}, {"response": 168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (15:05)", "body": "I promise not to tell. Glad to know you are mortal. I know you fixed many mistakes that I made on Geo that first day (and many subsequent days). I know how terrible it feels. We do need to get better access again so we can get to our files and do FTP like we used to do. I have a large stockpile of goodies to share when that is possible. Let us know! Anyway, we'll be around to keep your conference lively - and professional - and to goof off on the food conference."}, {"response": 169, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (22:15)", "body": "Call me and I'll take you through a gotomeeting and get you going. It will take 5 to 10 minutes. I'm at 512.581.9617."}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (13:58)", "body": "Ok need to get my voice back first. Much better with fingers... but will call as soon as I overwhelm the flu that is making life miserable at present."}, {"response": 171, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (19:03)", "body": "what's a gotomeeting?"}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (19:53)", "body": "he will say \"go to...(add the url of your choice)\" and I won't be able to since this old neighborhood has only phone modems and that is the house phone. I'm just guessing. What IS a gotomeeting?"}, {"response": 173, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2006 (18:54)", "body": "i was ok with your definition *grin*"}, {"response": 174, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (08:32)", "body": "http://gotomeeting.com ... it's desktop sharing with phone conferencing."}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (13:55)", "body": "..ok... need to figure out what I am doing. Rob sent me two fantastic pictures I may just send on to you to post if I can't get my brain around what is necessary to configure. Thanks."}, {"response": 176, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (15:37)", "body": "Sure, send 'em."}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (17:30)", "body": "Please put them on the new topic you created for Rob. They are on their way to you at spring.net. Thanks !"}, {"response": 178, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2006 (10:39)", "body": "I'll get it."}, {"response": 179, "author": "paul", "date": "Sat, Sep  6, 2008 (10:10)", "body": "marci, haven't got those pictures yet. Why don't you just post them here. If you need help let me know. Do these pictures have urls? Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 41, "subject": "Alcoa sucking water from Bastrop County, Texas", "response_count": 6, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Nov  2, 2000 (08:54)", "body": "To: Subject: Giddings Tomorrow Rage against the Alcoa Corporate Machine in Giddings, Lee County Texas November 2-3 WE THE PEOPLE CAN STOP ANOTHER 40 plus years of the WORST lignite burning grandfathered polluter in Texas. ALCOA has requested a permit to lignite strip mine 15,000 acres of farms, ranches, homes and wildlife habitat in Bastrop and Lee Counties, less than one hour's drive from the state capitol. Alcoa needs lignite to fuel the utility plants that in turn power its Rockdale, Texas, aluminum smelter, the largest in the U.S. Alcoa's operation is \"grandfathered,\" meaning the plant has never been required to comply with the 1971 Clean Air Act. Area citizens are waging a David-vs.-Goliath fight against the strip mine, and are calling on Alcoa -- which made a record $1 billion in profits last year -- to switch to a cleaner-burning fuel. A grassroots citizens group, Neighbors for Neighbors, has filled an unsuitability petition with the Railroad Commission of Texas asking for portions of the 15,000 acres of rolling ranch and farm land to be declared unsuitable for lignite strip mining. A hearing has been scheduled for November 2 and 3, in Giddings, Texas, at the county courthouse. Alcoa is expected to make a big showing in opposition to the petition. A number of individuals and groups, working independently of Neighbors, are organizing protests in support of the unsuitability petition. Come rage against the ALCOA corporate machine and demand that the Railroad Commission of Texas find the Pittsburgh plan of corporate greed and resource exploitation UNSUITABLE for our next generation of Texans, demand Alcoa leave behind 50's technology and put people ahead of profits. Every man, woman and child can join this effort and fight for the right to have the Democratic process work for WE the People, not WE the Corporation. Help our elected officials understand that they are responsible to the voter not the corporate campaign contributor. Texans have waited since 1971, we cannot afford to continue to sacrifice our clean air for high profit margins. This is the opportunity to demand an end to corporate loopholes at the taxpayer expense and our children's health, insist on compliance with laws already on the books that will protect our air quality. Texas and Texans do not need or want its ranking as the worst polluting state in the nation. Is it any wonder that more children in Texas visit the emergency room for asthma than for any other complaint? Come to Giddings and stop the machine, make and be a part of history. Pass this forward to anyone interested in regulatory agencies demonstrating protection of and responsibility to the people against those that deprive citizens of clean air while exploiting natural resources. The above is in no way produced by or a product of the NFN 501c(3) organization. This is in support of their efforts by those at Ground Zero. For event information [contact mustangwarhorse@juno.com Leave message ; 512-285-3845] or [bcgreens@io.com 512-303-4716] For NFN information visit http://www.neighborsforneighbors.com . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Carl Manz & Christine Johnson Rt 3, Box 369 Bastrop, TX 78602-9505 e-mail: cbmanz@io.com telephone: 512-303-4716 \"The real object of all despotism is revenue.\" -Thomas Paine \"The selfish spirit of commerce knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.\" - Thomas Jefferson \"Nothing can stop the power of an informed citizenry when it is empowered, organized, and motivated.\" - Ralph Nader ---------------"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 10, 2000 (00:00)", "body": "Terry, too bad this isnt tied to the two topics dealing with just the sort of problem - one of which you created a long time ago. Oh well... Topic 4 of 40: Gaia: Geological Ecology http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/4 Topic 12 of 40: bioregions - getting to know your unique niche on planet earth http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/12"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 10, 2000 (00:01)", "body": "..Oh yes, On Geo conference, of course..."}, {"response": 4, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Nov 10, 2000 (08:35)", "body": "... of course. Linked."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 10, 2000 (14:16)", "body": "Thank you!!!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Mar 27, 2002 (23:53)", "body": "Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 42, "subject": "FLIGHT--the Human Aviation Adventure", "response_count": 134, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (20:10)", "body": "Welcome Neil! For a maiden topic, you did splendidly and honor my conference with your wisdom. This is gonna be a big favorite of mine! Terry, we need a conference with Neil for its flight commander!!!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (20:15)", "body": "Blush*blush*blush"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (20:35)", "body": "Since the Shuttle just landed, this bit of information might be of interest: When the shuttle comes in for a landing, it does so at a 22% descent angle. Normal commercial aircraft descend at a 2% descent angle. It also enters the Earth's atmosphere going Mach 25"}, {"response": 4, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (20:37)", "body": "...so much for the hood ornament."}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (20:38)", "body": "this'll be neat! will need to do some rummaging for cool wallpaper for your new conference, neil! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 6, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "Thanks Wolfmeister! Glad to have you here!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "Neil, Wolfie can even help create custom buttons for your conference. (Think we have him snowed sufficiently yet? He has plenty of the real stuff on the ground where he lives!) I have loads of horizonta bar options but she can also custom make them, too."}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (20:47)", "body": "*blush*"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (20:51)", "body": "Poor Neil is doing the same trip we all did when you discover someone actually posts in somrthing you have created... He definitely needs a conference. Last plane I flew in was an L 1011 to Calidornia."}, {"response": 10, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (20:53)", "body": "i couldn't even tell you the last plane i flew in...i think it was delta with 9 seats across (to germany)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (21:02)", "body": "Wolfie!!! I thought you HAD to pass air recon stuff. *gasp*"}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (21:03)", "body": "*lol* not in my field of work *grin* i have flown in a C-5 and a KC-10...."}, {"response": 13, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (21:22)", "body": "I feel I should take a moment here to introduce myself, and say why I've created this topic. I've had a love affair with flying and airplanes since I was little; my Dad served in the RCAF during the Second World War as an airframe mechanic with a BCATP (British Commonwealth Air Training Plan) unit during the war, and then worked on Avro Lancaster bombers with another squadron post-war. He had a great love for airplanes, and he naturally transferred that passion and enthusiasm to me. Throughout my childhood (and even to this day), many of my birthday and Christmas presents consisted of Dinky-toy airplanes, plastic model kits, books, and posters of aircraft--I'm happily obsessed with them and make no apologies about it. Though I hesitate to use the word \"expert\", I am quite skilled at aircraft identification. I am also an avid aviation historian, focusing on the WW2 period, and am a member of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, as well as Warbirds Worldwide, although my membership in either is not currently active. I'm also a dedicated aviation photographer, photographing local airshows, airdisplays, and aircraft whenever I get the chance. And I still dabble with platic model airplanes when time and money permit. Why did I create this topic? Personally, I see life as an adventure, and flying is one of the most amazing parts of it. This topic is created for anyone out there who can't help but look up when an airplane flies overhead, regardless if it's a Cessna 150 or a 747; this is for anyone who has fallen in love with old biplanes after taking a hop in the front pit of a Stearman, Waco, or Tiger Moth, and for anyone who feel's a thrill go up their spine when they hear a P-51D Mustang's Merlin engine in full, glorious song at an airshow, or loves the friendly, nostalgic rumble of a DC-3's twin Pratt & Whitney radial's as they go over on a winter night hauling cargo to who-knows-where; for those of us who would almost be ready to trade in our grandmothers for a ride on the Shuttle or a flight with the Blue Angels; for everyone of us, all of us, who are still really just kid's inside and dream of flying, or has fulfilled those dreams and made flying their life and passion..."}, {"response": 14, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (21:48)", "body": "So, to get things started, here are My Top Ten Favourite Aircraft: 1. North American P-51D Mustang 2. Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IX 3. De Havilland Mosquito 4. Ryan ST-A -- the prettiest airplane ever to have flown 5. North Anerican AT-6 Texan -- a ball of fun to fly! 6. Globe Temco Swift -- the MGB of General Aviation airplanes 7. Apollo-Saturn V -- not an airplane, I know, but has a more magnificent rocket or flying machine ever been built? 8. Douglas DC-3 -- the airplane that changed the world 9. Canadair CF-86 Mk. 6 Sabre Jet 10. Avro Lancaster -- my Dad's favourite, and one I helped to put back in the air"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (22:33)", "body": "Sounds like you have tastes similar to mine. And are you also a pilot? You mentioned that the AT6 was fun to fly... *green with envy* Wolfie, just watching a C5 take off is a exercise in epathetic ooching. It looks like it'll never get airborne. What does it feel like from the inside?"}, {"response": 16, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (23:25)", "body": "There are so many great airplanes out there that my Top Ten is actually a fairly fluid thing, and is prone to some change, but the first five are pretty fixed. No, I'm not a pilot, despite trying desparately to become one. I was in the midst of flight training for my Private Pilot's Licence, when the medico's at Transport Canada decided that they didn't have enough info about a rare genetic disorder I suffer from, so they denied me my medical. I'm hoping to improve that situation sometime in the future to the point that they'll at least let me fly ultralights--I absolutely HATE being stuck on the ground! And yes, the T-6 is a ball of fun to fly as I had an opportunity to try it out before being grounded; the controls on the Six are very light (lighter than some of the fighters like the Mustang and Corsair, so I've been told), nicely balanced and quite responsive, and the joystick on the Texan seems to fall into the hand much more naturally that those dinky little yokes on a Cessna 152. If I could own a Warbird, the T-6 would be on my very short list as it looks, smells, sounds, and flies like the Heavy Iron, and you can take a friend along to enjoy the fun!!!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2000 (23:32)", "body": ""}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (00:35)", "body": ""}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (01:12)", "body": "You will fly! I know you will. That much passion for airplanes has got to be rewarded in private license if not the governement's."}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (01:13)", "body": "OK, YAPP IS DOING ODD THINGS AGAIN - WILL DELETE THE OUT OF SEQUENCE DOUBLE POSTS...."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (01:39)", "body": "ok, the two duplicated messages have been deleted ... wouldn't you know it was something useless by me?!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (15:32)", "body": "well, in a C-5, the passenger seats are backwards compared to a conventional plane. when i came back from the desert, i really didn't care one way or the other. i was asleep! but, i will say that it was better than the KC10--more legroom, not as cold. and you wanna talk about empathetic ooching, you should watch a B-52. i don't know how those things fly!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (15:56)", "body": "Yup - wings flex Seriously! Um..have watched U2's do touches and goes. The sound like nothing else in the air when the fly."}, {"response": 24, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (19:00)", "body": "I've attended many airshows over the years, and seeing the B-52 was always an awe-inspiring experience. With those long swept wings carrying eight smokey turbofans, and sounding like an entire airport taking off at once, the BUFF always impressed the hell out of me. The first time it showed up at the Hamilton show, just after a new 8000' runway had been installed, the '52 driver made several very low passes about 150 yards from where I stood as I helped put up snow fencing along the planned crowdline. As the '52 passed by, you could almost feel the air itself trying to get of the way of the big plane. After he landed and taxied to his static display spot, you could see that the outrigger landing gear out near the drooping wingtips was dangling far out over the grass on either side of the concrete. To see the hulking beast, a plane most likely older than me at that time in the late 1980's, was like staring at some prehistoric sky-beast from some bizarre Tolkien-esque fantasy. It was, and is, an imposingly ma nificent aircraft."}, {"response": 25, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (20:31)", "body": "and it still out bomb modern aircraft!! those things can really move when the need arises!!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (21:16)", "body": "yepper--they didn't take them into Desert Storm for nothing. I'm just glad they were never used for their original purpose, or you and I and all the rest of us wouldn't be around to admire the ol' BUFF. I still enjoy seeing the ersatz B-52 segments in Stanley Kubrick's film, Dr. Strangelove."}, {"response": 27, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Wed, Dec 13, 2000 (22:49)", "body": "AIR SHOW MEMORIES: Best Aerobatic Team: I know some of my countrymen will want to string me up for this, but my favourite military aerobatic team isn't the Canadian Armed Forces Snowbirds; it's the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, esp, when they were flying McDonnell-Douglas A-4 Skyhawks. What forever won me over to them was a manuver involving two A-4's: as one a/c approached from stage right in \"dirty\" configuration (gear, flaps, & hook down and flying a slow landing approach), the second aircraft was coming from the right in a parallel course going full-tilt boogie. Just as the second fast aircraft overtook the slower one, both aircraft pitched up into full, round loops. The dirty aircraft kept it's loop tight due to it's lower airspeed, while the second made a big soaring loop. But the really neat thing was they maintained the exact same position relative to one another as they went around their respective circles, and arrived at the bottom of their loops at the same time before neatly snapping away into sharp diverging turns. I wa seriously wowed. My second favourite team is the Italian Frecce Tricolori (Tri-coloured Arrows); their displays have tremendous style and pinache, and they're a thoroughly professional bunch of guys. The best civilian aerobatic team, hands down, are the Northern Lights. They are just plain fun, and the team is made up primarily of Canadian ex-Snowbird pilots. Favourite solo performers are Patty Wagstaff and Oscar Boesch, who can make a sailplane flight a true thing of beauty. Funniest Air Show Moment: The Truly Stealthy F-117 At the Hamilton Airshow in 1994, the weather was just left of dismal. Rain and low ceilings had plagued the show all weekend, and little if anything, got off the ground. By Sunday we were all desparate for something to happen, collectively projecting our wills at the clouds trying to burn them off, but to no avail. Then it was annonunced that the fabled Lockheed F-117 Stealth Fighter was inbound to the show, and was going to attempt a low pass over the field. That brightened our sagging spirits immensely, and all of us among the \"Camera Crazies\" pulled out our trusty Nikon's, Canon's, and Pentax's with the hopes of capturing the infamous Nighthawk on film. Even the show's commentator's had brightened up, and were happily rattling off the plane's vital statistics over the PA. Then, we could hear the approach of jet engines, and the announcer's gleefully proclaimed the Stealth's arrival. We stood, watched, and listened as the plane sailed overhead, completely lost to us by cloud. The whole area fell silent a we die-hard airplane fantics stood there looking up into the murk, and then at each other. Then the irony of what had just happened fell on us like a ton of bricks; the Stealth had finally lived up to it's name and had been \"truly invisible\" and we fell into side-splitting spasms of laughter. The show was a write-off, but that one moment of absurdity relieved a weekend of disappointment and tension. It still brings a smile to me as I write this... Most Memorable: The Big Bomber Formation Seeing an Avro Lancaster, a B-24 Liberator, two B-17's, and a B-29 all flying together. The noise of all those big piston engines working in close harmony was an experience unto itself... The De Havilland Mosquito Kermit Weeks brought his Mossie to Hamilton a couple of times. So sleek, so rare--a truly memorable airplane. The Worst Memory: Witnessing the fatal crash of an RAF Nimrod ASW aircraft into Lake Ontario at the Toronto International Airshow. Watching an aircraft dive into the earth is something I hope none of you witness. The awful, sick feeling of loss and helpless is overwhelming. I never want to see it happen again..."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (00:49)", "body": "=Sorry to follow such so splendid a post as the one above with this, but it IS seasonal and perhaps appropriate..."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (14:46)", "body": ""}, {"response": 30, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (15:49)", "body": "That is an incredible picture! It's like a big fluffy egg."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (18:42)", "body": "Yup, and the pilot has his very own little one, too. Wonder why!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (22:27)", "body": "Hi guys. I'm no aerodynamicist, but I think I can explain the the small vapor cloud over the cockpit canopy, and the overall image in general. When an aircraft passes through Mach 1 (the speed of sound which is roughly 740 mph at sea level), acoustic and aerodynamic pressure waves form on every surface of the aircraft that is heading into the air in the direction of flight. The thing to remember is that these pressure, or shockwaves, are simply highly compressed currents of air being deflected off of the aircraft as it passes through the air, and it's the aircraft moving through the air so rapidly that compresses the air around it. As these regions of air on the aircraft's leading edges are dramatically compressed, it leaves larger areas of air over the portions of the airplane that are farther back from the leading edge (eg. areas over the middle of the wings and fuselage) in a region of lower air pressure. This sudden pressure change causes the temperature of the air in the areas of lower pressure to drop dramatically, making any water vapor in the air in that pocket of low air pressure to suddenly condense into a small, visible localized cloud of water vapour. These dramatic supersonic effects can only be seen when the aircraft involved is travelling at supersonic speeds through very humid air, such as found over costal regions, or in warm, humid weather further inland. But you needn't wait for a supersonic attack jet like an F/A-18 Hornet to see a such effects; watching large airliner's taking off from an airport on a hot, muggy or rainy day can produce a similar phenomenon. As an airplane wing moves through the air, it generates areas of low air pressure relative to the surrounding air, so again, water vapor trapped in the regions of low pressure condense out into visible clouds of water vapor, and you can see dramatic sheets of cloud-like vapor streaming off the top of the wing as the plane climbs out. As for the tiny cloud over the canopy, there would have been a shockwave streaming off the top of the canopy's leading edge, trapping air farther back in a low pressure zone, which condensed out the existing water vapor, producing the little cloud. The photo is not only remarkable for it's sheer drama, but also in it's clear demonstration of physics and aerodynamics. I'd like to thank my lady love, MarciaH, for graciously posting this pic; thanks Sweetie!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Thu, Dec 14, 2000 (23:39)", "body": "Here are some great aviation links: The grandaddy of all great aviation enthusisast's organizations, the Experimantal Aircraft Association: http://www.eaa.org/ The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum; my personal aviation touchstone: http://www.warplane.com/ If you're a die-hard P-51 Mustang fanatic, here are a couple sites you'll love: http://www.mustangops.com/ http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/ Want to fly a P-51? Here's how... http://www.stallion51.com/ Want to keep abreast of the UK Warbird Scene? Here's a good source... http://www.duxford.org/ and another..., http://www.warbirdsworldwide.com/ For those itinerant modellers out there like me who can't stop drooling over photos of much better models than our own, here's more punishment... http://www.hyperscale.com/ and finally for tonight, a link to the fabled Avro CF-105 Arrow, a great airplane that was thoughtlessly destroyed by politics... http://www.angelfire.com/ab/avroarrow/noframes.html There's much more to come folks, so stay tuned..."}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (01:11)", "body": "Neil, You should have been a teacher. How lucidly you explained the concept. HOw easy to see what was forming that private little poof over the pilot even before you got to it. Thank you for clarifying the mystery without losing any of the magic! If there is a steamier pklace on earth than here it probably doesnot nave planes on a regular basis. I have seen the effect you mention on takeoff from both inside the plane and outside so frequently that I had forgotten all about it. Those URLs you posted are splendid. More pictures to follow, and soon I will have you posting your own! Next is that spenndid little Ryan you like so much."}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (17:22)", "body": "that picture is awesome! it was sent to me at work and i guess it made the rounds to others as well. there was another picture with it but i've since deleted it. thanks for the explanation!!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 15, 2000 (19:39)", "body": "Wolfie, send them to me from now on. Please!!! Really curious about the other picture..."}, {"response": 37, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 16, 2000 (13:10)", "body": "(marcia, i think i deleted it from my drive at work....i'll let you know next week!)"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 16, 2000 (14:13)", "body": "Ok, Wolfie, thanks!"}, {"response": 39, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (18:05)", "body": ""}, {"response": 40, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (18:06)", "body": ""}, {"response": 41, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (18:08)", "body": "Just figured out how to post images! Ha-ha! Now I can get to work!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (18:21)", "body": "Here's another pic for you Mustang fans, courtesy of the Smithsonian Air & Space/Jeff Ethell's pirep's page:"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (18:27)", "body": "Oh Neil!!! Lovely stuff!"}, {"response": 44, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (20:53)", "body": "As the wife of a retired air traffic controler I am glad to see this site. I don't see any mention of the C-47. The warhorse. Some of them are still flying in places like the bush in Alaska because they are so dependable and can land where other can't. I really knew when the shuttle was back. It hit the earth's atmosphere over our house. It sounds like someone fire off two cannons in rapid succession when that happens. I'm glad they don't land late at night. I can watch the launches too just down at the end of the street. I like the night launches best. It lights up the sky like a sunrise and reflects in the lake. really beautiful."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (23:46)", "body": "Give us time - Neil is still learning how to post images... The C-47 was our intrastate highway for many years after I got here in Hawaii - they still fly and I can hear them even in my sleep. Love walking uphill to my seat!!! Neil, Lucy is a great friend of mine and therefore a great friend of yours by adoption. Bet SHE knows some stories!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 12, 2001 (23:51)", "body": "Speaking of the next shuttle launch (and I am SO envious!) it is the early morning of the 19th, so be prepared to watch NASA tv!"}, {"response": 47, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (17:35)", "body": ""}, {"response": 48, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (17:36)", "body": ""}, {"response": 49, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (18:31)", "body": "Sorry 'bout the broken links; still learning the ropes on posting images. This and the previous two posts will be deleted when I find out how to do that; and I will hunt down a good useable pic of a Dakota."}, {"response": 50, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (19:42)", "body": "Have you ever been to the Aviation Museum in Kissimmee, Florida or the yearly show in Lakeland?"}, {"response": 51, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (23:20)", "body": "'Fraid not Lucy, though I hope to sometime, and I'd love to see Kermit Weeks' \"Fantasy of Flight Museum\" at Polk City (I was lucky enough to see him fly his De Havilland Mosquito at a couple of airshows before he grounded it at Oshkosh). The one thing I'd like to do at Kisimmee is to take a hop in Stallion-51 Corp's two-seat P-51D Mustang--I'd almost sell off my relatives to do that!!!"}, {"response": 52, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (23:21)", "body": "Is the Lakeland Show the Valiant Air Command Airshow, or EAA's Sun 'n Fun?"}, {"response": 53, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (23:26)", "body": ""}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (23:47)", "body": ""}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (23:48)", "body": "Nope Neil, it won't post for some reason...how odd..."}, {"response": 56, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (23:49)", "body": ""}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (23:51)", "body": ""}, {"response": 58, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Sat, Jan 13, 2001 (23:58)", "body": "Thanks Marci, that's what I was trying for. This image comes from The DC-3 Aviation Museum ( http://www.centercomp.com/dc3/ ) and is copyrighted by the DC-3 Aviation Museum and the Danish Dakota Friends"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (01:17)", "body": "*Whew* Finally!!!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (18:02)", "body": "AIR FORCE ONE"}, {"response": 61, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (22:37)", "body": "I LOVE that pic Marci: thank you!!! I wonder what kind of tip vortices those things generate?"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 14, 2001 (23:54)", "body": "Texas Tornadoes???!!!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Mon, Jan 15, 2001 (00:26)", "body": "I LOVE that pic Marci: thank you!!! I wonder what kind of tip vortices those things generate?"}, {"response": 64, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Mon, Jan 15, 2001 (01:23)", "body": "For those of you not familiar with some of the aircraft on my Top Ten List, here is an illustrated version of it; and as pics of the P-51D Mustang and DC-3 have already been posted, I've added a couple more from my long list of Favourites: 1) Vickers Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX --image copyright The Spitfire Shop 2) De Havilland Mosquito B.35 --image courtesy Aero Space Museum Assoc. of Calgary/copyright Jim Koepnick 3) Ryan ST-R (Ryan ST-A replica) --image courtesy Moravia Inc. 4) McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk --image courtesy A-4 Skyhawk Association/copyright Planeworks 5) North American AT-6/SNJ Texan --image courtesy National Warplane Museum 6) De Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth --image courtesy Scot Penna 7) Globe Temco GC-1B Swift --image courtesy Globe Temco Swift Home Page/copyright Brian Silcox 8) Apollo-Saturn V --image courtesy The Project Apollo Archive 9) Canadair CF-86 Mk.6 (CL-13B) Sabre Jet --image courtesy Canadian Department of National Defence 10) Avro Lancaster Mk. B.X --image courtesy Canadian Department of National Defence ...more to come!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Mon, Jan 15, 2001 (15:11)", "body": "Here's a pic of the Hawker FB.11 Sea Fury; the ultimate piston-engined fighter: --photo copyright Gordon Bains, \"Silvered Wings\" Airlife Publishing, UK"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 15, 2001 (16:20)", "body": "What a great image!!! I always wonder where the photographer was in shots like this. Wish it came with sound!"}, {"response": 67, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Mon, Jan 15, 2001 (23:44)", "body": "Lakeland's is the Sun & Fun. Great photos."}, {"response": 68, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Tue, Jan 16, 2001 (16:10)", "body": ""}, {"response": 69, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Tue, Jan 16, 2001 (16:17)", "body": "Here's a photo of a Convair 990, Marci. It was not a commercial success like the Boeing 707 or McDonnell-Douglas DC-8 as it was a smaller aircraft and had shorter range: --image courtesy of the Convair 990 Homepage"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 16, 2001 (16:37)", "body": "Been on that lovely sleek plane - very comfortable and a bit more plush than the others in the size range. Thank Dear - very nice, indeed."}, {"response": 71, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Tue, Jan 16, 2001 (20:43)", "body": "Here are a couple of nice pics I found of the A-4 Skyhawk, these one's belonging to the Royal New Zealand Air Force: --images courtesy the RNZAF Photo Gallery"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 16, 2001 (21:28)", "body": "You are right - I'm gonna ask Terry if there is any way to post sound files which will not destroy our bandwidth or take too long to download. These pictures are magificent but mute. They need sound!!!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Wed, Jan 17, 2001 (00:34)", "body": "Here's a beautiful picture of a modified T-6 Texan known as a \"Super 6\". I will be making a post shortly giving my impressions of flying one of my all time favourite airplanes, the AT-6."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 17, 2001 (00:40)", "body": "It's really cute - love shiney planes! But, the Ryan you named after me is still my favorite! Having hever heard a Ryan, my pride of place is a P-51 Mustang. If they were men, I'd be doomed!"}, {"response": 75, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sun, Jan 21, 2001 (19:56)", "body": "I would like to be over in Tampa next week to see the flyovers. I don't think I could take the crowds though."}, {"response": 76, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Mon, Jan 22, 2001 (14:04)", "body": ""}, {"response": 77, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Mon, Jan 22, 2001 (14:19)", "body": "Hi guys! I felt it was time for some unabashed Canadian flag waving, and being a frosty-butt Canuck myself, what would be more appropo?!? Like the USAF\ufffds \ufffdThunderbirds\ufffd, the USN\ufffds \ufffdBlue Angels\ufffd, and the RAF\ufffds \ufffdRed Arrows\ufffd, Canada too has had a long tradition of aerobatic demonstration teams, from pre-WW2 to today\ufffds CAF 431 Air Demonstration Squadron, \ufffdThe Snowbirds\ufffd; so here is a short photo essay on some of the better known military aerobatic teams in Canada that some of you may be unfamiliar with: \ufffdThe Goldilocks\ufffd operated out of what is currently CFB Moose Jaw in the early 1960\ufffds, flying Havard Mk. IV\ufffds (AT-6 Texans licence-built here): --the Goldilocks were made up of a group RCAF flight instructors whose intent was to parody the then well known RCAF jet display team, \ufffdThe Goldenhawks\ufffd, and to demonstrate the rather unorthodox flying styles of their students The Goldenhawks were Canada\ufffds Flight Demonstration Team in the 1960\ufffds, flying the superb Canadair CF-86 Sabre Jet, which gives me an excuse to post more pics of my all-time favourite jet fighter! The Goldenhawks were formed in 1959, the golden anniversary of the First Powered Flight in Canada, and were finally disbanded in 1964. The Golden Centenairres performed across Canada during 1967, Canada\ufffds confederation centennial year (anybody here go to Expo 67 in Montreal?), flying Canadair CT-114 \ufffdTutor\ufffd jet trainers: Finally, today\ufffds 431 Air Demonstration Squadron, \ufffdThe Snowbirds\ufffd continue to perform across Canada, stll flying the now venerable Tutor, but still wow the crowds across North America:"}, {"response": 78, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Mon, Jan 22, 2001 (21:40)", "body": "That really takes skill. I don't know if this is Superbowl week or U.S. Airforce week in Tampa. They have opened McDill to the public. They have 18 different planes on display. F16 simulaters for the kids to get a feel of how it feels to fly a jet. Saturday at the Gasperilla parade they will have flyovers with fighters, bombers, and flyinging tanker. Sunday at the game the Thunderbirds will flyover followed by a Stealth Bomber. Ten years ago when Tampa had the Super Bowl Mcdill was locked down. It was a launching place for the planes going to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. I was sitting here praying for my son who was there."}, {"response": 79, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Tue, Jan 23, 2001 (14:28)", "body": "Hi Lucy! I remember exactly where I was when I heard that the first strikes were being launched into Iraq that January night--I was browsing through the magazine racks at Lichtman's bookstore (now defunct), which had the store stereo system tuned to CBC Radio for classical music when the announcer broke in with the bulletin. I then hurried over to a nearby department store to the TV department to find people already crowded around the sets 3 & 4 deep watching the news of the war; and later I remember when the Iraq's launched missles into Israel and I was worried that the conflict might spread in size and effect--it was a worrisome time for everyone. I hope your son returned safe. I don't want to turn this site into a showcase for only military aircraft, as there are many wonderful civil types too, and I have several favourites in this area as well, especially aircraft that would be considered antiques today. For example... The Stinson Reliant SR-9, a radial-engined, high-wing, cabin monoplane of the 1930's that was as finely appointed as a Packard or Dusenberg automobile. And the Lockheed Electra 10... ..the Learjet of it's day"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 23, 2001 (21:37)", "body": "Not your average P-3 Orion I know and love as a Lockheed Electra... Great images, Neil. What a pleasure to wander amongst the clouds with you...!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Tue, Jan 23, 2001 (21:45)", "body": "Here's a contemporary of the Lockheed-10 Electra, the Beech D-18 Twin Beech, also known as the Twin Texan, Double-breasted Cub, Wichita Wobbler, and Bug-Smasher. In military parlance, it was the C-45 Expeditor, and a glass-nosed version, the AT-11 Kansan, trained bombadier's for the USAAF during WW2. Many of them went on to form the backbones of corporate business aviation departments, smaller regional feeder airlines, and courier services. Twin Beeches still fly today, but many more are slowly disappearing into the earth from whence they came; still, there's rarely a nicer sight in the air than that of a gleaming, polished, natural-metal Twin Beech with it's trusty Pratt & Whitney radials drumming out a tune from days gone by..."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 23, 2001 (22:44)", "body": "These planes are stunning. When they get to the geriatric stage they are sent to Hawaii to do air tours. I promised to take what an elderly Twin Beech looks like now! Again, Mahalo!"}, {"response": 83, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jan 31, 2001 (19:48)", "body": "Neil, thanks for the session of Canadian flag-waving. Besides, I thought that the Royal Candian Air Force was legendary."}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  1, 2001 (20:29)", "body": "The RACF IS legendary as are the fine men whose uniform they wear. Bows to Neil with rapture - man in uniform is totally irresisible!"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  1, 2001 (23:15)", "body": "Study: Penguins Do Not Topple Watching Aircraft LONDON (Reuters) - Do penguins topple over when they peer into the sky watching planes and helicopters fly over? Finally, a full blown scientific study has come up with the answer. They may waddle away in fright but they do NOT lose their balance and topple over. Rumors of falling penguins have abounded since British plane and helicopter pilots returning from the 1982 Falklands War claimed their flights had toppled the earth-bound birds. To settle the issue, a favorite of cartoonists and penguin jokes, environmental research scientist Richard Stone spent five weeks watching helicopters fly over two King Penguin colonies in the Antarctic, studying their effect on more than 1,000 birds. \"We saw birds moving away from the noise (of helicopters and planes),\" he said. \"Not a single bird fell over after 17 flights.\" \"As it (the helicopter) approached, the birds went quiet,\" he said. \"They didn't appear to turn around and look.\" Some birds waddled away from the helicopters. Others became quiet. A few minutes later, they waddled back. \"We don't know if it's the noise or the visual aspect -- whether it looks like a potential predator,\" Stone said."}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 16, 2001 (01:11)", "body": ""}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 16, 2001 (01:18)", "body": ""}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 16, 2001 (01:46)", "body": "Ode To The P-38 Oh, Hedy Lamarr is a beautiful gal, and Madeleine Carroll is too, But you'll find if you query, a different theory amongst any bomber crew For the loveliest thing of which one could sing (this side of the pearly gates) Is no blonde or brunette of the Hollywood set - But an escort of P-38s. Yes, in the days that have passed, when the tables were massed with glasses of scotch and champagne, It's quite true that the sight was a thing of delight us, intent on feeling no pain. But no longer the same, nowadays is this game When we head north for Messina Straits Take the sparkling wine-every time, just make mine an escort of P-38s. Byron, Shelley and Keats ran a dozen dead heats Describing the views from the hills, of the valleys in May when the winds gently sway In the air it's a different story; We sweat out our track through the fighters and flak We're willing to split up the glory Well, they wouldn't reject us, so heaven protect us and, until all this shooting abates, Give us courage to fight 'em - one other small item - an escort of P-38s. --Pvt. L.S.C, From POW camp at Ploesti"}, {"response": 89, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Mon, Feb 19, 2001 (22:18)", "body": "Wow, Marci what a great post! Thank you so much! The '38 was an incredible airplane. Originally designed as a high-altitude interceptor, it served in several roles during the War, including ground-attack, bomber escort, photo-reconnaisance, pathfinding, and radar-guided nightfighter. The Lightning was the only US fighter to be in production before the beginning of the War and on the last day of it. It was the first USAAF fighter to fly over Berlin on escort duty, although it's overall success in the ETO was mixed due to problems with the engine's turbo-superchargers and lack of an adequate cockpit heater for flying at altitude, but it proved to be a superb long-range fighter in the South Pacific. P-38's are very rare as Warbirds go; only six are currently flying in the world."}, {"response": 90, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Mon, Feb 19, 2001 (22:20)", "body": "Chuckle. I heard about the penguin thing on a local science show. Another myth brought down to Earth..."}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 23, 2001 (21:16)", "body": "I understood they liked to watch baseball games and stood along the third base line to do so! Smart Birds, indeed!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 24, 2001 (22:22)", "body": "Since our worth creator is busy and I am using up a lot of his time talking, he showed this to me. Ever want to fly a MiG??? http://www.incredible-adventures.com/migs/faq.html"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 24, 2001 (22:23)", "body": "He is worthy. His worth, incalcuable to me!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 24, 2001 (22:25)", "body": "And, if you are so rich you can buy out Bill Gates, here are some suggested ways to spend your excess: http://www.incredible-adventures.com/"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 26, 2001 (20:28)", "body": ""}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 26, 2001 (20:34)", "body": "These are from our over-worked and flu-fighting Neil for your aesthetic enjoyment: WHY YOU NEED AN AIRPLANE Richard Bach \"A Gift of Wings\""}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 26, 2001 (20:36)", "body": "\"If you do not yet fly, perhaps you've felt that spirit of flight when you suddenly realize that you are the only one in the street who looks up to watch an airplane fly overhead, the only one who slows and sometimes even stops at an airport to watch the little iron birds come down to earth and to lift off again into thin air. If you act this way, it's possible that in flight you'll find much to learn of yourself and of the path of your life on this planet.\" Richard Bach \"A Gift of Wings\""}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 26, 2001 (20:37)", "body": ""}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 26, 2001 (20:40)", "body": "\"Flight, to you, is a required essential tool in your mission of becoming a human being.\" Richard Bach \"A Gift of Wings\""}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  2, 2001 (18:32)", "body": "Now, for Neil's second wish from the Bottle Genie: (I want one too - or share his!) http://www-aero.meche.rpi.edu/Curriculum/TAVD/"}, {"response": 101, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Fri, Mar  9, 2001 (21:23)", "body": "Thanks for doing such a great job posting those pics and passages from my all-time favourite read, Marci! No one could have a better job than you!"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 13, 2001 (23:19)", "body": "*blush* My pleasure to accommodate you, Dear! It is not just anyone who creates a topic on Geo. Your wish is my command *Hugs*"}, {"response": 103, "author": "ThinkingManNeil", "date": "Sun, Apr  1, 2001 (13:44)", "body": ""}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (00:38)", "body": "Experimental NASA Plane Destroyed in Flight The first prototype of a revolutionary aircraft intended to shatter speed records was destroyed during its maiden flight on Saturday after a booster rocket carrying it aloft veered out of control and tumbled from the sky. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010602/sc/space_plane_dc_2.html"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 20, 2001 (19:16)", "body": "Get Well Soon, Neil!!! *Healing Hugs* SEARCH FOR CAUSE OF X-43A LAUNCH FAILURE NARROWS ------------------------------------------------ The board investigating last month's X-43A launch failure is continuing to meet at the Orbital Sciences Corp. facility where the Pegasus-derived booster rocket was built. NASA says the team has narrowed its inquiry mostly to the \"booster vehicle control arena.\" http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/20x43a/"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 20, 2001 (19:17)", "body": "SOLAR-POWERED FLYING WING AIMS FOR RECORD ALTITUDE -------------------------------------------------- The sky is black 100,000 feet above ground, and you can clearly see the curvature of the Earth. The air is so thin it is incapable of supporting life. It is also incapable of supporting sustained horizontal flight of an aircraft-until now. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/19helios/"}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 25, 2001 (14:12)", "body": "TICK TOCK TO KITTY HAWK Only 875 days, 21 hours and 13 minutes to go -- according to EAA's official \"Countdown to Kitty Hawk\" clock, unveiled yesterday at AirVenture 2001. The project -- to build a reproduction of the Wright 1903 Flyer, as historically accurate as possible -- is scheduled to culminate in the recreation of Orville and Wilbur's first flight 100 years to the minute after it was achieved, on December 17, 2003. Also yesterday, EAA officially announced that Ford Motor Company will sponsor the effort. Ken Hyde, who was commissioned to build the aircraft, said yesterday the program is two months ahead of schedule. \"I think the Wright Brothers would be proud of us,\" he said. NOTE: AVweb's image gallery features pictures from the Countdown kickoff, at . AMELIA EARHART RIDES AGAIN While much of the world's fascination with Amelia Earhart lies in her disappearance, some would rather celebrate her accomplishments. To that end, Greg Herrick, president of Historic Aviation, purchased a 1927 AVRO Avian and recruited Amelia look-alike Carlene Mendieta from Sonoma, Calif., to recreate Earhart's famed 1928 solo flight across the United States. Her round-trip journey will begin in Rye, N.Y., reach its westernmost point in Glendale, Calif., and return to New York. Mendieta is a low-time pilot with about 300 hours, but has a fascination with vintage aircraft and says she's honored to be chosen to commemorate Earhart's famous transcontinental accomplishment. NOTE: Check out AVweb's pictures of the Avian and Mendieta at , and for more information about the flight, go to . AIRVENTURE ON SPEEDVISION ... BUT FOR HOW LONG? Speedvision is running prime-time coverage of AirVenture 2001 tonight, Saturday and Sunday (check your local listings), but for Speedvision, airplanes aren't the only thing flying high -- the rumors are, too. The FOX network is now working out the details of its acquisition of the cable channel and with FOX's current love of NASCAR, fears are that cuts will come to the 30-plus percent of Speedvision's programming currently devoted to aviation. The avfaithful are circulating a petition to secure their beloved pixels, but even the Speedvision representatives here at Oshkosh seemed less than secure about the possibilities. IN-FLIGHT WEATHER FOR THE REST OF US Datalink technology may finally be approaching affordability for GA pilots. Bendix/King recently began installing flight-information stations that will enable pilots to access weather data in the cockpit for a fraction of the cost now associated with such services. According to Gary Stuteville of Honeywell, the ground-based system can uplink much faster than satellite-based systems, giving pilots a more up-to-date picture of actual conditions. Eleven ground stations are up and running, with plans to cover the entire U.S. by early 2003. Text-based weather data will be free to pilots with Bendix/King equipment, while graphical weather will be available for about $50 to $100 per month. OWN YOUR OWN LOCKHEED SPY PLANE In 1939, Sidney Cotton flew sorties to gather information for countries that would one day be locked in war with Germany and Italy. The remarkable thing about Cotton's intelligence-gathering was that he did it blatantly, often right under the nose of the enemy. As the war drew near, Cotton spirited his Lockheed L-12 back to England, but this week, it's at Oshkosh. This is one piece of history that can be yours, if the price is right. Owner Steve Oliver is accepting offers on N12EJ, the oldest L-12 still flying. Take a look, give Oliver a call, and you can be the one to fly this extremely rare bird to OSH next year! NOTE: At you can find out more about the L-12, and you can see it in AVweb's image gallery at . CHECK OUT AVWEB'S COMPLETE COVERAGE: OSHflash is AVweb's daily summary of the all the news and events at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2001. For more on the sights, sounds and goings-on, including AVweb's exclusive RealAudio programming and one-of-a-kind image galleries, be sure to check out AVweb's EAA AirVenture 2001 Web site:"}, {"response": 108, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Jul 25, 2001 (19:47)", "body": "I don't know if I should put this here but the shuttle entered the atmosphere over us again last night. What a noise. I really enjoyed the cockpit shot with the pilot lining up over the approach lights while coming into the base.He handles that big glider beautifuly."}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 25, 2001 (20:45)", "body": "It was a magnificent landing, and what better place to put it than here. I have such respect for those who can thread needles (or black pinholes) with a ship of that size and weight. Thanks, Lucie. I wish I had been able to see it, as well."}, {"response": 110, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Jul 25, 2001 (22:27)", "body": "Michael reall respects the pilots abilities since he is a glider pilot himself. He says there is no greater sense of freedom than when you are up there alone just gliding slowly back to earth."}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 26, 2001 (00:49)", "body": "So I have heard - listening to the silence... How magnificent it must be! In fact, I have not heard of one negative glider experience, and I have heard a bunch."}, {"response": 112, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Thu, Jul 26, 2001 (19:44)", "body": "He started out skydiving. He did some of that when he was a forest fire fighter. I was so glad when he got out of that"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 27, 2001 (15:49)", "body": "Smoke jumper? Your men live exciting lives. I am sure your cuticles are in much better condition now that he has gotten out of that valuable service. They are doing it even as we speak in Washington State"}, {"response": 114, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Fri, Jul 27, 2001 (20:26)", "body": "Believe me I have slept a lot better these past few years since he got out of forest fire fighting."}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 27, 2001 (20:35)", "body": "Neil, Get better - we miss you! AVweb's Top Stories From AirVenture 2001: SMA: FLYING TO THE BEAT OF A DIFFERENT DRUMMER... \"The gasoline engine is dead, it just doesn't know it yet.\" SMA test pilot Peter Peirport's vision of the future would be grim, if he weren't pushing the latest alternative-engine solution. The idea goes something like this: Piston power with 30-percent fewer parts, turbo-assist, a 30- percent reduction in operating expense, less vibration and less noise, with increased reliability and single-lever operation ... burning Jet A fuel. Crazy, right? Well, the European-certified (as of April 20) SMA SR 305 engine is meant to prove otherwise. Pierport flew to OSH behind the powerplant in a modified Cessna 182, and while the statistics from his low-altitude trip were impressive, the nine-gallon-per-hour fuel burn was about 30 percent higher than the engine's high-altitude goal. But if the ads are true (and when aren't they?), this engine will produce 60-percent power at 25,000 feet and fly for 3,000 hours before recommended overhaul. ...LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT BAND... Though the engine is certified in Europe, its optimal installation is a work in progress. The engine tends to run hot, and when compared to, say, an IO-540, the SMA engine needs about four times the airflow -- which made for an interesting cowling on the 182 and may cause some extra cooling drag ... down low, anyway. Regardless, spewing gloom and doom for the future of 100LL, which it says will be removed from the market within 10 years, SMA sees a strong and growing worldwide demand for its engines. The demise of 100LL is one thing, but with fuel prices on the rise and worldwide availability on the decline, even U.S. manufacturers Maule and Cirrus are taking more than a casual look at using the powerplant. Both companies have 30 engines on order, with plans to develop a high-altitude cruiser if the market demand is found (abroad or here). In most other parts of the world, interest in the project is as high as their astronomical avgas prices. ...AND PACKING A ROYAL FLUSH SMA's train of financial and technological backers offering support to this engine reads like a who's who of European aviation. Even if the product is destined to suffer years of refinement from its current configuration, it's not likely to go away until it works. Everyone from government agencies to Airbus to Renault Sport and beyond are involved, at least to some degree. Aware that the program cannot be fully unleashed until a support system is in place, SMA is currently working to establish that network and keep development close to home. However, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is taking a front seat in U.S. support development. ERAU is acting as a technological test center for the engine's installation and maintenance and may announce official partnership on some level in the very near future. CASPA KEEPS 'EM COMING -- AIRSHOW CHALLENGE ROCKS THE HOUSE... For the third year, aviation buffs at EAA AirVenture were treated to a little rock 'n roll, airshow-style, with the Championship Air Show Pilots Association (CASPA) Challenge. Wednesday and yesterday, five of the sharpest pilots in the business did their dead-level best to outshine the others before a panel of decidedly green judges instructed to choose not the most technical or proficient, but the most exciting. The judges, including an occupational therapist, a newstalk radio host and several other media types, got to sit ringside on what seemed to be their own personal airshow. Pilots Mike Goulian, Greg Poe, Gene Soucy, Sean D. Tucker, and Matt Chapman were given three minutes in Thursday's beautiful blue Oshkosh sky to swing, snap and otherwise sway the judges into advancing them to the next round. The gyroscopics of Tucker, Chapman, Goulian and Poe pushed them into the \"Challenge Round,\" a testosterone-filled four minutes featuring head-to-head flying, with two pilots in the air at once -- separated by 500 feet of sky. ...AS PILOTS DUEL FOR THE GOLD Survivors Tucker and Goulian made it to the final-round face-off, reminiscent of the gunfight at the OK Corral. The pilots sat in their planes idling back to back on the Oshkosh runway awaiting the signal from Chief Steward Clint McHenry. On his mark, throttles jammed forward, engines growled and props bit at the sky as two of the sport's best fairly screamed at the judges to \"Watch me!\" Four exhausting minutes later, Sean D. Tucker had returned as the winner and still champ, acing his third straight AirVenture CASPA win. After greeting Goulian with a sportsmanlike handshake and hug, Tucker walked to the stand to pick up his trophy, pumping his fist into the air and accepting congratulations and hugs. \"I LOVE this show,\" he repeated several times to no one in particular. We love this show, too, Sean. You and the other CASPA champs give us one more reason to continue to look skyward. NOTE: To read about the CASPA Challenge's beginning, go to . And check "}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  3, 2001 (23:53)", "body": "X-Planes Part One: No. 1 through 15 Experimental aircraft have gone by many letters and names, but none have captured the public's imagination through the decades like the \"X\" planes. And many \"X\" planes have either been a part of, or made significant contributions to, the space program. Here we begin a roll call of the historic vehicles. http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  3, 2001 (23:55)", "body": "I spoke to Neil last evening. He has been one sick guy! He is mending, though. So be patient, he shall return! *Hugs*"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 15, 2001 (18:55)", "body": "NASA Science News for August 15, 2001 The advanced space ships of tomorrow will be crafted from far-out materials with extraordinary resistance to the harsh environment of space. An experiment strapped to the outside of the ISS aims to put such materials through their paces. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast15aug_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  9, 2001 (15:04)", "body": "WHO WAS THE FIRST WOMAN TO BREAK THE SOUND BARRIER, AND IN WHAT YEAR? Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, but Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to accomplish the feat on May 18, 1953. After landing the F-86 Sabre, Cochran found out that the control tower had missed recording the flight. An hour later, she was back in the air to break the sound barrier again for the record. WHAT WAS THE GREATEST NUMBER OF PLANES EVER SHOT DOWN IN A SINGLE DAY BY A U.S. PILOT? Nine Japanese planes were shot down on October 24, 1944, by U.S. Navy pilot David McCampbell. In six months of combat, McCampbell became the Navy\ufffds \"Ace of Aces\" and one of only two Navy pilots awarded the Medal of Honor for air-to-air combat. WHO WAS THE FIRST WOMAN TO COMPLETE EARHART'S ROUTE? In 1964, Geraldine Mock was the first woman to successfully complete Earhart's round-the-world route. WHAT BECAME OF AMELIA EARHART AND HER COPILOT? In 1937, Earhart attempted with a copilot, Frederick J. Noonan, to fly around the world, but her plane was lost on the flight between New Guinea and Howland Island. In 1992, a search party reported finding remnants of Earhart's plane on Nikumaroro (formerly Gardner Island), Kiribati, but their claims were disputed by people who worked on Earhart's plane, and her fate remains a mystery."}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan  5, 2002 (22:26)", "body": "January 5 7:20 PM ET Small Plane Crashes Into Building in Tampa, Fla. By Robert Green TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - A small private plane piloted by a teenager crashed into an office high-rise in downtown Tampa late on Saturday afternoon after taking off from a nearby airport without clearance and then ignoring Coast Guard signals to land, officials said. Capt. Bill Wade of the Tampa Fire Department said there was no word yet of casualties from the aircraft, a four-seater, but he said no one was hurt in the building or on the ground. Jan 5, 2002 Small Plane Crashes in Mountain Area of Eastern Puerto Rico;at Least Five Killed The Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - A small plane crashed in fog and rain Saturday in northeastern Puerto Rico, killing at least five people on board, including an infant, authorities said. The 12-seater smashed into a remote, rocky area near the Rio Grande, some 22 miles east of San Juan, said Oscar Sotomayor, acting operations director of the State Agency for Emergency Management. January 5 7:28 PM ET Small Plane Crashes Near Fullerton, Calif. LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A small plane crashed early on Saturday afternoon into a vacant lot near the airport in Fullerton, California, killing at least one person, a Federal Aviation Administration employee told Reuters. At 12:59 PDT, the small, private plane crashed about three-fourths of a mile southwest of the Fullerton airport, said Jim Meloon, an FAA operations officer in Los Angeles. MSNBC is carrying headlines about a small place crash outside of Boulder, Colorado. More news as I find it."}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  5, 2002 (18:48)", "body": "WINGED ROCKET TO LAUNCH FROM CARRIER JET TODAY ---------------------------------------------- An air-launch Pegasus rocket will be dropped from the belly of an L-1011 jetliner off the coast of Central Florida at 3:26 p.m. EST (2026 GMT) today to carry NASA's HESSI satellite into space. We'll have complete live coverage: http://spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/hessi/status.html See a chart of launch events: http://spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/hessi/020203ascenttimeline.html"}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 16, 2002 (20:32)", "body": "All too rarely, airline attendants make an effort to make the in-flight \"safety lecture\" and their other announcements a bit more entertaining. Here are some real examples that have been heard or reported: (they saved the best for last so read them all!!) ***** On a Continental Flight with a very \"senior\" flight attendant crew, the pilot said, \"Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants.\" ****** On landing the stewardess said, \"Please be sure to take all your belongings. If you're going to leave anything, please make sure it's something we'd like to have.\" ***** \"There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane.\" ****** \"Thank you for flying Delta Business Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride.\" ****** As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Washington National, a lone voice came over the loudspeaker: \"Whoa, big fella. WHOA!\" ****** After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in Memphis, a flight attendant on a Northwest flight announced, \"Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted.\" ****** \"In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with more than one small child ... pick your favorite.\" ****** \"Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Southwest Airlines.\" ****** And from the pilot during his welcome message: \"Delta Airlines is pleased to have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!\" ****** Heard on Southwest Airlines just after a very hard landing in Salt Lake City: The flight attendant came on the intercom and said, \"That was quite a bump, and I know what y'all are thinking. I'm here to tell you it wasn't the airline's fault, it wasn't the pilot's fault, it wasn't the flight attendant's fault...it was the asphalt!\" ****** Another flight attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing: \"We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal.\" ****** Part of a flight attendant's arrival announcement: \"We'd like to thank you folks for flying with us today. And, the next time you get the insane urge to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you'll think of US Airways.\" ****** A plane was taking off from Kennedy Airport. After it reached a comfortable cruising altitude, the captain made an announcement over the intercom, \"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Flight Number 293, nonstop from New York to Los Angeles. The weather ahead is good and, therefore, we should have a smooth and uneventful flight. Now, sit back and relax - OH, MY GOD!\" Silence followed and after a few minutes, the captain came back on the intercom and said, \"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am so sorry if I scared you earlier; but, while I was talking, the flight attendant brought me a cup of coffee and spilled the hot coffee in my lap. You should see the front of my pants!\" A passenger in Coach said, \"That's nothing. He should see the back of mine!"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (17:21)", "body": "I had only a vague idea of Jimmy Stewart's flying, but it goes something like this: In the 1940's, he was making movies, and had enough money to take flight instruction and buy his own plane. He even earned a commercial pilot license. In spring of 1941 (so before Pearl Harbor), he joined the Army Air Force. They thought he would be good as a publicity person; but they found what a good pilot he was, and he insisted on being a pilot. He took flight instruction, and gained experience for 4-engined aircraft. He then flew B-17's and B-24's. For the first year, he became a flight instructor and bombardier instructor. After that, he was moved to England. He flew 20 missions in B-24's; not just as pilot, but also as Wing Commander and later even as Division Commander with the rank of Colonel. He stayed in the Air National Guard until 1978 (or was it 1987), and retired from the Air Guard as Brigadier General. When I read all this, it gives special meaning to his role as Charles Lindbergh and his roles in \"Strategic Air Command\", \"Flight of the Phoenix\", etc. Some movie star!"}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (17:22)", "body": "The above Jimmy Stewart material comes with thanks from HFL. *Hugs*"}, {"response": 125, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (17:46)", "body": "Thanks for sharing Marcia - puts modern movie stars to shame."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (19:32)", "body": "You're right about that EsBee. The great movies stars make the modern ones seem like the spoiled over-paid children they really are. They don't make them like they used to *sigh* Glenn Ford was a Captain in the US Navy and I think Martha Raye was pretty high up in the ranks of one of the women's armed forces. I really enjoyed reading that."}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (00:57)", "body": "Could enemy aircraft really hide behind a wind turbine? http://www.newscientist.com/exc/enews.jsp?id=ns99992207"}, {"response": 128, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (18:30)", "body": "Wasn't Glen Ford born in Canada? I'm not doubting that he was in the US Navy, but I recall reading somewhere that he was born in Canada. As for Jimmy Stewart. I share something in common with him. Like him, I am a native born Pennsylvanian. Mr. Stewart was born and grew up in Indiana, PA. His father, Alexander Stewart, owned a hardware store there."}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (19:32)", "body": "Glenn Ford Vital Stats: Birth Name: Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford Born: May 1, 1916 Birth Place: Quebec, Ontario, Canada Nationality: Canadian The museum of James Stewart my informant visited was in Indiana, PA and he was kind enough to include several photos he took there. I will try to post a few!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (17:45)", "body": "Thanks, Marcia."}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 28, 2002 (18:16)", "body": "* Dozens killed at Ukraine air show * At least 78 people are killed in western Ukraine when a jet crashes into crowds, in what is the world's worst air show disaster. Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_2155000/2155479.stm"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (19:58)", "body": "* Hypersonic jet launch raises hopes * Scientists carry out what could be the first successful atmospheric test flight of a jet that flies at seven times the speed of sound. Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/2160502.stm"}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 24, 2005 (20:38)", "body": "Flying Rules Yea though I Fly Through the Valley of Death, I Shall Fear No Evil For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing! (Sign over the entrance to the old SR-71 operating base, Kadena, Japan) -------------------------------------------- You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3. (Paul F Crickmore - test pilot) ------------------------------------------- The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire. -------------------------------------------- Blue water Navy truism: There are more planes in the ocean than submarines in the sky. (From an old carrier sailor) -------------------------------------------- If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter -- and therefore, unsafe. -------------------------------------------- When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane, you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash. -------------------------------------------- What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; If ATC screws up, the pilot dies. -------------------------------------------- Never trade luck for skill. -------------------------------------------- The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are \"Why is it doing that?\" \"Where are we?\" and \"Oh Sh*t!\" -------------------------------------------- Weather forecasts are horoscopes with numbers. -------------------------------------------- Progress in airline flying: now a flight attendant can get a pilot pregnant. -------------------------------------------- Airspeed, altitude and brains: Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight. -------------------------------------------- A smooth landing is mostly luck; two in a row is all luck; three in a row is prevarication. -------------------------------------------- I remember when sex was safe and flying was dangerous. -------------------------------------------- Humankind has a perfect record in aviation. We never left one up there! -------------------------------------------- Flashlights are tubular metal containers kept in a flight bag for the purpose of storing dead batteries. -------------------------------------------- Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it. -------------------------------------------- When a flight is proceeding incredibly well, something was forgotten. -------------------------------------------- Just remember, if you crash because of weather, your funeral will be held on a sunny day. -------------------------------------------- Advice given to RAF pilots during WWII when a prang (crash) seems inevitable, endeavor to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity as slow and gently as possible. -------------------------------------------- The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you. (Attributed to Max Stanley, Northrop test pilot) -------------------------------------------- A pilot who doesn't have any fear probably isn't flying his plane to its maximum. (Jon McBride, astronaut) -------------------------------------------- If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible. (Bob Hoover - renowned aerobatic and test pilot) -------------------------------------------- If an airplane is still in one piece, don't cheat on it! Ride the bastard down! (Ernest K Gann, author & aviator) -------------------------------------------- Never fly in the same cockpit with someone braver than you. -------------------------------------------- There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime. (Sign over squadron ops desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, 1970) -------------------------------------------- What is the purpose of the propeller? The purpose of the propeller is to keep the pilot cool. You don't believe that? If the propeller stops, watch how the pilot starts to sweat. -------------------------------------------- The two best things in life are a good landing and a good bowel movement. The night carrier landing is one of the few opportunities in life where you get to experience both at the same time. (Author unknown, but surely someone who's been there) -------------------------------------------- If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to. -------------------------------------------- Basic Flying Rules: Try to stay in the middle of the air, do not go near the edges of it The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space it is much more difficult to fly there. -------------------------------------------- You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the terminal"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 24, 2005 (16:48)", "body": "Thanksgiving Skies Thanksgiving is the biggest travel holiday of the year in the United States. If you find yourself on an airplane, look out the window. There are some strange things out there.... FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/22nov_thanksgivingskies.htm?list818205 The Science@NASA Podcast feed is available at http://science.nasa.gov/podcast.xml . Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 43, "subject": "formation of precious and metal stones", "response_count": 7, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 20, 2000 (14:17)", "body": "Welcome to my conference, Arlette. Please let me know somthing about you... You may wish to check Geo 8 before continuing. Alas, my volcanoes do not produce blue clay nor anything more aesthetic than olivines, the non-gem form of Peridot. They are pretty , and a whole beach of glistening green jewels is lovely, but not vauable in the monetary sense,"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:57)", "body": "NPR reported earlier that the Taliban had called a news conference for \"tonight,\" topic unknown. The Reuters story on Masood: LONDON (Reuters) - Jane's Intelligence Review quoted ''intelligence sources'' on Tuesday as saying Ahmad Shah Masood, the main guerrilla enemy of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement, was assassinated in a suicide bombing. Uncertainty surrounds the fate of Masood, 48, who was the target of an assassination attempt in northern Afghanistan on Sunday by two Arab suicide bombers posing as journalists. Jane's, citing intelligence sources, said Masood died within minutes of the blast at his Khwaja Bahauddin headquarters on the Tajikistan border. It said one of the bombers detonated a bomb concealed in a video camera. ``The assassins are understood to have been Algerians affiliated to the al-Qaeda organization of indicted Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, a major supporter and financier of the Afghan Taliban,'' Jane's said on its Web site. Jane's said the two bombers reportedly traveled from Europe and had claimed that they worked for an organization called ''Arab News International.'' It said associates of Masood had undertaken a ``desperate cover-up effort'' by insisting he had only been wounded. Also, NPR is now saying that the section of the Pentagon that was hit had been recently renovated and was largely unoccupied when the plane hit this morning."}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:19)", "body": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Terrorists struck the United States Tuesday morning in harrowing, widespread attacks that included at least three commercial jet crashes into significant buildings. \ufffd In the first attack, a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan shortly before 9 a.m., followed by another plane into the second tower about 20 minutes later. Both towers later collapsed. \ufffd About an hour later, a plane crashed into the Pentagon, part of which later collapsed. \ufffd American Airlines told CNN that it lost two planes in \"tragic accidents:\" Flight 11 from Boston with 81 passengers and 11 crew aboard and Flight 77 from Washington Dulles airport with 58 passengers and six crew aboard. Both planes were en route to Los Angeles \ufffd United Airlines Flight 93 airliner headed from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, crashed near Somerset, Pennsylvania -- police said initial reports indicated no survivors. United also confirmed the crash of Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles. \ufffd The Pentagon, the White House, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Capitol, the CIA and all other government buildings in Washington evacuated. \ufffd President Bush cancelled an appearance in Florida to return to Washington, calling the crashes \"apparent terrorist attacks\" and \"a national tragedy.\" \ufffd In the first ever national ground stop of aircraft, all flights nationwide have been stopped at their departure airports. \ufffd All international flights were diverted to Canada. \ufffd Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, said in reaction to the news of the terror attacks that \"we want to tell the American children that Afghanistan feels your pain and we hope that the courts find justice.\" \ufffd In New York, more than 10,000 rescue personnel rushed to the scene. The entire downtown area of Manhattan was evacuated as far north as Rockefeller Center, according to an official at an emergency command post. \ufffd Israel has evacuated all its missions around the world. \ufffd The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta was evacuated. CDC was preparing bioterrorism teams in case they become necessary. \ufffd Philadelphia landmarks were also evacuated. \ufffd In Chicago, the Sears Tower was evacuated; United Nations in New York evacuated. \ufffd The New York Port Authority said it had closed all bridges and tunnels into the city. \ufffd U.S. stock markets were closed after the New York attacks. \ufffd NATO sent home all non-essential personnel from its Brussels, Belgium, headquarters. \ufffd The Immigration and Naturalization Service has put the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada on highest state of alert. \ufffd Los Angeles International Airport has been evacuated. \ufffd Disney World in Orlando, Florida, has been closed."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:36)", "body": "They are shutting down railways now... National Monuments in cities such as Philadelphia and Honolulu evacuated. They say it looks like a war zona. Guess what, gang, it IS a war zone!!!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:55)", "body": "STARBULLETIN.COM BREAKING NEWS : Posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 - 6:13:09 AM HST MAINLAND TERRORIST ATTACKS AFFECT HAWAII Authorities closed Honolulu Airport and Mayor Jeremy Harris activated the Oahu Civil Defense command center and put emergency crews on alert in the wake of terrorist attacks on the mainland. State airports official Earl Hashitate said that all flights out . . . Full story at http://starbulletin.com/database/breaking/ Complete Hawaii coverage later at http://starbulletin.com"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (15:30)", "body": "testing."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (16:07)", "body": "Sikander, this is where I will post how to make sapphires on your lava flows. I find that fascinating. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 44, "subject": "~*~UPDATING Weather and Other MAPS~*~", "response_count": 11, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  2, 2001 (20:22)", "body": "NEXRAD WEATHER MAP FOR THE UNITEE STATES AND TERRITORIES http://www.wunderground.com/data/nids/USNIDSMap_current.gif"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  2, 2001 (20:57)", "body": "C A N A D A"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  2, 2001 (21:05)", "body": "T H E A T L A N T I C"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  2, 2001 (21:07)", "body": ""}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  2, 2001 (21:13)", "body": ""}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  2, 2001 (21:19)", "body": ""}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  2, 2001 (21:33)", "body": ""}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 14, 2001 (01:10)", "body": "Updating Aurora Map http://www.dan.sp-agency.ca/www/globe/GLOBE.GIF"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 14, 2001 (01:25)", "body": ""}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 14, 2001 (01:27)", "body": ""}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 14, 2001 (01:42)", "body": "Updating Aurora Map http://solar.spacew.com Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 45, "subject": "Earth Medicine", "response_count": 37, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  4, 2001 (18:48)", "body": "Welcome Gary! I am really looking forward to this discussion. I am going to do some advertising in a few other places so people know you are here! Welcome. E Komo Mai and Aloha!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MaleNurse", "date": "Sun, Mar  4, 2001 (19:10)", "body": "Thank you for having me Marci, and I look forward to getting this topic up and running. Might be under construction for a fer days as I'm at work right now, but we will get there. Gary"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  4, 2001 (19:18)", "body": "What do you recommend for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome other than turning off my computer and resting ???"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  4, 2001 (19:33)", "body": "Seriously, I am eager for you to set the topic in motion. Please don't use this topic to ask him how to cure your ills. I think that is NOT what he had in mind. Gary, You honor us with your precious time and presence! Again, E Komo Mai (Welcome!)"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 24, 2001 (13:30)", "body": ""}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 25, 2001 (14:54)", "body": "Gary wherefore art thou? I messed up and posted something for Neil in your topic. I guess I blew out the dust, at least. What did you have in mind for this topic? Perhaps I can get it rolling if only I knew!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (01:54)", "body": "OK, here's a thought to get us going .... What is health? In our western concept we usually consider health in purpely physical terms and feel affronted when we get sick and want a quick fix. Many cultures have a much broader view than that and I think that's one reason why people in our cultures are seeking knowledge from them. I think more research needs to be done on plants and other 'natural' remedies that are known in other societies. We need to respect and learn form that knowledge."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (16:32)", "body": "We need to look in the rainforests and native lore too. Especially, before we destroy them all so we can have more hambugers from McDonalds to clog our arteries! Maggie, I am still trying to get online when you are. Yahoo is not cooperating!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (16:42)", "body": "I hear you ... try MSN messenger then ...."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 11, 2001 (16:39)", "body": "Get Better Soon, Maggie! *HUGS* Medicine men threaten court action over traditional cures African medicine men are taking European scientists to court to stop them \"stealing\" their traditional cures. Healers from Zimbabwe have teamed up with others in Ghana, Nigeria and Rwanda to protect 10,000 native treatments including toad secretions. They are demanding a share in any of the profits made by the drug companies now planning to exploit them. The move comes after Lausanne University announced its plan to market the snake tree bean bark lotion as a cure for athletes foot. According to the Daily Record one healer, Wimbiru Mhofu, said: \"I was born using this and the Europeans stole it.\" The Swiss university has now frozen talks with the healers while they look at the patent. Last updated: 10:50 Friday 8th June 2001 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_320564.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery"}, {"response": 11, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (15:30)", "body": "testing."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (16:02)", "body": "I have much to post here thanks to Don and his folk studies. Lots of herbs out there used by pioneer settlers in the US which are still valuable. More to come soon!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Aug 12, 2002 (22:28)", "body": "Brain's 'cheat detector' is revealed 22:00 12 August 02 Part of the human brain is dedicated to detecting cheats, say evolutionary psychologists, after a study with a brain-damaged man. \"We think it develops in all normal individuals, and that it develops in part because our brains were selected to develop this competence,\" says John Tooby at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Tooby and his colleagues studied a man who suffered accidental damage to the limbic system, a brain region involved in processing emotional and social information. RM, as he is referred to, performed as well as other people on one set of reasoning problems, did much worse on problems specifically designed to test reasoning about social exchanges. At its simplest, social exchange runs along the lines of \"you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours\". Previous work has shown that people, and some animals, are extremely good at keeping a check of who owes who within a group - and at spotting and punishing cheaters. Researchers had proposed that general reasoning abilities could account for this. But RM's deficit suggests that detecting social cheaters depends on specialised neural circuitry, the team says. Their conclusion is \"robust,\" says Nigel Nicholson, an evolutionary psychologist and director of the Centre for Organisational Research the London Business School. \"It's essential we have trusting relationships with people in communities where we are highly interdependent for survival and reproduction. Cheat detection is very important,\" he adds. Source: NewScientist.com news service John"}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug 12, 2002 (23:02)", "body": "yup-that makes sense since the limbic system is responsible for our survival. interesting!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (00:06)", "body": "OH NEAT!!! John, you are a wizard of the first order. Thanks for finding something for this languishing topic."}, {"response": 16, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (06:56)", "body": "Personalised 'brain music' helps sleep Having trouble sleeping? Maybe a little music will help you sleep. But what Canadian researchers are proposing is not a blast of your favourite pop singer, or a relaxing piece of classical music, but individually tailored \"brain music\". The therapy has been developed to help insomniacs. A team at the University of Toronto has created music, which matches a person's brain waves. When that particular piece of music is played, people's anxiety levels seem to fall, and they are able to relax and sleep. To create the music, researchers study the specific rhythmic and tonal patterns which create a meditative condition in an individual. They then use a special computer programme developed by the researchers, who include music therapists, then selects unique \"healing\" music which creates those same brain wave patterns when the person is trying to sleep. The researchers say that the brain music appears to reduce some of the psychosomatic symptoms like anxiety - but, unlike some drug treatments for insomnia, it does not have the potential to cause the patient to become dependent on the therapy. Music therapy The team recently carried out a study, which found brain music reduced anxiety and improved sleep in people who had suffered from insomnia for at least two years. Ten listened to individually tailored brain music. Eight more listened to music which had not been specially designed for them. Both groups experienced less anxiety after listening to the music over a four-week period, But the effect was more pronounced in the group which listened to the personalised music. The findings were presented to the Associated Professional Sleep Societies' meeting in Seattle, Washington. Leonard Kayumov, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, said: \"Brain music therapy, because of its more favourable side-effect profile, may represent a possible alternative for therapeutic management of insomnia and anxiety. \"From ancient times through to the present, philosophers, historians and scientists have written and spoken of music as therapeutic agent.\" Source: BBC NEWS Saturday, 17 August, 2002, 06:43 GMT"}, {"response": 17, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (06:57)", "body": ""}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (17:02)", "body": "Perhaps THIS is what I need !!! Either that or a much less \"exciting\" life. Thanks, John. This is very interesting. I find running around outdoors does it for me. I sleep much better after a lively fossil hunt. See Geo 7 for most recent additions to my collection."}, {"response": 19, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (01:19)", "body": "Caffeine clue to fighting cancer Chocolate, cola and coffee could form the basis of new anti-cancer drugs, scientists believe. Researchers in the UK have found that caffeine and theophylline may be effective in fighting cancer tumours. Both compounds are found in a range of foods and drinks, including coffee, tea, chocolate and cola. According to scientists at University College London, the compounds target an enzyme which helps play a role in the survival and movement of cells. The scientists genetically engineered insect cells to produce this enzyme, which is called p110 delta. In laboratory tests, they found that caffeine and theophylline both blocked a key biochemical process crucial to the functioning of the enzyme. New treatments Professor Peter Shepherd said the findings could pave the way for new treatments for cancer. But he warned that research is in its early stages and that the study did not mean people should consume more caffeine in an effort to protect against cancer. \"We are not saying that drinking lots of coffee will cure cancer but what we have found is a new and novel compound of caffeine,\" he told the BBC. \"We are saying there are potential good points inside the molecular structure of caffeine that can be taken advantage of but unfortunately for us at the moment the side effects of caffeine mean we couldn't use the caffeine itself as a drug itself as it stands at the moment.\" He added: \"We are hoping to take this forward now and hopefully in five to seven years it could lead to a new class of drugs.\" The study is published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Source: BBC NEWS"}, {"response": 20, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (02:14)", "body": "ASPIRIN A pill with a long history No other drug has demonstrated so many useful properties as aspirin has. It soothes pain and inflammations of all kinds, it helps with rheumatism and migraine headaches and hinders heart attacks. Now, recent scientific research is showing that the \"drug for all ills\" is beneficent even in the battle against cancer. Even by the 5th century BC, Hippocrates, the father of Medicine, had been prescribing a concoction of willow bark to patients as an antipyretic and analgesic. Within its matter, unbeknownst to the great Hellenic doctor, the active agent was acetylsalicylic acid, the main constituent of today's aspirin. In 1859, the German chemist Hermann Kolbe discovered the antiseptic properties of salicylic acid which he succeeded in synthesizing from phenol. The flavor of the compound, however, was especially repugnant. The main event in the birth of aspirin took place several years later when the laboratories of the Bayer chemical company succeeded in synthesizing acetylsalicylic acid from molecules of acetic acid. The preparation \"had a tolerable flavor and did not hurt the stomach\" as noted by the company's senior pharmacist. Two years later, the patent for aspirin was granted by Kaizer's patent office. The global consumption of acetylsalicylic acid today reaches 40 thousand tons per annum. This is either in pure form or in conjuction with other analgesics, vitamin C, hypnotics or caffeine. The world's largest producer still remains Bayer whose annual revenues from sales of the drug is in excess of half a billion dollars. Many important properties of aspirin, however, have only been identified and tested as recently as twenty years ago. To begin with, the drug functions as an analgesic and antipyretic because it contains arachidonic acid within its structure which blocks the body chemicals which cause pain or fever. As a basic constituent of cell membranes, arachidonic acid keeps the cells flexible. Without it, our body would be rigid as wax. When a cell suffers from inflammation, the arachidonic acid is converted to prostaglandins which in turn irritate the nearby nerve endings thus causing pain. They also help raise the thermostat of the organism at the center of the brain thus causing systemic fever. Aspirin prevents the conversion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandins. For their discovery of this biochemical mechanism, John Vane, together with sun Bergstrem and Bengt Samuelson, got the Nobel Price in 1982. Aspirin's other well known application is against migraine headaches. In this case, however, the scientists are less able to explain the precise mechanism. The only sure thing for the moment is empirical: aspirin is effective where other drugs have failed except for morphine which still remains the most powerful analgesic available. Many people suffering from migraines take one or more aspirins and yet \"the hammering in their heads does not stop\". This is due to the fact that the active ingredients of aspirin which should normally be absorbed by the small intestine remain unused in the stomach. If aspirin is ingested in bubbling pills, then the active ingredients reach the small intestine directly. For even more drastic results, an injection of acetylsalicylic acid is the most effective form of administration. Those, however, who take aspirin on a regular basis because of migraine headaches must be extra careful since they run the danger of becoming addicts. People withdrawing from aspirin may experience tachycardia, dizziness or feeling unwell, while the headaches reappear in more intense form. This makes for a vicious circle since the patient is obliged to increase the dosage continuously. Another exceptional effect of the miraculous drug is that it prevents blood thrombosis. Even though for many years doctors had been cautious about this particular property, more than 200 scientific studies based on data from more than 100 thousand patients over several decades, have led to the firm conclusion that aspirin indeed prevents the formation of blood clots in the blood stream which may obstruct or block arteries and lead to heart attacks, one of the main causes of death in our century. The most recent news about aspirin have to do with its role in the fight against cancer. The American Cancer Society has monitored the effects of acetylsalicylic acid on more than 600 thousand volunteers suffering from cancer over a period of 6 years. Those who took the drug for more than 16 months have demonstrated a 40% decrease in the rate of death from malignant tumors of the small intestine. In fact, the scientists do not yet know much about the probable connection between the ingestion of aspirin and the prevention of cancer of the small intestine. This is to be expected, since the actual causes of the lethal disease remain unknown. What can be said, as stated by senior researcher Dr. Michael Toone, is that \"aspirin seems to make a stand\" against the illness. So then, if the experie"}, {"response": 21, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (11:29)", "body": "John, thanks for the article on aspirin. I didn't know of its many applications. I just know a few things about aspirin. One is that white willow bark was used by the Egyptians. Another is that aspirin is chemically very similar to LSD. Lastly, the name \"aspirin\" was not originally a generic term, but rather a specific brand name exclusive to the Bayer Company. The loss to Bayer for using \"Aspirin\" exclusively was one of the conditions imposed on Germany at the conclusion of WWI by the Treaty of Versailles."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (00:21)", "body": "A drug like aspirin is said to have been used in ancient Greece. More than two-thousand-four-hundred years ago, Hippocrates told his patients to ease pain by chewing the outer covering of the willow tree. The covering, called bark, contains the chemical salicylic acid. Much MUCH more... http://www.manythings.org/reading/020129sn_t.htm Fascinating insight, John and Cheryl. Many thanks. My dad planted Spirea bushes around my childhood home and told me the got aspirin from them. I was never told how, though. I had to find that out for myself."}, {"response": 23, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (05:23)", "body": "Hi Cheryl and Marcia I am trying to write useful things for all of us. I hope that I can help people in its everyday life. Marcia teaches us on it. I believe that Marcia\ufffds creation \ufffdGeo\ufffd is on the top for this reason. I am doing about the same with my way. Who care for what was ancient Greece or the ancient Egypt today? I hate history because is an untouchable past but I respect it because history is repeating itself even if with a new face each time. Have you found the way Marcia? John"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (17:46)", "body": "I have only learned from what I have been taught - either by others or by myself building on the foundation of whatI learned previously by listening and reading. I have no secret to learning. We each have the things which interest us. My interests just seem to be broader than most. History can teach us much and help avoid making the same mistakes. Much of our folk medicine comes to us as history."}, {"response": 25, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Aug 30, 2002 (02:18)", "body": "How the brain forgets (Memory tends to worsen with age) Scientists have found a molecule that may be to blame for loss of memory as we get older. It raises the tempting prospect of new therapies to restore memory. The brain has a limited capacity and like many other organs in the body seems to have to be balanced Professor Isabelle Mansuy The enzyme helps the brain delete unwanted information. But a team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich believe it may become too active as we get older. The researchers carried out tests on mice that showed those animals with low levels of the enzyme, called protein phosphatase-1 (PP1), were less likely to forget what they had learned. It appears that PP1 actively suppresses memories in mice, both during and after a learning exercise. And as the mice get older, the level of PP1 increases. When the scientists blocked the action of PP1 the mice recovered their full learning and memory abilities. Natural filter Researcher Professor Isabelle Mansuy told the BBC: \"The brain has a limited capacity and like many other organs in the body seems to have to be balanced. \"So there are positive processes which help us remember things and store information, and there are negative processes which help us to sort existing information. \"It is a kind of filter to avoid saturation of the brain. Except it is not selective, so there is a lot of information that we would like to keep that we end up forgetting.\" Professor Mansuy said it was possible that the finding could be used to develop new therapies to help elderly people recover some of their ability to remember things. However, she said such therapies were a long way off. The research is published in the journal Nature. Source: BBC NEWS Thursday, 29 August, 2002, 10:48 GMT John"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 30, 2002 (19:29)", "body": "What I have discovered at my \"advanced\" age is that using your memory is the best way to keep it. Each time you remember things, they become easier to recall. You MUST keep your mind active and creative!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Sep  3, 2002 (07:18)", "body": "Flu hits ten times as many By JUDY SKATSSOON ( http://worldscientist.com/ ) 03Sep02 TEN times as many people were struck down by the flu during the peak of winter this year as at the same time last year, national figures reveal. The National Influenza Surveillance Report 2002 recorded 798 laboratory-confirmed cases of flu in July compared to 81 in the same month last year. A total of 1342 cases of influenza were recorded between May and July compared to 116 for the same period in 2001. The statistics, from the Communicable Diseases Network Australia show 2002 was a bumper year for the flu with a total of 1904 cases reported for the year to August 13. The figures to date compare to 1285 for the entire 12 months last year \ufffd when laboratory-confirmed influenza became part of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. Queensland was the most flu-ridden state with 661 cases to date. The World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Influenza deputy director Alan Hampson said that the statistics did not come as a surprise. But he said, while they reflected trends, they were likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg as laboratory results were based largely on only those people who were ill enough to make it into hospital, such as the very young and the very old. \"What we see in terms of hospital-based diagnoses is very much the tip of the iceberg with influenza,\" Mr Hampson said. \"The majority of people just go home and go to bed and sleep it off.\" The higher rate of flu in 2002 \ufffd rather than representing an epidemic \ufffd was more likely a return to normal levels of flu after 2001, which Mr Hampson described as a mild year. \"Last year was a bit of a fizzer as years go,\" Mr Hampson said. \"So we're getting back to more of a normal year rather than a severe epidemic year, although in some areas there's been more activity.\" He said the discrepancy between 2001 and 2002 could be because of more virulent strains of flu circulating or because of lower levels of immunity in the community \ufffd which was common after a mild year. Source: The Daily Telegraph John"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (16:44)", "body": "Fascinating, John! I am certain they will be culturing strains of this flu for a long time to figure out why it was so virulent. I think they are still dealing with the killer flu that attacked world wide about the time of WW 1. They are still wondering why healthy male young adults were the targets when usually they are not. We still have much to learn!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Sep 17, 2002 (01:51)", "body": "Beer May Boost 'Good' Cholesterol in Older Women NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Moderate beer consumption appears to raise levels of \"good\" cholesterol in healthy older women and may decrease their risk of heart disease, according to the results of a small study. HDL (or \"good\") cholesterol levels rose by an average of nearly 12% by the end of the 3-week study, in which men consumed four glasses of beer with dinner and women consumed three glasses. Previous research has shown that increasing HDL by just 2% can lower the risk of heart disease. The protein component of HDL that is associated with its heart-healthy effects, as well as activity levels of an enzyme that provides a measure of protection against coronary artery disease, also increased during the drinking phase of the study, the researchers report in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The findings support those of several studies showing a relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and decreased risk of heart disease in men. To investigate the relationship in older women, the researchers enrolled nine women aged 49 to 62 and 10 men aged 45 to 64. The investigators measured levels of HDL and apolipoprotein A-1, the protein portion of HDL that carries cholesterol in the blood. Activity levels of paraoxonase (PON) were also recorded during the drinking and non-drinking phases of the study. The volunteers' overall diet did not change at any time. In addition to higher levels of HDL cholesterol, levels of apolipoprotein A-1 rose by nearly 9% by the end of the drinking phase. PON activity also increased by about 4% after 2 weeks, compared with levels during the non-drinking phase of the study. \"Increased serum HDL cholesterol level and PON activity may be a mechanism of action not only in healthy middle-aged men, but also in postmenopausal women, underlying the reduced coronary heart disease risk in moderate drinkers,\" according to Dr. Henk F.J. Hendriks from TNO Nutrition and Food Research in the Netherlands and colleagues. However, larger studies will need to confirm the findings, the researchers conclude. SOURCE: Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 2002;26:1430-1435. I found it in: Reuters Health"}, {"response": 30, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Sep 18, 2002 (04:28)", "body": "Engineers model blood flow A computer simulation that shows how branches and bends in blood vessels disturb smooth-flowing blood and contribute to heart disease has been built by researchers at the University of California, Davis. Eventually, it could be possible to use such models to predict the risk of some types of heart disease. Source: EurekAlert"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (23:12)", "body": "Beer? In older women? Did they mention the calories involved? I think that is not likely, but what an excuse to drink beer for those so inclined! I am strictly a water drinker. Has that become old fashioned?!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Sep 23, 2002 (20:39)", "body": "nope, i drink lots of water too!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 27, 2002 (20:31)", "body": "Of course you drink water` You're my twin! *;)"}, {"response": 34, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 2002 (03:31)", "body": "Radiation-proof fabric developed The fabric might help in the event of radiation leaks A US company has developed the world's first lightweight radiation-proof fabric, which provides as much protection as a lead vest. The potential applications of the fabric, called Demron, range from protective suits to radiation-proof tents and linings for aircraft, the magazine New Scientist reports. Instead of using heavy metals such as lead to block radiation and X-rays, the new fabric is non-toxic, lead-free and sandwiched between two layers of woven fabric. Traditional protective clothing only protects against alpha radiation but the new fabric, developed by the Florida-based company Radiation Shield Technologies, also blocks beta and gamma rays. Source and complete document: BBC NEWS, Science/Nature"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "This would be a great breakthrough, but don't order a family wardrobe of it right away. I suspect it will be expensive and not wonderful to wear. I am delighted that they have, though. It beats lead."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 27, 2002 (01:36)", "body": "MEDICINE FOR WOMEN-THE FATHER OF MEDICINE LEFT A TRACE IT WILL NOT FAIL. (Agricultural, Environmental & Health News Category) November 2002: 147 plants (oregano, fennel, cumin, laurel, aniseed, saffron and licorice among others) used Hippocrates, the so-called 'Father of Medicine' in order to heal the women diseases. The healing power of many plants, which are still widely used for healing purposes, is described in detail in Hippocrates writing 'On the Feminine'. 'On the Feminine' is also the name of a new book, which was recently published by the 'Panhellenic Company of the Medicine History' with the occasion of a relevant conference in Salonica. In this publication many researchers such as doctors, pharmacists, historians and scholars present their works about the obstetrics and gynecology from the antiquity since our days. As Mr. Mandalenakis, professor of the Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Aristotle University of Salonica stressed, Hippocrates and the ancient Greeks in general are still impress us with their knowledge. As the researcher Mr. Klidaras points in his work, Hippocrates used the aforementioned 147 herbs in many ways (in order to prepare drugs as vaginal suppositories, in order to prepare ointments, in order to create decoctions, etc.) and confronted serious problems such as vulvitis and metrorrhagia among others. Hippocrates touched upon the Obstetrics and Gynecology. He studied in depth the woman nature and he described perfectly the feminine anatomy making a clear distinction between the men and the women nature. Indeed, he always blamed to those doctors who treated men and women with the same way and methodology. By plumbing the benefits coming from the use of medicines and the dangers arising from its side effects, Hippocrates warned the doctors of his time about the use of any drug and always condemned the excessive use of drugs. From Greekproducts.com Classic Newsletter#32, December 2002"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 27, 2002 (01:46)", "body": "GREEK ORGANIC PRODUCTS AND DIO HAVE BEEN ACCREDITED IN THE US AND CANADIAN MARKET. (Greek Products News Category) November 2002: The gates of the American and Canadian markets are now open for the Greek organic products following the accreditation in the US and Canada of DIO, a Greek organization responsible for the certification of the organic Greek products. The accreditation of DIO took place 21st October 2002 in the US and 14th November 2002 in Canada. With DIO's accreditation the two countries welcomed the organic Greek products and that means that the perspectives for the exports of these products to the aforementioned markets are very promising. It is worth to point out that for the time being, only 3 similar European organizations have been accredited in Canada and only 8 in the US. After the accreditation of DIO it is expected that the demand for organic Greek products and especially for traditional products such as olive oil, olives, wine and cheese will increase dramatically. http://greekproducts.com Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 46, "subject": "Floods and other Hydro-Hazards", "response_count": 231, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  4, 2001 (14:36)", "body": "Other than getting a occasional 30 inches (76.2 cm) of water in 6 hours, there is very little flooding on this island. The rock is still too new and the drainage excellent. We get very little mud for that reason. On the down side of water hazards for Hawaii is the ever-present danger of a trunami. We have had them before and will again. I will post more about that directly and some post-tsunami photos from Hilo. The lst one was in 1960 and pretty ghastly since the homes here have sheet-iron roofs. As the waves churned the people and debris together, the sheet iron made very effective knives slicing though anything in the way. Clean up was not something one would ever look forward to in such situations!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jun  4, 2001 (19:56)", "body": "Hi WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hugs and leis Rob"}, {"response": 3, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (06:44)", "body": "Hi all We in Canterbury have a thing with rivers and floods. Our province is often inundated in one area or another by filthy flood water from a rampaging river. To show you what I mean here are a few flood statistics for Canterbury rivers in the last decade: The BIG rivers are the Waimakariri, Rangitata, Rakaia, Hurunui, Waiau, and Waitaki. This is recalled to the best of my ability. name/average flow (cubic metres per second)/last large flood/peak flood size/maximum flow/source of rain: Waimakariri/ 150 cumecs/ 2000/ 1309 cumecs/ 4000 cumecs/southeasterly depression. Rakaia/ 230 cumecs/ 1995/ 5600 cumecs/ 6000 cumecs/ northwesterly. Rangitata/ 150 cumecs/ 1998/ 2300 cumecs/ 3000 cumecs/ northwesterly. Hurunui/ 70 cumecs/ 2000/ 500 cumecs/ 400 cumecs/ southeasterly depression. Waiau/ 150 cumecs/ 2000/ 800 cumecs/ 1800 cumecs/ southeasterly depression. Waitaki/ 600 cumecs/ 1995/ 3300 cumecs/4000 cumecs/ northwesterly. All those rivers can flood on a northwesterly but a southeasterly depression can dump large amounts of rain in the foothills - not on the main divide where the rivers have their source. The worst case scenario is for a depression to drop it's load and then go northwesterly and bring in rain to the Southern Alps. The Waimakariri has broken it's banks 13 times since 1868 - the last in 1957. The modern stop bank system was built after that event but no floods since then have been big enough to seriously test the banks. It flooded Christchurch in 1861 and 1868 and has flowed at one time or another north and south of the city. The Rakaia is the biggest river on the Canterbury Plains and has caused property damage in the huts at the mouth and on high country farms. It is the leading example in the world of a braided river and except when it is in flood it is easy to see why. The Waitaki is regulated by three large dams in it's upper reaches and drains a catchment of 10,000 square kilometres - one of the largest in New Zealand. It never has a flow less than 300 cumecs per second and usually runs closer to 450 cumecs. Another threat that I have not covered is that of the Ashley and Selwyn rivers. The latter broke its banks in three places last year in a in a 1-40 year event that flooded several properties in its lower reaches and cut the main road and rail from Christchurch to Dunedin. Mum Dad and I went to watch it flood, and were a bit worried when we got to Coes Ford. Knowing it had peaked at 350 cumecs at Whitecliffs where a flow recorder is maintained, we knew the flood we saw before us was about 1/4 of that size. For obvious reasons we had the car pointing AWAY from the ford and left the engine running - there for 5 minutes. We crossed the river further downstream and already saw trees coming down the river. Then something completely unusual happened - traffic started pouring down back roads. State Highway One had been closed because there was 10 centimetres of water across the road!!!! So we went up to investigate but did not get very far. Water was across the road we were driving up in four places (we could see the four channels beginning to merge as we waited for Dad to have a word with a p operty owner evacuating). Realising that we had only one bridge we could cross now, we retreated at speed. In that 1 1/2 hours the water level rose vertically by 1 metre in the river and was flooding picnic spots and paddocks. We decided to go home, the river was still rising and if we hung around the other bridge would be closed before we could cross it. Mum Dad and I made it across with 30 minutes to spare - the road was shut at 3.PM. Now the only way across the river at all was across a bridge 60 km inland - not an option. Rob"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (14:34)", "body": "Your rapidly-rising flood waters remind me of the problems they have in Arizona and elsewhere in the Southwestern US. They have what are essentiallly dry creek beds all over the place (great place for gathering garnets and other such good specimens). When it rains, it rains in torrents and cars, homes and livestock are swept to their deaths in these little dry creek beds. The next day they find a car buried up to the roof in gravel and mud. Some of the people they never find. You were so wise to back up and go home! They are still repairing The Big Island's flood damage from November. Bridges and large parts of the highways were entirely gone by morning!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (14:41)", "body": "For those of use who do not understand, please explain what a \"cumec\" is. I checked a few sourcees and it seems to mean cubic meter (when dealing with fluids and dams and such.) Some of Geo's readers do not have English for their first language, and others of us are mathematically challenged. Thanks, and I am delighted to have another topic for lively conversaton. WoooooHooooo, indeed!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (02:44)", "body": "Hi all Did I not send a message saying what it was (it should be number six or seven)? Oh well, I will try again after dinner. But for the time being I am going to tell you about the case Greymouth on the West Coast where in four months the town was submerged in floodwaters not once but TWICE. In 1988 the weather gods played bizarre tricks on the West Coast and strange things happened. One such time was a thunderstorm which generated water spouts that did a tango out to sea. But in May 1988 the Grey River came to town for three days and the Grey River revamped the notorious bar across the river mouth for free. The town of 12,000 was still picking up the bits from the May flood when the Spring rains started. The first couple northwesterlies passed harmlessly but in early September a low pressure system entered the Tasman Sea and moved south. It dropped 300mm of rain over two days across a saturated catchment that could not hack much more rain. All that water had to go somewhere so it poured into the Grey and the Grey poured it into the town of Greymouth. The sight of water flowing down the main street for the second time in 4 months must have been very upsetting as these were lean times for the West Coast like everyone else and no one could be expected to sustain the consequences of one flood let alone two. When the floodwaters receeded the local council applied to the Government for funding to build a wall to stop further invasions. It was built in 1990 and has successfully directed two floods to date out to sea. It would appear the floodwall works. Rob"}, {"response": 7, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (06:40)", "body": "Hi A cumec is short for cubic metre per second and is used to measure fluid, and so on like you suggested. Last August a bizarre thing happened in the Waipara River. Anyone who knows the river knows that there is never more than 1 cumec of water in it except during Winter. On August 19 2000, the flow reached 403 cumecs. The Selwyn river in Canterbury is small. It runs at about .7 cumecs in summer and about 16 cumecs in winter. Last August it ran for a day at 350 cumecs and that flood was a 1 in 40 year event. The Waimakariri is much bigger. Current flow is 34 cumecs but in a flood it can reach an estimated 4000-4500 cumecs. It is not the biggest river in Canterbury and certainly not in New Zealand however. The Waitaki in South Canterbury averages 450 cumecs but in a large flood it can run at about 4000 cumecs. It is only 110 km long but it drains 10000 km2 of terrain. Further south in Otago the Clutha runs at about 650 cumecs with a flood peak of 3500. The Clutha is the largest river in New Zealand and the nearest rival has 1/2 to 2/3 the average flow. Rob"}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jun  9, 2001 (23:53)", "body": "Tropical Storm Allison has dumped some 32 inches of rain on our poor waterlogged city (Houston) in the last 5 days and it's not gone yet. My house is on a high part just outside of downtown. I'm sitting on an island. For about 5 to 10 blocks the streets are clear then going back into downtown, there is water. Going forward to the underpass at the highway, is a lake. I managed to get to the store and back this morning which is good as I needed groceries and gas in the car. Then it started raining again and the water which had been receding started rising again so I'm cut off again. Now we're just sitting it out. The President has declared the area a disaster area. This allows FEMA to come in and help and that means all the people who have lost their homes and everything they own will have help when the water recedes to rebuild. And there are a lot. I was watching the news and all you can see of whole neighborhoods are the tops of houses. They showed one of our interstate highways and you could see the top two feet of the 18 wheelers that got caught on the freeway when the water came up. There was a report of some guy swimming into the area last night, breaking open an 18 wheeler Budweiser beer truck. He sat on the roof and drank a beer, leaving the can on top, then swam off towing a couple of cases. A few minutes ago, they had someone down in those tunnels in downtown. He was waist high in water and standing next to a jewelry store. The cameraman had some battery powered lights on him because there's no electricity down there. You could see the lights winking off the jewels. It made me think, yeah, and now you've reminded people of the shops down there with no security stuff on, I'll bet there's a few scuba divers in there tonight. I was amazed though. Geez. The snakes alone in the water would keep me from slogging down there. Not to mention the floating debris covered with fire ants. Reporters. What can I say? They showed a fire in the middle of a subdivision. The helicopters were flying over it. There is water all around the house and it's burning to the ground. Nobody can get to it, of course. I mean. How much more water does it need? And then I switched channels. Four of our 7 channels (not on cable) are running continuous flood footage which will probably end now that it's dark and they can't get good lighting but they'll keep up running commentaries during whatever they do show. Anyway, I switched to a channel that wasn't running flood footage and got this hysterical feeling - They were showing an advertisement for Seaworld. which is down in Galveston (about 20 miles from where I am toward the coast) Showing waterslides and talking about getting out of the heat and into the water. Aha. We are sure doing that! Some of the hospitals lost power when the water invaded the basements where the generators are. The emergency generators are still working in some buildings. They've had to all combine forces to keep going. There are several hospitals in the Medical Center including M.D. Anderson Cancer center, Ben Taub Trauma Center, Herman Hospital, Texas Childrens' Center and two or three other big hospital complexes. Helicopters are going in and out of there taking patients to other hospitals where possible. They've moved a lot of the Ben Taub patients, which is in a lower area, up into the adjacent Baylor College of Medicine which is just behind them up on a hill. We see private citizens bringing their boats out and the National Guard are on their way and the various military bases are bringing in the really big helicopters to airlift people out of areas. People WILL stay with their homes until the last moment and they just can't get out. But, really, the water comes in so fast. I have friends up in Simonton, in the country and I wonder if they had to evacuate the horses. I can't get in touch with them because the phone lines are down. It's raining hard again in Friendswood just next door to them. I feel rather helpless. I'd like to help but would become a casualty if I left the house and tried to reach any of the relief centers. In a way, it's eerie. Here I am sitting high and dry and the only problem I have is the leaking dining room ceiling my landlord hasn't fixed yet - due to the rain. The house here is up on blocks and the yard is slanted up and the whole area is rather high for Houston. The back yard is a pond because there's no drainage and the water is flowing down the driveway to the street but we are high enough that none of my surrounding streets have water permanently in them. And I watch TV and see that just a mile or so down the freeway there are big trucks submerged to the roof. Well, Allison is moving out into the Gulf which means it will pick up more water. But they think it will move on further down the coast. Looks like Louisiana will get it next. Oh, a tornado touched down in the Northwest area (I'm North east) and took out a warehouse style business office complex. Some idiot was in the "}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (00:14)", "body": "Gee whiz, Terry. I know the water is deep in Houston. Major flooding from Tropical Depression Allison has left the city under water. Called in the National Guard and the Army. I didn't figure it would leave you speechess. Is Austin getting any of this good stuff or are you still in a drought? The Sacramento River burst its levee system last week leaving much of the city under water. It was a swamp when Sutter (of gold rush fame) convinced the state of California it needed to build its capitol there. The built levees. Levees are famous and imfamous for breaching."}, {"response": 10, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (12:12)", "body": "Holly J. Nowell reports from Houston: (this is the full text, unhidden, I was waiting for her permission to post it.) Tropical Storm Allison has dumped some 32 inches of rain on our poor waterlogged city (Houston) in the last 5 days and it's not gone yet. My house is on a high part just outside of downtown. I'm sitting on an island. For about 5 to 10 blocks the streets are clear then going back into downtown, there is water. Going forward to the underpass at the highway, is a lake. I managed to get to the store and back this morning which is good as I needed groceries and gas in the car. Then it started raining again and the water which had been receding started rising again so I'm cut off again. Now we're just sitting it out. The President has declared the area a disaster area. This allows FEMA to come in and help and that means all the people who have lost their homes and everything they own will have help when the water recedes to rebuild. And there are a lot. I was watching the news and all you can see of whole neighborhoods are the tops of houses. They showed one of our interstate highways and you could see the top two feet of the 18 wheelers that got caught on the freeway when the water came up. There was a report of some guy swimming into the area last night, breaking open an 18 wheeler Budweiser beer truck. He sat on the roof and drank a beer, leaving the can on top, then swam off towing a couple of cases. A few minutes ago, they had someone down in those tunnels in downtown. He was waist high in water and standing next to a jewelry store. The cameraman had some battery powered lights on him because there's no electricity down there. You could see the lights winking off the jewels. It made me think, yeah, and now you've reminded people of the shops down there with no security stuff on, I'll bet there's a few scuba divers in there tonight. I was amazed though. Geez. The snakes alone in the water would keep me from slogging down there. Not to mention the floating debris covered with fire ants. Reporters. What can I say? They showed a fire in the middle of a subdivision. The helicopters were flying over it. There is water all around the house and it's burning to the ground. Nobody can get to it, of course. I mean. How much more water does it need? And then I switched channels. Four of our 7 channels (not on cable) are running continuous flood footage which will probably end now that it's dark and they can't get good lighting but they'll keep up running commentaries during whatever they do show. Anyway, I switched to a channel that wasn't running flood footage and got this hysterical feeling - They were showing an advertisement for Seaworld. which is down in Galveston (about 20 miles from where I am toward the coast) Showing waterslides and talking about getting out of the heat and into the water. Aha. We are sure doing that! Some of the hospitals lost power when the water invaded the basements where the generators are. The emergency generators are still working in some buildings. They've had to all combine forces to keep going. There are several hospitals in the Medical Center including M.D. Anderson Cancer center, Ben Taub Trauma Center, Herman Hospital, Texas Childrens' Center and two or three other big hospital complexes. Helicopters are going in and out of there taking patients to other hospitals where possible. They've moved a lot of the Ben Taub patients, which is in a lower area, up into the adjacent Baylor College of Medicine which is just behind them up on a hill. We see private citizens bringing their boats out and the National Guard are on their way and the various military bases are bringing in the really big helicopters to airlift people out of areas. People WILL stay with their homes until the last moment and they just can't get out. But, really, the water comes in so fast. I have friends up in Simonton, in the country and I wonder if they had to evacuate the horses. I can't get in touch with them because the phone lines are down. It's raining hard again in Friendswood just next door to them. I feel rather helpless. I'd like to help but would become a casualty if I left the house and tried to reach any of the relief centers. In a way, it's eerie. Here I am sitting high and dry and the only problem I have is the leaking dining room ceiling my landlord hasn't fixed yet - due to the rain. The house here is up on blocks and the yard is slanted up and the whole area is rather high for Houston. The back yard is a pond because there's no drainage and the water is flowing down the driveway to the street but we are high enough that none of my surrounding streets have water permanently in them. And I watch TV and see that just a mile or so down the freeway there are big trucks submerged to the roof. Well, Allison is moving out into the Gulf which means it will pick up more water. But they think it will move on further down the coast. Looks like Louisiana will get it next. Oh, a tornado touched down"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (17:49)", "body": "Thanks for the report, Terry and Holly. The Television coverages shows little place to run off. We got our 30+ inches in 6 hours. You really don't want that. Not even our pourous lava could keep the streams from washing out bridges and roadways and taking houses from their bankside land. From North of New Orleans in a quick note as to his well-being and snake problem, from Mike yep we been shooting snakes now for two days and are runing low on ammo one of the fellas is running over to Miss to see if he can buy more 22 ammo , yep its still raining and flooding"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (17:53)", "body": "Wolfie, check in, please. Rob is freezing in New Zealand with gales straight from Antarctica. Take care, all. All I have to contend with is honey bees. A swarm moved into a between-the-walls opening in our house, yesterday."}, {"response": 13, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (21:32)", "body": "Hi all Southerly cleared out last night. -6.C this morning and beautiful clear skies with crisp cool temperatures. Cool at the moment but no wind and no cloud in sight. 145 millimetres of rain fell in Arthurs Pass over Saturday night and the Waimakariri was running at 400 cumecs yesterday, the Rakaia reached 507 cumecs before falling. Under normal circumstance where normal rainfall has fallen, the Waimakariri would usually get 600 cumecs on that sort of rain. These increases are really nothing spectacular for rivers that can attain in full flood 4000 and 6000 cumecs respectively. Rob"}, {"response": 14, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (21:39)", "body": "Hi all Now Terry and Holly know what it is like to be in Australia when a tropical cyclone hits the Northern Territory. A couple years ago one did hit the NT and anyone who knows anything about Australia and their snakes know that Taipans and Brown snake rule up there. The Taipan is the most feared snake in Australia. It is a good swimmer and likes water. The venom of an adult is said to be sufficient to kill 250,000 laboratory mice!!!!!!!!!!!! NO I DID NOT EXPAND THE ZEROES. Aborigines tell horrible stories about getting into confrontations with the snake and the almost certain probability you will die if you don't get medical treatment. The kill rate for victims who ignore the bite is 95%. Rob"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (23:24)", "body": "Incredible Rob!!! The Taipan is indeed a lethal creature. Hell and High Water!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 12, 2001 (15:39)", "body": "More to Rob. Our floods here are very clean afairs. We have not been an island for enough soil to accumulate and make mud. Thus, our outflows are mostly of clear water. I guess you have soil and volcanic products added to your flood water!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jun 12, 2001 (20:58)", "body": "Hi The Alpine fault is responsible for the Southern Alps that make up the South Island backbone and if there was no erosion activity it is calculated that the Southern Alps would be 25km high!!!! But erosion in this land of rain and freeze-thaw is almost as rapid as uplift. The results stagger the imagination. In the 1940s a bridge was put across the Waiho river at Franz Josef and the river was about 10 metres below the bridge. Now so much material has come down that there is about 3.5 to 4 metres clearance. In the short term the river is the major problem, as it can flood every time enough rain falls for excess to run off. In the medium term however the town is living on borrowed time as the Alpine Fault is parallel to the low ridge (which I think is uplifted land)the town is sited on....................... Rob"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 12, 2001 (23:16)", "body": "Rob, boot http://web.poseidon.nti.it/Sorvis/vulcano.asp?Vulcano=Etna&Refresh=30 Etna is erupting again!!! Bigger Better and totally awesomely!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 12, 2001 (23:21)", "body": "68,000+ feet high? I am trying to convert for the Americans who cannot do metric (including me) without a converter. Good heavens... you would hold up the sky! Is that where your glaciers are, then? (I definitely need to print out that map I downloaded.) This is granitic or some sort of metamoprphic rock?!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 12, 2001 (23:28)", "body": "wrong....... it is more like 15 1/2 miles high!!!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (05:10)", "body": "Hi all The glaciers (Franz Josef and Fox), are at the head of the Waiho and Cook rivers and flow westward until they cross the fault. On a map find Christchurch, trace a line almost due west to Mount Cook, then look due north of Mount Cook for FJ. To find Fox, look due west or northwest of Mount Cook. Flood times for both rivers is short. In maximum of 8 hours the heavy rain that floods a river can flood both of these. The coast is not more than 40km away and the gradient from sea level to glacier is fairly steep. A Canterbury river on the other hand (take Waimakariri for arguments sake)will need about 24-36 hours before the first floodwaters pass through the mouth, though if you got say 200mm in a day and that much again 3 days later, anyone on a riverbed after say 20 hours should be elsewhere. Oh and by the way, there is a heavy rain warning for the Southern Alps, West Coast and Canterbury river headwaters (up to 200mm). Rob"}, {"response": 22, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (09:18)", "body": "From Bruce Sterling's Viridian newsletter: Subject: Viridian Note 00247: Houston Flood of 02001 Key concepts: Texas, Tropical Storm Allison, Bush Administration, Greenhouse Effect, Wexelblat Disasters, the Viridian Uncanny Attention Conservation Notice: A lot of press clippings that describe Texans suffering from a strange giant rainstorm. Almost 4,000 words. ****************************************************** Entries in the Viridian Hot Rod Contest: From: bend@earthlink.net^^^** (Ben Davis) http://www.digitalanything.com/LightRod.html This contest ends July 5, 02001. ****************************************************** (((About a yard of rain just fell on Houston, world capital of the oil industry. Unfortunately for poetic justice, ExxonMobil, \"Climate Villain #1,\" is located in Irving, Texas, rather than Houston. Irving is not yet drenched. Enron is GW Bush's major energy company backer, and Enron's former CEO Ken Lay is the eminence gris of the Bush energy policy. Enron is headquartered in Houston. Specifically, on 1400 Smith Street, in the 77002 area code. I just talked to an Enron security guy by phone there, but he assures me that they are not, in fact, washing away. So far, anyhow.))) Corporate Headquarters Enron Corp. 1400 Smith Street Houston, TX 77002 Tel: (713) 853-6161 Source://www.enron.com \"Enron's Views on Global Climate Change \"Enron believes that companies and institutions worldwide must find efficient ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that result from normal economic activities. The lack of scientific certainty over climate change does not justify inaction. Continued scientific research and rigorous economic analysis is necessary == but meaningful, cost-effective, and flexible mitigation activities can be taken now...\" (((For instance: bailing, sweeping broken glass, re- shingling, and getting the President to declare a federal emergency.))) \"President Declares Major Disaster For Texas \"Washington, June 9, 2001 == The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced today that President Bush has declared a major disaster for Texas, opening the way for the use of federal funds and resources to help meet the recovery needs of people and communities victimized by the effects of Tropical Storm Allison. \"FEMA Director Joe M. Allbaugh said the President took the action immediately after receiving the state's expedited request for federal assistance. The declaration covers damage to private and public property from the storm that began affecting the state on June 5. (...) \"After the declaration, Allbaugh designated the following 28 counties eligible for aid to stricken residents and business owners: Anderson, Angelina, Brazoria, Cherokee, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Hardin, Harris, Houston, Jasper, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Montgomery, Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Polk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Smith, Trinity, Tyler and Walker.\" (((An area larger than some European countries, but who's counting.)))(...) TROPICAL DEPRESSION ALLISON Storm Summary JJ STORM SUMMARY NUMBER 18 FOR THE REMNANTS OF T.D. \"ALLISON\" NATIONAL CENTERS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PREDICTION HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL PREDICTION CENTER...NWS...CAMP SPRINGS MD 500 PM EDT SAT JUN 09 2001 THE AREA OF LOW PRESSURE ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMAINS OF \"ALLISON\" WAS BECOMING QUITE ELONGATED ALONG A NORTHEAST- SOUTHWEST AXIS...BUT A CENTER WAS STILL DISCERNIBLE NEAR 29.0N 95.4 W...OR ABOUT 35 MILES WEST- SOUTHWEST OF GALVESTON...(...) WESTERLY WINDS ALOFT ARE DRIFTING THE SYSTEM TOWARDS THE EAST AT 5 MPH...WHICH IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS...SENDING IT BACK INTO THE EXTREME NORTHWESTERN GULF OF MEXICO THIS EVENING. (((There the storm can suck up more moisture. and might well return in force.))) (...) RADAR ESTIMATES OF THE STORM TOTAL OVER THE LAST FIVE DAYS EXCEED 20 INCHES ACROSS THE LOWER ATCHAFALAYA RIVER IN SOUTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA AND ACROSS THE HOUSTON METROPOLITAN AREA. AN AREA BETWEEN CONROE AND WILLIS RECEIVED OVER 20 INCHES DURING FRIDAY NIGHT/SATURDAY MORNING ALONE. (((You heard them: 20 inches in one night.))) A MAJOR FLOOD EVENT...MORE PROLIFIC AND INTENSE THAN DURING T.S. FRANCES IN 1998...IS NOW UNDERWAY ACROSS SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA. SECTIONS OF I-10 AROUND HOUSTON WERE SO DEEPLY FLOODED THIS MORNING THAT ONLY THE TOPS OF SEMI-TRACTOR TRAILERS WERE VISIBLE. (((Nothing left of 'em but those protruding diesel pipes, apparently.))) REPORTS OF EXTENSIVE FLOODING CONTINUE TO COME IN FROM SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND SOUTHERN LOUISIANA. AN ADDITIONAL 4 TO 6 INCHES OF RAIN...WITH ISOLATED MUCH HEAVIER AMOUNTS... IS LIKELY TO FALL ACROSS EXTREME SOUTHEASTERN TEXAS AND EXTREME SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS... SELECTED STORM TOTALS FOR ALLISON SINCE TUE 7 AM CDT (ALL AMOUNTS THROUGH 1 PM CDT UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED): (((Check out these rain levels. My goodness:))) THIBODAUX LA............. 22.33 inches (THROUGH 7 AM CDT) HOUSTON HOBBY TX............20.58 "}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (14:10)", "body": "That definitely qualifiese as a Hydrological Disaster! ***************************** Ruapehu, NZ lahar prediction ***************************** From: Dan Shackelford source: New Zealand Herald Lahar prediction for Ruapehu as lake rises in weakened crater. \"A catastrophic mudslide from Mt Ruapehu may be as close as next year. Scientists are racing to install an early-warning system on the mountain. The crater lake filled at twice its normal rate over the summer, and a Department of Conservation scientist at Turangi, Dr Harry Keys, says mudslide predictions have been brought forward. A massive lahar is now expected between the summer of 2002-03 and that of 2008, with a peak flow 50 per cent larger than the 1953 Christmas Eve disaster that wiped out the Tangiwai rail bridge, killing 151 travellers. \" The original, whole report is from: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsection=&st oryID=182436"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (16:00)", "body": "Rob, Please be safe! Printing out the map so I can watch what is happening to you. This place I thought was to discuss things not to give eye-witness stuff. It is very difficult to type with crossed fingers!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (17:19)", "body": "Thanks Maggie and Tony for the following: At least 36 people have been killed in Ecuador after a landslide destroyed a hut where they had taken refuge after being stranded on a motorway. The victims' vehicles had been blocked by an earlier landslide near Papallacta, about 40km east of the capital, Quito, and they had walked to the shelter. More... http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1385000/1385926.stm"}, {"response": 26, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (05:00)", "body": "Hi Marcia, you need not worry, 0 millimetres of rain at Arthurs Pass in the last 24 hours is not exactly bank bursting or even flood material. Seriously I just checked the Environment Canterbury website http://www.ecan.govt.nz and the North Canterbury rainfall chart showed no significant rain anywhere, nor did the South Canterbury rainfall chart for that matter. I would not worry anyway. It is still fairly dry inland because of the drought and it is possible that some or most of the rain would simply seep into the ground. Hit the panic button if I either tell you that 400mm is expected in a day. THEN things will look a bit iffy and butty - especially if that there has already been a successful heavy rainfall warning. Like I am certain I already said, the worst case is a Southeasterly depression dropping a lot of rain on the plains and it runs of into the rivers and then as the depression passes over, a northwesterly drops a similar amount of rain. Rob"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (15:23)", "body": "Hugs, Rob! It is reassuring to have your words regarding your safety. I did go to your suggested website. It was one I had not previosuly found. Of course I am much relieved that the rat poision spill has been taken care of. Egad! A fat lot of good I can do from here for your safety in an unpredicable world, but at least it is reassuring that you are ok, and the rats taken care of. If your island is anything like ours, you have rats aplenty. At least in the winter yours freeze while ours flourish. No iffy and butty 16 inches of rain (400 mm) in one day. YOur ground is nothing like as pourous as ours is. Our November floods just washed away everything in their path. (PLease correct my conversion if it is incorrect!) I tend to worry about those who are special to me *;)"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (19:58)", "body": "Communication emergency lifted; hams continue Gulf flood response Communication emergency lifted; hams continue Gulf flood response An FCC-declared general communications emergency in Texas and Louisiana for 3873 and 7285 kHz has been rescinded as of 6 PM Central Time (0100 June 15 UTC). Amateur Radio continues to support relief agencies in the wake of heavy flooding in Texas, Louisiana and parts of Mississippi. South Texas ARRL Section Manager Ray Taylor, N5NAV, says several dozen more volunteers still are needed to help provide communication support for Salvation Army, Baptist Mens' Kitchen and Red Cross relief operations. Amateur Radio volunteers with VHF capability--either an H-T with extra batteries or a mobile and portable antenna--are needed to assist relief agencies. Prospective volunteers should contact Taylor via e-mail at n5nav@texas.net; South Texas Section Emergency Coordinator Bob Ehrhardt Sr, W5ZX, w5zx@yahoo.com, or Jeff Salmons, N5ECP, n5ecp@flex.net. The Gulf region suffered some of the worst flooding in decades after Tropical Storm Allison moved ashore last weekend and stalled. The storm claimed more than a dozen lives. Although the initial flooding was receding, additional rainfall arrived this past week, and more is predicted. Relief organizations had been using Amateur Radio HF links between their field volunteers and their regional headquarters operations. Cellular telephone service was made available late this afternoon, however. Telephone outages continue to be widespread in the Houston area, Taylor said. Hams also have been using VHF and UHF repeater nets to provide emergency communication and to coordinate relief activities on the local level, including at Red Cross shelters. Thousands were displaced by the flooding. Taylor said many hams in the Gulf region have volunteered to help out in the aftermath of the flooding, but he did not yet have an accurate head count."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (18:35)", "body": "Sludge Disasters Cast Shadow Over Coal Revival Reuters Jun 16 2001 9:00AM INEZ, Ky. (Reuters) - Last autumn's Kentucky coal disaster, in which tons of coal sludge gushed down a mountain from a man-made pond killing wildlife below, is a stark reminder of environmental risks hanging over Appalachia's coalfields. There are 600 such ponds throughout Appalachia filled with potentially dangerous heavy metals that are left behind after the chemical rinsing of coal, and with a revival of the coal industry under way, regulators want to insure the safety of the ponds. Appalachia's low sulphur coal -- used by power plants to feed U.S. electricity needs -- is in increasing demand. And utilities across the country recently announced plans to build 34 more coal fired plants by 2013 that will need the high-grade Appalachian coal to meet stricter environmental regulations. The coal industry also has high-powered friends -- including President Bush, and West Virginia's Robert Byrd, a Democrat -- who have supported plans for billions of dollars of research money for burning coal cleaner at plants. But many are concerned about the safety of ponds, filled with what is often called slurry, because in many cases, they hang over small villages in this mountain region where locals mostly live in valleys, many of which have only one road out. STUDIES PENDING Last Oct. 11, the coal slurry in Inez, Ky. on top of an underground mine operated by Massey Energy, broke through the mine's roof. The 250 million gallons of slurry that spurted out did not immediately harm any people, but the spill killed wildlife in streams and rivers as far as 60 miles away. In comparison, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989 spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil. The Environmental Protection Agency called Inez \"one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of the southeastern United States,\" and was a reminder of the 1972 Buffalo Creek coal gob spill in West Virginia that killed 125 people and wiped out 4,000 homes. A spokesman for the West Virginia Coal Association (WVCA) said the coal industry in his state awaits government reports on coal ponds. \"We are waiting on the findings of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) before we make any sweeping changes,\" said a spokesman for WVCA. Massey, who so far has not paid any fines for the spill and whose lawyers claimed the Inez break was, \"an act of God,\" did not return phone calls asking what the company has done since Inez to ensure their impoundments are safe. Besides the National Academy of Sciences, the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) as well as the Department of Interior's Office of Surface Mining are studying coal pond safety. MSHA published a list of all the ponds in the country and ranks them by their risk of breaking. Last April, West Virginia's state Department of Environmental Protection told coal companies to examine their sludge ponds and issue reports to the state. more... http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0200&id=0106160900202214"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (20:36)", "body": "Rob, we also have storm easement on the back of my lot and a \"moat\" on two sides of the yard. A storm culvert was finally enlarged under the street some years ago and the house has never gotten water in it....YET. It gets to about an inch of the bottom louvers in the living room and then crosses the road to the downhill side. Even in that 30 inches (76.2 cm) in 6 hours downpour we had in November. 7 1/2 meters of water is a LOT of runoff!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (23:47)", "body": "Check this out if you live in the US. The Slurry disaster is not confined to Kentucky, http://www.msha.gov/impoundments/impoundmenthp.htm"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (01:07)", "body": "The REST of the Inez, KY sludge disaster story: (I was afraid it would disappear before the rest of this horrific story became known. Plese read!) INDUSTRY ADOPTING SOLUTIONS, BUT SLOWLY Gadgets called water pressers, which have been around since 1984, can make many of the ponds safer by squeezing the water from sludge which greatly reduces the weight of the ponds, according to engineers. But so far few companies make broad use of water pressers. \"Water pressers can eliminate slurry ponds,\" said Pete Petrey, Vice President of Phoenix Processing Equipment in Louisville, KY who makes and sells the pressers. \"Initial investment costs are higher for a coal company to put in pressers, but costs to a company are a lot higher when an impoundment breaks,\" he said. He said installment prices vary with sizes and types of slurry ponds. Larry Emerson, Arch Coal's environmental director, said the company is currently using a water presser at one of its operations, \"but it is not the best solution for all of our operations,\" he said. Appalachians concerned about coal ponds want pressers to be used more broadly. \"Water pressers are readily available and they are cost competitive,\" said Tom Fitzgerald, lawyer for the Kentucky Resources Council. \"Any other industry is required to use the most expensive technology, said Fitzgerald. \"The coal industry is allowed to choose the cheapest.\" He said miscommunications between state and federal regulators is part of the problem that leads to neglect. \"Nobody seems to be minding the shop,\" he said. Whitesville resident Freda Williams lives in a valley where a Massey impoundment lies above an elementary school where 200 students are enrolled. Like many, she is tired of the risk. \"I put an ad last week in the Charleston Gazette to sell my home,\" she said. \"But nobody is going to buy it.\" A RIVER RUNS BY THEM Environmental lawyer Jan Schlichtmann, who was chronicled in the book and film \"A Civil Action,\" is investigating the Inez spill. Schlichtmann's assistant told Reuters that Schlichtmann has visited Inez \"at least two or three times per month in the last couple of months.\" His assistant could not comment on the investigation, saying it was only in preliminary stages. Phylistie Horn, 81, says she has never heard of Schlichtmann's investigation. Horn lives where she was born, off county road 69 in Warfield on a bank of the Tug Fork about 20 miles from the spill. There's a replica of the Statue of Liberty on the corner. Hummingbirds and cardinals flit around her back yard. But the river is dead. The fish all died after the October spill, and now the banks are slippery, oily, and gray . She's building a new house far away from the Tug Fork because she says her lungs have gotten worse since October. \"It will take a while before it's all built, but I'm leaving,\" she said. Unlike most of her neighbors, Horn's water wells ran dry years before the Inez spill. She and eight of her heirs wash their dishes in tap water that originates from the Tug Fork. The water is collected in a reservoir and then treated at the water plant. They no longer take baths because the water makes them itch, so they take quick showers. The water smells of the heavy chlorine the plant puts in. Martin County Coal, a subsidiary of Massey, used to truck in water after the spill, but those stopped two months ago, said Horn. The city said the water is safe, but Horn's daughter, Rebecca, climbs Logan Mountain to bring back spring water. Meawhile, Arch's Emerson said his company is studying whether it can use more water pressers. \"We're getting better,\" he said. MSHA's Web site that lists the nation's slurry ponds can be found at: http://www.msha.gov/impoundments/impoundmenthp.htm ."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (01:35)", "body": "[1]HYDROLOGY * Satellites Measure Bulging Earth to Map Water Resources References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-hydrol"}, {"response": 34, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (03:10)", "body": "Hi This will be the last you hear from me until at least Thursday night, by which time I will have sat 2 of my 3 exams (Geology 111, and Geography 106). Political Science 103 is on Saturday, but I expect to be too busy slacking off doing other things to be online that afternoon. But before I go: a couple things that might interest you. Some stats on South Island water masses, transportation and drainage 20 big South Island rivers: Wairau - Marlborough Awatere - Marlborough Clarence - Canterbury Conway - Canterbury Waiau - Canterbury Hurunui - Canterbury Waimakariri - Canterbury Rakaia - Canterbury Rangitata - Canterbury Waitaki - Canterbury Taieri - Otago Clutha - Otago Waiau - Southland Grey - Westland Buller - Westland Hokitika - Westland Haast - Westland Waiho - Westland Rivers over 130 kilometres ( 80 miles)long Wairau Awatere Clarence Waiau Hurunui Waimakariri Rakaia Rangitata Taieri Clutha (longest in South Island 322km) Waiau Grey Buller Large lakes: Pukaki (raised by high dam), Tekapo, Ohau, Manapouri, Te Anau, Lake Benmore (man made, Lake Brunner, Lake Ellesmere (actually coastal lagoon) Rob"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (13:54)", "body": "The best of luck, Rob and extra warm *HUGS* for your success. Happiness is knowing you can do splendidly and knowing that is exactly what you will do. I am off to check that Waimakariri flood plain on which you live. My concern quotient depends on what I discover. You may just have to glue me back together when I find you are on some liquifying-potential sand bar or in the path of a sludge pond. Why can't people I care for live on active volcanoes like I do?!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (19:02)", "body": "speaking of hyrohazards: From Rob (who should be studying and taking exams!) Two TSUNAMI alerts were issued by the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences over the past week. An earthquake in the ALEUTIANS - M6.6 - triggered the first alert which resulted in minor fluctuations in sea level around New Zealand. The second also came from the northern Pacific (KURILE ISLANDS), and was generated by an M6.5 earthquake in the area. Neither event caused any trouble. http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/worldseismicity"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 23, 2001 (21:15)", "body": "TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 002 PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER 12:16 PM HST 23 JUN 2001 TO: CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII SUBJECT: TSUNAMI ADVISORY BULLETIN A WATCH OR WARNING IS NOT IN EFFECT FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII AT THIS TIME. HOWEVER, THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER HAS ISSUED A TSUNAMI WATCH AND WARNING FOR OTHER PARTS OF THE PACIFIC, AND THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY THAT A WATCH OR WARNING MAY BE ISSUED FOR HAWAII IN THE NEAR FUTURE. AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THE FOLLOWING PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS: ORIGIN TIME - 10:33 AM HST, 23 JUN 2001 COORDINATES - 16.0 SOUTH, 73.3 WEST LOCATION - NEAR COAST OF PERU MAGNITUDE - 8.2 (RICHTER) MAGNITUDE - 8.2 (MOMENT) MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY: ARICA, CHILE 0.8 METERS ZERO-TO-PEAK EVALUATION: THIS ADVISORY IS BASED MAINLY ON EARTHQUAKE DATA. IT IS NOT KNOWN AT THIS TIME WHETHER A PACIFIC-WIDE DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI HAS BEEN GENERATED. AN INVESTIGATION IS UNDERWAY TO DETERMINE THE TSUNAMI THREAT. IF A TSUNAMI HAS BEEN GENERATED, THE ESTIMATED EARLIEST TIME OF ARRIVAL IN HAWAII OF THE FIRST TSUNAMI WAVE IS: 11:52 PM HST, 23 JUN 2001 BULLETINS WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER AS CONDITIONS WARRANT."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 23, 2001 (21:16)", "body": "Despite a strong aftershock (6.9 Richter) we are still safe and fluctuations have been negative here."}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 24, 2001 (22:39)", "body": "RED ALERT: Mw 7.9 EARTHQUAKE PERU. TSUNAMI WARNING ALSO IN EFFECT FOR NEW ZEALAND. DO NOT GO NEAR ANY BEACH ON EAST COAST OF ANY ISLAND OR NEAR ANY RIVER MOUTH, LAGOON, ESTUARY OR COASTAL WATER FEATURE. (I borrowed it from Rob's post on http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/worldseismicity When I went to bed last night our news said only \"French Polynesia\" was still on alert for possible tsunami. My mind's mapping immediately thought of New Zealand. I had to wait till today to find this elsewhere. Oh well. I am grateful he is ok."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 26, 2001 (17:44)", "body": "Floods and vandals put the Queen's cygnets in peril By Caroline Davies and Charles Clover THE number of swans on the Thames has plummeted, mainly due to this year's floods and youths stoning cygnets, the Queen's Swan Marker warned yesterday. David Barber, the man responsible for maintaining the Queen's swans, estimates that the numbers of cygnets could have fallen by as much as 40 per cent. Last year, during the traditional Swan Upping ceremony, 119 cygnets were counted. With Swan Upping due to take place on July 16, Mr Barber, 50, believes the number could have fallen to around 70. \"So far, it doesn't look good,\" he said. Flooding during April and May coincided with the adult swans building their nests and had a drastic impact on the population. Traditionally, swans choose discreet nesting areas on islands, or close to the water's edge. But islands were submerged, and the water level broke the river banks. \"The trouble is they nested well out of the way of the floods, which meant they went to nest in fields, which at the time were on the water's edge,\" said Mr Barber. \"But when the water went down, they were a long way from the river bank and very exposed. As soon as the eggs hatched, the young cygnets were vulnerable to mink, foxes and dogs as well as other birds such as herons.\" There has also been an increase in the number of swans being shot by air rifles, and reports of youths stoning cygnets. \"We cannot control the natural elements, and hopefully, with tamer winters and less predators, the population will recover. Nature seems to sort itself out,\" said Mr Barber. \"Unfortunately we don't seem to be able to sort man out.\" One adult pair at Cookham had lost three of their seven cygnets, at least one through stoning, he said. Mr Barber said schoolchildren were being encouraged to attend Swan Upping in the hope that they would be educated about the birds, which would discourage vandalism. But while swans have been struggling on the Thames, otters have been discovered in London's East End, Birmingham and Glasgow for the first time in generations - a sign of the continued improvement of Britain's rivers. Signs of otters have also been found in Newcastle and Doncaster, which contained some of the most polluted rivers in the country 30 years ago, a conference at the Natural History Museum was told yesterday. The otter was almost extinct by the early Seventies in most parts of England and Wales. Alastair Driver, conservation manager of the Environment Agency, told the conference: \"There have been signs of otters at Walthamstow, and right down the Roding into the East End.\""}, {"response": 41, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jul  4, 2001 (20:52)", "body": "Hi All is relatively quiet here at the moment. Very little going on. The only thing to report is that the weather is COLD. For the past week we have been having a run of clear nights where the temperature has been as low as -6.C and 8-10.C by day. On Monday Christchurch had a 7 degree frost - something usually reserved for the Southland-Otago regions and the mountains. No rain - to date this year 350 mm of rain should have fallen. The total amount that has fallen is 157 mm. The only sign of relief on the horizon is a sub-tropical depression in the Coral Sea slowly making it's way south. Rob"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  5, 2001 (15:35)", "body": "Good luck on your water supply. Living on an island, continuing replenishment is an absolute necessity. But it will be coming down as ice cubes at those temperatures! You cannot imagine how exotic it sounds to me to hear that your weather comes from the Coral Sea. That is the part of the map from whence the dragons came at the edge of the known world. I hope it brings a little warmth for you, as well. Meanwhile, please accept my self-generated warmth beaming in your drection to wrap you against the chill of your antarctic blasts."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (23:54)", "body": "Thank you, John in Volos, Greece for sending me this singular account: \ufffdI turned and saw an even bigger wave. It took her\ufffd AID TEAMS reached the southern coast of Peru yesterday to find thousands of shocked survivors from two tidal waves that obliterated their seaside fishing villages less than an hour after Saturday\ufffds earthquake. \"Entire villages have been wiped out and no one has arrived to help these people yet. It\ufffds tragic. There is already practically nothing left to eat and people are sleeping out in the streets,\" said Pedro Maca, the head of a Peruvian Red Cross team in the small fishing town of Caman\ufffd. Forty-five minutes after Saturday\ufffds earthquake the first tsunami, 30 metres high, engulfed the mud huts of Caman\ufffd, throwing people and debris as far as one kilometre inland. A second, bigger wave came moments afterwards leaving the once peaceful fishing town ripped to shreds. \"We managed to survive the first wave,\" said one distraught mother. \"And then I picked up my daughter in my arms and we started to run and run as fast as we could. But I turned round and saw that another wave, even bigger, was coming. It took her. She\ufffds dead. I saw her go.\" Another man wept as he recalled watching helplessly as three of his loved ones were drowned. Distressed villagers wailed in distress and begged for help after their second night sleeping outdoors on sand-filled, soggy mattresses dragged from their shattered homes. So far 20 deaths have been confirmed and some 70 people, mainly fishermen who were at sea when the disaster struck this area, are still reported missing. more... http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/text_only.cfm?id=84787"}, {"response": 44, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jul 11, 2001 (06:10)", "body": "Hi It rained last night. It actually rained. And I was just getting used to the biting frost. This is welcome relief from the 2 week long big chill and it's lethal grip. 4 people have died in road accidents relating to the chill and a 12 put in hospital. In Hanmer in inland north Canterbury, the temperature has on three seperate occasions plunged to -15.C and in one case was -2.C at MIDDAY. Although it is still very cold in some places, a northerly (one of our warmer winds is forecast to spread across the country soon). With the fading La Nina weather pattern, rainfall is expected to increase later in the winter and hopefully replenish groundwater stocks before spring comes as the northwesters will quickly dry out the soil. Rob"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 11, 2001 (19:57)", "body": "It is too soon for you to be having spring. The Weather gods are playing cruel tricks on you! But it is a pleasnt thing to have a bit of a respite during a wickedly cold winter. Meanwhile West Virginia digs out from their flood. I actually heard a broadcast on National Public Radio last night from Buckhannon, my home for 4 years."}, {"response": 46, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jul 20, 2001 (05:33)", "body": "Hi Can you lure others in watery situations here to the most appropriate forum for all (well most things wet), as they are missing out on some great stuff. Like this: http://www.ecan.govt.nz for River and flood information on the braided rivers of Canterbury. P.S the Waimakariri is fairly low at the moment. Go take a look at the camera shot of what the river looks like - it is the 2nd BEST braided river in the WORLD - when it is not in flood or restricted to one channel. Rob"}, {"response": 47, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jul 22, 2001 (05:32)", "body": "Hi all A lot of rain has fallen this week and the rivers of Canterbury are higher than usual at the moment as the rain that has fallen has varied from between 4.5 millimetres over five days to 230 millimetres. The 4.5 belongs to Arthurs Pass where it would be falling as snow, and the 230 millimetres belongs to Luke Creek, Kaikoura on the coast and there is still no sign of the rain letting up yet. Rivers that were at near record lows a few weeks ago are now running at above average for this time of year. The drought in Canterbury may be coming to an end soon as the rain has done no limit of good for a province that has had drought for 3 of the last 4 years. Rob"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 24, 2001 (16:06)", "body": "Excelllent news. Your father mentioned, when I offered him some Hawaiian sunshine, that you would be much better off with the rain you have been getting. I trust the powers that be who cause rain to fall also know when enough is enough. That is our problem on occasion. They get stuck on our mountains and forget to leave. Take care, Rob."}, {"response": 49, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2001 (08:11)", "body": "Hi Heavy rain warnings in force for Southern Alps. Hydro power storage lakes are at record lows and there is a risk of blackouts. Lakes Pukaki, Tekapo, Ohau, Dunstan, Roxburgh, Manapouri and Te Anau are all very low. Taupo has about 10% of storage capacity full up. Further south Lake Dunstan, and Roxburgh (impounded behind the Clyde and Roxburgh Dams)are about 15% full. The whirlpools near the intake structure of Lake Pukaki have vanished as the intake is no longer submerged. So the heavy rain is more than welcome. Rob"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2001 (15:09)", "body": "As much as I would have wished you more gentle and realiable supply of water, it sounds very much like you need a long soaking rain. Which also means landslips and bridge washouts in a lot of places. However you get it, you definitely need it. It sounds almost desperate at this point. I hope your father got his report finished - or at the very least, well on its way. Responsible environmentalists are rare and he seems very valuable, indeed!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Aug 17, 2001 (08:14)", "body": "Hi On Monday night the relatively good weather of recent times took a drastic change for the worse with, heavy snow in Otago and Southland plus all the skifields, and heavy rain for Canterbury and provinces further north. On Wednesday night the Manawatu river overflowed after 36 hours of nonstop rain and a mail delivery van was abandoned by it's driver after getting cut of by rapidly rising flood waters. Rob"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 17, 2001 (15:33)", "body": "You don't do moderation in New Zealand, anymore?! At least your drought has ended unless it just washed everything into the sea. This sort of weather pattern must make the task of planners that much more difficult. Did anything happen on the plus side of this? influxes of wealthy skiers and fly fishermen leaving vast amounts of foreign currency in the till ? I know of one such who will do that in December."}, {"response": 53, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Aug 18, 2001 (04:31)", "body": "Hi Cannot tell you what good was done because the storm that brought the heavy rain to the Manawatu River did wind to buildings and had heavy snow for the higher altitudes. The Manawatu River is in the North Island north of Wellington. The rain that came to Canterbury was heavy but did not help because the ground was not moistened up beforehand. We also need about half the rainfall for the duration of the year to date again on top of what has fallen. The drought has broken just about every conceivable record you can imagine. Usually to date every year 370-420mm of rain would have fallen, but as of Friday August 17, 256mm had fallen. In July 1999 we had 222mm of rain in a MONTH, and parts of Canterbury last August probably had 300mm of rain - most of it in 36 hours from 17-19 August (the event that caused the Selwyn River to flood). Average rainfall every month range from about 45-75mm (45mm in January and 75 in July-August). Rob"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 18, 2001 (15:52)", "body": "Poor New Zealand! Are you on water restrictions? I cannot wish you this lack of rain all in one storm - you would surely wash away! I good soaking gentle rain followed up by copious amounts of water on the uplands would be ideal. How that plays itself out, we shall see. Wind damage to buildings and rain in the wrong places or on land unable to absorb it is familiar to those living on the other islands. Our storms are moderated mainly by Mauna Loa's and Mauna Kea's altitudes. We get a gentle soaking rain most evenings \"to settle the dust\" and in the mornings early. to \"water the flowers,\" but it is not always that way. I think we are also below our average rainfall - we had a very dry spring. Our normal raifall to date is 79.86 inches (203 cm) and we have actually only had 51.86 inches (132 cm.) We are cong to complain about it, but we need nice steady rainfall for the next several weeks to soak into the groundwater and aquifer systems. I shudder to think how bad it is on the drier islands like Oahu, where Honolulu uses most of the water keeping things pretty for the tourists. We all want jungle scenery in Hawaii but no one wants the rainfall that must accommodate such growth. Are you situated so you are not swept away by torrential rains? (Please tell me, yes!) Our side of this vast island (only a fraction of the size of New Zealand) is so porous that whatever rain we do get usually soaks straight into the ground. Then there was the 30 inches in 6 hours in November. They are still patching roadways from that deluge. My house is safe and I am safe, as well."}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 18, 2001 (15:55)", "body": "(Either I need to wake up a little more or proof read better - or both. My apologies for the typing errors in the above post.)"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 20, 2001 (20:51)", "body": "Ocean landslide set off Hilo tsunami, scientist says University of Hawaii geophysicist Gerard Fryer, trying to figure out the cause of the devastating April 1, 1946, tsunami, said he is building a case that it was generated by a submarine landslide shaken loose by an earthquake. The puzzling tsunami killed 159 people in Hawaii, smashed the Marquesas Islands and went on to Antarctica. A recurrent theme among scientists and engineers at a recent International Symposium on tsunamis in Seattle was that \"landslides are not something we can ignore,\" Fryer said. He cited the 1998 tsunami in Papua New Guinea that killed more than 2,000 people. There is still some controversy about it, but most scientists believe the waves were triggered by a giant submarine slump minutes after an earthquake, he said. The people lived on a spit of land only about 16 feet high, and the waves were about 33 feet high, he said. They washed over the entire spit and beyond, he said, adding that about 75 percent of the people were killed in several villages. \"There is this realization that collapse slips and landslides have to be considered (as tsunami sources),\" Fryer said. \"A big one almost certainly will follow an earthquake, but it can happen spontaneously as well.\" The 1946 tsunami was very strange, Fryer said. \"We don't know how big it was. I'm arguing that a landslide was so large that it was responsible for what was recorded on seismographs.\" A recent earthquake in the Pacific Northwest \"reminded us there is a tsunami hazard there,\" Fryer said, \"and in fact, the outer banks of Washington state in many ways are very much like Papua New Guinea, with sand spits and lagoons behind. There is no easy way off the spit in a hurry. It's scary, but things can be done about it.\" Resort complexes, big hotels and condos could provide refuge, he said. He also said that both Oregon and Washington are good about public education. More plus picture... http://starbulletin.com/2001/08/20/news/"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 20, 2001 (21:07)", "body": "New tsunami warning system in place Deep-water sensors on buoys will provide more data on waves Ocean landslide set off Hilo tsunami, scientist says By Helen Altonn haltonn@starbulletin.com The last of six deep-ocean instruments to alert the tsunami warning network to an approaching deadly wave is being installed this month. \"It is the biggest advance we've had probably in the last 30 years in terms of sea-level instrumentation,\" said Chip McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at Ewa Beach. The ocean bottom sensors send data to satellites via buoys. Three are located off the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, and two off Oregon and Washington. The sixth is going in near the equator \"along a path to give us readings of tsunamis from South America -- a dangerous zone for us,\" McCreery said. He added the buoy system is working \"excellently\" after some initial problems. Normally, the deep-ocean instruments do not produce much data. But if there are any unusual signals, they go into an emergency mode and transmit data every few minutes at higher sampling rates, McCreery said. More and image... http://starbulletin.com/2001/08/20/news/story3.html"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  7, 2001 (18:22)", "body": "[1]GEOPHYSICS, SEISMOLOGY, & VOLCANOLOGY * Revealing Earth's Deepest Secrets * Crushing Mechanism Revealed: There's New Insight Into What Triggers Rock and Ice Failure * Study Supports Buoyancy Explanation for How Volcanic Rock Rises Through the Earth's Mantle * Giant Wave Devastation Feared References http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-geophy"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  7, 2001 (18:22)", "body": "[1]HYDROLOGY * Secret to Earth's \"Big Chill\" Found in Underground Water References http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-hydrol"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 10, 2001 (00:19)", "body": "There is evidence of a huge tsunami hitting the coast of Scotland ca. 5800 B.C.: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001311817,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/sci_tech/2001/glasgow_2001/newsid_1531000/1531049.stm"}, {"response": 61, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Sep 10, 2001 (01:18)", "body": "Hi Well, Spring is here but the northwesterlies have not arrived. I think La Nina must still be at work because westerlies as a wind have not been all that strong around here in recent times (last 3 weeks). The Waimakariri is running low but clearly at the moment (go to http://www.ecan.govt.nz , look up river flows and go to the Waimakariri camera). In a big flood it is from bank to bank with filthy brown water. In 1957 that river jumped the banks and rolled through Belfast (4000+ cumecs). Rob"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 10, 2001 (16:08)", "body": "Rob, I found a comment in my email weather alerts for the US that the El Ni\ufffdo for this year will be minimal. Perhaps that is good news. I wonder if it is not just another part of earth we do not quite understand yet dump all the statistics into a new name technicality to make it sound like we do...! Went into the site you suggested and to river flow and at the bottom of the page, to the Waimakariri River cams. That is a huge estuary system you have there. The water looks pretty clear now, but are all those bits of brown \"dry land\" just deposited topsoil the latest flooding removed and deposited? http://www.niwa.cri.nz/cam-era/sites/waimaka/waimakariri-a.htm http://www.niwa.cri.nz/cam-era/sites/waimakb/waimakariri-b.htm"}, {"response": 63, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (06:31)", "body": "Hi Marcia, that is not the estuary. That is the actual river as it appears for much of it's course because the Waimakariri is a braided river - it has channels like that that change course within the stop bank system every time there is a flood. No ships go up or down the river as the channels are too shallow and in any case change course with ever flood. When the river is in a big flood, the WHOLE gap between the trees will be under water. Rob"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:06)", "body": "Good grief!!! I have heard of braided rivers but never thought it might look like this. It looks like a good place for a nature reserve. I shall keep an eye on those cameras - it is truly amazing. Thanks, Rob."}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  2, 2001 (01:31)", "body": "Maybe a little benign neglect is a good thing!!! DEFENCE WORSENS FLOODING River engineering is doing more harm than good. http://www.nature.com/nsu/011004/011004-1.html"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  4, 2001 (21:32)", "body": "Rob, this one is for you - not exactly on topic but cannot find anothe more suitable place for it: Glacier Reveals Climbers Lost for 38 Years WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The remains of two Swiss climbers lost almost 38 years ago have been recovered from New Zealand's Southern Alps, local media reported on Wednesday. Bones, clothing and climbing equipment were discovered by a climber at the end of the Hooker Glacier, near Mount Cook, and recovered by police and Department of Conservation staff, the Timaru Herald newspaper reported. A wallet found among the equipment and personal effects identified the pair as Edward Kunz and Augustus Manser, who disappeared on December 28, 1963. Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest peak at 3,754 meters (12,313 feet), is around 200 km (125 miles) west of Christchurch in New Zealand's South Island. South Canterbury Search and Rescue coordinator Sergeant Geoff McCrostie told the Herald it was not unusual for remains to be discovered after decades hidden in slow-moving glaciers. http://dailynews.netscape.com/mynsnews/print.tmpl?&table=n&cat=50900&id=200110040810000296949&cp=srtoffprt&dpt=offbeat"}, {"response": 67, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (04:54)", "body": "Hi all IT RAINED TODAY - WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! I was delighted to see rain cloud over the Southern Alps today and EVEN BETTER - A southerly with showers (better than nothing)is forecast for tonight. It is about time something happened. But what ever does happen has to be followed up by further rain bearing systems within a couple weeks and preferably carrying something in the order of 20 millimetres every time. New Zealand is still in drought mode and with summer bearing relentlessly down on us the need for rain cannot be greater - Rain dances anyone?? Rob"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (16:50)", "body": "I was just going to suggest doing rain dances for you, but we already get 150 inches ( 45.7 Meters)of the stuff in a normal year and much more than that is not all that necessary. I'll think cloudy thoughts full of gentle warm soaking rains for your watersheds. Now, go out and play in your gentle rains and enjoy! I do that here!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Oct 31, 2001 (01:15)", "body": "Hi all October has been the first month when we have had normal rainfall this year. Although we are still about 230mm shy of what we would normally have had in the the year to date it is very pleasing to see normal spring flows in the river of Canterbury, Marlborough, the West Coast and Otago. Rainfall for the month of October to date has been 77 millimetres and given the fact that as I tpye this the sky is going all one shade of grey, it is possible more is coming. Rob"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 31, 2001 (23:01)", "body": "How odd it is to see you say Spring. Keep reminding us north-of-the-equator sorts that there is a whole world who has reverse seasons. The leaden sky is a good sign. Perhaps not all of the world's clouds are not hanging over Hilo today, after all!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Nov 12, 2001 (04:40)", "body": "Hi all October ended with 88mm of rain falling in Canterbury and the drought appears to be broken for November rainfall to date is above average. 370mm of rain had fallen by last Friday and with low pressure systems in the Tasman Sea lining up to take aim at New Zealand it is reasonable to expect more rain over the next couple of days. Rob"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (00:06)", "body": "I know you are on holiday, and rain is not welcome. I also know about living on an island and how you must make your own water. It is best when it comes of its own accord. I see that north of you had serious problems with Lingling. Cambodia is currently washing away after it did the same to the Philippines."}, {"response": 73, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (20:12)", "body": "Hi all Whether we needed it or not, some rain fell last night as a southerly swept up the coast and into Canterbury, then Marlborough and finally Wellington. It was supposed to bring thunderstorms and for a time it looked like the forecast would be correct, but then the cloud slowly dissipated. A couple showers fell this morning but at the time of typing this the sun had come out. Rob"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (21:01)", "body": "You said the Northwesters were not bad for you. Rain is good; too much rain is not. Please, no kite-flying while the current activity is overheard. Perhaps it is clearing the sky for the Leonid Meteor Shower this weekend!!!"}, {"response": 75, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (21:04)", "body": "(marcia, do you see me online?)"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (21:15)", "body": "Nope!!! Wolfie, if you see me, bring up my box and send me a message."}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (21:16)", "body": "i can't do anything, my little msn icon won't work but it acts like i've already got a box open. nothing at all."}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (16:51)", "body": "Delete the whole program, then reinstall it. Been there and done that! Heavy Rain in Puget Sound Region Triggers Mudslides, Forces Evacuations, Close Roads The Associated Press SEATTLE (AP)- Heavy rain from the region's first major storm of the season triggered mudslides, damaging homes and forcing evacuations. The storm dumped 3 inches of rain in Seattle and 5 inches in Olympia on Wednesday. Forecasters said Thursday's amounts would be less, but flood warnings remained in effect for several rivers. A mudslide hit a waterfront house in Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood. Residents were evacuated and a road uphill from the home was weakened by the slide and closed. Some electricity was knocked out and a water main was shut off because of weakened utility poles in the neighborhood. One highway east of Seattle was closed after mud and water undermined it. Many local roads in western Washington were closed by flooding streams and rivers. The storm resulted from a low-pressure system laden with subtropical moisture, a pattern known as a \"pineapple express,\" said National Weather Service meteorologist Dustin Guy."}, {"response": 79, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (17:20)", "body": "I just had to go in to the stairwell in the building I'm in because of heavy tornadoes in the Austin area. It's very dark outside right now. Lot's of tornados about, right now."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (18:26)", "body": "BE SAFE, TERRY!!! Got your latop batteries topped off? I have never expereinced a tornado They sound terrifying. Will be standing by for your live action reports!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (20:05)", "body": "Hi all The Waimakariri River was running higher yesterday after rain in the upper reaches of the catchment. It meant the white bait were not running and Dad and I came away after 90 minutes with enough for two patties. In New Zealand we need the small freshes to remove the algae that piles up in long spells between the floods. The floods are needed to root out the lupin plants that threaten to overwhelm the bird species which inhabit the river bed during periods of lower flows. Rob"}, {"response": 82, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (20:17)", "body": "The tornado hit just a few minutes after I drove by the airport, tore the roof off the Montopilis Rec Center (big building), and hovered around that area for at least half an hour. Wierd weather, the tornadoes just hang in one spot instead of move through. The doppler view is at http://www.kvue.com/weather/doppler4.html ."}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (20:46)", "body": "Terry! You could SEE the tornado?? Gimme a lava flow anyday. Tornadoes are too capricious. Don't they make you get into shelters when tornadoes are imminent? Rob, get the rain over with so you can see the Leonids this weekend. We stand no chance of seeing them."}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (20:53)", "body": "That's fantastic link, Terry http://a940.g.akamai.net/f/940/442/1m/www.kvue.com/images/liveimages/dop640a.gif Thanks!"}, {"response": 85, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Nov 16, 2001 (02:37)", "body": "Hi all Terry are you sure that was the tornado?? I have never heard of a tornado staying in one place for any length of time and the classic direction for them is NE. When a severe thunderstorm as the one I imagine you saw comes over sometimes a really strong inflow of wind can suck up dust if it is on the plains in Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas or elsewhere. This is the mark of a really bad storm because it means the storm is dictating the outflow, and inflow which is required for the monster SUPERCELL thunderstorms that spawn tornadoes. In the same storms depending on whether it is worst-first or worst-last it could have been a curtain of hail or rain or both. A worst first may not necessarily have a tornado but could have damaging winds, rain and hail. A worst-last event, which sometimes but not always looks similar to the worst-first sometimes starts of violently with wind and lightning and some rain and/or half but what you ought to watch out for is a calm period where a segment of cloud is lower than the rest and an tornado will be there. Having said that if you can see a wall cloud and rising scud then you can forget about sight seeing and start worrying about which road is the quickest route out, or if a tornado has descended and it is nearby, take cover. Rob"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 16, 2001 (20:56)", "body": "Not for nothing is that corridor of the US from Texas north though Oklahoma called \"Tornado Alley.\" I suspect this is not the first tornado super-cell that Terry has experienced. I just wonder why they all don't have storm cellars like they do in Kansas and other states with this propensity. Everything is bigger and better in Texas. Even their storms?!"}, {"response": 87, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Nov 18, 2001 (02:22)", "body": "Hi all A heavy rain warning is in force for all Canterbury rivers from the Waimakariri southwards (Waimakariri, Rakaia, Rangitata, Waitaki), all Otago rivers (Taieri, Clutha, as well as Westland (Taramakau, Waiho, Haast, Cook, and several others) The HEAVY RAIN warning is for 200 millimetres (8 inches)of rain in 24 hours from 9AM today (November 18 NZ time, 12PM CA time November 17). To watch a BRAIDED river metamorphose from a semi normal state to one of flood watch this camera of the Waimakariri: Check when you see this message and then in 24 hours time. The difference will hopefully be considerable. http://www.ecan.govt.nz - go to river flow and look at the Waimakariri cameras upon seeing this message and check it every say 12 hours for the next 48 hours Rob"}, {"response": 88, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Nov 18, 2001 (19:42)", "body": "Hi all I am bitterly disappointed with the Northwester in progress for it has failed to deliver the 200mm of rain forecast and only 10mm has been dropped. Oh well, try again tomorrow afternoon your time by which hopefully, 100mm forecast for tonight might be cruising downstream as a flood. Rob"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 21, 2001 (00:03)", "body": "Might you have been practicing the wrong dance? Gods flee when I try, or else they give us half a year's worth over one weekend. Do you get dry summers, or soggy wet ones? I fear it is the former. What DO you do under severe drought conditions? Melt Glaciers?"}, {"response": 90, "author": "ommin", "date": "Wed, Nov 21, 2001 (04:38)", "body": "If only we could Marcia - we are in severe drought here in Western Australia and yet two days ago we had severe storms - electrically magnificent but only an inch of rain - just not enough - but we have changed climatically - semi-tropical I fear - less rain in winter and more in summer and humid. Has any one else come upon this change in climate."}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 21, 2001 (13:52)", "body": "Anne, a great deal of the mid-west of the US is having the same difficulties. Too hot for this time of year. Pennsylvania, is too. California is bone-dry and gets its water from several states away - some of it fossil water, at that. I suspect that in the grand scheme of the earth, we are short in vision and wisdom. We need to be better custodians of that remains. That is not going to be all that comfortable for those of us used to self-indulgent life styles. I have huge problems with people who pile into the car and go shopping instead of taking the kids on hike and seeing something real. Oh well, I'll put away my soap box and realize that I am doing much the same by ascending the summit of Kilauea for a dinner which I could have eaten in Hilo. *sigh*"}, {"response": 92, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Nov 22, 2001 (05:35)", "body": "Hi all Some heavy rain events for you in New Zealand today and over the last couple days. First off, the initial heavy rain event for the mountains DID come - it was just running late and 180mm was dropped causing minor flooding of State Highways 73 and 6. Wellington is mopping up after 100mm was dumped on it in just 6 hours and it caused widespread surface flooding. The culprits were moist northerly and moist southerly airstreams colliding over the city and emptying their load on the city. In Canterbury two days of overcast weather and steady rain has dropped 40mm with more coming tomorrow. The drought is gone from Canterbury. Finally the drought is also dead in Nelson as 32mm of rain fell overnight and more came today. The same system has replenished the Wairau River. Rob"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 22, 2001 (14:28)", "body": "Excellent news, Rob. Let us hope the weather knows when enough is enough. You surely do not need floods to follow on the heels of such beneficial rains."}, {"response": 94, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Dec  6, 2001 (02:05)", "body": "Hi all The Rakaia is running at 1758 cubic metres per second after nearly continuous rain of varying intensity. Arthurs Pass in the Waimakariri catchment has had nearly 400mm in 5 days and heavy rain is still falling. Mt Bryne in the Rakaia catchment has had 600mm, hence the high river level. On the West Coast heavy rain at Franz Josef and Whataroa reached 22mm an HOUR and the river are rising again for the second time in 48 hours. Heavy rain is tapering of but is not expected to completely stop. The Waiho River draining the Franz Josef catchment reached a height of 7250mm (which exceeded the first alarm level)and further north near Westport, the Buller river is running at 9000mm (first alarm level is 7000mm). Rob"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  6, 2001 (15:22)", "body": "Moderation is not in New Zealand's vocabulary? This is frightening! When I was very young (I have never told this before) and I heard my parents talking about flooding, I would sneak up to the bathrooms and turn on all the water taps to lessen the water build-up around the house. To my little mind, I thought it was a brilliant idea, but I was also insecure enough that I did not tell anyone. Go run your water taps! How much danger are you in from land slips???"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  9, 2001 (21:26)", "body": "Ice crystals pull together http://physicsweb.org/article/news/5/12/1 Avalanche prediction and defence relies heavily on an understanding of the structure of snow when it packs together. Now Ed Adams and colleagues at Montana State University in the US have found a new feature that develops between adjacent ice crystals, which suggests that mass may redistribute itself through snow fields more quickly than current theories predict. According to the team, the same effect may occur in a wide range of crystalline materials (E Adams et al 2001 J. Appl. Phys. 90 5782)"}, {"response": 97, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Dec 26, 2001 (02:12)", "body": "Hi all New Zealand is sweltering in very humid conditions as a warm moist northeasterly streams down from the tropics. Today cloud build ups leading to possible thunderstorms were forecast for inland Canterbury, Otago, Marlborough and possibly also the Volcanic Plateau (more common name for the Taupo Volcanic Zone). Last year cloud build ups and the thunderstorms that occasionally resulted from them, caused flash flooding, slips, a road washout. A hailstorm caused by the same activity destroyed a grape crop intended for wine makers near Masterton. It also sent campers running for shelter as marble size hail started raining down. Rob"}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 26, 2001 (14:08)", "body": "Rob! You have our weather! Our air is thick with fumes today and I am staying quietly indoors, as a result. Floods?! Is the storm you mention the one which caught your uncle by surprise when he was camping and fishing? Remind them to stay homw. How much danger is there of lahars as a result of all of this water falling on the ash fields of Taupo? I worry about you! Be safe!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Dec 26, 2001 (16:36)", "body": "Hi all No risk of lahars at all, because all the remaining rock is either loose bits of pumice littering the lake shore, or welded ignimbrite that has formed high cliffs around parts of the lake shore. To be sure, a huge volume of ash was dispersed, but what is erodible has been eroded, for the most part, and the rest is locked in place by vegetation and other volcanic flow debris. The only lahar risk is when the dam plugging Ruapehu's crater lake fails but that is a major problem which is starting to worry many people. Thunderstorms and cloud build ups are forecast for today, though I doubt we will get any cloud build ups. Any thunderstorms today will be frontal and probably come if a southerly airmass is colliding with something from the west or east. It is westerly at the moment. Rob"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 26, 2001 (19:00)", "body": "This is good news. Be safe! Rob, could you find the White Island Volcano webcam URLs for me and post them. I can't find them in the world volcanology links and I seem notto be able to find them on searches of the web. Thanks!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (00:15)", "body": "Hi all Thunderstorms have broken out in several places around Canterbury, and about half an hour ago at 5.30PM local time one was in progress to the southwest of our place. At this stage the storm is still young and weak but several faint peals of thunder have been heard from time to time. Rob"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (01:05)", "body": "No wonder I looked in vain for you online. Please be careful, Rob! Your weather map does not look promising for the immediate future!"}, {"response": 103, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (16:49)", "body": "Hi all I was probably out doing a spot of shopping before the storms which I knew were coming, began to form. Today more thunderstorms are forecast for the West Coast, and whilst Sunday is further out, there is a long range forecast for thunderstorms on Sunday here. Oh well. Rob"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (18:08)", "body": "*Sigh* If you are going to get rain, it might as well be exciting. Unplug your world so you can be back online when the clouds clear. I'll be watching the webcams."}, {"response": 105, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Dec 28, 2001 (00:21)", "body": "Hi all We have just emerged from a 1 hour thunderstorm with a brief heavy down pour and quite a lot of lightning and thunder. It was the second of two storms I witnessed first hand today and the final of five storms visible from our place. The storms all formed to the south west of Christchurch and tracked NE across the city bringing moderate rain and steady thunder and lightning. In other news today, torrential rain in Manawatu caused localised flooding and the closure of State Highway 1. Rob"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 28, 2001 (00:56)", "body": "Rob, could you tell me the website URL for a good Christchurch weather forecast so I can post yours also? I have little success with the ones which appear in the search engines and the MetService seems not to want me to look at theirs. Thanks! I did not wish to ignore your dilemma. Now, go unplug again tonight - just to be safe. I'll try to get online to talk to you tomorrow - fumes permitting!"}, {"response": 107, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Dec 28, 2001 (04:33)", "body": "Hi all Okay, we will put it in weather though because it will detract further from the Hydro Hazards subject, though the rain radar which we used to monitor the progress of the thunderstorms was quite hand WHEN it was updated. Rob"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 28, 2001 (15:37)", "body": "Hmmm... perhaps you might find a forecast for weather (geo 14) which was what I was looking for, then post what actually happened here?! If we have to make a choice, I'd rather you keep your weather and associated effects here! I agree with you!"}, {"response": 109, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Dec 29, 2001 (05:42)", "body": "Hi all Another day, another storm. Todays itinerary consisted of a thunderstorm at 1.PM with heavy rain, very good pyrotechnics and sound effects, followed about 3 hours later by the mother of all downpours, with very little lightning and thunder. Mum and Dad went walking up the Port Hills about 7.30AM and there was not a cloud in sight, but as they were coming down the first cumulus clouds were forming and by midday the whole southwestern horizon was dotted with growing thunderstorm cells. The lightning started the display with air to ground strikes and cloud to cloud bolts followed shortly afterwards. At times one peal of thunder had hardly finished when the next flash was seen. Heavy rain set in and sent everyone outside running. As it cleared out the roads and footpaths were steaming and the gutters were choked with debris. For about 2 hours there was relative calm - until I went up for my lunch break and spotted a huge slowly rotating cloud slowly drifting our way. It had a gust front for a time but as with the previous storm this one was almost windless. This is the third consecutive of thunderstorms here and it is still possible that another one will come tomorrow. Rob"}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 29, 2001 (15:25)", "body": "That rotating wall sounds ominous. How many tornadoes go you get there? I never thought of islands getting anything more than an errant waterspout which wandered onto dry land. It is the only kind we get in Hawaii, and even they are rare. So rare, in fact, that I have only looked up into one which never touched down. I was impressed, felt great dread, and was happy we only have to worry about an active volcano and earthquakes."}, {"response": 111, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Dec 30, 2001 (16:10)", "body": "Hi all Here is a report from the Press, that appeared at Stuff.co.nz on the thunderstorms and other dramatic weather that we have been having around Canterbury: http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1055542a1561,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 112, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jan  2, 2002 (18:00)", "body": "Hi all For three days and nights now, the West Coast has been carpeted bombed by torrential rain and further heavy rain is forecast: For the article go here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1057839a1806,FF.html To see how much rain is falling go here and follow the simple directions: http://www.ecan.govt.nz - web page of Environment Canterbury, governing body of Canterbury Go to RIVER FLOWS - go to table view for both North and South Canterbury. NOTE 1 inch is 25 millimetres. To see a big braided river flood, go to NIWA cam-era Waimakariri (DOWN PAGE. If the river is clear, the milky water indicates deeper channels, light brown indicates sediment islands, and dark blue indicates shallow water. If it is dirty and running high then most of the river will be a uniform brown)."}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  2, 2002 (19:28)", "body": "I was hoping that large front headed your way would go north of you. However I caught your weather report on International CNN and saw the bad news. How fortnate that you managed to have your family camping during one of the rare breaks in the steady routine of storms. I think your drought is history. If you are like us, it will continue far past enough to keep us in bath and potable water! I have another rare clear evening. I will look for Quadrantid meteors and satellites. Happy me!"}, {"response": 114, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jan  3, 2002 (05:57)", "body": "Hi all A thunderstorm pounded the West Coast last night and the lightning had to be seen to be believed. Fork lightning and sheet lightning lit the skies above Westport with an unbelievable display as a dozen Westport properties were flooded in a deluge lasting an hour. Thunder clapped rolled and rumbled like the gods clapping and stamping simultaneously while Coasters watched on in utter amazement: http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1058580a11,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 115, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jan  3, 2002 (21:46)", "body": "Hi all Flood warnings: Surprise surprise. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1058859a1806,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  4, 2002 (14:04)", "body": "Rob, Dear, yours are like ours. Several; days after people have moved out of flooded homes andbarricades are all over the flooded roadways, they finally send out flood warnings. By then it has subsided so weare told they are cancelled. As soon as they cancel them, we KNOW you are really going to get it!!! Our otherwise cautionary and very good civil defense people always seems to miss the rainstorms! Sheeet lightning I have also experienced. It's blinding! Coasters drying out after deluge 03 January 2002 An electrical storm that struck Westport and Buller overnight caused widespread flooding and came as heavy rainfall throughout the area forced the closure of one of the main routes between Canterbury and the West Coast. Forked and sheet lightning flashed continually for over an hour as torrential rain flooded about a dozen properties in Westport. Several homes and businesses spent today cleaning up. Westport fire chief, and Buller mayor, Pat O'Dea said he had never seen rain like it. He said the fire service received at least 12 phone calls to deal with surface flooding but there was nothing it could do. more... http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1058580a11,FF.html"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  4, 2002 (19:43)", "body": "* Here Comes the Rain References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-hydrol"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  4, 2002 (20:42)", "body": "The latest HazardWatch is now online: http://www.hazardwatch.co.nz"}, {"response": 119, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Jan  5, 2002 (02:17)", "body": "Hi all Another day another storm. This from The Press newspaper about yesterday's thunderstorm. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1059928a1934,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan  5, 2002 (15:06)", "body": "Have you ever tried taking a time exposure to catch some ground strokes? It is another excuse for you to play in the rain if your mother worries. Anything for science! Please be careful, though. I will worry, also. Keep your feet dry!"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan  5, 2002 (15:11)", "body": "I just read the little weather forecast that I could fine. You will be getting more rain and cold weather with it. Stay warm and dry while you're taking those photos. It sounds rather miserable!"}, {"response": 122, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jan  6, 2002 (18:16)", "body": "Hi all On Saturday the skies began darken ominously at about 10.30AM. Around 11.AM the forming storm was starting to form a ragged front and soon something of a gust front was visible along the leading edge of the storm which marked an approaching southerly. Huge black clouds were rising steadily and thunder rumbled in the distance. By midday the clouds had assumed a charcoal black possibly because of the sunlight as much as the huge rain making factory it was becoming. Cloud to cloud lightning occasionally lit up the sky and made for some impressive peals of thunder. It struck just after Midday and with an intensity rarely seen in Canterbury. Little lightning and thunder after the rain started but a super heavy wind driven deluge of remarkable ferocity sent people people running for cover. The rain had a few pieces of hail mixed but it was EASILY the big player. It came down so hard and so fast that another 5 minutes of that intensity would have flooded the drain running through our neighbours place. As it was it almost could not contain the 10 minute downpour anyway. At Pak'N'Save the foyer was crowded with people waiting the rain out and no one came in or left. All those working outside went upstairs for a drink well we waited. In the central city it was MUCH worse, and to find out how bad, go here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1061090a11,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (13:35)", "body": "Good Grief, Rob! Next thing you need is a little digital camera to snap storms. I got a bunch of snow pictures from the snow storm that hit the east coast over the weekend. Beautiful but treacherous! But, nothing like hailstones you had several inches deep! We have only had hail once in Hilo since I got here. Very tiny bouncy granules of ice. Thanks for that url. Shovelling hail! I'm glad they got you to a high and dry place. I think that would have sounded incredibly loud on a metal roof!"}, {"response": 124, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (20:47)", "body": "Hi all In just four months Lake Tekapo and most over high country storage lakes have gone from half empty to 100% full.Lake Tekapo is spilling water in large volumes because further rain is expected and the lake is full to capacity. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1063305a1934,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 125, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (20:50)", "body": "do they not have levees and stuff? no where to direct the extra water?"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (21:21)", "body": "Levees and earthen dams have had a terrible record for breaching and killing all below. I wonder if it is possible to divert extra rainfall in such large amounts! Rob, go ask your dad!"}, {"response": 127, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (21:23)", "body": "lots of barrels then! *laugh*"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (22:03)", "body": "A bucket brigade of Brobdingnagian proportions, no doubt. Trouble is, I wonder who is evaporating sea water faster or haviong a huge drought. The water comes from one source - HERE!"}, {"response": 129, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (22:02)", "body": "Hi all The water pours down the Tekapo River and into Lake Benmore or enters the intake and sent by tunnel to drive Tekapo A and B powerstations. From there it has two options, down the Pukaki and Ohau Canals through 3 more power stations before entering Lake Benmore, or down the Pukaki which still ends up in Lake Benmore. At Lake Benmore a 540 megawatt power station is the first of 3 on the Waitaki before the water enters the Pacific Ocean. The Waitaki dams and the hydro storage lakes are all operating under resource consents with set limits on how high the lakes can get before they MUST spill water. Don't worry, it is just to ease the pressure on the lakes, and not because the dams cannot hack anymore. The lakes could fill further, but in Tekapo's case there is a town of several hundred people and tourists on the foreshore. Therefore not spilling would be very dumb. Rob"}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (22:24)", "body": "Dumb and tempting fate, it would seem. Not good advertising to wash tourists into the sea! That sort of thing tends to get around. I'm happy you are using it to replace fossil fuel for electricity generation. I wish we did more of it. Oh well, you are cold and wet, but well. That is good news, indeed!"}, {"response": 131, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jan 11, 2002 (02:35)", "body": "Hi all And the rain keeps tumbling down. We have had a low pressure system in the Tasman Sea spawning northeasterly rain last night with a bad thunderstorm in Wellington, and now the persistent rain has come to unload in Canterbury where we have had twice the monthly rainfall since the start of the month. Canterbury just 4 months ago was looking at the prospect of another long dry summer with little visible relief in sight but now the biggest problems for many are \"Rain, rain go away, come back another day\". The hydro lakes as I showed are full to overflowing and as was shown in the news article I posted, the Tekapo spillway is open. I hear more cloudy days and northeasterlies are on their way for much of summer occasionally interspersed with northwesterlies. I hope the rain holds of because farmers cannot make hay while the grass is wet and they need northwesterlies or at least some sunshine to do that. Rob"}, {"response": 132, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jan 11, 2002 (02:54)", "body": "Hi all again Wellington's turn for the thunderstorm treatment: http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1065869a11,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 11, 2002 (23:12)", "body": "Amazing the amount of water that can come from fluffy clouds! Landslides and all - your weather looks much like ours in the really wet times (they are not consistent as to when they happen in Hawaii.) I think the weather knew about your hosting the New Zealand Open Golf Tournament and let open the floodgates. I am watching live play as I write this! Rob, this is off-topic and really none of my business, but I was concerned about reading of the Christchurch Hospital closing. Will this affect your mother? (More than one of Geo's best has a Nurse for a mother!)"}, {"response": 134, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Jan 12, 2002 (01:59)", "body": "Hi all Marcia, although it is off topic, I appreciate the concern you show about the hospitals but no it does not. Mum works at a medical centre (medical centres are for check ups, minor surgery and light weight procedures). The situation is crap and the Health Minister refuses to get involved even though every nurse at a HOSPITAL in Canterbury is involved in the strike that is looming. Hillmorton Hospital is NOT the main hospital but a specialist one for patients with some mental disorders. This is really bad and no one is looking forward to the strike, but the nurses who have my sympathy are over worked, under staffed and under paid. And the minister is not interested. But back to topic. Bad news, really bad news : 150mm (6 inches)of rain is forecast for the foothills of Canterbury and Kaikoura and heavy rain is already falling on north Canterbury. This is the sort of heavy rain that caused the 2000 floods in the Selwyn, Ashley, Temuka, Orari, Opihi, and Hurunui river. This is shaping up to be the wettest January on record and the weather is showing no signs of letting up. Rob"}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 12, 2002 (18:29)", "body": "(I'm not certain why, but when news is written without the \"a href\" command to make it a hotlinkk, it appears as one, anyway!) Rob, you're right about nurses. You're right about health minister (or any bureaucrat for that matter deciding health matters) Understand about the nurses being overworked and underpaid. They have been ever thus and teachers have been, too. Hospitals are necessary Looking at the weather in Wellington, it does not look promising! It is odd to watch your weather on Sunday while I am living in my weather on Saturday, and it looks like about the same time of day! Time warp can engage the mind for a while between putts and downpours. We have not discussed the disaster preparations for floods. Food caches are probably destroyed by them but you always need fresh drinking and cooking water. Especially in flood conditions. Hang in there, Rob!!! I'll be checking your weather on your favorite NZ website. *Hugs*"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 12, 2002 (18:57)", "body": "Geohazard links - for New Zealand and the world at large - there may be a map hiding in one of these links: http://gis.eng.upm.edu.my/gisat/disaster_link.html http://search-intl.netscape.com/Science/Earth_Sciences/Geology/Organizations/Government_Geological_Surveys/Oceania"}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 12, 2002 (22:21)", "body": "The latest issue of HazardWatch is now online. http://www.hazardwatch.co.nz Media release: Big quakes of 2001 too deep or too distant to cause damage http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/release/eq.htm We also have some new content online outlining our research in Antarctica. http://www.gns.cri.nz/earthhist/antarctica/index.html Antarctica was a part of Gondwanaland adjacent to New Zealand prior to 80 million years ago, and its geological structure and evolution is of special interest to NZ geologists. Our research at GNS concentrates on understanding Antarctic ice sheet behaviour, the evolution, origin and structure of the Transantarctic Mountains, and the associated evolution of the Ross Sea sedimentary basins. http://www.gns.cri.nz/earthhist/antarctica/andrill.htm ANDRILL programme Antarctica is a major driver of oceanic and atmospheric conditions worldwide, yet its role on modulating global climate is poorly understood. A major drilling programme, ANDRILL, is proposed to significantly improve the understanding of ice sheet behaviour and sea ice dynamics over the past 35 million years, and their influence on the New Zealand region. http://www.gns.cri.nz/earthhist/antarctica/trans.htm The Transantarctic Mountains trend for 4000 km across Antarctica, reach elevations of over 4 km, and form one of the world's major rift flank mountain chains. The mountains lie along the western border the West Antarctic Rift System, which is thought to have formed during extensional rifting events related to continental breakup. Rifting of lithosphere is a fundamental process in the development of continents and their margins."}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 13, 2002 (01:04)", "body": "Rob, note the side links on the left. http://www.gns.cri.nz/earthact/nz_geology/index.html I think this source is as close to what we are looking for that is currently available on the Internet."}, {"response": 139, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jan 13, 2002 (19:56)", "body": "Hi all Flooding has occurred in several parts of Canterbury as a result of the heavy rain on Saturday night. Akaroa and Kowai were the areas worst hit after flooding and slips cut access. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1067124a1561,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 14, 2002 (00:12)", "body": "oh Rob, this does not sound promsing. Please be careful. Are you safe from the inundations? No wonder your lawn is so beautifully green and healthy! Greece continues to be frigid. The weather maps look unpromising for later in the week."}, {"response": 141, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jan 16, 2002 (18:11)", "body": "Hi all Even 3 days after the rain stopped, the rivers are still dirtied and many roads and bridges remain cut off through out inland Canterbury. The only access to Lees Valley was cut by flooding, Coes ford on the lower Selwyn is still closed, the Orari River bridge is open after the river destroyed one end of the bridge and the approaches. For more go here. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1070799a1934,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 16, 2002 (20:18)", "body": "I read your like article and looked at the standing water in the fields. What a mess! Between farmers of Eastern Europe being frozen out of business and your being flooded out, I wonder where fresh vegetatbles, friut and nuts will come from. *sigh* Please don't suggest that we farm Mars or the Moon. We can't keep production going down here! I wonder how much of my annual consumption of fresh vegetables I could grow in the yard. Bananas get tiresome, even when they are as versatile as ours are."}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 16, 2002 (20:27)", "body": "How good is NZ drainage? How long will the water be standing and breeding mosquitoes? This island is very porous - especially on the Hilo side since our substrate is so new. We don't even make decent mud. On Oahu, where Honolulu exists, an inch of rain is a traffic-stopping event. More than that and they're pumping water out of basements. On an island, it is a delicate balance between too much and too little of anything!"}, {"response": 144, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jan 16, 2002 (23:35)", "body": "Hi all New Zealand drainage is quite good and in the west where the heaviest rains fall the soils are designed to cope with the rainfall, and support vegetation that thrives on moisture. Milford Sound and parts of the West Coast get in excess of 6600mm per annum and may get up to 1000mm in as little as 3-4 days. That sort of rainfall is not an everyday event but an upper limit to the variation in rainfall. Which is why after a drought event I am not worried if there is a stand alone event where 250 millimetres of rain falls in a large river catchment - it can stand up to that. It is when say you get an average of 30-40 millimetres a day for 3-4 weeks saturating the catchment and THEN get 250 millimetres in a day. The Waimakariri River on average has a flow of 1500 cumecs once a year, 2300 cumecs every ten years and 4000 cumecs once every 100 years. But don't follow averages, because weather patterns produce rain whenever the conditions exist, be it ten times annually or a hundred times annually. In the case of recent where the rivers of Canterbury, West Coast and probably the Clutha, Waiau, Oreti and Mataura rivers in Otago and Southland, were in flood the weather was not the entire cause of the flooding. Sure it generated the rain, but the rain generation had assistance from the Australian bushfires which generated a lot of very fine dust that served as nuclei for the moisture and why in part so many thunderstorms rolled through Canterbury so quickly. It is also in part because the weather is inbetween the end of the La Nina patterns and the possible onset of an El Nino. Rob"}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 16, 2002 (23:43)", "body": "Hmmm cumecs and milliliters... Your colony has gone metric. UK and the US will be the last to do so. I am reliant on my handy little calculator to make sense of what you have written. It must be very convenient to be bi-measuring, not to mention wearing a necktie which converts \ufffdF to \ufffdC and back again, as one Geophite does. In any case, that is a LOT of water on a given acreage, and for a one-time event, not more than can be absorbed. I had not considered the amount of condension nuclei which had accumulated due to the Australian Bush Fires. That makes a vast difference. Out here, either we make our own weather, or we wait for the few yearly systems to dump on us. I much prefer our daily system to provide the landscape with moisture."}, {"response": 146, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Jan 19, 2002 (04:04)", "body": "Hi all Another thunderstorm yesterday with more rain and more filthy rivers (no break out - but a small flood wave came down the Selwyn after heavy rain yesterday afternoon). Christchurch has had 110mm of 46mm in an average January to date with more coming. Ummm....... where is Summer, where is the glorious Northwesterly and where is the sunshine? Rob"}, {"response": 147, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Jan 19, 2002 (04:06)", "body": "Me again And here is the article that goes with this: http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1073268a1561.FF,html Rob"}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2002 (21:45)", "body": "The latest HazardWatch is now online: http://www.hazardwatch.co.nz Interested in Landslides? GNS is hosting a Landslides Research workshop in Auckland between the 3rd and 5th of May. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together some of the key landslide workers in New Zealand to discuss current and future landslide research and the setting up of a rapid response system for significant landslides in New Zealand. Find out more here: http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/conferences/lanzlides/lanzlides.html"}, {"response": 149, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Feb  9, 2002 (04:50)", "body": "Hi all On January 17 a severe downpour hit Dunedin dropping 15mm of rain. Initially the intensity was not known, but it has been established that about 5.45PM that day an intense rain storm hit Dunedin. It caused rockfalls on the Otago Peninsula and flooded businesses in the Dunedin central business district. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1096820a3845,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (17:27)", "body": "Oh dear! It only happens occasionally here that businesses are flooded. Your copious amount of rain is preparing for that conference on landslips!"}, {"response": 151, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (02:23)", "body": "Hi all A heavy rain warning has been issued for the Southern Alps, and Westland from 1.PM today New Zealand time (8 hours old at time of posting this). This is because a front is in the Tasman Sea proceeded by Northwesters and and a cooler Southwesterly behind it. 120-170mm of rain is expected and there may be rainfall of up to 25mm an hour as thunderstorms are forecasted for the mountains and West Coast plains. Rob"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (14:40)", "body": "Keep that weather in Fijordland and the Southern Alps and far away from Cricket (set to begin in less than 4 hours.) The odd shower is more likely for Aukland. I am eager to share this last of the New Zealand - England One Day series. Go Kiwis!!!"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (13:33)", "body": "Storm hits Big Island with fury By Hunter Bishop/ Tribune-Herald With more than 24 inches of rain unofficially recorded in Ahualoa in the past four days, Puaaona Road flooded and was impassable Tuesday for the first time in at least 10 years, said a resident. Residents of 14 homes were stranded, said Robin Smith, a physical therapist who couldn't get to her Kona job Tuesday. \"I don't know about tomorrow,\" she said. \"It started raining Saturday night,\" said Smith, and that's when she began measuring the precipitation. When she got home from work at 6 p.m. Monday, 6 to 8 inches of water was moving through the \"usually dry\" stream bed which bisects the dead - end road to her home. When Smith awoke Tuesday morning, she said 6 feet of water was moving over the road in \"a roaring, raging torrent.\" Nearby Kapuna Road in Ahualoa was also flooded and impassable. Slightly more than 3 inches of rain had fallen at Hilo airport in a 24 - hour period ending 6:53 a.m. Tuesday but the northeast part of the island was getting hit much harder. Tuesday's storm dropped its most significant amounts of rain in Waimea and Honokaa. Nearly 8 inches of rain fell in the upper Kamuela area in the 24 hours ending 8 a.m. Tuesday. More than 6.3 inches of rain was recorded during the same period in Honokaa, according to the National Weather Service. In Waimea's Lakeland subdivision, homes on Makaloa Loop suffered some flood water damage but the extent was not yet known, said Hawaii County Civil Defense officials, whose crews were assessing the situation Tuesday. Police reported \"severe ponding\" from Lakeland to Church Row in Waimea. In Puna's Orchidland subdivision, Pohaku and 30th through 39th streets were closed Tuesday, and in Hilo, a portion of East Kawailani Street was also closed Tuesday, all due to the heavy rains and flooding. Landslides caused several delays for motorists on Highway 19 Tuesday along the Hamakua Coast as debris blocked lanes. Honolii Beach Park also was closed Tuesday due to the heavy flow of flood waters from Honolii Stream. Lightning and wind - blown debris caused scattered electrical outages in Puna, parts of Kona and Hilo, said HELCO spokesman Jay Ignacio. Problems started occurring with lightning shortly after 10 p.m. Monday. \"Most (outages) were short in duration - lightning strikes - and we were able to get the circuits back up quickly,\" Ignacio said. \"In other cases the lightning did some damage,\" he said, affecting isolated pockets of one to 10 customers, some of whom were still without power Tuesday afternoon. Snow fell on the summit of Mauna Kea to below the 8,000 - foot level, said Ron Koehler, director of Mauna Kea Support Services. Mauna Kea Road is closed two miles below Hale Pohaku, which is at the 9,200 - foot level where 6 inches of snow covered the ground Tuesday afternoon. Conditions were improving and the winter storm warning for the upper slopes of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa was canceled Tuesday, but the road is expected to remain closed today and Thursday, Koehler said. A couple of Hilo radio stations also were knocked off the air by the storm Tuesday morning. All but KAPA 100.3 FM were back on the air by the afternoon, said station manager Buddy Gordon, and he expected to have KAPA back on the air later Tuesday as soon as a new transmitter could be installed. Delivery of the Tribune - Herald was delayed Tuesday morning in some areas due to the weather, and booming thunder overnight in Hilo caused at least one car alarm to activate. A flash flood watch was still in effect Tuesday for North, East, and South Hawaii. A flash flood warning, the more urgent level of notice, was lifted Tuesday morning. http://www.hilohawaiitribune.com/daily/2002/Feb-27-Wed-2002/news/news2.html"}, {"response": 154, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (16:57)", "body": "Are you all right, Marcia?"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (17:47)", "body": "Yes, thanks! I am quite safe. My house is built on a concrete slab which is riding on 20 feet of fill. This side of the island is very new, geologically, so we seldom even get mud. Only those foolish enough to build on low areas of town have flooding during rains like this. Actually, the tsunami managed to move most of the houses out of the flat areas near sea level. So, most of what flooded were soccer fields. In Kona it was a different story. They are not prone to tsunami or storm dangers so their homes are built right on the water. THEY had the flooding, this time. Most storms do not make it over the mountains, but this one did."}, {"response": 156, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Mar  3, 2002 (03:34)", "body": "Hi all Better watch the water level in Hilo all the same. Don't want the water suddenly retreating and coming back as a 10 metre high tsunami. Remember the clock that shows the time the tsunami hit in May 1960, and the soccerfields? They will get flooded again, either from a deluge or a wave roaring of the Pacific Ocean. Rob"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  3, 2002 (14:42)", "body": "That tsunami clock is still there, still an awful shade of apple green and still stopped at the hour the tsunami hit Hilo. You can bet no one in Hawaii is ever going to dash into the newly-emptied bay to catch the stranded fish for dinner they never lived to eat. I seldom turn my back on the sea. I have a deep uneasiness about its strenth inside me. I've nearly drowned by being crushed to the bottom of the Atlantic shore when I was a child. That panic of not knowing which way is up and when the next breath of air is coming is a terror which never goes away. For that reason, I will be glad if one day I leave Hawaii permanently! I'll miss having an eruption to watch, but I will not miss the dangers all around this \"paradise.\""}, {"response": 158, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (16:59)", "body": "Hi all I guess tsunami are just one more thing to add to our list of disasters now due. We have not been tested by a real tsunami since the 1960 earthquake of the Chilean coast, but I confess to not knowing about the tsunami of Good Friday 1964, in Alaskan waters. Does Marcia want to join me behind the as yet relatively untried stop banks protecting Christchurch from the Waimakariri River, on whose vast floodplain we sit? Rob"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (19:32)", "body": "Marcia would rather spirit you away to her home at a safe distance from the shore and part way up the mountain. I would love to see a tsunami happen - but ONLY from a safe vantage point and ONLY if no one gets hurt. They must be incredible. Rob, now I am even more worried about you!"}, {"response": 160, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (19:36)", "body": "one happened in Alaska? ok, some explaining please----tsunamis are the result of oceanic earthquakes?"}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "TSUNAMI BULLETIN NO. 001 PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS ISSUED AT 2141Z 05 MAR 2002 THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE PACIFIC BASIN EXCEPT CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, AND ALASKA. . . THIS IS A TSUNAMI INFORMATION MESSAGE, NO ACTION REQUIRED . . AN EARTHQUAKE, PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE 6.8, OCCURRED AT 2116 UTC 5 MAR 2002, LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 6.1N, LONGITUDE 124.0E IN THE VICINITY OF MINDANAO, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS EVALUATION: NO DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS. HOWEVER, SOME AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA LEVEL CHANGES. THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED UNLESS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE. . . . NO PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT . . . RECIPIENTS OF THIS MESSAGE LOCATED IN CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, AND ALASKA SHOULD REFER ONLY TO WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER MESSAGES FOR INFORMATION ABOUT ANY TSUNAMI THREAT IN THOSE AREAS. STOP"}, {"response": 162, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!"}, {"response": 163, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (19:38)", "body": "marcia, log into MSN (pleeeeeeeezzzzzeeee)"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (23:04)", "body": "I'm OK Sweetie. Tsunamis can be generated by local STRONG earthquakes (our 6.7 EQ caused a small but lethal tsunami on this island killing our best surgeon and a few Boy Scouts camping out in a remote but vulnerable area.) The Good Friday EQ ravaged Anchorage and created a 9-foot tsunami in Hawaii. The tsumnamis in Alaska (Valdez in particular) were devastating. Our greatest tsunamis in the 20th century were caused by earthquakes in the Aleutians and offshore Chile (1946, and 1960.) Any sort of earthquake which is strong enough to cause the deformation of the earth under the sea can cause a tsunami. Fill a bucket with water (the sea) Kick the bucket (not figuratively - the earthquake) and see what the water does. Landslides can also cause tsunamis - as in the one predicted if the side of Kilauea falls into the sea. Locally they are estimated to be several hundred meters high ( >500 feet) and about half that around the Pacific. This is not something I want to witness!"}, {"response": 165, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  6, 2002 (18:05)", "body": "earthquakes can also cause landslides.....what a connection! i didn't know landslides could cause tsunamis....now i know!"}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  6, 2002 (19:11)", "body": "Simple landslides can't do it. Half of a mountain falling into the sea will cause a tsunami and register on seismographs world-wide, but technically, they are not earthquakes, unless the cause of the failure of the mountain structure is seismic in nature. Actually, most planetary events are interconnected. We are just beginning to discover how the dynamics of this lively planet on which we live really work."}, {"response": 167, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Mar  7, 2002 (03:44)", "body": "Hi all March 21, 2001 A cold wind blew up the valley, as a lone policeman gingerly makes his way through the cold night air to a pole with a steel bin dug deep into the ground, high on a ridge overlooking a valley. He opens the lid on the steel drum which houses a seismograph and geophone system hooked to the Orting Police Station, some 35 miles downstream. All is normal. Down the verdantly beautiful valley with douglas firs and pines draining the slopes of Rainier, flows a river cutting through the forest in a gorgeous glacial blue ribbon. It discharges into a wider valley downstream and flows across the plains before entering the sea near Seattle. As dawn breaks over the Puyallup River, seismograph needle wobbles on a machine at the Orting police station before reverting back to a normal straight line. It has picked up a small flood originating from the the glacier system that mantles the 14,410 foot high volcano. Nothing to worry about. But three days later, something more sinister emerges. A volcanologist goes up to Rainier and checks the vents temperature as well as a report of a steam vent on the lip of the crater. The police and chiefs call a meeting with the mayor of the town. They decide to keep watch on the volcano and make an announcement if things worsen. For the next couple days a 24 hour vigil is kept on the seismographs and warnings are posted for climbers to avoid the glaciers and crater lip of Rainier. March 25 Two climbers approaching the summit feel an earthquake. Although high on the mountain, they opt to descend incase of more earthquakes. They descend to the carpark and one of them calls the police. Aware of the mountain's volatile history and reputation, they are worried about it being the opening note of an overture that no one wants to hear. That night an announcement is made to the people of Orting about the earthquake and a small flood four days ago. The media largely ignore it wholly unaware of the importance of the small flood and the earthquake. Another earthquake rocks the volcano that night loosening up rock and allowing magma to enter the cracks. It's presence as scribbles on the seismograph reading the following morning turn's the gut of the police chief ice cold. Something is wrong. Another meeting is hold, this time involving the county sheriff, his deputy, the State Governor, the fire chief and the local representative of the Federal Emergency Management Authority. More small earthquakes rock the mountain, and small rock slides distort the reading on the seismograph. The people are starting to feel the tremors and the media is interested. Not wanting to create an atmosphere of panic, the Governor calls for calm, assuring the people that the warning system will provide enough time for an evacuation in the worst case. To reassure them further, a test is run on the sirens to check they are working. The result is reassuring. The sirens are working and are being heard clearly. Night fell on March 27 as the town of Orting watched the local news for information, on the unfolding crisis. They were scared. For years the people had been educated on the huge lahar deposits 500ft deep that blanketed the valley floor. At school the following day teachers began teaching the students what to do if the warning to evacuate was given. The students were frightened. Most did not know what a volcano was and the thought of the only home they knew being swallowed by a huge lahar scared them. It scared their teachers that they now had to teach something they had hoped would not be needed. It scared the authorities who knew that a false alarm would destroy their credibility and that not warning the people in time would also destroy their standing. It scared the geologists who were watching the volcano and the State Governor despite her interest in volcanology. Geologists began speculating on the possible causes of a lahar. Could it be a volcanic eruption melting the glaciers? Could it be an earthquake loosening weakened rock and ash, thus mixing it with the water from the glacier? People were warned about straying into the valleys and climbers were told to stick to the ridges on the east flank if they had to climb. Dawn came at 7.00AM on March 28 and was accompanied by the wailing of a siren. A disused and derilict house down the road had been torched. It was just the Fire Brigade. Two climbers on their way to the east flank of Rainier had reported a man running away. They had spoken to police about the fire. Near the mountain a sheriff asked them where they were going. After checking their permit, he let them pass. High up on the flank of Rainier at Sunset Amphitheatre, a huge gash where a segment of the volcano had cascaded down the valley in a huge avalanche, the volcano was cracking and crumbling. Mount Rainier would not hold on much longer. Earthquake activity was steady but the magma was almost to the point where the flank of the volcano would simply fall to bits - and unleash a lahar. An "}, {"response": 168, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Mar  9, 2002 (00:56)", "body": "Hi all The above story was based on a huge lahar from Rainier that poured down the Osceola River several thousand years ago and which I understand flowed as far as Puget Sound and Seattle. The Rainier complex has collapsed many times. Not all of the events were related to volcanic activity. Some may have been caused by heated melt water migrating through the volcano and altering the chemistry of the rocks, thus turning them into a very weak mass with not much strength. The most recent of the lahars that Orting is built on was not a result of volcanism according to geologists, but a result of the above process. Rob"}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  9, 2002 (20:58)", "body": "You're right Rob! Excellent scenario and very realistic accounting. They conduct evacuation drills for the entire city on a regular basis"}, {"response": 170, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (00:06)", "body": "Hi all And scary. I will post a map of the valley that Orting is in: http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/volcanoes/vorting_full.html Mudflow will come from the south-southeast. Both the Puyallup and Carbon Rivers drain from Rainier. Rob"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 11, 2002 (20:48)", "body": "Landslide likely key to ocean mystery UH scientists are trying to find the source of deep-sea deposits off Oahu Undersea seismometer 'going strong' scientist says By Helen Altonn haltonn@starbulletin.com Coarse sand and a volcanic layer that appears explosive in origin are puzzling discoveries of a deep-sea drilling program conducted northeast of Oahu for University of Hawaii scientists. Gregory Moore and Michael Garcia, geology and geophysics professors, are trying to figure out where the explosive volcanic rocks and sand deposits could have come from. Deep ocean sands usually are found only close to an island or coastline, and these are more than 186 miles from Oahu, Garcia said, explaining it would take a big event to transport them so far. The source of the explosive volcanic rocks also is a big question, he said. Some people on the drill ship JOIDES Resolution believed the volcanic layer came from Oahu and was hot, he said. \"Getting something that far, hot, through the ocean is an unusual event,\" he said. \"It supposedly baked the underlying sediment and still had boiling water within it by the time it was put in place.\" Some suggested that the source of the volcanic material was closer to where it was found in the ocean, Garcia said. Others speculated the deposits occurred in a phenomenon similar to Mount St. Helens, when a landslide took off the top of that volcano and exposed the magma chamber, leading to an explosive eruption, he said. The UH scientists have been studying giant landslides around the islands for several years, particularly the catastrophic Nuuanu landslide that removed about 40 percent of the Windward side of Oahu more than a million years ago. Sarah Sherman, postdoctoral researcher in geology and geophysics who works with Garcia, participated in the drill project aboard the JOIDES Resolution. She said the sediment was expected to be about 330 feet deep, based on seismic data, but the drill hit rock at about 42 feet. The hole was drilled about 138 feet deep. Sherman returned with samples of different types of rocks that, she said, \"tell us it's more complicated than what we thought.\" Preliminary data on glass from the 42-foot level indicate it has chemistry like Hawaiian lavas, she said. \"Some of the glasses (in the volcanic rocks) looked like Koolau glass,\" she said. That is exciting, she said, because all the samples have low sulfur content, suggesting they were \"degassed\" and erupted from land, not in the ocean. Scientists are interested in the Nuuanu landslide because it may have generated enormous tsunamis that reached the West Coast. One question is whether it was one colossal event or a succession of collapses. Learning more about what happened may help predict the next event, Garcia said. The UH scientists previously used ships and deep-submergence subs from the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center to investigate the Nuuanu landslide. They said they learned a lot because the Japanese have the ability to map the ocean floor, still poorly known around Hawaii. They even discovered a volcano related to the Hawaiian chain about 46 miles off Waianae, Garcia said. \"It seems to be very young, based on a lack of sediments,\" Moore said, estimating it is less than 1 million years old. \"Size-wise, it is about the same size as Koolau or Waianae volcanoes. It's a big feature.\" It rises about 3,300 feet from the sea floor and is about 13,200 feet from the ocean surface, he said. These discoveries aside, the researchers were frustrated that they could not get beneath the Nuuanu landslide deposits. They sent a proposal to the Ocean Drilling Program to drill a hole through the deposits, and the project was added to a cruise scheduled by the JOIDES Resolution in this area after Christmas. Garcia said a layer was found beneath the deposits that the ship's scientists initially called a lava flow but was eventually found to be explosive in origin. The scientists said they have learned in the last 10 years that eruptions related to the Hawaiian hot spot occur far out on flanks of the islands, as well as on the islands. A volcanic field, called North Arch Volcanics, was discovered extending from about 62 miles north of Kahuku to about 136 miles in the center, Garcia said. \"It is truly enormous,\" he said, \"with little cones and fissures like those seen on Kilauea. ... We didn't expect such deposits from the North Arch fields because these are lava flows, whereas the deposits they found in the cores are explosive in origin.\" If they were explosive eruptions, he said, \"that would be a new discovery, and if they (deposits) came from Oahu, that would be a frightening discovery in the sense that such a big event occurred.\" Moore said, \"The other part of this volcano story is, you wouldn't expect to find an explosive volcano at that water depth (16,500 feet).\" Garcia added: \"We're waiting for proof to come in. That part about having it happen on Oahu and getting it that far while it's still hot, that"}, {"response": 172, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (04:09)", "body": "Hi all I might ask that the account of the Orting lahar be posted in Global Volcanism. That is one of my best pieces of work to date. Later on I may post a scenario for the onset of a caldera eruption at Taupo or possibly a scenario about living in the shadow of a lava dome. Rob"}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (13:45)", "body": "Please do! I borrowed your Krakatoa scenario story for Geo. I can do it or you can copy and paste it to World Volcanology. Let me know if you wish for me to do this!"}, {"response": 174, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (01:52)", "body": "Hi all That would be good. I would appreciate it being put in the World Volcanism group. Rob"}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (19:35)", "body": "OK will do. But you surely need to do this so it doesn't look like you can't copy and paste your own text. I'll tell them you are busy studying which is the honest truth! Take care, Rob. *HUGS*"}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (19:39)", "body": "Tis done, Rob. Take another bow!"}, {"response": 177, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Mar 21, 2002 (02:18)", "body": "Hi all Check the Waimakariri River Webcam when you get up tomorrow morning and at two to three hour intervals through out the day because 130mm of rain (5.2 inches for those not converted to metrics)fell today in Arthurs Pass and it was still raining at 6.PM (8.15PM at the time of typing this)and 332mm (13 inches)has fallen in the last five days. NOTE: Although you might think you are looking at an estuary, this is a classic braided river. But because of all the rain the channels will merge as long large dirty mass of brown water with maybe the odd island. http:www.niwa.cri.nz/services/cam-era/sites/waimaka/ IN A BIG FLOOD, EVERYTHING BETWEEN THE TREES ON THE LEFT AND THE BANK ON THE RIGHT (TOP RIGHT CORNER)WILL BE UNDER WATER COLOURED A UNIFORM BROWN. IN A FLOOD CAUSING CONCERN, THE RIVER WILL BE INTO THE TREES AND UP TO THE STOPBANKS (NOT VISIBLE IN THIS IMAGE). Rob"}, {"response": 178, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Mar 21, 2002 (02:19)", "body": "Me again Sorry. THAT SHOULD BE http://www.niwa.cri.nz/services/cam-era/sites/waimaka Rob"}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 21, 2002 (14:10)", "body": "I have it bookmarked http://www.niwa.cri.nz/services/cam-era/sites/waimakb/wbr_2002_03_21_15_01.jpg/view What does it normally look like? Lots of silt going on there!"}, {"response": 180, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar 21, 2002 (19:47)", "body": "check that out!"}, {"response": 181, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (05:45)", "body": "Hi all It is impressive isn't it? Note the river was falling already by that stage as the flood peak had passed, but it was running at 681 cubic metres per second at Midday. In full flood it might attain a flow of 4000 cubic metres per second which is a damn sight bigger than this... Rob"}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (14:16)", "body": "It is a relief to see the water levels lowering. I cannot imagine this lovely draided river with 7-8 times as much water in it. I am assuming no one is ignorant enough to live in this flood plain!"}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (22:31)", "body": "HYDROLOGY * Lost European Delta Predicts the Future of Modern-Day Rivers References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-hydrol"}, {"response": 184, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Mar 26, 2002 (03:23)", "body": "Hi all With the expected onset of an El Nino event soon, the likelihood of there being more of these floods has increased, since the northwesterlies are expected to be more frequent and last longer which also means higher temperatures in summer. Rob"}, {"response": 185, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Mar 27, 2002 (02:25)", "body": "Hi all But remembering the worst case scenario involves a depression in the Tasman unloading say 300mm of rain from the southeast then as the depression passes over, a northwester unloading a similar amount. Since the Waimakariri will collect substantial rain from both directions the risk of a severe flood is real. Rob"}, {"response": 186, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 27, 2002 (16:48)", "body": "Good grief, Rob!!! Please don ot flood the beautiful Avon again. That is too horrific to imagine! flood control ditches worh, in theory. Pleae be away then they are tested in real time!"}, {"response": 187, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Mar 28, 2002 (20:22)", "body": "Hi all Heavy rain and thunderstorm warnings in force for the Southern Alps: SEVERE WEATHER WARNING ISSUED BY MetService AT 10:50 am 29-Mar-2002 {MEDIA} HEAVY RAIN IN THE FIORDLAND AND WESTLAND MOUNTAINS MetService forecasters expect heavy rain at times in the mountains of Fiordland and Westland over the next 24 to 30 hours as a front moves over the area followed by bursts of heavy showers and thunderstorms. In the Fiordland mountains up to 100mm may fall in the 24 hours from 10am today while in the Westland mountains up to 150mm is possible in the 24 hours from about 6pm today. Trampers and other users of the high country areas should be prepared. In Otago and Canterbury, rain spilling over the divide may raise levels of rivers with their headwaters near the main Divide. Rob"}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 28, 2002 (22:51)", "body": "Trampers....? I am guessing that no one hikes in New Zealand? Please be careful. Summer is fast fading from your climate."}, {"response": 189, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (06:01)", "body": "Hi all Trampers/Hikers? Same thing. They go on walks carrying their own supplies usually in high country areas that last more than 1 night. Day trippers are there for a day intending to be somewhere else by the days end. Rob"}, {"response": 190, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (15:54)", "body": "trampers! *laugh* i like what you guys call 'em...."}, {"response": 191, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (02:24)", "body": "Hi all No hydro hazards where I am going unless there is a microburst in the Cass basin. The nearest big river is the Waimakariri into which all basin rivers drain. Cass has a small river called the Cass River nearby but it is not in a position to threaten us. Rob"}, {"response": 192, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (09:36)", "body": "We had a monster rain with thunder and lightning last night but no flooding, but the area is now saturated and primed if we should get another rainstorm. We had a two hour power outage last night. This is in the Bastrop, Texas area."}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (18:08)", "body": "I've been watching for Bastrop County for the severe weather warnings. You have managed to avoid tornadoes and various flood warnings. They have been just about continuous and I remember prior years when you were really under water. Be careful, Terry! Unplug to be safe."}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (18:11)", "body": "I have tyhe sweetest little power supply / surge protector on my computer. It stores a minute of power so I can save what I am doing and close out safely. I absolutely love it MBK 300 http://www.pcconnection.com/scripts/productdetail.asp?product_id=101787"}, {"response": 195, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (19:07)", "body": "just learned about a tornado that passed through Plain Dealing LA, just a few miles from where i used to live *yikes* will have to check with my cajun buddies tomorrow."}, {"response": 196, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (19:08)", "body": "(i've got an UPS too)"}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (19:50)", "body": "Love The UPS - I just discovered mine is good for 15 minutes or longer. I thought it was for only a minute becuase it starts to chirp at me after I have been working on it for that long. I think we need to pass the calabash and get one for John. He has had such a difficult winter with all that uncharacteristic snow and the power lines being assaulted by snow and ice and high winds. I was talking to a lady in Missouri and asked about the tornadoes there. She said the sky was very dark and ominous but nothing had happened. It seems like Spring is coming in like a Lion, indeed!"}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 21, 2002 (16:10)", "body": "Floods in Greece Deputy Agriculture Minister Fotis Hadzimichalis, visiting the flooded plains of Trikala yesterday following Thursday's torrential rainfall, said the government would do its best to compensate farmers for losses incurred due to the floods. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100020_20/04/2002_15646"}, {"response": 199, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Apr 25, 2002 (05:35)", "body": "Hi all Some westerly rain fell in the mountains today and yesterday, but it is not expected to cause flooding or any other dramatics. However, the weather phenomena El Nino is expected to arrive in June or July and that will mean an increase in the rainfall from the west on the West Coast, while eastern areas should be drier. Rob"}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 25, 2002 (16:57)", "body": "The Northeastern United States is in severe drought conditions. This is a great worry. Now is when the rain should be replenishing the watersheds and it simply is not happening. Some reservoirs are 10 or more feet down in depth. the wild fires in Colorado are just the beginning of a very precarious summer. Perhaps the lack of floods and other hydrohazards is equally damaging."}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (23:42)", "body": "The Biggest Floods Since Noah J\ufffdkulhlaups are one of nature's power tools: great icy floods that burst forth from glaciers. This article has had a steady string of readers for years. Now it's spruced up for another generation. See what you've been missing. http://geology.about.com/library/weekly/aa041397.htm"}, {"response": 202, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (06:18)", "body": "Hi all Jokulhlaups have been generated by subglacial volcanism before, unleashing huge floods and causing massive damage. Recall if you can Vatnajokull in October 1996. It witnessed a flood generated by volcanism melting the ice overhead. Meltwater built up in a vast reservoir, but eventually the dam could not hold the water and it burst. Rob"}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (18:58)", "body": "Rob, I watched the Vatnajokull happen via the well-placed web cameras the people in Iceland had positioned \"just for me.\" It was so riveting I hardly dared to sleep for fear I would miss the main event. It was quite a show and made me a fan of web cameras forever."}, {"response": 204, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, May  1, 2002 (05:11)", "body": "Hi all On Monday we started the Extreme Geophysical hazards section of Geog 305 with Ian Owens ( http://geog.canterbury.ac.nz - go to \"staff\")lecturing on the risk assessment. We will be covering floods at some stage in the course which is essentially a crash course on Natural Hazards - WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rob"}, {"response": 205, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, May  1, 2002 (05:12)", "body": "Hi all About time I had a crash course on my favourite forms of hazard. Lol Rob"}, {"response": 206, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, May  1, 2002 (18:41)", "body": "you're not happy, are you? *LAUGH*"}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  1, 2002 (23:40)", "body": "Rob is one of THOSE guys. Oh well. I found this for you bout the GeoHazards in Kiwiland. Good Luck, Rob. NEWS RELEASE, 1 MAY 2002 New Zealand, American, and Japanese scientists will this week begin a two-week voyage to probe seabed thermal activity around 11 newly-mapped submarine volcanoes between the Bay of Plenty and the Kermadec Islands....... http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/release/rare.htm New vacancy on site for Human Resources Manager. http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/vacancies/index.html Read about GNS customised field trips http://www.gns.cri.nz/help/services/petroleum/reservoir.html#Field New GNS Statement of Intent online 26/04/2002 http://www.gns.cri.nz/about/intent.htm Latest six monthly report online 26/04/2002 http://www.gns.cri.nz/about/sixmonth.htm"}, {"response": 208, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (03:07)", "body": "Hi all More westerlies over the last week, but little rain. However the persistent westerlies may be signalling the arrival of El Nino because the temperatures are very warm for May. 22-25.C today which is something usually reserved for April. Rob"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (12:50)", "body": "The Big Island of Hawaii is under flash flood alerts for the entire day. At the moment, it is dry but with heavily overcast skies."}, {"response": 210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "Dry Weather Caused NZ Glaciers Big Loss of Ice Mass Reuters May 12 2002 8:31PM WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Dry weather has seen New Zealand's famed South Island glaciers record one of their biggest annual losses of ice mass in 25 years and they would continue shrinking if this trend continued, scientists said on Monday. A yearly analysis of photographs of the snowline of 48 glaciers in the Southern Alps showed they had lost more ice than they gained in the past year, government agency the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) said. \"Think of it like a bank balance -- at the end of the glacier financial year we measure whether they gained or lost in terms of the amount of snow coming in, and last year they lost in a big way,\" NIWA senior climate scientist Jim Salinger told Reuters. More anti-cyclones and fewer westerly winds had resulted in dry weather for much of 2001 and below average snowfall. The glaciers have lost ice mass for four of the past five years, and if the trend continued the glaciers were expected to retreat further back into the valleys, he said. The scenic Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, which are readily accessible, attract tens of thousands of tourists each year who come to gaze on the remnants of ice-sheets that covered large parts of the earth during the ice ages."}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (18:16)", "body": "Scientists Find New Antarctic Ice Shelf Break Reuters May 13 2002 4:34PM MADISON, Wis. (Reuters) - Another massive iceberg has broken off the Ross Ice Shelf, reducing the Antarctic formation to about the size it was in 1911 when explorer Robert Scott's team first mapped it, scientists said on Monday. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin said the breakage is part of the normal iceberg formation or \"calving\" that comes as thick layers of ice gradually slide down from the high Antarctic plateau, and is not related to climate changes or global warming. The latest iceberg is about 125 miles long, more than twice the length of one identified about a week ago, said the school's Space Science and Engineering Center. Charles Stearns, principal investigator for the Wisconsin center, said the ice that formed the latest iceberg may have been in motion for the past 30 years. The iceberg was picked up by polar-orbit satellite imagery which the center monitors. It was first spotted on May 10, the group said. Though calving has been occurring on the Ross formation since March of 2000 when an iceberg about the size of the latest one was set adrift, the new one is of such a size that it \"may create new concerns\" for shipping interests in the southern oceans, the announcement said. Last week an iceberg about 50 miles long broke off the Ross shelf. The British Antarctic Survey said that was not climate-related either. The calving at Ross ice shelf follows the collapse in March of the so-called Larsen B ice shelf in the Weddell Sea near Chile, also in Antarctica. That ice shelf was the size of a small European country. Chris Doake, a glaciologist with the British survey, told Reuters last week that the Larsen B break up was climate-related, unlike what's happening with the Ross shelf. Scientists, however, have not determined exactly why antarctic temperatures have risen over the past half century."}, {"response": 212, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, May 22, 2002 (02:44)", "body": "Hi all Greymouth has rain and thunderstorm warnings out for the remainder of today and also tomorrow as a low pressure system in the Tasman Sea moves east towards NZ. This is good news as concerns once again rise over the level of the water in the hydro power storage lakes, like Tekapo, Pukaki, Ohau, Hawea and Wanaka. Rob"}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 22, 2002 (15:58)", "body": "Rob, you have assured me this is a good thing becaue you need the water. Please let it be in moderation!"}, {"response": 214, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 26, 2002 (16:30)", "body": "People Feared Dead as Barge Wrecks Oklahoma Bridge Sun May 26, 5:06 PM ET WEBBERS FALLS, Okla. (Reuters) - Several people were feared drowned after a number of vehicles plunged from a bridge into the Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma Sunday when a large span collapsed after being struck by a barge, authorities said. Rescue workers were attempting to reach the occupants of half a dozen cars and two tractor trailers that dropped into the river 60 miles south of Tulsa when a 500-foot section of the bridge gave way after being rammed by an empty oil barge. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol estimated that six to 11 people were trapped in their vehicles, which fell 100 feet into the water from the Interstate 40 bridge at about 7:45 a.m., and a massive rescue effort was under way. Police said heavy currents were hampering rescue efforts along the rain-swollen river. Four people who survived the accident were taken to the Muskogee Regional Medical Center and all were in stable condition, the hospital said. The injured included a 37-year-old man from Missouri, a 62-year-old man from Arkansas and a couple in their 60s from Oklahoma, the hospital said. Emergency officials on the scene told reporters they were expecting fatalities. \"We've got a lot of agencies that are assisting us down on the water and up on top,\" said Police Lt. Brandon Kopepasah. \"It's going to be a long ordeal.\" \"It sounded like an explosion,\" a witness told reporters. He said he was participating in a bass fishing tournament and there were several boats in the water at the time of the crash that helped rescue victims. Teams of divers, helicopters, a barge with a crane and emergency teams from across the state were dispatched to the bridge, about 100 miles east of Oklahoma City. The National Transportation Safety Board (news - web sites) and the Coast Guard sent teams to Oklahoma City to investigate the accident. NTSB (news - web sites) Chairman Marion Blakey said: \"The NTSB is committing all necessary resources to determine what caused this tragedy, and will be assisted by state and other federal authorities toward that.\" The bridge carries Interstate 40, the main cross-state route that connects Oklahoma City with Little Rock, Arkansas, and Amarillo, Texas. The Interstate was closed in both directions, the highway patrol said."}, {"response": 215, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (20:49)", "body": "as of earlier today, they pulled 3 bodies and 3 vehicles out of the river. how very sad and scary! my prayers go out to those involved!"}, {"response": 216, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (04:49)", "body": "Hi all Marcia. I am wondering whether to create a topic JUST for tsunamis. I find it hard to put them in any ONE of the following subjects volcanoes, earthquakes or mass movement (flooding is a direct and common response to rainfall, but could you say the same for tsunami/volcano, tsunami/earthquake, tsunami/mass movement?). Rob"}, {"response": 217, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (19:44)", "body": "I'm so glad you did, Rob. It is perfect. Sorry my time is limited at this computer and I did not get back to you in time. Thanks for creating it. Perfect! *HUGS* and one of my new-found Geodes to you for doing so!"}, {"response": 218, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (19:48)", "body": "The city of Lousiville is surrounded on two sides by the Ohio River. The flood gates around town are impressive. I should photograph them too. Their locks and dams for shipping are most impressive. More tonnage of goods moves through them than the locks of the Panama Canal on an annual basis. Needless to say, what was once a tourist adventure of seeing the locks is now off limits due to heightened security."}, {"response": 219, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (05:55)", "body": "Hi all Update on the hydro situation here. The principal hydro storage lakes of Pukaki and Tekapo, plus Te Anau and Manapouri are high and there is water spilling from the spillways at the first two storage lakes because of the flood threat now being posed. This is because the warmer than normal El Nino winter is dropping snow but it is melting faster than it usually would, thus raising the water levels in the rivers flowing into the lakes. Rob"}, {"response": 220, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (11:53)", "body": "have you guys seen the flooding in san antonio tx? amazing!"}, {"response": 221, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:08)", "body": "Yes, I have been watching on television. What a mess. The flood control near mny son is way below normal, and temperatures are over 100\ufffd F. This is going to be a bad fire season. I am not aware of the water level here but it seems from visiting the fossil reef to be a little below normal. but within acceptable range so no water rationing is likely. Of ocurse we are living in a flood plain and it is wide and deep and holds a huge river - the Ohio. I would not like to see it when it is angry or over its banks in flood stage!"}, {"response": 222, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jul 21, 2002 (03:34)", "body": "Hi all Some rain fell in Arthurs Pass today - 77 millimetres over about 24 hours. This is likely to make the Waimakariri run higher but not be a problem. If say 300 millimetres fell in a day (12 inches over 24 hours), then I think there would be some problems - certainly I would actively discourage anyone going on the riverbed, but I might be tempted to drive along the stopbanks or over the highway bridge to see what it looked like. Rob"}, {"response": 223, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (22:03)", "body": "Keep reminding us you are having WINTER now when most of the Geo world is sweltering in the summer heat. Be careful of black ice!"}, {"response": 224, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (06:09)", "body": "Hi all The cool thing about that rain was it came on a northwester, so we got very warm weather while the mountains collected the rain. 100mm in a day in Arthurs Pass is not a problem, but 100 mm in 3 hours might be. Rob"}, {"response": 225, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (15:46)", "body": "Your weather sounds like when we get snow in Hawaii - way far above us and not a worry to deal with. That is the best of all possible worlds! New Zealand is not like Hawaii? That much rain would just run right down through the cracks. However, where I am now it would be a very real problem!"}, {"response": 226, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (15:51)", "body": "The rain we had yesterday in association with the \"cold\" front passing through )I had forgotten how relative some terms are) reminded me of the \"6 inch rain\" they experience in the deserts of the southwest US. It means two drops of rain fell 6 inches apart. That's about all the rain we had and we really need much more. I am reporting this as someone used to living in a rain forst. At the slightest sign of wilting or yellowing of grass, I tend to think it is due to drought conditions and find myself bathing in less than an inch of water."}, {"response": 227, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (00:51)", "body": "Hi all Here is the flood and low flow information for the Rivers of Canterbury http://www.ecan.govt.nz/Water/Rivers-Rainfall/north-mean-flow-stats.html Please note all flows are in cubic metres per second. Rob"}, {"response": 228, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (00:56)", "body": "Hi all Sorry that is for NORTH CANTERBURY. The following are for SOUTH CANTERBURY http://www.ecan.govt.nz/Water/Rivers-Rainfall/south-mean-flow-stats.html As with the previous set of data for NORTH CANTERBURY, the SOUTH CANTERBURY data is in cubic metres per second. Rob"}, {"response": 229, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (14:55)", "body": "Summer storm causes floods Buildings are reflected in floodwaters blocking a Syngrou Avenue underpass in central Athens yesterday following the heavy rainfall. Opposition New Democracy blamed the government for having failed to take adequate precautions against floods. A sudden heavy rainstorm yesterday temporarily flooded parts of Athens and Piraeus, forcing the closure of crucial roads and causing power cuts. The capital\ufffds metro and electric railway networks were largely incapacitated, while a sailing test event for the 2004 Olympics was suspended. Firemen had to pump water from hundreds of flooded basement flats, while dozens of motorists had to abandon their vehicles in roads turned into raging torrents by about two hours of heavy rain just after midday. The Kifissos River broke its banks, forcing police to close Pireos Street to traffic between Moschato and Piraeus. The Kallirois Street underpass, under Syngrou Avenue, was also inundated and had to be closed for several hours. The new Athens metro also suffered from the storm, with floodwaters seeping into the Sepolia, Fix and Larissa underground stations, while the electric railway service was also severed for some time. The third day of the sailing regatta off Aghios Cosmas was canceled. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100010_19/08/2002_19927"}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (23:55)", "body": "We've been spared the floods, but the weather is strange WHILE many parts of Europe and Asia have been ravaged by storms and devastating floods, Cyprus appears to have escaped the extreme weather which has affected other countries this summer. However, while flooding and rainstorms like those that have swept through Central Europe may have by-passed Cyprus, the island has not been without its own abnormal 'weather events' for the time of year. So far this summer, the island has seen unusual bouts of torrential rain, with the Met Office recording the average area precipitation for July as 288 per cent of normal levels for the month. Temperatures meanwhile have vacillated between extremes of over 40 degrees Celsius and un-seasonal lows of 33 degrees Celsius in inland areas. Nicosia's inhabitants also noted an increase in humidity (normally experienced only in coastal regions) in the capital this July. But according to Eleni Hadjigeorgiou at the Cyprus Meteorological Office, the weather conditions experienced in Cyprus this summer are not dramatically different to those witnessed in previous summers. She noted that statistics revealed there was no increase in relative humidity and said, \"we feel a 'stickiness' in Nicosia in recent years because our surroundings have changed. The upsurge in tall buildings traps the air and obstructs winds, making the atmosphere more uncomfortable.\" Hadjigeorgiou did admit the frequency of rainfall in the summer months of 2002 was unusual. She also highlighted the increased instability of the island's weather as a feature of the summer so far. Global warming has almost certainly had a cumulative effect on climatic conditions worldwide, and may account for the general rise in freak weather conditions over the past century. A Greenpeace report entitled _The Cyprus Energy Revolution_, published in 1999, noted higher than average emissions of carbon dioxide from Cypriot power stations, a fact which is of concern to the island's environmentalists and climatologists alike. However, marked changes in weather patterns for Cyprus over the years are difficult to pinpoint due to the relative infancy of the island's meteorological service. \"We do not have any studies of our own to show possible climactic changes or the various trends in Cyprus' weather over the past 100 years. The Met Office here was only set up in 1976, and this means we have too few records to produce an accurate study,\" Hadjigeorgiou said. Asked what weather the island could expect for the remainder of the summer, she said forecasters had predicted the possibility of showers on the island over the next few days, but could not offer a longer-term forecast. \"We can never be sure about the weather, and can never be certain what will come next,\" she added. _Afrika_ calls on Clerides to speak out for jailed journalists http://www.goGreece.com/news/headlines/story.html?id=7454"}, {"response": 231, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (19:12)", "body": "Kifissos\ufffds repeated flooding is due to poor coordination Too much diffusion of responsibility for the river means none at all For years, the Kifissos River has been a much-abused watercourse, and solutions put forward at a local level have usually made the situation worse. Experts say that the solution is to prevent so much water entering the river. By Manina Danou - Kathimerini The Kifissos River can be compared to an injured wild animal, according to Grigorios Varras, president of the Geotechnical Chamber of Greece\ufffds eastern Sterea branch. The recent floods, he said, are the river\ufffds way of reminding us of its presence and its power. \ufffdThe flooding may have been a painful shock for some people,\ufffd Varras told Kathimerini recently, \ufffdbut for us it was the expected response of a much-abused watercourse, where for decades problems have been dealt with only spasmodically, usually providing solutions at local level \ufffd and often the wrong ones \ufffd that only make things worse. The solutions we proposed in 1994 to the then public works minister, Costas Laliotis, are not costly and so do not allow for much profit in the form of kickbacks, that is why they were not popular. But how do you stop water with concrete? The point is to deal with the problem further upstream, to prevent so much water reaching the riverbed in the first place.\ufffd Parts of a river such as the Kifissos that are outside the city limits come under the jurisdiction of the State\ufffds Forestry Service, which quite correctly treats rivers as a feature of nature that has to be protected. From the moment a river enters settled areas where there is farmland, it becomes the responsibility of the irrigation department of the Agriculture Ministry, whose goal is to provide water from the river for farming. When the river enters the city proper, it becomes the responsibility of the urban water and sewage company (EYDAP, in the case of Athens), which treats it as a drain. That is why the most common solution proposed is to close over these rivers. With such a division of authority, it is almost impossible to have a comprehensive plan that takes all the technical and geotechnical parameters into consideration . Rainwater, which pays no heed to the actions of man, looks for channels to flow into. Even if people block or build over these channels, the water that falls as rain will flow into neighborhood streets, eventually to find its way to the Kifissos riverbed. Because of the lack of soil surfaces which could retain some of the water, and the disappearance of individual water channels that used to lighten the burden of the main channel so that only some of the runoff reached the sea, now the entire volume reaches the Kifissos. \ufffdNo one talks about how far the sea reaches up into the river. There is a considerable difference in height between the riverbed and the seabed, so the sea pours in, putting pressure on the river at its mouth, slowing down its flow at a point where it should be fastest,\ufffd he said. \ufffdThe problem of flooding is not only restricted to the Kifissos but affects all water catchment areas encroached on by housing development. Flood protection works should include provisions for green spaces in and around the city and ways to retain surface water runoff, among other things.\ufffd http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=22115 Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 47, "subject": "DISASTER: How to prepare for the eventuality", "response_count": 56, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (01:02)", "body": "The first thing I do is have sturdy shoes under my headboard. In them are socks, and leather gloves. On a little hook beside the bed is my flash light (check batteries often), my scanner - police and fire and civil defense, and my little whisk broom. How will you do in a hurricane or tornado aftermath? What will you drink? Eat? Wear?"}, {"response": 2, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (07:12)", "body": "Hi Tornadoes are freaky little things that come with supercell thunderstorms. Supercell thunderstorms are highly organised and often spectacular aerial sculptures. They have distinctive features like a GUST FRONT - the wedge shaped cloud on the front of a well organised storm. Some have SHELF clouds which are essentially broad wedge shape clouds that have VERY STRONG outflow winds (sometimes strong enough to blow out windows). The more severe storms may have WALL CLOUDS. These can circular shaped lowerings of the storm cloud base and any tornado is almost always there. Sometimes a noticeable change in cloud colour can occur immediately behind a distinct line in the cloud (usually representing a cold front). To understand and prepare for tornadoes it is helpful to know what storms may produce them and what to look for in a storm. Rob"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (16:13)", "body": "Tornadoes are something I have only once chased with my son - we saw only one little vortex or two whirling slowly from the great massive over-grown anvil cloud. Watrer spouts occasionally come ashore in Hawaii and take roofing tiles with them, but otherwise they are benign and rare. I am essentially only book and a college meteorology course taught about tornadoes. I'd love to understand more about them. Understanding the enemy is half the fight. Knowing what could happen is the best defense. Getting underground is best!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 11, 2001 (22:47)", "body": "While you're stashing your survival food under the bed, consider a light bit of food to grab and run with. Power Bars and water will hold you for a while. Remember your stores are as badly hit or worse than your house is so you may be on your own for several days. Make sure you take enough for each person in your family! Let them take their own. A spare pack pack per person is a good idea."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (17:02)", "body": "I noted on the TV ads last evening that \"canned\" tuna now comes sealed in foil envelopes. This is great for \"flight\" food. Protein that packs in small space. Nuts down that way are also nutrituous and store for a very long time before they \"go off\" depite their pull dates. Dried fruits sold in reclosable Ziplock bags are also good. Look around and share what you have discovered. It is amazing what your kids and you will eat when you get hungry enough and there is nothing else to be had. Oh, and before we forget this most necessary item, get a big dispenser or two of gellied alcohol meant for hand sanitizing. You don't need disgestive upsets due to dirty hands! Put one with your flee items and one ineach of your stashes around the house. It can be used on scraps and cuts, as well! I always carry some in a little container... and a few bandages."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (14:55)", "body": "I have posted the following comments from Geo 26 because they will be lost in future posts, and this particular discussion needs to be considered. I am grateful to John for bringing up the subject. We tend to pretend it will not happen, then are victims of our own negligance. John Tsatsaragos (tsatsvol) * Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (06:46) * Hello all I wonder how would react each one from you if it was informed from reliable source that it is becomes a big earthquake in the area where you live. Let us to say 6.5R or greater. This is hypothetical question. How do you feel? Are you ready for an information like this? What must you do just after and later? John Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (13:42) * John, you ask a very good question. I had hoped to get a discussion on Geo 47 about just these questions. What would I do? I would shut off all power - especially the gas lines. I have, in the past, put treasured items standing on tables on the carpet underneath the tables. Water and flashlights and large safe candles (with matches)plus small radio with a lot of extra batteries should be ready in a box ready. I already have a cache of emergency food ready to go, along with my valuable papers and jewelry. Where would I go? Good question. It depends on where the earthquake will hit. I am safer in my home than just about anywhere I could go. I would secure a place in the boxed rafter place and close the doors surrounding me. I have ridden out a 6.7 and a 7.2 earthquake there. Nothing has shifted. Would I want to know? Yes! I have friends who are living in much more dangerous places than I. I would invite them to be with me safely in my home. Should evryone be told? NO!!! In fact, I would not even tell my fiends why I have the guest bathroom barricaded. They would find out soon enough. I keep my pulbic service scanners charged at all times. I might even be called for disaster relief work. Right after the quake I would have my hiking boots on and with a flashlight, inspect the house to see if it is safe and will not fall in on me. Aftershocks are expected, so I would try to stay in the safe place until time has passed. I do not have gas lines. I would check them if I did before lighting matches and candles. I would check water lines, also. If I went outside, I would not walk next to buildings which might collapse on me or have pieces of decorative work breaking off and falling down. In fact, I would hope I would be self-sufficient for several days and not need to add to the congestion in the streets. I would check to see if my neighbors are also ok even though they are not nice people. I'm sure there is much more to consider. Always have sturdy shoes by your bed in any case for middle-of-the-night earthquakes. Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (13:44) * In the short term, a large open field is the best place to be during an earthquake. What would you do?"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (14:55)", "body": "Don't forget to store pet food. They are also memebers of your family."}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (23:17)", "body": "Indeed! Our schools require disaster kits (more like earthquake kits) to be kept in a ziploc bag (gallon)--things like clothes, a snack, etc. I am absolutely not prepared in my house. Don't have the secondest clue what to do (the first being, climb under something and don't go outside for a while after the shaking stops)."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 21, 2001 (19:32)", "body": "Wolfie! Please tell us what is in those zip-lock bags you children make, please! I also hope you have a pair of shoes with sturdy soles on them under your head board of your bed. in each pair should be a working flashlight (torch for those across the pond and in the other parts of the Empire) AND socks! Keep the candles away from everyone until the gas mains are checked for leaks! In the front of our telephone book, there is a list of things to have on hand and a check list for after the earth stops quaking. I'll be posting this as time permits. Be safe! Suggestions for when the house settles again: * Keep family together. If you find your house is unstable, leave a note as to where you have gone for those seeking to rescue you. * Take your survival kit * Turn off all utilities at the main circuit breakers and valves. * Take important papers and identification and insurance with you. Cash too! * Check neighbors (that was always my first priority) * Lock doors and windows * Plan for pets. They are not allowed in shelters. My ex took his chances and left his cats home thinking it more traumatic to move them than to leave them alone. * Board up windows if possible * Wedge sliding doors AT THE TOP * I am adding a small transistor radio to this list from our phone book. Next will be upon returning home or coming out of hiding when the quake subsides"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 21, 2001 (19:40)", "body": "Upon returning home or coming out of your safe place after an earthquake: * Wait for the official \"All Clear\" (We have sirens in Hawaii - for those who do not, turn that transistor radio on!) * Treat downed power lines as \"Hot\" and stay away from them and metal fences. Be especially careful when cleaning up fallen trees and limbs. They may have live power wires in them. * Enter your home and other rooms carefully. Open windows and doors for fresh air and to dry damage from broken pipes. * Don't sightsee. You might be mistaken for a looter. Leave the roads clear for emergency vehicles. * Do not use open flame until you are sure there are no broken gas lines. (There are none in my neighborhood.) * Report broken water, gas or sewer lines to your utility companies as soon as possible. * Photograph damage to your home inside and out. Make temporary repairs to minimize further damage. * If you have loast power, don't connect an emergency generator to house wiring! * Keep your radio on for further information. *"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 21, 2001 (19:42)", "body": "WATER !!! If you don ot have sufficient bottled water, you MUST purify the tap water until officials notify you of its safety. Bring it to a rolling boil for a FULL FIVE MINUTES. Or, use cholorine or water purification tablets."}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Dec 21, 2001 (20:13)", "body": "good tips! (i've gotta look up the stuff for the school kits)"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 21, 2001 (21:03)", "body": "I'l also be posting from FEMA and other disaster-preparedness sites. Thanks for bringing the subject up, again. I'm sure my local phone book is not the ultimate source for information! Rob mentioned elsewhere that it was important to have more than one cache of food and water. If you only have one, almost certainly your house will collapse on it and make it unusable!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 27, 2002 (21:01)", "body": "Wolfie and others, I have just watched TSUNAMI ! on The Learning Channel on TV. I am concerned about Southern California and particularly the Los Angeles Basic's vulnerability to locally generated Tsunami. Wolfie, how far from the sea do you live? Rob? I am assuming that John lives a bit above sea level in Greece. Please let us discuss Tsunami preparedness. We live with the fact of one happening. We just don't know when. But we are ever vigilant."}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (18:12)", "body": "the sea is a hop skip and a jump from my front door (1/4 mile at most)"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (19:00)", "body": "If there are buildings between you and the water this is good! and sufficient to protect you from any surges. I suppose it is too much to ask if you are on higher land than sea level?! I rememeber it being pretty much flat where you are."}, {"response": 17, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (19:58)", "body": "yes, i am above sea level and have to run down a hill (if the fence wasn't there) to get to the water."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (20:18)", "body": "You will be safe, then. I am much relieved to hear that. After the waves have cleared out the houses in front of you, I'd consider moving before another tsumani event occurs. I also suspect you will be long gone from the area by then. That program asked the beach inhabitants what they thought a tsunami was. They got, for answers: a kind of sushi, a Japanese restaurant, a new foreign movie, and everything but what it really was. Try it on your office mates. They also did not know what they would do if one happened once they knew what it was. That is NOT good!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (22:04)", "body": "actually, i'm facing an inlet (part of the port of L.A.) towards the east, probably no tsumani event would occur there. as far as the west coast goes, there's lots of stuff between me and the wide open ocean. thanks for the concern *HUGS*"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  1, 2002 (00:24)", "body": "As Mother of Geo, I worry about everyone in here! Especially Wolfie sorts. *Hugs*"}, {"response": 21, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar 20, 2002 (08:23)", "body": "March 19 \ufffd An asteroid as wide as a Boeing 747 narrowly missed Earth this month \ufffd and we never knew it was coming. The case of asteroid 2002 EM7 has drawn attention to the gaps in the planet\ufffds infant system for monitoring potential threats from space. More at http://www.msnbc.com/news/177595.asp?pne=msn&cp1=1"}, {"response": 22, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar 20, 2002 (08:26)", "body": ""}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 20, 2002 (15:15)", "body": "Fantastic, Terry! Thanks for posting. Shall we go the way of the dinosaurs?"}, {"response": 24, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar 20, 2002 (15:34)", "body": "Only if one of those 'stroids sneaks by, and this one sure did."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 20, 2002 (17:47)", "body": "They might be designated as Catasteroids?! Disasteroids?!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 20, 2002 (18:20)", "body": "*laugh*"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (19:29)", "body": "UPDATE: Wireless HELP and Homeland Security Coding The following information is being provided as a result of numerous inquiries regarding information on these issues. (Please forward this information to those who might benefit) Wireless Device HELP at http://208.184.24.125/rc202903.html Homeland Security Coding system explanation info printable at: http://208.184.24.125/DefaultNewsEmergency.asp Email Signup/Addition/Modification/Deletion: http://www.emergencye.com/ Click: UPDATE EMAIL LINK"}, {"response": 28, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar  6, 2004 (08:13)", "body": "Scientists want to be ready to block asteroid from hitting Earth http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/02/24/defending.earth.ap/ The asteroid believed to have wiped out dinosaurs 65 million years ago was rare but hardly unique, say scientists gathered to discuss ways of aggressively defending our planet from another such space rock, including by detonating nukes in space. Asteroids capable of inflicting damage on a global scale hit the Earth roughly every million years, and we shouldn't dawdle in developing a method of deflecting them, say the scientists attending a four-day planetary defense conference in suburban Orange County. Scientists have proposed a variety of strategies to nudge an asteroid off course. The list is the stuff of science fiction and includes using lasers, mirrors or atomic weapons launched from Earth. Unlike any other type of natural hazard, an asteroid impact could kill billions of people. But it's also the only natural hazard that can be prevented, at least in principle, scientists said. and Earth Nearly Put on Asteroid Alert http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3517319.stm Astronomers have revealed how they came within minutes of alerting the world to a potential asteroid strike last month. Some scientists believed on 13 January that a 30m object, later designated 2004 AS1, had a one-in-four chance of hitting the planet within 36 hours. It could have caused local devastation and the researchers contemplated a call to President Bush before new data finally showed there was no danger."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 19, 2004 (14:01)", "body": "Good heavens! When I created this Distaster topic, I did not think of asteroids hitting us. I cannot think of a way to prepare for this. However, it is coming on tornado season so it is time to check the fresh water supply in the room where we hide from the storms."}, {"response": 30, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Apr 15, 2004 (20:49)", "body": "http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/ is an impact calculator For example: Your Inputs: Distance from Impact: 805.00 km = 499.90 miles Projectile Diameter: 1609.34 m = 5278.64 ft = 1.00 miles Projectile Density: 3000 kg/m3 Impact Velocity: 72.00 km/s = 44.71 miles/s Impact Angle: 45 degrees Target Density: 1500 kg/m3 Target Type: Competent Rock or saturated soil Energy: 1.70 x 1022 Joules = 4.05 x 106 MegaTons TNT The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is 1.3 x 107years Crater Size: What does this mean? Transient Crater Diameter: 34.31 km = 21.31 miles Final Crater Diameter: 54.65 km = 33.94 miles The crater formed is a complex crater. Thermal Radiation: What does this mean? Time for maximum radiation: 0.71 seconds after impact Visible fireball radius: 0.6 km = 0.4 miles The fireball appears 0.2 times larger than the sun Thermal Exposure: 1.88 x 103 Joules/m2 Duration of Irradiation: 67 seconds Radiant flux (relative to the sun): 0.0 Seismic Effects: What does this mean? The major seismic shaking will arrive at approximately 161.0 seconds. Richter Scale Magnitude: 9.0 (This is greater than any shaking in recorded history) Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 805 km: III. Felt indoors. Hanging objects swing. Vibration like passing of light trucks. Duration estimated. may not be recognized as an earthquake. IV. Hanging objects swing. Vibration like passing of heavy trucks; or sensation of a jolt like a heavy ball striking the walls. Standing motor cars rock. Windows, dishes, doors rattle. Glasses clink. Crockery clashes. In the upper range of IV wooden walls and frame creak. Ejecta: What does this mean? The ejecta will arrive approximately 436.0 seconds after the impact. Average Ejecta Thickness: 2.8 cm = 1.09 inches Mean Fragment Diameter: 1.4 mm = 0.0568 inches Air Blast: What does this mean? The air blast will arrive at approximately 2683.3 seconds. Peak Overpressure: 32683.6 Pa = 0.3268 bars = 4.6411 psi Max wind velocity: 61.9 m/s = 138.5 mph Sound Intensity: 90 dB (May cause ear pain) Damage Description: Interior partitions of wood frame buildings will be blown down. Roof will be severely damaged. Glass windows will shatter. About 30 percent of trees blown down; remainder have some branches and leaves blown off. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earth Impact Effects Program Copyright 2004, Robert Marcus, H.J. Melosh, and G.S. Collins These results come with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 20, 2004 (15:56)", "body": "They are wrong about the effects of a 9.0 Richeter quake. Stuff falls and walls crumble and hardly anything is left standing including the people. 161 seconds of shaking is an eternity. Hold your breath for that long and imagine the substrate on which you stand is thrashing around violently. That time is an eternity. You feel it long after the shaking as subsided."}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 20, 2004 (15:59)", "body": "Vibration (take it from one who has felt quite strong quakes) is like HEAVY trucks. Your whole world shakes! There is nothing light or gentle about it."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 28, 2005 (19:38)", "body": "It appears no one seems to know how to pretare for the horrors we have undergone recently. I think not building on a flood plain or below sea level might be a good start. Only build on an earthquake zone if you are prepared to take the risk . I am so glad to be away from most of the natural foes of my recent past. Suddenly I am much the meeker from being glued to the television news. Don has offered to do field work on endangered historic homes and other architecture. We'll see. Hurricane season is not over yet !! Hugs everyone. I have missed you terribly!!!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 28, 2005 (21:44)", "body": "You said it, the fat lady hasn't sung."}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 29, 2005 (21:24)", "body": "yup, we're only mid-season as far as hurricanes go. no one really knows how to prepare for something like this until it happens.....and the thing is, these realworld events are what we need to be using to prepare....."}, {"response": 36, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (12:20)", "body": "Is there another one forming as we speak? Has anyone checked?"}, {"response": 37, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (17:42)", "body": "not yet...."}, {"response": 38, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (22:16)", "body": "Yeah, I checked too. All's clear as of a few hours ago."}, {"response": 39, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (22:29)", "body": "there was some stuff going on at the mouth of the gulf but the weatherman didn't seem too concerned."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (19:03)", "body": "Yes, Stan is out there apparently still a depression not worthy of name but they are watching it. From what I heard a few nights ago on PBS news, these strong hurricanes come in cycles about 20 to 40 years apart. We had quiet 1990s so we built a lot on beaches and in flood-prone places. Now that the cycle has come back to stronger storms, we are seeing how foolish we can be. We have such short memories !!! I lost almost everything in Hilo. Now I have plenty of company and I don't feel nearly as bad. Still, it is like having part of your life torn from you."}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  2, 2005 (17:43)", "body": "I hate to post things like this but it came from a VERY reliable contact. Why Donating to Emergencies is Futile. If you bother---here\ufffds what happens. Red Cross/Crescent, you name it. 90% of physical donations to 9/11 and the tsunami victims were either bulldozed over/thrown away (NY) or never reached their intended destination/ripped off by intercepting agents/government officials (tsunami victim countries) And now: Tons of British aid donated to help Hurricane Katrina victims to be BURNED by Americans From Ryan Parry, US Correspondent in New York HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned. US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees. Instead tons of the badly needed NATO ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption. Advertisement And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration. One British aid worker last night called the move \"sickening senselessness\" and said furious colleagues were \"spitting blood\". The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed. Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant. The Ministry of Defence in London said last night that 400,000 operational ration packs had been shipped to the US. But officials blamed the US Department of Agriculture, which impounded the shipment under regulations relating to the import and export of meat. The aid worker, who would not be named, said: \"This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve. \"The FDA has recalled aid from Britain because it has been condemned as unfit for human consumption, despite the fact that these are Nato approved rations of exactly the same type fed to British soldiers in Iraq. \"Under Nato, American soldiers are also entitled to eat such rations, yet the starving of the American South will see them go up in smoke because of FDA red tape madness.\" The worker added: \"There will be a cloud of smoke above Little Rock soon - of burned food, of anger and of shame that the world's richest nation couldn't organise a p**s up in a brewery and lets Americans starve while they arrogantly observe petty regulations. \"Everyone is revolted by the chaotic shambles the US is making of this crisis. Guys from Unicef are walking around spitting blood. \"This is utter madness. People have worked their socks off to get food into the region. \"It is perfectly good Nato approved food of the type British servicemen have. Yet the FDA are saying that because there is a meat content and it has come from Britain it must be destroyed. \"If they are trying to argue there is a BSE reason then that is ludicrously out of date. There is more BSE in the States than there ever was in Britain and UK meat has been safe for years.\" The Ministry of Defence said: \"We understand there was a glitch and these packs have been impounded by the US Department of Agriculture under regulations relating to the import and export of meat. \"The situation is changing all the time and at our last meeting on Friday we were told progress was being made in relation to the release of these packs. The Americans certainly haven't indicated to us that there are any more problems and they haven't asked us to take them back.\" Food from Spain and Italy is also being held because it fails to meet US standards and has been judged unfit for human consumption. And Israeli relief agencies are furious that thousands of gallons of pear juice are to be destroyed because it has been judged unfit. The FDA said: \"We did inspect some MREs (meals ready to eat) on September 13. They are the only MREs we looked at. There were 70 huge pallets of vegetarian MREs. \"They were from a foreign nation. We inspected them and then released them for distribution.\""}, {"response": 42, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2006 (07:13)", "body": "Hi all The disasters that scare me the most are the ones with no prior warning. A tornado can be scary, but you would probably have some advanced warning of its approach - it would be part of a thunderstorm system so if its raining cats and dogs, or hailing heavily you might go and check that there are no tornado watches or warnings in force for your patch. If the storm is at night, perhaps leave the television on, so that if warnings go out, you know to seek shelter and if there are tornado sirens in your patch know what they sound like - it may save your life. On the other hand, an earthquake can come and go within seconds. There may be only one or two seconds warning if you get a foreshock or no warning at all if the main shock arrives immediately. Yet in a big earthquake those seconds would be of unparalleled fury, where in terms such as which could never be doubted again in your life nature shows you who the boss is. A volcano can go on rattling and banging away in relatively minor eruptions for months before - if assuming something big is even on the cards - it reaches a climax. A caldera eruption will be preceded by months of volcanic unrest, and probably decades of seismic unrest, geothermal changes, ground deformation and changes in gas discharge. But, what about tsunami's? Are these the scariest of them all? We already know what happens when a 40ft wave thunders ashore with the inertia of a goods train. Most tsunami's will have some sort of warning - if you are on the coast and there is a strong earthquake, you go inland and be prepared to be gone for several hours. If you are at home take your drivers license, a bottle of water and your wallet and run for it. Don't stick around to watch the waves because chances are very good it will be the last thing you ever see. Okay, but that is just an earthquake. What if you are on the coast and there is an undersea landslide - how are you going to even know it occurred. This is the situation facing the picturesque seaside town of Kaikoura on the east coast of the South Island where deep undersea canyons as much as 5,000 feet deep exist just offshore. Aside from being a habitat for whales, which can be seen from the coast, there are several large deposits of alluvial sediment piling up at the heads of these canyons, which are getting oversteepened to the point where evenutally they will just fall off. Some of them are 200 million cubic metres in size. When one falls into the host canyon, a tsunami could be ashore in less than a minute. In other words an entire tsunami sequence might happen in the 20 minutes I took to write this. NOW THATS SCARY. Rob"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2006 (18:19)", "body": "I agree if you are near the coast be aware at all times of the inundation zone for tsunamis. I have ridden out 6.7 and 7.2 earthquakes and there is no safe place to run. They get my vote as the scariest disaster. I can recall staring at the ground in the inky night trying to see if the ground was about to swallow me. That is not a happy feeling. You can seek refuge from volcanoes by driving away. From tornadoes in storm cellars. From Earthquakes? Not much you can do about that other than to stay away from fault zones. I now live near the New Madrid fault. That is a concern. Thanks for your analysis, Rob. Did I change your mind?"}, {"response": 44, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2006 (09:59)", "body": "I live on the other end of the Ohio River from Marcia; not exactly on the New Madrid fault, but close enough to feel the effects. There was a documentary on tornadoes on TV the other night. It seems there is very little advance warning for them. Here's a link to the PBS website for some information on the program Hunt for the Supertwister : http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tornado/"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2006 (10:30)", "body": "The Dooppler Radar is making great strides in prediction of tornadoes locally. I watched the hook reflection form on ours of last week before we all took the valuables to the basement for safety. It is far better than it has ever been and those down draft causing microbursts I hear frequently mentioned by the airport. They slam planes into the ground which is NOT a good thing. And now that I know so much more (from watching that NOVA Cheryl mentionee above) I am not looking forward to the flight to and from California in May. Welcome back, Cheryl. I was reading John Tsatsaragos' topic this morning, and I can't find anything on the internet any longer abuot his research or his state of health. I am most concerned."}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2006 (10:31)", "body": "Hmm... we get to drink whatever Cheryl adds to the Ohio River. She is present at the confluence that creates this great river."}, {"response": 47, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2006 (13:30)", "body": "I'm very careful about the Ohio River. I drink from it's waters too. An interesting fact about the Ohio is that it's never a small river. I think that it's navigable along it's entire length; well, perhaps with the help of lochs and dams. Okay, my point is that the Ohio is large river from its inception, where the Allegheny and the Monongahela Rivers flow together to form it, to the point where it flows into the Mississippi."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2006 (14:11)", "body": "I was looking at a map and wondered why they did not continue using either river name for the Ohio. Each time other rivers enter it they don't change the name. Very odd. But lovely river and yes I know the locks and dams well. Don has been in them as an archaeologist for the Army Corps of Engineers. Speaking of which, he will be posting (or I will) more neat archaeology stuff. Since he got no feedback on the americana site I created for him when he posted, this took some doing to convince him people were really reading what he wrote."}, {"response": 49, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2006 (18:06)", "body": "wait, we have an americana site?"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2006 (21:49)", "body": "Oh my talk about disasters, I posted the reply on the wrong topic. Yes Geo 89 is American Folkways. We'd love to have you add your observations."}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2006 (16:23)", "body": "i've got to revisit that place, think i've been in there before......."}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2006 (18:51)", "body": "Deja Geo?"}, {"response": 53, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 15, 2006 (09:52)", "body": "exactly!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jun 11, 2006 (20:21)", "body": "http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1346411.ece Meteor hits Norway with impact like that of a nuclear bomb."}, {"response": 55, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jun 11, 2006 (20:22)", "body": "At around 2:05 a.m. on Wednesday, residents of the northern part of Troms and the western areas of Finnmark could clearly see a ball of fire taking several seconds to travel across the sky. A few minutes later an impact could be heard and geophysics and seismology research foundation NORSAR registered a powerful sound and seismic disturbances at 02:13.25 a.m. at their station in Karasjok. Farmer Peter Bruvold was out on his farm in Lyngseidet with a camera because his mare Virika was about to foal for the first time. \"I saw a brilliant flash of light in the sky, and this became a light with a tail of smoke,\" Bruvold told Aftenposten.no. He photographed the object and then continued to tend to his animals when he heard an enormous crash. \"I heard the bang seven minutes later. It sounded like when you set off a solid charge of dynamite a kilometer (0.62 miles) away,\" Bruvold said. Astronomers were excited by the news. \"There were ground tremors, a house shook and a curtain was blown into the house,\" Norway's best known astronomer Knut J\ufffdrgen R\ufffded \ufffddegaard told Aftenposten.no. R\ufffded \ufffddegaard said the meteorite was visible to an area of several hundred kilometers despite the brightness of the midnight sunlit summer sky. The meteorite hit a mountainside in Reisadalen in North Troms. \"This is simply exceptional. I cannot imagine that we have had such a powerful meteorite impact in Norway in modern times. If the meteorite was as large as it seems to have been, we can compare it to the Hiroshima bomb. Of course the meteorite is not radioactive, but in explosive force we may be able to compare it to the (atomic) bomb,\" R\ufffded \ufffddegaard said. The astronomer believes the meteorite was a giant rock and probably the largest known to have struck Norway. \"The record was the Alta meteorite that landed in 1904. That one was 90 kilos (198 lbs) but we think the meteorite that landed Wednesday was considerably larger,\" R\ufffded \ufffddegaard said, and urged members of the public who saw the object or may have found remnants to contact the Institute of Astrophysics. from the above url mentioned in the previous post."}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2006 (12:40)", "body": "There have been some very impressive shots taken of the impact crater from satellites and published on the internet. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 48, "subject": "GeoAnthropology:  Human impact on the earth", "response_count": 92, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (14:58)", "body": "Maggie, Hugs!!! Farmer-to-Farmer Extension: Lessons From the Field - Now available from World Neighbors! By Daniel Selener, Jacqueline Chenier, Raul Zelaya, et al. Published by IIRR, this book is the result of two workshops, one in Honduras and another in Ecuador, that were conducted to document and analyze the experiences of several rural development projects, using the \"farmer-to-farmer\" extension methodology. Most of the information contained in the book is from the farmer promoters' points of view, based on many years of their practical experience working in farmer-to-farmer programs. Price: $15; 150 pp, Language: E,S; 1997; Item No: 356 Reasons for Resiliency: Toward a Sustainable Recovery after Hurricane Mitch - NEW! This report presents the methods and findings of an action research effort which included 2000 farmers, promoters, and local organizations as full partners in the research process from beginning to end and was designed to stimulate reflection and action based upon the lessons learned. The report concludes that alternative farming methods staved off the worst of the damage caused by Hurricane Mitch on thousands of farms in Central America. This landmark study, conducted by World Neighbors with backing from the Ford, Rockefeller, Summit, and Inter-American foundations, indicates that land use patterns in Central America amplified the storm's damage-and that conservation measures could dramatically reduce damage from future disasters. Price: $5.00; 32 pp, Language: E,S; 2000; Item No: 355 Changing Course: Recovery & Research After Hurricane Mitch (video) - NEW! This 17-minute documentary video complements the Reasons for Resiliency report and shows how farmer researchers discovered that lands farmed using sustainable agricultural methods were less damaged than farms cultivated conventionally. Filmed and produced by Nicole Betancourt with Bray Poor and other associates of Nota Bene Productions. Price: $5.00 (VHS/NTSL format, Item No: 725); $10.00 (VHS/PAL format, Item No: 726); 17 minutes; Language: E,S; 1998. World Neighbors In Action: Learning to Confront Disasters Like Hurricane Mitch: A Research Methodology Guide (vol. 27-2) NEW! Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods were used to collect and analyze the impact of Hurricane Mitch on land cultivated using agro-ecological methods and those cultivated using conventional methods. Price: $2.00; 8 pages; Language: E, S, F; Item No. WNIA272; 2001 The Practical Guide to Dryland Farming series is a collaborative effort of World Neighbors, Studio Driya Media, and Yayasan Tananua in Indonesia, with additional input from several other grassroots organizations working throughout the region. The practices discussed are applicable to semi-arid conditions, such as those found in regions of southeastern Indonesia. Each booklet is beautifully illustrated with detailed line drawings and succinct accompanying text. There are two NEW titles in this series: Family Forests - NEW! This booklet provides sound reasons and methods for establishing a forest on portions of a family farm. It includes uses of the family forest and step by step instructions for developing a family forest. Price: $4.00; 43 pp; Language: E; Item No: 230 Farm Planning - NEW! Just published in English, this booklet describes a process of farm planning that begins with systematically analyzing a family's needs, expectations, and resources and helps the farmer plan an ideal farm that can meet these needs. Price: $4.00; 36 pp; Language: E; Item No: 231 Other titles include: Introduction to Soil and Water Conservation Practices This practical guide explains the basic principles of protecting soil from erosion, maintaining soil fertility and utilizing rainfall. Techniques described and illustrated include the construction of contour canals and drainage control ditches, and the introduction of plants to increase soil fertility and reduce erosion. Price: $4.00; 42 pp; Language: E; Item No: 221 Contour Farming with Living Barriers This booklet contains information about the importance of diversity in agroforestry. It presents erosion reducing techniques including planting methods, terrace maintenance, and different uses of live barriers. Price: $4.00; 38 pp; Language: E; Item No: 222 Integrated Farm Management This booklet addresses the importance of diversifying farm activities to increase productivity and reduce agricultural risk. It presents information on soil conservation and fertility, cropping patterns, livestock, growing tree crops, and using cover crops. Price: $4.00; 36 pp; Language: E; Item No: 223 Planting Tree Crops This booklet covers the basic steps of tree planting and care. Propagation methods such as air-layering and grafting are also described. Includes a worksheet for gathering information about trees in a community. Price: $4.00; 38 pp; Language: E; Item No: 227 Soil Fertility Management This booklet further explains the methods practiced by farmers in Nusa Tenggara to mai"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (15:12)", "body": "p Science and Health News Australia to End Commercial Coral Harvest on Reef CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia is to phase out commercial coral harvesting on the Great Barrier Reef in a bid to protect the world's largest living reef formation. While it is prohibited for tourists or private individuals to take coral from the reef, there are currently 36 operators with licenses to harvest 200 tons of coral a year from 50 authorized areas. Most of the harvested coral is used in private aquariums. But Environment Minister Robert Hill said he wanted to outlaw the practice which allows licensed scuba divers to chip coral away from the reef using hammers, chisels and metal bars. \"The minister believes this commercial practice is not compatible with the conservation of the reef for which the Great Barrier Reef is listed under the World Heritage Convention,\" a spokeswoman for Hill told Reuters on Thursday. Hill said he would discuss a phase out plan with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to try to limit the economic impact on the current operators. No timetable has been set. His spokeswoman said last year licensed operators harvested 50 tons of coral from the reef of which 25 tons was live. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest living reef formation stretching 2,000 km (1,300 miles) north to south along Australia's northeast coast. Under current laws anyone caught taking coral from the reef faces a maximum fine of A$22,000 (US$11,000) and any corporation A$110,000. The producers of U.S. reality television show \"Survivor\" issued a public apology in April after two cast members took coral from the reef as souvenirs during filming."}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (18:04)", "body": "so this topic is to discuss over-populization and loss of natural habitat?"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (19:14)", "body": "it's mostly for the impact we are having on the earth whereas ecology is mor abstract and the product of our messing with things. It can overlap a lot but the comment was something I have seen before and did not know where to put it. Your choice!!!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (21:15)", "body": "ok! my two cents: each individual holds an opportunity to help out the ecology (or biome) of their local area. plant a garden and recycle! *giggle*"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (01:59)", "body": "Yup!!! Do it!!! Compost too! Forget about burning leaves in the fall, mulch those suckers! Your plants will love you for it."}, {"response": 7, "author": "horrible", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (07:36)", "body": "Go see my woodland walk,Wolf http://homepage.eircom.net/~bree/Woodlandsetc.html and have a look at the rest of the site(just leave off /Woolandsetc.html)There you will see what one pair of hands can do to to help.I will come back and do a post on recycling later( a waste of time and energy for the most part) Liam"}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (13:51)", "body": "oh liam, thanks for the walk through your grounds. i would love to have a bunch of land to go nuts with! at least i know that my little part of the world would be a refuge for various wildlife! i understand why people feel recycling is a waste of time. here, they've stopped taking glass and colored plastics. maybe it's a feel good type of chore. recycling is an expensive venture though. and in germany, recycling is mandatory!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (17:41)", "body": "My favorite is triple-packaging for one tiny object so we don't steal them. I refuse to buy anything so packaged. My huge tree and banana patch is as close to heaven as I can get on my square 1/3 acre lot in Paradise, but my plants are large and leafy sheltering skinks, anoles, gekkos, and providing nesting places for cardinals, white-eyes, Chinese thrushes (my first pair and how gloriously he sings each morning and evening.) Also have lace-enceked doves (large), barred doves (tiny), manikins and mynah birds. The latter are so stupid they nest in the lowest petiole of the coconut palm. It is usually old and about ready to fall when they start building, so it takes about three tries before they succees. meanwhile all rubbish they have collected for their nests I toss in the trash to keep it tidy. *sigh* I also, when my hair is longer, leave my brush gleanings out for them to use for nest fortifying. The birds really do use it and it is really nice to think of being part of the next generation of songbi ds. Liam, one day I shall see not only your dolmen but also inhabit your wondrous woods as a nymph. How very lovely it all is. Thanks you!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (18:58)", "body": "Perhaps I should have called this topic Man's Inhumanity to Man. The following is part of many articles on this subject which is being swept under capets world-wide. Thanks Liam.' Elderly care is sabotaged It's no wonder Beckett has nothing to say Is the EU pulling this worker's leg? Elderly care is sabotaged THIS week the staff and residents of an old people's home in Rugby, Warwickshire, supported by vocal relatives, will meet to launch a dramatic fight-back against one of the most astonishing scandals of modern government - the way in which, for eight years, local authority social services officials have successfully managed to defy central government policy and have brought Britain's independent care homes to the brink of destruction. Katie Wright, the manager of the Rugby Care Centre, one of 145 residential and nursing homes run by Ashbourne, Britain's second largest independent care group, plans to serve notice on Warwickshire county council that, unless her residents are given the modest increases in funding of around \ufffd30 a week that are needed to make the home viable, the group will cancel its council contract. The residents will stay on, and the home will then invoice social services for money to which it is legally advised that it is entitled. Similar desperate moves were being made last week by homes elsewhere in the country, from Coventry to Aberdeen. Apart from their vital service to the community, our 15,000 independent care homes, with 660,000 staff, are, after the health service, the country's largest employer. But by deliberately starving them of funding, while loading them with ever more costly regulatory burdens, the system run by social services has in the last three years alone been responsible for the closure of more than 2,000 homes, with the loss of nearly 40,000 beds. Even more scandalous is that social services have often engineered these closures to promote the much more expensive homes run, usually to a much lower standard, by social services themselves. more... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=004826292612046&rtmo=LS7Nlitd&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/6/17/nbul117.html#go1"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (22:53)", "body": ""}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 26, 2001 (17:10)", "body": "Scientific Investigation in Northern Tibet Kicked off LHASA, Jun 26, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A group of Chinese experts from the Han and Tibetan ethnic groups left Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Tuesday to kick off a large-scale scientific investigation in the northern part of the this southwest China region. Experts in the fields of geology and mining, archaeology, cultural relics, history, rock painting, art, medicine and animals and plants protection will conduct an across-the-board investigation in an area of 200,000 square kilometers, a place with an elevation of over 5,000 meters during the coming one month. Approved by the regional people's government, the current investigation, part of a four-year comprehensive scientific investigation, is aimed at revealing the mysteries in the \"no man's land\" in northern Tibet and collecting accurate and scientific materials for protecting this piece of land, not affected by human activities. The delegation will travel 10,000 kilometers and wind up their investigation at the Geladaindong Mountain, source of China's longest river, the Yangtze. Copyright 2001 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY thanks Liam..."}, {"response": 13, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (14:26)", "body": "NIGERIA: FRESH OIL SPILLAGE http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/wa/countrystories/nigeria/20010704a.phtml Oil giant Shell suffered another major spillage at the weekend in the eastern division of the Niger Delta, 'The Guardian' reported on Tuesday. The leak, at Ogbodu village in the Ikwerre Council area, spread through the Choba River to the Calabar Creek because of the fast flow of the river, the Lagos-based newspaper said. Dead fish could be seen floating on the surface of the water, it added."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (17:07)", "body": "Thanks, Maggie! I saw a program on the supertankers and how many break up in a year. It is astounding - we never seem to hear about them! Apparently they have gotten so huge that the great sea waves they encounter flexes them and the hatches which are most of the main deck give way. Hatch covers are built to much less rigorous standards yet are the most vulnerable part of the ship! It was estimated that 10 per year go down with their oily cargo!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "horrible", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (17:26)", "body": "Tankers dont have hatches never mind hatch covers."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 10, 2001 (20:12)", "body": "Yes, you would know. You've been there and done that. The British Engineers went to great lengths to show us large elevated square hatches and the covers that opened in the middle. There were several - bunkers? along the deck from bow to stern. If they show it again I will make notes and report back. The tankers which haul both refined product and bunker crude to Hilo do not have hatches or covers, either. They do have a mass of piping of no small dimensions on deck, however, and large brilliantly-colored signs all over the place. I suspect you were not assigned duty aboard one of these if you were a smoker!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "horrible", "date": "Wed, Jul 11, 2001 (06:46)", "body": "Oh the hurt and the accusations!! poor Horace will now go and sulk having been accused by the Wicked Wahine of deliberatly sinking Tankers to pollute the oceans.Accused of sailing in ships that would fall apart without notice or by-your-leave.Having blame heaped on these innocent shoulders for the rust-buckets that ply the oceans leaking oil like a vestal virgin sprinkling rose petals before the feet of the gods.When I get time I will refute these most outragous accusations,meantime its back to painting the house"}, {"response": 18, "author": "horrible", "date": "Wed, Jul 11, 2001 (06:47)", "body": "The ships you saw were BULK Carriers Marcia,not tankers,sorry no more time to exp the PAINTING COMES FIRST"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 11, 2001 (19:44)", "body": "OK. I bow to your superior knowledge and wisdom. Tar and feather this humble miscreant and ride me out on a rail. I deserve no less. But, I did check with the house male on my memory of the subject. I was not in error. Rather the program was and you can lay it at the feet of ITN or BBC whichever sent us the program. Happy painting. Pink with Bull's blood, is it, or have you shed mine for disturbing your peace of mind? In any case I have never implied you were responsible for boat building nor for the contents therein. Nor their spillage. You have done more to save ancient varieties of flora and fauna than anyone I know! Please be gentle with me!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "horrible", "date": "Thu, Jul 12, 2001 (08:51)", "body": "HA HA I did the hurt bit nicely,should have been an actor"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 12, 2001 (14:44)", "body": "You are Irish - Celtic. How much more do you need from the land of the Bards and William Butler Yeats?! I imagine you can sing, beautifully, als well. I am doomed! You were very convincing to this tender heart which never wishes to offend! I owe you one!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 12, 2001 (14:55)", "body": "Wonder if Maggie knows what she is getting herself into going back the the Dark Continent. Thanks to Liam for this: MORE than 800 people have been killed in northeastern Congo on suspicion of practicing witchcraft. Ugandan army commander Maj Gen Odongo Jeje confirmed the killings but was not specific about the number of people killed in Congo's Ituri province, where the Ugandan army is in control. A state-run newspaper quoted the Ugandan military command in Aru, Lt Col Fenekasi Mugenyi, as saying 800 people had been killed by July 8. Maj. Gen. Jeje said Aru residents began killing people suspected of witchcraft in June, but were stopped by Ugandan forces. Reports from the densely forested area, where there are few roads, no regular telephones or electricity, are difficult to confirm. The area borders northwestern Uganda and southern Sudan and is home to 74,000 Sudanese refugees."}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 12, 2001 (23:31)", "body": "Huge Genetic Variation Found in Human Beings Reuters Jul 12 2001 5:56PM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The notion of a uniform genetic blueprint for human beings took a tumble on Thursday, as the most detailed examination yet of variations in the genetic makeup of people detected unexpectedly large individual differences. Researchers with Genaissance Pharmaceuticals Inc. of New Haven, Connecticut, found astonishing variance at the genetic level in 82 unrelated people primarily from four racial backgrounds -- white, black, Asian and Hispanic. In studying 313 genes -- out of the 30,000 identified by human genome scientists -- the Genaissance researchers found that for each gene, there actually are on average 14 versions that can be inherited by a given person from parents. more... http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0200&id=0107121757370043"}, {"response": 24, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (14:01)", "body": "Good news for a change:(and yes .. I know full well what I'm going back to in Africa .. dark continent indeed ..that went out with the victorians!) NORTHERN CONGO RAINFOREST SPARED BY GERMAN LOGGERS http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-03.html One of the last pristine rainforests in Africa will not be logged by a German timber company. Known as the Goualogo Triangle, the 100 square mile forest in the Republic of Congo contains some of the highest densities of gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants in central Africa."}, {"response": 25, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (15:25)", "body": "WORLD LAND DATABASE CHARTS COURSE OF HUMAN CONSUMPTION http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-11-06.html Over the past 300 years, humans have dramatically transformed the land surface of the Earth, changing vegetation, reshaping hills and valleys, and altering the course of rivers. In doing so, they have set in motion a scenario of global environmental change with impacts that promise to be at least as severe as global climate change, scientists reported today at a meeting in Amsterdam."}, {"response": 26, "author": "horrible", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (16:55)", "body": "Only 300 years? If you go further into the study of our fragile Ecology you will find that man has interfered for far longer than that..............."}, {"response": 27, "author": "horrible", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (17:06)", "body": "Genes? said it before and will do agin'... if science has only mapped fully the genes and dna of a simple mustard how come we get all these wonderful revelations on the whole damned human sebang?why cant they wait 'till they KNOW the answers before they rush into print? Marcia will confirm my constant questioning of \"hard facts\" and the recent Carbon Dating fiasco bears out my cynicism.Read the latest post in the Prehistoric, seems Siog knew that all along carbon dating was wrong..strange when she and Dar were ganging up on me it was different"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (17:54)", "body": "This might fall under the classification of Human impact on other humans. I suspect there is the equivalent of intellectual stimulation but not as primitive as pheramones. I wonder why that intellectual joining can work with some and not with others. The following from Liam... Both smells and pheromones may arouse instinctive behaviors July 16, 2001 BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Ever notice how male dogs come from the other side of the neighborhood when a female dog is in heat? All it takes is a few molecules of a certain chemical to enable mammals to smell their own species up to a half-mile away, said Milos Novotny, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and director of the Institute for Pheromone Research at Indiana University. The chemicals, called pheromones, are detected by the vomeronasal organ (VNO) in the animal's nose. Unlike the part of the nose that detects ordinary smells, this super-sensitive organ is connected directly to the mid-brain. \"This is the shortest organ-to-brain distance in mammalian biology,\" Novotny said. \"A cascade of biochemical processes can be triggered quite selectively by specific olfactants such as pheromones at incredibly small quantities. Studies of mammalian pheromones can have a significant effect on pest control, promoting endangered species, and, perhaps above all, for understanding our own sense of smell and associated behaviors.\" Signals from a mammal's nose caused by normal smells called odorants go to various places in the cortex, in the upper part of the brain, which is why humans are conscious of smells. But pheromone signals go directly to the mid-brain, without being processed by the conscious brain. What happens after that is not completely clear, but there is a lot of evidence that the animal's behavior and hormonal levels are influenced. In a paper published July 12 in the journal Nature, Novotny and co-workers at Harvard Medical School in Boston headed by Linda Buck reported that the vomeronasal organ can actually detect both odorants and pheromones. The VNO detected odorants classified as animalic, camphoraceous, citrus, floral, fruity, green/minty, musky, sweet or woody. Like pheromones, these odorants were detected at extremely small concentrations. \"This suggests that in mammals, as in insects, odorous compounds released from plants or other animal species may act as 'semiochemicals' -- signaling molecules that elicit behaviors that are advantageous to the sender or the receiver,\" Novotny said. \"The house mouse provides a classic example of an elaborate pheromone communication system: to signal inter-male aggression and dominance, to show readiness for mating, to slow down or accelerate the onset of puberty as needed, or to signal stress to the other members of a colony,\" he said. \"Other mammals, including possibly humans, use structurally diverse substances for pheromone signaling.\" The established view is that mammals detect odorants in the olfactory epithelium (OE) of the nose and detect pheromones in the vomeronasal organ. OE signals are relayed to various areas in the cortex of the brain, while VNO signals are targeted to areas of the mid-brain that control instinctive drives, neuroendocrine responses and innate behaviors. The findings by Novotny and his collaborators demonstrate that the VNO and OE do not, in fact, detect mutually exclusive sets of chemicals. Novotny's laboratory identified the first definitive mammalian pheromones in the house mouse in the late 1980s, including their chemical structure, synthesis and biological effects. Before then, the term \"pheromones\" was largely confined to the world of insects. Since then, he has identified pheromones in rats and hamsters as well. His current emphasis is on the neurochemistry of neurons in the VNO and OE. He is the leader of interdisciplinary studies that bridge the physical sciences, life sciences and social sciences, including chemistry, neurobiology, psychobiology, biochemistry, wildlife ecology, medical sciences, and animal physiology and behavior. The Institute for Pheromone Research at IU is a center of excellence in the rapidly developing areas of chemical communication (semiochemistry) and biochemical aspects of olfactory perception. It promotes interdisciplinary collaborations between IU scientists and a worldwide network of researchers in chemical communication. http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/ocm/releases/pheromones01.htm"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (18:17)", "body": "Liam, you are beyond the Pale for some reason (and yes, I do know the origin of that term) as far as Dar and Siog are concerned. You are not sanctioned by some recognized academic body. Look back at the history of your and my passion for archaeology and the need for precision. The scientific method seems to take flight when either the press gets hold of the information or it is leaked to them for some reason not in the best interests of archaeological credulity. I think we need to get back to the lab and do some serious work to set some time benchmarks before we run out to grab more out of context and date them all wrong again. Being politically correct is not gonna do it, either. Kennewick man is NOT Native American as the modern usage of that term denotes. I want OUR ancestor examined for every detail possible to glean from him. *Putting away my soap box before I get truly irate.*"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (01:01)", "body": "It seems at one time al of Britain and Ireland was covered by climax forest. Very few remnants exist in England. We have been changing the land since subsistance living changed to settled farming 10,000 years ago. Good point, Liam! As usual your understatements speak volumes."}, {"response": 31, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (03:34)", "body": "What's climax forest??? We have ancient forests around where I live .. but don't know if that's what you mean."}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (16:33)", "body": "CLIMAX FOREST -Plant community dominated by trees representing the culminating stage of natural succession for that specific locality and environment. http://forestry.about.com/library/glossary/blforglc.htm http://home.att.net/~gklund/pristine.html Climax Forest: 1.Climax: 3 : a relatively stable ecological stage or community especially of plants that is achieved through successful adjustment to an environment; especially : the final stage in ecological succession ( http://www.m-w.com/dictionary ) 2.A community that represents the culminating stage of a natural forest succession for its locality, i.e., its environment. (SAF 1977) and http://www.fw.vt.edu/zedaker/3364/ecolterms.html 3.A forest community that represents the final stage of natural forest succession for its environment. http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/pab/publctns/GLOSSARY/C.htm 4.A forest that represents the final stage of natural forest succession for its locality, i.e. for its environment. Often identified as those forests that can reproduce indefinitely (i.e. in their own shade). http://www.pfpn.gc.ca/rep98/gloss_e.html and http://www.inac.gc.ca/building/forests/forest_j.html 5.A relatively stable forest community which is balanced within the existing environmental conditions. http://www.gn.apc.org/LivingEarth/RainforestDB/glossary.a-e.html#climax_forest 6.A secondary forest (cloud or rain), that is allowed to reclaim its flora and fauna mostly on its own, working with pollinators (wind, rain, birds, mammals, plants, etc. And after some 100 years becomes a climax forest, in reality it can not be called a primary forest again, since it has undergo changes in its habitat from the original status, new species are introduce(exotic) and old species prevail(endemic). http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/5974/ 7.Historic Climax Plant Community -- The plant community that was best adapted to the unique combination of factors associated with the ecological site. It was in a natural dynamic equilibrium with the historic biotic. abiotic, climatic factors on its ecological site in North America at the time of European immigration and settlement. http://nsscnt.nssc.nrcs.usda.gov/nfm/apxframe.htm 8.Plant community dominated by trees representing the culminating stage of natural succession for that specific locality and environment (17). http://rredc.nrel.gov/biomass/forest/tim_glossary/t_glossary.html#C 9.The final stage of plant succession in which species composition remains relatively stable. The climax forest for most of Mississippi would be the oak-hickory forest type. Pine is an intermediate species prior to the climax forest. http://ext.msstate.edu/pubs/pub1250.htm"}, {"response": 33, "author": "horrible", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (16:39)", "body": "Nice links,thank you Marcia"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (17:08)", "body": "I thought you might make a comment on the climax forests outside Washington DC, but I guess they are now a freeway or cemeteries or both. Thanks for making me do my homework. This is where I also learn!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (18:37)", "body": "Ok .. so the ancient beech forests around high wycombe count?"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 27, 2001 (15:05)", "body": "This bit of amazement comes from Liam. I was kidding when I suggested it... Polynesian 'relative' lays claim to Kennewick Man This story was published 7/26/2001 By Mike Lee Herald staff writer Just when the 5-year-old Kennewick Man lawsuit seemed in danger of coming to a close, along comes Paramount Chieftain Faumuina, a k a Joseph Siofele. Siofele, 65, who claims to be a direct descendent of the first rulers of Polynesia, added another layer of complexity to the case late last week when he filed demands in U.S. District Court that the ancient Kennewick bones be turned over to him. While his request may well be rejected, it adds an intriguing twist to a lawsuit that has drawn international attention because of what the bones could say about the peopling of the Americas. So far, scientific theories have focused on where Kennewick Man's ancestors originated. Siofele takes another approach, claiming Samoa was peopled by Kennewick Man's descendants. Siofele's court document said he is \"simply a relative who wants the best for his kinsman by returning his remains to where his family before and after him rest in peace in Manu'a awaiting in anticipation.\" more... http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/2001/0726/story4.html"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 27, 2001 (15:08)", "body": "Yes, Maggie your forest is most likely climax in nature. I expect you have been satyr-hunting in your ancient beech woods?!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 30, 2001 (17:10)", "body": "Liam posted this elsewhere. It angered me so intensely that I had to borrow it in hopes it would anger others. Who is running the world? The inmates have surely taken over the asylum. From The Telegraph: Oldham council bans speech by Holocaust man By Sean O'Neill (Filed: 26/07/2001) A 91-YEAR-OLD Holocaust survivor was banned from speaking in Oldham last night because of fears that his views would \"prejudice public safety and order\". Leon Greenman, whose wife and child perished in death camps after the family were deported from their home in Holland, was to have addressed a public meeting organised by the Anti-Nazi League. But Oldham Borough Council refused to accept the booking for the meeting, saying it would be \"unwise\" and \"inappropriate\" for the event to go ahead. The council was worried that the meeting could spark disorder in the wake of recent racial violence and the strong showing by the British National Party at the general election. Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, wore a gag during the declaration of the count when he won 16 per cent of the vote. Candidates were banned from making speeches. A council spokesman said publicity leaflets for the meeting had concentrated on the activities of the BNP in Oldham and not Mr Greenman's speech. \"Oldham council opposes the BNP and all it stands for,\" said a spokesman for the Liberal Democrat-controlled council. \"The council did not think that hosting a meeting of this nature at the present time would be helpful. It wants Oldham to remain calm and peaceful.\" Its decision was supported by the police and by David Arnold, president of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester. Mr Arnold said it would be wrong to inflame the situation in Oldham when the town was \"emerging from a period of wholly unjustified violence and unrest\". He added: \"I have no doubt that the league's motives are entirely laudable but I think they would be much better advised if they had first ascertained what help the people of Oldham felt they needed.\" A spokesman for the league said the ban was \"an outrage\". The group, of which Mr Greenman has been a member for 10 years, was trying to find an alternative venue. \"We feel he has been gagged,\" said a spokesman. \"The council should have listened to his experiences as a victim of racism.\" Mr Greenman, who was born in London's East End, was living in Holland when the Germans invaded in 1940. Between 1942 and 1945 he was held in Auschwitz, Birkenau, Monowitz and Buchenwald. His wife and son were gassed by the Nazis. An Englishman in Auschwitz, his account of his detention, is published this week."}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 31, 2001 (22:19)", "body": "From Liam who joins me in thinking they have all gone mad in the UK. Who is next? You??? Jewish professor 'forced to resign' By Nigel Bunyan (Filed: 31/07/2001) A JEWISH university professor was forced to resign after he was threatened with death and sent a live bullet and razor blades, a tribunal was told yesterday. Oliver Leaman, 50, said Army bomb disposal experts were summoned on several occasions to deal with suspect packages addressed to him at Liverpool John Moores University. One package containing a bullet and a threat against his life was posted to his home. Other offensive and anti-Semitic notes were written on university-headed paper. The professor of philosophy told the tribunal in Liverpool that after enduring four years of the campaign he left without telling his employers to start a new life in America. more... http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/07/31/nprof31.xml"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  2, 2001 (20:49)", "body": "The end of world population growth Probably the most pressing concern of the modern world \ufffd both environmentally and socially \ufffd is the burgeoning global population. The geometrical growth in numbers over the last century, when extrapolated, presents a foreboding picture of massive, unsustainable growth and accompanying famines and heath crises. Yet to simply follow the current trend is naive, and informed estimates of population trends are increasingly predicting a less disastrous future. more... http://www.nature.com/nature/fow/010802.html Thanks, Liam! *Hugs*"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug  3, 2001 (23:22)", "body": "Without comment except in private, from Liam: America's founding fathers are Japanese By David Derbyshire THE Japanese discovered and colonised America thousands of years before the Vikings or Christopher Columbus, according to a new study. Scientists investigating how humans spread across the world have found evidence that Japan was the launch pad into the New World 15,000 years ago. more... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected?ac=005695042353513&rtmo=gGYGkk7u&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/8/2/ecnjap02.html"}, {"response": 42, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Aug  6, 2001 (20:13)", "body": "The Ainu and their predecessors, the Jomon, are the \"founding fathers of America\". There are very few pure-blooded Ainu left in Japan, perhaps fewer than 100."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 13, 2001 (19:18)", "body": "Yup, there has been quite a discussion ongoing with Horrible Horace and others on http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/prehistoricarchaeology . The Ainu are owed reparations if anyone is - they were stuck off on the northern most inhabitable island and left to fend for themselves. Little wonder they grew so much hair!"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 10, 2001 (00:20)", "body": "Researchers have found evidence for near-Arctic habitation by humans at a much much earlier date than previously thought: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/06/science/social/06TUSK.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/624414.asp http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010905/wl/arctic_hunters_1.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,547297,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4251254,00.html http://www.sciam.com/news/090601/2.html"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  2, 2001 (22:19)", "body": "Toddler Found Safe in Bear's Den After 3 Days TEHRAN (Reuters) - A mother bear appears to have cared for a missing 16-month-old Iranian toddler who was found safe and sound three days later in the animal's den, the Kayhan newspaper said Tuesday. The child's parents, from a nomadic tribe in western Lorestan province, returned to their tent after working in the fields to find him missing, Kayhan said. Three days later, a search party found the baby, who they said had probably been breast fed by a mother bear, in a den some six miles away from the nomadic settlement. A medical examination showed the baby was in good health, the daily said."}, {"response": 46, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (17:48)", "body": "It's good to hear that the baby is in good health. Hopefully the mother bear and her cubs weren't harmed and are also doing well. They think that the baby was probably breast fed by the bear. That is a bit interesting in a mythological context. Maybe Romulus and Remus were really suckled by a she-wolf."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (20:26)", "body": "And Kaspar Hauser, too....possibly. One has difficulty discerning which are apochryphal tales and which are remembered folklore, if there is a difference."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (13:59)", "body": "Crystals give clues to ancient cosmetics http://physicsweb.org/article/news/6/2/17 An X-ray diffraction study of archaeological powders has shed light on the processes that ancient Egyptians used to make their characteristic black eye make-up. According to Tamas Unga'r of the University of Budapest in Hungary and co-workers, the crystal structure of preserved lead-based cosmetics shows that crushing, sieving and even annealing were used to produce make-up four thousand years ago (T Unga'r et al 2002 J. Appl. Phys. 91 2455)."}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (14:00)", "body": "I thought only the Romans poisoned themselves by using lead. Apparenly the Egyptians were also using it."}, {"response": 50, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 25, 2002 (19:03)", "body": "I believe that the ancient Greeks knew about lead poisoning and it's effects. They, however, weren't about to let the Romans in on that piece of information. That may be a factoid. One of those bits of historical information which gets dispersed and is not factual."}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 25, 2002 (20:57)", "body": "It works for me. I love it so I will also perpetuate the myth if it be so. I KNEW the Greeks were smarter than the Romans! *ducking hurled antiquities*"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (20:20)", "body": "Cracked Skull Shows Neanderthal Rage, Mercy WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Neanderthal who lived and died with a hole in his skull provides the first scientific evidence that these early humans used tools to attack one another, researchers said on Monday. The remains add to other clues that Neanderthals, a dead-end species of pre-human who colonized Europe, nursed their sick and thus had strong social ties, the researchers say. The 36,000-year-old skeleton was found in southern France years ago, but a study using recent techniques such as CT scans show the skull was crushed but healed. \"During computer-assisted reconstruction of the skull, we detected a healed fracture in the cranial vault,\" the researchers, led by Christopher Zollikofer of the University of Zurich, wrote in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. \"This bony scar bears direct evidence for the impact of a sharp implement,\" they added. Erik Trinkaus, a Neanderthal expert at Washington University in St. Louis, said the findings did not surprise him, but added they provided important scientific support for theories about how Neanderthals behaved. \"All social mammals squabble,\" Trinkaus, who edited the study, said in a telephone interview. \"The one lesson that we have is that the stakes increase markedly when you have serious weaponry available.\" Neanderthals were once characterized as grunting, shuffling cave-dwellers, but in recent years a picture has emerged of a more complex being who was extremely successful, surviving the Ice Ages for millenniums before finally being out-competed by Cro-Magnons. EVIDENCE OF MERCY \"It's another piece of evidence that in the light of serious injury or other serious kinds of problems, these people were taking care of each other,\" Trinkaus said. Zollikofer said the adult Neanderthal, probably a male, did not seem to have died of his wound. \"Considering that bone healing is visible only two to three weeks after a traumatic event, it can be concluded that the individual survived the injury for at least some months,\" his team wrote. In 1982, Trinkaus reported on the skeleton of a Neanderthal in present-day Israel who seemed to have survived being stabbed in the ribs, and last year he reported on the jaw of a pre-human whose teeth were all rotted out. Surviving on a hunter-gatherer diet with rotted teeth would have been extremely difficult, unless there was help. \"When we published that, a number of people said, 'Right on -- of course they were taking care of each other,\"' Trinkaus said, but he added a few scientists questioned the evidence. Scientists have also recently found that Neanderthals and early modern humans, often called Cro-Magnons, must have lived side by side. The skeleton described in Monday's paper was found at St. Cesaire in France, a site noted for the discovery of stone tools that were made in a more modern style as opposed to the clumsier tools made by Neanderthals for most of their history. Scientists do not know if the Neanderthals evolved their tool-making abilities or perhaps learned from their modern neighbors. The tool that broke this particular Neanderthal's crown may have been more modern, Zollikofer's team said. It had a sharp edge, like an ax, and the angle of attack suggests it was hafted -- attached to a handle."}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (22:20)", "body": "Prof. says there is an epidemic of virus which causes myocarditis Athens, 22/04/2002 (ANA) Professor of Epidemiology Dimitris Trihopoulos spoke for the first time on Sunday of an epidemic, referring to the virus, which causes myocarditis, from which four people have died these past few days. The professor said the number of cases allows one to speak of an epidemic, adding that the specific virus affects mostly men, youth and newborn, while it is manifested mainly with pain in the chest and the stomach. However, experts of the Center for the Control of Special Infections are awaiting samples of the virus, which have been sent for testing to four different laboratories so as to establish its identity. The country's health authorities are meanwhile on the alert."}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (18:14)", "body": "wow, even the local L.A. news hasn't broadcasted that info (and they love to awfullize everything)!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (21:03)", "body": "*laugh* Yes they do love to revel in gore - the LA press, that is. They were busy with the train crash today in Placentia which had to involve StefanieB who wrote so beautifully in Fan Fiction and tolerated my presence in her life for months on end. I wish her well. I know her ER was full of battered and bruised people all day! *Hugs* Stef!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (21:04)", "body": "Expert plays down viral epidemic fears An infectious disease specialist from Athens yesterday played down the danger of a fatal viral epidemic following the recent deaths of three people from virus-triggered inflammatory diseases of the heart. On Saturday, epidemiologist Dimitrios Trichopoulos, a professor at Harvard University, spoke of an epidemic. But yesterday the head of the Center for the Control of Infectious Diseases, Theodoros Papadimitriou, told Kathimerini it was still impossible to say whether this was true, pending examinations of the viruses involved. Meanwhile, reports yesterday said four people are currently being treated in Athens for myocarditis or pericarditis that followed a viral infection which presented all the symptoms of influenza. Three of the patients are hospitalized in Aghia Olga hospital and one in Amalia Fleming hospital. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100016_23/04/2002_15721"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (22:10)", "body": "PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES AGAINST A RARE INFECTIOUS DISEASE Athens, 23 April 2002 (19:31 UTC+2) Universities, schools and nursery homes will be closed in Greece until April 26 within the framework of precautionary measures announced today by the government in order to deal with the increased number of virus-caused myocarditis cases. The adoption of the measures was suggested by the Center against Special Infections and it was adopted by the Ministry of Health as already there are 32 recorded cases across Greece, 13 of which were recorded in Athens today. The first cases were recorded in Crete on April 18. Three patients have died, 2 in the island of Crete in southern Greece and 1 in Ioannina, in the northwest part of the country. Minister of Health Alekos Papadopoulos explained that children are not threatened more by the virus and the decision to close the schools was made because the virus is released in the air through excrements and children usually do not observe the hygiene rules strictly. Also, the virus is likely to spread through handshake. The symptoms are acute chest-pain, high fever, fatigue and muscle pain. The responsible agencies warn that the hygiene rules must be observed strictly and crowded places must be avoided. http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=264895"}, {"response": 58, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (22:30)", "body": "that train crash has been on all day--i feel for those people. and i'm sorry for the two families who lost loved ones today. i always wondered how they kept trains from crashing when they used the same track. now i know how it's supposed to work."}, {"response": 59, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (22:30)", "body": "this illness is isolated to greece?"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (22:39)", "body": "Thus far only Greece has reported it that I know of, but then, I read the Greek newspapers each day. CNN has not mentioned it nor have other international news servers."}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (16:49)", "body": "Greece gripped by mystery virus ATHENS, Greece --The government has shut all the country's schools in an attempt to stop the spread of a mysterious virus that is feared to have killed three people. Educational centres from kindergarten to universities will close their doors for three days from Wednesday as Greece's health ministry tries to get to grips with the flu-like virus. Two women are thought to have died on the island of Crete and another in the northern Greek town of Ioannina. A further 29 are believed to have contracted the virus which has the symptoms of high fever, muscle pain, headaches and fatigue and could affect the heart, Greece's Centre for Special Infectious Diseases said. The ministry issued a statement saying the action was a preventive measure. It added \"Despite the fact that fewer children than adults have been affected by the virus ... the measure is being taken to restrict any possible spread.\" Hospitals around the country have been put on alert to deal with an expected increase in Greeks seeking medical assistance. Other measures have included warning people to avoid enclosed spaces. Athens municipality has shut its sports and youth centres, while the military was also put on alert to prevent an outbreak in its camps and bases. A spokeswoman for the Centre for Special Infectious Diseases said tests were still being conducted to determine the identity of the virus and the results were tentatively due on Wednesday. http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/04/24/greece.virus/index.html"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 25, 2002 (17:24)", "body": "Virus identity remains a mystery Number of new suspected heart inflammation cases drops, raising hopes as more schools close One day after ordering all schools, kindergartens, universities and technical colleges to close until the end of the week, the government yesterday added dance, music and drama schools and frontistiria (private coaching colleges) to the list of educational institutions to shut down. The measure, which the health minister described as an \ufffdextremely preventive measure\ufffd on Tuesday, is aimed at limiting the spread of a virus that is suspected of causing 39 cases of potentially fatal heart inflammations. Three people have died. Doctors have diferred over whether this is an epidemic. Seven new cases were reported yesterday, down from 13 on Tuesday, prompting officials to suggest that the problem was easing. Prof. Giorgos Saroglou, who heads the Special Infections Control Center (KEEL), said that if numbers remained at the same level in the following days this could be described as a decline. He said the identity of the virus was not yet clear. \ufffdA huge effort is being made by all the authorized laboratories and we hope that we will have results as soon as possible.\ufffd Four laboratories were working on identifying the virus, which reports have said might be coxsackie, a common virus that usually affects the intestine but can spread to other organs and whose symptoms are usually those of the common flu. In rare cases, it can cause inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) and also its surrounding membranes (perimyocarditis). Pavlos Toutouzas, a professor of cardiology, told Kathimerini that major Athens hospitals had not noted a larger than usual number of myocarditis and perimyocarditis cases. He said there were 5-15 such cases each year. People have been warned that they should seek medical advice if a case of flu persists with high, persistent fever, a cough, diarrhea, intense muscle pain, pain in the stomach, chest pain and breathing problems. The Athens Municipality announced it had set up a help line (010.251.5510-1) to operate from 9.30 a. m. to 5.30 p. m. Cypriot authorities temporarily suspended school trips to Greece, following calls by worried parents and local politicians. About 600 Cypriot children were due to leave for Greece yesterday and today. Hundreds of people fearing that they might have the viral infection jammed outpatient clinics across the country yesterday. People were advised to exercise strict personal hygiene, such as washing their hands after using the toilet, and avoid crowded spaces. The Church reacted furiously to the suggestion that holy communion could be dangerous. \ufffdIt should be considered blasphemous, at least, to consider it possible that epidemic ailments could be transferred through holy communion and endanger human life,\ufffd the Athens Archbishopric said. Top cardiologists met to discuss the situation and issued a call to the public not to worry. Of the new cases registered yesterday, three were in Attica, with one each in Thessaloniki, western-central Greece (Sterea) and the Peloponnese. The seventh patient had been treated in March and was back home. Among those still being treated before yesterday, 14 were improving and eight were in stable condition and remained under observation. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100002_25/04/2002_15815"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 25, 2002 (17:27)", "body": "I wish the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) would get into this problem. I cannot believe it is just Greece alone which is afflicted. World travel makes everwhere an equal opportunity victim."}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 25, 2002 (22:04)", "body": "VIRUS SHUTS DOWN ALL SCHOOLS All day-care centers, preschools, elementary schools, junior-highs and high-schools, universities and public vocational training institutions have been shut down until the end of the week by the Ministry of Health, after the increased number of viral myo carditis cases, which may constitute an epidemic. All military units have been put on alert after a decision of the Defense Ministry. Schools in Greece will reopen after Easter break and hospitals are ready to deal with any more cases that may arise. The virus has struck all over the country, with the exception of N. Greece, where there have been no cases reported. So far, 32 cases have been reported, 13 of which were made known in the same day. 13 cases have been recorded in Athens, 6 in Crete, 2 in Ipiros, 3 in the Ioanian islands and 5 in Aegean islands. Of the 32 individuals, 4 are children. Citizens have been called to remain calm and not to panic. They must also take thorough care of their personal hygiene, clean their lavatories well, increase their intake of fluids, improve their diets and rest during the day. Also, anyone with a tempera ture or with a feeling of fatigue should call or visit a doctor. A meeting has been in session all morning at the Control Center of Contagious Diseases in Athens, with the participation of cardiology professors. \"The extreme measures announced by the Minister of Health Alekos Papadopoulos for the protection of public health are moves in the right direction\", stated the Coordinator of New Democracy's ODE of Social Affairs, Nikitas Kaklamanis. \"I hope that by tomorrow there will be a daily epidemic report from the Health Ministry, in order to inform citizens reliably and in time, something that has not happened so far. In addition I also recommend: As far as the Armed Forces are concerned, apart from the measures announced, it would be positive if only the necessary number of troops remained inside the camps. Since, as the Minister mentioned, there is an increased number of patients visiting hospitals, the number of staff members on call should also be increased, as well as the number of on call emergency hospitals\", he stressed. \"We all need to be vigilant - especially the State - but we must not panic\", he ended. In an interview to \"Flash\" radio, Cardiology Professor came to the same conclusions, stressing that citizens should not panic. Mr. Kremasitnos drew attention to weak constitutions, stressing that there should be concern when there are cardiological symptoms at the same time with the flu. http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpa/2002/02-04-24.mpa.html"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (02:21)", "body": "New case of pericarditis on Crete Athens, 25/04/2002 (ANA) Yet another case of pericarditis was reported on the island of Crete on Wednesday, though doctors have not yet determined whether the woman admitted to the intensive care ward at Iraklion University Hospital has been infected by the lethal virus that affects the heart. In addition to the woman from Sitia, another man and a woman with symptoms of pericarditis are currently being treated in the hospital's cardiology clinic while tests are being carried out to determine whether the killer virus is to blame. Two of the three deaths definitely linked to the virus occurred on Crete. On Tuesday, the health ministry ordered that all schools and universities in the country should close for Easter from Wednesday, three days earlier than usual, in order to limit the spread of a potential epidemic of viral-linked pericarditis and myocarditis. The three-day closure will run into the 15-day Easter break that would have started on Monday. While making the announcement, Health Minister Alekos Papadopoulos said the increasing number of cases of heart trouble following viral infections suggested the possible onset of an epidemic. Apart from the three deaths, two in Crete and one in northwestern Greece, another 32 non-fatal cases of myo- and pericarditis have been reported around the country since last week, 13 of them in Athens. Pericarditis affects the tissue surrounding the heart, while myocarditis affects the heart muscles themselves. The two conditions can cause a dangerous retention of fluids around the heart cavity that may prove lethal. The health ministry also advised the public to observe strict personal hygiene and take added precautions when preparing food, and to avoid crowded, enclosed spaces or physical contact such as kissing. The virus responsible for the three deaths has not yet been identified, but similar symptoms have been described for enteroviruses affecting the intestines, adenoviruses affecting the lymph glands and others. Government spokesman: Commenting on the government's sudden decision to close schools so soon after his own announcement on Tuesday that there was no cause for concern, government spokesman Christos Protopapas explained that the data released from hospitals was being constantly updated. The evidence did not point to an epidemic at the time his own announcement was made but this became evident immediately afterwards, he told reporters on Wednesday. He said the health ministry and the Center for the Control of Special Diseases were monitoring the situation constantly and described Tuesday's decision to close schools as absolutely justified. Panic a greater hazard than viruses, experts reassure the public: Panic is a greater hazard than the viruses that in rare cases caused heart complications, expert scientists reassured the public on Tuesday after a emergency conference to discuss an outbreak of pericarditis and myocarditis cases tentatively linked to viral infections. Greece's top cardiologists and epidemiologists at the Center attended the conference for the Control of Special Diseases. In statements afterwards, the scientists said that similar symptoms following virus infections had also occurred in the previous years and that there was no particular cause for concern. The Special Diseases Center, meanwhile, admitted that new reports of myocarditis and pericarditis cases had been coming in from around the country, though nothing had yet been officially announced regarding the outbreak of an epidemic. The specialists at the conference clarified, however, that the majority of such cases were eminently treatable if they were diagnosed and dealt with promptly. They advised people to seek medical care if the symptoms of a cold or flu persisted for more than three days, were accompanied by strong aches and pains in the muscles or high fever. Other possible signs of the potentially lethal virus were strong pains in the chest, a change in the rhythm of the heart and pain in the stomach or the back. On a more positive note, health ministry sources reported that more of the patients affected by the virus had quickly sought medical attention and receive prompt treatment, while the majority had already returned home. Specialists said this was particularly true of pericarditis, where the tissue surrounding the heart was affected, while cases of myocarditis that involved the heart tissue itself occasionally required that a patient be admitted to an intensive care ward. The virus or viruses responsible for the outbreak had not yet been found, they said, even though nearly every laboratory in the country was now carrying out tests to isolate it. Experts said the most likely causes were either the Coxsackie virus, enteroviruses affecting the intestines, adenoviruses affecting the lymph glands or the influenza B virus that was common on Crete. The co-existence of these viruses in the reported cases would most likely show that the epidemic w"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (00:29)", "body": "Fatal Greek virus identified 12:35 26 April 02 Emma Young The virus that has infected 39 people, killing three, in Greece has been identified as a member of the human enterovirus family. Preliminary tests by Greece's Special Infections Control Centre suggest it could be Coxsackie B. Identifying the precise strain will not make treatment any easier. Doctors can only treat the symptoms of the infection rather than the virus itself, says a spokesperson for the World Health Organization's Communicable Disease and Surveillance Response centre. On Wednesday, the Greek government closed all schools and universities across the country, in a bid to stop the spread of the virus. Cases of infection had been reported in most regions of Greece, and had shown a sharp upturn on Tuesday, with 13 reported cases. But only seven new infections were reported on Thursday, suggesting the peak of the outbreak has passed. \"They also set up a monitoring system to ensure that anybody that went to hospital with acute respiratory syndrome would be reported - and the number of cases has been going down rapidly,\" says the WHO spokesperson. In all cases, respiratory, influenza-like, symptoms appeared at first, followed by myocarditis - inflammation of heart muscle, which can cause serious tissue damage. A strain of the Coxsackie virus has been a prime suspect. In 1997, Coxsackie B caused myocarditis and killed 30 children in Malaysia over three months. Greece's educational institutions will remain closed after the weekend for two weeks, for the Orthodox Easter holidays. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992224"}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (11:08)", "body": "isn't coxsackie hoof-and-mouth?"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (15:58)", "body": "Not hoof-and-mouth as in the cattle and other livestock of recent news. Hand, foot and mouth disease (coxsackie virus) \ufffd this is by far the most common cause of mouth sores. It usually affects children ages 6 months to 3 years. Symptoms include: High fever \ufffd often up to five days. Severe fussiness \ufffd this is often the worst part of the illness. Severe mouth pain or sore throat Copious drooling Refusal to eat or even drink Rash \ufffd small, red or white spots may, but not always, appear on the hands or feet (thus the name of the illness). A red, lacy rash can also appear anywhere on the body. http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/T082600.asp"}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (16:01)", "body": "Coxsackie has also been implied in SIDS. In regard to the Coxsackie virus, it is one of a number of viruses that can cause respiratory or intestinal infections---\"flu.\" There are seasonal peaks, but the virus is very common and transmitted from person to person just like a \"cold\" or any flu illness. Infections are sometimes not associated with any obvious symptoms, or the only symptom may be a fever. Heart and brain infections can occur, but very uncommonly. There is no specific way to avoid the virus different than \"avoiding\" the common cold---standard hand washing, etc. The most important point I can make now is that there is no way you could have avoided exposure to this virus since it is so common. http://sids-network.org/experts/coxsackie.htm"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (16:10)", "body": "One of the best resources on the net that I have found for Coxsackie virus is http://www.health-nexus.com/coxsackie_virus.htm"}, {"response": 71, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (16:39)", "body": "a friend of mine's son had this virus and they think he contracted it from eating dirt in his back yard (used to be pasture land)"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (18:54)", "body": "I guess it is far more widespread than I thought. And, it takes many forms when it infects you. No wonder there is confusion."}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (00:59)", "body": "Extinct Tasmanian Tiger One Step Closer to Cloning Reuters May 28 2002 12:52AM SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian scientists announced on Tuesday a breakthrough in efforts to clone the extinct Tasmanian Tiger, saying they had replicated some of the animal's genes using DNA extracted from preserved male and female pups. The scientists from the Australian Museum in Sydney said they hoped to clone a Tasmanian Tiger in 10 years if they were successful in constructing large quantities of all the genes of the Tasmanian Tiger and sequencing sections of the genome to create a genetic library of Tasmanian Tiger DNA. \"We are now further ahead than any other project that has attempted anything remotely similar using extinct DNA,\" Mike Archer, director of the Australian Museum, told a news conference. \"What was once nothing more than an impossible dream has just taken another giant step closer to becoming a biological reality,\" he said, adding that the ultimate aim was to clone a viable reproducing population of Tasmanian Tigers. The Tasmanian Tiger (thylacine) was a dog-like carnivorous marsupial with stripes on its back that lived on the southern Australian island state of Tasmania. The creature originally roamed Australia and Papua New Guinea, but sometime between 2,000 and 200 years ago disappeared from the Australian mainland, only to be found in Tasmania. It took man only some 70 years to make the Tasmanian Tiger extinct, as farmers in the 1800s began shooting, poisoning, gassing and trapping the animal, blaming it for attacking sheep. The last known Tasmanian Tiger died in 1936 and it was officially declared extinct in 1986. COMPLEX OF GUILT The project to bring the Tasmanian Tiger back from extinction began in 1999 when Australian Museum scientists extracted DNA from an ethanol-preserved female pup in its collection. In 2001, further DNA was extracted from two other preserved pups -- the tissue source for this DNA was bone, tooth, bone marrow and dried muscle. Archer said the alcohol-preserved female pup's DNA had given scientists the Tasmanian Tiger's X chromosome and the other samples the male Y chromosome. In May 2002 the museum's scientists, using the extracted DNA, replicated some of the Tasmanian Tiger's genes using a process called PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction). \"The supposedly dead DNA in fact reacts in the way live DNA does. Clearly the DNA we collected was not extinct -- it works,\" Archer said. \"It makes molecule cloning possible.\" Archer said if the museum was successful it would seek to clone a viable population of Tasmanian Tigers, using the Tasmanian Devil, another carnivorous marsupial, as a host. \"We want a viable population. We don't want a strange animal pacing back and forth in a laboratory. What we want to do is put that animal back in the wild and for that we need a viable, reproducing population,\" he said. But Archer said the technology for the final stage of cloning, putting the Tasmanian Tiger's genetic material into a Tasmanian Devil host cell which has been stripped of the devil's genetic material was still to be developed. \"We don't know the length of this journey. Its up to the speed with which technology keeps pace with the vision. But I am optimistic,\" he said. \"The Tasmanian Tiger is an iconic Australian animal, its woven in a complex web of guilt because Australians made it extinct. We need to lift this burden of guilt.\""}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (21:42)", "body": "Archaeology: Cacao usage by the earliest Maya civilization W. JEFFREY HURST, STANLEY M. TARKA JR, TERRY G. POWIS, FRED VALDEZ JR & THOMAS R. HESTER http://www.nature.com/nlink/v418/n6895/abs/418289a.html"}, {"response": 75, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Sep  3, 2002 (06:15)", "body": "Human impact: how we trigger global warming, and what each individual can do about it By Suzanne Elston Global warming is arguably the biggest environmental problem that we face in the 21st century. The scientific consensus is that human activity is altering the planet's climate. Reports from the International Panel on Climate Change - the key scientific body organized by the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization - have made it clear that the warming atmosphere will cause dramatic changes that will affect every corner of the earth. More frequent and extreme weather events can be expected, including floods, heat waves, windstorms, droughts and disruption in water supplies. As a result, serious diseases like malaria and yellow fever will spread. Natural resource industries such as agriculture, fishing and forestry will be impacted. As polar ice caps melt and sea levels rise, entire island nations will disappear. Coastal flooding will leave hundreds of thousands homeless \ufffd mostly in poor, developing countries. Despite the urgent warnings of the scientific community, our political leaders have stalled in their attempts to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The Bush administration\ufffds withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol was both disappointing and predictable. For almost a decade, the leaders of the world have been unable to fulfill the promises that they made at the Earth Summit in 1992 to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the primary cause of global warming. In 1997, world leaders met in Kyoto, Japan to review the goals they had set in Rio five years earlier. But rather than seeing a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the net amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere had increased substantially. The National Energy Information Center reports that in the U.S. alone, CO2 emissions increased 10.7 percent from 1990 to 1997. In light of this, the Kyoto Protocol offered a watered down version of the Earth Summit\ufffds goals in an attempt to reach an attainable reduction target. The U.S. is the largest single source of fossil fuel-related CO2 emissions. According to Online Trends, U.S. emissions reached an all-time high of 1447 million metric tons of carbon in 1996. As a result, without U.S. participation, critics say that the Kyoto Protocol is doomed to failure. But despite the U.S. withdrawal, the remaining Kyoto partners will meet again in Bonn, Germany, this summer in an attempt to breathe some life into the agreement. While governments attempt to make some progress toward mitigating the impacts of global warming, corporations are beginning to view climate change as a business opportunity. Increasing energy prices are forcing companies to look at ways to cut consumption and new energy technologies are promising to open up business markets for innovative companies. Car giants Toyota and Honda have invested heavily in producing hybrid cars that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and corporations like IBM, Johnson & Johnson and Polaroid have all committed to reducing their carbon dioxide emissions well below the Kyoto target. (To find out more see \ufffdClimate Savers\ufffd) Individually, we can also make a difference. Carbon dioxide emissions from human activity are the largest source of greenhouse gases contributing to global warming. The average American is responsible for about 20 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, a far greater volume per capita than that of any other industrialized country. Switching to fuel-efficient vehicles, installing energy efficient lighting and purchasing newer, more efficient appliances are all ways that we cut carbon dioxide emissions and fuel the economy. Changing our every day habits can also help reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Slowing down when we drive, car pooling, cycling or taking public transit to work are all ways to reduce our consumption of fuel fuels. Recycling saves 70 to 90 percent of the energy and pollution \ufffd including CO2 - used to created virgin materials. Planting trees around your home can cut cooling costs by up to 40 percent, further reducing our energy needs. These are all small steps, but collectively they can have a significant impact. Our future depends on it. Source: Environmental News Network John"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (16:52)", "body": "John, I really respect your opinions. I do wish I could plumb the depths of your mind in regards to what is practical and what really can be done about Global Warming. Is it merely cyclical or is it my personal use of air conditioning that is causing it? I live as thriftily and as ecologically as possible. What can one person do?"}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (16:53)", "body": ""}, {"response": 78, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Mon, Mar  7, 2005 (10:46)", "body": "Cathodoluminescence of minerals Cathodoluminescence (CL) is generated when a beam of energetic electrons strikes the surfaces of many crystalline substances, causing photons of visible light to be emitted. It is a trait exhibited by many minerals, including very common ones like quartz. As part of a research team based at the University of Oregon, Goles has been involved in applications of CL to provenance studies, to investigations of palaeotectoctonics, palaeogeography, and basin analysis, and to searches for major impact events (CL of shocked quartz is highly distinctive) both at or near times of major extinctions and at times when extinctions, for one reason or another, were apparently not associated with extraterrestrial impacts. The U of O team (Seyedolali, Boggs, and Krinsley as well as Goles) makes use of the scanning electron microscope in the DoGS imaging laboratory, wihich is very well equipped for CL studies with a high-resolution CL detection system, R-G-B color recording capability, and a controlled-temperature stage. One of our more exciting recent findings via CL studies of clastic minerals is that almost all quartz grains in the Eocene Eugene and Fisher Formations of western Oregon were derived from metamorphic rocks, despite the voluminous activity of early Western Cascade volcanoes, contemporaneous with deposition of those sedimentary units, which must have produced substantial amounts of quartz with igneous CL traits. We are trying to devise and test working hypotheses to account for this seeming discrepancy. It may indicate that a widespread metamorphic terrane, like those in the Klamaths and the Blue Mtns., is now buried beneath the Cascades but during Eocene times was broadly exposed and undergoing erosion. more at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dogsci/goles/rsch.html#human"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 10, 2005 (23:40)", "body": "Julie, wait till you read this above post about Cathodluminescence. Amazing!!!"}, {"response": 80, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (10:04)", "body": "Here's the techie explanation: Luminescence is the emission of light from a solid which is 'excited' by some form of energy. The term broadly includes the commonly-used categories of fluorescence and phosphorescence. Fluorescence is said to occur where emission ceased almost immediately after withdrawal of the exciting source and where there is no thermal cause, whereas in phosphorescence the emission decays for some time after removal of excitation. The distinction between these so-called types of luminescence is somewhat arbitrary and confusing; for example, many minerals have very long post-excitation decay times. Confusion is avoided by using the term luminescence, and specifying the activating energy as a descriptive prefix. Thus roentgenoluminescence is produced by X-rays, photoluminescence by light (e.g. ultra-violet) and cathodolminescence(CL) results from excitation by electrons. Thermoluminescence results from heating. Ultra-violet fluorescence microscopy is a well established technique for petrographic study of petroleum fluid inclusions and often used in examination of hydrocarbon residues in sediments. The interpretation of observed fluorescence intensities and colors is strongly influenced by the type of light source and filter combinations in the microscope. Polished thin section surfaces are required, and a special microscope with UV source and qaurtz lenses is needed, such as used for immunological work in many biological laboratories. Various wavelenths of UV can be selected by means of filters, and filters can be interposed when viewing the emission. Hydrocarbon inclusions show strong luminescence, the color varying with the gravity of the oil. Recrystallized organic-rich fossils, such as renalcid micro-organisms in the reefs, may show up very well under UV, whereas they may be invisible in transmitted light and CL. Davis & Yurewicz(1985) have shown that in some limestones, cement generations and fine crystal gro th zoning can be revealed by UV. Certainly UV microscopy is attractive because it does not require elaborate vacuum arrangements, but inorganic materials such as calcite often show only very weak UV luminescence, so UV microscopy is not a general substitute for CL work. Cathodoluminescence petrography is now a routine technique that can provide essential information on provenance, growth fabrics, diagenetic textures and mineral zonation, in addition to enabling more precise quantification of constituents and fabrics. Without the support of CL spectroscopy, however, CL petrography can only remain a fabric analysis technique. Although subtle variations in CL color recorded on film give important information, describing luminescence intensity and color from a photographic record is a dubious and subjective affair. The actual CL color is determined by the number and type of emission and quenching centers present. Superposition of several luminescence bands of different intensities can provide quantitative dasta on the wavelength and intensity of luminescence and the nature of the luminescing centers. CL spectroscopy should become a standard technique used by the luminescence petrographer becuase it is the only means of recording CL colors and emission intensity objectively and quantitatively, in addition to providing unique information on the nature of luminescence centers. Sorry for the long winded paragraphs!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (21:54)", "body": "There has been particle acellerator research on fossils of Neanderthal burials because they are too old for carbon 14 analysis. This promises to be very interesting - at least for me."}, {"response": 82, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:20)", "body": "ok, so in layman's terms, this is what happens when you stick a rock under a black light?"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:26)", "body": "The black light illuminates only the minerals which have elements in them whose isotopes get excited by the energy generated by that wavelength of light. This will get us into what we can actually see in \"white\" light of broad daylight, but fluorescing is different from what you can see with ordinary light. Many rocks do not respond to the wave length of black light and thus appear dark. I know you need a better explanation but I haven't one at hand right now. Stay tuned and I'll get one for you."}, {"response": 84, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:32)", "body": "i understand flourescing but i guess not the method! thanks for helping folks like me to understand!"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:36)", "body": "It is folks like you who ask the questions who make me think of how to explain it and understand it better myself. Until you can teach someone something, I think you really don't understand it very well. That is my acid test !"}, {"response": 86, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:38)", "body": "i know what you mean!!!"}, {"response": 87, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (07:40)", "body": "Did you ever answer my question about how you would display your rocks Marci? And will you have any black light displays?"}, {"response": 88, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (08:10)", "body": "You did! I found it later on in my session in another topic."}, {"response": 89, "author": "Jonnikwan", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (08:19)", "body": "reduces human pollutant in automobile"}, {"response": 90, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (09:28)", "body": "Can you go in to that in more depth, Jonni? And welcome aboard planet geo."}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (16:11)", "body": "Go Joani ! I am one of the freaks of nature who still does not drive. When I can shop once a month for food and necessities I feel much better than those who need to live half a state away from where they work. How about getting rid of disposible diapers and foam plates/cups/containers. Just look at any Hawaii shoreline to see what the lates offensive product is in the landfill."}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 18, 2005 (15:03)", "body": "Ten top worst jobs in science 10. Orangutan-Pee Collector Their work is noninvasive\u2014for the apes, that is . . . \"Have I been pissed on? Yes,\" says anthropologist Cheryl Knott of Harvard University. Knott is a pioneer of \"noninvasive monitoring of steroids through urine sampling.\" Translation: Look out below! For the past 11 years, Knott and her colleagues have trekked into Gunung Palung National Park in Borneo, Indonesia, in search of the endangered primates. Once a subject is spotted, they deploy plastic sheets like a firemen's rescue trampoline and wait for the tree-swinging apes to go see a man about a mule. For more pee-catching precision, they attach bags to poles and follow beneath the animals. \"It's kind of gross when you get hit, but this is the best way to figure out what's going on in their bodies,\" Knott says. more plus the other nine ... http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/806ffb24a5f27010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 49, "subject": "The Seasons", "response_count": 57, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (21:39)", "body": "Summer Solstice is coming up. The dates and times of the summer solstice: The exact date varies from year to year and may occur between the 20th and 23rd of June. Year Summer solstice (UT) 1999 JUN-21 @ 19:49 2000 JUN-21 @ 01:47 2001 JUN-21 @ 07:37 2002 JUN-21 @ 13:24 2003 JUN-21 @ 19:10 2004 JUN-21 @ 00:56 The above dates and times were provided the astronomical calculations on The Dome of the Sky web site. 9 Times are in UT (Universal Time). This used to be called Greenwich Mean Time or GMT. In North America, you can find your local time by subtracting: 2 hours 30 minutes for Newfoundland daylight savings time 3 hours for ADT 4 hours for EDT 5 hours for CDT 6 hours for MDT 7 hours for PDT 8 hours in AKDT (Alaska) 9 hours in ADT (Aleutian Islands) 10 hours in HST (Hawaii) 10"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jun 17, 2001 (22:50)", "body": "\"Solstice\" is derived from two words: \"sol\" meaning sun, and \"sistere,\" to cause to stand still. This is because, as the summer solstice approaches, the noonday sun rises higher and higher in the sky on each successive day. On the day of the solstice, it rises an imperceptible amount, compared to the day before. In this sense, it \"stands still.\""}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (13:42)", "body": ""}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (13:43)", "body": "Good Topic, Terry. Megalithic Britons made great alighments for season predictions, as close as we can be to what was going on inside the minds of cultures long departed. It has been suggested that the thirty or so farmers in the area would have been helped by upto sixty of their fellows from neighbouring communities - the object of all their efforts was to enable them to observe the rising and setting of the moon and hence track the changing of the seasons, important knowledge for farmers waiting for the right moment to sow their crops. On the stone beside the east flanker 12 cupmarks were made on its inner face, perhaps to indicate the position of the rising moon. The observations would have been carried out for many generations and it is easy to envisage that the simple science woud have been accompanied by fertility rituals of dancing and feasting within the bounds of the circle. Although it is certain that recumbent stone circles are linked with lunar observations there is little evidence to support sophisticated archaeoastronomy, the observations across the stones would probably have been somewhat crude and often the alignments we see today are not the original ones since many stones have been re-erected after falling. more... http://www.ifb.net/webit/loanhead.htm"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (13:45)", "body": "I forgot... Some Scottish recumbent stones have been noted by Aubrey Burl to have the sun at midsummer roll along the top of the stone."}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (14:04)", "body": "Hey, it's only 3 days away, let's have our own online summer solstice celebration and try to take note of other celebrations around the world, kind of a summer solstice watch. And the end of another Spring season."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (19:26)", "body": "Terry, are you inviting The Church of the Latter-Day-Druids? *Packing my pucnic basket abnd dowsing rods along with my digital camera.* Wouldn't it be cool to meet at a lovely bit of an ancient stone circle? I'll be monitoring the round the world goodies to see what's happening. Y'all come and bring a libation for the gods while you're at it!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (19:33)", "body": "Great, you're definitely on board for this, Marci. Let the Season begin! We're ready!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (21:30)", "body": "Let the learning begin - we have goodies to gather: Before the rite, make up a small cloth pouch filled with herbs such as lavender, camomile, St. John\ufffds wort, vervain, or any of the Midsummer herbs listed. Mentally pour all your troubles, problems, pains, sorrows and illnesses, if any, into this petition as you construct it. Tie it shut with a red string. Place this on the altar for use during the rite. The cauldron should also be there or nearby. Even if you use candles to mark the quarters, the red candle in the holder should also be on the altar. For outdoor rituals, light a fire - however small - and drop the pouch into this. Arrange the altar, light the candles an d censer, and cast the Circle o Stones. Recite the Blessing chant. Invoke the Goddess and God. ~`~`~`~`~` Midsummer is practically the classic time to perform magics of all kinds. Healings, love magic and protection are especially suitable. Hers can be dried over the ritual fire if you\ufffdre celebrating out doors. Leap the fire for purification and renewed energy. Fresh fruits are standard fare for Midsummer. http://www.pagans.org/~firerose/midsumme.htm"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (21:31)", "body": "Wolfie, did you read that??? Get out the goodies, we have work to do!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (21:41)", "body": "http://www.teachnet.com/lesson/seasonal/solstice061899.html Build Your Own Stonehenge Built between 3100 and 1550 BC, Stonehenge is located on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. Stonehenge's axis is pointed roughly in the direction of the sunrise at the summer and winter solstices. Some scientists believe it was used to foretell eclipses of the sun and the moon by the positions of these celestial bodies in relation to the stone monument. The site may have served as an observatory where early rituals or religious ceremonies took place on specific days of the year. Visit http://www.familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,1-4200,00.html for instructions on building you own Stonehenge. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Midsummer's Eve / St. John's Eve These two are often considered seperate, but are both the night before the summer solstice. In England, it was the ancient custom on St. John's Eve to light large bonfires after sundown, which served the double purpose of providing light to the revelers and warding off evil spirits. This was known as 'setting the watch'. In Britain, it was once believed you could gather fern seed at the stroke of midnight and rub it onto your eyelids to make fairies visible! Wearing your jacket inside-out on Midsummer's Eve will keep you out of danger. An adventurous few even stay up all night - the shortest night of the year. Other customs included decorating the house, especially the front door, with birch, fennel, St. John's wort, orpin, and white lilies. Five plants were thought to have special magical properties on this night: rue, roses, St. John's wort, vervain and trefoil. Have students research these plants and make a wreath for your own classroom door. Serve \"pixie sticks\" and other treats for a summer solstice party. To make fairy wings, bend two wire hangers into the shape of a wings, then cover each with any color variety of hosiery, tying the sock off where the two wings come together. Use school glue to draw patterns on the wings, then sprinkle with glitter and let dry. Fasten the wings together with safety pins or by sewing together, and pin to clothing. Related Links For more information on the summer solstice, visit Wendy Hogan's great list of links on About.com at: http://kidexchange.miningco.com/msub69.htm ."}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (21:49)", "body": "what? are we inviting the wicca? (i got to the polstice part--or whatever that pouch of goodies is called)."}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (21:55)", "body": "It is for love potions! This site has it all - AWESOME http://www.religioustolerance.org/summer_solstice.htm SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATIONS: ANCIENT AND MODERN a.k.a. Alban Heflin, Alben Heruin, All-couples day, Feast of Epona, Feast of St. John the Baptist, Feill-Sheathain, Gathering Day, Johannistag, Litha, Midsummer, Sonnwend, Thing-Tide, Vestalia, etc. Overview People around the world have observed spiritual and religious seasonal days of celebration during the month of June. Most have been religious holy days which are linked in some way to the summer solstice. On this day, typically JUN-21, the daytime hours are at a maximum in the Northern hemisphere, and night time is at a minimum. It is officially the first day of summer. It is also referred to as Midsummer because it is roughly the middle of the growing season throughout much of Europe. \"Solstice\" is derived from two words: \"sol\" meaning sun, and \"sistere,\" to cause to stand still. This is because, as the summer solstice approaches, the noonday sun rises higher and higher in the sky on each successive day. On the day of the solstice, it rises an imperceptible amount, compared to the day before. In this sense, it \"stands still.\" (In the southern hemisphere, the summer solstice is celebrated in December, also when the night time is at a minimum and the daytime is at a maximum. We will assume that the reader lives in the Northern hemisphere for the rest of this essay.) Why does the summer solstice happen? The seasons of the year are caused by the 23.5\ufffd tilt of the earth's axis. Because the earth is rotating like a top or gyroscope, the North Pole points in a fixed direction continuously -- towards a point in space near the North Star. But the earth is also revolving around the sun. During half of the year, the southern hemisphere is more exposed to the sun than is the northern hemisphere. During the rest of the year, the reverse is true. At noontime in the Northern Hemisphere the sun appears high in the sky during summertime, and low during winter. The time of the year when the sun reaches its maximum elevation occurs on the summer solstice -- the day with the greatest number of daylight hours. It typically occurs on, or within a day or two of, JUN-21 -- the first day of summer. The lowest elevation occurs about DEC-21 and is the winter solstice -- the first day of winter, when the night time hours reach their maximum. Significance of the summer solstice: In pre-historic times, summer was a joyous time of the year for Aboriginal people in the northern latitudes. The snow had disappeared; the ground had thawed out; warm temperatures had returned; flowers were blooming; leaves had returned to the deciduous trees. Some herbs could be harvested, for medicinal and other uses. Food was easier to find. The crops had already been planted and would be harvested in the months to come. Although many months of warm/hot weather remained before the fall, they noticed that the days were beginning to shorten, so that the return of the cold season was inevitable. The first (or only) full moon in June is called the Honey Moon. Tradition holds that this is the best time to harvest honey from the hives. This time of year, between the planting and harvesting of the crops, was the traditional month for weddings. This is because many ancient peoples believed that the \"grand [sexual] union\" of the Goddess and God occurred in early May at Beltaine. Since it was unlucky to compete with the deities, many couples delayed their weddings until June. June remains a favorite month for marriage today. In some traditions, \"newly wed couples were fed dishes and beverages that featured honey for the first month of their married life to encourage love and fertility. The surviving vestige of this tradition lives on in the name given to the holiday immediately after the ceremony: The Honeymoon.\" 14 Midsummer celebrations in ancient and modern times: Most societies in the northern hemisphere, ancient and modern, have celebrated a festival on or close to Midsummer: Ancient Celts: Druids, the priestly/professional/diplomatic corps in Celtic countries, celebrated Alban Heruin (\"Light of the Shore\"). It was midway between the spring Equinox (Alban Eiler; \"Light of the Earth\") and the fall Equinox (Alban Elfed; \"Light of the Water\"). \"This midsummer festival celebrates the apex of Light, sometimes symbolized in the crowning of the Oak King, God of the waxing year. At his crowning, the Oak King falls to his darker aspect, the Holly King, God of the waning year...\" 13 The days following Alban Heruin form the waning part of the year because the days become shorter. Ancient China: Their summer solstice ceremony celebrated the earth, the feminine, and the yin forces. It complemented the winter solstice which celebrated the heavens, masculinity and yang forces. Ancient Gaul: The Midsummer celebration was called Feast of Epona, named after a mare goddess who personified fertility, sovereignty and agricu"}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (21:57)", "body": "oh! that's the kinda magic we're gonna do. i need a good love potion, anyone got #9 around? *grin* i didn't read all that because my eyeballs are going to sleep. what day is the solstice on this year?"}, {"response": 15, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (22:27)", "body": "howdy howdy The first day of summer is this Thursday so stock up on the party supplies! I guess I'll go sit on the back deck and bang on drums or play the didgeradoo and wake up the neighbors. de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (23:04)", "body": "Wolfie, you did not check that url for additional information: The dates and times of the summer solstice: The exact date varies from year to year and may occur between the 20th and 23rd of June. Year Summer solstice (UT) 1999 JUN-21 @ 19:49 2000 JUN-21 @ 01:47 2001 JUN-21 @ 07:37 2002 JUN-21 @ 13:24 2003 JUN-21 @ 19:10 2004 JUN-21 @ 00:56 The above dates and times were provided the astronomical calculations on The Dome of the Sky web site. 9 Times are in UT (Universal Time). This used to be called Greenwich Mean Time or GMT. In North America, you can find your local time by subtracting: 2 hours 30 minutes for Newfoundland daylight savings time 3 hours for ADT 4 hours for EDT 5 hours for CDT 6 hours for MDT 7 hours for PDT 8 hours in AKDT (Alaska) 9 hours in ADT (Aleutian Islands) 10 hours in HST (Hawaii) 10"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (23:09)", "body": "in Hawaii's case we celebrate the solstice on June 20th at 15:47 HST which is 3:47 pm local time. So, at 3:47 pm Hawaiiam time on June 20, you will be celebrating the very same moment as I am but at different clock setttings!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (18:02)", "body": "you mean i have to get up EARLY to celebrate?....wonder if they'll let me have a pow wow at the office! what was the recipe for the love poltice again? (no, i didn't go to the website)"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (20:10)", "body": "LOL Wolfie, sound like you already got the potion nailed down, you Awesome lady!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (20:28)", "body": "well, i certainly hope so *BIG WOLFIE GRIN, teeth and all*"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 20, 2001 (16:17)", "body": "This HAS to be totally Cosmic: Here Comes the Solar Eclipse! Space Weather News for June 20, 2001 http://www.spaceweather.com SOLAR ECLIPSE: Thursday, June 21st, sky watchers in parts of southern Africa will enjoy a mind-blowing spectacle: a total solar eclipse. Veteran eclipse chasers say there's no substitute for being inside the Moon's shadow where the temperature drops, wildlife grows quiet, and the Sun's ghostly corona springs to life. Nevertheless, we'll do our best to share the experience with you on Thursday by posting digital images of the eclipse and near real time temperature readings from the path of totality. Tune in to SpaceWeather.com for more information about the event, including a preview of what African observers might see courtesy of coronagraphs on board the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. http://www.spaceweather.com"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (00:17)", "body": "The mountain and the sun disappeared under thick grey clouds this solstice sunset. And so did all of my wlallpaper, buttons and horizontal bars and cover graphics. What you see is default. I am most unhappy!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (07:04)", "body": "It may be Frontpage acting up, I'll work with you on restoring it if you can email the exact procedures, processes you're using to modify your wallpaper, buttons, etc."}, {"response": 24, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (07:16)", "body": "Today's the summer solstice! June 21st."}, {"response": 25, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (07:23)", "body": "Let the celebration begin, here's a site that has a solstice parade, fitting place to begin our celebration. The site is http://www.solsticeparade.com/ At high noon, on the Saturday nearest to the longest day of the year the celebration explodes into a display of color, music, dance, art and movement. Over 3,000 participants parade the mile long route up State Street, through the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, transforming the business district into a vibrant splash of color and creativity. Taking a cue from the Italian Commedia dell' Arte and adding a solstice flair, the brilliant illusions and imagery of fantastic faces emerge masquerading as creations in keeping with this years theme, \"2001 : A Space Oddity\". Joined by people-powered floats, they glitter and glide, whirl and rustle up the street filling hearts with gaiety and delight, inspiring the crowd to celebrate the beginning of Summer"}, {"response": 26, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (07:24)", "body": "And marci, this one's for you. http://www.innerself.com/Astrology/eliza_may_30.htm It's from a Hawaiian perspective. Aloha kakou - greetings to all. All times referred to in this article are Hawai'ian Standard Time. Pacific time add 3 hrs., Eastern add 6 hrs. The major turning points of the astronomical/astrological year continues with the upcoming Summer Solstice, when the Sun moves into Cancer. It is the highest point that the sun appears above the \ufffdcelestial equator\ufffd (which is an imaginary line that the sun occupies as we orbit it). For those in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the highest the sun climbs in the sky. For those below the Equator, it signifies the lowest point, and the signal that the sun will return to its zenith in six months. It is the longest day of the year for those above the equator. This year, June 20th, 3:48 pm Hawai`ian Standard Time, is the exact time and date of the Solstice. (For international readers: 1:48 am GMT on June 21st.) At the time of Summer Solstice, we are focusing more on the Water element -- the Emotions. Many people celebrate the shortest night of the year with drumming parties, singing, and dancing. That way they pass the hours, staying up all night so they can greet the dawn. This current Solstice sees us with another \ufffdpile up\ufffd of planetary energies escorting us through the coming three months. These are Sun at 0\ufffd, Venus 2\ufffd, Mars 3\ufffd, Mercury at 19\ufffd -- all in Cancer. The Moon\ufffds placement is also significant. It will be in Aquarius, tucked between Neptune and Uranus at 15 degrees. Aquarius brings a universality, a humanitarian outlook -- the good of all -- where the one is important but is part of a whole. Therefore, the tone of this coming quarter (summer season) is focusing on the nurturing good of all. Being tenacious and driven to care for the masses who are less fortunate than the perception of self. Volunteering and donating resources to help others gain or regain their lives. As we discovered with the Taurean pile up in May, when we have many planets gathered in the same sign, we get a \"focusing\" of our attention on that vibration, wherever we have it in our charts and lives. So look to Cancer\ufffds placement in your natal charts -- it is two signs after the location where Taurus just placed its strong intentions in the earth and the physical plane of your life. There will be the opportunity this Summer to bring Spiritual insights (from Neptune) in new patterns (Uranus) to the emotional plane (Cancer) that will stimulate how we walk and work with our physical resources (Jupiter/Saturn in Taurus). Healing transformative messages from Chiron/Pluto will influence the Moon to be releasing old fears. Do remember, you can release the old emotional burdens through this Summer and be in a new place of bliss and freedom at the time of the Fall Equinox in September. Also, take the information you have about the Jupiter/Saturn Conjunction on May 28th (see previous article) and see the upcoming Summer months as a way to incorporate those insights in your emotional nature for your own good -- as well as your community\ufffds good -- during the next 20 years. Ellias Lonsdale states for the first degree of Cancer -- \"A potter at work. Carving out a sacred place for what you most care about to flourish. Giving your all to a task or project, a way of life or shared stream...\" (\ufffdInside Degrees\ufffd, p. 141) Create the emotional patterns of your new life in this new century based upon freedom and healing of the past. Go walk in beauty. Malama pono (take care). Namast\ufffd."}, {"response": 27, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (07:26)", "body": "Spead the word around spring, today's the Summer Solstice party! We celebrate, enjoy celebrations going on around the world, and share thoughts from our own parts of the world. Do a google search and see what you can find for \"summer solstice\"!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (07:31)", "body": "June 21: Summer Solstice, 12:38 am PDT for folks in California. In Austin, that would be at 10:38 am, in a little over 3 hours from now. Everyone should do a little dance or celebration at 10:38 am CST."}, {"response": 29, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (10:41)", "body": "Hey it's summer now as of right this red hot second!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (10:46)", "body": "Now, from Canada. A SUMMER SOLSTICE ASTROLOGICAL CELEBRATION CORTES ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA JUNE 21 - 24, 2001 Astrologically speaking, planet Venus signifies what we value most in our lives. The event, VENUS RISING, is meant to act as a forum for the celebration and sharing of what people value most about astrology itself. We invite you to join with us here on Cortes Island , no matter what your level of experience is, to explore how astrology can best be brought into day-to-day life for the highest good of all. Everyone is welcome to attend and all registrants are invited to become speakers on Saturday by addressing our theme question: What astrological experiences and/or tools have impacted you most profoundly in your day-to-day living? Owing to time constraints, the number of speakers may have to be limited, in which case, speakers will be chosen in order of registration. Click here to view a list of presenters. The precise order of speaking presentations will be assigned according to the phase of the Moon at each speaker's birth. This represents an innovative form of group communication called lunation council"}, {"response": 31, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (10:49)", "body": "The 8th Annual Summer Solstice Celebration - June 2001 Paul Winter and Artists from around the world gave 3 concerts to greet the summer and the longest day of the year on June 15th and 16th, 2001. | Guest Artists | Music Performed | Press Release | GUEST ARTISTS at the 8th Annual Summer Solstice Celebration included: Karan Casey Eugene Friesen (Photo \ufffd 2000 Charles N. Fulco) KARAN CASEY, the Irish vocalist, formerly a member of the group 'Solas', who can be heard on the Living Music recording CELTIC SOLSTICE and whose new album is THE WINDS BEGIN TO SING on Shanachie ARTO TUNCBOYACIYAN, Armenian percussionist, vocalist and instrumentalist, who has just recorded his US debut solo album with Living Music, called EVERY DAY IS A NEW LIFE JERRY O'SULLIVAN, on Uilleann pipes, who can be heard on the Living Music recordings CELTIC SOLSTICE and JOURNEY WITH THE SUN, and whose solo album is THE GIFT on Shanachie. EUGENE FRIESEN, the outstanding cello player and long-time member of the Paul Winter Consort, who has recorded many albums with Living Music, including ARMS AROUND YOU Pianist PAUL SULLIVAN, member of the Paul Winter Consort and accomplished composer and conductor, whose many solo recordings include CIRCLE ROUND THE SEASONS on River Music. Cathedral organist DOROTHY PAPADAKS"}, {"response": 32, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (10:51)", "body": "For kids from the kidexchange.about.com website. One of the most famous tributes to the Summer Solstice can be found in England. Some 5,000 years ago inhabitants created Stonehendge - a huge circle of blocks formed in a circle and erected as a gateway aimed at the rising sun. Similar designs can be found in Egyptian and Mayan temples. For more information on Stonehendge visit this site from The Active Mind which helps explain the mystery. Ways to Celebrate the Solstice Make your own Stonehendge at the beach like you would a sandcastle Have an outdoor breakfast picnic to welcome the Solstice Stay up and watch the sun go down on the longest day of the year! Draw a picture of the sun at sunrise and sunset"}, {"response": 33, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (10:52)", "body": "Let's pretend, for the moment, that you're the person standing on the Earth in the picture to the left, living in Topeka, Kansas, around 40\ufffd N latitude. The picture on the left shows the view from the solar system (upper panel), and from on the surface of the earth (lower panel). Notice that some of the same features are labelled on each panel. The upper panel shows that on the summer solstice (which occurs around June 21), the northern half of the Earth is tilted towards the Sun. Notice that the Sun is north of the equator. For you in Topeka, the altitude of the Sun at noon is 73.5\ufffd, which is pretty high in the sky. In fact, that is as high as the Sun ever gets at that latitude. It has been getting higher and higher in the sky since the winter solstice and through the vernal equinox. The bottom panel shows how the Sun moves through the sky for someone standing on the ground in Topeka. So in general, the northern hemisphere is getting more direct sunlight, which heats the Earth most efficiently, than the southern hemisphere. This is summer for people in the northern hemisphere. During the summer, the Sun is also above the horizon longer than it is during the winter. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year. At this same time, the southern half of the Earth is tilted away from the Sun. If you were living in Neuquen, Argentina (roughly -40\ufffd S latitude) you would be bundled up for the winter. How high the Sun gets in your sky, and how long it is above the horizon during the day, depend not only on the season, but also on your latitude. A diagram showing how the Sun moves through the sky on the Summer solstice. Click on image for full size (57K GIF)"}, {"response": 34, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (10:54)", "body": "Moving on the Belgium. Summer Solstice 2001 Celebration / Belgium A co-creative, experiential playground about MANDALAS and the collection of StarWheel mandalas by Aya. Through hands-on experience how-to-make-your-own-mandala, group projects, mini-lectures and slide presentations, Aya will share his artistic & spiritual experience in creating the StarWheel mandalas. We will look into the essentials of Mandalas, journey through archetypical symbols, their geometry's & frequencies and explore various ways to use and enact Mandalas. A labyrinth will be built and walked to honor the solstice. The event will build up to the Friday evening Summer Solstice 2001 Celebration. We will have a Kids Corner... so bring them along - they love mandalas... The beautiful park-like setting of the location and the powerful energies of the \"cosmic rendez-vous\" will inspire us to awaken the Sacred Circles within new aspects of our personal and global Life. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday 21st of June Welcome & Orientation. Each participant picks a StarWheel. Afternoon: Prayer circle. Overall presentation. PLAYGROUND # 1: ESSENTIALS OF MANDALAS Mandalas, a spirit journey with the essential Template of Universe. The Center & the Periphery Basic structure & layout of mandalas Sacred Geometry 101 - Practice with the Golden Number Colors, numbers & frequencies -(Cymatics -short video) Orientation & geomancy in mandalas Getting started on * Making-your-own-mandala * Evening: Slide show: Mandalas around the world Mini-presentations on Labyrinths and Rose-windows Overview of the StarWheel collection In-depth explanation of specific StarWheels Friday 22nd of june Morning : PLAYGROUND # 2: THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF SYMBOLS Points, Bindus & Centers Circles , Spheres & Eggs Triangles, Pyramids & Mountains Squares & Cubes Polygons & Stars geometry's Ellipses, Spirals & Vortices Yantras, mantras & mudras Sacred Labyrinths -Tracing & walking a 7-ring labyrinth Using grid templates - Grid-filling practice The StarWheel hieroglyphics Completing * Making-your-own-mandala * Afternoon: PLAYGROUND # 3: BEING THE MANDALA Using and enacting mandalas in various traditions Medicine wheels The StarDome Project Healing with mandalas The Mandala of Self Empowering the personal mandalas created during the event Group experience: each participant takes the StarWheel they picked and creates a way to interact with it through dance, sketches, mime, music, words etc... to share how & why they feel it relates to their spirit sacred journey. (some of the interactions can be expanded for the evening event) Evening: SOLSTICE CELEBRATION *** Live music and StarWheel slides *** The participants are invited to wear white flowing clothing and dance through the projected colors & geometry's. Sacred dance offering to StarWheel # 72 32012 Kin2 Projections will be done from the ceiling down on a circular stage. Prayer & Blessing Circle. End of addition to Program."}, {"response": 35, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (10:56)", "body": "On the \"ritualhut.com\" website: Celebration of the summer solstice, June 21, the longest day of the year, is as old as humankind. At first there apparently was fear that the sun would not come back to its full summer glory, or wouldn't come back at all as the days after the solstice began to get shorter and shorter. For this fundamental reason, bonfires and fire rites of all kinds were initiated on Midsummer's Eve, June 20, to symbolize the sun's power and help renew the sun's energy as it began its downward course across the horizon. In later times bonfires were lit on mountain tops, along streams, in the middle of streets and in front of houses; torches were carried in procession and burning wheels were rolled down hills and through the fields. Often there would be dancing and leaping over fires which was both to purify and protect from evil influences as well as to ensure the well-being of the sun. Since pagan times, Midsummer Eve has been the night of rejoicing and merrymaking over the return of summer. For our family, the summer solstice has also been a reason for a party of some kind. This year, with the greater spiritual interests of some friends and the inclusion of children, we are adding more ritual to the gathering and the celebration will be structured like this: Guests are asked to bring a food or drink from the previous summer. Dried fruit or dried tomatoes from a garden, last year's wine or beer, cheese aged for a year, or last year's homemade jam, etc. Each person is also to be prepared to tell \"What I enjoyed most about last summer.\" Also, if they have their own special or ceremonial drums, rattles, or other instrument, they are to bring it along. When everyone has arrived we make our sacred circle by smudging the four directions (East - Fire, South - Earth, West - Water, and North - Air) and each other with a wonderful summer-smelling sweet grass braid traditional in some Native American rituals. While we are making the ceremonial circle, we will be listening to a tape by Libana of women's acappella singing/chanting \"The Air, The Earth, The Fire, The Water, Return, Return, Return, Return\" and \" A Circle is Cast Again and Again and Again\". I'll say it is a time to remember the ceaseless rhythm and cycles of life, to remember what changes, what stays the same. When the circle is complete, we go around the circle and tell our stories about last year's summer while we eat and drink some of last year's summer harvest. Next, we'll play Paul Winter's mystical and evocative \"Sunrise\" and \"Morning\" selections from his Canyon album and mediate on something we want to do this summer. When the idea or image comes, we'll all write it down to keep for ourselves and note whether it is different than summers before. When everyone is ready, we'll gather up our drums, rattles, rainsticks, and bells and parade noisily around the house in a circle and then over to my neighbor's where a bonfire (in a little Weber grill) and a table full of this summer's bounty of strawberries, melons, fresh produce and breads of all types will greet us. We can watch the June full moon rise -- traditionally in America known as the Strawberry Moon -- and attempt to become conscious, for a moment, of the total faith we inherently now have in the rising of the sun, the cycles of the moon, the placement of the stars, and how dependent we are on the universe, the sun and moon in particular, for life as we know it. It is a time to acknowledge and make connections with our place in the universe which is both a creative part and product of the universal forces of nature, of God and of an ultimate, unending mystery."}, {"response": 36, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (10:59)", "body": "Statement For World Peace & Prayer Day Summer Solstice - June 21st, 2001 by Chief Arvol Looking Horse When I was twelve years old, words of prophecies were instilled in me by our Spiritual Elders of that time, concerning drastic changes that would come to all life upon Mother Earth. These changes are here with us today... When I was twelve years old, words of prophecies were instilled in me by our Spiritual Elders of that time, concerning drastic changes that would come to all life upon Mother Earth. These changes are here with us today. I was told that a sign of these changes called the crossroads would come to pass when the spirit of the White Buffalo Calf Woman would once again stand upon Mother Earth, which I never believed that I would witness. The first white buffalo was born in 1994 and since then eight more have been born. From our Sacred Alters I am devastated for my relatives to the four directions, how life of Peace and Harmony is in our hands for the future of our children and looks very bleak. I have witnessed the last stages of beautiful cultures and traditions that have maintained the connection to Mother Earth is now in the stages of dark times. The disease of the mind has caused much suffering to Mitakuye Oyasin (all our relations meaning ALL life). Our ceremonies directed us to call upon many Nations to recognize the power and spiritual connection of the Sacred Sites that dwell every 100 miles upon Mother Earth in order to create an energy shift to bring back the balance of life. We now realize that it will take this kind monumental effort, along with prayers and belief to heal the Ozone layer that is depleting every moment causing these drastic changes toward all life, including the negative influences in our minds toward one another. I have been very moved by the participation of Nations sponsoring their own WPPD ceremony at their Sacred Sites, which continues to grow in our Global community, since we began this ceremony in 1996 on Turtle Island (Americas), but more awareness needs to take place. This year is a continuing journey of this important event on June 21st, around the world to four continents of the four colors of relatives; we have always represented these colors in our sacred ceremonies. We begin this journey in Ireland and the following years of the June 21st ceremony will be in Africa, Australia, and Japan then back to Turtle Island (Americas) for a thank you ceremony. I pray that as we visit the different Nations on their Homelands, we will continue to awaken their spirituality and the importance of their Sacred Sites, in building our relationship toward healing our Sacred Mother Earth and bring back the dignity of respecting one another! I, Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nation, humblely ask that the spirit of great Nations help us to heal our sacred Mother Earth (Unci Maka). I call upon other Spiritual Leaders and Ancient Storytellers to work together on this urgent effort!\" In the Sacred Hoop of Life, where there is no ending and no beginning! Support this important endeavor and send out to as many people who may be interested in supporting our efforts. Our web site is at: http://www.worldpeaceday.com/2001/ Mitakuye Oyasin Chief Arvol Looking Horse 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe"}, {"response": 37, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (11:20)", "body": "More from about.com Summer Solstice Celebrations Around the World From Rome to Babylon, the Summer Solstice is a time of festival and ritual... Celebrate the Solstice \ufffd Wiccan Solstice \ufffd Solstice Science \ufffd Solstice for Kids \ufffd Solstice in Alaska \ufffd Solstice in New England \ufffd Midsummer in England The summer solstice is a special time for many world cultures. It is based on a verifiable, astronomical event - the point at which the Sun reaches it's farthest movement north (or south, in the Southern hemisphere). The solstice is the longest span of daylight during the year, and also marks the beginning of summer in our current reckoning. Perhaps that's why so many of the ancient and modern cultures of the world choose to mark the solstice with some type of religious festival. Literally hundreds of groups, from the Norse and Celtic tribes to the ancient Romans, Egyptians, and even Christians have some type of an occasion. The festivals below are just a few of the multitude of religious celebrations of summer, but their imagination, beauty and serenity produce a fabulous picture of the holiday and its meaning, both in our time and in the distant past. Babylonian: Festival of Esagila and Ezida The Babylonian and other Mesopotamian cultures celebrated the solstice as a time to help keep the calendar on track. During the festival, the Daughters of Esagila, or the \"Day House\" would journey to the temple of Ezida, the \"Night House\" in order to help lengthen the nights and continue the sun's journey toward the Winter Solstice. The festival celebrated the journey of the sun, and marked the time in which it started its journey towards winter. More on the Festival of Esagila and Ezida... Celtic: Midsummer or Alban Hefin Midsummer is viewed as a minor fire festival in the Celtic Wheel of the Year, but it is considered an important time nonetheless. Many of the ancient stone monoliths are aligned to the solstice, pointing to a great deal of importance in the solstice during the pre Celtic eras. The ritual is in celebration of the marriages of the gods. The traditional bonfires and ritual celebrations were an integral part of the celebration. Perhaps the most important part of the date for Druids, however, was the day of the Druid Egg. It is believed that the snakes come together on the solstice night to create the glain, or Druid's Egg. Anyone in possession of this artifact was said to have great magical powers. Midsummer is also a time of fairy magic and mischief. More on the Celtic celebration of Midsummer... Egypt: New Year's Day The solstice in ancient Egypt was the beginning of the new year, as well as the time of the floods which brought the fertile soil and water to the arid Nile Valley. The rebirth of the sun, Ra, at the solstice was heralded by the rising of Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens and a symbol of the goddess Isis or Hathor (later merged). An inscription in the Temple of Isis in Denderah reads: \"Her Majesty Isis shines into the temple on New Year's Day, and She mingles her light with that of her father Ra on the horizon.\" From the Denderah texts: \"Her rays unite with the rays of the luminous god on that beautiful day of the birth of the sun disk on the morning of the new year's feast.\" More on the Egyptian New Year... Estonia:Jaanip\ufffdev (St. John's Day) Celebrated on June 24th, the festivals of Jaani\ufffdhtu (Midsummer Eve) and Jaanip\ufffdev (St. John's Day) are the most important holidays other than Christmas in the nation of Estonia. Although named for the Christian Saint, the festival has its origins in the much older celebrations of the Pagan deities and the solstice. The holiday marks the time when spring planting turns to summer hay-making, and it's traditions lay firmly in the old customs associated with farming and fertility. One of the most well-known of these customs is the lighting of the great bonfire on the morning of Jaani\ufffdhtu, and the subsequent leaping of the fire for good luck and prosperity. More on the Celebration of Jaanip\ufffdev... Greece: New Year In ancient Greece, the new year began on the first new moon after the summer solstice. Sacrifices were made to Zeus the Savior and Athena the Savior on the last day of the year to ensure good fortune and wealth in the coming months. This was also the time of the festival of Plunteria, the time of the washing and reclothing of the sacred statue of Athena which guards the city. It was considered an unlucky day, as the goddess was absent from the city. More on the Greek Festivals around the Summer Solstice... Latvia: Jani The celebration of the solstice in Latvia, and all of the Baltic states, takes its name from the god Janis, the personification of the summer solstice. Traditional foods of beer (representing the bounty of the corn fields) and cheese (the bounty of the cattle herds) were prepared, and all work was suspended during the celebration. The day before Jani was known as Herb Day for the special herbs that were collected to bestow health, fer"}, {"response": 38, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (11:22)", "body": "The Sundance The sundance medicine lodge is constructed with a central sacred tree (an example of an \"axis mundi,\" the axis or center of the world). Twenty-eight poles surround it in a circle and 28 roof-beams connect the central tree to the surrounding support poles. (See side view and layout diagrams) A buffalo-hide covering covers it all. The central tree is a ritually selected cottonwood tree that is brought to the site. It represents Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit. 28 is a sacred number. The lunar month has 28 days. Buffalos have 28 ribs. War bonnets usually have 28 feathers. Black Elk says, \"Twenty-eight is the number of days in the moon's growing and dying, and as the twenty-eight poles rest on the one central tree, so the growing and dying of our ignorance reflects the one light of Wakan-Tanka, which is our center.\" The entrance of the lodge faces east. The ceremonies begin on the date of the summer solstice. Earlier, native Americans created Medicine Wheels to mark the summer solstice and the rising of significant stars such as Sirius. These Medicine Wheels are huge circles with 28 lines radiating from the center. The Medicine Wheel on Medicine Mountain in Wyoming was probably in use between 1250 and 1750 ce. The annual Sundance of the Sioux is held in midsummer (June or July), when the moon is full."}, {"response": 39, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (11:24)", "body": "And since I'm part Norwegian, I have to include this celebration. Midsummer Day The summer solstice was second only to Yule in importance to the ancient Northmen. Some groups mark this day as sacred to Balder, but we disagree with this. While Balder can be seen as a dying and resurrected Sun God, in the mythology we are most familiar with, he does not return to life until Ragnarok and it seems like \"bad karma\" to symbolically kill the sun when you know Baldr doesn't come back until the end of the world. Instead, we mark this day as sacred to the Goddess Sunna, who is literally the sun. One idea for midsummer is to remain awake all night and mark the shortest night of the year, then at sunrise to perform a \"Greeting of Sunna\" and a blot to her. Another midsummer custom is the rolling of a flaming wagon wheel down a hill to mark the turning of the wheel of the year. If fire would otherwise be a hazard, one could parade a wheel covered with candles for similar effect. It is also a time for general merriment and in the Scandinavian countries many of what we know as the traditional May Day rituals such as May Poles and Morris Dances were celebrated at Midsummer rather than in May. In our area Midsummer occurs during a large local Pagan festival, and we have gone all out in making it a major holiday with blot, sumbel, feasting and drinking. We are currently in the process of constructing a \"sun ship\" which, with sails of copper reflecting the light from small torches, represents Sunna will be brought forth at dawning and dusk. (on the about website as well)"}, {"response": 40, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (11:28)", "body": "Summer Solstice -- Midsummer Day Finland is one of the most northerly countries in the world. The winters near the Arctic Circle are long and dark. Summer is long awaited. Summer in Finland is warm, bright and exhilarating. Above the seventy-degree latitude, the midnight sun is visible from mid-May to the end of July, with the summer solstice being the most pronounced in brightness. The average during that period of time is nineteen hours of sunshine per day. The events surrounding the summer solstice were originally pagan celebrations in Finland. It was important for the Vikings because they believed the earth stood still due to the fact that the sun did not set that day. Early Christian missionaries capitalized on the event and converted it to the \"Day of Saint John\" in honor of John the Baptist. The shamanistic Finnish festival became the Christian celebration we call \"Juhannus\" celebrated with bonfires and community Christian singing and rejoicing. Summer is a rare commodity in the North-European country of Finland where winter's reign lengthens its grip far into spring. When summer finally arrives with its solstice around June 25, the festivities take over with grand proportions. Symbolic of the cold, dark climate, Finns are a sober, serious people who view the world with furrowed brows from underneath their fur hats all winter. However, as soon as the sun eclipses the equinoctial line, the hats are thrown off, brows smooth and the Finns\ufffd alter-ego is set free. Juhannus, as the summer solstice is called in Finnish, is the initiation of all Finnish summer ambitions. The holiday is a quasi holy day, kept apart for special occasions, such as family reunions, weddings and christenings. This is by far the best time to visit Finland, to appreciate her in verdant summer dress. Days before the holiday, preparations begin. On the home front, it means cleaning the entire house inside and out. Tender, fragrant green-leafed birch branches, tied in bunches, adorn doorways and porches to bring the summer's glories even closer home. The Finnish flag is flown, gloriously bright against the azure skies all through the nightless night. National costumes are taken from the attic to air, and are readied for the year's most important national outing. In the towns and villages, the building of the kokko, a huge bonfire, commences. Old boats and lumber are used to fashion the distinct conical shape of the Juhannus kokko bonfire. Excitement builds as the silhouette rises on a prominent location near water. In Finland, there is always water near every town, be it a lake, a pond, a river, or a stream. That special incineration of the kokko happens on Juhannus evening, after lengthy entertainment and feasting have taken place. Traditional folk songs are heard, accompanied by the kantele, the Finnish national instrument. The kantele is a lute-like musical implement mentioned even in Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. Dances, known as tanhut, are brought to life, accompanied by the songs of accordions and fiddles, rendered by skillful performers dressed in their colorful regional national costumes. Men, women and children dance. Audience participation in the raucous polkas and waltzes precede the hour of burning. Close to midnight, the kokko is ceremoniously set on fire. The spectators express their admiration as the flames roar up to the sky, ferociously licking the dry wood. The burning boats and lumber brighten up the already light midnight sky to the endless delight of the observers who linger far into the early morning hours, enjoying the warmth and magic that burning fire somehow conjures up. Another summer solstice is over, but in Finland it only wakes up the sleeping winter-worn spirits, and summer comes to life in the land of the midnight sun. Please contact June Rantanen if you want to know more about Juhannus and the festivities described above."}, {"response": 41, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (11:33)", "body": "And Stonehenge, of course. Stonehenge, the ancient stone circle on Salisbury plain in Wiltshire, will be open to the public on Tuesday evening - as part of this year's celebration of Midsummer's Day. It is the first time in 16 years that the site has been open to public for the summer solstice, which marks the longest day of the year. English Heritage are expecting several thousand visitors to the historic site, which is believed to have been built between 3000 and 1600 BC. Every year travellers descend on the site for Midsummer's Day as part of a pre-Christian celebration of the sun. However the monument has been closed to the public since 1984 when disorderly behaviour from the crowds threatened to damage the site. This year, security guards will have a visible presence with backup from the police, but English Heritage says the emphasis is on the public's enjoyment of the event. \"We've made arrangements to try to make this a happy and peaceful solstice for people,\" said a spokeswoman. from the bbc."}, {"response": 42, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (11:34)", "body": "Landowners opening Stonehenge to public for summer solstice The Associated Press LONDON (June 19, 2000 5:00 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com ) - For the first time in 16 years, the public will be able to greet the dawn of the summer - the first of the new millennium - at the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge. But fearing a return of the unruly revelers who have defiled the monument in the past, site owners English Heritage have agreed to open the stones for just eight hours, starting Tuesday night. Security will be tight at the site on Salisbury plain, 80 miles southwest of London. And camping, fires, dogs and amplified music will be forbidden. Stonehenge, a double circle of large stones erected by prehistoric Britons 5,000 years ago, became a popular spot for solstice celebrations in the late 1980s, when pagan worshippers flocked to the site to perform age-old ceremonies. In 1988, a group of 4,000 revelers tried to break police lines to join the white-robed druids. Following clashes, nine people were injured and 70 arrested. Two years ago, 100 people were allowed to attend the solstice by prior arrangement, an event which proved peaceful. But last year riot police had to be called in after gate-crashers pushed down fences and clambered on the stones. Druids, for whom the solstice is the holiest day of the year, believe Stonehenge was a center for pre-Christian and astronomical worship and therefore consider it a sacred site. English Heritage has said it will decide whether to open the stones for future solstices after seeing how people behave this year."}, {"response": 43, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (11:38)", "body": ">celesita.com: > >Summer Solstice >By Robin DuMolin >>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Solstice [Fr. from L. solstitium; sol, the sun, and sto, to stand;] The time of year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator. - Funk and Wagnalls Dictionary. The summer solstice occurs on June 21st. It is a time distinctive on an astrological level and also a time of year celebrated by ancient civilizations with their unique traditions to mark the summer season. Nearly every religion of the world shows traces of astrological influence. The old Testament of the Jews, its writings by Egyptian culture, is a mass of astrological and astronomical allegories. Nearly all the mythology of Greece and Rome may be traced in star groups. The ancient systems of measuring the year were based upon the equinoxes and solstices. >>>> The summer solstice was celebrated when the sun reached its most northerly position. It is regarded as occurring in Cancer (the Crab). It is evident that the constellation of the Crab is represented by this particular creature because the sun, after passing through this house, precedes to work backwards, or descend the zodiacal arc. >>>As for the history of the summer solstice, for centuries people in Europe celebrated springtime by lighting fires. These might have been fires kindled at hillsides to drive away witches and to help the sun with its task of warming the earth. On May Day the Celts, who had lived in Scotland and Ireland since ancient times, would make a fire out of gorse to burn out the witches. This was part of the Celtic fire festival called Beltane. Beltane means \"Bright Fire.\" When the Celts decided to celebrate the solst ice they simply extended their fire rituals to Midsummer Eve. In Sweden a Midsummer Tree was set up and decorated. The villagers danced around it, lit fires and jumped over them. On Midsummer Day it was also the custom for women and girls to bathe in a river. Long ago this bathing was considered magic for bringing the life-giving rain. In a river the water is always moving, always renewed. > The sun, as supreme among the celestial bodies visible to the astronomers of antiquity, was assigned to the highest of the gods and became symbolic of the supreme authority of the Creator Himself. >>>The Natchez Indians in the southern part of the U.S. worshipped the sun and believed their ruler was descended from him. Every summer they held a first fruits ceremony. No one was allowed to touch the ripe ears of corn in his own field until the ceremony was finished. The Hopi Indians of Arizona would have masked men wearing bright paint and feathers who danced their special rituals. They represented the dancing spirits of rain and fertility called Kachinas. The Kachinas were messengers between man and the gods. At Midsummer the Kachinas leave the Hopi villages to return to their homes in the mountains. While they are there, for half the year, they are believed to visit the dead underground and hold cermonies for them. The Catholic Church chose Midsummer for celebrating the birth of Saint John the Baptist and called it Saint John's Day. John was the forerunner of Jesus and baptized Him in the river Jordan."}, {"response": 44, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (11:39)", "body": "from web-holidays.com The Midsummer Festival at Web Holidays Email This Page To A Friend! The Midsummer Festival is a hundred-year-old tradition in Scandinavia. It celebrates the earth, summer, and the longest day of sunlight-Summer Solstice (which actually falls on June 21st). In the North it is the time of the midnight sun. Many cultures have held celebrations of the Summer Solstice including the Egyptians, Africans, the Druids, and the Incas. As with most Old World celebrations, Christianity has influenced some of the traditions. The festival is quite fun but now honors St. John the Baptist rather than pagan gods. Many places celebrate Midsummer on St. John's Day, June 24th. However, Sweden keeps the two holidays separate. Midsummer is celebrated on the weekend closest to St. John's Day. Huge bonfires are built. In pagan time's people would jump over the bonfires for luck. In Finland, the bonfire is called a \"kokko\". The wood that's used has been collected throughout the year. Homes are decorated with garlands of wildflowers and greenery. People dance, visit friends and relatives all night. Ancient ritualistic dances were performed to drive away evil spirits and ensure a fertile land today the dances are just for fun. In Sweden Maypoles are erected and danced about. Huge crosses called a \"midsommarstoeng\" are also built. The branches from birch trees are used to build the structure, then it is covered with leaves and flowers. Traditions include girls collecting seven to nine different wildflowers and placing them under their pillows in hopes of dreaming of their future loves. Boys use a copper coin. In ancient days it was believe that on this one night ferns would blossom, only the true of heart would be able to find the rare fern flower. Dew was collected that gathered on the leaves and flowers on the Midsummer's night as it held magical healing properties. Witch Ladder's were built by tying feathers into a special braided cord while making several wishes. Midsummer was and is a popular time to wed under the midnight sun. An emphasis is put on dairy products and cows. It was believed that a cows' milk may be bewitched the night before and so cows were kept safe inside. Only after the dew had gone away may the cows go out to graze. Midsummer celebrations are celebrated all over, including parts of the United States and British Columbia."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (14:53)", "body": "Aloha kakou, Amazing! Our very own wizardess! Thanks Terry. Of course it was Midsummer Night and my dream was far away freezing his butt off in a midwinter solsice event which involved keeping warm. I had hoped to send him beaming sunshine and fragrant warmth from another island on the other end of the Pacific. I hope he felt it! A hui ho kakou!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2001 (14:58)", "body": "I think this time of year, our ancient Keltic forebears went into the woods and either did \"apple-howling\" or beat the trunks of trees with heavy implements to encourage their new growth and regeneration. I have no doubt whatsoever that this also ivolved liberal libations both internal (the participants) and those poured on the ground to encourage their buried ancestors to push up new crops from under the soil. Go out and whomp your trees, Rob! We notherners did fertility things. I probably don't need to elaborate here about that *;)"}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 22, 2001 (16:27)", "body": "Liam, thanks for this. Not for nothing I was once known as the Marcianess of Stonehenge-sans-Druids (meaning New Age sort) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=004826292612046&rtmo=lzllvbnt&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/6/22/nsolst22.html Dawn at Stonehenge 10,000 mark solstice at Stonehenge By Peter Foster MORE than 10,000 assorted druids, spiritualists and New Age travellers gathered at Stonehenge yesterday to witness the summer solstice. Dawn broke on the longest day of the year to a chorus of druidical chanting, drumming and the jangle of Morris dancing bells as a broad church met under the circle of prehistoric stones on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. For the second year in succession English Heritage and Wiltshire Police did not try to prevent visitors entering the 5,000-year stone circle, which is usually fenced off. Police reported only five arrests - all for possession of soft drugs - and English Heritage said they were \"pleased\" with the general level of behaviour despite several of the revellers climbing on to the giant stones. Those who stayed up long enough to catch the dawn, which broke at 4.55am, were rewarded with a spectacular sunrise. Rollo Maughling, the arch-druid of Glastonbury, led the pagan rituals, chanting in between delivering loud blasts on a coachman's horn. He was forced to compete with didgeridoos, a 10-piece samba band, three bagpipes, cow bells, tambourines, guitars and the enthusiastic jingling of the White Horse Morris troupe celebrating their 50th anniversary."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 22, 2001 (16:35)", "body": "Gadzooks, I am soooo glad I missed THAT party. One year we were there for the solstic and had planned to avoid Stonehenge and do Avebury instead. We got the dates wrong and met up with every lunatic fringer on earth that day. They despoiled everything the touched, camped on the round barrows nearby and generally were untidy and littered the whole scene. I spent most of my time talking with a very indulgent member of the constabulary. I asked him why they had the rhyolite (LAVA !) \"altar\" stone covered with a heavy tarpaulin. He said it was to prevent some unmentionable act being performed on it by some overzealous celebrant. Need I add that the air was thick with mind-altering substances. It was unforgettable but not for the reason origially indended, I think! It was covered on our local evening news last night. Auwe!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jun 22, 2001 (21:42)", "body": "terry, you are really with this summer solstice thing, huh? great stuff though!"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 22, 2001 (22:12)", "body": "Terry did not post any images. I rather fancied Liam's of his dolmen with the sun setting behind it. Wish I had gotten it behind the world's most massive mountain/volcano, but it was totally hidden in clouds. *sigh*"}, {"response": 51, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jun 23, 2001 (22:09)", "body": "Yeah, I got fanatical around June 21st, wolfie. It's really feeling like summer today out here in Cedar Creek."}, {"response": 52, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sat, Jun 23, 2001 (23:02)", "body": "A report from the trenches.... The solstice in northern IL was cold (61 deg F) and rainy - it did clear up later in the day somewhat... Last nite, I did make it to the Summer Solstice Party at the museum of contemporary art in downtown Chicago. This was a 24 hour party with art exhibits, music, dancing, and general mayhem. Got there around 9pm just as the Cuban salsa band played its last song - that would have been some serious booty shaking but ohwell.... Lots of people on the lawn and sitting around blabbing plus some live art demos. Long lines at the drink and food bar. There was an interesting puppet/shadow play going on one side of the building with a huge group of people watching and some drummer on an elevated stage doing percussion. Entry was a grocery bag full of soup cans for the food pantry which was a good cause. Anyway, walking up to the main building reminded me of some of the college parties that took place at the student union. The crowd consisted of all ages - lots of raver kids which seemed the majority, art patron older folks, people in costume, people out of costume, and just people - like I said, general mayhem. I guess Im going through one of those awkward transitional ages where Im no longer part of the younger raver crowd but I aint an old fart just yet. Anyway, made it up to the foyer where 'intelligent dance music' was being played. The music was drum n bass, house, and techno with a definite mechanical tinge to it. The walls were sprayed with trippy computer generated psychedelic scenes and high speed subliminal photos. The room was too crowded so my date and I pretty much hung to the back - there were a few people bobbing around towards the front but I didnt get in any robot movements. I always liked this music more for listening but it does have dance possibilites. I find it more interesting than the generic disco/techno anthems that get played nowadays on commercial radio. This stuff was more similar to 'Kraut Rock' ala Tangerene Dream, Kraftwerk, Can, etc with plenty of mechanical bleeps, beeps, and pharts. Moved back outside to the covered area for drinkie-poos and less crowding - the bev's were expensive! Plus, this seemed to be the designated smoking area. When the main gallery opened up, back we went. More beeping and bopping with a different DJ/band and then into the larger rooms to take in some art. Ok, now the disclaimer, I like the art work of the old masters but I'll give the modern stuff a try. As we walked around, the art ranged from thought provoking/interesting to \"can you believe someone got a grant to do that?! Thats art? man, Im in the wrong field....\" At one point, we found a pink curly feather from someone's boa (the owner being M or F was never determined) This led to an analysis of the stark art and meaning of the found object - one point being pleasure, the other point being pain. This segued into deconstructing the item into its base sex/death symbolism... anyway, moving along... Once again, most of the crowd was the artsy fartsy types mingling with the north shore patrons, club kids, freaks, weirdos, normals, and everything else in between. Most phun, indeed! Down to the museum store where I bought a book on European electronic media art and a CD of world beat techno dance music which was absolutely fabulous although I did pass up on a historical CD of electronic music/art from the 20's/30's up to the 80's (should of brought more $$!) A few more rounds and then it was past the witching hour so we made our way off the grounds to get my vehicle out of parking garage hell after paying a hefty ransom. Passed up a chance to get a henna tattoo - money thing again although a nice Gaelic weave would have been neat. The night was clear and the Hancock building was lit up against the night sky - for 1:30am the streets were full of people. Driving on, up north, to the less fashionable, less artsy, bland northern burbs where the sky was a bit darker and the stars could be seen. 73 de AA9IL Mike radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 24, 2001 (00:52)", "body": "Celtic knotwork would have been so cool, Mike! I have a whole book of how to create those intricate patterns. How great that you were back in academe scene for your solstice! Yeah, I also noticed that they are letting in little kids now as freshmen. We were so mature by comparison! (yup...sure...uh huh!!) I am glad I got your clouds. You made much better use of it than I did. *Bug warm solstice Hugs* for sharing. That sounds cosmic as only you can make it. I'd be jealous if it were anyone but you!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jun 26, 2001 (21:56)", "body": "Solstice is the major cool time of the year (except during the winter solstice which is major cold)... Yep, Ive noticed that college is letting in little kids now ...just dont understand that. Look forward to hearing/seeing some more Solstice stuff on this page - tres neat! 73 de Mike r c i"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 26, 2001 (22:24)", "body": "Ye Olde Fertility Rites. Where would we be without them?! I am so happy someone other than I find them fascinating. Will definitely post more anon!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jun 26, 2001 (22:34)", "body": "Ok, cool! There is something to celebrating an Earth holiday that transcends all. Looking forward to your postings - Im off looking at wireless freenet pages - hoping to rekindle the radio discussion page. c-ya de Mike AA9IL"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 26, 2001 (22:39)", "body": "just the merest tinge of astro-archaeology and Megalithic in me to go with the real stuff. I'll be posting. Along with healthy appetites of earthy renewal and all that good stuff. I saw you off posting. Go to it, and I shall be off in pursuit of the fertile and aligned seasons. 3's n 8's Kilauea to Kosmo Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 5, "subject": "Cartography:  Mapping the Planet Earth", "response_count": 24, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (22:36)", "body": "This is as good a site as any in the United States for mapping information and map sources http://mapping.usgs.gov/"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (22:22)", "body": "The map below shows the coverage of the mapping of the earth mission of STS99. It will be the most extensive mapping project ever undertaken. Endeavour OV105 Launch: Friday, February 11, 2000 12:30 PM (eastern time) Mission Objectives The primary objective of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission is to acquire a high-resolution topographic map of the Earth's land mass (between 60\ufffdN and 56\ufffdS) and to test new technologies for deployment of large rigid structures and measurement of their distortions to extremely high precision. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission represents a breakthrough in the science of remote-sensing and will produce topographic maps of Earth 30 times as precise as the best global maps in use today. The information will be used to attempt to produce one of the most comprehensive and accurate maps of Earth ever assembled. A Comparison of Resolution Data Data Statistics Planned Data Takes Approximately 1,000 (every time Endeavour is over land) Data Acquisition more than 80 hours Data recording rate 180 Mbits/sec for C-band, 90 Mbits/sec for X-band Total Raw Radar Data 9.8 Terabytes (15,000 CDs) Data Tapes 300 high-density tapes (each tape records 30 min. of C-band, or 60 min. of X-band data) In addition, this mission offers a number of applications for data products and science, including: geology, geophysics, earthquake research, volcano monitoring; hydrologic modeling; ecology; co-registration and terrain correction of remotely-acquired image data; atmospheric modeling; flood inundation modeling; urban planning; natural hazard consequence assessments; fire spread models; and transportation/infrastructure planning. Civilian Applications Enhanced ground collision avoidance systems for aircraft; civil engineering, land use planning, and disaster recovery efforts; and line-of-sight determination for communications, e.g., cellular telephones. Military Applications Flight simulators; logistical planning, air traffic management; missile and weapons guidance systems; and battlefield management, tactics. Space Radar Mission To Detail the Earth's Surface An innovative imaging radar, the first to map the Earth in three dimensions, is the primary payload onboard STS-99, the first Shuttle flight of the new century. Known as the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, this radar system represents a breakthrough in the science of remote-sensing and will produce topographic maps of Earth 30 times as precise as the best global maps in use today. The information has the potential to produce one of the most comprehensive and accurate maps of Earth ever assembled. Scheduled for launch no earlier than January 31 from the Kennedy Space Center, the Space Shuttle Endeavour will carry the radar into space for an 11-day mission to learn more about the planet's changing landscapes, its environmental health, and many ecosystems. Space Radar Mission To Detail the Earth's Surface An innovative imaging radar, the first to map the Earth in three dimensions, is the primary payload onboard STS-99, the first Shuttle flight of the new century. Known as the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, this radar system represents a breakthrough in the science of remote-sensing and will produce topographic maps of Earth 30 times as precise as the best global maps in use today. The information has the potential to produce one of the most comprehensive and accurate maps of Earth ever assembled. Scheduled for launch no earlier than January 31 from the Kennedy Space Center, the Space Shuttle Endeavour will carry the radar into space for an 11-day mission to learn more about the planet's changing landscapes, its environmental health, and many ecosystems. The imaging radar will be able to capture landscapes that have been sculpted through the millennia, with the passage of ice ages and periods of warmer weather. This new imaging system will orbit at 145 miles (233 kilometers) above Earth, with two radar antennas mounted in the Shuttle payload bay and two extended on a 200-foot-long (60-meter) mast. The radar will image vast, barren deserts, frozen tundra, and deep valleys carved by glaciers, such as those found in Alaska, the Andes, and Himalaya mountains. The vestiges of ancient human settlements, such as the Eighth Century Khmer civilization of Angkor, Cambodia, and the habitats of endangered species, such as the mountain gorillas of Central Africa will be mapped. The 13-ton radar system will be able to collect highly accurate, high-resolution images of Earth's crust between 60 degrees north latitude and 56 degrees south latitude. The regions to be mapped are home to about 95 percent of the world's population and will be captured with an accuracy of better than 100 feet (30 meters). The genesis of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission lies in NASA's 1994 flights of the Spaceborne Imaging Radar C/X-band Radar on STS-59 and STS-68. Several modifications have been made to the radar systems, which give the mission new capabilities compared with its pre"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (21:07)", "body": "'Fly Cast' Keeps Shuttle Radar Mast Stable CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronauts on the space shuttle Endeavour did a tricky piece of flying dubbed a ``fly cast'' on Sunday to boost the shuttle's orbit without too much jiggling of a 20-story radar mast being used to make the world's finest three-dimensional map of Earth's surface. The astronauts were in their third day of orbit and their second day of map-making, using sophisticated radar gear aboard the orbiter and at the end of the 197-foot mast. A technical problem arose with a small thruster at the end of the mast that appeared to be malfunctioning, NASA said. The small puffs of nitrogen gas, about one-third ounce pressure, help keep the shuttle and mast stabilized. Without that thrust, the astronauts had to use control jets on the orbiter to keep the configuration stable, but those jets may not have enough fuel to complete the 11-day mission. Mission managers were assessing the problem on Sunday night. The radar mast, a truss made of stainless steel, titanium and plastic, is lightweight and resilient, just like the fly-fishing rods used by fishermen in trout streams. As with the fly rod, a gentle touch gets the best results. Unlike a fly rod, Endeavour's crew does not want to see its mast whipping back and forth, since that would upset the radar readings. ``Early this morning when we got up we did the very first fly-cast maneuver, and it was just about perfect,'' shuttle pilot Dom Gorie said in an interview. The maneuver began with a short forward firing of the orbiter's control jets, which causes the radar mast to bend back as the shuttle accelerates. As the mast whipped back forward, the crew caught it at its vertical point by firing the thrusters again, offsetting the mast's forward momentum. They continued to fire until the shuttle reached the desired orbit. Since Endeavour is flying in a rather low orbit for this mapping mission, the upper fringes of Earth's atmosphere slow it down and cause it to lose altitude. The maneuver's success was one of the critical milestones for the 11-day mission. ``All six of us were up on the flight deck to watch and perform that maneuver, and it came off without a hitch,'' Gorie said. ``We'll be doing that once a day, and it'll raise up the orbit two to three miles (3 to 5 km) on each attempt.'' As Gorie spoke, the shuttle was flying over nighttime Siberia, bouncing radar signals off cities, mountains, forests and anything else that shapes Earth's surface. On the same 90-minute orbit, they measured the Scottish Highlands and the Oslo Fjord. ``We've already got about 15 percent'' of Earth, said Mamoru Mohri, an astronaut with the NASDA, the Japanese space agency and a mission specialist on Endeavour. The crew is expected to record about 72 percent of the planet in nine days of mapping. A 10th day would allow it to get 80 percent, virtually every land mass between the polar circles. ``We are hoping for an extra day,'' said Mohri. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has said the topographical data collected by Endeavour will result in a map that is 30 times better than existing whole-Earth maps, but most of it will remain classified. Although the best quality map of the United States will be made public, the rest of the world will be available to scientists and civil engineers only on a case-by-case basis. A lower resolution world map, which is still superior to existing charts, also would be made public, NASA said. The six Endeavour astronauts are scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 22."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (23:30)", "body": "This topographic radar image shows the city of Honolulu, Hawaii and adjacent areas on the island of Oahu. Honolulu lies on the south shore of the island, right of center of the image. Just below the center is Pearl Harbor, marked by several inlets and bays. Runways of the airport can be seen to the right of Pearl Harbor. Diamond Head, an extinct volcanic crater, is a blue circle along the coast right of center. The Koolau mountain range runs through the center of the image. The steep cliffs on the north side of the range are thought to be remnants of massive landslides that ripped apart the volcanic mountains that built the island thousands of years ago. On the north shore of the island are the Mokapu Peninsula and Kaneohe Bay. High resolution topographic data allow ecologists and planners to assess the effects of urban development on the sensitive ecosystems in tropical regions. This image combines two types of data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. The image brightness corresponds to the strength of the radar signal reflected from the ground, while colors show the elevation as measured by SRTM. Each cycle of colors (from pink through blue back to pink) represents an equal amount of elevation difference (400 meters, or 1300 feet) similar to contour lines on a standard topographic map. This image contains about 2400 meters (8000 feet) of total relief."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (23:34)", "body": "More infor,ation and a bigger version of this image is available: http://www.spring.net/marcia/public/GeoMaps/PIA02720.jpg"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (13:12)", "body": "Today is gloriously clear and sunny, so I'm gonna go out every 90 minutes, look up and smile. This is definitely the day to photograph our island. It is not often to have a totally clear morning on this side of the island Hello. world!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (15:28)", "body": "All of you in Austin, look and smile, too. They are photograph you, as well: TEXAS, HAWAII AND OMAN - SRTM'S LATEST IMAGES Dallas, Texas, the Hawaiian Islands, and Salalah, Oman are the locations of the newly released SRTM images. Access these images through the Mission Products section below. NINE HOURS ADDED ON TO SHUTTLE MAPPING MISSION Mission managers announced a nine-hour extension to the data-taking portion of the mission, which means mapping will continue until about Monday at 7am EST. More than 42 million square miles of the Earth have been mapped at least once and over 27 million square miles have been mapped with two or more passes. At 40,000 square miles of land a minute, SRTM can capture the topographic data of Rhode Island in two seconds."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (15:33)", "body": "Dallas has already been photographed http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA02722 So has the San Andreas Fault (tiff download) http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/tiff/PIA02712.tif"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:32)", "body": "i was gonna ask about the mapping of hawaii and look, you've already taken care of it!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:50)", "body": "I think only 10% of what they photographed is available for our eyes (My civilian eyes, that is.) We are lucky to have seen as much as we have. DoD gets the rest of the pictures, of course!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (20:53)", "body": "yeah, well, it'll be made public when they've done with it. i won't see it either. and i know no one in the cartography field in the military. i know someone in the pentagon! *grin*"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:33)", "body": "If I knew someone in the Pentagon, it would probably be a floor sweeper. *sigh*"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (17:37)", "body": "NASA research aircraft scanning Hawaii The aircraft is taking photographs digitally or on film By Anthony Sommer Star-Bulletin LIHUE \ufffd Even as you\ufffdre reading this, you could be photographed either digitally or on film by an Airborne Visible and Infra-Red Imaging Spectrometer shooting your picture in 224 spectral channels from an airplane flying 13 miles above you. For most of April, NASA\ufffds Airborne Science ER-2 research aircraft is scanning all of Hawaii. The ER-2 the science version of the famous U-2 spy plane used early in the Cold War and one of two based at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The aircraft started flying from Hickam Air Force Base last week. The ER-2\ufffds instruments are mapping the extent and distribution of coral reefs in the greater Hawaiian chain, studying volcanic flows and gas plumes over Hawaii\ufffds big island and tracking land use changes, according to NASA. The aircraft\ufffds last photo mission to Hawaii was September 1992, when it conducted a damage assessment after Hurricane Iniki. The ER-2 carries two digital scanners and two film cameras. The Airborne Visible and Infra-Red Imaging Spectrometer looks downward at the Earth simultaneously in 224 spectral bands. Different spectral bands can be used to study geology, agriculture, forestry, land use, atmospheric composition or weather. The ER-2 also is carrying a second scanner duplicating one launched in December on NASA\ufffds Terra Satellite to study the Earth\ufffds global energy balance and contribute to climate change studies. The instruments flying on the ER-2 will be used to calibrate and verify the satellite data. The ER-2 aircraft typically flies at 65,000 feet. Most ER-2 missions last about six hours with ranges of about 2,500 miles at 467 miles per hour. It is 63 feet long, with a wingspan of 104 feet."}, {"response": 14, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (08:07)", "body": "Hey, we'll get to see Marci out in her patio!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (12:36)", "body": "Lanai, sprin5, Lanai Come over and you'll see =)"}, {"response": 16, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "What kind of plants do you have on the lanai? Do you have lianas growing on the lanai?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (18:46)", "body": "No lianas on the Lanai - Bouganvillas in pots. Lianas everywhere else. Take a look at that little pothos plant you have in a pot. One was tossed under my poinciana tree and it climbed and climbed until the vine is the thickness of my wrist (tiny, by most standards - about 6\" circumference). Don't let them do it to your trees - it will kill it eventually! (I shall try to get the hairy-chest beater to yank it down again. He threw it out there in the first place!)"}, {"response": 18, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (18:54)", "body": "The estrogen challenged one should at least do that. As you noted, it's that \"why\" chromosome."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "Indeed! *laugh*"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2000 (15:33)", "body": "Mercator Projection Cartographers have been trying for centuries to develop a method of displaying the surface of our globe on a flat map with the least possible distortion. It is mathematically impossible to unwrap a sphere in a way that meets all desirable criteria, so each of the different projections has its own advantages and disadvantages. One of the most famous projections is named after its inventor, Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, who lived in the sixteenth century. The best aspect of the Mercator projection is that the primary compass directions are all projected as straight lines, which is useful for navigation. However, the disadvantage of this projection is that it severely distorts the relative surface area of each country, making those near the poles appear much larger than is the case. For example, China and Greenland appear the same size, although China is about actually about four times as large. There are many other projections that resolve this flaw, usually at the expense of distorting the shapes of the continents."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (23:34)", "body": "We desperately need someone who actually has done mapping to post here. Ask a guy who has trod the convoluted ground to contour a quadrangle map for the USGS. You will find a guy who truly knows the ground on which he trod and can explain it to you. Nothing nearly sophisticated as GPS was available when these veterans made the maps which define in minute detail, the United States of America."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (23:34)", "body": "(and, Yes, I do know one such...!)"}, {"response": 23, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (08:40)", "body": "I took a cartography course at U of I."}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 22, 2000 (13:07)", "body": "You once mentioned that you had studied it and enjoyed it, as I recall. Did you do any actual mapping? If so, how did you do it? Walk every inch and measuure then measure some more??? Did you have to identify the rocks underfoot? Please tell us more. My cartography was all class work despite the fact that Penn State is surrounded by lots of good \"what happened here\" stuff! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 50, "subject": "Et Cetera", "response_count": 1049, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (15:41)", "body": "An Irishman's Diary -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OPINION/Kevin Myers One of the key elements to any religion is that whereas there might be much which is difficult to defend logically, it nonetheless fits into a broader theological picture which provides a greater truth; and what holds that picture together, in the face of all the in-built illogic, is faith. Faith creates a coherence out of the incoherent and contradictory. And when religion expects us to intellectually sustain what our reasons and senses tell us is simply unsustainable, it waves a wand and calls it dogma , thereby excusing us of thought on the matter. When we say we respect another's religion, what we actually mean is we're not going to publicly ridicule the funny bits, even though in the privacy of our own minds, we chuckle away. Papal infallibility, consubstantiation, Defender of the Faith, Wailing Wall, Mecca, prayer scrolls, circumcision: we tolerate (though perhaps with quiet amusement) those we don't accept, but ardently defend those we do. We tolerate other's dogmas so long as other religions don't try to impose them on us. Even Saudi Arabia turns a blind eye to the fornication and serial copulation of the ex-pats there. But there are two exceptions: Taliban is one. Feminism is the other. Feminism is very like a religion in that it is dependent on huge leaps of faith, which cannot be explained by logic or evidence or rational argument. Feminism can only be defended by waving the magic wand and pronouncing equality between the sexes a dogma beyond discussion. Yet unlike almost all other religions, feminism wishes to impose its theology on all societies everywhere, regardless of the intellectual contradictions at its heart, and the evidence before our eyes every second of our lives. Examine the news of last week. Did anyone see a single girl or woman rioter in Ardoyne or Drumcree? The only woman who was clearly evident in all the news footage of that appalling violence was a woman constable. And what was she doing in the middle of this nearly murderous mayhem? Simply behaving like Florence Nightingale, minding a wounded colleague. Can anyone who believes in the \"equality of the sexes\" explain how it is that Washington is awash with female staffers whose ambition seems to be to bed important male congressmen? Clinton discovered this with many, many young women; so it seems has Congressman Gary Condit, who was not so much two-timing his wife, but eight-timing her. Congressman Condit is not a pretty boy. He's not young. He plain and he's 54 and he had eight mistresses - though apparently the figure is now down to seven, and probably falling. But consider: new feminism is nearly 40 years old, yet here we have a career woman, poor Chandra Levy, aged 24, doting on this complete and utter creep, even colour-coding his shirts during the hours he'd sit waiting in his flat before he would finally oblige her with his pelvic attentions. more... http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2001/0717/opt4.htm#top"}, {"response": 2, "author": "horrible", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (16:34)", "body": "If all the Interns were laid end to end.........what do you mean\"IF\" heheheh"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2001 (16:40)", "body": "*grin* Precisely so! They took a poll of parents and asked if they wanted their daughters to be interns in Washington DC. Oddly enough only 67% said no. I'd have thought it much higher, but perhaps they see it as a career step."}, {"response": 4, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 24, 2001 (17:45)", "body": "Marcia, I'm definitely an etcetera so I thought I'd post here ..... Things are so bad at the moment I'm bowing out of everything ...have put PhD on hold for a bit to sort things out ..."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 24, 2001 (22:30)", "body": "Maggie!!! Will try to be online when you are up in the morning. Oh my dear! Say it isn't so!!!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 30, 2001 (19:26)", "body": "Maggie, I hope that you can sort things out and that circumstances improve."}, {"response": 7, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Jul 31, 2001 (13:52)", "body": "Thanks Cheryl ...sorry I've been quiet lately .. just trying to keep my head above water emotionally...still nowhere to live come Sept! Packing in anticipation ....."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 29, 2001 (17:25)", "body": "From Liam... Come back... We miss you! An Irishman's Diary By Kevin Myers ireland.com - The Irish Times - OPINION Astute readers of newspapers at this time of year will have noticed an increasing preponderance of stories beginning, \"Scientists in Alabama believe...\" or, \"Evolutionary experts in Geneva are working on the theory that....\" No doubt those readers read on, in the belief that what the words before them are in some way related to reality. And they certainly are - if, that is, you believe that I have consented to be Mariah Carey's toy-boy, but only on condition that I continue to share my prodigious favours with Whitney Houston. Sorry, Britney; not tonight. Perhaps Saturday; and I don't take credit cards... The only basis for these \"scientists believe\" stories is to be found in a small chamber, the Creativity Room, in a remote part of The Irish Times labyrinth, the entrance to which is guarded by Gurkhas whose tongues have been surgically removed. Head-hunters Most newspapers have such rooms, though they are not always guarded by soldierly Nepalese. Kerrymen are favoured as security by some, and there was a time when New Guinea head-hunters found favour, but they went out of vogue when they developed an appetite for sub-editors. Now no one begrudges a lonely exile from Port Moresby the odd snack or two, and if they had confined their nutritional adventures to the occasional individual from the books page or sports, no one would really have minded - a sub, after all, is only a sub. But when the Guardian night editor turned up to find that all that remained of his night staff was a single femur being agreebly gnawed by security, with the chief sub's head glumly sitting on the spike, something had to give. The New Guinea lads had to go, and in their place came some West Side Boys from Sierre Leone. There is a purpose to getting these rough-house lads in; for they have to mind the intellectual heart of the newspaper, the Creativity Room wherein some of the most brilliant minds in journalism are chained to the oars of a galley which roams the world of their fevered imaginations. You only see the fruits of their endeavours once August arrives, but just as the grapes of October are the product of a year's endeavour, so are the vintage stories appearing in August the product of 12 months of toil by these unsung heroes. \"Scientists believe that life on earth began in outer space\" is a story which surfaced in newspapers this week, using quotes from the Indian Space Agency. We are rather proud of that story in this newspaper. It was dreamt up by our Debbie last December - she was given a road-kill pigeon as a special reward for Christmas dinner. We sold the story on right round the world in the Frankfurt Silly Season Story Fair last Easter, and Debbie's royalties enabled her to buy a mousetrap to increase her protein consumption. All she needs now is another corker of a story, and she'll be able to buy some cheese for it. Hallucination It's not that this newspaper is mean: it's just that we've found than an imagination works best when aided by a touch of famine-induced hallucination. Well-fed minds are dullard minds, is our motto; and so we have a policy that seems a little stern but in reality is simply is a recognition of market forces. Occasionally we ease up on our stern regime, just so as the inmates of the Creativity Room can see our human face; and there's no way of describing the pleasure we got from seeing our Debbie tearing into her Xmas feral pigeon, then picking her teeth with its tiny talons, finally crunching them as well. Made us feel like Santa, I can tell you. Anyway, the product of this policy is a fund of stories to sustain newspapers through the long lean weeks ahead, such as one of ours the other day: \"An artichoke that grows in salty water could help create a revolution in world agriculture, according to research.\" That appeared in the Siberian Gazette, but only because it wasn't good enough for us. Debbie thought it up. It was so poor we fined her one mousetrap. The Times had another one of ours recently: \"A coffin and a mausoleum have been unearthed which may have contained leaders of the ancient Jewish monastic community that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls.\" Don't you just love the \"may\"? Our Debbie is a wizard with the \"may\". She knows just how to pitch it. She could have said \"may\" have been the place where the Virgin conceived, or \"may\" have been the place where Judas hanged himself. Terrible day The problem is that with really important \"mays\" experts start enquiring about the origins of the stories. There was that terrible day when The Irish Catholic - of all people - had to send in Little Sisters of the Poor commandos to garotte its entire CR workforce in order to conceal the origins of its \"scoop\" that a feather from the wing of the Archangel Gabriel had been found in a public toilet in Termonfeckin. A stupid, stupid story, for everyone knows there is no public toilet in Termonf"}, {"response": 9, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (17:50)", "body": "Liam still hasn't been back. Maybe one day..."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (20:31)", "body": "I miss Liam. I hope he returns. I think he knows he would be welcome! I will email him to see how he is doing and to tell him he is missed! Thanks for reminding me!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (20:32)", "body": "I have no idea what this entails, but it sounds interesting. Rob??? They are waiting for you! ******************************************************** Post-Doctoral Fellowships - Laser ablation geochemistry ******************************************************** From: Ian Nicholls POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN GEOCHEMISTRY USING LASER ABLATION ICP-MS TECHNIQUES SCHOOL OF GEOSCIENCES, MONASH UNIVERSITY (MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA). Expressions of interest are sought for postdoctoral research fellowships in geochemistry in the School of Geosciences at Monash University, working within the Trace Element, Isotope & Environmental Geochemistry Research Group (Drs. Ian Nicholls, Ian Cartwright and Steve Beresford; Professor Reid Keays; plus a new academic staff member expected to be appointed in the field of isotope geochemistry/geochronology in early 2002). Monash Geosciences currently operates a Finnigan-MAT \"Element\" high-resolution ICP-MS instrument for ppb-ppm level trace element analysis using solution and laser ablation modes (the latter with a Merchantek Nd-YAG laser), and has supporting \"clean laboratory\" sample preparation facilities. Monash is a member of the Victorian Institute of Earth & Planetary Sciences (VIEPS) consortium (Schools of Earth Sciences at LaTrobe, Monash and Melbourne Universities) and has access to a joint VIEPS \"Nu Plasma\" multicollector ICP-MS instrument, soon to be fitted with a state-of-art ablation chamber and excimer laser system. The \"Element\" and \"Nu Plasma\" will provide powerful complementary facilities for in situ trace element/isotopic analysis of single minerals, and their mineral, melt and fluid inclusions, with emphasis on studies in igneous, metamorphic and ore petrology/geochemistry/geochronology. Such research is often joint with the minerals industry. The Geochemistry group is seeking to attract post-doctoral candidates with experience in techniques and applications of laser ablation ICP-MS analysis, with continued development of these within VIEPS in mind. The Australian Research Council annually offers several categories of postdoctoral and more senior research fellowships, applications for the next round of which are due in February 2002, for 2003 awards. Since outlines for excellent research projects are required as part of applications for these awards, interested researchers are invited to begin discussions on suitable projects now. Those interested should contact Dr. Ian Nicholls at: inicholl@mail.earth.monash.edu.au. Information on The School of Geosciences at Monash University, with a link to VIEPS, is available at www.earth.monash.edu.au. Information on ARC Post-Doctoral and Research Fellowships is available at: www.monash.edu.au/resgrant/grantinfo/ARC/arcdispr.html and www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/discovery/projects/default.htm Dr. Ian Nicholls Deputy Head, School of Geosciences PO Box 28E Monash University Victoria 3800 Australia"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (00:17)", "body": "Oddly enough, when Wolfie finds this catch-all topic we can discuss the how wonderful it is to breathe air you can chew, and why iti s called \"Orange County\" I discovered that the only thing about the county is the color of the smog there. I don't trust air I can see quite that well."}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (06:50)", "body": "LA is in Orange County?"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (15:19)", "body": "Nope, Los Angeles is its own county. I'm not all that sure anyone else wants it! I'd need to look at a current county map to see where the bakc air of LA stops and the toxic orange stuff of Orange County begina. Alas, all of the trees are now gone which were once the namesake of Orange County."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 21, 2001 (14:53)", "body": "No Comment on the new title page of Geo? More changes to come as soon as I get Terry to enable me to change my own buttons, wallpaper and horizontal bars. As it stands now, stroud and yapp icons are now in charge of them. *UNHAPPY*"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 27, 2001 (18:28)", "body": "Deja Vu time on http://www.archives.org when you look up www.spring.com. Were we ever that young? Seems only yesterday! I love seeing it again! Never mind reading my early posts, please!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  2, 2001 (16:43)", "body": "Thunder and lightning kept me from posting this yesterday on December 2nd. HAUOLI NA HANAU, LOPAKA AND KELE Tuberose / Lantern Ilima White tuberose mixed with orange ilima blossoms. Very fragrant."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  2, 2001 (16:46)", "body": "Rob is officially responsible for himself (meaning he is fair game?!) and Terry is too (has been for a while, he says.) I really like that lei. It is spectacular and what I wanted to wear to my son's wedding in October. Many Happy Birthdays to come. Your Buggatis are on the way."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  2, 2001 (16:53)", "body": "Tuberoses smell gently like gardenias for those of you who have not had the pleasure of their company around your neck. Of course, I have to kiss you when I put it on you. It is tradition! Hugs, too."}, {"response": 20, "author": "curious", "date": "Mon, Dec  3, 2001 (13:23)", "body": "In re post 15 above, specifically \"No Comment on the new title page of Geo?\" I like much better than what was up when I first joined."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  3, 2001 (15:56)", "body": "I'm still working on it. Actually, what I hope to have when I can create the right font and find the correct globe is jus to have large letters GEO with the O being the globe. Thanks for your comments!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  5, 2001 (18:54)", "body": "I have found the ultimate globe. It is posted. Post holiday title will make it formal, diginified and aesthetic. I hope!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  5, 2001 (18:59)", "body": "I also need to put the yellow letters back on the buttons. White is the wrong color. May I use a magic marker on your monitor? It'll only take me several lifetimes to do it... *sigh*"}, {"response": 24, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec  5, 2001 (22:30)", "body": "did you save the old buttons, marcia? if so, you can use lview to resize them and still have the yellow letters."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  5, 2001 (22:31)", "body": "Yes, I did save the original buttons and I will resize them just as I did the \"kill\" button. I just need to do it."}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec  5, 2001 (22:35)", "body": "*giggle* i know the feeling! curious, how long have you been a member of spring?"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec  5, 2001 (23:06)", "body": "1997 was my first post - October I think. You have been here longer? Thank you, John, for slowing down my world. I was spinning too fast!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec  6, 2001 (19:38)", "body": "oh sweetie, i was asking curious anon how long they've been visiting us! i think you've been here longer than me!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  6, 2001 (19:52)", "body": "I am curious, also! - about how long people have been lurking before posting. I found Spring, then I read posts to see how people were interacting, then plunged in - all in the space of one week. Nan was kind enough to welcome me and make me feel at home. I've been here ever since. I did not, however, wander out of the close-knit confines of Drool for at least a year. I thought you \"down\" here were all so different from me. Surprise!!!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  7, 2001 (20:14)", "body": "I am hiding this post in case I am so terribly wrong that it is hopeless and I have lost a dear friend and wise man's respect. Is this the arrangement you meant? It is not as I remember our earlier conversation. What puzzles me is why I am in the middle and the sensors are each side of me. Must each be attched to me directly as in this lampstand? Independently connected so as not to interfere with each other's signals? Please be patient with me. I am just a learner as most of the rest of my readers are."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 11, 2001 (15:33)", "body": "For those who celebrate: Enjoy your Holiday of Eid. Significance Of Eid 'Eid means recurring happiness or festivity. The 'Eid prayer is very important for all Muslims. It has the merits of the dory prayers, the effect of the weekly convention (Jumu'ah) and the characteristics of annual reunions between Muslims. There are two such 'Eids. The first is called 'Eid-ul-Fitr (the Festival of Fast Breaking). It falls on the first day of Shawwaal, the tenth month of the Muslim year, following the month of Ramadhaan in which the Qur\ufffdaan was revealed and which is the month of fasting. The second is called 'Eid-ul-Adh'haa (the Festival of sacrifice). It falls on the tenth day of Zil-Hijjah, the last month of the Muslim year. The Islaamic 'Eids are unique in every way. To them there can be nothing similar in any other religion or any other socio-political system. Besides their highly spiritual and moral characteristics, they have matchless qualities: Each 'Eid is a wholesome celebration of a remarkable achievement of the individual Muslim in the service of Allah. The first 'Eid comes after an entire month of \"absolute\" fasting during the days of the month. The second 'Eid marks the completion of Hajj to Makkah, a course in which the Muslim handsomely demonstrates his renouncement of the mundane concerns and hearkens only to the Eternal voice of Allah. more (follow links)... http://www.islaam.org/Eid/Eid-1.htm"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (17:09)", "body": "'Tis the Season. I'll be posting traditions here. Have you any special ones you celebrate in your family? HOW MANY U.S. FAMILIES WHO PUT UP A CHRISTMAS TREE OPT FOR AN ARTIFICIAL TREE? 22% of U.S. families choose an artificial tree. WHERE DID THE TRADITION OF DECORATING A CHRISTMAS TREE BEGIN? The first recorded documentation of decorating a Christmas tree was in 1604 in Strasburg, Germany. Decorating Christmas trees appeared as a tradition in the U.S in the mid-1800's and has evolved over the subsequent 150 year period to the production and distribution system we know today. WHY WAS THE NATIONAL CHRISTMAS TREE NOT LIT IN 1979? The National Christmas tree was not lit except for the top ornament in 1979 in honor of the American hostages in Iran. In 1963, the National Christmas tree was not lit until December 22nd because of a national 30-day period of mourn- ing following the assassination of President Kennedy. WHAT WAS CONSIDERED THE TALLEST CHRISTMAS TREE? The tallest living Christmas tree is believed to be the 122- foot, 91-year-old Douglas fir in the town of Woodinville, Washington."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (17:15)", "body": "CHRISTMAS TREE The Christmas tree is a symbol of immortality, resiliency, longevity, and rebirth. Taoists once believed that if a pine's resin was allowed to flow down its trunk and onto the earth, a fu-lin or mushroom of immortality would grow from it in 1000 years. Eating the fu-lin would give a person eternal youth. Growing tall as it weathers the hardships of wind, snow, and rain, the pine tree in the forest symbolizes long-suffering, steadfast friendships, and enduring fame. The pine's strength in the face of adversity makes it symbolic of those who have become strong through suffering, or who have kept to their beliefs and promises in spite of opposition. In Scandinavia, a myth of enduring love surrounds a certain pine. It is said that this tree grew from the blood of two lovers who had been wrongfully executed in the forest. During the Christmas season, strange lights can be seen shining in its branches as a testimony of their innocence and love. One Christmas Eve in 8th century Germany, the missionary, St. Boniface, gathered newly baptized Christians together to renounce paganism by cutting down the sacred oak they once sacrificed under. As it fell, the oak split into four pieces revealing a young pine growing in its center. Boniface suggested that the people take this pine as a symbol of their new-found Christian faith because it's shape points toward Heaven, and it's evergreen foliage reminds us of eternal life. In Rome, the immortal pine was used to celebrate the spring festival of Arbor intrat. Each year on March 22, members of the cult of Cybele cut down a pine tree and carried it to the Palatine temple. There, it was bandaged, wreathed with violets, and mourned as if it were the body of Attis, son of Cybele, who, disturbed by his mother's attentions, had castrated himself and died beneath a pine tree. His soul was believed to have found refuge in the pine and his blood caused violets to spring up around it. Three days later, he was miraculously restored to life. Egyptians, on the other hand, used the palm tree as an image of resurrection and decorated their homes with its branches during the winter solstice. The vertical symbolism of the pine tree was emphasized by Christians. This tree, which forever pointed heavenward, was a reminder to seek out heavenly rather than earthly treasures. It was a symbol of the saints, their self-denial, and their patience. A meet Christmas symbol, the tree was also a symbol of communication and mediation between heaven and earth because it's roots reached into the earth and its branches soared into the heavens. Today, one can still see the Jesse-tree. Most popular during the 13th century, this nativity tree was decorated to look like the family tree of the Christ Child. Adam and Eve are displayed at the foot of the tree and Jesus rests at its top. The wicked serpent is entwined around its trunk. This tradition may have come from the Messianic prophecy: \"There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.\" [Is 11:1] The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge from the Garden of Eden were blended together in many customs and legends about the fir tree. Adam and Eve Day was celebrated on December 24th. During the Middle Ages it was customary to perform Paradise Plays on the Church grounds on this holiday. A single fir tree strung with apples was used to symbolize both of the garden's trees. Legend states that the fir is the Tree of Life. When it was created, it had flowers, leaves, and fruit like other trees. But when Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, these shrunk into the needles and cones we see it bear today. The fir did, however blossom briefly on the night of Christ's birth. It also bears the name \"Tree of Life\" because it is believed to have been the tree upon which Christ died. French and German legend calls the Christmas tree the \"Tree of Humanity.\" One Christmas Eve, Bonchevalier found a pine tree lit up with candles and having a star at its top. Some of the candles stood upright, while others hung upside down. His mother told Bonchevalier that this was the \"Tree of Humanity.\" The upright candles represented good people, while the inverted candles stood for evil people. The star at the top was the Christ Child watching over the entire world. Such a tree reminds us to be like our Father in Heaven who sends the sun and rain to nourish both the righteous and the unrighteous. [Mt 5:45-46] Jacob Riis records that Christ sent Faith, Hope, and Love to choose the first Viking Christmas tree. They chose the Balsam fir for this honor because it was as wide as God's love, as high as the Christian's hope, and it bore the shape of the cross on every branch. The pine is one of the trees God planted in the desert to give shade to the thirsty; to prove His power over the elements; and to show His care for the needy. [Is 41:17-20] When the Holy Family was running from Herod's soldiers, a hollow old pine tree hid the exhausted family"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (17:21)", "body": "~*~The Date of Christmas~*~ The idea to celebrate Christmas on December 25 originated in the 4th century. The Catholic Church wanted to eclipse the festivities of a rival pagan religion that threatened Christianity's existence. The Romans celebrated the birthday of their sun god, Mithras during this time of year. Although it was not popular, or even proper, to celebrate people's birthdays in those times, church leaders decided that in order to compete with the pagan celebration they would themselves order a festival in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Although the actual season of Jesus' birth is thought to be in the spring, the date of December 25 was chosen as the official birthday celebration as Christ's Mass so that it would compete head on with the rival pagan celebration. Christmas was slow to catch on in America. The early colonists considered it a pagan ritual. The celebration of Christmas was even banned by law in Massachusetts in colonial days. ~*~ Mistletoe and Holly~*~ Two hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Druids used mistletoe to celebrate the coming of winter. They would gather this evergreen plant that is parasitic upon other trees and used it to decorate their homes. They believed the plant had special healing powers for everything from female infertility to poison ingestion. Scandinavians also thought of mistletoe as a plant of peace and harmony. They associated mistletoe with their goddess of love, Frigga. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe probably derived from this belief. The early church banned the use of mistletoe in Christmas celebrations because of its pagan origins. Instead, church fathers suggested the use of holly as an appropriate substitute for Christmas greenery. ~*~ Poinsettias~*~ Poinsettias are native to Mexico. They were named after America's first ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett. He brought the plants to America in 1828. The Mexicans in the eighteenth century thought the plants were symbolic of the Star of Bethlehem. Thus the Poinsettia became associated with the Christmas season. The actual flower of the poinsettia is small and yellow. But surrounding the flower are large, bright red leaves, often mistaken for petals. ~*~ The Christmas Tree~*~ The Christmas Tree originated in Germany in the 16th century. It was common for the Germanic people to decorate fir trees, both inside and out, with roses, apples, and colored paper. It is believed that Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer, was the first to light a Christmas tree with candles. While coming home one dark winter's night near Christmas, he was struck with the beauty of the starlight shining through the branches of a small fir tree outside his home. He duplicated the starlight by using candles attached to the branches of his indoor Christmas tree. The Christmas tree was not widely used in Britain until the 19th century. It was brought to America by the Pennsylvania Germans in the 1820's. ~*~ Xmas~*~ This abbreviation for Christmas is of Greek origin. The word for Christ in Greek is Xristos. During the 16th century, Europeans began using the first initial of Christ's name, \"X\" in place of the word Christ in Christmas as a shorthand form of the word. Although the early Christians understood that X stood for Christ's name, later Christians who did not understand the Greek language mistook \"Xmas\" as a sign of disrespect. ~*~ The Candy Cane~*~ In the late 1800's a candy maker in Indiana wanted to express the meaning of Christmas through a symbol made of candy. He came up with the idea of bending one of his white candy sticks into the shape of a Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols of Christ's love and sacrifice through the Candy Cane. First, he used a plain white peppermint stick. The color white symbolizes the purity and sinless nature of Jesus. Next, he added three small stripes to symbolize the pain inflicted upon Jesus before His death on the cross. There are three of them to represent the Holy Trinity. He added a bold stripe to represent the blood Jesus shed for mankind. When looked at with the crook on top, it looks like a shepherd's staff because Jesus is the shepherd of man. If you turn it upside down, it becomes the letter J symbolizing the first letter in Jesus' name. The candy maker made these candy canes for Christmas, so everyone would remember what Christmas is all about. ~*~ Santa Claus~*~ The original Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, was born in Turkey in the 4th century. He was very pious from an early age, devoting his life to Christianity. He became widely known for his generosity for the poor. But the Romans held him in contempt. He was imprisoned and tortured. But when Constantine became emperor of Rome, he allowed Nicholas to go free. Constantine became a Christian and convened the Council of Nicaea in 325. Nicholas was a delegate to the council. He is especially noted for his love of children and for his generosity. He is the patron saint of sailors, Sicily, Greece, "}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (17:28)", "body": "~*~*~ Greek Christmas Traditions ~*~*~ By Emma Nicolozakes ~*~ The Holiday Season~*~ The Holiday Season in Greece begins on December 6th, which is the Feast of St. Nicholas, and ends on January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany. Christmas ranks as the second most important holiday of the year, superceded only by Easter. Approximately 95% of all Greeks are members of the Greek Orthodox Church, and as in the United States, Christmas is celebrated on December 25th. Christmas is a religious, solemn holiday in Greece, and not as prone to commercialism as it is in the States. A number of gifts are exchanged between family members; but in lieu of large expensive gifts, many donations are made to local orphanages and charities. ~*~ Decoration~*~ Christmas trees are not usually used in Greece. The traditional Christmas season decoration is a small wooden bowl with a piece of wire suspended over the rim. A sprig of basil wrapped around a wooden cross is attached to this wire, and a small amount of water in the bowl keeps the basil fresh. Once a day, the cross is dipped in Holy Water which is sprinkled around the house to ward off the mischievous spirits, or Killantzaroi, who are said to play evil pranks on family members throughout the twelve days of Christmas. ~*~ Santa Claus~*~ St. Basil is the Santa Claus of the Greeks. St. Basil's Day is celebrated on our New Year's Day, and this is when the presents are exchanged between family members. Although in the United States we often call Santa Claus \"St. Nick\", St. Nicholas in Greece is the patron saint of sailors. ~*~ Carols~*~ During the Holiday season, children go from house to house singing kalanda, the Greek equivalent of Christmas carols. The children are traditionally rewarded with treats, such as dried figs, almonds, walnuts, and coins, and the kalanda they sing are said to bless the house. In fact, the word \"carol\" itself comes from the Greek choraulein, which is a Greek dance accompanied by flute music. ~*~ Food~*~ Food is an important part of any Greek holiday, and the Christmas season is no exception. Traditionally pigs, lambs, and goats were served; today it is common to have turkey. Christopsomo, the traditional Christmas bread, is shaped into a round loaf and decorated with a cross. Around this cross are decorations indicating the trade of the family. For example, if the main livelihood of the family is fishing, the bread will be decorated with small fish designs. There is a wide array of desserts served during the Christmas season. Some of the most popular include melomakarona; cookies dipped in honey, diples, which are fried dough cookies dipped in honey, and kourabiethes, small cookies dusted with powdered sugar. Try my recipe for kourabiethes. Kala Christouyenna! (Merry Christmas!) http://www.bellaonline.com/food_and_wine/food/greek/articles/art977072212685.htm"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (17:34)", "body": "I'm hoping someone who knows (Ginny? John?) lets us know how correct the above Greek traditions are. Wolfie and my daughter-in-law are my German tradition sources. Maggie, will you add the English traditions I am most familiar with, please? Any and all comments and traditions are welcome. Rob? What do the Kiwis do? The Maoris? I'll supply Hawaiian traditions as best I can. We combine many nations' celebrations here. With snow falling on our mountains and cold air coming in my window, I feel very much in the spirit of the holidays. I especially like the Greek tradition of donating to charity for the holiday. That is also MY idea of the best Christmas gift of all that I can give."}, {"response": 37, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (20:58)", "body": "some of my german traditions got fangled up with anxious waiting children and what to do about them. for example, i was told that we celebrated christmas on christmas eve (the gifts). so i grew up thinking this was why we did it that way, even through my teenage/young adult years. i learned, upon a visit by my new husband (who opens gifts christmas morning) the true origination of the christmas eve exchange was revealed--me and my brother. we would get so excited we'd make ourselves sick! so every christmas eve, the family would pack up the car to go to services and my parents always had to run back in the house. upon our return, santa magically came to our house. one thing we did celebrate with regularity was st nick's day--Dec 6. this was where we'd set a pair of shoes outside the door. in the morning, we'd find goodies in our shoes. i don't remember the origin of this tradition but have heard it called other things. in my house, we spent christmas eve driving through ritsy neighborhoods to see how stingy they were with their lights (some weren't at all and they were marvelous displays) until the kids were sleepy. then we played santa."}, {"response": 38, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (21:00)", "body": "i meant to say, we spend christmas eve looking at lights. and we do the gifts on christmas morning followed by a big meal."}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (23:10)", "body": "St. Nicholas, also called Nicholas of Bari, Nicholas of Myra, and Santa Claus, flourished in the 4th century in Asia Minor near the modern Turkish city of Finike. One of the most popular minor saints commemorated in the Eastern and Western churches, his feast day is December 6th. He is now traditionally associated with the festival of Christmas. I will share my memories of Christmas tomorrow. Thanks Wolfie!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (23:12)", "body": "More about St Nicholas http://www.umkc.edu/imc/stnick.htm"}, {"response": 41, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec 13, 2001 (21:02)", "body": "in my christmas memoirs above, i see that i forgot to mention that my parents told me it was german tradition to exchange gifts christmas eve (sorry if that was confusing)"}, {"response": 42, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec 13, 2001 (21:03)", "body": "oh, and here's something i suggest you NOT do....do not set up your video camera to capture santa because your children will need therapy when they get older *laugh* my husband did this one year and my son is convinced. but, i say let him believe as long as he can. heck, i still believe in the spirit of santa and the magic associated with him."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 13, 2001 (21:23)", "body": "Oh Wolfie, how funny. It reminds me of a story about my father catching Santa. I'll post that as soon as I toast my favorite composer's birthday Thank you for providing the means by which my soul takes flight and my heart is stirred. Beethoven comforts my mind when all else has abandoned me. *Hugs* (I think the real Beethoven would have cast scorn at me and sent me packing by now if I had dared to hug him!)"}, {"response": 44, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (18:56)", "body": "well, you know how geniuses can be! (i love B too)"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (20:24)", "body": "You're my twin - of course you love Beethoven, too. *grin* Once upon a time, when my father was very young... (I promise to post it!)"}, {"response": 46, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Dec 19, 2001 (11:02)", "body": "Hi all Another cool topic on Geo - anyway, just wandering around and found this topic which is why I like Geo above all topics - even radio happy pre solstice 73 de Mike AA9IL"}, {"response": 47, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 19, 2001 (22:18)", "body": "and to you cosmo!"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (18:06)", "body": "Way Cool Cosmo has joined the wandering minds that inhabit Geo. We're eclectic, of nothing else! What do you do to celebrate the holidays? Link your boat anchor radios in parallel or series and fire them all up at the same time? I did that once! Back before there was much music available on radio, I could at least count of a rousing rendition of \"God Save The Queen\" from the provinces of Canada as they sidned off. On night I managed to tune two radios (tube with huge output speakers) and my head just between them. It wasn't stereo but it sure sounded like STEREO !!! I got the blast of my lifetime listeting and I think I can still hear it rumbling around in my head soemwhere. Sounded glorious to my hungry ears. Did anyone else do anything quite that foolish? When are you getting an xfm or xam lashup for those long road trips?"}, {"response": 49, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (20:18)", "body": "Hi yall Well, Christmas will be up here in the cold climes - got the first major snow shower to lend the look. Usually, I just fire up one boatanchror rig to warm the room - either the R390A or SP600 - the Collins has been getting most of the attention as of late. Anyway the holidays are reserved for the usual family stuff prior to new years lunacy plus I need to keep hacking on these transverter projects to get them completed - the first contest of the year is January but the big one is in June. For those long trips, I do take my 2m/440 FM rig with me although I do remember working mobile HF which is alwasy lots o' fun. Need to get a mobile rig back in the truck - quite different from when I ran my Yaesu FT101E in my El Camino back during my college years - it drew so many amps that the alternator belt snapped - had to limp home on the 12v battery alone. Happy Solstice! 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 50, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (20:21)", "body": "doh! By xfm you mean the satellite service? I looked at the radios - kind of neat but I really want shortwave in my truck so I can listen to Radio Canada, BBC, Radio Nederland, etc while driving. For music, I have my formidable CD collection - maybe someday get the satellite service tho.... Fine biz on the eclectic minds - I at least like to think Im eclectic sometimes.... 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (21:23)", "body": "I agree with you, Mike. Those new little satellite AM and FM receivers leave much to be desired unless you want to loop Art Bell for 24/7 and become VERY strange. Get a good transceiver for you car and a whip antenna with some pulling power. You don't want to get ripped off so make it invisble. My son put the button panel in the dash and put the works under his seat. It works great and he can flip the button panel over so it is totally unappealing. In his house, I never know how to turn things on. Often the goodies are three rooms away and he can station select and tune from the kitchen. Hawaii has snow, Sunny Greece is under more than a foot of the stuff and you guys are still waiting for your share? Sant Claus comes to Hawaii on a surfboard and we leave a door open for him. With John's permission I will post an impressive amount of snow covering his car. (There is also an amazing depressed-looking palm tree with its crown flattened by the weight of the snow. It looks so forlorn... At least when it snows in Hawaii, it keeps it up on the mountains and now down where people live. I am looking at it in a little soft cotton shirt. No shovelling."}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (21:43)", "body": "HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (21:46)", "body": "I can't wait till 31 December ! Look at what my ancestors were doing for fun while some of us will be getting hung over. I'm not sure who gets the worst headache! Allandale Tar Barrel Burning, Northumberland A version of burning out the old year, locals walk down the street with blazing tar barrels on their heads. Some of these are then thrown to light a bonfire."}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (22:07)", "body": "what day is the solstice? is it tomorrow?? (i had heard that tomorrow will be the shortest day of the year) great pic of stonehenge!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (22:33)", "body": "Solsitice is when the sun appears to stand still and our ancestors didnot know if it would reappear and summer would follow, or if they would die a cold and miserable death of starvation in darkness. The lit bonfires and all sorts of other things to get the sun to come back. I'll find some to post. I suspect knocking on wood is not all that different from what they did."}, {"response": 56, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (22:36)", "body": "Howdy Howdy Yep, tomorrow is the Solstice! Very cool picture indeed. Today while walking to the train station in Chicago, there was a perfect picture of the quarter moon visible between the office buildings - I thought to my self: \"Moon in the canyon\" The twilight was crisp and clear and the lights in the buildings and trees did twinkle. This was one of those 'nice winter walks' and no snow! 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 57, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (23:11)", "body": "too bad you didn't have a camera!!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec 20, 2001 (23:12)", "body": "(thanks for the info on the solstice)"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 21, 2001 (19:00)", "body": "Mike, you need to find Santa immediately and tell him you NEED a camera. You might be the Ansel Adams of the 21st century!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 21, 2001 (19:04)", "body": "I neglected to tell WHEN the Winter Solstice is. In the northern hemisphere, the Winter solstice is day of the year (near December 22) when the Sun is farthest south. However, in the southern hemisphere, winter and summer solstices are exchanged so that the winter solstice is the day on which the Sun is farthest north. The winter solstice marks the first day of the season of winter. The declination of the Sun on the (northern) winter solstice is known as the tropic of capricorn (-23\ufffd 27'). The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, respectively, in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a minimum for the year. Of course, daylight saving time means that the first Sunday in April has 23 hours and the last Sunday in October has 25 hours, but these human meddlings with the calendar and do not correspond to the actual number of daylight hours. In Chicago, there are 9:20 hours of daylight on the winter solstice of December 22, 1999. lots more... http://www.treasure-troves.com/astro/WinterSolstice.html"}, {"response": 61, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Dec 21, 2001 (20:15)", "body": "so it's tomorrow then? 22 Dec and not 21 Dec....but today is the first day of winter!"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 21, 2001 (20:58)", "body": "It depends on your time and locality when the sun reaches its southernmost point For Hawaii it is definitely the 21st. For Greece it is the 22nd as it is for New Zealand and points east. There is a chart on that page url I posted, I think..."}, {"response": 63, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 22, 2001 (17:20)", "body": "ok, gotta go back and find that url!"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 22, 2001 (18:19)", "body": "For an easy-to-understand explanation for seasons and why Rob in New Zealand is having summer while North America is having winter: http://explorezone.com/earth/seasons.htm"}, {"response": 65, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 22, 2001 (22:41)", "body": "bookmarked that one, thanks sweetie!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 23, 2001 (22:36)", "body": "I think she is too big for the title page. I need a more dignified angel there, I think. But she is so sweet; I love her innocence and tenderness."}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 23, 2001 (22:37)", "body": "Not YOU, Wolfie! You'd fit perfectly on the title page. I meant the angel I have installed. I will change her back to the star and look for a more stately Herald Angel that Mendelssohn wrote about."}, {"response": 68, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 24, 2001 (11:42)", "body": "i've not even seen the angel yet *sniff*"}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 24, 2001 (14:46)", "body": "Mele Kalikimaka Look at Crafts title page. The little angel was there last night when I closed out. Did she fly away? *Hugs* No sniffling on Christmas for my Wolfie-Twin. Only happy smiles allowed (yes, I know!) Please feel free to go use any of my seasonal files. I will email you with the url..."}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 24, 2001 (15:00)", "body": "JOHN!!! I really DO know how to do this. I just can't make them work and I did not have any separations between my graphics, my commands for the font or the words therein. This is tiresome, so I will not try it again until Next year!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 24, 2001 (18:13)", "body": "well, i don't care about the alignment, it was done with feeling and i love it! (i didn't venture into crafts last night but i did this afternoon and she's really sweet)"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 24, 2001 (19:22)", "body": "*HUGS* Wolfie and Merry Christmas!! She really is sweet. We can thank John for slowing her down. When I found her she was positively frantic. Hugs to him, too for all his help with Craft and Geo-decorating"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 24, 2001 (19:29)", "body": "Geo's Little Angel"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 24, 2001 (21:23)", "body": "I'm not pretending about the snow on Mauna Kea: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanoes/maunakea/ Mauna Kea Hawai`i's Tallest Volcano Tall cinder cones atop the summit of Mauna Kea (4,205m) and lava flows that underlie its steep upper flanks have built the volcano a scant 35 m higher than nearby Mauna Loa (4,170 m). Mauna Kea, like Hawai`i's other older volcanoes, Hualalai and Kohala, has evolved beyond the shield-building stage, as indicated by (1) the very low eruption rates compared to Mauna Loa and Kilauea; (2) the absence of a summit caldera and elongated fissure vents that radiate its summit; (3) steeper and more irregular topography (for example, the upper flanks of Mauna Kea are twice as steep as those of Mauna Loa); and (4) different chemical compositions of the lava. These changes in part reflect a low rate magma supply that causes the continuously active summit reservoir and rift zones of the shield stage to give way to small isolated batches of magma that rise episodically into the volcano, erupt briefly, and soon solidify. They also reflect greater viscosity and volatile content of the lava, which result in thick flows that steepen the edifice and explosive eruptions that build large cinder cones. Glaciers on Mauna Kea? Most people don't think about snow or glaciers in Hawai`i, but geologists have long recognizd deposits formed by glaciers on Mauna Kea during recent ice ages. The latest work indicates that deposits of three glacial episodes since 150,000 to 200,000 years ago are preserved on the volcano. Glacial moraines on the volcano formed about 70,000 years ago and from approximately 40,000 to 13,000 years ago. If glacial deposits were formed on Mauna Loa, they have long since been buried by younger lava flows. Even today, snow falls on both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Both volcanoes are so high that snow falls during winter months, perhaps accumulating to a few meters depth. The seasonal snow cover on the steep slopes of Mauna Kea is easier to see from coastal areas than on the gentle, rounded slopes of Mauna Loa, whose summit cannot be seen from sea level. more... http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanoes/maunakea/"}, {"response": 75, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 24, 2001 (22:59)", "body": "i still can't believe it (though i know you didn't make it up) just doesn't go together--hawaii and snow (even in the mountains)......we could see the snow really good on top of a mountain range here (dunno the name of the mountain). didn't have my camera either or i could've shown you the effects of cooler air and a mountain range on smog. it hung eerily in the air with the mountains rising above it. too bad they don't make giant vacuum cleaners or hepa filters!!"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 25, 2001 (21:26)", "body": ""}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 25, 2001 (21:28)", "body": "(You didn't expect me to get it right, did you? How I hate disappointing you!)"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 25, 2001 (21:41)", "body": "Mele Kalikimaka My Christmas is slowly ending as the rest of the world is on another day. My dinner with friends included a very typical Hawaiian eclectic mix of food and people. It has been a very nice day. I hope yours was, as well. For dinner we had rice, sushi, poke (raw fish Hawaiian style), seaweed in various delicious ways, fresh fruit of all sorts, raw vegetables in and out of salads, cheeses, tofu barbecued and other ways, traditional mochi (for good luck)rice cakes, olives, \"pot stickers\", egg rolls, ham, teriyaki beef, chicken, crab salad Hawaiian style, and so many more I cannot remember... The people were not the students, this year. Instead, we had a wonderful mix of professors from the local University and researchers from both the University and from Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory. I caught such mentions of 45\ufffdF at the summit of Kilauea last night and carried on conversations with people I would happily spend many future hours. Discussions varied from hydroponic gardening to the ever-present Volcano, and Ah, yes, we also discussed the eating of dog in the Philippines and other curious food habits of the non-western world. Many exchanged email addresses. I have, also. Perhaps Mitchell will look here. We discussed programming and websites and digital cameras among other things. Aloha, Mitchell, if you venture here. I enjoyed meeting you - also a transplant from New York. The food was delicious; the company fascinating. I have had a wonderful Christmas. I hope yours was as pleasant. The only negative is heavy fumes in Hilo due to lack of air movement. It would not take much exercise to make my lungs hurt. Instead I will email a few people and smile in contentment. Thank you all for making my holiday so special. My special thanks to Miu and Bernie for being such good hosts and assembling so delightful a mix of people."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 25, 2001 (21:58)", "body": "*SIGH*"}, {"response": 80, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Dec 25, 2001 (22:04)", "body": "Happy Holidays and Happy Solstice to All! Hope everyone had a nice day - neat goodies on this end but the most noteworthy for the list was the complete Sci American Amateur Scientist CD rom with plenty of projects and inpho. First great lightbulb realization was an article on building seismic detectors using accelerometer integrated circuits - very different from my idea of a balanced pendulum with a 50000 turn coil between the poles of a strong magnet but hey, it should work! Lots of neat things to build with a danger scale reading from no hazard to loss of life possible - of course, I have to try building the proton accelerator (very dangerous). 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 25, 2001 (23:01)", "body": "Share your projects, Mike, Please! Seismo stuff? Oooh! Any of them buildable by normal people who solder their fingers together and burn holes in bedspreads? (My son, not I!) Delighted you had such a wonderful day! I send you best wishes and gratitude for making yourself comfortable here. You're a very special guy. I'd love to see your parts department. My Dad had his all stored in amazing large metal cans and various little parts boxes. I kept my hands behind my back when I entered his sanctum sanctorum! But, I can still smell the fragrance of rosin melting on his soldering iron..."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 25, 2001 (23:04)", "body": "I am a map reader of the first order. I got atlases and bound road map books this year. Plus a lovely 4 inch diameter globe made of semi-precius stone and mounted on a golden pedestal. It resides on my mantle piece now! I shall photograph it if it is possible to do so!"}, {"response": 83, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 26, 2001 (17:08)", "body": "oh marcia, i know the globe you're speaking of (although the ones i've seen were floor models) how wonderful!!!! sounds like you guys had a lot to eat! i made a roast again and it was delicious. tried out my mom's bread dumplings but, practice makes perfect and they all fell apart during the cooking! *laugh* hope everyone had a good holiday! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 26, 2001 (18:46)", "body": "Falling-apart home cooking can sometimes be the best. It HAS to be better than solid concrete biscuits my sister served me one year! Sounds wonderful. I'm busy trying to identify country and gemstone. This had to have been very difficult to make. I wonder how many people went blind making it. Australia is solid abalone shell. Beautiful ! I'm thinking of changing the dividers again. You'd think I'd leave well enough alone...."}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 26, 2001 (23:04)", "body": "Space Station Christmas December 25 -- Astronaut Cathy Clarke opened her eyes and yawned. Mission Control was playing Jingle Bells over the intercom for about the two hundredth time. \"OK,\" she barked into the microphone. \"I'm awake and I know it's Christmas!\" Cathy, one of the crew of the International Space Station (ISS), was feeling homesick. Back on Earth, she knew, her family was gathered around the Christmas tree, sipping eggnog and opening presents. Later they would radio from Houston, but she yearned to be with them now -- not stuck in an orbiting laboratory, 350 km above Earth, with no Christmas spirit. This is a wonderful story. Read it to your children! The rest of it is http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast21dec_1.htm"}, {"response": 86, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 26, 2001 (23:12)", "body": "the new bars are neat! and i noticed the wreaths as well!! concrete biscuits? *yikes*"}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 26, 2001 (23:38)", "body": "I am trying to prepare for the New Year and get back to undecking the halls. Ther is much good science going on. Saw 5 satellites and the ISS plus an iridium flare a few moments ago! The Hubble in an hour. Hi Mike! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 88, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 26, 2001 (23:43)", "body": "ok, how do you know what you're looking at? i can tell satellites from falling stars but that's it. undeck the halls? you mean we have to take everything down? already!? but wait, we've got mardi gras season starting Jan 6th!"}, {"response": 89, "author": "Poubelle1", "date": "Wed, Dec 26, 2001 (23:51)", "body": "Perhaps you would be so kind to help with a delima our marcie i was say calling her the mistress of the east ! ? or would she be considered the Mistres of the west!? she her self while joking about this says she is in the middle ! Pa Shaw! no one can be in the middle , so to her i suggested perhaps i could place a post here and all could vote if she is a mistress of the east or west ! we thank you for your time in responding to this delima in helping to be politicaly correct!! Poubelle1"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (00:25)", "body": "Mike! Congratulations on your maiden post! I am more than a little amazed and delighted to see you here! I'll keep a tally of the votes if there are any. Thanks for making the effort to login and all that! You've joined the HTLM programming cognescenti! Welcome. Feel free to wander around. Perhaps assistant to the Mistress of the Volcano? Wolfie, We have to bring in the new year..... and Epiphany... The decorations will stay up for 12 days of Christmas... with New Year celebrations also."}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (00:31)", "body": "When one lives in the semi-middle of an ocean near the international date line, I can't imagine what to call me! How about the lady with far too much curiosity ? I think it fits!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (00:37)", "body": "Mardi Gras is definitly on the schedule. I expect Mike to help celebrate. He's an expert, I understand..."}, {"response": 93, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (11:49)", "body": "i say we call marcia the world mistress! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (16:10)", "body": "*HUGS* Wolfie. Dobn't let Mike fool you. He is a story-teller of great expertise. Editing what he writes is both a pleasure and a challenge. Pou, did you expect some sort of concensus? I think no one will bother to vote except for my twin sister, Wolfie =) In any case, the true founding genius behind Geo who convinced me I could do it (he lied!) designated me \"world builder\" instead of host. I am still struggling to learn HTML programming and to make this conference worthy of your time. I do rather like these bars!"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 29, 2001 (21:28)", "body": "It is comforting to know Greece has a few traditions predating Christianity, just as the rest of us do. From Christmas in Greece http://www.gogreece.com/learn/christmas.htm In Greek homes, Christmas trees are not commonly used, but recently have become more popular. In almost every house though- the main symbol of the season is a shallow wooden bowl with a piece of wire is suspended across the rim; from that hangs a sprig of basil wrapped around a wooden cross. A small amount of water is kept in the bowl to keep the basil alive and fresh. Once a day, a family member, usually the mother, dips the cross and basil into some holy water and uses it to sprinkle water in each room of the house. This ritual is believed to keep the 'Killantzaroi' (bad spirits) away. There are a number of beliefs connected with these spirits, which are supposed to be a species of goblins who appear only during the 12-day period from Christmas to the Epiphany (January 6). These creatures are believed to come from the center of the earth and to slip into people's house through the chimney. More mischievous than actually evil, the Killantzaroi do things like extinguish fires, ride astride people's backs, braid horses' tails, and sour the milk. To further repel the undesirable sprites, the hearth is kept burning day and night throughout the twelve days. Gifts are finally exchanged on St. Basil's Day (January 1). On this day the \"renewal of waters\" also takes place, a ritual in which all water jugs in the house are emptied and refilled with new \"St. Basil's Water.\" The ceremony is often accompanied by offerings to the 'naiads', spirits of springs and fountains. All in all, Christmas is an enjoyable part of Greece today and one that should be experienced by all."}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan  5, 2002 (14:50)", "body": "WHAT TO DO IF YOU LOSE YOUR WALLET OR PURSE A corporate attorney sent this out to the employees in his company. I pass it along, for your information. WHAT TO DO IF YOU LOSE YOUR PURSE OR WALLET We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed in your name, address, SS#, credit, etc. Unfortunately I (the author of this piece who happens to be an attorney) have firsthand knowledge, because my wallet was stolen last month and within a week the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more. But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know. As everyone always advises: 1. Cancel your credit cards immediately, but the key is having the toll free number and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them easily. 2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where it was stolen, this proves to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). 3. But here's what is perhaps most important: (I never ever thought to do this) Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and SS#. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost 2 weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them in their tracks. The numbers are: -Equifax: 800-525-6285 -Experian (formerly TRW): 888-397-3742 -Trans Union: 800-680-7289 -Social Security Administration (fraud line): 800-269-0271 We pass along jokes; we pass along just about everything. Do think about passing this information along. It could really help someone. AND... why not print it up and keep it in a handy place -- not in your purse or wallet, of course!"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (15:49)", "body": "Stress Makes People Fat, Swedish Study Shows Reuters Jan 7 2002 9:15AM STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Long-term stress could make people fat, according to a study of some 50 overweight middle-aged Swedish men published Monday. Disruptions in the human nervous system, or stress, can concentrate fat around the abdomen, raising the risk of diabetes as well as heart problems, a study by the university hospital in the Swedish city of Gothenburg found. One fifth of Westerners are estimated to suffer from diabetes or cardiovascular diseases. \"The stress system has developed to deal with periods of brief stress for stone-age man preparing for battle or flight. But in today's civilized world, stress is different. One does not beat up the boss or run away from the mortgage institute,\" said physician Thomas Ljung, who led the study. A body under stress creates a surplus of a hormone which stimulates a fat-gathering enzyme. This enzyme is more easily taken up by the abdomen than other parts of the body, the survey found. After a long period of stress, the hormone surplus decreases but the fat remains, particularly around the bellies of modern men who need less physical exercise to survive than their forefathers. \"Positive stress, a quick rush of adrenaline, is only good for the body. It is the long-term negative stress than can lead to serious health problems,\" Ljung told Reuters by telephone. Even though pot-bellies are often associated with middle-aged men, a surprisingly large number of women also have a disproportionate amount of fat around their waists, he said."}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (15:50)", "body": "Now, I am stressed about getting fat. It is another case of the tail chasing the dog!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "well that explains my troubles then (that and chocolate, what i eat when i'm stressed)"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (20:34)", "body": "*sigh* We're doomed. It is a Good Thing I have long legs and do not have fat genes."}, {"response": 101, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (23:04)", "body": "i'm as fat as i'm gonna get according to my genes (from what i've seen from 3 generations) so that's good. and to think i never broke 100 pounds until i was in the 10th grade! ah well, german engineering, that's what i call it!"}, {"response": 102, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (23:06)", "body": "did you just now do the snowflakes?"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (23:32)", "body": "Yup just changed them to very small and changed the bars to black. The angel is the only part remaining until John is safely out of the storm. This is the dark of winter, even in Hawaii..."}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  7, 2002 (23:34)", "body": "Oh, I did not weigh over 95 pounds until my son was in high school..."}, {"response": 105, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (19:43)", "body": "*jaw dropping* i just noticed the black bars (very sophisticated)....the snowflakes still look big to me though.....neat design in the middle, kinda artichoke looking (sp?)"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (20:27)", "body": "I agree about the snowflakes. I'll downsize them a bit more. I would return the hummingbird since I know John is safe and healing (but hate that he has broken his leg!) But, I'll wait. I found these bars with the red ones I previously used and also a long dark green one just like these - but I have lost the location of the green ones. It does look good with this background, and all is so adaptable. I assume you are assembling your gifs for Mardi Gras? The first floats have made their appearance in New Orleans!"}, {"response": 107, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (20:52)", "body": "i'll bet the green ones are nice too. yeah, mardis gras officially started today - 12th night ceremonies and all. i have the gifs for mardi gras just no where to put them (email terry about it though). i've got to get a catalog with beads and stuff to order!"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (21:12)", "body": "Ooouuuuuuu!!! You will out-dazzle the Hollywood glamourati! Looks like I 'd better check holidays and get searching for MardiGras gifs, too. I know there're out there. Are the snowflakes still too big?"}, {"response": 109, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (21:18)", "body": "no no, i think they're just right now!"}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (21:22)", "body": "=) black snow - just like in West Virginia !"}, {"response": 111, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  8, 2002 (21:24)", "body": "*haha*"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (16:44)", "body": "Is the Greek Key divider bar better or worse? I like it! It looks embossed and quite classic. Now, to do something about that black snow..."}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (17:31)", "body": "Fresh white snow is not as obvious, but a lot prettier!"}, {"response": 114, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (19:49)", "body": "i like them both! and the greek keys evoke a feel for egyptian archaeology."}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (20:01)", "body": "How about Grecian antiquities? I think the Egyptians were too busy carving cartouches and painting 2-dimensional people in 3-D to make elaborate moldings, plinths, and such. Take a look at the pyramids, then look at the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. *SIGH* I like them, too."}, {"response": 116, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (20:50)", "body": "true true, but they both have wonderful architecture for their times. on second thought, unless it's my screen, the white snowflakes look like they're missing to me (not see through), just like a cut out or something."}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (22:35)", "body": "Hmmm... let me try to see them on internet explorer. I see them as vaguely white with sketchy edges. I need better graphics there. I'm working on it!"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (22:39)", "body": "yup, they look like they are rougfhly punched out on IE. I will find the thing I want and post it ASAP *smile*"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (23:00)", "body": "Oooh Sweetie, and Omega would be perfect for our alter-images. Let me know how it goes. I can always send you that next year... Sorry for the loss of word I caused you but I simply HAD to do it =)"}, {"response": 120, "author": "KitCat", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (23:09)", "body": "Help! I'm neew here. I'm looking for the DDL board... obviously, I'm lost :("}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (23:36)", "body": "DDL??? Darcy Drool Ladies? See http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/drool/all/new I started there. Enjoy!!!"}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (23:48)", "body": "Specifically, http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/drool/112/new is Darcy Drool. Happy reading. You will see me there a lot in the past!"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  9, 2002 (23:50)", "body": "No, these are not the right torches, either. Back to searching and restoring the snowflakes."}, {"response": 124, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan 10, 2002 (19:34)", "body": "i thought they were aztec motifs!"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 10, 2002 (19:51)", "body": "Oh Dear! No, alas, they are the Salt Lake City 2002 Official Olympic Winter Games Logo. I was going to put Athens 2004 laurel wreath up, but I could not find one good enough to copy. I had a torch there, but it was static and not very good. I'll keep looking...*sigh*"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 10, 2002 (19:57)", "body": "I think they're supposed to be snowflakes... I'm going back to the white snowflakes for now."}, {"response": 127, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan 10, 2002 (21:27)", "body": "i'm having no luck finding olympic motifs such as the rings for you to use. torches are easy enough-in fact, i think i have one in my files. will check for you!"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 11, 2002 (00:50)", "body": "Thanks! I even tried borrowing one from an active website with not much success. I only managed to find a HUGS Olympic flag which was too large to use here. How hard can it be to make five interlocking circles? I'd like to use the Salt Lake City Logo if I could make it ANY other colors!!! I even tried white but the lines around it are not solid enough to look good. I will hunt further, also. *Hugs*, Wolfie! We have to be interesting to entertain John while he mends. I'll try to find interesting things for him to contemplate."}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  5, 2002 (19:58)", "body": "It is Treaty of Waitangi day in New Zealand and a day of significance for their nation. THE TREATY OF WAITANGI 1840 [English text of the Treaty] Her Majesty Victoria Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland regarding with Her Royal Favour the Native Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand and anxious to protect their just Rights and Property and to secure to them the enjoyment of Peace and Good Order has deemed it necessary in consequence of the great number of Her Majesty's Subjects who have already settled in New Zealand and the rapid extension of Emigration both from Europe and Australia which is still in progress to constitute and appoint a functionary properly authorized to treat with the Aborigines of New Zealand for the recognition of Her Majesty's Sovereign authority over the whole or any part of those islands. Her Majesty therefore being desirous to establish a settled form of Civil Government with a view to avert the evil consequences which must result from the absence of the necessary Laws and Institutions alike to the native population and to Her subjects has been graciously pleased to empower and to authorize \"me William Hobson a Captain\" in Her Majesty's Royal Navy Consul and Lieutenant Governor of such parts of New Zealand as may be or hereafter shall be ceded to Her Majesty to invite the confederated and independent Chiefs of New Zealand to concur in the following Articles and Conditions. more... http://www.govt.nz/aboutnz/treaty.php3"}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  5, 2002 (19:59)", "body": "OOps. not till February 6th. I'll try to find a flag to post tomorrow. Which flag is Politically Correct on this occasion? Rob, Help!"}, {"response": 131, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb  5, 2002 (20:04)", "body": "but will we have ftp tomorrow?"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  5, 2002 (20:33)", "body": "No, probably not ftp, and I thought I had it on my old files at Spring. I have everyone but NZ. I'll borrow one from somewhere on the net =) I'll also save it until such time as I can ftp."}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  5, 2002 (20:34)", "body": ""}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  5, 2002 (20:35)", "body": "Hmmm Is it big enough?"}, {"response": 135, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb  5, 2002 (22:15)", "body": "nah, a couple more inches and it'll cover the entire screen *laugh* did you post it in rob's topic?"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (15:57)", "body": "Not posted yet in Rob's topic. My reason is because there is a lot of politics and racial overtones to this day just as there are certain Hawaiian celebrations. Post the wrong flag as we are all in for accusations of being politically incorrect. This national flag of NZ has the flag of the Union (\"Union Jack\") of the UK on it. I suspect to the Maori, it is less than welcome. Black with silver ferns? I am waiting to hear from Rob."}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (20:14)", "body": "THE IDEA, ITS RELEVANCE FOR TODAY, THE SYMBOL OLYMPIC TRUCE - THE IDEA The tradition of the \ufffdTruce\ufffd or \ufffdEkecheiria\ufffd was established in ancient Greece in the 9th century BC by the signature of a treaty between three kings. During the Truce period, the athletes, artists and their families, as well as ordinary pilgrims, could travel in total safety to participate in or attend the Olympic Games and return afterwards to their respective countries. As the opening of the Games approached, the sacred truce was proclaimed and announced by citizens of Elis who travelled throughout Greece to pass on the message. http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/missions/truce/truce_uk.asp"}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (20:17)", "body": ""}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (20:17)", "body": "aha - I need to make the background transparent. =)"}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (20:22)", "body": "Now I need to be able to ftp them to Spring. *sigh*"}, {"response": 141, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (20:23)", "body": "the olympic rings are great!! (i know nothing about the correct flag for NZ)"}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (23:08)", "body": "It is the one I posted, though they are discussing alternatives now that they are distinct from the old Empire. Check this super source for flags of many sorts New Zealand: http://www.fotw.stm.it/flags/nz-mao.html"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (23:10)", "body": "I have the olympic rings ready to ftp to Spring. I can get there but it won't accept anything I try to send."}, {"response": 144, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2002 (13:51)", "body": "that's the probs i've been having with it...."}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2002 (19:15)", "body": "I can finally ftp to my sites but none of them show up on the net. Have they disappeared into Topic 65? *sigh*"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (21:16)", "body": "The Olympic cauldron has been lit. The games are officially open. Geo has installed the logo and waits the rings created by John. I think it totally appripriate that he does this for us. After all, we are celebrating his heritage throughout the world. I just wish the Olympic truce existed for all time on the entire planet. Higher * Faster * Stronger Let the games begin May the best person win"}, {"response": 147, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (22:21)", "body": "Amen to that."}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (22:29)", "body": "I am just now seeing the opening ceremonies. They, like everything else in Hawaii, are tape delayed. I am sharing this with everyone with tears of lost innocence in my eyes. The world is not united even by sport. I would live forever in the embrace of the Olympic Ideals. *Hugs* to you all !"}, {"response": 149, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (00:40)", "body": "Olympic Hymn The Olympic Hymn, played when the Olympic flag is raised, was adopted by the International Olympic Committee in 1957. The music was composed by Spirou Samara and the lyrics were written by Costis Palamas (spelling of their names varies in different sources). It was first incorporated at the Rome Olympics in 1960. In addition to the official anthem, each host city where the Olympics are held can also create its own anthem. \"Bugler's Dream\" by Leo Arnaud was introduced during the 1968 Olympic Games in Grenoble. Subsequently, John Williams composed the \"Olympic Fanfare and Theme\" for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. http://www.santacruzpl.org/readyref/files/m-p/olympichymn.shtml This is the most glorious music and the commentators talke all the way through it. I was NOT happy!"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (00:42)", "body": "Now, if only someone recorded it and I can get hold of a copy. I will search for this, also!"}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (11:58)", "body": "If ever there was a reason for appreciating just what satellites can do---with the help of some high altitude aerial imagery, dedication, hard work, and a lot of expensive equipment---this is it! Here is a must see!!!! http://olympics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Click on the animation and zoom away!"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (13:18)", "body": "OLYMPIC GAMES - Not an Ordinary Competition The Olympic Games are about more than sports. The Games have always been about peace. The first known Olympic Games occurred over 2,500 years ago, in Olympia, Greece. A Greek king called for a truce, or pause from all fighting, so that the best athletes could compete against each other in peace. The truce declared: \"May the world be delivered from crime and killing and freed from the clash of arms.\" The Games were held every four years until the year 394 CE. Over a thousand years later, Pierre de Coubertin suggested the world once again hold Olympic Games. He thought the Games would promote world peace and friendship. He designed the Olympic symbol of five interlocking rings to show the union of the different parts of the world. The ring colors are blue, yellow, black, green, and red. These colors were chosen because every flag in the world has at least one of these colors. Flags are an important part of the Olympic Games. When athletes win a gold, silver, or bronze medal, their country's flag flies proudly during the medal ceremony. In addition, the national anthem of the gold medal winner's country is played for all to hear. The Olympic Torch Lights the Way Since ancient times, the Olympic Games were opened by the lighting of an Olympic flame. For the past 60 years, the flame has been carried by torch from Olympia, Greece (where it is lit by the sun's rays) to whatever city in the world is hosting the Games. This year's torch traveled 13,500 miles. It went by car, plane, train, boat, dogsled, and snowmobile. But mostly, runners carried the torch. It passed through 46 of the 50 United States to reach Salt Lake City. There it is burning in a specially-designed cauldron until the closing ceremony on February 24. It is then put out with the promise that it will burn again for the summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, in 2004. http://www.eduplace.com/ss/current/story.html"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (16:47)", "body": "Olympic Hymn Adopted by the IOC in 1957 Cantata by Costis Palamas Set to music by Spirou Samara in 1896 Immortal spirit of antiquity, Father of the true, beautiful and good, Descend, appear, shed over us thy light, Upon this ground and under this sky Which had first witnessed thy unperishable fame. Give life and animation to those noble games! Throw wreaths of fadeless flowers to the victors In the race and in the strife! Create in our breasts, hearts of steel! http://www.athletics.org.nz/canterbury/olympics_hymn.html"}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (16:57)", "body": "OLYMPIC HYMN Ancient immortal spirit, unsullied father of that which is beautiful, great and true, Descend, make thyself known and shine hero on this earth and below these skies witness of Thy Glory. Illuminate the endevour of the noble contests in the running race, the wrestling and the throwing. Place a wreath of evergreen branch, creating the body as of iron and worthy. Vales, mountains and oceans shine with Thee Like unto a great temple of white and porphyry. To which all peoples hasten to this temple to worship Thee, Oh ancient immortal Spirit. sheet music for piano... http://www.forthnet.gr/olympics/athens1896/pictures/docs/hymn.html I really want this - done right!"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (14:17)", "body": "(John in topic 65): \"Perhaps between the spectators of the Olympic Athletic Contests exist more capable athletes but the glory is for those they battle in stadium.\" Ancient Greece said much about the human condition to help us know ourselves better. John's quote is pertinent considering how many single-participant \"teams\" were in attendance at the Olympics soon to conclude in Salt Lake City. We have learned to sit in chairs and criticize those who dare to compete and to put their best efforts before all mankind. How much better they are for the experience. The journey was heroic. The results are not nearly as important. I hope someday we will realize this once again. I've become a great fan of the art of chess on ice called Curling I was delighted when a team of Scotswomen representing Great Britain won the gold yesterday. They invented the sport. I will be watching the 4-man bobsleigh and cheering for the team from Greece. They als participated in the 2-man races and, like we did in some sports, did ot win medals but they did very respectably. Cheers to them for participating. I am sorrowful for the ending of the games so soon. I am also tired of the big-money high profile figure skating. It is no longer a sport. It has become a political and monitary game which is unworthy of the Olympics. When they eliminated the requried skill elements, they changed everything. I would be happy to be rid of them. I have also seen enough hockey with smashing and gouging to last a lifetime. They can get rid of that, soo. Million-dollar-salaried NHL players against small countries without as much money or aggression? I am offended just as I will be by the NBA players in Basketball in Athens in two years. Greece really cannot afford the Olympics in 2004. I have absolutely no doubt that they belong in Athens. I also think the host country, in this case, should not be funding the entire enterprise. I think, in gratitude, the entire world's teams should contribute richy to the efforts and save Greece from a huge debt they cannot afford to incur."}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (19:10)", "body": "Greece continues to participate and despite the monumental obstacles put in their team's way, the flag bearer at the opening ceremonies, Lefteris Fafalis, did well for himself and for Hellas in Cross Country, and in Combine Pursuit(skiing). Their bobsleigh team also had a good showing. Four-man tonight to watch. unhappily, though teh NBC anchor was presented with a hat, they did not see fit to show any of their runs. That saddens me."}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (19:18)", "body": "It's only a bit more than 900 days until the Athens Summer Olympics in 2004. I will be absolutely glued to any transmissions available anwhere. I might even consider obtaining a satellite dish just for that eventuality. Throughout the Olympic Games, three flags continually fly: the Olympic flag, the hosting country's flag and Greece's flag. How perfectly beautiful it is to see the American flag and the Greek flag either side of the Olympic flag in Salt Lake city. In Athens, will there be two Greek flags? Will the Greek team enter first or just their flag and, as the host country team, enter last? I am still hunting for the Greek Olympic Team webpage. I can find the Nagano website and the 2004 website. The Baltimore Orioles, along with Major League Baseball, have stepped forward in an effort to help the Greek government field a competitive baseball team for the 2004 Olympic Games to be held in Athens. http://www.geocities.com/baseballgreece/olympic.html"}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (19:22)", "body": "Greek-American Olympic hopeful Michael Voudaris, an Emergency Medical Technician, helped save lives at Ground Zero. Now competing in the skeleton event, he had planned to memorialize 30 Greek nationals, as well as fellow EMTs and alumni from his high school, who died during the Sept. 11th attacks. (He was not allowed to do this. IOC forbade it.) SAE, the organization for Greeks abroad, has announced that the official Volunteers Application form for the Olympic and Paralympic Games ATHENS 2004 is now available electronically at the Organising Committee's website www.athens.olympic.org in Greek and English, under Volunteers. Volunteers should carefully read the guidelines, before completing the Volunteers Application. Applications must be completed only in the language of the application (only Greek or only English). The electronic form of the Application must be received electronically. Photocopies or faxes of the application are not acceptable. If you submit the Application electronically you do not need to submit it in print form. http://www.helleniccomserve.com/headlinenews.html"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (19:23)", "body": "Official website of the 2004 Athens Olympics http://www.athens.olympic.org/Page/default.asp?la=2"}, {"response": 160, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (19:25)", "body": "I always thought they used a laurel wreath. I was corrected by John who told me it was Olive. As you can see by their logo, there are little spheres between the leaves - ergo Olive it is!"}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (19:28)", "body": "This is my favorite summer Olympic event because I've participated in racing 470's. http://www.athens.olympic.org/Page/default.asp?la=2"}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (19:30)", "body": "http://www.ahepa20.org/events/greek_bobsleigh_team.htm"}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (19:33)", "body": ""}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (19:39)", "body": "If I had only known, I could have been part of their Olympic Bobsleigh team's sled. *sigh* I will look for further opportunities to do this. It is amazing. I recall their showing the sled with the beautiful blue on which were laminated all of the supporting photographs. http://www.olympicdream.net/Events_schedule.htm"}, {"response": 165, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (21:45)", "body": "WHO DESIGNED THE WORLD'S LARGEST UNFOLDING STRUCTURE, THE ARCHED CURTAIN FOR THE OLYMPIC MEDALS PLAZA? Chuck Hoberman, world renowned inventor and toy designer, and trained as both a sculptor and engineer, was commis- sioned to design the Hoberman Arch, a semi-circular, web- like structure of aluminum backed with translucent panels that can be illuminated. It geometrically retracts in shape and size, its 96 panels, each with three-pinned joints, spiralling outward and upward in a radial motion to form a 6-foot-thick semi-circular ring. Hoberman is said to be fascinated with nature's moving parts, like the iris of the eye, and sees how small elements work to develop a bigger whole. WHAT ARE SOME TECHNICAL DETAILS ABOUT THE HOBERMAN ARCH? The Hoberman Arch spans 72 feet in diameter and stands 36 feet tall. There are more than 4,000 individually machined pieces in the Arch. It is held together by 13,000 rivets, and is powered by two 30-horsepower motors controlling eight separate cables. The moveable elements weight 15,000 pounds. HOW SMALL IS THE WORLD'S SMALLEST GUITAR? The world's smallest guitar is 10 micrometers long--about the size of a single cell--with six strings each about 50 nano- meters, or 100 atoms, wide. It was made by Cornell University researchers from crystalline silicon, and demonstrates a new technology for a new generation of electromechanical devices. WHY DID THE FIRST FEMALE AMERICAN TO WIN AN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL NOT REALIZE SHE HAD WON? The 1900 Olympics in Paris were so poorly organized that many contestants did not realize they were participating in Olympic games. Part of the problem was because other sporting events were held in connection with the Olympics, and the 1900 games extended over a period of six months, unlike other Olympics where the games occurred over a shorter period. This caused much confusion. American art student Margaret Abbott entered a nine-hole \"International Ladies' Golf Tournament\" on a lark and won, though nothing she saw identified the tournament as an Olympic event. It wasn't until two decades after she died that historians identified her as the first female American \"gold\" medalist."}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 24, 2002 (14:52)", "body": "Olympic Hopeful? From my Alma Mater: MINNEAPOLIS -- Penn State pole vaulter Kevin Dare died Saturday after landing on his head during the Big Ten indoor championships. Dare was a sophomore from State College, Pa., with several years' experience in the often-dangerous sport. Another vaulter was killed in a similar accident in the 1993 Sioux City, Iowa, relays. \"It's always in the back of your mind that you can get hurt pole vaulting,\" said Michigan State's Paul Terek, the No. 6 vaulter in the nation. \"But you bury it deep in the back of your mind, even though 100 out of 100 pole vaulters have had some kind of accident in their careers. You just bury it, but it's been unearthed now, though.\" more... http://www.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/2002/0223/1339701.html"}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 24, 2002 (22:03)", "body": "SALT LAKE CITY WINTER OLYMPICS-VERY INTENSE GREEK PRESENCE. (Cultural, Scientific & General News Category) February 2002: The 2002 Winter Olympics started on February 8th in Salt Lake City, USA. During his stay in Utah's capital the Greek Minister for the Culture inaugurated the Greek stand which is situated in Salt Lake City downtown and in which is displayed audiovisual material presenting the 2004 Athens Summer Games preparation and inform the audience about the targets of the Cultural Olympics. The Minister had also proceeded in the unveiling of a Prometheus statue during a symbolic ceremony organized by Greek-Americans. The Minister for the Culture together with the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs attended a Greek oriented exhibit where they were presented the works of the Greek painter Mina Valyrakis who was voted as the 'Sport Artist of the Year' by the American Sports Federation and of the Greek-American Euripides Kastaris, an artist connecting the Olympic ideal with the 2002 and 2004 Games. On the other hand, the Greek Minister for the Culture had an appointment with t! he president of the Peking 2008 Organizing Committee and discussed the future cooperation between Greece and China concerning the cultural dimension of the Olympics. The Chinese part was very interested about the philosophy of the 2001-2004 Cultural Olympics. In this direction, the president of the Peking 2008 Organizing Committee indicated Greece's knowledge and experience on Cultural Olympics and expressed the willingness of China to be helped by Greece in the organization of cultural exhibits. During the meeting was decided the sign of a protocol of cooperation concerning the Cultural Olympics. *********************************************************************"}, {"response": 168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 25, 2002 (12:39)", "body": "The Athens Summer Olympics coverage is now at the Sports Conference Topic 58 http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/sports/58/new"}, {"response": 169, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 25, 2002 (19:34)", "body": "Marcia, I agree with many of your observations about the recently concluded Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games. Concerning figure skating, you are absolutely right, it is no longer a sport. In fact, by removing the required skill elements; i.e., school figures, it is no longer even figure skating. Perhaps they should change the name now that true figure skating no longer exists. What they, especially the women, do now are some cheesy Las Vegas review numbers in gauche and gaudy costumes. As for the judging the rules are positively arcane. No one understands them. They have some bizarre thing involving ordinals. An example would be if Kwan had only lost the free skate to Hughes she would have still taken the gold medal, despite her fall in her free skate. However, since she placed after Slutskaya as well as Hughes, she, instead, took the bronze medal. I don't understand that, at all. Using ladies figure skaking as an illustration again. The last year that school figures were in the Winter Games was at Calga y in 1988. The winner of the ladies figure skating gold medal in that Olympic Games was Katerina Witt. What is interesting is that Witt only placed first in compulsory (school) figures. She finished second in both the short free-style program and the long free-style program. She was the gold medalist because she had the highest number of points at the end of the competion. It was a fairer system, more in keeping with athletics. Like you, I would be happy to be rid of them. While I'm venting on figure skating, let me expound on those annoying Canadian whiners who were, and in my mind, still are the silver medalists. They skated a technically easier and less \"artistic\" program than the Russians. This was also compounded by the fact that they had nowhere near the Russians' unison. Still, since the Russian pair had one of it's members land with slight mis-step, they Canadians were whining like babies that they skated a \"perfect\" program. Well, they had no mistakes in their boring, safe, and not particularly difficult program. They set they example of aim at the middle, be safe, and if you don't get what you want whine until you do. They disgust me. Lastly, the American network NBC's coverage was god-awful. It was so chauvinistic as to make me embarassed. They were only interested in competions in which Americans had a chance at medaling. They gave very little note to athletes who were not, at least, North American. It was shameless boosterism coupled with amaturish commentary. NBC needs to understand that the Olympics are an international sporting festival. Much of the joy of them is derived from seeing and learning about the great international stars. I'll stop grumbling now."}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 25, 2002 (20:54)", "body": "Yes Yes Yes, Cheryl. No school figures, no examining edges has turned it into entertainment but not a sport. Get rid of it. People who winge made me very biased against them. If I did not care about the medals to start with, they surely got my bias against them by their attitude (hers, mostly.) I agree totally that the Russian team won the gold medals hands down with skill level and technical difficulty. It is very sad. NBC was so appalling at the Sydney Olympics I listened to short wave and avoided the televised programming totally. I even wrote to Australia Broadcasting to thank them for their excellent coverage - and they read my letter on the air! This time AGAIN, NBC talked OVER the Olympic Anthem ! That did it for me. It was down hill all the rest of the way. Worst of all, they will be the only way I will have to see Athens. *sigh* Perhaps rental of a satellite dish might be worthwhile for that ! *joining you on your soapbox*"}, {"response": 171, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (01:31)", "body": "Hi, Olympic games are really an international sporting festival in our days, but not only. An entire economic circuit functions simultaneously with aim the profit. They does not exist chaste ideals for distribution now. Ancient Olympic games were also an international sporting festival. But they existed ideals and messages for athletes and for Spectators (like \ufffd\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd = VERACIOUSLY CONTEST ). The more important fact was that the wars they stopped at the duration of the Olympic games. They participated also there, athletes from belligerent countries and were absolutely respectable. The ancient Olympic games were a message of peace and modesty. John"}, {"response": 172, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (14:59)", "body": "i work with someone who plans to petition NBC to never do the Olympics coverage again! but they had to do something to make lots of money or else they couldn't pay the $1M/show salary for each of the members of Friends!!"}, {"response": 173, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (15:00)", "body": "i agree with the whining. although a guy i work with was there with his wife. they both thought there was something screwy about the judging and that the canadians did a better program. i don't know because i didn't see it."}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (15:03)", "body": "*Sigh* That is why I posted the Olympic Truce twice here. I though it important enough to remind people exactly what the Olympics represented. It is enough that you have made the team and can participate in the events. All who attend are already winners. I am an idealist enough to wish they would return to this ideal. Like the man from Camaroon - the sole competitor from his country. He came in last in his event, but he was every bit as delighted to have participated as the gold medal winner. THAT was what it is all about. Participation, blending all cultures and ethnicities into one human population striving to do their best, rejoicing in the pacticipation rather than the outcome. Doing one's best for the glory of sport and fellowship. When money enters the equation it spoils everything. This year each medal came with a monitary award. I am far too idealistic for this world as it is now. Still, I cling to the Olympic ideal and pray each time that the goodness in mankind will rise to the challenge."}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (15:07)", "body": "There is definitley something terribly wrong with the subjective judging. Publicity and pressure from both inside the IOC and from the public at large made them rethink their methods and to make changes. NBC is horrid. ABC with Jim McKay was always respectful and unintrusive. How sad they have the games until 2008. I think it is a fact of life that they paid billions do get them and they will not be moved by any outcries or protests."}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (15:20)", "body": "With our current weather, perhaps Hilo should place a bid for a future Winter Olympics. We have more snow that Lake Placid or Toronto!"}, {"response": 177, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (19:20)", "body": "Wolfie, your point is well taken concerning your co-worker. Therein also lies much of the problem concerning the current sorry state of figure skating at the Olympics. Without school figures it very often comes down to a matter of personal taste at best, political one-upsmanship at worst. I think that seeing the two respective performances on television allowed me to be more objective than actually being there and being influenced by the crowd. My family used to produce rabid figure skating fans. They could really delve into the fine points of the sport. Unfortunately, nobody could really skate worth beans in my family, but I digress. The Canadians may have been more crowd pleasing; but it was largely a North American crowd. Thus, more likely to be disposed toward them. Their program was more \"show biz\" than that of the Russians. That does not make it a better program in terms of competition. The Russian pair skated a program of high technical difficulty in contrast to the Candadian pair's level of mediocre difficulty. The Russians skated with more speed and unison, as well. In terms of what makes a great team of pairs skaters in the sport of figure skating the Russians were the far better example. It is a shame that the Russian pair had to have their victory and ability cast into doubt by a shoddy judging system. Marcia is right the whole thing is a mess and they should drop figure skating from the Olympics as it can no longer be taken seriously as a sport. As for my family who used to adore figure skating. Essentially most of us couldn't possibly care less about the joke it's become."}, {"response": 178, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (19:25)", "body": "John, you made wonderfully astute and valid points about the Olympic Games both past and present. Perhaps someday they will attain their full potential. Marcia, I grew up watching the Olympics on ABC with Jim McKay. I loved them and miss the respect and, yes, warmth that they brought to their coverage. Oh and congratulations Marcia on having your letter to Australian broadcasters of the Sydney Games read on the air."}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (19:27)", "body": "PRAISE BE! I am not banned from Drool . Spring's happy family continues to be just that. I am still having problems with FTP despite terry's phone call. All's cool on the homefront, Terry!"}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (19:31)", "body": "Terry. FTP WORKS!!! Many thanks!!!"}, {"response": 181, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (19:53)", "body": "i love figure skating because of the difficulty of their maneuvers as well as integrating the \"show biz\" portion into it. i thought a well-performed routine combined them both. because it came on so late on the West Coast, i missed the whole program. i agree that if you set a rule, those rules should be followed to a 'T' and subjectivity should be kept to a minimum. i'm so glad you have ftp again marcia! (i haven't emailed the details yet) cheryl, thanks for voicing your opinions--i am in agreement and believe the games should be Good Will and not some kind of contest as they were originally developed!"}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (22:22)", "body": "Wolfie, thanks for bringing up the Good Will games (possibly unconsciously) because of the way they have developed (I promise not to mention Ms Fonda-Turner is you do, also.) I consider them preparation for the Athens Olympics. Ok Now I will post the logos from my space on the hard drive."}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (22:23)", "body": "well, I managed to remove the background. Now I need to remove the left upright margin of the original. FTP is a GOOD thing!"}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (22:24)", "body": "so is having the rings without background"}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (22:25)", "body": "*Test*"}, {"response": 186, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Feb 27, 2002 (07:56)", "body": "Can I speak with this image? Also, put on the sound of your computer and Special construction for all of you in Spring. It is dedicated to all Geo visitors too. John"}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 27, 2002 (13:07)", "body": "John, Your little floor element of gymnastics gifs are wonderful. Here we call that mounting the floow and first (element) run - usually a set of flips and summersaults from one corner to the opposite diagonal corner. Your dove is lovely, and belongs at all venues to remind the participants and their judges of what it is really all about. A music button that pushed itself?? How wonderful of it to play Zorba for us. *Hugs* for making our days so much better for your having been here. Onward to creating our best not as a competition, but as an offering to our readers. Kudos, John."}, {"response": 188, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 27, 2002 (18:14)", "body": "i don't want to talk about Ms F-T so i promise not to as well! and john, your graphics spoke volumes (as well as zorba)."}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 27, 2002 (18:34)", "body": "Does this little excursion in the painful humor of teaching in the US appertain to the rest of the world? A History of Teaching Math Teaching Math in 1950: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit? Teaching Math in 1960: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit? Teaching Math in 1970: A logger exchanges a set \"L\" of lumber for a set \"M\" of money. The cardinality of set \"M\" is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set \"M.\" The set \"C\", the cost of production contains 20 fewer points than set \"M.\" Represent the set \"C\" as a subset of set \"M\" and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set \"P\" of profits? Teaching Math in 1980: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20. Teaching Math in 1990: By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers. Teaching Match in 2000: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $120. How does Arthur Andersen determine that his profit margin is $60?"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 27, 2002 (18:35)", "body": "I want to see John doing his handsprings. I know how happy being able to FTP again made him. Me too!"}, {"response": 191, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (17:01)", "body": "John, thank you so much for the beautiful Olympic graphic complete with music."}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (17:40)", "body": "I am so excited to see Greek gymnastics with a great coach worthy of their heritage. Perhaps NBC will finally televise a Greek athlete or two *sigh*"}, {"response": 193, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Mar  3, 2002 (05:42)", "body": "Hi Wolfie, Cheryl, and Marcia, I try to give you something different than simple words here. We can use different ways to express what we have to say. We can find beauty everywhere. We need a simple eyebeam and desire only. John"}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  3, 2002 (14:45)", "body": "*Hugs* John. My delight is in sharing all things with you. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as we say. YOU are beautiful and Geo is honored to have your wisdom and perspective. *strewing rosepetals in your path*"}, {"response": 195, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (23:16)", "body": "From a Geonian who wants to remain anonymous, this truism\" THE TRUTH IN 13 WORDS... Inside every older person is a younger person - wondering what the heck happened...."}, {"response": 196, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Mar  9, 2002 (15:15)", "body": "I would say, \"We are a live library, which is travelling in the time. Our memories are a special window via of which we can see back in time and space. The most of the times it is not agreeable because we easily remember bad situations rather than agreeable moments\" John"}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  9, 2002 (15:25)", "body": "You are brilliant in your philosophy and observation of human nature, John. I am as guilty of this as is anyone, especially in the unfortunate manner is which I find my life. That is why I find more agreeable minds here than in my real life. We make choices and they are not always the best ones in retrospect. I choose to look to what is possible from now on to make my life better, to excite my curiousity, and to give me things to make me happy to wake up in the morning. Thank you for being part of that joy and anticipation."}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  9, 2002 (18:55)", "body": "Since the Orthodox Church uses a different calendar from the one we use in the West, they are just now having their pre-Lenten festivities: Carnival Time in Greece Guide picks Patras, Xanthi, and other cities in Greece go all out for the pre-Lent festival known elsewhere as Mardi Gras. Join in the fun! Carnival in Corfu Ancient and unique customs survive in the Corfiot carnival. Patras - General Info A look at this lovely city, plus a bit on the Carnival. Ragoutsaria This early celebration (January 6-8th) has many elements of Carnival, but also unique traditions dating back to the ancient Dionysian festivals of winter. Xanthi - Burning of the Tzaros Closing ceremony for the Carnival. Xanthi Carnival - 1999 Program Listing of cultural events held in conjuntion with carnival season. Check back for 2000 info. Xanthi Carnival - History Founded in 1966, the Carnival was a success from the start. Quick look, a few vintage photos. Xanthi Carnival - Mayor's Message Closing speech of the carnival, plus some photos. Xanthi Carnival Greek-only info on this untouristy Carnival. all links are hot at the website below http://gogreece.about.com/cs/carnivaltime/"}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  9, 2002 (19:06)", "body": "For John, who cannot attend this year, a big hug of sympathy and many more years of Carnival in Patras for you! http://gogreece.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.proskopos.com%2Fpatra_en.html (I think it is like New Orleans is for Mardi Gras for the US.) Finally, the Carnival of Patras is an internationally famous event as well as a milestone in the city's life. It is carried out every year at the end of February or beginning of March (movable feast). Tenths of thousands of Patras' people -and not only- join each year the carnival groups (consisting of 150-300 persons) and with their own costumes participate in the various contests of the Treasure Hunt as well as in the parades. Groups and all kinds of Organizations and Associations organize their traditional \"Costume Dances\" in various night clubs and private halls. Highlights include the Night \"On-Foot\" Parade on the last Saturday and the Grand Parade on Carnival's last Sunday, when the whole city surrenders to a frantic continuous dance."}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  9, 2002 (19:07)", "body": "The Municipality of Patras, official sponsor of Patras' Carnival, keeps a discrete eye on the events and, along with the Carnival Committee, looks after the participants' safety at the same time it grades the quality of appearance of the groups. The Municipality as well takes part in the celebrations as it organizes the famous \"Mbourmboulia\", adult dances, at the Municipal Theater \"Apollon\"."}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  9, 2002 (19:16)", "body": "Back to hunting for Birhday decorations. John's celebration is on Shrove Tuesday this year - according to the Orthodox Calendar. =)"}, {"response": 202, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (02:51)", "body": "I have a correction. We have the Shrove Monday just after last carnival Sunday. So this Tuesday is not Shrove Tuesday. It is the next. (Shrove Tuesday it means clean Tuesday or fasting Tuesday for us in Greece) The fact that you remember my birthday is the best decoration. But, is someone, which can be glad because he becomes older? It is better to celebrate the fact that we are alive until this day and between good friends too. John"}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (16:27)", "body": "That is what it supposedly is in the western church but it is the day we eat everything we cannot eat for the next 40 days of Lent. We celebrate the fact that you were conceived and born into the world so we might come to know and to love you, john! Aging is not something I think about. Rather, I consider a birthday the celebration of your life during which I also give flowers dedicated to your mother. Rejoice and join us in celebrating John who is amongst us and has enriched our lives with his presence. I am busy gathering flowers for you and in your mother's memory."}, {"response": 204, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (20:48)", "body": "For those who can get the Arts and Entertainment channel on TV, look for the hour each day when they broadcast the Paralympics from Salt Lake City. Congratulations to New Zeland for winning the women's downhill (skiing) and to the US who won their Sledge hockey game against Canada. Too day they are not more publicised or better covered. This is even more wonderful than the others were. Each person paricipating has some horrific tale of survival to tell, and their overcoming the obstacles life has given them is truly inspiring. Give it a look! http://www.paralympics2002.com/"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 11, 2002 (14:33)", "body": "HAUOLI NA HANAU, KEONI Mauna Loa Lei Handcrafted from 250 Vanda Orchid centers"}, {"response": 206, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 11, 2002 (18:08)", "body": "that is very pretty!!!"}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 11, 2002 (19:46)", "body": "In Hawaii, even the men wear flowers - even in their hair or behind their ears. No one dares call Polynesian men sissies. They are strong and built solidly and massively. Flowers actually look very good on men. More to come... =)"}, {"response": 208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 11, 2002 (20:08)", "body": "FOR JOHN FROM GEO"}, {"response": 209, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 11, 2002 (21:55)", "body": "it's tomorrow greece time isn't it? marcia, i've seen two samoan men here in my tiny adventures, and they were giants--it was like david looking at goliath."}, {"response": 210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 11, 2002 (23:10)", "body": "Samoans fear nothing on earth except for other Samoans! You're right. They are giants. We have a large percentage of Samoans at UHH and when their students graduate, they all come and sing and dance for the entire audience. It is spine-tingling in the nicest meaning of the word. They also do it for student athletes after they play their last collegiate game. That is totally magical. Everyone is totally transfixed. IT IS THE 12TH OF MARCH IN GREECE."}, {"response": 211, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 12, 2002 (10:49)", "body": "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"}, {"response": 212, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 12, 2002 (10:49)", "body": "that was really supposed to be a whole lot bigger.....like this: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!!!!!!!!!!"}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 12, 2002 (14:13)", "body": ""}, {"response": 214, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 12, 2002 (15:54)", "body": "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN, from Wolfie"}, {"response": 215, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 12, 2002 (18:51)", "body": "thanks marcia for posting it for me!!!!"}, {"response": 216, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 12, 2002 (18:51)", "body": "oh no, now the bold is taking over"}, {"response": 217, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 12, 2002 (19:29)", "body": "eeek!!"}, {"response": 218, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 12, 2002 (19:30)", "body": "*whew* I must have missed a closing tag when I did yours - John will be amused!"}, {"response": 219, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Mar 12, 2002 (23:55)", "body": "This is Great honour for a simple sensitive man. This is the first time where one day it had 36 hours!!!! My international birthday! It started normally in Greece and ends in Hawaii 12 hours after my midnight. Thank you Marcia Thank you Wolfie THANK YOU GEO Deeply of my heart. John"}, {"response": 220, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 13, 2002 (00:20)", "body": "Wow! I never thought about 36 hour birthdays! You are right.... how wonderful. Now, if only you had managed to come around the world backward you could have repeated the entire 36 hour day as you crossed the international dateline."}, {"response": 221, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 13, 2002 (17:56)", "body": "wow, 36 hours of celebrating!! how lucky you are!!!!!!!"}, {"response": 222, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (15:45)", "body": "...and how luck we are for being able to be the celebrants!"}, {"response": 223, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (19:23)", "body": "John, I missed your birthday and posted your birthday wishes at the wrong conference. So, I'll try again. Sorry for being late. Happy Birthday, John!"}, {"response": 224, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (20:20)", "body": "John figured it was already a 36 hour celebration - so I extended the event for the rest of the month. Watch him turn Irish on Monday!"}, {"response": 225, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 15, 2002 (18:00)", "body": "*laugh*"}, {"response": 226, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Mar 16, 2002 (17:57)", "body": "It\ufffds all right Cheryl. Thank for your wishes. Thanks to Geo and the two opposite sides of Earth, a celebration day can hold out 36 hours. It is normal if you have good friends at the both sides. I feel great honor that I am member in Geo between very god friends from USA, New Zealand and around the world. Especially, I must thanks Marcia that is the great in waiting hostess, Wolfie, Rob and all Geo members. It is great honor for me. John"}, {"response": 227, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Mar 16, 2002 (18:01)", "body": "I have some news about our earthquake prediction research. In the ALPHA TV (Greek channel) exists a 3-hours airing every Thursday night. This airing presents everything that is or sounds strange in Greek political and social life. Its name is JUNGLE. The airing of last Thursday was dedicated to our earthquake prediction research. Dr. Thanassoulas described thoroughly our method. At the discussion that followed were heard only positive scientific opinions and no one negative. Seismologists, they had nothing to say. My participation was by telephone. We gave the lie to rumors for an oncoming big EQ at the Northwest Greece during this airing. Tele-view of this airing was very much high. Afterwards this airing, I had two TV reporters of different TV channels in my house on Friday morning. I gave also three live talk shows for radio stations. Also, I was sitting in an airing of one hour talk show in ASTRA TV and in the Evening News of TRT TV that are channels of central Greece. Finally, I have to say two things. One: It is much difficult if you become the day person suddenly. Two: I hope that Greek government or someone else can help us to install and operate at least two additional stations in Greece. John"}, {"response": 228, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (12:01)", "body": "*woohoo* they're standing up and taking notice, john!!"}, {"response": 229, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (13:23)", "body": "John is famous in Greece! He did not tell you his website had many hits after the program. It is better than the Neilson Ratings we have! He will soon outgrow Geo's humble surroundings, I fear. My Congratulations for this long overdue publicity and all honors. No one has said anything negative !!!"}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (13:51)", "body": "Happy St Patrick's Day"}, {"response": 231, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (20:22)", "body": "erin go braugh!"}, {"response": 232, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (22:19)", "body": "Forecver - yes, if they stop finding ways and reasons for killing each other. I think they are gonna make it, after all! Dhia duit!"}, {"response": 233, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (22:22)", "body": "May there always be work for your hands to do; May your purse always hold a coin or two; May the sun always shine on your windowpane; May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain; May the hand of a friend always be near you; May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you. Thanks, Meredith! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 234, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (22:25)", "body": "Visitors flood Patras for annual carnival 16/03/2002 20:14:21 Thousands of visitors poured into Patras in summer-like weather on Saturday for the start of the western port city's annual carnival, the largest in Greece. The carnival peaks on Sunday with a major parade through the city centre, this year featuring Poseidon, the sea god of ancient Greek mythology. Hoteliers reported that hotels were filled to capacity."}, {"response": 235, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (22:32)", "body": "I understand that the childish depravity of New Orleans Mardi Gras and the Rio Carbivale has not yet gotten to Greece. Too much of the wrong stuff to drink, I would suppose, but not the naked debauchery for which I am at a loss to explain. Where ARE their parents?!"}, {"response": 236, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (19:20)", "body": "For John who is the only one on Geo who can actually pronounce this wishes: 'Kala Koulouma':Clean Monday and 'Kali Sarakosti', the fourty day period before Greek Orthodox Easter"}, {"response": 237, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 19, 2002 (00:54)", "body": "It is still Monday in Hawaii so I can post this but cannot see well enough in the dark to participate in the festivites. Clean Monday or Katheri Deftera 40 days before Easter, marks the first day of lent and it is customary to go out in the country and fly paper kites."}, {"response": 238, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 19, 2002 (01:01)", "body": "Greeks celebrate end of carnival, start of Lent 18/03/2002 18:18:02 Thousands of Athenians on Monday climbed Philopappou Hill near the Acropolis to celebrate the start of Lent with traditional delicacies and music. Leading the annual municipally-arranged event was Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos. Children around Greece flew kites, another tradition that marks the end of the annual carnival season and the beginning of Lent, leading to Greek Orthodox Easter, which falls early in May this year. In the capital for celebrations were the leader of the Coalition of the Left and Progress, Nikos Constantopoulos; and the head of the Communist Party of Greece, Aleka Papariga. President of the Republic Costis Stephanopoulos spent the holiday in Rio, Achaia; Prime Minister Costas Simitis in Aghii Theodori, Attica; and the leader of the main opposition New Democracy party, Kostas Karamanlis, on the island of Evia. On Saturday, thousands of visitors had poured into Patras in summer-like weather for the start of the western port city's annual carnival, the largest in Greece. The carnival peaked on Sunday with a five kilometre long parade through the city centre, this year featuring Poseidon, the sea god of ancient Greek mythology, as the carnival's traditional King of Laughter, whose effigy is burnt at the end of the event. The theme of the parade was the Mediterranean. The carnival also includes a treasure hunt, enjoyed this year by about 35,000 children wearing masks and costumes. Hoteliers reported that hotels in Patras were filled to capacity. http://www.hri.org/news/greek/apeen/2002/02-03-18.apeen.html"}, {"response": 239, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Mar 20, 2002 (10:33)", "body": ""}, {"response": 240, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (13:46)", "body": "This is for Marcia This is for Rob John"}, {"response": 241, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (14:10)", "body": "Thank you, John. This one is for you. (We have missed you!) I wonder if we might be able to put smaller icons like these on the Front Page of Geo..."}, {"response": 242, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (14:13)", "body": "For John and for the metrically challenged, I think seeing your weather in bothe metric and \"American\" might be more meaningful:"}, {"response": 243, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (15:31)", "body": "With the mention of the vernal equinox this week, it seems we have been very Northern Hemisphere-centric. We forgot about Rob in New Zealand, where it was the autumnal equinox. Happy Belated Autumnal Equinox, Rob!"}, {"response": 244, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (17:14)", "body": "You're right! He says Autumn becan two weeks ago for them - the first winter storm. That is how I known when seasons change in Hawaii. The onset of summer is more difficult to discern!"}, {"response": 245, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (17:42)", "body": "HOW IS THE DATE FOR EASTER DETERMINED EACH YEAR? There are two different formulas for Easter, since there are two Easters, in most years. The basic formula is: the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (March 20, the first day of spring). This year, the holiday falls on March 31. (It can occur any time between March 22 and April 25.) But there is another formula. In the Eastern Orthodox religion, the formula is: the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox after Jewish Passover. That is why the two Easters rarely coincide."}, {"response": 246, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (18:09)", "body": "hey, where's mine? *laugh* (where can i get one?--dunno if i can ftp yet either)"}, {"response": 247, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (18:10)", "body": "(and i'm glad i'm not keeping track of two easters! just knowing when lent starts and ends is enough for me)"}, {"response": 248, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (18:36)", "body": "I'm Looking Sweetie! That last calendar explanation was the easiest for me to understand. 18 days after ours. I wonder if that goes for all things or if Greece keeps two calendars. John, we need you!"}, {"response": 249, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (18:42)", "body": "Wolfie, check here http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KCASANPE1"}, {"response": 250, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (18:44)", "body": "I wish there was one for Volos somewhere. I'm still hunting!"}, {"response": 251, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (18:55)", "body": ""}, {"response": 252, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (19:58)", "body": "I think I have found a dinasour tooth? I don't know anything about Archaeology Can anyone help."}, {"response": 253, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 22, 2002 (22:14)", "body": "Maharaja, I know several personal contacts I can ask for you, or you may join this group and ask them. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/geofossils/ That Geo'fossils is both friendly and full of knowledgable people who would be happy to help you. I suggest you submit a picture - can you arrange to have a digital photo taken of it? If you email it to me, I can post it both here (Geo 7 which is my paleontology topic) and in Geo'fossils. Good luck! Most importantly Aloha and welcome to Geo!"}, {"response": 254, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (00:24)", "body": "Larissa is closer than is Athens - for John"}, {"response": 255, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (19:49)", "body": "~*~ Independence Day In Greece - March 25th ~*~ Traveling in Greece this week? You're fortunate - Independence Day on Saturday, March 25th, will fill the streets with parades and celebrations, both secular and sacred. In Athens, military parades will vie with church celebrations, keeping the streets both busy and sometimes blocked. In 1821, Greeks vigorously rose up against the oppressive Ottoman Empire which had occupied Greece for nearly four hundred years, embarking on the ultimately successful war of independence. Bishop Germanos of Patras boldly raised the Greek flag at the monastery of Agia Lavras, inciting the Peloponnese to rise against the oppressors. On this day in the Orthodox calendar, the archangel Gabriel appeared to the maiden Mary and announced the news : she was pregnant with the divine child. Bishop Germanos chose this day to deliver a different but not unrelated message: a new spirit was about to be born in Greece. The churches celebrate the Festival of the Annunciation with pomp, ceremony, and joy. The spectacle is especially vivid on the islands of Tinos and Idra (Hydra). Hydra, a maritime merchant power with a swift, well-maintained fleet, was a determined and effective supporter of the War for Independence, doubling the celebration there. You can also expect colorful religious ceremonies wherever the local monastery or church is named \"Evangelisimos\" or \"Evangelistria\", such as Panagia Evangelistria on Tinos. Travelers who don't throw themselves into the spirit of the day may be frustrated with delays, unexpected closures, and a general lack of attentiveness by the Greeks, who are busy with the dual holiday. Greek Independence Day is also celebrated by many of the Greeks of the diaspora, and large parades are becoming more common in United States cities where Greeks have made their homes, including Boston and New York City. Each year, the U.S. President marks the occasion with a proclamation reminding citizens of the contributions of Greece to democracy, and of the ongoing contributions of expatriate Greeks in their new communities throughout the world. http://gogreece.about.com/library/weekly/aa032400a.htm"}, {"response": 256, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (20:55)", "body": "Thanks for your advice to contact geofossils. I will do that. I will try to send a digital picture of it to you too. Actually I had seen a program on the Discovery channel and they showed a dinosaur's tooth, it resembled the one I had found that's why I became 90% sure that it was a dinosaur's tooth. Best Regards. TheMaharaja"}, {"response": 257, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (21:02)", "body": "The source of the above information and a lot more about Greek Independence: http://www3.sympatico.ca/bourdeka/25March.htm"}, {"response": 258, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (21:05)", "body": "Maharaja, Fatastic news. I'll also do some hunting for you and post it on Geo 7 which is my Paleo topic. Both are essentially picking the same worthy brains for information. I'm delighted you have fossils to find. My island is so new all we find is yesterday's buried lava flow and a new black sand beach."}, {"response": 259, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (22:26)", "body": "Since the Mailto links no longer work here on the topics, Use the one on Geo/all to find my email address is marci@aloha.net . Sorry for not making that clear, Maharajah, sir!"}, {"response": 260, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (22:26)", "body": "NOW they work!!!"}, {"response": 261, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (10:13)", "body": "Welcome Maharaja. Warm regards from Greece John"}, {"response": 262, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (14:43)", "body": "Greetings to the Maharaja! Marcia, I did know that Orthodox Easter had to fall after the Jewish Passover. I didn't really know that the Vernal Equinox or full moons had much to do with Orthodox Easter. I thought that was for \"Western\" Easter. Easter still retains some of its pagan origins. The name has been suggested to be a variant of that of the Babylonian goddess, Istar. She was Inanna to the Summerians and in the \"Epic of Gilgamesh\" was remarked as having sexual liasions with \"gods, men, and animals\". There are also supposed to have been the influences of European fertility goddesses in the celebration of Easter. Things like rabbits and eggs. As far a fertility goes, rabbits breed like, well, rabbits. As for eggs, their link to fertility is pretty evident. Marcia, do you know if there was there ever an ancient European fertility goddess with the name of Estore, or something similar. I think I read somewhere that the name \"Easter\" came from her name or festival."}, {"response": 263, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (23:11)", "body": "Cypriots mull giant offshore Aphrodite The government of Cyprus is seriously considering a proposal to build a colossal statue of Aphrodite balancing on a scallop shell off the island\ufffds southwestern coast, in an attempt to attract more tourists, reports said yesterday The 50-million-dollar project is the brainchild of one Xanthos Menelaou, a London-based Cypriot architect, who was inspired by Sandro Botticelli\ufffds 15th-century painting of the ancient goddess of love being wafted ashore by the winds. According to Greek myth, Aphrodite was born in the sea and first set foot on land at Paphos, on western Cyprus. Cypriot Tourism Minister Nikos Rolandis was impressed. \ufffdEgypt has the Pyramids, London has the Tower, New York has the Statue of Liberty,\ufffd he said. \ufffdI believe Cyprus needs an identity, and that should be Aphrodite... It will be a very imposing thing.\ufffd Menelaou said Cyprus needs to be \ufffdupgraded as a product.\ufffd \ufffdRomantic things like sea and sand don\ufffdt work any more.\ufffd The Cypriot Cabinet will discuss the idea on April 3. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_357385_23/03/2002_14707"}, {"response": 264, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (23:19)", "body": "OEstre the fertility goddess of the Celts also took the form of a rabbit on occasion (their fertility is legendary) thus we have the OEstre bunny. How Ishtar got in on it is a recent development. I did my research in the early 80's and it was already well known in books written at the beginning of the 20th century. I suspect that the mother goddess has many permutations and you will find her everywhere in similar names. When the Romans conquered all Gaul and Britain thereafter they got many holidays and Godesses which they transformed into Christian belilef structures. (That bit of knoweldge sent me on another year's chase looking for evidence of that fact.)"}, {"response": 265, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Mon, Mar 25, 2002 (06:33)", "body": "Thanks to John and Cheryl for welcoming me The Maharaja. I am enjoying reading some very intellectual discussions going on on this site. Marcia I will send you an email on your given email address and tell you more about my finds. Yes, there is more. My nick \"The Maharaja\" also has a story. It was given to me by my students. I am an English Language teacher. Best regards to all. The Maharaja"}, {"response": 266, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 25, 2002 (14:51)", "body": "You will have had an email from me by now. I think your students have judged you well, and we welcome your input to Geo's topics. Even English majors can inject science in to what they are teaching, and you just might influence some of your students to expand their horizons. Share you find and let them know there are good people on the internet looking for answers for you and for them. I know - my major was English albeit, with a technical slant. Welcome and Aloha again, Maharaja."}, {"response": 267, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 25, 2002 (16:43)", "body": "Thanks Marcia for the information on OEstre and OEstre as a rabbit. The Easter Bunny is female!"}, {"response": 268, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 25, 2002 (19:06)", "body": "Take a dose of Estrogen for Easter. Seems lots of things were named for her!"}, {"response": 269, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 25, 2002 (19:08)", "body": "Eat those soybean products, I suppose. They're full of plant estrogens. Happy Easter!"}, {"response": 270, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 25, 2002 (19:13)", "body": "The Easter Bunny is not only female, but another symbol of Oestre is the egg - ususlly pink or red - so our Lady Bunny lays eggs. I wonder how they knew?!"}, {"response": 271, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 25, 2002 (19:17)", "body": "Being in estrus. Laying eggs. How remarkable! Especially colored as they were. I wonder where the turquoise eggs came from? Male bunnies?"}, {"response": 272, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 25, 2002 (19:28)", "body": "Maybe Lady Bunny was feeling very in touch with her masculine side when she laid those turquoise eggs?"}, {"response": 273, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 25, 2002 (19:33)", "body": "*Laugh* But, of course!!! I never thought of that! I won't ask about the green ones! Dr Seuss had just amde a house call?"}, {"response": 274, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 26, 2002 (01:43)", "body": "Greece observes 1821 War of Liberation anniversary 25/03/2002 16:37:59 Nationwide celebrations marking the 181st anniversary of Greece\ufffds War of Independence culminated on Monday with the annual military parade through downtown Athens before tens of thousands of people and the country\ufffds top leadership. As in previous years, President of the Republic Kostis Stephanopoulos and the rest of Greece\ufffds political and armed forces leadership viewed the parade from grandstand in front of the country\ufffds Parliament. Stephanopoulos declined to make statements after the parade. Prime Minister Costas Simitis cited, among others, Athens\ufffd goal of leading \ufffd amid an area plagued by crises over the past decade -- regional efforts for peace, cooperation and development, all aimed at achieving the prosperity of both the Greek people and other neighbouring peoples. In his comments honoring Greek Independence Day -- March 25 -- Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis called on all forces in the country to make every possible effort towards safeguarding unity and national consensus. National Defence Minister Yiannos Papantoniou, meanwhile, offered his assurances that Greece\ufffds armed forces remain strong, reliable and effective, ready at a moment\ufffds notice to defend the country\ufffds national sovereignty and territorial integrity. March 25, 1821 is officially celebrated as the beginning of the Greek nation's War of Liberation against dour Ottoman rule. http://www.ana.gr/"}, {"response": 275, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Mar 27, 2002 (01:05)", "body": "I feel difficult with a teacher of English here. I am sure that you have bad degree for my posts The Macharaja. I am sorry for my not correct English (I know that they are Greeklish), sir. I hope that you can understand what I want to say each time. John"}, {"response": 276, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 27, 2002 (17:06)", "body": "If anyone complains, My Dear John, revert to posting in Ancient Greek and we are all going to be in great difficulty. I think TheMaharaja is much kinder than that. For someone whose English is self-taught, John, you are doing splendidly."}, {"response": 277, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 27, 2002 (18:15)", "body": "john, i have no trouble with understanding what you're saying. thank you for your eloquence and modesty *HUGS*"}, {"response": 278, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (03:18)", "body": "Can you imagine how they were clothed women and how they were adorned their face, 3800 years before, at the ancient Thera? Wall-painting of Ladies and Papyri Akrotiri, House of the Ladies. Mature Late Cycladic I period (17th century B.C.). This is from: http://culture.gr/2/21/211/21121m/e21m18c.html John"}, {"response": 279, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (04:31)", "body": "Women in Minoan Culture Images of women occur more frequently than men in the Minoan archaeological record, both on Crete and in the more recent excavations on the island of Thera. At both sites women are seen depicted in frescoes either alone or in groups. Minoan Snake Goddess from Knossos, Crete (1600 BC) (Archeological Museum, Herakleion) One of the most revealing images of the status of women in Minoan society is the so-called Toreador fresco in which young women, shown with the conventional white skin, and darker-skinned men, engage in the dangerous sport that appears to involve somersaulting over the back of a charging bull. Toreador Fresco from the East Wing of the Court of the Stone Spout, Knossos (1400 B.C.) Fresco (restored). (Archaeological Museum, Herakleion) Although it is difficult to decipher exactly what these figures are doing, the context and their proximity to the raging bull clearly denotes a game or ritual which involves bravery, agility, and skill, qualities which in any other contemporary eastern Mediterranean culture would be thought of as residing exclusively within the domain of men. That they are being demonstrated also by young women in the Minoan fresco strongly suggests that on ancient Crete women occupied a significant place in society. http://witcombe.sbc.edu/snakegoddess/minoanwomen.html tml John"}, {"response": 280, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (15:44)", "body": "It would seem that Minoan women held a status equal to, or perhaps superior to that of men. We don't really know much about their culture except that it was one of, if not, the most highly advanced of its time. Part of the problem is that no one can read Linear A; it has yet to be decyphered."}, {"response": 281, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (15:58)", "body": "how interesting! several ancient cultures depicted women as goddesses, and the more voluptuous, the better!"}, {"response": 282, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (15:59)", "body": "Linear A--how does one go about learning to decypher a cryptic language? will have to look this one up!"}, {"response": 283, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (23:02)", "body": "Liner A has not been decyphered - or am I remembering Linear B? I recall that from college archaeology courses and my reading since then. As for Minoan ladies - rather lower neckline than I am used to wearing. I suspected you might post these pictures. I wish they had been in archaeology, but I am happy to see them in any case. Thank you, John!"}, {"response": 284, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (23:03)", "body": "Wolfie, you are not learning cryptography from your boss? There is a whole school of cryptographers currently employed (and in the past, too) by all governments, I think!"}, {"response": 285, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (23:40)", "body": "oh, indeed not! have never heard of Linear A or B (since i've never taken an archaeology course). are there pictures of it somewhere? will have to do some more research on the minoan culture....my son finished up some studies on the maya (7th grade humanities) and he was very interested in that stuff--they're on to the vikings now."}, {"response": 286, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (00:43)", "body": "A rather well-padded lady once confided to me that she had been born in the wrong century when I showed her the Willendorf \"Venus\" http://witcombe.sbc.edu/willendorf/willendorfdiscovery.html Happily or unhappily I seem to match the current version of beauty. This ancient \"Venus\" is over-endowed."}, {"response": 287, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (00:46)", "body": "Wolfie, see Geo 17 for discussion of Linear A & B and the Phaistos Disc"}, {"response": 288, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (12:34)", "body": "did that, thanks sweetie... oh, and a note about venus--famous designers are now creating styles for the real women of today--styles that are scaled correctly -- a size 0 and a size 14 are the same except for the size -- instead of making tents for those of us in the plus sizes... the average american woman wears a size 14 (and a 14 is not a plus size) and i have one thing to say, ree-head, the real women of this world are getting noticed!! (marcia, no slight on you, my dear twin, you are a real woman!)"}, {"response": 289, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (00:14)", "body": "John: Marcia is absolutely right. Language is a means of communicating our thoughts and if we understand the message then we are using the appropriate language. Furthermore, I teach English to people who do not know anything about it. So, you could call me \"one-eyed teacher is TheMaharaja among the blind\". I am increasing my knowledge just by reading your exchanges. Now, I know a little about Aphrodite too, thanks to Marcia's explanation. I will now dig into my encyclopedia and learn more about it. The Maharaja"}, {"response": 290, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (12:46)", "body": "You are very kind The Macharaja. I do justice to it. Hearing that you say for \ufffdone eye teacher\ufffd, I understand that you descend to my level, as must do it a Real Teacher. You are very kind The Macharaja. I do justice to it. Hearing that you say for \ufffdone eye teacher\ufffd, I understand that you descend to my level, as must do it a Real Teacher. Ancient Greeks were adorers of beauty. They also were saying: \ufffdI am aging always learning.\ufffd It is absolutely true independently of the time I think. I really have some difficulties with my English but I am happy and I feel lucky that Geo family can understand what I try to say. In any case, I must thank you again. My best regards John"}, {"response": 291, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (12:52)", "body": "just want to break in here and say hi to the maharaja. please tell us more about yourself. john, i am an admirer of beauty and i get absolutely covered in goosebumps in the presence of it (be it nature, man-made, music, what-have-you)."}, {"response": 292, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (15:40)", "body": "Wolfie, of course you do. You are my \"twin\" after all. Please inform me as to the comments of the Blind man. Both of you seem highly intelligent and literate. English has so many permutations that it is difficult to keep up with the current jargon. Some vernacular speech means the opposite from how it appears. \"Cool\" means Hot in the sense of popularity and up-to-date. I try to stay away from using such comments lest they be interpreted incorrectly. In the land of the Blind the One-eyed Man is King! We need all the one-eyed teachers we can get if this is the case and your students are the blind!"}, {"response": 293, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (16:27)", "body": "MARCIA!!!!! have you received any of my messages???"}, {"response": 294, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (17:08)", "body": "Yes, I'll respond as soon as you sign off IM with me =)"}, {"response": 295, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (17:09)", "body": "is that a hint or what? *LAUGH*"}, {"response": 296, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (17:23)", "body": ""}, {"response": 297, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (17:25)", "body": "Now is it is time to welcome TheMaharaja to the Geo family with big warm *HUG* full of aloha and delight. You are now, part of this little family which will wecome and come to your rescue if needed. I am delighted you have found a home here! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 298, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (18:13)", "body": "Thanks Marcia, John, Curious Wolfie for having me as a family member. Curious Wolfie, I am a 54-year-young man. I was born and grew up in Karachi Pakistan. Apart from Karachi I have lived in Saudi Arabia and England for 10 years and 18 years respectively. I have always been knowledge thirsty and I like sharing it. I am married and have two daughters 24 & 20. What about you all. May I know a little more about my family members. Yes Marcia, you have given the correct proverb, I adapted it to suit my profession. The Maharaja"}, {"response": 299, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (18:57)", "body": "You're currently living in England, Maharaja?"}, {"response": 300, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (23:13)", "body": "Welcome to Geo, officially, TheMaharaja Sikander. We are delighted you have joined us. As the son of The Indus Valley, you represent the oldest known civilization. After we \"pick your brains\" (that is a compliment) about the rocks and fossils of Pakistan, I'd like you to mention anything archaeological in your vicinity. Dare I ask... do you know Sanscrit? As far as I know, the current ancient language person is John with Ancient Greek. Your age is perfect. I was afraid I would become the mother figure if I admitted to being older than forty. You are in good company, and I consider you achieving the mature state of grace as does fine wine or brandy. Your students are fortunate, indeed. Do you get to take them on field trips? We talk and respond in real time posts only when Hawaii (-10 UTC)evening matches up with the other side of the world's morning. We are a far-flung bunch, so you will find someone awake around the clock."}, {"response": 301, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  3, 2002 (23:19)", "body": "For those interested and in the far-flung corners of the British Empire (even though it be faintly as in the US members) - give you the following websites for the life and funeral of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. The House of Windsor's website: http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page1032.asp The Times of London: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/section/0,,1582,00.html My sincerest condolences to those who will miss her gracious presence and sense of humanity and humor. She was living history!"}, {"response": 302, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Thu, Apr  4, 2002 (17:37)", "body": "No Terry I live in Karachi now. I guess I used the wrong tense,I should have used the simple past. You see John, here goes the reputation of the Maharaja's English. No Marcia, I don't know any Sanskrit. I'm sure there are lots of places in Pakistan that may be of interest to archaeologists. A find was made right here in Karachi where digging was done for a commercial building. Some intellectuals tried to get the construction stopped but their efforts were no match to the money of the constructors. I will once again be taking a trip to the Khir Thar mountains on 24th of this month. I have a week off. I will try to take some photographs and send it to you all. Meanwhile, Aloha. The Maharaja"}, {"response": 303, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Apr  4, 2002 (18:51)", "body": "I'd love to see those pictures. Are you going mountain climbing? What's the altitude there?"}, {"response": 304, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr  4, 2002 (19:15)", "body": "are you safe in pakistan?"}, {"response": 305, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (16:41)", "body": "Be Safe and take many pictures. My pockets would be full of specimens when I returned. Antiquities and cities seem to go hand in hand, unhappily. The only time they find anything near London is when they are digging new foundations for yet another ugly high-rise building. And, without fail, the antiquities are hastily removed to a sterile site and the \"progress\" on the building continues. My sympathies. I have only know one person who could actually read Sanscrit. I am happy you are well-versed in English (yes, you are!) It seems to be Geo's common tongue."}, {"response": 306, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (19:00)", "body": "Marcia, I didn't mention last time that I do take my students out on field trips but they have to be away-day. Parents don't allow their daughters to go on overnight trips, nor away from Karachi and quite rightly so, because they know that many of their sons are outright perverts; they see girls as only sex-object. I still haven't had any problems with my students during the day-trips. Yes, there is an archaeologist site some 350 miles north of Karachi. It is called Mohanjo durro {pronounciation: Mo (as in no) han (as in shun) and durro (as in borrough)}. That's where they have found clues to the Indus Valley civilization. There is another smaller site some three-quarters of an hour's drive east of Karachi. There is another site in the outskirts of Karachi which most has very ancient graves. I will definitely send you pictures of my trip. Hopefully, today I will go and get the dinosaur's tooth scanned, it's my day-off. The Maharaja"}, {"response": 307, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (21:57)", "body": "The 39th annual Merrie Monarch Hula Festival is happening as I write this. Tonight is Hula Kahiko - ancient hula. Tomorrow night is Hula Awana - modern hula. Each night it starts at 6pm Hawaii standard time(-10 GMT) http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/sponsors/hulafest/"}, {"response": 308, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (22:06)", "body": "TheMaharaja, I am sorry that the current generation of students have no manners or no upbringing. This is true all over the world. Perhaps it is best that you do not have over-night field trips. I felt overly-protected when I was in college, but it was safe to walk in the darkess of night on campus without worrying about being assaulted. I truly am sorry, and I should have known this would be the case. I am delighted that you do get to take them on day trips. I can imagine it must be fascinating - or would be so for me! Mohenjo-Daro is known world wide as one of the earliest cities ever discovered. I will post more about it in Geo 17 wherein lies things archaeological. However, until you get there, try looking at this link. http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/archaeology/sites/middle_east/mohenjo_daro.html"}, {"response": 309, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (00:24)", "body": "Live video casting of the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival http://mfile.akamai.com/95/live/reflector:24015.ram Tonight lasts until midnight Hawaii time. Tomorrow night's broadcast should be the best. Watch and see what it is like about 5 miles from me."}, {"response": 310, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (11:15)", "body": "Are you going to be attending? Should we look for you in the audience?"}, {"response": 311, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (11:16)", "body": "hey, i was gonna ask that!"}, {"response": 312, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (12:13)", "body": "But I asked first? Maybe you could ask her to elaborate?"}, {"response": 313, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (14:25)", "body": "Merrie Monarch competition is held in our tennis stadium and the seats are both backless and HARD. No one local goes there if they can hslp it. Especially if it is extrememly crowded (as this is) and of great duration (6 hours tonight - at the very least.) So, from the comfort of my living room (and far more accessible bathroom facilities) I will be watching. However, I did think of being there for you to look for me as in \"Where's Waldo.\" Tonight is the beautiful costumes, the familiar Hawaiian music, and exquisite flowers freshly picked from our forests. Each dancer picks her own while chanting special thanks to the gods and godesses from whose territory they are taking them. You will also discover your computer video player will go blank from about 8-8:30 pm Hawaiian time. This is because they send the transmission back to Honolulu studios for the news. Usually it occurs at 10 pm but all times are contingent to what is happening at the Festival this weekend. A hui ho !"}, {"response": 314, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (17:16)", "body": "Sorry Terry & Wolf for not answering your querry. Yes, it can be very safe in Pakistan and highly insecure at times and places. The mountains I visit have very hospitable people living there and I have felt safe. However, people do keep warning me. Marcia, I have seen the hula dancing in some of the movies. I think it's a beautiful sight. I will visit Geo17 as soon as I have posted this. The Maharaja"}, {"response": 315, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (19:07)", "body": "At 0400 GMT you will be able to watch live from Hilo - this is the most beautiful form of Hula to the rest of the world, but it is the least authentic. That being said, please watch and enjoy. http://mfile.akamai.com/95/live/reflector:24015.ram I send you my fervent best wished and prayers for your continuing health and safety - and for that of your family. In my personal experience, Pakistan has only the kindest and most thoughtful people."}, {"response": 316, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (16:29)", "body": "For those who wish to watch the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, on the internet you can watch on C-SPAN's website http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/fullschedule.csp Or on C-SPN on your local cable April 9th beginning at 2 PM local time in England which is 0000 GMT, midnight Hawaii time tonight (I'm taping it) and 6 AM tomorrow morning on the East Coast of the US."}, {"response": 317, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (17:47)", "body": "Marcia, what time is that on the West coast?"}, {"response": 318, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (17:59)", "body": "3 AM California time. Better tape it, Esbee!"}, {"response": 319, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 21, 2002 (17:17)", "body": "Happy Earth Day - April 22"}, {"response": 320, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (02:08)", "body": "Foucault's Pendulum In honor of the Earth I post the following so you can see that we really do rotate. If you ever get the opportunity to see a Foucault Pendulum, do so by all means and spend enough time watching it until you feel the earth turning with you attached. It is really quite remarkable. http://www.calacademy.org/products/pendulum/index.html"}, {"response": 321, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (10:57)", "body": "Hi Marci I had a chance to see a Foucault pendulum while in London (I think it was at the science museum near Kensington) - neat stuff. Anyway, still alive just busy with domestic putterings (i.e. building cabinets) and occasional soldering. 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 322, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (13:56)", "body": "Yup, it is in the set of science and tech nology museums on Brompton Road in Kensington. Near the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum). They even have Toricelli's original Barometer, and a bunch of other original equipment. Best of all was their radio room which was full of the same old vacuum tube radios my dad used. That was fun! They also had a seismic detector map which lit little lights on a map when earthquakes were detected world wide. I asked the guard if Hawaii had lit up recently. He looked at me in astonishment and asked me if I lived \"where it explodes.\" I said I did, but Hawaii does not explode. It turned out that he was from Martinique. No wonder he thought I was crazy! I'd love to have a Foucault Pendulum, but my \"rotunda\" is not nearly big enough."}, {"response": 323, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (14:20)", "body": "Hi There Ok, I didnt know the exact road but that sounds like the place. A neat place still the same. I had a chance to see quite a bit of 'ye olde technology' which always seems way cool as only old technolgy can be (i.e. nice wooden cabinets, large meters, polished brass terminal strips) - it was as much art as it was science. I wish I could remember the tube stop near by the science museum - the one that I would always take was Glouster (sp?) which was a short hike from where I was staying. What a neat old neighborhood - it would have been so tres cool to live there during my college years. Regarding seismic stuff, I saw on the Gateway electronics web page, they had a small motion sensor transducer - probably not what I would need for seismic monitoring but neat just the same - of course, the seismic detectors I have seen were basically 5 gallon plastic buckets with a large pickup coil and a magnet suspended by a spring hangning from the lid. I think that would be a major home renovation project to get the physical infrastructure to support such a pendulum. Plus, you would have to find a cannon ball for a pendulum bob. 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 324, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (17:58)", "body": ""}, {"response": 325, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (18:02)", "body": ""}, {"response": 326, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (18:05)", "body": "http://www.metropla.net/eu/lon/london.htm"}, {"response": 327, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (18:07)", "body": "We used Gloucester Road station almost exclusively because it was right around the corner from where we were staying. Occcasionally we would get off at Kensington High Street, too. Lovely map!!!"}, {"response": 328, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (18:09)", "body": "i saw something like that at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in D.C. it was waaaay cool!"}, {"response": 329, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (18:22)", "body": "*sigh* i wanna go to London. i know this lovely little hotel near Lancaster Gate -just across from the park."}, {"response": 330, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (18:44)", "body": "We stayed in a lovely converted regency row house that waw made into a hotel. We had a first floor (not ground floor) suite with a balcony and bathroom en suite. The Stanhope Court was its name but that was seemingly centuries ago. Our first trip we stayed in the Penta which was new at the time. Lovely. The second time it was pretty bad so we opted for a smaller hotel. Much nicer! EsBee, you NEED to go! Look at all of the research you could so. Especially if they are shooting a film with certain actor in it where you could watch!"}, {"response": 331, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (19:01)", "body": "EsBee, you NEED to go! LOL this is what i tell myself (practically on a daily bases) unfortunately those pesky people at the bank keep taking all my $ in the form of a mortgage payment every month.... :-( Still - it could be worse (at least i have a place to live) and i have a map of London posted just above my desk at work.... It's been two years since i've been to London -i think i'm in serious withdrawl..."}, {"response": 332, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (19:03)", "body": "Look at all of the research you could so. Especially if they are shooting a film with certain actor in it where you could watch! Ack! so tempting! so very tempting! *sigh*"}, {"response": 333, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (19:24)", "body": "It has been your lifetime or longer since I was last in London. The Lovely thing about Europe is that they take such good care of our historic legacy. It will be waiting for you in beautiful condition when next you get to go. I wonder if I ever will again...*sigh*"}, {"response": 334, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (19:34)", "body": "Course you will! *singing* \"She's got High Hopes! She's got High Hopes!\" hmm.... wondering if perhaps office mate has slipped vodka into my diet coke -*sniffing suspciously*"}, {"response": 335, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (19:36)", "body": "In preparation for the upcoming ANZAC Day please read http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/screwed/163.880 It is Rob's eloquent comments on New Zealand patriotism. I will transport it here if he does not mind. It surely deserves a wider reading than Screwed Conference will give it, though a far different audience than Geo will afford."}, {"response": 336, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (19:48)", "body": "Happy Earth Day!"}, {"response": 337, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (20:07)", "body": "Somewhere a ways back I posted a big rotating earth and a large green Happy earth Day. In Hawaii, we are celebrating with a gentle rain. My Dendrobium virginalis orchids will appreciate it."}, {"response": 338, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (11:50)", "body": "Hi Marci, Geoites and Happy Earth Day to All I have only visited London twice but those were most wonderful visits. No trips this year tho (sigh...) although I do get to go to Dayton, OH for THE HAMVENTION which is the Mecca of Radio Geeks and Nerds It was cold yesterday and today - in the 30's but it will be warming up again - the trees are in bloom so Spring is slowly coming around. Looks like some new folks are visiting Geo so Welcome! 73 de Mike AA9IL radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 339, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (14:47)", "body": "We have a great new eager bunch of literate people in Geo now, so that means I have to shape up and stop drifting off-topic all the time. For anyone who has not seen Geo's new portal page and checked the links (including your local weather, Mike) http://www.spring.net/geo/ Hamfests are the greatest places for swapping both gear and war stories. Enjoy!"}, {"response": 340, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (18:34)", "body": "Nah, they're gonna love us for being ourselves!! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 341, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (19:09)", "body": "besides - this is Et Cetera ...isnt that where we should go off topic, if we are going to go off topic? :-D"}, {"response": 342, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (19:59)", "body": "who, us? we NEVAH go OFF-TOPIC! *giggle*"}, {"response": 343, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (21:00)", "body": "Let's hear it for those who drift off-topic. I learn more that way than any other! EsBee, I'm so glad you have joined the continental drift - and the topic drift as well! *BIG HUGS* I guess they will have to like me the way I am. I am pretty good at being me and a total failure as anyone else *;) Don't know if I like that gold globe on the title page. The red one was TOO much red and the natural one was a little small. The gold would be perrfect if it did not have the shadow. I'm working on it..."}, {"response": 344, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (21:22)", "body": "Hi Marci and Geoites Marci, no problem with drifting off topic - I like the variety. This is way off topic but this evening, I took the 10ghz transverter out to Lake Michigan and copied a 10ghz beacon from across the lake in Grand Haven, MI. (W2UHI). Signals were S9 (very strong). This is due to the superior over water propgation characteristics as well as temperature inversions. Distance is a little under 100 miles. Antenna was a microwave horn - looks like a four sided pyramid about 4 inches by 4 inches at the opening and 4 inches to the antenna feed back from the opening. The actual antenna feed is a waveguide probe about .8 cm in length. Woo hoo! 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 345, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (21:30)", "body": "Woo Hoo, Indeed, Cosmo! Far out and fantastic, too. Those horns work really well and are easy to make - relatively - and fit in your car better than a 5 element beam might *;) Drift and enjoy your warming weather. Just keep gear grounded and not via You! How very perfect it must be to have sky like we currently have, Heavens Abiove to let you know what satellites you are seeing (if it matters) and all sorts of celestial bodies to admire. Speaking of which, are there any good looking lady hams in your area? One who is a good minnight snack provider? That would be perfect! Meanwhile, we will keep you company!"}, {"response": 346, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (12:51)", "body": "YL hams are few and far between in these parts but I have the midnight snack covered no problem. I was just amazed at the signal quality with the tiny antenna - usually I would bring out the big iron - i.e. a two foot dish. Anyway, now working on setting up some skeds with the other local microwave nuts. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 347, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (13:28)", "body": "(Marcia)EsBee, I'm so glad you have joined the continental drift - and the topic drift as well! *BIG HUGS* *BIG HUG* right back. :-) You'll find i'm only going to post here at etc though.... am unfortunately V. ignorant re most things Geo. i read with interest, but only comprehend a bit of what is posted. Now, if you were hosting a History Topic... (any one up for a rousing discusion of Harold BlueTooth?) ;-)"}, {"response": 348, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (18:03)", "body": "Harold works. I shove history in the archaeology of anthropology topic. I considered being a history major but opted for earth sciences instead. I klove the names of the old Frankish kings. Whomever the Fat... the Bald, the Sluggard. Wonder what they might have called Clinton... *;) Go for it, Mike. Next I'll be hearing them schedule EME with another guy. That really fascinates me."}, {"response": 349, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (18:07)", "body": "ANZAC DAY 2002 ANZAC was the name given to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers who landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in the East Mediterranean early on the morning of 25 April 1915 during the First World War (1914-1918). As a result, one day in the year has involved the whole of Australia in solemn ceremonies of remembrance, gratitude and national pride for all our men and women who have fought and died in all wars. That day is ANZAC Day - 25 April. http://www.anzacday.org.au/"}, {"response": 350, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (18:10)", "body": "NEW ZEALAND Broadcasters join for Anzac Day tribute 25.04.2002 10.05 am All radio and television stations in New Zealand broadcast an identical 2-minute Anzac Day tribute at 10am today. The organiser of the synchronised tribute, broadcaster Sue Scott, told National Radio she hoped the broadcast would help young New Zealanders observe Anzac Day. \"The younger people really need to have something to continue to remember their forebears by and, because this is incorporating youth stations as well \ufffd it is something they can participate in.\" The broadcast included 6 seconds of silence and the playing of the Last Post. \ufffd 2002 New Zealand Herald"}, {"response": 351, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (18:17)", "body": "ANZAC DAY is held on 25 April each year to commemorate New Zealanders killed in war and to honour returned servicemen and women. The ceremony itself has been continually adapted to the times, but has also steadily acquired extra layers of symbolism and meaning. The Dawn Service A typical commemoration begins with a march by returned service personnel before dawn to the local war memorial. Military personnel and returned service-men and -women form up about the memorial, joined by other members of the community, with pride of place going to the war veterans. A short service follows with a prayer, hymns (including Kipling's 'Recessional' or 'Lest We Forget'), and a dedication which concludes with the last verse of Laurence Binyon's 'For the Fallen': They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them. The Last Post is then played, followed by a minute's silence and Reveille. A brief address follows, after which the hymn 'Recessional' is sung. The service concludes with a closing prayer and the singing of the National Anthem. The Anzac Parade Another ceremony takes place later that morning, with returned service personnel wearing their medals, and marching behind banners and standards. The veterans are joined by other community groups, including members of the armed forces, the Red Cross, cadets, and veterans of other countries' forces. The march proceeds to the local war memorial, where another service takes place, including the laying of wreaths by various organisations and members of the public. This service is a less intimate and emotional ceremony than the dawn service, but serves as a more public commemoration. The speech, usually by an important dignitary, serviceman, or returned serviceman or woman, tends to be of a conservative nature, with much stress on nationhood and remembrance. After these services, many of the veterans retire to the local RSA club or hotel, where they enjoy coffee and rum (in the case of the dawn service) and 'unwind' after an emotionally and, for elderly veterans, physically exhausting event. At the end of the day, the ceremony of the 'Retreat' is performed. 1915: GALLIPOLI REMEMBERED The first public recognition of the landings at Gallipoli took place on 30 April 1915, after news of the dramatic event had reached New Zealand. A half-day holiday was promptly declared for government offices, flags were flown, and patriotic meetings were held around the country. Descriptions of the landings (and casualty lists) were eagerly read, while newspapers gushed about the heroism of the New Zealand soldiers. From the outset, public perceptions of the landings at Anzac Cove were imbued with strong feelings of national pride. The eventual failure of the Gallipoli operation enhanced its sanctity in the public mind; the courage and sacrifice of the New Zealand soldiers in adversity was highlighted. 1916: A Half-Day Holiday Demands for some form of remembrance on the anniversary of the landing on the peninsula, both as a public expression of grief and as a means of rallying support for the war effort, were soon being heard. A half-day public holiday was gazetted on 5 April 1916, and church services and recruiting meetings were proposed. Among the growing body of returned servicemen, however, such an approach was an anathema \ufffd 'the boys don't want to be split up among twenty or thirty different churches on Anzac Day, and it is certain they don't want to go to a meeting to hear people who haven't been there [to war] spout and pass resolutions'. Instead, returned soldiers preferred a public service conducted by an army chaplain. THE CEREMONY: PROCESSIONS & SPEECHES From the beginning, returned servicemen claimed 'ownership' of the commemoration. In the event, commemorations were marked by processions of returned and serving service personnel, followed by church services and public meetings at town halls. Speeches extolled national unity, imperial loyalty, remembrance of the dead, and the need for young men to volunteer (conscription was imminent). Large crowds attended the commemorations, 2000 at the Anzac Day service in Rotorua, for example. In London the landing day was marked by a procession of 2000 Australian and New Zealand troops and a service at Westminster Abbey. New Zealand soldiers in Egypt commemorated the day with a service and the playing of the Last Post, followed by a holiday, including sports. In August 1916, after lobbying by returned soldiers, the use of the word 'Anzac' was prohibited for trade or business purposes, further enshrining the Anzac myth and the sacredness of the commemoration. World War One: A Patriotic Ceremony A similar pattern of 25 April processions of servicemen, church services, and public meetings continued for the rest of the war. These were generally organized by the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' (later Services') Association in cooper"}, {"response": 352, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (18:26)", "body": "Rob attended the Dawn Service in Christchurch. Perhaps he might comment on the day. The weather was ideal, I understand."}, {"response": 353, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (19:42)", "body": "Happy Anzac Day!"}, {"response": 354, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (21:11)", "body": "*Hugs* Wolfie!"}, {"response": 355, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Apr 25, 2002 (09:07)", "body": "Hi all and Happy ANZAC day! No eme yet but plenty of interest in regular tropo microwave contacts. If the weather stays good then I can go out to the lake without fear of lake effect snow. Shortwave propagation is very good however - the BBC was coming in last night quite well (Asia service since the North American service was discontinued sigh....) 73 de Mike AA9IL r-c-i"}, {"response": 356, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 25, 2002 (16:39)", "body": "I grab the pacific service now that the North American service of the BBC has been discontinued. I miss it, too. Not nearly as much cricket as in the old days. I miss that, too. When you talk about snow, you are not talking interference in your signals. You're talking white stuff you have to shovel!!! Happily, in Hawaii, they make it stay way up on the mountains where we only have to look at it."}, {"response": 357, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (23:43)", "body": ""}, {"response": 358, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (04:11)", "body": "A very dear freind lives a few blocks from this event's location. Don, you need to come in and say hello to the good folks. The Kentucky Derby Festival's Opening Ceremonies, \"Thunder Over Louisville\", will feature a patriotic theme this year-- \"A Stars and Stripes Thunder\". Thunder offers an explosive kick off to two weeks of celebration in Louisville. The 13th annual event will be held on April 20th, beginning with the air show that features military and civilian aircraft, sky- divers, stunt teams, and a fly-by of the world's largest American flag. Some members of the skydiving team have been performing for 24 years and have made over 3,500 parachute jumps. In just 13 years, what started as a better than average fire- works display has become the pinnacle of pyrotechnics. The secret has been to pack as much firepower into 28 minutes as possible. Music will be broadcast over the world's largest sound system to the Thunder event venue. More than 2,000 people are involved in making Thunder a safe and enjoyable show. Thunder Over Louisville is the nation's largest annual fire- works event. It is also one of the top five air shows in the country. After the 1990 event, the producers realized that the sound particularly rolled across the landscape like thunder. Thus, the show demanded a title that adequately re- flected its intensity, and this is how the event got its name. In 2001, Thunder generated more than $31 million for the local economy. The total economic impact for the entire 70 events of the Derby Festival is estimated at $93 million. Here are some great sites suggested by Rebecca: Derby Festival History: http://www.kdf.org/content/aboutus-history.asp Thunder History: http://www.thunderoverlouisville.org/thehistory/ Kentucky Derby (Rebecca's favorite part is \"Experience\"): http://www.kentuckyderby.com/"}, {"response": 359, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (04:15)", "body": "HOW MANY FIREWORK SHELLS ARE USED IN THE \"THUNDER OVER LOUISVILLE\" EVENT? More than 51,333 shells will be used in the 2002 show. That compares to 7,200 used at the first Thunder over Louisville along the Ohio River. *** Electrical impulses travel from the skin toward the spinal cord at a rate of up to 425 feet per second. *** WHAT IS THE ESTIMATED ATTENDANCE FOR THE 2002 \"THUNDER OVER LOUISVILLE\" EVENT? Estimated average attendance of half a million people is expected, making it the largest event in its region. HOW MANY STORMS OCCUR OVER THE EARTH? At any given time, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress over the Earth's atmosphere. Lightning strikes the Earth 100 times every second. *** Fireworks have a wide range of burn times but on average the items within a pack will last about 30 seconds unless otherwise indicated. Thus a 20 item pack may be expected to provide a display lasting about 10 minutes. *** HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE INJURED BY FIREWORKS ANNUALLY IN THE U.S.? About 40 percent of the almost 13,000 people who are injured during the year from fireworks (over half of whom are children) are simply bystanders. Bottle rockets, firecrackers and spark- lers top the list of fireworks causing the most injuries requir- ing hospitalization. Sparklers burn at about 1800 degrees Fahrenheit."}, {"response": 360, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (19:47)", "body": "It is Holy Week (called GREAT WEEK) in the Orthodox Church. HAPPY EASTER KALO PASKA"}, {"response": 361, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (20:08)", "body": "yes indeed--Happy Easter to all our Greek friends!!!"}, {"response": 362, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Wed, May  1, 2002 (17:50)", "body": "This is totally and completely off topic, but.... Marcia, would Lizzy know what steel was? As in \"his arms encircled her like bans of steel\""}, {"response": 363, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  1, 2002 (21:52)", "body": "Make those arms like iron bands (as in \"the village smithy\") and you are home free. The Celts had iron long ago."}, {"response": 364, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  1, 2002 (21:56)", "body": "To be more specific, if you get into what makes iron into \"steel\" you get into a technology nightmare that includes meteoritic steel swords and Damascus steel and workings of very indefinite age. The moors had a quenching technique but Henry Bessamer has the pride of place for making the first industrial steel - in Britain - in the mid 1800's."}, {"response": 365, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (10:42)", "body": "Thanks! *big grin* i knew you'd know! somehow history of metal never sunk in very deep. You still interested in editing???"}, {"response": 366, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (15:34)", "body": "For you, Absolutely!!! As I recall we got on famously. We can even discuss it via IM if you wish."}, {"response": 367, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (16:02)", "body": "*wispering* am at work, so cant really im will email you :-)"}, {"response": 368, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (17:34)", "body": "Oops Ok!"}, {"response": 369, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (18:20)", "body": "is actually ok, as boss just called from Antigua, where she's sunbathing on a private yacht, and getting drunk on margaritas. (you think i'm making this up) i just dont have IM on my work PC, and our IT guy is so busy, i feel bad recuriting him to help me with non-work related stuff. *pouting* why am i not the boss? is not fair!"}, {"response": 370, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (00:11)", "body": "Sounds like she could at least share with you!!! How unkind of her!"}, {"response": 371, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (01:00)", "body": "Greek Orthodox Easter Greek Easter, the country's most important religious festival, arrives accompanied by the smells of spring, the rebirth of nature and the flower-carpeted ground. Many of the traditions that bond the generations together occur during the Easter feast. Easter is the most sacred and celebrated of all of the Greek holidays. It begins with a 40-day fast, of the 40 days, one week is chosen for the complete fast, during that time only natural foods are eaten. No meats, dairy, fish, poultry or dishes that are prepared with these foods can be eaten. Shellfish can be eaten, however three days a week are meatless days during the remaining weeks of the fast. During Holy Week complete fasting is to take place. Palm Sunday, which is the first day of the Holy Week, is a day when only fish and fish courses are served. On Saturday before Easter, the food that will be served on Easter Sunday is taken to the church and blessed by the priest. The red eggs for just after the Resurrection and the traditional Resurrection soup, \"mageritsa,\" will be the wife's first concern, and her preparations will begin early in the Holy Week. That preparation means the cleaning and decoration of the house, the baking of the Easter biscuits and bread and the dyeing of the eggs. During Holy Week the churches are full each evening as the people follow, once more the Passion of Our Lord. Then at midnight on the Saturday the bells ring out joyfully: the faithful, candles lit, can celebrate the Resurrection. The meal afterwards consists of the \"mageritsa,\" the red eggs are knocked and the traditional phrase \"Christ is risen\" will be heard all around the table. On Easter Sunday, spit-roast lamb is the centerpiece of the table. In the early morning the spits will be turning in the courtyards and under the shady trees as the lamb \"kokoretsi\" is slowly cooked, and the aroma of the roasting lamb wafts from one end of Greece to the other. I have brought together for you some of the most delicious recipes of Greek Easter. Serve the dishes with plenty of green salads particularly lettuce, which in Greece is in season at Eater, lots of good red wine or retsina. If you get a chance to celebrate Easter in Greece, do not pass it up; it will mean song, dance and \"Kefl\" around the fire pit as the spit slowly revolves cooking the lamb. http://www.globalgourmet.com/destinations/greece/greekeaster.html Happy Easter, John from GEO"}, {"response": 372, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (12:45)", "body": "Happy Easter, John!"}, {"response": 373, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (12:52)", "body": "John is very busy. He is roasting two whole lambs for the great family feast. He will be scarce until after the holiday. I miss him already."}, {"response": 374, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, May  6, 2002 (19:43)", "body": "I hope that John and his family enjoy their holiday and their family feast immensely. I'm certain that everything will be delicious. Two whole lambs. That should be a rather large family feast."}, {"response": 375, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (14:04)", "body": "Hi All Easter is the greater feast in the east orthodox church. It changes life rhythms in Greece. This consuetude is very strong. It is a good chance to centralize whole family even its members are living to far. It is a feast of love for all. It is a good chance for common festive, carousal, and amusement. Is welcome everyone person though it is foreign and unknown. My family is increased this year by the marriage of my daughter. I have here friends from Athens and from Crete too. You can see about the same picture in every Greek house. This is some flavor of the Easter celebration in my house. This is a photo of my family feast. See the roasting of the two lambs and the part of the lunch table. John"}, {"response": 376, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (15:59)", "body": "V. Cool pics John! Thanks for sharing!! :-)"}, {"response": 377, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (17:47)", "body": "It looks to have been a wonderful feast and family get together, John. Thanks for posting the photos."}, {"response": 378, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (21:10)", "body": "*licking my virtual fingers* and wishing I had been one of your dogs! Did they get the bones as part of their Easter feast? Thank you for submitting these photos. They are wonderful. Beautiful weather and good company. I cannot think of anything you lacked!"}, {"response": 379, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (21:40)", "body": "looks like you guys had a great time, john *HUGS*"}, {"response": 380, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (02:43)", "body": "May is also the month of spring in Greece. This is for all of you with my great thanks for your wishes. John"}, {"response": 381, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (02:43)", "body": "Hi B.J, Your place is already included in Geo portal. You can see your time/temperature, Weather (recent & forecasts) and your Sky upwards of your head in real time. Try it and good sky exploration. John"}, {"response": 382, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (17:55)", "body": "the flowers are lovely john!!"}, {"response": 383, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (00:26)", "body": "As always, the great poetic soul of our Greek oracle's high priest graces Geo with beautiful flowers. Mahalo, John and *Hugs* to Geo's co-host."}, {"response": 384, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (01:11)", "body": "Happy Birthday, AnneH White fragrant 3-Strand Pikake flower leis twined together with a traditional Ti-leaf lei. Beautiful and fragrant."}, {"response": 385, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (11:24)", "body": "happy birthday AnneH!! (what a contemporary looking lei--at first glance, i thought those were pearl onions!)"}, {"response": 386, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (12:46)", "body": "Happy birthday AnneH!! My best wishes for happiness life. A bouquet of fragrant roses to you. John"}, {"response": 387, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (00:23)", "body": ""}, {"response": 388, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (00:25)", "body": "Happy Mother's Day"}, {"response": 389, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (06:33)", "body": ""}, {"response": 390, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (12:54)", "body": "John, that is so beautiful. Thank you for being so thoughtful. Warmest *HUGS*"}, {"response": 391, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (13:54)", "body": "Happy Birthday to AnneH."}, {"response": 392, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, May 12, 2002 (13:56)", "body": "Happy Mothers Day to all the moms at Geo. Happy Mothers Day, as well, to Gaia, the Earth, who is the mother of us all."}, {"response": 393, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (01:58)", "body": "I have been acquainting Lance with the new denizens of Geo since he was last here. I fear John is being victimized by his electric supplier again. Lancwe asked Is he on GECKO? Greek Electric Company Keeping Offline? How lovely to have a reason to find humor in missing someone. John, I hope all is well with you."}, {"response": 394, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (02:00)", "body": "I guess my erroneous typing that is not being caught by my eyes is telling me to shut down and go to bed. G'night all. Good Morning, John!"}, {"response": 395, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (22:48)", "body": "IKI"}, {"response": 396, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, May 14, 2002 (11:01)", "body": "Happy Birthday Iki!! :-)"}, {"response": 397, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May 14, 2002 (18:24)", "body": "A very Happy Birthday, Iki!"}, {"response": 398, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 14, 2002 (19:49)", "body": "Happy Birthday Iki!!!!!!!!!!!! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 399, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 14, 2002 (22:01)", "body": "He will be delighted."}, {"response": 400, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 16, 2002 (01:05)", "body": "This idea is brilliant. I am definitly living in the wrong contry Olympic Education in \ufffd2004 and beyond\ufffd An ambitious program of Olympic Education projects that focuses on developing a volunteer spirit among schoolchildren was announced yesterday by Deputy Education Minister Eleni Kourkoula. Over 29 million euros from the Culture Ministry\ufffds Olympic Games General Secretariat are to go toward funding the projects. The Education Ministry has invited schools, municipalities and non-governmental organizations to propose activities promoting culture, sport, the Olympic truce and the abolition of social exclusion. Kourkoula said that schoolchildren had already shown a great interest in the program, whose slogan is \ufffd2004 and beyond,\ufffd reflecting the ministry\ufffds goal of taking the volunteer spirit beyond the needs of the 2004 Olympic Games."}, {"response": 401, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (09:34)", "body": "Birthdays are refreshing mothers memories rather than children\ufffds celebrations. In any case my best wishes to IKI for success and long life and the best to his mother that is usually the invisible hero. John"}, {"response": 402, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (11:20)", "body": "That was v. sweet John *grin*"}, {"response": 403, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (13:08)", "body": "This is something for your eyes. PONTIKONISI or MOUSE-ISLAND in GREECE, CORFU ISLAND John"}, {"response": 404, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (13:19)", "body": "Thank you ES-BE It is the truth I think. But birthdays are also a good chance to break our monotony. \"Smile\". John"}, {"response": 405, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (13:30)", "body": "lovely little island - looks very peaceful and picturesque :-)"}, {"response": 406, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (15:06)", "body": "Indeed ES-BE It looks like a remaining stone on the God's sieve from those that were created Greece. (See topic 28/ response 151). Who knows that it was so beautiful? But it is devoted to God as you see. John"}, {"response": 407, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (16:11)", "body": "An excellent use for such a lovely spot. :-)"}, {"response": 408, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 18, 2002 (18:39)", "body": "John Dear, I looked at your exqiisit photograph and decided it was a miniature model of a tiny Greek island. On closer inspection, it is one of your magnificent classic stucco buildings on the only sea I know that is as blue as the Pacific is in Hawaii. Thank you for sharing more eye-candy. Birthdays are special because they remind me how much better my life is for particular people having been born. Iki naturally comes to mind. Thank you!"}, {"response": 409, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, May 21, 2002 (05:32)", "body": "Birthdays of our children\ufffds is reminding us our past. But our birthdays is reminding us our parents and its life mainly. I remember how slow was the life of my parents and I wonder what is the maximum speed of the recent life. I don\ufffdt know but I fear that today\ufffds increasing momentum is destroying any flavour and any essence from the human\ufffds life. Where is the pedal of brakes? John"}, {"response": 410, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 21, 2002 (14:36)", "body": "John, if you ever discover the pedals for the brakes of life, please tell me their secret location. They exist here, but it makes life difficult when we must interact with the rest of humanity. That is why travel does not appeal to me as much as it used to do. When I get to California or even Honolulu, my pulse quickens and my heart races - neither of which I find pleasing. My ability to cope with masses of rushing humanity becomes less with each passing year. Our world has become very complex! Come to Hawaii and enjoy the pursuits of your inner child."}, {"response": 411, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, May 21, 2002 (21:41)", "body": "I think the term is Koyaanisqatsi (Hopi for 'Life out of balance') - this came to mind from a film I saw many years ago in a different epoc of my life. It must have been during that time I just wanted to hyper accelerate through all the mundane of life to the conclusion. Sort of blowing off the 9 course meal for the desert. Years and some wisdom later, I am doing the slowing down thing as well. Problem is that now I have numerous diversions and interest pulling me in all ways. There are days when I work on stuff and there are days I dont even turn the computer on. Life is cyclic between those extremes to varying degrees. It is good I have these diversions but even now, I try to do a technical Feng Shui and isolate and focus on one primary project task - I fail miserably at this the same as when I look at several cases of books (technical,philosophical, foolishness) and try to decide which ones I will keep and which I will get rid of. I guess, ultimately, this will all be decided but for now, I keep bouncing around life's sampler. 73 de Mike AA9IL r-c-i"}, {"response": 412, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 21, 2002 (23:52)", "body": "Your tastes are eclectic, Mike. That is the best of all worlds. You will never be bored. I am like that also. I continue to read several books at the same time and discuss the most mundane or most abstruse subjects depending on the company or lack thereof. Keep at it. Your like will be much the richer for it! I like your Hopi. I think I need to read more!"}, {"response": 413, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 21, 2002 (23:54)", "body": "Let us know of your success with technical Feng Shui. I wish you luck!"}, {"response": 414, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 25, 2002 (22:58)", "body": "This ship is currently docked in Hilo Harbor. Ihave never seen such a large civilian ship! It makes little Hilo look very tiny, indeed. Tonnage 91,000 Length 964.6 feet Beam 105.6 feet Draught 26.3 feet Cruising Speed 24 knots; Guest Decks 11; Elevators 10; Electric Current 110/220 AC; Country of Registry Liberia; Classification Society Lloyd\ufffds Register; Engines/Propellers Gas Turbines/Pods; Guest Capacity (basis two) 1950; Guest Staff Ratio 2:1; Space Ratio 46.6; Crew; Crew Size: 999; Nationality of Officers: Greek Nationality of Hotel Staff: European/International Nationality of Cruise Staff: European/American"}, {"response": 415, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 25, 2002 (23:03)", "body": "I wish I had known it was here. I would have looked a lot more carefully and taken some of my own photos of it so you could see how enormous it truly is. With 1000 Greeks in town, perhaps I could have gotten one to teach me a bit of the language! *Sigh* Imagine ME on a tropical island with 1000 Greek men and my not knowing it?! That photo does not do it justice. It is absolutely enormous."}, {"response": 416, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 25, 2002 (23:12)", "body": "Want to check out this lovely ship? http://www.royalcaribbean4me.com/celebrity_cruises/Infinity/celebrity_cruises_infinity.htm"}, {"response": 417, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (20:50)", "body": "it's a celebrity cruise ship, then? wow!"}, {"response": 418, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (00:04)", "body": "Indeed ! That ship elicits \"WOW\" from people who have never uttered the word before. You really cannot understand the vast size of this ship unless you are standing right beside it. They presented Hilo with 3000 new visitors in a single day. That is a sizeable percentage of the local population! In fact, it is about 10% of Hilo!"}, {"response": 419, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (00:33)", "body": "Memorial Day 2002"}, {"response": 420, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, May 30, 2002 (17:58)", "body": "Hi All Nothing new to report except to say hi. 73 de aa9il mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 421, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 30, 2002 (20:51)", "body": "Thanks for checking in, Mike. You are alwayg a joy to behold ( I am picturing you with massive massive head set plugged into your boat anchor du jour and a brass key by your side and a log book open. That's the way my dad always looked so I put you in his stead. Keep the faith. Communicate wiht an alien! 73's and 88's"}, {"response": 422, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, May 30, 2002 (22:36)", "body": "and if you do talk to an alien, tell us about it in paraspring (just don't tell the FBI *laugh*)"}, {"response": 423, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 31, 2002 (00:35)", "body": "....or the USAF...*ROTF*"}, {"response": 424, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May 31, 2002 (05:48)", "body": "...talk to an alien? \"Smile\". It makes me thinking some eventualities. We are captive in a three dimensional environment. But we are creatures of 2.5 dimensions. We understand well the \"length \", \"width\" and the \"altitude\". But we cannot traveling in the third dimension (which is the altitude) without mechanical help. If they exists more than three dimensions in the universe, we are watching part of it. We can not sense something that perhaps exist in the 4th dimension even if it is very close in front of us; except if it will become in some of our dimensions or in our COSMOS. It is the only logical though that can answer in some mysteries today. Our science is also limeted in three dimensions. We can \"touch\" more than three dimensions only by mathematics and logical thoughts. We don't know yet if our electromagnetic transmissions are really travelling in more than three dimensions. John"}, {"response": 425, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, May 31, 2002 (12:00)", "body": "Happy Birthday Marcia! *blowing birthday kisses toward Hilo*"}, {"response": 426, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, May 31, 2002 (14:22)", "body": "Happy Birthday Marci! Also, its kind of funny you mentioned the boatanchor - couple of nights ago I was listening to 20m CW and was just goofing around with different filter widths, BFO settings, audio response, etc. One of the things you can do with the R390A is calibrate the main tuning oscillator to the mechanical counter (frequency readout). I set the BFO to zero beat, tuned to 14.000 MHz, locked the mechanical drive and adjusted the main tuning oscillator to 14.000. Ok, big deal... but when I released the main knob, there was no backlash of the tuning, the radio just stayed parked right on zero beat (i.e. no beat frequency tone indicating that something electrically or mechanically drifted). I just had to marvel at that - a 50 + year old radio that works like a charm. Sort of the same satisfaction as listening to a Jaguar XKE during idle or a Hammond B3 organ with the rotating Leslie speakers. Anyway, regarding aliens and such - If I were to speak to any aliens, I would surely invite them over for tea! It is interesting regarding the possible methods of hyper parsec travel which goes with the concept of warped spacetime, worm holes, etc to cover vast distances. Most likely, hyper dimensional space travel is the only way to get from point A to point B. These higher dimensional portals could exist all around us - just need to be able to work in the higher dimension to utilize or observe. anyway, blah..blah..blah 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 427, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May 31, 2002 (14:40)", "body": "We're lookin' for you on echolink Mike! See http://repeater.org for details."}, {"response": 428, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, May 31, 2002 (15:23)", "body": "Hi Terry I had a chance to listen in during my last very brief trip through Austin - need to get the software downloaded and interface then should be good to go! Mike AA9IL"}, {"response": 429, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May 31, 2002 (16:00)", "body": "You'll love it, it's been a total transformation of our repeater."}, {"response": 430, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May 31, 2002 (20:17)", "body": "the AF will blow you off and then send a team of investigators out *laugh*"}, {"response": 431, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  3, 2002 (01:46)", "body": "~*~*~*~Happy Birthday, Viky~*~*~*~"}, {"response": 432, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Mon, Jun  3, 2002 (08:52)", "body": "Hello Everybody, I have been back from my trip for some time but haven't been back on Geo. So here I am. Marcia & John thanks for your concern about my welfare here in Karachi. Your messages have been very comforting. Yes, it's getting quite hot here and the latest headline is that in case of nuclear attack there will be total destruction for fifteen miles. I hope and pray that mankind will not go that crazy.-- Sikander"}, {"response": 433, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun  3, 2002 (09:58)", "body": "What is the word on the street in Karachi about the liklihood of war? Of nuclear war? You are definitely square in the middle of the planet's hot sport right now."}, {"response": 434, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jun  3, 2002 (18:13)", "body": "so good to see you again, maharaja!! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 435, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  3, 2002 (18:49)", "body": "We are all praying for you, Sikander! No matter what one calls his supreme being, it is the one who is being invoked for your safety from all parts of the globe. I suggest that this nuclear possibility will end in no winners and the whole world will be affected. I am certain there are some serious negotiations going on of which the media are unaware. Good! Such things are best done away from the scrutiny of public opinion."}, {"response": 436, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  3, 2002 (18:51)", "body": "Welcome back, Sikander. I forgot my manners in my joy at seeing your post. My warmest Hugs of Aloha are also with you. Be safe!"}, {"response": 437, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Tue, Jun  4, 2002 (10:49)", "body": "Nice to be back. Thanks Marcia, Terry, & Wolfie. It's very comforting to have you all as friends. Terry, news in the streets of Karachi is mixed. Some think that it's nothing but political drama, some think war is imminent but will not go nuclear, some, like myself, think it's time we became Houdini's students. Life is going on normally but there seems to be obvious question mark on the faces of the elderly. There are also those who have relatives on the other side and are the most concerned. Today they showed an interesting documentary on the Discovery channel. Well preserved mummies in the Xinjiang province of China. If I heard it correctly they called them Churchin Mummies. These are mummies of European people. The oldest one is of a lady called the Lulan Beauty and is about 4000 years old. Live & Learn."}, {"response": 438, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jun  4, 2002 (12:49)", "body": "I heard Musharraf and the Indian PM are having an icy staredown at the conference table. Why can't Kashmire just be it's own state with self determination, the problem seems to be the presence of India and Pakistan in what should be a sovereign nation, am I right?"}, {"response": 439, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Tue, Jun  4, 2002 (17:48)", "body": "Yes Terry that's the basic right of the Kashmiri people. I believe that is what Pakistan too has always asked for, well at least that's what we have always been led to believe and that's what the majority of the Pakistani people believe. Gen.Musharraf and Mr.Vajpayee really had an icy staredown, but I think Musharraf won the stare. \"laugh\". I like the bold steps he has taken. None of his predecessors would go even half the way."}, {"response": 440, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (01:04)", "body": "Sikander, you get the Discovery Channel also?! I too watched that lady of Xinjiang. Sharing the same interesting television documentaries makes you see so much closer. Please watch for programs about Hawaii. They have them frequently. I like the thought of sharing things! Intersting insights about the perilous times you are erxperiencing. Your General Musharraf has the mandate of the people. Now I can see why. Dangerous times require resolute and wise men. May this be true now. I do wish you were watching from a far greater distance than you are now! Be safe, Sikander. You are part of our family now!"}, {"response": 441, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (07:22)", "body": "What a surprise Marcia that you too were watching the same program. I was simply fascinated by it. Especially, about how well they are preserved. I think if someone from their time saw any of these mummies, they would actually recognize the person. I had seen mummies at the Cairo Museum and the British Museum but to me they didn't seem to be recognizable. These are! I do admire Gen.Musharraf but I didn't like his stunt about the referendum. Actually, his popularity went down a little due to it. Personally, I think Mr. Vajpayee is afraid to enter into a dialogue with him. Your comforting assurances have helped a lot. I do feel safe and I feel proud of being part of the family."}, {"response": 442, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (15:41)", "body": "*HUGS* Remember that our leaders are politicians and sometimes their mouths go faster than the brains supposedly controlling them. A loosened tongue has caused more than one leader difficulties. A good man will recover, put it behind him adn move on promising himself not to do it again. Check out our former President Clinton if you think Pakistan is alone in this difficulty. For those who may care but wonder what to do, John and I are in contact with our esteemed Sikander via email for more lengthy discussions of comfort and just to keep in contact. This is very important, now. They know it is the greatest reason for my taking the laptop computer with me."}, {"response": 443, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (19:34)", "body": "you guys, the discovery channel is my favorite and i love all the shows on ancient egypt and mummies (world-wide mummies)"}, {"response": 444, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (09:13)", "body": "Hi Wolf Did you see the feature on the mummies of Xinjiang Province in NW China? I think it was fantastic."}, {"response": 445, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (18:42)", "body": "i believe i did but not recently--they had a mummy show last year too"}, {"response": 446, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (20:04)", "body": "Marcia flatters me. Imagine \"esteemed Sikander\". But so nice of her to take her laptop with her to keep in touch. Have a nice time Marcia. John did you receive my last email. If not, then thanks again for the useful info you have given. All you Geo guys are so knowledgeable. I am learning a lot."}, {"response": 447, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (20:05)", "body": "Forgot to include a querry in my last posting. Why doesn't Topic 50 appear in the main menu?"}, {"response": 448, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (20:08)", "body": "Sorry, I meant the \"Welcome to Geo\" page, not the main menu."}, {"response": 449, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (21:56)", "body": "it doesn't show up when you check all conferences on the welcome to geo page? marcia, i miss you already!!!!"}, {"response": 450, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  7, 2002 (16:31)", "body": "I'm here, world! Sikander, if you use http://spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/Geo/all/new all conferences with posts you have not read yet will show up. That is where I log into Spring and into Geo. If it does not even show up on http://spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/Geo/all/ it may mean you have inadventantly hit the \"forget\" button so you must find the \"remember\" one to cure that. Let me know if it works. Yes, My Dear. You are greatly esteemed by John and me and the rest of us who have come to know and to value you. I was missing so long because David was setting a wireless network so I can talk to you even from outside under a tree using his modem while he uses it for other things. HUGS all. It is HOT here but I am happy to be on a continent again!"}, {"response": 451, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Fri, Jun  7, 2002 (17:45)", "body": "Thanks Marcia I will try the way you have explained and let you know. Attaboy to David for setting up wireless network for you. Enjoy your stay on the continent. John could you please confirm your email address, perhaps I entered it wrongly in the my last email to you."}, {"response": 452, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  7, 2002 (22:38)", "body": "John's email is tsatsaragosj@yahoo.com. Save your congratulations until David gets my instant messengers working online. As it currently stands, I can use MSN but no one uses it except for Wolfie. Actually, I do not know what the difficulty is. Despite his tweaking and rebooting all day only the internet and email works."}, {"response": 453, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Jun  8, 2002 (02:56)", "body": "Wireless network! What high technology services you have Marcia! You must be proud for David. I like the idea to work under a tree or in the summerhouse. Your son is perfect again. He cares for your comfort. I will try helping you Marcia! If Internet and e-mail are working successfully, the problem is not exists in the wireless (or not) connection. Probably depends on security settings of your browser or on security settings of some protection programs that are perhaps used. I suggest you disable any security program and adjust your browser to a lower protection level. Perhaps this is the solution. From the other hand you have to drink more liquids against hot weather. Enjoy your family and the continent part of your country. John"}, {"response": 454, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Sat, Jun  8, 2002 (20:09)", "body": "Yeah Marcia, John's idea is good. Now's the time to take cold mint tea."}, {"response": 455, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (08:37)", "body": "Things are cooling down a bit here. Thanks to all of you for your prayers."}, {"response": 456, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (10:01)", "body": "Yesterday, in a blistering hot car park, I would have been delighted to have joined you in that mint tea. As it was I drank a LOT of water, instead. I am not relenting on my prayers for your safety and for peace. I hope it is so easily defused, but I think it is not. Sikander, we passed by some jasmine bushes (or what passes for them in California) and I thought of you! Do you drink your mint tea hot even in such high temperatures? Last night I wanted something HOT!!!"}, {"response": 457, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (12:33)", "body": "It is hot also here. But exists a spectacular ravine only a few minutes from my house. It has many sycamore tower trees. A small river is drive through it with enough noise. A simple restaurant-cafe is there. But it has many and big tanks where they breed trout. It is an oasis there because the temperature is almost 6-8 degrees lower. You need something hot easily there. You need also a jacket. John"}, {"response": 458, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (14:20)", "body": "David has many jackets which we all wore last night. We are cool inside houses and cars and stores. We will go into the mountains tomorrow. I hope. I am also downloading Yahoo IM on Iris's old computer so if you see me please contact me and I will use her old keyboard to answer. Not all of the keys work so please try to understand what I am saying."}, {"response": 459, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (20:21)", "body": "oh have fun in those mountains marcia and be careful!! take lots of digitals for us! i love mint julep tea but i've never tasted it hot! sadly, no one around these parts knows what i'm talking about--guess i'll have to start brewing it myself!"}, {"response": 460, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 10, 2002 (08:39)", "body": "When I get back East I'll check into the Mint Julep tea. It better not have bourbon in it or I'm not gonna drink it... tell us more! Off to Shasta!!!"}, {"response": 461, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 10, 2002 (10:55)", "body": "Shasta as in Northern Calif?"}, {"response": 462, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jun 10, 2002 (17:58)", "body": "YES!!!! no bourbon for me either...i guess i meant to call it just mint tea because the only mint julep version i can find has the liquer in it."}, {"response": 463, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Mon, Jun 10, 2002 (18:35)", "body": "Yes, I have mint tea in hot weather too because if the tea is kept in the refrigerator it has the totally opposite effect. It has cooling and soothing effect. Good for digestion too."}, {"response": 464, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 10, 2002 (18:49)", "body": "It is true that body temperature liquids are immediately usable by your body whereas you have to warm cold liquids before they can be used which uses calories and makes you even warmer. Sikander is correct. I am back from seeing 4 volcanoes, three of which are the Cascades - and in the far distance, the Sierras with snow on them. I collected some lovely pumice *;)"}, {"response": 465, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Jun 10, 2002 (21:33)", "body": "Hi all Back again - been a nutz of a week but a couple of interesting things to report - saw an iridium flare during the June vhf contest last weekend but the cool visual was what I think was the contrail from the shuttle launch. While flying back from Miami, thirty minutes into the flight and starboard to the plane, I saw what looked like a distinct vapor column - this was some minutes old (?) and was already spreading from wind shear currents. Different from any of the surrounding clouds (including storm clouds). No final verification but neat none the less. Anyway, happy soon to be summer! 73 de aa9il mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 466, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (12:53)", "body": "I wonder what is the radioactivity background near a volcano. I really don\ufffdt know. Is there some danger from possible radioactive materials? Do you know some easy and quick and not expensive test for it? I think that I know one. John"}, {"response": 467, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (13:39)", "body": "I remember that I was collecting samples of stones in quarries near Volos when I was in high school. I remember also my attempts to analyze those samples in my room. It looks very funny today. I wanted to make the experiments of my school chemistry book in my room. I had also some explosions...\"laugh\". I got out alive finally. john"}, {"response": 468, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (15:35)", "body": "Greetings John and all I would suspect that detecting radioactive characteristics of volcanoes would be performed using similar equipment to 'down hole' sensors used by the oil companies - these are tube like enclosures containing data logging and sensors that is fed down the drilling hole - telemetry/data is sent back up via cabling. Due to the extreme environment, I suspect volcanic sensing equipment is packaged in a most robust housing. 73 de Mike AA9IL r-c-i"}, {"response": 469, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (21:44)", "body": "I just asked David and he suggested I look it up. I shall when I get a moment. He is not sure of the state of the science, but he did spend a lot of time monitoring radon gas emissions from Kilauea for just such eruption predicting - or relevance thereto. Mike's suggestions are also a strong possibility. Interesting thoughts. I'll be checking when I get a few minutes. David is loading satellite viewing information into his palm computer so we have our evening entertainment ready. Congratulations, Mike for catching the iridium flare. Impressive, aren't they! Subscribe to SeeSat and you will havde more information than you know what to do with. I'm jealous of your shuttle launch contrail. I'd definitely add it to my list of seen astronimical phenomena! Clear skies and warm nights, all. I'm off to study the heavens!"}, {"response": 470, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (12:56)", "body": "Hi Marci and geoites Clear skies and warm nights sounds good - its misty and cooler (!) here. Kind of makes me feel like I live further up north than I really do. Re satellites, I sometimes run InstantTrak to get position info. On clear nights here when the ambient light pollution is not too bad, you can sometimes see N to S and S to N satellite traversals. Look forward to hearing more about the volcanic sensors. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 471, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Thu, Jun 13, 2002 (17:34)", "body": "Forgive my ignorance Marcia, but is SeeSat a website? Enjoy your study of the heavens."}, {"response": 472, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jun 13, 2002 (17:39)", "body": "This refers back a few posts. Marcia and Wolfie I had some wonderful hot mint tea in a North African (as in cusine, not location) restaurant about 6 weeks ago. We got the whole pot and had to pour it through a strainer into little cups."}, {"response": 473, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun 13, 2002 (18:44)", "body": "i love drinking herbal tea that way--my opa (german grandfather) grew his own herbs and we had it as tea--very good stuff."}, {"response": 474, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Fri, Jun 14, 2002 (07:51)", "body": "Hi Everybody! Sorry about the bad news from Karachi. Just as I was beginning to feel that things were getting better. I thought I should let you all know that I am in good health. I know you all care. Please pray that common sense and concern for humanity may prevail. Thanks"}, {"response": 475, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 14, 2002 (14:09)", "body": "No, Sikander, we use Heavens Above to find out what we are seeing. SeeSat is a message board for professional astronomers world wide and others intersted. I have occasionally posted there, as well. SeeSat http://satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html Heavens Above http://www.heavens-above.com/ My my profpimd sorrow for what is happening in Karachi. I have been out of the news loop since We have been immersed in computer rebuilding and netowrking. Hugs, Sikander. I will catch up on my email to you!"}, {"response": 476, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Fri, Jun 14, 2002 (17:45)", "body": "Thanks for your comforting words Marcia. I had guessed that you were busy with the networking. Take it easy and enjoy your stay in California. I discovered yesterday that the highest telescope on earth is also in Hawaii. I have forgotten the name of the place. Thanks for the website addresses and the hugs. Look after yourself Marcia."}, {"response": 477, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 15, 2002 (11:15)", "body": "The networking works splendidly. Any one of four computers can use the print command on the computer and have it print out in the office where the main computer lives. And, we can download programs from one another's hard drive. I find that rather amazing and VERY time-saving. Next I have to get closer to the east coast (flying again and more security checks)and set up a network there. I hope I was a good student. This time I am the computer \"expert\" so I have all components needed. I highly recommend doing this. Your children and youcan all be online at the same time all doing separate things and no one can see that the other is doing. And, only one telephone line is occupied!"}, {"response": 478, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 17, 2002 (16:53)", "body": "My laptop PC died last night so I am without a computer for the week. I will also be travelling tomorrow so wish me luck. The dead latop is remaining in the care of my son who will install a new one, format it and load the programs we use then send it to me ASAP. With new memory and a bigger new hard drive, it should be awesome. If not, I'm giving up on it. Also plan to set up a network at my destination so I can be online and use the isp where I will be instead of bothering anyone with my difficulties. Take care of Geo for me. I will check in on Thursday on my host's computer just to see that everything is working right. Thanks! and *HUGS* I had no idea how confusing life can be when the computer isn't working right!"}, {"response": 479, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jun 18, 2002 (20:04)", "body": "Hi Marci Hope you have a fun and safe trip and get back on the inet when you can. Hopy you also have a fun solstice! 73 de Mike aa9il"}, {"response": 480, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 19, 2002 (07:06)", "body": "We'll see you Thursday night then! Sounds like the laptop will be worth waiting for with the upgrade. Travel safe!"}, {"response": 481, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (13:20)", "body": "Thanks for the good wishes. It must have worked since after getting though being chosen far more frequently than necessary for secuity body searches and complete undoing of my carry one things, I managed to get a great seatmate out o Dallas-Fort Worth - a HAM aand a hardware troubleshooter for computers! We had a great trip trading war stories! Still waiting for my laptop while my son tries to find time to fix it. Tomorrow we are off to a symposium where my host will present a paper on Melungeons and on the way I will get to see really neat rocks and stuff like that. I am really excitied ! But, is it ever hot here. What happened to the tradwinds?"}, {"response": 482, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (15:39)", "body": "You are charging your batteries Marcia. I have the impression that you are like drinking a warm pleasurable teacup. Close your eyes to difficulties and Enjoy it. Cosmos is marvelous if we want to see it from the correct side, as you make usually. John"}, {"response": 483, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (18:01)", "body": "Hi Marcia! I've missed your frequent postings at Spring. Enjoy the symposium tomorrow. Maybe you'll post some interesting new items at the Mulungeon conference. Don't forget to mention the neat rocks that you'll be seeing on the way here at Geo."}, {"response": 484, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (18:04)", "body": "Happy Summer Soltace! Okay, I'm early. It's actually tomorrow. Happy Winter Soltace to those in the southern hemisphere, Anne and Rob! I hope that the snow has abated for you, Rob."}, {"response": 485, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, Jun 21, 2002 (01:24)", "body": "Happy Solstice! Bang a Gong!"}, {"response": 486, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 21, 2002 (06:00)", "body": "Earth's Instantaneous Velocity (on its path around the Sun) will be at the minimum value tomorrow. I am talking about 28 Km/sec. Then, Earth will start to accelerate again. Be ready tight your belt and stop smoking. We will go closer to the Sun! Happy Solstice to all! John"}, {"response": 487, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 21, 2002 (06:44)", "body": "Enjoy your solstice!"}, {"response": 488, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (14:37)", "body": "Wow! I missed the Solstice while attending an conference (\"Union\") in the Hills of Tennessee. Bet something had to be right. That evening, after my host and future Geo's archaeologist gave his paper (he drove me there through the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen - and most amazing geological structures in the foothills of the Applachians. Saturday night we heard there was a little old place down a tiny valley (\"holler\") so off we went. A big \"rustic\" wood and corrugated sheet iron structure seated about 1000 while the rest of us sat outside with the moon and fireflies. We listened to the purest of country music and bluegrass and NOTHING was plugged into the electricity!!! I was overjoyed. Anthropology in actuality. Then a few guys from down the road dropped in and we were treated to a long session with Johnny and June Carter Cash. We were all surprised and delighted. During the course of the evening no matter who was doing the music folks would just get up and start dancing. Clog and buck dancing, mostly. It was fantasic and I would love to go back for more! Look up The Carter Family Fold in Hiltons if you want to know more about it. My host for the duration is a fascinating man whose conversations go on for hours into the night. I could not have chosen a better travelling companion for this journey into Americana. (They were amazed that I was from Hawaii - they looked like I had told them I was from another planet!)"}, {"response": 489, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (14:19)", "body": "\"Flooded\" with an infrequent genus of butterfly Eastern Thessaloniki and enough regions of Central Macedonia in Greece. It is a hazard only to green fallow that is expected from the thousands butterflies according to scientists. They maintain that their overpopulation, is owed in the climatic conditions that prevailed the spring and encouraged their procreation. John"}, {"response": 490, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (14:32)", "body": "How incredibly lovely! I can think of much worse plagues than too many butterflies! Tent caterpillers and Gypsy moths were unusually bad this year in my current location. Happily they had run their course before I got here, but my seat mate flying in told me of buring them out of his trees to save the trees from certain death by doing so. The Falls of the Ohio location is http://www.fallsoftheohio.org/center.html I do want to see the fossil beds. Then I want to go see some fossils I can collect."}, {"response": 491, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (17:59)", "body": "Warmest Aloha Marcia. I saw the photo album of the Falls of Ohio you have attached. They are beautiful but to you it must be like paradise. By the way, where areyou these days? Did you get the picture of tooth I finally succeeded in getting properly scanned. I tried to paste it in this space too, but it seems that this space only accepts text."}, {"response": 492, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (13:58)", "body": "Aloha and Big Hugs, Sikander!!! I thought sure I had lost you! I did not get your tooth since I cannot get my home email here (until I get my own laptop and have it forwarded.) I am delighted that you were able to scan something so we could all see it. I am in the southeastern USA in Kentucky and Tennessee. This part of the US has small farmers and poor but proud people who are self sufficient and ask no one for help. I guess they are closer to what made America great than any other citizens. However, for the benefit of their children, it might be better to have better schooling and health. However, they are tending tobe stubborn and to cling to the old ways, so they continue to do things they way their ancestors did them. Some do have electricity and many have little TV antennas but many more still do not have indoor plumbing. It is interesting but something inside me recoils at this primitive lifestyle. Books are great things. There can be more to life than grinding poverty in this country of g eat wealth. *Sigh* It is difficult, but no one can make another live differently if they do not chooe to do so. A,d. I never want to eat HOMINY again!!! The Falls of Ohio is a state park so I cannot pick up rocks there. I will enjoy learning of what fossils are there, however. Then, I have been promised a fossil expidition by a collector who says he knows nothing about them, but knows their precise classifications right down to genus and species! Sikander, I will think of you each time I find anythng. By the way, I did write to your email address on record here - did you see it? I have lost your and everyone else's email addresses when my hard drive broke. I am currently BluegrassHula@aol.com. I'd love to hear from you! You too, John!"}, {"response": 493, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (14:00)", "body": "What I really need is a field guide to the geology of this area. There are bound to be books available at the state park if not elsewhere."}, {"response": 494, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (17:22)", "body": "Hi Marci Glad I checked this page - I still can not get past topic 32 when displaying Geo on my laptop - ????? dunno Anyway, sounds like you are having fun in rock country. Also, got your new email address - I sent you a couple of emails to aloha.net but now figure you wont see those until you get your replacement pc. Nothing new to report here - just packaging up some microwave stuff for the August contest. 73 de Mike AA9IL r-c-i"}, {"response": 495, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (02:51)", "body": "Hi Mike I have the same problem when displaying Geo/All. Something is wrong. I e-mailed Terry before yesterday and also today about this problem. I posted a test answer to your topic 35. So, your topic is visible if you select Activity within last week. The topics 33, 39, 60, 61, 62, 63, and 75 are not accessible for the moment. You can access each one of the other topics using: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/Geo/32 replace the number 32 with the number of the topic you want to access). Best Regards John"}, {"response": 496, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (02:56)", "body": "Hi Sikander How are the things there now? I hope that you are OK. I can post in Geo any picture you may want to share with us. Simply send it to me by e-mail. Warm regards from Greece John"}, {"response": 497, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (02:58)", "body": "Surely, those people are more unadulterated Marcia. We must remember our past years when we were like those proud people. They are self-sufficient and this is very good. I wonder if they are in advantageous position against the most of us. They are more HUMANS! John"}, {"response": 498, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (09:41)", "body": "Marcia,I had a feeling that there was some problem with your communication tool. I have been sending you ecards every day and have not been receiving any response. Will you be able to see all those cards when you get back to your laptop? I have sent you an email too and have attached the mysterious tooth. I will try to send it to John as he has so kindly offered to paste it on Geo. Thanks John. Marcia, you have got me all excited about Kentucky and Tennessee. People living in the mountains I visit also live in this type of simplicity. It does have its charms of contentment. However, the lack of education for their children is a sad aspect. This has been one of my ideas that PACC (the place where I work) should open centers in small towns close to such small farms here in Pakistan, but it seems that my ideas fall on deaf ears. Once again, nice to hear from you Marcia. I feel good now."}, {"response": 499, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Sat, Jun 29, 2002 (21:08)", "body": "This is a fossilized tooth. The color is a shade darker than it appears in in picture. It was found in this broken state near the Khir Thar mountain range approximately 5 miles east of the Khir-Thar National Park. The size of the broken tooth is slightly over 1 inch and the girth of the bottom edge is about one inch and one-half of an inch. It seems very similar to what I had seen on the Discovery channel as a dinosaur's tooth."}, {"response": 500, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Sat, Jun 29, 2002 (21:09)", "body": "John, thanks for helping me post this onto Geo50."}, {"response": 501, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Jun 30, 2002 (02:46)", "body": "I am sorry for the colors Sikander. I found that your photo is clearer by this way. It is very interesting finding. I don\ufffdt know almost anything about Paleontology. I wonder if it is small in order to appertain to a Dinosaur. John"}, {"response": 502, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Sun, Jun 30, 2002 (18:18)", "body": "Yes John, the photo is much clearer this way. You see it is broken and in view of the girth I suppose the entire tooth should be bigger. Perhaps is belongs to a baby dinosaur i.e. if baby dinosaurs used to have teeth. It is much larger to be of the two other large animals of the area i.e. camels and buffalos. Once again John, thanks for your help."}, {"response": 503, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Mon, Jul  1, 2002 (08:37)", "body": "John, there seem to be a lot of earthquakes going on these days. Is my area safe? By the way I did a little checking. There were a lot of little dinosaurs too and the front teeth of the Tyrannosaurus were also much smaller than its canines. Best Wishes"}, {"response": 504, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul  1, 2002 (18:41)", "body": "your tooth is strange to behold. how'd you know it was one?"}, {"response": 505, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul  2, 2002 (06:50)", "body": "Hello friend Sikander and all geo-family. It appears that Earth is enough anxious these days. I received five world signals during eighteen days. The last one was yesterday. You can see them in topic 67. A last 40-days summarise of my signals is appeared on the graph of my last world signals in Geo portal: WORLD SIGNALS. (They are updated every day). Unfortunately I can't determine the source position of anyone of them. I will know if someone of them is near to me (Greece and part of the surrounding area), only a few days before the EQ. It will become clear by the 24-hour oscillation period signals. I hope and pray for gentle events away from human. I am not so familiar with the history of life on Earth. But it is a mysterious the sudden disappearance of dinosaurs from the face of Earth the moment that they were the prevalent genus on it. Possibly, the reason was a natural catastrophe. I wonder if a similar reason can destroy also the human genus in the future. Be safe all of you. John"}, {"response": 506, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Tue, Jul  2, 2002 (08:27)", "body": "Hi Wolfie. Yes it does seem strange by looks because it is broken. If you look at the real thing it is nothing other than a tooth of some kind."}, {"response": 507, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Tue, Jul  2, 2002 (08:33)", "body": "John I looked at the \"World Signals\". The signals for Russia-China border were very strong in the last week of June. I would say Amen to your prayers for safety. You too look after yourself."}, {"response": 508, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (17:06)", "body": "Congratulations, Sikander! And thanks to John for assisting you with the Html code for posting your tooth. I am sending it on to those I know who are wiser than I am with Paleontology. This is a strange tooth for a dinosaur. Most that I have seen are pointy and conical in shape. Mammoth and Mastodon teeth are great monstrous grinding molars which are two hands full in size. You assuredly have a tooth or some remnant of animal life past. Exactly what is the puzzle. Let me check with a few sources! Thanks and again, congratulations! Broken??? Of course!!! That is the part of the conical structure missing! I studied the dinosaur fossils on exhibit in the Falls of Ohio Museum and the greatest of them had small incisors. The Canines did the killing while the molars did the grinding. Just thinking of this broken tooth with the core exposed makes mine hurt with sympathy! Back to checking with someone far better versed in these things than I am."}, {"response": 509, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  4, 2002 (13:16)", "body": "someone send me good ftp software! i can't believe this brand new computer doesn't have it already installed (if it does, i still can't find it anywhere)*SIGH*"}, {"response": 510, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul  4, 2002 (14:09)", "body": "The best ftp software is here: http://cws.internet.com/ftp.html"}, {"response": 511, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jul  4, 2002 (15:47)", "body": "Large-scale police operation uncovers ''Nov. 17'' hideout in Athens 03/07/2002 23:31:05 Police launched a large-scale operation on Wednesday, locating a ''November 17'' terrorist organisation hideout in the Athens Patisia neighborhood, discovering weapons, rockets of all types, printed material and a computer. Among the arms were military rockets of several types and firearms, while tests will be conducted on the computer to assess whether it was the one used to write the shadowy murderous terrorist organization's latest proclamations. Initially, police evacuated the apartment complex and then entered the basement apartment, where the weaponry was discovered, with police bomb disposal experts entering first in the event that the apartment was booby-trapped. http://zeus.hri.org/news/greek/apeen/2002/02-07-04.apeen.html#03 John"}, {"response": 512, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Thu, Jul  4, 2002 (18:50)", "body": "HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO ALL MY AMERICAN FRIENDS. May the Bells of Freedom ring for all the thirsty freedom seekers in the world. Marcia, thanks for doing research on the mysterious tooth. Looking at the real thing does make one think that it must have been conical. And, of course, thanks again to John for helping me out."}, {"response": 513, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul  4, 2002 (20:15)", "body": "Thanks for the good wishes, Sikander. Time to go and shoot off some fireworks!"}, {"response": 514, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (23:21)", "body": "Thanks all for fond wishes for America's Birthday. Sikander, I thought of you while spending the day hunting for fossils. I will photograph them and as soon as my fully repaired computer gets here early next week, I will ftp them to Geo and post them. Tomorrow we go back out again looking for more gravel bars in the nearby streams to hunt for more fossils. This is far too easy. They are just about where you can fall over them as you walk! Terry, toured the Court where you once lived. LOVELY!!! Yes, they still have Shakespeare in the park nearby! John, you are very dear to me for keeping Geo running smoothly. I will be back at work shortly and back on Yahoo too =) I can hardly wait !!!"}, {"response": 515, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jul  6, 2002 (03:52)", "body": "That's great that you stopped by there, do they still have the fountain in the middle of the median on St. James Court? The house where I lived was right by that fountain. Ah, memories."}, {"response": 516, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (22:49)", "body": "Hi all Nice to be able to post here again. Marci, how is the tour going? Just got back from a whirl wind tour of Tx (missed the flooding...) Back up in the north country finally. Waiting for my weather balloons to come in - bought two surplus 6 to 8 ft balloons for experimenting with launching amateur payloads (radio, gps, camera, etc...). Also just picked up the microcontroller for controlling the mess. 73 de aa9il mike in IL r-c-i"}, {"response": 517, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (10:41)", "body": "That sounds like great fun, launching ballons with transmitters. Are you going to keep them on some kind of tether or will they just float away?"}, {"response": 518, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (14:37)", "body": "Hi Terry These will be free flying balloons - hence all the gps/radio gear to track it. Dont plan to really do anything until next year tho as far as launching with a real payload. Mike"}, {"response": 519, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (19:28)", "body": "Terry, have y'all been affected by the flooding? Yup, the fountain is in the middle of the grassy strip of lovely landscaping running the length of St James Court. The homes are NOT your usual town houses. These have large crystal chandeliers inside and pillars out front. Your house was on the left or right going in? I'd love to photoggraph it for you and post it. It is not far from where I am. We are close to the U of Louisville campus. Beautiful!"}, {"response": 520, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (19:31)", "body": "Mike! You are flying baloons now? Excellent on the GPS. I am currently the only one in my family without one. I think that needs to be my next purchase since I did not need to buy a whole new laptop. Besides, I can navigate around the Appalachians better and find my sources of specimens far better if I have one such modest instrument. They can be had for $100 online."}, {"response": 521, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (21:13)", "body": "Not nearly as much flooding here as there has been down South in San Antonio. My house was to the left going in, the Salyers owned it I believe. If you take shots, shoot several and I'll pick it out! Great story on NPR tonight about how some folks are starting a project to photograph every major latitude and longitude intersection (except those in the ocenans), I'll look for it on NPR's site."}, {"response": 522, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (21:35)", "body": "Hi all I missed all the excitement by the time I passed thru Austin last week although the news showed the flood waters rising. When I got to the home qth west of Houston, it was clear except for plenty of mosquitos. Marci - this is a secret background project I have had some interest in for a long time. When I was shopping at a surplus electronics store in Houston, I was only going to buy a microcontroller board - imagine my suprise when I found a stack of 6ft diameter surplus weather balloons still in the box. These will be slated strictly for proof of concept testing of designs although the long term goal is for high altitude. I plan to hang the usual meteorlogical sensors but also plan to maybe do something like carry a vlf/elf receiver aloft to record whistlers from 50000 ft or something like that. Anyway, will have some real data to post to the Geo board then. 73 de Mike AA9IL r-c-i"}, {"response": 523, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (11:54)", "body": "terry, how does that work? how do they know where the intersects are? will gps tell them?"}, {"response": 524, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (12:33)", "body": "I just googled and found out more. + Searching With Latitude Ever wondered what the scene looks like at 47\ufffdN latitude, 21\ufffdE longitude? Or 42\ufffdS 147\ufffdE? Searching by geographic location, especially for areas in our examples (near Transylvania and Tasmania, respectively) isn't something you'll want to try with most search engines. But if you're just dying to get a look at 37\ufffdN 109\ufffdW (near the four corners monument in Colorado), The Degree Confluence Project is your search resource of choice. The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections (confluences) in the world, and to take pictures at each location. There are 64,442 latitude and longitude degree intersections in the world (counting each pole as one intersection). Of these, 47,650 meet the goals of the project after removing many confluences near the poles. Of these, about 12,000 are actually on land, which the project either has or plans to catalog in its database. The project welcomes submissions -- if you live near a confluence, or plan to travel near one, consider submitting your own photograph and story to the project. The Degree Confluence Project http://www.confluence.org/index.php Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/tgn/index.html Enter the name of a geographic place and your results will include latitude and longitude information. Host Name to Latitude/Longitude http://cello.cs.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/slamm/ip2ll/ This utility searches the Whois database for the location of web hosts or IP addresses. US sites are resolved to the city; Canadian sites are resolved to their province, and non-US sites are resolved to the country's capital."}, {"response": 525, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (12:36)", "body": "Here's one close to home, well, my home anyway. visited by Craig Davidson) 17-Sep-2000 -- After a weekend of partying in Austin, Texas it was time to head home to Houston. The 30N 98w Confluence is just a few miles south of Austin so I just had to go take a look. It's located on the Blanco River between Wimberley and San Marcos Texas. Both towns are recreational and retirement communities for nearby Austin and San Antonio. The Texas hill country is a beautiful place to live. We will have to mark this one up as another attempted confluence because I was unable to get within 2 miles of the spot. The H-O Ranch is on the north side of the confluence with a locked gate and the Freeman Ranch is to the south of the confluence. The Freeman Ranch gate was open but I was concerned that someone would lock the gate behind me so I didn't go in today. I noticed that the Freeman Ranch is owned by Southwest Texas State University so I would think it would be easy to get permission to enter the property on another day. I will be back."}, {"response": 526, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (14:03)", "body": "Amazing stuff here! Terry, I'll take several shots of St James Court for your pleasure and deja vu. The carriage trade must have had their enclave there because it is still regal and lovely inside the gates. When did you live there? Interesting about the intersections. I'll be taking some photos of such when I am in California using my son's GPS. Mike, your secret is safe with us. How amazing this might prove to be. I like the way you think!!! keep us posted, and I hope the wx keeps your balloons still aloft on course. Transponders are a wonderful thing!"}, {"response": 527, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (14:11)", "body": "I lived there from 1969 to 1971. I was a freelance photojournalist for the Louisville Courier Journal and Times and a City Planner."}, {"response": 528, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (14:27)", "body": "Oh, how interesting!! (Somebody actually planned this city?! Sorry, I couldn't resist!) I'll be taking photos next time we go out. Don, my host, is also interested. He was gracious enough to post on Geo 17 (archaeology, of course!) He will be an excellent addition to our Geo family and is eager to join in discussions or to answer questions."}, {"response": 529, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:58)", "body": "Hi all One of the things that the vhf and up amateur group uses for contest scores is based on maidenhead grid squares. Thus, when you make a microwave contact in one grid square then move to the next, it counts for another point. I'll have to pull out the map and see if there are any major lat/lon convergence points near by. Also, re the balloon project - I would suspect that there should be some interesting observations 75000 ft up. There is a good web page for Edge Of Space Sciences www.eoss.org which goes into quite a bit of detail of amateur launched balloons and payloads. 73 de Mike aa9il r-c-i"}, {"response": 530, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (16:02)", "body": "http://www.eoss.org for those who wish to use a hot link. I have always wondered what a maindenhead grid looked like. Please do add it to Geo. I am as curious as the rest. If you need the html command, email me and I will send it to you!"}, {"response": 531, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (16:57)", "body": "Hi there A good link on grid squares and how they apply to ham radio is: http://www.arrl.org/locate/gridinfo.html On the frequencies I work at, contacting a station in 5 different grids is enough to claim an award. Of course, the clever ones would go to a 'four corners' and hand out 4 easy contacts (sometimes!) but you still have to do that 80+ mile contact to get that 5th grid. When you 'rover' during a vhf-microwave contest, usually you drive around in the most efficient course to hit major grid squares to hand out contacts. Of course, you have to find a high point to park and set up the radios/antennas. This is a good practice for a road rally. For the 10ghz and up microwave contest that I will participate in, you can move 10miles and that will suffice as a new location to count for a contact. One strategy I plan to do is work up and down the Lake Michigan shore line and give out a contact every 10 miles (if I can find access to the lakefront without cutting through someones yard). 73 de Mike AA9IL r-c-i Hopefuly I might even have some pictures of this foolishness during the contest...."}, {"response": 532, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:08)", "body": "Oooh YES!!! Photos please! QSL card too if you can scan one for us. I think many are not familiar with how they look. There are several rare isolated unpopulated counties in California. When they hcve county DX contests, a guy locates at the for corners of the junction of these counties and moves slightly to allow all to catch these rarities. Is that cheating? At least the guy out there with the drinks cooler and fast food is working hard! he is also usually alone or with one single other guy using one rig. Good luck, Mike!!!"}, {"response": 533, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (12:55)", "body": "Hi there Doing the four corners of a grid is totally legit - I have done the equivalent during contests by going to the next grid line. The only catch is to make sure these points have some elevation for a line of sight contact. BTW, is there any IM or IRC for the geo site? 73 de Mike AA9IL r-c-i"}, {"response": 534, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (13:11)", "body": "Not really. We should do that. Most of my contacts are on Yahoo IM but a few are on AOL (Please save yourself some anguish and use the AOL IM for non AOL users even if you use AOL for your connection to the internet!) Only Wolfie uses MSN. Suggestions, Mike? I have found ICQ too RAM intensive to be practical. Even on my home monster computer ICQ tends to make it freeze. Suggestions from all are welcome. Currently I am bluegrassHula on AOL IM. I will be back to Kilauea83 on Yahoo as soon as my laptop gets here!"}, {"response": 535, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (14:23)", "body": "Ok, dont really have an IM id yet but can always get one - via aol or yachoo I think I hit the IRC channels once but the conversation ratio was pretty dead - I have also endured the yachoo chat pages (supposedly created for scientific chat topics) but it was full of teeny bop's flaming each other as well as 'the end of the world is near' ranting, and general boorishness. There is better signal to noise ratio on the bar car I sometimes ride on when taking the train home. Once I get an id (mostlikely very soon - like today...) I can pass it along. Thats one of the reasons I like the board so much is that it has a great S/N ratio. More details as they happen! 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 536, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (21:16)", "body": "Ok Mike. I'd really suggest Yahoo, but private room chat or one on one seems to work best (one on one, that is.) This night finds me still laptopless and is more than a little discouraging. I will email son and have him trace it. Untill I have it I am not on Yahoo but on Don's computer. Stay tuned!"}, {"response": 537, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Jul 13, 2002 (01:21)", "body": "VILLAGES OF THE LAND BEHIND THE MOUNTAINS, ZAGORIA, GREECE Evidence of human existence goes back to more than 40,000 years B.C. in the Epirus region of Northwest Greece. Covering some 9,203 square kilometres, it has a unique environment with its very own identifiable culture. The first Greeks settled in Epirus as early as 2000 B.C. Its name has derived from the meaning \"Infinity\" and has been described as the very roof of the Greek race. Tucked away deep in the Pindos Mountains, North of Ioannina, there is a part of Epirus known as Zagoria, a place of immense natural beauty. The villages of Zagoria are uniquely endowed with extraordinary natural beauty, a vast temperate forest ecosystem, distinctive architecture, cultural wealth and the sheer romance of an ancient way of life. From the Slavic word meaning \"behind the mountains,\" Zagoria is defined by the Gamila (Tymfi) and Mitsikeli Mountains as well as the Aoos River. It is a part of the massive Pindus Mountain Range that stretches from Albania to Central Greece. A vast proportion is heavily wooded, surrounded by a truly exciting geography, showing a remarkable diversity for such a relatively small area. Imposing mountains, luxuriant valleys are interspersed with rivers, waterfalls and streams. Towering cliffs and breathtaking ravines are around every bend, each one steeper and deeper than the next. None make a more lasting impression than the beautiful Vikos Gorge does - reputedly, Europe's largest ravine. The gorge is often described as Europe's Grand Canyon, which perhaps is a little misleading. The main Vikos Gorge is just 12 kilometres long and approximately 2 kilometres wide - much smaller than the Grand Canyon. It does, however, plunge vertically for over a kilometre. It is this more tangible, more concentrated, but still awesome scale that makes the Vikos Gorge such an intense and involving experience. One of the bridges in Zagoria Villages As stone is one of the main natural local resources, it features strongly in all other construction. Some of the most striking, of this love affair with arches, are the famous Kipi bridges, possibly the best surviving example of a craft that flourished throughout the region during the Ottoman rule. The most amazing feat of engineering are the Vradeto steps, which took years to complete. This snaking, paved, banistered staircase skilfully conquers a palisade, winding up a near vertical cliff face. Until recent times, this was the only link between the village of Vradeto and the rest of the region. http://www.travelux.co.uk/zagoinfo.html John"}, {"response": 538, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 15, 2002 (17:45)", "body": "How absolutly lovely! John, you live amongst the most stunning vistas on earth.I wonder if you get time to look at them. Thank you for sharing! I am now on my newly restored laptop and logged in on my host's line.I will work on networking with him so we can both used the phone connection at the same time.Meanwhile I have downloaded the pictures I have taken and am ready to post a few of them. I am very happy to be back in contact and with my own computer! My marci@aloha.net email is working again. Thanks to David for resurrecting my laptop at such minor expense!"}, {"response": 539, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (13:48)", "body": "Howdy howdy Glad you had your PC woes corrected! Looking forward to seeing your pictures. Also, still am planning to get some shots at various grid locations during the upcomming 10ghz contest. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 540, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (18:32)", "body": "Congratulations on getting your laptop restored Marcia. Wow! it did take a long time. What part of the earth are you enjoying at this moment, I mean your location. A warm Aloha to you."}, {"response": 541, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (07:13)", "body": "High eventuality for thunderstorms in Louisville, Kentucky this afternoon! This radar weather image is special dedicated to Geo hostess and to our friends there. (It is always updated) From http://www.wunderground.com/radar/station.asp?ID=LVX19 John"}, {"response": 542, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (16:10)", "body": "Thank you for the updating weather graphic.I am still in the southeast and inthe area covered by the map John posted. I have been listening to aircraft reporting uneven flying conditions due to these cells moving through the area. It is overcast, so if I go missing again it is only temporary and I shall return! As soon as the sky settles down again. Aloha Sikander!I am very happy to be back. I missed my family in Geo more than you can imagine! HUGS!"}, {"response": 543, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (17:31)", "body": "It will be nice to read your many postings to all the topics. Now, if I can get in the habit of posting more! Mike"}, {"response": 544, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (18:01)", "body": "Mike, for a guy who is used to keying in CW, you do a splendid job of posting! (CW for those not radio-oriented stands for Morse Code in the lingo of Hams.) I have tons of backload to post and comment on. There is no stress in GEO. Take off your shoes and get comfy. That is what family is all about!"}, {"response": 545, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (19:01)", "body": "Yes Marcia we'll wait for you. John, what a fantastic way to show Marcia's location. Thanks, you're just as great as Marcia. Warm wishes to everyone in GEO."}, {"response": 546, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (20:03)", "body": "Sikander, this sort of kudos is surely not earned by me, but John is most worthy. I have saved John's image to my desktop so I can watch the storms appreoach. I have not had this luxury for a very long time. I think it is veryt exciting - even if it gets a bit frightening on occasion. I really do not need to become part of a tornado to have fun!"}, {"response": 547, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (23:59)", "body": "However, I am always grateful for support of any kind in word and deed. Thanks for posting. Many wonderful hugs of Aloha for staying around Geo!"}, {"response": 548, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (00:10)", "body": "Thus far into the night, no thunder storms have materialized. I think they are waiting for me to go to bed! Again, thank you John! You have provided me with an \"active desktop!\""}, {"response": 549, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (08:27)", "body": "The rains go on and on here, this may turn out to be the rainiest month in the history of Austin. We're on the verge of major floods if the \"big one\" hits us again. Definitely we're on watch down here in central Texas."}, {"response": 550, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (11:34)", "body": "Worrying for you, Terry. I know you are on a major creek in one of your houses. We could sure use the rain, though we got none last night. It is waiting for me to go out to lunch, I'll bet! Still overcast but pleasantly cool outside if you don't have to work hard. Otherwise it is very humid and one gets damp in short order from exertion. That is rare for me. In Hawaii, it just evaporates. California is the same. Watching your weather on the portal page weather link John so kindly and expertly set up. You are there, too!"}, {"response": 551, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (22:31)", "body": "didn't houston just get some major rain too?"}, {"response": 552, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (00:57)", "body": "San Antonio did ! When I was through Dallas it looked VERY dry. I hope it moderates soon. Too much rain is a serious problem, anywhere! But, especiallyh in the location of central Texas where it is usually so hot and dry. Feast or famine just like the rest of the world with the odd weather happening. Send some east, Terry. We can use it in Louisville!"}, {"response": 553, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (09:50)", "body": "We need some rain here too. Karachi seems to be on the verge of having extreme water shortage problem."}, {"response": 554, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (12:12)", "body": "Texas is a BIG state, but it surely has more than its share of the rain lately.I will get out my ethnographic material and summon up a Native American rain dance. It might not work, but it also could not hurt !"}, {"response": 555, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (20:09)", "body": "Perhaps if we invite Gene Kelly to the rain dance, it might work. \"laugh\""}, {"response": 556, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (21:13)", "body": "Oh Sikander, you are brilliant! If I could sing and dance as well as GeneKelly did in Singin' in the Rain we would have deluges wherever I go. Alas I do not. In Hawaii, where rain is abundant, they have an old Hawaiian tradition that rain is a blessing, and if you pick certain flowers it will rain. Ithink it just rains as a part of the climate and atmspheric flow patterns. But,Like all mythology, they have a reason for each phenomenon they cannot explain. Back when these superstitions were created, there was MUCH we did not understand! Are we so different today? Have you knocked on wood lately? It was fantastic talking to you in my evening yesterday, Sikander, and John, welcome back to my monitor. I have missed talking less formally and getting to know how the world is treating you all."}, {"response": 557, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (06:39)", "body": "Over Evripos channel, at the centre of the city Halkis. I was there the past Thursday and Friday. I saw the amazing strong tidal phenomenon under this bridge. It is as a river inside the sea. Many legends exist, trying to justify the almost unique tide phenomenon. Some researchers stayed on the illusion of explaining it while some others, unable to explain it, stayed admiring its magnificence. The water-flow in Evripos channel is changing direction about every 6 hours, a rare physical phenomenon, triggering the imagination and the curiosity of humans since the prehistoric times, searching for mythological, astronomical, physical and philosophical explanations. The place where the old bridge is built, is the narrowest point of the channel, and the water current can reach the speed of 15km (9 miles) per hour! It is really interesting to watch the reversion of flow direction that happens about every 6 hours. The exact time of reversion is determined by the position of the moon. http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/.142118/1129/?s=H John"}, {"response": 558, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (06:41)", "body": "I was here during my weekend with an old good friend. It is at the east Mt Pelion. More photos here: http://www.pilion.net/papanero/pne-pict.htm John"}, {"response": 559, "author": "TheMaharaja", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (10:32)", "body": "Be they legends or traditional beliefs or superstition in scientific terms, I find them to be romantic. So Marcia, whether it rains or not after picking that special flower, I would look towards heaven, close my eyes and imagine that drops of rain were falling on my face; I love traditions. The same goes for legends John. By the way John I saw all the pictures. Papa-Nero beach looks a beautiful place for spending the week-end. Lucky you."}, {"response": 560, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (17:55)", "body": "John, Hawaii's beaches hide in shame compared to the spendors of Greece's lovely silicate beaches. This truly is beautiful. AND, If I had all the time in the world and access to the necessary resources, I could happily spend the restof my life hunting down the scientific reason behind myth and folklore of phenomena found on earth. I also find traditions wonderfully imaginative and containing much truth as they understood it at the time. Skiander, perhaps we might post what is traditional explainations in Pakistan...?! I suspect GeoMysteries might be a good place to begin. Beautful Pictures. I will try to find a saiche or tidal bore on another river or yours depending on the availability. I have also witnessed this and it amazingly powerful. The entire Bay of Fundy in Maine is involved in one of the world's strongest. More as I find it."}, {"response": 561, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (18:56)", "body": "I think that there is also a river mouth in northern China which is subject to something similar. The highest tides in the world have reportedly been measured in the Bay of Fundy."}, {"response": 562, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (05:21)", "body": "Hi all, Hawaii is the place where Earth gives birth to a new baby... land. Do you know any new-born infant that is beautiful? From the other hand, Hawaii can show to human eyes, how is paradise and hell simultaneously! The hell of fire in your volcanoes has also its unique beauty. My poor opinion is that a place can be part of paradise or hell, depending on our company. Hell can be paradise if we have the appropriate company. John"}, {"response": 563, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (05:37)", "body": "Hi Cheryl and all, You have right. Here is additional information about the highest tides on Earth. The Highest Tides on Earth occur in the Minas Basin!! The tides on Earth are strongly influenced, in addition to astronomical factors, by the sizes, boundaries, and depths of ocean basins and inlets, and by Earth's rotation, winds, and barometric pressure fluctuations. Tides typically have ranges (vertica high-to-low) of a metre or two, but there are regions in the oceans where various influences conspire to produce virtually no tides at all, and others where the tides are greatly amplified. Among the latter regions are the Sea of Okhotsk, the northern coast of Australia, the English channel, and in Canada at the Ungava Bay in northern Quebec and the Bay of Fundy between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The tidal ranges in these regions are of the order of 10 metres. The highest tides on Earth occur in the Minas Basin, the eastern extremity of the Bay of Fundy, where the average tide range is 12 metres and can reach 16 metres when the various factors affecting the tides are in phase (although the highest tides occur typically a day or two after the astronomical influences reach their peak). The primary cause of the immense tides of Fundy is a resonance of the Bay of Fundy-Gulf of Maine system. The system is effectively bounded at tis outer end by the edge of the continental shelf with its approximately 40:1 increase in depth. The system has a natural period of approximately 13 hours, which is close to the 12h25m period of the dominant lunar tide of the Atlantic Ocean. Like a father pushing his daughter on a swing, the gentle Atlantic tidal pulse pushes the waters of the Bay of Fundy-Gulf of Maine basin at nearly the optimum frequency to cause a large to-and-fro oscillation. The grestest slosh occurs at the head (northeast end) of the system. Because Earth rotates counterclockwise in the Norhern Hemisphere, the tides are higher in Minas Basin (Wolfville-Truro area) than in Chignecto Bay (Amherst-Moncton area). Although it is the gravitation of the Moon and Sun that raises the tides, the energy in the churning waters is extracted from the rotational energy of Earth spinning on its axis. Near Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, a tiny portion of this energy is being converted into commercial electrical energy in the only tidal power plant in the Western Hemisphere. The peak output of the Annapolis Basin generator is 20 megawatts, about 1% of Nova Scotia's electrical power capacity. Tidal friction both lengthens the day and increases the size of the orbit of the Moon. The day is lengthening by about 1 second every 50,000 years, imperceptible on a human time scale, but of profound significance to Earth's rotation over a few billiion years. If the Sun does not first incinerate our planet, in the distant future there will come a day that is as long as the lunar month (each then equal to about 40 present days) and a more distant Moon will stand stationary in the sky, as does Earth now in theh lunar sky. But this situation will not endure, for solar tides will still be present and will cause the Moon to approach Earth once more. More http://www.valleyweb.com/fundytides/ John"}, {"response": 564, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (19:08)", "body": "Thanks for the detailed information on the Bay of Fundy tides, John."}, {"response": 565, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (21:56)", "body": "I have only seen the lower Bay of Fundy tidal bores. That is awesome in itself. Thank you for not only the information but also for the excellent map. I know people who have wanted to surf that wave all those miles to the inland terminus!"}, {"response": 566, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jul 25, 2002 (16:03)", "body": "Australia's first camel dairy to open An Australian man plans to set up business milking camels. Neil Waters will open the country's first camel dairy near Alice Springs. Neil, who runs Camels Australia, says the milk has a similar nutritional quality to goats' milk. He told the ABC website: \"Hopefully we'll be milking half a dozen this year - and once we can sort that out we can find out how many camels it's going to take to get plenty of litres of milk. \"It'll take a while before we can actually train them up to milking - they generally don't like you playing with their teats.\" Story filed: 10:37 Thursday 25th July 2002 Animal tales Farming orange.co.uk/today"}, {"response": 567, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul 26, 2002 (00:33)", "body": "THE BRAIN WORKOUT Research shows that exercise boosts more than your butt: It makes you smarter, too By JUDI SHEPPARD MISSETT The connections between physical, emotional and mental health are widely accepted, and scientific research indicates that regular exercise plays a vital role in achieving optimal health in all three areas. Physically, exercise has a positive influence on everything from weight control to cancer and heart-disease risk. Mentally and emotionally, exercise is a natural stress reducer, self-esteem-booster and anti-depressant. But here's a benefit that is often overlooked: Exercise stimulates mental acuity, as well. The biological changes prompted by exercise improve our \"capacity to master new, and remember old, information,\" says Dr. John J. Ratey, Harvard University professor of clinical psychiatry and author of \"A User's Guide to the Brain.\" Ratey explains that \"physical movements call upon many of the same neurons used for reading, writing and math\" and that \"physically active people reported an increase in academic abilities, memory retrieval and cognitive abilities.\" Scientists once believed that people lost brain function as they aged, due to an outright loss of nerve cells. Today, research indicates that memory lapses are more likely due to a breakdown in the synapses or connections between nerves. In fact, researchers from the University of California at Irvine found that a healthy brain continues to grow new neurons indefinitely, which can actually slow the brain's aging process and even reverse existing damage. But a healthy brain is a product of a balanced lifestyle that includes proper nutrition, stress management and mental and physical exercise. Stimulate your mind What makes physical exercise so important? In addition to reducing stress, aerobic exercise washes the brain in fresh oxygen and increases the production of growth agents for nerve cells. Study participants at the Beckman Institute for Science and Technology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who moved from a sedentary to active lifestyle (three 45-minute aerobic workouts per week) improved their mental performance by as much as 25% in six months. A diet rich in antioxidants is also helpful. Reactive forms of oxygen, called free radicals, are a natural by-product of our metabolism. Free radicals break down cell membranes throughout the body and can affect cell connections in the brain. While our bodies produce antioxidants to protect and repair cells from this process, the production slows with age; hence the need for dietary assistance. People whose diets included Vitamins C, E, B and beta-carotene scored higher on memory tests and appeared to maintain mental function better than those who did not get adequate amounts of these nutrients. Fruits and vegetables are a great source of antioxidants. Finally, experts recommend giving your brain a mental workout as well. Word puzzles, hobbies, socializing, reading, travel (any thought-provoking activities) stimulate the brain, increasing blood flow and strengthening both brain cells and the connections between them. The following exercise is an excellent addition to any program. It strengthens the muscles of your hips, while improving balance and challenging your posture stabilization muscles. Begin by standing tall with your feet hip-width-apart. Point your right foot out to the side, as you reach your arms out for balance. Keeping your hips level, slowly lift your right leg a few inches off the floor. Pause briefly, standing tall and balancing on your left foot before lowering your right foot back to the floor. Repeat 10 to 15 times before repeating the movements on the opposite side. http://www.nydailynews.com/city_life/health/story/5046p-4688c.html John"}, {"response": 568, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 26, 2002 (11:29)", "body": "*sigh* I hate sweating. Is there any other way to bathe the brain in Oxygen by hiking in a cool climate? It seems we have to be miserable to achieve anything. I personally find a good lively night-long discussion more stimulating than a hot run. And, plenty of sleep is also necessary."}, {"response": 569, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug  3, 2002 (00:27)", "body": "for John: Pre-Olympic sailing event to be held this month Athens, 02/08/2002 (ANA) An Athens 2004 pre-Olympic sailing regatta will be held from Aug. 16-23 off the Aghios Kosmas coastal district in southeast Athens. The event is designed to allow athletes to be familiarized with the maritime and weather conditions at the specific sailing venue. The regatta is the first of two sailing test events. The first pre-Olympic regatta will be held at temporary facilities of Aghios Kosmas, while a new Olympic Sailing Center is under construction and is expected to be ready for a second test event in August 2003. The Athens 2004 organizing committee (ATHOC) has promised to conduct a series of test events based -- as closely as possible -- on a real event environment. Although only one test event is scheduled for each competition at each Olympic facility, sailing is the only sport for which two pre-Olympic events have been scheduled. http://www.goGreece.com/news/headlines/story.html?id=7203"}, {"response": 570, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Aug  3, 2002 (21:50)", "body": "julie: not geo-related, since i know you're in the so cal area, please be on the lookout for stolen birds from local petstores (in the past week or so): http://www.beakstreet.com/alert.htm"}, {"response": 571, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  4, 2002 (00:25)", "body": "Good grief, Wolfie!!! I suspect they have left the state by now just like stolen cars!"}, {"response": 572, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  4, 2002 (10:16)", "body": "actually, they think they're looking for a quick buck....very sad since some are babies and will need to be handfed every two hours."}, {"response": 573, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  4, 2002 (16:57)", "body": "In this heat (if it is close to being as hot as here) they will not survive, I fear. Babies need special handling and temperature controls. How terribly sad."}, {"response": 574, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  4, 2002 (19:30)", "body": "indeed!"}, {"response": 575, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Aug 12, 2002 (14:01)", "body": "Skywatchers await celestial display The Perseids are particularly spectacular and appear in the constellation Perseus. Astronomers are predicting a spectacular display of shooting stars over the next few days. Dozens of meteors are expected to shoot across the sky every hour. The Perseids should be visible as streaks of coloured light in the night sky before dawn on Tuesday. \"Tonight we'll probably see - if we're lucky and there's a good clear sky - an increased number of shooting stars, or meteors as astronomers prefer to call them,\" Robin Scagell, of the Society for Popular Astronomy, told the BBC. \"It happens at this time of year each year and it's been happening like this as long as people can remember, certainly way back until around the beginning of the Christian era.\" Comet trail Meteors are streaks of light in the sky caused by small pieces of comet dust disintegrating in the Earth's atmosphere. When comets pass close to the Sun, they begin to evaporate and leave behind a trail of gas and dust. They are among the fastest meteors, hitting the atmosphere at 60 kilometres per second. They occur each August when the Earth runs through the dusty debris from comet Swift-Tuttle. How to see the Perseids: Choose a dark location, away from city lights. Look up towards an unobstructed part of the sky. Face away from the Moon. When the Earth passes through this trail, we have a meteor shower. Source: BBC NEWS (Monday, 12 August, 2002, 10:51 GMT 11:51 UK). Note for Geo friends: To find where is the constellation Perseus, you can use your local night sky map, which included in our Geo Portal pages for you. John"}, {"response": 576, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (00:34)", "body": "Did anyone get to see the Perseids? Thanks for putting it in the Portal page. I was in the mountains of Tennessee with just about total sky availability but nothing showed up due to high cloud cover."}, {"response": 577, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (18:54)", "body": "alas, no. i was too tired to get up at 2AM!"}, {"response": 578, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (21:54)", "body": "I did hear to amateur radio operators talking about their success. One saw \"more than one hundred\" during his time outdoors. I guess it was pretty good if you had the energy and skies to view it. ...Next time!"}, {"response": 579, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (00:20)", "body": "AURORA ALERT: Middle Latitudes should be able to view Aurora. Go look. Radio users should be able to work some Aurora-mode propagation. More at http://prop.hfradio.org/"}, {"response": 580, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (11:01)", "body": "Auroral Activity Extrapolated from NOAA POES Left: North pole, Right: South pole The above plots show the current extent and position of the auroral oval at each pole, extrapolated from measurements taken during the most recent polar pass of the NOAA POES satellite. \"Center time\" is the calculated time halfway through the satellite's pass over the pole. Source: http://www.sel.noaa.gov/pmap/index.html Note: The above images are continuously updated. John"}, {"response": 581, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (18:46)", "body": "I suspect we are all too far south except for Cosmic Mike. Auroras over North America http://www.spaceweather.com As night fell across North America on Tuesday, August 20th, the interplanetary magnetic field near Earth turned south--a condition that favors geomagnetic activity and Northern Lights. At the time this notice was issued (Aug. 20th at 8:30 p.m. PDT) a geomagnetic storm was in progress with observers in New Hampshire reporting colorful auroras. Sky watchers should remain alert for Northern Lights so long as the storm continues (visit spaceweather.com for updates). Canada, Alaska and the northern tier of US states (from Maine to Michigan to Washington) are favored; the hours around local midnight are usually the best times to look."}, {"response": 582, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Aug 22, 2002 (13:51)", "body": "Hi all must be aurora time - we had thunderstorms all last night and today... 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 583, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (00:57)", "body": "That is precisely what relatives in the Northeastern US said! A sure indication of cloudy or stormy weather is a CME event!"}, {"response": 584, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (05:03)", "body": "I think that it is not CME\ufffds result. We have also CRAZY WEATHER in Greece. Temperature was only 17 degrees last night. I never remember such low temperatures in the August. We have strong rain every evening! But we are OK. Instead, the rest planet counts many deaths from unexpected natural disasters. John"}, {"response": 585, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (12:58)", "body": "had no idea that yucky weather could indicate CME!"}, {"response": 586, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (22:02)", "body": "It means if there is an aurora to be seen, and we want to see it, it rains so we can't see it.Auroras are caused by CMEs. Therefore, from a very strange set of logical thoughts comes an invalid conclusion that CMEs cause bad weather. Just like eclipses do and meteor showers. *Sigh*"}, {"response": 587, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (10:03)", "body": "and anytime the space shuttle rips itself through our atmosphere (my dad's theory)"}, {"response": 588, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (12:21)", "body": "Your dad is an original and independent thinker, is he not?! I had never heard that theory. Of course, On certain bad days I may be wearing blue socks. Does that mean....?? *;)"}, {"response": 589, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (19:32)", "body": "Is NOTHING sacred anymore? Womens' knickers could have protected kilt-wearing soldiers Scientists experimented with women's underwear impregnated with chemicals as protection for Scottish soldiers wearing kilts. Newly declassified documents from the Public Record Office show the research was carried out in 1939 amid fears that Highland regiments could be vulnerable to mustard gas burns. The Sunday Times reports they have traditionally worn nothing under their kilts. It reports experts at Porton Down in Wiltshire, the government's chemical weapons research establishment, carried out experiments using woollen stockings and knickers soaked in chemicals. They were designed to protect the soldiers from gas attacks which inflicted serious burns during the First World War. The documents reveal five volunteers were kitted out in long golf stockings with extended woollen tops, tucked into ladies \"Vedonis woollen knickers impregnated with protective chemicals dissolved in white spirit\". They were exposed to mustard gas intermittently for five days. Although they were protected against burns, it was decided the plans were impractical and too expensive. The paper reports it was also accepted the soldiers would be unlikely to agree to wear such undignified clothing. The kilt was withdrawn as official battle dress in 1940. British soldiers were not subjected to German chemical attacks in the Second World War. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_657072.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery"}, {"response": 590, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (01:22)", "body": "Type with your eye The eyetracker can work out where you are looking Software which allows computer users to write without touching the keyboard has been developed by scientists at Cambridge University in the UK. Dubbed Dasher, the text entry system could transform computing for people unable to use a normal keyboard. Designed by David MacKay and David Ward in the University's Department of Physics, the system uses an eyetracker which can deduce where the user is looking on the screen. Letters continuously appear on the screen, with Dasher displaying the most likely pairings or triplets of letters. It can even guess whole words. Few spelling mistakes Dasher's knowledge of English is cumulative so it will remember new words and has already digested some classic authors such as Jane Austen and Lewis Caroll in its attempt to help users write quickly and accurately. \"The software works like a video game in which the user steers ever deeper into an enormous library,\" explained Dr MacKay. The system is faster than other eyetracking systems producing up to 25 words per minute compared to the 15 word per minute currently possible. \"Not only is this faster than any alternative writing system driven by an eyetracker, the frequency of spelling mistakes is about five times smaller and the new system is also less stressful to use,\" added Dr MacKay. Its inventors stress that Dasher has not caused any eyestrain in experiments. Useful in China But users preferring not to rely on their eyes can also use a mouse, rollerball or touchpad. Dasher will be developed as an open source software project, Dr MacKay said. It is hoped that the software will be useful for handheld computers or mobile phones where there is no space for a keyboard. It could also prove invaluable in the burgeoning markets in Japan and China. Both languages have thousands of characters meaning they are poorly suited to conventional keyboards. The research was published in the journal Nature. Source: BBC NEWS"}, {"response": 591, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (20:15)", "body": "I hope this is more successful than the voice typing software I have used. The one I tried could not even get my name right. This eye-typing sounds very promising for the handicapped. I am most hopeful for its success."}, {"response": 592, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (20:16)", "body": "Meteorite' hits girl Siobhan Cowton: \"I saw it fall from above roof height\" The odds against being hit by a meteorite are billions to one - but a teenager in North Yorkshire may have had one land on her foot. Siobhan Cowton, 14, was getting into the family car outside her Northallerton home at 1030 BST on Thursday when a stone fell on her from the sky. Noticing it was \"quite hot\", she showed it to her father Niel. The family now plan to have the stone analysed by scientists at Durham University. \"I saw it fall from above roof height,\" Siobhan told BBC News Online. \"It looked very unusual, with a bubbled surface and tiny indentations like volcanic lava. 'Shiny' \"It was shiny on one side and looked rusty as if it contained iron. \"I've seen shooting stars before - but nothing like this. This does not happen very often in Northallerton.\" Mr Cowton, 45, told BBC News Online he would take the stone to be analysed himself. \"It is not going to leave my sight because it is a very rare find,\" he said. \"It is worth a lot to Siobhan. \"We will have it mounted in a glass presentation case so she can keep it for the rest of her life. \"After all it is not every day you get hit by a meteorite. \"The odds of winning the Lottery are better.\" The stone could have come from Mars, according to expert on Earth impacts Dr Benny Peiser, of Liverpool John Moores University. \"It could be billions of years old and come from the earliest formation of the solar system,\" he told the Daily Mail newspaper. Most meteors are between five and 60 centimetres (1.95 in and 1 ft 11.5 in) long, according to Durham University physical geography lecturer Dr Ben Horton. \"Sometimes they have shallow depressions and cavities,\" he said. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2218755.stm"}, {"response": 593, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (05:40)", "body": "I'm afraid for how can learn correct language the new generations. Is it possible only with eyes? They will lost the second way of communications!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have already lost the voice way because they communicate typing messages on its Cell Phones!!!!!!!!!!!!! John"}, {"response": 594, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Aug 30, 2002 (13:59)", "body": "Okay, this is just for fun. It's a link to the Celtic Zodiac, which is based on a 13 sign lunar calendar. The signs are mostly trees, atleast all are plants; as it was originated by Druids that would make sense. I just find astrology fun in general and hope that this site being essentially a Wiccan site doesn't upset anyone. http://www.ladytia.com/celt/zodiac.htm"}, {"response": 595, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 30, 2002 (20:04)", "body": "I found that site long ago and lost track of it in the meanwhile. Thanks for posting it. I seem to be a Hawthorn and my planet is Vulcan As for the rest, you will have to judge that for yourselves. I find it very amusing! Thanks, Cheryl."}, {"response": 596, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Aug 30, 2002 (20:07)", "body": "and as your twin, marica, i'm a hawthorn too!"}, {"response": 597, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 30, 2002 (23:01)", "body": "Indeed, and for you it is fitting that what applies to me also applies to you. Btw, it got Geo's resident Geologist right on target!"}, {"response": 598, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (15:49)", "body": "Hi all Interesting zodiac site - seems I'm an Ash person! 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 599, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (17:04)", "body": "The site is fun to visit. I'm a Rowan."}, {"response": 600, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (17:06)", "body": "If you ever lived in an apartment and thought that you had irritating neighbors. Can you imagine living in this building. Relief as the Cows Upstairs Move Out Fri Aug 30,10:26 AM ET ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish woman has begun selling the cows she kept in upstairs apartments in the city of Trabzon, to the relief of her neighbors. Local alderman Osman Terzi said health and safety officials had ordered the cows to be cleared out of the first and third floors of the building in the Black Sea port city. \"I have learned that Fatma Kocaman has started selling her cows, which is a very pleasing development,\" the Anatolian news agency quoted him saying on Thursday. It said she had kept \"a large number\" of cows there. \"It's hard to believe someone would keep cows in an apartment. For years me and the locals have wondered what to do...The area has suffered a lot. Noise, smell and manure everywhere make a very ugly scene,\" Terzi said."}, {"response": 601, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Sep  5, 2002 (03:00)", "body": "Hi all I am Ash Tree person according to Celtic Zodiac. Just like Mike. But I have not seeing something for our exploratory nature. It is really interesting finally. John"}, {"response": 602, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (16:59)", "body": "John and Mike are very creative and electrically adept gentlemen. How fitting they are the same sign. I find most of this just as fun, but occasionally they get come characteristic or another right on target. That is amazing. I guess we take what we want from each. In that vein I post the following totally irrelevant information: Fishing Guide the Stars by Kramer Wetzel For the Week of 9/5-11/2002 Virgo: You can't really see it, but I'm sure you can feel it. Mars lines up with the Sun during the next few days. This is akin to taking a stock truck, and adding all the things under the hood that matter. Once you get all that extra stuff crammed onto the motor, the truck moves pretty fast. The thing is, you can't see all the modifications. We used to call these street \"sleepers\" because you never knew it was a highly modified vehicle until you got stuck eating its dust. Likewise, you can't see Mars right next to the Sun, but take my word for it, he's there, and trust me on this one, he's adding a lot of fuel to that Virgo fire engine. You can brag about this, you can take credit, make boastful claims, or, you can do this the right way: let them eat your Virgo dust. It's that simple. Instead of telling us what you can do, just put your foot into it. Show us what you can do. Libra: This is the week I lose popularity with Libra fans. Maybe not all, but most them will have unkind thoughts and words directed towards me. The deal is, there's great stuff stirring for other signs right now. But like most of my \"brushes with fame,\" all this great stuff hits at some time when the focus is directed towards other people. Most of my fine, Libra friends understand how this works. What makes me unpopular is the concept that this means someone else gets the attention. That's a big problem. It's the big time right before your special birthday, and you feel like I'm directing everyone's attention away from you. It's not me, but you get the idea. We're all right around the corner from what should be a really good Libra Birthday blast, and all I can suggest is it's a time to let other people have the spotlight. Matter of fact, you're going to feel like your timing is off, your mouth doesn't quite say what you want it to say, and nothing seems to work quite the way you want it to. As long as nothing is going the way you want it to, why not relax about this issue. You and I both know that your birthday party month is around the corner. Look a little further down the road than just this week, and you can see where it will be good, all good. Let someone else enjoy the limelight now -- your turn is coming. Scorpio: Within the confines of the great state of Texas, it's finally starting to cool off some. Welcome relief, if you ask me. With the somewhat cooler temperatures, there's a little itch that you get under your Scorpio skin. I'm all for scratching that itch. I'm all for you doing just what it is that you want to do. Skip the bad news. Skip listening to \"prophet of doom\" astrologers. Miss Venus is going to be creeping into your sign -- this is a good thing. Now, Miss Venus is a little self-indulgent at times. Imagine that, a Scorpio who might want to indulge herself [himself, itself, whatever]? Instead of fighting that urge, and instead of me telling you to stick to business, stick to work, stick to important stuff, I'd suggest by this time next week, you should be having yourself a high time. You know, go ahead and have some fun. Don't complain to me if no one around you wants to play. If a certain party doesn't want to be included in your party plans, then move on to the next one. It's really that simple. I call a situation like this a numbers a game, because you might have to make several calls before you find a willing participant or two, but keep calling. I'd estimate your averages are better than anyone else's about now. Just because some folks are a little down, that doesn't mean you should be, too. Sagittarius: Depression is a ticklish subject. Different people deal with depression in different ways. Some folks require loads of medication, therapists, and toys to massage the ego. Other folks, like me, just do a little shopping. Nothing like acquiring some new music, or a new book, to help ease the pain. While spending money is also lots of fun, it might not be the best time for such an activity this coming weekend. The feeling of depression, though, there's a good chance that it occurs. Get over it. Move your body. Change your location. That might not really solve the problem, that might not address the core issue, but it does make you feel a little better at the moment. As soon as next week gets here, you're feeling about 100% better. You have a little edge to you, though, and you can thank Mr. Mars for that. He's in Virgo, and as such, he creates a tension angle to our sign. Activity is good. Anything that gets you on your feet, out the door, and moving along is what works for you. I would suggest that you use a little mo"}, {"response": 603, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (17:11)", "body": "For something completely irrelevant: Chinese Love Zodiac Love horoscopes zodiac signs by TraiStar\ufffd presents the following characteristics of each Chinese zodiac love sign. Dragon Dragon, like Aries, are independent, enthusiastic about their lover, and fall in love fast. They are the most domineering of all Chinese zodiac signs, and easily get hot-headed and quick-tempered when angry. They are most compatible with Rat and Monkey. Snake Snake, like Taurus, are physical, sensuous and attracted to beauty. They are also materialistic and seek their comforts, and get very jealous. They are most compatible with Ox and Rooster. Horse Horse, like Gemini, are youthful, intellectual and charming. They are also impatient and reckless at times. They have many love interests and find it difficult to commit to one. They are most compatible with Tiger and Dog. Sheep Sheep, like Cancer, are nurturing, sensitive, shy and dependent on their relationship. When angry, they sometimes sulk rather than confront their partner. They are seeking the security of home and family. In love, they often are the clingy types. They are most compatible with Rabbit and Pig. Monkey Monkey, like Leo, are entertaining, persuasive and creative. They can also be mischievous and promiscuous. As lovers they are very playful and passionate. In a committed relationship, they are loyal and steadfast. They are most compatible with Rat and Dragon. Rooster Rooster, like Virgo, are seekers of perfection in their relationships. They are industrious, protective and can also be blunt, critical and rude if they don't like something or someone. As lovers they are discreet, and do not easily reveal their feelings. They are most compatible with Snake and Ox. Dog Dog, like Libra, are caring, unselfish, and make a terrific companion. They are also fearful of change, do not easily make decisions, and take a long time to heal when hurt. They demand honesty and equality in their relationship. They are willing to stay by their partner through thick and thin. They are most compatible with Horse and Tiger. Pig Pig, like Scorpio, are diligent, unpretentious and can also be pigheaded and gullible. They are the sign of good fortune and are generous in their love. They have strong libidos and demand that their partners satisfy their desires and needs. They are passionate, and can make great partners with the promise of commitment and companionship. They are most compatible with Rabbit and Sheep. Rat Rat, like Sagittarius, are charismatic, charming, popular and seek companionship. They are explorers and like to stay active and are definitely not the homebody type. In love they can be flirtatious, fall in love quickly, but settle down once they find the right partner. They are most compatible with Dragon and Monkey. Ox Ox, like Capricorn, are steadfast, reliable, and sometimes bossy. They are self reliant, narrow minded and stick to what they know. They are not partiers, but can be intimate in private. They fall in love slowly, yet remain loyal partners for those who provide them a steady secure relationship. They are most compatible with Snake and Rooster. Tiger Tiger, like Aquarius, are optimistic. They can also be impatient and unconventional, seeking newer pastures. In love, they are strong and passionate, and can be dominant. They need a partner who can thrive with excitement everyday. They are most compatible with Horse and Dog. Rabbit Rabbit, like Pisces, are thoughtful, wise, compassionate and sometimes cunning. They are quite romantic, emotional, and imaginative. They require close intimate relationships to take them away from the hardness of daily life. They need a partner who is loyal and can share their heart. They are most compatible with Sheep and Pig."}, {"response": 604, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (17:12)", "body": "Wolfie, you and I are horses. I think they are wrong about the commitment accessment, but the youthful and charming works! *;)"}, {"response": 605, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  9, 2002 (20:00)", "body": "The following makes a lot of sense to me -p especially since I was singled out in airport screening for thorough checks. I am NOT a threatening sort of person! Subject: Politically Correct Airport Screeners To ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport screeners will not be allowed to profile people. They will continue random searches of 80 year old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, Secret Service Agents, who are members of the President's security detail, 85 year old Congressmen with metal hips and Medal of Honor Winners. Please pause for a moment and take the following test: In 1972, at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by: (a) Olga Kobut (b) Sitting Bull (c) Arnold Schwartzenegger (d) Muslim males between the ages of 17 & 40 In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by: (a) Lost Norwegians (b) Elvis (c) A tour bus full of 80 year old women (d) Muslim males between the ages of 17 & 40 During the 1980s, a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebabnon by: (a) Bart Simpson (b) The King of Sweden (c) The Boy Scouts (d) Muslim Males between the ages of 17 & 40 In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by (a) A pizza delivery boy (b) Pee Wee Herman (c) Geraldo Rivera (d) Muslim males between the ages of 17 & 40 In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard by: (a) The Smurfs (b) Pamela Lee Anderson (c) The Little Mermaid (d) Muslim males between the ages of 17 & 40 In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked in Athens, and a US Navy diver was murdered by: (a) Captain Kidd (b) Charles Lindberg (c) Mother Teresa (d) Muslim Males between the ages of 17 & 40 In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by: (a) Scooby Doo (b) The Tooth Fairy (c) Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (d) Muslim males between the ages of 17 & 40 In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed by: (a) The Backstreet Boys (b) Grandma Moses (c) Dr. Pepper (d) Muslim Males between the ages of 17 & 40 In 1988, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by: (a) Mr. Rodgers (b) The Muppets (c) The World Wrestling Federation (d) Muslim males between the ages of 17 & 40 On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked and crashed into the World Center, the Pentagon and an open field in Shanksville, PA, wherein thousands of people were killed by: (a) Wile E. Coyote (b) The Supreme Court of Florida (c) Mr. Bean (d) Muslim males between the ages of 17 & 40 In 2002, the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against: (a) Enron (b) The Lutheran Church (c) The NFL (d) Muslim males between the ages of 17 & 40 In 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by: (a) Bonnie and Clyde (b) Captain Kangaroo (c) Billy Graham (d) Muslim Males between the ages of 17 & 40 NOPE, NO PATTERN HERE!!!!!!!! AND, IF YOU THINK YOU FOUND ONE, FORGET IT! IT WOULDN'T BE POLITICALLY CORRECT AND COULD POSSIBLY OFFEND SOMEONE...."}, {"response": 606, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 10, 2002 (20:09)", "body": "For September 11th... it is nice to know we are not alone; MEMORIAL FOR THE 9/11 VICTIMS IN THESSALONIKI A memorial service for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist strike was held today at the US Consul of Thessaloniki. In his short speech after the service, the Minister of Macedonia-Thrace, Giorgos Paschalidis, noted that Greece shares the pain of the American people and characteized security as a basic human right. The Mayor of Thessaloniki, Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, testified the grief of Thessaloniki citizens and stressed that the souls of the victims send out a message to rebuild a safe global society, while he expressed his opinion that the war against terror has started bearing results. US Consul General in Thessaloniki John Coenig thanked all Greeks for their solidarity to the US, which he assured them America will never forget. Mr. Coenig ended by saying that \"together we can make the world a safer place\". The ceremony was attended and given a human dimension by Greek American fireman from NY, Peter Critsimilios, who stated that New York firemen will continue to go through the debris until everyone lost is brought home. http://www.goGreece.com/news/headlines/story.html?id=8046"}, {"response": 607, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 10, 2002 (21:57)", "body": "Homeland Security Threat Level has been rasied to HIGH ALERT (Orange) from Yellow. The announcement is official this afternoon Sep 10, 2002 from news conference help by Attorney General John Ashcroft. EXPLANATION of Orange Shown Below Detailed information on the NEW Homeland Security Coded Advisory System codes and explanation can be found at http://www.emergencyemail.org/homeland A printable version is also available for posting. Please forward this information to those you think may benefit and for e-mail and wireless signup. THE EMERGENCY EMAIL NETWORK, INC. http://www.emergencyemail.org/ .................................................................. ORANGE THREAT EXPLANATION High risk of terrorist attacks. In addition to the previously outlined Protective Measures, the following may be applied: Coordinating necessary security efforts with armed forces or law enforcement agencies; Taking additional precaution at public events; Preparing to work at an alternate site or with a dispersed workforce; and Restricting access to essential personnel only."}, {"response": 608, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 10, 2002 (21:58)", "body": "I know people who will not go to work in major metropolitan cities tomorrow! I plan to fly next week. I hope they have it sorted out by then."}, {"response": 609, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 11, 2002 (12:42)", "body": "This should not beed to be said, but from listening to a lot oc opionions lately, it needs to be reiterated. That airline security file I posted should have read RADICAL Muslim msn. To accuse all Muslims of being radical is unthinkable. Sikander grieves with all peace-loving people and I am concerned for his well-being. He has not checked in lately."}, {"response": 610, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 15, 2002 (17:05)", "body": "I fly eastward tomorrow. Wish me luck.I'll let you know how my airport ordeal was. I feel like a veteran and it does not bother me to be searched."}, {"response": 611, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Sep 23, 2002 (12:06)", "body": "Happy Autumnal Equinox! Except for Rob and Anne, to whom I should wish a Happy Vernal Equinox! Has anybody tried to balance an egg on its end today?"}, {"response": 612, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Sep 23, 2002 (20:30)", "body": "is it too late?"}, {"response": 613, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Sep 23, 2002 (20:33)", "body": "(ok, i tried it and mine rolled all over the place)"}, {"response": 614, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (06:19)", "body": "Hi all, Oh I missed the Autumnal Equinox! We are travelling closer to the Sun with increasing velocity. What is this story about balancing an egg? John"}, {"response": 615, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (10:29)", "body": "John, the story about the egg is that on two days out of the year, the Vernal Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox, an egg can be balanced on it's end and remain that way for some time. The exact reasons for this have to do with the positioning of the Earth on its axis on those two particular days. A TV station in Pittsburgh balanced an egg during the weather segment of the morning news and when I caught the evening news; the egg was still balanced."}, {"response": 616, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Sep 25, 2002 (05:24)", "body": "Hi Cheryl, Wolfie, and all, Thank you Cheryl for the information about the egg balancing. I had not heard about it before. But I feel that something is not in the correct position. Are you sure that this is possible during equinoxes and not any other time? I am naturally \"doubting Thomas\". I must always understand and explain the WHY! I have also some knowledge of astronomy as amateur astronomer. I searched the eventuality if it can be true this story. I found that there is no any astronomical reason why you should be able to balance raw eggs on the equinoxes as opposed to any other day. In fact, you can balance a raw egg on end on any day, if you are lucky or enough patient in order to try! You will have success finally. I subscribe it. The story of the balancing eggs must be a myth that came from the past. John"}, {"response": 617, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 25, 2002 (07:20)", "body": "I had never heard of the egg, either. Unhappily I did not have any eggs in the house so I could not try balancing it. John's right about the raw egg. So is the fact that a cooked egg will spin very nicely, but a raw one will just sit there due to the fluid inside which has more drag."}, {"response": 618, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Sep 25, 2002 (18:59)", "body": "i've heard the egg balancing story before but i can't get it to work. marcia, any idea why we've lost the graphics in here?"}, {"response": 619, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 27, 2002 (20:33)", "body": "Only that Terry has been doing massive restructuring of Spring. You will also note that John has been unable to update his seismic graphs or is doing so from his website research because we cannot FTP either. *sigh*"}, {"response": 620, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Oct  7, 2002 (16:33)", "body": "Hi Marci Still alive but been tied up with work annoyances for the past couple of weeks - anyway, hope to be more frequent. 73 de AA9IL Mike"}, {"response": 621, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct  7, 2002 (16:41)", "body": "Darn those annoyances!"}, {"response": 622, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  8, 2002 (18:37)", "body": "*sigh* Yup, annoyances happen on the road to improvement. I think they call it character-building. Annoyances fits better, though. Glad to have you check in from time to time. I'll bet you are having colder weather, too. Now, if only Sikander would check in. I worry about him! Are these little squares yours, too, Terry???"}, {"response": 623, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct  8, 2002 (18:46)", "body": "Little squares?"}, {"response": 624, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (19:46)", "body": "For a while yesterday everything on Geo had little programming squares between each letter of each word of titles and all things except for posted text. Very strange! I should have photograhped it for you with a screen capture."}, {"response": 625, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (22:20)", "body": "still can't see any pics though...."}, {"response": 626, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (06:10)", "body": "Maybe it's a permissions problem, I'll look in to it."}, {"response": 627, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (18:12)", "body": "Most items are restored except for the graphics which make up the title on the index page. I am delighted John's graphics are restored to the portal page. I suspect the permission is disabled or generic and can't find Geo's graphics."}, {"response": 628, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (21:01)", "body": "I need more details! Email me exact info as soon as you notice it, let me know exactly what you were trying to do, what username/pwd etc. you were using and exactly which directory/file you were updating."}, {"response": 629, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 13, 2002 (20:37)", "body": "John!!! I need to talk to you. I'm not sure where you have your files but they are in Geo. I'll email you, Terry. I did manage to make an ersatz title while we untangle this graphics difficulty with John's work Test..."}, {"response": 630, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 13, 2002 (20:54)", "body": "Ok, that works! Now what is wrong with the title page of Geo... test..."}, {"response": 631, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 13, 2002 (20:55)", "body": "Aha! http://www.spring.net/geo/JohnVolos/Public is not visible on the internet AND CANNOT BE SEEN TO FUNCTION AS A PART OF GEO!"}, {"response": 632, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct 14, 2002 (11:50)", "body": "I'll take a look right away."}, {"response": 633, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct 14, 2002 (15:12)", "body": "terry-please fix topic 34 (space science news) it keeps showing up and there's nothing to see. once i take a look see, the topic still shows up as unread!"}, {"response": 634, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct 14, 2002 (15:24)", "body": "ok will fix"}, {"response": 635, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 14, 2002 (15:46)", "body": "Things work well now for both John and for me asregardsGeo. Thank you VERY much, Terry!!! My son sent this to me.... not comforting! Thursday, October 10, 2002 Pentagon admits troops unaware of chemical tests Thousands of Hawaii civilians also did not know they were being sprayed with bacteria -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Matt Kelley Associated Press WASHINGTON: The Pentagon acknowledged yesterday that some soldiers engaged in chemical and biological weapons testing in the 1960s may not have been fully informed about the secret experiments conducted at sea and in five states from Hawaii to Florida. Some tests used the military's deadliest nerve agent, VX. Thousands of civilians in Hawaii and Alaska also probably were unaware they were sprayed with relatively mild bacteria meant to simulate germ weapons such as anthrax, the Defense Department's top health official said. Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant defense secretary for health affairs, said there is no evidence anyone died as a result of the classified tests, which were part of biological and chemical warfare programs the United States abandoned in 1970. Four people at the military's Deseret Testing Center in Utah were infected during biological weapons work, but all recovered, said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, another Pentagon health official. Records do not show who the people were or what germs infected them, Kilpatrick said. At a news conference, the Pentagon released declassified summaries of 28 of the tests, showing for the first time the scope of open-air testing of chemical and biological agents on American soil. About 5,500 service members participated in the tests. \"It's pretty deplorable that the DOD held this info up for so long,\" said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., at a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee hearing. The agency has commissioned a $3 million study to determine if test participants are getting sick because of their exposure. So far, 55 veterans have filed claims with the VA blaming their health problems on their participation in chemical or biological tests. The civilian exposures came during tests in Alaska and Hawaii that involved spraying Bacillis globigii, a bacterial relative of anthrax, from airplanes. At the time, BG was considered to be harmless. Later, researchers discovered it could cause infections in people with weak immune systems. One of the tests, called \"Big Tom,\" involved spraying the bacteria over Oahu in May and June 1965. Winkenwerder said there is evidence that local authorities were told of the tests, though public notification probably did not occur. Two other tests in Hawaii, named \"Pine Ridge\" and \"Tall Timber,\" used a chemical agent code-named BZ in forest preserves southwest of Hilo. BZ, a compound of benzilic acid, causes stupor, hallucinations and confusion. It was meant to incapacitate enemy soldiers, according to Pentagon summaries of the tests. For example, from April through June 1966, bomblets containing BZ were ignited in the upper Waiakea Forest Preserve. The Pine Ridge and Tall Timber tests were meant to determine how to disseminate BZ \"in or below a jungle canopy,\" the test summaries said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. DoD Deployment Health Support"}, {"response": 636, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Oct 21, 2002 (10:54)", "body": "Hi all lovely news... makes me wonder if the 'flu season' is a bit more than it is... Anyway, still alive in backgroung mode but enjoy reading Geo posts (Hi Marci!) Only a couple more weeks of this grad skool semester and the eventual completion of the rebuilding of the radio room and life might return to some form of normalcy (whatever that is....) 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 637, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 24, 2002 (16:12)", "body": "Marcia, love the \"Coprolite Happens\" graphic. Mike, good luck in attaining normality, or nomalcy, or whatever. I hope you have better luck than I have lately."}, {"response": 638, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, Oct 25, 2002 (10:15)", "body": "Hi Cheryl Not sure if I could identify normality if I saw it. Constancy of the current observed reality is probably what Im looking for. de Mike"}, {"response": 639, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 25, 2002 (16:49)", "body": "Big good luck Hugs, Mike! Lesser men than you have survived grad school and lived to tell the tale. Go get 'em! Yeah,My thoughts exactly about flu season. UGH. I thought pollution was bad on the mainland, but at least here you can see what you are breathing. Comforting news yesterday was that the \"pollution season\" is over. And, I forgot to celebrate!"}, {"response": 640, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Oct 27, 2002 (13:40)", "body": "Hi Mike. Good luck with grad school and of finding \"the constancy of current of observed reality.\" Reality, what a concept! Pollution season is over? I didn't realize that there was a \"pollution season\". Having seasonal allergies, I am aware that pollen season is over. That makes me very happy."}, {"response": 641, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Oct 28, 2002 (10:10)", "body": "Hi all I know the mosquito season is over - the temp is now in the 30-40s with talk of rain/snow! The squirrels are all hoarding nuts and the geese are in mass migration so ol' winter is near. 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 642, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (14:36)", "body": "Your hostess is currently going through a very difficult time in her life. Please bear with me while I try to get my life back together."}, {"response": 643, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (16:31)", "body": "Understand! Take your time, we'll miss you but your sanity and health are paramount. I'm hoping things will all fall in to place for you."}, {"response": 644, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (16:36)", "body": "Thanks Terry. If it does not fall into place, this will be a missed opportunity of massive proportions. I can use all the good thoughts I can get. At the moment I am merely waiting for life to resume. I may have to make it happen one way or the other."}, {"response": 645, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (16:42)", "body": "So you're in Kentucky now and you've wrapped things up in Hilo?"}, {"response": 646, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (19:20)", "body": "*HUGS*"}, {"response": 647, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (21:38)", "body": "*sniff* Thanks Wolfie! I need hugs !!"}, {"response": 648, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Oct 31, 2002 (10:47)", "body": "Hi Marci Hugs and hang in there! Crank up the scanner tonight and listen to the Halloween shenanigans for a good laugh. 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 649, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Oct 31, 2002 (10:59)", "body": "Happy Samhein to All! 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 650, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  7, 2002 (12:49)", "body": "Happy Samhein to you, Mike. Still waiting to hear you on Echolink."}, {"response": 651, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Nov 11, 2002 (10:13)", "body": "Hey Terry Been mucho busy with work foolishness but will try to log into 'link. Also, trip to Austin is in the works so I will be on the radio for sure! 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 652, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Nov 11, 2002 (13:44)", "body": "Sounds great, do you know what dates you'll be in town?"}, {"response": 653, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 12, 2002 (16:06)", "body": "Marcia will be returning to Hilo permanently shortly."}, {"response": 654, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 12, 2002 (17:13)", "body": "Wow, good to hear from you again Marcia! Hope things are going ok."}, {"response": 655, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 12, 2002 (19:32)", "body": "*HUGS* marcia, we are all pulling for you. hang in there sweetie!!"}, {"response": 656, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 12, 2002 (19:33)", "body": "that was supposed to be *HUGS*"}, {"response": 657, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Nov 13, 2002 (09:30)", "body": "Hi Marci Glad to hear you again! I always associate seeing your postings with Hawaii! 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 658, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (19:31)", "body": "Guess what is waiting for me to arrive in Hilo: (I just wonder what kind it is!) Intel Celeron 1.8 GHz 256 MB DDR SDRAN 64 MB Memory 80 GB Ultra DMV Hard Drive DVD / CO-RW Combo Mix Burn & Play 16x8x8 Max Speed Integrated 10 / 100 Base T LAN Interface MX 70 17\" Multi-Media Monitor Optimized For Digital Images Quick Connect Internet Keyboard Stereo Speakers Multi-Mouse Pre-installed Software Lexmark X125 All-In -One Color Scan-FAX-Copy-Phone (Hand Held) Stereo Speakers WOW!!!!"}, {"response": 659, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (19:32)", "body": "Hi Mike! Hugs are always waiting for you! You'll get lots of stuff from Hawaii soon. Meanwhile bounce a few signals off the meteorites and let us know of your success!"}, {"response": 660, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (20:17)", "body": "That's a great system. The only thing I would add would be a second 80 or120 gb hard drive. Since they're so cheap and your data is so valuable. You can set up a second hard drive to instantly become your main drive with all your data intact if your primary drive crashes. Nice, Marci!"}, {"response": 661, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (18:39)", "body": "How do I link them? Just as another drive as in all peripheral hardware? What a fantastic idea. Then I can save all of Geo in a very safe place! Thanks for mentioning it, Terry. Don is about to take receipt of a new Gateway of just about the same capability. I am looking into his getting a Minute Man MBK300 for back up. He does so much work writing manuscripts he needs something for back up when power is interrupted."}, {"response": 662, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (19:17)", "body": "You just add the second drive to the ide cable that connects to the motherboard and set the jumpers on the drive for 'slave' or 'cable select'. The first drive is jumpered as the master. At Frys ( http://www.outpost.com ) a 120 gb IBM ide hard drive, 7200 rpm is $159.00 which is not a bad investment for safeguarding your data. You might find a better deal at http://www.pricewatch.com (search for IBM 120 gb drives or high capacity drives in general). Drive crashes can happen. And a second drive is usually the cheapest backup system."}, {"response": 663, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (19:40)", "body": "Sounds great. There is a Fry's near my son's house. I can investigate that in a week or so. Thanks!"}, {"response": 664, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (20:10)", "body": "You must be talking about the one in San Jose? Or is there one up North now?"}, {"response": 665, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (18:43)", "body": "There is a Fry's just west of Sacramento. I got my Iomega Zip drive there plus a bunch of other goodies a few years ago."}, {"response": 666, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (19:12)", "body": "I noticed that in the Austin ad they had a 250 gb hard drive on sale. The 120 gb IBM may still be the best value though."}, {"response": 667, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Nov 25, 2002 (20:36)", "body": "Many hugs and good wishes to you, Marcia. You're going back to Hilo, to your beautiful garden. The orchids growing in your tree. I hope that all we be well for you."}, {"response": 668, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Nov 25, 2002 (20:39)", "body": "Happy Thanksgiving to all the American posters and lurkers at Geo! As for everyone else from all parts of the world, have a great fourth Thursday of November. Unless you're on the other side of the International Date Line from the U.S., in which case I should you a great fifth Friday of November."}, {"response": 669, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 26, 2002 (10:02)", "body": "Happy Thanksgiving to you too Cheryl!"}, {"response": 670, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 27, 2002 (20:39)", "body": "HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY GEO FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!"}, {"response": 671, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 28, 2002 (08:37)", "body": "Happy Geo Thanksgiving Wolfie!"}, {"response": 672, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 28, 2002 (12:39)", "body": "Happy Thanksgiving, America!"}, {"response": 673, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 28, 2002 (12:42)", "body": "Sorry I missed Canada's on November 1st. Thanks for the good wishes, all. Atthe moment I have offers from my sisterin New York, from son and wife in California and home. Sooner or later I am going to have to return and take care of business, as they say. Today I get dinner out with my favorite archaeologist *;)"}, {"response": 674, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (17:57)", "body": "Happy belated Thanksgiving to all! Back in the snowy Chicago land area. Hard to believe that a week ago I was sitting outside at Shady Grove in Austin enjoying the nice weather and company. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i p.s. also going to have to post a message in radio regarding the cool pirate FM station heard in Austin last weekend."}, {"response": 675, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (18:40)", "body": "It's Shady Grove weather today, I didn't catch you on the repeater this time."}, {"response": 676, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (21:17)", "body": "Howdy howdy I was able to speak with George and Micky plus heard some ilink activity (one local, the other from DL land). Anyway, have to be a bit more frequent on ilink - especially since skool is finished for the year and I have some free time. Guess I can rant about the pirate... Last saturday night, was cruising around downtown around 10pm - at the suggestion of the YL, I should see what was on the radio rather than run through the CD collections - anyway, went to FM mode and hit scan and heard some really grungy metal - stuff that you would never hear on commercial FM. Listened to the banter between tunes and determined that yes, this was NOT commercial FM. Woohoo! Anyway, while the YL did the shopping thing at the Christmas expo at the Palmer center, I drove to a quiet street and listened to the station for a while. Now, this was tres phun as the selections were all types of Black/Death/Sludge Metal - as I stated before, no commercial station save for college radio would play this kind of stuff. This was followed up by some kewl anarchy punk when the next show started up at 11am - this stuff was going until the wee hours of the morning and I was most happy to hear that free radio was back in Austin. Now, Im not a metal head - I do like early Deep Purple Hawkwind, Uriah Heap, Nirvana, Husker Du type tunes but never got to much into the underground death metal scene but I listened to that show at ear bleeding volumes and it was damn fun. (Right now listening to early Clash on the short wave but thats another story...). Listen around on Saturday nights in the downtown around 96.9 (I think) and see if they pop up again. Fight For Free Radio! de Mike"}, {"response": 677, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (21:20)", "body": "correction - the times was 11 PM to well past 1 am for the time just to set the record straight.... de M"}, {"response": 678, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (22:03)", "body": "I heard George and Bob talking about that and they mentioned they heard about it from you."}, {"response": 679, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  8, 2002 (20:29)", "body": "Here it has been all talk about putting up more and more repeaters. The same with Kentucky Hams. Seems they are extrememly active now that cold weather has come. Happy beautiful snow, Mike. We had 5 inches of it in Louisville and it was beautiful - and VERY cold. I had forgotten how cold!!!"}, {"response": 680, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 2002 (07:49)", "body": "We can't put up many more repeaters, because most of the frequencies are assigned, esp, 2 meters and 450 mhz. There's still a lot of frequencies in 1.2 ghz, 220 and 6 meters. Snow in Louisville, wow, that's a lot. Just rainy here. Heavy lightning strikes nearby last night, so I unplugged all the computers and electronics for the night. Just getting plugged back in."}, {"response": 681, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 2002 (10:30)", "body": "Hi all Wow, yall had more snow than we did - the snow has been clearing but its been very cold - 13deg F this morning. The ice fishers have been out on the lake setting up huts since it froze over. I have been inside planning on working on radio stuff (great indoor activity). IL is full up on repeaters with the exception of 1.2ghz. 220 is full of repeaters but who is on them??? The snow is nice because you can see all the critter tracks (quite suprising the amount from the night) Heard two hoot owls this morning - must have been out on an all night hoot! 73 de Mike AA9IL r-c-i p.s. Been listening to the latest KGSR compilation that I picked up while in Austin - good music. I miss being in Austin...."}, {"response": 682, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (20:01)", "body": "Sheesh, Mike. Warmer in your refrigerator !!! Getting the pics resized and FTP'd so you can see Looeyvill in all its pretty snow now long turned to slush. Ugh!"}, {"response": 683, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (17:43)", "body": "Hi all Just goofing off on the computer for a moment. Nothing dramatic to say except howdy.... 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 684, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (19:14)", "body": "Howdy is fantastic! Happy you are around. I am decorating Geo for the season :)"}, {"response": 685, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (19:47)", "body": "Love the holly. Didn't the Romans decorate their homes with holly for the Saturnalia? Marcia would know. Io Saturnalia all you classicists out there! Remember, it is coming up."}, {"response": 686, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (00:09)", "body": "This is true. Some hundreds of posts back several of us discussed all of the mid-winter celebrations and lore from our distant past. Seems we were terrified that the sun might never come back!"}, {"response": 687, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (00:10)", "body": "I just wish we had our original title back so I could put better decorations up. *SIGH*"}, {"response": 688, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (01:01)", "body": "I am back in Hawaii. Not pleasedwith the situation and the house is a MESS!!! Thank you for holding my hand across the pacific. I hate flying over the sea."}, {"response": 689, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (17:52)", "body": "Hi Marci and welcome back. The Winter Solstice is approaching - woo hoo! Funny weather around here - it was in the mid 40's for the past couple of days so HAARP must be transmitting or something. Lots of vapor contrails in the sky. Anyway, saw a flock of migrant white swans in the lake yesterday which was neat and listened to some very bizarre stream of conscience radio broadcasts on shortwave last night - tis the season! 73 de Mike AA9IL"}, {"response": 690, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (18:42)", "body": "Happy (Almost) Winter Solstice, Mike and everyone else! The flock of swans must have been beautiful. Marcia, it's wonderful to hear that you had a safe trip. I hope that it wasn't too stressful. Or if it was, that you're recovering nicely. Sorry to hear that you found the house a shambles when you arrived."}, {"response": 691, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (22:38)", "body": "It is so overcast and rainy here I can hardly tell day from night. Rain forests may be important to the rest of you, but don't try living in one."}, {"response": 692, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Dec 20, 2002 (11:24)", "body": "Drunk elephants kill six people Drunken elephants have trampled at least six people to death in the northeast Indian state of Assam, local officials say. The herd of wild elephants stumbled across the supplies of homemade rice beer after they destroyed granaries in search of food. The incident happened near Tinsukia, 550 kilometres (344 miles) from the Assam capital, Guwahati. \"They smashed huts and plundered granaries and broke open casks to drink rice beer. The herd then went berserk killing six people,\" a forestry official told AFP news agency. Police said four of those killed were children. According to experts, elephants often emerge from Assam's forests in search of food. But much to the annoyance of the local residents, they destroy rice fields and granaries. Environmental questions Growing elephant numbers and the devastation of the animal's natural habitat are partly to blame for the problem. Officials in Assam say at least 150 people have been killed by elephants in the last two years. The deaths have led villagers to kill up to 200 elephants. \"It has been noticed that elephants have developed a taste for rice beer and local liquor and they always look for it when they invade villages,\" an elephant expert in Guwahati told Reuters news agency. The region is home to more than half of India's elephant population, estimated at 10,000. The Assam Government's protection of elephants over the last 20 years, including a ban on their hunting, has led numbers to increase to about 5,500. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2583891.stm"}, {"response": 693, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Dec 21, 2002 (14:15)", "body": "Christmas Reindeer Loses, Uh, Its Ornaments Reuters A star reindeer in a South African shopping mall's Christmas display lost a little of its seasonal pride and joy after complaints from shoppers. Managers at one of Cape Town's upscale malls, \"castrated\" the plastic animal after receiving complaints about shiny golden Christmas tree ornaments hanging between its hind legs, officials said Thursday. Hein Conradie, a spokesman for the company which made the display, told the Cape Argus newspaper that the ornaments were \"anatomically correct for an animal of that size\" and were prominent because of the reindeer's central position in the display. \"Generally, we find it wiser to use sexless reindeer,\" Conradie said. http://radio.weblogs.com/0106101/2002/12/16.html"}, {"response": 694, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Dec 22, 2002 (14:41)", "body": "Time for seasonal felicitations: Merry Christmas Happy Hannukah Joyous Kwanzaa Happy Ramadan & Eid Greetings Happy Winter Solstice (Happy Summer Solstice to Rob and Anne) Io Saturnalia Happy Boxing Day (to those in the UK and Canada) and Happy New Year"}, {"response": 695, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 23, 2002 (15:49)", "body": "You find the most enchanting things to post, Cheryl. Drunken elephants?! Wh Who could have imagined. I am going to pretend the holidays are not here for my own sanity."}, {"response": 696, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 24, 2002 (20:06)", "body": "CHOCOLATE MATHEMATICS Get a calculator first. 1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate. Try for more than once but less than 10. 2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold). 3. Add 5 (for Sunday). 4. Multiply it by 50 - I'll wait while you get the calculator. 5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1752. If you haven't, add 1751. 6. Now subtract the four-digit year that you were born. You should have a three-digit number. The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week). The next two numbers are YOUR AGE! (Oh YES it is!!!!!) Happy Holidays from HL"}, {"response": 697, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 25, 2002 (11:39)", "body": "MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!"}, {"response": 698, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 25, 2002 (11:40)", "body": "well, you guys know I meant to have that a bit bigger!!"}, {"response": 699, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 25, 2002 (14:52)", "body": "We knew, Wolfie! HUGS!!!"}, {"response": 700, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 26, 2002 (22:55)", "body": "Since this has come up before and still needs rebuttals I post it here as well as in Geo 24: * Hoaxers vs. Rocket Scientists: Even NASA Unsure How to Counter Claims of Faked Moon Missions http://www.space.com/news/oberg_hoaxes_021221.html Is that the moon or a studio in the Nevada desert? How can the flag flutter when there's no wind on the moon? Why can't we see stars in the moon-landing pictures?"}, {"response": 701, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jan  3, 2003 (12:36)", "body": "ported: Topic 50 of 86: 'Et Cetera' Resp 716 of 717: Curious Wolfie (wolf) Fri, Jan 3, 2003 (11:11) 3 lines I spent New Year's Eve in bed sound asleep, waking only to hear my neighbors shout and fireworks going off. Happy New Year!! Congratulations on your retirement, John. Now you'll be able to devote more time to your inventions and the work you were meant to do--earthquake hunting!! Topic 50 of 86: 'Et Cetera' Resp 717 of 717: John Tsatsaragos (tsatsvol) Fri, Jan 3, 2003 (11:57) 9 lines Thank you Wolfie, Yes I will try to improve my method on EQ prediction. It is real that I never stopped this attempt. I am in good point now. But I want more. I must answer on every possible scientific question. Doing flash back into the past we hitch on our mistakes. But life is continued and we must command what we believe that appertain to each one of us. HAPPY NEW YEAR John"}, {"response": 702, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 2003 (07:32)", "body": "Wolfie you have a web author account and I need to get you some information. Please mail or call me and I'll pass this to you."}, {"response": 703, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 2003 (20:54)", "body": "Cool beans!!"}, {"response": 704, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan  6, 2003 (00:36)", "body": "Wolfie has been missed. Especially by me. Cool Beans, Indeed."}, {"response": 705, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  6, 2003 (10:35)", "body": "*HUGS*"}, {"response": 706, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jan  6, 2003 (19:42)", "body": "Congratulations on your retirement, John. You'll no doubt be busier than ever with your scientific work on earthquakes. The best of luck to you. I hope that you and your family had a great St. Basil's Day, if you've celebrated it yet. It falls on New Year's Day, doesn't it? Still, is it Jan. 1 on the Gregorian calendar or the Julian calendar? According to the Julian calendar this would be Christmas Eve; so Merry Christmas to the Eastern Orthodox. I know someone from the Ukraine who is celebrating tomorrow, Jan. 7th. Hello, Wolfie! Hope that you and the pups and alpha male had a great New Year's. Marcia, here's hoping that 2003 is a better year for you. Have a wonderful New Year. Terry, last and certainly not least, hope that you had the best of holiday seasons. Happy (Belated) New Year to all!"}, {"response": 707, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (02:11)", "body": "Hugs to Cheryl. How much better this year will be for me!!! I do worry about John. He has my lover...."}, {"response": 708, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (02:13)", "body": "Hi Cheryl and all Thank you for your wishes. Yes! I plan to expand my research, as it is possible to me. I will keep the entire Geo family informed. Eastern Orthodox Church has two groups; One that follow the old Julian calendar (they are called especially as \"Old Calendar Christians\") and one that follow the new calendar. The second is extreamly multitudinous in Greece. We belong in the second group. Religious sentiment is very strong in Greece. We celebrate Christmas on 25th of December, St. Basil's Day on 1st of January, Epiphany on 6th of January, and today (7th of January) is my name day. I wish you a PEACEFUL AND HAPPY NEW YEAR with GOOD HEALTH. Dreams of every one will be realised. John"}, {"response": 709, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (02:26)", "body": "I knew January 7th was your Name Day. Somewhere on Geo I have mentioned my best wishes for your day."}, {"response": 710, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (10:45)", "body": "what's a Name Day?"}, {"response": 711, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (12:58)", "body": "In Greece, they celebrate the saint's day for whom they were named more than they do their actual birthday. John's saint's day is today, the 7th of January. I don't think there is a saint Marcia,,,"}, {"response": 712, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (18:45)", "body": "Marcia, you did mention that Jan. 7th is John's name day. So it would seem that John was named in honor of St. John the Baptist as his feast day for \"New Calendar\" Orthodox followers is Jan. 7. Which is different than for Catholics and mainline Protestants. Since I had a Catholic upbringing, I do know that the feast day for St. John the Baptist is June 24. In France, St. John's Eve, June 23 was tradionally the day when couples became engaged to be married. Throughout much of Europe St. John was associated with the summer solstice, much as Christ, (Christmas, the mass of Christ) was associated with the winter solstice. In Northern Europe the birch tree was associated with the summer solstice and later St. John; while, particularly in Germany, the evergreen was associated with the winter solstice and later Christ. I'm digressing. Sorry. Here's hoping that John had a wonderful name day!"}, {"response": 713, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  8, 2003 (14:20)", "body": "You are wonderful, Cheryl. Digresssion is what makes Geo so special. Thanks for the information. I was raised Episcopalian (Church of England) did not do much with saints days."}, {"response": 714, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, Jan 17, 2003 (15:52)", "body": "Hi all and Happy Gnu Year! Hope to be back soon! 73 de Mike AA9IL r-c-i"}, {"response": 715, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 17, 2003 (20:57)", "body": "I Hope you are not snowed under, Mike! Michigan can be brutal this time of year! Take care and return as soon as you can. We miss you!"}, {"response": 716, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 2003 (06:53)", "body": "Happy Gnu Year! Just intalled a bunch of gnu stuff here."}, {"response": 717, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 2003 (13:52)", "body": "Oh Good! I wonder if my FTP works yet so I can put the index.htm so I can change the horizontal bars. We need gnu ones!"}, {"response": 718, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jan 20, 2003 (09:25)", "body": "What user are you trying to use ftp as? marcia or marci? Or geo? I may need to create a geo user for you and test it. I'm having a problem right now with the easyadmin interface so I can't do anything till we've finished troubleshooting."}, {"response": 719, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 21, 2003 (18:46)", "body": "I log in as Geo as I recall."}, {"response": 720, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jan 21, 2003 (20:00)", "body": "Sorry to turn the subject from gnu's to cats. Still, have a Happy Gnu Year, just the same. Isn't Chinese New Year almost upon us. Is the upcoming year the Year of the Horse? Anyway, back to cats. This is from the CNN site. Cloned Cats Aren't Necessarily Copies By KRISTEN HAYS COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Rainbow the cat is a typical calico with splotches of brown, tan and gold on white. Cc, her clone, has a striped gray coat over white. Rainbow is reserved. Cc is curious and playful. Rainbow is chunky. Cc is sleek. Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society might be inclined to say: I told you so. But then, so would cc's creators at Texas A&M University. Sure, you can clone your favorite cat. But the copy will not necessarily act or even look like the original. Cc (for carbon copy) is just over a year old. Her birth Dec. 22, 2001, was big news when it was announced last February because it was the first time a household pet had been cloned. Previous mammal clones were barnyard animals like cows and goats. Cc's creation was funded by Genetic Savings & Clone, a company that hopes to make money from people's desires to duplicate their favorite pets. Last February, in the journal Nature, the A&M researchers published details of the project and DNA test results that showed cc was a clone. But people who hope cloning will resurrect a pet will be disappointed, said Duane Kraemer, one of A&M's animal cloning experts. Experts say environment is as important as genes in determining a cat's personality. And as far as appearance, having the same DNA as another calico cat doesn't always produce the same coat pattern. ``This vindicates the opposition we espoused from the beginning, that cloning does not lead to duplication,'' said Pacelle, senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States. ``Not only does cloning not produce a physical duplicate, but it can never reproduce the behavior or personality of a cat that you want to keep around. There are millions of cats in shelters and with rescue groups that need homes, and the last thing we need is a new production strategy for cats.'' Before the birth of cc, Genetic Savings & Clone had hundreds of pet DNA samples stored at a cost of $895 for healthy animals and $1,395 for sick or dead animals. Lou Hawthorne, Genetic Savings & Clone chief executive, has estimated that the cost to create a clone will initially be in the low five figures and later drop to the low four figures. Though cc's arrival sparked a deluge of calls from pet owners, more research is needed to figure out how to produce consistently healthy clones before the company can start doing it commercially, said Ben Carlson, the company's spokesman. ``A year ago, we said we'd start commercial services in a year, and here we are a year later,'' Carlson said. ``It's really impossible for us to make a certain prediction as to how long it's going to take to develop the technology to get successful results.'' There is a demand from dog lovers, but scientists so far have been unable to clone a canine. In fact, cc's creation was the result of a dog lover, not a cat lover. University of Phoenix founder John Sperling wanted a duplicate of his collie mix, Missy. With his $3.7 million, Texas A&M launched the ``Missyplicity'' project over four years ago. Now, Missy is dead, euthanized last year because of an inoperable growth on her esophagus. Sperling has redirected his funding to the Sausalito, Calif.-based Genetic Savings & Clone, which he hopes will one day deliver a clone of Missy. Carlson said the company tells pet owners that cloning won't resurrect their pet and that the company has turned away some customers clearly interested in getting the same animal. ``In the short term, it's easy to exploit that misperception,'' he said. ``But in the long term, it's unethical, and the pet owner will quickly find that, `Hey, this isn't Fluffy, this puppy doesn't recognize me or know all the old tricks.''' However, he said cloning could reproduce what a pet owner considers to be exceptional genes, particularly from an animal with unknown parentage or one that has been spayed or neutered. ``A small percentage of the population know exactly what they want and they want to stick with it - another animal as similar as possible,'' Carlson said. ``That's the motive we've encountered among our clients.'' But disclaimers could go unheard by pet owners desperate to duplicate an animal, said University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan, a critic of cloning and companies that purport to sell it. He said animal lovers bond with pets because of their personalities and behaviors, not the genetic material that defines the immune system or blood type. ``The new cloned dog won't know the old tricks - you have to teach them,'' Caplan said. ``It doesn't matter how many genes they have in common.'' With the Missyplicity funding gone, Texas A&M will continue trying to break new ground in cloning farm animals, wildlife and dogs, but it"}, {"response": 721, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 21, 2003 (21:45)", "body": "Identical twins are not even clones and how much alike can one get?"}, {"response": 722, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 21, 2003 (21:47)", "body": "why are my buttons messed up? The \"help\" one has a frame around it..."}, {"response": 723, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 23, 2003 (11:10)", "body": "I am having to re-enter all the sites, all the dns entries and all the users ont eh system today. There are bound to be a few glitches. Everyone is going to have to do a password change by phone so iether call me at 512-699-4000 or email me your phone number. I'm going to toughen up our own \"webland security\"!"}, {"response": 724, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan 23, 2003 (20:46)", "body": "just checking in with my fellow geoites! cheryl, thanks for posting the cat article in springark. i've not been very good at keeping up."}, {"response": 725, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jan 25, 2003 (09:25)", "body": "You're welcome, Wolfie."}, {"response": 726, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 31, 2003 (22:38)", "body": "Please don't think I have deserted the cause. I have contracted a very nasty Polynesian virus and have trouble standing up, let alone writing and reading. Where is John Tsatsaragos? I am most worried about him!"}, {"response": 727, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Feb  1, 2003 (12:33)", "body": "Get well soon, Marcia. I hope that John comes back soon, as well."}, {"response": 728, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb  1, 2003 (14:38)", "body": "My profound sorrow at the demise of Shuttle Columbia is breaking my heart. I have no words to say my sorrow. We had forgotten how truly dangerous these missions are. God Bless All."}, {"response": 729, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Feb  2, 2003 (08:11)", "body": "I share your sorrow Marci. And concern for John. That virus does sound nasty! Hope you get feeling better soon. When you do get well, I'll tell you about geo's new chat and about http://stonedom.com which I hope you'll take part in! Get well!"}, {"response": 730, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Feb  2, 2003 (10:40)", "body": "get well soon, marcia. i share your sentiments for the families of those lost on columbia."}, {"response": 731, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  4, 2003 (18:17)", "body": "Still very dizzy and spend most of the day laying down. That way, I can't fall down! I share this malady, whatever it is, with several others in Hilo and with the other occupant in the house. Be assured I will come back and post as soon as I can see with both eyes! Thanks for your good wishes, all. Our Archaeologist is also not doing well, so I have to get better ASAP!!!"}, {"response": 732, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  1, 2003 (08:23)", "body": "John is still missing. I wish he would check in just to say hello! Lance is missing also but think his power is out from the ice storm Don is too busy for Geo at the moment, understandably So am I, but will change soon I hope!"}, {"response": 733, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar  2, 2003 (06:33)", "body": "I hope too!"}, {"response": 734, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Mar  2, 2003 (09:25)", "body": "Hi kids The schedule is finally clearing so here is my hello to all. Might even have time to do some posting to the old gaia m. thread as well! 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i (currently stuck in scenic Detroit....)"}, {"response": 735, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Mar  3, 2003 (08:55)", "body": "Hi All, I am back in Volos (and in Geo) after long time. I was in Athens without any computer. Happily, I have a new laptop now. But I need to install my useful programs in it. I am sorry for my long absence. I hope that you can forgive me a little. John"}, {"response": 736, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (10:22)", "body": "John, you are forgiven all. I know you are busy. We are just delighted you are back with us and have that necessary laptop! \"Scenic\" Detroit...ugh! During my summer and fall of traversing the USA from California to Kentucky, I studiously avoided changing planes in Detroit. Be safe, Mike. We need you. Are you without radio? I never travel without at least my scanner (not the computer kind) radio. Lance is back but I need to find something to interest him here to get him posting again."}, {"response": 737, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (10:58)", "body": "I don't encourage political thought in Geo because it is so contentious, but the following was sent to me by my daughter-in-law. It says it all. GET THE AMERICANS You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American. So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one: An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans. An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God. An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person the pursuit of happiness. An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least. Some of these \"imports\" were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists. So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American."}, {"response": 738, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (21:50)", "body": "*AMEN*"}, {"response": 739, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  8, 2003 (14:29)", "body": "*HUGS* Wolfie. You were foremost in my mind when I posted it. *;)"}, {"response": 740, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 12, 2003 (22:56)", "body": "I must be away for a few days. I'll be back ASAP."}, {"response": 741, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar 30, 2003 (12:27)", "body": "Come back soon!"}, {"response": 742, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  1, 2003 (01:10)", "body": "I am back... Wonder what there is in store for me with my therapist to deal with the problems at home."}, {"response": 743, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Apr  7, 2003 (21:08)", "body": "Hi Marci Glad you are back - this is only my second post for a long while - been busy with school starting up again, work stuff, plus finally getting the ham shack back together again. Anyway, I keep threatening to do some posting so will try to be a bit more frequent in the future. Hope all is well with yall. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 744, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  8, 2003 (00:57)", "body": "Get it all done at once, Mike! *HUGS* you need to get this elderhostel education over so you can live a little. Will be expecting you soon! Y'all know I have to learn how to speak mainland instead of Hawaiian-pidgin?!"}, {"response": 745, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Apr  8, 2003 (19:30)", "body": "Hi Marci Oh, I have a long way to go to that master's degree so I just have to do fun things in between homework. Just ready to have a radio room again since all projects are kind of on hold at the moment. I would love to hear (or read) more Hawaiian-pidgin since there is plenty of mainland around here. 73 de Mike AA9IL r-c-i"}, {"response": 746, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr  9, 2003 (19:11)", "body": "Wow, a radio show! What are the details on that?"}, {"response": 747, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 11, 2003 (19:00)", "body": "Oh Mike! Hawaiian Pidgin is a very uncouth sounding patois, but hilarious and very useful when trying to short-cut an oral message. Everything runs together and some of the words are Corrupted English, some plain Hawaiian, some Portuguese and some Japanese. Some are of unknown origin. It is fun to listen to the road crews switching between talking to their bosses in perfect English , and then lapsing into Pidgin when talking with one another.I can do it. My son can, too! The ones that scare me are those who will never hear good spoken English."}, {"response": 748, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (20:42)", "body": "Hi all Being an engineer, uncouth patois is right down my alley (well, not always...) - I do try to maintain some social skills however remedial..... Anyway, probably like what I used to listen to while working on an oil crew in TX many years ago. Hi Terry - I have been thinking about buying some hours on WBCQ but that is waaaaay down the line into the future. I have the music material picked out, as usual, just a time/money issue. Anyway, have a groovy spring! (it actually got above 80 here - last week we had a major ice storm) 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 749, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (18:12)", "body": "Happy whatever Spring feasts you are observing from Vernal Equinox to Passover to Various calendar versions of Easter. Be safe and do not eat too many sweet things *;)"}, {"response": 750, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (18:13)", "body": "While New York is having heat waves, Mike has ice storms. I hope you all have good weather for any traveling you will be doing this season!"}, {"response": 751, "author": "g7hvp", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (19:49)", "body": "In England we are having a heat wave temps in the middle 70 F normaly about 40F and no rain for five weeks, come to sunny England for your holidays. Joe"}, {"response": 752, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:07)", "body": "We had a high around 73 today too! But the pool water is holding at 83 degrees. I'm so glad it doesn't lose it quickly!"}, {"response": 753, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:40)", "body": "It was cool and full of squalls here over the weekend. 75 F was our highest. It suits me better to be cool with the surrounding rain forest and high humidity! I can bet England is beautiful now.....*sigh* Oh, to be in England..."}, {"response": 754, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 21, 2003 (11:44)", "body": "Mid 70s here today too."}, {"response": 755, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 22, 2003 (01:41)", "body": "high 60's today but that pacific breeze will sure put a chill in yer bones!"}, {"response": 756, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  2, 2003 (19:02)", "body": "Summer is upon us now. Hot and humid all over, but Hawaii stays in the low 80s year round, while the rest of the world gets hotter and colder."}, {"response": 757, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, May  3, 2003 (17:10)", "body": "Summer's been here a while. The pool temp is pretty high for this time of year, 89 degrees."}, {"response": 758, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  4, 2003 (01:23)", "body": "Wow! That is hot, but you are in Texas. Does that have anything to do with it? I know you are inland quite a ways. I guess that might make it warmer."}, {"response": 759, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, May  9, 2003 (10:59)", "body": "Hi all Spring is here as everything is turning green but the temps hover in the 40's-50's. Lots of migratory birds in and around the lake plus the usual ducks, geese, etc. All the tulips are in bloom. Anyway, the school semester is half way over and the Dayton hamvention is rapidly approaching. Woo hoo! 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 760, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  9, 2003 (18:05)", "body": "It sounds lovely, Mike. I miss spring. In fact, Paradise is boring. And, if Terry is reading this, he'd better be in his basement. Texas has tornado warnings all day. Floods elsewhere. Nothing much in Hawaii other than our ongoing eruption. I'd trade that for Spring any time! Party hardy, Cosmo! And, sleep late afterward."}, {"response": 761, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, May 10, 2003 (10:51)", "body": "Marcia Marcia Marcia! *HUGS* I thought you had moved by now...do you still use MSN Messenger?"}, {"response": 762, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 11, 2003 (01:51)", "body": "I'll boot it for you when I come online. I only talked to Lance and you on it and I knew you were busy. Welcome back to some R&R, Wolfie! *HUGS* I'm still in *ugh* Hilo"}, {"response": 763, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, May 19, 2003 (20:38)", "body": "I was sent this quote in an email recently and found it very much to be \"food for thought\". So, I thought that it might be of interest to the posters (and readers) here at Geo. We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that. \ufffd Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph) of the Nez Perc\ufffds, 1873"}, {"response": 764, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 22, 2003 (19:55)", "body": "I read that and wondered where it might put it. Thanks, Cheryl. Here is an excellent choice! New stuff found at Stonehenge.... see Geo 17"}, {"response": 765, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (10:18)", "body": "Hi all Stonehenge is one of the great places in the world! Wish I could be there for a solstice - will have to make do with a solstice on the (currently) chilly shores of Lake Michigan. Perfect time for a big Druidic bonfire! Happy Memorial Day to all. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 766, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (16:11)", "body": "A great Memorial Day weekend to all. I read somewhere that Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day. It was when people used to visit their family plots in cemeteries to clean the headstones and place fresh flowers on the graves, hence, to decorate them. I'm not sure when it became Memorial Day. Although I do know that it was observed on May 30 for many years before being changed to the fourth Monday in May. Cosmo would you have to get a permit to have a big Druidic bonfire on the shores of Lake Michigan? Still, it would be a suitable place to observe the summer solstice. I'm off to Geo 17 to check the new Stonehenge finds."}, {"response": 767, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (16:48)", "body": "Tiny Diamonds Found in Oil Philip Ball Black diamonds found in the Gulf of Mexico might have been formed from crude oil, say researchers1. These diamonds are unlikely to be a girl's best friend. They contain just a few dozen carbon atoms, equivalent to less than a billion billionth of a carat. But the molecules, called diamondoids, could have practical uses. Artificial versions are already used in drugs to treat Parkinson's disease and viral infections. The tiny diamonds could also provide molecular-scale girders for nanotechnology. Diamondoids contain atoms of carbon and hydrogen joined into networks like tiny climbing frames. The smallest of the carbon frameworks, a molecule called adamantane, consists of ten carbon atoms linked into a cage, each capped by a hydrogen atom. Larger diamondoids are built up from many adamantane cages. If one linked cages together indefinitely, the result would be a diamond - a crystal of regularly stacked carbon atoms. Diamondoid molecules containing up to 11 adamantane cages have been found in oil deposits by a team led by Jeremy Dahl of ChevronTexaco Energy Research and Technology in Richmond, California2. In the lab, no one has been able to get beyond the four-cage version. It's still a mystery how rigid diamondoids form from the floppy hydrocarbon chains that make up oil. One possibility, say the researchers, is that large molecules are made from smaller diamondoids in reactions with methane gas, catalysed by clay minerals. If this is the case, there's no reason why the diamondoids should not continue to grow until they become microscopic diamonds. The diamondoids could also form black agglomerations of tiny diamond crystals called carbonados, say Dahl and colleagues. Carbonados seem not to have formed at the high temperatures and pressures that give rise to normal diamonds, leading some scientists to speculate that they were formed in space and delivered to the Earth in meteorites. Dahl's team has studied the structure and properties of a diamondoid in which six carbon cages are linked in a disc. They have separated enough of this compound from crude oil to form tiny crystals. References Dahl, J. E. P. et al. Isolation and structural proof of the large diamond [sic] molecule, cyclohexamantane (C26H30). Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 42, 2040 - 2044, (2003). |Article| Dahl, J. E. P., Liu, S. G. & Carlson, R. M. K. Isolation and structure of higher diamondoids, nanometer-sized diamond molecules. Science, 299, 96 - 99, (2002). |Homepage| http://www.nature.com/nsu/030512/030512-13.html"}, {"response": 768, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (16:49)", "body": "Memorial Day was created after WWI to set aside a day to remember and to decorate the graves of the fallen heroes of that war. It was changed to Memorial Day when we had more wars and far more fallen heroes. I've actually been to Stonehenge on Solstice day in June. By mistake! I counted wrong and had planned to be at Avebury for that day, but we ended up with the bogus Druids and other assorted New Age followers at Stonehenge. It was curious and completely false. I was embarrassed for everyone involved. They got to be so messy in the following years they forced the closing of the interior of the momument to the public. I was so glad I got there before then. I remember one notable day just sitting on the soft grass at the base of one of the megaliths and just absorbing the atmosphere. It is quite remarkable there! My solstice day was so leaden and dark it was hard to imagine the sun had risen at all. *Sigh*"}, {"response": 769, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (16:50)", "body": "Oooh, black diamonds in oil! It makes sense since they are both a form of carbon. I just never knew they occurred together! Thanks, Dear!"}, {"response": 770, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sat, May 24, 2003 (11:35)", "body": "Hi Marci I hope this year's Solstice will be a good one for you! Anyway, probably just a small campfire for me... When I went to Stonehenge, it was already roped off to keep all the nuts and ravers from messing about (and silly tourists like myself...). Still, a mystical and magical place if there ever was one. 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 771, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 25, 2003 (19:16)", "body": "Oddly enoough, Mike, I was dead set against visiting Stonehenge because of all the whacko-hype I had hoped to avoid. We were on our way back to Salisbury from Avebury when we passed it. My son pleaded with us to stop so HE could see it. How could I refuse?! We entered the sarsen horseshoe and it was absolutley transforming. I could absolutely feel the field of energy around that one tallest monolith still standing. Could it have been that we had just seen \"2001 A Space Odyssey\" ?? I was prepared to tolerate those stones in my life experince. Little did I know it would set off a collectng binge of all books Stonehenge. Too bad they kept you out of the monument and on the periphery. I would not have missed that for anything! BTW, take your kids when you travel. They open doors where you did not even know there WERE doors!"}, {"response": 772, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, May 27, 2003 (16:10)", "body": "Hi Marci I really wished I could have walked up and touched the stones - oh well. Avebury would have been a great place to visit as well but we were on one of the tours on a fixed itenary. I have picked up several magazines and books on the ancient stone circles, barrows, etc and it is most fascinating reading. There was one UK published magazine titled 'Ley Hunter' that provided a serious analysis on the orientation of stones, mounds, pathways, 'death roads' etc without the silly tie ins to weird paranormal topics. Now, Im into the study of weird paranormal stuff as well, but you have to draw the line somewhere! ;-) Anyway, there are powerful sites in the world where you could just feel the energy of the place (whether it was intersected by lines or not...). One such place I did have the chance to experience was Enchanted Rock near Fredricksburg TX. This is a huge granite dome (actually three domes) that had tremendous spiritual significance to the native peoples of the area. I had a chance to crawl through the caves/fissures of the central dome and after dodging crevases, sliding between narrow crawlspaces, crawling up a chimney, doing a 90deg bend, and wiggling forward and out of a tiny 'port hole', I felt nothing short of a rebirth - that I had left the open day, passed through Mother Earth, and was released back to the day again. This is something I will hold on to for the rest of my life. Anyway, have a groovy day! 73 de Mike AA9IL r-c-i"}, {"response": 773, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, May 29, 2003 (10:06)", "body": "That is a great spot, enchanted rock. I'm due for a revisit. It's a power spot, definitely. If you're not lucky enough to get there in person you can go on Robert M. Reed's \"virtual field trip to Enchanted Rock\" http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rmr/E-rock/E-rock.html"}, {"response": 774, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, May 31, 2003 (15:35)", "body": "Happy Birthday, Marcia! Have a wonderful birthday and a great year!"}, {"response": 775, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 31, 2003 (16:35)", "body": "Thanks Cheryl. *HUGS* Mike, we got into ley lines and other \"lunatic fringe\" (an unkind term!) on Geo 31. There are megalithic lore and People living in England who recounted their experiences. BTW, when you next go there, goto Avebury and walk through West Kennet Long Barrow. It truly has magic, too. Terry, are you taking any measuring equipment or are you just working on \"being in the moment\" at the Texas site? Please tell us your experiences!!"}, {"response": 776, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Jun  1, 2003 (15:26)", "body": "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARCIA!"}, {"response": 777, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun  2, 2003 (19:34)", "body": "Reading Rob's recent posts made me think that we here at Geo had forgotten to note the 50th anniversary of the first successful Everest climb. Why did Rob's posts make me think of that? Because Rob is from New Zealand and one half of the team who first reached the summit of Everest was Edmund Hillary, who is a New Zealander. The other half of the team was Tenzing Norgay, who was a Sherpa. Below is an article from the \"Toronto Star\" from May 29, 2003. KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) \ufffd Nepal celebrated the 50th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest today, welcoming the world's mountaineering elite and Sir Edmund Hillary, who with his late Sherpa partner, Tenzing Norgay, made the climb that inspired generations to push the limits of human endurance. Nepal also granted Hillary honorary citizenship for his five decades of service to the Sherpa community \ufffd building schools, hospitals and an airfield that has opened the once pristine mountain to hundreds of climbers each year. Tenzing died 17 years ago. His son, Jamling Norgay, told 225 fellow Everest summiteers from 35 countries they were celebrating a day in history that took \"humans a step further into the spirit of adventure.\" Since 1953, some 1,300 people have climbed the world's highest peak, either from the Nepal or Tibet side, and all those still living were invited to the week-long party that Nepal's government hopes will spur tourism, the country's main foreign currency earner. \"Everest is not the most difficult mountain in the world, but it's the most famous,\" said Scott Darsney, 41, of Unalaska, Alaska, a 1992 climber who said he was partying every night with old friends and catching up with the Sherpas who helped him reach the summit. \"This happens only once every 50 years,\" he said, \"and I don't think I'll be around for the next one.\" Teodor Tulpan, who led Romania's first expedition to the summit on May 20, patted his heart and said he was full of emotion at being in the same room with Hillary, but said he had been saddened at the sight of frozen corpses of some of the 175 or more mountaineers who died trying to reach the 8,850-metre summit. The risk of trying to bring bodies down from the heights is great and there is no soil in which to bury them. Prime Minister Lokander Bahadur Chand also recalled \"those brave climbers who lost their lives\" as he honoured a parade of vibrant, cheering mountaineers who waved to each other, filmed each other with small movie cameras, signed autograph books and flashed their anniversary medals in a joyful ceremony at Kathmandu's modern convention centre. \"Climbing is about freedom and fun,\" said British mountaineer Allan Hinkes, who has climbed all but two of the world's 14 peaks of 8,000 metres or more. Most are in Nepal. \"It's important that you encourage more and more people to come, so you can tap into that little gold mine called Everest,\" Hinkes told the Nepalese. \"People want to go to the summit of the world.\" But Hillary and some older pioneers, such as Junko Tabei of Japan, the first woman to climb Everest, urged the government to restrict the numbers allowed on Everest at one time. They say that people lining up to climb fixed ropes is not real mountaineering. A record 22 expeditions, with seven to 10 climbers each, went up the mountain this season, and the government has no plans to cut back. It collects $75,000 (U.S.) per expedition. The Sherpas also don't favour restrictions, as they live for the whole year on what they earn during a few weeks when Everest can be climbed. For years, Sherpas have been called the unsung heroes of Himalayan climbing, but recently they have been breaking Everest records and becoming famous on their own. More than half of the summiteers honoured today were Sherpas. Appa, 42, who scaled Everest this season for the 13th time, and Lakpa Gyelu, 35, who raced from the 5,300-metre base camp to the summit in a record 10 hours and 56 minutes, came down the mountain just in time for today's events. Swathed in layers of ceremonial silk scarves, they got more press attention than anyone except Hillary and the Nepal royal family. \"If the Sherpas were not there, Mount Everest may well not have been climbed in 1953,\" said Capt. M. S. Kohli, leader of the 1965 Indian expedition. Hillary said he had declined a chance to celebrate the golden anniversary in London with the Queen, although the British government had organized the 1953 expedition, because he wanted to be in Nepal. He held his celebratory dinner with his Sherpa friends, after a tea party hosted by Nepal's King Gyanendra and Queen Komal. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1052251688773&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037"}, {"response": 778, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  9, 2003 (22:24)", "body": "Thanks, Cheryl. I watched the National Geographic special about it and I completely forgot to mention it here! Aloha Mike! Thanks for the good wishes! Today's Birthday girl......."}, {"response": 779, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  9, 2003 (22:25)", "body": "Happy Birthday, WOLFIE *HUGS*"}, {"response": 780, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  9, 2003 (22:27)", "body": "Someone needs to tell those climbers in Nepal to carry their own waste and rubbish out when they leave. That has become a real nuisance! Heaven forbid it turns into just another Mount Trashmore!"}, {"response": 781, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Jun  9, 2003 (22:36)", "body": "Hi Marci, Happy Birthday Wolfie! Kind of funny name 'Mount Trashmore' - in flat northern IL, landfills are being turned into mole hills which are called Mount Trashmore. Two more days then finals will be over and something remotely close to 'normal life' returns. Woo Hoo! 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 782, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  9, 2003 (23:35)", "body": "Yay! Your college is letting out late! The one here is already deserted. Oahu has a huge Mount Trashmore... and Califonia has rival foothills to the Sierras in their attempts to get rid of their copious amounts of rubbish. Here we try to incinerate it at the power plants to make electricity. I wonder why they do not?"}, {"response": 783, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jun 10, 2003 (12:38)", "body": "Happy Birthday Wolfie!"}, {"response": 784, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 11, 2003 (00:08)", "body": "thanks for the b-day wishes!!! marcia, i ordered a sim. alexandrite ring as a gift!!!! can't wait for it to come in so i can tell you all about it (and i sure hope it's as pretty as they say)"}, {"response": 785, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jun 11, 2003 (13:33)", "body": "Hope that you had a Howling Good Birthday, Wolfie! Hope that your alexandrite is a beauty."}, {"response": 786, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 11, 2003 (18:53)", "body": "i just hope the company is legit--been trying to call them to ensure just that. thanks cheryl!!"}, {"response": 787, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 12, 2003 (20:18)", "body": "I'd love to hear about your new Alexandrite ring.... I also want one if they are as advertized! Great choice, Wolfie! What is the setting made of?Mine is set in white gold, but I also know a lady with one set in silver."}, {"response": 788, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jun 13, 2003 (20:26)", "body": "it is set in gold, emerald cut, one 2.5mm diamond on each side. it is a simple setting in 14K. and it came in today and it's on my finger and i'm in heaven!!!"}, {"response": 789, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jun 13, 2003 (20:26)", "body": "the stone is 1.14 c and has a nice color change for being lab-created. definitely not colored glass!"}, {"response": 790, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 14, 2003 (18:38)", "body": "Lab created gems should be a flawless version of the stuff found in nature. Don't knock it. I am all eagerness to have one, too, now!"}, {"response": 791, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun 21, 2003 (13:23)", "body": "Happy Summer Solstice! I won't be a northern hemisphere-centrist. Happy Winter Solstice to Rob!"}, {"response": 792, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 22, 2003 (22:20)", "body": "Happy Solstice! Just keep those New Age \"Druids\" away from the stone circles! I wonder if anything looks different when you are standing on your head in the southern hemisphere..."}, {"response": 793, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 27, 2003 (13:53)", "body": "Never tried it. Belated Happy Solstice. It was actually cool last night in the Austin area, down to 65, but we're in the 90s today. Definitely summery."}, {"response": 794, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 27, 2003 (20:00)", "body": "I'll be joining summer in the Northern temperate zone as soon as I can get out of Hilo. I'll be moving !!! ASAP!!!"}, {"response": 795, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun 28, 2003 (15:45)", "body": "Terry, I hope that you're enjoying the summer there in Austin. Marcia, I noticed a that the beautiful photo of waterfall on my kitchen calendar was taken at the Three Hundred Springs section of the Green River in Kentucky. Have you ever been there? I did find a link to some information about it. It also seems that there are fossils to be found there, as well. Little ones which are about the size and shape of Cheeri-o's. Hope the link works. http://216.161.14.72/roadtrip/roadtripgreenky.htm"}, {"response": 796, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 28, 2003 (16:34)", "body": "Not that I recall, Wolfie. Three Hundred Springs is a place I will put on my to visit list. It looks fantastic. I know Don will know the Green River since the ACE is in charge of tending our waterways. I'll check with him! OOOH! They have crinoids! (Those are the cheerio-looking fossils)"}, {"response": 797, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jul  1, 2003 (16:21)", "body": "Marcia, maybe you were replying to an earlier post by Wolfie; but it was I, not Geo's favorite lupine who asked if you'd ever been to Three Hundred Springs. As for the crinoids, at the link I posted it was noted that you could make a necklace out of them! If they are the size of Cheerio's, wouldn't you need a lot of them? Plus, where would you wear it?"}, {"response": 798, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jul  1, 2003 (16:23)", "body": "Today is Canada Day. I think that Canada is officially 136 years old, as a nation, that is. Anyway, to all you Canadians, Happy Canada Day!"}, {"response": 799, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jul  1, 2003 (16:25)", "body": "Hi All Happy belated Solstice - I spent the Solstice in Austin but I could never get into the 442.150 until the last night I was in town so no shout outs. I did get to goof off at a few of my old slacker hangouts however. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 800, "author": "shdwmoon", "date": "Fri, Jul  4, 2003 (15:55)", "body": "Hi Marcia, I'm Ada and I'm the new keeps mistress over at Drool. I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask you from when you were \"mistress of all keeps\". Would it be possible for you to email me? Thanks!"}, {"response": 801, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jul  6, 2003 (19:41)", "body": "Which slacker hangouts? Hole in the Wall?"}, {"response": 802, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Jul  6, 2003 (23:47)", "body": "Hi Terry The Hole in the Wall is open again! Was happy to see that - naw, went to Crown and Anchor pub which was stumbling distance from where I use to live back in my Austin daze. Also, the usual - Half Price books, Waterloo, up and down Guadolupe st. Didnt make it to the big rock in the middle of Zilker park, tho.... Also, no Mad Dog's And Beans or Inner Sanctum Records. sigh... Mike"}, {"response": 803, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jul  7, 2003 (05:48)", "body": "Waterloo down by Lamar and Sixth? Did you see the groundbreaking area for the new Whole Foods?"}, {"response": 804, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Jul  7, 2003 (21:20)", "body": "Howdy Is that the large cleared area across from the current Whole Foods? I thought there was some attempts by a large corporate chain book store to build there. Keep Austin Weird! de Mike"}, {"response": 805, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jul  7, 2003 (21:33)", "body": "They failed. TRh big book chain backed out so it's just WF now."}, {"response": 806, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 2003 (01:18)", "body": "Wow, I miss a day and suddenly everyone shows up for a party. Cheryl, you're right and I will be in KY by the end of the month :))) I am trusting Austin's weird qualities to the experts. Can it get any more weird? Any advice to an about to become southern belle?"}, {"response": 807, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 2003 (10:31)", "body": "We're determined to make it as a weird as we can and resist any efforts to the contrary!"}, {"response": 808, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 2003 (13:14)", "body": "Hi Marci Consider yourself a Southern Belle - I think the parasol is optional. I saw some posts that you were moving to the lower 48 - hope your move goes well. Anyway, despite all the efforts of developers, corporations, and city council, Austin still maintains quite a few of its weird graces that I always liked about the place. Its just that they are more down in the noise floor so you have to dig a bit more. 73 de Mike aa9il r-c-i"}, {"response": 809, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 2003 (17:23)", "body": "I've seen some of the finer dives for BBQ on the food channel.I guess you can find a good place to eat no matter now weirdly you dress. That is good news! Thanks for the good wishes, Y'all. I'll be frying okra before you know it. a few decades of fighting mildew and weeds is more than enough. I will be happy to be back in America. (I say that advisedly!)"}, {"response": 810, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 2003 (20:58)", "body": "you've always had the charm of a southern belle!!!"}, {"response": 811, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jul  9, 2003 (14:29)", "body": "Mmm, isn't Hawaii America? Let me guess from your addition of the \"(I say that advisedly!)\" there's more going on there than meets the eye. Anyway, you will be back on the mainland. You'll be on the other end of the Ohio River from me. The Ohio does start in downtown Pittsburgh. Now as for that okra. Well, okra is a member of the hibiscus family. Personally, it's one of those foods which I never touch; because it's furry and slimy. It's that way naturally, so I never blame it on the cook. There are a lot of bars in Austin. I think there's one street were you can work your way down the bars on one side of the street and then, if you're able, work your way up the bars on the other side. Anyway, Austin is a big college town, the University of Texas, which has one of the best law schools in the US. Wolfie ought to know all about southern belles being one herself."}, {"response": 812, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul  9, 2003 (19:21)", "body": "fried okra is yummy and it is good in gumbo too. just fix yerself a nice tall glass of sweet tea and sit on the porch! (these Kaliforniuns just don't do sweet tea--have to make it myself)"}, {"response": 813, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 10, 2003 (08:54)", "body": "Picked up a Mauii customer for some websites last nights. I guy named Neil Coshever who we are hosting six websites for. He's a friend of Ames Doty of Austin, Texas who is a renowned gem and mineral merchant. Neil was one of Ames mentors when he was first getting started. The sites are: http://www.omram.com http://www.sacredearth.com And there will be four more at least."}, {"response": 814, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 10, 2003 (21:00)", "body": "Sweet tea! Yes! A nice southern tradition so you don't have to knock the bottom of your glass apart with a spoon trying to dissolve the sugar! Always order lemon, too. Geo's archaeologist loves fried Okra. I'll learn to eat it too, just after I learn to cook it right. I think it is one of the few he will eat willingly. Yes, it is a hibiscus. I'll save the allegiances of the locals for an email. Let us just say they keep Japan green by taking their money elsewhere."}, {"response": 815, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 14, 2003 (13:05)", "body": "Wolfie, since you live in the vicinity of Los Angeles, (I think), the thought of your \"Kaliforniun\" neighbors intentionally putting sugar in anything is funny. So I would imagine in Lalaland sweet tea is a no-no. Everyone one is on the zone diet, or Atkins, or else they're into health food. Still, you be who you are and brew your sweet tea and fry your okra. On another note, today is a holiday: In France. Yes, it's Bastille Day. Happy Bastille Day. Is it safe to order French Fries again? I've always just called them fries anyway."}, {"response": 816, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 15, 2003 (18:22)", "body": "Fries are safe. I eat nothing with a French accent. We tend to \"Americanize\" everything anyway. Enjoy! Happy yesterday was Bastille Day. I wonder how I missed it. Lawyers? Realtors? Packing? All of the above !!"}, {"response": 817, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jul 16, 2003 (09:45)", "body": "We signed up a couple of Hawaiian guys, Neil Cosherver and his buddy. http://www.omram.com ... they're just have four sites but Neil is also adding a diamond site. For the trade mostly."}, {"response": 818, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Jul 18, 2003 (14:27)", "body": "Body matches missing weapons expert By Gideon Long LONGWORTH (Reuters) Police have found a body that matches that of a mild-mannered scientist who disappeared after becoming unwittingly embroiled in a furious political dispute about the Iraq war. The softly spoken 59-year-old had been thrust into the limelight by a row over whether the government hyped the threat from Iraq in order to justify joining the U.S.-led war. The political fallout was almost immediate. Prime Minister Tony Blair's government promised an independent judicial inquiry into events leading up to the death of Dr David Kelly, if it is confirmed. Blair has refused previous calls for a wider inquiry into the government case for war in Iraq. Kelly's family reported him missing overnight after he went for a walk in the Oxfordshire countryside on Thursday with no coat and stayed out despite a rainstorm. Police found a body in a wood near his home earlier on Friday. \"We can confirm that the body matches the description of Dr Kelly. The body has not been formally identified,\" a police spokeswoman said. Kell , a microbiologist at the Defence Ministry who had worked for U.N. inspectors in Iraq, had been grilled by parliamentarians on Tuesday after admitting he spoke to a reporter for Britain's BBC radio. The reporter, Andrew Gilligan, said in May a senior intelligence source had told him the government \"sexed up\" data to emphasise the threat from Iraq. That report sparked parliamentary hearings into how the government made the case for war, forced Blair onto the defensive and pitted government officials against the broadcaster in a heated war of words. Blair spoke to top officials about the case from aboard a flight to Tokyo from Washington. \"The prime minister is obviously very distressed for the family of Dr Kelly,\" a spokesman said aboard the flight. If the death is confirmed the defence ministry would hold an independent judicial inquiry, presided over by a judge with access to all government papers, he added. Kelly's discomfort in the spotlight was evident from his demeanour at the foreign affairs comm ttee hearing. Speaking so softly he could barely be heard, he admitted he had met Gilligan but denied telling him Blair's communications chief Alastair Campbell had ordered intelligence on suspected Iraqi banned weapons to be hyped. Kelly appeared shell-shocked when parliamentarians at the hearing described him as \"chaff\" and a government \"fall guy\", put forward to shield top officials from blame. Kelly's wife Jane described him as deeply upset by the hearing, family friend Tom Mangold, a television journalist, told ITV News. \"She told me he had been under considerable stress, that he was very very angry about what had happened at the committee..,\" Mangold said."}, {"response": 819, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Dec 17, 2003 (08:51)", "body": "Today is an anniversary of an important event in the history of aviation. NYTimes.com/Opinion/December 17, 2003 The foggy lens of history has been kind to Wilbur and Orville Wright. We regard the boys from Dayton, Ohio, as American heroes who, 100 years ago today, flew the first airplane and ushered in the age of air travel. At the time, though, the brothers' achievement was barely recognized \ufffd and their motives were far from visionary. On Dec. 17, 1903, the Wrights took turns making short ascents over the dunes of Kill Devil Hills, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, N.C., in a propeller-driven biplane powered by an internal combustion engine. They each got airborne twice \ufffd with Wilbur going the farthest, 852 feet in 59 seconds \ufffd before a gust flipped the plane while it was on the ground. Both men were somewhat blas\ufffd about their success at Kitty Hawk; although they recognized that what they had done was important, they felt that the actual experience of flying did not live up to their expectations. Here's the link to the rest of the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/17/opinion/17HOFF.html?ex=1072242000&en=f1b62252f06a6368&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE"}, {"response": 820, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 18, 2003 (07:30)", "body": "I saw the footage on the news last night of Bush talking in the rain at Kitty Hawk, and then the Wright replica plane taking off and crashing in a mud puddle. What they did was hard, hard, hard. They must have had extraordinary good luck, the right winds and conditions on that day a hundred years ago."}, {"response": 821, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (15:31)", "body": "I have watched all of the PBS programs about the first flight. Fascinating! Happy Winter !!! I LOVE snow!!!"}, {"response": 822, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (17:52)", "body": "Happy Winter Solstice! Enjoy the snow, Marcia. It's time for those winter holiday greetings: Merry Christmas Happy Hannukah Joyous Kwanzaa Happy Winter Solstice, (Happy Summer Solstice to Rob) Io Saturnalia and... Happy New Year"}, {"response": 823, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (18:03)", "body": "Happy Solstice to all from balmy Chicago (48 deg F this afternoon) 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 824, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (18:58)", "body": "Mike, we are supposed to get snow for Christmas eve.... you must be getting it, too? Cheryl should, also. Just in time for Santa Claus!"}, {"response": 825, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Dec 23, 2003 (15:50)", "body": "Yep, the snow should be here on Christmas Eve, which should make Santa and the reindeer happy. When I was little I used to leave cookies for Santa Claus and carrots for the reindeer. I thought that they might be hungry, too."}, {"response": 826, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 23, 2003 (23:07)", "body": "I left shredded wheat for the reindeer. It looked like stuff found around animals so I thought it was appropriate. Children think very differently from adults. Too bad they quit that delightful trend."}, {"response": 827, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Dec 30, 2003 (18:33)", "body": "Hi All No Snow except for a dusting. Last night flew back from TX and it was in the mid 30's - walked down Clark street near Wrigleyville in Chicago and had a nice snow flurry hit for about 1 minute then was over. Supposed to be up to 40 for New Years Eve so no snow tire chains on the truck just yet. No reindeer but the squirrels are all over the place! Plus heard two hoot owls hooting back and forth a couple of nights ago. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i Keeping the shack warm with the R390A and the Hammarlund SP600"}, {"response": 828, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 30, 2003 (19:36)", "body": "Hi Cosmo. Our echolink node is 135043. Give me a holler!"}, {"response": 829, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Feb 26, 2004 (16:05)", "body": "Hi Marci and Geoites Apologies for being so infrequent as of late - was out of the country for a while and have returned to the not so frosty mid west. Shortwave has been the main entertainment as this is the only decent source for unbiased/noncorporate news. Im kind of re-acquainting my self with my old web haunts as well - was kind of in a weird state this week as I hit a major age milestone (40) and got way too analytical - the best tonic for that is to decouple from the ambient vibes and just be a techno-goof which I excel at on occasion. Any, just goofing off and wanted to post to the site and will be a bit more frequent. 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 830, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Feb 27, 2004 (10:04)", "body": "Catch Bob, Lance, George, Bill and the gang on 7270 during the day. 10 am checking. 3911 at 10 pm. 5 pm is the switchover time to 80 meters."}, {"response": 831, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 18, 2004 (18:26)", "body": "Welcome back, Mike. I have also been missing due to author finishing book I am editing (and he needs the internet to confirm certain data). I'll be more regular now though I am eager to have a regular PC to use rather than this laptop. My son is into building \"super computers\" and he needs an excuse to build another one. I volunteered! I hope someone has opened a topic about \"The Passion of the Christ\" on movies. I just saw it."}, {"response": 832, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Apr  4, 2004 (21:59)", "body": "Hey Marci and Geoites Ok on the authoring stuff - I jump on every once in a while when work/school do not get in the way (and sometimes when they do...) I get distracted WAY too easy.... Anyway, been thinking about building a whistler receiver during the summer lightning storm time and be ready for listening when next winter arrives - then can post to the dormant Gaia-M page which I kind of neglected for too long. There are a couple of good sources for whistler sound files including some CD recordings (including experimental music). I also found out about a project that MIT conducted in the late 60's near my home town in Texas where they were doing Solar radar experiments - that would have been cool to see! 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 833, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  8, 2004 (07:10)", "body": "Do it, Mike! Build it and make sound files for your website so we can hear them. My dad made me one quite a while ago and I loved it. I'm sure yours will be much more sophisticated. Have you a Pope Cell with it?"}, {"response": 834, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  8, 2004 (07:11)", "body": "...and take pictures if you get to the MIT lashup in Texas!!!It is a Good Thing to share!"}, {"response": 835, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Apr 12, 2004 (23:58)", "body": "Hi Marci and Geoites I would love to find a picture of the original radar - there are quite a few descriptions on the web - on such url is: http://www.lofar.org/science/urd100/Solar_Terrestrial.html More details to follow.... 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 836, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Apr 15, 2004 (12:54)", "body": "Chimps Off the Old Block Chalk one up for the girls in the hunt. They're faster and better at it than boys -- at least in the chimpanzee world, where they are more successful than the guys at \"fishing\" for termites. That's the indication of a study by Lincoln Park Zoo Director of Field Conservation Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf and colleagues. The study, \"Sex Differences in Learning in Chimpanzees,\" appearing in today's issue of Nature, finds distinct sex-based differences akin to those found in human children in the way in which young chimpanzees develop termite fishing skills. Female chimpanzees start to fish for termites at a younger age than males, the findings indicate. They're more proficient than males once they've acquired the skill. And they use a technique similar to their mothers', something their male counterparts don't. Lonsdorf and the University of Minnesota's Lynn E. Eberly and Anne E. Pusey observed over a four-year period 14 chimps -- eight male and six female -- and their mothers during termite fishing sessions. The results show a sex-based learning difference that might date at least to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans, according to the team. http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-chimps15.html"}, {"response": 837, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Apr 16, 2004 (15:09)", "body": "More dead dolphins found in Gulf of Mexico MIAMI, April 16 (UPI) -- Four more dead dolphins have been found in shallow Gulf of Mexico waters off the coast of the Florida Panhandle, federal wildlife officials said. The total number of dead dolphins found since March 10 is 108, the Orlando Sentinel reported Friday. The most recent dolphin was found Wednesday near the tip of the St. Joseph Peninsula near Apalachicola, Fla. The other three were found in the same general area in the last week. Officials had found another 103 Dolphins during an 18-day period in March and another in the interim between the two outbreaks. \"We thought it was over, but we have been receiving a few more animals here and there,\" said Blair Mase, fisheries stranding coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami. The deaths are being blamed on a neurotoxin released by red tide algae, but so far no red tide algae has been found in the area. http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040416-101757-6771r.htm"}, {"response": 838, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 20, 2004 (13:21)", "body": "Hawaii should have chimps. They certainly have enough termites to keep the world's population well fed. I watched a NOVA (or was it Nature?) about strandings. Then the special program about Nicola Tesla. I wonder if they still contemplate research on dolphin sensitivity to the radio waves now being used by the military..."}, {"response": 839, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun  5, 2004 (13:56)", "body": "i hadn't heard a thing about those dolphins in the gulf. how sad!"}, {"response": 840, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 25, 2004 (20:35)", "body": "It is quite possible I will be returning to Hilo for a short visit. Hmmm. Always did want to show off the volcano to a flatlander from Tennessee *;) I am brushing up on my Spam recipes though he says he will never eat any of it."}, {"response": 841, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 26, 2004 (12:49)", "body": "MARCIA!!! there you are *HUGS* was getting worried about you, girlfriend!"}, {"response": 842, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Jun 26, 2004 (14:00)", "body": "What about spam with scrambled eggs and papaya? Or is it mango? Isn't there some sort of spam cooking competition in Hawaii that draws the state's chefs from top restaurants and hotels to show off their spam creations?"}, {"response": 843, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jun 27, 2004 (14:49)", "body": "why is spam so popular in Hawaii? i thought it was just a joke, but maybe i'm not the only one wondering?"}, {"response": 844, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 28, 2004 (11:35)", "body": "Spam is very popular in these parts, well once a year anyway at Spam-o-rama on Town Lake in Austin."}, {"response": 845, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jun 28, 2004 (17:07)", "body": "really??? *LAUGH* i may have to take a day trip to see that one!"}, {"response": 846, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 30, 2004 (08:55)", "body": "http://www.spamarama.com/ It was the early spring of 1976. Dick Terry and I were fraternizing one afternoon and Dick was bellyaching about how chili cook-offs had become so common-place.\" I mean, anybody can cook chili.\" Dick observed, \"All you need is some kinda meat, some water, chili powder, comino, and maybe some cayenne, garlic, and/or onion, and you got yer basic chili. If you're from north of the Red River, you might throw in some kinda beans, but basically, that's about all it takes to make 'chili.'\" \" Yeah, not much of a challenge there, is it?\" I responded. \" Now if someone could make SPAM\ufffd edible,\" Dick continued, \"That would be a challenge. We ought to have a a 'SPAM\ufffd-Off.'\" \" Yeah, a 'SPAMARAMA\ufffd!'\" I blurted out. \"We could ask George Majewski over at Soap Creek Saloon if he'd like to host it, and we could have it on April Fool's Day.\" \" Let's do it!\" Dick agreed. And that, in a nutshell, is the beginning of the very first, longest running and funnest SPAM\ufffd event in the history of the entire universe. I never thought that it would last more than a year or two. I never thought it would attract more than a handful of Spamophiles who had been cooking and eating the infamous potted pork product since World War II. I never thought there were so many things you could make out of SPAM\ufffd! But I was wrong! ....... David Arnsberger The Potentate of Potted Pork Parties Excerpt from the Austin Chronicle Austin's Quintessential Silly Bar Party SPAMTASTIC\ufffd SPAMARAMA\ufffd BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD March 31, 2000 In the spring of 1984, my wholesale dessert business and catering company entered the seventh annual SPAMARAMA\ufffd with a dish called SPAMBOLI\ufffd. Though we garnered only an honorable mention in the professional division, a local TV news crew did stop by our booth for a chat. CNN just happened to pick up that story, and for the next 24 hours, I was discussing the making of SPAMBOLI\ufffd on international news. People called my mother from all over to tease her about my serendipitous TV appearance. \"I thought you told us she was in Austin making fancy desserts and catering, but I saw her on the news talking about how to cook with ... SPAM\ufffd,\" my aunt cackled. Mother, who had never served SPAM\ufffd in our household a day in her life, was not amused. That's SPAMARAMA\ufffd for you: Austin's quintessential silly bar party where the unexpected, the ridiculous, and/or the disgusting are always likely to happen. You see, the pandemonious pork pattie party was the product of an earlier, simpler time when the city didn't take itself nearly so seriously as it does today. It's one of those events that defines a certain laid-back aspect of Austin, Texas, in the last quarter of the 20th century that seems to be disappearing. For the last 22 years, SPAMARAMA\ufffd has been one of the traditional rites of spring, like Eeyore's Birthday Party or cutting class/calling in sick because the weather is beautiful and it's an obvious lake day. Back when SPAMARAMA\ufffd first started, there weren't too many upscale restaurants or CIA-trained chefs here in River City, but the cook-off always attracted a broad cross-section of amateur and professional cooks. Some guys, such as multiple SPAMARAMA\ufffd award-winner John Myers (aka Chef SPAM\ufffd) always went the haute cuisine route with dishes such as SPAM\ufffd Oscar, SPAM\ufffd Cordon Bleu, or SPAM\ufffd Puffs. Other guys, like Kevin Rollins, took a completely different direction and perennially competed for the \"Worst\" dish, creating delicacies like SPAM-ALAMA\ufffd Ding-Dongs and other questionable food items too disgusting to describe even in an alternative newspaper..... Original article -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from the Daily Texan SPAM\ufffd Takes the City by Storm! By Dan Kleiner On April 1, a torch left New York City headed for Austin with a can of SPAM sitting atop it where the fire should have been. When a girl ran with the torch through the gates of Waterloo Park on Saturday, it began the 26th year of a festival inspired by the meat product that fed England during World War II. SPAMARAMA\ufffd drew thousands - an estimated 8,000 to 9,000 people - to the park for music, food, rides and the SPAMALYMPICS. \" SPAMARAMA\ufffd has gone through a lot of changes, and this year is no different,\" said Norman Kieke, the executive director of Disability Assistance of Central Texas, SPAMARAMA\ufffd's main sponsor. \"It grew out of a small neighborhood function and gets better every year. We are always very excited.\" The SPAM\ufffd-related festival started out small as an alternative event to April Fools' Day barbecues at the original Soap Creek Saloon. It has since moved to Waterloo Park and picked up the support of Kieke's organization, which receives 50 percent of the proceeds and uses them to provide employment support, technology training and general assistance to disabled Central Texans. Local rock band Uranium Savages opened the festival and the second event, a SPAM\ufffd toss, began the SPAMALYMPICS. The youn"}, {"response": 847, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 30, 2004 (08:57)", "body": "It's usually held in April."}, {"response": 848, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  1, 2004 (13:28)", "body": "well, next year then!!"}, {"response": 849, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jul  2, 2004 (14:25)", "body": "You may want to visit Austin at some point wolfie, it has a lot going on."}, {"response": 850, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  6, 2004 (20:36)", "body": "Spam!!! Yay! I love the stuff and no one here will even give it shelp space in their homesfor survival food! I am already hungry for Spam musubi. *sigh* Wolfie, I am slowly ediging closer to you. Tennessee next month but not permanently yet..."}, {"response": 851, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 2004 (10:26)", "body": "Cat pounces on pilot mid-flight An escaped pet cat created a scare on a Belgian airliner, forcing the crew to turn back to Brussels 20 minutes into its journey. A \"lot of coincidences\", as the airline told BBC News Online, ended with the animal running wild in the cockpit and attacking the co-pilot. The captain ordered the Vienna-bound plane back after about 20 minutes. SN Brussels Airlines stressed the incident had been a fluke and the crew had observed all safety regulations. \"We 100% support the decision made by the captain,\" Geert Sciot, the airline's communication vice-president, told the BBC. Nobody, he said, could tell what an agitated cat what might do in the circumstances, scrabbling around amid the sensitive equipment in the cockpit of the Avro RJ. \"It took a long time to catch it,\" he noted, describing the offending beast - said by Brussels newspaper La Derniere Heure to be a tom by the name of Gin - as \"very aggressive\". Kick theory As an investigation got under way into Monday's incident, Mr Sciot explained that it appeared to be essentially a freak accident, caused by a series of circumstances: * the cat's owner was apparently sleeping when it escaped from its travelling bag * a child in a neighbouring seat may have interfered with the bag, releasing the cat * nobody alerted the crew before the cat slipped into the cockpit as meals were being served to the crew The airline spokesman pointed out that the cat aboard Flight SN 2905, travelling from Oslo via Brussels to Vienna, was being conveyed in accordance with international regulations. These allow for a single pet weighing no more then five kilos to be carried in a suitable piece of luggage in the cabin. He stressed, too, that the cockpit had been open for no more than \"five to 10\" seconds, in respect of safety guidelines brought in after the 11 September 2001 hijackings over America. The pet's owner had some questions to answer back on the ground as the other 57 passengers were put on another flight but no action was taken against the cat itself. \"It's a very nice animal but apparently, sometimes, an aggressive one,\" said Mr Sciot, noting that the cat had \"travelled a lot\" as its owner went to cat exhibitions. One possible reason for the creature's sudden fit of fury may have been an unconfirmed report that it was \"kicked by somebody in business class\" on its way through the cabin, he added. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3551672.stm"}, {"response": 852, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Aug 20, 2004 (13:50)", "body": "A little bit of history concerning the Olympics. One century ago the Olympics were first hosted by an American city, St. Louis. It wasn't really a stellar presentation. These games were a sideshow in every sense. We usually have the image in our minds that the Olympics are really big business. The hosting cities go out of their way to make sure that everything runs smoothly and that the best facilities are provided for the competing athletes. But, it wasn't always this way. Take the 1904 St. Louis, Missouri Summer Olympics for example. These games were only the third summer games ever held (There actually were no winter games at this time - they were added in 1924.). The original games were held in 1896 at Athens and were then followed by the 1900 Paris games. The St. Louis games could hardly be called an international competition. Since traveling overseas from Europe was extremely expensive at the time, the competition consisted mostly of Americans and Canadians (of the 681 athletes, 525 were from the United States.). It should be pointed out, however, that the Olympics were not intended to be a competition among nations at the time - it was a competition among amateur athletes from around the world. It was the job of the amateur athlete to find his way to the games at his own expense. No one cared if you couldn't get there. Needless to say, the 1904 Olympics were of relatively minor importance. They were originally scheduled to take place in Chicago, but President Roosevelt urged for the games to be held in St. Louis because the Louisiana Purchase (World) Exposition was being held there at the same time to showcase the world's newest technologies (electricity, automobiles, airplanes, etc.). The Exposition organizers built a permanent gymnasium and a stadium with enough seats to hold some 35,000 spectators (This may sound like a lot of people, but it's really nothing when you compare it to the estimated 20 million people that attended the Exposition during its six month run.). The entire event lasted from Monday, August 29 to Saturday, September 3, 1904. There were no events scheduled for Friday, so the entire series of Olympic games lasted for just five short days. At this point you probably don't see too much wrong with this scenario. Unfortunately, when the games were actually held, they were a disaster. To start, if you were considered to be a minority, you had to compete in separate games. These games came under the high-sounding name of \"Anthropology Days\" which were held on August 12 and 13, 1904. These games were designed to face \"costumed members of the uncivilized tribes\" against one another. Never-to-be classic Olympic games were included - mud fighting, rock throwing, pole climbing, spear throwing, and... you get the idea... Things went downhill from there. In swimming, Hungary's Zoltan Halmay won the 100m and 50m freestyle. Originally, Halmay beat American J. Scott Leary by just one foot in the 50m event. However, the American judge ruled that Leary had won. This ruling resulted in a brawl between the two, so the judges ordered a rematch. Halmay won on the second attempt. (They couldn't check the videotape at this time in history.) An American gymnast named George Eyser won two gold, two silver, and one bronze medal at the games. Quite a remarkable feat when you consider the fact that he only had one real leg - the other leg was solid wood (His leg was amputated when he was run over by a train - Ouch!). Now for the competition that they would really like to strike from the record books - the Marathon. The marathon was run on a very humid, 90+ degree day. The 40 kilometer course started with five laps around the stadium track. The runners then left the stadium and embarked on a dusty, unpaved course that took them up-and-down over seven different hills. The path was marked by red flags that designated the way. A vanguard of horsemen cleared the trail along the way. They were followed by doctors, judges, and reporters in the newly invented automobiles. The net result was a constant cloud of dust kicked up into the runners' faces. They were literally forced to eat dust. The first man to cross the finish line was Fred Lorz from New York City. Lorz had completed the race in just over three hours time. When he entered the stadium, the crowd roared with excitement. Photographs were taken of President Roosevelt's daughter Alice placing a laurel wreath over Lorz's head. Lorz's moment in the limelight did not last very long. Just as Lorz was about to accept his medal, officials learned that Lorz had been spotted passing the halfway mark in an automobile. It seems that Lorz had been suffering from cramps, so he hitched a ride at the 9 mile point. He then rode in the vehicle for another eleven miles, at which point the car overheated and broke down. He waived at the spectators and fellow runners along the way. Lorz, now rejuvenated from his ride, chose to run the rest of the race. Lorz claimed that he nev"}, {"response": 853, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Aug 20, 2004 (18:55)", "body": "not useless, where would we be without waffle cones and iced tea *licking my jowels in anticipation*"}, {"response": 854, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 2004 (04:22)", "body": "That's great Cheryl. I'm going to post some things in the sports conference, there's an Olympics topic there too. Tivo has been working overtime all week."}, {"response": 855, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Aug 23, 2004 (07:57)", "body": "Terry, I'd completely forgotten that there was a sports conference. I've got to get over there to check the Olympics topic. You're such an omnivorious lupine, Wolfie. Enjoy those ice cream cones washed down with some iced tea. Actually, I love them, too."}, {"response": 856, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 28, 2004 (22:04)", "body": "I am going to be heartbroken when there is no more Olympic programming to watch. As ide from the games, I am enjoying the background scenery! I think there has not been such exquisite vistas in all of Olympic history as there has been this time from Athens. My complaint is there has not been any coverage of sailing that I have been able to find. As a veteran sailor, I am most disappointed. Great stuff from Cheryl. I never thought to worry about cats in the passenger compartment of planes..."}, {"response": 857, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Aug 28, 2004 (22:11)", "body": "MARCIA *HUGS* sadly, i've missed most of the olympics coverage (esp one of my faves, gymnastics). hope i don't miss the winter games."}, {"response": 858, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 31, 2004 (08:59)", "body": "It was a great Olympics. Greece, despite naysayers, pulled it off without any mishaps or terror incidents. And the giants of USA, Russia and China competed in many events. Congrats to USA women's soccer, basketball and beach volleyball where they had stunning performances."}, {"response": 859, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep  3, 2004 (18:34)", "body": "Applause all round to the organizers and the people of Greece for a most cordial and event-filled safe Olympics. I miss them already.I have also been assured I can have cable put in for the next one - the Winter Games from Torino, Italy. I judge a great deal by how the Olympic anthem is handled. The men's chorus did an especially beautiful rendition, and in Greek as it was meant to be."}, {"response": 860, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Sep 22, 2004 (10:45)", "body": "Indians mark \"historic moment\" By Sara Jean Green Seattle Times WASHINGTON \ufffd With the dome of the U.S. Capitol as a backdrop, thousands of Indian people from across the Americas gathered on the National Mall yesterday to witness the opening of the Smithsonian's new National Museum of the American Indian. Before any speeches were made, 25,000 people from more than 500 tribes, including two dozen tribes from Washington state, participated in the Native Nations Procession, a five-block walk from the Smithsonian Castle, the first building built on the Mall, to the museum, built on the Mall's last piece of available land. Seventeen years in the making, the $220 million, 400,000-square-foot museum is the first in the country dedicated exclusively to Native Americans \ufffd and the first to allow Native Americans to tell their stories in their own way. Indians were involved in every stage of the museum's development, from conception to construction, and comprise 75 percent of the museum's staff. \"This is a historic moment. It is the single-most-important achievement for Native people this century,\" Linley Logan said as the procession streamed past him. He's a Seneca from upstate New York who worked for the museum in the early '90s before moving to Seattle with his Tlingit wife and four children; he's also a board member of the Seattle-based United Indians of All Tribes Foundation. \"This is an insider's perspective on Native values and Native culture,\" he said of the new museum. Presenting that perspective \ufffd and gaining acknowledgement for the multitude of contributions Indians have made, from food domestication to military service \ufffd is long overdue, said Bob Charlo, a member of the tiny Kalispel tribe from north of Spokane. Charlo traveled to Washington, D.C., with a group of Muckleshoots for both the museum opening and a dedication ceremony two days earlier at the Pentagon. The ceremony was to bless one of three totem poles carved by members of the Lummi Nation to honor those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. \"For me, it's been a real spiritual journey, a kind of quest or pilgrimage,\" said Charlo, who lives in Auburn. \"There's a lot of blank pages in the history books that should be filled with our history ... [but] we're getting past that 'invisible people' stage.\" If anything, yesterday's procession and dedication, covered by more than 400 journalists from across the Americas, was meant to show that Native peoples and their cultures are very much alive. With 8,000 more participants than expected, the colorful and dramatic Native Nations Procession alone spanned over three hours. From Native Alaskans, with their red-and-black wool blankets wrapped around their shoulders, to Aztec Indians, who wore elaborate, plumed headdresses, the procession provided a visible reminder of the vast diversity of the first peoples of North, South and Central America. Some tribal members sang songs and played hand drums as they walked; others waved to spectators lined up six deep along the parade route, shouting greetings to familiar faces. Sage sweetened the air, and the sounds of flutes and pipes drifted across the Mall. Two prominent Indian U.S. senators, Dan Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., walked at the head of the procession with Alejandro Toledo, a Quechua Indian and president of Peru. Film director and activist Robert Redford and Seattle architect Johnpaul Jones, who was integral to the museum's design and construction, were among the estimated 80,000 people who attended the opening ceremony. After the procession, a handful of dignitaries addressed the crowd from a stage that would later be graced by singer Buffy Sainte-Marie and the band Indigenous, as part of the weeklong, music-and-arts First Americans Festival. As the first drum beat sounded to indicate the start of the museum dedication, a woman dressed in fringed leather slid her fingers across her forearm and whispered to a friend, \"I just got goose bumps.\" W. Richard \"Rick\" West, director of the museum, said the site, \"located in the shadow of the national Capitol itself,\" would be \"a spiritual marker in recognition of the first citizens of the Americas.\" \"Once in a great while, something so important and so powerful happens that history seems to stand still in honor,\" said West, who wore white buckskin and a chief's headdress. \"We have felt the cruel and destructive edge of colonialism, but in our minds and in our histories, we are not its victims.\" The museum, he said, is to be a symbol of hope, representing the potential for \"a new, mutual understanding and respect\" that can make \"possible true cultural reconciliation.\" Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lawrence Small predicted that the newest museum in the institution's 158-year history would draw so much attention it would become \"a gateway of discovery to all other Smithsonian museums on this Mall.\" \"It will be yours for generations and generations to come \ufffd and that is a promi"}, {"response": 861, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Sep 22, 2004 (21:28)", "body": "heard about that on the news and then right after that segment, they went on to talk about native american prisons and the filth they live in (both physical and mental). talk was that they might turn it back over to the native americans and get the bureaucracy out of it....i didn't know there were gov't run prisons for native americans."}, {"response": 862, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Sep 23, 2004 (14:17)", "body": "Wolfie, I didn't know that there were still government run Native American prisons. I knew that there had been but wasn't aware that they still existed. I missed that story; thanks for noting it."}, {"response": 863, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:44)", "body": "Native Americans are citizens of the United States of America just like the rest of us. However, they are recognized as autonimous and therefore have jurisdiction over small crimes. If it becomes a federal crime, the FBI gets into it just as it would if any of us committed a crime. (I just asked the house expert on such matters.)"}, {"response": 864, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 2004 (08:13)", "body": "Beavers have dam good time with stolen casino money Greensburg, La - These eager beavers had a whole new slant on money laundering. A bag of bills stolen from a casino was snapped up by beavers who wove thousands of dollars in soggy currency into the sticks and brush of their dam on a creek in eastern Louisiana. \"They hadn't torn the bills up. They were still whole,\" said Maj. Michael Martin of the St. Helena Parish sheriff's office. The money was part of $70,000 to $75,000 taken last week from the Lucky Dollar Casino in Greensburg. St. Helena Parish deputies searched for the money for days until a lawyer, hoping to make a deal with prosecutors for a client, called and said the money had been discarded in the creek, Police Chief Ronald Harrell said. Officers quickly found two of the bags, Martin said, but couldn't find the third until deputies started breaking down the beaver dam to drain the pond it was holding. That was when they saw the dam's expensive decoration. They eventually found the missing bag, which the beavers hadn't completely emptied. Altogether, deputies found about $40,000, and they expect to find the rest in a safety deposit box at a bank in Mississippi, authorities said."}, {"response": 865, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 2004 (20:38)", "body": "*laugh* I read this one when it first came out and just had to laugh. Thanks for posting it Cheryl!"}, {"response": 866, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 19, 2004 (07:39)", "body": "That's funny."}, {"response": 867, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 21, 2004 (20:03)", "body": "Oh my! recycling money has taken a new turn. This is the first I had heard of it! Thanks Cgheryl, for the laugh. Now go watch Mt Etna erupt http://www.ct.ingv.it/UfMoni/"}, {"response": 868, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Nov 24, 2004 (12:50)", "body": "Thanks for the link, Marcia."}, {"response": 869, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Nov 24, 2004 (12:52)", "body": "This is a bit of silliness for Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to American Geoites (is that a word) and wishes for a great fourth Thursday to everyone else. The Parrot A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to \"clean up\" the bird's vocabulary. Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said, \"I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behaviour.\" John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behaviour, the bird continued, \"May I ask what the turkey did?\" HAPPY THANKSGIVING!"}, {"response": 870, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 24, 2004 (14:47)", "body": "Happy Thanksgiving!"}, {"response": 871, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov 25, 2004 (10:39)", "body": "HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!"}, {"response": 872, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 25, 2004 (11:19)", "body": "It's here."}, {"response": 873, "author": "felisecffan", "date": "Thu, Nov 25, 2004 (16:49)", "body": ""}, {"response": 874, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 25, 2004 (19:04)", "body": "Welcome Heidi."}, {"response": 875, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 26, 2004 (14:19)", "body": "Happy Thanksgiving, All, and here is more fun for Thanksgiving, thanks to HL Twas The Night Of Thanksgiving! TWAS THE NIGHT OF THANKSGIVING, BUT I JUST COULDN'T SLEEP I TRIED COUNTING BACKWARDS; I TRIED COUNTING SHEEP. THE LEFTOVERS BECKONED - THE DARK MEAT AND WHITE BUT I FOUGHT THE TEMPTATION WITH ALL OF MY MIGHT TOSSING AND TURNING WITH ANTICIPATION THE THOUGHT OF A SNACK WAS INFATUATION. I RACED TO THE KITCHEN, FLUNG OPEN THE DOOR AND GAZED AT THE FRIDGE, FULL OF GOODIES GALORE. I GOBBLED UP TURKEY AND BUTTERED POTATOES, PICKLES AND CARROTS, BEANS AND TOMATOES. I FELT MYSELF SWELLING SO PLUMP AND SO ROUND, 'TILL ALL OF A SUDDEN, I ROSE OFF THE GROUND. I CRASHED THROUGH THE CEILING, FLOATING INTO THE SKY WITH A MOUTHFUL OF PUDDING AND A HANDFUL OF PIE BUT, I MANAGED TO YELL AS I SOARED PAST THE TREES.... \"HAPPY EATING TO ALL; PASS THE CRANBERRIES, PLEASE.\" MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY, MAY YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP. MAY YOUR POTATOES 'N GRAVY HAVE NARY A LUMP, MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS; MAY YOUR PIES TAKE THE PRIZE; MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER STAY OFF OF YOUR THIGHS."}, {"response": 876, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sat, Nov 27, 2004 (10:21)", "body": "Hi all and Happy Turkey Day Did the usual stuff and did not go to the over crowded malls on Friday - got work done, stayed sane, and actually accomplished some stuff. Had the shortwave on (as an alternative to TV) and listened to the BBC. 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 877, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 30, 2004 (15:48)", "body": "Check in with at 10 am on 7270 if you get the chance!"}, {"response": 878, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Nov 30, 2004 (21:10)", "body": "Howdy howdy Is that time for weekdays/weekends? Was curious if Bob checks in from Razorback country. 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 879, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec  1, 2004 (08:13)", "body": "He checks in more than anyone. He's pretty regular at 10 am on 7270."}, {"response": 880, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 2004 (19:30)", "body": "Wish I could get him but the current receiver doesn't even get regular AM. I'm stuck in FM-ville Back to Hawaii next month. Everyone do eruption dances for Kilauea"}, {"response": 881, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 2004 (21:43)", "body": "LOL. Will do"}, {"response": 882, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  6, 2004 (16:23)", "body": "Ok Geoites - there is good stuff ^ up ^ there this month: The 2004 Geminid Meteor Shower The best meteor shower of 2004, the Geminids, peaks on Dec. 13th. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/06dec_geminids.htm?list89800 Science@NASA stories are available in Spanish at our sister site, Ciencia@NASA ."}, {"response": 883, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec  6, 2004 (21:35)", "body": "oh, cool! i need to remind myself to get out and look at the night sky. thanks marcia!!! (my firewall wasn't allowing me to use msn so just in case you had been looking for me)."}, {"response": 884, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Dec  9, 2004 (17:12)", "body": "Will do a proper volcanic jig! Also, the Winter Solstice is rapidly approaching so bang on drums and jump around then as well. FM only? Time to hit the local ham fest and dig up a shortwave with ssb or cw. Conditions on HF have been good as of late with the summer thunderstorms moving to the other side of the globe. 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 885, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Dec 10, 2004 (09:38)", "body": "I'm really lookin forward to the fast approching winter soltice. These progressively shorter, short days are really getting to me."}, {"response": 886, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 10, 2004 (14:59)", "body": "Feels like it was just summer and we're already upon the darkest night."}, {"response": 887, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 2004 (12:35)", "body": "It is colder than you can imagine for this far south and I have been dribbling faucets so the pipes don't freeze. I love winter but insulation is also a good idea. Wolfie did you see any meteors? Did anyone? Nothing here but my son has seen the comet! More in weather. We're gonna get a white Christmas !!"}, {"response": 888, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 2004 (16:21)", "body": "Happy Winter Soltice! Unless you're Rob, in which case, Happy Summer Solstice!"}, {"response": 889, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 2004 (18:10)", "body": "yes, Happy (insert season here) Solstice! *grin* marcia, meant to get out and look but it was a school night. what comet??? they're teasing us with a white Christmas too (flurries, slim chance). but it's supposed to get really cold!"}, {"response": 890, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jun  7, 2005 (10:41)", "body": "Dolphin mothers pass tool use to daughters Andreas von Bubnoff 6 June 2005; | news@nature.com Australian dolphins learn to hunt with sponges stuck to their noses. Bottlenose dolphins are known to be smart, but a study of tool use has emphasized just how clever these mammals can be. Female dolphins in an Australian bay seem to be learning from their mothers how to stick marine sponges on their noses to help them hunt for fish, researchers say. \"It is the first documented case of tool use in a marine mammal,\" says Michael Kr\ufffdtzen of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, who led the study into how the trick is passed from one generation to the next. Rather than being an inherited trait, the tool use is probably being learned by daughter dolphins from their mothers, the researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1. Sponge-using dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were first described in 1997 in Shark Bay, 850 kilometres north of Perth, Australia2. Since then, all dolphins known to use this tool have come from the same bay, and the vast majority have been female. Direct observations have been rare, but researchers think the dolphins use the marine sponges to disturb the sandy sea bottom in their search for prey, while protecting their beaks from abrasion. The knack of learning to use tools from fellow creatures is thought to be very rare. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have been seen to use two stones to crack open nuts, for instance, and this is thought to be a culturally acquired trait3. In other instances tool use seems to be inherited. New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides), for example, use twigs to gain access to food in nooks and crannies of trees, and can do so without having been taught by another crow4. Daughters of Eve To see whether the dolphin behaviour was inherited, Kr\ufffdtzen and his colleagues analysed DNA from 13 spongers, only one of which, Antoine, was male, and from 172 non-spongers. They found that most spongers shared similar mitochondrial DNA, which is genetic information passed down from the mother. This indicates that the spongers are probably all descended from a single \"Sponging Eve\". The spongers also shared similar DNA from the nucleus, suggesting that Eve lived just a few generations ago. But not all the female dolphins with similar mitochondrial DNA use sponges. And when the researchers considered ten different means of genetic inheritance, considering that the sponging trait might be dominant, recessive, linked to the X-chromosome or not, they found no evidence that the trait was carried in DNA. \"It's highly unlikely that there is one or several genes that causes the animals to use tools,\" says Kr\ufffdtzen. Andrew Whiten, a researcher who studies cultural tradition in chimpanzees at the University of St. Andrews, UK, says the work is very thorough. \"Kr\ufffdtzen and his colleagues have done a painstaking genetic analysis,\" says Whiten. But he cautions that there is as yet no evidence that dolphins can pick up tool use by observation. Copy cats Kr\ufffdtzen points out that young dolphins spend up to four or five years with their mother, giving them lots of time to pick up the trick. \"We know they are seeing it all the time,\" says Janet Mann, a co-author of the study from Georgetown University in Washington DC. In general, dolphins are known to imitate each other very well, Kr\ufffdtzen adds. Mann says the males probably learn sponging from their mothers as well, but do not engage in it when older, perhaps because they are too busy pursuing fertile females to engage in complicated foraging. She hopes to catch the dolphins in the act of learning sponge use from their mothers soon. Kr\ufffdtzen plans to study whether the sponge users have any advantage over non-spongers. A preliminary study of the fat content in dolphin blubber suggests that spongers get food that other animals do not, Kr\ufffdtzen says. http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050606/full/050606-2.html"}, {"response": 891, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jun  7, 2005 (19:55)", "body": "cool--thanks cheryl!"}, {"response": 892, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jun 22, 2005 (15:08)", "body": "Giant Popsicle Melts, Floods New York Park NEW YORK - An attempt to erect the world's largest Popsicle in a city square ended with a scene straight out of a disaster film \ufffd but much stickier. The 25-foot-tall, 17 1/2-ton treat of frozen Snapple juice melted faster than expected Tuesday, flooding Union Square in downtown Manhattan with kiwi-strawberry-flavored fluid that sent pedestrians scurrying for higher ground. Firefighters closed off several streets and used hoses to wash away the sugary goo. Snapple had been trying to promote a new line of frozen treats by setting a record for the world's largest Popsicle, but called off the stunt before it was pulled fully upright by a construction crane. Authorities said they were worried the thing would collapse in the 80-degree, first-day-of-summer heat. \"What was unsettling was that the fluid just kept coming,\" Stuart Claxton of the Guinness Book of World Records told the Daily News. \"It was quite a lot of fluid. On a hot day like this, you have to move fast.\" Snapple official Lauren Radcliffe said the company was unlikely to make a second attempt to break the record, set by a 21-foot pop in Holland in 1997. The giant pop was supposed to have been able to withstand the heat for some time, and organizers weren't sure why it didn't. It had been made in Edison, N.J., and hauled to New York by freezer truck in the morning. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050622/ap_on_fe_st/popsicle_disaster_2"}, {"response": 893, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 22, 2005 (20:16)", "body": "*laugh*"}, {"response": 894, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Jul  1, 2005 (11:11)", "body": "Where is everyone? Well, if there any Canadians out there reading the Geo conference, let me take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Canada Day!"}, {"response": 895, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul  2, 2005 (19:32)", "body": "Happy Canada Day from here, too. I am going to try my best to write up field notes on Geo 89 (not 88 as previously reported) of our archaeological and other scientific adventures. I have three - at least - ready to work with and one about done. Others are being planned as we try to avoid busy summer traffic days and locations. I'll do a kind of travelogue and rate it as to what I expected and how children might enjoy it. Thanks Wolfie and Cheryl. Geo is not self sustaining - it never seems to write its own posts even though I send it beams most of the time. *;)"}, {"response": 896, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul  3, 2005 (20:31)", "body": "Cheryl, I prowl about but haven't been posting much :-( Sure miss Marcia's regular updates!! Hi Marcia *HUGS* Am late but Happy Canada Day!!"}, {"response": 897, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Jul 11, 2005 (14:37)", "body": "Hi all and Happy Canada Day I miss Marcia's postings as well! I have been very absent myself as of late and even though graduate school finished for the summer, I didnt make good on my promise to do some postings here including some very much needed rejuvination of gaia magnetosphere. So, anyway, enuf with the excuses so Id better build or record something so I can post. Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 898, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jul 13, 2005 (00:53)", "body": "Bob's in town. We're doing the http://touroftexas.com ."}, {"response": 899, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Jul 14, 2005 (20:33)", "body": "Howdy howdy Cool beans - please pardon the bw but I will be on 2.150 on 7-18 maybe catch you then. 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 900, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Jul 22, 2005 (13:59)", "body": "The world's unluckiest book? By Martina Smit The world's most magnificent book is also one of the unluckiest: it was lost on the Titanic, bombed and its bookbinder drowned. But finally the jewelled binding of Persian poet Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat may have had a stroke of luck. This week it found a new home at the British Library's Treasure Gallery, where it went on public display. The lavish cover, probably the most expensive ever produced, includes over 1000 gems, 5000 coloured inlays and more than 50 square feet of gold leaf. English bookbinder Francis Sutcliffe, of Sangorski & Sutcliffe, took almost two years to complete the first binding in 1912. For months he had told his friends of his dream to bind the Rubaiyat in that way, says British Library bookbinding curator Philippa Marks. It was one of the most popular books in Victorian times. To prepare his designs, the binder studied snakes at the London Zoo and human skulls at an anatomist. At first the book went on sale for \ufffd1,000, a fortune in those days. Yet due to an economic slump and a UK coal strike an American bought it for only \ufffd405. It was shipped across the Atlantic on the Titanic, but was lost along with over 1,500 lives when the cruiser hit an iceberg four days into its maiden voyage. Six weeks after finishing the Great Omar, Mr Sutcliffe also drowned in the sea at Selsey Bill, Sussex. Stanley Bray, nephew and apprentice of the bookbinder, took on the task of recreating the firm's masterpiece. Working in his spare time from 1932 to 1939, he used the original designs, including garnets, olivines, rubies, topazes, and turquoises. However, despite being locked up in a safe, the book was destroyed in a Second World War bombing in 1941. Undaunted, Bray salvaged the gems that survived the blast to recreate the binding once again. But he had to wait until the age of 80, after he had left the firm, to complete the 4,000-hour task. His widow, Irene, bequeathed the famous volume to the British Library when she died last year. The library's bookbinding curator does not heed warnings that the Great Omar might be cursed. \"I take some comfort in the fact that this is the third version,\" Ms Marks said. \"Maybe it is a case of third time lucky.\" The design on the front cover is made up of peacocks. On the back there is a Persian mandolin made of mahogany, inlaid with silver, satinwood and ebony. The inside of the front cover features a tree of life with a snake, while a skull forms the centerpiece of the death composition on the inside of the back cover. And what is it worth now? One can value the jewels and the rare illustrations by symbolist painter Elihu Vedder, Ms Marks said. \"But you can't put a price on history.\" http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/display.var.615334.0.the_worlds_unluckiest_book.php"}, {"response": 901, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Jul 22, 2005 (14:00)", "body": "Beast sighting investigated POLICE have been called out to investigate another sighting of the Beast of Bexley. Officers from Bexleyheath police station went to Upton Road, Bexleyheath, after a teenager reported seeing the giant black cat in undergrowth by Bexleyheath Golf Club. Tom Shinners, 15, of Farnham Road, Welling, was on his way home from a friend's house at around 10.30pm on July 12 when he saw the cat. He told News Shopper: \"I heard a rustling in the bushes as I was walking past and as I looked through the metal fence, I saw this giant black cat trotting across the grass. \"I only saw it for a few seconds before it disappeared again into the undergrowth.\" He added: \"I didn't know what to think, so I rang the police.\" A spokesman for Bexleyheath police confirmed officers did visit the scene but found nothing. http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/display.var.615128.0.beast_sighting_investigated.php"}, {"response": 902, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 22, 2005 (19:06)", "body": "that book is lovely....let's hope the curse is broken! thanks, cheryl. am gonna add the beast of bexely to sitings in springark. interesting!"}, {"response": 903, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (18:57)", "body": "I DO wish I could see that book. I know theirs is better than my ages old paperback version. As for that large cat... Wolfie do add it to the strange and wonderful springark topic dealing with such. I have so much to add to this topic if anyone considers it worth reading. Madoc has surfaced again as a progenitor of the Melungeons and others in Appalachia, and there is at least one new book about a King Arthur conspiracy (isn't it always a conspiracy?!)..."}, {"response": 904, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (18:57)", "body": "Hey Mike !! SO good to see you online. How is the radio telescope going?"}, {"response": 905, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (20:02)", "body": "Finally I got my email changed everywhere on Spring so it is correct. *whew* I remembered how!"}, {"response": 906, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (22:16)", "body": "King Arthur seems to be involved with the Da Vinci code too!"}, {"response": 907, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (23:02)", "body": "OH MY word !!! I guess that made Arthur a templar too? DB has written a long paper debunking Welsh writings in the continental USA. It is so frustrating when people are determined to be fooled."}, {"response": 908, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  2, 2005 (22:06)", "body": "yes, but it is interesting fodder! truly, for me, who cares if Jesus was married? ok, it doesn't matter TO ME. and trying to find out about any children they might have had does one thing---bragging rights.....as far as i'm concerned, i'm already related to Him. people are looking for something to touch in order to make their faith tangible, y'know? if i can show you that Jesus was real because we have a bloodline, then i'm not crazy for believing it.....all it means is that people are LOSING their faith when they reach out for any \"new\" version of their truth."}, {"response": 909, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (12:08)", "body": "Hi Macia! No work on the telescope lately - been working on some microwave communications gear but now with school in session, I need to focus on the books. Glad to see all the postings on Geo as of late. Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 910, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (13:34)", "body": "Oh dear, I had quite forgotten the book and exam grind. Good luck to you, Mike! You have an enthusiastic cheering section in Geo if you need them. What kind of courses are you taking this semester? How strange no matter where my life leads me I am in walking distance of a college. I love that !!"}, {"response": 911, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (13:36)", "body": "Wolfie, you have the exactly correct concept of the DaVinci Code and Holy Blood Holy Grail information. It does make for interesting reading, though. I love history and this is just one more way to make it pallitable."}, {"response": 912, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (18:25)", "body": "Please try this - and read the answers http://www.newstarget.com/gullibility.html I am a learner, though I suspect if I could have spent more time at it, I'd have done a bit better."}, {"response": 913, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (18:56)", "body": "Hi Marcia, Wolfie, and Geoites Taking some computer project process courses right now - mostly stuff about how do a computer project from start to finish. This is a bit of a switch from the coding scene. Been keeping track of the thread on the DaVinci Code - that was one book I need to get to read (or actually put in queue to read) but first currently slogging through Gravity's Rainbow and also a new Noam Chomsky book which is a good thought provoking read so far. One of my favorite times when I lived in Austin was being near the University so I could go to all the foreign films at the Union, plus the used record and book stores to goof off. 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 914, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (19:10)", "body": "Ah another fan of bookstores. I have to be hauled from them bodily, almost kicking and screaming. I'd appreciate a quick critique of Holy Blood Holy Grail (fact) vs The DaVinci Code (fiction) and should I bother to read the latter."}, {"response": 915, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (19:17)", "body": "I'll have to look back through the thread to get the context (plus, really, read the two to make an educated critique). So, will do that then try to make a lucid post.... Also, it is sooo cool to be going to the recent posts and seeing all your entries! 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 916, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (19:21)", "body": "Thanks Mike. It is fantastic to see all of you coming out of the fissures of Geo. It sounds like the crack of doom on Mordor - but that is yet another good book."}, {"response": 917, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (19:28)", "body": "I think we were just missing our GeoNymph to get things rolling. BTW, what thread was the DaVinci code discussion going on so I can get a context? From what previous posts I have read reminded me of a book I bought long ago that was on of many conspiracy books: The Gemstone Files which traces back alot of the evil secret conspiracies that took place in the 60's and 70's in the US govt and world political stage. There were some add on sections one of which was titled 'Tales of the Vatican Crypt' with all kinds of secret conspiracies as well. Of course, there was a section by Robert Anton Wilson who wrote the greatest conspiracy fiction (or fact???) book: The Illuminatus! Trilogy So, there are all kinds of shadows, cliques and cults, and dark secrets going on behind the scenes. ooo, scary. ;-) But fun reads none the less. Also, wanted to mention I was reading some of the other posts in the screwed section and really enjoyed the geoguy's one - will have to reactivate THAT one as well. 73 de Mike rci"}, {"response": 918, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (20:13)", "body": "My dad was a Freemason as were both grandfathers and on back - and they are supposed to have been conspiring about something. They and the Knights Templar are favorite targets of conspiracy theorists. I sometimes miss Art Bell... but not all that much. The internet is full of robust blogs debating theories. DB is currently writing learned papers for learned journals critiquing the claims. It is amazing what some people believe, but it is no more interesting than REAL science! *SIGH* GeoNymph is back *;) (not everyone here knows I have another alias!)"}, {"response": 919, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (20:59)", "body": "Howdy howdy I treat alot of that stuff as 'file under interesting to an extent but dont let it overwhelm' These past couple of days, I have come to the conclusion that real science is enough of a pursuit as there are tangible results/research to be found. I have even come to some conclusions about what to focus my finite energies on including radio (not the ham/astronomy radio but broadcast) that even that is going to take a back seat. If I do anything like that it might be a podcast for kicks. Yep, you are right about the REAL science and along with my school studies, there will be a bit of time to dedicate to astronomy, microwave propagation, and of course, the VLF and ELF signals of the earth. And read books, photography, etc. etc.... 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 920, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (21:58)", "body": "i got \"free thinker\" on that little gullibility test! there was a thread on DVC? my father recommended it...but he likes to read and discuss controversial things....still, i plan to. marcia, i'm with you on being dragged out of bookstores kicking and screaming...i am absolutely fascinated with them.....i love being around books, having them on my bookshelves, flipping through them, whatever. and i HATE leaving a bookstore empty-handed! sad to say, but the AM is the first one to moan and groan when we're running the streets and i say, hey, let's run into B&N! (he forgets that ours has a starbucks inside and that's my alterior motive--they put something in that coffee, i'm telling you).... and i'm with mike on this place being empty----i would come in here and become sad because you, marcia, hadn't been around (not that the others posting weren't good company).....it's hard to keep momentum when the person spinning the wheel is absent....*HUGS*"}, {"response": 921, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (23:24)", "body": "is free thinker smarter then learner? I bow to your superior wisdom. OH dear !!! I promise never to leave again. It was like part of me was missing. A very large and nice part. YOU !!! Imagine this house ... here in Louisville. I had arrived late at night from far too many years where mildew and cockroaches eat what the termites didn't of your library. This is an old house here. Little windows and LOTS of blank walls. Each and every wall has bookcases lining them floor to ceiling. There is one room that has a library table in the middle and his old books are in there. It smells glorious !!! The bed upstairs is in the middle of the room (under dangling Dracula) because we need the walls for more books. My laptop is on a table in another room beside the desk that holds the large pc. I am in the middle so the bookcases can line the walls. yet daily more books arrive. Some written by the master of the house and some as reference for the next volume. I absolutely love it here. AND, these are all books I want to read! Interestingly, what I sent of my library fits in nicely even if there is not room for it. Mine is cultural anthropology (history, archaeology etc) under the guise of just about anything on the planet that interests me. Yup, if heaven exists, I hope it has a BIG library !!!"}, {"response": 922, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (23:31)", "body": "I stopped (long ago actually) doing what did not interest me, Mike. If you have a source of modest income you can do pretty much what you want to do and read the books that fascinate you, Btw, we call it \"lunatic fringe\" archaeology - that stuff with Welsh speaking Amerindians and space people building Stonehenge. They seem never to run out of the fanciful, so I created a topic just for such discussions as ley lines and crop cicles. I think it is Geo 28, but anyone is welcome to post a comment wherever he are inspired."}, {"response": 923, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (09:50)", "body": "Wolfie, I scored in the \"free thinker\" range too. Maybe that's how we both ended up here at Geo?"}, {"response": 924, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (15:25)", "body": "I created Geo because I am and will always be a \"learner\" who keeps company with free thinkers to learn new things *;) It works for me !"}, {"response": 925, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (17:27)", "body": "Hi all Can I join the free thinker club too?? I took the test and found the discussions behind the answers as interesting as the questions. All this time I just thought I was a jaded cynic. 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 926, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (19:39)", "body": "THAT very quality of the test is why I posted in in Geo. I learned more from the discissions than I knew going in. That is always worthwhile. Am currently \"helping\" prepare a paper on grave houses. Are there any out there you'd like to share?"}, {"response": 927, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (20:23)", "body": "Hi Marcia and Geo Folk Im interested (tis the season, after all...) in the thread on grave houses or rather what they are and in what culture are they referenced. Aside from the traditional cemetaries, crypts, etc, I have read some articles about neolithic, iron age, bronze age, etc barrows, grave sites, etc - the most interesting articles were in a UK publication 'Ley Hunter' (no, not a mazazine for pickup lines for singles bars...) but rather a serious scientific and learned discussion on ley lines, ancient sites, folklore, traditions, and so on. One article dealt with death roads and spirit paths which included many interesting examples of European and UK isle sites and legends. Once again, an interesting web site to research - alas, the paper publication no longer exists. 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 928, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (21:31)", "body": "Gravehouses: They are structures built directly above inground interments. They do NOT contain human remains. They are constructed to protect graves over with they are erected. Gravehouses have been reported in Indian settlements on the upper peninsula of Michigan - L'Anse and Vieux Desert Indian Reservation in Baraga County. Other examples (all are associated with Indian tribes) in the western Great Lakes area are known. (Thank you DB) Further photos and information: http://www.tngenweb.org/darkside/index.html If you scroll down on the above link you come to a citation of the resident archaeologist :) \"OBSERVATIONS ON THE FORM AND FUNCTION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE GRAVEHOUSES\", Donald B. Ball, Tennessee Anthropologist, Tennessee Anthropological Association II(1):29-62. 1977."}, {"response": 929, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (22:29)", "body": "boy am i glad you posted a definition because i was getting kind of scared--as in, how do i know if i'm living in one *laugh* free thinker means, i think, that we have a healthy dose of realistic cynicism....besides, one of the things good about being in the military and being able to talk to all of you (and having my dad, the philosopher) was learning that i could look at something from around it rather than just being spoonfed stuff.....but, if i had taken the test in my youth, i'd be a dumb-arse, because i was so naive. thank goodness for you guys and documentary type tv channels that help me learn! there isn't anything wrong with being a learner...i never want to stop learning! i love the sound of your house, marcia! the AM thinks bookshelves are clutter......my bookshelves are covered in books, papers, collectibles and everything is spilling over because i only have 2! but, i did draw up a plan to put a wall-size bookshelf framing my windows in the computer/hobby/office/catch-all room....wonder if the AM will actually make it for me or if i have to do it myself *frown*"}, {"response": 930, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (22:31)", "body": "oh, and for us 3 free-thinkers, how many more would it take to make up 5% of the population? did you guys notice that little statistic? oh, and this is soooo off-topic, sort of, you need to take the color quiz--this thing is accurate (at least it had me down to a tee).... http://www.colorquiz.com (follow the directions and don't think too hard)"}, {"response": 931, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (22:33)", "body": "now that i've gone to look at the gravehouse link, it reminds me of mosoleums (sp) except that the body is buried in the ground...any pictures of ones that are still standing or did i not dig enough (oh, there i go with the puns....y'know, i don't even think about them, i don't do it on purpose)"}, {"response": 932, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (00:52)", "body": "mausoleums."}, {"response": 933, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (11:36)", "body": "Hi all Not quite geo related but free thinking related - go to the Democracy Now website and download the interview with Studs Terkel (Chicago historian, writer, speaker, and all around good guy) which took place today (10-5). Most excellent. I hope I can achieve a 10th of that level of observational analysis and clarity. 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 934, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (11:50)", "body": "Can you copy and paste the url for us short attention span types?"}, {"response": 935, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (13:12)", "body": "www.democracynow.org"}, {"response": 936, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (14:29)", "body": "I'm not sure where to put this but Dan Johnson was my son's best man. He called me \"mom\" and we will all be the poorer for his untimely death. Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - Page updated at 10:58 AM Washington state seismologist dies in log truck accident The Associated Press HUMPTULIPS \ufffd Washington state seismologist Anthony Qamar was one of two men killed in a log truck accident on winding U.S. 101 north of Hoquiam, officials said. Qamar, 62, research associate professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, died in the crash along with Daniel J. Johnson, 46, a University of Puget Sound geophysics professor, UW seismology spokesman Bill Steele said. Qamar and Johnson were on their way to the Olympic Peninsula to collect instruments and data concerning the \"slow-slip\" quake that recently occurred off the coast, Steele said. The scenic road between Hoquiam and Humptulips on the western Olympic Peninsula was closed in both directions for about 8 1/2 hours after the crash. State Patrol investigators wrote that because of an apparent equipment failure, logs fell off a trailer being pulled by a northbound 1992 Kenworth truck. Johnson, who was driving a 1998 Saturn, went off the road to try to avoid the hazard but the car was still hit by some of the logs and shoved into timber and brush. Johnson and Qamar were pronounced dead at the scene. The truck was totaled but the driver, Garland Eugene Massingham, 40, of Centralia, escaped injury. Steele said Qamar, who joined the Washington faculty in 1983, had been a key scientist among those at the university who study earthquakes and volcanoes. Steele called his death a \"huge loss\" that has devastated colleagues. \"He was always cheerful, always helping anyone ... always the first to volunteer to take stuff on,\" Steele said. Copyright \ufffd 2005 The Seattle Times Company"}, {"response": 937, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (14:44)", "body": "Some of those gravehouses (talk about seasonal and items far too close to home) are small and are nothing but roofs with lattice work around the sides. The wooden ones are falling into ruin since the people who erected them have long since gone. That is, despite the custom of picnics at graveyards to tidy up the ancestors' resting places. It is a rather nice tradition. I thought it was bizarre until I went the first time. Now on my 4th year, I am also a family memeber and can see right where I will rest for eternity. The astronmizing from there should be spectacular !!It's called Shady Grove but there is not a single tree there. Grave houses abound however in adjacent cemeteries. I was born a learner. If I ever lose my curiosity, just nail down the lid. I would have to be dead. Keep at it, Wolfie. If you don't use it you might lose it and that simply would NOT do."}, {"response": 938, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (14:45)", "body": "Marcia, thanks for clearing up exactly what gravehouses are; I thought they were mausoleums, too. Mike, I visit the Democracy Now website about three or four times per week. The Studs Terkel interview is really worth checking out. Wolfie, that is an interesting point that free thinkers are estimated at 5 percent of the population, and three of us are here at Geo!"}, {"response": 939, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (14:47)", "body": "Marcia, I'm so sorry to learn about the truck accident in Washington State and Dan Johnson's untimely death. Is your son doing okay with news? Are you doing okay, yourself?"}, {"response": 940, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (14:49)", "body": "OK I took the color test. A lot they got right. Hmmm I was considering which color pen I'd choose not what color I'd wear. I wonder if that makes a difference."}, {"response": 941, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (15:08)", "body": "Hi all Regarding seeing where one is laid to rest, it was kind of an odd feeling when I bought a plot and saw the spot - I commented to my partner that seeing that spot kind of lends an ultimate finality to one's life. I, of course, really want a traditional viking's funeral.... 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 942, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (16:00)", "body": "It really is odd. I'd like the Viking funeral as well. I can't imagine putting someone you had held in your arms just a few days prior into the ground. A picture of my \"other\" son http://www.komotv.com/stories/39603.htm . Thanks for asking. The kids are doing ok though the widow asked my son to take her to the scene when they get up there. That is going to be painful beyond anything I can imagine. All I can do is grieve with him. Free Thinkers Rule!!! Only 5 %??? rarified company, indeed. Thanks for being her."}, {"response": 943, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (16:01)", "body": "Being here ... was that Freudian?!"}, {"response": 944, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (19:50)", "body": "*LAUGH* (about the freudian slip) *HUGS* am sorry to learn of Dan's death too. Please send our condolences to your son (and accept them for yourself as well). Visiting the site is going to be difficult. am going to have to go to that democracy site after my shows tonight (lost and invasion) isn't a traditional viking funeral where they send you out to sea in a burning ship? i'd rather not think about my mortality...."}, {"response": 945, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (22:05)", "body": "Looking at your grave plot is very odd indeed. Somehow I managed to think of an infinite life or at least one stretching far into my future. What is really odd is there is a headstone for DB's mother with her name on it and she is very much alive. That was oddest of all. Not sure I am ready for that quite yet but you never know. Thanks for your condolences. I will forward them to a guy who has lost his brother and best friend (he got to choose his own brother since he was an only child). These next few days will be very difficult. I draped a few little white flowers around a moai he brought back for us made from Easter Island volcanic tuff exactly like the big ones. Very difficult, indeed."}, {"response": 946, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (22:08)", "body": "Mike, does your partner share curiousity with us? Please let him know he is very welcome at Geo even if he wanders off topic (and how can you do that when the topic is \"et cetera\" ??!!) Fire up the boat anchora. Winter is coming and cleaner signals! Is anyone around here involved with RACES (emergency Ham radio)? I am guessing they saved the day in the last two hurricanes again !"}, {"response": 947, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (22:59)", "body": "no, it's bad enough that i'm chained to the computer and have to tear myself away----i've seen relatively few ham operators around these parts--saw them in L.A. though."}, {"response": 948, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct  6, 2005 (12:25)", "body": "Trio wins physics Nobel for shedding light on optics By Niklas Pollard STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Two Americans and a German won the Nobel Physics Prize on Tuesday for optical research giving extremely accurate measurements that could one day be used in deep space travel or three-dimensional holographic television. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Roy Glauber, John Hall and Germany's Theodor Haensch for studying light and harnessing lasers to create a \"measuring stick\" to gauge frequencies with extreme precision. Such precision will one day be needed for \"navigation on long space journeys and for space-based telescope arrays,\" the Academy said, while Haensch, the youngest of the winners at 63, said it could even lead to \"3D holographic television.\" Talking from Munich, Haensch told Reuters he was \"overwhelmed, happy and speechless\" but the party would have to wait: \"I have no time to celebrate right at the moment. People are waiting with champagne but I have to go to the airport to go to San Francisco.\" Hall, 71 and from Colorado, said he might use his share of the 10 million Swedish crown prize money to endow a scholarship in science and technology. \"I'm very interested in helping young people that don't have financial means,\" he told Reuters. CANDLES TO LASERS \"We get most of our knowledge of the world around us through light,\" said the Academy, calling optics \"the physicists' tool for dealing with light phenomena.\" The winning trio's research answered such questions as how candle light differs from laser beams in a CD player and how light can measure time more accurately than an atomic clock. \"All three of them deserve the prize,\" said Peter Rodgers, editor of Physics World magazine. \"The general area of quantum optics and lasers is an area in which there has been a lot of progress in recent years. This prize reflects well on progress in that area.\" Harvard University's Glauber, 80, said he was woken at home in Massachusetts by a call from an Academy official but he first thought it was a joke. \"I could scarcely believe him,\" he told a news conference at Harvard. Glauber, who took part in the Manhattan Project in World War Two which developed the atomic bomb, wins half of the prize money, though he expressed surprise that there was a cash award. \"Nobody mentioned money.\" He laid the groundwork for the Nobel-winning work by establishing the basis for quantum optics in 1963, providing a theoretical description of the behaviour of light particles. STILL A BABY Decades later, Hall and Haensch, from the University of Colorado and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University respectively, worked on determining the colour of the light with extreme precision. Haensch used even-spaced laser pulses \"like the teeth of a comb or the marks on a ruler\" to determine the value of frequencies and Hall refined this technique. Explaining what his and Haensch's teams of researchers had accomplished, Hall said: \"Most people have been using a radio dial to scan frequencies to find the right music, we've made it possible to do the same in the optical realm.\" \"One of the best applications is to test whether what we teach in physics is true or just approximately true,\" he said. Hall, retired from an organisation funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said he is also working on a project to use related laser technology to identify security hazards in airports. When asked how that would work, he would only say, \"Come back in a year.\" \"It's like a newborn baby,\" said Hall of laser science. \"You know it has fantastic potential but it's much too early to say what it will achieve.\" (Additional reporting by Stephen Brown, Peter Starck and Simon Johnson in Stockholm, Philip Blenkinsop in Berlin, Patricia Reaney in London, Jason Szep in Boston and Keith Coffman in Denver) \ufffd Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-04T222633Z_01_YUE480773_RTRUKOC_0_UK-NOBEL-PHYSICS.xml&archived=False"}, {"response": 949, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  6, 2005 (16:47)", "body": "Thanks Cheryl. That's amazing stuff. I don't even begin to understand what they are talking about. I'm guessing \"approximately true\""}, {"response": 950, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  6, 2005 (17:16)", "body": "Back to Seasonal stuff. The following article amazed and appalled us: Lament for lost grave stones Oct 6 2005 By Martin Smith City council bosses have admitted they have lost almost 50 historic gravestones from an ancient burial ground in Coventry. The blunder was revealed during the investigation into the missing gravestone of former Mayor of Coventry Thomas Luckman, as revealed by the Evening Telegraph in June. Relatives of Mr Luckman, who was mayor in 1782, have been trying to discover the fate of the one-tonne memorial since it disappeared in 1999. Story continues Continue story Now in a letter to Peter Johnson, Mr Luckman's great- great- great- great grandson, the council has admitted a \"vast amount\" of archaeological material has gone missing. Tony Auty, the council's head of development project, said: \"....the original intention was to reuse them all [the gravestones], as paving material in the Phoenix Initiative. \"At a later stage, it was decided by the Phoenix Initiative project director not to use the gravestones and those that were still on site were disposed of. \"The project director and his staff no longer work for the city council so I am unable to ascertain why the stones were not reused and why no record was kept of how, when and where they were disposed of.\" Father-of-three Mr Johnson, of Magpie Lane, Balsall Common, who is a retired chartered accountant, said the situation was a farce. He said: \"It saddens me greatly. \"It is appalling that this sort of thing happens in this day and age. It is vitally important to keep these things because they show where we have been. \"It seems to demonstrate the lack of care and under-standing on the part of the city council.\" The gravestone of Mr Luckman was unearthed in 1999 as archaeologists began digging at the site of Coventry's first cathedral, off Priory Row. Mr Luckman, a printer and freeman of the city, was buried in St Mary's graveyard in 1784 and his wife, Mary Parry, joined him 20 years later. No remains of either were discovered when the graves were dug up but members of Mr Luckman's family wanted to preserve the gravestone. http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_objectid=16217310%26method=full%26siteid=50003%26headline=lament%2dfor%2dlost%2dgrave%2dstones-name_page.html"}, {"response": 951, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (01:55)", "body": "Terry can you tell me how to access the pictures I put on http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/porch/35 Mine is not working nor are many others. I had a request for mine and I can't access it."}, {"response": 952, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (17:38)", "body": "What's the picture url you're using?"}, {"response": 953, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (17:45)", "body": "I have no idea what it is now and that is why I am not doing ftp or posting anything graphic. I need to email you ."}, {"response": 954, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (23:09)", "body": "and keeping with the Halloween season: Prehistoric cannibalism at Yorkshire Dales New research on bones discovered in six Dales caves (Yorkshire, England) has revealed that farming in the area dates back thousands of years - and with it a history of cannibalism. Dated bones found in caves at the western edge of the limestone uplands have been taken as evidence of rituals that involved adult skulls and other body parts along with animal bones. The macabre finds included human bones which have been smashed up and the marrow removed, leading specialists to conclude they had been at the centre of a cannibalistic ritual. Excavations took place in the caves during the 1920s and 30s. Material from the finds was collected by Dales farmer Tom Lord's grandfather and has finally been the subject of precise radio-carbon dating by Oxford University. Mr Lord said: \"The radio-carbon dating evidence indicates the presence of farming communities much earlier than previously thought, as early as anywhere in Britain. What is so exciting is that the dated bones were found in caves where there is clear evidence for the special treatment of human remains.The caves would not have been easy to find in the wooded landscape of that time, and are also small and generally unsuitable for normal occupation.\" At least four human skulls were found in a small cave in Giggleswick Scar during excavations around 1930. One surviving skull was directly radio-carbon dated and shown to date from about 3,600 BCE. Now experts are trying to work out why early farming communities sought out the caves and used them for ritualistic activities. An archaeologist and human bone specialist from King Alfred's College, Winchester, Stephany Leach, said there was evidence of adult human skulls being deliberately deposited in two caves. \"By contrast, a skull was amongst the missing body parts of a man placed in a natural recess in the wall of the third cave,\" she said. \"His jumbled up remains were mixed together with fragmentary animal bones, including domestic cattle, domestic pig and sheep. Many of the animal bones had been smashed for marrow extraction, suggesting rituals took place at the cave. The man's tibia was also deliberately smashed for marrow extraction, suggesting at least part of his body had been eaten.\" Some of the prehistoric artefacts which have been found, especially pieces of pottery, are datable on stylistic grounds, and are all from a much later period, often dating between about 3,000 BCE and 2,000 BCE. Source: Yorkshire Post Today (8 October 2005)"}, {"response": 955, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Oct 10, 2005 (09:40)", "body": "The 2005 Ig Nobel Prize Winners The 2005 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on Thursday evening, October 6, at the 15th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. You can watch archived video of the live webcast. AGRICULTURAL HISTORY: James Watson of Massey University, New Zealand, for his scholarly study, \"The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley\ufffds Exploding Trousers.\" REFERENCE: \"The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley\ufffds Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy-Farming between the World Wars,\" James Watson, Agricultural History, vol. 78, no. 3, Summer 2004, pp. 346-60. WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: James Watson PHYSICS: John Mainstone and the late Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland, Australia, for patiently conducting an experiment that began in the year 1927 -- in which a glob of congealed black tar has been slowly, slowly dripping through a funnel, at a rate of approximately one drop every nine years. REFERENCE: \"The Pitch Drop Experiment,\" R. Edgeworth, B.J. Dalton and T. Parnell, European Journal of Physics, 1984, pp. 198-200. WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: John Mainstone MEDICINE: Gregg A. Miller of Oak Grove, Missouri, for inventing Neuticles -- artificial replacement testicles for dogs, which are available in three sizes, and three degrees of firmness. REFERENCES: US Patent #5868140, and the book Going Going NUTS!, by Gregg A. Miller, PublishAmerica, 2004, ISBN 1413753167. ACCEPTING: \"The winner was unable to travel, and deliverd his acceptance speech via videotape.\" LITERATURE: The Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters -- General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others -- each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them. PEACE: Claire Rind and Peter Simmons of Newcastle University, in the U.K., for electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the movie \"Star Wars.\" REFERENCE: \"Orthopteran DCMD Neuron: A Reevaluation of Responses to Moving Objects. I. Selective Responses to Approaching Objects,\" F.C. Rind and P.J. Simmons, Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 68, no. 5, November 1992, pp. 1654-66. WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Claire Rind ECONOMICS: Gauri Nanda of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for inventing an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people DO get out of bed, and thus theoretically adding many productive hours to the workday. WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Gauri Nanda CHEMISTRY: Edward Cussler of the University of Minnesota and Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, for conducting a careful experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in water? REFERENCE: \"Will Humans Swim Faster or Slower in Syrup?\" American Institute of Chemical Engineers Journal, Brian Gettelfinger and E. L. Cussler, vol. 50, no. 11, October 2004, pp. 2646-7. WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Brian Gettelfinger and Edward Cussler BIOLOGY: Benjamin Smith of the University of Adelaide, Australia and the University of Toronto, Canada and the Firmenich perfume company, Geneva, Switzerland, and ChemComm Enterprises, Archamps, France; Craig Williams of James Cook University and the University of South Australia; Michael Tyler of the University of Adelaide; Brian Williams of the University of Adelaide; and Yoji Hayasaka of the Australian Wine Research Institute; for painstakingly smelling and cataloging the peculiar odors produced by 131 different species of frogs when the frogs were feeling stressed. REFERENCE: \"A Survey of Frog Odorous Secretions, Their Possible Functions and Phylogenetic Significance,\" Benjamin P.C. Smith, Craig R. Williams, Michael J. Tyler, and Brian D. Williams, Applied Herpetology, vol. 2, no. 1-2, February 1, 2004, pp. 47-82. REFERENCE: \"Chemical and Olfactory Characterization of Odorous Compounds and Their Precursors in the Parotoid Gland Secretion of the Green Tree Frog, Litoria caerulea,\" Benjamin P.C. Smith, Michael J. Tyler, Brian D. Williams, and Yoji Hayasaka, Journal of Chemical Ecology, vol. 29, no. 9, September 2003. WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Ben Smith and Craig Williams NUTRITION: Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats of Tokyo, Japan, for photographing and retrospectively analyzing every meal he has consumed during a period of 34 years (and counting). WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats FLUID DYNAMICS: Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of International University Bremen, Germany and the University of Oulu , Finland; and Jozsef Gal of Lor\ufffdnd E\ufffdtv\ufffd"}, {"response": 956, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Oct 10, 2005 (09:41)", "body": "Marcia, say it isn't so, cannibals in Yorkshire! Yikes!"}, {"response": 957, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 10, 2005 (22:05)", "body": "I had only heard of the ones in Ireland. And the ones living in a cave in England. Very isolated cases yet horrible to contemplate. I see Yorkshire is gaining notoriety. Thanks for the ig Nobel Prizes. I lost the place they were online and was delighted to see our lady in Pittsburgh was on top of things. Exploding trousers?! The images in my mind are amazing."}, {"response": 958, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 12, 2005 (00:01)", "body": "More for the season to be macabre Andritsa Cave's chamber of secrets Late 6th-century finds retrieved from the Argolid cave and exhibited at theByzantine and Christian Museum begin to unfold the story of a group of peoplewho sought refuge there and slowly starved to death CHRISTY PAPADOPOULOU"}, {"response": 959, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 12, 2005 (00:01)", "body": "more of the above information and story connected with this horrific event http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=13150&m=A29&aa=1&eidos=S"}, {"response": 960, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 12, 2005 (00:20)", "body": "Clinton and Lewinsky names for new Chinese condoms 2005/09/21 Participants of one of the most scandalous adulteries in the modern history, ex-US president Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky suddenly became involved in sexual life of the Chinese. As China Daily newspaper reports Chinese company Guangzhou Haojian used their names as trademarks for condoms. http://www1.newsteam.ru/"}, {"response": 961, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Oct 12, 2005 (10:17)", "body": "China bear bile farmer eaten by own animals BEIJING: A Chinese man who raised bears to tap them for their bile, prized as a traditional medicine in Asia, has been killed and eaten by his animals, Xinhua news agency said yesterday Six black bears attacked keeper Han Shigen as he was cleaning their pen in the northeastern province of Jilin on Monday, Xinhua said. ''The ill-fated man died on the spot and was eaten up by the ferocious bears,'' it said, citing a report in the Beijing News. In practices decried by animal rights groups, bile is extracted through surgically implanted catheters in the bear's gall bladders, or by a ''free-dripping'' technique by which bile drips out through holes opened in the animals' abdomens. More than 200 farms in China keep about 7,000 bears to tap their bile, which traditional Chinese medicine holds can cure fever, liver illness and sore eyes. Bear farming was far more widespread before the cruelty involved came to light and Beijing introduced regulations to control the industry in 1993. Animal welfare groups have called on China to completely ban bear farming, arguing that traditional herbal medicines can serve the same purposes as bear bile. Xinhua said police sent to the scene of Monday's killing injected one of the bears with tranquillisers ''but failed to tame the mad animal''. Police then threw meat into the bears' pen to distract them so they could recover Han's remains, it said without elaborating. http://www.newkerala.com/newsdaily.php?action=fullnews&id=34476"}, {"response": 962, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Oct 12, 2005 (10:20)", "body": "Well, as far as Clinton and Lewinsky being used as names for Chinese condoms -- at least, they're names are being linked with safe sex. Okay, that stretching it. I'm going to stop before another bad pun overtakes me. The article on the find in the cave in Greece is really interesting, and especially sad."}, {"response": 963, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 12, 2005 (19:31)", "body": "no, pun away, cheryl! thanks for the bear post--isn't it weird how some animals eat their caretakers? there must be a phenom for this but i'm to scared to do any research on it....it's terribly ironic!"}, {"response": 964, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 15, 2005 (17:29)", "body": "Oh this is way too funny. Eaten by bears is just compensation in my book. Oh Cheryl, you are clever beyond measure. Maybe I should have put that is the screwed topic for Geoites about the Lewinsky-Clinton safe sex stretching. It is more like truth stretching. At least they think it IS sex. And it's only safe if you don't get caught *;)"}, {"response": 965, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 16, 2005 (18:26)", "body": "reminds me of those SNL bear skits, seen those?"}, {"response": 966, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 16, 2005 (19:54)", "body": "Not for ages ! Have you seen the rubbish containers in Yosemite that are supposed to be bear-proof? Is Anything really bear proof?"}, {"response": 967, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 16, 2005 (23:27)", "body": "A few things, perhaps."}, {"response": 968, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (13:01)", "body": "Geo weather is frozen. Help! I have no idea what is the matter with it but I tried ot post twice before I noted the comment that the topic was \"frozen\""}, {"response": 969, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (13:05)", "body": "same thing happened to me, it said i gave an invalid command *frown*"}, {"response": 970, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (13:15)", "body": "I just thawed it. I guess Terry turned out the lights when he left and froze it in time. Anyway it works now :)"}, {"response": 971, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (13:51)", "body": "Nope, dint turn any lights out."}, {"response": 972, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (14:30)", "body": "must've hit some kinda switch though! hey, i can't get into restaurants at all, everytime i wait for it to load am timed out. what gives?"}, {"response": 973, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (14:58)", "body": "I'll do a reboot. Sounds like the server is sluggish."}, {"response": 974, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (15:28)", "body": "Restaurants is very slow to the point of timing out on my server."}, {"response": 975, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (15:29)", "body": "I tried to get here http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/restaurants/all/new I got this message Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@www.spring.net and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log. Apache/1.3.27 Server at www.spring.net Port 80"}, {"response": 976, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 18, 2005 (19:39)", "body": "that's the same one i got and i emailed it to terry."}, {"response": 977, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 19, 2005 (21:47)", "body": "The peoblem still persists. We need wer to work his magic and unstick it."}, {"response": 978, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 19, 2005 (22:36)", "body": "yeah, the restaurant conf is still broken. i even cleaned out my cache and everything....."}, {"response": 979, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 19, 2005 (23:10)", "body": "It's not you. It is broken to both AOL's browser (uck) and my Netscape."}, {"response": 980, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Nov  2, 2005 (17:10)", "body": "Although a bit late... Happy Samhein to All! cos..."}, {"response": 981, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  3, 2005 (11:25)", "body": "Uh huh."}, {"response": 982, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 13, 2005 (17:36)", "body": "Yo Cosmo! Thanks. I danced around my bone fire and ate all the candy the kids didn't claim *;) and thought of Geo"}, {"response": 983, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Nov 16, 2005 (20:56)", "body": "Hi Marci and Geoites Tres Cool - I had a quiet evening handing out the sweets to the neighborhood kids - I put the shortwave on some strange digital station which made weird noises and pointed my HeNe Laser out the door - the kids didnt know what to make of it. Too cold (or maybe just right) for a bonfire - hit the low 30's today and had the first snow flurries. Good night to stay inside and listen to the ray-de-oh. de Mike"}, {"response": 984, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 17, 2005 (00:12)", "body": "Sounds like good snuggling weather. Tonight I am watching the little weather program in my laptop go to 32\ufffd F for the first time this season. It really feels cold. Yesterday at about this same time it was 73\ufffd . I am watching for our first flurries. I hear they had a few south of here away from the moderating Ohio River. Listening to the scanner ray-de-oh tonight."}, {"response": 985, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Nov 17, 2005 (11:46)", "body": "Howdy howdy Marci Curious as to what excitement you hear on the scanner - up where we are and near the big city, there is plenty of activity but there is some movement up to the 800mhz area with fancy trunking radios which I dont have - still plenty of PD and business activity around 460Mhz. Also, do you still have your shortwave? You might hear alot more of the local shortwave stations in the US via groundwave propagation."}, {"response": 986, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 17, 2005 (18:55)", "body": "I really do need to get me another short wave radio. My old Sangean finally bit the dust. It was the only one I brought when I moved. That is on my Santa list even if I have to get it myself. Scanner traffic is huge here and I do have a trunk tracker model but confine my listening mostly to the UPS hub air traffic. I can find out about fires in other states and weather phenomena and \" dog-sized rats\" on the runways. Unless there are a lot of sirens going off. Then I hit the banks that hold the fire and police frequencies. Most of them don't use the trunks unless they are on a big job taking several hours, so that isn't a problem. I also listen to local ham repeaters just to keep current."}, {"response": 987, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Dec  7, 2005 (14:15)", "body": "On the trail of the Borneo cat-fox The discovery of a new mammal in the Asian rainforest was greeted with excitement. But how many other mysterious creatures are lurking in the undergrowth, asks James Meek The Guardian The saddest thing about the discovery of a mysterious new mammal on the forest paths of Borneo, is that the creature itself will never know how rare, endangered and exciting to the world's media it is. If the creature, possibly a carnivore not previously known to world science, photographed loping through the darkness, advancing then retreating, its eyes glowing like carriage lamps, had been Colleen McLoughlin putting out the rubbish one night, she would probably have measured the impact of the sighting over the following days at the newsagent's. But the nameless little beast scampering through the Kalimantan leafmould is unselfconscious about its rarity and feels neither the loneliness nor the isolation which the human world has projected onto it. It just wanted to vanish back into the obscurity from which it was plucked by a World Wide Fund for Nature paparazzo. Relentlessly, one by one, under the banner of protecting the world's wide places, scientists and conservationists are stripping the mystery from these very places by exposing the last unknown mammals. The existence of what may, or may not, be the latest in a string of new mammals to have been discovered in the last decade was announced in Jakarta on Monday. As with many of the previous discoveries, the evidence is, at least at first, indirect - not the animal itself, captured or seen by a scientist, but two blurry photographs showing, first, a skinny scurrier like a wingless bat with a long fat tail, its muzzle obscured by a leaf, and second, the same creature from behind, with haunches like a monkey and a tail like a well-fed ginger tom. If past discoveries, such as the Vietnamese otter-civet or the Borneo ferret-badger are a guide, the newbie may come to be known as the cat-dog-fox-monkey-lemur. Then again, the head of the team which discovered it goes by the name of Stephen Wulffraat, so it could, in theory, end up being named after him. Dr Wulffraat's mobile in Indonesia wasn't working yesterday and his fellow mammal-hunters were, in the main, all deep in far wooded places where telecommunications are only a rumour. Ginette Hemley of the World Wide Fund for Nature, which along with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has been the main organisation backing the scientists who have discovered new mammals, was cautious about the new creature's identity. \"This is potentially a new species,\" she said. \"It has not been confirmed. Doing that will require physical evidence we do not yet have.\" The WWF's next stage is to catch one. \"We plan to set some live traps to catch a specimen, or two if we can, and use appropriate experts who know about small animals like this and essentially do measurements and analysis and take some samples.\" If there appears to be a degree of urgency in the WWF's mammal-hunting team, it's because time is not on their side. Earlier this year the Indonesian authorities, with the backing of a Chinese bank, announced a multi-billion-pound plan to plant oil palms in the high mountain forests where the mystery beast lives. The WWF is sceptical about the project - oil palms do not grow well at high altitude, and there are other areas of Borneo which would appear to be more suitable. The organisation suspects a grab attempt for the old-growth timber on the high ridges. \"We're not opposed to an oil palm plantation being developed, as long as it's done in a way that is not going to harm biodiversity,\" says Hemley. Incredibly, the Borneo cat-dog-fox-monkey-lemur may be the third previously unknown mammal discovered this year. In a hunter's market in central Laos, a WCS researcher, Robert Timmins, came across a short-legged rodent with a hairy tail and a long snout, as if it started out as a rat, toyed with guinea pigness, and ended up as a squirrel. In this case, \"previously unknown\" is strictly a culturally relative term. The animal was on sale along with some vegetables, and was well enough known by local Laotians to have a name: the kha-nyou. Several years previously Timmins discovered a new species of striped rabbit in the same region. \"Sceptics might say that if we are still discovering such amazing new animals then why are people worried about wildlife loss; but, of course, it is an indication of how little we know, and a window on to what we could be losing without ever knowing,\" he said at the time of the kha-nyou encounter. The notable mammal discoveries of the last decade have been made not by Indiana Jones-style mammal-hunters but by scientists who were not necessarily looking for what they found. Timmins, for instance, was working on an anti-poaching programme in Laos when he came across the kha-nyou. The discovery of 2005's third new mammal, the kibunji or Highland Mangabey, a black-faced monkey with a pun"}, {"response": 988, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 10, 2005 (00:51)", "body": "Cheryl that is a sensational article. Many thanks for posting it. I had not heard of this. Wow, I am at one of those rare moments of speechlessness. Again thanks."}, {"response": 989, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Dec 12, 2005 (12:22)", "body": "You're welcome, Marcia. I'm glad you found it sensational."}, {"response": 990, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 16, 2005 (17:13)", "body": "Hnmn since we have been interested in The Matter of Britain in the Books conference for a long time, AE sent this to ponder. They've been at it for far longer than first anticipated. Tools Found in Britain Show Much Earlier Human Existence By Guy Gugliotta A chance discovery on a routine field trip to England's Suffolk seacoast led to evidence that humans reached northern Europe 700,000 years ago, about 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, scientists said yesterday. To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121402249.html?referrer=emailarticle"}, {"response": 991, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Dec 21, 2005 (17:47)", "body": "They have been there for a long time."}, {"response": 992, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Dec 21, 2005 (17:49)", "body": "Happy Winter Soltice! That's Happy Summer Soltice to Geo Friends in the southern hemisphere."}, {"response": 993, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 24, 2005 (06:38)", "body": "Solstice and a good many religious holidays happen right about now. It seems the lack of sun and warmth in winter was a serious concern as far back as we could ponder such things: Today on SPACE.com --- Friday December 23, 2005 -- http://www.space.com/ In today's issue: Science/Astronomy: * Moon to Hide Star Christmas Morning (see below) * New Moons and Rings Found at Uranus * Mars Water Assumptions May Be All Wet * Image of the Day: Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree Spaceflight: * For Scientist and Englishwoman, Pluto Mission is Precious * Remembering the Real Space Cowboys * Ariane 5 GS Lofts Indian, European Satellites into Orbit * Congress, Pentagon Move To Rein in Space Programs * Stardust Capsule Headed For Utah Landing * Holiday Supply Ship Rockets Toward ISS * ASTRONOTES: Pluto Mission to Carry Piece of SpaceShipOne * NEW! Daily Space Trivia NEW! LiveScience.com * Top Science Stories of 2005: A Year of Incredible Impact * LiveScience Amazing Images: Upload Your Cool Pictures Now! * Intelligent Workplace: The Office of the Future * Christmas Tree's Survival Secret Discovered * Scientists Predict What You'll Think of Next * LiveScience.com: Cool Science Galleries NEW! Cool Stuff: * Comets Through Time: Myths and Mystery * Vote for the Best Cosmic Images of 2005! * Amazing Images Hall of Fame * NEW Podcast Episode! ZeroG - a Personal Journey into Weightlessness * New Gallery: Imagining Saturn and Titan * Visit Our Collection of Space Wallpapers * Get the weather from anywhere on Earth...with WeatherBug! * New! Search for Your Next Hi-Tech Job Opportunity Now! Entertainment: Movies, Television, DVD, Games and much more... * VOTE NOW: Rate Your Favorite Space Movies * NASA Astronaut to Help Build Martian Bedroom * Man Pays $100,000 for Virtual Space Station * 'Chicken Little' Throws Fowl Ball * Gallery: Walking on the Moon in 3D * New Songs Added...Explore the SpaceBox! Recent Headlines: * Japan Considers Plans for Homegrown Spacesuit * Robotic Space Spiders To Crawl Sub-Orbital Web * New Telescope to Revolutionize Asteroid Warning System * Building Blocks of Life Found in Planet-Forming Disk * Latest News and Updates on the Mars Rovers * Cassini's Journeys: Headquarters for mission news, Saturn and more Plus... * Uplink, SPACE.com TV and NightSky * Starry Night, TeamSETI ----------------------------------- Science/Astronomy: * Moon to Hide Star Christmas Morning http://www.space.com/spacewatch/051223_night_sky.html A nifty holiday gift occurs for those living in parts of western and central Canada, the Pacific Northwest and parts of the Rockies and Plains States on Christmas morning when a fat waning crescent Moon will occult the bluish 1st-magnitude star Spica, one of the brightest stars in the sky. * New Moons and Rings Found at Uranus http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/051222_uranus.html Astronomers have discovered new rings and small moons around Uranus and found surprising changes in satellite orbits around the giant planet. * Mars Water Assumptions May Be All Wet http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/051221_mars_dry.html The apparent discovery of ancient salty lakes or seas on Mars by NASA's Opportunity rover last year is viewed as one of the most significant developments in planetary science. * Image of the Day: Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_051223.html Even outer space is joining the year-end celebration with this new image of a star-forming region called the Christmas Tree cluster taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. ----------------------------------- Spaceflight: * For Scientist and Englishwoman, Pluto Mission is Precious http://www.space.com/news/051223_newhorizones_people.html It is the first ever flight to Pluto and the first planetary flyby in decades, but for its lead scientist and one Englishwoman NASA's New Horizon mission will mark a milestone for space exploration. * Remembering the Real Space Cowboys http://www.space.com/adastra/adastra_cowboys_051223.html Earlier this year, there were two events almost back-to-back. The first involved the authors of \"The Real Space Cowboys\", while the other featured the widow of moonwalker Pete Conrad, with her book, \"Rocketman.\" First up will be Buckbee and Schirra. Watch for Nancy Conrad in a future story. * Ariane 5 GS Lofts Indian, European Satellites into Orbit http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/051222_ariane_launch.html Europe's Ariane 5 GS rocket successfully placed an Indian telecommunications satellite and a European weather satellite into orbit Dec. 21, marking the first time the heavy-lift rocket has conducted five launches in a calendar year. * Congress, Pentagon Move To Rein in Space Programs http://www.space.com/news/051222_2005_dod.html This may be remembered as the year both Congress and the Pentagon finally lost patience with the military's trouble-plagued space programs, as lawmakers applied the brakes to new development projects. * Stardust Capsule Headed For Utah"}, {"response": 994, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 26, 2006 (16:49)", "body": "In the interest of education: The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. The winners are: 1. Coffee (n.) the person upon whom one coughs. 2. Flabbergasted (adj.) appalled over how much weight you have gained. 3. Abdicate (v.) to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach. 4. Esplanade (v.) to attempt an explanation while drunk. 5. Willy-nilly (adj.) impotent. 6. Negligent (adj.) describes a condition in which you absent-mindedly answer the door in your nightgown. 7. Lymph (v.) to walk with a lisp. 8. Gargoyle (n.) olive-flavored mouthwash. 9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller. 10. Balderdash (n.) a rapidly receding hairline. 11. Testicle (n.) a humorous question on an exam. 12. Rectitude (n.) the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists. 13. Pokemon (n) a Rastafarian proctologist. 14. Oyster (n.) a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms. 15. Frisbeetarianism (n.) (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there. 16. Circumvent (n.) an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by circumcised men."}, {"response": 995, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2006 (20:51)", "body": "Just thought you would like to know! On Wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06 That won't ever happen again ever. ( until 2106 )"}, {"response": 996, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2006 (18:44)", "body": "it'll happen again in 2007."}, {"response": 997, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2006 (21:28)", "body": "Kia Ora Here is something that would have been unique. At 01:01.01AM 01/01/01 - its only 94 years, something like 8 months 25 days, 11 hours and 39 minutes (all times NZST), until it happens again. Assuming the very low probability of me still being alive then, I would be 120. Rob"}, {"response": 998, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2006 (23:37)", "body": "You mean 2101 Rob? Next year there will be 02:03:04 05/06/07 and then 03:04:05 06/07/08 04:05:06 07/08/09 05:06:07 08/09/10 06:07:08 09/10/11 07:08:09 10/11/12 then what? 08:09:10 11/12/13 etc."}, {"response": 999, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2006 (19:21)", "body": "Let's see. I'll still be writing in Geo and Rob will be saving New Zealand from disasters, and Terry would still be remembering his college years and the lady in St James Court..."}, {"response": 1000, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2006 (23:45)", "body": "09:10:11 12/13/14 Yeah, her."}, {"response": 1001, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 16, 2006 (18:00)", "body": "Does anyone have access to a Girl Sount Song Book? I need to find the source of the song \"O Beautful Banner\" Brahms used it in his Academic Festival Overture just before the first iteration of Gaudeamus Igitur. Yes, I know this has nothing to do with Geo but I am a very curious lady, and I don't remember reading that Johannes Brahms was a Girl Scout. Thank you !"}, {"response": 1002, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2006 (21:16)", "body": "marcia, i found his overture here and it's downloadable--you have to be a member though (they have a free version and a pay version). hope it has what you're looking for. http://www.classicalarchives.com/brahms.html#brahms_orchestral"}, {"response": 1003, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2006 (16:50)", "body": "I am a member of that group and they have lovely stuff there. If you wonder what live performances by some of the most notable musicians in the Russian Republic are doing nowadays, listen to a few of the free options. I joined. And I do have that file, Wolfie. Thanks for finding it in case I had not yet gotten to it. I am looking for the source of part of that overture. Surely the Girl Scouts and Brahms had the same source. My question is what WAS it?!"}, {"response": 1004, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2006 (18:28)", "body": "you mean Brahms didn't write it? i thought he did. when i googled o beautiful banner all sorts of stuff came up with america the beautiful and the star spangled banner being among them. hmmmmmm....."}, {"response": 1005, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2006 (19:25)", "body": "It was supposedly in a 1926 (?) church song book and adapted for girl scouts. That is where I first came upon the familiar music. We sang it as the flag was raised. I was a leader whose squad of girls picked a patch of poison ivy to camp in all week. We were lucky. Hardly anyone had any problems with it, but I was glad when the week was over. Both of the American uses of that music postdate Brahms. He wrote the Academic Festival Overture in honor of Heidelberg University who was bestowing an honorary degree upon him. They were unimpressed. He had written it using a collection of student songs - Gaudeamus Igitur being the most famous. He did not write the original music for it nor the one we know as O Beautful Banner. Still searching."}, {"response": 1006, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2006 (19:34)", "body": "Ok I was incorrect (my sources were in college, actually) and here is the story of this overture: The Academic Festival Overture (German: Akademische Festouvert\ufffdre), Op. 80, was one of a pair of contrasting orchestral overtures (the other being the Tragic Overture, Op. 81) written by Johannes Brahms. Brahms composed the Academic Festival Overture during the summer of 1880 as a musical \"thank you\" to the University of Breslau, which had awarded him an honorary doctorate the previous year. Initially, Brahms had contented himself with sending a simple handwritten note of acknowledgment to the University, since he loathed the public fanfare of celebrity. However, the conductor Bernard Scholz, who had nominated him for the degree, convinced him that protocol required him to make a grander gesture of gratitude. The University expected nothing less than a musical offering from the composer. Brahms, who was known to be a curmudgeonly joker, filled his quota by creating a \"very boisterous potpourri of student drinking songs\", entitled the Academic Festival Overture. The work sparkles with some of the finest virtues of Brahms' musical technique. The inventive treatment of the tunes appropriated from the student ditties (which include \"Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus\", \"Fuchslieds\", and most memorably in the triumphant finale, \"Gaudeamus igitur\") fully engages Brahms' sophisticated mastery of counterpoint and thematic development. Brahms manages to evoke ravishing euphoria without sacrificing his commitment to classical balance. The blend of orchestral colors is carefully planned and highlighted in the piece, which calls for one of the largest ensembles for any of his compositions: piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, timpani, bass drum, triangle, and strings. The Overture consists of four continuous sections: * Allegro (C minor) * Maestoso (C major) * Animato (E minor) * Maestoso (C major). The composer himself conducted the premiere at a special convocation held by the University on January 4, 1881, to the chagrin (and mischievous delight) of many of the academics in the audience. Due to its structural refinement, its lyrical warmth, as well as its excitement and humor, the work has remained a solid staple of today's concert-hall repertoire. A typical performance lasts around 10 minutes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Festival_Overture"}, {"response": 1007, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2006 (21:58)", "body": "Here is the answer The overture is in sonata form using the three university songs as the principal melodic material of this larger-than-usual orchestration. Brahms starts the piece in a minor mode which is consistent with his gruff personality. Trumpets then introduce the first melody\ufffds theme, \"Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus\" (\"We had built a stately house\"). The entire orchestra then develops this first theme to a climax. As soon as it starts to fade away, the violins state the second song, \"Fuchslieds\", by soaring above the trombone and passing the melody back and forth between the strings and woodwinds. The full orchestra presents the last and most famous song, \"Gaudeamus Igitur\" as a stately and jubilant finale to the Overture. http://www.gdyo.org/notes1002.htm"}, {"response": 1008, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (12:15)", "body": "Even more here. There is yet another student song used as is told below. I did find \"Wir Hatte...\" and it is indeed the source of \"O Beautiful Banner\". Next I need to find the source of that music. Johannes Brahms received a thorough musical education in his youth, but his course of study never included a college experience. He studied composition and piano privately as a child-and it\ufffds not every wunderkind who can claim to have played the bordellos of Hamburg by the age of thirteen. By 1850 Brahms had developed enough of a local reputation as a pianist to become the accompanist to the Hungarian violinist Eduard Rem\ufffdnyi. In 1853, Brahms and Rem\ufffdnyi embarked on a concert tour of Germany that eventually took them to Hanover, where Brahms attracted the attention of Joseph Joachim. At 21, Joachim was already established as a major violin virtuoso, and he was to become one of Brahms\ufffds closest friends. When Brahms parted company from Rem\ufffdnyi shortly thereafter, it was to Joachim that he turned. He spent two months with Joachim in G\ufffdttingen, auditing courses in philosophy and history at the University. This was Brahms\ufffds closest approach to college life as a student. Thus it is not so shocking that in 1877, when Cambridge University wished to offer him an honorary doctorate, Brahms\ufffds desire for academic recognition was outweighed by his distaste for travel and publicity. Two years later, Brahms accepted an honorary doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Breslau, and expressed his gratitude by composing the Academic Festival Overture -from the students\ufffd point of view! The overture is a medley of popular student drinking songs, but also functions as a mini-symphony. The overture opens with an accented eighth-note pattern and a bouncy melody, that will serve as a bridge between the sections. The first student song, \ufffdWir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus,\ufffd is sung by the brass after a drum roll. We hear a vigorous presentation of the unifying melody again, but the texture lightens, and the strings begin a more flowing tune, \ufffdDer Landesvater.\ufffd Next, the bassoons introduce \ufffdFuchsleid,\ufffd a silly hazing song. These elements are now developed and mixed together in what ust be Brahms\ufffds closest musical approach to the \ufffdNew German\ufffd school, typified by Richard Wagner. Finally, the brass shout out \ufffdGaudeamus igitur\ufffd over wild running scales in the strings. http://www.columbiaorchestra.org/programnotes-021503.shtml"}, {"response": 1009, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (12:22)", "body": "This will be the final comment - search it out if you have never heard it. For most of my life it has been a favorite. The cheerful, breezy, jovial \"Academic\" Overture was written by Brahms as a tribute of gratitude to the University of Breslau for conferring upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. It, as well as the \"Tragic\" Overture, was produced in that city in 1881 under his own leadership. The overture is clearly enough identified with the University functions and particularly with the students' \"Commersbuch.\" The whole overture is built up on themes taken from that memorable collection of German student songs now famous the world over, and some of them pleasantly familiar to our own colleges. The overture begins at once with a stately theme announced in the strings pianissimo, horns, bassoons, and drums. After its development at some length, a subsidiary passage leads to the first of the student themes \"Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus\" (\"We had built a Stately House\"), taken in the basses and woodwinds. After some transition passages reference is made to the opening theme, which finally leads to the second of the student songs, \"Der Landesvater\" (\"The Country's Father\"). This is followed by another subsidiary passage in the woodwinds, closing the first part of the overture. The next section begins with the \"Fuchs Lied\" (\"Fox Song\") sung by the bassoons and clarinets with full orchestral accompaniment, which is carried from one group of instruments to another in a jolly manner. In the closing section all the students songs return, but with different modes of development, and lead at the close to the \"Gaudeamus igitur,\" given in full force by the orchestra and bringing the overture to a tr umphant conclusion. http://www.music-with-ease.com/brahms-academic-overture.html"}, {"response": 1010, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2006 (13:02)", "body": "Hi all Back again.... What interesting stories! I saw the reference to Heidelberg University which brought back fond memories of walking the streets of Heidelberg to visit the castle and also the numerous student beer halls. I could see how jolly compositions could come out of such jolly places. Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 1011, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2006 (18:48)", "body": "Welocme back, Mike. Happy Beltane all (or Beltaine depending on whose website you are reading) I studied Maypoles all day... I actually know someone who has danced around one. I have always been too young so I was merely a watcher. It used to be very pretty and came with Daisy Chains and lovely young ladies dressed in gauzy gowns. Tell us about Heidelberg University, Mike. I am assuming you downed your quota of beer and sang the old songs. Wow how amazing to find you had been there. I could have saved myself a lot of hunting , but then where is the fun in that?! The part that blew my mind was being told (thank you \ufffd) that part had been the National Antehm of Micronesia. I, as a student of National Anthems, did not know that and was most eager to learn. I now have a version of it in my collection."}, {"response": 1012, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2006 (13:02)", "body": "Dolphins Name Themselves With Whistles, Study Says James Owen for National Geographic News Dolphins give themselves \"names\"\ufffddistinctive whistles that they use to identify each other, new research shows. Scientists say it's the first time wild animals have been shown to call out their own names. What's more, the marine mammals can recognize individual names even when the sound is produced by an unfamiliar voice. Bottlenose dolphins appear to develop so-called signature whistles as infants. The idea that they use these whistles to identify each other was first proposed in 1991 after individuals were heard to make their own unique sounds. \"The challenge was to show experimentally that the animals can use these independent voice features as signature whistles,\" said Vincent Janik of the Sea Mammal Research Unit at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Janik is the lead author of a study on the dolphin whistles to be published tomorrow in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . He says the idea that dolphins use names \"was fairly hypothetical, and some researchers regarded it as not possible.\" Listening Dolphins The research focused on wild bottlenose dolphins living in Sarasota Bay, Florida. Acoustic recordings have been made of most of these dolphins, which have been studied for more than 30 years. For the new study each dolphin's signature whistle was isolated from the recordings and then played back to the animals through underwater loudspeakers. The team found that the listening dolphins responded strongly to recordings of the names of their relatives and close group members but largely ignored those of other dolphins. Janik says the recordings were synthesized electronically to rule out the possibility that the dolphins recognized each other simply by the sound of their voices. \"It's the equivalent of a computerized voice, where you can't tell who is speaking by the voice alone,\" he said. The study team says whistles that identify an individual would be especially useful to bottlenose dolphins, because they live in large groups and have complex social interactions. \"Group changes are incredibly dynamic, and you need a way of knowing exactly who's around you,\" Janik said. \"Dolphins often prefer to spend time with particular individuals.\" But living in the murky ocean makes it hard to hook up with your dolphin buddies. \"Finding each other isn't so easy in marine environments, because visibility is very poor\ufffdmaybe just a couple of meters,\" Janik said. \"Instead of looking around, they really need some other obvious and reliable system to find another animal.\" The researchers suggest the dolphins use acoustic communication and signature whistles to locate and identify individual animals. \"You really have to have something more than a voice. You need something that's as different as a name,\" Janik said. Customized Whistles The ability to develop individually distinctive calls requires vocal learning, a relatively rare skill that's seen in humans, dolphins, elephants, and a few other animals including certain birds. Bottlenose dolphins are among the most versatile vocal learners and show cognitive abilities similar to those of primates. The study team says young dolphins appear to create their own signature whistles from those of adult dolphins. \"They are listening to a lot of other whistles in the environment, then take parts of some that they've heard and put them together as a new one,\" Janik said. Other researchers, however, have argued that dolphins don't have signature whistles. In 2001 Brenda McCowan of the University of California, Davis, and Diana Reiss of the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn published a study suggesting that bottlenose dolphins don't use individual names but rather a shared contact call. Their research was based on captive dolphins, which, Janik says, wouldn't have the same difficulties wild dolphins have with staying in touch. \"They don't live in the kind of complex environment that wild dolphins inhabit,\" he said. \"They are in relatively small environs, in very clear water, and can see each other all the time.\" Janik says that bottlenose dolphins may turn out to be just the first of various animals that use their own names. Researchers have identified what could be signature whistles in other dolphin species, including spotted, white-sided, and dusky dolphins. Some birds possibly also use names to communicate with each other, Janik adds. \"The one group of birds where that's possible is parrots,\" he said. \"Parrots have a very similar social structure to dolphins, and it seems they may also have a similar [naming] system.\" http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060508_dolphins_2.html"}, {"response": 1013, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2006 (13:18)", "body": "Polar Bear-Grizzly Hybrid Discovered John Roach May 11, 2006\ufffdDNA analysis has confirmed that a bear shot in the Canadian Arctic last month is a half-polar bear, half-grizzly hybrid. While the two bear species have interbred in zoos, this is the first evidence of a wild polar bear-grizzly offspring. Jim Martell (pictured at left), a 65-year-old hunter from Idaho, shot the bear April 16 on the southern tip of Banks Island (see Northwest Territories map), the CanWest News Service reports. Wildlife officials seized the bear after noticing its white fur was interspersed with brown patches. It also had long claws, a concave facial profile, and a humped back, which are characteristic of a grizzly. Now the genetic tests have confirmed that the hybrid's father was a grizzly and its mother was a polar bear. \"I don't think anyone expected it to actually happen in the wild,\" said Ian Stirling, a polar bear expert with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Edmonton. Polar bears and grizzlies require an extended mating ritual to reproduce, Stirling said. Both live by themselves in large, open habitats. To prevent wasting their eggs, females ovulate only after spending several days with a male, Stirling explained. \"Then they mate several times over several days.\" In other words, the mating between the polar bear and grizzly was more than a chance encounter. \"That's what makes it quite interesting,\" he added. Stirling says the hybrid has no official name, though locals have taken to calling it a \"pizzly\" and a \"grolar bear.\" http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/bear-hybrid-photo.html"}, {"response": 1014, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, May 31, 2006 (14:58)", "body": "It's that time of the year again. Yep. It's Marcia's birthday. Happy Birthday Marcia!"}, {"response": 1015, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, May 31, 2006 (18:10)", "body": "Wow. Happy Birthday Marci! Hope you have a wonderful time."}, {"response": 1016, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Wed, May 31, 2006 (19:04)", "body": "Ditto!!! Happy Birthday!!!"}, {"response": 1017, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun  1, 2006 (21:04)", "body": "I'm such a dork, sorry, twin, didn't mean to forget (started a new job but that's just a lousy excuse!). HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 1018, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jun 13, 2006 (11:37)", "body": "Happy Birthday Marcia! From quasi-present Mike"}, {"response": 1019, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2006 (12:39)", "body": "Thank you guys !!! I spent that weekend celebrating at Beale AFB air show and watched a U2 climb from ground to the edge of space in less than 30 minutes. There is no way to see it way up there so it dispensed smoke/powder to make trails which at such altitude just looked like dashes - very tiny like the sky had been perforated. If anyone wants to see real Americans, go to one of these air shows. They are full of upbeat clean tidy people who love this country as I do. We are America. The politicans and news people are not but they get all the attention. Thanks again for the good wishes."}, {"response": 1020, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Sep 13, 2006 (21:08)", "body": "Howdy again That had to be real cool. Next best would be to see an SR-71 Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 1021, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Thu, Sep 21, 2006 (17:59)", "body": "Bob's hotrodding mikes for the new ICOM 7000 series and selling them on ebay. Doing a pretty brisk little business. I've been on hf some days at 10 am CST on 7270. Catch me there sometime."}, {"response": 1022, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Dec 12, 2006 (21:08)", "body": "Hi all Well, Ive sure been remiss in dropping in - school, work, and home foolishness have kept me amused/annoyed. Anyway, decided to log in and see if there were any geo activities lately. Also, Terry, tried to email you a while back and bounced so if you coule email me, then I have an email path to work from. In my recent Geo-activity, went to the local gem/jewelry show - there were a couple of vendors selling different rock samples so picked up some galena (to make a crystal radio) and a small sample of the Nantan meteorite. So, the rock collection slowly moves forward.... 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 1023, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Dec 24, 2006 (12:05)", "body": "Cool on the crystal rig, where'd you get the plans?"}, {"response": 1024, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2007 (18:36)", "body": "Oh Mike I did see the SR-71 at Beale AFB. The men who guard her are deadly serious about your not getting too close. However, it is better viewed from a small distance. It is hugs, it is black (thus the name \"Blackbird\") and it looks like flying death. I am still waiting to see my first stealth machine flyover. I hear that is truly exciting. Oh, sorry for my absence. I have been editing two books and three manuscripts which will be pivotal in southeastern archaeology. Remember, you heard it here!"}, {"response": 1025, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  2, 2007 (18:38)", "body": "Happy New Year"}, {"response": 1026, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Wed, Jan 31, 2007 (18:54)", "body": "Hi Marci and Geoites Was very happy to see your post as it is just too quiet around here. Good luck with your publishing projects! Never seen a stealth flyover but I have seen the F117 prototype at Dayton (WP AFB, not the hamfest...). Anyway, school marches on and been busy learning the ins and outs of routers and other network gadgets. 10.1.1.1 Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 1027, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  9, 2007 (16:05)", "body": "Let us know when you become a graduate and we will all celebrate, Mike *GASP* does anyone remember what topic I was writing in when describing visiting a volcanic eruption? I have a new installment and I can't find it! Thank you."}, {"response": 1028, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sat, Mar  3, 2007 (12:59)", "body": "http://spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/77"}, {"response": 1029, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar 21, 2007 (12:18)", "body": "Okay, this the first full day of spring in the northern hemisphere -- but I am a little late in wishing everyone a Happy Vernal or Autumnal Equinox! Happy Sprng or Happy Fall -- depending on where you live."}, {"response": 1030, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Fri, Apr 13, 2007 (23:26)", "body": "Happy Spring! Also very late this year."}, {"response": 1031, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2007 (14:05)", "body": "It's here!!! Today is the day of which is the birthday of the legendary Geonymph, Marcia. Happy Birthday, Marcia!!!"}, {"response": 1032, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2007 (12:12)", "body": "And a belated one from me, too!!!"}, {"response": 1033, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2007 (22:10)", "body": "Hi all Happy Birthday Marci! Also happy solstice as that is around the corner! 73 de Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 1034, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jun 21, 2007 (08:51)", "body": "Happy Summer Soltice! To all those Geo-ites south of the equator -- Happy Winter Soltice!"}, {"response": 1035, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Tue, Jul  3, 2007 (21:52)", "body": "Happy Solstice!"}, {"response": 1036, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (12:38)", "body": "Happy \"It's Tooo HOT in Kentucky!\" We need rain. Thank you all for keeping the home fires burning and for your kind wishes. If you only knew how old I really am... In any case I will soon be the youngest grandmother on the planet with a whole new human life to educate about stars and rocks and volcanoes and other such good things. Happy Solstice too ! Would that it were autuman equnox however. The books continue to be researched. I am newly back from Missouri and environs for one book and for the other we are likely to head toward Tennessee. I love doing this part. Writing it is just plain hard work. I am so lucky to be working with two of the best men in their fields who already know how to write."}, {"response": 1037, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (12:48)", "body": "I got an interesting email today from a man who is researching Madoc and his followers in the USA before Columbus. He somehow got the idea I did not believe in such stuff as they advocate and was not particularly happy about it. As Geo's archaeologist says, just present the evidence. I wish him well."}, {"response": 1038, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 30, 2007 (14:42)", "body": "What great news, Marcia! Of course, you'll be the youngest grandmother on the planet. What a lucky baby to have you as a guide to the stars, and rocks, and volcanoes . . . and all the other good things."}, {"response": 1039, "author": "DonB", "date": "Tue, Jul 31, 2007 (05:14)", "body": "To avoid leaving an interesting aside to serious research in limbo, Marcia -- our capable hostess -- was so kind as to share with me the email she referenced in Response 1037 (see above). I felt that it was both fitting and appropriate to respond to this person's remarks and for the benefit of Geo's readers I post my comments to him herein (see below). To better establish some background for this communication, I will make the proverbial long story short and note that as a matter of folklore it has long been maintained that Madoc, an ancient Welsh prince, established a major settlement at the Falls of the Ohio on the Ohio River at present day Louisville, Kentucky, in (according to the source you wish to believe) the 6th or 11th century AD. In common with a wart, this story seems to grow with each telling and within recent years some individuals have gone so far as to claim that: (1) Madoc's faithful followers (40,000 of them!) left behind numerous rock inscriptions (most of the \"Kilroy was here\" variety) th oughout the region; and (2) that King Arthur was among those who settled near Louisville with Prince Madoc. For those who enjoy fantasy and fairy tales, this story makes for an amusing evening's entertainment but unfortunately they unashamedly espouse this unfounded gibberish as firmly established fact. As a professional archaeologist who has worked in the Ohio Valley region for 30 years, I state without reservation that these claims have never been substantiated and are nothing but pure fabrication. For those seeking further substantive information on the numerous fallacies of this claim, I would refer them to the following journal article: Ball, Donald B. 2006 Scribbles, Scratches, and Ancient Writing: Pseudo-Historical Archaeology in the Ohio Valley Region. Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology 21:1-29. ***** Your recent email was forwarded to me on the premise that laughter is always the best medicine. I have read and examined in some detail the so-called historical and epigraphic \"evidence\" (using this term in its loosest possible sense) espoused by the reputed researchers you mentioned and am of the opinion that the greatest single fallacy in their reasoning is mistaking their misguided and delusional sincerity for fact. I find it of particular interest that within the 20th century well over 10,000 archaeological sites have been documented within the state of Kentucky alone and to the best of my knowledge not one of these has yielded any evidence of 5th century Welsh pottery, house types, community settlement, burial patterns, non-native faunal materials (e.g., sheep and horse remains), or any other tangible remains attributable to the presence of either Madoc or any of his countrymen in this region at that point in time. The epigraphic evidence they present is neither more nor less than a complete farce. It is strange that the so-called Coelbren rock inscriptions presented as \"evidence\" of an early Welsh presence in the greater Ohio Valley regions bear absolutely no resemblance to the letters of that alphabet as recorded in the writings of Iolo Morganwg dating to the early 19th century. It is sad to observe that some seemingly intelligent people unquestioningly accept these fanciful claims as historical fact. I would note that I have attended numerous state and regional archaeological conferences in the Ohio Valley region for going on 40 years and I have never seen either Alan Wilson or Baram Blackett present a scholarly paper at any of these meetings. In a similar vein, I fail to see that they have ever published even a single article in support of their claims in any reputable and peer reviewed scholarly journal in this region. This prompts me to ask, \"What are they trying to hide?\" From my perspective, it is abundantly obvious that they are all too aware that their claims will readily be exposed as nothing but unsupported gibberish. Should you have any substantive commentary to offer on this subject, feel free to contact me. Alternately, if you have only further rants, raves, and nonsensical blather to offer kindly do not waste my time. Such communications are not worthy of a response and they will be promptly deleted."}, {"response": 1040, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 31, 2007 (18:55)", "body": "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you ! Brilliant response from our most esteemed Archaeologist who is both a gentleman and a scholar. I suspect we will not hear from the original writer of the email though I wish he had brought his concerns to this forum."}, {"response": 1041, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 31, 2007 (18:59)", "body": "Alas Cheryl, I taught that precious granddaughter's father all I know. He will be the chief descriptor but I have knitting needles he does not know how to use! Thank you for your kind thoughts. I can hardly wait for her to get here!"}, {"response": 1042, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 16, 2007 (21:51)", "body": "Allison Holly Born 1:32 am, 8/16/07 7 lbs, 5 oz 19\" long"}, {"response": 1043, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 16, 2007 (21:52)", "body": "Suddenly, the Universe has been condensed into one small bundle."}, {"response": 1044, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Fri, Aug 17, 2007 (19:20)", "body": "Funny how that happens, huh? :-)"}, {"response": 1045, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Thu, Aug 30, 2007 (16:59)", "body": "Funny stuff."}, {"response": 1046, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2007 (08:01)", "body": "Wow, what wonderous and extraordinary things occur while I'm away. Marcia, enjoy marveling at the tiny new universe. Welcome Allison Holly!"}, {"response": 1047, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Oct 26, 2007 (08:14)", "body": "Red-headed Neanderthals? DNA says yes: study CHICAGO (AFP) - Some of our cave-dwelling Neanderthal relatives probably had red hair and fair complexions, much like modern-day humans of Celtic origin, according to a study released Thursday. The finding comes from the first such analysis of DNA evidence taken from Neanderthal fossils recovered from El Sidron in northern Spain and Monti Lessini, Italy. An analysis of the DNA revealed the ancient hominids carried a mutation in the MC1R gene that codes for a protein involved in the production of melanin -- a substance that gives skin its color and also protects it against ultraviolet light. In modern humans, primarily of European descent, mutations in the MC1R gene are thought to be responsible for red hair and pale skin by dampening the activity of the protein. The mutation observed in the Neanderthal genes was different from the one documented in humans, but when scientists inserted the Neanderthal gene into cells in a test tube, it seemed to have the same effect on melatonin production as the modern human genes, according to the study published in Science. The genetic analysis doesn't seal the deal, but since the fossil record of Neanderthals does not include any samples of skin or hair, it is the best guide available, said Michael Hofreiter, a paleogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig, Germany. Hofreiter said the number of red-headed Neanderthals was probably pretty small, possibly just one percent of the population and might have popped up in any part of Europe or Asia that the ancient hominids had settled. The news did not come as a surprise to one leading scholar of Neanderthal evolution and biology. \"The stereotype of primitive peoples is that they are dark skinned, but some paleontologists have been speculating for 20 years that some Neanderthals must have been pale skinned because they lived in northern Europe,\" said Erik Trinkaus, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. \"Light skin is adaptive at higher altitudes because it allows more UVB radiation to penetrate the skin and that promotes Vitamin D synthesis.\" Neanderthals, whose ancestors diverged from that of modern humans about 300,000 years ago, colonized Europe and parts of Asia, dominating Europe until about 30,000 years ago. The study suggests that the genes that confer pale skin and red hair evolved separately in humans and our closest extinct relatives. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071025/sc_afp/scienceneanderthalsus"}, {"response": 1048, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 30, 2008 (20:52)", "body": "I love this article about the red haired Neanderthal. I dated a flaming redhead in college and now he is a great and good friend. IN no way was he ever considered Neanderthal but a lot of the other men I dated qualified. Thanks for posting it. Wonderful! ( I also had red hair as a young child.)"}, {"response": 1049, "author": "paulterry", "date": "Mon, Jul 21, 2008 (20:01)", "body": "I saw the Geico Caveman at SXSW. He was extremely popular with all the women there and was surrounded by admirers most of the time, all female. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 51, "subject": "EVOLUTION and PHYLOGENY", "response_count": 9, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "marshallsmyth2", "date": "Wed, Jul 25, 2001 (16:00)", "body": "This forum is about how evolutionary biology has been known to work, and how the results of studies are expressed. Phylogenetics and cladistics both have some essential work to make improvements in the forms. This is because we can now understand how important population dynamics are. (More when I am well rested)."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 25, 2001 (18:43)", "body": "Welcome, Marshall, and warm Hugs for taking on this most daunting subject. I am not enough aware of the developments since I left college to pose even a reasonable question. I have, however, reserved a seat at your feet, front and center, so I might learn more. After all, we have talked about extinct people, ones that pollute and so on, but not any living beings and how we got to be the way we are. My curiosity is boundless and my is admiration, too. I await the moments when you have time to spare to post here. Again, Aloha and E Komo Mai."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 16, 2001 (19:00)", "body": "I don't know where to put this so Genetic research is going to go here till Marshall takes over. From Liam the Resoureceful, ever ready to baffle me with new goodies: Wistar Study Offers New Support For A \"Histone Code\" Theory Of Gene Regulation PHILADELPHIA - A new study by researchers at The Wistar Institute provides important experimental data to support a novel theory of gene regulation. The theory holds that coordinated patterns of modifications to DNA-packaging proteins called histones may be a key factor in turning specific genes on or off. The proposed system of gene control has been termed a kind of \"histone code\" by one researcher and may govern most gene activity. Understanding the system could well prove crucial to researchers exploring cancer, developmental disorders, and other disease processes that hinge on gene control gone awry. more... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/08/010810065922.htm"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (17:44)", "body": "From the mind of the man for whom this topic was created, a very clever demonstration: The simplest, (and tastiest), experiment for evolution that anyone can do is to start off with 2 large bags of assorted M & M's. First, open the 2 bags and pour them all into a large bowl. Next, put 1 handful of totally random pieces on the far left side of a good sized coffee table, then another random handful a few inches to the right of the first handful. Continue this until you have a bunch of handfuls all the way across your coffee table. Consider that each pile of M&M's represents a population, and that all those M&M's together represent an entire biological species. The colors of the candies for this simplest experiment can represent PHENOTYPES. Phenotypes are subject to evolutionary pressures of all kinds, the easiest to understand of which is NATURAL SELECTION. But, there are other things, concepts, involved! The randomness of colors in each pile creates FOUNDER EFFECT. Now, in the far left pile, remove ALL the GREEN M&M's. The greens got selected out. Eat those green ones. Your mouth represents something that selected against those green ones in the environment that that population lives in. Do the same thing to ALL the BROWN M&M's in the far right pile. Next, remove 5 RED M&M's from every single pile except for one randomly chosen pile, in fact, take that pile, and put it onto a different table, and leave it there. Removing those 5 red ones represents a concept called GENETIC DRIFT. Sometimes this happens! A trait comes or goes for NO SELECTIVE reason or cause. The DNA molecules simply find a set combination to get FIXED on. This is a form of DIRECT GENE FREQUENCY ALTERATIONS. Next, break one M&M in half in any randomly selected pile. Chose and pick which one at random. That represents a MUTATION. Now eat both halves. SELECTION got that one, and removed it. Next, push any 2 of the piles, (but not the far left nor the far right piles), up and away from the other piles, and place them near one another. Now, with these 2 piles, take half the brown M&M's out of one of them, and put them into the other pile. Then, take half the red M&M's out of the now larger pile, and place them into the other pile. This represents GENE FLOW. These 2 piles represent together a POPULATION CLUSTER. In this concept, GENE FREQUENCIES get altered because they get mixed, and then those new gene frequencies can become further altered by selection pressures. For example, with your new population cluster up there, remove all the green ones and eat them. Go ahead and do some more playing like this. Find a way to create a new species and tell us about it! There are also other more advanced games where heterozygosity and homozygosity of genes can be played with. The point here is that NATURAL SELECTION is not everything. There is a relationship of many concepts that yield EVOLUTION. Simply put, Natural selection + Genetic drift + Mutation + Gene flow YIELD Gene frequency changes, and when this happens in populations GENETICALLY ISOLATED from one another, eventually SPECIATION can happen. Marshall Hugh Smyth http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evolutionarybiologybasics"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (17:45)", "body": "Marshall, we miss you! He is back in college finishing his degree, so I will be patient. But that does not mean I don't still miss him!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (01:14)", "body": "EVOLUTION & PALEONTOLOGY * Scientists Push Back Primate Origins From 65 Million to 85 Million Years Ago * Mummy Trove Found in Peru * Early Cowboys Herded Cattle in Africa * How Life Originated in Space References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=B-evolut"}, {"response": 7, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar 24, 2004 (14:06)", "body": "Early humans swapped bite for brain Humans owe their big brains and sophisticated culture to a single genetic mutation that weakened our jaw muscles about 2.4 million years ago, a new study suggests. The slack muscles relaxed their hold on the human skull, giving the brain room to grow. Other primates remained stuck with mighty muscles that squeezed the skull in a vice-like grip. The finding is \"pretty amazing\", says Peter Currie, an expert on skeletal muscle development at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Darlinghurst, Australia: \"Changes in muscle anatomy are well known to alter the bones to which they attach. The exciting part of this is the mutation in the gene dates to exactly when this transition occurs in the fossil record.\" Over the past 2.5 million years, human brains have grown enormous compared to those of other primates. Human brains are now roughly three times the size of those of chimps or gorillas. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994817"}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Mar 25, 2004 (08:10)", "body": "Early humans swapped bite for brain Humans owe their big brains and sophisticated culture to a single genetic mutation that weakened our jaw muscles about 2.4 million years ago, a new study suggests. The slack muscles relaxed their hold on the human skull, giving the brain room to grow. Other primates remained stuck with mighty muscles that squeezed the skull in a vice-like grip. The finding is \"pretty amazing\", says Peter Currie, an expert on skeletal muscle development at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Darlinghurst, Australia: \"Changes in muscle anatomy are well known to alter the bones to which they attach. The exciting part of this is the mutation in the gene dates to exactly when this transition occurs in the fossil record.\" Over the past 2.5 million years, human brains have grown enormous compared to those of other primates. Human brains are now roughly three times the size of those of chimps or gorillas. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994817 Less bite, more brain."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  8, 2004 (07:20)", "body": "Hmmmm we're seeing double! I beat Terry by a few hours in posting that. Btw, Terry, I got a trojan horse virus from your spring email address (admin@apring.net if I recall correctly.) Not due to your sending it, I'm sure. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 52, "subject": "geocaching", "response_count": 15, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2001 (12:51)", "body": "In May 2000, 55 year old Dave Ulmer hid a bucket filled with CDs , a can of beans and logbook outside of Portland OR and posted the coordinates to a usenet news group. Two days later the cache was discovered and a new sport was born. There are now more than 3,000 caches hid in all 50 states and in 59 other countries. http://www.geocaching.com is the game's official atlas. Gaarmin estimates that 30,000 to 50,000 people are \"in the game\". In June, 20th Century Fox upped the stakes by stashing props from Planet of the Apes in 14 locations aaround th world and posting the coordinates on geocaching.com. You can log on to projectape.com or geocaching.com and enter your zip code to see if there's a cache of treasure near you."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2001 (16:36)", "body": "Oooh, sleuthing is on and I want my beans and logbook. It might be nice to replace the bean can you find with a new one when you bury your cache. Just a thought. A Can of Spam HAS to be in the Hawaiian cache! Thanks, Terry. This is most curious. I am off to see where my closest beans are waiting."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2001 (16:42)", "body": "Bummer. All of ours in Hawaii are somewhere on Maui. That means I might plant one of my own on this Island. Who do I know here who has a GPS... hmmm..."}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2001 (16:46)", "body": "You're absolutely right about replacing the cache, that's a fundamental groundrule of this game."}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 30, 2001 (18:17)", "body": "you know, i heard about that one. one family hides treasures for their kids and then takesn them out with the GPS to locate it."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 31, 2001 (01:42)", "body": "Unless he finds us far too boring, I think I have found a man for caching. He lives on Oahu and I just told him about this. Aloha Woody. Want to consider this island instead of yours? So many more options on this island... E Komo Mai *;)"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 31, 2001 (01:46)", "body": "Think of the options. On Mauna Loa or Kilauea we could bury baked beans. On Mauna Kea we could bury frozen beans. In Puna there are herbs we could include (though I know nothing of this.) Decisions... Decisions... Now I AM going to have to get a GPS. I already have the laptop to do the mapping. *Wheels whizzing inside my head* I think I am going to go hide somewhere!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (15:30)", "body": "testing."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (15:55)", "body": "Working! I wish I could go on one of these hunts. This is really exciting -or sounds like it would be!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (15:45)", "body": "Hi Marci Well, I moved over to here from gps since this is more applicable - not sure what I would hide - I wish I had some meteorite bits to hide but those are so rare, I dont even have any myself - guess I'll have to find something astronomical yet more earthly to hide.... 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (16:05)", "body": "Make cure the beans are fresh. Despite the fun of their after-effects, you probobaly don't want to add food poisoning to the list. Too bad beer does not last longer buried. The ramifications of bad beer and worse beens has all of the ingredients for a Mel Brooks movie! Do take photos and let us know how it goes. I love the whole concept."}, {"response": 12, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (16:40)", "body": "Wine would age better. I think it would be more fun (or mischevious) to hide something in a public place like in downtown Chicago - then you have all these people wandering about - staring at their gps which would definately freak out the locals or 'normals' as the case may be.... Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (16:50)", "body": "OH DEAR!!! I am laughing thinking of the uptight officialdom watching people with little walkie talkies and hand held gps pausing around trash bins and mail chutes. There is so little room for sense of humor anymore, alas. This might end with you spending a bit of time at the public's expense in one of the better slammers in your area. Still, that is brilliant and worthy of a Monty Python sketch!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Aug 22, 2002 (13:55)", "body": "Hi Marci Oh, yea... I completely forgot about the uptights... Yep, in this rather humorlous day and age, that type of activity would be frowned upon. Oh well guess Ill just pick somewhere less edgy. I did get an idea from this topics original post - I could hide cd's and have the take a cd-leave a cd rule - the cd's that appear can be used for radio material at the station. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (00:59)", "body": "CDs are a fantastic idea. Non-perishable and easily transported and it can even be on of stuff you photographed yourself. Think of the possibilities!!! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 53, "subject": "Earth and Sun Digest", "response_count": 85, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  2, 2001 (17:07)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for August 2, 2001 published free on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon For those in fear of the End Times, a weekly look at the facts \".. a great earthquake, and a tenth of (Jerusalem) fell...\" Revelation 11:13 (NRSV) Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables below) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wed--18; quakes of 6M or greater: 6.5M Aegean Islands, 6.5 Alaska California earthquakes in past week--477 (see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Seismicity/message/429 ) Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Mexico, Ecuador, Italy Sunspot No. High--115 on 26 July Geomagnetic A-Index High--22 on 25 July, 23 on 31 July Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm United States index map for regions at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/present.html World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Moon for August 4 full, 5 apogee, 12 last quarter, 19 new, 19 perigee, 25 first quarter The apogee of the moon is on 5 August (252,444 miles far), while the perigee (221,927 miles near) is on 19 August. The Perseid meteor shower peaks 12 and 13 August under the last quarter moon. Best viewing to see its spectacular fireballs is a couple hours before dawn. The Kappa Cygnid shower with its slower meteors with yellowish tails peaks 17 August with the new moon. Dramatic color images from satellite of Kilauea's lava tubes are at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images . php3?img_id=5025 Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS report http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm Blue is mainland, Green is an island. All ash elevations are in km above sea level. Ash elevations of 5 mi/8 km are highlighted in red. United States, Hawaii, KILAUEA, summit elev. 1222 m small-to-moderate levels of lava entered the ocean Montserrat, West Indies, SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS, summit elev. 1052 m ash increased during 27 July through 29 July, to below 6 km; see SPECIAL REPORT Mexico, POPOCATEPETL, summit elev. 5426 m Several small-to-moderate emissions of steam, gas, and small amounts of ash, on 24 July ash to 10.9 km Ecuador, TUNGURAHUA, summit elev. 5023 m Several small-to-moderate eruptions, ash on 25 July to 9 km Japan, Ryukyu Islands: KIKAI [SATSUMA-IWO-JIMA], summit elev. 717 m ash fell during 19-21 July SUWANOSE-JIMA, summit elev. 799 m on 26 July ash to 1.3 km above the crater Russia, Kamchatka, BEZYMIANNY, summit elev. 2882 m on 27 July an extrusive process at lava dome, on 23 and 24 July gas-and-steam to 3.6 km SHIVELUCH, summit elevation 3283 m Gas-and-steam plumes to 7 km Philippines, Luzon, MAYON, summit elev. 2462 m during 27-31 July occasional short-lived ash emissions Italy, Sicily, ETNA, summit elev. 3315 m eruptions continued, 31 July a cable car base station and a small tourist shop destroyed by lava, near-continuous ashfall south of volcano, including town of Catania, highest cloud rising 8 km EARTH FIVE Index of Global earthquakes of 5.0 magnitude or greater per U. S. Geological Survey: (6.0 or greater are highlighted in red.), Others are Japan Region, South Pacific, DATE-(UTC)-TIME LAT LON DEP MAG Q COMMENTS yy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss deg. deg. km 01/07/26 00:21:37 39.08N 24.33E 10.0 6.5M A AEGEAN SEA 01/07/26 00:34:56 38.94N 24.26E 10.0 5.0M A AEGEAN SEA 01/07/26 02:06:35 38.93N 24.31E 10.0 5.0M B AEGEAN SEA 01/07/26 02:09:48 38.92N 24.27E 10.0 5.0M A AEGEAN SEA 01/07/27 22:42:31 17.26S 72.51W 33.0 5.0M A NEAR COAST OF PERU 01/07/28 07:32:43 59.06N 155.12W 138.9 6.5M A SOUTHERN ALASKA 01/07/30 00:15:00 6.19S 152.95E 33.0 5.3M A NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 01/07/30 04:34:43 4.07S 103.94W 10.0 5.2M A CENTRAL EAST PACIFIC RISE 01/07/30 19:50:09 3.30S 12.22W 10.0 5.2M A NORTH OF ASCENSION ISLAND 01/07/30 21:56:18 4.23S 102.10E 33.0 5.0M B SOUTHERN SUMATERA, INDONESIA 01/07/31 06:57:40 17.75S 178.81W 564.5 5.3M A FIJI ISLANDS REGION 01/07/31 09:43:14 5.28S 103.18E 33.0 5.5M A SOUTHERN SUMATERA, INDONESIA 01/07/31 12:24:04 51.18N 179.39E 33.0 5.3M A RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 01/07/31 15:08:04 15.12S 174.73W 33.0 5.0M B TONGA ISLANDS 01/07/31 15:11:18 1.57N 126.32E 33.0 5.8M A NORTHERN MOLUCCA SEA 01/07/31 22:22:22 26.90S 26.68E 10.0 5.1M B SOUTH AFRICA 01/08/01 03:00:16 34.92S 71.91W 33.0 5.0M B NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE 01/08/01 09:20:08 71.11N 12.88W 10.0 5.0M A JAN MAYEN ISLAND REGION Note: A degree of latitude is about 69 miles. A degree of longitude falls to 0 mi at the poles. United States Quakes 3.0 and greater: 01/07/26 05:26:44 35.94N 83.57W 5.0 3.2M A EASTERN TENNESSEE 01/07/26 15:56:46 53.54N 163.79W 33.0 4.8M A UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA 01/07/28 01:09:28 36.05N 117.87W 2.7 3.7M CALIF-NEVADA BDR REG 01/07/28 07:32:43 59.06N 155.12W 138.9 6.5M A SOUTHERN ALASKA 01/07/29 19:50:23 56.67N 152.95W 33.0 4.5M A KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA 01/07/30 23:34:17 36.05N 117.88W 2.9 3.7M CALIF-NEVADA BDR REG 01/"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Aug  9, 2001 (17:58)", "body": "test"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 13, 2001 (18:03)", "body": "Donald, I am afraid I would have to post your Earth and Sun Digest line by line with commands in,<> brackets to have it come out the way you send it to me, but it is still worthwhile having it. I had no trouble following the tables once I read the top line. Thanks! (I was not ignoring you, I simply could not post this till now.) Now I await the next one or go snitch it from world Seismology. Earth and Sun Digest for August 9, 2001 published free on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon For those in fear of the End Times, a weekly look at the facts For those in fear of the End Times, a weekly look at the facts focused with this observation on the \"fives\": FIVE quakes of 5.x magnitude in FIVE Days can cause a volcano to erupt ash FIVE miles to the jet streams, where it can circle the globe in FIVE days. Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables below) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wed--12; quakes of 6M or greater: 6.2 in Russia (Kamchatka), 6.5 in southern Pacific Ocean California earthquakes in past week--298 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Montserrat (West Indies), Ecuador, Russia (Kamchatka) Sunspot No. High--213 on 5 August Geomagnetic A-Index High--23 on 5 August, 21 on 6 August Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm United States index map for regions at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/present.html World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Moon for August 4 full, 5 apogee, 12 last quarter, 19 new, 19 perigee, 25 first quarter The perigee of the moon (221,927 miles near) is on 19 August. The Perseid meteor shower peaks 12 and 13 August under the last quarter moon Best viewing to see its spectacular fireballs is a couple hours before dawn. The Kappa Cygnid shower with its slower meteors with yellowish tails peaks 17 August with the New Moon. According to Earthweek, Damascus, Syria, a city of over two million population, can deliver running water to its citizens only four hours a day because ancient sources have dried up. Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS report http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm Blue is mainland, Green is an island. All ash elevations are in km above sea level. Ash elevations of 5 mi/8 km are highlighted in red. United States, Hawaii, KILAUEA, summit elev. 1222 m moderate amounts of lava flow into the sea Montserrat, West Indies, SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS, summit elev. 1052 m on 4 August ash up in two different directions, to 4.6 km and NW; to 9.7 km and NE Mexico, POPOCATEPETL, summit elev. 5426 m several small emissions of steam, gas, and small amounts of ash Ecuador, TUNGURAHUA, summit elev. 5023 m during 2-3 August continuous ash emission, large ash eruptions on 5 August to 12.5 km and 8 August to 8 km Russia, Kamchatka, BEZYMIANNY, summit elev. 2882 m on 7 August ash 10 km SHIVELUCH, summit elevation 3283 m on the night of 1 August ash fell 46 km from the volcano. Philippines, Luzon, MAYON, summit elev. 2462 m during 1-4 August ejection of lava fragments to 100 m above the rim. Italy, Sicily, ETNA, summit elev. 3315 m around 1 August to 5.5 km, during 2-5 August international airport in Catania closed for the fourth time due to ash EARTH FIVE Index of Global earthquakes of 5.0 magnitude or greater per U. S. Geological Survey: (6.0 or greater are highlighted in red.), Others are Japan Region, South Pacific. DATE-(UTC)-TIME LAT LON DEP MAG Q COMMENTS yy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss deg. deg. km 01/08/02 08:45:25 9.17S 122.06E 33.0 5.0M B SAVU SEA 01/08/02 23:41:07 56.37N 163.64E 26.9 6.2M A NEAR EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA 01/08/04 01:44:53 2.83N 126.95E 33.0 5.8M A NORTHERN MOLUCCA SEA 01/08/04 18:55:08 15.85N 147.43E 33.0 5.2M A MARIANA ISLANDS REGION 01/08/05 05:16:16 12.24N 93.37E 96.0 5.6M A ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION 01/08/05 11:58:05 10.95S 165.03E 33.0 5.1M B SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 01/08/06 03:52:59 55.59S 123.16W 10.0 6.5M A SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE 01/08/06 04:53:13 47.23N 142.81E 10.0 5.0M A SAKHALIN ISLAND, RUSSIA 01/08/06 07:55:24 2.13N 128.50E 233.9 5.1M A HALMAHERA, INDONESIA 01/08/06 17:08:45 8.48S 74.84W 137.3 5.5M A PERU-BRAZIL BORDER REGION 01/08/07 03:22:34 8.61S 113.81E 75.8 5.7M A JAWA, INDONESIA 01/08/08 13:08:03 10.86S 165.41E 33.0 5.4M A SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 01/08/09 02:06:59 14.36S 72.63W 33.0 5.5M A CENTRAL PERU 01/08/09 03:33:44 18.07S 69.21W 112.7 5.5M A NORTHERN CHILE 01/08/09 13:08:36 51.45N 178.09W 33.0 5.2M A ANDREANOF ISL, ALEUTIAN IS. 01/08/09 13:20:17 7.33S 120.72E 33.0 5.2M A FLORES SEA Note: A degree of latitude is about 69 miles. A degree of longitude falls to 0 miles at the North and South poles. United States Quakes 3.0 and greater: 01/08/01 16:19:37 49.39N 127.88W 10.0 4.4M A VANCOUVER ISL, CANADA REGION 01/08/02 16:21:18 37.22N 117.79W 10.1 3.7M CALIF-NEVADA BDR REG 01/08/04 01:13:25 34.29N 93.21W 5.0 3.2M D ARKANSAS 01/08/04 19:05:55 35.73N 118.47W "}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 13, 2001 (18:05)", "body": "(At least I got the introduction centered. Next time I will work on colors...) Thanks, Donald, for your hard work. To see how truly spectacular this work of his is, see it in all its glory at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Volcanism/"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 16, 2001 (14:39)", "body": "I will post Dobald Boon's Earth and Sund Digest in the .txt form he sent as an alternative. It contains no tables. If anyone misses them, and can figure them out with the alignments being as they are, I will repost them as intact as I possibly can. Let me know! Earth and Sun Digest for August 16, 2001 published free on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon For those in fear of the End Times, a weekly look at the facts focused with this observation on the \"fives\": FIVE quakes of 5.x magnitude in FIVE Days can cause a volcano to erupt ash FIVE miles to the jet streams, where it can circle the globe in FIVE days. Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables in full edition) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wed--19; quakes of 6M or greater: 6.4, Japan California earthquakes in past week--278 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador Sunspot No. High--196 on 12 August Geomagnetic A-Index High--19 on 13 August Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm United States index map for regions at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/present.html World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Moon for August 4 full, 5 apogee, 12 last quarter, 19 new, 19 perigee, 25 first quarter The perigee of the moon (221,927 miles near) is on 19 August. Today on www.SpaceWeather.com is this report: \"RADIATION STORM: The flux of high-energy protons around our planet soared to 1000 times normal at ~0300 UT on August 16th. The ongoing S2-class solar radiation storm is unusual because it was not triggered by a major flare on the Earth-facing side of the Sun. Instead, it appears to be the result of a backside explosion detected by SOHO coronagraphs on August 15th.\" The Kappa Cygnid meteor shower has slower meteors with yellowish tails than the Perseid. It peaks 17 August. The New Moon helps visibility. See www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS report http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) United States, Hawaii, KILAUEA, summit elev. 1222 m lava continued to enter the ocean Mexico, POPOCATEPETL, summit elev. 5426 m small emissions of steam, gas, and small amounts of ash increased, on 9 August an ash cloud rose to 7.6 km Ecuador, TUNGURAHUA, summit elev. 5023 m since at least 6 August steam-and-ash clouds to 7.5-11.6 km, on 13 August ash to 11.6 km and to 10 km Russia, Kamchatka, BEZYMIANNY, summit elev. 2882 m on 7 August ash clouds to 4.9 km SHIVELUCH, summit elevation 3283 m Small gas-and-steam plumes rose to 3.5 m Note 1: There is a map in the El Nino project from NOAA that appears to show also the effect of volcanic ash distribution. See http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/climo.html Note 2: The last Indonesian report available was to July 15. The full, color-coded Earth and Sun Digest can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Volcanism/messages"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 23, 2001 (15:36)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for August 23, 2001 published free on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon For those in fear of the End Times, a weekly look at the facts Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables below) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wed--7; quakes of 6M or greater: 7.0M in New Zealand California earthquakes in past week--243 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador Sunspot No. High--183 on 22 August Geomagnetic A-Index High--29 on 17 August Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm United States index map for regions at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/present.html World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Moon for August 4 full, 5 apogee, 12 last quarter, 19 new, 19 perigee, 25 first quarter The apogee of the moon (252,482 miles far) is on 1 September, the following perigee (222,531 miles near) is 16 September. The major event of the week is a 7.0 magnitude earthquake northeast of New Zealand, which to date has had 130 aftershocks in the 3 to 5 magnitude range. The only transglobal quake reported to date is in Kazakhstan, but quakes in the United States have followed big quakes in New Zealand within ten days from Hawaii and Alaska to California and Maine. See SPECIAL REPORT in full report at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Volcanism/messages Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: The weekly GVP-USGS Weekly Report is not available at press time. All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) from http://www.epn.edu.ec/~igeo/Vulcanologia/Volcanes/Tungurahua/Informet/inform et.html, per Smithsonian's Volcano Listserv: Ecuador, TUNGURAHUA, summit elev. 5023 m ash to 8 km on 19 August"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 23, 2001 (15:38)", "body": "As always, The full, color-coded Earth and Sun Digest can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Volcanism/messages"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 30, 2001 (18:21)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for August 30, 2001 published free on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables in full edition) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wed--19; four quakes of 6M or greater: 6.1M BISMARCK SEA (Papua-New Guinea, 6.0M PANAMA, 6.0M NORTHERN MOLUCCA SEA, Indonesia, 6.0M NORTHERN CHILE California earthquakes in past week--223 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none Sunspot No. High--194 on 23 August Geomagnetic A-Index High--17 on 22 August Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm United States index map for regions at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/present.html World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.htm l Moon for September 1 apogee, 2 full, 10 last quarter, 16 perigee, 17 new, 24 first quarter, 30 another apogee The apogee of the moon (252,482 miles far) is on 1 September, the following perigee (222,531 miles near) is 16 September. The sunspot which unleashed a powerful X5-category solar flare recently has passed center but can bring more eruptions. A new pair of sunspots yet to cross center also pose a substantial threat for strong flares. See www.spaceweather.com The 7.0 magnitude earthquake northeast of New Zealand on 21 August has spawned large aftershocks in the past ten days, with the 6M quakes listed in Week at a Glance. A study of the aftershocks 5M or greater in 1999 following a series of 6M quakes also north of New Zealand is in Special Reports in this issue. On September 12 in Alaska at 3:18 AM local time the moon will eclipse the planet Jupiter. Newly discovered Comet Petriew can be seen at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast24aug_1.htm and followed through www.spaceweather.com It was spotted by an amateur astronomer with a telescope at a star party. Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS report http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) KILAUEA Hawaii, USA, summit elev. 1222 m lava continued to flow into the ocean POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico, summit elev. 5426 m small emissions of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash. SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies, summit elev. 1052 m ash emission on 26 August to 2 km TUNGURAHUA Ecuador, summit elev. 5023 m nearly continuous ash emissions since 6 August, on 24 August ash cloud to 7.6 km. VILLARRICA central Chile, summit elev. 2847 m on 9, 16, 17, and 21 August volcanic ballistic clasts fell near crater the crater. SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, summit elev. 3283 m several small gas-and-steam plumes to a maximum of 5.3 km, pyroclastic flows on 23 August. KARANGETANG [Api Siau] Siau Island, Indonesia, summit elev. 1784 m during 30 July-12 August a steam-and-ash plume rose 2.4 km KERINCI Sumatra, Indonesia, summit elev. 3805 m on 9 August an ash cloud to 4.5 km LOKON-EMPUNG northern Sulawesi, Indonesia, summit elev. 1580 m during 30 July-12 August small ash plumes to 1.9 km MAKIAN Halmahera, Indonesia, summit elev. 1357 m reported volcanic activity on 16 August was only a bush fire MERAPI central Java, Indonesia, summit elev. 2947 m During 30 July-12 August lava avalanches Full version of Digest is at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Volcanism/ and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Seismicity/"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  5, 2001 (01:47)", "body": "From Donald Boon, our Geo-wizard: All, Family matters cause me to post the Earth and Sun Digest early this week. It will be caught up later. The full Digest can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Volcanism/messages Here are the leaders: Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables below) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Tuesday--11; two quakes of 6M or greater: 6.1M NORTH INDIAN OCEAN, 6.3M PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE California earthquakes in past week--254 (Tuesday) Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none Sunspot No. High--168 on 3 and 4 September Geomagnetic A-Index High--20 on 4 September Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm United States index map for regions at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/present.html World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Moon for September 1 apogee, 2 full, 10 last quarter, 16 perigee, 17 new, 24 first quarter, 30 another apogee The apogee of the moon (252,482 miles far) is on 1 September, the following perigee (222,531 miles near) is 16 September. The Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah, is 18 September. On September 12 in Alaska at 3:18 AM local time the moon will eclipse the planet Jupiter. Newly discovered Comet Petriew can be seen at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast24aug_1.htm and followed through www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from VAAC and KVERT reports. All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) TUNGURAHUA, Ecuador, summit elev. 5023 m ash to 5.8 on 3 September SHEVELUCH VOLCANO, Russia, Kamchatka, summit elev. 2447 m on August 30 and 31 possible short-lived ash explosions to 5.5 km Stay safe! Donald"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (00:09)", "body": "Again, my thanks to Donald Boon for supplying this excellent compendium. Please go to the bottom link to see the Digest in its entirety. Because of vacation but still two 6M quakes, an incomplete early report was posted. This is the final report for Sept. 6. The complete report is posted on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Volcanism/messages Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary.) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Tuesday--14; two quakes of 6M or greater: 6.1M NORTH INDIAN OCEAN, 6.3M PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE California earthquakes in past week--254 (Tuesday) Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none Sunspot No. High--175 on 5 September Geomagnetic A-Index High--20 on 4 September Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm United States index map for regions at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/present.html World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Moon for September 1 apogee, 2 full, 10 last quarter, 16 perigee, 17 new, 24 first quarter, 30 another apogee The apogee of the moon (252,482 miles far) is on 1 September, the following perigee (222,531 miles near) is 16 September. The Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah, is 18 September. On September 12 in Alaska at 3:18 AM local time the moon will eclipse the planet Jupiter. Newly discovered Comet Petriew can be seen at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast24aug_1.htm and followed through www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from VAAC and KVERT reports. All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) KILAUEA Hawaii, USA, summit elev. 1,22 m lava continued to enter the sea POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico, summit elev. 5426 m small emissions of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies, summit elev. 1052 m new lava dome in the scar produced by the 29 July collapse. small pyroclastic flows TUNGURAHUA Ecuador, summit elev. 5023 m Small amounts of ash, highest ash cloud on 3 September to 5.8 km SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, summit elev. 3283 m during 24-31 August short-lived explosions, on 30 and 31 to 5.5 km LOKON-EMPUNG northern Sulawesi, Indonesia, summit elev. 1580 m on 18 August an ash cloud that rose 800 m above the crater RABAUL New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, summit elev. 688 m on 28 August very mild ash eruptions began, and continued to 31 August"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (16:16)", "body": "Thanks again Donald! All, here is the abridged version of the digest. The full version can be viewed at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Volcanism/message/201 Earth and Sun Digest for September 13, 2001 by Donald J. Boon, remembering the victims of September 11 \"The dome (of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem) fell in an earthquake and was rebuilt in 1022.\" The infamous Hakim, the sixth Egyptian Caliph, 996-1021, destroyed the Holy Sepulchre (the Anastasis) in 1010 A.D. The news of the destruction brought back by pilgrims was one of the causes of the first Crusade. from the online New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--10; two quakes of 6M or greater: 6.4M IRIAN JAYA REGION, INDONESIA, 6.4M FIJI ISLANDS REGION California earthquakes in past week--241 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--TUNGURAHUA Ecuador Sunspot No. High--291 on 9 September Geomagnetic A-Index High--113 on 12 September Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm United States index map for regions at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/present.html World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Moon for September 1 apogee, 2 full, 10 last quarter, 16 perigee, 17 new, 24 first quarter, 30 another apogee The perigee (222,531 miles near) is 16 September. Several bright coronal mass ejections (CMEs) billowed away from the Sun during the past 24 hours. Most were not Earth-directed. Earth's magnetosphere could experience glancing or even direct blows on Sept. 13th or 14th. See www.spaceweather.com The Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah, is 18 September. Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS report http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm[/url All ash elevations are in km above sea level. LOIHI SEAMOUNT Hawaii, USA, summit elev. -980 m on 10 September earthquake swarm began KILAUEA Hawaii, USA, summit elev. 1,222 m lava continued to flow into the ocean POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico, summit elev. 5,426 m on 9 September steam-and-ash emissions to 6.4 km SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, summit elev. 3,283 m on 4 September an ash plume to 4.3 km SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies, summit elev. 1,052 m ash venting at irregular intervals, ash clouds not above 1.5 km TUNGURAHUA Ecuador, summit elev. 5,023 m several small-to-moderate eruptions, highest ash cloud on 8 September to 10.5 km Note: There is a map in the El Nino project from NOAA that appears to show also the effect of volcanic ash distribution. See http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/climo.html"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (19:15)", "body": "From the estimable Donald Boon: Here is the abbreviated Digest. The complete edition is available at World_Volcanism, World_Seismicity, the Prodigy News Community's Science/Environment BB, and at www.bbmessages.com on its Planet Earth BB. Earth and Sun Digest for September 20, 2001 published free by Donald J. Boon on Thursdays remembering the victims of September 11 by quantifying natural phenomena Historical notes on Jerusalem and its Muslim Dome of the Rock: \"The dome fell in an earthquake and was rebuilt in 1022.\" The infamous Hakim, the sixth Egyptian Caliph, 996-1021, destroyed the Holy Sepulchre (the Anastasis) in 1010 A.D. The news of the destruction brought back by pilgrims was one of the causes of the first Crusade. from the online New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables elsewhere) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--21; three quakes of 6M or greater: 6.0M VANCOUVER ISL, CANADA, 6.0M TONGA ISLANDS REGION, 6.0M BANDA SEA California earthquakes in past week--195 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador Sunspot No. High--228 on 12 September Geomagnetic A-Index High--18 on 13 September Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm United States index map for regions at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/present.html World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Moon for September 1 apogee, 2 full, 10 last quarter, 16 perigee, 17 new, 24 first quarter, 30 apogee The second apogee of the moon (252,144 miles far) in September is the 30th.. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun continue. Most were not Earth-directed. See www.spaceweather.com NASA's Deep Space 1 (DS1) probe will plunge into the turbulent coma of periodic comet Borrelly on Sept. 22nd. Deep Space 1 is too small to see from Earth. However, amateur astronomers with 10\" or larger telescopes can view the 10th magnitude comet in the morning sky near the bright twin stars of the constellation Gemini. More at www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS report http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) ETNA Sicily, Italy, summit elev. 3,315 m dense gas clouds KARANGETANG [Api Siau] Siau Island, Indonesia, summit elev. 1,784 m on 9 September a pyroclastic flow KERINCI Sumatra, Indonesia, summit elev. 3,805 m on 9 September ash plumes to 4.3 km KILAUEA Hawaii, USA, summit elev. 1,222 m lava continued to flow into the ocean, during 12 and 13 September very slight deflation POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico, summit elev. 5,426 m small emissions of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, summit elev. 3,283 m During 7-14 September several gas-and-ash plumes, the highest 4.5 km, on 12 September ash plume to 4.3 km SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies, summit elev. 1,052 m ash venting at irregular intervals slightly above the summit TUNGURAHUA Ecuador, summit elev. 5,023 m during the week near-summit ash-and-gas emissions, highest ash cloud reached 8 km"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  2, 2001 (03:12)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for September 27, 2001 Full Edition at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Volcanism/message/222 by Donald J. Boon on Thursdays remembering the victims of September 11 An historical quake in Jerusalem ca 30 A.D.: \"Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,\" Matthew 27:50-52 KJV Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--14; quake of 6M or greater: 6.0M COLOMBIA California earthquakes in past week--227 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador Sunspot No. High--315, 320 on 24, 25 September Geomagnetic A-Index High--27 on 23 September Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm United States index map for regions at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/present.html World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Moon for October 2 full, 10 last quarter, 14 perigee, 16 new, 24 first quarter, 26 apogee The apogee of the moon (252,144 miles far) is 30 September. The next perigee is 14 October (224,717 miles) Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun continue, with one X Class flare that blocks radio transmissions. See www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS report http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) IWO-JIMA Volcano Islands, Japan; summit elev. 161 m; on 21 September seawater rose several ten's of meters above sea level with steam to 100-300 m at two points 50 m apart and 150-200 m from the island's SE coast; eruption over the next day KARANGETANG [Api Siau] Siau Island, Indonesia; summit elev. 1,784 m During 10-16 September steam and possibly ash to 2.3 km. KERINCI Sumatra, Indonesia; summit elev. 3,805 m during 10-16 September steam plumes to 4.4 km KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m lava continued to enter the ocean, with more vigorous eastern flow for more than two weeks. Tiltmeters showed no significant deformation. KRAKATAU Indonesia; summit elev. 813 m explosion earthquakes decreased in number during 10-16 September POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m small emissions of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 14-21 September several ash clouds, highest 4.4 km SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m vigorous ash venting and low-level ash plumes TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m during the week several low-level emissions of ash and gas, on 20 September an ash cloud to 7 km, on 21 September ash to 8 km"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  5, 2001 (16:06)", "body": "Boon's Earth and Sun Digest 10/04/01 Here is the summary section from the Digest. View the full digest in color at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Volcanism/message/198 Enjoy, and stay safe! Donald Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--13; three quakes of 6M or greater: 6.4M then 6.2M VANUATU ISLANDS, 6.2M TONGA ISLANDS California earthquakes in past week--250 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador, Russia, Mexico Sunspot No. High--289 on 1 October Geomagnetic A-Index High--50, 53 on 1, 3 October Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm United States index map for regions at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/present.html World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Moon for October 2 full, 10 last quarter, 14 perigee, 16 new, 24 first quarter, 26 apogee The perigee is 14 October (224,717 miles) Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun continue. See www.spaceweather.com . See also SPECIAL REPORT on Northern Lights. Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS report http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 56.653\ufffdN, 161.360\ufffdE; summit elev. 3,283 m on 30 September ash to 9 km with stationary 25-km-diameter ash cloud centered over the volcano TALANG Sumatra, Indonesia 00.98\ufffdS, 100.68\ufffdE; summit elev. 2,896 m During on 25 September a thick white-brownish plume to 3.2 km ETNA Sicily, Italy 37.73\ufffdN, 15.00\ufffdE; summit elev. 3,315 m on 28 September gas emissions vigorous KARANGETANG [Api Siau] Siau Island, Indonesia 2.47\ufffdN, 125.29\ufffdE; summit elev. 1,784 m during 17-23 September white-colored emissions rose 2.3 km, during 24-30 September plumes to 2.2 km KAVACHI Solomon Islands 9.02\ufffdS, 157.95\ufffdE; summit elev. -20 m (submarine) erupted daily during August through mid-September, during August ash to 400 m above sea level KILAUEA Hawaii, USA 19.43\ufffdN, 155.29\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,222 m lava flows enter the ocean at a new area on 28 September and by 30 September a new lava bench and black sand beach form, old lava flows crusted over MERAPI central Java, Indonesia 7.542\ufffdS, 110.442\ufffdE; summit elev. 2,947 m during 17-30 September incandescent lava avalanches POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico 19.02\ufffdN, 98.62\ufffdW; summit elev. 5,426 m small emissions of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash, steam to 9.4 km on 26 September SEMERU Java, Indonesia 8.11\ufffdN, 112.92\ufffdE; summit elev. 3,676 m ash plume to 7.7 km on 1 October SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies 16.72\ufffdN, 62.18\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,052 m periods of vigorous ash venting to 1.6 km TUNGURAHUA Ecuador 1.47\ufffdS, 78.44\ufffdW; summit elev. 5,023 m on 24 September ash cloud to 7 km, on 25 September a mushroom-shaped ash cloud to 10 km, lower portion drifted to the NW, higher fixed"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 10, 2001 (14:09)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for October 7, 2001 A special report by Donald J. Boon placing the world's response to September 11 in natural perspective For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: Matthew 24:7 (NRSV) Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Afghanistan, a year in review A study of earthquakes in Afghanistan since October 2000, per archives of USGS: DATE-(UTC)-TIME LAT LON DEP MAG Q COMMENTS yy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss deg. deg. km 00/10/14 13:51:42 36.24N 71.11E 138.3 4.9Mb A AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 00/10/30 22:39:07 37.62N 69.44E 38.3 5.3Mb B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 00/10/31 13:59:34 37.48N 69.50E 44.4 4.8Mb B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 00/12/12 06:49:33 37.76N 70.10E 71.2 4.6Mb B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 00/12/20 13:22:23 36.83N 71.01E 82.7 5.2Mb B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/01/02 16:22:37 36.25N 69.01E 33.0 5.1Mb A HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/02/09 10:34:45 38.81N 70.86E 33.0 4.3M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/02/12 10:21:26 36.54N 70.89E 217.9 4.5M B HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/02/25 02:21:59 36.44N 70.91E 202.4 6.1M A HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/03/08 20:50:34 36.55N 70.97E 184.6 5.1M A HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/03/22 19:12:15 36.24N 71.03E 106.8 5.0M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/03/29 22:16:15 36.59N 70.63E 223.2 4.2M B HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/04/04 11:13:25 36.49N 66.23E 14.9 4.9M A HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/04/08 23:05:10 37.14N 70.12E 33.0 4.9M A AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/04/15 13:37:19 35.84N 69.78E 111.3 4.9M B HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/04/17 05:08:21 36.95N 66.72E 41.6 5.1M B HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/04/17 06:10:51 37.38N 68.19E 33.0 4.0M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/04/17 11:17:18 36.51N 70.67E 271.9 4.8M A HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/04/18 19:28:59 36.37N 71.22E 105.9 4.5M A AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/04/23 21:10:12 37.62N 70.16E 33.0 4.2M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/05/21 01:24:00 36.44N 70.13E 218.3 4.8M A HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/05/21 22:16:49 36.99N 71.44E 220.0 4.4M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/05/22 09:15:17 36.67N 71.41E 186.7 5.0M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/06/01 14:00:45 35.11N 69.39E 87.3 5.2M B HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/06/20 20:02:15 36.57N 70.96E 214.9 4.4M B HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/07/11 23:52:40 37.09N 71.75E 195.7 4.2M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/07/12 02:50:16 37.00N 71.20E 106.4 4.1M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/07/30 20:27:43 36.10N 71.49E 80.6 4.8M A AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/08/14 23:42:54 37.37N 69.52E 33.0 4.0M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/08/26 17:06:21 36.36N 70.65E 187.7 4.0M B HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/08/27 03:43:44 36.63N 70.89E 218.5 4.4M B HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/08/28 11:34:32 36.61N 70.78E 195.3 4.5M B HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/08/28 19:16:18 36.98N 71.40E 99.1 4.7M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/08/30 09:02:52 37.13N 71.46E 103.3 4.2M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG 01/08/30 09:02:52 37.13N 71.46E 103.3 4.2M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01 09 06 00:41:44 36.49N 71.10E 219 4.4 AFGHANISTAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/09/30 00:53:29 35.68N 70.62E 33.0 4.1M B HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 01/09/30 11:30:16 36.69N 71.03E 261.5 4.4M A AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. 01/10/05 02:37:30 36.32N 71.21E 62.8 4.7M B AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG. The perigee is 14 October (224,717 miles near) The sun finally calmed. See SUN below. www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from current GVN/USGS reports All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) Ash elevations of 5 mi/8 km are highlighted in red. AVACHINSKY, Russia, Kamachatka; 53o 15'N, 158o 50'E; Elevation 2,751 m on 4 October a small gas-steam explosion with ash to 3.7 km FONULEI, Tonga, 18.18S 174W, (Submarine)(approximate location) Explosive activity by seismogram on 27, 28 and 29 September. SHEVELUCH, Russia, Kamchatka; 56o 38'N, 161o 19'E; Elevation 2,447 m at any time with little warning explosions could produce ash plumes as high as 7-10 km; on 1 October ash plumes rose 10k m and 9.5 km, on 2 October ash plumes rose to 3.5 km, on 5 October a gas and steam plume rose to 2.5 km (only highest daily activity reported) SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies 16.72\ufffdN, 62.18\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,052 m periods of low level ash venting continue EARTH FIVE Index of Global earthquakes of 5.0 magnitude or greater (more information at http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/ ) (6.0 or greater are highlighted in red.), Others are Japan Region, South Pacific. DATE-(UTC)-TIME LAT LON DEP MAG Q COMMENTS yy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss deg. deg. km 01/10/05 13:46:18 6.90S 155.73E 119.0"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 11, 2001 (14:10)", "body": "(This does not appear as brilliantly programmed as Donald Boon sends it, but it is so valuable, I post it here in its complete form) Note: This publication is in color with tables aligned when sent. Editor Earth and Sun Digest for October 11, 2001 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon Responding to September 11 by quantifying natural phenomena For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: Matthew 24:7 (NRSV) Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables below) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--15; four quakes of 6M or greater: 6.1M NEW GUINEA, PNG, 6.5M then 6.4M OFF EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA, 6.1M KURIL ISLANDS California earthquakes in past week--226 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Russia Sunspot No. High--231 on 4 October Geomagnetic A-Index High--53 on 3 October Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Moon for October 2 full, 10 last quarter, 14 perigee, 16 new, 24 first quarter, 26 apogee The perigee is 14 October (224,849 miles near) SUN: Magnetic fields above sunspot 9653 erupted Oct. 9th and hurled a full-halo coronal mass ejection toward Earth. The cloud could strike our planet's magnetosphere as soon as Thursday, Oct. 11th. The best time to spot auroras is usually around local midnight. Learn more at www.spaceweather.com The earth passes through the Orionid Meteor Shower from Oct. 2 through Nov. 7, with the peak of the shower on October 21. The moon is favorable for viewing it. Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS and other reports. http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) Ash elevations of 5 mi/8 km are highlighted in red. AVACHINSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 2741 m on 5 October a small gas-and-steam explosion with small amounts of ash that rose 3.7 km FONUALEI Tonga Islands, Pacific Ocean; summit elev. 200 m on 27, 28, and 30 September hydro-acoustic activity interpreted to be volcanic and explosive and not related to seismic activity at the Tonga Trench PITON DE LA FOURNAISE R\ufffdunion Island, Indian Ocean; summit elev. 2631 m in early October opening of fissures with slight inflation at the summit SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3283 m; during 28 September to 6 October several ash and steam-and-gas clouds, highest ash clouds on 1 October to 10.8 km ETNA Sicily, Italy; summit elev. 3315 m on 4, 5 October degassing occasionally accompanied by ash emissions IWO-JIMA Volcano Islands, Japan; summit elev. 161 m (submarine) after 22 September discolored seawater visible through 10 October KARANGETANG [Api Siau] Siau Island, Indonesia; summit elev. 1784 m on 1,2 October lava avalanches steam plumes KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1222 m lava continued to flow into the ocean MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2947 m During 1-7 October lava avalanches POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5426 m small clouds of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash, on 9 October an ash cloud rose to 7.4 km SEMERU Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 3676 m on 5 October a plume rose to 4.3 km SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1052 m; on 4,5 October pyroclastic-flows, three reaching the sea, dense ash clouds rose to 1.8 km TUNGURAHUA, Ecuador no eruptions reported since 28 September EARTH FIVE Index of Global earthquakes of 5.0 magnitude or greater (more information at http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/ ) (6.0 or greater are highlighted in red.), Others are Japan Region, South Pacific. DATE-(UTC)-TIME LAT LON DEP MAG Q COMMENTS yy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss deg. deg. km 01/10/05 13:46:18 6.90S 155.73E 119.0 5.0M B SOLOMON ISLANDS 01/10/05 17:54:46 15.17S 173.67W 33.0 5.3M A TONGA ISLANDS 01/10/07 02:21:10 3.23S 142.99E 10.0 6.1M A NEAR N COAST NEW GUINEA, PNG. 01/10/07 03:44:10 3.75S 126.23E 33.0 5.2M C BURU, INDONESIA 01/10/07 12:12:56 0.24S 124.96E 33.0 5.2M B SOUTHERN MOLUCCA SEA 01/10/07 22:46:22 52.74N 160.32E 54.6 5.0M A OFF EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA 01/10/08 03:39:22 17.20N 99.86W 33.0 5.8M A GUERRERO, MEXICO 01/10/08 06:18:50 52.70N 160.32E 33.0 5.0M A OFF EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA 01/10/08 18:14:27 52.73N 160.20E 55.5 6.5M A OFF EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA 01/10/08 18:20:41 52.80N 160.08E 62.5 6.4M A OFF EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA 01/10/09 14:35:56 54.12S 136.78W 10.0 5.4M B PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE 01/10/09 17:45:33 23.18S 175.42W 33.0 5.4M A TONGA ISLANDS REGION 01/10/09 20:12:02 23.15S 175.59W 33.0 5.1M B TONGA ISLANDS REGION 01/10/09 23:53:37 47.88N 154.98E 34.4 6.1M A KURIL ISLANDS 01/10/10 01:32:42 52.61N 160.44E 33.0 5.0M A OFF EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA 01/10/11 12:26:10 19.44S 175.57E 33.0 5.2M "}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 18, 2001 (14:48)", "body": "All, Here is your Digest summary. Because of my new email address, the full report is at www.bbmessages.com under Planet Earth/Seismology BB. Enjoy, and stay safe! Donald Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary.) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--14; two quakes of 6M or greater: 7.0M SOUTH OF MARIANA ISLANDS, 6.0M VIRGIN ISLANDS California earthquakes in past week--190 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none (see note under Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions.) Sunspot No. High--179 on 12 October Geomagnetic A-Index High--27 on 12 October Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Moon for October 2 full, 10 last quarter, 14 perigee, 16 new, 24 first quarter, 26 apogee The apogee of the moon is 26 October (251,615 miles far) SUN: A sunspot group currently the size of four earths may give us more geomagnetic storms. Learn more at www.spaceweather.com The earth passes through the Orionid Meteor Shower from Oct. 2 through Nov. 7, with the peak on October 21. The moon sets before 11 PM. For more see www.spaceweather.com Autumn is the season for Zodiacal Lights, seen before dawn as a faint triangle of light above the eastern horizon. It is caused by sunlight reflecting from interplanetary dust grains. A picture is at www.spaceweather.com . Recent Volcanic Ash Eruptions: The weekly GVN/USGS report is NOT available this week. The Washington VAAC reports the following at: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/VAAC/messages.html Only Soufriere Hills, Tungurahua and Popocatepetl erupted, and none were above 5 miles or 8 km. Tungurahua sent ash to 5.8 km, Popo to 7.6 km, and Soufriere Hills to only 1.8 km. The last report on Sheveluch per Anchorage VAAC was on Oct. 1, 2001."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 25, 2001 (19:50)", "body": "Thanks to Donald Boon for his continuing efforts: Here is the brief form of today's Earth and Sun Digest. The full edition is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Seismicity/messages and www.bbmessages.com . Enjoy! and Stay Safe! Donald, the Qupper Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in full digest) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--20; two quakes of 6M or greater: 7.5M BANDA SEA, 6.8M NORTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND California earthquakes in past week--188 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none Sunspot No. High--239 on 21 October Geomagnetic A-Index High--66 on 22 October Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Moon for November 1 full, 8 last quarter, 11 perigee, 15 new, 22 first quarter, 23 apogee The apogee of the moon is 26 October (251,615 miles far), the next perigee is 11 November (228,203 miles near) Sun: More geomagnetic storms and Northern Lights on the way. See www.spaceweather.com , a click-date reference, and below. Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS report at URL: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) IWO-JIMA Volcano Islands, Japan; summit elev. 161 m of 19 October a small phreatic eruption plume rising to 200-300 m SUWANOSE-JIMA Ryukyu Islands, Japan; summit elev. 799 m On 11 October eleven explosions KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m during the week lava entered the ocean at two entries MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m 53 incandescent lava avalanches POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during the week small clouds of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash. SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m During 12-19 October several gas-and-steam plumes, highest on 17 October rose to 4.5 km SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 12-19 October activity remained elevated level, pyroclastic flows on most days TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m For about three weeks seismic and volcanic activity relatively low with no explosive activity Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEARS: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 September 4 8 8 9 7 4 12 7 9 October 4 12 21 9 6 3 4 8 (9 with two 7M's) November 0 7 10 6 7 4 15 15, with three 7M's December 0 6 13 7 3 2 16 11, with one 7M Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 (92) Note: ( ) means incomplete."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 25, 2001 (21:21)", "body": "Addendum from Donald Boon: All, In reviewing the chart for the monthly 6M or greater quakes in the world in preparation for today's Digest, I noted some incorrect number from duplicate counting at the end of September. The full count for September 2001 is thus 10. In October 2001 we have experienced 9 quakes 6M and greater, of which two were seven or greater. The September, October and Yr. total lines for Oct. 25 should read: YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 September 4 8 8 9 7 4 12 7 10 October 4 12 21 9 6 3 4 8 (9 with two 7M's) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 (93) Sorry for any inconvenience, and the poor alignment of this TXT message.. Donald"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  2, 2001 (14:11)", "body": "Thanks to Donald Boon for his continuing devotion to thing Earthly and Heavenly Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables below) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--22; two quakes of 6M or greater: 6.1M VANUATU ISLANDS, 6.9M NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. California earthquakes in past week--522 See UNITED STATES QUAKES. Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none, but Tungurahua emission to 7.9 Sunspot No. High--239 on 26 October Geomagnetic A-Index High--41 on 28 October Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Moon for November 1 full, 8 last quarter, 11 perigee, 15 new, 22 first quarter, 23 apogee The next perigee is 11 November (228,203 miles near) SOLAR SPOT: Sunspot 9682, in the center of the sun, now covers an area equal to nearly seven planet Earths. It has a twisted \"delta-class\" magnetic field that poses a threat for X-class solar flares. See www.spaceweather.com , a click-date reference, and SUN section. Simple ways to view these sunspots without a telescope are described at: http://spaceweather.com/sunspots/doityourself.html Do not look at the sun directly. That causes blindness. Volcanic Gases and Drought: The sulfur dioxide and other gases produced by volcanoes contribute to drought. The Recent Volcanic Eruptions section and the FIVE Rule will add an emphasis on gases to that on ash. See also SPECIAL REPORT. Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS report at URL: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All ash elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) AVACHINSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 2,741 m during 19-26 October several gas-and-steam plumes, the highest reaching 3.7 km on 20 October KARANGETANG [Api Siau] Siau Island, Indonesia; summit elev. 1,784 m during 15-21 October white plumes to 2.2 km KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m Surface lava entered sea at two entries MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 15-21 October 103 incandescent lava avalanches POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m on 25 October steam column to 7.9 km, another the same day to 6.4 km with a narrow plume of ash SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 22-23 October a steam-and-gas plume to 4.2 km SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 19-26 October small pyroclastic flows TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m several steam-and-ash emissions, on 23 October ash to 6 km Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 October 4 12 21 9 6 3 4 8 11 November 0 7 10 6 7 4 15 15 Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 (95) Note: ( ) means incomplete."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (15:12)", "body": "Full report with tables at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Seismicity/message/667 Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--12; one quake of 6M or greater: 6.3M FIJI ISLANDS REGION California earthquakes in past week--295 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none Sunspot No. High--230 on 7 November Geomagnetic A-Index High--112 on 6 November Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Moon for November 1 full, 8 last quarter, 11 perigee, 15 new, 22 first quarter, 23 apogee The perigee is 11 November (228,203 miles near) GALLERIES OF RECENT NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN LIGHTS PHOTOS http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_06nov01.html The sun is being studied in remarkable ways. At www.spaceweather.com there is a daily presentation of the sunspots on the far side of the sun. In the current issues there is also a study of what underlies a sunspot. See SPECIAL REPORT. Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at URL: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) KARANGETANG [Api Siau] Siau Island, Indonesia; summit elev. 1,784 m on 29 October a gray cloud to 3.3 km KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m during 30 October to 5 November lava flow into the sea at three entries MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 22-28 October 121 lava avalanches POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m emissions of small clouds of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m the evening of 29-30 October incandescent avalanches; gas-and-steam plumes to 4.8 km on 30 and 31 October. SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m on 1 November several small pyroclastic flows TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m on 1 November three emissions of steam and ash up to 7 km Donald Boon"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (21:06)", "body": "Boon's Brief Earth and Sun Digest 11/15/01 Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--19; five quakes of 6M or greater: 6.1M PANAMA-COSTA RICA BORDER REG, 6.1M NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL MEXICO, 6.0M NEAR ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, 7.8M QINGHAI-XINJIANG BORDER, CHINA, 6.3M B NORTH OF ASCENSION ISLAND California earthquakes in past week--321 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador Sunspot No. High--258 on 10 November Geomagnetic A-Index High--15 on 7 November Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Moon for November 1 full, 8 last quarter, 11 perigee, 15 new, 22 first quarter, 23 apogee The apogee of the moon is 23 November (251,279 miles far) The Leonid Meteor Shower peaks on 18 November. A major, brief storm is predicted, enhanced for viewing by the new moon for those in Asia, while viewing will be more moderate in the Americas from midnight to dawn. Per Astronomy Magazine, \"Because meteor-shower prediction is in its infancy, the potential for disappointment is considerable.\" See also www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report. All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) SAN CRIST\ufffdBAL Nicaragua 12.702\ufffdN, 87.004\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,745 m during the evening of 12 November small ash emissions around summit level KILAUEA Hawaii, USA 19.43\ufffdN, 155.29\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,222 m lava continued to flow into the sea at three entries POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico 19.02\ufffdN, 98.62\ufffdW; summit elev. 5,426 m on 10 November an ash column rose to 5.4 km, during the rest of the week emissions of small clouds of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash. SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 56.653\ufffdN, 161.360\ufffdE; summit elev. 3,283 m during 2-9 November several eruptions of ash, steam, and gas clouds; on 7 November seismic data suggested clouds rose to 7.5 km. SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies 16.72\ufffdN, 62.18\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,052 m on the 8th and 9th small pyroclastic flows and on 8 November ash vigorously venting; on several days a low-level plume with small amounts of ash TUNGURAHUA Ecuador 1.47\ufffdS, 78.44\ufffdW; summit elev. 5,023 m on 11 November two emissions of steam-and-ash, highest cloud rose to 8 km Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 September 4 8 8 9 7 4 12 7 10 October 4 12 21 9 6 3 4 8 11 with two 7M's November 0 7 10 6 7 4 15 15 (6 with one 7M) December 0 6 13 7 3 2 16 11, with one 7M Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 (101) Donald (Full report at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Seismicity/messages )"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 22, 2001 (15:04)", "body": "Boon's Brief Earth and Sun Digest 11/22/01 Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in complete report) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--16; two quakes of 6M or greater: 6.2M BANDA SEA, other one noted last week California earthquakes in past week--245 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Russia Sunspot No. High--222 on 14 November Geomagnetic A-Index High--16 on 19 November Moon for November 1 full, 8 last quarter, 11 perigee, 15 new, 22 first quarter, 23 apogee The apogee of the moon is 23 November (251,279 miles far) There is a grand gallery with photos and videos of the Leonid Meteor Shower at http://spaceweather.com/meteors/gallery_18nov01_page3.html So far there are three pages available for viewing. Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m on 15 November possible weak ash-and-gas explosions, on 16 November a gas-and-ash cloud may have risen to 8 km KLIUCHEVSKOI Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 4,835 m on 9 November steam plume to 5.4 km, during 11-13 November gas-and-steam plumes to 5 km KARANGETANG [Api Siau] Siau Island, Indonesia; summit elev. 1,784 m During 5-11 November white plumes 1.9 km KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m lava continued to the sea at two entries, with another inactive by 18 November. LOKON-EMPUNG northern Sulawesi, Indonesia; summit elev. 1,580 m on 19 October gray emissions to 1.9 km, MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 5-18 November 192 incandescent lava avalanches POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during the week small clouds of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash. SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 9-16 November several steam, gas, and ash explosions possibly to 7.3 km, on 9 November ash plume to 4.3 km SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 9-16 November small pyroclastic flows and rockfalls, on 17 November ash below 6.1 km, on 18 November below 3 km TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m several steam, gas, and ash emissions, on 18 and 19 November ash to 7 km Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 September 4 8 8 9 7 4 12 7 10 October 4 12 21 9 6 3 4 8 11 with two 7M's November 0 7 10 6 7 4 15 15 (7 with one 7M) December 0 6 13 7 3 2 16 11, with one 7M Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 (102) Note: ( ) means incomplete. Donald (Complete report at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Seismicity/message/673 ) ~*~Happy Thanksgiving, Donald~*~"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 29, 2001 (18:07)", "body": "Boon's Brief Earth and Sun Digest 11/29/01 Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in full report) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--19; three quakes of 6M or greater: 6.2M FIJI ISLANDS, 6.1M AFGHAN-TAJIKISTAN BORD REG., 6.4M NEAR COAST OF CHIAPAS, MEXICO California earthquakes in past week--193 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none detected Sunspot No. High--180 on 28 November Geomagnetic A-Index High--108 on 24 November Moon for December 7 last quarter, 6 perigee, 14 new, 21 apogee, 22 first quarter, 23 full The second full moon of November occurs on the 30th. The perigee of the moon is 6 December (229,980 miles near) The following apogee is 21 December (251,428 miles far) Another potential source of X class flares from the sun is in position to send one earth's way the next few days. Animation of this sunspot's growth is available at www.spaceweather.com . The Geminid meteor shower peaks on 13 December. With the new moon on the 14th, viewing should again be excellent if skies are clear. The best time to watch is after midnight the morning of the 14th. On the 14th the eastern United States will see a partial eclipse of the sun at sunset. The eclipse will be annular in Nicaragua and Costa Rica because of its increasing distance from the earth, but will not be safe to view without protection. Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Sunspot maps and photos of related Auroras are available at http://www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) EREBUS Ross Island, AntarcticaE; summit elev. 3,794 m on 23 November Strombolian eruptions with small ash eruptions GUAGUA PICHINCHA north-central Ecuador; summit elev. 4,784 on 26 November a cloud mainly of gas, with small amounts of ash, may have been produced KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m on 19 November the volcano's edifice black, on 22 November upper part without snow but steam KAVACHI Solomon Islands; summit elev. -20 m (submarine) on 25 November sulfur, mud, and tiny pieces of volcanic rock upwelling to sea surface KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m lava into the ocean at two entries KLIUCHEVSKOI Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 4,835 m gas-and-steam plume on 19 November to 5.5 km MAYON southeastern Luzon, Philippines; summit elev. 2,462 m on 21 November lahars after heavy rainfall, flooding caused 4,800 families to be evacuated POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m small clouds of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 16-23 November eruptions of ash, steam, and gas clouds, highest ash cloud to 5.3 km on 19 November SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m earthquake swarm began on 14 November, reaching a peak on 21 November TUNGURAHUA: No report Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 September 4 8 8 9 7 4 12 7 10 October 4 12 21 9 6 3 4 8 11 with two 7M's November 0 7 10 6 7 4 15 15 (10 with one 7M) December 0 6 13 7 3 2 16 11, with one 7M Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 (105) Note: ( ) means incomplete. Numbers uneven because of TXT format. Stay safe! Donald Full report free at www.bbmessages.com under Planet Earth/Seismology."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  6, 2001 (16:44)", "body": "Boon's Brief Earth and Sun Digest 12/06/01 Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables in full report) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--15; one quake of 6M or greater: 6.5M EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN California earthquakes in past week--179 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none detected Sunspot No. High--271 on 2 December, 260 on 5 December Geomagnetic A-Index High--8 on 5 December Moon for December 7 last quarter, 6 perigee, 14 new, 21 apogee, 22 first quarter, 23 full The perigee of the moon is 6 December (229,980 miles near) The following apogee is 21 December (251,428 miles far) The Geminid meteor shower peaks on 13 December. With the new moon on the 14th, viewing should again be excellent if skies are clear. The best time to watch is after midnight the morning of the 14th. On the 14th the eastern United States will see a partial eclipse of the sun at sunset. The eclipse will be annular in Nicaragua and Costa Rica because of its increasing distance from the earth, but will not be safe to view without protection. There is a marvelous composite map of where lightning strikes the earth from NASA at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast05dec_1.htm?list482900 . Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Sunspot maps with photos of related Auroras are available at http://www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) GUAGUA PICHINCHA north-central Ecuador; summit elev. 4,784 m phreatic eruption on 26 November, the following day, dark steam 5 m above the craters, after the 27th only low-level fumarolic activity KERINCI Sumatra, Indonesia; summit elev. 3,805 m during 26 November-2 December white, thick plumes to 4.1 km KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m lava flowing into the ocean at two ocean entries MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 19 November-2 December lava avalanche similar the previous week. POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m small clouds of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash. SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 23-30 November small eruptions with gas-and-steam clouds, highest gas-and-steam cloud to 4.6 km on 27 November SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m low-level ash emissions on 3 December TALANG Sumatra, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,896 m during 19-25 November low thin plumes above fumarole fields TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m small ash emission on 2 December Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 September 4 8 8 9 7 4 12 7 10 October 4 12 21 9 6 3 4 8 11 with two 7M's November 0 7 10 6 7 4 15 15 10 with one 7M December 0 6 13 7 3 2 16 11 (1) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 (106) Note: ( ) means incomplete. Donald Full report at www.bbmessages.com under Planet Earth/Seismology"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (15:27)", "body": "Boon's Brief Earth and Sun Digest 12/13/01 Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--10; three quakes of 6M or greater: 6.1M SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND, 6.2M VANUATU ISLANDS, 7.0M SOUTH OF AUSTRALIA California earthquakes in past week--205 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none detected Sunspot No. High--260 on 5 December Geomagnetic A-Index High--12 on 12 December Moon for December 7 last quarter, 6 perigee, 14 new, 21 apogee, 22 first quarter, 23 full The apogee is 21 December (251,428 miles far) FULL WEEKEND IN THE SKY--Solar Eclipse, Asteroid, Meteors More details are available on www.spaceweather.com The GEMINID METEOR SHOWER peaks on 13 December. With the new moon on the 14th, viewing should again be excellent if skies are clear. The best time to watch is after midnight the morning of the 14th. SOLAR ECLIPSE on Friday, Dec. 14th from Hawaii to eastern parts of North America. BRIGHT ASTEROID: A several-km wide asteroid named \"1998 WT24\" passes Earth this weekend. There's no danger of a collision. At the closest approach on 16 Dec. it will be five times farther from our planet than the Moon. At 9th-magnitude brightness the asteroid will be within easy range of backyard amateur telescopes. Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Sunspot maps with photos of related Auroras are available at http://www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) BEZYMIANNY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 2,882 m on 10 December a faint plume with little ash KICK-'EM-JENNY N of Grenada, West Indies; summit elev. -160 m submarine eruptions about 2 December KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m Since 27 November possible gas-and-ash explosions. KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m lava into the ocean at two entries POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m on 10 December more ash emissions than in previous weeks. Several small-to-moderate emissions ejected incandescent fragments about 1 km, ash clouds rose less than 6.4 km SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m possible weak gas-ash explosions, on 1 December gas-and-steam plume to 5.3 km SOUFRIERE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m on 2 December pyroclastic flows reached the sea, short periods of pyroclastic-flow on 4 and 6 December, on 8 December ash to 1.8 km TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m during 26 November to 3 December fairly continuous pulsating plume of steam and gas from the summit crater, on 2 December five small ash emissions in 70 minutes to 6 km Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 September 4 8 8 9 7 4 12 7 10 October 4 12 21 9 6 3 4 8 11 with two 7M's November 0 7 10 6 7 4 15 15 10 with one 7M December 0 6 13 7 3 2 16 11 (4) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 (109) Note: ( ) means incomplete. Donald Fully formatted and complete report at www.bbmessages.com"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 15, 2001 (19:47)", "body": ""}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 22, 2001 (21:51)", "body": "Brief Earth and Sun Digest for December 20, 2001 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution Responding to \"September 11 by man\" by quantifying \"acts of God\" Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in full version at http://www.bbmessage.com ) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--11; one quake of 6M or greater: 6.8M TAIWAN REGION California earthquakes in past week--224 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none detected Sunspot No. High--212 on 13 December, 215 on 17 December Geomagnetic A-Index High--15 on 17 December Moon for December 7 last quarter, 6 perigee, 14 new, 21 apogee, 22 first quarter, 23 full The apogee is 21 December (251,428 miles far) Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Sunspot maps with photos of related Auroras are available at http://www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) BEZYMIANNY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 2,882 m on 10 and 12-13 December gas-and-steam plumes to 3.2 km KICK-'EM-JENNY N of Grenada, West Indies; summit elev. -160 m (submarine) a minor eruption on 4 December ended by 8 December, no observed activity on the sea surface KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m during 7-14 December possible gas-and-ash explosions KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m lava entered the ocean at two entries, tiltmeters showed no significant deformation POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash, highest ash cloud on 17 December rose 7.3 km SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m on 8, 10, and 13 December gas-and-steam plumes to 4.3 km SOUFRIERE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 7-14 December rockfalls gradually increased, on 13 December ash to 4 km TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m on 14 and 16 December lahars traveled down Tungurahua's flanks Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 September 4 8 8 9 7 4 12 7 10 October 4 12 21 9 6 3 4 8 11 with two 7M's November 0 7 10 6 7 4 15 15 10 with one 7M December 0 6 13 7 3 2 16 11 (5) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 (110) Note: ( ) means incomplete."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 27, 2001 (20:54)", "body": "With thanks and Happy New Year to Donald Boon for his continued Good Works: At 02:14 AM 12/27/01, you wrote: All, During this transition for our group interested in quakes and volcanoes please note that I will only be posting the brief form of the Earth and Sun Digest here on Yahoo! The full version can be viewed at www.bbmessages.com under Planet Earth/Seismology, which to date is basically an archive. I do not know what is happening to Marcia, but here publicly I state that Marcia has always had my permission to publish the Earth and Sun Digest on her conferences. She has been an invaluable aide to me at acquiring needed information for the Digest when it was not available via the usual channels. I wish her, and indeed all of you well, as we try to help prevent casualties from these massive \"acts of God\". If there is any reason for the strange happenings on Yahoo!, I suggest that it is because there is a competing group or two who claim to be more scientific. Here is the current brief Digest: Earth and Sun Digest for December 27, 2001 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution Responding to September 11 by man by quantifying \"acts of God\" Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables below) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--11; two quakes of 6M or greater: 6.8M SOLOMON ISLANDS, 6.2M VANUATU ISLANDS California earthquakes in past week--188 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none detected Sunspot No. High--290 on 26 December Geomagnetic A-Index High--19 on 24 December Moon for January 2 perigee, 6 last quarter, 13 new, 18 apogee, 21 first quarter, 28 full, 30 perigee The perigee is 2 January (227,053 miles near). The perihelion of the earth is also 2 January. The second perigee is 30 January (223,691 miles near) Before sunrise Friday morning, on 28 December, the moon covers the planet Saturn for the second time in a month. For the viewing time in your area and photos from the last time see http://spaceweather.com/planets/gallery_nov01.html To follow the latest coronal mass ejection from the sun and the accompanying storm, which peaked at M 7 on 19 December and is now receding, see www.spaceweather.com See also SPECIAL REPORT here. The peak of the Quadrantid Meteor shower is 3 January, but hard to see because of the moon. Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Sunspot maps with photos of related Auroras are available at http://www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) Ash and gas elevations of 5 mi/8 km are highlighted in red. The weekly report is not available at this time. GVN reports that Popocatepetl (Mexico), Soufriere Hills (Montserrat, West Indies) and Tungurahua (Ecuador) are erupting, but not to 5 miles/8 km. This report will be amended when the weekly report becomes available, and the full amended report will be available at www.bbmessages.com under Planet Earth BB/Seismology. Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 September 4 8 8 9 7 4 12 7 10 October 4 12 21 9 6 3 4 8 11 with two 7M's November 0 7 10 6 7 4 15 15 10 with one 7M December 0 6 13 7 3 2 16 11 (7) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 (112) Note: ( ) means incomplete. Donald"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  4, 2002 (18:47)", "body": "Donald Boon's Earth and Sun Digest for January 3, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution Responding to September 11 by man by quantifying \"acts of God\" \"And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.\" Luke 21:11 NKJV Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables below) Earthquakes of 5 mag or greater thru Wednesday--15; six quakes of 6M or greater: 6.2M VANUATU ISLANDS, 6.0M PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE, 6.3M MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES, 7.2M VANUATU ISLANDS, 6.1M HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN, 6.4M VANUATU ISLANDS California earthquakes in past week--302 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Popocatepetl (Mexico) and Tungurahua (Ecuador) Sunspot No. High--290 on 26 December Geomagnetic A-Index High--17 on 30 December The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks today during daylight hours in the Americas. Meteors stream from the constellation Bo\ufffdtes, but few will be seen because of the full moon and the daylight timing. Moon for January 2 perigee, 6 last quarter, 13 new, 18 apogee, 21 first quarter, 28 full, 30 perigee The perigee of the moon and the perihelion of the earth was Jan. 2, 2002. The apogee of the moon is 18 January (251,969 miles far). The peak of the Quadrantid Meteor shower is today, 3 January, but hard to see because of the moon. Newly-discovered near-Earth asteroid 2001 YB5 passes planet Earth this week only two times farther away than the Moon. The closest approach is on Jan. 7th. The space rock is 300 meters wide and will brighten to 12th magnitude. For more details see www.spaceweather.com . See SPECIAL REPORT for quake activity in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ermos.html Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Sunspot maps with photos of related Auroras are available at http://www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) Ash and gas elevations of 5 mi/8 km are highlighted in red. BEZYMIANNY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 2,882 m during 21-28 December several small gas-and-steam plumes COLIMA western M\ufffdxico; summit elev. ~3,850 m on 27 December volcanic ash to 4.3-5.2 km, on 29 December an ash cloud to ~5.5 km KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m during 21-28 December several possible gas-and-ash explosions KERINCI Sumatra, Indonesia; summit elev. 3,805 m three explosions during 19 and 25 December produced plumes to 4.6 km KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m lava into the ocean at one entry MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 17-20 December 109 lava avalanches POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during the week small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash, the highest ash cloud on 29 December to 5.5-8.8 km SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 21-28 December small gas-and-steam plumes SOUFRIERE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 21-28 December a large number of rockfalls, an increase in SO2 flux, and periods of continuous ash emission; on 27 December an ash plume remained below ~3 km; on 1 January ash clouds to 1.5 km TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m eruptions began on 27 December and produced gas-and-ash clouds to 7 km, on 30 December ash to ~15 km EARTH FIVE Index of Global earthquakes of 5.0 magnitude or greater (More information available at http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/ ) (6.0 magnitude or greater are highlighted in red.), Others are Japan Region, South Pacific. DATE-(UTC)-TIME LAT LON DEP MAG Q COMMENTS yy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss deg. deg. km 01/12/27 10:54:51 14.71S 167.27E 153.5 6.2M A VANUATU ISLANDS01/12/28 00:41:44 24.12N 122.76E 51.8 5.2M A TAIWAN REGION01/12/28 21:31:59 36.07S 100.50W 10.0 5.2M B SOUTHEAST OF EASTER ISLAND01/12/28 22:09:28 8.38S 74.19W 163.7 5.4M A PERU-BRAZIL BORDER REGION01/12/29 00:09:38 17.74S 178.83W 562.9 5.3M A FIJI ISLANDS REGION01/12/29 14:32:22 6.09S 102.64E 33.0 5.7M A SW OF SUMATERA, INDONESIA01/12/30 04:06:28 34.78N 27.37E 33.0 5.0M A EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA01/12/31 05:23:06 9.46S 159.37E 33.0 5.0M B SOLOMON ISLANDS01/12/31 19:14:09 17.39S 72.47W 31.0 5.1M A NEAR COAST OF PERU02/01/01 10:39:07 55.13S 128.87W 10.0 6.0M B PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE02/01/01 11:29:22 6.29N 125.56E 136.5 6.3M A MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES02/01/02 05:23:02 17.91S 178.61W 631.5 5.3M A FIJI ISLANDS REGION02/01/02 10:24:07 16.34S 177.89E 33.0 5.7M A FIJI ISLANDS02/01/02 14:50:33 17.75S 1 8.61E 664.5 5.2M A FIJI ISLANDS02/01/02 17:22:49 17.78S 167.88E 33.0 7.2M A VANUATU ISLANDS02/"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 13, 2002 (00:15)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for January 10, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution Responding to human terrorism by reporting \"acts of God\" Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details at www.bbmessages.com ) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru 10/09/02--22; three quakes of 6M or greater: 6.1M HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN, 6.6M VANUATU ISLANDS, 6.7M NEAR N COAST NEW GUINEA, PNG. California earthquakes in past week--253 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Tungurahua (Ecuador) Sunspot No. High--248 on 4 January Geomagnetic A-Index High--7 on 2, 7 and 8 January Global SEISMIC ACTIVITY in 2001 \"normal\" despite heavy toll. See SPECIAL REPORT. Moon for January 2 perigee, 6 last quarter, 13 new, 18 apogee, 21 first quarter, 28 full, 30 perigee The apogee of the moon is 18 January (251,969 miles far). SPECTACULAR: A brilliant coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed away from the Sun on January 8th just as periodic comet 96P/Machholz was swinging by. Coronagraphs from SOHO provide an animation of 8 hrs viewing. See www.spaceweather.com . Although the CME appears to envelop the comet, it did not. Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year, revised at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ Click on Weltweite Erdbeben. Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Sunspot maps with photos of related Auroras are available at http://www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) BEZYMIANNY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 2,882 m during 28 December-4 January small gas-and-steam plumes ETNA Sicily, Italy; summit elev. 3,315 m On 6 January low-level fumarolic activity, a dense gas plume through 7 January KARANGETANG [Api Siau] Siau Island, IndonesiaE; summit elev. 1,784 m during 30 December-6 January continued growth of the 2001 lava dome. KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m During 28 December-4 January possible gas-and-ash explosions KERINCI Sumatra, Indonesia; summit elev. 3,805 m during 30 December-6 January plumes to 3.9 km KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m during the week lava into the ocean at one ocean entry. PITON DE LA FOURNAISE R\ufffdunion Island, Indian Ocean; summit elev. 2,631 m an eruption on 5 January with fire fountaining and lava flowing from four cracks decreased on 7 and 8 January POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during the week small clouds of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash, on 7 January small ash emission to a height of 7.6 km SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 28 December-4 January low-rising gas-and-steam plumes, but no ash SOUFRIERE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 28 December-4 January vigorous rockfalls, on 3 January a major collapse with ash plume and average flux of SO2 of ~460 metric tons, on 5 January an ash cloud rose to ~2.4 km TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m several ash emissions, highest ash to ~10 km a.s.l. on 4 January EARTH Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 January 2 1 13 10 4 7 5 8 10 (7), with one 7M November 0 7 10 6 7 4 15 15 10 with one 7M December 0 6 13 7 3 2 16 11 7 Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (7) Note: ( ) means incomplete. SPECIAL REPORT Normal Seismic Activity During 2001, But Heavy Toll in Human Losses The year 2001 was a typical year based on historical seismic activity, producing 65 significant earthquakes worldwide and causing 21,436 fatalities according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Significant earthquakes are those of magnitude 6.5 or greater or those that cause fatalities, injuries or substantial damage. During a typical year, 18 major temblors (magnitude 7.0 to 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or higher) occur worldwide. Complete article can be found at http://www.usgs.gov/public/press/public_affairs/press_releases/pr1543m.html (thanks to Bonnie Schafer for finding this) This digest is focused using \"The FIVE Rule\": FIVE quakes of 5.x magnitude in FIVE Days can cause a volcano to erupt ash and gas FIVE miles to the jet streams, where at mid-latitudes it can circle the globe in FIVE days. Questions and comments are welcomed. Donald J. Boon, editor, pijskk24a@prodigy.net"}, {"response": 32, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan 13, 2002 (06:06)", "body": "Wow, the five fives of volcanology!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 13, 2002 (15:37)", "body": "Yes, I noted that also. I must ask Donald how he came to notice this. It never occurred to me!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 18, 2002 (15:08)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for January 17, 2002, PLUS Quake Contest Rules Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution Responding to human terrorism by reporting \"acts of God\" See CREDITS. \"And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.\" Luke 21:11 NKJV Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables below) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--20; six quakes of 6M or greater: 6.7M NEAR N COAST NEW GUINEA, PNG., 6.5M NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G., 6.0M VANUATU ISLANDS, 6.1M SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA, 6.2M NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G., 6.3M NEAR COAST OF CHIAPAS, MEXICO California earthquakes in past week--220 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none, Tungurahua to 7.6 km Sunspot No. High--195 on 11 January, 191 on 14 January Geomagnetic A-Index High--21 on 11 January RULES for Earthquake Prediction Contest (Sandi's List): 1. Must be for a quake of 5M or more recognized on a USGS preliminary board. 2. Must designate a town, island or part of a city or large island. 3. Must pinpoint a time frame of no more than a week and before contest ends. 4. Must be posted on Earthwaves or Pinpoint (Yahoo!), Prodigy or BBMessages.com before selection. All must have full or partial credit for Honor Roll. Contest ends April 10, 2002. Inclusion at discretion of editor. For more details, see SPECIAL REPORT. Moon for January 2 perigee, 6 last quarter, 13 new, 18 apogee, 21 first quarter, 28 full, 30 perigee The apogee of the moon is 18 January (251,969 miles far). Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm World map of 5M quakes for the past year, revised at http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ Click on Weltweite Erdbeben. Middle East map with recent quakes, includes Afghanistan at http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html See also SPECIAL REPORT. Sunspot maps with photos of related Auroras are available at http://www.spaceweather.com Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) FUEGO Guatemala; summit elev. 3,763 m an eruption on 4 January with Strombolian ejections until 9 January produced ash clouds 4.4 km PITON DE LA FOURNAISE R\ufffdunion Island, Indian Ocean; summit elev. 2,631 m eruption on 5 January continued through 15 January, the evening of 12 January a new fissure KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m during 4-11 January several possible gas-and-ash explosions KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m lava entered the ocean at multiple locations MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 7-13 January lava avalanches continued, on 7 January small pyroclastic flow POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during the week small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash with highest volcanic cloud on 13 January to ~7.3 km RUAPEHU North Island, New Zealand; summit elev. 2,779 m on 11 and 12 January steam plumes, convection observed including minor sulfur slicks, upwelling, and light steaming SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 4-11 January several small explosions produced steam-and-gas plumes, highest rising to 4.3 km on 5 January SOUFRIERE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 4-11 January activity high, summit region increased in volume considerably over the past several weeks, E flank producing numerous pyroclastic flows and vigorous venting of ash, SO2 and HCl emissions were high, low-level ash emissions throughout the week. TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m several eruptions of steam and ash occurred during the week, eruption on 8 and 9 January of steam with low ash to 6 km, on 16 January ash to 7.6 km EARTH FIVE Index of Global earthquakes of 5.0 magnitude or greater (Sample of info available on full report. See www.bbmessages.com .) DATE-(UTC)-TIME LAT LON DEP MAG Q COMMENTS yy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss deg. deg. km 02/01/10 5.7M VANUATU ISLANDS 02/01/10 5.0M SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION 02/01/10 5.3M TONGA ISLANDS REGION 02/01/10 6.7M NEAR N COAST NEW GUINEA, PNG. 02/01/11 5.6M SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 02/01/11 5.2M SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 02/01/11 5.2M MINAHASSA PENINSULA, SULAWESI 02/01/12 5.3M SW RYUKYU ISL., 02/01/12 5.7M OFF E COAST OF UNITED STATES 02/01/13 5.7M TONGA ISLANDS 02/01/13 6.5M NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 02/01/13 5.3M NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 02/01/13 5.8M VANUATU ISLANDS 02/01/14 5.1M EASTER ISLAND REGION 02/01/14 5.8M CHILE-BOLIVIA BORDER REGION 02/01/15 6.0M VANUATU ISLANDS 02/01/15 5.3M VANUATU ISLANDS 02/01/15 6.1M SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA 02/01/15 6.2M NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. 02/01/15 5.0M VANUATU ISLANDS 02/01/15 5.0M NEAR COAST OF NICARAGUA 02/01/15 5.1M VANUATU ISLANDS 02/01/16 5.0M CHILE-BOLIVIA BORDER REGION 02/01/16 5.2M SW RYUKY"}, {"response": 35, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jan 24, 2002 (23:43)", "body": "Do not worry Marcia. A list without proof is nothing particularly when they are deleting pointless predictions. This is the way that led many scientists around the world to allege that does not exist any relationship between earthquakes and tidal forces. Poor statistics again. We prove every day in Geo what connection between earthquakes and tidal forces exists. We have to delete nothing. OUR PREDICTIONS ARE TOTALLY CORRECT. They need proves by measurements and scientific methodology. I will say that that list is an amateur attempt. John"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 27, 2002 (00:16)", "body": "*HUGS* John! I agree with you. I have never doubted your scientific method nor the data you have gathered for interpretation. I did worry about posting the abovelist request but it was very personal and I thought I should not being it up here. Many honors come to you for your hard word. I am delighted that you allow us to share this magical adventure with you! *MORE HUGS*"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2002 (19:07)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for February 7, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution Responding to human terrorism by reporting \"acts of God\" Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, full tables at www.bbmessages.com ) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--10; three quakes of 6M or greater: 6.0M PRIMORYE, RUSSIA, 6.2M AFYON PROVINCE, TURKEY, 6.6M NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. California earthquakes in past week--229 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador, Russia Sunspot No. High--286 on 5 February Geomagnetic A-Index High--18 on 2 February Moon for February 4 last quarter, 12 new, 14 apogee, 20 first quarter, 27 full, 27 perigee The apogee of the moon is 14 February (252,502 miles far), while the next perigee is 27 Febrary (221,722 miles near and closest of the year) Sun pillars appear on cold days when falling, stop-sign shaped ice crystals reflect the light of a rising or setting Sun. See a photo on www.spaceweather.com today. CONTEST CLUE: Not only is the February perigee the closest, but the apogee is farthest Click-Date Maps (good to the day you click on them): http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm California-Nevada map of 1.5M or greater in past week http://www-seismo.hannover.bgr.de/ World map of 5M quakes for the past year, revised Click on Weltweite Erdbeben. http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/current/m_east.html Middle East map with recent quakes , includes Afghanistan to Israel Note link to Israel. Recent Volcanic Eruptions: Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) CHIKURACHKI Kurile Islands, Russia; summit elev. 1,816 m on 25 January ash, on 2 February ash column to 2.1 km COLIMA western M\ufffdxico; summit elev. ~3,850 m on 30 January growing lava dome, on 4 February incandescent landslides ETNA Sicily, Italy; summit elev. 3,315 m on 30 January loud explosions but no material; degassing occurred at four craters FUEGO Guatemala; summit elev. 3,763 m on 1 February ash, steam, and lava, an ash-and-steam cloud to ~4.5 km KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m on 1 February ash cloud to ~9 km KAVACHI Solomon Islands; summit elev. -20 m (submarine) in January, columns of steam, ash, rock, and water up to 1 km KERINCI Sumatra, Indonesia; summit elev. 3,805 m on 26 January plumes to 4.4 km KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m On 3 and 4 February lava flows visible, but long-period earthquakes greatly reduced, no mention of ocean entries MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 21-27 January, many lava avalanches and several small pyroclastic flows NYIRAGONGO Democratic Republic of the Congo; summit elev. 3,469 m on 29 January heavy rain caused large amounts of steam and false reports of renewed volcanism POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during 30 January-5 February small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash. SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m on 1 February ash-and-gas plume to 5.8 km, during 25 January-2 February clouds composed of ash, steam, and/or gas, highest rising to 5.3 km SOUFRIERE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 25 January-1 February numerous rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows, ash clouds to maximum of ~2.5 km TUNGURAHUA Ecuador 1.47\ufffdS, 78.44\ufffdW; summit elev. 5,023 m during 30 January-5 February emissions of steam with small amounts of ash, highest rising ash cloud on 3 February to 8.0 km EARTH Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 January 2 1 13 10 4 7 5 8 10 14*, with one 7M February 1 12 13 18 7 4 6 4 14 (3) March 0 2 8 13 5 7 8 5 5 April 0 12 17 4 9 6 8 3 9 Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (17) Note: ( ) means incomplete. *corrected for double reporting SPECIAL REPORT Sandi's List Quake Prediction Contest from 16 Jan to 10 Apr 10, 2002 Predictions: Pinpoint (Yahoo!): David, Feb. 7, New Britain Island, 8.0 Honor Roll: In the contest, one winner pending (above) Abridged rules: Name a date, city, island or volcano and give a date or week. Post where the Earth and Sun Digest is posted. Full credit for quakes 5M or greater, for week with your date as midweek, and for half degree of latitude or longitude from epicenter named. Ash or gas volcanic eruption to five miles/8 km equals a 5M quake; ash to 4.5 miles/7.3 km equals 4.6M. Questions and comments are welcomed. Donald J. Boon, editor, pijskk24a@prodigy.net"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 15, 2002 (16:31)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for February 14, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution A biblical Valentine: \"Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.\" (NIV) Acts 16:26 Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, more tables at www.bbmessages.com ) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--16; one quake of 6M or greater: 6.0M SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION California earthquakes in past week--208 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador Sunspot No. High--229 on 8 February Geomagnetic A-Index High--16 on 6 February Moon for February 4 last quarter, 12 new, 14 apogee, 20 first quarter, 27 full, 27 perigee The apogee of the moon is 14 February (252,502 miles far), while the next perigee is 27 Febrary (221,722 miles near) The moon's longest runs start today. The time for the run is basically the same, but the distance the moon moves from far to-and-from near points is maximal, meaning this is also the fastest run. Adapted from last week's table here are the distances (apogee=A, perigee=P): Jan 30 P 27818 miles to Feb 14 A 29678 miles to Feb 27 P 29884 miles to Mar 14 A 29816 miles to Mar 28 P 29638 miles to Apr 10 A The February perigee is the closest near point of the year, and with the full moon provides the maximal tidal stress on the earth. The moon is on the ellipse and even occults Jupiter on 23 February. The Spring Equinox is March 20. The effect on the earth (earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) also depends on local geological susceptibility. Recent Volcanic Eruptions: NEW Maps showing location of the world's volcanoes are indexed at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/maps.htm Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) Ash and gas elevations of 5 mi/8 km are highlighted in red. CHIKURACHKI Kurile Islands, Russia; summit elev. 1,816 m on 7 February ash column to ~2.5 km COLIMA western M\ufffdxico; summit elev. ~3,850 m during 6-11 February incandescent rockfalls and lava flows, on 9 February two pyroclastic flows FUEGO Guatemala; summit elev. 3,763 m on 10 February more than 400 explosions in comparison to 75 daily explosions normally occur, with incandescent lava KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m Surface lava flows, no ocean entries reported MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 28 January-3 February 194 lava avalanches POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 1-8 February low-rising gas-and-steam plumes, on 2 February ash-and-gas cloud to ~4.8 km SOUFRIERE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 1-8 February pyroclastic-flows TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m during 6-11 February, several emissions of steam and ash, highest ash cloud on 6 February of ~8 km, nearly continuous gas-and-ash emissions to 6 km above on the 6th and 8th, and to 8 km on the 10th. EARTH Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 January 2 1 13 10 4 7 5 8 10 14*, with one 7M February 1 12 13 18 7 4 6 4 14 (4) March 0 2 8 13 5 7 8 5 5 April 0 12 17 4 9 6 8 3 9 Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (18) Note: ( ) means incomplete. *corrected for double reporting SPECIAL REPORT Sandi's List Quake Prediction Contest from 16 Jan to 10 Apr 10, 2002 Predictions: None for 5M or greater Honor Roll: Pinpoint (Yahoo!): David, Feb. 7, New Britain Island, 8.0 by rules fits 02/02/05 13:27:26 5.37S 151.24E 60.3 6.6M A NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. as AAA. Congratulations! Abridged rules: Name a city, island or volcano and give a date or week. Post where the Earth and Sun Digest is posted. Full credit for any quake 5M or greater, for week with your date as midweek, and for half degree of latitude or longitude from epicenter named. Ash or gas volcanic eruption to five miles/8 km equals a 5M quake; ash to 4.5 miles/7.3 km equals 4.6M. Questions and comments are welcomed. Donald J. Boon, editor, pijskk24a@prodigy.net"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (22:41)", "body": "Boon's Brief Earth and Sun Digest for February 21, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, more tables at www.bbmessages.com ) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--14; one quake of 6M or greater: 6.1M B NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G. California earthquakes in past week--220 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Russia Sunspot No. High--209 on 14 February Geomagnetic A-Index High--10 on 13 February Moon for February 4 last quarter, 12 new, 14 apogee, 20 first quarter, 27 full, 27 perigee The perigee of the moon is 27 February (221,722 miles near) The moon occults Jupiter on 22 February. Watch moon before sunset. Magnetic fields above sunspot group 9825 erupted several times on Feb. 20th. The most powerful blast sparked an M5-class solar flare at 20/0612 UT and hurled a coronal mass ejection toward Earth. It will arrive Friday and spark an aurora borealis, visible to those in high northern latitudes. Recent Volcanic Eruptions: NEW Maps showing location of the world's volcanoes are indexed at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/maps.htm Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) COLIMA western M\ufffdxico; summit elev. ~3,850 m during 13-18 February landslides with lava flows FUEGO Guatemala; summit elev. 3,763 m on 12 February lava flow KARANGETANG [Api Siau] Siau Island, Indonesia; summit elev. 1,784 m on 11 February ash cloud and lava KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m on 13 February solitary ash cloud to 5 km KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m during 13-19 February a small surface lava flow, but no lava reached the coastal plain or the ocean since late January LOKON-EMPUNG northern Sulawesi, Indonesia; summit elev. 1,580 m during 11-17 February small volcanic plumes to 1.7 km MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 11-17 February 65 incandescent lava avalanches, six minor pyroclastic POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during 15-16 February gas, steam, and some ash occurred SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 8-15 February several gas-and-ash eruptions occurred, the highest gas-and-ash cloud on 14 February to 6.3 km, on 15 February a gas-and-ash plume rose to 5.3 km, then a dense ash plume continuously to 5.3 km, on 19 February an ash cloud reached ~10.0 km SOUFRIERE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 8-15 February numerous rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows and minor ash venting TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m on 13 February Strombolian activity, on 14th steam plume to 6 km EARTH Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 January 2 1 13 10 4 7 5 8 10 14, with one 7M February 1 12 13 18 7 4 6 4 14 (5) March 0 2 8 13 5 7 8 5 5 Yr. total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (19) Note: ( ) means incomplete. SPECIAL REPORT Sandi's List Quake Prediction Contest from 16 Jan to 10 Apr 10, 2002 Predictions: None for quake 5M or greater Honor Roll: No new winners Abridged rules: Name a city, island or volcano and give a date or week. Post where the Earth and Sun Digest is posted. Full credit for any quake 5M or greater, for week with your date as midweek, and for half degree of latitude or longitude from epicenter named. Ash or gas volcanic eruption to five miles/8 km equals a 5M quake; ash to 4.5 miles/7.3 km equals 4.6M. Questions and comments are welcomed. Donald J. Boon, editor, pijskk24a@prodigy.net"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 28, 2002 (14:57)", "body": "Brief Earth and Sun Digest for February 28, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution reporting big \"acts of God\" \"and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up along with Korah, when that company died...\" (NRSV) Numbers 6:10 Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, full details and tables at www.bbmessages.com below) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--9; one quake of 6M or greater: 6.4M NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G. California earthquakes in past week--400 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Russia, Ecuador Sunspot No. High--237 on 25 February Geomagnetic A-Index High--8 on 20 and 26 February See critique of perigee/full moon effect on quakes under SPECIAL REPORT. For an animated scientific presentation of the perigee from NASA, enjoy http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/26feb_bigmoonshine.htm?list482900 Moon for March (per Astronomy Magazine) 5 last quarter, 13 new, 13 apogee, 21 first quarter, 28 full, 28 perigee The apogee of the moon is 13 March (252,716 miles far). Recent Volcanic Eruptions: NEW Maps showing location of the world's volcanoes are indexed at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/maps.htm Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) CERRO NEGRO Nicaragua; summit elev. 726 m during 19 to 20 February a new fumarole CHIKURACHKI Kurile Islands, Russia; summit elev. 1,816 m volcanism that began on 25 January decreased by 20 February, on 18 February a gas-and-steam plume to 2 km, on 21 and 24 February ash clouds rose to ~6 and 5.8 km COLIMA western M\ufffdxico; summit elev. ~3,850 m during 19-24 February avalanches of incandescent material, about 300 metric tons of SO2 were measured per day, lower than in 1998 KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m during 15-22 February small gas-and-steam plumes on satellite imagery KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m Surface lava flows only, no ocean entries mentioned MANAM offshore New Guinea, Papua New Guinea; summit elev. 1,807 m beginning on 13 January weak puffs of ash, weak-to-moderate volumes of white vapor during the report period (several degrees west of New Ireland Island) MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 18-24 February 67 incandescent lava avalanches POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m on 19 February frequent small-to-moderate emissions of steam, gas, and minor amounts of ash, on 23 February low-volume ash column to 6.1 km RABAUL New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea; summit elev. 688 m during 11-24 February only white vapor such as SO2 SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 15-22 February several ash-and-gas explosions, on 15 February an ash cloud accompanied by pyroclastic flows, an eruption on 19 February to 7.3 km, on 22 February a short-lived ash eruption to 10.5 km SOUFRIERE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 15-22 February near-continuous rockfalls and minor pyroclastic flows and ash venting, SO2 emission rates decreased TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m during 19-24 February low-intensity Strombolian activity and several emissions of steam, gas, and ash, on 19 February a mixture of rain and ash, on 20 incandescent blocks rolled down the flank, on 21st ash columns reached 7 km, on 28 February ash to 12.1 km ULAWUN New Britain, Papua New Guinea; summit elev. 2,334 m during 11-24 February activity low, weak-to-moderate vapor plumes, on the 21st weak roaring noises were heard and a weak red glow briefly visible, after 22 February tremor returned to background levels. EARTH Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 February 1 12 13 18 7 4 6 4 14 (6) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (20) Note: ( ) means incomplete. SPECIAL REPORTS WHERE ARE THE BIG EARTHQUAKES? (from Yahoo! Pinpoint, 2/26/02, updated) The Earth and Sun Digest Quake Prediction Contest was based on the idea that the full moon and the nearest perigee of the moon should increase the tidal effect on the earth for both the ocean and the mantle, and generate big earthquakes. So far just one quake has occurred at one day post perigee. Why the decrease? One explanation might be that February is not normally a month for big quakes: See above monthly totals. Another possibility is that big quakes are focused into a smaller time frame. January's first perigee was Jan. 2. Here was the focus of quakes: 02/01/01 10:39:00 6.0M PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE 02/01/01 11:29:22 6.3M MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 02/01/02 17:22:49 7.2M VANUATU ISLANDS 02/01/03 07:05:27 6.1M HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN 02/01/03 10:17:39 6.4M VANUATU ISLANDS There were two 6M quakes in December 2001, on the 23 and 27 December. So, has susceptibility been exhausted? The second perigee was on 30 January . Here were the quakes: 02/01/28 13:50:28 6.1M KURIL ISLANDS 02/0"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  7, 2002 (19:02)", "body": "Brief Earth and Sun Digest for March 7, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution reporting big \"acts of God\" Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details and tables at www.bbmessages.com ) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--13; four quakes of 6M or greater: 6.3M NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G., 6.0M HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN, 7.3M HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN, 7.5M MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES California earthquakes in past week--218 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador Sunspot No. High--197 on 4 March Geomagnetic A-Index High--17 on 28 February, 15 on 5 and 6 March A new comet with tail is visible in the western sky an hour after sunset. Comet Ikeya-Zhang is brightening as it approaches the Sun and has become a naked-eye object. It is a faint 5th-magnitude in the constellation Pisces. Small telescopes and binoculars can see a tail stretching 5 degrees. Check it out at www.spaceweather.com . Moon for March (per Astronomy Magazine) 5 last quarter, 13 new, 13 apogee, 21 first quarter, 28 full, 28 perigee The apogee of the moon is 13 March (252,716 miles far). Recent Volcanic Eruptions (Short List) NEW Maps showing location of the world's volcanoes are indexed at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/maps.htm Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) KARANGETANG [Api Siau] Siau Island, Indonesia; summit elev. 1,784 m during 25 February-3 March small volcanic plumes; ash on 5 March in layer near 7.5 km KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m during 22 February-1 March, only steam and aerosols visible KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m Lava slowly advanced, but apparently not into ocean KLIUCHEVSKOI Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 4,835 m began erupting on 27 February, ash cloud to ~6.4 km MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 25 February-3 March 88 lava avalanches, four minor pyroclastic flows POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during 28 February-5 March, small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 22 February-1 March several steam-and-gas and ash-and-gas eruptions, highest ash-and-gas clouds on 27 and 28 February and 1 March to ~5.3 km, pyroclastic flows SOUFRIERE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 22 February-1 March almost continuous rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows, with growth of spike on dome to highest this period of eruption, Minor ash venting TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m during 27 February-2 March abundant emissions of steam, gas, and small amounts of ash, sporadic explosions, highest ash cloud on 27 February to ~7.0, on 7 March ash to 9.1 km EARTH Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 February 1 12 13 18 7 4 6 4 14 6 March 0 2 8 13 5 7 8 5 5 (3) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (23) Note: ( ) means incomplete. SPECIAL REPORTS Sandi's List Quake Prediction Contest from 16 Jan to 10 Apr 10, 2002 Predictions: Earthwaves: Bonnie, 3 March, Lakewood, CA (per bird) Honor Roll: None new Abridged rules: Name a city, island or volcano and give a date or week. Post where the Earth and Sun Digest is posted. Full credit for any quake 5M or greater, for week with your date as midweek, and for half degree of latitude or longitude from epicenter named. Ash or gas volcanic eruption to five miles/8 km equals a 5M quake; ash to 4.5 miles/7.3 km equals 4.6M. Questions and comments are welcomed. Donald J. Boon, editor, pijskk24a@prodigy.net"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 21, 2002 (17:26)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for March 21, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution reporting big \"acts of God\" \"Therefore we will not fear when the earth changes, and when mountains are slipping into the heart of the seas.\" Psalm 46:2 (MKJV) Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables at www.bbmessages.com on Planet Earth BB/Seismology) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--19; one quake of 6M or greater: 6.1M BANDA SEA California earthquakes in past week--232 Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador Sunspot No. High--162 on 14 March Geomagnetic A-Index High--17 on 19 March Enjoy space science? Subscribe to NASA Science News. This is a free service. Just go to Home page: http://science.nasa.gov Tell a kid you know about NASA Kids Club -- they collect virtual trading cards, trade them online, have their own e-mail account, and participate in great learning activities for extra club points. Go to http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/Club/Login/SignUp.asp?sng for more info. Moon for March (per Astronomy Magazine) 5 last quarter, 13 new, 13 apogee, 21 first quarter, 28 full, 28 perigee The perigee of the moon is 28 March (221,836 miles near). On 8 March an asteroid passed by the earth 288,000 miles away. The moon is 250,000 miles away. See www.spaceweather.com for orbital plot. Recent Volcanic Eruptions: SANTA MAR\ufffdA Guatemala; summit elev. 3,772 m on 11 to 14 March ash to 4.4 - 4.7 m CHIKURACHKI Kurile Islands, Russia; summit elev. 1,816 m continuation through 16 March of volcanism, on the 16th constant gas emissions and sustained ash to 2.0 km COLIMA western M\ufffdxico; summit elev. ~3,850 m during 6-13 March avalanches of incandescent volcanic material ETNA Sicily, Italy; summit elev. 3,315 m Beginning 9 March, near continuous, pulsating emissions of ash KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m during 12-19 March lava surfaced on the flat ~2.3 km away from the coast POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during 6-11 March small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 8-15 March highest rising gas-and-steam plume 5.8 km on the 13th SOUFRIERE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 8-15 March activity higher than previous week with low level ash venting but SO2 emission rates higher than average; low ash clouds continue TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m during 4-6 March Strombolian activity with gas emissions to 6-7 km, on the 6th an ash cloud to 9 km, on 12 March a gas plume to 7 km, ash to 8.2 km on 11 March, ash eruptions almost daily to 20 March, highest to 7.6 km Maps showing location of the world's volcanoes are indexed at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/maps.htm Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) EARTH Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 January 2 1 13 10 4 7 5 8 10 14, with one 7M February 1 12 13 18 7 4 6 4 14 6 March 0 2 8 13 5 7 8 5 5 (6, with two 7M's) April 0 12 17 4 9 6 8 3 9 Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (26) Note: ( ) means incomplete. SPECIAL REPORT Sandi's List Quake Prediction Contest from 16 Jan to 10 Apr 10, 2002 Predictions: Pinpoint: Tim, Puget Sound Area, WA, 3/21-24, 3.5M+ Pinpoint: Tim, Willamette Valley, OR, 3/21-24, 3.5M+ Honor Roll: just waiting for the next to qualify Abridged rules: Name a city, island or volcano and give a date or week. Post where the Earth and Sun Digest is posted. Full credit for any quake 5M or greater, for week with your date as midweek, and for half degree of latitude or longitude from epicenter named. Ash or gas volcanic eruption to five miles/8 km equals a 5M quake; ash to 4.5 miles/7.3 km equals 4.6M. Questions and comments are welcomed. Donald J. Boon, editor, pijskk24a@prodigy.net"}, {"response": 43, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (08:10)", "body": "Apropos of the response 243 in topic 50 from Cheryl, I will try to give you some astronomical elements for the equinox. You must give some additional attention because we will use Right Ascension on maps of night sky. We have Equinox two times per year. It is either of the two points at which the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic, and also the times when the Sun passes through either of these points. The Sun passes from south to north at the northern vernal (spring) equinox and from north to south at the northern autumnal equinox. The approximate dates are 21 March and 23 September. The position of the northern vernal equinox is also traditionally known as The first point of Aries . However, the effects of precession have gradually moved the point so that it now actually lies in the adjacent constellation of Pisces. First point of Aries is also the zero point of Right Ascension (RA) measurements. RA is one of the coordinates used to define position on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinates system. It is the equivalent of longitude on the Earth but is measured in hours, minutes and seconds of time eastwards from that zero point. One hour of right ascension is euivalent to 15 degrees of arc; it is the angle through which the celestial sphere appears to turn in one-hour of sideral time, as the Earth rotates. John"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (17:42)", "body": "You are amazing, John! I was just printing out a sky chart with the hope of seeing the comet tonight. Of course I have declanation and right ascention on the maps and I use it automatically from setting telescopes manually for so many years. I have gotten so I can estimate it pretty closely when I am outside. Degrees are also good to know. Procession of the Equinoxes - I think that deserves graphics and perhaps more text. Everything, it will be discovered rather quickly, is relative."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 28, 2002 (14:28)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for March 28, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution reporting big \"acts of God\" \"Therefore we will not fear when the earth changes, and when mountains are slipping into the heart of the seas.\" Psalm 46:2 (MKJV) Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables below) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--14; three quakes of 6M or greater: 6.1M HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN, 6.5M SW RYUKYU ISL., JAPAN, 6.5M CHILE-BOLIVIA BORDER REGION California earthquakes in past week--294 and rising Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador Sunspot No. High--194 on 22 March Geomagnetic A-Index High--47 on 24 March Moon for April (per Astronomy Magazine) 4 last quarter, 10 apogee, 12 new, 20 first quarter, 25 perigee, 26 full The perigee of the moon is today, 28 March (221,836 miles near). A solar coronal hole is facing earth for the fourth time since 8 January. Pictures are at www.spaceweather.com . A solar wind from it may trigger auroras on earth the first week of April. Sunspots capable of generating x-class flares are on the solar disk facing earth. Recent Volcanic Eruptions: COLIMA western M\ufffdxico; summit elev. ~3,850 m as of 23 March more small explosion earthquakes, incandescent lava avalanches, on 25 March a steam-and-ash emission to ~5-6 km ETNA Sicily, Italy; summit elev. 3,315 m pink, lithic ash through 21 March; voluminous degassing, minor fumarolic activity KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m weak ash-and-gas explosions KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m during 20-25 March small surface lava flows (no ocean entry mentioned) MERAPI central Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 2,947 m during 11-17 March 69 incandescent lava avalanches POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during 20-26 March small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash SEMERU Java, Indonesia; summit elev. 3,676 m on 12, 14, and 17 March revealed gray plume to 4.0 km SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 15-22 March several gas-and-steam clouds to 3.6-4.8 km SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 15-22 March spines periodically collapsed, producing pyroclastic flows with small ash clouds to ~2.1 km, SO2 emission rates remained high TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m during 20-25 March several emissions of gas, steam, and ash; Strombolian activity on 19 March, on 21 March gas clouds with moderate amount of ash to 8 km Maps showing location of the world's volcanoes are indexed at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/maps.htm Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) Ash and gas elevations of 5 mi/8 km are highlighted in red. EARTH (More information available at http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/ ) Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 January 2 1 13 10 4 7 5 8 10 14, with one 7M February 1 12 13 18 7 4 6 4 14 6 March 0 2 8 13 5 7 8 5 5 (9, with two 7M's) April 0 12 17 4 9 6 8 3 9 Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (29) Note: ( ) means incomplete. SPECIAL REPORT New Map of Continental Antarctica Interesting fact, an ice mass the size of Delaware does not displace ocean water, because it was already floating on it. This site is amazing, because it has the first complete map of the continent of Antarctica, taken by radar satellites: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/22mar_ice.htm?list482900 Questions and comments are welcomed. Donald J. Boon, editor, pijskk24a@prodigy.net"}, {"response": 46, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Mar 28, 2002 (17:18)", "body": "The perigee of the moon is today, 28 March (221,836 miles near). For those interested in the Moon as I am, here is some history. Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year. Here is a listing of the full Moon names: Full Wolf Moon Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January\ufffds full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon. Full Snow Moon Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February\ufffds full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult. Full Worm Moon As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter. Full Pink Moon This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month\ufffds celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and\ufffdamong coastal tribes\ufffdthe Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn. Full Flower Moon In most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon. Full Strawberry Moon This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. The Full Buck Moon July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month\ufffds Moon was the Full Hay Moon. Full Sturgeon Moon The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon. Full Fruit or Barley Moon The names Fruit and Barley were reserved only for those years when the Harvest Moon is very late in September, Full Harvest Moon This is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice\ufffdthe chief Indian staples\ufffdare now ready for gathering. Full Hunter\ufffds Moon With the leaves falling and the deer fattened, it is time to hunt. Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can easily see fox and the animals which have come out to glean. Full Beaver Moon This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon. The Full Cold Moon; or the Full Long Nights Moon During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky becau"}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (12:32)", "body": "That is so grea, Moon! Many thanks for such a comprehensive study of the moon. I really enjoy almanacs. They are full of \"stuff\" just like my mind is. Some of it irrelevant, but all fascinating."}, {"response": 48, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (09:10)", "body": "Astro Alert: All operators, be prepared for a possible disruption in HF communications tonight as a major geomagnetic storm approaches Earth. 73, Paul, N0JAA ---------- ================================================================= This Is SKY & TELESCOPE's AstroAlert for Sun-Earth Interactions ================================================================= A s t r o A l e r t Sun-Earth Alert Solar Terrestrial Dispatch http://www.spacew.com 17 April 2002 Details at: http://www.spacew.com/astroalert.html ANOTHER EARTH-DIRECTED CME IS POISED TO STRIKE ON 19 APRIL A major geomagnetic storm was observed on 17 April following the early arrival of an Earthward directed coronal mass ejection (CME) that was launched from the Sun on 15 April. The disturbance has produced periods of strong auroral activity that has been visible across many middle latitude regions. The present disturbed activity is expected to gradually subside over the next 12 hours prior to the arrival of the next incoming solar disturbance. Active sunspot region 9906 (the subject of recent AstroAlerts) spawned a long-duration solar flare earlier on 17 April that was associated with another Earthward-directed coronal mass ejection. Forecasters expect this disturbance to arrive sometime during the UTC day of 19 April. Determining a precise arrival time for this event has been complicated by the fact that there were two coincident mass ejections in the same quadrant of the Sun but with differing trajectories (although from Earth they appeared to have nearly the same trajectory - an illusory effect caused by the timing and geometry of the events). For those less familiar with UTC time, the impact of this disturbance could occur anytime between roughly the early evening hours of 18 April over North America (EDT) to the late afternoon hours of 19 April (EDT). The moon will begin to become a factor in the evening for optimally observing activity until it sets. The arrival of this disturbance is expected to herald a return of minor to major geomagnetic and auroral storm conditions. Observations of auroral activity (\"northern lights\") will be possible after the disturbance impacts. In addition, there is a chance this disturbance may produce slightly stronger levels of activity than the disturbance we are currently wading through. The key to successfully observing auroral activity is knowing when to look. For regularly updated information, refer to the aurora discussion forum available at: http://www.spacew.com/aurora/forum.html . Current forecast information (updated several times a day during disturbed periods) is also available at the bottom of that page. The middle latitude auroral activity watch was upgraded to a warning earlier today following the arrival of the current disturbance. The warning will be extended through to the latter part of the UTC day of 20 April to cover the anticipated arrival (and effects) of the next coronal mass ejection. ** End of the AstroAlert Bulletin ** ================================================================== AstroAlert is a free service of SKY & TELESCOPE, the Essential Magazine of Astronomy ( http://SkyandTelescope.com/) . This e-mail was sent to AstroAlert subscribers. If you feel you received it in error, or to unsubscribe from AstroAlert, please send a plain- text e-mail to majordomo@SkyandTelescope.com with the following line -- and nothing else -- in the body of the message: unsubscribe sun-earth e-mail@address.com replacing \"e-mail@address.com\" with your actual e-mail address. ===="}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (19:06)", "body": "I posted the Alert in 34. It should be an interesting few days for the more northerly latitudes. I still think Rob stands a good chance of seeing some of these. New Zealand is pretty far south."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (13:55)", "body": "/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\ MIDDLE LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY WARNING ISSUED: 08:25 UTC, 19 APRIL 2002 /\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\ *** POTENTIAL FOR MODERATE TO HIGH ACTIVITY EXISTS *** VALID BEGINNING AT: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY (04:20 am EDT on 19 April) VALID UNTIL: 19:00 UTC ON 20 APRIL HIGH RISK PERIOD: 19 - 20 APRIL (UTC DAYS) MODERATE RISK PERIOD: 19 - 20 APRIL PREDICTED ACTIVITY INDICES: 50, 25, 15, 10 (19 APRIL - 22 APRIL) POTENTIAL MAGNITUDE OF MIDDLE LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY: MODERATE TO HIGH POTENTIAL DURATION OF THIS ACTIVITY: MAIN BELT = 12 TO 18 HOURS MINOR BELT = 18 TO 24 HOURS ESTIMATED OPTIMUM OBSERVING CONDITIONS: NEAR LOCAL MIDNIGHT EXPECTED LUNAR INTERFERENCE: LOW TO MODERATE OVERALL OPPORTUNITY FOR OBSERVATIONS FROM MIDDLE LATITUDES: FAIR TO GOOD AURORAL ACTIVITY *MAY* BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM... NORTHERN OREGON TO IDAHO TO WYOMING TO EXTREME NORTHERN NEBRASKA TO IOWA TO NORTHERN ILLINOIS TO NORTHERN INDIANA TO OHIO TO PENNSYLVANIA TO NORTHERN NEW JERSEY. ACTIVITY *MAY* ALSO BE OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY NORTH OF A LINE FROM... EXTREME NORTHERN FRANCE TO NORTHERN BELGIUM TO NORTHERN GERMANY TO POLAND TO NORTHERN BELARUS TO NORTH-CENTRAL RUSSIA. NEW ZEALAND AND EXTREME SOUTHERN REGIONS OF AUSTRALIA MAY ALSO SPOT PERIODS OF ACTIVITY. SYNOPSIS... A coronal mass ejection has been observed passing the ACE spacecraft at 08:03 UTC on 19 April. This disturbance is associated with high solar wind velocities (greater than 600 km/sec) and contains moderately strong magnetic fields. Although the magnetic fields associated with the shock front are not particularly favorable for producing immediate auroral storm activity, there is a good chance periods of moderate to strong auroral storm activity will follow in the next 12 to 18 hours. Observers are encouraged to keep a close eye on conditions. The disturbance is projected to impact the Earth near 08:41 UTC on 19 April (4:41 am EDT). This warning will remain in effect until 19:00 UTC on 20 April. It will then be updated or allowed to expire. PLEASE REPORT OBSERVATIONS OF AURORAL ACTIVITY TO: http://solar.spacew.com/www/auroras.html"}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (00:41)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for April 25, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution reporting big \"acts of God\" \" Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;\" Psalm 46:2 (NRSV) Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, details in tables below) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--16; two quakes of 6M or greater: 6.3M NEAR COAST OF GUERRERO, MEXICO, 6.7M A NEAR COAST OF NORTHERN CHILE California earthquakes in past week--197 (For Significant Earthquakes, see SPECIAL REPORT.) Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none Sunspot No. High--256 on 24 April Geomagnetic A-Index High--62 on 20 April Moon for May (per Astronomy Magazine) 4 last quarter, 7 apogee, 12 new, 19 first quarter, 23 perigee, 26 full The perigee of the moon (223, 746 miles near) is today, 25 April. The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks and is only visible the two hours before dawn on 5 May. Meteors are fast and up to 60 per hour from the east. There is a penumbral lunar eclipse on 26 May. See the vapor-trail-like ripple in the tail of Comet Ikeya-Zhang at www.spaceweather.com . El Nino is coming, and here is a solid source: www.elnino.noaa.gov/ . A companion phenomenon is the Indian Dipole in the western Indian Ocean. Recent Volcanic Eruptions: LOKON-EMPUNG northern Sulawesi, Indonesia; summit elev. 1,580 m eruptions on 10 April and on the 12th, on 13 April eight gas-and-ash explosions and on the 14th five ETNA Sicily, Italy; summit elev. 3,315 m during 14-18 April dense ash plume at Bocca Nuova crater, dense ash-free plumes above Voragine and Northeast craters KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m an ash cloud on 15 April to 4.5 km KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m during 18-22 April surface activity at a minimum POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during 17-23 April small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 12-19 April gas-and-steam and ash-and-gas emissions, on 15 April an ash-and-gas plume 4.3 km SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 12-19 April small rockfalls, small, low-level ash clouds TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m during 17-23 April emissions of gas, steam, and ash, a small ash cloud on 19 April. Maps showing location of the world's volcanoes are indexed at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/maps.htm Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) Any ash and gas elevations of 5 mi/8 km are highlighted in red. EARTH Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 January 2 1 13 10 4 7 5 8 10 14, with one 7M February 1 12 13 18 7 4 6 4 14 6 March 0 2 8 13 5 7 8 5 5 10, with three 7M's April 0 12 17 4 9 6 8 3 9 (5) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (35) Note: ( ) means incomplete. SPECIAL REPORT Recent Significant Earthquakes For more information on recent earthquakes that for either or both social and geological reason are deemed \"significant\", check out http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recent/recent.html This site describes the quakes and may have photos. California is emphasized, but some severe quakes elsewhere are also mentioned. Questions and comments are welcomed. Donald J. Boon, editor, NEW and ONLY EMAIL ADDRESS: donaldboon@comcast.net"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (13:59)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for May 9, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution documenting the big \"acts of God\" \"Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;\" Psalm 46:2 (NRSV) Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary. Tables at www.bbmessages.com under Planet Earth BB/Seismology) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--13; one quake of 6M or greater: 6.2M TONGA ISLANDS California earthquakes in past week--315 (nine of 3M or greater) Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none Sunspot No. High--317 on 5 May Geomagnetic A-Index High--11 on 6, 7 and 8 May Moon for May (per Astronomy Magazine) 4 last quarter, 7 apogee, 12 new, 19 first quarter, 23 perigee, 26 full The perigee of the moon (226,790 miles near) is 23 May. There will be a penumbral lunar eclipse on 26 May, and a solar eclipse in June. Recent Volcanic Eruptions: COLIMA western M\ufffdxico 19.514\ufffdN,103.62\ufffdW; summit elev. ~3,850 m as of 7 May incandescent lava avalanches, small explosive events KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 54.05\ufffdN, 159.43\ufffdE; summit elev. 1,536 m during 27 April-3 May weak ash-and-gas explosions, on 28 April an ash cloud to 500 m KILAUEA Hawaii, USA 19.43\ufffdN, 155.29\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,222 m during 1-7 May surface lava flows POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico 19.02\ufffdN, 98.62\ufffdW; summit elev. 5,426 m during 1-7 May small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 56.653\ufffdN, 161.360\ufffdE; summit elev. 3,283 m during 26 April-3 May small emissions of gas and steam, on 5 May an ash plume rose to 4.8 km SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies 16.72\ufffdN, 62.18\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,052 m during 26 April-3 May lava dome growth, numerous rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows, SO2 emission rates decreased TUNGURAHUA Ecuador 1.47\ufffdS, 78.44\ufffdW; summit elev. 5,023 m during 30 April-5 May emissions of gas, steam, and ash, volcanic clouds to 6 km Maps showing location of the world's volcanoes are indexed at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/maps.htm Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) EARTH Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 April 0 12 17 4 9 6 8 3 9 7, with one 7M May 3 15 17 8 9 6 9 5 8 (1) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (38) Note: ( ) means incomplete. SPECIAL REPORT Your Geomagnetic Latitude and Longitude One's geomagnetic location is important in the observing of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. Click on your location on this map to learn how different your geographic location is from your geomagnetic location: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/Aurora/globeNW.html Questions and comments are welcomed. Donald J. Boon, editor EMAIL ADDRESS: donaldboon@comcast.net"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (03:30)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for May 23, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution documenting the big \"acts of God\" \"Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;\" Psalm 46:2 (NRSV) Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, more tables and information available at www.bbmessages.com ) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--16; no quakes of 6M or greater California earthquakes in past week--270, three of 3M or greater Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Papua New Guinea Sunspot No. High--217 on 22 May, potential for X Class Solar Flares Geomagnetic A-Index High--18 on 19 May Moon for May (per Astronomy Magazine) 4 last quarter, 7 apogee, 12 new, 19 first quarter, 23 perigee, 26 full The perigee of the moon (226,790 miles near) is 23 May. CANNIBAL CME'S IMPACT: the first interplanetary shock wave swept Earth today, 23 May, and triggered an ongoing G3-class geomagnetic storm. The shock wave was the leading edge of a coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on 22 May. It was likely a \"cannibal coronal mass ejection\" -- a combination of three rapid-fire CMEs. Cannibal CMEs are thought to produce prolonged geomagnetic storms. Check today's www.spaceweather.com for more, including the coronograph showing the three. A X-2 Class Solar Flare occurred on the surface visible to earth, but was on the edge and not directed toward earth. Another from a larger group, equal to five surface areas of the earth, is capable of a bigger X class flare and is nearing the center of the visible solar area. Such a flare would be directed toward us, if it occurred in the next few days. See more at www.spaceweather.com . There will be a penumbral lunar eclipse on 26 May, and an annular solar eclipse 10-11 June. For details see www.spaceweather.com . Recent Volcanic Eruptions: COLIMA western M\ufffdxico; summit elev. ~3,850 m volcanic tremor on 18 May, on 21 May explosive-type earthquakes MANAM offshore New Guinea, Papua New Guinea; summit elev. 1,807 m moderate-sized Strombolian eruption on 20 May, ash plume to ~9 km NYIRAGONGO Democratic Republic of the Congo; summit elev. 3,469 m on 17 January eruption drained all lava, leaving a 700-m-deep empty crater, in late April harmonic tremor registered and increased irregularly until mid-May, anomalous clouds since 1 May, on 17-18 May a small lava fountain on the floor of the crater, no lava lake, but small incandescent vents on the crater floor ejected hot gases. \"this is a normal development in Nyiragongo\ufffds historical eruptive pattern, and is no cause for immediate concern.\" KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m during 10-17 May weak ash-and-gas explosions, gas blow-outs, and debris avalanches KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m surface lava flows during 15-17 May, one flow about 2.5 km from the ocean POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during 15-21 May small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash SAN CRISTOBAL Nicaragua; summit elev. 1745 m on 23 May ash plume under 3 km SHISHALDIN Unimak Island, Aleutian Islands, USA; summit elev. 2,857 m during 10-17 May increase in background seismicity SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 10-17 May several small emissions of gas, steam, and ash SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 10-17 May, volcanic activity higher than previous week. TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m during 14-21 May emissions of gas, steam, and ash, on 14 May steam-and-ash plume to 6.5 km Maps showing location of the world's volcanoes are indexed at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/maps.htm Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) EARTH Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 April 0 12 17 4 9 6 8 3 9 7, with one 7M May 3 15 17 8 9 6 9 5 8 (3) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (40) Note: ( ) means incomplete. SPECIAL REPORT Faults in Gorda Punta Plate More Numerous Than Known Recent research detail much more faulting in the Gorda Punta and Juan de Fuca subplates than had previously been known. See details at http://oregonstate.edu/events/headlines/05-02/fault.htm Questions and comments are welcomed. Donald J. Boon, editor, EMAIL ADDRESS: donaldboon@comcast.net"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 30, 2002 (20:45)", "body": "Earth and Sun Digest for May 30, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, tables and more at www.bbmessages.com under Planet Earth BB/Seismology) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--8;four quakes of 6M or greater: 6.0M NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE, 6.5M SOUTH OF ALASKA, 6.0M CATAMARCA PROVINCE, ARGENTINA, 6.0M TAIWAN REGION California earthquakes in past week--287, one of 3M or greater Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none Sunspot No. High--242 on 24 May Geomagnetic A-Index High--54 on 23 May, 28 on 27 May Moon for June 3 last quarter, 4 apogee, 10 new, 18 first quarter, 19 perigee, 24 full The apogee of the moon (252,826 miles far) is 4 June. There will be an annular solar eclipse 10-11 June. For details see www.spaceweather.com . The sun continues to have large sunspot groups on the side facing earth. The newest is six times the surface area of the earth but at present is only capable of M Class solar flares. NEW List of NEIC Maps available by click: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/pANDs/neic_maps.html Recent Volcanic Eruptions: COLIMA western M\ufffdxico; summit elev. ~3,850 m as of 27 May strong volcanic tremor continued, and small explosions and lava avalanches occurred MANAM offshore New Guinea, Papua New Guinea; summit elev. 1,807 m Strombolian eruption on 20 May, then forceful ash emissions in moderate volumes, the ash cloud from 20 May was no longer visible on satellite imagery by 22 May KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 1,536 m during 17-24 May weak ash-and-gas explosions, gas blow-outs, and debris avalanches occurred KILAUEA Hawaii, USA; summit elev. 1,222 m during 23-24 May surface lava flows POPOCAT\ufffdPETL M\ufffdxico; summit elev. 5,426 m during 21-28 May small clouds of steam, gas, and generally minor amounts of ash, on 21 May small explosion and a small amount of ash SAN CRIST\ufffdBAL Nicaragua; summit elev. 1,745 m on 23 May a vapor column observed attributed to rain contacting hot material in the crater, the plume to ~3 km SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia; summit elev. 3,283 m during 17-24 May several small emissions of gas, steam, and ash SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies; summit elev. 1,052 m during 17-24 May numerous rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows TUNGURAHUA Ecuador; summit elev. 5,023 m during 22-27 May emissions of gas, steam, and ash, on the 22nd an ash cloud to 7 km Maps showing location of the world's volcanoes are indexed at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/maps.htm Ash and gas reports are from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/gvp/usgs/index.htm All elevations are in km above sea level. (a.s.l.) EARTH Earthquakes of 6 or Greater Magnitude in the World, monthly number from U.S.G.S. Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 April 0 12 17 4 9 6 8 3 9 7, with one 7M May 3 15 17 8 9 6 9 5 8 (7) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (44) Note: ( ) means incomplete. SPECIAL REPORT The Flinn Engdahl numbers for the West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska are at www.bbmessages.com . Maps for the above are not available, but the locations are given for reference purposes. Presumably the name in the USGS listings corresponds to the name in the Flinn-Engdahl listings above, with modifiers as needed. Questions and comments are welcomed. Donald J. Boon, editor, EMAIL ADDRESS: donaldboon@comcast.net t.net) (24.153.64.2) by mta3.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 30 May 2002 16:49:18 -0000 Received: from cc1926008c (bgp01357188bgs.albqrq01.nm.comcast.net [68.35.149.186]) by mtaout03.icomcast.net (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.1 HotFix 0.8 (built May 13 2002)) with SMTP id ; Thu, 30 May 2002 12:49:18 -0400 (EDT) To: Donald Boon Message-id: X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-priority: Normal From: donaldboon@comcast.net MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list pinpoint@yahoogroups.com; contact pinpoint-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list pinpoint@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 10:40:22 +0000 Subject: [Pinpoint EQ News] Boon's Brief Earth and Sun Digest 05/30/02 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Earth and Sun Digest for May 30, 2002 Published weekly on Thursdays by Donald J. Boon, free distribution Week at a Glance (All data are preliminary, tables and more at www.bbmessages.com under Planet Earth BB/Seismology) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--8;four quakes of 6M or greater: 6.0M NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE, 6.5M SOUTH OF ALASKA, 6.0M CATAMARCA PROVINCE, ARGENTINA, 6.0M TAIWAN REGION California earthquakes in past week--287, one of 3M or greater Volcanic Ash over 5 mi (8 km)--none Sunspot No. High--242 on 24 May Geomagnetic A-Index High--54 on 23 May, 28 on 27 May Moon for June 3 last quarter, 4 apogee, 10 new, 18 first quarter, 19 perigee, 24 full The apogee of the moon (252,826 mil"}, {"response": 55, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Jun  8, 2002 (10:56)", "body": "You have to see this amazing spectacle Marcia on Monday afternoon. It is calculated for your recent place. Similar spectacle will enjoy our friends around there. Enjoy nature in its extraordinary moments. John"}, {"response": 56, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (04:51)", "body": "Hi friends Take global information for the eclipse of tomorrow. From: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/OH2002.html John"}, {"response": 57, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (04:52)", "body": "This is for our friends around the world. Local Circumstances for Solar Eclipse of 2002 June 10 http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/LC/LC2002-1.html John"}, {"response": 58, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (04:54)", "body": "Hi friends ATTENTION! DO NOT SEE THE SUN DIRECTLY WITHOUT PROTECTION. Eye Safety And Solar Eclipses \ufffdHowever, observing the Sun can be dangerous if you do not take the proper precautions. The solar radiation that reaches the surface of Earth ranges from ultraviolet (UV) radiation at wavelengths longer than 290 nm to radio waves in the meter range. The tissues in the eye transmit a substantial part of the radiation between 380 and 1400 nm to the light-sensitive retina at the back of the eye. While environmental exposure to UV radiation is known to contribute to the accelerated aging of the outer layers of the eye and the development of cataracts, the concern over improper viewing of the Sun during an eclipse is for the development of \"eclipse blindness\" or retinal burns\ufffd. Visit here for the complete article: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhelp/safety2.html John"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (10:09)", "body": "Mahalo, John! *HUGS* for posting such complete instructions. When I watch such things I use pinhole projection and can share it with many people. Perhaps this time my eclipse jinx will not continue and I might see it. So as not to offend the gods who determing weather, I will say nothing further, but I really do want to see te 67% totality we are supposed to have in central California."}, {"response": 60, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (10:57)", "body": "I can say that this eclipse is yours Marcia. Nature has this gift waiting for you there. See carefully the above response 55. See especially the coordinates on the top of the graph. It is centered in your recent place. See also the time that is changing in each phase. I hope that is successful. So, you will see something like that. Perhaps you will feel some strange emotions during the eclipse. Usually it changes the wind intensity and its direction temporarily. Temperature also reduces temporarily. The eclipse will open something like a big hole mainly in the lower layers of the ionosphere too. It has an interesting effect to communications by radio waves. Earth\ufffds electric field is changed locally too. Enjoy it and make a description for our friends later. John"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (11:22)", "body": "John, I am so unhappy! My network connection for yahoo worked all day yesterday and now it is not working again. I dispair of talking to you again. I see you are online, and that is a joy. David is carefully researching the eclipse and he is determined that I will see this one. Yes, I will make notes and tell all about it. I missed a total sclipse over my island in Hawaii, then I missed the annular eclipse in California the following year. I would love to see this one. The others were due to the reluctance of others to find time to take me to a clear sky. And, this was not a good excuse since the \"driver\" in question did nothing but sit around the house all day anyway. For some people, my priorities and requests are only heeded when it is convenient, so I do not make them anymore. Here, we all want to see it. Thank you for excellent data and graphics. It will be very useful. I am keeping my fingers crossed"}, {"response": 62, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (11:36)", "body": "I have something else for you Marcia. But it corresponds to topic 9. I will post it there in a few moments. John"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (11:42)", "body": "Going there..... thanks!"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (15:46)", "body": "The satellites last night were numerous and everything from rocket boosters to the ISS-Shuttle linked together. Despite the less that inky sky that I am used to in Hawaii, my son's palm computer had a satellit viewing program in it and as each one entered our sky a little alarm would sound and a graphic of the sky would let us watch its progress. By knowing what is up there already, it was easy to find the out of place stars which were quietly gliding across the night sky. Tonight we will try for tracking using the wedding present David and Iris gave one another - a 10 inche Meade reflector telescope. That is also run by a small computer and has the most amazing abilities. It makes my old refractor seem very poor by comparison. Some of the satellites we saw (some quite dim and some as bright as a planet) various Cosmos satellites (Russian) Okean (Russian) SeaSat, Lacrosse, and ADEOS. Each has a number because so many of them are up there. The cosmos satellites we saw were Cosmos 1455, 1606, and 2237 (the latter we got to see the rocket that put it up there as well - quite a lot brighter.) To see how many satellites are really up there I suggest you use http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JTrack/ If you have the power in your computer and the RAM necessary, pull up the graphic with ALL the satellites. It looks like we are encircled by a swarm of bees!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (22:39)", "body": "my kids and i watched the eclipse via two cardboard pieces. one had the pinhole (pencil hole) and the other had white paper taped to it. curious how it shows the sun through there. i had originally thought it would be a total eclipse but alas, it wasn't. this was the first time i had ever really watched it happen this way. we started losing the sun to the house behind us so we moved our station out of the yard. we attracted some attention and the kids who gathered wouldn't heed my warning about looking right at it. a co-worker saw it through camera film. i took pictures of each stage until the moon began it's descent (for us, the moon slid down from top to bottom). of course, i took pictures of it via the cardboard layout, not directly at the sun. will post them once they're developed!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (05:02)", "body": "That's great wolfie, I remember doing the cardboard box with the pinhole thing as a kid, what a great thrill for them."}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (20:59)", "body": "well, they didn't sit and watch because the whole thing was too slow for them but it was neat to do and i'm glad they got to see it too."}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 14, 2002 (14:13)", "body": "Oh Wolfie, good for you. Did you think to look at the leaf shadows on your fence or walls? I did and got smiley faces everywhere, even when making a thumb and forefinger circle on the garage door. I'll be posting pictures. We had 67% eclipse. Not bad, but it was so weird with the lighting and all that."}, {"response": 69, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 19, 2002 (17:52)", "body": "yeah--i did notice that any available shadow reflected the sun's eclipse!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Jun 23, 2002 (11:33)", "body": "A new moon eclipse will happen tomorrow. It is penumbral eclipse. It has no special interest except perhaps that it will produce high tidal forces on Earth. Find full details below. http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEplot//LEplot2001/LE2002Jun24N.gif John"}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (15:00)", "body": "Excellent, JOhn. It is YOUR chnace to report of an eclipse. Please let us know of your success. Or, is Pelion again in the way so you cannot see it? I lost all of my eclipse photos with the hard drive beiong wiped out, but David gas a lot of even better ones than I managed to get!"}, {"response": 72, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (03:35)", "body": "We had a warm night with clear sky yesterday. I was waiting the eclipse on a comfort big chair at my summerhouse. Unfortunately I slept there under the bright full Moon. But I saw an amazing dream... Your photos are printed in your memory together with your family. You have the afterglow that you saw the eclipse with the best company. \"Hugs\" John"}, {"response": 73, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (03:38)", "body": "Solar energy Solar energy, any form of energy radiated by the sun, including light, radio waves, and X rays, although the term usually refers to the visible light of the sun. Green plants for the process of photosynthesis need solar energy. Photosynthesis is the ultimate source of all food. The energy in fossil fuels (e.g., coal and oil) and other organic fuels (e.g., wood) is derived from solar energy. Difficulties with these fuels have led to the invention of devices that directly convert solar energy into usable forms of energy, such as electricity. Solar batteries, which operate on the principle that light falling on photosensitive substances (Photo Cells) causes a flow of electricity, play an important part in space satellites and, as they become more efficient, are finding increasing use on the earth. Thermoelectric generators convert the heat generated by solar energy directly into electricity. Several projects have produced electricity on a large scale by using the solar energy available in desert areas. In one system, large numbers of solar batteries generate electricity for Coconut Island, off the coast of Australia. In another, oil flows through pipes that are set in reflecting parabolic troughs that can trap the heat from sunlight falling on them. The heat from the oil is then converted into electricity. Heat from the sun is used in air-drying a variety of materials and in producing salt by the evaporation of seawater. Solar heating systems can supply heat and hot water for domestic use; heat collected in special plates on the roof of a house is stored in rocks or water held in a large container. Such systems, however, usually require a conventional heater to supplement them. Solar stoves, which focus the sun's heat directly, are employed in regions where there is much perennial sunlight. http://aol.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0845835.html John"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (11:43)", "body": "I have often joined you in that chair in your summer house. It is hot here and not much air is moving. Yesterday we had thunderstorms suddenly which tore apart big trees and took roofs off houses. I had forgotten how violent the weather can be on a continent and how peaceful it is in Hawaii. One day we may share the same scenery. I would like that VERY much!"}, {"response": 75, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (06:10)", "body": "We do forget some times how nature can take vengeance for human imprudence. You had an example of its force Marcia. The same time China and Russia mourn for lives and properties from catastrophic inundation. Unfortunately, you have the volcano pollution instead the violence weather in Hawaii. Neither paradise is shot of the presence of bad. John"}, {"response": 76, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (14:45)", "body": "Earth At Aphelion (1.017 AU From Sun) This weekend, on July 6th, our planet will reach the distant end -- a point astronomers call aphelion. We'll be farther from the Sun than we are at any other time of the year. All planets in our solar system travel around the Sun in elliptical orbits. It's Kepler's 1st Law, says University of Florida astronomy professor George Lebo. The eccentricity of Earth's orbit is 1.7%. In January when we're closest to the Sun (perihelion) , the distance is 147.5 million km. This weekend we will be 152.6 million km away--a five million kilometer difference. A distant sun means less sunlight for our planet. Averaged over the globe, sunlight falling on Earth at aphelion is about 7% less intense than it is at perihelion , says Roy Spencer of NASA's Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC). More here: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/02jul_aphelion.htm John"}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (19:53)", "body": "I missed Aphelion day but celebrated it by finding some splendid geodes in a dry creek bed. Ia m getting better and better at this finding things on the f\\ground. My host is even better at it since he is an archaeologist and trained for such things. What he misses I find and vice versa. In Hawaii, we get air pollution from China! No place on earth is separate and immune to the presence of bad things. Only in ancient times, perhaps. The world has gotten much smaller in recent decades."}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (19:56)", "body": "LAHINA NOON In the tropics, there are two days each year when the sun is exactly overhead at local noon. This event only happens in the tropics; the sun is never overhead in the temperate or arctic zones of the world. Since there was not a convenient single term for \ufffdthat day when the sun is exactly overhead at local noon,\ufffd the Bishop Museum planetarium sponsored a contest ten years ago to select a name for this event. \ufffdLahaina Noon\ufffd was the winner. \ufffdLahaina\ufffd means \ufffdcruel sun\ufffd in Hawaiian. One does not need to be in the town of Lahaina, Maui, to see this event\ufffd.anywhere in the tropics will do. Lahaina noon occurs only once on the tropic of Cancer, 23.5 degrees north of the equator, on the first day of summer. It occurs only once on the tropic of Capricorn, 23.5 degrees south of the equator, on the first day of winter. For all other locations in the tropics, this event occurs twice a year. The closer a given latitude is to the tropic of Cancer, the closer the Lahaina noon dates will be to June 21. For instance, Lahaina noon dates in Lihue, Kaua\ufffdi, occur on May 31 and July 11. This is 21 days before and 21 days after the first day of summer on June 21. Lahaina noon dates in Hilo, Hawai\ufffdi, much further south, occur on May 18 and July 24. This is 34 days before, and 33 days after, the June solstice. http://www.bishopmuseum.org/planetarium/highlights02.html"}, {"response": 79, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (19:08)", "body": "HERE COMES THE SUN: On July 23rd, an X4-class explosion near sunspot 39 hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth. The expanding cloud could reach our planet as early as Wednesday and trigger geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras. http://www.spaceweather.com/ John"}, {"response": 80, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (19:10)", "body": "SOLAR ACTIVITY ALERT: Sunspot 39 is remarkably active. In recent days it has unleashed two X-class solar flares, caused radio blackouts on Earth, and fueled an ongoing radiation storm. High solar activity will likely continue for the rest of the week at least. Two big spots appear on the Sun today: sunspot 39 (left) and 36 (right). Both pose a threat for powerful flares. You can see these active regions yourself, but never look directly at the Sun! Use safe solar projection techniques. http://www.spaceweather.com/ John"}, {"response": 81, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (19:17)", "body": "SAFE SUN WATCHING Never view the Sun directly with the naked eye or with any unfiltered optical device, such as binoculars or a telescope! If you're thinking of viewing the Sun, your first concern should always be eye safety. Serious eye damage can result from even a brief glimpse of our star -- Galileo looked at the Sun through a telescope 400 years ago and suffered permanent eye damage. If it happened to Galileo, it can happen to you! One safe way to observe sunspots or eclipses is to project an image of the Sun through a telescope or binoculars onto a white screen -- paper plates, walls and sidewalks all work nicely. If you're using a telescope, be sure that any small finder telescope is capped. If you're using binoculars, keep the cover on one of the two tubes. Never look through a telescope or binoculars to point them at the Sun -- partial or total blindness will almost surely result. On the screen you should see a bright circle of light. This is the disc of the Sun. Adjust the distance between the screen and the telescope until the disk is about the size of a small paper plate. The image will probably be blurred; focus your telescope until the circle becomes sharp. Using this method you can see considerable detail in and around sunspot groups. Pinhole projectors and certain types of solar filters can also afford a safe view of the Sun. Pinhole projectors usually produce a small and unsatisfying image, but they are better than nothing if you don't have a telescope or binoculars. http://www.spaceweather.com/sunspots/doityourself.html John"}, {"response": 82, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (19:24)", "body": "It is JULY 24! LAHAINA NOON in Hilo, Hawaii! Also, in all places of Earth that are on the same parallel. John"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 26, 2002 (14:01)", "body": "Thank you, John! Just like Vampires, we do not cast shadows in Hawaii on July 24th... but that is only at noon. Shortly thereafter, we begin to cast a shadow again just like every other mortal. This story appeared during my computer absence. I'll post it now because it seems to fit Shaquille O'Neal's stubby shadow is proof that our planet is tilted--and summer has arrived in the northern hemisphere. FULL STORY: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/21jun_shadows.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (15:04)", "body": "Back to posting Donald Boone's hard work: Earth and Sun Digest for December 12, 2002 Published weekly by Donald J. Boon, distributed free Globally focused using the FIVE Rule ...at a Glance (with time ticking) (All data are \"near real time\" from USGS and or timely from NOAA/NASA, full details in tables) Earthquakes of 5.0 to 5.9 mag thru Wednesday--12; four quakes of 6M or greater: 6.7 NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G., 6.3 IRIAN JAYA REGION, INDONESIA, 6.1 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS, 6.0 SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE California earthquakes in past week--188, no quakes of 4M or greater Volcanic ash over 5 mi (8 km)--Ecuador Sunspot No. high--189 on 9 December Smallest to largest daily total sunspot area--860 on 5 December to 490 on 7 December X-Class Solar Flares: none; last M-Class flares (5/day) 6 on 4 October Planetary Geomagnetic Indices: high of 16 on 7 December; the last set of K-Indices of 4 or more (5 or more/24 hours)--from 26 thru 27 November Moon for December per Astronomy Magazine 2 perigee, 4 new, 11 first quarter, 13 apogee, 19 full, 26 last quarter, 29 perigee The apogee of the moon (251,602 miles far) is 13 December. The second perigee (228,604 miles near) is 29 December. The Earth and Sun by Date/Day (Key: Date & day/ X3C or MC=solar flares, GS=Geomagnetic Storm; 6M=quakes; V8=volcanic eruption to 8 km M02/6M, T03, W04/V8, Th05, F06, Sa07, Su08, M09, T10/6.1M,6.0M, W11/6.3M, Th12/6.7M The peak of the Geminid Meteor Shower, which has already begun, is the morning of 14 December. WILL THERE BE A NEW SEISMIC RECORD? Monthly Summary of Earthquakes of 6 or greater Magnitude in the World, per USGS/NEIC Preliminary Global Report YEAR: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02August 2 14 16 6 7 8 9 12 8 12 with two 7M'sSeptember 4 8 8 9 7 4 12 7 10 13 with one 7MOctober 4 12 21 9 6 3 4 8 11 21 with one 7M November 0 7 10 6 7 4 15 15 10 11 with three 7M'sDecember 0 6 13 7 3 2 16 11 7 (6) Yr total 19 110 160 109 76 63 103 109 112 (128)Note: ( ) means incomplete. Recent Volcanic Eruptions ETNA Sicily, Italy 37.73\ufffdN, 15.00\ufffdE; summit elev. 3,315 m as of 5 December explosive activity, ash emission and lava fountaining vigorous; on 8 December ash emission and lava fountaining changing to violent Strombolian explosions, the following day more ash emission GUAGUA PICHINCHA north-central Ecuador 0.17\ufffdS, 78.60\ufffdW; summit elev. 4,784 m eruption on 7 December at 2120 with ash cloud KARYMSKY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 54.05\ufffdN, 159.43\ufffdE; summit elev. 1,536 m during 29 November to 6 December seismicity indicating ash-and-gas explosions ~2.5 km and 5- to 10-minute-long vigorous gas emissions, on 1 December ash plume seen rising to 2 km KAVACHI Solomon Islands 9.02\ufffdS, 157.95\ufffdE; summit elev. -20 m (submarine) during October to November the top broke sea surface to 10 m KILAUEA Hawaii, USA 19.43\ufffdN, 155.29\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,222 m during 4-10 December lava into the sea from two lava deltas KLIUCHEVSKOI Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 56.06\ufffdN, 160.64\ufffdE; summit elev. 4,835 m on 3 December a gas-and-steam plume to ~6.1 km PAGO New Britain, Papua New Guinea 5.58\ufffdS, 150.52\ufffdE; summit elev. 742 m on 10 December lava slow flow, variable amounts of steam and blue vapor(juvenile volcanic gas) RABAUL New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea 4.271\ufffdS, 152.203\ufffdE; summit elev. 688 m through 11 December slow, convoluted ash plumes to several hundred meters with a small amount of ash in the plumes REVENTADOR Ecuador 0.078\ufffdS, 77.656\ufffdW, summit elev. 3,562 m low-level seismicity through 8 December, white emission columns 3 December and again on 7 December rising to 4.1 km SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 56.653\ufffdN, 161.360\ufffdE; summit elev. 3,283 m seismicity decreasing during 29 November to 6 December, nine ash-and-gas explosions to 5.3 km SOUFRI\ufffdRE HILLS Montserrat, West Indies 16.72\ufffdN, 62.18\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,052 m activity during 29 November to 6 December moderate, average of one moderate-sized pyroclastic flow per day TUNGURAHUA Ecuador 1.47\ufffdS, 78.44\ufffdW; summit elev. 5,023 m during 4-9 December emissions of steam, gas, and ash, highest ash cloud was on 4 December to 8.5 km Ash data is summarized from the weekly GVN/USGS report at http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/reports/usgs/index.cfm All ash elevations are in km above sea level (a.s.l.). EARTH FIVE Index of Global earthquakes of 5.0 magnitude or greater (More information available at http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/ (6.0 or greater are highlighted in red.) Others are Japan Region and South Pacific. DATE-(UTC)-TIME LAT LON Depth Mag. REGIONyear mm dd hh:mm:ss.s deg deg km (READ UP for latest report.) Quake magnitude at last dotReports overlap prior one, except Monthly 6M Report02/12/12 10:19:407.71S156.15E33.05.6SOLOMON ISLANDS02/12/12 08:30:424.71S153.17E33.06.7NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G.02/12/12 04:03:1631.71S67.07W126.05.0SAN JUAN PROVINCE, ARGENTINA02/12/11 12:26:380.09N123.32E143.85.4MINAHASSA PENINSULA, SULAWESI02/12/11 10:00:313.65S135.17E10.05.9IRIAN JAYA REGION, INDONESIA02/12/11 03:49:403.75S135.13E10.06.3IRIAN JAYA RE"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (15:09)", "body": "I have obviously spent too much time in Daniel Boone's land. Donald, I am sorry I misspelled your last name. Boon Boon Boon Boon Boon... Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 54, "subject": "gps", "response_count": 31, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Aug 29, 2001 (23:03)", "body": "My friend Flash swears by the \"Street Navigator\"; but it's a bit pricey, I think $700 street. It's color and tells you when to turn with it's built in synthesized voice. The StreetPilot III follows in the footsteps of the original StreetPilot and StreetPilot ColorMap as a portable automotive GPS navigation system with electronic map capabilities. But it goes a step further by adding turn-by-turn navigation and voice prompting on a 16-color, higher-resolution display. Unlike other in-car navigation systems that boast portability, the StreetPilot III does not require monthly service fees, installation, or an external processor. Instead, consumers can download street-level map sets onto a removable memory cartridge, insert the card into the StreetPilot III, mount the system on the dash of any vehicle, and enjoy the ease of stress-free driving. It is the most convenient, portable auto-navigation system on the market, and it's available at a fraction of the price of in-dash navigation systems. The StreetPilot III offers true turn-by-turn navigation in America's major cities with its auto-routing feature. At the touch of a button, consumers will now have access to the shortest and fastest routes, turn directions, and estimated time of arrival at their intended destination. Along the way, the StreetPilot III provides automated voice prompts, alerting the driver to necessary turns, distance to upcoming turns, course deviation, and distance to final destination. Please note: The StreetPilot III will be initially available in the America version only. The StreetPilot III Atlantic version (covering Europe, Africa and the Middle East) will be released late 2001."}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Aug 29, 2001 (23:08)", "body": ""}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 30, 2001 (15:06)", "body": "You can do this much less expensively. My son swears by his $100 hand held which can be attched to the laptop in the car containing the maps. I is so much simpler and when you hit the hiking trail you still have a rudimentart tracing to follow and all of the coordinated you need."}, {"response": 4, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep  9, 2001 (12:36)", "body": "whatever happened to reading street signs? and do they give you enough warning to \"turn here\"?"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep  9, 2001 (14:27)", "body": "Sometimes there just not there, they might be in some college dorm room somewhere."}, {"response": 6, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep  9, 2001 (14:49)", "body": "*laugh*"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  9, 2001 (20:35)", "body": "They give you pretty detailed maps. You can even specify if you want the nearest gas station... or restaurant. It is all about latitude and longitude which you asked about in mapmaking..."}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep  9, 2001 (21:48)", "body": "i do understand how the system works, just making a point about us relying too much on electronics than our own brains!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  9, 2001 (22:27)", "body": "Yup! We were overcharged in a restaurant by some kid hitting the wrong buttons. My dinner partner caught it and asked him to add it up again. Kids cannot even begin to figure if the result on their calculators are even close, let alone correct. I always double check (Excpet for my metric converter. I am lost when it comes to that, and I need all the feedback I can get on it!)"}, {"response": 10, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Sep 10, 2001 (20:16)", "body": "i usually go divide or multiply by two when dealing with kilometers (gives you a rough estimate).... i'm not fast with math but i can do it long hand. sometimes doing the money thing messes me up (they're just numbers with dots in them!)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 10, 2001 (21:14)", "body": "2 1/2 is what I usually did, as I recall in Britain, and we never seemed to get lost! I am plain and purely lousy at math!! Wolfie, my T's are missing *grin*"}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (21:14)", "body": "oh goody!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (22:23)", "body": "Check visitors here...!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Fri, Oct 12, 2001 (10:34)", "body": "Hi yall I have the 'regular' Garmin GPS III with monochrome maps down to the macro street level - not the detail of the above units at the start of this thread. The plan is to interface this unit with a PC running Delorme Street Atlas or whatever their pc mapping software is called. The other GPS units I have are older low level things - primarily a 'core' GPS board with antenna - one unit was made by Delorme to work with a PC and their software and the other is a Motorola core module. The Delorme sends data out in NMEA format and the Moto unit spits out their binary format. These units are intended for APRS tracking (see TAPR.org) while the Moto unit will be used strictly (?) for its 1 pulse per second output for a clock reference for locking oscillators to a GPS reference. Total geek out. 73 de Mike rci"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 12, 2001 (19:48)", "body": "Oooh Mike!! I am going to soon be in California with son who has a Meade 7, GPS, and a laptop to run the mapping programs and the telescope. Best part of all of this is that mom gets to play with his toys - just like I did when he was little. I will get the $100 version which is entirely adequate for my purposes... as soon as I get done with the wedding, repairing the house... and a myriad of other things which come first. *Sigh*"}, {"response": 16, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (11:09)", "body": "July 15, 2002 Digital Angel Miniaturizes GPS Transmitting Technology Matchbook-Size Device Opens Way To Monitor People, Animals and Objects Anywhere SO. ST. PAUL, Minn,-- Digital Angel Corporation (Amex: DOC) said it has significantly miniaturized the footprint of its wireless GPS location and alert transmitters, combining the chip sets and antenna in a package the size of a matchbook. Digital Angel Corp.'s lightweight one-piece unit, complete with an ambient temperature monitor, is expected to stimulate development of numerous applications for industrial, medical and consumer use. The small unobtrusive size of the device, which employs standard Internet-accessible GPS mapping programs, makes it an ideal component for products intended for use in tracking the whereabouts of people, objects and even pets. http://www.digitalangel.net/about.asp"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (20:20)", "body": "What a great idea. I saw GPS working live and direct with my visit to my son's habitat. Everywhere we went, he had loaded maps for the trip and I could plot the course as we went..... and read what was applicable from the Roadside Geology for Northern California I wish they had it for the state I am visitng!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Aug  6, 2002 (14:44)", "body": "Greetings all A good amount of information on using the GPS to 'track things' can be found by going to the Tuscon Area Packet Radio web page www.tapr.org Another use for GPS is the diciplining of oscillators (i.e. make them stable). I recently picked up a gps locked reference oscillator that came out of a cell telephone site. Interesting question... If gps gets 'turned off', does that mean all the cell sites will no longer function since they have nothing to lock their oscillators to? 73 de Mike AA9IL radio cosmo international"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  6, 2002 (17:56)", "body": "Interesting question, Mike. I'll send it on to my son and get his take on this little problem. The GPS satellite constellation will eventually fail and new ones put into orbit to take their places. I wonder what this will entail for carefully-tuned oscillators and notch filters. If it is a tunable frequency, it should not matter. Just the time taken to replace one with another. Only you would think of something like that! Excellent question!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (14:24)", "body": "Hi all Just something I was pondering... Especially since so many new things are coming out that include gps as part of the package. Europe is supposed to be launching their own gps constellation which will work in the same frequency range and always be on so possibly the worry is moot. 73 de Mike aa9il r-c-i 9 days and counting to the 10ghz contest!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (15:31)", "body": "Weekend after next? I'll be checking the local hams on the FM band. Alas, my receiver with usb is 6000 miles away. Good luck, CosmoMike! Interesting about the European GPS constellation going into use. If we can overlap the null date that would be most useful. What sort of meteor shower will they make on re-entry!!! Watch SeeSat for the details. http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html"}, {"response": 22, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (23:29)", "body": "Hi Marci I take it from the '6000 miles away' that you are still in the lower 48. There is an article in the most recent copy of 'Wired' magazine describing the European gps effort. I guess I should catch up reading the posts for etc, geo mystery, ... been a bit out of touch as of late. Mostly going through boxes of junk to pitch or keep although today I did build up a small yagi beam antenna for 2m ssb. Talk on the email lists that there is some good tropo going on right now. This usually happens during the transition from Summer to Fall. Otherwise, just typing on the pc, and listening to the BBC world service on the shortwave. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 23, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug  9, 2002 (09:36)", "body": "What impact will this European gps standard have on the consumer gps scene, will we have \"dual band\" gps's now? What are the implications?"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (21:57)", "body": "(Mike, at least you are not having all your email duplicated by your home ISP to the tune of 4400 plus separate emails, but I do understand the need to go through the accumulation of \"stuff\" occasionally.) Interesting question, Terry. Is there any implication or are they completely integtated? Is that too much to expect?!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (13:48)", "body": "Hi Marci 4000+ emails?! Wow, thats either alot of mail to respond to or clean up. I usually waste alot of time clearing my emails after a trip but since 60% is spam, its mostly slash and burn. Anyway, hope your Summer is going well. Re the gps, I think the two gps satellite groups will transmit near each other and can be picked up on a regular gps receiver so if our gps ever gets 'cut off' for any reason, we could still use the other gps signals (unless they are being jammed). 73 de Mike AA9IL"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (14:06)", "body": "I subscribe to lots of services. However, since I had them delete all before August 6th, nothing has been coming through. How truly frustrating. Another email goes back to them They \"JAM\" gps signals? Why?????????"}, {"response": 27, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (15:22)", "body": "Hi Marci Know about subscribing to lots of services - I ususally will have 300 to 400 emails over a weekend from the various radio/digital groups - thank goodness for journal mode. Anyway, the gov has the ability to disable gps signals when they see fit - everything from turned off to introducing errors (dithering). If the European services go on line, then there is the need to jam those signals as required. i.e. - if the general public is locked out of 'our' position signals, then the 'European' signals should not be available either (security and all that). I have several gps receivers (for personal use and providing reference signals) but a compass or sextant with ephemeris tables will still allow me to determine my location. Cant easily 'jam' the stars or a sun shot (unless, of course, it is cloudy....) 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 28, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (15:36)", "body": "And Hi Marci again... Just was at the geochaching website - I might create a couple of 'goody' caches in the surrounding forest preserves! 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (16:03)", "body": "At least it is OUR government doing the jamming and not some malefactor. I am sure at times like this it is necessary to take extraordinary measures. Just when they removed the 100 mile (or was it ten?) built-in error so you could not pinpoint a target, they have to go back to jamming. Off to check your geochaching comment. I'd love to be on one of those."}, {"response": 30, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (16:37)", "body": "Most gps systems are jamming resistant - I think it is more of the 'selective error' to introduce discrepancies in non-mil systems. Also, the old error was 100 meters. This could be overcome by differential gps or by standing REAL still and averaging out the error. 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (22:44)", "body": "Gps do not employ notch filters as a feature on theie equipment? Could one be made to lock it within the 100 meter range? I'm sure they have good reasons for this selective jamming. They ARE supposed to be keeping me safe! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 55, "subject": "Jumbo Jets crash in to World Trade Center", "response_count": 803, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (10:01)", "body": "NEW YORK \ufffd Two planes crashed into the upper floors of both World Trade Center towers minutes apart today in what President Bush said was an apparent terrorist attack, blasting fiery, gaping holes in the 110-story buildings. There was no immediate word on deaths or injuries. The president ordered a full-scale investigation to \"hunt down the folks who committed this act.\" The twin disasters happened shortly before 9 a.m. EDT and then right around 9 a.m. EDT. In Washington, officials said the FBI was investigating reports of a plane hijacking before the crashes. Heavy black smoke billowed into the sky above the gaping holes in the side of the 110-story twin towers, one of New York City's most famous landmarks, and debris rained down upon the street, one of the city's busiest work areas. When the second plane hit, a fireball of flame and smoke erupted, leaving a huge hole in the glass and steel tower. \"Today we've had a national tragedy,\" Bush said. He called it \"an apparent terrorist attack.\" Ira Furber, former NTSB spokesman, discounted the likelihood that it was an accident. \"I don't think this is an accident,\" he said on CNN. \"You've got incredibly good visibility. No pilot is going to be relying on navigational equipment.\" \"It's just not possible in the daytime,\" he added. \"A second occurrence is just beyond belief.\" The towers were struck by terrorist bombers in February 1993, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others. All New York City-area airports were shut down, and several subway lines were immediately shut down. Trading on Wall Street was suspended. \"The plane was coming in low and ... it looked like it hit at a slight angle,\" said Sean Murtagh, a CNN vice president, the network reported. \"I was watching TV and heard a sonic boom,\" Jeanne Yurman told CNN. \"The side of the World Trade Center exploded. Debris is falling like leaflets. I hear ambulances. The northern tower seems to be on fire.\" Thousands of pieces of what appeared to be office paper came drifting over Brooklyn, about three miles from the tower. A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agency is pursuing reports that one or both of the planes were hijacked and that the crashes may have been the result of a suicide mission. The source stressed that the reports are preliminary and officials do not know the cause of the crashes. \"It certainly doesn't look like an accident,\" said a second government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. In 1945, an Army Air Corps B-25, a twin-engine bomber, crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in dense fog. In Sarasota, Fla., Bush was reading to children in a classroom at 9:05 a.m. when his chief of staff, Andrew Card, whispered into his ear. The president briefly turned somber before he resumed reading. He addressed the tragedy about a half-hour later. from AP report"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (10:05)", "body": "It is being reported that one of the towers has collapsed. The White House and other national offices are being evacuated."}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (10:34)", "body": ""}, {"response": 4, "author": "maryw", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (10:42)", "body": "TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AT DROOL IN THE US FROM YOUR FRIENDS IN AUSTRALIA WE ARE THINKING AND PRAYING FOR YOU ALL DURING THIS HORRIBLE MOMENT IN HISTORY. TAKE CARE ALL OF YOU!!! GOD BLESS ALL OF US!!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (10:42)", "body": "Now, there's a report of another hijacked plane headed toward Washington DC. Both World Trade Centers have totally collapsed !"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (10:43)", "body": "This is like the Pearl Harbor of the world's terrorists."}, {"response": 7, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:00)", "body": "Topic 1180 [current]: Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center #84 of 98: Kim Bassett (kimage) Tue Sep 11 '01 (07:52) 26 lines I've been watching ABC coverage through both collapses. Judging from the commentary plus live pictures: - There does not appear to have been a third plane impacting the WTC towers. If there is a third plane, ABC hasn't mentioned it in the last 30 minutes. - For the first collapse, the top floors above the point of impact began collapsing, the stress and failure cascading downwards all the way to the bottom. The second collapse appeared to start from the lower floors, upper floors dropping downwards. - Neither tower toppled significantly to the side; there was worry of a triage center being taken out in the second collapse, but both towers *predominantly* slid downwards. No info about damage or harm to adjacent buildings. - One small plane confirmed hit the pentagon. Scattered talk of a car bomb outside the State Department, including a smoke plume visible in the background of shots of White House evacuations. - No casualty figures as yet. The numbers are likely to be horrifying, from the plane hijacks alone."}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:01)", "body": "From the NYT, reporting on Bush's statements: Mr. Bush who was said to be on his way back from a visit from Sarasota, Fla., to Washington has ordered that \"the full resources of the federal government\" be used to carry out a full investigation to find out who was responsible for the World Trade Center attacks. \"Terrorism against our country will not stand,\" he said, before ending by leading a prayer for victims of the attacks."}, {"response": 9, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:01)", "body": "By Charles Babington washingtonpost.com Staff Writer Tuesday, September 11, 2001; 10:10 a.m. Minutes after two airplanes crashed into New York City\ufffds World Trade Center towers this morning in a what appears to be the gravest terrorist attack ever in America, a large airplane-caused explosion and fire took place at the Pentagon and explosions were reported at the Capitol and the State Department. At about 10 a.m., one of the 110-story World Trade Center towers collapsed, and the second tower collapsed about 30 minutes later. The tragedies stunned the nation and prompted officials, fearing still more attacks, to evacuate the Capitol, the White House, State Department and other federal buildings. Flights were canceled at all major airports in the nation. At about 10:20 a.m., the Associated Press reported the a car bomb explosion outside the State Department, senior law enforceement officials said. Shortly before the Pentagon fire ignited, President Bush called the New York disasters \"an apparent terrorist attack on our country.\" He hastily departed from Florida, where he had scheduled an education speech, and returned to Washington. Early details were sketchy, but the New York attacks seemed certain to cause heavy losses of life and many injuries. There were reports that an American Airlines 767 had been hijacked earlier today on a scheduled flight from Boston to Los Angeles, and apparently was one of the planes flown into the giant towers that dominate lower Manhattan\ufffds skyline. The second crash, which touched off a giant fireball in one of the tower\ufffds upper floors shortly after 9 a.m. EDT, took place as many Americans watched live on television. New York\ufffds airports were quickly closed, the New York Stock Exchange was evacuated, and millions of Americans watched in horror and disbelief as news of the Pentagon fire soon followed. In Florida, Bush pledged to use \ufffdthe full resources of the federal government government to help the victims and their families\" and \ufffdto hunt down and find those folks who committed these acts.\""}, {"response": 10, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:03)", "body": "Topic 1180 [current]: Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center #101 of 101: Gallatin (rickmoffat) Tue Sep 11 '01 (08:00) 3 lines Big explosion at the London Stock Exchange? I'm getting all this via super-slow web feeds, but we've got video footage of huge smoke plumes there? Can anyone confirm? We got the footage off http://news.bbc.co.uk"}, {"response": 11, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:04)", "body": "This is like the Pearl Harbor of the world's terrorists."}, {"response": 12, "author": "maryw", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:07)", "body": "Terry Where are you located? Are you safe? I am in Sydney and watching CNN International and Fox News Cable. It is now 11 am NY time (1 am 12 Sept/Wed Syd time) - they are reporting and showing on screen - 2 Towers now collapsed (I watched the 2nd one collapse!) Am flabbergasted - what can one do?"}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:07)", "body": "Topic 1180 [current]: Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center #105 of 106: Colin Brayton (blindone) Tue Sep 11 '01 (08:02) 11 lines I saw the second attack from an elevated subway station in Brooklyn. The plane just veered into the building and the explosion shot through the building. We all gasped, people were weeping, dude I gave spare change to mutters, \"Tragedy day ...\" My friend Velma was working in the South Tower of the WTC. I just pray that she has not returned from Chicago today. Cannot reach her. Cell phone communications are out here. The plume of smoke is blowing east and south across the river, with fragments of debris shimmering in it: I thought at first it was a fantastic flock of seagulls ... BBC (www.bbc.co.uk) is about the only online news I can get ... I am going downtown Brooklyn to donate blood ... God help us."}, {"response": 14, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:08)", "body": "I'm in Austin, Texas, Mary, our airport is shut down. All planes in the air have been ordered to land at the nearest airport, nationwide, not just in Austin. I'm here with a bunch of folks at work watching Fox News. No work is getting done today, or very little. The horror is mounting and we're staying calm, but this is the worst tragedy in my lifetime in this country."}, {"response": 15, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:09)", "body": "\"What can one do?\" Stay calm and pray."}, {"response": 16, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:10)", "body": "FAA confirms that there are several planes that are currently unaccounted for (evidently hijacked). No telling where this thing is going."}, {"response": 17, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:13)", "body": "I got through to MSNBC. Definitely not new, but here's what they are saying: NEW YORK, Sept. 11 \ufffd Americans reeled in horror Tuesday as the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history sent planes crashing into the World Trade Center in New York, toppling the twin 110-story towers. An explosion later rocked the Pentagon in Washington. The White House, the Pentagon and the Capitol building were evacuated. Military jets patrolled the skies above both cities. The FAA grounded all civilian aircraft nationwide, but not before reports of another large aircraft crashing in Western Pennsylvania. President Bush vowed to \ufffdhunt down the folks who committed this act.\ufffd THE FATE OF those in the twin skyscrapers was not immediately known. Authorities had been trying to evacuate the thousands of people who work in the twin towers, but many were thought to be trapped. \ufffdI swear I\ufffdve never seen anything like this,\ufffd said MSNBC\ufffds Ashleigh Banfield. \ufffdThis whole place is like a complete war zone.\ufffd At the Pentagon, eyewitnesses saw an aircraft crash into part of the sprawling complex. Walls were later seen to have collapsed. An earlier report of a car bomb exploding outside the State Department was later denied. In New York, the aircraft struck minutes apart, starting fires and sending smoke billowing out of the skyscrapers. The top of the south tower later collapsed onto the street below. The first crash happened shortly before 9 a.m. ET. MSNBC.com reporter Martin Wolk, who was inside one of the towers, said the lights flickered and then a loud bang was heard. People panicked and started to flee the building. When they reached the lobby, smoke started to fill the building and people could see debris falling and many cars outside were damaged. \ufffdIt was sheer pandemonium, people were screaming and crying, afraid to go outside because of the falling debris,\ufffd Wolk said. \ufffdWe looked up and it looked like the top 20 floors were in flames.\ufffd Another bystander described a barrage of debris raining down on the sidewalk below. Advertisement Shortly after 9 a.m., a second aircraft was seen crashing into the other tower. Broadcast cameras already watching the scene filmed the second plane as it slammed into the tower and exploded in a huge fireball. A half hour later, President Bush made a brief statement to reporters, calling the disaster a \ufffdnational tragedy\ufffd and attributing it to terrorists. He did not cite any specific terrorist groups but vowed to \ufffdhunt down the folks who committed this act.\ufffd U.S. military jets reportedly took to the skies to shoot down any unidentified aircraft, and congressional leaders were taken to secure locations. A plane was reported to have been circling the Capitol building before the evacuation. American Airlines later acknowledged that one of its flights had been hijacked Tuesday morning shortly after leaving Boston en route to Los Angeles. In the wake of the crashes, New York airports and the Lincoln Tunnel were closed as precautionary measures. The stock exchanges in New York also did not open. Large holes were visible in sides of the 110-story buildings. The tops of the twin towers were obscured by the smoke. Thousands of pieces of what appeared to be office paper came drifting over Brooklyn, about three miles from the tower, one witness said. Click on the image for reports of the terrorism attacks. In an earlier terrorist attack, the center was bombed on Feb. 26, 1993, killing six people and injured more than 1,000 others. Terrorist Ramzi Yousef and three others were convicted of orchestrating the attack. Three other indicted co-conspirators remain at large. Traffic entering New York City from New Jersey was at a standstill approaching the Holland Tunnel as motorists stood outside their cars watching the fire. Across the country, highrises like Chicago\ufffds Sears Trade tower were being evacuated as a precaution. Buildings were also being evacuated in London. The Associated Press contributed to this report."}, {"response": 18, "author": "maryw", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:14)", "body": "Terry Our own Australian Prime Minister is in Washington DC. Am staying calm but busy collecting news. Cannot get on to BBC.UK - for those Spring readers who want a confirmation on the bombing in London."}, {"response": 19, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:16)", "body": "I'll post it as soon as I get it. Some of this stuff may be unconfirmed, read all this with caution. I lot of wild stuff is floating around. I'll post it all and you decide."}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:18)", "body": "rc3.org: September 11, 2001 Part of the Pentagon has collapsed. There are reports that Osama bin Laden warned the U.S. three weeks ago that we would suffer an unprecedented attack. Still awaiting more details on this. ABC is reporting that there was not a car bomb at the State Department after all. The BBC is now reporting that F-16s have been sent to intercept a hijacked plane that is headed for Washington, DC. This must be the plane mentioned earlier. The plane from Pittsburgh that crashed in Somerset County is not the plane that is being intercepted. The BBC is reporting that the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was a 767, not a 747. According to a correspondent in Greece, I hear the following (none of this have I confirmed myself): The first plane was a 747 from American Airlines (capacity 158). (This doesn't sound quite right, 747s hold more than that. Perhaps this plane was a 737 or 767.) The second plane was a 767 from United Airlines. (The BBC is reporting that the UA plane is a 737B.) The plane that hit the Pentagon was a small passenger plane. Another 747 out of Pittsburgh was hijacked, tailed by U.S. fighters, and crashed at Somerset County Airport in Pennsylvania. This may be the plane that I mentioned earlier as being hijacked. (Some are reporting that this plane was shot down.) Both towers of the WTC have now collapsed. No idea whether this was due to further explosions or loss of structural integrity caused by the original explosions. The 911 control center for New York City is (was?) in the World Trade Center. Needless to say, it's down. Yet another plane has been hijacked and is reportedly headed toward Washington DC. All international flights approaching the U.S. have been diverted to Canada. Congressmen have been evacuated to an underground bunker. I've heard many comparisons to Pearl Harbor at this point. Explain to me again why we pump all that money into the NSA and CIA? How did we have no idea that this was coming? A car bomb has exploded outside the State Department. I've now heard from a number of sources that the second tower collapsed completely after it was hit by a third plane (the second to hit that tower in particular). This was just a rumor, there was no third plane to hit the WTC. I'm finding it hard to get to online news sites. You can get a live audio stream from the BBC World Service at Yahoo Broadcast, that's what I'm listening to. Latest news : all flights in the U.S. are grounded, and all planes were ordered to land at the nearest airport. One of the two towers of the WTC has collapsed (at least partially). According to the news, there can be up to 100,000 people in the WTC at any given time. Terrorists have attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon by deliberately crashing planes into them. One of the planes that crashed into the WTC was a hijacked American Airlines 767 out of Boston, I don't know about the others."}, {"response": 21, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:19)", "body": "From Indiatimes.com: 'Bin Laden warned of US attack' LONDON: Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he and his followers would carry out an unprecedented attack on US interests for its support of Israel, an Arab journalist with access to him said on Tuesday. Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper said Islamic fundamentalists led by Bin Laden was \"almost certainly\" behind the attack of the World Trade Center in New York. \"It is most likely the work of Islamic fundamentalists. Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he would attack American interests in an unprecedented attack, a very big one,\" Atwan told Reuters. \"Personally we received information that he planned very, very big attacks against American interests. We received several warnings like this. We did not take it so seriously, preferring to see what would happen before reporting it.\" Atwan has interviewed Bin Laden and maintains close contacts with his followers. ( REUTERS )"}, {"response": 22, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:27)", "body": "NHK sez that CBS reports that 11 planes total have been hijacked, and four are still whereabouts unknown."}, {"response": 23, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:28)", "body": "This topic has been linked to drool, geo and other conferences here temporarily while this story is unfolding. It will be eventually unlinked."}, {"response": 24, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:30)", "body": "FORT WORTH, Texas American Airlines confirmed today that it lost two aircraft in tragic incidents this morning. American said the flights were Flight 11, a Boeing 767 en route from Boston to Los Angeles with 81 passengers, nine flight attendants and two pilots; and Flight 77, a Boeing 757 operating from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles with 58 passengers, four flight attendants and two pilots."}, {"response": 25, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:32)", "body": "This is something that we will all remember in future years, like when JFK was shot, we'll remember where we were and what we were doing when this happened. I was in my car heading to Austin on 183 listening to a sports show when Bucky Goldbolt broke the news and I switched to the local news station to hear more. I was coming up on North Lamar."}, {"response": 26, "author": "maryw", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:33)", "body": "11.28 AM NY Time/1.28 am (Wed 12 Sep)Sydney Listening to AustBroadcastingCorp (AustBC) - a CNN reporter getting live feed (can hear in the background). Reporting follows : United Airlines NY to San Francisco has crashed. in addition to those that were reported on the media earlier... Washington to LAX and Boston to LAX."}, {"response": 27, "author": "aishling", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:34)", "body": "I have been listening to our news in UK since this terrible news broke and the London Stock Exchange and Canary Wharf have been evacuated as a precautionary."}, {"response": 28, "author": "maryw", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:39)", "body": "11.36 AM NY Time/1.36 am (Wed 12 Sep)Sydney AustBC is reporting that the Talliban is reported to have announced that they will be holding press conference soon."}, {"response": 29, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:51)", "body": "Colin Powell time."}, {"response": 30, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (11:55)", "body": "An aside: US attacks slam eurostocks; insurers hit, oil climbs By Sophie Walker and Louise Ireland LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - A series of deadly attacks on U.S. landmark buildings sent European stock markets into a nosedive on Tuesday, with insurance shares taking the brunt of the pressure while investors scrambled to scoop up oil stocks."}, {"response": 31, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:03)", "body": "Some street celebrations in Palestine."}, {"response": 32, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:08)", "body": "I got through to MSNBC. Definitely not new, but here's what they are saying: NEW YORK, Sept. 11 \ufffd Americans reeled in horror Tuesday as the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history sent planes crashing into the World Trade Center in New York, toppling the twin 110-story towers. An explosion later rocked the Pentagon in Washington. The White House, the Pentagon and the Capitol building were evacuated. Military jets patrolled the skies above both cities. The FAA grounded all civilian aircraft nationwide, but not before reports of another large aircraft crashing in Western Pennsylvania. President Bush vowed to \ufffdhunt down the folks who committed this act.\ufffd THE FATE OF those in the twin skyscrapers was not immediately known. Authorities had been trying to evacuate the thousands of people who work in the twin towers, but many were thought to be trapped. \ufffdI swear I\ufffdve never seen anything like this,\ufffd said MSNBC\ufffds Ashleigh Banfield. \ufffdThis whole place is like a complete war zone.\ufffd At the Pentagon, eyewitnesses saw an aircraft crash into part of the sprawling complex. Walls were later seen to have collapsed. An earlier report of a car bomb exploding outside the State Department was later denied. In New York, the aircraft struck minutes apart, starting fires and sending smoke billowing out of the skyscrapers. The top of the south tower later collapsed onto the street below. The first crash happened shortly before 9 a.m. ET. MSNBC.com reporter Martin Wolk, who was inside one of the towers, said the lights flickered and then a loud bang was heard. People panicked and started to flee the building. When they reached the lobby, smoke started to fill the building and people could see debris falling and many cars outside were damaged. \ufffdIt was sheer pandemonium, people were screaming and crying, afraid to go outside because of the falling debris,\ufffd Wolk said. \ufffdWe looked up and it looked like the top 20 floors were in flames.\ufffd Another bystander described a barrage of debris raining down on the sidewalk below. Advertisement Shortly after 9 a.m., a second aircraft was seen crashing into the other tower. Broadcast cameras already watching the scene filmed the second plane as it slammed into the tower and exploded in a huge fireball. A half hour later, President Bush made a brief statement to reporters, calling the disaster a \ufffdnational tragedy\ufffd and attributing it to terrorists. He did not cite any specific terrorist groups but vowed to \ufffdhunt down the folks who committed this act.\ufffd U.S. military jets reportedly took to the skies to shoot down any unidentified aircraft, and congressional leaders were taken to secure locations. A plane was reported to have been circling the Capitol building before the evacuation. American Airlines later acknowledged that one of its flights had been hijacked Tuesday morning shortly after leaving Boston en route to Los Angeles. In the wake of the crashes, New York airports and the Lincoln Tunnel were closed as precautionary measures. The stock exchanges in New York also did not open. Large holes were visible in sides of the 110-story buildings. The tops of the twin towers were obscured by the smoke. Thousands of pieces of what appeared to be office paper came drifting over Brooklyn, about three miles from the tower, one witness said. Click on the image for reports of the terrorism attacks. In an earlier terrorist attack, the center was bombed on Feb. 26, 1993, killing six people and injured more than 1,000 others. Terrorist Ramzi Yousef and three others were convicted of orchestrating the attack. Three other indicted co-conspirators remain at large. Traffic entering New York City from New Jersey was at a standstill approaching the Holland Tunnel as motorists stood outside their cars watching the fire. Across the country, highrises like Chicago\ufffds Sears Trade tower were being evacuated as a precaution. Buildings were also being evacuated in London. The Associated Press contributed to this report."}, {"response": 33, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:11)", "body": "Terror attacks paralyze Washington, New York By Shelley Emling and Marilyn Geewax Cox News Service Tuesday, September 11, 2001 WASHINGTON \ufffd An apparently coordinated series of terror attacks struck the nation's capital and its largest city this morning, destroying both towers of the World Trade Center in New York and shutting down most government operations. An airliner struck the north tower of the 110-story World Trade Center about 8:45 a.m. EDT, followed about 18 minutes later by a second apparently deliberate crash into the south tower. A little more than hour later, the south tower collapsed, and the north tower folowed it. In the capital, a fire forced the evacuation of the Pentagon, reportedly after another aircraft struck the building. A car bomb explosion and fire was also reported at the State Department, which was evacuated along with the Capitol and the White House. The Federal Aviation Administration suspended all aircraft takeoffs across the country. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attacks. According to unconfirmed reports, a Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for at least one of the attacks. \"There will be hell to pay in the weeks and months ahead,\" said Neil Livingstone, a terrorism expert in Washington. \"This basically amounts to a declaration of war.\" President Bush, visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Fla., said, \"I've ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act. Terrorism against our nation will not stand.\" The sound of sirens on Capitol Hill added to the tension as vehicles headed to emergencies in the city. Downtown streets were gridlocked as an air of panic began to spread among workers who poured from buildings. Smoke billowed from the Pentagon, just across the Potomac River from the District of Columbia. \"I saw the tail of a large airliner. . . . It plowed right into the Pentagon,\" said an Associated Press Radio reporter. \"There is billowing black smoke.\" Shortly after the Capitol building was evacuated, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said there was an \"unauthorized plane\" in airspace in the Washington area. \"People are trying to figure out where it is. That's all I can tell you right now,\" Kerry said. In New York, black smoke poured from the international landmark, and paper and debris rained onto the streets. By 9 a.m., thousands of people already were at work on the upper floors of the World Trade Center. Casualties were impossible to determine immediately, but were likely to number at least in the hundreds. Ira Furman, a former spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said it was unlikely the acts were caused by pilot or navigational error. \"It is beyond belief,\" he said. \"Planes can come within a few miles of the World Trade Center, but a pilot would never come this close.\" One witness, Mary Cozza, said she heard a loud \"boom\" before seeing the crash. \"I looked up and saw a plane that looked like it was flying too low,\" she said. \"It looked like it was aimed right at the World Trade Center. We saw the crash. Shattered glass was pouring down. It didn't look like a giant airliner. It didn't look like it was swerving out of control or anything.\" The World Trade Center has been the target of terrorism before. In February 1993 a terrorist bomb rocked the Manhattan skyscrapers. The World Trade Center is one of the nation's most well-known structures located in the heart of the U.S. financial district, one of the city's most heavily populated areas. Many major financial and technology companies are housed here and it's only a 10-minute walk from the U.S. Stock Exchange. The stock exchange suspended trading just after the crash."}, {"response": 34, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:17)", "body": "cnn.com (hard to get to now): AMERICA UNDER ATTACK World Trade Centers collapse after planes hit, 10,000 emergency workers head to scene Plane hits Pentagon, part of the Pentagon collapses American, United both confirm losing two planes each Bush calls trade center crashes terrorist act Federal buildings, United Nations evacuated FAA grounds all U.S. flights, sends trans-Atlantic flights to Canada Israel evacuates embassies U.S.-Mexico border closed Non-essential NATO employees asked to leave Brussels HQ"}, {"response": 35, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:18)", "body": "NEW YORK (CNN) -- Terrorists struck the United States Tuesday morning in harrowing, widespread attacks that included at least three commercial jet crashes into significant buildings. \ufffd In the first attack, a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan shortly before 9 a.m., followed by another plane into the second tower about 20 minutes later. Both towers later collapsed. \ufffd About an hour later, a plane crashed into the Pentagon, part of which later collapsed. \ufffd American Airlines told CNN that it lost two planes in \"tragic accidents:\" Flight 11 from Boston with 81 passengers and 11 crew aboard and Flight 77 from Washington Dulles airport with 58 passengers and six crew aboard. Both planes were en route to Los Angeles \ufffd United Airlines Flight 93 airliner headed from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, crashed near Somerset, Pennsylvania -- police said initial reports indicated no survivors. United also confirmed the crash of Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles. \ufffd The Pentagon, the White House, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Capitol, the CIA and all other government buildings in Washington evacuated. \ufffd President Bush cancelled an appearance in Florida to return to Washington, calling the crashes \"apparent terrorist attacks\" and \"a national tragedy.\" \ufffd In the first ever national ground stop of aircraft, all flights nationwide have been stopped at their departure airports. \ufffd All international flights were diverted to Canada. \ufffd Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, said in reaction to the news of the terror attacks that \"we want to tell the American children that Afghanistan feels your pain and we hope that the courts find justice.\" \ufffd In New York, more than 10,000 rescue personnel rushed to the scene. The entire downtown area of Manhattan was evacuated as far north as Rockefeller Center, according to an official at an emergency command post. \ufffd Israel has evacuated all its missions around the world. \ufffd The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta was evacuated. CDC was preparing bioterrorism teams in case they become necessary. \ufffd Philadelphia landmarks were also evacuated. \ufffd In Chicago, the Sears Tower was evacuated; United Nations in New York evacuated. \ufffd The New York Port Authority said it had closed all bridges and tunnels into the city. \ufffd U.S. stock markets were closed after the New York attacks. \ufffd NATO sent home all non-essential personnel from its Brussels, Belgium, headquarters. \ufffd Border between the United States and Mexico closed."}, {"response": 36, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:25)", "body": "Nation: United plane crashes near Pittsburgh; 3 other flights missing The Associated Press PITTSBURGH (September 11, 2001 11:59 a.m. EDT) - A United Airlines plane crashed Tuesday morning just north of the Somerset County Airport. United said it was also \"deeply concerned\" about another plane, Flight 175, a Boeing 767, which was bound from Boston to Los Angeles. American Airlines said Tuesday it had lost two planes with a total 156 people aboard, Agence-France Presse reported. The United Boeing 757 was enroute from Newark, N.J. to San Francisco. The United plane crashed about 10 a.m. about 8 miles east of Jennerstown, according to county 911 dispatchers, WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh reported. \"It shook the whole station,\" said Bruce Grine, owner of Grine's Service Center in Shanksville, about two and one-half miles from the crash. \"Everybody ran outside, and by that time the fire whistle was blowing.\" United identified the plane as Flight 93. The airline did say how many people were aboard the flight. On behalf of the airline CEO James Goodwin said: \"The thoughts of everyone at United are with the passengers and crew of these flights. Our prayers are also with everyone on the ground who may have been involved. \"United is working with all the relevant authorities, including the FBI, to obtain further information on these flights,\" he said. The Somerset County airport, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, in a small, rural facility that does not handle such aircraft. Because of the attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration had ordered all departing flights canceled nationwide, and any planes already in the air were to land a the nearest airport. The plane crashed shortly after the order was issued. The crash came the same morning that terrorists crashed two planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the twin 110-story towers collapsed. A plane also hit the Pentagon in Washington"}, {"response": 37, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:26)", "body": "By BETH GARDINER, Associated Press LONDON (September 11, 2001 12:02 p.m. EDT) - Terrorist strikes in the United States quickly reached a global audience Tuesday, with leaders around the world watching live coverage of an aircraft hitting the World Trade Center. Audiences were transfixed by the awful images from New York, where both World Trade Center towers collapsed. Key indexes sank on world stock markets and some European airlines canceled flights to the United States and recalled planes already in the air. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to the American people over the terrorist attacks, calling the \"terrible tragedies,\" the Kremlin press service said. \"This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today,\" said Prime Minister Tony Blair, who canceled a speech at a trade union conference. \"It is perpetrated by fanatics who are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of human life, and we the democracies of this world are going to have to come together and fight it together.\" President Jacques Chirac of France, in a nationally televised statement, called the attacks in the United States \"monstrous\" and expressed his solidarity with the American people. \"France has just learned of these monstrous attacks, there is no other word for it, that have hit America,\" Chirac said from Rennes, in the western region of Brittany. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his top aides followed the events at his seaside office in Gaza City, gathered around a TV set. \"I send my condolences to the president, the government and the people for this terrible incident,\" Arafat said. \"We are completely shocked. It's unbelievable.\" In Berlin, Foreign Ministry officials huddled in a crisis meeting, and Parliament's vice speaker Anke Fuchs told lawmakers a \"terrible catastrophe\" had happened. Virtually all German TV channels switched to live coverage. \"This is pure mass murder,\" one commentator said. Scandinavian Airlines System, SAS, rerouted three airplanes bound for New York and one for Washington from Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Flights to the United States were suspended from Portugal, and the Belgian airline recalled two flights on the way to the United States, diverted others to Canada and canceled all planned flights to the United States. In Thailand, Suranand Vejjajiva, a spokesman for the office of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said they were watching the news in disbelief. A spokesman for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said: \"The president has been monitoring the events since an hour ago and she condemns what is obviously the worst terrorist attack on a leader of civilized society.\" Broadcasters around the world broke into programming to show images of the disaster. \"It's incredible. I thought I was watching a Hollywood movie,\" said Hong Kong school teacher Doris Tang."}, {"response": 38, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:27)", "body": "Agence France-Presse MOSCOW (September 11, 2001 12:15 p.m. EDT) - Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Bush on Tuesday that the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington \"must not go unpunished\", the Interfax news agency reported. \"The series of barbaric acts directed against innocent people fills us with indignation and revolt,\" said Putin in a telegram to Bush. \"Such inhuman acts must not go unpunished,\" he said."}, {"response": 39, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:30)", "body": "(September 11, 2001 11:18 a.m. EDT) - Timeline of U.S. Attacks - Plane crashes into tower of World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, shortly before 9 a.m. Eastern. - Second plane crashes into the second tower of the World Trade Center, shortly after 9 a.m. Eastern. - President Bush, in Sarasota, Florida, calls the crashes \"an apparent terrorist attack\" and a \"national tragedy.\" - An aircraft crashes near Pentagon, just outside of Washington D-C, in Northern Virginia, about an hour after the attacks in New York. - Government buildings in Washington, including the Capitol and the White House, are evacuated with officials citing a credible threat of a terrorist attack. - The Federal Aviation Administration shuts down all aircraft takeoffs nationwide. - Shortly after 10 a.m. Eastern, one World Trade Center tower in New York collapses, about an hour after being hit by plane. - American Airlines says one of the planes that crashed into the Trade Center was American Airlines Flight 11, hijacked after takeoff from Boston en route to Los Angeles. - Senior law enforcement officials say car bomb explodes outside of State Department in Washington, D-C. Federal protective services later denies car bomb attack occurred. - Financial markets suspend trading in the wake of the attacks. - Officials at Somerset County Airport say a large plane crashes in western Pennsylvania, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, at about 10:00 a.m. - The second tower of the World Trade Center collapses at 10:28 a.m. Eastern. - Fourth explosion rocks the collapsed remains of the World Trade Center, at about 10:38 a.m. - Authorities across the country go on alert, tightening security at strategic facilities and evacuating high-profile buildings. U.S. monuments and museums in Washington DC are closed. - Securities and Exchange Commission says all financial markets are closed for the day."}, {"response": 40, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:50)", "body": "Dan Rather reports Bush is going to make a statement from an Air Force Base in Louisiana in a few minutes."}, {"response": 41, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:51)", "body": "All 4 flights that crashed were apparently bound for California. When did the airlines first realize that something was wrong? The plane from Boston that crashed into the WTC was bound for Los Angeles. Topic 1180 [current]: Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center #199 of 199: Jerry (jmcarlin) Tue Sep 11 '01 (09:47) 6 lines CNN says 4 plans lost/missing: 2 American and 2 united. They said that they *think* that one of them might be one that hit the Pentagon. CNN is also reporting that bin Laden is increasingly being blamed."}, {"response": 42, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (12:51)", "body": "Salon confirms military is at Delta. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/09/11/bombings/index.html There is no higher military alert than Delta."}, {"response": 43, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (13:04)", "body": "I'm on Long Island, 40 miles east of the city...was at work when this happened. several of my friends work in NYC, one of them in 7 World Trade, a building next to tower 2. i'm so scared right now... how could anyone do something like this?! 10K people work(ed) in each of those towers, not counting the tourists, people on the streets, etc. i feel sick."}, {"response": 44, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (13:09)", "body": "I hope your friends are ok Liz."}, {"response": 45, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (13:10)", "body": "People have been comparing this to Pearl Harbor. Most of us were not born at the time of that event. The feeling today's events conjures in me is the fear I lived through in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. At that time, only one man stood between us and WWIII. If we could trace these attacks to one country, we would now be at war. And I doubt that even JFK could prevent it."}, {"response": 46, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (13:11)", "body": "Incidentally, 45-50 thousand people work in the two WTC buildings...not 10K."}, {"response": 47, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (13:18)", "body": "unidentified source: Friend of mine in Scotland, who is monitoring a lot of news feeds and has a bunch of friends in US military bases, is giving me info that I can't find _anywhere_ else- he claims that 12 (!) planes are still en route to the US, not all over the Atlantic, and that are not responding to hails. Anyone know anything about this?"}, {"response": 48, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (13:19)", "body": "Incidentally, 45-50 thousand people work in the two WTC buildings...not 10K."}, {"response": 49, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (13:21)", "body": "I think I heard somewhere that 55,000 or so were killed in the Vietnam war, the toll here is going to be horrorific."}, {"response": 50, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (13:26)", "body": "yes, charlotte..what I meant was 10K per tower in just the offices, minimum capacity. full capacity is closer to 20-25K per tower. it doesn't matter the toll; one life is too much. thanks, terry. I'm praying for all who have friends or relatives in downtown."}, {"response": 51, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (13:40)", "body": "Colin Powell said: \"A great tragedy has struck our country and it will not affect the nature of our society,'' he said. ``We'll find out who's responsible for this and bring them to justice.''"}, {"response": 52, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (13:48)", "body": "Agreed, Liz. Sorry I misunderstood. Also sorry my post appeared twice. Must have been cause I \"refresh\"-ed. Terry, thank you for making this site available when it is impossible to get news elsewhere."}, {"response": 53, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:00)", "body": "Yes, Terry, thanks for the email about the topic ..I'm in the UK, we turned on the TV just after the first plane hit and have been following the news since. Our prayers and thoughts are with all those concerned and I hope that my friends on Spring get good news about people they know. In the City of London the Stock Exchange closed, and several major buildings were evacuated and the City closed. All US banks and institutions here are on high alert. There were reports an hour or so ago about another plane crash in Pittsburg which appeared to be related. Also a report of another hijack plane heading for Washington ..... sorry I don't have any details ...anyone else have any news??"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:03)", "body": "In Hawaii, on the Bis Island, all schools are closed as is the airport (throughout the state, actually). On Oahu, all military personnel are to report to their stations, Pearl Harbor all ships staffed. Arizona Memorial closed. This is ghastly. Beyond anything Hollywood could dream up. Be calm, stay home, donate blood if you can, (even call for it here) and PRAY. Thanks Terry!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:03)", "body": "There's news of this above in this topic. The other hijacked plane went down, it was the same plane that went down in Pittsburgh. \ufffdI JUST SAW the building I work in come down,\ufffd said businessman Gabriel Ioan, shaking in shock outside City Hall a cloud of smoke and ash from the World Trade Center behind him. \ufffdI just saw the top of Trade Two come down.\ufffd MSNBC.com producer Steve Johnson, standing about six blocks from the towers in lower Manhattan, was also an eyewitness to the collapse. \ufffdAbout five minutes before the tower fell you could see people jumping from the upper floors. I watched six either fall or jump ... The police rolled up [in] vans. Suddenly the top of [the tower] just shattered into tens of thousands of pieces. You could see the walls peel away. The whole thing just disappeared. Then the smoke came up. The cops started yelling, \ufffdGet back! Run! Get away!\ufffd I ran inside a hotel, and it went black outside because of the dust.\ufffd Nearby a crowd mobbed a man on a pay phone, screaming at him to get off the phone so that they could call relatives. Dust and dirt flew everywhere. Ash was 2 to 3 inches deep in places. People wandered dazed and terrified. \ufffdI was in the World Financial Center looking out the window,\ufffd said one woman. \ufffdI saw the first plane and then 15 minutes later saw the other plane just slam into the World Trade Center.\ufffd Firefighter Jimmy Grillo, with Ladder 24, had blood running down his face from an injury to his nose. Grillo was in the lobby of the World Trade Center after the first blast and when the second blast came, he was trapped in the debris. \ufffdWe crawled in the debris toward the light\ufffd. There\ufffds a bunch of guys still trapped in there,\ufffd Grillo told MSNBC.com\ufffds Johnson. \ufffdPEOPLE SCREAMING ... DIVING FOR COVER\ufffd Another eyewitness, AP newsman Dunstan Prial, described a strange sucking sound from the Trade Center buildings after the first building collapsed. \ufffdWindows shattered. People were screaming and diving for cover. People walked around like ghosts, covered in dirt, weeping and wandering dazed.\ufffd \ufffdIt sounded like a jet or rocket,\ufffd said Eddie Gonzalez, a postal worker at a post office on West Broadway. \ufffdI looked up and saw a huge explosion. I didn\ufffdt see the impact. I just saw the explosion.\ufffd Morning commuters heading into Manhattan were stranded as the Lincoln Tunnel was shut down to incoming traffic. Many left their cars and stood on the ramp leading to the tunnel, staring in disbelief at the thick cloud of smoke pouring from the top of the two buildings. On the streets of Manhattan, people stood in groups talking quietly or watching on television at ground-level network studios. Terror attack on the U.S. \ufffd Main story \ufffd MSNBC's Wolk: On the scene in Manhattan \ufffd Witnesses describe terror in the towers \ufffd World reacts with horror \ufffd Markets, airports, U.S. border shut after terror \ufffd Newsweek: An icon destroyed \ufffd Exodus in Washington \ufffd Live video coverage \ufffd Discuss the attacks on MSNBC's bulletin board Joan Goldstein, communications project leader for The Associated Press, was on a bus from New Jersey at about 8:50 a.m. when she saw \ufffdsmoke pouring out of the World Trade Center building. We said, \ufffdOh, my God! The World Trade Center\ufffds on fire!\ufffd Perhaps 10 minutes later, \ufffdAll of a sudden, there was an orange plume, a huge explosion. It shot out the back of the building. Everybody on the bus was just moaning and gasping,\ufffd said Goldstein, who wept and trembled as she spoke. The plume was from the second plane, but she didn\ufffdt see the plane because of the thick smoke. She tried to call friends who work there, but couldn\ufffdt get through. \ufffdIt was the most horrible thing I\ufffdve ever seen in my life,\ufffd said Goldstein. GIVING BLOOD At St. Vincent\ufffds hospital in Greenwich Village, people waited in long lines to give blood. They were taken according to blood type. Hundreds of donors \ufffd perhaps as many as a thousand \ufffd looked like a tapestry of New York citizenry. \ufffdThere are all kinds of people \ufffd young and old, black and white, students and professionals waiting to give blood,\ufffd said Harry Barandes, a graduate student at New York University. Ambulances continued to arrive intermittently. The shock on people\ufffds faces was shaken free only by the sirens that blared in the background. Meanwhile, volunteers wandered among those waiting in line, asking if anyone was hungry or thirsty. \ufffdThere are really kind citizens passing out food and water,\ufffd said Barandes. \ufffdThe outpouring of goodwill is amazing.\ufffd Further from the disaster scene in upper Manhattan signs went up that blood drives had begun. SURREAL SCENE, EERY CALM \ufffdThere\ufffds a huge smell of char in the air. People are walking with masks, with their shirts off. People trying to get out [of the area] any way. People are crying, watching in disbelief. [It\ufffds] total shock.\ufffd \ufffd MICHELLE PRELI MSNBC.com producer In Brooklyn, across the East River from Manhattan, \ufffdthe situation is chaos,\ufffd MSNBC.com producer Michelle Preli reported. \ufffdThe Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge are "}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:03)", "body": "German stock exchange threatened by bomb attack. They are closing."}, {"response": 57, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:04)", "body": "\ufffdTHERE HAVE BEEN the most terrible, shocking events taking place in the United States of America within the last couple of hours,\ufffd British Prime Minister Tony Blair told union leaders in Brighton, southern England. \ufffdWe can only imagine the terror and carnage there and the many, many innocent people who have lost their lives.\ufffd Blair, who had been due to deliver a key policy speech, cut short his visit and said he wanted to return immediately to London to monitor the unfolding events. He sent his deepest condolences to Bush and the people of America."}, {"response": 58, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:05)", "body": "\ufffdThis mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today. It is perpetrated by fanatics who are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of life,\ufffd he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the attack as a terrible tragedy, according to Kremlin spokesman Alexei Gromov, and convened a special meeting of his defense and security officials. Putin also offered his condolence to the United States. France\ufffds president, Jacques Chirac, in a live televised address, condemned the attacks and expressed his solidarity with the American people. Advertisement \ufffdFrance has just learned of these monstrous attacks \ufffd there is no other word for it \ufffd that have hit America,\ufffd Chirac said from Rennes, in the western region of Brittany. In Berlin, Foreign Ministry officials huddled in a crisis meeting, and Parliament\ufffds vice speaker, Anke Fuchs, told lawmakers a \ufffdterrible catastrophe\ufffd had happened. Virtually all German TV channels switched to live coverage. \ufffdThis is pure mass murder,\ufffd one commentator said. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder convened an unprecedented meeting of his security council, and air traffic authorities said all European flights to the United States had been suspended. The council meets rarely and is the government\ufffds main body in times of crisis. Besides Schroeder, it includes the foreign, defense and interior ministers and several others. MIDEAST REACTS Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his top aides followed the events at his seaside office in Gaza City, gathered around a TV set. \ufffdWe completely condemn this serious operation. ... We were completely shocked. It\ufffds unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable.\ufffd An anonymous caller told Abu Dhabi television earlier on Tuesday that a radical Palestinian group was responsible for the attacks, but the group later denied any involvement. Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel\ufffds Army Radio it was \ufffdsimply a tragedy.\ufffd"}, {"response": 59, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:06)", "body": "The Pittsburgh plane crash is the one they believe was also headed for Washington DC, with some speculating that it might have either the Capitol (building) or White House as its target. How they could come to that, I'll never know. Two planes were targeted at the WTC (one at each tower). The Pentagon is an enormous building (sq ft-wise). All the planes (4) had California as their destination which would give them the maximum amount of fuel any aircraft would have onboard."}, {"response": 60, "author": "loveliz", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:11)", "body": "Hi, just heard that a passenger from the PA crash had a cell phone in the bathroom and reported that they were being hijacked...\"this is not a hoax\". guess not. Also heard that there were 6-8 planes in the air that would be allowed to land at the Nashville airport. My daughter's fiance's sister is an intern at St. Vincents. She is alive. Just heard that there were over 100 victims there, 2 dead, but I had heard earlier that the vestibule was stacked with fatal burn victims. Hope that was a rumor. love,Eliz"}, {"response": 61, "author": "ToSch", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:11)", "body": "All the German and European people want to express their condolence to the people of the United States! Our prayers are with the victims and their families! God bless you! Your Tobias"}, {"response": 62, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:23)", "body": "From the eyewitness reports on the BBC it appears that the second plane flew slowly and directly into the south tower of the WTC. Its likely that the terrorists flew the planes. CNN is talking about the lead time that air traffic controllers had that the planes were off course. One made a sharp turn at Albany and headed south. They are also talking about the tapes of the controllers trying to talk to the planes. Just speculation right now - the tapes are not yet available."}, {"response": 63, "author": "BlackB", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:24)", "body": "My thoughts and prayers are with those whose families are affected by these tragedies. All German TV channels do reports now. Something however disturbs me in some way: in the first chapter of Tom Clancy's novel \"Executive Orders\" a plane crashes into the capitol and kills everyone inside. Seems like the wrong people read that book.... BlackB"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:27)", "body": "BlackB, I've had the same thoughts about giving the truly warped mentally bad ideas for their terrorism in books and movies. FCC, federal agencies shut down after terrorist attacks Along with most other federal agencies, the FCC has closed its offices and sent its employees home in the wake of apparent terrorist attacks this morning in New York City, Washington, DC, and elsewhere. The FCC has issued no emergency declaration nor other special instructions to the Amateur Radio community. The ARRL has advised amateurs to stay alert to instructions from local authorities. President George W. Bush has announced that the US military is on high alert in the US and abroad. US air traffic was shut down after two airliners struck the twin towers of the 110-story World Trade Center in New York City this morning within a short time of each other. The building's towers partially collapsed in the wake of the collisions. An aircraft subsequently crashed into the Pentagon, and another aircraft crashed near Pittsburgh, reportedly after being hijacked. American Airlines and United Airlines both have acknowledged that they have lost planes this morning. More than 260 died in the crashes. Thousands were believed injured in New York City; there's no estimate on the number killed. New York City-Long Island Section Emergency Coordinator Tom Carrubba, KA2D, said there has been no request for any Amateur Radio Emergency Service response at this time, although hams have been requested to assist the American Red Cross. New York City's emergency management offices are located in the World Trade Center. He said he was alerting all amateurs, especially ARES and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service personnel, to get prepared and to stand by. Carrubba said he's in the process of setting up a command channel on a linked repeater system that will cover the area from New York City into Long Island's Suffolk County. Kenneth Goetz, N2SQW, reports New York State RACES is operational on 3.993.5 and 7.248 MHz handling emergency and governmental-type traffic. He asked amateurs to avoid these frequencies. In the Washington, DC, area, Virginia SEC Tom Gregory, N4NW, says Virginia ARES has been put on alert but has not yet been activated. ''I've asked everyone to monitor the emergency frequencies and to keep a full tank of gas.'' He said the attack on Washington has resulted in a massive traffic jam as workers in DC attempt to leave the capital; cellular telephone communication was next-to-impossible. While no emergency nets are in operation yet, Gregory said all repeaters would be available as well as 7.243 MHz and 3.947 MHz on HF. Virginia RACES reportedly has been activated at the state emergency operations center at Virginia State Police headquarters in Richmond as a precautionary measure. The FCC's Riley Hollingsworth today suggested that the amateur community remain calm but ready. He invited amateurs monitoring any suspicious radio activity to contact him, and he will relay relevant information to the FCC duty team. He advised monitors to tape such radio traffic, if possible. Should a state of war be declared, Amateur Radio would not automatically be shut down. This requirement was eliminated prior to the Gulf War."}, {"response": 65, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:38)", "body": "first chapter of Tom Clancy's novel \"Executive Orders\" The kamikaze plane attack on the Capitol Building was the plot of the book before that one: Debt of Honor. The pilot was part of the plan, which took out the entire government. You don't need eyewitness reports on BBC. The second plane attacking the WTC is on video on every news channel. You could probably have watched it live, just as you could watch both towers crumble. It is very likely the terrorists took over flying the planes as no US pilot - even with a gun pointed at his/her head - would steer into any occupied building."}, {"response": 66, "author": "Becka", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (14:53)", "body": "Karen: my Mom mentioned the book this morning. Ominous. I cannot explain my grief and sadness. My thoughts are with all those people, so, so many lives that are forever changed. I can't get out of my head that some people actually saw the horrified faces of those passengers in those hijacked planes - waiting to die in vain. And all those people who went to work and never came back. God bless us all."}, {"response": 67, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (15:04)", "body": "I'm in Atlanta. The area around CNN Center which is in downtown Atlanta, has been sealed off and all public access to CNN Center itself has been stopped. I guess as lots of the the world gets it global/US news coverage news via CNN, it is a facility the authorities don't want messed with. All malls, schools and universities here etc are closed. At 3pm Eastern, 10-12 international flights are still in-bound to the US and have been given clearance to land. They are all from the Pacific Rim countries in bound to West Coast Cities."}, {"response": 68, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (15:09)", "body": "President Bush just landed at Straegic Airforce Command in Nebraska. So it appears the President and his advisors, are not going to orchestrate a response to this catastrophe from the White House."}, {"response": 69, "author": "ToSch", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (15:12)", "body": "German TV Broadcasting stopped for 15 Minutes!!! \" A moment of silence for our Brothers and Sisters in the USA!!!\""}, {"response": 70, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (15:19)", "body": ""}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (15:41)", "body": "Inbound planes from the Orient are being allowd to land in Honolulu if they have gone beyond the point of no return, but with a fighter escort from Hickam AF Base. Nothing is outbound. Even the tour planes are grounded. Nothing is in the air!"}, {"response": 72, "author": "LauraT", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (15:42)", "body": "More stuff about the cellphone call, from an AP News story: \"An emergency dispatcher in Westmoreland County, Pa., received a cell phone call at 9:58 a.m. from a man who said he was a passenger locked in the bathroom of United Flight 93, said dispatch supervisor Glenn Cramer. \"We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!\" Cramer quoted the man as saying. The man told dispatchers the plane \"was going down. He heard some sort of explosion and saw white smoke coming from the plane and we lost contact with him,\" Cramer said.\""}, {"response": 73, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (15:42)", "body": "So it appears the President and his advisors, are not going to orchestrate a response to this catastrophe from the White House. No. The book on these types of situations calls for moving the president, et al, around to *secure* locations. Unfortunately, our wonderfully free press is publicizing all the known locations for government backup ops. Why don't they just give the addresses?"}, {"response": 74, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (15:43)", "body": "The airports are closed until noon tomorrow BTW."}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (15:47)", "body": "Thanks Tobias and all who have expressed condolences. Actually we are all one little world. We need to relearn the art of getting along on a tiny planet. This American appreciates your concern very much!"}, {"response": 76, "author": "LauraMM", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (15:48)", "body": "Why don't they just give the addresses? I know! Geez, here they are saying he's in a secret location, in NEBRASKA??? hello???? They evacuated all of Boston today. The one question I ask, that no one an answer is HOW THE HELL DID HIJACKERS GET PAST SECURITY AT LOGAN????????????? (Makes one wonder about the security personnel at the airport now?)"}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (15:49)", "body": "Karen, exactly so. The set the plane down and suddenly we all knew exactly where he was! I hate that!!! The media needs to learn some responsibility!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:06)", "body": "stratfor.com: The Intelligence Failure 1745 GMT, 010911 By George Friedman As of this moment, what is clear is that a substantial number of civilian aircraft were hijacked this morning by pilots with sufficient ability to maneuver those multi-engine aircraft into collisions with major buildings. The flights originated at a number of airports. Each incident required the presence of at least one and probably more hijackers, each prepared to die in the attack. Mounting an attack of this sort is not simple. In the case of the World Trade Center, the collapse of the towers indicates massive delayed explosions. This means either the planes were loaded with explosives or that massive explosive charges were planted in the buildings to go off later. This is supposition, but a secondary explosion is a necessary factor for explaining the collapse. This means many individuals had to be involved in the operation. There had to be a coordinated effort spanning several continents, timed to occur at roughly the same time. At best guess, dozens of people had to be involved. Messages had to flow, coded or otherwise. Yet no human intelligence sources appear to have been among or near the conspirators. No significant messages were intercepted or decoded. For U.S. intelligence to have missed an operation of this magnitude indicates one of two things. First, the competence of U.S. intelligence is overrated or the willingness of policymakers to heed warnings has declined. In either case, the system is badly broken. Alternatively, the sophistication of terrorist counter-intelligence has improved to such an extent that the prior level of expertise bought to bear is simply no longer sufficient. Whether we are facing a decline in U.S. intelligence capability or an increase in counter-intelligence blocking the United States, Sept. 11, 2001, will go down as one of the major intelligence failures in U.S. history. George Friedman is the founder and chariman of STRATFOR."}, {"response": 79, "author": "LauraT", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:15)", "body": "From salon.com Sam Skinner, former transportation secretary under George Bush Sr., directed a \"security enhancement task force\" after Pan-Am flight 103 was shot down in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. I'm looking back on my experience after Pan Am flight 103. We created offices for security in several departments and we enhanced the methods at every airport, so I'm very, very surprised that they were able to accomplish this. The fact that they could get through three airports on four flights without anyone picking it up, shows that this was a very well-organized attack -- probably with some inside help. We've concentrated most of our time and energy on international aircraft. We focused on that threat because they may have been coming in from international airports where security was lax, or going to international locations, in which it would be easier to hide people who would profile as terrorists. So the fact that four domestic flights were hijacked is entirely shocking. I don't know of any scenario that allowed for this. This is not an amateur performance. It must have had support from strong organizations or governments. You would have had to have at least four inside people, at airports with access to planes with full fuel loads. You'd have to have them plant weapons at the same moment without being detected. And I find it hard to believe that any American pilot would deliberately fly into the building, so I also have to assume that they managed to get an experienced pilot on board. The timing of it is also amazing. All the planes were close to their targets but the crashes occurred at around the same time. This was very well-executed, and as a result, security measures as we know them today will be enhanced substantially. What that will be is too early to tell. But there will a lot of money spent on devices; I also think there will a higher scrutiny of employees and of cargo. You can get pretty draconian, and I think we'll see that whole new level of scrutiny. This is different than what we've ever seen in the past. This isn't just blowing up airplanes, this is using airplanes as a tool of death."}, {"response": 80, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:17)", "body": "Covering the Attack An Eyewitness Speaks By Ed Hashey Special to Poynter.org [Editor's note: Ed Hashey is a member of Poynter's visiting visual journalism faculty and an affiliate of Mario Garcia New Media Group.] I keep playing this back in my head. It just did not seem real, nor would I ever have imagined such a series of events happening this morning. It is true: Everything seemed to be in slow motion. I arrived here Sunday night with my wife. She was going to spend the whole week with me for my birthday. I reported to work yesterday as a consultant at The Wall Street Journal. Monday we just came up with the work load for the next few weeks. I came back to the hotel at midtown Manhattan, had dinner with my wife, Jeanne, where we discussed our day's events and plans for tomorrow. Jeanne said she want to come in with me to the downtown area on Tuesday morning and visit the top of the World Trade Center. She found a two-dollar discount coupon. The next morning we both ate breakfast and my wife decided she was not feeling well enough to join me this morning. So I left for work this morning at 8 a.m. I got on the number 9 train from Times Square, and read a chapter in my book. Before you knew it, it was 8:40 a.m. and I was at the World Trade Center station at Cortland Street. I got off the train, walked up to the street exit, and right as I saw daylight, I heard a huge explosion and then many pieces of metal debris, some the size of car hoods, were falling all around me and a very large crowd of people. We all responded by trying to go back in the train station exit, but there were too many people trying to exit, and so we all squeezed against the side of the World Trade Center. After a while, the debris stopped falling. We crossed Liberty street, and looked up and saw the first tower engulfed in flames. Eyewitnesses said a plane had crashed into the building high up. Then to my horror, I started seeing people jump to their deaths. As each person fell, I started praying. Many people fell, and we were not sure where to go or what to do. Then a loud noise of an aircraft became apparent, and I remember seeing a large airline jet smash into the next tower, followed by many flaming pieces falling all around us and many people being struck by debris and burning wreckage. I ran into an entryway of the building across the street and saw debris take out windows. A large crowd of pedestrians outside was hit as they were on their way to work. At that point the police ordered a mass evacuation, and I remember thinking this was a terrorist act. It was just too coincidental too be anything else. I decided to just start running north up Broadway. By the time I reached Chambers Street, I kept trying phones to call my wife and say I was OK, but nothing was working, all circuits busy, my cell phone did not work. So I just got on a train and ran to my hotel room. My wife was in tears, and I was shaking like a leaf. I as still shaking and very sad, then I witnessed the towers falling on the news channel, and I just stood there in disbelief. I am sad, angry, nervous, happy to be alive, but humbled by others' deaths today. I can't stop seeing the visions of bodies falling. I still pray for their families, but the world will never be the same again. I'm very sorry to be writing this."}, {"response": 81, "author": "rachael", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:18)", "body": "UK news is saying that the US President has gone to Nebraska because that's HQ when the USA is on a war footing. To all my old friends in the US, and the new ones I've made here on Spring recently, my thoughts and prayers are with you on this dreadful day. Take care, all of you."}, {"response": 82, "author": "winter", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:27)", "body": "HOW THE HELL DID HIJACKERS GET PAST SECURITY AT LOGAN????????????? Well, considering these were domestic flights, I suspect that security is a little more lax. I remember listening to an NPR story not too long ago about how airport security employees have such a high turn-around, and most aren't unionized.... I'm in LA where things are eerily quiet. Schools are still in session, but they've cancelled a lot of events tonight (the Madonna concert, Latin Grammys, MLB games, etc..). Some production studios (the major ones anyway) have also shut down for the day. I'm trying to get work done, but it's just too difficult."}, {"response": 83, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:27)", "body": "Alas, Babylon... Maryland has been declared a state of emergency. The military post S. works on is at its highest security level, there are massive amounts of agent stored there. Schools, colleges, programs, everything is closed. Hospitals have canceled all elective surgeries to stay ready for victims. I was in D.C. on Monday, sight-seeing with my aunt from Dallas. She tried to call us all afternoon, but there were no available circuits until 3:30. It is so quiet--there's not a car on the road (everyone's watching TV I guess) or a plane in the sky. Weird. I can't even process it all yet."}, {"response": 84, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:28)", "body": "pastebomb alert -- bruces *8-( that peculiar parade-going-in-the-wrong-direction has passed ... maybe we'll find out what that was, at some point ... people are now out of their offices for lunchtime, still almost no traffic, but the shops are open and people are hanging out watching the clouds of smoke ... the view towards the south is unimaginable ... much more jet activity ... -Ken ______________________________________________ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://post.openoffice.de/mailman/listinfo/spectre NYC, Fifth Avenue & 19th St. ... people are walking in large crowds in the middle of Fifth Ave., heading south, as if in a parade. Many more have been standing, looking south, for hours now, as if waiting for something else to happen. It's just clouds of smoke now where the WTC used to be... Some people have radios, portable tvs. Few people's cell phones are working. Apart from the downed antennae, the circuits are just jammed, regular phones are jammed, too. The only traffic seems to be ambulances. Apart from the sirens, it is eerily quiet for midday ... fighter jets are flying overhead now ... -Ken ______________________________________________ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://post.openoffice.de/mailman/listinfo/spectre another meaning for spectre.... Pandemonium envelops reporters incapable of expressing much more than shock. The highways in lower Manhattan are loaded with an exodus of refugees escaping downtown. Electricity has been shut don in lower Manhattan. Airports are in chaos. Everything has a surreal siege status. No official word other than a short statement from Bush early this morning. His plane from Florida will not go to Washington where Chaney is \"in charge\" at the White House. more soon, Tim ______________________________________________ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://post.openoffice.de/mailman/listinfo/spectre i can just report, that here at ZKM in karlsruhe we are also totally shocked, following the news on German tv and CNN for hours and don't know really what to say as angst is emerging of the events. what will happen now? will this event to exponentiate the use of terror between south and north, between east and west? most embarassing seems the clean, totally emotion-less face of G.W. Bush. cannot believe that this is an eqiuvalent reaction of his. (is he in drugs?) best to all, anke ______________________________________________ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://post.openoffice.de/mailman/listinfo/spectre ______________________________________________ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://post.openoffice.de/mailman/listinfo/spectre The national guard has been called up in NYC -- Its like a war zone, they are predicting the death toll as being in the thousands -- 40,000 people work in the two towers and were in the process of arriving for work when the first plane struck -- I witnessed the collapse of the second tower, from a roof about a half mile away-- the city is shut down -- there are still three or 4 more planes unaccounted for -- the pentagon was also attacked and severely damaged -- with large lost of life-- a plane was brought down near camp David -- I placed part of the blame for this turn of events on the Bush administration's failure to intervene in Palestine, his failure to send observers and his failure to condemn Israel's policy of assination against Palestine leaders. This is truly a horror. Saul ______________________________________________ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://post.openoffice.de/mailman/listinfo/spectre . y"}, {"response": 85, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:31)", "body": "Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ bruce -- i'm putting together a piece for tomorrow's paper on how the internet reacted/helped/hurt in the face of this disaster. i need help. if you see or hear anything that would feed into this story, please let me know. if you've got anything to say, please give me a quote. i am working out of my home. 540 347 1960. garreau@well.com or garreauj@washpost.com. i'll need to start writing 4-ish eastern time, although i can push later than that for good stuff. please pass the word to anybody else who can help. thanx. joel Joel Garreau The Washington Post 202 334 6269 voice 202 334 5587 fax garreauj@washpost.com \"But I keep hitting these typewriter keys. What a magician is the subconscious. If only it would work regular hours.\" -- Raymond Chandler, \"The Long Goodbye\" 21ST CENTURY DETERRENCE AND TODAY'S ATTACKS Washington, D.C., September 11/PRNEWSWIRE/ -- Responding to today's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Robert David Steele, author of ON INTELLIGENCE: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World (AFCEA, 2000), said: \"The tragedy of today's coordinated attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon--with other targets expected shortly--must be regarded as the Pearl Harbor of the 21st Century. Our national leaders have wasted ten years since the end of the Cold War, failing to understand that it is instability, poverty, oppression, disease, and cultural conflict that require the USA to expend billions of dollars on stabilizing and nurturing the Whole Earth.\" Mr. Steele goes on to note, \"\"As Robert McNamara and others have pointed out, 'at least two thirds of the world's people--Chinese, Russian, Indians, Muslims, and Africans'--see the United States as the single greatest threat to their societies, because of our 'intrusive, interventionist, exploitative, unilateralist, hegemonic, hypocritical practices' of 'economic imperialism' and 'intellectual colonialism'.\" The capitalist party is over. It is time to give Colin Powell what he needs to save the world--only by saving the world can we save America.\" On this occasion Steele and Professor Stephen Cimbala have re-released their earlier warning on the need for a new concept of deterrence in the 21st Century. Their joint communiqu can be downloaded quickly (539 words) from http://www.oss.net/Papers/white/TodaysAttacks.doc . Mr. Steele concludes: \"America is the greatest country in the world, but we have lost sight of our moral foundations, failed to listen to our great strategists Zbigniew Brzezinski and Stephen Metz, and completely closed down the U.S. Department of State and our foreign assistance endeavors. It is time for a Global Marshal Plan that respects the fact that the Whole Earth is a closed system; that does not trivialize today's attacks as terrorist events; and that wakes up to the fact that money cannot buy security in a world where asymmetric power is now in the hands of the people that we have been ignoring and sidelining for over a century.\" Mr. Steele is available for telephone interviews at (703) 242-1700. His high-resolution photograph can be downloaded from http://www.oss.net/Papers/white/AuthorPhoto.gif . Various white papers on the 21st Century threat and what to do about it are at http://www.oss.net/White.html . SOURCE: Open Source Solutions, Inc. -0- 09/11/2001 /CONTACT: Robert Steele, OSS CEO, 703-242-1700, or bear@oss.net/ /Web site: www.oss.net"}, {"response": 86, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:35)", "body": "Ted Olsen's wife Barbara, ironically, was on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. ABC News reported that a KAL airliner had been \"forced down\" and boarded by the military in Canada - not sure when. Barbara Olsen was able to contact her husband by cell phone, and reported that all the passengers had been herded to the rear of the aircraft."}, {"response": 87, "author": "rachael", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:41)", "body": "Apparently its being suggested now that the 4th plane, that crashed near Pittsburgh, was intercepted and brought down by US forces after it failed to respond to air traffic control and refused to identify itself, and it was on a heading for Camp David - am in UK but have just had this from a friend in Chicago - does anyone know if this is true?"}, {"response": 88, "author": "moulton", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:42)", "body": "Bush is at Offutt AFB in Omaha, home of the Strategic Air Command. Boston has not been evacuated. Logan Airport has been closed and people have been asked to leave. The only aircraft flying over Boston today are delta-wing military aircraft, perhaps an F-15 or F-16. I'm gonna guess that the hijackers somehow disabled the crew, perhaps with gas, which would be easy enough to get through security, and then took over the controls of the plane. This is just my own personal speculation. I expect our nation will now enter a phase of crisis fatigue."}, {"response": 89, "author": "rachael", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:44)", "body": "Apparently its being suggested now that the 4th plane, that crashed near Pittsburgh, was intercepted and brought down by US forces after it failed to respond to air traffic control and refused to identify itself, and it was on a heading for Camp David - am in UK but have just had this from a friend in Chicago - does anyone know if this is true?"}, {"response": 90, "author": "moulton", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:45)", "body": "I have heard no reliable reports of how the fourth plane went down near Pittsburgh, but it's possible that it was forced down by an interceptor, as this plane was on a considerably later timetable than the first three. The military would have had time to respond."}, {"response": 91, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:45)", "body": "A govt spokesperson has just refuted that rumor about shooting down the plane."}, {"response": 92, "author": "LauraT", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:46)", "body": "Rachael, all the info I've heard about the Pittsburgh plane has been unconfirmed, but I've also heard the same thing. Hopefully there will be more details later."}, {"response": 93, "author": "moulton", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:46)", "body": "Terry, is your server on GMT?"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:46)", "body": "Outside Omaha, Nebraska is the Strategic Air Command. Then there is Norad just outside of Colorado Springs. Been there. They don't welcome stangers!"}, {"response": 95, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:48)", "body": "from unidentified source: An attorney named Tom Humphries is being interviewed by Jennings now. He was on the 57th floor in one of the buildings--they cut into the interview in progress so I'm not sure which one--oh, it would have been the first building hit. 57th floor. Took him 45 minutes to get down the staircase. He said people were calm, and helping each other. Asked about whether there were lights, he said, \"Last time there weren't, this time there were.\" (God. \"Last time.\") Only one stairwell was open, the others were blocked by smoke. The first building took some time before it imploded, and he thinks a large number of people got out. (The second building got hit later and collapsed sooner. I hope they were already evacuating after the first building was hit.) Jennings: \"I must say I'm amazed how calm you are, after having been in the first bombing in 1993 and now this.\" Humphries chuckles briefly. \"I'm happy to be here.\" Humphries says the evacuation down one narrow stairway was \"a recipe for disaster\" but everyone's calmness kept it from becoming one. He talked to someone from Tower 2, who was on the 88th floor. They started evacuating after Tower 1 was hit, and that person got out. He says, \"I think the tragedy is, the police and fire people who were trying to help people were right under the building when that happened\"--the collapse--\"They were at ground zero.\" I think this simple interview has started to break through my wall of shock. Listening to a very calm man who was in the building and walked down 57 floors with thousands of heroically self-composed people describe that. I am, goddamnit, starting to believe this."}, {"response": 96, "author": "moulton", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:49)", "body": "Terry, is your server on GMT?"}, {"response": 97, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:49)", "body": "Yeah, I need to fix that again. I keep setting it for CST and it reverts to GMT."}, {"response": 98, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:53)", "body": "More unidentified reports: source a: Some terrorism experts are saying that the only ones who could pull this off are the CIA-trained fundamentalist terrorists in afganistan... we taught them to take down the local great satan -- the USSR -- and now they are turning their attention to the rilly rilly great satan. They do not have headquarters. they do not have known leaders. they are good with technology. They can organize. they are willing to die. they don't care if someone else takes the blame. This second hand from someone who is interviewing experts and pundits. source b: My guess is that the hijackers flew first class, maybe spent some time in the Red Carpet Club before boarding the flights, and didn't appear to be palestinian freedom fighters. Maybe Japanese businessmen if the announcement by the Japanese Red Army is accurate. And another report: BBC News reporting that a building close to the site of the WTC is at risk of collapse as a result of the towers collapsing."}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:55)", "body": "Outside Omaha, Nebraska is the Strategic Air Command. Then there is Norad just outside of Colorado Springs. Been there. They don't welcome stangers!"}, {"response": 100, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (16:57)", "body": "They are identifying it as Building 7"}, {"response": 101, "author": "rachael", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:00)", "body": "BBC suggested that the hijackers were probably domestic passengers not international, ie boarded in the US, because passports aren't needed for internal flights (obviously)"}, {"response": 102, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:00)", "body": "This just in, in a day full of \"this just in's\" BBC News reporting that a building close to the site of the WTC is at risk of collapse as a result of the towers collapsing. So is NPR. BBC now reporting that the building is the 40 storey Sallmon Bros building. And that it has collpased now."}, {"response": 103, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:07)", "body": "No other building has collapsed yet."}, {"response": 104, "author": "rachael", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:08)", "body": "blood donor centres running low - all who can are urged to donate as a matter of urgency"}, {"response": 105, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:25)", "body": "The third building (#7) has collapsed. CNN just confirmed. Also says there are fears about another (#5). CNN is interviewing Tom Clancy now."}, {"response": 106, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:26)", "body": "I don't know if you have seen this: Knives on Board (techstudies2000) Sep 11, 16:49 Tuesday Sept. 11, 2001; 4:35 p.m. EDT Flight Attendants Stabbed Aboard Twin Tower Kamikaze Plane A violent struggle with knife-wielding terrorists took place outside the cockpit of one of two hijacked planes before it slammed into the World Trade Center Tuesday morning, a flight attendant on board reported to American Airlines before her death. \"A flight attendant on that plane was apparently able to call the American Airlines operations center to tell them that two flight attendants had been stabbed and that the perpetrators had broken into the flight deck,\" ABC Radio News reported. The plane was enroute from Boston to Los Angeles when it was commandeered by terrorists for its kamikaze mission."}, {"response": 107, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:28)", "body": "That last building was 47 stories tall."}, {"response": 108, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:31)", "body": "CNN is now showing some new closeup footage (from PAX TV) of the second plane hitting. What it shows is the plane going right into the building and possibly coming through the other side."}, {"response": 109, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:32)", "body": "As to the Pittsburgh plane being brought down \"intentionally\"....I heard that its suspected target was Camp David and, that fighter jets took it down before it could reach its target. I have no problem understanding how these terrorists and their weapons, could get past airport security at Logan and Dulles, if their security is anything like it is here in Atlanta. Totally disinterested kids, poorly trained and motivated man the security check points here. It would take very little effort to \"sneak\" something past them. The security level at US airports here in the US is very, very, very minimal compared to that at European airports. In Europe, only passengers can enter the Departure Concourse and Lounges. You can not meet someone directly off a plane in Europe, the way you can over here. Also, in Europe you go thru many, many checkpoints and security before you get on your flight. I just wish to God, US airports were as fussy. Twoyearsago I flew from the US to Ireland via London, but I flew back via Glasgow. As I was sitting in the airport in Glasgow, waiting for my flight to Chicago,I was paged on the airport intercom to report back to the American Airlines desk. I was then grilled by the security forces for 2 hours in a tiny little room, which terrifed me witless. Apparantly, an Irish person entering the UK thru one airport and exiting thru another, raised a red flag on some security services computer and I was deemed a \"terrorist threat\". As the IRA was very active in the UK at the time, I did my best to understand that these were just people who were doing their job. After my nerves and heart rate returned to normal, I was actually kind of happy that the security forces were taking such \"extreme\" steps to ensure the safety of airline passengers. I would love to see US airports be equally vigilant. Sorry if I am waffleing....I'm just at a loss, like the rest of you, in trying to comprehend the horror of this carnage."}, {"response": 110, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:49)", "body": "ABC's Claire Shipman reporting the President is on his way to Washington and will make a statement tonight; \"We're told he's angry about what happened and very much wants to make a statement\". Congressional leaders also returning from their safe haven, also will make statements. \"There's apparently a real premium here in Washington among the leaders of presenting a face of business as usual,\" she says. The leadership has been warned of the risk but feels it's important to be in Washington. The President will be landing in D.C. where they feel the airspace is as safe as anywhere in the nation. Vice President Cheney will then be removed from the White House as a precaution, though the First Lady is expected to join her husband."}, {"response": 111, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:53)", "body": "To: \"Red Rock Eater News Service\" Subject: [RRE]attack From: Phil Agre Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 13:58:22 -0700 Here are some more URL's relating to the attacks this morning. a backup site that generally works when cnn.com does not http://robots.cnn.com/ video of the second plane in New York high bandwidth: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/091101plane1-large.html low bandwidth: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/091101plane1-small.html people's stories http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAVZWE2IRC.html Hotline from the National Journal can be accessed today for free http://hotlinescoop.com/web/content/hotline.htm http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/hotline/extra/lastcall/ this site will register people who are safe http://do.millennium.berkeley.edu/ you can query this site to search for people http://do.millennium.berkeley.edu/find.php military analysis http://www.janes.com/ photos from Brooklyn of the buildings collapsing http://www.indigo23.com/ an architect discussing how the buildings collapsed http://home.actlab.utexas.edu/pipermail/discuss/2001-September/000226.html Engineers Shocked By Towers Collapse http://chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-010911kamin-towers.story"}, {"response": 112, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:54)", "body": "a great archive of World Trade Center stuff at"}, {"response": 113, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:58)", "body": "7 WT is the one that just collapsed. I was in that building just a few months ago, visiting my friend. He works (or worked...I don't know if he's ok yet...I hate this) for the city Office of Emergency Management. He took me into the \"Bunker\" where the command center was. it was built to withstand the blast of a nuclear bomb, a category 5 hurricane, and some other disasters. I don't think they ever thought that tower 1 would collapse onto it. they have cut us off on Long Island. The only way we can get off (if we needed to) are the 2 Connecticut ferries from Pt. Jefferson and Orient Point. They have closed all of the highways, and most of the schools. People are panicing, unfortunately...long lines at the supermarket, gas stations (which I did myself), etc. If this is what war feels like... *sob* thank you all for being here and reading this, and for all of your thoughts. it helps more than you know."}, {"response": 114, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:58)", "body": "Regarding the stability of the towers: From Before foundation excavation began, the 500 x 1,000-ft site was enclosed by a 3-ft-thick, 70-ft-high concrete cutoff wall built by the slurry trench wall method and keyed 3 ft into rock. Excavation was complicated by two nearby subway tubes that had to be supported without service interruption. A six-level basement was built in the foundation hole. Excavation of 1.2 million cu yd of earth and rock created $90 million of real estate for project owner, the Port of New York Authority. Instead of being trucked off for disposal, spoil was used to create 23 acres of fill in the Hudson River adjacent to the WTC site. It has since been developed as Battery Park City. The twin towers had the world's highest load-bearing walls. Seattle-based structural engineer Worthington, Skilling, Helle and Jackson designed them as vertical cantilevered steel tubes. Exterior columns are 14-in. square hollow box sections spaced 39 in. center-to-center. Spandrels welded to the columns at each floor make them into huge Vierendeel trusses. Each tower is 208 x 208 ft with a column-free interior between the outer walls and the 79-ft x 139-ft core."}, {"response": 115, "author": "rachael", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (17:58)", "body": "further to Beth's post above about security, here's an article from the BBC comparing security at US and UK airports - having been pulled over twice in the UK as a frequent UK/Ireland flyer, one body search, one bag search, I'd agree its annoying at the time, but then you think you'd rather be safe and you're glad it happens ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1538000/1538682.stm"}, {"response": 116, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (18:01)", "body": "There are explosions in Kabul now. Missiles, tracer fire. Antiaircraft fire."}, {"response": 117, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (18:08)", "body": "4 F-16s just flew over my house... and now Kabul... Lord help us all."}, {"response": 118, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (21:48)", "body": "Some incredible photos. http://www.alternet.org/graphics/story_hirez/terrorist1.jpg http://www.alternet.org/graphics/story_hirez/terrorist2.jpg http://www.alternet.org/graphics/story_hirez/terrorist3.jpg http://www.alternet.org/graphics/story_hirez/terrorist4.jpg http://www.alternet.org/graphics/story_hirez/terrorist5.jpg http://www.alternet.org/graphics/story_hirez/terrorist6.jpg http://www.alternet.org/graphics/story_hirez/terrorist7.jpg http://www.alternet.org/graphics/story_hirez/terrorist8.jpg http://www.alternet.org/graphics/story_hirez/terrorist9.jpg"}, {"response": 119, "author": "WinniePeg", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (21:50)", "body": "I am still in shock over today's events and wondering how this could have happened. I am in Canada and think this is the first time I have EVER heard of the Cdn/USA border being closed. I am amazed at how much security has gone into place so quickly. All airports shut down (only taking diverted overseas flights that were to land in U.S.) In our small city, streets to airport are all blocked--no one allowed into or out of airport. Extra police/customs are in place at border already. Cdn.fighter jets had to escort two Korean Air/Lines into Whitehorse airport today when they did not respond to hail. In a total state of disbelieve! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN??"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (21:54)", "body": "San Francisco Bay and its bridges and industries and Alameda are all being partolled by AWACS planes this night. There are frightened citizens there, and I worry for them, as well. We are ALL in a state of total disbelief. They have stopped selling stuff on QVC and HSC out of respect... That has to be a first."}, {"response": 121, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (22:06)", "body": "It happened because we didn't answer many wake up calls. It happened because minimum wage people do security at airports. It happened because we were thinking about a missle defense system instead of tightening up our obvious security holes. Ebay is full of people selling ghoulish mementos and wtc related domain names. I'm still in shock, I've been channel surfing the major networks, ABC is the only one that hasn't given this whole thing a big garish name. Peter Jennings and Diane Sawyer are doing some pretty good, calm, balanced coverage. Bush's speech made it clear we won't just go after the terrorists but those harboring the terrorists. This is the beginning of a campaign on worldwide terror."}, {"response": 122, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (22:08)", "body": "http://news.mpr.org/features/200109/11_newsroom_terrorist/ has photos and also live radio clips. The image of the plane slicing through (from the other side of the building) is shocking. It's in the national images slideshow, the caption reads: \"An amateur photographer was snapping a photograph of the damage to one World Trade Center tower at the instant when a second airliner crashed into the other tower. (credit pending) \" From: info@kauf.com Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 02:47:49 +0200 To: david@trufun.com Subject: Press release: Help for terror victims by Internet Ladies and Gentlemen Victims and their relatives of the terrorist attacks can get help by Internet. At http://www.wtchelp.com or http://66.33.42.252 they can add a special notice for searching a person and get further information. The Internet page was developed by the company Kaufcom for the WTC Help Organization. Within shortest time, further information and auxiliary functions will be provided to offer a fast and easy help. The WTC Help Organization was found at the 11th of September 2001. Our goal is it to support the victims and their relatives with the best possible help by using the new medias. The WTC Help Organization stays in contact with many other organisations. Patrick Hofer WTC-Help Organization Neue Winterthurerstr. 30 CH-8305 Dietlikon Switzerland Fax: +41 1 888 43 16 Email:hofer@kaufcom.ch"}, {"response": 123, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (22:15)", "body": "Orrin Hatch said a month a go they knew there was going to be a big attack. Barbara Walters is reporting this and Peter Jennings is appealing on him to explain this more clearly. Hatch is saying he has the real data that Ohsama Bin Ladin did this. He's saying we have about 24 hours to act and round up the terrorists before they go underground."}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (22:40)", "body": "There is not a message board anywhere that has not talked about this. Every single Yahoo club to which I belong is talking about it. Mostly how numb everyone feels. Non-US people reacting with sadness and condolences and the same determination to win this match. Don't mess with those I love. I am ready to do what must be done!!!"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (22:53)", "body": "From Reuters"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (22:54)", "body": "http://reuters.com/ go look at the large photo... it is astounging!"}, {"response": 127, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (23:09)", "body": "Subject: report from NYC... Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 5:36 PM From: Michael McDonough To: Bruce Sterling It started at 8:45 AM with the missile-like scream of something flying too low and fast across the city's heart, followed by a thump that shook the ground. Something is wrong. Minutes later, a second thump. The city empties into the streets. TVs come alive with live video feeds of the planes striking the south sides of the towers. I photograph the fires from my SoHo roof, capturing the north sides on film. The fire has penetrated the towers and is licking up the facades, bright orange tongues through inky black smoke. But the towers are not the towers, they are one tower and one smoky billow the size of an atomic cloud. People are jumping from the upper stories of the remaining tower. A short time later, now on the streets, my wife and I are talking to strangers, exchanging information got from blaring car radios. Mid-sentence, the second tower implodes before our eyes, only a few blocks away, glass shards blowing out from the smoky, collapsing core. Like nightmarish snow, they glisten and sparkle, then disappear. On a normal day, over 100,000 persons pass through the WTC. We have just seen a large number of them vaporized. Debris, chunks of the buildings the size of city buses and automobiles rain down onto the streets of Lower Manhattan. The collapses at first take the tops of the towers. In a matter of seconds, the remaining, lower reaches are infernos. The facades of the towers have fallen onto the surrounding streets. A woman in the hotel next to the towers reports seeing legions of firefighters, police, and medical personnel disappeared beneath the rubble in an instant. Now the explosions have killed not only those in the towers, but those trying to save them on the ground. Elsewhere in the city, as the day grinds on, businesses and shops are closed, locked tight with security gates in place. All civilian vehicular transportation in and out of the city stops. The tunnels are sealed off and empty. The bridges are available for those who want to hike out of the city. At early evening I walk the police cordons around lower Manhattan. On the local streets, urgent laser printed pleas for blood donations are taped to mailboxes and street lamps. Black SUVs with darkened windows scream through intersections in long lines, with sirens and flashing lights. Ambulances from New Jersey and Long Island, and Upstate New York--townships 60 miles and more outside of New York City--course the streets; 20, 30 at a time, they move, heading north to hospitals and triage centers. Military planes dart overhead, then disappear. The city is an uneasy silence broken on occasion by piecing, crackling sounds, warnings and urgent communications. Thousands of people stare blank-eyed and quiet as they watch the buildings all over downtown burn. Dozens of construction workers loaded on trucks--welding kits, steel barriers, men and material--head south, to ground zero. Fire engines line the west side arterial roads, empty, their occupants fighting the out-of-control fires on foot. Military vehicles start to appear. The trucks and cars near the center are shattered, crushed, lost in a hail of ash and metal and concrete. New fires start. Smoke billows easterly, against white smoke against the blue sky of our mid-September day. More buildings are burning. Another flaming, 40 story pile falls. We are helpless; we watch. Cars are burning. Mercury from a million fluorescent lights, PCBs from miles of electrical components, dioxin from football fields of synthetic carpets and miles of PVC piping placed throughout the complex, a toxic, now gray soup belching from the flaming, collapsing hulks. It is as if the city has lost its arms, and is staring blankly at where they used to be, finding flaming, smoking voids in their stead. Michael McDonough New York City 9/11"}, {"response": 128, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (23:15)", "body": "from another board: scutmonkey Posted On 09/11/01 07:55PM I have a friend that works for Delta Airlines HQ here in Atlanta that person had a couple things to say. One is that the plane over Pennsylvania was intentionally run into the ground by the pilot. All four of those aircraft had radio communications and were describing what was happening at least in the beginning. They issued special emergency codes as well. The pilots locked the cabin doors, but there is a key with the flight attendants that is hidden in a different place on each flight. The terrorist began stabbing crew members and passengers until someone told them where it was. The crew believed that this was a typical hostage and ransom situation and gave up the keys. When the pilots of the Pennsylvania plane realized it wasn't from the other incidents they crashed the jet."}, {"response": 129, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Tue, Sep 11, 2001 (23:36)", "body": "I went into a hospital meeting at 7:30am and came out at 9:00am (CST) this a.m., only to discover that the world was suddenly going to hell! Here in middle Tennessee, the lines are growing longer outside the gas stations...the small town streets are crowded with cars trying to fill up and beat the iminent gas hikes that are rumored to occur by morning. A neighbor works close to the Tennessee/Alabama line and was told that gas in Alabama had shot up to $10.00 a gallon.....jeez....BTW, Thanks to all of you who have expressed condolences on this board. Your support is greatly needed and appreciated!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (01:56)", "body": "The Boston Herald is breaking some amazing details: WAR: Hub terror suspects ID'd: Bush vows retaliation after devestating attack by Ed Hayward, Tom Farmer and Cosmo Macero Jr. Wednesday, September 12, 2001 Authorities in Massachusetts identified at least five Arab men as suspects in yesterday's terror attacks launched from Logan International Airport, seizing in the central parking garage a car laden with Arabic-language flight training manuals, sources said last night. Two of the men, whose passports were traced to the United Arab Emirates, were brothers, one of whom was a trained pilot, a source told the Herald, speaking on condition of anonymity. At least two other suspects flew to Logan yesterday from Portland, Maine, where authorities believe they had traveled after crossing over from Canada recently. Once in the air, the hijackers in one plane began killing flight attendants in order to lure a pilot from the cockpit and seize the plane, said one source. ``They started killing stewardesses in the back of the plane as a diversion. The pilot came back to help and that is how they got into the cockpit,'' said the source. The source could not specify whether those events took place on the American Airlines flight that left Logan, or the United Airlines flight. Both planes were plunged into the World Trade Center roughly an hour after they departed Boston. The suspects had no guns, but used shaving kits and other carry-on luggage to smuggle knife-like weapons made up of plastic handles embedded with razor blades, sources familiar with last night's developments said. That finding is consistent with reports of a flight attendant's cell-phone call from one of the doomed airliners. ``People were calling from the plane saying they were getting killed, calling 911,'' said one source. ``One stewardess called her husband to say goodbye.'' Authorities were led to the rental car by a civilian who got into an altercation with several Arab men as they were parking their car, identified by sources as a Mitsubishi sedan. The man, whose name was not available last night, called state police from an out-of-state airport after his own flight landed yesterday and he learned planes hijacked from Logan had been involved in attacks that toppled the World Trade Center's twin towers, crippled the Pentagon and downed another airliner in Pennsylvania. The car, rented from National Rental Car, was secured yesterday by the FBI and authorities have prepared a search warrant. It was unclear when the warrant would be served. State police interviewed more than 130 people at the airport yesterday, as America launched what is expected to be the largest criminal investigation in its history. Investigators suspect the two brothers identified by Bay State investigators were aboard United Airlines Flight 175. The terror plot included the hijacking and crashing of four airliners, including one into the Pentagon, where the Arlington, Va., fire chief estimated the death toll at up to 800. In New York last night, Mayor Rudolph Guiliani told reporters some people are alive in the rubble of the trade center complex, and there was an unconfirmed report of a cop being pulled out alive last night. There was also a report that survivors trapped in the collapsed buildings were making cell-phone calls. A horrified nation witnessed the shocking carnage as the World Trade Center's ``North Tower'' burned and exploded after it was struck just before 9 a.m. by Los Angeles-bound American Airlines Flight 11, which departed Boston's Logan Airport at 7:59 a.m. with 81 passengers, two pilots and nine flight attendants. A second jet - United Airlines Flight 175, that left Logan for L.A. at 8:14 a.m. carrying 56 passengers, seven attendants and two pilots - was captured on video as it sliced through the ``South Tower'' and unleashed a massive fireball just after 9 a.m. Just moments before the first crash, air traffic controllers heard the lone voice of the terror plot speaking from the cockpit of one doomed aircraft. ``We have more planes, we have other planes,'' a voice alleged to be that of a hijacker could be heard saying through a microphone activated by a pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, the Christian Science Monitor reported on its Web site. Establishing the death toll could take weeks. The four airliners alone carried 266 people, none known to survive. At the Pentagon, as many as 800 people could be dead, including plane victims. Roughly 50,000 people worked at the World Trade Center and there was an hour available for evacuations. But the toll already appeared staggering for the men and women who worked to save lives. A firefighters union official said an estimated 200 firefighters had died. An estimated 87 police officers were missing. Within two hours of the initial Trade Center crash, the fiery nightmare gave way to mind-numbing grief, as both towers imploded, raining thick dust, glass shards, metal chunks and human remains on the streets below. As t"}, {"response": 131, "author": "Renata", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (03:43)", "body": "This is beyond words, and beyond understanding. I'm still trying to find words to tell you what I feel about the unspeakable, unimaginable. My thoughts are with all who suffer, the innocent victims, and their families and friends, and with the American people. I send my heartfelt condolences from Germany - we are all with you. Whatever the intention was of this senseless killing, it goes empty: it will unite - has already united - all freedom-loving people all over the world. Take care all of you. Renate"}, {"response": 132, "author": "Anek", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (04:44)", "body": "I was at work yesterday when my colleague called me to tell that WTC in NY collapsed and that Pentagon was on fire. I couldn't believe in it. I thought he told me a stupid joke. Everything reminded of some films or books, but not real life. But then I went to news website and the truth struck me with shock. Today I've read your news reports and can't stop thinking about the people trapped in the burning building and those who were caugh in the hijacked planes. The senseless cruelty and detailed preparation of the operation is sth beyond my understanding. I'm joining in grief with everyone and I do hope than anything like this will not happen again."}, {"response": 133, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (04:47)", "body": "More on United Flight 93 from today's Miami Herald: Passenger called wife from cell phone shortly before Pittsburgh crash By Paul Rogers and Lisa Fernandez Knight Ridder SAN JOSE, Calif. (12:30 a.m. EDT) -- It might have been the final resistance of a doomed pilot. Or a heroic struggle by a Bay Area passenger. Or a miscalculation by terrorists. But if there was one glimmer of good news amid the numbing enormity of Tuesday's terrorist attacks, it shined in the wreckage of a United Airlines 757, a flight once bound for San Francisco and instead now strewn across a remote field in the coal country of southwestern Pennsylvania. Unlike three other commercial jets that were purposely slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, United Flight 93, for some reason yet unknown, did not hit a terrorist's target Tuesday morning and did not kill thousands of people. The flight crashed instead at 10:06 a.m. EDT in a wooded area 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, two hours after it left Newark, N.J. All 45 people on board were killed, said Bill Crowley, a special agent with the FBI in Pittsburgh. Among them were 38 passengers, five flight attendents and two pilots. Minutes before the fiery impact, at least two passengers telephoned from the plane. One man phoned 911, yelling to dispatchers \"We are being hijacked! We are being hijacked!'' before the signal was lost. The other, Tom Burnett, 38, the vice president of a Pleasanton, Calif., medical devices company and father of three children, called his wife, Deena, and may have indicated he and other passengers were about to attempt to overpower the hijackers. Burnett told his wife that somebody on the plane had been stabbed, said Father Frank Colacicco, of St. Isidore's Church in Danville. \"We're all gonna die, but three of us are going to do something,'' Burnett told his wife, according to Colacicco. He added: \"I love you honey'' before the call ended. FBI agents were interviewing members of the family Tuesday night. The FBI said that 40 agents and more than 150 other investigators were combing the crash site as darkness fell, including agents from the Department of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the FAA and the Pennsylvania State Police. Like the three other doomed jets that took off, and then suddenly veered off course, United Flight 93 sharply turned south after nearing Cleveland. One Congressman told Knight Ridder that some investigators believe the plane's hijackers were attempting to crash into either Camp David, the presidential retreat located 80 miles south of the crash site, at Thurmond, Maryland, or the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. \"There was concern that it was heading in the direction of Washington, D.C.,'' said Rep. Jim Moran, D-Virginia. Moran said that Capitol police named the two potential targets in a briefing he received from them. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, described Tuesday as a national tragedy and the scope is only just beginning to sink in. \"At Pearl Harbor, there were 2,000 people killed,'' Feinstein said. \"This could be tens of thousands.'' United Airlines did not release the passenger list from Flight 93 on Tuesday. At least one other Bay Area resident was confirmed dead, a female student at Santa Clara University. The name of the woman, a junior, was not being released, pending notification of her family, said Barry Holtzclaw, a spokesman for the university. \"I'm shattered by this,'' said Holtzclaw. \"''The scale of it, the enormity of it, the buildings and the loss off life. The mood of the campus tomorrow will be very very somber.'' It may be weeks before it is known what happened in the doomed flight, experts said. \"It fits the same pattern of the other ones,'' said a high-ranking FAA official. \"The moves of the plane are similar to what you would see if a struggle or some violent problem occurred in the cockpit.'' Gary Joseph, who co-pilots United 747-400 flights from San Francisco to Shanghai, said he believes the pilots aboard Flight 93 tried to prevent the terrorists from taking control of the aircraft. \"They train you to do whatever they say, but that only goes so far,'' Joseph said. \"If he had any idea what they were planning, I'm sure he tried to fight them off.'' Joseph said a pilot may try to make sharp turns and dive . . . much the way initial radar records show the plane did in its final minutes in the air . . . to throw a would-be hijacker off balance. \"There's been cases where they do that and get control back of the plane. But a jet can only take so much of a dive before it starts to fall apart, I don't know.'' Joseph said it wasn't clear whether the crew was a San Francisco-based one or a New York-based group, because the airline has crews stationed in each city. No family members showed up at San Francisco International Airport to greet the passengers at its normal 11:15 a.m. arrival time, said Ron Wilson, spokesman for San Francisco International Airport. That is possibl"}, {"response": 134, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (06:10)", "body": "Hi all First off, I extend my deepest sympathy to all who lost loved ones in today cowardly attacks. Second I call for a cool headed response (NOT one of a deranged lunatic hopping around like a crazed devil barking orders). I know that many of you are outraged and that some want war, but BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY THIS: HASTE NEVER HAS AND NEVER WILL PAY OR BEGIN TO PAY FOR WHAT HAPPENED. Be patient and let the United States Government establish it's priorities and wait until they find AND confirm the culprits. Then AND ONLY THEN, will it be safe to let the Pentagon of the leash. I am still coming to grips tonight some 14 hours after Mum tipped me off that the WTC twin towers had been destroyed by a 767 and a 757 and that the Pentagon had been hit by another 767. Although I now understand what happened the SHEER scale of planning that must have gone into the attacks, tell me one thing only: The person/s who masterminded this evil have a monumental hatred for all things American. They are the sort of people who should be put on show trial in front of the whole nation, and assuming they are found guilty, should be executed in public. Rob"}, {"response": 135, "author": "olzuza", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (09:42)", "body": "Hello everyone, I am from Poland, when I heard the news yesterday I was stunned - I thought it was a kind of a joke and all those pictures which looked like taken from some movie. I am still in shock as well as my family and friends. I extend my sympathy too all Americans and people who lost someone important and loved. It's a tragedy for whole world and I hope that nothing else like this would never take place. take care all of you who are in the middle of this tragedy and please,remember that whole civilizated world is with you. Love, Alexandra"}, {"response": 136, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (10:18)", "body": "\"Taliban rulers deny bin Laden's involvement\" http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/11/taliban-reax.htm Olzuza, we are all feeling the sadness today, yesterday we were numb with the shock of this horrible attack on America. This is unprecedented, the biggest thing that has happened in my lifetime. unidentified source: \"there's a specific code (7700) a pilot dials in when being hijacked, which causes all sorts of bells and whistles to go off on a controller's screen. *That* would be the reason those guys made them turn them off. Not stupid, at all. Vile, despicable cretins, yes. A plane goes off course, there's a time lag to 1) notice it, 2) inquire, 3) request correction or further explanation, 4) decide there's a threat, 5) measure its gravity, and 6) take action. The first five steps are covered by dialing-in 7700, a motion in the cockpit that's not inconsistent with any other miscellaneous fiddling with knobs and switches necessary to fly the plane."}, {"response": 137, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (10:28)", "body": "http://www.wi2600.org/mediawhore/mirrors/sept-11-problems/asu/www.asu.net/wtc/otherpics/wtc35.jpg http://www.wi2600.org/mediawhore/mirrors/sept-11-problems/asu/www.asu.net/wtc/otherpics/ This one is horrible: http://www.wi2600.org/mediawhore/mirrors/sept-11-problems/asu/www.asu.net/wtc/otherpics/wtc55.jpg A tower about to fall:"}, {"response": 138, "author": "curious", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (10:45)", "body": "To find out more about donating online, check: Red Cross and Helping.org"}, {"response": 139, "author": "curious", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (10:46)", "body": "oops, typo, the Red Cross is located at http://www.redcross.org/"}, {"response": 140, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (11:11)", "body": "I just can't watch TV anymore. I have to take a break from the unending surreal shots of the planes hitting the towers. Those of you at Drool know I'm from the NY area. As a child, I watched the towers go up. Yesterday I watched them come down. Like Liz, I know people who worked there and in the nearby Wall St. area. If you've ever visited downtown NYC, you saw the size of these buildings. If you went up to Windows on the World, the public restaurant, you experienced how high they were. Yesterday, one of our local newscasters felt himself important enough to provide encouragement by declaring 'we made it through Oklahoma City and Columbine and we'll make it through this.' Not to minimize those other tragedies, but the enormous numbers of victims who lost their lives yesterday cannot be compared to those other incidents. I now live outside DC (quite a distance from the Pentagon). Our normally quiet skies were filled with military aircraft yesterday. All's quiet again today. My sister works in upper Manhattan. I'm still trying to find out if she made it out of the city last night. I'll be back to the TV soon because I am fascinated by reports about the many calls made from the planes, how the FBI is progressing in their investigation (too much too little too late, IMO), information as to how these sociopaths pulled this off and stories from the survivors. Lastly, I am trying to wrap my mind's eye around a picture of the NYC skyline without the towers. I drove past them on the Jersey side every day for years. I could see them from almost every town in which I've lived. I saw them this past Sunday and thought 'it's good to be home'. Their absence will forever be a reminder of yesterday's events and the lives lost."}, {"response": 141, "author": "curious", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (13:04)", "body": "Dear Heavenly Father, We are moved by the alarming news and crisis that our country is facing. This, the greatest nation, founded in the belief that \"In God We Trust\" and the \"Land of the Free\". Please have mercy on those suffering, hurting and in fear, and give wisdom & strength to those who are assisting. May the forces of evil be broken by your power and may we humble before thee, our strength and refuge. Give wisdom to our President and all our leaders and bring your comforting peace through the power of your Holy Spirit. Help us here to reach those that have been affected by this tragedy. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. Amen. (Please send this to all your friends and create a prayer chain throughoutthis nation.)"}, {"response": 142, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (14:13)", "body": "Another batch of URLs from Phil Agre: -- Wall Street Journal coverage (appears to be available without a subscription) http://interactive.wsj.com/pages/terattack.htm Yahoo links to news stories etc http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/US/Terrorism/ eyewitness accounts http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/newsid_1537000/1537530.stm online mechanisms for donating to the Red Cross http://www.amazon.com/paypage/PKAXFNQH7EKCX http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/relief-outside legal coverage http://www.law.com/ mailing list to connect people who can volunteer or provide resources http://207.22.68.76/911volunteers.html aircraft flight tracks http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/spSec/wtcst.jsp front pages of 50 newspapers' coverage of the attack http://www.poynter.org/terrorism/pdf1.htm Current Awareness via Streaming Audio/Video http://gwu.edu/~gprice/audio.htm Speech/Transcripts/Statements from US and Foreign Leaders http://gwu.edu/~gprice/speech.htm Anonymous Remailer Operators Start to Take Remailers Offline http://www.inet-one.com/cypherpunks/current/msg00272.html Middle East Newswire http://www.middleeastwire.com/newswire/ Two Planes Hit Twin Towers at Exactly the Worst Spot http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000073606sep12.story Security Experts Knew a Major Attack Was Possible http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14031-2001Sep11.html Insurance Cost for Terrorist Attack to Near $1 Billion http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/depth/insure091201.htm Reports: Boston Investigators Find Evidence in Attacks http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010912/ts/attack_suspects_dc_2.html civil engineering aspects of the building collapse http://www.civil.usyd.edu.au/wtc.htm online discussion site for pilots http://www.pprune.org/ Rescuers Struggle at Pentagon http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1539000/1539839.stm Why the Killers Threaten World Prosperity http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1538000/1538958.stm In Shock, Teachers Downplay Tragedy http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000073649sep12.story EBay Cancels Auctions of Attack-Related Items (some idiots were actually gathering rubble in order to sell it on eBay) http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000073609sep12.story"}, {"response": 143, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (14:19)", "body": "From abcnews.com ABCNEWS has learned that officials have identified all the hijackers, and estimated there were three to five for each of the four passenger planes involved. At least two of the hijackers were on the Immigration and Naturalization Service \"watch list,\" and it's still unclear whether the individuals entered the United States illegally or whether they entered before their names were placed on the list. Most if not all of the hijackers were Egyptian or Saudi nationals, sources said. In Washington, State Department officials said they have intelligence information that connects the attacks on the twin towers in New York and on the Pentagon to fugitive Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden."}, {"response": 144, "author": "LauraMM", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (14:31)", "body": "Well it's here in Boston. This is ridiculous..."}, {"response": 145, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (14:43)", "body": "http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/bio.html A bio on Bin Laden from pbs.org. Read the disclaimer that the source is unnamed and the info differs from other bios. Seems his father is from Yemen but moved to Saudi years before Osama (one of 50 children? boggles the mind...) was born in '57. Father made his money in Saudi as a construction mogul, from humble beginnings. http://msnbc.com/news/190144.asp?cp1=1"}, {"response": 146, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (14:52)", "body": "Subject: Yesterday's bombings [4x] Date: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 4:12 PM From: nettime's compiler Reply-To: \"nettime's compiler\" To: Table of Contents: The Media: As an Attack Unfolds, a Struggle to Provide Vivid Imag es to Homes John Armitage WTC/Pentagon attac folks@arthide.de (folks) Re: New York City Andrew Ross It was supposed to be such a beautiful day \"Ivo Skoric\" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 11:42:35 +0100 From: John Armitage Subject: The Media: As an Attack Unfolds, a Struggle to Provide Vivid Imag es to Homes THE NEW YORK TIMES SEP 12, 2001 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/12/national/12MEDI.html?pagewanted=print The Media: As an Attack Unfolds, a Struggle to Provide Vivid Images to Homes By FELICITY BARRINGER and GERALDINE FABRIKANT Television's broadcast networks and many of its cable channels - both news and entertainment - scrapped their regular schedules yesterday. Radio stations took live television news feeds. Two dozen newspapers published special editions and Web sites threw out their advertising and in some cases stripped down to basic text and still images to help their overtaxed computers handle a demand for news unlike any they had experienced. Between the moment when perplexed morning news broadcasters began fielding calls from Greenwich Village residents who saw a low- flying plane crash into One World Trade Center and the moment more than an hour later when New York's twin towers crumbled into Roman candles of smoky debris, the country's media outlets geared up to become the public stage of a national emergency. By noon, all four major television networks had agreed to share video images. By midafternoon, almost all of AOL Time Warner's cable channels, like TBS and TNT, were carrying CNN; Viacom's CBS News feed was being carried by Viacom's music channels, VH1 and MTV; and Peter Jennings of ABC News was appearing not just on his network, but on Disney's ESPN channel and all ABC radio stations. Most of the networks used variations of the title adopted by CNN: America Under Attack. Images of billowing smoke from lower Manhattan and the low, smoldering profile of the Pentagon, hit, like the Trade Center towers, by a hijacked commercial jetliner, were dominant on all networks. Referring to the unusual agreement to share images among the bitterly competitive news divisions of the networks and CNN, the Fox News president, Roger Ailes, said: \"All the networks decided that this is a national emergency. We're not keeping score today.\" Nor were they making much money, as they largely scrapped commercial advertising. In Washington, where the downtown had become a ghost town after the federal government was shut down, delivery trucks for The Washington Post headed for suburban 7- Eleven stores carrying a special edition dominated by a two-inch headline, \"Terror Hits Pentagon, World Trade Center,\" with a lead editorial headlined \"War.\" Special editions were also published by The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Newark Star-Ledger, The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina, The Austin American-Statesman in Texas, not to mention small dailies like The LaCrosse Tribune in Wisconsin. Traffic at news Web sites soared, with 10 times or more the usual number of users trying to log on, clogging the Internet and slowing response time. Because New York was not just ground zero of the opening attack but also the heartland of the media industry, some of the most dramatic early accounts were from correspondents working at or near their homes. Don Dahler, an ABC News correspondent who covered recent civil wars in Africa, was getting dressed for work in his third-floor apartment in Tribeca, perhaps half a mile from the World Trade Center, when he heard the first plane hit. \"I heard what is a very familiar sound anywhere else in the world, in war zones,\" Mr. Dahler said. \"It sounded to me like a missile, a high- pitched scream and a roar followed by an explosion, my mind was telling me it's a missile. Then I saw this gaping wound in the World Trade Center. I called into `Good Morning' immediately and started reporting,\" standing on his sixth-floor rooftop with a cellular telephone. Mr. Dahler, just one of the network's sources, was not on the air when he felt the first of the two towers collapse. \"When it collapsed I could feel a rumble, and I tried to interrupt to say that something was happening right before my eyes,\" he said. \"The building collapsed. I was telling them it looks like its coming down, it looks like it's coming down. They switched to me right after it had fallen.\" If there were a few stutter-steps like that, it was not surprising. It was one of the rare instances when television brought disaster into American homes in real time. The radical changes in the technology of news delivery, however, along with the quality of video imagery gave most of the day's news broadcasts the feeling of an epic disaster movie. The only genuinely grainy imagery came from the"}, {"response": 147, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (14:55)", "body": "The White House and ABC News have confirmed that the intended target of the plane that crashed in DC, was NOT The Pentagon. It was The White House. OMG !! The White House have also confirmed that Air Force One and The President, were also intended targets. They have not revealed what brought them to this conclusion. Thank God these other attacks didn't take place and, that the Secret Service took the evasive measures with Air Force One, that they did."}, {"response": 148, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (14:55)", "body": "From today's Vancouver Sun: \"Wednesday, September 12, 2001 OTTAWA (CP) - Thousands of Canadians from coast to coast responded to calls for blood donations to help American victims of Tuesday's catastrophic attacks in New York and Washington. The hotline set up by Canadian Blood Services for those wishing to donate has been tied up almost permanently, said spokeswoman Lorna Tessier. She urged people to persevere, even though no request for blood has been received from U.S. authorities. ``We've had such an overwhelming response that the 1-888-2-DONATE line has been very difficult to get through on. ``Right now, clearly, the clinics are overwhelmed and we are putting on additional hours and additional clinics, but we don't want people to get discouraged. ``We are going to need their blood. We're anticipating that the need will come up.'' She said the agency doesn't have statistics yet on the number of people who have come forward, but it is in the thousands.\" I'd point out that nobody's actually asked us for blood yet, but people just felt the need to do something to help. From the National Post: Canadians offer homes to stranded 400 international jets diverted across country Wednesday, September 12, 2001 TORONTO and VANCOUVER - International passenger jets crammed Canadian tarmacs yesterday after all United States airports were closed in the wake of the terrorist attack that levelled the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. About 400 planes were expected to be diverted throughout the day, pouring 10,000 people into Halifax alone. By late afternoon, Vancouver International Airport had received 34 planes diverted from North American destinations, carrying as many as 6,000 people. Another 25 planes were expected at Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto. St. John's International Airport closed its runways after taking in 27 aircraft with 5,000 passengers. Fifty-seven flights were expected to land into the night at the airport in Gander, Nfld. At least 100 controllers and other staff were pulled out of courses and called in on their time off to help handle the deluge of international flights, said Paul Hornbeck, a spokesman for Nav Canada, the agency that handles air traffic control at Canadian airports. International arrival terminals across the country were choked with people while departure areas were virtually deserted -- all outbound flights across Canada were cancelled, except for humanitarian or search-and-rescue missions, police and military flights. Passengers stood in line with their luggage, waiting for hours to be searched before they could be permitted to leave. Bev Aurich, a traveller from Sydney, Australia, who had been headed to Anchorage, Alaska, before being grounded in Vancouver, said she did not mind the inconvenience. \"We shouldn't be upset about missing a little trip, when there is such devastation in the United States. We're better to be delayed and be comfortable than to keep to our schedule and risk something,\" she said. In Toronto, some airport hotels reacted to the situation by increasing their rates to the maximum legal tariff. Meanwhile, concerned residents around the country showed up at airports to offer their homes to travellers. \"I had to take the energy I felt and direct it,\" said Ena Bendon, a Vancouver woman who showed up at the airport to offer accommodation. \"I thought of someone with kids here, terrified. I had to do something.\" Lufthansa pilot Axel Algner was flying a passenger jet from Frankfurt to Chicago when he was told there had been an incident in Manhatten and all planes were being grounded. It wasn't until he landed his plane in Toronto that he was informed of the details. \"What I thought is that it was a joke. I couldn't believe it, it's still hard to believe. It just gives me goosebumps even talking about it,\" he said. Another pilot said he was instructed to lock his cockpit after being told the news. On the ground at Pearson, the airport began a news blackout at 10:30 a.m., according to one passenger. Travellers grouped around fellow passengers with cellphones to learn the details of what had happened. Others lined up to use payphones. Rabbis and Roman Catholic priests were brought in to counsel passengers. In Calgary, which took at least ten diverted flights, every hotel room was filled by early afternoon, but tourism officials said residents were opening up their homes to travellers. In Winnipeg, hotels were also booked solid by early afternoon, prompting the city to invoke its emergency measures plan, transforming public buildings into makeshift dormitories equipped with camp cots, said Penny McMillan, of Tourism Winnipeg. The airport took in 14 diverted domestic flights and three international ones -- generating 1,500 overnight guests. At Vancouver International Airport, Layne Daggett, the airport chaplain, said he placed 500 people, but others still needed accommodation. \"I have a strong faith that God is in control even in these ki"}, {"response": 149, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (15:54)", "body": "Thanks for the links, Terry. I found the one about the buildings' structural aspects fascinating. Engineers suggested that the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed first...because the plane hit the corner of the building, rather than the center, where there is more structural support. When you watched the head-on film, you wondered why the plane was aimed at the side when it could've been placed more centrally. But you have to wonder about the following statement: The planes might have done more damage if they had hit the buildings lower, but they had to fly at a height of about 60 stories to clear nearby buildings. More damage than what????"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (19:42)", "body": "Even what was left standing is now crumbled into the pit from whence it arose. And thanks for telling future terrorists where exactly to hit a building to do the most damage, media people. I still cannot believe it crumpled like a toy like that. They all did. And so did their inhabitants. I turned on NPR this morning for a break from the news, and they were playing dirges. It was too much! Thanks, all, for your support in what seemed like a cold world before this happened. I wonder what I will feel when the numbness and disbelief wears off..."}, {"response": 151, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (21:40)", "body": "Will the numbness ever really wear off. Someone posted on Ramble that her neighbors and their 2 children were on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon."}, {"response": 152, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (21:46)", "body": "from email: \"In the days and weeks ahead, it's important for Microsoft and for each of us individually to think about how we can help. As a company, Microsoft is today making a $10 million contribution to assist those who have been impacted by the tragedy. We are contributing $5 million in cash to the September 11 Fund, created by the United Way of New York City and The New York Community Trust. In addition to cash, we are also contributing people and expertise. We have committed up to $5 million in technical assistance, including Microsoft Consulting Services and software to assist in the recovery effort. We also are in contact with business customers who have been severely impacted by yesterday's tragedy to see what we can do to assist them.\""}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (22:32)", "body": "Penn Station and the Empire State Building being evacuated."}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (22:45)", "body": "Bomb threat - no bomb found. People allowed back in. They now take all threats seriously!!!"}, {"response": 155, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (22:50)", "body": "Thursday 13 September 9:14 AM Bin Laden under house arrest: report Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia had placed alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden under house arrest in the wake of the suicide attacks on the United States, an Arabic online newspaper reported. Quoting \"fundamentalist Arab sources\", Ilaf said the \"Taliban have arrested Osama bin Laden before placing him under surveillance with several of his assistants,\" including the head of the Egyptian branch of Al-Jihad Ayman Al-Zawahri and bin Laden's military commander, Muhammad Atef Al-Makni. \"A number of Afghan fighters are under house arrest along with bin Laden,\" said the report late Wednesday. But a diplomat at the Taliban's embassy in Abu Dhabi said he could not confirm the report. \"All we know is that he (bin Laden) is somewhere in Afghanistan, but we are not aware if he is under house arrest,\" the diplomat said. Bin Laden and commander Atef have been indicted for the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Bin Laden has emerged as the prime suspects in yesterday's kamikaze hijacked passenger jet strikes on New York and Washington."}, {"response": 156, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (22:53)", "body": "I don't know how true this is or not. It was posted on yahoo.com in Australia. http://au.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/20010913/aapworld/1000336445-1141825578.html I don't know why there's not mention of this on CBS, which I'm watching as I write this."}, {"response": 157, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (23:06)", "body": "More information all over the net. status of the investigation http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16714-2001Sep12.html Flight 93 Passenger Said He Planned Action http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/pit/news/stories/news-95780920010912-110907.html Controllers' Tale of Flight 11 http://www.csmonitor.com/earlyed/earlyUSA4.html FBI Agents Search Hotels; Arrests Made http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/957448/detail.html animation of the routes of flights 11, 193, and 175 http://pull.xmr3.com/p/29594-9681/22024263/aal11.html http://pull.xmr3.com/p/29594-9681/22024277/ual193final.html http://pull.xmr3.com/p/29594-9681/22024274/ual175_aal11.html Somerset Crash Scene Searched; \"Hero\" May Have Aborted Terror Mission http://www.post-gazette.com/breaking/20010912somersetp3.asp Cell Calls From Planes Reveal Horror http://msnbc.com/news/627214.asp How the World Trade Center Fell http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1540000/1540044.stm role of the Internet Net Offers Lifeline Amid Tragedy http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7132246.html World Trade Center Staff Sent E-Mails After Planes Struck http://www.itn.co.uk/news/20010912/business/12cantor.shtml Help Sites Spring Up in Aftermath of WTC Assaults http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=2113 response Terrorism and Children http://www.ces.purdue.edu/terrorism/children/ http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Sept01/Garbarino.kids.bombing.lgk.html comment Chronic Underfunding of US HUMINT Plays Role in Intelligence Failures http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jdw/jdw010911_1_n.shtml Michael Moore's commentary http://www.michaelmoore.com/2001_0912.html On the Bombings, by Noam Chomsky http://www.lbbs.org/chomnote.htm The Best and Worst From Our Leaders During Crises http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=11909 Terrorists Are Made, Not Born http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/09/12/blowback/ The Rhetoric of War (with examples from editorial pages) http://www.marginalia.org/war.html an example of that rhetoric http://www.nationalreview.com/kudlow/kudlow091101.shtml background background on the Mt. Weather bunker where the politicians were probably taken http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/c3i/mt_weather.htm outline of relevant anti-terrorism etc laws http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/us/terrorism/laws.html Airport Access Control (one of the security reports that was never properly acted on) http://cas.faa.gov/ig5.pdf news Arab newspapers http://www.the-saudi.net/arab-world/media/newspapers-links.htm http://www.amin.org/jourmag/ French language news sources on the attack http://www.tv5.org/nyc/ Nous Sommes Tous Americains http://www.lemonde.fr/article/0,5987,3222--221600-,00.html worldwide news in English http://www.kidon.com/media-link/english.shtml Thousands of Newspapers on the Net http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/ end"}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (23:17)", "body": "Be happy you don't live in Hawaii. We Get NO MAIL until the flights resume."}, {"response": 159, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (23:24)", "body": "I'm not going to be happy I don't live in Hawaii, that's too much to ask!"}, {"response": 160, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (23:31)", "body": "a report from Afghanistan: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/13/international/asia/13AFGH.html ABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. If there are Americans clamoring to bomb Afghanistan back to the Stone Age, they ought to know that this nation does not have so far to go. This is a post-apocalyptic place of felled cities, parched land and downtrodden people. The fragility of this country was part of the message the Taliban government conveyed in a plea for restraint issued late tonight. It said in part, \"We appeal to the United States not to put Afghanistan into more misery because our people have suffered so much.\" Whatever Afghanistan's current cataclysm, its next one seems to require little time to overtake it. Wars fought by sundry protagonists have gone on now for 22 consecutive years, a remorseless drought for 4. Since 1996, most of the nation has been ruled by Taliban mullahs whose vision of the world's purest Islamic state has at least as much to do with controlling social behavior as vouchsafing social welfare. The accused terrorist Osama bin Laden has found a home here, angering much of the world. In 1998, America fired a volley of more than 70 cruise missiles at guerrilla training camps reportedly operated by the Saudi multimillionaire. Now, there seems to be the prospect of another barrage, with Afghan hospitality to the same man as the cause. As fear of an American attack mounted, the Taliban's senior spokesman in Kandahar, Abdul Hai Mutmain, called the few foreign reporters here to issue the statement, which in part defended Mr. bin Laden: \"These days, Osama bin Laden's name has become very popular and to an extent it has become a symbol. These days, even to the common people, Osama bin Laden's name is associated with all controversial acts. Osama bin Laden does not have such capabilities. We still hope sanity prevails in the United States. We are confident that if a fair investigation is carried out by American authorities, the Taliban will not be found guilty of involvement in such cowardly acts.\" The statement also said, \"Killing our leaders will not help our people any. There is no factory in Afghanistan that is worth the price of a single missile fired at us. It will simply increase the mistrust between the people in the region and the United States.\" Whatever else there is to say about this entreaty, one part that is indisputably true is that this land-locked, ruggedly beautiful nation is in absolute misery. Here in Kabul, the capital, roaming clusters of widows beg in the streets, their palms seemingly frozen in a supplicant pose. Withered men pull overloaded carts, their labor less costly than the price of a donkey. Children play in vast ruins, their limbs sometimes wrenched away by remnant land mines. The national life expectancy, according to the central statistics office, has fallen to 42 for males and 40 for females. The prolonged drought has sent nearly a million about 5 percent of the on a desperate flight from hunger. Some have gone to other Afghan cities, others across the border. More than one million are \"at risk of starvation,\" according to the United Nations. Famine is the catastrophe Afghans are used to hearing about. Few yet know of the threat of an American reprisal. The Taliban long ago banned television, and the lack of electricity keeps most people from listening to radio. The nation's 100 or so foreign aid workers suffer no such telecommunications handicaps, however, and today many of them began to flee their adopted home, fearing either the havoc of American bombs or the wrath of subsequent Afghan outrage. Around noon, a special United Nations flight evacuated the first of the expatriates. The remaining foreigners are expected to leave on Thursday, as will three, and perhaps all four, of the American parents here to observe the trial of their children, among eight foreign aid workers accused by the Taliban of preaching Christianity. As foreigners left, the Taliban took unusual precautions: they began searching every vehicle entering government compounds. Visitors were carefully frisked. But however much the Taliban hierarchy was beginning to fret, streets and bazaars were a picture of normality. Word has spread slowly about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. And even when everyday Afghans heard the news, there were no accompanying video images to sear the horror into their memories. Personal conversations only carried the dull stimuli of abstract words: hijacked planes and collapsed buildings. Khair Khana, a man selling fertilizer in a market, knew just a bit about the attack. He thought a plane had crashed into the White House. And he considered the perpetrators, whoever they are, to be \"enemies of God,\" though he also felt \"Americans should look into their hearts and minds about why someone would kill themselves and others\" in such a way. He had not thought much about an American retaliation against Afghanistan. When he did consider it, standing in a ramshackle col"}, {"response": 161, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (23:32)", "body": "You're not any different, Marcia. Mail is not going between cities on the mainland either."}, {"response": 162, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (23:33)", "body": "I heard mail wasn't going over 300 miles from it's point of origin. The airlines carry most of the mail but they may not be allowed to carry it any more."}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (23:35)", "body": "Yup, back to barge and 2-week mail. From the west coast. It is nice to know there is company in the misery of Paradise."}, {"response": 164, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (23:42)", "body": "This very thought provoking piece was written by the impassoned Gerard Van der Leun, who has been on the scene all along in lower Manhattan. All day the images have repeated themselves on television while the smell of the smoke persisted in my rooms. Off and on, all day, I walked to the promenade to look at the reality of it and watch the smoke that didn't stop. It will now play itself out, over and over again in my mind, until the day of my own death. Television and reality. It is very difficult to separate the two, and when one has no reality, television is the thing that replaces it. And because it is through television that those responsible for this monstrous act receive their impression of this country I believe they have made a fundamental miscalculation about the deeper nature of the United States. A miscalculation that will cause to be visited upon them what I pray will be a terrible lesson; a lesson that will make the survivors envy the dead. If you look at television and the endless products of pap and nonsense that are piped out of the media centers of the United States, it is easy to see us as a weak, self-obsessed and foolish people. And many of us are that, even if we pretend to be other than weak, self-obsessed and foolish. We have sitcoms and MTV. We have endless opinions about things which are not really central to serious life questions and serious policy decisions. Our young people look foolish in their vanity and their fashions. Our military institutions are often ridiculed. Our entertainments are light and vapid. Many in positions of influence give short shrift to millions more with deeply held religious and traditional political convictions. Our \"major\" issues on a day by day basis rarely rise above the level of fretful worry about the \"safety of restaurants that allow smoking,\" or whether or not a flower will be threatened by an oil well. These are serious issues to many Americans, and it is easy to see why such wet and weak concerns would lead others elsewhere in the world to hold us in contempt as a weak and decadent society that cannot defend itself against attack. They see our men as feminine and our women as masculine and, to the fundamentalist mind, this signals a weakness in the blood and bone of the nation.They believe that they can attack such a society with a kind of impunity, or with the expectation of a careful and delicate response. They even note that our President is a man who communicates in a clumsy way, who is an illegitimate ruler, and who does not have the support of many of the ruling elites of the country. They hold him to be easily frightened and stupid. And perhaps he is many, if not all, of these things: clumsy, weak, illegitimate, frightened and stupid. But it will not, in the long run, matter. And I pray it does not avail them. That is all the television America. But there is and always has been another America, and it is this America that I hope will emerge from this day and remind all those who seek to harm us that we can be a nation that is as terrible as it seems foolish. That we are a country of deep resolve and capable of striking back in cold anger without compassion or regret. That we are, as the Japanese knew and were to discover, a sleeping giant and you wake us at your own risk. And once woken we will destroy you, and then rebuild you. The Japanese had their lesson and have learned. Germany had it's lesson and has learned. Now it is the turn of a number of nations in the middle east. We will first tend to our dead. Many funerals will take Place over the next month or so. At the same time we will also prepare for our vengence and I pray it will be terrible and without hesitation or compassion until all terrorists and all the villages, cities, and nations that support them are reduced to rubble. This will be an America whose anger is not hidden beneath grief and the committment to save those not yet dead in the rubble of New York and Washington. This is the America you see when you watch the head of the Fire Department of New York try to express his feelings at losing 300 men in one terrible moment. This is the America of the thousands of rescue workers on the job tonight trying to dig through the rubble. This is the America of terrible resolve that you can read on the face of the Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he states the military is ready to do whatever is required of it. \"Whatever is required of it\",and I pray we require them to visit horror on our enemies that is a thousand fold worse than what we saw today. You see, it doesn't really matter \"who\" is the President. It matters only that there is a President. The President is only one man and in times like this he does not really have to lead. He has only to follow and get out of the way. After that what takes place will be done by many, many others in the hundreds and thousands. These people will not be a group of lame celebrities with their puling little concerns whose lives are just "}, {"response": 165, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (23:55)", "body": "More from Gerard. attack.20.430: Gerard Van der Leun (boswell) Tue 11 Sep 01 08:20 I watched this happen. The enormity of it cannot be communicated. Vile and bestial. We need to destroy any and all capacity anywhere to do anything like this happening ever again. There were thousands in those buildings. Thousands. There is no justice swift enough or sure enough. But all that we have must be brought forward and used without restraint. This is an act of war beyond Pearl Harbor. Military jets overhead again. More ash on the street. attack.20.465: Gerard Van der Leun (boswell) Tue 11 Sep 01 08:34 I am cooled down. Way down., This is pure evil. attack.20.725: Gerard Van der Leun (boswell) Tue 11 Sep 01 12:33 There is no more World Trade Center visible from the Promenade. But you can smell it from there a sort of burnt stench as if someone lit newspaper in a trash can and then poured water on it. That kind of wet burnt stench. It is bright in the sunshine now except for where the Trade Centers stood and there is still a plume of thick brown smoke mouldering up from there and making the sun behind it look dim. Just now I saw three large military helicopters land across the river from the Heights on the big pad at the foot of Wall Street. People on the streets are talking quietly man of them on cells now that some of those nets are back up. Everything is as quiet as it was this morning When I got up and began to take a shower. Showering I felt a vibration shake my building in Brooklyn Heights like a subway train passing deep underneath the structure. I didn't think much of it. I've felt similar vibrations before. Getting out I was dressing and I heard the second explosion from the second plane striking the buildings. I turned on the radio and found out what was happening. I dressed and left the house and walked a block to the Promenade at the edge of Brooklyn Heights and saw both towers in flames sending huge gouts of smoke into the air. You don't know what to think. You don't know what to feel. You are just reacting. The promenade was jammed with people with more arriving. Then as I watched the first tower just imploded and plunged, it seemed to me, straight down and a huge brown and black rolling cloud of smoke came boiling through all the streets between the building and surged upward and took over the sky. You could see bright shiny bits of metal squares tumbling up and down and drifting out of the smoke that moved up and blew out to the south east... it was like confetti or stuff tossed out of windows in a ticker tape parade. I felt the sound before I heard it and it shook everything around me. I heard gasps and screams around me. People were turning away. Everyone with children was leaving the promenade. Some were moving closer. The smoke took over everything. I knew that anyone in that building was dead and I started to shake and to weep and to look around at the others who were in all states of reaction. And I had to go back to my house to regroup. After I was in the house for a few minutes I heard another larger explosion. I went back out and down to the promenade again but this time I couldn't see the sky as I had before. This time the whole sky had been darkened and, the wind having shifted, this fine white ash was swirling down the street. Not heavy, but everywhere around me and it was settling down lightly on all the surfaces. When I got to the promenade again the entire southern tip of Manhattan was enveloped in a dirty brown cloud, No buildings visible at all. Nothing. It filled the sky and made it dark. Turning the corner if you looked uptown past the Brooklyn Bridge which was filled with hordes of people walking towards the Brooklyn shore you could see the buildings start to emerge from the smoke. People were sparse on the promenade now although down towards the end there were more and if you walked down there you could see a little bit into the downtown section of Wall street. And there were ferries moving out of the smoke at high speed. And then I started to hear the military jets but I didn't see them. But no other planes are to be seen. Now it is still smoking there. The trade centers are just gone. Erased. 50,000 people they say work there and 150,000 pass through. What do I feel? I don't know what I feel except that I want vengeance and complete vengeance. I want everything this country possesses put onto the people who did this, and the people who supported this act, and the people who believe this is the way in which political ends are achieved. I want there to be a war and a big war until these people are eradicated who ever they are and where ever they are. I want it made clear that anything even approaching this evil act will be met with utter destruction - people, families, villages, cities, nations. This is an act of war and war must be the response. We will be having a long series of mass funerals for many weeks. I only hope that this country finds the stomach and the resolve to carry "}, {"response": 166, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (23:55)", "body": "that's exactly how I feel. i found my friend who works for oem, btw. he's ok. he was evacuated when the mayor was from 7 WT. he told me about some of the things he saw... i started to cry. he's still in shock. God bless America."}, {"response": 167, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Wed, Sep 12, 2001 (23:59)", "body": "terry, what address are you finding this on??"}, {"response": 168, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (00:00)", "body": "Wow Liz, I'm so glad he's safe. Aren't these words from Gerard pregnant with feeling from someone who's been there, smelled and tasted the horror first hand? Powerful, heartfelt words."}, {"response": 169, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (00:03)", "body": "Gerard posted this at well.com and gave me permission to repost. It's not on a public web address. More . . . Gerard Van der Leun (boswell) Wed 12 Sep 01 08:05 To answer leroy, I am back at my absurd day-job. So far I'm just about the only one here. Maybe eight people out of 200+. I don't know quite why I am here, but then, in truth, I'm never sure why I am ever here other than that my personal life obligations require me to be here. That may have to change. At any rate, I woke up and could only take about five minutes of the endlessly repeated images of disaster, and having, literally nothing better to do, decided to try and come in. I first walked to the Promenade to see where the Towers were. The vile smoke blooming across the river was still there as it has always been, probably as it always will be in my mind where I will see it first as that moment when the first tower went down carrying thousands to a death I cannot imagine. Still there. And the faint smell lingers too. And there were small clumps of people standing around, one couple even posing for a picture against the new skyline. Then I walked through streets in the Heights that barely had any people on them. Usually full and bustling even on holiday weekends. Now just some elderly people moving slowly and a few clots of Jehovahs Witnesses in their cleaned and pressed clothing going down to put out what I am sure will be an especially \"We told you so\" issue of the Watchtower. Clark Street station shut down with a few police directly people to the Jay street station. Buy a New York Post because I've read the Times. Walk to Jay Street in the heart of the Brooklyn government center across streets with few pedestrians and no traffic except for police, fire and security vehicles cruising aimlessly about or parked at the curb. Security in front of the courts and the city offices lounging in the bright sunshine of this second day of Indian Summer weather. Down into the Jay Station and a very sparsely occupied A train. We set off on a slow, very slow trip into Manhattan. Several people are reading bibles but most of the 15 or so people are just staring into space and looking vaguely alarmed whenever the train halts between stations -- which is often. I spend this time reading the New York Post which has, inside, a picture of the exterior of one of the towers just before it collapsed. In this picuture I can count around 24 people poking their heads out of the windows or actually on the outside of what has to be the nintieth floor of the towers. All of them, ALL OF THEM, about to ride this building down into oblivion and you know that THEY ALL KNOW THIS. Next to this is a picture of the side of the Tower and a large empty space on the left which is thin air. In this space, close to the tower you can see five to seven people falling with nothing but space above and below them, falling straight down into doom rather than be burned alive. Finally, the train pulls into 23rd Street and halts. After a minute or so you can hear the announcer telling us that we will be held in the station for some time because of a \"police investigation\" in Penn Station, my destination. I get out and go up to the street to walk the rest of the way. An I walk into a Manhattan I have never seen in the almost 30 years that I've been here. Streets almost utterly clear of traffic for as far uptown or downtown as you can see on 8th Ave. Nearly the same thing on 7th. A smattering of pedestrians that grows somewhat thicker as you approach Penn Station. A nail salon open but with nobody getting their nails done that I can see. Extortionate parking lots that are usually jammed with cars almost empty and with nobody there to collect the money. On the street parking? Oh, we've got it now. Everywhere the hush. Everywhere. Like a ghost town with real ghosts now walking among us. People just standing around, people talking softly on cell phones, and people talking to themselves. On every corner small groups walking slowly into the street or ambling along the sidewalks as if nothing they normally do on Wednesdays in New York City is really all that important after all."}, {"response": 170, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (00:05)", "body": "Gerard Van der Leun (boswell) Wed 12 Sep 01 19:05 On blood and the giving of it in New York. It is important to do this, but no longer because of the need. It is pretty clear at this point in the evening of day 2 in New York that the city has more than enough of what it needs to cover for this present emergency. Still, people should give because it is something than they can give. That is the need it fills. As for blood for the wounded and the suffering, there is now a sufficient quantity. And sadly this is because, with the exception of a few miracles that I hope will happen over the next few days, there will not be large numbers of injured beyond those who are already receiving treatment. We are now starting to see the bodies emerge and they will continue in a ghastly parade of orange body bags for weeks now. Soon, tomorrow and over the weekend, the funerals and the memorials will begin. And they will go on and on and on. We will have, if we are *fortunate* 10,000 funerals in this city in the coming weeks. Let me say that again: Ten *thousand* funerals. Try, right now, to close your eyes and visualize this number of funeral ceremonies of every type and description and religion. You cannot do it because the enormity of it is too much for the human mind and soul. But we will have them, one by one and in groups. And here is another fact that comes along behind this number. We do not have enough graves. We do not have enough crematoriums. Many will go unburied for weeks. Many will be burned because that will be the only choice. Many will have to be moved by train, plane, or van to some other place in the state, country, or the world. And we will bury a thousand, and then another thousand, and another. And still the orange body bags will come up out of the pile and the pit one by one by one and lie in rows. And this will go on for weeks if not months. Think about what this will be like. Just stop and try to really see it. And then think this: No matter what many may feel now about the wisdom or the goodness or the morality of retribution, there will come a time during this parade of our dead when this country, already uniting in a way I cannot remember in my 55 years, will have even a greater sea-change of spirit and rage. Many of those who do not really feel this now, for whatever enlightened or unenlightened reason, will feel this change and become part of it. There will be those who do not, a smaller and smaller part of us as the days go by, and they will in the end be left behind. But by far the most of us will be changed by this, even if now we are not. Ten thousand funerals. We cannot imagine it, and yet we will live it. And I hope that each one of us can bear witness to as many as we can bear. It is the least of our duties."}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (00:19)", "body": "Thanks for that Terry. G's first post is amazing. It says beautifully the resolve and structure of America. Thanks for sharing it."}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (00:29)", "body": "And his second one is even more powerful. Beware the wrath of righteous indignation."}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (00:50)", "body": "Thank you, Gerard, for speaking so eloquently what we were all feeling. Ten THOUSAND is the size of a good-sized town. Imagine your entire city dead..."}, {"response": 174, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (00:59)", "body": "The NY Port Authority is now putting the potential death toll at 20 thousand. I shudder to think what made them increase this up from the earlier figure of 10 thousand. Hopefully, it is just pure conjecture, as the figure of 20 thousand, is just beyond comprehension."}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (01:36)", "body": "Never forget!!! Hawaii was shocked into action by terrorist acts thousands of miles away yesterday, putting isle military bases on highest alert, grounding air traffic and sending many residents to blood banks and churches. U.S. Navy warships were patrolling the West Coast and Hawaii, ready to respond to any terrorist threat. Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Gordon, a Pacific Fleet spokesman at Pearl Harbor, said the 15 ships patrolling Hawaii waters were deployed or redirected as a precautionary measure, not because of a specific threat. Military bases in Hawaii remained closed today to those without military identification for the second straight day after yesterday's plane hijackings and crashes. More http://starbulletin.com/2001/09/12/news/"}, {"response": 176, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (01:43)", "body": "Actually, 20,000 was about what I had imagined from the beginning, given the capacity of the two buildings, number of people per floor, etc. Over 200 floors. There could be easily 100 people per floor, despite the steady stream of people getting out after the first attack. I remember one newsperson saying that highest number of American casualties on a single day was in the Civil War battle of Antietam, where about 23,000 were killed."}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (01:53)", "body": "I wonder if we will ever get an accurate accounting. The fires continue to burn deep inside the hole made by one of the towers. It will simply have to burn itself out since it is too hot and too dangerous to get to now. Frightening! I was asked to post this and so I shall: Flags Across America To show those terrorists that we Americans stick together, FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 14 is \"Flags Across America.\" All Americans are asked to display the American flag either in their homes or cars. Let's keep the meaning of UNITED in \"United States\". Pass this onto as many people as you know. THANK YOU."}, {"response": 178, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (01:58)", "body": "I know Karen, I know... When that figure of 10,000 was initially announced, I thought it was too low, considering the massive amounts of people in the 2 towers. But after a trajedy like this, it is easy and comforting to stick your head in the sand and try to pretend the worst is not going to happen. All too soon, the cold hard reality will get to you, no matter how long you try to put it off."}, {"response": 179, "author": "curious", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (02:12)", "body": "This is YOUR LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM, a free newsletter sharing life, love and laughter, published by Steve Goodier. http://www.lifesupportsystem.com I asked for it! I invited a response and now am flooded with mail! It may take days to go through it all. Today I printed some of YOUR words in lieu of my usual message. I hope you feel encouraged by the spirit in which they were written. ~ Steve _________________From the Mailbox__________________ Write to Publisher@LifeSupportSystem.com I want to express my great condolence to people of America. I want to say aloud my personal absolute negative expression about the terrorist attack innocent people in New York and Washington. Dostoevsky said there are no great goals to justify the crime if it costs a little tear of child, and how many tears (were shed by) this outrage act? ~ Your subscriber (Kiev, Ukraine) Know that the pain and suffering of Americans is also felt across the mass of water here in Australia. ~ Joanna (Perth, Australia) Let those of us who can, hold a vision of peace, even between ourselves and those who would destroy us. Let those of us who can see the Light, be the Light. ~ A friend Everything came to a standstill here (South Africa) yesterday afternoon at about 3.00 p.m. our time when we first heard the news of the horror! What I do want to say, from our small space, far away from you all in America, is that we grieve for the whole nation and all of you are in our prayers and thoughts -- constantly. ~ Caroline (South Africa) The Canadian People Send Their Deepest Condolences to Our American Friends. We are shocked and horrified, as most Americans are, as soon as we heard the news many rallied, giving blood to the Canadian Red Cross in anticipation of the need by those that might need it. America is our fiend and neighbour, and those that hurt America hurt us. We hope that we never see another tragedy as this again. ~ Doug (Canada) Thank you! Even with all that you and your family have been going through, you have still managed to send inspiration to those of us in need! With all of the negativity out there yesterday, and the \"Nuke 'EM\" attitude among a lot of Americans that called into CNN and the radio stations here in Chicago, I began to find myself getting more upset about them than the tragedy that caused their feelings. Thank you for reminding the many people who forget in times like this that we are all one -- most humans do NOT believe that the killing of innocents is right, no matter what race! Here in Chicago, an Arab education meeting was hit with a molotov cocktail -- this is exactly what we DON'T need! Thanks again for your call to Americans to see the truth and work through our grief with LOVE! ~ Kelli (Chicago, Illinois) I, like so many of us in the US, live complacently from day to day without fear of danger. Then a tragedy like this occurs and reminds us of the fragility of life and how important it is for us to set aside our differences and all join hands in common bond. ~ Mal (Pasadena, Texas, USA) I live in Barbados, a small island in the West Indies (Caribbean). The tragedy of yesterday shook us here as well. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in the States. May God continue to strengthen your nation and be with every one of your leaders as they make decisions and try to rebuild the country. ~ Marie (Barbados) A great gloom has descended on Australia today and will remain for a while to come. The streets were empty in peak hour this morning as people stayed home to watch in horror as the event was broadcast across the nation. And this gloom has remained the whole day, with the attack being just about the only thing on peoples minds. America is far from alone in its hurt and sorrow and we will do whatever we can to help our fellow humans. ~ Nikki (Gold Coast, Australia) I hope that from yesterday events we may learn at least one lesson: that hate only brings violence and destruction. \"Love thy enemy\" was not written in vain. I pray that the hurt we all feel today does not develop into hate and desire for revenge. ~ Olga (Puerto Rico, USA) My thoughts from South Africa are with you in this dark hour. But I know that you are a country of strong people. People that will support each other and together stand up to become even stronger. ~ Ronelle (Gauteng, South Africa) I am thankful to you always for the positive, uplifting words. I look forward to my daily emails. I never needed them more than I needed them today. I was one of hundreds in Jersey City, at Exchange Place, who watched this event unfold to our shock, horror and disbelief. Thanks for giving me something to hold on to. ~ TL Everything has changed today. Our nation, our world, our civilization. If we are not extremely careful, we could surrender our future to these terrorists in exchange for the perception of peace and security. The terrorists demonstrated that the United States is a free and open country. We have paid a price for having an accessible society. Ac"}, {"response": 180, "author": "Allison2", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (03:43)", "body": "In addition to thousands of Americans killed they are now saying there were hundreds of UK citizens. My son (he works for a US bank in London) has just got back from spending a week working in NY. He was in the WTC every day. The world really is a global village. What happens to the US happens to us all."}, {"response": 181, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (08:37)", "body": "http://tibet.com/NewsRoom/hhdl-letter.htm The Dalai Lama speaks."}, {"response": 182, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (09:05)", "body": "The world really is a global village. What happens to the US happens to us all. Let's hope this unity works in the hard task ahead. There are some flights flying into Miami. They seem to be flying lower than usual. Where once we could barely hear them now they are very loud. Very scary. :-("}, {"response": 183, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (09:47)", "body": "Thank goodness that your family was spared, Allison. I was thinking about Ben's brother. Isn't he in NYC and probably in that part of it?"}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (09:55)", "body": "Ben's brother works (I believe) for Morgan Stanley, who have (had) 21 floors of the South WTC tower, although it's not their head office in NYC. MS reported yesterday that over 85% (and growing) of their WTC staff had survived. So his odds are good."}, {"response": 185, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (10:08)", "body": "Thanks, Mark, for the update. The other night I was watching BBC news' coverage on one of my PBS channels and they were talking about all the foreign nationals who worked in the financial sector."}, {"response": 186, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (10:23)", "body": "That's right, Karen. Just like here in London, the NYC financial services industry is one of the most multi-national workforces around. Obviously, the BBC is concerned to take some time focusing on the number of Britons involved, but there will be many nationalities amongst the dead, along with the thousands of Americans. A colleague of mine reports that his NY counterpart works in a suburb in which nearly everybody commutes to Manhattan. Every few doors down the street there was a worker who never came home on Tuesday. Personally, three of my four previous firms had offices in the WTC. It brings the tragedy close to home, but not as close as for the family members and friends of the 20,000."}, {"response": 187, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (10:58)", "body": "(Mark) MS reported yesterday that over 85% (and growing) of their WTC staff had survived. So his odds are good. Yes, I heard that about MS also. They credit a 'split second decision to evacuate' after the first plane hit the other tower. It seems to me alot more people got out than you might expect (credit the '93 bombing for that). Yet the stories of those searching for their loved ones, who called before 9 a.m. to say they were OK but who worked above the 90th floor, are absolutely heartbreaking. This will continue for weeks. (Beth) The White House and ABC News have confirmed that the intended target of the plane that crashed in DC, was NOT The Pentagon. It was The White House. OMG !! The White House have also confirmed that Air Force One and The President, were also intended targets. They have not revealed what brought them to this conclusion. I'll tell you--this is spin. Georgie's being criticized for not returning to DC until late afternoon. The plane which hit the Pentagon, the press sec'y says, circled over the White House first. They may have more 'clear and convincing' evidence that the White House and Air Force One (a plane? They're going to hit a plane with a plane with so many other gov't targets around? George was on the ground in Fla. at the time of the attacks) were targeted, but I'm not biting. Though they could've indeed gone for the White House and done far more damage to the country--Dick Cheney was at his desk. ;-P"}, {"response": 188, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:01)", "body": "On Doomed Flight, Passengers Vowed to Perish Fighting By JODI WILGORENand EDWARD WONG They told the people they loved that they would die fighting. In a series of cellular telephone calls to their wives, two passengers aboard the plane that crashed into a Pennsylvania field instead of possibly toppling a national landmark learned about the horror of the World Trade Center. From 35,000 feet, they relayed harrowing details about the hijacking in progress to the police. And they vowed to try to thwart the enemy, to prevent others from dying even if they could not save themselves. More: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/13/national/13NEWA.html"}, {"response": 189, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:04)", "body": "Austin's Stratfor.com intelligence reports are some of the best: Situation Reports European markets stabilized in trading Sept. 12, helping to calm the major Asian markets entering the trading day Sept. 13. AFP reports that Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney and South Korea all posted minor gains after steep losses the previous day, though all markets remain fairly below pre-attack levels. Singapore dropped marginally, and Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan -- which were closed Sept. 13 -- posted losses of between 4 and 7 percent. 1519 GMT, 091301 The Afghanistan opposition Northern Alliance, which opposes the ruling Taliban, has appointed a new military chief to replace leader Ahmad Shah Masood, Reuters reported. Masood was replaced with a general named Mukhammad Fakhim on Sep. 11, a few days after Masood was wounded in an attack. Conflicting reports have stated that Masood was actually killed in the attack. 1501 GMT, 091301 The Washington Post reports that the Bush administration is continuing to gather support for a possible strike against Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden and his supporters in Afghanistan, pressuring neighboring Pakistan for intelligence and logistical backing after winning full NATO support Sept. 12. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has pledged his country's full cooperation in the probe into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, VOA news reported, while Saudi Arabia has also reportedly offered its support. The Chinese government is appealing to the United States to consult with countries beyond Europe before launching an attack, BBC reported. 1430 GMT, 091301 Fox News reports that almost all of the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have been identified on flight manifests, including many Saudi and Egyptian nationals and one known supporter of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, considered a prime suspect in the attacks. The news agency, citing law enforcement officials, said that a flight manifest from one of the four flights included the name of a suspected bin Laden supporter, while one person has also been arrested in connection with the attacks in Hamburg, Germany. 1427 GMT, 091301 U.S. authorities said at least one hijacker on each of the four planes used in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was trained at a U.S. flight school, AP reported. Overall, 50 people may have been involved in the operation. Attorney General John Ashcroft said 12 to 24 hijackers commandeered the four planes, and a government official said another two dozen or so are believed to have assisted them, AP reported. The Los Angeles Times reports that about 40 of the men have been accounted for, including those killed in the suicide attacks, but 10 remain at large. The Times also reported at least one of the suspects receiving advanced flight training in Florida was a commercial pilot from Saudi Arabia. 1417 GMT, 091301 The Associated Press reports that a former employee at Huffman Aviation school in Venice Venice, Fla., said FBI agents told him that Mohamed Atta, who stayed in his home while training at the local flight school, was involved in the attack on the World Trade Center Sept. 11. The Miami Herald, citing federal authorities, reports that Atta was one of four suspects who died on American Airlines Flight 11, the first jetliner to crash into the center. A second student at Huffman Aviation, identified as Marwan Alshehhi, is also a suspect. 1410 GMT, 091301 Afghanistan's ruling Taliban Sept. 13 dismissed reports linking Osama bin Laden to terrorist attacks on the United States earlier on the week, and reiterated that they would not hand over the Saudi dissident, AFP reported. Reports had surfaced the previous day claiming that the Taliban had arrested bin Laden. The Taliban is reportedly preparing for a possible U.S. attack, sending its top leader into hiding and repositioning its military hardware throughout the country, The Washington Post reported, citing reports from Pakistani intelligence sources.1405 GMT, 091301 Federal aviation officials said they would allow air travel in the United States to resume Sept. 13 morning. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said authorities were deploying hundreds of U.S. marshals and other agents to airports and airplanes to increase security with the gradual resumption of commercial flights, AP reported. 1400 GMT, 091301 The Times of India has published a report originally carried by an Arabic online newspaper, saying that the Taliban has placed Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden and several of his assistants under house arrest in Afghanistan. A diplomat at the Taliban embassy in Abu Dhabi could not confirm the report. 2318 GMT, 091201 Armed sky marshalls and/or company security officials will accompany flights in the United States for at least a short period of time, possibly indefinitely, according to airline industry officials and the Department of Transportation. 2240 GMT, 091201 Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Pakistani Ambassador Ma"}, {"response": 190, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:05)", "body": "Koppel said a Pakistani news agency quoted the taliban saying they do not have Bin Laden under house arrest or any other kind. Frontline is going to show an updated version of their documentary on Bin Laden on thursday. They also have an extensive website http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/"}, {"response": 191, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:05)", "body": "The LA Times has a detailed story FBI Identifies Team of 50 Attackers http://latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-091301terror.story"}, {"response": 192, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:16)", "body": "(Eileen) I'll tell you--this is spin. Georgie's being criticized for not returning to DC until late afternoon. I thought the same thing and said so to Ev last night. Bush was in Florida. Symbolically they might have wanted to hit the White House, but this is a crock to deflect newspapers' criticism. Unfortunately, most Americans do not realize that getting key government functions, including the President, to safety means taking them out of Washington and into bunkers and I'm sure the disaster scenarios for the presidency would involve moving him around. The hijackers wouldn't even have known he eventually went up in Air Force One or where it was headed. Totally idiotic. I bet we never see this 'credible' evidence."}, {"response": 193, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:20)", "body": "http://www.rand.org/hot/newslinks.html#terror This is the URL for a Rand report on the state of U.S. anti-terrorism policy as of 2000. Executive summary: we don't have one. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/ This is a joint PBS/NYT site on bin Laden, dating from a little after the first WTC bombings."}, {"response": 194, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:30)", "body": "The die has been cast. The lead story in the Thursday edition of the Washington Post is a detailed description of US negotiations with Pakistan and Tajikstan to provide a staging area or at least safe passage for a mission to track down Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20862-2001Sep12.html The second story starts by saying that Pentagon officials are keeping a tight lid on deployments and planning options, then proceeds to spill the beans extravagantly about the range of plans and preparations in progress for the effort to find and deal with Osama Bin Laden. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20806-2001Sep12.html"}, {"response": 195, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:31)", "body": "Plans underway for massive invasion of Afghanistan: http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,551079,00.html"}, {"response": 196, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:37)", "body": "A wired story reports that FBI agents are busy installing carnivore on ISPs http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46747,00.html"}, {"response": 197, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:38)", "body": "Anti-Attack Feds Push Carnivore By Declan McCullagh 2:00 a.m. Sep. 12, 2001 PDT WASHINGTON -- Federal police are reportedly increasing Internet surveillance after Tuesday's deadly attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Just hours after three airplanes smashed into the buildings in what some U.S. legislators have dubbed a second Pearl Harbor, FBI agents began to visit Web-based, e-mail firms and network providers, according to engineers at those companies who spoke on condition of anonymity. An administrator at one major network service provider said that FBI agents showed up at his workplace on Tuesday \"with a couple of Carnivores, requesting permission to place them in our core, along with offers to actually pay for circuits and costs.\""}, {"response": 198, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:44)", "body": ""}, {"response": 199, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (11:48)", "body": "From the Guardian article: Nato is now drawing up an emergency plan for a massive attack on Afghanistan if proof emerges that Osama bin Laden, the wanted Saudi-born terrorist sheltered by Afghanistan, was responsible for the attacks. What do they mean by if? A signatory to a treaty is a signatory to a treaty. Also, they are making it sound like it's an obscure passage of the treaty. That it hasn't been invoked isn't relevant IMO. It is the backbone of the NATO alliance. Only the enemy has changed."}, {"response": 200, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (12:14)", "body": "http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/misc/janes010911_2_n.shtml The hunt for Bin Laden begins."}, {"response": 201, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (12:15)", "body": "According to NYPD radio scan police are reporting that Grand Central Station is right now being evacuated and strett traffic has been closed off in the last 10 minutes in that area. there were reports that a transit officer was approached by two passengers that a male dressed in tan was seen with a backpack with wires coming out of it and something attached around his waist. Police have not as of this minute located any peson matching this description. Now the report is that the package or backpack was left on a train from Greenwich, and that the terminal is completely evacuated."}, {"response": 202, "author": "mari", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (12:31)", "body": "(Eileen)Though they could've indeed gone for the White House and done far more damage to the country--Dick Cheney was at his desk. ;-P Oh Eileen, I am laughing in spite of myself, one of the few good laughs in days. Agree that it's spin, but who cares? The fragility of this country was part of the message the Taliban government conveyed in a plea for restraint issued late tonight. It said in part, \"We appeal to the United States not to put Afghanistan into more misery because our people have suffered so much.\" They should have thought of this before they harbored and supported terrorists. And at whose hands have they suffered? They are asking us to show more caring for their people than they themselves have. And this culpability doesn't stop at the Afghan border. I really wonder if the world has the resolve and stomach to do what needs to be done in order to protect and preserve the greater good."}, {"response": 203, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (12:56)", "body": "I really wonder if the world has the resolve and stomach to do what needs to be done in order to protect and preserve the greater good. We have lost some of our freedom. It will never be the same. In Miami one of the thoughts is that Castro might have supported these terrorists. Could you imagine also going after Castro? That would put Miami at a very high risk for attacks."}, {"response": 204, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (13:22)", "body": "(Mari) Agree that it's spin, but who cares? It annoys me. Surely the White House has more pressing problems than Bush's political standing. We appeal to the United States not to put Afghanistan into more misery because our people have suffered so much ...as they pull out their AK-47s. Who are they kidding? Phooey."}, {"response": 205, "author": "winter", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (13:27)", "body": "(Mark) Ben's brother works (I believe) for Morgan Stanley...although it's not their head office in NYC... So his odds are good. I checked with Ben yesterday. You're right, Mark. His brother was midtown, and not in the WTC at the time, thank god. I tuned into a segement of the \"Howard Stern\" show yesterday morning... for some unknown reason. It's really very frightening at how \"trigger happy\" many people are after all this. It's understandable to want to express anger, but there were people calling in ready to invade the Arab/Muslim/South Asian neighborhoods, ready to take revenge. There have alrady been reports of violence. It's complete, total ignorance on their parts, and those callers represent a demographic of this country I'm very ashamed of."}, {"response": 206, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (13:43)", "body": "(Mari) Agree that it's spin, but who cares? (Eileen) It annoys me. Me too, but not because of the political standing concern. Rather than make up lies, just tell the American public the truth of what they were doing and why and that is is SOP in such situations. Surely people would understand that. (Winter) those callers represent a demographic of this country I'm very ashamed of. Until/unless they violate someone's civil liberties or commit criminal acts, we have to tolerate such things as that is what our country's democracy is all about, i.e., standing up for people's rights to say the most vile things."}, {"response": 207, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (14:55)", "body": "More from stratfor: U.S. Must Identify State Sponsors 0120 GMT, 010912 Summary The attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., have sent shockwaves across the nation. While international Islamic terrorists organizations linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qa'ida group remain the top suspects, some have suggested nations opposed to U.S. global hegemony may also have been involved. Historically, international terrorism has needed state sponsorship in order to be successful. But such involvement would be tantamount to declaring war on the United States, and although the suspect list is long, there is little evidence at the moment that singles any one country out. Analysis The attacks on New York and Washington achieve a number of objectives for the perpetrators. On a strategic level, they demonstrate the vulnerability of the United States. In one fell swoop, the sophisticated and well-coordinated operation paralyzed New York City and the U.S. financial sector, sent the nation's government spiraling into chaos and struck terror in the hearts of the American public. Such a feat, accomplished with only four airline hijackings, is almost impossible to comprehend and will impact U.S. defense and foreign policy for decades to come. By immobilizing the U.S. financial sector, the strike threatens to push a nation, already suffering from a downturn, into recession. This will have ramifications for U.S. influence throughout the globe. It could also damage U.S. markets abroad as well as numerous other nations with economic ties to the United States. Understanding the impact of the attack is important for identifying likely suspects. There is good reason to suspect international terrorist organizations linked to Osama bin Laden's umbrella group, Al-Qa'ida. More important, however, is the question of which, if any, states might also have been involved. The article goes on in much more depth and there are several other articles worth reading at http://www.stratfor.com"}, {"response": 208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (15:59)", "body": "From my son - his intraoffice email: The official word from the FAA about the new airport security procedures is as follows: Increased passenger and baggage security screenings at all airports. Passengers should plan to arrive at the airport a MINIMUM OF TWO HOURS prior to departure. Passengers must check their luggage at the ticket counter, no curbside check-in allowed. Only passengers holding an electronic ticket receipt, travel agency itinerary, airline ticket card, boarding document, internet printout or paper ticket will be allowed past the security check point. Passengers without receipts of any sort will need to stand in line at the airport ticket counters to obtain a receipt. (You may also contact TI and they will mail, fax or email a receipt to you prior to departing to the airport) Aircraft and airport security sweeps similar to those conducted during the Persian Gulf war. Vehicles will be inspected at terminal parking entrances. Unattended vehicles are banned near the terminals and will be towed. No knives of any size, or made from any material, are permitted on flights. The sale of knifelike items has been banned at all airports. Heightened vigilance for unattended bags. Searches of aircraft cargo and passenger compartments. An increase in number of uniformed law enforcement and military personnel. Random searches of service personal, flight crews and equipment. Reduces access points to secure areas at airports."}, {"response": 209, "author": "winter", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (16:26)", "body": "Thanks for the info. MArcia. I'm curious to know what the procedures are for our friends in other countries. How do these security measures compare to Europe/Australia/Asia/etc.?"}, {"response": 210, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (16:28)", "body": "Is this the end of Duty-Free shopping? I must say I am very happy about about the carry-on luggage ban. The size of those things were getting too large."}, {"response": 211, "author": "toyce", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (16:37)", "body": "I think you will still be allowed carry on items, but just the curb side check service is gone."}, {"response": 212, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (16:53)", "body": "I thought they said wallets and purses only."}, {"response": 213, "author": "toyce", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (16:59)", "body": "O.k. I just didn't see that in the above post. It's quite possible that they will limit it to that."}, {"response": 214, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (17:10)", "body": "Where does it say anything about limiting carry-ons to wallets or purses? Just no curbside check-in per above. Can you imagine turning over your camera to the airlines to check in cargo? I don't think so."}, {"response": 215, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (17:13)", "body": "Wonder about laptops carry-ons. I suspect that they will be banned, as well. I guess we carry a well examined purse and a book to read. Who about nail files? knitting needles? Dental floss? The list is endless if one gets tryly inventive. Even a leather belt! El Al, The Israeli airlines makes inspections like you would not believe. They have the tightest security in the world and NO ONE complains."}, {"response": 216, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (17:15)", "body": "This also from my son about colleagues travelling and caught in this mess: froma memo: We have heard from the rest of our traveling staff. DK is making his way to Chicago from Midland, Michigan via automobile. He is with SS and R. They hope to get on a morning flight to San Francisco out of Chicago. DM, who was on personal travel, is also in Chicago trying to get on a flight or take a Greyhound bus."}, {"response": 217, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (17:20)", "body": "At Last the Aggressors Themselves Are Able to Wedge In a Word Or Two *8-/ Subject: Islamic Jihad, what is next ? Date: Thursday, September 13, 2001 1:53 AM From: felipe rodriquez Reply-To: \"felipe rodriquez\" To: ISLAMIC JIHAD, what is next ? (c) Felipe Rodriquez INTRODUCTION The attack on the World Trade Center in New York is a new phase in an ongoing global religious and ideological conflict. This conflict started in 1990, with the gulf war. The mother of all wars, as Saddam Hussein called it, and is unlikely to end for some time. To understand this conflict, we must look at the Western world's exploitation and colonization of Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations . Economic and geopolitical moves that benefit only the western democratic capitalist structures are the primary cause of this terrible conflict. USAMA BIN MUHAMMAD BIN IN LADEN The Taliban consider Osama Bin Ladin to be a holy man, because of his incredible service in the Afghani war against the Russians, and the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Osama Bin Ladin has fought hundreds of battles in Afghanistan, and has been wounded numerous times. He went to Afghanistan around 1982, and took with him a large amount of construction equipment, and a team of engineers, to rebuild the war torn country. Consequently he became involved in many battles, and was wounded many times. He is a devout Muslim, and answers to Allah and certain important Islamic teachers, such as Sheik Safar Ibn `Abd Al-Rahman Al-Hawali. He founded the \"Al Qaeda\" movement, with Muhammad Atef. The movement was initially setup to record the movements of Mujahedin in Afghanistan. Later the goal changed to driving the United States forces out of Saudi Arabia, where the US setup a military base since the beginning of the Gulf War. Many devout Muslims see this as a hostile invasion of the Islamic holy land, comparable to the invasions of the crusaders in the past. Some years later the goal changed once again, into what it is now; to attack Israel, the US and its allies wherever it can. The justification of these acts, in the mind of the Muslim activist, comes from the foreign occupation of the holy cities; Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. It is simplistic and short sighted to assume that Osama Bin Laden is the great leader behind the attacks on the WTC, the Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam US embassies, the hit on USS Cole in Yemen and various other terrorist attacks. Islamic religious activism is the glue that binds this global terror movement together. Removing Osama Bin Ladin from the scene will not remove this global movement, and will not end terror. Killing him will only motivate thousands of Muslims to volunteer for the ultimate sacrifice. The Islamic radical movement resembles a hydra, A serpent represented as having many heads, one of which, when cut off, is immediately succeeded by two others. The movement cannot be eradicated by violence and retaliation, such deeds will only make it stronger and increase popular support in the Islamic world. To understand how this works, lets look at Hizbollah and Hamas. These Islamic organizations have been setup in such a way that they are almost impossible to eradicate. There is always double redundancy in the leadership, because any leader can expect to be assassinated by their enemies at any time. The effectiveness of this redundancy is demonstrated by the fact that Hizbollah and Hamas still exist today, despite the fact that many of its leaders have been assassinated by Israel and others. We must assume that the leadership of the organization that hit the WTC, and other targets in the past, is organized in a similar way, building on the experience of Islamic organizations in Lebanon, Palestine and elsewhere. Hamas and Hizbollah have integrated Islamic thought in their society by providing numerous services to their communities. Schools and hospitals are provided for free or at cost. And they materially support families, widows and orphans that have been victims of aggression by their enemies. Hizbollah operates numerous businesses, that together with donations fund the activities of the organization. These social activities provide the organizations with enormous popular support, it is an effective way of disseminating the virtues of Islam, and strengthening its base. It has also created a strong platform to recruit martyrs for the violent Jihad (Holy War) against Israel and its allies. >From documentation that was seized in Africa, after the Nairobi bombing, there is a strong indication that a cell structure was used to limit the risks to the terrorist organization that hit the African embassies, allegedly the same organization that hit the WTC in 2001. A cell structure is often used by violent groups. It is implemented in such a way that cell members only know a limited amount of members of the organization, and only have limited access to information about the planned activities of the group. Typically cell members only know the coordinator of the"}, {"response": 218, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (17:21)", "body": "http://interactive.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/Tenant-List.htm is a list of building tenants with status reports on tenants and business."}, {"response": 219, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (17:25)", "body": "I really hope these security precaustions are permanant. I hope to God, they aren't eased up on when people start complaining about the inconvenience. According to the FAA, they claim they have been calling for all airport security personel to become federal employees and trained and paid accordingly, for quite some time. Thet were trying to enforce this, but backed off when all the airlines began protesting."}, {"response": 220, "author": "rachael", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (17:35)", "body": "(Marcia) Only passengers holding an electronic ticket receipt, travel agency itinerary, airline ticket card, boarding document, internet printout or paper ticket will be allowed past the security check point winter, you asked about procedures in Europe - the above has always been the case in the UK to my knowledge - certainly any time I've flown, whether within the UK, within Europe, or to North America (USA and Canada) you cannot get into the departure lounge without a boarding pass which is issued at check-in (and passport for international flights); non-passengers are not allowed past that point. Then at the boarding gate you must show your pass again. If a checked-in passenger does not board, but has put luggage on the plane, the plane will not fly until the luggage has come off. Check in times for USA/Canada have been two hours minimum every time I've done the trip; within Europe its usually an hour; I know someone who checked in 30 minutes before a flight to Dublin (thus was technically late) and was not allowed to board because she'd breeched security regulations. what is curb side check in?"}, {"response": 221, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (18:07)", "body": "There are skycaps at the entrances (curb) who will take your bags and they are put on the plane. You have to produce a valid ticket and photo identification. This is only for domestic flights. Plus you have to tip these guys per bag."}, {"response": 222, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (19:42)", "body": "Science@NASA is based in the United States, but among our many subscribers are a substantial number of readers from other countries. In recent days many of them have written to us expressing their sympathies and horror at the events of Sept. 11th. Their messages, attached below, reveal how the heart-breaking loss of life in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania touches everyone. The staff of Science@NASA extend our heartfelt condolences to the many victims of Tuesday's tragedy, and we thank our friends overseas for their kind messages of support as we resume, later today, our regular schedule of scientific story-telling. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- TO: Ron.koczor@msfc.nasa.gov FROM: inna_mar@XXXXXXXX.ru Dear Mr. Koczor, All of us are shocked by the awful events that have occurred yesterday in New York and in Washington and we wish to extend our sympathy to you and your colleagues. If there is any way that we can help, please let us know. Sincerely, Inna Mardanyan Moscow, Russia **************************** TO: Ron.koczor@msfc.nasa.gov FROM: gushat@XXXXXXX.ru Dear friends, Your colleagues from Paleontological Institute of Moscow are with you. Our sympathy, thoughts and support are yours. And will always be. Best regards, Alexei Rzanov, Galina Ushatinskaya, and all colleagues from Moscow **************************** TO: Ron.koczor@msfc.nasa.gov FROM: snassopoulou@XXXXXXX.gr Dear Ron, We are very sorry and really left astonished and speechless with terrorism struck US yesterday. We sincerely wish and hope that everything is OK for you and all the American colleagues and families. Yours, Sophia Athens, Greece **************************** TO: phillips@spacescience.com FROM: tony.taggett@XXXXXXX.uk Dear Dr Phillips As my only point of contact with the United States is through your science@NASA website, I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the American people, our thoughts and prayers especially go out to the relatives and friends of those who perished in the awful events that occurred yesterday Yours Sincerely Tony Aggett United Kingdom ***************************** TO: ron.koczor@msfc.nasa.gov FROM: mmazzolini@XXXXXX.au We would like to offer our deepfelt sympathy, concern and prayers to our friends and colleagues in the US at this dreadful time, Margaret and Alex Mazzolini Melbourne, Australia ***************************** TO: ron.koczor@msfc.nasa.gov FROM: omaro@XXXXXX.kz We are absolutely shocked by horrible events in the U.S. It is unbelievable...Accept my condolences...Today our world has changed. What will happen to our world? Take care, Prof Omarov Alma Aty, Khazakstan ***************************** TO: ron.koczor@msfc.nasa.gov FROM: cofXXXXX@home.com As the President of CANADIAN Environmental Science and Research Group and on behalf of the Team of CESAR Group I would like to send our heart felt sorrow to those family members who lost relatives in these vicious and despicable attacks on democracy. God Bless America! Jack Pender Canada ***************************** From: Rafael C\ufffdrdenas Santacruz To: Ronald.J.Koczor@msfc.nasa.gov Sincere greetings Dr. Koczor, Ron Together with my family, we feel very sorry for the regrettable incidents in New York. We are with you with all our hearts. Rafael Cardenas Santacruz Scientific Technician Bogota, Columbia ***************************** TO: Ron.koczor@msfc.nasa.gov FROM: jarl.ahlbeck@XXXXX.fi In the 1930's Stalin deported and murdered 25,000 Finns that were peacefully living on the Soviet side of the border. It was a blind terror action against civilians, a complete ethnical cleaning of the Karelia county. Without successful defensive fight in the following winter war 1939 when Stalin tried to invade Finland (5 of my uncles were killed, my father injured), we would, according to recently discovered documents from Moscow, all have been deported to Siberia, and I would not sit here and study your website. These terrorists try to create a world of that kind. We do not want this world anymore! All the best for you in the USA Jarl Helsinki, Finland **************************** Necochea, 11/9/01 TO: ron.koczor@msfc.nasa.gov NASA: Hi\ufffd, My name is Maria. I am aware of the attack that has been perpetrated against your country, and I am very sad. I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I am 14 years old and there is not much that I can do to help, but I profoundly admire you and you have my moral support. I would like to ask you a favor. Please reach an agreement without wars, but I hope those responsible are found, so that peace will be extended throughout the world. Sincerely, Maguie. ***************************** From: Jonathon Dugdale To: patrick.meyer@msfc.nasa.gov Sent: 9/11/01 12:37 PM Subject: Condolences On behalf of all the employees and stakeholders of ApexMail I would like to say that we share in your shock, grief and pain resulting from today's unspeakable and cowardly assault. Our thoughts and prayers "}, {"response": 223, "author": "mari", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (20:06)", "body": "(Marcia) El Al, The Israeli airlines makes inspections like you would not believe. They have the tightest security in the world and NO ONE complains. Right on, Marcia. Below is a fascinating article from today's Philly Inquirer on airport security in Israel. Take a moment to read this, everyone. IMO, *this* is the type of dialogue we should be having, and people need to think now about the balance of personal freedoms and civil liberties vs. much more aggressive security measures. How much of the former are you willing to give up in order to achieve the latter? A little? A lot? I don't have the answers but this is the type of thing I meant before when I wrote that I wondered if people would have the stomach for doing what may be required in the new world order. Military retaliation is only part of it. How Israel remains a model of airport security By Michael Matza INQUIRER STAFF WRITER JERUSALEM - As the United States moves to tighten security at its airports, it may look to the world's model of truly tough airport defense: Israel. Here, any trip on Israel's national airline, El Al, involves not only metal detectors but luggage searches, armed in-flight guards, and a personal grilling by a specially trained antiterrorism officer. Security agents routinely \"profile\" passengers to single out for extra attention Arabs or foreigners who fit ethnic or other parameters. Any foreign visitor who has taken off from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv knows the drill: arrive two hours before departure, pass all luggage through a monster of a metal detector; open carry-on bags, which sometimes have to be unpacked on a stainless-steel table; and submit to interrogation by a no-nonsense screener. Where have you been in Israel? Whom did you meet? Did you go to the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza? Whom did you talk to there? Did you pack your own bags? Are you carrying any gifts? Did anyone give you anything to carry? Do you speak Hebrew? Can you read Hebrew? Have you ever studied Hebrew? Do you understand that I am asking these questions because what may seem like a gift to you may actually be an explosive device? Passengers of Arabic extraction say the questioning can last a very long time and often feels like harassment. Israelis tend to think of it as a necessary evil. In the United States, \"profiling\" would not pass constitutional muster. \"I think that 99 percent of the passengers understand very well the need for security arrangements, and there are not many complaints,\" said Pini Schiff, spokesman for the Israeli Airport Authority and former head of airport security. \"I can tell you, in general terms, that in two or three minutes of questioning, the screeners are doing their best to learn the passenger's aim for coming to Israel,\" Schiff said. \"All the flight checkers are hired by us and trained by us. They go through extensive background checks. All of them have served in the Israeli army and have to pass several tests to make sure that they have the capabilities to do the job.\" When a passenger's answers don't add up, he is denied a boarding pass. Schiff declined to say how often that happens. By questioning passengers, guards quickly can spot those who appear nervous, said Leo Gleser, a former El Al security officer and head of ISDS, a security-consulting firm. In the case of Tuesday's hijackers in the United States, \"not all of them would have made it onto the plane\" if the Israeli approach to security had been used, Gleser told the Associated Press. \"If you detect one, you can start to ask questions\" that might lead to the other members of the group. As another security measure, Ben Gurion passengers are taken by waiting buses to the planes, which are parked far from the terminal on guarded runways. And, although official sources in Israel would not confirm it, it is widely believed that armed, undercover security guards ride aboard every El Al flight. \"We've provided information in the past to other airlines and other airport authorities, and we will continue to share our expertise,\" said Nachman Kleiman, spokesman for El Al. Kleiman declined yesterday to say whether El Al had consulted with the Federal Aviation Administration on the new U.S. measures. \"I can tell you that El Al maintains a high level of security for its passengers by not discussing its procedures in the media,\" he said. Israeli Transportation Minister Efraim Sneh predicted that Tuesday's attacks would lead to security changes. But instead of bringing more high-tech responses, he said, they likely would reinforce the low-tech methods. \"Our screening method is based on identifying the suspect traveler and concentrating on the characteristics of the person,\" Sneh said. \"Screening for explosives only works when the terrorists are using explosives.\" As the world now knows, for Tuesday's terrorists, the plane was the bomb."}, {"response": 224, "author": "nky", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (20:21)", "body": "Hi everyone! I just like to say that I used work on Wall Street and now am working in midtown. Unfortunately I still have many clients from the downtown location especially in the twin towers. The downtown area is my playground. I know every building and every street. I can name most of the businesses with their building address. I've been watching the news and they're flashing the names of all the businesses in the twin towers and it is devastating to see all the names that I know and was conducting business with. I'm in the buildings couple of times a week for meetings and I was very lucky for not being in the area the day it all happened. My heart and sympathy goes out to all my clients and their families. I can't even begin to say how I feel and have been feeling the past couple of days. I like to also thank all of you for all your wonderful support."}, {"response": 225, "author": "winter", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (20:23)", "body": "Sorry to spend so much time on the airport security issue... I've heard conflicting reports about what can now be accepted as \"carry on\" baggage. Some have said that purses and wallets only (what to do with backpacks?), others have said that there are no changes except that curbside check in is now banned. Am leaving for Indonesia next month (will live there for a year), packing a laptop, videocam and 35mm camera, books, files, clothes, etc.. Oh dear."}, {"response": 226, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (20:25)", "body": "Thanks for that, Mari! When I board a plane I want to get to my destination in one piece with my nervous system intact. I have nothing to hide. Search us all and put the fear of a real God in them!"}, {"response": 227, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (20:29)", "body": "The web grows larger and larger. Germany and Italy to name two."}, {"response": 228, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (20:45)", "body": "re: Carry-ons, they suggest we had better be prepared to turn on our laptops if we carry them on. Take photos with our digitals and so on. If you are using a standard camera, I'd suggest an empty one so they can open it and see it is just a camera. I am flying to my son's wedding next month. I am just as concerned as you are. I am heading over a very deep ocean and heading for San Francisco. I want to get there intact. I only have one child! I want to attend his wedding!"}, {"response": 229, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (20:57)", "body": "G O D B L E S S A M E R I C A ! ! !"}, {"response": 230, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (20:57)", "body": "(of course the flag didn't show up--hang on)"}, {"response": 231, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (20:58)", "body": ""}, {"response": 232, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (21:02)", "body": "let's try again---"}, {"response": 233, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (21:08)", "body": "as an american, it is heart-warming and pride-inducing to hear and feel the goodwill coming across this computer, the tv, and looking out the window. please keep it up. we have friends in the pentagon and know how close to home this has come for us. GOD BLESS YOU ALL! and please, please remember, that anger will not fix this tragedy, will not bring anyone back. feel it but don't act on it. the majority of foreigners who have come here have come for the same reason our pilgrims did so long ago. i am angry, appalled, and very saddened by these events. pray for the leaders of all the countries of the world. please display your flag, put your lights on when you're driving around running errands and take the time to thank your servicemen and women of all walks...this is what they train for."}, {"response": 234, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (21:15)", "body": "did you see London playing our National Anthem? i had goosebumps! thank you, that was very moving!! ABC needs to play it again!!"}, {"response": 235, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (21:18)", "body": "Re: Israeli airline security I know many people who have gone through it for years. You live with it. In the United States, \"profiling\" would not pass constitutional muster. It's done right now at the airports at customs on your return.... Has a smuggler sued on that basis???"}, {"response": 236, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (21:29)", "body": "i think that security at airports will make honest people feel safe but bad guys do think, how would airports prevent the bad guys from hiring in? and who's to say that that hasn't happened already. after all this destruction, the news just reported that several people are in custody from JFK and the G airport (i can't spell it at all). i don't know. we all know how bits of info turn into other things and then we have to go back and amend what was reported."}, {"response": 237, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (22:19)", "body": "its LaGuardia. They arrested 5 people at JFK and 4 at LGA. all were of middle east extraction, sporting phony pilots licenses, demanding to get on those flights. They were arrested. Apparently, a group of 3 men tried to get on a flight on Tuesday at JFK, the pilot was suspicious, called port authority police and then the 3 men vanished..."}, {"response": 238, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (22:24)", "body": "Suspicious stuff was detected at check-in and the guys vanished. No pilots were involved. However, I just heard that a pilot and some flight attendants just tested our new airport security with a pocket knife, a corkscrew and false identification and walked right through and then turned around and told the security personnel. :-("}, {"response": 239, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (22:27)", "body": "Oh Karen!!! I am happy I have a month before my flight."}, {"response": 240, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (22:38)", "body": "Two groups got arrested/detained today trying to board airplanes with fake id's and knives. Peter Jennings was just talking to Senator Joseph Biden, pressing hard to get him to comment on whether or not we're still under attack. He said these guys were the second string and the crisis was over, but he looked visiably shaken and wasn't very convincing. An astrounding comment he made was that he was afraid where Jennings was going to go next and both of them looked shaken. Cheney was moved to Camp David today. Washington was evacuated. > >Whoever's running around with the suitcase nuke or the biological weapon has to be found and stopped before a far worse scenario unfolds."}, {"response": 241, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (23:23)", "body": "The collapse of the WTC towers was detected as a M2.5 on the Richter."}, {"response": 242, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (23:28)", "body": "Not a surprise since each of those floor slabs weighed 300 tons."}, {"response": 243, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (23:37)", "body": "Perhaps it is time to relearn the 4th verse of the National Anthem of the United States. I much prefer it to what we sing now! Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes and the war's desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, And this be our motto: \"In God is our trust.\" And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"}, {"response": 244, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (23:48)", "body": "http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/13/jfk.airport.detained/index.html about today's two hijack attempts."}, {"response": 245, "author": "mari", "date": "Thu, Sep 13, 2001 (23:53)", "body": "I know many people who have gone through it for years. You live with it. My point exactly. It's done right now at the airports at customs on your return.... Has a smuggler sued on that basis??? Karen, you know they're talking about profiling on the basis of ethnicity--not picking on middle-class ladies who come off the flight from Milan carrying too many Ferragamo bags.;-). Re: the Jennings/Biden interview. I saw that too, Terry. Was that the most bizarre interview you've ever seen, or what? Now, it's emerging that these guys were all trying to board flights to the west coast (i.e., planes loaded with fuel); armed with knives; and carrying pilot training certs from the same school in Fla. that the Tuesday bombers had attended. Same M-0! Yet, earlier today, the FAA says it's safe to fly and opens the airports. Now, oops--not NY! The FAA is totally incompetent, IMO, and should be removed immediately from having jurisdiction over whether the planes can be permitted to fly. However, I just heard that a pilot and some flight attendants just tested our new airport security with a pocket knife, a corkscrew and false identification and walked right through and then turned around and told the security personnel. :-( See my FAA comment above. It's like Groundhog Day. We keep doing the same thing over and over again, sending out the same poorly-trained minimum wage personnel to do a job that other countries employ highly trained people to do. When I saw the new FAA \"security procedures,\" I'd have laughed if it weren't so pathetic. No plastic knives, huh? Well, that's ok, since they never cut through the crummy food they give you anyway.;-) Seriously, this is *so* primitive! Unbelievable--as I'm typing this, Ted Koppel is interviewing a passenger from the JFK flight. He said they were ready to take off, then about 20 SWAT team members rushed aboard shouting at everyone to hit the floor, and they pulled 3 people off the flight, one of whom was violently resisting arrest. But hey, let's open those airports. :-( I'm at a loss."}, {"response": 246, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (00:20)", "body": "NASA released aerial shots today, of lower Manhatttan taken from outer space. The pre-collapse smoke eminating from the twin towers, is clearly visible. So is the big gaping gap where the twin towers used to be, once they collpased. It was surreal seeing the pictures."}, {"response": 247, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (00:22)", "body": "you know they're talking about profiling on the basis of ethnicity--not picking on middle-class ladies who come off the flight from Milan carrying too many Ferragamo bags.;-). LOL! Am reminded of my astonishment that my own parents were not strip-searched many many years ago on their return from Hong Kong. They must be the only people on the face of the earth who bought nothing. Who would've believed that? ;-) But seriously, ethnic and other profiling is routine at security/customs checkpoints now. Take drugs for example...or the chubby white guy with Rolexes up and down his arm. Have just heard back from my cousin, an air traffic controller in Miami. He too says there's no likelihood that any plane would've been a threat to Air Force One. What shocked him is the return to DC. Even after the 4th plane crashed in PA, there were still thousands of planes still in the air. That's why he couldn't go back to DC."}, {"response": 248, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (05:28)", "body": "Hi all I may have upset one or two people when I said \"Why do many Americans want war?\" for which I apologise but these people did not care who got hit and some people thought the Libyans should be bombed even though Muhammad Gadaffi (right person??)condemned the attacks. If Libya did have a role then they deserve to get hit but I am only seeing stuff about the Osama bin Laden monster who resides in Afghanistan and whom should be extradited and tried anyway, OR if he is the mastermind, bombed into the ground. Bombs away if they are implicated, and GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOD BLESS FREEDOM AND GOD BLESS HUMANITY!!!!!!!!! Rob"}, {"response": 249, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (09:29)", "body": "Could you unlock your Cap Lock key? Thanks."}, {"response": 250, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (09:49)", "body": "My sister sent this to me, I think it's in wide circulation on the net. Subject: From: \"Nadia Zierke\" TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES This, from a Canadian newspaper, is worth sharing. America: The Good Neighbor. Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full text of his Trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record: \"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States. When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it. When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped. The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans. I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon - not once, but several times - and safely home again. You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here. When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake. Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those.\" Stand proud, America! Wear it proudly!! This is one of the best editorials that I have ever read regarding the United States. It is nice that one man realizes it. I only wish that the This is one of the best editorials that I have ever read regarding the United States. It is nice that one man realizes it. I only wish that the rest of the world would realize it. We are always blamed for everything, and never even get a thank you for the things we do. I would hope that each of you would send this to as many people as you can and emphasize that they should send it to as many of their friends until this letter is sent to every person on the web. I am just a single American that has read this, I SURE HOPE THAT A LOT MORE READ IT SOON."}, {"response": 251, "author": "kolin", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (09:53)", "body": "\"Tribute to the United States\" This was written by Gordon Sinclair in 1973 regarding the Vietnam war. Gordon Sinclair died in 1984, but his sentiments resonate powerfully today. Canadians mourn with the Americans and are prepared to help any way they can. Anywhere between 50-500 Canadians are expected to be among the casualties of this horrific act. We are going to have a nationwide memorial service and moment of silence today. This attack was against all of us no matter where we live or come from."}, {"response": 252, "author": "lafn", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (10:11)", "body": "\"you know they're talking about profiling on the basis of ethnicity..\" I can just see the suits now on the basis of racial discrimination . We are a litigious society. This would never be tolerated. For years I was searched at Heathrow; someone on the Most Wanted List must have looked like me. I never minded. But this would never be done in the US."}, {"response": 253, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (10:12)", "body": "Yes, that email is making its rounds."}, {"response": 254, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (11:24)", "body": "Two of the world's most impressive structures have been taken down and over 10% of New Yorks office space has been eliminated. You get a sinking feeling when you read Bin Laden's biography and read that he has a degree in 1979 from King Abdul Aziz University in ... Civil Engineering. He has been running a construction company for over a quarter of a century. Meanwhile . . . WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About 20 police officers, many in SWAT gear, stormed an American Airlines jetliner at New York's Kennedy Airport on Thursday, subduing one man and handcuffing two others, possibly thwarting a hijacking attempt, a passenger aboard the plane told ABC News. http://us.news2.yimg.com/f/42/31/7m/dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010914/ts/attack_tradecenter_report_dc_1.html More (from CNN): 10 people arrested, getting on two planes -- one in JFK, one in LaGuardia. Some were trained in piloting at the same school as the hijackers on Tuesday. Some got caught at checkpoints, some made it onto planes. \"WASHINGTON, NEW YORK (Reuters)\" ... \"The Defense Department asked Bush to authorize the activation of tens of thousands of military reserve troops for ''homeland defense'', defense officials said.\" \"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld planned to activate between 30,000 and 50,000 reservists to provide ``strike-alert'' jet fighter protection and perform other duties at domestic military bases.\" ... \"Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement, which shelters bin Laden, warned of revenge ``by other means' if the United States attacked their country in retaliation for Tuesday's attacks.\" ... \"An ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Friday showed that nearly nine in 10 Americans approved of Bush's job performance -- a huge leap in the aftermath of Tuesday's terror attacks.\" \"Nearly seven out of 10 Americans supported military action against the groups or countries responsible for the attacks, even if that meant a long war with heavy U.S. casualties, the poll found.\" http://us.news2.yimg.com/f/42/31/7m/dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010914/ts/attack_dc_40.html"}, {"response": 255, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (11:27)", "body": "http://islamicsupremecouncil.org/Condemnation/support/bin_ladens_nukes.htm BIN LADEN'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS \ufffd ex-Soviet Warheads Become Fuel for Portable Terrorist Nuclear Bombs \ufffdArab-funded terrorists smuggle nuclear warheads, purchased from the Russian mafia with opium and cash out of Russian territory, reaching Khost overland via secret routes through Uzbekistan. There, former Soviet scientists remove the active uranium to be processed and placed in backpack-sized nuclear bombs\ufffdready for transportation to the West undetected\ufffdto explode in a blast of nuclear terror. Al-Watan al-Arabi, an Arabic language newsmagazine, reports that worldwide terrorist mastermind Usama bin Laden has used two tons of opium and $30 million to purchase over twenty nuclear warheads. Bin Laden has hired an international team of rogue nuclear scientists working in a secret underground base to convert warheads stolen from former Soviet republics into miniature portable nuclear devices capable of striking targets around the globe. The newsmagazine further states that bin Laden developed ties with the mafias of former Soviet republics during the Afghan War which provided him the key to obtaining nuclear missile warheads from the disintegrating USSR. The Arab Afghans, as bin Laden\ufffds fighters are often called, have established extensive bases and networks in many of the Central Asian and Caucasian republics where, due to the weakness of the central government and the minimal security, they are able to thrive unhindered. These terrorist groups operate under the cloak of extremist Islam claiming to oppose the local governments on religious grounds. However, in addition to their calls for the overthrow of \ufffdcorrupt Islamic governments\ufffd these groups serve as a channel for bin Laden to trade Afghani opium to the Russian mafia in exchange for stolen nuclear warheads. Al-Watan\ufffds sources reveal that bin Laden recently sent a delegation representing himself and the Afghani mafia to meet with the mafias of the former Soviet republics. These mafia groups share a common extremist ideology and have disguised their criminal activities under the name of Islam. These mafias have terrorized the governments of the newly-formed Central Asian republics intending to destroy them and replace them with those following their fierce, extremist ideology. This meeting of mafias was a prelude to bringing bin Laden out of Afghanistan and into power in one of these Central Asian"}, {"response": 256, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (11:28)", "body": "http://www.smh.com.au/news/0104/30/world/world8.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/295108.asp"}, {"response": 257, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (11:39)", "body": "I may have posted this before, but it's significant, this is what makes these attacks possible. Osama Bin Laden is using web encryption - from an article published months ago in USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen.htm I hate to use the term, but Bin Laden and the terrorists are a global, virtual community, they don't have to be in one physical place to survive, they can disperse to the far corners of the earth and still maintain contact using 128 bit encryption. That's the scariest part of all this this, they are invisible to all our current monitoring technology. They are extremely difficult to pinpoint and attack. This is what scares me the most about all this."}, {"response": 258, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (11:39)", "body": "WASHINGTON \ufffd Hidden in the X-rated pictures on several pornographic Web sites and the posted comments on sports chat rooms may lie the encrypted blueprints of the next terrorist attack against the United States or its allies. It sounds farfetched, but U.S. officials and experts say it's the latest method of communication being used by Osama bin Laden and his associates to outfox law enforcement. Bin Laden, indicted in the bombing in 1998 of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, and others are hiding maps and photographs of terrorist targets and posting instructions for terrorist activities on sports chat rooms, pornographic bulletin boards and other Web sites, U.S. and foreign officials say. from the above url"}, {"response": 259, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (11:40)", "body": "\"Uncrackable encryption is allowing terrorists \ufffd Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida and others \ufffd to communicate about their criminal intentions without fear of outside intrusion,\" FBI Director Louis Freeh said last March during closed-door testimony on terrorism before a Senate panel. \"They're thwarting the efforts of law enforcement to detect, prevent and investigate illegal activities.\" A terrorist's tool Once the exclusive domain of the National Security Agency, the super-secret U.S. agency responsible for developing and cracking electronic codes, encryption has become the everyday tool of Muslim extremists in Afghanistan, Albania, Britain, Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Syria, the USA, the West Bank and Gaza and Yemen, U.S. officials say. It's become so fundamental to the operations of these groups that bin Laden and other Muslim extremists are teaching it at their camps in Afghanistan and Sudan, they add. \"There is a tendency out there to envision a stereotypical Muslim fighter standing with an AK-47 in barren Afghanistan,\" says Ben Venzke, director of special intelligence projects for iDEFENSE, a cyberintelligence and risk management company based in Fairfax, Va. \"But Hamas, Hezbollah and bin Laden's groups have very sophisticated, well-educated people. Their technical equipment is good, and they have the bright, young minds to operate them,\" he said. U.S. officials say bin Laden's organization, al-Qaida, uses money from Muslim sympathizers to purchase computers from stores or by mail. Bin Laden's followers download easy-to-use encryption programs from the Web, officials say, and have used the programs to help plan or carry out three of their most recent plots: Wadih El Hage, one of the suspects in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, sent encrypted e-mails under various names, including \"Norman\" and \"Abdus Sabbur,\" to \"associates in al Qaida,\" according to the Oct. 25, 1998, U.S. indictment against him. Hage went on trial Monday in federal court in New York. Khalil Deek, an alleged terrorist arrested in Pakistan in 1999, used encrypted computer files to plot bombings in Jordan at the turn of the millennium, U.S. officials say. Authorities found Deek's computer at his Peshawar, Pakistan, home and flew it to the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md. Mathematicians, using supercomputers, decoded the files, enabling the FBI to foil the plot. Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, used encrypted files to hide details of a plot to destroy 11 U.S. airliners. Philippines officials found the computer in Yousef's Manila apartment in 1995. U.S. officials broke the encryption and foiled the plot. Two of the files, FBI officials say, took more than a year to decrypt. \"All the Islamists and terrorist groups are now using the Internet to spread their messages,\" says Reuven Paz, academic director of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, an independent Israeli think tank. Messages in dots U.S. officials and militant Muslim groups say terrorists began using encryption \ufffd which scrambles data and then hides the data in existing images \ufffd about five years ago. But the groups recently increased its use after U.S. law enforcement authorities revealed they were tapping bin Laden's satellite telephone calls from his base in Afghanistan and tracking his activities. \"It's brilliant,\" says Ahmed Jabril, spokesman for the militant group Hezbollah in London. \"Now it's possible to send a verse from the Koran, an appeal for charity and even a call for jihad and know it will not be seen by anyone hostile to our faith, like the Americans.\" Extremist groups are not only using encryption to disguise their e-mails but their voices, too, Attorney General Janet Reno told a presidential panel on terrorism last year, headed by former CIA director John Deutsch. Encryption programs also can scramble telephone conversations when the phones are plugged into a computer. \"In the future, we may tap a conversation in which the terrorist discusses the location of a bomb soon to go off, but we will be unable to prevent the terrorist act when we cannot understand the conversation,\" Reno said. Here's how it works: Each image, whether a picture or a map, is created by a series of dots. Inside the dots are a string of letters and numbers that computers read to create the image. A coded message or another image can be hidden in those letters and numbers. They're hidden using free encryption Internet programs set up by privacy advocacy groups. The programs scramble the messages or pictures into existing images. The images can only be unlocked using a \"private key,\" or code, selected by the recipient, experts add. Otherwise, they're impossible to see or read. \"You very well could have a photograph and image with the time and information of an attack sitting on your computer, and you would never know it,\" Venzke says. \"It will look no different than a photograph exchanged between two friends or fami"}, {"response": 260, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (11:42)", "body": "\"I can tell you that El Al maintains a high level of security for its passengers by not discussing its procedures in the media,\" he said. HEAR, HEAR! Am I alone in believing that far too much information is given to terrorists, criminals, enemies in the name of \"freedom of speech\"?"}, {"response": 261, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (11:48)", "body": "And as a follow up to the above, from zdnet news The hunt for suspects in Tuesday's terrorist attacks has moved online. America Online has handed the FBI e-mail records for accounts belonging to the suspected hijackers, according to a report on CNN's Web site Thursday. AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein declined to comment on any matters involving the investigation. AOL Time Warner's online division stores logs of when instant messaging users are on the network; it also can access e-mail correspondence under certain situations. \"We are cooperating with (the FBI) in this ongoing investigation,\" Nicholas Graham, spokesman for Dulles, Va.-based AOL, said Wednesday. Although Graham wouldn't provide details, he denied reports that the company had agreed to install a Carnivore surveillance system. The FBI developed Carnivore, now renamed DCS1000, to allow it to wiretap communications that go through Internet service providers. \"We are able to provide them with information on an immediate basis,\" he said, stressing that such an ability made Carnivore unnecessary. On Wednesday, EarthLink also acknowledged that it is working with the FBI to turn over specific information that may be relevant to the case. EarthLink's vice president of communications, Dan Greenfield, confirmed that the Atlanta-based ISP was served with a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to turn over information. FISA limits the ability of intelligence and law enforcement agencies--essentially the FBI, the CIA and the military information-gathering National Security Agency--from spying on the American public. The warrant covers investigations relating to the leakage of information to a foreign government and requires less burden of proof than a warrant in a criminal case. The directors of the FBI and the CIA as well as the secretaries of state and defense are the only government officials allowed to request a FISA warrant. Calling the warrant \"equivalent to a wiretap,\" Greenfield also denied that the company had let the FBI install a Carnivore system. \"We are not installing any equipment,\" he said. \"We are cooperating with a very specific request. There are concerns from our customers that we are giving arbitrary access to our network, and we are not.\" Most of the clues that have turned up so far in the hunt for suspects have been dug up through typical investigative footwork, not high-tech sleuthing. Authorities are searching for the accomplices of a well-organized group of suicide hijackers who commandeered four commercial jets Tuesday, effectively turning them into flying bombs. Two flattened the World Trade Center, while a third seriously damaged the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed in a field. Some of the victims on hijacked aircraft used cell phones to describe the attacks to people on the ground. In addition, a review of the passenger lists has offered some leads. So far, five Arab men have been identified by Massachusetts authorities as suspects, according to two Boston newspapers. Authorities have also seized a rental car containing Arabic-language flight-training manuals at the city's Logan International Airport, where two of the hijacked planes originated, the papers reported. U.S. agents served warrants on homes and searched businesses in south Florida; they also issued alerts for two cars in connection with the attacks, local media reported. Jack Mattera, director of computer forensics for The Intelligence Group, which specializes in corporate investigations and crisis management, stressed that information technology will likely play a crucial role in finding out who planned the suicide attacks. \"Using high-tech to investigate is critical,\" he said. \"There are some things that gumshoe work is just not going to find.\" Security experts described Tuesday's attack as low-tech, with reports of knives being used as the primary weapons in the hijackings. Nevertheless, many suspect computers and the Internet may have played a critical role in planning the complex and highly coordinated operation. In February, George Tenet, the director of the CIA, warned members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that terrorists were using the Internet and high-tech tools to communicate. \"International terrorist networks have used the explosion in information technology to advance their capabilities,\" he told the committee. Mark Mansfield, spokesman for the CIA, declined to explain what tools the agency was bringing to bear, saying \"it would be ill-advised for us to talk about (our methods). It would not be a prudent thing to do.\" Both the NSA and the FBI declined comment as well. However, The Intelligence Group's Mattera said he believed that the requests for online information may be to check out the people who posted suspicious information in public chat rooms or online. \"I think there is some indication that there may have been some information posted to different groups that didn't specifically alert people at the time,"}, {"response": 262, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (11:51)", "body": "Gerard is still talking to us from on the ground in NYC. Gerard Van der Leun (boswell) Fri Sep 14 '01 (08:37) 45 lines Early this morning, looking out the window at the street, I suddenly started to see in my mind a whole chain of images from the last week. This was the first day when I had nothing in front of me that I had to do, and I just started to run the images... the rumble in my building, the confused chatter on the radio, the television images of the second plane coming in... the street outside my house with dozens all running toward the promenade to see the horro across the river.. the twin towers tall in the crisp and bright morning with the flames and smoke streaming up like obscene claws coming out of the building. and the sound and the sight of the first tower just going down and going down and the blast of dust up and spewing out of the canyons of wall street and the screams and wails around me as what we saw was so far beyond our ability to comprehend the enormity of it that we could have been just ants gazing at the sole of a descending boot... and the sick wet rumble that came across the water like a screaming beast having its innards torn out and the smoke, the immense plume of smoke that darkened the sun and went on and still goes on... and the rest of the day a dim numb blur i had i think something to eat and i went to get coffee in the bright sunlight with a friend and i called my daughter and found she was safe and far uptown, except of course she was not safe, as none of our children will ever be safe again until that thing that caused this is crushed and killed and ground to dust and sent down into the pit of oblivion forever."}, {"response": 263, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (11:59)", "body": "Gerard Van der Leun (boswell) Fri Sep 14 '01 (08:43) 28 lines and going back to my place and watching the endless repeats and the endless parade of the doomed and the wounded and the hordes of people in the distance jamming the bridge, the brooklyn bridge on which two large american flags fly, these people all going one direction, one direction only... out and away from the stench and the terror and the death... and somewhere in there the second tower came down down on thousands trying to escape and down on hundreds of what have to be the bravest and most noble souls in the world, the fireman, the fireman who were going up the stairs... up the stairs... UP THE STAIRS... we cannot know what sort of human spirit that takes we can never know... i have no humanity and no manhood and no courage when compared to these men, none of us do none of us... do you all understand that they went into this building and up the stairs?"}, {"response": 264, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (11:59)", "body": "I am ready and willing to give up my civil liberties if it means that we can remain safe here in the US and the rest of the world. People need to realize that right now, and not complain about it, as they inevitably will."}, {"response": 265, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (12:04)", "body": "Gerard Van der Leun (boswell) Fri Sep 14 '01 (08:56) 50 lines and the day went on and went on... inside to television.. outside into the reality... and the smell of it got stronger and the white ash of concrete ash of steel ash of paper ash of human beings drifted over me and everythingand everyone around me and settled white and obscene on everything and the smoke went on and the streets were filled with people whose faces were filled with fear and with grief and with anger and nobody spoke except to whisper to those next to them that they knew or perhaps did not know but knew now in this terrible day at some point i began to take pictures of the skyline which was not there any more, of the lives that weren't there any more... of little things... but it wasn't any use... it was pointless... feeling grief was pointless... only rage seemed to have a point, rage and hate, and it seemed important, very very important to retain that rage and hate as a wall against the pain and the despair... i walked out again and again to look across the river and to smell the smoke and to see the dust because i knew that nothing would ever be the same again, i knew that something had killed my world and the world of those i loved... of the world of all of us...and that no matter what we did that world would never be returned to us... that we could and we must honor and remember it.. that we must take terrible and complete vengence on those whose evil took it from us no matter what the cost... but that world, that indian summer world, would not be returned anymore than the lives of those who went up the stairs in the burning and collapsing tower would be returned. this morning for the first time i have been weeping, weeping not in tears but in a kind of dry low screaming agony that sweeps up in my chest. it comes and shakes me and then it goes away. i'm going to go out into this world now to tend to the little needs of my little day in my little world. i can't bear to remember anymore of this week for now even though I remember it all."}, {"response": 266, "author": "kolin", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (12:41)", "body": "Over 100,000 people participated at the memorial service in Ottawa, with speeches by Jean Chretien, US ambassador Paul Celluci and Governor General Adrienne Clarkson. Chretien expressed the resolve of Canada to fully supprt U.S at this difficult time."}, {"response": 267, "author": "lafn", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (14:06)", "body": "Tony Blair's speech to the special session of Parliament was carried on FOX. He also expressed the support and allegiance to the US in tracking down the terrorists by every means available. Eloquent and sincere. Much appreciated."}, {"response": 268, "author": "Moon", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (14:13)", "body": "Am I alone in believing that far too much information is given to terrorists, criminals, enemies in the name of \"freedom of speech\"? You are walking a very thin line here. But I agree with you. The thought of them having the possibility to make \"backpack nuclear bombs\" is a scary one. God bless us all!"}, {"response": 269, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (14:33)", "body": "President Bush gave a very inspiring speech at the National Cathedral as did Billy Graham. I was reduced to tears. My friend Jean is still awaiting word of her sister who was at the WTC for a conference."}, {"response": 270, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (14:33)", "body": ""}, {"response": 271, "author": "rachael", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (14:49)", "body": "we had a three minute silence and a candle-lit vigil at work today, at 11am, led by our chaplain. It was very moving and I'm glad I was there, although it feels such a small thing to do in the face of such enormity. Tony Blair said we (in the UK) stand shoulder to shoulder with the USA; NATO said an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us; we know now that this is true, that along with thousands of Americans were hundreds of British citizens, Irish, Canadians, Australians, and more, and this event will touch many of us, world wide. My father, my uncle, and my grandfather were all firefighters. The loss of some of New York's finest is keenly felt in this home, many miles away. I'm lucky, my friend escaped, my cousin's colleagues and friends are safe. My heart goes out to those not so lucky, and I just hope the prayers we said and the thoughts we had, at 11am this morning in the UK, go some way to comfort those shouldering terrible burdens. I think I read somewhere that at 7pm tonight, US time, candles will be lit. 7pm in NYC is midnight here; I'll be lighting a candle then. Shoulder to shoulder; an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. God bless you"}, {"response": 272, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (15:10)", "body": "(Mari) When I saw the new FAA \"security procedures,\" I'd have laughed if it weren't so pathetic. No plastic knives, huh? Well, that's ok, since they never cut through the crummy food they give you anyway.;-) Seriously, this is *so* primitive! B'ness as usual: 1. Panic. 2. Create specific reactive measures instead of broad proactive measures (golly gee, all 18+ hijackers answered the 'did you pack you own suitcase' question truthfully and they probably skipped curbside check-in). 3. Panic some more. Aargh! I was also LOL about the knives. Whatever will they do in first class, where the cutable food is served? Wait until someone chokes and sues. Or maybe they'll just ban airline food all together, or restrict it to the likes of those Otis Spunkmeyer cookies served by SouthWest. ;-) Winter, by the time you leave for Indo the carry-on requirements might be better defined. You could also look into shipping some of those items ahead."}, {"response": 273, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (15:24)", "body": "posted to a listserve Dear Friends, The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim Ansary. Tamim is an Afghani-American writer. He is also one of the most brilliant people I know in this life. When he writes, I read. When he talks, I listen. Here is his take on Afghanistan and the whole mess we are in. -Gary T. Dear Gary and whoever else is on this email thread: I've been hearing a lot of talk about \"bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age.\" Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this would mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this atrocity, but \"we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage. What else can we do?\" Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing whether we \"have the belly to do what must be done.\" And I thought about the issues being raised especially hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've never lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who will listen how it all looks from where I'm standing. I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in New York. I agree that something must be done about those monsters. But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think \"the people of Afghanistan\" think \"the Jews in the concentration camps.\" It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult if someone would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats nest of international thugs holed up in their country. Some say, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban? The answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, suffering. A few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy, no food. There are millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying these widows alive in mass graves. The soil is littered with land mines, the farms were all destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few of the reasons why the Afghan people have not overthrown the Taliban. We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it already. Make the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all that. New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move too fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only be making common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people they've been raping all this time So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me now speak with true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there with ground troops. When people speak of \"having the belly to do what needs to be done\" they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as needed. Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent people. Let's pull our heads out of the sand. What's actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just because some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than that folks. Because to get any troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. We're flirting with a world war between Islam and the West. And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he wants. That's why he did this. Read his speeches and statements. It's all right there. He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and the West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the west wreaks a holocaust in those lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to lose, that's even better from Bin Laden's point of view. He's probably wrong, in the end the west would win, whatever that would mean, but the war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs but ours. Who has the bel"}, {"response": 274, "author": "Becka", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (15:33)", "body": "Rachael - My father, too, was one of the head Fire Chiefs in Toronto. Two of my uncles are currently Captains (it seems to run in families, doesn't it?) I am totally devastated by the deaths of those brave men. My Dad is crushed, and he just had a cornea transplant which makes his pain even worse. My Dad had meet those chiefs who died in NYC on a couple of occassions at international events. If it had been here, in Toronto, I probably would have lost a few members of my family. I am trying to help my Dad's department organize something here cause like many, I really want to help. At the moment I have had to turn the TV off as they are putting faces on the dead, and it is breaking my heart. Here in Canada 100,000 people showed up at Parliament Hill in Ottawa for a memorial ceremony - that is a huge number. I am so proud of Canadians, so proud for the world for sharing in this grief."}, {"response": 275, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (15:43)", "body": "Had the TV on all morning, sobbing. Each story is more heartbreaking than the next."}, {"response": 276, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (16:15)", "body": "Washington Post New York Airport Suspects Cleared By Donna De La Cruz Associated Press Writer Friday, Sept. 14, 2001; 11:12 a.m. EDT NEW YORK \ufffd\ufffd About a dozen travelers of Middle Eastern descent who were detained at two New York airports have been cleared of any connection with this week's terrorist attacks, federal authorities said Friday. One person, however, remained in custody, said Barry Mawn, head of the FBI's New York office. That person had not immediately been charged and may be released, Mawn said. The incidents Thursday caused the region's three major airports \ufffd Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J. \ufffd to close again just hours after service had been restored because of the attacks. Authorities had been investigating whether the two groups \ufffd detained at Kennedy and LaGuardia \ufffd were more would-be hijackers or people related to the attack trying to flee the New York area. Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN the arrests were based on suspicions that the men were linked to Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. One man was arrested because he was belligerent, while the others were merely detained and questioned, according to the senator's chief of staff, Alan Hoffman. Biden said there were explanations for the suspicions. One man was originally thought to be traveling with a fake pilot's license. Biden said the man was a pilot who also had his brother's identification. \"His brother happened to live in an apartment complex that was one in Boston where some of these people had actually been,\" said Biden, D-Del. Others were traveling to a Boeing Co. conference, either because they work for the airline manufacturer or were invited, Biden added. \"The folks at the airport thought, 'Hey, wait a minute, are they impersonating crew?' And they weren't.\" Mawn said he could not verify reports that the individuals had been taken forcibly off a plane. ---------------------------- I saw an interview on Good Morning American. A passenger said the pilot - after talking with those on board - told them to buckle up because they would soon be taking off. About 20 minutes later, men with guns drawn, in full riot gear, came in the rear and took the suspects away."}, {"response": 277, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (16:21)", "body": "This is incredible stuff - world wide empathy and support feels very good, indeed. Lest anyone mistake Rob's comments in Caps, I want to assure you that he is a very special friend; conservative, itelligent and thoughtful. He is not given to overstatement nor emotionalism. Emphasis is what those Caps were for, and, Rob, many warm thanks for your doing so."}, {"response": 278, "author": "lafn", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (16:49)", "body": "Tamim Ansary. Tamim is an Afghani-American writer. Wonder what this guy is doing to help his country except write emails?"}, {"response": 279, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (16:55)", "body": "Washington Post New York Airport Suspects Cleared By Donna De La Cruz Associated Press Writer Friday, Sept. 14, 2001; 11:12 a.m. EDT NEW YORK \ufffd\ufffd About a dozen travelers of Middle Eastern descent who were detained at two New York airports have been cleared of any connection with this week's terrorist attacks, federal authorities said Friday. One person, however, remained in custody, said Barry Mawn, head of the FBI's New York office. That person had not immediately been charged and may be released, Mawn said. The incidents Thursday caused the region's three major airports \ufffd Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J. \ufffd to close again just hours after service had been restored because of the attacks. Authorities had been investigating whether the two groups \ufffd detained at Kennedy and LaGuardia \ufffd were more would-be hijackers or people related to the attack trying to flee the New York area. Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN the arrests were based on suspicions that the men were linked to Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. One man was arrested because he was belligerent, while the others were merely detained and questioned, according to the senator's chief of staff, Alan Hoffman. Biden said there were explanations for the suspicions. One man was originally thought to be traveling with a fake pilot's license. Biden said the man was a pilot who also had his brother's identification. \"His brother happened to live in an apartment complex that was one in Boston where some of these people had actually been,\" said Biden, D-Del. Others were traveling to a Boeing Co. conference, either because they work for the airline manufacturer or were invited, Biden added. \"The folks at the airport thought, 'Hey, wait a minute, are they impersonating crew?' And they weren't.\" Mawn said he could not verify reports that the individuals had been taken forcibly off a plane. ---------------------------- I saw an interview on Good Morning American. A passenger said the pilot - after talking with those on board - told them to buckle up because they would soon be taking off. About 20 minutes later, men with guns drawn, in full riot gear, came in the rear and took the suspects away."}, {"response": 280, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (17:00)", "body": "Womack Diary, Day 3 *8-/ Subject: Day 3, and this morning Date: Friday, September 14, 2001 9:10 AM From: Womack, Jack Our secretary Heather (who just moved here from Alaska, two weeks ago) and myself are the only people on our floor so far this morning. Yesterday we were essentially told the building would be open, but after that it was up to us. And, as my ISP is down in the Closed Zone (I called them \"control zones,\"), I can't do email from home (and so won't be writing again till Monday), here I am, at least for a couple of hours. This morning it's raining, very hard, a frog-strangler. I don't think it's rained this hard this consistently all year. My pants are still wet and the tie's soaked through. This has made rescue attempts pretty much impossible, today, not that at this point anyone is really expecting survivors -- they were saying on the news that the dust down there, wet, has the consistency of oatmeal; and that with every half-inch of rain that falls, several additional tons of weight begin pressing down on everything. The subways down there have also all flooded, even before this, what with water main breaks in evidently several locations (This water of course is also soaking into foundations throughout the area). It's also turning much cooler -- somewhere in the 60s today, and yesterday afternoon it got up to the mid-80s, I think, and was humid enough to notice. It came to me this morning that the reason 30,000 body bags are on hand for what appears will be 5,000 casualties is that the 5,000 are all in pieces, and each piece of course will need to be bagged separately. There was a drawing in the Daily News today showing the outlines of all the buildings surrounding where the Trade Towers stood, and noting that at least 9 of them have suffered major structural damage. The Milennium (sic) Hotel and 1 Liberty Plaza I mentioned yesterday. Among the others in bad shape is one of my favorites, the 1927 Bell Telephone building at the corner of Barclay & West. It stands next to both the North Tower and 7 WTC, both of which collapsed. It's a Ferris-silhouette art deco beauty, and the building is built over the sidewalk on the Barclay St. side, a stone arcade running the length of the block. Cool in the summer. It looks like the only residential area fully evacuated was Battery Park City, where Ellie lives (she is still staying with patrick & Teresa, I am hoping she's been able to get some sleep soon). No word on when that'll open back up but I can't imagine it'll be anytime soon. THis morning, coming out of the subway, I was maybe one of three or four people. After yesterday, which at moments almost felt like a normal day (or, rather, a day in the gone world), today seems much more like Wednesday did, except far more grim due to the rain. As all of you know in the rain New York's color goes, essentially, gray. Very gray. And that's how it looks today. With luck, it will at least finally clear the dust out of the atmosphere (it struck me yesterday that one of the many interesting things we've all been breathing in the past few days are bits of infinitesimally powdered glass). But if the other buildings start falling, the cloud will come back. In this sort of weather in the past, of course, the cloud cover overlying NY would generally be so low as to hide the Trade Towers for view, and it was pleasant to be able to fantasize, at such moments, what downtown NY used to look like when they weren't there. I was reading, somewhere, that some European is already saying that he & others will get all European nations to help rebuild at least one of the towers if not both, bigger and taller and clearly even more of a hideous target. Thank you Europe, but no, please. Here are the ongoing bigger or more interesting changes in the event, both onsite and in media, that I'm noticing. I talked about some of these last night with Clute. 1. The first media memorial teddy bear site appeared. In Union Square, which is right at 14th Street where the No-Traffic Zone begins. Some workmen brought up a piece of steel from the Trade Towers and wrapped it around a stele, or flagpole, or something -- they never pan up of course to show you what the thing is, focusing instead on the flowers being left. The one good thing is at this point, no teddy bears have appeared. It's mostly single flowers and pictures of missing people, so I'm actually not sure that a media-driven Mourning Zone will take hold. I suspect because everything in New York is a Mourning Zone, and everyone here is too much in shock, still, to even be thinking of those goddamned teddy bears. 2. The dawning awareness of New Yorkers, such as myself & Ellen Datlow (who I met for a couple of drinks last night, down in Chelsea, as she was finally able to get above 14th.), that this is actually being paid attention to out in the country. A very funny thing, this -- the sense I think held to varying lengths of time by people who live here that what has happened is in some "}, {"response": 281, "author": "Moon", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (17:08)", "body": "Evelyn, Tamsin is an Afghani-American who has been living here for 35. His country is America. Thank you for posting Tamsin's letter. We're flirting with a world war between Islam and the West. My husband is Italian and he has been saying this for years, that it would happen. This is their holy war, this is just what they want. Americans and the international community believe they will be going to war to fight against terrorist, but they will be fighting the holy war."}, {"response": 282, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (17:26)", "body": "Marcia, I wasn't at all offended by Rob's use of capital letters. He only used them to emphasize one particular thought in his post. It is a time of high emotion and different people express themselves differently. As it is also a time of high stress, some may react to certain things more strongly than would be the norm. It would seem that no harm was meant either by Rob or those who had been put off by his use of upper case letters. I've been able to contact my friends living in New York. Everyone is physically fine, but they say that they feel emotionally sick and bruised. So do I for that matter. Lastly, the Pennsylvania crash site isn't all that near Pittsburgh. It lies about 80 miles to the southeast, near the Maryland border, about 35 miles SSW of Johnstown. Pittsburgh is the largest city near it, and more people have an idea of where Pittsburgh is than were Johnstown, PA is. The plane crashed in Somerset county which is a very rural area. It came down in a cornfield. Fortunately no one on the ground was hurt."}, {"response": 283, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (17:37)", "body": "Last night one network (I forget which) reported that they had \"found\" 10 policemen on the 2nd underground level...one of them had reached his wife via cel phone. Has anyone heard more about this? Is it confirmed? I could find nothing about it on any of the other networks."}, {"response": 284, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (18:03)", "body": "It was a hoax. Friday September 14 11:36 AM ET NY Mayor Asks Media for Accuracy By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (news - web sites) asked the news media to be more careful reporting about the World Trade Center rescue operation Friday, saying wrong information is raising false hopes and endangering workers. ``Some of it can be very dangerous and emotionally damaging,'' he said. He cited false reports that a potential survivor had been in contact with people by cell phone, and that 10 or 15 people were trapped alive in a store. Media outlets reported Thursday that five firefighters trapped since Tuesday had been rescued from the trade center rubble. It later turned out that only two who were trapped in an air pocket for several hours Thursday were found alive. Not only does false information play with the emotions of people with missing friends and relatives, it can send rescue workers on dangerous, fruitless chases, he said. He urged news organizations not to report such details until confirmed by police and FBI (news - web sites). ``If we could all be a little more patient and verify information before we put it out, we won't raise people's hopes unnecessarily,'' Giuliani said. CNN anchorwoman Paula Zahn, responding on the air to Giuliani's request, noted that it has been difficult to get accurate information out of the rescue site. ``We're all trying to heed this advice,'' she said. ``Unfortunately, everybody is being given conflicting information.'' ABC, CBS, NBC and the cable networks were into their fourth day of exclusive devotion to the story on Friday. News executives say they're keeping in mind television's role as a national gathering place in times of emergency. Network news chiefs uniformly expressed pride in how their profession has performed this week. ``There's really been a careful approach to the story that combines aggressiveness in getting information out with the awareness that we should not be speculating and we should not be alarming people,'' said CBS News President Andrew Heyward. NBC is being careful in its wording to not equate Islam with extremism even if some of the religion's believers masterminded the attack, network news President Neal Shapiro said. Until Giuliani announced Thursday that 4,763 people were missing at the World Trade Center, networks had generally been careful not to guess on the number of casualties. An exception: network reports that as many as 800 people died at the Pentagon; the estimate is now 190. There were also widely varying reports on the number of body bags brought to the World Trade Center site. News organizations also made different decisions when confronted with video depicting victims jumping from the World Trade Center to certain deaths; CBS showed it, ABC refused. ``It was not some sort of gratuitous, individual tragedy where we were exploiting someone's personal pain for some kind of sensational purpose,'' Heyward said. ``Quite the opposite. This was absolutely germane to the context of the story and vividly conveyed the sheer horror in a way that was journalistically appropriate.'' Offered the same video, ``without any hesitation we turned it down,'' said ABC News President David Westin. ``I don't believe that showing actual human beings leaping to their deaths was helpful.'' CNN showed images of things falling from the World Trade Center, but they weren't necessarily identifiable as humans, CNN Chairman Walter Isaacson said. NBC showed footage of a body falling once and decided not to anymore. The same was true at Fox News Channel. ``I don't think it's an easy call,'' NBC's Shapiro said. ``I don't condemn anybody who chose to run it.'' At least two networks were planning specials to help children cope. Peter Jennings will anchor a one-hour ABC special for youngsters Saturday morning, and Nickelodeon will present ``Nick News : Kids, Terrorism and the American Spirit'' with Linda Ellerbee on Sunday night. ---------------------------------------- If someone who knows how would delete my double post, I would be grateful. -- I think I hit reload and it sent all again - at least it shows on my computer."}, {"response": 285, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (18:07)", "body": ""}, {"response": 286, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (18:18)", "body": "Thanks, Suzee. (I only saw one copy of your post, by the way.)"}, {"response": 287, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (19:27)", "body": "we are skating on thin ice in this topic by venting our anger here. this will not help anyone. the afghani-american writer above makes sense, IMMHO. the Holy War is what these people want. and they sure as heck are trying hard to get it too. it's all around us, look at Israel, look at the Serbs, look at Ireland, for goodness sakes. this is ridiculous. ok, the service today was wonderful though i was a bit worried about all those people in the same place. tonight at 7, please light a candle!! and if you've flown a flag today, thank you so much. my sub-division either didn't have the flags or were too afraid to show them but to those who did, thank you very much!!"}, {"response": 288, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (21:00)", "body": "My candle is lit and sitting vigil at the base of my flagpole.. 7 PM was 1 PM here and it is broad day light. The candle will remain as long as it burns. The flag at half staff is coming down at sunset to rise then lower to half staff again tomorrow. Fighting amongst ourselves just plays into their hands. Come on world, we're better than that!!! Terry, MSNBC ran the Bin Ladin interview this afternoon again. You sure you want to see this man?"}, {"response": 289, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (21:04)", "body": "a new CNN article which explains how the Taliban are trying to defend Bin Laden and turn this into a religious war: http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/09/14/afghan.denial/ _Prepare for Holy War_ \"Now, the third empire of the world wants to impose an attack on us,\" [supreme Afghan leader Mullah Mohammed Omar] said. \"As you know better, it is not because of Osama [bin Laden]. This is the demonization of Islam.\" Well, this idiotic move does nothing more than confirm their role as a Bin Laden conspirator."}, {"response": 290, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (21:21)", "body": "... To insistent chants of \"U.S.A.! U.S.A.!\" from the crowds of workers, Mr. Bush took hold of a small bullhorn and climbed atop a small pile of rubble. He then shouted over a chorus of cheers that he wanted the rescuers to know that all America was deeply grateful for their efforts. \"This nation stands with the good people of New York City, and New Jersey and Connecticut, and we mourn the loss of thousands of our citizens\" he said. To cries of \"George, we cant hear you!\" the President replied: \"I can hear you! I can hear you!\" \"The rest of the world hears you,\" he added. \"And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!\" ... more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/14/national/15CND-BUSH.html"}, {"response": 291, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (21:36)", "body": "that was wonderful--the chanting and that he went straight in there...but because of the whole security issue where he is concerned, the operation slowed down. did anyone else get that impression? yes, terry, The Holy War between the west and islam."}, {"response": 292, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (21:44)", "body": "Please, just do not make a martyr of Osama Bin Ladin. I am pleased with how America is responding. Makes me all gritty determination mixed with misty patriotism. I will do without, I will do what is necessary. Just do it right! Go to website and see the pics in all 4 sections. Humbling, maddening, speechless... This should never have happened. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/attack/newyork/6.htm"}, {"response": 293, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (21:45)", "body": "that was wonderful--the chanting and that he went straight in there...but because of the whole security issue where he is concerned, the operation slowed down. did anyone else get that impression? yes, terry, The Holy War between the west and islam."}, {"response": 294, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (22:19)", "body": "No one's making a martyr of Bin Laden. He's dispicable. They keep saying he's worth $300 million. The Banks aren't very top notch in Afghanistan. Where's he keeping this money. We should find out and confiscate all his money. NBC is now reporting that a couple of guys with box cutters were arrested off an Amtrak train in San Antonio, the cops thought they were drug dealers because they had a lot of cash. Now they're thought to be major players in this terrorist network. It's been getting a lot of local attention, now it's starting to break nationally. US officials are in the Caymans investigating a letter warning about a major terrorist act against the US involving airlines. It was treated as \"merely speculation\" by the government (whose?, the Caymans?). Three men are being held in the Cayman Islands."}, {"response": 295, "author": "Moon", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (23:35)", "body": "This Cayman's connection sounds like that's where they might have a bank account. That should be investigated. the Holy War is what these people want. We are going back to the Crusades. There has been a major influx of Muslims all over Europe and in some cases such as Rome, they insist on having a mosque built. I would like to see in which Muslim country one can go live at and insist they build a Catholic church. It would never happen."}, {"response": 296, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 14, 2001 (23:37)", "body": "Sebastian Mendler (smendler) Fri Sep 14 '01 (20:26) 83 lines Subject: groping towards a solution (fwd) Hi, friends -- Okay, let's see here... tell me if I am incorrect in any of the following points, or in the reasoning that I am trying to distill from them. 1. Unless I remember wrongly, the Japanese were seen during WWII much the same way as the Islamic Extremists are being seen now -- driven by religious fervor, unable to be reasoned with for that reason, not afraid to die for their cause. 2. This religious fervor was defused after the war by Hirohito shedding his divine status, and a constitutional monarchy being established in Japan. 3. The majority of Japanese had little or no problem making the transition. This probably had something to do with the fact that the most fervent believers in the old system were, well, dead. 4. The huge occupation force in Japan both respected many traditional Japanese institutions, and defanged the more troublesome ones. 5. At the same time, the Americans in that force brought back to the US awareness of many aspects of Japanese and Asian culture that had hitherto been little-known in the US. 6. They also brought along some wives. 7. The Afghani people are in dire straits indeed -- so dire, some say, that bombing them would be pointless, there's nothing worth bombing. The resulting weakness is one reason why the Taliban have not been tossed out on their turbans. 8. As the saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. 9. The point of the globalist movement -- which one assumes includes Bush, Powell, et al. -- is that Our Way of Life is the best one, so we need to get everybody involved in it. At least, that's sorta what they'll tell you if you ask. 10. The Japanese, rebuilt, became an economic powerhouse, and a key player in the world economy. It liked the results. The former militarist viewpoint, while still maintained by a few bitter conservatives, lost its former stranglehold on the soul of the nation. 11. So perhaps it makes more sense, not to try a purely military operation, but rather to try more of a *cultural* invasion. Think of the liberation of Pepperland from the Blue Meanies by the Beatles in _Yellow Submarine_. Restore color, light, and music to a dark, silent, depressed land. Wall-to-wall carpeting, not carpet bombings. PT Cruisers, not cruise missiles. Water, not napalm. Perfume, not tear gas. 12. Such an operation would still have its military aspects, and they would be huge. All the invading force of aid workers, fashion designers, educators, doctors, chefs, musicians, jugglers, car dealers, etc. would need to be protected while they did their jobs. Any attacking forces would be squelched, stomped, eradicated; but in the absence of attacks, life would get better and better for the folks that cooperated. This force would be much more like a police force than an army. (Sometimes, the best defense is to not be offensive.) 13. At the same time, we would not repeat the Soviets' mistake of trying to eradicate the fundamentalists. Chase them into the hills, and let them live their lives the way they want to. In fact, make sure they do; protect them from *all* outside influences, and protect the outside from theirs. Do not try to follow them into the mountains. 14. In this scenario, there would be plenty of opportunities for the more bloodthirsty among us to kick some righteous butt -- the beachheads (so to speak) will be tough to establish -- but these opportunities would ultimately be in the service of the healers. 14. At the same time, there are transformations to be effected within the Western world -- but maybe we should save that for another time... Am I on a promising track here? / /skip"}, {"response": 297, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (00:05)", "body": "Terry, Dear, you were not the one I thought might martyr this sick man and his followers. Unhappily we need give them no more reasons to hate Americans and want to kill them. His followers need little urging to create mayhem, it seems. *HUGS* (despicable is the nicest thing I have heard him called all week!)"}, {"response": 298, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (00:07)", "body": "Bin Laudin is an ex-Saudi. He just about holds the ruling house ther hostage for letting us land jets in Saudi Arabia during the gulf war. I am certain Swiss accounts are numerous, too."}, {"response": 299, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (00:14)", "body": "Oh Skip, if only it were that simple. We are discussing a belief system here not a political one. Too many serf in both instances. How long do you think the dress designers would last in a land and religion which hides their women and treats them as chattel (not to mention mutillation, so I won't mention it.) Our do-gooders would be deader then doornails as soon as they landed. This is an other world. They are not insular, this cell system of radical Islamists! They infiltrate every layer of society and in OUR country of dress desingers, and still loathe us enough to kill us in cold blood - civilians!!! Think some more... I'm listening!"}, {"response": 300, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (00:26)", "body": "Well seeing as Bin Laden is as good as he is, at keeping his movements and his intentions hidden, I doubt if hiding $300 million in a series of international bank accounts, would be all that hard for him. If it is stashed away in Swiss bank accounts, I'm not holding my breath that it can be found and confiscated any time soon. How long did it take for the Swiss banking authorities to finally cooperate, in tracking down loot stolen by the Nazi's....45, 50 years ?"}, {"response": 301, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (00:37)", "body": "The Japanese, rebuilt, became an economic powerhouse, and a key player in the world economy. This was the way that the Brigate Rosse terrorists in Italy where defeated as well. And did you know that Baywatch is the number 1 TV show in Iran? Unfortunately, the world has not acted on this before and now things have gone too far. Their Muslim radical power works on the poor because religion thrives in poor countries. The Jihad has started. I only pray that no atomic bombs will be used from either side."}, {"response": 302, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (00:38)", "body": "If it is stashed away in Swiss bank accounts, I'm not holding my breath that it can be found and confiscated any time soon. It is different now. There no longer is secrecy in Swiss banking."}, {"response": 303, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (01:26)", "body": "ROTFLMAO Moon.....Baywatch is the Number 1 rated program in Iran ? Are you serious ? Yikes, I bet the late Ayatollah Khomeni is just thrilled to bits, not to mention David Hasslehoff....LOL Thanks for that Moon, I needed a good laugh after this weeks trauma. By the way, what are #2 and #3 Three's Company and Charlie's Angels ?"}, {"response": 304, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (09:28)", "body": "I have never experienced such a massive show of patriotism as I have in the last few days. Last week, I admit that I would have passed many American flags with my thoughts absorbed in something else, never really and truly acknowledging the stars and stripes and for what that flag stands for. Somehow, in times past, the word \"patriotism\" has always rattled a little nerve in the \"government-is-out-to-get-us\" leftist side of me. Today, though, I am beginning to look at that flag and the word \"patriotism\" in a different light. Don't get me wrong - I'll still be looking over my shoulder, but, I am feeling a great sense of togetherness with this \"patriotism\" attitude. It is only saddening to realize what it has taken to get me to this place."}, {"response": 305, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (09:42)", "body": "http://pain.outloud.org/gary/thankyou/ These are photos from around the world of people stopping and praying, lighting candles, etc. big page but worth the wait time. There's a photo of Arafat giving blood. And this link is to a Yahoo! \"slide show\" of 20+ photos of newspaper front pages from around the world after the attack. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?p=news&g=events/ts/091201newspapers&e=1&tmpl=sl&nosum=0&large=0?tamp=1000366704\",610,580) ; This was an attack on the world trade center and it was an attack on the world, that building housed so many nationalities and religious types, I'd like to see a breakdown. BBC morning news reports that Pakistan is not going to allow an assault from bases in their country, we'll have to stage from India? Or Dushanbe? The Russians may be advising us on how to invade Afghanistan, do you see the irony in this? We're going to need a multi-faceting approach with not only air strikes but covert activity and ground troops. And at the same tiem we're going to have to bolster our homeland defense, unlike the Gulf War where there were only air strikes and no danger at home."}, {"response": 306, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (10:18)", "body": "Pakistan won't allow flights originating from their land but they'll most likely allow flyovers. The European community may offer some support but not likely overwhelming, though I'm comforted by Tony Blair's statements and actions, they've been courageous. Russia and India will be our staunchest allies. Need a million or so soldiers? India has 'em and would probably put them out on to the battlefield. An alliance with Russia will minimize China overnight. I just hope I'm wrong about lukewarm Euro participation. This is the first war of this century in a millenium that started out looking like it would belong to China and Asia. Now that balance may be changing and it will become the century of global, English speaking democracies lead by America, India, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. This may have the effect of changing the balance of power for a century to come. We're lost the symbol of our Western global economy, but in the processed it's galvanized the global English speaking democracies in a way we would never have done spontaneously. Think about this in your little cave, Osama. Think about a wealthy, technologically advanced, English speaking India ruling the region. Think about about a total global power change that will transform tragedy in to a brighter future for all mankind. India and Russia may need this kind of power boost from the US, they're struggling and they need to be galvanized and energized in the direction of becoming sane, technologically advanced democracies."}, {"response": 307, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (11:04)", "body": "\"English\" is not the tie that binds when it comes to India's involvement."}, {"response": 308, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (11:16)", "body": "Tha Russians did rather poorly in Afghanistan and I doubt that India would would be heavily involved. I would like to see what those tradionally \"leftist\" European countries do."}, {"response": 309, "author": "toyce", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (11:17)", "body": "As for the lukewarm European leaders' response, didn't they learn from the 1930's that appeasement did not change any outcome?"}, {"response": 310, "author": "toyce", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (11:18)", "body": "Karen is right. If India joins this, it will probably be for Hindu revenge against the Muslims."}, {"response": 311, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (11:51)", "body": "FBI Press Response September 14, 2001 Washington D.C. FBI National Press Office The following is a list of the nineteen (19) individuals who have been identified as hijackers aboard the four airliners that crashed on September 11, 2001, into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and Stony Creek Township, Pennsylvania. Information listed for each hijacker differs, but may include date of birth, address provided, or visa status. This is the extent of the information available at this time. The FBI requests that anyone who may have information about these individuals-even though they are presumed to be dead- to immediately contact an FBI filed office or call the toll-free hotline at 1-866-483-5137. American Airlines #77 Boeing 757 8:10 am departed Washington Dulles for Los Angeles 9:39 am crashed into the Pentagon 1) Khalid Al-Midhar - Possible residence (s) : San Diego, California and New York, New York; Visa Status: B-1 Visa, but B-2 Visa had expired. 2) Majed Moqed - No information available. 3) Nawaq Alhamzi - Possible residence (s) : Fort Lee, New Jersey and Wayne, New Jersey and San Diego, California. 4) Salem Alhamzi - Possible residence (s) : Fort Lee, New Jersey, and Wayne, New Jersey. 5) Hani Hanjour - Possible residence (s) : Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California. Believed to be a pilot. American Airlines #11 Boeing 767 7:45 am departed Boston for Los Angeles 8:45 am crashed into North Tower of the World Trade Center 1) Satam Al Suqami - Date of birth used: June 28, 1976; Last known address: United Arab Emirates. 2) Waleed M. Alshehri - Dates of birth used: September 13, 1974/January 1, 1976/ March 3, 1976/ July 8, 1977/ December 20, 1978/ May 11, 1979/ November 5, 1979; Possible residence (s) : Hollywood, Florida/ Orlando, Florida/ Daytona Beach, Florida; Believed to be a pilot. 3) Wail Alshehri - Date of birth used: July 31, 1973; Possible residence (s) 4) Mohamed Atta - Date of birth used: September 1, 1968; Possible residence (s) : Hollywood, Florida/ Coral Springs, Florida/ Hamburg, Germany; Believed to be a pilot. 5) Abdulaziz Alomari - Date of birth used: December 24, 1972 and May 28, 1979; Possible residence: Hollywood, Florida; Believed to be a pilot. United Airlines #175 Boeing 767 7:58 am departed Boston for Los Angeles 9:05 am crashed into South Tower of the World Trade Center 1) Marwan Al-Shehhi - Date of birth used: May 9, 1978; Possible residence: Hollywood, Florida; Visa Status: B-2 Visa; Believed to be a pilot. 2) Fayez Ahmed - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. 3) Ahmed Alghamdi - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. 4) Hamza Alghamdi - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. 5) Mohald Alshehri - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. United Airlines #93 Boeing 757 8:01 am departed Newark, New Jersey, for San Francisco 10:10 am crashed in Stony Creek Township, Pennsylvania 1) Saeed Alghamdi - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. 2) Ahmed Alhaznawi - Date of birth used: October 11, 1980; Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. 3) Ahmed Alnami - Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida. 4) Ziad Jarrahi - Believed to be a pilot. Topic 14 [attack]: Events of Sept 11, 2001 #54 of 65: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Fri Sep 14 '01 (21:26) 85 lines *Every Time I Hear \"A New Era for Humanity\" Announced, I Really Have to Wonder If It Can Last Even Six Months *8-/ Subject: Yann Moix: A New Era for Humanity Date: Friday, September 14, 2001 11:52 AM From: Patrice Riemens Reply-To: Patrice Riemens To: A New Era for Humanity by Yann Moix Liberation (Paris), September 14, 2001 original in French at http://www.liberation.com/ny2001/actu/20010914venze.html Bingo, folks! The World will never go at war again, and yet it will be at war always, period. War and non-war, there shall be no difference any more. From the 11th of September 2001, all will be war, even peace. Peace shall no longer be the opposite of war, but its context, its natural environment, its ecosystem, its scene, its background, its screen-saver. War and peace shall no longer be each others contraries (that was in the good old manichean East vs West times), but they shall be imbricated the one in the other, like the two connected faces of the same reality. Peace shall be a kind of specific sub-case of war. War shall henceforth be everywhere and nowhere. War shall be waged in the dustbins of the Paris railtermini, war shall be waged above our heads in the air of the metropolises. War shall be permanent. War shall be open for business 24/24, 7/7 , just like CNN. There shall be intermissions, but no reprieve. It shall be a war blind, yet precise, fuzzy, yet targeted. Because never before has the distortion been so stark between fuziness of the causes and the acuurateness of the strikes. The First HyperWorldWar has started. It is a war where all pretenses will fly, and where acts will be used as statements of purpose afterwards. Let's call this a hyperwar: a world where "}, {"response": 312, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (11:52)", "body": "The Tamil Tigers in India have caused thousands of deaths because of terrorist attacks. As you see this is truly a Holy War. Those \"leftist\" European Countries have lost their religion and have become homocentric. There is -0 population growth because young couples even if they bother to get married are not interested in having children. They prefer the material to the spiritual. It will be interesting to see what kind of allegiance those countries give the US."}, {"response": 313, "author": "toyce", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (11:57)", "body": "Just heard Netenyahu (sp?) on Fox. He made a good point. The reporter tried to make a comparison between the communists and the terriorists with regard to nuclear weapons. He said that was incorrect. He said the communists put their lives above their ideology. These people put their ideology above their lives."}, {"response": 314, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (12:13)", "body": "A chronology of strikes by Laden on US interests NEERAJ SAXENA TIMES OF INDIA NEWS NETWORK NEW DELHI: A glance at the chronology of terrorist attacks made on the US in the past one decade would indicate that the destiny of the US and its one- time bete noire Osama bin Laden have almost become inextricable. If the US is to be believed, almost all the attacks have been carried out or aided by bin Laden. However, the US has been harsh with its usual suspect just once. The missile attacks on his safe haven in Afghanistan and Sudanese factory was the only time when the US displayed its military might in retaliation. In 1996, former President Bill Clinton had even signed a secret order that authorised the CIA to use any and all means to destroy Laden's network, but the world's most powerful state has not been able to ensure this. In August, 1996, a secret grand jury investigation began against bin Laden in New York. He was quick to sign and issue a declaration of jihad on August 23 against the US and UAE, outlining his organisation's goals. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS December 29, 1992: A bomb exploded in a hotel in Aden, Yemen, where the US troops had been staying while en route to a humanitarian mission in Somalia against guerilla leader Muhammed Aidid. The blast killed two Austrian tourists as the US soldiers had already left. RESPONSE: Two Yemeni Muslim militants, trained in Afghanistan and injured in the blast, arrested later. US intelligence agencies said this was the first terrorist attack involving bin Laden. February 26, 1993: A car bomb went off in the basement parking of the now fallen World Trade Centre, killing six people and injuring over 1,000. RESPONSE: Six accused, including the mastermind and confidante of Laden -- Ramzi Yousef -- sentenced to 240 years in prison for the bombing, for plotting to destroy WTC, the UN headquarters and to plant bombs on airliners flying out of the east coast. Ramzi was extradited from Pakistan and had close links with Laden according to the US. October 3, 1993: Eighteen US troops killed in a guerilla attack in Mogadishu, Somalia. American law enforcement, intelligence and national security officials are divided as to whether, as a Federal indictment charges, bin Laden and his associates trained and armed Somalia warlord Aidid's men. RESPONSE: Over 300 rebels claimed to have been killed by the US Rangers. April 19, 1995: A US government establishment in Oklahoma city bombed by an explosives laden truck parked in the car park of Alfred P Murrah building, killing 168 people, and wounding over 500. RESPONSE: Initially, the US suspected Osama bin Laden to be behind the bombing, but a 27-year-old misguided youth Timothy McVeigh was captured later, convicted and later executed. A key witness Terry Nichols sentenced for life. November 13, 1995: Five Americans and two Indians killed in the truck bombing of a US-operated Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh. RESPONSE: The US accuses bin Laden. He denies involvement, but praises the attack. June 25, 1996: A large truck bomb devastates the US military residence in Dhahran called Khobar Towers, killing 19 servicemen. RESPONSE: The US military initially Laden had a hand in the attack, but now believes that a Saudi Shiite group was responsible. But US investigators still believe Bin Laden was somehow involved. August 7, 1998: US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania bombed by a suicide bomber, killing over 230 people and leaving over 4,500 injured. RESPONSE: US retaliates swiftly on August 20 by firing 70-80 `Tomahawk' Cruise missiles at alleged terrorist training camps in Khost, Afghanistan and the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan saying it was a chemical weapons factory. Several of Osama Bin Laden's alleged co- conspirators put behind bars in the US. October 12, 2000: A small dinghy laden with explosives rammed into US warship USS Cole in Aden Harbour, Yemen, killing 17 US sailors and injuring 39 others. RESPONSE: Besides blaming Laden, the US has not done much by the way of a retaliation so far."}, {"response": 315, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (12:19)", "body": "335 newspaper front pages -- 189 from the day after the attack and 146 extra editions published on the day of the hijackings. http://www.poynter.org/index.cfm"}, {"response": 316, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (13:06)", "body": "On the topic of bin Laden's money, Forbes has some info: http://www.forbes.com/2001/09/14/0914ladenmoney.html Highlights: Although bin Laden's been kicked out of Saudi Arabia and his citizenship revoked, much of his money is 'tied up in businesses' in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He also has access to 'charitable foundations,' not named, that are 'unregulated and untaxed.' Following a description of the abject poverty of Afghanistan, it talks about how bin Laden and other expatriate Saudis live there and pay 'a lot of rent.' You can afford a private army for $35,000 a month as you don't have to pay people much. Money is transferred from country to country via an informal network called \"Hundi,\" basically just individuals transferring money among themselves. Very difficult to track."}, {"response": 317, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (15:07)", "body": "We could probably solve the airline hijack issue with the installation of an \"auto lander\" which could over ride the pilots and land the plane if it deviated off course and the pilots did not respond with a password or other test. The airline doors need to be strengthened and pilots shouldn't be able to open them during flight, and anyone on the passenger side of the door or doors (two or three makes more sense) would absolutely be unable to penetrate them. The problem is solvable. But there are so many other unsolved procedures we need to put in place for so many as yet undreamed of scenarios."}, {"response": 318, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (15:21)", "body": "From http://www.janes.com , a global security website, has issued a list of the places that are known to have involvement with Al-Qaeda, bin Laden's organization Algeria Egypt, Morocco Turkey Jordan Tajikistan Uzbekistan Syria Xinjiang in China Pakistan Bangladesh Malaysia Myanmar Indonesia Mindanao in the Philippines Lebanon Iraq Saudi Arabia Kuwait Bahrain Yemen, Libya Tunisia Bosnia Kosovo Chechnya Dagestan Kashmir Sudan, Somalia Kenya Tanzania Azerbaijan Eritrea Uganda Ethiopia The West Bank and Gaza."}, {"response": 319, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (16:32)", "body": "Correct me if I am under a misconception, but do we not worship the same GOD ultimately? How can they call it a Holy War and worship God? I have a copy of the Q'ran and it says nothing of the kind they are espousing. It is an excuse for greed and warped minds in which to find reason for their vengeance."}, {"response": 320, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (17:16)", "body": "it is just like anything else, cultish behavior brainwashing persons wishing to belong to anything. islam is a peaceful religion. i was told that the women wear the abayaah to protect themselves from being leered at by men. when they are home, the abayaah is removed. much like the latino community, arabians are family oriented and often house extended families. at no time did i feel like i was a piece of garbage while in Kuwait. the stares that i received were because i am different from what they are used to seeing. men and women of all walks live and work there. these people are just like us, have the same concerns as we do. i witnessed one father rewarding his child for a job well done at school. so please, do not assume that the arabian community is strange and should be feared. there are radicals in all communities, look at the guy in montana, he was american! look at the KKK, hello, people! sadly, there are scams out there to get your money all in the name of this tragedy. do not give to these telemarketers because there is no campaign to gain donations this way. something interesting: the taliban first mumbled that this was terrible, then pleaded that we do not bomb this poor country, then threatening surrounding neighbors that if they support the U.S., they will be attacked by holy warriors."}, {"response": 321, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (19:48)", "body": "but do we not worship the same GOD ultimately? You must go back to the Crusades, Marcia to get your answer. i was told that the women wear the abayaah to protect themselves from being leered at by men. Women are barely seen in the streets. They are second class citizens if at all. A western woman respectfully travelling in those countries (as I have found myslf on occassion), better not get the urge to go to the bathroom outside their hotel."}, {"response": 322, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (19:53)", "body": "The assassination of Massoud was no coincidence. It was most likely a signature attack by Bin Laden to eliminate Afghanistan's greatest anti-Taliban fighter. He was killed by explosives hidden in a belt or camera the day before the WTC attack. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/15/international/asia/15MASS.html http://frontierpost.com.pk/main.asp?id=8&date1=9/15/2001 I'm unclear if Pakistan will or will not allow us to use their country as a staging area. If someone hears about this will they post it here? GERMAN OFFICIALS have asked the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission to look into whether bin Laden\ufffds associates may have \ufffdsold short\ufffd stock in a Munich, Germany, company that holds secondary insurance on the World Trade Center. http://www.msnbc.com/news/629380.asp The stock market will open at 9:30 pm EST on Monday. Biggest losers: airline stocks Biggest winners: military, cellular, security, tech stocks Other big losers: insurance stocks, hotels Other winners: teleconferencing systems, construction companies, fractional aircraft. Ramzi Yusef, architect of first World Trade Center bombing, carried plans for airliner suicide crashes: http://www.worldtribune.com/wta/Archive-2001/me_terrorism_09_13.html"}, {"response": 323, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (19:54)", "body": "I slipped with Moon."}, {"response": 324, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (21:17)", "body": "in case there is any confusion, i was told by a kuwaiti man why the women wear an abaayah. yes, there are countries in which arabian women are treated as third-class citizens. but, it was witnessed by me, women were treated with respect, no walking 6-ft behind the man or anything. they drove, ran businesses, walked with their similarily clad men, wearing gold jewelry, etc. i can only relay what i saw in kuwait. these men wait until they are well into their 30's before marrying in order to prove that they are worthy of a wife, to care for her financially and whatever children they have. one arabian man said it clearly, the Koran (sp?) condemns behavior such as this. the muslim community needs to stand up to bin laden and use the word to show him as being wrong. several islamic people were interviewed and again reiterated that the Koran doesn't suggest anything of this nature. in fact, the Koran refers to all religions, christianity and judaism, not as being infidels, but as those included in the book, and infidels being those who do not believe at all (athiests). bin laden may see this as a holy war, but, it is not, because the religion he proclaims to be an interpretor of, would not allow this. again, it's based on perception. another thing i find interesting is that all the time, we are referred to as the devil, evil, etc. isn't that what we're doing? the deed was evil but we cannot condemn a whole peoples because of that. yes, i believe the guilty should and will pay. and so, i pray that the countries vowing support and our country do not do anything irrationally. that we think through whatever our actions may be. yes, we are angry, that is a step in grief, but let us take our time and move through this. anyway, who am i to say anything..... i think this discussion is healthy. *HUGS* to all!!!"}, {"response": 325, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (21:22)", "body": "oh yeah, this may be the least of their worries right now, but....has anyone started piling up the mass of paper that flew out of the WTC? i wonder if any of the accounts and such could be put back together with what was left of that? and, how come the paper didn't incinerate?"}, {"response": 326, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (22:34)", "body": "Totally changing the subject for a sec.....I saw on CNN yesterday that the major US airlines lost $300 million per day, when they were grounded for 3 days. I am puzzled by this. I can understand why they may lose money in future, from a drop off in bookings. But surely every person who booked a flight from Sep 11-13, would have paid for it in advance. Who here of us, goes some where with out having booked and paid for it weeks, if not months in advance ? So wouldn't the airlines have the money from all those grounded flights, already in the bank ? I can see where they would lose money from the refunds they gave some people. But news reports showed most people waiting the delay out and not getting refunds. So where did this $300 million loss come from ? Sorry if I sound mercenary and trivial. I am the daughter of an airline man, so I suppose curiosity about them, is in my blood."}, {"response": 327, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (23:11)", "body": "Hugs to both Wolfie and Moon. You are both right. I just talked to a close friend who is Lebanese Muslim. She says depending on your sect, the rules vary as does status in the community make for variations. You also don't show the soles of your feet and you do not eat with your right hand....they do not shake hands - you wipe off human waste with that hand... and on and on. We need no acrimony....we are dealing with people who do not even understand each other!"}, {"response": 328, "author": "LouiseJ", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (23:13)", "body": "The losses were not from this week's flights. The airlines have already received most of the money for this week's tickets. But they also sell tickets on a daily basis for next week, next month, next year, etc. Apparently they would have sold $300M worth of these tickets per day. Because of the crisis, they could not, because they did not know when, or if, they would be able to fly again. Even now that flights have resumed, they apparently anticipate a substantial reduction in the number of tickets sold, due to fear of flying, longer delays at airports due to security, etc. From now on, it's going to be an uphill battle to sell tickets to people who don't \"need\" to fly. This is why they expect to lose a lot of money. They still have the same number of planes to pay for, airport lease facilities to pay for, etc. So--the same fixed expenditures going out with much less in ticket sales coming in. The only \"flexible\" spending they have in the short run is employees, so they have to lay people off. And they were already hurting big time from the increase in fuel prices. Not many glimmers of hope for them."}, {"response": 329, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (23:26)", "body": "Kuwait is not Afghanistan. Kuwait does not have a fundamentalist theocracy. Afghani Muslims are not Arabs. Perhaps you're not aware of what the Taliban has done to women since taking over there. I believe I've heard that 60% of the airlines costs are fixed (paid out regardless of whether they fly or not). As you must be aware, the airlines don't make any money on those tickets to poor idiots like us, who get discounted fares. The full-fare tickets for business flyers subsidize the rest of us. *HUGS* to all!!!"}, {"response": 330, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 15, 2001 (23:32)", "body": "Thanks Karen and yes, we are not dealing with an easy problem. I had one guy IM me today he was so angry he just tore up a remote highway at 100 mph (yeah, in the Cobra) We need to bond not feud and if we do not hug one another, we are doomed. \"Group Hug\" sounds so foolish but I think it is warranted. *HUGS TO ALL*, as Karen put it so well!"}, {"response": 331, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (00:19)", "body": "For those of you who hear of phophesies, please look at this page before leaping onto the pyre: http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/hoaxes/predict.htm"}, {"response": 332, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (00:40)", "body": "The full plan: 1. Destroy the World's Financial hub (succeeded beyond wildest dreams of terrorists) 2. Take out the military center of the US (very partial success) 3. Take out the President or Congress (failed) Good thing they only partially succeeded, if they had gone 3 for 3 we'd be in very, very serious trouble right now. This is not World War III, not yet anyway. This is about a band of criminals who are holding a decimated country in fear and trembling. The link for the Canada piece that Alice, my sister, sent me is http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/schools/rta/ccf/personal/hof/sincla_g.html Gordon Sinclair wrote it, he died in 1984, the piece was written in '73 and was inspired by the criticism of America during the Vietnam era. I'll send this to my sister so she understands the context. It's in very wide circulation. From what I've read, I think the best approach would be to work cooperatively with the Afghan resistance and with India/Pakistan against the Taliban, one which allow a democratic state to emerge comprised of native Afghans."}, {"response": 333, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (00:40)", "body": "slippage again."}, {"response": 334, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (00:54)", "body": "Gee thanks CNN, the whereabouts of Britany Spears is foremost in my thoughts these days. CNN has a news ticker across the bottom of their screen and it is all really serious stuff...Bush speech extracts, Talaban declarations, death toll estimates, etc etc Then all of a sudden this appears....\" Pop Princess Britany Spears is stranded in Australia, due to the FAA ban on all international flights. She has cancelled all her European engagements at this time. \" I mean hello CNN.....who gives a rats a$$ ? By the way, what is this about a ban on incoming international flights ? It's the first I have heard of it ? Is it true, or did I read the ticker thingy wrong ? I guess I was just distracted by the plight of poor lil' Britany....LOL"}, {"response": 335, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (01:05)", "body": "1. Destroy world's financial hub ( suceeded beyond wildest dreams ) Did they really ? A lot of companies have ( in a purely logistical sense ) been put to a lot of expense and inconvenience. But has the world's financial hub really been destroyed ? Several buildings have gone down, but the infrastructure remains intact, bruised and bloody to be sure, but still intact. New York is one huge financial colossus, it is a many headed beast, with many, many tentacles. As devestating as the loss of the WTC is ( in human and monetary terms ). It is just one of these heads, the main body of the beast remains alive. ( Sorry, didn't mean to make that sound like something from a horror flick. ) As an example, the HQ of American Express were in Tower #1. They occupied 1 million sq ft of office space on many floors. However, they ( bless 'em ) took their butts across the river to temporary quarters in Jersey City. They now expect to be up and running ( at granted, very limited capacity, for now ) by Monday."}, {"response": 336, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (01:11)", "body": "It would have been more appropriate to say the world's financial *symbol* has been erased, we will remain strong as an economy. The 1-2-3 knockout would have been devastating had it succeeded, knocking out the White House would have pretty demoralizing on top of the World Trade. I'm glad those heroic passengers took action."}, {"response": 337, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (01:27)", "body": "Yup Terry, spot on....devestating doesn't even begin to describe what could have happened if they went 3 for 3 By the way, thanks so much for starting up this topic. It has been a much appreciated source of information, fellowship and goodwill since the horrors of Tuesday morning."}, {"response": 338, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (05:29)", "body": "Hi all Marcia, a question regarding a couple well known pieces of classical music? First of, does the military drum beat of Mars: Bringer of War mean anything significant at the moment?? Second \"I vow to thee my country\" is the chorus associated with Jupiter: Bringer of jollity. Patriotism is presumably alive and kicking at the moment in the United States and soldiers, sailors and airmen are thinking, \" I vow to thee my country\"?? Yes?? Finally, I listened to Sprach Zarathustra on Friday night, and wondered if the ominous opening bars mean anything with regards to the few terrifying seconds before the wayward jets that were aimed at the WTC, struck. Do you wonder?? Rob"}, {"response": 339, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (07:05)", "body": "Gerard Van der Leun (boswell) Sat Sep 15 '01 (23:18) 107 lines Patrick writess: > Boswell, from the bottom of my heart, please, log off and go and do something positive. Go and hug your daughter. Go and enroll in an anti- terrorism class. Go and make a speech on the corner. Go and pray. And I thank you for that advice. Actually, today, I did log off in the morning. Then I did something positive by attending the funeral of Father Michael Judge, the Chaplin of the New York Fire Department (I have made a pact with myself to attend as many of the 300 funerals of the NYFD members as I physically can). Father Judge, who had decades of service in the NYFD, was as you may know, killed in the collapse of the towers as he was giving the last rites to citizens killed in the attack as other firemen were going UP THE STAIRS. If anyone here thinks that I have terrible convictions about this and is shocked or dismayed at my hate and rage, they might spend some time in front of one of the many churches of New York in the coming weeks and look into the eyes of the police and firemen and everyday workers from Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn or the other bouroughs and tell me then how much mercy they can see there. These are the men who are dealing with this now, and by and large these will be the type of men who will be fighting this war abroad and here on our land -- and there *will* be more of this here in our land -- in this city and in your cities -- and you or someone you know will be maimed or die from it. So start to understand what is happening now and what is going to happen when the truck with the explosives in it drives onto the Golden Gate Bridge and the driver of that truck tells the other truck at the foot of Mission that he's all set to light it up. Then you will be standing in front of a church (if you are lucky, as I was), and you will find yourself weeping as I did (and you will not be alone in this), and then you will understand what you do not understand now. And for this I weep for you. So the pipes played and this great and good man was carried away. And then, yes, I did go into the church and although I am not a religious man, I did pray. Then I walked to 14th street where my daughter works and I saw her and I did hug her. I shopped for some vegetables at the Green Market and walked into the crazy quilt memorials and peace and chanting maze that Union Square has become .. a kind of bizarre Princess Di Death Monument, overwhelmed in it's peace and love adornments with page after page and image after image of what we are now politely calling \"the missing\" -- as in 'most of these real people from many nations are now atomized. Then I came home to care for my dear and sick friend. Then, as she slept, I logged on here and saw what one always sees -- the sleepers and the dreamers and the few trying to make sense of things, and those who say \"if only we had done this,if only we had done that\"... Those who still cannot grasp that everything is, in the words of the poet, \"changed utterly. A terrible beauty is born.\" But none of this or anything else I may place here is really for anyone other than myself. This is my journal put out in the raw as I think it. I really don't have any other purpose than that. People can make of it it what they will. So, Patrick, that's what my day was like. Strangely it filled most of your requirements without even knowing what they would be. I even made a speech of sorts on the street. When the hearse bearing the body of Father Judge was passing down the street behind the flag and through two lines of pipers playing, I noticed that a goodly number of people lining the streets were just watching or, even more odious, taking photographs. I've never spoken out on the streets since Berkeley in the 60s, but quite to my surprise I found myself saying, I think, \"Citizens. A great man is passing. We do not take pictures. We salute him.\" And placing my right hand over my heart in a gesture I haven't used in well over 40 years, I did so. Some others did as well. Strange that we have forgotten how do do this, isn't it? Perhaps we should start to remember this and some other things as well."}, {"response": 340, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (09:14)", "body": "The American Red Cross in New York is calling for help from the IT community. \"The New York American Red Cross is in dire need of technology equipment and services,\" Joe Leo, assistant director of the American Red Cross in New York, told NewsBytes. \"The field workers and rescue sites have little, if any, means of communication, and the central office is processing way too much on completely paper systems. Any help in acquiring these resources would be greatly appreciated,\" he said. Leo highlighted an immediate need for Citrix server engineers and Microsoft- certified consultants to help with setting up systems that will aid the rescue process. Laptops, wireless networking cards, printers, CD burners and other equipment are also required. \"Essentially, anything you can give us, we can use,\" Leo said. Other IT requirements include the need to develop a single system for tracking missing people. A database is in the process of being complied containing pictures, dental records and descriptions of the missing. ... Joe Leo at the American Red Cross can be phoned at (212) 875-2409 or e- mailed at jleo@arcgny.org. Donations of equipment can be sent to his office: 150 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10023. Mr Leo asked that only those who want to volunteer contact him directly."}, {"response": 341, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (10:28)", "body": "you're correct, Karen, Kuwait is not Afghanistan, of that I am well aware. I am also aware that not all Muslim sects observe the same ideals or practices. My intention was not to make a broad statement about the treatment of Islamic women and I'm sorry if some of you read it that way. Generalizations are being made, stereotypes being set or reaffirmed. My point was that I personally witnessed a part of Islam that I was not aware of before my visit to Kuwait. Fine, Saudi, Afghanistan, Turkey, etc., have harsher views, that point is well known and well taken. My point was that an idea I had about this religion was changed."}, {"response": 342, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (10:28)", "body": "marcia, thank you for that website about predicition hoaxes!"}, {"response": 343, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (12:19)", "body": "I second that thanks to Marcia!"}, {"response": 344, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (13:08)", "body": "From an account of Congressional testimony given in 1998: Since taking power, the Taliban militia group, which now controls much of Afghanistan, has placed Afghan women under virtual house arrest. The Taliban has decreed that women and girls can no longer attend school; women are banned from employment; women are not allowed to leave their homes unless accompanied by a husband, father, brother, or son; women who do leave their homes have to be covered from head to toe in a \"burqa,\" with only a mesh opening to see and breath through; the windows of homes with women occupants are required to be painted opaque so the women inside cannot be seen; women are prohibited from being treated by male doctors; and women are banned from wearing white socks and shoes that make noise as they walk. \"Women are being beaten, shot at, and even killed for violating these draconian decrees -- for merely trying to go to work, leaving their homes alone, or violating the Taliban's extreme dress orders,\" stated Leno. Leno also shared a report from journalist Jan Goodwin that girls at the state orphanage in Kabul have not been allowed to leave the building to go outside since September of 1996 -- although the boys go outside every day to attend school and to play. \"The abuses of women and girls in Afghanistan have been justified in the name of religion and culture. However, the Taliban's decrees are foreign to the religion, the culture, and the people of Afghanistan,\" said Leno, who related that before the Taliban took control schools were co-educational, 70% of teachers were women, 40% of doctors were women, and Afghan women did not cover themselves with the burqa. For additional information the gender apartheid going on in Afghanistan: http://www.feminist.org/news/pr/pr030298.html http://www.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/central/07/13/afghan.women/ http://www.rawa.org/"}, {"response": 345, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (13:37)", "body": "It's incredible that you would have to post this information, Karen. I have known this for years and I thought it was common knowledge. :-( Please read this letter that was posted by someone who was on the first flight out of Logan Airport. You will understand the new security procedures. http://www.pemberley.com/bin/ramble/ramble.cgi?read=37767"}, {"response": 346, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (13:45)", "body": "I posted it for those who were unaware of the situation and did not realize what the Taliban has been doing."}, {"response": 347, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (16:24)", "body": "Thank you for posting that Karen. I knew that the women were forced to completely cover themselves, but I had no idea it was so horrible. I hope we can help them in some way through all of what is to come."}, {"response": 348, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (16:34)", "body": "I heard from one of the talking heads on Sunday monring tv that Afghanistan is 70% women, can someone confirm that?"}, {"response": 349, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (17:11)", "body": "MSNBC and CNN report that Pakistan has delivered an ultimatum to the Taliban: turn over Bin Laden within 72 hours or face military attack from Pakistan. From Pakistan . We've scared the hell out of them. Another article: http://www.charleston.net/pub/news/commentary/dillar0913.htm However, the '90s cutbacks in intelligence - in a time of growing complexity in the world - was a critical misstep that laid the groundwork for the failure to foresee the events of Sept. 11, 2001. These cuts have prevented our intelligence agencies from acting on complete information. Terrorist organizations, as well as those groups that would proliferate weapons of mass destruction, can only be effectively countered with a robust and well-funded human intelligence capability . . . I heard on MSNBC that El Al has been sealing off the cockpits of their planes for the last 25 years."}, {"response": 350, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (17:26)", "body": "A whole lot of intelligence information on Afghanistan comes from the CIA Factbook, I've compiled in this web location: http://www.spring.net/afghan We may be developing a special section of the Spring to deal with the coming world conflict and we may even add a conference on this or expand more topics in the news conference. Here is a proposed topic list: 1 coping with the crisis 2 the attack 3 what can we do? 4 where were you when you heard? 5 racism 6 information on the net 7 hindsight 8 what will change? 9 world response 10 local impact where you are 11 economic impact 12 President Bush 13 travel in the post attack world 14 Osama Bin Laden 15 What will become of Civil Liberty? 16 media coverage 17 thinking like the enemy, what next? We can either add these to news, all or some of them, or we can create a new conference called? attack? terror? I think we already have a conference called InternationalConflict or something like that, it never got used much."}, {"response": 351, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (17:28)", "body": "SJ Mercury news has some numbers on the international casualty toll at WTC... 100 Britons confirmed dead, final toll expected to be higher 250 Indians feared killed, injured and missing a dozen Mexican nationals, of over 100 citizens working at WTC 100 Russians missing 50 Bangladeshi confirmed dead, more missing 8 Australians confirmed dead, 80 others missing 100 Japanese unaccounted for other nationals believed lost include Canadians, S. Koreans, Zimbabweans, Taiwanese, Italians, colombians and Filipinos, but no numbers reported. The number that worries me are the 250 Indian nationals, given Pakistan's ties to the Taliban, not to mention the Indian/Pakistani conflicts over, say, Kashmir, or their nuclear arms race."}, {"response": 352, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (17:29)", "body": "Here are the \"official\" figures: International casualties in the \"attack on america\" (preliminary official figures): Argentina: 2 missing Australia: 9 confirmed dead, 85 missing Bangladesh: 50 confirmed, more missing Belgium: 60 missing Brazil: 5 missing Canada: 2 confirmed, 100 missing (est) Chile: 1 missing China: 4 confirmed, 30 missing Colombia: 6 confirmed, 116 missing Denmark: 15 missing Dominican Republic: 3 missing Egypt: 1 confirmed, 3 missing El Salvador: 1 confirmed, 18 missing Finland: 41 missing France: 81 missing Germany: 4 confirmed, 700 missing Great Britain: 100 confirmed, 400 missing (est) India: 250 missing Indonesia: 1 confirmed, 1 missing Ireland: 4 confirmed Israel: 1 confirmed, 150 missing Italy: 8 missing Japan: 2 confirmed, 100 missing Lebanon: 1 confirmed, 2 missing Malaysia: 7 missing Mexico: 150-500 missing (est) Norway: 15 missing Pakistan: 3 confirmed, more missing Paraguay: 2 missing Peru: 5 missing Philippines: 7 missing Portugal: 3 confirmed, 20 missing Puerto Rico: 1 missing South Africa: 1 confirmed, 2 missing South Korea: 1 confirmed, 27 missing Spain: 9 missing Sweden: 1 missing Switzerland: 4 confirmed, 10 missing Taiwan: 9 missing Zimbabwe: 6 missing (data collected from newspapers and government websites. ) http://hem.passagen.se/eff/2001_09_01_bot-archive.htm That's nearly 3,000 people from 40 nations confirmed dead or unaccounted for."}, {"response": 353, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (17:35)", "body": "An invaluable resource: http://www.sabawoon.com/afghanpedia/Afghanistan.shtm"}, {"response": 354, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (18:08)", "body": "And here's a list of many web sites about Afghanistan: http://www.abyznewslinks.com/afgha.htm"}, {"response": 355, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (18:22)", "body": "Open letter from Saddam Hussein to the American peoples and the western peoples and their governments. http://www.uruklink.net/iraqnews/enews8.htm"}, {"response": 356, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (19:46)", "body": "As this excerpt from a New Yorker article from a while back shows, we have to be careful in how we conduct air strikes against terrorist camps in Afghanistan and other places. These camps are undoubtedly dispersing physically and forming virtually in cyberspace as we speak. \" http://www.newyorker.com/PRINTABLE/?FROM_THE_ARCHIVE/010917fr_archive07 The American war against bin Laden has affected United States policy throughout much of the Islamic world, particularly in South Asia and the Middle East. Memorably, on August 20, 1998, the Pakistani Army's chief of staff, General Jehangir Karamat, was playing host in Islamabad to his American counterpart, General Joseph Ralston, the vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Around ten o'clock in the evening, as the two men were having dinner, Ralston looked up from his chicken tikka, checked his watch, and informed his host that in ten minutes some sixty Tomahawk cruise missiles would be entering Pakistan's airspace. Their destination, he said, was Afghanistan, where bin Laden was believed to be operating four training camps. General Karamat was stunned, and appalled. \"It was a 'This is happening as we speak' kind of conversation,\" an American intelligence official told me. \"Ralston was there, on the ground, to make absolutely certain that when the missiles flew across Pakistan's radar screen they would not be misconstrued as coming from India and, as a consequence, be shot down.\" The intelligence official paused for a moment, and then said, \"This is one hell of a way to treat our friends.\" By the following day, General Karamat's anger\ufffdand that of the government he served\ufffdhad turned to rage. A number of the Tomahawks either had been poorly targeted or had not fallen where they were aimed. Two of the four training camps that were hit and destroyed, in the Zhawar Kili area of Afghanistan's Paktia province, were facilities of Pakistan's own intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, or I.S.I. According to a highly placed official, five I.S.I. officers and some twenty trainees were killed. The government of Pakistan was not only furious but embarrassed, because it had not been taken into Washington's confidence. Why had there been only ten minutes' notice? And why had General Karamat been notified, instead of the Prime Minister? Pakistan wasn't our only affronted ally. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority\ufffdindeed, much of the Islamic world\ufffdexpressed dismay. The United States had reason to be embarrassed as well. For, despite President Clinton's claim, in a televised address a few hours after the missile strikes, that a \"gathering of key terrorist leaders\" had been expected to take place at one of the target sites, bin Laden and his top lieutenants were more than a hundred miles away when the missiles struck. The meeting that Clinton referred to had occurred a month earlier, in Jalalabad."}, {"response": 357, "author": "Echo", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (20:25)", "body": "I have just returned home (to the UK) from a short trip abroad during which I had no access to the Internet, therefore wish to take this opportunity to register my deepest sympathy and untold horror and revulsion at the recent events in America."}, {"response": 358, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (20:36)", "body": "I thought this map might be valuable to those of you who are having trouble figuring out the geography of all of this \"flyover\" \"staging area\" stuff. I find the tiny shared border with China to be rather interesting. I wasn't aware of that. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/sw_asia_pol00.jpg The story JoAnn refers to says that Cheney and others in the Pentagon weren't notified of the hijacking until 35 minutes after the air traffic controllers had contacted the military, and well after U.S. jet fighters were in the air. Unforuntately, the fighters were dispatched from a base 130 miles away, rather than Andrews, 15 miles away Subject: [archivists] Attack Archive: Please suggest sites Date: Sunday, September 16, 2001 9:48 AM From: Brewster Kahle To: Cc: Please help build a Web Archive of the Sept 11 Attack ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Internet Archive in collaboration with Alexa Internet, and SUNY, Library of Congress and UWashington is archiving pages and sites relating to the terrorist attacks in the NY and DC. Where we are archiving sites and pages all the time, we are concentrating the crawlers to make sure there is a solid historical record of this time. If you would like to help, we can build a better archive. Here is how you can help: Suggest sites and pages to archive: * This can be done by sending URL's to attackarchive@alexa.com (this is a list of the crawl engineers at Alexa and the researchers at SUNY and UW) * Surf with the free Alexa Toolbar on. Every night new sites and pages are discovered by processing the day's usage logs from the Alexa Toolbar. These are sanitized to eliminate cgi and other URL's that might contain personal information and then those sites are crawled for the archive. Help build a page in mid-October that will help guide people through relevant materials. This could be similar to the Election 2000 webpage (http://archive.alexa.com), or something else completely. We would like to make this public at the end of October or early November. Datamine the web archive to find past pages and sites that might be relevant. This takes programming skill and will be more difficult for Alexa to support, but if you are interested, please write a proposal in the web section of the www.archive.org site. Thank you. Please repost, but don't spam. -brewster Director, Internet A \"In 2000, catastrophes claimed more than 17,400 lives and caused overall financial losses - not counting indirect economic damage - of almost USD 50 billion. According to Swiss Re's definitive statistics, the burden on the insurance industry was comparatively low at USD 10.6 billion.\" Note that this is world-wide. For more details, go to http://www.swissre.com/, then go to research&Publications, and click on the pull-down item \"sigma insurance research\". On that page, the item Catastrophe losses in 2000 (under \"latest sigma\") will bring you to the data. How does it compare to the damage from the last big earthquake in Japan. For Kobe: \"Current estimates of the repair costs in this earthquake have been reported in the range of U.S.$95 billion to U.S.$147 billion\" Source: http://www.eqe.com/publications/kobe/economic.htm Dateline's report on the phone call from Jeremy Glick to his wife from Flight 93 was extraordinarily well-done. The call lasted for 20 minutes, and followed Mr. Glick's revelation of what was actually happening, and what he had to do. He used his butter knife from breakfast as a weapon. Here's the story: http://www.msnbc.com/news/629077.asp"}, {"response": 359, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (21:11)", "body": "May we please keep to topic here and not to views of Islam. That is covered in Cultures in a topic all its own. I think it belongs there and not here where we discuss our national tragedy and honor those who have risked their lives in order to save others. Please! Let us not disintegrate into other divergences."}, {"response": 360, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (21:21)", "body": "this was forwarded to me: Following is an article from the Miami Herald. R/Scott Published Wednesday, September 12, 2001 The Miami Herald Leonard Pitts We'll go forward from this moment. It's my job to have something to say. They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering. You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard. What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed. Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause. Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve. Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together. Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, social, political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God. Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals. IN PAIN. Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel. Both in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and probably, the history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before. But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice. I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future. In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined. THE STEEL IN US. You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish. So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: You don't know my people. You don't know what we're capable of. You don't know what you just started. But you're about to learn."}, {"response": 361, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (21:23)", "body": "(sorry for the length) does anyone know the amount of rubble pulled out so far? (last i heard was 20,000 tons, just 2% of the estimated total)"}, {"response": 362, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (21:23)", "body": "Terry, I think it might be appropriate to open another topic about all of this... perhaps \"post 9-11-01\" or something like that...I'm not sure what to call it; \"new world\" or something like that sounds too trivial. But I think that there are so many issues that will stem from last tuesday's events, that they should all be housed under one topic. I am using the right phrase here, right? topic would be the larger theme, and then boards are under topics, correct?"}, {"response": 363, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (21:24)", "body": "thank you marcia!"}, {"response": 364, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (21:30)", "body": "thanks for posting that, Wolf. That is a great article!"}, {"response": 365, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (21:35)", "body": "Great article, indeed. I am looking for the Wall Street Journal's Friday editorial. It came highly recommended to me. I heard 22,000 tons of out of something like 460,000 tons!!!"}, {"response": 366, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (21:40)", "body": "Here is the lastes results of an AOL survey. Should the World Trade Center towers be rebuilt? Yes 609742 59% No 224927 22% It's too soon to decide 187317 18% Total votes: 1021986 And here is an article that expresses my thoughts: \"Make it green \" September 14, 2001 BY ROGER EBERT If there is to be a memorial, let it not be of stone and steel. Fly no flag above it, for it is not the possession of a nation but a sorrow shared with the world. Let it be a green field, with trees and flowers. Let there be paths that wind through the shade. Put out park benches where old people can sun in the summertime, and a pond where children can skate in the winter. Beneath this field will lie entombed forever some of the victims of September 11. It is not where they thought to end their lives. Like the sailors of the battleship Arizona, they rest where they fell. Let this field stretch from one end of the destruction to the other. Let this open space among the towers mark the emptiness in our hearts. But do not make it a sad place. Give it no name. Let people think of it as the green field. Every living thing that is planted there will show faith in the future. Let students take a corner of the field and plant a crop there. Perhaps corn, our native grain. Let the harvest be shared all over the world, with friends and enemies, because that is the teaching of our religions, and we must show that we practice them. Let the harvest show that life prevails over death, and let the gifts show that we love our neighbors. Do not build again on this place. No building can stand there. No building, no statue, no column, no arch, no symbol, no name, no date, no statement. Just the comfort of the earth we share, to remind us that we share it. Copyright \ufffd Chicago Sun-Times Inc."}, {"response": 367, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (22:36)", "body": ""}, {"response": 368, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (23:28)", "body": "I've heard that the Wakhan Corridor is pretty much deep in the Hindu Kush mountains, and isn't of much tactical value unless you're a terrorist looking for a hideout."}, {"response": 369, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (23:40)", "body": "Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 20:38:28 -0700 From: Lena M. Diethelm lendie@rawbw.com Subject: Fwd: Real Justice Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor TIKKUN Magazine | 09.12.2001 There is never any justification for acts of terror against innocent civilians-it is the quintessential act of dehumanization and not recognizing the sanctity of others, and a visible symbol of a world increasingly irrational and out of control. It's understandable why many of us, after grieving and consoling the mourners, will feel anger-and while some demagogues in Congress have already sought to manipulate that feeling into a growing militarism (more spies, legalize assassinations of foreign leaders, increase the defense budget at the expense of domestic programs), the more \"responsible\" leaders are seeking to narrow America's response to targeted attacks on countries that allegedly harbor the terrorists. But though the perpetrators deserve to be punished, in some ways this narrow focus allows us to avoid dealing with the underlying issues. When violence becomes so prevalent throughout the planet, it's too easy to simply talk of \"deranged minds.\" We need to ask ourselves, \"What is it in the way that we are living, organizing our societies, and treating each other that makes violence seem plausible to so many people?\" We in the spiritual world will see this as a growing global incapacity to recognize the spirit of God in each other-what we call the sanctity of each human being. But even if you reject religious language, you can see that the willingness of people to hurt each other to advance their own interests has become a global problem, and it's only the dramatic level of this particular attack which distinguishes it from the violence and insensitivity to each other that is part of our daily lives. We may tell ourselves that the current violence has \"nothing to do\" with the way that we've learned to close our ears when told that one out of every three people on this planet does not have enough food, and that one billion are literally starving. We may reassure ourselves that the hoarding of the world's resources by the richest society in world history, and our frantic attempts to accelerate globalization with its attendant inequalities of wealth, has nothing to do with the resentment that others feel toward us. We may tell ourselves that the suffering of refugees and the oppressed have nothing to do with us-that that's a different story that is going on somewhere else. But we live in one world, increasingly interconnected with everyone, and the forces that lead people to feel outrage, anger, and desperation eventually impact on our own daily lives. The same inability to feel the pain of others is the pathology that shapes the minds of these terrorists. Raise children in circumstances where no one is there to take care of them, or where they must live by begging or selling their bodies in prostitution, put them in refugee camps and tell them that that they have \"no right of return\" to their homes, treat them as though they are less valuable and deserving of respect because they are part of some despised national or ethnic group, surround them with a media that extols the rich and makes everyone who is not economically successful and physically trim and conventionally \"beautiful\" feel bad about themselves, offer them jobs whose sole goal is to enrich the \"bottom line\" of someone else, and teach them that \"looking out for number one\" is the only thing anyone \"really\" cares about and that anyone who believes in love and social justice are merely naive idealists who are destined to always remain powerless, and you will produce a world-wide population of people feeling depressed, angry, unable to care about others, and in various ways dysfunctional. Luckily most people don't act out in violent ways-they tend to act out more against themselves, drowning themselves in alcohol or drugs or personal despair. Others turn toward fundamentalist religions or ultra-nationalist extremism. Still others find themselves acting out against people that they love, acting angry or hurtful toward children or relationship partners. Most Americans will feel puzzled by any reference to this \"larger picture.\" It seems baffling to imagine that somehow we are part of a world system which is slowly destroying the life support system of the planet, and quickly transferring the wealth of the world into our own pockets. We don't feel personally responsible when an American corporation runs a sweat shop in the Phillipines or crushes efforts of workers to organize in Singapore. We don't see ourselves implicated when the U.S. refuses to consider the plight of Palestinian refugees or uses the excuse of fighting drugs to support repression in Colombia or other parts of Central America. We don't even see the symbolism when terrorists attack America's military center and our trade center-we talk of them as buildings, though others see them as centers of the forces that are causing the"}, {"response": 370, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (23:43)", "body": "More on the shared border. The only reason it's Afghanistan is that there was obviously a concerted effort to prevent a common border between India and Russia back in the 1800s. This is the very most farthest extension of ecotourism: http://www.concordiaexpeditions.com/tartary_trip.html This trek takes us to Northern Chitral and runs on the edge of the famous Wakhan Corridor. The corridor was deliberately made as a buffer zone to curtail the advancing Russian influence into British India during the 18th century. Here many spies were sent on both sides who mingled with the local populace as if they were natives. This is the place of the Great Game which was played between the Russian 'Bear,' the English 'Lion,' and the Chinese 'Dragon.' The three empires jockeyed for land, position and influence for the strategic heart of Central Asia."}, {"response": 371, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (00:41)", "body": "Hey ya'll. I was just talking to my sister in Seattle, a litle while ago. I was telling her about me and my buddy going shopping for supplies for the rescue workers in NY ( saline solution, bottled water, work boots, mens underwear etc etc ) She has heard about none of this, except for the Red Cross blood drive. Do any of you know of any websites that I can tell her about, that give out info on what supplies are still needed ? I tried the Red Cross website, but didn't get much info. Here in Atlanta, massive semi rigs are parked in many of our supermarkets. People are coming and filling them up with supplies, that will be then driven to NY when they are full. I guess not much of this is being done on the West Coast, coz it is a weeks drive from NY."}, {"response": 372, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (02:42)", "body": "Hi all Msg 352 - Terry: Here are the \"official figures Rob: Some bad news. New Zealand can be added to the list as 1 New Zealander is confirmed dead and at least a dozen are missing. *weeps* Initially more than 200 New Zealanders were in the area, but I do not know how many have been accounted for - except that there is definitely at least one body. Rob"}, {"response": 373, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (08:22)", "body": "I have been looking for an article that expresses the European point of view and this is it. It is secular as can be expected. For the arrogance of power, America now pays a terrible price By JONATHAN POWER September 12, 2001 LONDON - The American nation appears not only immensely distressed and angry about the bombings but surprised too. It cannot understand why anyone should be moved by such hatred against it and, inured from the rest of us by the isolationism of most of its political representatives and its media, it has little idea of the currents swirling against it. An event of this magnitude was not only unimagined, it was unimaginable. Yet long before George Bush became president with his forceful in-your-face, take-it-or-leave-it attitude to the world outside on issues as diverse as global warming and anti-missile defences, America has been turning in on itself, to the point of self-destructiveness. William Pfaff, the astute American commentator, wrote recently that \"America is a dangerous nation while remaining a righteous one\" and America's pre-eminent foreign policy observer, George Kennan, ambassador to the Soviet Union during Stalin's time, wrote quite a few years ago, \"I do not think that the United States civilization of these last 40-50 years is a successful civilization. I think this country is destined to succumb to failures which cannot be other than tragic and enormous in their scope.\" And later added that for Americans \"to see ourselves as the centre of political enlightenment and teachers to a great part of the rest of the world [is] unthought-through, vainglorious and undesirable.\" It would be misunderstanding human nature to believe that most Americans want to hear such thoughts played back to them on their day of grief, victims of an evil deed that compares with the worst of the blood-stained twentieth century. Yet they have to know that action produces reaction and not for nothing is anti-American resentment on the increase all over the world, not least in Europe where there is some astonishment at the way the new American administration has ploughed ahead with its self-interested agenda as if no one else has a legitimate opinion or could perhaps view the same situation in a different light. Foreign observers do not miss the reports that come out of Pentagon think tanks of America's need to use this special moment after the defeat of European communism and the break up of the Soviet Union to make sure that America is militarily superior the world over, and that no one, not even its closest allies, should be in a position to tell it what to do. The U.S. began the new millennium as the most heavily militarised nation on earth. It is the U.S., which poses the military threat to others. At the outbreak of the Second World War the U.S. army was only 174,000 men. Today it has 1.4 million in its \"standing army\" and a ready reserve and National Guard numbering 2.5 million. Despite the end of the Cold War, under President Bill Clinton the U.S. made only a paltry effort to wind down the nuclear arsenals of the superpowers, and instead provocatively insisted on expanding Nato close to Russia's borders. The Bush administration with its declared ambition to abandon the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, solemnly signed by Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev, seems unconcerned that this will set in motion events that will unwind hard won international norms on ending nuclear testing and on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, even hinting that it will understand if China has to increase its nuclear forces or test new nuclear weapons. I have talked to a range of ordinary Europeans in the last 24 hours and they all say, in the face of the earnest shoulder-to-shoulder rhetoric of their leaders, that America has got itself into this hole by its own disregard for what others think. The first law of holes, of course, is to stop digging - which, of course, is what Washington should firmly have told Israel six presidents ago when it started its foolish and counterproductive policy of building settlements on what everyone knew was Palestinian land. Amazingly, the policy continues with apparent understanding from the Bush administration. While Arab governments ring their hands, and young Palestinians fight one of the best trained armies in the world with stones, there are the inevitable few attached to the Palestinian cause who are moved towards serious violence - the suicide bombers and, we don't know yet, although it is the most likely explanation, the destroyers of the World Trade Centre. In every political movement - whether it be the Palestinians or the globalisation protestors in Genoa there are fringe elements that advocate violence. This does not mean the mainstream of that movement is wrong. It might or might not be. But, right or wrong, there will always be powerful elements of truth contained within it, or the passions and purpose would never be ignited. To meet it eye for eye and tooth for too"}, {"response": 374, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (09:32)", "body": "The UK Guardian is reporting that bin Laden has abandoned his main base near Kandahar and has moved to an undisclosed place in the mountains. His four wives and numerous children are with him. What if the Pakistanis persuade the Taliban regime to hand him over? Will be martyrized? The UK Guardian coverage on this is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,553156,00.html"}, {"response": 375, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (09:38)", "body": "From: Patrice Riemens Reply-To: Patrice Riemens To: A New Era for Humanity by Yann Moix Liberation (Paris), September 14, 2001 original in French at http://www.liberation.com/ny2001/actu/20010914venze.html Bingo, folks! The World will never go at war again, and yet it will be at war always, period. War and non-war, there shall be no difference any more. From the 11th of September 2001, all will be war, even peace. Peace shall no longer be the opposite of war, but its context, its natural environment, its ecosystem, its scene, its background, its screen-saver. War and peace shall no longer be each others contraries (that was in the good old manichean East vs West times), but they shall be imbricated the one in the other, like the two connected faces of the same reality. Peace shall be a kind of specific sub-case of war. War shall henceforth be everywhere and nowhere. War shall be waged in the dustbins of the Paris railtermini, war shall be waged above our heads in the air of the metropolises. War shall be permanent. War shall be open for business 24/24, 7/7 , just like CNN. There shall be intermissions, but no reprieve. It shall be a war blind, yet precise, fuzzy, yet targeted. Because never before has the distortion been so stark between fuziness of the causes and the acuurateness of the strikes . The First HyperWorldWar has started. It is a war where all pretenses will fly, and where acts will be used as statements of purpose afterwards. Let's call this a hyperwar: a world where the ordinary, natural context of societies is no longer peace, but war. A hyperwar is not a classic world war with opposite fighting sides. It is a 'non-Euclydian', non-catalogised war, without rules and principles others than its own logic. Hyperwar cannot be localised in space. Nor in time. It is a kind of magnum opus of terrorism,its _best of_ or rather its _worst of_: plane hijacks, crashes, bombs, kamikaze operations. In fact it was the 20th century as a whole that was fast-forwarded in just a couple of minutes on the 11th of September, 2001. And that will be the birth certificate of the 21st Century, like (the 31st of July) 1914 was it for the 20th. But it are no longer states which are waging war, but wars that are making states. But then, unheard of sort of states: non-nation-states, states without teritorry, without citizens or borders, without (elected) governements, nay, these are virtual states, scattered war-states, fuzzy, networked octopus-states, community-states whose only borders are ideological. These states, just like virusses, evolve, adjust, mutate, invent and reinvent themselves everyday. Sometimes, their size is reduced to that of a lone individual who is an ideology, an army, a clear and present danger all unto himself. And a walking bomb. After the era of the statesmen comes the era of the state-men. The political state has become undistinguishable from the biological state. Over these past days, we have been bombarded with the metaphor of Pearl Harbour: nothing could be further from the truth. Pearl Harbour was an episode within a war. The 11th of september was the definition of an other type of war, the starting point for a new era in human history. The human element is now being affected all over the planet, since hyperwars feeds itself on the psychoses it creates by the permanent menace it exerts on all. Psychosis has become the continuation of war by other means. It gnaws at the individual, it eats up her/his mind, it shatters her/his rational structure. It is a war on the 'may be/ may be not' mode, whereby the horror is mainly a potential one. And thus, it is a war that may have a beginning, but no end. Hyperwar is built for the long run. It thrives in totality, that of the universe and of eternity. (Halelujah! - tr -) (Q&D translation by yours truly) Reposted without permission whatsoever # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and \"info nettime-l\" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net"}, {"response": 376, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (09:40)", "body": "A good Robert Scheer op-ed on the \"unleash the CIA\" blather can be found in today's LA Times at: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-091701scheer.column an editorial today in the LA Times raises another question about unsavory allies: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-000074763sep17.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dcomment%2Deditorials"}, {"response": 377, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (09:44)", "body": "From: William Meyers To: , , , , Date: 9/15/01 3:12PM Subject: after the hit Dear Everyone, Here's an important document issued yesterday that we should all keep in mind: Human Rights Watch Response to Attacks on the U.S. Civilian Life Must Be Respected (New York, September 12, 2001) -- We profoundly condemn yesterday's cruel attacks in the United States and express our condolences to the victims and their loved ones. This was an assault not merely on one nation or one people, but on principles of respect for civilian life cherished by all people. We urge all governments to unite to investigate this crime, to prevent its recurrence, and to bring to justice those who are responsible. Last night, President Bush said that the United States \"will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbored them.\" Yet distinctions must be made: between the guilty and the innocent; between the perpetrators and the civilians who may surround them; between those who commit atrocities and those who may simply share their religious beliefs, ethnicity or national origin. People committed to justice and law and human rights must never descend to the level of the perpetrators of such acts. That is the most important distinction of all. There are people and governments in the world who believe that in the struggle against terrorism, ends always justify means. But that is also the logic of terrorism. Whatever the response to this outrage, it must not validate that logic. Rather, it must uphold the principles that came under attack yesterday, respecting innocent life and international law. That is the way to deny the perpetrators of this crime their ultimate victory. And here's the letter from HHDL to GWB that got released to the public yesterday: 1. The Dalai Lama's letter to the President of the United States of America --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Excellency, I am deeply shocked by the terrorist attacks that took place involving four apparently hijacked aircrafts and the immense devastation these caused. It is a terrible tragedy that so many innocent lives have been lost and it seems unbelievable that anyone would choose to target the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. We are deeply saddened. On behalf of the Tibetan people I would like to convey our deepest condolence and solidarity with the American people during this painful time. Our prayers go out to the many who have lost their lives, those who have been injured and the many more who have been traumatized by this senseless act of violence. I am attending a special prayer for the United States and it's people at our main temple today. I am confident that the United States as a great and powerful nation will be able to overcome this present tragedy. The American people have shown their resilience, courage and determination when faced with such difficult and sad situation. It may seem presumptuous on my part, but I personally believe we need to think seriously whether a violent action is the right thing to do and in the greater interest of the nation and people in the long run. I believe violence will only increase the cycle of violence. But how do we deal with hatred and anger, which are often the root causes of such senseless violence? This is a very difficult question, especially when it concerns a nation and we have certain fixed conceptions of how to deal with such attacks. I am sure that you will make the right decision. With my prayers and good wishes The Dalai Lama September 12, 2001 Dharamsala, India And, for contrast, here's a little excerpt from today's Times about what life is like here today: The three major metropolitan airports in the New York region reopened in the late morning, but confusion reigned as schedules were strewn with cancellations, bags were searched and passengers were questioned aggressively. And in the evening, the three airports were closed because of the arrests at Kennedy and La Guardia. As for the rest of New York, it was to be a day of return to relatively normal life, with schools, theaters and many businesses reopening, and commuters traveling on bridges and through tunnels that had been closed. But instead of a nearly normal day, countless New Yorkers endured yet another psychological roller coaster. First came disheartening news. After days of vague but ominous estimates, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announced in the late morning that 4,763 people were believed missing in the trade center rubble, bringing the possible death toll in the coordinated attacks to nearly 5,000 \ufffd more than double the 2,390 Americans lost at Pearl Harbor. The mayor said that only 184 bodies or body parts had been found, and that only 35 of them had been identified. Among the missing were 300 firefighters and 60 police officers. Three hours later, even as hope seemed to fade for those buried under the collapsed trade center, there were re"}, {"response": 378, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (10:03)", "body": "Also in the Independent an interesting analysis by Robert Fisk, their Beirut correspondent. He has lived the last 23 years in the Middle East, and he received the Brirish International Journalist of the Year award seven times. \"Bush is walking into a trap\" ... \"President Bush appears to be heading for the very disaster that Osama bin Laden has laid down for him.\" ... \"But this crime was perpetrated - it becomes ever clearer - to provoke the United States into just the blind, arrogant punch that the US military is preparing.\" \"Mr bin Laden - every day his culpability becomes more apparent - has described to me how he wishes to overthrow the pro-American regime of the Middle East, starting with Saudi Arabia and moving on to Egypt, Jordan and the other Gulf states. In an Arab world sunk in corruption and dictatorships - most of them supported by the West - the only act that might bring Muslims to strike at their own leaders would be a brutal, indiscriminate assault by the United States.\" ... \"\"America was targeted for attack,'' Mr Bush informed us on Friday, \"because we are the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world.'' But this is not why America was attacked. If this was an Arab-Muslim apocalypse, then it is intimately associated with events in the Middle East and with America's stewardship of the area.\" ... \"I will take a tiny risk and say that no other British newspaper - certainly no American newspaper - will today recall the fact that on 16 September 1982, Israel's Phalangist militia allies started their three-day orgy of rape and knifing and murder in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila that cost 1,800 lives. It followed an Israeli invasion of Lebanon designed to drive the PLO out of the country and given the green light by the then US Secretary of State, Alexander Haig which cost the lives of 17,500 Lebanese and Palestinians, almost all of them civilians. That's probably three times the death toll in the World Trade Centre. Yet I do not remember any vigils or memorial services or candle-lighting in America or the West for the innocent dead of Lebanon; I don't recall any stirring speeches about democracy or liberty. In fact, my memory is that the United States spent most of the bloody months of July and August 1982 calling for \"restraint\".\" ... \"But America's failure to act with honour in the Middle East, its promiscuous sale of missiles to those who use them against civilians, its blithe disregard for the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi children under sanctions of which Washington is the principal supporter - all these are intimately related to the society that produced the Arabs who plunged America into an apocalypse of fire last week.\" ... \"Every effort will be made in the coming days to switch off the \"why'' question and concentrate on the who, what and how. CNN and most of the world's media have already obeyed this essential new war rule.\" ... \"I repeat: what happened in New York was a crime against humanity. And that means policemen, arrests, justice, a whole new international court at The Hague if necessary. Not cruise missiles and \"precision'' bombs and Muslim lives lost in revenge for Western lives. But the trap has been sprung. Mr Bush - perhaps we, too - are now walking into it.\""}, {"response": 379, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (10:20)", "body": "Thanks Moon. I too wondered when that kind of sentiment was going to hit the press.They never have anything good to say about the US except when they need help."}, {"response": 380, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (10:22)", "body": "Dow down over 600, probably under 9000."}, {"response": 381, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (10:48)", "body": "Slate answers the question \"What does bin Laden want?\" Bin Laden and his followers are alarming because they don't want anything from us. They don't want our sympathy. They want no material thing we can offer them. They don't want to participate in the community of nations. (They don't really believe in the nation-state.) They are motivated by religion, not politics. They answer to no one but their god, so they certainly won't answer to us. http://slate.msn.com/Assessment/01-09-13/Assessment.asp"}, {"response": 382, "author": "mari", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (10:49)", "body": "I have been looking for an article that expresses the European point of view and this is it. It is secular as can be expected. Moon, before we label this \"the European point of view\" let's step back and ask any Europeans on this board if they agree. I did read that the BBC ran a panel discussion the other evening and the \"audience members\" reflected many of this article's views. However, the Beeb was flooded with more than 2,000 calls of protest from viewers who felt that there was a disproportionate amount of anti-Americanism espoused and that it did not reflect the feelings of the average person. BTW, our ambassador was on the program and was to said to have been reduced to tears. Greg Dyke, head of the BBC, later apologized to him. It is true that the foreign press tends to be very critical of America, and even in the calmest of times, resorts to cheap shots--but I am interested in finding out what the average person thinks. For which publication does Jonathan Powers write?"}, {"response": 383, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (11:39)", "body": "Mari, we are talking here of the media...print,audio and visual.The Fourth Estate.Not the ordinary guy on the street. The tone of that article is \"We told you so..\".Almost with glee. They have short memories of who pulls them out of binds. And , sadly,so do we ."}, {"response": 384, "author": "Echo", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (11:45)", "body": "Articles in the British press today suggest that the terrorist attack on America may have been meant not merely as a \"punishment\" but primarily to provoke American wrath and powerful military response which would then serve as a means of turning moderate Muslims against America and the Western world. If there is no response, they may attack again. Catch 22."}, {"response": 385, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (11:57)", "body": "Sad when people think the US response would be carpet bombing of Afghanistan. Even that I would protest as a waste of my taxpayer money. Judicious use of our resources may already be having effect. Yesterday I heard that assets were being frozen worldwide (even Swiss accounts) of known enemies, including government ministers of the Taliban. A bit of motivation for turning bin Laden in? There must be a response as history has shown us that appeasement is not acceptable when you are dealing with fanatics. People seem to have forgotten that."}, {"response": 386, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (12:21)", "body": "For which publication does Jonathan Powers write? He is a syndicated columnist based in London. I read it in The Miami Herald. the Beeb was flooded with more than 2,000 calls of protest from viewers who felt that there was a disproportionate amount of anti-Americanism espoused and that it did not reflect the feelings of the average person. I read this too, but the reason was that the people thought it was way to soon and therefore in very bad taste. The US Ambassador was brought to tears, FGS. They felt that the BBC should have taped and edited instead of airing it live. The unfortunate reality is that in general, there is a very strong anti-American sentiment in Europe. If there is no response, they may attack again. Catch 22. I would say, they will attack again. This is not a good situation to be in, but we're in it. I have said this before, it's the Crusades all over again. There must be a response as history has shown us that appeasement is not acceptable when you are dealing with fanatics. People seem to have forgotten that. England, Ireland, Spain and Italy have suffered greatly from terrorist attacks."}, {"response": 387, "author": "mari", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (12:23)", "body": "The tone of that article is \"We told you so..\".Almost with glee. I know, and that's very hurtful, but it's nothing new. But, if I could have one or the other, I'd rather have the support of the guy in the street. Not to mention the guy at 10 Downing. What I was trying to explore: is there one monolithic European viewpoint, and the answer of course is no. They have short memories of who pulls them out of binds. And , sadly,so do we. You can't keep throwing it up to people, or get into a pissing contest over who has paid the highest price. It's counterproductive, especially now."}, {"response": 388, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (12:30)", "body": "And the world was a *perfect* place when America was isolationist?"}, {"response": 389, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (12:33)", "body": ""}, {"response": 390, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (12:44)", "body": "I think that we (America) need to re-examine all of our foreign policies, keeping in mind what our intentions are towards that nation (as the policies have always been), but also how we may be perceived by those governments. I know that is not exactly how most people would like for us to be- reactionary instead of proactive- but I think looking at the stark contrast of opinions in just the messages the presses of the two countries are putting out, is astonishing (perhaps less so to the rest of the world than to us). I don't think that America can afford to continue in the pseudo-isolationist way that we've been for the last however many years. I personally do not agree with the current administration's take it or leave it attitude towards the world. It is quite obvious to me, at least, that we have ignored serious concerns that the rest of the world seems to see and understand. I know that not a lot of people agree with me, or would voice this opinion if they have it, but I do not think that we should be backing (or as we appear to be backing) Israel in the way we are right now. I understand the historical ties there, and all that they entail, but when we sit back and just remove ourselves entirely from the situation, what does that say? It says \"it's ok for you all to kill each other; we'll just sit back and wait.\" That's not right. There is no justification for the loss of any life there, Israeli or Palestinian, just as there is no justification for the loss of life here in NY, or in other parts of the Middle ast, Ireland, Asia, etc. Here is a very good article from The Economist magazine from last week's web addition. I can't find the URL...I emailed it to myself... AMERICA'S PLACE IN THE WORLD The devastation wrought on September 11th will shape the debate about American foreign policy for years to come A TABOO has been broken. The attacks on New York and Washington, DC so dwarf earlier examples of terrorism in the United States that they are, in effect, the bombing of mainland America that even the Japanese and the Nazis did not achieve during the second world war. For some time to come, most attention in the United States will be focused on the most pressing questions. Who perpetrated the attack? How to strike back at the culprits? How to protect America from another such terrorist atrocity? But once these questions are addressed, an even larger question will have to be faced: what is America's proper role in the world? Indeed, in a confused fashion, the debate on that question has already begun. While the administration has been determined to present a united front, and has largely succeeded, the very complexity of the task facing it has elicited statements which seem to point in different directions. Both George Bush and his secretary of state, Colin Powell, have emphasised that America is looking to its allies for support in an effort to launch a global fight against terrorism. They have spoken of the attacks on New York and Washington as attacks on freedom-loving people everywhere, not just on the United States. And yet, at the same time, they have made it clear that America will defend itself, implying it will retaliate alone if necessary. Although the administration would clearly like to build a Gulf war-style coalition to support its next steps, America's allies are rightly nervous that they will have little influence over an aroused and angered United States. American television and newspapers have been full of commentators calling for declarations of war or military intervention on the one hand, and calm restraint on the other. Some have said that it is essential to look to America's allies for support, others that America must take decisive action soon, no matter what the concerns of its friends abroad. Some have claimed that America's terrorist opponents can be crushed, and that any governments thought to have harboured terrorists should be attacked, whether or not it can be shown that they had anything to do with the assault this week. One NEW YORK TIMES columnist absurdly insisted that Congress should make a general declaration of war, even if it cannot say which country America is actually at war with. Others have argued that dropping bombs elsewhere in the world can never make America safe from another such attack, and that preserving civil liberties at home and expanding diplomatic, as well as military, efforts abroad is the only long-term approach. A NEW WORLD OF DISORDER What is clear is that the self-confidence which prompted George Bush senior, the father of the current president, to speak boldly about a \"new world order\" more than a decade ago, and which spawned such optimistic paeans to American values and the triumph of liberal democracies as Francis Fukuyama's \"The End of History\", will now look like the relics of a distant age. America may have won the cold war, and just completed a decade of unparallelled prosperity. But it evidently now lives in a much more dangerous and com"}, {"response": 391, "author": "mari", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (13:46)", "body": "Moon, this is the article I referred to. Again, I was commenting on viewer reaction--not the BBC's excuses. BBC sorry over anti-US TV audience LONDON (Reuters) - The head of the BBC, Greg Dyke, has apologised for broadcasting a live discussion programme in which audience members blamed U.S. foreign policy for Tuesday's terror attacks. More than 2,000 viewers complained after seeing the former U.S. Ambassador to Britain, Philip Lader, brought close to tears after attempts to express his sadness over the attacks were shouted down by people expressing anti-American views. \"On balance, I think it was an inappropriate programme to broadcast live just two days after the attacks in the United States and I would like to apologise to viewers who were offended by it,\" Dyke said in a statement. The scenes on the Question Time programme on Thursday night prompted Dyke, the BBC's Director General, to add: \"With hindsight this programme should have been recorded and edited before it was broadcast.\" \"I have today spoken to Philip Lader, and apologised for any distress the programme may have caused him,\" Dyke said. One audience member had asked whether the attacks were the result of a failure of US foreign policy \"with millions of people around the world despising the American nation,\" according to the Independent newspaper. Mr Lader, who was slow hand clapped by some members of the audience, was tearful. \"I find it hurtful that you are suggesting that a majority of the world despises the United States,\" he said according to news sources. The Sun newspaper said that one Arab woman replied: \"It is the American government which is talking about war.\" The programme's presenter, David Dimbleby, struggled to control the discussion and tempers became raised, according to the BBC. The Corporation said that many of those who complained about the programme said the audience seemed to contain a disproportionate number of people with anti-American views. The BBC said that the programme tried to pick audiences with a broad range of views and had hoped to stage a frank discussion about the attacks."}, {"response": 392, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (14:24)", "body": "Mari in the balance of things, there is a stronger anti-American view in general, therefore the balance was probably tilted correctly. A NEW WORLD OF DISORDER Globalization is a far off ideal. This is the real world, I hope world leaders get hip to the beat. I am just waiting to see when the call comes to the European \"allies\" who will respond. An interesting article, Liz. And I don't usually agree with the views of The Economist."}, {"response": 393, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (15:10)", "body": "So many articles I have read this morning, talk about how Bush and his \"take it or leave it\" arrrogant approach to world affairs, is partially responsible for the horrors of last Tuesday. Aren't these authors forgetting, that the ball for the horrific events of Sep 11, started rolling long before Bush came to power ? These hijackers were tucked away at their Florida flight schools when Bill Clinton was still in power and Bush Jr was just another politican. Clinton by the way, did a damm sight more to end terrorism than any other US President in history, in my homeland of Ireland. Pro US feelings probably run higher in Ireland, than in any other European country."}, {"response": 394, "author": "amw", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (15:18)", "body": "Everyone, I can assure you that from what I have heard, discussions on the radio, television, with people, ordinary people in the street, Politicians of all parties, no one is anti- American, you have our full and unqualified support, of that I am certain, I have heard no dissenters. Everyone in the UK is appalled and shocked by last week's tragedy, who would not be."}, {"response": 395, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (15:55)", "body": "Ann, One can have anti-American views and be appalled and shocked by last week's tragedy. The point is that in general that's the feeling in Europe. Pro US feelings probably run higher in Ireland, than in any other European country. Agreed! Aren't these authors forgetting, that the ball for the horrific events of Sep 11, started rolling long before Bush came to power? I agree again,Beth, but don't forget that the majority of the media in Europe is secular and socialist. That says it all!"}, {"response": 396, "author": "rachael", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (16:15)", "body": "Moon, in general, what's the feeling in Europe? anti American? as a European, I beg to disagree. Maybe there aren't as many Europeans on this board as on some of the other groups I'm in, but the out-pouring of feelings from all over Europe, indeed the world, has been amazing to see. And does questioning what a government does make you anti that govt? I don't think so, in fact I think its the essence of democracy. However it must be noted that it is no more correct to say \"Europeans think ...\" than it would be to say \"Americans think ...\" and to say that there is a sole European view would be incorrect. I suggest, very hesitantly, that there might be differences between English speaking and non English speaking nations - Beth would you say that's fair? BTW the mainstream media in the UK is far from socialist, despite what the Daily Bellylaugh would have us believe."}, {"response": 397, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (16:19)", "body": "\"The Corporation said that many of those who complained about the programme said the audience seemed to contain a disproportionate number of people with anti-American views. \" \"Anti- people\" are the ones that are mostly motivated to appear on those shows and most of them have hidden agendas. Ann, I know that the majority of the UK friends don't have those feelings. I have been listening to TV this aft and now is the time that all the special interest groups are gonna come out fighting.Get ready to hear from: the environmentalists, the animal rights people,pro -life, NOW, the various political parties, the extreme religious right. This is after all a democracy. Everyone has an opinion. This came yesterday from a British Theatre Newsletter: \"To all of our US subscribers, I know I speak for everyone else when I send you our deepest sympathies. Whether one agrees with US foreign policy or not, no one can condone mass murder or be unmoved by the scale of the tragedy which has struck your nation. I love New York and have many friends there. I am unable to express the depth of my horror at what has happened. Today, as I drove near my home, I saw some young children had set what in the UK we call a \"jumble sale\" on a grassed area. They were selling their toys and books to raise money for the American Red Cross and a US flag flew over the tables. I think that says far more than I can.\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We don't all agree with every foreign policy decision that is made, but to say we deserved the tragedy as that article intimated is barbaric."}, {"response": 398, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (16:25)", "body": "Moon, in general, what's the feeling in Europe? anti American? as a European, I beg to disagree. One can have anti-American views and be appalled and shocked by last week's tragedy. The point is that in general that's the feeling in Europe. I will stop repeating myself here as this point does not seem to get through. And does questioning what a government does make you anti that govt? I don't think so, in fact I think its the essence of democracy. To be truly \"democratic\" you should present both points of view. Unfortunately, and again I repeat, the majority of the media in Europe is secular and socialist. And it comes off very one-sided. I will add that I am very familiar with the Italian and French Media."}, {"response": 399, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (16:31)", "body": "Rob, my sympathies. Warmest Hugs on New Zealand's loss. Sorry you multinationals, but rolling over and playing dead will just play into their hands. If we don't stop it, they will take over the world. Good luck! Perhaps you don't want our help next time YOUR war starts?! I think I will go back to geology and astronomy where some rationality reigns."}, {"response": 400, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (16:49)", "body": "I think I will go back to geology and astronomy where some rationality reigns. LOL, Marcia! I don't wish to be misunderstood. I think everyone should join forces with the US to fight this war. I would like it to be a united effort and I was only questioning whether it will be. Whether the European allies will join the US? I hope to God that they will. There is no socialist/secular blood in my veins!"}, {"response": 401, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (17:01)", "body": "I really think at this stage, most Americans look on the candle light vigils and the expressions of sympathy and support as really nice and up lifting. However, ( those who are in favour of military action ) believe that while expressions of support are wonderful, it is time for European governments to put their money where their mouth is and show their support in more concrete terms. Italy said yesterday for example, that while they condemm the terrorist attacks, they will not coperate with the US in any military actions the US takes. They think that this is America's fight and not their own. I wonder will they still think that, if the next plane to be hikacked is an Italian one ? So having a nation wide moment of silence in your country is a lovely thing, it ISnot going to get the job done against the terorists. I don't think pro or anti American feelings are causing European nations to react as they do to possible military actions. I think it is simply whether or not they are willing to get their hands dirty to wipe out a threat that affects us all. Some will be, some won't be....simple as that. Plus I really feel a lot of this so called anti-American sentiment is based largely on resentment, based on America wealth and power. They resent America for having such an abundance of riches when they are living, if not a hand to mouth exhistance, at least a less luxurious one. America is percieved as the big, ugly kid in the corner who can boss people around simply because they can. Then are then disliked and picked on, when in fact they may be simple and peace loving as the rest of us. Every time I go home to Ireland, I get little digs from friends and family about my jet set life style and my fabulous standard of living, simply beacuse I live in America. I mean it is ridiculous. They have no clue what my life is really like and, that it is on many levels, just as hard as theirs. But that little bit if resentment is always there. It drives me nuts. I really think a lot of this sentiment has its roots in WW2 too. The USA bailed Europe out of a big ole nasty mess 50 years ago, and then gave Europe a ton of money to rebuild itself. This messed with Eropeans sense of their own self worth as they needed a vulgar, upstart of a nation to save their butts 50 years ago. No one likes the feeling of being permanantly beholden to someone. If they can take a little dig at America and how messed up its foreign policy is, then maybe in some sad little way, it ressures them that they are not just one tiny, little European country.....but that they are still the great colonial power from 100 years ago. They hate the fact that the US has a larger role to play in world affairs than they do and resent them as a result. I'm sorry if my thoughts sound vague or disjointed. I'm getting ready to go to an Aerosmith concert, as I type. I had been looking forward to it for weeks, but now I'd give anything not to go. Concerts seem so trivial now...... somehow....sigh....."}, {"response": 402, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (17:38)", "body": "Excellent summation, Beth. I've thought that for a long time. Makes them appear even more petty in my mind. I doubt the US wants all the countries/peoples of the world that we've help to feel beholden to us, but at least they can act like friends rather than enemies, sniping at everything we do. Try factoring in a longer-term perspective. There have been many world powers, countries whose influence has extended beyond their borders. Some have conquered other peoples. Some only exert economic influence. These date back to the beginning of time. The US's standing as a global power has only been for a mere 50 years or so. Think about how long there was a British Empire or a French empire. If our culture has overwhelmed others, at least it is not due to military occupation. This afternoon, while driving around, I was trying to come up with equivalents, i.e., if the commercial jetliners had crashed into symbols of other countries. I thought about Italy or France but could only come up with symbols of their past. If our so-called allies do not support us, this is one time I would definitely advocate picking up our ball and bat and going home. Rots a ruck."}, {"response": 403, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (18:07)", "body": "This afternoon, while driving around, I was trying to come up with equivalents, i.e., if the commercial jetliners had crashed into symbols of other countries. I thought about Italy or France but could only come up with symbols of their past. I thought of this too. The only place would be a football match, perhaps a qualifying World Cup Match. That thought is scary. Milan's stadium holds 84,000 people. Italy said yesterday for example, that while they condemm the terrorist attacks, they will not coperate with the US in any military actions the US takes. That was a rumour. I believe that the Italian Gov. has stated that they will support the US with their military, planes, ships etc. Berlusconi supports Bush and the US. Luckily, his coalition have a majority in the Senate and the House. This would not have been the case had the Socialist won the last election."}, {"response": 404, "author": "amw", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (18:16)", "body": "Moon One can have anti-american views and be appalled... Moon, it's not just that at least not in the UK, Tony Blair has repeated time and again in interviews that the UK Government is behind the US in whatever it takes and I do believe that this time the UK Public is right behind the government, urging caution, not just because of the US but for democracy and the fact that what happened in NY could happen in London. In fact it wasn't many years ago that the John Major cabinet in Downing Street was attacked by Rockets fired by the IRA."}, {"response": 405, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (18:41)", "body": "Ann, I never doubted the UK's backing or Italy's for that matter. I am more worried about France, Belgium, etc."}, {"response": 406, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (20:26)", "body": "(Moon)The only place would be a football match, perhaps a qualifying World Cup Match. That thought is scary. Milan's stadium holds 84,000 people. But a football match, while upping the casualty toll, is not symbolic. Two days before the WTC and Pentagon were hit, there were three major sports events taking place within a few miles of eachother--nearly 80K at a Jets game in East Rutherford, thousands at the US Open Tennis Tournament in Queens, and I believe the Yankees played at home in the Bronx. Yankee Stadium holds about 60K. You've got around 175,000 people concentrated in three easy-to-hit targets within less than 20 miles. bin Laden wasn't going for large numbers of people."}, {"response": 407, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (20:49)", "body": "Italy said yesterday for example, that while they condemm the terrorist attacks, they will not coperate with the US in any military actions the US takes. At today's press conference with Secretary Powell, a journalist told him that rumor and he denied it. Said his Italian counterpart would be in Washington in a few days."}, {"response": 408, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (21:04)", "body": "Hi all I got BAD news for anyone worried about the Taliban response. According to our local daily the Taliban is moving Scud missiles (the sort that hit Israel in the Gulf War)around and has called up 20000 fighters to fight any ground war. Are you sure you got the right targets, because God help the Western world and anyone who fell into cahoots with the United States if you have not. There are two kinds of war - the undeclared war like this one where military strikes are carried out but no official declaration of war, and a general war involving the mobilisation of the armed forces and the cancellation of diplomatic relations by declaring war. On to other things. Let me be absolutely clear, I am not trying to undermine the greiving process or the determination to retaliate when I write the following. I support the impending war insofar as the right targets are hit and that it give the appearance of the international coalition being united. What I do not support is an all out war (a world war would not be impossible in this case), because I am pretty certain no one wants mushroom clouds and radioactive darts doing a sinister ballet across the skies. You may ask what has Colombia got to do with anything at the moment, but have you honestly ever considered the fact that unwanted involvement on the part of the CIA and Pentagon in places like Colombia has fuelled the conflict there to the point that it has the capacity to possibly engulf neighbouring countries? Or how about the International Monetary Fund in African countries where the nebulous Multinational Corporations that have corporate HQ in New York ply their trade at dirt cheap rates? The IMF will not allow financial aid to these countries while corruption and other problems are rife in them. Fair enough. But to sort out those problems in part requires IMF help. So what does all this have to do with anything? Well, that coupled with things like the $30 billion National Missile Defence system and things like withdrawing from international environmental protocols (I know that the Climate Protocol is dogged by not knowing whether warming is cyclical or not), has a few countries fuming (pro-US and anti-US)because they see the United States as using them for it's own gain and every western country including New Zealand is guilty to some extent. Still not a reason to attack the WTC, but the faceless cowards that did probably used something like this to justify their attack. Maybe Bush can soften his stance on trade and thing like the environmental protocols since they are designed to protect our offspring, and open dialogue with North Korea before Kim Il Jong decides to restart the missile programme that crippled his nation. I may lose some friends for this, but it is my honest opinion (one that existed well before Bush came to power, but has come to the fore because he has it in his power if he wants to, to change a few things). I do not advocate a general change in foreign policy or a reduction on arms spending and certainly don't want to open the United States to something even worse, but I would look at a couple things long and hard. Rob All arguments to my e-mail. I am certain Marcia did not intend Geo to become a warzone."}, {"response": 409, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (21:45)", "body": "Do any of you know of any websites that I can tell her about, that give out info on what supplies are still needed ? I tried the Red Cross website, but didn't get much info.(Beth) Here are a couple of info sites about how to help. http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010924/help.html http://www.helping.org/"}, {"response": 410, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (21:45)", "body": "20,000 fighters? Is that a typo? The $30 billion National Missile Defense system has been rendered less relevant. This might better be spent on counter bioterror measures."}, {"response": 411, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (22:10)", "body": "Rob, you may post anything any time in anything I have anything to do with. Your statistics are staggering. Columbia, of course!!! We have a long litany of nefarious deeds in the name of \"Patriotism\". Anthrax, anyone? What a horrible way to die! It will be conventional because any other kind of war will kill mankind and every other living thing... That is why I posted a ribbon on Geo's front page..."}, {"response": 412, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (22:34)", "body": "Subject: Monday morning Date: Monday, September 17, 2001 12:57 PM From: Womack, Jack Yes, Monday morning. Took longer than usual to go as far as 72nd as the local is now running on the express tracks and the express is running on the local tracks. Have assumed, as with everything that has so far occured, that this condition is now permanent. Here at work my colleague Dee Dee is back at work today; she came in with her husband, Gavin. It's a typical story, now: he was on the 104th floor of the South Tower. When the first plane hit the other tower three guys in his office got up and immediately went downstairs, catching the elevator to 75 and then taking the express down. By the time the three guys got to the lobby the second building had been hit. Her brother-in-law called her sister twice, the second time to say smoke was filling the floor and he was on his way down. \"He fucked up,\" Dee Dee's brother kept saying. He was working in the World Financial Center, across the West Side Highway from the Trade Towers, was outside when the second plane hit. Says that dozens were jumping, you weren't sure what they were at first. When the first tower collapsed everybody, he said, started to run. Uncontrolled mass panic on the part of everyone, swarming up along the river walk to the highway. (There've been plenty of reports of injuries suffered by people trampled in the two stampedes away from the collapsing buildings). By the time he got to the Village, the second tower collapsed. As you might imagine he's got a combat-level thousand yard stare; I'd forgotten but now remember older brothers etc. looking like that, back in the late 60s and early 70s, after they came back from Vietnam. My neighbor, across the hall, a young Latina woman (and her seven-year-old son) is fine, although she worked in a building across the street from the Towers. Again, she was outside when the first one started to come down; her particular crowd streamed eastward as far as they could go, then up. \"I guess you'll be seeing me around the apartment the next few weeks.\" Friday night Valeria read what I'd written so far. \"You are describing events,\" she told me. \"Not emotion.\" And she's absolutely right. So let me say how I'm feeling this morning, and how I've been feeling. The first thing I want to make clear is how gratified I was to know that V was all right, last Tuesday; how overwhelmed with happiness, how comforted. We weren't sure we were going to see each other that day, but once the trains to Brooklyn began, she was able to get back. We have spent as much time as we have together, since. I feel deeply blessed, and feel as guilty. When I think of what Ellen and Ellie & all those of our friends who live south of 14th went through (and in the case of Ellie, still going through; her place might not be accessible again for weeks, at the least; she's headed up to New Hampshire.) I know we came out very, very lucky. We came out easy, in fact. I'm feeling terrible nostalgia for buildings that I never found attractive, except sometimes at a distance. I think of all the times I went through the mall underneath the towers, on my way to the PATH station to go visit Valeria when she still lived in Jersey City. During the past three years I became very familiar with everything down there. I remember V & I meeting her mother down there, at the head of the escalators that went up from the station. She'd stand and wait in front of Godiva, which was next to an HSBC branch. I remember being down at the Border's WTC back in June (last time I was there, in fact) when Gaiman had his tour kickoff appearance. I remember walking with Katya & Carrie & Robert Legault across the bridge that led between the towers & World Financial Center, en route to Ellie's apartment, for the wake after the memorial service for Jenna, April 6. The orchid show was going on, and the bridge and Palm Court downstairs (also destroyed, pretty much, though the palms are still standing) were full of orchids. On our refrigerator is a little card of a Boston bull terrier Carrie sent us a month or so ago, thanking us for brunch; she'd bought the card in the mall underneath with Ellie. Any of us might have been there, and but for the grace of God, or synchronicity, or something, we weren't. Not this time, at least. This isn't a comforting feeling, still. Familiar landmarks vanish constantly in NY -- they're getting ready, or have been getting ready, to build a new Columbia building around the corner from me at 110th where D'agostino was -- but never before have so many vanished so quickly, so awfully. I cannot begin to imagine what the place will look like, once it has finally been cleared. I haven't looked at a newspaper since Saturday morning except just to glimpse headlines & pages(I did save them, though); I haven't turned on any of the news programming except at the request of others when they've come to visit. The more I saw the worse I was feeling -- jittery, irritable, unable to focu"}, {"response": 413, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (22:36)", "body": "Subject: The Weekly PoliTicker Date: Monday, September 17, 2001 9:49 AM From: PoliticsOnline To: Special Edition: Analysis of the Role of the Internet and the Attack on America Note From: Phil Noble (phil@politicsonline.com) President, PoliticsOnline 843 853 8190 office phone 843 296 1490 mobile PoliticsOnline has received many calls from journalists and others about what role the Internet is playing in the current crisis. To respond we have 1) developed this Special Report that outlines the six key points in understanding the developments and, 2) created a special section on our web site (www.PoliticsOnline.com) to track these developments and provide a research and reference source. The attack on the Pentagon is indeed ironic when we remember that it was the Army that started it all way back in 1969 with a project called ARPNET. They wanted to design a system that would allow computers to communicate in times of national disaster. They were planning on missile attacks from the Russians, not civilian airplane attacks from terrorists. As one analyst noted, during this crisis people turned to the Internet for what they needed and wanted, just as they began doing with the telephone many years ago. Recently the focus has been on the crash of the tech stocks and the success and failures of e-commerce. This week the Internet stories were about the technology was incorporated into the daily life of average citizens in these extraordinary times. This week the Internet truly became The People's Channel. 1. What the Net does best is Communications and Connections In this crisis, the Internet did what it does best - communicating and connecting. For those personally caught up in the crisis, it was a means of communications when other means failed. People stranded in the World Trade Center Towers sent e-mails and instant messages to their loved ones; Blackberrys and pagers came through when mobile phones and land lines failed. Hundreds of online groups formed to do all the things people wanted to do - reach out to each other, share their grief, search for friends and loved ones. * NY.com (www.ny.com) created an interactive database listing survivors from the Trade Center collapse. Within 24 hours they had 2,600 listings. * Hundreds of people posted prayers, related prayer circles and discussions groups on Beliefnet (www.beliefnet.com), a popular non-denominational site. * United (www.ual.com) and American Airlines (www.americanairlines.com) posted information and listed phone numbers for people to call looking for more information on their crashes. * People used Yahoo Groups to create numerous discussion groups to share information, express grief and vent their anger. Survivor Databases Offered by NY.Com and Prodigy (InternetNews) Ny.com, a Web site that calls itself the \"paperless guide to New York City\" and Prodigy, the national ISP, are offering interactive databases listing survivors of Tuesday's World Trade Center collapse. http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article/0,,3_882651,00.html Web Offers Both News and Comfort (New York Times) The major news Web sites were quickly overloaded. Many links to the not-so- major news Web sites stopped working. But more than news, what people all over the world craved in the wake of yesterday's terrorist attacks was connection to each other, and many of them found that most easily achieved by going online. http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article/0,,3_882651,00.html After Attack, the Net Reassures and Informs (USA Today) As phone systems faltered in the aftermath of Tuesday's terrorist attack, the nation clung to the Net, reaching out to friends and loved ones, praying, spreading accusations and gossip, and overwhelming news and information sites. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001/09/12/more Net Offers Lifeline Amid Tragedy (CNET) People in New York City and around the globe turned to the Internet on Tuesday to communicate with their families and to grasp the horrific sequence of terrorist attacks that transformed the World Trade Center and the Pentagon into disaster zones. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7132246.html Internet Performs Global Role, Supplementing TV (Online Journalism Review) History expands. Terribly. In 1914, two bullets fired at an automobile driving through the streets of Sarajevo killed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophia, his wife. Their deaths led to World War One. http://ojr.usc.edu/content/story.cfm?request=637 Web Acts as Hub For Info On Attacks (CNET) Moments after airplanes separately crashed into both towers of the World Trade Center, and then later the Pentagon, Web sites for the major news outlets were swamped by an overflow of traffic. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7129241.html E-Mail Indispensable as Phone Systems Jam (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) As the World Trade Center collapsed and planes plunged from the sky, sending and receiving e-mail -- the most popular Internet activity -- became the indispensable com"}, {"response": 414, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (22:55)", "body": "Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 22:18:52 -0700 From: William Meyers To: terry@spring.net, paul@spring.net Subject: more Paul, Here's another fragment: As soon as we got to work that morning word went around that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center -- and soon after that, another one. Then the rumor took flight that there were five more hijacked airliners in the air. There was the distinct thought in the collective mind that at any moment we could be vaporized too -- that so far we were simply among the lucky ones, and no different from those whose luck had just run out. I took a walk around midtown Manhattan at mid-day, through the herds of people streaming up the avenues and through the park toward their uptown apartments -- strangely silent and subdued, preoccupied and fearful, many stopping off and lining up at their ATMs to tank up for future uncertainties. Down at the end of Sixth and Fifth Avenues, where the twin towers used to be, a thick volcanic cloud of smoke and ash was roiling up in a dome -- falling like a gray snow on downwind Brooklyn later in the afternoon. All the cops you could see were already wearing flak jackets -- not a one without one -- and carrying shotguns. Hundreds of firefighters and medical rescuers were killed after the first blast when rushing to help -- that was the most disturbing part. Not that the thought of those poor people trapped in those planes was any less disturbing. I was in my office most of the day, listening to people's radios and checking the Internet bulletins/images on my computer. We knew our building could just as easily have been on fire and crumbling to the ground. It was a day of palpable grief, most of those who showed up leaving early, and work moving along at close to a standstill -- very heavy emotions welling up in everyone. \"It could just as easily have been me\" was the prevailing compassionate thought for all the victims. heavy emotions welling up in everyone. \"It could just as easily have been me\" was the prevailing compassionate thought for all the victims. At any rate, enough fear and grief was inflicted to keep the anguished and vengeful spirits who perpetrated the deed happy in their disembodied misery. What did they prove, though, but that even at the Pentagon they're just another bunch of vulnerable protoplasmic beings wishing they were happy. Luckily we had made our reservations for another round-trip flight to San Francisco just the day before -- we couldn't have managed it any later. They were for a Thanksgiving trip. Maybe by then we'll start to feel better again about flying. There's a new, more explicit message from the Dalai Lama today, calling for a nonviolent response to the tragic events. But I can't send that on to you until tomorrow. Wm"}, {"response": 415, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (00:13)", "body": "Italy said yesterday for example, that while they condemm the terrorist attacks, they will not coperate with the US in any military actions the US takes. It wasn't exactly a rumour - maybe a partial misquote: Italian defence minister rules out Italian troop role ROME, Sept 16 (AFP) - Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino on Sunday said Italian troops would not take part in any US retaliation after the terror attacks and that use of the term \"war\" was inappropriate. \"The term 'war' is inappropriate. It is not a conflict between states and Italian troops will not go anywhere,\" Martino told the RAI television station. \"I feel I am in a position to categorically exclude calling on the army,\" he said. The defence minister warned that \"nobody had better strike randomly,\" adding that 100,000 Italian soldiers were involved in various peacekeeping missions abroad. He said the US would certainly take military action once the perpetrators of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and Pentagon had been identified, and only then \"will we see what we are called upon to do.\" Asked about Saudi-born extremist Osama bin Laden's role in the attacks, Martino said \"the idea that one man is behind this tragedy is misguided.\" In an interview with the daily Il Messaggero published Sunday, Martino urged the US not to act alone in the event of a military operation. _________________ Monday, 17 September, 2001, 09:01 GMT 10:01 UK Italy ready to retaliate against terrorists The Italian defence minister has made it clear that his armed forces are ready to take part in any action that may be agreed in retaliation against the attacks on the United States. The minister, Antonio Martino, told the BBC that he was misquoted when he appeared to have suggested yesterday Sunday that no Italian troops would take part in such operations. Mr Martino said that intelligence would first have to show clearly who the real culprits were, but once that was done, Italy's commitment would be total and absolute. From the newsroom of the BBC World Service"}, {"response": 416, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (00:34)", "body": "I am beginning to burn out on this. I put a ribbon on my front page (Geo's) Please feel free to borrow it for wherever you wish to place it."}, {"response": 417, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (02:41)", "body": "Hi all IT IS WAR. OFFICIAL. THE TALIBAN HAS DECLARED A HOLY WAR IN AFGHANISTAN AGAINST THE UNITED STATES. 20000 FIGHTERS STAND READY TO DIE FOR WHAT THEY PERCEIVE TO BE A GREATER CAUSE AND WHAT WE PERCEIVE TO BE MADNESS. Source: Television One New Zealand. See http://www.stuff.co.nz for more on the New Zealand coverage. I absolutely had to post this for everyone to read. See more at Stuff.co.nz - Canterbury (not sure where under Canterbury it will get posted). It was written by a nine year old school boy and featured on the front page of the Press edition for September 18, 2001. by Charles MacDonald, a pupil at Mount Pleasant Primary School In America on a Tuesday morning An EVIL force struck without warning Planes hit the buildings, people screamed A terrible accident so it seemed The towers and Pentagon both took hits The 1st tower fell and smashed to bits. The terrified bystanders choked by the smoke While the Palestinians thought it a joke Reality of it all came clear As another plane smashed in the middle of nowhere The fear and drama continued hour after hour As down came the 2nd tower The attack had cost many lives Heart-broken men cry for their wives. We DON'T want war but PEACE instead only to feel safe in our bed. Rob"}, {"response": 418, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (03:01)", "body": "Sorry my friends, but this appears to be war. The Taliban has said ANYONE HARBOURING UNITED STATES BASES ARE ALSO ON THE HIT LIST. Marcia, dear, the drumbeat of Mars is getting louder, the brass is getting more and more menacing. I for once think the possibility of a big Middle East war involving EVERYONE is not so far of after all. Rob"}, {"response": 419, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (09:42)", "body": "More from William Meyers CALCUTTA, India, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama urged the United States on Monday not to respond militarily to last week's devastating attacks, saying only nonviolence could combat international terrorism. \"While I express my sympathy, I have appealed to the U.S. president not to respond with more violence as violence is not an appropriate answer,\" the Tibetan Buddhist leader told a news conference in Calcutta. The Dalai Lama fled from his homeland to India with thousands of followers in 1959, nine years after the Chinese army entered Tibet and overthrew the Buddhist theocracy there. The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate's comments came after Pope John Paul appealed on Sunday to the world not to allow the attacks on New York and Washington to lead to more violence, and not to allow \"a spiral of hate and violence\" to prevail. The United States has pledged to avenge the attacks by hijacked airliners that slammed into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon near Washington last Tuesday. NONVIOLENCE ONLY ANSWER \"Most cases of violence only cause destruction...these things will have to be prevented the nonviolent way. Only nonviolent means can counter terrorism in the long-term,\" the Dalai Lama said. The United States has said Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, harbored by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, was the prime suspect behind the attacks in which some 5,000 people were killed or are missing. Bin Laden, a 44-year-old multimillionaire, has denied he was responsible, saying Afghanistan would not permit it. The Dalai Lama said he believed there were numerous causes for the attacks. \"Every event has many causes...you can't just pick up one individual -- Osama bin Laden -- and say he was responsible. That is not realistic,\" said the Dalai Lama, whose exiled government accuses China of repression in Tibet. \"The economic gap between the rich and poor nations is one factor (that could have been responsible),\" he said. But the Dalai Lama said the attacks could not have been sanctified by any religion. \"The essence of all major religions is compassion, forgiveness, contentment, self-discipline and brotherhood,\" he said. \"Some people may only be using the name of religion to justify their actions.\""}, {"response": 420, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (10:19)", "body": "\"Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October.\" http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1550000/1550366.stm That's not the only rumour coming out of Pakistan : \"Reuters news agency quoted a Pakistani army captain as saying the Taliban had moved a large number of weapons, including missiles, to positions near the Pakistani border.\" http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1549000/1549700.stm"}, {"response": 421, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (10:53)", "body": "Who would've ever thought watching Dave Letterman would be a gut-wrenching experience as it was last night. And to see Dan Rather break down twice. Really makes you wonder how those newscasters have managed over the past week. It's apparent to me that, in working 18+ hrs a day, they've been unable to deal with it on a personal level."}, {"response": 422, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (11:18)", "body": "Dan Rather is human. He's 70 years old. Taliban declares a jihad against the US: \"I would like to tell my people that our jihad will be formally resuming against the Americans,\" the deputy chairman of the Taliban Council of Ministers, Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhond, said in a speech broadcast late on Monday. Akhond said it was unimaginable that the \"terror attacks\" against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been committed by the Taliban or by Osama bin Laden. Also from MSNBC:"}, {"response": 423, "author": "toyce", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (12:03)", "body": "This is just a subjective thought on my part, but I feel strongly about this. I think that bin Laden has a politcal agenda that is much larger than just getting the US out of the Middle East region. He's using religion to \"cloak\" that agenda. Has anyone thought what he might do if his first objective was ever realized? I think he would then turn his \"holy wrath\" to Middle Eastern governments who did not agree with him. The first one would probably be Saudi Arabia, since he is supposedly persona non grata there. I feel that his utlimate aim is to create a Middle Eastern theorcracy with himself, his son, or lieutenants at the helm."}, {"response": 424, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (12:17)", "body": "I disagree, Toyce. This is Jihad. And it is against the West. The Italian defence minister has made it clear that his armed forces are ready to take part in any action that may be agreed in retaliation against the attacks on the United States. Is Italy the first allied country to offer this? Where are the other allies? Bin Laden has many cells in Europe. The French intelligence discovered a plan to blow up the Eiffel Tower recently and where able to stop it. As Karen has said, in Europe there are many buildings that they could blow up but not as many people would die because they are not skyscapers. The Vatican on Sunday when the Pope holds his outdoor mass. That would be disastrous. Italy is on high alert."}, {"response": 425, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (12:29)", "body": "Terry, you miss my point. (Moon) As Karen has said, in Europe there are many buildings that they could blow up but not as many people would die because they are not skyscapers. You also miss my point."}, {"response": 426, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (12:37)", "body": "You also miss my point. It's two against one, Karen. ;-) So will you leave us hanging?"}, {"response": 427, "author": "rachael", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (13:29)", "body": "re toyce's comment, I read one explanation about Bin Laden's actions that said something like (and I paraphrase) its not as simple as a Holy War because he's not just anti the west, he's anti other Muslim nations who don't agree with his particular brand of totalitarianism. Dunno if that's right, but it does make a bit of sense in the light of his exile from Saudi Arabia. the thing that puzzles me is, he's said to be so phenomenally rich, where did all that dosh come from? And maybe I'm being dim here, but isn't a contradiction in terms to be a multi-millionaire and be anti capitalism?"}, {"response": 428, "author": "toyce", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (13:32)", "body": "Rachael. I doubt he can explain it either."}, {"response": 429, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (13:44)", "body": "(Moon) As Karen has said, in Europe there are many buildings that they could blow up but not as many people would die because they are not skyscapers. (Karen) You also miss my point. I get your point. Moon, did you see my last post? These terrorists were not merely after mass casualties."}, {"response": 430, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (14:08)", "body": "Moon, did you see my last post? I did. And I agree with you, Eileen. The Twin Towers were a symbol as the Eiffel Tower and the Vatican are. Had the Twin Towers been struck later in the day the casulaties would have been higher. I do think that countries would have a stroger reaction to deaths of their citizens rather than the destruction of a symbolic building empty. The worse case is for both at once as in the Twin Towers or God forbid, the outdoor mass at the Vatican. Hugh stadiums in Europe have also become symbols and that is why I used that example yesterday."}, {"response": 431, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (15:16)", "body": "Europe may not have as many huge skyscrapers as we do over here, but they do have some. A hit on Canary Wharf in London for example, would probably result in thousands of deaths. However, to Londoners, that is just a very tall building. It lacks the national symolism that a hit on something like Buckingham Palace would have. Jeez, I can't believe I am sitting here calming talking about blowing up buildings as if I'm playing battleships or something....this is all very weird. Rachael....bin Laden is the son of a Saudi construction billionaire. His father was the Donald Trump of the Arab world in the 40's and 50's and is/was filthy rich. His family in Saudi Arabia have apparantly long since disowned him, but we presume he was still able to get his hands on some of the family loot, to use for his evil purposes."}, {"response": 432, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (15:35)", "body": "Quite right, Eileen and Beth, the targets had to be symbolic (financial evils or government evils), with loss of life secondary. That's why the Eiffel Tower hardly qualifies or a mere football stadium. (Moon) Had the Twin Towers been struck later in the day the casulaties would have been higher. Ensuring the timing of the attack was first and foremost, as opposed to hitting the towers at peak occupancy. They did that by using the first transcontinental flights of the day where the likelihood of delays was minimized. All the planes had to be in the air at approximately the same time and not sitting on runways waiting for approval to take off."}, {"response": 433, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (15:49)", "body": "Rob, thanks for your eloquence as usual. Nothing is as deadly as a \"holy War\" whhx makes it so terrifying. From the crusdades onward ([probably before that, too) we have fought over which of Abraham's sons was his rightful heir. We have missed God in all this infighting. Tha same Father but human sons who continue to perpetuate animosity and death in His name. The West will certainly suffer. What can be done other than arguing with former friends and wringing hands. It is not time to be divisive. Surely our survival supercedes all the little dlaws one sees in the other's interpretations of all that is too horrible to contemplate. God help us even if you don't believe..."}, {"response": 434, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (16:18)", "body": "(Karen) All the planes had to be in the air at approximately the same time and not sitting on runways waiting for approval to take off. Yet for all their in-depth research, the terrorists couldn't get the flight from Newark in the air with the others. It pulled away from the gate at 8-ish (same as the other flights) but waited in line for takeoff for more than 30 mins. This type of delay is so common at EWR one has to wonder if this was built into their plan or if it had an effect on the outcome. I get a strange sense of comfort from the latter. I also read or heard early flights were likely selected because they were relatively empty--less passengers to control."}, {"response": 435, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (17:24)", "body": "(Karen), That's why the Eiffel Tower hardly qualifies That is a symbol of the industrial revolution, which in a sense started us on this Godless path. I would say it is a symbol."}, {"response": 436, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (18:11)", "body": "(Moon)Is Italy the first allied country to offer this? Where are the other allies? This is long, but an excellent round-up of countries and reactions. Key Nations' Reactions to Attacks Tuesday September 18 9:32 AM ET Countries Take Action on US Attacks By The Associated Press, International actions and events connected with the U.S. campaign to find and punish those responsible for attacks on New York and Washington. EUROPE: - ALBANIA: Declared it stood on the side of the United States and its Western allies in the fight against terrorism, offered use of Albanian airspace, ports and airports to the United States and its allies. - AUSTRIA: Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said his country would allow the use of Austrian airspace and provide whatever support it can, but Austrian soldiers would not become involved in military action because that is banned by Austria's constitution. - BELARUS: President Alexander Lukashenko, who had often lashed out at the United States, sent his condolences to the American people. Belarus did not join Russia and other European nations in observing a moment of silence last week, and some officials said the terror attacks had been prompted by arrogant U.S. policies. - BELGIUM: Organized an anti-terrorist sweep following the attacks, holding two suspects on charges of possible involvement in planning an attack on U.S. interests in Europe. As current president of the European Union (news - web sites), it has also played host to emergency meetings of EU foreign ministers to show support for the United States. - BOSNIA: Stepped up security for U.S. citizens and property. ``This country will offer any kind of assistance the United States government may ask for,'' said Foreign Ministry spokesman Amer Kapetanovic. - BRITAIN: Urged its citizens to leave parts of Pakistan amid fears that U.S. retaliation might target neighboring Afghanistan (news - web sites). Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites), who has pledged British support for U.S. action against the terrorists, called President Bush (news - web sites)'s handling of the attack and its aftermath ``absolutely right'' and praised the U.S. administration's consultations with allies. BRITAIN: The Bank of England cut its key lending rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.75 percent as part of a coordinated global effort to boost consumer borrowing and spending in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks. Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) spoke by telephone with Chinese President Jiang Zemin (news - web sites) in an effort to build support for international action. BULGARIA: Prime Minister Simeon Saxcoburggotski pledged support for an international campaign against terror. Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi said his country, which is applying for NATO (news - web sites) membership, was ``ready to act as a (virtual) NATO ally'' in the campaign. -CROATIA: Supports United States against terrorism. However, Prime Minister Ivica Racan expressed concerns Monday that the European Union countries may now seek to impose tougher measures on their borders to prevent entry of potential terrorists, isolating non-members, including Croatia. CZECH REPUBLIC: Security was increased at the country's airports and other sensitive points such as nuclear power plants and dams. All unscheduled flights were forbidden. The government expressed its full support to the United States for military action against the terrorists. - DENMARK: As a NATO member, Denmark supports a joint action against terrorism, and the government asked intelligence agencies to track down possible supporters in Denmark. The Faeroe Islands and Greenland, both semiautonomous Danish territories, sent letters of condolence late Tuesday and held two minutes of silence on Friday. - ESTONIA: Was quick to condemn the airborne attacks, and the Foreign Ministry said the nation was ``prepared to provide to the United States any assistance within the scope of its capabilities.'' Estonia and its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania also expressed concerns that the crisis might put NATO enlargement on the back burner. FINLAND: Has beefed up security at borders, airports and outside embassies and increased air surveillance. Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen said ``the likelihood of terrorist attacks against Finland or Finnish targets abroad is very small.'' - FRANCE: Defense Minister Alain Richard said France was confident the United States would react responsibly to last week's terror attacks, but he cautioned against using force alone to retaliate. ``We must use it in a way that doesn't provoke other elements of instability,'' he said. - GEORGIA: Officials have said they were ready to offer any help to the United States in its efforts to find and punish the perpetrators of the attacks. - GERMANY: Interior Minister Otto Schily called for a review of ``our entire intelligence strategy'' after three men who lived quietly in Hamburg for years were implicated in the terror attacks in the United States"}, {"response": 437, "author": "rachael", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (18:28)", "body": "excellent and useful summary, thanks suzee UK news today has been reporting Blair doing major diplomatic stuff to get countries to agree to united action (in particular 6 African states, and China); also that he will be in the US to meet Bush on Thursday, clear implication being discussing military action. Top brass military have apparently been in Downing St. what hasn't been on the news, but I'm not the only one noticing it, a couple of friends have said the same in other parts of the country, there's been lots more movement of military aircraft around here the last couple of days than would be normal."}, {"response": 438, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (18:46)", "body": "ITS HARD TO BELIEVE WE HAVE CRETINS LIKE THIS IN BUSINESS IN AMERICA People like what? People like one Bill Schrempf. He's the CEO of NCCI Holdings, Inc. in Boca Raton, Florida. NCCI is a company that compiles workers compensation insurance data. How exciting. They have about 850 employes in its Boca Raton offices. It seems that some of the NCCI employees are proud of their heritage and proud of their country. In the wake of the terrorist attack some of these NCCI employees decided that they wanted to display an American flag on their desks. At that point the dynamic Bill Schrempf swung into action. The orders went out to his managers and they immediately fanned out throughout the workplace confiscating the American flags. Schrempf, it seems, is afraid that some of the workers in the NCCI offices might find the display offensive. So, NCCI boss Bill Schrempf finds himself in the same rouges gallery as John Smeaton, the vice provost of student affairs at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Smeaton ordered flags removed from campus busses for fear that foreign students might be (gasp!!!!) offended!!! The one difference between Lehigh and NCCI is that at Lehigh there was someone above Smeaton who actually possessed an ounce of sense and some feelings of patriotism. Smeaton's order was countered in minutes. At NCCI Schrempf is the boss! There IS nobody above him (unless the Board of Directors calls a quick meeting.) How's this for a workplace rule. Nobody works here who is offended by the American Flag. Period. If the American Flag offends you then you are a virtual cancer in this workplace. Pack your stuff and don't let the door knob hit you in the ass on your way out. Let me put it another way. If I have a flag on my desk and you try to confiscate it because you are offended -- then you have a damned good chance to be the subject of one of those statistical records that NCCI collects. DAMN -- this just pisses me off. Sorry, can't hide it. I wish I had the money to buy that company just so I could send Schrempf packing. Now -- it just happens that I don't have any need for a company that compiles workers compensation data. In the interest of all fairness -- since I have slammed Bill Schrempf and his company -- don't you think its only fair that I list the company name and phone number? I mean -- just in case you happen to agree with Bill Schrempf and would like to call and congratulate him! So, for that purpose only .... NCCI HOLDINGS INC 901 PENINSULA CORP CIR BOCA RATON, FL (561)893-1000 And here's a link to the story from the Palm Beach Post. http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/saturday/business_3.html ANY CONNECTION TO THIS NCCI? Last evening (Sunday) I spent a good amount of time trying to find an Internet site for NCCI. No luck. This caused me to expand my search and, with the help of a Nuze reader came with some interesting items. We found two websites this morning. One, ( http://www.ncci.com ) appears to be for the Palm Beach company. The other, ( http://www.ncci.sa.com/ ) is for the NCCI (National Corporation for Cooperative Insurance) that was established by Royal Decree No. M/5 of 17/4/1405H as a Saudi Joint Stock Company. That's right --- a corporation wholly owned by the government of Saudi Arabia. It seems this Saudi Arabian company is in the same business -- insurance. In searching both websites I could find no interlocking references. This doesn't mean no connection exists --- but the coincidence is somewhat amazing. Both with the \"NCCI\" in their name, both in the insurance business. I wonder who the stockholders of the Palm Beach company are?"}, {"response": 439, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (20:36)", "body": "Every possible resource has been posted on a special page by Google.com plus important contacts and news sources world wide. http://www.google.com/news/"}, {"response": 440, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (20:38)", "body": "This page is an excellent resource. I'm going to make it my home page."}, {"response": 441, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (21:10)", "body": "marcia, you may post the ribbon in all of our conferences--and terry, can we get it on our main page?"}, {"response": 442, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (22:38)", "body": "Sure thing!"}, {"response": 443, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (23:24)", "body": "Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 10:56:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Lauren Weinstein Subject: The Big Picture? Cc: lauren@pfir.org \"You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride.\" -- Colossus \"Colossus: The Forbin Project\" (1970) \"There seems to be a definite pattern emerging.\" -- The Psychiatrist (G. Wood) \"Harold and Maude\" (1971) An interesting pattern does seem to be emerging. I do not suggest that it's the result of a conspiracy, but rather the result of long-term trends that have been self-reinforcing. Still, like the images in a kaleidoscope, complex-appearing structures can seem to easily appear from independent actions. We start with media consolidation on a grand scale. The range of content providers and distribution operations -- TV, cable, newspapers, magazine, Internet, and so on, are primarily in the hands of a tiny cadre of gigantic firms. This consolidation seems likely to continue to even more intense levels. Such concentration of media power provides the ability to present a highly unified message both to the population at large and to Congress through lobbyists. A slogan like CNN's \"America's New War\" can be applied across a range of related properties and environments, instead of merely being sandwiched between \"EnerX\" commercials. Next step: Institute a mindset and legal structure that marginalizes all rights to information except those of copyright holders (most of the widely-used content will be under the control of those few media conglomerates we discussed above, of course). The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) helps enormously at this stage to accomplish this goal. Send violators to prison along with the rapists, murderers, and terrorists. Finally, a way to fill those jail cells being emptied out in California from the new \"treat drug offenders rather than jail them\" program. Gotta keep the momentum going. Outlaw the sale or providing of *everything* --hardware, software, communications, impure thoughts, or what have you-- relating to digital technologies that cannot be directly controlled by those concentrated media forces. The SSSCA (Security Systems Standards and Certification Act) should do nicely. To sweeten the deal, point out that since only SSSCA-approved security systems would be legal, it could provide a dandy mechanism to make the use of strong encryption in the private sector illicit. All that's needed is to ensure that such strong crypto systems are not compatible with the SSSCA-approved mechanisms (or refuse to certify anything that contains those undesirable systems). The approved security system will of course contain the appropriate backdoors for data access by the powers-that-be (and sufficiently resourceful hackers). The level of civil disobedience likely to result will probably be the highest since prohibition, but hey, prohibition didn't have any nasty side-effects that weren't trivial to control, right? And to tie this all up in a nice neat bow, be ready to take advantage of any catastrophe, tragedy, or horror to assert your agenda while emotions run high and knee-jerk reactions are the order of the day. Voila! Mission accomplished. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com or lauren@privacyforum.org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy \"Reality Reset\" Columns - http://www.vortex.com/reality"}, {"response": 444, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (23:25)", "body": "Subject: [risks] Risks Digest 21.66 Date: Monday, September 17, 2001 10:13 PM From: RISKS List Owner Reply-To: risko@csl.sri.com To: RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Monday 17 September 2001 Volume 21 : Issue 66 FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks) ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator ***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. ***** This issue is archived at and by anonymous ftp at ftp.sri.com, cd risks . Contents: 11 September 2001 in retrospect (PGN) Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 16:27:43 PDT From: \"Peter G. Neumann\" Subject: 11 September 2001 in retrospect *********************************** *********************************** ** 11 September 2001 ** *********************************** *********************************** \"THE RISKS ARE OBVIOUS.\" BUT PERHAPS NOT OBVIOUS ENOUGH. 11 September 2001 will be painfully remembered by most of the planet's population for the coordinated hijacking of four jetliners and the ensuing surprise attacks on New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, with thousands of lives lost and enormous consequential after-effects. Our hearts go out to everyone close to those who were so irrevocably affected -- including the crash victims, the firemen and other emergency workers in New York City, and especially the UA93 passengers whose efforts evidently saved the lives of others. We are once again reminded how fragile our lives and civic infrastructures are, and how interdependent we all are. Although violent and sudden large-scale termination of people's lives has previously been all too familiar in many countries of the world, many of us have hitherto largely taken too much for granted. Hopefully, the aftermath of this fateful day will dramatically increase public awareness of some of the vulnerabilities in our lives and risks to our freedom. However, the events should come as no surprise, because many warnings have been widely ignored. For example, the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection of the previous U.S. Administration identified serious vulnerabilities in telecommunications, electric power and other energy sources, transportation, financial services, emergency services, and government continuity. It noted how interdependent these critical infrastructures are, and how they are all related to information technologies. It also observed difficulties in coordination among and within different infrastructures, and perhaps most relevant, a general lack of public awareness. In many respects, complacency has been seen across the board in response to that report. In addition, the White House Commission on Safety and Security (the Gore Commission) identified many serious risks in aviation. (Also, see my paper , presented at the January 1997 International Conference on Aviation Safety and Security, co-sponsored by that commission and George Washington University.) Various analyses of commercial aviation and air-traffic control over the past 18 years within the Department of Transportation have identified potentially serious vulnerabilities that merit closer attention. More recently, a U.S. General Accounting Office report identified many serious problems in airport security. But, perhaps because the risks and threat levels seemed low, or possibly because institutional bureaucracy is so deeply entrenched, very little action was deemed necessary. Unfortunately, some of the issues recognized therein have now come home to roost. As a society, we in the U.S. seem to be unwilling to take certain prudent precautions -- perhaps because they would cost too much, or be too inconvenient, or would seriously degrade service. Apparently, we suffer from a serious lack of foresight. The Risks Forum has persistently considered risks associated with our technologies and their uses, but we often note that many of the crises and other risk-related problems have resulted from low-tech events, misguided human behavior, or malicious misbehavior. In short, the typical search for high-tech solutions to problems stemming from social, economic, and geopolitical causes has frequently ignored more basic issues. Over-endowing high-tech solutions is riskful in the absence of adequate understanding of the limitations of the technology and the frailties and perversities of human nature. Whereas there are high-tech solutions that might be effective if properly used, we should also be examining some low-tech and no-tech approaches. One pervasive theme in the Risks Forum over the past 16 years has been the ubiquity of systemic vulnerabilities relating to security, reliability, availability, and overall survivability, with respect to human enterprises, society at large, and to systems, applications, and enterprises based on information technologies. Evidently, we still have much to learn. Le"}, {"response": 445, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (23:26)", "body": "Subject: To the day Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 11:07 AM From: Womack, Jack As I start to write this, I look at my watch and realize that one week ago, just now, I'd just seen the first tower go down. Here in the new world it seems like a year, two years, a hundred years. Time has taken on a rubbery quality. Toward the end of Burn's The Civil War documentary, years ago, there was a single phrase read aloud; written by either a Yankee or Confederate some time after the war, thinking back on his experience, and I keep hearing it in my head: \"Were these things real?\" Even as I go through each day, so much of it still refuses to settle into anything remotely resembling reality. Last night we watched Letterman, who was on for the first time after the late news, and it was extremely strange, and vaguely unsettling. He didn't make any jokes, of course, but this most hard-shelled of all contemporary performers revealed depths of sadness, and fear, and uncertainty, and anger; and then Dan Rather came out as his guest and broke down in tears twice. Extremely unreal. Yet, on the other hand, V & I went over to Jersey City late yesterday afternoon to have dinner with her mother and celebrate the new year (praying, as every year, to have one more year). While I expected huge backups at the bus terminal, we somehow managed to hit it right, and got from Port Authority to Summit Ave. in Jersey City in half an hour. On the way, as we went up Palisades Avenue, which runs along the top of the Palisades (which, in this area, are utterly urbanized) and so I saw all of lower Manhattan from the Jersey side, and the absence of the Towers, and the smoke that continues to rise therefrom. That, conversely, now seemed normal. Valeria's mother, who is 68, was extremely happy to see us. Jersey City has a large Arab population (and Indian, and Phillipine, and...) and she was more than usually suspicious -- relating stories of how two had been arrested (I have heard this on the news as well), etc. She's holding up very well, though; of course, this is a woman who grew up in Soviet Russia during the Second World War, and under Stalin, and didn't leave the USSR until 1981, so she's had considerable experience, living life under conditions that are only now beginning to become imaginable. Besides the absence of the Towers from a distance there are many things that are beginning to seem normal to me now. Leaving the house fifteen minutes earlier because my subway now becomes express at 96th, and therefore no longer stops at 50th (unless I transfer). Seeing at least one policeman at every subway station, and many more at the larger stations. Hearing, along with the occasional airplane (I gather airports are becoming rather ghostly, at present), the occasional F-16. Phone service, especially long-distance & cellular, that comes and goes. Police barricades along Fifth, metal barriers at the Channel Gardens at Rockefeller Center, the sight of US flags everywhere, attached to car aerials, hanging from windows, photocopied and taped onto doors. The occasional Army humvee parked on Broadway. New York crowds, thinned out to a level I haven't seen since the late 70s and early 80s, when no one wanted to come to NY on a bet, save for the likes of me and my people. I'd recommend the new New Yorker. The cover is by Spiegelman, and brilliant. In the News, this morning, an article about NY's Afghan restaurants, and how no one is eating at them, and how they're quickly going to go broke; the people who run them are, of course, in nearly all cases immigrants who came here to escape the war during the 80s, or the Taliban since. And the new total of people still missing is a little over 5,400 -- evidently the additional 700 weren't reported until yesterday; I imagine many relatives, companies, etc., were still holding out hope. A friend in Australia has told me 100 Aussies have been killed; a friend in Germany says anywhere up to 200-some Germans were killed; and of course 500 Brits. 100 Russians. And U.S. citizens who, being New Yorkers, were of every possible background, every color and creed. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus.. An attack on Civilization, period. I need to talk to my father again tonight, to see how he is doing. Two weeks ago, tomorrow, my stepmother suddenly died, as you and some others know (she was 52). Her funeral was September 8, and then 3 days later...thoughts of her vanished from my mind, mostly, since last Tuesday, and that makes me feel sad, but even so I can only move forward. I know I didn't come close to processing her death, but at some point I suppose I will -- or maybe I already have, in this new world. I honestly don't know. I'm not as scared today as I was yesterday. I can't imagine this will last; today is Ros Ha'shanah, NY is quiet yet again -- this time, for better reason then has recently been the case -- and, clearly, something is in the air. But I don't know what, and until that something occurs, I can only do wha"}, {"response": 446, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (23:27)", "body": "*Arthur Kroker Vents His Feelings With Such Untoward Eloquence That They Threaten To Make Common Sense *8-/ Subject: Event-scene 97 - Terrorism of Viral Power Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 2:18 PM From: CTHEORY EDITORS Reply-To: CTHEORY EDITORS To: _____________________________________________________________________ CTHEORY THEORY, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE VOL 24, NO 3 Event-scene 97 09/18/01 Editors: Arthur and Marilouise Kroker _____________________________________________________________________ Terrorism of Viral Power ======================== ~Arthur and Marilouise Kroker~ The 20th century took place under the sign of nuclear superpower: a cold war with bloc to bloc political confrontations; a military rhetoric of graduated escalating respnses; a strangely comforting illusion of \"mutually assured destruction.\" Deterrence was everywhere. Dissuasion was the code. A bored culture living in the shadowland of apocalypse now. That ended September 11th. The field of power flipped. The triumphant era of the last superpower suddenly gave way to the contagious logic of viral power. In place of the certainty principle of nuclear stalemate, there emerges now the radical uncertainty of the terrorism of micro-power. The always suspended fantaticism of technological holocaust is challenged by the fanaticism of religious zealotry. The logic of deterrence no longer functions. Deterrrence only works in a deadly game in which adversaries have a primary interest in preserving their own lives. Sacrificing one's own life is the first gambit, and real psychological fuel of suicide commandos. Dissuasion is inoperative. Again, the code of dissuasion is intimately linked to a politics founded on preserving territory. However, viral power is terroristic precisely because it occupies only the imaginary territory of symbolic exchange. The religious ecstasy of a sudden, unexpected, devastating strike against the symbolic capital of the American empire: the trinity of the World Trade Center, Pentagon and the airlines of America. The terrorism of the new age of viral power has these symbolic qualities: It is a micro-power, not a superpower. It is low tech, not high tech--and thus invisible to the optical scanners of the ruling technological regime. Paradoxically, the (technological) weakness of viral power is its strength. It is subterranean, secretive--driven by a crusading spirit equal to the religious zeal of the Middle Ages. Breaking the rules of publicity culture, it claims no responsibility and thus speaks clearly to the cultural imagination of the suppressed and powerless everywhere. It is a matter of biological violence, not physics. Flowing invisibly through the rhetorical screen of the 'anti-ballistic missile system,' viral power adopts the strategy of the attacking parasite: invading the body of the host (the American homeland), bleeding its tactical intelligence (those flight schools in Florida), circulating in its commercial bloodstream (American airlines), and imploding in a violent fatal metastasis that has as its aim the infiltration of the mediascape through its apocalyptic effects. Viral power avoids conflict with the real military assests of the host nation because its actual intention is a strategic media strike. Viral power is understandable only in the language of the media: the twin spectacles of sadness and terror; the doubled language of fascination and dread. In the days ahead, the media spectacle will shift to the viral language of rage and revenge. Tragically, the real missiles were those American people taken hostage in the air. The real targets were not hardened missile silos, but the dominant symbols of American power. The real terrorism was the destabilization of the American government. The real war is the coming war on civil liberties as the price for combating terrorism. The real 'ground zero' was provoking America to acts of vengeance that will only fast-feed the future rage of viral power. The scenario of terrorism, then, as a mutating virus that copies itself to American rage on its way to revenge against the host-scapegoat. Viral power goes into the sea, the sky, the earth. It cannot be defeated by the normal methods of nuclear warfare. It can only be copied. The virus of terrorism is about to enter the American bloodstream, taking democracy hostage. Listen to House of Representatives Minority Leader Richard Gephardt: \"We are in a new world. We have to rebalance freedom and security. We can't take away people's civil liberties. But we're not going to have all the openness and freedom we have had.\" The implosion of American democracy, then, as the ultimate objective of the suicide commandos. The 'war on terrorism' may have finally begun, but the first casualty may well be American freedom as it was envisioned before September 11, 2001. _____________________________________________________________________ Arthur and Marilouise Kroker are the editors of CTHEORY."}, {"response": 447, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (23:27)", "body": "From: Stewart Brand Subject: not-terrorism Dave, the following set of thoughts is from Kevin Kelly, who spent four months in Afghanistan in the late 70s, more months in northern Pakistan, and a long time in Iran (during its revolution). I think its balanced inquiry might be of interest to IPers. --Stewart Brand The Taliban are kind of like Nazis to the Afghanis, but we should remember that while the Nazis had resistance and passive obedience among the Germans, they also had supporters. And so do the Taliban. But it's true most of the Afghanis, like the Germans, are just getting screwed. The other important point is the the Taliban are not bin Laden, and bin Laden not the Taliban. Bin Laden is a foreigner who is barely tolerated by most rural Afghanis, since the Afghanis are very xenophobic. I think bin Laden is far more sophisticated, complex, and cosmopolitan than the Taliban. Few Taliban have ever left their home province. Bin Laden is a world savvy. For another thing, he is brilliantly creative, and known among his supporters as 'imaginative.\" You can't say that about the Taliban. HIs idea of using American know-how to bomb itself, using no resources of his own, is sheer genius. He is one of the few Islamics to bridge the great cultural gulf between and among the Arabs. Remember that the Afghanis are NOT Arabs. They are Caucasians, their language is \"Indo-European\" and they are culturally Persians. The Afghanis don't even like Arabs. Yet bin Laden is able to speak to and appeal to them as well as North Africans, Lebonese, Egyptians, Iraquis, Palestinians, Iranians, Pakistanis, Kashmiris -- which is simply remarkable. More so, he has bridge the religious differences among the Muslims, although he still has a way to go. Just getting Shiite and Suni Muslims in the same room is itself a remarkable achievement. That fact that bin Laden appeals to married, 43-year old residents of America with pilot licenses willing to give their lives, says to me there is something large and non-marginal about this. Bin Laden may be Hitler, but it does no good to think of Hitler, or bin Laden, as \"fringe\" or even as a terrorist. This is a main stream, middle of the road skirmish. Radical Islam will become the new communism, if it isn't that already. It has a deep appeal, even to those subjugated to it. There are aspects about that even supporters don't like and can't stand, but they will submit to it because they believe it is better overall than the alternative of \"western capitalism.\" And like communism it will be very hard to eradicate it, should we attempt to. The Arab countries we are now asking to take sides, will probably take sides with us, but this will kill and maim them because they are essentially taking sides against many of their own citizens, who may be better organized and committed than the government itself. The key question for me is: will this revolutionary style -- a sort of mafia, suicidal, networked, globally guerilla insurgency -- be imported by other non-muslim radicals? Will bin Laden become the Che Guevera of this century? Will the resident antipathy towards America in other spheres be cast in the same style. Will all anti-global-capitalism become clones of bin Laden? Like communism this can spread. And like communism I think its a very bad idea in practice, though it sounds good in theory. So I am in favor of halting it, and I believe that it needs to be combatted early and often. But the danger of radical Islam becoming the new communism is that anyone who is not against them becomes branded a communist, or \"terrorist,\" themselves. That worries me because I am not so eager to label bin Laden a \"tinpot terrorist.\" He is not second rate, and he may not even be a terrorist. This is a new kind of war. There has been no demands made, like in most terrorism. There is nothing we have that they want. Their intent is not to terrorize. This is only a side product. Their intent is to destroy the prevailing mono-system. But they are not a state government, but a pan-national network that is growing. We've done little to eradicate them in 20 years. They are stronger now then ever before. At first I thought that the World Trade airbombing would need to be followed through by another attack to have lasting meaning, but as the depth and sophistication of the network of the radicals is revealed I think we have already reached a critical moment. I think we need a new framework for understanding them. I would ban the use of the words \"terrorists\" and \"terrorism.\" A better old word is \"revolutionary.\" Our chief concern should be that there is nothing we have they want. They don't want recognition. They don't want our trade. They don't want our culture. They don't want our aspirations -- democracy, free choice, high technology. They don't want our values. They don't want our wealth. Actually, they would like our literacy (for males) and health care, but that is not enough. I think we need to enlarge western civilizati"}, {"response": 448, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (23:28)", "body": "Suicide terrorism: a global threat Traditionally viewed as a problem affecting the Middle East and South Asia, the threat posed by suicide terrorism is spreading around the globe. Rohan Gunaratna assesses the nature of the threat, preventive and reactive security measures, and examines future trends. (...) The threat Suicide terrorism is the readiness to sacrifice one's life in the process of destroying or attempting to destroy a target to advance a political goal. The aim of the psychologically and physically war-trained terrorist is to die while destroying the enemy target. In the 1980s suicide terrorism was witnessed in Lebanon, Kuwait and Sri Lanka. In the 1990s it had spread to Israel, India, Panama, Algeria, Pakistan, Argentina, Croatia, Turkey, Tanzania and Kenya. With enhanced migration of terrorist groups from conflict-ridden countries, the formation of extensive international terrorist infrastructures and the increased reach of terrorist groups in the post Cold War period, suicide terrorism is likely to affect Western Europe and North America in the foreseeable future. There are now 10 religious and secular terrorist groups that are capable of using suicide terrorism as a tactic against their governments and/or foreign governments. They are: the Islam Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad of the Israeli occupied territories; Hizbullah of Lebanon; the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) and Gamaya Islamiya (Islamic Group - IG) of Egypt; the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) of Algeria; Barbar Khalsa International (BKI) of India; the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka; the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) of Turkey; and the Osama bin Laden network (Al Quaida) of Afghanistan. There were also four pro-Syrian, Lebanese and Syrian political parties engaged in suicide terrorism in the 1980s, but they are currently inactive in the terrorist front. These groups staged around 25 suicide attacks in Lebanon. As more than one group claimed some of the attacks, perhaps to diffuse the threat to the group, it is difficult to identify the group responsible. The groups engaged in suicide operations in Lebanon alongside Hizbullah were the Natzersit Socialist Party of Syria; the Syrian Nationalist Party; the Lebanese Communist Party; and the Baath Party of Lebanon. There are two types of suicide operations: battlefield and off the battlefield. In battlefield operations, suicide bombers are integrated into the attacking groups. Most off-the-battlefield operations have involved single suicide bombers. In the case of the LTTE and Hamas, there have been multiple suicide bombers. The targets have been static and mobile, against infrastructure and humans. Suicide bombers have destroyed military, political, economic and cultural infrastructure. They have committed terrorist attacks by killing civilians in buses, crowded places and in buildings. Suicide bombers have also assassinated political and military VIPs. Key characteristics Examination of suicide terrorism across a range of groups has revealed that terrorist groups use suicide bombers when they are both strong and weak. In terms of military and economic power, Hizbullah and the LTTE lead the list of suicide operations. In terms of numbers, the LTTE has conducted the largest volume of suicide operations, followed by Hizbullah, Hamas and the PKK. In terms of range, only some of the groups have operated beyond their territories. As well as abortive attempts to conduct suicide operations in Israel, Hizbullah has successfully conducted suicide operations in Argentina. The LTTE has conducted one suicide operation in India. It is the only group to have killed two world leaders - the former prime minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, and the president of Sri Lanka, Ranasinghe Premadasa - using male and female suicide bombers. The Egyptian groups have conducted suicide operations in Croatia against a police station and in Pakistan against the Egyptian embassy. Al-Qaeda used at least one Egyptian suicide bomber in the 1998 East African embassy bombings. All the other active groups have conducted suicide operations within their own territory. The PKK has threatened to conduct suicide operations in Germany where there is a large Kurdish diaspora. All the suicide terrorist groups have support infrastructures in Europe and in North America. Leaders and members of these groups are known to travel to the West, and key activists live either in Europe or in North America distributing propaganda, raising funds, and in some instances procuring weapons and shipping them to the various theatres of conflict. Suicide-capable groups differ in form, size, orientation, goal and support. A review of the key characteristics of the 10 suicide-capable groups reveals that any group can acquire suicide bomb technology and engage in suicide terrorism: a Al-Qaeda is a mix of several associate groups that are internationally dispersed. From Afghanistan, Bin Laden provides the overal"}, {"response": 449, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (23:29)", "body": "Below is a list of STICTLY FORBIDDEN items to be carried on board the cabin of any BA flight. DRS pages are being updated individually, but you can use this as a guideline when informing clients. Most are for obvious reasons, but something most of us never thought of previously. * Toy or replica guns (plastic or metal) * Household cutlery * Knives with blades of any length (including steel nail files) * Paper knives * Razor blades (shaving or other) * Tradesmen's tools * Darts * Scissors of any size * Hypodermic syringes* * Knitting needles * Sporting bats (including rackets, cricket bats and golf clubs) * Billiard, snooker, or pool cues * Catapults (slingshots) * Corkscrews with blades attached *Customers who require the use of hypodermic needles for medical reasons (for example, diabetics and customers with allergies), will be asked for proof of medical need. Please be advised that customers carrying any of the above items (with the exception of hypodermic needles) will be asked to place it in their hold baggage. Customers carrying hand baggage only will be asked to surrender the item for disposal."}, {"response": 450, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (23:36)", "body": "Breakdown of people who are missing and presumed dead by nationality (per Reuters): Australia 78 Bangladesh 50 Brazil 30 Britain 300 Canada 78 China 53 Columbia 199 Ecuador 34 Egypt 4 El Salvador 73 Finland 50 Germany 104 Honduras 1 Indonesia 16 Ireland 103 Italy 5 Japan 24 Lebanon 3 Mexico 166 Philippines 435 Russia 100 South Africa 25 South Korea 18 Switzerland 288 Thailand 3 The remainder are Americans."}, {"response": 451, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (23:36)", "body": "Link for the Reuters casualties by nationality figures above: http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20010918/wtc_casualties_graphic.gif The original source of the numbers is FEMA as of 9/17."}, {"response": 452, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 18, 2001 (23:44)", "body": "I hope not, but here's the rumor: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAGB8LISRC.html Relevant section: \"Authorities have grown increasingly certain - from intelligence intercepts, witness interviews and evidence gathered in hijackers' cars and homes - that a second wave of violence was planned by collaborators. They said Sept. 22 has emerged as an important date in the evidence, but declined to be more specific. Tuesday's attacks were \"part of a larger plan with other terrorism acts, not necessarily hijacking of airplanes,\" said Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. \"Those acts were going to occur in the United States and elsewhere in the world.\" The FBI said it has issued an advisory to fire departments across the country to increase security and guard against the theft of any ambulances or fire trucks, which could be used in bombing attacks. The bureau said the warning was precautionary. \" For more on your air travel safety, go to this site and read ALPA Security Alert Bulletin 2001-2, detailing such important items as the use of the emergency axe in the cockpit against suicidal hi-jackers and planning for emergency depressurizations and violent aircraft maneuvers to disable and disorient hi-jackers: http://www.awalpa.org/"}, {"response": 453, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (04:12)", "body": "World Leaders List Conditions on Cooperation New York Times September 19, 2001 by PATRICK E. TYLER and JANE PERLEZ (Excerpt) WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 \ufffd After a week of unconditional support from abroad, the Bush administration confronted its first significant difficulties today in building a broad international coalition to support using military power and other means against a still-faceless terror network rooted in Afghanistan and elsewhere. A procession of world leaders was either on the way or on the phone to Washington seeking to convince the White House that only a multilateral approach based on consultation, hard evidence and United Nations support would justify the use of military power in response to the devastating attacks last week. Today, President Jiang Zemin of China telephoned Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and President Jacques Chirac of France as each prepared for meetings with President Bush. He admonished his Western counterparts to tell Mr. Bush that \"any military action against terrorism\" should be based on \"irrefutable evidence and should aim at clear targets so as to avoid casualties to innocent people,\" according to official news reports from China. Mr. Jiang also telephoned President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and although the two leaders denounced \"terrorism in all its forms,\" they spoke just of cooperating with each other and the United Nations to \"develop a mechanism for fighting terrorism,\" the reports said. As the Bush administration sought through White House consultations and overseas missions to strengthen the sinews of an antiterror effort whose scale and objective remain unknown, a number of countries began to calculate the potential cost of their taking part, and to try to exact a price for it from the United States. For a number of Middle Eastern countries, the price was straightforward. The United States has to become more deeply involved in ending the violence and in reinvigorating the Israeli-Palestinian peace effort. But it was clear that a convulsion in Israel, the West Bank or Gaza could threaten Washington's efforts to maintain support in moderate Arab countries, a problem that Mr. Bush's father faced in the 1991 coalition that defeated Iraq in Kuwait. \"The people that we expect to work with closely in combating terrorism,\" a spokesman for the State Department, Richard A. Boucher, said, are \"interested in the Israel- Palestinian situation,\" and their attitudes toward America's war on terrorism are \"linked in people's minds\" to America's commitment to Arab-Israeli peace. Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia, is due to arrive on Wednesday with a large contingent of Saudi intelligence officers and their files on Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network. But other potential American allies raised urgent economic and political agendas that officials said Washington was beginning to address. Pakistan, in exchange for whatever bases or rights to fly in its air space that it provides, would like an agreement to end 11 years of sanctions, to restore the flow of American arms and to reduce a punishing debt load. Russia, if it is called on, has a clear set of grievances over NATO expansion toward its borders and criticism of its military campaign in Chechnya. Foreign Minister Igor D. Ivanov arrives on Wednesday. Administration officials said they were eager to establish Moscow's price to open the northern corridor to Afghanistan through Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic. A number of Russian generals have questioned whether Russia could join an American-led antiterror campaign whose operational objectives remain unclear. One high- ranking military officer told a newspaper, Vremya Novestei, that \"fighting terrorists is like trying to rid oneself of roaches in a block of flats.\" \"You do it in one flat,\" the officer said, \"and they go to another.\" Nowhere was the sense of alarm over American plans more apparent than in the warning of one of America's staunchest Middle East allies, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. In remarks broadcast on Monday night, he implored the United States not to undertake military action that might kill innocent civilians, divide Christians against Muslims and further inflame attitudes against American policy in the region. Mr. Mubarak, like Mr. Jiang, urged that \"hard evidence\" be the basis for any military action and that \"countries not be punished\" for the actions of \"individuals.\" He called on the United Nations to organize an international convention against terrorism that would develop a common program of action for all countries. His remarks were echoed by other leaders in the region where Washington has yet to establish a firm diplomatic beachhead in dealing with intractable and volatile conflicts. While Egypt and Jordan were both crucial allies in the 1991 coalition against President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, diplomats from both countries said they did not expect to be called on to provide bases or other direct military support."}, {"response": 454, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (04:17)", "body": "Hi all MSG 436 sums up just about every country capable of providing aid bar New Zealand. Do we not exist? Last I looked 3.81 million New Zealanders, 46 million sheep as well as Kiwis, Takahe's Pukeko's Kaka, Kereru, among other birds, reptiles, fish, spiders and insects can be found on two large islands and a host of smaller islands grouped together under the popular name \"Godzone\". On to more relevant matters though. New Zealand has offered intelligence assistance but nothing else as we seem to be preoccupied with Air New Zealands struggle to stay afloat and the fact that our armed forces have been degraded so badly that the East Timor peace keeping operation is about as far as we would get anyway. We could have offered more if so much money was not being lost in ideological changes to governing structures for everything everytime Labour and National swapped places in the Beehive. I mean ideally we could have bought the 28 F-16s the United States was prepared to give us but Helen Clark's excuse was they have never been used so why keep them? So what if they were not used, having them meant our servicemen were technically competent, that we could participate in defence exercises and have a small but modern air combat force. We could have gotten one or two frigates that Labour was talking about but I suspect they sold out to the Greens. Typical. So here we are with a poorly equipped airforce that just lost the \"force\", and a downsized Navy. Great. Rob"}, {"response": 455, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (09:20)", "body": "(Rachael) what hasn't been on the news, but I'm not the only one noticing it, a couple of friends have said the same in other parts of the country, there's been lots more movement of military aircraft around here the last couple of days than would be normal. It's the same over here. The skies over the greater DC area are humming."}, {"response": 456, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (09:55)", "body": "Thanks for the lengthy list of positions by country, Suzee. Everybody, time to put those tax refunds back in the mail to Washington. It's going to cost us jillions to *morally* convince some of these countries. :-("}, {"response": 457, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (10:28)", "body": "Tamim Ansar (cited above) is supposed to be on Charlie Rose sometime and was on NPR being interviewed by Bill Moyers the other night. Pat Holt has a piece on him http://www.holtuncensored.com/members/index.html Robert McNeil who left the Newshour in 95 has come out of retirement to help with their coverage. His first interview was today http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/foreign_correspondence/july - dec01/terrorism_9-18.html dec01/terrorism_9-18.html> One exchange: ROBERT MACNEIL: Steve Erlanger, how is Mr. Bush's leadership and his rhetoric perceived where you are, in Germany? STEVE ERLANGER: A little worrying, quite honestly. People are being very polite, but they see, often, the kind of terror in Mr. Bush's eyes when he goes off of his script. They worry he will feel too much political pressure to react too soon and in the wrong way. They are hopeful that he will listen to his senior advisers, and they think that he will, and they have a little bit of odd relief, almost, that for an administration that, so far, has regarded relations with Europe as very much secondary, if not tertiary, it is now discovering that, as usual, in a crisis America's best friends are on this continent."}, {"response": 458, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (10:56)", "body": "Robin McNeil interviewed four overseas New York Times bureau chiefs. McNeil: Can I ask each of you how Washington's leadership and behavior is perceived where you are? Warren Hoge, after the first wave of solidarity and sympathy [the British bureau chief had said the British felt particularly targeted by the attack, with some 300 UK citizens probably dead], which was so apparent in western Europe, and particularly in Britain, where the queen led a service in St. Paul's-- You've all reported some degree of second thoughts, backpedaling, a little--voices of caution raised. How has that been affected by Mr. Bush's leadership, his rhetoric, the actions he's taken so far. Does that inspire confidence and reassurance? Hoge, NYT London Bureau Chief: I think Colin Powell inspires more confidence. Many Britons have said to me they feel much more comfortable with George W. Bush now that Colin Powell seems to be permanently at his side. Colin Powell speaks the language of diplomacy; he is somebody who understands both the capabilities and the limitations of military power-- this is what the British think. So they have a much higher degree of comfort with his kind of talking than the more bellicose language of President Bush. So, they're hoping for Bush, they're behind Bush--this is a very pro-American place in Europe--but there's a little bit of worry that he's untested, and also that he's surrounded by some other people who might have a little more hotheaded reaction to what must be done now than Colin Powell seems to be having. McNeil: And Steve Erlanger, how is Mr. Bush's leadership and his rhetoric perceived where you are, in Germany? Erlanger, NYT Hamburg Bureau Chief: A little worrying, quite honestly. People are being very polite. But they see, often, the kind of terror in Mr. Bush's eyes when he goes off of his script. They worry that he will feel too much political pressure to react too soon, and in the wrong way. They are hopeful that he will listen to his senior advisors, and they think that he will. And they have a little bit of odd relief, almost, that for an administration that so far has regarded relations with Europe as very much secondary, if not tertiary--it is now discovering that as usual, in a crisis, America's best friends are on this continent. McNeil: And in Moscow, Michael Wines, how is the Washington leadership under Mr. Bush perceived? Wines, NYT Moscow Bureau Chief: Well, I think that there has been a great deal of uneasiness with the unilateralism that the Russians think that the United States has displayed, mostly in the last year, but again going back to Yugoslavia. And I think in this case there is great hope, among, certainly among Russian people, and among the leadership, that this will turn out to be something of a turning point in American-Russian relations: a chance for the Americans to consult with the Russians in reality, for a change. The Russians here feel like they're somewhat ignored in national relations. And so they're hoping for a much more cooperative attitude. But, I have to say, so far, there's great suspicion, and I think they're waiting for the Americans to come up with a plan. And when they see that plan, I think they'll have a better idea. McNeil: And in Cairo, Neil McFarquhar, how is Mr. Bush's leadership perceived there? McFarquhar, NYT Cairo Bureau Chief: Across the Middle East the one exception in this thing has been Iraq, which has been attacking the United States, what it calls its \"cowboy policies\". But the one thing that's upset the Arabs is, apparently, in one speech Mr. Bush used the words \"crusades\", and that word is fraught with a lot of terrible memories in the Middle East, because of course the Crusades were used to attack the region. So there has been a lot of discussion, that if this is a new Crusade, they don't want to be part of it"}, {"response": 459, "author": "Moon", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (11:08)", "body": "I couldn't believe Bush used the words crusade! Reminiscent of Dan Quayle there. Thanks for the lengthy list of positions by country, Suzee. Everybody, time to put those tax refunds back in the mail to Washington. It's going to cost us jillions to *morally* convince some of these countries. :-( Yes, Thank you Suzee. The U$ barganing table is open and the odd thing is that the price of gold is not reacting. Is there a conspiracy to keep the price of gold stable? What is going on there? My very good friend lost a friend on the Fl#11 and my brother has many friends that are missing at WTC. And now we are told that Sept. 22nd is a date to watch out for. :-( I do not sleep well at night."}, {"response": 460, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (17:57)", "body": "A Washington Post article on the threat of bio-terrorism: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41225-2001Sep16.html"}, {"response": 461, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (17:58)", "body": "Wolfie, I tried, and since I am not listed on your other conferences as having access, I could not add them. I did put it on SpringArk. I like the ribbon on that Google.com site, too. I wish it lead back to that site and I would install it in a second. Terry, the programming in my cfconfig file is easy enough to copy and paste. Have at it!!"}, {"response": 462, "author": "Echo", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (18:00)", "body": "Breakdown of people who are missing and presumed dead by nationality (per Reuters) Does that include confirmed dead? A young Polish woman journalist died there, too, on her honeymoon. Her husband is fighting for his life in a NY hospital."}, {"response": 463, "author": "Echo", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (18:03)", "body": "on the threat of bio-terrorism The unexplained, mysteriously spreading and still not defeated outbreak of foot and mouth in the UK may be a testing ground."}, {"response": 464, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (18:06)", "body": "http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,552749,00.html Comprehensive and unreported in US news sources."}, {"response": 465, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (19:09)", "body": "As for Afghanistan, check out: http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2001/June/Afghan/index.html for a brilliant description of that country by an Iranian film make"}, {"response": 466, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (19:50)", "body": "Why? from The Independent (London), by Robert Fisk, 8/29/01: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=91066 and again, eighteen days later, 9/16/01: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=94254"}, {"response": 467, "author": "rachael", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (19:57)", "body": "interesting to read what Warren Hoge said - I think its fair comment; have to say, one of the things that impressed me in the first few days was the way that very senior people seemed to make themselves available for lengthy and open press conferences - I'm not sure you'd see that here (in the UK). And yes I'm impressed with Colin Powell - the fact that he has such experience makes him seem very reassuring - don't know if Americans feel the same. for info (mainly to UK people) today's paper hads a full page ad for the World Trade Centre Disaster Fund www.wtcfund.org.uk and says \"This is an hour of need for our friends in America. Let's show them that our actions are as loud as our words\" If you're not already a Red Cross contributor, the website might be worth a visit. One of the saddest things I read today was about the families of some of the British victims flying into NYC, and my heart goes out to all those of whatever nationality who are dealing with this unimaginable heartbreak. My 12 y o was in NYC with her father a couple of months ago, and has been very distressed this week - tonight she said \"I can't believe that something I've seen that was so big and amazing just isn't there now\"."}, {"response": 468, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (20:10)", "body": "There is a quote in this weeks edition of Newsweek by a Wall St employee \" I never thought I'd see the day when the World Trade Center would pass me by in a dump truck \" It's funny in a sad, sad, kind of a way. AOL is reporting that the actor James Woods was on Flight 11 Boston to LA on Sep 4th, the same one that crashed, a week later. He was in first class with only 4 other passengers. They were all Arabs. They spoke to no one, ate nothing, drank nothing, read nothing and watched no movies. He said they all just sat in their seats starring off into space. It creeped him out, so he mentioned it to a stewardess. She shrugged if off, but when they got to LA, he reported it to the FBI. The FBI in LA are confirming this. So it looks like they did a \"test run\" the week before."}, {"response": 469, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (20:28)", "body": "Peggy Noonan writes about how \"we live in such unprecedented comfort! But can it last!\" http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=95001157 During the summer, when you were a kid, your dad worked a few towns away and left at 8:30; Mom stayed home smoking and talking and ironing. You biked to the local school yard for summer activities--twirling, lanyard making, dodgeball--until afternoon. Then you'd go home and play in the street. At 5:30 Dad was home and at 6 there was dinner--meat loaf, mashed potatoes and canned corn. Then TV and lights out. Now it's more like this: Dad goes to work at 6:15, to the city, where he is an executive; Mom goes to work at the bank where she's a vice president, but not before giving the sitter the keys and bundling the kids into the car to go to, respectively, soccer camp, arts camp, Chinese lessons, therapy, the swim meet, computer camp, a birthday party, a play date. Then home for an impromptu barbecue of turkey burgers and a salad with fresh Parmesan cheese followed by summer homework, Nintendo, and TV --the kids lying splayed on the couch, dead eyed, like denizens of a Chinese opium den--followed by \"Hi Mom,\" \"Hi, Dad,\" and bed. Life is so much more interesting now! It's not boring, like 1957. There are things to do: The culture is broader, more sophisticated; there's more wit and creativity to be witnessed and enjoyed. Moms, kids and dads have more options, more possibilities. This is good. The bad news is that our options leave us exhausted when we pursue them and embarrassed when we don't. . . . If someone does the big, terrible thing to New York or Washington, there will be a lot of chaos and a lot of lines going down, a lot of damage, and a lot of things won't be working so well anymore. And thus a lot more . . . time. Something tells me we won't be teleconferencing and faxing about the Ford account for a while. The psychic blow--and that is what it will be as people absorb it, a blow, an insult that reorders and changes--will shift our perspective and priorities, dramatically, and for longer than a while. Something tells me more of us will be praying, and hard, one side benefit of which is that there is sometimes a quality of stopped time when you pray. You get outside time."}, {"response": 470, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (20:39)", "body": "Answers hidden in lost former black Seminole village By SCOTT MCCABE, The Palm Beach Post An AP Member Exchange BUSHNELL \ufffd Forty-five minutes west of Walt Disney's make-believe history, archaeologists dig for real artifacts. Hunched over a shallow, square excavation, they search for Peliklakaha, the largest Black Seminole village known to historians, a place where different cultures joined in a fight for freedom more than 200 years ago. Until now, say University of Florida archaeologists, Peliklakaha existed only in the writings of military leaders and a painting commissioned by the U.S. general who had burned it down. Archaeologists hope to unearth clues that documents can't provide, secrets about the life of a hidden people. They hope Peliklakaha will reveal whether the inhabitants developed a unique lifestyle with their new status as free people in Florida. \"The story of the Black Seminoles is a tremendous story about a successful effort by slaves gaining their freedom before the Civil War,\" said Delray Beach archaeologist Bill Steele, who discovered the site in 1993. \"That's why Peliklakaha is so significant.\" The dig could establish a new focus in archaeology on cultures that combine African and Native American influences, said Terry Weik, the UF graduate student heading the excavation. more... http://www.naplesnews.com/01/09/florida/d648785a.htm"}, {"response": 471, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (21:28)", "body": "The James Woods thing, if real, has all kinds of ramifications? When did he callthe FBI? What date? Was this a dry run or an aborted attempt? Did the hijackers make any calls on their Airphones? And were any of these men on the actual suicide hijacking missions? Now James Woods will be a witness if any of these men are apprehended, after sitting on a flight with them he could surely identify them. Pretty creepy, alright."}, {"response": 472, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (21:30)", "body": "Subject: Waiting Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 11:29 AM From: Womack, Jack Waiting, today, for whatever is going to happen next. It does seem as if considerable thought is going into whatever the response will be. Reports from Indian & Pakistani newspapers are saying that the special force units (Rangers, SEALS, Green Berets, several other groups including one we have never heard of before, \"Night Stalkers.\" -- this goes into my phrasebook of new terms, along with \"Frozen Zone\") are already moving into place. I suspect something along the lines of the following will happen, whenever it happens: 1. Ground forces at this stage will consist solely of those guys, or some of those guys. More are preparing to go over, it's said, but I can't help but think that the US is keeping in mind what happened to the USSR during their ten-year war. (It would be absolute madness to send a large number of soldiers into Afghanistan, but that doesn't mean it won't happen, sooner or later.) 2. Bombing from the air will occur prior to the guys going in; I have a suspicion that for appearance's sake if nothing else, this will be Dresden/Tokyo-size bombing although there isn't much left to bomb. From today's Times: \"When we looked at Afghanistan before, the sense was we were going to bomb them up to the stone age,\" said one former Clinton administration official familiar with the planning of past military strikes against Mr. bin Laden's terrorist network. The FBI is now saying that not long prior to the event, the pilot of the plane that first struck the Towers met with an Iraqi intelligence agent. Iraq is vigorously denying this and evidently claiming this story came from the UK. If they're in the process of ascertaining that Hussein was in any way connected (it's hard not to suspect that he is, if only because the opportunity to get back at Bush Sr. by way of Bush Jr. would I think be pretty hard to pass up) they're keeping it *way* under wraps. Because -- 3. If Hussein was even minimally involved, it's a pretty safe bet Baghdad will also get the Dresden/Tokyo treatment, and totally without warning. After that, it's anyone's guess -- anything from ongoing small operations for the next five, ten, twenty years, to World War III. One view in the Russian papers is that if this were to be handled in the traditional Central Asian way, the Taliban themselves would kill bin Laden, and then turn over his body claiming that Western intelligence forces did it. Ah, the Russian mind....being capable of Russian-level cynicism, and possessed of the ability to endlessly extrapolate negative transactions, it's easy for me to imagine one scenario being the US setting off a nuclear bomb in northern Afghanistan in the midst of ground assaults, air bombing, etc.; thereafter claiming that the bomb belonged to the terrorists, that we found out about this just in time, clearly they were going to use it, and that therefore we have ample cause to do whatever the hell we want, beginning with taking out the capitals of Iraq, Iran... It is, of course, fortunate that I am not President. Enough punditizing, and back to the home front: the windows of the stores on Fifth & 57th filled with flags, or memorial bunting, or black curtains. Police cadets (having not yet been graduated) keeping an eye on traffic in midtown, and regular police as ever, everywhere. Military humvees heading down Fifth Avenue along with delivery trucks and stretch limos. I saw my therapist yesterday for the first time in two weeks (I see her on Tuesdays, but had no Sept. 11 session), and talked to her about depression, anxiety, the new numbness of being which I am beginning to think may have a certain permanence about it, now; about my stepmother's death the week prior to last, forgotten in the rush of events; about anger, and rage. (A minor interruption just now as a workman came into my office. \"Just checking your electric outlet,\" he said. \"The plates.\" Then, as he leaves. stated from over his shoulder, \"Don't want you to get blown up.\") I've always been an *extremely* angry person. For most of my life I automatically turned this inward, with the result being (as noted yesterday, I think) fairly deep and ongoing depression (which is also, at least partially, hereditary/chemical) With four years of therapy, beginning after I came out of the hospital back in 1997, I have managed to be able to get a lot of what was in, out; and feel much better for it. For the past year I've been doing much better at getting anger out before it becomes internalized rage. Unfortunately, if anger has no ready focus; or if anger rises toward a number of situations, or people, or whatever, very suddenly, it can't help but be turned inward, at least initially. And it grows, and it grows, and it grows; and it either stays inside, and becomes depression (which is what has been happening, I'm sure not only to me) or comes out in -- well, random acts of senseless violence. And on a national scale... But I am"}, {"response": 473, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (21:42)", "body": "Terry, I am gonna e mail you the James Woods article. My copy and paste fuctions never work here at Drool. Its very odd. So I'll just e mail it to you and, you can decide if you want to post it here."}, {"response": 474, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (21:44)", "body": "I found something on http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover.shtml Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2001 9:38 a.m. EDT Twin Tower Terrorists May Have Made Dry Run Did terrorist hijackers who slammed two Boeing 767s into New York's Twin Towers on Tuesday stage a dress rehearsal a week before the attack? That's the intriguing question raised by the account of actor James Woods, who is reportedly telling friends that he saw a suspicious group of Middle Eastern men behaving in a \"clandestine\" manner during the earlier flight from Boston to Los Angeles. Exactly a week before the devastating attacks, Woods boarded a plane at Boston's Logan Airport, the same departure point the terrorists used. Woods sat in first class, according to friends, two of whom repeated his account to the New York Post's Cindy Adams. He was alone except for four other passengers - all Middle Eastern males. The actor immediately noticed the men behaving \"bizarrely.\" They neither drank, nor ate a morsel nor spoke out loud for the entire flight. There was no reading, no slouching, no nodding off. \"They were clandestine. Spoke only to each other in audible tones. And stared straight ahead,\" Adams was told. \"They were clearly very uptight,\" Woods' friends quoted him as saying. The actor was sufficiently troubled by their behavior to report it to a flight attendant - but she shrugged the incident off. When Woods landed he informed authorities on the ground, who reportedly \"seemed unwilling to become involved.\" The day after the attacks on New York and Washington, Woods called the FBI. At 7 a.m. Thursday investigators summoned the actor for an immediate interview."}, {"response": 475, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (16:56)", "body": "I don't quite understand how they could not speak out loud and speak to other other in audible tones at the same time. I'm still wondering how authentic this story is, waiting for Bethanne's email to find out more. It should be in the Ne York Post in Cindy Adams column it sounds like."}, {"response": 476, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (17:28)", "body": "From the horses mouth, NY Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams: September 18, 2001 -- Actor's travel tale is plane-ly chilling MOVIE STAR James Woods met with the FBI this week on the events that happened last week. It was a real-life scenario. It was chilling. Jimmy is devoted to his mom, whom fans will recall was his date at the Oscars. She lives in Boston. He lives in Los Angeles. He sees her often. He thus makes the Logan-LAX run regularly. Exactly one week before Terrorist Tuesday, Jimmy made the identical flight from Boston's Logan Airport to L.A. He related this episode to two friends of mine Sunday. Both repeated it to me almost verbatim. As we go to press I have been unable to reach James Woods, whom I know. I therefore repeat this story using his words as they were told to me. James Woods sat in first class. The section was empty except for four other passengers. All male. All Middle Eastern. He was acutely aware of them because of what he termed their \"bizarre\" behavior. On this entire flight which crosses the whole country not once did one of them partake of a single morsel. Not one even had a sip of water. They did not read. Did not nod off for an instant. Did not slouch down. Did not make themselves comfortable. Did not say a word to the attendants. Did not speak aloud. They were clandestine. Spoke only to each other in inaudible tones. And stared straight ahead. Jimmy is quoted as saying, \"They were clearly very uptight.\" An actor reads body language. An actor is trained to see into someone. To silently probe their psyche. An actor's laserlike slice into the heart of a foreign situation or human being is what enables him to don the mantle and play that other person. An actor's insight into behavior and manner can be as telling as a photograph. Award-winning James Woods felt uneasy. Sufficiently concerned to mention what he'd noticed to a flight attendant who shrugged it off. He also mentioned it to ground authorities who seemed unwilling to become involved. Wednesday, the day after the World Trade Center hit, Jimmy rang the FBI to report his experience. They said thousands of tips were coming in and they're checking all out as fast as they can. Thursday, 7 a.m., they called and said they're coming to see him. Like now. A team arrived at his door. They said something to the effect of, \"We cannot tell you anything. We cannot answer any of your questions. You can think whatever you choose to think. Now tell us every detail you remember.\" As is now known, not the airlines, not Logan security - which Woods supposedly said, \"was so lax that I particularly noted it\" - not our own intelligence operation picked up vibes in advance of Terrorist Tuesday because, ostensibly, the strike was so swift. However, this would appear that, in fact, somebody should have picked it up because it was not so swift. Because these men had made a dry run exactly the week before. Multiple men. Non-American nationals. Traveling in one group. Arabic names. Foreign passports. Reportedly paying cash. This does not trip some computer somehow, somewhere, someplace? And barring an omniscent all-seeing, all-noticing James Woods being a fellow passenger, might similar advance teams not have replicated this same type trial run on at least four other planes?"}, {"response": 477, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2001 (17:30)", "body": "I watched all ofthe PBS programs last night. It wasn't exactly the most cheerful evening - I am going to try to be less attentive to the tv tonight. The White House has been trying to backtrack on the \"crusade\" comment. The root-em-toot-em cowboy image seems to have been reinforced by the \"dead or alive\" comment also. Even Blair seems less than thrilled with that one. Tuesday September 18 3:46 PM ET White House Apologizes for Word WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) regrets using the word ``crusade,'' with all its historical connotations of religious war, to describe his campaign against terrorists, his spokesman said Tuesday. Bush only meant to say that his is a ``broad cause'' to stamp out terrorism worldwide, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010918/us/attacks_crusade_3.html ---------------- No 10 fails to echo 'dead or alive' call By George Jones, Political Editor (Filed: 19/09/2001)(The Telegraph) BRITAIN refused yesterday to endorse President Bush's declaration that he wanted Osama bin Laden \"dead or alive\". Tony Blair's official spokesman said the Prime Minister wanted those responsible for the atrocities \"brought to account\". http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/09/19/nbrit19.xml"}, {"response": 478, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (00:26)", "body": "Feedback for Freedom We find ourselves surrounded by cries for retribution ringing out in response to the attacks on the East coast. Fanned by the media, this primitive urge to make others suffer equally or more will have its political and military effect. We are probably on the horrific spiral envisioned by the perpetrators of the attack. My engineering experience warns me that this is not a \"converging\" situation - it will not settle out in stability, but will thrash madly about until so much is destroyed that nothing can continue. If we want the situation to achieve stability we should consider some principles of feedback design. An engineer designing a feedback system takes an \"active element\" capable of exerting the maximum force needed and tames it by placing it within an environment that guarantees operation within the intended parameters. For an oscillator, the environment will say: \"do anything you want, but only at this frequency\". For an amplifier, the message is \"do anything you want, but only if the output is in this proportion of the input\". Taking this metaphor further, if we want a world of stability we must surround those elements capable of exerting force with environments in which the force is limited and directed. Not by meeting force with greater force, but by depriving force of support when wrongly directed. This applies not only to obvious kinds of military force but also to all the sorts of power which leave people at a disadvantage in their lives. Applying this approach, it is clear that the US should be applying massive pressure upon Israel and the Palestinian Authority to settle up, even if it's not the ideal unattainable by either side. This would remove a serious motivating and disrupting factor from the situation. We should be applying all possible means to change the environment in Afghanistan so that the people are empowered to overthrow the Taliban. Foreign invaders do not fare well in that country - the only people who can effect change are the Afghanis themselves. We should turn many of the billions appropriated by Congress to the alleviation of poverty in the poor nations of the world, especially the Mideast, through education and micro-lending, for example. Work from the bottom up, changing the political and economic environment for the better. And the \"we\" here also means we as individuals and groups, not simply the government. Citizen initiative can be powerful. We can use it to make cracks in the image of a monolithic passive, compliant populace perpetuated by the media. Cracks like this have a way of propagating. All of this would be profoundly subversive to systems of power. That is the point. Building feedback loops around those power structures will protect not only ourselves but our world. (Lee Felsenstein, , is an electronic design engineer and EFF Pioneer Award winner who played a part both in the early development of personal computers and in the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley. Permission is granted to reproduce this work only in its entirety, including this notice.)"}, {"response": 479, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (02:36)", "body": "I wonder how many \"test runs\" these guys made. James Woods Reports Suspicious Passengers to FBI September 19, 2001 Reuters Woods declined to publicly discuss his experience, first reported by New York Post columnist Cindy Adams and confirmed by his spokeswoman, Susan Madore. In a brief statement, the actor said, \"I think it prudent not to comment on this and let the FBI continue do their job ...\" Article: http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=entertainmentnews&StoryID=231786"}, {"response": 480, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (02:43)", "body": "Secret Plans for 10-year War THE TIMES (LONDON) THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20 2001 BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR Generals rule out 'D-Day invasion' AMERICA and Britain are producing secret plans to launch a ten-year \ufffdwar on terrorism\ufffd \ufffd Operation Noble Eagle \ufffd involving a completely new military and diplomatic strategy to eliminate terrorist networks and cells around the world. Despite the mass build-up of American forces in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, there will be no \ufffdD-Day invasion\ufffd of Afghanistan and no repeat of the US-led Operation Desert Storm against Iraq in 1991, defence sources say. The notion that a US-led multinational coalition would attack Afghanistan from all sides for harbouring Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi dissident leader and prime suspect for the terrorist outrages in New York and Washington, has been rejected in Washington and London. The sources also say that the planned campaign is not being focused on just \ufffdbringing bin Laden to justice\ufffd. The build-up of firepower by the Americans in the region, notably the two aircraft carrier battle groups that are to be joined by a third carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, is seen as a major display of available military capability. While it is important for these assets to be in the right place in case of a political decision to launch a strike, there are no plans for a \ufffdshort-term fix\ufffd. The dramatically different anti-terrorism campaign is being planned to meet what is now regarded as the most dangerous threat to global security, known as asymmetric warfare. \ufffdWe\ufffdre expecting it to last from five to ten years,\ufffd one source said. New ideas are needed to counter small groups armed with the minimum of weaponry, whether conventional or non-conventional. Such groups have the capability to attack a nation as powerful as the United States, which is equipped with the full range of modern weapons and professional Armed Forces. Old doctrines for fighting wars, based on lining up tanks and artillery and layers of troops, are being thrown out and replaced by a more subtle and wide-ranging doctrine which seeks to defeat the enemy at its own game. \ufffdThe aim is not to go for the enemy\ufffds strengths, but its weaknesses,\ufffd one source said. American and British planners are working on the basis that military strikes will take place only as part of a broader global counter-terrorist operation, embracing every other type of international action \ufffd diplomatic, economic and political. Most of the focus of the ten-year campaign plan, the sources say, is on using military action as a potent back-up to all the other strands of Operation Noble Eagle. However, President Bush, conscious of the demand for \ufffdrevenge\ufffd from the American public, might sanction shorter-term military operation by special forces, or airstrikes, but only if there is sufficient intelligence to guarantee a sucessful outcome. \ufffdThere\ufffds no point in firing a lot of missiles at bin Laden if they miss their target, or launching Tomahawks at bin Laden training camps if they are empty,\ufffd one source said. Complete Article: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001320010-2001325231,00.html"}, {"response": 481, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (09:46)", "body": "From Screendaily: US theatres plan Sept 11 charity day next Tuesday (Mike Goodridge in Los Angeles) Theatre circuits across the US are banding together to create a \"Victims Benefit Day at the Movies\" next Tuesday (Sept 25) on which 100% of ticket and concession sales will be donated to the September 11th Fund of the United Way and the American Red Cross. 50% of the proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross and 50% to the United Way. Among participating circuits are AMC, Carmike Cinemas, Cinemark USA, Hoyts Cinemas Corp, National Amusements, Regal Cinemas and United Artists Theatre Co. \ufffd Joe Roth\ufffds Revolution Studios has announced that it will donate all proceeds from the planned re-release of America\ufffds Sweethearts this weekend to the September 11th Fund; the company is also adding its summer comedy hit The Animal to the re-release at selected sites."}, {"response": 482, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (10:04)", "body": "An article in the Nation reports that Russian television has been saying that Russian security services believe the next attack will be on a nuclear power plant: http://www.thenation.com/docPrint.mhtml?i=special&s=bivens_wtc_20010916 We better step up security at our nuclear facilities. Now."}, {"response": 483, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (10:05)", "body": "In other news, BBC is reporting that the Afghanistan shura (meeting of clerics) has decided to ask Osama bin Laden to voluntarily leave the country. But who would take him?"}, {"response": 484, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (10:08)", "body": "It is now being reported that Mossad warned the Bush Administration in August that about 200 people on their watch list of suspected terrorists were slipping into the United States, and that a \"big target\" was going to be hit."}, {"response": 485, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (10:31)", "body": "The James Woods story gets a notch more credibility. Unfriendly Skies for James Woods By Scott Huver, Hollywood.com Staff Hollywood.com Exclusive! Actor may have shared \"trial run\" flight with terrorists The always-intense actor James Woods may have found himself near the center of the real-life drama that led to the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center. The 54-year-old actor was questioned by the FBI following his report that while on a commercial flight from Boston's Logan Airport to Los Angeles one month prior to the devastating attack, he may have shared the first class section with the same box cutter-wielding terrorists responsible for hijacking American Airlines Flight 11. The four men are now believed to have been enacting a \"trial run\" of their suicide assault on NYC. According to Woods in a story confirmed by his publicist, he was on a flight back to L.A. after visiting his mother's home in Boston. He was alone in the first class section, except for a quartet of Middle Eastern men who, in Woods' estimation, were behaving bizarrely. The actor noticed that they never ate or drank, never spoke to the flight crew and only addressed each other in hushed tones. For the majority of the cross-country flight the men sat and stared stone-faced straight ahead. Perhaps playing all those movie bad guys and killers gave the Oscar-nominated actor some kind of subtle insight: After picking up on the group's odd demeanor and tense body language, Woods actually mentioned it to a flight attendant, who dismissed it, and reported it again to airline authorities on the ground, who didn't seem to want to pursue it. It wasn't until about a month later, on the Wednesday following the attack, that Woods again called authorities--this time the FBI--to report his experience once more. This time, in less than 24 hours, Federal agents arrived on his doorstep looking to examine every detail of his story. Although the agents didn't share any information on their investigation with the actor, out of the thousands of tips the FBI received, they certainly seemed to take Woods' tale extremely seriously. The actor kept his experience quiet until it was leaked to a New York Post columnist, who mistakenly reported that it occurred only one week prior to the deadly attack. \"I think it is prudent not to comment on this and let the FBI continue to do their job, which they seem to be doing superbly right now,\" Woods said in a statement to Hollywood.com. Laura Bosley, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Los Angeles, could neither confirm nor deny this report, but she did tell Hollywood.com that many individuals nationwide are coming forward with information and that the FBI is taking all these reports into account. Woods recently starred in Scary Movie 2 and appears in the upcoming Drew Barrymore film Riding in Cars With Boys. He recently signed to play former studio head Alan Hirschfield in the film version of David McClintock's book Indecent Exposure, which chronicles David Begelman's check-forging scandal while heading Columbia Pictures in the late 1970s."}, {"response": 486, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (11:13)", "body": "the Afghanistan shura (meeting of clerics) has decided to ask Osama bin Laden to voluntarily leave the country. But who would take him? If OBL gave himselp up, it would aid all those cells he has all over by centruting the attention on him. This is so complicated because it is not just him. In Israel everyone has gas masks, I think it would be prudent on our side to to the same."}, {"response": 487, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (11:15)", "body": "centruting should be concentrating."}, {"response": 488, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (12:07)", "body": "The Taliban have issued an edict that asks OBL to leave Afghanistan: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/010920/80/c4q2r.html"}, {"response": 489, "author": "AnnieZ", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (12:20)", "body": "I work for an airline company. It's the saddest day in my company today. 25% of people in my department are leaving (most of them have already left by now). I've survived at this time but don't feel happy at all! People, whom I worked with for years and some of them became very good friends, are let go. Tears in many people's eyes no matter they stay or go. I'm feeling so depressed. It feels like an airplane just hit the building when I work (which is the headquarter of the company). Just think that we had several new positions opening for hire a week before the attack. I may survive for this cut but who knows the next time I'd survive?"}, {"response": 490, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (12:24)", "body": "janes.com: 19 September 2001 Who did it? Foreign Report presents an alternative view Israel\ufffds military intelligence service, Aman, suspects that Iraq is the state that sponsored the suicide attacks on the New York Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington. Directing the mission, Aman officers believe, were two of the world\ufffds foremost terrorist masterminds: the Lebanese Imad Mughniyeh, head of the special overseas operations for Hizbullah, and the Egyptian Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri, senior member of Al-Qaeda and possible successor of the ailing Osama Bin Laden. The two men have not been seen for some time. Mughniyeh is probably the world\ufffds most wanted outlaw. Unconfirmed reports in Beirut say he has undergone plastic surgery and is unrecognisable. Zawahiri is thought to be based in Egypt. He could be Bin Laden\ufffds chief representative outside Afghanistan."}, {"response": 491, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (12:46)", "body": "Re: the James Woods story Just because something is repeated does not, in itself, make a story credible. Let's look at who the 'reporters' are. Cindy Adams: a gossip columnist, relating heresay. I do not doubt James Woods saw what he saw and reported it as described, but how can it be concluded these *were* the same terrorists? Or even terrorists at all? Did he positively ID them? 'Reportedly paying cash'--how does James or Cindy know this? She also blames Logan Security when security at the Portland, Maine airport is also culpable. Scott Huver, Hollywood.com (c'mon, H'wood.com? We're not exactly talking 60 Minutes here): Scott essentially re-writes Cindy's story except he states Woods took the flight one month before 9-11 whereas Cindy said it was one week. He then embellishes with some common knowledge quotes. IMO one should not jump to conclusions based on this level of reporting and should use the term 'credible' with care."}, {"response": 492, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (13:24)", "body": "Just because something is repeated does not, in itself, make a story credible... IMO one should not jump to conclusions based on this level of reporting.(Eileen) Good point, but I think it applies to every \"level of reporting\" right now. (Especially right now.) There have been quite a few stories circulated that turned out to be incorrect even in the \"main stream\" press. I do think it makes sense that the terrorists would have made \"trial runs\" to check out the exact conditions on the flights."}, {"response": 493, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (13:38)", "body": "(Suzee) I think it applies to every \"level of reporting\" right now. Good point right back at 'cha, but I'd like to think things are settling down in the true mainstream press. Last week it was mass hysteria."}, {"response": 494, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (13:46)", "body": "Just because something is repeated does not, in itself, make a story credible... IMO one should not jump to conclusions based on this level of reporting.(Eileen) Good point, but I think it applies to every \"level of reporting\" right now. (Especially right now.) There have been quite a few stories circulated that turned out to be incorrect even in the \"main stream\" press. I do think it makes sense that the terrorists would have made \"trial runs\" to check out the exact conditions on the flights."}, {"response": 495, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (14:23)", "body": "I'm taking the Woods story with the grain of salt it deserves, but if true has much broader consequences. This is an article on the international system used to move money to the terrorists and the moves to stop it. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/business/20MONE.html"}, {"response": 496, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (15:58)", "body": "Finally, a major, reputable news source has picked this James Woods thing up. Reuters. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010919/en/people-woods_1.html Pretty much the same information in this Reuters piece with the exception of this elaboration: Woods declined to publicly discuss his experience, first reported by New York Post columnist Cindy Adams and confirmed by his spokeswoman, Susan Madore. In a brief statement, the actor said, ``I think it prudent not to comment on this and let the FBI continue do their job, which they seem to be doing superbly right now.'' Woods, 54, who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before pursuing an acting career, is best known for playing heavies and misfits."}, {"response": 497, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (16:10)", "body": "It's now being reported the Woods flight was a month before not a week as reported in the gossip column."}, {"response": 498, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (20:29)", "body": "At least two of the \"hijackers\" supposedly found alive and well. Doubts emerge over identities of hijackers in US attacks WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (AFP) - US officials are investigating whether some or all of the 19 hijackers on the four hijacked aircraft used in last week's terror attacks used stolen identities, possibly complicating efforts to link them to Osama bin Laden. The doubts started to emerge when at least four men with names matching those on an FBI list of the hijackers turned up alive in Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, according to newspaper reports. An unnamed senior US official told Thursday's Washington Post that there was now uncertainty over the list of names. \"There may be some question with regard to the identity of at least some of them,\" he said. ......... FBI director Robert Mueller said last week as he released what he said were the names of the hijackers that his bureau had \"a fairly high level of confidence\" that they were their true identities. But at least one Arabic newspaper, the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat, said this week it had found two of the Saudis named on the list, Abdelaziz al-Omari and Said Hussein Gharamallah al-Ghamdi, alive and well. Article: http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/afp/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010920/technology/afp/Doubts_emerge_over_identities_of_hijackers_in_US_attacks.html"}, {"response": 499, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (21:39)", "body": "i heard about the stolen identities too. prayers and love to all...."}, {"response": 500, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (22:29)", "body": "Plus the families of two of the hihackers have said, their relative was not one of the hijackers, including this Mohammad Atta dude. They are claiming identity fraud too. A bit hard to belive when you consider Atta has been on the FBI's list of suspected criminals, for a long time."}, {"response": 501, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (22:37)", "body": "(Rob)MSG 436 sums up just about every country capable of providing aid bar New Zealand. Do we not exist? - I copied that information from a couple of different sites. It is entirely possible that I missed New Zealand :-( -- or it was not on the lists I used -- but I looked around and found this: NEW ZEALAND: Has offered the use of Special Air Services commandos and New Zealand intelligence resources in any action against those responsible for the terrorist attacks. ----------------- Here's to New Zealand: \ufffdGod of nations at Thy feet In the bonds of love we meet. Hear our voices, we entreat, God defend our Free Land. Guard Pacific's triple star\ufffd And why if it \"can be found on two large islands and a host of smaller islands\" is it called \"triple star\"? (Gee, I hope the lyrics are correct!)"}, {"response": 502, "author": "maryw", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (22:49)", "body": "This is really spooky I just received by email : a.. A flight number from one of the planes that hit one of the twin towers was Q33NY. b.. In MS Word or Wordperfect, type in that flight number (in capitals) - Q33NY c.. Enlarge the font size to 26 and then change the font to Wingdings or Wingdings1"}, {"response": 503, "author": "maryw", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (22:49)", "body": ""}, {"response": 504, "author": "maryw", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (22:50)", "body": "This is really spooky I just received by email : a.. A flight number from one of the planes that hit one of the twin towers was Q33NY. b.. In MS Word or Wordperfect, type in that flight number (in capitals) - Q33NY c.. Enlarge the font size to 26 and then change the font to Wingdings or Wingdings1"}, {"response": 505, "author": "maryw", "date": "Thu, Sep 20, 2001 (22:51)", "body": "Sorry..for phantom postings"}, {"response": 506, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (01:48)", "body": "Hi all I thought I would post this as my own perspective on the Taliban, the case with the Muslim population world wide, the case of the Middle East and the possible effect on the world economy. My perspective comes from having talked to Mum and Dad who have been to Pakistan and Afghanistan, from learning and research I did on my own accord on the Middle East powder keg, from Political Science and from Geography where we examined the United States foreign policy (not as applied to a Middle Eastern nation). In 1979 the country of Nicaragua was ripe for revolt, with a regime in power despised by the people and in command of a military that was beginning to lean toward the people. The regime was recognised by the United States among other countries and it allowed environmentally unfriendly practices to be maintained by foreign companies of mainly Western origin. A politician named Sandinista however began a revolution the following year that swept him into power with the support of the people of Nicaragua. It was a socialist government (NOT COMMUNIST)that formed and immediately began instituting sweeping reform basic social welfare, health, education, and economic programmes the latter of which were based on principles of environmental sustainability. The program involved the passing of the first ever environmental laws for the country which restricted the amount of forest that could be logged and set standards for mines. Someone in the Ronald Reagan found out and pressed the President into allowing the CIA to wage government sponsored crime in the country by burning down the forests, and funding anti Sandinista factions to topple the government. The secretly funded war that CIA agents waged in the country crippled Nicaragua at the one time when it was making it's first substantial economic progress ever. The same President decreased spending on just about everything to fund a huge programme of capital expenditure on the United States military which had operatives in Afghanistan fighting the Soviets, who were immediately withdrawn without any gratitude to Afghanistan (or Pakistan from where they were based) as soon as the Soviets withdrew. Pakistan inherited many problems created by the sudden United States departure which to some extent the Pakistani government could not have satisfactorily sorted out itself. That upset many Muslims and since the United States is a powerful ally of Israel whose Jews are age old foes of the Muslims, the United States became a target of anger. None of this ever justified terrorism on ANY scale let alone the scale of last weeks attacks, but it may have been part of a trigger for the strikes on New York and Washington D.C. Osama bin Laden has begun a holy war and I suspect that the Middle East with it's sharp divisions between Arabs and Israelis, Muslims and Jews has the capacity to become a giant conflagration of war if certain issues are not sorted out. The entire Western World is at fault to some extent (United States, Britain, Australia, France, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and like countries)on this issue. We take the oil of those countries to drive our economies while putting minimal investment back in by mploying people at dirt cheap rates in some cases and this is not an exaggeration NZ$1 (US$.44c) a day. We treat their environments with contempt and make no effort to clean up the mess, and we contribute to the cycle of poverty that ensures these countries STAY poor. New Zealand is at fault because we get shirts and clothes really cheaply from Indonesia (a Muslim nation with 200 million people), and probably places like Pakistan and India. We expect them to be democratic and freedom when we can at TIMES hardly call the governments of our nations freedom loving either. I think there is a low but very REAL chance that a showdown sometime in the next few decades between the West and Islam is looming, and I think it may engulf at least the entire Middle East when it does come. So how did this mess come about?? In part Western consumerism is to blame for the economic ills and lack of investment in the countries where we have set up Multi-national corporations, and in part to misguided policies passed by the governments of those nations who have large Muslim populations. What can we do?? All countries have a role to play in this though the largest role will be that of the United States, because it takes the most out of the Islamic nations. United States Foreign policy on things like trade is going to have to change or it risks permanently damaging relations with the entire Islamic world. Changes need not be sweeping but they need to be on things like free trade (without tariffs), and a concept of \"fair trade\" that involves trade deals that disadvantage neither side are being promoted by some. How the Department of State sees environmental protocols will have to change as it is hurting traditional European friends/allies as much as it hurts poorer nations. People, I know that th"}, {"response": 507, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (05:25)", "body": "Secret memo reveals US plan to overthrow Taliban regime Friday September 21, 2001 The Guardian The US government is pressing its European allies to agree to a military campaign to topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and replace it with an interim administration under United Nations auspices. Diplomatic cables from the Washington embassy of a key Nato ally, seen by the Guardian, report that the US is keen to hear allied views on \"post-Taliban Afghanistan after the liberation of the country\". The embassy cable reveals that the US administration is bent on force to evict the Taliban from power because of the shelter it has offered Osama bin Laden, named by the White House as prime suspect for the New York and Washington atrocities on September 11. The Guardian has also learned that two large US Hercules transport aircraft landed in Tashkent, capital of the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, on Tuesday loaded with surveillance equipment to be installed along the northern Afghan border. The secret landing represented a radical departure since it appeared to herald the deployment of squadrons of US fighters at Uzbekistan's sprawling airfield at Termez, directly on the border. Such a build-up would incur the wrath of Russia which views the central Asian republics as its backyard. .......................... The US strategy to depose the Taliban regime is based on more than military thinking. A further plank appears to entail supporting the campaign of the exiled 86-year-old monarch of Afghanistan, King Zahir Shah, to return to power by encouraging the guerrilla army of the Northern Alliance opposition to fall in behind him. Complete article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,555530,00.html"}, {"response": 508, "author": "Moon", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (08:35)", "body": "At the end of the day we Westerners are going to have to make some sacrifices to our material wealth, because plainly to stop the social conditions that support this sort of evil, nothing less will do. Good point, Rob. the US is keen to hear allied views on \"post-Taliban Afghanistan after the liberation of the country\". Some people may find this statement very arrogant. From syndicated columnist JONATHAN POWER Is it possible for America to say 'Sorry'? September 20, 2001 LONDON - How should the United States fight Osama bin Laden? It could start by saying sorry. Despite two centuries of rapid immigration pulling in people from all over the world, America remains a predominantly Christian nation. It is not a Jewish one and certainly not an Islamic one. It draws its inspiration from another book, mightier, it believes, than the Old Testament or the Koran, although it shares common roots with both these religions and worships the same God. If Christianity is not about saying sorry and turning the other cheek what, at the end of the day, is so special about it? We have a lot to be sorry for. After all it was Christian societies that practised slavery. It was a Christian society that tolerated the long persecution and then the obliteration of the Jews. (Islamic societies, even in their worst times, have never set about the extermination of the Jewish people.) And in a more recent era it is Christian societies which stirred up war in Africa in their quest for Cold War allies, destroyed Afghanistan, the scorched refuge of bin Laden, in a misplaced and unnecessary attempt to aid the resistance to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and allowed the legitimate desire of the Jewish people to own their own state to degenerate into the contemporary world's worst example of military occupation and imperialistic land acquisition. Perhaps it seems extraordinary that a political writer should have nothing better to say than \"say sorry\". In a week when innocent bodies in New York and Washington are being buried, when children cry all night for their lost parents, when lonely widows and widowers ask themselves how they will ever take another step forward through life, is this the time for contrition? It is hard to make the argument, that I know. But where does hatred take us, where does revenge, where does it end if, as President George Bush says, \"there are no rules\"? Do we want to make the situation worse or do we want to take a momentous leap of imagination and reach out to make it better? The military solution, however sympathetically one looks at it, appears at the very least counterproductive. As a recent publication by the hard headed International Institute for Strategic Studies argued it, going after the Taleban regime in Afghanistan will likely destabilise its friendly neighbour Pakistan and throw a nuclear-armed country into the hands of the militants. Beyond that, what would be the point of inflaming Islamic societies everywhere if it led to the fall of the fundamentalist (but friendly) government of Saudi Arabia? If Saudi Arabia were ruled in a fashion true to its Wahhabi ultra- fundamentalist creed not only would there be no U.S. troops on Saudi soil, it would be an end to the (uneasy) coalition against Saddam Hussein, there would be a cataclysmic shortfall in western oil supplies, and the turning of Saudi missiles from pointing towards Iraq in the direction of Israel instead. It would also probably push Saudi Arabia to develop nuclear weapons to put on the nose of its nuclear-capable rockets it bought from China, and this to threaten Israel with. Is America going to occupy Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to forestall that scenario? Then the house would really fall in. The reason America has reached this fork in the road is because, as with so many other issues, America has put off biting the bullet on hard problems. Politicians and the media have connived to keep the populace ignorant of what is going on in the world. Only in extreme times of emergency - such as the current one and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait- is there an intense effort made to educate public opinion, and then that is done at a fever pitch with truth and objectivity being given short shrift. Yet all over the world there are silent emergencies that have continued to be combated half heartedly, whilst they have developed a head of power that in the end steamrollers all modest solutions. This is as true of global warming as it is of the Israeli settlement policy on Palestinian land. This is as true of the spread of AIDS and other highly infectious diseases as it is of the West's over-consumption of energy. This is as true of the proliferation of nuclear weapons, for want of a disarmament lead from the ex-Cold War nuclear powers, as it is of the Western tolerance of child labour in factories making their consumer goods. This is as true of children dying in Africa and other Third World countries for want of pure drinking water and the lack of education o"}, {"response": 509, "author": "Moon", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (09:03)", "body": "Did anyone see a teleprompter last night for Pres. Bush? He couldn't have memorized and delivered the speech so well. It was the best he's ever done live."}, {"response": 510, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (09:35)", "body": "MaryW: A flight number from one of the planes that hit one of the twin towers was Q33NY. Don't let Wingdings experts mess with your head, Mary. The flights that hit the towers were numbered 11 and 77, the other two hijacked flights 175 and 93. Also, the Nostradamus lines being broadcast around the Web (\"twin brothers shall be rent in fire, yadda, yadda\") are made up."}, {"response": 511, "author": "LauraMM", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (09:42)", "body": "Sorry? I haven't read the above article and don't feel the inclination to. We have Jesse Jackson trying to get monies to the offspring of slaves? I'm sorry, but that is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. If that's the case then, perhaps we should start doling money out to every Japanese American who were sent into camps during WW2 or the Koreans during the Korean War? Hell, we should pay Britain for \"allowing\" us to win the war in 1776. Why should WE say sorry? We are a nation built on different ethnicities and backgrounds. Slavery made this country, it built our civil rights, and our Bill of Rights, out of bad, some good may come. What we have is a nation (Afghanistan) who is run by fundamentalist nutjobs. The Taliban is EVIL. They are trying to infiltrate as many countries as they can with their idealogy mumbo jumbo. They are not Muslims? They are whacked out religious freaks who say they speak the word or Allah. And Allah comandeered them to take our airplanes, use them as missiles, against CIVILIANS, who were just working, like the rest of the world. Not plotting to overtake a government, or throw their religious beliefs on everyone else. I know I'm just ranting, but we don't owe anyone an apology. Our governmental policies are in use because they work. Iraq says it's our fault. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell (GO AWAY BOTH OF YOU) blame our moral values. They said it was our fault. No one, absolutely NO ONE, deserves to die the way helpless civilians dies on September 11, 2001. end of rant."}, {"response": 512, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (09:56)", "body": "A summary of OBL's finances in The Times http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001320010-2001325324,00.html"}, {"response": 513, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (10:03)", "body": "David Kline: If we end up bombing the Afghan capital (or other populated targets), it'll be because Washington lacked the patience and willingness to ally with freedom-loving Afghans in the country and gather the human intelligence needed to locate Bin Laden and his Taliban benefactors. In other words, it'll be a de facto admission of defeat. If you really want Bin Laden, you have to: * Use local people to locate him. * Move swiftly without alerting him or his Taliban supporters (which probably means employing a joint US-Afghan (anti-Taliban) team. If we just start flying around in Bin Laden's general area, using electronic intelligence gathered from his communications to hone in on him, he'll be gone before his tea gets cold. And I mean *gone.* In that part of the country -- a lot like Utah only hotter and more difficult to traverse -- there are thousands of little cave hideouts and hundreds of Taliban-dominated villages where he could hide out and slink away. The borders near Quetta, Pakistan are completely porous -- even if the Pak's tried with all their might to seal them, it couldn't be done. There are also nomadic tribespeople moving in caravans constantly across both Iran's and Pakistan's borders with Afghanistan where a guy in a turban with a half-dozen bodyguards could easily blend in. So \"chasing\" Bin Laden on the run won't work. You've got to find him and move in quickly, **before** he runs, and for that you need anti-Taliban Afghan intelligence. There's simply no other way to attack him effectively. Of course, if Washington just wants to blow off steam and waste a few hundred or thousand innocent Afghans, then none of the above applies. It'll look good on TV, maybe, but it won't get Bin Laden or the Taliban. A finger of David Kline reveals: I'm a journalist and author, former war correspondent (until, genius that I am, I finally figured out I should find something safer to do) and sometime business strategy consultant. I used to be a HotWired columnist and Upside columnist till they gave me the boot for ideological impurity. But I'm still a commentator on NPR's \"Marketplace\" business program and I'm still writing books. So I guess I'm not a complete screw-up. My first book was published by Dutton in 1995 -- \"Road Warriors: Dreams and Nightmares Along the Information Highway.\" My latest will be published by Harvard Business School Press in the Fall of 1999 -- \"Rembrandts in the Closet: Wielding Intellectual Property for Competitive Advantage.\" I would add that he's been on the scene in Afghanistan as a war correspondent."}, {"response": 514, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (10:07)", "body": "(Moon) It was the best he's ever done live. Practice makes perfect and so does good coaching. I was grateful he didn't appear to be sounding out the words as he has in earlier speeches. (Laura) perhaps we should start doling money out to every Japanese American who were sent into camps during WW2 Psst, Laura, it was done. You've never heard of reparation? =8-O"}, {"response": 515, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (10:32)", "body": "David Kline (dkline) Thu 13 Sep 01 08:30 I'd like to try to clear up some mis-information about how the US supposedly \"supplied\", \"trained\" or \"created\" Bin Laden. I reported from Afghanistan from 1979-1987, and I can tell you absolutely that such was not the case. The US supplied arms & money to a variety of factions of the mujahadeen, but did so only through the Pakistani intelligence serevices (SIS), which funneled most arms to Gulbadin Hekmatyar, an ideological precursor to the Taliban and types like Bin Laden. Pakistan had its own reasons for doing so -- these fanatics did very little fighting against the Russians (unlike genuine leaders like Ahmed Shah Massoud), preferring to fight other resistance factions -- and I and others warned US officials of the consequences of allowing arms to be directed towards the fundamentalists. But US officials insisted their \"hands were tied\" in this matter, and whether true or not, there it is. How did the Taliban win? Consider that Afghan society, almost entirely tribal rather than \"national\" toi begin with, was utterly destroyed by the Soviets durinbg the war. 1-tenth the population killed; 1/3 of the survivords forced to flee as refuygees. The systematic destruction of Afghan intelligentsia by Soviet-directed police forces resulted in a statistical decline in the literacy rate. Into this vacumn the Taliban, financed and armerd by Saudi extremists, entered."}, {"response": 516, "author": "admin", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (10:37)", "body": "A lot more of David Klines thoughts on this: http://www.spring.net/dkline.html"}, {"response": 517, "author": "lafn", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (10:44)", "body": "Hey, that Jonathan Power is some dude. Am I reading: Get a Marshall Plan organized for Afghanistan? Wonder how many votes that would get. *shaking head*"}, {"response": 518, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (14:23)", "body": "[from the Hollywood Reporter] Studios tighten security following FBI terror alert Sep. 21, 2001 Terrorists leveled threats Thursday against Hollywood's major film studios, prompting each to seriously reconsider existing security measures that suddenly seemed far too mild for the current political climate. Some studios partially evacuated their facilities late in the afternoon. Internal memos, usually in the form of an e-mail issued by high-ranking studio executives, buzzed throughout Hollywood on Thursday, warning of threats of mass destruction, presumably from Islamic terrorists. Insiders said studio heads first learned of the threat from MPAA president Jack Valenti, who was briefed by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who specifically mentioned a threat of a suicide bomber. An FBI statement released late Thursday, though, was more vague about the exact nature of the threat. The threat's purpose, though, was specifically laid out by the FBI: If the U.S. attacks Afghanistan, a studio will be bombed. \"Today the FBI provided a threat advisory to the major movie studios in Los Angeles,\" FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin said. \"The uncorroborated threat states that a film studio in California could be the target of a terrorist bombing attack in retaliation for any possible bombing attacks by the United States against Afghanistan. In an abundance of caution, the FBI has provided this threat advisory. The FBI is working closely with the studios regarding this matter.\" Insiders said that those making the threat will target a major film studio because American values and culture -- anathema to fundamentalist Islamic terrorists -- are distributed throughout the world via Hollywood movies."}, {"response": 519, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (14:25)", "body": "Here is a report that Osama has been rushed toward the Chinese border by the Taliban: http://www.frontierpost.com.pk/main.asp?id=2&date1=9/21/2001 This one indicates that he left even before the shura met. http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2001-daily/21-09-2001/main/main2.htm"}, {"response": 520, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (15:58)", "body": "http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ Last summer, while the American media kept the people distracted with \"All Condit All The Time\", the US Government was informing other governments that we would be at war in Afghanistan, no later than October! How lucky for our government that just when they are planning to invade another country, for the express purpose of removing that government, a convenient \"terrorist\" attack occurs to anger Americans into support for an invasion. Sound impossible? Not when you consider that accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is actually an employee of the CIA, who trained and financed him. And guess who paid for the training of the Hijackers? YOU DID, according to NEWSWEEK and MSNBC. From Alleged Hijackers May Have Trained at U.S. Bases The Pentagon has turned over military records on five men to the FBI By George Wehrfritz, Catharine Skipp and John Barry NEWSWEEK Sept. 15 U.S. military sources have given the FBI information that suggests five of the alleged hijackers of the planes that were used in Tuesdays terror attacks received training at secure U.S. military installations in the 1990s. Leonard Pitts column: http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/columnists/pitts/stories/xxpitts_20010921.htm \"LET'S GET something straight. The events of Sept. 11 did not happen because we did something wrong. Or because we somehow \"deserved\" them. In recent days, I've heard that argument or variations thereof from several friends and dozens of e-mail correspondents. This must be what \"they\" feel like when we bomb \"them,\" says one. Perhaps they acted out of deep hurt, says another. Maybe this is necessary payback for American arrogance, says yet another. And then, of course, there's the ever-reliable Jerry Falwell, who said on \"The 700 Club\" last week that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon represent God's verdict on gay rights, feminism, abortion and the ACLU. In a word, no. To all of the above, to all the tortured reflection and moral distress: no. Hell no.\".... \"Last week happened, pure and simple, because certain religious extremists hate us. They hate us because our foreign policy has been supportive of Israel. They hate us because we helped repel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991. But in the larger sense, they hate us because their children want blue jeans, Britney Spears videos and the chance to be like Mike. They hate us because we consume bacon and beer. They hate us because American women wear bikinis and speak their minds. They hate us because we are the biggest, the wealthiest, the most influential, the most powerful. They hate us because we are not them and, moreover, because they are not us. They hate us because they think the deity requires it. They hate us because.\""}, {"response": 521, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (16:46)", "body": "It may be true that James Woods saw the hijackers: 09/21/2001 - Updated 03:07 PM ET Investigators: Hijackers repeatedly scouted flights By Kevin Johnson, Toni Locy and Richard Willing, USA TODAY The terrorists who staged last week's murderous attacks apparently practiced for months by repeatedly riding the flights they later hijacked, learning jet crews' patterns, counting passenger loads and testing airline security, the FBI now believes. The 19 hijackers, probably aided by accomplices who are still alive, began scouting for flights to hijack and making dry runs as early as April, law enforcement sources say. Some of the hijackers are believed to have entered the USA then. Authorities confirmed the finding by checking flight manifests and airport security camera tapes. They also interviewed airline employees. Investigators had suspected that the four hijacked flights \ufffd two from Boston and one each from Newark, N.J., and Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington \ufffd had been carefully chosen, in part because each was full of fuel for a cross-country trip and had a relatively light passenger load. The lack of passengers would have made it easier for the four or five Muslim extremists on each jet to keep those aboard under control and overwhelm the cockpit crews. Authorities say they also now believe that the killers scouted other flights as hijacking candidates but eliminated them from consideration. The findings add texture to the portrait that is emerging of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The hijackings, sources say, were meticulously planned and required large sums of money, dozens of helpers and coordination among teams. Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that a central figure who set the attacks in motion still could be at large. \ufffd Copyright 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/21/hijackers-usat.htm"}, {"response": 522, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (17:06)", "body": "From the NY Times, more on the hijackers' identities: September 21, 2001 Confusion Over Names Clouds Identities of Attackers on Jets By NEIL MacFARQUHAR CAIRO, Sept. 20 \ufffd Many of the 19 hijacking suspects in the terror attacks last week remain shrouded in confusion, with almost nothing known about some and up to five apparent cases of mistaken identity. The F.B.I. list of hijacking suspects does include the names of at least six missing Saudi Arabian men who left their country, ostensibly to join the Islamic fighters battling the Russians in Chechnya, plus four others whose parents have lost contact with them. But the lack of the details about the suspects, plus the assertions of mistaken identity, have left their parents refusing to mourn and Saudi Arabian officials dismissive of the entire list. \"The haste in publishing the names of suspects in the attacks has made the media fall into the error of involving innocent people, especially Saudis,\" Prince Mit'eb bin Abdullah, the deputy commander of the Saudi National Guard, complained to reporters in Riyadh. The use of wrong names and pictures may indicate that the hijackers filched the identities of fellow Saudis. In the United States, Robert Mueller, the director of the F.B.I., acknowledged Thursday that there were questions about the identities of several of the hijackers on the list. \"We have several hijackers whose identities were those of the names on the manifest, we have several others who are still in question,\" Mr. Mueller said while touring the crash site in Pennsylvania of one hijacked plane. An official at the Saudi Embassy in Washington said there were five mistaken identities on the list, adding that all the men were alive and living abroad. Saudi officials say part of the problem stems from the proliferation of similar names in Saudi Arabia, as well as the numerous varieties of spelling them in English. One of the most common surnames on the F.B.I. list is Alshehri. But in English various members of the clan might spell it Alshahri or Alshehiri or Al-Shehri, entangling search efforts. Far more difficult is the fact that the country's huge tribes repeat the same names over and over again. Saudis use at least three names: their given name, their father's name, and their tribal name. Between the father's name and the tribal name, many also insert the name of a fourth, favored ancestor. But even brothers do not always choose the same name. To narrow the search to specific individuals, Saudi officials said they needed at least one and preferably two middle names. What they are given to work with now is a lot of Joe Smiths. For example, there might be thousands and thousands of people with the name Waleed Alshehri, one of the men whose name appears on the list of suspects who rammed the first plane into the World Trade Center. For a while, suspicion focused on the son of a Saudi diplomat with that name who had studied at Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, but his father said he was alive and working as a pilot for Saudi Arabian Airlines. The confusion apparently stems from the fact that the F.B.I. is matching the names on the passenger manifests to students who have trained in flying. In the southern Saudi town of Khamis Mushait, however, there is an established businessman named Mohammed Al-Shehri who is missing 2 of his 11 sons. One of them is Waleed Mohammed Al-Shehri. Mr. Waleed, 21, was studying to be a teacher, while his brother Wail, 26, already had a degree in physical education and was teaching, their father told the Saudi newspaper Al- Watan. The older brother was suffering from psychological problems and kept seeking the help of clerics to perform a kind of religious exorcism to cure him, the father said. Both men disappeared in December while on a trip to seek yet more help and have not been heard from since. They had grown increasingly religious before their disappearance and spoke often about joining the fight in Chechnya, the paper quoted family friends as saying. Their pictures match those released by the F.B.I. To try to eliminate confusion, Saudi officials said they had repeatedly asked for more information on the suspects, especially longer names, but they had yet to receive it. Plus, in a few cases it appears the hijackers resorted to outright deception. A passenger using the name Abdel Aziz Al-Omari and the birth date of December 24, 1972, is listed on the manifest of the flight that hit the towers first. But a man with the same name and birth date turned up alive in Riyadh, where he told the Al Sharq Al Awsat daily that he had studied electrical engineering at University of Denver. His passport was stolen there in 1995. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/21/international/middleeast/21IDEN.html?pagewanted=print"}, {"response": 523, "author": "fitzwd", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (18:02)", "body": "(Suzee) It may be true that James Woods saw the hijackers: James Woods appears to be a straight shooter. If the story were materially false, I believe he would have disowned it by now. For those who are unaware of his background, he is quite intelligent and attended MIT. He left a few credits shy of graduation. He has articulately debated against Bill Bennett, the former drug czar, on Face the Nation."}, {"response": 524, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (18:40)", "body": "Here are some interesting stats. Get out your little pad and pencil or rev' up your Excel or MS Works spreadsheet and play with these numbers. What do you se? In 1940, the US population was 132 MM, the GNP was 100 BB in constant dollars. In 1940 the US military was 500K men, maybe 300 ships, a few thousand planes. In 1945, the US military was 13.5 million men & women, we had 6000 vessels and 200K aircraft. We had spent nearly $400 BB, nearly twice the 1945 GDP. In 2001, the US military has somewhat less than 200K men & women, 300 ships, a few thousand planes. We have a population of 280 MM and a GDP of $10 trillion. Congress just appropriated $40BB for this war, half of which is earkmarked for NYC. Vietnam cost $140 BB year pop gnp military ships planes year millionsbillionsmillion thousands 1940 132 100 0.5 300 3 1945 ? 400 13.5 6000 200 2001 280 10000 0.2 300 Sorry for the gaps. It looks we need more ships, men and planes. Our gnp is now 10 trillion."}, {"response": 525, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (18:43)", "body": "I was there when the first Taliban units were seen in Afghanistan circa 1986. They were all composed of Saudi and other foreign volunteers, and few took them very seriously since they did little actual fighting against the Russians. But they quickly allied with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezbi Islami group -- i.e., the fundamentalist wing of the Afghan resistance -- which was receiving the bulk of US arms and aid via Pakistani intelligence (SIS). Then, amidst the confusion and infighting within the resistance following the Soviet withdrawal, the Pak's chose to channel almost all their material support to the Taliban, who used it to gain power over a divided resistance movement and a peoiple utterly exhausted by war. I'd wager that if a free & fair referendum were conducted in Afghanistan today, the Taliban would receive fewer than 5% of the votes. Their army is largely conscript, their most fervent supporters are unsophisticated teenagers insulated in Taliban religious schools. Nothing they say or do has any relationship to historic Afghan customs & attitudes."}, {"response": 526, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (18:45)", "body": "Kathy Rockel was amazed when her United Airlines flight last weekend began with an extraordinary message from the pilot: He informed passengers how to rise up and fend off hijackers. ``If anybody stands up and is trying to take over the plane, stand up together, take whatever you have and throw it at their heads,'' she quoted the pilot as saying. ``You have to aim for their faces so they have to defend themselves.'' The pilot also said passengers could fight hijackers by throwing blankets over their heads, wrestling them to the ground and holding them until he landed, Rockel said. And referring to the ``we the people'' preamble to the Constitution, she recalled, he said, ``We will not be defeated.'' ``Everybody on the plane was applauding,'' said Rockel, a medical transcriptionist traveling from Denver to Washington, D.C., Sept. 15 on United's Flight 564. ``People had tears coming down their faces. It was as if we had a choice here, that if something were to happen we're not completely powerless.'' Continued @: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010921/us/attacks_taking_charge_1.html"}, {"response": 527, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (19:22)", "body": "A few new topics have been created in the news conference to deal with some more specific aspects of the World Trade Center attack and the ensuing global conflict: 43 526 Jumbo Jets crash in to World Trade Center 44 0 Media coverage of WTC attack and the aftermath 45 0 What can we do? What should we do? 46 0 suspension of civil liberties as a response to terrorism 47 0 coping with terrorism and a world gone to war 48 0 economic consequences of global war and terrorism 49 0 Finding Osama Bin Laden 50 0 What is the impact of the wtc crisis where you live?"}, {"response": 528, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (22:41)", "body": "\"A lot of thinking needs to be done, and perhaps is being done in Washington and elsewhere, about the ineptitude of American intelligence and counter- intelligence, about options available to American foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East, and about what constitutes a smart program of military defense.\" - Susan Sontag \"As for America's friends, they have rallied around us with alacrity. On Wednesday, the NATO allies, for the first time ever, invoked the mutual- defense clause of the alliance's founding treaty, formally declaring that \"an armed attack\" against oneQand what happened on September 11th, whether you call it terrorism or war, was certainly an armed attackQconstitutes an attack against all. This gesture of solidarity puts to shame the contempt the Bush Administration has consistently shown for international treaties and instruments, including those in areas relevant to the fight against terrorism, such as small-arms control, criminal justice, and nuclear proliferation. By now, it ought to be clear to even the most committed ideologues of the Bush Administration that the unilateralist approach it was pursuing as of last Tuesday is in urgent need of revaluation. The world will be policed collectively or it will not be policed at all.\" - Hendrik Hertzberg Both of these from the recent New Yorker."}, {"response": 529, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (23:25)", "body": "A couple of notable quotes from other pieces: In the decade since the end of the Cold War, the human race has become, with increasing rapidity, a single organism. Every kind of barrier to the free and rapid movement of goods, information and people has been lowered. The organism relies increasingly on a kind of trust -- the unsentimental expectation that people, individually and collectively, will behave more or less in their rational self-interest. -- Hendrik Hertzberg How do you take \"massive military action\" against the infrastructure of a stateless, compartmentalized \"army\" of fifty, or ten times fifty, whose weapons are rental cars, credit cards, and airline tickets? The scale of the damage notwithstanding, a more useful metaphor than war is crime. The terrorists of September 11th are outlaws within a global polity. They may enjoy the corrupt protection of a state (and corruption, like crime, can be ideological or spiritual as well as pecuniary in motive). But they do not constitute or control a state and do not even appear to aspir to control one. Their status and numbers are such that the task of dealing with them should be viewed as a police matter, of the most urgent kind. As with all criminal fugitives, the essential job is to find out who and where they are. -- Hendrik Hertzberg But fly again we must; risk is a price of freedom, and walking around Brooklyn Heights that afternoon, as ash drifted in the air and cars were few and open-air lunches continued as usual on Montague Street, renewed the impression that, with all its failings, this is a country worth fighting for. Freedom, reflected in the street's diversity and daily ease, felt palpable. It is mankind's elixir, even if a few turn it to poison. -- John Updike"}, {"response": 530, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 21, 2001 (23:34)", "body": "James Woods was shown tonight answering telephones on the \"America: A Tribute to Heroes Telethon\". A lot of these rock stars and musicians looked heartbroken as they played and spoke. Paul Simon just sang bridge over Troubled Water and the parade of stars rolls on. Star studded is an understatement."}, {"response": 531, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (01:29)", "body": "David Kline again: The Taliban cannot be negotiated with. The council of clerics is more afraid of the Taliban than they are of the U.S. -- the Taliban, after all, are within actual rifle range and constitute a real and present threat, whereas the U.S. is (in their eyes) only a distant and vague *potential* threat. Hence the Council of Clerics decision. These councils, btw, historically have tended to defer to whomever had the biggest and nearest sword. Council of Clerics' decisions tend to drift with the winds of power, and have generally been considered by Afghans to be as binding and as relevant as, say, a Berkeley resolution declaring the city a \"nuclear free zone.\" Anyone seriously wishing to capture Bin Laden or otherwise deal with the Afghan aspect of this problem effectively should not pay much attention to either Taliban or Council of Clerics edicts."}, {"response": 532, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (02:16)", "body": "Without reading through a lot of posts to see if anyone answeed Laura, rhetorical question, we did pay reparations to the Japanese Americans we interred in WW2...$25,000 each."}, {"response": 533, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (06:31)", "body": "Hi all Jonathan Power, MSG 508: To lay all these problems at America's feet is to ignore Europe's culpability. The older Continent, if only on occasion wiser and better informed about the rest of the world, has only intermittently done much better. Now it must wake up too. Rob: I always wondered if Britain had anything to gain from it's loyalty to the United States, aside from being assured of assistance when it got into it's own troubles. I mean, what is there to gain from always supporting the United States sanctions on Iraq, the unconditional following of the United States when it attacks the Myanmar military regime politics and so on? Does Britain have a rule of basing it's foreign policy on the United States foreign policy? The few exceptions I have noted were the Kyoto Climate Protocol, for the sake of the Protocol, Britain did not have a choice since Bush was determined not to participate and it's relationship with European nations was at stake. This is however one time when I think European were dead on target, and that Japan was wise to support the protocol. Perhaps the best thing the European nations can do is deliver warnings to their embassies in the United States, on things where a potential split is likely, and back it up with a rebuke or rebuttal (call it what you may)of the United States stand if it clashes. The foreign policy of European nations need not be blindly tied as is possibly the case in Britain, with the United States on everything. Surely in one of the most civilised areas of the world, there are people who can give their nations original foreign policy. However, the best thing that can happen is Bush dropping his very arrogant \"take it or leave it\" attitude which is causing splits among countries that are usually closely tied. Russia and the United States share more in common than they probably think, but Russia has a valid point on the 1972 ABM Treaty, as does Beijing on the missile shield as a whole. I would normally not agree with them on this sort of thing, so this is quite significant coming from me. The worst thing that can happen on this issue is if North Korea decides to restart it's missile program. If this happens the United States has only itself to blame, because Clinton managed to break the ice. Finally, however, Europe can bring itself and the United States to their senses by taking a hard line on things like the Missile shield (which I think is going to restart the arms race and probably bring on a limited form of Cold War). I have absolutely no time for the $30 billion white elephant it may become. So, Europe is as much at fault as it's American neighbour. Rob"}, {"response": 534, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (09:06)", "body": "The today's climate of terrorism, missile shields seem like overkill, don't they Rob? It wouldn't have helped us 9/11. This is likely to thaw out the US now that we need an international coalition, that's the only way we can combat worldwide terrorism. For a map of how countries are taking sides in this coming global conflict, see 52 1 How do the world's countries line up in the terrorism war? in the news conference."}, {"response": 535, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (09:35)", "body": "Much of the Afghan intelligentia was systematically slaughtered between 1978-1982 by KGB-trained Afghan puppet police force. So many, in fact, that it was said to produce a statistical decline in the literacy rate of that country. Many of those that survived and did not flee the country -- e.g., stayed and fought with the resistance -- were then systematically butchered by the Taliban when they began to consolidate power. It's really a shame. There once were several million educated and modern-thinking Afghans like Tamim Ansary, the author of that wonderful article last week on why the Taliban do not respresent Afghanistan."}, {"response": 536, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (10:19)", "body": "The above should have been attributed to David Kline."}, {"response": 537, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (10:45)", "body": "Both of these from the recent New Yorker. Hendrik Hertzberg, Susan Sontag, John Updike,..... I only read The New Yorker for their cartoons & fiction features. I don't think that fiction authors know any more about international stategies than you or I."}, {"response": 538, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (12:34)", "body": "LOL! Add to that list Harold Pinter..."}, {"response": 539, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (13:07)", "body": "I don't think that fiction authors know any more about international stategies than you or I. Well said, Evelyn! Now that the number of missing/dead has gone up, could someone please post a current list with the total numbers by nationalities."}, {"response": 540, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (13:45)", "body": "Absolutely moon, I'll take Christianne Amanpour over Susan Sontag any day as a political commentator."}, {"response": 541, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (14:37)", "body": "Fox News has an excellent page with around the world dead and missing, but it has not been updated with the latest figures. http://www.foxnews.com/projects/americaunited/wtc_maps/worldinfo.htm The most recent information: Saturday, September 22 10:33 AM SGT US toll put at 6,818 as countries report more missing NEW YORK, Sept 21 (AFP) - The death toll from the attacks on the United States stood at 6,818 Saturday after 11 more bodies were pulled from the ruins of the World Trade Center. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Friday the number of missing could still fluctuate as officials cross check reports of missing people. More than 60 countries have now reported citizens dead or missing, mostly in New York, one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities. But despite continuing round-the-clock rescue efforts, there was now next to no chance of pulling survivors from the rubble of the World Trade Center. UNITED STATES officials have given tallies that add up to 6,818 dead or missing in all the attacks of September 11, but they have still not established the total number of their nationals among the victims 11 days after the attack. In New York, 6,585 people were killed or listed as missing from the World Trade Center disaster (comprising 252 confirmed dead and 6,333 missing, presumed dead). Workers have identified 183 bodies, including those of 34 firemen. At the Pentagon, 189 people are confirmed dead or missing. So far, 117 bodies have been recovered, of which 52 have been identified as of Friday. The Department of Defense said search and recovery operations would continue. The missing figure at both sites include the 157 passengers and crew of the two hijacked aircraft that crashed into the World Trade Center and the 64 on the one that flew into the Pentagon. Adding the 44 on the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, the number of people on the four planes is given as 265. (American Airlines flight 11, the first to hit the twin towers of the WTC, was carrying 92 passengers and crew; United Airlines flight 175, which hit the second tower, had 65 people on board; American Airlines flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, was carrying 64 people; and United Airlines 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania without reaching its target, had 44 on board.) ARGENTINA said four of its nationals were missing. AUSTRALIA said three of its nationals were confirmed dead. Another 20 who were in the top floors of the World Trade Center were missing, presumed dead, and consular staff in Canberra and New York were looking for another 32 Australians reported as missing. AUSTRIA said around 40 of its nationals were missing, one of them a 25-year-old woman named only as Alexandra H. who worked in a bank in the World Trade Center. BANGLADESH said at least 50 Bangladeshis were presumed killed in the carnage at the World Trade Center, where many worked in restaurants and offices. BELGIUM said one of its nationals was missing. BRAZIL said at least 55 of its nationals were missing. BRITAIN lost around 250 of its citizens, according to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. BULGARIA said that one of its citizens was missing. CAMBODIA said it feared that some 20 of its nationals were missing following the attacks. CANADA said three of its nationals were confirmed dead and between 35 and 40 were still missing. CHILE's New York consulate said two of its nationals were missing and feared dead, although more than 250 have been reported missing by relatives. CHINA said two Chinese nationals were killed and another was missing. A man and woman, both in their 60s, died aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Chinese authorities originally said three people had died, but the foreign ministry revised the figure, saying that a man, Chen Xiaobing, had been rescued from the lower floors of the building. A 41-year-old Chinese was reported missing. COLOMBIA's consulate in New York said two of its nationals were killed -- one aboard an American Airlines plane that slammed into the side of the twin towers -- while 10 others were missing. Earlier, Colombia's Red Cross had said that 295 people were reported missing. While 17 people worked in the twin towers, others may have been present in the area at the time. The CZECH REPUBLIC said 56 of its citizens who had been in the United States were unaccounted for. Of those, up to 15 nationals were thought to have been in New York or Washington at the time of the attacks, according to the foreign ministry. DENMARK's foreign ministry said that all of its citizens previously reported missing had turned up safe and sound and that there had therefore been no Danish casualties in the attacks. The DOMINICAN REPUBLIC said one citizen, a paramedic, was found dead and 30 are missing, according to the country's consulate in New York. ECUADOR listed seven citizens as dead, including one who was a passenger on a hijacked airliner, and 29 missing. EGYPT's ambassador to the United States said four Egyptians were feared dea"}, {"response": 542, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (23:52)", "body": "Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 12:25:26 -0400 From: \"cpmcnel@usit.net\" To: \"terry@www.spring.net\" Subject: RE: WTC - How do you feel? [ The following text is in the \"iso-8859-1\" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the \"US-ASCII\" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] Hi Paul, Carol Nelson here. I am in south Florida baby sitting my grandchildren. We drove down The Farm last week through hurricane Gabriella. My Daughter Kim McCusker and her husband Paul are in NYC, ground zero. They are part of the search and rescue team deployed from the Miami-Dade Area. They are both highly trained K-9 search and rescue fire fighters.They have been there about a week already and will probably not retutn until the end of next week. So we are getting first hand info on a daily basis. Not Good! I have a friend that works around the block on Broad street. She called me after the first hit and we were on the phone when the second plane hit. You could hear and feel it thru the phone lines. I heard Michael Gavin's cousin was in one of the bulidings and is missing. All the talk of WAR is so bad. So hard to hear and think about. All I can do is continue to pray for peace. Peace Carol"}, {"response": 543, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep 22, 2001 (23:58)", "body": "Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 15:23:33 -0700 From: Gerald Wheeler To: Paul Terry Walhus Subject: Re: WTC - How do you feel? it is now about midnight sept. 21, 2001...autumn equinox, i am in oakland california, i just finished watching the a's beat seattle in the first game of a three game series, between innings i flipped over a channel to watch what most everyone else that was watching television tonight was probably watching, the fund-raiser and tribute to those who died ten days ago in the attacks on the wtc and the pentagon and the final plane that was brought down most likely by a group of courageous passengers who took on the hijackers and crashed that plane in a field in pennsylvania, so many heroes keep emerging from the center of the tragedy, and what a powerful assembly there on the tv, i am moved by the sense that we as a nation, for the first time in my memory, have been brought together like never before, and it's real and it's full of power and authenticity and i catch a glimmer of something inside of me that suddenly says that america really is worth saving, and i let that glimmer grow into more of a flame and i see that for all of its' faults, there just isn't anything or any other place like this place and the freedom that it provides everyone of us who share its' soil...i think about what to do about achieving justice and how it is a good idea to take the time to let things settle in the mind and calm that which cries out for revenge, because revenge is knee-jerk and full of anger and confusion and does not offer real satisfaction because its' results are uneven and because an uneven response creates more suffering...i think about who or what the enemy really is and i come to the conclusion that the enemy is not the taliban or hezbollah or the islamic jihad or osama bin laden or fundamentalist christians or fundamentalist jews or fundamentalist moslems or jerry falwell or yassar arrafat or north korea or chevron oil or suicide bombers or the bible or the koran...it is evil...the real enemy is simply evil, evil in whatever form and shape it may incarnate into at any time or place, and i think about how it is imperative that we learn to recognize evil in all its' forms and whenever and wherever it appears, and that we take sufficient care to respond in ways in which its' effects are cancelled and diffused, and this applies to the everyday, right under our nose kinds of evil, out to the broader, affecting all of humanity kinds as well, and that how we respond will determine the outcome of events in the future, and i think about what that means to me individually and i am reminded of how grateful i am that i have a way to get calm, that i learned how to meditate thirty years ago and try to practice on a regular basis, oh it doesn't always prevent one from getting caught in the cross-fire but sometimes it seems like it helps slow down the bullets so that you can see where to not step, non-action thru action, and makes you aware that everything begins in the mind, everything, so the key is to tame the fury of the mind, and transform pain and hardship into compassion and real strength by doing so, we individually hold the answer to our situation but to see that clearly we must first conquer the fury...om mani padme om! --all the best, gerald wheeler"}, {"response": 544, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 23, 2001 (00:59)", "body": "David Kline (dkline) Sat Sep 22 '01 (12:11) 49 lines There's also a difference between saying the US \"created\" Bin Laden and the Taliban and saying -- much more correctly -- that our policies *contributed* (mostly indirectly) to their emergence and rise to power. The US funded the already-fighting Afghan resistance to Soviet occupation beginning in the early 1980s -- as well it should have. But the problem was, beginning in about 1983-84 and despite warnings from many people (l'il ol' me included), the US allowed the Pakistani intelligence services (SIS) to channel the great bulk of that aid to the fanatical fundamentalist wing of the resistance, called Hezbi Islami. (And just to be clear, the fundamentalists did almost NO fighting against the Russians during the war. They concentrated their fire on rival resistance groups such as Ahmed Shah massoud's \"Northern Alliance.\") The Paks had their own reasons for doing this, of course, including influence within SIS from Pakistan's own emerging fundamentalists (Jamiatt Islami), as well as a desire to see a liberated but weak Afghanistan. But still, it was our guns and money, and we should have funneled it equally to all forces actually fighting for liberation from the USSR, or if we were really smart, mostly to forces (such as Massoud or Mr. Rabbani or even the Gailani clan) with whom we could expect to have a civil conversation and normal state relations in a post-Soviet Afghanistan. But Washington claimed its hands were tied and it couldn't intervene in Pakistan's \"internal affairs.\" Remember, during the 80s the US was very concerned to keep Pakistan within the anti-Soviet orbit, even if it meant looking the other way re: nuclear development or how much arms & money went to which rebel forces. I'm not saying that was right -- in fact, I urged responsible officials to stop allowing our aid to be channeled to the fundamentalists before they became too strong. But this sort of \"Realpolitik\" was very much SOP for Washington during the 1970s and 80s. As the Soviets neared defeat in Afghanistan in 1985-86, Saudi fanatics such as Bin Laden and other foreign Arab volunteers began pouring in to Afghanistan. By 1987-88, the Soviets were gone and the US (in another stupid move) swung its aid pendulum to the other extreme and basically abandoned the Afghan people to starve. In the years that followed, then, the emergent Taliban were aided and abetted both by Afghanistan's small fundamentalist wing (Hezbi Islami) as well as by the Pak SIS, now dominated by Jamiat Islami (Pakistani fundamentalist) forces. And in the end, the Taliban filled the vacumn left by 20 years of a near genocidal war against the Soviets. The rest is history. Sorry to be a broken record on this, but it just riles me to hear people spout half-truths about who the Taliban are and how they emerged -- as if Washington's myopia circa 1984-85 justfies what happened at the WTC."}, {"response": 545, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 23, 2001 (01:02)", "body": "September 22, 2001 THE INVESTIGATION Tape Reveals Wild Struggle on Flight 93 By JAMES RISEN and DAVID JOHNSTON ASHINGTON, Sept. 21 \ufffd A desperate and wild struggle took place aboard the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 before it crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania, according to the plane's cockpit voice recorder, law enforcement officials said today. The recording has been played for Attorney General John Ashcroft and the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, the officials said. And while it did not provide a clear or complete picture, it seemed certain that there was a chaotic confrontation that apparently led to the crash of the jet. In another development, American intelligence officials said today they believed that the assassination of the leader of the anti- Taliban alliance in Afghanistan on Sept. 9 was probably carried out by associates of Osama bin Laden. The assassination appears to have been the first step in the terror plot that culminated in the attacks on the United States two days later, the officials said. The voice recorder picked up scuffling sounds as well as shouts in Arabic and English, the officials said, but listeners have not been able to discern what was happening or who among the passengers, crew members or hijackers was involved in the struggle. In the past week, officials have said that the passengers appeared to have stormed the cockpit after the four hijackers commandeered the flight. That account has been based primarily on cellphone conversations between passengers and people on the ground. Technical experts are continuing their efforts to enhance the sounds from the cockpit listening device, which uses microphones in the headsets of the pilots and mounted on the cockpit ceiling. Mr. Mueller visited the crash site on Thursday after he received a preliminary briefing on the recorder's contents. He said that the passengers heroically prevented the hijackers from striking their target, an undetermined site in Washington. \"I think both of us here and \ufffd both the attorney general and I and the attorney general of Pennsylvania have indicated we believe those passengers on this jet were absolute heroes and their actions during this flight were heroic,\" he said. \" continued at http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/22/national/22INQU.html?todaysheadlines"}, {"response": 546, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Sun, Sep 23, 2001 (02:45)", "body": "A Former Pakistani Prime Minister Weighs In By Benazir Bhutto Friday, Sept. 21, 2001 Little in life springs from whole cloth. That is especially true of Sept. 11, 2001, a date stained into the calendar of civilization. This was a calamity two decades in the making. At the end of 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, hoping to strengthen their position in Central Asia and develop proximity to the resources and warm ports of the Gulf. Almost immediately an indigenous insurrection developed to challenge the Soviet occupation. The freedom fighters were called the \"Mujahadeen\" and were composed of seven different factions. In its early days, the Reagan administration made a decision that would shape the course of history. It backed the one faction most likely to successfully challenge the Soviets on the battlefield. Working with their counterparts in the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), the CIA armed, trained, and empowered the most extreme, anti-modernity, anti-Western zealots within the Mujahadeen. This propelled the extremists to a leadership position in the war of resistance and in the politics that followed. The war in Afghanistan caused one of the great refugee migrations in modern history. Nearly three million Afghans crossed into Pakistan to escape the fighting. Almost immediately scores of special Islamic schools, called Madrassas, sprang up. The boys that were sent there by their parents to be nourished and educated were taught extremism, intolerance, subjugation of women, and violence. All of these elements are antithetical to the Holy Book and to the teachings of the Prophet. When the children were not being brainwashed, they were trained in hand-to-hand combat, the use of weapons, and terrorist strategy. These schools became the recruitment centers for the fanatic administration that ultimately took control of Afghanistan after the Soviet exit. The new political movement was named after the schools themselves. The word \"Talib\" means student! I became prime minister of Pakistan in 1988 during the waning days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The last Soviet troops were airlifted out of Afghanistan on Feb. 15, 1989. The international community quickly turned its attention to events in Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was left concerned at the lack of a post-Soviet plan for the reconstruction and governing of Afghanistan. I was also concerned at the go-at-it-alone attitude of the extremist factions that wanted the government, and ultimately they prevailed. I suspected that having defeated one superpower, the zealots felt invincible and divinely empowered to take aim at another. As a moderate, progressive, democratically elected woman prime minister of Pakistan, I was a threat to the fundamentalist zealots on multiple levels and targeted by them in both my governments. They had the support of sympathetic elements within Pakistan's security apparatus and the financial support of people like Osama Bin Laden. I had closed their training university in Peshawar and was targeted for that. I had tracked down and extradited the Ramzi Yousef, the perpetrator of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, and was targeted for that. My government was destabilized. Money was pilfered and laundered from state banks to fund the campaigns of opposition parties. We learned from Ramzi Yousef before he was extradited to the United States that I was the object of two separate assassination attempts in 1993. Osama Bin Laden personally spent over $10 million in late 1989 in support of a motion of no confidence to topple my government. And ultimately, with the active support of elements of the Pakistani ilitary, my two democratically elected governments were sacked and elections rigged to ensure that my party would not return to power. Beware the power of zealots who are well-funded, well-armed, and supported by elements of your own government! That brings us to the present. A complex and well-funded terrorist network executed the most inhuman terrorist attack in history. The target was America, but it was also the values of freedom everywhere. It seemed Osama and his cohorts read Professor Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and wished to provoke its thesis into reality. Their goal is for the Muslim world to see U.S. retaliation as an act of aggression against Islam. Sept. 11 was the bait. Sadly, this is not over. The United States responded quickly in declaring a fight against international terrorism and cautioned it will be a long process. Asked to assist the U.S. effort against terrorism, Islamabad responded positively. It did this despite elements within the military intelligence complex that have sympathy for the Taliban. Pakistan is saddled with $38 billion in international debt, with $4 billion owed to America. With Egypt and Jordan, the United States has repaid political support with debt retirement in the past. Islamabad expects the same treatment. It also expects the repeal o"}, {"response": 547, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 24, 2001 (17:35)", "body": "For some idea of what the rest of the world is up against, I recommend this little essay of a book report with thanks to JSK for suggesting I read it: PROPHETS, CULTS AND MADNESS http://www.cix.co.uk/~acampbell/bookreviews/r/stevens-price-2.html"}, {"response": 548, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 25, 2001 (00:11)", "body": "From: William Meyers To: tincanman99@aol.com, paul@spring.net, melvyn@freewwweb.com, mmc@well.com, moon93@aol.com, pgribbin@megs.inet.net, malysaght@aol.com, dfrohman@aol.com Subject: a subway ride Postapocalyptic Meditations 23 September 2001 Thursday morning of last week I was taking the subway to work as usual, about nine in the morning, down from Morningside Heights to our office on 62nd Street, across from Lincoln Center. The train was packed full of people, as it always is in the morning rush hour, and I found a nook in which to tuck myself, next to the motorman's small compartment, at thefront of the train. There was enough space around me there to hold up my copy of the day's newspaper and read the first paragraphs of the stories on the front page, but only by keeping the paper folded in half. BUSH ORDERS HEAVY BOMBERS NEAR AFGHANS; DEMANDS BIN LADEN NOW, NOT NEGOTIATIONS That was the headline on the Late Edition of Thursday's Times. At the 96th Street station, where the local train shares the platform with the express and much movement of people from one train to the other goes on, a moment of panic suddenly struck. Shouts of alarm, screams of terror grabbed everyone's attention in the car where I was still standing. Outside the window people were running past the front of the train and toward the 94th Street exit. Inside the car people were yelling, \"What's happening? What's going on?\" Outside on the platform, they were too busy trying to get away to hear anything but their own terrified voices. It occurred to me that at that moment, or any succeeding one, a blinding white flash and explosion could instantly obliterate me and everyone around me. I waited for that to happen, as one moment succeeded the next. The crush of beings outside the train kept struggling for the exit. Then the door of the motorman's compartment opened, and the motorman -- tall and commanding, studded with communications gear -- emerged to assess the scene. I was thinking, \"Just keep moving, man!\" But I couldn't utter a word. He spoke something into his intercom about how there was \"an altercation\" on the platform that needed to be investigated. Then he got back into his compartment and shut the door. I prayed that that would be the end of it and the doors of the train would close. The doors closed, and the train moved out. The south end of the platform slipped by, and the lights of the station fell behind us, overtaken by the darkness of the tunnel. People looked at each other in fear and relief. At some point before we reached the next station, 86th Street -- a local stop -- I realized how much adrenalin had been pumping through my body. Slumping against the door of the motorman's compartment, I closed my eyes and waited for the enormous rush of energy to pass. By the time we reached 66th Street, where I exited the subway, I was thinking that the story of whatever had happened back there would be emerging in the media soon and that I should be on the lookout and looking closely for it. The person in the token booth at 66th Street had no idea what had happened back up the line. It was still too early, I thought. What could have happened? What did \"altercation\" mean? Had a fistfight broken out? Had it been \"to the death\"? Did one or both of the fighters look Arabic? Had one of them pulled a gun, or a bomb, or a flask of anthrax? Nothing was reported later in the media. At least nothing came within range of my own sensors. Apparently it had been just another routine incident -- one of all too many that have been occurring in our lives here for the last couple of weeks. I think it would be safe to say that the stressload in Manhattan has been reaching a maximum tolerance level. But it's the new reality. -- Wm"}, {"response": 549, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 25, 2001 (15:18)", "body": "Today, in a short while, on All Things Considered. 09.25.01 The Bin Laden Group is a diversified corporation with an estimated $5 billion in annual revenue. It's owned and run by the Saudi family of accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. The allegations against the \"black sheep\" of the Bin Laden family have created serious trouble for the family business as partners and associates are backing away. Hear about the Bin Laden Group, Tuesday on All Things Considered."}, {"response": 550, "author": "winter", "date": "Tue, Sep 25, 2001 (19:15)", "body": "I received the following from my advisor, who used to work for Amnesty International in the UK. He's got friends working at the BBC, and this memo came out recently: -----Original Message----- From: Internal Communications Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 2:19 PM Subject: CNN USING 1991 FOOTAGE This email is being sent to all staff ------------------------------------------- There's an important point in the power of press, specifically the Power of CNN. All around the world we are subjected to 3 or 4 huge news distributors, and one of them - as you well know - is CNN. Very well, I guess all of you have been seeing (just as I've been) images from this company. In Particular, one set of images caught my attention: the Palestinians celebrating the bombing, out on the streets, eating celebration sweets and making funny faces for the camera. Well, THOSE IMAGES WERE SHOT BACK IN 1991!!! Those are images of Palestinians celebrating the invasion of Kuwait! It's simply unacceptable that a super-power of communications as CNN uses images which do not correspond to the reality in talking about so serious of an issue. At the BBC here, we have these footages on videotapes recorded in 1991, with the very same images. But now, think for a moment about the impact of such images. Your people are hurt, emotionally fragile, and this kind of broadcast has very high possiblity of causing waves of anger and rage against the Palestinians. It's simply irresponsible to show images such as those. Russell Grossman | Head of Internal Communication | BBC Third Floor | London Broadcasting House | LONDON W1A 1AA"}, {"response": 551, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 25, 2001 (19:53)", "body": "Patriotism, athletics go hand in hand 09/24/2001 Dave Kindred The Sporting News A brilliant day, a Friday in the fall, the sun warm on our backs, we walked to the south portico of the United States Capitol. From that high place we saw in the middle distance the Washington Monument, and we saw, at the far end, the Lincoln Memorial. When we saw all that before us on a beautiful day in a fall of sadness, my friend Verenda said, \ufffdWow.\ufffd Because we live in Washington, we have seen these places a thousand times. But Verenda had it right. Wow. To see these places now, to see them after September 11, is to see them anew. So we walked from the Capitol, and we walked for hours. We saw the bronze of a Civil War general on horseback, soldiers hanging onto an artillery caisson clattering to his side. We saw our faces in mirrored black granite that moans of Vietnam dead. We stood in a marble temple and read on a wall a president's words: \ufffdThe brave men, living and dead, who struggled here . . .\ufffd We stopped in a museum to see the Star-Spangled Banner. By the dawn's early light of September 14, 1814, the massive flag yet waved over Baltimore's Fort McHenry. Americans had outlasted a British siege that (a survivor said) \ufffdthrew at least 1,800 shells among us. We were like pigeons tied by the legs to be shot at.\ufffd The lawyer Francis Scott Key saw that flag and in a poem called his nation \ufffdthe land of the free and the home of the brave.\ufffd We saw three helicopters descend to the White House, always three to confuse an enemy, the three flying under the thunderous cover of fighter jets. We saw flowers left on the Mall by some people from Mongolia who have embraced America. We saw a president's words cut into purple stone: \ufffdThe only thing we have to fear is fear itself.\ufffd The night before our walk, Lisa Beamer came to the Capitol. Her husband had risen against fear. When hijackers thought to fly to Washington -- to destroy the White House? the Capitol? -- Todd Beamer did the kind of brave, selfless thing that is the beating heart of a nation made and sustained by brave, selfless people. Passengers knew planes had crashed into buildings. Beamer and three other men decided to act. Ten years ago, he had been a basketball guard and baseball shortstop/centerfielder at Wheaton College in Illinois. \ufffdGood athlete with good speed, batted second for us, led off sometimes . . . a very solid leader . . . deeply religious . . . very unselfish,\ufffd said his old baseball coach, Ron Frank. \ufffdWhat he did is in total keeping with the man he was.\ufffd Beamer couldn't reach his wife by phone. He asked a GTE Airfone supervisor to recite with him the Lord's Prayer and to call his wife. The last words the supervisor heard from Todd Beamer were these: \ufffdAre you guys ready? Let's roll.\ufffd United Flight 93 soon crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside, apparently taken down in a struggle between passengers and hijackers. Nine days later, Lisa Beamer came to the Capitol to hear President Bush address the nation. \ufffdSeeing the Capitol lit up, it's just glorious,\ufffd she said. \ufffdLawmakers all thanked me for what Todd did. Not only the lives saved, but imagine the emotional devastation to this nation if the Capitol no longer existed.\ufffd Let's roll. Saturday morning, going to a football game in Annapolis, we turned toward Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, turning on Farragut Road, named for the sailor who 137 years ago said, \ufffdDamn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!\ufffd Such men, such a nation. If ever you need reminded of what America is and what it can be, turn down Farragut Road and spend a Saturday afternoon at a Navy football game. There you might talk to a retired captain, Dick Riley of Des Moines, Iowa, class of \ufffd42 with 26 years of active duty. He's 81 years old and on a Saturday in Annapolis he says, \ufffdWe graduated 12 days after Pearl Harbor, 563 of us, and we lost 28 in the war. I pray that today's Midshipmen, special kids each and every one, have as thoroughly fulfilling experiences as I did serving our country.\ufffd Thirty thousand people came to a stadium where even the walls speak of courage: IWO JIMA, MIDWAY, NORMANDY, INCHON, QUANG TRI. The thousands saw a fighter jet fly-over. They heard Francis Scott Key's poem sung a cappella. Just before noon, linebackers Mike Chiesl and Dan Ryno led Navy onto the field in an all-out sprint. They carried high an American flag. No one had ever done that for a Navy game. But never before had there been a September 11, 2001. At dinner Friday night, Chiesl and Ryno had seen the flag in a corner of a hotel lobby. Permission, sir, to liberate the flag. Granted. \ufffdWe wanted to do that for the Naval Academy,\ufffd Chiesl said. \ufffdAnd we were doing it for all of America.\ufffd He's a Texan, a big one, and he stood tall. His eyes were those of a happy young man with journeys to make. When he smiled, he was as handsome as a flag seen by the dawn's early light. Dave Kindred is a contributing writer for The Sporting News. Email him at kindred@sportingnews.com."}, {"response": 552, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Sep 25, 2001 (21:04)", "body": "It's simply unacceptable that a super-power of communications as CNN uses images which do not correspond to the reality in talking about so serious of an issue. Welcome to real world. :-( Mr.Orwell we need you)"}, {"response": 553, "author": "lafn", "date": "Tue, Sep 25, 2001 (21:30)", "body": "Memo to BBC. That footage was shown by all the TV stations, not just CNN. They sure sound high and mighty."}, {"response": 554, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 25, 2001 (23:27)", "body": "Don't make the mistake of watching CBC new on C_SPAN. I came as close to hurling something through my television as I ever have. If we are so loathesome give us back our aid and cease trading with us. As for the media....don't you wonder whose side they're on?! Whose best interest in mind? Other than their own?! Let me hasten to add that I know more nice Canadians than I do Canadian Broadcasting writers... It just infuriated me. The BBC has gone down the tubes I hear from local UK'ers. even they hunt for a more reliable source of news."}, {"response": 555, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (00:16)", "body": "MSNBC did a real good story tonight on the Taliban and the Afghan Northern Alliance. They showed some good footage of Massoud (referenced earlier in this topic) who has been pleading with the West for years to give him just a little bit of aid. He said words to the effect that \"give me a little help and I'll take care of Bin Laden for you, otherwise their will be grave consequences for the West. What better indication of Bin Laden's guilt than the assasination of Massoud just one day for the World Trade Center attack?"}, {"response": 556, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (00:18)", "body": ""}, {"response": 557, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (02:48)", "body": "Message 550:\" In Particular, one set of images caught my attention: the Palestinians celebrating the bombing, out on the streets, eating celebration sweets and making funny faces for the camera.\" \"Well, THOSE IMAGES WERE SHOT BACK IN 1991!!! Those are images of Palestinians celebrating the invasion of Kuwait!\" --------------------------------- CNN statement about false claim it used old video Brazilian university statement says no fact to original claim September 20, 2001 Posted: 4:02 PM EDT (2002 GMT) CNN asks that you copy and e-mail this statement to whomever asks about it.) There is absolutely no truth to the information that is now distributed on the Internet that CNN used 10-year-old video when showing the celebrating of some Palestinians in East Jerusalem after the terror attacks in the U.S. The video was shot that day by a Reuters camera crew. CNN is a client of Reuters and like other clients, received the video and broadcast it. Reuters officials have publicly made the facts clear as well. The allegation is false. The source of the allegation has withdrawn it and apologized. It was started by a Brazilian student who now says he immediately posted a correction once he knew the information was not true. This is the statement by his university -- UNICAMP -- Universidad Estatal de Campinas-Brasil. Again, please read this -- and copy it -- and send it to anyone you know who may have the false information. Thank you. OFFICIAL STATEMENT by Universidad de Campinas-Brasil 17/09/01 UNICAMP (Universidad Estatal de Campinas-Brasil) would like to announce that it has no knowledge of a videotape from 1991, whose images supposedly aired on CNN showing Palestinians celebrating the terrorist attacks in the U.S. The tape was supposedly from 1991, and there were rumors that the images were passed off as current. This information was later denied, as soon as it proved false, by M\ufffdrcio A. V. Carvalho, a student at UNICAMP. He approached the administration today, 17.09.2001, to clarify the following: -- the information he got, verbally, was that a professor from another institution (not from UNICAMP) had the tape; -- he sent the information to a discussion group e-mail list; -- many people from this list were interested in the subject and requested more details; -- he again contacted the person who first gave him the information and the person denied having the tape; -- the student immediately sent out a note clarifying what happened to the people from his e-mail list. The original message, however, was distributed all over the world, often with many distortions, including a falsified by-line article from the student. He affirms that a hacker attacked his domain. Several E-mails have been sent on his behalf and those dating from 15.09.2001 should be ignored. Among the distortions is the fact that UNICAMP would be analyzing the tape, which is absolutely false. The administration considers this alert definitive and will be careful to avoid new rumors. http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/20/cnn.statement/ ------------------------------------- Nevertheless, there have been many(talking heads,\"experts\", writers)who have questioned exactly how that videotape came to be - not that it did not happen, rather, was it staged? who exactly were the people? where exactly was it?, etc."}, {"response": 558, "author": "Bethanne", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (04:18)", "body": "People, I live in Atlanta ( the home of CNN )and I have many friends ( including the Senior Copy Editor for CNN Headline News ) who work at CNN Center downtown, so I gotta speak up on their behalf. CNN would NOT stoop to such a shabby, lazy and downright dishonest tactic, of showing 10 year old footage, while claiming it was current. CNN got taken to the cleaners a couple of years ago, about a story they ran (about biological warfare ) that later turned out to be false. Many, many heads rolled as a result and the public perception of CNN being the first place we all turn to for \"accurate\" breaking news, took a major, major hit. As a result, they double check, triple check and quadrupile check the veracity of ALL stories/film footage BEFORE it is broadcast. Also, it is worth noting.....ALL the major US networks ( ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC )broadcast this footage of the Palestinains dancing in the streets, it wasn't just CNN."}, {"response": 559, "author": "fitzwd", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (07:09)", "body": "(Marcia) Without reading through a lot of posts to see if anyone answeed Laura, rhetorical question, we did pay reparations to the Japanese Americans we interred in WW2...$25,000 each. Aside from the fear factor that was going around after the Pearl Harbor attack, there were politicians and business people who took advantage of the situation and actually fanned the fire, which ultimately led to the internment. The J-Americans happened to reside on land that is now considered prime real estate in Southern California (think of areas like Santa Monica and Orange County). While the general public viewed the internment as safeguarding America, little did the public know that there were those behind the scenes who had a hidden agenda and who helped manipulate the hysteria and sought to profit from the situation by taking over the real estate (shades of the movie Chinatown and water rights). While some survivors received reparations, it was a mere pittance compared to the value of the land that they lost, where EACH parcel is worth several millions today. These J-Americans had to endure humiliation and financial ruin, and were the victims of ugly racisim and greed, yet they picked up the pie es of their shattered lives and continued to live as proud Americans."}, {"response": 560, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (10:32)", "body": "Had no idea their property was confiscated. How on earth was that done legally...in this country?"}, {"response": 561, "author": "mari", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (13:19)", "body": "How on earth was that done legally...in this country? I have the same question. Thanks to Suzee for posting the article debunking the story about the CNN photo. It smelled like urban legend to me, right from the start. Am quickly learning that while the Internet is a great place to share opinions, the facts often suffer."}, {"response": 562, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (13:30)", "body": "There's emminent domain for when a government entity wants property for the public good (debatable) in which owners receive some compensation though not anywhere near market value. It has been used for the railroads, schools and other public-private development efforts. Saw a piece on a news magazine show recently on how some town is trying to use it to acquire a whole neighborhood for a Target store. People are up in arms."}, {"response": 563, "author": "fitzwd", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (13:31)", "body": "How on earth was that done legally...in this country? How on earth was internment of citizens -- not foreign nationals -- U.S. CITIZENS, done legally in this country? Where was the evidence of a threat to national security?"}, {"response": 564, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (13:40)", "body": "Not to excuse anyone's behavior and the complete lack of reason and illegality, people tend to go a little hysterical when a country's military installation is attacked. There are numerous examples in our history...unfortunately. When there is a threat from a foreign country, people turn xenophobic just as is occurring now. It is interesting to me that we've learned from our past when I see the PR campaigns to educate the ignorant members of our society."}, {"response": 565, "author": "Moon", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (13:53)", "body": "It is interesting to me that we've learned from our past when I see the PR campaigns to educate the ignorant members of our society. Better late than never. Will they go back to being their ignorant selves once the Fall TV season starts?"}, {"response": 566, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (15:48)", "body": "Depends on their diet of *reality* TV and idiotic night-time quiz shows."}, {"response": 567, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (18:50)", "body": "From: Gerald Wheeler Subject: well worth considering i'd recommend this to all: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/09/26/ED69828.DTL"}, {"response": 568, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Sep 26, 2001 (19:28)", "body": "Jerome Karabel is a professor of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley and a senior fellow at the Rockridge Institute You want *me* to take some academic from *Berkeley* serious??? Those dudes consistently make government - bashing their #1 indoor sport."}, {"response": 569, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 27, 2001 (01:40)", "body": "Ah yes, Angela Davis taught there, no? Does she still? Kiddies go do your homework!"}, {"response": 570, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Thu, Sep 27, 2001 (02:11)", "body": "......How on earth was that done legally...in this country? .... The US government started to lay the groundwork for controlling subversive activities prior to Pearl Harbor (but in anticipation of joining the war) by passing a slew of new laws. These included the Smith Act, basically intended to suppress \"disloyalty.\" Roosevelt signed an Executive Order in 1942, giving the army broad power to \"exclude\" questionable persons from certain areas. A month or so later, he signed a bill passed by congress making it criminal to disobey the order. I think the legal basis for the internment was the \ufffdAlien Enemies Act\ufffd passed 150 or so years before. It allowed alien internment during wartime. At first, some people tried to move to other locations, but there was really no place to go. Wherever they tried to go, the fear and outcry was so great that the government then disallowed it and started to round them up. Those being removed were given 5 days notice and told to dispose of property. The government made some kind of vague offer to store property for them, but at the same time refused to be liable for it. They sold what they could, but obviously many had to \ufffdabandon\ufffd their homes, boats, businesses, etc. Japanese-Americans lost millions in property and income and it was not just the Japanese. Germans and Italians were interned, as were some conscientious objectors. I hope Karen is right that we have learned from our past history. I am not yet sure. You can read Executive Order 9066 here: http://www.foitimes.com/internment/EO9066.html"}, {"response": 571, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 27, 2001 (08:29)", "body": "The more I research the foundations of the al-Qaeda movement, the more depressing it gets. Take a look at the article from which this quote is taken. It's from the work fo a Harvard prof who was researching schools in Pakistan that teach jihad. Here's a quotation from her article: This is some research regarding the4 al-Qaeda movement by a Harvard Professor who researched schools in Parkistan that teach jihad as a discipline. \"I want to talk to you as I would talk to my own daughter,\" he suddenly said. \"You believe too much in science. Science turns a cheap thing like a piece of metal into something valuable, like an airplane. \"Have you ever thought that you could become precious yourself? The way for a human being to become precious is to obey the principles of the one who created us. The way to become precious is through jihad. Nobody knows when he will die, so you must start the journey toward Islam,\" he told me kindly. http://www.bullatomsci.org/issues/2001/jf01/jf01stern.html Here's another excerpt from that article: What happens to families whose children become martyrs? Most of the mothers I interviewed said they were happy to have donated their sons to jihad because their sons could help them in the next life--the \"real life.\" Syed Qurban Hussain, the father of a martyr, said, \"Whoever gives his life in the way of Allah lives forever and earns a place in heaven for 70 members of his family, to be selected by the martyr.\" Families of martyrs become celebrities after their children die. \"Everyone treats me with more respect now that I have a martyred son,\" Hussain added. \"And when there is a martyr in the village, it encourages more children to join the jihad. It raises the spirit of the entire village.\" http://pakistannation.net/ActionAlerts/Alert_pakwar.htm"}, {"response": 572, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 27, 2001 (18:41)", "body": "From what I have read lately about the Bin Lauden siblings, they want nothing whatever to do with him - no matter his status!"}, {"response": 573, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 28, 2001 (09:32)", "body": "The Al Queda organization has been ripped open and exposed by ABC News. Inside Al Qaeda Bin Laden Defector Ties Hijack Suspect to Training Camp Sept. 26 \ufffd A defector from Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization, al Qaeda, has told ABCNEWS that one of the men accused of hijacking the planes used in the Sept. 11 attacks trained with him at one of the terrorist mastermind's camps in Afghanistan. MORE ON THIS STORY FULL COVERAGE \ufffd America Attacked VIDEO \ufffd Former bin Laden Soldier Speaks Out \ufffd A Nation United: Full Video Coverage COMMUNITY \ufffd ABCNEWS' John Miller on Meeting Bin Laden RELATED STORIES \ufffd John Miller Interviews Bin Laden (May 1998) \ufffd FBI Releases Photos, Seeks Public Tips \ufffd Inside the Taliban \ufffd Pilot Arrested in London Instructed Suspected Hijackers \ufffd The Other Victims of Sept. 11: Pets \ufffd Can New Buildings be Built Any Stronger? The defector said he trained for six months at a camp in Afghanistan to become an intelligence agent for bin Laden. When shown photographs of the 19 hijackers, the defector said he recognized one of them, a man federal investigators have identified as Majed Moqed, a possible Saudi national. \"Yeah \ufffd He was with my class ... I could recognize him from his face,\" the defector said. \"He is from Saudi Arabia, and he is about 25 to 30 years old.\" The Department of Justice has identified Moqed as one of five men suspected of taking control of American Airlines Flight 77 and crashing the plane into the Pentagon. If the defector is right, he may have provided an important link between bin Laden and the hijackers. Federal investigators have said they have concrete information linking one or more of the hijackers to al Qaeda but they have not publicly linked any of the suspects directly to bin Laden or his camps. The defector, who is now living outside Afghanistan, said he was shocked by the attacks, but not surprised that the attackers were willing to give their lives for bin Laden and his cause. \"Yes, I was shocked, but I know them better than that. They are not only 19 people. There are a thousand people who want to sacrifice themselves for bin Laden, not only 19. There are more than a thousand. All of them \ufffd in Europe, in Canada or in Saudi Arabia \ufffd all of them want to do this kind of actions. Terrorist actions.\" He said there were 18 other students in his class at the training camp. He said he received training in how to conduct surveillance and how to gather detailed information on potential targets. He said he heard people talk of hijacking airliners, but that he never heard anything about a plot to crash jets into buildings in New York and Washington. He said bin Laden spoke to his class several times, warning that the United States and Israel wanted to destroy Islam, and that they must be destroyed first. He said his 18 fellow students were sent home to cities in Europe, the Middle East and Canada where they were to wait \ufffd as sleeper agents \ufffd for instructions. He said he had no doubt his fellow students would obey any instructions that came from bin Laden. \"If bin Laden asked [you] to put a bomb on your body and explode it, they won't say no. They will do that,\" he said. After two years in bin Laden's organization, the defector said he became disillusioned with so many plots that targeted innocent civilians. He has defected from al Qaeda and is now cooperating with the U.S. government. He doubted that the U.S. military, or even special forces, would be able to capture bin Laden in Afghanistan. \"It is impossible to find bin Laden. Bin Laden has many, many places in Afghanistan. You cannot find him,\" he said, adding that bin Laden is still guarded by a cadre of heavily armed bodyguards, including three of his sons."}, {"response": 574, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Sep 28, 2001 (10:10)", "body": "Thanks for all the background, Suzee. Actually, the part that I found hard to believe was the loss of property. Internment I could see how they would achieve. In the US, there are probably greater safeguards on property than human life from a legal standpoint. :-("}, {"response": 575, "author": "fitzwd", "date": "Fri, Sep 28, 2001 (11:37)", "body": "loss of property The internees were sometimes given as few as 2 days to handle their affairs before they were shipped off to the camps. They had to leave everything behind. Those that sold, received not pennies on the dollar, but fractions of pennies on the dollar, as vultures were standing in line ready to take advantage of the situation. While interned, no income was generated, so if people held onto their property, they ultimately could not make mortgage payments or pay property taxes. There were no grace periods, only quick foreclosures. The economic loss was estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. All of this was documented in a recent government publication. Some of the literature that has been written about this episode preface the actual internment with a history and description of the location of the real estate occupied. A few expressions come to mind, like follow the money, do the math, or as John McCain recently said about the war we've just entered, \"get a map.\" Most people don't realize the art that automakers had in the demise of the US railway system. Likewise, most people don't understand the machinations that went on behind the scene during the internment process. And I believe reparations were only $20,000, not $25,000 as earlier reported."}, {"response": 576, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Fri, Sep 28, 2001 (22:58)", "body": "...(Donna) And I believe reparations were only $20,000, not $25,000 as earlier reported...... I think it *was* $20,000 -- $20,000 and an apology! There were some reparations paid in about 1948 \ufffd a pittance that amounted to about 5 cents on the dollar. And non-Japanese real estate speculators did grow rich on land bought from Japanese-Americans for next to nothing and sold later at sky-high prices. Japanese-Americans lost property in many ways. Besides having it confiscated and losing equity (hard to make payments from \ufffdcamp\ufffd), homes and businesses were vandalized and destroyed and also condemned whether they deserved it or not. What is that quotation about evil prevailing when good men do nothing? ...(karen) In the US, there are probably greater safeguards on property than human life from a legal standpoint. :-( The truth is that it could happen again right now. The Federal government has enormous power, and the President can do almost anything with the Executive Order(new or existing). The process totally by-passes Congress. He/she can declare martial law, take property, take over power companies, education facilities, airports, manpower, supplies and services as \"needed.\" It can be used for good or bad. Andrew Jackson used it to remove Cherokee Indians from their land; Lincoln suspended certain legal rights, closed newspapers opposed to his policies; Roosevelt issued the previously mentioned 9066; FEMA was created by E.O.; Truman integrated the US armed forces; Eisenhower sent troops to aid integration in Little Rock. In the 1930's an E.O. required all gold to be turned in to the Federal treasury. I'm losing count of the wars we've fought without war being declared. Bush used an E.O. this week to freeze terrorists' assets. He signed one in June covering the Balkans, prohibiting US companies from doing business with certain individuals and \"blocking the property and interest in property\" of persons threatening stabilization efforts there. In the right atmosphere of fear and panic, etc., all these things can combine to allow rotten things to happen. Throw in a \"real\", declared war and the sky's the limit. It's sure a heck of an argument for paying *very* close attention to what your government is doing -- not to mention what we ourselves are doing as citizens. National Archives and Records Administration Federal Register - Executive Orders http://www.nara.gov/fedreg/eo.html"}, {"response": 577, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sat, Sep 29, 2001 (10:46)", "body": "In the right atmosphere of fear and panic, etc., all these things can combine to allow rotten things to happen Well Suzee,that's why I'm glad that I live in a democracy with elections. We can always throw the bums out and the next guy can rescind those EO orders if the public deems it so. Sadly, minority groups seldom have that leaverage (Japanese). Hopefully, we're wiser now . I was happy to see that our representatives are respecting the law-abiding Muslim citizens in our country by going to mosques, including Muslim reps at services.Now it has to filter down to Joe Sixpack. But it is inconceivable that any president would repeat the error of the Japanese internments."}, {"response": 578, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct  1, 2001 (10:21)", "body": "A poll released Friday by Ekos Research Associates for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and two newspapers found 63 percent of the 1,228 respondents said they felt ``a closer sense of shared values and interests with the Americans'' since the attacks. Fifty-nine percent supported giving up some ``national sovereignty'' to increase North America's security. In sharing the world's longest undefended border and world's largest trade partnership with the United States, Canadians realize the relationship that has bolstered their economy and guaranteed military defense now carries new demands and responsibilities. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011001/ts/attacks_follow_the_leader_1.html"}, {"response": 579, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct  1, 2001 (10:31)", "body": "David Kline's comments posted in news 54: People have been saying here that the Taliban brought peace out of chaos in Afghanistan and how do we know that the Northern Alliance or anyone else would be better? For the answers, see the rest in the news conference topic 54."}, {"response": 580, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct  1, 2001 (11:29)", "body": "Militants storm J&K Assembly, 25 killed SRINAGAR: In a daring suicide attack, an explosive-laden car was blown up by militants on Monday near the entrance of the Jammu and Kashmir state legislature. At least 26 people were feared killed and 50 injured in the attack. Pakistan-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the attack. http://www.timesofindia.com/"}, {"response": 581, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct  1, 2001 (15:05)", "body": "ABC News reports. Taliban Taunt Says U.S. Doesn't Have Courage for Afghan War Oct. 1 \ufffd Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia said Osama bin Laden is under their control \ufffd but the United States \"doesn't have the courage\" to come get him \ufffd Taliban Says U.S. Doesn't Have Courage for Afghan War \ufffd FBI Foils Possible Sears Tower Attack \ufffd Will Sept. 11 Change our Apolitical Youth? \"Americans don't have the courage to come here,\" Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar said in an interview with Taliban-run Kabul radio. He recalled the failures of Soviet and British forces to subdue Afghans, and repeatedly warned the United States to \"think and think again before attacking Afghanistan.\" The fiery words came a day after a Taliban official, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said the regime was willing to negotiate over bin Laden's surrender, if U.S. officials present evidence of his involvement in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."}, {"response": 582, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  1, 2001 (21:42)", "body": "I spoke with a Canadian man today about their media. He was not surprised at their comments. Apparently their press is even more \"liberal\" than ours was before this ghastly event unfolded."}, {"response": 583, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct  2, 2001 (09:46)", "body": "Cruising in to Austin this morning I tuned in to NPR and heard that NATO just passed a resolution that put's us all in this together and another one time great Afghan fighter has joined our side. Haven't had a chance to check in on http://www.google.com/news yet and look around on CNN, Fox, NYTimes, ABC, etc. but I'll do that later. Sounds like airports are starting to get beefed up security, National Guard, etc. Canada needs to round up the terrorists lurking in the shadows up there, I hope they're mobilizing for this."}, {"response": 584, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct  2, 2001 (10:05)", "body": "Blair: Attack Coming British Prime Minister Warns Taliban; Bush Looks At Economy, Security Issues Oct. 2 \ufffd As the U.S. military dispatched another aircraft carrier in the war against terrorism, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is reportedly set to announce that a military attack on Afghanistan's Taliban regime is \"now imminent and will be devastating.\" Blair will say he has seen strong evidence linking terrorist Osama bin Laden to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, and will tell a Labor Party conference in Brighton, England today that the Taliban, which has been harboring bin Laden, will be made to pay for its actions, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation. The leaders of NATO have also been convinced, after a meeting with U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Francis X. Taylor. \"The facts are clear and compelling. The information presented points conclusively to an al Qaeda role in the 11th of September attacks,\" NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said today. \"We know that the individuals who carried out those attacks were part of the worldwide terrorist network al Qaeda headed by Osama bin Laden and his key lieutenant and protected by the Taliban.\" He said that the information Taylor presented to NATO proved that the attack was directed from abroad, meaning it is covered by NATO's Article 5, which states that an armed attack on one or more NATO nation is to be considered an attack against all of them. \"I want to reiterate yet again today that the United States of America can rely on the full support of its 18 NATO allies in the campaign against international terrorism,\" he said. source ABCnews.com"}, {"response": 585, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  2, 2001 (18:54)", "body": "You and me too, Terry in regards to getting Canada up to speed on this. The only positive note from e politician north of the border that I have heard was from a former Prime Minister. Heaven help us! --------------- A positive Look at 9-11-01... By now everyone has been hearing the death toll rise and reports of the destruction from the terrorist attacks on the US. These were deplorable acts that we will never forget. But now is a time to look at the other side of the numbers coming out of New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. The sad but somewhat uplifting side that the mainstream media has not reported yet -- the SURVIVAL RATES and some positive news about the attacks. The Buildings The World Trade Center The twin towers of the World Trade Center were places of employment for some 50,000 people. With the missing list of just over 5,000 people, that means 90% of the people targeted survived the attack. A 90% on a test is an 'A.' The Pentagon Some 23,000 people were the target of a third plane aimed at the Pentagon. The latest count shows that 123 lost their lives. That is an amazing 99.5% survival rate. In addition, the plane seems to have come in too low, too early to affect a large portion of the building. On top of that, the section that was hit was the first of five sections to undergo renovations that would help protect the Pentagon from terrorist attacks. It had recently completed straightening and blastproofing, saving untold lives. This attack was sad, but a statistical failure. The Planes American Airlines Flight 77 The Boeing 757 that was flown into the outside of the Pentagon could have carried up to 289 people, yet only 64 were aboard. Luckily 78% of the seats were empty. American Airlines Flight 11 The Boeing 767 could have had up to 351 people aboard, but only carried 92. Thankfully 74 % of the seats were unfilled. United Airlines Flight 175 Another Boeing 767 that could have sat 351 people only had 65 people on board. Fortunately it was 81% empty. United Airlines Flight 93 The Boeing 757 was one of the most uplifting stories yet. The smallest flight to be hijacked with only 45 people aboard out of a possible 289 had 84% of its capacity unused. Yet these people stood up to the attackers and thwarted a fourth attempted destruction of a national landmark, saving untold numbers of lives in the process. In Summary Out of potentially 74,280 Americans directly targeted by these inept cowards, 93% survived or avoided the attacks. That's a higher survival rate than heart attacks, breast cancer, kidney transplants and liver transplants--all common, survivable illnesses. The Hijacked planes were mostly empty, the Pentagon was hit at it's strongest point, the overwhelming majority of people in the World Trade Center buildings escaped, and a handful of passengers gave the ultimate sacrifice to save even more lives."}, {"response": 586, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  2, 2001 (19:02)", "body": "Subject: \"Monday Vs Tuesday\" On Monday there were people fighting against praying in schools On Tuesday you would have been hard pressed to find a school where someone was not praying On Monday there were people who were trying to separate each other by race, sex, color and creed On Tuesday they were all holding hands On Monday we thought that we were secure On Tuesday we learned better On Monday we were talking about heroes as being athletes On Tuesday we relearned what hero meant On Monday people went to work at the world trade centers as usual On Tuesday they died On Monday people were fighting the 10 commandments on government property On Tuesday the same people all said 'God help us all' while thinking 'Thou shall not kill' On Monday people argued with their kids about picking up their room On Tuesday the same people could not get home fast enough to hug their kids. On Monday people picked up McDonalds for dinner On Tuesday they stayed home On Monday people were upset that their dry cleaning was not ready on time On Tuesday they were lining up to give blood for the dying On Monday politicians argued about budget surpluses On Tuesday grief stricken they sang 'God Bless America' On Monday we worried about the traffic and getting to work late On Tuesday we worried about a plane crashing into your house or place of business On Monday we were irritated that our rebate checks had not arrived On Tuesday we wanted to give it all back. On Monday some children had solid families On Tuesday they were orphans On Monday the president was going to Florida to read to children On Tuesday he returned to Washington to protect our children On Monday we emailed jokes On Tuesday we did not It is sadly ironic how it takes horrific events to place things into perspective, but it has. May God help us with the lessons learned this week, the things we have taken for granted, the things that have been forgotten or overlooked, the ruts that we have allowed ourselves to follow. It may well be better for us not to get back to normal. On Monday - pray and be thankful! On Tuesday - pray and be thankful! On Wednesday - pray and be thankful! On Thursday - pray and be thankful! On Friday - pray and be thankful! On Saturday - pray and be thankful! On Sunday - pray and be thankful!"}, {"response": 587, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Oct  2, 2001 (19:08)", "body": "Marcia, thanks for posting that 'positive view' of Sept 11 - gave me chills to read those numbers. *big hug* btw- *grin*"}, {"response": 588, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  2, 2001 (19:19)", "body": "*Big Hugs!!! EsBee, I have missed you! I'll be in your area at the end of this month! My son is finally gonna tie the old proverial knot. Imagine riding a 100+ story building as it collapsed and emerging alive? Or worse still, going down all those stairs fro 2 1/2 hous to reach ground level just as the rest of the building collapses and you have just made it out! Talk about There, but for the Grace of God, go I..."}, {"response": 589, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Oct  2, 2001 (19:34)", "body": "Your going to be in Cal???? will email you - we HAVE to get together this time!!! Congrats to David btw!!"}, {"response": 590, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  2, 2001 (21:36)", "body": "Thanks for the congrats. Your two emails are already on their way!"}, {"response": 591, "author": "Anek", "date": "Wed, Oct  3, 2001 (07:36)", "body": "I'm not sure if it was published here. Even more doubts if I shoul put the below message here. Film about Osama bin Laden in production Guardian Unlimited Monday October 1, 2001 It was only a matter of time before it happened, but many will be surprised to hear that a fictional film about Osama bin Laden is already in production. The film rights to British writer and former SAS officer Andy McNab's book Crisis Four have been bought by Miramax and according to the books publishers Corgi, \"The process is already several stages down the line.\" The book tells the story of a \"steel-willed\" British woman who is recruited by bin Laden to work her way into American security, blow up the White House and kill the president. The book's hero Nick Stone, a former SAS man who McNab says is \"partly autobiographical\" has the task of hunting down the woman. McNab is aware that the film will attract criticism when so many studios are avoiding any mention of terrorism or the World Trade Centre but insists he is not jumping on the bandwagon as the book was first published in 1999. \"Many people have bought the book since September 11 because of the coincidences,\" he told the Daily Telegraph. \"It shows that you don't have to have a beard and a turban to be working for bin Laden.\" Mystery surrounds the identity of the real Andy McNab as he writes under a pseudonym and there are no photographs of him although his books which lift the lid on the secret world of the SAS have been hugely successful worldwide. His 1994 novel Bravo Two Zero about his unit's experiences in Iraq during the Gulf war sold over a million copies in the UK alone I was afraid that someday there will be somebody who will try to produce a film about bin Laden to make money out of the tragedy. But I didn't imagine that it's already happening."}, {"response": 592, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  3, 2001 (10:29)", "body": "*More Short Skirts and Dancing, Advises Prominent Fatwa Victim *8-/ Fighting the Forces of Invisibility By Salman Rushdie Tuesday, October 2, 2001; Page A25 NEW YORK -- In January 2000 I wrote in a newspaper column that \"the defining struggle of the new age would be between Terrorism and Security,\" and fretted that to live by the security experts' worst-case scenarios might be to surrender too many of our liberties to the invisible shadow-warriors of the secret world. Democracy requires visibility, I argued, and in the struggle between security and freedom we must always err on the side of freedom. On Tuesday, Sept. 11, however, the worst-case scenario came true. They broke our city. I'm among the newest of New Yorkers, but even people who have never set foot in Manhattan have felt its wounds deeply, because New York is the beating heart of the visible world, tough-talking, spirit- dazzling, Walt Whitman's \"city of orgies, walks and joys,\" his \"proud and passionate city -- mettlesome, mad, extravagant city!\" To this bright capital of the visible, the forces of invisibility have dealt a dreadful blow. No need to say how dreadful; we all saw it, are all changed by it. Now we must ensure that the wound is not mortal, that the world of what is seen triumphs over what is cloaked, what is perceptible only through the effects of its awful deeds. In making free societies safe -- safer -- from terrorism, our civil liberties will inevitably be compromised. But in return for freedom's partial erosion, we have a right to expect that our cities, water, planes and children really will be better protected than they have been. The West's response to the Sept. 11 attacks will be judged in large measure by whether people begin to feel safe once again in their homes, their workplaces, their daily lives. This is the confidence we have lost, and must regain. Next: the question of the counterattack. Yes, we must send our shadow- warriors against theirs, and hope that ours prevail. But this secret war alone cannot bring victory. We will also need a public, political and diplomatic offensive whose aim must be the early resolution of some of the world's thorniest problems: above all the battle between Israel and the Palestinian people for space, dignity, recognition and survival. Better judgment will be required on all sides in future. No more Sudanese aspirin factories to be bombed, please. And now that wise American heads appear to have understood that it would be wrong to bomb the impoverished, oppressed Afghan people in retaliation for their tyrannous masters' misdeeds, they might apply that wisdom, retrospectively, to what was done to the impoverished, oppressed people of Iraq. It's time to stop making enemies and start making friends. To say this is in no way to join in the savaging of America by sections of the left that has been among the most unpleasant consequences of the terrorists' attacks on the United States. \"The problem with Americans is . . . \" -- \"What America needs to understand . . . \" There has been a lot of sanctimonious moral relativism around lately, usually prefaced by such phrases as these. A country which has just suffered the most devastating terrorist attack in history, a country in a state of deep mourning and horrible grief, is being told, heartlessly, that it is to blame for its own citizens' deaths. (\"Did we deserve this, sir?\" a bewildered worker at \"ground zero\" asked a visiting British journalist recently. I find the grave courtesy of that \"sir\" quite astonishing.) Let's be clear about why this bien-pensant anti-American onslaught is such appalling rubbish. Terrorism is the murder of the innocent; this time, it was mass murder. To excuse such an atrocity by blaming U.S. government policies is to deny the basic idea of all morality: that individuals are responsible for their actions. Furthermore, terrorism is not the pursuit of legitimate complaints by illegitimate means. The terrorist wraps himself in the world's grievances to cloak his true motives. Whatever the killers were trying to achieve, it seems improbable that building a better world was part of it. The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable government, Jews, homosexuals, women's rights, pluralism, secularism, short skirts, dancing, beardlessness, evolution theory, sex. These are tyrants, not Muslims. (Islam is tough on suicides, who are doomed to repeat their deaths through all eternity. However, there needs to be a thorough examination, by Muslims everywhere, of why it is that the faith they love breeds so many violent mutant strains. If the West needs to understand its Unabombers and McVeighs, Islam needs to face up to its bin Ladens.) United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said that we should now define ourselves not only by what we are for but by what we "}, {"response": 593, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  3, 2001 (10:33)", "body": "I heard an account on the radio this morning about a Greyhound Bus terrorist action where the bus driver got his throat slit. CNN reporting at least ten people dead. Minimal info on the nutcase from one of the passengers: ----- Carly Rinearson, a passenger on the bus, said in a phone call to CNN affiliate WTVF that a man kept asking if he could have her seat near the front of the bus. She said he appeared agitated and kept asking what time it was. Rinearson said when she refused to give up her seat, \"He just went up to the bus driver and like slit his throat. And the bus driver turned the wheel and the bus tipped over.\" She did not describe the man further or say what kind of weapon he had."}, {"response": 594, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  3, 2001 (16:20)", "body": "Another hijacking. MUMBAI TO DELHI PLANE HIJACKED EW DELHI: A Boeing 737 belonging to India's state-run Alliance Air, with 52 people on board, was hijacked just after take off from Mumbai early Thursday, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Shahnawaz Hussain said. The Minister said a hijack distress call had been received by the Air Traffic Control (ATC) in New Delhi where the plane had landed at around 1 a.m. The aircraft, on its way to Delhi, was hijacked after passing Ahmedabad, initial reports said. The plane, with 46 passengers and 6 crew on board, departed from Mumbai at 11:15 pm. The Alliance Air is a subsidiary of the Indian Airlines. The plane is now parked at an isolated bay runway 27 of the airport. Police and fire vehicles have rushed towards the site. (AFP/PTI) Times of India is the source."}, {"response": 595, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  3, 2001 (21:16)", "body": "from Times of India: NEW DELHI: After more than four hours of anxious moments, Union Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain said the supposed hijacking of the Alliance Air was a creation of confusion caused by false alarm received at the ATC Ahmedabad. http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=1331366505 The bus throat slitter was probably a lone nut copycat."}, {"response": 596, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  4, 2001 (18:08)", "body": "More weird people will think of copy cat crimes against humanity. It always seem so to be this way, unhappily. I understand an Arnold Swartzeneger movie was pulled before premier because of similarity to real events. I hope we are all spared such movies!"}, {"response": 597, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  4, 2001 (18:33)", "body": "From a greatly-esteemed gentleman of my acquaintance: Re Bin Lauden: Give him a sex change operation and send her back to Afghanistan"}, {"response": 598, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  4, 2001 (22:59)", "body": "A popular thing amongst fire departments to collect money was to have \u201cFill the Boot\u201d campaigns. Firemen in uniform and wearing their helmuts, with the engine nearby would stand at busy interesections. They would hold one of their large turnout boots to collect donations. It caught on with contagious enthusiasm around here. Our 7 station dept designated one day to do this. Our crew felt a little on the awkward side to solicit money from the public. It wasn\u2019t a natural thing for us to do. There were three of us. I made three signs from a cardboard box that I cut up. Before sunup, we got to a busy intersection at Fuerte and Avocado in El Cajon/ La Mesa, Calif. I took the center island for the turn lane. I wasn\u2019t there for 30 seconds before I got my first dollar bill donation. From then on we got busier and busier as the rush hour approached it\u2019s peak. To beat the stop lights, I literally had to run almost constantly. People had their arms outstretched waiting for me. The only way I can reach them wa to be on a constant juking and jiving trot, as I dodged thru the lanes of cars. Eventually the cars between each light stacked up to about 30 car lengths. I was getting very tired, but I couldn\u2019t stop. People were eager to give their donations. It got so hectic that people were wadding up paper money and throwing it in our direction as they drove by. I was literally dodging traffic. There\u2019s a popular video game called \u201cFrogger\u201d. The object is to get a frog across a multi-lane road to the other side without getting ran over. The frog moved back and forth to avoid the cars. This was exactly what I was doing. There were several moments when I couldn\u2019t help relating myself to that frog. A smile would come to my face when I did. Some folks who weren\u2019t able to give money at the stop light, would pull over and get out of their cars and meet us along the side of the road. Some people who stopped and couldn\u2019t get our attention, simply left money on the seats of the engine. That morning we found over 50 on the seats. A lot of people wanted to thank me and give condolences for the NY fire fighters. Some folks had tears. They were so sympathetic for the NY fire fighters, that it was obvious that they wanted to express this somehow. Being firefighters ourselves, in their hearts we were the conduit to express this emotion to them. It was genuinely heart rendering. We have a large arab community within our district, and it was soothing to see these people making sincere donations along with the rest of the community. After that one day, our dept collected over $65,000 and the tally is still being counted. It will all go to the families of the fallen NY firefighers. For us who dodged the traffic to collect money for them, it was a very satisfying and emotional experience to go thru. I am greatful to have not retired before I could experience such an event. I only regret the loss that made it possible. George Zay La Mesa, Calif. San Miguel Fire Dept."}, {"response": 599, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct  5, 2001 (10:34)", "body": "http://abcnews.com Oct. 5 \ufffd At least 1,000 U.S. Army soldiers are headed to the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan today, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited leaders there to shore up support for an attack on neighboring Afghanistan. Troops from the U.S. 10th Mountain Division are expected to arrive today in Uzbekistan, where American military officials would like to stage personnel, bombers and jets for any attack on suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia. Uzbek President Islam Karimov this morning gave permission for U.S. troops to use one airbase for search-and-rescue and humanitarian aid missions. He said he was not ready at this time to let offensive troops use the facility, however. there's more at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/WTC_MAIN.html"}, {"response": 600, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct  5, 2001 (10:35)", "body": "http://cnn.com Allies press for support British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are meeting with leaders overseas today, working to shore up support for the campaign against terrorism. Meanwhile, Pentagon officials tell CNN about 1,000 troops from the 10th Mountain Division are headed to Uzbekistan to provide security at an airfield, which will be used for humanitarian purposes. more at http://www.cnn.com/"}, {"response": 601, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, Oct  5, 2001 (14:44)", "body": "(Marcia)From a greatly-esteemed gentleman of my acquaintance: Re Bin Lauden: Give him a sex change operation and send her back to Afghanistan ROTFLOL - that made me laugh so hard co-workers came around to see what was so funny. :-) All agree is an excellent idea!"}, {"response": 602, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  5, 2001 (16:21)", "body": "(I liked it, too! Payback is a B**** and then you die!) Terry, I'd be much happier and feel a whole lot more secure if our media kept their noses out of the military maneuvers and let it remain as secret as possible..... or did you wish to inform out enemies of where we are at all times so more atrocities could be committed on our best and brightest? I also wish they would stop telling us how to commit bio-medical and chemical mayhem. I KNOW the evil people can find out for themselves or invent new ways to kill us. It is the giving the ideas to the lone and warped like the one who slit throats on the Greyhound bus that bothers me. I refuse to participate in this dissemination of comfort and information to those who would do us harm. *end of rant*"}, {"response": 603, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Fri, Oct  5, 2001 (19:22)", "body": "I completely agree, Marcia! Whenever it was that they were in Boston about to try to get some suspects, the media caught on, and practically gave them a head start to get out of there before the FBI could get to them... We don't need to know everything!!! Tell us when it is over!"}, {"response": 604, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct  5, 2001 (21:43)", "body": "I read \"The first casualty of war is truth, somebody said, and we know that disinformation is a key part of this stragedy. Therefore the quest for reliable info is extra-essential . . . \""}, {"response": 605, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  5, 2001 (22:22)", "body": "Judiciously, Dear Terry. Moderation and wisdom, not tell-all and know-all. Sometimes it is best to know after it is all over! The following was sent to me from a really surprising source. I like it! Subject: LETTER FROM GOD From: GOD To: My Children on Earth RE: Idiotic Religious Rivalries My Dear Children (and believe me, that's all of you), I consider myself a pretty patient guy. I mean, look at the Grand Canyon. It took millions of years to get it right. And about evolution? Boy, nothing is slower than designing that whole Darwinian thing to take place, cell by cell, and gene by gene. I've been patient through your fashions, civilizations, wars and schemes, and the countless ways you take Me for granted until you get yourselves into big trouble again and again. I want to let you know about some of the things that are starting to tick me off. First of all, your religious rivalries are driving Me up a wall. Enough already! Let's get one thing straight. These are YOUR religions, not Mine. I'm the whole enchilada; I'm beyond them all. Every one of your religions claims there is only one of Me (which by the way, is absolutely true). But in the very next breath, each religion claims it's My favorite one. And each claims its bible was written personally by Me, and that all the other bible's are man-made. Oh, Me. How do I even begin to put a stop to such complicated nonsense? Okay, listen up now. I'm your Father AND Mother, and I don't play favorites among My children. Also, I hate to break it to you, but I don't write. My longhand is awful, and I've always been more of a \"doer\" anyway. So ALL of your books, including those bible's, were written by men and women. They were inspired, remarkable people, but they also made mistakes here and there. I made sure of that, so that you would never trust a written word more than your own living heart. You see, one human being to me, even a bum on the street, is worth more than all the Holy Books in the world. That's just the kind of guy I am. My Spirit is not a historical thing, it's alive right here, right now, as fresh as your next breath. Holy books and religious rites are sacred and powerful, but not more so than the least of you. They were only meant to steer you in the right direction, not to keep you arguing with each other, and certainly not to keep you from trusting your own personal connection with Me. Which brings Me to My next point about your nonsense. You act like I need you and your religions to stick up for Me or \"win souls\" for My sake. Please, don't do Me any favors. I can stand quite well on my own, thank you. I don't need you to defend Me, and I don't need constant credit. I just want you to be good to each other. And another thing: I don't get all worked up over money or politics, so stop dragging My name into your dramas. For example, I swear to Me that I never threatened Oral Roberts. I never rode in any of Rajneesh's Rolls Royces. I never told Pat Robertson to run for president, and I've never EVER had a conversation with Jim Baker, Jerry Falwell, or Jimmy Swaggart! Of course, come Judgment Day, I certainly intend to... The thing is, I want you to stop thinking of religion as some sort of loyalty pledge to Me. The true purpose of your religions is so that YOU can become more aware of ME, not the other way around. Believe Me, I know you already. I know what's in each of your hearts, and I love you with no strings attached. Lighten up and enjoy Me. That's what religion is best for. What you seem to forget is how mysterious I am. You look at the petty differences in your Scriptures and say, \"Well, if THIS is the truth, then THAT can't be!\" But instead of trying to figure out My Paradoxes and Unfathomable Nature, which by the way, you NEVER will, why not open your hearts to the simple common threads in all religions. You know what I'm talking about: Love and respect everyone. Be kind, even when life is scary or confusing, take courage and be of good cheer, for I am always with you. Learn how to be quiet, so you can hear My still, small voice (I don't like to shout). Leave the world a better place by living your life with dignity and gracefulness, for you are My Own Child. Hold back nothing from life, for the parts of you that can die surely will, and the parts that can't, won't. So don't worry, be happy (I stole that last line from Bobby McFerrin, but who do you think gave it to him in the first place?) Simple stuff. Why do you keep making it so complicated? It's like you're always looking for an excuse to be upset. And I'm very tired of being your main excuse. Do you think I care whether you call me Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Wakantonka, Brahma, Father, Mother or even the Void of Nirvana? Do you think I care which of My special children you feel closest to - Jesus, Mary, Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed or any of the others? You can call Me and My Special Ones any name you choose, if only you would go about My business of loving one another as I love you. How c"}, {"response": 606, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  5, 2001 (22:27)", "body": "I thought we paid our politicians to do a good job for us. Truth is not sacrificed - safety of the polulace is. We have a good governmental system. Mob rule nearly destroyed France. I don't need to know where the mountain troops are in Usbekistan! I trust our elected officials. Heaven help them if they do not live up to our newly-rigorous demands!"}, {"response": 607, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Fri, Oct  5, 2001 (23:58)", "body": "They say now that there is a 100% chance that they will strike again but can't say where."}, {"response": 608, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (01:23)", "body": "Indeed, they successfully revel in our tragedy. We are all \"infidels\" in their cultish belief structure, which is so against true Islam. They are not sane people. They kill for their rewards. I wonder how long before they kill off all of their devotees. Not soon enough, I fear. Be safe, Lucie! ...and everyone!"}, {"response": 609, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (12:35)", "body": "The first death of Anthrax in Forida is now believe to have been intentional. :-("}, {"response": 610, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (18:20)", "body": "Saturday October 6 4:41 PM ET Anthrax Case Puzzles Investigators By AMANDA RIDDLE, Associated Press Writer LANTANA, Fla. (AP) - Relatives of a Florida man who contracted a fatal case of anthrax are being given antibiotics as a precaution and his co-workers have been tested and cleared, health authorities said Saturday. The search to find out how 63-year-old Bob Stevens contracated the rare and extremely lethal inhaled form of the disease expanded one day after his death. More than 50 health and law enforcement officials have fanned out across Palm Beach County to track his movements over the past two months and look for other possible cases. Officials are also going over medical records in four North Carolina counties that he might have visited recently. ``We have a long chronology of common activities we need to pursue,'' Florida epidemiologist Dr. Steven Wiersma said. ``We don't have any really hot leads at this time.'' Investigators are awaiting test results from soil and other specimens. The results could take days. No other cases of anthrax have been reported in the area. Wiersma said several of Stevens' co-workers at the supermarket tabloid The Sun have been tested, but results were negative. Antibiotics are being given to close family members. Officials have said there is no evidence that Stevens was the victim of terrorism. Wiersma said tests of Stevens' blood helped confirm that belief because the anthrax in the sample responded to penicillin. Anthrax developed by some countries as a biological weapon could be resistant to the antibiotic, he said. More... http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011006/us/anthrax_case_27.html Moon, do you have a source for your scary news? I'd love to get a few sources!"}, {"response": 611, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (18:21)", "body": "This man also visited North Carolina where he might have contracted it. Many leads to follow before the media needs to fighten us any more than we are already!"}, {"response": 612, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (18:51)", "body": "From The Miami Herald Florida man dies from anthrax Search is on for source and other possible cases BY LARRY LEBOWITZ, LISA ARTHUR AND WILLIAM YARDLEY A Palm Beach County man died Friday from inhaled anthrax, but health officials continued to assure an anxious state that he was stricken with an isolated case of the deadly disease -- increasingly feared as a bioterrorism weapon -- though how he contracted it remains a mystery. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doctors want direction in preventing infection So far, the search in S. Florida for other anthrax cases is negative Terrorism alert led to diagnosis of rare, fatal disease Previous coverage Friends, relatives wonder how S. Florida man contracted anthrax What is anthrax? Anthrax Q&A Graphic: Unseen perils -- Chemical and biological weapons Is nation prepared? Is U.S. prepared to battle germ weapons? Experts fear U.S. plan against bioterrorism is inadequate Chemical, biological war front particularly difficult to defend Florida response State scrambles to respond to possible biowarfare attack Hijacker looked into crop-duster in Florida Gas masks fly off store shelves Water systems well prepared for disasters, managers say More coverage Latest developments regarding terrorist attacks -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- South Florida man diagnosed with anthrax -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ``I don't want to give anyone the slightest inkling that we know what caused this,'' said Steven Wiersma, the state's chief epidemiologist. ``We're looking at any possible physical way this could have happened.'' A day after Robert Stevens' condition became public, doctors in South Florida and at several hospitals across the country received orders or decided on their own to reexamine certain cases, this time looking for traces of inhalational anthrax, a strain of the disease that is nearly always fatal. The last case of inhaled anthrax reported in the United States was in 1976. Even as health officials urged calm in Florida, they aggressively pursued doctors' reports of possible new cases -- including a 75-year-old Miami-Dade resident -- all of which had proved false on Friday, said Wiersma. ``Three cases have gotten our attention and we feel very comfortable that they are not anthrax. . . . We had several leads that were highly suspicious that we've ruled out,'' he said, adding that ``each passing hour that we don't turn up a new case . . . is very good news.'' Wiersma said an alliance of investigators from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FBI, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the state Health Department and the Palm Beach County Health Department had ``cast a very wide net.'' By lunchtime Friday, investigators were inspecting Stevens' Lantana home behind crime-scene tape. In the back of the investigators' Ford Explorer: plastic coolers filled with supplies, boxes of latex gloves and a small manual, Emergency Response to Terrorism Job Aid. The six investigators working at the Stevens house were one of three teams officials said had been deployed to investigate the case. One team planned to trace Stevens' travels, habits and lifestyle over the last 60 days -- considered the maximum incubation time for anthrax. The other investigative teams began poring through South Florida hospital records and medical examiner records across the state, looking for suspicious symptoms or unexplained deaths since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11. Several of the suspected terrorists trained as pilots in South Florida and lived within 10 miles of the Stevens home. Officials acknowledged Friday they were in uncharted territory, responding to the anthrax case with unprecedented investigative scope as concern over bioterrorism has surged following the attacks. BAFFLING CASE Palm Beach County Health Department spokesman Tim O'Connor, stationed for most of the day at the county's emergency operations center, said even experienced investigators are feeling challenged by the Stevens case. ``They've never had one like this,'' he said. Inhalational anthrax in people -- caused by breathing anthrax spores in the air -- is extremely rare nationwide. Only 18 inhalational cases were documented in the United States in the 20th Century. A less serious form of anthrax, caused by skin contact with anthrax spores and usually resulting in skin lesions that can be treated with penicillin, was last reported in the state in 1974. The same form was reported in Texas earlier this year. The skin disease is usually contracted by people who work with infected farm animals. Anthrax has not appeared in Florida livestock for half a century. In addition to state and local investigators, the CDC has dispatched 12 staffers to work on the investigation in Florida. BIOHAZARD BAGS After 2 1/2 hours at the Stevens house, investigators hauled away seve"}, {"response": 613, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (21:22)", "body": "(Marcia) Letter from God: \"I hate to break it to you, but I don't write. My longhand is awful, and I've always been more of a 'doer' anyway...\" I never doubted it for a minute! LOL \"I swear to Me that I never threatened Oral Roberts. I never rode in any of Rajneesh's Rolls Royces. I never told Pat Robertson to run for president, and I've never EVER had a conversation with Jim Baker, Jerry Falwell, or Jimmy Swaggart!\" I would love to send this to Falwell and the others. Thanks for this Marcia!"}, {"response": 614, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (22:03)", "body": "Thanks Moon for the article. I could not find one and your is great. Suzee, I loved that Letter from God. I can think of a lot of people who need to read it! Happy news for me since I use this airport in about 2 weeks to attend my son's wedding: Honolulu Airport is one of the best-protected airports in the country during this time of heightened national security, said the airport's federal security manager. Allen Agor, who reports to the Federal Aviation Administration's assistant administrator for security, said new high-tech explosive detection machines, six canine detection teams, increased security measures and a \"battalion strength\" of military, federal, state and civilian law enforcement officers provide a highly visible armed deterrent to criminal acts against civilian aviation. \"It's safer to fly now,\" Agor told legislators reviewing Hawaii's terrorism readiness yesterday. \"(Security) is a notch above what it was on Sept. 11.\" Agor added that plans for federal control of security at state airports will likely take place in the next six months. State and federal officials say Hawaii continues to prepare for possible acts of terrorism, although it can never know what, if anything, may be a target. Edward Correa Jr., adjutant general of the state Department of Defense, said assessment teams reviewed critical state and county buildings yesterday, as well as other infrastructure, to see how they could be protected. Key to all this readiness, Correa said, has been the close communication and coordination developed among all agencies over the past 18 months. Along with state airports, security at Hawaii's waterways has improved, state harbors manager Barry Kim said. Honolulu Harbor has been closed to recreational vessels while the Coast Guard patrols waters near the airport reef runway. Also closed is the Aloha Tower observation deck. And all state harbors have been closed indefinitely to pole fishing, Kim said. State Public Safety Director Ted Sakai said he is reassessing manpower needs at the state courts, prisons, state buildings including the state Capitol, and state airports. The department's budgets are being reviewed with an emphasis on health, safety and security. http://starbulletin.com/2001/10/06/news/"}, {"response": 615, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  6, 2001 (23:03)", "body": "Lucie sent this and I consider it important enough for all to read! Even if I may have posted this before, read it again. I need to do so! A message from the pilot! Worth reading if you are going to be flying anytime soon. The following is from a letter by a professional friend and her return flight to D.C. this week. \"I just wanted to drop you all a note and let you know that I arrived safe and sound into Dulles Airport tonight [9/15] at about 6:00. It was an interesting flight. The airport in Denver was almost spooky, it was so empty and quiet. No one was in line for the security check point when I got there so that went fairly quickly, just x-ray of my bags and then a chemical test to be sure nothing explosive was on them. Then I waited 2 1/2 hours to board the plane. What happened after we boarded was interesting and thought I would share it with you. The pilot/captain came on the loudspeaker after the doors were closed. His speech went like this: \"First I want to thank you for being brave enough to fly today. The doors are now closed and we have no help from the outside for any problems that might occur inside this plane. As you could tell when you checked in, the government has made some changes to increase security in the airports. \"They have not, however, made any rules about what happens after those doors close. Until they do that, we have made our own rules and I want to share them with you. Once those doors close, we only have each other. \"The security has taken care of a threat like guns with all of the increased scanning, etc. Then we have the supposed bomb. If you have a bomb, there is no need to tell me about it, or anyone else on this plane; you are already in control. So, for this flight, there are no bombs that exist on this plane. \"Now, the threats that are left are things like plastics, wood, knives, and other weapons that can be made or things like that which can be used as weapons. \"Here is our plan and our rules. If someone or several people stand up and say they are hijacking this plane, I want you all to stand up together. Then take whatever you have available to you and throw it at them. Throw it at their faces and heads so they will have to raise their hands to protect themselves. \"The very best protection you have against knives are the pillows and blankets. Whoever is close to these people should then try to get a blanket over their head--then they won't be able to see. Once that is done, get them down and keep them there. Do not let them up. I will then land the plane at the closest place and we WILL take care of them. \"After all, there are usually only a few of them and we are 200+ strong! We will not allow them to take over this plane. \"I find it interesting that the US Constitution begins with the words 'We, the people'--that's who we are, THE people and we will not be defeated.\" With that, the passengers on the plane all began to applaud, people had tears in their eyes, and we began the trip toward the runway. The flight attendant then began the safety speech. One of the things she said is that we are all so busy and live our lives at such a fast pace. She asked that everyone turn to their neighbors on either side and introduce themselves, tell each other something about your families and children, show pictures, whatever. She said \"For today, we consider you family. We will treat you as such and ask that you do the same with us.\" Throughout the flight we learned that for the crew, this was their first flight since Tuesday's tragedies. It was a day that everyone leaned on each other and together everyone was stronger than any one person alone. It was quite an experience. You can imagine the feeling when that plane touched down at Dulles and we heard \"welcome to Washington Dulles Airport, where the local time is 5:40.\" Again, the cabin was filled with applause. Last night I saw a program with college students where one of them said that at their campus there are no more hyphenated titles, i.e., African-American, etc., everyone is just an American. No one will ever be able to take that pride away from us."}, {"response": 616, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Sun, Oct  7, 2001 (03:35)", "body": "Liz K) Whenever it was that they were in Boston about to try to get some suspects, the media caught on, and practically gave them a head start to get out of there before the FBI could get to them... The postscript to this incident: The day after the bombing, three Saudis in their early twenties traveled to Boston to visit their father, who was being treated at a hospital there. Their bill at the Westin Hotel was being paid by the fiancee of one of them -- a man whose name is similar to that of Mohamed Atta, one of the hijackers. After a hotel clerk tipped the FBI, agents swarmed the hotel. An agent saw one of the women outside her room and pointed a gun at her, according to the family's attorney, Jonathan Shapiro. She tried to run away but he grabbed her and hit her across the mouth, he said. The three were released after five hours, and the Saudi Embassy called it a \"humiliation.\" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37533-2001Sep27.html and: .......on Wednesday, a young Saudi woman in traditional garb, her face veiled, stepped out of her room at the Westin Copley Place Hotel, which had become a second home for her family during numerous trips to Boston to accompany their ailing father for medical treatment here. The plan was to meet her sister-in-law and brother-in-law at the elevator bank. She would barely get past her hotel room door. As she stooped to pick up a newspaper, a man in plain-clothes pointed a handgun at her as he grabbed her, dragged her down the hallway, and handcuffed her, barking demands that she silence her screams, according to her lawyer, Jonathan Shapiro. Thus began a five-hour ordeal for the woman and her family, in which, Shapiro alleges, she suffered a 6-inch scratch across her face, her sister-in-law was kicked in the head, and the whole family was detained for hours by authorities -including the FBI, Boston police, and Immigration and Naturalization Service officials - without the right to an attorney. Boston police referred all questions about the incident to the FBI, which declined comment. The family members, who asked that their names be withheld for fear of their safety, are well-connected Saudis with business interests in the region. Shapiro, a local criminal defense attorney, said he suspects they were targeted by law enforcement officials last week because the woman's fiance shares a name nearly identical to Mohamed Atta, one of the suspected hijackers in Tuesday's attack. The fiance had visited the family at the hotel but had left before the Wednesday incident. The interrogation, which followed a stake-out of the hotel and a raid by a Boston police SWAT team, FBI, and State Police detectives, took place in a climate of fear and anger the day after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Law enforcement sources later confirmed that there was no connection between the family and the hijackings, saying that it was a case of mistaken identity. The family yesterday permitted their attorney to speak on their behalf in the hope, Shapiro said, of highlighting the danger of indiscriminate targeting of Arabs. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/259/nation/Saudi_family_accuses_agents_of_abuse_in_case_of_mistaken_identity+.shtml"}, {"response": 617, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct  7, 2001 (07:35)", "body": "\"Fatima\", in the Afghani resistance group called RAWA, a women's-rights organization in which any member pretty much faces an automatic death sentence, was asked about the Northern Alliance by Salon: \"Do you support the Northern Alliance?\" \"We condemn the cooperation of the United States with the Northern Alliance. This is another nightmare for our people -- the Northern Alliance are the second Taliban. \"The Northern Alliance are hypocrites: They say they are for democracy and human rights, but we can't forget the black experience we had with them. Seventy-year-old grandmothers were raped during their rule, thousands of girls were raped, thousands were killed and tortured. They are the first government that started this tragedy in Afghanistan.\" http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2001/10/02/fatima/print.html I'm adding Salon to my list of news sources at http://www.spring.net/news They've been fearless in their coverage."}, {"response": 618, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct  7, 2001 (18:48)", "body": "I see where attackes on Afghanistan have begun. It's been a non - news day for me so far. But I'll do a scan of the usual sources soon and turn on the tv, see what's been doing on."}, {"response": 619, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  7, 2001 (23:19)", "body": "Non-news??? I've been glued since 7AM Hawaiian time when we were looking for pre-game football. Afghanistan women tear my heart. NO one should be so treated. Thanks for the link! Sometimes you have to make deals with the Devil to catch a greater EVIL...!"}, {"response": 620, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Oct  8, 2001 (12:48)", "body": "I will remain calm. From The Miami Herald: Published Monday, October 8, 2001 Second case of anthrax found at South Florida tabloid BY MANNY GARCIA and LARRY LEBOWITZ The Boca Raton offices of American Media Inc. were shuttered Monday after a second employee showed signs of the rare anthrax bacteria that killed a 63-year-old photo editor for the Sun supermarket tabloid last week. The second employee, a 73-year-old man initially hospitalized for pneumonia, has not been determined to have anthrax, although a nasal swab showed signs he had been exposed to it, a state health official said. FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said the man, whose name has not been released, is in stable condition at an undisclosed South Florida hospital and is expected to survive. More than 300 employees of the National Enquirer, the Star, the Globe, the Sun and the Weekly World News who work for AMI are being asked to go to the health department offices in Delray Beach for antibiotics and further testing. On Monday, Florida Health Secretary John Agwunobi urged any employees or visitors ``who have spent more than an hour'' in the AMI building, 5401 NW Broken Sound Blvd., since Aug. 1, to go to the Delray Beach Health center. The health department has also set up a hotline, 1-800-342-3557, for anyone employed in the building or who has visited the building since Aug. 1. Agwunobi said a sample in the building tested positive for anthrax ``within the work area frequented by the first case.'' He said he believed the sample was from the computer keyboard of Bob Stevens, a Sun photo editor who died Friday of inhaled anthrax. FBI and health department officials said the second case was confirmed late Sunday night after nose swabs on a co-worker of Stevens showed signs of the bacteria that causes pulmonary anthrax. Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Health Department, said the man did not have a ``full blown'' case of anthrax, but the nasal swabs showed signs of the same bacterial spore that led to the fatal case of inhalation anthrax that killed Stevens and led to widespread fears -- so far unconfirmed -- of a bioterrorist attack. An environmental test inside the American Media building in Boca Raton also confirmed the presence of the bacteria, O'Connor said. Agwunobi said the person was found to have anthrax ``within his nasal cavities.'' He has not shown any symptoms of clinical anthrax, Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan said. State health officials received a ``preliminary positive indication'' of anthrax Sunday afternoon and confirmation ``was obtained late in the evening,'' Agwunobi said. ``The building has been secured for the purpose of further environmental public health testing and we have begun to contact employees,'' he said. ``Our intent is to have the employees come to a centralized site in the Palm Beach County area so we can test them, so we can provide them with education, and so that we can provide them with prophylactic antibiotics.'' Brogan said the FBI is ``in control'' of the investigation, and that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is working with the bureau. American Media is attempting to re-create visitor logs dating back to Aug. 1 as well as a complete list of former employees who may have been inside the building, in an office park near Glades Road, west of Interstate 95, as recently as Aug. 1. The company started notifying employees Sunday evening that they were not supposed to show up for work in Boca Raton. Many were initialy instructed to work at the offices of a sister publication, the Spanish language supermarket tabloid Mira! in downtown Miami. A growing team of investigators from the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, working with the FBI and the state and local health departments, are continuing to re-create Stevens' personal and work habits and travels in hopes of identifying the source of the infection. At least five units from the Boca Raton police department started to block off parking lots, and shutter buildings of America Media Inc. Delivery people and FedEx trucks that usually do business in the building were turned back throughout the morning. Police and security personnel from American Media refused to say whether the health department had returned since finding out swabs taken from offices of the tabloid were positive for anthrax. Directly across the street, in a Broken Sound Boulevard office park, Peter Amodeo paced back and forth smoking a cigarette. He works for Paz Building Management, which runs an office across from American Media. ``Some people in our building are really freaking out. This is very scary. It's not like they raise chickens or anything in that building across the street,'' said Amodeo. ``And that building makes a lot of enemies because of the things they put in the paper. They have bomb scares all the time. They're always standing in our parking lot because the building is being searched. I think we're all just a little bit anxious today.'' Amodeo said "}, {"response": 621, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Oct  8, 2001 (14:36)", "body": "There goes Florida's tourism :-(("}, {"response": 622, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  8, 2001 (14:59)", "body": "Moon, please wash your hands a lot! No rubbing your nose or eyes when out in public (yes, I know you know better!). Appatently this got transmitted to the second man with a contiminated computer keyboard. At least that is what we are hearing way out here 6 hours behind Florida! Hugs, Moon! We need you to be well and safe! And everyone else, too!"}, {"response": 623, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  8, 2001 (15:02)", "body": "Speaking of tourism, Hawaii's has become nil since it requires long distance flying to get here and not commercial craft are being allowed in port other than the usual ones - and they get a complete inspection before being allowed in. There are advantages and disadvantages living out here so remotely. My island has NO strategic importance and little population. However, we have become self-sufficient by necessity!"}, {"response": 624, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Oct  8, 2001 (16:18)", "body": "Hugs, Moon! We need you to be well and safe! And everyone else, too! Thanks, Marcia! It appears some people in the Miami area have been sent envelopes containing a white powder. One man threw it out and it caused sparks and he suffered a burning sensation in his hand. Had to call paramedics and his family were all checked into the hospital."}, {"response": 625, "author": "winter", "date": "Mon, Oct  8, 2001 (17:52)", "body": "Speaking (further) of tourism... My departure date to go to Indonesia (Bali) has been set back indefinitely. I was set to leave this month, to begin my dissertation research. A number of other scholars have been flown back to the US, as there have been numerous threats of \"sweeping\" tourist hotels for American and UK citizens. Ah well..."}, {"response": 626, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  8, 2001 (18:01)", "body": "Indonesia is the largest Islamic country in the world. Be safe, Winter, Dear. Hilo is nice this time of year...! =)"}, {"response": 627, "author": "winter", "date": "Mon, Oct  8, 2001 (18:12)", "body": "Marcia Indonesia is the largest Islamic country in the world Yes, although my research is in Bali, which is over 95% Hindu. BUT it also happens to be host to the densest population of Western tourists in the whole nation, so there's the possibility of the island still being targets of anti-US \"sweeps.\" Thanks, MArcia. I will be safe, by waiting this out a few more weeks."}, {"response": 628, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Mon, Oct  8, 2001 (20:40)", "body": "Suzee, I didn't know the rest of the story. Thanks for sharing that...how awful for them! I think the point I was trying to make is still there, however- a lot of people will be questioned and interogated, both innocent and guilty. I'm not saying that violent treatment by authorities is ok by any means. But I don't think that the media should be following every single little detail of the hunt. \"yellow journalism\" of sorts is not what we need right now, and I'm frankly scared that the media/the entertainment industry is going to give some would-be terrorist ideas as to what to do next, or let them know and give them warning that we're coming to get them in the next few minutes. Sorry, Terry...I know that belongs in another topic."}, {"response": 629, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 10, 2001 (14:29)", "body": "Statement by USGS Director Chip Groat on World Disaster Reduction Day Today, October 10, is World Disaster Reduction Day--a term that in the past has applied largely to natural disasters. But this year, in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, it has taken on a new meaning. Unnatural disasters, those caused by hatred and intolerance, may seem an even more daunting challenge to our society than the earthquakes and floods we have faced before. However, the lessons we have learned from a century of battling natural hazards can help us in this new fight. Over the past 100 years, we've gotten much better at saving lives. In 1900, a hurricane hit Galveston, Texas, without warning, taking at least 6,000 lives and perhaps twice that many. In 1902, an incandescent cloud of volcanic gas and ash swept down the flanks of Mont Pelee, in Martinique, wiping out a city of 30,000 people. In 1906, a great earthquake struck San Francisco, taking hundreds to perhaps thousands of lives. From those disasters, we learned, and those lessons have saved lives throughout the 20th century. Terrorism has become another of the hazards we face, and we can use many of our approaches to dealing with natural hazards as we begin to deal with this unnatural hazard--approaches such as monitoring the warning signals, understanding the problem, sharing information, educating the public to take steps that protect themselves and their loved ones. It will take a long-term commitment from all sectors of our society, but we have made progress against the threat of natural disasters with these tools and we can use them to reduce the threat of terrorism as well. Many of the steps we have taken to mitigate one natural disaster have provided unexpected benefits for others--building codes that protect from ground shaking also strengthen buildings against strong winds and landslides. In the same way, actions to reduce risks and losses from natural disasters-- such as improved communication structures, better notification systems, strengthened infrastructures--can help protect us against attack, and actions to reduce vulnerability to terrorism can help in the fight against natural disasters. USGS capabilities have already been critically important as we respond to the disaster and prepare our Nation for the future. The USGS geospatial data set is the Nation's only national coverage of our infrastructure--our dams, bridges, highways, airports, and urban areas. These maps and images have contributed significantly to the efforts to understand the scope and focus resources as needed for recovery. Looking to the future, ongoing work on real-time water quality may prove invaluable in monitoring public water supplies to ensure our water is safe to drink. The geophysical techniques used to monitor earthquakes may be useful in response and recovery. These are only a few of the possibilities that can be envisioned. We need to bring the full impact of science and technology to bear on the hazards we face, whether terror in the skies or tremors in the Earth. The USGS stands ready to play our part in the struggle to ensure a safe and secure future for our children and our world. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kathleen K. Gohn U.S. Geological Survey Public Affairs Specialist Office of Communications 703-648-4242 phone 119 National Center 703-648-4466 fax Reston, VA 20192 kgohn@usgs.gov"}, {"response": 630, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 10, 2001 (15:25)", "body": "I happen to agree with Rush on this totally! Liberals among us, I read your posts. Afford me the same respect! From Rush's Page: On Monday, I received a note from the editrix of The Limbaugh Letter, Diana Schneider. I had not been watching PMSNBC this morning. I'd been flipping around to some other channels. Diana wrote the following: \"Rush, it seems that the peaceniks may have their atrocity that you advised them to wait for. All morning on PMSNBC there was nothing but moaning and wailing about four United Nations workers who reportedly were killed yesterday. These four were the only hope that poor, starving Afghan people had, we're being told. It's been wall-to-wall television grief. A U.N. spokesbabe came out and gave a snide lecture to the allied forces that combatants should be more careful to distinguish between soldiers and innocent civilians.\" Now, three or four people removing land mines during a war? Is that not what they were doing? This is the residue of the Princess Di legacy, here. These people didn't know enough to get out of the way. They're out in the middle of a war removing land mines, for crying out loud! This is not what I call intelligence! They're removing land mines in the middle of a war, and unfortunately, they go up and give 'em some orange vests! They pretend they're quarterbacks at a National Football League in practice or whatever, where they'd get red vests, so we won't target them. You know, there are some people - I'm not one of them, I want to stress this - who will say that the United Nations would not be above placing these people in this situation for this express purpose, just to cause this. I'm not one of them, but I think that you probably know that there are people who are, or who could hold that opinion. I've received another note from a friend who has an interesting perspective on these peaceniks, the U.N.-types who really think you can win wars with good vibes - the types who think a few U.N. workers dying is a tragedy, but that six thousand Americans dying isn't. Folks, the timing of the peaceniks couldn't be better for demonstrating exactly who and what they are. What they first and foremost are is anti- American. We hadn't even done anything yet, and they were demonstrating. They switched that one anti-WTO protest in Washington D.C. on a dime to being an anti-war protest, because what they are primarily is anti-American and anti-America's policies. If these people were to be patient, and wait for things they can call atrocities - like if we happen to bomb a building Mullah Omar calls a baby milk plant, or whatever - they might get some sympathy. You know what, I wonder if in Afghanistan they have abortion caves instead of hospitals. \"Rush, you're flirting dangerously here. You're risking offending people.\" Well, I'm just wondering. If we happen to hit a Mullah Omar cave or something or whatever, there'd be sympathy. I mean, they're trying to gin up an excuse to say we killed civilians - which they'll say no matter what. It's just not working. There was a conflicting story Monday that Mullah Omar, through a spokesman, told the world that 20 civilians had been killed in the first wave. Suddenly, they care about civilian casualties, now that we're bombing their strongholds around the clock. Day, night, clouds, sun, snow, pollution, clear as a bell - it doesn't matter. We're just hitting round the clock. There is no break from it. So they put out this news that 20 civilians were dead. Well, they got their signals crossed because they went to the hospital and the hospital said, \"Nope, nobody here.\" They had no reports of casualties in the hospitals or anywhere else! They're putting out false information, which is no surprise to us, but just bewilders the media and liberals. The point is that the protesters in this country, the peaceniks, ought to be waiting for us to do something bad before protesting. Instead, the minute we move to defend ourselves, the minute we take a defensive procedure, they go into action. They were in action as soon as we lost those five or six thousand people, as a matter of fact - and there's only one conclusion: they hate America, and they're so blinded by that hate, they aren't even aware of it."}, {"response": 631, "author": "Moon", "date": "Wed, Oct 10, 2001 (16:01)", "body": "Yeah, Marcia! I watch Italian TV via satellite and am disgusted by the thousands of protesters out with the red communist flag. They are nothing but trouble makers with no original thoughts of their own."}, {"response": 632, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Wed, Oct 10, 2001 (17:43)", "body": "~~~~(Liz K)I'm frankly scared that the media/the entertainment industry is going to give some would-be terrorist ideas as to what to do next, or let them know and give them warning that we're coming to get them in the next few minutes.~~~~ I didn't intend to disagree with your point - I don't want any leaks to create problems for the police, armed forces, etc., either as they capture (hopefully) these crazies. I do want them to exercise some caution. The incident in Boston happened the day after the attack on the WTC in a charged atmosphere. But I'm not as trusting of the government as some (maybe I've been on the receiving end of \"non-truths\" from too many different administrations). I like the idea of all the checks and balances and I want to know *everything* as soon as it is safe. I would prefer that neither the government nor the press nor the police (FBI, etc.) have free reign to do amything without being accountable. I like Walter Cronkite's idea about press coverage below (and I'm sorry, too, if this should be posted in the other topic-it's kind of a mixed bag). Cronkite, 84, believes the current generation of network anchors has been \"first-rate\" in their coverage ....With the potential of the United States waging war in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Cronkite cautions journalists not to become overly manipulated by the military. \"We can't let what happened in the Gulf War happen again, when the Pentagon wouldn't allow cameras to cover the war on the ground,\" he says. \"That doesn't mean you simply broadcast live from the battlefield so the enemy a mile away knows what American troops are doing. You work with the military about what information gets released when. We did that during World War II, and it worked just fine. The public has a right to know what really goes on.\" http://www.tvguide.com/magazine/robins/011008.asp An odd, but interesting story about the involvement of the entertainment industry (giving the government ideas!!): U.S. Army turns to Hollywood for theories By Guylaine Cadorette, Hollywood.com Staff HOLLYWOOD, October 9, 2001 -- Government intelligence specialists have been secretly appealing to Hollywood filmmakers and writers for terrorist scenarios, Variety reports. The U.S. Army ordered a special committee to gather at the University of Southern California last week to brainstorm possible terrorist targets and schemes in the U.S. and to offer possible solutions to those threats. The ad hoc committee was formed in August 1999 after the Army awarded a five-year contract to USC to create the Institute for Creative Technologies. The ISC was to enlist the entertainment industry, video game makers and computer scientists to improve virtual reality and simulation training for soldiers. Screenwriters Steven E. de Souza (Die Hard), Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson (The Rocketeer) are involved in the committee, as are directors David Fincher (Fight Club), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), Randal Kleiser (Grease) and Mary Lambert (The In Crowd). One USC insider told Variety the group was focused on short-term threats against the country and had already met twice via telephone conference with the Pentagon. James Korris, ITC creative director, confirmed that meetings with the Army were taking place but did not elaborate on any specific committee recommendations. http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/article/1093259"}, {"response": 633, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Oct 10, 2001 (20:46)", "body": "Walter Cronkite:The public has a right to know what really goes on.\" While I agree with him, IMO the journalists today are not in the same category as the ones in WW II. They seem to be more agressive & self-serving. And in some ways disdainful of the administration and the armed forces.They never got over Viet- Nam. Not many Ernie Pyles around."}, {"response": 634, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 10, 2001 (21:31)", "body": "Yup, Evelyn. You are sadly correct. It is all show business now, and ratings! Be safe, My Dear! *HUGS* Tornadoes!!! NO playing Helen Hunt, please! We love you!"}, {"response": 635, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 11, 2001 (10:31)", "body": "It's been one month now. The changes wrought to our society and way of life have been enormous. But life will go on. India helped FBI trace ISI-terrorist links MANOJ JOSHI TIMES NEWS NETWORK NEW DELHI: While the Pakistani Inter Services Public Relations claimed that former ISI director-general Lt-Gen Mahmud Ahmad sought retirement after being superseded on Monday, the truth is more shocking. Top sources confirmed here on Tuesday, that the general lost his job because of the \"evidence\" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Centre. The US authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 were wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahumd. Senior government sources have confirmed that India contributed significantly to establishing the link between the money transfer and the role played by the dismissed ISI chief. While they did not provide details, they said that Indian inputs, including Sheikh\ufffds mobile phone number, helped the FBI in tracing and establishing the link. A direct link between the ISI and the WTC attack could have enormous repercussions. The US cannot but suspect whether or not there were other senior Pakistani Army commanders who were in the know of things. Evidence of a larger conspiracy could shake US confidence in Pakistan\ufffds ability to participate in the anti-terrorism coalition. \" continued at http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=1454238160 and why and how osama escaped our 75 missiles: \" \ufffd98 attack: Tip off to Osama cooked ISI chief\ufffds goose"}, {"response": 636, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 11, 2001 (11:12)", "body": "More recent comments on the terrorism issue from Woods today, courtesy Amy Reiter's Salon.com gossip column: ---------------- \"I won't get on an airplane unless it's an absolute necessity,\" Woods tells the Calgary Sun. And that's just one of the ways the creepy actor has seen fit to adjust his life in light of the recent terrorist attacks. \"I won't go into a stadium, and I won't attend a big public event,\" he says. He's also refusing to travel to New York for the premiere of his new movie, \"Riding in Cars With Boys,\" despite a specific request from Mayor Giuliani. \"I think too few people have grasped the reality we're totally and irrevocably at war,\" Woods opines. And though he refuses to comment even now about the four Middle Eastern-looking men he told the FBI he encountered a few months back, he will say this. \"I've spent a great deal of time lately talking to the FBI and have learned some startling things. I'm convinced, as they are, that there will be more horrific acts of terrorism.\""}, {"response": 637, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 11, 2001 (13:46)", "body": "I was absolutely delightedly stunned to see the Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India cooperating and greeting one another on the news last night. War breeds strange alliances. Perhaps there might be some good out of the ashes of this very frightening time. On Art Bell's show last night they were longing for the good old days of the checks and balances of the Cold War era. Who could have imagined!"}, {"response": 638, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 11, 2001 (14:03)", "body": ""}, {"response": 639, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 11, 2001 (20:03)", "body": "The White House and the media have agreed not to turn Bin Laden's video releases in to tv wallpaper, playing them round the clock in their entirety. The idea, as I get it, is that these tapes may contain coded instructions to sleepers waiting to wreak destruction. Makes sense. An example is the statement that doesn't make sense about the \"80 years\" as the period of oppression. I mean, nothing really happened in 1921 that relates to this, or does it? The lead story now is that there may be additional terrorist attacks over the next several days, according to the FBI. The President is going to speak in about 15 seconds."}, {"response": 640, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 11, 2001 (20:25)", "body": "Finally sanity. It got so nauseating to see him speak on tv that I shut it off. as for 1921: Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1921 Also called \" Treaty of Kabul\" because it was negotiated and signed at Kabul by Henry R. C. Dobbs, the British envoy, and Mahmud Tarzi, chief of the Afghan delegation, after arduous, eleven month negotiations. The treaty restored \"friendly and commercial relations\" between the two governments after the third Anglo-Afghan War and negotiations at the Mussoorie Conference and Rawalpindi. The negotiations proceeded in four phases: During the first session, January 20 to April 9, 1921, the Afghan Amir unsuccessfully demanded territorial concessions, while Britain wanted the exclusion of Russian consular offices from southeastern Afghanistan. In the second phase, from April 9 to mid-July, 1921, Britain asked Afghanistan to break the newly established diplomatic with Russia in exchange for a subsidy of 4 million rupee and weapons, as well as guarantees from unprovoked Russian aggression. When in the third stage, from mid-July to September 18, the British foreign office informed the Italian government that it was about to conclude an agreement which would, \"admit the superior and predominant political influence of Britain\" in Afghanistan, the Afghans refused to accept an \"alliances.\" An exclusive treaty was impossible after Afghanistan announced ratification of the Russian-Afghan treaty of 1921. In the fourth and final stage of negotiations, from September 18 to December 8, 1921, the British mission twice made preparations to return to India, when finally an agreement was signed at Kabul on November 22, 1921. Ratifications were exchanged on February 6 of 1922. In the treaty both government \"mutually certify and respect each with regard to the other all rights of internal and external independence.\" Afghanistan reaffirmed its acceptance of the boundary west of the Khaibar, subject to minor \"re-alignment.\" Legations were to be opened in London and Kabul, consulates established in various Indian and Afghan towns, and Afghanistan was permitted to import arms and munitions through India. No customs duties were to be charged for goods in transit to Afghanistan and each party agreed to inform the other of major military operations in the frontier belt. Representatives of both states were to meet in the near future to discuss conclusion of a trade convention, which was signed in June 1923. more... http://www.afghan-network.net/Culture/treaties.html"}, {"response": 641, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 11, 2001 (23:42)", "body": "Bush gave one of his best tv appearances tonight. He was eloquent, this whole crisis has moved him to a level many didn't feel he was capable of acheiving. He asked every child in America to send a dollar to a child in Afghanistan."}, {"response": 642, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Oct 12, 2001 (07:15)", "body": "Hi all Marcia, a cartoon wizard by the name Garrick Tremain lives in New Zealand. I will send you a copy of the October 12, 2001 cartoon in the Press. ITS BRILLIANT!!!!! If you can wait a few days more, you will also get some photos from me of my house and it's residents. I have some ready to go, but have not yet dispatched them. Rob"}, {"response": 643, "author": "Moon", "date": "Fri, Oct 12, 2001 (14:55)", "body": "Perhaps there might be some good out of the ashes of this very frightening time. True unification for peace. It is a dream, let's hope it becomes a reality. As for 1921 could be 1+9=10 the month October and 21 the date. It could be a date to watch for."}, {"response": 644, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 12, 2001 (19:45)", "body": "Moon!! That is My Son's Wedding day!!! Salvation Army Team Emergency Response Network update One month into its disaster relief support operation in New York City, Salvation Army Team Emergency Response Network (SATERN) volunteers are holding up well. SATERN Amateur Radio Liaison Officer Jeff Schneller, N2HPO, says his current team is doing a fantastic job, and the operation could run for several more weeks. SATERN is now ''making do'' with at least six Amateur Radio volunteers per day, from about 9 AM until 11 PM, primarily to support the Salvation Army World Trade Center canteen operation. Operators have come from all over, including New Hampshire, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida and Missouri, and Schneller said he even had offers of help from England and Canada. Two local groups--the Broadcast Employees Amateur Radio Society (BEARS) and the Electchester VHF Club have been providing exclusive use of their repeaters since Day One. Schneller, who's in the fire alarm and sprinkler business, also has been involved from the start, and--with the understanding and support of his customers--has been logging some long hours. He said most of the volunteers' employers have been supportive as well. Carlos Varon, K2LCV, has been Schneller's backup and is in charge of scheduling volunteers. SATERN radio volunteers have been handling base station duties at Salvation Army Headquarters on 14th Street in Manhattan as well as providing communication at key field sites, aboard supply trucks and at the distribution warehouse. Schneller thanked the dozens of Amateur Radio operators who have turned out to assist. He also said he appreciated the many other offers to help. SATERN now is limiting its fresh volunteers to those available from the Greater New York City area. Schneller strongly advised all Amateur Radio operators to prepare for the future by first getting acquainted with and joining their local ARES or SATERN teams, then by taking the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course. More information about SATERN is available on the SATERN Web site, http://www.satern.org . Information on the ARRL's emergency communications course is available on the ARRL Web site, http://www.arrl.org/cce/ ."}, {"response": 645, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 12, 2001 (21:27)", "body": "In SLATE someone did a back calculation from Osama bin Laden's citation of \"80 years\" of Islamic suffering. Using the Islamic religious calendar, not the solar or secular 365-day calendar, 9-11-01 turned out to be the exact 80 year anniversary of the ending of the Caliphate by Ataturk. Which makes the most sense of anything."}, {"response": 646, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 12, 2001 (21:38)", "body": "yup!!! Just please not the 21st of October...! I wonder if the antibiotics I am taking now will protect me from anthrax future? Probably not..."}, {"response": 647, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 12, 2001 (21:49)", "body": "11 Sept. 2001 = 23 Jumada Al-Thani 1422 23 Jumada Al-Thani 1342 = 29 January 1924 The Caliphate was abolished on 3 March 1924. http://www.mfa.gov.tr/grupk/history.htm"}, {"response": 648, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Oct 13, 2001 (06:35)", "body": "Hi all Marcia: yup!!! Just please not the 21st of October...! Rob: And I suppose it is not an option to shift the wedding to a certain spot in Hilo or even better, to a certain city on the east coast of the South Island?? Get a hint?? Rob"}, {"response": 649, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Oct 13, 2001 (06:40)", "body": "Why?? There are some advantages to being in a little country like New Zealand. Save perhaps for Fiji, and maybe Australia we are too small to annoy the hell out anyone enough that they would decide to attack the country. Last country we annoyed was France, and they sent two government agents to blow up the Rainbow Warrior (flagship of Greenpeace), in Waitemata Harbour, Auckland. Some Kiwis have never forgiven the French for that and some probably never will. Rob"}, {"response": 650, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sat, Oct 13, 2001 (11:55)", "body": "Well, it looks like no one is gonna pull any atrocities in China: This from AP: CHINA BLOCKS MIDDLE EAST TICKET HOLDERS \"Beijing authorities have instructed Chinese airlines in HK to halt tickets sales to nationals of 19 countries , mainly in the Middle East. China National Aviation Corp , the sole agent of 10 mainland airlines in HK, told travel agents to stop selling tickets to China to holders of certain passports and to refund purchased tickets...for \"safety reasons\". The memo added tht there would not be a \"total ban\" ..wording that may have been meant to allow room for diplomats or dignitaries to travel.\""}, {"response": 651, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 13, 2001 (16:03)", "body": "Evelyn.....thanks for posting that. I had no idea...!!! Rob, it has been suggested that we claim independence from the US as overthrown Hawaiian nationhood and all that. Rather nasty suggestion, actually. There is not much difference in the poor classes and women status of old Hawaii and old Afghanistan when you get down to the ugly truth. In any case, Mme Pele would love to bless their wedding and I am certain would the loveliness of Christchurch. What a wonderful excuse to go way-down-under!"}, {"response": 652, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 13, 2001 (16:11)", "body": "Another thought on China and forbidding sales of tickets to the Mideast. Our terrorists came in from Canada, from other outside the US places. They took flying lessons and got credentials. For all I know, the pilot of the plane taking me to my son's wedding is a licensed professional pilot bent on sending me to eternal damnation and he to the 20 virgins waiting for him. China is so vast it would be easy to get there illegally!!!"}, {"response": 653, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Oct 13, 2001 (16:40)", "body": "Oh no Marcia, please have faith that you will arrive safely to your son's wedding. The US/Canadian border is so long, is there anyway that it can possibly be effectively controlled? I think that I'd read something some time ago about the Chinese government being very wary of the possiblity of Islamic fundamentalist groups within China. There are provinces in western China were the population is largely not ethnically Chinese and Muslim. This, of course, doesn't mean that all of the Islamic citizens of China want to create their own Islamic republics. I haven't come across the topic since."}, {"response": 654, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 13, 2001 (17:14)", "body": "Cheryl!!! *HUGS* welcome back! I cannot imagine patrolling China's borders if we cannot control the distances involved on our Canadian border. Unhappily, I think we are just restricting law-abiding citizens. The truly evil will find way to accomplish their nefarous ends. Just like gun laws. Thanks for the good thoughts on my son's wedding. My phamacist, yesterday, said she has very good vibes that all would be well. I'm hanging onto that thought!"}, {"response": 655, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 14, 2001 (09:44)", "body": "Going after the big fish (financial): http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/13/international/13ASSE.html"}, {"response": 656, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 14, 2001 (20:50)", "body": "Now, in the \"if this turns out to be true\" department: XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SAT OCT 13, 2001 15:29:42 ET XXXXX MAG: U.S. FAILED TO KILL TALIBAN LEADER WHEN HE WAS IN SIGHT DURING FIRST NIGHT OF WAR; RUMSFELD FURIOUS The U.S. military failed to kill Taliban leader Mullah Omar when he was in its sights during the first night of the war, the NEW YORKER is planning to report on Monday. According to publishing sources, Seymour Hersh has filed a story quoting top intelligence-community members claiming to be 'crestfallen' about the incident. MORE Reaction in Washington to the failure to strike immediately was fierce, Hersh reports. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was \"kicking a lot of glass and breaking doors,\" one military official said. An unmanned Predator reconnaissance aircraft operating in the Kabul area identified a convoy carrying Mullah Omar as he fled the capital. The Predator is armed with two anti-tank missiles, but under the rules of engagement in effect Sunday night the C.I.A. could not order such a strike. Although the precise sequence of events could not be fully learned, Hersh reports, General Tommy R. Franks, the commander in charge at the United States Central Command in Florida reported that 'Judge Advocate General, a legal officer', doesn't like this, so we're not going to fire.' It was decided to target a few cars in front of the building to perhaps scare Mullah Omar out of the building to take a look. Omar did leave the building, but not immediately. Soon after he left, Hersh reports, the building was targeted and destroyed by F-18s, too late to kill Omar. \""}, {"response": 657, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 14, 2001 (20:57)", "body": "\"According to the intelligence report, the U.S. tipped off Israel last week that bin Laden's al Qaeda cells and networks in Lebanon were complete and ready to launch strikes in Israel. They operate under the command of Imad Mughniyeh, terrorism and intelligence consultant to Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the report. As former head of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah's security apparatus in the 1980s, Mughniyeh was responsible for the 1993 bombing of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut and the blasting of Israeli locations in Argentina.\" http://www.freeman.org/m_online/may01/debka.htm \"Following the kidnapping last October of the four men P three soldiers on the Lebanese border and Tannenbaum outside the country -J DEBKAfile revealed for the first time that the notorious Lebanese hostage-taker Imad Mughniyeh was behind the snatch P not the Hizballah. This now ties in with another surprising development, recently pieced together by US intelligence in the course of its investigation of the terrorist-bombing of the US Cole in Aden harbor in the same month as the kidnappings: Iranian spiritual ruler Ayatollah KhameneiUs personal security service, which is headed by Mughniyeh, has struck a deal with Bin LadenUs al Qaeda for an operational partnership against US Gulf and Middle East targets as well as Israeli and Jewish interests worldwide.\" http://www.debka.com/TERRORISM/body_terrorism.html"}, {"response": 658, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sun, Oct 14, 2001 (21:07)", "body": "CHINA BLOCKS MIDDLE EAST TICKET HOLDERS Incredible! But there might be something to it. In Italy there was an anti-war march from Perugia to Assisi there were more than one hundred thousand people. In other cities in Europe there were also anti-war protests. It turns out that Milan is the main European hub for muslim terrorists. Five were arrested today that had planned to bomb the US Embassy in Rome. Which is on Via Veneto. The US better get the ground troups in there and do what they're supposed to do. What is holding them up?"}, {"response": 659, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 14, 2001 (21:13)", "body": "Take a look at David Kline's comments on ground troops in news 54. It strikes at the heart of our survival."}, {"response": 660, "author": "mari", "date": "Mon, Oct 15, 2001 (09:31)", "body": "(Moon)In Italy there was an anti-war march from Perugia to Assisi there were more than one hundred thousand people. In other cities in Europe there were also anti-war protests. Yes, I saw some of them interviewed, talking about the need to resolve this through \"peaceful negotiations.\" I'd like to know--what planet do these people come from? Negotiations with whom--with people who do not even value their own lives? Their naivete is appalling."}, {"response": 661, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Oct 15, 2001 (10:24)", "body": "They are Communists, Mari. Unfortunately, Umbria is a predominantly communist region in Italy. They have no clue. They should just stick to their great wines and mineral waters. I thank God that in Italy we now have a center-right governement after years of abuse from the secular left."}, {"response": 662, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 15, 2001 (17:14)", "body": "Amen, Moon. Oh, I'm taking the \"Story of Yew' on my plane trip upcoming in three days. I understand it is very good and a good diversion for what will be a tense flight. I hope we all wish to get to our destination with lives intact."}, {"response": 663, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Oct 15, 2001 (18:00)", "body": "I will be thinking of you on Oct. 21st. My very best wishes to you, your son and his bride. :-D"}, {"response": 664, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 15, 2001 (18:44)", "body": "Thanks for your good wishes. I have forwarded them to the Bride and Groom. More at Geo 40 so I don't add too much bliss to a serious topic. Please be careful, Moon, dear! You are not replaceable!!! What a great reason for not opening junk mail!"}, {"response": 665, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (11:47)", "body": "\"Rumseld, fielding reporters' questions at the Pentagon, ridiculed Taliban claims of hundreds of civilian casualties in Afghanistan. The ruling militia escorted American journalists around a crater-pocked area near the village of Karam over the weekend to buttress their claim. But the defense secretary said the targets in that case were underground caves suspected of being used to store weapons. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that a secondary fire touched off by the bomb ``went on for three and a half to four hours.'' Said Rumsfeld: ``They were not cooking cookies inside those tunnels... You do not spend that kind of money and dig that far in and store that many weapons ... unless you have very serious purposes for doing it.'' He said the individuals in the vicinity ``clearly were connected to those activities.'' http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Washington.html It was a tv reporters insertion that said Rumsfeld said the amunition may have caused destruction in the small commuity."}, {"response": 666, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (13:04)", "body": "The media is running the risk of becoming a great propaganda machine. Someone should pull the plug."}, {"response": 667, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (15:25)", "body": "YES, Moon! I will not watch some stations for that very reason. I am back to listening to NPR... Thank you for posting in the 666 position. Hardly demonic, I think!"}, {"response": 668, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (17:23)", "body": "Thank you for posting in the 666 position. Hardly demonic, I think! LOL! That's alright Marcia, in college my PO Box # was 0069. T'is true!"}, {"response": 669, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (19:01)", "body": "In college my phone number was extension 1234. When a guy asked for it, and I gave it to him, he often looked at me sideways and asked me to tell him if I was not interested in him. Numbers are curious things. In Hebrew characters, the characters can either be letters or numbers!"}, {"response": 670, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (16:45)", "body": "From Fox: Terrorists Failed in Their Ultimate Mission Wednesday, October 17, 2001 Glenn Harlan Reynolds Five weeks have passed since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and from what we have learned in that time I think it's fair to pronounce the attacks a near-total failure. True, they caused unprecedented death and devastation. But the attacks were not, really, about death and devastation. They were about terror, which is why those who perpetrated them are called terrorists. The goal, as now seems clear, was to provoke a frightened and inflamed United States to lash out indiscriminately, create a split between the Islamic world and the West and to deliver some existing regimes ? chiefly in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Algeria ? into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. At the same time, the U.S. would collapse under domestic fear and quickly sue for peace, abandoning Israel and offering a complete withdrawal of its influence from North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia as the price it would pay to prevent similar attacks from happening again. It seems pretty clear that this was the terrorists' plan, and when measured against these objectives, it is also clear that this plan failed. Understanding why the terrorists ultimately failed means understanding the true nature of the United States' core strength. The plot failed in part because of the immediate response by the government to quickly ground flights ? most likely preventing additional hijackings ? and by the passengers of United Airlines flight 93 who bravely overtook the hijackers and probably saved the Capitol and/or the White House from destruction. It failed more fundamentally because the U.S. did not react the way that Usama bin Laden's followers expected. Having apparently watched the Denzel Washington movie The Siege ? a film that depicted mass hysteria incited by Islamic terrorist attacks in New York ? one too many times, bin Laden's men overestimated the likelihood that the U.S. would panic and overreact. They also learned the wrong lesson from previous cases when a few casualties caused the U.S. to withdraw from foreign commitments; hitting Americans on American soil isn't the same thing. But most significantly, the terrorists misjudged the reaction of American women. In the past, American women have been far more reluctant to see the nation go to war than men. But this time, American women seem to be, if anything, more bellicose than the men. Part of this hawkish reaction by American women stems from the attack being on American soil, killing civilians, parents, children, and spouses. But part of it also stems from the fact that these attackers represent a culture that brutally oppresses women. When I remarked to a friend that my Web site was generating more bellicose e-mail on the war from women than from men, he compared their reaction to what could be the expected response of African Americans if the U.S. had gone to war against apartheid South Africa. I think he's onto something. Media targeted at women seem to be bearing this theory out: The most recent issue of the Star tabloid features a special 12-page section on the war emphasizing the role of women in combat from the Gulf War, to women serving today on aircraft carriers. There is a feature on the \"defiantly lipstick-wearing\" female anti-Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan and a sidebar on 17-year-old British female sailor Jodie Jones of HMS Illustrious who declares, \"I'm ready for action!\" A profile of a female three-star general concludes, \"as the nation launches an all-out counterattack on Usama bin Laden and his evil henchmen, we couldn't be in better hands.\" In America and Europe, the emotional and political tone is largely set by middle-class married women. These women ? who never much thought about the Taliban and Islamic regimes ? are thinking about them now, and they don't like them. American and European women are likely to be far more supportive of military action against the misogynist regimes of radical Islamic states than of other kinds of military action. They're also likely, even after the war, to keep pushing for female emancipation throughout the Islamic world. The liberation of Islamic women is the thing, I think, that bin Laden and his ilk fear the most. But as a majority of voters in the world's richest and most powerful countries, American and European women are likely to eventually get what they want. It may take a couple of decades, but a direct consequence of the Sept. 11 atrocities may be the liberation of women throughout the Islamic world. For bin Laden, the Taliban and their supporters and followers, that would be a failure. A colossal failure."}, {"response": 671, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (23:14)", "body": "American and European women are likely to be far more supportive of military action against the misogynist regimes of radical Islamic states than of other kinds of military action. Hell hath no fury like women seeking to liberate other women forced to wear ugly fashions. ;-)"}, {"response": 672, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 18, 2001 (00:34)", "body": "YES!!! Karen! Right on. Gazooks what they have conceived for us to wear... we must be roundly hated by the male fasion pundits. arrgh!"}, {"response": 673, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 18, 2001 (00:36)", "body": "Not to mention those spooky garment which hide women of certain faiths. Their men must be very insecure!"}, {"response": 674, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 18, 2001 (23:19)", "body": "A Boston trauma expert arrived in NYC shortly after September 11th. At the conclusion of his visit, he observed \"starting around the Thanksgiving holiday and through the New Year, a major mental health crisis will emerge in the city and surrounding area.\" Indeed, doctors and mental health experts are already observing the psychological fallout from the disaster rippling out from ground zero. Those at highest risk were personally exposed to the events, especially those threatened with injury or death. The second ripple includes those who lost friends, loved ones, or coworkers and those involved in recovery work. For the rest of us who spent days glued to our TV sets as the horror unfolded, even this exposure can trigger disabling symptoms, particularly in those with preexisting problems with anxiety, depression, or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With these encouraging words: \"Most people will recover as long as we maximize the normal recovery process,\" another expert encouraged everyone experiencing i trusive mental or physical anguish from the attack to seek help. For more information, check out http://www.psych.org and click on \"Coping With a National Tragedy.\" from www.femailhealthnews.com"}, {"response": 675, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 19, 2001 (08:02)", "body": "One of my coworkers suggested we train women in combat and send them in dressed in traditional women's garb with veils and all, they could move in to areas our troops couldn't reach easily and they could pack quite a bit of concealed ammo and weapons under all that clothing."}, {"response": 676, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 19, 2001 (16:34)", "body": "Hmmmm!!! That sound better than the email making the rounds suggesting every plane take off with a baby pig aboard. If a Muslim is buried with swine (\"unclean\") they believe they are doomed to Hell. Then, do the suggested air drops of 100,000 swine into Afghanistan... Perhaps there is merit to this after all."}, {"response": 677, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 21, 2001 (01:38)", "body": "What's up with this? October 20, 2001 THE AMBASSADOR Don't Doubt Steadfastness of Taliban, Envoy Insists By JOHN F. BURNS http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/20/international/asia/20STAN.html?todaysheadlines \"He was asked how it was that Mullah Omar had declared a \"holy war\" against the United States \ufffd and had said it was the duty of all Muslims to rally to the Taliban's side \ufffd but that not a single government among the 56 Muslim nations had rallied to the Taliban's cause. \"Inshallah,\" or God willing, he said, \"there will be a lot of Muslims joining us.\" And if not, he added, it is hardly the Taliban's part to persuade them. \"All of our actions are according to the Shariah law,\" he said, invoking the Islamic legal code. \"We do not argue with people, and we do not reason with them.\" But the most evocative response came with a resounding laugh from the mullah and a kind of thigh-slapping comicality from his interpreter, a huge man with an eyepatch. Toward the end of the 40-minute audience, he was asked if the anthrax attacks in the United States had been masterminded by Mr. bin Laden. \"Anthrax?\" he said, and then paused as if for theatrical effect. \"We don't know about this. We don't know what it is.\" Across the garden, many of the 150 reporters from across the world joined in the burst of laughter, drowning out the birds chirping at the approach of dusk.\""}, {"response": 678, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 21, 2001 (15:54)", "body": "Do you detect more than a little sadism in this press conference? We are permitting our thoughts to be diverted by press giving space and credibility to such rantings? Pathetic!"}, {"response": 679, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 21, 2001 (16:56)", "body": "Greek Americans join relief effort Greek Orthodox Church also helps open funds in support of victims of September 11 terrorist attacks on USA With thousands of innocent civilians having perished in the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and many remaining homeless and jobless since the collapse of the World Trade Center, the Greek-American community and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese are joining nationwide relief efforts. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has asked that all parishes conduct a memorial service tomorrow to commemorate the 40 days that have passed since thousands of people were killed that Tuesday morning. \"On this solemn occasion let each and every one of us light a special candle for the September 11 victims, the proceeds of which should be sent to the Sept. 11 Relief Fund of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America,\" an encyclical instructed. The relief fund and the Sept. 11 Relief Center at the St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, located close to the disaster site in New York City, were founded by the Archdiocese. Contributions to the fund presently total $1.2 million and have been generated by organizations, individuals and parishes from across the country and around the world. Moreover, the newly established Department of Philanthropy of the Archdiocese, headed by Archimandrite Antonios Paropoulos, is also expected to play an important role in relief efforts. Both the Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek-American community suffered losses that Tuesday morning last month, as several Americans of Greek descent died while at work in the Twin Towers and St. Nicholas Church was crushed under the falling debris. The Archdiocese announced that the church will be rebuilt once rescue workers have completed their work and construction crews have cleared the debris from the area. In a gesture of support and concern over the destruction of St. Nicholas Church, Martin Kaplan, chairman of the American-Jewish Committee (AJC), this week donated $10,000 of AJC funds to the Archdiocese for the church's reconstruction. \"This gesture is a treasure, a movement of the heart,\" Archbishop Demetrios of America said after the meeting. In addition to the relief efforts of the Archdiocese, there is a similar campaign by the Greek-American community organized by the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA). AHEPA Supreme President Andrew T. Banis announced recently that the association was launching an international fund-raising drive to raise $100,000 for disaster relief needed as a result of last month's terrorist attacks. This announcement builds upon a previous call directed to its chapters and members to provide disaster relief by organizing blood drives and donating blood. \"As our nation prepares for a sustained campaign against terrorism the Greek-American community must stand side-by-side with this effort, offering our resources for the protection of democracy, freedom, and humanity,\" Banis said. \"Therefore, I am calling on the AHEPA family to focus all its energy in this effort to raise a minimal amount of $100,000 by November 1.\" According to Banis, once the fund-raising goal is achieved, the funds will be allocated to one or more of the charitable organizations assisting with disaster relief, including the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, and the Firefighter's Fund. The $100,000 raised will be in addition to the financial contribution provided by AHEPA to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Established in 1922, AHEPA is the largest Greek-American association in the world with its own chapters in the USA, Canada and Greece, as well as sister chapters in Australia. MIRON VAROUHAKIS More... http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?aid=104435"}, {"response": 680, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Mon, Oct 22, 2001 (02:06)", "body": "(Karen)Hell hath no fury like women seeking to liberate other women forced to wear ugly fashions. ;-) ****** ROTFL"}, {"response": 681, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 23, 2001 (22:03)", "body": "David Kline (who has his own topic in the news conference): We'll get to a real war footing, eventually, but pyschologically right now I think folks are still hopinmg against hope that it'll somehow turn out to be a movie-of-the-week sort of war. A temporary disruption, that's all. But soon enough, I'm afraid, casualties won't make the news unless they're double or triple digit. And the American people will be expected -- indeed, *required* to make and accept daily sacrifices as normal. War lite. Perfect."}, {"response": 682, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 26, 2001 (08:55)", "body": "It's those darn liberals again ;-)B http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/10/21/stiusausa02030.html October 21 2001 TERRORISM ULTRA ZEALOTS: If you think Bin Laden is extreme - some Muslims want to kill him because he's soft IF YOU thought Osama Bin Laden's brand of Islamic fundamentalism was as extreme as it gets, think again. A rival group of Muslim terrorists exists which regards him as an infidel who has sold out. Bin Laden's declaration of war against the West has failed to impress Takfir wal-Hijra, an ultra-hardcore group that has won a reputation for unbridled savagery in Egypt and Sudan. Hamza: even he's shocked Its fundamentalism is so extreme that members have embarked on killing sprees in mosques against fellow Muslims in the belief that a pure Islamic state can be built only if the corrupt elements of the last one are wiped out. In this they see Bin Laden and his followers as pragmatists who are \"excessively liberal\". To drive the point home, four of its members pulled up in a pick-up truck outside his house in Sudan in 1995, spraying it with bullets in an effort to kill him . . . \"They are nothing but a bunch of extremists,\" said Abu Hamza, the claw-handed radical preacher at Finsbury Park mosque in north London, who outraged public opinion in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center by describing them as an act of \"self-defence\"."}, {"response": 683, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 26, 2001 (09:30)", "body": "\"The world's most wanted terrorist suffered a setback as first word of a fatality among the top ranks of his Al-Qaeda network was reported on Thursday by a London-based Islamic group. ...The Islamic Observation Center said in an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press that an Egyptian militant, identified by his nom de guerre Abu Baseer al-Masri, was killed by a bomb on Sunday near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.\" Source: http://www.ecola.com/go/?f=&r=as&u=www.hindustantimes.com"}, {"response": 684, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 26, 2001 (15:14)", "body": "Reacting to the news of Abdul Haq's execution today by the Taliban: Oh man, this is a real tragedy -- on the scale of Massoud's death. He was Pashtun, one of the few with enough credibility and respect to be able to potentially rally fellow tribesmen away from the Taliban. And he was quite simply a great guy. Educated, funny, always playing practical jokes, a lover of poetry and music, and incredibly brave. He lost a foot to a land mine and thereafter hopped (literally) into battle. He was also kind. Western reporters who travelled with him and his fighters always had the feeling that Abdul Haq was looking after them, personally. Very solicitous of other's needs; very respectful of women. Abdul Haq was no toady of the U.S., either. He could be very critical of imperial behavior by the U.S., and indeed criticized the current bombing effort as potentially galvanizing of Taliban resistance. I could tell you stories about him. One time he flirted with my girlfriend just to see my reaction (wink wink, nod nod, then he burst out laughing at my obvious discomfort). And he loved to trade good natured insults -- \"You feeble Americans, even our women walk faster than you ... \"Yeah, no shit Abdul, with guys like you after them, no wonder!\" I don't know what else to say. Maybe it's not true. But it probably is. - David Kline"}, {"response": 685, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 26, 2001 (15:14)", "body": "More on the bin Laden death story: http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/interrogatory102501b.shtml"}, {"response": 686, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 26, 2001 (21:19)", "body": "More from a shocked and dismayed David Kline: I really am finding this hard to believe: the two greatest living Afghans, Massoud and Abdul Haq, both murdered in less than two months by the Taliban. And it's difficult to explain how much these men symbolized hope for Afghanistan, even in their personal manner. Massoud spoke French, loved literature and led his men quietly, almost shyly. Abdul Haq was a poet with the charisma of a warrior, a big (teddy) bear of a man who laughed easily. They were cosmopolitan, sophisticated about the ways of both the West & the East -- not at all the sort of \"warlord\" the media is so fond of presenting these days. It has become easy, of course, to shake our heads and tsk tsk the Afghans for all the ways that they are screwed up. But you could never think such things in the presence of Massoud or Abdul Haq. They were truly *impressive.* And their vision was wider and deeper than you might expect of people who had lived in caves and mountain redoubts for so long. Each imagined a liberated Afghanistan with schools for all, electricity for all, a new class of women doctors trained to give medical care to all, and economic development schemes that were rather well thought out. But mostly, they imagined peace. Just peace. For a people who hadn't had it in 25 years. I just spoke to the woman who was my girlfriend then (she did refugee work along the Afghan border at the time) and she reminded me that our first date was very traditional -- \"dinner and a movie\" -- except for the fact that it was at Abdul Haq's house. The dinner he cooked himself (no lie), and the movie was (of course) video of anti-Soviet fighting. We played cards (Poker and Fish), told jokes, arm wrestled, and recited poetry to each other. It was from Abdul, in fact, that I first learned to recite the traditional Pasthun landay (rhyming couplet) that goes like this: Your face is a rose, your eyes candles Faith, I am lost! Should I become a butterfly or a moth? Now he's gone. They're all gone, really -- the only ones who could deliver the Afghans from their present misery. Who else has anywhere near the stature these men had? Ismael Khan maybe, but he's probably too regional. Anyway, I keep holding the thought that societies usually end up producing exactly the leaders they need. So maybe there are others, unknown as yet, who will one day take the place of Massoud and Abdul Haq. Wow, I thought I was soooo cool about Afghanistan. I'd seen a lot of shit there, stuff that I didn't at the time think I was strong enough to see. I thought nothing about that country could shake me up anymore. But here I am, simply stunned. I have a hard time believing it's real."}, {"response": 687, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 26, 2001 (21:25)", "body": "We all have a hard time believing it is real. Until the stuff starts hitting your neighbors or in your yard, it is somehow remote. In Hawaii, it seems like another planet. But, then, so does all of the rest of the world. War lite. Too bad they aren't all like that..."}, {"response": 688, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 26, 2001 (21:53)", "body": "That was very, very tough news for David, who knew these guys intimately from his years as a war correspondent in Afghanistan. He has been very obviously shaken by the death of these two leaders who were so critical to Afghanistans future. I can feel his despair and pain. An excerpt from an ABCnews.com report today gives the Afghanis a glimmer of hope for a peaceful future: D U S H A N B E, Tajikistan, Oct. 25 \ufffd Like so many children in Afghanistan, 13-year-old Ahmed Massoud lost his father in the fighting that has engulfed the country for more than 20 years. But Ahmed's loss was also a loss for the country. His father, Ahmed Shah Massoud, was a brilliant military leader who helped the Afghans throw out the Soviet invaders in the 1980s. For the last few years, he had led the Northern Alliance's military efforts against the repressive Taliban who control most of Afghanistan. Then \ufffd two days before the attacks on New York and Washington \ufffd Massoud was assassinated by suicide bombers posing as a television news crew. Northern Alliance officials believe the assassins were sent by Osama bin Laden to eliminate the Taliban's most formidable enemy. Although Massoud led a life of war, he was grooming his son to lead the Afghan people on a path he hoped would lead to peace. \"My father never talked to me about war,\" Ahmed told me shortly before his father's memorial service. \"He did not want me to follow a military education. He said that the world would be peaceful when I grow up, so I have to be ready for this peaceful world.\" Ahmed lives with his mother and four sisters in Tajikistan, safely away from the fighting in northern Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley. He is barely a teenager, but members of his father's anti-Taliban forces already treat him with incredible deference and respect. He is very quiet, but carries himself with the self-assurance of a grown man. When he met with us, he strode across the room to shake our hands, then calmly took his seat for the interview. His movements and his bearing are exactly like his father's. Meeting a Warrior I met Ahmed Shah Massoud a year ago when I traveled to northern Afghanistan, where he was nearly surrounded by the Taliban and fighting desperately to keep his supply lines open for the winter. To reach him in his mountainous headquarters, we first flew in an ancient Russian helicopter over the 18,000-foot peaks of the Hindu Kush range. We continued by pick-up truck over rough dirt roads, then crossed a river Afghan-style: on a raft of cow hides sewn together and inflated. The technique worked for the army of Alexander the Great, and it worked for us. It was hard to believe that these were the same people who had defeated the mighty Soviet military, but they were. Many believe it was because Massoud was a brilliant strategist whose guerilla tactics bled the Soviets for 10 years until they finally gave up and left. Massoud's battlefield success is legendary \ufffd and not lost on the Taliban commanders. Although no evidence has emerged of Taliban involvement in his assassination, many suspect they knew that to control all of Afghanistan they needed to take him out. more at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/DailyNews/junger_feature.html"}, {"response": 689, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 27, 2001 (22:12)", "body": "*I've thought of worse suggestions...* This was forwarded to me by several people. A little ancient female wisdom in an otherwise-bleak situation... Take all American women who are within five years of menopause -- train us for a few weeks, outfit us with automatic weapons, grenades, gas masks, moisturizer with SPF15, Prozac, hormones, chocolate, and canned tuna -- drop us (parachuted, preferably) across the landscape of Afghanistan, and let us do what comes naturally. Think about it. Our anger quotient alone, even when doing standard stuff like grocery shopping and paying bills, is formidable enough to make even armed men in turbans tremble. We've had our children, we would gladly suffer or die to protect them and their future. We'd like to get away from our husbands, if they haven't left already. And for those of us who are single, the prospect of finding a good man with whom to share life is about as likely as being struck by lightning. We have nothing to lose. We've survived the water diet, the protein diet, the carbohydrate diet, and the grapefruit diet in gyms and saunas across America and never lost a pound. We can easily survive months in the hostile terrain of Afghanistan with no food at all! We've spent years tracking down our husbands or lovers in bars, hardware stores, or sporting events...finding bin Laden in some cave will be no problem. Uniting all the warring tribes of Afghanistan in a new government? Oh, please ... we've planned the seating arrangements for in-laws and extended families at Thanksgiving dinners for years ... we understand tribal warfare. Between us, we've divorced enough husbands to know every trick there is for how they hide, launder, or cover up bank accounts and money sources. We know how to find that money and we know how to seize it ... with or without the government's help! Let us go and fight. The Taliban hates women. Imagine their terror as we crawl like ants with hot-flashes over their godforsaken terrain. I'm going to write my Congresswoman. You should, too!"}, {"response": 690, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 28, 2001 (22:00)", "body": "An amazing story. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56956-2001Oct26.html You watching TV?\" Rick Rescorla was calling from the 44th floor of the World Trade Center, icy calm in the crisis. When Rescorla was a platoon leader in Vietnam, his men called him Hard Core, because they had never seen anyone so absurdly unflappable in the face of death. Now he was vice president for corporate security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., and a jumbo jet had just plowed into the north tower. The voices of officialdom were crackling over the loudspeakers in the south tower, urging everyone to stay put: Please do not leave the building. This area is secure. Rescorla was ignoring them. \"The dumb sons of bitches told me not to evacuate,\" he said during a quick call to his best friend, Dan Hill, who had indeed been watching the disaster unfolding on TV. \"They said it's just Building One. I told them I'm getting my people the [expletive] out of here.\" Keep moving, Rescorla commanded over his megaphone while Hill listened. Keep moving. \"Typical Rescorla,\" Hill recalls. \"Incredible under fire.\" Morgan Stanley lost only six of its 2,700 employees in the south tower on Sept. 11, an isolated miracle amid the carnage. And company officials say Rescorla deserves most of the credit. He drew up the evacuation plan. He hustled his colleagues to safety. And then he apparently went back into the inferno to search for stragglers. He was the last man out of the south tower after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and no one seems to doubt that he would've been again last month if the skyscraper hadn't collapsed on him first. One of the company's secretaries actually snapped a photo of Rescorla with his megaphone that day, a 62-year-old mountain of a man coolly sacrificing his life for others. It was an epic death, one of those inspirational hero-tales that have sprouted like wildflowers from the Twin Towers rubble. But it turns out that retired Army Col. Cyril Richard Rescorla led an epic life as well. In this time when heroes are being proclaimed all around, when brave actions are understandably hailed as proofs of character, here was a man whose heroism was a matter of public record long before Sept. 11."}, {"response": 691, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Sun, Oct 28, 2001 (23:22)", "body": "The New Yorker Magazine has put together a collection of links to all of the magazine's coverage of the attacks and the aftermath plus older relevant articles: http://www.newyorker.com/FROM_THE_ARCHIVE/PREVIOUS/"}, {"response": 692, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 28, 2001 (23:24)", "body": "Thanks Terry... I have chills just reading this account of Col. Rescorla. He personifies Hero in my book! There were many heroes that day..."}, {"response": 693, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Oct 29, 2001 (08:34)", "body": "This is a something my son found and made me LOL! Enjoy this treat. http://www.madblast.com/binladen.htm"}, {"response": 694, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct 29, 2001 (09:56)", "body": "October 29, 2001 U.S. 'guard down' due to anthrax attacks By Daniel F. Drummond THE WASHINGTON TIMES Terrorist groups are using anthrax attacks as a diversion and taking advantage of an overburdened law-enforcement system to plan more attacks on America, federal law-enforcement and intelligence sources say. The sources, all of whom are either working on or have close knowledge of the investigations of both the anthrax and Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said that regardless of whether Osama bin Laden or the al Qaeda terrorist network are behind the anthrax attacks, they are taking advantage of the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies' dedication to solving and dealing with the anthrax attacks as well as hoaxes and scares. \"Our guard is down now because we are looking at mail,\" one intelligence source said. Indeed, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told a group of the country's mayors that more than 7,000 of its 11,000 agents and support personnel are working on investigations relating to the Sept. 11 and anthrax attacks. \"There is just too much going on,\" an FBI source said, adding that agents are working on the investigations almost simultaneously by asking about both the anthrax and Sept. 11 attacks with those they question. \"We still have to deal with the hoaxes.\" More at: http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20011029-26230978.htm"}, {"response": 695, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 29, 2001 (13:35)", "body": "I love the way the media is working with the enemy in their effort to \"keep us informed.\" I think, in the interests of America, they should to be a lot less headline grabbing. This is so tiresome, I have ceased to watch the news!!!"}, {"response": 696, "author": "winter", "date": "Mon, Oct 29, 2001 (22:23)", "body": "Ashcroft has given out a \"terrorist warning advisory\" to state, national and local agencies (see NYTimes) today. What's also tiresome is how little informed we are of the details of stories like this. Why? Why now? I've been thinking about the possibility of some sort of threat during Halloween. This is an awful thought...the worst of the worst-- but what about the possibility of our children being harmed? But why hasn't the media discussed any precautions parents might take (candy, trick-or-treating, etc)? I hate to give into paranoia... but I'm handing out stickers this year."}, {"response": 697, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Tue, Oct 30, 2001 (01:20)", "body": "here in the NY metro area, that is all that seemingly has been on the news- what to check for in candy, areas that should be avoided, etc. I think that it should be put on the national news... If I had kids, I'd be wary of having them go out at all, unless I were with them, and even then, I wouldn't be very comfortable. also heard that all proceeds from this year's UNICEF (those little boxes that kids have in their trick-or-treat bags to collect $), will go to the Afghan children... apparently this is unprecedented in that never has the entire collection gone to one single cause."}, {"response": 698, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Oct 30, 2001 (08:20)", "body": "What's also tiresome is how little informed we are of the details of stories like this. I agree. It is not enought to warn us. They must give us whatever details they have."}, {"response": 699, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 30, 2001 (09:24)", "body": "They're probably not giving out too many details because it would tip off the terrorists that we know how to tap in to their communication channels. They're going to be offering \"candy\" in the form of false threats to see if we can intercept their messages over wire, the net, etc."}, {"response": 700, "author": "mari", "date": "Tue, Oct 30, 2001 (12:59)", "body": "They're not giving us details because they don't have them. What sparked this latest alert is an increase in the amount of \"noise\" among the terrorists communications networks, similar to what was observed immediately prior to September 11. The government is damned if it does, damned if it doesn't. IMO, they issue these warnings to us because, with law enforcement departments throughout the country being placed on high alert, word is bound to get out that something is afoot. If they don't issue a warning--albeit a general one--people would complain that they're covering up the info. So they issue the alert to the public, and the public complains it's not enough info. Believe me, I'm as frustrated as anyone, but the government has an incredibly difficult situation they're trying to deal with, and so I think we need to have a bit more patience and understanding and not be so quick to second guess."}, {"response": 701, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 30, 2001 (15:06)", "body": "Mari, I absolutely agree with you! I'd rather evacuate from 1,000 tsunami warnings than be drowned by one which was not issued to spare us the trauma. This goes for what we face now. Be safe and keep on doing what you were meant to do. Live your lives as best you can. Attend games and parties. If we don't we will die inside and they will have provided the means for this death. I am not willing to give up so easily! My son was just married. I am looking forward to the possibility of another little generation of people to inhabit a most wonderous world."}, {"response": 702, "author": "mari", "date": "Wed, Oct 31, 2001 (10:17)", "body": "Interesting piece from the New York Times: October 26, 2001 We Are All Alone By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Let me see if I've got this all straight now: Pakistan will allow us to use its bases Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; provided we bomb only Taliban whose names begin with Omar and who don't have cousins in the Pakistani secret service. India is with us on Tuesdays and Fridays, provided it can shell Pakistani forces around Kashmir all other days. Egypt is with us on Sundays, provided we don't tell anyone and provided we never mention that we give the Egyptians $2 billion a year in aid. Yasir Arafat is with us only after 10 p.m. on weekdays, when Palestinians who have been dancing in the streets over the World Trade Center attack have gone to bed. The Northern Alliance is with us, provided we buy all its troops new sandals and give U.S. passports to the first 1,000 to reach Kabul. Israel is with us provided we never question the lunacy of 7,000 Israeli colonial settlers living in the middle of a million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Kuwait would like to be with us, it really would, since we saved Kuwait from Iraq, but two Islamists in the Kuwaiti Parliament spoke out against the war, so the emir just doesn't want to take any chances. You understand. The Saudis, of course, want to be with us, but Saudis are not into war-fighting. That's for the household help. Don't worry. Prince Alwaleed has promised to rent us some Bangladeshi soldiers through a Saudi temp agency \u2014 at only a small markup. The Saudi ruling family would love to cooperate by handing over its police files on the 15 Saudis involved in the hijackings, but that would be a violation of its sovereignty, and, well, you know how much the Saudis respect sovereignty; like when the Saudi Embassy in Washington rushed all of Osama bin Laden's relatives out of America after Sept. 11 on a private Saudi jet, before they could be properly questioned by the F.B.I. And then there's my personal favorite: All our Arab-Muslim allies would love us to get bin Laden quickly, but the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is coming soon and the Muslim \"street\" will not tolerate fighting during Ramadan. Say, do you remember the 1973 Middle East war, launched by Egypt and Syria against Israel? Remember what that war was called in the Arab world? \"The Ramadan war\"; because that's when it was started. Oh, well. I guess the Arab world can launch wars on Ramadan, but not receive them. My fellow Americans, I hate to say this, but except for the good old Brits, we're all alone. And at the end of the day, it's U.S. and British troops who will have to go in, on the ground, and eliminate bin Laden. Ah, you ask, but why did we have so many allies in the gulf war against Iraq? Because the Saudis and Kuwaitis bought that alliance. They bought the Syrian Army with billions of dollars for Damascus. They bought us and the Europeans with promises of huge reconstruction contracts and by covering all our costs. Indeed, with the money Japan paid, we actually made a profit on the gulf war; Coalitions \"R\" Us. This time we'll have to pay our own way, and for others. Unfortunately, killing 5,000 innocent Americans in New York just doesn't get the rest of the world that exercised. In part we're to blame. The unilateralist message the Bush team sent from its first day in office: get rid of the Kyoto climate treaty, forget the biological treaty, forget arms control, and if the world doesn't like it that's tough; has now come back to haunt us. And who can blame other countries for wanting to shake down U.S. taxpayers when Dick Armey and his greedy band of House Republicans are doing the same thing; pushing a stimulus bill with more tax breaks for the rich, lobbyists and corporations, and virtually nothing for the working Americans who will fight this war? My advice: Try not to focus on any of this. Focus instead on the firemen who rushed into the trade center towers without asking, \"How much?\" Focus on the thousands of U.S. reservists who have left their jobs and families to go fight in Afghanistan without asking, \"What's in it for me?\" Unlike the free-riders in our coalition, these young Americans know that Sept. 11 is our holy day; the first day in a just war to preserve our free, multi-religious, democratic society. And I don't really care if that war coincides with Ramadan, Christmas, Hanukkah or the Buddha's birthday; the most respectful and spiritual thing we can do now is fight it until justice is done."}, {"response": 703, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Nov  1, 2001 (13:02)", "body": "The Italians have also committed to send troups. It was reported on Italian Rai TV news that 10 American soldiers have been captured in A. Has it been reported here? Also in Italy, a Muslim has been found living in a metal container with computer and maps of all Italian airports and Canadian airports. He is in custody and the FBI is on its way."}, {"response": 704, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  1, 2001 (15:18)", "body": "Nothing on the capture on ABC or CNN's websites. And nothing about the Muslim living in the dumpster."}, {"response": 705, "author": "mari", "date": "Thu, Nov  1, 2001 (15:58)", "body": "White House says capture story is completely false."}, {"response": 706, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  1, 2001 (21:34)", "body": "And more comments from David Kline: Wow, today's NY Times also has an excellent piece on \"Afghan Art Dispersed by the Winds of War.\" http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/01/arts/design/01PILL.html I may have mentioned before how wonderful and unique Afghan art is, and how proud Afghans have always been of it (a further indication that the Taliban are completely alien to traditional Afghan culture and tradition). Anyway, my movie script -- a love story set against the Afghan war -- also centers around a plot to steal precious Afghan art. I sold the script 10 years ago (to Tom Selleck of all people), but when the Gulf War broke out he decided not to make the movie. So the rights reverted back to me. I'm thinking about resurrecting this script and trying again -- one thing's for sure, I'd be the first up to the plate with an Afghan script. Anyone know any agents or producers to steer me to?"}, {"response": 707, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  1, 2001 (23:06)", "body": "The atrocities inflicted on the antiquites of Afghanistan were reported in Geo - archeologist world-wide are outraged. Little did they know that these people are willing to kill of the whole specied to their eternal glory."}, {"response": 708, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (17:13)", "body": "Twenty-six-year-old Palestinian-American poet and political activist Suheir Hammad has published a book of poems, BORN PALESTINIAN, BORN BLACK, and a memoir, DROPS OF THIS STORY, and is prominently featured in LISTEN UP! AN ANTHOLOGY OF SPOKEN WORK POETRY. Recipient of the Audre Lourde Writing Award from Hunter College, the Morris Center for Healing Poetry Award, and a New York Mills Artist Residency in Minnesota, Hammad is a frequent reader at New York reading venues, including numerous radio appearances, and has performed with The All That Band and Rhythms of Aqua. She has produced a documentary film, HALF A LIFETIME, and is writing a film entitled FROM BEIRUT TO BROOKLYN, based on her memoir. Naomi Shihab Nye has called Hammad's work \"a brave flag over the dispossessed.\" First Writing Since 1. there have been no words. i have not written one word. no poetry in the ashes south of canal street. no prose in the refrigerated trucks driving debris and dna. not one word. today is a week, and seven is of heavens, gods, science. evident out my kitchen window is an abstract reality. sky where once was steel. smoke where once was flesh. fire in the city air and i feared for my sister's life in a way never before. and then, and now, i fear for the rest of us. first, please god, let it be a mistake, the pilot's heart failed, the plane's engine died. then please god, let it be a nightmare, wake me now. please god, after the second plane, please, don't let it be anyone who looks like my brothers. i do not know how bad a life has to break in order to kill. i have never been so hungry that i willed hunger i have never been so angry as to want to control a gun over a pen. not really. even as a woman, as a palestinian, as a broken human being. never this broken. more than ever, i believe there is no difference. the most privileged nation, most americans do not know the difference between indians, afghanis, syrians, muslims, sikhs, hindus. more than ever, there is no difference. 2. thank you korea for kimchi and bibim bob, and corn tea and the genteel smiles of the wait staff at wonjo the smiles never revealing the heat of the food or how tired they must be working long midtown shifts. thank you korea, for the belly craving that brought me into the city late the night before and diverted my daily train ride into the world trade center. there are plenty of thank yous in ny right now. thank you for my lazy procrastinating late ass. thank you to the germs that had me call in sick. thank you, my attitude, you had me fired the week before. thank you for the train that never came, the rude nyer who stole my cab going downtown. thank you for the sense my mama gave me to run. thank you for my legs, my eyes, my life. 3. the dead are called lost and their families hold up shaky printouts in front of us through screens smoked up. we are looking for iris, mother of three. please call with any information. we are searching for priti, last seen on the 103rd floor. she was talking to her husband on the phone and the line went. please help us find george, also known as adel. his family is waiting for him with his favorite meal. i am looking for my son, who was delivering coffee. i am looking for my sister girl, she started her job on monday. i am looking for peace. i am looking for mercy. i am looking for evidence of compassion. any evidence of life. i am looking for life. 4. ricardo on the radio said in his accent thick as yuca, \"i will feel so much better when the first bombs drop over there. and my friends feel the same way.\" on my block, a woman was crying in a car parked and stranded in hurt. i offered comfort, extended a hand she did not see before she said, \"we're gonna burn them so bad, i swear, so bad.\" my hand went to my head and my head went to the numbers within it of the dead iraqi children, the dead in nicaragua. the dead in rwanda who had to vie with fake sport wrestling for america's attention. yet when people sent emails saying, this was bound to happen, lets not forget u.s. transgressions, for half a second i felt resentful. hold up with that, cause i live here, these are my friends and fam, and it could have been me in those buildings, and we're not bad people, do not support america's bullying. can i just have a half second to feel bad? if i can find through this exhaust people who were left behind to mourn and to resist mass murder, i might be alright. thank you to the woman who saw me brinking my cool and blinking back tears. she opened her arms before she asked \"do you want a hug?\" a big white woman, and her embrace was the kind only people with the warmth of flesh can offer. i wasn't about to say no to any comfort. \"my brother's in the navy,\" i said. \"and we\"re arabs.\"\"wow, you got double trouble.\" word. 5. one more person ask me if i knew the hijackers. one more motherfucker ask me what navy my brother is in. one more person assume no arabs or muslims were killed. one more person assume they know me, or that i rep"}, {"response": 709, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (20:43)", "body": "I have known a young geology student in Islamabad for several years. My heart aches for him now. He worries about me. I am far from harm's way, and he is just starting out on life and the study of how precious and special this planet really is. This is incredibly sad, especially when it beomes highly personal."}, {"response": 710, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (22:42)", "body": "A friend, Koti, sent me this today. From MAILER-DAEMON Tue Nov 6 21:26:30 2001 Date: 06 Nov 2001 21:26:30 -0600 From: Mail System Internal Data Subject: DON'T DELETE THIS MESSAGE -- FOLDER INTERNAL DATA X-IMAP: 1005103590 0000000000 Status: RO This text is part of the internal format of your mail folder, and is not a real message. It is created automatically by the mail system software. If deleted, important folder data will be lost, and it will be re-created with the data reset to initial values. From terry@www.spring.net Tue Nov 6 17:12:54 2001 -0600 Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: Return-Path: Received: from localhost (koti@localhost) by www.spring.net (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id fA6NCpA52010; Tue, 6 Nov 2001 17:12:51 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from koti@spring.net) Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001 17:12:50 -0600 (CST) From: Koti Nandipati To: gdegamo@lucent.com cc: wayne.branagh@motorola.com, terry@spring.net Subject: Hijackers' Meticulous Strategy of Brains, Muscle and Practice (fwd) Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII NY Times article detailing the sept 11th event execution...--koti Hijackers' Meticulous Strategy of Brains, Muscle and Practice November 4, 2001 By DON VAN NATTA Jr. and KATE ZERNIKE American Airlines Flight 11 was in line for takeoff from Logan International Airport, the passengers already reminded to turn off personal electronic devices, when Mohamed Atta, in seat 8D in business class, dialed his cellphone for the last time. The call rang aboard another sparsely occupied jetliner a bit farther back on the same tarmac, on a cellphone belonging to Marwan al- Shehhi, in seat 6C on United Airlines Flight 175. The conversation between the two men, so close that they called each other cousin, lasted less than one minute - just long enough, investigators say, to signal that the plot was on. That simple communication was the culmination of months of meticulous planning and coordination that by 10 o'clock on the morning of Sept. 11 would become the worst terrorist attack in history. With all the suspects dead and no conclusive evidence, as yet, of any accomplices, investigators have been left to recreate the architecture and orchestration of the plot largely from the recorded minutiae of the hijackers' brief American lives: their cellphone calls, credit card charges, Internet communications and automated teller machine withdrawals. What has emerged, nearly two months into the investigation, is a picture in which the roles of the 19 hijackers are so well defined as to be almost corporate in their organization and coordination. Investigators now divide the 19 into three distinct groups: Mr. Atta, considered the mastermind, and three other leaders who chose the dates for the attack and flew the planes; a support staff of three who helped with the logistics of renting apartments, securing driver's licenses and distributing cash to the teams that would take the four planes; and beneath them, 12 soldiers, or \"muscle,\" whose main responsibility seems to have been restraining the flight attendants and passengers while the leaders took over the jets' controls. The leaders had researched their plans so well that they knew just when each of the four cross-country flights would reach its cruising altitude - the moment, investigators say, when the hijackers stormed the cockpits to confront the pilots with box cutters. The coordination was so thorough that each of the four hijacking teams had its own bank account, and each team's A.T.M. cards used a single PIN. The slightest misstep could trigger intense frustration: more than once last summer in Florida, when money transfers from abroad had not arrived on the expected dates, security cameras captured several hijackers glaring impatiently into A.T.M. screens. The hijackers made a true technophile's use of the Internet, online chat rooms and e-mail. But when it came to their most crucial communications, they did what Al Qaeda's manual on terrorist operations instructs: they met in person. They chose as their meeting place the same locale where generations of American conventioneers have met to exchange information about their crafts: Las Vegas, where investigators say the most crucial planning in the United States occurred. But unlike traditional conventioneers who cluster in casino hotels that replicate the Pyramids or the New York City skyline, the leaders and their logistics men stayed at the seediest end of the famous Las Vegas Strip, next to the \"Home of the $5 Lap Dance,\" at a cheap motel guaranteed not to have surveillance cameras. They stayed briefly, only as long as it took to exchange important information, and apparently did not visit the casinos or any of the other purveyors of easy vice in America's City of Sin. Most of the 19 hijackers, perhaps all of them, spent time in Osama bin Laden's Afghan training camps, investigators now say. Some of the Sept. 11 soldiers appear to have met there. And like Mr. Atta and the other pi"}, {"response": 711, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov  9, 2001 (10:38)", "body": "Al Qaeda Takes Cues From Asimov? The Ansible ( http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/SF-Archives/Ansible/a172.html ) and Locus Online ( http://www.locusmag.com/2001/News/News11Log.html ) Web sites both reported on the rumor of a possible connection between Al Qaeda, the Islamic terrorist network purportedly masterminded by Osama bin Laden, and, of all things, Isaac Asimov's classic SF novel Foundation, the first in his well-known series of the same name. Ansible quoted SF writer China Mi\ufffdville--author of King Rat, Perdido Street Station and Macmillan's upcoming The Scar--as saying, \"My supervisor, an expert in the Middle East, told me about a rumor circulating about the name of bin Laden's network. The term al qaeda seems to have no political precedent in Arabic, and has therefore been something of a conundrum to the experts, until someone pointed out that a very popular book in the Arab world--Arabs apparently being big readers of translated SF--is Asimov's Foundation, the title of which is translated as Al Qaeda. Unlikely as it sounds, this is the only theory anyone can come up with.\" At least one post on a Russian message board ( http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/5491-4.cfm ) speculated that bin Laden might be taking cues from Asimov's book, about an uprising against a Galactic Empire led by a single-minded revolutionary and his band of fighters against overwhelming military odds, Locus reported. For the record, the PBS Frontline Web site reported that al qaeda is \"an Arabic word meaning 'the base.'"}, {"response": 712, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Fri, Nov  9, 2001 (11:07)", "body": "...and asimov was jewish bin laden's form of fundamentalism is remarkably malleable, when he wants it to be"}, {"response": 713, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sat, Nov 10, 2001 (14:48)", "body": "FBI: Sender of anthrax letters a guy, a loner Saturday Nov. 10 By Chris Mondics and James Kuhnhenn Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON -- FBI officials said Friday that they believe the person who mailed several anthrax-filled letters is probably a U.S.-based male loner with a scientific bent, possibly like Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, whose letter bombs mystified law enforcement for nearly two decades. Federal officials have been speculating for weeks that the anthrax attacks were not connected to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but the FBI's announcement Friday was the strongest endorsement yet of that theory. Even so, FBI officials said they had not ruled out the possibility that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network is behind the anthrax attacks. But they said the wording of the three known anthrax-laced letters suggests a domestic source. \"We are not ruling anything out, but we are certainly looking in that direction,\" said one FBI official, who spoke to reporters on condition that he not be identified. The officials hope the public will help identify the culprit. In related developments, traces of anthrax spores were found in four more central New Jersey post offices, President Bush boosted the National Guard presence at the nation's airports, and top administration officials offered assurances that security measures taken since Sept. 11 have made the nation safer. Whoever sent the letters \"did not select his victims randomly,\" the FBI source said. Based on analysis of the handwriting on the letters, they said the anthrax attacker likely was nursing a grudge and probably had a high degree of technical training. The officials believe, too, that he decided to increase the potency of the anthrax he put into the letters as one attack led to another. So far, four people have died after inhaling anthrax spores, and 13 more got sick from anthrax exposure. The officials said that they could detect no political agenda from the letters and their sender's known actions. Each of the three known letters were photocopies, not originals, likely used to help him evade pursuers. The FBI profile of the likely anthrax attacker suggests that he probably avoids public situations. If he has a job, they said, it likely does not involve contact with many people. They suspect he underwent a significant behavioral change as the letters went out, becoming focused on his mission to spread terror, and might have struck acquaintances as increasingly remote. FBI officials said they doubt the letters were sent by Middle Eastern terrorists because they do not resemble other such letters sent in the past. One official said that such letters typically include some Arabic text, but these do not. The FBI's new profile of the likely anthrax-attacker doesn't bring them any closer to solving the case. Law enforcement authorities spent nearly two decades trying to capture the Unabomber and did not succeed until Ted Kaczynski's brother turned him in. The FBI appealed openly to the public to help them identify possible suspects, knowing they probably will have to rely on an informant to finger the person responsible. In a potential break in the hunt for the suspect, anthrax tests detected traces of the bacteria in four more post offices in central New Jersey, authorities said Friday. The small satellite offices all feed a regional processing center that handled three tainted letters sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office in Washington and to the New York offices of NBC and the New York Post. The new evidence could help narrow down possible sites from where the letters were sent. Meanwhile, the Bush administration sought to reassure an anxious public that it was safeguarding the nation's airports, mail system and water supplies against new terrorist attacks. President Bush announced a 25 percent increase in the number of National Guard troops assigned to protect airports during the busy holiday season. The increase, effective immediately, will boost by 2,000 the 6,000 guard troops that already have been stationed at airports since the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings. \"These are temporary measures and we believe they will help a lot,\" Bush said. With no new reports of anthrax infections, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge expressed hope that the threat of anthrax was subsiding. His optimism came as two postal workers who had been treated for the often fatal inhalation form of the disease were released from their hospital beds and sent home. \"We're prayerful, we're hopeful, we hope that this is the last we ever see and have to deal with it,\" Ridge said. Meanwhile, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Todd Whitman said her agency was working closely with water companies and other federal agencies to protect drinking water from contamination. \"The good news here, if there is good news, is that it takes more than a teaspoon or a cupful of a biological or chemical agent to disrupt a water supply and to jeopardize or threaten the"}, {"response": 714, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Nov 12, 2001 (15:52)", "body": "Another plane crash today. Anyone heard any news on this?"}, {"response": 715, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (11:01)", "body": "Kabul. Northern Alliance troops have taken control of Kabul amid scenes of chaos and jubilation. In a dramatic overnight advance, Northern Alliance units entered the Afghan capital after Taleban fighters fled towards their southern stronghold, Kandahar. Troops were backed by rockets and US bombing There was a vacuum of authority in the city after the Taleban withdrew, with reports of looting, but the BBC's William Reeve says the atmosphere is now less tense. Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is reported to have urged his troops to regroup and fight. He is quoted by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press as telling his men to obey their commanders and not to desert. Some Arab volunteers serving with the Taleban were summarily shot and a BBC camera crew was attacked as opposition troops entered Kabul. from the BBC.co.uk website."}, {"response": 716, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (17:03)", "body": "Yup, watched the sorry structural failure that caused the small community of Rockaway even more pain. I they buried 12 members of their community with the WTC disaster. This is truly tragic. Yup, an American is sick enough to have created an atmosphere scary enough to cause 32,000 of his fellow citizens to take antibioitcs and kill a few others. There is really not a punishment which fits this crime. I'd make it as slow and as painful as possible. I am throroughly disgusted with apologists and terorists making excuses for why WE deserve to die. Time for payback !"}, {"response": 717, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (06:48)", "body": "On NPR this morning they were discussing the formation of a \"tribunal for terrrorists, something usually reserved for overseas cases, but now being positioned for domestic used. The Bush administration is faced with the scary thought of a Court system that might result in, say, a hung jury for a Bin Laden. I'll look for details on the web today, it's early and I haven't been to the news web sites yet. Meanwhile, there is music in the streets of Afghanistan. I had a fantasy about a bunch of rock musicians going there and throwing a big, free Woodstock sytle concert for the Afghan people. I fantasized this while I was cleaning the garage."}, {"response": 718, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (06:55)", "body": "David Kline's thoughts on the Taliban and freeing of Kabul. And no laughter in public. Until yesterday, if the religious police (who all carry plastic foot-long whips) caught you on a street in Kabul laughing at a friend's joke, you would be whipped. They also patrolled the soccer stadium during games -- yes the same stadium where public executions were held -- and if they saw fans applauding or rooting too hard for their team, they would be whipped. No public display of humanity was allowed. These people are so much worse than backward, I can't find the proper words to describe them. Their leaders and top cadre must all be killed. Period. . . . let's not get too excited about a few executions and a certain amount of disorder. This isn't the new Mayor of New York being sworn in here -- these are tribal people who've lived with nothing but savage war for 25 years. A few reprisals is to be expected. But I'll bet anything that it will be limited, and that order and a broad-based transition regime will be put in place soon. There's too much at stake. And this time the world is watching, acting as a stabilizing influence. Since my first post here on 9/12 or so, I have argued that the only way to oust the Taliban is to help and assist the Northern Alliance and other forces take the initiative. This is now what's happening. Seven days ago when some here wondered whether NA forces were too timid to fight -- \"We don't like to train in the rain,\" said one commander -- I urged people not to underestimate them. They may not be the smartest fighters around, but they're surely the toughest. And it's true, they've taken a good number of casualties and plunged ahead with American help. I now worry a little about the Taliban's sudden withdrawal from Kabul. It is such an Afghan move -- Massoud invented and used it 7 times to butcher Soviet armored columns trying to move into his Pansjir Valley redoubt. Could they be laying a suck 'em in and then envelope 'em scheme? We'll soon see. But now with the Herat-Kabul line established and the Taliban apparently retreating to their last-stand defense perimeter, my guess (today) is that two things are going to happen: 1) Pashtun (not Arab) Taliban commanders in the south will begin putting out defection feelers. Leaders to replace Abdul Haq will emerge. 2) The fighting is going to get a lot more bloody because these fucking Arabs really can't wait to die and we can't wait to help them die. Unless, miracle of miracles, the Taliban simply collapses and they head for the border. We better have a brigade and every Pashtun speaking agent we have standing at that Quetta border. They should look for a \"woman\" in burqa sitting atop a horse-drawn wagon (to conceal \"her\" true height) trying to mosey on through the border."}, {"response": 719, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (07:01)", "body": "Kline: . . . it's a very smart move to leave some open leeway for fleeing Taliban forces. Because the point is to encourage defections -- which are now going to begin en masse, you can be sure -- and thereby separate the Arab from the Pashtun Taliban. That could bring a swift collapse of the regime. Or, if the Arab legions head for the hills to try and wage guerrilla warfare against a post Taliban authority, then the most effective way to root them out will be to send people after them who are a) even tougher than the Arabs; and b) know the mountains even better than the Arabs. IOTW, the Pashtun Afghans who grew up in those damn mountains. Watch for defections increasing by the day. Because the tide has turned. (Unless the retreat from Kabul really is some sort of suck-em-in trap.)"}, {"response": 720, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (07:03)", "body": "http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24744-2001Nov13.html \"Bush said the tribunals are needed because \"mass deaths, mass injuries and massive destruction of property\" from future terrorism could \"place at risk the continuity of the operations of the United States government.\" It is \"not practicable,\" he said, to require the tribunals to abide by the \"principles of law and the rules of evidence\" that govern U.S. criminal prosecutions. .... Bush's order promises \"a full and fair trial\" and access to lawyers, but there is no provision for an appeal to U.S. civil courts or international tribunals. Only Bush or the secretary of defense, if the president so chooses, will have the authority to overturn a decision. .... The order says defendants could include past or present members of al Qaeda or anyone involved in acts of international terrorism intended to have \"adverse effects on the United States, its citizens, national security or economy.\" It also targets anyone who has \"knowingly harbored\" such terrorists.\""}, {"response": 721, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (10:49)", "body": "my guess (today) is that two things are going to happen: 2) The fighting is going to get a lot more bloody because these fucking Arabs really can't wait to die and we can't wait to help them die. All I can say is bring it on... #2 is a great line."}, {"response": 722, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (15:23)", "body": "I find that statement frightening. How does one deal with people who WANT to die?? I was most delighted last night to watch the enforced beards being shaved off men. I had hoped to see a liberated woman or two, but that did not happe. We are far from done with this war. Rob mentioned to me that geologists had studied OBL's most recent movies and determined that he was not in Afghanistan. The rock forming his cave were not the kind found in Afghanistan. That had not occurred to me!"}, {"response": 723, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (19:53)", "body": "New York Times November 14, 2001 Bush to Subject Terrorism Suspects to Military Trials By ELISABETH BUMILLER and DAVID JOHNSTON ASHINGTON, Nov. 13 \ufffd President Bush signed an order today allowing special military tribunals to try foreigners charged with terrorism. A senior administration official said that any such trials would \"not necessarily\" be public and that the American tribunals might operate in Pakistan and Afghanistan. At the same time, the Justice Department has asked law enforcement authorities across the country to pick up and question 5,000 men, most from Middle Eastern countries, who entered the country legally in the last two years. Both actions are part of a sweeping government effort to expand the investigation into Al Qaeda's network and clear the way for the more aggressive prosecution of anyone charged with terrorism. Mr. Bush signed the order allowing for the military tribunals shortly before leaving this afternoon for his ranch in Crawford, Tex. White House officials said the order did not create a military tribunal or a list of terrorists to be tried. Instead, they said, it was an \"option\" that the president would have should Osama bin Laden or his associates in Al Qaeda be captured. If the tribunals were created, it would be the first time since World War II that such an approach was used, officials said. Under the order, the president himself is to determine who is an accused terrorist and therefore subject to trial by the tribunal. The order states that the president may \"determine from time to time in writing that there is reason to believe\" that an individual is a member of Al Qaeda, has engaged in acts of international terrorism or has \"knowingly harbored\" a terrorist. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/14/national/14DETA.html ================================================================================ Wednesday November 14 01:13 PM EST Some Warn of Too Much Police Power By Oliver Libaw ABCNEWS.com After Sept. 11, are police getting too much power? Secret property searches, detaining individuals without charges, jailing people on secret evidence, even military tribunals - such powers may seem far-fetched, but law enforcement agencies have them, and are using them to press their campaign against terror. The Patriot Act, as the sweeping anti-terrorism legislation recently signed into law is officially known, is part of an unprecedented effort to catch those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks \ufffd the worst acts of terrorism ever \ufffd and prevent future assaults. President Bush added to those powers Tuesday, signing an executive order that allows suspected high-level terrorists to be tried in greater secrecy by the military. The enforcement measures have provoked a wide-ranging debate about how to safeguard civil liberties without overly constraining investigators, but many civil liberties advocates say the government has gone too far. Secret Evidence Some point to what they say are problems with earlier anti-terror laws as proof the system may be abused, especially by holding people on secret evidence. This week, the federal government appealed a lower court ruling concerning the power to hold immigrants for long periods based only on such evidence. The case involves Mazen Al-Najjar, a Palestinian professor at the University of South Florida, who was held by the Immigration and Naturalization Service for more than three years based on evidence that was never shown to him or his attorney. A federal judge in Miami had found that Al-Najjar's rights were violated. Al-Najjar had lived in the United States for 20 years and headed a charity that officials suspected was a front for a Palestinian terrorist group, but the exact allegations and evidence against him have not been revealed. Al-Najjar, who was never charged with a crime, was released in December 2000. His case is one of some two dozen in which immigrants have been held for months or years based entirely on secret evidence, but were never prosecuted. \"If these folks were such serious threats, why weren't they prosecuted criminally?\" asks Susan Akram, a Boston University law professor who represents another secret evidence detainee, Anwar Haddam. The Dangers of Expanded Power Expanding government agencies' surveillance powers is also dangerous, says David Kairys, a constitutional rights lawyer and professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. \"It's easily open to abuse,\" he says, pointing to problems in the past, such as the so-called Palmer Raids carried out by President Woodrow Wilson's attorney general in the early 1900s. Between 1918 and 1921, A. Mitchell Palmer pursued and smashed union offices and Communist and Socialist Party headquarters, spurred on by growing fears of radical foreign agents. In 1919, he seized more than 200 resident aliens believed to have radical political views and put them on a ship bound for the Soviet Union. The FBI also famously pursued Martin Luther King Jr. as a national security threat in the '50s"}, {"response": 724, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (20:06)", "body": "Tracking bin Laden: Still a lot of caves to hide in Nov. 14, 2001, 4:58PM By SALLY BUZBEE Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The United States is pursuing Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, believed to be on the move in the shrinking but still difficult parts of Afghanistan that their forces control. Sharpening the focus on the war's primary targets, American special operations troops are questioning Taliban defectors and prisoners, dangling millions in reward money and hoping for a communications slip-up. Warplanes focus more bombing on mountain hide-outs and caves where Omar or bin Laden might try to disappear. The two men, both expert in guerrilla warfare, have plenty of those remote caves and mountain tunnels -- and enough friends and supplies along the Pakistani border -- to make the chase difficult. \"We still have a ways to go\" in tracking them, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cautioned today. U.S. intelligence officials believe bin Laden and Omar are still in the region of Afghanistan not under northern alliance control, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Each is moving around, but they aren't believed to be together. It isn't thought likely that bin Laden will try to leave the country, because such movements could expose him to capture. A Taliban official said today that Omar and his \"guest\" bin Laden were \"safe and well.\" Omar claimed in a radio address Tuesday that he was in the Taliban's southern stronghold of Kandahar, the site Wednesday of sporadic fighting between Taliban and rebel Pashtun leaders. The United States is bombing areas in the south and in the east, especially around Jalalabad, where bin Laden is known to have hide-outs. \"Bunker-buster\" bombs can dig under the surface and explode in a tunnel. Fuel-air explosives can produce tremendous heat and suck out a cave or tunnel's oxygen. Defectors and prisoners are probably the best hope for information on where bin Laden is now, said a former senior U.S. intelligence official with experience in South Asia. Even rumors or hints -- about something such as a recent supply run to a cave, for example -- could prove a breakthrough. In addition, \"It may very well be that money will talk at some point,\" Rumsfeld said, referring to the millions in reward money the United States has offered. Or, Taliban troops and commanders on the run might take fewer precautions with radios and phones, allowing U.S. eavesdropping aircraft to pick up communications and thus get hints to bin Laden's location. U.S. special forces also have been watching roads in southern Afghanistan to see who passes by, Rumsfeld said, and \"to stop people that they think ought to be stopped.\" Bin Laden is believed to move from cave to cave -- some a three days' walk into the mountains -- with only a group of highly trusted aides. The amount of support he can still muster among thousands of past supporters is key. The Taliban may fracture, with some commanders deciding to become guerrilla fighters in mountainous southern Afghanistan, and others making peace with the Pashtun leaders now taking power, said another U.S. official. Afghan fighters have a history of retreating from cities but then waging effective guerrilla warfare in mountains for years afterward, essentially thwarting an enemy's larger goals, said Charles Fairbanks, a central Asia expert at Johns Hopkins University. \"Particularly if they fled to the east, that's a very difficult situation,\" Fairbanks said. \"They have so many sympathizers in Pakistan, and Pakistan really has no control of the situation there.\" Such supporters could keep bin Laden and Omar supplied with food, guns and hiding places, said Andrew Hess, an expert on Pakistan and Afghanistan at Tufts University. In addition, the former guerrilla leader who took control of Jalalabad from the Taliban, Mullah Yunus Khalis, has long-standing ties with bin Laden's Arab followers. Bin Laden is believed to have camps in the mountains near there. Most U.S. officials and outside experts do not think Omar would ever give bin Laden up, despite what Rumsfeld called signs of strain between the two. In his most recent interview, bin Laden said he was \"ready to die.\" Chillingly, he predicted the war against America would continue even if he were gone. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/special/terror/front/1133127"}, {"response": 725, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (21:21)", "body": "NPR talked about music in the streets of Kabul today, and the women are liberated, yet they still completely shroud themselves in clothing."}, {"response": 726, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (21:36)", "body": "David Kline (dkline) Wed Nov 14 '01 (09:54) 43 lines The number of reprisals is unbelievably limited by historic Afghan standards. I am convinced the Northern Alliance intends to do things right this time, and to unite democratically with the southern Pashtun tribes. Pashtun tribes, by the way, who at this moment are rising up spontaneously to fight the Taliban with no leadership other than village elders to guide them. These unorganized Pashtun farmers have already seized the Kandahar airport to prepare the way for U.S. and Northern Alliance activity. And now a more personal note: We have all of us discussed and learned a lot in the past two months, especially in the last month since the war in Afghanistan began. Just two weeks ago many were thinking these Northern Alliance warlords are too timid to fight, that no one supported them, and that surely the Taliban had to have mass public support else they wouldn't be in power, right? I am so grateful to have been able to have these discussions with you because it brought up a deep and long-buried sympatico I feel for the only people I met in my round-the-world travels whom I ever completely loved and admired (despite all their screwy fractiousness). Most anyone who has ever been to Afghanistan feels the same way. Remember how I said from Day 1 that the Taliban are NOT the Afghans? In Kabul today, the NY Times reports a man standing atop a building waving in the air one of those foot-long plastic whips used to beat women -- and crowds cheering him in joy. Burqas are being tossed. Kites are flying. And music -- remember I described how the mujahadeen once outfitted a captured Soviet tank with tape deck and speakers? -- music is playing again! Anyway, I want to say thank you all so much for bearing with my sometimes arrogant certainty of victory for the Afghans. And for sympathizing with me in such a gentle and compassionate way the loss of my friend Abdul Haq. And especially for being not only deeply interested in a little-known people half a world away but also for being absolutely the smartest and most insightful group of people that I have ever \"spoken\" with. The battle is finally being won. Afghanistan will be liberated at last! I can't even describe how happy I am, and how much it meant to me to be able to share all this with you. Thank you all."}, {"response": 727, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (21:37)", "body": "An awesome statement by one of the most insightful commentators on Afghan Life, thanks David Klein."}, {"response": 728, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 14, 2001 (21:39)", "body": "David Klein: To me, the next big challenge is how to slowly win the trust of the broad masses of Muslims worldwide and isolate the extremists who serve as recruiting ground for the Bin Ladens of this world. We've got to: 1) Apologize for Mossadegh and the Shah of Iran 2) Pledge henceforth our support of democratic reform in Muslim nations ruled by elites 3) Break legs if we have to in order to cool down or even hopefully solve the Palestinian question 4) Offer massive economic aid to Pakistan and other key Muslim states facing fundamentalist threats 5) And finally, in a televised address to the whole world, announce that we want to work with Muslims of good faith everywhere to solve our mutual problems That's how you end the scourge of Islamic terrorism, and not simply snuff Al-Queda. I don't imagine the US will take all the above steps immediately, but we humans are pretty adaptive -- we'll learn eventually that if we want to end terrorism that's what we'll need to do."}, {"response": 729, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (03:11)", "body": "Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) November 13, 2001 Appeal to the UN and World community The people of Afghanistan do not accept domination of the Northern Alliance! Now it is confirmed that the Taliban have left Kabul and the Northern Alliance has entered the city. The world should understand that the Northern Alliance is composed of some bands who did show their real criminal and inhuman nature when they were ruling Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996. The retreat of the terrorist Taliban from Kabul is a positive development, but entering of the rapist and looter NA in the city is nothing but a dreadful and shocking news for about 2 million residents of Kabul whose wounds of the years 1992-96 have not healed yet. Thousands of people who fled Kabul during the past two months were saying that they feared coming to power of the NA in Kabul much more than being scared by the US bombing. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda will be eliminated, but the existence of the NA as a military force would shatter the joyful dream of the majority for an Afghanistan free from the odious chains of barbaric Taliban. The NA will horribly intensify the ethnic and religious conflicts and will never refrain to fan the fire of another brutal and endless civil war in order to retain in power. The terrible news of looting and inhuman massacre of the captured Taliban or their foreign accomplices in Mazar-e-Sharif in past few days speaks for itself. Though the NA has learned how to pose sometimes before the West as \"democratic\" and even supporter of women's rights, but in fact they have not at all changed, as a leopard cannot change its spots. RAWA has already documented heinous crimes of the NA. Time is running out. RAWA on its own part appeals to the UN and world community as a whole to pay urgent and considerable heed to the recent developments in our ill-fated Afghanistan before it is too late. We would like to emphatically ask the UN to send its effective peace-keeping force into the country before the NA can repeat the unforgettable crimes they committed in the said years. The UN should withdraw its recognition to the so-called Islamic government headed by Rabbani and help the establishment of a broad-based government based on the democratic values. RAWA's call stems from the aspirations of the vast majority of the people of Afghanistan. http://rawa.fancymarketing.net/na-appeal.htm RAWA Main Page: http://rawa.fancymarketing.net/index.html RAWA documents and statements: http://rawa.fancymarketing.net/documents.htm"}, {"response": 730, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (07:12)", "body": "I was just musing, in my early waking hours this morning, about how great it would be if there were on outpouring of love for Afghanis from America and the world, the country can grow and prosper now that the evil regime is on the run. The job is far from finished, but the pieces have started to fall in place."}, {"response": 731, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (08:12)", "body": "The story of how the eight religious aid workers were released by the Taliban, plucked from a field near Ghazni by a local Pashtun commander and the Red Cross, and flown by US helicopter to a Pakistani air base is going to be quite the blockbuster. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/15/international/asia/15WORK.html"}, {"response": 732, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (16:09)", "body": "By Molly Moore Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, November 15, 2001; 1:08 PM Excerpt: The German workers today provided dramatic details of their escape, while the two American women, Heather Mercer, who grew up in Vienna, Va., and Dayna Curry, of Thompson's Station, Tenn., and two Australians spent the day in seclusion.................... Georg Taubmann, who headed the Kabul office of the German-based Shelter International Now, provided dramatic details of an escape he called \"horrifying.\" While many details of the past two days remain murky, this is the story as he told it. On Monday night, as the Taliban began fleeing Kabul, soldiers forced the eight detainees from their Kabul jail cells, loaded them in cars and joined the convoy of tanks, pickups and other vehicles streaming southward toward Kandahar. When the convoy reached the neighboring province of Wardak, soldiers led the eight out of the car and locked them in a large steel container. \"It was terribly cold,\" Taubmann said. \"They wanted to lock the container and leave us in there until the morning. We had no blankets. We were freezing the whole night through.\" The next morning they pushed on and were deposited in a prison in the southeastern city of Ghazni. Taubmann described it as the worst of the five prisons in which the group had been housed during the past 3\ufffd months. Shortly after arriving the walls rattled as U.S. aircraft dropped bombs nearby. The detainees then heard heaving gunfire and loud shouting outside the prison. Some time later they heard the doors of the prison cells clanging open. When their cell door burst open, a soldier stood in the doorway gripping a gun. The detainees believed he was a Taliban soldier who might kill them. Instead the soldier stared at them wide-eyed, apparently stunned to find foreigners in the prison. He then shouted, \"Azad! Azad!\" Free! Free! \"We walked into the city and the people came out of the houses and they hugged us and they greeted us,\" said Taubmann. \"They were all clapping. They didn't know there were foreigners in the prison.\" \"It was like a big celebration for all those people,\" he said. A local commander who was among town citizens who rose up against the Taliban then found shelter for the eight at the local offices of an aid organization. With the International Committee of the Red Cross acting as an intermediary, messages were dispatched to the U.S., German and Australian embassies in Islamabad. Because of the difficulty in relaying messages and answers, it took nearly 24 hours to organize the rescue efforts by U.S. special forces based in Pakistan, according to the aid workers and diplomats. Meanwhile, in Ghazni, some local villagers expressed opposition to freeing the aid workers, believing they could be ransomed to their governments for large sums of money, rescuers apparently told the aid workers. On Wednesday night, with the city under a curfew and with some villagers agitating to hold on to the detainees, the eight were led to a field where U.S. special forces helicopters were supposed to pick them up. The aid workers said, however, that the helicopters could not locate them. With the helicopters thumping in the distance, angry villagers who allegedly wanted to hold the workers for ransom running toward them, and fearful that hostile Taliban troops were still in the area, the increasingly desperate aid workers began building a signal fire, first burning the women's headscarves, then sweaters and jackets. \"We burned everything we had \ufffd clothes, everything \ufffd to make a big fire,\" said Taubmann. Special forces teams led the eight into helicopters and flew them to Pakistan, according to diplomats here. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34986-2001Nov15.html"}, {"response": 733, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 15, 2001 (19:50)", "body": "Terry, you're right about love and accepting warmth for those still struggling to regain some sense of security in Afghanistan. They will make mistakes. All new forms of government do. We just need to let them explore what is best for them and keep the crazies from killing them all while they do so. It is a long tedious process. We're still in the process! *Hugs* I wish it were this easy!"}, {"response": 734, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 22, 2001 (16:53)", "body": "Lethal Mouth Fresh from his ground war against New York taxi drivers, Lethal Weapon lead Danny Glover once again establishes why it's bad for actors to run their mouth without a script: As guest speaker at an anti-death penalty forum at Princeton University, Glover said America was the one to blame for bombing and terror around the world. \"Yes -- Yes!\" Glover said when asked if American forces should spare the Saudi terrorist's life. \"When I say the death penalty is inhumane. I mean [it's inhumane] whether that person is in a bird cage [jail] or it's bin Laden.\" Lethal Pap at http://www.zwire.com/site/Danny_Glover.html Life in the Cave: Intercepted email As the hunt for bin Laden narrowed as of Wednesday, November 21, the following email appeared in our inbox: ----- Original Message ----- From: Bin Laden, Osama Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 8:17 AM To: Cavemates Subject: The Cave Hi guys. We've all been putting in long hours but we've really come together as a group and I love that. Big thanks to Omar for putting up the poster that says \"There is no I in team\" as well as the one that says \"Hang In There, Baby.\" That cat is hilarious. However, while we are fighting a jihad, we can't forget to take care of the cave. And frankly I have a few concerns. First of all, while it's good to be concerned about cruise missiles, we should be even more concerned about the scorpions in our cave. Hey, you don't want to be stung and neither do I, so we need to sweep the cave daily. I've posted a sign-up sheet near the main cave opening. Second, it's not often I make a video address but when I do, I'm trying to scare the most powerful country on earth, okay? That means that while we're taping, please do not ride your razor scooter in the background. Just while we're taping. Thanks. Third point, and this is a touchy one. As you know, by edict, we're not supposed to shave our beards. But I need everyone to just think hygiene, especially after mealtime. We're all in this together. Fourth: food. I bought a box of Cheez-Its recently, clearly wrote \"Osama\" on the front, and put it on the top shelf. Today, my Cheez-Its were gone. Consideration. That's all I'm saying. Finally, we've heard that there may be American soldiers in disguise trying to infiltrate our ranks. I want to set up patrols to look for them. First patrol will be Omar, Muhammed, Abdul, Akbar, and Richard. Love you lots. Osama"}, {"response": 735, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 22, 2001 (16:53)", "body": "Name that President \"He walked into history an obscure, flat footed, bantamy little fellow in a light gray suit, the inhabitant of an eloquence-free zone who gave boring speeches in a flat voice. He was not compelling. This was more obvious because he followed a charismatic leader who did big things and filled the screen. He was quickly defined and dismissed by the opinion elite as \"a first-rate second-rate man.\" And maybe at the beginning he feared the appraisal was correct, for when he became president he said very frankly that he felt the moon and the stars had fallen upon him.\" Okay, who is this guy? Answers at http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/ One More Reason to Give Thanks Out: Yellow Ribbons. In: Flags Surveying the reaction to September 11, Father Richard John Neuhaus asks, where have the yellow ribbons gone? Where did the flags suddenly come from? \"Nobody decreed that it should be so,\" he writes in the December issue of First Things; \"it just happened, and its happening is likely to be of great significance.\" First appearing in the Iranian hostage crisis two decades ago, the ribbons were \"too often a symbol of self-pity and maudlin sentimentality.\" But they've been replaced by \"a buoyant patriotism unprecedented in living memory.\" http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/rbartley/?id=95001487 \"I Have A Dream\" The hallucinations brought on by living with shrapnel inside your skull continue among the Taliban \"leadership:\" \"Recent reports suggested that Mullah Omar, facing almost certain defeat, had agreed to surrender Kandahar. But yesterday Ahmad Karzai, whose brother Hamid has been negotiating with the Taliban for the surrender of the city, said Mullah Omar had changed his mind because he had had a prophetic dream in which he remained in power. \"I have had a dream in which I am in charge for as long as I live,\" Mr. Karzai quoted Mullah Omar as saying.\" For as long as you live, Omar? Okay. Start the countdown clock at mission control! http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=105801 Duh as in 'Diplomat' The editors of The New Republic on why Colin Powell and his elves should back off and give victory a chance. \"Just how brilliant do the diplomats of the United States think they are? They seem to believe that they can calibrate a place that is infamous for its lack of calibration. Their thinking about the political conditions for a military victory in Afghanistan has become rigid and dogmatic: they foolishly attempted to delay the fall of Kabul until their own plans for it could be met, once again giving Osama bin Laden the impression that we are reluctant warriors and hesitant victors. What happened in the North this week was not the United States unleashing the Northern Alliance; it was the Northern Alliance surprising the United States. And the United States could not bring itself to concede that this was a pleasant surprise.\" http://www.tnr.com/112601/editorial112601.html This Week's Conventional Media Wizdum THIS war is in trouble. We're bogged down, getting nowhere and staring at a Vietnam-style quagmire. The Taliban's grip on the country remains total. These famously tough warriors of iron resolve are unlikely to be. . . Whoops, sorry, that was last week. Just let me punch up this week's Conventional Media Wisdom. Ah, here we go. Things are moving too fast. There's a dangerous power vacuum. The Taliban, being famously tough, etc, have pulled off a brilliant double-bluff by abandoning every major city and lever of government. Their grip on selected southern and western caves remains total. The Northern Alliance are too vicious, unfairly targeting enemy soldiers instead of just killing unarmed women and homosexuals. The collapse of the burqa market will devastate the Afghan fashion industry. .,"}, {"response": 736, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 22, 2001 (16:53)", "body": "http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/dt?ac=006605705660173&rtmo=V1PPjumx&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/01/11/17/do02.html Can't We All Just Get Along? The New York Times reports that the \"spiritual ' leader of the Taliban is appealing to the world to just forgive and forget: Syed Tayyab Agha, spokesman for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, also told a news conference that it is time to ``forget'' about the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, as they have been superseded by the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan. ``You should forget the Sept. 11 attacks because now there is a new fighting against Muslims and Islam, and the international and global terrorists like America and Britain, they are killing daily our innocent people,'' he told journalists in the Afghan border town of Spinboldak. All in favor of inviting this guy to Thanksgiving dinner, send email to caveguys@screweinstan .com And Next on the USA's Christmas List Is.... An end to Saddam's regime would be a major defeat for terrorism and would give us great leverage in getting others-Iran and Syria, Saudis and Palestinians-to shut down terrorist movements. Winter, some say, is a bad time for war in Afghanistan. Everyone agrees that winter is a good time for war in Iraq. The time may come soon for George W. Bush to say again, \"Let's roll.\" Michael Barone at U.S. News http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/011126/politics/26pol.htm"}, {"response": 737, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 22, 2001 (19:41)", "body": "This is really great stuff on a day full of stuffing. Thanks! Harry Trumanm is my guess for Prez in the first part, but I am still hungry and preparing sacrifices for Mme Pele for later in the day."}, {"response": 738, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 22, 2001 (22:08)", "body": "\"For the time being, the reasons behind the advance on Kunduz remain unclear.\" ... \"Even as the advance began some northern commanders continued to insist that a surrender was still possible.\" \"The BBC's Jon Sopel outside Kunduz said the military advance may indicate a battle for control of the town between different factions of the Northern Alliance.\" http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1669000/1669567.stm"}, {"response": 739, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Nov 26, 2001 (21:27)", "body": "I heard a blockbuster rumor today. Basically, there is a French book being published which recounts the FBI's investigation of Osama Bin Laden and his cohorts. which says that they were hot on the trail of all of the terorists and were then pulled off the case by the State Department just before 9/11. Reportedly, the chief of the FBI investigation quit over the interference from the State Department. I'll try and substantiate this with some facts and sources."}, {"response": 740, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 29, 2001 (19:12)", "body": "Interesting! I'll check too..."}, {"response": 741, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 30, 2001 (09:11)", "body": "They may fave found Bin Laden's hideout. See topic 49 in the news conference. There's a picture of this mountain fortress."}, {"response": 742, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  3, 2001 (00:56)", "body": "I didn't know where else to put this. My Daughter-in-law sent it to me. I think it sums up my feelings as well as hers and my son's. Giving Thanks for What We're Not http://www.ncpa.org/edo/pd/2001/pd111901.html"}, {"response": 743, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec 10, 2001 (14:57)", "body": "dkline Mon Dec 10 '01 (09:49) Meanwhile, today's NY Times has a very encouraging front page article on the demoralizing effect the Afghan Jihad has had on the Swat Valley region of Pakistan (home to Shangri-La, believe it or not). 15,000 men were \"volunteered\" by their local mullahs to go fight -- \"the militant leaders mostly stayed home, or crossed the frontier only long enough to declare themselves holy warriors before hastening back,\" notes the article -- and as many as 3,000 have never returned. The reason I say it's encouraging is that the great losses suffered by these poor uneducated people are surely weakening the hold over them that the fundamentalists have until now enjoyed. As one disillusioned local put it: \"So a lot of innocent people have died, and Sufi Muhammad (the local religious boss) and other religious leaders are responsible for this. They sent people who had no training whatsoever to war, and then they stayed back in Pakistan. They are still alive, while so many others have died.\" One day we're going to be shocked to discover just how much control -- top to bottom -- the fundamentalists really had in Pakistan, a country with several ready-to-use nuclear weapons. The war, thank God, will hopefully allow us (and Mushareff) to break the grip these fanatics have on such a strategic country. There's a book here, for anyone brave enough to do it. Read the full article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/10/international/asia/10JIHA.html?searchpv=nytToday"}, {"response": 744, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 11, 2001 (09:25)", "body": "I was driving down the highway to work this morning and most of the radio stations did a memorial national anthem at the same time the Sept 11 attacks took place just 3 months ago. It's hard to believe that 3 months have gone by. As Bush spoke on the radio at a service, I was passing by the exact spot where I first heard the news as he was saying \"we will all remember where we were on that day.\" Where were you? How did you hear the news? How has your life changed since then? How has it affected your world?"}, {"response": 745, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 11, 2001 (15:51)", "body": "Has anyone else heard this? I got it in an email from a friend, yesterday: *The extended bin Laden family is building a trade center in Lebanon that's an image of one of the twin towers.* If this is the case, what a horrific way to memorialize it."}, {"response": 746, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 11, 2001 (15:57)", "body": "The WTC was attacked at 2AM Hawaiian time. I was awakened the next morning (about 5 hours later) with the news and turned on the television. I still can't (or don't want to) believe the devastation it unleashed. I still look at the images on TV. My mind recoils from watching, but I know I must not forget, so I watch. I can see the buildings falling down even with my eyes open."}, {"response": 747, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 11, 2001 (16:06)", "body": "It has affected my world by making a routine inter-island commute into a 4 hours ordeal. Two hours on each end to have all things gone through carefully, walking around in a seemingly armed camp surrounded by rifles at the ready National Guard Troops. We also are forbidden fishing from the breakwaters, and the piers are sealed off by customs inspectors. Hawaii is considered a war zone, so we are also partolled by gunships - both US Navy and Coast Guard. When we went to the summit of Kilauea for Thanksgiving dinner, we noted that the Kilauea Military Rest Camp there hand armed guards where none had existed before, and a heavy metal gate had been installed across each entrance. I think we will never be the same again. Our childhood has been taken away from us, and we must be adults like all the rest of the world has had to be for so long. My delight is the determined comradship I find in my friends who were not all that friendly before. The \"we take care of our own\" attitude has been replaced by \"you AR our own.\" I hope that part lasts."}, {"response": 748, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 11, 2001 (18:00)", "body": "This is very strange. I wish I knew what factory was at the bottom of the picture. No, I don't believe it.... http://www2.justnet.ne.jp/~kiti/Ufo/wtc/wtc.htm"}, {"response": 749, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 11, 2001 (21:51)", "body": "Tom Clancy on why the CIA didn't catch the 9-11 terrorists O'REILLY: Was there a reason that Turner and Carter -- was their a reason why Turner and Carter wanted a weaker [CIA]? CLANCY: It's politically correct. O'REILLY: Simple as that? CLANCY: I think so. The political left is, you know, they deal in symbols rather than reality. The general difference between conservatives and liberals is liberals like pretty pictures and conservatives like to build bridges that people can drive across. And conservatives are indeed conservative because if the bridge falls down, people die. Where as the liberals figure, oh, we can always build a nice memorial to them and make people forget it happened and it was our fault. They're very good at making people forget it was their fault, all right. The CIA was gutted by people on the political left who don't like intelligence operations, and as a result of that, as an indirect result of that, we've lost 5,000 citizens last week."}, {"response": 750, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Dec 11, 2001 (23:37)", "body": ""}, {"response": 751, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 13, 2001 (22:15)", "body": "The Tape http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/12/13/ret.bin.laden.videotape/ CNN has posted a transcript in pdf format http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2001/US/12/13/transcript/binladentape.pdf David Kline (dkline) Thu Dec 13 '01 (09:20) 32 lines Yep, I just saw the Bin Laden tape and it is unbelievable. The man is toast. No doubt he did it (although there will always be 250 people in the world who think the tape is doctored or whatever). And no doubt his callous admissions and disregard for others will hurt his image greatly. Especially his laughter. People hate smug assholes, and OBL is one. Not a lot of things are truly \"chilling\" to me. This tape was. I was also interested to notice the same sort of ass-kissing by OBL subordinates that I remember from my old political days. Only in this case, it was OBL's henchment vying with each other for the most vivid or predictive or praiseworthy (of OBL) dreams that they were pretending to have had. These schmucks were all claiming had these vivid dreams which were all just a bit too pat and synchronous to real-world events for my taste. And they were competing with each other to tell comrade Bin Laden about the praiseworthy meaning of their dreams. What pathetic fucks. I'll tell you what, though. It confirms my sense that OBL was laughing at us during the bombing-only phase of our campaign. Bombing was what they expected us to do. They did not expect us to get on the ground and help the Northern Alliance. And they certainly did not expect that cooperation would lead to the total military collapse of the Taliban in 4 weeks. So who's laughing now, Bin Laudenam? I'll tell you, though, I feel sorry for anyone watching this tape who lost family or loved ones in 9/11. It must be so hurtful to see a low-life like OBL laughing at the murder of innocents. God. The transcript in html http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/12/13/tape.transcript/ and it is in real video at http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/fdrive/ter121301_osama.rm?mode=compact Sulayman ((Abu Guaith)): ... So I went back to the Shaykh (meaning UBL) who was sitting in a room with 50 to 60 people. I tried to tell him about what I saw, but he made gesture with his hands, meaning: \"I know, I know\ufffd\" UBL: He did not know about the operation. What an amazing tape excerpt -- seen at the CNN site. Questions: CNN said it was not taped in chronological order, rather than saying the tape had been edited/dubbed. Strange. Is that just spin? It would have had to have been edited by someone to be out of order, right? Odd. I think the stakes are too high to fake a tape like this. I think it is real, and chilling. I wonder what made them delay releasing it. The propaganda value for those in the Western world who were uneasy about proof is unmistakable. I am very curious how this will play in the Pakistani press and on al-Jezeera tv. I wish we had an arabic speaker who could translate/paraphrase what the commentary and lead-ins are like there. Or a good arabic media critique site (in english) for the same purpose. David Kline (dkline) Thu Dec 13 '01 (11:27) 66 lines > One thing that struck me was the way the visiting \"Saudi cleric\" kept > > saying \"thanks be to Allah...by the grace of Allah\" in practically every > other sentence, while UBL smiled in a way that made me think he finds > other people's devotion to Allah amusing and useful, but that it's not > something he particularly shares. Thank you, Jake. That's a very good point -- and very typical behavior for the top leader of a movement that also functions like a personality cult. The henchmen kiss ass. The leader starts believing the worshipful. And he starts looking down at his henchmen who then worship him even more. Anyway, a few points: 1) WHEN THE TAPE WAS MADE? The Tape was made probably the same day that US chopper lost a wheel and was abandoned (or shot down). Anyone remember what day that was? It was right around the mid-October time of the special forces PR raid. Anyway, this was also the time when US fortunes in Afghanistan looked their bleakest. It seemed all we were doing was bombing Red Cross hospitals and everyone talked about how we'd under-estimated the strength of the Taliban. Even I was a bit demoralized by our lack of progress, and kept wishing we'd just put some SF guys on the ground with the NA and stop all this futile if not counter-productive bombing. The point being, the tape was shot when it appeared to Bin Laden that the US was doing exactly as he expected -- i.e., come in and bomb from a safe height, but not get our boots dirty with on-the-grouned fighting. So he was feeling supremely confident in his ultimate and total success, probably more confident than at any time before or since. 2) WHY THE TAPE WAS MADE? We look for savvy thinking, for conspiratorial 3-steps-ahead planning, in the behavior of Osama bin Laden. But the fact is he was simply suffering from great hubris at the time (see my point #1 above), and allowed the local hosts of that dinner party (which was probab"}, {"response": 752, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (06:39)", "body": "This is Aljazeera 's account today from the above url cited by David Kline."}, {"response": 753, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (06:40)", "body": "Bin Laden: Attackers Knew About The Operation Just Before They Boarded The Planes The Pentagon released Thursday a video that it says implicates Osama Bin Laden in the 11 September attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The 40-minute recording is of very poor audio and visual quality. The tape was recorded on November 9 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. US officials disclosed they found the videotape in a private residence in Jalalabad. According to the CNN, Bin Laden and the other three men seated with him make numerous references to various al Qaeda members having dreams of planes hitting tall buildings at least a year before the attacks. Speaking of the hijackers, bin Laden states, \"They were trained and we did not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they boarded the planes.\" Additionally, he had turned on his radio in advance to listen to coverage of the attacks and that he had underestimated the damage that would be inflicted on the World Trade Center. Bin Laden is quoted as saying: \"We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower.\" This comment referred to hijacked airliners, which hit and destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. \"We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all,\" he added. http://www.wbur.org/special/specialcoverage/feature_aljaz.asp"}, {"response": 754, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (20:32)", "body": "I LIKE DAVID KLINE. He says things I would not dare but think, anyway! I refuse to offend my eyes by looking at that man. I watched to be informed but that is all. Is there doubt? Not even for the criminally insane person that he is!"}, {"response": 755, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (23:24)", "body": "Mutual. David Kline hits home with his poignant observations, based on years in Afghanistan."}, {"response": 756, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (23:52)", "body": "Indeed. I can feel the intensity of David Kline's anguish and love for Afghanistan in his eloquence. Thanks, Terry, for your continuing posts of his comments. I still worry about that idiot who called Art Bell last night suggesting OBL be set free because we do not punish the criminally insane. Art cut him off, and the following phone calls with creative ways to deal with a captured live OBL gave me much comfort. We have developed a wry sense of the ridiculous when dealing with the actuality of the current war, but are we angry? committed? determined? You'd better believe it!"}, {"response": 757, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Dec 16, 2001 (18:25)", "body": "Hi all I am wondering if it might be better to set a trap for bin Laden with bait of some sort to lure him out. I am not sure how you would do this but it is obvious to me that bin Laden will not be caught in a specific place if he does not to be. Because everyone is climbing a tree called Afghanistan, he may have quietly climbed a tree called Pakistan or Kazakhstan or something like that. I also wonder if assuming Bush decides to move into Somalia and North Korea, if the world coalition will fragment. Even your staunchest ally Britain is rumbling in world media about setting limits as to how far they are prepared to go. I think you need the UN's permission before you set foot on the soil of any other country. Many think America can gain those countries co-operation by offering aid. I urge extreme caution in any decision to expand the war for several reasons: 1)Prove their connections to terrorism 2)Accept that there are more peaceful alternatives to sanctions or military movements in countries like North Korea and Somalia. Humanitarian aid to the former may encourage the former to be more open and possibly allow a thawing of international relations with the North. 3)Another round of diplomacy to reassure key players like the Russians, your European allies and Britain. 4)Don't send the CIA to play the role of the agitator in countries that are preoccupied with internal problems unless the Federal government is prepared to accept some responsibility for wrong doings. 5)Arabs and Muslims have the jitters at the moment over the Palestinian question. Which suggests to me that some \"unthinkable\" things will have to be done to calm them down and stop an escalation of the war. Rob"}, {"response": 758, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 18, 2001 (20:40)", "body": "We've captured Tora Bora but no Osama. David Kline (dkline) Tue Dec 18 '01 (13:55) 23 lines Wait a minute ... you mean there are people here who really believe that the Pakistani border could be sealed tight if only we really wanted to -- and that maybe we don't really want to? Un . . . believable! Not all the world is as secure as a Safeway parking lot, you know. I have spent a good deal of time in those Tora Bora mountains, and crossed that border several times whilst on the run from Russian special forces units and the Pakistani military and intelligence services. Plus I covered the heroin traffic in that region, and I recall how once when the Pakistani government wanted to meet with tribal leaders, they only way they could get them to sit down and talk was to bring in artillery. What's rally happening here, I suspect, is that naive conspiracy-mongering at work here again. You know, the notion of the United States as all-knowing and all-powerful and able to control all events in the world as it chooses. Makes for real good Chomsky, to be sure. But it hardly conforms to the way the real world works. Just ask the Vietnamese. Or Osama bin Laden."}, {"response": 759, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Dec 23, 2001 (12:15)", "body": "From today's New York Times report on the swearing in of Hamid Karzai: \"Adding to the optimism and calm that pervaded the capital today was the show of unity by two Afghan military commanders who had been expected to snub the ceremony: General Rashid Dostrum ... and Gen. Ismail Khan.\" The most moving part of the ceremony, said the Times, was when the Belgian foreign minister Louis Michel made areference to slain Alliance leader Massoud Ahmed Shah that \"captured the combination of grief, exhaustion and aching hope\" that Afghans are feeling today. \"I am sure,\" Michel said, \"that Mr. Massoud is proud of his nation today.\" According to the Times, \"That single sentence sent tears rolling down scores of weathered, wrinkled and scarred cheeks in the audience.\" Really wonderful. And for me as an interested outside observer, especially so. I've literally waited 22 years for this day - David Kline"}, {"response": 760, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Dec 23, 2001 (12:16)", "body": "And Kline adds this: There's certainly cause for hope and optimism re: Afghanistan, but it's also important to be aware of the dangers ahead as well. I can think of many mistakes that the new government could make that would jeopardize Afghan peace and unity: 1) Karzai must not get involved in another muddle with the US (such as the one over amnesty for Mullah Omar) thaty makes him look like a US puppet. 2) Karzai must firmly suppress by armed force if necessary any warlordism or lawlessness or resistance to the government -- at least from middle- or lower-level military, political, religious or tribal figures. 3) But Karzai must never use suppressive methods (an Afghan tendency) against high-level military, political, religious or tribal dissenters. Always compromise should be sought; negotiations conducted. The above are just three things to worry about. I can think of many more potential roadblocks ahead that Karzai will need to skillfully negotiate. Hopefully he can do it. But it's not at all certain he can."}, {"response": 761, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 25, 2001 (11:50)", "body": "David Kline: I have waited (I kid you not) 22 years for this day! -- but even apart from my personal attachment to that country I do believe that something of great import for the world is now taking place in Afghanistan. You cannot push a people through much more suffering and disaster than that which the the Afghans have experienced in recent years, yet now we are witness to a rebirth of hope that many though impossible. Will it succeed? We'll soon know. But the subtext for this inauguration ceremony, as Barb suggests, is really the question of whether hope and rebirth is possible for the larger world as a whole. If the Afghans can save themselves, after all, then maybe we can, too."}, {"response": 762, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 25, 2001 (23:15)", "body": "Poor Afghanistan. I truly hope those people can live in peace and not become a global battlefield. There is so much to hope for, now...!"}, {"response": 763, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 28, 2001 (11:03)", "body": "Mr. John Reid the shoe bomber really is part Jamaican apparently a small time criminal who converted to Islam while in prison. Details here: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001570016-2001595137,00.html That article links him to Zacarias Moussaoui, the \"20th hijacker\". What next? Body cavity bombs?"}, {"response": 764, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 28, 2001 (16:26)", "body": "It does not take much plastique as far as I know. Scary, indeed! When will the dental record become necessary, too?!"}, {"response": 765, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 28, 2001 (17:18)", "body": "Swiss-led campaign to rebuild the destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas: http://www.msnbc.com/news/661589.asp http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011121/sc/attack_afghan_statues_dc_1.html http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/11/18/wbud18.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/11/18/ixhomer.html More on what's been lost/missing in Afghanistan: http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F11%2F23%2Fwkab223.xml http://www.dallasnews.com/science/STORY.ea3e5c965f.b0.af.0.a4.6e84a.html http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20011112/taliban.html"}, {"response": 766, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 28, 2001 (17:19)", "body": "A number of artifacts are being recovered from the WTC site: http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-11-15/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-132149.asp"}, {"response": 767, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jan  4, 2002 (15:06)", "body": "http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=380255744 Indo-Pak war raging in cyberspace SIDDHARTH SRIVASTAVA TIMES NEWS NETWORK NEW DELHI: Pakistani hackers have made several attempts to hack into Indian sites--especially those containing data on sensitive information relating to nuclear test management--to access sensitive information related to the country's security, said sources in the Intelligence Bureau. The sites targetted include those of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), the Nuclear Science Centre (NSC) and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). Although these three sites have been repeatedly hacked in the past, according to IB officials, the recent attempts were aimed at accessing crucial data secured under severely firewalled servers. \"It is quite apparent that the new breed of hackers are much more equipped and trained,\" say sources in the IB. Officials also say that there could have been at least a couple of successful attempts to break the codes of the sites. \"There have been as many as seven attempts to hack into the BARC data since the attack on Indian Parliament on December 13. We are also on the lookout for spy programs that might have been installed,\" says an official. The IB has already written to the defence and the home ministry about the issue. The two ministries have, in turn, sought the help of cyber security firms to shore up the sites. The hackers, according to officials, may be on the payroll of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence. There has been a history of infiltration into Indian sites with sensitive information by Pakistani hackers. The first infiltration into BARC was in 1998, when it was hacked by three members of Milworm, a Pakistan-based hacker group. Ever since, BARC servers have been favourite targets of Pakistani hackers. \"This year alone, at least one spy program has been detected in a BARC mail server,\" says an official. The first intrusion into IGCAR was reported in January last year when G-Force, a Pakistani hacker group, defaced its main server. Subsequently, other servers in IGCAR have been repeatedly hacked by G-Force. Indian intelligence officials have identified one hacker as Rsnake, who is said to have copied the master database from IGCAR and provided some data to Pakistani intelligence as proof of his access. The ISI, in turn, has realised the importance of hackers after BARC was hacked in 1998. The first Pakistani hacker group-Pakistani Hackers Club-was formed by two 'hacktivists' who used the pseudonyms DoctorNuker and Mr Sweet. DoctorNuker took to hacking when he was a computer science student at Karachi University. Along with fellow hacker Dizasta (real name: Fahad Shamshek Khan), he started hacking into critical Indian and US servers. DoctorNuker, say IB officials, was the first hacker whose skills were recognised by the ISI and under the latter's directives, focused on critical Indian government servers (especially those relating to nuclear and atomic establishments). But sources say the most active Pakistani hacker in the recent past has been a person impersonating as Rsnake, who started hacking from the Netherlands where he was working with a group of portals. Inspired by DoctorNuker, he started the hacker group G-Force from Holland. The ISI has now got him to Pakistan to coordinate other hackers targeting Indian websites, claim IB officials."}, {"response": 768, "author": "Matt", "date": "Fri, Jan  4, 2002 (16:30)", "body": "Its all The Same,War, not good for any one"}, {"response": 769, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan  5, 2002 (00:58)", "body": "There never HAS been a \"good\" war. However, if our ancestors had not fought for your right to say what you said, perhaps you would not have the right to do so. Soem causes have to be bought more preciously than others. Or would you rather be speaking German or Japanese, now? Alas, war is not a simple case of right or wrong when there are two sides."}, {"response": 770, "author": "suzee202000", "date": "Sat, Jan 12, 2002 (02:18)", "body": "(739 - Paul Terry Walhus (terry)I heard a blockbuster rumor today. Basically, there is a French book being published which recounts the FBI's investigation of Osama Bin Laden and his cohorts. which says that they were hot on the trail of all of the terorists and were then pulled off the case by the State Department just before 9/11. Reportedly, the chief of the FBI investigation quit over the interference from the State Department. *************************** CNN AMERICAN MORNING WITH PAULA ZAHN Explosive New Book Published in France Alleges that U.S. Was in Negotiations to Do a Deal with Taliban Aired January 8, 2002 - 07:34 ET - CNN January 8, 2002 - 07:34 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to check in with ambassador-in- residence, Richard Butler, this morning. An explosive new book published in France al leges that the United States was in negotiations to do a deal with the Taliban for an oil pipeline in Afghanistan. Joining us right now is Richard Butler to shed some light on this new book. He is the former chief U.N. weapons inspector. He is now on the Council on Foreign Relations and our own ambassador-in- residence -- good morning. RICHARD BUTLER, FMR. U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Good morning, Paula. ZAHN: Boy, if any of these charges are true... BUTLER: If... ZAHN: ... this... BUTLER: Yes. ZAHN: ... is really big news. BUTLER: I agree. ZAHN: Start off with what your understanding is of what is in this book -- the most explosive charge. BUTLER: The most explosive charge, Paula, is that the Bush administration -- the present one, just shortly after assuming office slowed down FBI investigations of al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a deal with the Taliban on oil -- an oil pipeline across Afghanistan. ZAHN: And this book points out that the FBI's deputy director, John O'Neill, actually resigned because he felt the U.S. administration was obstructing... BUTLER: A proper... ZAHN: ... the prosecution of terrorism. BUTLER: Yes, yes, a proper intelligence investigation of terrorism. Now, you said if, and I affirmed that in responding to you. We have to be careful here. These are allegations. They're worth airing and talking about, because of their gravity. We don't know if they are correct. But I believe they should be investigated, because Central Asian oil, as we were discussing yesterday, is potentially so important. And all prior attempts to have a pipeline had to be done through Russia. It had to be negotiated with Russia. Now, if there is to be a pipeline through Afghanistan, obviating the need to deal with Russia, it would also cost less than half of what a pipeline through Russia would cost. So financially and politically, there's a big prize to be had. A pipeline through Afghanistan down to the Pakistan coast would bring out that Central Asian oil easier and more cheaply. ZAHN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) as you spoke about this yesterday, we almost immediately got a call from \"The New York Times.\" BUTLER: Right. ZAHN: They want you to write an op-ed piece on this over the weekend. BUTLER: Right, and which I will do. ZAHN: But let's come back to this whole issue of what John O'Neill, this FBI agent... BUTLER: Right. ZAHN: ... apparently told the authors of this book. He is alleging that -- what -- the U.S. government was trying to protect U.S. oil interests? And at the same time, shut off the investigation of terrorism to allow for that to happen? BUTLER: That's the allegation that instead of prosecuting properly an investigation of terrorism, which has its home in Afghanistan as we now know, or one of its main homes, that was shut down or slowed down in order to pursue oil interests with the Taliban. The people who we have now bombed out of existence, and this not many months ago. The book says that the negotiators said to the Taliban, you have a choice. You have a carpet of gold, meaning an oil deal, or a carpet of bombs. That's what the book alleges. ZAHN: Well, I know you're going to be doing your own independent homework on this... BUTLER: Yes. ZAHN: ... to see if you can confirm any of this. Let's move on to the whole issue of Iraq. The deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, at one time was considered one of those voices within the administration... For the complete transcript, go to the following URL: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0201/08/ltm.05.html ************************ U.S. Taliban Policy influenced by Oil by Julio Godoy Inter Press Service English News Wire, 16 November 2001 Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), globalresearch.ca 17 November 2001 A new book by two French intelligence analysts claims that at the behest of U.S. oil companies, the Bush administration initially blocked FBI investigations into terrorism, while it bargained with the Taliban for the delivery of Osama bin Laden in exchange for political recognition and economic aid. In the book \"Bin Laden, la verite interdite\" (\"B"}, {"response": 771, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan 13, 2002 (05:55)", "body": "Wow, that was like a big spoiler alert after the text bomb. I'm glad Mahfouz is under arrest We need to know the truth of the events leading up to September 11 so is this a piece of the puzzle, the whole puzzle, or is it a distortion. Obviously Paula Zahn thinks it's worthy of probing, let's see where this story goes."}, {"response": 772, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jan 14, 2002 (17:51)", "body": "The war will end in 2008, now we know. Pentagon warns of war lasting six years By David Wastell in Washington (Filed: 13/01/2002) AMERICAN military chiefs believe that the global war against terrorism will last at least six years. Pentagon officials are being advised to draw up budgets and plans to buy new equipment on the assumption that the struggle against al-Qa'eda and other international terrorist groups will endure until 2008, and perhaps even longer. \" continued at http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$MO5SHXQAAECK5QFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2002/01/13/wtal213.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/01/13/ixnewstop.html"}, {"response": 773, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 14, 2002 (21:22)", "body": "Happy Us. We KNOW when the war will end. How very peculiar!"}, {"response": 774, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 17, 2002 (04:51)", "body": "More from the same article: Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, has won President Bush's backing for a sharp increase in military spending. Extra money will be allocated for more of the weapons that have proved useful in Afghanistan, such as unmanned surveillance and attack aircraft. The increased spending will continue whether or not Osama bin Laden is found soon. It follows signs that the Pentagon is wearying of the intense public interest in the hunt for the al-Qa'eda leader, and Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader. John McCain, a senator and former chairman of the armed services committee, said on his return from a trip to the Afghan region that he felt frustrated that bin Laden was still at large. He added, however: \"He's on the run now. I think he's a threat so long as he's alive, but it's a far different scenario than the one where he had sanctuary and was able to operate with a financial network and a network of terrorists throughout the world.\" After four weeks in which the Pentagon and the media were constantly on tenterhooks for the imminent capture of bin Laden, a change of tack ordered by Mr Rumsfeld has become evident. Officials say that they will no longer even hint at where they think he might be. There have also been reports of clashes between the Pentagon and the CIA over the quality of intelligence emanating from Afghanistan. Some military officials feared there was a \"missed opportunity\" when the Pentagon ordered US Central Command to rely on local Afghan forces rather than US troops to try to intercept and capture bin Laden after the assault on al-Qa'eda's Tora Bora mountain hideouts. Not only did bin Laden apparently escape, but so have a series of Taliban leaders over the past two weeks, almost certainly including Mullah Omar, raising questions about the competence or possible corruption of the Afghan forces. Although no politician is yet prepared to risk publicly differing with Mr Bush over the administration's handling of the war, some advisers fear that public patience over the failure to catch bin Laden will evaporate if the hunt drags on too long - or if there is a fresh terrorist attack on the US."}, {"response": 775, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jan 18, 2002 (12:30)", "body": "Osama bin Laden may be on the verge of winning a round, the Saudis are said to be on the verge of asking the Americans to leave Saudi Arabia: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64536-2002Jan17.html This was Bin Laden and Al Quaeda's aim, and it will vindicate Bin Laden to the Islamic world. I hate to see it take this turn. More later as I learn more."}, {"response": 776, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jan 18, 2002 (12:33)", "body": "US Envoy Plays Down Reports of Strains with Saudi January 18, 2002 09:34 AM ET Email this article Printer friendly version RIYADH (Reuters) - A senior U.S. envoy played down U.S. media reports of tensions with Saudi Arabia over the presence of American troops in the kingdom, an Arabic newspaper reported on Friday. \"I did not come to the kingdom with any demand, instead I came as an ally and a friend,\" U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Lincoln Bloomfield told the London-based daily Al-Hayat. \"Our cooperation is very important and is not only about (fighting) the terrorist al Qaeda organization but also for the sake of long-term regional security,\" he said. The New York Times reported this week that senior officials in Congress and at the Pentagon had called for the pullout of U.S. forces from Saudi Arabia because of what they see as its tepid support for the U.S. war on terrorism and restrictions on U.S. military operations. Bloomfield said he had not discussed with Saudi officials the presence of U.S. troops at a Saudi air base, which an influential U.S. senator has said may have to end because of restrictions imposed on them by Saudi Arabia."}, {"response": 777, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jan 25, 2002 (10:13)", "body": "David Kline (dkline) Thu Jan 24 '02 (10:44) 63 lines I had lunch yesterday with the nephew of the legendary Afghan hero Abdul Haq, and it was rather interesting to hear his views on issues that have something to do with this discussion. First, a bit of background. Khushal Arsala is the son of Abdul Haq's brother. During the anti-Soviet war, the two brothers fought side by side and promised each other that if either died, the other would raise the deceassed's children as if they were his own. And that's what happenned -- Abdul Haq raised Arsala and his siblings as if they were his own kids. So as you might imagine, Arsala has enormous love and hero worship of Abdul Haq, who as you might recall was captured and executed by the Taliban only a few weeks before a sufficient critical mass of popular revolt started the Taliban crumbling. A sad irony, indeed. Anyway, Arsala spoke to two issues that have been very controversial here in the USA: the treatment of Guantanamo prisoners, and the bombing campaign in Afghanistan. On the first issue -- treatment of prisoners -- he said he could understand America's dilemma vis. a vis. the Geneva conventions and other legal issues. He had no real suggestions to offer. But he did want to stress, \"in case you Americans forget,\" that by and large the people detained in Guantanamo are \"beyond the pale\" of anything \"Americans are used to facing.\" They are relentless, he said, and \"they will kill you at the first chance. You Americans are not used to people like this, people with no standard of decency and humanity such as you try to have.\" I guess his point was to be sympathetic to our dilemma, but to also remind us that we are afflicted with akind of naivete and \"sense of fair play\" that while important for us to maintain, may blind us to the utter and implacable hatred of our enemies. Point No. 2 concerned the bombing. Like his uncle Abdul Haq, Arsala opposed the US bombing campaign in Afghanistan. He totally supported our special forces teams working with the Northern Alliance and other opposition forces to oust the Taliban, but he felt much of the bombing, at least, did not serve to aid that effort but merely alienated some of the population owing to the civilian casualties that resulted. What about the continued bombing of suspected Al Queda positions in Paktia province? He said that we definitely had to go in there and kill those people, but by employing bombing, we ended up killing too many innocent civilians when ground action would accomplish the job without such civilian losses. Overall, though, he said that Afghans today overwhelmingly welcome the US presence in the country, but that this could change overnight if a) too many more civilians are killed; or b) we do not deliver immediate aid to help the country get back on its feet. \"How much does it cost for one or two bombing missions?\" he asked. \"That money could provide salaries to thousands of civilservice employees.\" He also said: \"I do not feel that by asking for American economic aid we are asking for charity. Thousands and thousands of our people died to battle first your enemy the Russians and now your enemy Al Queda. And we warned you year after year after year -- Abdul Haq warned you -- that the Taliban and Al Queda would attack America from their bases in Afghanistan. We asked you to help us defeat them, but you refused.\" The above is close to an exact quote. His views are pretty interesting, I think. . Great observations from Abdul Haq's son and David Kline."}, {"response": 778, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jan 26, 2002 (03:16)", "body": "This is some not good news. In fact, horrible news *if true*. Al Qaida moving into Gaza, may join fight against Israel ANKARA \ufffd Western diplomatic sources said Al Qaida insurgents have infiltrated the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an effort to determine whether the movement should make the Palestinian areas into their new home. The sources said Al Qaida appears to prefer the Gaza Strip over more distant locations such as Somalia. http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_7.html"}, {"response": 779, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (17:08)", "body": "Read the captions and look at the photos. This is an astounding set like none other I've seen. http://camazotz.com/wtc/index.html WTC"}, {"response": 780, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (18:00)", "body": "You forgot Chinese New Year, Marcia. You're right, everything does happen at once."}, {"response": 781, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (18:33)", "body": "Chinese New Year is today right? Year of the Horse. Happy New Year!!"}, {"response": 782, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (18:45)", "body": "I think it does start today. So have a great Year of the Horse!"}, {"response": 783, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (23:18)", "body": "Kung Hee Fat Choy as we say in Hawaii. I could not possibly live here and forget it. However, between the Olympics and figuring out how to tell the world I love them on Valentine's Day (yes, I do have the perfect graphic for it) I simply forgot. Indeed, it is the year of the horse in some far advanced year. President's Day is also about to occur. And, I think I missed some event in New Zealand, not to mention my sympathies for the people of the UK on the death of Princess Margaret."}, {"response": 784, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (17:55)", "body": "Kung Hee Fat Choy means Happy New Year or Happy Valentine's Day? Well, Happy Fat Tuesday everyone. Laiser Le Bon Ton Ruelet (or something like that)! Lent starts tomorrow."}, {"response": 785, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (17:55)", "body": "(can't believe i forgot how to spell that phrase--Let the Good Times Roll, y'all)"}, {"response": 786, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (22:04)", "body": "Laissez les bon temps roulez! (The Chinese means Happy New Year or the equivalent thereof)"}, {"response": 787, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (19:53)", "body": "*laugh* i knew i was missing some z's!! thanks sweetie!! (letters and sleep *grin*)"}, {"response": 788, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (13:52)", "body": "*Hugs* Wolfie - I knew that you knew!"}, {"response": 789, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (02:19)", "body": "Hi all New Zealand SAS troops have played a role in the war against Afghanistan. I got a report from a guy in a Yahoo Group that according to a website covering the Afghanistan war the NZ SAS was involved in some action. Rob"}, {"response": 790, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (19:22)", "body": "Greece has also sent some troops and has sworn in their first professional militaty personnel."}, {"response": 791, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 10, 2002 (21:39)", "body": "Homeland Security Threat Level has been rasied to HIGH ALERT (Orange) from Yellow. The announcement is official this afternoon Sep 10, 2002 from news conference help by Attorney General John Ashcroft. EXPLANATION of Orange Shown Below Detailed information on the NEW Homeland Security Coded Advisory System codes and explanation can be found at http://www.emergencyemail.org/homeland A printable version is also available for posting. Please forward this information to those you think may benefit and for e-mail and wireless signup. THE EMERGENCY EMAIL NETWORK, INC. http://www.emergencyemail.org/ .................................................................. ORANGE THREAT EXPLANATION High risk of terrorist attacks. In addition to the previously outlined Protective Measures, the following may be applied: Coordinating necessary security efforts with armed forces or law enforcement agencies; Taking additional precaution at public events; Preparing to work at an alternate site or with a dispersed workforce; and Restricting access to essential personnel only."}, {"response": 792, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Sep 11, 2002 (03:18)", "body": "The entire world bemoans today together with USA, the thousands innocent lives that were lost in the coward terrorist attack against the Twin Towers on 11Th September 2001. At least 21 families of Greek fellow countrymen they lost their own persons in the hell of fire and destruction. I was eyewitness through TV in Greece. I remember my surprise and my burst of anger those moments. My first reaction was to send immediately e-mail to Marcia and then to wait her answer until the morning of Hawaii. I will never forget it. I deposit a few flowers in the place of their immolation as pay homage to innocent victims. I believe that World Will Never Forget. John"}, {"response": 793, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 11, 2002 (12:28)", "body": "Thank you, John, for your eloquence. We are all still a bit stunned. For those who are in harm's way today, God keep you safe. For those of you who protect the free world, God's special blessings upon you. I amcertain that this day will live longer in infamy than Pearl Harbor. This was an unprecedented attack on innocent civilians. God protect us all."}, {"response": 794, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 11, 2002 (12:30)", "body": ""}, {"response": 795, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Sep 11, 2002 (20:51)", "body": "remember that we may not all agree, we are all one people in front of our Creator, we all bleed the same color. *HUGS* to you all!!!!!!!!!!! and my salute to our men and women who serve this country in one way or another. just by going to work everyday, you are being heroic."}, {"response": 796, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Sep 11, 2002 (22:40)", "body": "\ufffdThe human spirit is like a flame that can never be put out.\ufffd To most, 9/11 was a day of tragedy and mourning, but it was also a day that heroes were born\ufffd a day when generosity, love, and courage came out of the ashes\ufffd a day when our country and the world came together as one. This is the way it should be. There is only one race on this earth\ufffdthe human race. We are all the same regardless of our religion, our ethnicity, what we look like, or how we act. The saying\ufffd \ufffdUnited We Stand\ufffd speaks for itself. We all stand together in this fight against terrorism\ufffd a fight for freedom, liberty, and justice for all. As we go on in life we should realize that nothing can be taken for granted. We should live life to the fullest and enjoy every minute of it. One will never really know just how precious life is until it is taken away in an instant. The memory and legacy of the innocent people from every walk of life that lost their lives that day will live on forever. We will never forget."}, {"response": 797, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Sep 12, 2002 (00:07)", "body": "I was listening to some of the music and watching some of the videos. The music written on these sites is in memory of those that died on Sept.11th. But just to let you know before, your eyes will probably fill up with tears. Some of the images are difficult to look at. http://www.letsrollheroes.com/ http://www.jborum.crosswinds.net/webring.html#moresongs"}, {"response": 798, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Sep 12, 2002 (17:54)", "body": "I don't really like attracting attention to myself in public, but there were some newspaper reporters at my school during the memorial service yesturday. I assumed many people would be showing their patroitism on Sept. 11th. They were, but not many at my school. I decided to wear my flag shirt and flag bandana yesturday. So I got singled out and the newspaper reporters took tons of photos of me and a few other people. I am in the local newspaper which is called The Daily Pilot which is a section in the L.A Times. I am also in my school paper The Coast Report. Some other dude got my picture too, but I don't know where he was from. I had a lot I wanted to say but they only wanted pictures. Oh well."}, {"response": 799, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep 12, 2002 (19:30)", "body": "Are the pictures online also?"}, {"response": 800, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Thu, Sep 12, 2002 (20:35)", "body": "They have murdered thousands. We can save millions! Please help UNICEF help the children of the world! Help to build a better world for our children!"}, {"response": 801, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Sep 13, 2002 (00:12)", "body": "No, fortunatly...I mean unfortunatly they are not online."}, {"response": 802, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 13, 2002 (11:30)", "body": "Two major Al Queda leaders gave their story on 9/11 on Al Jazeera. Cairo, Egypt (AP) - The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera broadcast more excerpts of a videotape on Tuesday in which a male voice attributed to Osama bin Laden can be heard naming all 19 Sept. 11 hijackers. On Monday, the station broadcast a portion of the tape in which the same voice, speaking in Arabic, named the four leaders of the Sept. 11 attacks - Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah and Hani Hanjour. In Tuesday's broadcast, the voice named all 19 of the hijackers and their places of birth were cited. The men were lavishly praised for their piety. \"Those men (the hijackers) have realized that the only course to achieve justice and defeat injustice is through jihad (Muslim holy struggle) for the cause of God,\" the voice on the tape said in Tuesday's clip. There was no way to verify whether the person speaking on the tape was bin Laden, or when the recording was made. Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi who has interviewed bin Laden in the past, said on Al-Jazeera that the voice sounded like bin Laden's. A different man speaking on Tuesday's excerpt said of the hijackers: \"They provided the greatest lessons and expertise to all young people to give up fun and play to stand up and destroy the remnants of pagan America.\" Tuesday's clips were longer than those shown Monday and included old footage of bin Laden and his top lieutenants squatting silently on the floor. Bin Laden has not been heard from since shortly after the U.S.-led bombing campaign began in Afghanistan last October. The latest tape also included old footage from Afghanistan of several young men identified as being among the hijackers. They appeared to be looking at maps, including one of the Washington D.C. area, and manuals of cockpit gadgetry. At least one computer and several books in English could be seen sitting on desks and a hand was shown pointing at the site of the Pentagon on one map. Another excerpt showed a man identified as hijacker Abdulaziz Alomari leaving what appeared to be a farewell message. \"God may reward all those who trained me on this path and who were behind this noble act and a special mention should be made of ... Sheik Osama bin Laden, may God protect him.\" Alomari and Atta were aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the World Trade Center. Al-Jazeera said over the weekend that one of its correspondents had interviewed two top al-Qaida fugitives wanted in the terrorist attack. According to the interview, reportedly conducted in June with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, the U.S. Congress was the fourth American landmark on al-Qaida's Sept. 11 hit list and the terror group also considered striking U.S. nuclear facilities."}, {"response": 803, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (23:54)", "body": "Thanks for all your posts. We spent the day glued to the telly. The California contingent of the family stayed home as did the Louisville contingent. I was happy to arrive intact at my destination a few days later. The security was VERY tight and I was examined by hand on my body to see if I had anything hidden on me. This is not comforting. I will not fly again if I can help it! Thanks, George, for the Unicef ad. You're right! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 56, "subject": "geo conference business", "response_count": 258, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct  9, 2001 (11:40)", "body": "I fixed some stuff in the rc and the htmlheader files today. I think geo is functioning normal. I'm trying to run a pledge drive this quarter to pay for our hosting fees and get some backups going. I realized when I read your request that we really need backups ... solid backups .. on this system. I suggest any and all conference hosts backup their conferences with bulletproof ftp as an added backup measure."}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct  9, 2001 (12:08)", "body": "What was it you wanted linked, Marci?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  9, 2001 (12:33)", "body": "You cannot believe how relieved I am this morning to see Geo back. I shall definitly back up with bulletproof to get safeguard Geo. Many porfound thanks for restoring this Conference. *Big Hugs*!!! I'll email you about my inability to connect via ftp currently. I login as usual on CRT but now I am marci instead of marcia and when I do get in, I am in a site with just the few files I sent there the last time we had difficulties. Worse, I cannot see it on the net so anything I put there might as well not exist. The software I was adding was ADD ME which is a tracking service (free) which supposedly allow me access to a list of lurkers as well as logins. Curiosity overcame my best thinking and I learned not to do THAT again! BTW, my buttons and bars are still unavailale for the rc file so I can only use the default ones. My account is still badly messed up! Thanks again! You're my hero for sure!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct  9, 2001 (12:56)", "body": "We can get this information with webstats now, I run this report every month and am getting ready to run it again. We may be able to run a custom report for geo, I'll have to check."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  9, 2001 (14:58)", "body": "Ok..... excellent! I found it fascinating! I was wondering how effective my attempts to interest people in Geo and ulimately in Spring were. Look into AddMe - It is free, I think. I had not activated my account yet. I shall not do so - but it might be what you need unless it is too rudimentary to handle the amount of traffic you have. http://www.addme.com/issue214.htm"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct  9, 2001 (21:24)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/webstats shows you the kinds of reports we are getting now. I'll be running some new reports soon."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  9, 2001 (23:38)", "body": "Thanks, Terry. I find them totally fascinating!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  9, 2001 (23:40)", "body": "Something is wrong with that link to webstats URL; it produces a 404 message."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  9, 2001 (23:44)", "body": "Terry, how about this: http://www.spring.net/webtrends/"}, {"response": 10, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Oct 25, 2001 (06:00)", "body": "Hi all I have promoted Geo in World Volcanism. My most recent message there is intended to give you more traffic by pointing potential visitors in the right direction. Marcia knows that I enjoy Geo as I think you and the others might as well, Terry. Bearing that in mind is the reason for doing so. Another thing is if you do not object, I will put out a message in my Yahoo Groups plus Lisa Seal's Earthquake Predictors......... (call it what you may). I did not know where to put this so I left it here. If you have advice, comments, arguments or just want someone to talk too: lava.dome@eudoramail.com Best Rob"}, {"response": 11, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 25, 2001 (09:43)", "body": "Wow, Rob, what a great promo for Marci 's great efforts here!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 25, 2001 (17:44)", "body": "Thanks, all. Perhaps I might have a few conversationalist out of the mix instead of lurkers - which I also appreciate. *Hugs* Rob for your promotional efforts. I'm not sure we need Lisa's additional EQ club on Yahoo but since we all were chosen as co-founders, I cannot think of any thing else to do but to post the items I post here and in World Seismicity @ Yahoo. It surely sounds like overkill. Lisa is young. Very young. Which has nothing to do with anything other than she should look at what Rob has done with his Yahoo clubs and realize it takes a lot of effort on the part of the creator of said club to make it work. Look how much verbage I have dumped into Geo to help stimulate conversation. It seldom occurrs simultaneously through wishful thinking. Lisa needs to write some good posts and provocative suggestions before she expects results. Been there and know that!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Oct 26, 2001 (02:27)", "body": "Hi all I will put the appropriate subject for the earthquakes and volcanoes in World Seismicity and World Volcanism links sections, so that those who want to visit the conferences and perhaps participate are able to do so. I am thinking of doing a computer course in basic web page design in my spare time sometime down the road because I have been wondering about the possibility of advancing the subjects that I love online. Probably won't be this summer but maybe next summer. Not too sure where it will lead me but the idea is one I have been entertaining with greater frequency. Rob"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 26, 2001 (15:34)", "body": "Go for it, Rob! Compter training can come be a very good investment. Should it ever be necessary to work from home, who knows how unlimited your abilities and possibilities may be. Besides, I know a new GeoArchaeologist MSc who does the matrix for which the finds are inserted. My son does graphics presentations of site work on AutoCad. The better you are prepared for Geology, the better you will find people to accept your employ. Besides, you can make suggestions for Geo!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Nov  3, 2001 (13:57)", "body": "terry, how do we use bulletproof.ftp??? (and i'm glad geo is finally looking like it's old self again!!!)"}, {"response": 16, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Nov  3, 2001 (16:32)", "body": "Bulletproof FTP let's you set up \"sites\" where you enter your password, username and login directories. Hold on, I'll open mine up. Here's a good list of tips: http://www.bpftp.com/general_usage.html When you use it , it looks and works a lot like Windows Explorer."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  3, 2001 (16:33)", "body": "I STILL need to be able to have the rc file put my Geobuttons and bars back. I don't mind the default buttons, but they sure are not as lovely as the Lava buttons you created for me, Wolfie!!! I have written to Terry... Want to see severe withdrawal? Crash Geo. Arrrgh! I did that while you were gone, I think. Has anything changed for us lowly hosts who have not the first idea of what Bulletproof entails? I think I need to go hunt up info on the net."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  3, 2001 (16:35)", "body": "Terry, I use CuteFtp and it is a long trek to my /marcia files. Oh well, it makes it harder for others to add stuff to mine, not that anyone would wish to do so! What do I need to do? Buy more software?"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  3, 2001 (16:49)", "body": "Terry, all of my ftp sites are working on Spribng's hard drive. Many thanks! Now, if only my Geobuttons were visible...*sigh*"}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Nov  3, 2001 (21:31)", "body": "OK geo buttons are next on the list. I'll dig up that email."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  3, 2001 (22:18)", "body": "No hurry... ! It is Satuday night! Kick back and watch the Hawaii-Fresno State game."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  3, 2001 (22:30)", "body": "Oops, San Jose State. We already beat Fresno. Good Texas game (like when did you last lose to Baylor?) and Penn State too. I do not expect to see the buttons until you have a better social life. =) Thanks!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  4, 2001 (19:19)", "body": "Why can't I ftp? Terry, I think I need to email you again. I can see /marci but it is different from the one to which I ftp things. The same goes for /geo. I cannot ftp, however, to my main files at /marcia. This is most frustrating. John has had problems seeing his files, as well. I will wait until tomorrow to check it, but I think either someone is working on them or my address is suddenly incorrect on my ftp. It did work yesterday...!"}, {"response": 24, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov  4, 2001 (20:22)", "body": "I'll check the permissions."}, {"response": 25, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov  4, 2001 (20:24)", "body": "Try it logging in as the user geo. drwxr-xr-x 3 geo geo 512 Oct 30 15:35 marci drwxrwxr-x 6 geo geo 512 Oct 30 15:35 marcia drwxr-xr-x 2 geo geo 512 Oct 30 15:35 geo"}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov  4, 2001 (20:27)", "body": "what we're having trouble with ftp again? i use ws_ftp95 (that might explain why no one knows what to put in any of my boxes!!)"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  4, 2001 (20:43)", "body": "Gadzooks...! drwxr-xr-x?????? Ok!!! I'll report back!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov  4, 2001 (20:56)", "body": "I got in and successfully transferred files. Did it the old way since I could not log in as you suggested. This works. I'll not mess with it, unless it stops working again. Thanks, Terry! I'm using CuteFTP."}, {"response": 29, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Nov  5, 2001 (03:26)", "body": "Hi all Kia Ora Wolfie, how are you at the moment??? Rob"}, {"response": 30, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  5, 2001 (20:33)", "body": "hi rob! at the moment i'm recuperating from the drive home! *laugh* actually it was a piece of cake tonight. what does kia ora mean? and does that word \"kia\" have anything to do with the kia automobiles?"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  5, 2001 (21:09)", "body": ""}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  5, 2001 (21:10)", "body": "KIA is Korean car. I think he is welcoming you. E Komo Mai! Please, no playing in the freeways, Wolfie!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  5, 2001 (22:34)", "body": "oh no, none of that! a fellow canine was caught out in it the other day, in the carpool lane too. some of the cars tried to force him over to the curb without realizing that pushing him over to the left would only cause him to veer to the right, straight into 4 more lanes of traffic. a couple of people tried to coax him into their cars (we were at a standstill) and a well-dressed man was walking after him, risking his own life, to get this dog off the road. a man after my own heart. of course, i had people in the car and couldn't take the dog with me (there's a two dog limit here)."}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  5, 2001 (22:36)", "body": "if Kia is Korean, why is an Aussie pushing it? (i really thought it was an australian make)"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (20:34)", "body": "Rob is a New Zealander. His greeting was in Maori. The similarily of names is purely coincidental, I think!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (20:39)", "body": "http://www.kia.com/info.shtml Kia Motors America is based in Irvine, Calif., and is dedicated to the strategies of the parent company, Kia Motors Corp. of Seoul, South Korea. The guiding principles are easily stated: \"provide high-quality, high-value vehicles at prices well below the competition and back them up with a 10 Year / 100,000 Mile Warranty Program and a customer-first policy.\""}, {"response": 37, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Nov  7, 2001 (01:14)", "body": "Kia Ora Katoa Haere mai, Wolfie and Marcia. How are you all today? This son of NZ is fine and well in Aotearoa/New Zealand. I will put links to Geo in World Seismicity and World Volcanism, plus add it to my favourite pages on my Yahoo! profile. Rob"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  7, 2001 (15:31)", "body": "Mahalo nui loa, Lopaka. Your links and publicity for Geo is most welcome. I have posted here of your most worthy offereings in World Seismicity and World Volcanology. Now, get thee back and tell us the RIGHT way to evacuate that little valley in which you had us fishing during an earthquake. I KNOW what your Uncle Bruce did. I think I would stay out of said fishing area. Nothing in that stream is worth risking my neck for. I have a friend who is returning for his annual fly fishing expedition to South Island. How much danger is he in? Huge trout down there! No wonder devotees of the sport return year afer year!"}, {"response": 39, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov  7, 2001 (20:02)", "body": "hi rob and marcia *HUGS* (thanks for the bit on kia)"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  7, 2001 (22:02)", "body": "*Hugs* Wolfie! Thanks for putting my storehouse of irrelevant information to good use! I wondered why I knew all of these unconnected bits of *stuff*"}, {"response": 41, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (21:18)", "body": "because you knew your twin would need to know it one day *LAUGH*"}, {"response": 42, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (21:20)", "body": "oh, marcia, could we have a topic here (or somewhere relevant) about man-made gemstones? i'd like to discuss the pros and cons of buying simulated pieces (esp. of the rarer and more expensive stones). thanks for considering it *HUGS*"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (22:21)", "body": "Yes!!! I'll do it straight away. We can consider all man-made stones including \"cultured\" marble of which my barthroom floors are made."}, {"response": 44, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov  9, 2001 (18:26)", "body": "excellent, thank you marcia *HUGS*"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  9, 2001 (18:30)", "body": "I have several \"created\" gem stones and my floor. I'll be posting them shortly. Time to post all of those goodies they are making in laboratories to ornament an already gilded lily. *sigh* Can there ever be enough? Too much?! You know I will say a resounding NO !!!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  9, 2001 (18:31)", "body": "(Wolfie, you coulda done it!!!)"}, {"response": 47, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov  9, 2001 (18:32)", "body": "(i know but i wanted to make sure it belonged in this conference first *smile*) can you see me on MSN?"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  9, 2001 (19:02)", "body": "Anything you wish do discuss belongs here. Almost all of us are terrestrial or planetary in some way. I looked for you but the only person I see on MSN is the elusive and puzzling man who staked a claim on my life a year or so ago. I'll watch to see if you can get online."}, {"response": 49, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov  9, 2001 (20:43)", "body": "well, i don't get it....i've downloaded the msn browser and everything--redownloaded msn messenger and nothing. i don't know what to do next. start over probably."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  9, 2001 (21:00)", "body": "*sigh* I saw you or someone logged into your account (have talked briefyly with AM when I thought it was you). Perhaps it is me. Splitting headache has limited my tact and charm today, usually copious and available to all. Tomorrow??!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov  9, 2001 (21:08)", "body": "well, i'm here and have been logging in this afternoon and evening. i'm sorry about your headache, sounds like the one i had yesterday that even exedrin migraine wouldn't take care of. go to bed and sleep it off! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 10, 2001 (20:36)", "body": "I should not eat coconut and I will be far more wary next time. It is toxic to me. As my huggy twin, I hope you fare better. They put coconut in just about everything out here. Poor Wolfie. I did not know being twins with you also meant suffering together. *HUGS* I hope you are feeling better. I am."}, {"response": 53, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Nov 10, 2001 (21:28)", "body": "my headache went away about 7:30 PM. and i came straight home from work thinking i would lie down but i ended up scrubbing a couple of windows and picking up the house. and THEN, we had pancakes for dinner. i can't stand coconut!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 11, 2001 (20:46)", "body": "Wolfie! Come and sit down beside me while I tell you how to relax. It does not involve scrubbing windows (mine are hopeless and far too big for me to manage) picking up the house will wait (that's what children are for!)... *sigh* supper happens. I don't suppose you used a mix for those pancakes? In any case they take forever to make and you get to eat last. Been there and done that. *Hugs* I'm happy your headache is gone!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov 12, 2001 (12:32)", "body": "no, the pancakes were from scratch! and in order to get the kids to do anything, i have to sit there and supervise so it's easier to do it myself (though they do have their own chores)"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (16:30)", "body": "*Sigh* A part of motherhood I do not miss. I once made pancakes for my dad from scratch. He folded the entire stack into a little roll, popped them into his mouth, devoured them and wanted more. They were light and golden and meltingly delicious. I have not made them since! I only got to eat one..."}, {"response": 57, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (19:33)", "body": "i only get to eat one or two myself! and when halfway through cooking them, i have to grap those just to make sure i get to eat too!!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (20:12)", "body": "Sounds Familiar! *Big tender compassionate Hugs*"}, {"response": 59, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (21:06)", "body": "yeah, and you have experience with the boys too. he is going through this thing where he can eat the whole pizza (and he's still annoyingly picky)..... *HUGS*"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (22:21)", "body": "The proverbial bottomless pit *HUGS* Mine stripped my Leftover Christmas just after we had dinner... We went to see the decorations in the neighborhood and he had the rest of my turkey!!!"}, {"response": 61, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (22:58)", "body": "*laugh*"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 23, 2001 (14:01)", "body": "I thought and I thought and I thought. And, finally I figured out how to make Geo's buttons and bars appear again. *sigh* It has been so long I am not certain they look right, but it is good to have them back. John, I can do anything you like including changing the wallpaper as we talked about earlier this week. Or, change anything else, for that matter. Please let me know."}, {"response": 63, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Nov 24, 2001 (10:30)", "body": "i just noted the lava bars and buttons---it's so good seeing them again!!! (how'd you figger it out?)"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 24, 2001 (15:37)", "body": "Wolfie, it took me a while and when John said something to the effect that where I had my main files stored was a secure place with some sort of encryption involved. I am not sure why I can post images from that url but not graphics for the conference. In any case, I tried to put them on /marci. Suddenly they appeared and it was sooooo good to see them again. It was my surprise for John. Now, to get the title page whipped into shape. I also found some alternative bars I think I will like better. Will try them shortly."}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 24, 2001 (16:00)", "body": "Opinions on the new bars???"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 24, 2001 (16:49)", "body": "I don't like them. Have new ones on order. Meanwhile, back to the lava bars"}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Nov 24, 2001 (23:15)", "body": "send me a copy of the new bars---didn't catch them today)"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 25, 2001 (11:51)", "body": "Ok. I really need skinnier dark red bars which John is preparing. Actually, he has created a whole new look for Geo. We're still working on it."}, {"response": 69, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov 25, 2001 (20:19)", "body": "So, you're doing ok with managing your geo backgrounds, etc? I hope we can document this hostly things somewhere, I mostly deal w/ system admin and keeping this ship afloat rather than design issues. We need a design maven!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 25, 2001 (23:20)", "body": "We are doing just fine. John has much expeience with programming and creating backgrounds and fonts and making them lood 3-D. I try to add my Aesthetics to the mix, and I install them when we are done. Yup, Terry. I have learned so much from Geo. Like giving birth the first time. You are handed a baby with no owner's manual. I learned bit by bit and I am still learning. I appreciate that you are good at saving me when I get into trouble with my programming. I keep copies of all programming and make notations including how to restore it to this present state. I had a very good teacher whom we still miss. John is definitely a design maven. I am working on assisting him and learning all I can from his capable mind. You keep the sytems up and running. Wolfie and John and I will keep it pretty and interesting. By the way, did you know we have a rather large readership in Greece? Unfortunately I cannot get them to login because I do not know them personally. Welcome and Yia sou (the Greek equivalent of Aloha.)"}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 25, 2001 (23:23)", "body": "Oh, please keep the welcome mat out for The Design Maven whose infinite patience allowed Geo to exist in the first place. He made it possible for me to make is as you see it now. *HUGS* Wolfie and I and a lot of other people miss him!"}, {"response": 72, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Nov 26, 2001 (10:47)", "body": "Absolutely."}, {"response": 73, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov 27, 2001 (18:48)", "body": "I can hardly wait for the new look of Geo. However, unlike Wolfie, I won't wait with baited breath and pass out. I'll just take my sinus medication and sniffle occasionally."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 27, 2001 (21:11)", "body": "I finally found the very thin read line horizontal bars I needed all this while. No, don't hold your breath. We have lots of sorting to do. Posting it and recoloring and deciding it is not better than the current look. We did that last night (John's morning.) It's fun and a great adventure when your eyes are not falling out of your head from graphics overload. It also is an enormous help to have a very kind and patient specialist helping guide me."}, {"response": 75, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 27, 2001 (21:12)", "body": "really, it's ok, marcia is an expert with CPR! *LAUGH* course, it's kinda hard to tell when we wolves turn blue!!"}, {"response": 76, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 27, 2001 (21:12)", "body": "(marcia, you slipped in on me!)"}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 27, 2001 (21:19)", "body": "oh, and i went out trying to find another neat hummingbird for you with something to actually sit on or feeding off of. found a bunch of other cutsie things but will keep looking!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 27, 2001 (21:23)", "body": "marcia, i'm gonna resolve this stupid MSN Messenger thing. i don't know why it's not working!! but, i gotta get off line now so g'night all you geophiles! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 28, 2001 (13:41)", "body": "Wolfie, can you send me a blank button from which my lava buttons where made? You'll see why! I have downloaded an upgrade to MSN and it is better. It still does not include a time stamp which I really miss. You and the missing B are the only ones currently live on my list. I suggest and uninstall, restart your computer then install the upgraded one. You'll love the emoticons (or not.... they are rather silly on MSN, actually!)"}, {"response": 80, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 28, 2001 (20:22)", "body": "i should have a blank button somewhere for you. will look through my graphic files!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 28, 2001 (20:23)", "body": "oh, i'll try to reinstall the msn stuff--did download their newer browser. but everytime i restart my system, a message comes up saying something about missing a tray.*** (i can't remember the file extension)"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 28, 2001 (20:27)", "body": "Oooh good!!! So, how do you like the title page? Netscape does not do the rotations very well on the globe. I have a second one I would like to try. ??? uninstall the entire MSN thing and download a fresh copy from the Net, Wolfie. I need you !!! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 28, 2001 (20:32)", "body": "Wolfie, note down the file you need. I have one \"tray\" file in my systems folder for each IM I run. You need to download it with the complete IM software. I'll send you a copy of mine if you can pinpoint it (and tell you where to drop it whan I do)"}, {"response": 84, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov 29, 2001 (23:11)", "body": "all i know, marcia, is when i restart the computer, it says \"cannot locate trayapp.exe\" and i think this is what's making the computer think MSN Messenger is already up and running. tried to talk to an MSN geek but i got kicked out of the online conversation. i need MSN Messenger back!!! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  1, 2001 (13:54)", "body": "Terry, have you ever gotten anything from Amazon.com for running their link? If not, I'm taking it off Geo. I love the new smaller buttons! Thank you, John!"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  1, 2001 (13:56)", "body": "Wolfie, I can send you the MSN.exe file and you can install it from that. It's what I used. Better still would be to uninstall it, run defrag, then reinstall the download from their website. It is a bother, but it will get rid of the spurious files which are confusing your computer now."}, {"response": 87, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  1, 2001 (14:59)", "body": "well, apparantly i confused the geek too. he wanted to know what version of msn explorer i was running and that's when i got kicked out. i'm tired of fighting with it. did try to run scandisk but that kept starting over and over and over again. nice job on the buttons john! and i've noticed the different globes being used. the current one is of the \"He's got the whole world in His hands\" and is nice. my fave one so far is the one that was kinda invisible........"}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  1, 2001 (15:36)", "body": "Yup, This globe is the one. Heaven help us all if the hand which holds us drops us. Note the kill button, Wolfie (almost no one else can see it.) I wanted something that went with the other buttons but looked VERY different. He made a chromatic negative of it for me. It works. I don't get anywhere near it! For those who are not hosts of conferences, if I hit that button by mistake whatever is here disappears forever. I truly don't want to do that!"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  1, 2001 (15:43)", "body": "I think we are done with the middle of the night (for most of the world) and early morning (for John) tweaking of the graphics. John is pleased as am I. I will leave it alone unless I can get Terry or someone to change the large Spring button. John made one which matches the rest. Alas, since the current one is in http://www.spring.net/yapp-icons/sbutt.gif and I surely would not try to change that file, I am stuck with a non-matching set. This one is Geo's new one: http://www.spring.net/marci/Public/GeoButtons/sbutt.gif *Sigh* want to try yahoo or AOL for non-AOL users? Both of them work well for me. If worse comes to worse, I'll try to use ICQ but it keeps crashing my computer! *Hugs* and thanks, John, for your infinite patience with me. Your talents and expertise is much appreciated."}, {"response": 90, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  1, 2001 (20:19)", "body": "check your email, sweetie, i've forwarded a blank button for you. and, alas, as a poster only in this conference, i cannot see your kill button! (speaking of new buttons, am working on something for the garden room)"}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  1, 2001 (23:05)", "body": "Oh I forgot. Wolfie, you have been so much of me for so long, I forgot that only I and Terry and Ray Lopez and SysAdm can see my \"power\" buttons. You mean I am on my own now? Frightening thought! Thanks for the button blank. I'm eager to see what you have created for the garden conference. It seems that we mentioned it long ago when you put the pansy background there. I know it will be lovely! *HUGS* and thanks to our Wolfie!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Dec  2, 2001 (11:34)", "body": "Hi \ufffdTwins\ufffd, Terry and all Thank you for your good words. I gave only a small assistance to this very good hostess and programmer. I hope you like new face of GEO. I have not enough free time, as I wish, in order to be more present in GEO and in the other conferences in \ufffdSpring\ufffd. I hope that my of many hours work will be finished after about two or three weeks. I need more time for my research too. Wolfie and all who you are anxious for big EQ: In Greece, we have about 3 up to 10 EQ's with magnitude up to 4.0R every day or about 180 up to 350 EQ\ufffds every month. But we had only one strong EQ (6.4R in Skyros Island) within three years. So, I believe that small EQ's is meaning almost nothing for the direct future. Also, you can take an idea for the ground faults in Greece, if you see this THIS MAP. Regards John"}, {"response": 93, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Dec  2, 2001 (14:29)", "body": "thanks john! and thanks marcia, you know i'm here for you sweetie!!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  2, 2001 (15:02)", "body": "John is offline with thunderstorms. (I post his weather in Geo 14) and we are having them, also. It makes it nice and dark for Christmas lights, though... Oooh, Wolfie, I just MUST photograph my Christmas Cacti. They are early, as usual, but are they beautiful!!! I'll post my results in Garden conference."}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  2, 2001 (15:21)", "body": "How about this globe? The golden one with the shadow...?"}, {"response": 96, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Dec  2, 2001 (20:49)", "body": "oh, that's a shadow! i was getting ready to say something looked funny on my screen (which would be no surprise since everything's fuzzy on this one anyway). i still say that the transparent earth globe is my fave! can't wait to see your cacti--i picked up a smaller one and it's blooming furiously and very early--and it's white!"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  2, 2001 (21:28)", "body": "whihc color transparent one? I found one I absolutley adore but need to make smaller. It's red and in high relief. My white one is struggling back from a near-death experience when it was put under a table and got no water for a month (not by ME!) The ones currently blooming are a light coral pink with green \"leaves\" and another one a brilliant electric pink with dark red \"leaves.\" My bright red year round bloomer is takeing the holidays off. It stops blooming simultaneously with the appearance of flowers on the other two!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec  2, 2001 (21:51)", "body": "I posted the red globe. It's big! Too big?? If it is not this one I am going back to the \"hollow\" red one I had originally."}, {"response": 99, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec  3, 2001 (21:38)", "body": "i like this one (the transparent one)...."}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec  3, 2001 (22:02)", "body": "This is the one I thought you liked. Unfortunately it does not rotate evenly in Netscape, but I like it well enough that it is the globe that I will probably use until I find one for my Dream Title page. Simple elegance is what suits me best. I have actually found it. Now, to figure out how to make it the way I want it. John!!!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Dec  4, 2001 (03:54)", "body": "The \ufffdO\ufffd in \ufffdGEO\ufffd is transparent. I have put green background but blue or red backgrounds are not adaptable. From the other hand without background is enough empty. I would like your opinion. John"}, {"response": 102, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Dec  4, 2001 (04:22)", "body": "Why topic 14 does not keep to command of the \"Activity within last week\"? Today Humans, cannot wait to load so many responses for the past. Informations for the past are bootless almost to all. John"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  4, 2001 (14:19)", "body": "I will check the maps in 14. I was unaware of any of them not working. I delete those whose servers have taken them off-line. I would be delighted to talk to your about how to accomplish what you suggest for Geo 14 when next you are able to IM, John. Is anyone else having difficulties loading the weather maps of choice?"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  4, 2001 (18:46)", "body": "*T E S T* I was unable to post here. I wonder if it has anything to do with my new graphics. Actually, I could not post anywhere in Spring an hour ago!"}, {"response": 105, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec  4, 2001 (19:44)", "body": "i like the new graphics--esp. the christmas ones! *woohoo* marcia's getting us in the spirit. john, i have trouble with that option too. (clicking on \"activity within the last seven days)"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  4, 2001 (20:18)", "body": "In regards to the activity -7 command, it works for me for Geo 14 http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/14/since/-7 However, it goes back to a spurious date of 2036 and response 5, which was a long time ago. I don't know if that odd date is the cause of this difficulty but that is where mine goes. Thanks John, for all your help. I hate bothering you when I know you are so busy and you have family and research ahead of Geo on your \"things to do\" list. The current festive look for Geo is thanks to John's overnight working (my night - his lunch) and the new and improved title graphics. I think we may have each holiday honored by Geo-graphics now that I am getting better at installing the graphics John finds for us. Hugs! (When you stop being so good to Geo, I'll stop hugging you in gratitude!)"}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  4, 2001 (20:50)", "body": "I finally caught up with the posts here. Good grief! Greece is absolutely cross-hatched with faults! I have never seen them at right angles before. I think my son would like to see this. He knows parallel faulting just as I do. If you allow, I will email this to him. Many thanks for posting the link. I could not have imagined! You are too generous in your praise for this hostess and programmer. I am struggling along trying to stay one page ahead of everyone else so they don't get bored and go away! I truly appreciate your help!!"}, {"response": 108, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Dec  7, 2001 (05:49)", "body": "I truly appreciate your work Marcia! Yes, you can inform your son about Greek faults. John"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  7, 2001 (15:35)", "body": "Thank you, John. I think the appreciation is mutual. I am in great admiration of your research and vast expertise. Whatever I seem to know a little, you understand completely. We work well together! Happy me! I will let you know what my son says about the faulting of Greece. I still wonder that you not a million little blocks of land in the sea. (Yes, I know there are many which are!"}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 14, 2001 (18:14)", "body": "New background and garland on title page thanks to John. I think the star is too big in comparison with earth, but considering what it repersents, perhaps it is just right. We definitely need that shape for the star. I wanted more of a snowy background until after the New Year but it is hard on the eyes to read when it is so bright. I rather like this papyrus-psrchment look. Hugs and thanks, John. I appreciate your help enormously."}, {"response": 111, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Dec 15, 2001 (05:33)", "body": "Hi all Thank you Marcia. We have very bad weather with rain, snow, and low temperatures. I will be back as they fix my telephone line. Regards John"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 15, 2001 (15:28)", "body": "Be safe, John! Somehow, I did not picture snow so close to the warm beautiful waters of the Aegean Sea. You will be having the white Christmas the rest of us are dreaming about."}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 15, 2001 (20:37)", "body": "I put a flashing star up which I like but it is too much with the spinning globe and swinging bells. This is the star: http://www.spring.net/marci/Public/Seasonal/ani-star-Yellow.gif It flashes to much. I like the gold star I had up before but it did not flash enough. It only it would pulate just a tiny bit... but I don't know how to do that. I tried... http://www.spring.net/marci/Public/Seasonal/gldstrsm.gif Suggestions?"}, {"response": 114, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 15, 2001 (22:51)", "body": "you got me, sweetie! but you're right, the blinking one would be too much!"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 15, 2001 (23:34)", "body": "I changed it back to the gold unblinking star. It got to be difficult to load after posting several times. Perhaps a kind and gentle and far too overworked programmer might be able to make this one change just slightly. Or I could try to place his little gold star here.... but I think it will not be as high as I want the star to be - like it is shining down on earth... I'll try."}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 15, 2001 (23:37)", "body": "It got difficult to load the page with the blinking star. It was labelled \"pulsar\" and so it is! Far too much for Geo's little front page."}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 11, 2002 (00:44)", "body": "Welcome back, John! We will try to entertain you while your broken leg mends. It will be a pleasure for me... *HUGS*"}, {"response": 118, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jan 11, 2002 (01:59)", "body": "Hi all, Thank you Marcia and Wolfie where you prayed for me. I am alive and safe. But I cannot move without pain and help. I will stay far of my work for a period greater than two months. Happily, I have my research to spend some of my time, and your warm company to reduce my pain. It was a bad unexplained moment. I was walking inside the factory (going to my office in the morning) on absolutely flat surface with about 5 cm snow. Maybe it was non-visible ice under the snow. I lapsed in the middle of a step. The next moment I was down with my left leg broken and out of joint at the astragal area. I can\ufffdt explain why this is happened to me. I was walking very carefully! I tend to believe the destiny! John"}, {"response": 119, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan 11, 2002 (21:29)", "body": "don't worry about it, i twisted my back walking home as a kid and it still acts up to this day (i had just stepped funny on some ice). glad to know you're alright (hurting but alright just the same) *HUGS*"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 11, 2002 (22:32)", "body": "Aloha John! Our hugs are a constant resource to draw on for your healing. Prayers, too! I slipped on \"black ice\" and slid under a moving car whe I was in college. The wheels had just passed me or I would have ben run over by them. It still scares me to think about it even this much later. I also know people who have had terrible falls on plain tiles like the have for floors in shopping malls and market places. The glaze is VERY slippery for some shoes. Then, there is destiny. That is the most slippery of all. I tend to believe that, also! For your entertainment, if you have the means of using telnet: If you are an old timer and know about ASCII, and if you have telnet capability, then try this for fun...Somebody worked very hard to do this: telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl From Bob Shannon-Pinpoint Since 1992 Pinpoint May be found by clicking: http://alert.bobshannon.org"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 11, 2002 (22:33)", "body": "*sigh* My typing is as bad as my headache. I think I am having sympathy pains for John. *Hugs*"}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 21, 2002 (22:16)", "body": "I want everyone to know that I do not edit anyone's posts! Weatherlawyer should know by now that editing is a convoluted thing to do - I can only delete and I have done so per his request in Geo 3. I have neither the desire nor the ability to edit someone else's text. It might have been nicer if the accusing party had contacted me about this privately before making comments such as he made. Too bad we had to tighten the security here, too. Thanks for hanging in here with me. I will pass the next new-comer by the regulars next time. I was entirely too trusting!"}, {"response": 123, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jan 21, 2002 (22:58)", "body": "Marci couldn't edit anyone's posts if she wanted too. No one can. It's not a feature of Yapp."}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 21, 2002 (23:00)", "body": "Thanks for saying that. Tis true!"}, {"response": 125, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan 21, 2002 (23:07)", "body": "no need to defend yourself with us marcia, we know you too well *HUGS*"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 21, 2002 (23:59)", "body": "*HUGS* Wolfie. There are folks as ready to leap to your rescue as they are to come to mine. You are very dear tome and thanks for reminding me. I guess it is the littlest child in the family syndrome which makes me explain so much. This time I KNOW it wasn't a guilty conscience. But for those lurking, I just wanted them to know that if they wish to post, whatever they wish to say is what will appear."}, {"response": 127, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 22, 2002 (21:34)", "body": "*HUGS*"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 23, 2002 (01:35)", "body": "I removed all of Michael2's posts per his request. I hope I got them all."}, {"response": 129, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 23, 2002 (22:05)", "body": "*sigh* got your email sweetie, don't worry about it! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 27, 2002 (10:57)", "body": "Unless he is more foolish than I thought, it is out of sight, out of mine. *HUG* Back Atcha"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 28, 2002 (12:32)", "body": "We're all familiar with Internet addresses that end in \"net\", \"com\", \"edu\", \"org.\" And now, a new Internet suffix, \"name\", has just gone live. Global Name Registry, the company operat- ing the new domain, said .name is the first Internet domain reserved for individuals rather than businesses. It became necessary to expand the number of Internet endings because of the exponential growth of cyberspace. When the Internet was invented, no one realized that so many users would be online. According to the Internet Association for Assigned Names and Numbers there are now some 32 million registered Internet addresses. The company said .name allows an individual to create a per- sonal Web address, www.firstname.lastname.name, as well as an e-mail address, firstname@lastname.name. The company has registered 60,000 domain names and e-mail accounts so far and said that in the future, consumers will be able to use their .name address as their mobile phone number and as a digital key for e-commerce transactions. Individuals will typically pay between $30 and $35 for a domain name and e-mail address. Last year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved seven new top-level domain names: .name, .biz, .info, .pro, .museum, .aero and .coop. Although it had been stalled by a lawsuit over its distribution practices, .biz was finally activated in November."}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (22:41)", "body": "I can get into ftp on Spring but it is entirely different now. I can find geo folder and marci and the old one of mine (marcia) but I cannot fpt to any of them. *sigh* Tomorrow I will ask Terry. Keep the faith, John, Terry'll get it straightened out so you can use space on the hard drive for your research again! I think you will be the means of his immortality as well as your own! Meanwhile, I have removed the background from the Olympic rings and am ready to post them on the title page. Then I decorate for Mardi Gras. Then for Valentine's Day.... then back to Olympics. *sigh* Everything happens at once!"}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 15, 2002 (14:34)", "body": "I guess none of that is needed. We are now into lent and we have celebrated Valentine's Day elsewhere. Trying to be patient... (as if I had a choice...)"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 15, 2002 (14:35)", "body": "Does anyone know why I cannot post in Drool?"}, {"response": 135, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb 15, 2002 (18:41)", "body": "nope! i've got to try to ftp and see if it works for me."}, {"response": 136, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (00:52)", "body": "Hi all Marcia, Geo's numbers are not changing. Even though I have nearly twice that many messages in Rob's GeoWorld, the counter has jammed on 12. The one that I set up my self is okay though. Wolfie, I had a cool idea. Have you got Yahoo Messenger, which both Marcia and I have or ICQ which I also have? I thought it would be cool to instant message you. If you do have them and are interested my number for ICQ is 131739692 and my Yahoo ID is robvolc1980. Rob"}, {"response": 137, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (12:54)", "body": "i have icq but am having trouble getting it back up on my system. i have MSN messenger but not yahoo. thanks for the contact info! (marcia, i don't even have ftp on this new thing--at least none that i can find and use)"}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (18:21)", "body": "Wolfie, you are in good company. I cannot ftp, I cannot telnet directly to Spring and it too Terry trying to convince him it did not work. We wait patiently... *SIGH* I have Rob's GeoWorld with 20 posts - the 20th being the one I entered on Saturday. I just did a *test* posting and it works for me - post 21. Is your browser messing you up? Hang on and I will try to get a hold of you on Yahoo IM"}, {"response": 139, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (03:49)", "body": "Hi all The original World Volcanism Group and World Seismicity Group do not exist any more because they had a name change - Global Volcanism and World Earthquakes are the new titles. However, the clubs have been converted to Groups. So what has happened is we now have \"worldseismicity\" and \"worldvolcanism\" groups. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Global_Volcanism http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_Earthquakes I will post the addresses for the converted clubs shortly. Rob"}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 17, 2002 (13:35)", "body": "The clubs and groups will not be cokmbined? I'm sorry for posting the GVP reports on the worng site."}, {"response": 141, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (01:50)", "body": "Hi all No combining of the club and Group. Yahoo insisted that in the case of clubs and groups, one change their name. I have done this to prevent Yahoo! from making me and as a result we have Global Volcanism and worldvolcanism in one pair, with World Earthquakes and worldseismicity making up the other. We might go on the following format. Say posting the discussion in the worldvolcanism and worldseismicity groups while keeping the technical stuff, like the updates and notices of gatherings etc in the Global Volcanism and World Earthquakes. Sound okay? Rob"}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 18, 2002 (18:52)", "body": "Yes, Rob, that sounds great. I'll post the Global Volcanism update on the GV group. Thanks. I wanted to check with you before I posted it. I am also going to split off the eru[tion comments from the data posts which tend to bury the much shorter personal notes. BTW, please tell us what is happening with all of those 5+ M earthquakes today! Did you feel any?"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 27, 2002 (17:43)", "body": "Wolfie, I can't seem to get any thing to take on my FTP attempts today. I wonder what the difficulty is, this time. I do have your orchid photos ready to FTP when I can manage to have it accept my uploads. I am doing it the way I always do and it has always worked... until now. *SIGH*"}, {"response": 144, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 27, 2002 (18:16)", "body": "well, i've got ws ftp on my system again but still can't get into access.spring.net. am trying to use my account at geocities/yahoo for the time being but am having trouble getting in there too!"}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 27, 2002 (18:52)", "body": "A Plague has descended on the Internet? I miss this and it means John will not be able to update his graphs. If it continues his work can be found at the following url: http://users.otenet.gr/~bm-ohexwb/invite/inviationGB.htm"}, {"response": 146, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (15:10)", "body": "From now on, you will be able to see easy my updated graphs in the Geo - Web Library. Simply click at the related link just underneath the title of Geo Conference. You will find also there, much information about the Earthquake Prediction Research and its results. John"}, {"response": 147, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (15:45)", "body": "Thanks John."}, {"response": 148, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Apr  1, 2002 (03:24)", "body": "I finished the first web site of Geo - Web Library. It contains also, the Updated World Signals and information for our prediction team. Please inform me if you have any difficulty to access it or if you found some errors in it. John"}, {"response": 149, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (15:09)", "body": "*HUGS* John. Your webpage and links on the front page of Geo is excellent. Even that wonderful gif file of you and your colleagues works perfectly. What a brilliant concept!"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (15:12)", "body": "Your accessment of yourself is far too modest. It is out of your innate modesty or some other reason. If you would let me write it... *smile*"}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (21:37)", "body": "I have finally succeeded in being able to ftp to /geo. So I made myself a file. I have no idea why the same password and username does not work on /marci. Terry, I'll email you .....!!! Has anyone see the newly acquired Greek treasure from Crete? The so-called \"Ring of Minos\" ??? I am busy hunting for it in every possible place I can find."}, {"response": 152, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (22:49)", "body": "Have you thought of creating a geo main page, an index.html file that links to all your stuff and forms a centering place? I'll look at /marci."}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (00:57)", "body": "That is John's kuleana - as we say in Hawaii (his specialty or field of command). He has spoken to me of this before, but it was still in the nebulous stage. Now that you mention it. perhaps I can impose on his time to create this for Geo. Where would we put this main page and index.html? I think it would be fantastic and much easier to navigate amongst the topics than the link below affords. http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/geo/all/"}, {"response": 154, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (11:16)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/geo/index.html"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (14:18)", "body": "That link does not work for me. Is it Netscape or me?"}, {"response": 156, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (18:12)", "body": "You have to make it work! You have to create a file called index.html with links to all your other stuff and put it in geo!"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (18:21)", "body": "Ok! Might you suggest one such page that has already been created so I have some idea of what it might look like? I only know the topic pages for conferences in Spring. Will it be like firth.com? A spearate entity?"}, {"response": 158, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (20:42)", "body": "You an be what you want to be, you can have links to all your subpages, an introduction with links to the conferences. Do you want me to rough something up for you?"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (21:00)", "body": "Please do rough something up so we have an idea of what is possible. Perhaps John already has visions of what he thinks it might be, but we would like your ideas as well. Thanks! I have created the folder as you suggested."}, {"response": 160, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr  7, 2002 (11:19)", "body": "I set up a sample point of departure for you, Marcia, at http://www.spring.net/geo I had to change some permissions to get it to connect with our Front Pagte navigation scheme, so we may have to tweak your ftp settings again."}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  7, 2002 (15:52)", "body": "Thanks, Terry. I also heard from John who is very excited to create something worthy of all that Geo encompasses. Unhappily his modem was rendered useless by lightning over the weekend and numerous power outages have made it impossible to be in contact with the world of Geo and the internet. Great graphics, Terry. Now I understand what this is all about. Many thanks. Last night I was totally unable to imagine this page. Today I am full of ideas. Thanks for your patience and great ideas! *Hugs* Ok, I will also download Front Page today. John also uses it and I know you have recommended it and have used it for Springs entry page. Tweak away - just let us know what we need to enter on the fpt program and we'll be in business."}, {"response": 162, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr  7, 2002 (18:51)", "body": "Try it now and see if you can get in."}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  7, 2002 (22:21)", "body": "I got in. I still cannot download to /marci"}, {"response": 164, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (09:37)", "body": "Try it again, make sure you log in as 'geo'."}, {"response": 165, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (09:38)", "body": "Y Be careful with Frontpage, it's easy to be in the wrong directory and over write other files. Co-ordinate your first session with me so I can do some backups ok?"}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (14:31)", "body": "OK Terry, thanks. I am emailing John your thoughts on this since he is the programmer with the brilliant ideas. I do the tweaking and refinement. As it stands now, he will create them as mock-ups and send them to me for comments. Nothing will be entered into Spring files until it is exactly the way we want it. He and I will also have back ups as much as possible. I have put the the title.html folder under geo/public. Is that where it belongs? Yes, I do login as geo. I'll give it another go. Thanks!"}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (14:32)", "body": "make that index.html ... I really did make it correctly... the only question at the moment is shall that be under geo/public?"}, {"response": 168, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (15:08)", "body": "It should be in /home/spring.net/geo/index.html I fixed your log in issues."}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (16:31)", "body": "Thanks - and I updated John's graphic signal chart for today. /home/spring.net/geo/index.html is where it is. Thank you!"}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (00:08)", "body": "Terry, John and I cannot FTP again. Is there something wrong or lightning strikes in Austin? Help!!! Please..."}, {"response": 171, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (05:35)", "body": "Probably Frontpage, I'll fix it."}, {"response": 172, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (05:36)", "body": "Fixed."}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (15:33)", "body": "Mahalo!!!"}, {"response": 174, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (15:54)", "body": "I thought I was in word association for a second there."}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (19:14)", "body": "*laugh* That happens!!! I'm glad I am not alone in this happy confusion."}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:56)", "body": "Terry and John, there appears to be problem when Julie tries to post. Even when I send her the correct commands (which I later successfully post) and look at \"view source\" using the right mouse button, there are all sorts of things that do not belong there. Why? I even had her paste back to me via email what she had tried to post and it was correct as I posted it successfully. I do not understand. Neither does Poor Julie!"}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:58)", "body": "The above difficulty is when Julie tries to post a graphic image of any sort."}, {"response": 178, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (22:13)", "body": "her web browser may automatically put stuff in there....hmmm..... marcia, do you think we should create a topic for archeaology so we can dedicate topics to the different areas of exploration? but that would make more work for you (and of course, i'm here to help as time allows). hmmm.....just a thought *HUGS*"}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 21, 2002 (00:02)", "body": "Sure. Different from Geo 17? Please feel free to do so. I love new ideas and exploring new topics. When and if I get Don in here he will have a topic on American archaeology and what field archaeology is REALLY all about."}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 26, 2002 (01:16)", "body": "Terry, I just discovered http://www.walhus.com/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/geo/all How lovely!"}, {"response": 181, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (11:10)", "body": "Hi All, From now on you can see also your sky in our Geo Portal. -Click on Weather, Time & SKY Reports For GEO-Friends -See your time and temperature of your place together with these of the rest Friends in Geo, directly. -Click on your name and see your weather parameters and forecast for the next days. -Click on the icon that shows time/temp. on the left of your name and see the sky upwards of your head for the same moment. I will be happy to answer on any question that you maybe have. Happy sky explorations! John"}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (16:45)", "body": "John! This is brilliant. Not excuses for not kowing what is up there, now! Thanks you so much! I love the new format on the portal page, also. Just when I think you have made the most perfect page ever, you make improvements and I am even more delighted. That is quite an amazing horizontal bar. Is that also your creation or are you even more adept at borrowing the most appropriate graphics? Whatever the case, it is perfect!"}, {"response": 183, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (20:11)", "body": "waay cool!!"}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (20:26)", "body": "Yes, he is, isn't he? I wonder if he every dreamed his efforts would be considered \"waaay cool\" *;)"}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (00:08)", "body": "TERRY!!! Could you please link Screwed 174 to Geo conference. Mahalo plenty!"}, {"response": 186, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (03:17)", "body": "TERRY!!! Please HELP!!! Could you please check why is disappeared topic 17 from the usual lists (All and Activity within last week) of GEO? For those who interested on the archaeology topic please use the link: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/Geo/17/since/-7 John"}, {"response": 187, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (09:49)", "body": "I'll take a look."}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:11)", "body": "Thanks, Terry. Now that we have an archaeologist \"on staff\" it might be nice to see his topic and when/if anyone has posted!"}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (12:20)", "body": "Terry, John and all concerned with Geo: I searched the totality of Geo's topics. The following are missing: Geo 11 Atmospheric disturbances: Storms and their effects on Earth Geo 12 Bioregions (Terry created this one) Geo 15 Geosites for Kids (Very active posting) Geo 16 Diagnositics - how to identify what you have found Geo 17 Archaeology (VERY important topic!!! PLEASE RESTORE!!!) Geo 27 Geomagnetism Geo 30 Geothermal Activity Geo 38 The Great Work (created by Americ Azevedo and mostly idle) Geo 43 Formation of precious stones (I have stuff to post here from Sikander)) Geo 45 Earth Medicine (Folk medicine Don and I have much to post here!) Geo 52 Geochching (Terry's) Terry, please restore these to the topic lists!"}, {"response": 190, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (15:31)", "body": "I just entered a \"testing\" comment in all these topics, there not missing as far as I can see. There was a wierd date thing going on with them and this, (my posting) may have fixed that."}, {"response": 191, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (15:31)", "body": "-rw-r--r-- 1 cfadm nogroup 222816 Jul 18 15:30 _27 -rw-r--r-- 1 cfadm nogroup 59329 Jul 18 15:30 _30 -rw-r--r-- 1 cfadm nogroup 4051 Jul 18 15:30 _38 -rw-r--r-- 1 cfadm nogroup 6349 Jul 18 15:30 _43 -rw-r--r-- 1 cfadm nogroup 5156 Jul 18 15:30 _45 -rw-r--r-- 1 cfadm nogroup 3438 Jul 18 15:30 _52 -rw-r--r-- 1 cfadm nogroup 73869 Jul 18 15:31 _56"}, {"response": 192, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (22:30)", "body": "and space science news is doing that thing where once you read it, it still shows up as unread."}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (01:01)", "body": "Please check into 17. It is the only one still misiing, and I have a real archaeologist waiting to be active if anyone can see it."}, {"response": 194, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 11, 2002 (09:58)", "body": "Will you take time today to post something in the Spring's news topic about the meaning and significance of September 11th? It's topic 43 in news which was started a year ago today."}, {"response": 195, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 11, 2002 (16:26)", "body": "Will do! I had forgotten about that. I posted several things in Geo. I'll do the flag gif also if you'd like."}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 13, 2002 (20:31)", "body": "Until Terry restores John's graphics on the title page of Geo, I created a simple written title.I wish I could find the command to make it bigger than h1"}, {"response": 197, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct 14, 2002 (11:55)", "body": "I can see http://www.spring.net/geo/JohnVolos/Public it's publicly readable. Can you be more specific? Please let me know what you can't see."}, {"response": 198, "author": "visitor", "date": "Thu, Oct 17, 2002 (01:26)", "body": "Bigger than h1? try font size=\"7\" H1 Font Size 7"}, {"response": 199, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 18, 2002 (22:24)", "body": "KEWL!!!"}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (20:17)", "body": "Awright!!!! I will replace the cover graphics John created and perhaps change the globe just for something different. Thanks!"}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (20:22)", "body": "This is not visible"}, {"response": 202, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 2002 (19:07)", "body": "I found what I think is a very neat application. If you go to http://www.wimba.com/tools/vmail/showroom.php you can record a voice email and send it to anyone you like. Send one to me! (terry@spring.net) I'd love to hear from you using this tool so I could hear you. I've been reading your posts for so long and I often wonder what the voices behind all the words are like! Tell me how your holidays are going and what you'd like to see more of on the Spring, I'll listen!"}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (20:51)", "body": "Hmmm. Will try. Eudora also has a voice mail capability!"}, {"response": 204, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (21:48)", "body": "Try it, it's very cool. Wimba."}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (23:24)", "body": "I was unsuccessful in getting the url to open. Maybe it was during the router failure and modem reboot on the LAN here. I'll try again."}, {"response": 206, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (08:36)", "body": "It will most likely work, eventually. You go to http://www.wimba.com . Then click at the top bar on \"demos\". Then pick voice mail or voice boards."}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (20:46)", "body": "Terry, are you playing with the Spring again? I went to check who was new amongst my login memebers and it came out all strung together like a paragraph instead of a list. My buttons are also reluctant to appear, too. Hmmm..."}, {"response": 208, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (18:53)", "body": "I haven't done anything with the login members. I haven't done anything with the buttons either. Email me the specifics, ok?"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (19:19)", "body": "It repaired itself. I wonder if it was due to the drain on the LAN at this end. All is back in order. The thing that puzzles me is that John's files are not visible on the internet so I have a make-shift title on my front page. Any idea how to fix that?"}, {"response": 210, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 2002 (00:57)", "body": "Hi Marcia and Terry Do not worry Marcia. I have a copy of these files. I can post them in a visible place. Have a good flying today John"}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (23:28)", "body": "John, I also have copies of the files. Please feel free (when you have time) to reinstall them on Geo's frontpage."}, {"response": 212, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 2003 (07:33)", "body": "I have accounts set up for julie, tsarsvol, marci and wolf. Will y'all please email me terry@spring.net or call me 512 699 4000 and I'll pass the information to you. Being an author here just got trickier so I created a topic in web and unix conferences to help you with the transition."}, {"response": 213, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 2003 (07:41)", "body": "It is my fondest hope that we can get all the authros and admnistrators here like Wolf, Marci, Ann H, Karen R, John T, Julie out of the twilight zone. It is is taking me a while to figure out how the new admin scheme works but it is starting to gel."}, {"response": 214, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 2003 (16:34)", "body": "Good luck, Terry. I thought I had changed the bars and decorations back to the usual way and now I find that nothing has changed. Back I into the config and rc files to see what I did wrong"}, {"response": 215, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 2003 (16:49)", "body": "Terry, HELP!!! I am forbidden access to my files now."}, {"response": 216, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (15:45)", "body": "Terry, I can't access these links: http://www.spring.net/geo/Conference/Public/ http://www.spring.net/marci/Public/ maybe I need to reread your letter to me telling mr where you put me."}, {"response": 217, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jan  8, 2003 (14:05)", "body": "That's becasue we're not allowing directory browsing anymore. Put an index.html file in these directories and you'll see it!"}, {"response": 218, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  8, 2003 (14:41)", "body": "Sigh... is that another file? Before or after public?"}, {"response": 219, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jan  8, 2003 (18:44)", "body": "Before public."}, {"response": 220, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  9, 2003 (18:54)", "body": "OK thanks. As soon as I get on the laptop again I'll do it."}, {"response": 221, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 14, 2003 (13:28)", "body": "Oh Terry, I amso messed up. I cannot even get into the spring with my ftp now. What do I have to do now?"}, {"response": 222, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 2003 (06:54)", "body": "We'll ifgure this out today via email or online, if you're logged in. Do you have SecureCRT?"}, {"response": 223, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 2003 (13:56)", "body": "Probably not. How does one secure on's CRT? Ahm I see it is downloadable. Which one do you suggest I install?"}, {"response": 224, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jan 20, 2003 (09:26)", "body": "SecureCRT that is thename of the program."}, {"response": 225, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 21, 2003 (22:13)", "body": "ok I'll buy it and install it. Terry, why can't I scribble my own posts on Geo?"}, {"response": 226, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 21, 2003 (22:18)", "body": "will all hosts be required to pay $99 for this? Oh Terry, are we that vulnerable? Most can't afford to do that."}, {"response": 227, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 23, 2003 (11:11)", "body": "There's a free version. I'll look it up and post it."}, {"response": 228, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Feb 12, 2003 (04:07)", "body": "Geo Chat Room! Best check in times: 10 am and 4 pm Hawaii 12 am and 6 pm PST 2 pm and 8 pm CST 3 pm and 9 pm EST http://www.spring.net/geo/chat And the page even has it's own clock!"}, {"response": 229, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Feb 12, 2003 (12:25)", "body": "I see all the geo buttons are happy! I had to consult with Kaylene about some problems we've been having with buttons showing up. It turns out we were in \"debug\" mode. Don't ask me why, how, etc. because I'd have to strain too much for the answer. When I get in a real geeky mood, I'll write up a problem and fix report if it should recur. What's new? Blogs for folks (weblogs)! New web based email, you have it and don't even know it! And of course the chat room. How does that schedule work for you, Marci? You, as host, of course can change the times or even decide you don't want it since you're running the show! I just thought I'd put it up on a tryout basis. If it works, I can do some more work on it."}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 23, 2003 (21:10)", "body": "Thanks, Terry. It is good to know and see that my buttons are back. I have been picking out THREE trojan horse viruses out of my computer and some programs are still not working. Thanks to AOL. Arrrrrrrgh!"}, {"response": 231, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Feb 24, 2003 (09:04)", "body": "No wonder you've been so scarce! Sounds like you ned to install a firewall like ZoneAlarm. http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp"}, {"response": 232, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 25, 2003 (22:45)", "body": "hi fellow geoites *HUGS* marcia, how are you doing? not too well battling those dreaded viruses. you don't have an antivirus program?"}, {"response": 233, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Feb 26, 2003 (01:52)", "body": "Marci, do you want geo to be a backtalk beta test site? Jan Wolter is helping us with our system now, which is an honor. What's on your wishlist? The firewall would stop worms before they got to you."}, {"response": 234, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  1, 2003 (19:32)", "body": "Sure make Geo a backtalk site. Just let me know what will be happening and what I have to do. I have installed Zone Alarm. I have it on my big PC, but did not think to do it on this laptop. (The big computer is packed for shipping... just in case I am needed in Louisville....) Wish list? In what way? If you have told us all about it,I need to go backand look at your post. I seem to remember one..."}, {"response": 235, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  1, 2003 (20:12)", "body": "I need to email you to find out how to get into Geo files with FTP. Unless it has changed, I cannot do it. I need to make that index.htm file for each one."}, {"response": 236, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar  2, 2003 (06:34)", "body": "Sure zip me ann email and you'll get a detailed response with how to instructions. Tell me exactly what user account and all the details of what you're trying to do so I can duplicate it."}, {"response": 237, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (10:32)", "body": "As soon as I can think clearly. I am taking new medications for stress induced high blood pressure and it is making me dizzy and makes reading and thinking even more difficult than my normal absent-mindedness. If I ever get hold of the guy who authorized windows to abandon W98 and make us use XP, I will tear his heart out. Does it have any redeeming value? I have not found it yet."}, {"response": 238, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 10, 2003 (17:53)", "body": "Get well soon, Marcia. I hate to think of you not being able to think clearly."}, {"response": 239, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 10, 2003 (20:11)", "body": "It is very frustrating. I have cut back my medications and am not monitoring my own health. Either I get a change of medications or change of doctor. Thanks for your concern! Email me. I keep getting my forwards to you back."}, {"response": 240, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar 30, 2003 (12:28)", "body": "Windows 2000 is the most stable os going right now. I use the Server and Professional Editions. Use Projfessional unless you really need Server."}, {"response": 241, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  1, 2003 (01:30)", "body": "I have to replace a computer and after working to set up Don's W XP it is a nightmare. Is W 2000 still available?"}, {"response": 242, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr  4, 2003 (18:08)", "body": "I'm pretty sure it is."}, {"response": 243, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  5, 2003 (21:04)", "body": "Thank goodness Windows 2000n is still available. Before you replace your W 98 computer wait till they fix the difficulties with Windows XP. It is miserable!!!"}, {"response": 244, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr  6, 2003 (10:25)", "body": "A dual boot Win 98SE and Windows 2000 system is a good solution if you want to be able to boot in to another os in case of a crash. It makes it easier to rebuild. I have a lot of systems running Win 98 and Win 2000 server."}, {"response": 245, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (18:26)", "body": "This laptop has W 98 Second Edition (SE)though I fear my big much traveledPC does not. How does one get a copy of older Windows? My SE was installed by my son from his CD. In my case, the hard drive broke and I had no Windows at all to install."}, {"response": 246, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (18:39)", "body": "If you're really serious about staying current with windows, join msdn. It's a few hundred a year but you get every single release of windows and every supporting toolkit."}, {"response": 247, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 19, 2003 (17:47)", "body": "I am waiting for the healing of the XP with a second edition of that one. It is a mess. I like - very much - how W 98 SE performs. I don't want their new updated stuff that works worse than the one it supplanted! Now, only XP and NT are available at my sources."}, {"response": 248, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:08)", "body": "It's kind of a mess, but you can run it in traditional windows mode if you don't like it's cutseyness."}, {"response": 249, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:42)", "body": "The archaeolgist has the professional XP on his new computer and it went blank on him already. It is very difficult to work. The personal one is better and I am learning so I can untangle what he might do in the future! I truly appreciate your input!"}, {"response": 250, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 21, 2003 (11:45)", "body": "I was trying to use XP as a router to distribute my satellite feed but it kept shutting down and crashing, now I have it on a stable Windows 2000 box. And I have my laptop back for mobile operations which I need it for!"}, {"response": 251, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 22, 2003 (22:26)", "body": "so far, knock on wood, XP personal works but not if you want to do websites and stuff. no ftp, no frontpage, no powerpoint or excel spreadsheets to speak of. am a bit lost with the two os's at once bit, won't they try to kill each other?"}, {"response": 252, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr 23, 2003 (10:07)", "body": "YOu can use ftp and frontpage with xp. And Office will run with Personal XP."}, {"response": 253, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 23, 2003 (11:39)", "body": "i realize that i can use ftp and frontpage but the programs aren't part of the package--they're separate (unless you have something different)."}, {"response": 254, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  2, 2003 (19:09)", "body": "I hate the fact that word documents from all other windows OS can work on any computer but the XP. Images are also difficult. Back to the design table, Mr Gates!"}, {"response": 255, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug  9, 2003 (23:12)", "body": "I need help picking which colored google ad is the most pleasing. Will you please help me out by visiting this page and clicking on the ad which has the color scheme that you find to be most pleasing? You would make my day and make me very, very happy if you would do this, please. http://www.spring.net/adsense Just click on the ad with the color scheme you find most pleasing and I'll announce the results based on my page stats. Thanks in advance for helping with this!"}, {"response": 256, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 12, 2003 (20:59)", "body": "With nothing to go on but the names, it is difficult. I'm with Wolfie on the Blue Whale! (Green taffy???? Ick...)"}, {"response": 257, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug 16, 2003 (11:12)", "body": "Fresh Mint is the clear winner. Contest over. But you can still click on the ads on Spring's main page. Every time you do we get at least 50 cents."}, {"response": 258, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  3, 2003 (22:00)", "body": "I'll do it! Green mint. Juleps, anyone?! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 57, "subject": "Man-made Stone - precious and utilitarian", "response_count": 40, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov  9, 2001 (18:28)", "body": "and those that nature did create but are so rare and costly that man decided to copy them. i own some CZ's and have some Diamonique on the way. the CZ's are very bright and i can tell a bit of difference between it and my real stone (but that could be because i know which is which). i'd like to see more alexandrite in an affordable range."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 10, 2001 (18:05)", "body": "I want those teal diamonds I saw..."}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Nov 10, 2001 (21:30)", "body": "teal diamonds? were they real? do you have a link? wanted to write QVC and ask about them picking up simulated alexandrites during their June birthmonth jewelry shows instead of pearls all the time."}, {"response": 4, "author": "chessmaster", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (13:03)", "body": "excuse my ignorance and sorry for butting in!!! but whats a teal diamond.I am an enviromental scientist(in the making)and I get to study rocks but never heard of this!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (16:49)", "body": "Oh Tim! I wish I could find a picture of colored diamonds. I saw the most amazing collection at the British Museum of Natural History on Cromwell Road in London. Brilliant reds, sapphire blues, emerald greens and every possible coloration you could imagine. Un furtunatly they are pretty tiny, even for a diamond. The teal blue diamonds looked like a tropical sea. They are often from Russian sources and bit less expensive than those DeBeers controls. This page has links to some rather interesting colored diamonds. Natural, of course! http://www.colored-diamonds.com/page7.htm"}, {"response": 6, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (19:34)", "body": "i'll have to check my gemstone book. i'll bet those stones are lovely!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (19:54)", "body": "Check the stones on the above website. The photos are not great, but they have a blue one I would like to have. Oh, yes... The Hope Diamond is a royal blue natural diamond!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (21:08)", "body": "found a pic of a green diamond but this book shows no blue one...hmmmmmm, it's listed as an \"other gems\" under the sometimes blue portion of my book. you know, i had the opportunity to see the hope diamond several years ago but was on limited time and the line was sooooo long."}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (21:11)", "body": "am gonna look in my other gem book.....ok, S&S's guide to gems and precious stones has a picture of a dresden green pear shaped diamond. the book also shows some copies of famous blue diamonds."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (22:13)", "body": "Ooooh yes!!! That Dresden green I think I posted in Geo 8 (Precious stones) Now, I would accept that instead of an emerald, any day!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Nov 18, 2001 (16:51)", "body": "Marcia, certainly you're not hard to please. The Dresden Green! What's an emerald when you can have the Dresden Green."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 20, 2001 (22:02)", "body": "Uh huh!!! I posted a picture of it in Geo 9 a while ago. It is stunning! I'd be happy just to look at it!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 21, 2001 (20:29)", "body": "k, my man-made diamonds earrings (set of 3) came in today and they are stunning. i'm amazed that they don't look like cut glass. (and they're a believable size if you know what i mean)"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 21, 2001 (21:13)", "body": "...man-made diamonds?? As in lab created? 100% pure carbon in crystalline form? What color and where did you find them? I'm hunting for those teal ones again. No, I don't need more rings. Yes, I want a colored diamond...*sigh But, you know me. I won't ever buy stuff for me."}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 21, 2001 (21:36)", "body": "oooooo, christmas is coming!! *wink* diamonique diamonds--lab created. i did wear some non-diamond non-manmade lookalikes to a jewelry store once and the jeweler commented on how pretty they were!! (do they really know their stuff?) the flyer that comes with the jewels says that these are of better quality than your typical CZ's plus, they are mounted in precious metals, unlike your typical CZ's as well. the matching pendants are on backorder (and they come with a chain--all in 14K)"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 21, 2001 (22:17)", "body": "Ohh yes!!! I have beautiful colored stones from when the old USSR broke up. I have better CZ stones unset than most diamonds you can buy, simply because they were confiscated to keep diamonds artificially high in price. Yup, Wolfie, I have one for you!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 21, 2001 (23:53)", "body": "Before you all judge my comments by what you have seen of CZs available commercially, do not be mistaken by what the diamond oligarchy wishes you to think about them. The Russians created absolutely perfect specimens which out-shine every diamond I have ever seen."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 22, 2001 (00:00)", "body": "Hmmmm then there is my laser ruby. I think I have gotten my last precious stone unless I get it for myself. I already have all I need. *sigh*"}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov 22, 2001 (21:09)", "body": "i used to be a fake stone snob but not anymore. especially not after all i've learned right here in geo and grabbing my gem books. real ones are excellent but good quality lab-created stones are wonderful too."}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 23, 2001 (00:19)", "body": "Nor I. Actually I saw some Diamonique today which was stunning. Good choice! You have got it exactly right. Keep it in the size range of the diamond you might have really been able to afford. Smart lady, our Wolfie!! I especially like the colored ones!!!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 23, 2001 (00:22)", "body": "I really don't WANT to fatten the gem trade cartel bank accounts. I'll take a pure lab created one every time. I agree with you entirely! They can even adjust the color without making them radioactive! We all win in this case. Tis the season for fantastic dreams. Let me know if you find anything new and wondrous. I've learned from you, too!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Nov 24, 2001 (10:30)", "body": "*blush*"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 24, 2001 (20:22)", "body": "*Hugs* That's what twins are for!"}, {"response": 24, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov 27, 2001 (18:53)", "body": "On your mentioning of cartels, I have read that diamonds are not as rare as some would have us think. The diamond cartel, De Beers, has done an extraordinary job of creating and maintaining that belief. It was also inferred that by their successful marketing of the diamond as the symbol of love, De Beers has also kept the prices of diamonds where they want them."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 27, 2001 (21:06)", "body": "Diamonds are not rare at all. The hoarding and rationing of them by DeBeers is what keeps the price high. They hand pick what diamonds 12 select jewelers may purchase each year. The jewelers have no choice in the matter if they want to keep their supply channels open. The rest of us wear the recut chips from the larger stones the BIG jewelers sell. But, that goes for other precious stones, as well. Cheap skilled labor makes India one of the largest sources of recut \"waste\" from large stone cutting. If I'm going to be beset by thieves who want my jewelry, I'd much rather give them a large lab creation than an expensive natural gemstone. Of course, I can say that because the probability of my owning a large natural gemstone is just about nil."}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 27, 2001 (21:14)", "body": "it's crazy what businesses will do to make money--christmas for instance, soon it's gonna be year-round!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 28, 2001 (14:39)", "body": "Oh yes!!! They will put away the Christmas ornaments and get out the Valentines...then, Mother's Day.. then Graduation. And so on. Wolfie, I have just figured out the best excuse to buy pretty things which sparkle. I do not have heirlooms but I have just gotten a daughter via marriage to my son. She NEEDS to have goodies to in herit. So does your daughter. What a great excuse! I'm back to tending the Angel Tree. I'll check out Zales, Penneys and Sears - they are my only options within range of my duties!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 28, 2001 (20:26)", "body": "our office is working on the angel tree too but not in the mall-we'll be bringing the paper angels back (i think). who do you think i use as an excuse to buy barbies? *laugh* marcia, did i email my new address to you?"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 28, 2001 (20:51)", "body": "Yup, I have your new address, thanks! (I'd have been plaguing you if I had not!) The angels are cute and I am probably incredibly foolish-looking sitting at the table in front of the tree surrounded by little tags and wearing my own halo. oh well. The cause is worthy. We're Twins again!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 30, 2001 (20:27)", "body": "we've always been! i think it would've been neat to have seen it!!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 30, 2001 (20:49)", "body": "Yup..... me too. There will be more!!!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 30, 2001 (20:52)", "body": "oh goody!!! *giggle*"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 30, 2001 (20:53)", "body": "With some reaally bad luck I may just have my picture taken in my halo for very personal distriburion, of course!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 30, 2001 (20:56)", "body": "of course!!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 21, 2001 (21:01)", "body": "A new contender for the \"ultimate\" diamond simulant - you are not buying meteoritic Moissanite or natural stones when you buy in most places. It is an expensive way to get crystalline Silicon Carbide. Moissanite's brilliance, hardness, weight and scratch resistance rival all other gemstones. This gemstone possesses all the romance and passion of rubies, emeralds and sapphires. Moissanite is found only in meteorites and in limited areas beneath the earth's surface. In the past year, the quality of Moissanite has gotten very consistent. We hand-pick only the finest stones and all of them are VS1-VVS Clarity and in the I-J Color range. (Round stones seem to be more consistant & generally appear whiter than fancy cuts) Since lab-created Moissanite has the closest physical properties to that of a diamond, it tests as a \"diamond\" on conventional diamond testers. Many jewelers cannot tell the difference from a diamond!!! from: http://www.moissanitejewelry.com/info.htm"}, {"response": 36, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 22, 2001 (17:17)", "body": "would one be able to fine this mineral in a volcanic region?"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 22, 2001 (18:05)", "body": "I've not seen mention of volcanoes in regards to formation of Silicon Carbonate, but I suspect it is the lack of Carbonate, and not the abundant silicon, which is lacking. I am curious about that. Certainly, meteorites are passed though enormous inensities of heat before we get to see them. Excellent question; I'll be right back with what I discover."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 22, 2001 (18:12)", "body": "Indeed, Wolfie, you are right! Alas, we have no kimberlite nor diamonds in Hawaii that I know of. I will search further! The significance of moissanite (SiC) in the mantle Moissanite occurs as a trace, but apparently widespread, mineral in kimberlites and related rocks. The problem posed by its occurrence is that moissanite is stable only under conditions much more reduced than are expected to exist anywhere in the upper mantle. Apparently its formation requires very special and localized conditions, possibly related to subduction of carbonaceous sedimentary materials. In an effort to understand more about the significance of moissanite and what it tells us about mantle processes, we are engaged in studies of moissanite from various localities. These studies involve documenting and characterizing the unusual mineral inclusion suite in moissanite and determining carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions. http://research.amnh.org/earthplan/research/ed_sic.html"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 22, 2001 (18:15)", "body": "Kimberlites Kimberlites are ultramafic igneous bodies that contain a variety of minerals and inclusions of other rocks. Kimberlites are particularly important economically speaking because they are the major source of natural diamonds. Mantle Xenoliths Mantle xenoliths are ultramafic rocks that are found in the crust of the earth, but which were apparently formed within the earth's mantle. \"Xenolith\" actually means \"foreign rock\". Mantle xenoliths are found within some basalts and in kimberlites. http://research.amnh.org/earthplan/collects/rocks.html#kim I have several specimens of Mantle Xenoliths from Hawaii. Now, to find if they are anything but solid peridotite..."}, {"response": 40, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 22, 2001 (22:45)", "body": "almost sounds like this mineral is a close relative of diamonds, maybe one that didn't quite finish up or something. diamonds are the result of coal, heat, and pressure, right? i dunno, i think of those things belonging to volcanoes too! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 58, "subject": "Aerial photos", "response_count": 36, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  4, 2001 (14:15)", "body": "space.com is a great source of the latest NASA releases. I'll post them here from now on. I wish there were areial photos of the island of Hawaii. http://goes.higp.hawaii.edu/goes/index.shtml explains what you see plus Alaska and Eastern North America. http://goes.higp.hawaii.edu/goes/goes.shtml for the thumbnails of everything from Kilauea volcano to New Zealand's North Island. The photos are large so in interest of quick loading, I'll refrain from posting them. 3-D photo are next. They must be highly KB intensive."}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec  4, 2001 (20:26)", "body": "There are, my dear! Just go to http://www.mapquest.com and put in an address and then select aerial photo. It's like magic. And you can copy and paste them at will. That's how I got that aerial photo I posted a while back of the area around the Southern tip of Hawaii, near Honolulu, the one of Diamond Head Park."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec  4, 2001 (20:56)", "body": "I know..... but not for our island. not for Hilo or my house! We did find yours but not mine. I guess we are too inconsequential to waste satellite time to record. I'll keep looking. (Yes, I about mapquest. I even have a login there!)"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 11, 2001 (22:13)", "body": "[1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * Envisat: Ground Control Expects a Wealth of Data * A World First : Data Transmission Between European Satellites Using Laser Light * Silent Sensors Lie in Wait for Bin Laden * Project Echelon: Orbiting Big Brother? * Russia Could Launch 30 Small Satellites by 2006 References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (18:00)", "body": "A great page of aerial photographs of Hilo http://www.tsunami.org/images/aerial/index.html"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (20:05)", "body": "Is your place in these? Who's the pilot? What's the building with the Quonset Hut style roof? And what are the buildings around it? in nov07022s.jpg"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (20:08)", "body": "Ah yes, that rounded - roof building is the Hilo armory. In the decidely old part of town. I'll look for a picture which is more in the direction of my home. The armory is on the opposite side of Hilo from me and from Kilauea volcano."}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 12, 2001 (22:04)", "body": "What's all that other stuff?"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 31, 2001 (22:23)", "body": "This following URL was sent to me by a geolgist in the UK midlands. Thanks, Ian! http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011226.html read the text under the image. This is amazing stuff!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  4, 2002 (20:06)", "body": "[1]SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * Starshine, Too * First Satellite Images of Earth From QuickBird * TerraFly (Database) * Tiny Technology Powers Microsatellite on Educational Mission * Iridium Satellite Predicts Constellation Life Span to Extend Through Mid-2010 References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (12:21)", "body": "Olympics from Space Tickets may already be gone, but thanks to NASA there's still one way you can drop in on the opening and closing ceremonies for the Salt Lake City Olympics. By carefully fusing image data from NASA's Terra and Landsat spacecraft, as well as the commercial Ikonos satellite belonging to Space Imaging, the space agency brings you this remarkable view of the Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium as captured from space. The scene is also something of a celebration for the space agency; 2002 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the highly successful Landsat program. Located on the University of Utah campus, Rice-Eccles is the place for one of the world's biggest celebrations this year. Nearly 45,000 people will pack the stands there, while several billion people around the world will catch all or part of the festivities on television. more plus the ability to zoom in from space on the venues... http://olympics.gsfc.nasa.gov/"}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (13:37)", "body": "that is way cool!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (15:34)", "body": "You can either loop it or advance it frame by frame. It is totally amazing! No wonder they can read license plates!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (16:37)", "body": "but we have nothing strong enough to see the flag we put on the moon. funny thing!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "There us a slight distance problem. The moon is about 384,000 Km (238,613 miles) away. These satellites are nothing like that far. You don't wear glasses yet, do you? You'll better understand focal length when you do! I suspect this will be possible in the future. I am not sure what the technology is missing, but the expense will be very high. Priorities is what it is all about."}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (20:19)", "body": "oooh, didn't realize the distance!! thanks marcia *HUGS*"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (21:08)", "body": "*HUGS* I had to look it up (I had forgotten the exact distance.) The moon looks so close - especially when you look at the Hubble or the Space Station slipping across the sky so close to us but seemingly equally close to the moon. It took us 5 days to travel there. That is truly amazing!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (12:57)", "body": "Spectacular space photography of volcanoes from all over the earth http://southport.jpl.nasa.gov/volcanopic.html"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (22:34)", "body": "SATELLITES & REMOTE SENSING * Europe Pushes Ahead With New GPS System Dubbed Galileo References 1. http://www.sciquest.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/sci_level3.d2w/report?nav_banner=bio&resource=articles&gateway=S-satrem"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  6, 2002 (21:59)", "body": "NASA SATELLITE SEES SWATH OF TORNADO DESTRUCTION ------------------------------------------------ A powerful tornado touched down in southern Maryland and ripped through the town of La Plata, destroying most of the historic downtown recently. The twister was the strongest ever recorded to hit the state and perhaps the strongest ever recorded in the eastern U.S. The tornado's path can be seen clearly in this image acquired by NASA's EO-1 satellite. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0205/06tornado/ NEW ENVIRONMENTAL EYE ON EARTH LAUNCHED INTO SPACE -------------------------------------------------- Touted as a \"grand observatory\" to study planet Earth's water resources from space, NASA's Aqua satellite flew to its orbital perch Saturday atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket. http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/d291/"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 27, 2002 (02:05)", "body": "The first one is truly amazing! Los Angeles Faults http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10861 The Acropolis, Athens, Greece http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10860 NASA Studies High Springtime Ozone Levels Over Canada and the Arctic http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10859 Syrian Desert http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10857 Melting Snows of Kilimanjaro http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10856 Where on Earth...? MISR Mystery Image Quiz #12 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10855 Severe Weather Hits U.S. West Coast http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10854"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 29, 2003 (15:50)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (07/29/2003) ----------------------------------------------------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Wildfires in Glacier National Park and Alberta http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15363 Korean Demilitarized Zone http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15362 Salt Lake City, Utah http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15361 The Topography of France http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15360 Double Typhoons in the Western Pacific http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15359 Spectacular Bloom in the Barents Sea http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15358 Fires in the Northwest US http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15357 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - NASA Observations Confirm Expected Ozone Layer Recovery * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Helping Coral Reefs Survive Climate Change - Amphibians' Life Stages Influence Contaminant Transfer from Aquatic to Terrestrial Environments - Marine Scientists Now Cruising into Icy Arctic to Research Major Process Affecting Global Climate * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Top of Sky Is Receding - We May Be Pushing the Stratosphere Away - 'Potato' Earth's Deep Secrets - Weather the Sun? Scientists Ponder Sun's True Impact on Earth's Climate - Old Trees Poor Carbon Sponge? - As World Swelters, Some Rare Cool Spots - Drilling Through Ice In Search of History - Once Colorful, Hawaiian Coral Reefs Turning White - Rare Bears in Bind: Melting Ice and Chemical Contaminants Putting Kings of the Arctic at Risk - Decades of Devastation Ahead as Global Warming Melts the Alps * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: TOMS Aerosol Index data for April - May 2003 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/aerosol.toms.html Global Calcite data for April - June 2003 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/calcite.ocean.html Chlorophyll (SeaWiFS) data for August 2001 - May 2003 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/chlor.seawifs.html Global Chlorophyll data for April - June 2003 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/chloro.ocean.html Ozone data for May - June 2003 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/ozone.toms.html Snow Cover data for May 2003 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/snow.modis.html Sea Surface Temperature data for January - May 2003 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/sst.avhrr.html Global Sea Surface Temperature data for April - June 2003 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/sst.ocean.html UV Radiation Exposure data for May - June 2003 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/uv.toms.html"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (20:40)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (04 October 2005) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Cloud Formations off the West Coast of South America http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17053 Solar Eclipse over Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17052 Black Canyon National Park, Colorado http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17051 Dune Patterns, Namib Desert, Namibia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17050 Topanga Fire http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17049 Hurricane Damage: Sabine Pass, TX http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17048 Continued Sea Ice Decline in 2005 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17047 Microfossils http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17046 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Satellites Continue to See Decline in Arctic Sea Ice in 2005 * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Sun's Direct Role in Global Warming May Be Underestimated, Physicists Report - Climate Change More Rapid than Ever - Oxygen Increase Caused Mammals to Triumph, Researchers Say - Study Casts Doubt on 'Snowball Earth' Theory - CryoSat Ready to be Launched - Meteorites Offer Glimpse of the Early Earth - UNC Computer, Marine Scientists Collaborate to Predict Flow of Toxic Waters from Katrina - Climate Change Transforming Alaska's Landscape - Mapping the Risks of Hurricane Disasters * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Hurricane Otis Weakens into Tropical Storm - Typhoon Longwang Hits China after Lashing Taiwan - Heavy Rain Causes Flash Floods in Kansas - Deep-Sea Expedition Lead from Land - Forest Fires Flare Anew in Drought-hit Portugal - Hurricane Otis Sparks Flooding in Mexico - Experts: Future of Big Hurricanes Looms - Ground Shifted Beneath Levees - El Salvador Volcano Spits Rock, Hundreds Evacuated - Spain Grapples with Drought after Record Dry Spell - Hawaii Creates State Marine Refuge - Evacuated Return Home in Vietnam; Typhoon Toll Rises to 63 - Hundreds Flee Wildfire in Los Angeles Suburbs - Global Sea Levels Could Rise 30 Centimeters by 2100 - Study: Sun's Changes to Blame for Part of Global Warming - Southern China Aims To Announce Air Quality Data Daily - Oceans Becoming More Acidic: Scientists - Scientists Rush to Identify New Species in Melting Arctic - House Backs Changes in Endangered Species Act - Feds Drop Boreal Toad from Protected List - Researchers Say Increasing Oxygen Helped Mammals Grow and Spread - Scientists Capture Giant Squid in Photos - Gorillas Observed Using Simple Tools - Sea Shells' Beauty and Peril - NASA Satellites Show Arctic Sea Ice Melting Faster as Temperatures Climb - Climate Change Transforming Alaska's Landscape - Steps to Limit Global-Warming Gas - Forecasts Say Major Hurricane Likely in October - Geologists Report Quake Cluster in Idaho - Smallest Creatures in Ocean Hold Valuable Secrets - 'Milky Seas' Detected from Space - Flooding in Mexico, Central America Kills Three - Effect of Greenhouse Gases Increases 20 Percent Since 1990 - No One Can Say If Warming Caused Katrina, Rita - Gulf Currents that Turn Storms into Monsters - Rita May Worsen Red Tide in South Texas - Sea Turtles Get Post-Rita Send-Off in Keys - Caribbean Corals Hit by Warm, Storm-Spawning Seas - Ice Explorer Readies for Launch - Four Injured by Tornadoes Spawned by Rita * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/"}, {"response": 24, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (00:52)", "body": "giant squid, gorillas with simple tools, does it get any better?"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (14:53)", "body": "I love it. I was watching monkeys who had hauled large river rocks to a remote place where a large rock mass was exposed underfoot. They set nuts (carefully selected for ripeness) onto the substrate rock and flung the river boulders at the nuts till they were cracked open. It was the most amazing thing I ever saw !!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (15:47)", "body": "I saw that, too. They were capuchin monkeys in Brazil using rocks to open the nuts. As they were doing this some macaws were watching them, probably thinking, \"Boy, do you guys have to work hard to crack nuts.\""}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (16:14)", "body": "hahaha you probably are right. But we got hands and intellects whereas the Macaws got nutcrackers and feathers. I'll stick with what I got though I wondered what else they ate. There is an example of river mussels very high in protein being ignored by Native americans because the calories they got from eating them was far fewer than the ones expended in gathering and preparing them."}, {"response": 28, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (19:51)", "body": "reminds me of otters and using rocks to crack open mussels and other shellfish.... the AM was telling me about the gorillas. it didn't surprise me in the least!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  6, 2005 (17:29)", "body": "I thought of the otters too. Imagine having stomach muscles so strong you could crack abalones on them?! That impressed me."}, {"response": 30, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Oct  6, 2005 (19:39)", "body": "no joke! i can't even do a sit-up, hey, maybe that's where rock-hard abs came from!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (16:04)", "body": "YES!!! Thou art a clever Wolfie. Rock hard abs, indeed."}, {"response": 32, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (16:42)", "body": "LOL I would've never thought that sea otters had six-pack abs. Plus, they wear very stylish fur coats, too. I think that otter fur looks best on otters."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (18:54)", "body": "Oh indeed. Otter fur is made to fit precisely on otters! I always thought I'd like to come back as an otter if I had to return as an animal. I have never seen a sad otter !"}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (21:24)", "body": "me too!!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 11, 2005 (23:44)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (11 October 2005) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Fire Emergency in Acre, Brazil http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Acre/ NASA-funded ecologists studying the Amazon Rainforest use satellite data to help fight out-of-control fires in Acre, Brazil. -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Strong Earthquake in Northern Pakistan http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17060 Bhutan Himalayas http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17059 Fall Color Surrounds Montreal http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17058 North Antelope Rochelle Coal Mine, Wyoming http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17057 Golden Gate National Recreation Area http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17056 Chandeleur Islands http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17055 Santa Ana Volcano, El Salvador http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17054 Cloud Formations off the West Coast of South America http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17053 * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Longleaf Pine Disappearing in South Carolina, Expert Says - Tsunami Warning System to Be Installed - Vince Weakens to Tropical Storm - Northeast Torrential Rains Leave 10 Dead - Hurricane Vince Forms in Eastern Atlantic - Hope Fades in Guatemala as Hundreds Still Trapped in Mudslide - Experts: South Asia Is Hotbed for Quakes - Nearly 20,000 Dead in South Asian Quake - Satellite Said to Break Up in Flight - Scientists: Mt. Everest Only 29,017 Feet - 617 Killed in Central America Rain, Floods - Engineers: New Cause of New Orleans Flood - Amazon Area Threatened by Drought - Tropical Storm Stan Kills 278 in Central America, Mexico - Weather Officials Probe Katrina's Strength - Gulf Nature Park Awaits Gators' Return after Rita - Rain Hinders Wading Birds' Nesting Efforts - Indonesia to Create Tsunami Warning System - Tropical Storm Tammy Brings Some Flooding - Agency to Restore Flood Protection in Louisiana - NASA Scientists Confirm Toxic Seas during Earth's Evolution - Global Warming to Hit Migratory and Static Species - New Zealand Battles Invasion of Canadian Rock Snot, Korean Sea Squirts - Bad Air Days to Increase Out West as Planet Warms - Hurricanes Cause Peru Amazon Waters to Fall - Storms Turn Everyday Items to Toxic Trash - Forecasters: Another Hurricane Could Hit - Satellite to Keep an Eye on Coral Reefs - White Shark Travels Shocking Distance - Could Birds and Bats Help Rebuild Forests? - Arizona Officials to Track Mountain Lions - China Typhoon Death Toll Reaches 15 - Bedrock under Amazon River Sinks 3 Inches during Floods - $40 Billion Louisiana Protection Plan Sparks Debate - Thousands Gather to See Annular Eclipse - Climate to Increase British Flies - Sweat, Fire Help Bring U.S. Midwest Prairies Back"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 20, 2005 (22:51)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (18 October 2005) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * The Art of Science http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ISSArt/ Astronauts onbord the International Space Station photograph areas of interest on the Earth's surface. -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Provincetown Spit, Cape Cod, Massachusetts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17067 Flooding in Bangladesh http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17066 Lava Beds National Monument http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17065 Blue Marble: Next Generation http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17064 South Georgia Island http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17063 Dramatic Fire Season in Acre, Brazil http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17062 Landslide in Northern Pakistan http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17061 Strong Earthquake in Northern Pakistan http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17060 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - A Warmer World Might Not Be a Wetter One - Hurricane Charley Slices a Florida Island - It's Always Earth Science Week at NASA Goddard - A Heated 3-D Look into Hurricane Erin's Eye * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Warmer Seas, Wetter Air Make Harder Rains as Greenhouse Gases Build - Oil Spills and Climate Change Double the Mortality Rate of British Seabirds - Beneficial Effects of No-Till Farming Depend Upon Future Climate Change - Link between Tropical Warming and Greenhouse Gases Stronger than Ever, Say Scientists - Woods Hole Research Center Scientist Part of International Initiatives to Save the Great Apes - Tiny Bubbles a Storehouse of Knowledge - Climate Change Will Stress Stormwater Drainage Systems - The Tropics Play a More Active Role than Was Thought in Controlling the Earth's Climate - Researchers Analyze Liquid that Lies Beneath the Surface - Katrina Floodwaters Not as Toxic to Humans as Previously Thought, Study Says - Underlying Cause of Massive Pinyon Pine Die-Off Revealed - Sea-Level Expedition Gets Underway - Better Measurements Reveal Seasonal Changes in Sulfur - Air Quality in U.S. West Going South - Earth Sinks Three Inches under Weight of Flooded Amazon - A Space View on Giant Lightning * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Crews Start Work on Drenched Northeast U.S. - Cayman Islands Braces for Tropical Storm - Amazon Drought Emergency Widens - Study: December 26 Tsunami Had Two Sources - Planet Sees Warmest September on Record - Medflies Found in California Prompt Quarantine - Invasive Plant Found in Alaska - Eight Dolphins Seen in Lake Pontchartrain - Polar Express: Warming to Shift Storm Paths North - Odds Put on Next Great San Francisco Earthquake - Study: Quakes Trigger Quakes - World Temperatures Keep Rising with a Hot 2005 - Alaskan Volcanoes Show Signs of Unrest - Red Tide Still a Problem in Florida Panhandle - A-Bomb System Can Warn of Tsunami - U.S. Forecasts Warmer-than-Normal Winter - Logging Does Not Raise Flood Risk - Heavy Rain Hits Britain, Disrupts Key Rail Line - San Diego May Soon See California Condors - Aspen Tree Population Suffers in Northern Arizona - Scientists Find Gases from Earth's Mantle - Deal Protects Part of World's Oldest Reef - Past Climate Change Supports Current Global Warming - Global Warming Could Overwhelm Storm Drains - Hurricane Charley Slices a Florida Island - Death Toll from Tropical Storm Stan, Mudslides Tops 2,000 - Spain Gets First Tropical Storm: Vince - Hurricanes Bring No Increase in West Nile Cases - Katrina May Affect New Orleans' Wildlife - Brazil Declares Amazon River a Disaster - High Temperatures Killed Pinyon Trees * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 59, "subject": "media coverage of geo", "response_count": 17, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 10, 2002 (20:09)", "body": "Of course, not all the selections from this \"Earth & Sky\" recording session have such malevolent undertones. Block and Byrd go on to evoke images of meteor showers, Antarctic melt ponds and other fauna and natural phenomena. They explicate the plight of the Pantanal, a vast, threatened wetland in South America. They explain the threat of something called schistosomiasis, a water-borne parasitic disease that, as it turns out, is as nasty as it sounds. Stepping around occasional flubs and last-minute script revisions and clarifications (\"Does anybody know if 'jaguar' is plural?\"), Block and Byrd spend the morning exploring jungles and galaxies, turning over rocks and revealing what they find to a small group of co-producers and visitors assembled outside the sound-booth glass."}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 10, 2002 (20:10)", "body": "The above from http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/thursday/life_entertainment_1.html more... Joel Block and Deborah Byrd know a thing or two about alien frogs, and they want to fill you in. Their faces are obscured by oversized microphones in a small studio just east of downtown Austin, and in buttery, radio-friendly voices they explain why some Hawaiians attempt to counteract coqui (Puerto Rican tree frogs) infestations by giving the tiny amphibians heart attacks. Seriously."}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 10, 2002 (20:11)", "body": "And there's more . . . Their eventual audience, however, is anything but small. \"Earth & Sky,\" the 90-second science radio program heard locally on KUT at 11:04 a.m. and 8:04 p.m. Monday through Friday, reaches 3.6 million listeners each week via the 690 stations that broadcast it domestically. The program also is carried daily by more than 200 short-wave transmitters as well as Voice of America, Radio for Peace International, American Forces Radio and other international outlets. This means the little Austin-based show, with a permanent staff of eight, is heard in nearly every corner of the planet it explores."}, {"response": 4, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan 10, 2002 (21:28)", "body": "that's great!!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 11, 2002 (00:40)", "body": "More power to them. There is a lot of world out there and this is a perfect place for such things as the following enticements. Altruistic punishment in humans E FEHR & S G\ufffdCHTER http://www.nature.com/nlink/v415/n6868/abs/415137a_fs.html"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 11, 2002 (00:40)", "body": "Do electric appliances and vehicles make miscarriages more likely? http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991769 Mad mutton could be as big a threat as mad cows http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991772 A \"sound\" approach to vasectomies http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991767 Bugs could travel to Earth in comfort aboard Martian meteorites http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991771 Replacing a car's accelerator and brake with one pedal may save lives http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991770 The world's first belly button lint (BBL) survey http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opfeedback.jsp?id=ns232599#27 \"Biological bandages\" could save an arm and a leg http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991768 AND FINALLY... It's not love or affection. It's not even blatant self-interest that binds human societies together. It's anger. This week's New Scientist makes an unsettling discovery... http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991766"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 13, 2002 (00:58)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory ----------------------------------------------------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Smog Obscures Chinese Coast http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=6777 Dust Storm Hits Canary Islands http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=6775 Snow Storm Blankets Southeastern U.S. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=6774 Lake Sarez, Tajikistan http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=6773 Viedma Glacier and Mt. Fitzroy, Argentina http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=6772 Characteristics of Vegetation in Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=6771 * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Primodial Air May Have Been 'Breathable' - Ancient Supernova May Have Triggered Eco-Catastrophe - Professor Develops Classification System for Eastern and Central U.S. Winter Storms * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: TOMS Aerosol Index data for October - November 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/aerosol.toms.html Ozone data for October - November 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/ozone.toms.html Precipitation data for August 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/rainfall.gpcp.html UV Radiation Exposure data for October - November 2001 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/uv.toms.html - Earth Observatory Announcements http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 16, 2002 (23:32)", "body": "IVF is now the fastest way to get pregnant http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991799 Foot and mouth could return as farmers restock http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991796 Burnt, drowned, hacked to bits? The virtual stunt artist always bounces back http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991798 There's no need to spend a fortune to find gravity waves http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991797 Exploding silicon chips get the better of mobile phone thieves http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991795 What's it like to be a top scientist in a country without a science policy? http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns23265 AND FINALLY... Who's afraid of Anne Robinson? With the help of some of the world's leading mathematicians, this week's New Scientist reveals the best way to win on the hit TV quiz show \"The Weakest Link\"... http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991800"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 22, 2002 (01:19)", "body": "The wonders of the Internet were again demonstrated to me this evening. I was talking with John when he announced to me that the anticipated Greece Earthquake had just occurred - in the Crete area. he translated the news broadcast he was receiving because there had not been time to put it on the internet. I am still waiting for it to appear on the NEIC list."}, {"response": 10, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Tue, Jan 22, 2002 (01:36)", "body": "Have there been any earthquakes in the Congo since the eruption. I know they sometimes occur together."}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 22, 2002 (21:36)", "body": "good question! i was checking a world-wide geological site and didn't even think to check africa--went straight to greece instead. you're right marcia, these are the ones we were waiting for!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jan 24, 2002 (22:25)", "body": "I heard in Greek TV that they had strong earthquakes in Congo since the eruption, Lucille. But these EQ\ufffds was from the eruption and not from the conflict of plate tectonics. Earth is refreshing its cuticle by volcano activity. From the other hand, earthquakes and volcano eruptions are the two faces of the same coin because they are results of the same fact, which is the continual movement of the Earth\ufffds crust. You read very well my updated graphs Wolfie. You have right. We had a big but gentle earthquake in Greece without damages. I have no words to thanks Marcia for her help. She has right too. I found in Geo a very good family.*Hugs* John"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 27, 2002 (00:26)", "body": "GEOLOGISTS FIND MOTION ACROSS DISAPPEARING PLATE BOUNDARY HOUSTON, March 3, 1999 -- For three decades, geologists have been mystified by one of the world's largest disappearing acts: How could the boundary between two immense continental plates be geologically detectable for a long stretch, then vanish from scientific view? The two plates in question border one another all the way from Arabia to the Antarctic plate. For years, scientists had been able to locate the northern portion of their boundary along the mountainous and earthquake-prone East African Rift Valley, but they could find no evidence of the plate boundary to the south of the valley. This 1,300-mile-long mystery has finally been solved. For the first time, geologists have been able to locate and detect motion along the southern portion of the boundary between the west African (Nubian) plate and the east African (Somalian) plate, where they meet up with the Southwest Indian Ridge, the midocean system which marks the edge of the Antarctic plate. \"We have been able to determine where the plate boundary must be and how the plates are moving,\" says Rice University geologist Richard Gordon, who has been studying the region for 15 years. \"Using geophysical data from the Indian Ocean south and southeast of Africa, we estimated the motion of both African plates relative to Antarctica. By subtracting these two estimates, we were able to indirectly estimate the motion between the two African plates.\" Gordon, the W.M. Keck Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Rice, made the discovery with Dezhi Chu, a former postdoctoral researcher in geology at Rice and currently at Exxon Production Research Company in Houston. Gordon and Chu report their findings in the March 4 issue of the journal Nature, in a paper titled \"Evidence for motion between Nubia and Somalia along the Southwest Indian Ridge.\" Their findings help geologists understand how the East African rift fits in with plate tectonics. It will also allow improvements in the global models that help accurately predict the motion between India and Eurasia where they collide and raise the Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas. For years, geologists have realized that the secret to solving the mystery was to identify movement caused by the interaction between the two plates. In many instances, it's easy to pick up such movement. It can be on a dramatically seismic scale: continental plates are subject to some of nature's most powerful forces, capable of creating mountains, earthquakes and volcanoes. South of the Rift Valley, however, geologists had no such helpful clues. Gordon and Chu were able to pick up slow movement of both African plates relative to Antarctica by using two types of observations made at sea. They looked for subtle variations in the strength of the magnetic field observed near the sea surface above the Southwest Indian Ridge by ships and airplanes. By comparisons to historical data, they were able to calculate how fast the African plates are moving away from Antarctica at different locations along the ridge. They also used sonar data collected by many different ships to estimate the direction of motion between Africa and Antarctica at numerous locations along the ridge. Gordon and Chu tested their data against two possible models of the region--how a single rigid plate is predicted to behave, and how two separate plates are predicted to behave. \"The Nubian plate near the Southwest Indian Ridge moves faster than what we would expect and clockwise of what we would expect if it was a part of the same rigid plate as the Somalian plate,\" Gordon says. \"Statistically, the motion we observed fits the model of two distinct plates much better than the model of a single, rigid plate.\" By analyzing and piecing together the data, they were able to construct a careful picture of where the boundary between the plates is located, where the plates are headed and how fast they are moving. The extremely slow motion Gordon and Chu found radiates from a pivot point located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of eastern South Africa. Just as with a pair of scissors, right around the pivot the motion is very small, and motion is greater at points farther away. North and northwest of the pivot point, the two plates are moving apart, where the East African rift is located. South and southeast of the point, the plates are moving toward each other. The place where the motion is the fastest, only about 6 millimeters a year, is in the northern end of the separating East African rift. To the southeast of the pivot point, the speed of the plates coming together is about 2 millimeters per year. In contrast, the separation rate across the world's slowest spreading mid-ocean ridge is about 12 millimeters per year, and the median spreading rate across all the world's ridges is 50 millimeters per year. Gordon and Chu believe the boundary between the Nubian and Somalian plates is very wide and diffused, rather than narrow and loca"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 27, 2002 (00:30)", "body": "Lucy, Believe John - he is the most remarkable man and honors us with his widsom. But, hang around here long enough and you will discover my adoration. I thought the quakes and volcanic activity were on teh Great Africal Rift, so I looked it up. Other than the above article, I also found a lot of fascinating sites to read. http://www.anzwers.org/free/geolor/East%20African%20Rift%20Valley.htm John, where are you?"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 15, 2002 (17:17)", "body": "New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Fiery Temperament http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/FieryTemperament/ Sufficient human pressure can transform tropical rainforest into savanna, and savanna into desert. Desertification now threatens more than a billion people worldwide, although its impacts are most severe in Africa. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Fire: Fires in Central America http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3640 Fire: Fires in Southeastern Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3638 Fire: Fires in Southeastern Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3638 Fire: Fires in Central and Southern Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3637 Unique Imagery: Whiting of Lake Erie http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3632 Dust and Smoke: Dust Storm over Libya http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3633 Fire: Fires Near Lake Baikal, Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3636 Fire: Fires in South Central Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3631 Fire: Fires in Central America http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3640 Storm: Tornado Hits La Plata, Maryland http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3630 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Thunderstorms over the Amazon http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9272 Vapor Trails http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9271 The Balkans http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9270 Paris in April http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9269 Dasht-e Kevir (Great Salt Desert, Iran) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9268 Blackjack Complex Fire, Georgia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9267 Smoke from Fires in Southern Mexico http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9266 Black Sea in Bloom http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9265 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - NASA Study Leads to Better Understanding of Ozone Depletion * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - In Midst of Drought, Scientists Hunt for Water Vapor * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Giant Iceberg Falls Into Ocean Near New Zealand - In the Midst of Drought, Scientists Hunt for Water Vapor - Experts Predict Weaker El Nino - Ocean Cores May Give Clues on Climate Change - El Nino Seen Hitting Southern Africa in Late 2002 - El Nino to Hit the Philippines in Late 2002 - Ozone Hole Causes Mixed Antarctic Message"}, {"response": 16, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Sep  3, 2002 (03:46)", "body": "Earth formed faster than thought: geologists MUENSTER, GERMANY - New calculations suggest the Earth made its final step to become a planet about 30 million years earlier than thought. To understand the birth of our solar system, scientists analyze meteorites for telltale clues of planetary formation, which they compare to planetary rocks. Specifically, scientists analyzed ratios of two radioactive elements, hafnium and tungsten, in meteorites. The meteorites from the large asteroid Vesta represent the age of the solar system, and were compared to rocks from Earth and Mars. Two independent teams of researchers at Harvard University and the University of Muenster in Germany concluded the Earth's metallic core formed about 30 million years after the birth of the solar system. Planetary scientists consider the time when the Earth's metallic core separated from its silicate-based mantle to be the last major event in the planet's formation. Geologist Thorsten Kleine of the University of Muenster led the German team. He said meteorites offer a baseline for determining the age of planetary bodies because they never formed a core. In 1995, another geologist estimated the Earth formed about 60 million years after the solar system's birth. His data may have included an error, and did not agree with computer models of the solar system formation. The two new dates match the models, and the fact that both groups reached the same results increases the weight of the findings. The results also push back the formation of the other planets and the moon. Attempts to estimate the age of the Earth and Mars are complicated by reprocessing in their cores, according to a commentary that accompanies the studies in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. Written by CBC News Online staff Source: CBC NEWS John"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (17:07)", "body": "I am very curious to watch how this new theory develops. It might determine what the paleogeology was before Pangea. How different was the world? This sounds fascinating! Thank you , John! You are wonderful! *HUGS* Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 6, "subject": "Plate Tectonics: The Physical Dynamics of The Crust", "response_count": 85, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (00:14)", "body": ""}, {"response": 2, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (08:28)", "body": "...And is this where we'll reshape the earth?;-) See topic #1 for details..."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (12:28)", "body": "This would be the place, indeed. I think for the basic shape, we should retain the sphere (no matter how oblate) so we spin fast enough to keep us from flying off into space. Other than that...feel free to move about."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (12:30)", "body": "Unless, that is, you want to reshape the entire place, which would mean moving the discussion to Orogeny and Diastrophism down the list."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 11, 1999 (16:36)", "body": "PLATE BOUNDARIES EARTHQUAKES (COMPARE TO MAP ABOVE)"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (09:47)", "body": "Just too fantastic, Marcia! Love these maps"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (12:03)", "body": "You have made my day with your comments. Thanks! It is difficult to be inspired to post goodies I find without any input from readers. I really appreciate it!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (12:07)", "body": "What I find fantastic about these maps is I personally know the people who created them - they work at the Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory overlooking the main Caldera of Kilauea Volcano. What a splendid place to work!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (19:33)", "body": "nice graphics!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 1999 (19:46)", "body": "Thanks!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:07)", "body": "Marcia, the tectonic plates map is just what I had asked you for, thank you!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:19)", "body": "It took me a while, but as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to post it for you!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 1999 (14:24)", "body": "big [] and :-)"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (22:42)", "body": "*happy smile*"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (22:05)", "body": "This map give some indication of the dynamics involved with crust subduction (as in Taiwan) where the Pacific Plate is being dragged under the Asian Plate: From http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/qed/19991020064658.HTML"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (22:08)", "body": "On the above map, the yellow line is the plate boundary. each little colored circle represents an earthquake. The deepest ones are on the left and the shallowest ones are on the right. People living there must have rubber dishes and drinking vessels rather than china and glassware!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (03:33)", "body": "And if I were them, I'd live in tents!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (13:31)", "body": "If I were them...I'd live somewhere else!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "patas", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (12:36)", "body": "Right! If possible..."}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  1, 2000 (16:03)", "body": "I know \"if wishes were horses, beggars would ride\"...but, I wish I could see my graphics...*sigh*"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb  7, 2000 (19:37)", "body": "The single best place on the Web for Plate Tectonics made easy to understand: http://earth.usc.edu/~stott/Catalina/platetectonics.html Here's how they think it happened: http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/historical.html"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb  7, 2000 (23:14)", "body": "The way it looks now"}, {"response": 23, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Tue, Feb  8, 2000 (09:47)", "body": "Great links! So it sounds like no one really knows what actually causes the plates to move? Does anyone know what causes \"hot spots\" like the one under Hawaii?"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  8, 2000 (12:03)", "body": "About the hot spot first...Nope! We are the only one still in evidence the way the earth is configured right now. There are all sorts of places which will tell you how it operates, but no one seems to know WHY it exists in the first place. There is a subtle current driven by convection and subduction which powers the plates around, but it is not that simple. Some are moving away from and toward others in patterns which do not reflect this simple dynamic. I shall keep up on the literature and let post it as soon as there is a better idea out there."}, {"response": 25, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Feb  8, 2000 (15:12)", "body": "I like this map. What's a hotspot? Or should I say the hotspot, since you say there's only Hawaii."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  8, 2000 (17:02)", "body": "Ah, The Hot Spot. Glad you asked. I wondered when this would come up, because there isn't a very good explanation of why we are here! http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/description_plate_tectonics.html Located in the middle of the Pacific Plate, the volcanoes of the Hawaiian Island chain are among the largest on Earth. The volcanoes stretch 2,500 kilometers across the north Pacific Ocean and become progressively older to the northwest. Formed initially above a relatively stationary \"hot spot\" in the Earth's interior, each volcano was rafted away from the hot spot as the Pacific Plate moves northwestward at about 9 centimeters per year. The island of Hawaii consists of the youngest volcanoes in the chain and is currently located over the hot spot. From: Tilling, Heliker, and Wright, 1987, Eruptions of Hawaiian Volcanoes: Past, Present, and Future: Department of the Interior/U.S.Geological Survey Publication I know these people and there are no better informed on the subject of Hawaiian volcanoes and the \"hot spot\" theories: The great majority of the world's earthquakes and active volcanoes occur near the boundaries of the Earth's shifting plates. Why then are the Hawaiian volcanoes located near the middle of the Pacific Plate, more than 2,000 miles from the nearest plate boundary? In 1963, J.Tuzo Wilson, a Canadian geophysicist, provided an ingenious explanation within the framework of plate tectonics by proposing the \"Hot Spot\" hypothesis. Wilson's hypothesis has come to be accepted widely, because it agrees well with much of the scientific data on the Pacific Ocean in general, and the Hawaiian Islands in particular. According to Wilson, the distinctive linear shape of the Hawaiian-Emperor Chain reflects the progressive movement of the Pacific Plate over a deep immobile hot spot. This hot spot partly melts the region just below the overriding Pacific Plate, producing small, isolated blobs of magma. Less dense than the surrounding solid rock, the magma rises buoyantly through structurally weak zones and ultimately erupts as lava onto the ocean floor to form volcanoes. Over a span of about 70 million years, the combined processes of magma formation, eruption, and continuous movement of the Pacific Plate over the stationary hot spot have left the trail of volcanoes across the ocean floor that we now call the Hawaiian-Emperor Chain. Scientists interpret the sharp bend in the chain, about 2,200 miles northwest of the Big Island, as indicating a change in the direction of plate motion that occurred about 43 million years ago, as suggested by the ages of the volcanoes bracketing the bend. Part of the Big Island, the southeasternmost and youngest island, presently overlies the hot spot and still taps the magma source to feed its two currently active volcanoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa. The active submarine volcano, Loihi, off the Big Island's south coast, may mark the beginning of the zone of magma formation at the southeastern edge of the hot spot. The other Hawaiian islands have moved northwestward beyond the hot spot, were successively cut off from the sustaining magma source, and are no longer volcanically active. The progressive northwesterly drift of the islands from their point of origin over the hot spot is well shown by the ages of the principal lava flows on the various Hawaiian Islands from northwest (oldest) to southeast (youngest), given in millions of years: Kauai, 5.6 to 3.8; Oahu, 3.4 to 2.2; Molokai, 1.8 to 1.3; Maui, 1.3 to 0.8; and Hawaii, less than 0.7 and still growing. Even on the Big Island alone, the relative ages of its five volcanoes are compatible with the hot-spot theory. Kohala, at the northwestern corner of the island, is the oldest, having ceased eruptive activity about 60,000 years ago. The second oldest is Mauna Kea, which last erupted about 3,000 years ago; next is Hualalai, which has had only one historic eruption (1800-1801), and lastly, both Mauna Loa and Kilauea have been vigorously and repeatedly active in historic times. Beacuase it is growing on the southeastern flank of Mauna Loa, Kilauea is believed to be younger than its huge neighbor. The size of the Hawaiian hot spot is not know precisely, but it presumably is large enough to encompass the currently active volcanoes of Mauna Loa, Kilauea, Loihi, and, possibly, also Hualalai and Haleakala. Some scientists have estimated the Hawaiian hot spot to be about 200 miles across, with much narrower vertical passageways that feed magma to the individual volcanoes."}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  8, 2000 (17:27)", "body": "For a general discussion and great graphics concerning Hot Spots, please see http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/hotspots.html The map below shows Hawaii is far from being the only hot spot on earth. Using the Hawaiian Islands as a model here is the dynamics of a hot spot:"}, {"response": 28, "author": "vibrown", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (13:09)", "body": "I am still amazed that the eruption I saw in 1988 is still going on today, and actually started in 1983! Which brings me to another question. How are \"episodes\" of an eruption defined?"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (13:20)", "body": "An epidsode of an eruption ends when magma ceases to feed the chambers and lava output stops. The oneset of another eruption is preceeded by harmonic tremors as seen in this map made just before the latest episode commenced."}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (13:24)", "body": "Do you remember the campground whose bathrooms were locked when we were down at Waha'ula where the lava was flowing? Nothing is left of it. In fact, David asked me to hurry down and photograph it before it all disappeared, which I did with some remarkable results and near near-prostration. I photographed and watched as the lava crept over the existing structures, beach, trees, grassy area and into the sea. Incredible experience!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "Are some of the older islands (extinct volcanoes) of the Hawaiian chain now submerged? Having eroded back into the Pacific?"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (17:17)", "body": "Some are merely atolls - rings of coral (the original rim of the caldera uponm which many generations of coral have grown)with water inside (Lagoon) and outside. Midway Island is one such, as are several others to the west of the main inhabited islands. Kure is the last island in the group considered an island though the Hawaiian ridge continues northwest from Kure and heads toward Japan. Actually, there are extinct volcanoes on most islands which fit the definition: The volcano has eroded down past the level of the original magma chamber. Cheryl, did you note the graphics I managed to find in the last two days since I got my place on Spring's new hard drive working?!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (17:27)", "body": "Graphics have been duly noted. They look great."}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (17:56)", "body": "I just found the greatest one of all but it is way too big (1,060 KB)to put here and it would slow down the loading significantly. But, go look at it. Very pretty globe, but they need to work on the rotation. http://www.muohio.edu/tectonics/ATglobe.GIF Thanks for looking at the graphics. I was being a bit snippy with an inside joke on my paleo lad assistant who insisted it was Laurelasia and not Laurasia. Oh well, guess you had to be there...! Check Geo2 where volcanoes are discussed first hand! I live on the world's most active one, actually!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (17:57)", "body": "( lab assistant...some day, Marcia...!)"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "Since I cannot put the one I love on Spring (and those of you looking into it, wait till it all loads before you make any judgments. It takes off wonderfully when fully loaded and is a really wonderful gif.)...I offer our globe as Pangaea"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (17:12)", "body": ""}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (17:21)", "body": ""}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (17:28)", "body": "Warren's Theory regarding the Juan de Fuca Plate: I'm gonna make like Casey and make a prediction. If you want to know when the big California quake, and its dropping off into the Pacific, will occur, watch the Juan de Fuca plate around Seattle. This little remnant of an older plate is caught between the Pacific plate and the North American plate. When this little one subsides enough under the Pacific plate, I think the San Andreas will let go. My point was simply that with the NA plate pushing west and the Pacific plate pushing south/southeast, the little Juan de Fuca plate seems to be sitting in between these two giants, almost in a linchpin position. My thought is that the \"Big One\" in California might just come when the Juan de Fuca plate finally lets go and slips quickly under the Pacific plate, allowing the North American plate to move in quickly to fill the void. And we all know how nature abhors a void. The dynamics of his Theory:"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 11, 2000 (17:29)", "body": "Whew! Only took me three tries because I had renamed the file and not refreshed my ftp list...and tried to post a non-existant file...*sigh*"}, {"response": 41, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (14:55)", "body": "Interesting theory on the effect the subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate will have on the San Andreas Fault. I am a bit familiar with one that suggests that California will breaking off from North America from roughly south to north. The evidence for this being the Gulf of California. The theory is that Baja California was once attached to the rest of Mexico, and that the Gulf of California is a rift splitting off a section of land, similar to the workings of the Great Rift in Africa."}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (15:22)", "body": "Indeed, both rifts are zones of expansion. Subduction makes all the fun, though. The cascades are fed by the molten rock pushed into them as the JdF plate dives under the NA plate. I should repost the Volcanic Islands graphic again. In this case the area on that island is being subducted on the western side and expanded on the eastern side. Each little round colored dot represents an earthquake caused by the expansion and subduction going on there."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (15:24)", "body": "Sorry about that...try again (if I could telnet I could see what I did wrong)"}, {"response": 44, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (15:27)", "body": "When California does seperate from North America, the effect might be something like Vancouver Island."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (15:30)", "body": "Yes, could very well be! Have you ever checked the islands in the San Francisco Bay? Some, like Alcatraz Island, are rock of a very different sort from the rest of the terrain. It came from far away and down deep! I'd like to read about this stuff, not experience it, thanks. It's gonna be some temblor!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (18:03)", "body": "A rather pretty - though not all that informative - map of the World's Plates: See also http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/geo/26.3 for the comparison of earthquake incidents and plate boundaries. It is not coincident."}, {"response": 47, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (17:29)", "body": "You're absolutely right, it's much better to read about massive geophysical events. RE: The remark about earthquake incidents and plate boundaries, the worst earthquake(s) in US History occurred in near New Madrid, MO in 1812-1813. The bed of the Mississippi River was moved several miles in that area, and that part of the river ran backwards (a whirlpool?) for a few days. I think what that means is the flow was temporarily from south to north. Fortunately, that area was not heavily settled then. The point is Missouri is nowhere near a continental plate boundary."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (17:36)", "body": "Yup! Thanks for bringing that up in here. It was discussed off-topic in Geo somewhere with KarenR...probably Geo 7...."}, {"response": 49, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (14:07)", "body": "Nothing much is happening here in Plate Tectonics, on this board I mean not the Earth. As I type this North America, upon which I sit, is headed west, mostly. Marcia, on your intro to this board you note that as one ocean grows another gets smaller. So it is. The Atlantic which at one is believed to have looked something like the Dead Sea, is now a large expanse of open water. The Meditteranean Sea was once an ocean, now it's a land locked sea. Lastly, the great ancient world girdling ocean Panthalassa is now the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The Pacific is still formidable, being the largest physical feature on the Earth, covering about 1/3 of the surface."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (14:41)", "body": "Good points, Cheryl...and I seem to be sitting out here on a comparatively miniscule bit of rock which has poked itself above the surface of the world's greatest ocean (actually, they are all one continuous, are they not?!) The spreading of the mid-Atlantic ridge is expanding that ocean, and the subduction of the Pacific plate is making this vast body of water smaller little by little. Hawaii is being dragged inexorably northwestward over that hotspot. One day we will be a suburb of Tokyo, but it won't be there when we arrive...!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (06:58)", "body": "Marcia, great discussion. I like the hotspot theory. And the map on post #27 is another for my collection. If you ever need it ;-)"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (10:08)", "body": "Thanks, Gi. The beautiful thing about the internet is just when it occurs to me that I need an illustration of whatever I am talking about, someone has just posted exactly what I needed."}, {"response": 53, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (10:17)", "body": "OT: The \"list of the most recent posts\" is working again! I am so excited. Thank you, Master Programmer! :-)"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (12:06)", "body": "*grin* The Magician has done masterful work this morning. We are all pretty again. I also like the lists of the recent posts though I got used to using my main hotlist."}, {"response": 55, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (22:03)", "body": "Oh, I admit I use it to see who's online when I am =)"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (22:12)", "body": "You do, as well?! *grin*"}, {"response": 57, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (16:36)", "body": "I sorry. I can't help myself. I have the urge to post a bad pun -- we love the Earth in spite of its faults. What would happen if the Earth's crust were of one solid piece; would volcanoes pop up all over the place?"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (17:08)", "body": "Since we are cooling down slowly, we could not keep from buckling. Imagine a rigid balloon (yeah...right!) or a basketball, even. Now let the air out. It no longer remains a sphere unless there are uniform wrinkles to take up the slack. That is why there is a zone of melting and refilling for volcanoes. Below that it solidifies and above that it solidifies. Clever, this earth, no?! Love your pun...*appreciative groans*"}, {"response": 59, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (12:21)", "body": "crust dynamics is my favourite topic :-)) Lithospheric flexure anyone? *grin*"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (12:39)", "body": "Hi Mike!! E Komo Mai...*grin* (Welcome in Hawaiian) Wow! Got a real fan of our plastic earth. Think of the problems we would have without flexure! Big time rending of the surface fabric...much better in little pieces and bit by bit than one gigantic stress buckling. Especially with the tides caused by the Sun and Moon not just on water, but also causing lithosphere bulging in their direction with great regularity. I am delighted out of all proportion to have you post here. Most honored, too. Thanks! Please return. And, if you find great plate graphics, please feel free to post them or let me know and I'll put them on my space at Spring and I'll post them (more permanent that way.) *Hugs*"}, {"response": 61, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (13:44)", "body": "Hi Marcia, Lithospheric flexure was my research title...lots of great pics and stuff like that. Also some fat math, just to make it look good :-) I'd read up on the hotspot theory before - smart guy that Wilson. You should look at the work of Tony Watts (Oxford University) http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~tony/watts/INDEX.HTM and there's also a more index-like page at http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~webmaint/Research/Tectonics.shtml Lots of Watts' pictures turned up in my dissertation :-)"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:08)", "body": "Cool, Mike! Great Name for your researcg title! I had no idea of what course of study your University tour was pertaining. How fortuitous.(Happy me... jumping up and down gently because we have had earthquake swarms lately and I do not want to cause a really big one - all 116 pounds of me...) It is way beyond the realm of propriety to ask you to your research in little bits of wisdom from time to time, but I hope you might help someone who graduated from college just before they began teaching Plate Tectonics as a given rather than a theory...and to help keep me on the straight and narrow as to my statements. If I am wrong, correct me, please!!! Off to check your lovely links...sigh! And, he is good looking, too?! Wow!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:19)", "body": ""}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:21)", "body": "Oh yes, about that fat math....that is why I am not a professional Geologist. My son can extrapolate and measure the volume of a magma chamber which is totally invisible. I have no idea how and my mind rebels at any attempt on my part to try to understand it. Bravo, Mike! You da Man!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:22)", "body": "I closed those teeny tags then scribbled them - better hit the softball field!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:45)", "body": "OK guys, go look at Mike's URLs and see some really great modelling concerning Lithospheric flexure. (Mike! Those guys are using your title!) Be happy it exists or Mauna Loa's weight would have punched through long ago!"}, {"response": 67, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:55)", "body": "Lithospheric flexure is actually a general term rather than something I can claim to have created :-) My research title of \"Numerical Modelling of Lithospheric Flexure at Hawaii\" was all mine though...doesn't quite roll of the tongue as well as the former, though *grin* LF is really fun...stick a big mountain on the planet to bend it and then work out how thick the crust is based on the bendiness :-))"}, {"response": 68, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:58)", "body": "Only you do not stick it, do you? You pull it, rather, I think ;-)"}, {"response": 69, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (14:59)", "body": "i think you push for mountains, actually..."}, {"response": 70, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (15:01)", "body": "I guess you're right :-)"}, {"response": 71, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (15:03)", "body": "i think you push for mountains, actually..."}, {"response": 72, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (15:03)", "body": "oops :-) re-posted"}, {"response": 73, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (15:04)", "body": "or, as with hawaii, you find a hot bit of the earth and run a plate across it, creating your very own chain of private islands"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (20:48)", "body": "Mike...When were you in Hawaii? You DO know that I live in Hilo on the slopes of Mauna Loa with Kilauea perking just 30 miles away, did you not? Wow! I am fascinated to know more about your research. My son David is also a Geologist...! Auwe! I did not know... No wonder I put you on my babes list with those Blond Brits which run rampant through my family *grin* Please make yourself at home and feel free to correct my (probably) inumerable errors."}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (23:51)", "body": "Wish William could join the conversation..."}, {"response": 76, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (14:36)", "body": "alas I've never made it to Hawaii...my work was purely theoretical. I did have a nice dream about flying over the chain once, though...almost as good as being there :-) I would post my diss. if I had a computer copy of it...unfortunately, Mr. Broken Hard Disk ate the only computerised copy...if I ever have the time/energy I'll put it all into the computer again. Several of the pictures I used you have above - cool! :-)"}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (15:13)", "body": "Pox on Broken Mr Hard Drive. Scan it in sometime when you have nothing more pracitcal to do - or better still, when it is published, may I have a reprint (or do they not do that anymore?! I've been to Britain from Hawaii 3 times. It is only s 20-hour flight over what looks exactly like the neatest 3-D topo globe ever. It is your turn to come over here to see how big Mauna Loa can grow before the thickness of the crust limits it - or does it? Or whatever...!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (15:31)", "body": "I don't think that the crust thickness can limit the size can it? Although I suppose the lithosphere underneath the main load can fracture...still I'm not sure this can cause a size limit. Maybe it can...I can't remember off the top of my head..."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2000 (16:17)", "body": "Since you can extrapolate how thick the crust must be to be able to withstand the pressure of mountains of known mass, is it possible to determine what would happen should the mountain mass become heavier than the flex and thickness of the crust can handle? Conversely, does the crust thicken beneath the mountain as it builds greater and greater mass? Has anyone studied this? Is there geological evidence of what happens when the mountain becomes too heavy for the crust and flex to handle? Just curious since I can see the top of Mauna Loa from my yard...!"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (22:58)", "body": "Mike, here's one for you! ****************************** Postdoc Position in Leeds ****************************** From: Jurgen Neuberg THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS SCHOOL OF EARTH SCIENCES RESEARCH FELLOW IN GEOPHYSICS This NERC-funded postdoctoral position is available immediately for a fixed period of three years. Research is primarily in volcano seismology and will involve numerical simulations of seismic wavefields in magmatic environments. Work will be centered on the analysis of seismic as well as other datasets from Montserrat and the development of computercodes to simulate the time-dependence of magma properties in order to compare the resulting seismic signature with Montserrat data. Applicants should have a PhD and research experience in some of the relevant areas of volcanology and seismology, and scientific programming in a Unix environment. Salary will be on the scale for Research Staff Grade 1A, within the range 15,735-17570 according to qualifications and relevant experience. Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Jurgen Neuberg by email locko@earth.leeds.ac.uk or to Dr Brian Baptie bbap@mail.nmh.ac.uk; tel +44 113 2336769 (J. Neuberg, from May 15) Application forms and further particulars may be obtained from Mr Bob Moorcroft, School of Earth Sciences, The University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT UK, tel +44 113 233 5254, fax +44 113 233 5259, e-mail: earrfm@earth.leeds.ac.uk. Closing date for applications 31 May 2000. The University of Leeds promotes an Equal Opportunities Policy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr Jurgen Neuberg School of Earth Scienecs The University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom Tel: office +44 113 233 6769 home +44 113 293 9392 Fax: +44 113 233 5259 E-mail: locko@earth.leeds.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 81, "author": "judgedred", "date": "Sat, Jun 24, 2000 (16:14)", "body": "Just found you. I am new to Geology, having started a college course last September, being 40, have missed a lot of years. Live in England but have a special interest in Washington State having a friend in Seattle. Hawaii is also on the favorites list having covered its volcanic activity in class. Great site, fabulous maps and discussions. Ian"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 24, 2000 (16:27)", "body": "Welcome and Aloha! Your name is on my Yahoo IM list...we must have spoken before. I am available most days Hawaii (which means you are having breakfast as I am having dinner - we are 11 hours behind you!) I have a friend who teaches at Central Washington and has a PhD in Geology. More volcanic Hawaiian stuff on Geo topic 2. I live about 30 miles from the ongoing eruption."}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 24, 2000 (16:34)", "body": "Thanks for the kind comments about Geo. It will be my memorial or whatever. I live in here and finding interesting things for it is a true labor of love. It is nice to have a more mature man amongst us. Happy Me!"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  6, 2000 (19:57)", "body": "Continents in Collision: Pangea Ultima NASA Science News for October 06, 2000 Creeping more slowly than a human fingernail grows, Earth's massive continents are nonetheless on the move. Geologists say that in 250 million years the Atlantic Ocean could be just a distant memory while Earthlings will be able to walk from North America to Africa. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast06oct_1.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (19:21)", "body": "Ian, this map's for you: http://nmnhwww.si.edu/gvp/volcano/ WORLD VOLCANISM AND PLATE BOUNDARIES - ONE AND THE SAME Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 64, "subject": "Rob's GeoWorld", "response_count": 209, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Feb  5, 2002 (19:54)", "body": "Hi all I owe Marcia a big hug and a kiss. She has outdone herself for which I am eternally grateful. Rob"}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb  5, 2002 (20:01)", "body": "Hear! Hear! k, Rob, let's hear all about your neck of the woods!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  5, 2002 (20:01)", "body": "It's about time. I wish I had suggested it earlier. Shall I post your Krakatoa paper or shall you? It is just one of the wondeful things Rob wrote which should be preserved for all time on the internet of knowledge. *HUGS* YOU are now world famous!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (21:01)", "body": "Hi all Okay I will give some geographical statistics about New Zealand for you. We are a nation of about 270,000 square kilometres in size. Our longest river is the Waikato 425km and the biggest (by volume of flow)is the Clutha - average is 650 cubic metres per second. Our highest mountain is Mount Cook and is 12,300 feet above sea level in the Mount Cook National Park. The highest volcano is Mount Ruapehu 9,175 feet with a lake in the crater. Our two largest lakes are Lake Taupo 616 square kilometres in size and Lake Te Anau 322 square kilometres in size. The former is in the Taupo volcano caldera and the latter is a large lake carved out by glaciers. If Marcia could post the NZ map in here I can use it to explain the layout of the country and so on as well as go over some of the more niggly things. Rob"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  6, 2002 (23:01)", "body": "Since I cannot ftp this map I will borrow it for Rob:"}, {"response": 6, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (02:47)", "body": "Hi all I am giving you this link to the flag of New Zealand as it should appear. This is not the same one that is flown sometimes with a red backdrop. That particular flag is The New Zealand Red Ensign. For the Flag of New Zealand go here: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/n/nz.gif And the defacto flag as seen at all big sports events and tipped by some to be the new New Zealand flag should the present one be replaced: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/n/nz!sfern.gif Rob"}, {"response": 7, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (04:40)", "body": "Hi all This is a full account of Robs trip down the West Coast of the South Island, January 26-February 1. NOTE: Every second paragraph will explain where on the map we went. Because most of the places we stayed at on the map are left out I need to indicate them. I left home with Mum on Saturday January 26 to go to Omarama on the first leg of a trip covering 2000km and 4 provinces of New Zealand - Canterbury, Otago, Southland and Westland. It was in cloudy conditions that we left home heading southwest. Stops were had at Geraldine in rural Canterbury, where gentle rolling hill country dominates, and at Tekapo, a town in the McKenzie Basin on the shores of Lake Tekapo. We drove past Ohau A powerstation where a fault is displacing the generator hall and offsetting the four generators. At Omarama we overnighted and the following day we continued on to Te Anau where we were scheduled to meet Dad and Craig, who were walking the Kepler Track in Fiordland National Park. On the map we left Christchurch heading southwest and turned inland near Ashburton (road not marked). We headed inland to Geraldine where the road going inland from Timaru and the one also going inland from south of Ashburton meet. Omarama is further inland at the intersection of the road heading southeast to Oamaru and the one going toward Queenstown. The second day's travelling was south to Queenstown, then around the shore of Lake Wakatipu and onto the road intersection northwest of Gore. You can see Te Anau on the shores of the big lake that actually goes by the same name. We met Dad and Craig and had dinner watching the New Zealanders confront South Africa in a cricket One Day International on television - cool. We lost that game by the way. The following day, Craig drove home to Christchurch and Mum, Dad and I set off for Wanaka (road to West Coast runs between Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea)where we would stay the night and stopped at Cardrona Hotel (originally founded in 1860s for a beer which quite surprisingly (middle of Otago)supplied Canterbury Draught. Even more surprising and hilarious was a fence line of bras with sign on a post behind the fence saying \"In support of Roys last stand\". The road from Wanaka to Haast goes between the two lakes and Haast is near the coast on the West Coast side of the Southern Alps. Northeast of Haast is Fox and Franz Josef and they are almost due north of Mount Cook (the road to Mount Cook is the near straight one going straight into the mountains and stopping abruptly). The Fault tour began in earnest on January 29, the day we crossed into Westland. Our first port of call was the Alpine Fault at Snapshot Creek near Haast where the road and the creek cross the fault in about the same place. It was not visible though and only shown on the geology map of the area that Dad brought with him. Further south in the Jacksons River valley the fault dominates the geology and controls the valley, meaning the fault is responsible for the physical layout. We drove to Franz Josef where we would spend two nights and the Motor Camp/is ON the fault. Although not visible on the surface, except from the air, I recalled the geology map of the area at University showing that a large fault ran STRAIGHT THROUGH THE MOTOR CAMP. The town of Franz Josef is in the most unenviable position possible sitting literally on top of the fault (runs through the service station forecourt), and across the river in the general vicinity of a nice old church on the banks of the Waiho River. On January 30 we took a flight over the glaciers and the township which showed a fault clearly crossing the foot of the Southern Alps in the vicinity of both Fox and Franz Josef. That night I took photographs of a couple places within the camping ground where I thought the fault ran. The following day we drove to Punakaiki on the coast and away from the faultline, into an area of marine geology where sedimentary rocks from under the sea were being raised. On February 1, while on the way home to Christchurch we drove to Inangahua, ground zero for a magnitude 7.0 event in 1968. A fault trace was clearly visible after the earthquake but 33 years of erosion and human activity had hidden any sign of it's existence. Further on we stopped one last time atop the Alpine Fault in a field near Springs Junction where a concrete slab wall had been built to monitor offset on the fault. Nothing has changed because the fault has a near vertical plane and the rocks under the surface are therefore locked in place. Only a big earthquake will unlock hem. Finally east of the Southern Alps we followed the Hope Fault down the Waiau River valley to the Hanmer Springs turn-off. All in all a great trip. Rob"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (16:46)", "body": "What a fabulous trip, Rob! Thanks for sharing it with us. Flying geology lessons seem to be the most memorable. Yours definitly was! When you can manage to scan some photos I'd be delighted to ftp them to Spring so you can post them! NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF GEOLOGICAL & NUCLEAR SCIENCES LTD. The following earthquake has been recorded by the Institute Reference number: 1844277/G Universal Time: 2002 February 10 0200 NZ Daylight Time: 2002 February 10 3.00 p.m. Latitude, Longitude: 38.87\ufffdS 175.63\ufffdE Location: 20 km north-west of Turangi Focal depth: 5 km Richter magnitude: 4.0 Likely to have been felt along the western shore of Lake Taupo."}, {"response": 9, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (12:28)", "body": "Very nice and interesting trip Rob. It reminds me similar explorations when I was younger. I wondered for what is under our foot and how it was formed. It reminds me also, the recent geological activity in the area of the Thessaly lowland. Suddenly on 1991, big faults became visible on the surface and they continue until today to southwest direction. They are included in a triangle with about 80 km per each side. They became also uplifts and down lifts inside the triangle. I go along the faults and I measure the radioactivity background when I can. It is very interesting to me even if I have not studied someone of the earth sciences. Greek geologists and seismologists says that this phenomenon is result of the over pumping water in this area. But I think that it is the extension of the Anatolian fault through central Greece to Ionian Sea fault. I emphasize the seismic quietness since 1953 in this area when we had a 7.2R EQ in the west border of the triangle. John"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (15:17)", "body": "Over punping of water does not cause such large deformations of the land, usually. In California there is both pumping and injecting of water into faults whihc result in series of small (very small) earthquakes from time to time. Never has there been such upthursting as you suggest in Thessaly. I wish there were more studies of Greece and her geology. The Anatolian fault stands to take many thousands of lives in the future as it has done in the past. I have not studied with my own eyes metamorphic rock faults. I went to college in Pennsylvania where a vast inland sea created limestone and dolomite deposits with abondant fossils. There is nothing there even close to a fault unless it is deep under the remnants of this inland sea. Then I came to Hawaii where igneous rock is the only kind we have (with occasional xenoliths of the mantle.) Our faults are so different as to be inapplicable to your marble and granite bedrock. I will look into it. Rob, what is the rock of which New Zealand is made? I know you have volcanoes. Are your faults so much more dangerous than ours just from the difference in composition of the magma involved? I suspect that is part of the difference!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (15:20)", "body": "(I'd repost that with spellcheck on another program, but my dyslexia is not new to anyone, and I think it is still understandable. If not, I will correct it and repost the comments. Please let me know!)"}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (17:58)", "body": "marcia, i always understand your posts!!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (18:35)", "body": "Rob, on another topic I'd asked Marcia about indigenous Hawaiian mammals. She noted that there were no mammals living in Hawaii until the arrival of people, who of course are mammals and they also brought other mammals with them. I then added that I'd read that there are no mammals native to New Zealand. There was once a giant flightless bird native to New Zealand called the moa, but it seems to have been hunted to extinction shortly after the arrival of the Maori. Marcia, suggested that I ask you about this at your own topic. Lastly, did the Maori bring small dogs and pigs with them, as well, when they settled what is now New Zealand?"}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (19:54)", "body": "maybe they hunted the bird to extinction because it was the only dinner in town. good question, cheryl."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (23:06)", "body": "Rob also has a ship beached on rocks near Gisbourne (spelling?) - and ecological disaster in the making. Where IS he?"}, {"response": 16, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (18:18)", "body": "Hi all No, I do not know why the Moa became extinct. Maori did bring dogs with them of Polynesian origin but these \"Kuri\" were extinct within a few years of European settlement, but no pigs arrived, because the Maori either did not bring them or they did not survive the trip. New Zealand, with the possible exemption of Northland would have been a lot cooler than what Maori settlers would have been used to and the new climate would have been alien to many animals they had brought over as well. Rabbits and European animals were introduced in the 1800s to help the English settlers feel a little closer to home since Canterbury and Otago would have been vast barren open areas and European plants were also introduced so that there would be some shelter from the wind. Northwesterlies used to blast across the Canterbury plains with such power that a freshly painted coach might leave Christchurch in perfect condition but having lost its entire coat of paint by the time it reached somewhere like say Darfield or Springfield. Nature was rough on the settlers in other ways too. The Waimakariri River, now partially tamed, used to invade Christchurch on a regular basis and flow down what is now Worcester Boulevard to the Avon River. Notable earthquakes in 1848, 1855 and 1888 ensured that Nelson, Wellington and Canterbury had a head start on earthquake preparedness. Nelson and Marlborough were rocked by a severe earthquake in 1848 of about magnitude 7.1-7.3 that damaged all buildings in the area and exposed the Awatere Fault. Seven years later, an even bigger earthquake rocked Wellington and measured 8.2. It demolished Wellington which fortunately was just a small town then, and seiches slopped backwards and forwards across the lakes, rivers and harbours for weeks. Some of the aftershocks approached 6.5. Rob"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (18:44)", "body": "New Zealanders must be a determined bunch! Wind strong enough to blast paint off of a carriage?! Floods of Biblical Proportions? Great Earthquakes?! I think Australia might have looked a whole lot better after all that. I can understand why so many of you have Scots surnames. I'll look around in my Polynesian books and see if I can find any information on extinctions or population additions to the native fauna."}, {"response": 18, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (18:47)", "body": "Interesting about the earthquakes in the mid-ninteenth century, Rob. You mentioned that the residents of Nelson, Wellington, and Canterbury all got a head start on earthquake preparedness. As Wellington was subjected to a massive earthquake in about 1855; has it resulted in present day building codes for the city being very stringent? Are they comparable to cities like Tokyo or San Francisco?"}, {"response": 19, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Feb 16, 2002 (01:37)", "body": "Hi all Indeed they are Cheryl. New Zealand has some of the toughest building standards in the Western world if not the world. So much so that some people who like historic buildings say it is used as an excuse to modernise the skyline. Well, the truth is a lot of effort goes into finding an owner for the buildings before the wreckers ball is called, but the cost of modernising some buildings is just too high. The only alternative would be to tear down the building and rebuild it in an 19th Century style, though the costs would be higher. We have invented a couple pieces of technology that improve the safety of buildings and bridges considerably. Giant piston like devices acting as shock absorbers are being installed under key bridges, buildings and other infrastructure in earthquake prone areas that can absorb most of the shaking a severe earthquake will generate. In addition thanks to a very graphic advert that was run in the 1980s and early 1990s about earthquakes, a fund for providing assistance after a bad eve t has been set up. But, my friends, one day maybe not in your lifetime but probably in mine, a severe earthquake WILL strike New Zealand. It will register somewhere in the vicinity of magnitude 7.5-8.3 and will be centred on one of the following faults: Wellington, Wairarapa, Alpine. In addition there are at least 4 faults in the South Island and several more in the North Island capable of producing a magnitude 7.0-7.4. They are: Hope, Kakapo, Ostler, Clarence, Awatere, Porters Pass, Ohariu. The chance of a bad earthquake hitting on any given day is quite low, but still existent nonetheless. It is the price we pay for such a beautiful yet dynamic country. New Zealanders are considered hardy because the country we live in is so geographically isolated. Our nearest neighbour is at least 2000km away, and even within New Zealand parts of the country are isolated, like the West Coast. Milford Sound is particularly isolated with only one road in and 120km from Te Anau to Milford one way via a road prone to snow avalanches in winter and slips from heavy rain in spring and summer. Rob"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 16, 2002 (15:47)", "body": "There are virtues to living in Paradise in the middle of the Pacific Plate. Our 7.2 EQ shook down a few small walls and old chimneys but nothing other than pickle jars were broken in stores plus a few token plate glass windows. My house rode around in circle on the 20 feet of fill saving my 9 large windows. New Zealand is on a Zone of Subduction. Just don't get sucked under. San Francisco has also had the problems of overhanging ornamental building fixtures to replace or tear down. Usually the latter. Now, how ready is your emergency stash of food and water? Where on earth are you storing the one away from the usual pantry? I cannot imagine where to put mine other than in the car! Does the ground open up, swallow cows and people (or sheep in your case) then slam shut again? That happened in the 1800's here. Whenever we have a strong EQ, I watch the ground VERY carefully."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (18:20)", "body": "*test*"}, {"response": 22, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (05:12)", "body": "Hi all I want to introduce you to the volcanoes of New Zealand: Types of Magma: Basaltic - fluid, runny lava, low viscosity, explosions unlikely Andesite - moderately fluid, some stiffness, moderate viscosity, explosions possible Rhyolite - low fluidity, stiff, high viscosity, explosions likely Ruapehu - Andesite, last erupted 1995-1996, lahar in 1953 destroyed rail bridge just before a train crossed the Whangaehu, killing 151 people. Dormant. Ngauruhoe - Andesite, last erupted 1975, explosive eruptions in 1975 heard over 80km (50mi)away. Dormant. Tongariro - Andesite, last erupted 1896, shares same magma reservoir as Ngauruhoe. Dormant. Taranaki - Andesite, last erupted 1755, known for major slope failures and lahars. NZ Rainier? Dormant. Tarawera - Rhyolite, last erupted 1886, destroyed Pink and White Terraces and 3 villages killing 153 people. Dormant. Okataina - Rhyolite, last erupted ??, Caldera volcano known for large eruptions. Dormant. White Is - Andesite, last erupted 2000, Sulphur mined prior to crater wall collapse in 1914 blocking vent triggering an explosion and lahar. 11 people died when the sulphur works was destroyed. Continuously active Auckland - Basalt, last erupted 1200, 48 volcanoes identified in volcanic which is currently dormant. Taupo - Rhyolite, last erupted 186, Caldera volcano with reputation for extreme explosive eruptions. Dormant. Rob"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (21:58)", "body": "Are there any extinct volcanoes? Surely there are, but visible to look at and see the late stages of eruptions? They usually differ completely from the rest of the volcano. Mauna Kea is in late stages but dormant for centuries."}, {"response": 24, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (03:04)", "body": "Hi all The 48 volcanoes of the Auckland volcanic field were one shot events. With the possible exception of Rangitoto (the big island in the Hauraki Gulf)none of them will erupt again. The volcanic field responsible for this collection of explosion craters, cones, and an island is however, dormant. I live next to three extinct volcanoes called Lyttelton, Herbert, and Akaroa. These were active 10-5 million years ago and are essentially massive basaltic, strato shields. They are too steep to be called shields, but not steep enough to be strato volcanoes, like Taranaki and Ngauruhoe. Rob"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (12:42)", "body": "Truly extincet? As in the erosion has progressed below the original bottom of the magma chamber? We have only one on this island thus far discovered, the Kohala Mountains at the far north of the isalnd. There are remnants of the proto-volcano beneath Mauna Loa (it is still a bit of a theory and varies from time to time according to what the latest volcanologist has published) and I like to think of the Ninoole Cones as being part of that. Imagine a volcano UNDER the world's most massive volcano!!! I'd like the reassurance that your volcanoes are extinct. I see many little quakes lately in the Wairakei area. Is this a new stirring going on, or is it the normal process of the area? The vast geothermal area must be like our Yellowstone. Was there a huge eruption in the past? (I do know but please share it with us here.) The following has interesting comments on ground movements in the Wairakei area. http://wwwrcamnl.wr.usgs.gov/rgws/Unesco/PDF-Chapters/Chapter9-9.pdf"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (13:14)", "body": "I just found a terrific resource page for New Zealand Volcanoes http://www.gns.cri.nz/earthact/volcanoes/index.html"}, {"response": 27, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (17:49)", "body": "Hi all I think Lyttelton, Herbert, and Akaroa, are truly extinct, because the vents were 5000ft above sea level at the height of their life span and the sea has breached the crater wall. It has hollowed so much of the Lyttelton and Akaroa volcanoes, that aside from Quail Island in Lyttelton Harbour and maybe Onawe Peninsula in Akaroa Harbour, one would not know where to start looking for a magma chamber. Since Lyttelton and Akaroa are extinct there is no magma supply of any description for Mt Herbert which is a volcano on top of two large strato shields. Rob"}, {"response": 28, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (17:54)", "body": "Me again Note Mount Herbert is the highest peak on the peninsula and is about 2000 ft lower than what geologists think the the summit would have been during the eruptive phase. The volcanoes you see today are the result of eruptive activity 10-6 million years ago and 5 million years of unchallenged erosion. Rob"}, {"response": 29, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (18:32)", "body": "i didn't know they actually died out--i thought they only went dormant but not quite all the way gone. interesting stuff!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (19:46)", "body": "They become \"Extinct\" when volcanoes erode down below the bottom of the original magma chamber. Yes, sea breaching a once-5000M high volcano could well qualify it for extinct classification. Kilauea's magma chamber is about 18 miles (50 M) beneath the caldera."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (19:49)", "body": "What is 18 miles in metric? My calculator will only convert miles into KM. (Yes, I could divide but can anyone help? Surely not 50 meters!)"}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 20, 2002 (18:28)", "body": "so they have to pull all the way back into the earth where they were born to become extinct?"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 20, 2002 (18:43)", "body": "Erosion works wonders when you are surrounded by sea. The original Hawaiian Island was Kure. It is now an atoll - a fringing wreath of coral with a lagoon inside and the deep sea around it. The actual volcano may be many thousands of feet under the sea by now."}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 20, 2002 (18:46)", "body": "18 Miles (statute) equals 28,968.2 Meters http://www.sciencemadesimple.net/EASYlength.html"}, {"response": 35, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (01:09)", "body": "Hi all The metric system is what is used in New Zealand. So a centimetre is 10 millimetres, a metre is 100 centimetres, a kilometre is 1000 metres, while a gram is 1/1000th of a kilogram which is 1/1000 of a ton. Still with me? If not here is a summary of what the above is all about: 1 milligram = 1/1,000th of a gram 1 gram = 1/1,000th of a kilogram 1 kilogram = 1/1,000th of a ton 1 millimetre = 1/10th of a centimetre 1 centimetre = 1/100th of a metre 1 metre = 1/1,000 of a kilometre 1 cubic centimetre = 1/1,000,000th of a cubic metre 1 cubic metre = 1/1,000,000,000th of 1 cubic kilometre So in Marcia's case 28 kilometres is 28,000 metres. To get the kilometres figure from 1 mile remember this: 1 MILE is 1.6 KILOMETRES. Thus 100 MILES is 160 KILOMETRES. Rob"}, {"response": 36, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (01:30)", "body": "Hi all Following on from all this metric are some stunning facts about volcanic eruptions around the world and in New Zealand. The figure given for size is in cubic kilometres (cu. km). Taupo/Oruanui 26,500 years ago = 1,200 cu. km Krakatoa 1883AD = 18 cu. km Pinatubo 1991AD = 5 cu. km Mount St Helens 1980AD = 3 cu. km Tarawera 1886AD = 1 cu. km Taupo 186AD = 100 cu. km Novarupta 1912 = 32 cu. km Long Valley 760,000BC = 600 cu. km And the grandest of them all: Yellowstone 600,000BC = 2000 cu. km Rob"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (18:51)", "body": "I should probably have a topic for Kilauea or Hawaiian Volcanoes: Kilauea's output in 1998: The volume of lava measured flowing through the tubes varied from 1.5 cubic meters per second (17.5 cubic ft/sec) to 11.0 cubic meters per second (130 cubic ft/sec). The average volume was about 4.5 cubic meters per second (53 cubic ft/sec). This converts to a daily average volume of 400,000 cubic meters (4,700,000 cubic feet). http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/1998/98_12_31.html"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (21:51)", "body": "Rob posted this in his World Volcanology club at Yahoo. I obtained his permission to post it here. KRAKATOA - rob glennie Krakatoa - the opening salvo [Yahoo! Clubs: World Volcanism] Early in the morning of May 19, 1883 strange vibrations were being picked up by the wealth of birdlife on the East Indies (Indonesia prior to independence from the Dutch)island of Krakatoa. Two days before snakes had been behaving lamely and would be prey was surviving to live another day. It was hot and sticky so close to the equator and the sun bet down on the tropical rainforest that covered the island in a lush green. As night fell later that day stranger things were afoot. Earthquakes had scared the locals on nearby islands despite the East Indies being an area of the Pacific notorious for earthquakes and volcanoes. Another chapter in the colourful geological history of the East Indies was about to unravel. It was a sunny morning in the Sunda Straits as the local people on the islands of Java and Sumatra went calmly about their business like they would on any other day. May 20, 1883 seemed like every other day before it. At 2.30 P.M local time a powerful boom rocked the islands of the straits and a big billowing cloud of ash and rocks punched 20km skyward. Further explosions preceded by earthquakes sent residents running for cover. A westerly wind blew the ash eastward towards Djakarta on the island of Java as panicky residents recoiled in shock. Krakatoa volcano had awoken from it's slumber. The spectacular opening salvo however was not followed up immediately by a period of eruptive activity as many expected would happen. Instead the volcano seemed after only a couple weeks to be settling back down into a state of calm. On the surface this appeared to be the case and residents soon resumed normal activities as if nothing had happened. They however could not see that the newly opened vent was becoming blocked and no one knew what a cryptodome was. They did not know that in 10 weeks time the volcano would spring the noisiest known surprise in the short history of mankind on the planet. No one knew that as the people on the surface went about their daily lives, a slumbering giant filled with a terrible resolve, was awakening slowly from a 1000 year period of dormancy. So for an 8 week period a relative calm descended on the Sunda straits and the hundreds of villages that dotted the islands in the straits and on either side of it. It would end on August 12 and the two weeks following that fateful date would change the face of the Sunda straits for eternity in the eyes of man. Following in Part 2: Krakatoa - the tiger that roared. Rob Thu, 30 Aug 2001 22:41:41 PDT To: kilauea83@yahoo.com From: robvolc1980 Reply-to: clubs-mail@yahoo-inc.com Subject: Krakatoa - the tiger that roared [Yahoo! Clubs: World Volcanism] Hi all A TIGER GROWLS: August 12-21 In the early hours of August 12 an earthquake sent residents of the coastal villages running for cover. It was followed almost immediately by a loud boom that rattled windows in many colonial Dutch buildings, with lightning and thunder punctuating the ash cloud that climbed skywards from the island of Krakatoa. Ash fell briefly on the main islands and left behind a sulphurous smell that would becoming more and more prevalent over the next two weeks. People on the other islands in the Sunda straits watched the fireworks display with one eye on the ground before them and the other on the volcano. The next day a Dutch scientist from Djakarta was injured when bits of pumice rained down on him and a research party that had gone to inspect the volcano, earthquakes were moderate and a strong smell of sulphur dioxide filled the air above the vent. On August 18, Krakatoa upped the ante, sending bombs and blocks flying from the crater with sonic booms reverberating through the air. Earthquakes were frequent and the worst sign of things still to come was a sudden change in gas emissions. As the gas emissions plummeted a phase of uneasy calm began to overtake the villages. Minimal damage had been done to date, but what no one could see was that the cryptodome had succeeded in shutting of the vent just as a big magma blob, easily the biggest yet to part from the reservoir, began to force it's way upward. On August 20 it made contact with the cryptodome below sealevel and the magma started seeking cracks in the plumbing to force it's way into. Krakatoa now began to deform as millions of tons of gas filled magma thrust itself into the cracks. The entire island was slowing changing shape and introduced to a science still in it's infancy, a new phenomena - ground deformation. On the surface, nothing much had changed to the untrained eye and despite the increasing seismicity, the increasingly violent explosions of ash and rocks, life continued for MOST, as it had for the duration of civilization's time in the archipelago. But there was a problem, that would soon explode over the Sunda straits with a "}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (21:51)", "body": "Krakatoa - the tiger that roared 2 [Yahoo! Clubs: World Volcanism] Explosions continued all through the night on August 25-26 with occasional thunderstorms driven by the electrically disturbed atmosphere adding to the percussion of the explosions and the now nearly continuous earthquakes. Everyone in all the villages was very scared. In all their lives the elders had never seen anything quite like it and when the activity took a new turn it was always for the worse. Only the kids thought it was cool, but even they were starting to have second thoughts. Schools had been shut for two days after ash had collapsed roofs in some cases, giving children an unexpected holiday. But few would have time for playing with their mates as the activity took a final decisive turn for the worse on the afternoon of August 26. Explosions reached fever pitch with individual events being heard over 100km from the vent. That night many families began evacuating from the villages on islands in the straits and from the coastal zones. Lightning and thunder cracked through the clouds and ash fell continuously mixed with bits of pumice. No one was laughing any longer, no one played outside anymore. Dawn came with a huge column of ash rising from the vent of Krakatoa and anyone who had a boat or some other form of transport now began making evacuation plans. At 0902 hours came the first colossal explosion amid a continuous swarm of earthquakes. The cryptodome had failed. At 0922 another huge explosion ripped through the sky and the ground. The magma chamber was now exposed to the sea. 1000 hours rolls around as one of dozens of earthquakes in progress gets under way. Two minutes later, a explosion logged as the LOUDEST NATURAL EXPLOSION man has ever heard and easily one of the most powerful man has ever seen rents the sky, the ground and the sea. 15km3 of material goes skyward while another 3km3 promptly falls into the seething, boiling cauldron, followed immediately by an enormous volume of seawater. The fourth of four huge explosions that noisy August morning, triggers a tsunami that sweeps all and sundry from the straits - or drowns them under 50 feet of water. No one can run, no one can hide, but 36417 people are drowned in the carnage of THAT tsunami - the deadliest sea wave known to man. In the shocking aftermath, ships were found as much as 3km inland, dumped where the waves had left them. At least a hundred villages had vanished. Some have never been rebuilt. But the most incredible thing to have occurred on August 27 was the demise of 2/3 the island of Krakatoa and a huge pumice raft that plugged parts the straits for weeks following the titanic events. Today a new island has arisen in the place of Krakatoa, and it has been called Anak Krakatoa - Child of Krakatoa. Born in 1927 it seems to have picked up a few of it's elders traits - violence, temper tantrums and yes - a determination to pick up where Grandpa left off. Rob"}, {"response": 40, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (01:58)", "body": "Hi all A magnitude 5.8 earthquake 50km southwest of Haast rocked the lower South Island on Sunday evening. It struck at 7.37PM local time and had a depth of 12km. This was in the zone southwest of the Alpine Fault. The zone southwest of the Alpine Fault is very active. It is because in part the Australian plate is subducting under the Pacific Plate. The role is reversed at the other end of the fault with a well established Benioff Zone operating. Northeast of the Alpine Fault, the Pacific Plate is subducting under the Australian Plate and the full range of symptoms of subduction are clearly visible in the North Island. They include, faults, volcanoes (dome, caldera, stratocone), geothermal areas with mudpools, hot springs and occasional hydrothermal events (ground in Rotorua sometimes blows leaving behind a boiling crater of hot water). Rob"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (15:29)", "body": "I posted this Haast EQ but did not follow up. Damage? Injuries? or just business as ususal on the Alpine Fault?"}, {"response": 42, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Feb 27, 2002 (01:20)", "body": "Hi all Marcia, remember me saying the fault was strike slip? Well it is strike slip and it has a vertical dip that means the rocks are not grinding past each other. They are locked. What I mean is that they will be most likely to break in a big earthquake. There are almost no deep earthquake events along the Alpine Fault and within the immediate vicinity of the fault very few shallow events. The events shown on maps are near the fault but have nothing to do that is directly related to the fault. Rob"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 27, 2002 (13:11)", "body": "You did mention about the Alpine fault. Deep quakes have been strong and blocks of land have been lowered as a result, but if you want REAL damage to the surroundings, just let it be a whole lot shallower. That tears down walls, breaks windows and opens your kitchen drawers dropping broken glass from cabinets above into them."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  3, 2002 (21:42)", "body": "Download archival video footage of White Island's volcanic activity. http://www.gns.cri.nz/earthact/volcanoes/wiphot.htm A new vacancy has just been announced on our site for a Receptionist. http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/vacancies/index.html HazardWatch, online now: http://www.hazardwatch.co.nz"}, {"response": 45, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (02:13)", "body": "Hi all I imagine from a high cliff or aircraft you could get a view of the tsunami quite safely and see how it forms and also how the water retreats before the individual waves. It would be interesting to watch from a vantage point above the waves height, and I would not actually mind seeing one from the scientific curiosity point of view. Rob"}, {"response": 46, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (05:08)", "body": "Did you see that movie Point Break?"}, {"response": 47, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (05:18)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/movies/LEGEND.WAV and http://www.spring.net/movies/50YEAR.WAV"}, {"response": 48, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (05:21)", "body": "And this one's for you Rob: http://www.spring.net/movies/NEWZEAL.WAV http://personal.vineyard.net/bond007/vortex/pb/pb.htm"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (21:46)", "body": "Rob, I'd post it at your Yahoo groups but I can't get in to do it! **************************** NZ volcano videos, photos **************************** From: Jeff Lyall New content - Volcanic video download Download archival video footage of White Island's volcanic activity. http://www.gns.cri.nz/earthact/volcanoes/wiphot.htm HazardWatch, online now: http://www.hazardwatch.co.nz ********************* ENVISAT launch ********************* From: obenholzner ENVISAT is in orbit! Please check: www.esa.int best wishes JH Obenholzner"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 10, 2002 (22:07)", "body": "NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF GEOLOGICAL & NUCLEAR SCIENCES LTD. The following earthquake has been recorded by the Institute Reference number: 1852518/G Universal Time: 2002 March 9 2024 NZ Daylight Time: 2002 March 10 9.24 a.m. Latitude, Longitude: 44.86\ufffdS 170.78\ufffdE Location: 30 km north-west of Oamaru Focal depth: 34 km Richter magnitude: 3.4 felt inland from Oamaru"}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 11, 2002 (20:43)", "body": "INSTITUTE OF GEOLOGICAL & NUCLEAR SCIENCES LTD. The following earthquake has been recorded by the Institute Reference number: 1852929/G Universal Time: 2002 March 11 1728 NZ Daylight Time: 2002 March 12 6.28 a.m. Latitude, Longitude: 40.39\ufffdS 176.29\ufffdE Location: 30 km south-east of Dannevirke Focal depth: 13 km Richter magnitude: 3.4 Possibly felt in the Weber region."}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (23:10)", "body": "The latest HazardWatch is now online: http://www.hazardwatch.co.nz We have a new vacancy in Marketing for a person with Petroleum Industry experience. http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/vacancies/index.html Details on our 6th Annual Volcanoes and Society Short Course are now online: http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/conferences/volc6th.html"}, {"response": 53, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Mar 25, 2002 (03:13)", "body": "Hi all No Terry. I have not seen Point Break. Mount Ruapehu is having moderate tremor again, but nothing else appears to be happening so the volcano remains at alert level 1 (BACKGROUND ACTIVITY). Here is the NZ volcano alert level system: Alert Level 0: Dormant, Quiscent. Alert Level 1: Initial signs of unrest. No threat. Alert Level 2: Confirmation of unrest. Eruption threat. Alert Level 3: Minor eruptions commenced. Real possibility of hazardous eruptions. Alert Level 4: Hazardous local eruption in progress. Large scale hazardous eruption now possible. Alert Level 5: Large scale hazard eruption in progress. Rob"}, {"response": 54, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Mar 31, 2002 (04:25)", "body": "Hi all A thunderstorm passed Purau Bay where I went for a day with some relatives. My Dad's brother has property in the area and is selling his holiday home so we went to see them at their current property one last time before they move to Diamond Harbour where a half built holiday home and possible place to retire to awaits them. Very nice place on an ancient lava flow. The whole area is in a breach volcanic crater which has been opened to the sea and has a population I am guessing of 6-7000 people and the Port of Lyttelton which serves Christchurch. This storm was the opening volley of a cold front sweeping up the South Island from the Antarctic. Such changeable weather is not surprising for late March as we move into the Autumn phase of the Four Seasons. This southerly blast is expected to contain rain, hail and possible heavy thundery showers. Snow may follow later. Rob"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 31, 2002 (22:33)", "body": "Diamond Harbour sounds like Hanauma Bay on Oahu, also a breached volcanic crater. It sounds lovely, and how wonderful to have relatives around you. Living on an island can be very lonely when your family is thousands of wet miles away."}, {"response": 56, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Apr  4, 2002 (19:20)", "body": "Hi all Northerly here and very pleasant outside. 20.C high cloud and little wind. I think it is raining in the mountains which is not a very comforting thought considering 30 odd University of Canterbury geography students are near Cass at the moment doing assignment work which is for GEOG 201. I will be in Cass from April 9-12 and I will be doing assignment work on glacial moraine and landslide deposit up there. Should be a great trip, despite the time of year that we are doing it in. Rob"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (16:48)", "body": "Please tell us about it when you return. Perhaps the weather is getting the rain over with so you can have glorious sunshine. Nothing is worse than camping for a week in cold wet clothes. Been there and done that!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (05:36)", "body": "Hi all No, we will be staying in the University of Canterbury field station there. It might be a dingy building according to the staff leading the trip but it is in a fantastic spot. Rob"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (15:27)", "body": "Rob, there is something about field station dinge that adds to the ambience of the whole adventure. Ours are not much better. In fact, anyone who has stayed in Magma House (for the extended field camps of student volcanologists and interns), it is part of the whole experience. I just love the name of the place. All it has for creature comforts is stacked bunks on which you place your bedrolls or sleeping bags. It is not luxurious, but it sure beats the conditions of field camp out at the eruptions. I'll dig up the ones of my son at Pu'u O'o when it was actively founting and was the main vent on the current flank eruption."}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  7, 2002 (23:01)", "body": "New Zealand Historic Places Trust - 2002-03-19 New Zealanders\\' understanding and appreciation of their heritage places took a huge step today when the on-line version of the statutory Register of Historic Places, the only official record of New Zealand\\'s heritage, was launched by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. For more information, please refer to: http://www.historic.org.nz/news/media_releases/2002_03_19.htm"}, {"response": 61, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Apr 12, 2002 (00:53)", "body": "Hi all I am back from my great trip to Cass, where I studied Glacial Moraine and Landslide deposit from a geographical perspective to understand the environment of the Cass Basin. I was part of a larger group of five who decided to collaborate on tackling this project as part of the Geog 201 assessment programme. Full details following shortly. Rob"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 12, 2002 (01:30)", "body": "Pictures too? I can hardly wait! Welcome home, Rob. *Hugs* We missed you!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Apr 13, 2002 (06:33)", "body": "Hi all This is a full report on the my four day sojourn to Cass from April 9 to April 12 for Geography 201 (Physical Geography). All dates mentioned are in NZST (NZ standard time). It dates back to the start of the University year and the introduction to the course. On the last Monday of February in A3 lecture theatre 120 odd students gathered for their first taste of Geography 201 and the world of physical geography. Some of us were doubtlessly apprehensive having heard stories from friends who had done it in 2001 about the field work at Cass, the one day exercise at Orton Bradley and the introductory whirlwind tour around Christchurch. Our lecturer and course co-ordinator, Wendy Lawson (a moderately built England born New Zealander)began speaking. It soon became obvious that something big was afoot, for she told us that the nature of the course would be a rapid fire programme with 3 fieldtrips increasing in length and importance. It would culminate in a four day field trip to Cass. On Saturday March 16 with a northwester blowing over the rim of the Lyttelton volcano's hollowed out crater with 5 million years of unchallenged erosion, we all hit Orton Bradley Park on the south side of the crater in what was described as a military style operation. We had three tasks. Measure the stream flow in the stream that ran through the park. The second one was take wind, relative humidity, and temperature measurements from set locations on the slopes. And the third was learning to use what I think was a geodimeter to do slope and distance readings. The idea was to make sure that we could hit the ground running at Cass. In the past they had thrown us all in at the deep end and taught us to operate the equipment as we went. Well, learning a geodimeter takes time and understanding how to use it from the outset made it easier to handle in the field at Cass where we would be spending two days in the field collecting data and making observations. Earlier that week the projects had been finalised. I chose to do \"a comparative analysis of glacial moraine and landslide deposits\". I learnt that Burn Hockey who had lectured Dad many moons ago was supervising the project and that Rachel Spronken-Smith, a climatologist lecturer would be the bottom line of the law on our field trip, the third of three to be going to Cass. Wendy \"Julia Rockinghorse\" Lawson was leading the first, Ian \"grumpy\" Owens the second and Rachel the third. Initially it looked like I would be the only one doing that particular project which was a worry because for safety reasons a minimum of two had to be in the project. But then Carolyn Woods appeared, followed in short order by Olivia Hyatt, Stefan Hatfield, and Leigh Skerten. All of a sudden things looked considerably brighter. With only two weeks to go until the first people went to Cass, the focus changed from organisation to logistics. We were introduced to the assisting staff on the field trip who as time went along also became good friends and part of the 201 family. Jana Newman, a masters student doing research on a glacier on the Hut Point peninsula in Antarctica was the first. Mat Bartholemew who is doing research on the mass balance of the Ross ice shelf, Antarctica was introduced next, followed by Bree Ferrick. On the day before we were due to break for Easter and the term holidays the final group assembly took place. It was agreed that Olivia and I would briefly look at our geology notes from last year and brief everyone on the bus going up to Cass. And so the scene was set for April 9, 2002. PART TWO: Fieldwork at Cass When we boarded the bus to Cass on April 9, no one really knew what we were getting into. Few had had a chance to speak with the \"Trip A\" group who went from April 3-6 and no one had had a chance to speak with \"Trip B\", who would be going home on the bus that brought us up. Olivia and I never got around to briefing the others because of our dispersion around the bus. We arrived in brilliant sunshine at about 10.50AM and by 11.20 were on a walk up to some native bush behind the field station. From there we tracked south across some large scree fans and onto a glacial moraine (not the one that we eventually studied). We learnt about the processes and were told we would have to do a brief presentation that night to the others. And so the reputation of C4: Glacial Moraine/Landslide group for comedy was born. When we got back we relaxed in the warm sunshine and had a welcome afternoon tea before getting ready for dinner. After dinner we had presentations devised over a twenty minute period in which Stefan decided we would do some skits to illustrate the processes. I did the human processes. I pretended to be digging, and stood and said \"Man digging this is hard work\". Other skits dealt with fluvial, aeolian, and mass movement processes. There were six categories on which our presen ation was graded: C4 appeared in 5 of the 6 and were judged overall winners. None of the others appeared "}, {"response": 64, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Apr 13, 2002 (06:41)", "body": "I thought I would direct you to the University of Canterbury staff profiles for Wendy Lawson, Ian Owens, Burn Hockey, and Rachel Spronken-Smith who are full time lecturers at the University of Canterbury. http://www.geog.canterbury.ac.nz/ go to staff and click on the above four. Rob"}, {"response": 65, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Apr 13, 2002 (06:42)", "body": "Getting late here. Continue the story of Cass tomorrow. Rob"}, {"response": 66, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Apr 14, 2002 (06:09)", "body": "Hi all Continuing from where I left of last night. We rose the following morning between 7 and 8 AM to a foggy morning with low cloud and mist slung around the mountains. After breakfast we dispersed to get ready for the days work. This was day one of two allocated specifically to data gathering for the projects we were working on. After collecting the geodimeter and the pole with prism we piled into the minivan that was taking our group and another group to our study areas a few kilometres away from Cass field station. When we got there, we walked across a farmers paddock and up a ridge to a glacial moraine running almost N-S. With Jana's help we set the geodimeter up and about half an hour later Stefan and Olivia started logging data. Leigh was holding the pole, while Carolyn and I did sketches of Mount Misery to annotate. After a while Jana swapped with Mat who came up after helping some people doing a pool and riffle assignment get set up. It was a GLORIOUS day, with 30.C temperatures being recorded (as we found out later from people doing surface microclimates)on one side of the valley which was bathed in sun, and 15.C temperatures on a slope that was in the shade for the whole day. I helped out as well by holding the pole while Carolyn logged data for Stefan in Olivia's notebook (Olivia was of trying to get a rock sample together with Leigh - it turned out to be a rock bashing exercise). In a single cross section we got as far as 200 metres away from the geodimeter. Evidently other groups with radioes found it hilarious listening to the person with the pole and the geodimeter operator communicating: Stefan: \"Rob go left 10 metres. I can't see you in the sights.\" Rob: \"Okay\". 20 seconds later \"In position. Can you see the pole because I can't see you.\" Stefan: \"No. Twist the prism back toward me.\" Rob: \"Okay. Can you see me now.\" Stefan: \"Yes\". This could be heard by all the groups with radioes turned on within 20km of base. And so it went on until about 4.PM on Wednesday when Burn Hockey radioed us to say transport would be waiting in 20 minutes at the gate to the farmers paddock. I held the pole for Stefan, Carolyn and Leigh, and logged data for the same three as well. Since Olivia was the more senior of the two geologists in the group she was off tending to the rocks. After dinner we were required to give a presentation on the days work and what we would do on Thursday. One group was essentially finished because they skipped dinner and remained in the field until 7.PM logging data with the aid of flashlights. Another one was going to camp out overnight and log data throughout the night (surface microclimates). We had one problem. We had only one landslide that was considered accessible but had two moraines. To restore the balance we ignored the data from one of the moraines and decided to spend the whole day on Thursday dealing with the landslide. With the days debrief over we were left to our own devices until the 11.PM silence law came into effect. Many went to bed immediately knowing full well that no one would be in bed before midnight the following night. More card games, some Southern Draught drunk and music played on Mat's laptop. Thursday morning dawned overcast and drizzly. The drizzle stopped early on but the cloud would hang around most of the day. After breakfast we set off back to the same site to collect more data. The landslide sat partially on top of a scree fan from a mountain stream, now covered in matagouri and tussock. About half way up to the site I realised I was still wearing sneakers and not the tramping boots that I had got a couple years earlier. Too late, so we continued on up the hill. Stefan and Leigh did a transect across the landslide near the base of the scree. Leigh, a small girl with shoulder length blond hair almost completely vanished from sight while tracking across the landslide in a northerly direction. Once we were set up further up the slope for the next one I volunteered to take the pole for the next transect. About 5 measurements into the matagouri I slipped on a rock that came loose under my feet (maybe it was just as well I had sneakers on. I would have pitched forward into the matagouri and prob bly hurt myself more than just slightly banging my knee, and the prism would have been damaged). As it was I came to a halt short of the matagouri. The radio had slipped from my shorts (knocked of - I could hear Stefan calling over the radio, as he had seen the pole go down). I called him to wait while I located the radio and after a minute we were back in business. I continued tracking north across the landslide and finally Stefan lost sight of me with the angle of the slide blocking his view. Upon returning to the others I was labelled a legend for so quickly recovering. We were doing a third cross section for the landslide when the battery went dead on the geodimeter. Stefan pulled it out and fitted a new one. However it must have seen some use because by the "}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 14, 2002 (13:52)", "body": "Rob, Thank you for your thorough report. I almost feel as though I was with you seeing it through our eyes. It is absolutley mandatory to have a sense of humor on trips of this nature, and you seem to have had very good company. I will comment more after I have digested what you have writte. I give you an A+ for your report. Unfortunately, my vote doesn't count! I'll look for Cass on the web and see if I can find a few images to post while yours are being processed. We have the option here of having them digitized and put on a diskette or having the usual prints. If you opt for digitals, that would make life much simpler!"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 14, 2002 (13:55)", "body": "I have heard rumor that you are going into the Matagouri propagation business :p Also noted was that Cass is a big wine producing area of New Zealand. That explains the final night festivities! How was the food? Who cooked? Hardtack and beans and jerked meat?"}, {"response": 69, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Apr 14, 2002 (20:02)", "body": "Hi all A university chief did the cooking and we did the domestic duties plus helped the chef get meals ready. Had vegetables and roasts of various sorts for dinner. For lunch we took meat or vegetarian sandwiches stuffed with fillings into the field along with fruit. Breakfast consisted of porridge, and then toast with baked beans, and sausages. Rob"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 15, 2002 (16:22)", "body": "I am so disappointed. Roasts? Here I was, feeling sorry about your roughing it all week like REAL geologists do. Then, I was worried about how hard the ground would be to sleep on and the severity of the weather. Wrong!!! You slept inside. Now, I wonder if you ever will have a REAL field trip. Or is that the reason you changed majors? Yes, I am just teasing you. Still, I feel a bit cheated. I never had a field camp chef to cook for me!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (20:05)", "body": "*********************************** New Zealand submarine volcanoes *********************************** From: Dan Shackelford Thermal activity at submarine volcanoes NE of New Zealand (news article, 1 May 2002) Following is the first paragraph of a news article that may be of some interest. \"New Zealand, American, and Japanese scientists will this week begin a two-week voyage to probe seabed thermal activity around 11 newly-mapped submarine volcanoes between the Bay of Plenty and the Kermadec Islands.\" The entire article is at: http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/release/rare.htm"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 16, 2002 (23:02)", "body": "Scientists find new submarine hotsprings 16/05/2002 http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/release/hotsprings.html New map rich in history as well as technology 16/05/2002 http://www.gns.cri.nz/news/release/edbrooke.html The latest HazardWatch is now online: http://www.hazardwatch.co.nz"}, {"response": 73, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, May 20, 2002 (03:12)", "body": "Hi all Cass is not a wine producing area. The extremes are too severe at either end of the scale. Far too hot in summer and far too cold in winter. Summer and spring time convection driven storms would drop too much rain. The wine producing areas are Waipara in north Canterbury, Marlborough, Hawke's Bay, and possibly Central Otago. Rob"}, {"response": 74, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, May 22, 2002 (18:15)", "body": "Hi all Thunderstorms with tornadoes in tow hammered Taranaki for over 24 hours yesterday causing widespread power cuts and damage on several properties. A house caught fire when it took a direct hit from lightning. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1210938a11,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 75, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, May 25, 2002 (07:24)", "body": "Hi all Winter arrived on Thursday night with rain and biting cold southerlies, gusting upto 90kmh (55mph)in exposed places. VERY cold on Friday morning and although the southerly seemed to clear smartly it started to come back in during the afternoon. Another southerly clobbered us this morning with rain and cold winds. Finally as if that is not enough, it snowed in the mountains and southern parts of the South Island overnight. More may be on the way tomorrow when another front roars through. AND I HAVE TO WORK IN THIS JUNK!!!!!! ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rob"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 25, 2002 (15:53)", "body": "Just when the rest of us are stocking up on sun screen and cool clothes, Rob has to fend off wintry blasts and horrible weather. Please stay dry and warm, Rob. Between you in the frigid south and Julie hiking up the slushy Mount St Helens, I will have a worrisome few days sitting in the tropics unable to help either one of you! Please let Greece have seasonable weather!"}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (00:02)", "body": "* Vent systems found off New Zealand * Three new sets of underwater hot springs have been discovered along a little known part of the Pacific \"Ring of Fire\". Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2010000/2010549.stm"}, {"response": 78, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (02:55)", "body": "Hi all A southerly blast, the fourth in as many days is working its way up the South Island as a disturbed westerly airflow tends southerly. Hamilton and Auckland are expecting heavy thundery showers with hail, while Christchurch and the lower South Island are bracing for sleet, snow and severe wind chill. The culprit? A low pressure system with a central pressure of 975 HPa (hecta-pascales). Rob"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (17:23)", "body": "You do not measure in millibars? HPa and I am still not conversant in metric! Please be warm and safe. That sounds like potentially dangerous and slippery weather."}, {"response": 80, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (18:40)", "body": "Hi all I think HPa is fairly loosely used in meteorology but I often hear Jim Hickey saying things like \"975 HPa - thats a nasty piece of weather\". Anyway El Nino apparently means more westerlies and southerlies so I think this winter will be a hard one but the summer will be long and hot. Ah well. Marcia I hope there is good weather inside the Hemming house as well as outside. No falling barometers PLEASE!!!! Rob"}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (18:51)", "body": "It is a calm and way too sunny day in Hawaii. It is back to summer heat and I am currently undergoing meltdown in front of my computer/ Meltdown for Hilo occurs at anything over 28\ufffdC and currently it is 30\ufffd in my room. Two fans are of some assistance. Might I send you some excess BTUs and you can send me some cold. I'm certain we have far more than our share of photons currently!"}, {"response": 82, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (04:02)", "body": "Hi all Crowded House wrote this cool song called \"Weather with you\" that I will get the lyrics to and sing at some favourable occasion. Weather With You Written By N. Finn & T. Finn Walking 'round the room singing Stormy Weather at 57 Mt. Pleasant St. Now it's the same room but everything's different You can fight the sleep but not the dream Things ain't cooking in my kitchen Strange affliction wash over me Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire Couldn't conquer the blue sky There's a small boat made of china Going nowhere on the mantlepiece Do I lie like a loungeroom lizard Or do I sing like a bird released CHORUS Everywhere you go you always take the weather with you Rob"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (14:48)", "body": "Great words, Rob. I am a bit boggled this morning since I did not get to sleep until after 3 AM this morning. I should know better! I have heard that you sing very well, indeed, but I have not yet heard you! Forget about me. I can't and won't."}, {"response": 84, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, May 31, 2002 (01:20)", "body": "Hi all I am just a humble 21 year old with a good personality and a wicked sense of humour. *GRINS* Rob"}, {"response": 85, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Jun  1, 2002 (02:59)", "body": "Hi all The volcano hazard in Auckland is real, lest anyone mistake the following report. The Auckland Regional Council has said that there is a 5% risk of an eruption in the Auckland area in the next 50 years. Considering it took 60,000 years to put the 48 known volcanoes in the Auckland metropolitan area and offshore, in their present places, that is a quite high chance. Auckland is riddled with one-shot volcanoes that have erupted for a few months or years and then gone extinct as the magma supply ran out. The largest of them is the Rangitoto volcano in the Hauraki Gulf which erupted about 700 years ago and whose volume is the combined total of the other 47 volcanoes put together. Rangitoto like the at-least-47 preceeding volcanoes (some volcanoes have been quarried away for roading material, and others were just huge explosion pits that have been filled in)is probably a one shot volcano that has had it's 15 minutes of fame and is now just part of the scenery. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1220687a11,FF.html Rob"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun  2, 2002 (00:47)", "body": "That was a fascinating article and more than a little worrisome. How much preparation has been done on getting the civilians out of Harm's Way should it erupt? Very little. I suspect."}, {"response": 87, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (02:47)", "body": "Hi all In the last 6 months there have been a series of earthquakes in south Westland which ranged between magnitude 6.1 on December 7, 2001 to magnitude 4.5. The earthquakes have been puzzling seismologists and geophysicists at the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, which says that they could be one of two things: a prolonged aftershock sequence from the December earthquake or foreshocks before a big one..... All the earthquakes have been shallow. None were more than 20km deep. All were in the range I mentioned above and ALL of them have been in the vicinity of the Alpine Fault. Rob"}, {"response": 88, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (03:51)", "body": "Hi all For those of you not familiar with the Alpine Fault, it is a large fault running across the lower slopes of the Southern Alps in a SW-NE direction. The fault represents the boundary between the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, across which we lie. This has been the case for most of the 530 million years in which New Zealand has physically existed as a land mass. The country has a well established Benioff zone that is probably best noted under the North Island, where earthquake activity is really high. Our activity is comparable to California in more ways than one. We are both overdue for large earthquakes. We are both on plate boundaries, and we both have the same type of fault. The Alpine Fault here like your San Andreas fault is a dextral strike slip fault. This means that the fault displaces ground mainly horizontally, though some vertical displacement is visible. It also means that if you are on one side of the fault, looking across, the land on the other side is moving to your right. There is also a Benioff zone in the southwest, of the Fiordland coast. Like it's northern counterpart which is under the North Island, this zone has very high earthquake activity consistent with the subduction processes where rock is diving under other rock and generating a lot of friction. It also generates colossal volumes of heat, which melts rock and forms magma. Because of this the majestic volcanoes of the central North Island are in their current location. The magma is formed by various sorts of rocks melting in the lithosphere and changing the magmatic chemistry. This chemistry is responsible for the sorts of volcanoes that appear on the surface. Are you looking at the classic inverted ice-cream cone with a hole for the crater in the top? Are you looking at a shield shaped volcano with many craters and possibly calderas where the summit caved in? Are you looking at an actual caldera volcano, itself? Mount St Helens in Washington was a near perfect cone prior to May 18, 1980 and would definitely be t e inverted ice cream cone I mentioned. These are stratovolcanoes, comprised of alternating layers of ash and lava. In New Zealand, these volcanoes are best shown as Mount Ngauruhoe (Na-ru-ho-e) and Taranaki (Ta-ra-na-ki). Rob"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (22:16)", "body": "Hi Rob! Great things you are posting and I seem so far from them. I was so much closer in Hawaii. California is not only one a whole different plate, they are on a different PLANET!!! Hi Julie!!"}, {"response": 90, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (22:35)", "body": "yes indeedy!!"}, {"response": 91, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (05:02)", "body": "Welcome to the Hotel California, Marci."}, {"response": 92, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (06:12)", "body": "Hi all El Nino. What does it mean to people?? To me it means less easterlies and northerlies, but more southerlies and westerlies. Well the latter is very visible to all who know anything about the weather patterns around Christchurch, and Canterbury, because the frequency of the westerlies and their duration have increased markedly. On the West Coast it means rain, rain, and more rain. In Peru and California it means severe storms from the Pacific pounding their coastline with a savagery not often seen. It also means more rain for them and the subsequent flooding. Here it means more water flowing down the big rivers of Canterbury like the Waimakariri, Rangitata, Hurunui Waiau and Rakaia. El Nino brings drought to Canterbury and Otago, because the northwesters here are warm and dry. From the frequency of the westerlies right now I would say that El Nino has arrived or is very close by. Rob"}, {"response": 93, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (06:27)", "body": "Hi all I want to direct your attention to the Environment Canterbury website which is the webpage of the regional government of Canterbury. It sounds confusing, but basically what the Regional Councils do is plan policies for sustainable use of water, soil, and air resources within their political boundaries. They are responsible for: Transport planning Natural hazards Soil Water Air Environment - pollution - cultural - social - economic These policies are prepared under the framework of a single piece of legislation passed by the Government in 1991, called the Resource Management Act. http://www.ecan.govt.nz To see updated images of the Waimakariri River looking upstream (image A)and downstream (image B)respectively go here: http://www.niwa.cri.nz/services/cam-era/sites/waimaka/ for Waimakariri A http://www.niwa.cri.nz/services/cam-era/sites/waimakb/ for Waimakariri B This is NOT an estuary. This is the Waimakariri River as it appears across much of the Canterbury Plains. It is running high, which is why it is dirty, but in full flood the river will be a uniform brown colour from bank to bank, with no islands of sediment inbetween. Rob"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 15, 2002 (13:48)", "body": "I see you have had some minor EQs and one actually feelable at 4.0. My family expert on such things tells me except for Hawaii where feel magnitude is 4.0, in California has a 3.0 magnitude threshold as does most of the rest of the world. I thought everywhere was like Hawaii. *SIGH* Hotel California is definitely different from the rest of the world."}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 15, 2002 (13:55)", "body": "Your fish are definitely gone for the duration. Does anyone get caught in quicksand there? It looks dangerous!"}, {"response": 96, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jun 16, 2002 (04:39)", "body": "Hi all Don't know what you are talking about. The uniform brown is water flowing between sediment islands laid down or rearranged during every flood. Quicksand is present, but only along the boundaries of the river bed near the inner bank, and only when the river is low. The Waimakariri is one of the best examples in the world of what a braided river is like, and probably the best would be the Rakaia, which is south of Christchurch. The road bridge over the river is about 1.1 miles long!! The road bridge over the Waimakariri is about 600 metres long. Rob"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 16, 2002 (18:30)", "body": "Braided rivers are different from the estuaries I am used to. I will study their properties just as soon as I get other things done like writing about the eclipse and posting the pictures... and Shasta and Lassen... and I will be flying eastward soon."}, {"response": 98, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jun 17, 2002 (03:43)", "body": "Hi all SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Christchurch Airport is shut. State Highway 1 south of Dunsandel is closed all the way to Timaru and there is 4000 people without power after a combination of snowfall and lightning brought down powerlines and power poles in inland parts of Canterbury. Those same areas have had 6 inches of snow dumped on them and it is still falling. The snow is not heavy, but it is persistent and FREEZING!!!!!!!!! ---------- In 1992 we had a trio of really severe snowstorms hit Canterbury, that have been put down in part to the eruption of Pinatubo (11th anniversary of eruption was on Saturday)pumping enough dust and aerosols into the atmosphere that there was cooling which led to a cold and severe winter. In July a snowstorm dumped snow deeper than paddock fences in inland Canterbury. About 1,000,000 sheep died in the cold from the windchill, the snow and lack of feed. It was bad enough that the Government sent Iroquois helicopters and a Hercules transport aircraft to move supplies for the farmers in remote areas. But worse was to come... As night fell on August 27, the rain that had been falling from a depression of Banks Peninsula all day began to turn to sleet. I had been of school that day because the heating system failed and the teachers had been told it could not be repaired before the holidays started (August 28 was the last day of term). When I woke the following morning I could not believe my eyes. 5 inches snow lay over everything and more was accumulating all the time. I looked at the clock - it was after 9.AM. So I got dressed and went to find Mum. I found Dad instead. Mum was at work because the patients at St Winifreds hospital for the elderly was understaffed. He tells me the ENTIRE province of Canterbury has shut down. Schools, libraries, universities, malls, shops, entertainment complexes - the lot. Only emergency services and the army, plus Civil Defence were working. About 2.PM the snow turned to rain again and the Avon and Heathcote rivers began to rise. The following day Canterbury had no television. Sugarloaf TV transmitter had gone of the air. The Avon and Heathcote rivers overflowed flooding property in their lower reaches and as the tide came into the estuary, the flooding moved upstream while properties in flash places like Wairarapa Terrace warily watched the water creeping across their river verges toward the houses. The Government began organising a relief effort for Canterbury, once again sending the airforce to help transport supplies, while ordering the army to assist Civil Defence and help the isolated families, on the Port Hills and in inland Canterbury. This time the sheep toll was even worse. 2,500,000 died from exposure and lack of food. The death toll of sheep may have been exacerbated by the lambing season and worsened by the amount of snow that fell. A third storm came in October and killed another 250,000 from memory which was the final act in a long and tortuous winter where farmers had been pitched from one crisis to the next by the punishing forces of nature. ----------- Bugger. It's stopped snowing. Rob"}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 17, 2002 (16:58)", "body": "Rob, it CAN'T be snowing! It's 100\ufffd F in she shade on a cool day! Make snow angels for me. I was on snow a few days ago - on Lassen peak and we tossed snowballs at eachother. How fun! Be safe, dear. Snow is slippery stuff!"}, {"response": 100, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jun 17, 2002 (21:09)", "body": "Hi all It did snow because the white stuff is still on the lawn. 6000 people were without power last night in inland areas after the worst storm since 1992 came to town. Winter is here with a vengeance. About 3 degrees celsius at the moment outside, and I am going nowhere today, and possibly tomorrow as well. As the southerly moved north, it caused flooding in Lower Hutt and Wellington. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1239581a1700,FF.html The rivers in Canterbury, most notably the Waimakariri River are running high and dirty. Which is causing concern in the Waiau catchment because the river has not much room to play in, and the water is not far from the stop banks. http://www.ecan.govt.nz - go river flows, North Canterbury, table format. Note the high flows of the Hurunui, Waiau (Hope flows into Waiau), and Waimakariri rivers The one conclusion that can be drawn from all this is that winter is here, and it hit with a vengeance. Rob"}, {"response": 101, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (02:16)", "body": "Hi all A weather bomb is headed for the North Island, and as you can see it is already hitting Auckland: http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1242245a1500,FF.html The term weather bomb was used to describe a deepening low pressure system diving from 1020+ HPa to 1000 HPa and beyond. Very strong winds and heavy rain, with thunderstorms in tow are expected tonight and tomorrow in Auckland, Northland, Coromandel, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Central Plateau, Hawkes Bay/Gisborne and eastern Wairarapa. Strong winds are forecast for most of the North Island and in particular the Hauraki Gulf. As it passes over, there is supposed to be cold southeasterly winds here and along the east coast up to Blenheim with rain. This is an evil system: The following are a cross section of weather forecasts through the North Island from Auckland to Napier, heading south-southeast. A)Today's Forecast: AUCKLAND Rain becoming persistent. Easterlies rising to gale. Updated: 20 Jun 2002 04:55AM Friday Rain, heavy at times. Strong winds tending southwest. B)Todays Forecast: HAMILTON Rain. Strong easterlies. Updated: 20 Jun 2002 06:55PM Friday Rain easing to showers. Strong southwest change. C)Todays Forecast: TAUPO Rain. Strong easterlies. Updated: 20 Jun 2002 06:55PM Friday Rain easing to showers. Strong southwest change. D)Todays Forecast: NAPIER Rain. Strong easterlies. Updated: 20 Jun 2002 06:55PM Friday Rain slowly clearing. Strong northerlies tend westerly. Rob"}, {"response": 102, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (18:06)", "body": "The term \"weather bomb\" certainly sounds like an evil system. Is New Zealand prone to constantly being exposed to weather extremes. Sometimes reading your posts, Rob, it seems as though NZ gets some of the worst weather in the world."}, {"response": 103, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jun 21, 2002 (06:48)", "body": "Hi all The weather bomb has passed over the country and things have improved considerably, but Civil Defence emergencies still exist in Coromandel and Waikato: http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1243823a10,FF.html A rough night was in store for Waikato with very heavy rain and very strong winds. 20,000 homes were without electricity and the damage will take days to clean up. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1243489a1600,FF.html Northland had heavy rain that caused flooding. Schools closed early to get students home before the flooding got severe: http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1243090a1800,FF.html Get a hint that this is nuts?? Well I confess that this is pretty bad and it appears that considerable damage has been done, but maybe this had something to do with the onset of El Nino. Here, we just had drizzle and a moderate southerly. But it was depressing having the fourth day in a row of rain. Rob"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (15:25)", "body": "The farther away from you I get, the more reasons you seem to have to worry about you. Bad weather, indeed! It is hot and like mainland summers of my youth; I mostly hibernate until night when I stop being dripping wet and go back to more normal temperatures."}, {"response": 105, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (07:51)", "body": "Take care yourself Rob. I will remember my past winter for all of my rest life. I cannot see the ice as before. Best regards John"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (11:46)", "body": "To me ice is no longer beautiful and recreational. It is treachery waiting for us to make one little mistake. *HUGS* Please be careful. Poor John is a reminder to all of us how sneaky nature can be even when we are at out most vigilant. I hear thunder again. I guess I had better get offline before this fuses to the call and me with it."}, {"response": 107, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (14:25)", "body": "Hi all Ice is only good in a drink - its no fun around here during the winter especially when driving down the road and hitting a patch of 'black ice' and doing a few 360's. Also, posting here since for some reason I can not display the entire Geo list. An interesting site I found was www.rfspace.com which describes a receiver that utilizes dsp for processing. Im still working up courage to start on my dsp radio kit (lots of surface mount parts) but Im getting closer to starting assembly. Just finished kitting up a PIC microcontroller that encapsulates GPS data and retransmits it as 1200 baud packet. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (14:39)", "body": "OOOH Mike, that sounds great. No, NOT the black ice. It causes compound fractures and a great amount of body damage on other things like cars. In fact, the only place ice is good is in oa tall cool one. Cheers!!! Your radio ventures sound exciting. How much stuff did you capture on feild day? I was in the mountains of TN listening to papers by learned individuals and collecting stuff like books and having the authors sign them. I enjoyed it very much but was out of anything but scanner range where we were. Loads of geology, though!"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (14:41)", "body": "Checking http://www.rfspace.com My host's W95 Pc shows the complete list of Geo sites as well as new posts when requested. I wonder what your difficulty is...! I'll check again!"}, {"response": 110, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (19:27)", "body": "Hi there Believe it or not, I didnt even turn a radio on during FD except for shortwave listening - the June VHF contest a couple of weeks ago was my 'FD' - anyway will try again to see if the complete list displays from the dialup. Sounds like your TN conference was fabulous - really helps to inspire! Looking forward to all the updates on your visit. 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (14:15)", "body": "There is a fantastic fossil bed in the Ohio River ca;lled the Falls of The Ohio tthat I want to see very much. We were going this weekend but plans have changed. I will keep trying to get there as soon as possibler. The only rocks I managed to find were ancient VERY fine grained limestones from the sea bed that once was Kentucky and Tennessee and a bit of coal on top of that. I am way behind in collecting. Most of the really good stuff was in the road cuts on super high-ways and it would have been suicidal to stop for a rock or two."}, {"response": 112, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jul  4, 2002 (21:26)", "body": "Hi all Marcia, when you get an opportunity I would not mind seeing you on Yahoo IM *GRINS BRILLIANTLY*. I am HOME!!!! Wooooooooohoooooooo!!!!! So where is the lovely hostess of Geo, the very lovely, very entertaining and very friendly Marcia Hemming?? Rob"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:28)", "body": "My host has just posted in Geo 17 even though his screen did not show that such a topic existed. Hi Rob! I miss talking to you, too. I am perched ready to dash down two flights of steps to sign for my laptop as soon as it arrives. When that happens I will link up the computers so we can both be online at the seme time. The I will download Yahoo. The anguish as been real in mising talking to you all. Julie, I am ready to take on your broken leg and have things to entertain you. Been to the Falls of the Ohio and other places. So much happening and so little time to post. I will get caught up eventually! I promise! Rob, for what it is worth, both my host and his friend agree I am much better in person than in photos. *smiling brilliantly* back at you..."}, {"response": 114, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jul 15, 2002 (07:25)", "body": "Hi all New Zealand is strangely quiet. No volcanism to speak of, and earthquake activity is steady, with nothing untoward happening. Is that good or bad? Hard to tell, though one notable thing to occur was a landslide near Turangi at the south end of Lake Taupo. No ordinary landslide, this one may have been a combination of the geothermal plumbing and the high water table getting the overlying soil and rock mobile. Has happened in the past. Rob"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (20:24)", "body": "I worry with the world so quiet at the moment and John's multitude of great quakes about to happen. Could one have anything to do with the other? Quite possibly. Please do not let the New Madrid fault reawaken just yet."}, {"response": 116, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jul 31, 2002 (05:40)", "body": "Hi all Tomorrow I start a new feature in Robs Geo World by doing a run down of the Volcanoes of New Zealand. The series includes the following volcanoes: Auckland Volcanic Field Mayor Island White Island Edgecumbe Okataina Tarawera Tauhara Taupo Taranaki Tongariro Ngauruhoe Ruapehu Rob"}, {"response": 117, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jul 31, 2002 (11:18)", "body": "Wow, that's great that you're doing this comprehensive coverage. Neat!"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 31, 2002 (22:40)", "body": "Ongoing Hawaiian eruption is for all to see. There is percious little unknown of the most studied volcanoes on earth. Rob, are you going to have help? It sounds like something at which you would excel!"}, {"response": 119, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (07:17)", "body": "Hi all If you go to World Volcanism you can see the series there. World Volcanism is a Yahoo Group I foundered and Marcia helps run (been pretty busy Marcia - you are welcome to join us again)dedicated to the volcanoes of the world. This is an indepth look at one of natures greatest landscape creators. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldvolcanism Rob"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (08:33)", "body": "All I can do from here is cut and paste Kilauea updates! How sad it is finally doing something and I am thousands of miles from the closest active volcano! I remember how good your reports were. I snitched a few and posted them on Geo somewhere (I think they call it senility when I cannot rememberwhere I posted in 79 actual topics!) Thanks for putting them here.Here it is \"foreverr\" On Yahoo is it at the whim of Yahoo's masters! That is the reason I have mostly vacated their websites. Too frustrating!"}, {"response": 121, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (04:38)", "body": "Hi all This the long awaited first installment of the Volcanoes of New Zealand series. Rob ----- Mount Ruapehu is a large andesitic stratovolcano located at the southern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone (the zone of active volcanoes stretching from Ruapehu to White Island). It is best remembered for the spectacular but small eruptions of 1995-96 which lightly dusted much of the central North Island and whose plume was picked up on weather radar. These eruptions were the largest in New Zealand during the 20th century and were similar in part to the 1945 eruption. That eruption emptied the crater lake in a series of phreato-magmatic (involving water and magma mixing)explosions. After this a lava dome appeared in the crater but was blown to bits a few months later. The eruptions formed a debris dam over the outlet into the Whangaehu River and this collapsed in 1953 with catastrophic results. On Christmas Eve 1953, Cyril Ellis, a postal worker was driving home from work at Waiouru and he was about to drive across the Whangaehu River when he noticed a \"flood\" going over and under the road bridge. Realising there was a problem he got out of the car and went to investigate. What it was, though no one knew at the time was a lahar from Ruapehu's crater lake (the debris dam had failed after the refilling lake had overtopped it). Then he heard a passenger train approaching the nearby rail bridge. Realising the danger the train was in he scrambled up the bank and ran along the railway tracks toward the train waving for the driver to slow down. But it was too late. The train thundered onto a bridge that did not exist and sailed through the air. F ve carriages and locomotive landed in the lahar. Despite the very brave efforts of Cyril Ellis, it was a night without parallel in New Zealand railway history. 151 people were killed. The following day, the Queen of England who was visiting made a speech on the radio expressing her sorrow. Geologically Ruapehu began forming about 1,000,000 years ago. The volcano experienced a flank collapse about 9,500 years ago which has left a deposit visible from the road to Whakapapa village in the Tongariro National Park, and has had numerous mudflows pour down it's flanks over time. The summit is a complex mass of 6 craters of which a circular one with a lake in it is the currently active vent. Two more notable eruptions occurred in 1969 and 1975 which did severe damage to skifield facilities at Whakapapa, damage (1975)to the Tongariro power scheme. Future eruptions are likely to consist of more phreato magmatic events, that will generate lahars. Explosions of ash and steam may follow, or there could be lava domes built in the crater. These are usually destroyed, generating ash clouds posing a threat to aircraft, and also the Tongariro Power scheme."}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug  3, 2002 (00:24)", "body": "Want Julie to teach you how to post images to go with your text? She has become skilled at it. Wonderful series, Rob. It will benefit all of the internet from now on."}, {"response": 123, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Aug  4, 2002 (03:27)", "body": "Hi all Today we go to Mt Ngauruhoe in the second of the 12 part series on the Volcanoes of New Zealand. Mount Ngauruhoe is the near perfect stratovolcano in the Tongariro National Park World Heritage Area. The volcano is the youngest of the 3 in the national park and has a summit altitude of 7175 feet (2291 metres). It last erupted in 1975 and is the most likely volcano, in my opinion to erupt next in New Zealand. ---- Ngauruhoe is in many ways the Fujiyama of New Zealand in that it has a perfectly symmetrical stratovolcano, minus the parasitic cone. Ngauruhoe of now, is a young cone formed in the place of a larger proto-Ngauruhoe, which existed on the same spot. Proto-Ngauruhoe was destroyed about 2500 years ago and the present cone began forming shortly afterwards. The old Ngauruhoe was first formed about 260,000 years ago and would have been broader and taller than the the present cone. The new Ngauruhoe was too small to divert the massive ground hugging surge from Taupo in 186 AD, which just went over the top. The volcano is an andesitic cone that shares the same magma reservoir as Tongariro, but the two run to different schedules and while Tongariro has been dormant since 1896, Ngauruhoe had several eruptions in the 20th Century, the last ones being in 1974-1975. These eruptions were mainly explosive and hurled bombs and blocks in vulcanian explosions quite effortlessly from the vent. Small pyroclastic flows travelled down the flanks about 2 kilometres and the loudest explosions were heard 80 kilometres or more from the vent. The volcano erupted andesite lava in 1954, and the glow of which was visible by night during Strombolian eruptions for more than 150 kilometres. So what does Ngauruhoe hold for the future. Well, more eruptions are a certainty and whilst averages should not be taken for granted, the volcano has averaged eruptions every seven years since records began, and it has been 27 years since the last eruption. The volcano is likely to continue the occasional lava flow from the vent and will experience explosive eruptions from time to time. These are potentially threatening for aircraft flying in the volcano's vicinity, and anyone near the cone during pyroclastic surges. Rob"}, {"response": 124, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (02:03)", "body": "Hi all This is the Third installment of the Volcanoes of New Zealand series and I have a surprise in store for the middle of the series... But this is the turn of Mount Taranaki. Rob ---- Hi all Today in the third part of our 12 part series on the volcanoes of New Zealand we go to the province of Taranaki. Taranaki is a province in the western North Island dominated by a large andesite cone which goes by the name Taranaki. Taranaki province is home to several large towns, notably Hawera, Stafford, Waitara and the city of New Plymouth. The province is noted for it's dairy farming and petroleum/gas industry which has onshore and offshore fields to tap. As for the mountain. Well it is a stratovolcano with symmetry to rival pre-1980 Mount St Helens, Fujiyama, Ngauruhoe or Mayon. The volcano's summit is about 2518 metres above sea level and has a lava dome in the crater that is left over from the last eruptions in 1755. Activity has been present at Taranaki for about 130,000 years and major eruptions occur about every 340 years with the last one being about 247 years ago. A ring plain of volcanic debris from major flank collapses and lahars is visible from the air around Taranaki and in particular the National Park. On its flank is the Pouakai volcano facing New Plymouth, due north of the volcano. Pouakai volcano is one several older volcanic features near Mount Taranaki and it has a height of 1299 metres. The largest landslides have ranged up to 3.5km3 in volume have an occurrence frame of about 1 per 20,0000- 120,000 years. Pyroclastic deposits have been found in the cuttings near the Maero stream on the northwest flankss of the volcano, and they had carbonised vegetation suggesting very hot flows killed the bush. Egmont will erupt again and one of the concerns is that because the volcano has shown itself to be punctual, because we are now nearly within the 250-340 average repose period, it is possible the volcano is now loaded. Future eruptions could consist of pyroclastic flows from dome collapse and explosions starting lahars down the rivers draining the flanks and landslides of some size and description are a real possibility. Lava flows and lava domes are possible and being andesitic in nature the magma could vary between explosions and flows. Ashfall descent may be a problem for farmers milking cows and machinery while also polluting water supplies, and being hazardous to aircraft. Mount Taranaki clearly poses a threat. Rob"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (15:35)", "body": "Mt Taranaki http://www.kidszone.co.nz/places_mt_taranaki.htm"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (15:37)", "body": "Rob,this is great stuff. All that is lacking are the illustrations. How good is the picture I found? This one I posted of Mt Taranaki is much different from another I found which would NOT let me borrow it. You are the best judge of what is indicative of the area."}, {"response": 127, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (03:12)", "body": "Hi all Marcia dear, you are not going to get anything better than that. That is just awesome!! Rob"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (16:25)", "body": "I find good stuff on the net and borrow it. Makes life so much easier! Thanks, Rob. Happy to oblige until you become as expert as is Julie!"}, {"response": 129, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Aug  9, 2002 (03:39)", "body": "Hi all Today I move to the fourth volcano of the Volcanoes of New Zealand, and the last of the volcanoes in the Tongariro National Park. Mount Tongariro is the closest of the three to Lake Rotoaira, which is the focal point of two water diversion schemes for electricity generation. Not readily recognisable by many as a volcano, Tongariro has the renown Ketetahi hotsprings on its northern flanks, which make a good day trip. ---- Today volcano in our 12 part look at the volcanoes of New Zealand, examines Mount Tongariro, the third volcano of the Tongariro National Park. It is not a volcano most recognise immediately, being an impressive complex with a broad summit rather than a near perfect stratovolcano like Ngauruhoe. At 1968 metres it is the lowest of the three volcanoes in the Tongariro National Park, and also low enough that the pyroclastic flow from the great Taupo eruption in 186AD, swept over the summit a full 30 kilometres away from the vent. Tongariro is near the Lake Rotoaira intake for the Tokaanu power station, so any tephra eruption is going to cause major problems with the Tongariro Power Scheme. This hydro-electric power scheme has a two pronged system of intakes, tunnels and canals on either side of the Tongariro volcanoes. Tongariro began to form possibly as much as 1 million years ago and has dimensions of 13 kilometres in length and 8 kilometres wide. Initially it was probably a single massive cone rising much higher than the current truncated summit, that lost it's prominence through explosion and collapse. Tongariro is however known to be a complex overlapping series of vents. It has experienced considerable glaciation in some parts and since the last ice age renewed volcanism has revitalised the cone. Many youthful features appear like lava flows, craters, and cones. The Te Maari Craters are a prime example of younger volcanism because activity here began about 14,000 years ago and explosions have occurred intermittently since then. It has two notable craters called Upper and Lower Te Maari, the former forming in 1868 and named after the chieftainess Te Maari. It's last eruption was in 1896-97. The Lower Te Maari Crater oozed a major flow of andesitic lava that flowed 5 kilometres down the slopes. North Crater is a large crater that was infilled by solidifying lava lake which gives it the level appearance. The depression in the side of the infilled crater is an explosion pit at least 1800 years old. Central Crater is a broad depression near the centre of the Massif but it has clearly no recognisable vent and therefore owes it's name to the surrounding rims of the other volcanic features nearby. A basaltic flow is identifiable as an ash black fan shaped flow. Blue Lake Crater is a crater with a brilliant blue water lake, that is about 9700 years old. The crater had lava fountaining in it according to interpretation of the debris lying around the crater. It is inactive. Red Crater is a brilliant red shaded feature lying within an older scoria cone. Five flows have flowed from this crater since the Taupo event of 186AD, but none in historic time. It is also the most recently active vent in the complex to have erupted. The last event was in 1926. I have not finished the Tongariro volcano in this message because this is getting a bit lengthy. Shall finish of in the next one."}, {"response": 130, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Aug  9, 2002 (03:41)", "body": "CONT FROM LAST MESSAGE: The Emerald Lakes are at the foot of Red Crater and despite their proximity to the most recently active vent, the lakes are cold. Their colouring comes from minerals leached from the surrounding rocks, and are contaminated with sulphur and ammonium chloride. Oturere Craters are located at the head of the Oturere Stream, and the vent may have been one of the original on the eastern size. Since the last glaciation Red Cone at the head of the Oturere Glacier has been constructed. Several large lava flows poured from Red Crater and there was a dike that fed a slow flow at the valley head. Finally we have South Crater. This may not actually be a crater but a feature of glacial erosion. The most notable things to happen here are an explosion crater forming while flows of lava from Ngauruhoe and Red Crater have entered South Crater. Tongariro will erupt again and it had volcanic tremor as recently as this year, but it was not sustained or frequent enough to be considered problematic. However any future eruption will be violent as one has only to drive past the volcano and over the northern flanks to see the boulders the volcano has tossed out over time. Tongariro will be a massive threat to the world renown fishery on the Tongariro River and to the Tongariro Power scheme. Future eruptions can range from lava fountaining of andesitic lava to tephra fall and possible pyroclastic flows. Some flooding or local lahars are possible as well. Tongariro is clearly a volcano with a dangerous potential. Rob"}, {"response": 131, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Aug 13, 2002 (07:43)", "body": "Hi all For those of you who have seen \"Volcano\" and wondered what it would be like to see a volcano form in an urban area, you might want to read this: ------ The Auckland Volcanic field as some in this group (Wayms_99, and szerelem_02)know very well, has something odd about it - the city of Auckland which is the largest in New Zealand, lies directly over top of the only volcanic field in the country. Auckland is a city on a Geo-bomb. The last eruption was bigger than every preceding eruption in the volcanic field put together and this was the eruption of Rangitoto about 1200 AD. Not many cities can boost of having their own volcanic field with up to 48 cones, explosion craters, maars, and islands. Auckland can. It can also boost of reasonably expecting the next volcano to form within 200 years. Therefore today I choose to visit the urban volcanic field of Auckland in the hope that what gets printed here will do someone a huge favour in the future. About 60,000 years ago, at a time when the sea is much lower and the icy grips of an Ice Age are upon the land, in the ground under a dense forest canopy magma is rising. As it forces a path to the surface it makes contact with ground water leading to a violent explosion. The explosion hurls skyward, soil, rocks, and forest leaving a gaping hole in the ground and a battered forest looking much the worse. Within days or even a matter of hours magma is oozing out of the cracks to start fountaining, creating scoria cones which merge into a single mound and then lava flows start isssuing. They flow down the gently sloping valley in which the volcano is forming. It is followed by many more over the following days and these form a plateau of basalt. Now there is only a central crater erupting and it scatters ash into the sky. Eventually this stops as well. Steam drifts from the cooling lavas, but this volcano is extinct. The above account based on Geoffrey J. Cox's Fountains of Fire (1989), is based on knowledge of Mount Albert, one of the 48 known volcanoes in the Auckland area. Mount Albert was born in the early phase of the Auckland volcanoes which lasted from about 60,000 years ago to 18,000 years ago. A second phase started about 18,000 years ago and ended 9,000 years ago. Then a silence of several thousand years settled upon the field. When it ended about 800 years ago, a volcano bigger than all the preceding events put together, appeared. Rangitoto has a volume of at least 2.3km3. It is an island in the Hauraki Gulf identifiable from just about anywhere in the city and with a summit elevation of about 259 metres. Rangitoto is probably extinct, like the 47 other one-shot events preceding it. Auckland volcanoes have a number of eruption styles ranging from simply forming explosion pits with tuff rings, to building elaborate islands of reasonable size like Rangitoto. Rangitoto would have been violently active initially because it formed undersea and broke to the surface. But during eruptions once it reached above sea level, lava fountaining in the crater and broad flows would have been the most likely style. Other types included forming explosion pits where magma made contact with groundwater and went boom. They often became extinct after just forming the pit, but some went on to erupt lava and form scoria cones welded with lava. But some were violent - Three Kings hurled tuff that heavily showered the area around the vent and built up a large cone of scoria and tuff. It then got blown to bits before lava emerged and built the trio of cones that gives the volcano its name. So what can we expect from this volcanic field in the future? Well, first off, one can reasonably expect that the next volcano will appear with 200 years. It could take any one of a number of forms, as mentioned above. To monitor for signs that the next volcano is on it's way, there are seismometers in the Waitakere Ranges, and in the Auckland Regional council to pick up tremors, and tiltmeters to measure any displacement associated with magma rise. ---- In 10,000 years time I think there will be a case of a developer wanting to build something in central Auckland. He is drilling through masses of hardened lava and stumbles on something VERY strange (oh my god it is a mangled CAR!!!).... Rob"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (23:58)", "body": "INSTITUTE OF GEOLOGICAL & NUCLEAR SCIENCES LTD. GeoNet Data Centre, Lower Hutt, New Zealand http://www.geonet.org.nz The following earthquake has been recorded by GeoNet: Reference number: 1909352/G Universal Time: 2002 August 17 0821 NZ Standard Time: 2002 August 17 8:21 p.m. Latitude, Longitude: 37.76\ufffdS 176.80\ufffdE Location: 10 km north of Matata Focal depth: 150 km Richter magnitude: 6.0 Likely to have been felt widely from Whakatane to Wellington, particularly along the east coast of the North Island."}, {"response": 133, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (20:33)", "body": "Hi all I resume the tour of the volcanoes of New Zealand today, by going to Mayor Island in the Bay of Plenty. Mayor Island is a volcano with a not very well known geological history, but known as a significant place for Maori who valued the obsidian found on the island. ---- Mayor Island is located in the western Bay of Plenty on the western margin of the Taupo Volcanic Zone, the zone of volcanic activity stretching from Ruapehu to White Island. It is one of the least well known features of the volcanic zone and one of the most colourful in terms of eruptive behaviour. This makes Mayor Island unique in many ways because it's different eruption styles and the physical setting of the island combine to create many unique landforms. The volcano has had most styles of eruption during it's life span, with Hawaiian, Strombolian, Plinian and sub-Plinian styles occurring. There have been phreato-magmatic eruptions involving water and magma making contact and causing a steam explosion. Dome collapse and lava flows are also a feature of the volcano's history. Perhaps the most notable feature of the volcano is deposits and a caldera formed in an eruption about 6340 years ago. The eruption involved the formation of ignimbrite and was one of only a few to have an impact on the mainland. Mayor Island has had three distinct eruptive phases that initially began about 130,000 years ago. Phase 1 lasted from about 130,000 years ago to 36,000 years ago and consisted of the formation of shields that involved at least 12 explosive eruptions and 9 lava flows. Phase 2 lasted from 33,000 years ago to 8,000 years ago. It consisted of a minor caldera collapse, and at least one sub-Plinian eruption. This phase ended with the big caldera collapse 6340 years ago. The third and current phase starts with the caldera collapse and continues to this day. So what can we expect from Mayor Island in the future? Hard to say, since it has had the works in eruption styles and quite a colourful past to go with it. Since it has had them several times in the last 130,000 years one can expect in the worst case, a caldera collapse and thus a tsunami risk. However there is also the possibility of lava fountaining, ashfall deposits and pyroclastic flows possibly forming ignimbrite. Rob"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (00:33)", "body": ""}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (00:34)", "body": "That is really an interesting volcano and the URL I found for the best source of material outside of our own Rob, includes many photos and diagrams. http://www.gns.cri.nz/earthact/volcanoes/nzvolcanoes/mayorisland.htmb"}, {"response": 136, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Aug 26, 2002 (06:26)", "body": "Hi all As the helicopter flew across the Bay of Plenty, a volcano slowly materialised out of the haze, which covered the horizon. From afar, no steam plume was visible, as is sometimes the case and White Island today looked quiet and drowsy. The chopper flew in over the crater, to give the four passengers a view of the volcano, before looking for a spot to land. After the blades had stopped whirling five people emerged from the helicopter and into a hostile like environment where no bush was visible. No living things inhabited the barren brown crater, whose vents were 2 kilometres away. It was the start of the volcano era for one person in particular: It was a cool morning when the Glennie family drove from the Bombay Hills of Auckland, to Whakatane for something few people are lucky enough to have experienced. The thought of walking around in the crater of an active volcano is not the most appealing thing to most people, but to me, my brother and my parents, it was a dream. White Island is one of the not very many volcanoes where you can walk right up to the vent in relative safety. So anyway about 10AM we arrived in Whakatane, and had lunch. We then drove to a property about 5km from Whakatane from which the tours were being run. After signing the required paperwork and being instructed on the safety equipment on board we were airborne. It was a 30 minute flight out to the island, and the weather was spot on. Only the odd cloud about, gentle seabreezes and warm. As we approached the island a small plume became visible. Flying over the crater and looking down on a volcano into whose breached crater we were now descending. I looked down on the island wondering how long it would be before I got to repeat my dream of being in the crater of an active volcano. Once on the ground we were given hard hats and gas masks. White Island was active enough that it could send bits of tephra flying without warning so the hard hat was compulsory, and the gas masks were for up near the crater lip where wind directions within the crater could change without warning. Not a problem, but.... I am an asthmatic. We began walking across a barren lifeless crater criss crossed with drainage runoff channels from the crater. Some of them were deep enough that you had to climb down them or do the long jump. On three sides there were high crater walls, only on the outside of which did life exist. Behind us was the breached crater entrance and the sulphur works. This was awesome and we had not even reached the lip of the vents! Further on we came across a fumarole. Only a little one but the temperature was probably 80.C. Nearer to the vents we started dodging the ever-shifting gas clouds wafting from them and used our gas masks whenever the wind changed direction. The first interesting vent we came to had been discovered by TV One while filming out on the island for a documentary and thus was named TV One. Noisy Nellie was another vent. This was a steam and gas gusher whose roar was deafening close up and you had to watch the colour of the steam closely for streaks of ash, incase something was up. But not today. I had to observe it from a distance because a wind direction change had driven a gas plume back toward me. I had the mask on but because there was an erosion gully near me I had to walk TOWARD the vent and then turn away to get out of it. So I hung back incase my asthma flared. We would have collected ash, but the volcano had not erupted in recent months so no new deposits were lying around. Of great interest on the way back from the crater was the ruins of the sulphur works on which we now focus. They had been set up to get sulphur from the crater, but White Island was not having any of this carry on. In September 1914 the crater wall slumped and then fell into the crater. It plugged the vent, and for a short time, all activity ceased. But not for long. Pressure was fast building up, and the internal plumbing had water trapped in it. This quickly built up and in short order an explosion violently cleared the crater flinging out rocks, mud, ash and water. It quickly mobilised as a lahar that poured down the gullies and straight through the sulphur works. All 11 men there were killed by a short lived but fast moving lahar. Today one can see the wharf off which the sulphur was loaded, mangled buildings reduced to a skeletal state and old railway lines along which a cart was run onto the wharf for loading. The trip to White Island was a fantastic experience that I would jump at the chance to repeat. This is a once in a life time sort of thing that is not at all dangerous if done at reasonably stable volcanoes where the crater is degassing freely 24 hours 7 days a week. When this degassing stops, the problems start. Rob"}, {"response": 137, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug 26, 2002 (22:01)", "body": "I've been reading everything you have written, Rob. You are doing a fantastic job on New Zealand's volcanoes. I didn't know much about any of them except Ruapehu, but now thanks to your informative explainations on them I am learning a lot. Keep up the great work. I look foward to reading your next one and your finale. Hmmmm.....I wonder...."}, {"response": 138, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug 26, 2002 (23:25)", "body": "If I were to go to New Zealand on a ten day 'geo\" tour, what would I do? What would be your recommended itinerary?"}, {"response": 139, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (03:26)", "body": "Hi all Well first I would get my bearings. I will assume that the 10 days is the Geo tour and does not count for arriving in the country, getting your bearings together and getting over jetlag. I shall assume you are doing this in our Summer (December-March). Day 1 would be spent in Auckland. Here I would suggest you go up the Sky tower and survey Auckland to see what the volcano distribution is like. Auckland has 48 one shot event volcanoes that formed and died. They are a mixture of little cones, explosion craters and a couple islands. Not all are visible, but there are a few volcanoes you can drive to the summit of: Mount Eden, One Tree Hill, possibly Mount Albert. Not sure about Three Kings. Explosion craters are found at Pukaki, and Pupuke but I am not sure about whether they still exist as such. If you are really adventurous you can spend a day on Rangitoto Island, and do the mainland volcanoes in the evening. Day 2: Drive south east to Rotorua. Rotorua is a city in an extinct caldera and has magnificent geothermal features (mudpools, hot pools, geysers a couple small mud volcanoes), which are a feature because of the natural ground water plumbing system. Spend the afternoon at say Hells Gate or Whakarewarewa (Foh-kah-ray-wa-ray-wa). Day 3: The following day, go to Te Wairoa village which is a partially excavated Maori village badly damaged by the Mount Tarawera eruption in 1886, and spend the morning there before going on an afternoon Safari up Tarawera. Day 4: Fly to Wellington. Spend the afternoon at Te Papa Museum which has a very good section on the natural forces which shaped New Zealand. Allow at LEAST 3 hours for the Museum. Alternatively make a day trip to Taupo, visit the volcano centre near Wairakei, and maybe go on a cruise around parts of the lake (bookings can be made in Taupo - population 15,000). While you are on the cruise, you might be taken to a special place of great significance to a volcano lover, but about which I am going to be a meanie, and not say anymore on this place until I complete the Volcanoes of New Zealand series. Note I would fly to Christchurch and skip Wellington in this case on Day 5. Day 6: Spend in and around Christchurch. For an afternoon drive I suggest going to Sumner which has a sort of microclimate and then dropping into Lyttelton, nestled in the crater of an extinct volcano. If you want, there is the Gondola to go up. It goes to the summit of the Port Hills and gives on a clear night, a glorious view across the city and the plains to the Southern Alps. Day 7: Drive to Greymouth at a fairly leisurely pace. Suggest following the Old West Coast Road and having a look at a large braided river (the Waimakariri River). A couple good spots to do this, and marvel at the vast alluvial plains on which you stand. Then head for Arthurs Pass, through some superb glaciated scenery. You cross an active fault at the top of Porters Pass, and it is visible from the road. In Arthurs Pass I would have lunch. After lunch you continue on to Greymouth where I would spend the night. Day 8: Drive to Franz Josef in the morning and spend the afternoon at the glacier before having dinner at one of the cafes in the township. If you are earthquake minded, walk down onto the river bed of the Waiho River and see if you can find a fault expression in the river bank anywhere. If you can, you have found the Alpine Fault. A hint: Fault is within 50 metres of the road bridge and should run through the motor camp on the south side of the river. Day 9: Drive to Fox Glacier, and onto Lake Matheson, where there is a billion dollar image visible on the surface of the lake, before driving back to Greymouth. Day 10: Retrace steps from Greymouth to Christchurch. Note this is just a short tour of a few places of geographical/geological interest in New Zealand, and I would recommend you set aside a month at least for touring. Rob"}, {"response": 140, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (04:31)", "body": "Hi all The time is approaching when I will conduct the Grand Finale to the Volcanoes of New Zealand tour. It has been great fun writing the descriptions of the various volcanoes and the personal experiences based on my own contact with the volcanoes. I will put up Part 11 which will be Tauhara in World Volcanism later on tonight, and then on Friday or Saturday Night I will display the mysterious 12th volcano. The next volcano to be entered into Rob's Geo World is Edgecumbe, which is Part 8 on the Volcanoes of New Zealand series. Rob"}, {"response": 141, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (04:33)", "body": "Hi all Driving inland from the Bay of Plenty coastline, one notices a solitary steep sided volcano looming on the horizon. Mount Edgecumbe, a relatively little known volcano has been found. It is a volcano not active in historical time, but it is a prominent feature with a summit 821 metres above sea level. It is however part of a vast volcanic centre called Okataina. But it is as an independent volcano, that we shall focus upon Mount Edgecumbe. The volcano last erupted about 2500 years ago, and has two small explosion craters in the summit. Large hydrothermal craters are situated at the western foot of the volcano, and these are thought to be about 200,000 years old (based on geothermal activity at Kawerau, which is nearby). The hydrothermal craters are thought to have erupted about 15,000 and 9,000 years ago. Edgecumbe is a volcano of dacitic and andesitic lavas, and has two large domes near the western foot of the volcano, not far from the hydrothermal craters. Edgecumbe dacite tends to have about 63% Silica content and this would result low to high level explosive eruptions. Despite the lack of activity from Edgecumbe for the last 2,500 years, the relatively short time span that this time period represents suggests there is still more to come. Edgecumbe can be expected to erupt andesite and/or dacite lava's which will add to the steep sided cone. Some lava's from Edgecumbe have flowed as far as the Tarawera River, and future flows may divert it. Alternatively it might produce pyroclastic flows of the latter lava which may mean explosive eruptions and tephra fall are possible. Reports of Edgecumbe's demise are probably exaggerated. Rob"}, {"response": 142, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Aug 29, 2002 (20:42)", "body": "Hi all When most people think of a volcano, they think of an inverted ice cream cone of rock with the ice cream on the flanks as snow. Your normal volcano looks very similar to Ngauruhoe, pre-1980 Mount St Helens, and Fujiyama. So it is a great surprise to find that you are nestled in a volcano with no clear outline. It might be unsettling to know that the volcano whose crater you are in, is one of a fortunately very rare type. Driving around the lakes east of Rotorua you think the volcanoes are the rhyolite domes of Tarawera, Haro Haro, and the cone of Mount Edgecumbe to the east. It is surprising therefore to find ignimbrites from a volcano covering the area. But the source of the ignimbrite is not readily visible. Maybe it dissappeared. Maybe it was dispersed or destroyed in later events, or maybe it is buried under debris left behind from events in which up to 500km3 of material was thrown out. But it is there, it is dormant, and it's name is Okataina. After a break, I resume the tour of the New Zealand volcanoes. This Part 9: Okataina Okataina is not readily visible as any individual volcano, but yet it is there, hidden from all. With no single crater readily visible on the surface, the untrained eye has a point to make when it cannot distinguish any notable features. To be fair other volcanoes have grown in the caldera like the rhyolite domes of Tarawera, Mount Edgecumbe and Ngongotaha, plus a host of lesser known domes, flows and craters. These have filled in part of it, and lakes cover several craters. The Pink and White Terraces - sometimes called the eighth wonder of the world - existed until 1886, when Lake Rotomahana was raised by the eruption of Tarawera. All these are features within a vast caldera that has seen some of the largest eruptions in New Zealand history and which has dropped ash as far away as the Chatham Islands. Okataina was born in violent fashion about 50,000 years ago when a series of six very large eruptions excavated about 500km3 to form a vast caldera. The caldera has dimensions of 18 kilometres by 25 kilometres or 450 kilometres square. These eruptions were devastating in form and covered larges swathes of the central North Island in sheets of pumice and ash, which welded into ignimbrite. A second series of eruptions between 50,000 and 24,000 years ago was somewhat smaller, but still managed to transform part of the caldera, and drop ash and pumice over parts of the central North Island. At least eleven eruptions have occurred at the Okataina volcano in the last 21000 years and have been of rhyolitic or basaltic composition. The last event was in 1886 when Tarawera had a basaltic scoria eruption. More on that in Part 10. So what types of eruption does Okataina exhibit? The eruptions of the last 21,000 years have been mainly rhyolitic in composition throwing out pumice and ash, but also extruding lava domes of rhyolitic composition (Tarawera). Okataina caldera however can produce rhyolitic ash and pumice in most events and ignimbrite when the volcano is in a full blown caldera event. There is no way to time the next eruption, but that signs of unrest include earthquakes generated by rising magma. Seiches of water in the several lakes that help make up the caldera maybe an indicator that earthquakes are occurring, while changes in gas emissions and composition might indicate what the magma is doing, and whether the vent is blocked. A large eruption at Okataina is fortunately very unlikely, but small to moderate size events that are locally destructive are probable. Rotorua, a popular tourist destination and city of considerable cultural significance is only 10 kilometres from the caldera. Add to that some of the finest farmland in New Zealand, the Kawerau paper mill, several towns including Tokoroa, Taupo, Whakatane, Kawerau, and others with a combined population of over 40,000 people are all nearby. Any eruption at Okataina will be destructive, however small it is. Rob"}, {"response": 143, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Aug 31, 2002 (06:47)", "body": "Hi all How many people here have climbed a lava dome, be it extinct or dormant, or active? The next part of the Volcanoes of New Zealand series is focussing on the dome volcano of Mount Tarawera, with its three domes. The largest eruption to occur since Europeans settled the country, occurred at Mount Tarawera, which is due east of Rotorua, and part of the Okataina caldera. So, moving on now to I want to introduce the three rhyolite domes of Tarawera - Wahanga (Wa-hung-a), Ruawahia (Ru-a-wa-he-a), and Tarawera (Ta-rah-we-ra). Tarawera is a low squat set of domes with truncated summits that reach the unimpressive height of 1111 metres above sea level. Rising out of the eastern shore of Lake Tarawera, Mount Tarawera is a youngish volcano which first began to form about 18,000 years ago. This eruption consisted of a mix of basaltic and rhyolitic magma being erupted. The rhyolitic magma contributed to the steep sided domes that make up the triumvirate, while the basalt is probably the lava that formed the thick flows which terminate as a steep slope dropping into Lake Tarawera. On June 10, 1886, at about 1.30AM the people of Te Wairoa and other villages were awoken by a deafening boom, as Tarawera was rent from one end to the other, with a line of vents opening from the domes, across Lake Rotomahana to the Waimangu valley. The locals were terrified. A chain of fiery clouds soared skyward from the vents and massive explosions of steam mud and lake water were raining mud down upon the people cowering in the McRae Hotel. People who bravely (or stupidly)went outside to see what the racket was, were showered upon by ash from the volcano, mud from the chain of craters erupting through Lake Rotomahana, and saw lightning doing a brilliant dance in the towering eruption columns. From up close, it seemed like Hell. From afar, it gave rise to fantastic stories of the Russians trying to invade New Zealand, for the explosions sounded like cannon in Auckland. Hell is probably a more accurate description of the eruption, because as it progressed, the atmosphere had the sulphur dioxide smell of falling ash, roofs and walls caved in burying people, chunks of scoria shattered windows and brilliant lightning lit the sky. As dawn broke over the central North Island, Tarawera quietened down, but hydrothermal activity along the rift and in Waimangu was just starting. 153 people were dead and hundreds more were injured. Three villages including Te Wairoa were in ruins, and for the most part buried in a mass of ash and mud. The 1886 eruption was a painful reminder to the people of the time, that they lived in a geologically dynamic environment whose forces achieve spectacular and often violent results. The eruption of Tarawera had largely ended by 6.00AM but the hydrothermal activity in the newly formed rift of vents (22 in all dispersed in a line 17 kilometres long), was just beginning. This would continue for another several years and claim several more lives, and damage more property. Explosions at Frying Pan flat, and Echo crater highlighted the danger of building near hydrothermal vents. On April Fools Day 1917 Frying Pan flat exploded without warning, dropping super heated rocks and mud on a cafe for tourists, that was on a ridge overlooking the vent. The building was wrecked and all 3 people inside were killed. Future eruptions at Tarawera could be either rhyolitic or basaltic in terms of magma erupted, and may include scoria eruptions like 1886 or rhyolitic dome building. Basaltic lavas may also get as far as Lake Tarawera and pyroclastic flows are possible in dome building events. Future eruptions at Tarawera are inevitable and a hazard is posed to the people of Rotorua who live close to the volcano, the people of Kawerau which is downwind from the domes and also the people near the coast, because the Tarawera River drains Lake Tarawera. Rob"}, {"response": 144, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Sep  1, 2002 (21:54)", "body": "Hi all What do people think of the narratives I have written to date, and do people have questions about the volcanoes of New Zealand as yet? Bearing in mind there are two more still to come and the last one redefines the meaning of the word \"GRAND\". Rob"}, {"response": 145, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (05:25)", "body": "Hi all The eleventh volcano in our tour is a dome volcano. This is Mount Tauhara, to the northeast of Taupo. It formed at least 65,000 years ago during one of the eruptive phases in the Taupo caldera. There is a story from Maori folklore about Tauhara but I cannot find it, and have no idea where to look for it. I searched through all my reading material about NZ volcanoes and cannot find it either. So I will post the geological history of Tauhara and continue looking. Today we come to the 11th volcano in the tour of New Zealand's active and potentially active volcanoes. Tauhara is a lone dome volcano about 15 kilometres north east of Taupo. It is dacitic in origin, with the lava being viscous in nature. The dome has no record of explosive eruptions and it is thought the lava would have oozed out quietly and solidified. Tauhara is the most significant dacite in the Taupo volcanic centre, where 98% of all material is rhyolitic in composition. Tauhara formed thousands of years ago, about 65,000 to be precise, and has had 7 distinct phases judging by the lavas erupted from the volcano. It might erupt again, and therefore reports of it's demise are exaggerated. There is not much published data on Mount Tauhara and I was unable to find anything that the IGNS did not say, in my books and what online information I knew of. Rob"}, {"response": 146, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (05:51)", "body": "Me again And now we come to the Grand Finale of the Volcanoes of New Zealand series. It is a time to reflect back over the last eleven volcanoes, with their quirks, their stories and their history. It has been immense fun writing the guide to the volcanoes here and I have learnt a lot about them as well and given you a personal rundown of a few of them. But now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to introduce a volcano that is deceptively calm at the moment, and lives in the most unlikely place one would expect a volcano. It is a volcano that is little known to most, and not super well understood by those in the know. It has a history of massive variation in eruption style, and when I think of it's last eruption, I hear a distant drum beat, an attention riveting sound. It starts out softly, growing in intensity, before fading. You hear it again, closer and more urgent this time, with the chilling call of a Scottish war pipe in the back ground. The drum and war pipe fades, but then there is an ice cold groundswell as string instruments join in, revving up the orchestra... Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Taupo (Tow-po)volcano. Rob"}, {"response": 147, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (05:56)", "body": "Drum roll please ---- I plan to do this magnificent volcano, in a two part series which firstly looks at the geological history of the volcano, and then a narrative based on the last eruption of Taupo. Around 330,000 years ago the central North Island was rent an eruption from several vents which poured ash and pumice skyward in a grand spectacle that would become a style typical of the larger eruptions from the newly born Taupo volcano. Although the details of the first 300,000 years of eruptive history for the volcano are sketchy, it is possible to concentrate on events in the last 27,000 years in some detail. It has be deduced that there have at least 28 eruptions from Taupo in the last 330,000 years, a date based on an exceptionally massive eruption from the Whakamaru centre. This is one of several large centres of major volcanism in the central North Island, which include Taupo and Okataina. About 150,000 years ago activity formed a pumice rich ignimbrite which is found around Acacia Bay and the Mount Tauhara dacite. Several basaltic scoria cones were also formed, but information is very incomplete because most deposits from this phase are still buried. Further activity followed between 65,000 and 27,000 years ago with the older eruptions producing a coarse pumice, while newer activity produced a fine ash, that geologists think suggests the eruption was through lake water. It was about 26,500 years ago that the biggest display of volcanism took place. The dimensions of this event, the Oruanui event are colossal - something in the order of 300 cubic kilometres of ignimbrite was erupted. This was in addition to 500 cubic kilometres of pumice and ashfall plus an unknown volume of material left in the lake. Last year the estimated size of the eruption was raised to a figure of 1200 cubic kilometres of material all up. This includes the ash and pumice fall, the ignimbrite that formed as the superheated ground hugging surges sped across the landscape, the vast volume of material dumped in the lake. It adds to the sum, a volume of fine grain material that got into the stratosphere and carried around the world. But it was not the sheer size of the eruptions that eventually earned the volcano it's notoriety. It was violence - sheer violence demonstrated quite graphically by the most recent event, the infamous Taupo eruption, 186AD. For in the summer of the year 186AD (a season suggested by the pollen sample of the trees taken). The eruption, suggested by some to be one of the most violent in the world in recent geological time, initially only affected the immediate area around the vent, which was above water. However as the magma was expelled, the roof of the magma chamber caved in. The vent sunk below the water line immediately allowing water to pour into the vent. With huge volumes of water entering the magma chamber, the eruption suddenly and rapidly intensified. Based on deposits that came out, it has been suggested that in a day 20 cubic kilometres of material was expelled, and now it worsened even further. The simply unbelievable had become the almost inconceivable, as a further 30 cubic kilometres of material soared skyward. Not surprisingly gravity had something to say, and with impossible speed the vast bulk of the airborne material came straight back to earth. It hit the ground with a thud more like the shockwave of a nuclear bomb and transformed into a frictionless gas filled mass rolling across the landscape. The effects on wildlife, and vegetation were apocalyptic. Pollen samples taken from trees in the area of devastation that extended from Waiouru to Rotorua, showed that originally a bracken covered the land, but a forest reappeared in 200 years. The difference being the new one was dominated by Matai and Totara, instead of Rimu and beech. With vast volumes of volcanic debris being washed down the rivers, and the soil having been fish, aquatic species, birds, and ground grubbers would have had a hard time initially trying to adapt to a change in the landscape. Since that last catastrophic eruption, Taupo has lain dormant and may well does so for another few hundred years yet. But let there be no mistake about Taupo. It will erupt again, but the most likely events are likely to be small to moderate size, yet explosive dome building events, possibly with small pyroclastic flows. Occaisional scoria cones of basaltic origin are possible. What ever happens in the future however is likely to be destructive to local people. Aircraft may be diverted, farming, and most every day activities disrupted to some extent in the immediate vicinity of the volcano. Water supplies will be polluted and electricity generation may be affected by the ash getting into machinery. Fortunately, a caldera volcano is likely to offer significant warning of unrest, and there are numerous ways of keeping tabs on indicators. Ground deformation may occur as magma rises in the volcano, and earthquakes caused by rock breaking as the"}, {"response": 148, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Sep  6, 2002 (07:23)", "body": "Hi all So, people. That was the history of the Taupo volcano. Coming shortly is the narrative for one of the greatest eruptions on earth. But I ask you what have you learned about the volcanoes of New Zealand. What do you want to know and do you want to get up close and personal with any of them? For me, priorities are to see Taranaki up close, and explore a few more of the Auckland volcanoes. Get some scoria from the craters of some of the Auckland cones and some andesite from the Tongariro volcanoes. I have learned that there is much more to our volcanoes than just the visible ones. Reading the GNS information pages on the volcanoes and their histories, it is obvious that even I know not enough. As for getting up close and personal, I would happily do it with any of the volcanoes I mentioned. Rob"}, {"response": 149, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (17:34)", "body": "For Rob, an illustration of \"Tarawera's Crater\""}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (17:39)", "body": "Taupo to follow as soon as I can find an image. http://www.laketauponz.com/wtsd/volcanic.asp"}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (17:40)", "body": "Impressive, Rob! Thanks! Let me know when and if you want more images! I'll be happy to help!"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (17:42)", "body": "Do a bit about geothermal areas of New Zealand, Rob. Or shall I? If I do it, I will put it in Geo 30."}, {"response": 153, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Sep  8, 2002 (04:25)", "body": "Hi all I will happily. I like the image of Wairakei Geothermal field - with the second oldest geothermal power station in the world. Wairakei generates 152 megawatts of electricity, and is the larger of two major geothermal plants in the North Island. Wairakei relies on water from the Waikato River on whose banks the powerstation is located. Being about 5 kilometres north of Taupo, Wairakei is part of the Craters of the moon thermal reserve, where you can find The water is fed by a pumping station for injection In the back ground I think the mountain is Tauhara, and Lake Taupo is in the upper left. Wairakei power station has an extensive pipeline network and a notable feature of the pipes is the loops every 305 metres. These allow for steam expansion. The other power station that is geothermal is Ohaaki (O-ha-key). Ohaaki is a geothermal station about 40 kilometres northwest of Taupo and it is defined by the massive 105 metre high cooling tower, which is visible long before you reach the power station. Ohaaki has a generating capacity of 102 megawatts and is the newer geothermal station. It was completed in the late 1980s and when I visited it in 1994 it had been fully functional for about 5 years. Ohaaki also has the expansive network of steam pipelines extending from two fields on either side of the Waikato River. Rob"}, {"response": 154, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Sep  9, 2002 (06:43)", "body": "Hi all A few images of New Zealand volcnanoes to come soon, hopefully. But in the meantime, enjoy these: http://community.webshots.com/photo/153370/196042 - an explosion crater in rural country near Rotorua. I am not sure if it is extinct, but I would not entirely count on it. http://community.webshots.com/photo/33191818/33192320qpxhrZ - Tongariro volcano from the summit. Looking north. http://community.webshots.com/photo/153370/196036 - looking north over the Rotorua caldera, one of about 8 in the central North Island. Fortunately this one is probably extinct. Rob"}, {"response": 155, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Sep 14, 2002 (06:47)", "body": "Hi all Craig moved out, so I have no internet connection (it was run through his computer, and the family one will be set up on Monday). Because of that I am doing this from a place in town. So I will be offline until AT LEAST Monday if not longer. Do not panic. In the interim I am getting some things I have been procrastinating on, done, so do not worry. I am alive and fine, just in a quiet patch. Oh, and by the way, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences now has a webcam of Ngauruhoe. You can now see one of our two \"Fujiyama's\". http://www.gns.cri.nz - geonet or volcanoes for more. Rob"}, {"response": 156, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Sep 17, 2002 (05:49)", "body": "Hi all You recall me mentioning Craters in post 153? Well it erupted today. Craters of the Moon is an active Geothermal area about two kilometres from Wairakei geothermal field and 5 kilometres from Wairakei power station. Rob ---- Geothermal eruption blasts tourist site Tourists visiting a geothermal area near Taupo got to see a little more than what was advertised in the brochure. After 18 months of dormancy, the \"crater of the moon\" lived up to its name, showering thick grey ash over a popular walking track. In a spectacular eruption, the geothermal area coated a 200 metre area late on Tuesday morning. The site is visited by around 100,000 tourists every year but the blast has now made it barely accessible. The Department of Conservation says the eruption has peaked but it is keeping an eye on it. Locals say it is the largest eruption they can remember. Published on Sep 17, 2002"}, {"response": 157, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Sep 18, 2002 (04:30)", "body": "Hi all The Craters of the Moon eruption saga continued today and I understand it has thrown out between 2-25 centimetres of ash from the vent. The eruption started yesterday when a vent that had been dormant for 18 months erupted ash and pumice in an explosive event that took people by surprise. The ash and pumice is not representative of a current volcanic eruption but of the vast deposits left behind from eruptions at Taupo, Okataina, and possibly Oruanui (O-ru-a-nu-i). The sudden resumption of activity has come as a surprise and today the number of people visiting the reserve tripled. Unless new vents open up the danger is low, because the devastated area is off-limits. Rob"}, {"response": 158, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Sep 23, 2002 (05:38)", "body": "Hi all SPRING IS HERE!!! The glorious northwester was going for 4 days last week, and dropped about 300mm of rain over 5 days in the mountains. I have been quite busy at University with my research group putting together our Geog 309 research into public perceptions of the earthquake risk in Christchurch. This coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday I will be in Wainui with the group to present to the Canterbury Development Corporation, the results of the research. Umm... what else? Oh yeah, I am pleased to say that later this week I will be meeting a PhD student doing his degree in medical geography on Christchurch's air pollution problem, who is from Texas. Jeff Wilson. Anyway, thats all from me. Peace love and volcanoes.... Rob"}, {"response": 159, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 23, 2002 (05:50)", "body": "What part of Texas is Jeff from, Rob?"}, {"response": 160, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (05:10)", "body": "Hi all Will find out. Watch this space for two things. The response to the question just asked, and (drums please)..... the long awaited narrative to the Taupo eruption. I am in the process of entering the narrative onto the computer, and will let you know about it in the next few days. Rob"}, {"response": 161, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Oct 12, 2002 (06:52)", "body": "It was a gloriously sunny day as a bird swooped in low over the crystalline waters of Lake Taupo, before levelling of and landing on the sandy beach.. To the south, three volcanoes rose serenely above the hills. Far off in the distance big white puffy cumulus clouds grew with on the back of air convection. The clouds soared into the skies above the lake and the fantastic ignimbrite cliffs. In the foreground, kids ran and frolicked in the water, and on the beach picking up pumice pieces, throwing them into the cool blue waters of a lake that stretched for almost as far as the eye could see. Offshore boats towed jet skiers, sat in the water with fishing rods dangling over the edge, or took excited screaming kids biscuiting. Their parents watched over them as they sunbathed in the summer sun. This was heaven to them, and rightfully so. Not one of them knew, or cared that the place many call heaven has a geological history of stunning violence, revered by geologists, respected by all volcanologists, and a heada he for planners. But for all it\ufffds beauty, Lake Taupo is a lake inside a massive volcanic caldera. A caldera nearly 700 square kilometres in size and more than 500 feet deep in places, formed by a series of massive eruptions over a 330,000 year time span, as well as many smaller events. The most notable of the major eruptions was the massive Oruanui eruption 26,500 years ago. That eruption rivals in size the great American caldera eruptions. The Oruanui event discharged 300 km\ufffd into the air as ash and pumice fall, while another roughly 500 km\ufffd was flung across the land in huge ground hugging surges. Finally 400 km\ufffd that was left in the vent, or found dispersed out to sea, rounds of the equation. A staggering 1200 km\ufffd had been discharged. After this event, Taupo fell silent for a while, before embarking on small-scale dome building. For centuries it lay calm and serene. The forest returned, the bird life and ground creatures returned. All seemed perfect \ufffd until the spring of AD 185. This is the story of the most famous eruption, an event 1800 years ago that caused fantastic sunsets halfway around the world in Rome and China, which astronomers must have wondered about. No one saw the eruption up close, which is just as well considering the climax was an apocalypse that obliterated a 20,000 square kilometre area of the central North Island, decimating the populations of every living thing in the area, and having a severe impact on the climate in the Southern Hemisphere. This is the story of one of the greatest eruptions known to mankind. ________________________________________________________________________________"}, {"response": 162, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Oct 12, 2002 (06:56)", "body": "Early signs Deep down in the Earth during the summer of AD 186 strange things were afoot. Swarms of micro-tremors few and far between at first, but increasing in intensity and frequency were persistently rising beneath Lake Taupo. Far before the age of volcanology and scientific instrumentation, only the wildlife picked up the strange happenings or noticed changes in the physical parameters of the environment around them. Far before the curiosity of humans wondering what was driving the changes, this slipped past virtually unnoticed. At first it was just the odd quake, scaring the daylights out of their young, or the waft of stinking hydrogen sulphide from a gas vent in the nearby thermal reserves. The problems were only occasional and rarely troublesome. But then ground deformation began to displace the ground, steepening the slopes of the hills around the volcano and in particular the land immediately around the vent. Slowly but surely the monster was awakening. Slowly but surely a most terrible resolve to obliterate the pristine land, was filling a volcano with an ice-cold temper. For the land was slowly deforming, slowly swelling as gas rich magma rose from deep within. The magma was rhyolitic in composition, a gas rich mix prone to exploding rather than flowing quietly. Micro-tremors were persistent with each one signalling rock being broken by the rise of the magma within. Steam vents were puffing out increasing volumes of gas, including sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide. As the magma approached the surface the ground began to crack and crumble. It began to warm with the approach of the underground furnace, tremors were now visibly swaying trees on the surface, causing seiching in the lake and loosening rocks on the cliffs. Then a noisy explosion broke the crust sending rocks and mud flying in all directions, as the magma, on making contact with ground water, immediately exploded. The birds, the ildlife, and the fish bolted or died from the bombardment of scalding mud, and steadily rising water temperatures. The trees began to take on the appearance of those in a war zone \ufffd shattered, and mangled. But this was only the beginning. For things were slowly but steadily deteriorating. The initial explosion was followed by further events as the magma began contacting the water on a broad front, showering mud, rocks and ash across the landscape. As the explosions continued, the composition of material gave way increasing to a muddy shower of water-saturated ash. These explosions were hardly beginning to settle when things suddenly took a decisive turn for the worse\ufffd CONT PART 2"}, {"response": 163, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Oct 12, 2002 (07:01)", "body": "CONT FROM PART 1 As the first of many rising pulses of magma was expelled the ground began to subside. Not far away lay the beach of Lake Taupo, and beyond that a vast reservoir of cold lake water. A chemical equation would show something like this: Cold lake water + magma = EXPLOSION!! And that was precisely what was about to happen. The cool water was separated from the vent by only metres of increasingly cracked ground, slowly subsiding. Time was fast running out for every living thing within 90 kilometres from the vent, for as the distance between the water and the vent diminished, more like the time left on a time bomb before it explodes, the time was rapidly heading in the same direction. The difference is this would be on a much grander, and scarier scale. This would be on a scale so huge, that any man made weapon this powerful would be declared criminal by each and every nation on earth. But Nature plays to Natures rules, and her rules say that this is just fine. As the summer progressed, the seismic drums were heard to be beating ever more menacing tunes, and from the brass there now came an ominous note in the pace and power of the eruption. As the mud eruptions subsided the first massive explosion rocked the landscape, confirmation of the seismic disturbances, the ground deformation, and changes in gas being indicators of the impending eruption.It reverberated through the forest, punching at the eardrums of the wildlife, and lacerated with sonic booms. Ash fell like snow starting fires, and choking the ground grubbing creatures with a smelly sulphurous residue. Nearer the vent volcanic bombs, blocks and pumice fell straight back into the vent, only to be blasted into fragments as the next pulse of magma made contact with the air and exploded. Out of the vent rose a towering column of ash, and pumice 25 kilometres high and spreading on top, carrying ash eastward. It was laced with lightning, with thunder that clapped rumbled and rolled through the sky. Any remaini g wildlife now fled, convinced that the end had come, as it already had for so many birds and fish The powerful eruption had penetrated the upper atmospheric jet streams and ash was now being carried toward the Chatham Islands, some 500 miles to the southeast. The more the magma was sucked out of the reservoir, the more the ground subsided. The more the more the ground subsided, the closer the magma got to the lake water. Yet day-by-day, the eruption had gone on in a crescendo that grew ever louder, and whose climax was now approaching. CONT PART 3"}, {"response": 164, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Oct 12, 2002 (07:06)", "body": "CONT FROM PART 2 By night it looked like Hell. A massive, brilliant fiery red column of pyrotechnics, laced with forked lightning doing a tango through the clouds. It was accompanied by deafening claps of thunder, near constant ash fall, and almost continuous tremors. The air smelled of sulphur from the deluge of ash. By daytime the land looked desolate \ufffd a grey barren wasteland, devoid of life surrounding the vent. A vent now ringed by cracked ground, shaking with every injection of magma. For the distance between the lake water and the exposed vent was now very small and the existing cracks were deepening and widening. Taupo would not hang on much longer. Then the water began seeping into the vent. Uh-ohhhh\ufffd. No one heard it flash to steam. No one saw the explosion that dug a hole into which million litres of water now surged. The ground around the vent started to subside from the cracking ground with a steadily increasing covering of debris. A trickle of water from saturated debris began to flow back into the vent, slowly at first but steadily increasing in volume. Earthquake levels by now were fever pitch and an almost continuous succession of events, which were so close together, that no human would have known the difference. Like Bolero in the closing minutes, the noise of the eruption, an ever more intense ear splitting crescendo rose above the cacophony of volcanic bombs whistling through the air, the roar of the monstrous Plinian column climbing to the heavens, and the rumble of the non stop seismic activity. So it went on for a few days, during which time, by all accounts a human could have been forgiven for thinking it was the end of the world\ufffd And then, in an instant, all hell broke in an indescribable racket. Like a bomb going of underneath your feet, the ground shook with a fury not seen, and then literally exploded. The water had done the unthinkable. It had made contact with the magma undergone and the whole lot \ufffd the water, the magma, the overlying debris - had simply gone BOOM!!! The ground lurched massively, The column began to splay surges across the lake as it expanded outwards and upwards. It soared and soared through the atmosphere, climbing to impossible heights with dizzying speed enough to make anyone nauseous. As it climbed the heavier material, mainly pumice, bombs and blocks began raining down once more upon the battered land. But now at the climax of the eruption a new phenomena was about to play it\ufffds hand. Column collapse. As the cloud punched it\ufffds way far into the stratosphere, the law of gravity began to influence the eruption column. The rate of ascent began to slow, but not fast enough. The sheer volume of material that had been pumped out, simply could not stay airborne, and it now began to descend at break neck speed. Down it went. Down to the ground, and down through 55 kilometres of the atmosphere. Then it hit the ground, HARD!! Driven on by an instantaneous shockwave, the collapsing column seemed to implode downwards, and then explode outwards. It swept outwards at breath-taking speeds sweeping high over the summits of Tongariro, Pihanga and the infantile Ngauruhoe. Its immense heat welded a rock together over an area bigger than 20,000 square kilometres. When peace finally descended on the devastated land, the view from the ground, and the air would have been heart breaking. From the future sites of Waiouru and Rotorua, some 170 kilometres apart, the North Island resembled no-mans land. A land that had been covered in lush forest, that rang out with a myriad of bird calls, fresh cool blue waters, and with majestic mountains on the southern horizon, looked like the moon. A lifeless barren grey wasteland, pock marked with craters from falling debris, steaming and sizzling away as the masses of heated debris began the long gradual cool down. The volcano was silent, having expended it\ufffds energy once more. The wildlife was dead or scared into fleeing for safety. No more did the Kakapo boom from the ground floor while scavenging for insects and warms to feed on. No more did the rimu forests of old stand proudly, and no more, did the lake look like a mirror of beauty. CONT END NOTE PART 4"}, {"response": 165, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Oct 12, 2002 (07:07)", "body": "CONT FROM PART 3 End note Today, the visitor would be hard pressed to say that such an apocalyptic event occurred. For the forest returned within 200 years, though it comprised matai and totara instead of rimu. The lake now holds an abundance of fish, of both native and introduced species. Human development of the land began with the arrival of Maori and was furthered by Europeans. Around the lake towns accommodating a total of nearly 20,000 people have sprung up, with dairy farming, tourism, forestry, power generation and a world renown trout farm all earn big dollars. No one knows what the Taupo volcano will do in the future, except that future eruptions are guaranteed. The volcano has had a variable behavioural pattern with quiet dome building events at one end of the scale, small to moderate explosive events in between, and the occasional massive caldera eruption. Volcanologists have no idea what style the next eruption will come in, how big it will be or when it is expected. But there is one thing about which, everyone who knows the volcano\ufffds past agrees on: Taupo is only dormant, and one day in the future, though maybe not for another 100 years or more, it will erupt. Of that, they are certain. ---- Rob"}, {"response": 166, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Oct 13, 2002 (06:19)", "body": "Hi all So, what do people think of the last and the greatest of the New Zealand volcanoes? Rob"}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 14, 2002 (00:42)", "body": "Whew!!! What an experience! Having lived close to a volcano for many years, I am less than thrilled at the thought of doing so ever again. However, it allowed me to feel the grit and the heat and hear the sounds of what lapilli and other ejecta is like... and how frightening it can be."}, {"response": 168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 14, 2002 (00:43)", "body": "Oh, BTW, your writing is excellent. You seem to have really been there. That takes a lot of talent. Thanks! Extraordinary!! I'll be reading it again and commenting more."}, {"response": 169, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Oct 27, 2002 (20:04)", "body": "Hi all Yesterday was a rarity in Christchurch weather. Yesterday we had something not seen for more than a decade.... T O R N A D O Yesterday was a day some orchardists would rather forget, but a day of great excitement for weather enthusiasts, as a hailstorm carrying golf-ball size hail swept over the city on a disturbed westerly airstream. The storm arrived about 4PM and was announced by two things: 1)A flash of lightning that cut power to three suburbs for about 5 minutes. It was followed by a deep bass rumble of thunder. 2)A deafening racket preceding the hail. For a full minute at most places in Christchurch a noise that was uniform in pitch was heard preceding the hailstorm. Most knew that the hail was going to be bad when they heard the noise coming toward them, a noise that grew in volume. It was the only thing we could hear at work immediately prior to the storm. Rob"}, {"response": 170, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 27, 2002 (21:36)", "body": "We had some heavy rains and a power outage here also. We didn't have any deafening roars though. Sounds pretty intense, Rob."}, {"response": 171, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Oct 28, 2002 (05:06)", "body": "Hi all I have copied a picture from Stuff.co.nz and I want to put it up here. Can Marcia or Julie show me how to FTP or do for me if they have not the time to teach me? It is of the tornado... Rob"}, {"response": 172, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  7, 2002 (12:49)", "body": "Email me and I'll do it for you. mailto://terry@spring.net"}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (18:53)", "body": "We had three tornado warnings and a long evening in the basement last Sunday. We seem to have missed the worst of it, though 33 people were killed by the storm's tornadoes. Today is snow flurries. Rob, did you get to see the funnel cloud? I'd like to see one - from a distance!"}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (18:57)", "body": "Rob, it is just easier for you to send me the images and I will do the FTP stuff and send you the link you need to post the pictures. That's what Julie does!"}, {"response": 175, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (19:13)", "body": "I'll do anything I can to help. Email sent to Rob."}, {"response": 176, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (13:11)", "body": "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROB! HOPE YOU HAVE A SUPER, AMAZING, AWESOME, FANTASTIC, WILD, CRAZY,AND MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY! HOPE ALL YOUR BIRTHDAY WISHES COME TRUE. LOVE AND HUGS, ROB."}, {"response": 177, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 2002 (05:19)", "body": "Hi all HUGS and thanks. I have done well, I got 2 6-pack Canterbury Draught, an egg shaped piece of Kyalinite, incense sticks, a bottle of Appletise (apple flavoured fizzy), and a book with advanced ditigal maps of New Zealand and an accompanying text on the geological processes for that area. Nature gave me an earthquake measuring 5.3 in the North Island, at a depth of 110 km, and quite close to the volcanic caldera of Taupo... Rob"}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (21:27)", "body": "Oh NO!!! I missed your birthday and now, probably Julie's because my list is on the computer in Hilo. Argggggggh! Belated Hauoli Na Hanau, Lopaka"}, {"response": 179, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jan  9, 2003 (04:00)", "body": "Hi all SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR.... This is the story of how I and a lady from Chicago came to within hours of meeting each other in a common love for geology, yet kept apart by series of unforseen circumstances. I met Jennifer Wischer in October after scouring the list of World Volcanism for more people to put on my list of IM contacts. Jennifer is a geology student and mother of one who has been involved in planning from the day I met her, until last Friday for a geology trip to New Zealand in conjunction with Victoria University in Wellington. Right up until about last Friday she said she was not sure if she would be able to meet with me at all. But on Saturday she IM'ed me and we agreed to meet at 6.PM on Monday in town. All of a sudden things were suddenly looking incomparably brighter, and I was on cloud nine. HOW THINGS CAN CHANGE IN 36 HOURS At 11AM on Monday I get a phone call. I guessed that it was Jennifer, and that she was saying she had arrived in the country, would I meet her at 6PM? Well.... It was Jennifer, but the news was not what I wanted to hear. She was stuck in Honolulu because of a medical emergency on her flight. Could we postpone 24 hours. I said yeah, and to phone back when she did get in. So, I stayed home all day because she said she could be on the move within minutes. Okay, at 2AM she touches down in Auckland and at 3AM she is through customs, and a thoroughly wacked girl is finally in New Zealand for a six week geology trip. At 8AM she is in a taxi bound for the airport and thinking she will get there with time to spare, she is stunned to find the flight is already gone. More delays as she rebooks on another flight. Finally at 2PM she gets into Christchurch, a full 27 hours behind time, and then gets another shock. Her professor announces the plan of action for the remainder of the day. Dinner was after a briefing at 4PM, and everyone had to attend.... You can imagine the despair she felt when she phoned me at 6PM to say that she could not make it. I only had to listen to the changing tone of her voice to understand that she was as disappointed as myself. To make it even worse, she would be on a bus to Queenstown at 7AM and thus would have needed an early night, anyway. When I got off the phone my shoulders felt like they had heavy weights on them, which I could not get off. Was it just me, or did I detect her voice almost breaking when I said bye? I shall not find out for at least a couple weeks, and I now have to wait until 2004 to go see her myself in the United States. It was bad in more ways than one because I also wasted two days waiting to see what was going to happen, and I am now resigned to a 2004 meeting date. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rob"}, {"response": 180, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jan  9, 2003 (04:03)", "body": "Me again The only consolation is I am now just 24 points away from completing a 102 point Bachelor of Science degree in Geography, and that I can afford to add Jennifer onto the list of people I visit in the US during 2004. Rob"}, {"response": 181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  9, 2003 (20:20)", "body": "*HUGS* Rob...how disappointing that must be."}, {"response": 182, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 2003 (04:09)", "body": "Hi all Oh well. She will be much the wiser about NZ when I see her, and we can have a nice long conversation about Kiwi plate tectonics. Rob"}, {"response": 183, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 2003 (04:23)", "body": "Me again Anyway, I have to mention the town of Franz Josef. As you well know from earlier posts it sits on the Alpine Fault, and is bordered to the south by the Waiho River. Well, FJ is a town in trouble. The Waiho River carries a huge volume of sediment on it's short turbulent trip to the Tasman Sea, and the sediment has reached dangerous levels in FJ, where it has raised the river bed several metres above the surrounding countryside. This huge discharge of sediment makes the river a dirty brown at all times, but now the problem is how to help several businesses on the south side of the river. For in an earthquake or prolonged rainstorm there is a risk of a debris flow pouring down the valley from the glacier or a landslide plugging it, forming a lake. Obviously any landslide forming a dam is not going to last long, and certainly not in a land where uplift is 30 millimetres (1.2 inches)per year and rainfall 6,000 millimetres per annum. So you see, there is a problem. FJ Glacier is only 2 hours walk from the town, if you were to walk up the river from the township, or five minutes drive and an hour's walk from the end of the access road. With the Southern Alps all around you in the valley, three faults within 3 kilometres of the town and a river that can flood after just a couple hours heavy rain, the Waiho River is not a place you want to hang around once things start happening. Rob"}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 19, 2003 (20:45)", "body": "Rob, is there a webcam on this river, too? Yes, there is definitly a problem"}, {"response": 185, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jan 22, 2003 (02:57)", "body": "Hi all I emailed the Civil Defence manager for the West Coast Regional Council about it. Am awaiting her reply. Rob"}, {"response": 186, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jan 26, 2003 (05:00)", "body": "Hi all To jolt you all out of your complacency: Reference Number: 2019057/G Universal Time: 2003 Jan 25 21:30 NZ Daylight Time: 2003 Jan 26 10:30 Latitude, Longitude: 40.43\ufffdS, 176.14\ufffdE Focal Depth: 30 km Richter Magnitude: 5.6 20 km east of Woodville Will have been felt throughout the southern North Island, particularly in Woodville, Dannevirke, Weber and Porangahau. ---- There have been occasional clusters of earthquakes in Wairarapa too, with notable clusters in the 1930s and 1990s. The former was a catastrophic series of earthquakes ranging in magnitude between 7.2 and 7.9. The biggest of them hit Napier and Hastings on February 3, 1931 and killed 256 people in Napier and Hastings. The climax was in 1942 where two earthquakes just FIVE WEEKS apart measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.6 rocked Masterton. Rob"}, {"response": 187, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jan 27, 2003 (02:45)", "body": "Hi all I have to tell you that the earthquake did some damage. It shook stuff off the shelves in several stores in towns around Woodville which is the closest town to the epicentre of the earthquake. No word on aftershocks. Rob"}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 23, 2003 (21:03)", "body": "All I know is that Aukland looks lovely with the America's Cup races on the sea. What a pleasure to watch them. There is nothing quite as graceful as wll trimmed sailboats dueling on a cobalt sea. For those in the USA, it is carried on ESPN 2"}, {"response": 189, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, May  6, 2003 (06:08)", "body": "Hi all I have a new group in Yahoo for anyone who goes there: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tsunami_warning For those are wondering what tsunamis are, we have a subject in Geo for them but at the moment my brain cannot remember what the number is. Tsunami's, volcanoes and earthquakes all go together which is why I also operate groups for the other two as well. You do not need to be a member of any of them to see what is going on, but you do if you want to participate. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldearthquakes http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldvolcanism You can find all major volcanic and seimic events reported in these groups, and they are richly stocked with geoscientists - Hannah Mirabueno, Raymond Patrick Maximo, Peter Rinkleff, Sandi Harrington - none of whom you know unless you are John, Marcia or Julie (you three have all been in the groups at some stage or another). But I Hannah and Patrick are PHIVOLCS (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology) staff, while Peter is USGS. I am not sure what Sandi is doing (Marcia, Julie). Hannah is an interesting girl. She happens to have done her MSc on Mayon at Canterbury University under the guidance of Jim Cole, who has been giving my GEOL 113 lecture group lectures on volcanism. One of her colleagues is still at Canterbury. Rob"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  7, 2003 (00:28)", "body": "You can subscribe to email notifications of tsunami alerts. I do! Welcome back,Rob! Congratulations on your new group."}, {"response": 191, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jun  2, 2003 (06:52)", "body": "Hi all Looking good down here. We had decent sized floods pouring down the Rakaia in early and mid May with the latter peaking at 1700 cubic metres per second. This was the result of badly needing rain finally showing up and the rain will go some way toward relieving the worst electricity crisis in New Zealand for a decade. New Zealand is largely a nation of dams on rivers when it comes to producing electricity since it is the cleanest and most easily built form of power generation here, so any drought in the South Island high country or central North Island is bad news. The Greens are hopeless. They have no vision whatsoever on how to improve the problem other than power conservation. It has not apparently dawned on them that there are only a limited number of rivers we can really dam, if people still want to go fishing on some of the best braided rivers in the world. Greens being Greens they oppose gas and coal fired stations even though there has been considerable improvement in burning technology now, that the coal or gas being used burns fairly cleanly, and they ignore the fact that 55% of all Greenhouse gas here is actually from sheep and cows farting. New Zealand is windy - you go to Turakirae Heads east of Wellington on a windy day and you will probably be blown into Cook Strait. The people of Wellington are aware of this and the Regional Council is looking to \"Okay\" a wind farm on the heads to supply Wellington. There is support for a wind farm near Christchurch on Banks Peninsula where most days have wind. Rob"}, {"response": 192, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun  2, 2003 (19:24)", "body": "Rob, what about the usage of geothermal energy, such natural occurring hot water? I'm phrasing this badly, this type of energy is used to produce power in Iceland. The reason I ask is because, like Iceland, New Zealand is quite volcanic and it would seem that hot springs would also be found in both places. Also, I remember when my aunt and uncle visited New Zealand and sent us back a postcard with a picture of bubbling mud on it. Apparently there is a very place in New Zealand famous for its hot mud and hot springs. I just can't remember the name of it."}, {"response": 193, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jun  3, 2003 (08:04)", "body": "Hi all There is a zone of volcanic, geothermal and seismic activity 50km wide by 240km long that stretches from Mount Ruapehu in the south to White Island in the north. This is called the Taupo Volcanic Zone and it has geysers, mudpools, and hotsprings within it's boundaries. The TVZ also has a nearly full range of volcanoes - domes, calderas, stratovolcanoes implying a similarly near full range of magmas: andesites, dacites and rhyolites are most common, but there may be basalts there too. The most likely place you are thinking of is Rotorua, which is in a caldera volcano and has an extensive system of geothermal plumbing. You can find geysers, mudpools and hotsprings all within the volcano, which is shaped like a circular depression that houses Lake Rotorua. Geothermal energy is already heavily used. I would be reluctant to put further strain on something already supplying 300 megawatts of installed generating capacity, and although the idea is novel it is nothing new - the Italians were the first in the world to recognise geothermal sources can supply electricity, and New Zealand was second. If you take out superheated water faster than you can reinject water to replace it, then the field will run itself down faster. That being said if we stopped relying on the geothermal fields for hot water like Rotorua does, then maybe another 100 megawatts of installed capacity could be possible. But coal is a relatively untapped option, and despite it's reputation for being dirty, there is burning technology available that reduces the sulphur dioxide gas emissions drastically. New Zealand may not have a choice unless we accept nuclear power or stumble on a huge gasfield to replace the Maui fields. Besides most of our Greenhouse gas that the Greens are so anti comes from sheep and cow fart anyway, and we already have an idea of how to reduce it. Rob"}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  9, 2003 (22:29)", "body": "Good question, Cheryl. Does the water turn tepid or do the machines it drives stall out? I never though of that. We always have suffficient rain, though we are currently having a mini-drought while Honolulu had heavy flooding and a mini tornado yesterday!"}, {"response": 195, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2006 (08:42)", "body": "Kia Ora Been a bit since I posted something to do with NZ's dynamic geology. So, my next post is dedicated to one of the more fascinating hazards in New Zealand. During the 2 years that I have been gone, I have had some unique opportunities to understand geological hazards on multiple levels. Some of these experiences I will share here. Rob"}, {"response": 196, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2006 (08:43)", "body": "Hi all I wrote this for a New Zealand group on Yahoo that I belong to last year. But it is as relevant today as it was when I wrote it. ---- Franz Josef is a beautiful place without any doubt, and has a growing tourist and agricultural industry that relies on the dynamism of the area's natural processes for its economic survival. The tourism industry in the area is dominated by the Franz Josef glacier, which comes down to only 300 metres in elevation and the several lakes which offer good fishing. The township of Franz Josef is located on the true left (north bank)of the Waiho River, which drains from the glacier and is the main service town for the area as well as hosting the burgeoning tourist industry. Agricultural practises include dairy farming on the plain of the Waiho River, below the Waiho Loop (a glacial feature which I will explain later)as well as on the south side of the river. State Highway 6 runs through the town and is the only road connection with the rest of New Zealand. It handles hundreds of tourist buses and cars every day, and crosses the Waiho River over a Bailey bridge before heading to Fox Glacier (heading south)or Whataroa (heading north). You often wake up in the crystal clear autumn and winter mornings, breathe in the West Coast air, and think that you are in heaven - for the duration of your visit that would be a fair comment. You have the mighty Southern Alps rising immediately east of the township, to impressive heights of more than 2500 metres which are covered in dense rainforest below the snow line. You have a glacier descending to an altitude that few glaciers except in polar regions achieve. But there is a problem... or two. For all its natural glory, Franz Josef in a sense of geological hazards could not be sited in a worse place. This is a place so dangerous in the long term, that plans are afoot to try to move most if not all of the town to safer grounds. The very forces that created the glacier, the Southern Alps and the plain on which so much economic activity is now taking place, are also quite capable of levelling the township and making the Franz Josef area uninhabitable at terrifyingly short notice. So, what are these problems and what threat do they pose? On the true right (north bank, looking downstream)of the Waiho River is a short, steep but surprisingly large river catchement which is barely visible amongst the vegetation overlying the area. This is the Callery catchment and it comes out just upstream from the road bridge. This catchment provides most of the runoff that enters the Waiho River during rainfall events. Due to the steepness of the catchment and its narrow gorge, there is very rapid runoff during rain which affects the Waiho River within an hour. North of the Waiho and Callery catchments, cutting around the edge of the Waiho Loop is the Tatare River, which is almost identical to the Callery catchment in terms of hydrology, geology and catchment size. The Tatare River is relatively small in comparison with its southern neighbours, but in catching Franz Josef in the crunch it plays a crucial role. Running the length of the Southern Alps is a large faultline, which marks the boundary of the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates. Onshore it marks a zone of the boundary where the two plates are locked in place on the surface, while grinding past each other underneath. This is the Alpine Fault, which is much like the American San Andreas Faultline (California)and in many ways behaves just like it. Along the boundary huge stresses are building underneath, which is occasionally released in earthquakes - the last on the Alpine Fault was about 288 years ago in 1717 and the window of time between Alpine Fault earthquakes is about 250-350 years. These earthquakes mostly likely range between magnitude 8.0-8.3, which would be felt all over New Zealand. The Alpine Fault runs straight through Franz Josef township, and dominates the geology of the whole area. Because of the timeframe it operates on, the risk is especially severe since it is not in the human memory and no one has any idea of just how bad things will be in an earthquake. Because it dominates the geology of the FJ area, any earthquake on the faultline can completely alter the behaviour of the Waiho, Callery and Tatare catchments as well as all human activity for months or years to come. These two features, as well as the processes behind them, combine to create a host of problems that can only be avoided by moving away from them. They include hazards not obvious to the uninformed person and those who cannot think on a geological time scale. The temporal and spatial patterns of the geology and meteorology in the area have created a landscape that is as dynamic as it is beautiful. ---- I will continue this later, and examine how they create the numerous hazards that make Franz Josef one of the most dangerous spots in NZ to live in the long term. Rob"}, {"response": 197, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2006 (06:35)", "body": "Hi all This is the second part to my examination of the geomorphological situation as I understand it in Franz Josef, New Zealand. ---- When the precipitation and the uplift combine, it creates a lot of sediment that builds up quite rapidly. In narrow steep gorges the sediment would not so much build up as it would be carried down into a more gently sloping basin, where build up is possible. This becomes dangerous because the sediment build up can raise river bed levels above any earthworks that man has done to control the river, and the sediment outflow can exceed the relatively minor removal efforts that mankind makes. This is the case at Franz Josef where sediment discharge into the Waiho is raising the riverbed behind the stop banks to the point that the riverbed is now .5m-1m above the ground level on the other side of the stop bank. The sediment discharge comes from a number of sources - glaciation in the Waiho, freeze-thaw action in all catchments, rainfall, rainfall induced landslides, earthquake induced landslides and cross-fan sedimentation from the Tatare or Waiho/Callery catchments. All of these can spike the overall rate of sediment discharge and force the modification of the geomorphological processes in the area. An example of one potential threat was demonstrated graphically in December 1995, when there was a heavy rainfall event which dumped 600mm over just three days. The heavy rain caused many slips as well as a huge buildup of water under the Franz Josef glacier, which had to suddenly give way when the head of water became too great. In a period of only a few hours 500000 cubic metres of sediment was blasted out through a gaping hole in the true right corner of the glacier, which completely changed the direction of the river in the valley and raised the valley floor noticeably. It also knocked out the northern approaches to the Bailey bridge and started eating back into the northern side of the river. This was what geologists and geographers call a glacial-lake outburst flood - short, sharp but very intense. I now list the full litany of dangers in and around Franz Josef in no particular order of importance: 1)The Waiho avulsing to flow into the Tatare - due to sediment rearranging the riverbed the WHOLE river changes course and flows into the Tatare River, with aggrading of the channel moving progressively upstream (the erosive qualities carve out a narrow channel which works its way upstream and eventually carries the whole river). 2)Landslide dambreak in the Callery - very scary because the catchment is sufficiently steep that the whole life cycle of the dam including the break out occurs before anyone even knows it is there, which may cause substantial loss of life. A bad rainstorm that drops a couple hundred millimetres of rain in short order could cause a landslide which plugs the river, which then builds up to dangerous levels. Its proximity to Franz Josef and the direction of the likely breakout would put the bridge, motor camp, hotel accommodation and the lower township in jeopardy. 3)A rainstorm induced flood destroys the stopbank on the southside permitting a breakout onto farmland, through the airfield and threatening the state highway. 4)A rainstorm induced flood causes the stopbank to be destroyed next to the lower Franz Josef township, threatening the town and the State Highway. FUTURE THREATS: The future is dominated by one thing, and one thing only. Sooner or later an Alpine Fault earthquake will strike Franz Josef dead on, with a geological violence not witnessed in New Zealand since 1931. An Alpine Fault earthquake will have massive effects on the sediment supply, and the entire geology and hydrology of the area. For months or years after the Alpine Fault moves, there will be considerably increased sediment discharge from the hundreds if not thousands of slips that will come down in the Southern Alps. They will block rivers only to have them breaking out hours or days later moving substantial volumes of sediment in very short periods of time. Even a smallish rainfall event in this case would not have much trouble moving considerable volumes of sediment. Aftershocks will play their own role bringing down yet more landslides, and - yes, you guessed it - further increasing the pool of sediment waiting to be flushed onto the land that Franz Josef sits on and the Waiho flood plain. Debris avalanches may thunder out of the Callery catchment and glacial outburst floods would be quite conceivable in the Waiho River. The discharge in these events would far exceed anything recorded since humans decided that recording water levels and sedimentation was important, and on top of all of the other hazards these can affect both sides of the Waiho River. ---- My friends. By all means buy property around the West Coast - it is a great place and the people are really cool, but if you are buying near Franz Josef think twice about doing so since there is no short or long term guarantee of "}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2006 (12:49)", "body": "Rob! Welcome back! Please don't go away again for so long. I would love to hear what you have been doing. I have also been watching earthquake and eruptive activity in your area and wondering if you were in the field for such events.] More comments as soon as I read what you posted. I'm currently worried about the Hayward fault since there are at least three people in that area whose lives directly affect my happiness. Lubricate those faults and keep them inching along. It seems the Hayward has locked up and there are definite signs of stress building. Maybe I should just go there and submit to the forces of nature with those I love."}, {"response": 199, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2006 (10:00)", "body": "It's great to see you posting again, Rob."}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2006 (10:37)", "body": "I will be heading back to the Hayward fault in May and in June to \"Tornado Alley.\" Then back to Hayward fault again in August. I step lightly and quickly. And I hope fervently that anyone who flies on the planes on which I fly are wanting to get to the destination alive as I am."}, {"response": 201, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Sat, Jun 17, 2006 (08:19)", "body": "Kia Ora Had heavy light snow last Monday around Christchurch, which did not stop much. However it caused substantial damage further south with more than 50,000 people without power at one stage. Snow piled up in drifts more than half a metre deep and nearly a metre along fence lines. It cut road and telecommunications, which some people have gone for nearly a week without now. Most properties have power back on, which is just as well because a second polar blast is coming ashore and will bring snow down to 300 metres (where it was forecast to fall last time). The army and airforce were deployed earlier this week to ferry in supplies and check up on those places that linesmen had not been able to reconnect. But... It is turning into a race against time in Canterbury with 4000 people still without power after last Mondays snow, and another barrage of snow and hail laden southerlies coming ashore tonight and tomorrow. Many are also still without communications after six days as the snow damaged the phone lines and numerous cellphone towers around the province. Time is the biggest ally and the biggest foe - more time gives the farmers and lines crews more of an opportunity to get things back in running order. Given that this low pressure system has an element of unpredictability about it, time is also the biggest foe as increases the time the low pressure system that is driving the bad weather, to strengthen. Many farmers were caught out on Monday as the low pressure system deepened after 2100 hours the previous day when it had been dark for 3 1/2 hours and too late for many farmers to realistically take action. By the time dawn came on Monday morning many were under nearly 2ft of snow, with drifts piled 3ft on fence lines. Originally many thousands were without power, though through bringing in extra crews from the North Island and working the other crews 16 hour days many were restored by the time of writing this. The army and airforce are also flying in supplies and checking up on rural communities still hampered by heavy snowfall. However, the snow is still more than a foot deep in many places and, with another 15cm or more being forecast at this stage, Monday June 12 looks like being repeated on June 19. Real welfare issues will exist if this expected southerly blast is all that it is thought to be. Rob"}, {"response": 202, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2007 (17:04)", "body": "I wonder what the outcome of Rob's 2006 problems were. Right now Parts of the UK are under water. It was Europe's turn all winter with flooding in Germany. I guess when people want to live where the rivers are nearby, floods happen. They do here, as well, in Kentucky."}, {"response": 203, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2007 (20:01)", "body": "It seems to be the same around the world. Look at Texas."}, {"response": 204, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2007 (20:03)", "body": "People in California lose their houses to fire or mudslides about every five years but they thurn around and bould them in the same place."}, {"response": 205, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2007 (20:07)", "body": "I can't get into most of your sites. What are you celebrating?"}, {"response": 206, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 31, 2007 (19:05)", "body": "Celebrating? Ah that I am about to be a published author. More on that in a bit."}, {"response": 207, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Thu, Aug 30, 2007 (16:59)", "body": "Tell us more! Also wondering about Rob."}, {"response": 208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 30, 2008 (20:55)", "body": "As I said elsewhere, Rob is busily working as a geologist. I really need to check in what capacity."}, {"response": 209, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Mon, Jul 21, 2008 (20:23)", "body": "yeah, what's up with Rob? Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 65, "subject": "Black Holes - in theory and fact", "response_count": 114, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2002 (20:20)", "body": "*woohoo* (marcia, do you think we should copy and paste the relevant parts of our discussion on black holes here?)"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2002 (20:53)", "body": "Yes! I was just thinking of suggesting it. Please do so, Wolfie!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2002 (21:28)", "body": "ok!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2002 (22:58)", "body": "It looks like Wolfie went to bed or off to tend the rest of the pack. I'll do it in the morning if she has not."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (00:25)", "body": "The home-made black hole http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_523000/523161.stm"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (00:27)", "body": "This link comes with all levels of knowledge - even down to my humble understanding. Black Hole FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/bh_faq.html"}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (14:51)", "body": "ok, from space science news topic: Marcia (5 Feb 02): Black matter is the rubble left over from the Big Bang for which we cannot account. It is out there but we can't seem to track it. It occupies a far greater part of the universe than the known matter does. Missing mass hiding in galaxy clusters: Some of the Universe's missing mass has been revealed hiding in clusters of galaxies. Astronomers have discovered previously-unseen clouds of hot gas being pulled into the clusters. The gas has far greater mass than the observable stars in the galaxies and so may make up an appreciable fraction of the mass of the Universe. Astronomers have puzzled over the 'missing mass' of the Universe for decades. The problem is that what we can see in the Universe only accounts for about 10% of its the total mass. Ninety per cent of the Universe is invisible and can only be detected by its gravitational effects. A team of astronomers used the highly sensitive Nasa Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer satellite to detect radiation coming from the vast spaces between galaxies. They believe the UV radiation is coming from hot gas that is being sucked into the core of the galaxy cluster from outside. It is something not seen before. According to Dr Richard Lieu, of University of Alabama: \"The UV radiation represents a genuine component of intracluster space.\" One object, the Abel 1795 cluster, seems to have enough hot gas to cause the entire cluster to collapse in on itself, pulled by gravity. Dr Lieu speculates that as the cluster of galaxies is intact, then the gas cannot have been in the cluster for very long. It must therefore have been sucked in from the space in-between the clusters of galaxies. The new gas clouds are not massive enough to be all of the much sought after missing mass. But it does provide a few clues. If a new component of galaxy clusters has been identified, and that component is just warm gas, then what else might be lurking out there between the clusters? http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_318000/318132.stm"}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (14:53)", "body": "Marcia (5 Feb 02): Dark Matter in the Universe From Scientific American Imagine, for a moment, that one night you awaken abruptly from a dream. Coming to consciousness, blinking your eyes against the blackness, you find that, inexplicably, you are standing alone in a vast, pitch-black cavern. Befuddled by this predicament, you wonder: Where am I? What is this space? What are its dimensions? Groping in the darkness, you stumble upon a book of damp matches. You strike one; it quickly flares, then fizzles out. Again, you try; again, a flash and fizzle. But in that moment, you realize that you can glimpse a bit of your surroundings. The next match strike lets you sense faint walls far away. Another flare reveals a strange shadow, suggesting the presence of a big object. Yet another suggests you are moving--or, instead, the room is moving relative to you. With each momentary flare, a bit more is learned. In some sense, this situation recalls our puzzling predicament on Earth. Today, as we have done for centuries, we gaze into the night sky from our planetary platform and wonder where we are in this cavernous cosmos. Flecks of light provide some clues about great objects in space. And what we do discern about their motions and apparent shadows tells us that there is much more that we cannot yet see. From every photon we collect from the universe's farthest reaches, we struggle to extract information. Astronomy is the study of light that reaches Earth from the heavens. Our task is not only to collect as much light as possible--from ground- and space-based telescopes--but also to use what we can see in the heavens to understand better what we cannot see and yet know must be there. http://www.sciam.com/specialissues/0398cosmos/0398rubin.html"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (14:57)", "body": "Eugenia (5 Feb 02): Wolf, in a nut shell, we don't know what dark matter is, but we know it is there... it is spread out mass in the galaxies. Black holes are super crushed mass (theoretically there is no minimum mass for a black hole, if one is able to crush mass into a small enough space one creates a black hole, but most of the observable black holes have considerable mass) - I love black holes, specially because they are not completely black (light does not scape their gravitational field, but they generate very, very, very faint radiation). I find philosophicaly reassuring that Black Holes interact in a give - take relationship with the rest of the Universe (and give much to our knowledge of it). Marcia (5 Feb 02): Thanks Eugenia! I'd love to have some input on the other end of a black hole. Wolfie (5 Feb 02): yeah, the other end, makes me wonder about parallel universes or the direct ticket to heaven or something..... i haven't read much on black holes or dark matter except briefly. so, folks, don't feel dumb asking questions, i've already paved the way for you lurkers out there! ok, so black holes are squashed bits of dark matter with their own light. dark matter is garbage from the big bang but we know it's there because (of clouds found in other galaxies)? just like we know black holes exist because? i believe they exist but what are the facts showing that they do? thanks eugenia!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (14:58)", "body": "Eugenia (5 Feb 02): Wolf, Believe it or not, some scientists believe that your description is exactly what happens. Matter and light that is dragged into a black hole pass through to another (unknown) side of the Universe, perhaps a different Universe. Light is always dragged in a black hole. Radiation is not light; radiation is radiation (it arises from thermodynamics, from heat generated next to the event horizon of a black hole) We know that black holes exist because we have seen, photographed, measured, and predicted their effects (we keep doing it). This is done mathematically and otherwise (through observation). One of the most magic moments in human history was when Einstein explained that E=mc\ufffd (special relativity). Think about it this way; simple equation: two variables (energy and mass), one constant (speed of light), exchange dollars for pesos: the exchange rate is square speed of light, you can always change one for the other. From there Einstein explained the warping of space and time (General relativity), in other words: the agent of gravity is the fabric of space itself... gravity bathes in the fabric of space, when the moon gravitates around the earth all space bends according to that gravitation (I'll skip time, right now). There are numerous photographs of the warping of space taken by deep field exposures. We can see it. In a black hole the mass is so big that its gravitational field tears the fabric of space. It is a hole, that's not an euphemism. A hole of the fabric of space. This whole thing has been tested by every single method you can think of, short of falling into it (we can't see it nor photograph it because there is no light, but we see all the effects, and we predict them) One problem area was found (it's inconsistent with what we know about atoms), that's what string theory, now the Theory of Everything tries to answer. I must make a disclaimer: I'm not a theoretical physicist (duh!), but among other things, I studied philosophy (for a very specific reason), hence my interest in the matter. Ok... what's the connection? you ask (everybody does): both (in fact several scientific fields) search the same answers: how did we end up here?; why are we like we are?; how come we act the way we do?; where are we going to? Ultimately theoretical physics and philosophy search for God (believe me, we will never find. Our only real shot is in quantum mechanics, and my prediction is that there, we will find light). I constantly use science to ground philosophic arguments (and myself, else I get sooooo abstract I can't communicate - quite honestly, I understand, but I don't like, some of my more famous colleagues that question if the Sun will rise tomorrow). Funny thing is, when I hear lectures of this stuff the theoretical physicists use as much philosophical language (cynics, logic, sophistry, and the like), as mathem tics. I believe philosophy loses its usefulness when it loses its ground, therefore I try to follow these other crazy fields of study to keep me connected to something real (physics and genetics, are my favorites). So, before you jump in black holes, let me give you a little Cosmic History to think about. It's on display at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in NYC (that's the official name of the planetarium annex to the Museum of Natural History), which whomever has a chance, should not miss: First there was ?. \"Big Bang! Generates extreme high density and temperature. Space expanded, the Universe cooled, and the simplest element was formed [H]. Gravity drew matter together to form the first stars and the first galaxies collected into groups of clusters and superclusters. Some stars died in supernova explosions whose chemical remnants seeded new generations of stars and enable the formation of planets. On at least one such planet life evolved into consciousness. And wondered: Where did I come from?\" The table of elements is true here or at any point in the Universe. All we know of the Universe indicates that it's made of the same basic elements that we all saw in high school. The conclusion of the presentation in the planetarium of the Rose Center is this:. \"You are star stuff.\" Indeed, we are."}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (14:59)", "body": "Marcia (6 Feb 02): Beautiful stuff, Eugenia. We are star stuff, indeed, and to it we will eventually return. American Museum. *sigh* I absolutley lived in the Hayden Planetarium and the dinosaur hall - after looking at the Hall of Gems. Mummies, tombs, temples and all the rest. I still want a huge illuminated globe in the floor of a large panelled library and an Orrery in the ceiling. Of course, I don't have the edifice containing this fabulous library, but it has lived in my mind for many years. Eugenia, I loved your entire post. Thanks. We are all learners here. I'm just as happy you are NOT a physicist. If you were, I would have difficulty understanding your concepts. Ask John. The dear man does try patiently to explain his theories then posts a cascade if Greek symbols with a = sign between them. I am struggling along with the most humble of lurkers. Wolfie (6 Feb 02): thanks, eugenia, for your patient teaching *hugs* i didn't know we have photos of black holes! that's interesting about philosophy and the sciences! i think we have to have one in order to have the other. but one must be able to carry a philosophical question and embrace the what-ifs in order to come away with something of value. too often, scientists close their minds to what-ifs unless it can be found in a lab. i understand einstein's theory but i never used other things to replace the variables with. and then this \"hole\" thing (ooo, a pun!) sparks another philosophical idea within me--that we are not all there is *grin* that if there is a tear in the hole, there is something on the other side (i've always thought this but it does remind me of thinking about it)"}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (15:00)", "body": "Marcia (6 Feb 02): (I've posted somewhere on geo 24 a stunning diagram of a black hole... but it has evaded my hunting for it.) NASA's website is full of goodies about black holes. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010508.html More excellent diagrams are all over the net. I'll keep looking for the spindle of ejecta from the black hole I wanted to find. http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/objects/binaries/frame_dragging.html ...and so much more on that site. Wolfie (6 Feb 02): ok, i don't get it...perhaps it's because i spent the last two hours hooking up my new cpu....when i click on the link to blackholes on the nasa image of the day website above, they discuss what would happen if you fall into one--you are torn apart. but the one thing that intrigues me is that the author says that no one can see a black hole directly, one has to assume they exist because of indirect proof. but it doesn't address what the proof is or what it looks like. (unless i missed it) marcia, sweetie, maybe we oughta open a topic just for black holes! *grin*"}, {"response": 13, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (15:01)", "body": "Eugenia (7 Feb 02): Marcia, I second Wolf, motion! Wolf, we can't and we never will be able to see a black hole, because our eyes are design to see light, and light only; but can't a blind person function? This may be not the best parallel but it is close enough... a blind person \"sees\" a lot of things using it's other sensatory organs because he or she knows that the fact that he or she can't see does not make a room empty. In Cosmology and Physics a lot of things are just like that. We see only with our mind's eyes, we abstract. Sometimes that can be extremely difficult (for example with multiple space dimensions). We know it's there because we feel the effects, or have to abstract stuff from other effects that they leave behind. Black holes are a consequence of the Theory of General Relativity. A little after Einstein finish it, during WWI, Schwarzschild, a German guy from the Russian front studied it (he was in the Russian front doing calculations of artillery trajectories). This is 1916 and this German guy said that if the mass of a star is concentrated in small enough a spherical region so that its mass divided by its radius exceeds a certain value (which is irrelevant for me to give you) the resulting wraping of space is so radical that not even light can escape it. At that time this was pure mathematics, totally abstract. If you still cannot see it, I'll give you another example: imagine a very pliable film membrane and give it some area to exist, say twice as big as a bowling ball. The membrane it is so pliable, so sensitive, that anything that touches it, no matter how gently, causes it to wrap, to bend (if this material existed condom should be made of them). Make the membrane flat and nothing touches it. Now a butterfly touches it and you see it bending down a little and some ripples... now place a bowling ball in it. The weight of the bowling ball will cause the membrane to wrap but the \"angle\", the curvature in which it does so is somewhat gentle because the bowling ball has a large area. Now take the bowling bowl out and get a pin head with the weight of a bowling ball and place it on the membrane: the resulting image in your mind should be of this membrane to drastically wrap so anything else you place in it will roll down... Can you see it? That is the mathematical principle akin to the black hole one (obviously, th re is a dimension problem in my example, but it is easier to visualize things when we take away dimensions)."}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (15:02)", "body": "Wolfie (7 Feb 02): no, no, i get the idea of black holes. just want to understand why we \"know\" they're there! eugenia, you really are very patient with me. thank you, and the membrane example is great. i understand that black holes have their own horizons and the light inside can't escape out of it which is why they're \"black\" holes! that it's like space is a cloth and at one part of the cloth is a valley with a pinhole in the bottom from which light emits but the stuff causing the black hole is heavier than everything else and even light can't escape through it. but the bottom of the valley is poking into something else and we don't know what that is. because the weight of the gravity of the mass causing the black hole would crush an unprotected object, we cannot see what \"plane\" the bottom is poking through. make any sense at all? sometimes we just have to repeat what we're told in our own words, you know? *laugh* and *HUGS* i can't be the only person in the universe who is clueless!!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (15:03)", "body": "John (8 Feb 02): Hello Ladies This is too high level discussion and perfect description Eugenia. I studied electronics but I love Physics, (especially nuclear physics), Chemistry, Mathematics and Astronomy. The example with the membrane is successful. But, let me to dispute for Big Bang theory, even if I saw the same story in the Planetarium of Athens! Did you know how is created the theory of Big Bang Eugenia? I heard a complete scientific lecture before two years in Volos. Lecturer was a good friend with name Nik Pratzos (PhD in astrophysics) who work in the National Research Center of France in Paris. He made step-by-step scientific analysis and described the logic that explains Big-Bang theory. I became disappointed finally. This beautiful and exciting theory is based on a big number of scientific admissions. The reason is that we cannot produce in laboratory, similar circumstances of too high temperatures and pressures in order to study what happen under them. Theory of Big Bang accepts that the results are the same as in lower temperatures and pressures each time needed. So, after many \ufffdif this is correct\ufffd we have the Big Bang theory. I am sorry but I cannot accept it. I prefer to say that this is a very good exciting story. Possibility to be correct all admissions are too low, I think. How many scientists know for those admissions? How high is the danger if someone accepts all of this theory as information and proceeds to philosophical cogitations? If I wrote something wrong please correct it or if you heard something different tell us about it. John"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (23:18)", "body": "At the risk of incurring the wrath of the more intelligent astronomy community, I withheld my opinion of the Big Bang theory. Now that John has stated it so well (and he KNOWS this stuff) I am feeling brave enough to say I have never found much in this theory which made sense to me. It is very nice to have such good company!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Feb  9, 2002 (09:54)", "body": "refresh my memory on the big bang theory?"}, {"response": 18, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Feb  9, 2002 (23:45)", "body": "Big Bang theory with a few words About 15 billion years ago, the Universe began in a gigantic explosion - the Hot Big Bang! The Big Bang model can describe its subsequent evolution from one hundredth of a second up to the present day. This includes the expansion of the Universe, the origin of light elements and the relic radiation from the initial fireball, as well as a framework for understanding the formation of galaxies and other large-scale structures. Many questions can follow if the theory is near the truth. I will express one of them just for a start: Was the big bang a black hole? John"}, {"response": 19, "author": "vze", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (02:14)", "body": "It's 1:16 AM my time, and I had to print (printing is the highest compliment I pay to anything on a screen) the debate on this board to reach a decision on how to approach the Big Bang topic (which, I hope to be able to demonstrate - but it seems to me most here agree - is related to the black hole problem). I decided to do it from a philosophical point of view, with which I'm more comfortable. By the way, why is John's message under Wolf's header? At this point in human knowledge, the Big Bang Theory is an axiom - by definition, a proposition not the truth. Yet, I have to defend it for what it is, and I believe it will eventually be proven. As I said, I use theoretical physics to ground philosophical arguments, I tend to side with physicists that ground their science in some philosophical views. The key word here is to ground. Let me assert two things: (1) I'm a person of convictions, not certainties. (2) there are very few people from whom I take the argument of the authority and not the authority of the argument. I'll try to summarize some of these convictions for what is relevant to the discussion. To do so, keep in mind, I'm skipping several steps, because each one of the following questions and answers can be object of debate in itself. If I don't establish some parameters for the debate we will get nowhere. Again, these are my views and to explain them fully and ground them I would end up writing a theses on the subject. What is truth? I don't know. But I believe that it is very likely to arise from either of two things: full dialectic debate, or scientific proof. What is reality? I don't know. But I believe that when something is observed as a fact and taken as real, that something is more likely than not to be real. What is knowledge? I don't know. But I believe that is something close to digesting the observed reality and understanding it. Whether the Universe can be reduced to numbers as Pythagoras sustained, or we will never understand it because divine is anyone's guess, but I believe - with a conviction that boarders certainty - that our destiny as humans is to try. I also believe that humankind, as a species, has accumulated a little knowledge since we got out of the caves. Let me pause here and digress a little bit in on how we did it: Let me start with Copernicus: The Earth around the Sun. Copernicus did not understand why the Earth revolved around the Sun. He simply observed it as a reality. Newton: Gravity. Newton did not understand how gravity operates, he simply observed it as a reality, I quote, \"That gravity should be innate, inherent and essential to matter at a distance thro' a vacuum without mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed, from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no Man who has philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it\" (Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principle of Natural Philosophy and His System of the World, trans. Motte and Cajori, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1962, Vol. I, p. 634 ). Einstein: General Relativity. The agent of gravity is the fabric of the Cosmos - there are NO deviations from the predictions of General Relativity that have been observed with the present echnology (I'm in cosmology here); but we still don't understand how it operates (I'm in quantum mechanics here) we simply observe it as a reality . Do you guys see a pattern in this? It's now 2:33 AM my time and I'm going to sleep. I'll finish the argument tomorrow (it is in my head; it ain't going nowhere)."}, {"response": 20, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (13:06)", "body": "Ok Let\ufffds go in higher-level philosophy. I will agree that reality is what we observe or what is explained completely (in all the ways). Truth is also what is real. But for that it isn\ufffdt perceivable by our senses, logic has the first word. Logic needs information of real facts to be useful. Logic can show us where\ufffds included the truth but not the absolute truth. (Any problem does not have only one solution but a group of solutions). We need to work and think with groups of solutions. Logic gives wrong conclusion if we use wrong information. If we use hypothetical facts as information the result of logic is a theory. Let me answer to your initial positions Eugenia. (1). We are humans. We believe easily on what we hope. This is by nature. (2). Basis of logic. a. If we are based on the argument of the authority we just follow the authority or we take the authority as truth. Is this correct? b. If we are based on the authority of the argument that means that we have proves (at least some) for the argument of the authority. This is my position. I am not distrustful but I need to follow the logic in order to understand. I cannot express any opinion if I don\ufffdt understand. I believe that philosophy and mathematics are two parallel ways to approach common target. The truth. I also believe that mathematics is beneficiary method because they can express real facts that we cannot understand with our logic by nature. For example: Can you imagine a cube of four dimensions and then solve simple problems with it? Certainly not. But with mathematics is simple. I will follow your way Eugenia in any case. It is very interesting that you can think deeply. This is infrequent today and you are special and talented. Please do not induce from my positions and continue."}, {"response": 21, "author": "vze", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (14:41)", "body": ""}, {"response": 22, "author": "vze", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (14:46)", "body": "Sorry, I hit submit instead of paste (I'm known for doing that!). John, it is not fair - according to most accepted rules of dialectics, that you debate my argument before I finish it !!! (I'm smiling, it is suppose to be funny) I'll try to pick up where I left. And I'll comment on your comments tomorrow, if I may. When we deal with the edge of knowledge - as when we deal with the edge of ourselves, individually and as a species - rarely, if ever, we observe something and understand why. Therefore we are forced to exercise some options: do we doubt our observations, because they seem absurd based on the trusted knowledge; or do we trust our observation and doubt our knowledge? I understand quantum mechanics a little bit more than most people that share a subway car with me, most of my neighbors, and most of NYC population, and if you wish, we can dig into it - but let me make this very clear, as far as I know, NOBODY in the world has the answers for our observations in this field, which is extremely complex. We just observe it as a reality, we don't understand it. THE problem with the big bang theory, as with our understanding of black holes, is even bigger than the question mark: what the heck expanded, or what the heck is this crushed mass: the problem is that by whatever assumption we make, at a microscopic, subatomic level, after almost 100 years of observations what we believe is the reality of the atom, and we have tested this from several different approaches, is not consistent with what we observe as the reality of the Cosmos: one of them MUST be wrong (if we are to assume that the Cosmos or ourselves really exist. I assure you: in my own system of values, which seems in this point to be shared by the overwhelming majority of humanity: to doubt either it is not only pointless - it becomes pathetic.) In essence: By our observation of the Cosmos: Newton and Einstein are right. By our observation of atoms, Planck is right. But they cannot and do not work together. They are, I repeat, inconsistent according to the knowledge that we have AND with what we have observed. Again we have to exercise options: And here is where things get really interesting, because ultimately this is a subjective, individual, choice. One side is viewed as cynic, the other viewed as sophismatic - and vice versa. Unless we search for a theory that explains how they can be consistent, we are necessarily disputing the so defined observed reality. The physicists that dispute the Big Bang Theory or the existence of Black holes are NO more absurd than the physicists whom accept it: it all goes to a matter of point of view. It seems to me that the tendency is to attempt to conciliate our observations, through the so-called String Theory (which seems to change its name every time they add a new dimension to it, last I checked (12 dimensions) they were calling it Theory of Everything (Princeton), I don't believe the name caught on, though). When I state that this is a tendency, I try to do it from a somewhat objective point of view. How can anyone have an objective point of view after what I said? Well, one of the tests is the good old bottom line. Money. There is a reason why most of research money in theoretical physics (including my own, as a US and EU taxpayer) goes to this field. There is a reason why Princeton and Oxford, to stay within the traditional ones, spend more money in this damn absurd theory than in anything else within theoretical physics. When modern humans put money (and we are not talking little money here) where their mouths is they tend to believe that it will get them somewhere. Please, give this assertion some thought before you care to dispute it. Let me retake the point of view question and rephrase it in one of several other possible terms: Is the Universe chaotic and everything mere coincidence? Is the Universe balanced and things are the way they are based on some laws? Based in what we observe, either way is an axiom. We can never escape the axioms when we deal with the edge of knowledge. This is disturbing to Western cultures because it is taught to focus on certainties not on interactions . We are very close to establish with reasonable scientific accuracy (wait for HGP and Celera, next year) what has been suspected for a long time, but Greek philosophy (one of the pillars of Western cultures), likes to deny: we are very similar to other animals - much more than we Westerns care to admit. This, from my point of view, just proves what the evolution of knowledge (if you believe in it) has indicated for a long time: the distinctive trace between humans and other animals is not reason, is not emotion, is not even abstract thinking: it probably lies in enough abstract thinking to allow creativity . The mark of the geniuses from Phytagoras, to Einstein or Plank is that they defied the conventional, the reasonable, the acceptable and they dared be creative - absurdly so when one considers the degree of understan"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (15:31)", "body": "(Wolfie posted the comments we made on Geo 24 before this topic was created. That is why all of our early comments on this subject are posted under her name.)"}, {"response": 24, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (20:53)", "body": "(John),I believe that philosophy and mathematics are two parallel ways to approach common target. The truth. (Eugenia), Philosophy, for me, is the other side of theoretical physics... it is the other side of the edge of knowledge, mathematics, for me, still is the other side of music Keith Jarrett, the Koln Concert and Scriabin's \"Le Poeme de l'extase.\" :-) Amen!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (21:17)", "body": "ok, i don't even think i can opine anymore because of the level of philosophy we're getting to. one thing i can add to this discussion is (i believe in the creation theory and in evolution, that will be saved for another topic) but the creation story was written simply for the time and for any time because we're not all physicists. the world was created but it was not revealed how. i think there is a reason for this. it doesn't matter if the world was created by a big bang or because God said it should be so, what matters is that it is. there is only so much we can handle but the answers are there. i read somewhere that the average human being uses only 10% of their brain. can you imagine what type of beings we would be if we could only reach our potential? perhaps einstein and fellows were able to reach 15% of their brain's potential. or they just voiced what they saw with their average 10% brains! mathematics is truth and i'm bad at math, so does that make me a liar? but truth is always the same, every generation, every millenium. at times i feel like the mayans and the incas and the egyptians and others were far more advanced in their thinking than modern day man. because we need proof of everything-we can no longer accept anything. so the basic theory behind black holes is that they are the result of a birth in the cosmos (big bang or little bang)....they pull the dark matter into themselves and we can't see them, right? but we don't know if there are big or little bangs, just births and deaths of stars, right? i appreciate the intelligence being shown in these conversations...thank you for entertaining my silly questions and interjections!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (22:13)", "body": "I need to print out this entire topic to see if I can possibly fllow the discourse. I am not used to thinking in the abstract. It is full of pitfalls and the more nebulous it gets the more difficult it is for me to grasp. If being a non-mathmatics thinker makes you a bad person, you have me for company. Theories abound as to origin of black holes. Meanwhile, I will let the theoreticians of Geo have at it. I feel much more comfortable with the tangible world. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=origin+of+black+holes"}, {"response": 27, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (22:54)", "body": "I think that we go too far Eugenia. Here is not applicable place for too complex logical consequence. Readers expect information; clear and simple description of what is believed today for Black Holes, for Big Bang or for anything located at the edge of knowledge. So, I will answer to you by this way for last time. I respect your arguments Eugenia. I made my initial positions clear behind yours, according the most accepted rules of dialectics. (I suppose that it is not funny). If what we believe is the reality of the atom, is not consistent with what we observe as the reality of the Cosmos then: 1.we made wrong suppositions because we are really here. (In this case, WE ARE PATHETIC ONLY IF WE HAVE CLOSED EYES) 2.Or we are supposing with defective data (In this case, Doubt is not only compulsory but very useful. Our ego does not allow clear view to the truth some times). If we have several correct explanations for the same true fact, but we cannot find any connection between them, we must find missing link and prove it. Not by suppositions but with observations. Science without experiments does not exist. If we cannot make needed experiments, it is better to stay patient until our technology can support the appropriate tools. I don\ufffdt doubt the axioms or their helpfulness. My question is if we know all the axioms that we need in order to explain Big Bang or Black Holes. I am sure NOT. We must be very careful when we deal with the edge of knowledge. I am not trying to prove what I am or to prove myself. Our friends here must understand everything of what we say and join the discussion. We are like a family here and we must be stay like this. Do you think that you can help my research using your way of cogitation Eugenia? (You can see what is in topic 9). Thank you anyway."}, {"response": 28, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (22:57)", "body": "Hi Moon Thank you for your accurate critical underlines. I think that we are going to open a new black hole here instead to describe what is believed today. Can you tell us your opinion?"}, {"response": 29, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (23:06)", "body": "You are absolutely correct Wolfie. I believe that there is a reason for anything we live and make. We cannot explain why. Unfortunately we use the most of the 10% of our brain to fill our self-conceit. Life is beautiful if we want to see and live in this side. We can find a beautiful flower even in a gloomy place."}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (23:09)", "body": "PLEASE continue your discussion. Part of the foundation of science it making your thoughts known. Sometimes we need to see them in print before we can understand exactly what it is we are thinking. My gratitude does not match my ability to keep up with these thoughts. Good morning, John!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (05:29)", "body": "Big Bang theory is the modern story or Myth of Genesis that surpasses even our wildest speculations. Somehow, It is a scientific or near-scientific attempt in order to explain provenance of universe and our generation. It describes the creation of universe from the earliest moments of the universe, to the formation of galaxies and stars, then planets and finally life. Conclusion that the universe is expanding and cooling is the essence of the Big Bang theory. But, on what knowledge scientists are based? I will try to describe their detections. (Please correct me if you see something wrong) 1. The light from distant galaxies is shifted toward the red, as it should be if space is expanding and galaxies are pulled away from one another. 2. An ocean of thermal radiation fills space, as it should if space used to be denser and hotter. 3. The universe contains large amounts of deuterium and helium, as it should if temperatures were once much higher. 4. Galaxies billions of years ago look distinctly younger, as they should if they are closer to the time when no galaxies existed. 5. The curvature of space-time seems to be related to the material content of the universe, as it should be if the universe is expanding according to the predictions of Einstein's gravity theory, the General Theory of Relativity. I think that this is the building material of Big bang theory. But we must recognize that whoever built the universe or anyhow it was created, it has extraordinary uniformity. John"}, {"response": 32, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (07:42)", "body": "Hi Moon Thank you for your accurate critical underlines. I think that we are going to open a new black hole here instead to describe what is believed today. Can you tell us your opinion? But we must recognize that whoever built the universe or anyhow it was created, it has extraordinary uniformity. Hello John. I always enjoy a good philosophical argument, and in Europe we do it all the time. My husband, who is Italian is very good at it, but, you may not like my opinion because I believe in the traditional Catholic beliefs of creation. (I am not 40 yet, and am probably in a minority here because of my very strong spiritual beliefs). The Big Bang Theory has always fascinated me because it is a theory."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (15:02)", "body": "Counld they not be the same thing, Moon? Just different ways of stating \"Let there be light!\" I think we look for simple explainations when we are in our youth, either evolutionary or current lifetime. As we mature we see more of the reasons behind our beliefs. Our thoughts and beliefs become more complex. And so it goes. I have no difficulty merging creation of the universe with Creation in the Bible, but then, I am merely an Episcopalian (Church of England) and as such I am already in trouble. John, you stated it perfectly and exactly as I have been taught and as I understand the information. I still have difficulties with this theory, as we discussed earlier. Will it ever be truly understood or stated to the ultimate satisfaction of everyone? I doubt it. Moon, I am beginning to break my vow to save \"The Story of Yew\" and am reading it now. I pop to the computer on occasion to keep up with the posts, but I am enjoying it very much and will discusss it in Geo 37 where we first knew of it. Thank you for telling me about it! I think I will also be sending this book to others."}, {"response": 34, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (16:30)", "body": "Could they not be the same thing, Moon? Just different ways of stating \"Let there be light!\" Science always tries to be grounded in fact. With religion and Creation in the Bible, we have to be grounded in faith. The finite (science), vs the infinite (God, faith, religion). I don't think they are compatible. Moon, I am beginning to break my vow to save \"The Story of Yew\" and am reading it now. I am enjoying it very much and will discusss it in Geo 37 I look forward to it! Have a wondrous read. :-)"}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (17:43)", "body": "Moon, I believe wholly in the genesis creation and love a good philosophical discussion. I guess it was missed the comment I made (and Marcia referred to) that the Bible doesn't go into the details of \"how\". So who are we to say that God did it this one way and didn't use Science? Afterall, He is the one who created Nature and Science. How would people many years ago even fathom the idea of big bangs and stars running into each other? Even today, we cannot fathom this theory. It is too large for our simple minds to grasp. I don't understand the Big Bang theory. I need simple words to help me see it in my mind's eye. But, I don't need the theory to know the world/universe exists and I don't need to seek the answers as to why. But I find this to be very interesting topic of discussion. *HUGS* Please, let's continue this discussion and learn from each other."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (17:50)", "body": "My background is full of scientists, mostly chemists of one sort or another, plus the botanists and geologists. SOMETHING had to cause the creation of the Universe. Perhaps I am hanging onto my childhood reassurances in thinking that the cause could have been God. Faith and science do not need to be polar opposites. Even Einstein came to terms with faith and physics late in his life. I find it reassuring to think I am Not the most important force in all creation. I recently had an interesting conversation with a newly \"reborn\" Christian who happens to be a working archaeologist. He stated flatly that there was nothing in his science background that did not agree with the tenets (facts) of his faith. He is devout and studious about the Bible as much as he is about tracing mankind's history on earth. I agree with him. It was enlighening and a very encouraging conversation. Now, if only he had the time to talk to us here... Now, I will need to find another good book to read on that flight of 5 hours across the Pacific to visit my son and new daughter-in-law."}, {"response": 37, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (17:53)", "body": "when are you coming???"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (19:03)", "body": "As soon as I am summoned. I suspect it will be more difficult to arrange for her mother than for me. They wish to show off their new home, and for us to meet. I hope they do not wait until they have everything \"perfect\" or I'll never get there!"}, {"response": 39, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (21:31)", "body": "(Wolf), So who are we to say that God did it this one way and didn't use Science? Afterall, He is the one who created Nature and Science. Have you read Rupert Sheldrake's \"A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation\"? RS is a trained Scientist, Cambridge, Harvard and when his book came out, the science bible \"Nature\" magazine said it should be burned. A former atheist, now a very religious man. A great mind and a great read. I also recommend his \"The Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science and God.\" (Marcia), Faith and science do not need to be polar opposites. True. But many scientists do take that route."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (22:00)", "body": "(Marcia), Faith and science do not need to be polar opposites. (Moon)True. But many scientists do take that route. Moon, Most scientists do not take that route. I am all too aware of this bit of human frailty. (I love your Drool form of posting - I had forgotten how important it is for following discussions!)"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (22:00)", "body": "Of course, it is best when I remember to place the italics"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (22:02)", "body": "I see another book I must read - or two! Thanks, Moon, for telling us of Robert Sheldrake. Burn books? Horrors!"}, {"response": 43, "author": "Moon", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (07:12)", "body": "You would enjoy both books, Marcia. (Marcia), Moon, Most scientists do not take that route. I am all too aware of this bit of human frailty. I am happy to take your word for it, Marcia. I guess I have met too many scientists that consider themselves \"fully paid up materialists,\" most of them in Italy and the UK. Here in the US it may be different."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (12:41)", "body": "In my experience, Moon, it takes a cataclysmic event to make some people realize they are not the Alpha and Omega of all life. We are a stubborn lot. I suspect the female population believes more readily than the male."}, {"response": 45, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (17:00)", "body": "Hi Moon, I am a typical Christian Orthodox Greek. But, I never close my eyes and I like searching the truth. I believe God in my way. God never leaves me in difficult moments in my life. But this is not the issue. It doesn't exists any danger if I like or not your opinion, because: First, I respect all people and I accept them as they are and anything they believe. Second, I have no problem with very strong spiritual beliefs even when they are not corresponds to mine. I use logic before them but I respect them. Third, I believe that discussion is a multi-windowed view to the truth. So, I like to see cosmos through the windows of my discussant eyes. This is very useful because it works for all. So, I think that you can feel free with us. Do not feel minority here. We respect anyone who respects us. But, I think that we have not any reason to discuss religious issues. By way of precaution WE MUST NOT DISCUSS RELIGIOUS ISSUES HERE. The rule is only one word: RESPECT."}, {"response": 46, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (17:05)", "body": "Big Bang theory it postulates that 12 to 14 billion years ago, at the instant of the Big Bang, the universe was infinitely dense and unimaginably hot. All forms of matter and energy, as well as space and time, were formed at this instant and they were only a few millimetres across. It has since expanded from this hot dense state into the vast and much cooler cosmos we currently inhabit. CARL SAGAN (the late astronomer, 1934-1996) was the first person to explain the history of the universe in one year-as a \"Cosmic Calendar\" , in his television series, Cosmos. I have recorded about 11 videotapes, which contain series Cosmos in the past. I will present you his Cosmic Calendar with no comments. I believe that this is a good way to understand this theory. Imagine that the history of the universe is compressed into one year and Big Bang occurring in the first seconds of New Year's Day. Using this scale of time, each month would equal a little over a billion years and all our known history occurring in the final seconds before midnight on December 31. Cosmic Calendar (From The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan) Pre-December Dates January 1: Big Bang May 1: Origin of Milky Way Galaxy September 9: Origin of the solar system September 14: Formation of the Earth ~September 25: Origin of life on Earth October 2: Formation of the oldest rocks known on Earth October 9: Date of oldest fossils (bacteria and blue-green algae) ~November 1: Invention of sex (by micro organisms) November 12: Oldest fossil photosynthetic plants November 15: Eukaryotes (first cells with nuclei) flourish December Monday 1: Significant oxygen atmosphere begins to develop on Earth. Friday 5: Extensive volcanism and channel formation on Mars. Tuesday 16: First Worms. Wednesday 17: Precambrian ends. Paleozoic Era and Cambrian Period begin. Invertebrates flourish. Thursday 18: First oceanic plankton. Trilobites flourish. Friday 19: Ordovician Period. First fish, first vertebrates. Saturday 20: Silurian Period. First vascular plants. Plants begin colonization of land. Sunday 21: Devonian Period begins. First insects. Animals begin colonization of land. Monday 22: First amphibians. First winged insects Tuesday 23: Carboniferous Period. First trees. First reptiles. Wednesday24: Permian Period begins. First dinosaurs. Thursday 25: Paleozoic Era ends. Mesozoic Era Begins. Friday 26: Triassic Period. First mammals. Saturday 27: Jurassic Period. First birds. Sunday 28: Cretaceous Period. First flowers. Dinosaurs become extinct. Monday 29: Mesozoic Era ends. Cenozoic Era and Tertiary Period begin. First cetaceans. First primates. Tuesday 30: First evolution of frontal lobes in the brains of primates. First hominids. Giant mammals flourish. Wednesday 31: End of Pliocene Period. Quaternary (Pleistocene and Holocene) Period. First humans. December 31 01:30:00 p.m. Origin of Proconsul and Ramapithecus, probable ancestors of apes and men 10:30:00 p.m. First humans. 11:00:00 p.m. Widespread use of stone tools. 11:46:00 p.m. Domestication of fire by Peking man. 11:56:00 p.m. Beginning of most recent glacial period. 11:58:00 p.m. Seafarers settle Australia. 11:59:00 p.m. Extensive cave painting in Europe. 11:59:20 p.m. Invention of agriculture. 11:59:35 p.m. Neolithic civilization; first cities. 11:59:50 p.m. First dynasties in Sumer, Ebla and Egypt; development of astronomy. 11:59:51 p.m. Invention of the alphabet; Akkadian Empire. 11:59:52 p.m. Hammurabic legal codes in Babylon; Middle Kingdom in Egypt. 11:59:53 p.m. Bronze metallurgy; Mycenaean culture; Trojan War; Olmec culture; invention of the compass. 11:59:54 p.m. Iron metallurgy; First Assyrian Empire; Kingdom of Israel; founding of Carthage by Phoenicia. 11:59:55 p.m. Asokan India; Ch'in Dynasty China; Periclean Athens; birth of Buddha. 11:59:56 p.m. Euclidean geometry; Archimedean physics; Ptolemaic astronomy; Roman Empire; birth of Christ. 11:59:57 p.m. Zero and decimals invented in Indian arithmetic; Rome falls; Moslem conquests. 11:59:58 p.m. Mayan civilization; Sung Dynasty China; Byzantine empire; Mongol invasion; Crusades. 11:59:59 p.m. Renaissance in Europe; voyages of discovery from Europe and from Ming Dynasty China; emergence of the experimental method in science. Now: The first second of New Year's Day Widespread development of science and technology; emergence of global culture; acquisition of the means of self-destruction of the human species; first steps in spacecraft planetary exploration and the search of extraterrestrial intelligence."}, {"response": 47, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "Moon: i've not read those books but they sound interesting. i will have to look them up. John: that sounds amazing but hard to take in at once. i still am having trouble \"getting\" it."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (20:00)", "body": "Wolfie, that is what I am assuming we all are feeling. None of us REALLY understand it. Neither do those who expound in high places all about it. You are in lofty company!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Feb 15, 2002 (12:30)", "body": "THE DESTINY OF A STAR When we talk about stars we mean sky bodies like our Sun, which is a star too. Stars are bright bodies that emit light and energy to the surrounding space. A star originates, live and decease. There are exists two forces that forms the shape and volume in each sky body. Gravity is the inwards force that tends to reduce this body and an equal but outwards force that resist to reduction. It is the inner pressure. Shape and volume of the sky bodies depends on the point of this equation. In the case of stars, big pressure is produced by the nuclear reactions inside its body. The fusion of hydrogen in the core of a star produces energy and Helium atoms. When the hydrogen in the core is almost burned up, the inner core starts to collapse (Because pressure is reduced) inward and its temperature rises. Hydrogen atoms outside the core starts to burn because of the increased temperature and the star increases in size - this is called the RED GIANT phase. In the meantime, the core of the red giant will contract until the temperature will be high enough to start the fusion of helium into carbon. Helium will burn quickly. As helium is converted into carbon, the core will grow smaller and denser. As the nuclear fuel is exhausted, the outward forces of radiation diminish, allowing the gravitation to compress the star inward. The contraction of the core causes its temperature to rise and allows remaining nuclear material to be used as fuel. The star is saved from further collapse, but only for a while. Eventually, all possible nuclear fuel is used up and the core collapses. If the star is sufficiently massive or compressible, it may collapse to a BLACK HOLE. If it is less massive or made of stiffer material, its fate is different: it may become a WHITE DWARF or a NEUTRON STAR."}, {"response": 50, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Feb 15, 2002 (12:53)", "body": "WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE FINALLY? A black hole is a region of space where the gravitational pull is so strong that no matter can leave the black hole. Near a black hole, gravity is so strong that light that falls into the black hole cannot escape. Thus, WE CANNOT SEE A BLACK HOLE. Its existence has to be deduced from other observations. John"}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb 15, 2002 (18:40)", "body": "ok, so how does gravity get stuck in this one place to cause a black hole?"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 15, 2002 (20:24)", "body": ""}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 15, 2002 (20:54)", "body": ""}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 15, 2002 (22:19)", "body": "This is a super little website aboutr formation of Black Holes http://www.rdrop.com/users/green/school/form.htm This is another good one http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/BlackHoleFormation.html"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 15, 2002 (22:20)", "body": "Black Holes are not the only incredible things out there. Consider the white dwarf star. A teaspoonful of white dwarf material would weigh five-and-a-half tons or more in the Earth's gravity!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Feb 20, 2002 (05:24)", "body": "Does someone know about WHITE HOLES THEORY? They are the other ends of BLACK HOLES. They are connected between them with something like nave string."}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 20, 2002 (13:54)", "body": "Only during our conversation of yesterday did I become aware of White Holes, though I do remember Carl Sagan mentioning them in his series, COSMOS I did what I usually do, I hunted on the internet for more information. The Question If white holes eject matter so quickly, why do they exist ? Wouldn't they destroy themselves? Maybe they are at the other end of a black hole ? The Answer White holes are VERY hypothetical. They are, in fact, predicted as a possible \"other end\" of a black hole that has punctured a \"worm hole\" through space, but black holes are most likely just a point in space without an other side. The matter/energy coming out of white holes is supposedly the matter falling into a black hole. I have only seen them discussed in theoretical physics talks. At one point scientists speculated that quasars may be white holes, but now we are fairly certain that quasars are powered by supermassive black holes, in which case the light we see comes from matter as it falls into the black hole. After it falls in, we assume the matter just becomes part of the black hole and does not come out anywhere (see the Basic or Advanced discussions of active galactic nuclei in Imagine the Universe! for more on this.) http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970301.html"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 20, 2002 (13:59)", "body": "In the absence of John's understanding of physics and his expert presentation of what White Holes consist, I add more elementary information as an introduction to what he will hypothesize. What these snippets actually tell me is that not only do we NOT understand expactly what Black Holes are, we have even less information on White Holes. http://library.thinkquest.org/10148/long15.shtml A white hole is the opposite of a black hole. It's like a cosmic gusher, with matter pouring out of it. If matter goes through a black hole tunnel, it comes out of a white hole at the other end. Some calculations show that a white hole that is not rotating could get turned inside out by gravity, having a black hole form around it. But if the white hole is rotating, it can't suffer this fate, and will not be hidden from the rest of the universe."}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (15:20)", "body": "A Mystery in the Galactic Center NASA Science News for February 21, 2002 Astronomers have learned that the center of our Milky Way galaxy harbors a long-sought supermassive black hole. But the finding has raised even more questions than before. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/21feb_mwbh.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 60, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (20:57)", "body": "wow!!! how do they know it's there?"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (22:37)", "body": "click on the link. They tell the story better than I can , but it reads, in part They glow, unsteadily flickering, at all wavelengths from radio to gamma rays, and they spew powerful jets of charged particles into space. Rees reasoned that black holes gobbling matter were the sources of such turmoil."}, {"response": 62, "author": "Lu", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (23:30)", "body": "Hello everyone! I'm really taking a plunge here, since I'm normally a total lurker at the Spring and only started reading this string...well, today actually. So I hope you won't be offended if I jump in here and try to answer a little bit of the \"how do we actually find real black holes in real life question.\" I have to start with a few basics of stellar death--some of this is what John was getting into earlier. Some of this does involve quantum mechanics, but I'm going to try hard to keep it simple. If anyone needs more info. as to the \"why\" feel free to ask but I'm not sure I can give it. As John said, when stars begin to run out of fuel in their cores the thermal pressure (we know that hot things like to expand, right?) that keeps the core \"inflated\" so to speak begins to decrease. For most of the star's life gravity and thermal pressure are in equilibrium. That is, if gravity wins a little and the core contracts, it heats up and stops contracting. But as stars age, they eventually hit a point where the electrons in their core become \"degenerate\" (great term!), meaning that they don't want to be compressed anymore. Then the outward pressure is from quantum mechanics (rules which say that electrons don't like to be too close together), and the core stops changing in size and is held up by all the electrons. If the star is small, when it stops burning this structure will remain--slowly cooling, but supported by electron degeneracy pressure. At this stage, the star is called a White Dwarf. (who said they were cool? yep. they're made of carbon, and as the surface cools it crystallizes- eat your heart out, DeBeers!) If the star is a little larger, however (that is, if its core has a mass of greater than 1.4 times the mass of the sun), than even the electrons can't hold it up against gravity. A cataclysmic collapse occurs, followed by a rebound--springy, like a rubber bouncy ball. This high-energy explosion is called a supernova, and it leaves behind one of two things. If the core's mass is between 1.4 and about 3 solar masses, a neutron star remains. These guys have all sorts of cool properties also, but I'll tell you the one which is important to us here. When electron degeneracy pressure is overcome, the electrons are basically smushed right into the nucleii--they join with the protons to make neutrons. This is accompanied by a very fast contraction which is stoppped by a figurative brick wall called neutron degeneracy pressure. This is the same idea as electron degeneracy pressure. When neutrons get so close together that they don't want to be compressed any more, they begin to support the structure against gravity. A neutron star is just this--a ball of atomic nucleus. Its radius is about the length of Manhattan, and its density is such that a cube .5mm on a side weighs as much as the ship Queen Mary . But even neutrons aren't infinitely strong. If the core of the star is greater than about 3 solar masses, neutron degeneracy pressure is overcome by gravity. After this, there is nothing else that can stop the star from contracting to singularity. At this point, the former star has become a black hole. Within a certain radius, nothing can escape. Okay, so here's the fun part. We can use the information above to help find black holes by process of elimination! As matter falls into black holes, it tends to give off a lot of X-ray radiation. If we screen X-ray sources for certain criteria, we can determine which ones are probably black holes. Here's how: 1)find an object that emits heavily in the x-ray wavelengths 2)determine if it is part of a binary system. Meaning, is it orbiting another object? This seems arbitrary, but the reality is that many if not most things in the universe come in pairs. Our sun is more the exception than the rule. Even objects that are very far away can be seen to be orbiting something, because their spectra become Doppler shifted towards the red when they are moving away from us and toward the blue when they are moving toward us. It's cyclical, and we can detect it fairly regularly. 3)if the x-ray source is part of a binary system, convince yourself that the companion is \"dark\" (rather than just faint or emitting radiation in a wavelength that you haven't looked for) 4)determine the orbital period and the semi-major axis of rotation of the visible body. Using a combination of these two pieces of information, Kepler's third law and the \"teeter-totter\" equation (not sure real name--it equates mass and radius of two ends of a fulcrum/lever system like a seesaw), it is possible to determine the mass of both bodies in question. 5)fit the mass of the dark object into one of the following three categories: a)if the mass is less than 1.4 solar masses, it could be a white dwarf that has cooled into a \"black\" dwarf (though this is rather unlikely to occur at this point in the universe's youth, since it takes a long time for a small star to die and a really long time for a white dwarf to cool"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (23:51)", "body": "Fantastic to see you Lu! Welcome out of Lurkdom. Aloha and a cup of hot steaming whatever you like along with a lei of fragrant Hawaiian flowers for you. Thanks for your thoughtful post. Make yourself comfortable. We're delighted to have you join our happy ranks."}, {"response": 64, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (13:51)", "body": "Welcome in the down world Lu! It is our contentment that you read Geo even as lurker. Is cosmology your favorite hobby or perhaps your occupation? Your post is businesslike and totally perfect. I did not know well big part from the knowledge that you are shared with us. We must thank you for this plunge here. Apropos of the Olympic games, I will say a phrase from ancient Greece. So, ancient Greeks they were saying that \"Perhaps between the spectators of the Olympic Athletic Contests exist more capable athletes but the glory is for those they battle in stadium.\" You are welcome in the stadium Lu! Please remember it when you emerge again. John"}, {"response": 65, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (20:02)", "body": "thank you lu!! i'm so glad someone came out of lurking to post here! you've done a marvelous job at explaining it in simple terms (i even followed the quantum physics and the teeter-totter theory-am familiar with fulcrum/lever theory but don't know the name either). and i've heard of cygnus but all i knew was it was a star. i think what really helped me to understand it was that it is the result of a star dying (depending on the mass). i think i lost this somewhere in the other explanations. so depending on the mass of the dying star, the implosion (right?) is what the black hole is. ok! and another point, i didn't know any star was larger than our sun!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (20:46)", "body": "our sun is really a small one on The Main Sequence. I'll post that if someone does not beat me to it."}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 22, 2002 (22:39)", "body": "* Runaway Growth: Possible Origin for Supermassive Black Holes http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/blackholes_midsize_020221.html A growing understanding of the missing link in the chain of black hole evolution may soon help astronomers sort out how stars evolve and how galaxies, in general, are built."}, {"response": 68, "author": "Lu", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (20:01)", "body": "hey again guys! The Spring has been crashing my browser (and sometimes computer) lately--very strange, etc.--so I'm hoping to sneak in before it notices me uhere... John--no, this is definitely NOT my occupation (I'm a student for three more months and then a sailor), but I've taken a few courses and had a great professor...and it's cool! Thanks for your welcome, though. Wolfie: It sounds like you've pretty much got it. Actually the implosion/rebound itself is a supernova, but the core collapse only takes about one second and then whatever is left over, depending on mass, may be a black hole. Marcia is right. The sun is a very modest star--not the smallest, but certainly not the largest, which is a good thing for us. Astronomers can measure the mass of stars on the main sequence (meaning when they are in the \"prime of life\" and are still burning hydrogen in their cores) by measuring their brightness. Stars which are burning hydrogen faster are, not surprisingly, brighter. Since the rate at which stars burn hydrogen is driven by their mass (and therefore gravity--the amount of force making them want to collapse), there is a fairly simple mass-luminosity relationship. Stars are categorized by their luminosity: O,B,A,F,G,K,M, where O stars are brightest/biggest and M stars are dimmest/smallest. The sun is a G star, right near the middle. The reason I said that this i good for us is that big, bright stars have surprisingly short lifetimes since they are burning their hydrogen so fast. The biggest O stars (masses between 30 and 50 solar masses) have lifetimes of only about a million years. Not enough time for us to have happened! Obviously, since the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old and the Sun only seems to be about halfway through its core hydrogen, a G star is rather a better spot to set up camp. Eugenia: I know you're busy, but you mentioned either here or on droolfic that there is a hypercube site that one can play with somewhere. Do you have a link? I'd love to see it. ~Lu"}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 26, 2002 (21:41)", "body": "Please, Eugenia let us know where the hypercube website is. Lu, you may just have to leave her a message in Odds and Ends. I'd do it, but I am still experiencing \"glitch\" problems from the massive hacking Spring endured a few weeks ago and I still cannot post there. The writing box simply fails to show up for me. Things should be settling down again at Spring. perhaps you need to water-proof your CPU against excessive Darcyism. =) Been there and done that."}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  4, 2002 (22:02)", "body": "Math challenged Geo readers, NASA has just come to our aid. NASA KIDS: Mystery in the Milky Way A special NASAKIDS delivery NASAKIDS by Liftoff to Space Exploration Marcia, is there really a black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy? Astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory in space think they have the answer. But, there are always more questions! Come read more at - NASA KIDS http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2002/news-mystery.asp?list17243-136"}, {"response": 71, "author": "Lu", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (12:18)", "body": "LOL! Note how the explain in one paragraph in the upper right what it took me practically pages to say! I've never been known for succinctness. Thanks for that, Marcia! ~Lu"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar  5, 2002 (17:27)", "body": "The guys at NASA must have been lurking and took pity on us. I'm delighted they are doing good works and making it available to the future of our space program. Personally, I liked yours better..."}, {"response": 73, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (08:37)", "body": "Dear /\\~~~, I wish I could spend some time here because this is one of my favorite subjects, Hugs, Ami"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (15:30)", "body": "Happy Geo! You have found your way into my heart yet another way. Welcome. I also wish you could spend some time here. I've never delved into your scientific psyche! It should be quite an adventure. Come back any time andmake yourself comfortable. Wherever I am, you are welcome like family and you get my warmest *HUGS* for just being here. /\\~~~"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (17:25)", "body": "Strange stars suggest new kind of matter Two rogue stars have failed to live up to scientific expectations, compelling puzzled astronomers to consider the likelihood that they possess a new and exotic form of matter. If confirmed, the discovery would warrant a new class of objects, quark stars, which fall somewhere in between neutron stars and black holes in density. more... http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (17:34)", "body": "The full story for the New matter found in strange stars is at the following: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/04/10/new.matter/index.html"}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (19:58)", "body": "maybe that's heaven!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (20:37)", "body": ""}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (16:58)", "body": "FLARES ILLUMINATE THE SECRET LIFE OF A QUIESCENT BLACK HOLE ----------------------------------------------------------- Astronomers probing the intimate details of apparently quiescent stellar black holes have discovered that in reality they are dynamic, lively places, subject to flares that briefly illuminate the whole of the gas disc around the black hole. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0204/21blackhole/"}, {"response": 80, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (18:08)", "body": "discovery had a show on Friday (The Science Channel) about black holes--i didn't see all of it but the part that i did see went right along with what you guys have been saying. i really finally understood what was going on (think the pics helped)."}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (18:16)", "body": "Absolutely the pictures and animations help. I watched that, too."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 22, 2002 (18:20)", "body": ""}, {"response": 83, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (18:12)", "body": "my son watched the whole thing! i thought that was cool. (of course, he is a tv addict *grin*)"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (20:56)", "body": "Maybe you can pry him out of the house long enoug to watch for scheduled satellite observastions. It is highly addictive and easy enough to do with your location logged into http://www.heavens-above.com If you have forgotten your coordinates, John's EQ plot for your area has it closely enough for celestial events."}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (21:29)", "body": "SCIENTISTS FIND BLACK HOLE PUMPS ENERGY AS IT SPINS --------------------------------------------------- MIT scientists have more evidence that black holes can spin, creating a whirlpool in the fabric of space that pumps energy out of the black hole and into the region. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0204/23blackhole/"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (21:08)", "body": "ARE BLACK HOLES NOT REALLY HOLES? --------------------------------- Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of South Carolina have provided a hypothesis that \"black holes\" in space are not holes at all, but instead are more akin to bubbles. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0204/28blackbubble/"}, {"response": 87, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (20:03)", "body": "yeah, they're more like upside down bubbles (at least that's how i understood it from discovery)--like when you're blowing a bubble from the point of view of your mouth looking toward the bubble."}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (20:27)", "body": "That was an excellent analogy. For once I could actually imagine it!"}, {"response": 89, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (14:59)", "body": "You\ufffdre blowing the bubble.......but the bubble\ufffds volume insists not increasing. You may wonder at the beginning. But later perhaps you feel affright!!! \"Hugs\" John"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (15:32)", "body": "What happens when the bubble breaks?"}, {"response": 91, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (16:03)", "body": "You buy more gum? (sorry - couldnt resist. -back to your intellectually superior conversation...) ;-)"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (16:07)", "body": "Just what we need - a universe held together with bubble gum. *;)"}, {"response": 93, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (16:26)", "body": ";-P"}, {"response": 94, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (17:53)", "body": "The bubble cannot break logically. Its volume is constant even if you\ufffdre blowing forever. You are proved very fast that you can think out of the box ES-BE. Can you continue to explain about this strange bubble gum? Surely you can! John"}, {"response": 95, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (18:11)", "body": "LOL - i'm pretty much just good at making wisecracks John, not deep thoughts. :-) re: the box, dont think i've ever actually been in it. rather, have spent the whole of my life outside of it, wondering why everone else thinks alike but me. occationally someone thinks i'm brillant (besides my cat) but its not a regular occurance. ;-)"}, {"response": 96, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (20:28)", "body": "sometimes i get stuck in the box but i've cut peepholes so i can see out of it."}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (23:38)", "body": "Wolfie is paid to think in the box. As for me, I am still wondering where the box is located."}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (23:58)", "body": "EsBee is not ALLOWED to have a box. She keeps trying to round the corners!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (01:06)", "body": "For a lovely page of links about Black Holes and some pretty nice animations http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/blackhole.html"}, {"response": 100, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (18:13)", "body": "no, they want me to think out of the box without actually leaving it to see what's there (reason for peepholes)!!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (00:17)", "body": "I hope they give you a \"tail\"-gunner. Someone has to be covering your... well, you know...!"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  6, 2002 (23:24)", "body": "* Today on SPACE.TV: Black Hole Diving http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/spacetv/ Astronomer David Meier on the Universe's Most Extreme Sport"}, {"response": 103, "author": "Lu", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (20:18)", "body": "Hey folks! I was just reading the bubble article--that is some crazy stuff they're talking about. I guess it makes some sense in a bizarre sort of way, but these are the types of articles that make me wonder which end of the scientific process these people started at. In other words, did they try to fit a black hole into a bubble shape or did they start out with a black hole and somehow end up with a bubble? Did that make sense? Does it matter? Should I just go back to my research paper?! ~A very loopy Lu"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (21:52)", "body": "John is the resident physicist and I am letting him field your question. Alas, he is socially involved this week with family and friends so we will have to wait our turn. Lu, it is always good to see you hanging out. Too much researching can warp your mind and ruin your disposition. Kick your shoes off and wiggle your toes in the virtual warm Hawaiian sand."}, {"response": 105, "author": "Lu", "date": "Wed, May  8, 2002 (17:13)", "body": "virtual warm Hawaiian sand. Girl, you have no idea. I'm seriously looking into working on Marimed's new ship next fall just for an excuse to be in HI. ~Lu"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (21:07)", "body": "You won't be disappointed with Hawaii, Lu. In fact we have several Black Holes here but one is currently busy melting and expelling molten rock. It is the only volcano on earth you can study up close and live to tell about it. Black Holes of the non-terrestrial nature are located by using the magnifiers atop Mauna Kea. By all means, do see the outer islands and not just Oahu."}, {"response": 107, "author": "Lu", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (13:54)", "body": "Yes, I have a friend who is studying vulcanology at UH Manoa who promised to take my boyfriend and me for a hike at Kiluea next time we're out there. He says to wear sacrificial sneakers though because \"sometimes the soles get a little melted.\" Eeek. I got a taste of nearly all the islands this past summer (but only a taste) on the Californian . They are all amazing and totally different! My next big goal (though it will probably take a few years to achieve) is to sail on the new SEA vessel \" the Bob \" out to the NW Hawaiian chain. Very cool. Vaguely on topic, I'm studying for my astro final right now but my course this semester is on the solar system so not quite appropriate for this topic. Pretty good stuff though. Did you guys know that you're just as likely these days to be hired by NASA as a biologist than as an astrophysicist etc? We had two lectures on \"exobiology.\" It ain't exactly ET, but very cool! ~Lu"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (16:27)", "body": "Very cool indeed, is exobiology. Far out, too. How great that you have a freind at Manoa. My son got his geology degree there. I've melted my bootbottoms more than once, but I am still on my original pair. Unless you are doing the summit trail of Mauna Loa you probably will not need anything stronger than Vibram soles and nylon webbing or leather boots for your feet. Sneakers are definitely OUT of the question! Good luck on your astro final!"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (22:35)", "body": "Anti-matter made easy - on paper http://physicsweb.org/article/news/6/8/11 Particle physicists have to overcome many obstacles in their efforts to understand the fundamental nature of matter and its interactions. The accelerators and detectors used in high-energy physics push modern technology to the limit, and massive computer power is needed to analyse the results of the experments. But sometimes particle physicists must overcome smaller problems - like how do you quickly place a line over a letter or character in a Word document to represent an anti-particle? This problem has now been solved by a team of physicists at the University of Mississippi-Oxford in the US."}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 12, 2003 (20:18)", "body": "Black Hole Sound Waves Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have detected, for the first time, sound waves rumbling away from a supermassive black hole. The \"note,\" about 57 octaves lower than middle-C, is the deepest ever detected from an object in our Universe. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/09sep_blackholesounds.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 111, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 2004 (11:15)", "body": "Virtual Trips to Black Holes and Neutron Stars by Robert Nemiroff (Michigan Technological University) Ever wonder what it would look like to travel to a black hole? A neutron star? If so, you might find this page interesting. Here you will find descriptions and MPEG movies that take you on such exciting trips. These movies are scientifically accurate computer animations made with strict adherence to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. The descriptions are written to be understandable on a variety of levels - from the casually curious to the professionally inquisitive. It is hoped that students from grade school to graduate school will find these virtual trips educational. \"A stimulating, relativistically accurate trip!\" - Kip Thorne The Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology, Author of \"Black Holes and Time Warps - Einstein's Outrageous Legacy\" http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html"}, {"response": 112, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 2004 (12:47)", "body": "It's a way cool site, get to visit black holes!"}, {"response": 113, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 2004 (20:05)", "body": "that is pretty neat!"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 23, 2004 (20:26)", "body": "That is a way cool site, Terry. Thanks. I may just link it to Geo 15 for kids. They understand much of this I am still struggling with. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 66, "subject": "Geo Books", "response_count": 37, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (21:15)", "body": "Wonderful topic, Rob! Congratulations on your first topic creation! I happen to collect books on volcanoes. I'll give each a run-down as time and listening to cricket live on 17.675 MHz allows."}, {"response": 2, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (01:06)", "body": "Hi all Geo books can cover a vast range of things from astronomy to volcanology, seismology to petology, climatology to palaeontology, and all places inbetween. I have books on volcanology, seismology, and palaeontology. I have for volcanoes: Eruption and healing of Mount St Helens - Patricia Lauber Fountains of fire - Geoffrey Cox Slumbering Giants - Geoffrey Cox Mount St Helens: The continuing story - James P. Quiring Mount St Helens: The story behind the scenery - Thom Corcoran Ruapehu Erupts: Karen Williams Kilauea: Newest Land on Earth - Dorian Weisel and Christina Heliker Tarawera and the terraces - Philip Andrews World Disasters: Volcano - Brian Knapp I have for earthquakes: Rocked and ruptured - Jefley J. Aitken The Great Quake: the story of the 1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake - Robert McGregor Magnitude Eight Plus: Story of New Zealands biggest earthquake (can't remember Author). The palaeontology books I have are work books issued by University of Canterbury with useful information about life forms, rock stratigraphy, the environment that they lived in and also their anatomy. Rob"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (12:51)", "body": "Thanks for your list, Rob. I'd hate to duplicate any of them. My books are mostly passed on to my son, mainly to keep the mildew out of them and to save them from being eaten by insects. (Life in Paradise does have its flaws!) I still retain my college texts, a whole lot of mineralogy books and field identifier (Rockhounding among them) books, and the mandatory Hawaii Volcanoes books. I'll try to deal with them one at a time to allow for others to see if they are worth looking up. My favorite book is \"Volcanoes in the Sea\" by Gordon Macdonald. I have recently discovered it is out of print and nothing has resplaced it. It used to be the classic text for all Hawaii Geology students, but it is so well written, it is also a very good read."}, {"response": 4, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (19:57)", "body": "i have bird books, nature books, and lots of gardening books. the AM doesn't understand my obsession with coffee table books! maybe we can link this topic with the books conference and maybe bring some more readers in."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (00:27)", "body": "Excellent idea. I'll email terry to do it. I can't remember the command. I can telnet but... Wolfie, I have tons of Coffee table books. They are absolutely stunning. I got three more for Christman. All huge atlases and none duplicated. Lance gave me one of minerals amd gemstones but I have it here beside me on a shelf. (Lance of topic 18 who, as soon as he graduates, I'm gonna grab back to this conference.)"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (19:01)", "body": "Go to the conference you want to add the topic. In this case j books Then li geo 66 should do it."}, {"response": 7, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (19:01)", "body": "Ok: help li **** LINKFROM **** Syntax: li_nkfrom Description: This will link items in the specified range in the given conference into the current conference. This can only be done by a fair-witness of the current conference. A link can be erased with the kill command. Link commands are logged to the conference log file. See also: kill, file log Ok:"}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (19:02)", "body": "I'll do it this time, but this will give you the ability to do it in the future."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (19:34)", "body": "Thanks terry! I thought it was lk ..... not ik. Ok!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "(I've done it in the past if you look at the log in geo/config ) Thanks again."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (19:47)", "body": "Worse than that, telnet to spring no longer works for me. I can get to spring via aloha.net telent. I wonder if that would work. Talk about doing it the hard way..."}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (20:51)", "body": "thanks terry!!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (22:04)", "body": "You have to use ssh! From a prompt at aloha.net type ssh 66.70.14.230 You will be logged in with the same username as you're using at aloha.net"}, {"response": 14, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (18:47)", "body": "Hi all I know what I want to see. A book compiled dealing with faultlines around the world and the plate tectonics scene at each - NZ, USA, Japan, Indonesia, Chile, Peru etc. New Zealand is well covered in Rocked and Ruptured. Does anyone know of books like that for their patch? Is so can you mention them here? Rob"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (19:01)", "body": "I agree, Rob. I was just searching for maps and information on the Anatolian fault and plate movement as regards the archaeology of that area. There are some sources I need to check, yet, but there is nothing very definitive and I wish there were!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (19:07)", "body": "sounds to me like the two of you have a project to do, huh? why don't you guys create the book?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (20:56)", "body": "*laugh* What do you think this conference is?! It just occurred to me that I have written My Life In The Universe several times over."}, {"response": 18, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (20:56)", "body": "*HAHA*"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (21:00)", "body": "Rob and I could call it *It's NOT My Fault*"}, {"response": 20, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (10:48)", "body": "*laugh* how clever!!!!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (21:52)", "body": "Hi all How about calling it \"Faulty Seismology\" - study of seismicity combined with misunderstandings of the faults. Rob"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (23:14)", "body": "....followed by Faulty Seismic Theory We are far too clever for our own good! *Laughing*"}, {"response": 23, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (18:04)", "body": "Hi all \"Rocked and ruptured\" by Jefley Aitken is the tell all book of New Zealand Faults with 70 colour plates in the middle of the book, written in an easy to understand way and has a FAQ section toward the end. So that kids can understand and enjoy it as well it has a couple experiments you can try with chocolate bars of the gooey interior variety to show faulting. Rob"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (19:52)", "body": "What a great idea, the gooey-centered candy bar for showing faulting. I'll remember that in case I ever have any little ones to teach again!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (17:03)", "body": "Snickers bars might be useful, the peanuts could be rocks."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (18:31)", "body": "Ah yes!!! Snickers bars are useful for demonstration and is one of the most popular of field food for geologists here. Their mothers, too. =)"}, {"response": 27, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Feb 23, 2002 (03:08)", "body": "Hi all I think what really needs to be done is a simplistic series of things like earthquakes and volcanoes written for school children - say year 4 and above. You would say for a volcano series start with simple diagrams and explanations. The book would be short but it would cover the bare basics as a child of 8-9 years would understand. For example, talking about a stratovolcano, you might describe it as an upside down ice cream cone with a vent at the top. Later on you might include brief simplistic explanations of why they erupt differently and the types of eruption you would expect from them. A brief explanation for Hawaiian eruptions could be that the lava contains little gas so it does not explode. Instead it runs freely like water in rivers. Rob"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 23, 2002 (20:53)", "body": "You must be psychic, Rob! John suggested the very same thought. He will do the graphics and I (may I pick your brains, too?) will write the text. How to get the kids to come here might be a bigger challenge, though we are visible on the internet to search engines."}, {"response": 29, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (04:13)", "body": "Hi all Very few books on tsunami's. I know that they are only generated by a sudden mass movement under water, volcanism, or an earthquake, but I have only seen one good book to date. Simply called Tsunami!. Rob"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (17:13)", "body": "The only ones I know are by Walt Dudley. Search Google for him and you will find much material. He teaches at the UH Hilo and has been sailing in our boat (well, put that is the distant past tense) and has a stunning wife who teaches French. He is definitly worth looking up http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Walt%2BDudley%2BTsunami"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  5, 2002 (01:01)", "body": "Geo-Book: \"California Earthquakes\" This scholarly study recounts how scientific experts, starting with the \"Big One\" in 1906, overcame the scoffing and coverups of business boosters and turned the state government into the enforcer of quake-safe practices. It's both a political history and a case study of scientific activism. http://geology.about.com/msubbook.htm"}, {"response": 32, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (04:38)", "body": "Hi all For those interested in the Physical Geography of New Zealand I recommend the book Physical Geography - a New Zealand perspective, 2001, Rachel .A Spronken-Smith and Andrew Sturman. Rob"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:32)", "body": "I was fortunate enough to find an account of the great earthquake of San Francisco at a yard sale in the remote backwaters of this area. My host is ever eager to find \"ancient\" equipment to add to his collection. This time it was a treadle Singer sewing machine for $5. It does not work but looks complete. This is added to a rather large corn sheller in one corner of his dining room. I'll post more on the book I found when I get to reading it. Yard sales can be fun when you are in \"other\" parts of the world beside residential Los Angeles!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (17:37)", "body": "post pics in the antique topic in collecting, marcia! we went to a couple of swap meets locally and there was a lot of stuff. saw a bunch of old sewing machines too."}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:13)", "body": "Great idea, Wolfie. I'll also take a photo of his corn sheller and the crossbow b (YES!) beside my bed. This stuff is fascinating!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Oct 17, 2002 (03:36)", "body": "Hi all I have read a great book called \"Volcano Cowboys\", by Dick Thompson. This is the true story of the volcanologists in the USGS who were assigned to watch Mount St Helens in 1980, Nevado del Ruiz in 1985, and Pinatubo in 1991. It gives a new perspective to the world of volcanology, when you look at it from their perspective. At Mount St Helens they risk falling out with the American people over denying them access to their homes, that is until the day before the eruption. At Nevado del Ruiz they issue warnings that the volcano is ready to blow, but the Colombian authorities ignore the warning, costing 25,000 lives. Finally at Pinatubo they have to deal with the USAF, which has its own problems to worry about in addition to having an awakening volcano on their back door step. But Pinatubo is one with a happy ending. But to find out what I mean by a happy ending, you have to read it. Rob"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (21:29)", "body": "That book sounds great, Rob. I think I will know several of the guys they write about. I do need to get a copy. Thanks for telling us about it. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 67, "subject": "PREDICTING EARTHQUAKES", "response_count": 179, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (06:27)", "body": "My full name is John Tsatsaragos. I think that is necessary to present myself first. WHO I AM John Tsatsaragos lives in Volos area, Central east Greece. He has a degree in Electronics and works in the production department of a large cement factory for over twenty-six years. He has also worked as electronics engineer for Greek National Radio-Television. His interests and job experience include all sound systems, constructing complex electronic circuits, transmitting and receiving radio signals, measuring all physical amounts including measures in the electromagnetic field, automation systems, computer systems, and basic computer programming. He loves Physics and Astronomy and is also a member of the amateur Astronomy group in Volos. He has designed, and has constructed, a station of observing and recording electrical pre-earthquake signals from the ground, which is in operation for more than 21 years. His recent installation is fully computerised. Recently, he is member of a scientific team that works on Earthquake prediction based on electrical signals recorded on ground surface. The team apply an integrated methodology answering on \"WHERE\", \"WHEN\" and \"OF WHAT MAGNITUDE\" a large EQ will occur. You can find full presentation of the team HERE. You know already what I presented in topic 9. I will continue to present you my work and the teamwork here. I will use simple words and daily updated graphs. For absolutely scientific presentation you can visit HERE. Please feel free and comfortable here. Feel me as good friend from the opposite side of earth. I will answer on any question you have. I will explain anything you need to know on my research too. John"}, {"response": 2, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (08:25)", "body": "HOW WE CAN SEE AN ONCOMING EQ IN GREECE? From now on, you will be able to see the graph of the recent signals here. They are recorded in my station at Volos. This graph, titled RECENT 24-HOUR SIGNALS, will be updated almost every day. Thus, each time you will visit here, you will see the updated graph. (The dates appear on the horizontal axis). In order to understand what exactly you see, I give you first the 40-day graph, which shows the corresponding signals for the big EQ in Skyros Island area in the Aegean Sea (M=6.4R), on 26th July 2001, at a distance 125 Km from my station. PRE-EARTHQUAKE 24-HOUR SIGNALS OF SKYROS EQ The second 40-day graph (below) shows the corresponding signals for the big EQ in Dodecanese Islands in the southeast Aegean Sea (M=6.3R), on 22nd January 2002, at a distance 545 Km from my station. The same graph shows also the corresponding signals for the big EQ in Afyon, province of Turkey, (M=6.5R), on 3rd February 2002, at a distance 722 Km east of my station. PRE-EARTHQUAKE 24-HOUR SIGNALS OF DODECANESE ISLANDS AND AFYON, TURKEY EQ's Finally, here is the 40-day graph of my recent signals. RECENT 24-HOUR SIGNALS (Updated daily) Notes: First, the importance is the amplitude of the oscillation (yellow line). When the amplitude rises, an EQ is expected. As amplitude is bigger, more secure is that an EQ will occur. Second, The three graphs above, have exact the same scale in both axes, for easy correlation. I present you the bar graph below for more easy correlation between max amplitude of my signals before the big EQ's of Skyros Island, Dodecanese Islands, and Afyon Province (in Turkey), together with the amplitude of my last 24 hours signals. This graph is also updated almost every day. ATTENTION THE AMPLITUDE OF MY RECENT SIGNALS DOES NOT REPRESENTS MAGNITUDE OF AN ONCOMING EQ, BECAUSE THE DISTANCE OF ITS SOURCE IS UNKNOWN. Complete description for each one of the above big EQ's including theory and examples of smaller EQ's, you can find in my site, which is: http://users.otenet.gr/~bm-ohexwb/ John"}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (12:55)", "body": "hi john!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (23:40)", "body": "HOW WE CAN FIND WHEN WILL BECOME THE ONCOMING EQ When we see big amplitude signals we know that the oncoming EQ will occur in a few days. We find that big EQ's became at the higher or lower peak of the mean daily tidal gravity variations curve, plus or minus one day. This is true for more than 90% of the big EQ's, which they occurred in Greece since the year 1952. So, we have to see when is the next three-day dangerous time window. The three last big EQ's around my station they occurred during this dangerous time window as well. Tidal gravity curve is available for any place and time by a scientific computer program that gives a prediction curve. So, we can easily find when is the dangerous three-days window just after we receive big amplitude signals. I present you the last example for Afyon, Turkey EQ (M=6.5R). Bar graph below shows the mean daily tidal gravity curve for February 2002. From the other hand, in my signals graph (see my previous response) you can see that the signals were raised at the end of January. So, the most dangerous days was the 3rd, 4th an 5th of February (red bars). This was proved absolutely precise as you can see on the above bar graph. ATTENTION: This graph does not mean anything without existence of signals. John"}, {"response": 5, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (23:58)", "body": "HOW WE CAN FIND WHERE IS THE EPICENTRE OF THE ONCOMING EQ We use the signals from the two crossing dipoles as components of the total signal. We can calculate the azimuth direction by applying simple physics. I found the precise direction of the two receiving dipoles by use of GPS instrument. A special computer program can scan big number of data and calculate the azimuth direction very fast. So we know the azimuth direction for the source of the signals by running this program. I will use the example for the Afyon, Turkey EQ again. On February 2, we found the azimuth direction at 93 degrees, by running the above program. That is to say almost easterly concerning my station. (The precise azimuth direction of the real epicentre was 97 degrees). You can see on the above map the blue-red arrow that shows the azimuth direction that was calculated on February 2. I notice that the distance of the epicentre was about 722 Km from my station. Unfortunately, we have only one station and we cannot calculate the precise place of the epicentre on this line and also to approach the precise magnitude of the imminent earthquake. Are required at least two additional stations that we do not have until now. John"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (00:05)", "body": "How far from your station in Volos can the additional two stations be? I offer you my property in Hawaii for your second monitoring station if it will be of any help to you."}, {"response": 7, "author": "VLFKorgan", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (08:58)", "body": "Hi John! Great posts! I'll keep an eye on this topic as well! Shawn"}, {"response": 8, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Mar  1, 2002 (09:51)", "body": "We use this graph when we have significant signals. The three more dangerous days for an oncoming EQ are these, which are centered the lower or the upper peaks. I will update this graph every month. John"}, {"response": 9, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Mar  3, 2002 (04:06)", "body": "Hi all Impressive graphics John. Is it possible to see a long term pattern to the fluctuations yet. By being able to read long term patterns you can sort of make a rough guess as to what the future holds. Keep up the good work and let us know what happens from here. Rob"}, {"response": 10, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Mar 11, 2002 (01:55)", "body": "I recorded a new strong world signal yesterday. I don\ufffdt know much for these signals. I found that during 9 or 10 weeks after the signal will become a big EQ somewhere in the world. I can\ufffdt find where. Its magnitude will be greater than 6.7R. This is my yesterday record. (24 hours) Since August 1999 I recorded 80 similar signals and they happened 78 EQ's with magnitude greater than 6.7R around the world until this moment. A good question is \"How and why these signals can arrive in Volos?\" I cannot answer by my self. Maybe the explanation is here: http://serpiente.dgsca.unam.mx/serv_hem/revistas/fisica/1997/01/koshevay.html The fact that these signals they have about the same amplitude it increases the possibility of an electromagnetic world resonator with constant quality factor. They differ only in the duration, which is not important. John"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 11, 2002 (13:08)", "body": "The earth has been describes as ringing like a struck bell when an earthquake hits. Waves travel around the world just as waves do in a pond when a stone is thrown in. In this lake case, the waves do not happen until the event. Might there be some precursor event you are sensing? We are just in our infancy in understanding the dynamics of the earth. I wish you had more monitoring stations. If I knew what to do, I'd do it immediately to assist your research."}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 11, 2002 (18:09)", "body": "that is just amazing john!!! good work!!!!!!!!!!!!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (03:03)", "body": "Hi all I remember that term being used to describe the Earth after the Mw 8.4 earthquake in Peru last year. The Earth rung like a bell as a result of the June 2001 event, which worst affected Arequipa. Rob"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 14, 2002 (16:01)", "body": "That bell-effect (reverberation) can be checked by looking at world-wide seismograms. They are truly remarkable!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Apr  1, 2002 (03:22)", "body": "I finished the first web site of Geo - Web Library. It contains also, the Updated World Signals and information for our prediction team. Please inform me if you have any difficulty to access it or if you found some errors in it. John"}, {"response": 16, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Apr  1, 2002 (03:56)", "body": "We have been informed via our exports in Western Australia that we are due for the big one very soon. Some thousands of small and some larger quakes have been happening in the last few months. Perth has been shaken a few times recently and we have been told to be prepared."}, {"response": 17, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Apr  1, 2002 (03:57)", "body": "my apologies experts."}, {"response": 18, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (00:18)", "body": "Hi Anne, I am not expert but I can say something due to my experience. I don't know if these many quakes are the only criterion in order they can say anything for an oncoming strong quake. It secure if we say that their area is seismically active. But this is not meaning that it will become a strong quake there. It is good sign if you have big number of small quakes because they reduce the stored energy. It reduces the possibility for big earthquake. Regards John"}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (11:05)", "body": "thanks john, that makes sense to me!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (14:52)", "body": "Indeed Anne, I had also heard the same comments. I suggest the media not give these people air time or paper space because it alarms but does not inform. Please keep in touch. I thought about you when I saw it mentioned. John is correct. And, yes he is an expert. His data is far more reliable than others who have lots of letters after their names and who hold high positions."}, {"response": 21, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (16:31)", "body": "that must be how the news get their money--sensationalism. anne, can't tell you how many times they've scared me! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 22, "author": "ommin", "date": "Tue, Apr  2, 2002 (23:46)", "body": "Thanks for the reassurance I must admit to being more than somewhat alarmed with the media hype - I find I can relax a little now. Will keep you informed if anything further happens."}, {"response": 23, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, Apr  4, 2002 (05:25)", "body": "Yet again our news media are going on about the big one. Its unbelievable that they can continue with these scare tactics. We are in the middle of a dreadful drought and I am beginning to wonder if they are trying to get us away from the truth and scare us into worrying about the earthquakes being imminent. I am finding myself neither trusting politians or the media these days. Do you find yourselves in this position."}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  4, 2002 (13:12)", "body": "Yes, Anne, indeed we do find ourselves searching for information which is not there. The politicians do not want to know what might happen because they will be responsible in the event that they misjudge the danger. Has it really come down to the fact that we are a litigious society so completely that NO one wants to become involved? I fear that is the situation. If John's worthy research does nothing else, it will at least inform those who will read it to see what is actually happening to the earth at the present moment. Perhaps we need to make a little enclave of watchers and informers of our own space. John's world predictions will be better when he has more stations world-wide. My substrate waits for instrumentation, and my son's does, as well. I think I need to light a fire under my son, since he is making his own. I thought your drought had eased. Good grief, it has been years in length by now. Do you have wildfires again? Drought is not something I take lightly. I live on a very finite island and if we do not have enough rain, we are affected immediately. I'll send you monsoon thoughts and a bit of our tropical rain soakers to your watershed."}, {"response": 25, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (08:39)", "body": "I want help you Anne. I don't know on what strange or unusual phenomenon they based on and they say something so serious. On what they give reason for their prediction? If you heard something please tell me. But looking at the seismisity map of your area (below) I found only a few small EQ's on the solid earth of Australia. They are not give reason for a big earthquake I think. We have three to six EQ's in Greece every day with magnitudes 3 to 5R but the big EQ's are infrequent. I noticed a big number of EQ's with magnitude from 3.0R to 4.8R within a few months in a small area many times. But a big one never came. They have enough small probability of confirmation, if their prediction is based on statistical data alone. I suppose that they have not any additional information or observation. In any case you can e-mail me any time. John"}, {"response": 26, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (06:09)", "body": "Thank you John for your offer of help I will certainly inform you if any more comes from this area. Marcia I know this isn't about earthquakes but I live in Western Australia which is supposed to be under severe drought yet the strange thing is where I live we have had quite a bit of rain during the past month and the people who run our weather centre says we have had none! I find everything very strange these days. They have now stopped talking about earthquakes and the big one - all the talk is the fact they have run out of money and need more. So I suppose it is leading up to severe charges for water etc."}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (16:07)", "body": "Anne, as soon as John can get back online, you will discover that your situation is not unique in the world. I thought fear of science was what separated politicians from the facts they need. Now it appears they do not WANT to know what is happening so they will not be held accountable. I'm not all that sure we are any better off with the best equipment on earth staffed by the USGS. You would think they would use some sort of diversionary tactics to keep your mind off the water problem if they were not preparing you mentally for large increases in rates. I suppose catchment is out of the question. That is what people here do when they tire of being yanked around by the politicians and public utilities. I've never considered that option. Drinking greenish water is not my idea of civilized living. I think Rob, in New Zealand will also tell the same story. How odd, though, that you have had so much rain but not enough, apparently!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (13:46)", "body": "Hi all At 10:51 UTC today it happens a significant earthquake in distance of 360 Km almost north of Volos. It reported by USGS: Date-Time 2002 04 24 10:51:51 UTC Location 42.43N 21.51E Depth 10.0 kilometers Magnitude 5.5 Region NORTHWESTERN BALKAN REGION Reference 25 miles (40 km) SE of Pristina, Yugoslavia Source USGS NEIC My signals was low but not at the absolutely background level. My original signals are updated daily in Geo portal. After FFT process in 22nd April on them, we have the following particular signals: And the azimuth direction that was calculated is: Red circle is the place of the real epicenter of today\ufffds earthquake. John"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (17:05)", "body": "It seems that each time I sleep the rest of the world does amazing things. What we need to do is to get you other stations whose data you can coordinate with those of your own monitoring station. How we can accomplish this is someting I cannot even begin to understand, but I do know two people who have offered you their far-flung substrate for your use. From the grahpics Dr Thanassoulas worked up from your data, this earthquake does not surprise me in the least!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (13:04)", "body": "Hi all, Unfortunately I recorded a new strong pre-earthquake signal yesterday. This type of signals comes before Big Earthquakes anywhere on the Earth. The eventuality is near 100% in order to be realized. This is my signal from the recorded file: This is meaning a Big Earthquake (greater than 6.7R) within next 2-3 months. For more information about this type of pre-earthquake signals you can see in Geo Portal: http://www.spring.net/geo/JohnVolos/Public/pages/inviation.htm I can answer on any question that you maybe have. John"}, {"response": 31, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (18:42)", "body": "how come the signal dropped? it doesn't matter which way the signal goes (dropping or rising)? i wish we could get you some more stations so you can pinpoint these places!! thanks, john *HUGS*"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (18:54)", "body": "If I could make one by myself, John would already be getting data from my substrate. I think I must urge David to get his station built and installed. This is very important basic research John is doing. We must help in any way we can. Speaking of advance warning, I audited a course of college geophysices this morning and was appalled to know that all the USGS said they could hope for was a few minutes warning so people could get their water bottles and food and turn off the untilities before the earthquake happened. That is not going to save lives. Can they be so blind to research that they cannot do any better than that? Our tax dollars are not being well-spent if this is the case."}, {"response": 33, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (20:02)", "body": "if i could, i'd set up a station here but wouldn't that contradict/compromise what CA already has lined up? how can we get the EQ centers in these prone states to hook up across the globe?"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (20:16)", "body": "Wolfie, John will tell you and I will agree that politics and ego problems preclude co\ufffdperation. Even when the public good is at stake, no one seems to want to know about this danger because if they know, then they will be responsible for protecting and taking care of us. If they don't - think of the legal implications. Also, John is not part of the establishment academics with geology or geophysics degrees. It seems, when some scientists have their degrees they feel they can stop learning and researching. They do not appreciate \"outside intelligence\" making them look foolish. They think with their egos and not with their itellects. But, in this case, that is exactly what is happening."}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 30, 2002 (20:19)", "body": "The above being said, I want NO ONE to think John has a mind of lesser brilliance than the many-lettered men who are ignoring his research. He has both a great grasp of Physics and a firm base in Engineering which makes him ideal for such work. It is unfortunate in every possible way that his work is not being regarded with the esteem it deserves!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, May  1, 2002 (18:44)", "body": "well, everyone thought einstein was crazy too! john, i'm happy to know you and to watch this baby grow up!!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  1, 2002 (21:49)", "body": "The only problem I can see with John's ground-breaking research is his fame. We are having to share him with all of Greece. Soon it will be all of the world. I could not wish it on a more worthy gentleman."}, {"response": 38, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (08:40)", "body": "Thank you Wolfie and Marcia, Well, I will tell you something from my past. My schoolfellows in high school were calling me \"crazy scientist\". Perhaps they had right... (Laugh). I was in a dinner with some of them last week. They know well my research and its results but some of them are doing the unaware! The others were jubilant! (Please do not make any parallelism between Einstein and me. I am too small!) My signals are a little \"crazy\" during the last days. I pray they stop increasing. \"Big Sigh\" John"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  2, 2002 (15:30)", "body": "I am expecting a world quake - or several, but it is the imminent local quakes that concern me. I can predict it happening soon if not immediately! Look at John's signals for Greece. We are also in the dnager window. Then next one is around my birthday. I hope Gaia does not celebrate with earthquakes! No, I would not wish Einstein's brain on you. He had a difficult life and was forced to live in a world that he really did not fit in. An agile and inquisitive mind is the best. You can think and inquire in many directions, John. That is really the best of all possible worlds. (I also think your classmates were a little envious of you - you looked younger than any of them!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (12:32)", "body": "I recorded this new strong world pre-earthquake signal yesterday. This is the graph from the recorded file: You can see also a strange periodical oscillation on this curve. I don\ufffdt know what is until now. It is real! John"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (13:01)", "body": "I have not seen that sort of signal on any type of recording before yours. A dppel plunging spike then a little roll at the top. Yes it is real. What it means remains to be seen. Thank you, John. I go to your updates to see if your part of the world is still alive before I read anything else."}, {"response": 42, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Sat, May 25, 2002 (08:05)", "body": "Interesting work, John! The strange oscillation that was superimposed on your signals until five days ago, seems to have a period of about 16 minutes (as far as I can tell from the graphs). Do you have any idea what it might be?"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 25, 2002 (15:42)", "body": "Curious that escaped me. I had been studying the trees and losing sight of the entire forest. Thanks for the question, George. I am also eager to know if there is some sort of correlation. Aloha and Welcome, George. New geophiles are always welcome."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 26, 2002 (17:04)", "body": "For those of you who an read Greek, this article about John's current fame and the recognition of his predicting veracity is in the one below. http://www.e-thessalia.gr/newsfeed.asp?Fv1=1&Fv2=23/5/2002&Fv3=&Fv4=6397 I tried pasting the Greek article here but Yapp does not recognize the Alphabet involved."}, {"response": 45, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, May 26, 2002 (22:08)", "body": "Welcome to GEO George. I think that you are Greek. It is wonderful! Where you live in Greece? It is a form of signals that appeared also before strong EQ\ufffds like the big one in Ismit (Turkey, in the August of 1999 7.5R) and the Athens EQ on September 1999. But how do you know that peaks? They are not readable in my graphs. Welcome again. Please stay with us. John"}, {"response": 46, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (14:20)", "body": "Marcia and John, thank you for your warm welcome messages! May I take the opportunity to extend my greetings (from John's part of the world) to all participants of GEO. Yes John, you are right; I live in Athens. In response 40 you present a graph of your record of May 12, 2002. There are 3 large peaks in the record (one of which you interpreted as a World Signal) and 89 small peaks, so there is one small peak every 16.2 minutes. The small peaks seem to be superimposed on your signal (the apex of the world signal peak looks identical to the small peaks). All small peaks have the same amplitude, their spacing (period of the oscillation) is constant and their shape looks identical, although (as you pointed out correctly) I cannot see their exact shape at the scale of your graph. This oscillation lasted from May 7 to May 19 with a small break in the early hours of May 19. I think this oscillation is too regular and too persistent to be the result of a physical (natural) process, but on the other hand I am not a specialist in the analysis of geophysical records. The questions are: 1) Is this oscillation really as regular as it looks at the scale of your graph? , 2) Is there a physical process that could generate such an oscillation? and 3) Have you tried to isolate and analyze this (strange, as you call it) oscillation? I just noticed that Dr. Thanassoulas has added a new page (\"Last Large Seismic Event in Greece\") in his site. In it, he describes the above oscillation as \"high frequency (SES) signal\". I guess, that answers part of my questions, however I would like to have your opinion on the rest."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (15:42)", "body": "Again, Welcome to Geo, George. You provide what I cannot for John. Someone who actually understands the intricacies of his research. For that I am most grateful. All I ask is that you continue your dialogue in English so we might all learn from you. I find it more than a little daunting to have two bilingual Greek gentlemen posting here in the humble little conference I created out of my imagination and experiences almost 3 years ago. You both honor us with your presence. Aloha from the flanks of Kilauea, the world's most active volcano."}, {"response": 48, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (18:01)", "body": "Hi George, I am glad that I find you here. I am happy also for your good and realistic questions. Yes George, you are right; I was forgotten that I posted that graph. Indeed they are pulses with almost constant period, constant width and constant amplitude. I made all possible checks during the presence of these signals because I had the same questions with you. I found that it was real signal in the nature finally. The signals disappeared so suddenly as so suddenly appeared. Now I can say that these signals were not man-made. I am absolutely sure. I know electronics very well but not so well geology. Dr Thanassoulas has enough experience from the signals of VAN group. They are SES signals with the same shape as he says and as he has showed me. I remind you that the SES signals are those who examine Dr. Varotsos and VAN group. From the other had the 24-hour period oscillation was significant and about constant. The azimuth direction was also about constant to the south-south east direction in a wide area of the electromagnetic spectrum (see Dr. Thanassoulas analysis). From my side I notice the red line in my graph of the recent signals. It is in middle position of the oscillation and it gives the sensation that represents the increasing of the pressure at faults rims. (It is my opinion but also Dr Thanassoulas agree). You ask me if it is there a physical process that could generate such an oscillation. I can't answer. But it is a real fact that needs an answer. Perhaps we need some help from other sciences. In any case we make a research. That means that we have always-new questions and we try to answer. We are learning nature with this new eye finally. Our results on the earthquake prediction are absolutely positive independently of what theory can explain it. A new article was published today in Greece about our work. It is in the newspaper Thessalia of Volos. You can read it in this address: http://www.e-thessalia.gr/newsfeed.asp?Fv1=1&Fv2=27/5/2002&Fv3=&Fv4=6572 Unfortunately for our friends here it is only in Greek language. I don't know about your studies George. If you have any new idea, it is welcome. Warm wishes from Volos John"}, {"response": 49, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (20:51)", "body": "Hi George, glad to see you here!!"}, {"response": 50, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Sat, Jun  8, 2002 (12:07)", "body": "Thank you for your prompt and honest answers to my questions, John. I apologize for my short disappearance, but I was out of town for fieldwork. I am a marine geologist specializing in coastal processes, nearshore hydrodynamics and remote sensing. For more than sixteen years I have been using a digital data acquisition system, that I have developed, to record and analyze sea waves and currents, wind speed and direction, air and sea temperature and other environmental parameters. All records have been analyzed in both time and frequency domains using time-series analysis techniques. You would be amazed to see how similar some of our records look! For several months I have been studying the records and the analyses that you and Dr. Thanassoulas have been posting in your sites. I am convinced that most of your records represent a real signal and not any type of noise. I do not know what kind of signal they are, or how they are produced, but their correlation with earthquakes is impressive! The piezoelectric mechanism, described by Dr. Thanassoulas and others, seems plausible but (in my opinion) cannot explain signals like the one you posted here in responce 40. Your records of May 12, 2002 and some days before an after that, are completely different from anything that I have seen in your sites during the last six months. They are also different from all examples of SES signals that I have seen in Dr. Thanassoulas' pages and in published works of the VAN group. In fact they are so different that you described them (correctly) as \"strange periodical oscillation\" and \"pulses with almost constant period, constant width and constant amplitude\". I find it extremely hard to accept that any physical process (piezoelectric or other) could produce such constant electric pulses in a switch-like manner for so long. That's why I got curious and I asked your opinion about it. I have to stress that the above comments are not an attempt to diminish the achievements of your research efforts. Unexpected, strange and unexplained results tend to pop up regularly in earth science experiments. They help us draw the line between things we do and things we don't understand and often they become the necessary stimulus for us to re-evaluate and improve our experimental designs. Thank you, once more, John, for taking the time to answer my questions. If I could help you in any way, I'd be glad to! Best wishes from Athens!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (14:40)", "body": "Welcome George."}, {"response": 52, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jun 10, 2002 (03:20)", "body": "Thank you George for your frank reply. Furthermore, I am sure that your own perennial research, even if in neighbouring sector, it contains enough strange and unexpected discoveries that ask answers. I must say to you that it is not the first time where I recorded similar signals. I am sure that these signals are REAL without question. The station of reception functions in the house where I live and I watch what it is recorded in real time. Thus I can make the required tests each time when I have doubts. Your object is exceptionally interesting. Perhaps you could say to us more about your work here. Also, I think that it must be very interesting and useful for both of us a real discussion for our experiences. I like this idea. You live in Athens. Would be interesting to me a meeting with you. My children live in Athens too. I visit them some times. Also, you can visit my station if you come some day in Volos. We can communicate directly by e-mail. Thank you again George. My best wishes John"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 10, 2002 (08:46)", "body": "George, if you ever need data on tsunami occurrances, Hilo, Hawaii has had more than their share. I would be happy to assist you!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (18:00)", "body": "Hi John. I am sure that you double- (and tripple-) check everything before you post a graph that contains a world signal and a SES signal! If you and Dr. Thanassoulas are convinced that the strange oscillation we talked about is a SES signal, then I am convinced too. It seems that this signal was the last warning before the Milos earthquake. I am sure that you have been investigating the nature of this oscillation (especially since you have recorded similar signals before) and I hope that you will discover the process that is responsible for its peculiar characteristics. When I talked about unexpected, strange and unexplained results I did have in mind some examples from my own research. A couple of them have to do with bizzare instument behaviour that could be published in the Journal of Irreproducible Results, but the rest were really intriguing and provided the most interresting scientific results. One or two still remain unexplained... Maybe you could give me a hand with those! I look forward to meeting you either in Athens or in Volos and I certainly would like to learn more about your research, your experimental design and your experiences!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (22:22)", "body": "Journal of Irreproducable Results?! I have spent many happy hours reading the brilliant writing and clever \"research\" presented there. George, I am delighted you have remained here to confer with John. Research with such promising life-saving results is important. Please continue. We are delighted (I am, anyway!) that you are so interested and also have similar and allied results with your research. If there is any way I may be of assistance, please let me know!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 14, 2002 (05:42)", "body": "Hi George, Thank you for your scientific position. I must inform you that in my site are presented the signals as they are recorded without any processing. I find it useful in order to be clear what is recorded in the original form. The signals are processed and analysed by a special program that we have constructed. Dr Thanassoulas makes this work also everyday and publishes the results CAREFULLY in his site. We do not analyse SES signals but we are seeing them. We examine mainly the 24h period signals and the entire electromagnetic spectrum with periods greater than one hour. The term World Signals is mine. They are very big reductions of the recorded level. Its amplitude is about constant but not the duration. Correlation factor of these signals with big EQ\ufffds (M greater than 6.7R) everywhere on Earth is very close to 100%. Dr Thanassoulas has no time to spend with them. But they are very interesting as well. They remind me the response of a resonator with constant quality factor and appeared only in the North-South dipole. Personally I can\ufffdt find a way to examine them longer. Perhaps you have an idea. It seems that Schuman Resonator theory can explain them but I can\ufffdt proceed with my means. I hope that I will have a chance to see you the next weekend. Perhaps we can discuss also with Dr Thanassoulas directly. I think that we have to learn from each other knowledge and experience. I hope you will find some time for it. Regards John"}, {"response": 57, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jun 18, 2002 (21:19)", "body": "Hi all I received the following world signal on June 16th The same day we had also the followed big EQ: 2002/06/16 06:54:37.9 5.1S 176.7E 30 Mb6.8 A. ODC TUVALU REGION Received by ORFEUS data Center, De Bilt, Netherlands And reported by: EMSC John"}, {"response": 58, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jun 18, 2002 (21:34)", "body": "Hi again I received a new world signal the next day. This is the signal: The above signals are presented also in our Special Table of Contents (Click below the Geo title). You can see also there, the process of the signal during the last 40 days. (It is updated daily). John"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (13:14)", "body": "How great is your success with these signals! I am delighted. I do hope the gentleman in Instanbul makes another sensing station for you for his own propterty. That would be a great help! I miss Geo. I am typing this on a friend's computer. I expect to have mine back and configured by the middle of next week."}, {"response": 60, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (16:19)", "body": "Hi Marcia Your excellent building Geo embraces the entire Earth by the tool of knowledge. I share my research with all of you because I believe that learning together is a good chance we become closer each other, even if we live in different places around the Earth. I am just trying to put a small building block in the courtyard of your building. John"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (15:06)", "body": "You are succeeding most beautifully with the building block of finest Parthian marble. Oddly enough, my host's comment to others at the recent conference we attended, when told he had made a siginificant contribution to the research in his field, he said he had only created a brick, not the whole structure. We must all build on these building blocks as we can. Sikander, as you still there/ I WILL TRY TO EMAIL YOU! John, if only you knew how significant your \"block\" was that you are creating! I condsider it of cornerstone potential."}, {"response": 62, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (22:44)", "body": "I received this new word signal yesterday. John"}, {"response": 63, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (01:51)", "body": "The unassertive sees his creations as building units. Usually, the others see the building that the unassertive creator degrades. History says that our buildings become building blocks for those who follow us during the trip to the future. It is big luck host and guest they are so much virtuous. Enjoy this harmony Marcia. John"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (11:05)", "body": "*Hugs* John, you are right about enjoying the harmony. I am learning much and another lady who is completing her PhD in archaeology will be staying here for the weekend. I am looking forward to learning much and listening even more. Your workd signal is the strongest one I can remember. How seeious is it? I guess we will wait and see again. There are quite a few world eq's pending. Be safe!!!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Jun 30, 2002 (22:32)", "body": "This is what I recorded yesterday. That positive pulse is very interesting! No additional comments for the moment. John"}, {"response": 66, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul  2, 2002 (00:22)", "body": "Earth became very anxious. Take cares my friends. I am very anxious too with this high number of signals within a few days. I had a new one signal yesterday. This one. John"}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  2, 2002 (20:10)", "body": "thanks for keeping us posted...."}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (17:18)", "body": "My part of the crust is relatively stable. I also worry for those of you who are in active areas where large quakes cause so much death and misery. Siaknder and John, please be careful. EQs are some of the most difficult things to prwepare for - especially when they spring out of nowhere to devastate your world."}, {"response": 69, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (06:42)", "body": "Hi all Picture this if you can - an apocalypse in the world biggest metropolis, powerhouse of the Japanese economy, national capital, and home to 34 MILLION people. No, this is not the aftermath of the yen caving in, but a scenario of what will happen in Tokyo when the expected major earthquake hits. Despite Japan being a world leader in earthquake preparedness and having a record a mile long of destructive events, the reality is not entirely what one might imagine of Japans economic power. This essay examines what may happen in the Tokyo metropolis in the event of a bad earthquake. It answers three questions: 1)Why is Tokyo at risk from bad earthquakes? A geological and engineering perspective. 2)What is likely to happen in an earthquake? 3)What has been done to protect the city? For the purpose of this particular essay, a magnitude 8.2 earthquake centred 15 kilometres from Tokyo at a depth of 20km has hit the city. The death toll reaches 300,000. Aftershocks have magnitudes of up to 7.3 on the Richter scale, but there is no tsunami. Why is Tokyo at risk from bad earthquakes? The Tokyo metropolitan area sits near the junction of three tectonic plates. Along the boundaries of these plates a colossal amount of stress is building up in the crust which is deforming the land. But like a rubber band you can stretch the rocks only so far before they snap. Well along the plate boundary there is numerous ways an earthquake can be generated. One is that the plates are sliding past each other like in the case of New Zealand and the United States. This means the rocks might be locked in place by their physical location and properties and so a large earthquake is required to move the rocks. Another is subduction. The diving plate is generating a lot of heat (melting rock creating magma)and friction which causes earthquakes along the subduction zone (Hikurangi Trench - NZ, and off the Alaskan coast, and of the South American coast). Tokyo also sits on alluvial plains which might be vulnerable to liquefaction in an earthquake (liquefaction is when the groundwater comes to the surface bringing sediment with it. Buildings might sink into the saturated sediments to a depth of a few metres or more (Niigata, 1964 is a prime example). So infrastructure and buildings are at risk from sinking into liquified sediments and the costs of building deep foundations is quite high so construction companies generally try to avoid it. History tells us a lengthy tale of some catastrophic events for the worst would have to be the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. It measured 7.9 on the Richter Scale, and destroyed Tokyo and Yokohama. 140000 people were killed in the earthquake and the firestorm that followed because of the busted gas mains. And it was worsened when a localised tsunami came ashore. When all hell breaks lose - the likely problems. You get to your feet, and your head is swimming. You cannot think rationally and are incoherent. Your house is a wreck - broken windows, masonry, walls, an amazing mess on the floor from your cupboards, pantry and shelves. You go outside and it looks like a nuclear bomb went off minus the radiation. Powerlines and power poles are down in a chaotic tangle sparking and cackling. Broken water pipes send floods of much needed water pouring down the roads, and with no water pressure for that reason, the fires spread. Ruptured gas mains fuel the fires and start even more. Collapsed buildings block roads and hamper emergency services trying to reach the wounded, the fires and few places where water is freely available. Add to all this, after an earthquake the size of the one that is likely to hit, one could reasonably expect a tsunami to add to the misery since any offshore event would have displaed a vast segment of the sea floor. Not to mention the aftershocks that will go on for weeks and maybe almost as strong as the initial event. Finally, though maybe this would not occur in Japan, to top of a truly horrible situation, there is the risk of disease from the dead and the dying plus the shattered sewage mains. With the onset of the earthquake, the Yen loses 15% of its value in a hit and 25% in three days, wiping billions from the Japanese economy and causing an exodus of sorts of investors in Japan. The economic shockwaves are felt around the world and the exports from Japan take a dive. What has been done to protect the city? To be fair because of the severity of such an event, Tokyo has stringent plans in place to deal with something that everyone not only knows is coming, but get reminded by nature every few weeks. Tokyo has a network of radial and ring roads/railways that emergency services will have priority access to after an earthquake to speed up the relief operation. These are backed up annually by a massive Civil Defence exercise, involving the armed forces, and the emergency services on every September 1 (the day of the Great Kanto earthquake) to test the readiness and efficiency of the emergen"}, {"response": 70, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (00:08)", "body": "A new world signal is recorded yesterday: John"}, {"response": 71, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (00:09)", "body": "This is the signal John"}, {"response": 72, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (02:19)", "body": "Excellent example Rob. Unfortunately big cities around the world are very defenceless to a catastrophic event like the EQ. The reason is only one. They are builds based only on economic standards. This is also the main reason that makes difficult any effectual emergency plan. We will wail for thousands lives until the day when each one of us will have as first priority the safe life against the economic parameters. We place much more reliance in our technology than its limits. From the other hand the political cost is high if they know for an oncoming EQ and it will cause victims. So, they prefer to say that EQ prediction is impossible until today! It appears impossible but is real. John"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (15:37)", "body": "Rob, I think we have discussed this metropolis disaster scenario before w\\elsewhere. Nothing will be done!"}, {"response": 74, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (07:45)", "body": "Early Warning for Earthquakes Izu Islands, Japan Tuesday 9th July 2002 Earthquakes may signal their impending arrival by radio, according to scientists in Japan. Seiya Uyeda and his colleagues have reported measuring anomalous variations in the electrical and magnetic fields at Japan's Izu islands since the end of March 2000, and within about three months of a series of earthquakes. Using telephone wires as antennas for very low-frequency radio signals, they identified changes in them over the three-month period preceding the quakes - and a peak in their amplitude just before the first large earthquake on July 1. With very little chance that the signals are man-made, the work lends strong support to the idea that earthquakes may be predictable by careful observation of very low-frequency electromagnetic disturbances. (Boston Globe) http://www.volcanolive.com/volcanolive.html John"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (17:25)", "body": "John, I assume they give you credit with making this method well known worldwide? Probably not, alas! We know who did the long and arduous research for so many years unheralded. Are they using the same methods as yours?"}, {"response": 76, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (04:45)", "body": "I receive this new world signal yesterday: ***Sigh*** John"}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (20:01)", "body": "that's a pretty big one, huh? hang in there john *HUGS*"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (22:09)", "body": "That is worrisome,indeed. Especially when we have so many already recorded and waiting completion and the actual event. Impressive! And more than alittle daunting to think about. ***SIGH***"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 29, 2002 (17:58)", "body": "The first Anniversary of this news item, and still they are actively predicting. *Applause* to John and his colleagues. PROFESSOR OF GEOPHYSICS CLAIMS TO HAVE PREDICTED THE EARTHQUAKE Athens, 29 July 2001 (21:05 UTC+2) Research according to which he expected an earthquake of 5,7 R to occur in Greece two days later, when it actually did, was submitted on the 23rd of July in a seminar in Bulgaria by Geophysics Professor Konstantinos Thanasoulas. Mr. Thanasoulas has been researching the prediction of earthquakes since 1982, but only just last year did he manage to get any results, after his cooperation with Giannis Tsaragos, electronic engineer. As he stated to a local television channel, STAR , before the earthquake there is a deformation in certain rock formations, which creates an electrical field and by applying simple mathematics one can find the source of this electrical field. Mr. Tsatsaragos pointed out in statements to the same channel, that in a length of time under 15 days from when the widening of the electrical field begins an earthquake is expected. The two scientists' station showed indications of an upcoming earthquake from July 20th up until 20 minutes before the earthquake took place in Skyros. The scientists point out that they can predict the intensity and time of the earthquake, but not the exact epicenter because they only have one station at their disposal. After the verification of their prediction the Bulgarians showed interest in Mr. Athanasoula's method. The interest was not shared by the Ministry of the Environment Physical Planning and Public Works or by the Organization Antiseismic Protection, who were informed about the research and its results. In any case, in scientific research that took place in 1993 in the seismological lab of the University of Athens, the epicenter and the intensity of the earthquake in Skyros had been predicted, but the exact date had not. http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpab/2001/01-07-29.mpab.html#02"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 29, 2002 (18:07)", "body": "I also noted the following article. I suspect things have not improved in the past year! \ufffdSECRET BREACHES\ufffd WORRY SCIENTISTS Athens, 29 July 2001 (20:25 UTC+2) Great unrest has been caused among seismologists, by the dozens of \"secret breaches\" existing in the Aegean, and that seem to present \"secret threats\". Many Greek and foreign specialists seem to be troubled, since after the great earthquakes of Turkey and Parnitha they have expeditiously arrived to chart the until recently unknown breaches. History has shown that most of the catastrophic earthquakes have been caused by these \"secret breaches\", and in fact in areas that are considered non seismogenous, just as it occurred with the Fyli breach that caused the 5,9 R earthquake in 1999. \"The study and charting of the specific breach is almost near completion. Thus, for the first time we know all of its characteristics\", stated the seismologist-researcher of the Athens Observatory's Geodynamic Institute, Gerasimos Papadopoulos. http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpab/2001/01-07-29.mpab.html#03"}, {"response": 81, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Aug 11, 2002 (23:21)", "body": "This is the latest record of my World Signals. John"}, {"response": 82, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug 12, 2002 (17:05)", "body": "that is the lowest i've ever seen them dip!"}, {"response": 83, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Aug 15, 2002 (22:14)", "body": "Two new impressive world signals were recorded yesterday and before yesterday. Here they are. John"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (00:54)", "body": "That IS worrisome! We have had only one of which I am aware. Have I missed something? That is quite a lot of serious seismic activity awaiting the unknowing earth."}, {"response": 85, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Aug 17, 2002 (01:20)", "body": "I have a new surprise from Earth! Here is: John"}, {"response": 86, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Aug 17, 2002 (01:21)", "body": "I am sorry for my mistake. I have a new surprise from Earth! Here is: John"}, {"response": 87, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Sat, Aug 17, 2002 (10:43)", "body": "Hi all! John, do I see SES signals preceding and following your last World Signal, or am I wrong? Also, is it possible that a pending large EQ could produce more than one World Signals?"}, {"response": 88, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Aug 17, 2002 (23:48)", "body": "Hi George and All Are you back to work George? Can I wish you good winter? I am very confused with these big signals. I have one per day during the last days! I recorded also one new signal yesterday. Here is: I am searching also other possible explanations. Have you any idea for a possible physical phenomenon that is quantic and it can absorb part to whole of the existing electric field between the N-S electrodes? I think that the NMR phenomenon not match because the Earth\ufffds magnetic field is not enough strong. You are right. SES signals also appeared. From the other hand the 24-hour period signals are enough higher from the background level. We will see the continuance. It is very interesting. John"}, {"response": 89, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (19:30)", "body": "Wishes are always welcome, John and the weather does its best to remind us that summer will soon be over. My vacations at Santorini are over. I'm at Amaliada trying to combine vacations for the rest of the family and work on my laptop. Unfortunately my internet connection from here is a bit slow, so the postings we talked about will have to wait until I get back to Athens towards the end of the month. Your signals are indeed very interesting! I sincerely hope that you will be able to find an alternative explanation for the large number of world signals you recorded lately..."}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (21:31)", "body": "Gentlemen, I have requested a much more temperate winter for Greece than last year. I think it could not have been much worse. George, I am also working from a laptop and also understand the limitations of a substandard ISP. Thank you for continuing your fascinating and enlightening dialogue with John. I am but a mouse in the corner in rapt attention to all you say. How do you manage to keep your children from taking over you laptop? Are you also a stern parent? Good!!!"}, {"response": 91, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (17:03)", "body": "Hi Marcia, George and all. Thank you George. Meanwhile, I had a new big and unusual signal yesterday (because it has positive polarity). This signal is the third during the last 4 years that is so big with positive polarity. I can\ufffdt say anything for it. This is what I recorded during the past 24 hours: It is also welcome any possible idea that possibly helps to explain this phenomenon. I am sure that all of my big signals are not depending on ionosphere variations, human activities and weather interactions. In contrary, it appears that the levels of the variations of these signals are following steps just like as the energy levels in a quantic phenomenon. I underline also the two big EQ\ufffds today ( 7.7R and 7.5R ) in the region of Fiji Islands: 2002/08/19 11:08:25 23.81S 178.36E 693.7 7.7 A SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS 2002/08/19 11:01:01 21.80S 179.49W 586.8 7.5 A FIJI ISLANDS REGION Information by NEIC John"}, {"response": 92, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (21:21)", "body": "Marcia, if you succeed with the weather, I am sure that John and I will be able to think of a couple more requests... To thank you for your efforts, I will send you some really nice photographs from Santorini as soon as I get back to Athens. Your question about the laptop is easy to answer: First, I have bought my children a computer of their own, so that they will let me work on mine. But, as they both \"need\" the computer at the same time, they take over my laptop. However, they are really good kids and let me \"play\" with my laptop when they don't \"need\" it!*smile* Just in case we all need the laptop at the same time, I have a faster procedure to regain control of it. I offer to compile a list of observation times of satellites for the evening! I get my laptop back in no time, and we all enjoy a couple of hours in the evening spotting satellites and meteors and talking about anything you can think of..."}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (22:25)", "body": "Spotting satellites!!! I am looking forward to doing that with MY son and his wife when I return to California next week. I miss having a clear sky. It is clear here, but the air has so much *stuff* in it that it eclipses just about anything less bright than the moon and Venus. It is very disappointing, though I suspect the entire eastern part of the US is just like this. Good father, you seem to be. Your children will honor you if you can hang in there long enough, George! I know about *needing* things. I guess it was ever thus with parents and children. I'm working on the weather. Actually, the eastern US is requesting all of the snow this year. I think one should be careful for what one wishes. You just might get it! They may live to regret the abundance of snow, yet! Santorini??!! Oooh. You said the magic words. A volcanology/geology professor is doing Ground Penetrating Radar images of the Thera tuff so archaeologists are not wasting time digging holes in vacant spaces. I was so envious when I watched his slides. He was most complimentary about the people and the country of Greece in general. I agree."}, {"response": 94, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (02:46)", "body": "I can\ufffdt imagine our hostess sitting in a corner like a mouse Marcia. A discussion becomes much more interesting with simple questions from simple people. But your knowledge is wide and your experiences significant. George, I am interesting to know what is the value of the Earth\ufffds electric field inside the Earth\ufffds crust. Please inform me if you know it or where I can find it. I have not laptop but I need one. It appears that my life will have a significant change at the end of this year. I will have much more free time and I will buy a laptop soon. John"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (20:57)", "body": "Excellent news about the laptop. No one should be without one. I am even coming to like the little keyboard (I have small hands) and do not make as many errors as I previously did with it. Actually, I am quite happy with how compact and ready for field work it truly is. At home, I have it sitting on a little swiveling circular platform (\"Lazy Susan\") so I can download photos taken on archaeological trips and show them to Don. It works very well considering he is across the table from me. I also have it raised upon a heavy metal perforated disk to keep it cooler. Actually, what it was is the metal cover from this old home's basement drain. It is about 12 inches in diameter and is quite heavy. Laptops can be upgraded as I found out. Get what you need and work from there if necessary. Of course, we all like it with the maximum capacity and speed straigh away. You are correct, John. You know me too well! I am not the mouse in a corner type, but I do try to listen carefully and ask good questions. I truly enjoy sharing discoveries. But, you know that!"}, {"response": 96, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (07:06)", "body": "I know you very well Marcia. You are always correct. So, donate us a grin from your worthy throne of the honoured hostess. I expect hard questions, ideas and why not suggestions. John"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (19:00)", "body": "I was wondering what brands you might consider. I am also eager to have George's input on his laptop experience. One can not be TOO informed, and by those who cherish you, what advice could be better?! (I am not always correct. Horrors! But how kind of you to think I am. This lofty throne has room for two of us. Your name also graces the cover page for this conference!)"}, {"response": 98, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Sep 14, 2002 (00:23)", "body": "Satellites give new view of quakes By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Radar detects how faults slip Data obtained from satellites is providing scientists with a new way to analyse the movements in the Earth's crust that cause earthquakes. Previously they had to rely on a series of spot measurements across an earthquake zone. The new data on rock movements comes from satellites that bounce radar signals across a wide swathe of the Earth's surface. The new insight may provide a way to study earthquake zones and predict when and where quakes may strike. Conventional wisdom overturned The earthquake that provided the new information took place on 16 October 1999 in California. The quake, of magnitude 7.1, caused only a little destruction and no injuries because it occurred in an area with a sparse population and development. Strain builds up before a quake Satellite observations of it produced information about never-before documented features of faults. These include the first evidence that faults move backwards, contrary to conventional wisdom. Yuri Fialko of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, US, says the research provides a new way to identify potentially active faults, and perhaps a better understanding of the earthquake process. Dr Fialko says the earthquake was the first one to be comprehensively imaged using so-called synthetic aperture radar that reveals minute details of the fault's movements. According to a paper in the journal Science the fresh data has given researchers a new window into earthquake processes. The most surprising finding was the first evidence that faults can move backwards. Prior to an earthquake, faults are locked in position by friction. \"Even small stress perturbations from distant earthquakes can cause faults to move a little bit, but it's only been known to cause this motion in a forward sense,\" says Dr Fialko. \"Here we observed the faults slipping backwards due to relatively small stress changes, which is really quite unusual.\" Soft rock The data also suggests that rocks in fault zones are more pliable that the rocks that surround them. \"The material within the faults is mechanically distinct from the material surrounding the faults,\" says Dr Fialko. \"The rocks within the faults appear to be softer.\" He believes that fault zones become strained during periods of stress and begin to act like a soft, sponge-like material. According to Dr Fialko, the results will guide new seismic studies to areas with contrasting fault material, such as that seen in the Eastern California Shear Zone. They can then be used as a way of identifying potentially active faults. \"Measurements of changes in the mechanical properties of faults may yield valuable information about the earthquake cycle. For example, we might be able to say how long it was before the fault experienced an earthquake and how long it takes to heal,\" he says. Source: BBC NEWS (Friday, 13 September, 2002, 13:57 GMT) *********************** I could say that I had observed a decreasing of the pressure at the fault rims a few days before the main earthquake. Excellent example appears in my recordings before Skyros EQ (M=6.3R) on 26th July 2001. You can see clearly the decreasing of the amplitude between 19 and 20 of July: The above article from BBC becomes now very interesting. John"}, {"response": 99, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Sep 16, 2002 (18:30)", "body": "That is really interesting. Thanks for posting the information and the wonderful graphics, John."}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 18, 2002 (20:52)", "body": "John! How exciting! I never knew that was possible! I know you will keep us informed as to how it correlates with your research. I am delighted!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (06:17)", "body": "Hi all. My recent signals. Just for your information. John"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (19:35)", "body": "You are going to have another quake, John! This is not psychic waves I am reading, nor tea leaves. This is obvious from John's signals and other data he has put on Geo's portal page. Link it on the Geo index page: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/Geo/all/new Better still, go to the portal page direct: http://www.spring.net/geo/"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (20:26)", "body": "Aha! Ioannina quake An earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale shook the northern prefecture of Ioannina yesterday morning. The quake\ufffds epicenter was 370 kilometers (231 miles) northwest of Athens, on the Albanian border north of Delvinaki. There were no reports of injuries or major damage. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100018_09/10/2002_21819"}, {"response": 104, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (22:19)", "body": "i tried to go to the prediction tool and it said \"forbidden\" :("}, {"response": 105, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (13:56)", "body": "\"Forbidden\" disappeared! Our Special Table of Contents is completely alive again. Thank you Terry. John"}, {"response": 106, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (17:21)", "body": "Sure, sorry it took so long. If you want the gory technical details you can see them in the the unix conference, the topic on chmod."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (17:58)", "body": "Happy are we with our graphics returned! One of the world significant earthquakes occurred: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake IN THE IRIAN JAYA REGION, INDONESIA has occurred at: 1.48S 133.97E Depth 10km Thu Oct 10 12:28:25 2002 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Thu Oct 10 12:28:25 2002 Time Near Epicenter Thu Oct 10 21:28:25 2002 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) Thu Oct 10 08:28:25 2002 Central Daylight Time (CDT) Thu Oct 10 07:28:25 2002 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) Thu Oct 10 06:28:25 2002 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Thu Oct 10 05:28:25 2002 Alaska Daylight Time (ADT) Thu Oct 10 04:28:25 2002 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Thu Oct 10 02:28:25 2002 Location with respect to nearby cities: 40 miles (70 km) S of Manokwari, Irian Jaya, Indonesia (pop N/A) 190 miles (305 km) ESE of Sorong, Irian Jaya, Indonesia 780 miles (1260 km) NNE of Darwin, Australia 1900 miles (3060 km) E of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia"}, {"response": 108, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Oct 11, 2002 (05:21)", "body": "Hi Marcia and all You are talking about this EQ Marcia: 2002/10/10 12:28:25 1.48S 133.97E 10.0 6.7 A IRIAN JAYA REGION, INDONESIA But one and half hour before it, they had this terrible one: 2002/10/10 10:50:20 1.71S 134.16E 10.0 7.6 A IRIAN JAYA REGION, INDONESIA Now I see that Greece is in a difficult position. John"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 13, 2002 (23:28)", "body": "Earthquake jolts eastern Crete, no damage or injuries 12/10/2002 16:44:12 An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale shook eastern Crete on Saturday. No injuries or damage were reported. The epicentre of the earthquake, which occurred at 08:55 hours, was located 410 kilometres south of Athens in southeastern Crete, the Geodynamic Institute of the Athens National Observatory said in a statement."}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 13, 2002 (23:31)", "body": "Poor Irian Jaya! They have had a very bad week. I suspect a volcanic eruption will follow as is usual in Indonesia. John, did you get media coverage about the 5.2 Crete earthquake? I can well imagine you did. We anticipated it thanks to your signals!"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 13, 2002 (23:33)", "body": "Another of your quakes? A magnitude 6.8 earthquake IN WESTERN BRAZIL has occurred at: 8.26S 71.53W Depth 536km Sat Oct 12 20:09:11 2002 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Sat Oct 12 20:09:11 2002 Time Near Epicenter Sat Oct 12 17:09:11 2002 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) Sat Oct 12 16:09:11 2002 Central Daylight Time (CDT) Sat Oct 12 15:09:11 2002 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) Sat Oct 12 14:09:11 2002 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Sat Oct 12 13:09:11 2002 Alaska Daylight Time (ADT) Sat Oct 12 12:09:11 2002 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Sat Oct 12 10:09:11 2002 Location with respect to nearby cities: 85 miles (140 km) ESE of Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil (pop N/A) 205 miles (330 km) E of Pucallpa, Peru 280 miles (450 km) WNW of Rio Branco, Brazil 1670 miles (2700 km) WNW of BRASILIA, Brazil"}, {"response": 112, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Oct 23, 2002 (04:07)", "body": "Hi all, I present you now the following graph, which is result of analysis on my last 7 days recordings. It is also updated every day. You see on it the two components (East-West and North-South) of the total signal which has 24hour period. John"}, {"response": 113, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Oct 27, 2002 (08:03)", "body": "I am sorry. I have renamed this file. Here is the new graph that is focused in 12-hour period. I think that it is very interesting because it has the same shape with the tidal gravity curve. John"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (16:39)", "body": "I noticed this also. That is a fantastic set of signals. I am certain you will learn much about the earth's dynamics from it. It will be fun to watch. My congratulations and warmest affection for your continued success in this!"}, {"response": 115, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Wed, Nov  6, 2002 (21:06)", "body": "Dear friends I have a Game shop at Ganimidi, Rhodos island Greece and I am semi amateur researcher also. My brother Teiresias is meta-psychologist and also is making holes to find water for business. I am a fun of Mr.John Tsatsaragos (Tsatsvol) I realy enjoy every day his predictions, especially the ones far from Greece. It is fantastic. Recently I try to develop another method to check the method of TsatsVol. Its origin is on telepathetic extension of noise which someone can listen over the holes. It is a new method. Very often I am going to tell you my results and compare with the ones of Tsatsa. My regards Aris"}, {"response": 116, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  7, 2002 (08:18)", "body": "What is a Game shop? What do you sell?"}, {"response": 117, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Mon, Nov 11, 2002 (08:49)", "body": "I sell nice smals plastic dolls for tourists. These dolls are very funny and they are relative with the Ancient Greek Orgy. British men are the people who buy them more. We have problems with them, the young ones make noise and try to rape Greek girls when they are drunk. We are frightened and we keep closed the doors at night. Very often they are coming and beg for food. Accidently the Greek government of Mr.Simitis does not protect us. Recently, some other 'Brittons' were arrested in Kalamata as spies because they took pictures of Greek military airplanes. There were big labels there which say that 'DO NOT TAKE PICTURES'. Against of that, they did not respect the Greek law and they took the pictures. Accidently they arrested... And then Mr. Tony Blair, the British prime minister askesd the Greek government to release them. Spotters or not it does not matter. Can you imagine someone to do it in another country? We are not Iraq here, Greece is a member of Europe!! It is not a collony of Great Britain... Anyway, now these people who cannot understand what democracy is and also play strange games are free... After all Greece is small country with small scientists and small polticians. In UK, it is difficult for Greek scientists to access high rank scientific projects. Brittons apply one kind of racism againsy Greeks which is driven from a specific lobby, I think."}, {"response": 118, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Mon, Nov 11, 2002 (19:41)", "body": "Dear Aris I think we should put a few things straight. This topic was created by Mr. John Tsatsaragos for the sole purpose of presenting and discussing the results of his research. We might be interested in hearing your opinion about John's research, but not your views about the social problems of Rhodes, global politics or your business endeavours. When you develop your own method you may set up your own pages to present it (and accept any criticism for it). Furthermore, I think that common decency demands that we address our host by his name as it is given clearly at the top of this topic (John Tsatsaragos, neither \"TsatsVol\" nor \"Tsatsa\"). For your information, there are quite a few top-ranking scientists of Greek origin in British universities and scientific organizations, who are widely respected by the British (not the kind of respect you have for your customers). Finally, if you really feel that \"After all Greece is small country with small scientists and small polticians\", why don't you leave for a bigger and better(?) place and leave us alone? Goodbye Aris!..."}, {"response": 119, "author": "xtipimenos", "date": "Tue, Nov 12, 2002 (11:20)", "body": ""}, {"response": 120, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Tue, Nov 12, 2002 (13:22)", "body": "Hi again My answer was relative to a previous question about my shop. Mr.Tsatsaragos is my favorite scientist. I have a big respect for him. He is the leader of research in the field of earthquakes in Greece. He is the best. As Varotsos calls his method VAN, I call the method of Mr.Tsatsaragos TSATSA. What is bad on that? I have one question now to anybody who can answer. ---------------------------------------------------- The antenna which Mr.Tsatsaragos is using is a dipole with length 100 m. Do you know if the length of his antenna is appropriate to measure low frequency signals? I am afraid not. Aris Varemenos Ganimidi, Rhodos"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (19:35)", "body": "Aloha and Welcome to Geo, Aris. I am delighted to see your posts and to learn of your interests and activities. You are in good company as an admirer of John Tsatsaragos's and his research.He is a worthy man of great interests with an ability to make even the most difficult things understandable to those of us who cannot understand advanced physics. How great it is to have three Greek gentleman in our midst. You honor Geo with your presence. Again, Welcome and Aloha."}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (19:43)", "body": "John will answer your dipole question as soon as he has time. I have asked the same question and now forget the answer. Be patient. I really like your TSATSA. I wonder if he will. *;) I do believe he will."}, {"response": 123, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (02:05)", "body": "Dear Marcia I am afraid that Mr.John Tsatsaragos can not answer a so difficult question. But I will surprized if he willl. Aris"}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (18:48)", "body": "He is a good man and will tell you if he cannot answer your questions. I have found him completely honest about that. And, surprisingly I have had all questions posed to him answered clearly. Perhaps my limited knowledge has made me ask simple questions. That is always a distinct possibility!"}, {"response": 125, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (16:32)", "body": "Dear Marcia definetely John is a very kind person but I believe that by using a resonant antena of this size he cannot measure so low frequency band correctly. But we can find the same mistake not only in TSATSA method but also in VAN method, in Thanasolas method (another pro scientist, ex helper of John). It is interested to observe that this specific mistake is made by many famous worldwide Japanese and American Geophysisists for a long time now. It is funny also that someone named Prof.Geller I think attacks to VAN method about its success relative to statistics. And he is right.But, the MAIN problem is not the statistics of succeess but the correct measurement!!! As you can understand worldwide have big mistake on that, which is written in their publications for many years now. So, it can be interested to listen the oppinion of Mr.Tsatsaragos about that. John is much more respectable person to me against some other people which they supposed to know as scientists to accept their mistakes against to be covered under some university position and pretend the scientist. Myself I do not permit to anyone to play the scientist but I am a very open minded and I like people like John who really love what they do and at least they believe it, they do not use it to win projects and extra money... but to help the society. Hey John where are you? My regards Aris Ganimidi (Research Institute) Rhodos, Hellas"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 28, 2002 (12:54)", "body": "Yes, John! Where are you? Now I worry since he has not emailed me in a long time and has not posted here, either. Aris, he will be delighted with your interest when he returns. You and George actually know what he is talking about. I am just running as fast as I can to try to keep up with his data. I do know he was in Athens for a while. However, this absence is totally new and a little disquieting. I will try to contact him."}, {"response": 127, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (02:04)", "body": "Hi all I am sorry for my absence. I am alive but extremely busy. I will be back soon. I promise it. My research is continued even though with less time for it. John"}, {"response": 128, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (08:23)", "body": "Great that you're back, John. Looking forward to your predictions for future events."}, {"response": 129, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (21:54)", "body": "Hi everybody I am happy John you are fine ... Where is George, the other expert to answer my questions? hihihi. Hey anybody home? Aris The Ganimidi Institute of Technology Rhodos, GR"}, {"response": 130, "author": "DinosKremastaris", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (23:01)", "body": ""}, {"response": 131, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (23:22)", "body": "Hi Terry, I was not completely absent from Geo. I was in the shadow\ufffd My graphs continue updated every day. Even with enough difficulty depending on my time. Here is the tidal variations graph for this December. John"}, {"response": 132, "author": "Varotsos", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (01:07)", "body": ""}, {"response": 133, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (07:52)", "body": ""}, {"response": 134, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (13:02)", "body": "Dear John this is the link of Prof.Geller at the Univ. of Tokyo. Prof.Geller is an authority in earthquakes. Please enjoy this link: http://incede.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/Newsletter/5.4/5-4-4.htm Also, John as you probably know Mr.Varotsos is not the first who spoke about geoelectrical signals but many Chinese scientists many years before. So do not spread such things. I still wait your answer about the resonant antena ......... Bye Aris"}, {"response": 135, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Sat, Dec  7, 2002 (10:19)", "body": "Hey anybody home? Next time I will not ask questions... (:- John I still wait your answer about the resonant antenna. Aris 'Fisherman' Varemenos Institute of GaniMidi Ellas (IGME)"}, {"response": 136, "author": "PanayiotisVarotsos", "date": "Sat, Dec  7, 2002 (23:08)", "body": ""}, {"response": 137, "author": "PanayiotisVarotsos", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 2002 (18:44)", "body": ""}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (15:59)", "body": "There is your most unworthy hostess here. I am amazed at how many Greeks bearing intellectual gifts who have suddenly appeared here. Please let John get his work other than seismic research finished before we becomediscouraged. I can imagine the famous classical Greeks getting bogged down with home cures and work family has put upon him. John is no different. I am wondering what Einstein did in such circumstances. *sigh* I guess we carry on using our talents as best we can and returning to research as soon as possible. In any case, Aloha and welcome to the follower of John and his oracle."}, {"response": 139, "author": "Kleopatra", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (00:01)", "body": "Hello Mr.Tsatsaragos congratulations. I find very interested your research on earthquakes. Please post your new predictions to GEO. Until now I believed that there is not any method to predict earthquakes. Very nice job. I hope one day you can visit Peru, which is my country. Can you predict big earthquakes to Peru? Kleopatra Doneri"}, {"response": 140, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (08:37)", "body": "Until now . . . Wow, that's pretty powerful."}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (19:12)", "body": "John is an excellent physicist and has a natural gift for knowing what equipment to build to discover what he needs to know. We are privileged to have him at Geo. Very powerful information, when you consider lives can be saved!!!"}, {"response": 142, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (10:32)", "body": "Dear Marcia I understund that John is an excellent Physicist and maybe the Greek Union of Physicists will ask him soon to bring his diploma. But except of that I still wait to have an answer from him relative to resonant antena which I allready asked many many many times. I hope that Mr.John will come out soon from his shadow... But I do not expect, He just wants to listen ideas from other like Prrrr.Varotsos and then to say IT WAS MINE. Anyway, where I John? John, where are youuuuuuu? Aris"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (10:43)", "body": "Aris, you mistake John's silence. Perhaps you have written to him personally and he has discovered why you are asking these questions. Aside from that, he is extrememly busy with personal matters. Since he is doing this research wihtout compensation (\"for free\") he has to work and take care of his family matters before Geo. In any case, I have knows John for more than a year and the man is honest to a fault. To imply otherwise would be an injustice. I an sorry he has not answered your question. There must be a good reason for his not doing so. I continue to be delighted that all new \"worshippers\" at the shrine of the Tsatsaragos Oracle have bothered to login at Geo and to post. Aloha!!!"}, {"response": 144, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (23:25)", "body": "Dear Marcia there is nothing personal. My question remains \"is it correct or not to use resonant antenna to measure 0.1 MHz signals and why?\" Let us be a bit serious and do not give answers all time about the ... weather. So, Mr.John must not change the direction of the conversation in personal matters. Mr.Tsatsaragos or Mr.Thanasoulas or 'George' or anybody else has to give a scientific answer or they must stop to make noise around. Can they give a scientific answer against to escape all time, yes or not? They cannot find some time (20 minutes) to write an answer here? It sounds out of sense. And Mr.Tsatsaragos is not Physicist ... but in Greece whatever anybody says is like a 'law'. This situation is explained if we accept that Greece is still a third world country without sensitivities. In other case some people like Varotsos and others should be in the jail... Aris Aris"}, {"response": 145, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (23:30)", "body": "Dear Marcia I have to retype, sorry for that The question is \"what size a resonant antena must have to measure 0.1 Hz frequency?\" Aris, the Lucifer"}, {"response": 146, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (02:59)", "body": "Hi Marcia and all, I present you the daily updated original recordings of my station. You can see the potential variation on the two dipoles as they are recorded. (Green and yellow lines). Red lines are the calculated resultant value. (After the removal of the offsets and calculations of the real values which are measured on each dipole). See carefully the red lines. The 24-hour oscillation is impressively visible at the lower end of the red lines. Important Notice: I have not applied any filter on my recordings. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you. John"}, {"response": 147, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (03:09)", "body": "Hi again, Is there a correlation between my signals and the EQ's around of my station? We can answer to this question using the SChtM factor. Its physical meaning is the approximately amount of the mechanical energy of an EQ, which arrive in my station area. It is a suggestion of Prof. Strachimir Cht. Mavrodiev . The math formula is: SChtM=EQ Magnitude/Distance^2 Where: -Magnitude is the magnitude of the EQ on the ML scale and -Distance is the Distance between the epicenter and my station, in meters. On the daily updated map of Greece below: -Red triangles are the epicenters of the occurred EQ's during the last 7 days. -The animated goniometer shows with red lines, the SChtM factor value and its azimuth direction. The length of these red lines is proportional to the value of the SChtM factor. Normally, we must expect to see the EQ, which has big SChtM factor in the parameters of my signals as is the amplitude and the azimuth direction. John"}, {"response": 148, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (04:01)", "body": "Hi Marcia, Thank you Marcia for your opinion about me. Of coarse I will not answer to personal attacks especially if they are coming from a man that uses different names here and in every other possible place. Unfortunately, bad and good are walking together in the life. I am so sorry for this bad situation in Geo. Merry Christmas John P.S. For those who wonder on what really I am, I suggest response 1 in this topic. It is the clear truth."}, {"response": 149, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (05:12)", "body": "Dear John I kindly asked you one simple question and you answered about the ... weather. Could you answer please my question? Is it so difficult? We are not Zulu here? Aris"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (13:20)", "body": "John, I am delighted you addressed the questions. Marcia's is a simple mind trying to make science friendly to the non-scientific and the young. Thank you for taking the questions. I am not qualified to do so. I just decorate the conference from time to time."}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (13:31)", "body": "John, you have my devoted attention. I KNOW enough to know that you have the right research underway. My sympathies on your attacks. The last one I had was from a man who insisted all of the world's rocks were 6,000 years old. Merry Christmas All"}, {"response": 152, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (13:56)", "body": "John, I know enough to understand that YOU HAVE NO IDEA about what you measure. You can find the naswer to my question You and Thanasoulas in a High school Physics book. And the answer says that to measure correctly such a low frequency signal you need to use one antena with size, the size of the earth!!! Ofcourse with a resonant antena you cannot measure any frequency.... It is funny the way you give answers, by using your friends i.e. MarciaH. Nobody is attacking you. It is only in your virtual shadow world. Wake up John. Wake up. I still wait to have an answer from you. Can you give a straight answer on that against to answer about ... the weather!!! Merry Christmas All too! Aris"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (14:00)", "body": "A note from your hostess in Geo: I have known John for a considerable amount of time. He is both honorable anda good scientiest. He never lies about his science. He searches for the truth in order to protect lives and to understand the dynamics of earthquakes. His detractors have never offered anything in place of his research. It is very easy to sit on the sidelines and take shots at someone willing to put their intellectual output online. Might I suggest constructive ideas rather than complaints?! Geo is a peaceful and happy place where love of science and the universe prevail."}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (14:05)", "body": "Aris, what is really your problem? You are too angry to be refuting science. Please maintain decorum and address constructively the points you wish to make. Tirades will be deleted by this lady who has not tolerated them in the past and will not now. You are betraying your ignorance by attacking John. How many college degrees have you? In what? I think I might outrank you! Any further discussion will meet with my ultimate concern to keep this a welcoming Place NOT tolerating attacks on the character of the posters."}, {"response": 155, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (14:20)", "body": "tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa- Dear Marcia I made one specific question to John because in my oppinion he has huge mistakes in his research. This is not attack! So, there is nothing personal against of him. It is just a scientific question. ================================ There is no attack. =================== I am afraid that in this forum you comfuse scientific questions with attacks. So, I kindly ask again one more time? ===================================== Can you measure using a resonant antena of length/2 equal to 50 m a frequency of electromagnetic wave equal to 0.1 Hz? The answer is no. Every scientist and a High school student knows that. For this reason I asked the oppinion of John about that. Is it bad? Marcia, it is not nice to attack me this way in order to cover the mistakes of John. Thanks for your hospitality Aris tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-"}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (14:58)", "body": "*Sigh* Earth sciences are as exciting as I need for life fulfillment. Thank you for responding again, Aris. Life is too short and science tootime consuming to waste it on disagreements. However, valid challenges to information are always thought provoking. That in itself is good. I believe the Greeks also discovered this a few thousand years ago. Predicting the weather is a whole different science. Good luck to anyone trying to do despite the satellite technology!"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (15:00)", "body": "Another aside. John is not hiding. He is an equal host with me here in Geo. He has been invaluable and Geo would not be nearly as interesting without him. Post images if you have any. I'd be delighted to see where you live."}, {"response": 158, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (17:25)", "body": "Dear Marcia I would like to post some pictures But I do not know how to do it. Any help? Aris"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (17:57)", "body": "Email them to me at marci@aloha.net and I will FTP them to Geo's space on the Spring's hard drive. Then I will email you where they are and either you or I can post them. Are you familiar with html programing? There is a Greece topic on the travel conference. Might they be better suited for there? http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/travel/40"}, {"response": 160, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (18:16)", "body": "-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa- Dear Marci I was thinking to send some explanations about antenas using high-school mathematics and pictures. After that John (Mr.John) can make his comments. So, I will mail you a zip/html file with graphs (1 page totally). Let us enjoy Universe. Aris Varemenos Ganimidi, Rhodos -tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-"}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (20:15)", "body": "The Universe is amazing place. There is room enough for eternal contemplation of any intellect. It is even better to share. I will look forward to seeing your pictures and will make them available to you as soon as I can FTP them. Antennas are old friends of mine. When I was little ,I climbed trees to attach my father's antennas in them. Then I got to listen to the world."}, {"response": 162, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (22:10)", "body": "Ok Mr Aris, You have exceeded every limit of the human decency! This is my last answer to you. You are completely wrong. 1. Have you heard music or anything else from a small portable receiver in the LW, MW, SW or FM bands? Do you use an antenna of half wavelength to do it? So, THE LENGTH OF THE ANTENNA DIMENSIONS IS NOT CRITICAL. 2. Wavelength = spread velocity/frequency (Physics) Can you think what will become the value of the wavelength if the spread velocity becomes extremely low? I must inform Geo members that your real target is to install a station similar to mine in Rhodos Island. You want to make money showing it to tourists. I can post here your personal e-mails to me. Once again my answer is NO. But better is you go away from Geo permanently. I suggest to our hostess to erase all of your responses here in two days, whatever name you use and independently of your answer. I apologize to all of the rest Geo members, because I am the reason for this bad situation. John"}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (23:00)", "body": "John it is not your fault. I am sorry I encouraged him. I am to blame as well. I fly back to Hilo on Sunday. Wish me well. I am frightened for the first time in my life."}, {"response": 164, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Dec 14, 2002 (00:12)", "body": "Have a good and safe flying Marcia. Do not be afraid. Wishes of all Geo members are accompanying you. We will wait your good news from Hilo. Perhaps Madam Pele has a significant mission waiting for you there. John"}, {"response": 165, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Sat, Dec 14, 2002 (00:16)", "body": "Dear John At first take your pills. ========================== At second everybody knows that you have to change length of the antenna to get a bettter signal from a transmitter (earthquake). In other case it is posile to loose some signals and hence an earthquake. So, it is critical. I hope I exlained you your mistake and I am sorry that I can not teach you more. Marcy, I am sorry for John's level of defense. Aris Varemenos Ganimidi tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa -tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa -tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-"}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 14, 2002 (13:48)", "body": "*SIGH* Gentlemen. In this season of good will, this is more than a little disheartening. Discussing wave lengths is a long and complicated one. I will remain out of it."}, {"response": 167, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 2002 (09:32)", "body": "Dear John against all the attacks you made to me, as you are so close minded, prove the opposite by doing that. Meausure (use band pass filter) and make the analysis of your data (using FFT) in the area of frequnecy which corresponds the length of your antenna against the silly selection of 0.1Hz. Suppose \ufffd=1 and a mean value for \ufffd. Then I will be very happy to see your results. Your friend and teacher Aris tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa- tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa- tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa- tsatsa-tsatsa-tsatsa-"}, {"response": 168, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Mon, Dec 23, 2002 (01:54)", "body": "Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR JOHN, MARCIA and everybody Aris"}, {"response": 169, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec 23, 2002 (10:11)", "body": "Happy New Year Varemos."}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 23, 2002 (15:55)", "body": "Happy Holidays, Varemos and John and all others who will celebrate in Grecian style. Your heritage is rich and ancient. Enjoy!"}, {"response": 171, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jan  6, 2003 (19:43)", "body": "Happy St. Basil's Day. (Sorry, if I'm late.)"}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (12:59)", "body": "Happy St John's Day"}, {"response": 173, "author": "Varemenos", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (17:49)", "body": "Happy St. John's Day John. I saw your last results and I found that you did some interested changes. I believe that you should use after a LowNoise amplifier/protection, one ADC to PC data logger with Sampling not lower than 4MS/s. Then inside the PC use a software band pass filter between 0.1 and 2MHz. Then show me the results. I am not happy to see results in the 24hours period at all. If you do that then both we can be very happy ... My regards Aris"}, {"response": 174, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (18:45)", "body": "Happy St. John's Day."}, {"response": 175, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Mar  3, 2003 (11:26)", "body": "Hi all, Here is a complex daily updated graph that shows: Blue polar diagram: The mechanical energy that was arrived in my station area from each one occurred EQ during the last 6 + days. Light magenta polar diagram: My wide range ULF signals (direction and amplitude) for the previous day. Dark magenta polar diagram: My 24-hour period ULF signals (direction and amplitude) for the previous day. John"}, {"response": 176, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Mar  3, 2003 (11:28)", "body": "Here is the tidal gravity curve for March 2003: John"}, {"response": 177, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Mar  3, 2003 (11:33)", "body": "Hi all, Here is the STD curve of my wide range ULF Signals for the last 30 days: John"}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (10:26)", "body": "The increasing sophistication of your programming of graphics leaves me in awe. I look at them carefully and forget to note the data involved. I agree you will have a significant earthquake in Greece. Perhaps sooner than anticipated!"}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  7, 2003 (00:54)", "body": "I miss John! I am worried about him! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 68, "subject": "geo websites and net resources", "response_count": 53, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar  6, 2002 (07:56)", "body": "http://4cw3.com/en/chatMailBoards/ All chats are Central Standard Time (CST). Upcoming Chats and WebCasts March 7 : 10:30 - 11:30 AM Dr. Don Blankenship chats about his recent aerogeophysical investigations of Antartica. Dr. Blankenship is a research scientist and director of the UT Institute for Geophysics. March 26 : 2:00 - 3:00 PM Do you know your Texas History? Chat with Lynn Denton, diretor of The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum located in Austin, Texas. March 27 : 1:30 - 2:30 PM Tune into our chat with Kathleen Dudzinski, the director and founder of the Dolphin Communication Project. She is also the star of the Oscar award winning IMAX film \"Dolphins.\""}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar  6, 2002 (08:07)", "body": "WHAT DO VOLACANOES AND ANTARCTICA HAVE IN COMMON? Find out during our next chat with Dr. Don Blankenship, Research Scientist and Director of the UT Institute for Geophysics. Chat with Don on March 7th from 10:30am-11:30am CST. Cyberways and Waterways http://www.cyberwaysandwaterways.com Join our chat with Dr. Don Blankenship on March 7th from 10:30am-11:30am CST. Dr. Blankenship is a research scientist and director of the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. Don uses both airborne and ground-based geophysical techniques, including laser altimetry, radar sounding, seismic reflection and refraction, and potential fields methods, to investigate dynamics of large ice sheets and subglacial geology. Much of his current research is focused on understanding the West Antarctic rift system (including the flanking Transantarctic Mountains) and the marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Tune in Thursday, March 7th at 11am and join the chat! Here\ufffds how: 1. Go to www.CyberwaysandWaterways.com. On the left hand navigation, click \"chat/mail/boards\". 2. An hour before the chat, there will be an active link under \"chats\". Click this. Clicking this link will take you to a JOIN page (if you are not a member of the Cyberways community). Click \"join\" to join our community. 3. Now, you can begin typing in questions for our online expert! TIPS TO ACCESS THE CHAT: Make sure that your browser has cookies enabled and that, if you are at a school, your school does not BLOCK access to chat sites during the time of the chat. If they do, you will need to get your technology coordinator to \ufffdunblock\ufffd the chat for the time the chat occurs."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  6, 2002 (15:51)", "body": "This is Great Terry! I will post the chats Rob conducts with his group of volcano enthusiasts and geologists in both World Volcanology and World Seismicity."}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar  6, 2002 (16:09)", "body": "That's a great question isn't it? What do Volcanoes and Antarctica have in comon? I'm going to try and tune in find out what the experts say! If I can get trhough my firewall!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  6, 2002 (19:29)", "body": "I think I know. But do check. I'd love to hear what he has to say if I can manage to extrapolate it to Hawaiian Standard Time."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (14:20)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (05/7/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Seeing Leaves in a New Light http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/LAI/ An increase in plant growth can cool surface temperatures, give rise to more rain and cloud cover and lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. For many years biologists and Earth scientists have known of these interactions, but they have never been able to precisely measure and assess to what degree plants influence climate. Using a measurement known as Leaf Area Index, scientists have now found a way to quantify plant growth on a global scale with satellite imagery. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Storm: Tornado Hits La Plata, Maryland (ASTER) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3621 Storm: Tropical Cyclone Kesiny http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3622 Fire: Wildfires in Northern Australia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3624 Dust and Smoke: Dust over Cape Verde http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3620 Fire: Fires in Central America http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3618 Fire: Wildfires in Northern Australia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3624 Storm: Tornado Hits La Plata, Maryland (Landsat) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3617 Fire: Fires in Pacific Northwest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3616 Storm: Tornado Hits La Plata, Maryland (EO-1/ALI) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3613 Unique Imagery: Dark Water near Rio de la Plata http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3614 Flood: Floods in Uruguay http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3615 Fire: Fires in South Central Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3625 Dust and Smoke: Dust over Cape Verde http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3620 Storm: Tornado Hits La Plata, Maryland (GOES animation) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3612 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: NASA Launches Aqua Satellite http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9264 Demini River http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9263 Aswan High Dam in 6-meter Resolution from the International Space Station http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9262 Smoke from Fires in Central America Drifts over Texas http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9261 New NASA Satellite Zooms in on Tornado Swath http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9260 Dust Obscures Liaoning Province, China http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9259 Phytoplankton off the Coast of Portugal http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9258 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - Aqua Launches! - Thunderstorms Are Affected By Pollution - New NASA Satellite Zooms in on Tornado Swath - NASA to Test Microwave Effects on Plant Growth - NASA Helps Preserve Our Nation's History - NASA Eyes Intricate Pattern on Cloud Street - NASA Looks a Hurricane's Temperature in the Eye * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Scripps Researchers Use High-Tech Imagery for New Insights into Breaking Wave Dynamics - Colorado U-NOAA Scientists Say El Nino May Rescue Parched Southwest * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - Pollution May Discourage Clouds - Ozone Hole Is Now Seen as a Cause for Antarctic Cooling - Changing Climate, Shrinking Habitats - NASA Stares Down the Eye of a Hurricane - Smog Can Protect Against Global Warming - Cold, Hard Facts of Ice in Hurricanes - Weather Forecast: Wait for El Nino * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: UV Radiation Exposure data for March 2002 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/uv.toms.html -- Robert Simmon Interim EO-Announce List Manager - Earth Observatory Announcements http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (01:27)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (05/28/2002) ----------------------------------------------------------------- New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * EO Study: Fragment of its Former Shelf http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/LarsenIceShelf/ Scientists investigate the 2002 Larsen Ice Shelf breakup with the help of MODIS imagery. -------------------- Natural Hazards: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ * Latest Events: Fire: Fires Near Lake Baikal, Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3664 Fire: Fires Near Lake Baikal, Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3664 Fire: Fires in Central and Southern Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3666 Fire: Fires in Southeastern Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3667 Unique Imagery: Phytoplankton in the Gulf of Alaska http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3668 Unique Imagery: Black Sea Becomes Turquoise http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3669 Storm: The Beginnings of Typhoon Hagibis http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3656 Dust and Smoke: Smoke from Eastern Russia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3660 Flood: Flooding in Eastern Africa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=3661 -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Florida Everglades http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9289 Gateway to the Hudson Highlands http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9288 San Francisco Bay http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9287 Extensive Burn Scars in Russia\ufffds Amur Region http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9286 The Beginnings of Typhoon Hagibis http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9285 Okefenokee Swamp Fire, Georgia http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9284 Flooding along the Mississippi http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9279 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - FLAMBE Helps With Firefighting, Weather and Air Quality Forecasts - New On-Line Tool Tailors Climate Forecasts to Fit Resource Managers' Needs"}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (07:47)", "body": "Stonedom Come! http://www.stonedom.com is the Spring's new rocks and minerals website which make make a heavy pitch for it's visitors to stop by Geo ."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (23:07)", "body": "Oooh Terry! I can hardly wait!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  7, 2002 (12:49)", "body": "Still waiting for content from Ames."}, {"response": 11, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 12, 2002 (23:05)", "body": "This is the most amazing, fantastic, incredible \"geo\" website I have ever seen. Mind blowingly awesome! Excuse me, I don't usually get excited about websites. But this ones different. From a helicopter, every square inch of California coastline. Not a millimeter missed. There's a story behind this, and I'll talk about it in a later response. http://www.californiacoastline.org"}, {"response": 12, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 12, 2002 (23:09)", "body": "The Idea We've flown over most of the California coastline before and have seen the beauty of the natural coastline and destruction that man has wrought unto it. In 1997 we volunteered the use of our helicopter to the Sierra Club. It wasn't long before Mark Massara called us asking for our help working with Gary Lynch, an established environmental photographer from Cambria, to document San Simeon Point for the fight against a huge resort and golf course that the Hearst Corporation wants to build. Our mission and the fight against this development was successful, and from time-to-time over the years we have volunteered our time and resources to help protect the coast. We've been called to photograph \"after\" pictures of illegal activity that has destroyed the coast, but rarely do we have the \"before\" pictures. More than once we wished we'd used the opportunity to photograph a \"before\" picture. This started us thinking -- what if we photographed the entire coast as a baseline of \"before\" pictures? We did some film-less dry runs near our home to try to understand how big a project this would be and estimated that it would take 10,000 exposures. The cost of the film and processing, not the mention the problem of indexing, filing, and retrieving the slides, made the project seem prohibitive at the time. Fortunately, technology changes this... http://www2.californiacoastline.org/ I looked at one single picture tonight and I was overwhelmed by the detail and the magnificence of this part of our planet. It took a very long time to load. And it took a longer time to marvel at it's beauty. Warning, this site could be very, very addicting for geophiles. http://www1.californiacoastline.org/cgi-bin/image.cgi?image=11268&mode=big&lastmode=sequential&flags=0"}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov 13, 2002 (07:35)", "body": "Bolinas California, where I used to live. http://www1.californiacoastline.org/cgi-bin/image.cgi?image=5573&mode=big&lastmode=sequential&flags=0"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (21:30)", "body": "Checking it out. I might be on one of these photos!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (21:49)", "body": "It's amazing, very amazing. ]."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (23:38)", "body": "I sent my son the link. Vacaville is not on them but nearby is. Great photos!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (08:39)", "body": "The photos are truly amazing. This guy and his wife fly a small helicopter along the coastline taking a picture every 3 seconds and feeding it into their Apple notebook computer until they have 40 gbs or about a days worth of photos. The pictures, as you saw, are huge and they take a long time to load in your browser. But they are often worth the wait. I could almost count the tiles in Grace Slicks swimming pool in Bolinas. The California coastline is one of the most amazing places on the planet and this is the next best thing to being there."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (19:26)", "body": "Absolutely! No wonder with these satellites they were able to track the movements of Gorbachev by looking for the \"port wine stain\" birthmark on his forehead. That is NOT your ordinary camera and lens!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2005 (08:58)", "body": "http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/ is a \"global change master directory\" which let's you drill down in to just about any topic relating to the earth sciences."}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 10, 2005 (23:42)", "body": "I think Terry and Cfman have come up with a startlingly amazingly long list of new websites for eager Geoites to peruse. This stuff is really great and you guys must be tired of reading Thank you, but it is well deserved."}, {"response": 21, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (10:06)", "body": "They are one and the same. ptw and cfadm. cfadm is the \"super user\" that owns the bbs software and I find myself in this mode when I need to do maintenance on the system on the web based interface. Usually \"terry\" logs in via ssh and cfadm uses the web interface. That global change master directory (above) is pretty exhaustive."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (16:16)", "body": "The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (08 March 2005) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The next \"Where on Earth ... ?\" MISR Mystery Image Quiz (#21) will be published Wednesday, March 9th 2005, at Noon (PST), at the MISR site: http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Earth Observatory team would like to announce the relaunch of the Visible Earth, a catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ New Features: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/ * Stealing Rain from the Rainforest http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/AmazonDrought/ In a rainforest, visible effects of drought can be subtle. An experiment that mimicked the impact of a severe El Nino in the Amazon revealed surprising signs of stress that could be seen from space. -------------------- In the News : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ * Latest Images: Cyclone Ingrid http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16843 A Weak El Ni\u00f1o Getting Weaker http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16842 Nightime Lava Glow on Klyuchevskaya Volcano http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16841 Coastal Change, Amazon River Mouth http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16840 Uluru (Ayers Rock) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16839 Drygalski Ice Tongue http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16838 Dust Storm Over Libya and Egypt http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16837 Haze Over Sumatra http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16836 * NASA News http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ - NASA Finds Lightning Clears Safe Zone in Earth's Radiation Belt - NASA Study Suggests Giant Space Clouds Iced Earth - Satellite Sees Ocean Plants Increase, Coasts Greening * Media Alerts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/ - Wetlands Clean Water and May Control Neighborhood Flood Problems - Huge 2004 Stratospheric Ozone Loss Tied to Solar Storms, Arctic Winds - Modeled Climate and Land-Use Change Threatens Plant Species - Widespread Arctic Warming Crosses Critical Ecological Thresholds, Scientists Warn - Hawaiian Volcano May Be Health Risk * Headlines from the press, radio, and television: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/ - New Ecosystem at Atlantic Hydrothermal Vent - Quake Swarm Off Oregon Coast Prompts Research - Restless Volcano Creates Hazards in Alaska - Forests Could Be Key to Curbing Global Warming - Huge Space Clouds May Have Caused Mass Extinctions - Home Cooking Clogs Climate - El Nino Growth Stunted In Pacific - Researcher Downplays Ozone Hole Risk - Satellite Sees Ocean Plants Increase, Coasts Greening - South America 'Hazard Map' to Chart Disaster Risk - Arctic Ozone Loss Concerns Researchers - Natural Disasters on Coasts Concern NOAA - NASA Research Aids UNESCO Global Conservation Efforts - Scientists Advance in Detection and Attribution Of Climate Change - Arctic Researchers Trace Warming Trend to 1850s - 100 World Cities in Britain's Climate Rescue Drive - Climate 'Threatens' Arctic Lakes - Record Rains Stump Weather Experts - NASA'S \"Great Earth Observatory\" Marks Five Years of Climate Discoveries * New Research Highlights http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/ -------------------- New Data: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/ * Updated Data: Global Sea Surface Temperature data for January 2005 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/sst.ocean.html Global Sea Surface Temperature data for December 2004 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/sst.ocean.html Global Sea Surface Temperature data for November 2004 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/sst.ocean.html Global Sea Surface Temperature data for October 2004 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/sst.ocean.html Global Sea Surface Temperature data for September 2004 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/sst.ocean.html Global Sea Surface Temperature data for August 2004 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/sst.ocean.html Global Sea Surface Temperature data for July 2004 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/sst.ocean.html"}, {"response": 23, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (08:40)", "body": "One can always start poking around in the following, too...there are over 6000 websites currently to choose from. http://dmoz.org/Science/Earth_Sciences/"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (15:03)", "body": "Thank you for this link. I could spend the rest of my life in one of these sites, but then I'd not be on the breaking news of earthquakes like I was last night. Impressive site. I wonder how many links I've posted..."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (15:12)", "body": "Back down the url to find much more. Archaeology had well over 5000 websites listed. http://dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Archaeology/ Back all the way down for a all-conclusive list of topics they cover in science http://dmoz.org/Science/"}, {"response": 26, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (17:20)", "body": "Yep, it is the basis for Google's directory listings, and a few other sites, too. They're also looking for more editors..."}, {"response": 27, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (17:24)", "body": "*sigh* also=always, btw, and maybe I shouldn't have said they since http://dmoz.org/profiles/wer.html"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (18:09)", "body": "Fantastic. I could not get that link open fast enough. May it be the first of many (and profitable) employments on the internet. Since when did we check grammer here?! whatever you said sounds just fine."}, {"response": 29, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (18:16)", "body": "It's volunteer, actually, been doing it off and on for a few years. And, not so much a grammatical mistake as a contextual one."}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (18:20)", "body": "From my editing background either word fits. In any case it is a great link. Voluunteering lets you make mistakes and they can't fire you (though I have yet to see a mistake from you) so have at it. What is your interest in Morocco?"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (18:22)", "body": "Your profile could supply word disassociation for months."}, {"response": 32, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (18:55)", "body": "Enough mistakes and they will let you go, and there are other things you can do to get banned from editing, but without some rules, the directory wouldn't be the cool thing it be. I started editing in Morocco because someone started a project to straighten up the category, and I'd never done anything in Africa, so I asked to help and got approved to do so. The topical side of the directory confuses me more than the Regional side, so I like to expand my permissions in Regional whenever I feel I can. As for the profile, some habits die hard."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (20:45)", "body": "OH yes... thanks for reminding me after all those years of dealing with incompetent volunteers that you are not welcome if you mess up. Have you discoverd the Berber connection? There was a French prof at UH Hilo with relatives (Berbers) in Morocco. It sounds very interesting. Perhaps the subject of a travel topic? I need to go back into that coference to add a few things."}, {"response": 34, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (21:23)", "body": "The problem with my side in Morocco is that there are way more Moroccan sites in Arabic and French than there are in English."}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (22:12)", "body": "well, yeah, you can't be an \"editor\" and make mistakes, now can you *grin* i think it's great that you're hooked up with them. i'm interested in Moroccan culture but more with the art/textile side than anything else, never bothered looking anything up on the internet *duh* usually am trying to find something at the bookstore....."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (01:22)", "body": "PLEASE someone, why is Geo topic 2 about volcanoes not visible? It is my favorite places and I send others there. Now it is invisible and therefore non-existent as far as anyone is concerned. Help!! Please!!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (17:39)", "body": "I'll check it."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  9, 2005 (17:43)", "body": "Thanks."}, {"response": 39, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 11, 2005 (23:38)", "body": "It's there. It exists. What browser are you using?"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 11, 2005 (23:41)", "body": "I'm one of those dinosaurs using Netscape 7.2 I love Netscape's bookmarks so for 10 years or nearly that long I have transfered them from computer to computer."}, {"response": 41, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct 12, 2005 (06:46)", "body": "Can you see the topic now?"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 12, 2005 (09:06)", "body": "Negative"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 12, 2005 (09:08)", "body": "Using Internet Explorer 6.0 I could also not see it. Is anyone else having trouble with Geo topic 2? I'm not sure what browser my friend was using, but he was the one who brought it to my attention."}, {"response": 44, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 12, 2005 (19:32)", "body": "i couldn't see the topic either and i'm on MSN Explorer"}, {"response": 45, "author": "weroland", "date": "Wed, Oct 12, 2005 (19:52)", "body": "Marcia, try going to the following url: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/unretire/Geo/2 if that doesn't fix it, let me know and I'll try and think of something else to try..."}, {"response": 46, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 13, 2005 (07:38)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/2"}, {"response": 47, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Thu, Oct 13, 2005 (07:59)", "body": "Looks like something worked, as it is back where I can see it now."}, {"response": 48, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Oct 13, 2005 (19:03)", "body": "me too!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 14, 2005 (09:03)", "body": "And we even got wolfie back on line. Again, inexscusible delay. Apologies wolfie."}, {"response": 50, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 14, 2005 (18:25)", "body": "it wasn't your delay, i delayed in contacting YOU!! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 51, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 14, 2005 (23:02)", "body": "OK. OK. That makes me feel better."}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 15, 2005 (17:35)", "body": "Many MANY thanks for restoring my favorite topic. I guess I retired it instead of freezing it - but have no idea when that was. I now have a ftp program downloaded and tried logging into spring.net anonymously which it did (Good) but rejected me (for security reasons I am guessing) so Next I need to know what to do to get in and how do I arrange the commands so it can see where I have the graphic stored but so it is not still visible online."}, {"response": 53, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 16, 2005 (18:27)", "body": "I really didn't do much except slack off a little less. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 69, "subject": "Natural Resources", "response_count": 24, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 28, 2002 (14:26)", "body": "USGS Assessment: Complex Future for Appalachian Coal Coal provides more than half of our Nation's electrical energy needs. For more than three centuries, coal has been mined in the Appalachian Basin, one of the most important coal-producing regions in the world. This area includes parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, and Tennessee. Almost all of the coal now mined in the Appalachian Basin is used in eastern states to generate electricity. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) studied 12 of the more than 50 producing coal beds in the Appalachian Basin; five key coal beds were digitally assessed in detail. The five assessed coal beds account for about 12 percent of the Nation's total coal production. Total original resources for the five assessed coal beds are estimated at about 93 billion short tons, of which about 66 billion short tons remain. A little more than a billion short tons of coal are mined each year in the United States. The assessment concludes that, at current production rates, sufficient high-quality, thick, bituminous coal resources in these five beds will last throughout the decade. After these and similar coal beds are mined, and assuming current regulations and technology, coal production is expected to decline because much of the remaining coal is thinner, deeper, and higher in ash and sulfur content than the coal that has already been mined. \"A greater understanding of coal resources and coal quality allows resource managers to make informed decisions regarding the use of coal as an energy source,\" said USGS Director Charles Groat. \"Resource assessments are an important component in developing environmentally sound ways to extract and use the Nation's coal resources as part of an effective national energy policy.\" The Appalachian Basin is one of five U.S. regions being studied as part of the USGS National Coal Resource Assessment begun in 1995. The Colorado Plateau and the Northern Rocky Mountains/Great Plains assessments were completed last year. The USGS has worked in partnership with the State geological surveys of Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to complete this assessment. In addition to evaluating energy production potential, coal resource assessments can be used to aid in the identification of areas with potential for coal-bed methane production, mine flooding, surface subsidence, and acid mine drainage. Copies of the CD-ROM publication of the study (USGS Professional Paper 1625-C, 2000 Resource Assessment of Selected Coal Beds and Zones in the Northern and Central Appalachian Basin Coal Regions) are available by contacting lruppert@usgs.gov. Additional information is available at http://energy.er.usgs.gov/ncra . The USGS serves the nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life."}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar 28, 2002 (19:41)", "body": "great topic marcia!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 28, 2002 (19:45)", "body": "I can't think why I didn't make this one long time ago!!! Thanks Sweetie!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (00:17)", "body": "US Report Warns of Arctic Drilling The Associated Press Mar 28 2002 10:24PM WASHINGTON (AP) - Oil development in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may pose substantial risk to caribou and other wildlife, a government review concludes, contrary to claims made by oil drilling advocates. The assessment, to be released Friday, was developed by scientists at the Interior Department who reviewed 12 years of research on wildlife in the refuge in northeastern Alaska. The Associated Press obtained a copy late Thursday from government sources. The report is likely to play a key role in the upcoming Senate debate over whether oil companies should have access to millions of barrels of crude believed to lie beneath the refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain. While the study makes no recommendation on whether the refuge should be developed, it concludes that the region's wildlife - caribou, musk oxen and migratory birds - are particularly vulnerable to the kinds of disturbances development may bring. The 78-page report was developed by scientists at the U.S. Biological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, both agencies within the Interior Department, and peer-reviewed by outside scientists. Interior Secretary Gale Norton repeatedly has said that the refuge's oil can be extracted without harm to the environment or the region's wildlife, arguing that modern drilling techniques can minimize the intrusion into what environmentalists view as one of the world's most pristine and ecologically significant areas. The report brought a quick response from Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who is among a group of senators who have vowed to block legislation that would open the refuge to oil drilling. ``Once again the administration has released a report undermining its own case for opening the Arctic (refuge) to oil drilling,'' said Lieberman. He said the report ``confirmed the environmental destruction that would occur.'' The biological assessment concludes that the Porcupine Caribou herd that uses the coastal plain for calving each summer ``may be particularly sensitive to development.'' It gives four reasons for this, including a lack of quality habitat outside the coastal plain and the connection between calf survival and the animals' ability to move freely. http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0100&id=0203282224441006"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  6, 2002 (18:19)", "body": "Louisiana Oil Pipeline Ruptures The Associated Press Apr 6 2002 3:59PM LAFITTE, La. (AP) - A pipeline rupture Saturday caused about 90,000 gallons of oil to spill into a coastal area known as Little Lake, Coast Guard officials said. Owner BP Amoco shut down the pipeline as soon as it became aware of the spill. The company then notified Garner Environmental, which dispatched five boats to begin containment and cleanup. The area is rich in marine and coastal wildlife. Calls to BP Amoco at its Texas City, Texas, headquarters were not immediately returned Saturday. Coast Guard officials said BP Amoco sent a plane to assess the damage. It was not immediately clear what caused the rupture or to what extent the spill may have damaged marine or coastal wildlife. Little Lake is mostly surrounded by land but connects to the Gulf of Mexico about 35 miles south of New Orleans. http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0100&id=0204061600284338"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (00:15)", "body": "Undersea oil deposit found in the north Athens, 17/04/2002 (ANA) An undersea oil deposit has been discovered near Prinos, an existing oilfield, which could be exploited, officials said on Tuesday. The officials said that initial chemical analysis showed the newly found oilfield could produce 12,000-15,000 barrels a day for 15 years. The deposit, located between Nea Perama and Aghion Oros, has a depth of about 3,120 meters, they added."}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (22:17)", "body": "where are those places? the north pole?"}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (22:17)", "body": "oh wait, north as in northern greece? *grin*"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (23:59)", "body": "yup North as in Greece. I think there are lots of nations prowling around the North Pole trying to sneak whatever they can find."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (23:07)", "body": "CYPRUS - Fuel for the fire The discovery of undersea oil reserves between Cyprus and Turkey boosts Turkey\ufffds territorial claims to the island, according to a statement by Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash made public in the Turkish-Cypriot daily Kipris on Saturday. Ongoing negotiations to reunify Cyprus should be refocused to take into account the new \ufffddevelopment,\ufffd the newspaper said. Denktash informed reporters of the alleged existence of the reserves on Friday. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100012_22/07/2002_19019"}, {"response": 11, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (19:16)", "body": "I'm really sorry, Marcia, but it is difficult for me to remain objective in relation to the Cyprus problem. This is largely because my maternal grandfather was a Greek Cypriot; hence, I tend to have a jaundiced view of \"North Cyprus\". This really doesn't have to do with oil reserves, but it does pertain to the reunification of Cyprus. It's a page of links concerning the \"Cyprus Problem\". http://www.cosmosnet.net/azias/cyprus/problem.html"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 26, 2002 (14:05)", "body": "Thanks, Cheryl. I also have difficulty remaining objective. There are too many precious people of Greek heritage in my life not to worry. What really concerns me is that they want the US to be the abritrator for this potential mess. Big business and oil money will rule again. Politics is never far from money."}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (12:49)", "body": "I thought this was appropriate (the name Cyprus) gave us the name for Copper): THE ATHENS 2004 OLYMPICS BRONZE MEDALS-A SYMBOLIC RAW MATERIAL FROM CYPRUS (Cultural, Scientific & General News Category) August 2002: A full-scale reconstructed ancient Greek trading vessel from Cyprus will be used to carry to Greece a load of Cypriot copper that will be used in the making of the Athens 2004 Olympics bronze medals. The 'Kerynia-Eleftheria' as the vessel will be named, is the second modern reconstruction of an ancient trader excavated and partially recovered off the coast of Kerynia before the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The launching ceremony in Cyprus, on November 2002, will be attended by the Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos. The ship will travel to Greece in June 2004. http://greekproducts.com"}, {"response": 14, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Sep  3, 2002 (03:58)", "body": "Researchers harness hydrogen fuel from sugar MADISON, WISC. - Researchers say they have found a way to extract hydrogen fuel from a glucose solution. Glucose comes from plant and animal matter and is currently broken down by bacteria through an inefficient and expensive process on an industrial scale. Chemical engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison hope their process can someday produce hydrogen directly from plant material, which they say would be a faster and more efficient alternative. The researchers heated a sugar solution to 227 C over a platinum-based catalyst to break the glucose down into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Hydrogen can be piped into fuel cells, which manufacturers hope to use as an alternative way to power cars. Ford and Daimler-Chrysler have both produced prototype hydrogen-powered electric vehicles. James Dumesic led the research team. He said the advantage of the process is its simplicity, and how it can be done at fairly mild temperatures with no harmful byproducts. \"The process should be greenhouse-gas neutral,\" said research scientist Randy Cortright in a release. \"Carbon dioxide is produced as a byproduct, but the plant biomass grown for hydrogen production will fix and store the carbon dioxide released the previous year.\" The process produces hydrogen without vapourizing water, which saves energy compared to conventional methods. The process is still at an early stage, and a lot more laboratory work is needed to improve the system, reduce the costs of the catalytic system and to obtain higher hydrogen yields, the researchers said. Source: CBS NEWS John"}, {"response": 15, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (17:11)", "body": "John, that is exciting news. Now, if only someone could find a way to extract hydrogen fuel from garbage. I think that Marcia, once posted something on biomass in which giant artichokes were used. That was in Portugal, I think."}, {"response": 16, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Sep  5, 2002 (05:55)", "body": "Hi Cheryl I am thinking that the best and easiest way to produce Hydrogen is to take it from water using solar energy. It is just an idea... I want to try it when I will have time... To learn about Hydrogen Energy CLICK HERE. To learn about Solar Energy CLICK HERE. To learn about Bio-Energy CLICK HERE. John"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (17:20)", "body": "I understand they are now making plastic out of corn. Considering the huge amount of plastic we use, the switch from fossil fuel is a very wise move. Now, if only they can make it even more bio-degradable. Our landfills are full of styrofoam! Methane fuels the electricty in some communities on the mainland US. We make a lot of it in landfills and it is wasted and ultimately polluting. Generating something useful makes a lot of sense. Hydrogen is even better since it creates no byproducts! How we keep it from exploding I still want to know in better detail. I am disappointed in how little solar collectors are used for generating and storing household power. However, that being said, I have seen huge piles of ancient solar panels littering places that \"recycle\" the systems. It is not happening. They are just dumping the old stuff in remote places."}, {"response": 18, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep  8, 2002 (11:42)", "body": "corn pens, I had a couple of them!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep  8, 2002 (17:47)", "body": "Really? How do you know, Wolfie? I have only heard about this process!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Sep 10, 2002 (20:51)", "body": "the AM gave them to me and they were still in their package....it said right on there that they were made out of 100% corn (the pen shaft, not the ink shaft)"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 10, 2002 (21:55)", "body": "I will seek them out, in that case. Recycling should be encouraged!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Sep 11, 2002 (20:52)", "body": "i may still have them around!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 11, 2002 (21:58)", "body": "Tell us who makes them. A little advertising for a good cause can't hurt!"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  5, 2002 (19:59)", "body": "Oil is not something one thinks of as part of Greece, but they have it just as the rest of the world does: Greece ranks eighth in EU as oil producer BRUSSELS 04/10/2002 (ANA/M.Spinthourakis) Oil deposits representing 10 million barrels have been located in Greece, the European Union's executive Commission said on Thursday. EU Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio was replying to a question submitted by Eurodeputy George Marinos of the main opposition New Democracy (ND) Party. In a statement, ND quoted Loyola as saying that Greece currently ranked eighth in the 15-member bloc with daily output of 5,600 barrels a day. Greece's Prinos deposit covered 1.4 percent of the country's consumption, the statement said. http://www.goGreece.com/news/headlines/story.html?id=8928 Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 7, "subject": "Paleontology: fossils, coprolites, and petrified wood", "response_count": 119, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 17, 1999 (19:48)", "body": "This is one of my favorite Geology subjects - an opinion not shared by my son. He hated it. But, I think he has the family fossils. For the record, a fossil is the remains of a formerly living organism in which each and every organic part has been replaced with rock (silica, usually) down to the minutest detail. Petrified wood is a good example. You can count the tree rings, and the bark looks like you could peel it off, but it is solid rock. For those not into the very old and a little strange collecting of dead animal remains and what they left behind when they were here, allow me to introduce you to a few. *Gastroliths* - these are the stomach stones from the belly of a dinosaur. You can tell that is what they are by their rounded appearance and the fact that they are found in bunches among the bones of the animal about where the midgut would have been. Technically, not a fossil, but I want one anyway! *Coprolites* - This is something you likely would not want for an engagement ring, but it does get the most amazing reaction when you tell someone handling your specimen that it is fossilized dung left behind by those Jurrasic Parkers. If you find several and the teacher gets to have one, You will be treated very well, indeed!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (19:27)", "body": "I'll keep my eyes peeled for those, Marcia! (*grin) Paleontology is one of my favorite subjects, too, Marcia! Not many folks around this area to talk to about it, though, so, I usually just read up. I've loved dinosaurs since I was a very small child, and, used to read the \"Childcraft\" books and World Book articles and stories about them. I'm minus satellite tv, right now, which means that I am missing all of those good shows on Discovery channel! Yikes! I frequently check out library books on paleontology, standing in line behind kids with history books a d women with the romances. I get strange looks...then, again, I get those, anyway...:)"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (00:10)", "body": "*lol* Annette, you are my kind of lady. People have long since given up on my being conventional. Check out Jurassic Park which is linked to Wolfie's and my SpringArk (really her idea, though!) It is hard to know which category best fits the coprolite. Precious or semi-precious stones...so I put them in Paleo. I am jumping up and down Happy that you are here and also into this most esoteric branches of Geology. If ya find some, Talk to me...I have some pieces of the mantle which are all peridotite and look like finely ground peridots which is what it is!!!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (15:13)", "body": "Happy to be here and discussing a most interesting subject, indeed! Have you ever gotten your hands on the PIT (Passport in Time) magazine? I used to get one, every late winter, with all of the archaeology digs, etc. going on around the country that allowed \"amateurs\" to assist. Many interesting goings-ons! But, I moved, and, evidently, they don't forward, and, now, I can't find the address. I'll keep digging!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (15:14)", "body": "\"Digging\"...hmmm...no pun intended, really...! ;)"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (17:09)", "body": "Please keep digging. I currently subscribe to snailmail Archaeology, Odyssey, and Biblical Archaeology Review (Old Testament era archaeology)na dkeep up with my original love, British Archaeology on the net. Each spring the magazines publish digs which accept volunteers and how to get in touch and all that. One of the most difficult things I ever did was to tear myself away from a huge pit in the middle of London which begged for volunteers to excavate finds before being covered by a skyscraper. Arrrrrgh!!!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "uh...I dig your digging...*grin* Never heard of that magazine but am most curious..."}, {"response": 8, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (18:22)", "body": "I'll go a'searchin', then.....:)"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (14:25)", "body": "The T-Rex Fossil The fossil, currently owned by Detrich fossils, a Kansas-based paleontological group, contains the most perfect skull and largest teeth (some measuring 13 inches) ever discovered. The fossil is nicknamed Mr. Z-Rex in honor of the owners of the private property where the fossil was discovered. Bids for the T-Rex are beginning at $5.8 million. Appraisers believe a T-Rex fossil of this quality can bring an additional $40 million in permanent, annual revenue to the museum that acquires it. Mr. Z-Rex was discovered on October 6, 1992 by paleontologists Alan & Robert Detrich while exploring fossil deposits on a private cattle ranch in northwestern South Dakota. The skull was found in a sand formation. It is thought that the T-Rex died on the sandy shoreline of a prehistoric river, sea or lake. Mr. Z-Rex has the best skull with the largest teeth I have seen. The fossil is absolutely breath-taking. This truly is the King of T-Rex's - a paleontologist's dream come true. -Alan Deitrich -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The specimen was excavated according to professional standards and transported without damage. Skeletal elements have been exposed by partial preparation from the original undersurface of three major blocks. These blocks contain, respectively, the skull, the presacral vertebrae, and elements of the hind limbs and anterior portion of the tail. Great care was taken to collect all fragments of bone from from the locality, which may permit the reassemblage of several bones which would otherwise have been lost. Stabilization of the skeletal parts will present no unusual problems, and the extraction of the bones from the sediment in which they are preserved will vary from relatively easy to requiring considerable skill. Details Length of skull 1370 mm Length of tooth row, left maxilla 560 mm (approximately) Length of tooth row, left dentary 530 mm Length of articulated cervicals from the anterior zygapophysis of C4 to the posterior zygapophysis of C10 985 mm Length of dorsal 4-6 taken at base of transverse processes 393 mm Length of posterior dorsal vertebra 140 mm Height of posterior dorsal vertebra 653 mm Length of 13 articulated caudal vertebrae 2780 mm Length of centra of two isolated caudals 152 and 132 mm Length of femur 1330 mm Circumference of femur 588 mm (indicating a weight of 5.5 metric tonnes) Length of fibula 965 mm (approximately) Length of metatarsal II 620 mm Length of metatarsal III 750 mm Length of metatarsal IV 640, 655 mm Length of phalanx r-1 120 mm The total length of the reconstructed skeleton is estimated to be approximately 10.8 m (35 feet). The total reconstructed height at the hips is estimated to be approximately 3.45 m (11.35 feet)."}, {"response": 10, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (07:04)", "body": "What a find! Think about a thirteen inch tooth...! T-Rex...hunter or scavenger? Opinions...???"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (11:32)", "body": "He was the ultimate killing machine with powerful hind legs which allowed him to run down anything on earth. Nothing has even come clost to the T_Rex is the power concentrated in the enormous hind legs and the razor-sharp teeth."}, {"response": 12, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (19:31)", "body": "Definitely! I believe that T.Rex did whatever was necessary to survive, hunting or taking food away from others, having evolved into the \"killing machine\"!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (22:46)", "body": "The news today showed a huge dinasaur egg in South Korea, at least twice as large as any other ever unearthed. Weird shape though, very long and narrow."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (23:00)", "body": "All the ones I have ever seen were long and narrow with blunt ends. I wonder what huge dinosaur was gonna hatch from that one. I am sure they will xray it. Let me know if you hear anymore about it! Thanks Lucie!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "Laughingsky", "date": "Tue, Feb  1, 2000 (13:23)", "body": "Monstrous Dinosaur Found In Texas Jan. 7, 2000 -- Texas paleontologists have discovered a hulking giant of a dinosaur with a neck more than 30 feet long and a vertebra weighing up to 1,200 pounds. The researchers say the fossil is probably by far the largest dinosaur ever found in the Lone Star State. \"This thing is just bloody enormous,\" says Homer Montgomery, a paleontologist at the University of Texas at Dallas, who along with his students found the creature in a wilderness area of South Texas\ufffd Big Bend National Park last fall. Montgomery and his team were able to haul out the two smallest cervical, or neck, vertebrae -- one weighing 367 pounds and the other 470 pounds -- by hand before leaving the dig for the winter. Most of the creature remains in the ground near an established bone bed full of juvenile Alamosaurus remains dating to the Late Cretaceous, only a few million years before dinosaurs died out. Alamosaurus, part of a dinosaur family known as titanosaurs, was the last of the long-necked dinosaurs called sauropods to roam North America, but is so far known only from scattered and broken remains. The 23-foot length of the new dinosaur\ufffds neck may represent the largest intact section of the largest Alamosaurus ever found. But its monstrous dimensions also suggest that it could be an entirely new species that exceeds the accepted 70-foot length of Alamosaurus adults by some 30 feet, Montgomery says. \"We know so little about this dinosaur that any find is important and something this large is doubly so,\" says Tony Fiorillo, a paleontologist at the Dallas Museum of Natural History who has also worked in Big Bend. Montgomery plans to return to the remote desert site in February to remove more of the 10 vertebrae his team has already exposed and to excavate ribs and other bones protruding from the ground. As the largest of the vertebrae measures more than five feet across and weighs about 1,200 pounds, a helicopter may eventually have to airlift the ancient creature out of the wilderness, says National Park Service geologist Don Corrick. By Michael Milstein, Discovery News Brief"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  1, 2000 (14:19)", "body": "Wow! Annette - didya see my wallpaper? It's back! Now I gotta go into the deep stuff and change the addresses for the other graphics...sigh...Maybe I better copy the information to file just in case. I'd hate to lose the entire conference in the configuring tweaking...! Why am I not surprised that the mystery dinosaur was found in Texas?! It has to be the biggest baddest dino ever! Thanks for posting that."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  1, 2000 (14:22)", "body": "Guess we gotta \"remember the Alamosaurus,\" now?!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "Laughingsky", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (08:21)", "body": "LOL, an Alamosaurus, indeed! ;-) Wallpaper looks great - definitely save those files! Those are good conversations, as well as good reference material! :)"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (12:05)", "body": "I save files of all topics which amuse and/or interest me...including your and my Screwed topics!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "Laughingsky", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (08:31)", "body": "THOSE files could actually be used as \"evidence\"...! (*snickering)"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (12:47)", "body": "Uhoh! shall I eat them? Hide them? hmmm... surely not as evidence of higher intelligence on Earth...*lol*"}, {"response": 22, "author": "Laughingsky", "date": "Fri, Feb  4, 2000 (12:48)", "body": "(I thought we vowed not to tell THEM about that.....) (*looking cautiously over each shoulder) ;-)"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  4, 2000 (17:41)", "body": "....Sshhhhhhhh..... GULP! All gone!"}, {"response": 24, "author": "Laughingsky", "date": "Fri, Feb  4, 2000 (19:04)", "body": "Whew....! I can breathe, again..."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  4, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "Those coprolite-flavored files were a little hard (*grin*) to swallow! Let's try a different flavor next time...!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "Laughingsky", "date": "Sat, Feb  5, 2000 (02:53)", "body": "LOL...ooooh, you're a reeeaal tough one, indeed!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb  5, 2000 (10:50)", "body": "Thanks, Annette, for sending this to me (via a different link, but this one posts better *grin*) State Fossils 1. Alabama - archaeocete whale, Basilosaurus cetoides, Eocene 2. Alaska - woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, Pleistocene 3. Arkansas - none 4. Arizona - petrified wood, Araucarioxylon arizonicum, Triassic 5. California - sabertooth cat, Smilodon fatalis, Pleistocene 6. Colorado - dinosaur, Stegosaurus stenops, Jurassic 7. Connecticut - gigantic, three-toed dinosaur track, Eubrontes giganteus, Triassic 8. Delaware - belemnite (cephalopod), Belemnite americana, Cretaceous 9. Florida - sea urchin, Eupatagus antillarum, Eocene (State Stone - agatized coral) 10. Georgia - shark's tooth, genus and species unspecified, Tertiary 11. Hawaii - none 12. Kansas - none 13. Idaho - Hagerman Horse Fossil, Equus simplicidens (originally described as Plesippus shoshonensis), Pliocene 14. Illinois - Tully Monster, Tullimonstrum gregarium, Carboniferous 15. Indiana - none (crinoid did not survive legislative review) 16. Iowa - crinoid, genus, species unspecified, Upper Paleozoic 17. Kentucky - brachiopod, genus and species unspecified, Paleozoic 18. Louisiana - petrified palmwood, Palmoxylon sp., Oligocene 19. Maine - early vascular land plant, Pertica quadrifaria, Devonian 20. Maryland - gastropod, Ecphora gardnerae gardnerae, Miocene 21. Massachusetts - dinosaur tracks, genus and species unspecified, Triassic 22. Michigan (State Stone) - Petoskey Stone, Hexagonaria percarinata, Devonian 23. Minnesota - none 24. Mississippi - archaeocete whale, Zygorhiza kochii, Eocene 25. Missouri - crinoid, Delocrinus missouriensis, Carboniferous 26. Montana - duck-billed dinosaur, Maiasaura peeblesorum, Cretaceous 27. Nebraska - mammoth, Mammuthus imperator mailbeni, Pleistocene 28. Nevada - ichthyosaur, Shonisaurus popularis, Triassic 29. New Hampshire - none 30. New Jersey - dinosaur (Hadrosaur), Hadrosaurus foulki, Cretaceous 31. New Mexico - dinosaur, Coelophysis sp., Triassic 32. New York - eurypterid, Eurypterus remipes, Silurian 33. North Carolina - none 34. North Dakota - Teredo Petrified Wood, Paleocene 35. Ohio - trilobite, Isotelus sp., Ordovician 36. Oklahoma - none 37. Oregon - none 38. Pennsylvania - trilobite, Phacops rana, Devonian 39. Rhode Island - none 40. South Carolina - none 41. South Dakota - dinosaur, Triceratops prorosus, Cretaceous NOTE: back in 1988 the state fossil was the cycad, Cycadopsida. 42. Tennessee - pelecypod, Pterotrigonia (Scabrotrigonia) thoracica, Cretaceous 43. Texas (State Stone) - petrified palmwood, Palmoxylon sp., Oligocene State Dinosaur - Brachiosaur Sauropod, Pleurocoelus sp., Cretaceous. 44. Utah - dinosaur, Allosaurus fragilis, Jurassic 45. Vermont - Charlotte, The Vermont Whale (beluga whale), Delphinapterus leucas, Pleistocene 46. Virginia - pelecypod, Chesapecten jeffersonius, Pliocene 47. Washington - Columbian Mammoth, Mammuthus columbi, Pleistocene (State Gem - petrified wood, genus and species unspecified, Tertiary) 48. West Virginia (State Gem) - rugose coral, Lithostrotionella sp., Mississippian 49. Wisconsin - trilobite, Calymene celebra, Silurian 50. Wyoming - State Fossil - fresh-water herring, Knightia sp., Eocene State Dinosaur - dinosaur, Triceratops, Cretaceous"}, {"response": 28, "author": "Laughingsky", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (07:15)", "body": "Well, Marcia...remember my telling you about that dinosaur dig a few years in possibly (?) the Gobi where they discovered the remains of a \"nameforgotten\" with the crocodilish-type head and body similar to T-Rex? Just to let you know, it's driving me craaaazy until I find it! LOL, I am still tearing through boxes in the garage, knowing that I would have never thrown anything like that away!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 12, 2000 (12:22)", "body": "I am hanging on your every word and sending happy hunting vibes. Indeed, I remember your crocodile-headed wonder. Geez, I though I was the only one with boxes of that stuff I just could never imagine throwing away. If I can ever clear this house of the junk the resident male has stashed, I'm gonna got hrough them and put the articles in marked boxes in categories. and use the former office as my library!!!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (09:45)", "body": "LOL, I know the feeling! My resident male used to do the flea-market circuit, so, you can only imagine what the garage looks like!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 13, 2000 (13:55)", "body": "Gadzooks! Not another flea market male?! Mine closed in my double garage and stacked it to the ceiling with metal shelves. We cannot even move in there, so he built a carport. Same! Built another carport. Alost same but our new car is sharing it...but truck was getting wet so built another separate garage. I said ENOUGH!!! Can't move in there, either, but that will have to do. We also have two vans parked on the lawn...and I do not drive! (Please, I know what I should have done years ago...!)"}, {"response": 32, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (09:36)", "body": "Aaaaah, yes - another! I know all about the metals shelves, plus, stacks of LPs, antiques, collectible cards, furniture, old dishes, etc.,etc...heck, there may be a few fossils lying around out there - I just haven't found them, yet! :)"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (12:14)", "body": "Might those fossils be old lovers best forgotten? We can make up a good story and pass it off like they did the Piltdown man...*lol*"}, {"response": 34, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (04:14)", "body": "Ah, yes - it could work...for a while! There's gotta be a skeleton or petrified something-or-another out there...! Must dig around some more... ;)"}, {"response": 35, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (07:13)", "body": "Annette and Marcia, you do seem to have a hardtime with your RMs! I hate clutter. When I moved into my appartment (wot! almost 4 years ago) I got rid of everything I did not truly like. Now I'm thinking I should move again ;-) The US are so rich in fossils. We also have a couple or so dinossaurs around here, but I've never seen them, and don't even know what they are. One I think is just the footprints."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (10:22)", "body": "Oh Gi, there is one little problem.. MY stuff is not the problem. It is House male's clutter! Absolutely! That is why I hole up in the computer corner of the bedroom for refuge! I heard yesterday that one of the most famous footprints of dinosaurs was man made with a chain saw!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (10:38)", "body": "Many interesting discoveries turn out to be frauds :-( I had understood about the clutter being his... What I meant was, sometimes the only way to get rid of it is to move house!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (11:58)", "body": "...or move out the clutterer. I am considering it."}, {"response": 39, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (04:16)", "body": "LOL, I'm just afraid of going out to the garage and becoming on of those lost fossils, myself! (\"Last time we saw her, she was going out there to find a lost family member...\")"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (11:05)", "body": "Yup! Know exactly what you mean. Even if I left a trail of bread crumbs, string or styrofoam packing thingies to help me find my way back, I am sure there is a monster living in there with the sole purpose of grabbing me and holding me inert for all time - sorta like Medusa."}, {"response": 41, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (16:39)", "body": "Marcia is your significant other the one who keeps everything in the garage but the car?"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "YUP! Make that IO Insignificant Other, or OO Obsessive Other (the one I prefer as the O'O is an extinct Hawaiian bird - a striking similarity, actually!)"}, {"response": 43, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (19:01)", "body": "well, the AM in my lair likes to grab stuff off of garbage piles and fix them up. he's actually good at it except for a couple of barbecue grills out back. (he gives them away when he gets them running again-stuff like lawn mowers and weedeaters)...."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (19:24)", "body": "Gads, yes! But for every one he gives away there are 3 waiting for a part off another salvage one which never seems to appear. *sigh*"}, {"response": 45, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (19:32)", "body": "been there, done that, no t-shirt :("}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (19:38)", "body": "WAaaaaaaaaaa! Me too...=("}, {"response": 47, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:07)", "body": "ok, i've got two fossils (or rocks with impressions on them):"}, {"response": 48, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:09)", "body": "i've got all sides of the cylindrical fossil...."}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:18)", "body": "Thanks for the end-on shot of the columnar fossil. Too big for a crinoid...is it? It looks like a tiny palm tree truck the way the leaf scars appear in the top picture. Don't know...went to get my fossil book and found my Welsh Dictionary. *sigh* Do you have any idea what they are (were)? The on on the top right looks like a bivalve. A clam of some sort..."}, {"response": 50, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:21)", "body": "the column fossil looks like the inside of a mushroom (if you look inside it). and the measurements were in cm...don't know what a crinoid is!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:42)", "body": "fossil collections: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/8147/"}, {"response": 52, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:47)", "body": "i dunno, marcia, the pictures at http://bcrc.bio.umass.edu/Crinoid/ don't look anything like the fossil i have....."}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:53)", "body": "These pictures are not very good about the crinoid stems - they are like sea anemones (animals) but are called sea lilies. The stems look like a stack of Smarties. All of their pictures show only head of the animal where the frond-like appendages wave in the water catching plancton for food."}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:55)", "body": "i know...the picture of the living ones looked like centipedes......"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (22:41)", "body": "Wow...that is a change. The ancient ones looked like tiny palm trees with a long stalk standing upright and feathery \"arms\" at the end collecting food by waving in the current like a tree in the breeze."}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 12, 2000 (17:49)", "body": "Morocco finds 65-million-year-old reptile bones RABAT, May 12 (Reuters) - Moroccan experts have discovered remains of a 65-million-year-old reptile species about 200 kms (125 miles) south of Rabat, an official said on Friday. \"On May 5 (they) found three skeletons of what was identified as the mesosaurus species in the phosphates-rich area of Khouribga,\" the mines ministry official told Reuters. Ministry experts were alerted by local farmers in the village of Oulad Bouali, near Khouribga, who reported having unearthed \"strange skeletons\", he said. \"It is apparently the first time that this kind of species has been found in Morocco. According to the first estimate, these skeletons date back around 65 million years ... A scientific analysis and assessment of this discovery will be announced later this year.\" The authoritative newspaper Liberation said a group of French experts had joined the Moroccan researchers to help pin down \"the age and nature of these species\". Mesosaurus were early reptiles dating back up to 250 million years. An slim, aquatic animal about one metre (3.3 feet) long, it lived in freshwater lakes and ponds. Khouribga is located in a basin that millions of years ago was covered by Atlantic Ocean waters, which created a fertile environment for such reptile species, experts said."}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (12:02)", "body": "Hominids in Europe - Pre-humans go out of Africa. Three skull dug from under a medieval town in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia and dating back 1.7 million years may represent the first pre-humans who migrated out of Africa and into Europe, researchers said on Thursday.The skulls look like those of early humans who lived in East Africa at the same time, and a wealth of tools found at the site look like tools made by the African pre-humans. Previously Thought Too Primitive This is surprising because archaeologists had believed the species of hominid, called Homo ergaster, was too primitive to have made the long and difficult journey from African savanna to the challenging terrain of Europe. \ufffdThese constitute the first well-documented humans that came out of Africa,\ufffd Reid Ferring, a geologist and archaeologist at the University of North Texas at Denton who worked on the study, said in a telephone interview. \ufffdWe suggest that these hominids may represent the same species that initially dispersed from Africa and from which the Asian branch of H. erectus was derived,\ufffd the team of U.S., Georgian, French and German scientists wrote in their report, published in the journal Science. The rest of the story is available at http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/hominid_caucasus000512.html"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 24, 2000 (22:36)", "body": "Hunting Prehistoric Hurricanes Storm-tossed sand offers a record of ancient cyclones By J. Travis to better look forward, investigators have decided to look further back in time. As part of a fledgling discipline called paleotempestology, they've begun to search for signs of hurricanes that predate recorded history. At the forefront of this effort is Kam-biu Liu of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. By unearthing sand layers deposited by massive hurricanes in coastal lakes and marshes, his research group has identified storms that have struck the U.S. coast over the past 5,000 years. In February, Liu described his results at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. \"It's the first time we've been able to peer back before the historical record to see how hurricanes vary in time,\" says Kerry A. Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who would like to use such data to test whether the anticipated global warming will increase the number of severe hurricanes. Scientists aren't alone in taking an interest in paleotempestology. Most of the field's funding comes from the Risk Prediction Initiative, an effort bankrolled by insurance companies in need of better data with which to predict the odds of a severe hurricane landfall in a specific region. Considering that category 4 and 5 hurricanes can cause billions of dollars in damage, the future of these insurance companies may rest on the accuracy of their estimates. Paleotempestology \"is a nice scientific challenge, but it's [also] got a very practical outcome,\" notes Thompson Webb III of Brown University in Providence, R.I., who has conducted work similar to Liu's. When the category 4 hurricane ripped through Galveston in 1900, wind and rain alone produced significant damage and some loss of life. But as in many such tempests, the real killer was the flooding by the storm surge. Hurricane winds blowing over shallows near a coastline can raise up a dome of salt water 50 to 100 miles across. This storm surge can send up to 25 feet of water into the region where a hurricane makes landfall. If a lake or marsh sits not far from the coast, the storm surge may also leave an enduring imprint of the hurricane. Sand from the ocean floor or beach can be thrown inland with the water, eventually settling to the bottom of the lakes or marshes in a discernible sediment layer that records the storm's impact. More of the story at http://www.sciencenews.org/20000520/bob2.asp"}, {"response": 59, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, May 25, 2000 (06:09)", "body": "okay which is you Marcia?"}, {"response": 60, "author": "ommin", "date": "Thu, May 25, 2000 (06:09)", "body": "okay which is you Marcia?"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 25, 2000 (12:33)", "body": "The one in the white shirt."}, {"response": 62, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (04:17)", "body": "I think I must still be asleep - where's the pic marcia?"}, {"response": 63, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (04:18)", "body": "oops - is that the one you sent me?"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (12:49)", "body": "Yup - but it is also in the Travel conference in the Hawaii topic...where you and Terry were wandering around Hilo. Wouldn't it be fun to bump into you on your perigrinations?! (Virtual bumping is not as satisfying, somehow...)"}, {"response": 65, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (14:31)", "body": "You never know ...."}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (15:58)", "body": "...this is true...and I might bump into someone who lives even closer - not at all out of the realm of possibility...."}, {"response": 67, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (16:21)", "body": "Hmmmm *severe look* *grin*"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 27, 2000 (17:30)", "body": "*laugh* He is still at his computer - rest easy. Did you check the most recent post in Geo 2. it is amamzing and terrifying at the same time!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, May 28, 2000 (05:56)", "body": "on my way ..."}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (18:29)", "body": "Science News Online - Week of June 17, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 25 Neandertals' diet put meat in their bones B. Bower Neandertals' bones preserve a story of their consuming passion for flesh. Telltale chemicals in two fossils now portray Neandertals as avid meat eaters who hunted often and skillfully. Neandertals lived in Europe and the Middle East from about 130,000 to 28,000 years ago. The new information counters a theory that they mainly scavenged scraps of meat from abandoned carcasses, says a team led by archaeologist Michael P. Richards of the University of Oxford in England. \"Our findings provide conclusive proof that European Neandertals were top-level carnivores who lived on a diet of mainly hunted animal meat,\" contends team member Fred H. Smith, an anthropologist at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. Richards' group analyzed the proportions of stable forms of carbon and nitrogen in bone samples from a Neandertal jaw and skull fragment. A preponderance of carbon signals heavy consumption of plants in the last few years of an organism's life; nitrogen's dominance betrays intense meat eating. The finds came from a 28,000-year-old Croatian cave (SN: 10/30/99, p. 277). More... http://www.sciencenews.org/20000617/fob4.asp"}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (19:40)", "body": "Fossil insects in rocks By Xavier Mart\ufffdnez-Delcl\ufffds & Ed Jarzembowski The fossil record of insects contrary to what we think, is abundant and very diverse. If outcrops with fossil insects are rare compared to those with other kinds of invertebrates, especially marine ones, then they compensate by yielding large number of specimens and taxa. The fossil insects are often well preserved and articulated, allowing morphological comparisons with Recent forms, adoption of the same systematic system, and inclusion in phylogenetic studies. Fossil insects also occur as disarticulated remains, especially wings, and various trace fossilsrecording ancient activity. In the fossil record we have feeding traces (on leaves), colonial structures such as termite nests and combs, galls, burrows etc. In the same outcrops, insects can be found from different habitats, both aquatic and terrestrial. There is also evidence of palaeobiological associations such as symbiosis, parasitism, commensalism, phoretic associations, and examples of co-evolution. The earliest reference to fossil insects is by Gaius Plinius Secundus - Pliny the Elder (24-79 B.C.). In his work Naturalis Historia, he described amber and the insect inclusions in it. In this period another writer, Marcus Valerius Martalis (40-104 BC) poetically described the occurrence of fossil insect inclusions. HOW INSECTS FOSSILISE: factors which favour the preservation of fossil insects. Insects, because of their delicate exoskeleton, have usually been considered by palaeontologist as soft bodied organisms! This is true for example of some holometabolous larvae but it is not a good description of the exoskeleton of common adult beetles (Coleoptera). Nevertheless, if we compare insect preservation with invertebrates possessing hard, mineralised exoskeletons, then insects need some special conditions for fossilisation. As always in the fossil record, the chances of preservation are directly related to the degree of mineralization of the skeleton: in insect, the sclerotisation or hardness of the exoskeleton is significant. For this reason, we often find isolated parts such as tegmina of cockroaches and elytra of beetles at outcrop. Chitin, one of the principal compounds of the insect's cuticle, is one of the most abundant biopolymers on Earth, it is more resistant to degradation than protein, for example, but it is rarely preserved in the fossil record. Usually, during diagenesis, chitin is transformed to other organic compounds. Another factor that favours the preservation of insect remains is those individuals that lived in habitats close to or forming part of the sedimentary palaeoenvironment such as lakes or lagoons; in the case of amber, those insects living around resin-producing trees. It is worth noting that, in terrestrial strata, the preservation of chitin is more likely than in marine deposits (Stankiewicz et al., 1998). Insects are often found in rocks formed in lakes because they either live in them, e.g. mayfly and dragonfly nymphs, adults of aquatic heteropterans and coleopterans, or around the lake (terrestrial insects) e.g. in the Lower Cretaceous of Montsec (Spain). Sometimes, it is possible to find insects in lagoons or marine sediments, for example in the Upper Jurassic of Solhnofen (Germany) where marine animals such as the horseshoe crab (Limulus) and jellyfish occur with terrestrial insects. In such cases, insects have been transported into the depositional environment. More at... http://www.ub.es/dpep/meganeura/52inrocks.htm"}, {"response": 72, "author": "judgedred", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (16:40)", "body": "A new convert to Geology, I have spent a weekend collecting fossil Trilobites, Graptolites and Tentaculites in Shropshire, England. They are all contained in mudstones which flake to dust as you touch them. Can anyone give me any ideas on how to preserve these fossils, is varnish a suitable coating?"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 31, 2000 (23:12)", "body": "Let me check my sources and get back to you tomorrow (most of them are in the middle of the night at this hour in the US). I am delighted you found such lovely fossils. I am more than a little bit envious! Welcome to Paleo and Geo. Aloha Ian!"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  2, 2000 (16:25)", "body": "Ian, here is what I found doing a http://www.google.com search for \"preserving fossils\" http://www.museums.org.za/sam/resource/palaeo/cluver/collecti.htm This site mentions fast-setting glues. http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/anthropology/sci.anthropology.paleo/archive/september-1995/0166.html This site contains a discussion with threads at the bottom you might wish to follow. In a pinch, I'd suggest you try (on some isignificant one)placing the specimen on a coffee can lid or other heavy plastic from which you can peel the hardened fossil later, then pouring come colorless (clear) acryllic nail polish over the fossil. Do not try to brush it on. Let dry till thoroughly hardened. There are casting epoxies and acryllics available in hobby and craft stores. You might try there for suggestions. Let us know what works!"}, {"response": 75, "author": "Coccosteus", "date": "Sun, Aug  6, 2000 (13:21)", "body": "Hello there! I'm looking for news about Suchomimus. I did read about it and it said that it looked like \"a huge Baryonyx\" anything new about? I'd like to know too, about the true use of Smilodon fangs... tool or weapon? One more thing: Were were the Sinopa fossiles found? Thanx ;)"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  6, 2000 (16:38)", "body": "Thank you for posting such challenging questions. In the absence of anyone else looking into the answers, I shall now go hunting. My favorite thing to to (well, one of them, anyway!) Again, thank you for posting, Cocco, and Welcome to Geo!"}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  6, 2000 (16:57)", "body": "http://dinosaur.uchicago.edu/Suchomimus.html The illustration of suchomimus on the left was drawn by Dr. Sereno; dinosaur artist Micheal Skrepnik created the fleshed out version on the right, \"Crocodile mimic from theT\ufffdn\ufffdr\ufffd\" Long, narrow snout for catching fish Discovered in Niger Fossils 100 million years old 36 feet long, 12 feet high Predator Was this what you were looking for???"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  6, 2000 (17:22)", "body": "The image on the right:"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  6, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "Still working on the Sinopa Fossils. A google search came up empty but I am determined. Interesting about the fangs...still workingon that too. *hugs*"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  6, 2000 (20:12)", "body": "More on your Alligator - saur (might we post one of your sketches of same here??) http://www.prehistorics.com/suchomimus.htm With a face like that, it would have to be a \"crocodile mimic\". Suchomimus was discovered in the Tenere Desert of the west-central African country of Niger. Africa is a continent that is poorly understood in terms of dinosaur evolution. But this discovery along with Spinosaurus from Egypt in 1915, and Baryonix from England in 1983, have helped piece together a picture of the therapod group Spinosauridae. The skull features of Suchomimus point to a snatch and secure hunting style. Eating slippery prey items such as fish, large eels or something we just do not know of yet. The head was very narrow and filled with about a hundred small conical shaped teeth, much like a crocodile. This kind of tooth shape is good for puncturing and gripping as opposed to tearing. It also helps that the upper and lower teeth meshed together squarely to hold prey firmly once grabbed . The skull also has a hard palate separating the mouth from the nasal passages helping to reinforce the narrow skull from stress forces created by struggling prey and head shaking. Suchomimus also probably had a large gular or throat pouch, perhaps similar to what pelicans have, that expanded to hold large fish just prior to being swallowed head first, considering the narrowness of the jaws. Suchomimus was found in rocks about a hundred million years old, putting it in the lower Cretaceous period. The skeleton was 36 feet long and is not considered to be full grown. The humerus, radius and ulna (arm bones) had very large flaring crests, especially at the elbow joint, which served as attachment sites for obviously huge muscles. The fingers were tipped with equally massive claws: The thumb claw alone was 16 inches long! These arms must have played an important role in grappling prey. Perhaps the arms helped to tear off huge chunks from prey that was too large to swallow whole. Suchomimus was obviously powerful enough to subdue large animals. Another curious feature were the tall neural spines of the vertebrae. Their function is open to speculation. see the page on Acrocanthosaurus for more discussion on these strange vertebrae."}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (00:57)", "body": "Concerning the SINOPA fossils, this from http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/8/0,5716,28288+1+27844,00.html Creodonta order of extinct, primitive carnivores first found as fossils in early Tertiary deposits of Mongolia (the Tertiary Period lasted from 66.4 to 1.6 million years ago). The creodonts evolved from Late Cretaceous mammals (the Deltatheridia), became the early dominant carnivores, and reached the peak of their number and diversity during the Eocene Epoch (between 57.8 and 36.6 million years ago). The creodonts retained numerous archaic traits. The brain was small and primitive, and the skull was relatively long and low. Prominent crests present on the skull served for the attachment of well-developed chewing muscles. Two main families are distinguished: the Oxyaenidae and the Hyaenodontidae. The oxyaenids, long-bodied, weasel-like animals with short legs, first appeared during the late Paleocene Epoch (more than 57.8 million years ago) and were extinct by the end of the Eocene Epoch. The hyaenodonts were more diverse and abundant than the oxyaenids and had proportionately longer limbs. Some forms grew to large size and paralleled the evolution of later, more advanced carnivores, including the sabre-toothed cats. The hyaenodonts were active predators and persisted much later than the oxyaenids. Some were able to compete with the true carnivores and survived into the late Tertiary. Well-known genera of hyaenodonts include Sinopa and Hyaenodon."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (01:07)", "body": "Regarding the SMILODON http://www.lam.mus.ca.us/cats/encyclo/smilodon/ Saber -toothed Cat Smilodon fatalis Size: The saber-toothed cat was the size of the modern African lion. Habitat: Probably lived on grassy plains and in open woodland. Primary prey: The saber-toothed cat probably killed prey larger than themselves, such as ancient horses and buffalo but may have also taken smaller animals like antelope and deer. They may also have eaten carrion . Conservation Status: Became extinct around 11,000 years ago. Distribution: North America and South America. Notable Features: Of all the animals known from Rancho La Brea, the saber-toothed cat, sometimes called the saber toothed tiger, most vividly captures the imagination. It has been named the state fossil of California. Bones from nearly 2,000 individuals have been recovered from Rancho La Brea. Although the saber-toothed cat has no close living relatives, paleontologists reconstruct how the saber-toothed cat looked by comparing its bones with those of large cats living today. Very powerful front legs and a short tail indicate that saber-toothed cats used stealth and ambush rather than speed to capture their prey. Recent investigations suggest that the saber toothed cat probably used its long canines to bite open the soft belly of its prey. Some fossils show healed injuries or diseases that would have crippled the animal. Some paleontologists see this as evidence that saber-toothed cats were social animals, living and hunting in packs that provided food for old and sick members. Two different types of saber-toothed cats lived in the Americas 12,000 years ago. One type was the familiarSmilodon fatalis, discussed above. The second type was the Scimitar Cat (Homotherium serum). Both cats had enlarged canine teeth although the canines of the Scimitar cat were shorter, about 4 inches compared to Smilodon's seven inch canines. Some of the differences can be seen by comparing a photo of the skull of the Smilodon (image courtesy of the U.C. Berkeley Museum of Paleontology) with that of a drawing of a Scimitar Cat (image courtesy of the The Illinois State Museum)."}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 10, 2000 (01:14)", "body": "Do my posting cover your questions? If so, send me on another chase for information since that is how I learn, too. If not, I will hunt further for your information. Again, Thank you for sharing your interests in fossils. If all else fails you can check this url to see what Coccosteus really looks like! I just might post it if you do not have a sketch of it for me to post... http://www.personal.u-net.com/~paleomod/p97/g-cocco.htm"}, {"response": 84, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Sep  6, 2000 (10:48)", "body": "Wednesday September 6 7:56 AM ET http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000906/sc/india_fossil_dc_1.html Prehistoric Elephant Fossil Discovered in Kashmir GALLANDER, India (Reuters) - Geologists in Indian-administered Kashmir said Wednesday they had excavated a 50,000-year-old elephant fossil, the first of its kind to be discovered in the Himalayan valley.``Our team of experts is working on it and in a few days we will reveal the proper details. Not only in Kashmir...it must be the largest ever known in the world,'' said G.M. Bhat, a teacher in the Geology and Geophysics Department of Kashmir University. He said the fossil showed a skull five feet by four feet with complete lower and upper jaws, a broken tusk two feet and nine inches long and a vertebra. The fossil was found after four days of excavation at Gallander near saffron fields nine miles south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state.``Its age we think is about 50,000 years, and the basis of our claim are rocks above this (fossil) which have been carbon dated approximately 50,000 years back,'' local geologist Abdul Majid Dar said. He added that a search for other parts of the fossil was on."}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (16:07)", "body": "Fossil Elephant? Not Spanish? I had no idea elephants as we know them had ever been fossilized. I learned even more today. I like that! Thanks, Maggie, luv!"}, {"response": 86, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (16:15)", "body": "I try, I try ......anything to give you a smile...."}, {"response": 87, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (16:27)", "body": "West Runton Elephant Project http://www.zagni.co.uk/elephant.htm (I can't find a date on the site for this posting....site updated 1999) One of the major events to happen in Norfolk in recent years has been the discovery of the oldest and largest fossil elephant skeleton ever to be found in Britain. Heavy seas during the winter of 1990 eroded the cliffs at West Runton and had revealed a tantalising glimpse of large-fossil bones. Part excavations took place in the following years until funds became available to allow a full excavation to take place during 1995. Since then painstaking research and conservation work has been undertaken at the Norfolk Rural Life Museum sited in Gressinghall. It has been found, from examining the fossilised teeth, that the elephant is an early form of mammoth, Mammuthus Trogontherii. When alive, some 600,000 - 700,000 years ago, the mammoth would have had an estimated height at the shoulder of four meters and weighed an incredible 10 tonnes. To protect the largest fossil piece, the skull and one tusk, the fossils were wrapped in a plaster jacket and a steel frame-work was constructed to minimise damage in transit from the find site to Gressinghall. To allow the conservation work to be undertaken all of the protective materials, including the steel framework, were to be dismantled but this would cause a problem. How could you support such an awkward shape, with an estimated weight of up to 500 kgs, during the conservation work?, and then how could you safely transport the fully conserved piece from Gressinghall to it's final resting place at the Norwich Castle Museum? A further problem also came to light once conservation work started, the bones were not fully f ssilised! This meant that the bones were in a fragile state much worse than had been anticipated. Zagni International Freight offered their services in the form of sponsorship to solve this problem. An assessment was made and a highly specialised transit case was designed. The first stage was to provide a base to allow the conserved skull and tusk to be attached to it. Once secured it would be unable to move again due to its fragile state. The weight also formed a problem as it would mean that any movement would have to be made by mechanical means, i.e. a forklift truck or crane. During lifting a normal base would bend slightly which could possibly cause the fossil to crack. Vibrations during handling and subsequent transit to Norwich could also contribute to the possibility that cracking may occur. A highly specialised base was constructed, using heavy timbers and anti-vibration, doughnut-shaped feet, to a total thickness of 33cms/13 inches to ensure minimal risk of cracking. The skull and tusk, encased within its protective plaster jacket and steel framework, had to be raised using four jacks and ste l bard to allow the base to be slid beneath it. A layer of barrier foil was placed on top of the base to ensure that the likelihood of penetration from moisture of sap contained within the wood, which could cause possible further damage to the fossils, was kept to an absolute minimum. The foil was in turn coated with a layer of heavy duty plastic to protect it from falling debris during the conservation work. The second and final stage is to be undertaken during 2000, when the conservation work has been completed. Wooden sides and a lid will be attached to the base with screws, thus reducing the risk of vibration, protection from the elements and to reduce the risk of damage if accidentally knocked. Zagni International Freight are providing their own vehicles to carry the wooden case and other fossilised remains from Gressinghall to the Norwich Castle Museum. To reduce vibrations from the uneven road surface and from the vehicles engine if stood still a Police escort is to be arranged. Travelling at speeds s slow as 20mph will potentially cause a traffic hazard and it is intended for the vehicles not to stop until reaching the Castle Museum. As a result, the vehicle will have to be waved through road junctions and traffic lights. We are sure that this will attract a lot of media attention, certainly locally if not nationally, so be sure to keep your eyes and ears open when the time comes. Further information can be obtained from the Norfolk Museum Website which can be found at http://www.paston.co.uk/users/ncm/"}, {"response": 88, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (16:29)", "body": "Here's the latest report I can find on the West Runton Elephant http://www.paston.co.uk/users/ncm/elep_now.html"}, {"response": 89, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Sep  7, 2000 (16:48)", "body": "http://www.geo.tu-freiberg.de/~horna/geoafr/bbb.htm Africa, The Paleozoic Era. The Paleozoic Era consists of the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian periods and includes two major mountain-building episodes. The continent of Africa may be said to have taken shape during the Paleozoic. A glacial period during the Ordovician is evidenced by widespread deposition tillites, which may be seen in southern Morocco, throughout western Africa, and in subequatorial Africa as far south as Namibia. This tillite sequence marks the transition from the end of the Precambrian to the beginning of the Cambrian Period. Marine fossils of the Cambrian Period (544 to 505 million years ago) are found in southern Morocco, the Western and Mauritanian Sahara, and Namibia. In Egypt and in the Arabian Peninsula, their presence has been revealed by drilling. Elsewhere, they remain unknown. During the Ordovician Period (505 to 438 million years ago), fossiliferous marine sandstone completely covered northern and western Africa, including the Sahara. The Table Mountain sandstone of South Africa constitutes its only other trace. This period is, in addition, remarkable for broad, large-scale deformation of the African crust, which raised the continental table of the central and western Sahara by approximately 5,000 feet (1,500 metres). Each emergence resulted in the creation of valleys that became flooded when the continent subsided. Toward the end of the period, the Sahara became glaciated, and tillites and sandstones filled the valleys. A complete change of sedimentation characterized the Silurian Period (438 to 408 million years ago); this is indicated by the deposits of graptolitic shales (those containing small fossil colonies of extinct marine animals of uncertain zoological affinity) in the Arabian Peninsula and in northwestern Africa. Marine fossils of the Devonian Period (408 to 360 million years ago) are found in North Africa and in the Sahara. Traces also have been discovered in parts of Guinea, Ghana, and Arabia, as well as in Gabon; they also occur in the Bokkeveld Series of South Africa. Fossilized plants that include Archaeosigillaria (ancient club mosses) may be traced in formations of the earlier Devonian Period in the Sahara and in South Africa (Witteberg Series). The Carboniferous Period (360 to 286 million years ago) was marked by the onset of several major tectonic events. Evidence of marine life that existed in the earlier part of this period comes from fossils found in North Africa, the central and western Sahara, and Egypt. During the middle and later parts of the Carboniferous, the Hercynian mountain-building episodes occurred as a result of collision between the North American and African plates. The Mauritanide mountain chain was compressed and folded at this time along the western margin of the West African craton from Morocco to Senegal. Elsewhere, major uplift or subsidence occurred, continuing until the end of the Triassic Period (i.e., about 208 million years ago). These structures were synformal (folded with the strata dipping inward toward a central axis) in the Tindouf and Taoudeni basins of western Algeria, Mauritania, and Mali and antiformal (forming a mountainous spine or dome) at Reguibat in eastern Western Sahara. The Late Carboniferous Period is represented throughout the Sahara by layers of fossilized plants and sometimes--as in Morocco and Algeria--by seams of coal. Different phenomena may be observed, however, in the region of subequatorial Africa, including the Dwyka tillite, which covers part of South Africa, Namibia, Madagascar, an extensive portion of the Congo Basin, and Gabon. At several places in South Africa, these Dwyka strata are covered by thin marine layers that serve to demarcate the transition from the Carboniferous to the Permian Period and that form the beginning of the great Karoo System. Marine fossils of the Permian Period (286 to 245 million years ago) are visible in southern Tunisia, in Egypt, in the Arabian Peninsula, on the coasts of Tanzania, and in the Mozambique Channel. Elsewhere, traces of the Permian are of continental rather than marine origin and are included in the Karoo System in South Africa. There, the Lower Permian strata are known as the Ecca Series and are divided into three groups: the Lower Ecca (containing almost 1,000 feet of shales), the Middle Ecca (some 1,650 feet of sandstone, seams of coal, and fossilized plants), and the Upper Ecca (about 650 feet of shales again). The Upper Permian is represented by the lower part of the Beaufort Series, which continued forming into the Early Triassic Period. The Beaufort Seriesis almost 10,000 feet thick and is famous for its amphibian and reptile fossils; a similar series is also found in the southern Soviet Union. Other Permian formations, not as rich in coal, occur in Zaire, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Madagascar. The absence of primary marine form"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep  9, 2000 (15:15)", "body": "Marvelous, Maggie!!! Can Spanish fossil elephants be far behind?! With Fossilized mangoes or it does not count (this is a very inside joke with someone too busy using his valuable time online talking privately with me...*sigh*) Back to studying rather than downloading the entire 80's rock genre from Napster before the big money yanks the privilege from the masses..."}, {"response": 91, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (12:04)", "body": "Human Fossils and the Flood Introduction Could some fossil human bones and teeth that occur in caves be the remains of people who lived before the flood, who were destroyed in the great catastrophe? It seems unlikely that these cave sites all represent deliberate burials, or that whole races of man actually lived in caves in the past; the deeper recesses of cave systems are generally inhospitable places for man. It also seems implausible to say people kept falling down crevices and potholes, to become trapped inside caves, an explanation sometimes invoked to explain the presence of animal fossils in caves, which often include creatures that do not normally inhabit caves. Many of the human fossils in European caves are Neanderthal types, a race which has become extinct. These were powerful, muscular people, such as Genesis 6:4 suggests was characteristic of at least some of the races of the antediluvians. Most accounts of the human fossils mention stone implements associated with the fossil remains, which, if true, seems incompatible with an interpretation of these fossils as those due to drowning and burial in sediments of the flood, but perhaps there are other possible explanations for these objects. One suggestion is that investigators have mistaken naturally broken pebbles and stones of flint for tools worked by man. Dr Chris Stringer of Britain's Natural History Museum is quoted as saying: \"The argument is that these things may not be human artifacts at all. If you look at enough pebbles, you'll see some that look as if they have been artificially shaped.\" (The Times, 21 June 95, page 16. Cited in Britain's 'Oldest' Man.) Genesis 4:22 indicates that the use of iron and brass was known to man before the flood, so, from a creationist viewpoint, it would seem that the evolutionary ideas of a \"stone age\" in man's early history may be simply misguided. Yet there are tribes still around, or that existed until quite recent times, that used primitive \"stone age\" technology, such as the Australian aborigines. Some human fossils occur without alleged \"tools\" associated with them, but occur along with bones of extinct animals, which appears to fit the idea of these being the remains of antediluvian people. Some finds may represent reburials of fossil remains of flood victims. However, probably not all human remains from the caves are those of antediluvian man; some could represent burials of those who died since the flood, as suggested in the story in Genesis 25:9 about the burial of Abraham in a cave in Palestine. Where fossils occur lying in a fetal position, it seems to be a good indication of a deliberate burial. The table below presents a list of some of the human fossils. Since about 6,000 human fossils are known, this is only a representative sample. In this list, the evolutionary sequence that is usually imposed on the fossil data has been discarded; references to dating schemes and associated implements, etc. have been dropped, as these involve interpretation. Other data that may possibly be appropriate for a proper interpretation may have been omitted. I encourage comments and suggestions for additions to the list and about any further details that may be relevant. I suggest that for a Creationist understanding of the human fossils, one should perhaps start with bare data, stripped of interpretations, (which is sometimes difficult to do) and consider how it may best fit the information God has provided us in Genesis about human origins. This list attempts to present bare facts; the order of fossils listed is roughly that of discovery, not the evolutionary one seen in most text books. The statements in Genesis 6:1-13 about the conditions in antediluvian times may be helpful for our interpretation of these fossil finds; a possible mechanism by which they came to be buried in the caves is suggested by my disintegration theory of the drift. It is interesting and significant to note how many of the fossils listed below are from caves. I would be interested in hearing about other significant fossils that could be added to the list, and especially about references to the details on particular circumstances of burial of the fossils, as this seems especially relevant to the proper interpretation. For the rest of this article go to http://www.sentex.net/~tcc/humfoss.html"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 14, 2000 (20:19)", "body": "Oh Maggie!!! Thanks for putting this here. I posted something yesterday when the news first broke - in archy (Geo 17) I think... Fascinating!!! Bob Ballard is a highly-respected scholar and can be trusted. I am delighted he is making this discovery rather than someone with a religious axe to grind!"}, {"response": 93, "author": "Coccosteus", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (09:56)", "body": "Greetings Marcia. I decided to come again and bother you some more :p Could you help me with the Coelophysis cranium? I'm going to make a pic of it, and my books have Coelophysis skeletons, but the detail is not really accurate. I hope you can help me :) See you and Thanx!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (12:42)", "body": "Aloha, Cocco! What a delightful surprise to find you posting again. My happiness seeing you here is even more wonderful because you have sent me off on another hunt for an elusive fossil. Your interest and questions are what helps me learn about creatures which are new to me. Thank you...I am off to hunt down some information for you! By the way, perhaps you know this, but all should know that you are NEVER a bother, except in the most delightful sense of the word. *Hugs*"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (16:26)", "body": ""}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (16:30)", "body": "From: http://www.dallasdino.org/dinoworld/Coelophysis.cfm Pronunciation: see-lo-FISE-iss Translation: Hollow Form Also Known As: Rioarribasaurus Description: Carnivore, Bipedal Order: Saurischia Suborder: Theropoda Infraorder Ceratosauria Micro-order Family: Podokesauridae Height: 4 feet (1.2 meters) Length: 9 feet (2.7 meters) Weight: 100 lbs (45.5 kg) Period: Late Triassic Coelophysis was an early theropod that is thought to have lived in family groups and hunted in packs. Much of what is deduced of Coelophysis behavior is based on the hundreds of well-preserved skeletons found at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. Coelophysis has recently been renamed \"Rioarribasaurus,\" but some researchers believe that these are two different animals."}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (16:53)", "body": "From: http://www.abc.net.au/dinosaurs/dino_playground/gallery/dried/coelophysis.htm #"}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Sep 30, 2000 (18:51)", "body": "This URL has great a great Cranial shot on it but takes too long to load to put it here: http://www.geocities.com/jeff_charity/Coelophysis.html A museum diorama showing several angles of the head and entire body: http://www.statemuseumpa.org/Paleo/Coelophysis%20Dioramam.htm http://www.clpgh.org/cmnh/jurassic/fctcoelo.html Please set me to work again if this is not sufficient for your use. My pleasure is fulfilling requests! Please let me see your interpretation when you are finished (or as you work on it...) - I am most curious! This Coelophysis has a vicious set of teeth!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "Carys", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (12:59)", "body": "Great reading! I really have nothing intelligent to contibute to this discussion. But I love reading it."}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (19:38)", "body": "Thanks for being interested and reading - and, most especially, for saying so. My heartiest greetings and warmest hugs to those who pause long enough to appreciate Paleontology. There are not a lot of us around, but those of us who do so are my special treasures."}, {"response": 101, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (16:58)", "body": "Per the request on post 93 of this topic, I posted several sources of Coelophysis cranuim images and a few here, as well. True to his word, he not only created the image he wanted, he is allowing me to post it here. He has also said he would do running for me which I will also post as soon as he has completed the artwork. Many thanks, Dimday. You add immeasurable pleasure to a topic which I also find fascinating. Coelophysis (image created by Dimday \ufffd )"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (16:59)", "body": ""}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (17:09)", "body": ""}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 16, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "Mental note: Close embolden brackets before submitting. If you have to post a second time to correct the problem of non-closure, do not delete the post with the closure html and expect it to work, anyway. Thanks, again Dimday. Your art made my day. I wish I could use the animal fonts here that you sent. Hmmm... thinking of how to do that...."}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (17:47)", "body": "The man has done it again. He sent me this one today and it is even more spectacular than the other one to me. Thank you, love! Coleophysis running Image by Dimday \ufffd"}, {"response": 106, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (18:10)", "body": "Would coleophysis have been a sprinter or run distance? The art is impressive."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (18:38)", "body": "I would guess a sprinter but with that build, I think he can run until he catches what he wants to eat. *beaming smiles* that you like his art. He is gifted and you should see the actual art he can create with standard sketching impliments! Now, to convince him...!"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (20:10)", "body": "T.Rex Was a Terrifying, But Familiar Predator Says Scientist By The Independent October 12, 2000 TYRANNOSAURUS REX, the `king of dinosaurs', was probably not a rare, terrifying sight. The discovery of five skeletons in different places this summer suggests that in the age of the dinosaurs, the building- sized carnivores were actually a common and still terrifying sight. The effect of the discovery could be to depress prices of the skeletons, and to ensure that future finds will be preserved for scientific examination. Jack Horner, director of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies, Montana, who was the inspiration for the dinosaur film Jurassic Park, led this summer's team. He told New Scientist magazine: \"They are basically a dime a dozen.\" more... http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/10/10122000/toomanytrex_3134.asp"}, {"response": 109, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (18:50)", "body": "A smaller version of Tyrannosaurus Rex was found in Canada several years ago. The skull was CAT scanned to determine if it was a juvenile or an adult. The speciman was determined to have been an adult, even quite old when it died. There were enough differences from T. Rex for it to be classed as a different genus. It was called Nanotyrannus, or pygmy tyrant."}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (19:21)", "body": "Fascinating. I did not know that. Gonna see if I can find a representation of the Nanotyrannus...or enough to entice my artist to create one...even though he much prefers things crocodilian...(his representation of self as such will be posted somewhere in Geo. I am still pondering the best place to put him. It must be special, because he is very special to me!"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (20:02)", "body": "Only one drawing by someone I do not know and did not like the representation and since I have a far superior artist willing and ready to render sketches for me, I shall hunt further to see what is available. Google.com or google.net (they were smart enough to register both names) came up with only 4 hits, 2 of which were for toys without pictures! Cheryl, can you help find something? How did you hear of this mini-predator of scary appetite? http://www.starcarver.com/FieldPage2.htm Recently (during the late 90's) while excavating dinosaur bones in South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming, we (paleontologist types) have been finding teeth that looked like they came from T. rex. However, they are usually too small to be from an adult T. rex. They have been labeled Albertasaurus, a cousin of Rexy. The problem with this is there are no Albertasuarus bones found in the Hell Creek sediments. Now they are considered to be from a much smaller version of the T. rex called Nanotyrannosaurus rex."}, {"response": 112, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Oct 21, 2000 (10:22)", "body": "I found out about the little tyrant from television of all places. It was mentioned on an episode of \"Nova\" on PBS. That particular segment was on carnivorous dinosaurs, so of course T. rex and relatives were prominently mentioned. The funny part was that the Nanotyrannos skull had to be taken to a hospital to be CAT scanned. As mentioned, that was done to determine beyond a doubt that it was an adult specimen. I'll check to see if there are any good representations of Nanotyrannosaurus rex out there in cyberspace."}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 21, 2000 (13:09)", "body": "Thanks! I did the www.google.com search and came up just about empty. Then Altavista...*sigh* Your help is most appreciated!"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 28, 2000 (15:27)", "body": "Cheryl outdid me - she came up with an awesome site of great modelling and text I cannot read. However, it is certainly worth a visit. Mahalo, and hugs, Dear! http://village.infoweb.ne.jp/~kobo/KINRYU/NANO.htm"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (20:05)", "body": "News item like this scare me - A LOT!!! My precious artist and Paleo enthusiast lives in Barcelona! Awaiting hearing from him so I can breathe again! Bomb Explodes in Barcelona, Injuring Two-Radio MADRID (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded in central Barcelona early on Thursday injuring two people, in an attack that bore the hallmarks of the Basque separatist group ETA, Spanish state radio reported. The blast, which caused substantial damage to buildings in the area, came two days after a Supreme Court judge, his driver and bodyguard were killed in a car bombing in Madrid. There have been no claims of responsibility for either bombing, but ETA normally waits weeks to do so. The guerrilla group has been blamed for 19 killings since it called of a 14 month cease-fire last December."}, {"response": 116, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (15:53)", "body": "Have you heard any news from Barcelona?"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (16:58)", "body": "Never know where to put Neanderthal material, so I am puttin gthis link here and in Archaeolgy, thanks to Dar of Yahoo's anthropology club. It is a great site and the club is full of informative epople with a passion for the the subject. http://www.neanderthal-modern.com/index.html"}, {"response": 118, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (12:06)", "body": "There are a lot of interesting theories about Neanderthals. One of the more interesting is that they could not interbreed with Cro-Magnons. Of course, there is the theory that they could and did; which resulted in their loosing their distinct identity and being absorbed into the population at large."}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 18, 2000 (13:28)", "body": "I tend to think that the latter has more going for it than the former. How else to explain some of the throw-backs which tried to date me in college?! (just kidding...) Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 70, "subject": "Majestic Fiery Peaks: The Cascade Volcanoes", "response_count": 378, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (17:32)", "body": "Woooooowhooooo!!! My very own topic. This is GREAT!! I have so much to say and not enough time to say it. A few days ago my brother Sean and I recieved the Mt. St. Helens climbing permit in the mail. The day assigned to us is May 29th. So its definate. We are climbing to the summit of Mt. St. Helens! We may possibly climb Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams if we have enough time. Right now though, while I'm taking breaks in between studying and homework I have to plan our trip out. I really have no clue yet where exactly we are going and what we have time for. If it were up to me I would stay in the Cascades for a month, but we only have 8 days. Some time later in the week, I will post some of the stuff I have written on the Cascade Range."}, {"response": 2, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (18:56)", "body": "The Cascade Volcanic Range contains more volcanic features than most people realize. Some are less significant than others and that is probably why they are hardly mentioned. But I am going to share every one of them with you, I think. If I missed any, please let me know because this is a lot to remember without looking at a map. Starting in Northern California and going north towards British Colombia is\ufffdIn California\ufffd Clear Lake Volcanic Field, Lassen Peak, Black Butte, Mt. Shasta and Shastina, Medicine Lake Volcanic Field (Glass Mountain and Little Glass Mountain), and Lava Beds Volcanic Field. In Oregon\ufffdMt. Mc Loughlin, Crater Lake (Garfield Peak, Mt. Scott, Wizard Island), Mt. Thielsen, Mt. Bailey, Diamond Peak, Newberry Volcanic Field (Paulina Peak, Pilot Butte, Lava Butte), Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, South Sister, Middle Sister, North Sister, Belknap Shield Volcano, Mt. Washington, Three-Fingered Jack, Mt. Jefferson, and Mt. Hood. In Washington\ufffd Mt. Adams, Indian Heaven Volcanic Field, Mt. St. Hel ns, Goat Rocks Volcanic Field, Mt. Rainer, Glacier Peak, and Mt. Baker. In British Colombia\ufffd Mt. Garibaldi, and Meager Mountain. Phew!!!! Too many volcanoes! *laughs*"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (19:23)", "body": ""}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (19:30)", "body": "Julie! Perfect!!! Now, a little graphic to help us understand why the Cascade Volcanoes are there and where they are:"}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (19:34)", "body": "marcia-log on to msn messenger...."}, {"response": 6, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (19:35)", "body": "Excellent! Thanks Marcia, that works nicely."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (19:56)", "body": "You are going there soon. How does one climb a volcano like Mount St Helens?"}, {"response": 8, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (20:13)", "body": "Very, very carefully! *laughs* Well, most of the volcnaoes in the Cascade Range can only be climbed with a permit, except for a few. These permits have to be paid for and I think there might be an annual pass too for climbing. The climbing pass is also good as your wilderness permit so you don't have to pay 2 fees. For Mt. St. Helens though, there is only 100 people a day allowed to make the trek to the summit. I think the trail that we will use is called Ptarmigan Trail. Its 3.9 miles to the summit which may not seem like much but it really is if you are climbing from 3600 feet to the summit. This trail is actually considered very difficult to strenous, so it looks to me like its going to be a looooong climb. We will be wearing our hiking boots and probably gators so we don't get ash in our boots. We may have to spend the night and camp out if we can't make the desent before dark. The summit climb will take about 5-7 hours regardless, but weather conditions can slow us down."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (20:14)", "body": "You are going there soon. How does one climb a volcano like Mount St Helens?"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (20:15)", "body": "(please note that the double post is not our fault. Yapp software does that occasionally when it is very busy. I'll leave it there.)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (20:20)", "body": "Very Careful hiking, indeed! And haul out what you took in! The oddest thing I discoverd is that hiking down was every bit as hard as hiking up. I hae had sore hips, knees and ankles from that. Please, Julie! No heroics until they mend your ankle properly. Do they pick you by lottery or first come first served when they pick the 100 lucky people to climb? I forgot about ash in your boots! That stuff is so terribly abrasive that it will take your skin off down to the bone. It is Not like fireplace ashes!!!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (20:25)", "body": "We sent the climbing application in about a week ago. Forest Service said that summer days, especailly weekends fill up fast. I was kind of worried that we wouldn't get a date because I would have thought that they would be mobed around Memorial Day which is almost when we are going. But I guess no one wants to climb so early in the summer so we got our first choice on days. When we get there, we have to sign in and when we are through climbing we have to sign out."}, {"response": 13, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (20:37)", "body": "Don't worry about my ankle. I'm going to tape it up and I might even get a cordizone shot before I go. I have two more appointments with the doctor before I leave to Washington. I should be fine as long as I don't have to walk on too many aa lava flows like I did in Arizona. Ouch!! That was painful! Climbing has not been a problem for me, yet."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (21:22)", "body": "Stay off the a'a flows! Straight forward hiking should not be a problem the way they manufacture hiking boots now. Mine have saved my ankles many times! I 'd worry anyway just because you are family now and I seem to be the mother goddess of Geo... Gadzooks, I never thought of it that way!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Apr 17, 2002 (23:07)", "body": "Yikes!! I was a little off when I told you how long the hike was to the summit of Mt. St. Helens. I was looking at an old book. I just checked in the climbing packet that I received with our permit. The trail is called Monitor Ridge. We will be gaining 4,500 feet in elevation and hiking 5 miles. Roundtrip is 7 to 12 hours. Yikes!! Looks to me like we will have to camp out on Mt. St. Helens. This will be awesome though. I never thought I would get to sleep next to my favorite volcano while watching the starry night sky. Oh boy!!! I can't wait!!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (00:07)", "body": "Julie, I sent you the stuff you will be able to see up there astronomy-wise. I'd also suggest you check into http://www.heavensabove.com and add your coordinates so you can watch whatever going over - ISS, Hubble or other magnificent things!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (00:09)", "body": "What a difference a hyphen makes http://www.heavens-above.com/ is the url you want."}, {"response": 18, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (03:01)", "body": "Hi all About time I got here. Thanks for setting this up Julie. HUGS. Julie is a volcano fanatic of the first order from Santa Ana (how did I miss her in 1992??). Rob"}, {"response": 19, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (07:40)", "body": "Hi all Don't worry about Julie's ankle Marcia. She has it operated on in June which is why she is going in May to MSH. Besides she knows I will keep watch *don't you Julie. You know I am watching*. Rob"}, {"response": 20, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (15:35)", "body": "*laughs* Yes Rob, I know you are, which is why I have to be extra careful. I have more things to worry about anyways other than my ankle. Oh Marcia, I don't think I'll be wearing shorts this time. The temperature in that area is still going to be pretty cool, so I don't need to worry about getting my shins all scraped up. Knowing me though, I will find something to hurt, I always do. I have never been on a trip where I didn't sprain, cut, scrap, or bruise part of my body. Don't worry though. I will do my best to stay in one piece."}, {"response": 21, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (15:49)", "body": "Go to the link below. I sent my first \"Cascade Adventure\" story into Volcano World and they published it. The writing kinds of stinks, but the pictures are pretty good. It does give a good account though of what you can find at each of the visitor center's at Mt. St. Helens. http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/adventures/cascades/casadv.html"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (16:05)", "body": "Rob, I think we all need to watch over Julie! Not the special way you do, but watch and worry, we will. Perhaps a special libation and plea for Mme Pele's prtection might also be appropraite. After all, you will be messing about on an active volcano of a rather nasty method of erupting. Wow, I'll cut and paste your story here, if you wish? I'll give appropriate credits and all that. *Hugs* Julie. Be safe."}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (16:11)", "body": "The Cascades Adventure - 1999 Text and photography by Julie Gilbert This past summer, I had the most exciting, magnificent, and extraordinary time of my life! My family and I went to Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Although to my parents, this trip was to see the cities' attractions. But for me, this trip wa s to see as many of the Cascade volcanoes as I could. As we left LAX on United Airlines, my brother told me if there wasn't many clouds in the sky, we would be able to see all the features of California and Oregon. We were in luck! The sky was unusually clear. First, I got to see the San Andres Fault. Se eing it from the air is so different than on the ground. Then, a little bit later on, I saw Lassen Peak, but I couldn't get a really good view because there was cloud cover over it. Next, we flew over Mt. Shasta. It was such a great view! I could see dire ctly into the crater. As we flew into Oregon, we could see Crater Lake and Wizard Island. Sometime after that we passed over the Three Sisters and Mt. Jefferson. Although we landed in Portland, in the distance we could see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Rainier. Our first destination would be Mt. Hood. We took Highway 55 connecting to Highway 26 around Mt. Hood. We got so close to it! It was so majestic looking. It's funny how beautiful and amazing these volcanoes look. It's hard to imagine how dangerous and destructive they can be. When we got to Mt. St. Helens though, my thoughts changed. In some areas, it looked like the May 1980 eruption just took place only yesterday. As we drove to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, I saw that the entire area on the north side looked like a moonscape. There was nothing but broken logs and stumps from trees for miles. Later, I saw the area of the mudflows that had wiped out everything in its path. As we were walking around the visitor center, there were signs everywhere say ing to stay on the marked trails. Anyone who stepped off the trails would be fined. This was because new life is starting to grow. Someday, the area will once again be filled with forests of trees, plants, flowers, and animals. If people step on a tiny bud or a sprouting seed, it's like taking away life. Life near Mt. St. Helens grows every day. If we just left it alone, and let Mother Nature do her thing, Mt. St. Helens can turn into a magnificent place. Next, we turned the car around and headed towards Coldwater Ridge Visitor's Center. The views there were incredible! Then, we went to the Forest Learning Center. We saw a fantastic movie about Mt. St. Helens showing the eruption and what happened after. The exhibits were great. They almost looked real! N ext, we drove to Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center where we saw where the debris avalanche rushed down the North Fork Toutle River area. We also saw a herd of elk down in that area. Finally, we came to the last visitor center. In the Mt. St. Helens' Visitor s Center, we saw all the history behind Mt. St. Helens. I must not forgot that some of the visitor centers had seimographs that measured any earthquakes in the area. That was very interesting because when we were at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, there w as a little bit of activity on the seismograph. The next day we toured Lava Canyon. Lava Canyon is made up of old lava flows from Mt. St. Helens. It was a fascinating and beautiful place. On the sides of the trails, there were still piles of ash left from the May eruption. The Muddy River, although it got its name from the mudflow in the 1980 eruption, was now very clear and blue. In the distance, we could see Mt. Adams through the trees. Next, we drove to Ape Cave. We only had time to see the lower level because it takes like 1-3 hours for each of them. Even though it was close to 90 outside it was quite cold inside the cave. We were not fortunate enough to see any of the animals that live in the cave, but we did get a little wet from the stalactites that dripped water over our hands. My brother had to leave that day so we dropped him off at Portland Airport. Then we headed on our way towards Everett. On our way, I pleaded with my parents to stop at Mt. Rainer. I definitely wanted to see the tallest volcano in the Cascades. And the re it stood, 14,411 feet. We took some excellent shots, but as we got closer, my camera could no longer fit the entire image in. When we arrived at the Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center, there were chairs where people were just sitting and watching Mt. Rainer either to watch and enjoy the beauty or waiting for it to erupt! Then we went to the Paradise Visitor's Center. This place was really cool because it was shaped like a circle. You had to walk in a circle to see all the exhibits. The views of M t. Rainer were absolutely incredible! It was so huge! It's like looking at a sleeping giant, which is exactly what it, is. A couple of days letter when we were at the Seattle Space Needle, I took a couple of last shots of Mt. Rainer and Mt. "}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (16:12)", "body": "Julie, I also saved your images. Would you like me to insert them and redo this volcano watch story? It is really good and your images add so much to it."}, {"response": 25, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (18:53)", "body": "Sure, go right ahead. I would have pasted the story in myself, but I gave the link instead because I am lazy. *laughs*"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (18:59)", "body": "I get all the dirty work. OK.... will do it with the programmed photos in it. I successfully added them to spring's hard drive. Do you want to try? It is rather a complicated bunch of pointy brackets and all that for a first time programming run. I'll do it for you!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Apr 18, 2002 (23:45)", "body": "Its a good thing I am starting to plan our Washington trip out now because I have already begun to run into some problems. The 4 times I was in the Cascades it was early to middle of August. This time we are going the end of May begining of June and the snows will barely have had time to melt. I was looking at the road and trail conditions today and it doesn't look all that great. Sure, I have about a month, but the Pacific Northwest, mainly the western part of the Cascades in Washington have had above average snowfall this year. As of right now almost all the passes to Mt. Rainer, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Baker are closed. I am hoping that the roads and trails will be cleared by the time we go. I am also worried about avalanche danger, because with all that extra snow melting its very easy for a slope to just give way under the weight. Also, I found out the most of the campgrounds in the area don't open until May 25th. We are leaving May 27th or 28th. Thats kind of risking it if you ask me. If there i still too much snow the campgrounds will not open when they are expected to. And because of my dumb ankle surgery, this is the only time I can go. Ah well, I will have to just keep my fingers crossed and make the best of it. At least Mt. St. Helens is still acessiable."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (00:37)", "body": "I can remember being in the first convoy of cars over the Tuolumne Pass and that was a trip for my Birthday - the end of May. The snow was pretty deep, still. And this is south of the southern Terminus of The Cascades. I had not considered the possibility of snow. Let your brother drive and the rest of us back home will worry about you and be watching out for you. Despite Rob's worthy vigilence, I think you might just need a few more pairs of eyes to watch out for you! Take a ground cloth with you just in case!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (06:37)", "body": "Perfect topic Julie, Your sprightliness and interesting are excellent. You are special anyway. But you need to be extra careful too. Enthusiasm can make us less attentive. I live a bad experience during the last three months. I have broken my leg even if I was walking carefully on the absolutely flat but icy and a little snowy ground. I assure that a serious hurt of the ankle is not a simple case. I have the idea to create a complete page for your excellent story in our Geo Portal; anyway, if you would not say not. We can also include photos, any newer description or any scientific explanation or exploration that you can give to us about volcanoes and the Cascades Adventure. The same go for you Rob. Any issue that you think is interesting. I have also two questions: Can we predict a volcano eruption? Where are today's limits on it? My knowledge is inexistent about this. John"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (14:28)", "body": "John, yes we can predict volcanic eruptions according to the research done on the Hawaiian volcanoes. Do you want this put on Julie's topic or on one we were going to create. I think we need to discuss it elsewhere. Please add Julie to the portal page and sky charts. Even if I have to borrow them from some other site, I think we should have them!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (18:23)", "body": "I just thought of something. I think I would like to post some of my science fair project that I did last year. It might fill up a bit of space though. Is that okay Marcia? Its all about the Cascade Volcanoes, actually volcanic ash of the Cascades. I never really thought it was that great, but I did win 9 awards for it at the city, county, and state science fairs. The poster board looks very good, but I guess I cannot show you that. I can only post the written papers I have in the notebook. I won't be able to post the data either but I can give you all a summary of what I found. You will all love it though."}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (20:23)", "body": "Use all the space you need. Some of these topics have almost 2000 posts of far less worthy things than your scinence fair project! Please... I'd love for you to do this!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (20:52)", "body": "Okay, I guess the best way to start this is to tell you my question and hypothesis that I tested. Wait, I should mention the title of my project. \"Blast of Ash from the Past!\" My question was..... Are there any differences between each ash sample in relation to different types of volcanoes?"}, {"response": 34, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (20:59)", "body": "The 7 ash samples that I used were the following...Lassen Peak (Peak), Lassen Peak (near park), Medicine Lake Volcanic Area(Little Glass Mountain), Mt. Shasta, Mt. St. Helens (Lava Canyon), Mt. St. Helens (Johnston Ridge Observatory), and **Mt. St. Helens. **The Mt. St. Helens ash sample was # 7, but was taken out of my data because there was no precise location of where the ash came from."}, {"response": 35, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (21:00)", "body": "Here's my hypothesis.....I think that the 2 ash samples from Mt. St. Helens will be similar because they were taken physically near each other. I think the 2 ash samples from Lassen Peak will be similar because they were also taken physically near each other. Mt. Shasta will be similar to Mt. St. Helens because they are both \ufffdstrato\ufffd (composite) volcanoes. I think that the ash from Medicine Lake Volcanic Area will be different than the other 3 volcanoes because Medicine Lake Volcanic Area is made up of different types of volcanoes (shield volcanoes, cinder cones, and a caldera), which would probably change the chemical composition of the ash."}, {"response": 36, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (21:04)", "body": "*kicks herself* Ugh!! I should have posted the introduction first. I bet some of you have no clue what I was talking about. *kicks herself again* Let's back up. I will post the intro frist so you can get an idea of what I was doing. Sorry about that!!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (21:07)", "body": "I have always been interested in volcanoes, but it wasn\ufffdt until about 2 \ufffd years ago when my interest became an obsession. In the summer of my sophomore year, I toured several of the Cascade volcanoes in Oregon, Washington, and British Colombia. This included Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainer, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood. When I was at Mt. St. Helens though, I became very interested in the volcanic ash that blew half way across the country during the May 1980 eruption. I collected several samples of the volcanic ash throughout the Mt. St. Helens area. About 1 year later, I decided that I wanted to do a science fair project on volcanic ash, but unfortunately, I didn\ufffdt have enough ash. Well, as it turns out I got a second chance to tour the southern part of the Cascade Range in California, such as Mt. Shasta, Lassen Peak, and Medicine Lake Volcanic Area. I collected several ash samples from each of the volcanoes. This is how I began to come up with my explosive idea! There are several types of volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Composite volcanoes are typically steep-sided, symmetrical cones of large dimension built of alternating layers of lava flows, volcanic ash, cinders, blocks, and bombs. Most composite volcanoes have a crater at the summit, which contains a central vent or a clustered group of vents. Subduction-zone volcanoes, like Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Shasta are composite cones and typically erupt with explosive force, because the magma is too stiff to allow easy escape of volcanic gases. Lava domes are a steep-sided mass of viscous lava extruded from a volcanic vent, often circular in plain view and spiny, rounded, or flat on top. Lava domes commonly occur within the craters of on the flanks of large composite volcanoes, such as Mt. St. Helens and Lassen Peak. Medicine Lake Volcanic Area is made up of several shield volcanoes, cinder cones, and a caldera. These different types of volcanoes produce different types of eruptions. Shield volcanoes are built almost entirely of fluid lava flows. Flow after flow pours out in all directions from a central summit vent, or group of vents, building a broad, gently sloping cone of flat shape, with a profile much like that a warrior's shield. They are built up slowly by the accretion of thousands of flows of highly fluid basaltic lava that spreads widely over great distances, and then cools as thin, gently dipping sheets. Cinder cones are built from particles and blobs of congealed lava ejected from a single vent. As the gas-charged lava is blown violently into the air, it breaks into small fragments that solidify and fall as cinders around the vent to form a circular or oval cone. A caldera is a huge depression caused when a large volume of magma is removed from beneath a volcano, and the ground subsides or collapses i to the empty space. Volcanic ash is defined as pyroclasts 2mm or less in diameter. There are 3 basic mechanisms of volcanic ash formation; The release of gases from solution because of decomposition within the magma as it reaches the surface of the planet, the chilling and explosive fragmentation of magma during contact with ground and surface water or ice and snow, and the comminution and ejection of particles from vent walls or crater debris during eruptions of steam and hot water. The composition and shape of volcanic ashes may be used to interpret physical properties of erupting magma and its volatile content. Neutron activation analysis is one way elements can be analyzed in a sample of a substance. In this method, a neuron source is used to bombard a sample with neutrons. The nucleus of an atom in the sample will absorb neutrons. This will make the atom into an isotope. An isotope is an atom with the same number of protons as another atom, but a different number of neutrons. Some isotopes are radioactive and gamma radiation is one type of radiation that can be released. This can be measured using a gamma ray spectrometer."}, {"response": 38, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (21:13)", "body": "Here's a list of the materails I used for this experiment...TRIGA Nuclear Reactor (Located at UCI)- neutron source, Gamma Ray Spectrometer (Located at UCI), 7 sample vials, 7 ash samples(the ones I posted before), Digital scale, 8 labels, Soldering iron, and Tongs."}, {"response": 39, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (21:15)", "body": "Okay, now to the confusing part. If I lose anyone let me know. Here's is what I did...7 separate ash samples were weighed using a digital scale. The samples were placed in the empty vials, and each was correctly labeled. Next, a soldering iron was used to seal the covers shut on the vials. The sample vials were placed into a pneumatic tube system, which led them into the nuclear reactor. The samples were then irradiated for about 10 seconds. The samples then returned through the tube system. All the samples were irradiated individually. Then, the samples were individually placed in the gamma ray spectrometer, and the energy released due to the gamma rays was measured. This information was then analyzed with an index of gamma ray energies vs. radionuclides and the elements in the samples were determined. The samples were then saved and 1 week later the samples were again placed into the gamma ray spectrometer and analyzed. Average measurements of the 2 cycles were used to obtain the final results."}, {"response": 40, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (22:02)", "body": "I need to post the bar graphs, but I don't want anyone to do it for me. I want to do this on my own, if I can. I used Excel. So Marcia, John, someone talk me through this. How do I post them?"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (23:36)", "body": "Julie, This is spectacular material you are presenting. It is precise, riveting in detail and thoroughly fascinating. As soon as John gets online he will assist you or make suggestions for other methods of posting your graphics. I can't wait till the next installment!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (03:57)", "body": "Hi all I am going to have a look for the negatives of the 1992 US volcano tour (essentially what my 1992 sojourn became). We spent a day at MSH on May 23 1992, and went to Windy Ridge, and the Castle Rock visitor centre. Now I want to return sometime in the next few years to see what progress has been made and compare it with 1992. I have four things to do in WA next time I am there: 1)See Mt Rainier, and Orting. 2)See Mount St Helens, and compare what I see with 1992. 3)See Mount Baker if possible. 4)See friends in Seattle. I want to see in CA: 1)The SAF (San Andreas Fault) 2)Mammoth and the LV caldera 3)Hayward Fault 4)Julie (location permitting) I want to see in Hawaii: 1)Kilauea (in particular Pu'u O'o and Kupaianaha(??)) 2)The hostess of Geo, the gracious Marcia Hemming 3)The inundation zone from the tsunamis Rob"}, {"response": 43, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (11:52)", "body": "Sounds like a great plan Rob. But one thing....What about Lassen and Shasta? *sniff, sniff* *cries* You don't like those volcanoes!! *laughs* I'm just playing with you Rob. They are a little bit far up the state. Kind of a pain to get up to, but quite worth it if you have time. Okay all, I e-mailed John 4 graphs, so he will help me post them when he can. For now, I am going to post a few other things that went along with my science fair project; a little bit more info and a few stories."}, {"response": 44, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (11:58)", "body": "Here is a a BRIEF few sentences on each of the volcanoes that I took the ash samples from. I will post a complete write up about their history and the rest of the Cascades when I have time. Mt. St. Helens is a strato (composite) volcano that last erupted in May 1980. Since the last eruption, Mt. St. Helens has been growing a lava dome in the middle of the crater floor. Mt. Shasta is a strato (composite) volcano that last erupted in 1786. Medicine Lake Volcanic Area is made up from a caldera, many shield volcanoes, and cinder cones. Little Glass Mountain is a lava dome made of a tephra, rhyolite and obsidian flow that erupted in 885. Glass Mountain is a lava dome made of dacite, rhyolite, and obsidian flow that last erupted in 1910. Lassen Volcanic Field and Lassen Peak is made up from a lava dome that last erupted in 1914."}, {"response": 45, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (12:02)", "body": "I will tell you a little bit about each type of volcano that I was working with. Strato (or Composite) Volcanoes: Typically steep-sided, symmetrical cones of large dimension built of alternating layers of lava flows, volcanic ash, cinders, blocks, and bombs. Most composite volcanoes have a crater at the summit, which contains a central vent or a clustered group of vents. Subduction-zone volcanoes, like Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Shasta are composite cones and typically erupt with explosive force, because the magma is too stiff to allow easy escape of volcanic gases.Lava Domes: A steep-sided mass of viscous lava extruded from a volcanic vent, often circular in plain view and spiny, rounded, or flat on top. Lava domes commonly occur within the craters of or on the flanks of large composite volcanoes, such as Mt. St. Helens. Cinder Cones: Built from particles and blobs of congealed lava ejected from a single vent. As the gas-charged lava is blown violently into the air, it breaks into small fragments that solidify and fall as cinders around the vent to form a circular or oval cone. Caldera: A huge depression caused when a large volume of magma is removed from beneath a volcano, and the ground subsides or collapses into the empty space. Shield volcanoes: Built almost entirely of fluid lava flows. Flow after flow pours out in all directions from a central summit vent, or group of vents, building a broad, gently sloping cone of flat shape, with a profile much like that a warrior's shield. They are built up slowly by the accretion of thousands of flows of highly fluid basaltic lava that spreads widely over great distances, and then cools as thin, gently dipping sheets."}, {"response": 46, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (12:11)", "body": "This next story called, \"Cascades Adventure 2000\" was written a bit after I figured out what I was doing for the science fair. During the scorching month of August, I received my second chance to see the rest of the Cascade Volcanic Range, which included Mt. Shasta, Lassen Peak, Medicine Lake Volcanic Area, and Lava Beds National Monument. Ever since I had visited Mt. St. Helens last year, I wanted to do a science fair project on volcanic ash. I only had a few samples from Mt. St. Helens, but this trip was my chance to collect enough volcanic ash from several of the other volcanoes to do an explosive science fair project! When my parents and I arrived at Lassen Volcanic National Park, we went straight to the Visitor\ufffds center to pick up a map of the area. There were so many things to see and do that I realized we wouldn\ufffdt have enough time to do everything. First we visited the Devastated Area. The Devastated Area visibly illustrates the slow return of Earth\ufffds green mantle of plants. An air cushion avalanche hit the Devastated Area when Lassen Peak erupted in 1914. The view of Lassen Peak from the Devastated Area was spectacular. This was the area that I took ash sample # 2. Next, we went to Bumpus Hell, which I found extremely fascinating. Bumpus Hell contains some active volcanic features, such as mud pots, geysers, and hot springs. It took about an hour or two to hike the 3-mile uphill climb to Bumpus Hell, but it was defiantly worth it. Bumpus Hell is like a miniature version of Yellowstone National Park. I had my choice to climb either Lassen Peak or Cinder Cone. I wanted to climb both, but there wasn\ufffdt enough time. The climb to Cinder Cone was a very easy beginning hike. The climb to Lassen Peak was a very strenuous climb with a larger altitude increase. I finally decided to climb Lassen Peak. The next day, we woke up very early. My parents and I drove to the base of Lassen Peak. There were quite a lot of people climbing up to the peak. If my brother had gone on this trip, he would have climbed to the top with me, but this time I would have to make the journey by myself. It took about 3 \ufffd hours until I summitted, only because I was stopping every second to take a picture, study a rock, or drink some water. When I got to the top, I was a little dizzy. I was amazed by the elevation I climbed. The view from the top of Lassen Peak was breathtaking. You could see for miles in every direction. It was like being in a plane and looking out of the window and seeing everything look as small as an ant In the distance, Mt. Shasta could be seen through the haze. There was also hundreds of orange butterflies flying all around the summit. It was almost magical. It seemed a shame that I would have to hike back down soon. Before I left, I took ash sample #1. The hike down took less than an hour. The next day we toured Mt. Shasta. When we arrived at the base of Mt. Shasta, I threw some film bottles and a magnifying glass in my bag and hiked past the parking lot and into the avalanche gully area. I dug down in the ash about a foot and took ash sample #3. I then searched around for some interesting volcanic rocks. As I was walking past the parking lot, a car pulled up and a lady poked her head out the window. \ufffdAre you a geologist?\ufffd She asked. \ufffdUm, not yet, but I hope to be one soon.\ufffd I replied. \ufffdAre you in high school?\ufffd She asked. \ufffdYeah, I\ufffdve got one more year left to go.\ufffd I answered. She then began to ask me questions about the rock formations and the geology of Mt. Shasta. It felt good to be able to answer her. Thanks to Geology 100 and Geology 100L. I guess all that studying, reading, and collecting paid off! I guess I must have looked pretty professional. We didn\ufffdt have time to see the entire area of Medicine Lake, but I did get a chance to see Little Glass Mountain. Little Glass Mountain doesn\ufffdt look anything like a volcano. It looks more like a huge pile of obsidian that is broken up into all sorts of shapes. I took ash sample #4 close to this area. I wanted to take home a piece of obsidian, but most of the pieces were too big. My parents told me to be careful because they were afraid I was going to get bit by a rattlesnake. Finally after climbing over some big slabs of obsidian, I found the perfect piece that was a little bigger than my hand. I laid on my stomach and reached down to grab it. As I lifted the obsidian up, I felt a sharp pain in my hand. I looked down at my hand to see blood dripping down my fingers. I looked at the piece of obsidian and realized what had just happened. On the backside of the obsidian a sharp piece of glass was sticking out. I guess I must have cut myself on it. Then I thought back and remembered that some India tribes used obsidian to make spears and knives. Until I cut my hand, I never realized how sharp obsidian was! The car ride to Lava Beds National Monument seemed to take forever. When we got there though, I was shocked by what I saw. The whole area was like a barren dessert with"}, {"response": 47, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (14:57)", "body": "Hi all I suggest you see in Geo Portal http://www.spring.net/geo/ the Earth's structure and the Mechanism of changes. I think that it is interesting. Regards John."}, {"response": 48, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (15:34)", "body": "Okay, I am now going to try to post my graphs up, I think. If I screw it up, sorry. Here's the key to my graphs so you can sort of understand them. After I have posted my graphs I will then explain everything. Red=Lassen Peak Orange=Lassen Peak (near Park) Yellow=Medicine Lake Volcnaic Area Green=Mt. Shasta Blue=Mt. St. Helens (Lava Canyon) Violet=Mt. St. Helens (Johnston Ridge Observatory)"}, {"response": 49, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (15:35)", "body": "\ufffd src=\ufffd http://www.spring.net/geo/JohnVolos/Public/JULIE/volcano_1.gif \ufffd>"}, {"response": 50, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (15:36)", "body": "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!I messed it up!!! Somebody help!!!*runs around frantic*"}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (17:46)", "body": ""}, {"response": 52, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (18:13)", "body": ""}, {"response": 53, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (18:27)", "body": ""}, {"response": 54, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (18:34)", "body": ""}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (18:35)", "body": ""}, {"response": 56, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (18:46)", "body": ""}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:11)", "body": "The encryption is making posting Julie's graphics just abour impossible. I will continue to try on Geo 71 - our new test site."}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:23)", "body": "One more try... then I go screaming to Terry. I can make it work on the test page but not here!"}, {"response": 59, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:36)", "body": "src=\" http://www.spring.net/geo/JohnVolos/Public/JULIE/volcano_1.gif\" > src=\" http://www.spring.net/geo/JohnVolos/Public/JULIE/volcano_2.gif\" > src=\" http://www.spring.net/geo/JohnVolos/Public/JULIE/volcano_3.gif\" > src=\" http://www.spring.net/geo/JohnVolos/Public/JULIE/volcano_4.gif\" >"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:49)", "body": ""}, {"response": 61, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:54)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/marci/Public/Volcanology/volcano2.gif"}, {"response": 62, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (20:30)", "body": "Finally!! I didn't think this was ever going to work. Okay, I will post the key that explains the graphs. Then I will explain everything. Red=Lassen Peak Orange=Lassen Peak (near Park) Yellow=Medicine Lake Volcnaic Area Green=Mt. Shasta Blue=Mt. St. Helens (Lava Canyon) Violet=Mt. St. Helens (Johnston Ridge Observatory)"}, {"response": 63, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (20:33)", "body": "The results of the graphs......According to the data, the most abundant elements in all the ash samples were aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and titanium. The ash sample from Medicine Lake Volcanic Area contained 102 ug/g of chromium. This was more chromium than any other ash sample. There was also a tremendous difference in the amount of chromium in the 2 samples from Mt. St. Helens. Lava Canyon contained 68 ug/g and Johnston Ridge Observatory contained 20 ug/g. Mt. Shasta contained more magnesium, sodium, samarium, and europium compared to the other ash samples. The 2 samples from Mt. St. Helens and the sample from Mt. Shasta contained similar amounts of calcium, aluminum, titanium, manganese, scandium, cobalt, and thorium. Medicine Lake Volcanic Area contained less calcium, potassium, barium, cerium, lanthanum, and thorium than all the other ash samples. Medicine Lake Volcanic Area seems quite unique, and somewhat separate from the other ash samples because of how different the mounts of aluminum, titanium, manganese, chromium, and cobalt are, when compared to the other ash samples."}, {"response": 64, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (20:42)", "body": "Last but not least is my conlusions, in other words what my results tell me.....First though here is my hyposthesis one last time....I think that the 2 ash samples from Mt. St. Helens will be similar because they were taken physically near each other. I think the 2 ash samples from Lassen Peak will be similar because they were also taken physically near each other. Mt. Shasta will be similar to Mt. St. Helens because they are both \ufffdstrato\ufffd (composite) volcanoes. I think that the ash from Medicine Lake Volcanic Area will be different than the other 3 volcanoes because Medicine Lake Volcanic Area is made up of different types of volcanoes (shield volcanoes, cinder cones, and a caldera), which would probably change the chemical composition of the ash. Okay, here's my conclusions........My hypothesis about Mt. St. Helens, that the ash would be the same, was wrong. The 2 ash samples from Mt. St. Helens were both slightly different in their chemical composition. There are several possibilities for why the 2 sh samples are slightly different. One reason could be because there was an error in the data or an error when the ash samples were put into the spectrometer. However, a more probable reason why the 2 ash samples are different could be because they came from 2 different eruptions. Mt. St. Helens has a long history of eruptions, so it might have been possible that I took ash from another eruption of Mt. St. Helens, and not just from the May 1980 eruption. I would have to use Carbon 14 dating to figure that out. Another reason the ash samples may be different in composition is because when Mt. St. Helens erupted in May 1980, the ash cloud moved over Lava Canyon. The ash from Johnston Ridge Observatory was probably deposited from the mudflow or the debris avalanche that moved north towards Johnston Ridge Observatory during the eruption. One of the reasons why the 2 samples from Mt. St. Helens appear to look different in color and texture could be because of the way Mt. St. Helens erupted. When Mt. St. H lens erupted in May 1980, the ash cloud moved east and southeast, directly towards Lava Canyon. The debris avalanche, pyroclastic cloud, and mudflow moved north in the direction of the Johnston Ridge Observatory. The particles there were larger than the ones found at Lava Canyon. This accounts for the particle size and texture. The color, difference might be because the debris avalanche contained a lot of mud, which might have mixed in with the ash and made it slightly darker than the ash found at Lava Canyon. On the other hand, the darker color might be due to the higher percentage of iron. By observing the data for Lassen Peak, we can see that there are slight differences in the composition of the ash. My hypothesis about the Lassen Peak ash, that they would be the same, was wrong. This result was unexpected, since one sample was taken at the base and the other at the top of the peak. One of the reasons why the 2 samples are so different again could be because there was an error in the data or when t ey were put into the spectrometer. Another possibility could be that they came from 2 different eruptions. Once again, the only way to tell if the 2 samples came from separate eruptions would be to use Carbon 14 dating. My hypothesis, that Medicine Lake Volcanic Area would be quite different from all the other volcanoes, was correct. The significantly greater percentage of Iron, Chromium and several other elements sets it apart from the other samples. The ash sample from Medicine Lake Volcanic Area was very different from all the other ash samples probably because of the type of volcanoes that are in the area. Even though, by the map, it looks like my ash sample came from Little Glass Mountain, it could have easily come from Glass Mountain if the wind was blowing in that direction. Also, it may have come from some other kind of volcanic feature in that area. All the volcanoes in Medicine Lake Volcanic Area are shield volcanoes and cinder cones. These types of volcanoes have milder eruptions and proba ly produce a different kind of ash. The reason the color is so dark maybe because cinder cones and shield volcanoes are made from cinder, basalt, and other dark volcanic rocks, or again, due to the high concentration of iron. My hypothesis about Mt. Shasta, that it would be similar to Mt St. Helens, was correct. The fact that Mt. Shasta is the same type of volcano as Mt. St. Helens probably accounts for the similarity between its ash sample and the Johnston Ridge Observatory and Lava Canyon samples from Mt. St. Helens. The physical distance between them and the time difference between eruptions of each volcano could explain the differences. Because of the half-life of the elements, this experiment could potentially go on forever. The data I have obtained could change or stay very similar over time."}, {"response": 65, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (20:44)", "body": "Argh! Tha spacing got messed up again, but I think you can still read it. Understanding it is another thing though. If there is something you don't understand on any part of my project, let me know."}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (20:55)", "body": "Julie, the spacing has nothing to do with you and everything to do with Yapp programming which is what Spring uses. This is amazing stuff. Little wonder you received so many awards. I wish colleges had such high standards. You'd ne appalled at some of the miserable research papers I have been given to edit. I refused to rewrite so they were on their own. This is wonderful. I am SO delighted you came here and feel at home. *HUGS*"}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (22:11)", "body": "julie, i look forward to hearing all about mt st helens (as well as the video). due to time constraints for me, i've not been able to read all of your posts but i will be back and take my time!"}, {"response": 68, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (23:46)", "body": "Thanks! I look foward to sharing it. Before I found you guys and Rob, I had no one to talk to about volcanoes and geology. My friends were always so uninterested in this kind of stuff. Its nice to be able to find people that are, because there isn't too many of us. And about the video, I was thinking, I might want to narrate a little, you know, make it sort of like a documentary. But with the stuff we are doing, I think the video will be more like a cross between one of those exploration documentary's they show on National Geographic and a dramatic natural disaster flick like Dante's Peak. Except ours will be real!! I doubt we will get any eruption footage though, but hey, you never know...*laugh* Yeah I know, dream on Julie! We aren't just volcano touring either. We are also going to go spelunking in some lava tubes and ice caves and hike up to some beautiful cascading waterfalls. So you will get to see a little bit of everything. I just hope the rain doesn't ruin it for me. I will let you al know exactly where I am going in a few weeks once everything is settled."}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (23:51)", "body": "Oh, Julie, I also told son about you. He looked at the portal page things John added this morning (plus his own weather page link) and was delighted. He is most impressed. You'll be hearing from him as time permits."}, {"response": 70, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (05:24)", "body": "Hi all Julie. With your permission, can I please put the post in which you explained your research into World Volcanism with the intention of giving it a better hearing by others? Rob"}, {"response": 71, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (05:33)", "body": "Hi Julie, I am sorry but volcanology is something new for me. I read carefully the story of your samples and I studied on your graphic charts. I wonder if exists any connection of the ash content with the type of each eruption. I wonder also if we can understand anything about the Earths interior or for the power of the eruption. I am sorry if I am doing stupid thoughts. In any case your work is amazing! Congratulations! I have also one stupid question: Is there any possibility to be some of your samples radioactive? Perhaps this is something serious for your protection. John"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (14:51)", "body": "I really DO need to get posting the mecanisms of volcanoes and how the composition of the lava change with the passing of time. Yes, John. The magmatic composition changes and so does the chemical makeup of the lava and ash it produces as volcanoes proceed through stages from seafloor flood basalts through Plinean and Super Pleinean eruptions. Off I go to create the topic to discuss this."}, {"response": 73, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (15:35)", "body": "Ummm...I'm brain dead Rob. What post are you talking about? I'm guessing your talking about my paper about volcanoes and how they work. I think I would like to post it because I added some additional stuff to it after I posted it in World Volcanism. Great suggestion though. My paper might help clear a few things up on how volcanoes work and some of the hazards associated with them. I will post it on the new topic that Marcia made. And John, the answer to your question is yes, the samples that I was working with were radioactive. But Dr. Miller, who is the nuclear physics and chemistry professor made sure I had proper protection. When I went into the area where the nuclear reactor was, I had to wear this beeper that would sound an alarm if things became unstable. And he was the one that handeled the ash samples once they were put in the nuclear reactor and spectrometer. But unfortunatly becuase they were radioactive I never did get them back and unfortunatly I am running out of Lassen Peak ash now because of that! Argh!!! Oh well, I think you can guess where my next Cascade Volcano trip will be. *laughs*"}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (15:39)", "body": "Julie, that is not comforting. Packing your pockets with radioactive ash is not comforting to those of us who love you! I need to rewrite my intro post to geo 73. It is a mess and boring. That is what I get when I write under pressure and post after changing a carefully considered introduction of a much different sort. *Sigh*"}, {"response": 75, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (14:49)", "body": "I declare today Mt. Shasta Day! Hmmm...can you tell I'm bored? *laughs* Did you know Mt. Shasta is considered a magic mountain to the small village of Mt. Shasta at the wetern base of this volcano? These people believe that Mt. Shasta is home of the Lemurians who are a tribe that came from the ancient kingdom of Mu, which is now submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean. Another group in the area believe that Mt. Shasta has many secret passageways that were built by the Yaktayvians. These passageways were homes to several other lost tribes of the area. But the biggest legend of all is the one about UFO's. Some believe that Mt. Shasta is the landing site for interplanetary travel. UFO's appear to make Mt. Shasta their first stop. The only way this can be explained is by the lenticular clouds which resemble the shape of flying saucers. These eerie clouds are often seen right over the summit. Intersting legends though. Okay, here a little bit about Mt. Shasta's geologic history. Mt. Shasta, standing at 14, 61 feet, is a complex volcanic system containing numerous vents. On the western flank of Mt. Shasta is the 12,300 foot cone of Shastina. Shasta has not had as much erosion as some of the other Cascade Volcanoes mostly because it gets less percipitation than most of them do. The Klammoth Mountains interecept the moist air coming over the Pacific resulting in a drier enviornment. Shasta supports 5 named glaciers, the largest in California. Shasta has also erupted significantly more lava flows than almost any of it northern neighboors. Mt. Shasta is actually 4 big stratovolcanoes of different ages piled on top of each other . On average Shasta erupts about once every 600-800 years. The last eruption was 200 years ago. Shastina's last eruption, where it produced its summit domes, was about 9400 years ago. Black Butte a 2500 foot at Shastina's western base, is a dacite plug dome that dates back to about the same period of Shastina's growth. The youngest part of Shasta began to form about 8000 years ago. This part is called the Hotlum cone. Shasta's last outburst may have possible been in 1786, when some eye-witnesses sailing offshore in the Pacific noticed a flame rising above the cone. Most activity has been concentrated at the Hotlum cone for the last 9000 years but new vents can be expected top pop up anywhere. A collapse of the dome on the western slopes could send pyroclastic flows over the towns of Mt. Shasta and Weed, which are built on top of pyroclastic deposits. The town of McCloud stands on top of old mudflow deposits and almost every eruption of Mt.Shasta has accompained mudflows. Happy Mt. Shasta Day!!"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 24, 2002 (18:54)", "body": "In honor of Mount Shasta Day I post their webcam"}, {"response": 77, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (14:28)", "body": "Woooohoooooo!!! Thank god. State Highway 503 is finally opened again. Gez, I was begining to really worry. State Highway 503 is one of the main roads to Mt. St. Helens. Last week, a canal broke washing a huge section of the road out. I was literally starting to panic. I shouldn't though, this is a state road, a main road. No matter what happens to it, it will be fixed immediatly. I am just worried thats all. Things are looking very good for the Grifford Pinchot National Forest. Almost all the roads and trails near Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams are opened and acsessable. And the ones that aren't, I'm pretty sure will be opened by the time that I go. The problem now is Mt. Baker and possible Mt. Rainer. Road coniditions and trail conditions are actually looking worse, so its hard to say what will happen. But I will keep my fingers crossed."}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (16:14)", "body": "Why isn't it updating? I need to go find one that does! Julie, we NEED you to go but we also NEED you to be safe. MSH will wait as will the rest of the Cascades, no matter how impatient we are! Keep us posted!"}, {"response": 79, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (16:39)", "body": "indeed, be careful julie!!"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (16:45)", "body": "MT SHASTA WEBCAM"}, {"response": 81, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (17:50)", "body": "Yikes!! What happned to Mt. Shasta? Is the camera being covered up by an eruption cloud? *laughs* Yeah, right!!! I bet its snowing there. The whole west coast has been having a lot of percipitation this past week or so. That is good for us down here in the dry desert of southern California, but not so good for the already super saturated Pacific Northwest. *sigh*"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (18:22)", "body": ""}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (18:41)", "body": "Mount St Helens"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 27, 2002 (19:21)", "body": "At the time of this writing, it is not a very good day to be messing around in the Cascades. The above view of Shasta is the only one I have ever had. From the large parking lot in Weed, it looked exactly like this.... complete wipeout."}, {"response": 85, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Apr 28, 2002 (20:31)", "body": "Woooooohoooooo!!!!!!Finally!!!! I can't believe it! Sean and I have finally planned everything out for our trip. The only thing that can go wrong now is the weather or an eruption. *laughs* We decided to take the bus. It will be a terrible ride, but hey, its the cheapest and we don't have to worry about security now. We will be leaving at around 8pm Sunday, May 26th. We will be sleeping on the bus (Sean will, I will keep watch) *laughs* and arriving in Portland sometime around 9:00pm on the 27th. We will then rent a car and spend the first night at a hotel. The 28th, we will go to Mt. Hood and spend the day there probably climbing half way to the summit if we are on the south side and then camp out some where around Mt. Hood area. The 29th is go climb Mt. St. Helens Day!! Wooohooo!! I look foward to that. We will camp around Mt. St. Helens area and then spend part of the 30th hiking around Mt. St. Helens as well. The other half of the day we will explore the ice caves around Mt. Adams and camp out near the base of Mt. Adams. The 31st we will try to climb to the summit of Mt. Adams. I think we will have to camp out that night around the area as well. On the 1st, we will go to Mt. Rainer and spend the whole day hiking and exploring the waterfalls in the area. We will camp out that night near Mt. Rainer. On the 2nd, after finishing with Mt. Rainer we will head over to the unfortunate town of Orting and take some pictures and maybe get a few samples. Then its off to Glacier Peak where we will spend the night. On the 3rd, we will drive across the border of Canada and see the most northern part of the Cascades, Mt. Garabaldi. Then we will go down to Mt. Baker and spend the rest of the day skiing (I don't know if I will). On the 4th, we will hike some of the trails around Mt. Baker and explore the ice caves and waterfalls in the area. Then we will head over to Bellingham where I will get to take a tour of Western Washington University which is the #2 school on my list of schools to transfer to. We will then drive down to Seattle and spend the night there. On the 5th, I will get to take a tour of University of Washington, my #1 school and hopefully get to see their fantastic geology department. Then we will drive back down to Portland and board the bus around 7pm and arrive in Santa Ana, CA some time around 7pm on the 6th. Well, thats our trip I think and I hope. But I doubt things will work out so perfectly. Road conditions, trail conditions, and the weather are our 3 biggest enemies on this trip. We will just have to change our plans and work around them if something does go wrong."}, {"response": 86, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Apr 28, 2002 (21:02)", "body": "Oh, and about the video tape, I will try to tape as much as I can and a little bit of everything. I will not have enough tape to show both summit climbs, and if I took a vote I know almost all of you would rather me tape of Mt. St. Helens, than of Mt. Adams. If anyone has any preferences to what they want to see on the tape let me know as soon as possible because this tape is for all of YOU, no so much for me. I am taking my own 30 rolls of film as well. *laughs* Yes, I take a lot of pictures."}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 28, 2002 (23:21)", "body": "YES yesyesyesyesyesyes. Mount St Helens it is. Be safe and return to us intact. We need you more than we need your photos! As for travelling and not sleeping, I'm with you."}, {"response": 88, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 29, 2002 (18:43)", "body": "just be careful, julie!!!"}, {"response": 89, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (01:22)", "body": "Hi all MSH please. Pretty please. Pretty pretty please. *Kneels down with a small box*. Lol Rob"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (01:57)", "body": "Julie, you can't turn that down! MSH it is!"}, {"response": 91, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (11:07)", "body": "What is MSH?"}, {"response": 92, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (14:22)", "body": "MSH is an abriviation for Mt. St. Helens."}, {"response": 93, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (15:53)", "body": "Ah..... thank you. :-)"}, {"response": 94, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (18:14)", "body": "thank you EsBee, i was gonna ask the same thing!"}, {"response": 95, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (06:02)", "body": "Hi all On Thursday March 20, 1980 the United States Geological Survey (USGS)seismograph in a Seattle basement suddenly made a decisive twitch at or about 3.46PM Pacific Daylight time). It was recording an earthquake generated by magma breaking rock directly below Mount St Helens. Within hours it was followed by more earthquakes. The USGS was curious, and sent a geophysicist called Dr Craig Weaver with a portable seismograph to the volcano on March 21. The swarm continued unabated over the weekend and on March 24, Dr Weaver called the USGS headquarters in Denver and said that an ongoing swarm which would have to be classified as volcanic, was going on at Mount St Helens. On March 27, Mount St Helens upped the ante. A small phreatic eruption of steam and old ash punched a crater 65 metres across on the summit. It began to widen and five days later on April Fools Day, was joined by second crater \"the volcano seemed more like a living, growing organism than a big dead heap of rock and ice\" (Documentary, \"Anatomy of a volcano\" 1980). http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/SlideSet/3.jpg Throughout April and early May, St Helens continued to puff steam and ash sporadically with the occasional small lahar (volcanic mudflow)thrown in for good measure. During this time the north face of the volcano, was being grossly deformed by magma pushing into the volcano and giving the mountain a bloated appearance. A danger zone around the volcano was set up. It barred anyone within 10 miles of the volcano from entering the closed zone. There were protests especially from home owners who had property at the foot of a volcano now being deformed by magma rising within. The north face continued deforming at a rate of 5 feet a day and by mid April anyone with eyes to see could spot the bulge. A local man named Harry R. Truman who had lived there for 53 years however was not going anywhere in a rush and defied the local authorities who wanted to move him. Media interest, initially was minimal. President Carter had just announced the US boycott of the Moscow Olympics in retaliation for their invasion of Afghanistan and all eyes were on Washington DC. But it changed rapidly and soon visitors were flocking to Washington state to see the volcano, some even flying over it, not caring a hang for the safety risk. The eruptions were all small though some were punctual with explosions sending bombs and blocks flying. They rattled the piano at Harry Trumans lodge and scared of the birds he fed. The earthquakes rocked and rattled the volcano with incredible frequency, sometime often as many as 30 magnitude 3.0+ events daily!!! Magnitude 4.0s were also popular and on May 8 or 10 a magnitude 5.0 earthquake rocked the volcano sending a small avalanche cascading downslope. In early May the explosions stopped, and many thought this was the end of the eruptive phase. People began wanting to go home, but the Washington State government and law enforcement agencies refused to let them back in, for the USGS had decided that the grossly deformed north slope posed a direct avalanche hazard. David A. Johnston knew just how dangerous the bulging north flank was - his observation post was essentially in the sights of a gun now being loaded. See the link below for more. http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/SlideSet/4.jpg On May 11, the explosions resumed, and then stopped again on May 14. For three days the earthquake activity remained steady, the bulge continued to grow and the north face continued to deform. On May 17, the State government allowed a convoy of vehicles into the red zone around the volcano to go back and collect belongings. A second convoy was due to go on Sunday May 18, at 10.AM. On May 17 Johnston relieved another volcano watcher who was going to see a post-graduate student off at the airport. Mindy Brugman and Carolyn Dreidger came up to the Coldwater observation post to see Johnston and watch the volcano. Both wanted to overnight at the ridge, but Johnston said no. He was scared for his own safety. At his request they left the ridge a mere 5 miles from a volcano now grossly deformed to the extent it scared anyone who knew what they were looking at. Part two following soon"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (12:54)", "body": "*Getting popcorn and something to drink* This is great stuff, Rob. I think I mght include the little dome collapse gif I made for you last year after your continuation."}, {"response": 97, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (19:30)", "body": "ARGH!!! I can't believe this! I was trying to get a tour at the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington last summer when I was in Oregon and Washington. I called them up on the phone and they said they don't give tours and there is nothing to see anyway. Ummm, okay, then what is this?! Go to the web site below and see what I am talking about. UGH!!! I'm going to Washington on the 26th not the 18th!!! ARGH!! Not fair!!! I think I will call them again anyway just to make sure. http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/Announcements/cvo_open_house_2002.html"}, {"response": 98, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, May  4, 2002 (19:52)", "body": "If you would like to keep track of the earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest go to this site below my post. You may notice a few interesting things. First of all, if you go to http://spike.geophys.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/WEBICORDER/welcome.html you will find the seismograms of seimsographs that are stationed to most of the major Cascade Volcanoes and places with significantly high earthquake risk in Oregon and Washington. Be careful what you think is an earthquake and what is just static interference. I have been fooled many times, but I know how to tell the difference now. I have studied the recordings every day and found a few things that you might want to take notice of. Mt. Baker and Glacier Peak seem to have a simalar pattern to them with their seismic activity. Also just recently in the past few weeks, there has been some micro quakes near Mt. Rainer and Mt. St. Helens. Most of the seismograms for the other Cascade Volcanoes don't usually have much activity on them. So watch carefully, because with the Pacific Northwest's infrequent but sometimes violent earthquake and volcanic history you never know what might happen. http://www.ess.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/"}, {"response": 99, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, May  6, 2002 (04:23)", "body": "PART 2 OF THE MOUNT ST. HELENS STORY CONTINUED FROM LAST POST Johnston was now alone with a volcano so deformed by the bulge that it scared even him. The dimensions of the bulge were huge, and still growing, but the bulge not be there for much longer. From top to bottom the bulge was a mile long, growing outwards by more than 100 metres and nearly 300 metres wide. It was facing due north staring David Johnston straight in the face. SUNDAY MAY 18, 1980 The Sun rose at 5.37AM from the east, highlighting the bulge. As it rose, Johnston got out in the chilly but clear morning air, possibly awoken by a USAAF reconnaisance jet flying high over the volcano getting the last infra red images of the pre-May 18 1980 cone. The images would show, when they were analysed two days later, a heat source just below the surface driving fumaroles. Johnston radioed his superiors with an update on the situation. http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/msh/rosen1.jpg At 8.30AM geologists Dorothy and Keith Stoffel were flying over the volcano, which to those on the ground was still drowsy in appearance. They noted two fumaroles high on the north lip of the crater..... it was 8.31AM. There is an earthquake.... magnitude 5.1. http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/msh/rosen2.jpg In an instant the whole north flank begins sliding downhill in one of the biggest landslides known to man. Two black clouds explode out of the gaping hole and merge with impossible speed. Johnston radioes Vancouver, WA, where the nearest USGS station is located. Accelerating to nearly the speed of sound, a HUGE lateral blast spreads north, northeast and northwest. http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/msh/rosen3.jpg http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/msh/rosen4.jpg Harry Truman was the first to go - either buried by a huge tongue of the landslide that poured into Spirit Lake at 300kmh or roasted alive by a huge pyroclastic flow (the huge black cloud rushing across the landscape). His lodge (or what remains of it)is now 66 metres below the level of Spirit Lake in a mass of mangled trees, volcanic debris and the wreckage of the other houses. David Johnston lasted a few seconds longer, and managed to get this final message out to the USGS headquarters in Vancouver. Gerald Martin, a retired USAF pilot to the north and also watching MSH for the USGS reported calmly that the trailer on the ridge over from him was covered in ash. \"And it is going to get me too\". It did. From his observation post there was no way out. \"VANCOUVER!! VANCOUVER!! THIS IS IT!!\". The radio went dead as the Coldwater observation vanished into oblivion. No trace of Johnston or the Cold Water observation station have been found. http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/msh/rosen5.jpg http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/msh/rosen6.jpg Expanding at speed the blast spread outwards to form a vast fan of devastated land with a zone on the edege where the blast was hot enough to singe the trees but leave them standing as markers to the extent of the maelstrom. After ruining 550 square kilometres of the American northwest, the blast began contracting and soon a Plinian column was jetting to an altitude of 19km. For the next 9 hours the volcano blasted a huge plume of volcanic ash high into the stratosphere. Ash fall was recorded in Yakima where 600,000 tons or 12 tons per person fell on a town of 51,000. It was recorded in Ritzville where some of the heavier concentrations fell. Denver in Colorado was dusted on May 20. Two weeks later the cloud crossed the West Coast again having circled the world in just 17 days. http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/SlideSet/6.jpg On the ground lahar sped down both fork of the Toutle River, demolishing 200 houses, covering farmland, wrecking bridges, and cars. The North Fork mudflow rose 30 feet above the normal level of the river and for a time threatened Interstate 5. As the sun set on a Sunday that would be remembered as Ash Sunday, the pace of the eruption decreased, but continued far into the night. As the sun rose on Monday May 19, a moonscape of steaming volcanic debris, punctuated by explosions from ice and hot material making contact, was revealed. Spirit Lake was covered in logs, all washed down by a wave that rushed up and down the lake when the smaller of the two tongues of the avalanche slammed into the water. http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/SlideSet/10.jpg The much larger tongue poured 14 miles down the Toutle River valley to an average depth of 200 metres. Gone was the Fujiyama of the continental 48 states, and in it's place was a smouldering truncated cone of 8364ft - a far cry from the glorious 9677ft high cone that graced southwestern Washington for so many years. http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/SlideSet/2.jpg for the view in April 1980 http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/SlideSet/8.jpg for the post May 18 view. 8 people were killed initially. When the deathtoll was finally counted, 57 were dead, of which about 40 bodies were recovered. The rest includ"}, {"response": 100, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, May  6, 2002 (04:24)", "body": "Hi all WHAT AN EPIC!!!! Rob"}, {"response": 101, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, May  6, 2002 (16:50)", "body": "You covered MSH's perfectly Rob. I don't see one thing missing. Every little fine detail is there embeded into your fascinating reaccount of the eruption. Great job! Couldn't have done it better myself. Hopefully if things settle down a bit here I will give you all an account of the Lassen Peak eruption. Fortunatly, I can take my time because Lassen Peak was countinously active from May of 1914 to far into 1915. I will post it when I can."}, {"response": 102, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, May  6, 2002 (19:53)", "body": "YIKES!!! This is SCARY!!! Check this web site out.... http://www.ess.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/HIST_CAT/STORIES/geology.html This what I am doing my research essay on in English. I thought this was very interesting. If Japan has a record of this, I bet you other countries aound the Pacific have records as well."}, {"response": 103, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (18:18)", "body": "wow!! thanks julie!"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (21:48)", "body": "Julie and I discussed it on IM. We even discovered seismogrphic tracings of \"Ice Quakes\" on the Cascades. But I will leave that to her telling. She discovered them."}, {"response": 105, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, May  8, 2002 (00:41)", "body": "Yup! Ice Quakes they are. Very fascinating! I have studied the seismograms of the Cascades for about a year now and I always noticed that Baker, Glacier Peak, and sometimes Rainer would have a lot of acitivty on them. At first I thought they were earthquakes, but after a while I began to realize they were too frequent to be quakes. So after being puzzeled for a while, I looked up some info about the webicorders and it shows you exactly what quakes will look like on there and what \"other\" things will look like. Seismographs are EXTREMLY sensitive. You can have an earthquake in Turkey for example and find it on the seismogram of Mt. St. Helens! I know, because I saw this exact thing happen. I don't remember the date, but in August of 1999 there was a large quake in Turkey. I was at the Johnston Ridge Observatory watching the seismograph right at that moment. It was amazing watching the needle go, although many people thought it was from Mt. St. Helens and started screaming that she was going to eru t! *laughs* But unfortunatly, seismograms are so sensitive that they also record things like trucks going by and even people walking near by. It can be very confusing if you don't know what you are looking for. But, look at the website below and go to Glacier Peak. All the activity that you see on there is ice quakes (the lines that seem to go straight down). Glacier Peak, Baker, and Rainer have extensive ice and snow on them, more so then the other Cascades. The temperatures are warming up now and the snow and ice is slowly begining to melt. Keep watch for this, because if I am correct the activity will increase as the temperatures get warmer. But for people that are in the Cascades this is a very serious problem that means only one thing....Severe Avalanche Danger!! Don't worry guys, Sean and I are going to take some serious percautions when we go out there in 3 weeks! http://spike.geophys.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/WEBICORDER/welcome.html"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  8, 2002 (00:55)", "body": "This teleseismicity is very important in determining the precise magnitude and epicenter for earthquakes. At HVO we have the tracings of the Good Friday Quake that hit Anchorage, Alaska some years ago. The seismograph tracings are kept files for years for correlation and research purposes."}, {"response": 107, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, May  8, 2002 (01:18)", "body": "And if you see whats on this seismogram below......its major intereference! http://spike.geophys.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/WEBICORDER/FMW_EHZ_UW.2002050800.html"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (21:03)", "body": "Good Grief, Julie! It looks like modern art, not a seismogram."}, {"response": 109, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, May 14, 2002 (16:08)", "body": "There has been a slight change of plans to my dissapointment. Sean has to go to some mandatory meeting on June 5th so we have to cut our trip a day and a half short and it looks like we will be taking the plane back instead of the bus. No big deal though,I'm just going to have to go the 2 universities all in one day. Interestingly enough, when I get back, I may be going on a another hiking/camping/backpacking trip with a few of my friends up to Mammoth because one of them has a cabin up there. All this hiking and I just bought new hiking boots yesturday! Ugh! I need to break them in fast for the next 12 days or my feet are going to die. Ouch!! So far conditions in the Cascades seem to be improving. But to my dissapointment, the road to Windy Ridge at MSH's is still closed and won't be opened till mid June. But who knows, maybe conditions will change again. Too bad the Pacific Northwest isn't having some of our nice hot weather. It was 90. F (32. C) yesturday!!"}, {"response": 110, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May 14, 2002 (18:26)", "body": "Hope that you break in your new hiking boots without much trouble, Julie."}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 14, 2002 (18:44)", "body": "Mammoth?! Julie, how fantastic. My son and his wife spent last weekend there (in honor of his birthday) and hiked around in Long Valley Caldera. They liked the 50\ufffdF temperatures there much more than th 94\ufffdF on their return home near San Francisco. Lots of snow is still in the Sierras so you will have a really great time. Take notes and be sure Julie has a good time and stays safe. *HUGS*"}, {"response": 112, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (09:56)", "body": "Rob, you got quite a treat last night. Hehehe! Okay, guys, check this out! I wrote a song 4 weeks ago about the May 18th, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. So.....for her 22nd anniverary, I thought I would post it for all of you to sing. It is sung to \"Oh, My Darling Clementine.\" Enjoy!! \"Oh, Mt. St. Helens On a Sunday In 1980 Was the 18th of May We all expected to be normal Was no ordinary day. Then at 8:32am An earthquake rocked her flanks Mt. St. Helens now awoke With a fury all so great. First the pressure of molten rock Had increased beneath the crater It blasted out in a huge explosion On the north face of her slopes. Then the landslide Sped down the valley As a scorching avalanche Rushing right through Spirit Lake And the North Fork River too. Then the blast cloud Roared down the mountain In a pyroclastic flow Going top speeds down the valley Wiping all out in its path. Now the ash cloud Shot up skyward Like a mushroom growing tall Spreading outwards across the country And diffused around the globe. Last the mudflow From melting snow And the slosh from Spirit Lake Came roaring down the streams and rivers Taking all up in its wake. When it was over All was silent 57 lives were lost Including that of David Johnston Who will remain here in our hearts. Mt. St. Helens Mt. St. Helens Why\ufffdd you shake and blow your top Now you have part of you missing And a crater filled with dust. Now your slopes Look like a moonscape But there still is life to grow Someday mighty Mt. St. Helens Will have some beauty of her own. Look inside your barren crater You have grown a lava dome Hope the pressure is not building Deep within your deformed cone. Mt. St. Helens Though you\ufffdre quiet You may soon erupt again Stunning us with your destruction And bringing life back once again."}, {"response": 113, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (18:14)", "body": "i was actually singing it!!!!!"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 18, 2002 (21:26)", "body": "Julie, the Poetess Laureate of Geo!"}, {"response": 115, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, May 20, 2002 (03:21)", "body": "Hi all Are you people aware of the treasure that you are awaiting, whose voice actually puts some \"pop sensations\" to shame?? Rob"}, {"response": 116, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, May 20, 2002 (10:47)", "body": "*blushes* Thanks Rob. *sings* I'm off to see volcanoes, the wonderful volcanoes of Washington....3 more days left! Woooohoooooo!!! Things are really hectic right now. While I am busily studying for exams, during breaks Sean and I are trying to do prepare last minute things for our trip which is in about 156 hours!!! I think things will be worse Thursday, Friday, and Saturday because we have so much to do and there is hardly any time left. Thank goodness I took out the camcorder yesturday. The battery recharger is missing. But no worries, everyone is searching for it, so it should turn up by Saturday. I think I will hold in the rest of my excitment until after exams. I need to stop thinking of volcanoes and instead think Afrcia, Asia, Austrailia, and Porifera, Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Mollusca, Arthropoda, Echinodermata, and Chordata! Yikes! I need to take a geology class again fast before I turn into a biologist! UGH!!!"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 20, 2002 (16:03)", "body": "Go Julie!!! I think our Poetess Laureate has a groupie already. I could not sing if my leife depended upon it. Genetic throat formation, I hear. Whatever it is, you will not hear music from me other than from my inept fingers. I see there are tornado warnings aroung the NW USA. Please be careful. Weather was not something I had though to be a problem!"}, {"response": 118, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, May 24, 2002 (00:56)", "body": "Wooooooohoooooooo!!!!!!My semester is finally over. Now I can focus on more exciting things like my volcano trip that I will be going on in less than 72 hours! Unfortunatly though, conditions in the Pacific Northwest are worse than we anticipated. Sean and I looked at the weather satalites and it looks like it will be raining and snowing every single day we will be there. The weather just doesn't seem like it wants to coroperate. I thought we would be safe in just our hiking boots and side step crampons, but now with these conditions, we will have to have full boot crampons, an ice axe, and snow shoes. We are still climbing MSH's, but we may have to wait a few days until the weather is a little less brutal. Sean and I got full body rain suits. We will probably have to wear them the whole time we are there. *sigh* Why am I complaining? I love the rain and I love the snow. I just hope it doesn't ruin our trip completely. It doesn't llok like we will be climbing Mt. Adams though. The road to the trail s blocked, so we would have to hike about 12 miles to get to the trail and about 6 or so to the top. As for Mt. Rainer and anything north of that...your guess is as good as mine. But like I said before, we will make the best of it some how. And YES, for the 10th time, WE WILL BE CAREFUL!! Mom said she will kill me if I try to slide down a glacier. Glaciding is what its called. A fun trick, but if your not careful you can go flying right off the mountain or volcano in this circumstance!"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 24, 2002 (15:55)", "body": "It's raining there now according to my sources, Julie. Nothing is much more miserable than hiking and camping in cold rain. Take care, Sweetie! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 120, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, May 26, 2002 (11:59)", "body": "I thought I would say my last goodbye to all of you, since we are leaving tonight. We have a fun and amazing trip planned, as long as the weather doesn't screw us up too much. I hope to get some great shots both with the camcorder and my regular camera to show you all eventually. Marcia, since I won't be here on your special day, I would like to wish you a wonderful, fantastic, amazing, and memorable birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARCIA!! Take care all. I will see you in about 2 weeks!"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 26, 2002 (14:22)", "body": "Thank you, Julie! Have a splendid time and return to us intact. Don't fall off the edge of the earth! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 122, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (20:52)", "body": "oh julie, i missed your bon voyage! please be careful out there and take plenty of pictures for those of us living vicariously through you!!!"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (00:07)", "body": "Rob misses her already. So do I. I wish I felt better about the weather, but they are experienced climbers and ber brother is old enough to take care of her."}, {"response": 124, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (13:26)", "body": "Hi all! I'm back! Not like I really want to be. They had to drag me on to the plane in Portland kicking and screaming.*laughs* When our plane landed in John Wayne Airport this morning I felt like I had walked into a foreign country. For some reason I don't feel like I belong in southern California anymore. Okay, anyway, about my trip. Some things we wanted to do we did not get to do and things we thought we couldn't do we did get to do. Overall we had an excellent time! Right now I am exhusted from not sleeping in 2 days and sore from a double sunburn and scrapes. I will tell you this though, I got some things on tape you wouldn't believe, including a real natural disaster taking place right before my eyes. AND I GOT IT ALL ON TAPE!! WOOHOOO!! You will have to wait and see. I will tell you about my trip in another day or so."}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (14:24)", "body": "WooooooooooHoooooooo Julie!!! I fly to Oakland tomorrow. Ever been to Vacaville? Welcome home. I hdld Rob's hand for you. Busy packing - look in your email shortly!"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (14:39)", "body": "I have to be hauled kicking and screaming away from eruptions. Each and every time. You really are my little twin sister! *BIG HUGS*"}, {"response": 127, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (19:35)", "body": "excellent news, julie--good to have you back and i can't wait to see your footage!!!"}, {"response": 128, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (20:47)", "body": "Lukcy for me, I kept a jounral my entire trip so all I have to do is cut and paste. I recorded everything that we saw and everything that was happening. Here is Cascades Adventure 2002.....enjoy! Sunday, May 26th: We took the bus from Santa Ana station to L.A. There weren\ufffdt many people going from Santa Ana to L.A, but L.A station was packed. The station was very confusing because there were so many lines. We were at the end of the line for our route, so by the time we got on the bus there were no seats left. We had to seat separate from each other. I sat next to this one guy who just slept and snored very loudly the whole time. Sean sat in back of me next to some other guy. I couldn\ufffdt sleep at all that night. My neck hurt really badly from seating up and being tossed around. I looked around the bus to find everyone asleep, including Sean. What was my problem? While I tried to drift off, this man kept getting up to go the bathroom every 10 minutes and every time he passed my seat he hit me. That\ufffds what I get for seating in the aisle I guess. We did make two rest stops in Bakersfield at 12am and Fresno at 2am. I watched the moon for half of the night. It looked very eerie with clouds sca tered all over it. Finally, I could see the sky getting lighter in the east. I couldn\ufffdt tell where we were going or where exactly we were because people\ufffds heads were in the way. The bus smelt really bad, especially when that same man kept going by our seats to use the bathroom. I don\ufffdt think he had taken a shower in a very long time. Another man had gotten some perfume at the last stop to spray all over the bus so it wouldn\ufffdt smell so bad. Eventually we ended up at Sacramento station at 5am. When we got there, we decided to wait in line by the door so we could finally get a seat together on the bus. Monday, May 27th: We were back on the bus at 7am. Sean and I got the last seats on the right side of the bus. We wanted to have views of Shasta and Lassen. Sean took a nap while I studied the California map and its geography for the central and northern part of the state. Just as Sean woke up, I pointed out the Sutter Buttes. The clouds began to form unusual pattern in the sky; long wavy rows of cirrus, altostratus, and altocumulus. We then made another stop at Williams. Once on our way again we saw the snow covered peak of Lassen far in the distance above the clouds. We stopped again in Willows. Everyone wanted to get off the bus to have a smoke! Back on the road I saw two deer on the side of the road in the bushes grazing. We began to get closer to Lassen Peak, but not close enough. The Coast Range Mountains had lots of low clouds on them, but their peaks could easily be seen above the white cloud blanket. We made another stop at Red Bluff. I was starving, but I didn\ufffdt feel like getting of the us at the rest stop, so I had trail mix for the next 4 hours! Ugh! A few hours later we stopped in Redding. I was finally getting excited now. Mt. Shasta was coming up in the next few hours. We drove over Shasta Lake, but so far there was no sign of Mt. Shasta. Suddenly, this guy in the middle of the bus opens the emergency exit and tries to jump out. The girl seating a few seats in front of us, yells out, \ufffdHoly #$@%, the homeboy is going out the window!\ufffd The bus driver pulls off the side of the road and comes back and closes it. He looks quite pissed. As we drove off, I began to get impatient. Waiting for Mt. Shasta to appear behind the forest was torture! Suddenly this guys eating in the seat next to Sean asks him where he could buy some Weed. The guy says, \ufffdYou look like the type that smokes Weed.\ufffd Sean and I had quite a laugh about that the rest of the bus ride. After about 30 minutes or so, Mt. Shasta appeared as big and as beautiful as ever, with lenticular clouds swirling over the summit. Mt. Shasta\ufffds other volcanic neighbors, Chaos Crags and Black Butte were also seen in this area. As we came into the town of Weed, we took pictures of the 3 volcanic features. We then stopped in Weed to get some lunch and buy some postcards of Mt. Shasta. It was already starting to sprinkle out. Later, after we went over the Klamath River, we began to see beautiful basalt formations in the area surrounded by bright yellow flowers. I finally drifted off to sleep for about 2 hours and woke up as we made our stop in Medford for a rest break. A few moments later the bus pulled into a gas station and we all got out to get some dinner at the mini-mart. We decided to get Taco Bell and save it for later, since it was only about 4pm and way to early to eat dinner. Then we began our drive towards Eugene. As we left Eugene we saw a beautiful rainbow over the sky. This cute little girl who looked about 8 or 9 had gotten on with her parents in Eugene. She and her father sat in the seats behind us. She kept telling all these funny jokes to her father, but loud enough so we could hear her. She sort of reminded me of myself when I was younger; cute, funny, asking l"}, {"response": 129, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (20:53)", "body": "Friday, May 31st: We woke up later that morning and ate cinnamon buns, oatmeal, and cocoa for breakfast. As we were packing up our stuff and taking the tent down, we fed the chipmunks some nuts. We then left the campgrounds, and drove back to Portland to return our equipment back to REI. Then we headed towards the north side of Mt. St. Helens by way of a quick stop at Castle Rock. We listened to my Dante\ufffds Peak soundtrack as we drove up HWY 504. Before we reached Johnston Ridge Observatory, we stopped at several vistas to see Mt. St. Helens. Once at Johnston Ridge Observatory, Sean suggested I give them a copy of my Mt. St. Helens song. I was sort of embarrassed to do something like that, but I did it anyway and now I am glad I did. The ranger told me it was excellent and that it would be a great way to teach kids and adults about the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in a fun way. My song is now being put on display at Johnston Ridge Observatory! Woooohooo! After touring Johnston Ridge again very quickly we headed back down the road. We stopped a few times along the way to drink some real Mt. St. Helens water from the waterfalls cascading out through the cracks in the rocks. On the way down, we stopped at a turn off where we say about 4 or 5 other cars pulled off too. We decided to hike up the trail to see what was going on. We reached the top of the cliff to find a small group of people watching hang gliders take off and land on the ridge. It would be awesome to hang glide near Mt. St. Helens. As we were driving back, we saw a rainbow halo around the sun. We pulled into Seaquest State Park, which was right in front of Mt. St. Helens Visitor\ufffds Center and got a campsite near a beautiful fern and moss forest. There were a few trails leading from our campsite. After a dinner of soup and lasagna, we hiked 2 of the trails to see where they went. But we didn\ufffdt get very far because the plants were too thick. After the hike, we went back to call Mom and then went to bed. Saturday, June 1st: We woke up at 6:30am and ate a nauseating mixture of granola, raspberries, and powdered milk with peaches. Then we packed up and headed up to Johnston Ridge Observatory again to begin a 4.5 mile hike to Harry\ufffds Ridge where we would get up close and personal with Mt. St. Helens, her lava dome, and Spirit Lake. The hike went through some of the slushiest snow I had ever seen. As we were hiking up, I fell through a slushy snowdrift and cut my hand open on a sharp piece of rhyolite. Once we got to the top of the ridge, the wind started to really blow and the wind-chill went down to about 25. F. We could see Mt. Adams as well from the top, but clouds again covered the summit. At the top of Harry\ufffds Ridge there was an old earthquake station situated at the very end of the ridge. We found out later that there was also a machine up on top of the ridge that bounced laser beams off of the lava dome to see how much it was growing. Spirit Lake looked bigger now than when I had last seen it n 1999, probably because of more snow melt, rain, and due to the fact that more of the logs have sunken from the surface to their watery grave at the bottom of the lake. We had a quick lunch of trail mix at the top, while admiring the magnificent views. On the way down, we sloshed though ankle deep snow and I walked across a creek that I thought was frozen over, but I learned very quickly that it was not, once I fell in knee deep in ice cold slushy water. As we were hiking back towards Johnston Ridge Observatory, we saw other people coming up. You can tell the people that know how to hike and those that don\ufffdt. Some people were wearing sandals and shorts down the trail! Hehe, they have no idea how wet and cold they are going to get! We then got back to the car and drove down to Cold Water Ridge Observatory where we got some more postcards. We tried to make it down to the Mt. St. Helens Visitor\ufffds Center, but they closed before we had even parked the car. We then headed back I-5 and took HWY 12 towards the south entrance of Mt. Rainer. As we got closer, the views were quite impressive, but soon we were too close to the snowy slopes, and eventually the trees covered everything up. We were going to stop at Longmire, but since I had gone there last time, we headed to Cougar Campgrounds to set up camp. There was big signs everywhere saying\ufffd CAMP AT YOUR OWN RISK! THIS AREA IS SUBJECT TO LAHARS, AVALANCHES, MUDFLOWS, AND OTHER GEOLOGICAL HAZARDS! But since this was the only campground around the area, we pitched out tent up anyway. Though I began to wonder, what if\ufffd For dinner we had a nasty chicken rice meal, mashed potatoes that stuck to the back of my throat, and pasta. We then took the firewood we had bought earlier, and made a small campfire while toasting marshmallows. I threw a few into the fire. It was neat watching them expand, sizzle, and run like molten lava. The campgrounds were inside a valley with mountains on either side of us. We could see a large waterf"}, {"response": 130, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (20:55)", "body": "Monday, June 3rd: We woke up at 5:30am, gathered our stuff up and left the nasty motel at 6:30am. After getting gas, we took I-5 to Seattle. As we drove through Seattle, we could see the Seattle Space Needle, the downtown area, and Mt. Olympus in the west. Mt. Olympus is the highest point in the Olympic National Park. We went past Everett and took HWY 2 to the 204 to the 9 to the 92 towards the Mt. Baker and Snoqualmie National Forest. We could see Mt. Baker in the distance covered with a few scattered clouds. We headed over to Big Four Ice Caves trailhead and parked the car. As we got our gear ready, I heard a faint roar in the distance. I turned towards Big Four Mountain and to my surprise I saw snow coming down in a huge white blanket. \ufffdAVALANCHE!\ufffd I yelled out to Sean. I grabbed the camcorder and began to record. I could barely hold it still though because I was beginning to tremble. Fortunately, the avalanche was too far away to reach us, but I began to tell Sean how staying in this area as a bad idea. There was signs everywhere saying\ufffd WARNING! HIKING IN ICE CAVES IS NOT RECOMMENDED DUE TO AVALANCHES. DANGER! SEVERE AVALACNHE CONDITIONS. There was also another sign that said we could hike as far as Stillaguamish South Fork River. So we did exactly that. As daring and adventurous as I am I certainly didn\ufffdt want to venture any further, so we turned back towards the car. Big Four Mountain is made from sandstone that was uplifted about 60 million years ago, which makes them way older then the Cascades and maybe even older than the dinosaurs. After a snack, we drove towards North Fork Falls to find the road was snowed in at Barlow Pass. We stopped off at the Mt. Baker and Snoqualmie National Forest Ranger Station to look for Glacier Peak postcards. We found none, so we drove to Jordan Road out of Granite Falls to Arlington. As we went through Darrington, we stopped at a few stores trying again to find postcards of Glacier Peak. The man who owned one of the stores told us that maybe G acier Peak was not a very photogenic volcano. Yeah, right! We then headed 10 miles up this little paved dirt road to the White Chuck trailhead. Along the way we could see some of Glacier Peak through the trees. Once at the trailhead, we got out of the car to look around and tried to see if we could find Glacier Peak through the thick forest. Suddenly, I heard a loud familiar roar. I chill ran down my spine as I figured out what it was. The roar was so loud I had to cover my ears. As I ran terrified across the snow to the car, Sean ran after me. My pulse must have been racing at 300 beats per minute because I could feel it in my throat. I sank down near the side of the car sobbing waiting for the snowy white wave of death to crash down upon us. This was the worst way to die, I thought. But strangely, nothing happened. I stood up, and Sean and I looked towards the sky and the trees trying to find something. The noise began to fade though, and finally Sean pointed through the trees. It wasn\ufffdt an valanche at all! It was the sound of two fighter jets flying very low! I collapsed near the car relieved. After pulling myself back together, we took the White Chuck trail about a mile and a half. We saw a brown and yellow stripped snake and some strange fungus along the way. We hiked across 12-inch deep creeks and ankle deep slushy snow to obtain some ash and rock samples of Glacier Peak. Once back at the car, we headed back down into Darrington and stopped at the Ranger Station. Then we continued up towards Mt. Baker. After a long drive, we finally saw Mt. Baker rise up above the clouds. We drove around trying to find a campsite with a view of Mt. Baker. Boulder Creek Campgrounds was the best. After we set up the tent, Sean and I climbed down to Boulder Creek and explored the area. Boulder Creek came from Boulder Glacier from the slopes of Mt. Baker. I looked around to find some interesting rocks and took a few ash samples. I think I got a little too close to the river. The current was movin very fast, but I walked half way across the river on a rotting log. On our way back up to our campsite, we caught two tiny brown frogs that we had fun playing with before they hoped under a huge piece of polished rhyolite. Dinner was pasta, beans, and mashed potatoes. As we ate dinner, we burned the rest of the remaining firewood. Then later, as we ate hot cocoa and toasted marshmallows, I told Sean some volcano stories. Finally, the last of the flickering flames died out to glowing orange embers. A thin layer of clouds covered the starless night sky. Sean and I both crawled into our sleeping bags exhausted and went right to sleep. That night, I had a dream that I was flying back home in the airplane and right when we were over Mt. Shasta, it erupted and caused the plane to crash. I guess I was still worrying about the plane trip home, since this was going to be my first plane ride since 9-11. Tuesday, June 4th: We both woke up that morning to hear "}, {"response": 131, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (21:08)", "body": "So I bet you all want to know what of my trip do I have video footage of, huh? Well, I'm sure you have figured out now that the natural disaster I got on tape was of an avalanche. I hope none of you thought it was an eruption. I wish it had been! I got both the ice cave and Ape Cave, many waterfalls, all the Cascade Volcanoes in Washington, a few and Oregon and all in California. the San Andreas Fault, the Sierras, all kinds of wildlife. Fortunatly, I didn't get a shot of the porcupine being run over but I did take a shot of something dead. You will have to see for yourselves. I narrated the whole video, messing up only on a few times. You will notice the camera scanning things a little too quickly in some parts and shaking in some parts, but hey, this is my first time making a video! There is also pictures of the moss and fern forests and many other things that I can't even remember. Sean is in some parts, and yes, I am in alot of parts. Sean wanted to shoot me doing some of the stupid things I do as insurance and to show Mom and Dad so they can lay in to me. *laughs* Thats okay, wait till Mom and Dad hear about the side street in Tacoma that Sean took us to sleep for the night. And I was the one who told him we should leave! *laughs evily* I will be sending my tape to Marcia in a few weeks, so please be patient."}, {"response": 132, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Jun  7, 2002 (01:24)", "body": "Before I call Rob Splain of Orting, I want to know if anyone has any questions you want me to ask him about Orting, their evacuation plans, the geologic history of Orting, Mt. Rainer in general, anything, please let me know in the next week or so because I will be giving him a call by the end of next week. Rob, I bet you have some questions."}, {"response": 133, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun  7, 2002 (03:20)", "body": "That's great Julie, thanks for sharing your journal. I don't have time to read it this morning, but plan on printing it out to read over breakfast or lunch later today."}, {"response": 134, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Jun  7, 2002 (11:50)", "body": "I can't believe this, but I think I have a volcanic rock stuck in my hand! The day we climbed Mt. St. Helens, I remember stopping in the snow because my hand was hurting. Sean looked at it and said something was in there, but it definatly wasn't a splinter and I do remember falling quite a few times before then on the rocks. Sean said we would take care of it after the climb, but I guess we forgot and it stopped hurting anyway. Well, now its starting to hurt again and it all red around the wound so I think I have an infection. Now I have to go to the doctor's and get it removed. OUCH! I hope it is a volcanic rock though, then I can add one more thing to all my souviners!"}, {"response": 135, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, Jun  7, 2002 (13:53)", "body": "*laughing* Julie, i hope for your sake it REALLY is a volcanic rock... are you going to frame it??? ;-) *kiss* (to make it better) :-)"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  8, 2002 (01:37)", "body": "Julie! Fantastic! Tomorrow WE are going to Shasta. I think our visit will be less traumatic than yours but hardly as memorable. I will print out the epic of Sean and Julie and read it to David and Iris on the way! Please... you are scaring me. I worry about your safety. Btw, you are the only one with whom I managed to have a conversation via IM yesterday. Today it is not working right and I am left with only email and Geo to contact people. How frustrating!"}, {"response": 137, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Jun  9, 2002 (14:06)", "body": "I learned a little bit about one of the lesser known Cascade Volcanoes on my trip, Glacier Peak. I bet you had no idea that Glacier Peak is the most explosive volcano in Washington. I don't know why its not considered one of the \"major\" Cascade Volcanoes, but if it were to erupt again, the ash would circulate around the globe causing temperatures to drop as much as 5. F. Let me give you a little background information on Glacier Peak. Glacier Peak is not one of your most stunning volcanoes to look at, nor is it the tallest. It rises above some of the neighbooring peaks and trees at only 10,451 feet tell. In fact, Sean and I had a hard time finding it because there aren't even any roads that go close enough to it. Glacier Peak has erupted about 6 times in the past 15,000 years. Its eruptions have been enormous and one of them, about 12,000 years ago has deposited the largest layer of ash in all of the Pacific Northwest! Glacier Peak seems to erupt massive quantities of pumice. Glacier Peak and Mt. t. Helens are the only volcanoes in Washington to produce large, explosive, and violent eruptions. About 13,100 years ago Glacier Peak erupted tephra 9 times. The largest ejected was more than 5x as much ejected from the May 18th, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. The eruption was also the largest in the Cascade Range since the last ice age. Lava domes have also formed in the summit during many of these eruptive cycles. These domes would collapse and cause pyroclastic flows. Disappointment Peak is the reminant of one of these lava domes. Glacier Peak has also produced some very large lahars that have severely effected river valleys, including the two that I was near, the White Chuck River and the North Fork Stillaguamish River. I saw huge walls of lahar deposits. Glacier Peak is very much eroded now and I think the possibility of an eruption is probably very slim, but we should still keep an eye on this one because you never know. And just because it is 70 miles northeast of Seattle and in a desolit and remote location doesn't mean that it won't effect us. The deposit layer is huge! If you thought Crater Lake erupted alot, you should look at the layer of Glacier Peak's eruption nearly 12,000 years ago. The layer for Crater Lake is about 6x smaller!"}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 10, 2002 (21:30)", "body": "I'll download my pictures and post them here. Thye Cascades were glorious to day and the weather in Weed was perfect. I thought of you, Julie!!!"}, {"response": 139, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (22:49)", "body": "*stomps her foot angrily* NOT FAIR!! Just less than 2 weeks after I get back from the Cascades, Gifford Pinchot National Forest decided to open HWY 99 that leads up to Windy Ridge near MSH'S! UGH!! I'm packing my bags and leaving tomorrow! I wish! ARGH! I miss MSH's, Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainer, Mt. Adams, Mt. Baker, and Glacier Peak. I actually waved goodbye to them as we took off in the plane! *Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa* Take me back, take me back!!!"}, {"response": 140, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (05:03)", "body": "You're really leaving tomorrrow? Or were you just being metaphoric?"}, {"response": 141, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (06:38)", "body": "Hi all Methinks metaphoric. Though I know that if she had a realistic chance of going to Windy Ridge immediately, that girl would be gone from CA faster than lightning jumps between clouds, and that is pretty fast. Rob"}, {"response": 142, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (12:39)", "body": "No, I ain't really going (don't think I wasn't serious though), but....I was talking to Sean last night before I went to bed about next year. We are already planning the next trip. Both of us agree we didn't stay long enough this year, so next year we are definatly going for 3 to 4 weeks. We think that will be plenty of time to drive up there by car and start in northern California and work our way up to B.C. We will go in August so there is no worry about snow, avalanches, freezing weather, and roads and trails being closed up. Until then, I need to train like mad because obviously I wasn't ready for such a trecherous volcano climb to the top of MSH's (in the snow). So as soon as my ankle is all healed up, I'm going back on the track team and running probably the whole spring semester of next year. I also need to practice hiking with a 40lb pack on. Its not that easy hiking up the slopes on loose volcanic rocks and ash in 95. F weather with a heavy backpack on. I have hiked level ground with a 45lb ack in 115.F heat in the Grand Canyon, but if I were going uphill doing that, I think I would have died."}, {"response": 143, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Jun 13, 2002 (14:15)", "body": "WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!! I am now an officialy licenced driver in the state of California! I passed my drivers test! WOOOOOOHOOOOO!! Do you know what this means? Now next year when Sean and I go back to the Cascades, I will be able to drive there and Sean will be seating in the passanger seat! And if Sean doesn't want to go back to MSH's again, well too bad, because I will be driving. Hehehehe!"}, {"response": 144, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun 13, 2002 (18:46)", "body": "look out!!! mad woman on the loose!!!"}, {"response": 145, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jun 14, 2002 (03:46)", "body": "Hi all Now you can take me to see the resurgent domes of Mammoth! WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!! Well done Julie. Considering your other news today was hardly flash, this is brilliant. Anyway I plan to get my learners this summer coming (New Zealand is in winter incase you have forgotten), and my full license the following summer. How does that sound? I figure I have at least another year to go at University so it is not too surprising that I am going to do it during the summer months. Rob"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 15, 2002 (12:07)", "body": "Oh Lordy, and my son is a risk now!!! Julie, seriously - congratulations and well done. You have over-achieved me already. When we were at Lassen just about all trails were still closed and a whole lot of things were still buried under many feet of snow"}, {"response": 147, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (15:47)", "body": "Hello everyone! Surprise, surprise! Hehe! Did you guys honestly think I could stay away from the computer for more than 3 days? I think not! I knew I would find a way, even if it was uncomforatable. Its quite interesting typing laying down, although I don't recomand you try it unless you have a lot of patience. The surgery went great. My anesthesiologist looked like Tom Hanks! He was hot! *laughs* The pain isn't so bad because I've been taking lots of pain pills. But the pain pills make me dizzy and make things look blury. Its only been 2 days since the surgery and I am so bored. I am so sick of watching t.v, videos, and listening to music. Thank god for my lap top! I just wish I could figure out another way to use it without laying down. But I have to keep my foot elevated until Saturday or Sunday. This is really annoying though. I am so used to doing things myself, but now I have to let Mom, Dad, and Sean do them for me. I feel like I am 3 years old. Oh well, as soon as I can get around better I think things will be a little easier on everyone else as well."}, {"response": 148, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (18:08)", "body": "Hope that you're feeling better soon, Julie."}, {"response": 149, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (18:51)", "body": "maybe you can prop your head up a bit? hope you got good drugs and not motrin!"}, {"response": 150, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (19:01)", "body": "Glad your surgery is a thing of the past Julie! :-) Feel better soon -we miss your cheerful post around here when your gone *hug*"}, {"response": 151, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (19:47)", "body": "I've been missing you guys too! Marcia is right, Geo is very addicting, no matter what shape I am in. I have so many friends here and its just so much fun. *HUGS*"}, {"response": 152, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 21, 2002 (01:40)", "body": "I understand you completely Julie. But your case is very simple I believe. I will tell you my fresh experience. See it as an example. Existing more bad cases... I had my leg up for five months. Pain was very strong but I had my computer as pain alleviating medicine. Now I can walk but not absolutely free and without a little pain. I have 100% of my leg in the morning, 50% at noon and do not ask for later. I was using my computer with legs up for five months and for many hours per day. I was sitting in a big office chair having my legs on a writing desk on my computer's left side. I had the keyboard on my abdominal regions. Add also a live TV transmission from my laboratory a few days after the major surgery\ufffd Have you seeing some dream in the operation theatre? I had a strange one. I want forget it but I can't. *Laughs* I must return in the operation theatre for the second half in a few months\ufffd I suggest you patience. You can find an easy avocation and accommodate it to your case. Three days is not the eternity. My experience says that your leg will show you itself, when and how you can use it. Feel better soon John"}, {"response": 153, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Jun 21, 2002 (02:54)", "body": "Wow, John you are very right. I am very sorry. My case is very simple compared to yours. Good luck with your operation. I hope everything goes well. I'm here for you if you need anything."}, {"response": 154, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 21, 2002 (05:14)", "body": "It's OK Julie. Thank you. I was trying to give you some courage comparing my case with yours. I think that our pain exists also in our familial and chummy environment. A smile is the best gift for all. It is enough also for me. Unfortunately, none can go against to his destiny. John"}, {"response": 155, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Jun 22, 2002 (17:21)", "body": "Guess what guys? For several years now I have been entering stuff in the Orange County Fair. Well, this year, I entered quite a few things. Mom and Dad helped me this afternoon to take in two photos and a bunch of my volcano stuff. The two photos were of Terry at the beach during sunset and Lower Proxy Falls in the Cascades of Oregon. The volcano stuff I entered in the Collections catagory included a bunch of my volcano postcards, volcano pins, volcanic rocks, and of course volcanic ash. Both these things are going to be judged and then put on display during the fair. I don't care if I win, but I always think its so cool to have my stuff on display so everyone can see it. But if I do win, there is money prizes for the photos. I am also going to be working at the fair too. Crutches and all, lol. The club I belong to, Santa Ana Rock and Mineral Club, puts on a display every year to teach kids about rocks, minerals, and geology. Should be fun, even if I can't walk around the fair like I usually do. The Orange County Fair is from July 12th to July 28th."}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (15:34)", "body": "GOOD LUCK JULIE!!! Kisses on all the places that hurt, Julie. Ouch! Jus my luck that everything possible that can go wrong with my computer DID go wrong. I cannot put Yahoo on my host's computer so I will make do until mine gets back to me. Or for certain I will buy a B\\NEW one. I have never felt so frustrated in my life, and now I have let Julie down. I feel terrible. Just wne you needed me the most. I can vouch for John's tale and the impossibility of being unable to do anything for a long time. I did my best to entertain him. Geo is addictive, but only because the people here are what makes it this way. *HUGS* A hui hou"}, {"response": 157, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (22:41)", "body": "Marcia, you have not let me down at all. How can you possibly think that? I may be having a difficult time right now, but I am trying to manage. I understand totally about all your computer problems. Stuff like that happens. Really, its okay. I hope everything works out for you. Hope to hear from you soon. *HUGS*"}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (12:03)", "body": "Ackkkkk!!! Just when I think all is well with that laptop, I find another email from David in my inbox telling me what else is wrong with it. Now that the new hard drive is installed the CD ROM player will not work so I must have that fixed then perhaps it might be shipped to me. Thanks to all of you for hanging in there - and hugs to those of you who are ailing. Special hugs and thanks to John for sharing his chair in the summer house with me and ekeeping Geo interesting. This really IS a nice place to come when you are far from home. I never saw it from this angle before! Big sister Hugs to you, Julie. I have a whole new flashcard full of digital images to share but NO volcanoes in this part of the world in the last billion or so years. Coal, though! More on the Appalachian chain soon!"}, {"response": 159, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (07:27)", "body": "Geo was excellent pain alleviating medicine in my case. It was also equilibrating the constrictions of life inside the house for long time. I must thanks Marcia and Geo for that. I feel comfortable in Geo as on my chair in the summerhouse. I hear also soft music there during the hot summer nights. It is the other face of life. Hebetic enthusiasm is decreasing by the time and gives more space to perfectionism. It is an excellent place for philosophical thoughts. John"}, {"response": 160, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (14:23)", "body": "My delight is knowing you have such a refuge from the stresses of life and you can contemplate in serene beauty in your summer house. Think of me occasionally as I do of you. You have enriched my life and Geo immeasurably. In fact, I think my host is tiring of hearing your virtues extolled. As I said beforer, Yahoo will be my first installed program on my new computer so I can talk to you and to those who wish there. Julie, that means you, too. I miss our discussions of those things \"closest to our hearts\"... YOu know who they are! HUGS!! John and Julie. My heart is with you even if my body is far from where it usually is!"}, {"response": 161, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (20:44)", "body": "HUGS!! Marcia, where ever you are right now. You are right about Geo being excellent pain alleviating medicine, John. And its a good thing too because the pain pills are not working for me anymore. In fact they are making me very sick. Maybe thats because I have taken 30 of them in just one week! I decided I would rather stand the pain in my ankle than be so sick in the morning that I can't even get out of my bed. Nothing is worse than having your head stuck over a toliet bowl for hours at a time disposing your stomach contents while your head is spliting in two. So no more of those pain pills for me. I will just grit my teeth for the next few weeks or months. 4th of July is just a week away. This has always been my favortie holiday, but this year without Terry and not being able to walk, it isn't going to be the best. But I will tough it out. We will still go on our usual picnic at Irvine Park, but I don't think I will be hiking or climbing this year for obvious reasons. As for celebrations at nig t, we usually have our own. There is only 3 cities in Orange County that allow fireworks and Santa Ana and Costa Mesa are two of them. But this year, we will be going to a firework display probably on the beach and maybe lighting some sparkelers or fountains later. And some ground bloomers. I love those things! Hehe. Usually I am the lucky one that gets to water the roof every year, but this year I guess Sean will do it. Everyone in our neighborhood has to water their roofs becuase of the problems with illegal fireworks (most of which are rockets that shot up 100's of feet into the sky). People buy them in Mexico and take them back across the border. They are very very dangerous. 2 years ago we saw one shot up and land in the house in back of ours and we watched in horror as it caught fire. Luckily, no one was in the house at that time. So please, all of you that decide to set off a few...be careful."}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (13:47)", "body": "Julie, I will be spending the 4th in kentucky or somewhere near it. Down here they do such things as \"shooting the anvil\" - you take two anvils - like blacksmiths use. Place a charge of powder in one and set the other on top of the other anvil but upside down. Light the powder and see how far it tosses the top anvil. Yikes!!! It has been ages since I celebrated the 4th in anywhere but Hawaii. There it is not hardly celebrated at all. It will be fun I think. I have already heard a lot of illegal fireworks going off - just like Hilo! My son is planning a weird celebration. They are getting a new little kitten for Critter to play with. Critter is a regal and older cat of very sober mein. He will NOT be amused. Poor Critter!!! Julie, I'm with you on those pain pills. They make me very sick so I \"bite bullets\" or do what is necessary to ride it out. HUGS!!! I miss talkling wityho you but this coming week should determine what laptop I use - a whole new one or the rebuilt Toshiba now in California."}, {"response": 163, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (23:02)", "body": "Hi Julie Why pain is not reduced? What says your doctor? Try natural pain-alleviating medicine such sleep. But keep always your leg up. Geo family is also here. We can discuss anything you have in mind. I think that it matches the Greek song the music of which you must hear now. Its words are approximate the following The mesh When you open road in the life Do not wait it finds you the midnight Have your eyes open, in the night and the day Because in front you unfolds a mesh If sometime you tangled in its meshes No one can remove you Alone find the end of thread And, begin again if you are lucky John"}, {"response": 164, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (02:44)", "body": "That is a very wonderful song John. Thanks so much for sharing it. Oh gosh, I have done something stupid. I bet you are very careful with what you do with your ankle, John. I thought I was being careful too, until this evening when I got careless and irresponsible. I left my crutched in the computer room, but I had to get another photo in my room to scan. I thought I could make the 6 feet by hoping on one foot. And I did, but on the way back from my room to the computer room I tripped over the telephone cord and fell. And of course hoping on one foot I landed on the one that was not on the ground, my injured one and I put all my weight on it. It hurt terribly. I am going back to the doctor's anyway tomorrow, but now they will probably have to take another x-ray to make sure I didn't damage anything. I can't beleive I was so stupid. I hope my ankle is okay or I am in trouble, serious trouble."}, {"response": 165, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (07:44)", "body": "Oh...NO!......... Normally I must administer a rebuke to you. I will have right! I hope you didn't damage anything. But it was very painful and a hard lesson for the future I think. What I can say more? I am very sorry. Ok. Let\ufffds see it from one other side. Perhaps you must remain quiescent in the house for some unknown reason. I believe that nothing is happenstance in this life. I made steps ahead for my research during my compulsory captivity in the house. I found also some answers for my life, for my mistakes for what I am doing finally. I see also with a new eye some things. I disappointed for several stupid actions in my life. I made a hard self-criticism. The secret is to become you forceful and do not make the same mistakes. See to the future and make your own best program. Have you seeing a mule before? Do you know that the mule never drops again in the same place? That was saying my father when I was doing continued mistakes. I was feeling hurt with the idea that I was inequitable of a mule\ufffd. Please remember the existence of the mesh on which adverts the song. It is not only a wonderful song but is also perceptive. It continues like this: That mesh has several names. Some they say it the down world foxiness. Other they say it the first spring love\ufffd I wish you good news and quick remedy. Forgive my hard words. John"}, {"response": 166, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (07:46)", "body": "Rob where are you?"}, {"response": 167, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (18:45)", "body": "Your right John, I would not want to make the same mistakes again and I probably should be staying at home more instead of trying to stay out for hours at a time increaseing the risk of reinjuring myself again. Fortunatly, everything is okay. They took another x-ray and everything still looks great, although I have some more bruising that wasn't there before probably due to my little accident I had last night. The stitches and staples (I discovered there are 11 staples and 11 stitches holding the incision) will be coming out June 8th. They put on a semi-removable cast on today that I have to take off 6 times a day to do an excersise. The goal right now is to start flexing my foot back to the 90 degree position, which is basically the walking position. It will probably take a few weeks for that to happen, and as long as I don't do anything stupid that will make me fall again, I may be starting to walk again before school starts the end of August, I hope. I think and I hope I have learned my lesson."}, {"response": 168, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Sat, Jun 29, 2002 (00:15)", "body": "i'm glad your ok , Julie"}, {"response": 169, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Jun 29, 2002 (21:27)", "body": "WOW! I can't believe this! Wooohooo! Something is really going on near Mt. Hood. I have never seen so much activity. Seismic activity has increased since the begining of May and this looks to be the most I have seen in one day. I am cautiously getting excited. It could be nothing, which probably is true, but all the depths of the quakes are all simalar. We will have to see how long this seismic swarm is going to last. Check out the seismic data here... http://www.ess.washington.edu/recenteqs/Maps/122-45.html"}, {"response": 170, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sun, Jun 30, 2002 (02:31)", "body": "Hi B.J. I am glad too that you are Ok Julie. You say that the depths of the quakes are all similar. I don\ufffdt think so. Look at the graph below. (Attention: Time is running from right to left). I constructed this graph from the data table here: http://www.ess.washington.edu/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes0.html White line is the line of depth and fat Red line is its trend. DEPTHS BECOME LOWER! In contrary, Magnitudes (Green line) are about stable as appeared by its trend line (fat yellow line). I don\ufffdt know volcanology or what can mean that. But I try to learn. You have taken your lesson but we need your own lessons now! Can you tell us what says theory or practice in similar cases? What we must expect there? Perhaps Rob can help too from his side. John"}, {"response": 171, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Jun 30, 2002 (03:03)", "body": "I think I am better at volcanology than I am at seismology, lol. Here is what we do know. Mt. Hood has had small eruptions since the 1830's. The most recent one being in 1865. But the largest eruptions began about 1760-1810. These eruptions formed Crater Rock which is the pointed portion of Mt. Hood's peak. These eruptions also caused pyroclastic flows, mudflows, and a several inch thick layer of ash. Many of the mudflows may have flowed all the way through thr Colombia River Gorge area. Mt. Hood is known to produce lava domes, pyroclastic flows, ash clouds, and large mudflows. As I probably mentioned before, the major Cascade volcanoes seem to erupt every 200 years or so. Mt. Hood could just be waking up, or most likely just shaking things up a bit and not much else. Only time will tell."}, {"response": 172, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jun 30, 2002 (11:45)", "body": "Julie!! i'm just now catching up--you be careful on that foot!!!! *HUGS* Hi BJ, John, and Marcia *HUGS*"}, {"response": 173, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jul  1, 2002 (05:31)", "body": "Hi Wolfie We\ufffdve lost you here together with your twin. But she is absolutely excusable. I hope you are OK and all things being right there. \ufffdHUGS\ufffd Thank you Julie. John"}, {"response": 174, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (07:15)", "body": "The following is something special that I dedicate to students like you Joulie and Rob. Perhaps it will become useful to you. 4 Common Ways to Remember Material by Lenny Laskowski Remembering speeches can be a very intimidating experience. There are many ways one can remember material and I would like to focus on what I believe are the 4 common ways to remember material. -Memorizing -Reading from complete text -Using Notes -Using Visual Aids as Notes -Let's take a look at each of these in detail. 1. Memorizing -In my opinion, this is absolutely the worst way to keep track of material. People are preoccupied with trying to remember the words to say and not the ideas behind the words (or with the audience). As a result, normal voice inflection disappears. With memorizing, mental blocks become inevitable. With memorizing it is not a matter of will you forget; it's a matter of WHEN! 2. Reading from complete text - Listening to someone read a speech or presentation is hated by most people. People say, If that's all they were going to do is read their speech, I could have read it myself. I'm sure many of us have experienced this at least once while attending a conference or two. Below are some reasons why I believe people read poorly: The speaker loses normal voice inflection because they lose touch with the ideas behind the words. Listen for pauses, Natural speech is filled with pauses; unnatural speech is not. The text isn't spoken language - too often speakers write their speeches in business language . That is often hard to read, much less listen to. The speech is static - the potted plant will probably move more. There is little movement, little energy, and little interest behind the lectern. There's no or little eye contact - any eye contact is with the text, not the audience. To read text while trying to maintain eye contact with the audience takes a lot of practice. The speaker is scared - many speakers read because they are afraid to try anything else. They know reading will fail but at least it will fail with a small f rather than a capital one. NOTE: Don't get me wrong, there are times when speeches MUST be read. Many times it is necessary to read policy statements or company announcements. Also, some speeches must be timed right down to the second. WHEN YOU HAVE TO READ! If reading is absolutely necessary, here are some suggestions: Pay attention to the inflection in your voice - to sound natural, rehearse often, checking yourself for pauses. Ask yourself if your words sound the way you would say them if you weren't reading. Tape yourself and listen to your own voice. Take notes where changes should be made with the inflection in your voice. When preparing your written speech, say the words out loud first in order that your written text will read closer to your speaking style. This will make it easier to read and much easier to listen to. People often DO NOT write the same way as they speak and this makes reading more difficult. If we use wording and phrasing we normally use in our everyday language it will be easier to add the correct voice inflection and tone. Annotate your text to indicate which words to emphasize. Numbers are the easiest target words to say slowly with emphasis on each syllable. One of the biggest problems speakers face when reading text is that we often forget to use gestures. We are so busy making sure we read the text we fail to communicate effectively with our entire body. One thing we can do to help this is to double space your typed text to leave room to add notes or cues about gestures and other reminder type clues. We need to practice using this annotated text of our speech so we can easily and smoothly react to these cues for our gestures while at the same time correctly read the text. This does take some practice. Some people do this very effectively. I work with ministers who do this extremely well, but they also practice a lot! Videotape yourself reading the speech and then sit and watch the speech, making notes as to the gestures which could have been used. Add notes to your written text based on this review, using notes or even pictures of the gestures to use and deliver the speech again, trying this time to add gestures. After a little practice, this will become second nature. When we read speeches, the amount of eye contact with our audience is usually less. In some cases, people who read speeches have NO eye contact. To avoid this, first write like you speak (see suggestion 2). When typing the text, use upper and lower case letters. This will make it easier to read. TYPING EVERYTHING IN UPPPERCASE, AS I HAVE DONE HERE, MAKES IT MORE DIFFICULT TO READ. Don't have long paragraphs or you will lose your place every time you look up. Start a new paragraph every sentence or two. Also, have your text double spaced. Some people even so far as alternating the color of the text for each paragraph. Use unstapled pages for your text. Paper clip your pages and just before you "}, {"response": 175, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jul  3, 2002 (17:07)", "body": "Thanks John! This is VERY helpful to me. I have never been that great at giving speeches. Not only do I have stage freight, but I just sometimes forget things and keep pausing and saying those two words that professors and students both hate....\"like\" and \"ummm\" over and over again. We never really gave many speeches in high school so I never really had enough practice. When I give a speech I usually write the key ides on notecards and then try to learn them that way. Trying to memorize everything is too difficult. Its better to learn the concept and understand it. But, if you are like me and procrastinate, which I tend to do rather nicely unfortunatly, sometimes all you have time for is memorizing and that leads you in to big trouble if you have to rush. None of those 4 concepts will work if you don't make time to do them, and that is what I still have yet to learn."}, {"response": 176, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jul  4, 2002 (21:17)", "body": "Hi all GEE WHIZ!!! I have been missing heaps. How are you all today?? News from my patch will be posted in Robs Geo World shortly but a couple notable things include a \"weather bomb\" (a rapidly deepening depression with storm force winds, and torrential rain)that hit the North Island recently, and an ongoing earthquake pattern in the southern part of the South Island. This is a worry for some people who fear the long awaited magnitude 8 earthquake may not be far of. More details to be posted shortly in Robs Geo World Rob"}, {"response": 177, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (04:25)", "body": "Nice to hear from you again Rob. Weather becomes crazier around the world. We are witnesses of extreme weather events more frequently during the last years. The oncoming EQ is only a fear or is based on some observations? John"}, {"response": 178, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (18:03)", "body": "Well, Mt. Hood's tremors are slowing down quite a bit now, and other than that the Cascades are quiet. Although the Pacific Northwest has been having quite a bit of seismic activity over the last week, mainly in the Seattle, Olympia, and Western Washington resions. Most of the quakes are very small, but I keep wondering when their next big quake will come. After doing my research paper on the Mega Quakes of the Pacific Northwest I realized like so many other places in the world that they are way over due. Last one in the Pacific Northwest was in 1700. Supposivly the interval between each quake was about 300 years. So add 1700 and 300 and you get 2000. Depending on where the quake hit it would be extremly damaging to the Pacific Northwest. If it were to hit just offshore, the results would be devastating. These Mega Quakes are usually 8.0 or greater. There is alos a theory that the Juan de Fuca Plate and the North American PLate could be locked. And if that is the case, we could be looking at possi ly a 9.0 in the Pacific Northwest. This is just a theory though since no one can be exactly sure. If you want to read more about the Mega Quakes of the Pacific Northwest and about a potential 9.0 in that area try reading Living with Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest by Robert S. Yeats, The Oregon Earthquake Handbook by Vern Cope, and Agents of Chaos by Stephen L. Harris. All of these are great books, but the first one I mentioned is very chilling and when I was reading it I actually got chills down my spine."}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (18:32)", "body": "Aloha Y'all ( southern speak )! Hugs all around. I have missed you and promise to keep updating my progress. Soon my computer will be in hand and Julie and I can talk = as can the rest of us with IM. That pleases me greatly! Meanwhile, Wolfie,, I miss you!!! The rest of you know I do, also!!!"}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (18:36)", "body": "Mr Hood has been on and off active on a very low seismic level for many months now. I am not surprised at the new flurries of activity. A little eruption might be nice, though. Wait till I am back visiting in California, please!"}, {"response": 181, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (07:05)", "body": "Hi Julie, Marcia and all, I don\ufffdt know much about volcanoes. But I know that only is not enough population a few events in order we can say that is expected strong EQ activity, soon in the area of Mt Hood. My opinion is that statistics can show (if we have enough historical data) only the tendency and not the reality. Statistics is good assistant tool but it is strongly recommended scientific proof that is based on physics finally. Personally I don\ufffdt trust statistics. I have never successfully predicted LOTTO numbers, using it even if i had enough number of historical data. \"Laugh\" John"}, {"response": 182, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (07:25)", "body": "Julie, First, find what you want to learn and then search for new ways of searching. Scientists must always\ufffd SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING, SEARCHING! *Tsats* says it, as my daughter says! (From my last name). John"}, {"response": 183, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (11:56)", "body": "can't remember if rob posted it here or not, but where is pompeii? is it italy? (i'm showing my poor geography skills *LAUGH*)"}, {"response": 184, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:13)", "body": "Yeah Wolfie, Pompeii is in southeast Italy and located about 15km southeast of Herculaneum, both of which were destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D."}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:39)", "body": "John Dear, lotto has nothing to do with logic or reasoning. If these so-called psychics were worth anything, they could have predicted the numbers of the lotto winners before the event and become rich. That according to Don, our archaeologist. You and he think very much alike. Mt Hood is not likely to do much with the current little swarms other than to release a bit of stress. If they were harmonic tremors, I would be nore concerned. As they are not, It matters little. but makes for fun speculation!"}, {"response": 186, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:56)", "body": "I thought it was just talk, but its official now. As for what day exactly, that is still undecided. But sometime between August 4th and August 26th I will be going back to the Oregon Cascades. Since I can walk sort of now and I was out riding my mountain bike this morning for the first time, I am hoping that my ankle will be ready for short hikes by that time. My parents are planning the trip, but I know we will definatly be going to Crater Lake to be there for their 100th Anniversery of their National Park. I really want to go back there because when I was there last year with Sean we tried so hard to get tickets to take the boat to Wizard Island and every boat departure was sold out! Mom has expressed an interest in seeing the South Sister. I would love to climb it again like I did last summer when I was there, but that I know is out of the question. I will be lucky if my ankle is ready for short hikes by then. I can't believe how fast my ankle is healing! And yes, I know not to push it. I have been v ry cautious the past few weeks. I certainly don't want to have surgery again, at least on the same foot. I may have to have the same operation on the other ankle in the future if I start having problems with it too since it has the same extra bone. My doctor said for now do what I can handle, but if I start to have any pain to stop and use the crutches again."}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (16:05)", "body": "Oooh Julie! How splendid. I also want to see Crater Lake and surely will with my son and wife one of these days. Enjoy, but do not use heroics on this. I am assuming that you want to heal well and completely. In that case, listen to your doctor and use support when it hurts. You will not like the alternative! Good luck HUGS!!!"}, {"response": 188, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (17:38)", "body": "oh wonderful julie!!!! you'll just have to trudge along slowly this time!"}, {"response": 189, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (01:00)", "body": "Now this is interesting. PNSN didn't even record this yet, probably because it was so far offshore. A 5.9M quake hit 150 miles west of Coos Bay, Oregon. Check out this web address out for more detail. The quakes depth was only 10km. Thats pretty shallow I would say, especailly since this is the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Most offshore quakes in this area are usually deeper from what I noticed. What do you think about it John? http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_gjax.html"}, {"response": 190, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (06:43)", "body": "Marcia and Don, The only logical way to play LOTTO is by using statistics and using the previous results. The same is doing seismologists with their measurements! Is it WRONG? John"}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:16)", "body": "Wrong? Not at all. However, it still seems like an exercise in futility when those who win are one in several hundred million odds. I stand a better chance of dying in a freeway crash, and that doesn ot appeal to me at all!"}, {"response": 192, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (17:06)", "body": "I wrote the example of LOTTO having in mind the Earth\ufffds rotation mechanism around its axis: 1.Inner core runs faster from the rest Earth. 2.Crust has a complex moving depending on several forces from inside and outside too. 3.Movement of liquid and plastic materials between solid areas inside Earth is complex too. (Like the cake paste with mixer probe running inside). All this reminds me the LOTTO machine someway! Earth\ufffds outputs are seismic and volcano activity instead of LOTTO spheres. Eventuality for death in a freeway crash is a pessimistic example. Please see always the optimist side. It helps always and anyway. John"}, {"response": 193, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (17:15)", "body": "This is a better scheme of how is the Earth\ufffds interior. John"}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (21:31)", "body": "Oooh lovely, John! Sorry I sounded so gloomy. I was just putting things into perspective and that came to mind. I do NOT plan to join them. Ther are far too many wonderful things about the world yet to be discovered for me. Now that I look at your demonstration, I see clearly the LOTTO implications and how random is the choice of who gets the great quakes world wide. At least as far as I can see, it appears random just as LOTTO selection does. I never quite thought of it that way."}, {"response": 195, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jul 15, 2002 (07:48)", "body": "Hi all What an exotic range of volcanoes the Cascades have. Right Julie?? From volcanoes appearing as calderas (vast depressions formed by massive eruptions leading to subsidence)like Mazama and Newberry, to gentle andesite giants like Adams which build impressive mountains but actually are not all that violent. Lets just run through them briefly for the sake of the others here, shall we Julie? I will start the ball rolling. Rainier is the towering giant visible from the city of Seattle on the Washington State coast. It is a mountain so high that it is used to train people heading for the Himalayas and Mt Everest. A mountain of great picturesque beauty, it has a secret being withheld from her admirers, but which no town knows better than Orting. The mountain is notorious among geologists and volcanologists for unleashing, every few hundred years, mammoth lahars that travel down the valleys of rivers rising on Rainiers flanks with breath taking destructive power. Unfortunately as a town with a picturesque back drop, Orting knows it is living on borrowed time - in what may seem like an eternity to mankind, but in the blink of an eye in geological time, a lahar is expected. Might be another 50 years, or it might be tomorrow morning. But Rainier is well monitored. Seismographs monitor the mountain for the sinister shockwaves that will tell the people of Orting and other towns that the mother of all lahars is rolling toward them. They also detect shockwaves from magma breaking rocks as it rises in the volcano and tiltmeters show any displacement of the ground surface, while gas sampling tells whether magma is on the go. The vast majority of residents at Orting know about the lahar risk and many have planned their own evacuation procedures. The town tries to educate new comers to the area of the risk and authorities worry about the problem enough to test the warning system every month on the first Monday. Rob"}, {"response": 196, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Jul 15, 2002 (16:08)", "body": "Great idea Rob! Since you took the popular volcano, I will take some of the lesser known ones in the Cascades. Mt. Thielson, \"Lightening Rod of the Cascades.\" Mt. Thielson is on of the most ususual volcanoes because of its distint shape. Only standing at 9,178 feet, its tall, jagged, and pointed peak sticks up into the bright blue sky like a spear. Mt. Thielson, along with three other simalar looking peaks in the Cascades (Mt. Washington, Union Peak, and Three Fingered Jack) belong to an older period of Cascade Volcanism. Mt. Thieson is a strao-volcano standing on a much older shield volcano. Mt. Thieson's eruptions were highly explosive. During its early life, Mt. Thieson was nothing more than a few hundred feet high of pryroclastic material. But after many series of lava flows, dikes and plugs cover the pryoclastic cone. Lastly, a massive plug of andesite was created in the central vent. After glacial erosion, the jagged plug was exposed which is why Mt. Thieson looks like it does today. Its jagged top s ems to attract lightening bolts. The andesite plug now is filled with holes and some of it has actually vaporized or has melted due to the tremondous heat of the lightening bolt. Called fulgurites, these carrot shppped tubes form when the heat fuses the andesite. So if you ever decide to climb Mt. Theison, make sure there is no chance of thunderstorms in the area or you may become part of the melted jagged peak!"}, {"response": 197, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Jul 15, 2002 (16:30)", "body": "Mt. Washington is also a strato-volcano and is very much simalar to Mt. Thieson, except the plug which has formed inside the vent is basaltic instead of andestic. Its history is also quite simalar to Mt. Thielson. Both Mt. Thielson and Mt. Washington are severly eroded and MAY be extint. Three Fingered Jack is built on several shield lavas consisting of several overlaying cinder and composite cones. Later in its life, Three Fingered Jack became more explosive anf formed two other cones, one south and one north of its main vent. Once the main vent had been plugged, balsaltic lava continued to come from the north and south vents. Cone building probably ended about 200,000 years ago. Glaciers also severely eroded much of its flanks. But even though Mt. Thielson, Mt. Washington, and Three Fingered Jack are quite old their lavas only show normal paleomagnetic polarity so they are younger than 700,000 years old. Black Butte, only 6,415 feet tall stands next to Three Fingered Jack and Mt. Washington. Black But e,an almost perfectly symmetrical basaltic composite cone, has lavas that show reverse paleomagnetic polarity that means that it is older than 700,000 years old. Union Peak I don't know much about, except that it is about the same age as Mt. Thieson."}, {"response": 198, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Jul 15, 2002 (19:52)", "body": "There is also Mt. Bailey who is slightly younger than Mt. Thieson. Mt. Bailey's eruptions produced flows of andesite and scoriaceous lava. Mt. Bailey's last eruptions formed the explosion crater that is still visable today. Mt. Bailey looks like it has an ampithearter like Mt. St. Helens. Diamond Peak is also a strato-volcano made of basaltic andesite. But unlike Mt. Bailey, Diamond Peak still has glaciers on its slopes."}, {"response": 199, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (06:37)", "body": "Hi all I will do Lassen Peak. Lassen Peak is the southern most of the recognised Cascade mountains, and is located in Northern California near Shasta. It is a volcano with a geothermal area in the national park. Lassen Peak was the last volcano to erupt prior to Mount St Helens, and this occurred in 1915, but continued sporadically for at least two years. Lassen erupted explosively in September 1915 sending a large mushroom shaped cloud 11 kilometres into the sky. It also oozed a thick tongue of dacite out of the crater that is clearly visible from the air. Lassen will erupt again and some lahars are possible along with further explosive events, and lava flows. Rob"}, {"response": 200, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (18:11)", "body": "I decided to let Rob do my favorite and the most popular volcano on the west coast.....Mt. St. Helens. I will do Crater Lake though, since I will be going there hopefully for the second time next month. Crater Lake is a good example of what most of the Cascade Volcanoes are capable of doing. That is, blowing itself up completly and collapsing in on itself. About 6,900 years ago, Mt. Mazama, (currently known as Crater Lake) stood high above all the surrounding peaks. There was speculation that Mt. Mazama was at least 16,000 feet , which would have made it the tallest peak in the conitnental U.S. Then, around 6,845 years ago, Mt. Mazama erupted with a fury making it the world's greatest volcanic eruptions since the last ice age. The eruption began as a giant cloud of ash was ejected from one of the craters. The ash was carried 500,000 miles covering all of the western states and Canada. Rhyodacite pumice began to rain down to the earth. The vent where the cloud of ash and gas was coming from widened when the eruption column collapsed on itself. The enormous volume and weight of the erupting pumice caused a massive pyroclastic flow down the slopes of Mazama. As the magma chamber underneath the volcano was draining, Mazama began to collapse on to itself. As this was happening, parts of the volcano were craking forming new vents in the collapsing volcano. Thes cracks erupted huge quantities of pumice. This ended with a seires of giagantic pyroclastic flows that rushed up ridges and down valleys some traveling 40 miles away. Some of the deposits from the pryoclastic flows are 250 feet thick in some areas. One of these flows also formed what is now known as Pumice Desert, which is a very fascinating view as you drive thru the National Park. After Mazama had fallen back in to her restless slumber, rain and snow melt began to fill the depression forming what is now Crater Lake. One of the most fascinating and unusual things at Crater Lake is the fossilized fumaroles in Annie and Sand Creek Canyons. After the pyroclastic flows had stopped, they still remained very hot. Gases began to rise from the scoarching deposits to form cylinder shaped vents called fumaroles. Wizard Island is a small rhyodacite cone that sticks up above Crater Lake's surface. This may be the youngest formation but it is at least 6,000 years old. There is also many other cinder cones around Crater Lake. Some are submerged in Crater Lake's depths, but others were formed around the caldera rim, such as Applegate Peak, Mount Scott, Grouse Hill, Hillman Peak, and Garfield Peak. Garfield Peak and Mt. Scott are wonderful climbs with fantastic breath-taking views of the caldera. If Crater Lake were to erupt again its eruptions would probably produce ash and pyroclastic flows and maybe form new cinder cones and dacite composite cones. But......since Crater Lake has produced a wide range of lava types, including the rhyodacite, which is highly silicic, it is not safe to assume that future eruptions would be small. Some eruptions could compare to that of the catostropic eruption that took place 6,845 years ago. There are only a few volcanoes in the world that are like Crater Lake, which can produce violent and catostrophic caldera-forming eruptions that may occur numerous times."}, {"response": 201, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (18:32)", "body": "Newberry Volcano was once like Mt. Mazama, a towering volcano. But it too collapsed on to itself forming a depression. Two lakes fromed, Paulina and East Lakes separated by obsidian and basaltic flows. A climb up Paulina Peak will give you spectacular views of Newberry and all its attractions such as the lava flows, domes, flows of obsidian, and Central Pumice Cone which some believe is the former peak of the volcano before it collapsed on itself. Some of the most recent activity is Big Obsidian Flow which erupted about 1400 years ago. On the most northern section of the caldera wall is The Fissure, which is a 29 mile long rift zone that erupted basaltic lava flows about 6,100 years ago. Newberry, like Mazama, has erupted numerous different types of lavas. Some lava flows have reached as far as Bend. New cinder cones, domes, lava flows, and pyroclastic flows can erupt anyway inside the central depression or on the slopes and rim of the caldera wall. If the northwest rift one (The Fissure), were to erupt, it could pour out lava flows on to HWY 97 that could reach as far as Bend"}, {"response": 202, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (18:48)", "body": "I discovered that Lassen is just a peak on a much larger old volcano. Resurgent tome? Maidu was the first. Then came Tehema. Now lassen is a littlepeak on the great flanks of these much older volcanoes. Yes, it will erupt again!!!"}, {"response": 203, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (20:33)", "body": "This is the last one I will do today, Rob. So don't worry, I will let you catch up. I don't want to steal all of the Cascade Volcanoes *laughs* Mt. Bachelor a basaltic composite cone, located a few miles south from Broken Top, is mostly known for good skiing and wonderful views from the summit. Not much is known about Bachelor except that it erupted more than 6,900 years ago. If it were to erupt again the cone would grow larger and it may become one of the larger volcanoes in the state. There could also be a potential problem with mudflows effecting the north side of the ski resort."}, {"response": 204, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (22:43)", "body": "I almost forgot...I got half of the film developed from my trip to Arizona last Janurary and my trip to the Cascades this past May. I have some excellent shots, especially of Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainer, and the town of Orting which I know you are all dying to see, *laughs*. How do you upload pictures again? I forgot *kicks herself*"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (23:30)", "body": "Send your photos to me and I will FTP them to spring for you. Then you can post them as you wish, Julie! Meanwhile I await John's assisting me with the login and password to Geo's space there. *sigh*"}, {"response": 206, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (05:02)", "body": "Hi all The next one I am doing is Mt Baker in the northern part of Washington State. Mount Baker is a snow capped stratovolcano with Sherman crater nestling between the main summit and another peak. Baker experienced a dramatic increase in thermal activity during March 1975 and varied activity since then. The volcano erupted in 1843 badly polluting major fish carrying rivers, which impressed the local Indians. It has had pyroclastic flows, lahars, tephra fall and lava flows in the last 10,000 years. Future hazards, include pyroclastic flows and lahars, with possible lava flows emerging on the flanks of the volcano. Rob"}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (11:46)", "body": "I am just waiting for someone to do the Oregon Cascade I got to see from Shasta. That was unique in my experience! Great work, Rob and Julie. Volcanoes are wonderful and magnificent and swesome all at the same time!"}, {"response": 208, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (16:23)", "body": "I think someone should lock me out of my own topic because I can't control myself. *lauhging* I just luv volcanoes a little too much! Okay, firstly, there is two other features within Lassen Volcanic National Park that you should take note of. Chaos Crags is a massive dacite plug. Its eruptions were very violent. Pumice and ash would hurl itself down Manzanita Creek in giant avalanches. Chaos Crage probably formed about 1000 to 1200 years ago whihch isn't very long ago at all (in geologic sense). Then there is Cinder Cone which is a a 600 foot tall almost perfectly symmetirical cinder cone. Its last eruption was actually in 1850-1851 where it ejected fragmental material. But its youngest lava flows are about 150 years old. Cinder Cone's beautiful orange coloring attracts people who make the trek to the top. Lassen can also be climbed too. I climbed it 2 years ago. It was fun, but very tiring in the 90. F heat. There was only a little snow at the top when I went. The very top goes down into this lava canyon that is really cool. And if it isn't too hazy out, you can see some great views of Mt. Shasta and some of the other Cascade Volcanoes."}, {"response": 209, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (16:59)", "body": "Mt. Shasta, a 14,161 foot complex strato-volcano, is often seen with lenticular clouds swirling over the summit. This mysterous volcano has quite an interesting geologic history. One thing to notice is that Shasta isn't as eroded as Rainer and Hood. This is because the percipitation near Mt. Shasta area is much less and because its lava flows have been very large over the past few thousands of years. Some time about 300,000 years ago Shasta was a very large single volcano, but the north side of the volcano collapsed in one of the biggest avalanches ever. This eruption was probably very simalar to the way Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980. The last eruption of Mt. Shasta was in 1786. Pyroclastic flows and mudflows came roaring down the east side. One of the mud flows went 12 miles up Mud Creek. Black Butte, a very imressive looking dacite plug dome on Shastina's western base, was built about the same time as Shastina which was about 9,500 years ago. The most youngest part of Shasta is the present cone called Hotlum Cone. Most activity has been coming from Hotlum Cone for the last 9,000 years. Furture eruptions have simalar consequences as like Rainer. The towns of Weed and Mt. Shasta are built on ancient pyroclastic deposits. And McCloud is built on ancient mud flow deposits. I don't know if either of these 3 towns have a warning system like Orting has, but they definatly need it if they don't. Eruptions in the future will probably cause pyroclastic flows and mud flows that could definatly come in the direction of the three towns that lay right in the path of Shasta's fury. One should also worry about snow melt, which could rush down the Sacramento River and threaten Shasta Lake and Shasta Dam."}, {"response": 210, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (17:02)", "body": "Okay, okay, I'll stop stealing all the volcanoes! *kicks herself*"}, {"response": 211, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (07:20)", "body": "Hi all For a volcano of it's size, Mount Adams in WA is surprisingly inaccessible except if you are prepared to walk long distances and be gone for a few days. The volcano is east of Mount St Helens and is a stratocone comprising of mainly andesitic lavas. At 12276 feet and with a bulk only exceeded by Rainier, Adams has had a surprisingly quiet life, with very few pyroclastic flows, mudflows and tephra falls as opposed to its much more aggressive neighbours. For the most part activity seems to have consisted of quite andesitic lava flows and the odd cinder cone, and the book, \"Fire Mountains of the West\" S.L Harris suggests that this will remain the case for future eruptions. Rob"}, {"response": 212, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (14:38)", "body": "Julie, I had such great shots of Chaos crags and other places you mentioned... on my old hard drive. Alas they are gone,but I can see precisely what you arre talking about and, having read it in my Roadside Geology for Northern California, I know exactly what you are talking about. Honey, you are doing splendid work here. Steal all of the volcanoes. Rob can add his touches to what you have written.Since each one seems to have its own book-length manual availavle, I doubt you will run out of things to say about the Cascades!"}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (14:48)", "body": "Andesitic flows... Lassen is where I grabed a piece if for my collection -outside of the park, of course! I do have the most ancient chunk of an a'a flow (vesicles are all deformed instead of being perfectly round. I found it in the stream bed where I found the crinoids and geodes. If this is what I think it is - the volcanoes which were there before the Applachians formed - it is very old rock, indeed! It is brown instead of black and tumbled into a baking potato form. I'll photograph it for you and post it."}, {"response": 214, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jul 21, 2002 (05:11)", "body": "Hi all I shall do Jefferson today. I think Jefferson was in partial cloud when we saw the volcano in 1992, and I cannot remember very clearly, much about it. Jefferson was formed after the last significant magnetic reversal, which was about 700,000 years ago. The volcano has produced significant basaltic flows which well being significantly smaller than the basalts of shield volcanoes and fissures, make it an imposing volcano. Jefferson however has also had a violent period because magmas erupted in the most recent eruptions are turning silicic. Jefferson may be therefore moving into a phase of violent events and reports of her demise in that case could be called exaggerated, despite the 140,000 year dormancy of the main cone. Rob"}, {"response": 215, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Jul 21, 2002 (21:29)", "body": "Lava Beds National Monument and Medicine Lake Volcanic Area are both part of the Cascade Volcanic Range even though they are so far east. Lava Beds is an area composed of an interesting array of spatter cones, cinder cones, lava flows, and lava tubes. Over 400 lava tubes have been discovered and more are found every year. Schonchin Butte is a spatter cone that erupted ash and cinders about 30,000 years ago. This is a very popular climb. Mammoth Crater I think is one of the most interesting features in Lava Beds. Mammoth Crater is mostly responsible for making all the lava tubes in the monument when it erupted 30,000 years ago. Fleener Chimneys is a spatter cone that was created by globs of molten lava piling on top of each other. A hole is left in the center and that why it looks like a chimney. The hole is 50 feet deep. Some other interesting places is Captin Jacks Stronghold, Hospital Rock, Heppe Ice Cave, Symbol Bridge, and Petroglyph Point. There is also about 18 lava tubes you can explore as well. The whole area has a very interesting history. In 1872, a war broke out between the Modoc Indians and the settelers living there at that time. The many features in Lava Beds now serve as historic sites where this battle was fought. Medicine Lake Volcano is a shield volcano covering 900 square miles, that has erupted a verity of lavas from basalt to rhyolitic obsidian. Many eruptions were quite explosive and violent producing pyroclastic flows. The summit itself is considered a shallow caldera and is 6 miles across and 4 miles wide. Some unique features in Medicine Lake Volcanic Area are Paint Pot Crater, Burnt Lava Flow, Glass Mountain, and Little Glass Mountain. The last major eruption occured only 1,100 years ago. The area erupted violently, ejecting rhyolitic pumice. Glass Mountain and Little Glass Mountain now cover this pumice. Both of these vents erupted dacite and then later rhyolite. Glass Mountain last erupted in 1910."}, {"response": 216, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (02:34)", "body": "Mt Garibaldi is the northern most of the Cascade Range and connects with the Coast Mountains which is another chain of very old, glaciated volcanoes. The Coast Mountains are nothing as imressive as the rest of the Cascade Range, but they too have their own unique geologic history that helped shape the northern northwest parts of Canada. Garibaldi is a dacite stratovolcano made up of domes, pyroclastic flows, and lava flows. Garibaldi was last active about 250,000 years ago. Meager Mountain is northwest of Garabaldi. Meager Mountain is an eroded volcano and its last eruption was after the last ice age. The most recent eruption of the Coast Mountains was of Meager Mountain. About 2,400 years ago, Meager Mountain erupted blocks of rhyodacite 188 feet long."}, {"response": 217, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (05:45)", "body": "Hi all Today is the turn of the northern most volcano in Oregon, Mount Hood. Hood is visible from Portland along with Mount St Helens and Mount Adams. The volcano last erupted in 1865. It's geological history seems to have been composed of relatively intermittent explosive eruptions with mudflows, pyroclastic flows and various lavas added as well. This is shown in the Old Maid eruptive cycle which consisted of dacitic lava flows, and pyroclastic flows causing mudflows by melting the ice. The phase started with vent clearing eruptions removing older material and then dacite lavas started oozing from the summit. A large lahar entered the Zigzag River and this is thought to have occurred between 1770-1780 and was still visible when Lewis and Clark visited the area a couple decades later. But the climax was a large pyroclastic flow that destroyed a stand of trees creating the \"ghost forest\". Hood is a dormant volcano, lest anyone mistake the complete lack of activity last century and it will therefore erupt again. The volcano is known for it's pyroclastic flows and lahars, and unless Hood changes it's pattern of eruptive activity, the lahars, dacite domes and pyroclastic flows seem set to continue. Rob"}, {"response": 218, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (23:56)", "body": "There are 4 volcanic fields in the Cascade Range that not many people know about. Goat Rocks Volcanic Field, Indian Heaven Volcanic Field, Clear Lake Volcanic Field, and Simcoe Volcanic Field. Goat Rocks Volcanic Field is located in south central Oregon near Mt. Adams. Vents in the volcanic field began to form small clusters of volcanoes throughout the area during the past million years. The Goat Rocks Volcano was formed about 2.5 to 0.5 million years ago. This volcanic cone can still be seen and is located 70 kilometers west of Yakima and 15 kilometers south of White Pass. Indian Heaven Volcanic Field is located between Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams. Its main feature is a 30 kilometer chain of shield volcanoes, cinder cones, and lava flows. This volcanic field has been the most recnet active of all the other volcanic fields. Clear Lake Volcanic Field lies within the San Andreas Fault system in the northern coast ranges of California. Although this is part of the Cascade Range it was formed entirely differntly. Rather than subduction, which is the way the rest of the Cascade Volcanic Range was formed, Clear Lake Volcanic Field was formed by the the pulling apart of the San Andreas Fault system. The range varies in basalt to rhyolite in composition. Some of the volcanoes in the field formed the closest to the subduction plate boundary of any other volcanoes in the world! So this may be something interesting to keep watch over, esecially given its area in a very tectonically active zone. Simcoe Volcanic Field is located south and southeast of Mt. Adams. 24 cinder cones cross the center of the field and more are seen to the south. Most of the features in this volcanic field probably formed between 4.5 to 0.5 million years ago."}, {"response": 219, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (00:48)", "body": "You don'tmind if I borrow this lava field post to send to David. I'd love to see it some time - one or the other of them. I had no idea the lava fields existed!"}, {"response": 220, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (01:42)", "body": "Not many do unless you study the Cascades as obssesivly as I do *laughs*. You find out many unusual and fascinating things that are not too well known."}, {"response": 221, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (05:36)", "body": "McKenzie Pass, located between Bend and Eugene is a very fascinating desert of black basalt, fern forests which hides one of the most beautiful water falls on the west coast, Proxy Falls, and cinder cones. Nesseled in the middle of these massive lava flows is Belknap Crater, Little Belknap Crater, and Yapoah Cinder Cone. A smaller crater named South Belknap lies on the south flanks of Belknap Crater. South Belknap last erupted only 1,800 years ago. About 2,900 years ago, basaltic lava erupted from Little Belknap, which is located about a mile east from the main crater. The Dee Wright Observatory was built on top of a massive lava flow that erupted from the Yapoah Cinder Cone. The last eruption was about 1,500 years ago, when ash and blocky basalt exploded from the main crater flowing 12 miles west into the McKenzie Canyon floor. More blocky lava flows and tephra can be expected in future eruptions from any of the craters and vents."}, {"response": 222, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (05:45)", "body": "Broken Top is a stratovolcano composed of basaltic andesite. The 9,175 foot volcano was once much higher but it has been severely eroded. During its cone building stages, the summit collapsed many times. Its eruptions erupted tephra and caused massive pyroclastic flows. Lavas varied from basaltic to rhyodacite. Finally, a plug of micronorite formed in the cones central vent. Broken Top hasn't erupted for thousands and thousands of years so it MAY be extinct."}, {"response": 223, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (06:00)", "body": "Hi all Julie and I have a surprise in store but (HUSH!! Julie, we are not telling anyone are we??)you will have to wait for it. Hehehehehe!!!!! ---- Anyway todays volcano from Rob is the first of the Three Sisters triumvirate. I have chosen the North Sister to do today, and her sibling volcanoes tomorrow and Thursday. But put your hands together for the North Sister. North Sister is tne northernmost of the Sisters triumvirate and is heavily eroded to the point that one would be hard pressed to find a crater. The volcano has not had any eruptive activity since before the last glaciation which suggests it is extinct. The volcano has numerous dikes that invaded the cone during the final stages. At the volcano's peak, the summit was about 11,000 feet above sea level and it had a base 15-20 miles in diameter. So what future activity will come from North Sister? Well the cone itself is probably extinct, judging by the glaciation, but it may sprout cinder cones around the flanks. But all in all North Sister is probably extinct. Rob"}, {"response": 224, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (15:53)", "body": "Despite Rob's cruel streak I find his posts amazingly interesting and entertaining. Shhhh don't tell him or it will just feed his ego! *;)"}, {"response": 225, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Jul 23, 2002 (19:49)", "body": "Woooohooooo! I just picked up the last of the photos from my last two trips today. I will look through them tonight and hopefully post them by the end of this week. I am so glad I haven't sent the video tape of my trip to you yet, Marcia. I plan to take the camcorder again when I go back to the Cascades in August, so when I finally send you the tape it really will have a bit of everything for all of you to see. In fact, it looks like Mom and Dad want to see a little bit of the coast in Oregon too. So not only will you get to see the entire Cascade Range, but you will also get to see the beautiful coastline scenery and other surprises as well. We are going to some very fascinating places. I will let you all know about them soon, or I might just keep them a secret until I come back *laughing evily*."}, {"response": 226, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jul 24, 2002 (01:38)", "body": "Hi all Hehehehehe!!!! Grinning brilliantly, Rob dashes off to find the Middle Sister. \"ROB!!!\" \"Mid Sis!! How are you??\" They embrace. ----- At 10,047 feet Middle Sister is a volcano with few distinctions, but whose appearance as anything in particular is saved by the east face. This side has been stripped away leaving the volcano with few other notable features - no summit crater like her southern sister or the grand pinnacles of the northern sister. This is also a volcano about which not much is known and therefore one is reluctant to say the Middle Sister has had it's day or not. The Diller and Hayden Glaciers are eating into the volcano thus removing any crater that or recognisable vent. So what of it's future? Hard to say. It should be noted that just because the volcano is quiet for the time being, does not necessarily mean the Middle Sister is extinct. Rob"}, {"response": 227, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jul 25, 2002 (02:18)", "body": "Hi all Tonight is the turn of the South Sister. South Sister, as the name suggests, is the southernmost of the Sisters triumvirate in the Cascade Range. The volcano is the best preserved of the three and the most recently active of them. South Sister has a steep andesite and dacite cone that formed before the Pleistocene because evidence of glacial activity in that era is visible. There is also a small amount of basaltic lava present. More recently rhyodacite lava domes and flows have been erupted (about 2000 years old). South Sister is evidently developing a silicic magma reservoir that may mean it could blow apart with the ferocity of Mazama. While dormant, South Sister is part of a playground for tourists and locals alike. The volcano is not characterised as yet by pyroclastic flows or lahars as so many of the other volcanoes in the Cascades are. If the future of South Sister is dependent on the magma reservoir below, the outlook is not good. As mentioned the silicic magma underneath means future eruptions may be violent. The volcano also seems to be following an interesting pattern of erupting smaller volumes of other lavas types. ---- \"Thy gracious sister,\" the Middle Sister wept. \"Surely it is not true that you are considering self destructing\". Rob"}, {"response": 228, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 26, 2002 (14:15)", "body": "Sheesh... a dramatic volcanologist!!! Oh well. Better than no Volcanologist at all. Not bad, Rob dear. You have talents I suspect none of us yet know abut. I can hardly wait."}, {"response": 229, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 26, 2002 (14:16)", "body": "... If you need a sister to explode all over you, might I lend you mine?"}, {"response": 230, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Jul 26, 2002 (23:34)", "body": "There is one important thing about the South Sister that you all should take note of and thats the recent uplift. The ground surface has risen 4 inches from 1996 to 2000. The recent uplift is probably being caused by magma slowly accumulating about 4 miles below the surface. Earthquakes and gas emissions still remain low, but the uplift still continues. Satilites, radar, and seismographs have been put in differnt areas around the South Sister to moniter the uplift and what ever changes it may make. If there were to be an eruption, there would probably be plenty of time to evacuate tha areas, since the area around there is not very populated anyway. So now its just a waiting game to see what happens and there is also a chance that nothing will happen. But we will watch and wait to see if the South Sister is the next volcano in the continental U.S to erupt. http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Sisters/WestUplift/framework.html Julie"}, {"response": 231, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 27, 2002 (18:22)", "body": "Hmmm!!! That is exciting. Is there anything population-wise to worry about in the near vicinity to this swelling?"}, {"response": 232, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Jul 27, 2002 (20:07)", "body": "Sisters and Bend are the only cities or towns that are close to it. Sisters population is 700 and Bends population is 20,400. These cities are close by, but they are not near the swelling. I was near the area where the swelling is when I was climbing the South Sister last August. The biggest danger would be simialar to what some people were doing before Mt. St. Helens erupted in May 1980 and thats camping, climbing, hiking, or doing whatever in the wilderness near the volcano. The trail we went on to climb the South Sister was packed with people and so was the campground area. The South Sister is the second most popular climb in Oregon after Mt. Hood. There's also many other trials that people use to climb and to hike around the Three Sisters Wilderness. Hopefully, if the South Sister were to erupt, there would be enough of a warning so hikers and climbers could be evacuated."}, {"response": 233, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 28, 2002 (17:22)", "body": "Go check rocks Geo 21. I posted my kentucky lava !"}, {"response": 234, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jul 29, 2002 (06:27)", "body": "Hi all This the last volcano before Julie and I spring the twin headed surprise: My volcano today is the southern Sentinel of Oregon, Mount McLoughlin. Mount McLoughlin is a volcano that has had a quiet life with the only pyroclastics being produced during the early stages of the volcano. McLoughlin is however a curious volcano in that it is what I call a super cinder cone - a stunning 3000ft high cone of cinders, bombs and other debris that one would have thought is somehow pasted together by lava, but is not. There is no lava covering or pasting together the upper cinders in the cone. What keeps the cone however does involve lava and it would appear that McLoughlin then erupted a thin layer of andesitic lava from the central vent and that formed a hard shell over the cinders. During the third phase of the volcano's life large amounts of andesite lava were erupted from vents now called North and South Squaw, along with two other flows that came from near the South Squaw vent and the northeastern cirque. The latter is spread over the glacial moraines and the landslide deposits in the area. Mount McLoughlin is likely to continue the eruptions of andesite in the future though it is acknowledged that pyroclastic eruptions may resume at some stage. Rob"}, {"response": 235, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jul 30, 2002 (07:36)", "body": "Hi all Today the first part of the surprise with an old favourite is sprung. I choose Mount St Helens, because of its enduring popularity, easy access to information about and a jolly good yarn. It is also a volcano very close to my heart being for a while my all time favourite volcano. Basic information about Mount St Helens: Mount St Helens is located in southwestern Washington State and is the centre piece of a National Volcanic Monument covering 110,000 hectares in a tribute to one of the most famous eruptions of the 20th Century. The volcano is about 40,000 years old, though the existing cone was largely formed in the last 400-500 years. Eruptions in the 1800s were especially notable in 1832-1857 when off and on events went on for 25 years. Lava consists of mainly dacites with basalts also found and a large lava tube big enough to walk through found on the south flank of the volcano. Evidence exists that the oldest known deposits are 37,600 old and that the volcano has had several distinct phases involving dome growth, pyroclastic flows, lava flows, and a lateral blast about 1150 years ago. The volcano also produced lahars that poured down the Lewis River. Beginning in 1800 the 57 year Goat Rocks period of eruptive activity began. It started with a dacitic explosion which alarmed the local Indians who had as a consequence a hard winter and crop shortages. The phase reached a striking similarity to 1980 when the volcano began spewing ash onto pristine snow covered slopes. On April 17 1857, the volcano was noted to be: \"emitting huge volumes of smoke and fire in a grand and sublime spectacle\". The stage was now set for the 1980 sequence. ---- \"one step at a time, if I can just keep going. It's pitch black in here... at this time I honestly believe I'm dead...\" Standing high on a ridge covered in pine trees and douglas firs with a covering of snow, he overlooks a lake frozen in ice. A land of grand beauty and graceful mountains, clear cold running streams and a myriad of wildlife. Rising before him and sweeping majestically to a height of 9677ft the graceful cone of Mount St Helens dominated the skyline true to Indian mythology about the guardian of the Columbia River. In the village below the tourists and campers flocked to the glorious Spirit Lake, quite unaware that this time the following year the Fujiyama of the USA would be a loaded gun starring down the volcanologists, the State Government, the landowners and the locals. ---- 123 years of relative calm came to end on March 20, 1980 when a seismometer in a basement in Seattle made a decisive twitch. A significant earthquake event had just been recorded by a United States Geological Survey (USGS)seismometer under a volcano in western Washington state. After consulting the USGS office in Denver the seismologists on duty decided it was volcanic in origin. A trip was immediately organised for the following day to install more seismographs around the volcano. In the meantime at the volcano a sustained drum beat of tremors was steadily playing out on the seismographs. Despite the earthquakes which people were noticing at the volcano, the mountain was not yet news. President Jimmy Carter had just announced the US boycott of the Moscow Olympics because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It soon would be. As the USGS assembled its staff to pool their knowledge together about how Mount St Helens had behaved in the past, magma was beginning to rise with the cone. The curtain was about to go up on the first Act. Just after 12.30PM on March 27, an aircraft pilot flying near Mount St Helens noted black stains on the pristine white snow, and a plume rising out of the volcano. A red zone was established to protect people from any increase in activity as the volcano revved. On March 30 93 small explosions occurred in the crater as magma continue it's intrusion. It was fast becoming the biggest show in the Pacific northwest. People flocked to see the volcano and get a sample of the action. No one cared that it was growing more restless by the day. As April wore on explosions and the earthquakes continued. A USGS scientist named Don Swanson who had spent much of his career climbing the volcano went one night to relieve another geologist monitoring the volcano, and noted something terrifying. The whole north face looked grotesquely distorted. \"It was terrifying. I wanted to turn around and leave right away.\" Initially though the bulge was not identified as the biggest threat, because it was a newly identified feature. But as the magma rose in the volcano, the north face began to bulge grotesquely outwards. Locals were starting to get impatient with the volcano with some wishing it would just blow and go. Timber companies complained of losing revenue because of being restricted by the red zone around the volcano. But quite rightly the authorities remained steadfast in their refusal. No one could have known the full dimensions despite the ominous presence of the bulg"}, {"response": 236, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Jul 30, 2002 (22:23)", "body": "Excellent work Rob! I don't think I could have done it any better myself. Now, finally for the grand finale.......(drum roll please).......The most explosive volcano in Washington State is........Glacier Peak. Glacier Peak lies 70 miles northeast of Seattle and is one of the most remote volcanoes in the Cascade Range. There are no roads near the base. The closest access road is at least 10 miles away. Even trying to get a good view of this magnificent peak is almost impossible. But don\ufffdt be fooled...Glacier Peak has quite an extensive eruptive history and has produced some of the largest and most explosive eruptions in the state. About 13,100 years ago, Glacier Peak produced 9 tephra eruptions in less than a few hundred years. The largest tephra eruption ejected more than 5x as much tephra as the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Tephra from these eruptions was carried thousands and thousands of miles across the country. Deposits were 12 inches thick in eastern Washington and over an inch thick in Montana. During Glacier Peak\ufffds eruptive episodes, lava domes formed on the summit and flanks of the volcano. Pyroclastic flow deposits can be seen covering the valley east and west of Glacier Peak. Glacier Peak has also produced dozens of lahars that have severely affected river valleys. The Stillaguamish River valley at Arlington, more than 60 miles downstream from Glacier Peak, has lahar deposits 7 feet thick. Some of these lahars flowed down the North Fork Stillaguamish River and the Skagit River and out into the Puget Sound. Giant landslides on the flanks of Glacier Peak have also created lahars. Some were hundreds of feet deep and traveled all the way out to sea as well. Glacier Peak will erupt again someday. Future eruptions could eject catastrophically large quantities of pyroclastic material. Glacier Peak may again send devastating lahars down river valleys to farms and settlements were thousands of people now live. Areas tens of miles downwind and downstream, as far as the Puget Sound could be severely devastated in future eruptions of Glacier Peak."}, {"response": 237, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jul 31, 2002 (01:42)", "body": "Well there you go. Rob and I have given a brief history of every volcano in the Cascade Range. So let's sum a few things up. Firstly, the most explosive volcanoes in the Cascade Range are...Crater Lake, Glacier Peak, and Mt. St. Helens: Crater Lake with its violent pumice eruptions, pyroclastic flows, and collapsing summit, Glacier Peak with its enormous tephra eruptions and devastating lahars, and Mt. St. Helens with its lethal lateral blast, deadly pyroclastic flow, and catastrophic mudflow. Volcanoes have always been around to unleash their deadly forces. It is us that have moved next to them and built around them. The most dangerous volcanoes in the Cascade Range in terms of location to cities and towns are...Mt. Shasta, Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainer, and Mt. Baker. The three small towns of Weed, Mount Shasta, and McCloud lay right in the shadows of Mt. Shasta. Mt. Hood hovers over Portland and about a dozen other towns. The towns of Orting, Puyallup, Enumclaw, Greenwater, Sumenr, Auburn, Electron, and Longmire all lay in the wrath of Rainer\ufffds deadly lahars. Mt. Baker stands over the city of Bellingham. Before Mt. St. Helens and Lassen Peak the Cascades were considered just scenic mountains. But since these past two eruptions scientists have learned a great deal about what the Cascade Volcanoes are capable of. We will never again portray our mountains as just standing rocks, but now mountains of fire capable of unleashing Mother Nature\ufffds fury."}, {"response": 238, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jul 31, 2002 (01:53)", "body": "The next thing I will be doing soon is posting photos I have taken from my trips of every Cascade Volcano as well as some of the most fascinating and beautiful areas in the Pacific Northwest."}, {"response": 239, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jul 31, 2002 (11:18)", "body": "That'll be worth waiting for!"}, {"response": 240, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 31, 2002 (22:36)", "body": "Please Julie, send them to marci@aloha.net and I will get them to where you can post them and resized for easy downloading. I can't wait!!! Rob, splendid job. I have chicken skin from reading... I hope you regenerate for the next catastrophic eruption to let us know what it was like being there."}, {"response": 241, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (21:40)", "body": ""}, {"response": 242, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (21:46)", "body": "Woooooo Hooooooo Julie!"}, {"response": 243, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:27)", "body": "Thanks Marcia for helping me out with this. I didn't think I was ever going to be able to post right. You are the greatest! This first photo is of Lassen Peak from Devastated Area in Lassen Volcanic National Park. The Devastated Area is where the pryroclastic surge came roaring down the slopes and destroyed everything in its path."}, {"response": 244, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:42)", "body": ""}, {"response": 245, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:42)", "body": "Me and my big mouth!"}, {"response": 246, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:47)", "body": ""}, {"response": 247, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:51)", "body": "Woohoo! Lol. I was getting worried there for a second. This is Bumpus Hell part of Lassen Volcanic National Park, which is an impressive diplay of thermal vents emitting steam and sulfur. There is also some mud volcanoes that are very fascinating to watch. The walkway is the only part people are allowed to walk on. Venture off that and you may be severely burned or even death."}, {"response": 248, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (02:19)", "body": ""}, {"response": 249, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (02:21)", "body": "Here is Black Butte, the 2,500 foot high dacite plug dome on Shastina's western base."}, {"response": 250, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (02:22)", "body": ""}, {"response": 251, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (02:24)", "body": "This is a somewhat hazy picture of Mt. Shasta and Shastina. Shasta is the one on the left and Shastina is on the right."}, {"response": 252, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (02:26)", "body": ""}, {"response": 253, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (02:27)", "body": "Mt. Shasta at 14,161 feet."}, {"response": 254, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (02:32)", "body": ""}, {"response": 255, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (02:34)", "body": "I was standing right at the rim to take this so thats why it looks so big. This is Mammoth Crater, a very large cinder cone that produced most of the lava in Lava Beds National Monument."}, {"response": 256, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (02:35)", "body": ""}, {"response": 257, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (02:38)", "body": "Schonchin Butte in Lava Beds National Monument. If you look very carefully, you can make out a tiny tower on top of the crater on the left side. This is the Watch Tower."}, {"response": 258, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug  3, 2002 (00:14)", "body": "Well done, Julie! I deleted your maiden mistake. Welcome to the happy family of html programmers who occasinally still make mistakes. Except for John. He is perfection personified. *sigh*"}, {"response": 259, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:16)", "body": "Mt. McLoughlin, Oregon"}, {"response": 260, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:29)", "body": "Crater Lake and Wizard Island, Oregon Crater Lake National Park- the Pinnacles in Annie's Creek. These are the remaniants of ancient fumaroles Crater Lake-Two boats steer towards Ship Phantom Ship, which is the remains of a dike in the oldest parts of the caldera wall. Mt. Scott loomes in the background"}, {"response": 261, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:30)", "body": "Ohhhhhhhhh....I am good! Hehehe."}, {"response": 262, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:34)", "body": "\"Lightening Rod of the Cascades\" Mt. Thielson, Oregon"}, {"response": 263, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:37)", "body": "Lava Butte of Newberry National Volcanic Monument, Oregon"}, {"response": 264, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:41)", "body": "Mt. Bachelor, Oregon"}, {"response": 265, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:47)", "body": "Broken Top, Oregon"}, {"response": 266, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:56)", "body": "Middle Sister on the left and The Husband on the right, Mc Kenzie Pass, Oregon South Sister as seen near Moraine Lake"}, {"response": 267, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (18:28)", "body": "Upper Proxy Falls, MC Kenzie Pass, Oregon Lower Proxy Falls, MC Kenzie Pass, Oregon"}, {"response": 268, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (18:33)", "body": "Belknap Crater, Oregon Mt. Washington, Oregon Mt. Jefferson, Oregon"}, {"response": 269, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (18:46)", "body": "Mt. Hood at sunset, Oregon Climbing Mt. Hood near Timberline Lodge Mt. Hood as seen from Trillum Lake Multanomah Falls cascades 620 feet down basalt cliffs in Colombia River Gorge Scenic Area, Oregon"}, {"response": 270, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (18:57)", "body": "It seems I forgot a few things. Three Fingered Jack lays between Mt. Washington and Mt. Jefferson. I did not get a picture of it. Three Fingered Jack is easily identified by its impressive summit pinnacles, which gives it its name. Mt. Bailey near Crater Lake and Mt. Thielson I also did not get a picture of. But Mt. Bailey looks a lot like Mt. St. Helens because of its open ampitheater."}, {"response": 271, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (19:02)", "body": "Okay, actually I missed a lot of other things too, but the pictures I posted are the MAIN features of the Cascades. If I were to show pictures of everything I would be posting for weeks, maybe months. The Cascade volcanoes of Washington are coming up next, including the long awaited Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainer, and special footage of the town of Orting."}, {"response": 272, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (20:39)", "body": "julie, you are getting waaay good at this!"}, {"response": 273, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Aug  6, 2002 (02:26)", "body": "Hi all GEE WHIZ!!! This is impressive!!! Rob"}, {"response": 274, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug  6, 2002 (18:48)", "body": "Wow Julie!!! There is a new batch waiting for you at Spring's hard drive! She's amazing as usual! Hugs, Little sister!"}, {"response": 275, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  8, 2002 (03:27)", "body": "Mt. Adams as seen from south side of Mt. St. Helens Mt. Adams from Mt. Adams Recreational Area after sunset Icicles from inside Ice Cave in Mt. Adams Recreational Area More icicles in Ice Cave. The big one hanging from the roof was the one that fell on my head shortly after taking this picture, lol"}, {"response": 276, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug  9, 2002 (03:38)", "body": "Hi everyone! I thought I was leaving Friday morning but now we are leaving Saturday morning instead due to a family conflict. Anyway, on Saturday morning we are leaving from Santa Ana, California and heading north up the state to Cresent City, the last city before the Oregon border and also one of the cities that was severely damaged by the tsunami that sped out like a shock wave across the Pacific during the Alaskan earthquake in 1964. I don't know where we are headed from there. Unlike Sean and I, my parents don't plan trips. They just go day by day. So I have only a clue where we may be going. The only thing I know for sure is Brandon Beach and of course Crater Lake. Brandon Beach is a beautiful beach on the coast of southern Oregon. Its one of the best places in the western U.S to find agates. And let me tell you something...the beaches in the Pacific Northwest are absolutly spectacular. They place right behind Hawaii's amazing black sand beaches as far as I am concerened. Since my topic also includes the Pacific Northwest, I will give a description and maybe a photo of several of them some time. Anyway, as for Crater Lake...I decided to take my wetsuit with me. As long as its not cold out and not raining I will take the plunge into the cold icy waters of Crater Lake. 43. F or about 6. C is the water temperature. I will have Mom video tape it too as proof and to see how much I scream in shock from the cold, lol. Then I can say I swam in a volcano *laughing* Yes, I already know I am volcanically insane. I'll be back probably on the 19th or 20th with a full report of my trip. I will also post my remaining photos of the Cascade Volcanoes when I get back as well. Stay safe and see you all soon."}, {"response": 277, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Aug 10, 2002 (05:51)", "body": "Hi all But Julie knows that I went one step ahead of her a few years ago, and swam in a caldera - Taupo. A caldera maybe 700 square kilometres in size (bigger than the Mount St Helens devastation zone), and with the biggest fresh water lake in New Zealand. Rob"}, {"response": 278, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Aug 13, 2002 (07:38)", "body": "Hi all Not meaning to steal the show here, but I want to direct you to Robs Geo World, where the New Zealand variant of the Cascades Volcano, which Julie and I took you on, can be found. I am doing the major volcanoes of New Zealand and a couple of them have special features (personal accounts based on what I saw with my own eyes)of various volcanoes. So anyway can you please go here and have a look: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/64 Thanks heaps, and feel free to comment on the volcanoes of the \"Shaky Isles\". Rob"}, {"response": 279, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (22:05)", "body": "Great stuff on your topic, Rob. All you need is a digital camera so we can see what you are talking about. Julie, if I am missing anything from you to put on Spring's hard drive, please remind me."}, {"response": 280, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (18:43)", "body": "I am back, unfortunatly. Just got in a few hours ago. What an annoying, depressing, and tiring trip!! UGH! I am so exhausted. Imagine driving 700 miles in one day with only a few 5 minute bathroom stops. Thats how far it was from Santa Ana, CA to Cresent City, CA. I honor you if you can sit in the car for 12 hours straight staring at close to nothing but endless fields of cows and dead grass. More than 60% of the trip was just driving. I thought I was going to go crazy. In fact, some parts of the trip I think I did. Funny thing is my health was great in Oregon. My headaches that I have every day completly vanished. My allergies seemed to vanish. A few hours after we got back into California my headches came back again. What is it besides severe pollution that Oregon doesn't have? I don't get it and its making me very frustrated and depressed. I got relief from my pain and now its back again. Hey, maybe when I tell my doctor this and he will send me to Oregon and have the insurance pay for it. Yeah right! Guess I will have to have headaches a little longer. It was nice while it lasted. I got lots more to share about my trip. Besides a few of my complaints, I did have fun.....for 1 day *sigh* I'll talk about my trip later. For now I am going to eat and then sleep and enjoy my last few days of summer break even though I know thats not possible."}, {"response": 281, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (19:16)", "body": "Julie, the same happens to me when I flee Hawaii and the problems at home. Even if I have lungs full of eruption fumes, it is magical in the way it cures us.I think being away from stress home seems to engender makes this happen. I cannot think of a worse scenario that your castle and safety making you sick, but I can think of several of us in that situation. *HUGS* and welcome home! Geo is all warm and cuddly to wrap around you to make you feel better. I'll be online in a few - I need to go eat supper first! Talk later?!"}, {"response": 282, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug 22, 2002 (21:04)", "body": "I am going to tell about my trip part by part cause it will be too long otherwise. So here is Cascade Adventure 2002 Continued with Coast..... Saturday, August 10th, 2002: We woke up and left Santa Ana, CA at 7:00am. Went up I-5. Stopped at Buttonwillow for a bathroom break. It was barely 9:30am and it was already in the mid 90\ufffds out. Another bathroom stop at Coalinga. Stopped at Gustine for gas and Patterson for an interesting lunch at Subway. There was nothing but yellow and brown grass, cows, and windmills for miles. We finally turned on I-580 into San Francisco. We passed over the Nimitz Freeway at around 2:15pm. Nimitz Freeway was severely damaged when it collapsed on dozens of cars in the Loma Prieta Earthquake on October 17th, 1989. We stopped in Novato for another bathroom stop and crossed over to HWY 101 heading towards Eureka, CA. Scenery was beginning to change. Now pines and birch could be seen. We finally arrived in Eureka at 7:30pm. We arrived at our motel shortly after sunset. It was nice and cool out cause we were finally near the coast. We left the motel to go eat dinner, but Dad accidentally went down a one-way street the wrong way. He did that in San Francisco several times before too. Luckily there were no cops around. After dinner we got back to the motel to go to sleep, but I find cookie crumbs in my bed. Hey, it wasn\ufffdt me! So Dad calls the maid in and they change the sheets right in front of us. Ugh! This is why I like to camp instead of staying in motels. Yuck! I tried to sleep but I just couldn\ufffdt. Suddenly the lights flicker on by themselves startling me awake. This place is haunted!"}, {"response": 283, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug 22, 2002 (21:08)", "body": "Sunday, August 11th, 2002: We woke up and packed up. Went to McDonalds for breakfast. I had dipping dots. I think they are only a California thing, but maybe they are elsewhere too. Dipping Dots are supposedly ice cream that is kind of drier but melts just like ice cream and in the shape of tiny round balls. We then went to Carson\ufffds Mansion, which was owned by a lumberjack in the 1800\ufffds. While we were taking pictures, we ran into 3 people from Brisbane, Australia who were biking down the California coast all the way to San Diego. That\ufffds over 800 miles away! We wished them luck and headed towards Humboldt State University area in Arcata and visited a small redwood grove. We then went to Trinidad to see Trinidad state beach and lighthouse. I decided to walk down the 500 steps to Indian Beach to look for rocks and orange sea stars. We then headed to Crescent City to see the Crescent City Lighthouse. A lighthouse keeper was still operating the lighthouse. We were told there is hardly any like that anymore. This lighthouse though was on an island so you could only get to it when the tide was very low. When we got done with the tour I climbed down to the rocks to explore the tide pools. I was gently picking up one of the purple sea stars when Dad yells at me that the water is coming in. I turn to look and realize the tide has come in. I put the sea star down and rush over to the water\ufffds edge. The dry area that we had all walked over a few hours ago was now covered in ankle-knee deep water. People were crowding around on the other side of the beach watching idiots like me cross the water. I took off my shoes and waded carefully thru the water and back on to the other side. A few hours later that ankle deep water was 7 feet deep with strong currents rolling in from every angle. We then headed on to Point St. George, which used to be a lighthouse until it was destroyed in a storm. I stood on a cliff looking down at the beach and watched the waves come in one after another. They come in differently than they do in southern California. The waves come in more frequently further north and are more dangerous with its stronger currents. After a lunch at Jack in the Box at Crescent City, we crossed over the Oregon border and headed to Oregon Caves National Monument. We could smell the smoke from the Biscuit Fire almost immediately after entering Oregon. It was really severe when we got out of the car at Oregon Caves National Monument parking lot. The 100 degree Fahrenheit heat didn\ufffdt make things any easier either. We took the 5:15pm tour of the caves. Oregon Caves was quite fascinating. They are wet limestone caves, so things were quite active inside there. There was a river running right through. The formations in the cave were so fascinating like the cave bacon, the bananas, the stalagmites, and stalagmites, and other weird formations whose names I forgot. The cave went down 220 feet below the surface. What\ufffds most interesting about this cave is something not many other caves have and that is the fact that is has all 3-rock types. Most of it is made of marble and calcite. But there is also sandstone as well as granite and basalt. An ancient volcano 3 miles east of the monument formed the bottom chamber millions of years ago. There is also the evidence of a jagged fault on the cave ceiling. Pretty scary I would imagine being inside that cave if that fault ever were to rupture. After the tour we bought a few post cards and headed back to the car. The sun was a strange orange color cause the smoke had covered the entire sky. We drove into Grants Pass and checked into a motel. We ate dinner at Pizza Hut and then went up the road to look at the stars. I saw 4 meteors in less than a minute! We then went back to the motel and went to sleep."}, {"response": 284, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug 22, 2002 (21:15)", "body": "Monday, August 12th, 2002: We woke up and had breakfast at the motel. Before leaving Grants Pass we went to the campgrounds Sean and I stayed at last August when we were in Oregon and asked them if they had any lost sunglasses. I had lost mine last year in the campgrounds and stupidly I thought maybe they would have them a year later. Yeah right! The guy laughed at me and probably thought I was crazy. Oh well. We then drove to Merlin to see Hells Canyon overlook. I wanted a closer look so I climbed down to the edge of the cliff and peered over. The Rogue River, which is a famous river in Oregon cuts through the canyon like a jagged knife. Most of the rocks are basalt. After that we went to the market to get some more food in Medford and had sandwiches for lunch. Finally we drove to the destination I had been waiting for...Crater Lake. The smoke was very thick though and once we got into the park itself we could barely see much in front of us. We decided to stay at the cottages that were just outside the park boundary. We then headed back to Rim Village to look at the gift store and eat dinner at the buffet upstairs. It would have been nice to eat at the lodge but not for $20.00 per person. Looking at the overlooks were useless cause the entire caldera and all the scenery around it was covered in smoke. It looked like there had been a giant silent eruption cause the smoke was so thick. After dinner, we went to the historic lodge to look around. About that time the sky started to clear as the wind changed direction. Crater Lake, Mt. Thielsen, and the other peaks appeared out of nowhere. It was kind of eerie. Once it got dark out, I went with an astronomy group to the caldera rim where we set out telescopes and learned about different constellations, stars, galaxies, as well as watch the meteors from the Persieds meteor shower. We could see some galaxies and stars that can\ufffdt be seen in many other places along the west coast due to how dark the sky was and our location which was about 50 miles or more in any direction from every town and city. We saw so many meteors. Some of them whirled by quickly faster than I could blink. Others seemed to go by so slowly that you could follow the hazy orange and white trails of glittering dust as they soared across the sky. It was absolutely spectacular. But Mom and Dad said it was time to go so we left, went back to the cottage and went to sleep."}, {"response": 285, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug 22, 2002 (22:46)", "body": "Tuesday, August 13th, 2002: We woke up and after packing the car headed to Cleetwood Cove Trail. The ranger told us that things look very clear in the morning. The smoke seems to come in the afternoon. The trail down was quite steep but very easy in my opinion. Mom and Dad thought differently. I got down to the bottom first and waited patiently for them. We took the 11:00am boat for a tour around the caldera. We stopped at many places such as Steel Bay, Llalo Rock, and Devils Backbone as the ranger gave us history on each formation. Then as we neared Wizard Island he announced that people who wanted to get off should take a special ticket from him before we got off so we could get back on the boat again later in the day. Mom and I got off, but Dad didn\ufffdt. He has a bad knee so he would wait for us back at the top near Cleetwood Cove Trail. There were two trails on Wizard Island. One was to go to Fumarole Bay which I imagine is quite similar to The Pinnacles near Annie\ufffds Canyon and the other was the obvious climb to the summit of Wizard Island. Mom and I and many other people took the climb to the summit. At first there were many trees shading us from the rays of the sun, but soon we left the tree line and were hit hard by the near 100-degree temperatures. It was quite tough hiking up the last 2 switchbacks but when I reached the top I realized it had been well worth it. I walked around the crater rim a few times taking pictures and admiring the spectacular view. It was then that I realized I had just climbed a volcano inside a volcano! Wow! Mom finally appeared at the summit a few minutes after me. I was quite proud of her that she had made it. I climb volcanoes all the time, but this was Mom\ufffds first. I decided to take a walk into the crater. The walls were very steep so I actually slid down first on my feet but when I lost my balance and fell, I slid on my butt all the way to the bottom of the crater. That was a fun ride! *laughs* After exploring the crater I tried to climb back up but I kept sliding back down. Uh-Oh, I love volcanoes a lot but I really don\ufffdt want to have to spend my entire life inside one! I struggled to get back up to the rim. Each step I took a slid down 3 more. My hiking boots were already filling with cinders and pieces of basalt, but I eventually made it to the top. I showed Mom different points from the crater, such as the Lodge that could easily be seen on the caldera rim, Mt, Thielsen, Garfield Peak, Mt. Scott, and many other formations. Finally we hiked down the cinder cone and reached the dock at 2:15pm. Everyone else was waiting patiently for the boat to come and pick us up. We would later realize that the boat doesn\ufffdt come till 5:00pm. I walked on to the dock and looked down at the water. It was about 50 feet deep at the end of the dock and you could see straight down perfectly to the bottom. The water was a beautiful blue. Crater Lake is so blue because of the interaction with sunlight and water molecules. All colors of the rainbow are absorbed, but blue light penetrates to the deepest depths, especially when there are no suspended particles or dissolved materials in the large body of water. I was very hot from the hike and I had also run out of water on the way down, which wasn\ufffdt good at all. The temperature climbed again and I watched the cool water anxiously as I hung my feet over the edge of the dock. I stood up. Well, it\ufffds either now or never, I thought. I had left my wet suit in the car, but I did have my bathing suit on underneath my clothes. Another girl who was about my age or a few years older seemed to sense what I was about to do. We both walked back to the rocks and took off our hiking boots, and clothes. Everyone else watched us in shock, realizing what we were about to do. We both walked to the end of the dock and just stared at the water for several minutes. The other girl jumped in first, and came up a few moments later screaming how cold it was. I cringed when I saw her expression, but I just couldn\ufffdt stand out in the heat any longer. I took a deep breath and jumped off the dock into the water. The minute I hit the water, I almost went into shock from the cold. It stung every part of my body. I surfaced and cried out. Everyone watched us and laughed. I treaded water for several minutes looking down towards the bottom. It was eerie swimming in 50 feet deep water and being able to see the bottom clearly. Actually, you can see a lot deeper. Crater Lake holds the world record for water visibility at 142 feet. I could also feel warm and cold currents pass underneath my body. The coldest ones seemed to pass my feet and my stomach. The warmer ones were near my legs and my chest. It felt very weird. I climbed back onto the dock and walked to the very start and took a running leap off the dock into the water. The coldness of the water was just as bad as when I first jumped in. I surfaced and cried out again. It didn\ufffdt matter how many times you jumped in, your body jus"}, {"response": 286, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug 22, 2002 (23:56)", "body": "Wednesday, August 14th, 2002: We ate breakfast at the restaurant next door, then packed up and headed back to Crater Lake. We stopped at Mt. Mazama store to get some more water. We then drove to Vidae Falls, which looked even worse than last year due to the dry season. We finally ended up at the Pinnacles, which are ancient fumaroles. We walked along the trail above the canyon to view them, but the bees began to swarm around us. Bees are my number one fear, as well as hornets, wasps, and yellow jackets too. After my little accident of being chased by an entire swarm 6 years ago, I have become terrified of them. I ran back to the car screaming and crying like a baby. Suddenly one lands on my leg and I start hyperventilating. Yikes! I really have some fear. I didn\ufffdt calm down until we were back in the car with the doors and windows shut and locked. We drove over to the Phantom Ship overlook to take some more pictures. The Cascade Butterflies (that\ufffds not their name, but I call them that cause I have seen them flying near ever Cascade Volcano) were flying all over the place. One landed on my shoulder and another one crawled on my hand. We then drove over to Pumice Castle overlook. We could see Mt. Thielsen very well from there. Then we stopped at the volcanic vista, which had a panorama view of Red Cone, Diamond Peak, Diamond Lake, 2 of the 3 Sisters, and Mt. Thielsen. We finally ended up back at Rim Village. Smoke was now covering everything. Looks like we had taken our scenic tour just in time again. We couldn\ufffdt see the lake or the trees now. We saw several ash devils along the crater wall swirl back up over the rim. We ate lunch in the cafeteria and browsed through the gift shop again. After, Mom and I sat on the crater rim wall and fed the chipmunks and birds that were walking up the ash along the caldera wall. We then headed through Pumice Desert and out of the park. We seemed to get closer and closer to Mt. Thielsen, but it too disappeared in the smoke and in the trees. We headed towards Roseburg and after a dinner at Denny\ufffds, checked into a motel and went to sleep. Again I did not sleep well cause of my sunburn."}, {"response": 287, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (00:19)", "body": "Thursday, August 15th, 2002: We woke up and ate motel breakfast. Then we packed up and headed towards Cottage Grove. I saw a red fox sneaking through a garden as we drove by. Mom wanted to see covered bridges so we took the covered bridge tour through Cottage Grove. I was bored so I picked blackberries along the side of the road. We then headed into Eugene, where Mom and Dad let me stop at University of Oregon to get more information about attending. U of O is my 3rd choice university. We ate another lunch at Jack in the Box and headed up Mc Kenzie Pass. I had talked my parents into going to Proxy Falls. We could see the North Sister through the trees as we drove up. Along the way we stopped at another covered bridge and went into the ranger station to get another Northwest Forest Pass. We reached Proxy Falls at around 2:30pm. We hiked to Lower Proxy Falls first. Only very physically fit people can get to the very bottom due to the steep trail that is covered in tree roots and rocks. Mom and Dad stayed at the top of the trail while I slid down to the bottom to get some very close up and personal pictures with the camera. I climbed up the rocks and the moss to the top of the waterfall. I got my pictures, but on the way down I slipped and went crashing into a big mud puddle. My tennis shoes were covered in mud. I walked in the water to wash them off and walked up the trail squeaking and squishing all the way up. I accidentally took the wrong trail to Upper Proxy Falls cause the sign was switched so I ended up back at the car, so I hurried back and found the right way and took some pictures of Upper Proxy. What is fascinating about Proxy Falls is that the falls doesn\ufffdt go anywhere. It flows right through the basalt and disappears. I finally hiked back up to the car and after collecting a few rocks, we headed to Florence. I noticed immediately the temperature change. It was close to 100 in Cottage Grove, Crater Lake, and in Roseburg, but in Florence it was freezing, probably in the low 50\ufffds out. I was glad I had jeans and sweatshirt for once on the trip. Along the way, I saw 2 bald eagle nests, with one being occupied. We got a motel room and then headed over to Moe\ufffds one of the most famous seafood restaurants in Oregon. We had their famous clam chowder and fresh Oregon muscles and clams. After a great meal (for once), we headed back to the motel and went to sleep."}, {"response": 288, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (00:28)", "body": "I'll continue the last 6 days tomorrow."}, {"response": 289, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (12:59)", "body": "Julie, I'm going to go back up and read your posts but first I wanted to welcome you back *HUGS* We all missed you!!!!"}, {"response": 290, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (13:06)", "body": "*HUGS* Thanks Wolfie. I missed Geo so much while I was gone. I was thinking about everyone of you during my trip, especially when I was at Crater Lake."}, {"response": 291, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (22:50)", "body": "Friday, August 16th, 2002: We woke up and went to Safeway to buy some more foods for breakfast and lunch. Had breakfast in the parking lot. We then headed towards Newport, OR. The street names along the highway were all U.S states. Once we reached Newport, we stopped at Devil\ufffds Punchbowl. Devils Punchbowl is a collapsed sea cave that during high tides or stormy seas becomes a churning cauldron of foam. We then went to Yaquina Head Lighthouse. We walked the 104 steps to the top of the lighthouse, which is 93feet, making it the tallest lighthouse in Oregon. I mostly took notice of the basalt that was covering all the beaches and cliffs. It turns out the basalt is from the Colombia River Basalt. A small section of the flow went southwest into Newport, OR area. Interestingly enough, almost everything along the Oregon coast seemed to be made of basalt. After going to the interruptive center, we went south to Yaquina Bay State Park where we had a picnic lunch of sandwiches. Mom went to check out the other historic lighthouse in the bay. Next we walked up the trail to the Heceta Head Lighthouse and took the tour inside. I walked down to the beach after and felt the water. It was way colder than Crater Lake. We then drove to Sand Dunes Recreation Area where I had some fun making sand angels, and running and sliding down the sand dunes. After, we took pictures of the Upmqua Lighthouse. We then headed to Coos Bay, OR where we got a motel and than ate pizza for dinner. After dinner we went back to the motel and went to sleep."}, {"response": 292, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (23:16)", "body": "Saturday, August 17th, 2002: We woke up and at marrionberry pancakes for breakfast, one of Oregon\ufffds specialties. I then went down to the pool only to freeze to death when I got out. The pool may have been heated but the air was still in the low 50\ufffds out. We then packed up and got gas for the car and ice for the ice chest. We drove towards Charleston where we went to their Annual Seafood Festival. The three of us shared some fresh Oregon coast BBQ salmon. It was so good! We then drove to Sunset Bay Beach to take pictures. When we got to Simpson Reef Viewpoint, we spotted thousands of sea lions and seals resting on the huge rocks off shore. When we got to Cape Arago Viewpoint we could hear all the seals and sea lions very clearly. It sounded like a huge kennel of dogs. Once we reached Bandon, we went to the Coquille River Lighthouse. We found out that the Pacific Northwest has more shipwrecks than any other coasts due to its severe storms. I was getting bored again so I played on the sand dunes and ran on the jetty only to get sand blasted, which really really stung. We then drove into the town of Bandon and stopped at their Cheddar Cheese Factory. They had about 50 different types of cheeses and you could sample every one of them. So I went around like 3 times of course! We then had Tillamook Ice Cream. I had the Cascade blackberry ice cream. The Pacific Northwest is very big on their berries. In fact, most of the blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries that you buy in the markets come from Oregon. A marrionberry is a different type of blackberry. There are also huckleberries, katataberries, and loganberries. Huckleberries are very similar to blueberries. Katataberries are a cross between a blackberry and a marrionberry. A loganberry\ufffd.umm\ufffdI forgot. We then drove a little ways down the road to the Cranberry Bog where we learned how cranberries are grown and harvested. For some reason people think cranberries grow in water, but they don\ufffdt. They grow in a regular field and are heavily watered but not to a point of saturation. When they are ripe, which is usually in October or November, the field is flooded and the cranberries float to the surface. A machine goes in and scopes them up. We decided to take some cranberry relish, cranberry coffee, and marrionberry jellybeans home. Then we took a walk through the historic old town and tasted more delicious foods, such as berry fudge, chocolate fudge, and other sweets and candies. If you want to pig out for free then go to Bandon, OR. We then moved down to Coquille Point where we went down to the beach to look at the face rocks. The face rocks are also called haystacks, sea stacks, or monoliths. I found a few pieces of agate along the beach. We then headed over to Bandon State Beach. I thought there would be lots of agates on the beach like all the books said, but I couldn\ufffdt find any. In fact there wasn\ufffdt many rocks on the beach at all. Either there was all covered with sand or I was at the wrong beach. We reached Fort Orford close to sunset. Fort Orford was a very small town. I don\ufffdt think there were even a gas station there let alone any fast food places. The motel we got was nice. It had a view of the ocean, the harbor, and well as a few sea stacks. We ate dinner at the only restaurant in town and then took some pictures of the coastal views. After playing a game of Scrabble, we went to bed."}, {"response": 293, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (21:29)", "body": "Sunday, August 18th, 2002: Woke up and looked at the wonderful view outside the window. Not many times do you get a beautiful view of the coast. We packed up and headed over to Ray\ufffds Market to get some more food. Had breakfast in the parking lot again. We then drove to Cape Blanco State Park to see the Cape Blanco Lighthouse. The winds were blowing about 50 miles per hour near the cape. Suddenly, Mom\ufffds hat flew off and she chased it towards the cliffs. It went over the cliff but a nice guy climbed down the cliff to get it. We took a tour of the lighthouse and then headed back into Port Orford to see the Myrtlewood Store. Myrtlewood is wood from a special kind of tree grown in Oregon. After, we made several stops along the way to see coastal viewpoints. We stopped at Boardman State Park and picked some more blackberries. We then stopped at Arch Rock where we had some snacks. There were quite a few critters there as well; blue jays, sea gulls, squirrels, and rabbits. I decided to share some of my food with them, but that was a mistake. They thought I was the nicest person in the world so they came closer and closer until the squirrels were climbing at my feet. Yikes! Imagine 5 squirrels as big as small cats, 2 huge sea gulls, 4 screeching blue jays, and a rabbit coming at you all at the same time. I just threw most of my food and ran and the squirrels ran after me! Dad tossed a tomato at the sea gull. I didn\ufffdt think it would eat it, but I was wrong...sort of. The sea gull took it in its beak, but all of a sudden the tomato squirted out juice and that must have freaked the bird out cause he dropped it and made a very weird noise like he was startled. We were laughing so hard, that we almost didn\ufffdt even see the two blue jays swoop down and fight over the tomato. Finally we headed towards Brookings, OR. The smoke was getting worse again as we were getting closer and closer to the fire. We stopped at several more viewpoints along the way. We stopped at Harris State Beach for a rest stop. I did some bouldering on the monoliths, which was a lot of fun cause if I fell I would just be very very cold cause the water was right below me. Later, as we were picking blackberries, I saw a brown red-banded snake slither into the thorny bushes. Once we got into the town of Brookings we gassed up the car and headed to Lobe State Park. Before we even got there we passed by a fire camp. There were hundreds maybe thousands of fire fighters, marines, and other volunteers who were just hanging around probably waiting to go back into the fire. We didn\ufffdt make it to Lobe State Park. There were 2 armed marines further up the road past the fire camp with a sign that said road closed due to fire hazard. The fire must be only a few miles from here. So we turned around and headed back into Brookings. We decided to go to the Port of Brookings. There were many interesting stores and an art festival going on, but we had arrived there at closing time so we got to see everyone packing up. We did see a booth that had fire information about the Biscuit Fire. We learned on that day the fire was only 35% contained. Then we left and crossed over the border back into boring California. Yak! We got to the motel, checked in, and then went out for Chinese food. After dinner, we went back to Battery Head Lighthouse again to take some pictures during sunset. We then went back into the motel and played Scrabble again and then went to sleep."}, {"response": 294, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (21:57)", "body": "Monday, August 19th, 2002: We woke up and packed the car. There was ash all over the car windows from the fire. We stopped at Wal-Mart and Safeway and McDonalds for breakfast. Then we headed south into Redwoods National Park. The fog was so thick that we could barely see more than 1oft in front of us. Actually we thought it was fog, but it could have been smoke mixed with fog. It was really hard to tell. We stopped at the Trees of Mystery and went inside the gift store. We didn\ufffdt have time to walk through Trees of Mystery so we continued south again. We stopped at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and in there took Davidson Road to Fern Canyon. We had to cross a steam in our rental car to get to the parking lot which was kind of fun, even though Mom and Dad were freaking out. We had a picnic lunch in the parking lot and watched the elk grazing on the beach and in the marsh. We then took the trail to Fern Canyon. Fern Canyon was beautiful. There aren\ufffdt too many words to describe it. The canyon walls were about 50 feet tall and growing everywhere, including on the walls was ferns. Some were dripping water on to the canyon floor. A stream ran through the canyon and I crossed it many times as we headed further and further into the canyon. There were some huge trees that had fallen from above into the canyon and they lay across it like bridges covered in moss. I climbed up a few of the logs to try to get some better pictures, but my hiking boots were wet from the stream and I fell while holding the camcorder as it was recording! So now I can always watch myself and see what an idiot I am as I fall on my butt and cry out. There were many banana slugs in the canyon, fish and other interesting critters in the stream, and wild mushrooms growing in the green moss. I finally caught up with Mom and Dad who were quite upset when they saw me muddy and soaking wet again. We then took the trail loop back to the parking lot. We went back onto Davidson Road and back to HWY 101 heading towards Ladybird Johnson Grove in Redwoods National Park. When we reached Ladybird Johnson Grove, we took the trail loop too the giant redwoods and ferns. The sunlight in the forest made for some very unusual pictures. We then drove into McKinleyville and went into the Chamber of Comerance to see if we could find the blueberry farm. But we found out that it was closed. So we drove into Eureka and stopped at McDonalds for some more dipping dots. We then stopped at K-mart to get another battery for my camera. Then we drove to Fortona to get gas. We drove through Avenue of the Giants and stopped again on the side of the road to pick blackberries. As we were driving out, Dad and I saw a tree on the other side of the road that had an opening big enough for 3 people to stretch out and sleep comfortably. We got to Ukiah close to 10:00pm. We checked into a motel and went to Denny\ufffds for dinner. We then went back to the motel and went to sleep."}, {"response": 295, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (22:39)", "body": "That's funny, about your mom and dad freaking out when you crossed the stream. Are you going to catch the blueberry farm still?"}, {"response": 296, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (22:43)", "body": "Tuesday, August 20th, 2002: We woke up and packed up. Had motel breakfast in our rooms. Then we left motel and headed to Santa Rosa. There were interesting basalt formations along the way on HWY 101 probably due to uplift from the San Andreas Fault. We went to Calistoga to see Old Faithful of California. Calistoga is near Gyserville. This whole area not only has a geothermal plant, but it also has hot springs and geysers as well. This is because the rocks are hot only a few hundred feet from the surface. The geyser we went to see was erupting every 14 minutes that day. There were many others in the area but most were capped off. There was volcanic ash everywhere from ancient eruptions of a volcano that we were standing in the center of. We were told that the geysers eruption times change sometimes when there is earthquakes meaning that maybe geysers can be some means of prediction. The geyser was erupting almost every 2 hours before 1989. But then when the Loma Prieta Earthquake hit, the eruption time changed to about what it is now. That\ufffds quite a change! We then left Calistoga and headed through Wine Country back to HWY 101 north and back into Santa Rosa where we got gas and ate at Jack in the Box. We drove south again and went over the Golden Gate Bridge and through downtown San Francisco. Traffic all the way from Santa Rosa through San Francisco was almost worse than L.A. We got to Salinas and stopped at Denny\ufffds to have a snack. Then we drove to Pinnacles National Monument. Pinnacles National Monument is the result of uplift from the San Andreas Fault nearly 140 million years ago. The other part of the pinnacles is about 195 miles east. I wanted to go into Balcony Cave but there wasn\ufffdt enough time. We took pictures of the pinnacles and the California quails that were scurrying on the trail and then headed into Paso Robles where we got gas. We then ate dinner in San Luis Obispo. We looked for a motel for hours but everyone was either too expensive or no vacancy. Finally we ended up in Santa Barbara where we found a motel around midnight. We then went right to sleep."}, {"response": 297, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (22:45)", "body": "Wednesday, August 21st, 2002: We woke up and packed up. Ate another motel breakfast. Then left Santa Barbara ate 9:00am and arrived back home close to noon."}, {"response": 298, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (22:49)", "body": "Nope, no more blueberry farm. We got there at 5:30pm and it closed at 5. Its sad. Only Northern California, Oregon, and Washington have those things on the west coast. There certainly isn't many berries here that are growing, I mean that are ediable. Its way too hot."}, {"response": 299, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (23:02)", "body": "Okay. I want to mention a few things cause over all I thought this trip was a disaster. It was way too much driving and I wasn't very fascinated by all the lighthouses but thats okay. Firstly, this may sound weird but I am not used to staying in motels. I am used to camping....as in pitching up the tent and snuggling in my sleeping bag with whatever else decided to crawl inside, lol. Don't ask!! The only thing good about staying in a motel is the beds....I got to jump on them as much as I wanted! LOL. You see, my parents don't like camping or I should say roughing it. Sean and I are the only ones that do that. Funny, I thought my parents were trying to save money on this trip. They really didn't succed cause we kept eating every meal out. Sean and I would always go to the market the first day and get what we need and survive off that. This trip our food consisted of mainly burgers, fries, sandwhiches, and pizza. When I am roughing it with Sean we survive off of power bars, cliff bars, trail mix, granola bars, ramen noodles, jerky, and jelly beans, lol ( don't ask about the jelly beans. That may little thing). Anyway, the only day I truely enjoyed myself was my second day at Crater Lake when I was hiking on Wizard Island and freezing my skin off in Crater Lake's chilly waters. I had a few kicks the other days but nothiung can compare to that day. I can't even describe what it was like see the inside of a caldera from inside another volcano. It was breathtaking. That day almost made the 3,300 miles we put on the car worth it......almost."}, {"response": 300, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (23:06)", "body": "Although I am starting school tomorrow, I want to continue decribing about the other volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest. What do I mean by other volcanoes? You will soon find out later in the week...I hope."}, {"response": 301, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (23:45)", "body": "I hope so too!"}, {"response": 302, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Aug 26, 2002 (07:31)", "body": "Hi all Have people been going to Rob's Geo World or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldvolcanism to see the tour of New Zealand volcanoes that I am conducting? The messages are marked Volcanoes of New Zealand Part 1-10 (that is where I was up to in the 12 part series at the time of tpying this). To date we have covered: Mount Ruapehu Mount Ngauruhoe Mount Taranaki Mount Tongariro Auckland volcanic field Mayor Island White Island Still to come in Rob's Geo World: Mount Edgecumbe Okataina Tarawera Tauhara *********** (PS number of asterisks is not necessarily the number of letters in the volcano's name) Rob"}, {"response": 303, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (14:44)", "body": "Hi everyone! Well I finally have a bit of a break from school since today is Labor Day, so I thought I would finally post the rest of my photos from my trip to the Washington Cascades I took the end of May and begining of June. Enjoy!"}, {"response": 304, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (15:03)", "body": "This is a photo of Lava Cast Tree, which is located on the Trail of Two Forests in Mt. St. Helens National Monument. Mt. St. Helens erupted a very large lava flow about 1,900 years ago on her south side. When the lava cooled some interesting things happened. Trees like this one were forever perserved in a lava tomb. Sean and I crawled through this one. There is also another bunch of trees that have been growing in the area since...hence the name Trail of Two Forests."}, {"response": 305, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (15:12)", "body": "Mt. St. Helens as seen from her south side Mt. St. Helens in the shadow's Mt. St. Helens with with some of the blown-down forest tree stumps Mt. St. Helens scars eched into her valley's"}, {"response": 306, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (15:20)", "body": "Spirit Lake as seen from Harry's Ridge. The brown sections in the water you think might be land is actually logs. Most of the logs from the 1980 eruption have sunken to the bottom froming a eerie submerged forest. But there is still plenty that are still floating, many of which are scattered along the sides and in the middle of the lake."}, {"response": 307, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (15:40)", "body": "Not many people see these signs where they live...unless they live in the shadows of a dangerous volcano like the little town of Orting, WA. Mt. Rainer as seen from Orting Its frightening just to see with your eyes how close Mt. Rainer is to Orting The Nisqually River cuts right through Orting. Where does the Nisqually River come from? The Nisqually Glacier on Mt. Rainer's slopes of course. Its one of the biggest glaciers too. Hmmm...can you imagine what could happen here? On a personally note... I just want to say that the people in Orting are extremely friendly. The Chamber of Comereance was very helpful when I asked for some more information on their hazards. The gave me the phone number of the fire fighter in charge of the town evacuations. I intend to call him when I get a chance and ask some more specific questions. As the sun begins to set, the people of Orting almost don't even seem to notice the huge sinister giant as it sits in a peaceful alpine-glow. They go on with their everyday lives not worrying what may lie before them. In a way I suppose thats good. They cannot go on with their lives if they keep worrying about it. But I know every one of them knows. And deep down inside they all worry that they are sitting on borrowed time. All one can do is just hope that they can evacuate in time. To Orting...God Speed."}, {"response": 308, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (15:47)", "body": "Mt. Rainer as seen from Paradise on top of the Nisqually Glacier Mt. Rainer...the lethal giant with clouds swirling over the summit Mt. Rainer from the highway in Mt. Rainer National Park"}, {"response": 309, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (15:50)", "body": "This is a very bad photo Of Mt. Baker. Its very difficult to take a picture of a sky thats white and a volcano that is almost completely white. Weather conditions never cooperated when we were at Mt. Baker."}, {"response": 310, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (15:53)", "body": "Well, there you go. I just showed you all just about the entire Cascade Range minus a few, including one very significant one...Glacier Peak. Glacier Peak is a very difficult volcano to get access to since their is no roads near it so getting a picture is almost close to impossible unless you have about 2 days to spend hiking to it, which we unfortunatly didn't have."}, {"response": 311, "author": "gomezdo", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (15:58)", "body": "Julie, did you get to hike Mt. St. Helens? It's a cool view to look down into the crater at the lava dome. Thanks for the pics. I lived in Aberdeen, WA 5 years ago (for about 5 months) and I miss the area (not the town though). We hiked almost every weekend....Mt. Rainer, Mt. St. Helens, the Olympic Pennisula, Mt. Hood, the Cascades. I loved it!"}, {"response": 312, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (21:24)", "body": "Hi Dorine. Yeah, I hiked Mt. St. Helens last May and June. Actually it was my 3rd time hiking Mt. St. Helens. I have been through the Cascades 5 times now. I have seen the entire range though I have not hiked through it too much. And yes, Mt. Rainer, Mt. St. Helens, the Olympic Pennisula, and Mt. Hood are some of my favorite places to go to. I have only been to the Olympic Pennisula one time though. I hope to go back again next year except this time hike the Pacific Crest Trail up through the Cascades."}, {"response": 313, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (22:05)", "body": "I have two more volcanic areas in the Pacific Northwest left to mention. One is the Coast Mounatins which is a chain of volcanoes starting in British Colombia and stretching to the most northern sections of Canada and the Alaska border and the other is the ancient volcanic ranges on the eastern sides of the Cascades. I know I already talked about Mt. Garibaldi and Meager Mountain when I talked about the Cascade Range. But sometimes Mt. Garibaldi and Meager Mountain are not considered part of the Cascades Range. I suppose it depends how you look at them. Next to Garibaldi is Watts Point which is a volcanic area composed of porphyritic jointed dacitic lava. This could be a subglacial dacite lava dome. Wells Grey is after Meager mountain towards the east. Wells Grey is a volcanic area made up of basaltic volcanoes and cinder cones. This area has been active for the past 3 million years. Most of the lava flows are subglacial."}, {"response": 314, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (22:12)", "body": "Nazco is a small cinder cone that has erupted numerous times during its life cycle. Its last eruption dated back about 7,000-10,000 years ago. This cinder cone erupted quite violently at times forming deep layers of lapilli, ash, and volcanic bombs in the surrounding area. Tseax is a cluster of cinder cones that may have erupted less than 500 years ago. The area is composed mainly of differnt lava flows."}, {"response": 315, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (22:21)", "body": "Lava Fork is the youngest volcano in Canada. Lava Fork is a cinder cone on top of a mounatin ridge. The volcanic vent is made up of lapilli and volcanic bombs. The youngest lava flow is only about 150 years old. The Iskut River has dozens of cinder cones located on the east and west sides. Large lava flows may have blocked the river off when it last erupted which was about 70,000 years ago. Hoodoo Mounatin is a flat-toped composite volcano. The most recent eruption was only about 7,000 years ago. The rocks of Hoodoo are peralkaline phonolite and trachyte."}, {"response": 316, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (22:37)", "body": "The Mountain Edziza complex is a volcanic plateau composed of basaltic lava flows, cinder cones, and four composite volcanoes. This area has erupted numerous times during the last 10,000 years. Tuya Butte is one of six subglacial volcanoes. The base of the volcano is made of pillow basalt and hyaloclastite indicating that the volcano may have formed beneath the ice or in a large lake. The 4 other subglacial volcanoes are South Tuya, Mathew's Tuya, and Ash Mountain. Cracker Creek Cone and Volcanic Crrek Cone are to young cinder cones that surround Ruby Mountain a composite volcano."}, {"response": 317, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (22:43)", "body": "Well that didn't take long, lol. There is hardly any information at all about the volcanic ranges in Canada. I think this is because of two reasons. One is that most of the volcanoes are probably extinct and they are so old that much has been eroded away. And two is not many people live in this section of Canada so there isn't much concern about any eruptions. But there is a few that have erupted as recently as 150 years ago, but I doubt any will erupt in our lifetimes, since most are cinder cones and cinder cones are \"usually\" a one time thing. But that doesn't mean that new cinder cones won't form."}, {"response": 318, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (17:14)", "body": "Beautiful photos, Julie. Thanks for posting them."}, {"response": 319, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Sep  6, 2002 (19:11)", "body": "I just came to the conclusion last night that I missed a lot in the Cascade Range. Mainly lava fields, craters, and butte's. And of course I am going to have to back up and tell you about them. So now you are probably thinking she's completly obsessed with those crazy volcanoes of her's. Well I already know that. People tell me I am obssessed with volcanoes all the time. Nothing that I haven't heard. But the thing is I know the Cascades VERY well and the fact that I missed some bothers me a bit. Okay...I admit it...I am a perfectionist. But hey, its a good learning expereience for everyone including myself. So.....I will start going back to the Cascade Range to do the things I missed very shortly."}, {"response": 320, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  9, 2002 (15:30)", "body": "Everything seems to be quiet in the Pacific NW. Only a few small quakes at Rainer and St. Helens and several small ones near Tacoma and Yakima. A little too quiet if you ask me. I emailed the CVO last week and asked them what is currently going on up near the South Sister and if the uplift is continuing, slowing, or staying the same. I haven't heard back from them yet so we will see. The only thing in the Pacific NW that is shaking up at the moment is the Blanco Fracture Zone and the Juan de Fuca Ridge both located about 210 miles W of Coos Bay, Oregon. There has been many quakes in the past few months with many of them being M 5.0 and above."}, {"response": 321, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  9, 2002 (15:41)", "body": "Some of you probably wonder why I am so worked up over earthquakes in the Pacific NW. Well, to answer that I will post my research paper I did last semester on it. Some of what you will see may be very very surprising but its all true. Just look up my references . That is proof that the Pacific NW is one of the most dangerous places to live in the U.S."}, {"response": 322, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  9, 2002 (15:50)", "body": "RAIN IS THE LEAST OF THEIR PROBLEMS! It\ufffds a gloomy, rainy, Monday morning in downtown Seattle. You are looking at the vast views of the Puget Sound, Mt. Rainer, and the busy commute of traffic from the top of the Seattle Space Needle. An eerie silence settles over the city. As your face is pressed up against the window, looking out at the marvelous views, you feel the window ever so slightly begin to shudder. You step back looking for the little brat that was pounding on the window. But to your horror you notice that the shudder has increased and the windows begin rattling, making a sound you have never heard in your life. Suddenly, the whole floor seems to fall from underneath you as the jolt violently shakes around the historic tower. You hear the sounds of people screaming, glasses breaking, objects falling, and bodies smacking against the wall. You try desperately to grab on to something, but fall hopelessly to the floor. One minute has gone by and the violent shaking continues. You hear the sound of metal and steel cables snapping in half. Finally, after nearly three minutes the earth heaves its last hiccup. But all you can hear now is your heavy breathing, everything and everyone else around you is silent. The once busy city of Seattle now lay in ruins. Most of us that have lived here long enough, would probably consider California to have an earthquake risk. What about the Pacific Northwest, our northerly neighbors? Surely, they couldn\ufffdt have an earthquake risk. Not only is the Pacific Northwest far away from California, but also you don\ufffdt hear much about earthquakes in that area. That doesn\ufffdt mean they cannot happen though. In fact, earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest can be far more intense than they are for us here in California! Why is that? First of all, we are dealing with two different types of plate movement here. The San Andreas Fault in California is a transform boundary where the two plates slide past one another. The Pacific Northwest though is a convergent boundary, where one plate, typically the heavier oceanic plate, subducts underneath the lighter more buoyant continental plate. In the Pacific Northwest, the Juan de Fuca Plate subducts underneath the North American Plate. \ufffdThe Oregon Earthquake Handbook\ufffd states that the area where the subduction occurs is called the Cascadia Subduction Zone The Cascadia Subduction Zone runs along Northern California all the way up into British Colombia (Cope 29). In a subduction zone, the slab that is subducting dips towards the mantle at 45\ufffd and extends to a depth of 700km. This area, known as the Benioff Zone is where deep quakes occur because brittle lithosphere is being subducted underneath another plate. Most subduction zones else where in the world such as near the coastlines of South America and Central America are producers of major catastrophic earthquakes (Cope 39). So where is the evidence of earthquakes along the Cascadia Subduction Zone? Around the Pacific from Alaska to Chile, there is a chain of intense earthquake activity. The intense earthquake activity seems to be missing in the Pacific Northwest though. It is likely, that this area is a seismic gap in which fault lines are broken up into segments and each one breaking at different times. A seismic gap will often lack activity because it is simply locked into place. So maybe the reason that the Cascadia Subduction Zone is quiet is because it is stuck (Cope 40). This could defiantly be true. In all other areas around the Pacific where there are subduction zones, you can see heavy evidence of earthquakes. How many times have you heard about earthquakes in Chile, or Central and South America? A lot! What does it mean though if the Cascadia Subduction Zone is stuck? Big trouble that\ufffds what! \ufffdNorthwest Exposure\ufffd mentions that the continental shelf just offshore is rising at a rate of two feet every one hundred years. Areas fifty miles inland though are sinking. The oceanic crust sinking through the offshore trench is jammed against the coastal part of the oceanic crust. This means that the trench is stuck and when it does break loose, which will happen eventually, it may cause a quake of great proportions (Alt, Hyndman 400). You can easily compare this to the Elastic Rebound Theory of earthquakes. The two faults or in this case plates, are locked in place. The pressure builds up under the strain along the locked section and eventually enough energy builds that friction is overcome. The energy released is in the form of seismic waves, in other words, an earthquake. (Continued...)"}, {"response": 323, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  9, 2002 (15:58)", "body": "There have been quite a few fairly good size quakes in the Pacific Northwest. The most recent quake occurred on February 28, 2001 in Olympia, Washington and was a magnitude 6.8. Another significant quake was on April 29, 1965 near Tacoma, Washington and was a 6.5 magnitude. On April 13, 1949, a 7.1 magnitude quake hit Olympia. In December of 1872, approximately a 7.4 magnitude rocked the area near the North Cascades. The largest and most chilling earthquake ever may have occurred on January 26, 1700. In the sediment deposits along the Pacific Northwest there is some layers of sand. In many areas, this layer of sand covers tree stumps that once grew in marshes. The wood was dated and it showed that the layers of sand were deposited approximately 300 years ago. These layers may be evidence of powerful earthquakes that caused huge tsunamis (Alt, Hyndman 399). It is very likely that this earthquake occurred around 1700. There have been legends that tell of this mega quake and how a tsunami washed away several villages in Japan. There is no other evidence that suggests a quake occurred in another region around 1700, making the Cascadia Subduction the likely culprit. We can see that the Pacific Northwest has had in fact, quite a few very powerful quakes, but not even close to the amount as most of the other subduction zones in the Pacific. Most of the quakes in the Pacific Northwest range in depth from about 40km to 70km. One thing to realize though, is the shallower the quake, usually the more destructive it will be. Most of the quakes that occur along the Cascadia Subduction Zone range in depth to about 40 to 70km. How deep is this? Take the Chilean quake of 1960 for example. This quake registered about a 9.5 magnitude, the largest quake in history. The death toll in Chile was about 2,000, but since it generated a tsunami, there were hundreds of more deaths in other countries around the Pacific. The quake though originated at a depth of about 74.5km. If an earthquake of this size and slightly shallower occurred on the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the death toll would be enormous and the devastation form the actual quake would be catastrophic. When will the next one hit? Obviously no one knows an exact date, but here is what we do know. \ufffdAgents of Chaos\ufffd mentions that the Cascadia Subduction Zone produces a great quake about once every 300 years. If the last one occurred in 1700, then it looks like we are now overdue (Harris 78). This is a very serious problem. Some people don\ufffdt realize the severity of the risks of earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest. The major city of Seattle has a population now of almost 600,000 people. An earthquake occurring near a major metropolitan city like that of Seattle, Olympia, Tacoma, or Portland, would be disastrous. How big will it be? If the whole plate broke at once or if a very large segment broke the earthquake could be up to a 9.0 magnitude. The plate could also just slip a little bit at a time causing several magnitude 8.0 quakes over a two to three year period (Cope 45). Okay, so what is the worse case scenario? The shaking of the quake itself my last up to two or three minutes compared to the half minute of shaking of the Northridge California quake in 1994. There is also the problem with buildings. Since the Pacific Northwest has not had a major quake in so long, building codes are not as strict. There would be many buildings susceptible to severe earthquake damage. If the locked plate breaks free in one single motion its swift drop would cause severe subsidence along the coast, meaning the earth\ufffds surface would sink in. If the quake occurred a hundred miles or so offshore, it may trigger a tsunami that would spread around the Pacific, endangering the lives of many coastal communities. Some areas close to the coast may even liquefy during a big quake. The population of the Pacific Northwest is slowly beginning to increase, especially in the major metropolitan cities. These people need to get prepared as soon as possible because Mother Nature doesn\ufffdt wait for anybody. Building codes need to be reinforced and emergency planning needs to occur. It is critically important that people understand that an earthquake can happen at any time without any notice what so ever, so don\ufffdt put your planning off for tomorrow, because tomorrow may already be too late. Most deaths caused only by the quake itself happen because people are not prepared, nor are their structures that they reside in. Don\ufffdt get me wrong though, a 9.0 magnitude quake is enormous, but the more prepared a person becomes and the more prepared their city in which they live in becomes the more of a chance they have of surviving it."}, {"response": 324, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  9, 2002 (16:00)", "body": "Here's a list of my references if you are curious to know more about earthquakes in the Pacific NW... Alt, David, and Hyndman, Donald W. Northwest Exposures: A Geological Story of the Northwest. Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1995. Cope, Vern. The Oregon Earthquake Handbook: An Easy-To-Understand Information And Survival Manual. Oregon: Vern Cope, 1993 Harris, Stephen L. Agents of Chaos. Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1990"}, {"response": 325, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  9, 2002 (16:02)", "body": "Drabek, Thomas E., et al. Earthquake Mitigation Policy: The Experience of Two States. Colorado: U of Colorado, 1983 Brumbaygh, David S. Earthquakes: Science and Society. New Jersey: Prentice Hall,1999 McKee, Bates. Cascadia: The Geologic Evolution of the Pacific Northwest. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972"}, {"response": 326, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 10, 2002 (23:41)", "body": "Thanks for such a thorough study and for listing your sources. My son wants to move there. That is unsettling..."}, {"response": 327, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Sep 14, 2002 (19:45)", "body": "Date-Time 2002 09 14 09:06:59 UTC Location 44.17N 129.64W Depth 10.0 kilometers Magnitude 4.4 GO ANGELS GO!! Lol. The Angels are in 2nd place in the western division behing the A's. I can't believe this! This is so cool! The Angels, my home town team, were doing so bad last year now it looks like they may make it to the playoffs and maybe the World Series! WOOOOOHOOOO!!! I am hoping to get tickets to their last game the end of September where they play against the Mariners. GO ANGELS!! Okay well thats baseball news, lol, here is some news about the Pacific Northwest... Region OFF COAST OF OREGON Reference 275 miles (445 km) WNW of Coos Bay, Oregon Another small quake off the coast of Oregon. This area has had a lot in the past 6 months with a lot of them being 5.0 magnitudes and above. This map is pretty cool... http://newport.pmel.noaa.gov/geophysics/images/JdFR_color.gif Gives you a good idea where the fracture zones are and where the Axial Seamount is."}, {"response": 328, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Sep 14, 2002 (19:46)", "body": "ARGH! Someday I will learn how to space things right! *smacks herself in the head*"}, {"response": 329, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Sep 14, 2002 (19:51)", "body": "WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!! I just got done watching the game. THE ANGELS WON AGAIN!! The score was Angels 8 Texas 6. Now the Angels and the A's are both tied for 1st place in the western division!"}, {"response": 330, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Nov 20, 2002 (13:52)", "body": "I haven't posted anything on my topic for a long time, mostly cause there hasn't been a whole lot happening in the Cascades. Until now that is. Firstly, I want to make a note about the South Sister. The uplifting is still continuing. Very slowly of course, but scientists are still keeping a close eye on it. This is a perfect chance for us to see what happens before an eruption. This is quite exciting actually. I hope when I get out to that area next year I will be able to study it too. Now....for a seismology update...not much happening in the Pacific NW, except for a few quakes at Mt. St. Helens and Baker, Oregon. As for me...things are pretty hectic around here. The semester is just about to end for me and so far things are going great..maybe a little too great. I am waiting for the first snow to fall in the local mountains so I can try skiing out again for the first time since my surgery. My family and friends have mixed reactions about that, but I don't really care. I have been skiing since I was 3 and I'm certainly not about to stop now just because I had an unfortunate accident. Besides...my friend Michael said he is not going skiing with me unless I wear a helmet, so no worries."}, {"response": 331, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (00:21)", "body": "Quit a few quakes on the Blanca Fracture Zone again. That area seems to become very active about once or twice every 2 months or so. Very Interesting pattern. http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/"}, {"response": 332, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (00:20)", "body": "I notice nothing much happening anywhere except for the Indonesian arc which is always active. Hi Julie! I miss talking to you!"}, {"response": 333, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (00:01)", "body": "I feel like my dreams keep getting further and further away from me. This year has been the worst year of my life. Marcia, Rob, and Brenda....you guys were right. You knew I would burn out if I didn't relax and stop stressing, but I didn't listen and I did burn out. I am an emotional wreck right now. Yes...my semester is now over. But it came at a terrible price. I don't even think I did well in ecology this evening. I think I will stay home on my b-day and do nothing. I find out my grade for ecology the very next day. I had a nervous breakdown yesturday and Tuesday. It got really bad. No one could calm me down. My parents are really worried about me. No one understands the way I feel about things. I wonder if I will even get to transfer up north next year."}, {"response": 334, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (14:12)", "body": "Oh Julie! *BIG HUGS* This year has been the agony and ecstasy for me, too. I have some more agony to deal with before I can get back the ecstasy. So does Geo's archaeologist. Supportive hugs all around. I'll be online if you need to vent to someone or to get some \"older and wiser\" advice."}, {"response": 335, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Mar  2, 2003 (19:14)", "body": "I noticed a few quakes at Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainer, but everything else is relatively quiet which is good. CA on the other hand has been hit by quite a lot of small quakes. The city of Big Bear which is about 60 miles or so from me has had thousands of aftershocks after a fairly sharp 5.4M. I must of been dead tired cause I sure didn't feel it but almost everyone else I know did. I am still waiting for that day when I get to leave CA for the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Looks like that won't be happening till at least 2004. It doesn't look like I will be able to go back there this summer either which I seem to have done for 8 years in a row now. Oh well."}, {"response": 336, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (11:22)", "body": "Oh No!!! A whole year away? There must be a good reason for it, but we never seem to know until it is all over and we can look back. I am still wondering why I am stuck in Hilo useless and with a whole house to empty. I am overwhelmed."}, {"response": 337, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (11:23)", "body": "I noted the quakes off the coast of Oregon have quieted down. Quite a number of 4+ magnitude quakes were happening a few weeks ago! I wonder what was happening."}, {"response": 338, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Mar 15, 2003 (21:30)", "body": "Its moments like this one when I know I really belong in the Pacific NW. Either that or a mental institution. LOL! That huge storm that was in San Fran and Sacamento hit us really hard starting very early this morning. I love the rain and I am sure some of you might too. But I did something really crazy, knowing me to no surprise. I am into way too many sports and I don't like a day when I am just sitting around...rain or no rain. So....I put on my bathing suit, some goggles, and a helmet and rode my bike out into the rain. It was absoultly halarious to everyone driving on MacArther Blvd. Some people were shaking their heads, some people honked at me. They thought I was crazy but I didn't think so. I had great fun riding thru knee deep puddles and sloshing thru the thick mud in the flooded fields at the park. All the while the rain was coming down so hard that I didn't have to worry about becoming thirsty after all that excersise. I had plenty to drink. LOL! It was great fun."}, {"response": 339, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Mar 15, 2003 (21:33)", "body": "Although there is one disadvantage to riding your bike in the rain. You lose control easier which is what I did and flew right into a bush and a huge mud puddle. More great fun! Yes... I know I am crazy so no need to mention that, LOL!"}, {"response": 340, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 18, 2003 (23:48)", "body": "Julie, I have done the same thing in several hurricanes off the coast of Delaware. I love rain. I know I belong in Kentucky and Tennessee. What is really funny is at the slightest drizzle they all pop the umbrellas. They don't know what real rain is!"}, {"response": 341, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  8, 2004 (06:58)", "body": "Earthquake swarm in Three Sisters (Oregon, USA) area of uplift Source: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Sisters/WestUplift/information_statement_24m arch2004.html (be sure to paste entire URL in browser) Three Sisters Earthquake Swarm Information Statement Update -- March 24, 2004 At approximately 10 a.m. yesterday (Tuesday, March 23), an ongoing swarm of small earthquakes began in the Three Sisters volcanic center in the central Oregon Cascade Range. This activity poses no immediate threat to the public. As of this morning, the regional seismic network has detected approximately 100 earthquakes ranging in magnitude up to about 1.5. The rate of earthquakes peaked late yesterday and appears to be declining slowly. The earthquakes are occurring in the northeast part of an area centered 5 kilometers (3 miles) west of South Sister volcano in which the ground has been uplifted by as much as 25 cm (about 10 inches) since late 1997. On the basis of multiple lines of evidence, scientists infer that the cause of the uplift is the continuing intrusion of a modest volume of magma (molten rock). The magma appears to be accumulating at a depth of about 7 kilometers (4 miles) below the ground surface and now measures about 40 million cubic meters (about 50 million cubic yards) in volume. The processes that have been causing the uplift over the past seven years could eventually lead to shallower intrusion of magma or even to a volcanic eruption; however, both are unlikely without significantly more intense precursory activity. Scientists continue to monitor the situation closely and to evaluate data from field instruments. Today scientists are deploying another seismometer in order to locate earthquakes more precisely. With the assistance of the Willamette and Deschutes National Forests, additional fieldwork over the next week will fix problems with some field instruments that resulted from the heavy winter snow-pack and will assess sites for new instruments. Additional information, including maps and a volcanic-hazards assessment, may be found on the Internet at Web at URL: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Sisters/framework.html and http://www.pnsn.org/SISTERS/welcome.html . U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CASCADES VOLCANO OBSERVATORY"}, {"response": 342, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  8, 2004 (06:59)", "body": "Julie, what is happening? Do you have any newer information?"}, {"response": 343, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Feb 27, 2005 (21:41)", "body": "Hi Everyone!! Wow...I almost feel ashamed that its been almost a year since I posted. I'm very sorry about that. I should have kept you all updated when Mt. St. Helens erupted again back in September and all through the rest of the year. Well I will post when I can. So busy with school right now though."}, {"response": 344, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2005 (19:48)", "body": "good to see you again julie!!"}, {"response": 345, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Wed, Mar  2, 2005 (15:59)", "body": "http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/ The Cascades volcano observatory."}, {"response": 346, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Wed, Mar  2, 2005 (16:00)", "body": "And second that on Julie, I'm glad the Cascade climber is climbing back in to our little place here."}, {"response": 347, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Wed, Mar  2, 2005 (16:03)", "body": "..."}, {"response": 348, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar  2, 2005 (18:27)", "body": "Climb, Julie, climb."}, {"response": 349, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Mar 19, 2005 (23:17)", "body": "Hey all! I finished my Geology 198 class 2 weeks ago. It was entirely on volcanoes! I got the highest score on my exam and the highest grade. Hehehe...sorry can't help but brag a bit. I was in compeition with this other guy in my place. He was like me, a volcano-know-it-all. We drove each other nuts! Especially during the lecture on where volcanoes are found. We were the only ones naming them off. It was funny. I'm taking 3 other geology field study classes in the next 2 months. One is on the Mojave Desert, the Anzo Borrego Desert, and the Transverse Range. All are overnight weekend camping trips. Yippie!! I'm excited about that. Because of all the rain we have had here, I bet the desert wildflowers will be beautiful. Well, I got to get back to preparing my speech on the disaster flick Twister. Talk to you all soon."}, {"response": 350, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Mar 19, 2005 (23:17)", "body": "Hey all! I finished my Geology 198 class 2 weeks ago. It was entirely on volcanoes! I got the highest score on my exam and the highest grade. Hehehe...sorry can't help but brag a bit. I was in compeition with this other guy in my place. He was like me, a volcano-know-it-all. We drove each other nuts! Especially during the lecture on where volcanoes are found. We were the only ones naming them off. It was funny. I'm taking 3 other geology field study classes in the next 2 months. One is on the Mojave Desert, the Anzo Borrego Desert, and the Transverse Range. All are overnight weekend camping trips. Yippie!! I'm excited about that. Because of all the rain we have had here, I bet the desert wildflowers will be beautiful. Well, I got to get back to preparing my speech on the disaster flick Twister. Talk to you all soon."}, {"response": 351, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar 20, 2005 (07:39)", "body": "I've heard Death Valley is incredible with wildflowers. Way to go on the high grade! Now, can you name off those volcanoes? You have 5 seconds."}, {"response": 352, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 21, 2005 (19:03)", "body": "wow Julie! way to go!!!"}, {"response": 353, "author": "mittens", "date": "Tue, Mar 22, 2005 (06:55)", "body": "hi, just got in here. Looks like a nice place to visit. Havent read much into any of the topics, but I did notice you mentioned mt. st. helens. There's a very cool webcam set up, there, if no one had discovered this yet, it lets you watch. heh. http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/ it only operated by available light, and on pacific time,so there are going to be huge chunks of noisy screen...but its a neat up close view of a growing mountain. untain."}, {"response": 354, "author": "mittens", "date": "Tue, Mar 22, 2005 (06:55)", "body": "(double post deleted)"}, {"response": 355, "author": "mittens", "date": "Tue, Mar 22, 2005 (07:01)", "body": "I may have posted twice, my browser is giving me fits over this site, and it never shows me when I've posted. is it possible to delete one of a double post?"}, {"response": 356, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Mar 22, 2005 (07:01)", "body": "Welcome mittens! Glad you're taking part. That's a cool webcam alright."}, {"response": 357, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Mar 22, 2005 (07:01)", "body": "I can delete one of these for you, mittens."}, {"response": 358, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Mar 22, 2005 (07:04)", "body": "You're right, now it's dark on Mt. Stl Helens."}, {"response": 359, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Mar 22, 2005 (07:05)", "body": "Many facilities and trails closed last fall by volcanic activity -- including the Johnston Ridge Observatory five and one-half miles from the volcano's crater \ufffd will re-open for the season, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument officials announced today. (March 21, 2005) from Current Conditions: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/current-conditions/special.shtml"}, {"response": 360, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  1, 2005 (19:25)", "body": "Aloha Mittens! How nice to have a new person who gets excited by volcanoes erupting ! I've never known I have posted twice until it shows up. I really do need to get out my HTML programming book and relearn the scribble command again."}, {"response": 361, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr  4, 2005 (08:09)", "body": "You never got it going with ssh did you Marci?"}, {"response": 362, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  4, 2005 (14:42)", "body": "not yet. (what is an ssh? I forget... ) actually if it does not deal with taxes or my being sued, it takes a back seat until the end of April, alas."}, {"response": 363, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr  4, 2005 (19:43)", "body": "ssh is what http://vandyke.com downloads, it's called SecureCRT. When the web is slow, it's fast."}, {"response": 364, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  5, 2005 (20:51)", "body": "what is ssh (what does it stand for)? hi julie!!"}, {"response": 365, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Apr  5, 2005 (21:48)", "body": "Secure Shell."}, {"response": 366, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (17:20)", "body": "Oh yes, THAT CRT. I will get with you, I promise via email at the very least, as soon as I am out of the legal mess and can concentrate a bit better *;)"}, {"response": 367, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (18:48)", "body": "marcia, are you off the mainland right now?"}, {"response": 368, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 24, 2005 (20:19)", "body": "I leave on Tuesday morning (the 26th) for the Islands."}, {"response": 369, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 25, 2005 (18:47)", "body": "please be careful and Godspeed!"}, {"response": 370, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 20, 2005 (12:19)", "body": "I am back. LIghter in the bank account but mostly justice was served and we got to have dinner with John Burnett, my broadcast buddy. He is working on a book with Walt Dudley (of tsumnami book fame) which will be the history of the Hilo area. I am looking forward to reading it ! Thanks, everyone for your good thoughts. I needed them."}, {"response": 371, "author": "cascadiaclimber", "date": "Tue, Aug  7, 2007 (00:42)", "body": "Hey all, Wow, I don't know if any of you remember me. My last post on here was over 2 years ago. My compter crashed about 2 years ago and I lost everything, including my bookmarks. I tried to find this site again, but failed. I also was was not able to contact the my adopted big sister, Marcia, so I couldn't get the website that way either. Marcia and I finally were in contact again 3 days ago! So here I am. So much has happened since then. I'll share with you all later."}, {"response": 372, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Wed, Aug  8, 2007 (19:04)", "body": "Welcome back!"}, {"response": 373, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug  9, 2007 (11:55)", "body": "I remember you, Julie, the Cascade Climber. Hello, again!"}, {"response": 374, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  9, 2007 (18:13)", "body": "I'll nudge Julie back here from time to time as she works on her college degree. I'm delighted to see her again!"}, {"response": 375, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Thu, Aug 30, 2007 (17:00)", "body": "Of course I remember you, Julie. Wow, sisters!"}, {"response": 376, "author": "paulterry", "date": "Mon, Jul 21, 2008 (20:06)", "body": "Julie! VANCOUVER, WA- Scientists say the nearly three and a half years of eruption at Mount St. Helens is over for now and have lowered the volcano alert level from Advisory to Normal and the aviation color code from Yellow to Green. Mount St. Helens, which erupted violently in 1980, killing 57 people, reawakened in October 2004 when four explosions blasted steam and ash up to 10,000 feet above the crater. Scientists watched a spine of fresh hot lava pierce up through the bulging crater floor and growth of a lava dome continued until late January 2008. \"Five months have passed with no signs of renewed eruptive activity,\" said scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO). \"Earthquakes, volcanic gas emissions, and ground deformation are all at levels seen before the eruption began.\" \"We know that Mount St. Helens will erupt again in the future in some mix of renewed dome building and more explosive behavior. However, at this point, we can't forecast when the next eruption will begin,\" said Cynthia Gardner, Scientist-in-Charge at CVO. \"USGS and the University of Washington's Pacific Northwest Seismic Network will continue to monitor Mount St. Helens closely for signs of renewed activity. Scientists expect that days to weeks of warning will herald the next time Mount St. Helens \ufffdwakes up' for another eruption.\" USGS designates the level of activity at a U.S. volcano using the terms \"Normal,\" for typical non-eruptive behavior; \"Advisory,\" for elevated unrest; \"Watch,\" for escalating unrest or a minor eruption underway that poses limited hazards; and, \"Warning,\" if a highly hazardous eruption is underway or imminent. These levels reflect conditions at a volcano and the expected or ongoing hazardous volcanic phenomena. From October 2004 to late January 2008, about 125 million cubic yards of lava had erupted onto the crater floor to form a new dome-enough to pave seven highway lanes three feet thick from New York City to Portland, Oregon. A comparable volume had flowed out to form the 1980s lava dome. All lava erupted since 1980 has refilled about 7% of the crater, which was created by the catastrophic landslide and eruption of May 18, 1980. Even though the eruption has ended, some hazards persist. The new lava dome remains hot in places and capable of producing avalanches or minor explosions that could dust areas with ash up to 50 miles from the volcano. Rock fall from crater walls can produce clouds of dust that rise above the crater rim, especially during dry, windy days. Also, heavy rainfall or rapid snowmelt can send small debris flows onto the Pumice Plain north of the crater. A weekly update of the status of all Cascade volcanoes, including Mount St. Helens, can be seen at http://volcano.wr.usgs.gov/cvo/current_updates.php . For more information about the 2004-2008 eruption, visit http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/Eruption04/framework.html . Alert level and aviation color code definitions can be found at http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Cascades/CurrentActivity/volcano_warning_scheme.html . Additional information about volcanoes and volcano hazards is at http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/ ."}, {"response": 377, "author": "cascadiaclimber", "date": "Sat, May 15, 2010 (02:15)", "body": "So my last post was almost 2 years ago. I don't even know if any of you are still on here. Haven't heard from Marcia in a while. Is she still on here? I'm in grad school now. I'm doing summer field camp in the Cascades this summer. Perhaps I will start posting again on my adventures."}, {"response": 378, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 2010 (06:55)", "body": "Great, love to hear about your adventures. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 71, "subject": "Spring Pledge Drive", "response_count": 355, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (14:34)", "body": "For the first time ever, the Spring is asking it's users to help out. You don't have to, but do it if you can. It costs $1299.00 a quarter to host the Spring servers on a T-1. Jeff Kramers charges us $250 a month for system admin work, and there is a $100 a month software fee from Armidale Software for our conferencing software. So what's that all come to? Well, if you toss in about $250 a month for misc expenses, which is probably very convservative, it's about $2600 a quarter or $1033 per month. The only income we get comes from website developement and our only website currently paying is childrenstory/tvpc which pays about $600 - $1000 per quarter, some of which goes to a web authoress. So, if you can, sen dyour contibution to: The Spring Rt 2 Box 56r Cedar Creek, TX 78612 You can do it anonymous or opening. Contributors will be sent some kind of memonto like a Spring mug, a hat, or something to express our gratitude. I'll link this into drool also."}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (14:38)", "body": "Our T-1 fee is due 7/31/98, so that's why I'm starting this now. No contribution will be too small or insignificant."}, {"response": 3, "author": "lafn", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (16:59)", "body": "Terry, I shall be glad to contribute (tax deductible?...you are non-profit). However, I have no objection to adverts. Geocities pays a lot of the websites' real estate.If you polled the members, I doubt many would object;. and that would relieve the fund- raising."}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (17:10)", "body": "We're not non-profit, yet. But I'll look in to this status. Obviously, we should qualify. And I'm open to adverts."}, {"response": 5, "author": "riette", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (17:15)", "body": "Will do as soon as my painting money comes in, Terry."}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (17:31)", "body": "Thank you! Thank you!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "heide", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (18:45)", "body": "This is the address that I read, Terry: The Spring Rt 2 Box 56r Cedar Creek, TX 78612 I just wanted to make sure that no letters got dropped. Glad to help."}, {"response": 8, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (19:47)", "body": "I'd [refer to hand deliver mine... still working on that ticket... *growl*"}, {"response": 9, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (22:36)", "body": "Thanks Heide, that address is correct."}, {"response": 10, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (23:05)", "body": "Ok, I give up. Why am I unable to forget this Topic? I have saved the Address and have no need to continue seeing new messages, but it won't let me Forget!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "Nan11", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (23:43)", "body": "I don't know, honey :-( I'm having the same problem with other topics...and the mark everything as read..."}, {"response": 12, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Thu, Jul 23, 1998 (23:51)", "body": "OH goodie! I'm not braindead, after all! *kiss*"}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jul 24, 1998 (06:39)", "body": "That sometimes happens when the system has a date glitch, like when the date changes to 2036 or something. I reset the date yesterday."}, {"response": 14, "author": "cherylq", "date": "Fri, Jul 24, 1998 (08:54)", "body": "Will do."}, {"response": 15, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jul 25, 1998 (08:02)", "body": "From Jonathon Langley today, $486 for some web work I did for him on http://www.tvpc.com and http://www.childrenstory.com Does anyone have ideas for new children's stories or illustrations for existing, legendary children's story? What stories are we missing?"}, {"response": 16, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jul 25, 1998 (08:09)", "body": "Pledge Address: The Spring Rt 2 Box 56r Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Checks made out to \"The Spring\""}, {"response": 17, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul 28, 1998 (10:06)", "body": "Thanks so much to Evelyn for here most generous contribution which arrived in yesterday's mail! Thank you so much Evelyn. It really helps."}, {"response": 18, "author": "lafn", "date": "Tue, Jul 28, 1998 (10:06)", "body": "Thank you so much Evelyn My pleasure, Terry. We have a great gang on Drool. (Even when we're fighting) :-) Led by our outstanding host, Nan!! Thanks , Doll!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug  7, 1998 (11:36)", "body": "total to date $150 We're a fourth of the way to our goal of raising $600 to make our fourth quarter internet access payment. Send to: The Spring Rt 2 Box 56r Cedar Creek, TX 78612 payable to Paul Terry Walhus or The Spring And thanks to Karen for the note and check received yesterday!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug 16, 1998 (20:55)", "body": "We got some great contributions from some North Country folks, ya know. Ya! A very hearty Spring thank you to Ann Haker and to Kathleen Born for their very kind and generous donations to the pledge drive. Ann is from Minneapolis and Kathleen is from Eagan, MN."}, {"response": 21, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug 16, 1998 (21:06)", "body": "Summary to date (9/1 - 11/30/98 budget) income 265.00 contributions 600.00 tvpc.com website 865.00 total income expense 1,299.00 ddc.net T-1 connection for our servers 750.00 Jeff Kramer system administration 300.00 Armidale Software Yapp software license 450.00 Hardware expenses 2,799.00 total expense (1,934.00) net operating loss"}, {"response": 22, "author": "riette", "date": "Mon, Aug 17, 1998 (11:39)", "body": "I haven't forgotten you either, Terry. Just still waiting for my money to come in, so I can send you a donation. Unfortunately my buyer has 3 months to pay, so just be patient."}, {"response": 23, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug 17, 1998 (14:36)", "body": "No problem, and thanks! I have an idea on the domain name suggestions. If you make a suggestion, I'll co-register it in your name as the owner and if we sell it, the Spring will split the returns 50/50 with the person who is the name co-owner."}, {"response": 24, "author": "riette", "date": "Tue, Aug 18, 1998 (04:46)", "body": "Not acceptable - that's not fair. What would be fair is if you told us all how to register, and we share our returns 50/50 with the Spring. And the names that are registered by the Spring should only earn money for the Spring. If we register names, splitting it 50/50 would still earn us money that we would not have had otherwise, plus it would earn the Spring extra money on top of the money it earns from registering its own names. Taking money from the Spring is unfair, as the Spring is working at a l ss, and is unemployed(!!) - unlike those who log in every day. If us users can't however register extra names ourselves, then coming up with them is the least we can do - the Spring should not have to split money with US to induce us to help. Because then we're a greedy bunch of parasites who should not be here, but pimping off people within our reach."}, {"response": 25, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 18, 1998 (08:55)", "body": "Fair enough. I was just trying to provide incentive for folks to help dream up some domain names. And website ideas. artcafe.com is gone. So is sportscafe.com."}, {"response": 26, "author": "riette", "date": "Tue, Aug 18, 1998 (10:45)", "body": "It's enough incentive that we're allowed to be here in the first place. I think we would all like to keep the Spring going. And besides..... THE WALHUS IS OUR MASTER...WE HAVE BEEN CHOSEN"}, {"response": 27, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Aug 19, 1998 (14:19)", "body": "I AM THE WALHUS--KOOKOOAJOOB..."}, {"response": 28, "author": "riette", "date": "Wed, Aug 19, 1998 (16:41)", "body": "ha-ha!!!!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Fri, Sep 18, 1998 (07:11)", "body": "Can you charge to credit cards, terry? I was thinking of dumping my WELL account, which would mean that I could divert my $15 a month your direction. Let me know."}, {"response": 30, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 18, 1998 (09:24)", "body": "We sure can! That's awesome, Mike."}, {"response": 31, "author": "nan", "date": "Fri, Sep 18, 1998 (11:52)", "body": "Hey Mike! When did you get back?"}, {"response": 32, "author": "riette", "date": "Fri, Sep 18, 1998 (12:28)", "body": "How does one do that, Terry? The thing with the credit card? Because I've also been trying to figure out how to send a contribution."}, {"response": 33, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 18, 1998 (12:34)", "body": "We'll set up a page for this as part of the Spring Store. We need to develop our commerce section so we can sell websites, local internet access and process contributions via credit card."}, {"response": 34, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 18, 1998 (12:36)", "body": "For now, the best way is to send a check made out to the Spring to: The Spring Rt 2 Box 56r Cedar Creek TX 78612"}, {"response": 35, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Sep 18, 1998 (17:30)", "body": "Didja get it yet, Terry??"}, {"response": 36, "author": "Allison2", "date": "Sat, Sep 19, 1998 (06:24)", "body": ""}, {"response": 37, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 21, 1998 (00:21)", "body": "Not yet. I wonder what happened?"}, {"response": 38, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Sep 21, 1998 (22:08)", "body": "(*sigh*) Guess I'll have to do some detective work..."}, {"response": 39, "author": "riette", "date": "Mon, Sep 21, 1998 (22:55)", "body": "I don't have a check account. How embarrassing. I'll wait till the credit card thing is set up, and send a monthly contribution like Mike."}, {"response": 40, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Sep 22, 1998 (17:28)", "body": "Hehhee...my financial situation is rather more dire than i had thought. how would $10 a month do for the moment? :)) if you want to sort this out, terry, call me: 6pm-11pm GMT (austin is 6/7 hours behind?) +44 1273 727157"}, {"response": 41, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 22, 1998 (17:45)", "body": "That would be awesome, Mike! Anything anyone can do within their limits is a help. Or help with revenue generating projects can be something you can do, like helping with sysadmin work (like wer does), developing new sites, etc. I never want it to be where anyone feels obligated or where there's any barrier to entry. I want it to be free and open, but the bills still come in and we have to be innovative in figuring out ways to pay them."}, {"response": 42, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Sep 22, 1998 (22:57)", "body": "yeah...like work at a restaurant and send him and/or his roomies gift certificates..."}, {"response": 43, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Wed, Sep 23, 1998 (15:14)", "body": "I'm happy to work on sysadm stuff, terry"}, {"response": 44, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 23, 1998 (15:27)", "body": "Great, let's discuss it in depth in the projects conference. I posted some things there today."}, {"response": 45, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jun 15, 1999 (13:26)", "body": "It's Pledge Drive time again. I'm hustling real hard this week to raise $400 to pay ddc.net for our connection. I have had several balloon mortgage payments wihc have laid me flat, and the outlook is good around the beginning of next month, but right now I'm scrapping along. The folks of drool have been great about helping support this community and I'm very thankful for all the help you have given. I've been meaning to put together an appreciation page with acknowledgements and will do so someday soon. If you have it in your heart (and pocketbook) to contribute, please send donations to: Paul Terry Walhus The Spring 9011 Quail Creek Dr. Austin, TX 78758 Make checks out to either me or The Spring. And, by way of appreciation, I've opened a new http://www.jeremynorth.com domain and am looking for volunteers to help run it and build it!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 16, 1999 (20:32)", "body": "Do not take plastic yet, Terry? If not, check is in the mail. Not a big sum, but one of several as I can. We need this place!!!"}, {"response": 47, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 17, 1999 (10:52)", "body": "No plastic yet, it's coming, and thank you so much!"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 17, 1999 (16:48)", "body": "Ok, Terry, it is in the mail. Let me know when/if you get it =)"}, {"response": 49, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 18, 1999 (11:36)", "body": "Thanks Marcia! Send in those contributions folks, in our hour of need. Paul Terry Walhus The Spring 9011 Quail Creek Dr Austin, TX 78758 make checks payable to me or to The Spring"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 18, 1999 (14:41)", "body": "Oh Terry - Must I stop payment on this check? I sent it to the other address you gave - Route whatever Box something. Will that get it to you?"}, {"response": 51, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 21, 1999 (00:17)", "body": "It should get to me ok. Thanks again."}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 21, 1999 (02:30)", "body": "I think I am going to make a pointed comment on one of \"my\" two (or both) Drool topics. If I can spare the money surely they can too. If this shut down, there would be a whole group of clever ladies longing to exchange ideas with like-minded souls and have no place to go. I read where you are a one-man band in the financial department, and it should not be that way. Not from all of the enjoyment we get from your efforts. The least we can do is help support your efforts."}, {"response": 53, "author": "Jana2", "date": "Mon, Jun 21, 1999 (02:35)", "body": "Terry, I'll drop a check in the mail tomorrow or Tuesday. Thanks for keeping the Spring going for all of us to enjoy!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 21, 1999 (12:44)", "body": "Thanks so much Marcia and Jana!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2036 (03:07)", "body": "Terry, it's 2036 again. Can you reset the date?"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2036 (04:29)", "body": "Ok Terry, I wrote 3 epistles to the devout in Springfolks (our private Droolian BBS) and asked them to please donate toward their own well-being. Thanks for all those who have given so far - I am not satisfied that all are doing their share."}, {"response": 57, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 21, 1999 (20:23)", "body": "We're back from the future. Peter, our peripatetic whiz kid from Georgia Tech is in town and is busily tweaking our server right now. We just went from 99.9% full on disk space to 78% full. It makes a huge performance difference. You can thank Peter by emailing him a kind word at peter@diff.net. He's a great volunteer helper. And again, much thanks for the donations and contributions sent to: Paul Terry Walhus The Spring 9011 Quail Creek Dr Austin, TX 78758"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 21, 1999 (20:35)", "body": "Sent him a Mahalo Nui Loa from Hilo. Thanks for telling us about it!"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 21, 1999 (22:03)", "body": "Terry, can you handle checks in foreign currency? I have a lady in Australia who wants to contribute."}, {"response": 60, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jun 22, 1999 (00:40)", "body": "Sure, we'll find a way. The Spring 9011 Quail Creek Dr Austin, TX 78758 Thanks. Thanks. Thanks!"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 25, 1999 (17:19)", "body": "Terry, your Email @spring.net has been bouncing for three days. Just to reassure potential donors, You will not and do not sell our Snail-mail addreses, do you? I said you did not."}, {"response": 62, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 25, 1999 (19:48)", "body": "Absolutely not!!! No way will I sell the emails of the members of this wonderful community. Not even an option. Nah gonna doit. I do, however, occasionally send out a groupmail to folks announcing a pledge drive or to try and drum up interest. This is available to conference hosts, if they like."}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 25, 1999 (19:51)", "body": "Never mind = it is my ISP. It bounces them and sends them at the same time. How very clever of them..."}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 25, 1999 (19:56)", "body": "Thanks for the confirmation here in Drool. There are still some very sincere lurkers who have heard nightmare tales of spamming and worse but would like to contribute to Spring's continuation. Good Luck, Terry, and thanks to everyone who cares enough to do something to help!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 25, 1999 (21:25)", "body": "Thanks! Send contributions to: Paul Terry Walhus The Spring 9011 Quail Creek Dr Austin, TX 78758"}, {"response": 66, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 30, 1999 (13:45)", "body": "Thanks so much to the four folks who have sent a combined total of nearly $200.00. Our goal is $400 a quarter. Soon, we'll be putting up an appreciation page thanking all those who have contributed (unless, of course, they specify that they want to remain anonymous). These folks have done so much to help us along. Another way you can help is to sign up for your own \"briefcase\"; the Spring has just beomce an affiliate with Visto and they offer a wonderful web based application that let's you keep track of your calendar, files, photos. email, address book, tasks, bookmarks, events, family, friends and co-workers. It will be a great help to you and your group. And every time someone signs up, the Spring will get $2.00. So this is a way you can help yourself and help the community. Please sign up and make your contribution that way! You can click on this banner to get started. SRC=\" http://service.bfast.com/bfast/serve/mid1291956?siteid=5325183&bfpag e=home\" BORDER=\"0\" WIDTH=\"1\" HEIGHT=\"1\" NOSAVE > HREF=\"http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click/mid1291956?siteid=5325183&bfpag e=home\" TARGET=\"_top\"> SRC=\"http://www.visto.com/affiliate/banners/tab_getvisto.gif \" BORDER=\"0\" WIDTH=\"468\" HEIGHT=\"60\">"}, {"response": 67, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul  1, 1999 (17:40)", "body": "I've just put up a page thanking our contributors at http://www.spring.net/sponsors Thanks to all these folks who have donated a total of over $1,200 since January 1, 1999. Ann Haker Ann Whittle Barbara Farley Charlotte Clayton Claire Chan Eileen Green Evelyn Boake Genette Irlbeck Gisela Sardinha Heide Kalbach Jana Hendricks Kathleen Born Lizza Davies Maarit Helena Doinio Marcia Hemming Nancy Palmarini Stacey Vura T McAvoy Willem Friesema If I've left anyone off the list, my apologies. One or two letters were lost in the mails. Overall we're nearly on target to our goal of $4,800 a year which is the cost of colocating our three servers (barton, www and access) on a T-3 connection in downtown Austin. Thanks so much to everyone who's helping and to those who are signing up for Visto via our link."}, {"response": 68, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (02:45)", "body": "THANKS!!!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (11:22)", "body": "Don't forget to sign up your dog and cat (and goldfish) for Visto too!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (14:20)", "body": "Terry, please fix whatever was messed up when the Visto icon was added to Drool's pages. We are seeing the date, time, poster's name and email within the body of the response. Very ugly. Disturbs my keen sense of esthetics! ;-D"}, {"response": 71, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (14:35)", "body": "good point...I'll ditch them and start over..."}, {"response": 72, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (14:41)", "body": "all better yet?"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (23:31)", "body": "Must be, Dear! No one has complained in over a month. Droolians are not that tolerant, normally =)"}, {"response": 74, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Aug 12, 1999 (10:41)", "body": "I am not even taking that bait...*wink*"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 12, 1999 (20:24)", "body": "*smile* You are wise!"}, {"response": 76, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Aug 14, 1999 (01:44)", "body": "occasionally, I get lucky..."}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 14, 1999 (11:29)", "body": "*smiling knowingly* I am glad to hear it."}, {"response": 78, "author": "Renata", "date": "Tue, Nov  2, 1999 (03:00)", "body": "Only now I read your message closely: (Terry) One or two letters were lost in the mails. Does that mean you never got a letter from me? Never got any kind of confirmation. Terry, I would like to know before I send off another one."}, {"response": 79, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov  3, 1999 (21:28)", "body": "I got yours, fortunately, and I am getting them reliably now. I really appreciate your contribution!"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  3, 1999 (21:38)", "body": "Mine will be in the mail to you tomorrow as well as one for Stacey's efforts in the Honolulu Marathon for the Lukemia Society. These checks are my Christmas present to me from me...and to you *grin*"}, {"response": 81, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Dec  2, 2000 (14:48)", "body": "Thanks so much to all those folks who have contributed to our latest fund drive. We are now accepting contributions on Paypal on the site: http://www.spring.net/paypal This has been a great effort and I can't thank everyone enough. As a small token, I'm sending out a picture of the Spring's Cedar Creek location, a nature picture or something, to the next 13 folks who send in a $25 or more donation. I sent out two already today to the nice folks from Cinncinnati and Lansdale, PA who contributed via Paypal."}, {"response": 82, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Dec  2, 2000 (18:57)", "body": "A huge thank you and lots of hugs for the wonderful people of drool who put up at least 80% of the funds we needed to keep our software running! This was a great effort and is very, very appreciated!"}, {"response": 83, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Dec  7, 2000 (22:30)", "body": "I just paid $199 to our host for extra bandwith for austen.com, if you're a supporter of austen.com and want to help in some way with this cost, please click on this link and send $5 automatically to spring.net just for signing up (it won't cost you anything). https://secure.paypal.com/refer/pal=terry%40spring.net Or you can send contributions the old fashioned way to: Paul Terry Walhus The Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Don't worry about this though, I just cut a deal with our provider to charge (in the future months) for a flat $40 a month for this bandwidth. austen.com uses a lot of disk space, which is ok, and I've covered this for the future. Again, my hearty thanks for everyone who supported our recent drive to pay Kaylene Thaler. I fully understand if you haven't caught your breath from this effort, but am hoping just joining PayPal and getting $5 to the Spring will be an easy way to cover this disk charge. All I need is for 40 folks to sign up . . ."}, {"response": 84, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Dec  7, 2000 (23:04)", "body": "Most austen.com people don't come here, Terry. Ann has put a fund-raising notice up at her place with the PayPal clickthru."}, {"response": 85, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (08:46)", "body": "Thanks, Karen. You have helped immeasurably in this effort."}, {"response": 86, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (09:14)", "body": "I had nothing to do with Ann's action. She did it herself."}, {"response": 87, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 30, 2001 (00:48)", "body": "Time to renew our drive, I had over $1,000 in bills from our old provider last month, which is why I'm moving all the sites to a new provider where it will be less than $400 a month. Use the paypal link on http://www.spring.net or send checks to: Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Please indicate what you are supporting (eg. austen, firth, bjd, or spring). I got 3 great contributions this weekend. Thanks!"}, {"response": 88, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Aug 16, 2001 (11:59)", "body": "We need to do a mini-pledge drive right now to catch up on some isp charges and some consulting. So if you can, go to our main page at http://www.spring.net and chip in whatever you can! Thanks. You can contribute via paypal or mail to The Spring, 182 Clover Rd, Cedar Creek, TX 78612. Checks made out to the Spring."}, {"response": 89, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug 20, 2001 (12:26)", "body": "In a normal month, I would have funds on the 15th to cover our server costs. This month is different because I have to pay property taxes on my house and all my salary and rental income etc. has to go to that. So I have to raise $300 pretty quickly to pay our server hosting fee. I need your help this month more than ever. After 60 days, the pressure will be off again, but now I particularly need your help and donations. Please use the Paypal donate button on our main page or mail checks to The Spring, 182 Clover Rd, Cedar Creek, TX 78612. I'm 5 days overdue on this server bill but I think they'll cut me a little more slack on it."}, {"response": 90, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug 20, 2001 (14:24)", "body": "https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?return=http%3A//www.spring.net/paypal&item_name=Contribution+to+austen%2C+drool%0D%0Aor+Spring&submit.x=17&submit.y=17&business=terry%40spring.net&item_number=3&no_intl=1&cmd=_xclick"}, {"response": 91, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Aug 20, 2001 (15:05)", "body": "I'm sending you my check this afternoon, Terry. Pl. credit Drool, and check your email."}, {"response": 92, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Aug 20, 2001 (15:11)", "body": "Terry, Drool's annual fund-raising drive will again be held in September. Evelyn and I will be helping Terry in the meantime. If people would like to contribute now, please contact me for instructions. I don't put my address up on public boards. However, I will be doing the collection again on behalf of this community, as Ann H did very recently with her austen.com group. In addition, I will be making arrangements for funds to be collected with the UK too as well as other countries. Thanks"}, {"response": 93, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug 20, 2001 (17:00)", "body": "Thanks so much Karen and Evelyn! I'm working on my end on getting some DVD prg\bograms going and trying as many ways as I can to alleviate the situation. In correspondence with KarenR!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct  1, 2001 (11:09)", "body": "Starting today, we're going to have four quarterly fund raising drives to pay our isp bills, make improvements, do backups and expand and add new features (faster server with bigger hard drives, etc). The pledge drives will be held on October 1-15, 2001 January 1-15, 2002 April 1-15, 2002 July 1-15, 2002 The goal of the current pledge drive is to pay all or a good portion of the $900 per quarter hosting fees we pay, plus another $600 to initiate a schedule of full backups to our server and an emergency preparedness plan. This quarter 25% of all donations will go to the newly established college fund for children of the survivors of the World Trade Center attack. Send your checks to: The Spring 182 Clover Road Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Use these logos to sign up (if you aren't a Paypal member and to make donations): If you want to send your donations to Ann or Karen directly, and have them forward them to me, that's fine. Ann has handled this extremely well in the past and that way I can track which site they're earmarked for. This pledge drive includes Spring, Drool, Firth and Austen. Thanks! Your contributions have been generous in the past and have kept this place rolling along. We hope to be secure, safe and more robust in the future as a website where you can freely express your thoughts and feelings and honor your heroes."}, {"response": 95, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct 10, 2001 (10:56)", "body": "Resp 94 of 94: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) Mon, Oct 1, 2001 (10:09) 52 lines Starting today, we're going to have four quarterly fund raising drives to pay our isp bills, make improvements, do backups and expand and add new features (faster server with bigger hard drives, etc). The pledge drives will be held on October 1-15, 2001 January 1-15, 2002 April 1-15, 2002 July 1-15, 2002 The goal of the current pledge drive is to pay all or a good portion of the $900 per quarter hosting fees we pay, plus another $600 to initiate a schedule of full backups to our server and an emergency preparedness plan. This quarter 25% of all donations will go to the newly established college fund for children of the survivors of the World Trade Center attack. Send your checks to: The Spring 182 Clover Road Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Use these logos to sign up (if you aren't a Paypal member and to make donations): target=\"_blank\"> ALT=\"Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!\" width=\"468\" height=\"60\"> METHOD=\"POST\"> VALUE=\" http://www.spring.net/paypal\" > drool or Spring\"> SRC=\" http://images.paypal.com/images/x-click-but7.gif \" NAME=\"submit\" ALT=\"Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!\" width=\"72\" height=\"29\" align=\"center\">"}, {"response": 96, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 11, 2001 (10:33)", "body": "Nothing in yet, my isp bill is overdue. I encourage folks to contribute someting, no matter how small. Thanks!"}, {"response": 97, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Oct 13, 2001 (08:33)", "body": "Still no donations on the current quarterly Pledge Drive, I'm going to get on the email and the phone and try to drum up some support."}, {"response": 98, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sat, Oct 13, 2001 (11:46)", "body": "Terry, I give yearly and send it to Karen. Would you like for me to break up my donation in quarters?That's a lot of trouble for her to handle the drive four times a year though.Esp with the friends in overseas. And how about letting us know the total amount that is collected by Drool? I know the Tea Room amount was posted last year.*Total* is not invading anybody's privacy. We need a little structure, IMO."}, {"response": 99, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Oct 13, 2001 (23:32)", "body": "It's wonderful that you give annually, and I'm most appreciative. No need to split it up in quarters! I got the first donation of this drive today, $50, which is one sixth of the way to paying this months hosting charges of $296.00. That's a start! I'd like to see the load spread out among more folks, and not weighing so heavily on myself and a few others. I'm encouraged by today's Paypal contribution. If you would like to give, please click the Paypal button to \"donate\" at http://www.spring.net . Or send check payable to The Spring to: The Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 I sent a $12.50 check to the college fund for WTC survivors today, a fourth of the contribution I received."}, {"response": 100, "author": "EileenG", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (17:26)", "body": "Guess my donation from the summer counted toward last quarter. :-/"}, {"response": 101, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (17:26)", "body": "Yup, you're counted."}, {"response": 102, "author": "Allison2", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (18:59)", "body": "sent mine to Tracy. Hope it arrived."}, {"response": 103, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (19:15)", "body": "I'll be checking with Tracy tomorrow to see how her collection effort is going."}, {"response": 104, "author": "Becka", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (23:41)", "body": "I'll be sending something via PayPal shortly as well (as I'm in Canada) - depending on whether I've line up work in the next few weeks (fingers crossed). This site has been a great way to pass time while off and deserves all the support it can get."}, {"response": 105, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct 22, 2001 (10:37)", "body": "Not doing too well this pledge drive. One $50 check received, another lost check in the mail, no paypal contributions yet. No where near the goal of paying the hosting fees for this month of $296, and no where close to the $888 hosting cost for the quarter, and I'm hoping to raise enough to start backing up this system as part of an emergency preparedness plan. Please mail contributions to The Spring (Firth, Drool and Austen) 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Or just click the Paypal Donate button at http://www.spring.net or any of the other sister websites."}, {"response": 106, "author": "Tracy", "date": "Sun, Oct 28, 2001 (16:20)", "body": "Attention UK donators - just to let you know, and you know who you are, the final total is \ufffd120 and I've sent it off by PayPal this evening."}, {"response": 107, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sun, Oct 28, 2001 (18:30)", "body": "Thanks Tracy...good to hear from you; we miss you :-((( And thanks to the UK friends who are helping to make Spring possible:-)))"}, {"response": 108, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 28, 2001 (19:53)", "body": "I got it, thanks so much Tracy! I got it via Paypal a few hours ago. I am most appreciative!"}, {"response": 109, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (10:31)", "body": "Hey Terry. I sent a donation through paypal the other day. Did you get it? Just want to make sure. Thanks, Liz oh, btw, I have changed email addresses. How do I change it here, so when you rollover my user name it gives the right one? I can't figure it out."}, {"response": 110, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (10:34)", "body": "Got it Liz, thanks so much! It came through on November 8th, and big thank yous to Tuquyen, Trina, Hayoun, Philip, Annabella, Tracy T, Patricia, and Marcia!"}, {"response": 111, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (10:47)", "body": "Terry, those newest ones (beginning 5) are from austen.com. Either you should be thanking them personally or have Ann do it. Liz, to change your email address, click on Main Menu at the bottom of the screen here, then go to \"View/Modify Preferences.\" It should be self-explanatory from that point on. When you hit submit, it may not look like the change has been taken because of the error notice you get, but it will be ok."}, {"response": 112, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (11:02)", "body": "I will be sending out notes and be making some thank you calls. I'll have to look in to that error notice thing."}, {"response": 113, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (11:40)", "body": "I'll have to look in to that error notice thing. No need. The changes go through. I'd rather have you work on that *other* thing."}, {"response": 114, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Tue, Nov 13, 2001 (12:32)", "body": "great! glad you got it. I've felt very guilty about not giving till now. thanks, Karen! I'll do that right now."}, {"response": 115, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr 14, 2002 (21:13)", "body": "Our bandwidth is off the charts. Our current account with our bandwidth provider allows for 50GB of monthly data transfer. For the month of March, our bandwidth total was 165GB, which is an overage of 115GB. Our bandwidth provider's pricing for bandwidth overage is $3 per GB. Using this formula, an amount of $345 is owed on our account. I have negotiated this down to $50 this month, but in the future we may have to order one of these plans, probably the 100 gb or 200 gb extra, which means we may have to do a special pledge drive in about a month, based on our bandwidth usage. 100GB extra: $100 per month 200GB extra: $200 per month 300GB extra: $300 per month"}, {"response": 116, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (08:48)", "body": "This is turning in to an extremely tough time financially for me, since I invested heavily in backup systems and am facing increasing bandwidth costs due to the popularity of our site. So I need your help now more than ever before. Please send donations to: Paul Terry Walhus The Spring 182 Clover Rd. Cedar Creek, TX 78612 or Click on the \"Paypal Donation\" link in the left column of http://www.spring.net Or click directly here: Paypal Donation If you haven't signed up for PayPal, you have to sign up here: Sign up for Paypal Thanks! Your support is really needed at this time."}, {"response": 117, "author": "lafn", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (08:57)", "body": "I hear ya' Terry...check's in the mail. Viva Drool!"}, {"response": 118, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (09:05)", "body": "Thanks so much Evelyn! This will really help."}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (14:02)", "body": "Thanks for linking this to Geo. You will be hearing from me, as usual. Paypal is the least painful way to do it, and you don't even need to figure out the postage!"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 19, 2002 (14:07)", "body": "Lest anyone in Geo wonder, Terry created this space we use on the internet. For ages he supported it all by himself. That became burdensome quickly when the lot of us happened along to create our own conferences and so on which required added bandwidth and server capabilities. Contribute what you can, please! I think Geo is worth a little of your time and where-with-all. Mahalo nui loa."}, {"response": 121, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (04:00)", "body": "Hi all What about from afar. I got some spare cash? I won't make it much because the exchange rate does not favour me (NZ$2.30 to US$1 - quite low for NZ)."}, {"response": 122, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (05:57)", "body": "Everything, near and far, helps! Thanks Rob."}, {"response": 123, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (11:22)", "body": "I'd love to contribute a bit. It won't be much though. I have been helping my parents out because Dad got layed off from his job a few weeks ago for the second time.*sigh* But every little bit counts. I love Geo and we certainly can't let anything happen to it!"}, {"response": 124, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (16:49)", "body": "Thanks a bunch Julie!"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (17:43)", "body": "Hang in there, students and struggling professionals. Don't feel guilty about being here - your present contributions of words is perfect. People like me will try to cover all of those who are where we were a long time ago."}, {"response": 126, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (13:30)", "body": "Keep 'em coming, I'm just a wee bit shy of what I need to make this month's bandwidth payment. Paylink link at http://www.spring.net"}, {"response": 127, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (13:34)", "body": "am sending check - watch your mail... :-)"}, {"response": 128, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May  3, 2002 (13:41)", "body": "Thank you!!!"}, {"response": 129, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, May 16, 2002 (08:17)", "body": "Our Paypal \"bank\" account is sitting at $253.62, thanks to a generous $100 contribution from Marci yesterday, so we're about $100 short of being able to make our $320 a month bandwidth payment. So, please, keep the Paypal contributions coming in so I can make this payment before the end of the month. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?return=http%3A//www.spring.net/paypal&item_name=Contribution+to+austen%2C+drool%0D%0Aor+Spring&submit.x=80&submit.y=32&business=terry%40spring.net&item_number=3&no_intl=1&cmd=_xclick or Mail to: Terry Walhus The Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Thanks to everyone who's made a contribution!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (09:34)", "body": "We're 76.38 away from being able to make our bandwidth payment! Three or four $25 Paypal contributions would do it. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?return=http%3A//www.spring.net/paypal&item_name=Contribution+to+austen%2C+drool%0D%0Aor+Spring&submit.x=80&submit.y=32&business=terry%40spring.net&item_number=3&no_intl=1&cmd=_xclick"}, {"response": 131, "author": "kasey", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (19:27)", "body": "Terry, I've just joined PayPal and sent a contribution (I hope). If it doesn't come through please let me know. I've been lurlking long enough that I feel I'm definitely responsible for some of that huge bandwidth usage. Although, now that I think of it, it's really ODB who's responsible. Who told him to be so fascinating anyway???"}, {"response": 132, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (20:30)", "body": "terry, i hope you received my donation too. please let me know if not. if you do, no need to post it here, thanks *HUGS*"}, {"response": 133, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May 17, 2002 (20:58)", "body": "I'll let both of you know as soon as I receive something, thanks!"}, {"response": 134, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, May 21, 2002 (15:41)", "body": "I made this payment today to our bandwidth provider: Date Service/Transaction Description Amount Jun 16, 2002 Fast Start Server -- Ongoing fee from Jun 16, 2002 to Jul 15, 2002 295.00 Jun 16, 2002 Harddrive Upgrade -- Ongoing fee from Jun 16, 2002 to Jul 15, 2002 25.00 Previous balance: 0.00 Amount due: 320.00 So, we're good till July 15th and we have $215.33 in our account which we can use today the July August payment. Thanks a bunch to wolf, marci and Kathleen!"}, {"response": 135, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (08:08)", "body": "Just got this months bill for $320 for bandwidth. The overbilled us and didn't credit us for last month (which I paid), so I'm getting this straightened out. Send contributions, as usual, to Paul Terry Walhus The Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 You can also send them to KarenR or Ann H and they'll forward them to me. Or you can click the Paypal button and use this method, it's on the top left of http://www.spring.net If you're buying Colin Firth DVD's, please buy them via the new link at http://www.spring.net , you'll see it midway down in the left column. There are over 30 Firth DVDs to choose from on this Amazon affiliate page."}, {"response": 136, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (08:09)", "body": "Buy Colin Firth DVDs"}, {"response": 137, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun  5, 2002 (08:12)", "body": "Make Paypal Donation Sign up for Paypal if you're not yet a member"}, {"response": 138, "author": "freddie", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (06:56)", "body": "Terry, Could I recommend that the link for buying the CF DVD's be put onto the Drool mainpage? I must admit, I go directly to that site when I come to The Spring and I bet a lot of others do too and will miss that as an opportunity to help raise some much needed funds."}, {"response": 139, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun  6, 2002 (09:10)", "body": "I sent that to Karen R for possible incorporation. I wonder what the volume of dvd buying is among folks in this conference? There are about 30 Firth DVDs listed on this page. Direct contributions have always been our mainstay, a lot of the programs like amazon.com only payoff if large numbers of folks use them and we are able to meet minimum sales quotas."}, {"response": 140, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 13, 2002 (06:24)", "body": "Our current account with our bandwidth provider allows for 50GB of monthly data transfer.. For the month of May, our bandwidth total was 95GB, which is an overage of 42GB. Their pricing for bandwidth overage is $3 per GB. Using this formula, an amount of $126 is owed on our account. As a courtesy, they are only going to charge our account $50 for this overage. In the future, however, they will need to charge us for the bandwidth we use. We also have the option of pre-purchasing bandwidth at the following discounted rates. 100GB extra: $100 per month 200GB extra: $200 per month 300GB extra: $300 per month At present we owe the regular flat rate $320 plus this $50 or $370.00. I have about $100 in the account from last months contributions so I'm trying to raise about $270 for this month and some toward a potential bandwidth overage next month. I'd like to prepay to 100 gb extra and save something possibly."}, {"response": 141, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 14, 2002 (10:22)", "body": "Thanks for the $20 paypal contribution I just received. I won't mention the name because I haven't asked the contributor. But thanks! We really need contributions right now."}, {"response": 142, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 17, 2002 (12:57)", "body": "We are about $270 short of paying our bandwidth bill this month, so this is the amount I have to raise. I'm toying around with the idea of getting 12 people to commit to one month each during the year and insure the bandwidth payment for that month. I'm extremely strapped this month so I'm counting on contributions to make up our shortage in the bank to make the payment and keep the system alive. Ideas? Suggestions on fund raising? Again, the Paypal link is at the bottom of the spring's main page."}, {"response": 143, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 19, 2002 (07:05)", "body": "Keep those contributions coming, please. Your contributions make these pages possible, click the Paypal banner on Spring.net's main page."}, {"response": 144, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jun 19, 2002 (10:15)", "body": "I've put up (and linked all over the place) a new webpage at The Bucket called The Marketplace (or should it be called The Bucket Boutique???), where there are direct links for all of Colin's tapes, DVD, related books, etc. (plus related items) to purchase from Amazon. Using these links, Spring will earn some money. If there are other items you'd like added or would like me to create the direct link for you, just let me know. Now, start shopping!! ;-D"}, {"response": 145, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Jun 19, 2002 (11:00)", "body": "Thank you Karen. Will Spring get credit for *all* Amazon products purchased through The Marketplace? I just ordered a \"non-Firth\" book;-))"}, {"response": 146, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jun 19, 2002 (15:11)", "body": "If they have the Spring code in the url (which you can do yourself very easily), then Spring gets the biggest cut. After the ASIN (the url), are a string of numbers/letters. After that backslash, get rid of the rest and put in spring-20. Hit \"enter\" and a new url is generated that will credit Spring. v. easy."}, {"response": 147, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jun 19, 2002 (15:31)", "body": "OK, I've changed the name and the link. We now have The Bucket's Boutique. Voila! http://www.firth.com/boutiq.html"}, {"response": 148, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Jun 19, 2002 (15:35)", "body": "Question: why is the website \"firth.com\" and not \"colinfirth.com.\"?"}, {"response": 149, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jun 19, 2002 (15:37)", "body": "It's either. If you type in colinfirth.com, you will get The Bucket."}, {"response": 150, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Jun 19, 2002 (15:52)", "body": "Whew;-)"}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (12:06)", "body": "Thanks for the accreditation link to add for Amazon. I get a lot of stuff from there and I would like Spring to get credit for it! Aloha Y'all from the South."}, {"response": 152, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (12:10)", "body": "What's your location today, Marci?"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (12:14)", "body": "Louisville, KY"}, {"response": 154, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (12:22)", "body": "Wow, my old stomping grounds. I used to live on St. James Court just next to Central Park where they do the Shakespeare in the Park series in the summer. Wonder if this is still going?"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (14:45)", "body": "I'll check. Lots going on here. Lots of stuff all around, too - not just hourses! I'm in downtown in the old part near Churchill Downs in a resotred row house. Loads of steps up and down to navigate will either give me coronary collapse or legs of steel."}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (14:48)", "body": "I'm not used to heat without breezes, and I forgot how suddenly a thunderstorm can show up. My host arrived home yesterday soaked from one such little shower that did a bit of damage in Illinios just across the border. How funny it is to be in one of those colored states in those puzzles. I am still having problems with what order which states come in even though I was navigator on the last road trip!"}, {"response": 157, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (08:23)", "body": "Still at least $250 short of being able to pay this months bandwidth bill and I only have a few days to go before they turn us off, please send payments via paypal (click link on http://www.spring.net ) or mail to: Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Thanks!"}, {"response": 158, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (07:34)", "body": "Still 200+ short and only two days till our shutoff notice. Please donate via the Paypal logo at http://www.spring.net and help keep spring, firth and austen running. Thanks."}, {"response": 159, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (10:20)", "body": "Just got a $50 contribution, we're about $150 short now. Please keep 'em rolling in, I'm facing a serious financial pinch this month and want to keep the system up and running. Thanks!!!"}, {"response": 160, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (12:12)", "body": "Another $50 just came in, keep 'em coming and we'll make it! Thanks so much! $100 in Paypals today so far, you are really coming through in a pinch!"}, {"response": 161, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 29, 2002 (11:45)", "body": "terry, where do we stand today?"}, {"response": 162, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jun 29, 2002 (22:58)", "body": "We are very, very close, about $50 away from having the total I need to pay on Monday! Thanks to everyone for the very kind contributions over the past few days."}, {"response": 163, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jun 30, 2002 (18:50)", "body": "terry, i just sent a contribution (hope it went through)..."}, {"response": 164, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jun 30, 2002 (21:44)", "body": "Got it! Thanks so much, it puts us over the top!"}, {"response": 165, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (08:30)", "body": "We're going to try something different for our next months pledge drive, starting today. The Spring is an Ebay seller. We have a good rating. Do you have something in your garage or attic that you don't need that we could sell on ebay? If you do, list it here in this topic, the Spring will sell it and you'll have to ship it to the buyer. You can donate whatever percentage you like to the Spring and keep whatever you want for yourself, as long as you donate at least 25% of the sale of the item to the Spring. You can email me (terry@spring.net) with your listing if you don't want to do it through this topic. It will be imperative that you can ship the item to the buyer promptly and without fail so as to preserve the Spring's good seller rating. List your item here, in this topic and then I'll list it for sale on Ebay. Also, after you list, send an email to mailto://terry@spring.net and let me know your phone number and address so I can co-ordinate the shipping and sale and payment to you. It's an experiment, let's see if it works, maybe this will help keep us afloat. Remember, it costs at least $320 a month just for our basic expenses and we'd like to raise more to start doing more effective backups and keep up with any necessary hardware/software upgrades."}, {"response": 166, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (10:47)", "body": "A few of you may have received an email from me in error, it was sent unintentionally and my apologies if you received and email with a long list, I sent a followup which was the email I intended to send out in the first place. The email is in reference to the Ebay idea."}, {"response": 167, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (11:12)", "body": "I'd say that 90% of the people you emailed don't come here and wouldn't be reading your apology."}, {"response": 168, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (11:14)", "body": "I emailed them an apology."}, {"response": 169, "author": "rajan1019", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (11:34)", "body": "I am B.Com(Pass) from Delhi University from India and I have done a course in computer such as Desk top Publishing in Computer which includes Abode Photoshoppe, Scanning , Page Maker , Msoffice, freehand, Illustrate Coreldraw. I am now working in a SERC in India and handling Data Base work such 1. Data Entry 2. Generation of Tables 3. Obtain Charts from Data base 4. Preparing of Reports I had also working in a Printing Offset Company India's leading India's No. 1 Company Ajanta offset & Packaging Limited I also know the Knowlege of Printing"}, {"response": 170, "author": "rajan1019", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (11:36)", "body": "My email address rajanbagga@vsnl.net telephone : 91-110-5556645"}, {"response": 171, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jul  6, 2002 (03:28)", "body": "Our first item for Ebay has been offered and will be listed soon. From today's correspondence: Yes, I have something I don't need any more. I have a champaign mink jacket with a fox collar. I paid $1,800. for it and I'll sell it for $800. with 30% going to The Spring. It's tuxedo length and quite a steal at this price. Ohhhhhhhhhhh - it's a size 10. All Ebay donors to remain anonymous unless, of course, they give permission to reveal their name. This is a most kind offering. Here's the actual ebay listing, the reserve price has been set at $800 so it won't sell until this reserve is met. If the donor requests, I may be able to revise the item listing. One very important thing I forgot to mention, is that we need a photograph if possible, or multiple photos of the item. Or at least point to a stock photo on the net. If it's a common consumer item then there's probably one we can find on google.com. Title: champaign mink jacket with fox collar Item # : The item number for your new listing is 941656544. URL: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=941656544"}, {"response": 172, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jul  6, 2002 (03:41)", "body": "I posted a photo with a disclaimer that it's only an approximation, I hope to obtain an actual photo from the donor. Ebay recently announced that they are heavily promoting \"power sellers\" to find folks with items they want to sell in their communities. The Spring is my community. So, please, did though that attic or rummage through your garage and see if there is something you no longer have any use for that could benefit our community at Drool and the Spring."}, {"response": 173, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jul  6, 2002 (03:48)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/mink"}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:47)", "body": "It fits me Terry, but what on earth would I do with it? Aloha and good luck Rajan. Thank you for posting."}, {"response": 175, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (17:15)", "body": "I put a real picture of it up instead to the ones I had. Hope it sells so we can get a headstart on next months server hosting/bandwidth charge, but then again, these things may not move in summertime. No bids yets."}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:18)", "body": "I suspect that thr right buyer might like to get it now and set it aside for cooler weather. How about the cruise crowd? Alaska is good this time of year and it does get nippy onboard."}, {"response": 177, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jul 13, 2002 (10:07)", "body": "The auction ended and the coat didn't sell. I will relist it."}, {"response": 178, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 13, 2002 (11:53)", "body": "is it real fur? if so, maybe folks are resisting it....is it priced too high?"}, {"response": 179, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jul 13, 2002 (20:12)", "body": "It's real. But it's summer! This is, after all, a coat. But I'll keep listing it and hope that some other folks dig some things out of the garages or attics!"}, {"response": 180, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul 21, 2002 (13:30)", "body": "how're the bills looking terry? are we doing ok this month?"}, {"response": 181, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jul 21, 2002 (13:37)", "body": "We've got a good start. A couple of very nice contributions came in the past few days. So we're about a third of the way there to our $320 a month bill. The coat didn't sell. And there haven't been any other Ebay contributions (where folks contribute a discarded item for sale to benefit the Spring)."}, {"response": 182, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jul 27, 2002 (11:21)", "body": "I have a hundred of these premium quality webcams to sell on ebay to raise money for spring.net, drool and Austen. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2042024744&rd=1 or http://www.spring.net/ebay/webcam"}, {"response": 183, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jul 28, 2002 (00:13)", "body": "NCK27CZV - TeleCam LT w/ Zoom Notebook Videoconferencing Camera Buy this at our Spring Ebay Auction Now! This is an incredibly sensitive, high resolution camera ideal for security or web cam applications. It has a built in microphone and power supply. Slim, Lightweight Design for Portability Proper eye contact is the key to effective videoconferencing. This is why the NCK27CZV can be mounted anywhere on the notebook computer display with the provided TeleClip attachment. This makes it convenient for both right and left handed users as well as prevents problems of parallax. Further, the NCK27CZV's unique design allows the user the ability to detach and carry the the camera from the notebook to view documents, rooms or objects of interest. Varifocal Lens for wide angle, normal, or telephoto viewing of people, places and things Focus can be quickly adjusted from 50mm (2\") to infinity on the Tamron varifocal lens. This allows the NCK27CZV to be used for document or close-up imaging. Also, this model can be adjusted for a wider viewing angle for group conferencing as well as personal conferencing."}, {"response": 184, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Jul 28, 2002 (01:04)", "body": "You might want to post this info at austen.com's Tea Room"}, {"response": 185, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jul 29, 2002 (11:59)", "body": "Will do! Thanks."}, {"response": 186, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 29, 2002 (19:27)", "body": "What kind of price is reasonable for this camera, Terry?"}, {"response": 187, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul 30, 2002 (08:49)", "body": "They retail for $299. $25 is reasonable. That's a $5 markup. I'm getting them for $20.00. I'm not sure what shipping will be, depends on your location. These do require a video capture board of some kind. I'm testing a video capture board that I could sell for $10 but I don't want to list it until I know that free drivers and software are readily available on the web. The mink coat hasn't sold and I'm relisting it for the third time. Ebay has a concept called power sellers, these are folks that find other people in their communities with rare or valuable collections of items they want to sell but they're not computer saavy themselves. So I'm looking at the potential for being a \"power seller\" as a means of supporting the Spring. That's why the call for folks to dig in to their closets, attics and basements."}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (18:23)", "body": "The stuff I have is mostly not worth the trouble. Tropic do evil things to stored valuables. It is best to leave them in storage on the mainland. I am heartily tired of feeding my books to bugs!"}, {"response": 189, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (18:33)", "body": "To everyone who bought up a storm at amazon!!! We just got our first quarterly report from amazon and, in the one month since Le Boutique came into existence, there was a huge response from all you and Spring actually earned some money. We really appreciate it. :)"}, {"response": 190, "author": "lafn", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (20:55)", "body": "Karen, why don't you post again the formula for giving Spring credit when one is ordering non-Colin items."}, {"response": 191, "author": "freddie", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (20:59)", "body": "Thanks Ev, that's a great idea, as I lost it and wanted to buy some other, non-CF related stuff. Karen, can you put it somewhere permanently????? :))))"}, {"response": 192, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (21:58)", "body": "wait a sec...how do we make sure spring gets donations from amazon? i buy stuff from them--is it just via a click-thru?"}, {"response": 193, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:16)", "body": "I have setup a page at The Bucket that has links to specific products that contain Spring's code. However, anyone can change the product url to ensure that Spring gets the maximum rebate. A general click-thru isn't worth much. Lisa, I'll put instructions on the Boutique page for changing the url, but essentially it goes like this... very simple. Here's the url for Tom Clancy's new book (featured on amazon's main page) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399148701/ref=pd_gw_tst_1/002-2311145-9832001 (1) In the location bar at the top of your browser, remove all the coding after the number set following the ASIN and keep the last slash. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399148701/ (2) Type in spring-20 after the slash and hit Enter. You will get a new product page that has coding for spring. In this case, I got: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399148701/spring-20/002-2311145-9832001 but it will be different for each person who does it. BTW, items have different percentages for rebates. Books, directly linked, have by the highest reimbursement."}, {"response": 194, "author": "Rika", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (01:35)", "body": "I was really glad you set up the Amazon affiliate link. I had to buy a lot of books for school and I often shop through Amazon anyway.... so it was a painless way to donate."}, {"response": 195, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (04:26)", "body": "The response has been wonderful and I am most grateful for this support. Amazon, Ebay and Paypal have been very helpful partners in our pledge drives. And I am most appreciative of the direct contributions that I still continue to receive. Any one who has made a contribution is most welcome to web space at firth.com, austen.com, spring.net, email address, etc. If there is anything I can do to return the favor, please contact me!"}, {"response": 196, "author": "lafn", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (11:32)", "body": "As the holidays approach, I think we should publicize the Amazon -Spring connection more. Has it been posted on austen.com? This is an easy way to get funding for Spring.I've bought all the Colin items I wish to buy at this point, but I order other items from Amazon monthly. About to order the Possession sound track...and in November the DVD."}, {"response": 197, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (11:36)", "body": "I've contacted Ann and she's just returning from vacation. She's indicated she will create a \"shop\" at austen.com too and will be fixing Spring's main page after she contacts Terry to get the new passwords."}, {"response": 198, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Aug  2, 2002 (13:47)", "body": "I have updated the Bucket's Boutique with instructions for DIY code changes, plus added some other items, including a couple of P&P sequels (the diary one isn't bad at all!): http://www.firth.com/boutiq.html"}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug  3, 2002 (10:54)", "body": "Thanks, all. I just bought three books as birthday presents but did not know the formula. Next time, Spring will get the credit!"}, {"response": 200, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Aug  3, 2002 (10:56)", "body": "Cancel them and I will give you the codes."}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  4, 2002 (00:34)", "body": "OK thanks! I got notice of shipment of one today and one of the others is from a second hand dealer since it is out of print. However, the third might be redeemable. Not to worry; I will be buying a lot of books shortly. *;) More on that later."}, {"response": 202, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Sun, Aug  4, 2002 (15:07)", "body": "Karen, could you e-mail me a listing of them as well? Thanks!"}, {"response": 203, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Aug  4, 2002 (15:55)", "body": "Liz, email you what????? I haven't a clue."}, {"response": 204, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Sun, Aug  4, 2002 (23:31)", "body": "aren't there certain urls that one can go through to amazon so that spring gets a percentage of the purchase? or did i totally misunderstand that previous string of messages?"}, {"response": 205, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (00:15)", "body": "Yes, there's the general click-thru icon on the bottom of every topic here. I also have a page up at The Bucket, called The Boutique, which has all sorts of Firth and other items, specially listed so that you can click through on those. When you have a direct link (which you can make yourself if I don't have the item listed), then the rebate percentage is higher. Here's the Bucket page which explains it all: http://www.firth.com/boutiq.html especially the DIY section at the bottom. If you need assistance, just let me know. I'd be glad to help out."}, {"response": 206, "author": "ekelley", "date": "Tue, Aug  6, 2002 (20:07)", "body": "great. Thank you!"}, {"response": 207, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (08:24)", "body": ""}, {"response": 208, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Aug  7, 2002 (08:27)", "body": "The above link is for our UK friends who want to buy books on Amazon and allow their purchases to help the Spring, firth.com and austen.com with the expenses of running the site. So if you're in Great Britain, this is for you!"}, {"response": 209, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug  9, 2002 (10:54)", "body": "Will micropayments work here? http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=1696 is a reference to a site doing this?"}, {"response": 210, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (08:33)", "body": "I received a current bill for $320 for our bandwidth provider due by the end of the month and I ordered a new server which will cost $1400, I have $750 in the kitty so I am about $970 short. I need to come up with all of this before the end of the month. The purpose of the new server is for immediate backup (we have one now) and to provide a safety net if we start incurring heavy bandwidth charges and need to change providers. That way, we'll have our own hardware ready to startup at a new location. The present server, which we rent and do not own, costs $320 a month and has 70 gb of disk space. The new server, which I have $750 set aside for, will have 320 gb of disk space, dual Pentium 1000 processors, RAID redundancy and 512 mb ram (one memory stick with room for more). Owning a server will allow me to shop around locally for a much better monthly deal and we'll have much more security in that we own the hardware. Please send donations to: Paul Terry Walhus The Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Or use the paypal link on the main page at http://www.spring.net Thanks!!!"}, {"response": 211, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (12:54)", "body": "Terry, I can make a donation on payday (the 1st) due to some current unforeseen circumstances. Thanks for your efforts on keeping this place going."}, {"response": 212, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (13:49)", "body": "Thanks wolfie. I got $25 in so far today via Paypal. So I'm sending $775 to the vendor that's building the system and he'll hold it till I pay the rest. So that's $625 more I need to raise for the system and $320 for the months bandwidth charge. That $750 was all I had so I'm hoping for some contributions to cover the rest!"}, {"response": 213, "author": "lafn", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (14:18)", "body": "Why don't you raise the money first and then buy the system. The bandwith charge is a constant. Just a thought...."}, {"response": 214, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (14:22)", "body": "I've been putting this off for so long, I don't like living dangerously and not having a decent backup if our rented system went down. At least I am able to get $750 in to the hands of the vendor that's building it today. The bandwidth charge varies, $320 is the *minimum* and we are starting to get bills for extra bandwidth. I want to be able to recover and switch over quickly if we get a bill for bandwidth that we can't afford or if something happens to our server. Right now, we have no backup and I'm very uncomfortable with this. I don't want to end up in the position of having to start all over from scratch and losing all our content! That would not be good."}, {"response": 215, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (14:38)", "body": "I quite agree with Evelyn. You pay your bills first and then save for the extras."}, {"response": 216, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (18:31)", "body": "I agree we need to pay our bandwidth bill and that will be the next expenditure. But I feel like it is essential we have a backup strategy in case this server is attacked or crashes. And the new server has redundant hard drives, something that would be cost prohibitive in a rental server like we currently have. If the system went down now, there would be no way to get back up and running quickly, it would take a week or more and we would lose most of our content. I like the idea of having a safety net!"}, {"response": 217, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (18:35)", "body": "This is the server: And this is the quote (not including a video card): Next Basic System............................$1253.00 P3tdde SC822I-300LP case Dual cpus Intel P3 1000 512mb pc133 sdram FD Slim cd rom Dual IBM 120 mb gb 7200rpm Assembly Insurance and handling........................$17.00 Grand total with TX sales tax..............$1374.78"}, {"response": 218, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (18:41)", "body": "This new system comes with two 120 gb IBM drives and I already have two 120 gb IBM drives. And it has room for two more. This would give us 960 gb storage with room for 240 gb more or a total of 1200 gb. We could partition this in to two \"mirrors\" so if the main drive crashed or was corrupted the mirror would be intact. Right now we have only a 40 gb and a 20 gb drive and we are rapidly running out of space. I am spending a lot of time daily cleaning up files and trying to keep the system from filling up. It also has two processors which would make it substantially faster."}, {"response": 219, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (18:58)", "body": "The motherboard: Target Segment High-end desktop, workstation, or internet applications Form Factor ATX with PC99 color-coded double-deck I/O Size: 11.6\" x 11.2\" (W x H) Processor Support Dual or single Intel 370-pin Pentium III 1.40GHz-500MHz processors Chipset VIA Apollo Pro 266T Front Side Bus 133/100MHz Memory Up to 4 GB of PC133 SDRAM memory I/O Expansion 5 32-bit 33MHz PCI bus mastering slots 1 4xAGP Pro 1 ACR Onboard Devices Dual Ultra DMA (UDMA/100) Promise ATA/100 onboard RAID 0, 1, 0+1 Burst data transfer rate supports UDMA Mode 5, PIO Mode 4, ATAPI Intel 82559 Ethernet controller onboard Up to Four USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse connectors Two fast UART 16550 compatible serial ports One ECP/EPP parallel port One Infrared header One floppy port Chassis Compatibility ATX chassis Fits SC822, SC811 chassis PC Health Monitoring Onboard voltage monitors for CPU core, +2.5V, +3.3V, + 5V and + 12V Fan status monitor CPU/chassis temperature monitoring CPU fan auto-off in sleep mode CPU overheat LED header LED and control for chassis intrusion detection System resource alert Support for system management software Auto-switching voltage regulator for CPU core, up to 20A of current Wake-on-LAN allows for remote network management and configuration of the PC, even in off-hours when the PC is turned off. This reduces the complexity of managing the network. Onboard auto-switching power regulator supports CPU core voltages from 1.3 ~ 3.5 volts Three tachometer fan connectors ( CPU, one chassis fan connector and one thermal control overheat fan connector) Keyboard wake-up from Soft-Off Overheat LED indication connector CPU frequency settings in BIOS setup Power-up mode control upon recovery from AC power loss Overheat backup fan connector for CPU protection BIOS Features Supports ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) and APM (Advanced Power Management) Slow blinking LED for Sleep State indicator Main switch override mechanism. Power-up mode control upon recovery from AC power loss PC Health Monitoring protects your system from problems even before they occur. DMI support ACPI/APM power management RTC (Real-Time Clock) wakeup External modem remote ring-on when system is in Soft-Off state BIOS rescue hot keys for rescuing BIOS chip from flash failure Hardware BIOS virus protection Award 2Mb Flash ROM Other Features ACPI/APM power management Internal/external modem ring-on Control of power-on mode for recovery from AC power loss One WOL (Wake-On-LAN) connector One chassis intrusion connector Standard Retail Package One SUPER P3TDDE mainboard One three-ended 40-pin IDE ribbon cable One floppy ribbon cable Two CPU cooling fans One backpanel I/O shield One BIOS/drivers CD"}, {"response": 220, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 23, 2002 (22:34)", "body": "Wow!!!"}, {"response": 221, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (09:03)", "body": "Just in. $200 from geo. Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! Our monthly rental is covered. I have a $750 deposit in on the new server. And I'll be able to make another $150 payment toward the new server. So we'll be up to $900 on the server with another $500 to go, he'll ship it as soon as I get this payment in to him. We're very close to having a powerful server that will someday be the future of Spring, Firth and Austen. It's exciting as we draw nearer."}, {"response": 222, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug 26, 2002 (09:51)", "body": "Another $50 in. That's $275 total, we're getting closer to the new server. Keep 'em coming, please!"}, {"response": 223, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug 26, 2002 (13:48)", "body": "I have put down $1,000 total on the server now and have a 412.66 balance due on the new server. We're very close indeed. To contribute, just go to Spring's main page at http://www.spring.net and click on the Paypal link. Or mail checks to: The Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 I am very excited about having a \"safety net\" for this community, call it lifeboat or whatever, it will give us a comfort zone that we have never had before. I believe this will benefit us all."}, {"response": 224, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 27, 2002 (09:25)", "body": "I have received $275 in contributions in the current effort so far. This almost covers our monthly rental payment. I'm making up the difference. So I could still use some help here to get this project off the ground. The Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 or Paypal on http://www.spring.net or http://www.spring.net/paypal"}, {"response": 225, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep  6, 2002 (14:03)", "body": "I made up the difference in the monthly server rent. I'm still hoping some folks can chip in on the new server, we're at 85% disk space utilization on our prsent server and climbing rapidly. I'd at least like to get things backed up and have a reserve in the ready in case our only current server goes down. Paypal on http://www.spring.net or by mail: The Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612"}, {"response": 226, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (04:54)", "body": "Our discussion forums were \"down\" yesterday for about an hour because we exceed our \"license limit\" for the software we use called Yapp. I called and got an extension from Kaylene, maintainer of the software. This occurred around 5 pm yesterday, give or take. The good news is that we had over 15,000 log ins in a 24 hour period, that's a lot! The flip side of this is that to get an unlimited license would cost us another $2300. The new server I'm working on his higher priority than this right now, because we need more hard drive capacity and better performance. But the extended license is something to keep in mind as we grow and have more folks logging in. It may be time to offer \"subscriptions\" to those who want expanded services from spring.net such as email, web space, and access to private forums. We'll always be free, but we may need to offer more services in order to support our operations. As always, I'm grateful for all the kind contributions via our Paypal link and though the mail. Keep 'em coming as every bit helps toward maintaining and expanding this web community of ours. Thanks all!"}, {"response": 227, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (04:58)", "body": "From Kaylene: I reset the license file so that it would work again. This means that your site received more than 15000 hits in a 24 hour period. When you upgrade to a new server you should probaby upgrade to an unlimited license. Right now you have paid for a license which is normally 64 unix users and and average of 6400 hits per day. Due to your mostly web usage I have it implemented this as at most 15,000 hits per day. You really should upgrade to an unlimited use license. It looks like Friday September 20 you got 11,003 hits, and then today you got more than 15000. You are now consistently averaging more that 6400 hits per day. You currently have a License worth $3,700.00. If you want to upgrade your license without adding additional hours of support it will costs $6,000 - $3,700 = $2,300.00. I would suggest you start saving for this. I did not increase the number of hits beyound 15000 hits per day. The next time you go above that limit you will experience this same problem again."}, {"response": 228, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (08:51)", "body": "To contribute: http://www.spring.net/paypal or by mail: The Spring 182 Clover Road Cedar Creek, TX 78612 What will you contributions go toward? At present, toward a new server that will function as a backup and possible replacement for our current server if it passes muster. It will have 720 gb of hard drive storage as compared to our present 70 gb (which is 86% full!). Thanks so much to all those who have contributed so far this month!"}, {"response": 229, "author": "lafn", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (11:42)", "body": "Hmmmmm. Can I throw in a word that might be controversial...the \"R\" word. \"Restricted\" meaning only donors would be able to log on. Is that ever done on some sights? How many donors do we have??? With 15,000 hits over 24 hrs. Looks like a few people are paying for others;-)"}, {"response": 230, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (11:48)", "body": "I don't want to keep people out unless this is the consensus of the community. Specific conferences can be limited to those on a user list. I'd need more input on this from Karen et al before making any kind of move like this. The Spring gets over a million hits a month, as does austen.com and firth.com. We do get supported by a faithful few, and I'd like to see others who are able make whatever contribution they are able. Even if it's $10, $20, $50 a year."}, {"response": 231, "author": "Rika", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (13:05)", "body": "Terry, you can use the web log data to look at hit rates by conference, right? Do you have a feel, on a conference-by-conference basis, for who's consuming the resources vs. who's contributing?"}, {"response": 232, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (13:11)", "body": "Sounds like it's time for me to get my annual fundraiser going. Rika, Drool is the conference responsible for the vast majority of the hits. The rest is insignificant. Usage on The Bucket/firth.com and austen.com doesn't affect the license, as they don't use the Yapp software. However, I've never been able to see storage and processor stats that combine all of Terry's domains."}, {"response": 233, "author": "Rika", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (16:48)", "body": "Okay, another question. What constitutes a hit on Yapp? Is it the same as a page hit on a web server, or are they counted differently?"}, {"response": 234, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (16:59)", "body": "Same thing."}, {"response": 235, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (17:54)", "body": "I believe they're the same, but I do have a question in to Kaylene about what her definition is, is it a login or is it any visit regardless of whether the person logs in or not. I'm waiting to hear from her on this."}, {"response": 236, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (22:53)", "body": "\"Hits are defined as anytime a page is displayed on a web machine\" Kaylene"}, {"response": 237, "author": "Rika", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (23:10)", "body": "If it's counted the same as ordinary page hits, then it wouldn't be related to whether or not someone logged in (though the login, I suppose, might generate an extra hit). It would have to do with the number of page requests someone made, and that could be several per visit to a conference. So I would think if I visited Drool through the main page, read the new messages in four topics, and posted twice, that would be at least seven hits. One reason I'm asking these questions is because I've been thinking about the fund raising efforts. Speaking as someone who's fairly new here and who's enjoying it, I'd like to give my fair share to support Drool, and in fact I have contributed twice in the three months that I've been here. I'm even willing to give more than my fair share, since I recognize that some people are going to choose to take a free ride if they have the opportunity. But I haven't a clue what a fair share would be, because I don't have good information on the total monthly costs or on the number of people who hang out here. I realize that counting the number of unique lurkers is difficult if not impossible (unles Yapp creates cookies for that purpose and logs statistics), but I think it would be beneficial to try to quantify both the size of the community and the size of the financial obligation we jointly incur to whatever extent is possible."}, {"response": 238, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (23:24)", "body": "Our base fixed cost is $320 per month for server rent. Hardware is another cost which varies, the machine I'm putting together is running about $1400 for the base machine and $900 for the hard drives. I already mentioned the Yapp software costs (licensing). Karen and I both put a lot of our time in to this project, as do Marcia and several other authors (Ann Haker to name one). But these costs haven't been compensated to date. It's rare that we bring in enough in a given month to cover all our costs, but what we do get is vital and there is never any extra or any \"profit\" per se. I don't know about the lurker thing, but I know the number is huge according to our web stats, see http://www.spring.net/webtrends and you'll get some clues. As to the size of the community, last time I looked there were about 1,000 unique people in the drool conference. That was 4-5 months ago, we've gained quite a bit since then. I think I have about 400 email addresses that are pretty reliable for users of the system."}, {"response": 239, "author": "Rika", "date": "Tue, Sep 24, 2002 (23:28)", "body": "That's a start.... I may e-mail you about this."}, {"response": 240, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 25, 2002 (08:16)", "body": "One approach might be to set up a \"members only\" area with discussions, content etc that were available to our contributors and subscribers. We could admit, naturally, everyone who's made significant contributions by default and create a \"subscription\" model where folks paid $5 a month or $50 a year for a username and password. Subscribers/contributors could also be offered premium email addresses such as mandy@firth.com or jane@austen.com, etc., web space on the new server, and we could produce a quarterly printed newsletter. Just ideas, I'm not saying I'm going to implement this yet. Just looking for feedback."}, {"response": 241, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Sep 25, 2002 (13:10)", "body": "(Terry) Just ideas, I'm not saying I'm going to implement this yet. Just looking for feedback. All good potential good ideas. Which would cover the monthly expenses. And eliminate the end of the month money crunch. Of course it all depends on the response of the immininet fund drive , doesn't it? I mean, if we get a good enough response, things might go on as is. But 15,000 hits means a whole lot of folks are coming on free."}, {"response": 242, "author": "Lizzajaneway", "date": "Wed, Sep 25, 2002 (14:23)", "body": "I'll second the proposals / ideas. we are always going to get \"freeloaders\" but I guess we should try and limit them;-)"}, {"response": 243, "author": "Rika", "date": "Wed, Sep 25, 2002 (15:08)", "body": "I like the idea of having some \"premium\" features/content for subscribers. It's important to offer at least some access to content for free, because the way people get hooked is by being able to visit and read and find out what goes on before they have to make a commitment. A possible first step would be (if Yapp supports this) to require people to register and get a Drool user name in order to read some of the conferences. A registration requirement is a barrier, but only a small one, and it would give us a feeling for who's out there."}, {"response": 244, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 25, 2002 (15:57)", "body": "Another idea, and *all* of these ideas really need Karen's input, would be to set up a subscribers only area on the website, where subscribers could get premium content and information. Kind of like the news services do, they let you have the bulk of the news but save long premium stories for subscribers only areas. It's easy to set up a conference that is private and the host determines who gets access by maintaining a \"ulist\" or list of users. We've had conferences like these in the past. And we have a few now, you don't see them because they're private."}, {"response": 245, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Sep 25, 2002 (17:43)", "body": "(Terry)And we have a few now, you don't see them because they're private. Ah Ha...Terry.You mean as a long time donor, I'm not welcomed at all the conferences;-) Shutting me out:-(((("}, {"response": 246, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 25, 2002 (18:59)", "body": "Well, not exactly, the private conferences have *nothing* to do with drool, Firth, Austen or any of the things that probably interest you. And they're very inactive right now. I'm talking about creating something that would appeal to the interests of those actively supporting and creating the major content areas here such as Firth, Austen and Fan Fiction."}, {"response": 247, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Oct  1, 2002 (18:59)", "body": "create a \"subscription\" model where folks paid $5 a month or $50 a year for a username and password this sounds like a great idea to me :-)"}, {"response": 248, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  5, 2002 (13:07)", "body": "Oh dear. Most of my devout readers and posters (minimal by Drool's standards) are second or third world people or young students who are putting themselves through college. It would mean the end of Geo to make them pay for a subscription!"}, {"response": 249, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  5, 2002 (21:24)", "body": "i don't know about a subscription either. a lot of us volunteer our spare time to make spring what it is today....."}, {"response": 250, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct  6, 2002 (10:00)", "body": "I would never prevent someone from getting to the main areas of the Spring, like Geo. This is more in reference to getting to special subscriber only areas, and if someone was in one of the categories you describe, they could easily get a \"comp\" subscription, or complimentary subscription. Anyone who was a \"devout poster\" would automatically get a subscription. There will be no end to Geo! That would be unthinkable."}, {"response": 251, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  6, 2002 (10:47)", "body": "*whew*"}, {"response": 252, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Oct  6, 2002 (10:55)", "body": "Terry - Have you run the Webtrends report? Several people have indicated they'd like to see that stats."}, {"response": 253, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct  6, 2002 (12:27)", "body": "I have published the webtrends report but my license expires on the 15th, you need an account to see but I'll give a username and password to anyone who wants one. The url is http://video.wholetech.com:1099 If anyone wants to login, use this generic account: username: stats password stats"}, {"response": 254, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct  6, 2002 (12:59)", "body": "These reports will only be abailable until the 15th of this month, when our Webtrends license expires. So download whatever stats you need to your local machine, or, KarenR, feel free to save them on our webserver. This reports are insancely complete. , I wish I could afford this software but it's way out of our budget!"}, {"response": 255, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sun, Oct  6, 2002 (13:14)", "body": "Personally I want to commend Terry for looking for ways to increase the funding. He gets to pay the bills, after all.I am sure he doesn't like to go out every month requesting funds. Wolfie we all appreciate all the effort you put in...as well as Marcia. Money couldn't pay for what you both do for Spring. I want to keep Spring free too...but as we know, it is public for viewing, but privately funded. And when there are 15,000 hits in one day(???)and only an infinitismal percent of those give any money, I feel there is something wrong with this picture."}, {"response": 256, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Oct  6, 2002 (13:28)", "body": "The Annual Drool Fundraiser will kickoff tomorrow. I've made arrangements for a cheque collection point in the UK and if there are others who can have PayPal in other countries, let me know."}, {"response": 257, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Oct  7, 2002 (14:06)", "body": "Drool is kicking off its Annual Fund-Raising Drive. Spring needs money in order to operate and we appreciate whatever people can send to help keep this place online every single day of the week. For this year's campaign, I'm hoping that the contributions will cover our operating expenses through the end of the year. As Terry has explained in the past, it costs approximately $300 a month to run Spring, which includes the conferences, The Bucket (firth.com) and austen.com, home to the Derbyshire Writers' Guild. Also, when we exceed our contractual allowance for bandwidth, there are variable charges for the excess. From our usage statistics, we all know Drool is very popular but is financially supported by a small fraction of those who visit. Whether you have registered or read the boards in a public mode, it costs Spring money. We prefer to keep Drool open to the public and can only do so through your generosity and giving whatever you can to keep this wonderful place open. This year, I've made arrangements with Lizza in the UK to collect cheques, which she can then send on to me. For other countries, we have alternatives that have worked fine in the past. Our Drool boards are a source of enjoyment for many people, participants and lurkers alike. So if you'd like to make a contribution, please contact me at nomdedrool@yahoo.com for information, as no addresses will be posted on this board."}, {"response": 258, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Oct  7, 2002 (16:44)", "body": "Cute , boss.Love the \"Mom send $$$\"LOL. Think Colin could join in with a PSA for Spring? Thanks Lizza for being the UK Money Bag;-) (no pun intended)"}, {"response": 259, "author": "Lizzajaneway", "date": "Mon, Oct  7, 2002 (17:48)", "body": "None taken;-)"}, {"response": 260, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct  7, 2002 (19:26)", "body": "karen, you are so creative! luv the pics!!!"}, {"response": 261, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (20:04)", "body": "Terry, FTP is still not possible to Geo's hosts and files are having to be accessed from other net sources. For John's research this is NOT acceptable. Please help!"}, {"response": 262, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (06:11)", "body": "I'll fix this today, email me and I'll respond right away with some tests. I need some more detailed information from you."}, {"response": 263, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (07:48)", "body": "I spent quite a bit of time on this and set up an automated procedure to reset your file permissions. Let's continue this discussion in topic 25 of the unix conference though, as it's more related to unix file permissions than to the current pledge drive. Got a $50 contrib last night. Thanks! I won't mention or publish any contributors publicly unless otherwise requested by the donor. One of our recent contributors asked for, and received a firth.com email address and webspace. Remember, if you contribute, there are all kinds of \"perks\"; all you have to do is ask if you've been a contributor."}, {"response": 264, "author": "lafn", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (10:30)", "body": "(Terry) One of our recent contributors asked for, and received a firth.com email address and webspace. Remember, if you contribute, there are all kinds of \"perks\"; all you have to do is ask if you've been a contributor. Fantastic, Terry. Can you list the perks...or are they a secret;-)"}, {"response": 265, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (17:22)", "body": "The primary ones are email and webspace and private conferences (if any one wants them as a group). Also, there's \"shell access\" for the more unix saavy which gives you lightning fast text only access to the conferences. You have \"live\" phone support from me whenever you need it. I'll think of more."}, {"response": 266, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (17:55)", "body": "You'd better cost some of those options out."}, {"response": 267, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (21:03)", "body": "Email and webspace won't cost much. Same with private conferences. Shell access is already enabled and uses less system resources than the web. A unix system like ours handles additional options pretty well. We could support a couple of thousand web/email/shell users pretty easily and we're only supporting a handful now."}, {"response": 268, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Oct 10, 2002 (23:28)", "body": "I know email doesn't."}, {"response": 269, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 11, 2002 (09:28)", "body": "The only thing that hits us hard is disk space usage, and I'm building a solution for that and increasing vigilence in cleaning up what we have now (eg. compressing the logs more). So I would qualify supporting those kinds of numbers only if we limited personal disk space, but that wouldn't be as much of an issue with the new system."}, {"response": 270, "author": "lafn", "date": "Fri, Oct 11, 2002 (11:50)", "body": "I would strongly suggest that those perks have a quantified amount attached. The email addy is one many Firth fans would covet....I would put say a minimum of $50. on that. Hey...that's less than 50 cents a day for Drool. That's ludicrous. The same with the other perks...(some of which I don't even know what they are;-)"}, {"response": 271, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 11, 2002 (13:47)", "body": "Sounds good, Evelyn."}, {"response": 272, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 14, 2002 (00:47)", "body": "I don't even remember how to access my spring.net email since I lost the ability to login on telnet. I'll have to learn it all over again, soon!"}, {"response": 273, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct 14, 2002 (12:02)", "body": "You can use pop mail or ssh and use pine or elm."}, {"response": 274, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Oct 18, 2002 (17:16)", "body": "2002 Fund Raising Status!! I want to thank all the wonderful people who have come forward, contacted me about making donations, and followed through with checks, money orders or PayPal transfers. So far we've collected $440, slightly less than half of our goal from the following: What truly amazes me is that about a third of that amount is from our wonderful community of lurkers, who tell me how much they love it here at Drool and that it has become a fixture in their day. With the number of hits we get here, I know it is a daily *must visit* for many more who rely on Drool for current information on Colin and for the lively banter amongst die-hard Firthettes, with nothing better to do than paint their nails a deep crimson. So, let's keep this fund drive rolling and I hope to hear from more of you soon. If you're in another country and want to make a contribution, please email me at nomdedrool@yahoo.com to discuss your options. Don't be among the other noncontributors in our Hall of Shame: BTW, Evelyn, where's your check? *tap tap* BTW2, if you haven't received an email from me, then I haven't received your contribution or notice of it."}, {"response": 275, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 18, 2002 (22:25)", "body": "*LAUGH* karen, you crack me up!! love the graphics!!!!!"}, {"response": 276, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (19:48)", "body": "Annual Fund Raising Newsflash for Australian Springites We're making it easier and easier to make international donations. For those who haven't availed themselves of PayPal, we now have new Country Rep for Australia. Jane Scott has volunteered to collect funds on our behalf and will be able to transmit them to us when this drive is through. You may contact her directly at gaea@mailcity.com for her mailing address or other questions."}, {"response": 277, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (20:17)", "body": "THANKS, KAREN... FOR ORGANIZING THIS FUNDRAISING. BUT FOR YOU, WE WOULDN'T BE HERE"}, {"response": 278, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (20:42)", "body": "How creative Droolians are ! Evelyn, I love your Thanx graphics. I may just borrow them... Karen outdoes us all. She is sooooooo devoted and so good at what she does. Evelyn's right. *Applause*"}, {"response": 279, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (20:42)", "body": "I expect to get a paypal to you shortly, Terry..... again!"}, {"response": 280, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (23:49)", "body": "thank you!"}, {"response": 281, "author": "Lizzajaneway", "date": "Mon, Oct 21, 2002 (03:35)", "body": "You are right Evelyn, Karen is \"The Bees Knees!!!\""}, {"response": 282, "author": "Ann", "date": "Thu, Oct 24, 2002 (20:55)", "body": "I'm about to send out a bunch of checks for $640 from the folks at Austen.com. They've also donated approximately $300 by Paypal."}, {"response": 283, "author": "lafn", "date": "Thu, Oct 24, 2002 (21:17)", "body": "That's wonderful Ann.Congrats...Thanks for all your efforts. I am overwhelmed at the tremendous support."}, {"response": 284, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 25, 2002 (04:18)", "body": "That's wonderful, what a great group of folks! This is indeed, as Evelyn says, overwhelming. Thank you so much!"}, {"response": 285, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Oct 25, 2002 (11:36)", "body": "Here they are! These donors have been very generous in supporting Spring and helping us reach our goal. However, there are still pledges outstanding and, if I have not personally emailed you, then I haven't received it or notice of it. Please keep those donations coming in. If you don't know how to do so, contact me at nomdedrool@yahoo.com. Even Colin knows a good thing when he sees it!"}, {"response": 286, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Oct 31, 2002 (12:03)", "body": "Latest inductee to the Drool Hall of Shame This individual took the time from his very important celebrity schedule to write and say he was making a donation to Drool, his favorite fan club. But weeks later, a check has yet to arrive. Much as I hate to do this to such a talented guy and obviously busy person, I feel I must. As the fund-raising drive nears an end (not yet though as I'm waiting for some stragglers), I want to remind people it is not too late to show your appreciation for Drool by making a donation. Every little bit helps insure that Terry will not have to make his monthly appeals or when his property taxes are due. ;-) If I have not personally thanked you by email, then I haven't received your donation or notification of it from Terry. Please contact me at nomdedrool@yahoo.com for instructions or addresses. In addition, I can take Paypal donations myself at my other email address which can expedite things. Thanks again to everyone for their continuing generosity. BTW, this was your Halloween trick. ;-)"}, {"response": 287, "author": "lindak", "date": "Thu, Oct 31, 2002 (12:29)", "body": "(Karen)BTW, this was your Halloween trick. ;-) Does this mean a treat is in store, later, perhaps?"}, {"response": 288, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov  7, 2002 (12:50)", "body": "We've raised enough for two full payments at least."}, {"response": 289, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Nov 28, 2002 (23:42)", "body": "On Thanksgiving, it seems very appropriate to close out the 2002 Fund Raiser and give one more round of thanks to all those who have so generously given their support to Drool. Here's the latest batch of Drool Darlings: Together, with these fine people listed below, Drool has raised $2,200 this year. With the $880 raised by austen.com's latest fund-raising drive, this should keep Spring in operation all the way through June of next year. Excellent results and very much appreciated. Thank you so much. *smooch*"}, {"response": 290, "author": "Rika", "date": "Thu, Nov 28, 2002 (23:55)", "body": "What a terrific result! Thanks, Karen, for doing such a great job of coordinating the campaign."}, {"response": 291, "author": "lafn", "date": "Fri, Nov 29, 2002 (09:40)", "body": "Thanks, Boss."}, {"response": 292, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 29, 2002 (13:02)", "body": "Yes thank you Karen!."}, {"response": 293, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Nov 30, 2002 (12:58)", "body": "Evelyn, I love your smooching smileys!"}, {"response": 294, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sat, Nov 30, 2002 (13:09)", "body": ""}, {"response": 295, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sat, Nov 30, 2002 (13:29)", "body": "(Sorry for the MIA message...) Thank you, Wolfie... You know what they say...\"A picture says....\""}, {"response": 296, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (14:07)", "body": "The *complete* list (hopefully!) and alphabetized for your reading pleasure:"}, {"response": 297, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (14:35)", "body": "Pretty impressive. A Great Big Smooch To all who are keeping Drool alive and banner-free. Thanks Karen and Terry PS We sure have lotta Kathys!"}, {"response": 298, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (11:56)", "body": "Thanks, in part, to the contributions received though our pledge drive I was able to ship a new server off to our hosting facility yesterday. It's a Supermicro server with twin PIII 933 MHz processors, 512 mb ram, 720 gbs of hard drive space or six 120 gb hard drives. We presently have a 40 gb and a 30 gb drive or 70 gigabytes. The new server is a 2U rackmount box with twin ethernet connections, 2 pci slots and an agp slot. It has hardware RAID for data security and backup. It should arrive at our hosting facility next Tuesday and it will take about two weeks to get it up and running and get all our data moved from this system to the new system. I'm hoping we can put it online on January 1st. All the data from the old system will be archived on the new system and I may even purchase the old drives from the hosting company and put them on a shelf for an emergency although the new system will have plenty of built in safeguards. I've been testing it for two months and it should be fairly stable. I was talking to Ann Haker yesterday, and the new administration system we're going to install on it will be much more useful for content people like her and Karen. We're installing something called EZ Admin which gives authors far more control over their web sites and allows them the ability to create their own users and manage things more effectively. One giant step for the Spring, thanks to everyones super efforts!"}, {"response": 299, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (14:03)", "body": "Generous Geoites are unknown to mebutI suspect it is only me plusa few others. My audience/posters are students mostly from far poorer countries than the North American ones. *sigh* but I did get a post by a grateful mom whose son had used Geo to research a paper for school. That was very nice! Terry, I'll send my donation as soon as I get home and can get the banking figured out. Someone NOT of my acquaintance is charging things to my debit card on AOL. *fume*"}, {"response": 300, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (18:54)", "body": "That's debit card thing sounds like identity theft. Not cool! Thanks for the thoughts."}, {"response": 301, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (19:21)", "body": "Not cool at all. It happened to my son. As soon as I get back to Hilo I will have the card replaced with a new one."}, {"response": 302, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 21, 2003 (00:21)", "body": "You should have heard from me via PayPal today, Terry."}, {"response": 303, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar 30, 2003 (11:34)", "body": "I did! Thank you so much!!!"}, {"response": 304, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  1, 2003 (01:31)", "body": "Happy to be able to assist!"}, {"response": 305, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jul  7, 2003 (17:29)", "body": "To all of Spring's supporters. On Spring's main page there's a new item labeled \" ads by google\" . If you click on these ads, it will help pay our bills."}, {"response": 306, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jul  7, 2003 (17:38)", "body": "Goodle Ad Revenue partway through the first day was very good, although google does not allow me to discuss specific stats. But thanks for your support and please keep on clicking."}, {"response": 307, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 11, 2003 (17:11)", "body": "Thanks for the heads up. I'll go straigh away!"}, {"response": 308, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jul 12, 2003 (11:25)", "body": "We've been in a steady decline since day one. But I'm figuring out wayxs to boost traffic through the other websites, expecially http://adsenses.com which is also http://www.adsensible.com ."}, {"response": 309, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (11:48)", "body": "It seems to go through seasonal fluctuations - at least as far as Geo is concerned. Summer comes and everyone goes outdoors on vacations or picnics. When school and the fall season begins, they pick up again."}, {"response": 310, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (17:57)", "body": "That will be good."}, {"response": 311, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (18:25)", "body": "... when things pick up. That will be good. Because we're in a long dry spell now."}, {"response": 312, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 29, 2003 (14:08)", "body": "Over the several years I have been active here both in Drool and on the rest of Spring, summer is the worst time for hits. Hang in there. Things will pick up with the cooler wetter weather coming."}, {"response": 313, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  4, 2003 (23:24)", "body": "i owe a good old donation (maybe when my pay raise comes in at the end of the month)"}, {"response": 314, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug  9, 2003 (23:12)", "body": "I need help picking which colored google ad is the most pleasing. Will you please help me out by visiting this page and clicking on the ad which has the color scheme that you find to be most pleasing? You would make my day and make me very, very happy if you would do this, please. http://www.spring.net/adsense Just click on the ad with the color scheme you find most pleasing and I'll announce the results based on my page stats. Thanks in advance for helping with this!"}, {"response": 315, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sun, Aug 10, 2003 (10:01)", "body": "Go Raspberry Smoothie"}, {"response": 316, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Aug 10, 2003 (10:38)", "body": "Put the Droolback3 background on your test page, Terry, then it would be easier to choose."}, {"response": 317, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug 11, 2003 (09:35)", "body": "I will do it. I'll put droolback3 as the background on the test page. Then folks can go to vote by clicking on the one they like best at http://www.spring.net/adsense I'll count the votes and let you know which one is most popular."}, {"response": 318, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug 11, 2003 (09:42)", "body": "Drooleurs: Please pick the color scheme you like the best on this page: http://www.spring.net/drool I put the drool background on this page."}, {"response": 319, "author": "Shoshana", "date": "Mon, Aug 11, 2003 (11:08)", "body": "Against the Drool background, I think fresh mint is most pleasing, though it does sort of seem to blend in and could seem to disappear. Melancholy blue and raspberry smoothie are also nice and stand out more."}, {"response": 320, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Aug 11, 2003 (11:14)", "body": "Good to have confirmation about \"fresh mint\" from another computer. I always worry that nonconforming colors. I vote for fresh mint as well."}, {"response": 321, "author": "Shoshana", "date": "Fri, Aug 15, 2003 (21:56)", "body": "Terry -- love the google ad for \"springs.\" Was that a conscious choice or random? Very humorous!"}, {"response": 322, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug 16, 2003 (10:48)", "body": "Shoshana, I have no say over which ad google places. On one site, I heard this story. Yep, they're still tweaking: The technology is not yet foolproof. The online edition of The New York Post, which is owned by the News Corporation, ran an article last month about a murder in which the victim's body parts were packed in a suitcase, and Google served up an ad for a luggage dealer. from the above NYT piece"}, {"response": 323, "author": "Beedee", "date": "Sat, Aug 16, 2003 (12:16)", "body": "(Terry)and Google served up an ad for a luggage dealer. Shoshana, I had the same question! Very funny Terry."}, {"response": 324, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 11, 2003 (20:28)", "body": "i have finally seen the light (colors, that is) and i like cut grass the best! though raspberry smoothie comes in a tight second."}, {"response": 325, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 2003 (20:13)", "body": "This makes me hungry!"}, {"response": 326, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 28, 2003 (14:29)", "body": "http://www.austen.com/board/index.cgi?read=45813 The above url is my appeal to Ann Haker and to the supporters of http://austen.com to contribute to the pledge drive. I know there's some overlap in the two groups, but I'm not sure how much. It's a mystery to me even."}, {"response": 327, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 28, 2003 (15:18)", "body": "And with ten minutes of posting this there was a contribution! Contribute via paypal, credit card or snailmail at http://spring.net I'm going to work up a contribute page also."}, {"response": 328, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 28, 2003 (15:48)", "body": "terry-i made a donation about a month ago and wanted to make sure you received it. pls let me know!"}, {"response": 329, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Oct 28, 2003 (16:29)", "body": "Appeals to the austen.com only need to be on austen.com. Now, don't spend that $10 (or should I say that $9 and change, after fees) too quickly."}, {"response": 330, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 28, 2003 (18:20)", "body": "OK, I put the appeal in the Derbyshire Writer's Guild message board. http://austen.com/board/index.cgi?read=45813"}, {"response": 331, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (09:25)", "body": ""}, {"response": 332, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (09:28)", "body": "Terry, as I've told you before, posting messages to donors here is useless."}, {"response": 333, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (11:27)", "body": "That's fine. I'll send the donor a card via snailmail."}, {"response": 334, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (21:59)", "body": ""}, {"response": 335, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (22:04)", "body": ""}, {"response": 336, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (22:51)", "body": ""}, {"response": 337, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (22:54)", "body": ""}, {"response": 338, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (23:02)", "body": ""}, {"response": 339, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (23:13)", "body": ""}, {"response": 340, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (23:14)", "body": "Thank you!"}, {"response": 341, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (23:30)", "body": "Terry, please make your funding requests elsewhere, not on Drool. We've had our fund-raising drive."}, {"response": 342, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (23:31)", "body": "Please don't censor me like this."}, {"response": 343, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (23:33)", "body": "I made a genuine appeal and this topi is read across a dozen or more conferenes. Your censorship demeans the spirit and sincereity of my appeals."}, {"response": 344, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 2003 (23:36)", "body": "Then delink this topic from Drool, so that other areas of Spring will read it."}, {"response": 345, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Nov  1, 2003 (14:45)", "body": "Dreams of new frontiers of communication and some video specials . . ."}, {"response": 346, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Mon, Nov  3, 2003 (12:03)", "body": "What's the deal with this Backtalk stuff? It's pretty cool!"}, {"response": 347, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Nov  3, 2003 (13:26)", "body": "It is cool. It gives you your own interface. You an leearn more at http://spring.net/backtalk"}, {"response": 348, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Mon, Nov 10, 2003 (07:37)", "body": "I like it..."}, {"response": 349, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, May 18, 2004 (13:19)", "body": "https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=bank%40spring.net&item_name=Donation&item_number=1001&no_note=1&tax=0\u00a4cy_code=USD ... is our new donation url. Donations are now made to bank@spring.net We're still trying to complete our offsite backup server. We're also working on repairs to our onsite backup server. We don't need a lot, a little bit would help at this stage!"}, {"response": 350, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (15:33)", "body": "Terry there should be something in your account from me. Sorry it took so long. I'll be more regular from now on. As always, many thanks for providing this forum. I'd have been in a sorry state without it."}, {"response": 351, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (22:35)", "body": "oh yeah, terry, i'm not trusting paypal right now because i got another one of those phishing emails.....i'll just have to mail my donation!"}, {"response": 352, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (00:53)", "body": "That's fine. Mail it to spring.net 182 clover rd cedar creek tx 78612 make checks out to spring.net Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"}, {"response": 353, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (16:17)", "body": "Paypal is not the ones doing the phishing using their name. It is irritating and I have reported each one as spam. I have used Paypal here and on eBay with complete success so far. I'll let you know if any further phishing expeditions occur. I blocked the spam generators yet the reap paypal receipts came thru so you know there is something else at work here."}, {"response": 354, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (19:53)", "body": "actually, paypal phishing emails look exactly like paypal correspondence except that words are misspelled (if you accept anything that says @paypal.com then the phishing will get through your blockers). the link in the email brings you to an official looking site too. i did confirm with the REAL paypal that it was phishing and not a registered email address of theirs."}, {"response": 355, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  6, 2005 (17:31)", "body": "Mine were from someone else. So far I've been spared the phishing. Thanks for thehead's up. They are more stupid that I thought they were !! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 72, "subject": "Practice makes perfect", "response_count": 54, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (18:50)", "body": ""}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (18:50)", "body": "This makes no sense at all..."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (18:51)", "body": ""}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:02)", "body": ""}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:18)", "body": ""}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:37)", "body": ""}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:39)", "body": "using IE and the same commands as I used to post the above successful images"}, {"response": 8, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (19:58)", "body": ""}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (20:05)", "body": ""}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (20:06)", "body": "Yup, we can't post from Geo's files. I just tried. And the only place to which I can send files is to geo. Terry, we have serious problems!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (20:11)", "body": ""}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (22:08)", "body": "thank you marcia!!! and julie, that's a great volcano pic!!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 20, 2002 (23:45)", "body": "I'm sorry I did not think of this much sooner. We messed up julie's topic trying to correct something that was not broken on our end. *sigh*"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (15:51)", "body": "Rob had trouble posting this. Testing here."}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (18:18)", "body": "what a neat photo!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May  7, 2002 (18:54)", "body": "He had better post the entire set of shots of the eruption of Mt Pel\ufffde on Martinique. It was horrific but if not for it, HVO would not exist."}, {"response": 17, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (21:33)", "body": ""}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (21:41)", "body": "YAY Julie !!!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (21:44)", "body": "now you are one of the cogniscenti!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (21:59)", "body": "almost doesn't look real! good job julie!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:34)", "body": ""}, {"response": 22, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:35)", "body": "Ohhhhh, I am getting good at this, lol."}, {"response": 23, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:44)", "body": ""}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug  3, 2002 (10:52)", "body": "Now, all you have to do is to put the caption in the same post as the image and you will be as good as the rest of us! You Go, Girl! Yay Julie!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:06)", "body": "Lassen Volcanic National Monument"}, {"response": 26, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:07)", "body": "Hmmmm, I think I got the picture with the writing now, but is the writing also supposed to be centered?"}, {"response": 27, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:12)", "body": "Black Butte, near Mt. Shasta"}, {"response": 28, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:12)", "body": "WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I did it!!!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (17:32)", "body": "Yippee Julie!!! You don't HAVE to center text but captions always look nice if you do!b"}, {"response": 30, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (14:47)", "body": "Better make sure I remember how to do this. Its been a while, lol."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep  2, 2002 (18:59)", "body": "See? It's like riding a bicycle. Once you learn it comes back pretty quickly. I have to do some moving of photos, too. We went to Point Reyes and the Earthquake trail yesterday. Happy me - it was cooler out there than the 102 degrees outside today!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Thu, Sep 12, 2002 (20:28)", "body": "They have murdered thousands. We can save millions! Please help UNICEF help the children of the world! Help to build a better world for our children!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 27, 2002 (20:35)", "body": "Lovely thought, George! If we don't save them and teach them when they are young, we will lose an entire generation of peace-keepers on whom the earth depends!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 27, 2002 (20:35)", "body": "Well, let's try to close the center command again. It did not take on the last post."}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 27, 2002 (20:36)", "body": "*sigh* practice practice..."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 22, 2005 (20:30)", "body": "I need to try something so I will post this and then try to scribble it"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 22, 2005 (20:31)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/scribble/Geo/72.36"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 22, 2005 (20:31)", "body": "well that didn't work. Sheesh I forget how to do it. Will one of you brilliant programmers please email me or put it on inner. Thanks"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 22, 2005 (20:32)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/respond/Geo/scribble36"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 22, 2005 (20:33)", "body": "not that either. I need help and reading the WELL programming is not helping."}, {"response": 41, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 23, 2005 (06:37)", "body": "What are you trying to do?"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 23, 2005 (13:32)", "body": "Just in case I need it, how do I erase a post? It uses the scribble command, and I can't seem to recall how to do it other than making it very specific to post and topic."}, {"response": 43, "author": "weroland", "date": "Sun, Oct 23, 2005 (14:11)", "body": "I've got a feeling no one has tried to use it since the server changes (seemingly) so long ago, so my bet is that the subroutine, for lack of a better word, needs some tweaking. I could be wrong, though..."}, {"response": 44, "author": "weroland", "date": "Sun, Oct 23, 2005 (14:18)", "body": "Nope, I was wrong, still works, finally found the correct formatting... http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/porch/32.93"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 23, 2005 (20:32)", "body": ""}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 23, 2005 (20:33)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/scribble/geo/72/45"}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 23, 2005 (20:34)", "body": "well try try again... thanks for helping."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 23, 2005 (20:40)", "body": "test = inderting brackets this time"}, {"response": 49, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 23, 2005 (21:11)", "body": "The important thing is to get it on the same line. there's the a and then it drops down a line to the href part so get 'em both on the same line."}, {"response": 50, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sun, Oct 23, 2005 (21:22)", "body": "This is probably the wrong question, but are you using the url instead of only posting it?"}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 24, 2005 (23:40)", "body": "oh... OH !!! Oh heavens!!! I was using it as a command here rather than on the location bar. Is that the problem?"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 25, 2005 (18:39)", "body": "OK !!! I scribbled response 45. Whew. I wil go make note on this computer about that. I have had need to use it in scary circumstances where amorous men have followed me here and posted very naughty suggestion ... thinking to surprise me. Oh they succeeded and I got rid of them as quickly as they showed up! Whew !! Puzzle solved. Again thanks, Wizards of Geo and Spring."}, {"response": 53, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Tue, Oct 25, 2005 (19:28)", "body": "Not so sure about being a wizard, it's more like being obstinate and/or guessing good, I'm thinking...as for posting naughty suggestions? People do that on the Spring? Hmmm..."}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 29, 2005 (20:20)", "body": "You are able, Mr Wizard, to see what we have deleted thru the magic of Unix so I know you have seen what was not intended for human consumption. Hey, he was weird and he never posted again. He is still of the same frame of mind but reality and fantasy have a large distance between them. Let the little critters play. They are mostly harmelss and g rated. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 73, "subject": "Volcanoes from Birth to Extinction", "response_count": 18, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (15:20)", "body": "The modern science of volcanism evolved from the work of Dr Thomas A. Jagger who was a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He had travelled to Martinique just after Mount Pel\ufffde erupted killing all but 2 inhabitants of the capital city of St Pierre. The devastation motivated him to search for a safe volcano to study for the prediction of future eruptions with the aim of lives being saved. After considerable travel and study he found that Kilauea volcano on the Island of Hawaii was ideal for his studies. In 1912, Dr Jagger supervised the digging of foundations and the erection of the first modest buildings which would later become Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory. HVO currently attracts volcanologists from all over the world to study the events leading up to the eventuality of a volcanic eruption. The proof of their work was the successful prediction of the eruption of Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines. The successful evacuation of surrounding towns and of Clark Air Force Base saved many thousands of lives. The following discussion will describe the process which creates and builds volcanoes and eventually destroys them recycling them into the mantle to become new rock. The Earth has been in the recycling business since the very beginning. Grab your rock hammer and sample bag and come along on the great adventure."}, {"response": 2, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (15:40)", "body": "EXCELLENT topic Marcia!! I think I shall post my paper now. I wrote a paper for my English class defining the word volcano. It will give you a VERY brief overview on how volcanoes work."}, {"response": 3, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (15:42)", "body": "Volcanoes are one of nature\ufffds most awesome forces. These natural vents and fissures erupt molten rock and gases from deep inside the earth. Most people think of volcanoes as destroyers, but volcanoes are also creators. The lakes, rivers, groundwater, and oceans, where life began, are all made from volcanic steam that was produced during countless eruptions millions and even billions of years ago. When most of us think of volcanoes we think of the ones in Hawaii, where lava erupts fluidly in an amazing display of fountains and flows. But there are many other types of volcanoes around the world that behave very differently and erupt different materials. One must first explore the ground beneath our feet, as well as above it, to learn what volcanoes are and how they form and shape our planet. Someone once said to me, \ufffdVolcanoes don\ufffdt have snow on them.\ufffd Indeed, some do though. Snow covered volcanic peaks are often carpeted in lush green plants with moss-covered forests and cascading waterfalls. Some of these snow caped peaks can cause deadly eruptions that rain down their terrors on cities near and far. No one would ever suspect a beautiful mountain, like Mt. Shasta or Mt. Hood, to be capable of blowing up and ejecting molten material from the bowels of the earth. Volcanoes are like glowing cones of silence and screams that spew up geologic history from the bottoms of the earth. Volcanoes may not be interesting to you, but there is something about them that I find fascinating. I don\ufffdt know what it was about the barren, gray, and lifeless crater that grabbed my interest. Maybe it was the reality of how much force was required to cause a mountain to blow its top and blast out its remains into river valleys and our atmosphere. Or maybe it is the fact that a volcano, looking so lifeless and quiet, could easily come to life at any moment, without warning. Suddenly, at 8:32a.m on Sunday, May 18, 1980, the 9,677-foot summit of Mt .St Helens erupted with a fury few will ever forget. Everything happened in thirty seconds or less as an earthquake shook loose the northern flanks of the volcano, which rushed down hill. Then, the pressure of the molten rock that had increased beneath the bulging crater blasted out in a huge deadly explosion, known as a pyroclastic flow, which tore down the mountain at unimaginable speeds. The avalanche of snow, ash, rock, ice, soil, and other debris raced down the volcano at speeds of one-hundred-fifty miles an hour wiping out everything in its path. After the initial blast, Mt. St. Helens, now a gray and deformed volcano with half of its volcanic cone missing, now rose a mere 8,365 feet into the bright blue sky. There I stood, only a half mile from the crater of Mt. St. Helens, looking into her fiery mouth of mysterious, awesome, and unimaginable powers. All was quiet, but I knew all to well that deep underneath the cracked lava dome, magma was churning. If for any reason, the pressure underneath the lava dome began to build, it would increase like a soda can shaken up to its limit until suddenly\ufffd.BOOM! The force is tremendous, unlike anything you have ever seen or heard. The ground will begin to shake and quiver and the earth will explode, as molten rock, ash, and gas are ejected out of the volcano. From far away, the blast will look like it\ufffds moving in slow motion, but move closer and you will feel the scorching heat, suffocating gas, and glowing embers as it rushes down the slopes and heads straight towards you at unimaginable speeds. According to the theory of Plate Tectonics, the earth\ufffds outer layer, known as the lithosphere, is composed of a mosaic of rigid plates, which float on the asthenosphere, a layer of hot partially molten rock located below the lithosphere. These plates move slowly in response to the currents generated by the flow of heat of the asthenosphere below them. When plates are pushed together, a process known as subduction, the heavier plate goes beneath the lighter and more buoyant plate melting parts of both and sending magma to the surface. This is how most typical composite cone volcanoes are formed. When plates are pulled apart, creating a rift zone, an upwelling of magma extends over their edge. A good example of this would be Iceland located directly on top of the Mid Atlantic Ridge, which is a rift zone. Iceland is home to some of the most active volcanoes in the world. There are also areas on the earth called hot spots, which are thermal plumes that can form in the middle of a plate. Magma rises from these plumes and forms volcanoes. Hawaii is right in the middle of the Pacific plate and is above a hot spot. The active volcano right now is Kilauea, which is located on the Big Island. However, the Big Island of Hawaii will eventually move northwest as the Pacific Plate moves, just as all the other islands in the Hawaiian chain have done and then a new volcano will arise over the hotspot and form a new island. Volcanoes are categorized into three stages: Dor"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 23, 2002 (16:34)", "body": "Julie!!! You are fantastic! Anyone who has paid any attention to Geo has seen copious amounts of snow on Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. Indeed, watching the live webcam of Popocat\ufffdpetl will show you that active volcanoes sustain snowfalls. So does Ruapehu Webcam in New Zealand."}, {"response": 5, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (18:02)", "body": "Heat mapping of Anarctica has indicated atleast one very hot spot under the. It is theorized to be a volcano over a mile of ice."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  9, 2002 (18:58)", "body": "Indeed, Cheryl. Hotspots in Antarctica---there's a complicated question. The tectonics of Antarctica are not that well understood. There are a few linear chains of volcanoes but as pointed out in \"Volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate and Southern Oceans\" by WE LeMasurier and JW Thomson, there are not age dates available to tell if these are hotspot chains. However, other evidence has shown that that the Antarctic plate hasn't moved very much over the past 80 million years, so you might not expect to see linear hotspot chains. Most of the volcanism on the actual continent itself seems to be related to a large continental rift called the West Antarctic Rift. There are some hotspot island volcanoes on the Antarctic plate, but they are not on the continent itself. http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/frequent_questions/grp7/antarctica/question679.html By Scott Rowland to whom I am grateful for my weekly volcano reports."}, {"response": 7, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (05:17)", "body": "Hi Everyone! I got a very interesting question for you all. I was reading Roadside Geology of Washington a few months ago before I went on my trip to Washington. It explained that most of the Cascade Volcanoes erupted basaltic lavas at their birth and early lives. Then they began to erupt andesitic lavas which many are doing now. At the end of their lives they seem to erupt ryholitic lavas, and finally they have a catostropic ryholitic eruption. If that is true, than that would mean Crater Lake is at the end or near its end of its life cycle because its last eruption was ryholitic and perhaps catastophic. Mt. Rainer's composition is begining to become ryholitic as well. Glacier Peak has already erupted enormous quantities of rhyolitic ash about 12,000 years ago. Could it mean that Glacier Peak and Crater Lake are near the end of their life cycles? Okay....here's the big question.....What makes the chemistry of magma change over time?"}, {"response": 8, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (06:34)", "body": "You caught me unread Julie. I wonder if it is true the circle of life for volcanoes. John"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (11:08)", "body": "do volcanoes actually die or just go into a dormant state?"}, {"response": 10, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (14:58)", "body": "I am not sure about this John, thats why I brought it up because I don't entirly agree with what the book had to say. And Wolfie, from what I know you can never really call too many volcanoes extinct. Some can remain dormant for thousnads and thousands of years and then suddenly....BOOM! Although, ones with heavy glaciation and ones that have been severly eroded over time could be extinct, but not necessarily. You'd be surprised how many times people have been fooled living in the shadow of a ticking time bomb that they thought was dead. I wish I had written down the name of the book that said that Mt. Shasta was an extinct volcano. I would have had fun writting to the publisher and telling them they have some very wrong information in there. Even though I don't really agree with what that Washington book had to say, I am going to post an idea that I have seen in many other books that may explain how volcanoes are born and how they die, but specificly the Cascade Volcanic Range."}, {"response": 11, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (15:33)", "body": "First let's look at the theory of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is a theory of global tectonics in which the lithosphere is divided into a number of plates whose pattern of horizontal movement causes rigid bodies that interact with one another at their boundaries, causing seismic and tectonic activity along these boundraies. In the case with the Cascade Volcanic Range we have the Juan de Fuca Plate going into the North American Plate. There are two ridges offshore; the Gorda Ridge and the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Both of these ridges have been generating new oceanic crust, which sinks into a trench off the coast. The two ridges are thought to be remenants of an oceanic coast that paralleled the whole west coast of North America about 15 to 20 million years ago. A plate called the Farallon Plate, moved away from the ridge and into a trench that also paralleled the west coast. Finally the last of this plate vanished into the trench as the continuing movement of the North American continent brought the trench a d ridge together. The only remanat left of the trench and the oceanic ridge of the Farallon Plate is still offshore of the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Plate now slides north over the San Andreas Fault and the Queen Charlotte Fault which runs along off the coast of British Colombia. Within the next 10 to 15 million years the last remanat of the Farallon Plate will dissapear into the trench and the trench and the ridge will met, connecting the San Andreas Fault to the Queen Charlotte Fault. The Pacific Plate will have moved north to the Aleutian trench forming a single fault that runs from Mexico to Alaska parralelling the entire west coast. When the small plate off the coast of the Pacific Northwest lastly dissapears the trench will be gone and the Casacde Volcanoes will all die out. A new chain of mountains will will appear along the entire coats of Oregon and Washington. And don't forget....this is only a theory."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (20:08)", "body": "Julie, search for Bowen's Reaction Series on Google.com. You will find all you need to know about the evolution of magma into whatever rock it becomes. It is a continuous recycling which will see Hawaii subducted under the North American Plate in some distant future."}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (20:09)", "body": "I wish I had brought my notes with me for this topic. I took a tele course in this from Hawaii FOR Hawaii, but it also applies to all the world. Meanwhile back to the discussion!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (20:10)", "body": "The Cascades will not die out until it has eaten the entire Pacific basin according to my professor."}, {"response": 15, "author": "freddie", "date": "Sat, Nov 30, 2002 (23:20)", "body": "Thank you for the information Marcia. My son had a small talk to give on volcanoes and he was able to enhance some of his information from your posts."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (21:34)", "body": "Wish I had taken my notes with me for this topic. There is so much more to tell. Thanks for telling me it was useful. That makes my day and a lot more!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2006 (23:39)", "body": "Hi all Ref: Post #14 in this topic. That is similar to what I heard - the basin will have to fully subduct underneath the North American plate to stop the generation of magma needed to drive the volcanoes of the Cascades. That will be about 10 million years from now, so settle in for the long haul, because these volcanoes are anything but finished. Rob"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2006 (12:34)", "body": "If I can come back here (California) at the right time of year and there is nothing more pressing, I will finally get to see Mt St Helens with a man who has hiked the mountain and brought out a chunk of that dome that is growing inside which is now in my rock collection. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 74, "subject": "Wildlife Rehabbing", "response_count": 70, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (13:32)", "body": "Thank you for this topic. What a great idea. We share the world with a great many species, and simply because we have been granted the ability to be stewards of the earth, we need to care for the creatures - large and small - who share the planet with us. This is fantastic! Many thanks!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (13:32)", "body": "Now you are a member of the Geo family, you get a warm Hawaiian hug and leis for your new topic."}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (17:54)", "body": "may we link this topic with springark? i love that we rehab both domestic and wild animals."}, {"response": 4, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (20:04)", "body": "sure wolfie that;s fine with me. I do both and my house looks sometimes like a battlefield with all the little critters. You would not believe what my lion cubs did to my sofa. LOL BJ"}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (21:38)", "body": "i only rehabbed one animal--a stray who had been abused. we brought her around and she trusted us. she was such a sweetie pie. am very much interested in rehabbing dogs and birds. while visiting in-laws in conn, we made a day trip to vermont and went to their raptor rehabilitation center--i was amazed."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 10, 2002 (22:46)", "body": "I'll request it in geobusiness. I have one link request pending. Woooohooo Wolfie you got a bunch of activity going now!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (04:30)", "body": "Hi all I can vouch for Brenda. She is also a John Denver fan and likes watching thunderstorms from her porch. I think there is a good future as veterinary medical science has come a long way. Rob"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (15:06)", "body": "Thanks, Rob! I was going to Email you to find out if this BJ was the same Brenda who has talked with you in IM and who joined your groups in Yahoo. What a happy concidence that she is also a John Denver fan!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (21:01)", "body": "Marcia, Yep. One and the same. Poor Rob, he just can't seeem to get away from me. LOL I'm really enjoying Geo and hope to make many more new and wonderful friends. Yea, i'm a John Denver fan and have been since the beginning. (aging myself) Thanks again. BJ"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 11, 2002 (23:29)", "body": "You fit right in with us, BJ - something which is a real delight to me. You'll find this a lot like a warm family which is supportive and compassionate rather than combative. Wiggle those toes, or pop on your hiking boots and I can show you a live volcano or a dormant one with the most magical assortment of telescopes on it. You'll really love Hawaii."}, {"response": 11, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jun 18, 2002 (08:01)", "body": "Hi all We had a duckling that was abandoned by it's mother which we found on the Waimakariri river bed years ago. For reasons I cannot remember why, we called it Peep. Unfortunately Peep went missing one night after dinner and was found dead the following morning. Because we also had a dog we had to keep the two separate, which meant Mendi (our black labrador)was hopeless finding ducks or rabbits that we shot on shooting trips (Dad and Craig do duck shooting, while Dad takes me rabbit shooting. Rabbit shooting is all year round and done with a .22. Duck shooting is done with shotguns and is from early May-July). Rob"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (15:41)", "body": "Guess who is going to be another student of the fine art of shoooting. I have an expert here to teach me and an assortment of things to shoot with. My prey? Clay targets eventually and paper ones to begin with. I suspect I will be less than expert even after much practice but there is a method in my madness. and a bit of respct from those who are mean enough to understand such things. I actually never thought I'd see the day when this might seem appealing. Killing things I cannot eat still seems wasterful so I am happy to aim at paper. If I don't lose the nerve to do it and he does not lose the nerve to teach me!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (23:02)", "body": "Marcia, many people think hunting is cruel but what is more cruel. Letting a population grow until it starves itself to death or dies from disease? I too, do not like to kill but I have seen what happens when animals are left to reproduce without having preditors to cull out the sick and the old. I do rehabbing, so i want to see wildlife flourish but until we can reintroduce their preditors than we will have to do the job. Brenda"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (12:10)", "body": "You're right Brenda! And, the person offering to teach me this skill knows I will not use it on critters since wild boar and gamebirds are not my things to eat in Hawaii. Speaking of which, nothing like being in the middle of teh rural South of the US and seeing suchi bars and Chinese buffets! That is when I really look for thefast food stuff I recognize. I've eaten hominy (did not like it this time either!) and had hush-puppies (delicious!) I should have packed my handy can opener. I like unusual food but not in unusual places!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (12:12)", "body": "There are bears, wildcats, panthers (mountain lions)and all sorts of small game animals here. Deer and raccoon and opossum have been seen by me as well as wild turkeys and phesant. I am still looking for the elisive Bald eagle!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (21:22)", "body": "Well it's here....Baby time. LOL There is a few things I would like to say. If anybody comes across any baby birds or animals,please remember this. Parents of birds will come back even if you handle that babies. If you can see the nest and reach it,place the baby back in it and just watch it. If they haven't returned in about 4 hours contact your local vet for info as to where to send them to. it's against federal law for someone to raise any baby without a permit. My nursery is starting to becomw full. I just sent 15 baby possums out into the world and from the looks of it this is going to be a year for a bumper crop of babies.right now I've got 6 squirrels that came in today. someboody cut down the tree and now I've got them. They're trying to remove a family of groundhogs out from under a swimming pool tomorrow. I don't know if I'll get them or what.One year I had over 250 babies during the whole season. I've already had over 60 and w're not even into it fully yet."}, {"response": 17, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 29, 2002 (11:39)", "body": "i once found two baby birds who fell into a wheelbarrow after a heavy storm. they were sopping wet. hating to see them drown, i put them in a box with a towel so they could dry off. the first chance they got, they flew away (had them in a shed to protect them from neighborhood cats)."}, {"response": 18, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 29, 2002 (11:44)", "body": "on the other hand, i found a baby robin who died within an hour (i did attempt to give it water as it was very hot that day) but then i left so mama bird could find it. kept watching from the windows but no one came. when i went out to check on it, the poor thing had given up. nowadays, i have no place for birds to nest (no trees) and my lone birdhouse remains empty. but my feeders are always busy!! thanks for the tips concerning federal law. us soft hearts are always wanting to save something but the best thing to do is to contact your local wildlife departments because they are equipped to handle the situations. sometimes we animal lovers can do more harm than good."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:55)", "body": "Mama Brenda is busy and no resting for the weary. How cute the little ones musgt be! I once returned a soggy little white-eye (bird) to the flock though not the one it originated in. HM brought home a little sodden bird in his hat and placed it on the dishwasher. I went to hang up the wet hat and heard an indignant \"CHEEP!!!!\" Imagine my amazement! This tiny ball of fluff was making such a loud cry that the white-eyes outside gathered at the screen porch to call back to her(?) Soon, the shock and wetness went away and this little bird was eased onto the porch. Then I closed the inside door and opened the outside door. The little one popped through the doorway and into the welcoming flock that was her new home. What a happy feeling that was!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (16:14)", "body": "We take in stray dogs and cats all the time here. After my old dog Molly ran away and go thit by a car, I felt it was crucial to help other dogs and cats find their owners and keep off the dangerous streets. About 5 months ago I was walking to the bus stop near my house on MacArther Blvd. MacArther Blvd is one of the most busiest streets in Orange County. All of a sudden this little Chihaua (can't spell) comes walking right up to me. I look around and see no one out of their houses except one person. I ask her but she said she didn't know who the dog belonged to. I was going to be late for school so I tried to call the dog over so I could take it back to my house. Suddenly, the dog darted out onto MacArther Blvd. I freaked out and thought about Molly's accident. I raced out into the street and scooped him up just as a huge truck roared by. That was close! I carried him back to my house and I put him outside on a leash with some water. Needless to say I was late for school, but I would rather be ate than seeing another body laying in the street again. Fortunatly, the little dog was picked up by his careless owner later that afternoon."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (16:20)", "body": "God durely looks after you, Julie! You have worn your guardian angel to a g\\frazzle but they know you have the most tender of hearts. Please don't let us have to scoop YOU off of MacArthur Blvd. I've seen the traffic there. It never lets up!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (16:24)", "body": "Coming back from Tennessee on an early Sunday morning, we saw the wildlife that did not make is past Saturday night traffic. Several deer and a few smaller creatures like groundhog and opossum plus one raccoon. *sigh* It is not a happy situation but at least none were suffering and we hit nothing except for a few large juicy bugs..."}, {"response": 23, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (07:05)", "body": "Ionian birds The Ionian Islands (West Greece) are a very important flight path and stronghold for various migratory and resident birds. The very rare Elenoras Falcon Their rich vegetation and lush climate providing the ideal stop over for birds following their breeding routes from and to Africa. The dense macquis landscapes are especially favoured by the birds. http://www.earthseasky.org/birds.htm John"}, {"response": 24, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (11:03)", "body": "i love raptors! thanks john, if you visit springark, you'll find a topic for birds and one for falconry!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Mon, Jul 15, 2002 (14:45)", "body": "Well the nursery is starting to get filled. As soon as I get one group up and out here comes the next one. I just had a litter of groundhogs brought here. They are so cute. They grab their bottles and holds to them. You should see them when it's potty time..LOL Any way, new point. I just had one brought in so I'll give you a hint. I had a Blue Jay brought here that had a fight with a window.He's fine but if you find one here's somethings that might help you. First, put in a small box but make sure it's lying on it's stomache and not no it's back. If you don't turn him over HE will die. they can't breathe on their backs. Keep him warm and check on him regularly. He should be ready to take off in a few minutes. If however you should see blood coming out of his nose or mouth contact help."}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 15, 2002 (19:20)", "body": "thanks for the tip (kinda like gator eggs)...is this true for most wild birds? (parrots can sleep on their backs and breathe just fine)."}, {"response": 27, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Mon, Jul 15, 2002 (22:49)", "body": "yes but only if they are stunned. For some reason they can't get it to regulate for the first little bit after it happens but as they start to come around it becomes easier for them."}, {"response": 28, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (20:15)", "body": "what an interesting fact!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (20:15)", "body": "BJ is a veritable ARK in her own home. Lovely image, John! I too love raptors. I see many more of them here than on Hawaii, but the one there is native and only seen in Hawaii. Anyone for an IO? Found only on the Big Island of Hawaii below 8,500 feet, the endangered `io, or Hawaiian Hawk, glides over the forest canopy preying on small birds, rodents, and insects. It is a symbol of royalty in Hawaiian legend."}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (20:17)", "body": "Tbhe above is from http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/io.html"}, {"response": 31, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (22:28)", "body": "what a pretty raptor--is he really that yellow? as far as falcons go, kestrels are some pretty birds--they have lovely markings and are about the size of a dove."}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (15:09)", "body": "No, not yellow at all and I thought the Bishop Museum would have a better picture. I'll find another to post. It is white where the photo looks yellow."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (15:12)", "body": "I really like falcons. BJ, do you ever get any falcons?"}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (14:42)", "body": "or any raptors for that matter? i am very much interested in falconry (which has its own topic)"}, {"response": 35, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (21:05)", "body": "I've work with a few hawk's. Mostly Red Tail's. I've alo had the joy of working with and releasing a female Golden Eagle. She was beautiful and watching her soar into the sky is a sight I will never forget. This morning as I was sitting on my front porcg watching the squirrels eating the peanuts we put in the trees, this Great Horned Owl dove from out of the tree next to the wall and grab a rat from under the tree and flew back up into the tree. These guys are amazing. You can hear them fly because their feathers are hollow and they make no sound when they fly. Brenda"}, {"response": 36, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (21:07)", "body": "I should say you can't hear them flying. LOL Brenda"}, {"response": 37, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul 21, 2002 (13:04)", "body": "no no, i understand, the swooping of the wings, and yet they are silent. don't know they're there until they're on top of you! in my old neighborhood, a hawk would spend some time hunting prey--the birds would send up quite a chatter and this bird just sat in the live oak waiting and watching. i used to see them outside my office window too. the blue jays would have a fit!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul 21, 2002 (13:05)", "body": "oh, they were red-tails too, my fave hawks. am not familiar with the raptors here in so cal, aside from kestrels, i've seen a few falcons but am not familiar enough to make a positive id."}, {"response": 39, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Sun, Jul 21, 2002 (16:01)", "body": "You can't hear an owl when it's in flight. Their feathers are hollow so there is no sound until they are catching their prey. They desend so quickly and silently that they can not be heard. Unless you happen to be around and watching you will never know they have even been there. Brenda"}, {"response": 40, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul 21, 2002 (16:49)", "body": "i've only seen one wild owl in flight and that was waaaaaay cool!! we used to go out in the back country owl spotting. they're really spooky!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 29, 2002 (12:16)", "body": "Rare vultures tagged and released by into the wild By Soteris Charalambous ON TUESDAY, a very rare Black vulture and two Griffon vultures were released by the Forestry Department after being captured, tagged, and fitted with transmitters, as part of the department's fauna conservation programme. According to Haris Nicolaou, Assistant Forest Officer at the Forestry Department, the presence of the Black vulture represents quite a fillip for Cyprus. \"For the Black vulture to come to Cyprus and remain here for so long suggests the programme is going well. If we are lucky, others will come next winter with the possibility that they will start breeding,\" said Nicolaou. The bird is one of the largest birds of prey, weighing up to 13kg with a wingspan of three metres but has been virtually extinct in Cyprus for approximately 20 years. The last of them are believed to have been shot for target practice by Turkish soldiers camped in the Pentadactylos Mountain range years ago. This Black vulture is approximately two to three years old and arrived in December. It is believed to have flown from Turkey, Georgia or Ukraine, attempting to avoid the heavy winter conditions, and trapped at a cage in Ayios Ioannis in the Paphos District, tagged, and measured and then fitted with a transmitter to enable its movements and habits to be studied. Such practice mirrors a host of other European countries where the bird's numbers have dropped to virtual extinction. The fact that it arrived late last year having not been previously tagged is also a 'feather in the cap' for the island. \"The black vulture is unique in Cyprus. It existed in large numbers during the 80s but became virtually extinct because of poisoning, illegal hunting and destruction of nesting sites,\" said Nicolaou. The forestry officer was also keen to emphasise the importance of the survival of the species. Often depicted as the harbingers of doom that swirl around helpless victims in Westerns, their true role is that of 'nature's noble caretakers' according to environmentalists. \"They are very important creatures because they clean the eco-system. They are exclusively carrion feeders and they prevent the spreading of diseases because they only feed on carcasses and thus clean the eco-system. They have to be protected and helped to recover to its former numbers,\" said Nicolaou. In addition to the Black, two Griffon vultures were also released after being captured as part of a project launched 12 years ago by the Forestry department for the conservation of Griffon vultures. \"We released them in accordance with an action plan launched by the UN two years ago which we co-operate with to help Griffon numbers recover,\" said Nicolaou, \"They used to be very common 20 years ago but present numbers are down to 30-40 birds. During the 80s, there were more than 20 nesting sites, now there is only one. We are trying to encourage the birds to breed further inland at other fauna mating sites because they are very vulnerable. One poisoning could wipe out these birds forever.\" All three birds arrived on the island in good condition, but others that do not are kept and looked after until they are ready to survive in the wild again. It has been difficult to gauge quite how many vultures have been lost over the years because, \"there wasn't anybody studying them 20 years ago but we know for sure from records of ornithologists in other countries and visitors here that they were in good numbers in Cyprus.\" http://www.goGreece.com/news/headlines/story.html?id=8660"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (20:21)", "body": "Fantastic! I am still on the hunt for my first eagle. They are hiding in plain sight in the area south of us. I just need to SEE them!"}, {"response": 43, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (22:18)", "body": "don't look too hard and then you will!"}, {"response": 44, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 24, 2002 (16:17)", "body": "Are these golden eagles or bald eagles? Or both?"}, {"response": 45, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Wed, Oct 30, 2002 (22:36)", "body": "You can tell fall is here and winter can not be far away. Our colony of vultures have moved from behind my house to ths cliffs. I will miss seeing them come in at night and soaring until they land in thye trees. this year we hit a record of 87. It is so wierd to see these birds flocked around my kennel at night. It's even more cool to see and hear them take off in the morning. They will return after the last frost. You should see the pics I have of them in the trees. BJ"}, {"response": 46, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 31, 2002 (08:52)", "body": "Fall definitely rolled in here today, Brrrr. Yesterday was warmand sunny. There is a pack of dogs? hyennas? ??? down by the creek last night."}, {"response": 47, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Thu, Oct 31, 2002 (20:51)", "body": "Depending where you're at, I would venture a guess and say a pack of coyotos BJ"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (15:28)", "body": "Brenda, your picture of Nanook is ready to post. Met up with a huge flock of birds last month. I had forgotten how migrating birds do that. Like something out of Alfred Hitchcock. It is winter everywhere now. Cold and wet most places I know of. Where is more snow?!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (02:40)", "body": "Marcia Do you still have it or do i need to resend it to you. Also, i have some of the babies i raised this summer. Brenda"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (10:46)", "body": "I emailed you how to find it on the internet so you can post it. Or did you wish for me to send you the command string so you can. I have the photo both on Spring's Hard drive (here at Geo) and on my computer. I'll email you the command. Be sure to center it so it looks good!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (11:05)", "body": "Marcia, I just e-mailed you back. Love, i am one of the few who has no idea what on earth you are talking about. Ask Rob....LOL He gave up on my ages ago. Brenda"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (19:39)", "body": "*Grin* remember I knew nothing when this whole conference was plopped into my lap and I had to populate it with topics and images. We all have to learn.Will email you right away.*HUGS*"}, {"response": 53, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Sat, Dec 14, 2002 (23:56)", "body": "ok!!!!!! how do i get it from point A to point B....I'm going crazy. if i click here it goes there and then i can't find where i put the first thing. AGGGGGGGGG.Computers and me just don't like each other. i do better with a cage of lion cubs then I do with this little monster. It's possessed and i know it knows more then me. Brenda"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 19, 2002 (16:43)", "body": "If you highlight from right to left it won't boot the url."}, {"response": 55, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Mon, Dec 23, 2002 (13:18)", "body": "Hi all, I know this isn't where this should go but since i'm not to sure where to put it, this is for all of you out there with kids. you grown-up ones might like this as well. It's my Christmas gift to you all. God bless you all for helping me through a very rough and hard year. Love you guys, Brenda http://www.noradsanta.org"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 23, 2002 (16:00)", "body": "I was going to post that, too My Dear you are brilliant. I had forgotten. Yes, NASA and NORAD will be tracking Santa Claus as he makes his magical trip around the world. It makes me smile to think of it."}, {"response": 57, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Sun, Jan 19, 2003 (21:43)", "body": "hi all, well snow and ice have hit here, bringing with it lows of around 1 degrees. All critters are bedded down with the exceeption of some very stubborn ducks who prefer to be in the lake then on the island. Hence, early morning rescues of chopping them out of the ice and thawing them out. it's the only time you can get near them...lol someday, i hope they learn. Brenda"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 22, 2003 (00:15)", "body": "OH my!!! Brenda! *HUGS* They are lucky to have your tender care as we are to have you post. Keep warm!"}, {"response": 59, "author": "duffuses", "date": "Sat, Feb  8, 2003 (23:05)", "body": "hi all, Hope all is well. babies here are doing fine. it's snowing again as it has for almost every weekend sincethe first of January. Last weekend we got 6 inches and more due on Sunday. We're having to rescue and bring in several birds what with the below feezing temps we've been having. not to mention the -35 wind chills we've been having. we bring them in,thaw them out and then let them go. I'm running out of bird food...LOL most of the time we go through 50 pounds every 2 weeks but with this last cold spell we're using around a 100 pounds a week. you would not think such little things could each so much. the deer are up to over 200 pounds of feed a week. altho i have a feeling they are getting some help from the local wildlife.LOL i think i'm going to write a book and call it Mrs. Dolittle..LOL Nobody would believe half of what goes on when you get started with these guys. Brenda"}, {"response": 60, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Feb 12, 2003 (03:51)", "body": "Phyl and Steve put up a birdhouse out in the middle of the field by our home. The idea is to attarct birds that keep the grasshopper population down in he summer. I'll keep you posted on wether it works or not (as in, if the birds show up and then eat the grasshopppers)."}, {"response": 61, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sat, Feb 22, 2003 (00:31)", "body": "Please read this article. http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=26562\u00a7ion=NEWS&subsection=FOCUS&year=2003&month=2&day=21 I can't believe someone would do such a horrible thing like that. There was only 80 birds left in the wild of CA and AZ. Now there is only 79 left. I hope they catch who ever it is that did this cruel deed. And I hope they get more than having to pay a $100,000 fine and a year in jail. This is awful! I hate to think that this poor bird will go extint during my lifetime. Its such a magnificint bird. I put a few websites down below so you can learn a bit about these amazing birds and their struggle to survive. http://www.lazoo.org/cstats.htm http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/condors.html"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (12:00)", "body": "This sounds like the demise of the Dodo. Only a few were left, and rather than try to breed them, they were killed so the selfish men could have specimens for their collections!!! Mankind never ceases to amaze me with its greed. I am happy that not all fall into this category. Thanks for posting it, Julie! Are you also feeding squirrels, Brenda? They can outeat the birds rather impressively."}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:20)", "body": "Mount St. Helens Update | September 29, 2004 5:30 P.M., PDT | | | | | | Increased seismicity overnight prompted raising the alert level to | | Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2) at 10:40 A.M., PDT, this morning. | | Throughout the day the seismic energy level has remained at an | | elevated with a rate of 3-4 events per minute including an increase in | | the number of events between Magnitude 2 and 3. All earthquake | | locations are still shallow and in or below the lava dome. In | | addition, initial data from the GPS instrument on the lava dome that | | was repaired Monday morning suggest that the site moved a few inches | | northward Monday and Tuesday, but has since been stable. Such movement | | is not surprising in light of the high seismicity levels. A USGS field | | crew continued their deployment of GPS equipment today in order to | | monitor any ground movement on the lava dome, crater floor, or lower | | slopes of the volcano. Another gas flight this morning produced a | | result of no significant volcanic gas detected, as was the case on | | Monday. Two press conferences were held at CVO to update the media. | | Tomorrow's field work includes continued GPS deployments. | | | | | | The current hazard outlook is unchanged from that outlined in this | | morning's Volcano Advisory. Updated wind forecasts from the National | | Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration coupled with an eruption | | model indicate that the wind direction will shift from northwesterly | | to northeasterly tonight. Therefore any ash clouds produced tonight | | will drift southwestward. | | | | | | Confusion at this morning's press briefing at CVO regarding Alert | | Levels resulted in numerous calls to emergency management agencies | | from the public about which is the correct level. We are at Alert | | Level Two?Volcano Advisory. Explanation of the alert-level scheme can | | be found on the \"News and Current Events\" web site below. | | | | | | For past updates and notices see past updates at: | | http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Cascades/CurrentActivity/framework | | .html | | | | | | A few photographs of recent fieldwork and of the volcano can be | | obtained from: | | http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/framework.html | | | | | | Daily updates of earthquake data and other information can be found on | | the WORLD WIDE WEB at URL: | | | | | | http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/CurrentActivity | | (CVO Menu - Monthly Summaries and Updates) | | | | | | and | | | | | | http://www.pnsn.org/HELENS/welcome.html | | (University of Washington - Earthquake Update) | | | | | | Our \"News and Current Events\" webpage now contains \"Quick Links\" to | | the current update, current photos, and the University of Washington | | Mount St. Helens seismic page, plus other useful \"Background\" webpages | | on Mount St. Helens, including an explanation of the Cascade Range | | alert-level scheme. | | http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/ | |"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:20)", "body": "Currently the MSH state is in low level steam eruptions according to the evening news. I will be checking this often!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  4, 2004 (21:52)", "body": "oops this should be on another topic..."}, {"response": 66, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  6, 2004 (16:37)", "body": "is this topic still linked to springark?"}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  6, 2004 (22:20)", "body": "not sure. Where is Springbok???"}, {"response": 68, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Oct  7, 2004 (14:24)", "body": "springbok? marcia, dear, springARK *giggle* oh, it's soooo good to see you here!!!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  8, 2004 (13:40)", "body": "oooooooooooooooooooooooooooh I misssd that completely. I guess I was distracted by the resident archaeology who is currently editing two journals and readying them for the publishers. I get to read the articles first. How good is that?!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  8, 2004 (13:41)", "body": "I miss you, Wolfie! (I finally have a laptop fast enough to keep up with my needs. Thia is very good and means I will not go missing again.) Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 76, "subject": "FIRE - Its impact", "response_count": 65, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (19:36)", "body": "thanks marcia *HUGS* we've got a doozy going on in rancho santa margarita (an elite neighborhood). over 300 acres burned and a major freeway is shut down. fire is nature's way to rejuvinate herself. fire brings nutrients to the soil though the damage it does is more evident."}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/news/051302_nw_jk_fire_los_flores.html"}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (19:52)", "body": "Riverside CA is now on fire (some smaller ones near Camp Pendelton and about 4 others)...."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (20:24)", "body": "I was wondering if you could see it or even smell it. I think it will be a difficult season for all of California. Midstate is also dry and the summer is still before them."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 13, 2002 (20:28)", "body": "Southern Calif. Fire Threatens Expensive Homes Mon May 13, 8:52 PM ET RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. (Reuters) - An out-of-control brush fire driven by hot winds and dry conditions threatened a community of expensive homes in this Orange County community on Monday as residents voluntarily began evacuating. The blaze burned more than 500 acres of bone-dry scrub near the rural community of Rancho Santa Margarita about 55 miles south of Los Angeles, as crews from more than 50 fire engines and three helicopters battled to save multi-million dollar homes. \"We still have homes we're concerned with,\" Orange County Fire Capt. Steve Miller told KABC-TV. \"We're nowhere close to having this fire contained. Our main priority is to just protect the homes.\" Kymbra Fleming, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Fire Authority, said about 200 homes were threatened by the flames, which had also closed several roads through the area. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020514/ts_nm/fire_california_dc_2&printer=1"}, {"response": 6, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 14, 2002 (19:46)", "body": "a couple more fires going on today. i could see the haze in the air and smell a bit. but it's not taking over the evening news tonight. they were busy talking about a break line between brush and the homes and i was driving along the freeway and thought how easy it would be for a fire to break out along the edges since the brush isn't kept mowed or removed."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 14, 2002 (21:13)", "body": "I noted that same problem on the California Freeways and it has happened - at least farther north in the state. Anyone foolish enough to build in the hills and not keep the brush beaten well back and a swimming pool (or other large catchment) full of water and a hose with pump attached is just plain foolish. It has been a while since Puna has had a brush fire. This is a disaster waiting to happen, also, but it is mostly uninhabited there. (South East of Hilo)"}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 14, 2002 (21:21)", "body": "well, we have a lot of ice plants growing along the freeways and just about anywhere nothing else will grow. i was told they were used as fire breaks. they keep 'em watered too (auto sprinklers and everything). the area i live in is well-watered too. all the bushes are required to be maintained by the dwellers (base housing)."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 14, 2002 (22:05)", "body": "Near San Francisco they have big thick oleanders between the going and coming lanes of the roadway. Oleander is resinous and I wondered how dangerous they might become when buring. They are toxic ! I think I would build a moat. At least where David now is safer in his house than he was in his condo."}, {"response": 10, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, May 15, 2002 (20:21)", "body": "oleander is indeed toxic. it's all over the place here too (but the bushes look fantastic when covered with flowers)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 15, 2002 (22:35)", "body": "They are evergreen and beautiful but VERY dangerous!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 26, 2002 (16:59)", "body": "Wildfire Spreads in Arizona TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - About 100 residents were ordered to leave their homes on Mount Lemmon on Sunday as a wildfire in the Coronado National Forest grew to 12,500 acres. The fire hadn't damaged any structures but had the potential to threaten roughly 700 homes, said Joan Vasey, a forest spokeswoman. ``It depends on what the winds do today and what the firefighters accomplish,'' Vasey said. Residents and business owners won't be allowed to return until after the fire threat is over, said Dean Barnella, chief of the Mount Lemmon Fire Department. ``We are going door to door to confirm that everybody is out,'' he said. Most of those evacuated were full-time residents. Many cabins on the mountainside are used as summer homes. The fire was first spotted Tuesday and is believed to have been started by humans, authorities said. In New Mexico, a wildfire burning in the rugged Pecos Wilderness of the Santa Fe National Forest had scorched 11,000 acres Sunday. Firefighters had contained 15 percent of the blaze and were getting a break early Sunday as the wind died down. Resident Ricky Romero watched the strong gusts fueling the blaze. ``I could see that fire coming straight at us so many times,'' Romero said, ``and then the wind would change.'' On the Net: National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (01:36)", "body": "The shiny active flow, which began on Mother's Day, extends from lower right to upper center of photo, entering forest along the edge of older pahoehoe. Smoke comes from burning forest near the flow front in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. About 880 acres have been burned. The map below shows the course of this flow, farther west than any other flow of the eruption."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (01:37)", "body": "\"The Map Below\" is found on this page http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/main.html"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 10, 2002 (02:22)", "body": "With the heatwave come the fires - Greece By Soteris Charalambous THE CURRENT heatwave, with temperatures rising to 39 degrees inland, has also brought the start of the brush-fire season, with fire-fighting crews called out to more than 25 separate incidents across the island yesterday. A spokesman for the Nicosia Fire Brigade said yesterday the worst of the fires, in the Khirokitia area, began at 3pm and was expected to rage into the night as fire-fighters were unable to bring it under control because of high winds. He said that a square kilometre of land had already been destroyed in the blaze, but that no injuries had been reported. In another major incident a man was arrested for starting a fire near his house, which then spread out of control and put other homes at risk near the Paphos district village of Pyrgos. The fire was started at around 8.30am by sparks as the man was working in an open area near his house. It spread quickly, helped by strong winds and tinder-dry land. Four fire engines and two Russian helicopters were needed, as well as forestry department and civil defence officials and other residents, to bring the blaze under control. Half a square kilometre of cultivated land, shrub land and a green house were destroyed before the fire was extinguished. The Fire Brigade spokesman said that a restaurant had been slightly damaged in an incident in the Limassol area, but he described the other fires as \"less serious\" and confirmed that \"no serious casualties\" had been reported at any of the fires. http://www.gogreece.com/news/headlines/story.html?id=5512"}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jun 10, 2002 (17:57)", "body": "The Copper Fire is finally under control (can't remember where that is, but it's north of here but not so far as san fran) and there's a big fire in colorado going on too. they determined that the copper fire was started by an illigal campfire."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (22:13)", "body": "There are loads of little brush fires around this part of California. Coming back from Shasta we must have heard 15 or more called in on the car's scanner. And, this is early in the fire season. Intersting and deadly - just like volcanoes."}, {"response": 18, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (22:31)", "body": "actually, the colorado fire was started by the camp fire. i don't remember what they said sparked the copper fire."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 11, 2002 (23:24)", "body": "The \"thunder\" incident (as they call them here) was ignited by a fallen powerline whose sparks ignited the surrounding grasses. That was near Red Bluff and involved many tankers, a few flying machines and many people. Another at Shasta was started by a maintanance shed which held gasoline for the forestry equipment."}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (05:04)", "body": "I heard about some fires caused by underground seams in coal mine fires that had been burning for decades, did anyone hear this? I didn't catch the location, it was a snippet I heard on NPR."}, {"response": 21, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 12, 2002 (21:03)", "body": "didn't hear that one either....but what's going on in colorado? they've run out of firefighters, i think. they can't even put people ahead of the fire because it's moving too fast. that has got to be scary."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 14, 2002 (18:01)", "body": "There are several in Pennsylvania. I've been over them and through the towns. It is strange and scary and smells terrible. West Viriginia also has a few like that. Not healthy and seems impossible to quench!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (04:06)", "body": "Hi all Something like that happened on property that is now in my Uncle Geoff's farm, down in Southland because there was a fire in the small mine and it was closed off. Geoff said it burned for a couple years and you knew you were on the farm because it was closed of, a lot of heat built up. Rob"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (20:00)", "body": "Coal in New Zealand?! I never thought about that possibility, but I also did not think of it in Greece and I know theuy have coal mines. One can see the coal seams in road cuts here - pictures taken and await downloading for your viewing pleasure."}, {"response": 25, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (11:58)", "body": "a fire started yesterday at noon and was still going when i went to bed. the interesting thing was that a house caught on fire and it was over 2 blocks away in a well-developed sub-division. why this house? it was the only one with wood roofing! all it takes is a little ember!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (15:43)", "body": "That sounds all too familiar. I am reading Don's autiobiographical book of anecdotal information and other fun things. One such involved his grandmother then home alone and pregnant putting out the fire that had begun on the roof from embers emitted by the chimney. Back then, you WERE the fire department! Whst is someone doing with the fire in the fireplace in all this heat?!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (17:39)", "body": "the ember was carried on the breeze!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:21)", "body": "Campfires are a real danger this time of year. Please, people, if you are campingout and need a fire, be careful how you quench it. Remember to stir and quench again and again until you are certain it is extinguished! No burning old letters either. No matter how hurt your feelings..."}, {"response": 29, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:41)", "body": "and no setting fires so you can get hired and paid to put it out!! a large fire yesterday was started by a burning car on the freeway!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (12:08)", "body": "Sheesh, Freeway car fires? How hot is it where you are? In Vacaville it was 180\ufffd F yesterday! I really don't need that!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (14:06)", "body": "it was pretty hot up where that took place (santa clarita, i think). there are cars on fire all the time here. can't figure it out. all the windows are open and my house is a lovely 70 degrees!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (14:12)", "body": "Are you ever lucky! I am about to post an article from the SF area where it is absolutely sweltering. I'm glad you have cool temperatures. It is impossibly hot where my son is. (still waiting for FedEx to deliver my laptop...) Happy Birthday Geo! William was online earlier but I think he did not come to Geo..."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (21:15)", "body": "Fire weather happens everywhere. THE GREEK POLICE WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST SUMMER FIRES The Greek Police will participate again this year in the battle against summer fires, according to a decision reached in the meeting of the responsible agencies that was held today and was presided over by Public Order Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis. The decision on the participation of the Greek Police provides for the land and air watch of forests and forest lands as well as every kind of assistance that is deemed necessary. In the land surveillance will participate mixed car patrols made up of Police officers, Fire Department officers and soldiers. Their goal will be to avert fires, or spot them quickly, identify suspects and arrest arsonists. http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpa/2002/02-06-17.mpa.html"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 22, 2002 (23:10)", "body": "Forest fires Conscripts in central Lesvos helped firefighters to extinguish a blaze which ravaged 15 hectares of forest land near their military base early on Sunday morning. According to an eyewitness, the fire was caused by a bag of inflammable liquid which was thrown at the base from a passing car. A team of 25 firefighters on eight fire engines, 30 ground workers, four water-carrying aircraft and three helicopters extinguished another forest fire on the island of Kythera, in the Peloponnese, early on Saturday morning, before it could cause major damage. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100012_22/07/2002_19019"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug  3, 2002 (00:04)", "body": "CYPRUS FIRES - Hundreds of firefighters battle large forest blazes Hundreds of Cypriot firefighters and British troops yesterday battled to extinguish five separate blazes which ravaged the island for hours, causing large-scale damage but no injuries. Large expanses of forest land, as well as two factories and six houses were destroyed by four different blazes near Limassol in the island\ufffds south, local police said. Three of the blazes in Limassol are believed to be the work of a group of motorcycle-borne youths seen starting fires in the area. The fifth blaze ravaged forest land in Paphos. Cyprus is currently undergoing a heatwave. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100015_02/08/2002_19451"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  4, 2002 (00:27)", "body": "A string of fires that have ravaged parched forests and farmland across the heatwave-afflicted Republic of Cyprus prompted a rare offer of assistance yesterday across the island\ufffds communal divide. The Turkish-occupied north of the island offered to put its firefighting equipment at the disposal of Nicosia, top Turkish-Cypriot forestry official Irsen Kucuk said. Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides said the fires were already under control but nonetheless expressed gratitude for the offer, Kucuk told the Turkish-Cypriot TAK news agency. Hundreds of Cypriot firefighters and British troops in the region of Limassol yesterday battled to contain three blazes threatening nearby villages. The fires, which started on Thursday morning, had already ravaged at least 10 square kilometers (9 square miles) of pine forests, a factory and three houses, when they were extinguished yesterday morning, but strong winds rekindled the embers hours later. Seven youths, whom witnesses claimed to have seen starting the fires, were remanded in police custody yesterday. (Combined reports) http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100010_03/08/2002_19489"}, {"response": 37, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 13, 2002 (09:02)", "body": "From Romain Cooper in Takilma, Oregon (souther OR. near the CA. border): As perhaps you've heard, a huge fire (~380,000 acres) is now burning just to the west of here in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness and surrounding wildlands. This is a rough situation that has kept me, and all the staff, busier than usual. From the SJ Mercury News : Oregon fire grows into largest in state history GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - The nation's largest active wildfire grew to 333,890 acres today, making it Oregon's largest wildfire in a century. Fire crews worked against gusty winds and steep terrain to secure a containment line around the southeastern portion of the wildfire. The fire was spotting along part of the line, said Mike Ferris, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. ``It slopped over the line that we had established and we're getting it tied back in,'' he said. The blaze in southwestern Oregon and northern California is larger than a 1933 that burned 311,000 acres. National forests weren't managed until the U.S. Forest Service was established in the 1890s. A voluntary evacuation remained in effect today at the southern tip of the fire in Gasquet, Calif., which has about 800 people. The fire was about 25 percent contained. California's largest wildfire, which has burned 61,550 acres northeast of San Diego, was nearly surrounded today. The blaze destroyed at least 35 homes since July 29, but was not threatening homes today, the state Department of Forestry said. The National Fire Information Center reports 5 million acres have burned in the country this year. U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said the fires have cost $325 million to fight."}, {"response": 38, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 13, 2002 (09:03)", "body": "And from the Guardian (UK): Oregon Fire Grows To 333,890 Acres Saturday August 10, 2002 4:30 PM GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - The nation's largest active wildfire grew to about 333,890 acres early Saturday, making it Oregon's largest wildfire in over a century. The blaze in the Siskiyou National Forest and adjoining lands in southwestern Oregon and Northern California is now larger than the 1933 Tillamook Fire, which burned 311,000 acres. Officials said some fires may have covered more ground before the U.S. Forest Service was established until the 1890s. The wildfire had at one point threatened about 17,000 people in several small towns in the Illinois Valley. Favorable weather limited the fire's advance near Agness in the Rogue River Canyon, but gusty wind and temperatures in the 90s - factors expected to remain a threat Saturday - gave the blaze new vigor in the hills and valleys east of Brookings near the California border. Sheriff's deputies Friday were asking some Brookings-area residents to prepare to leave their homes immediately if notified. The fire was about 25 percent contained. A voluntary evacuation remained in effect at the southern tip of the fire in Gasquet, Calif., which has a population of about 800 people. Meanwhile, California's largest wildfire, which has burned about 61,550 acres since it began July 29 near Julian, about 60 miles northeast of San Diego, was nearly surrounded Saturday. At least 35 homes have been destroyed by the blaze, sparked when a National Guard helicopter clipped a power line. The flames were no longer threatening homes on Saturday, said Martie Perkins, a California Department of Forestry spokeswoman. A second wildfire in rural eastern San Diego County scorched 350 acres Friday, threatening about 60 homes. In Northern California, a fire burning in Napa Valley consumed about 500 acres. The National Fire Information Center reports 5 million acres have burned in the country this year, including more than 715,000 acres in Oregon. U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said the fires have cost $325 million to fight. Elsewhere, portions of Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado reopened to the public Friday, 10 days after a wildfire near its best-known archaeological attractions forced it to close. Areas closest to the 2,601-acre fire, including the museum, the library and two cliff dwellings, were to remain closed Saturday. Park Superintendent Larry Wiese said helicopters were still dousing hot spots, and fire crews were still cleaning up. The fire scorched a wall of one archaeological feature, but did no damage to any other park ruins."}, {"response": 39, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 13, 2002 (09:32)", "body": "USA Today photo. Oregon fire expands to more than 330,000 acres GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) \ufffd Gusty winds remained a threat Saturday to fire crews struggling to contain what has become Oregon's largest wildfire in over a century. In Curry County, a pre-evacuation notice was posted to make sure residents are ready to leave on a moment's notice if the Florence Fire \ufffd which had grown to 333,891 acres by Saturday morning \ufffd moved closer to a few dozen homes scattered along river canyons near the ocean in the southwest corner of Oregon."}, {"response": 40, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 13, 2002 (23:47)", "body": "Jeez this is awful! Biggest blaze in US merges with smaller Oregon fire -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mail this story to a friend | Printer friendly version USA: August 12, 2002 PORTLAND, Ore. - A wildfire raging on both sides of the Oregon-California border, the biggest active blaze in the United States, merged with a smaller fire and was set to get worse, forestry officials said last week. Dry winds were expected to keep fueling the Florence fire over the weekend, the U.S. Forest Service said. The blaze has so far destroyed 331,000 acres (134,000 hectares) of dense, bush, forests and grasslands. \"The two fires are only touching in some places, but we're no longer fighting them separately,\" said Deryl Jevons, a U.S. Forest Service official. Firefighting crews reinforced containment lines and local residents were kept on alert to evacuate after the Florence fire combined with the Sour Biscuit fire, in an area about 40 miles miles (64 km) wide located about 270 miles (435 km) south of Portland. The fire, ignited by lightning in mid-July near Oregon's border with California, is threatening the communities of Cave Junction, Kerby, Selma, Agness, Gardner Ranch and McCaleb Ranch, Jevons said, with residents put on an eight-hour notice to evacuate. This is where Romain lives. It's the Meadows. It's one of the most beautiful places on the planet. I feel a great pain piercing me."}, {"response": 41, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Aug 15, 2002 (08:55)", "body": "The fire is now 390,000 acres and is officially called the \"Biscuit Fire\"; it's in Josephine County (Grants Pass, Takilma, Selma, Wonder, etc.), Curry County and Del Norte County (California). It stretches from Brookings on the west to the Illinois Valley on the East, where Takilma is located and where my friend Romain Cooper lives in the Meadows community. You can get updates at http://www.biscuitfire.com"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug 15, 2002 (23:59)", "body": "Tala fire threatens houses A FIRE which broke out in Paphos was raging out of control yesterday evening, burning shrub and carob trees. The blaze began at around 3pm at the village of Tala, and put many houses in the area in danger. The Fire Service said it had mobilised more than 20 men as well as fire-fighting helicopters to try to extinguish the flames. Members of the Game Service were also helping. A Fire Service supervisor told the _Cyprus Mail_ it was not yet known how the fire started. http://www.goGreece.com/news/headlines/story.html?id=7390"}, {"response": 43, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (08:35)", "body": "In southwest Oregon, the Biscuit Fire continues to grow. This ASTER image from August 14, 2002, shows the pillars of smoke arising from the fires. Active fire areas are in red. More than 6,000 fire personnel are assigned to the Biscuit Fire alone, which was 390,276 acres as of Thursday morning, August 15, and only 26 percent contained. Among the resources threatened are thousands of homes, three nationally designated wild and scenic rivers, and habitat for several categories of plants and animals at risk of extinction. Firefighters currently have no estimate as to when the fire might be contained. from http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/gallery.htm?name=BiscuitFire"}, {"response": 44, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (08:43)", "body": "from sfgate.com The fire had reached 448,857 acres, or about 700 square miles -- an area two-thirds the size of Rhode Island, said David Widmark, spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland. The blaze is the largest wildfire in Oregon in a century and the largest now burning in North America. More than 6,500 people were fighting it, including 470 Canadians, 39 Australians and nine fire managers from New Zealand. The fire was 40 percent contained Monday."}, {"response": 45, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (08:50)", "body": "From sfgate.com . . . The fire has burned over much of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area in the Siskiyou National Forest and into northwestern California, and it is now threatening homes and businesses in Agness, Ilahe, Oak Flat, upper Pistol River, upper Chetco River, Cave Junction, O'Brien and Selma. (Cave Junction is very near Takilma so Takilma must be under threat also?):e"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (22:58)", "body": "I will see them when I fly back to the west coast. It will be interesting to see how many I can observe. I know in central California they are having fires. It has been a very dry summer in many parts of the US. Now I worry it will be an even more destructive fall. Tennessee's trees are shedding their leaves already. It will be an early autumn!"}, {"response": 47, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (23:21)", "body": "it's been cooler the last couple of days....wonder how long it will last!"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (00:22)", "body": "David mentioned the same thing and it was cooler in the midwest - finally! Cooler is definitly better and I also wonder how long it will last."}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 19, 2003 (22:21)", "body": "Australia gains control of deadly fire in capital MONDAY , 20 JANUARY 2003 CANBERRA: Australian firefighters gained control today of bush fires that killed four and destroyed hundreds of homes in the capital Canberra at the weekend, but hot weather threatened to reignite some blazes. A smoky haze greeted dawn over the \"bush capital\" after firefighters spent the night battling spot fires which blew up from the smouldering ruins of an estimated 400 houses consumed in Canberra's worst-ever bush fire crisis. \"At this stage emergency services have all fires under control, although there are some areas still smouldering,\" a spokeswoman for the Australian Federal Police told Reuters. \"Throughout the night some of the smouldering areas in (the suburbs of) Holt and Holder did reignite but are once again being managed by fire crews,\" she said. Firefighters fear hot winds could stir the embers of homes, pine plantations, a high school, health centre and space observatory destroyed by the fires, with temperatures forecast to hit 35\ufffdC. Bushfires which were burning out of control in forests south of the capital raced into Canberra on Saturday afternoon, overwhelming firefighters in the park-like city. Eye-stinging smoke blanketed the capital, home to 300,000 people including hundreds of foreign diplomats, and a layer of ash stretched to the parliament buildings in the city centre. Four people were killed by the fires. Police said two bodies, including that of a 37-year-old woman, were found in two burnt-out homes after the fire had passed. A 61-year-old man and an 83-year-old woman were confirmed dead from smoke inhalation. Three people suffered serious burns and 60 people remained in Canberra Hospital after 270 sought emergency treatment for smoke inhalation, burns, breathing difficulties and eye irritation. Three burn victims were evacuated to Sydney, about 300km to the north. A state of emergency remained in place in Canberra, and hundreds of homes were still without power after fires knocked out power stations and lines. Thousands have been evacuated to schools and community centres across the city. A sewage crisis also threatened the city, as officials raced to repair a treatment plant damaged by the fire before sewage containment dams overflowed into a river. Emergency officials were already facing stiff criticism that not enough was done to protect the capital from the bush fires, which raged out of control south of the city for a week before they blew into Canberra. However, Prime Minister John Howard, who took a second tour of the devastated areas early today, said emergency workers deserved praise for limiting the death toll from the firestorm. \"It's remarkable to me that there wasn't a greater loss of life. It's a tribute to the common sense of Australians and also to the bravery of firefighters and police and others that there wasn't an even greater death toll,\" Howard told Channel Seven television. http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/print/0,1478,2204935a10,00.html"}, {"response": 50, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 26, 2003 (14:24)", "body": "as you've probably seen in the news--we have about 50K acres burning north of LA and then in San Diego (not sure of the acreage there, started after live-fire training exercises). everything in my yard is covered in ash and smells like my husband is using the smoker. really yucky. everyone in the house has sore throats and stuffy noses now. no AC to filter it out either."}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct 27, 2003 (10:48)", "body": "so now there's a total estimate of 300K fires burning in Southern California. worst fire for this area in 50 years."}, {"response": 52, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 28, 2003 (14:37)", "body": "I hope you're clear of the fire zone, wlfie. Keep us posted. Are you threatened by power outage also, where you are?"}, {"response": 53, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 28, 2003 (15:47)", "body": "no power outage or fires here. we just have a cloud of smoke that would usually be disappated by the marine winds. heard today that all the fires have burned 500K acreage (about the size of Rhode Island). ash isn't so bad in the air today (san pedro) but it will wreak havoc if you have allergies. i'm putting flonase to the test! i hope they find the arsonists who started the grand prix fire (which merged with the \"old fire\" this weekend-that one started, i believe, by a lost hiker as a signal fire). it's terrible to watch on the news--been crying right along with the families who's homes have been lost...."}, {"response": 54, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 28, 2003 (18:22)", "body": "Yeah, I'll be watching the national news when it comes on here in 9 minutes and be thinking about you wolfie. Pretty sure I got your contrib. .... should have thanked you. I'm getting better at thank yous. Did 2 today. Stay healthy and safe and keep us posted, ok?"}, {"response": 55, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 28, 2003 (20:29)", "body": "will do (no thanks needed, just wanted to make sure it made it)"}, {"response": 56, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct 28, 2003 (21:48)", "body": "correction to an earlier post--one of the fires in San Diego, the Cedar (sp) fire was started by a hiker as a signal fire not the \"old fire\" up my way. *whew* seems like it changes everytime i turn on the T.V. but i must say that the ash was way down here today and managed to rinse off my vehicle without it getting covered again. hosed off all the house windows too and you shoulda seen the black stuff coming off! we have some good neighbors too--fire departments and relief coming from oregon and arizona. God forbid we should have any other pop up because these guys are stretched thin."}, {"response": 57, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct 29, 2003 (09:34)", "body": "We're watching the coverage, looks like IH5 is being threatened today."}, {"response": 58, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 29, 2003 (13:29)", "body": "one fire starter is in custody but i think he's the hiker.....they're expecting containment by 4 Nov...."}, {"response": 59, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct 29, 2003 (13:30)", "body": "I'm glad the winds are more favorable now!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 29, 2003 (18:55)", "body": "and if the fire isn't bad enough, simi valley has suffered a 3.7M EQ! 1 fireman has been killed in the Cedar Fire. and there's a red flag warning (santa ana wind warning)...."}, {"response": 61, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct 29, 2003 (19:44)", "body": "smogalert people http://www.aqmd.gov/smog/areamap.html"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 29, 2003 (17:54)", "body": "This was a terrible mess. I watched it burn all around where I used to stay when I visited in that part of California. How very sad. The Chatsworth fire worried me the most. Just as the area was built back from the Northridge quake, their houses are endangered again by fire. When do the locusts arrive, I heard one person say..."}, {"response": 63, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov 30, 2003 (21:14)", "body": "Glad this has passed."}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (14:58)", "body": "Kentucky is also worrying about fires,though I imagine it is past the time for them. It was very dry here, too. We were justvery lucky!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (19:06)", "body": "We had a huge controled burn in the area today. It was all the buzz on the 443.75 repeater in Bastrop. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 77, "subject": "Living with Volcanoes", "response_count": 192, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 26, 2002 (17:39)", "body": "With Julie hiking Mount Saint Helens and my living between the world's most active and most maasive volcanoes, it seems to be a good idea for first hand experiences and learned-the-hard-way wisdom to be shared."}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (18:15)", "body": "good topic, marcia!!!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (18:30)", "body": "Hi all Definitely true. I was wondering what it is like to live with volcanoes like Mayon where there is a permanent dangerzone. Mayon is a perfect stratovolcano rising off the fertile plain around Legaspi in the Philippines. Rob"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (18:38)", "body": "Try Mexico City in the shadow of Popocat\ufffdpetl or Tokyo with Mt Fuji. We have much to consider. Currently, in Hawaii, the State Forestry people and Park Rangers are still battling the brush fires started by the current lava flows going in new areas of the park."}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (20:42)", "body": "i was wondering about that since i saw a glimpse of some volcanic activity on the news near the hilo area....i sure hope you're far from it!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (20:46)", "body": "Though it is about 50 miles from me by car whihc sounds close, it is on the other side of Kilauea from Hilo, so we are safe. Besides, a very wet rainforest exists between us and the summit and/or fire area, so though it sounds scary, it really isn't. If I get the birthday present I want, I'll see the eruption and take more pictures of it. Once a year hardly sounds like enough..."}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 27, 2002 (20:53)", "body": "ooooooooooohhhhh!!!!!!! fingers are crossed for you, sweetie!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (00:06)", "body": "Right now, my life is so messed up, a volcano would be peaceful. Just wish me a peaceful birthday. Happiness will be delayed this year."}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (19:09)", "body": "talk to me sweetie!! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 28, 2002 (22:34)", "body": "It's the same thing over and over... but this time I may just \"jump ship\" and flee. Sorry I missed you on IM. Stuff has pretty much settled down again. Still it makes my insides hurt. Ulcers anyone?!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (07:43)", "body": "Hi all I have two (and a suspected third existing in geological theory)large stratoshield volcanoes near me but they are extinct. The 5000 feet between where the summit was and sea level has been eroded taking much of the magma chamber with it. These volcanoes have not erupted for least 5.8 million years, and since the magma chamber has been flooded for probably a couple million years, you can safely assume they are extinct. Marcia, dear. Take what time you can with Wolfie since things are decidely messy and you don't know when push will come to shove. Be careful, and scream if you need anything. *HUGS FROM ME AND JULIE*. Rob"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (15:19)", "body": "I'll be ok. Thanks Rob. You are there in the middle of the night for me and I appreciated it. Back to our very NON-dormant volcano. I will thump on it and take it's temperature and other vital signs. I would really like to see some fountaining again. I have gotten spoiled in not being content to see just plain molten lava. Having my own volcano is very special. Especially when it is so safe to visit and appreciate. I'll be taking my digital camera with me. Now is when I need that strong telephoto lens that mine lacks."}, {"response": 13, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (18:41)", "body": "oh sweetie girl!!! *****HUGS!!!!*****"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 29, 2002 (23:18)", "body": "HUGS back, Wolfie! It looks good for viewing on the 31st. This is today's eruption report : 0750 May 29 The west arm of the Mother's Day flow has broken into fairly open grassland and is now rapidly moving down Pulama pali. This morning at 0444, the broad front of the flow is about 250 m wide and down as low as the 950-foot elevation. Spectacular scenes of the rolling lava, flaming grass and brush, and flaring trees can be seen from the end of the Chain of Craters Road. The west arm is moving south-southeast and is now about 2.8 km from the road. Its front is close to, if not below, the historic Kalapana Trail that once was the main route between Kilauea's summit and Kalapana. The central and east arms of the flow (a simplification of the complex front) are moving southeastward toward the 1995 Jason flow. These arms have moved fairly swiftly during the past 24 hours, as they have encountered rather steep slopes on Pulama pali. Consequently they are nearly as low as the west arm, down to about 1000 feet or perhaps a little less. They remain in forest, their traces being best seen by the smoke and fire of burning vegetation. The Boundary flow remains dark this morning, though lava is feeding onto the coastal flat through one or more tubes. As of May 25, the front of the flow was about 1.8 km from the coastline. Another branch, which turns east at the foot of Pulama pali, is less active. On May 25, it had reached about 1.3 km east of the foot of the cascade down the pali and was adding more lava to the previously buried intersection of Lehua and Prince Streets in Royal Gardens. The HALP flow continues its slow advance into upper Royal Gardens subdivision. Glow from just above its front is plainly visible this morning. How far the flow has moved from the intersection of Warrior and Ekaha Streets is not known. The crater of Pu`u `O`o is dark this morning, though incandescent spatter cones were observed from the air yesterday. Seismicity across the volcano is at a background level. Volcanic tremor at Kilauea's summit is low, broken occasionally by short-lived long-period earthquakes. Pu`u `O`o has weak to moderate tremor. Tiltmeters are showing nothing unusual. http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/main.html"}, {"response": 15, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, May 31, 2002 (06:21)", "body": "It is 31st. See these spectacular scenes but think Marcia first. Take care yourself Marcia. Stay far off an unforeseen event. John"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  1, 2002 (01:26)", "body": "My travel to the volcano is off until the first of the week. I have asked Mme Pele to please plan on more good things for me to photograph for you."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  8, 2002 (19:54)", "body": "USGS volcano news June 6, 2002 - Eruptions and fires Lava is not fire. People sometimes talk about lava as fire, as in \"fire fountain,\" \"curtain of fire,\" and \"river of fire.\" Most realize that these and similar terms are misleading and confusing metaphors, but bad habits are hard to break. Volcanologists are weaning themselves away from using the terms, and they are no longer used by HVO scientists in their publications. Lava is liquid rock, nothing else. Lava can, however, cause fire. In that sense, the two words are sometimes intertwined. The fire caused by the Mother's Day lava flow at Kilauea is an example. The fire owes its start to hot lava igniting vegetation. The lava didn't need a fire to get going, but the fire needed the lava's heat. The Pu`u `O`o eruption has caused many fires in the past 19 years, some fairly large but most of them small. The Kupukupu Fire, the name given by Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park to the fire ignited by the Mother's Day lava flow, is the largest of the eruption, burning more than 1,480 hectares (3,660 acres) by June 4. But it is only the latest fire of the eruption. Each time lava enters even the tiniest vegetated kipuka, a fire is generated. Old-timers will recall the heroic efforts of the park to save the Naulu Forest and picnic area during the Mauna Ulu eruption in 1970-1972. Most of this forest, consisting almost entirely of native vegetation, eventually succumbed to the lava flows that spread downslope near and east of the Kealakomo shelter and overlook. The largest fire burned 1,300 hectares (3,200 acres) in 1972, but an earlier fire in 1970 took the real jewels. It was a sad day, indeed, when a large `ulu (breadfruit) tree, a landmark to those driving down the new Chain of Craters Road, was caught by the fire near the base of Holei Pali in 1970. Sad, perhaps, but perfectly natural. Lava has been starting fires since there was vegetation to light. Recent investigation into the past 1,500 years of Kilauea's eruptive history has uncovered evidence for a number of fires in the relatively dry area between the Hilina Pali Road and the Mauna Ulu lava flows. Some of these fires were almost certainly caused by lava flows, because charcoal is found directly under a flow or in a tree mold formed in a flow. Other old fires, however, have no certain cause, yet circumstantial evidence suggests a lava origin. For example, lots of charcoal in alluvial debris has radiocarbon ages from the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. This was a time when lava flows were frequently erupting from the summit and upper east rift zone of Kilauea. The charcoal is found in deposits on top of, or beyond the ends of, these flows, so we can't really relate it to a particular flow or even to any eruption at all. Nonetheless, it is a logical inference that lava started the fires. There is even 1,300-year-old charcoal sitting near the ground surface and indicating an old fire possibly ignited by an explosive eruption of about that age. Fire is just one of many indirect consequences of eruptions. There are others that don't involve fire. For example, many readers will remember the problems at Kilauea 10-15 years ago with acid rain from vog leaching lead out of paint and solder. On a similar note, the upper part of the Ka`u Desert is largely an acid rain desert, caused indirectly by sulfur dioxide emitted in Halemaumau. At other volcanoes, mudflows are commonly disastrous indirect results of an eruption, although they can be direct as well. Volcanic ash can down high-flying jetliners that enter nearly invisible ash concentrations before they know it. On a larger scale, crop failures and short-term weather change can be consequences of very large eruptions. The Kupukupu Fire reminds us again that eruptions may pose significant problems above and beyond the area actually covered by lava or ash. The earth is a complex system, and even minor natural perturbations in that system can have indirect, often unexpected results. Eruption Update Eruptive activity of Kilauea Volcano continued unabated at the Pu`u `O`o vent during the past week. The \"Mother's Day\" lava flow is slowly advancing in the flats between Pulama pali and Paliuli with the distal end of the flow located 1.6 km (1 mi) above the Chain of Craters road. The two flows emanating from the \"rootless\" shields continue to be active. The lower flow along the National Park-Royal Gardens boundary is inflating and spreading on the coastal flats with only minimal movement toward the ocean. The higher flow that entered the top of Royal Gardens subdivision last week has one lobe moving down Prince past Pakalana and another between Prince and Royal approaching Pikake. At least four houses are in the probable path of the flow. There were no earthquakes reported felt during the week ending on June 6. This article was written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Alaska, Russian and Worldwide Volcanoes For updates on U.S. and Rus"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  8, 2002 (21:09)", "body": "Seafloor studies reveal a huge volcanic blast 2 million years ago Associated Press Scientists drilling into the ocean floor say they have found the first evidence of a giant volcanic eruption 2 million years ago on Oahu. A similar eruption could occur on the Big Island, according to one of the project leaders. The discovery by 15 scientists on the multinational Ocean Drilling Program expedition was reported this week by the Joint Oceanographic Institutions of Washington, D.C., which manages the program. The expedition known as Leg 200 was drilling a deep hole into the oceanic crust near Hawaii in December when evidence emerged of a \"cataclysmic volcanic event,\" according to the report. The drilling penetrated two layers that had been blasted out to sea at temperatures nearly 400 degrees Fahrenheit, said Ralph Stephen, co-chief scientist of the project. \"Our drilling results from Leg 200 indicate that this event was not merely a landslide, but a hot explosion,\" Stephen said. \"The same process could happen again to the Big Island.\" The hole more than 180 miles northeast of Oahu eventually will house a deep-sea observatory with seismic and other geophysical, geochemical and microbiological monitoring devices. Volcanoes along the Hawaiian and Canary chains have been so steep that large segments collapse into huge landslides onto the ocean floor. Scientists say the Nuuanu landslide removed half of what was Oahu 2 million years ago. \"The evidence indicates that this large landslide was associated with an explosive event similar to the Mount Saint Helens' eruption in Washington State in 1980, but was an order of magnitude (10 times) larger,\" Stephen said. Under normal conditions, volcanic magma is held in place, but when a landslide removes it, explosions send the hot magma into surrounding air and sea, he said. The drilling provided the first evidence that the landslide was accompanied by such explosions. Scientists are continuing to study material extracted during the drilling. The Ocean Drilling Program is an international partnership that is studying the evolution and structure of the Earth. Funding comes primarily from the U.S. National Science Foundation and its international partners."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 15, 2002 (11:56)", "body": "************************************************************* New web-page: Commission on Mitigation of Volcanic Disasters ************************************************************* From: Giovanni Orsi A new web-page of the Commission for Mitigation of Volcanic Disasters of IAVCEI is online !!!!. The web-page is accessible either trough the IAVCEI web site or at http://www.ov.ingv.it/cmvd/index.htm . This site is intended to serve as a vehicle of communication between its members (professional volcanologists) and individuals or institutions (including laymen) interested in the reduction and mitigation of volcanic disasters. The leaders of this commission have decided to focus on hazard maps as they are the most important tool for designing monitoring systems, emergency plans as well as socio-economic development strategies for a given region. Unfortunately, for most active volcanoes in the world such maps do not exist. For this reason it is important to promote achievements in this direction with the introduction of the \"Volcanic Hazard Information Project\". As part of this project on the site you will find a World-wide Catalogue of Hazard and Risk Maps which are grouped according to geographic areas. Eventually, the Commission intends to help facilitate the production of a Volcanic Hazard Atlas for each area. The World-wide Catalogue of Hazard and Risk Maps is not just another catalogue of active volcanoes, rather a more specialised repository of technical information related to volcanic hazards and mitigation of volcanic disasters. This database is intended to be constantly updated and, although focussed mainly on technical information on hazard maps, includes information also on risk maps, geophysical and geochemical monitoring systems, populations at risk, volcanic alert systems, and civil defence mitigation programs. All individuals and members of an institution working on hazard and risk maps in a volcanic area are invited to contribute to the World-wide Catalogue of Hazard and Risk Maps and to the Volcanic Hazard Atlas. Giovanni Orsi ***************************************** Giovanni ORSI Osservatorio Vesuviano - I.N.G.V. Via Diocleziano, 328 80124 NAPOLI (Italia) Tel. +39 081 6108343 Fax +39 081 6108344 e-mail: orsi@ov.ingv.it web site: http://www.ov.ingv.it"}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jul 29, 2002 (16:33)", "body": "Kilauea's Mother's Day lava flow eats Chain of Craters road: And falls into the sea:"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 29, 2002 (17:35)", "body": "Oh Terry, they are lovely! That is exactly what they look like and I can even smell and hear what it is like. Wouldn't you know - when I am 6000 miles away!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 29, 2002 (19:02)", "body": "those are great pictures!! and marcia, these things always happen when we're away!! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 23, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul 30, 2002 (08:50)", "body": "Kilauea's mothers day present!"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 30, 2002 (18:12)", "body": "Alas, they closed the viewing road for Mother's Day because the lava was coming down too close to the road and heading for a vast area of what was available space to view. Thus I was not allowed down then, nor my birthday and I have not seen it since May 31, 2001 - a year and 2 months ago! There is little left of the coast road now. I wonder if we willbe able to watch it with such convenience again in the near future."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 30, 2002 (18:54)", "body": "New Lava From Kilauea Volcano Entering the Sea USGS Web Site Features Daily Lava Flow Updates and Photographs Lava flows from the Pu`u `O`o vent on the east rift zone of Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii are entering the sea and are rapidly adding new land to the coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. The USGS Web site http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/ features near real time lava flow updates as well as photographs. Detailed descriptions of lava flow and videos and photographs of lava breakouts, lava streams, and lava entering the ocean offer the public as well as scientists an opportunity to safely observe Kilauea's activity from their computers. Web site viewers can access the site daily and find out new information and see current photographs of Kilauea's lava flows. Kilauea Volcano has been erupting since Jan. 3, 1983. The current lava flows are arms of the larger lava flow that erupted earlier this year on Mother's Day (May 12). Since 1952, there have been 34 eruptions, and since 1983, eruptive activity has been nearly continuous. The eruption that began in 1983 continues at the cinder-and-spatter cone of Pu`u `O`o (high point on skyline). Kilauea is the youngest and southeastern-most volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. The Hawaiian name \"Kilauea\" means \"spewing\" or \"much spreading,\" apparently in reference to the lava flows it erupts. The USGS serves the nation by providing reliable scientific information to: describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life. ***USGS***"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (08:17)", "body": "Oldest Volcanoes Discovered Tuesday 30th July 2002 Geologists in Brazil claim they have found the oldest volcanoes in the world. The pair are in the Amazon and date back 1.9 billion years. Professor Caetano Juliani of Sao Paulo University says the oldest previously known volcano was just 500 million years old. He told Estado de SP newspaper: \"Usually old volcanoes are destroyed very fast, in a few million years.\" The volcanoes were found near the Tapajos and Jamanxin rivers. The larger of the two is 700 feet high and just over a mile in diameter at the base. The scientists expect the rocks to give up valuable information about the region's formation . (Ananova) http://www.volcanolive.com/volcanolive.html"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (08:18)", "body": "Yucca Mountain Volcano Dangers Thursday 1st August 2002 A volcanic eruption at Yucca Mountain could do more damage than previously thought, possibly forcing radioactive waste from its burial site to the surface, according to a new study. If long-dormant volcanoes near the prospective high-level nuclear waste dump sprang back to life, molten rock could fill the repository deep beneath the Nevada desert within hours, said an article in the July issue of Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. Intense heat and pressure could cause some canisters of spent nuclear fuel that are to be buried at Yucca to rupture and allow radioactive material to flow toward the surface. Seven extinct volcanoes are within 27 miles but the last eruption was 80,000 years ago. Yucca project scientists calculate that the chance of one occurring within the waste repository over the next 10,000 years is one in 70 million. Last week Yucca was designated as the USA's lone long-term waste repository. It is scheduled to open in 2010. More on Yucca Mountain Volcanoes... Volcanoes of USA... Large Earthquake Hits Costa Rica and Panama (Magnitude 6.5) Thursday 1st August 2002 An earthquake of 6.5 magnitude shook Costa Rica on Tuesday evening, knocking down three houses and injuring at least two people, Costa Rica's national seismological service said. The quake, also felt in San Jose, was the strongest in the nation's south, near the border with Panama, where it also knocked out electricity in several communities. The earthquake was also felt in Panama, where communities near to the border with Costa Rica reported interrupted electricity and telephone service. There were no injuries reported. (Reuters) More on Costa Rica... More on Panama... Lava Enters Ocean at Kilauea Volcano (Hawaii) 19.425 N, 155.292 W, summit elevation 1222 m, Shield volcano Wednesday 31st July 2002 Lava is entering the sea at two locations as of 30th July. Another arm of the Mother's Day lava flow (the Highcastle arm) is zeroing in on the remnant of the Chain of Craters Road in the Highcastle kipuka. At 0647hr, the front of the flow was in the grassy kipuka, about 150 m from the pavement. Small fires and methane explosions are taking place. The short stretch of roadway in the Highcastle kipuka, long cut off from the rest of the Chain of Craters Road, has been a landmark for years. It now appears in grave danger of being covered by lava. Lava entering the ocean entry at the West Highcastle entry, about 500 m southwest of the Highcastle kipuka, is confined to one place. Lava is dripping into the water from a height of some 5-7 m. The Wilipe`a entry is again mainly active on the west side of the new bench, the very spot the visitors can access most easily. Quite a crowd was on hand this morning before dawn to witness the numerous entry points, breakouts on the bench, and the play of rose to orange glow in the steam plume. (HVO) More on Kilauea volcano... Oldest Volcanoes Discovered Tuesday 30th July 2002 Geologists in Brazil claim they have found the oldest volcanoes in the world. The pair are in the Amazon and date back 1.9 billion years. Professor Caetano Juliani of Sao Paulo University says the oldest previously known volcano was just 500 million years old. He told Estado de SP newspaper: \"Usually old volcanoes are destroyed very fast, in a few million years.\" The volcanoes were found near the Tapajos and Jamanxin rivers. The larger of the two is 700 feet high and just over a mile in diameter at the base. The scientists expect the rocks to give up valuable information about the region's formation . (Ananova) http://www.volcanolive.com/volcanolive.html"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (08:39)", "body": "Kentucky Lava - July 2002- both sides of same 3 inch rock"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (08:41)", "body": "It is most impressive full size which is about twice your monitor area. There are bits of shell and whatever ground rock it rolled over stuck in the matrix of the lava. I am certain it is the top of a VERY old a'a flow."}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:22)", "body": "French Volcanologist Injured Friday 2nd August 2002 A French volcanologist was badly scalded when he tried to climb up the side of New Zealand's only mud volcano, on the eastern outskirts of Rotorua. The Frenchman had ignored a barrier around the volcano at Tikitere in the incident on Wednesday. He climbed over on to the volcano to take a closer look and get pictures inside the cone when the side of the vent collapsed under him. The injured man's wife ran for help, returning about 10 minutes later with park staff and a trained first-aider, who bathed the man's scorched legs and feet in a nearby cold-water stream. He was later taken to Rotorua Hospital. The man's weight had left a 60-70cm hole in the volcano's side, and boiling mud and water were still gushing from it yesterday. His wife said he had had a similar experience in Hawaii. About three weeks ago an Australian teenager suffered burns at Hell's Gate when he wandered off marked tracks into an active thermal area. (New Zealand Herald) More on volcanoes of New Zealand... More on Mud Volcanoes... Update on Kilauea Volcano (Hawaii) 19.425 N, 155.292 W, summit elevation 1222 m, Shield volcano Friday 2nd August 2002 The Mother's Day flow on Pulama pali is putting one of the most awesome displays of the flow in some time, according to the Hawaii Volcano Observatory. West Highcastle has a sparkly breakout covering a large part of the bench and a couple of lava falls from the front of the bench into the water. Yucca Mountain Volcano Dangers Thursday 1st August 2002 A volcanic eruption at Yucca Mountain could do more damage than previously thought, possibly forcing radioactive waste from its burial site to the surface, according to a new study. If long-dormant volcanoes near the prospective high-level nuclear waste dump sprang back to life, molten rock could fill the repository deep beneath the Nevada desert within hours, said an article in the July issue of Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. Intense heat and pressure could cause some canisters of spent nuclear fuel that are to be buried at Yucca to rupture and allow radioactive material to flow toward the surface. Seven extinct volcanoes are within 27 miles but the last eruption was 80,000 years ago. Yucca project scientists calculate that the chance of one occurring within the waste repository over the next 10,000 years is one in 70 million. Last week Yucca was designated as the USA's lone long-term waste repository. It is scheduled to open in 2010. Lava Enters Ocean at Kilauea Volcano (Hawaii) 19.425 N, 155.292 W, summit elevation 1222 m, Shield volcano Wednesday 31st July 2002 Lava is entering the sea at two locations as of 30th July. Another arm of the Mother's Day lava flow (the Highcastle arm) is zeroing in on the remnant of the Chain of Craters Road in the Highcastle kipuka. At 0647hr, the front of the flow was in the grassy kipuka, about 150 m from the pavement. Small fires and methane explosions are taking place. The short stretch of roadway in the Highcastle kipuka, long cut off from the rest of the Chain of Craters Road, has been a landmark for years. It now appears in grave danger of being covered by lava. Lava entering the ocean entry at the West Highcastle entry, about 500 m southwest of the Highcastle kipuka, is confined to one place. Lava is dripping into the water from a height of some 5-7 m. The Wilipe`a entry is again mainly active on the west side of the new bench, the very spot the visitors can access most easily. Quite a crowd was on hand this morning before dawn to witness the numerous entry points, breakouts on the bench, and the play of rose to orange glow in the steam plume. (HVO) Congo Eruption Threatens Animals Tuesday 30th July 2002 A large plume of ash over Mount Nyimuragira, which erupted on Thursday, poses no immediate danger to man, but may hurt animals west of the volcano, Dario Tedesco, the resident volcanologist of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on Sunday. Reporting on the activity of Nyimuragira and the nearby Mount Nyiragongo, he said Nyiamuragira\ufffds eruptions were continuing to produce \"huge quantities\" of ash, which was being blown in a westerly direction. These ashes contained \"extremely sharp\" glassy needles and other particles, often eaten by cows and other animals, he said, and were responsible for stomach haemorrhage leading to death. He also warned that harvests might be in endangered in \"all regions\" in the path of ash clouds, and by local acid rain. However, he said there were no reports of danger to the quality of water in the area. But villagers living downwind of the direction of the plumb could suffer eye irritations due to halogens and sulphur, and particularly fluorine. Others might suffer breathing problems associated with the heavy ash emissions. Scientists said there were gas discharges and \"large amounts\" of magma close to the nearby Mount Nyiragongo, which last erupted on 17 "}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (18:12)", "body": "How the lava viewing got to be so great - KILAUEA The past two weeks have been exceptional for viewers of Kilauea's lava flows. Both colorful and convenient, the flows have drawn visitors to the island and attracted many residents as well. How did this happen? Everything started on Mother's Day, May 12, when a new vent opened near the southwest base of Pu`u `O`o. This area had not been the site of a previous vent, but nearby areas hosted many small vents during the past several years. The Mother's Day flow poured southwest into the nearest forest, turned south-southeast, and began its long, slow descent through the forest to the coastal flat below Paliuli. Along the way, the flow started the 3,600-acre Kupukupu fire, which burned throughout much of June and has had flare-ups since. By early June, lava had crossed the Kalapana Trail and almost reached the top of Paliuli. A park trail was readied for the time when the lava would pour down the pali onto the coastal flat and be easily accessible to visitors. Lava cascades started down Paliuli on the night of June 9-10, 1.5 km (1 mile) from the coast. For the next five-and-a-half weeks, the flow fed by the cascades slowly worked its way across the coastal flat, feinting this way and that, first to the west, then to the east, then in the middle. By June 25, an arm had moved along the west side of the 1995 flow to within 450 m (1,500 feet) of the Chain of Craters Road. It looked as if the flow were going to continue, and several small buildings at the end of the road were moved. But the threatening flow stagnated, and all activity became concentrated in the central and eastern parts of the 1-km-wide (0.6-mile-wide) flow front. By June 30, the leading edge of the flow was 1 km (3,300 feet) from water; by July 5, 800 m (2,600 feet); by July 10, 550 m (1,800 feet); and by July 15, 400 m (1,300 feet). Then, two fingers of the eastern lobe really took off. The west finger led on July 16-18, but the east rapidly closed in and was only 10 m (30 feet) shy on the 18th. That evening, a final push sent lava from the east arm into the ocean, at a place we now call West Highcastle. Meanwhile, a rapidly developing western arm of the flow was surging seaward, along the general route of the June threat. By morning of July 19, its front was 700 m (2,300 feet) from the Chain of Craters Road. The front moved 400 m (1,300 feet) in the next 20 hours and then 300 m (1,000 feet) in the next 12 hours, crossing the road in the early evening. Fortunately, the park had just enough time to move the building over the lua before it was destroyed. The lava quickly poured the next 230 m (750 feet) and entered the water in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 21, at a place known as Wilipe`a. The Wilipe`a entry quickly built a large bench, which at this writing reaches about 90 m (300 feet) offshore and is 470 m (1,540 feet) wide along the shore line. Visitors have outstanding viewing across the west end of the bench with favorable wind. If stinging acidic steam covers that area, visitors can take a marked trail across the warm flow to an upwind vantage point on the east side of the bench. Talk about a media splash! Amid the many truths, one misconception stands out. The flow is NOT the most dangerous in years. Lava flows have been entering the water off and on for the past 16 years, and each had a similar set of hazards. The current activity is not exceptional, but it is easily accessible. More people are therefore at risk, but the hazards they face are no greater than before. The difference between hazard (a natural process or event) and risk (the impact on society) is often confused. To the individual, there is no greater danger than before. To society, there are more people observing the entry, so there is more chance of someone getting hurt. How long will the great viewing last? Probably not long, so enjoy it while you can! Eruption Update Eruptive activity of Kilauea Volcano continued unabated at the Pu`u `O`o vent during the past week. As mentioned above, both the West Highcastle and Wilipe`a ocean entries of the Mother's Day flow are active and forming benches. More than seven acres of new land have been mapped in the first 10 days since lava reentered the ocean, and the area is rapidly increasing and adding to the size of the island. Lava viewing is spectacular, and the National Park Service is allowing visitors to hike out and get up close to the active flows. The eastern Boundary flow emanating from the \"rootless\" shields remains prominent. Two incandescent streams are seen on Pulama pali from just above to one-third of the way down. Two earthquakes were reported felt during the week ending on August 1. A resident on Kama`ili Road in Puna felt an earthquake at 6:33 p.m. on July 25. The magnitude-2.4 earthquake was located 5 km (3 mi) north of `Opihikao at a depth of 5.9 km (3.5 mi). A magnitude-2.0 earthquake located 2 km (1.2 mi) south of Pa`auilo at a depth of 8.1 km (5 mi) was fe"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  5, 2002 (18:23)", "body": "I am delighted to announce this website is ready for the world to see. I was fortunate enough to see it in its infancy. http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/"}, {"response": 33, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 13, 2002 (21:31)", "body": "A volcano on NBC News tonight. \"It is a lava junkies paradise in Hawaii. Kilua's most dramatic performance in years. It's drawing 2500 visitors a day. Don Swanson was interviewed about the dangers of people walking oout on the shelves."}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (22:03)", "body": "Stay back of the ranger lines and you will be perfectly safe. They are there for your protection and they are not keeping you from seeing it. They are trying to keep you alive! Enjoy! (I'll be back there by the end of the month so it will stop before then!) I did see a photo and caption in ARCHAEOLOGY magazinel about making corn impressions on fresh lava by laying dried ears in front of the flows. I wonder if it worked."}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 16, 2002 (22:41)", "body": "The eruption continues at Kilauea . For update and wonderful pictures http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/main.html"}, {"response": 36, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (08:39)", "body": "Some great shots of volcanoes from satellites! http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/default.htm This sequence of ASTER nighttime thermal images shows the Pu'u O'o lava flows entering the sea at Kamokuna on the southeast side of the Island of Hawaii. Each image covers an area of 9 x 12 km. The acquisition dates are April 4 2000, May 13 2000, May 22 2000 (upper row) and June 30 2000, August 1 2000 and January 1 2001 (lower row). Thermal band 14 has been color coded from black (coldest) through blue, red, yellow and white (hottest). The first 5 images show a time sequence of a single eruptive phase; the last image shows flows from a later eruptive phase."}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (23:11)", "body": "Oooh! I had not seen them before. Thanks for posting them. Lovely! Imagine what it must have been like at ground level ! That was my last chance to go and they closed the viewing to the public until the eruption stablized. This is the usual process done for eruptions."}, {"response": 38, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (09:47)", "body": "Truly amazing stuff. \"Spigots are turned on, and lava pours into ocean off front of Highcastle Stairs bench. Each spigot is mouth of small lava tube within bench\": Front of bench: The stairs a few days ago:"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Aug 24, 2002 (12:30)", "body": "Terry's pictures and more http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/main.html Today's activity update sounds like more and vigorous flows are being emitted from around Pu'u 'O'o and will make for even more spectacular photos in the days to come."}, {"response": 40, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 17, 2002 (07:59)", "body": "Which Hawaii volcano is coming to life after decades?"}, {"response": 41, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 24, 2002 (16:19)", "body": "See what happened when Marcia left Hawaii. Madame Pele is sending a farewell, maybe."}, {"response": 42, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Oct 24, 2002 (16:51)", "body": "Marcia left Hawaii? I have a lot of catching up to do."}, {"response": 43, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (10:39)", "body": "Etna erupting. http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=651326D8-37F2-4E42 - A29678B740A829CC"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (22:02)", "body": "Mauna Loa is reactivating... Yes, wouldn't you know! Two active volcanoes and I am in the oldest stuff on the continent."}, {"response": 45, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Nov 25, 2002 (20:47)", "body": "Hidden island off Sicily may reappear Monday, November 25, 2002 Posted: 12:20 PM EST (1720 GMT) ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- A volcanic island submerged off the coast of Sicily for the last 170 years could reappear in the coming weeks if furious seismic rumblings continue, Italy's chief seismologist said Monday. \"We've seen Etna erupting, seismic activity to the north and east of Sicily and gas activity around the Aeolian Islands,\" Enzo Boschi, head of Italy's Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, said. \"The island could come back to the surface, but we'll have to wait and see ... It could be a few weeks or months.\" Diplomatic spat could resurface Formed by the tip of a submerged volcano, the island last popped up in 1831, sparking a diplomatic spat among several nations, before it sank beneath the Mediterranean waves six months later. The volcano's peak now sits just 26 feet under water about 19 miles south of Sicily, near Tunisia. \"We are monitoring things very closely,\" Boschi said. \"The process could begin at any time ... It would be a very beautiful and fascinating event.\" Over the centuries, the island has emerged four times, with underwater volcanic eruptions first recorded during the first Punic War of 264-241 BC. The last emergence on July 2, 1831, caused months of international wrangling with four nations making territorial claims including Britain, Spain and the Bourbon court of Sicily. Call it what you will The rock, which rose some 213 feet above the surface and had a circumference of about three miles, emerged for six months, giving the British time to claim it as Graham Island, while Sicily's King Ferdinand II called it Ferdinandea. Scientists refer to it as Graham Bank, but Italians still call it Ferdinandea. This time, Sicilian divers have gone down and planted a flag on the rock in the hope of claiming it as Italian the moment it rises above the surface, Boschi said. While it may not spark the same diplomatic spat as 171 years ago if it emerges, there could well be a new claimant. \"I'm sure the European Union will want it as a member, won't they?\" Boschi said. Here's the link: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/11/25/italy.island.reut/index.html"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 28, 2002 (13:03)", "body": "Ooh Cheryl! Many thanks for finding that article about the hidden volcano. Volcanoes are pretty hard to hide! Even when Mauna Loa decided to erupt just after the invasion of Pearl Harbor. No one would admit it was happening lest the Japanese planes use it as a beacon to do more damage to Hawaii."}, {"response": 47, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 2002 (19:52)", "body": "I didn't know that Mauna Loa erupted shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The story about no one admitting that it was erupting is fascinating. You're right, though. It is really hard to hide an erupting volcano."}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (20:08)", "body": "Makes you wonder who Mme Pele was rooting for.It is still referred to as the \"secret\" eruption. Secret from NO ONE!!!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (02:02)", "body": "Stromboli Volcano (Italy) Italian rescue workers set up a satellite-linked early warning system on Stromboli Sunday amid fears the volcanic island off the toe of Italy could trigger another Tsunami. Volcanic activity on Stromboli caused a tsunami on Monday that crashed into a coastal village, injuring three people, damaging several homes and overturning boats. The risk of further landslides and thus of another anomalous wave cannot be excluded. Rescue workers have launched a buoy equipped with sensors a short distance off the coast of Stromboli that is designed to sound the alarm if a tidal wave starts to form. Semeru Volcano (Indonesia) Semeru volcano is currently showing a high level of activity. Seismic record on 1 January 2003 are : 88 events of explosion earthquake, 18 events of avalanche earthquake. Volcano Tours for 2003 Join us on expedition to the great erupting volcanoes of the world. In 2003 we are travelling to Italy, Hawaii, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and Indonesia. You are welcome to join a trip. See www.volcanolive.com/travel.html for full details. John Seach Volcano Live www.volcanolive.com NSW, Australia"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 14, 2003 (13:48)", "body": "An interesting and amusing discussion of Hollywood \"Volcano movies\" plus a whole lot of good links: http://geology.about.com/library/weekly/aa042797.htm"}, {"response": 51, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 2003 (07:03)", "body": "There were a lot of them weren't there? I remember some but can't recall their names right now. Which ones do you like, Marci?"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 19, 2003 (19:05)", "body": "I am partial to the one for Jack Lockwood was the volcanologist and technical advisor. I think it was \"Dante's Peak.\" One has to suspend science for the sake of the story. My first viewing of the volcano movies were with a small group of young volcanologists. They were more fun to listen to than the movie. In that vein, when Don and I watched anything archaological, we agreed that we will suspend critical comments on the technical aspects. However, a few are so funny we can't help it. By the way, Indiana Jones does not respresent the usual archaeologist's pursuits, thank goodness."}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 19, 2003 (19:06)", "body": "Joe vs The Volcano Dante's Peak Volcano ...are the three that come to mind."}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 21, 2003 (23:59)", "body": "***************************** Kilauea 20th Anniversary ***************************** From: Stephen James O'Meara Kilauea 20th Anniversary FYI: The National Geographic Society has a PHOTO GALLERY of images of Kilauea Volcano up at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/photogalleries/kilauea/index.ht ml and a news story comemmorating the 20th year of eruption at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0102_030103_kilauea.html ***************************** New volcano show at NGC ***************************** From: Stephen James O'Meara Please note this new National Geographic Television program will air Monday January 27, 2003 at 4Pm EST: see Ad Below or click on the web addresses to read more about the programs: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL--TELEVISION Inside Base Camp with Steve & Donna O'Meara For the past 20 years, this married couple has gathered scientific data on eruptions, a very risky business. Volcanologists are at least three times more likely to be killed in the line of duty than New York City cops. Send Yourself a Program Reminder If you would like to be reminded one day before this particular episode is going to air, click on the website below--then click on the icon by the specific tv program. 4 p.m. Monday : January 27, 2003 For more details click on this website; http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/ET/daily/20030127.html Read about at These National Geographic Society websites: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0102_030103_kilauea.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/02/0215_020215_volcanohunter.ht ml http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/explorer/exp021702.html OR View the O'Meara's VOLCANO Photo Gallery at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/photogalleries/kilauea/index .html http://db2.photoresearchers.com/cgi-bin/query.cgi?api=100967797&row=4&col=4 & pg=1 http://www.volcanoworld.org/"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 22, 2003 (00:13)", "body": "Has anyone heard of a 7.6 earthquake in Mexico City? Sounds very bad. They have not repaired everything from the last one."}, {"response": 56, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jan 22, 2003 (02:38)", "body": "Hi all No, but a magnitude 7.2 earthquake rocked the Solomon Islands last night. No casualties, but some damage. Rob"}, {"response": 57, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sun, May  4, 2003 (22:54)", "body": "I know it was a while since this came into the conversation, but does any one else remember \"Krakatoa; East of Java\"? Not sure who did the effects, but it was like a combination of Ray Harryhausen and Irwin Allen. Good for its time. As to the Earthquakes, The South had one recently, if you can believe it. But most people were so dense and dull that it went mostly unnoticed!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  7, 2003 (00:23)", "body": "I remember it. Actually, it is WEST of Java, but the author got it wrong and so is history changed."}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (16:21)", "body": "Eruption Space Station Science Picture of the Day for May 23, 2003 Tiny Anatahan Island is blanketed in ash. Its only inhabitants--thousands of feral goats and wild pigs--have perished. A churning plume of brown smoke reaches 4 miles into the air. International Space Station (ISS) science officer Ed Lu saw it first. PICTURE AND INFO at http://science.nasa.gov/ppod/y2003/23may_eruption.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (17:02)", "body": "First historic eruption of Mariana volcano Anatahan. On 10 May, Mariana Island volcano Anatahan was seen erupting ash on satellite imagery, which would be the first historic eruption of this volcano. Volcanic cloud reached an estimated 44,000 feet a.s.l. (~13.4km a.s.l.). Hot spot on satellite imagery. Source: http://www.bom.gov.au/products/Volc_ash_recent.shtml Anatahan began erupting around 9 p.m. on 10 May. A large red-brown cloud rose at least 6km, and there was a red pulsating glow over the island as well. Fortunately the winds are blowing the ash away from inhabited islands for now. This report mentions some sort of increased activity in 1990 of which I have no knowledge. Restless? Eruption? Unclear. Current eruption was still ongoing on 11 May. Source: http://www.guampdn.com/news/stories/20030512/localnews/283954.html Photo: http://www.guampdn.com/news/stories/20030512/localnews/283954-photos.html#1"}, {"response": 61, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jul  6, 2003 (17:22)", "body": "New Spring source of information on volcanoes, with a link to Geo very prominent. http://stonedom.com/Geology/Volcanoes/ Hopefully, this will drive more traffic to Geo and to Stonedom."}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 11, 2003 (01:21)", "body": "Excellent, Terry. Thanks for telling us about it."}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 15, 2003 (18:16)", "body": "********************************** MVO activty report, 14 July 2003 ********************************** Soufriere Hills Volcano - Activity Report - 14th July 2003 Activity at the Soufriere Hills Volcano has been high with a major dome collapse and explosive activity. The hybrid swarm that began on Wednesday 9th July slowly intensified, with events becoming larger and more closely spaced. By 07:00* on the 12th of July, the events had merged into a continuous tremor signal. A period of prolonged and heavy rainfall occurred between 06:00 and 09:00, causing mudflows in the Belham Valley. Pyroclastic flow activity in the Tar River Valley began with a moderate-sized flow at 06:53. A series of similar-sized pyroclastic flows occurred in the Tar River Valley throughout the morning. Initially the flows were quite pale and weakly convective. The first pyroclastic flow reached the sea at 10:45. Flow activity increased slowly through the afternoon until it became almost continuous. Flows also occurred in Tuitt's Ghaut and White's Ghaut. The activity picked up markedly at 18:27, with more energetic pyroclastic flows. The level of activity fluctuated thereafter, with several smaller pyroclastic flows in the Tar River Valley, before escalating again at 20:05 with a phase of near-continuous pyroclastic flows. The flows increased in size and several surges traveled 2km over the sea at the mouth of the Tar River Valley. Pyroclastic flows also reached the sea in White's Ghaut and the Spanish Point area. These flows resulted in heavy fall out of ash and accretionary lapilli, particularly between Sa em and Woodlands. A number of explosive events took place during this collapse, with the largest occurring between 23:00 and midnight. Showers of rock fragments fell over the island, with dense clasts up to 40mm across falling at the MVO and up to 16mm at Lookout Yard. The Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) provided a column height of 48-50,000 feet for this event. The activity persisted at a high level until around 02:00 on the 13th of July before subsiding slowly. Heavy ash fall and fall of rock fragments was experienced over all the inhabited parts of Montserrat. The ash fall deposit was 115mm thick at Lime Kiln Bay. The ash burden resulted in the collapse of several wooden buildings in the Salem area. Vegetation damage was extensive with downed trees and branches broken from many others. Many birds were killed by the ash or trapped alive in it. Ash fall from this event was reported from Nevis, St Kitts, Anguilla and St Maarten, and resulted in the closure of several airports. At 09:10 on July 13th an explosive eruption occurred, following two hours of very low seismic activity. The eruption column was largely obscured due to the low cloud cover, but it was been pale in colour and did not collapse. Fallout of lithic clasts and pumice followed a few minutes later with pumice fragments up to 65mm in length falling in Lime Kiln Bay. The Washington VAAC provided a column height of 40,000 feet for this explosion. A second explosion occurred at 01:15 on July 14th. The dome and deposits were seen during a helicopter flight this morning. A large collapse scar has formed in the dome directed down the Tar River Valley. The western limit of the scar could not be seen, but the northern and southern walls of the scar are around 850m above sea level. The Tar River Valley is extensively modified and eroded with a deep canyon gouged by the pyroclastic flows. The fan has been extended eastwards into the sea and northwards along the coast. North of Tar River Valley to Killyhawk Ghaut has been devastated. Between Killyhawk Ghaut and Whites Ghaut the vegetation has been burnt and there is thick ash accumulation, but it does not appear to have been violently surged. Large pyroclastic flows have filled the lower reaches of Whites Bottom Ghaut with deposits and impacted Spanish Point. The MVO and our collaborators from Arkansas suffered significant equipment loses in the activity. The continuous GPS stations at Hermitage and White's Yard and the remote digital camera at White's Yard were destroyed in the event. The broadband seismometer at Long Ground survived. * All time in this report are Montserrat local time (GMT -4:00) 4 pm, 14th July 2003"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (16:09)", "body": "Fall 2003 AGU session - \"The Growth and Collapse of Hawaiian Volcanoes\" We would like to announce a Fall 2003 AGU session, \"The Growth and Collapse of Hawaiian Volcanoes\" (see session summary below). Results of new research on Hawaiian and other ocean island volcanoes, especially research that builds upon the pioneering work of Jim Moore, are welcomed. The electronic abstract submission deadline is 4 September 2003, 1400 UT. Session summary: V02 The Growth and Collapse of Hawaiian Volcanoes The Hawaiian Islands are the most studied hot spot-related ocean island chain on Earth, and recent work on the submarine flanks of the islands has revealed much about their internal structure and development. Giant submarine landslides off island flanks, as well as less catastrophic volcano spreading and slumping processes, are now recognized as integral to the life cycles of the islands. Volcaniclastic sedimentation during island building, interplay between volcano growth and subsidence, and the formation of rift zones play important roles as well. James Moore has led the way in pinpointing many of the critical processes outlined above. In this session we solicit abstracts that present new results on all aspects of volcano growth, structure, and deformation that build on his fundamental contributions to our understanding of the development of the Hawaiian Islands, as well as other ocean island volcanoes. Conveners: Michelle L Coombs, USGS Menlo Park, CA, USA, email: mcoombs@usgs.gov Barry Eakins, USGS Menlo Park, CA, USA, email: beakins@usgs.gov Eiichi Takahashi, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 29, 2003 (18:23)", "body": "GOMA VOLCANO OBSERVATORY Volcano Activities : During all this 3 months period, volcanic activity has been concentrated inside the Nyiragongo crater : an almost permanently boiling lava lake occupies the crater at the depth of 700m. If the level of the lake inside the crater seems to remain constant, its size is slowly growing due to collapses of the active pit walls. Degassing remains also very important marked by a large gas plume above the crater. This plume is generally deported to the West by the prevailing winds and extends on several tens of km. Impact of this permanent activity on the environment becomes to be quite important : inside the National Park a 50 km2 area of forest is totally destroyed by volcanic gases and acid rains, a zone with 50% destruction extends on more than 700 km2 with important impact on crops (potatoes, corn, beans, bananas). In the same areas important pollution by Fluoride was also detected and in several localities water tanks collecting rain water are showing F concentrations up to 23 mg/l (WHO tolerance = 1.5 mg/l). GVO, with several partners, has initiated a survey of the impact of the permanent volcano activity. Seismology : In the Nyiragongo area, long period events are commonly detected but at reduced number, and mainly located at the NW and SW of the volcano. The activity is largely dominated by permanent tremor generated by the activity of the lava lake. In the Nyamulagira area, seismicity is dominated by long period events, localized along a NNE-SSW direction on the main fracture between Nyamulagira and Nyiragongo volcano. Intermittent swarms of longs period seism (60 to 80 events each time) occurred on Nyamulagira twice or three times a week. A more important swarm was observed on July 23 (100 long period events). This activity remained fairly stable for the whole period. Some fracturation earthquakes are always occurring : they are mainly located in the South of Nyiragongo volcano (North of Lake Kivu ) and at the North-East of volcano Nyamulagira Deformation : No noticeable change has been recorded along the fracture system. Temperature Monitoring : No noticeable change has been measured in the different points under survey. Goma Volcano Observatory Activities: This period has been a quite important one for the activities of GVO. The routine work of surveillance plus the visits on top of Nyiragongo have been maintained on a regular basis. At the same time, it has been several important improvements at GVO : - Mr Kasereka Mahinda C\ufffdlestin has been elected as Director of the Department of Geophysics (CRSN) and Chief Scientist of GVO - Two researchers from GVO team have followed the CSAV session in Hawaii and later have participated to the congress \ufffdCities on Volcanoes\ufffd (Hilo \ufffd Hawaii) plus the special \ufffdNyiragongo Workshop\ufffd held at this occasion. - One researcher has made a stay in Italy, on the volcano Etna, to improve his skills in deformation monitoring. - Another researcher has made a stay in the University of Florence, for some geochemical laboratory training, and later participated to a sampling campaign on the Eolian Islands volcanoes. - A new deformation surveillance network has been established on the south flank of the volcano and across the rift, with 9 benchmarks built on the field. GVO has also been donated with the whole equipment (EDM bases, reflective prisms targets, etc\ufffd) Two complete measurements of the network have been realized and are showing very good accuracy in the measures. Two tiltmeter stations have been installed on South and East flanks of the volcano. - A new telemetered seismic network (7 seismometers 3 components) has also been deployed through our traditional seismic stations. So far, five of the seven stations are already radio-connected to GVO and are working in real-time. Another campaign, planned for February 2004, will complete the network and install a radio repetitor for a best coverage of the area. - On June / July 2003, a main expedition has been organized on volcano Nyiragongo. The inner crater walls being equipped with fixed ropes and a powered winch, it has been possible to put a small camp on the second platform, 300m below the crater rim. From there, scientists have been able to sample high temperatures fumaroles (D.Tedesco \ufffd O.Vaselli) but also fresh lava from the active lava lake (J.Durieux). Results will be published in separate papers."}, {"response": 66, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov 30, 2003 (21:15)", "body": "What's the closest volcano to your new digs, Marci?"}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (15:01)", "body": "Wow...... active or extinct? I guess The Soufriere Hills on Montserrat are the closest now."}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (15:03)", "body": "The New Madrid fault is the closest world hazard."}, {"response": 69, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 2003 (19:06)", "body": "Are you going to be visiting any Kentucky caves? Or other geological formations?"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (15:34)", "body": "We were at Mammoth Cave last month on the way to Bowling Green for a conference, but only did the entrance and I decided to try it on a less tight schedule. The hike down in and back up again is more than a casual stroll. I do want to see it, though. That whole area is full of caves."}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (15:37)", "body": "Actually, most of our time is devoted to writing and editing the book in progress. It sounds prosaic, but it is a very exciting happening to us, and this book will be very important to the local literature. Hopefully, we publish it with the idea of stimulating further research and publishing. This part of archaeology has not been covered at all till now."}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:59)", "body": "****************************************** GVP/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report 19-25 November 2003 ****************************************** New Activity/Unrest KAVACHI Solomon Islands 9.02\ufffdS, 157.95\ufffdE; summit elev. -32 m (submarine) An observer from The Wilderness Lodge reported that a 15-m-high island formed at Kavachi during an eruptive cycle 3 months prior to a visit on 16 November. By 16 November the summit had reduced to ~32 m below sea level. No evidence of volcanic activity was observed during the 3 previous months, which is the first time this has occurred in 4 years of observation. Background. Kavachi, one of the most active submarine volcanoes in the SW Pacific, occupies an isolated position in the Solomon Islands far from major aircraft and shipping lanes. Kavachi, sometimes referred to as Rejo te Kvachi (\"Kavachi's oven\"), is located S of Vangunu Island only 30 km N of the site of subduction of the Indo-Australian plate beneath the Pacific plate. The shallow submarine basaltic-to-andesitic volcano has produced ephemeral islands up to 150 m long at least eight times since its first recorded eruption during 1939. The roughly conical volcano rises from water depths of 1.1-1.2 km on the N and greater depths to the S. Source: The Wilderness Lodge http://www.thewildernesslodge.org/news&updates.htm Kavachi information from the Global Volcanism Program http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0505-06 = Ongoing Activity COLIMA western M\ufffdxico 19.514\ufffdN,103.62\ufffdW; summit elev. ~3,850 m; All times are local (= UTC - 5 hours) A subtle ash plume, visible in satellite imagery, was emitted from Colima on 18 November at 1900 and rose to ~5.5 km a.s.l. Background. The Colima volcanic complex is the most prominent volcanic center of the western Mexican Volcanic Belt. It consists of two southward-younging volcanoes, Nevado de Colima (the 4,320 m high point of the complex) on the N and the historically active Volc\ufffdn de Colima on the S. Volc\ufffdn de Colima (also known as Volc\ufffdn Fuego) is a youthful stratovolcano constructed within a 5-km- wide caldera, breached to the S, that has been the source of large debris avalanches. Major slope failures have occurred repetitively from both the Nevado and Colima cones, and have produced a thick apron of debris-avalanche deposits on three sides of the complex. Frequent historical eruptions have mostly originated from Colima's summit crater. The current eruptive episode began in November 1998 and has included summit lava-dome growth, block lava flows, pyroclastic flows, and intermittent explosive activity. Source: Washington VAAV http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/VAAC/messages.html Colima information from the Global Volcanism Program http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1401-014 = DUKONO Halmahera, Indonesia 1.70\ufffdN, 127.87\ufffdE; summit elev. 1,185 m; All times are local (= UTC + 9 hours) Satellite imagery showed ash plumes emitted from Dukono on 19 November at 1403, 20 November at 0713, and 21 November at 1428, extending ~185 km NE, ~170 km NE, and ~150 km ESE, respectively. A possible ash plume was observed on 22 November at 1349. All plumes were below ~3 km a.s.l. Background. Reports from this remote volcano in northernmost Halmahera are rare, but Dukono has been one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes. More-or- less continuous explosive eruptions, sometimes accompanied by lava flows, occurred since 1933 until at least the mid-1990s, when routine observations were curtailed. During a major eruption in 1550, a lava flow filled in the strait between Halmahera and the N-flank cone of Gunung Mamuya. Dukono is a complex volcano presenting a broad, low profile with multiple summit peaks and overlapping craters. Malupang Wariang, 1 km SW of Dukono's summit crater complex, contains a 700 x 570 m crater that has also been active during historical time. Source: Darwin VAAC http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/VAAC/OTH/AU/messages.html Dukono information from the Global Volcanism Program http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0608-01 = FUEGO Guatemala 14.47\ufffdN, 90.88\ufffdW; summit elev. 3,763 m Small explosive eruptions at Fuego produced gas-and-ash plumes up to 1.2 km above the crater. During the night of 18-19 November moderate-sized avalanches were observed in the upper Santa Teresa and Trinidad ravines. Night-time incandescence at the summit was common during the week. Periods of harmonic tremor, lasting between 0.5-3 hours, were recorded on 23 November, and almost continuous harmonic tremor was recorded for a period of 21 hours on 24 November. Background. Fuego, one of Central America's most active volcanoes, is one of three large stratovolcanoes overlooking Guatemala's former capital, Antigua. Collapse of the ancestral Meseta volcano about 8,500 years ago produced a massive debris avalanche that traveled about 50 km onto the Pacific coastal plain. Growth of the modern Fuego volcano followed, continuing the southward migration of volcanism that began at Acatenango, the northern twi"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 23, 2004 (20:59)", "body": "GVP/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report - 14-20 January 2004 New Activity/Unrest ASO Kyushu, Japan 32.88\ufffdN, 131.10\ufffdE; summit elev. 1,592 m; All times are local (= UTC + 9 hours) According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, a \ufffdmud eruption\ufffd occurred at Aso\ufffds Crater 1 on 14 January at 1541. The eruption was accompanied by volcanic tremor and ash emissions that rose to low levels above the crater. Small amounts of very fine ash fell in Takamori Town about 10 km ESE of the crater. The level of thermal activity at Aso had risen during the previous year, with the last \ufffdmud eruption\ufffd occurring in July 2003. The Alert Level at Aso was raised from 2 to 3, and no tourists were permitted entrance within 1 km of the crater. Background. The 24-km-wide Aso caldera was formed during four major explosive eruptions from 300,000 to 80,000 years ago. These produced voluminous pyroclastic flows that covered much of Kyushu. A group of 17 central cones was constructed in the middle of the caldera, one of which, Naka-dake, is one of Japan's most active volcanoes. It was the location of Japan's first documented historical eruption in 553 AD. The Naka-dake complex has remained active throughout the Holocene. Several other cones have been active during the Holocene, including the Kometsuka scoria cone as recently as about 210 AD. Historical eruptions have largely consisted of basaltic to basaltic-andesite ash emission with periodic Strombolian and phreatomagmatic activity. The summit crater of Naka-dake is accessible by toll road and cable car, and is one of Kyushu's most popular tourist destinations. Sources: Volcano Research Center (VRC-ERI, Univ. Tokyo) http://hakone.eri.u - tokyo.ac.jp/vrc/erup/aso.html, Reuters http://story.news.yahoo.com/news ? tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040114/sc_nm/japan_volcano_dc_1 Aso Information from the Global Volcanism Program http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0802-11 = BEZYMIANNY Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 55.98\ufffdN, 160.59\ufffdE; summit elev. 2,882 m; All times are local (= UTC + 12 hours) Video footage showed a strong explosion at Bezymianny on 14 January at 1053 producing an ash plume that rose to 6-8 km a.s.l. and extended ENE. A large pyroclastic flow probably traveled SSE down the volcano\ufffds flank. This abrupt increase in activity at Bezymianny led KVERT to raise the Concern Color Code from Green (the lowest level) to Red (the highest level), but later the same day they reduced it to Orange . By 1134 on 14 January the ash plume extended ~55 km and was at a height around 6 km a.s.l, and by 1421 it extended ~190 km and was at 4-6 km a.s.l. No ash was deposited in the nearby settlement of Ust\ufffd-Kamchatsk. On 16 January the Concern Color Code was further reduced to Yellow. On that day a lava dome was growing and viscous lava was probably flowing slowly from it. Precise seismic monitoring at Bezymianny was hampered due to high-level volcanic tremor at nearby Kliuchevskoi volcano. Visual observations at Bezymianny revealed that gas-and-steam plumes rose to 100 m above the lava dome. Prior to the 14 January eruption, a weak thermal anomaly has been registered at Bezymianny since an eruption on 26 July 2003. On 9 January one shallow M 2.2 earthquake was recorded at the volcano. During 10-13 January, a 1-2 pixel thermal anomaly was noted at the volcano and during 10-12 January gas-and-steam plumes rose to low levels above the volcano. Background. Prior to its noted 1955-56 eruption, Bezymianny volcano had been considered extinct. Three periods of intensified activity have occurred during the past 3,000 years. The latest period, which was preceded by a 1,000-year quiescence, began with the dramatic 1955-56 eruption. That eruption, similar to the 1980 event at Mount St. Helens, produced a large horseshoe-shaped crater that was formed by collapse of the summit and an associated lateral blast. Subsequent episodic but ongoing lava-dome growth, accompanied by intermittent explosive activity and pyroclastic flows, has largely filled the 1956 crater. Sources: Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team via the Alaska Volcano Observatory http://www.avo.alaska.edu/avo4/updates/kvertweekly.htm , Tokyo VAAC http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/VAAC/OTH/JP/messages.html , Anchorage VAAC http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/VAAC/OTH/AK/messages.html , Pravda News http://newsfromrussia.com/main/2004/01/15/51940.html Bezymianny Information from the Global Volcanism Program http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1000-25 = CERRO NEGRO Nicaragua 12.506\ufffdN, 86.702\ufffdW; summit elev. 726 m According to INETER, an unusually large amount of seismic tremor occurred at Cerro Negro from December 2003 to at least mid January. The tremor had variable intensity, but was too small to be felt by the population near the volcano. During visits to Cerro Negro on 6 and 10 January, scientists did not observe any surficial changes or measure a temperature increase at fumaroles in comparison to previous months. INETER reported that the alert level may b"}, {"response": 74, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (22:10)", "body": "Mt. St. Helens just went to a Level 3 Alert . That means potential danger to life and property."}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:22)", "body": "I posted by mistake all the info on MSH so I will post it here also: Mount St. Helens Update | | September 29, 2004 5:30 P.M., PDT | | | | | | Increased seismicity overnight prompted raising the alert level to | | Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2) at 10:40 A.M., PDT, this morning. | | Throughout the day the seismic energy level has remained at an | | elevated with a rate of 3-4 events per minute including an increase in | | the number of events between Magnitude 2 and 3. All earthquake | | locations are still shallow and in or below the lava dome. In | | addition, initial data from the GPS instrument on the lava dome that | | was repaired Monday morning suggest that the site moved a few inches | | northward Monday and Tuesday, but has since been stable. Such movement | | is not surprising in light of the high seismicity levels. A USGS field | | crew continued their deployment of GPS equipment today in order to | | monitor any ground movement on the lava dome, crater floor, or lower | | slopes of the volcano. Another gas flight this morning produced a | | result of no significant volcanic gas detected, as was the case on | | Monday. Two press conferences were held at CVO to update the media. | | Tomorrow's field work includes continued GPS deployments. | | | | | | The current hazard outlook is unchanged from that outlined in this | | morning's Volcano Advisory. Updated wind forecasts from the National | | Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration coupled with an eruption | | model indicate that the wind direction will shift from northwesterly | | to northeasterly tonight. Therefore any ash clouds produced tonight | | will drift southwestward. | | | | | | Confusion at this morning's press briefing at CVO regarding Alert | | Levels resulted in numerous calls to emergency management agencies | | from the public about which is the correct level. We are at Alert | | Level Two?Volcano Advisory. Explanation of the alert-level scheme can | | be found on the \"News and Current Events\" web site below. | | | | | | For past updates and notices see past updates at: | | http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Cascades/CurrentActivity/framework | | .html | | | | | | A few photographs of recent fieldwork and of the volcano can be | | obtained from: | | http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/framework.html | | | | | | Daily updates of earthquake data and other information can be found on | | the WORLD WIDE WEB at URL: | | | | | | http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/CurrentActivity | | (CVO Menu - Monthly Summaries and Updates) | | | | | | and | | | | | | http://www.pnsn.org/HELENS/welcome.html | | (University of Washington - Earthquake Update) | | | | | | Our \"News and Current Events\" webpage now contains \"Quick Links\" to | | the current update, current photos, and the University of Washington | | Mount St. Helens seismic page, plus other useful \"Background\" webpages | | on Mount St. Helens, including an explanation of the Cascade Range | | alert-level scheme. | | http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/ | |"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:23)", "body": "as Terry pointed out, MSH is currently erupting and the volcanologists who know this volcano are predicting a major eruption within the next 24 hours."}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:25)", "body": "Mount St. Helens Update | | October 1, 2004 8:00 A.M., PDT | | | | | | The alert remains at a Volcano Advisory. The seismic energy level | | remains elevated with a rate of 3-4 events per minute and earthquakes | | as large as magnitude 3.3. All earthquake locations are still shallow | | and in or below the lava dome. Data from a single GPS instrument on | | the east side of the lava dome suggest that total movement is ont the | | order of 7 cm less than 3 inches) since Monday. Such movement is not | | surprising in light of the high seismicity levels. A USGS field crew | | collected additional data from GPS equipment deployed to monitor any | | ground movement on the lava dome, crater floor, or lower slopes of the | | volcano. A gas flight Thursday again failed to detect any significant | | volcanic gas, as was the case on Monday and Wednesday. Today, field | | crews will use a thermal- imaging device (FLIR) to look for any | | thermal anomalies on the dome, and will install additional | | seismometers on the flanks of the volcano to enhance our ability to | | detect earthquakes. We are examining images of cracks on the crater | | glacier to determine how they are related to the current activity. A | | press conference will be held Friday at CVO at 9:30 am to update the | | media. | | | | | | The current hazard outlook is unchanged from that outlined in | | Wednesday's Volcano Advisory. | | | | | | Confusion regarding Alert Levels resulted in numerous calls to | | emergency management agencies from the public about which is the | | correct level. We are at Alert Level Two?Volcano Advisory. Explanation | | of the alert- level scheme can be found on the \"News and Current | | Events\" webpage below. | | | | | | Our \"News and Current Events\" webpage now contains \"Quick Links\" to | | the current update, current photos, and the University of Washington | | Mount St. Helens seismicity information, plus other useful | | \"Background\" webpages on Mount St. Helens, including an explanation of | | the Cascade Range alert-level scheme. | | | |"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:26)", "body": "The first explosion plume appeard in the web cam at 12:04:01 Pacific Time. Here is a subsequent shot. The web cam can be seen here: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/"}, {"response": 79, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 2004 (23:22)", "body": "I'm glad to see you posting. I have checked from my sister in laws pc but found nothing. We rode out the hurricanes at her house until the power was restored hered."}, {"response": 80, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 2004 (23:24)", "body": "They made everyone leave the observatory."}, {"response": 81, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct  4, 2004 (13:51)", "body": "It's venting right now, Mt. St. Helens. Nothing spectacular yet, just a smoke plume. I'm watching it live on msnbc."}, {"response": 82, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct  4, 2004 (13:57)", "body": "MOUNT ST. HELENS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Wash. (AP)--Mount St. Helens belched more steam Monday following several days of tremors and low-level earthquakes that have raised fears that the mountain might blow at any moment. It was not immediately clear how large Monday's emission was, or whether it contained ash, but U.S. Geological Survey geologist Willie Scott said any ash would fall mostly in the crater and not threaten any structures. The steam burst blanketed the top of the mountain in a white cloud and followed a similar blast and 20-minute tremor late Sunday. A drumbeat of earthquakes since a plume of steam was released on Friday indicated that pressure was mounting within the mountain. Geological Survey crews also observed a shift in the crater floor and on part of the 1,000-foot lava dome that essentially serves as a plug for magma, he said. from the AP release"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  4, 2004 (16:48)", "body": "Daily update: U.S. Geological Survey, Vancouver, Washington | | University of Washington, Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network, | | Seattle, Washington | | | | | | Mount St. Helens Update 4 October 2004 7:00 A.M. | | | | | | Current status is Volcano Alert (Alert Level 3); aviation color code | | RED | | | | | | Overnight seismic activity increased until a steam (and possibly ash) | | event occurred about 10:40 P.M. Observers at Coldwater Ridge could see | | the steam plume, which barely made it to the crater rim, in the | | moonlight. Since then, the seismicity has been significantly lower as | | after prior steam-and-ash events. Earthquakes are occurring at a rate | | of about 1 per minute and the largest since the steam event have been | | in the magnitude 2s. All locations remain shallow. | | | | | | Results from GPS measurements indicate no significant deformation of | | the outer flanks of the volcano. However, visual observations and | | photographic analysis show large-scale uplift (10's of meters) of part | | of the glacier and a nearby segment of the lava dome. Yesterday a | | field crew installed a new GPS instrument on the dome and also | | measured the distance from the Johnston Ridge Observatory to the dome. | | | | | | Yesterday's gas flight did not detect significant concentrations of | | carbon dioxide. | | | | | | Two telemetered microphones are now in operation to detect explosions. | | | | | | Today we will receive a remotely operated video camera that will be | | installed on the crater rim from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano | | Observatory. Today field crews will work at installing additional | | seismometers on the flanks of the volcano and will continue to harden | | the GPS sites and download data. Time permitting, additional flights | | to acquire thermal imagery and gas measurements will occur. | | | | | | Wind forecasts from the NOAA, combined with eruption models show winds | | today will be from the east and southeast and any ash clouds would | | drift to the west and northwest. | | | | | | We continue to be concerned that additional steam-and-ash eruptions | | could occur at any time. The principal hazard from these types of | | events is for ash reaching altitudes that could affect aviation. If | | the current unrest continues there is also an increased probability of | | larger magnitude and more ash-rich eruptions. | | | | | | We continue to monitor the situation closely and will issue additional | | updates and Alert Level changes as warranted. | | | | | | Press conferences will continue to be held at the Headquarters office | | of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Press conferences are held at | | 9:30 A.M. and 2:30 P.M. | | | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|"}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  4, 2004 (21:55)", "body": "Mount St. Helens lets off steam Scientists concerned about 'what's following behind it' Monday, October 4, 2004 Posted: 7:43 PM EDT (2343 GMT) October 3: Large cracks appear in the glacier around the lava dome. Image: St. Helens on eBay Find St. Helens items at low prices. With over 5 million items for sale every... www.ebay.com St Helens - Cheap Hotel Rates Before booking a hotel, compare hotel room rates at Nextag. www.nextag.com VIDEO Observatory near Mount St. Helens is evacuated. PLAY VIDEO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's in the clouds coming out of Mount St. Helens? PLAY VIDEO RELATED Gallery: Mount St. Helens' 1980 eruption -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \ufffd Interactive: Anatomy of a volcano \ufffd Part of Pacific 'ring of fire' \ufffd Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Volcanic eruption Forest Service U.S. Geological Survey or Create your own Manage alerts | What is this? VANCOUVER, Washington (CNN) -- Mount St. Helens released huge, billowing clouds Monday in what geologists called a small eruption of steam and ash that indicated rising temperatures within the volcano. \"It was a burst of steam and ash that came out fairly continuously for about 40 minutes\" starting about 9:42 a.m. (12:42 p.m. ET), said Tom Pierson of the U.S. Geological Survey. The plumes, larger and darker than those of Friday's steam eruption, rose to about 10,000 feet above sea level, about 1,600 feet above the peak, according to geologists and pilots in the area. more... http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/10/04/mt.st.helens/index.html"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  4, 2004 (22:12)", "body": "Terry are you watching MSH live on MSNBC on your TV or on the internet? I think there are links here to watch live."}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  5, 2004 (18:57)", "body": "************************ Mount St. Helens update ************************ From: Curtis R Manley \u0001 New steam release & images of Mount St. Helens activity \u0001 New Steam Release \u0001 Another steam release began at 9:40 am PDT today, October 4, 2003, generating a steam and ash/dust plume that rose above the summit (to about 10,000 to 11,000 feet altitude) and was carried slowly to the NE by very gentle winds. Steam releases continued at a lower rate after the initial release, but after 15-20 muntes the activity ceased. More dust/ash was released than on October 1, and an ashfall advisory is in effect until 1 pm PDT for the southern Washington Cascades. Seismicity continued without interruption through the steam release. \u0001 A gentle small steam release also occurred at 10:40 pm PDT October 3, but it was smaller than the October 1 event. As on Friday, the seismicity decreased and then resumed afterward. \u0001 Visual and GPS observations on October 3 indicates that at least part of the dome and the glacier adjacent to the dome have been uplifted between 50 and 100 feet. Current Update at: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Cascades/CurrentActivity/current_updates.html \u0001 \u0001 \u0001 Online Images \u0001 Photographs of the current activity at Mount St. Helens are being posted online at irregular intervals. These were taken by USGS personnel on the ground and during helicopter and airplane reconnaissance and sampling flights. The images clearly show uplift of the dome glacier before the October 1 steam release. More current images were temporarily available and may be re-posted. \u0001 The images are high quality (1 to 3 megabytes) and so will take considerable time to download over low-bandwidth connections. \u0001 Note that this is an FTP site: ftp://ftpext.usgs.gov/pub/wr/wa/vancouver/MSH_Images/"}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  5, 2004 (19:00)", "body": "I definitely need a new email stripper. I had a great one and it disappeared with the hard drive break. Please bear with me..."}, {"response": 88, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Oct  6, 2004 (10:02)", "body": "No problem Marcia, it's great to have you posting again."}, {"response": 89, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  6, 2004 (16:38)", "body": "ditto!!! saw in the local paper that she blew again and threw out rocks and stuff (didn't read the entire article though)..."}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  6, 2004 (22:21)", "body": "more fun : (I found my great email stripper program and leave the citation in the body for anyone else to download. It is freeware) *************************** Erta Ale volcano fieldtrip *************************** From: Gaudru ERTA ALE 2005 SVE Volcano FIELDTRIP Dates : we propose a special expedition from 15th to 27th of January 2005 Here is new opportunity to visit the Danakil depression (Djibouti) and the Erta Ale active lava lake in Ethiopia. The goal of this expedition is to enable a small group of people to travel several days in the Northern Afar ( rift, Asal lake, Ardoukoba...) and spend two days near the Erta Ale active lava lake for measurements, photography, eruption observation... and of course enjoyment of nature in a unique, unspoiled setting. The best-suited participants would be those with a professional interest in geology/Volcanoloy or avid \"volcano chasers\"/photographers who are in excellent physical condition, enjoy \"adventure travel, because this fieldtrip involves significant exertion and discomfort. The roads in the Danakil depression and North Ethiopia are extremely dusty and the weather at the summit of the Erta Ale is very uncomfortable (winds, sunny and very hot temperature). The ascent of Erta Ale volcano is long but not very steep. On Erta Ale the camp will be established near the active crater (lava lake). Organization of the fieldtrip : SVE (scientific aspects) in connection with Explor'Action Swiss agency (Geneva) for logistical supports Accompanied by : Henry Gaudru (European Volcanological Society) and local guide. For further \"volcanic informations\" please contact by Email: henry.gaudru@laposte.net For any further details about tour , conditions, price, inscription.... please contact directly by fax or phone : Explor'Action 11 rue du Mont Blanc 1201 Geneva - Switzerland tel : 00.41.22.731.70.26 Fax : 00.41.22.731.45.74 ******************************** NZAPLUME III expedition updates ******************************** From: Jeff Lyall THE NZAPLUME III EXPEDITION: Online Nautical Journal Reports from a freelance journalist who is presently on a GNS-led voyage in the Kermadec Arc are helping to put a human face on our offshore research. Mike Bodnar has joined 25 scientists on Tangaroa for the next two weeks as they investigate submarine volcanoes northeast of Bay of Plenty. Mike's colourful and informative daily reports can be seen here: http://data.gns.cri.nz/hazardwatch/kermadec.html This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.printcharger.com/emailStripper.htm"}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  6, 2004 (22:24)", "body": "October 4, 2004: ************************ Mount St. Helens update ************************ From: Curtis R Manley New steam release & images of Mount St. Helens activity New Steam Release Another steam release began at 9:40 am PDT today, October 4, 2003, generating a steam and ash/dust plume that rose above the summit (to about 10,000 to 11,000 feet altitude) and was carried slowly to the NE by very gentle winds. Steam releases continued at a lower rate after the initial release, but after 15-20 muntes the activity ceased. More dust/ash was released than on October 1, and an ashfall advisory is in effect until 1 pm PDT for the southern Washington Cascades. Seismicity continued without interruption through the steam release. A gentle small steam release also occurred at 10:40 pm PDT October 3, but it was smaller than the October 1 event. As on Friday, the seismicity decreased and then resumed afterward. Visual and GPS observations on October 3 indicates that at least part of the dome and the glacier adjacent to the dome have been uplifted between 50 and 100 feet. Current Update at: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Cascades/CurrentActivity/current_updates.html Online Images Photographs of the current activity at Mount St. Helens are being posted online at irregular intervals. These were taken by USGS personnel on the ground and during helicopter and airplane reconnaissance and sampling flights. The images clearly show uplift of the dome glacier before the October 1 steam release. More current images were temporarily available and may be re-posted. The images are high quality (1 to 3 megabytes) and so will take considerable time to download over low-bandwidth connections. Note that this is an FTP site: ftp://ftpext.usgs.gov/pub/wr/wa/vancouver/MSH_Images/ This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.printcharger.com/emailStripper.htm"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  6, 2004 (22:26)", "body": "Julie, our Cascade volcanoes enthusiast hopes this MSH eruption stays low level until spring break when she can hike in to see it. I do, too. It would be nice to have a reporter for Geo in the field again!"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  6, 2004 (22:35)", "body": "U.S. Geological Survey, Vancouver, Washington | | University of Washington, Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network, | | Seattle, Washington | | | | | | Mount St. Helens Alert Level Change | | | | | | Past Alert Level: Volcano Alert (Alert Level 3) | | New Alert Level: Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2) | | | | | | October 6, 2004 9:15 A.M., PDT | | | | | | Following yesterday morning's steam-and-ash eruption, seismicity | | dropped to a low level and has remained low. Low-level tremor observed | | following the eruption is also gradually declining. Lack of earthquake | | and rockfall signals suggest that deformation of the uplift area on | | the south side of the 1980-86 lava dome has slowed. Brief visual | | observations this morning from Coldwater Visitor Center showed weak | | steam emissions from the crater. We infer that the vigorous unrest of | | the past few days has lessened and that the probability of an imminent | | eruption that would endanger life and property is significantly less | | than at any time since Saturday, October 2, when the alert level was | | raised to Volcano Alert (Level 3). Therefore, we are lowering the | | alert level to Volcano Advisory (Alert Leve 2). | | | | | | Such decreases in the level of unrest, which may reflect a decrease in | | the rate of magma movement, have been common at Mount St. Helens | | during eruptions in 1980-86 and also at similar volcanoes elsewhere. | | Episodic changes in level of unrest over periods of days to weeks, or | | even months, are possible. We don't think that the current episode of | | unrest is over and we expect fluctuations in the level of unrest to | | continue during coming days and months. Everyone should be aware that | | escalation in unrest and perhaps an eruption could occur suddenly or | | with very little warning. There may be little time to raise the Alert | | Level before a hazardous event occurs. Therefore, we continue to | | monitor the situation closely and will issue additional updates a d | | changes in Alert Level as warranted. | | | This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.printcharger.com/emailStripper.htm"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  6, 2004 (22:36)", "body": "U.S. Geological Survey, Vancouver, Washington | | University of Washington, Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network, | | Seattle, Washington | | | | | | Mount St. Helens Update, October 6, 2004, 7:00 a.m, PDT | | | | | | Current status is Volcano Alert (Alert Level 3); aviation color code | | RED | | | | | | Seismicity overnight has remained at very low levels. After the | | vigourous stea -and-ash emission of yesterday morning, seismicity | | dropped with individual events becoming smaller. By about 5 p.m. PDT | | yesterday, individual events became rare and as of 11:00 p.m., | | seismicity has been stable at a low level. | | | | | | Yesterday, field crews continued to harden GPS sites for the | | approaching winter and retrieved data. The GPS sites on the dome | | survived the steam-and-ash emission and data are being received and | | processed at the observatory. The station on the northern flank of the | | dome, shows a trend of northward displacement totaling 2 cm in the | | last three days. This is the same sense of movement recorded by the | | nearby station that was destroyed by the first steam-and-ash emission | | on 1 October. Data from the other tw stations on the dome, which were | | installed on 4 October are currently being analyzed. Data from GPS | | instruments on the outer flanks of the volcano show no movement of the | | outer flanks. | | | | | | No gas measurements were made yesterday. A seismic crew installed an | | additional broadband seismometer on the northwest flank of the volcano | | which will help show a broader range of seismic energy release. With | | the help of the U.S. Forest Service, field crews installed an antenna | | mast for a VSAT uplink which will improve our ability to retrieve data | | from the field. | | | | | | It began raining t the mountain at about 7:30 p.m. PDT. By about 9:30 | | p.m. about 0.1 inch of rain had fallen. Overnight, the acoustic flow | | monitoror (AFM) in the crater indicated that several small debris | | flows had moved past the site. By midnight, higher flows were recorded | | at a station on the pumice plain, but none were large enough to | | trigger an automatic alert. We expect these types of flowage events to | | recur during intense rainstorms. | | | | | | Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric | | Administration (NOAA), combined with eruption models, show winds this | | morning are from the west-southwest such that any ash clouds will | | drift to the east-northeast. | | | | | | We continue to monitor the situation closely and will issue additional | | updates and Alert Level changes as warranted. | | | | | | Press conferences will continue to be held at the Headquarters office | | of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The morning press conference | | is at 9:30 AM. If activity remains low, we will do a show-and-tell of | | some of the instruments were are using to monitor the volcano at the | | press conference. | | This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.printcharger.com/emailStripper.htm"}, {"response": 95, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Oct  7, 2004 (14:25)", "body": "how is julie doing anyway, is she still checking in with spring? (missed seeing you, marcia *HUGS*)"}, {"response": 96, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct  7, 2004 (17:05)", "body": "Haven't heard from that Cascade Climber for a while. Hope she checks in again soon."}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  8, 2004 (13:38)", "body": "Julie is fine and busy with college stuff. I'll ask her to check in when she gets a moment. My family geologist and family are heading off to MSH to encourage the magma to erupt. I'll report any information they send from the field. They have both cellular text messaging and email to work with. And.... a VERY good digital camera. It's time to commence the eruption dances!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct  8, 2004 (23:26)", "body": "Good luck on that journey, Marci. Looking forward to those pix."}, {"response": 99, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  9, 2004 (12:15)", "body": "are you going to MSH too, marcia? hope your family is safe over there!"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 10, 2004 (22:37)", "body": "No such luck, Wolfie. I am stuck in a slightly quaking New Madrid area. However the minor quakes of recent time here plus the world wide strong quakes: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA has occurred at: 11.41N 86.55W Depth 61km Sat Oct 9 21:26:56 2004 UTC Plus the eruption of Mount St Helens makes me wonder if the harvest moon (the closest to earth the moon gets in the yearly trek around its orbit) hs a great deal to do with what is happening. I am helping edit a large complex journal both last year's issue and this year's to come out next month so I am more than busy. I am also still working on the Kentucky lava paper. However, whatever photos are sent on to me I will be more than happy to share here."}, {"response": 101, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct 12, 2004 (09:35)", "body": "Looking forward to the photos, Marcia."}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 13, 2004 (15:45)", "body": "at this point I am looking forward to hearing from them in the field. From Julie I got the webcam site since it is steaming again. Then the following report: Oct 13, 12:31 PM EDT Lava Breaks Surface at Mount St. Helens By PEGGY ANDERSEN Associated Press Writer SEATTLE (AP) -- After weeks of earthquakes and steam eruptions, Mount St. Helens has a new lava dome that could even eclipse the volcano's old one. The quakes subsided as the new lava emerged Monday and cooled in the open air, suggesting molten rock from deep inside the Earth had found the path of least resistance by going around the old dome, said Jon Major, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Unlike the dramatic rivers of red-hot lava from Hawaii's volcano, St. Helens' extrusion of new rock was subtle and difficult to see from outside the crater. A lazy plume of steam rose slowly from the mountain for much of Tuesday. Infrared instruments recorded a surface temperature of nearly 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, confirming that the second dome consisted of cooling lava rather than old rock which had been pushed upward, said USGS volcanologist Willie Scott. \"The fact that we see stuff at the surface that hot means it's new rock,\" Scott said. The last dome-building activity at St. Helens began in the months after its deadly May 1980 eruption and lasted six years. Layers of emerging rock gradually formed a rocky dome nearly 1,000 feet tall at the center of the crater floor. The top of the new dome is almost level with the old one just to the north. more... http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MOUNT_ST_HELENS?SITE=KGW&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=US-WORLD.html"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 13, 2004 (15:47)", "body": "Mount St Helens webcam: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 13, 2004 (16:54)", "body": "/Mount St Helen's update October 13, 2004 Current status is Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2); aviation color | | code ORANGE | | | | | | Seismic activity remained at a low, but slightly increasing level | | overnight. Yesterday's visual observations and thermal imaging of the | | 1980-86 lava dome, the intensely deforming and uplifting area on the | | south side of the dome, and the new lava extrusion first seen on | | October 11 were hampered by steam clouds. Conditions appeared similar | | to those of October 11, with high temperatures (up to 600 degrees C) | | around the fin-shaped lava extrusion in the western part of the | | uplift. The area of high temperature appears to have increased in | | size. Abundant steam continued to rise from the fin area to the crater | | rim, from which it wa dispersed southeastward by strong winds. | | | | | | Today, field crews will take new thermal images of the crater floor | | and dome, make gas-sensing measurements, perform routine maintenance | | of GPS sites, and take hydrological measurements. | | | | | | Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric | | Administration (NOAA), combined with eruption models, show generally | | northerly winds. Any ash clouds will drift southward to southeastward. | | | | | | As a result of the intense unrest of the pa t two and one-half weeks | | and recent observations, we infer that magma is at a very shallow | | level and is extruding onto the surface. Incandescence from hot rock | | or gases reflects off steam clouds and is visible from north of the | | volcano. | | | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------| This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.printcharger.com/emailStripper.htm"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 2004 (01:40)", "body": "This was from October 11, 2004 and the photos sent with the information show beautiful dusting of snow and a white plume of steam. That plume was visible this afternoon on the webcam. Viewing conditions were very clear most of October 10, and fresh snow | | had fallen to the level of the crater floor north of the dome. A USGS | | field crew noticed a thin ash deposit on the snow in the crater and | | just beyond the crater rim, trending southeast from the active area. | | | | | | A steam plume rose to crater rim level or slightly above all day on | | October 10, heading to the southeast. USGS field workers described the | | plume as \"lazy\"?no gas thrust or notably vigorous convection was | | observed. The plume was clean, with no noticeable ash or blue/orange | | haze. The odor of H2S was noted at the crater breach, but not | | elsewhere. | | | | | | Helicopter field crews were at work on Sunday October 10. A | | telemetered webcam was placed at Sugarbowl and GPS data were | | downloaded. | | | | | | The thermal imaging crew made an excellent video of the uplifted area | | of the south crater floor. The western portion of the the uplift was | | steaming over a large diffuse area. Maximum measured surface | | temperatures were 200-300 deg. C. The thermal imaging crew judged the | | uplifted area to have grown since it was last seen on the 7th. | | | | | | No gas observations were made on October 10. | | | | | | Rockfall deposits were not seen on or around the uplifted area, | | perhaps indicating a lull in its growth or deformation. |"}, {"response": 106, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 14, 2004 (16:25)", "body": "Thanks to \"them in the field\"."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 2004 (14:11)", "body": "They want to return and likely will. Family matters interfere with plans otherwise. I am still hoping they see more than steam or degassing, but please not so close as to be in danger. I know my son...!"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 2004 (14:19)", "body": "Here is today's Mount Saint Helens condensed update: In the past 24 hours, seismicity has decreased somewhat and remains at a low level compared to that observed early in this unrest. The current seismicity is consistent with a continuing, slow rise of magma driving uplift of the crater floor and feeding a surface extrusion of lava. Last night, glow from this new lava was intermittently visible on the U.S. Forest Service web camera. The overall low rates of seismicity and gas emission suggest that the lava reaching the surface is gas poor. Yesterday was a busy day in the field. Geological and thermal-imaging observations confirmed that both the area of uplift and the new lava extrusion have increased in size noticeably since last seen on October 14. The area of uplift and intense deformation continues to move southward and is nearing the crater wall. About 1 foot of new snow with a light dusting of ash covers much of the uplift, except for the new lava extrusion, which is steaming heavily. The new lava extrusion, which occupies the western part of the uplift, is now about 900 ft long by 250 ft wide and 230 ft high and has a volume of almost 2 million cubic yards. Its maximum temperature is about 600 degrees C (1100 degrees F). Rock samples from the new lava extrusion were collected from a helicopter by using a bucket slung on a 100-ft line. The samples look like typical Mount St. Helens lava, called dacite. Further detailed analyses of the samples will help to answer questions about the character of the magma driving the eruption and how it r lates to lava erupted in the 1980s. A gas-sensing flight detected low levels of the volcanic gases carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide, which is consistent magma continuing to rise from depth. Test flights of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which will hopefully be used for monitoring the crater area in the future, were conducted yesterday close to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. More tests are scheduled for today if weather conditions permit. Field crews will attempt to obtain additional geological and thermal-imaging observations today. Other work will continue on maintenance of instrumentation and improving our telemetry systems. Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that ash clouds that rise above the crater rim today would drift southeastward from the volcano. This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.printcharger.com/emailStripper.htm"}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 2004 (14:20)", "body": "Sorry about that, the above report was October 21 and a little older than today's. I'll try to post a newer one."}, {"response": 110, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 2004 (18:21)", "body": "marica, i'm sooooo glad to see you here (have made the change to cable dsl and now our chats can be soo much faster)....."}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 10, 2004 (14:07)", "body": "Wolfie, I am trying to download the MSN IM again on this computer but so far I have hit only snags. I'll try again right after this report. Cheers on your DSL. I am all envy ! ************************** Mount St. Helens updates ************************** 08 Nov 04 MSH Update From: William E Scott U.S. Geological Survey, Vancouver, Washington University of Washington, Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network, Seattle, Washington November 8, 2004 10:30 am PST (1830 UT) MOUNT ST. HELENS VOLCANO Current status is Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2); aviation color code ORANGE Growth of the new lava dome inside the crater of Mount St. Helens continues, and is accompanied by intermittent emissions of steam and ash. As long as this eruption is in progress, episodic changes in the level of activity can occur over days, weeks, or even months. Increase in the intensity of eruption could occur suddenly or with very little warning and may include explosive events that produce hazardous conditions within several miles of the volcano. Small lahars (volcanic debris flows) could suddenly descend the Toutle River valley if triggered by heavy rain or by interaction of hot rocks with snow or glacier ice. These lahars pose a negligible hazard below the Sediment Retention Structure (SRS) but could pose a hazard to people along the river channel upstream of the SRS. At this time of year, it is not unusual for rivers draining the volcano to contain high concentrations of sediment that turn the water murky. Although considered less likely at this time, the current eruptive activity could evolve int a more explosive phase that affects areas farther from the volcano and sends significant ash thousands of feet above the crater where it could be a hazard to aircraft and to downwind communities. Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that ash clouds that rise above the crater rim today would drift northward to northeastward depending on their altitude. Visibility is excellent and likely will remain so throughout the day. A steam plume is rising passively and drifting northward out of the crater. The plume occasionally contains minor ash, which falls out in the crater and on the flank of the volcano, darkening the snow. Seismicity remains at a low level compared to that observed early in this unrest. The current seismicity is consistent with a continuing, slow rise of magma driving uplift of the crater floor and feeding a surface extrusion of lava. The overall low rates of seismicity and gas emission suggest that the lava reaching the surface is gas poor, thereby reducing the probability of highly explosive eruptions in the near term. Aerial observations yesterday showed that the new dome continues to expand and move upward. Small aprons of rockfall debris are accumulating at several sites around the new dome. Some ash emissions may be caused by these rockfalls as collapsing hot dome lava disintegrates into smaller fragments. No field investigations are planned for today. The U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Washington continue to monitor the situation closely and will issue additional updates and changes in alert level as warranted. For additional information, background, images, and other graphics: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/framework.html For seismic information: http://www.pnsn.org/HELENS/welcome.html For a definition of alert levels: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/framework.html Telephone recordings with the latest update on Mount St. Helens and phone contacts for additional information can be heard by calling: Media (360) 891-5180 General public (360) 891-5202 ******************* see also: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=15&u=/ap/mount_st__helens \"Mount St. Helens Lava Formation Grows\" excerpt: \"A lava formation inside Mount St. Helens' crater has a new, glowing protrusion the size of a 30-story building. The protrusion, which glows red at night, has risen by 330 feet in the past nine days, pushed up by magma, or molten rock, within the volcano, scientists said Friday.\" ******************* 05 Nov 04 MSH Update From: David R Sherrod U.S. Geological Survey, Vancouver, Washington University of Washington, Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network, Seattle, Washington November 5, 2004 10:00 am PST (1800 UT) MOUNT ST. HELENS VOLCANO Current status is Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2); aviation color code ORANGE Growth of the new lava dome inside the crater of Mount St. Helens continues. As long as this eruption is in progress, episodic changes in the level of activity can occur over days, weeks, or even months. Increase in the intensity of eruption could occur suddenly or with very little warning and may include explosive events that produce hazardous conditions within several miles of the volcano. Small lahars (volcanic debris flows) could suddenly descend the Toutle River valley if triggered by heavy rain or by interaction of hot ro"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 10, 2004 (14:25)", "body": "MSH Current status is Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2); aviation color code ORANGE Growth of the new lava dome inside the crater of Mount St. Helens continues, and is accompanied by intermittent emissions of steam and ash. As long as this eruption is in progress, episodic changes in the level of activity can occur over days, weeks, or even months. Increase in the intensity of eruption could occur suddenly or with very little warning and may include explosive events that produce hazardous conditions within several miles of the volcano. Small lahars (volcanic debris flows) could suddenly descend the Toutle River valley if triggered by heavy rain or by interaction of hot rocks with snow or glacier ice. These lahars pose a negligible hazard below the Sediment Retention Structure (SRS) but could pose a hazard to people along the river channel upstream of the SRS. At this time of year, it is not unusual for rivers draining the volcano to contain high concentrations of sediment that turn the water murky. Although considered less likely at this time, the current eruptive activity could evolve into a more explosive phase that affects areas farther from the volcano and sends significant ash thousands of feet above the crater where it could be a hazard to aircraft and to downwind communities. Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that ash clouds that rise above the crater rim today would drift northward to northeastward depending on their altitude. This morning's images on the VolcanoCam show that a steam plume is rising passively and drifting northward out of the crater. The plume occasionally contains minor ash, which falls out in the crater and on the flank of the volcano, darkening the snow. Seismicity remains at a low level compared to that observed early in this unrest. The current seismicity is consistent with a continuing, slow rise of magma driving uplift of the crater floor and feeding a surface extrusion of lava. The overall low rates of seismicity and gas emission suggest that the lava reaching the surface is gas poor, thereby reducing the probability of highly explosive eruptions in the near term. The latest estimate of the volume of the uplifted area and new lava dome from detailed analysis of aerial photographs taken on 4 November is about 20 million cubic meters (26 million cubic yards). This compares with volumes of about 5 million cubic meters on 4 October and 12 million cubic meters on 13 October. The apparent decrease in rate of volume change (7 million cubic meters in the earlier 9-day period versus 8 million cubic meters in the later 22-day period) doesn't take into account millions of cubic meters of glacier ice that have been removed from a large part of the area of uplift. Work is underway to assess this effect. The 20-million-cubic-meter volume of the new uplift and lava dome is now more than 25% of the volume of the lava dome that grew in the crater between 1980 and 1986. Today's field work includes retrieval of GPS instruments from drive-to sites and routine maintenance and measurements at several stream gages. The U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Washington continue to monitor the situation closely and will issue additional updates and changes in alert level as warranted. \" If I knew how to post images under Terry's new system I'd post images of molten red lava in a very yellow-hot vent on MSH"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 10, 2004 (14:31)", "body": "Eruption of Grimsvotn volcano Release of overburden pressure triggers an eruption of Grimsvotn volcano, Iceland, November 1, 2004 The subglacial Grimsvotn volcano, Iceland, started erupting on November 1, 2004 around 22 GMT. An intense swarm of volcanic earthquakes that started about 3 hours earlier changed at that time to continuous low frequency tremor, indicating onset of an eruption. Weather conditions prohibited direct observations of the beginning of the eruption at this remote volcano situated near the center of Europe's largest ice cap, Vatnajokull. The eruption was preceded by both long-term and short-term precursors, and finally triggered by release of overburden pressure associated with a glacial outburst flood (jokulhlaup), originating from the Grimsvotn subglacial caldera lake, that preceded the eruption. Accumulation of magma in a shallow magma chamber under the Grimsvotn caldera has been ongoing since its last eruption in 1998 (Sturkell et al., 2003; Sigmundsson et al., 2004). GPS measurements show uplift of 5-10 cm/year in the caldera center, and horizontal displacements away from the caldera. Earthquake activity increased in middle of 2003, at about the same time uplift exceeded its 1998 maximum. Pressure in the Grimsvotn magma chamber is likely to have exceeded its pre-eruption level from 1998 at this time. Additional uplift and expansion of the volcano since then suggested approaching failure of the vol cano. Earthquake activity increased further in late October, 2004. Geothermal heat sustains a lake in the caldera that intermittently causes glacial outburst floods. On October 26 high frequency seismic tremor indicated increased water flow from the caldera lake and suggested that a glacial outburst flood was about to begin. On October 29 discharge increased in river Skeidara. The outburst flood was caused by high water level in the Grimsvotn caldera lake from ice melting by geothermal activity. The release in overburden pressure associated with the outburst flood riggered the eruption. The drop in water level in the Grimsvotn caldera at the onset of the eruption is uncertain, but is probably on the order of 10-20 meters, corresponding to a pressure change of 0.1-0.2 MPa on the volcano surface. This modest pressure change triggered the eruption because internal pressure in the Grimsvotn shallow magma chamber was high after continuous inflow of magma to the volcano since 1998. Background: Grimsvotn volcano (N 64.41\ufffd, W 17.33\ufffd), situated near the center of the Vatnajokull ice cap in central Iceland, is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes. It has a complex of calderas (Gudmundsson and Milsom, 1997), and a subglacial caldera lake sustained by geothermal heat. Small eruptions have occurred at the volcano in 1983 and 1998 (around 0.1 km3). In 1996, the Gjalp subglacial eruption occurred north of the volcano (Gudmundsson et al., 1997). The most recent eruption triggered by a pressure release as the current eruption occurred in 1934."}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 14, 2004 (15:37)", "body": "Here is a condenced update for MSH for November 11 (the last one I got) \"Growth of the new lava dome inside the crater of Mount St. Helens continues, and is accompanied by intermittent emissions of steam and ash. Wind forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), coupled with eruption models, show that ash clouds that rise high above the crater rim today would drift west-northwestward. Clear views this morning show that a steam plume is rising passively and drifting westward out of the crater. The plume occasionally contains minor ash, which falls out in the crater and on the flank of the volcano, darkening the snow. Yesterday field crews repaired the DomeCam, the time-lapse camera that is aimed at the new lava dome from a site near the crater mouth, and conducted visual and thermal-imaging observations and a gas-sensing flight. Strong winds made interpretation of gas data difficult. Good viewing conditions revealed continued growth of the lava dome. Current estimates are that the welt, the broad area of deformation, is about 600 m (about 1950 feet) in diameter. The new lava dome, which occupies the central and western parts of the welt, is about 400 by 180 m (1300 by 600 feet). The highest point on the new lava dome is about 250 m (820 feet) above the former surface of the glacier that occupied that point in mid-September. Maximum surface temperatures on the new dome remain at about 700 degrees C (1300 degrees F). GPS instruments on the welt show rates of movement of up to several meters per day, while GPS instruments on the 1980-86 lava dome show movements of up to 1-2 cm (less than one inch) per day northward, away from the growing welt and new dome. \""}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 21, 2004 (20:00)", "body": "Check Mt Etna's web camera. There seems to be two 'a'a flows http://www.ct.ingv.it/UfMoni/ (click on Etna Milo Webcam)"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 31, 2004 (15:20)", "body": "In Memoriam John Shakleford The volcano listserv is sad to announce the passing of Dan Shackelford earlier this year. As Dan was not a professional volcanologist, the volcano community at large may be unaware of his death, but his contributions to the volcano list, as well as his spirit and enthusiasm for volcanology, have certainly been missed. Rick Wunderman of the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program has contributed an obituary for Dan, below. Jon Fink Lisa Koenig Volcano Listserv moderators ------------------------- From: Rick Wunderman In appreciation of Dan Shackelford Dan Shackelford, a dedicated amateur scientist and possibly this listserv's most prolific contributor, passed away in his Fullerton, California apartment this past spring. He was single and 53 years old. Dan adopted volcanoes as a hobby in high school. He started by tallying eruptive data on small index cards, but later advanced through a series of computers to acquire and manage volcano data. Since his high school days, Dan maintained personal correspondences with many volcanologists about important eruptions or database questions and issues. For a recent example, in the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network (vol. 29, no. 4), a correction regarding Pago volcano in Papua New Guinea came to light because of Dan's dogged questioning. This kind of cross checking and analysis helped strengthen the Smithsonian's database. Since the advent of the internet and this listserve, Dan's postings here have typically announced volcanism, usually copying text from a news report or an observatory announcement. His e-mails nearly always ended with his graphical signature line, a large, smoke-bellowing locomotive (shown at the bottom). He found the source materials and forwarded these announcements on his own accord, on his own time, and usually preserving source authorship. He was, in a sense, a self-appointed (and unpaid) town crier of volcanism. He clearly relished this role of providing rapid-breaking volcano news. With the advent of better search engines and more observatory websites this material has become easier to obtain; however, the service remains vital in a field where active processes are so important. His zeal to announce the latest events had its risks. In a 22 September 2003 message Dan described how the virus called SVEN passed from other's machines had ultimately caused his own to fail. Besides making announcements, Dan also compiled his own database, drew his own conclusions, and was unafraid to defend them. Although I spoke with Dan many times, I never asked him to explain why he was so prolific at announcing new activity. What drove him? He was clearly steeped in the lore of famous devastating eruptions. I think he enjoyed the act of getting the news first and then pondering the unstated details missing from news reports. In phone calls to me he frequently spoke about possible progressions of activity and various outcomes. He generally preferred to offer the more extreme and dire outcomes, but such propensities are common. Although he enjoyed the fact that he could beat most others at gathering announced events by skillful use of the web, I suspect that much of his sense of mission grew out of seeing that he could fill an important need in the service of science. So far as I know, he never gained material profit from announcing new activity, nor had he ever held a job as an earth scientist. I much appreciate his service and think the community benefited enormously from his efforts to gather and dissem nate fast-breaking news. He will be missed. Dan grew up with well-educated parents. His father served in WWII and went to college on the GI Bill, settling in Southern California and working as an engineer in the space program. His mother had an advanced degree in design. He is survived by his brother Lynn. Dan's two other passions consisted of sports and science fiction; and his apartment contained 600-700 science fiction paperbacks as well as personal correspondences with many authors. An avid conversationalist, Dan made his living as a telemarketer, most recently representing the mortgage and refinance industry. But, he had not worked in over a year as his health had deteriorated and he fought with both heart problems and thyroid cancer. Still, amazingly, he managed to continue making frequent announcements of eruptions to this listserv. His last message to the listserv came on the morning of 28 April, shortly before his death."}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 31, 2004 (15:24)", "body": "Dan Shakleford This wonderful man was not a professional volcanologist but he supplied all of th data I posted on all of the volcanoes on earth. He will be missed !"}, {"response": 118, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar  9, 2005 (08:17)", "body": "Broadcast News March 9, 2005 MOUNT ST. HELENS, Washington -- Mount St. Helens is blowing some smoke, but seismologists say not to worry. The volcano in Washington state released a towering plume of ash yesterday, its most significant emission in months. But experts say the release isn't likely a signal for any major eruption. The volcano has vented ash and steam since last fall, when thousands of small earthquakes marked a seismic reawakening of the mountain. Television footage showed the plume billowing thousands of metres into the air, then drifting slowly to the northeast. The afternoon ash explosion happened about an hour after a 2.0 magnitude quake. It rumbled on the east side of the mountain."}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  9, 2005 (17:50)", "body": "Report from USGS March 9, 2005 \"A small but significant explosive event occurred yesterday at 5:25 p.m. PST. Pilot reports indicated that the resulting steam-and-ash plume reached an altitude of 36,000 feet above sea level within minutes. The main eruption pulse lasted about 10 minutes, but lower levels of activity persisted for at least another 15 to 45 minutes. Within minutes of the onset of this event, we lost communication with 7 monitoring stations in the crater, but not with any stations outside the crater. The event followed a few hours of slightly increased seismicity that was noted but not interpreted as precursory activity. There were no other indications of an imminent change in activity. Still images from a camera at the northeast end of the crater mouth show a clear component of explosive vertical jetting associated with the event and evidence of ballistics extending at least as far as the north side of the old dome. Aerial photos in of the waning phases of the activity in conjunction with these still images show evidence of small ash flows having moved north and onto to old lava dome. There were reports of fine dustings of ash falling in Ellensberg, Yakima, and Toppenish, Washington between 7pm and 9pm yesterday. As of 2am today, the leading edge of the plume had been tracked to western Montana as a faint and diffuse cloud. Today, field crews will make visual observations and attempt to retrieve and possibly redeploy some of the crater instrumentation stations. \""}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  9, 2005 (17:55)", "body": "The webcam looks peaceful enough... http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  9, 2005 (17:59)", "body": "Plume from Mount St. Helens, as seen from the Cascade Volcano Observatory Office roof, taken approximately at 5:30 PM, PST. Plume is drifting east-northeast after reaching approximately 36,000 feet above sea level. http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/MSH/MSH05/MSH05_plume_from_CVO_office_03-08-05_med.jpg"}, {"response": 122, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (11:34)", "body": "http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/bulletin/contents.cfm?issue=special#bgvn_1605 is the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network has obits of prominent volcanologists"}, {"response": 123, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (11:44)", "body": "http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4326987.stm Super Volcanoes Geologists have called for a taskforce to be set up to consider emergency management in the event of a massive volcanic eruption, or super-eruption. The recommendation comes in a report timed to coincide with a BBC TV drama that depicts a fictional super-eruption at Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, US. Experts say such an event would have a colossal impact on a global scale. A super-eruption is also five to 10 times more likely to happen than an asteroid impact, the report claims. happens once every 100,000 years."}, {"response": 124, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (11:44)", "body": "One past super-eruption struck at Toba in Sumatra 74,000 years ago and is thought by some to have driven the human race to the edge of extinction. Signs from DNA suggest human numbers could have dropped to about 10,000, probably as a result of the effects of climate change. from the above source"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (21:52)", "body": "Toba is one, Mazama is another (now Crater Lake in Oregon, USA) and so is Yellowstone, probably the biggest single cataclysm on the North American continent. Yellowstone will erupt again, but whether it will be in our lifetimes is still to be seen. Probably not."}, {"response": 126, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (08:00)", "body": "I can't find the Super Volcano TV show on Tivo. Guess I'll have to google it. (googles for super volvano tv show) Zip."}, {"response": 127, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (08:10)", "body": "Nada."}, {"response": 128, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (08:11)", "body": "Surviving Eruption at Pinatuba Sat 3/12 9 pm CST National Geo Channel."}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (15:00)", "body": "Julie? I am currently on just antenna channels for tv so my access to intelligent thought is limited to two PBS stations currently running entertaining specials while trying to get donations. We really DO need cable !!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (15:03)", "body": "If MSNBC counts, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7129908/"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (15:04)", "body": "do you have BBC available? Check out this programming http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/1999/supervolcanoes.shtml"}, {"response": 132, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 13, 2005 (19:29)", "body": "i saw the surviving Pinatuba...couldn't believe that one family survived in the caves underneath bat dung!!!"}, {"response": 133, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Mar 14, 2005 (13:25)", "body": "Well Supervolcanoes turns out not be such hot news after all. But I found the *transcript* interesting: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/1999/supervolcanoes_script.shtml"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 14, 2005 (20:57)", "body": "Nice, but not the pithy action-packed volcanic eruption of super volcano I expected. Maybe I hope for too much. After all, we are just watching from a distance of a few million years. The last supervolcano in historic times was Krakatoa in 1883."}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (12:44)", "body": "For those of you who have been wanting a Kilauea Webcam , there is one, finally. Three of the four cameras are not currently working but one still is. http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cam/index.htm"}, {"response": 136, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (19:40)", "body": "Did they get wiped out by the volcano?"}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 24, 2005 (20:04)", "body": "No, they are back up, actually. The corrosiveness of the air around the vent makes it likely that mechanical malfunctions put them down for a few weeks. They are back so go enjoy them. I'll be treading the sacred precincts in a few days. Wish me luck !!"}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  2, 2005 (02:04)", "body": "*************************************************** GVP/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report 21-27 September 2005 *************************************************** From: Gari Mayberry http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/ New Activity: | Erta Ale, Ethiopia | Shiveluch, Russia Ongoing Activity: | Bagana, Papua New Guinea | Barren Island, Andaman Islands | Colima, M\ufffdxico | Kilauea, USA | Langila, Papua New Guinea | Manam, Papua New Guinea | Rabaul, Papua New Guinea | Reventador, Ecuador | Santa Ana, El Salvador | Soufri\ufffdre Hills, Montserrat | Spurr, USA | St. Helens, USA | Suwanose-jima, Japan | Tungurahua, Ecuador | Veniaminof, USA New Activity/Unrest ERTA ALE Ethiopia 13.60\ufffdN, 40.67\ufffdE; summit elev. 613 m According to unconfirmed reports from local authorities, Erta Ale began erupting on 24 September after a series of earthquakes occurred along the Afar western margin on the previous day. The earthquakes, with a maximum magnitude of 5.5, were recorded at the Geophysical Observatory of Addis Ababa University. A group of geologists and geophysicists were planning to travel to the field to make observations. Background. Erta Ale is an isolated basaltic shield volcano that is the most active volcano in Ethiopia. The broad, 50-km-wide volcano rises more than 600 m from below sea level in the barren Danakil depression. Erta Ale is the namesake and most prominent feature of the Erta Ale Range. The 613-m-high volcano contains a 0.7 x 1.6 km, elliptical summit crater housing steep- sided pit craters. Another larger 1.8 x 3.1 km wide depression elongated parallel to the trend of the Erta Ale range is located to the SE of the summit and is bounded by curvilinear fault scarps on the SE side. Fresh-looking basaltic lava flows from these fissures have poured into the caldera and locally overflowed its rim. The summit caldera is renowned for one, or sometimes two long-term lava lakes that have been active since at least 1967, or possibly since 1906. Source: Gezahegn Yirgu, Department of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University Erta Ale Information from the Global Volcanism Program http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/ volcano.cfm?vnum=0201-08= SHIVELUCH Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 56.653\ufffdN, 161.360\ufffdE; summit elev. 3,283 m; All times are local (= UTC + 12 hours) KVERT raised the Concern Color Code at Shiveluch from Orange to Red (the highest level) on 22 September . According to interpretations of seismic data, on the 22nd at 1715 a strong eruption began, with ash plumes reaching ~7.5 km (24,600 ft) a.s.l. and hot avalanches and pyroclastic flows descending the volcano's flanks. The pyroclastic flows extended 10-15 km. The strongest seismic signal of the eruption occurred on 22 September at 2259. Shallower signals recorded between 22 September at 2330 and 23 September at 1200 were possibly associated with ash emissions that rose to 3.5 km (11,500 ft) a.s.l. An ash plume was visible on satellite imagery at a height of ~3 km (9,850 ft) a.s.l. extending ~20 km SSW. The Concern Color Code was reduced to Orange on 23 September. Background. The high, isolated massif of Shiveluch volcano (also spelled Sheveluch) rises above the lowlands NNE of the Kliuchevskaya volcano group and forms one of Kamchatka's largest and most active volcanoes. The currently active Molodoy Shiveluch lava-dome complex was constructed during the Holocene within a large horseshoe-shaped caldera formed by collapse of the massive late-Pleistocene Strary Shiveluch volcano. At least 60 large eruptions of Shiveluch have occurred during the Holocene, making it the most vigorous andesitic volcano of the Kuril- Kamchatka arc. Frequent collapses of lava-dome complexes, most recently in 1964, have produced large debris avalanches whose deposits cover much of the floor of the breached caldera. During the 1990s, intermittent explosive eruptions took place from a new lava dome that began growing in 1980. The largest historical eruptions from Shiveluch occurred in 1854 and 1964. Source: Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/ avoreport.php?view=kaminfo Shiveluch Information from the Global Volcanism Program http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/world/ volcano.cfm?vnum=1000-27= Ongoing Activity BAGANA Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea 6.14\ufffdS, 155.19\ufffdE; summit elev. 1,750 m Ash was emitted from Bagana during 17-18 September and drifted W and NW. During 14-18 September, incandescence from the volcano was visible at night. On the 18th, observers described what could have been cascading volcanic material detached from a possible active lava flow. Background. Bagana volcano, occupying a remote portion of central Bougainville Island, is one of Melanesia's youngest and most active volcanoes. Bagana is a massive symmetrical lava cone largely constructed by an accumulation of viscous andesitic lava flows. The entire lava cone could have been constructed in about 300 years at its present rate of lava production. Eruptive activity at Bagana is charact"}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (19:27)", "body": "Thousands evacuated as El Salvador volcano erupts; two dead (Update) El Salvador's largest volcano, dormant for more than a century, shook the ground as it woke up, hurling out hot rocks, killing at least two and forcing more than 2,000 to flee. The Santa Ana or Ilamatepec volcano, located 66 kilometers (41 miles) west of the capital, rumbled and belched thick plumes of ash that reached more than 15 kilometers (nine miles) into the sky Saturday morning. Military emergency sirens blasted, calling for an immediate area evacuation of the hamlets in the coffee growing area, and soon after the volcano began hurling glowing rocks and ash from its crater. The volcano \"has begun to expel magma on the side of the town of San Blas, while the ash is being carried by a south-southwesterly wind,\" the University of El Salvador vulcanologist Francisco Barahona said. Officials with the National Emergency Committee said that by 1 p.m. (1900 GMT), 2,250 people had been evacuated from the danger zone. Hot rocks belched out by the volcano ranged from the size of a football to the size of a car, an AFP journalist on the scene reported. At least seven people were injured by red hot rocks spewed into the air by the eruption, the national police said. Two people were killed when 200 residents fled the hamlet of Palo Campana, located just two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the crater, said Interior Minister Rene Figueroa. The eruption triggered a landslide of boiling mud and water from a crater lake that rushed down onto Palo Campana from three directions, authorities said. Interior Ministry officials declared a red alert in a four kilometer (2.5 mile) radius around the volcano. A lesser \"yellow alert\" was issued for adjacent areas. Some 20,000 people live in the area surrounding the volcano. President Antonio Saca called on El Salvadorans to remain calm, describing the eruption as one of \"moderate magnitude.\" The country's civil protection forces have been deployed and are operational, he said. Saca said he understood many people had never seen a volcano erupting and would like to get close to observe the phenomenon. \"This is not a game,\" he warned. \"This could represent danger since we are not discounting another eruption.\" At 2,381 meters (7,812 feet) above sea level, the Santa Ana volcano is the highest point in El Salvador. It last erupted in 1904. The volcano has been rumbling since mid-August, but had been quiet since Thursday, said Elda Godoy with the government office that monitors seismic and volcanic activity. She described Saturday's eruption as \"abrupt.\" Similar eruptions could occur in the next days or weeks, Godoy said, warning of possible landslides due to the weak rain-soaked ground. Santa Ana, the country's second largest city with a population 100,000 and located 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the volcano, was not affected, officials said. \ufffd 2005 AFP"}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (19:44)", "body": "SALVADOR - Santa Ana volcano October 3rd, 2005 As of 3rd of October SNET reports that following Saturday explosive activity the volcano was quiet during Sunday. As of 1st of October SNET reported that following past days of important seismicity an eruption started on Saturday morning. Explosive activity occured with lava incandescent materiel ejection and (unconfirmed lava flow on South flank ? ). The volcano plume reached about 15 km elevation. Important ashfalls occured around the volcano and the poplation living near the volcano was rapidly evacuated. The eruption triggered a hot mudflow from the summital crater lake that rushed onto the hamlet of Palo Campana located about 2 km from the crater. Rocks and ash rained down on the village in the coffee growing area. Preliminary information report that two people died and seven people were injured by incandecent rocks spewed into the air during explosive activity. The color alert code is red. A radius danger zone of 4 km was established by the local autority. (further details as soon as possible). As of he 28th of September, the Servicio Nacional de Estudios Territoriales (SNET), was reported that the micro-seismicity was maintained in high ranks, with the tendency al increment observed in the last days. The daily average of RSAM (Measurement of the Seismic Amplitude in Real Time) of the day of yesterday, finally was of 93.1 units and even the first hours of this day, they had values between 75 and 115 units, being registered an average of 93.9. The vibration (tremor) has intensified moderate and he is presented in intermittent periods of an hour or hour and a half of duration, spaced for periods without vibration from 1 to 2 hours. The volcano has not registered earthquakes senses by the population. According to information facilitated by park ranger of Salvanatura, in hours in the afternoon of yesterday a column of vertical, thick gases and of height over the 1000 meters could be observed. Also notification of settlers of the Palo Campana sector and of the same park ranger on the observation of incandesc nce on the edge of the crater was received. First thing in the morning of this morning a weaker column of gases was observed, of some 200 meters of height, directed toward the south-southwestern one. Subsequently the conditions of cloudiness have not permitted to carry out more observations.technical of the SNET they carry out the day of today visits al crater of the volcano. In the Sulfur Dioxide flow measurements (SO2) carried out the day of yesterday, Monday the 26th, by the research team of the University of El Salvador a data of 2 thousand 708 tons was obtained for day. The measurements were carried out again in the traveled through (transecting) habitual that goes from Sonsonate to the Los Naranjos, in the Western sector of the volcano. Today technicians of the SNET will take a new sample in Cerro Pach. Satellite images were not possible, to obtain information, due to the conditions of cloudiness. The activity of the volcano continues above its normal behaviour base line. The seismicity registered in he last 48 hours does not present significant variations, but the tendency is confirmed al raises that has come itself declaring gradually in the last week and especially since on the 24. The vibration (tremor) has intensified moderate for periods intermittent of an hour or hour and a half. The sulfur dioxide flow data (SO2) measured in the day of yesterday present also a tendency al raises. SNET reported a significant increase in seismic activity at Santa Ana (also called Ilamatepec) on the night of 27 August. A cluster of 17 volcano-tectonic earthquakes were recorded, with four located S of the volcano. Afterwards, continuous high-frequency tremor was recorded until at least 30 August. Observations made on 29 August revealed incandescent rocks in the fumarole field. The incandescence was due to the hot gases emitted from the fumaroles heating the rocks. A significant increase in sulfur-dioxide emission was recorded, and gas-and-steam plumes rose 500-1,000 m above the volcano's crater (or 9,400-11,000 ft a s.l.). As a safety measure, access to the volcano's crater was restricted to visitors. Prior to the current increase in activity, strong degassing had been measured at the volcano since June 2004. An ash emission occurred on 16 June 2005, and a slight increase in seismicity and a significant increase in gas emission was measured from 27 July until at least 30 August. Santa Ana, El Salvador's highest volcano, is a massive stratovolcano (2365 m) immediately W of Coatepeque caldera about 65 km of San Salvador. Collapse of the volcano during the late Pleistocene or early Holocene produced a massive debris avalanche that swept into the Pacific, forming the Acajutla Peninsula.Previous historic activity occured in 1904. http://www.sveurop.org/gb/news/news.htm"}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (20:08)", "body": "I see Mount St Helens also erupted - not dangerously but definitely erupted."}, {"response": 142, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (22:01)", "body": "the cam is still up and running? i haven't been there for awhile....marcia, do you miss having the volcano so near? (aside from the danger) i HATED L.A. but there are certain things that i miss, tidepools, the weather, seeing whales migrate, new cars on the freeways (new car models, had to clarify so others don't think i live under a rock where all we have are old cars *grin*)"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (23:14)", "body": "I miss Hawaii not even slightly. It is as DB saw it, a third world country with scenery. If you live there, the aloha spirit is reserved for visitors with money. NO, there is not much I miss other than spam musubi on occasion. I really like it here. The people are real Americans and are as charming as southern hospitality allows. But I do miss a volcano. However, my first love was archaeology and not geology. If I can only go a little trip I do not miss the volcano at all. Besides, it is a five mile hike - each way - to see any lava that is moving. But, thanks for asking. We're glad to have you back. I miss the ocean a bit, but it too is dangerous and I am happy not to be on disaster relief call 24/7 anymore."}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (00:05)", "body": "********************************************* GVP/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report 28 September- 4 October 2005 ********************************************* From: Gari Mayberry http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/ New Activity: | Erta Ale, Ethiopia | Santa Ana, El Salvador Ongoing Activity: | Barren Island, Andaman Islands | Cayambe, Ecuador | Colima, M\ufffdxico | Dukono, Indonesia | Kilauea, USA | Manam, Papua New Guinea | Reventador, Ecuador | Shiveluch, Russia | Soufri\ufffdre Hills, Montserrat | St. Helens, USA | Tungurahua, Ecuador | Veniaminof, USA New Activity/Unrest ERTA ALE Ethiopia 13.60\ufffdN, 40.67\ufffdE; summit elev. 613 m A group of scientists assessed the visible changes at Erta Ale on 26 September after activity began around 24 September. In comparison to observations made in November 2004, they found that the southern main crater/pit had widened significantly, with portions of the previous crater walls having collapsed into the lava lake. A new cone-shaped construct had grown within the southern main crater where there had been a platform. A lava lake occupied the entire width of the inner crater/pit. In the northern crater/pit, there was a solidified lava bulge and abundant \ufffdsmoking\ufffd along the crater walls. No incandescent lava was visible in the pit. Based on descriptions by local residents of seeing \ufffdred and glowing light shooting and rising into the air above the volcano,\ufffd the scientists believe that a Strombolian eruption probably occurred, emitting a significant volume of fresh magma within, and possibly out of, the pit. According to news reports, about 50,000 nomads in Ethiopia\ufffds Afar region were displaced after the eruption. Background. Erta Ale is an isolated basaltic shield volcano that is the most active volcano in Ethiopia. The broad, 50-km-wide volcano rises more than 600 m from below sea level in the barren Danakil depression. Erta Ale is the namesake and most prominent feature of the Erta Ale Range. The 613-m-high volcano contains a 0.7 x 1.6 km, elliptical summit crater housing steep-sided pit craters. Another larger 1.8 x 3.1 km wide depression elongated parallel to the trend of the Erta Ale range is located to the SE of the summit and is bounded by curvilinear fault scarps on the SE side. Fresh-looking basaltic lava flows from these fissures have poured into the caldera and locally overflowed its rim. The summit caldera is renowned for one, or sometimes two long-term lava lakes that have been active since at least 1967, or possibly since 1906. Source: Gezahegn Yirgu, Department of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Agence France-Presse http://news.yahoo.com/news ? tmpl=story&u=/afp/20051003/sc_afp/ethiopiaquakevolcano_051003190655 Erta Ale Information from the Global Volcanism Program http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0201-08 = SANTA ANA El Salvador 13.853\ufffdN, 89.630\ufffdW; summit elev. 2,365 m; All times are local (= UTC \ufffd 6 hours) SNET reported that a sudden eruption at Santa Ana (also called Ilamatepec) on 1 October around 0820 produced an ash-and-gas plume to a height of ~10 km above the volcano (or 40,600 ft a.s.l.). According to the Washington VAAC, ash was visible on satellite imagery at a height of ~14 km (46,000 ft) a.s.l. Ash fell in towns W of the volcano, including in Naranjos, Nahuizalco, Juay\ufffda, Ahuachap\ufffdn, and La Hachadura. Volcanic blocks up to a meter in diameter fell as far as 2 km S of the volcano\ufffds crater. Lahar deposits were seen SE of the volcano. The Alert Level within a 4-km radius around the volcano\ufffds central crater was raised to Red, the highest level. According to news reports, two people were killed by landslides (possibly caused by heavy rain in the area) in the town of Palo Campana, and thousands of residents near the volcano were evacuated. As many as 1,400 hectares of crops were damaged by ash. Prior to the eruption, significant changes in seismicity were not noted. On 3 October, after the eruption, seismicity fluctuated and small explosions occasionally occurred. Earthquakes associated with explosions were recorded. In addition, there was a decrease in the amount of sulfur dioxide emitted from the volcano. SNET noted that eruptive activity could continue at the volcano. Background. Santa Ana, El Salvador's highest volcano, is a massive stratovolcano immediately W of Coatepeque caldera. Collapse of the volcano during the late Pleistocene or early Holocene produced a massive debris avalanche that swept into the Pacific, forming the Acajutla Peninsula. Reconstruction of the volcano rapidly filled the collapse scarp. The broad summit of the volcano is cut by several crescentic craters, and a series of parasitic vents and cones have formed along a 20-km-long fissure system that extends from near the town of Chalchuapa NNW of the volcano to the San Marcelino and Cerro Chino cinder cones on the SE flank. Historical activity, largely consisting of small-to-moderate explosive eruptions from both summit and flank vents, has been documented sinc"}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (22:33)", "body": "Eruption - Piton de la Fournaise October 5th, 2005 After four months of almost continuous inflation and increased seismicity, Piton de la Fournaise started a new eruption on oct 4th at 14h26 local time. It was preceded by a 56 minutes long seismic crisis and strong summit inflation, the latter recorded by our tiltmeter and extensometer network. The eruption occured inside of Dolomieu crater at the same site as the December 2002 pit crater and the Mai-June 2003 eruption. Intensity of eruption is quite small and pahoehoe lava flow covers a small surface in the western part of Dolomieu crater. Thomas Staudacher Observatoire volcanologique du Piton de la Fournaise"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 20, 2005 (22:49)", "body": "******************************************* GVP/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report 12-18 October 2005 ******************************************* http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/ New Activity: | Dabbahu, Ethiopia | Garbuna Group, Papua New Guinea Ongoing Activity: | Cleveland, USA | Dukono, Indonesia | Erebus, Antarctica | Karangetang, Indonesia | Kilauea, USA | Michael, Antarctica | Montagu Island, South Sandwich Islands | Sangay, Ecuador | San Miguel, El Salvador | Santa Ana, El Salvador | Soufri\ufffdre Hills, Montserrat | St. Helens, USA | Stromboli, Italy | Tanaga, USA New Activity/Unrest DABBAHU Ethiopia 12.60\ufffdN, 40.48\ufffdE; summit elev. 1,442 m; All times are local (= UTC + 3 hours) Volcanic activity at Erta Ale discussed in the 5-11 October 2005 Weekly Volcanic Activity Report actually occurred at Dabbahu. The correct report is below. A team of scientists visited the Da'Ure locality immediately adjacent to the NE flank of the Quaternary Dabbahu (or Boina) felsic complex on 4 and 5 October after receiving reports of volcanic activity there on 26 September. People in the area noted that on 26 September at about 1300 a very strong earthquake shook the area, and was followed by a dark column of \"smoke\" that rose high into the atmosphere and spread out to form a cloud, which darkened the area for 3 days and 3 nights. The scientists determined that a minor explosive eruption occurred from two semi-circular vents, producing ashfall that was ~5 cm thick near the vent. Ash deposits extended more than 500 m from the vent. Boulders emitted during the eruption were as large as 3 m and were deposited as far as 20 meters away. The scientists noted intense degassing from the vents, the scent of sulfur dioxide, and the sound of boiling water in the vents. As of about 10 October, the Addis Ababa University Geophysical Observatory reported that seismic a tivity in the area was continuing. Background. Dabbahu, also known as Boina or Moina, is a Holocene volcanic massif forming an axial range of the Afar depression SSW of the Alayta massif. Pantelleritic obsidian flows, lava domes, and pumice cones form the summit and upper flanks of the volcano, which rises above the Teru Plain and was built over a base of basaltic-to-trachytic lava flows of a shield volcano. Late- stage basaltic fissure eruptions occurred at the NW base of the volcano. Abundant fumaroles are located along the crest of the volcano and extend NE towards Alayta. Source: Gezahegn Yirgu, Department of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University Dabbahu Information from the Global Volcanism Program http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0201-113 GARBUNA GROUP New Britain, Papua New Guinea 5.45\ufffdS, 150.03\ufffdE; summit elev. 564 m; All times are local (= UTC + 10 hours) RVO reported that an eruption began at Garbuna on the afternoon of 16 October when \"white vapor\" rose above the volcano and a couple of felt earthquakes occurred. On 17 October, an eruption column rose 3-4 km above the volcano's summit (or 11,700-15,000 ft a.s.l.). At 1100 fine ash fell on the W and NW sides of the volcano, covering two plantations. Water sources originating from Garbuna were affected by the eruption. According to RVO, the volcano last erupted about 1,700 years ago. Background. The basaltic-to-dacitic Garbuna volcano group consists of three volcanic peaks, Krummel, Garbuna, and Welcker. They are located along a 7-km N- S line above a shield-like foundation at the southern end of the Willaumez Peninsula. The central and lower peaks of the centrally located Garbuna volcano contain a large vegetation-free area that is probably the most extensive thermal field in Papua New Guinea. A prominent lava dome and blocky lava flow in the center of thermal area have resisted destruction by thermal activity, and may be of Holocene age. Krummel volcano at the S end of the group contains a summit crater, breached to the NW. The highest peak of the Garbuna group is 1,110-m-high Welcker volcano, which has fed blocky lava flows that extend to the eastern coast of the peninsula. Sources: Rabaul Volcano Observatory, Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Center http://www.bom.gov.au/info/vaac/advisories.shtml , The National http://www.thenational.com.pg/1018/nation2.htm Garbuna Group Information from the Global Volcanism Program http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0502-07 = Ongoing Activity CLEVELAND Aleutian Islands, USA 52.82\ufffdN, 169.95\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,730 m After a brief ash burst at Cleveland on 7 October, no further eruptive activity was recorded at the volcano. On 10 October, AVO reduced the Concern Color Code from Orange to Yellow . AVO warned that although there were no additional ash bursts noted, they consider the volcano restless. Explosive ash-producing events could occur at any time and without warning (owing to the lack of local seismic monitoring). AVO continued to monitor the volcano using satellite imagery. Background. The symmetrical Mount Cleveland stratovolcano is situat"}, {"response": 147, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  2, 2005 (15:20)", "body": "**************************************** GVP/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report 23-29 November 2005 ***************************************** New Activity: | Augustine, USA | Galeras, Colombia | Karthala, Comoros Islands | Piton de la Fournaise, Reunion Island Ongoing Activity: | Cleveland, USA | Colima, Mexico | Garbuna Group, Papua New Guinea | Kilauea, USA | Langila, Papua New Guinea | Rabaul, Papua New Guinea | Santa Ana, El Salvador | Soufri\ufffdre Hills, Montserrat | St. Helens, USA | Tanaga, USA | Tungurahua, Ecuador | Ulawun, Papua New Guinea New Activity/Unrest AUGUSTINE SW Alaska, USA 59.363\ufffdN, 153.43\ufffdW; summit elev. 1,252 m On 29 November AVO raised the Concern Color Code at Augustine from Green to Yellow after recording long-term important changes in seismicity and ground deformation consistent with renewed volcanic unrest . There were no indications that an eruption was imminent or certain. Beginning in May 2005, there was a slow increase in the number of earthquakes under Augustine. The earthquakes were generally small (less than M 1) and concentrated roughly 1 km below the volcano's summit. These earthquakes slowly increased from 4-8 earthquakes per day to 20-35 earthquakes per day. Additionally, data from a Global Positioning System (GPS) network on Augustine indicated that a slow, steady inflation of the volcano started in mid-summer 2005, continuing until the present. The GPS benchmark located nearest the summit moved a total of 2.5 cm. This motion is consistent with a source of inflation or pressure change centered under the volcano. This is the first such deformation detected at Augustine since measurements began just prior to the 1986 eruption. No reports of increased steaming were received by AVO, nor have satellite data shown increased thermal activity. Background. Augustine volcano, rising above Kamishak Bay in the southern Cook Inlet about 290 km SW of Anchorage, is the most active volcano of the eastern Aleutian arc. It consists of a complex of overlapping summit lava domes surrounded by an apron of volcaniclastic debris that descends to the sea on all sides. Few lava flows are exposed; the flanks consist mainly of debris- avalanche and pyroclastic-flow deposits formed by repeated collapse and regrowth of the volcano's summit. The latest episode of edifice collapse occurred during Augustine's largest historical eruption in 1883; subsequent dome growth has restored the volcano to a height comparable to that prior to 1883. The oldest dated volcanic rocks on Augustine are more than 40,000 years old. At least 11 large debris avalanches have reached the sea during the past 1800-2000 years, and five major pumiceous tephras have been erupted during this interval. Historical eruptions have typically consisted of explosive activity with emplacement of pumiceous yroclastic-flow deposits followed by lava dome extrusion with associated block-and-ash flows. Source: Alaska Volcano Observatory http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/avoreport.php?view=update Augustine Information from the Global Volcanism Program http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1103-01 - GALERAS Colombia 1.22\ufffdN, 77.37\ufffdW; summit elev. 4,276 m; All times are local (= UTC - 5 hours) On 24 November at 0246 seismicity was recorded at Galeras that was associated with the beginning of an eruption. Ash from the eruption fell in the towns of Fontibon, San Cayetano, Postobon, and in north Pasto (E of the volcano). INGEOMINAS raised the Alert Level from 2 (probable eruption in days to weeks) to 1 (eruption imminent or occurring). The Washington VAAC observed a small puff of ash NE of the volcano at a height around ~4.6 km (15,000 ft) a.s.l. Activity decreased by the next day, so the Alert Level was reduced to 2. Thousands of people had been evacuated from the vicinity of the volcano during the week prior to the eruption. Background. Galeras, a stratovolcano with a large breached caldera located immediately W of the city of Pasto, is one of Colombia's most frequently active volcanoes. The dominantly andesitic Galeras volcanic complex has been active for more than 1 million years, and two major caldera collapse eruptions took place during the late Pleistocene. Long-term extensive hydrothermal alteration has affected the volcano. This has contributed to large-scale edifice collapse that has occurred on at least three occasions, producing debris avalanches that swept to the W and left a large horseshoe-shaped caldera inside which the modern cone has been constructed. Major explosive eruptions since the mid Holocene have produced widespread tephra deposits and pyroclastic flows that swept all but the southern flanks. A central cone slightly lower than the caldera rim has been the site of numerous small-to-moderate historical eruptions since the time of the Spanish conquistadors. Sources: Instituto Colombiano de Geolog\ufffda y Miner\ufffda (INGEOMINAS) http://www.ingeominas.gov.co/tmsingeominas/ModuloPublicacionPortal/PublicacionP ortal.asp, Ass"}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 16, 2005 (19:24)", "body": "***************************************** Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network Volume 30, Number 10, October 2005 ***************************************** Sierra Negra (Ecuador) Eruption ends 30 October; some lava on NE flank, more on E caldera floor East Pacific Rise at 10 L 44'N (Pacific Ocean) November 2003 visit finds evidence of very recent eruption Arenal (Costa Rica) Frequent pyroclastic flows from crater C since August 2004 Pacaya (Guatemala) Steam clouds and tremor in 2004; incandescence and lava flows in 2005 Santa Maria (Guatemala) Partial dome collapses in 2004; explosions and ash columns in 2005 Endeavour Segment (Juan de Fuca Ridge) Intense earthquake swarm in February-March 2005 Ol Doinyo Lengai (Tanzania) Lava continues to spill over crater rim through much of 2005 Editors: Rick Wunderman, Catherine Galley, Edward Venzke, and Gari Mayberry Volunteer Staff: Robert Andrews, Jacquelyn Gluck, Jerome Hudis, William Henoch, and Stephen Bentley Sierra Negra Gallapagos Islands, Ecuador 0.83 L S, 91.17 L W; summit elev. 1,490 m All time are local (= UTC - 6 hours) Our last report (BGVN 30:09) described the first five days of this eruption, and was taken largely from a valuable joint report of Ecuadorbreport information from several sources on these topics: (a) initial observations of the eruption, (b) caldera-floor deformation prior to the eruption, (c) observations of the eruptionbOctober (when it ended), and (d) satellite infrared observations of thermal fluxes associated with the eruption. Eruptionb30:09), the eruption began around 1730 on 22 October 2005, when an explosion was heard by many residents of the volcanobSatellite images showed no activity at 1715, but revealed a large eruption at 1745 local time (2345 UTC). The eruption cloud reached an estimated altitude of at least 15 km (50,000 ft) and was moving SW. At about this time, passengers and crew on Lindblad Expeditionsbpassenger vessel M/N Polaris had an excellent view of the eruptive plume (figure 1). Lucho Verdesoto, the expedition leader, reported that the ship was then at Cerro Dragon, Santa Cruz isl nd. Sunset was at 1753. As night fell they sailed to a position ~ 18 km NE of the volcano, where they had clear views of flows descending the volcanob(figure 2). Figure 1. Early photo of the Sierra Negra plume from the cruise ship Polaris, anchored off NW Santa Cruz island around sunset on 22 October 2005. Courtesy of Lucho Verdesoto. Figure 2. Lava spews skyward from circumferential fissure vents near the N rim of Sierra Negra caldera as flows descend the upper N flank. The photos were taken on 22 October, during the first few hours of the eruption, from the Polaris. Courtesy of Lucho Verdesoto. Naturalist Carman Guzman wrote, bso we decided to move the Polaris to a much closer location. After dinner, we were only eleven miles from the eruption itself. What a thrill! The darkness of the night enhanced the beauty of the fiery reds and oranges that were seen at the top of the caldera. We spent several hours enjoying this rare and fantastic event. Rivers of lava were running down the slopes of the volcano and enormous flames were lighting up the sky.b According to NASA MODIS imagery and VAAC/NOAA reports, on 25 October 2005 a large plume of gases and steam was observed in GOES 12 imagery for 1545 local time (2145 UTC). The plume extended ~ 460 km W and SW of the summit at an altitude of ~ 4.6 km. Figure 3 shows the average concentration of SO2 over the Sierra Negra plume as imaged by NASAbAura satellite for the period 23 October-1 November. Figure 3. The average concentration of sulfur dioxide (SO2) over Sierra Negra from 23 October-1 November measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASAbfrom the ground, OMI stopped seeing measurable sulfur dioxide coming from the volcano on 31 October. The column abundances of SO2 appear on the associated key (in Dobson Units, DU, a product of concentration and pathlength that reflects the number of SO2 molecules in a unit area of the atmospheric column). Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory/Natural Hazards website. Deformation monitoring. In the early stages of this eruption, Bill Chadwick (NOAA) submitted a report on pre-eruption deformation (figure 4). The plot shows both Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and GPS data on vertical deformation of the caldera floor. Chadwick wrote that he, Dennis Geist (University of Idaho), and Dan Johnson (University of Puget Sound, recently deceased) installed a 27 station GPS network at Sierra Negra in 2000, that was reoccupied in 2001 and 2002 (Geist and others, in press). With help from UNAVCO (a consortium supporting high-precision deformation measurements), the group then added a 6-station, continuous GPS network in 2002. Since then, there occurred a change from caldera subsidence to caldera uplift in March 2003. During this uplift, an M 4.6 earthquake on 16 April 2005 marked trapdoor faulting. The continuous GPS network measured a surface displacem"}, {"response": 149, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2006 (14:56)", "body": "Marci were around for the Kileua eruption in '83?"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2006 (13:49)", "body": "OH YES!!! That is why I am Kilauea83 on a lot of places."}, {"response": 151, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2006 (22:24)", "body": "What was it like?"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2006 (20:49)", "body": "Great question. Let me collect my thoughta and write what it is like to know a volcano near you is erupting and what it is like to drive up then walk in to see it. What it looks like. What it sounds like; how it smells, tastes, feels. I have been contemplating doing this anyway. Let me work on it now. Thank you for asking."}, {"response": 153, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr  5, 2006 (23:37)", "body": "Thanks for doing this. The feeling and visuals must have been awesome."}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2006 (19:22)", "body": "My vocabulary is pretty good but this will tax it to the utmost. In The Beginning..."}, {"response": 155, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2006 (23:45)", "body": "Good start. Go on."}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (15:01)", "body": "When you live on an active volcano with historic eruptions, you hope and expect to see it erupt. With that in mind, there are several ways to find out if it is happening. Early on, we wandered around at night looking up our dark street through the windows. Later we had radio broadcasts and television news to tell us that Kilauea was erupting. The best came later when we had scanner capabilities and had them tuned to the Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory and the National Park Service Rangers. Kilauea's current eruption began at night on January 3, 1983. The glow up the usually dark street told us either the whole world was on fire up there or we were having another eruption. That glow has since been obliterated by the use of low pressure orange-colored street lights which match and cancel out any eruption glow that might be there. As soon as it was ascertained that there WAS a new eruption occuring, Some of us ran for heavy jackets, others for water, cheese and apples, and yet another for the binoculars and cameras and flashlights. We were ready to recored the new earth forming."}, {"response": 157, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (22:16)", "body": "Wow, this is getting exciting. I can't wait for the next episode."}, {"response": 158, "author": "tsiktsik", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (22:44)", "body": "Came across this site doing research for Sangay, Tungurahua, and Reventador. Some recent pictures of Tung are available here ... http://www.geocities.com/tsiktsikco/picsvolcano.html"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (13:49)", "body": "Tsiktsik, many thanks for posting that link. Your exeriences outrank mine by quite a bit. I will ad Mauna Loa after I get finished with Kilauea. Did you know the Kraffts? I have so many questions for you I hardly know where to begin, but for starters I see you have Paracutin volcano included. It was my first volcano eruption and I'd really like to have a DVD or some form of video of the eruption (not in real life... in books.) I know the footage exists. I just can't find it for sale anywhere. Suggestions? Welcome to Geo!"}, {"response": 160, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (19:04)", "body": "marcia, kilauea started to erupt in 1983? is it still in business?"}, {"response": 161, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (19:05)", "body": "*woops* forgot to close my tag *grin*"}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (19:55)", "body": "Yes, as of this post Kilauea is erupting in a phase (last time I noted the phase it was 55) and has her own web camera http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cam/index.htm"}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (19:56)", "body": "0540 April 10 The main three vents, East Pond Vent, January Vent, and Drainhole, joined by South Wall Complex, are barely visible this morning owing to thick fume."}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (20:05)", "body": "Now, as we drive the 30 or so miles to the eruption (uphill all the way) which takes about 45 minutes or so, let me tell you what we are wearing. We know we might get rained on so we each have light-weight ponchos stashed in our back packs. We wear several layers of hooded sweatshirts and wind proof jackets. The heaviest jeans are best for hiking, and mandatory is leather hiking boots covering the ankles as well as the foot. New lava is very sharp and broken. It is very easy to twist ankles and to get cuts. Flashlights with new fresh batteries are also mandatory and water bottles. Each one has his own stashed in back packs, too. Spam musubi and apples are my favorite hiking food but you can use apples and cheese and rice balls or cookies just as well. We are stuffed into the car with many layers on. In winter I would add thermal leggings to the lot under the jeans I am wearing. You need the hooded jackets to keep the lapilli from getting down your neck. New eruptions have high fountaining which pins out volcanic glass and it gets into everything. Wearing some sort of eye protection is also a good idea. Check which way the wind is going and plan to hike accordingly. Listen to the car scanner to see where they are opening the space to park near the activity. Join the rest of the car parade snaking its way up the mountain. You should be ahead of most of the people who actually sleep at night."}, {"response": 165, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2006 (18:52)", "body": "oh goodie, i lost the webcam, thanks for reposting!"}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2006 (18:13)", "body": "By this time you are begining to notice that the inky blackness of the outdoors is gaining a decidedly orange hue which is brighter near the horizon. As you ascend the mountain the glow brightens until it appears to be the world's largest forest fire happening right in front of you a few miles up the road. Anticipation mounts as you pass over the National Park Boundary and head for the Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory on the rim of the summit caldera of Kilauea Volcano. You are not the first to arrive by any means but you are one who is properly attired for the duration and you notice the others are all dressed much as you are complete with hiking boots covering the ankles. You park and walk and walk toward the buildings to gain more information. Then you see it."}, {"response": 167, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 16, 2006 (17:46)", "body": "Around the side of the building where all the seismographs are house you note that the glow up here in an intense orange bordering on becoming yeallow. You stretch to see more but you need to be clear of the building to do that. Rather than go inside to get the update, you walk as quickly as you can to the overlook into a dark summit caldera anc across to the source of the immense roar you hear. A great lava fountain is dancing before you. Higher and Higher it goes with several smaller fountains joining it. You speak to no one in particular that this is the famous \"Curtain of Fire\" with which such volcano eruptions begin. A crack opens when the magma has built up enough stress and fractures the rock above it seeking release. They will eventually seal themselves off saving the main fountain to contiue the eruption. Thank you \ufffd for your encouragement. I am never sure if anyone reads what I post."}, {"response": 168, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2006 (21:00)", "body": "silly goose, of course we read what you post *HUGS*"}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2006 (17:01)", "body": "I could divert my comments from the burgeoning eruption and tell you how to cut apples so they leave no trace behind while you hike, or how to wrap cheese without destroying it while in your backpack, but I think, like me, you are captivated by the scene in front of me, and want more information. People start walking up beside you, and like you they talk quietly to the inky blackness of the night broken by wildly gyrating fountains of molten rock. Your neck folds back on itself trying to see the very top. Gauging by the 45\ufffd angle straight out in front of you, it seems to cover at least 70\ufffd of your view. You wonder how high they are and how far away. In this surreal night vision nothing is as it seems. You finally wander back to the Observatory and go inside to find out anything they know about what is going on outside. (Thank you, readers, for bearing with my terrible but excited typing. I am really enjoying reliving this great adventure.)"}, {"response": 170, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2006 (05:46)", "body": "Kia Ora I am waiting here for a report that says a debris dam plugging the outlet of Mount Ruapehu's crater lake, has finally failed. One formed after the 1995-96 eruption sequence, which emptied the lake. The lake level is now 1.2 metres or about 4ft above the hard rock rim, but the dam will most likely fail when the level is 5-7 metres (17-23ft above the rim). It WILL fail. The last time this happened in 1953, it knocked out the railway bridge at Tangiwai minutes before a fully loaded passenger train crossed - 151 people were killed. This time we know it is going to happen eventually, as there is a warning system embedded in the river upstream, and the Ministry of Civil Defence has put together a response plan for dealing with the aftermath. You will probably recall a few weeks ago NZ volcano Raoul Island erupted killing a Department of Conservation worker on the island. I just want to confirm no body has been found. Rob"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2006 (22:00)", "body": "Thanks for that update, Rob. Yes, I noticed that fatality. Volcanoes have killed a good number of people I know. Was there no warning?"}, {"response": 172, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2006 (13:18)", "body": "I got Rob's pictures up at http://spring.net/geo/rob/ Funny thing. I created that page for Rob and went to save it. And I forgot what directory I was in and saved it right over the top of the geo main page. Oh boy. At first, I rushed off to the Wayback Machine and grabbed an old copy of the geo main page and installed it. Then I realized that just last Sunday I got a new server up and running and copied every single file from the Spring on to it. So I just went over there and found last Sunday's geo main page and used that. http://spring.net/geo/index.wayback.html is the page I dug out of the history archives. But it would have been out of date."}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2006 (22:20)", "body": "That is the link on Geo's front page that John of Greece created for his earthquake research data and other things not Geo conference. We'd never have gotten back here if you had done that. Please be careful. I love goback but it needs to go back to http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/geo/all or http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/geo/all/new . How big is this file? I may need to make a copy of it for myself. I can'r bear to think of it just disappearing because someone went \"oops\""}, {"response": 174, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2006 (18:52)", "body": "Well, with the new server I have everyhing backed up daily. And I'll be adding another backup server as well."}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2006 (19:01)", "body": "As you walk back, you feel the earth moving beneath your feet. It is a kind of constant background rumble like an approaching train might make. You know from past experience that it is the multitude of earthquakes that accompany any volcanic eruption. The earth has been wrenched apart and liquid magma has forced itself to the surface. Gases trapped in the magma now burst free creating noxious fumes and an impressive cloud over the main vents. Still the movement continue. At the rate magma is leaving the vent, you think it will stop soon since there just can't be that much molten rock down there. Time for an aside. If you can see molten rock, it is lava. If it is still underground but molten, it is magma. The sound behind you is nothing like you expected. I'm not sure what I expected, but it sounded like hundreds of jet engine tethered just out of sight at full blast. The taste is strangely like dried celery leaves and so is the smell of the night rain on the hot rocks. Inside the observatory, little knots of people are discussing what they know and what they have just seen, Coffee is unnecessary. There is nothing quite like a rawness of a new eruption to keep your senses alert, especially when you have just gotten to where you could see it. The seismographs are busy hitting the pins on either side of each drum. We are too close to the source of the motion to get anything like reliable measurements from these seismographs, but it is fun to watch them batting around making wild arcs on the paper. A ranger nearby is watching one of the staff geologists making a map. Now we will all know exactly where that fountain activity is happening and how close to it we will be allowed to go."}, {"response": 176, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2006 (21:21)", "body": "how do you remember this with such detail? amazing, i can almost smell everything!"}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2006 (08:07)", "body": "Many years of attending eruptions and enthusiastic curiosity has made the whole experience a permanent part of my memory. As this progresses, more and more different eruptions will be brought into play. They are never the same, twice. When you see rock - that really hard stuff that mountains are made of and that lasts \"forever\" - in molten form spraying high into the night sky as incandescent fountains, or see the rivers of lava oblitering everything in its path, it is not like any other experience. This taffy-like substance will surely never build great mountains or even be inhabitable. Everything your mind knows about Earth rebels at such a suggestion. So you watch... fascinated. If you ever thought a fireplace hypnotic, you can imagine the fascination of a Hawaiian volcano eruption. Only one person we have taken to see such events has ever just stayed in the car and not wanted to see or experience it at all. My mother."}, {"response": 178, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, May 13, 2006 (07:56)", "body": "Mount Merapi, which has been smouldering for three weeks, is threatening to erupt on the Indonesian island of Java. The volcano has been spewing gasses, ash and lava, prompting officials to raise the threat status to the highest level. ..."}, {"response": 179, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2006 (23:43)", "body": "Kia Ora Gunung Merapi (local name)is on a roll. The gas flows referred to in some reports were pyroclastic surges. There is a lava dome in the summit crater and it is still expanding. Yahoo News has been good at covering it, and the regular media are doing okay too. Rob"}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2006 (12:31)", "body": "Interesting tv coverage plus fantastic internet images. Indonesia is a very volcanically unstable place. Keep watching!"}, {"response": 181, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Jul  8, 2007 (19:58)", "body": "http://www.geonet.org.nz/volcano/volcams.html Remote cameras are an important aid to our volcanologists. They allow them to quickly assess the status of the volcanoes, especially if they have recently recorded unusual seismic events or there have been reports of eruptions. A set of images from the last twenty-four hours may be displayed for each camera site by clicking on the volcano links at the right-hand side of this page. Larger versions of the latest seismograph recordings may be displayed by clicking on the thumbnail seismic drums. White Island from Whakatane. White Island from Whakatane. White Island Crater (floor). White Island Crater (floor). White Island Crater (rim). White Island Crater (rim). White Island Seismic Drum. White Island Seismic Drum. Ngauruhoe Volcano. Ngauruhoe Volcano. Ngauruhoe Seismic Drum. Ngauruhoe Seismic Drum. Ruapehu Volcano. Ruapehu Volcano. Ruapehu Seismic Drum. Ruapehu Seismic Drum. Taranaki (Egmont Volcano). Taranaki (Egmont Volcano). Taranaki Seismic Drum. Taranaki Seismic Drum. The images from the cameras are made possible with the support of the following organisations: * Environment Bay of Plenty * Heli Pro (New Zealand) * Mountain Air * PeeJay Charters * Taranaki Regional Council * Volcanic Air Safaris * Vulcan Helicopters * White Island Trust GNS Science EQC (Earthquake Commission) from the above web page."}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (12:32)", "body": "Fathers Day this year (June) began a new episode in the Kilauea eruption of 1983 cycle. You can watch it happen http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cam3/ Photos are best a night since the glowing lava is more apparent. I will write more on this. It has been very exciting. But, mostly, I do not miss being there."}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (12:45)", "body": "Thank you William for finding my way into here. I thought it was here where my visit-the-volcano appeared but I could not find it. But, I continue..."}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (17:55)", "body": "It is finally our lucky day. The most violent stages of the eruption have died down a bit and the earth under your feet have taken to gentle movements in less frantic fashion. Now, with your pockets stuffed with snacks, a flashlight attached to your belt and a water bottle on your hip you are ready to file in orderly fashion after the lead Park Ranger who is opening the trail for you. You hae a small group of dedicated people who waited with you and discussed other eruptions they had seen while the wait went on... and on. You leave the Volcano Observatory in a train of cars behind the Ranger car. It is on a roadway where we are going but there is little room there for parking so we are taken in small groups of 20 or so and the rest wait their turn at the observatory like we did."}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (18:44)", "body": "Not even Christmas morning can bring on the excitment of being one of the first cars down the road to a new eruption. The road is often wiggly where it once was straight, and there are ominous cracks of measurable width across them and you have to negotiate as lightly as possible your way down the fractured paving. The fragrance of burning asphalt comes to you strongly as you get close, and finally you are allowed to turn around and park. All cars must be facing out of the danger ares for quick retreat should the situation change. It is night but the sky is a dark blood red and suddenly over the shoulders of the people in front of you you see incadescent globs of lava being lofted high into the air. We are there !"}, {"response": 186, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (18:47)", "body": "(As far as I know, no one but the Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory scientists have been allowed into the field to see the current new eruptive phase, but this is a little like what they are going through. There are excellent pictures on the website of HVO and if you look at night you will see similar scenes to the ones I am describing.)"}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (18:56)", "body": "YOu forget about the grit between your back teeth and the itchy grit falling down the back of your neck and you walk too rapidly for the Ranger. He calls you back and you walk as patiently as possibly behind him trying to see where you are going. If it is in a pit crater you will be looking far across a gigantic hole in the ground to see anything (like my first eruption was. If it is down an incline out on the older lava flows, you are fortunate and will be able to get as close to it as you can. They allow you to do this since 2000 degree (F) rock is so hot it makes its own force field of heat and you can't get too close. You might try to pick up a piece of new lava nearby to look at it more closely but it will burn your fingers (It really does !) You can be there for long enough to listen to what it sounds like, to be aware of how it tastes, how the various colors of black thru red to yellow and white hot merge and blend into the velvet of the night."}, {"response": 188, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (19:41)", "body": "I t sounds interesting. Are you still in Hawaii?"}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2007 (17:01)", "body": "NO, I am in the midwest permanently or as permanently away from Hawaii as I can get. Hawaii is a strange place. One should never try to live in Paradise lest all you find, finally, are the snakes."}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2007 (17:02)", "body": "I do miss the night hikes to see eruptions, though."}, {"response": 191, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Thu, Aug 30, 2007 (17:00)", "body": "Well, at least you got a taste of Hawaii, and learned from it."}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 30, 2008 (20:34)", "body": "Oh indeed and now folks you can watch the summit glow of a crater that appeared when the summit had a minor explosive event. The pit is several hundred feet deep and has been quite bright at night. It makes a great night light to leave it on as your desktop. http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cam3/ Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 78, "subject": "TSUNAMI!!!! The Great wave - the deadly wave", "response_count": 95, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Jul  7, 2002 (17:35)", "body": "Hey Rob, great idea for a topic. I knew we were missing something."}, {"response": 2, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (03:30)", "body": "Very Good idea for this topic Rob. I have already the first question. I had an unusual experience on 23 of past June. I described it in geo 31/resp. 52. I repeat it here. I was sitting on a comfortable chair near the sea looking at the Pagasitic gulf the last breathlessness hot night. Full Moon was glass on the quiet sea. I observed something strange. The reflecting on the sea light was making beautiful games but the shape was not straight. It was a non-stable crooked shape. I had the impression that Pagasitic gulf was like a slinky dishpan. I never observed something like this. Just yesterday I had the following additional information. A very good friend was fishing in the Pagasitic gulf the same moment. He has installed in his boat a very good electronic deep meter that has also indicator for the temperature of the seawater. He has also an expensive GPS meter. He says that were observed the following strange indications that night. 1. Deep meter was not constant. He was observing high variations of about 5 meters with a period of about 5 minutes. 2. The temperature of seawater suddenly changed from 21 C degrees to 28 C degrees. 3. GPS meter was also not constant. 4. He has no explanations since he was not realised what was happening. I have the impression that they were very long period sea waves. Have you scientific explanation on it? Are observed similar variations in the open sea? John"}, {"response": 3, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (04:57)", "body": "Hi all I need to explode a few myths. John, I saw you post and I have no answer. Insofar as I am aware, there is no change in sea temperature or change in water body temperature during a tsunami. Some myths need to be exploded. There are several and I would lying if I said they do not contribute to the sometimes horrendous death tolls these phenomena create. Tsunamis are not mythical. We know about them, but not enough. This post attempts to explode a few myths about tsunamis based on research I did for one of my Geography papers last semester, but for further information, I suggest you have a look at the following book. TSUNAMI!!! Walter Dudley and Min Lee, 1998, University of Hawaii Press 2nd Ed. What is a tsunami? A tsunami is a sea wave generated by a geophysical process like an earthquake, volcanic eruption, or landslide under the sea or on land going into the sea. It has nothing to do with the tide, except that a rising tide may allow it to go further. This is one of the more common misunderstandings. Another is that a tsunami is one wave. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. A tsunami is a series of waves and the biggest rarely come in first. In Hilo during the 1960 tsunami from Chile (courtesy of a magnitude 9.5 earthquake)the sealevel rose 4 feet above normal just after midnight May 23, then dropped 3 feet below the norm. This was the first wave. At 12.46AM the second wave came rolling on in and was 9 feet above normal. Then all went calm... but the water level was falling even faster. It bottomed out at 1.AM 7 feet below normal, after which many on the shoreline heard a dull rumble. The third wave was coming and this was 20 feet ABOVE normal, after which Hilo and the island of Hawaii was plunged into darkness at 1.05AM. This is the most dangerous of the myths and has cost a lot of lives, because people think it is over so they go home and drown when the bigger ones come. Tsunamis are not always waves. Sometimes they resemble fast incoming tides. This is possibly dependent on the terrain of the sea floor. The myth that a falling water level means a tsunami is coming is true, though it may be heightened if an advancing bore is overtaken by a wave giving the wave more height. The rules of tsunamis: 1)NEVER EVER go to the beach, or any coastal water body, especially if it has direct access to the sea. If you see the waves, the odds are good that someone will be arranging your funeral afterwards. 2)If you feel a strong earthquake and are near the coast, evacuate first and ask questions later. Your safety is paramount. 3)Evacuate on the understanding that you may be gone for several hours, so take medication etc with you and follow the rules for civil defence (ours are found at the back of the Yellow Pages phone book). Rob"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  8, 2002 (18:28)", "body": "Great topic, Rob. I had previously tucked such subjects elsewhere but this is entirely appropriate. *Hugs* for thinking of it. Walt Dudley is a friend of mine and was instrumental in the creation of the Hilo Tsunami Museum whose webcam shows you what Hilo Bay is like 24/7 live. By all means, read his book. He has done an excellent job on it and I was both delighted and surprised to find Rob using it in New Zealand. John, there are serious studies about sea wave anomalies. Rogue waves occur and endanger shipping in almost all seas and oceans. Tsunamis are not usually in that category, though. Since they are a direct result of seismicity, the waves are predictable. I have not heard anything to add to this such as temperature or speed changes. The phenomenon you witnessed is curious. I will pass it along to others who are better versed in such things. I still wonder if some sort of surface-breeding sea dwellers were not partially responsible. Another thought is an opening in the sea floor and something venting into the sea. Black smokers and other volcanic vents are known to do such things. Are they unknown in your Gulf?"}, {"response": 5, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (04:49)", "body": "Hi Marcia and Rob, Surely, I was not meaning a tsunami effect in my gulf. I just wondered if you have some experience or if you heard some similar phenomenon in your open sea. Anyway it was a good chance to learn some basics on tsunamis from your answer. Thank you Rob and Marcia. It was also a good start to discuss about tsunamis. I had a long (almost all-night) discussion about that phenomenon in my gulf last night. I had a special visitor with PhD in naval architecture mechanics. His opinion is very interesting: This phenomenon is common in the sea. Local upward or downward air streams are producing local uplifts or down lifts on the sea surface. So, is produced a very long period sea wave that can have significant height. These waves are appearing without any sense of wind. Temperature changes of seawater can also follow these dummy waves (I don't know if I use the correct words in English). It is also a common phenomenon! Black smokers and other volcanic vents are unknown into our seas. But I am thinking that a reason can be also the beginning of increase the Earth's speed around the Sun directly after solstice. My special visitor was not overruled my idea but he says that its effect exists but it is too small. Ok I close this issue here. I am sorry Rob. I apologise for this unrelated with tsunami report. John"}, {"response": 6, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (05:38)", "body": "Hi all Sorry John. What I meant was that I thought I should correct a couple of common misunderstandings about tsunamis from the outset. You are not in fault. I intended to say only one thing, but implied TWO things by accident. I am not sure what could have caused the phenomena you speak of, since there was no wind. If it had nothing to do with tides, then I suppose it could have been a tsunami but I cannot judge it since I was not there. But thanks anyway. Rob"}, {"response": 7, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (06:10)", "body": "It\ufffds OK Rob, Discussion can have similar misunderstandings. Do not worry. We are always learning. I found your explanations very interesting since we have not tsunamis in Greece and I don\ufffdt know anything about their characteristics. Your explanations are very useful and complete. Thank you Rob. John"}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (11:59)", "body": "this tsunami thing is scary. i talked to a local here and she said that our area is not prime for tsunami. how can i find out for sure? do i need to research the fault lines in the sea?"}, {"response": 9, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (14:19)", "body": "My geology professor explained to us about southern California's tsunami risk. The Santa Cruz-Santa Catalina Ridge Fault Zone, which may also connect to the San Diego Trough Fault Zone, is located between our coast and Catalina Island. This fault zone poses a threat to our coastline and possible as far inland as the L.A basin. Scientits have found ancient tsunami deposits all the way inland near the L.A basin. Although, there hasn't been a large quake on the fault zone for quite some time , it is capable of producing a magnitude 7.3 quake. There has been small quakes from time to time on the fault zone. But given the fact that its only about 20 miles or so offshore, if the quake is large enough we could be in serious trouble. I asked a scientist from the University of Sothern California Tsunami Research Group if we have a warning system and indeed we do. There is probably other fault lines offshore that may be a problem as well. The Pacific Northwest also has a tsunami risk mainly because they lay on a ubduction zone. If the Mega Quake I mentioned about in Geo 70 were to occur offshore it would be catasrophic. Oregon and Washington both have dozens of signs all over the place showing tsunami evacuation routes."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (16:33)", "body": "Julie's right. Southern California is a tsunami waiting to happen. I posted this elswhere (oceanic geo perhaps). All you need is a local landslide of some magnitude. You will not have much warning. Just run inland if you are warned. NOW not in a few minutes after you collect your belongings. RUN!!! We face the same difficulties in Hawaii. In Kentucky we do not even get a tidal bore on the river, but since we live currently in its flood plain I am content to let it wander peacefully in the valley. I do want to see the remanat river from before the last ice age so I might see what was here before the Mississippi and Ohio rivers were more than just little streams. Not tsunami material but hydrology in any case. John I envy your conversations with your friend. I would also share the long all-night discussions with Don. If you cannot believe how fast night can disappear during good conversation, I wish that you might find someone as eager to share information as John and I have found. In my case it is archaeology and ethnology. I am being spoiled for any furture life I am presently finding available!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (17:27)", "body": "i've not seen any tsunami evac route signs though in northern louisiana, hurricane evac routes were posted everywhere. more than likely, a tsunami would come in from the west and i sit facing the east on the inner harbor. though i can drive north to point fermin and white's point and there i see catalina island. always thought the gigantic waves would require more distance to gain speed and strength. thanks julie!!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (01:31)", "body": "This website might be helpful to those of you who live on the west coast of the U.S. I check it every time we have a significant quake. http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/ This is the most reccent message from the 5.9M quake located 150 miles west of Coos Bay, Oregon. http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/message.txt"}, {"response": 13, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (01:48)", "body": "I found this website that talks about the tsunami risk in the Pacific Northwest. Its basically what I have mentioned already though. http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/tsunami/cascadia.html"}, {"response": 14, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (08:12)", "body": "Hi all Here is something to unsettle you all. Julie and Marcia have heard it but, not everyone. The Atlantic and Caribbean coast have a tsunami risk. Both have had tsunami's in historic times and both can expect them again in the future. Take the New Foundland coast for example. It had a tsunami form after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in 1929 sent a large landslide pouring down the Laurentian Channel into the Cabot trench displaying a lot of water VERY fast. There have also been tsunamis in the Caribbean where in November 1867 a magnitude 7.5 earthquake in the Anegada Trough between St Croix and St Thomas started a tsunami 25-30 feet high roaring into the coastal towns on both islands. Warning tourists about tsunamis according Walter Dudley is something of a taboo for tourism business operators because they want the tourists to come back and not be scared by a tsunami. So it is said that little has been done to inform tourists - no brochures or basic information from rental car agencies and so on, little or no information about the do's and don'ts when a WARNING is issued, and unfortunately I can confirm this is true and correct. Having been to Hawaii I remember nothing about what to do and what not to do. Rob"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:27)", "body": "Walt dudley has discovered what John has also discovered for Greece. Natural hazards which are \"unpredictable\" and deadly are never mentioned. Head in the sand is the usual way it is treated. It seems they would rather not know and thus not be responsible for what happens! I do worry that Greece is both in the water and prone to earthquakes. Can uit be true that they are not susceptible to tsunamis? That seems impossible."}, {"response": 16, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jul 11, 2002 (04:03)", "body": "Hi all Marcia, and others, please direct yourself to a copy of the July 2000 National Geographic. It deals with the 1999 Turkey earthquake which I deem relevant because of the Turks proximity to the islands of Greece. Turkey was rocked badly in the year of 1999 by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake on the Anatolian fault, which also runs offshore and I have reason to believe that the islands of Greece would be at risk from tsunamis in several ways. First you recall the eruption of Santorini? That generated a tsunami that accelerated the demise of the Minoan civilisation. Secondly, even if Greece is not likely to be hit by local tsunamis one should not forget tsunamis from say Italy or the Balkans (Skopje, Yugoslavia, was hit by a bad earthquake in 1963 and Udine in Italy had two in the 1980s. Finally as if all that is not enough, what about the volcanoes of the Lipari islands? Rob"}, {"response": 17, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Jul 11, 2002 (05:55)", "body": "Thank you Rob, I have to add some information about recent big EQ\ufffds in my neighbourhood. Turkey was rocked badly in the second half of the year of 1999 by two very strong EQ\ufffds on the Anatolian fault: 1999 08 17 00:01:39 40.75N 29.86E 17 7.8 MsGS 1999 11 12 16:57:20 40.76N 31.16E 10 7.5 MsGS During the first one, Anatolian plate was moved westwards almost 2 meters. A coastal Turkish hamlet at the Aegean Sea was disappeared from the face of Earth 25 meters under the water surface. About a thousand people lost there as I watch in TV these days. During the second one, Anatolian plate was moved westwards almost 1.5 meters more. None tsunami is observed. The same is happened with Skyros EQ on 2001 July 26th. Was M=6.4Ms with epicentre inside the Sea. A fisherman, who was fishing above the epicentre, observed the seawater boiling. He heard also a strong husky sound simultaneously. That was all. Eventuality for tsunami in Greece exists but is very small. None talk about it in Greece. (Seismologist or not). People are completely uninformed. John"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (18:28)", "body": "Your research in these events (predicting them in advance - see John's portal page research links! Their lack of informing the pulic is nothing short of mismanagement bordering on complete mistrust. It is unconscionable!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 17, 2002 (18:30)", "body": "I do not know what saves Greece from Tsunami, but feel happy if that is the case. I worry because that gulf you live on looks right for creating a real disaster! Hily Bay is just like it but has a wider mouth."}, {"response": 20, "author": "Geocoast", "date": "Fri, Jul 19, 2002 (16:18)", "body": "Marcia, you are right to be skeptical about Greece being safe from tsunamis. John, some of your statements in resp.17 are right and wrong at the same time! I will explain: At the epicentral area the seismic waves come vertically up from the sea floor and produce the \"boiling sea\" effect. This effect may be amplified by gases escaping from the sea-floor sediments. Tsunamis start to develop appreciably at some distance from the epicenter, where the oscillation that is produced by the EQ or by the mass movement that is triggered by the EQ reaches the sea surface at an oblique angle and become dangerous when their height increases due to shoaling as they reach shallow water. So the fisherman was not expected to observe a tsunami, anyway. Tsunamis are commonly miscalled \"tidal waves\". The equivalent greek term is \"palirroic (=tidal) waves\". These terms are misleading, since tsunamis have nothing to do with tidal forces, and during the last two or three decades scientists have agreed to replace these terms with the Japanese term \"Tsunami\". However, most people know tsunamis by their old name (and most of them have heard stories about the destruction of ports and coastal cities by \"tidal waves\"). Even some scientists are reluctant to adopt the Japanese term and prefer to use descriptive terms, such as \"sea waves due to landslides\". Tsunamis are rare in Greece compared to the Pacific Ocean, but so are large EQs and significant submarine mass movements. Historically, however, greek coasts have had their fair share of tsunamis. These are described in an interesting monograph by Prof. I. Antonopoulos (1973), entitled \"Tsunamis of the Eastern Mediterranean from Antiquity until Today\" (in greek). There are also several scientific papers (mostly unknown to the general public) describing the effects or evidence of tsunamis on greek coasts. Perhaps one of the best known and most destructive tsunamis in Greece is the one that followed the great eruption of the volcano of Thera (Santorini) around 1500 B.C. Most archaeologists believe that the destruction of ports and coastal cities by that tsunami was one of the primary causes of the decline of the Minoan civilization in Crete. Many archaeologists link this event to the legend of Atlantis. So, although few people are informed about \"tsunamis\", most know \"tidal waves\" quite well!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (00:48)", "body": "Unhappily, Hilo is past due for the next Tsunami. Many have died from thos in the past so a monthly test of the sirens warning us to flee the waterfront is held and respected. None take it for granted. Hilo Bay is perfectly formed to encourage waves from the north to build up to enormous heights before slamming ashore in sets of 4-5 waves.The first one is seldom the one doing most of the damage. Archaeologists and geologists alike have studied the layers of Thera's past tu understand the impact on humankind in that area. I would truly love to see that part of the world. Perhaps I might add an entirely different lava sample to my collection?! Please look at it with my eyes next time you are there."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (00:52)", "body": "I need to sleep a bit before I post more. My typing has gone astray and I do not see the errors until it is permanently part of the Internet. Forgive me!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (06:55)", "body": "Hi all A warm wind blew across the sand spit as the two whitebaiters gathered their gear up after a day on the Wairau River catching the delicacy for a hearty meal of whitebait patties. They were seasoned fishermen who had spent much of their lives on or near the coast and they knew the untamed power of the sea was a sight to behold. Wayne packed away the nets while Derrick put the whitebait in safe storage for the journey home. Despite the great weather and glorious northwest arch framing the western horizon the two men however had another reason to be leaving: they had heard a tsunami warning be broadcast on the radio. Although neither had experienced one, they had heard terrifying stories about people vanishing during the waves. Both had family and neither was in a great rush to leave their children fatherless. They had also lived through an earthquake of quite astonishing power. After the quake both had phoned home to their families in Kaikoura see what state their houses were in. They were far enough south th t they had no real damage. A couple loose ornaments had come of the shelf but nothing serious. ---- Wayne Jack stretched out in the deck chair he was sitting in, while watching a man approach him with two Speights and pulled another one up next to him. He nodded at Derrick Jamieson as the latter handed him one of the two cans he was carrying. Derrick sat down and pulled the tab off while admiring a brave (and stupid)driver cautiously inch his sports car over the rough gravel surface of the stopbank, before deciding to stop because the stones were too big. It was a glorious day, with a northwest arch forming overhead, and pleasantly warm temperatures on a mid October Sunday. A gentle wind blew over and the outline of a high flying jet could be made out miles above them. \"Cheers Derrick, and here's to your son getting engaged,\" Wayne offered an impromptu toast, remembering Derrick's eldest son David being engaged. \"Cheers. I got out of the spa and he was sitting in the lounge with his girl. They had driven all the way from Picton just to tell us that they were getting married and were planning to go into town for a drink and then on to see friends,\" Wayne replied. He put the can down and stood up. \"Better lift the net\". Derrick nodded, and sipped on his beer while reading the newspaper. All seemed sweet. No one around, little wind and perfect weather. Wayne came back, and sat down. \"One cockabully and two bait - nothing else.\" He picked up another section of the paper on the ground next to him and placed it on his lap. He was about to pick the beer, when the ground seemed to sway. Wayne stopped and waited. Thinking nothing more of it he picked up the beer and took a mouthful, swished it around before swallowing. All seemed calm and well. The calm suddenly came to an end with an almighty jolt, throwing both from their chairs. A distant rumble became a roar as the ground heaved ho and the cars shook and rattled with the shaking. Both remained frozen to the spot, in shock as the earthquake subsided not believing what had happened. It was Derrick who recovered first. He immediately went to the car and yanked open the glove box. Frantically he dialled his home number, and was to put it mildly relieved when his wife of fifteen years answered. \"So you didn't feel the earthquake?\" Derrick could not quite believe his ears. \"No, we felt the earthquake but no damage was done, bar a huge clatter of soot down the chimney, and a couple ornaments come off,\" Lynne answered. \"Whew! We had it bad here. I was having a beer and we were thrown from the chairs we were in, so I thought you might have had it much worse. Well I might stay here since we are doing steady business with the nets. Be home tomorrow. Love you. Bye\". Derrick switched it off and handed it to Wayne. Again nothing much had happened, except that Waynes wife, Robin was worried about the tsunami risk. \"Don't worry honey. We'll have the radio going to hear radio warnings, so if something is coming we will get out okay. Love you, bye.\" Wayne turned it off and gave the cellphone back to Derrick. \"Lets stay shall we? We can run if there is a tsunami warning issued.\" \"Yeah, okay,\" Derrick replied. So, after turning the radio on for updates (unaware the radio station was a wreck), they went back to the whitebaiting. Constable Jacqueline Harris was just finishing a coffee in the Blenheim police station when the building shook massively. Knowing it was an earthquake, she dived for cover and yelled to the Civil Defence officer in the Police Emergency room nextdoor to put out an alert. Beams creaked and groaned, but the building remained upright. The shock was just wearing off when a siren sounded. Jeez!! That was quick, Constable Harris thought as she hauled herself to her feet and surveyed the damage. Cracked walls and bits of plaster missing from the ceiling, but for an earthquake of that intensity it had done well. \"Constable!! Constable Harris, would you and "}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 20, 2002 (12:32)", "body": "The older generation in Hilo has similar stories to tell of the 1960 and 1946 Tsunamis which devastated much of old downtown Hilo and took out the railroad tracks, permanently. Thanks for the narrative. That is not a thing to be talken lightly!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 18, 2002 (22:23)", "body": "Japan faces tidal wave threat Scientists in Japan have discovered a fault in the seabed off the country's coast with the potential to unleash a giant \"tsunami\" tidal wave. The newly-detected fault lies off the south-eastern coast of Japan and may have been responsible for the magnitude 8.1 earthquake which struck the country in 1944, they say. Jin-Oh Park and his colleagues at Jamstec, the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, say that an earthquake along the fault would threaten cities along the Japanese coast. The fault is close enough to the Japanese coast for there to be only minutes between a substantial earthquake along it and the tsunami reaching land. Uncharted sea bed The fault, which lies close to where the Philippine Sea plate is sinking beneath the Eurasian plate, is only dozens of kilometres away from land. \"Any tsunami would hit the mainland with only a few minutes' warning,\" explained Bill McGuire, director of the UK's Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre. \"Most people in Japan live along the coast and evacuating them in only a few minutes would be impossible,\" he said. more... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2195871.stm"}, {"response": 26, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Nov 24, 2002 (03:24)", "body": "Hi all If I had to produce a movie, I would do mine on tsunamis. Tsunamis are not mysterious, and we know about the processes that drive them, how they work and so on. But yet they can kill thousands of people, thousands of kilometres from the source. My pick for tsunami would be a realistic one and that means I would was an actual event rather than making one up. With that in mind my first choice would be the May 22 1960 Chilean tsunami. It was a Pacific-wide event that was experienced in New Zealand, Chile, Japan, Hawaii, French Polynesia, and Easter Island. The tsunami was generated by an exceptionally massive earthquake, now thought to have registered a colossal magnitude 9.5. The earthquake was the third of three which started a chain reaction as the shaking spread across the sea floor. It is thought that the trouble started the day before the main event, when a magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurred. A tsunami watch was issued, but cancelled a few hours after the expected arrival time of any waves. But the Chilean Navy decided to keep a permanent watch on a tidal gauge at Valapiroso. Their prudence was justified. The following day the ground shook again, but barely had this second magnitude 7.5 event started when an even bigger event started offshore. It lasted about 7 minutes and clocked in at 9.5. Unto this day, it is the biggest earthquake known to man. The tsunami generated devastated the Chilean coast killing more than 2000 people. Spreading at break neck speed across the Pacific, it hammered Hilo in Hawaii between 12.30AM and 1.05 when the biggest wave stormed ashore, killing 60 people. From there it moved west toward Japan and killed 140 people along the eastern seaboard. In New Zealand it disrupted shipping movements in and out of Lyttelton Harbour for 8 hours. I have even worked out my opening shot. It would be shot on a beach with a short blurb, like the one seen at the start of Tora! Tora! Tora! The blurb would read something like this: \"On May 23, 1960 an earthquake in Chile started a tsunami that was experienced all over the Pacific basin.\" Rob"}, {"response": 27, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov 24, 2002 (08:01)", "body": "I found a real good introductory page on tsunamis at http://www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/intro.html This recalls the conversation we had about the Patrick Swayze/Lori Petty movie Point Break about the wave of the century in Australia. How does the tsunami you describe in 1960 compare to the 1975 Hawaii tsunami? Listing from the above website of great tsunamis: 1929 Grand Banks, Canada 1946 Aleutian Islands, Alaska 1952 Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia 1957 Aleutian Islands, Alaska 1960 Chile 1964 Prince Williams Sound, Alaska 1975 Hawaii with detail of the 1960 event: http://www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/general/historic/chilean60.html Damage estimates were half a billion dollars."}, {"response": 28, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Nov 26, 2002 (01:38)", "body": "Hi all The 1975 tsunami was locally generated, and did not come from the other side of the equator, in that the geophysical force driving it originated off the Hawaiian coast. Because of this there were only minutes of warning as opposed to hours for the 1960 Chilean tsunami. The 1960 tsunami was a Pacific-wide event in that it was experienced in Japan, Hawaii, New Zealand, the West Coast of the US, and at East Island. Insofar as I am aware, there was no damage outside of Hawaii in the 1975 event. Both were generated by earthquakes, with the 1960 earthquake being the largest earthquake known to mankind - registering a colossal magnitude 9.5 on the open ended richter scale (be careful of using the Richter scale as such because although it is bandied around in the media, different scales are applied for different earthquakes. An example is the moment magnitude which is generally used for earthquakes with magnitudes of above 6.0). Rob"}, {"response": 29, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov 27, 2002 (22:52)", "body": "wasn't there a movie about an asteroid that produced a tsunami? what the heck was the name of that one? it had tea' leone in it."}, {"response": 30, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Nov 27, 2002 (23:20)", "body": "Deep Impact I think is the one your talking about, Wolfie."}, {"response": 31, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 28, 2002 (08:51)", "body": "That was a great movie, it came out at the same time the Bruce Willis asteroid movie came out. Armageddon."}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov 28, 2002 (12:54)", "body": "yeah, it seems there was a rash of films about the same subject....haven't seen armageddon yet though..."}, {"response": 33, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Nov 30, 2002 (05:35)", "body": "Hi all Which is why I am putting this effort in for tsunami's. I would like to see the waves impact reduced by better coastal planning for these things and their effects. Hawaii has evacuation routes marked by road signs, and a siren system that is used to warn the islands of incoming tsunami's. This is all well and fine, but it is only useful if the tsunami is coming from a foreign location like Chile or Alaska and not from just offshore. If it is coming from just offshore, and you are in a coastal area, then the minute you feel an earthquake RUN, DAMMIT RUN!!!!! Run for the high ground and be prepared to stay there for several hours. Tsunamis are not single waves and the first is rarely the biggest. On May 23 in Hilo, during the 1960 tsunami three waves arrived over the period and ran like this: First wave crested at 12.30AM at 4 feet above normal, and then dropped 3 below normal. The second wave came at 12.46AM and was an ominous 9 feet above normal. The water then retreated to a level 7 feet below normal at 1. 0AM. Note the time. At 1.02AM there was a roar. An indescribable roar that everyone could hear coming through the night. At 1.04 a searchlight beam caught the 20 foot vertical wave relentlessly rolling forward into Hilo Harbour. At 1.05AM Hilo, and most of the island of Hawaii was plunged into darkness after the wave propagated upstream as a dangerous surge. 61 people died. Rob"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (21:41)", "body": "How well I remember the 1975 earthquake. I do not need to experience another 7.2 earthquake for me to respect how deadly the earth's mechanics can be. The resulting tsunami took Hilo's most skilled surgeon's life. He was at Halape with a troop of boy scouts. One of them also died. Several were heroes by saving the lives of their fellow scouts. Now, the once beautiful Halape is under water(the land block on which it sits dropped several feet) and the beautiful Kalapana was subjected to flooding by the sea before lava covered it. You can't write fiction like this!!!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 2003 (07:51)", "body": "Hi all T S U N A M I!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 2003 (07:53)", "body": "just kidding.... unless it is the tsunami of words sentences paragraphs and pages that I am considering doing as a thesis on the aforementioned, when I get my degree...."}, {"response": 37, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 2003 (08:16)", "body": "Seriously people. I have this notion of doing a Masters degree, with the thesis being probably on tsunamis. There are a few options I think I could choose from in pursuing the angle of thesis, because I am interested to some extent in all issues dealing with tsunamis. But at this early stage, while I am still finishing my undergrad degree I am thinking of doing a Masters in tsunamis. Rob"}, {"response": 38, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 2003 (10:31)", "body": "I hope you can do this and take us all along on the ride. How exciting!"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 2003 (17:26)", "body": "Rob!!! you are as bad a shouting \"fire!\" in a crowded theater. One does not shout Tsunami, either. Until I am well settled in KY, there will still be a worry deep inside me. But, now the sirens will indicate a tornado warning. *sigh* Go for it, Rob!! That would be fantastic!!!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 2003 (17:27)", "body": "You aren't planning to surf them, are you? The crazies out here do!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jul  9, 2003 (04:38)", "body": "Hi all First off, I would never knowingly yell \"TSUNAMI!!\" in a public place for that very reason. I only did it here because it would not have been of consequence. Secondly, I do not surf and even if I did I would prefer to go to Godley Heads with its 200 metre high basalt cliffs for the sea to pound against if I was to watch a tsunami come in. Godley Heads can be accessed safely from inland and if you follow the Summit Road around the Port Hills to the Sign of the Takahe, then you can come and go as you please with out fear of inundation. To check for US tsunamis and tsunami alerts, however you can go here: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/ Rob"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 10, 2003 (21:02)", "body": "My tsunami alerts come as email from my son. The mountain (of water) is coming to Mohmammad in this case. Your viewing platform sounds ideal. I agree high cliffs are the only place to watch them."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 10, 2003 (21:03)", "body": "Of course, Walt Dudley teaches a few blocks down the road. I could get it first hand :)"}, {"response": 44, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jul 11, 2003 (05:33)", "body": "Hi all The NZ Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences ( http://www.gns.cri.nz ) and the National Institute of Water and Atmospherics( http://www.niwa.cri.nz ) have this website for those interested in the New Zealand tsunami hazard. The two institutes have collaborated on a national centre for natural hazards, that deals with storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods etc. You can find their collaborative effort here: http://www.naturalhazards.net.nz Rob"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 11, 2003 (17:18)", "body": "Thanks for the links! How is your Yahoo group doing?"}, {"response": 46, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Jul 12, 2003 (04:27)", "body": "Hi all Good thanks. I have three: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldvolcanism http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldearthquakes http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tsunami_warning Tsunami's do not entirely fit into both groups so I thought \"what the hell. I'll create one for it as well\". Tsunami's are a combination of geophysics, plate tectonics, oceanography and to some extent geography. Geophysics - the geophysical mechanisms that led to the wave - i.e the displacement of the water. Plate Tectonics - the process leading to the mechanisms Oceanography - the waves as they behave in the ocean: oceanography accounts for it Geography or rather Physical Geography - the interaction of the wave coming ashore, with cultural and natural features (buildings, shore etc) Rob"}, {"response": 47, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jul 23, 2003 (06:47)", "body": "Hi all \"Rob!!! you are as bad a shouting \"fire!\" in a crowded theater. One does not shout Tsunami, either. Until I am well settled in KY, there will still be a worry deep inside me. But, now the sirens will indicate a tornado warning. *sigh*\" Sirens have their purpose. Are most of the warning sirens used in the US old WW2 air raid sirens that have been found another use? Rural fire stations in New Zealand, and those in small-moderate size towns use their sirens to let people know that there is a fire so that the volunteer fire brigade can get to the station. These sirens are haunting as hell to hear sound, but I think that it would be a good way to get people moving. Rob"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 25, 2003 (01:28)", "body": "Can you imagine what being wakened at night by one of those knowing bombs would shortly ruin your street, house and possible kill you? How terrifying! I know a few people who have Post Traumatic Stress from WW2 bombings. They still overly react to hearing a siren - even one in a movie!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 25, 2003 (01:29)", "body": "BTW, sirens like the old time ones are what are used in Hawaii (though state of the art, they still sound the same) and in Kentucky. No matter what the reason it sounds, I run for where I should be and my heart pounds uncontrollably."}, {"response": 50, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Jul 27, 2003 (07:36)", "body": "Hi all Warning sirens however would not stop a near field tsunami from causing a disaster simply because by the time the warnings were sounded, the waves would have been and gone. This problem is real in Hawaii - the 1975 disaster where the waves demolished that school are a case in point of a near field tsunami. Rob"}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 27, 2003 (11:30)", "body": "Near field Tsunami took the life of one of Hilo's best surgeons in the 70's. We know that all too well. Tjis was the 1975 quake because I was there ! The tsunami that took out Laupahoehoe School, students and teachers was caused by a 1946 Earthquake in the Aleutians."}, {"response": 52, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (04:29)", "body": "Kia Ora That tsunami forms the basis of Chapter 1 in Walter Dudley and Min Lee's 1998 edition of TSUNAMI! It generated waves that killed over 100 people in downtown Hilo who had no idea what was happening because the PTWC did not exist then. Despite there being an impressive record of tsunami's in the islands, the islanders were still caught unawares when the sea started doing strange things like leaving hundreds of fish high and dry as it retreated. Rob"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (12:02)", "body": "Rob, Hilo has become complacent. A generation or two has grown up since the last tsunami, and even though we know history and have very good warning systems, and we elected to allow forceable evacuation of those who were in the danger zone, they will have many who sneak in and try to surf, fish or photograph. They will die just as the people before them did. All we can hope worldwide is to warn people. Their lives ultimately depend on the use of this information."}, {"response": 54, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Aug 11, 2003 (03:56)", "body": "Hi all How ironic. In 1755 Lisbon, Portugal was rocked by a massive earthquake that measured at least magnitude 8.4 (not sure what scale was applied to get the figure). The earthquake was deadly, and kille 50,000 people in the city which was devastated not only by the earthquake but by a disastrous tsunami in it's wake. Within minutes of the earthquake occurring the sea was on the way out (that famous drawing of the water front with big waves racing into the harbour of a city on fire is of the Lisbon shake). A French composer wrote a rather lengthy poem about the disaster, which should serve to remind Europe that Italy, former Yugoslavia and Greece are not the only places in Europe to be rocked by earthquakes. But this is ironic. The towns churches were demolished and most of the nuns and priests killed outright - the wooden bordellos and prostitutes survived... Rob"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  4, 2003 (11:54)", "body": "Wooden structures flex and survive. European-style stone and mortar structures are the worst hit. Invariably! Maybe the churches should make a few notes before rebuilding!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 27, 2004 (12:15)", "body": "The Sumatra earthquake is the 5th strongest in history according to some people in the media. Whatever it ranked, the death toll continues to rise. Twenty-two thousand dead in nine countries from tsunami COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Rescuers piled up bodies along southern Asian coastlines devastated by tidal waves that smashed into nine countries, obliterating seaside towns and killing more than 20,900 people. Hundreds of children were buried in mass graves in India, and morgues and hospitals struggled to cope with the catastrophe. The death toll mounted sharply Monday, a day after the 9.0-magnitude quake struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean off the coast of Indonesia. It was the most powerful quake in four decades. The waves sped away from the epicenter at over 500 mph before crashing into the region's shorelines, sweeping people and fishing villages out to sea. Millions were displaced from their homes and thousands were missing. Officials said the death toll would continue to rise, and the International Red Cross said it was concerned about waterborne diseases. Sri Lanka said just over 10,000 people were killed along its coastlines, and Tamil rebels said 2,000 people died in its territory, bringing that country's toll to more than 12,000. Indonesia reported about 5,000 deaths and India 3,000. Thailand - a Western tourist hotspot - said hundreds were dead and thousands missing. Deaths were also reported in Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh and even in Somalia, 3,000 miles away in Africa. more at AP website. Reuters had amazing pictures yesterday. It looked very much like Hilo did in 1947 and 1960."}, {"response": 57, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 27, 2004 (18:43)", "body": "my prayers out to them......."}, {"response": 58, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 2004 (13:36)", "body": "Really, the count is mounting and the UN is calling the USA \"stingy\". It looks like the US is mounting a major relief effort however. Posted at Global Voices Online by way of Jon Lebkowsky's blog After the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia, bloggers from India quickly set up The South-East Asia Earthquake and http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/ Tsunami blog for news and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts. This blog's an invaluable coordination effort, and it pointed to the need for a more robust and permanent site for ongoing coordination of bloggers and other online resources in response to other catastrophic situations that might occur in the future. Nick Lewis of the Progressive Blog Alliance http://pbahq.smartcampaigns.com/ is working on such an \"Emergency Action Blog\" site. We've set up an email list (eab at activist-tech.org) for a collaborative effort to define requirements and taxonomy and produce the site using something like CivicSpace http://www.civicspacelabs.org/ . To subscribe, send a blank email to eab-subscribe at activist-tech.org. This will hopefully be an international collaboration of bloggers and techs, therefore a good early project for those who support the Global Voices intiative. Comments http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/index.php?p=36#comments"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 2004 (09:07)", "body": "The list of casualties grows and disease may take as many more as are dead from the tsunami. It is a gret tragedy! From Reuters: Quake may hav made the Earth wobble LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The deadly Asian earthquake may have permanently accelerated the Earth's rotation -- shortening days by a fraction of a second -- and caused the planet to wobble on its axis, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday. Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth's center during the quake on Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or 3 millionths of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis. When one huge tectonic plate beneath the Indian Ocean was forced below the edge of another \"it had the effect of making the Earth more compact and spinning faster,\" Gross said. Gross said changes predicted by his model probably are too minuscule to be detected by a global positioning satellite network that routinely measures changes in Earth's spin, but said the data may reveal a slight wobble. The Earth's poles travel a circular path that normally varies by about 33 feet, so an added wobble of an inch is unlikely to cause long-term effects, he said. \"That continual motion is just used to changing,\" Gross said. \"The rotation is not actually that precise. The Earth does slow down and change its rate of rotation.\" When those tiny variations accumulate, planetary scientists must add a \"leap second\" to the end of a year, something that has not been done in many years, Gross said. Scientists have long theorized that changes on the Earth's surface such as tide and groundwater shifts and weather could affect its spin but they have not had precise measurements to prove it, Caltech seismologist Hiroo Kanamori said. \"Even for a very large event, the effect is very small,\" Kanamori said. \"It's very difficult to change the rotation rate substantially.\""}, {"response": 60, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 2004 (09:19)", "body": "Every time I turn on the news this gets worse"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 2004 (10:07)", "body": "I discovered that yesterday, Lucie. Having lived on an island ravaged by trunamis twice in the latter half of the 20th century, I was not surprised at the low first estimate then later rising tolls. This will get worse before it gets better. From Reuters: Quake may have moved islands LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The massive earthquake that devastated parts of Asia permanently moved the tectonic plates beneath the Indian Ocean as much as 98 feet, slightly shifting islands near Sumatra an unknown distance, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday. A tsunami spawned by the 9.0-magnitude quake off the northern tip of Sumatra killed an estimated 60,000 on Sunday in Indonesia, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and East Africa. Satellite images showed that the movement of undersea plates off the northern tip of Sumatra moved the Nicobar Islands and Simeulue Island out to sea by an unknown distance, U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Ken Hudnut said. Although the data showed that plates more than 12 miles beneath the ocean's surface moved dramatically, scientists will have to use handheld satellite positioning systems at the sites to learn precisely how much the land masses on the surface shifted, Hudnut said. The USGS team in Pasadena, California, also was studying more detailed satellite images on Tuesday to determine if the scraping of one plate over another plowed up enough debris on the ocean floor to block the port of Banda Aceh in Sumatra where international aid was headed. Large earthquakes in the last decade in Kobe, Japan, and Golcuk, Turkey, deformed the coastlines and rendered their ports inoperable after the crises, Hudnut said. The scientists have asked for cooperation from operators of commercial satellites that can provide high-resolution images to show the extent of damage to coastlines, he said. Reuters Dec 28 2004 4:21PM"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 2004 (10:08)", "body": "One of the larger earthquakes I experienced in Hawaii generated its own tusnami and took the life of Hilo's rising star surgeon who was on a boyscout camp out with is son."}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 2004 (10:54)", "body": "Toll from tsunami could top 100,000 GENEVA (Reuters) - Deaths in the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster could top 100,000 when the toll on India's Bay of Bengal islands is known, a senior international Red Cross official said on Wednesday. \"I would not be at all surprised that we will be on 100,000 (deaths) when we know what has happened on the Andaman and Nicobar islands,\" Peter Rees of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said. He told a news conference IFRC estimates stood at 77,828 dead across the region, including in Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya and the Seychelles thousands of miles from the epicenter of the earthquake off Indonesia on Sunday. \"But the figures are climbing all the time,\" said Rees, head of the Operations support department at the Geneva-based Federation which is coordinating relief operations together with the United Nations OCHA humanitarian agency. Rees said confirmed dead, according to information from the IFRC's member societies around the Pacific Ocean, was over 68,000 -- in line with figures compiled by Reuters with information from governments and aid agencies. He said nearly 510,000 were confirmed injured and over a million had been forced to flee their homes. But he stressed that these figures were bound to be revised upwards as more information came in. Florian Westphal of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said his organization's representatives on the ground in the Indonesian province of Aceh said bodies were everywhere in the capital, Banda Aceh. \"And we don't really know what has happened in the coastal regions,\" Westphal told the news conference. Earlier, a U.N. official in Banda Aceh said the death toll in the province might be between 50,000 and 80,000. Indonesian officials say the province, where separatist rebels have been fighting the national army for years, suffered earthquake as well as tidal wave damage."}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 2004 (11:54)", "body": "For the \"official\" information at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/usslav/"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 2004 (12:00)", "body": "This from the above cited USGS webiste that I found interesting: At least 27,000 people were killed by the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia. Tsunamis killed at least 18,000 people in Sri Lanka, 4,300 in India, 1,400 in Thailand, 100 in Somalia, 52 in Maldives, 44 in Malaysia, 30 in Myanmar, 10 in Tanzania, 3 in Seychelles, 2 in Bangladesh and 1 in Kenya. Tsunamis also occurred on the coasts of Cocos Island, Mauritius, and Reunion. The tsunami crossed into the Pacific Ocean and was recorded along the west coast of South and North America. The earthquake was felt (VIII) at Banda Aceh and (V) at Medan, Sumatra. It was also felt in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. This is the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake."}, {"response": 66, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 2004 (15:39)", "body": "there was a program about tsunamis on national geographic last night--it talked about all the major ones (including the hilo incident)....very sad--this one does seem to get worse everytime i turn on the news (of course it was spread out but still, that's a lot of families destroyed)."}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 2004 (18:05)", "body": "I saw that, Wolfie! I wonder if it was coincidental... which it surely was. Now they face mass burials to save the living and inoculations against such lovely killers as typhus, cholera and so many others. Bless the relief workers. That is harrowing work !"}, {"response": 68, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 2004 (19:37)", "body": "I watched that too, Wolfie. I know that after the big one in Alaska the tsunamis reached California. It was really bad along the Alaska coast. Kodiak rose nine feet and Valdez sank nine feet .They had to rebuild the port of Valdez. I thought tha they had started to educate people about what to do if the water disappears after the disaster in Hawaii in the forties. Instead ot running for high ground the people followed the water out."}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 2004 (20:50)", "body": "Lucie, a nine-foot tsunami was generated in Hawaii and all the damages were was to washed away lawn furniture which the Coast Guard had rescued. That is as much of a tsunami as I ever experienced. The false alarms were frightening enough! The problem of the water disappearing - and it was also on April Fools Day - was that fish are so close and so easy to catch. There has been widewpread education in Hawaii and we chose via referendum to make you leave your home when the National Guard has to remove inhabitants from the inundation zones. No one protests."}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 2004 (09:36)", "body": "It continues to get worse with aftershocks and resulting smaller trunamis: From Associated Press: BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) - The death toll from last weekend's earthquake-tsunami catastrophe rose to more than 114,000 on Thursday as Indonesia uncovered more and more dead from ravaged Sumatra island, where pilots dropped food to remote villages still unreached by rescue workers. A false alarm that new killer waves were about to hit sparked panic in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The increase came after Indonesia reported nearly 28,000 newly confirmed dead in Sumatra, which was closest to the epicenter of last weekend's massive earthquake and was overwhelmed by the tsunami that followed. Some 60 percent of the Banda Aceh, the main city in northern Sumatra was destroyed, the U.N. children's agency estimated, and the island's northwest coast - lined with villages - was inundated. The new count brought Indonesia's death toll to around 80,000 - the worst hit nation, followed by Sri Lanka, India and Thailand."}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 2004 (17:17)", "body": "Now to the four-legged and winged animals in this tragedy: Tsunami Adds to Belief in Animals' 'Sixth Sense' Thu Dec 30, 2004 08:31 AM ET By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami, adding weight to notions they possess a \"sixth sense\" for disasters, experts said Thursday. Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast seemingly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found. \"No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening,\" H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka's Wildlife Department, said Wednesday. The waves washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka's biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards. \"There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven,\" said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior specialist at Johannesburg Zoo. more... http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GKM3XYE01YE12CRBAEZSFFA?type=scienceNews&storyID=7207207"}, {"response": 72, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 31, 2004 (10:52)", "body": "BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) - Even as an unprecedented world relief drive gathers momentum, survivors continue to grapple with the tsunami destruction in south Asia. Teams of forensic experts in Thailand have been packing bodies in dry ice as the government there doubled the death toll to more than 45-hundred people, nearly half of them foreigners. Donations have been pouring in and aid planes and ships, including a U-S aircraft carrier battle group, are rushing to the devastated region where officials say more than 121-thousand died. (M) Millions of survivors are still struggling for food and shelter. Officials, especially in Indonesia, are coming to grips with the realization that there may never be an accurate death count after the towering waves swept entire villages and everyone in them out to sea."}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 31, 2004 (15:27)", "body": "They collected DNA from many of them because they were too far \"gone\" to do anything else for identification. The true loss may never be known."}, {"response": 74, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jan  1, 2005 (07:35)", "body": "BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - A legion of ships and planes has delivered aid to millions of Asian tsunami survivors after New Year revellers around the world paused to mourn victims of one of the worst disasters in living memory. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for a major logistical operation to help countries shattered by Sunday's tsunami, which by the latest count had killed 125,930 after India added another thousand fatalities. The U.N. emergency relief operations coordinator said the death toll was approaching 150,000, with a third or more of them believed to be children. \"We mourn, we cry, and our hearts weep, witnessing thousands of those killed left rigid in the streets,\" Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a subdued New Year address. Rescue teams say aid has started to reach stricken areas, six days after the monster waves obliterated beach towns and sucked tourists out to sea or inland in a torrent of mud and debris. They were racing against time with an estimated 5 million people in the disaster areas facing grave difficulty getting food and clean water. Health authorities warned of a second wave of deaths from contagious diseases. from http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=647084"}, {"response": 75, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sun, Jan  2, 2005 (13:01)", "body": "To make matters worse now they are getting heavy rainstorms. These are strong willed people who have survived disasters before, though not this bad. They will prevail, of that I am sure."}, {"response": 76, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep  1, 2005 (14:46)", "body": "We are in the midst of our own tsunami in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. It has been four days now and help is just starting to trickle in. Looting. Price gouging. Rising gas prices. It's getting more serious every day."}, {"response": 77, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep  1, 2005 (14:53)", "body": "Isn't wolfie's hometown New Orleans?"}, {"response": 78, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Thu, Sep  1, 2005 (17:41)", "body": "Howdy Terry Curious how the gas prices are down in Austin - they are hovering up around $3 here up north. I heard today that the folks displaced from the floods are even being sheltered in San Antonio - knew that the old Astrodome was being used. 73 de Mike"}, {"response": 79, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Thu, Sep  1, 2005 (18:13)", "body": "I know, I know...I'm not Terry but the following site usually has fairly accurate current prices...it's part of http://www.gasbuddy.com/ http://www.austingasprices.com/"}, {"response": 80, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep  1, 2005 (19:40)", "body": "no, terry, really don't have a hometown but i claimed bossier city home for 15 years (NW corner) and i HATE what's going on with the gas--we have $2.50 - $2.99..... folks from new orleans are going to the astrodome in Houston but i haven't heard if they're going to be sheltered in the alamodome (aside from the Saints). AFAIK, the AF Base in Mississippi is headed this way."}, {"response": 81, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Sep  1, 2005 (23:44)", "body": "I heard they're going to house about 25,000 at a San Antonio Air Force Base. Do you know any Bossier City folks who were caught in the aftermath?"}, {"response": 82, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep  2, 2005 (19:49)", "body": "the number was 3 times that this morning on the radio, hadn't heard anything yet this afternoon.... as far as my friends in B.C., haven't heard but i'm sure they're taking in people too. one of my friends in N.O. emailed me today---he and his family are ok and staying in FL for now. they don't know the extent of damage to their property though. i'm just relieved that they're ok, y'know?"}, {"response": 83, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep  2, 2005 (19:49)", "body": "oh, terry, can the spring, in any way, make donations to the red cross as a group? you know, from \"the spring\" to help keep it anonymous for folks who want to donate?"}, {"response": 84, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep  4, 2005 (00:12)", "body": "We can do that, the best way would be to set up an account like Ann Haker does with her austen.com donations. That way, everyone can monitor the donations."}, {"response": 85, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep  4, 2005 (12:27)", "body": "that would be AWESOME!"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (19:07)", "body": "I guess living with $3.00 + per gallon gas in Hawaii for so many years, I have become immune to being shocked by prices. I'm glad they got that guy in Atlanta who jacked his prices up to $5.00/gallon just after Katrina (and before they made him lower it again). There has to be some sort of regulation just like any other public utility. This is insane. Hey, Austin, did you get any survivors? We got a bunch but sent more people to help there than we are doing here. We send linemen all over the USA after disasters to assist in getting the power back online. Health workers, too."}, {"response": 87, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (22:17)", "body": "we had katrina and rita evacuees taking shelter at Kelly USA...."}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (23:04)", "body": "I wonder what ours will do if there is no place else to go. I guess they make new lives here."}, {"response": 89, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (00:54)", "body": "Will you let us know right away about any forming hurricanes and possible coastal tsunamis Marci?"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (16:18)", "body": "Absolutely!!! I check it daily and have several weather sources scouring the internet all the time including the NWS and NOAA."}, {"response": 91, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (19:54)", "body": "you know marcia's going to keep us posted! am glad too!!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (21:15)", "body": "It seems like there's always something, tornadoes, earthquakes, blizzards, hurricanes, tsunami. It just goes to show you can't hide from MOther Nature."}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  6, 2005 (17:34)", "body": "Now that media needs 24/7 coverage, you KNOW that nothing will happen without a full and embellished report. I've got my proverbial ear to the rail of earth."}, {"response": 94, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (00:00)", "body": "Tammy is heading for the Okefenokee Swamp, tying the record for the most named storms in a year."}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (02:12)", "body": "Impressive. Get the Possums out of there. Pogo lives there! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 79, "subject": "Confluence.org - where latitude meets longitude", "response_count": 7, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (12:46)", "body": "From the site's main page: The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures and stories will then be posted here. overview The project is an organized sampling of the world. We've excluded confluences in the oceans and dropped some near the poles, but there are still 12,628 to be found. You're invited to help. Read the More Information page and then contact us if you're interested in photographing any one of these places (there is one within 49 miles (79 km) of you if you're on the surface of Earth)."}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (12:47)", "body": "Can you find the confluence closest to your home?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (16:37)", "body": "I'm working on it from my home away from home in the bluegrass of Kentucky I anm certain an archaeologist has enough coordianates for the local area to afford me a location and something I can photograph. In Hawaii, it is in the sea and most of the sea looks the same! This is a GREAT topic. Fascinating!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (16:51)", "body": "I just checked their website. All of Kentucky and California have been documented. None in Hawaii have been but almost all of them are in the sea as I suspected. Interesting project. So is the one that buries the treasures/food and leaves comments."}, {"response": 5, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (17:04)", "body": "Howdy Howdy Well, Milwaukee, WI and Elk Grove Village, IL have been documented already. Since I live between these two points, I'll just throw in my grid square for AA9IL: EN62ai I plan to have some microwave station pictures available for that point or nearby grid locations which I guess I will post to my web page whenever I get around to creating one! 73 de Mike aa9il"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (11:29)", "body": "PLEASE let us know where your webpage is when you create one. I'll be a frequent visitor! Send me your grid square photo via email and I will ftp it to Spring's hard drive so you can post it."}, {"response": 7, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Jul 12, 2002 (03:08)", "body": "I will have it in mind. Perhaps I can post some pictures from Greece. John Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 8, "subject": "Precious Stones and Metals: Physical and Chemical Properties", "response_count": 655, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 14, 1999 (23:15)", "body": "First, the attributes which defines something as being Precious and Valuable. *It has to be durable, *It must be universally acknowledged as desirable, *It must be rare. There have been legends about eyes of idols which were fabulous gems from the Orient set into the center of worship in temples there. The Hope Diamond was one such stone, and what there is of it now is only half the original size. Diamonds come in many colors. The British Museum of Natural History has on display cut examples of diamonds in blood red, emerald green, Golden-yellow, Royal Blue, Turquoise, and various shades of champagne, pink and white. Each specimen is cut perfectly and sparklingly clear as a fine diamond should be. Some are so rare that they are tiny - as in the Greens and the Reds. The hardest substance on Earth is the Diamond at 10 on the Moh's Scale of Hardness, but they are brittle. Slam you hand against a porcelain sink and your diamond may shatter to pieces from some tiny flaw in the crystalline structure. Daimonds are, after all, the purest form of Carbon, and they will burn with a hot blue flame and turn into Carbon Dioxide. I would like to recommend you take me at my word on this - there is no way to get it back to being a diamond after it has been consigned to the flames."}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (08:57)", "body": "tanzanite is a unique gem in that under different lights, the colors change. the colors range from deep sapphire blue, to purple, to gray when held on an angle. i thoroughly enjoy my piece of tanzanite and have noticed that they are increasing in popularity. sapphire also comes in a myriad of colors to include green, white, and red."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (13:59)", "body": "And so is Alexandrite which is amethyst under incandescent light and green in the daylight. Mine even turned blue one time when we were high in the Sierras on an exceptionally clear day. I am taking the stones and metals in descending order of hardness. Next is the Sapphire / Ruby group."}, {"response": 4, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (14:03)", "body": "didn't know there was an order of business *grin* sapphire and ruby are members of the berile group right?"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (14:04)", "body": "BTW, of all the colors a sapphire may be - they cannot be red. Then it is a ruby! All others are Sapphires. (Don't know why but am researching it)"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (14:10)", "body": "Sapphires and Ruby are Corundum. Beryls are softer and include Emerald and Aquamarine"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (14:14)", "body": "Wolf, as a fellow Emerald Baby, I lusted after that emerald green diamond I mentioned above. What a sparkle it had. That would have been some birthstone!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (14:23)", "body": "Ummmmm, I guess we will just go for which stones come up in discussion. No order unless no one posts. Then, I start teaching again (heaven help us *lol*)"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (16:19)", "body": "wait, are you a june or may baby? i'm june, so alexandrite and pearl are my precious gems. have never cared for emerald that much. aquamarine is beautiful and i own three pieces. i forgot that ruby and sapphire were so closely related! i know the colors of some gems are directly related to an element found in their chemistry. off the top of my head, i can't think of what it's called!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (21:26)", "body": "May 31st is mine. Gemini is from May 22 to June 22? Something like that anyway. Never cared for emeralds; I also have three pieces set with aquamarine (pretty hard to come by these days) - one I set myself! Ruby is red due to iron and titanium makes them blue(very simply stated, and can be from other metallic salts as well.) Rutile filiment cause an asterism - a flaw, really - the result being a star ruby or a star sapphire (my original engagement ring!)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 16, 1999 (09:38)", "body": "woohoo! you're right about gemini. mine is june 8. i see a lot of aquamarine in the jewelry departments here and tanzanite is about to get its own display shelf! of course, as the popularity increases, so does the price. found mine on a 50% off display and absolutely love it!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 16, 1999 (11:24)", "body": "Wolf: i see a lot of aquamarine in the jewelry departments here Are you sure you are not seeing light topaz? It is everywhere and relatively inexpensive. BTW, do not purchase any Deep blue topaz. To get that lovely color they take clear topaz and irradiate it. The darker the color the more radiation. The really dark and lovely London blue is actually radioactive. Put that think on your finger and wear it all the time and you may have some serious problems! Tanzanite is lovely, but I Know a lady with a deep velvet indigo one. Stunning!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 16, 1999 (12:22)", "body": "i knew about how they darken topaz, i don't own any. um, the aquamarine i'm seeing is marked as such. lighter topaz stones are with the darker stones."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 16, 1999 (13:21)", "body": "Then, you are dealing with reputable jewellers. Beware of the ones who display the stones by color without identifying them. In cases like these it can save you a great deal of money and heartache - unless you are delighted with your stone and got what you think was a good deal on it Back to my Birthstone, the emerald. Since I do not care for them, I have been hunting for a green stone I do like. That is not easy. One visit to Britain I found a little second-hand shop and asked to see the jewelry - rings in particular. He brought out a tray of uninspired stuff, so I asked him if he had any tasteful Victorian items. He drolly remarked that I could have either Victorian or tasteful, but not both. I chose an Edwardian Bezel set deep green tournaline set in 18K gold. Very plain and very tasteful. I adore it and am very happy with it."}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 17, 1999 (09:36)", "body": "and in 18K! wow!! i believe there are two stones for each month, but i'll have to find a reference for that. tourmaline is famous for the watermelon colors, right?"}, {"response": 16, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 17, 1999 (09:49)", "body": "there are at least two...I think I've run across about four for June..."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 17, 1999 (10:46)", "body": "Moonstone, Pearl and Alexandrite is what comes to mind for June...will check on that some more. Tourmaline crystals grow in columns and are (the gem quality) usually green or black at the bottom fading into clear fading into rosy red at the tops, making a unique banding effect. That is how it got the obvious watermelon name. It is precisely the color of a ripe watermelon!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:13)", "body": "What about for Oct? I seem to remember being told my birth stone is an opal- which, of course, makes me look like a corpse. :) Anything brighter as an option? By-the-bye, excellent work Marica! This place is great!! :)"}, {"response": 19, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:16)", "body": "ACK!!!! Marcia! really- i can spell when i remember to pay attention to what i'm doing! Sorry dear! *blushing*"}, {"response": 20, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:26)", "body": "Whoa, honey. You have a *real* Alexandrite? Do you know how rare that is? Even the lab-created (same physical and chemical properties) are very expensive. BTW, tanzanite doesn't change colors. Tourmaline comes in many, many colors. I do like the green as well and better than emeralds, which are so cloudy and flawed usually. Many stones (besides topaz) are irradiated for color. In Russia, they make blue diamonds that way or maybe it's just intense heat."}, {"response": 21, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:28)", "body": "And while we're on the subject, I think I heard that there were new sources of aquamarine on the market from China, which may account for greater quantities appearing in stores. From the ones I've seen, they don't have the same lovely greenish tinge and are more light sky bluish, which defeats the purpose of having an Aqua IMO."}, {"response": 22, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:31)", "body": "october also has rose zircon (a bright and delightful pink) am not sure if that's a precious stone or a cheap alternative to opal. i don't care for the white opal, but when you find it in the most intense irridescence, it can be quite beautiful (a fiery blue/aqua)... tanzanite only appears to change colors in light, of this i am aware, but did you know that upon tilting it, it seems to be slate gray? thanks for visiting marcia's geo board! way to go, marcia, you're bringing droolers over!! woohoo!!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:34)", "body": "the aquamarine i own came from china and are more blue than green, but because of the faintness of the color and the fact that the colors you're wearing only enhances the color of the stone, i find it quite enchanting :) do they irradiate aquamarine as well, to intensify the color?"}, {"response": 24, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:37)", "body": "Wolf, hon, the quality of opals you see in this country makes people hate them!! What you will see in Australia would blow your mind! The normal opals are on fire with color leaping out. The black opals (which are really greenish) are gorgeous and I have something called boulder opals that are deep blue and green. Blue zircon is very rare (isn't that an alternative for December). I know they don't really change colors, but appear to be different colors in light. I have tanzanite and don't recall anyone ever saying it would do so. I'm a little rusty, but I know there's another stone beside alexandrite that would do that. It will come to me."}, {"response": 25, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:40)", "body": "hee hee hee...won't Marcia be surprised to see me here!? And no, I've never heard of anyone irradiating Aquas."}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:44)", "body": "that's what i love about tanzanite. i fiddle with it all the time to see the way the light affects the color!! have never owned a real alexandrite and really didn't know they actually were a stone (haha, and i'm a june baby)!! about the opals, have a gemstone book and when i found the other colors opal can display i was quite impressed! have never seen blue zircon, will have to look that one up. we'll have to find some pictures to post here (i'll post some after i locate that book!!) i would love to see australia period, not to mention all the stuff i'd find there *grin*"}, {"response": 27, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:44)", "body": "you snuck in ahead of me again! *laugh* guess i don't type as fast as i used to..."}, {"response": 28, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:47)", "body": "ok, i just went out on a search and found this website on birthstones. will investigate it and see if it's any good-- http://www.jewelrymall.com/birthstones.html"}, {"response": 29, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:53)", "body": "If you like the grey slateish look of tanzanite (although I prefer it in the more valuable blue-violet shade), you should see silver and violet sapphires!! *oil up them digits* ;-D"}, {"response": 30, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (21:56)", "body": "actually, i love the tanzanite in that magical bluish purple, it's so vibrant! the website is great. it lists modern, traditional, tibetan, indian, and other birthstones for each month. it further breaks it down into astrological birthstones. each month is broken down with references and places to purchase...really really interesting!!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (22:13)", "body": "I turn my back to get another Topic going and what a super surprise I find in Precious stones. Thanks for all of the postings. Opals - black ones are magnificent as are fire opals which are red to red-orange. Oil them to help keep their luster, but be aware that it is little pockets of fluid trapped in the stone which makes the rainbows ( just like in the sky) and they are fragile. Do not hide them in your refrigerator. Do not bang them against hard surfaces. They will shatter. I have a blue Zircon and it is lovely- a medium steely teal blue color. I am wearing my real Alexandrite, and it turns three colors - though the third color only once in the High Sierra on a very clear day. Mine is green by Day and amethyst by night, but neither are very pretty colors. It turned blue in the Sierras! Sapphires come in all colors of the spectrum except red. They are rubies. Ok next posting is on Bi-refringence - which is the apparent colorshift in a stone. and Pleiochromism. Class tomorrow... I am delighted that you all came here to post!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (09:49)", "body": "well, i shall now be on the lookout for alexandrite (if i can afford it!)"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 21, 1999 (16:45)", "body": "Wolf, I wear my Alexandrite (Marquise cut set in white gold) on my wedding ring finger in honor of someone born in June. It looks great with any color setting, but it is usually set in white metal - estate and old world settings were silver and current ones use white gold - especially since the prices went up. If you cannot find a real one in something you can afford, I have seen some good ones which do the amethyst-to-green change rather well. They are also not cheap, but are much more affordable. Be are of the ones which go from greyish to pinkish. That is what you find in Mexico and is another stone entirely (but I have one I love!)"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 21, 1999 (17:36)", "body": "Dichroism Some gems are of a crystal structure which causes light from different angles to exhibit different shades of the same color. Rubies have this quality and it distinguishes them from all other deep red stones (Spinels and Garnets). All corundum gems - Sapphires - are dichroaic. (also known as Pleochroism Birefringence The crystalling structure is such that it produces double images. Calcite, Zircon and others exhibit this quality. When looking through a faceted stone from the top, the bottom facets will appear double. The occurrance of two different colors in the same stone viewed under differing light sources, as in Alexandrite is called something I cannot find (yet!)It has also been observed in green or bluish grossular Garnet from East Africa which have been observed to turn red. (Still hunting for the name of this optical quality...check out this URL as a possibility for your specimen http://www.chatham.com/mainalex.htm )"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 21, 1999 (17:50)", "body": "The term for the two-color optical quality of Alexandrite is considered an extreme and very rare form of Dichroism For more information on Alexandrites (including the price of flawless stones from Brazil = $20,000 per carat) http://www.houseofonyx.com/gem1.html More on cut stones http://18carat.co.uk/alexandrite.html"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (00:28)", "body": "There are lesser grades of Russian Alexandrites which turn from brown to yellow, but I have never seen one."}, {"response": 37, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (03:53)", "body": "I wonder what color German Alexanders turn...hmmm..."}, {"response": 38, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (12:20)", "body": "Anything from red to pale, depending on how Marcia looks at them ;-) This may well become one of my favourite topics...Well, the female brain has a large area attuned to shiny things, remember? :-)"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (12:49)", "body": "Depends upon what I have written in my last message to him, I guess...Gi, no telling my secrets in here... but you share that proclivity as well, as I recall...;)"}, {"response": 40, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:33)", "body": "Indeed! And have already bookmarked that birthstone site Wolf told us about... am going hunting for it as soon as I can! The DH is feeling generous...;-)"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:41)", "body": "Check out the other ones I put on, too. Generous enough for an Alexandrite?"}, {"response": 42, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:51)", "body": "I doubt that... Alexandrite is now being used as the core for laser machines used in definitive epilation."}, {"response": 43, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (15:43)", "body": "ooh...neato..."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (15:48)", "body": "Why are they using beryl rather than corundum? (William - do not even think about it!!!)"}, {"response": 45, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (16:32)", "body": "but think of the cool designs that could be traced out on me..."}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (16:37)", "body": "The Illustrated man?! (I do not know what cool designs are there now!)"}, {"response": 47, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (16:40)", "body": "that's true...hehe..."}, {"response": 48, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (17:30)", "body": "please no pics, wer *grin* i don't think i've ever seen an alexandrite in our local stores, probably have to go to some high-faluten place and that means i couldn't even afford to walk in the door. the last time the big alpha wolf was generous i came home with a 1 carat anniversary ring *gush* it looks, to the untrained eye, more expensive than it really was, but this gal ain't complainin'!!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (18:51)", "body": "I gave you some resources on the net. Check them out first, and there are some better and better man-made ones as well."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (18:54)", "body": "Wolf, I am grateful for small packages which sparkle. I am easy to please because I get so little anymore. Congratulations to Alpha Wolf and to you."}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (19:42)", "body": "oh, thanks! i forgot about the websites you posted, thanks for reminding me!! and you know what else? since i go out of town on business, i treat myself to something special. have purchased several pieces of jewelry this way and because i'm frugal (for the most part) haven't broken the bank *grin*"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (20:10)", "body": "Good for you - I am frugal too, but on occasion...Glad to hear you say that, Dear!"}, {"response": 53, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (00:13)", "body": "Quite the busy place!! Is there a gem sale going on? *whipping out her credit cards* Alexandrite is now being used as the core for laser machines used in definitive epilation. Hair removal?"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (10:43)", "body": "It would seem so. Wish she'd get back and let us know. Are hedge trimmers far behind?!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (11:58)", "body": "Hair removal is what i mean. Some of you know that part of my job is also hair transplanting. I haven't done any removal, but have seen it done and it seems pretty cool. Ruby lasers can also be used for hair removal (as for removal of small vascular lesions and pigments), but apparently alexandrite lasers can do better in less time. However, they are stupidly expensive and therefore hair removal by this means is also stupidly expensive.(I think it is probably worth it, though;-))"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (15:26)", "body": "You are our resident expert. Thanks for the input, my dear. (Please do not ornament or carve my friend...!)"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (15:43)", "body": "Ooh, I almost forgot, I have a laser-ruby ring set in heavy Mexican Silver. It is made from the leftover pieces of perfect rubies and is a rather good-sized stone for my little fingers, but the color is outstanding!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (15:45)", "body": "neato!!"}, {"response": 59, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (16:18)", "body": "What do you mean re: laser ruby? Industrial grade?"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (19:20)", "body": "Yes, they cut the middle out which is the most perfect part, and the rest is culled for the gem trade. Mine is flawless as far as I can tell (10x and higher magnification) Laser rubies are not \"industrial grade\" the way we think of \"industrial diamonds\" - to be laser material, the ruby must be flawless."}, {"response": 61, "author": "roarksmuse", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (05:13)", "body": "It seems like I can learn a lot here, if I ask the questions. However, you must not think my questions ignorant. the asker is ignorant and asking to learn because it seems interesting. That having been said -- I love diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. and emeralds too. Marcia you mentions industrial diamonds - what exactly is ment by 'industrial diamonds'? The only way I know them is by color, different grades, and flaws. I have rubies from Africa, which are beautiful, but not as bright as say a Burmese. How would I know whether it was a laser ruby? I, however, assume it is gem quality."}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (11:15)", "body": "There is no soch thing as a stupid question as far as I am concerned. I am delighted that you are interested enough to ask. Industrial gem anything is so full of flaws that about the only thing you can tell about them is that they are diamonds by their hardness. They use them is drill bits and as abrasives. Industrial garnets are used as abrasives, also. In short, purchase only from reliable sources unless you can test what you are buying. Most laser culls are thrown back into the vat and remelted. Mine came from a friend of my Father's who was in the laser business. Your rubies sound lovely. Laser rubies are too perfect - that is the nature of man-made stones. It was a huge problem with the man-made emeralds. Natural emeralds have flaw internally and it was very difficult to achieve just the right flaw patterns as in natural stones. As to how they tell Burmese (the best in the world, btw) from any other rubies is to run tests to ascertain other trace elements in it. Each source has different readings. This is not something you want to do at home unless you have he resources to buy some pretty exotic and expensive equipment. Thanks for stopping by and do come back - love your questions!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (12:54)", "body": "hey marcia, i went to one of the sites you listed and looked at the created and real alexandrites and what a price difference. looked at the cheapest real ones but couldn't find a setting i liked. (ditto for the created ones). my mom gave me an alexandrite ring but told me it wasn't real (stone or metal) and the stone came out and i lost it. now i feel bad that i thought it was so chintzy and that experience is what made me thing alexandrites weren't worth much. (silly me, i know *blush*) anyway, the alpha male wolf asked me what i wanted for christmas and i almost blurted \"an alexandrite!\""}, {"response": 64, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (13:53)", "body": "(Marcia) As to how they tell Burmese (the best in the world, btw) from any other rubies is to run tests Natch, but Burma rubies look v. different from African. Burmas are definitely more cherry red, while the African are darker. I know, I have a Burma ruby ring. It's real purty. :)"}, {"response": 65, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (13:58)", "body": "and about the emeralds. The term used to describe real ones is \"occluded.\" They are cloudy and full of flaws and everyone knows it. That's why the man-made stuff looks so wrong because they are sparklingly clear. I'm sure there are some flawless pieces out there, set in royal headwear or sceptors, or dangling in pendants encrusted with diamonds, but it's so rare to find a clear emerald. Saw some huge emeralds at the Topkapi museum."}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (17:12)", "body": "Karen, as always we welcome your input. I have a very small ruby from my Grandmother (it was hers as a little girl) and have no idea of its origins, but it is a lovely cherry red. Sounds like it could be Burmese. Perhaps it is time for me to get out the terms like occluded and other optical and physical things in a stone apart from the ordinary cat's eye ans asterism (which are flaws, too.) The treasury of Iran (wherever it is now) has the largest single emeralds known. On a box about the size of a double deck of cards and twice as high, the lid is one huge slab of the most incredible emerald. The sides and back are too. But it is Too Much! It is soooo green it hurts your eyes. If I had a scanner I would pu it on the page...Soon!!!! My Alexandrite is of second quality - which means it goes from Amethyst to forest green. I want a Chatham Created one. They are costly, but they do go from ruby to emerald. BTW, I hope you all buy or receive yours in the day time with a blue sky and sun shining. I got mine at night and it was amethyst no matter what light I used. I had to wait for morning to see it turn green. Then I had to wait for 20 more years to see it turn blue!"}, {"response": 67, "author": "roarksmuse", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (20:50)", "body": "Thanks Marcia. Karen, Burmese are much lighter and seem to me not cloudy. I know that the African ruby is darker. Both are beautiful in their own right. I have an African (3k) for everyday and 2 Burmese for special or different occasions. Emeralds are beautiful too. I don't care for the manufactured ones. And Wolf, I hope you get that Alexandrite sooner than Christmas."}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (21:18)", "body": "Man, it must be nice to have every-day Rubies and Special-occasion Rubies... I asked you whether you were male or female in Horoscope. I am almost positive that you are of the XX gender - but I still might be wrong. Karen and roark are both from Chicago. Small world!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "roarksmuse", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (01:12)", "body": "FEMALE; Diann, keep the horoscopes coming. I thought you made them up."}, {"response": 70, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (09:05)", "body": "my goodness a 3K ruby for everyday! you go, girl!! ok, you all will think me a fool, BUT, i ordered two pieces with garnet. one is a black hills gold bracelet with links that each carry a piece of garnet and a matching ring. alpha male will never get me that alexandrite now! haha, black hills is so pretty i couldn't resist. it'll be here next week and i'll let you know."}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (11:28)", "body": "I love Garnets more than rubies for their color. I have 4 garnet rings, one of which I bought on one of my visits to Britain, I also have a lathe pectoral corss set with cab garnets in havy silver. Truly magnificent stones! Let us know how you love them when you get them."}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (11:30)", "body": "Welcome Diann =) Go happy to meet you. I think I need to hunt for better astrology stuff...some of that is pretty weird."}, {"response": 73, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (12:34)", "body": "astrology has been discussed at paraspring, genx, porch, and spirit! i don't believe in it, but some of it is really uncanny...."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (15:12)", "body": "Did that long Gemini thing I posted sound like you? I am terrible with grocery carts. My son won't let me wield one!"}, {"response": 75, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (16:15)", "body": "did i miss the long gemini thing? where did you post it? i have to have the cart when i need one. my kids want to run into everything with it and i can't stand the \"no control\" thing."}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (16:40)", "body": "Porch 55.170"}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (17:18)", "body": "k!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "roarksmuse", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (00:41)", "body": "wolf, you are so right about alpha wolf. You definitely have to take things into your own hands, like I did. I was loving myself. about para: is there anyone over there that soothsays?"}, {"response": 79, "author": "roarksmuse", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (00:42)", "body": "Marcia, I almost forgot. are you a geologist?"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (00:54)", "body": "I ended up with more credits in earth sciences (Geology, Paleo, Mineralogy, etc) than I did in my major so I got a split degree...you could call me a geologist without the math credentials."}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (00:56)", "body": "Diann, I don't think there is a Soothsayer in Para, but you could check - or ask Wolf about a topic to open if you are one yourself. I would come forsooth! ...and forthwith."}, {"response": 82, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 31, 1999 (20:59)", "body": "i'd be more than happy to open a soothsayer topic, not a problem!! say the word, and since i'm not extremely clairvoyant, because i'm sure i wouldn't be able to read your mind *grin*"}, {"response": 83, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (17:33)", "body": "There are more to garnets than the traditional burgundy ones you know. Let's see if I remember...there's tsavorite (named after the Tsavo park area of Kenya), which is green, and a necklace I have has a teensy little orange bit of garnet, which I believe is called Mandarin garnet. Can't do the Black Hills stuff because they use mainly 12K or 10K gold and all the alloys that are put in for the color!! Bad enough some 14K will make black marks on my fingers, although I am a huge fan of rose gold and have many pieces both new and antique. For a minute there, I thought I was OT but it is \"precious metals\" too."}, {"response": 84, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (18:06)", "body": "fortunately for me, i've no probs with the jewelry i wear regardless of chemical composition. karen, can you wear white gold, platinum, or silver? the garnets on the BHG bracelet and ring (!!) are kinda orange-burgundy, real earth toned. it's very pretty. have you all seen the orbis rings? (i think that's what they're called). you can interchange stones. saw some at a craft show that were $60 for the petite sizes and came with 8 stones. didn't get one, but maybe next time when i learn more about them and the kinds of stones used."}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (18:17)", "body": "Karen, you must have been reading my mind. I was about to post about garnets. I love the rich red ones, even better than *gasp* rubies just because of the color. (I think garnets are bad luck for my family. Son gave one in a ring to a lady and he is not seeing her anymore. And, when I was in California for 4 months I received a goregous ring of Garnets and I will most likely never see the donor again...) Tsavorite is an interesting stone - the rich green color is due to vanadium \"contamination.\" Garn ts come in colors varying from Yellow to violet with all shades of reds and oranges inbetween. Spessartine Garnets are a righ red-orange from Brazil and from such diverse places as New York City (found when they dug up a street) and in San Diego County, California. Uvarovite is deep tourmaline green and quite rare and therefore expensive, as are the violet stones. Grossular garnets have asbestos inclusions which impart a silky luster. I have a green one of these, but it is not transparent, so only of nterest to my mineral collection. Most common red garnets are Almandine with the brown to deep red color. Pyrope is the ruby-colored one, and a flawless specimen can cost almost as much as a ruby of the same size. Rhodalite is the third form of red garnet is the most costly of the red garnets for a rare flawless gem."}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (18:19)", "body": "Wolf, your orangish brown-burgundy garnets are Hessionite."}, {"response": 87, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (20:19)", "body": "That same necklace has a little Pyrope in it as well. What's interesting is that the gems were cut by Swarovski of the crystal fame. Had never realized that they did gem cutting. So they are brilliantly faceted. As soon as I posted, I realized I had forgotten Rhodalite garnets - Raspberry rhodalites - and the Hessionites. It will take a while, but it will all come back. ;-D Wolf, I don't have any platinum and very little white gold, but I do wear silver all the time, with no problems at all. Now, I'm trying to remember which is the alloy that most people have problems with.... argh!!"}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (20:33)", "body": "Copper!"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (20:42)", "body": "One summer on sabbatical from UHH we visited my parents in Tucson, Arizona. There was a nice little arroyo (dry creek bed) which ran across the back of their property, and I discovered what the local kids were calling \"sand rubies\" - perfect dodecahedrons of Garnet - just a wee bit bigger than sand grains. I sat out there all summer and got a little vial full of the prettiest perfect little garnets - for my collection. It comes back to me because I have my mineralogy texts right beside me =)"}, {"response": 90, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (23:15)", "body": "Copper, no that's not the one. Besides, copper is what is used in rose gold. *still thinking*"}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (23:33)", "body": "zinc? Tin?"}, {"response": 92, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (23:58)", "body": "pewter?"}, {"response": 93, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (23:59)", "body": "(Everybody join in! It's 20 questions in Geo!!!)"}, {"response": 94, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (08:08)", "body": "i don't know, thought it was copper as well...."}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (12:40)", "body": "Me too - that is why they epoxy those copper \"health\" bracelets or else coat them with 24K gold (which is so thin and so soft that it will be gone before you have gotten any \"benefits\" therefrom."}, {"response": 96, "author": "patas", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (13:28)", "body": "I think zinc is responsible for many allergies to metal alloys."}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (13:35)", "body": "I was wondering when we would shake the medical faculty of Spring out of the trees to offer their comments. Thanks, Gi. I suspect zinc, too. Copper can turn you colors (it turns me green,) but nothing like zinc...that makes lesions. Not a good thing!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (14:53)", "body": "didn't know that about zinc! so what do they use on those cheapy earrings? you know, the posts that, when you leave the earrings in overnight, you get a crust on the earring hole? (sorry about being so gross!)"}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (17:19)", "body": "They're supposed to be surgical steel if they are not gold...but on really cheap ones, it might be almost anything. Zinc is used to harden things like copper to make brass or bronze and to make gold and silver less fragile and more affordable."}, {"response": 100, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (23:18)", "body": "and that happens to me even with nylon posts, Wolf..."}, {"response": 101, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (09:04)", "body": "Wooden posts here! Stick in the eye, anyone?"}, {"response": 102, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (10:04)", "body": "never heard of nylon posts....was that a trick?"}, {"response": 103, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (12:20)", "body": "nope...you can buy some nylon earrings (usually kiddie ones) and since I have a problem with all the metals I've tried (including gold and surgical stainless) I thought I'd try them...still haven't given titatium a trial run, though..."}, {"response": 104, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (12:51)", "body": "i've heard that's the best for sensitive ears but expensive. the only earrings that don't give me probs if i leave them on too long are the ones used for piercing. they may be the surgical steel."}, {"response": 105, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (14:37)", "body": "Over here are guilds of carpenters who wear a special and customary hat and work clothes. If a aprenticed carpenter wants to become a master, he has to wander from carpenter to carpenter, work for food and shelter only, and on the road beg for his fare. They have through all time worn golden earrings; the piercing is an initiation rite to welcome the new brother: A pointed piece of wood is driven through the ear lobe with a hammer... (Sweet dreams... I guess I'm off for now!)"}, {"response": 106, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 19, 1999 (13:16)", "body": "ok, orbis rings. picked a sterling silver one today that holds 8mm stones. i got 10 stones with the ring plus a titanium ball for an extra $7. altogether, my total was $32. not too bad. there are precious stone balls that are available too, but of course the price is much higher. but silver balls and gold balls were $3 and $4 each. they had gold and silver rings for $170. unless i decide that these rings are the bomb, i'll have to hold out for a gold one."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 19, 1999 (15:52)", "body": "These are those lovely rings which have oscillating elements on them? Sounds like you got a deal. Please describe them. I love rings!!!"}, {"response": 108, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 19, 1999 (16:27)", "body": "well, they come in different styles. mine is sterling silver with two thin strands going up and over the middle attaching to the other side. the middle is empty and is the place where you slip the ball into. so be very careful when you take it off as the ball will fall right out the back. the balls are all highly polished. they look like balls with cat's eyes in them. mine are different colors but have seen precious opal, as well as balls encrusted with gems. you can change them out as the mood hits you or to go with whatever you're wearing. some of the rings come together in the middle of your finger with a gap between for the ball to squeeze into, and some have just a decorative opening in the middle. hard to describe, before i scan mine, lemme see if i can find a site with bunches of them to look at. oh, the gold and silver were designed with silver as the main ring and gold decorating the opening for the ball."}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 19, 1999 (17:11)", "body": "I have never seen anything even remotely like that. How interesting and lovely and just the thing to wear to those boring lectures when we must look like we are interested...look at your ring! (I used to peek at guys next to me in lecture halls reflected in the facets of my class ring...!) ... waiting for your success on scanning / website hunting ..."}, {"response": 110, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 19, 1999 (18:14)", "body": "so far, no luck on the web, but will try a different search engine!"}, {"response": 111, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Sep 20, 1999 (20:00)", "body": "no luck at all yet. will keep trying. (don't try captive bead ring because you will get all the body piercing sites! unless you wanna) (oh, and i actually have 12 balls, guess the lady didn't count the one in the ring already)... and while i was there, i stopped at a pawn shop booth to see their orbis rings. this guy doesn't want to sell an orbis ring to me, he wants me to buy an aquamarine ring set in 14K for $100. i asked him what the clarity of the stone was and from which part of the world it was from. he said he didn't know and couldn't tell me (either question). he said that stuff about where a stone is originally from is a bunch of bull. well, my gembook certainly talks about where they come from. so i told him thank you ve y much and took my business elsewhere. marcia, how can they sell aquamarine for $100? it had a large diamond shaped stone in the middle flanked by baguettes (sp?). i figured because the ring was pre-owned and not one whole piece and that the quality of the stone was fair at best. although my naked eye didn't see any inclusions."}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (15:42)", "body": "The guy is wrong...he just does not want to be bothered to find out! It is not a real one, or the guy does not know his business. The price is way too low for one set in 14K.n Gotta get you a 10x jewelers loup to carry in your pocket (or a very good magnifier would do as well) so you can make your own accessments. You also need to check that it is not a doublet - a sliver of aquamarine glued to the top of a clear white stone making the entire thing look like aquamarine, but it is not, and is not wort the money! Were the baguettes also of Aquamaring? I'll bet anything it was a zircon - much harder and more easily made into baguettes - and more cheaply grown in the lab. You were wise to pass it by!"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (15:44)", "body": "uh...thanks for the warning about the body piercing sites. I have been guided to some by another, and have seen all I need to see...eeeeesh!"}, {"response": 114, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (19:36)", "body": "haha!! i knew that when this guy wouldn't entertain my ideas and kept pushing other ring sets on me that he didn't have a clue! but all of the stones were claimed to be aquamarine! i want a jeweler's loup, where can i find one?"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (19:42)", "body": "Any jewellers tool or stamp and coin collecting or rock collecting or hobby shop should have a 10x loup or folding one (an oval slipcase with a lens which swings in and out - mine is by American Optical)...even a store which sells glasses or telescopes or microscopes, binoculars or similar precision optics should have one. I'd try a craft or hobby place first, though."}, {"response": 116, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (20:11)", "body": "might be a tad easier on the pocketbook, huh? thanks for the info! now i'll either cry or leap for joy at what my own jewelry reveals!"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (20:16)", "body": "It will be a revelation. But, before you peer into them, clean them first in a dilute solution of household ammonia...You don't want to see all that soap and whatever under there and think it is flaws in your stones! (The least specialized the place you buy your magnifier, the better the price will be!)"}, {"response": 118, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (19:39)", "body": "no loupe yet, but i do have a question regarding silver. i own mostly gold jewelry and haven't had this problem with them. the silver orbis ring tarnishes quickly on the underside (palm side) on the outside. i've cleaned it and in a couple of wearings, it's tarnished again. does this mean that the silver i have is of poor quality or what? there is a stamp inside of .925, i know this has something to do with the gram weight. oh, and i absolutely cannot find a site on orbis rings. am going to look up some jewelry store chains and see what's up with them."}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (20:14)", "body": "Nothing wrong with your silver - it is .925 out of 1000% pure silver - the standard for Sterling. Your body chemistry is making it tarnish. I turn green from copper stuff...and some medications can do it, too, under your silver. Just coat the ones which do it to you (the rest are probably Rhodium plated)with a thin coat of colorless nail polish. Our air has enough sulfur in it from the eruptions that leaving silver out on display is foolish."}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (20:16)", "body": "I did not find an easily obtainable loupe, but I did see a good magnifier in Walmart in their pharmacy with the off-the-rack reading glasses. Check there."}, {"response": 121, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (20:33)", "body": "cool, thanks!"}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (23:46)", "body": "Gemstones of the Zodiac There are many variations on this list. Find your sign in the table and select the gem(s) indicated for more information. Aquarius Garnet Pisces Amethyst Aries Bloodstone Taurus Sapphire Gemini Agate Cancer Emerald Leo Onyx Virgo Carnelian Libra Peridot Scorpio Beryl Sagittarius Topaz Capricorn Ruby"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (23:48)", "body": "The above list is in chart form which lost a lot in the transfer - it is at http://www.jewelry4less.com/parts/zodiac.shtml"}, {"response": 124, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:16)", "body": "http://www.gemstone.org/gematic.html Birthstones: choosing a gem for you Most gem scholars agree that the tradition of birthstones arose from the Breastplate of Aaron: a ceremonial religious garment set with twelve gemstones that represented the twelve tribes of Israel and also corresponded with the twelve signs of the zodiac and the twelve months of the year. Because ancient people did not always classify gemstones by mineral species like we do, there is some debate about which gemstones were set in the breastplate and why. Because of this, different cultures around the world have developed different birth stone lists. The modern day list that you know is only the most recent list: some older lists still exist. Some also argue that the proper way to assign gemstones is according to astrological sign and not month. We think it is more fun to choose the ge mstone that speaks to you from all the possibilities. Of course it is hard to keep track of all the lists. Enter the Gem-o-Matic! Select your birthdate or other significant date or anniversary and the Gem-o-Matic will give you the list of all the birthstones that correspond to that date!"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:18)", "body": "http://www.gemstone.org/plate.html The Breastplate of the High Priest The instructions for fabricating the Breastplate of the High Priest, or the Breastplate of Aaron, can be found in Exodus 28, 15-30: And thou shall make the breastplate of judgement with cunning work; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen shalt thou make it. Foursquare it shall be doubled; a span shall be the length thereof, and a span shall be the breadth thereof. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this shall be the first row. And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst. And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper; they shall be set in gold in their enclosings. And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings on a signet; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes.... And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgement upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:19)", "body": "I checked mine for May 31 and this is what it said Modern birthstone: emerald Zodiac gemstone for gemini: agate Ancient traditional birthstones: Hebrew: agate Roman: agate Arabic: emerald Hindu: emerald Polish: emerald Russian: emerald Guardian angel: amriel His talismanic stone: carbuncle (garnet) The custom of wearing birthstones probably first became popular in Poland in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. For more information about the history of birthstones, try The Curious Lore of Precious Stones by George Frederick Kunz, a fascinating compendium of all the powers that have been associated with gemstones through the ages. For example, birthstones originally may have been worn each month by everyone, since the powers of the gemstone were heightened during its month. If that is true, to get the full effect, you need to go out and get a full set of twelve and rotate them each year!"}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:23)", "body": "They got one thing right - Garnet is my favorite colored gemstone, and it is the talisman of my Guardian Angel... I agree we should all have a complete set of gem stones...Yessssssss!!!"}, {"response": 128, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:29)", "body": "what, a talisman of our guardian angels? and how do we find that?"}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:45)", "body": "By going to this web site and entering your exact birthday (month and day) then hitting the submit button... http://www.gemstone.org/gematic.html"}, {"response": 130, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (19:56)", "body": "ok, here's my stuff: Modern birthstone: moonstone or alexandrite Zodiac gemstone for gemini: agate Ancient traditional birthstones: Hebrew: emerald Roman: emerald Arabic: agate Hindu: pearl Polish: agate Russian: agate Guardian angel: muriel His talismanic stone: emerald cool!"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:01)", "body": "Excellent! One would not wish to be without one's talismanic gem, now, would one...even if it is an emerald (not my fav stone.)"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:03)", "body": "Had I known earlier, I could have spent Halloween as a Stoplight...My Emerald Birthstone on one side and my talismanic Garnet on the other! (making notes for next year...)"}, {"response": 133, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (18:35)", "body": "marcia, i finally got a stroke of brilliance! i scanned my orbis ring for you to see, including all the stones. plus, an ad for them at a local jeweler's. enjoy! here's mine: the ad (it's hard to see, i know, these are silver, but they come in gold and combos:"}, {"response": 134, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (18:37)", "body": "again, my apologies for the quality of them, but you get the idea (i hope)!"}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (19:08)", "body": "Thanks so much. Wolfie...Not at all what I imagined. How beautiful they are! And, Now I can see why you want one in Gold, as well. Quite nicely made and very secure for the stone. What a clever idea! How many different stones are available? Actually, in a setting that protective, you could use fairly soft gems which are usually not cut for rings because you cannot set them securely (Pressure to bend the prongs on the setting is enough to fracture the stones in some cases.)I just love it. Thanks aga n!"}, {"response": 136, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (19:43)", "body": "you can get all sorts of stones. mine came with 11 plus the titanium that i purchased separately. if you go to a jeweler's, you'll pay an arm and leg. mine was $32, ring and 12 8mm stones. i imagine the bigger the ring and stones the more they cost. at the place i picked up mine, they were silver with gold rings for $200."}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (19:49)", "body": "Sounds fantastic. Ok, where did you get yours? From Lucky Looey on the corner in the bulging trench coat?! Or...the PX? (Hast thou an inside track on jewels? she asked pantingly)"}, {"response": 138, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (19:54)", "body": "i got it from a vendor at an arts & crafts show. she had a ton of stones to choose from and the ring she was wearing had an opal in it! they don't carry them at the PX. but, there's a kiosk in the mall with them and some of the major jewelry store chains carry them."}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (19:59)", "body": "Gonna have to look this season when I am at the Angel Tree for the Salvation Army. I leave him there to tend the tags and I go on Santa excursions and just plain looking...I'll even ask about them. If anyone would have them, they will be in our biggest mall (Does Zales carry them?)"}, {"response": 140, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (20:00)", "body": "not that i've seen. bailey's does, do you have that chain? (be warned, they're expensive).."}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (20:06)", "body": "No, but my Mother's wedding set came from Bailey, Banks and Biddle in Philadelphia. Any relation? If so, they are *very* expensive, but also very nice things which are not available other places. I can barely afford to breathe the air in the store, but it does not cost anything to look. (...and I can elevate my patrician nose right along with the best of them so they dare not risk snubbing me and losing a sale to a potentially important customer!)"}, {"response": 142, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (20:08)", "body": "haha! i walk into a place like that even in my best duds and they snub me!"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (20:10)", "body": "No, but my Mother's wedding set came from Bailey, Banks and Biddle in Philadelphia. Any relation? If so, they are *very* expensive, but also very nice things which are not available other places. I can barely afford to breathe the air in the store, but it does not cost anything to look. (...and I can elevate my patrician nose right along with the best of them so they dare not risk snubbing me and losing a sale to a potentially important customer!)"}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (20:13)", "body": "The Philadelphia store is their original one, and the very air smells like money. it is the oddest place - hushed and subdued like a church with obsequious gentlemen in morning clothes waiting to relieve you of a considerable amount of your where-with-all. Bizarre and memorable for this little girl who remembers a Christmas there long ago."}, {"response": 145, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (20:17)", "body": "this place is a bit like that. i took my tanzanite to be checked because i could feel the stone move. they took it in the back, tightened the setting and gave it back in less than five minutes. no charge. i certainly didn't expect that!"}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (20:45)", "body": "That's the sign of a truly proper jewelry store which understands the value of making friends of their customers. Once, when Harry Winston was interviewed, his best advice to jewellers starting out in the trade was to keep a stock of modestly-priced engagement diamonds on hand...you never knew when a future wealthy patron was standing before you making his first purchase. Harry usually kept repeat customers of the wealthiest sort very happy, indeed!"}, {"response": 147, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Nov 13, 1999 (12:01)", "body": "hey, that's why I stay with the bank where I have an account:they treated me like money even when I had none! :-)"}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 13, 1999 (12:22)", "body": "Indeed, they were very wise. It makes me wonder if the greed of today has made newcomers to customer service eliminate that nicety thus not creating patronage they can count on in the long term."}, {"response": 149, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 26, 1999 (22:44)", "body": "guess what? went to the arts and crafts show again and got another orbis ring. AND they had an amber ball (it's real, i looked at it). the thing was they had it for $6 but charged only $2. hmmmm....there were so many people there that i didn't want to confuse anyone so i left with my \"steal\". there were many more stones to choose from this time and i only swapped one out of the set of 10 that i got with the ring. was so excited to find that amber stone! and all for $29 (sterling silver) a prettier sett ng than my other one. will have to scan it for you to see."}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 27, 1999 (12:52)", "body": "Man, I need to get to that show...Of course our big one is on each year during this tournament...so I never get to go to it. I am most interested in one, and am delighted you scored an amber stone for it. Cheers and Merry Christmas to you!!! (such a deal...*sgh*)"}, {"response": 151, "author": "patas", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 1999 (22:45)", "body": "Wolf, do scan your ring, I am so curious :-)"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 1999 (23:00)", "body": "(She has her Alexandrite for Christmas, as well...) Scan your new ring for us, too, Wolfie!"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  3, 1999 (23:02)", "body": "Did you check her ring where she scanned it first? http://www.spring.net/~bayou/orbisring.gif"}, {"response": 154, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (17:05)", "body": "you want to see the new one as well? (i'll see what i can do!)"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (17:27)", "body": "Oh yes! Please!"}, {"response": 156, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (18:52)", "body": "*grin*"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (19:05)", "body": "(Sitting quietly and patiently with my hands neatly folded in my lap and trying to be patient while you work so diligently with your scanner...)*smiling hopefully and eagerly*"}, {"response": 158, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (19:30)", "body": "well, you asked for it: the new Orbis Ring"}, {"response": 159, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (19:31)", "body": "no, DO NOT go there, it's way tooo big. let me cut it down:"}, {"response": 160, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (19:42)", "body": "ok, it's fixed but the name has changed: This is really the new Orbis Ring these rings are also called \"interchangeable ball rings\""}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (19:48)", "body": "Ooooooooh....that is beautiful!!! More substantial than the other rings I recall seeing. Lovely! That is such a neat box it comes in, too. Gotta find somewhere here who carries them or tell them to get some in so I can see and admire and maybe even afford one for myself! *thinking...* Thanks! (Yep, you don't want to go to her first hotlink - it is not as advertised *grin*)"}, {"response": 162, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (19:52)", "body": "i think with the popularity, they're adding styles. when i bought the first one, they didn't have many styles to choose from. they had a dolphin pendant too (but it was $60 with one stone). sterling silver, too. it was beautiful, to say the least. i'll see if the place has a web site, hopefully they do and you can see these pieces for yourself."}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (19:56)", "body": "Maybe I could even order one through eCommerce. Thanks. Trying to discern the stones you have in that ring...is the one at the 8-9 o'clock position a garnet? It is a gorgeous color!"}, {"response": 164, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (19:59)", "body": "no, that's the amber!! i did the acetone test and it didn't get sticky! it also has a spangle in it (which is not a natural occurance but comes from heating amber in rapseed oil--a little something i learned from doug lungren's site) i gotta go, the AM wants to surf awhile. g'night and *hugs*"}, {"response": 165, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (20:27)", "body": "Fascinating - a beautiful color, and I know amber comes in everything from pale yellow opaque to deep burgundy clear and everything inbetween. The test I have heard for it (and I have not the courage to do it to my pieces) is to press a hot needle against it and smell the vapors - it should smell like pine trees not plastic melting. Interesting about the rapeseed oil (what we squeemish Americans know as Canola oil). I wonder what happens to cause that interesting phenomenon.(I know - look in Lundgren's site...!)"}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec  4, 1999 (20:29)", "body": "g'night Wolfie. Be safe in that weather *hugs*"}, {"response": 167, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (22:10)", "body": "i've finally found the right combo of words to put into the search engine: interchangeable stone rings. and viola, here's a link with pics and everything! http://www.signaturejewelers.com/sphere2.html"}, {"response": 168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (22:52)", "body": "Thank you Wolfie!!! That is the best christmas present I have had all day - asnd the only one, for that matter. Going to look...reporting back asap"}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (22:58)", "body": "Ok, there are all sorts including faceted stones. Love the choice. Any questions on the appearance or hardness of any of them and I will be able to describe to you what it looks like and and how hard or durable it will be. I am gonna get me one for Christmas after I send Terry a check and balance my check book and pay bills so I can stay online."}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (22:59)", "body": "Best news of all is that they also use 10K gold which is more durable and more affordable. That is what I will try for but I do like the silver..."}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (23:21)", "body": "Oh boy - the $18.99 was a steal even if it was the simplest design (did not see the style in their inventory) but I like the gold filagree one. $249 is a little steep - I like your styles better and they do not have them, either!"}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (23:54)", "body": "http://listings.ebay.com/aw/listings/list/all/category282/page4.html Is a remarkable collection of jewelry and unset stones at eBay. Check them out - lots of those laser (which they call lab) rubies like the one I have and lots of Alexandrites which are listed as corondum - they are NOT alexandrites and will only change from purple to blue-grey. I have one and it is lovely - but not as interesting as my real one!"}, {"response": 173, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 25, 1999 (23:58)", "body": "http://www.galleryone.cc/galleryone-sandiego/injew.html has them the most reasonable of all but more limited choice of styles."}, {"response": 174, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 1999 (11:08)", "body": "according to my gem book, alexandrites are listed under chrysoberyl. isn't that what sapphires ball under, the beryls? nevermind, going a few pages back, the corundums are the rubies, sapphire, and padparadscha (wait, that's a sapphire too). and while i'm here, what's the difference between precious and semi-precious? (thanks for the links and i'm glad you got at least one christmas present!)"}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 1999 (11:38)", "body": "Sapphires are Corundum and Alexandrites are in the same family as Emeralds and aquamarines - little softer than Corundum, but I have worn my Alexandrite without taking it off for any reason for a long time and there are no scratches on it. Precious gems and semi-precious. Most stones can be both as in inferior and inky sapphires, way-too-pale rubies, and grit-filled diamondsn are semi-precious whereas the vibrant clear stones in these same categories without flaws as precious because they are so rare and so difficult to mine. The best Christmas present was a Remember Button *grin* But since O'O is paying for the changeable stone ring I'm gonna get a \"good\" one, the one I really want. He has not given me presents for 2 birthdays and Christmases..."}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 1999 (13:06)", "body": "Oops - you did note that about the sapphires...*grin* If you can find one of those antique kalidoscopes they are full of semiprecious slices and that is an additional bonus to having one of them other than their beauty - and huge price. They used citrine for yellow, peridot for green, amethyst for purple, carnellian for orange, rose quartz for pink and garnet for red...plus all sorts of elegant imported hand-made glass. I'd love to have one but it would probably mildew here...*sigh*"}, {"response": 177, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 1999 (15:10)", "body": "think i've seen the antique kalidoscopes before. i like the cheapy ones with the plastic beads and stuff inside too."}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 1999 (15:22)", "body": "Me too... I like Kalidoscopes. Period. I used to lie on my back when I was supposed to be taking my naps and use my sister's which I had smuggled into my room to entertain me for the hour or so my mother made me lie down in the afternoon. I still remember it! And I have my son's right here beside me!"}, {"response": 179, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:37)", "body": "I like kaleidoscopes too! I bought one (a cheap card and plastic bead thing) a few years ago. Never ceases to amaze me."}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:44)", "body": "Like they said in the old days, all the magic is done with mirrors, but few magic acts can match the beauty of a simple kalidoscope and its bilateral symetry repeated over and over again."}, {"response": 181, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:55)", "body": "You can probably use it for a sort of Rorshach test as well (sorry... prosaic me attacks again)"}, {"response": 182, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (15:08)", "body": "what's the rorshach test?"}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (15:50)", "body": "Ink blots are made by using a folded paper and dropping ink into the fold. It is pressed flat and opened to dry. What you think you see in the images formed is what some psychologists used to use to decide what was really going on in your mind."}, {"response": 184, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (09:53)", "body": "i thought that but wanted to make sure. boy, they'd have fun with me!"}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (16:13)", "body": "I'd have fun with them. It is amazing what you can say just to be naughty and elicit the most amazing reactions. They start writing like mad in their little notebooks *grin*"}, {"response": 186, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (16:43)", "body": "and you know this from personal exerience? *laugh* (couldn't help myself)... ok, on the subject of flourescence (yeah, it wasn't brought up here but it was on my mind)....i picked up a true blacklite bulb. put the thing in my lamp, stuck my stones under it and didn't notice anything. am i supposed to wrap a blanket around the stone, lamp and all to make it as dark as possible?"}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (17:48)", "body": "Sssssshhhh.....you'll give my little secret away. (Good one, dear!) Just make it as dark as possible around the rocks. In fact it is a good idea to have it in a dark room - using a flashlight to find your way. Shield all eyes from the bare bulb, remember!!! A matt-finish box painted with black paint works especially well. Gotta get rid of most of the ambient light. Some of the fluorescence is very faint but beautiful!"}, {"response": 188, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (21:17)", "body": "well that would explain why my amber bead didn't do anything (and i wear sunglasses) so i did the acetone test. am gonna have to try the light again."}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (21:24)", "body": "Let us know of your success. Try polyester under it to see how bright the fluorescence is (or how bright the background light is)...Should be screamingly bright by fluorescent standards. BTW, one of those sites I posted for the interchangeable stone rings had loads of choices for stones - but nothing in amber. How sad! Orbis must be the only one carrying them."}, {"response": 190, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (22:04)", "body": "i don't think orbis is a brand, just a name for the ring. will have to look for the name of the folks i purchased the beads from. will let you know of my adventure with the blacklite!"}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 29, 1999 (22:55)", "body": "I wonder if fish scales fluoresce. Lots of stuff does...!"}, {"response": 192, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (16:48)", "body": "Have you ever heard of blue amethyst? Blue of the color usually seen with blue topazes? very medium to light in color Little sister was given for her birthday a pair of earrings. I said they were lovely blue topaz and was told they were blue amethyst. Never heard of the stuff. Purple amethyst, yes. Yellow citrine, yes. Purple/yellow ametrine, yes. But no to blue."}, {"response": 193, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (16:54)", "body": "BTW, the metal alloy used in some gold that bothers people is Nickel!! In fact, it cannot be used in European gold."}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (17:14)", "body": "Never heard of blue amethyst. It is an oxymoron, no? I looked it up in my books. Amethyst is anything from inky deep purple to almost clear colorless pale violet. They are growing the crystals for the technology market and, as in my laser ruby, the culls and extra material goes into the gem market in third world countries to make into jewelry. However, Yes! I found one book which says: Blue quartz: caused by tiny rutile, tourmaline or zoizite inclusions. Fairly common in metamorphic rock Get out that jewelers loupe and look for the inclusions. If they are not there, it is bogus or a died spinel. How hard is it? How easily does it cut window glass? Spinel with cut very easily and deeply. Quartz is almost the same hardness. Check it out!"}, {"response": 195, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (17:16)", "body": "Nickel is what bothers people with pierced ears...see the discussion between Wolf and William beginning around response 100."}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (17:20)", "body": "Spinel WILL cut window glass very easily and deeply. Of course, it could be a doublet (two pieces glued together to give it the color...or a sapphire... Hardness and close scrutiny will tell."}, {"response": 197, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (18:55)", "body": "Thanks, Marcia. Sounds like a piece of crap. Am LMHO. What a turkey! ;-)"}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (19:04)", "body": "Yup! I hope whomever purchased it did not pay a lot for it...!"}, {"response": 199, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (19:18)", "body": "Who knows? The guy is positively clueless, but seemed to think that he'd really gotten her something valuable. Of course, I still think it's blue topaz."}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (19:40)", "body": "Either blue topaz (hope it is very light blue so her brain is not affected by the radiation those things emit!!!) or blue spinel. I have a lovely medium blue spinel...I love it! Geez...blue amethyst?! She's lucky if it is not glass with that sort of bogus name! Oh, from a guy?! Of course he is clueless!!! *lol*"}, {"response": 201, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (19:41)", "body": "Her fiancee, no less. OK, am getting off for a while now. Have won my little auction. ;-)"}, {"response": 202, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 20, 2000 (19:47)", "body": "Aloha - thanks for sharing the \"eye candy\" with me today!"}, {"response": 203, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (10:49)", "body": "Topaz emits radiation? Oh the things one learns in this comference!:-) My Mom has a ring which I think is topaz. Will ask her. Haven't seen it in a long time."}, {"response": 204, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (11:55)", "body": "There is almost no natural blue topaz left. There is loads of colorless toopas, however. By bombarding it with radiation it makes them turn blue. The more radiation, the deeper the color!"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (11:56)", "body": "If your mother's ring is older than about 8 years, it is most likely naturally blue."}, {"response": 206, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (22:10)", "body": "It is probably around 30 years old."}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (22:15)", "body": "Then it is a natural blue topaz and worth considerably more than irradiated stones. Be sure she takes care of it (and leaves it to you *smile*)"}, {"response": 208, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (15:55)", "body": "oh wow! about the topaz (my oma has one that's huge! it's rectangluar and all by itself).... yup, that amethyst is bogus. got my eyewitness handbook on gem stones out and it says nothing about amethyst coming in blue. it does refer to a bluish tinge when viewed from an angle and that amethyst from the urals has a reddish tinge. whomever sold that guy that stone is probably related to the guy who tried to tell me that aquamarine was real (from the pawn shop, it's in here somewhere)..."}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "I remember, Wolfie, about that Aquarmarine...and if Cheryl ever finds her way here, beryls include both the Emerald and the Aquamarine. I do not much care for Emeralds, my birthstone, so I wear an Alexandrite for someone very special to me, and I have an aquamarine for my other hand."}, {"response": 210, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:17)", "body": "still don't have that alexandrite. have a light amethyst that i got through avon (it's simulated) but it's very pretty and delicate. for being simulated, it has a lot of fire and the color darkens outside. the emeralds i've seen are too cloudy. they look dirty or something."}, {"response": 211, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:35)", "body": "I found it! Sorry I asked about tanzanite on the wrong topic. Thanks for answering the query though. Marcia you have a really expensive birthstone. Emeralds of good quality and color can command nosebleed prices. They don't even have to be that large. I think that they're beryl cousins, aquamarines, are very beautiful. I love the delicate blue-green clarity of the stone. It's aptly named, they are like water. My birthstone is garnet. Its really common, but I do like the dark red wine-like color. I found out that garnets make up some of the bedrock upon which New York City sits."}, {"response": 212, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:41)", "body": "I adore garnets! (not a problem about off-topic...we do that all the time *lol*) They just set them in such ugly settings. They are getting better, though! I have, in my mineral collection, a hunk of massive garnet from Gort Mt, New York transported to New Rochelle by the last ice age and left there for me to dig up as a child. There are so many industrial-grade garnets in that original area that it is mined for use on Garnet Paper - an abrasive like sand paper!!! Indeed, Even the lab grown Chatham\ufffd emeralds are expensive - but are too flawless to be pretty."}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:44)", "body": "Wolf's complaint about dirty emeralds is because the good ones are so rare that they are cutting and mounting material they would have thrown away years ago. We sell clearer green Jade here than some of those emeralds!"}, {"response": 214, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:49)", "body": "Wolfie, I got to go into Zales and finger and eyeball in my hand one of their \"Alexandrite\" rings. They only turn purplish-blue - they are the Mexican type which is simply a purple spinel. I have one and it is lovely, but it is NOT and Alexandrite!!! They should not be able to sell it as such, but so does at least one of the tv shopping channels. I know a lady who has one - it is just like the Zales one - a pretty stone but...!"}, {"response": 215, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (18:55)", "body": "I've seen some really bad looking emeralds, washed out color and worst of all a flaw which can be seen at a distance of 5 feet. I'm an admirer of vintage jewelery. Some not all, some of it is just tacky. There are some nice Victorian and Art Noveau garnet jewelery. I've seen some nice garnet and marcasite pieces, although marcasite was more common with amethyst or clear quartz. I also saw a really lovely Victorian ring with an oval faceted garnet surrounded by seed pearls. But overall for a long time garnets were set really unattractive settings. Were do you keep that great big garnet? I remember going to the Museum of Natural History to see this HUGE yellow topaz -- it was the size of a Volkswagen."}, {"response": 216, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:08)", "body": "Ok, here's a new one for me - \"The Heart of Australia\" Black Lightning Ridge Solid Opal. 9.9ct peacock green broad flash, exceptionally bright. My \"massive\" (mineralogy term for lump of translucent gem-colored but not in defined crystals and not cryptocrystalline) garnet is 2\" x 1\" x 3\" . It sitting on a jewellry display stand lighted from above which I got from Lance when it the place he worked decided to redo their interiors. It had many little shelves on two poles which rotate and dislplay all of my pretties."}, {"response": 217, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:35)", "body": "i adore that heartshaped opal! it would go well with my heart-shaped amber piece! *grin* i thought the alexandrite at zales (as we discussed before) was advertized as simulated. it is a lovely shade of purple. perhaps it was a good thing i didn't throw $200 down the tube just for a fake rock mounted on 14K......i still want one, simulated or not. simulated would be all i could afford though, unless i wanted one you had to use an atomic microscope to view! *laugh* almost bought an iolite ring from qvc but because of my big barbie purchase, decided to let it go and wait until she is paid for (and at least in my hot little hands)!"}, {"response": 218, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:35)", "body": "i prefer garnets over rubies anyday. may be because, like emeralds, the quality around here is awful."}, {"response": 219, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:47)", "body": "Me too - Garnets over Rubies anyday!!! Iolite is lovely but a little soft so be sure to wear it for special occasions, not when you will be overhauling engines or whatever you do (*grinning stupidly*). I thought they said the Zales stone was Man-made which means it should be exactly like natural ones. Not simulated which means pretend. Way too much money for a lab grown spinel...oh well...I was so disappointed! I agree about having a stone you don't have to carry an atomic Microscope around to see - the one here at UHHilo uses up a whole room! Yeah...I like that green opal, too...lovely! Maybe I could use it for an emerald and call it my birthstone?! No price was mentioned so I suspect that it is too costly, unavailable or both!"}, {"response": 220, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (19:57)", "body": "for that color and cut, yeah, it would cost way more than the usual opals found in a jewelry store. a lady i work with got a ring with a sliver of blue opal in it (along with onyx and a couple of other gems). she was excited. it was in that asymetrical look on a little under 1/2\" wide gold band. i think it had a necklace too."}, {"response": 221, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:04)", "body": "Sounds lovely! This is a pretty one, as well:"}, {"response": 222, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:49)", "body": "woweee!"}, {"response": 223, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:56)", "body": "ok, bare with me while i try to load a couple of pics! the light amethyst ring from avon: *fingers crossed*"}, {"response": 224, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "i wanted you guys to see the fire in it! ok, and a couple more of mine to show but let me fix the pics first!"}, {"response": 225, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:04)", "body": "It is really pretty! I love amethysts set in silver. In fact, my whopping big Mexican Alexandrite (spinel)is set in a huge amount of silver which is a very classic crown-shaped setting. Lovely wolfie, and great work with the scanner!"}, {"response": 226, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:04)", "body": "here's a few others:"}, {"response": 227, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:06)", "body": "wow, you really can't see anything in there, can you? ok, will have to do some more editing. these rings are very pretty on and this picture does no justice."}, {"response": 228, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:09)", "body": "Wolfie, try something for me. Try to scratch the corner of your window eith one of the facetd and tell me how easily it scrqatched the glass. It will not hurt your stone!"}, {"response": 229, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:10)", "body": "Roll up a piece of white paper and string them on it like a finger."}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:14)", "body": "I just enlarged your image and it came out really well...send it to you or post it???"}, {"response": 231, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:18)", "body": "go ahead and post it, marcia. i used a piece of green cloth hoping the richness would help with the pics. which one you want me to do the scratching with?"}, {"response": 232, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:22)", "body": ""}, {"response": 233, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:29)", "body": "Your Avon Amethyst"}, {"response": 234, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:31)", "body": "that one? ok, what should i report?"}, {"response": 235, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:32)", "body": "would a small mirror work?"}, {"response": 236, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:41)", "body": "Too reflective. I think neutral color or white would be the best."}, {"response": 237, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:42)", "body": "Report how easily or deeply it scratched the glass."}, {"response": 238, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:43)", "body": "no, i mean for scratching! and i did and though it felt like i was tearing the dickens out of the ring and the mirror, not a scratch on either. what does that mean?"}, {"response": 239, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:49)", "body": "it is softer than amethyst. Window glass is 5 1/2 on Moh's scale and Quartz (which is purple as amethyst) is 7 on Moh's scale."}, {"response": 240, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:50)", "body": "i used mirror glass, is there a difference? so this simulated amethyst is what?"}, {"response": 241, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:50)", "body": "But it is WAY softer than spinel which it resembles - or zircon. It is most likely an amethyst!"}, {"response": 242, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:51)", "body": "i used mirror glass, is there a difference? so this simulated amethyst is what?"}, {"response": 243, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:52)", "body": "Nope! If you see mirrors being made you would see that they use the same glass. You have an amethyst! Most don't have any 'fire' in them!"}, {"response": 244, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:56)", "body": "maybe the fire shows up when the color is lighter...hmmmmm.....interesting!"}, {"response": 245, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:57)", "body": "how would i know if it's synthetic corundum? (reading from my book)"}, {"response": 246, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:59)", "body": "oh, and cheryl's question about ruby and emerald being in the same family: ruby and sapphire are corundums, emerald is a beryl as is aquamarine."}, {"response": 247, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (22:37)", "body": "emerald is much softer than Sapphire/Ruby so is Spinel. You would have dug a groove in your window glass with a spinel."}, {"response": 248, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (23:20)", "body": "Spinel is harder by a bunch from Emeralds. Zircons are hard also and both make beautiful bi-colored (pleiochromic) stones. Both will dig trenches in your windows."}, {"response": 249, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (23:35)", "body": "Getting back into my fav topic.........Gems and Jewelry! Read way back (about 40 messages ago) your comment (Wolf) about the blue amethyst. Like I could tell that guy anything! He thinks he knows it all. Marcia, about that Lightening Ridge Opal, looks awfully gaudy to me. Some of the stuff Downunder looks real trashy in person and they photograph so poorly. I picked up a pair of neat earrings with Boulder Opals, a gorgeous dark blue-green, but in order for the color to really pop, they always put a dark backing on them. Usually the designation doublet or triplet means cheap, but with the intensely colored ones, it's unfortunately necessary. If you see a dark backing on the white, milky type opal, then its of very poor quality. I like the color of iolite. My prettiest amethyst is from Brazil. The color is incredible. But I have another ring, which is marcasite with amethyst and peridot. It's a killer. Believe it or not marcasite does go well with more than just garnet. I also have a marcasite and citrine ring, which I wear all the time."}, {"response": 250, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (23:45)", "body": "Your taste in jewellry is lovely...my kinda lady! (was wondering when you'd show up...we were posting goodies all day. I know about doublets and triplets. The dark colors need the black backing doublet and it is still considered precious. Listen to Auntie Karen. She know all about Jewels (as we have discussed earlier...*sigh*)"}, {"response": 251, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (23:53)", "body": "You know how I like to end the day with visions of baubles dancing in my head. :-) (hey, if you don't have anything else, y'gotta make do)"}, {"response": 252, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (11:02)", "body": "*giggle* I know! Happy to oblige...!"}, {"response": 253, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (14:51)", "body": "karen, i know exactly what you mean about not being able to talk to the guy. that's the way this dude was with the pawn shop display at a local craft's show. he wouldn't hear of anything i was saying! marcia, sorry about leaving so abruptly last night, nearly fell asleep at the keyboard! *hugs*"}, {"response": 254, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (14:53)", "body": "i've heard the word doublet but still don't know what it means. and how do you know if they covered up the back of the opal? if they're gonna cover it up, wouldn't they put it in a closed setting?"}, {"response": 255, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (15:23)", "body": "About the only way you can see if it is a doublet for sure is to look at the table of the stone...that place on a faceted stone which is usually frosted and where the prongs hold it. Get out that magnifier! I guess if the mounting hides all of that, use your own judgement on the ethics of the jeweler and how much you want the piece of jewelry vs how much it costs. Yup! That guy needs to buy one of my lava flows! (That's ok, Wolfie...it happens to me, too!)"}, {"response": 256, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (23:11)", "body": "With most settings, the backs are open to view. Gold is too expensive a way to cover it up. Doublets and triplets (slices of opal with a black backing) are all over Australia and it isn't hidden at all. However, if it's used with the white kind of opal, then you can be sure that the stone itself lacks sufficient fire."}, {"response": 257, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (23:38)", "body": "That is also what my jewel-buyer's guide says."}, {"response": 258, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (12:20)", "body": "interesting. so is it a fabric backing of some sort? (my gem book doesn't mention this at all)....where can i find a jewel-buyer's guide?"}, {"response": 259, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (13:47)", "body": "Plastic about 1/8\" thick. Mine is \"Simon and Schuster's Guide to Gems and Precious stones.\" It is full of information and color prints and includes synthetic and artificial stones."}, {"response": 260, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "make that 1/16\" or 1/32\" - thick enough for you to see it easily! My S&S guide is a paperback I bought at Waldenbooks."}, {"response": 261, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (14:58)", "body": "oh, it's kinda like the taylor guides and such for plants and animals, right? cool, will definitely look it up! thanks!! i own no opals. could be because i've never cared for the plain milky ones. but i've also heard that one should never purchase an opal for themself as it is considered bad luck. it should always be a gift."}, {"response": 262, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:07)", "body": "Right - like field guides and such. It won't give you specific prices, but it will tell you what you need to know and what is out on the market masquerading as the stone in question. Great photos, too!"}, {"response": 263, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:09)", "body": "do the pictures show the difference between good stones and bad stones and such? kinda like with my plants, i like to see pictures of what diseases look like (not drawings, either)....."}, {"response": 264, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:12)", "body": "How could a stone be bad luck? I've even heard that if you are not born in October you are not supposed to wear them. What if you don't know you're not supposed to wear them? Is it like people who take lava specimens home and terrible things start to happen to them??? Yikes! The only opal I have is a tiny floating one and a fire agate set as pendants and I have specimens in my collection of common and fire opals. Is THAT why....! Gonna get rid of those suckers right away!!!"}, {"response": 265, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:17)", "body": "um...checking...No, they don't show you bad stones, but they tell you what a bad one is. It is somehting you learn from looking at stones and prices and getting an eye for a stone incorrectly cut - they do show you that!"}, {"response": 266, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:24)", "body": "i don't know about the extent of opal bad luck, can't be the only one to hear this (have also heard that if you're not an oct. baby, don't wear opals)....will have to do some searching now! i'm glad they do tell you what to look for."}, {"response": 267, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:29)", "body": "straight from http://www.jewelrymall.com/birthstones.html Some people think the opal is bad luck when worn if it is not your birthstone. This is not true. The story was started by Sir Walter Scott in his novel Anne of Gierstein, in which the heroine of the novel has her life force caught in the beautiful opal she wears and she dies when the fire in the opal is extinguished. and another: Black opal is regarded as an extremely lucky stone well, looks like we cleared that one up straightaway! so wear your opals to your delight!!"}, {"response": 268, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:30)", "body": "hey, and opal is considered an \"other birthstone\" for june babies. waddaya know, i could've been wearing them all along *grin*"}, {"response": 269, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:31)", "body": "Alright Wolfie!!! You saved the day - again! Might just have to add a few to my wearable collection! I'd love to have a black one...!"}, {"response": 270, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:36)", "body": "...and now I can wear my opals with my Alexandrite! *grin*"}, {"response": 271, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:40)", "body": "well, beware that black opals are used by witches! (don't know if it's for good or bad)"}, {"response": 272, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:50)", "body": "but...but...you just said they were good luck...! Sheesh! I would make a miserable witch. I'd have to cuddle with my victim first and I don't think that would be according to their rules..."}, {"response": 273, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:52)", "body": "Not gonna chance anything bad for that Alexandrite. Only goodness and light may be associated with that ring. It is surrounded by pure gold and so it shall stay."}, {"response": 274, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:55)", "body": "(Wolfie)beware that black opals are used by witches I could say something here - but you know what that would be...so I think I will leave it unsaid. Just rest assured that nothing a witch could use will get near my Alexandrite!"}, {"response": 275, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:56)", "body": "no, i don't know how witches use the stone, for good or bad. but all opals are good (according to that website)!"}, {"response": 276, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (15:57)", "body": "Can't be used to flay?! I don't trust witches of any sort...! Not in this case."}, {"response": 277, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (16:05)", "body": "i don't trust anybody who proclaims themself a witch (wiccan or otherwise). i believe in not messing with the dark stuff because i do not have the power to control whatever i might accidently unleash!"}, {"response": 278, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (16:16)", "body": "Amen!"}, {"response": 279, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (16:52)", "body": "Wolf, nothing mysterious about being able to tell a good opal from a bad. If it has good colors emanating from within = good opal. I thought I didn't like opals either because of the poor quality of the ones usually seen in this country, i.e., dull, boring and milky white. In Australia, they are amazing. You'd have to go to a really high-end jewelry store here to see anything remotely similar. And here, you never seen black opals (which are really green) or any of the other varieties. u And btw, opals are not cut/faceted; only polished."}, {"response": 280, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (17:24)", "body": "I thought I posted that rubies were chemically the same as sapphires, but that I didn't know for certain if emeralds and aquamarines had chemical similarities. Thanks to this board I now know that they are both forms of beryl. Actually Karen in the vintage jewelery I've seen amethyst and clear quartz were paired more often with marcasite than was garnet. I've also seen vintage marcasite pieces which incorporate jet and some with pearls. I really beautiful 19th century pendant was an aquamarine in a marcasite and silver setting. But you definitely know more about jewelery than I. Wolf, I too have an amethyst from Avon. It's mounted in a sterling silver pendant. Like yours it is pale, but I don't think it has as much fire as yours. Mine is a bit shy, content to be pastel and delicate of hue. I have one of those pale opals. I dutifully put a drop of mineral oil on it every year. I was told that opals require a level of natural moisture and that they can crack or flake if they dry out too much. Well, the mineral oil hasn't hurt it. Should I still keep doing that?"}, {"response": 281, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (17:40)", "body": "Actually, let's clarify once again. Sapphires and Rubies are Corundum and the next-to-hardest thing on earth - diamond being the hardest. Diamonds are a 10 and corundum gems are 9 on Moh's scale of hardness Emeralds and Aquamarines are both Beryls and are 7.5-8 on Moh's Scale. You are right to oil your opals. They are simple silicates (like quartz and 7 on Moh's scale) which have trapped water in the fractures internally. To keep them from cracking further, do not store them in the refrigerator (to keep them from buring if your house does) because the abrupt change in temperature can make them fracture more than you'd like. They toughen a little on the exterior if you oil them. It couldn't hurt!"}, {"response": 282, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (17:45)", "body": "Btw, Kilauea, the resident volcano on this island, makes opals but they are not pretty. Stillm, they Are opals...but I do not have any in my collection. Way too close to the vent for collecting and She could be watching... Not that I am superstitious. I like to err on the side of caution when I am traversing hot lava fields!"}, {"response": 283, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (18:03)", "body": "Cheryl, I wasn't referring to vintage marcasite pieces. And jet and marcasite were often used for mourning brooches during Victorian times. If you wear your opals, then your natural oils are sufficient. Another thing I've heard recommended is rose water and glycerine. Pearls also benefit from your skin's natural oils while wearing them. Keeps the lustre. So twirl away."}, {"response": 284, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "What you want to do it keep your opals from evaporating the water which makes the rainbows from the interior of the stone. Oil on the outside seals it in. Glycerine attracts atmospheric water to whatever it is placed upon. However, in dry climates, it can draw the water out of the opal if there is insufficient water in the air. I'd stick to the oil or wear them - as Karen suggests."}, {"response": 285, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (18:15)", "body": "The worst thing you can do with pearls is to NOT wear them. Your own personal skin is the best moisturizer and conditioner you can give your pearls. As Karen, our own Poily Queen says, twirl away!"}, {"response": 286, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (19:04)", "body": "even on your wrists? (wearing pearls) i've also heard to buff them with flannel cloth to keep them clean. your amber pieces can dry out as well, so only wear them on humid days (not dry hot summer ones). i guess that means i can wear them all year here!"}, {"response": 287, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (19:15)", "body": "Yes, the volatiles will evaporate from your amber. Dob't want that! Send all of your fine amber Jewelry to Hilo, Hawaii where I will keep it well exercised. Pearls too and opals...*smile* ...or to Looziana... For Cheryl, John said regarding where you wear the flower in your hair: http://www.moon.com/exhibits/tahiti/tahiti_overview2.html It is the same a wedding ring. Behind the left ear means you're happily taken. Behind the right ear means you're available. I asked, what if you're unhappily...but told him I already knew what he'd say...!"}, {"response": 288, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (19:17)", "body": "what if you wear them behind both ears? *grin*"}, {"response": 289, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (19:44)", "body": "...or on top of your head... I think that means caveat emptor. The lady is looking but not buying!"}, {"response": 290, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2000 (19:45)", "body": "The funny thing about flowers behind both ears is that I've never seen a female that way but frequently have seen men that way. They like to have it both ways?! *grin*"}, {"response": 291, "author": "lance8", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (23:53)", "body": "Means \"follow me, sailor\". Not to be forward, but may I change topic? I've heard of a new man-made diamond substitute called moissonite or something close to that spelling. Does anyone know anything about it?"}, {"response": 292, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (23:58)", "body": "*lol* Thanks for getting us back on-topic. Have not heard of it but I shall look for it tomorrow. Promise to post what I find!"}, {"response": 293, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (11:01)", "body": "*LOL* ok, i've just come across something called reconstituted turquoise. what, it was chewed up, spit out, and water added? what does that mean?"}, {"response": 294, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (12:41)", "body": "A bunch of chips glued together?"}, {"response": 295, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:37)", "body": "Sometimes it is ground to a powder and resin added then shaped. Depends on whether you can see actual clevage planes or if it has a waxy finish (which real stones should not have!)"}, {"response": 296, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:41)", "body": "it's in an avon catalog and it does state it's been reconstituted but wasn't sure what that meant (heard of reconstituted juice and stuff). it looks like turquoise to me (from the picture) but i don't own any to compare..."}, {"response": 297, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:46)", "body": "Re: Moissonite http://www.moissketeer.com/ This website is THE website for the stones and tells all about them. This is the introduction: \"Moissanite is the registered trademark name of a diamond simulant that is very close to diamond in both hardness and thermal conductivity, and higher in refractive index. Although the material exists in nature, this simulant is produced synthetically in mass volume. Moissanite is near colorless and doubly refractive. The Moissketeer 2000 SD tests the electrical and electronic properties of the stone to separate it from natural diamond. What is a synthetic diamond? Synthetic diamond is grown in the lab and has nearly all the qualities of natural diamond. Commercially available large sized near colorless and colorless synthetic diamond grown by the preferred nickel catalyst method have an electronic property that is detected by the Moissketeer 2000 SD. This detection method is only for use on the colorless and near colorless synthetic diamond grown with the preferred nickel catalyst method. This tester will not test most forms of colored (such as red, brown, yellow, and most probably green), synthetic diamonds. Type IIB, a very rare form of naturally occurring blue diamond will be detected by this tester. Blue diamonds created by radiation and heat treatment of yellow synthetic diamond will not be detected. With colored diamonds, it is always important to have them verified by a professional gemologist with the proper equipment, preferably an SA2000 spectrometer from Adamas Labs. As seen in the December 9,1998 Jewelers Security Alliance \"Crime Prevention Bulletin\" *In September the Tallahassee(FL) Police Department arrested two men for Grand Theft and Organized Fraud after they visited a local pawn shop and sold a pair of \"diamonds\" for $1,600.00. The pawn shop owner tested the diamonds on his regular diamond tester and they seemed genuine. After the men left, he tested them on a MOISSKETEER, a special moissanite tester, and learned that the stones were not diamonds. The shop owner called other local pawn shops and warned them about the two men. A short time later the men were captured at another pawn shop as they tried to sell more of the items. Police located a computer print-out in their car with a listing of several pawn shops in Alabama.\""}, {"response": 298, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:48)", "body": "The turquise reconstitutes can be very pretty and very difficult to tell from the real stuff (which has become very expensive - I inherited some!). If you like the color and the price is reasonable, it is a good buy. Just not an investment...!"}, {"response": 299, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:56)", "body": "here's a pic of a pendant that i believe is turquoise (got it from my oma in germany a long time ago)"}, {"response": 300, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (14:56)", "body": "oh my, that's way huge (the measurement is in cm)"}, {"response": 301, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:47)", "body": "v. interesting about the Moissonite. If it's lab grown and has same properties, should be flawless as well. What you gotta look out for these days."}, {"response": 302, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:48)", "body": "I shall look up the variety of turquoise for you. It appears to have gold findings. Does it? It is a lovely piece. Tap on it with your fingernail. It should have a vitreous sound or like you are tapping on hard polished rock rather than on plastic. I am pretty sure it is the real thing."}, {"response": 303, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:50)", "body": "due to gardening and such, i have no nails left to tap....the only gold on it is the piece that goes right down the middle. (at least that's all i can see)"}, {"response": 304, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:54)", "body": "Thanks for the flower info. I thought one behind each ear might mean a \"definite maybe.\" I got a turquiose necklace for my birthday. It's relatively large beads, interspersed with small gold spacers. The gold clasp has a Chinese design, and the largest bead is a carved \"chou\" bead, for good fortune. The stones aren't exact color matches to one another, some are a bit more blue than others, and some are a little more green than others. The color variations aren't jarring, just a little variation, like they're individuals. Quite pleasing actually. All the turquiose beads have marked black veining. I really like it, but when I first put it on it felt like rocks hanging around my neck. Which is what it is."}, {"response": 305, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:57)", "body": "Karen..LOL...has that guy offered your sister a diamond ring? Do that test they suggest on the Moissanite website."}, {"response": 306, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (15:58)", "body": "*haha*"}, {"response": 307, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (16:00)", "body": "My nugget necklace has pretty large graduated nuggets and it is HEAVY! It is strung on braided silver cable with long silver finials at the ends. The lady whose it was had been an Arizona native before coming to Hilo. Turquoise is pretty stuff, but heavy if not full of resin. It is one way to tell. It is, after all, copper ore!"}, {"response": 308, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (16:02)", "body": "Offer? He gave her a ring (substance unsubstantiated) last year. They are getting married next month. Bought her a marquis cut; was so proud of himself. I was underwhelmed. Sister didn't want marquis either. ;-)"}, {"response": 309, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:14)", "body": "here's a neato website i found while researching alexandrite (again).... http://www.houseofonyx.com/gemstonelist.html"}, {"response": 310, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:19)", "body": "black opal: http://www.houseofonyx.com/gem15.html"}, {"response": 311, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "and another great gemsite: http://www.gemhut.com/gemidx.htm"}, {"response": 312, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (20:31)", "body": "and another: http://www.galleries.com/minerals/gemstone/class.htm"}, {"response": 313, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:03)", "body": "This is the ultimate mineral text online. The photos are superb and the text easy to read. http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/gemstones/sp14-95/ The cover image of Watermelon Tourmaline from California: (the remember buttons on porch 38 are gone and I did not touch them)"}, {"response": 314, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:06)", "body": "Wolfie, you have posted some superb sites. Loads of links and information and photos. Excellent. The one I just posted is more like a field guide and I would like to have that chunk on my specimen-go-round. Whew!!!"}, {"response": 315, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:08)", "body": "yes, i saw that piece while reviewing that website from your earlier post!"}, {"response": 316, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:08)", "body": "oh, i went into springcam right after you did and the remember button was there. very strange!"}, {"response": 317, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:11)", "body": "My wedding set in white gold consisted of 1/3 carat marquise diamond with a baguette on either side. I had two wedding rings with had a V for the stone and baguettes either side. One ring went on top and one on the bottom and it looks lovely and as impressive as my little hands can manage. (My wedding ring is a 4)"}, {"response": 318, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:12)", "body": "empty your cache - it is reloading the the old stuff and seeing a button no long er there."}, {"response": 319, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:16)", "body": "I went back there and poked the forget button - the first time I have ever done so ...they are there now, but this time I put them there....who knows?!"}, {"response": 320, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:16)", "body": "did that, it's still there....hmmmm...."}, {"response": 321, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:18)", "body": "did you poke them and they are still there?"}, {"response": 322, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:22)", "body": "did i poke what? i emptied my cache and temp files, clicked on your response in springcam twice (before and after) and the button is still there. i didn't press remember or anything."}, {"response": 323, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:22)", "body": "Do you think this man has any clue how much those little buttons are doing to us? Probably not, as he is a man...but he does know other things I would not have thought he would. *lol* *Hugs* Wolfie, enjoy!!!"}, {"response": 324, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:23)", "body": "After mine disappeared, I poked the forget button and the remember ones showed up again and will stay there until we poke them again....Just like any other conference."}, {"response": 325, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:25)", "body": "maybe, he hasn't been doing anything and somebody keeps hitting the forget button and messing with our heads!"}, {"response": 326, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:29)", "body": "This is possible....! I shall take that wisdom to heart. It is too difficult to deal with otherwise....but I know how I will react when next I see it...*sigh*"}, {"response": 327, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:30)", "body": "Speaking of which, did you see my remember button - just made it with transparent frame and installed it. Yay!!! I think all possible buttons are here, finally!!!"}, {"response": 328, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:33)", "body": "no, i've not looked for a remember button here (only when you tell me it's here)..... i still won't touch one of those darned things....."}, {"response": 329, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:34)", "body": "the darned things--forgot where i was, the ouija board (from paraspring) *lol*"}, {"response": 330, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  3, 2000 (21:40)", "body": "Me too - it has been since I climbed trees and had long braids since I touched an Ouija board. Never mind! Damned thing is probably appropriate!"}, {"response": 331, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (17:25)", "body": "I realized after I posted that comment about the marquis engagement ring that I might inadvertently offend someone...and I now see that you, Marcia, had one such ring. What I was trying to get across is that the dunderhead (i.e., future brother-in-law) who knows nothing about diamonds could have bought more and better quality gem for the money he spent. The marquis cut wastes a tremendous amount of the stone and you pay for all of the waste. Better IMO to buy a beautifully cut round stone of decent carat size than spend the same for a much smaller marquis. And to compound things, he had the little sliver set in yellow gold, which she wasn't too pleased about either. Enough of my carping."}, {"response": 332, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (17:46)", "body": "Mine was not my choice and I was not offended. it does waste a lot and costs more as a result. My Alexandrite is also a marquise because he loved the cut! I don't like to be poked by the points, but the wwedding-ring-guards do make it a lovely single ring as I had them soldered together as a unit. Yellow Gold?! He is a twit! It will make the diamond look yellowish!"}, {"response": 333, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (21:55)", "body": "that's exactly the problem with the marquis, my tanzanite is constantly getting caught and poking me."}, {"response": 334, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (21:56)", "body": "what's this with yellow gold? i have a cute half-karat round on yellow gold (but it's mounted in silver-aren't they all?) and it doesn't look yellow. or is that what you mean, the mount itself is yellow gold? (oh, and the AM gave me that on our 4th anniversary)....."}, {"response": 335, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:15)", "body": "Mounted in White Gold. Wow! Diamonds after the fact?! Not bad, Wolfie!!!"}, {"response": 336, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:17)", "body": "My Mother's original engagement diamond was set in white gold on a yellow gold band, but I have seen some which are set in yellow gold prongs. The effect is not pleasing - at least, to me!"}, {"response": 337, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:23)", "body": "really? i thought they were all like that and because i like gold over silver, was actually disappointed! don't wear that solitaire though because it's too high. feel like it gets in the way. now i have a marquis sapphire with diamonds surrounding it (my engagement ring)...that sits a bit higher than the tanzanite and never poked me. it has a nice gallery with filagree on the top part of the band. very simple and different from the 1/4K and less other girls were wearing. and it cost way less too. but it's pretty. now that i have the anniversary band, i haven't worn that particular sapphire. don't want to wear it on the right hand either. makes me wonder if the anniversary band is supposed to be worn on the right hand and i still should wear my original ring...oh, the style of the sapphire is such that i'd have to have a wrap custome made, the wedding band doesn't fit with it."}, {"response": 338, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:32)", "body": "Hmmm...I have seen anniversary rings replace wedding sets of modest means and also worn on the right hand. The effect of my two wedding bands around the solitaire is of a wrap. I am very fond of wraps and they are so comfortable to wear. My first engagement ring was a star sapphire with little side diamonds set in white gold. I still love it but seldom wear it since I have taken to wearing the Alexandrite..."}, {"response": 339, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:40)", "body": "well, when i go on my summer vacations, i wear my wedding band and don't take any of my gems. i guess it doesn't matter which hand you wear it on as long as you know what it's for and the meaning behind it. which is why i wear mine on my left hand...it's for 10 years and counting! (and we're on #12 this year, can you believe it?)"}, {"response": 340, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:44)", "body": "..and you being just 25 and all... Hard to believe! Isn't it amazing how the kids get older and we just stay the same?!"}, {"response": 341, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  4, 2000 (22:51)", "body": "yup! *wink*"}, {"response": 342, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (23:36)", "body": "Since wolf brought up turquoise and we've been yakking about opals, I ran across some realllllllly pretty inlaid stuff: OK, so that one didn't have turquoise, but those are opals in the center, with lapis. A wow piece or two... And a killer cuff that I couldn't wear..."}, {"response": 343, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (23:54)", "body": "I'll Wow to them all! Thanks, Karen. Never saw opals set with inlay. They are stunning! I have my mom's bearclaw necklace set in silver inlay. It is stunning and I need a scanner to show it to you unless I can photo it with the new digital camera. Yeah, I'd be willing to model any of them any time...!"}, {"response": 344, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar  5, 2000 (23:57)", "body": "Um...I have a long neck....I'll wear it for you! Love those colors!!!"}, {"response": 345, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:10)", "body": "Yeah, I'm always drawn to colors like those. When I was in Tucson, I looked all over for an inlaid cuff, but they're too big for me. It would have to be custom made. Argh! Says the designer works with the following: purple sugilite from Africa, royal blue Afghani lapis, Australian opal, red and pink corals from the Mediterranean and South Pacific, turquoise from America and China, and black jade from Edwards, Wyoming. Some designs include accents of diamonds, rubies, tourmalines, garnets, or amethysts."}, {"response": 346, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:17)", "body": "Sugilite is incredible stuff - such pretty dusty rosy-lilac-cum-lavender colors. I noted the precious and semi accents. Great designs and such incredible colors. It would look great out here!!! I have all of my Mon's and my own turquoise stuff as well as a neighbor whose kids did not like it. I can weigh twice my weight just by stacking my lovlies on me. It is gorgeous stuff! I have a bunch in oxblood coral - and exquisite red. My squash blossom necklace is inlaid with oxblod coral...!"}, {"response": 347, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:23)", "body": "A squash blossom necklace! To adorn that swan-like neck? ;-) Most pieces do tend to be heavy. Nature of the materials used. I've got a lovely pair of earrings that I can only wear for a half hour a night, but they're beauts."}, {"response": 348, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:26)", "body": "Ah Yes!!! Or you'll be able to carry newspapers home in the pukas if you leave them in too long. I know the kind! My squas blossom necklace is about 2/3 size because I am tiny (albeit long-legged) so I am not dwarfed by it. Some are H U G E !!! With your shiny raven tresses you should look stunning in any of this jewelry. I am surprised someone has not asked you to model it!"}, {"response": 349, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:30)", "body": "One needs a neck to do that type of thing. ;-) Nighty night"}, {"response": 350, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (00:35)", "body": "g'night Karen! Me too +)"}, {"response": 351, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (13:18)", "body": "wow, that's some retro looking stuff! way too extravagant for me!! i have an inlaid cuff bracelet made of pau (or however it's spelled) the inside of shells. it's pretty but too little for my wrist now (got it as a teenager at a souviner shop).... perhaps i'll scan it for you to see...."}, {"response": 352, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (14:24)", "body": "Shuckins...your daughter will grow into it...or someone with a tiny wrist (mine!) is always handy. My ring-finger is a size 4...! (You will have grandchildren who will love and appreciate it, Wolfie!!!_ Please do scan it - I love inlayed pieces."}, {"response": 353, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (15:29)", "body": "i've got to clean it first, the silver is all tarnished. (been in a jewelry box for years)....my daughter has already asked for it!"}, {"response": 354, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (16:27)", "body": "Be sure she is old enough to take proper care of it or the inlays will fall out. I am delighted she likes it!"}, {"response": 355, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (17:58)", "body": "Did I note the mention of lapus lazuli. Has that been discussed before? I love the color, almost a true ultramarine."}, {"response": 356, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:07)", "body": "Have not discussed Lapiz except in passing as inlay material. That mountain full of it in Russia must be amazing. I love the color - I thought it more like indigo shot with gold!"}, {"response": 357, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:11)", "body": "I think the best quality would be indigo, a kind of violet-blue. Very beautiful. The lesser grades might tend to ultramarine, the absolute bluest blue. Although all would be shot with gold."}, {"response": 358, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:21)", "body": "as promised, the inlay cuff bracelet:"}, {"response": 359, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:22)", "body": "and some pieces of the shell have started falling out due to age....."}, {"response": 360, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:26)", "body": "Is that what used to be called \"mother of pearl\"?"}, {"response": 361, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:37)", "body": "Mother of Pearl is the white pearly inlay and Paua shell is the colored ones. How lovely, Wolfie! Thank you!!! You can epoxy them back into place very carefully so you don't get glue between the pieces or on top. It'll be there forever!"}, {"response": 362, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:40)", "body": "thanks!"}, {"response": 363, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "Got some scale for that? Your pink tape measure is no where to be seen! Looks over an inch wide. I have a similar pattern on a brass belt buckle. It is really pretty, Wolfie. Can't they flex it enough to fit you...uh...uh...uh..."}, {"response": 364, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:46)", "body": "Lovely cuff, wolf. You said it was \"too small\" for you? ;-) *cough cough* [little wrist] Mountains in Russia? Thought I'd read that the best lapis came from Afghanistan. I know, same mountain chain! ;-)"}, {"response": 365, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:47)", "body": "No, can't flex a cuff if there's inlay. That's always the problem for me. A basic silver cuff can be flexed, but the inlays will pop out."}, {"response": 366, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:48)", "body": "(that is me trying to stretch it to fit you...)*hugs* That stuff is still called Mother of Pearl, no?!"}, {"response": 367, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:52)", "body": "The Mountains containing the choicest Lapiz are in Afghanistan. Catherine the Great had a whole room made out of the stuff and another of Malachite and another of amber....Incredible stuff!"}, {"response": 368, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:54)", "body": "Karen can hear a jewelry discussion even inside the closely guarded Firthian tower doors known to the rest of the world as Drool....*grin*"}, {"response": 369, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (18:58)", "body": "Karen may well be able to discern a jewelery discussion on all sensory and extra sensory levels. She does have wide ranging knowlege on the subject and really good taste though."}, {"response": 370, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:05)", "body": "yupper. i guess it's mother of pearl, got it because i liked the pattern and the inlay work... gotta do some mom stuff so be back later *hugs*"}, {"response": 371, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:06)", "body": "She is a most welcome addition to Geo. I was just kidding her - I can sniff out a good rock at 20 paces, as well. Um, it is part of the second X chromosome, is it not, to discern fine jewelry at great distances? And sales?!"}, {"response": 372, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:08)", "body": "we'll miss you Wolfie! *hugs*"}, {"response": 373, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:09)", "body": "I love what Karen posts about jewelery."}, {"response": 374, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (19:17)", "body": "I love the pictures she posts, as well. Karen, please tell Cheryl I am not picking on you!"}, {"response": 375, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (20:53)", "body": "Um, it is part of the second X chromosome, is it not, to discern fine jewelry at great distances? And sales?! LOL! I've found that it pays to know what you're talking about with jewelry. Costly mistakes otherwise. ;-) Also, being the shallow person that I am, what you dig out of Planet Earth or pry out of/off its creatures and fashion into pretty things is what interests me. I am so un-PC. ;-)"}, {"response": 376, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "Hey, that is why I created this topic. I love it, as well, and I also do my homework on jewelry - it certainly is in one's best interest to do so! *lol* I hope you get permission before prying goodies off creatures. I would probably give you a pretty good fight...*grin*"}, {"response": 377, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (20:58)", "body": "Costly mistakes as in BLUE amethysts???!!!"}, {"response": 378, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (21:29)", "body": "wasn't her mistake though! *grin* she'da known better!!"}, {"response": 379, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (21:55)", "body": "Yup, but the guy without that special second X didn't have a clue! *laugh*"}, {"response": 380, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (21:56)", "body": "My Dad always said about me that a guy'd have to be crazy to buy me jewelry without having me along. I chose my Mom's diamond anniversary ring for him to give her (and my eldest sister ended up inheriting it!)"}, {"response": 381, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (22:11)", "body": "haha!! then i'll need you if i should decide to buy more jewelry (not if, when!) *hugs* i have expensive taste but it's innocent, i don't choose things because they look expensive so i can parade around with it and say look at this expensive thing i have, nope, just like quality, i guess, and mayhaps, recognize it...."}, {"response": 382, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (22:23)", "body": "Gotcha on the *when*...*grin* I'll be only too happy to aid and abet your ventures into material investing! Wolfie, you have class and your taste shows it...just as Karen's does. That's why I enjoy you so much *hugs*"}, {"response": 383, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Mar  6, 2000 (23:39)", "body": "I hope you get permission before prying goodies off creatures. Have no fear, I draw the line at endangered species. ;-)"}, {"response": 384, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (04:37)", "body": "This second X chromosome carries a lot of stuff. Have to admit I feel some sympathy for Karen's sister's guy, who thought he did a Good Thing. Poor sap! For the record, men have no clue what jewellery looks expensive, and precious little idea of what looks nice."}, {"response": 385, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (07:49)", "body": "...and approach it the same as driving, refusing to look at a map or ask for directions. I like consistency of approach. ;-)"}, {"response": 386, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar  7, 2000 (09:19)", "body": "mine thinks every piece of jewelry costs and arm and a leg and frowns when i purchase a gift for myself (and if i did not do this, do you think he would? no way!) (alexandrite, case and point)...."}, {"response": 387, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (17:00)", "body": "I'm sorry Marcia, I never meant to imply you were picking on Karen. As for the Karen's sister's guy, have pity on him. He is estrogen impaired."}, {"response": 388, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (17:04)", "body": "*LOL* Cheryl...I am delighted to see you again - and I know you weren't implying any such thing...I was just hoping to attract Karen's attention so she would post more goodies for us to admire...*hugs* Yup! Estrogen Deprivation can atrophy the social graces and the sense of the esthetic in the human male. They need daily interaction of the most feminine kind if they hope to overcome the problem. It is not impossible, but...The prognosis is not good! *grin*"}, {"response": 389, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (15:44)", "body": "Yes, it still is called mother of pearl, although some people tried to avoid the term by simply calling it shell. Maybe mother of pearl got a bad name due to some tacky jewelry somewhere. But mother of pearl and paua shell might be better discussed on the organic gems topic. Silly of me. Allow me to mention diamonds. There not my favorite, but I wouldn't turn one down. Unless were a yellow diamond. Yuk. I saw a canary (yellow) diamond once; it was vile. It had brilliance, clarity, and a really putrid color. Colored diamonds can be downright strange looking. The most famous colored diamond is of course the Hope Diamond, which is probably the most acceptable color for a colored diamond -- blue. It really is very blue. Priceless and complete with a curse, one might say the Hope is one serious piece of carbon. I've also seen pink diamonds, unsual but pretty."}, {"response": 390, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (20:59)", "body": "i've never seen a colored diamond in life (and the line to see the Hope was longer than i had time for)...."}, {"response": 391, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (22:23)", "body": "In the British Museum of Natural History on Cromwell Road, you will see a display of the most indredible colored diamonds round cut. Emerald greem, brilliant red, aquamarine, deep blue, pink, apricot...just about every color imaginable. I would have loved an aqua diamond....or the green one...or the red one...*grin*"}, {"response": 392, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (10:06)", "body": "must've been hard to believe they were real!"}, {"response": 393, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (16:17)", "body": "I wanted to check them out closer but the guards regarded me with a cold eye until I smiled at them charmingly and told them I really did not mean it...but they were stunning - tiny - most of the deep colored ones were well under a carat, but they were stunning and lit so you could see the fire in them."}, {"response": 394, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (15:33)", "body": "They really do sound stunning. The Hope is really an eyeful, when you finally get up to see it. I still think the yellow diamond was a really putrid color."}, {"response": 395, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (16:36)", "body": "I have seen the Hope when it was on display at the American Museum and still owned by Harry Winston. It is not only the most incredible \"sapphire blue,\" but it is a Diamond! With all of the fire and brilliance. The smaller white diamonds around it are pretty large as solitaires go, as well! Unless Yellow diamonds do not have even the slightest tinge of grey in them, they are beautiful - like pale topazes. But, most of them have that pewter cast which renders them 'dirty-looking' in my opinion. Perhaps they would benefit from being set in all-yellow-gold mountings!"}, {"response": 396, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (16:38)", "body": "Oh, Btw, the Hope is only about a half of what was a HUGE blue diamond in the hands of the French aristocracy. It was cut in half sometime after the Revolution and no one is sure where the other part is."}, {"response": 397, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (16:46)", "body": "Colored diamonds are very rare and all tend to be very expensive. The Hope by it's noteriety, color, and even present size is truly priceless. Okay, maybe it has a price but would it be in this dimension. It's hard to imagine the original diamond, the sheer size of it. It was reputed to be a more or less heart shaped stone, wasn't it? That is an interesting question -- where's the other half? You are no doubt right about yellow diamonds, I probably saw one with a pewter cast, not attractive. Although, yellow gold would be flattering to it, bringing out a more golden color."}, {"response": 398, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "Yes, it was more or less heart-shaped and was the hanger for The Louis Kings' Order of the Golden Fleece. It must have been incredible! There is a painting of him in one of my books (Louis XV I believe) wearing it. I'll see if I can find it on the net (or buy myself a scanner..!)"}, {"response": 399, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (18:25)", "body": "Ok..Got out the book and the original big blue diamond's likeness exists only in an engraving of the Golden Fleece Made for Louis XV in 1749. A huge ruby carved into the shape of a dragon, the large blue diamond, plus other large colored stones surrounded by topazes and colored diamonds (according to the account of the day.) The rage for colored diamonds was so great that many were set in colored foil to create the effect of naturally colored diamonds! The whole ensemble was broken up in 1792 and the whereabouts of many of the stones is unknown."}, {"response": 400, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (16:37)", "body": "Lance, what guidelines can you give us on Jade?"}, {"response": 401, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (16:50)", "body": "The jade I have is a dark ugly green with black inclusions. The Jade the house male has is a lovely apple green. It does not even look like the same mineral!"}, {"response": 402, "author": "lance8", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "Not much. Good jade has a clarity of color without fuzziness is the best way I can put it. You can see into it, and see inclusions. Colors are wide ranging. White, black, greens, purples, red, oranges even."}, {"response": 403, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (17:25)", "body": "Translucent and tough would about sum it up, then? Nephrite and Jadeite."}, {"response": 404, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (17:42)", "body": "Apple green? That's good. Imperial jade is that color. (I'm a jade lover too."}, {"response": 405, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2000 (18:17)", "body": "Never met a gem I could not love...Jade, too Off to hunt up pix of incredible Jade...Lance has a ring whose stone is a dead-ringer for Imperial Jade but is not...I'll let him tell you about it when he returns."}, {"response": 406, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (17:34)", "body": "While I continue to look for pretty jade pix to post, here's one for Dolphin lovers and fluorite, as well: http://www.tir.com/~jadegift/spendant.html Fluorite Ball & Flipper The a rototable fluorite ball embraced by a sterling silver flipper. Color: Light brown, transparent with hairy texture inside the ball. Size : 1/2\" (12mm) Diameter without flipper, 18\" (45cm) Sterling silver flipper and chain. Price : $20"}, {"response": 407, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (19:04)", "body": "I'd love to have one exactly that size!!!"}, {"response": 408, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (08:57)", "body": "And it's extremely reasonably priced, too."}, {"response": 409, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (12:40)", "body": "Yes! But it is pretty small. I want one the size they show...but would not turn down the one they have there. I am seriously thinking of getting it! It is about the only way to have fluorite and keep it pretty. It is very soft - just above gypsum on Moh's scale - a 3."}, {"response": 410, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (12:47)", "body": "i'm thinking about getting it too. that's so pretty and similar to the ball rings we've been talking about. thanks for that, it's pretty!"}, {"response": 411, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (13:50)", "body": "I thought you needed it...=) The price was right and it has a dolphin on it. How could we miss?! I was hunting for Jade pictures when I found it and then forgot all about the jade when I saw the price. It's really pretty! Wolfie, I'm gonna send you an email...."}, {"response": 412, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (16:06)", "body": "Never mind about the email. I just ordered mine - will let you know what I get and when I get it. (Was gonna get you one too...which I should have done but it would have taken longer to get to you...*sigh*)"}, {"response": 413, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (18:28)", "body": "Many of the bigger more beautiful and numerous and less expensive diamonds which graced the courts of the Louis Kings of France came from the mines in Golconda, Ohio. And, lest we forget, Mrs Clinton wore the Star of Arkansas, a large diamond mined in the state and loaned to her, to their first Inaugural Ball."}, {"response": 414, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (18:37)", "body": "The American Diamond connection: Diamonds have been found in the sands and gravels of present and former stream beds in North Carolina , South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, West Virginia, Texas , Idaho, Montana, California and Oregon; many of these discoveries having been made in conjunction with placer gold mining operations. Glacial deposits of diamonds from Canada are found around the Great Lakes region. Specifically, in Wisconsin, michigan, Indiana and Ohio. Diamonds, possibly from the same source have been found in Tennessee and Kentucky. From The Rockhound's Manual by Gordon S. Fay"}, {"response": 415, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "Rubies have been mined commercially in North Carolina , and have been found in Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming. Sapphires have been mined commercially in Montana and habve been found in California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, and North Carolina . I need to find a friend in North Carolina and go grubbing in the gravels...one of my favorite passtimes."}, {"response": 416, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (19:14)", "body": "i'm gonna get that dolphin...."}, {"response": 417, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (19:16)", "body": "well, gonna have to wait, it's sold (and i wonder to whom? *SMILE*) so glad you got it. please tell me about it when it comes in...."}, {"response": 418, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (19:19)", "body": "They asked me how many I wanted...It is yours and I'll order the next one."}, {"response": 419, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "I was afraid it would be gone if we waited any longer...so I grabbed it!"}, {"response": 420, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (19:29)", "body": "no, you keep it, marcia, i can wait sweetheart, thanks though!"}, {"response": 421, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (19:31)", "body": "Well, if they run out, this one is yours!!! I insist!"}, {"response": 422, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (19:35)", "body": "i'm sure they'll get more in stock. perhaps, i'll email the dealer and ask! oh, and qvc is having gem week and tonight (9pm CST) is lapis. i'm gonna watch out of curiosity. maybe i'll pick up something small just to add to my collection. this is the right topic for lapis, right?"}, {"response": 423, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (20:14)", "body": "You bet! Let us know how you fare!"}, {"response": 424, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (20:23)", "body": "will do."}, {"response": 425, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (04:29)", "body": "Where's the picture of David Marcia - am i in the right place?"}, {"response": 426, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (13:15)", "body": "Thanks for the information on American precious gemstones. I never think of the United States or even North America in connection with gems. Although, I do remember coming across something last year about Montana, I think, concerning bogos, (not certain if that's the correct spelling), which are intensely blue sapphires."}, {"response": 427, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (14:56)", "body": "According to my rockhounding book, over $30 million in Sapphires have been mined in the Yogo Gulch of Montana. Might that be what you were thinking of? They are excellent in quality. Emeralds are not as abundant in the US as other gem stones (and I never think of the US and Gem stones in the same sentence, either!) They have been found in Massachusetts and the Carolinas (there it goes again - gotta get to North Carolina!) Aquamarine, the emerald's semi-precious cousin, is much more abundant. It is comercially mined in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and North Carolina . Aquamarines have also been found in Alabama, Idaho, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah. Golden Beryls have been found in California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York and North Carolina . Morganite which is pink-to-rose-red beryl is found only in California, Maine, and Utah."}, {"response": 428, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (14:58)", "body": "David is in Geo 2, Maggie"}, {"response": 429, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (15:08)", "body": "Yes, that was it. Yogos! They're supposed to be very intensely blue sapphires. Now I know how they got that awful name. It's from the Yogo Gulch."}, {"response": 430, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (15:25)", "body": "Yup - and probably means \"splendid Sapphires\" in some native American language."}, {"response": 431, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (17:08)", "body": "and don't forget diamonds in arkansas. forgot the name of the place, but you can go out in the dirt and dig to your heart's content. haven't done it yet. but it's on my list!"}, {"response": 432, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (17:16)", "body": "Yup - it's back a few posts. The exact place is near Murfreesboro, Arkansas, from whence came the large diamond Mrs Clinton wore."}, {"response": 433, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (17:20)", "body": "I am a gravel grubber from way back. Have bottles of perfect dodecahedron garnets from an arroyo on Arizona, bottles and more bottles of peridots (olivines, actually) from Hilo and environs...and so on. I'll join you in Arkansas! They'll have to pull me away at the end of the day kicking and screaming if it is like the other places I have been...especially if I find something *grin*"}, {"response": 434, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (18:41)", "body": "i would love to find something!"}, {"response": 435, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 27, 2000 (19:03)", "body": "Yeah, me too...and I am just the sort who'll stay there till I do...and then some!"}, {"response": 436, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (18:03)", "body": "So when are you two off to Murfreesboro, Arkansas to dig up some diamonds? Peridot. That's my cousin's birthstone,August, and she hates it. Actually, she loathes it. She thinks it such a pale, washed out green, which looks bad with everything. The people I know who hate their birthstones, were either born in August, peridot, or November, yellow topaz."}, {"response": 437, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (19:08)", "body": "And May - I cannot stand the Emeralds available today - far too gaudy (Chatham created ones) or milky (the ones I can afford). I was allowed to wear a tall swirl of diamonds and emeralds set in white gold ring. I guess letting him live in my house and eat my food and let my ex pay his bills was not good enough. His son now has it....for whatever reason. (Yeah...the hairy chest-beater)"}, {"response": 438, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (19:18)", "body": "Not sure when I will make it to Arkansas - do not know anyone even slightly near there. Was talking to my son today about visiting him - he's a geologist (in case my constant mentioning of that fact eluded you); diamonds and gold were found in California. Hmmm...!"}, {"response": 439, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (20:21)", "body": "hey, you know me! AND you have my address....of course, murfreesboro is several hours away...."}, {"response": 440, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (20:25)", "body": "This is true - and two heads are better than one (watch it!!!) and two Geminis are even better...*grin* Hey, what's a few hours among friends?! Gotta go...later!!!"}, {"response": 441, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (20:27)", "body": "k, see ya!"}, {"response": 442, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (15:33)", "body": "marcia! how'd your dinner meeting go? hope the food was good along with the company.... i've got a serious question to ask our gem experts, namely, marcia *grin* today, the AM and i went browsing through service merchandise, who is, btw, having a 70% clearance sale, the reason we went in. well, i can never go into SM without perusing the jewelry counter (sometimes their sales are real good). came across two rings. both set with diamonds in 10K gold. one was a trillion, the other a marquis. having remembered our discussion on the amount of money one pays for marquis and the amount of stone that is lost, i chose to look at the trillion cut. these two rings were exsquisite (ok, so i forgot how to spell, see what gemstones do to me?)....both showed remarkable pleochroism with shades of pink, green, and blue. i asked the sales lady to please pull one out for me to handle. looked at the tag and it said color-treated topaz. now this gem changed it's colors in the light and angle (like my tanzanite). i asked her if it was really a topaz and she said yup (ok, she said yes) and i was shocked and chokin on a grain of salt. she said it was heat treated topaz. both of these rings sell for $99. the AM saw it and said my b-day was coming. i've never seen a topaz like that in my life. told her it was behaving like alexandrite or tanzanite and thanked her. decided i would do some homework before the AM is set on buying that ring, although, the the thought of the AM buying me jewelry is most exciting no matter what it is! so marcia, have you ever heard of this? i looked on SM's website and they only show the radiated blue topaz both real and simulated. the saleslady assured me the piece i was agog over was real. you and i both fell for the simulated alexandrite from zales, so please give me some advice, i'm begging you! (do you see how excited i am?) the gemstone book is wide open and i'm waiting impatiently!"}, {"response": 443, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (15:35)", "body": "now i remember what they said they did to it...called it color-enhanced (????)"}, {"response": 444, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (16:08)", "body": "Checking in the book...Heat treating pink topazes is an old (several centuries worth) way of intensifying color and does not emit irradiation. Blue is still intensified by irradiation. Actually, pink and other pale topazes form with shades of many colors in them and they are visible only under certain light or at certain angles. Not true pleichroism, but just as lovely. I'd say go for it. I'd love to have one like that! Email me if it is on the web so I can see it, Please!"}, {"response": 445, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (16:17)", "body": "am trying to find a picture. it turns gray at an angle and you can see the pinks, greens, and blues when you look directly down on it under indoor lights."}, {"response": 446, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (16:48)", "body": "Sounds just like they describe in the book"}, {"response": 447, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (16:58)", "body": "(The dinner meeting went very well, thanks for asking!)"}, {"response": 448, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (22:05)", "body": "am still gonna do a search and see if i can find a pic of these color-enhanced topazes....the AM asked me which one i wanted again (the marquis or trillion, you know which one i said!) told him to buy it now and hold it *grin*"}, {"response": 449, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (09:40)", "body": "found one! http://www.scotgem.demon.co.uk/topdia.html am working on the photo (it's humongous) and when i get it down to a manageable size, will post the one i'm talking about...."}, {"response": 450, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (09:45)", "body": "got it....."}, {"response": 451, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (09:45)", "body": "isn't it lovely?"}, {"response": 452, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (09:47)", "body": "well, while i'm here, i'm gonna add the main index to the above site for your pleasure.... http://www.scotgem.demon.co.uk/index.html"}, {"response": 453, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (10:44)", "body": "Oooh! I am still waking up and this is the first place I went on the Spring. I had no idea it was so wonderful. I thought it might be like an ametrine...very faint distictions of color. This is magnificent. I'd get it just on that basis alone. It is most attractive and amazing. Lovely, Wolfie!!! Probably better in real life, too. My Alexandrite photographs the color of whatever the flash excites."}, {"response": 454, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (11:33)", "body": "that picture came from the website i posted. i just clipped it to show the stone most like the one we have been talking about. how they got all the colors to show is beyond me. so now we know it is real and they can do it! (you sound better today, sweetie)"}, {"response": 455, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (12:29)", "body": "(Thanks, I feel better - inside my heart, that is - the rest mostly takes care of itself). Is this little gem on its way to you yet..or at least, reserved? I'd love an oval one like that... Incredibly gorgeous! Let us know (like we could stop such great news) when you get it in hand and examine it. My fav way is with with a mini-maglight then outdoors in bright sunlight. I am so excited for you! What did you hear about the dolphin pendant, if anything?"}, {"response": 456, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (13:16)", "body": "i forgot about the pendant....will go back and see if they have any more in stock. the AM is out fishing today so.....he did tell me not to worry about it and said he'd get me the ring."}, {"response": 457, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (13:37)", "body": "How is the ring setting done? Yellow gold? Your Trilliant will be magnificent. (did I guess right =)?)"}, {"response": 458, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (13:39)", "body": "ok, the dolphin pendant we've been drooling over isn't going to be available for awhile. the sales people told me they weren't expecting any in. so i went running around the net looking for something similar and here's what i've found: http://www.webcrystals.com/webcrystals/dolsphernec.html"}, {"response": 459, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (13:39)", "body": "the crystal is called aqua aura (similar to a stone in my ball ring)...."}, {"response": 460, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (13:48)", "body": "the trillion is set in yellow 10K gold with diamonds (1 pt or less) sorta swirling up to the stone. and the above dolphin pendant can be made with your choice of bead. it's not interchangeable, much to my disappointment....."}, {"response": 461, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (13:48)", "body": "oh, and i'll be more than happy to scan the ring (but you'll have to wait until June) if he does present me with it *smile*"}, {"response": 462, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (14:33)", "body": "*sigh*...I'll wait and he has a problem with me if you don't get it then 7^/ Oooh...sparkly things along with the topaz? I think I am in love!!! Sounds really lovely...*sigh* That is a darling dolphin pendant. Is is sterling?"}, {"response": 463, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (14:39)", "body": "Did you check this one at the same site?"}, {"response": 464, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (15:52)", "body": "didn't see that one! oh, and it is sterling. found another site when i found the double dolphin pendant. the woman who designs the jewelry is a gemologist and some of the pieces have fiery opal beads with the dolphins. will find the site and show you!"}, {"response": 465, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (15:54)", "body": "http://www.seadesigns.com/ just click on the side menu....."}, {"response": 466, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (16:02)", "body": "Ok...going to check. The above is a humpback whale - about the same price and with all kinds of lovely spheres available in real stone!"}, {"response": 467, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (16:04)", "body": "Yikes!!! Way outta my range on that new place! But, pretty stuff. I found the above whale on dolphin Jewelry on the left hand column of links."}, {"response": 468, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (16:05)", "body": "yup, i went back and found the whale too. you're right about that seaside place. very expensive!"}, {"response": 469, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (16:11)", "body": "Men do sometimes notice jewelry. One of of my male co-workers noticed a necklace I was wearing and said, \"That's really pretty. Are those stones blue topaz.\" To which I replied, \"No, they're aquamarines.\" It was nice of him to notice."}, {"response": 470, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (16:14)", "body": "I am surprised men are allowing themselves to say anything about anything a woman is wearing. My son says the workplace sexual harassment rules have just about ruled out any comments. They sound lovely!!!"}, {"response": 471, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "Actually, it was outside during our lunch hour."}, {"response": 472, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (16:35)", "body": "How nice of him to notice, and to share the good thought with you!"}, {"response": 473, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (17:31)", "body": "and the necklace is still in your possession? *grin* i'm glad he noticed. can't say that i've ever had the pleasure of male company saying anything about my jewelry. too busy looking elsewhere? (like away from me *grin*)"}, {"response": 474, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (17:32)", "body": "i'm the sexual harrassment officer at work. how am i supposed to monitor those things? people are all the time saying lewd things that can be taken anyway you like. but this isn't the topic to discuss that *smile*"}, {"response": 475, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (17:38)", "body": "Wow! Really, Wolfie? Is that because you were so hit upon they decided to empower you? Yup!!! We know you cannot hide behind the fangs and hairy pelt forever. You got that right about them looking elsewhere...Nothing like having your chest talked to...*sigh*"}, {"response": 476, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (16:16)", "body": "http://www.gemhut.com/topaz.htm Hardness 8.0. Occurrence Brazil, U.S., Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Myanmar (Burma), former USSR, Australia, Pakistan, Mexico, Tasmania, Japan, Africa. Topaz and citrine are the birthstones of the month of November. Appearance Yellow topaz is sometimes called \"precious topaz\" to distinguish it from the names \"gold\" and \"madeiria topaz\", which are in fact citrine (quartz). Yellow topaz is sometimes heat treated to make it look pink. The term \"imperial topaz\" is used by ethical jewelers to refer to topaz that is reddish orange of medium tone and higher saturation. Enhancements Yellow/Orange topaz is occasionally irradiated to intensify color. Pink/Red topaz is usually heat treated chromium bearing pinkish-brown to orange stones. Brown topaz is not enhanced. Green and blue topaz are usually irradiated to produce the desired color. Gemstone Enhancements The term \"enhancement\" is defined to be any treatment process other than cutting and polishing that improves the appearance (color/clarity/phenomena), durability, or availability of a gemstone. Some gemstone enhancements are less stable than others, meaning that some treatments are temporary. It is the policy of Gem Hut to sell only those gemstones whose enhancements (if any) have good to excellent stability. All gemstones can be divided into three basic categories. Not Enhanced, (symbol N) The \"N\" symbol appears by gemstones that are not currently known to be enhanced (Alexandrite, Garnet, etc.), however the \"N\" symbol can also be used for other stones in the event that a stone has received no enhancement. We will provide a guarantee that there has been none and that fact will be noted on the invoice which accompanies the gemstone. Normally Enhanced, (symbol E). The \"E\" symbol appears by gemstones that are routinely enhanced. Since many enhancements are difficult or impractical to prove definitively, the approach taken is, unless otherwise indicated, to assume that such enhancement has been applied to that particular gemstone. This assumption is made to protect both the buyer and seller. If a more specific method of enhancement is known, then the specific enhancement code will be used. Non-Traditional Enhancements For those gemstones not covered by the \"N\" and \"E\" symbols, the specific code which covers the gemstone enhancement will be listed. Symbols For Specific Form of Enhancement B Bleaching: The use of chemicals or other agents to lighten or remove a gemstone's color. C Coating: The use of such surface enhancements as lacquering, enameling, inking, foiling, or sputtering of films to improve appearance, provide color or add other special effects. D Dyeing :The introduction of coloring matter into a gemstone to give it new color, intensify present color or improve color uniformity. F Filling: As a by-product of heat enhancement, the presence of solidified borax or simliar colorless substances which are visible under properly illuminated 10X magnification. G Gamma/Electron Irradiation: The use of gamma and/or electron bombardment to alter a gemstone's color; may be followed by a heating process. H Heating: The use of heat to effect desired alteration of color, clarity, and/or phenomena. (Residue of foreign substances is not visible under properly illuminated 10X magnification.) I Infilling: The intentional filling of surface breaking cavities or fractures usually with glass, plastic, opticon with hardeners and/or other hardened foreign substances to improve durability, appearance and/or add weight. L Lasering: The use of a laser and chemicals to reach and alter inclusions in diamonds. O Oiling/Resin Infusion: The intentional filling of surface cavities of a colorless oil, wax, natural resin, or unhardened man-made material into fissured transparent/translucent gemstones to improve appearance. (i.e., oil, man-made resin, cedar wood oil, Canada balsam, paraffin, etc.) R Irradiation: The use of neutron, requiring an environmental safety release from the Nuclear Regulatory Commision (NRC), with the combination of any other bombardment and/or heat treatment to alter a gemstone's color. S Bonding: The use of a colorless bonding agent (commonly plastic) within a porous gemstone to give it durability and improve appearance. U Diffusion: The use of chemicals in conjunction with high temperatures to produce color and/or asterism-producing inclusions. W Waxing/Oiling: The impregnation of a colorless wax, paraffin and oil in porous opaque gemstones to improve appearance."}, {"response": 477, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (16:21)", "body": "The above was about (((( P R E C I O U S - T O P A Z ))))"}, {"response": 478, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (16:25)", "body": "*=*=*=*=*=* A L E X A N D R I T E *=*=*=*=*=* Hardness 8.5. Occurrence United States, Russia (Ural Mountains), Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), Brazil, Madagascar, Italy. Appearance Named after the Russian Czar, Alexander II, alexandrite is the gemstone most noted for it's color changing abilities. Colors are greenish outdoors, and reddish to violet under artificial light. Alexandrite is extremely rare. Look out for alexandrite which is too clean, or at a price which seems too low, it's probably synthetic. Natural alexandrite rarely exceeds 2 carats. Can be confused with synthetic alexandrite, or synthetic color change corundum. Pearl, moonstone and alexandrite are the birthstones of the month of June. Photographs have been retouched to show the approximate color change from indoors to outdoors. Enhancements Alexandrite is not enhanced."}, {"response": 479, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (16:31)", "body": "Back to Jade for a moment...this is Chrysoprase Chalcedony. It makes lovely rings which are less costly than Jade of this quality, and I think this is far prettier. Have we any comments from anyone owning a ring containing this stone (I happen to know one, actually...and have seen it on his hand)"}, {"response": 480, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (20:49)", "body": "thanks for the gemhut stuff.... i've not seen too many jade rings but the jade disc pendant is popular.... sears has a jade necklace and earrings set (8 mm with 14K gold beads). the set is normally priced at $229.99 but is on sale for $89.99 the picture shows a paler green than depicted above.... speaking of alexandrite, i went to gemhut or someplace like that to price out a simulated stone and a setting of my choice. still toying with it though....but they had a topaz like stone as i'm hoping to get for the b-day and it was called something else, ta--- (will go back and look)"}, {"response": 481, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (21:03)", "body": "it's http://www.gemstones.com"}, {"response": 482, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (21:10)", "body": "the stone i'm thinking of is tavalite and here's a pic (it's from gemstones.com)"}, {"response": 483, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (21:11)", "body": "here's what gemstones.com has to say about this stone.... The metallic luster and unusual peacock coloring that emerges from these exciting new gems is what makes Tavalite\ufffd so truly unique! This futuristic look comes from from a permant process of adding a thin layer of metallic oxide onto a natural, colorless, Silver Topaz. Amulet is proud to offer Blue Enchantment\ufffd, the most popular color of Tavalite\ufffd, which is a metallic medium blue color, accented by subtle combinations of hues that actually change with the viewing angle! Each stone is eye clean and expertly cut. Tavalite\ufffd jewelry is easily cleaned with any standard jewelry cleaner or mild soap and water but avoid abrasive powders. With a little care your new jewelry will be enjoyed through the 21st century and beyond!"}, {"response": 484, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  1, 2000 (22:22)", "body": "I have seen Tavelite. I just wonder how scratch resistent that coating is. It is similar to the coated lenses cameras have. You must be careful. In a pendant it would be less likely to scratch. I am still going for a red-green Alexandrite - no kids to put through college anymore =)) Very good information available at the gemhut url. Also interesting is how the enhancement is done. Check out the Tavelite on HSC or QVC on the telly - they have it pretty often."}, {"response": 485, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (10:42)", "body": "gemstones also has a list of unusual stones. they had a rather large alexandrite for $4 grand with a very nice color change. for $1400, they have a smaller stone mounted on a 14K ring. it has a nice color change as well. i hope the stone at SM isn't tavelite then, because i'm really hard on my jewelry. am surprised my 18K bracelet is still hanging on my wrist! (never take it off except to clean it)...."}, {"response": 486, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (11:25)", "body": "Wolfie, they have to say if it is. The stone you posted from SM is definitely the color enhanced one and not all rainbow-y like Tavelite is. Tavelite is like motor oil leaks on asphalt roadways. Not really pretty but interesting."}, {"response": 487, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (11:26)", "body": "Hmmm....Guess I really do not need a quality 1 Alexandrite, after all! Yikes!!!"}, {"response": 488, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (13:56)", "body": "oh, i don't know what the grade of that stone was but it was well over 1K. they still have it on their site....i'll go back and check..."}, {"response": 489, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (14:02)", "body": "and here she is.... 1.01 carat, 5.7x5.7mm 90% color change and $4040"}, {"response": 490, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (14:04)", "body": "There is Will Power (I Will get it because it is that important to me). There is Won't power (I won't get it because there are too many other important things which need the money and I have more than enough jewelry). Then there is Shouldn't power (I shouldn't get it - don't need it - but I am still looking.) I fall into the last two. There are always things other people need more than I need for me to spend my money on myself....*sigh*"}, {"response": 491, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (14:05)", "body": "Those are the colors mine change. Lovely size, though...Wow! Thanks. The only other one I would \"Need\" would be an Emerald-to-Ruby change."}, {"response": 492, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (14:06)", "body": "here is the mounted one, class AA natural alexandrite.... 0.51 carat, 5.1x4.1x3mm, $1428"}, {"response": 493, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (14:06)", "body": "nice emerald to ruby change, huh, marcia? *grin*"}, {"response": 494, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (14:08)", "body": "You would have to post one like that...*grin* Yes indeedy....lovely! *BIG SIGH*"}, {"response": 495, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (14:10)", "body": "tell me about it!"}, {"response": 496, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (14:11)", "body": "Now, my decision is do I go another year without seeing my son and his fiancee and my fur-grandson and get that ring...it has only been two years since I have seen him....*sob*"}, {"response": 497, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (14:16)", "body": "Lest anyone wonder if I really have a problem making a decision between those two options, let me assure you that my son wins over almost anything including an Alexandrite, no matter the lovliness of the latter."}, {"response": 498, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (14:17)", "body": "i know but temptation is strong, huh? go see your family and i promise not to buy the stone *grin*"}, {"response": 499, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (14:22)", "body": "super-strong, Wolfie...! You may buy the stone...Those guys in the lab are making more of them every day. Maybe one of the chips they usually throw away will one day will be mine...I promised David I would see him before fall. Probablly in June when all of the games are over. Anyone else wanna see Marcia?! (Never mind!)"}, {"response": 500, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (16:21)", "body": "haha!! of course but my leave time is limited...."}, {"response": 501, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (16:28)", "body": "Not this time...but we gotta do the IRL bonding thing. Also have to have time to scrounge the beaches around Aransas and get down and dirty in Arkansas (who said the Prez was the only one who is allowed?!)...*grin* Of course, there is always the scenario of meeting in Austin and scaring the place out of its wits. Or, remember, John and I have promised you the grand tour of the Island here. If you tell us in time we can try to schedule and earthquake with your eruption. ...so much to do and only one life time...*sigh*"}, {"response": 502, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (16:29)", "body": "*sigh* here too....."}, {"response": 503, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  2, 2000 (16:32)", "body": "*Hugs*"}, {"response": 504, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (15:52)", "body": "Wonderful gem information. Marcia, I hope you do get to see your son this year, and get an alexandrite, too. Well, if you don't get the alexandrite maybe you'll find that Arkansas diamond. I have a question on birthstones, their folklore particularly. Are they intende to ward off evil spirits away from the wearer? Or do they enable the wearer the ability to control and overcome the negetive spirits in the vacinity? In the Middle Ages it was believed that different gemstones had specific influences, over health and such. Does anybody know anything about this?"}, {"response": 505, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (16:06)", "body": "stones are still held to that belief, they will enhance the wearer's ability to ward off bad-luck. this site (posted way back when) goes into the different stones for each month. http://www.jewelrymall.com/birthstones.html some stones require the wearer to have it close to their skin, like jade and amber. crystals are said to house the same supernatural properties."}, {"response": 506, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "Thank you, thank you, Wolf."}, {"response": 507, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (18:19)", "body": "Stones, Lore and Energy http://www.spiritone.com/~cbdv/stones.htm Agate: Named after the Achates River in Sicily (now known as the Drillo River), agates have been valued by people since 3000 BC. They have even been found on fossilized remains of Stone Age humans dating from 20,000 - 16,000 BC. They come in a variety of colors. Amber: Amber is not literally a stone, although we often treat it as one. It is actually fossilized resin or tree sap, and often contains visible fragments of insects. To test if amber is real and not a plastic imitation, pour salt into warm water until it will hold no more salt. If the beads float, they are most likely amber. Amber floats in salt water, while plastic sinks. Amethyst: Named by the ancient Greeks, this is one of the best known gemstones. Ancient Greeks believed that Bacchus (the god of wine) gave it its name after pouring wine over a woman the goddess Diane had turn to stone. Its name originally meant \"not drunk\" and the ancients believed that anyone wearing this stone was unable to become drunk. Aventurine: In its green form, aventurine looks similar to jade. In fact, ancient Chinese held it in higher esteem than green jade (which also comes in many colors) and carved bowls, vases and other ornamental objects from this stone. In ancient times, even the imperial seal was carved from aventurine. Bloodstone: Bloodstone varies from green to red and brown. It is named bloodstone because the color of the stone resembles blood drops. Carnelian: For centuries, carnelian was used for insignia seals because it does not stick to wax. It is said to bring the wearer good luck. \"Favoured by the Arabic peoples, the Carnelian is one of the stones of Kings. The rich, warm colour of the stone has often linked it to the energies associated with fire. Projective, proactive energy, the beast of fire being the Lion, the King. It is also a stone to lend courage to those in need, and very helpful to wear whilst speaking publicly (roaring)\" (Baird \"Gem Lore 2\"). Citrine: This stone is close relative of amethyst, and in fact, citrine can be created by heating amethyst. The ancient Greeks and Romans wore citrine as a talisman and thought that it aided in digestion and cleansed the body of toxins. It also symbolized lightheartedness and joy. Garnet: When worn on the body, garnets are believed to protect from skin disease. Garnets are also an important symbol of fidelity, faithfulness and protection. Supposedly, they lose their brilliance when danger approaches. These stones were considered so powerful that armies often imbedded them in their arrows so they would fly straight into their enemies\ufffd hearts. Hematite: Hematite is said the keep the wearer grounded, so it is a good stone for people who tend to be absentminded. Jasper: Jasper comes in numerous colors and with a variety of markings. It is mostly commonly recognized in its red form, although it can be black, brown, or even green. This stone is said to help ward off bad dreams, to help control bleeding, and to help with pregnancy. Jet Glass: This coal derivative and its cousin, faux jet, were originally formed into beads during Queen Victoria\ufffds mourning. When their husbands were away working or fighting, Irish women burned jet to protect bring them home. Labradorite: This stone is related to opals and moonstones, as evidenced by its iridescence. It is believed to help the wearer find their true self, and to make them feel at home, whatever the situation. Lapis Lazuli: This stone has so much lore associated with it, it is impossible to describe in a few sentences. Egyptians wore ground lapis as eyeshadow. Kings believed that sharpening their weapons with Lapis would make them invincible. People believe that the wearer of lapis carries God in them and that this stone gives the wearer an uncanny ability to see truth. Malachite: Ancient peoples believed this stone was alive and fed it water and iron filings once a week. Later people took it to Mass, believing it drove the devil out. It is also believed to ease sadness, help improve memory, and to relieve arthritis pain in the extremities. Moonstone: This is the lowest grade of opal. When worn on the neck, moonstone is thought to protect from epilepsy and sunstroke, and is used to cure headaches and nosebleeds. In India, the moonstone is still a sacred gem. It is the symbol of the \"third eye,\" or our higher consciousness. Peridot: Peridot has been believed to cure liver disease. It also is said the free the mind from envious thoughts. Its magical power is best released when used with gold. Tiger Eye: This stone is often associated with courage and persistence. Topaz: Its name comes from Sanskrit \"tapas\", to glow. Turquoise: Turquoise is generally blue or green and may or may not contain dark lines or sections known as matrix. Turquoise is believed to protect from poison, and reptiles. People have adorned their horses with turquoise to protect them from falling. The Navajos believe turquoise prot"}, {"response": 508, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (18:27)", "body": "also check out the encyclopaedic site at http://home1.gte.net/mskelly/2library.htm This new age place covers downloads from things Arthurian through Zircons. http://www.alternatives.com/libs/relnewa.htm"}, {"response": 509, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (20:38)", "body": "thanks for all of that marcia! (btw, how do you know if the water won't hold anymore salt?)"}, {"response": 510, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (21:02)", "body": "It sits on the bottom and will not go into solution. Decant the clear liquid off if you want no sediment."}, {"response": 511, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (23:05)", "body": "Wolfie - it is here! It is a pretty little thing. The sphere is about the side of a small marble and is a pale pinkish tan. It has the fibrous inclusions which are very attractive but it is heavy for fluorite...more the weight of glass. It is lovely and even the resident male liked it. The porpoise is tiny and a little hard to see, though...but for $20...I love it!"}, {"response": 512, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (23:07)", "body": "Actually, the sphere is very like the marble wallpaper in here. *smile*"}, {"response": 513, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (16:40)", "body": "ooo, sounds pretty!"}, {"response": 514, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (17:26)", "body": "It is...but if you are abundantly endowed and on the zaftig side, it will be lost on you...I am modest in all things so I think it'll be ok *smile*"}, {"response": 515, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (17:28)", "body": "It is almost flesh-toned, so it would probably look best on a white sweater or T-shirt."}, {"response": 516, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (19:01)", "body": "or up against your upper chest. since i'm not heavenly endowed in that area (it all sank, *laugh*, not that you needed a visual!!), i could wear something small, but even my most delicate jewelry seems lost. mayhaps that's the point, like perfume, you don't want to get poked in the eye with something when we're a room apart!!"}, {"response": 517, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (21:42)", "body": "QVC Tanzanite show, 23 Apr (that's tomorrow) at 2PM Eastern (1PM CST)......"}, {"response": 518, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (21:52)", "body": "8am for Hawaii. I will try to catch it, but we are scheduled to hide Easter Eggs for the pre-softball game festivities."}, {"response": 519, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (21:54)", "body": "that's early for you (not the easter eggs). i will let you know if i purchase anything! and you know QVC does specials for birthstones each month but i'll be they use pearls instead of alexandrite for june!"}, {"response": 520, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (21:55)", "body": "(should be \"bet\" not \"be\")"}, {"response": 521, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (22:06)", "body": "I am modestly endowed so things do not get lost but neither do they poke eyes out unless you are closer than I usually let people get...*grin* I would look pretty (my little Dolphin) on bare skin..."}, {"response": 522, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (22:12)", "body": "The double header starts at 11am and all of the eggs have to be found by then. Walmart has a nice selection of Tanzanite as does Liberty House (like Neiman Marcus Hawaiian style) and some at Sears. Betcha Zales does, too. Their fliers have lovely pieces in pale lavender."}, {"response": 523, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (22:12)", "body": "I am usually up by 6 am or before. Have gotten online as early as 5am..."}, {"response": 524, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (16:51)", "body": "Clue me in - what's tanzanite?"}, {"response": 525, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (17:08)", "body": "it's a gem that's mined in Tanzania Africa. it has a nice purply-blue color and is often mistaken for a sapphire or amethyst. but it has nice color changes when you move the stone around. marcia, i gave in to temptation but am fighting with the thought to cancel the order. (fear of the AM). i ordered a band ring with two rows of pear-shaped tanzanites. it's two months of $91. 14K and over 1K in stone weight. it also has diamond accents. lemme get that pic out for you."}, {"response": 526, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (17:14)", "body": "here's the ring in all it's glory:"}, {"response": 527, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (17:15)", "body": "do you see why i was tempted? it's beautiful. and it has a low gallery so it won't stick up to much on my hand (good thing since tanzanite is a 6 on the mohs scale)"}, {"response": 528, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (18:21)", "body": "Oh Wolfie, you are worth it!!! Shall I send you a contribution?! Get it - it is your earnings and you may do so - (tell AM to come talk to me if there is a problem...*grinning menacingly*)"}, {"response": 529, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (21:36)", "body": "i told him i was bad (he was napping) and he asked me what i did. i gave him the \"you know what i did\" look and he grinned. so wolfie is in the clear until the bill comes in!! (but you're right, marcia, i bring in half the pay check and after my rough week at work, i deserve a reward *grin*) i'm so glad you like it."}, {"response": 530, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (21:40)", "body": "Excellent news, My Dear Wolfie! I like that sort of ring because it does not swivel around on your finger like solitaires are prone to do. That color will go with just about anything. Next, you NEED stud earrings to go with it *grin*"}, {"response": 531, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (21:44)", "body": "Yup!! (1.5 carats of tanzanite and .05 of diamond mounted in rhodium)... the studs sold out. in fact, this ring and a pendant were the only things left of a 3 hour show, which, for obvious reasons, lasted maybe 1 1/2 hours!!"}, {"response": 532, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (23:16)", "body": "Oooh...lovely! What color are your eyes?"}, {"response": 533, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (23:18)", "body": "(If they are blue the Tanzanite will sparkle more but if they are brown it will make them more intense...)"}, {"response": 534, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (23:18)", "body": "If your eyes are green or hazel you have to send them to me *grin*"}, {"response": 535, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (11:23)", "body": "they're brown with green and gold streaks...."}, {"response": 536, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (12:13)", "body": "Guess you won't clash with your tanzanite, then. It was the middle of the night when i wrote that from the Living room laptop, and I was feeling a little weirder than usual *grin* Mine are sort of an amber brown (reddish) like my hair was when I was little."}, {"response": 537, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (16:58)", "body": "i've seen a couple of people with reddish eyes. they're not quite brown. reminds me of cats."}, {"response": 538, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (17:05)", "body": "Mine are more like chestnuts than reddish, but I know what you mean. I am a hybrid. My oldest sister had blue eyes, the middle one had hazel and I got the brown...*sigh*"}, {"response": 539, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (08:09)", "body": "Mine are blue."}, {"response": 540, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (12:40)", "body": "I know....beautifully clear blue...I noted that. Very becoming...*sigh* (It is So good to have you posting in here. I am a happy girl today *yippee!!*)"}, {"response": 541, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (17:54)", "body": "me too! tanzanite would enhance and be enhanced by the color of your eyes. do you wear an earring?"}, {"response": 542, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (18:15)", "body": "*lol* bet he might have in his younger bell-bottom days...! His eyes are the color of the sky in Hawaii at midday - blue like my dad's"}, {"response": 543, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (18:16)", "body": "how pretty!!"}, {"response": 544, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (18:55)", "body": "If there were any way to get the shot of him off that video he'd occupy all of drool as close as I can tell. Pretty and unforgettable"}, {"response": 545, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (17:20)", "body": "The ring is beautiful Wolf. Are you going to get those earrings? As to eye color, I always wished I blue eyes. I have eyes like a white tail deer -- wide, dark brown, and myopic. Did you know deer are nearsighted? Anyway, the advantage of having dark hair and eyes is no color ever clashes with them. I also look pretty much the same in black and white photos as I do in color."}, {"response": 546, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (19:23)", "body": "*sigh* I always wanted to be a green-eyes geologist. Instead, I gave birth to one and fell in love with another...and another... I really like green eyes!"}, {"response": 547, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (19:24)", "body": "Hazel-green, actually... *big sigh*"}, {"response": 548, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (19:42)", "body": "no earrings this time, cheryl, they all sold out! have always been told that my eyes are pretty (despite the shitty brown color). you can't see the gold unless i'm in the light. certain colors bring out the green in them. but they're predominately brown."}, {"response": 549, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (20:00)", "body": "Even though I have hybrid brown eyes, they are my best feature...and I can get into trouble with them...*sigh*"}, {"response": 550, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (20:01)", "body": "Lance could tell you better about my eyes, but he did not remember the color!"}, {"response": 551, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (20:14)", "body": "oh no!"}, {"response": 552, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (20:15)", "body": "my daughter and husband have even brown eyes. chestnut color and they have such depth. but my eyes give me away. couldn't play poker!"}, {"response": 553, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (20:42)", "body": "Mine are chestnut (or did I say that already), too. Some think I am good with my fingers. My eyes are right in the same league. I cannot get away with anything either, so I avoid those games which make me be secretive unless I am involved in real stuff in which case I can do it."}, {"response": 554, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (20:45)", "body": "me too!"}, {"response": 555, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (13:58)", "body": "would you like my green eyes???? Sorry, but they're getting to longsighted these days to manage without glases all the time."}, {"response": 556, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:02)", "body": "Ah yes, Presbyopia...lots of us have it, including me. I guess my coloring is best for my chestnut eyes so I think I'll let you wear the green ones =) You can always get violet contacts and look like Liz Taylor! I had a friend who had a whole range of colors from turquoise to indigo."}, {"response": 557, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:09)", "body": ""}, {"response": 558, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "Well, that is a local phone number and it IS 15% off during Merrie Monarch... Talk about wishful thinking...!"}, {"response": 559, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (17:30)", "body": "those are pretty but too big for me!"}, {"response": 560, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (18:09)", "body": "How did I manage to get them over here on the inorganice gems?! Auwe. Should I scribble and move them?! Sheesh! I have a swan neck and need stuff to use up some of the length (nibbling room is not compromised in any way *grin*)"}, {"response": 561, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (21:18)", "body": "no, don't move them!"}, {"response": 562, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (21:22)", "body": "I did - mostly because Lance does not come in here much yet and he goes immediately to 18 where the pearls are. *sigh* It has been a weird day on Spring. Are your gifs back? All I can see is those boxes \"where an image should be.\""}, {"response": 563, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (21:23)", "body": "i've not had a problem seeing the gifs. in fact, right before i logged on over here, i took a gander and they're there."}, {"response": 564, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (22:06)", "body": "And, you can see them on the front page of spring, as well? I can only see them on the W 3.1 laptop which uses the most rudimentary of programs...but I did see the globe! And the Jaguar! And terry's buttons at the top of the page. Must be my Netscape. You use IE?"}, {"response": 565, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (12:04)", "body": "i'm using IE right now. a friend of mine at work can't see my gifs either. hmmmm.....will check the spring frontpage."}, {"response": 566, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (12:05)", "body": "yup, i can see them....."}, {"response": 567, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (12:18)", "body": "I can't except with IE in the living room...*sigh* It is distressing since Netscape works better for me in most applications, and I was not told to change. For years the ladies in Drool have been having terrible posting problems using IE. They are exclusively now using Netscape. I wish one of the magicians would let me know if I should change... (but, how do I do the Vulcan web page then?!"}, {"response": 568, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (15:44)", "body": "Oh, Marcia, you poor thing, suffering with that swan neck. It makes me think of the story of Consuelo Vanderbilt, whose father, Cornelius, had an extraordinary multi-strand pearl choker made to show off her swanlike neck. All Consuelo could do was complain about how uncomfortable it was."}, {"response": 569, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (15:46)", "body": "What can you expect from women not skilled in the social graces. I would not have complained...not in a million years! Nouveau riches! (spelling?!)"}, {"response": 570, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (16:06)", "body": "long necks are an attribute in at least one tribe in africa and girl children wear rings around their necks from day one. a new ring is added periodically to allow the look of a long neck. (however, it does significant damage to the clavicles, which, IMHO, are much sexier than a grotesquely long neck)."}, {"response": 571, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (16:30)", "body": "My clavicles are intact, and except for my ex who claimed I looked like a harpy in one of his less generous moments, I am not out of proportion and more than one has nibbled his way to glory - one way or another."}, {"response": 572, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (17:05)", "body": "*giggle*"}, {"response": 573, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (19:16)", "body": "You're gonna have to take my word for it unless Lance enters the discussion. He's seen me! For a while, he was the escort of choice for me by O'O...*sigh*"}, {"response": 574, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (20:00)", "body": "well, i'm definately out of proportion but we won't go there. *laugh*"}, {"response": 575, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (20:19)", "body": "Well, Liz thinks her legs are too short..."}, {"response": 576, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (20:20)", "body": "it's always something, huh?"}, {"response": 577, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (20:28)", "body": "like we were saying...in another life *=)"}, {"response": 578, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (11:28)", "body": "well, the ring from qvc came in this weekend and i didn't like it. it's really square and i didn't care for the setting. for some reason, the stones aren't set evenly (as far as height) and it's not on purpose (i.e., graduated heighth). it's really pretty, as far as the sparkle factor goes but not impressive to me and didn't look that great on my hand."}, {"response": 579, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (15:51)", "body": "Send it back! It seemed to be set by small children in a 5th world country (which it probably was) and that is unfortunate. They showed a real tight shot of it and I caught it on our BIG tv screen. I was hoping my eyes were deceiving me."}, {"response": 580, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (19:13)", "body": "Will they let you send it back?"}, {"response": 581, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "yes for any reason. and it's repackaged and going out tomorrow."}, {"response": 582, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (14:38)", "body": "marcia, i got the color enhanced mystic fire topaz today. it's the trillion and it's absolutely gorgeous! (what a surprise. he actually told me to pick something out)...."}, {"response": 583, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (14:39)", "body": "here's a website offering the stone: http://www.dalmar.net/Mystic.htm"}, {"response": 584, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (14:47)", "body": "How lovely! I am delighted for you. How is the stone set and what shape and size is it - in other words, can you scan the new jewel in your crown? I know Topaz is 8 in hardness, but the Mystic Fire is a coating put onto a clear white topaz. This coating is much softer and will abrade, so do not plan to do the gardening while you are wearing it. Want to see it!!!"}, {"response": 585, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (14:55)", "body": "My Precious Gem, David, sent me a book on everything there is to know about Yosemite...rocks, newts, fishes, trees, birds and everything else. As the cover says, Yosemite: A Visitor's Companion. History, plants, ecology, Geology, Wildllife and Road Guide...I want to go back to see Yosemite!"}, {"response": 586, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (15:01)", "body": "He inscribed it \"For Mom, Who lives rocks.\" He knows his Mom! The second best thing today was when John was reading the Mother'sDay dedications for a song, he included his mom and \"my friend, Marcia\" I am all warm and fuzzy now! House male gave me a handblown glass rose - it is very lovely!"}, {"response": 587, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (18:26)", "body": "It is trillion set with 3 diamonds on two sides (6 total). it is draped looking and i will scan it tomorrow night. glad you had a good Mother's Day, Marcia!!"}, {"response": 588, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (18:29)", "body": "Well, it has been very quiet, but I saw what I needed to see and was appreciated in places I did not expect to hear from *grin* Hope yours is good, as well!"}, {"response": 589, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (18:30)", "body": "Your ring sounds LOVELY!!! I love the trillion cut. Bet it sparkles like mad! Wear dark glasses when you take it out into the sunlight!"}, {"response": 590, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (18:33)", "body": "already viewed it outside and it turns dark. and it changes colors when i move the stone around. very pretty and unusual. also, the salesman i spoke with knows his gems and we were talking at length and i made sure this stone was not a tavalite. it's not (thank goodness). and he invited me to a used tanzanite jewelry sale this coming friday and saturday. because the mine in tanzania is flooded, these gems are sure to rise in value due to their rarity. amazing that only one area has these beautiful stems."}, {"response": 591, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (18:34)", "body": "he also said he was at an estate sale and saw an alexandrite in an antique setting for $100. not being familiar at the time with alexandrite, he passed it up and could kick himself for it."}, {"response": 592, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (18:42)", "body": "Yikes! Alexandrite for $100?! Kick him for me, too! Get the Tanzanite you want now. They are gonna be gone soon! I am delighted to hear it is not Tavalite!!!"}, {"response": 593, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (18:47)", "body": "they didn't have any dark ones. just the paler varieties without much color change."}, {"response": 594, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 14, 2000 (19:03)", "body": ""}, {"response": 595, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "and here's my mystic fire topaz ring. left large so you can see the colors:"}, {"response": 596, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "ok, let's try again..."}, {"response": 597, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (20:39)", "body": "OOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh That is stunning! The color is much prettier than the one on the website!"}, {"response": 598, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (17:23)", "body": "*grin* knew you'd love it!!"}, {"response": 599, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2000 (20:50)", "body": "If it belonged to anyone else, I'd be tempted to be petty and mean-spirited about it, but since it is yours, I am just happily envious!"}, {"response": 600, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sun, May 28, 2000 (20:37)", "body": "I read an article in the Smithsonion Magazine yesterday about a couple in N. Carolina who bought the land around an abandoned emerald mine because he felt that there was more there. The rented the equipment to do the digging and the last week before the lease was up they found a cave filled with crystals and emeralds. Hanging from the ceiling and sticking out of the walls. The emeralds are of as high quality as Central Americam emeralds and many of them are even better."}, {"response": 601, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 28, 2000 (21:01)", "body": "Ooooh!!! There is North Carolina again. Lance??!!!"}, {"response": 602, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 28, 2000 (21:06)", "body": "Thanks, Lucie...just in time for my Birthday - wonder if they would spare a modest sample...!"}, {"response": 603, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (11:17)", "body": "uh oh, when's your b-day again?"}, {"response": 604, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (11:20)", "body": "I'll tell you way after June 8th...Ok??? *grin*"}, {"response": 605, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (11:22)", "body": "ok!"}, {"response": 606, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (11:22)", "body": "(did i miss it?)"}, {"response": 607, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (11:41)", "body": "Nope"}, {"response": 608, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (11:42)", "body": "(May 31st)"}, {"response": 609, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (11:49)", "body": "thanks!!"}, {"response": 610, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 29, 2000 (11:54)", "body": "Behave ! (force yourself!) Except for tomorrow...*grin*"}, {"response": 611, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (02:16)", "body": "Why tomorrow Oops - today!)???"}, {"response": 612, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (13:38)", "body": "*smile* Just being silly.... HOW MUCH SILVER MUST AN ITEM CONTAIN TO BE CONSIDERED STERLING? 92.5 percent."}, {"response": 613, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (17:19)", "body": "*grin* um, where does black opal occur the most?"}, {"response": 614, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (17:41)", "body": "So Marcia, have you gone to North Carolina to get that emerald. These are supposed to be high quality, right? The price will astronomical. Good quality emeralds are rare. Even small ones with good clarity and color command nosebleed prices. Curious Wolfie, is the black opal question a trick question?"}, {"response": 615, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (17:48)", "body": "cheryl, no, it's not. a friend of mine told me her mother was told that germany was the only place to find black opals. never heard anything about that."}, {"response": 616, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (17:50)", "body": "Honestly, I didn't know. I would have said Australia, which a place very associated with opals. So black opals occur only in Germany. That's interesting."}, {"response": 617, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "yes, australia is what my books say but it doesn't indicate that they are exclusive to that region. it includes czechoslovakia, usa, brazil, mexico, and south africa."}, {"response": 618, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (19:07)", "body": "I have a small opal mined in the United States. It's really quite pretty, albeit, pale and delicate, rather than firey as opals are supposed to be."}, {"response": 619, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 30, 2000 (19:20)", "body": "According precious black opals come from Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia and lesser ones from Tintenbar, also in NSW. Very small quantites also come from from Indonesia."}, {"response": 620, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jun  2, 2000 (15:40)", "body": "(My black pearls have arrived, but I'm not supposed to know.)"}, {"response": 621, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  2, 2000 (16:17)", "body": "OoooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo....I had forgotten. Yikes!!! How can you stand to wait??! Almost a whole month!!! I got dinner out. Usual place."}, {"response": 622, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  2, 2000 (16:18)", "body": "he gave me the bill for his $400 silver belt buckle.........."}, {"response": 623, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jun  2, 2000 (16:27)", "body": "*frown*"}, {"response": 624, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  2, 2000 (18:57)", "body": "That's ok, I am plotting my revenge. I am custonian of all his credit cards and they will put you in hock forever if I load them. He'd better play straight with me or I'll put his sorry butt in hock and you'd better believe I am getting that angry."}, {"response": 625, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  7, 2000 (21:14)", "body": "WHAT FAMOUS WOMAN, USING A DIAMOND, SCRATCHED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE ON HER PRISON WINDOW: MUCH SUSPECTED OF ME, NOTHING PROVED CAN BE? England's Queen Elizabeth I, while she was confined at Woodstock in the mid-sixteenth century before she attained the throne."}, {"response": 626, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (17:04)", "body": "HOW MANY DIAMONDS ARE THERE ON BRITAIN'S IMPERIAL STATE CROWN, WHICH IS WORN BY THE REIGNING MONARCH ON STATE OCCASIONS? There are 1,783 - including the 309-carat Star of Africa. The crown also has 277 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, and 5 rubies."}, {"response": 627, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (17:39)", "body": "WHAT GEM WAS ONCE CONSIDERED A CHARM AGAINST DRUNKENESS? The amethyst - which gets its name from the Greek amethystos - which means \"remedy for drunkeness.\""}, {"response": 628, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (03:31)", "body": "Oh dear, just came in here to post my 27th anniversary gift (it's on friday 13th this year)....an amethyst/gold tear drop pendant and earrings ...and look what I find posted above it ...amethyst a remedy for drunkeness!!! oh well ..back to the guiness I guess. Anyway, I was pleased with the pendant and earrings ..nice deep colour amethyst set in a 9 ct gold surround, not huge but looks nice, and stud earrings also set in gold. Bought on the liner to Spain. Oh yeah, I saw I Humungeous emerald ring in Petersfield, Sussex the other day ...couldn't believe the price tag in this sleepy little town shop ..\ufffd18,000 ..it was a rather ugly setting though and I can't see them ever selling it. Lots of other emerald rings of varying hues and sizes. For a provincial shop they had some very strange things in the window ...several very large (like 1 1/2\") chunks of amber set in brooches, a couple of other very large stones (1\" plus) I'd never seen before set in rings ...a sort of watery brownish stone. All with biggish price tags."}, {"response": 629, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (13:54)", "body": "Oh, Maggie, how nice your amethysts sound beautiful. Okole Maluna!!! as to those pricey watery-brown stones - not cairngorms? (In which case they should not be all that pricey...) or cannot imagine what else? Notmuch call for dirty sapphires, trashy diamonds or topazes. Next time, go in and ask!!! As to that Emerald, my unfortunate birthstone, never mind! I shall never own one in any case so I have decided I do not like them."}, {"response": 630, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (13:56)", "body": "Ooh, Happy Anniversary...and many Many more. Hug T for me and to both of you my love!"}, {"response": 631, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 11, 2000 (21:04)", "body": "Happy Anniversary Maggie! could the watery brown stone be smoky quartz?"}, {"response": 632, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (01:06)", "body": "From the price tags ..\ufffd650 I wasn't sure what they were ...except huge!!! I certainly wouldn't like to wear a stone as big as that! Topaz is quite popular here ..I have a brown topaz ring ..but it is cheap, not in this price bracket ..these stones were 1 1/2\" It didn't look like the kind of shop you go in an ask what stones they were ...I'm really not very good at that sort of thing! One of my earlier 'jobs' was in a jewellers in Hatton Garden (the jewellery centre of London) ..so I have seen most precious stones ..this was completely new to me. They had huge hunks of amber too, some in settings."}, {"response": 633, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (01:08)", "body": "Thanks for the anniversary greetings ..we are now trying to decide what to do for it ...after the whale cruise it seems a little like an anticlimax!!! I still can't believe 27 years!!!! And I really married young of course ..."}, {"response": 634, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (01:24)", "body": "Married and had your children before grade school, yes?! Talk about child brides!!! Brown \"topazes\" (called 'smoky topaz' here) are really brown varieties of quartz just as amethyst is purple and citrine is orange/yellow quartz. They should be relatively inexpensive and that is what cairngorms are!!!"}, {"response": 635, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (01:33)", "body": "?Then this must have been something else! I'm really curious now ...and I won't be back that way for months ..."}, {"response": 636, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Oct 12, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "never be afraid to talk about jewelry with a jeweler. if they are worth they're salt, and you know what you're talking about, you can talk jewelry at tiffany's!i walked into a classy establishment and asked them if they could tighten the setting on my tanzanite. they took one look at my stone and went to the back and tightened it. no questions asked and no strange looks. (it needs it again, unfortunately)"}, {"response": 637, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (07:22)", "body": "The Tates in Austin make some pretty incredible jewelry, they don't have their own website. from http://www.well.com/user/bratwood/tates.jpg"}, {"response": 638, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (14:07)", "body": "Oooh....YES!!! I am too tiny for some of that - but tall enough to carry long pendants off well. I discovererd that I do have some emeralds, but they look like jade they are so mily. Ah well, I did not choose them and they are symbloic of my birthstone... Love the pearls in the bottom one... Thanks for the great images. Waiting for the ladies from Drool to find it. Karen??!! Is silver mined in Texas or is it from Mexico? I love silver most especially."}, {"response": 639, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 13, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "those are some unusual and creative pieces (esp. the bracelet at the bottom). i'm a gold kinda gal!"}, {"response": 640, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (06:52)", "body": "I'm looking for some silver and amber drop earrings to go with the silver and amber pendant my mum gave me for my birthday ...so far no luck!"}, {"response": 641, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (12:44)", "body": "Have you looked on the web? I like amber set in gold but you can usually just find it in silver in the USA or on the web. Wolfoe, when you get some silver in your hair you'll start liking silver better - it sparkles amazingly....so I hear..."}, {"response": 642, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (16:31)", "body": "Never looked on the web for jewellery ...haven't got time to get any now ...going in four days time ...maybe when we return ...I can't afford gold usually"}, {"response": 643, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (18:14)", "body": "What are those watery dirty-brown stones? Are any diamonds really trashy?"}, {"response": 644, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "I have seen diamonds on a huge earth drill which makes tunnel-sized holes. They are pretty miserable-looking but no natural stones are trashy. Mountings? The Wearer? Oh yes, but not the stones!"}, {"response": 645, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 17, 2000 (18:46)", "body": "Mayhap I need to take a field trip to Britain to check out those stones?? About those watery-brown stones...go in and ask? You better believe I would and with my patrician nose elevated just enough that they would assume I could afford to purchase one!"}, {"response": 646, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Oct 18, 2000 (03:41)", "body": "Come over when I get back next Spring ..and we'll go in together!!!! GRIN"}, {"response": 647, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (18:51)", "body": "That should be great. I'm sure between the two of you, it will be determined exactly what that stone is."}, {"response": 648, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (20:07)", "body": "Oh yes! I know of no jeweler worth the name who would deny a prospective customer a closer look at a piece of jewelry and a try-on of same. What an excuse to visit that green and fertile land (been listening to Jerusalem.) *sigh* Maggie should be in Africa now. I talked to her by fingers on IM just as she was leaving for Heathrow. I can't wait to hear the bug stories she comes back with this time. Yeesh!!!"}, {"response": 649, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (20:23)", "body": "Of course, all of you Aglophiles know it was England's green and pleasant land. Oh my, is it ever! In the Poetry conference I have posted the entire poem by William Blake in his very own topic. I was going to post the one about Stonehenge but could not find a copy. Can anyone help me with the title of that poem of Blake's?"}, {"response": 650, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Oct 19, 2000 (21:07)", "body": "lemme do some checking!"}, {"response": 651, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 20, 2000 (18:00)", "body": "Ok!! Remember my idly thinking of all the gems fund in North Carolina and wondering how I could get there to look for some examples for my collection?? Things have been happening - I will be moving to North Carolina permanently in the near future - as soon as possible. I have met something better than the volcano..."}, {"response": 652, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (20:21)", "body": "I have found what I need instead of an emerald for my birthstone: Dresden Green Diamond Click for larger image From India, the 41-carat Dresden Green Diamond is the world's largest and finest natural green diamond, noted for its exceptional color and clarity. White diamonds (both large and small) in gold and silver settings surround the central gem and sweep up to a bow. The Dresden Green is a fitting exhibit partner for the Hope Diamond; both are similar in size, setting, and natural history, and are fabled in their cultural history. October 13, 2000 through January 10, 2001, Second floor, Winston Gallery, Smithsonian. Larger image http://www.mnh.si.edu/images/exhibits/dresden_big.jpg"}, {"response": 653, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  1, 2000 (20:24)", "body": "Actually, the British Museum of Natural History has an emerald green diamond but it is only about half carat in size. That's ok...I'll be modest about it. They also have a ruby-red one, and all sorts of other wondrously coloured diamonds, any of which I would not turn away."}, {"response": 654, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov  7, 2000 (15:59)", "body": "How rare are colored diamonds? I know that they can be very valuable. Marcia, you really shouldn't turn down a emerald either. As they tend to be rare, at least the good color and clarity ones are. I've seen some emeralds of beautiful green color in estate jewelery, but some of the newer pieces seem to have stones which are a bit pale. The Dresden Green Diamond. Now that is a stone with class."}, {"response": 655, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  8, 2000 (17:29)", "body": "Apparently, from those I have seen on home shopping jewelry-thons, not all that uncommon in Russia, where all of theirs seem to have come from. I almost wish I had gotten a clear medium turquoise one I saw. Mounted in a most unattractive way, it must have been lovely in person. Deep clear rich colors are rare in any stone. I imagine diamonds are much the same. I would imagine that is why the greatly esteemed British Museum's and the Smithsonian's Gem collections (not to mention the American Museum's) have such tiny examples on display. I rather liked the Dresden Green. I have a tourmaline that exact color set in heavy silver as well as a deep green one set in gold. No, I shall not turn down an emerald. Perhaps, rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind, but this lady hangs onto her specimens. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 80, "subject": "PaleoGeology", "response_count": 11, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (20:32)", "body": "* UK's first impact crater discovered * A giant space rock hit the Earth some 60 million years ago and left a crater, say British geologists. Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/2164058.stm"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (20:33)", "body": "Meteorite impact areas in Kentucky Three sites in Kentucky bear the scars of ancient impacts by meteorites: the Jeptha Knob in Shelby County, a site near Versailles in Woodford County, and a site near Middlesboro in Bell County. A meteorite impact usually forms a roughly circular crater, called an astrobleme, and can crack the Earth's crust in a characteristic circular pattern. Astroblemes may show a \"rebound structure\" where a central core of rock has been brought up from deeper underground by the impact. The three Kentucky astroblemes represent the highly eroded cores of the astroblemes that were situated under the original craters; the crater walls eroded long ago. Each of these structures is characterized by a circular belt of arc-shaped faults cross cut by faults radiating outward from the central core of intensely broken rock. In the past, these structures were referred to as \"cryptoexplosive\" because their origin was uncertain. More and maps... http://www.uky.edu/KGS/education/meteorites.html"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (20:36)", "body": "Meteorite strikes in Kentucky At least 26 small meteorites have impacted Kentucky during recorded times. Meteorites have been collected from Allen, Bath, Bullitt, Calloway, Carroll, Casey, Christian, Grant, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Livingston, Marshall, McCreary, Metcalfe, Nelson, Oldham, Pike, Simpson, Taylor, and Trimble Counties. Another unconfirmed report of a meteorite has come from Lewis County. The earliest recorded meteorite in Kentucky fell in 1839 in Livingston County. One of the most recent was the Burmwell meteorite in Pike County in 1990. Most meteorites that impact the United States are collected and housed in the National Museum meteorite collection at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. But fragments of 10 Kentucky meteorites were collected by Dr. William D. Ehmann, Professor emeritus of the Chemistry Department, University of Kentucky, and a nationally recognized researcher on meteorites and moon rocks. Dr. Ehmann donated his collection to the Kentucky Geological Survey, where it can be viewed in an exhibit in the lobby of the Mining and Mineral Research Building, University of Kentucky in Lexington. When small meteorites hit the earth the damage they cause is usually minimal. But large meteorites can excavate huge craters and have dramatic consequences. The impact structures left behind are called astroblemes. Although, only small meteorites have impacted Kentucky in human history, there are three astroblemes in Kentucky, which suggest that at least 3 large meteorites have collided with Kentucky in the distant past. http://www.uky.edu/KGS/coal/webrokmn/pages/morerocks.html#meteorites"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:19)", "body": "Oldest Volcanoes Discovered Tuesday 30th July 2002 Geologists in Brazil claim they have found the oldest volcanoes in the world. The pair are in the Amazon and date back 1.9 billion years. Professor Caetano Juliani of Sao Paulo University says the oldest previously known volcano was just 500 million years old. He told Estado de SP newspaper: \"Usually old volcanoes are destroyed very fast, in a few million years.\" The volcanoes were found near the Tapajos and Jamanxin rivers. The larger of the two is 700 feet high and just over a mile in diameter at the base. The scientists expect the rocks to give up valuable information about the region's formation . (Ananova)"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Aug  1, 2002 (22:26)", "body": "* Galaxy 'may cause ice ages' * The Earth will not experience another ice age for tens of millions of years, according to a controversial theory. Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/2163646.stm"}, {"response": 6, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (16:21)", "body": "Searching for Lake Lahontan Evidence of the giant, ancient lake can be seen throughout northern Nevada. Mark Vanderhoff Reno Gazette-Journal There was a time when a giant lake covered much of northwestern Nevada. Between 9,000 and 20,000 years ago, the same mountains that exist today dipped into its deep, dark blue waters. Junipers or limber pine carpeted the slopes from the snowcapped peaks to its shores. Nearby, prehistoric camels, mammoths, bison and horses grazed. Cheetahs chased antelope. Huge sloths and the giant short-faced bear, larger than a Kodiak bear and fast on its long legs, roamed. Fingers of the lake reached into mountain valleys and the tops of large hills poked out of the water, forming little islands. What is now the high country beginning in the Truckee Range north of Fernley to the Jackson and Kamma Mountains forming the eastern border of the Black Rock Desert once was a large island in the middle of the ancient lake. Lake Lahontan, as the giant lake was called, reached its high point 15,000 years ago. The climate then was much different than it is today because a massive glacier of the last ice age stretched down to the Canadian border, deflecting polar jet streams toward the southwestern United States. An abundance of rain and snow filled the Great Basin with hundreds of feet of water. During its highest years, the lake was almost 900 feet deep at present-day Pyramid Lake. Lake Lahontan at its highest stretched from the Oregon border to Walker Lake, as far east as Winnemucca and as far west as Honey Lake up U.S. 395 in California. Although Reno and Carson City were high and dry, the Black Rock Desert, Lovelock and Fallon were under water. Climate changes eventually dried up the lake, but today, clues about Lake Lahontan remain all across its former domain. \ufffdYou can see a world that was different from today,\ufffd said Pat Barker, the Bureau of Land Management\ufffds Nevada archaeologist. The beach The playa of the Black Rock Desert may be the most famous remnant of Lake Lahontan. \ufffdI think one of the coolest things is it\ufffds one of the biggest, flattest surfaces on the planet,\ufffd said Ken Adams, a Desert Research Institute geologist who studies Lake Lahontan. Playa means beach or shore in Spanish, but in the days of Lake Lahontan, the playa was at the bottom of the lake. The fine silt and clay that compose the playa was light enough to be carried in by the rivers and streams that flowed into Lake Lahontan. That sediment eventually settled to the bottom. Today, the playa owes its flat surface to the water table, Adams said. A water table, standing water that sits underground, has a flat upper surface, just like a lake. The winds that blow over the playa only blow off the loose items \ufffd they can\ufffdt pick up the cohesive, moist sediment wetted by the upper surface of the water table. Essentially, the playa surface has been \ufffdplaned off by the wind,\ufffd Adams said. Part of Adams\ufffd research consists of finding remnants of the ancient shorelines and measuring their heights in the hills that once surrounded Lake Lahontan. He has found the highest shorelines in the hills surrounding the Black Rock Desert and the Carson Sink. Those areas may have been under as much as 450 feet of water at one point, he said. Shorelines and seashells The highest shorelines may have been around the Black Rock Desert and Carson Sink, but the deepest waters stood at what is now Pyramid Lake. Today, it is easy to see where the waves of Lake Lahontan also lapped at the hills surrounding Pyramid Lake. \ufffdThey\ufffdre very obvious if you know what to look for,\ufffd Adams said. \ufffdThere\ufffds a lot of places I could bring my mother and she\ufffdd understand what she was looking at.\ufffd Look at the mountainsides that surround the lake, and white or light tan splotches will begin to appear among the brown dirt. Those spots consist of very fine silts that were deposited by Lake Lahontan on these hills thousands of years ago. Next, search the slopes of the mountains for horizontal lines. Look closer and notice the terraces cut into the mountains like giant steps. Those terraces formed as crashing waves eroded soil from the hillsides. As the lake level dropped, the waves tore at successively lower spots on the slopes. Pyramid Lake yields other clues about Lake Lahontan. Walk to the beach and examine the sediment in the escarpments cut by the waves. Pick up a handful of sediment and look closely, and some white shells will appear among the sand and pebbles. \ufffdThey look like snail shells, but there are no aquatic snails in the lake today,\ufffd Adams said. Those snail shells, called gastropods, have been dated to as far back as 25,000 years ago, suggesting they lived in Lake Lahontan. While the snails no longer live in Pyramid Lake, one species that swam Lake Lahontan does still call Pyramid Lake home. The qui-ui, a bottom-feeding fish that is now endangered because its spawning habitat on the Truckee River has been altered, thrived for thousands of years in Lake Lahontan and no"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (16:37)", "body": "Big grateful Hugs, Cheryl. This is my current most favorite part of Geology. I am researching the sources of lava in the Appalachians whose specimens I found last summer in Kentucky. I also want to see the remnants of Teays River which was on the continent before the last ics age when the Mississippi River was just a little tributary. Many thanks for adding to the amazing science that can see into the past far longer than I had any idea we could. There actually was a time between a molten earth and the one we inhabit now."}, {"response": 8, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (16:52)", "body": "There seems to have been quite a bit of time, and quite a bit of changes, between that molten Earth and our current home."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 23, 2003 (17:00)", "body": "There have been many configurations of the continental plates before the map of the Earth as we know it. Pangea may not have been the first formation, I am finding. The Appalachians are remnant mountains from a far earlier plate configuration. So are the Ural mountains. And, the great inland sea we know was where Pennsylvania and Kentucky and other states in the mid central midwest was not the first one. The specimen I have of a'a lava on limestone and fossil reef is far older than the current makeup of the mountains! More on that as I prepare my data for presentation."}, {"response": 10, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, May 27, 2003 (19:07)", "body": "The Appalachians that mark the central to western parts of Pennsylvania may predate even Pangea! That's old. Your presentation sounds impressive."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 31, 2003 (16:40)", "body": "Indeed, the plates that caused the Appalachians are older than the Pangea configuration. I keep being reminded I am only working on a 20 minute paper. Not a chance. I'll condense for the oral paper, but this is far too fascinating not to probe the subject as far as I can take it! As an aside, His 20 mnute paper is now over 10,000 words long and he was still writing at 4AM this morning when he sent me the latest data to check for \"mistakes\". When you work that far into the night, it is very difficult to proof your own copy. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 81, "subject": "American Folksways - Tangible and Otherwise", "response_count": 5, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (21:50)", "body": "As soon as I get my CuteFTP reinstated (pay for it) I will post things archaeological about America instead of burying them in the world-wide archaeolgy topic. Watch for me. I'll be right back!! Thanks, Don! You suggested the perfect title. *HUGS*"}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (22:16)", "body": "so what is american folksways? duh! marcia, you just told us above! *laugh* maybe we oughta have topics for specific areas or continents? whatdaya think?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (23:10)", "body": "Rob had New Zeland. Julie has the Cascades. John has topics for his research. Absolutely, if anyone is interested, please create a useful topic to which you are willing to contribute. I cannot know everything so I wish to learn from your interests. That is a great idea, Wolfie!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (23:04)", "body": "Please do not think I am departing Geo for other topics. I can find something of nature in just about anything. Geology and folkways? Absolutgely Yes. I will shortly work on posting grave houses. They are made of things mined from the Earth. Ever see a cast Zinc headstone? I managed to find 5 different styles in one cemetery in Indiana a few days ago. They look brand new! It was with great astonishment that I found they had been in the ground as long as the people whose lives they marked. More to come!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (07:16)", "body": "This perhaps falls under archaeology - and what really does not?! English armour found at old US base An armour breastplate has been found which could date from earliest days of English presence in what is now the US. It was found at the site of a fort built when the Jamestown settlement was founded in 1607. It was found in a well which archaeologists have been excavating for weeks. The brick-lined well, found earlier this summer, also is thought to date from the early period of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. The armour was found sitting upright about three feet below the surface and was in remarkably good condition, said William Kelso, director of archaeology for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and a leader of the Jamestown project in Virginia. Evidence suggests the well was used as a rubbish dump after it outlived its usefulness as a water source. The armour and other artifacts recovered from the well may help paint a picture of life for early settlers. \"The English found themselves in a strange new land,\" Kelso said. \"Some of the equipment they brought was useful and some was obsolete. They had to adapt to their environment. \"What we're discovering is the process by which Englishmen became Americans.\" Story filed: 17:32 Thursday 19th September 2002 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_674246.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 82, "subject": "Rocks", "response_count": 249, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  7, 1999 (23:12)", "body": "Rockhounds of the world, Unite! Wolfie dear, you're super!!! I have a chunk of Canterbury Cathedral -that has to qualify as especially choice. Lest you turn me over to Scotland Yard, let me reassure you I took it, with permission. It was in a dump truck which was hauling away stone which had been so badly eaten by acid rain that they were replacing it - most often statues. This piece has nothing carved on it, so I was allowed to \"take as much as you want, Ma'am!\" But, it is the original stone w ich was there when Thomas Becket was murdered therein!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  7, 1999 (23:16)", "body": "Oh yeah! I need a Moon Rock. We had a piece of it here, and it looks just like the dense lava core of an A'a flow! It even had tiny craters in it!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Jul  7, 1999 (23:27)", "body": "Did anyone find a piece of the meteor that exploded ove NZ yesterday?"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul  7, 1999 (23:57)", "body": "No! I had not heard about it! Did it actually strike earth or did it burn off in the atmosphere as so many do? Lucie, let us know what you find out. I shall ask AnneH and see what she knows. Thanks for the news!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (09:49)", "body": "i hadn't heard about that either. thanks for stopping by, lucie, do come back!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (14:57)", "body": "Let's see, two new Firthians know there is more to TheSpring than Drool. Very good. Now, I shall work on prying some more loose - even if I have to send them to my *shudder* Babe topic."}, {"response": 7, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (15:49)", "body": "Why shudder? Nice kneecap!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (15:58)", "body": "Thanks, Alex...you made my day! Hmm...should I put my rock wish list here now...the one with the coprolite, gastrolith, meteorite and moon rock on it?! Oh, and the complete creature in a chunk of amber."}, {"response": 9, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (16:58)", "body": "let me think on that...might be redundant, don't you know!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (17:07)", "body": "methinks you already did *grin*"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (21:36)", "body": "Re the New Zealand Meteorite, I just got this from a Firthian in Perth, Australia: It was on the news last night. A burst of light just above the surface in New Zealand did not say where I expect the Astronomers want to get the pieces pristine. Apparently although it did fall to the surface in small pieces no one was hurt."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (23:14)", "body": "*grin* Yes, I did, didn't I...*grin*"}, {"response": 13, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (23:49)", "body": "re response 11: thank God for that! marcia, do you have any websites for rock collecting info? or perhaps any literature titles devoted to it? i'll do some research myself and see if there are any legitimate sites out there. you know, in junior high (ah, so long ago), our science class touched on geology and i remember whenever the family would go on a drive, i'd look at all the landscape and jutted rocks or places where they cut through to put a road and be a little more knowledgeable about what happened to the earth. it really is cool!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (00:03)", "body": "Wolf, I have half of my Netscape Bookmarks used by Geology - from volcanoes (big over here), Earthquakes (part of the same and we have 'um quite regularly), Tsunamis (caused by the EQ's)and all sorts of US Geological Survey sites. What would you like? List the URLs or email them to you?"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (00:22)", "body": "I just did an AltaVista search for Rocks and Minerals and came up with over 2,000 Web pages. The first few are very good for minerals and what they look like...and there are all levels of intellect, too, from little kids to us big ones. Any questions and I will check it out and report back here!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (00:37)", "body": "A good place to start is the Volcano Update from the Island of Hawaii where I am It has updates and links to other volcanoes and other neat stuff http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/ Use this URL for live images refreshed every 30 seconds of Etna, Vesuvius and Stromboli in Italy http://www.iiv.ct.cnr.it:80/files/cam_index_stromboli.html Current Earthquake information world-wide http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/QUAKES/CURRENT/global.html"}, {"response": 17, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (02:09)", "body": "any good plate techtonics sites?"}, {"response": 18, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (02:11)", "body": "(sorry about the spare h)"}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (10:54)", "body": "thanks for your research, marcia. i know if i lived in a volcano/earthquake prone area, i'd have all those bookmarks too!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (14:46)", "body": "instead, all of yours are to water gauges, right, Wolf?"}, {"response": 21, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (14:56)", "body": "got that right! flood markers all over the yard too! *grin*"}, {"response": 22, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (19:11)", "body": "i have a friend who is quite into geology and collects rocks from everywhere. we spent quite the evening looking at her collection under black light!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (19:37)", "body": "Plate Techtonics (adult) www.earth-resources.net Plate Techtonics (kids) tuweb.ucis.dal.ca/~jmerry/basinview/plate.htm (JASON project) Plate techtonics for the truly curious - contains the meter sites where they measure contintal drift (some of these David has helped install) www.udayton.edu/~geology/FieldTrip/psites.htm"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (19:41)", "body": "Stace, I'd love to have a shadow-box cabinet in which to display my fluorescent rocks. I hope all of you who can get hold of a \"black light\" for viewing this phenomenon know not to look at the light source. It will damage your retina, and your retina is not into self healing. You lose it, you are blind. Please be careful."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (19:47)", "body": "Pardon the dead links. These should work: The one for adults http://www.earth-resources.net/p1832.htm the one for kids http://tuweb.ucis.dal.ca/~jmerry/basinview/plate.htm The metering sites http://www.udayton.edu/~geology/FieldTrip/psites.htm"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (19:57)", "body": "This is for those of you who live in natural-disaster-prone areas (Tornado, flood, hurricane and such), this is the Natural Disasters Website of the University of Colorado (one of the very best!) http://www.Colorado.EDU/hazards/"}, {"response": 27, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (22:50)", "body": "what? flourescent rocks? i have a black light bulb...hmmm...should i go out in the drive and pick up pebbles? when i lived in kansas, i found a couple pieces of crystal. they were cool!still have them, but don't remember where they are. think they're in the middle of a jar of shells!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (23:01)", "body": "Lots of things flouresce. Plug a light bulb socket (any hardware store has them) or cheap lamp into a l o n g outdoor extension cord, turn it on and look around. If you are wearing polyester anything or blend, even you and your shoes will fluoresce."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul  9, 1999 (23:08)", "body": "Sorry about this misspelling it is Fluorescence (like the lights in an office) and certain chemicals (everything is made of chemicals) emit electromagnetic radiation which is visible to the human eye. Lots of things do exhibit this quality, but our visible spectrum is rather narrow in comparison with other animals."}, {"response": 30, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (14:15)", "body": "i knew about white clothing really blaring under black lights...hmmm, am gonna have to have a black light alligator pool party in my backyard!"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (14:21)", "body": "Please tell me you are not looking for shredded remnants of clothing left by sated gators! and promise me you will not join them - BTW, be really careful around water. You could get a really nasty shock!!! And, remember to protect those little one's eyes from the bulb."}, {"response": 32, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (14:24)", "body": "so, Wolf, what do you think? Should Marcia host a geology conference?"}, {"response": 33, "author": "casanova", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (16:35)", "body": "im new here so just burry me please"}, {"response": 34, "author": "casanova", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (16:36)", "body": ""}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (17:49)", "body": "welcome to rock collecting, casanova! wer: i believe marcia is an expert on geology and would be perfect for her own geology conference!! marcia: i promise to be extra careful *grin*"}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (18:42)", "body": "Send them over if necessary. If you cannot baffle them sufficiently I can try to snow them under completely! BTW, I wrote a cute intro for the Geo Conference which got lost somewhere between my keyboard and my returning image. Oh well. Off to create topics for discussion...and thanks, I think, for your faith in my abilities and expertise. I am thinking seriously about comandeering my son to help with the Geoecology part - that is his field."}, {"response": 37, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (20:07)", "body": "figured you would..."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (17:48)", "body": "I need this to be linked to Topic 21 in Geo Conference. Going to look for some help in this endeavor - and perhaps we can breathe some life back into both of them. (It would be 21, right?)"}, {"response": 39, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (10:01)", "body": "For example, when you're in telnet, to link a topic 30 in the austin conference to the news conference, go to the news conference and type li 30 austin"}, {"response": 40, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (10:01)", "body": "Ok: help link **** LINKFROM **** Syntax: li_nkfrom Description: This will link items in the specified range in the given conference into the current conference. This can only be done by a fair-witness of the current conference. A link can be erased with the kill command. Link commands are logged to the conference log file."}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:01)", "body": "Thanks, Terry. I shall try that as soon as I am more awake. I noted where my other links are indentified in the conf log because I found the ones which were done for me earlier before I had seen that they were an actuality!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (18:55)", "body": "I tried in telnet to do as you instructed and the following appeared: Ok: li 29 springark Cannot access conference 29. I got the same response when I tried to link the other one, as well. Do I need to be cfadm to do this? I have not been so named. Suggestions?"}, {"response": 43, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (06:51)", "body": "I got the syntax backwards, it must be li springark 29"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (14:48)", "body": "Thanks Terry...(picky computer language...*grin*). It works beautifully and so easily when one knows the right command..! Both are now linked!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (20:12)", "body": "Hi Marcia, I was looking for new posts in the geo conference and there popped this topic! Telnet magic, I guess :-)"}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (21:06)", "body": "Yes! I managed to link two topics - one from SpringArk and one from Collecting. Of course, Terry had to tell me what to do, but now I know...watch out world! Btw, I love the little world you promised me for my next birthday on Drool 72 =)"}, {"response": 47, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (09:42)", "body": "Cool!"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:44)", "body": "Now there will be people posting who never dared to venture into Geo before. It is rather nice in here and we get off topic as much as any other place does. Check us out...there is a lot of really cool stuff in here."}, {"response": 49, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:55)", "body": "(Marcia)Btw, I love the little world you promised me for my next birthday on Drool 72 =) Oh no, it wasn't a promise. I couldn't wait for your birthday so it was a non birthday present. Or a party favour, if you like :-)"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (16:48)", "body": "Might I save it and use it in my topics, then? I noted it was from a Portuguese (?) language web graphics site. Thanks!!! It is darling!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (21:56)", "body": "what is it? i can't wait to see..."}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (22:44)", "body": "Its a cute little globe...she is giving me the world! (I think it might fit in theat capture ring you have which has interchangeable spheres...-*grin*"}, {"response": 53, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (05:08)", "body": "(MarciaH) I noted it was from a Portuguese (?) language web graphics site. I think Swedish, not Portuguese... Rather the opposite end of Europe :-) Here's the page's url, they say you can use their graphics and ask that you link to them, so..."}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (10:51)", "body": "cool! thanks!!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (14:47)", "body": "Wolfie, your captured world is in Organic gems, but so you can share it, I'll put it here, also."}, {"response": 56, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (20:55)", "body": "i like it!"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (21:07)", "body": "Is that not the ultimate sphere for your Orbis collection>\u007f?!"}, {"response": 58, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (21:14)", "body": "indeed!! *grin* oh, i found an amber colored rock on the beach (at port aransis, texas) and picked it up. maybe i can get it ground and polished up for my ring!"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (21:16)", "body": "OOOh...Opaque or translucent?"}, {"response": 60, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (21:38)", "body": "it's kinda translucent and smooth from the water."}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (00:36)", "body": "Ummm..darkish reddish orange - Carnelian?"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (00:42)", "body": "Check out http://www.jewelry4less.com/parts/carnelian.shtml"}, {"response": 63, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (10:09)", "body": "none of those. it's more of a pale orange. it looked darker on the beach."}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (14:45)", "body": "Hmmmm...how hard is it? Does it scratch window glass? Could it be citrine quartz?"}, {"response": 65, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:05)", "body": "haven't tried that yet. um...it has a dark spot on it, like something stuck inside. perhaps i should scan it?"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:11)", "body": "Is it very light? Might it be amber??? Scan it by all means!"}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:13)", "body": "The dark spot is an inclusion of some sort. If it is light in weight and amber it might be a creature or leaf. If it is another inorganic sort, it is what is known as a flaw in diamonds and other precious gems. Interesting!!!"}, {"response": 68, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:14)", "body": "marcia, could it be just a rock? *grin* i'm gonna scan it in a few minutes just to spare you the suspense!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:26)", "body": "k, here are the scanned images. one side: other side: and i tried to scratch glass and it didn't....."}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:27)", "body": "It could evem be part of a beer bottle...*smile* (There is no such classification as \"rock\"...gotta know what it might be...I am driven to know such things!) Go Wolfie, Go! Scan, Woman!!!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:28)", "body": "Looks like a bit of already-sucked-and-discarded Hallowe'en candy! Hmm...I'll bet it does not scratch because it is rounded. Will a kitchen knife scratch it? (Be careful, dear...!)"}, {"response": 72, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:32)", "body": "all these scientific experiments! lemme try....... there was some scratching from the knife. but it didn't cut into the stone and couldn't tell if i was merely removing dirt!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:34)", "body": "there's stuff inside but it was hard to show you on the scanned image. if i hold it up to light, i see bubbles and stuff."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:38)", "body": "You mean you did not lick it clean??? What kinda Wolf are you?! *lol* wash the little thing and report back."}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:39)", "body": "Bubbles...hmmm...sounds like stained milk glass or glass slag. Any manufacturing of glassware going on around you anywhere? Last century?"}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:41)", "body": "Too bad there is not an easy way to rig a light box for your scanner bed...like the ones on which you review photographic slides...Hmmm..."}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:50)", "body": "what do i wash it with? soap and water or a jewelry cleaner? it's probably just a big piece of glass that didn't get beaten down to a sand pepple yet. there's also a dark line through it. but can't tell you for sure about bubbles because it's kinda milky."}, {"response": 78, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:52)", "body": "ok, i cleaned it with soapy water and the slight knife marks are still there."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:56)", "body": "Get a tiny flashlight and put the pebble on top and turn it on. What can you see now? It sounds like it is about the hardness of glass (which is also the hardness of knife steel). Wash it when you wash your hands unless you think there is something stuck to it...that is why I keep old toothbrushes. To scrub little things with."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:57)", "body": "Ok, of the knife made discernable but not deep marks, it is almost certainly glass."}, {"response": 81, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:06)", "body": "now that the AM thinks i'm crazy...it has orange colored striations through it."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:10)", "body": "Oooh...interesting. Hmmm.. thinking... This is the first time I have done remote rock identifying - I think it is exciting. (I know - the house male here thinks I am odd beyond belief.) Could they be stains? If they are semi-regular it might be onyx."}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:12)", "body": "I have my Rockhounding Manual in hand and I find that there is incidences of agate (banded is like your stone but probably harder than yours), jasper (dull red-brown) and petrified wood (does not look like that to me.) Hmmm..."}, {"response": 84, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:13)", "body": "i don't know, but it's definitely inside the rock. and i dropped it while trying to examine it and can't find it! (i have a wood laminate floor and it blends in quite well). the AM is trying to fix my keychain flashlight as the other one's light was blinding as it escaped the edges of the rock! will keep looking and try to give you better details. don't know how to zoom with the scanner either!"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:13)", "body": "What county are you in, and what is the next state closest upstream?"}, {"response": 86, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:16)", "body": "got the rock back (it went under the computer desk!). i don't know how you can tell what it is or isn't from that picture i scanned!"}, {"response": 87, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:19)", "body": "ok, i found the rock off the gulf of mexico off of port aransus texas. there were lots of pepples and broken shells as the breakers were quite strong."}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:29)", "body": "Ah....not in Lousiana...looking...since it was ocean-borne, and there are bubbles in it (they are rare in nature because of the way rocks form, I am guessing on just that evidence that it is glass - that and the hardness and translucency. I would guess also that the striations of orange visible might either be due to its original form and intended to be there as ornamental, or it is due to internal fractures which gathered sediment which (such as oxides of iron) which made the discolorations. The secon I think is unlikely. I think you have a pebble of OLD glass - perhaps from early American or Spanish settlements - hand blown (the only kind they had). It is a nice pebble to keep! But it will not polish...etched glass just does not work that way."}, {"response": 89, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:34)", "body": "hmmmm....interesting indeed! thanks for your research!"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:37)", "body": "How am I telling what this specimen is? Looking at it and your discription allows me to eliminate a lot of things. Your hardness test was precise enough to allow me to ascertain it was about 5 to 5 1/2 on Moh's scale of hardness (check Geo 16 Diagnostics) which is about what window glass is and just a little softer than a steel blade. The bubbles were the most telling detail - as I said previously, because they are seldom found in nature except in rare cases and are really tiny (microscopic). Do I get a passing grade? Its translucency also aided me. You could even have the remant of a broken marble, but I doubt that. I think it is a broken piece of colonial milk glass..either Spanish or American which has been rounded by ages in the harder quartz sand."}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:40)", "body": "My pleasure! Over here we hardly ever find anything but coral (sand is crushed shell and coral if it is white) or lava or peridot sand. I once found a small chunk of granite washed up where we launched our sailboat. I still have it. How did it get here? Probably as ballast stones in saliling ships!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:43)", "body": "i think it's way cool!!"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:44)", "body": "*beaming* Me too!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:45)", "body": "now you got me digging through my older shell collections. i have a few crystal pieces that i got in kansas but can't remember where i put them. also found this beauty that's in the shape of a boot! (it's a rock not a crystal). i'll scan it real quick for you...."}, {"response": 95, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:52)", "body": "here's the boot:"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:53)", "body": "Understand, but it could be made of rock crystal which is a real semiprecious stone. The clearest and purest form of glass on earth formed naturally. (I am enjoying this very much!)"}, {"response": 97, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:55)", "body": "well, you know, it would help if i ftp'd it over first!!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:56)", "body": "sorry, didn't mean to post it twice!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:59)", "body": "Yep...then they both show up! Do you think this just happens to look like a foot rather than being off of a leather doll of great age which had procelain hands, head and feet? If it is natural is it translucent at all and is the surface granular or smooth in texture?"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (22:01)", "body": "give me 15 minutes to eat dinner - I shall return!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (22:16)", "body": "i'm gonna fill in the details on that piece and then i have to give over the pc to the AM (he's got some stuff to do too).... ok, the boot is smooth with some jagged spots on it. it is granular looking and has some pitting going on. haven't done the knife or glass test yet but can't scratch it with my nail. it has light and dark grey spots on it. i've had it for over 16 years and can't remember if i found it in a gravel road or what. it appears to be the same on both sides although on one side the \"ankle\" is smooth and the other is bumpy. what is interesting, besides the symmetry, is the indentation where the achilles is over he back of the foot and before the beginning of the calf. if this was nature made, it's amazing. it never occurred to me that it could be a petrified dolls foot. and now i've got to go. thanks for your help marcia and for spurring on my interest! oh, and i've still got to find a jeweler's glass and a black light. tried a black light bulb but it wasn't the same."}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (22:27)", "body": "Thanks Wolfie for the interesting posts...like a treasure hunt. More on the doll's foot tomorrow, then?! I'll be here."}, {"response": 103, "author": "Isabel", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (10:30)", "body": ":-) Hey, this was real fun reading! You two will get the Indiana-Jones-Treasure-Hunters-Award for this one! Those stones are interesting. I got a box full which my parents collected, there are amethysts between and garnet and other stuff. My sisters lives at the north sea and always finds these precious ambers...I never had the luck to find something worthy at the shores..."}, {"response": 104, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (17:58)", "body": "me either!"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:16)", "body": "Make that three of us...I found broken stuff in the Atlantic as a child, and out here there is more different stuff because of being in coral reef territory, but there is still no amber or anything close to it washing up around me. Hi Isabel! Happy you enjoyed our little fun evening of detective work. I really had a great time with it! Thanks again, Wolfie...time to get to the little foot again?"}, {"response": 106, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:41)", "body": "yeah! and i found a couple other interesting rocks mixed with my earliest collection of land shells. let's do one rock at a time! so what is your theory on my boot?"}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:47)", "body": "Does it seem like it is old eroded porcelain or does it seem hard enough to be stone? If it is stone it could be almost anything, but it could also be part of a figurine. I am still opting for the doll foot."}, {"response": 108, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (19:52)", "body": "i have no idea about eroded porcelain."}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:06)", "body": "How hard is it? Try your knife and window again"}, {"response": 110, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:08)", "body": "1. scratches glass 2. knife scratches rock"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:12)", "body": "Huh! hmmm....does it seem to be of some sort of glass, as well?"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:14)", "body": "Can you see light through it? (get out that flashlight again!)"}, {"response": 113, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:14)", "body": "i don't know! the residue from scratching with the knife made me think of sand and the scratch left a white mark."}, {"response": 114, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:15)", "body": "as to the light, no, it's opaque..."}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:30)", "body": "Hmmm...turn over a coffee mug or plate and find where it is not glazed. Does that scratch whichever?"}, {"response": 116, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:45)", "body": "it didn't leave a discernable mark, but did draw on it (like chalk). the unglazed portion of the mug left a white mark on the boot."}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:54)", "body": "..engraved white mark on the boot?...that means it is harder than the boot. Unglazed porcelain is hard - about 7... so it is used as a diagnostic for streak (Do you have some polished hematite which has a dark metallic luster and is often made into beads? Try that on your unglazed porcelain.)Do you have a stee life handy? Try that...it is 6 1/2."}, {"response": 118, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:57)", "body": "that's what i used, a steel knife....i have a polished black stone ring but am not sure if it's hematite. actually, the white mark is gone now after i rubbed my finger over it."}, {"response": 119, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:58)", "body": "the scratch from the knife is still there, i can feel the indentation with my nail."}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (20:58)", "body": "I'm guessing it is just slightly harder than glass but enough to scratch it. Pure forms of silica would react like that but would be clear and without inclusions. Thinking.... Do you recall from whence this little footie came?"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:01)", "body": "Ok softer than 5 1/2 so likely not glass or silica of any form. (Your black stone is probably onyx if it does not have a metallic luster) Try a penny - which scratches which and how much (I am guessing it will scratch the penny which is 2 1/2.)"}, {"response": 122, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:08)", "body": "the black stone is in the form of a ring--it's not onyx....ok, now to find a penny...is my little boot gonna get all ruined from all these experiments?"}, {"response": 123, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:09)", "body": "ok, it scratched the penny, but we expected that, right?"}, {"response": 124, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:12)", "body": "(back to the ring, i think it is hematite....it's black with a silvery lustre and very smooth.)"}, {"response": 125, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:26)", "body": "ok, i tried the hematite and boot scratching thing and neither scratched the other....."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:47)", "body": "No, find something tiny and unglazed to use on the underside of your stone ring (it will scratch your ring, so use it on the inside.) If you don't wish to do this I will tell you what happens. (I have a pair of them and wear them as guards on a jade or carnelian ring made the same way)"}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:49)", "body": "Put that boot somewhere in a safe place until I can think of other things to try. I am having to look through my texts now to see what it might be."}, {"response": 128, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:51)", "body": "are you talking about using the boot on the inside of the ring? i did and no marks."}, {"response": 129, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:53)", "body": "ooohh, making marcia do some deep research!! thanks, girl, for your help and patience with me and my rocks!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (21:55)", "body": "'night! *hugs*"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  1, 1999 (22:12)", "body": "Break a dish or somethiing really badly chipped. Take the bigest piece you can slip into the inside of your ring and see what color streak it scrapes off...just the tiniest scratch will suffice. If you do not wish to do that I will tell you in the morning what your results would have been and why. Meanwhile hitting the books for boot ID, and downloading lava pix for Travel/Hawaii ... G'night, Wolfie! *hugs*"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (18:26)", "body": "Don't know quite where to put this little story but it IS a rock we are talking about and not old enough for Paleo... Woman Carries 'Fossil' Fetus for 49 Years TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan doctors operating on a 76-year old woman discovered a ``fossilized'' fetus in her abdomen conceived 49 years ago a phenomenon recorded only three times in history, hospital sources said Wednesday. The Veterans General Hospital said doctors on December 31 found a 20 gram (0.7 ounce) lithopaedion, the rocklike remains of a fetus hardened by calcium buildup, in the abdominal cavity of a woman surnamed Wu. The baby appeared to have died in the 20th week of Wu's pregnancy when the fetus moved from her womb to her abdomen. The hospital said their research yielded only three known lithopaedions, and the earliest case dated back to 1582, when a 28-year old fetus was found in French woman."}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (20:14)", "body": "(Wolfie is not going to be happy with me as this is linked to her collecting conference, but it IS a rock...)"}, {"response": 134, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (20:18)", "body": "it is an interesting rock to say the least. how could she not have known?"}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (21:30)", "body": "Some people are dead from the neck up, I think! No sense, no feeling and all those old adages must be true!"}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (21:34)", "body": "Don't think I'll put one of those on my wish list...Yeesh!"}, {"response": 137, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (21:55)", "body": "euw! well, on the subject of rocks, i received my mom's package with the photo albums and guess what was in there? the mysterious kansas rock pictures. yup, tomorrow i'll scan and post them for you to marvel over. yes, am gonna keep you in suspense! :)"}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (22:02)", "body": "Yes! I remember. Big'uns, if I recall correctly...! Waiting patiently...well...as patiently as I can...*sigh*....Yippee!"}, {"response": 139, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (21:17)", "body": "ok, here's the link to the mysterious kansas rock formations: http://www.spring.net/~bayou/rocks.gif"}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (21:23)", "body": "For the time being it is http://206.97.234.70//~bayou/rocks.gif except for the fortunate few who can still get in the old way... Oh my! They look like fossilized butter rolls which you peel to eat (I cannot think of their real name...) They are just sitting around like that with all those layers? Never thought they'd look like that in Iowa! Thanks, Wolfie!"}, {"response": 141, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (21:28)", "body": "iowa? kansas, marcia! *heehee* they're absolutely huge. we climbed on some of them. can't even remember what the site was called. a bunch were perfectly round and others were flatter. they all had that butter roll look though."}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (21:41)", "body": "Absolutely amazing! Funny thing I can never remember the midwest because whenever I flew over it the states were not painted different colors like on my map and I could not tell where I was. They could have at least painted the edges a different color...*sigh*"}, {"response": 143, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (21:44)", "body": "the midwest looks like a patchwork quilt to me....(check out my post in linens)"}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (23:00)", "body": "I did...and noted that I am to \"talk\" to Terry which I shall do straight away. *hugs*"}, {"response": 145, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (09:20)", "body": "Talk to me, talk to me."}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (12:52)", "body": "Wolfie and I would like an Arts and Crafts Conference, unless you think it is too much and would be more properly a Topic in another conference. This would be handmade things from crocheting and knitting to doll-making, teddy bear making and tapestry to name a few. Pottery, woodworking and glassblowing also come to mind. Or should this be under the Art Conference? Not all of it is art however...sewing of clothes and design of same...lots of cross-overs to be linked if it is a separate conference. Let s know. Thanks! When you have, time, of course! *hugs*"}, {"response": 147, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (18:05)", "body": "...or just plain CRAFTS would probably be better..."}, {"response": 148, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (20:32)", "body": "yeah, cuz then it wouldn't be confused with the arts and if we run across topics that would serve a purpose (and it's ok with ree ree) we could link them up. i've got a bunch of ideas for a crafts topic! (and terry, i want to send something to help with the bills but it will have to wait until payday. always tell myself that i'm gonna do that and i forget, so maybe this way, i'll be more apt to remember *grin*) speaking of rocks, i saw a show today on emerald mining. how tempting it must be for those miners to want to walk off with something. guards were all over the place (i think they were in mexico or someplace else where they speak spanish)--no offense but i can't remember where they were. they were 300 feet below the surface and air had to be blown in. i'd be so scared!"}, {"response": 149, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (21:07)", "body": "oh, thanks terry *smoooooooch* (and to you, marcia for taking the ball and running with it)"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:25)", "body": "Museum Sues Indians Over Meteorite Ownership NEW YORK (Reuters) - The American Museum of Natural History sued an American Indian group Monday to block its claim to the 15.5-ton Willamette Meteorite, one of the museum's oldest treasures and a centerpiece of its newly opened planetarium. The suit seeks a court ruling that the museum is the rightful owner of the largest meteorite ever found in the United States. It also seeks a ruling that it does not have to repatriate the extraterrestrial object to an Oregon Indian group that alleges that the gigantic meteorite is a holy tribal object that brought messages from the spirit world long before the arrival of white men. The museum's lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court a little over a week after the much touted opening of its sleek $210 million Rose Center for Earth and Space on Manhattan's upper West Side. The metallic iron meteorite, which is believed to have fallen to earth 10,000 years ago from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, holds a place of honor on the main floor in the planetarium's astrophysics hall. It has been viewed by countless scientists, teachers and schoolchildren for nearly a century. The lawsuit alleged that the meteorite's ownership history dates back to at least 1855 when various Indian tribes voluntarily ceded the meteorite, which was once located in the upper Willamette Valley in Oregon, to the United States in exchange for reservation land and other considerations. In 1905, the Supreme Court of the State of Oregon ruled that the meteorite belonged to the Oregon Iron and Steel Company as owner of the land on which the object was found. The company sold the meteorite to the American Museum of Natural History the next year for $20,600. Almost immediately after its purchase, the museum began to study the object and it has been on almost continuous display since 1906. According to the lawsuit, the current ownership dispute began during the fall of 1999 when representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon visited the museum. The federally recognized group consists of a number of tribes from the Upper Willamette Valley, including the Clackamas which ceded the meteorite in 1855, the suit said. At the end of their visit, the representatives submitted a written claim for repatriation to the museum stating that the meteorite is a sacred object. It filed its claim under the federal law known at the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA. The law was written for the preservation and repatriation of Native American cultural and religious artifacts. To obtain repatriation of a sacred object, a tribe must show that it is a sacred object, that the tribe owned or controlled it and that the museum does not have a right of possession, the suit said. The museum alleged that the Oregon Indian group did not meet these requirements."}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (21:28)", "body": "Gee, perhaps I was not talking loud enough in the post before last...?!"}, {"response": 152, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:23)", "body": "are we people sue happy or what? who can own a meteorite? sheesh!"}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:27)", "body": "I'd sure like to have one, but I must not! They belong to everyone as far as I am concerned! Greed once again rears its ugly head...!"}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:29)", "body": "Of course, all of the famous legendary swords were forged out of meteroitic iron. Iron from the gods made them invincible - and we still remember the names today - as in Excalibur..."}, {"response": 155, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:29)", "body": "well, it's one thing if you happened across a piece, kinda like the berlin wall, but to sue for ownership? this world has become quite greedy. i'd love to just see one in person (already landed and no damage done safely inside a scientific museum) *knock on wood*"}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:33)", "body": "*lol* Me too!!! Exhibit A...."}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:34)", "body": "(Sometime, when I am not cooking supper, remind me to tell you why you knock on wood!)"}, {"response": 158, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:43)", "body": "it's from an old myth, right? anyway, i don't like tempting fate, God, or whatever...."}, {"response": 159, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (21:43)", "body": "you guys are just eating supper? and you're still posting?"}, {"response": 160, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (22:36)", "body": "Nope - I took off about 15 minutes to eat and another 10 to clean up the dishes and kitchen...and I am back at it. As I write itis 5:36pm and we watched the local evening news while consuming my homemade pisghetti."}, {"response": 161, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (23:01)", "body": "I think I only just missed you! It's 4 am here and I'm working already."}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (23:52)", "body": "You so not sleep much. It is almost 5am and I have kept you from doing anything constructive =) It is just going on 7pm yesterday here!"}, {"response": 163, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (02:53)", "body": "(shh I went back to bed for a while afterwards ;-) but I'm back working again now - it's 7.50 am and I've got a meeting at 9.30 which I'm not ready for! My sleep patterns are all over the place just now. I napped yesterday afternoon which I don't usually do)"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (11:04)", "body": "(Shhh...so are ours. R wanders in the night and ends up in the back bedroom if he does not start there...I just get up and read.)"}, {"response": 165, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (13:43)", "body": "(I'm really gonna have a problem when I move my desk back in - won't be able to get up at night and work!)"}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (14:25)", "body": "That is currently my problem. He built my computer station into the corner of the bedroom...and when he is in here trying to sleep for the night, I cannot be on the computer. Maybe I should leave him in the back bedroom....=)"}, {"response": 167, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (20:14)", "body": "ok, so tell me the story about the knocking on wood (i think i've heard it but right now, can't remember a thing)"}, {"response": 168, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (20:18)", "body": "What is the story of knocking on wood? It's one of those things you hear and don't really pay attention to, one of those old bromides."}, {"response": 169, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (20:30)", "body": "Well, it all has to do with the world tree and the Celts who gave it to the Norse. The roots reached to the gods of the underworld and the branches reached into the heavens. By knocking on the tree, you are praying for the gods of both to heed your comments and help you!"}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (20:31)", "body": "Ygsdrill or something like that...(gotta look that up, too...)"}, {"response": 171, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (20:36)", "body": "Funny thing about old bromides and nursery rhymes and folk tales. Somewhere, way back..there was real meaning behind the words..."}, {"response": 172, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (02:06)", "body": "My downstairs bathroom is now sporting a pile of rocks ....from the cornish beaches. A mixture ...my favourite is granite with white quartz lines that look as if they've been dribbled across it. Looked for geodes but didn't find any except in the shops. I really just picked paintable items for their looks ..."}, {"response": 173, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (09:51)", "body": "Where do you keep these rocks? In a box? On a shelf?"}, {"response": 174, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (13:58)", "body": "On the shelf behind the loo ..in an artistic looking pile ..they'll stay there til I'm ready to paint them .. collected some nice driftwood too."}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (20:09)", "body": "I have a bunch of Great Lakes granite \"beach pebbles\" which look very like the Cornish variety in a wicker basket on my guest room bureau to keep the breezes from removing the bureau scarf. I gave some of mine the \"wet look\""}, {"response": 176, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, May 26, 2001 (16:24)", "body": "do you do that with varnish? i remember us talking about a similar project for shells (which i've not even tried yet)..."}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 26, 2001 (23:42)", "body": "yuo take the cheapest colorless clear nail polish you can find. Pour half or 1/3 into another glass container and cap. To the polish bottle add acetone or polish remover to the top and shake well. Coat stones/shells. The more polish per thinner, the shinier the glaze. You can also use spray clear urethane if you find some on sale. Any clear stuff will suffice but hth polish deal is more controllable as to the luster of the finish."}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 26, 2001 (23:46)", "body": "'twould be nice if I learnt how to type, too...*sigh* Sorry!"}, {"response": 179, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, May 27, 2001 (14:52)", "body": "thanks marcia!!"}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (23:08)", "body": "It's cheap and works well. That's my kind of useful household hints!"}, {"response": 181, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (10:45)", "body": "mine too!!"}, {"response": 182, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (00:29)", "body": "Marble Greece is located between the Ionia Sea and the Aegean Sea, and is slightly smaller then Alabama. It is comprised of very mountainous areas and lots of islands. The structure underlying Greece is \"Marble\". The climate is mild and makes it a vacation paradise. The historical landmarks make it necessary to visit from an architectural standpoint and for general education. Greece rates highly on literacy at 95% and is one of the highly advanced nations in the world, besides being one of the oldest to explore marble. The first marbleworks were started probably in the Cycladic islands in the centuries of 3000 B.C. Hellas is a celebration in word and picture of a beautiful, rugged land, its diverse peoples of antiquity, and their unique civilization which gave birth to the finest elements in our own. The story of the ancient Greeks is known to most persons today in the form of a few highlights: the Acropolis of Athens, the philosophers and sculpture and playwrights of classical Greece, the precious heritage of the Olympic games. Marble contributes considerably to the mineral wealth of Greece. Greece provides rare varieties of marbles which can scarcely be found elsewhere and which have greatly contributed to the history of civilization. Hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of white Pentelic marble or the white marble of Zasteni Magnissia, or the bright-white of Paros, known as \"Lykhnitis\" which were quarried and used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, to create the masterpieces of sculpture Pheidias, Hermes of Praxitelis and many others. The exploitation of the Greek marble deposits goes back to the sixth century B.C. They were among the first civilizations who noticed the unique properties and uses of marble. The Greek marble coming from the islands of Naxos and Paros in the Cicladi were commercialized also in the Asia Minor, North Africa and at Rome. In the Delphi area, the site of the sanctuary of Pythian Apollo at the foot of Mount Parnassus is extremely impressive. Much of this area was built with marble dating 4th to 6th century B.C. Parian marble was used about 6th century B.C. as Ionic columns in the portico of Athenians, a temple. Sculpturing Schools flourished in this period and works of art became second nature. The Greeks transformed marble into objects of art never considered before and probably since. From other Greek islands came the white marble which was sculptured for the famous Winged Victory (305 B.C.) discovered at the Samothrace now conserved at the Museum of Louvre in Paris. From the ancient quarries of white marble in the mountains of Penteli, Pentelico marble was used for the Parthenon, constructed in 447-432 B.C., the Erechtheus and the Propylaea on the Acropolis of Athens. In the Kavala area, the white veined marble, which is still quarried today, are in the remains of the ancient town of Philippi in Macedonia, founded by Philippus II, father of Great Alexander. Larisa, known as ancient green was used for the columns of the ancient temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. These columns were later used for the construction of the columns in the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople, erected in 350 A.D. and which now is a mosque. The Romans favored the Cipollino marble quarried in Karystos. http://jbmatthews.home.mindspring.com/Articles/GREEK%20SPEECH.html"}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (00:32)", "body": "More Marble Areas of Greece that produce are Drama/Kavala area well known for its white and white-gray marbles; Ioannina for its beige; the Argolis area for beige, brown, and red; the Attica area for white Pentelikon and ash-blue marble; Crete for its greys; Naxos for the whites; and Volos for the pinks; Attikai for Pentelikon & Agia Marina; Evia Island for Cippolino and Red Eretria; Larissa for Verde Antico; Argolida for Breccia and Red-brown; Arcadia for Black; Chios Island for Brown; and Kriti Island for Onyx;As you can see the utility of many parts of Greece are used for mining and quarrying marble. The six main marble regions of Greece are Drama-Kavala-Thassos which can be considered the Carrara of Greece. Near Kozani and Veroia are well known whites and colored marbles. Ioannina, for beige marble and similar to the Trani area of Italy. The black marble of Farsala, the grey of Larisa, the white of Volos, the rose of Pteleos Volos are among some extracted from the Larisa-Volos regions. Attica and the Pentele mountains for white. (It should be noted that in the Athens area in 1976, a fall in production of marble occurred due to the closing of some quarries for environmental reasons.) The Argolis region is the newest and one of the most dynamic areas for extraction of beige, brown, and red marbles. Many other areas have opened up such as Thrace, Crete, Lesbos etc. An abundance of marbles and limestones such as Cipollino of Evia, the black rudist-bearing limestone of Vitina, the breccia of Mycines, the multi-colored breccia fantasia of Syros, compete against the colored marbles of other countries. Probably the three most widely known marbles today in use are Tinos Green, Pentelicon white, and Thassos White. They are very versatile. Even though the Greeks have an ancient history and use of marble the modern processing started in 1960. From that moment, the number of quarries and marble cutting and process factories started to increase and to be modernized with new and more modern equipment. This was due to the tremendous increase in world building demands and the growth of the rich oil bearing nations who wished to expand their palaces and domiciles. In 1983 Greece started a 5 year development plan that would triple primary quarry production of marble and increase marble exports by a factor of 10 by 1988. This program was established for the expolitation of the marble bearing places, aiming at a higher primary production and exportation. This was to include an intense exploitation program of 12 specific marble-bearing areas. A 128 million dollar investment, half for the production and half for the processing and sales. At that time their primary exports were to the Middle Eastern markets. The main Greek marble to be exported for years has been Pentelikon, which was used to build the Parthenon and Tinos, a very Green serpentine marble. Today they are also known for their white from the island of Thassos, as well as pinks, greys, blacks, reds etc. Greece has so many colors to select from that it would satisfy most any architect or buyer. In most cases their marbles are more true marbles then those of other countries claiming the softer limestones as marbles. Thus the material lends itself for flooring applications. Development of the stone industry over the last 20 years has created a \"new stone age\". At production well over a million and a half tons of marble, Greece has increased well over 10 times its production in the last 20 years. Still, marble only accounts for 0.3 per cent of teh total GNP and 0.9 per cent of the Greek exports. This is due to the efforts made by the Associations, Government support, Investors and marble factories, and of course the advancement in marble production technology. Stone has progressed from cubical, to thin panels. We have progressed from 3/4\" to 3/8\" tiles, now to panels of 3-4mm thick with various backings which can be used in elevators, furniture, raised floors and other applications. One only has to consider that out of all the countries which quarry and use stones only 9 exceed the average annual production of one million tons, a smaller quantity than the production in the Carrara area alone. The total quantity produced by these nine countries, Italy, Spain, Greece, India, Brazil, USA, Portugal, France, and China, adds up to around 20 out of the certain 28 million tons quarried throughout the world in 1990: equal to 70% of the total production. The use of stone for claddings has and is currently undergoing a great evolution too. From slabs directly applied to the structure first with mortar and then with mechanical fixings to the creation of prefabricated panels. In a very short time techniques have gone a long way and precast panels have transformed from \"strong back\" to curtain wall (a finishing module made of metalic structure, stone, glass, insulating materials and interior finishings, ready to be installed. Material is being cut thinner and thus the demand for til"}, {"response": 184, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (00:34)", "body": "Pink marble??????? Volos has pink marble??? I don't think I have ever seen pink marble... or green marble... It must be very beautiful. You don't want to know what they did to make lime for cement with ancient glories now reduced to holding bricks together."}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (00:37)", "body": "and I have marble bathroom tiles which I clean with rubbing alcohol. They are not from a quarry though... \"cultured\" marble. Man made stuff. All marble should become Nike of Samothrace and not bathroom floors. *sigh* I better never get near Greece. I will stuff my pockets until my clothes fall from the weight."}, {"response": 186, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (19:08)", "body": "Marcia, have you ever been in Paris and seen Berenike of Samothrace? It's so extraordinary. She is so beautiful standing at the top a of grand staircase. Although, she is hard marble the feathers on her wings and the drapery of her garment give the illusion of looking so soft. The sculptor was a genius. Berenike really looks as though she's just just pausing to turn before she takes flight."}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (21:54)", "body": "Nope, but I have seen the Elgin Marbles (Parthenon marbles) in the British Museum and a positivly stunning marble statue from Greece's Golden Age in the Metropolitan. It stands at the head of the stairs... and you can see light through her diaphanous clothing. I can see it in my mind as though I had seen it yesterday! Have you seen Nike? My dad did and he was overwhelmed by her beauty."}, {"response": 188, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 16, 2001 (21:57)", "body": "I've seen pictures of her standing illuminatd at the top of a very dark flight of stair. It must be staggering to see. Some day..."}, {"response": 189, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (14:42)", "body": "The Hermes of Praxiteles. The statue is dated to 343 BC and is made from Parian marble. It is the only original work of Praxiteles, that has survived and it was found at Olympia, intact on his base, several meters under the ground. Its height is 2.10 m. It was dedicated to the sacred Altis from the Eleians and Arcadians to commemorate their peace treaty. Later it was moved to the temple of Hera, where it was found in 1877 AD. The sculpture, \"the diamond of Olympia\" , represents Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, holding the small Dionysos, who tries to take something from his hand. http://www.sikyon.com/Olympia/Art/olymp_eg09.html Talking about Greek marbles and ancient Greek art, I will help you with this statue that is very beautiful and very detailed. I have seen this before enough years and I remain astonished. John"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (15:38)", "body": "Remarkable! Just like the veiling on the status in the Metropolitan in New York City. It is beyond human genius to see light through the fine details.... and the sheen on the stone is absolutely perfect. I will hunt up a picture of it. Thank you for your post and image. Like noses on alabaster sarcophagi, the parts that are the most delicate never seem to survive intact. I assume all Greek men look like their Gods (with all parts intact!)??!"}, {"response": 191, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (15:53)", "body": ""}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (15:54)", "body": "There is no reference to my most special statue...*sigh* I'll post this one instead. Nike of Samothrace, 240-190 BC (Paris, Louvre)"}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (15:59)", "body": "The above image of Winged Victory (Nike of Samothrace) http://harpy.uccs.edu/greek/sculpturefemale.html"}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (16:19)", "body": "The Hermes sculpture John posted is pretty cute from the back, too. I wonder who got to polish him?! (Yes, I know! But you guys look...!)"}, {"response": 195, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 17, 2001 (16:30)", "body": "How many have been to the summit of the Acropolis in Athens? Tell me how magnificent it is. It is on my \"to die for\" list. How sad that automobile emissions are so corrosive to marble... We destroy the very best of our heritage (not to mention what the Turks did storing ammunition in the Parthenon!)"}, {"response": 196, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (18:05)", "body": "Marcia, sorry to have take so long in repling to your query. Yes, I have seen Nike (Winged Victory). She really is more beautiful than one can imagine. I had an art history professor who insisted that she be referred to as \"Berenike\", as she was the \"bringer of victory\". \"Nike\" simply means victory. I think that (Bere)nike is an aspect of the goddess Aphrodite. Speaking of Aphrodite, also in the Lourve is another revered Greek beauty, Venus de Milo. She's even older than Nike, but she looks really great for an old broad. I've been to the summit fo the Acropolis in Athens. You have to see it, Marcia. Even it's current state, the Parthenon, is magnificent. I definite must see. John, thank you for posting the Praxiteles Hermes. It is exquisite. It's tragic that only one work by Praxiteles remains. The world is poorer for the absence of the majority of his work."}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  6, 2001 (20:15)", "body": "*sigh* Greece has much to entice me and I have NO marble in my rock collection. I'm working on finding a way to get there and what to do with myself when I do. Cheryl, you have seen much beauty. I have scoured the net looking for the statue I remember from my youth at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. I suspect it was 1) on loan from another museum or colletion and 2) not Greek but rather a later Roman copy of a lost Greek statue. I'd be envious of your bountiful optical memories if I did not cherish you quite so much~ Thanks for sharing your memories! John! Surely you have gone past the Acropolis as often as I have the Statue of Liberty or the Kilauea Volcano and scarcely look anymore. Take my eyes and heart next time you are in Athens..."}, {"response": 198, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Nov  7, 2001 (06:54)", "body": "Hi all, Thank you Cheryl and Marcia & Wolfie. Now I have something interesting: Meteora is located near the village of Kalabaka north of the valley of the River Pinios in Thessaly - Greece. The landscape is dominated by a series of pinnacles of sedimentary rock deposited during the middle Cenozoic. The Meteora sequence is made up of Oligocene and Miocene conglomerates and marls which were gently folded in early Miocene time. Later faulting created a series of horst and graben structures. The faulting, and subsequent erosion of the softer marls, have created the spectacular scenery of the region. The site of Meteora is only 145 km. far from Volos that is, an hour and half by bus and it is the most significant sightseeing for the passengers of the cruisers that reach the port of Volos. Meteora is from the biggest and most important group of monasteries in Greece after those in Mount Athos. We can locate the first traces of their history from 11th century, when the first hermits settled there. You can find more here: http://www.port-volos.gr/index.cfm Regards John"}, {"response": 199, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Wed, Nov  7, 2001 (10:56)", "body": "This is a photo of a rock in Meteora. You can see a monastery on the top. John"}, {"response": 200, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  7, 2001 (15:19)", "body": "Thank you, John! Not only do you have the most splended marble, you probably also have fossils. Is there anything which captures my imagination that Greece does not have? I think not (other than gently erupting volcanoes.) Horst and graben structues a easy to find in Hawaii. I guess they are in any place which experiences frequent earthquakes. Greece has certainly had some monumental earth-moving events! The monks on Mt Athos are active in Amateur Radio and have a world wide appeal to those collecting QSL cards. Unfortunately I have only heard the US end of the DX pileup which occurs each time they fire up the rig. Thank you for posting the picture of where they dwell. Beautiful. Like all of Greece, I think!"}, {"response": 201, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov  7, 2001 (19:49)", "body": "thanks for the site, John, those pictures are great, and i love the monastary on top of the rock!"}, {"response": 202, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  7, 2001 (22:00)", "body": "In the case of the monastery, I guess you plan ahead when you do your shopping for food. None of that running out for Chinese food or having pizza delivered if hunger strikes at odd hours. Mail delivery must be difficult, too. It is actually an excellent place for uninterrupted contemplation."}, {"response": 203, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (09:10)", "body": "This is the monastery Grigoriou in Athos. You can find enough photos of the monasteries of Athos here (select \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd on the left and click on each small photo in the right): http://www.ert.gr/skyview/ John"}, {"response": 204, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (09:14)", "body": "I am sorry for the Greek language in this site. John"}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (15:04)", "body": "I love seeing the Greek language in this site. I am the one who is sorry for not knowing how to read it. Thank you for posting this most marvelous picture and where to find more. Thank you also for letting us know which link to follow. *Sigh* I wish my Greek (non-existent) was as excellent as your English, John. As to the monasteries on promonontories, it is easy to imagine how they were created. Those on islands which have houses right up to the edges of the cliff are the ones which amaze me. Do the cliffs erode much in Greece? I suspect they are slowly eroded. We dare not do this sort of building in Hawaii or California. I get acrophobia just thinking about white-washing the buildings, not to mention washing windows or fixing the roof. No wonder I am not a monk on Athos!"}, {"response": 206, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (15:06)", "body": "For an entire page of little images on which to click: http://www.ert.gr/skyview/mones.html"}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (15:09)", "body": "Incidently, I asked Ginny, who travelled to Greece several years ago, if the entire country was so bounteously endowed with antiquities. She assured me it was. I fear I would contract a serious case of exopthalmia in such circumstances. I would not dare to close my eyes lest I miss something. Tbank you again, John. You live in Paradise, not I."}, {"response": 208, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (21:09)", "body": "great aerial view of the monastary--now that i think about it, it would be a great place for a prison (though i'm glad the monks live there and not inmates)"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (22:19)", "body": "Yes! Lovely Monastery in a most magnificent setting - like an inlay of enamel in a large sapphire. I am bewitched. Devil's Island was not nearly as lovely a place. The French used it as a prison. Molokai, in the Hawaiian Archipelago got all the lepers. Islands are very potent isolation mentally and in actuality."}, {"response": 210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (22:53)", "body": "I should soon photograph my newly found rocks and tell you about them. I have a group of limestone fossils and a group of geodes. It is really far too easy to find them here in Kentucky!"}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (22:55)", "body": "It also helps to have a great guide, and that is exactly what I had!"}, {"response": 212, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 16, 2002 (20:14)", "body": "can't wait to see those pics!!"}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (01:57)", "body": "I have discovered that there ARE no rocks in the part of Illinois I was in. There is dirt. Not fertile stuff. Just dirt with lots of corn fields and soybeans fields and hog growing places. But the only rock I saw was road gravel on the main farm lanes which appeared to have been imported for just that purpose from some plece else. What I did find was highly convoluted granite that was admixed with cherts in some instances and schists in others. And these were the larger ones. Most were quite tiny and showed signs of both glaciation and being water-tumbled into rounded shapes. Alas."}, {"response": 214, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (09:24)", "body": "Where I am in Cedar Creek, TX there are no rocks. When the crew my swimming pool they bet me a case of beer they would find rocks. They always find rocks, they said. They didn't find rocks. Maybe a cannonball now and then, but no rocks. Now, down by the creek there are rocks, but they get washed in from somewhere else. There are a few rocks up on the hillside from the Great Flood of '81. The Memorial Day Flood scattered some rocks on the hillside."}, {"response": 215, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (11:44)", "body": "Terry, is it too late to connect this topic with Geo Rocks?"}, {"response": 216, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (17:38)", "body": "No, this can be done."}, {"response": 217, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (18:24)", "body": "Thanks, Terry! I have some overlapping but that is ok. Now I can share my new and growing rock collection with Wolfie's conference! I'll be posting images soon. Alas, I leave here tomorrow for the trip home, but will return here ASAP."}, {"response": 218, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (22:15)", "body": "marcia, be safe!! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 219, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (22:40)", "body": "Keep us posted!"}, {"response": 220, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 25, 2002 (23:05)", "body": "Absolutely I will keep you posted. Geo has the finest most supportive people on earth and I would never keep from them what is happening in my life. Back to California for now. I shall return!"}, {"response": 221, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2005 (08:59)", "body": "If you want to know the weight of a rock, or anything else for that matter. And here's the site to measure anything else in the world: http://www.allmeasures.com/Formulae/"}, {"response": 222, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2005 (20:42)", "body": "Thank you Terry! That is an awesome page. We were trying to estimate the weight of a millstone (granite) and this website makes it all so easy."}, {"response": 223, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2005 (08:55)", "body": "It's fascinating. Here's their list of \"all materials\":\" http://www.allmeasures.com/Formulae/static/materials/"}, {"response": 224, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 10, 2005 (23:14)", "body": "Needless to say, that website is in our prominent bookmarks. Recently I've moved most of my entire rock collection from Hilo to Louisville where it is now sitting (along with my library) in 18 packing boxes recently delivered by UPS. I have no idea when I will see them, but I do enjoy knowing they are still with me."}, {"response": 225, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (10:06)", "body": "How are you going to display them?"}, {"response": 226, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (21:48)", "body": "We've been thinking of that. Don wants labels and full lighted display which would delight me. If I were granted a wish, I'd choose a rotating drum with many sides on which the specimens would be mounted - in other words, a barrel whose slats stay horizontal face up at all times. Does that make sense?"}, {"response": 227, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:06)", "body": "do you mean like the rotating things jewelry is displayed in department stores? HI MARCIA!!!!!!! *HUGS* can't use MSN on this laptop but wanted to say howdy!"}, {"response": 228, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:11)", "body": "Yes exactly, like a rotating jewelry display, Wolfie HI! to you, too. Let me know when and what form you're using and I'll be delighted to talk with you. Welcome back."}, {"response": 229, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:12)", "body": "actually, i'm using the laptop downstairs and am too lazy to go upstairs and use the pc....plus the computer room is an abyss of clutter!!!! am soooo glad to see you posting here again---have really missed you!"}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:20)", "body": "I really have missed being here. Normal to me is getting in here and learning something new despite myself. I have a bunch of new rocks including some very old chert from a spring in Florida and some VERY VERY old lava from Kentucky of which I shall speak more in the near future. Go outside and pick up a rock then tell us what it looks like. Rocks are mostly free. Collecting them is fantastic. There is a collection in Hilo which is world ranked. The collector just traded samples of raw fresh Hawaiian lava with anyone who had rocks to trade. He has some of amazing beauty and value. Of course, he had an unending free source of the lava specimens. I wish I had thought of that!"}, {"response": 231, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:23)", "body": "can't wait to see them posted (haven't been able to post anything or work on my websites and have been trying to hook up with terry to fix it.....am just not thinking about it enough to get moving faster *sigh*) we have lots of rocks in our backyard, just start digging and there it is, a lot of limestone looking stuff. most of it is from when they cleared this subdivision for building, when they were done, they just bulldozed the rocks back in the dirt and covered them with grass!"}, {"response": 232, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:33)", "body": "I think what you are finding is fine grained sandstone. You can test easily whether it is limestone or sandstone by putting some in a bit of white vinegar ( stronger acids work better but you are not as likely to have them on hand). If bubbles form and the rock \"fizzes\" then it is limestone."}, {"response": 233, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:37)", "body": "oh goodie, i'll try that this weekend. some of it breaks fairly easy with a shovel and others won't budge!"}, {"response": 234, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:45)", "body": "Limestone and sandstone in KY breaks in long flat slabs so we have walls and fireplaces of surpassing beauty and strength just from laying the slabs one on another."}, {"response": 235, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (08:02)", "body": "The barrel idea is very cool. Is it realistic? Can you solve the mechanics of this? I'll fih it, woofie."}, {"response": 236, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (16:53)", "body": "Oh yes it is realistic. I've seen them. Actually I had two upright carousels with multilevel shelving in Hilo. It was only for small very special items. I would like to display them all, so I need a large display even if it is on magazine-like leaves of plywood affixed to the wall."}, {"response": 237, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Mar 14, 2005 (13:25)", "body": "Post a pic if you can find one, ok?"}, {"response": 238, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 14, 2005 (18:30)", "body": "I'll look for a photo. I can think of two actually in action currently but any wallpaper and most rug stores have \"magazine\" style displays. I'll go find one for you. Better still, I'll go find the alternatives and bring them back here for review !"}, {"response": 239, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 14, 2005 (21:01)", "body": "Interesting about surving Pinatubo in a bat cave. The lone survivor (or was it two) from Mt Pelee on Martinique was in an underground jail cell. NO ONE else in St Pierre survived the eruption. That was a city with a population in excess of 30,000. I prefer my volcanoes a little more gentle."}, {"response": 240, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 15, 2005 (20:03)", "body": "amazing, isn't it? last night, they had surviving the tsunami."}, {"response": 241, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  4, 2005 (14:32)", "body": "Did you see last night's Nova on PBS? It dealt with the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa and the resulting devastation of Sumatra but the largest tsunami in recorded history. That eruption was the loundest sound ever heard in historic times on earth. The whole mountain collapsed into its own empty magma chamber and is now subterranean. Amazing."}, {"response": 242, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr  4, 2005 (19:24)", "body": "no, i missed that. was watching something about the vatican on NGC."}, {"response": 243, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr  4, 2005 (19:44)", "body": "I missed it too. But Nova does copious reruns."}, {"response": 244, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  5, 2005 (20:52)", "body": "so does NGC--they had the super volcano last night!"}, {"response": 245, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (13:04)", "body": "I have been \"up tp here\" on the Vatican but as a great history buff, I ca't help watching even the re-runs for some of this stuff. It is like color tv with a feed directly from the Renaissance!"}, {"response": 246, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2006 (23:23)", "body": "Kia Ora Response #239: Interesting about surving Pinatubo in a bat cave. The lone survivor (or was it two) from Mt Pelee on Martinique was in an underground jail cell. NO ONE else in St Pierre survived the eruption. That was a city with a population in excess of 30,000. I prefer my volcanoes a little more gentle.\" About 100 survived. For some reason no one thought to talk to 100 people who panicked the night before the eruption when there were violent explosions all night long coupled with thunderstorms, and left town. They were huddled on a hill about 5km beyond the range of the pyroclastic flow. But in the town itself Pierre Augustus was the only survivor. Absolute devasation - did the French Governor keep his job? That moron (pardon my French)was the one who kept saying that there would not be a problem, all was cool, hold your horses and all the rest of it. No one thought to talk to a phone operator in another town on the island of Martinique who was on the phone to someone in the town of St Pierre when the volcano erupted. The operator said there was the most colossal roar on the phoneline and then everything went dead. Not one of the connections she tried could raise a response. St Pierre was dead. I guess there is a lesson in that. Any active lava dome within five kilometres of your house is NOT to be trusted. Rob"}, {"response": 247, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2006 (19:09)", "body": "I can recall looking at the seismographs in the British Museum of Science in Kensington. We spoke to an employee there who was beside a map of the world's active volcanoes and I pointed out where I lived. He was sghast and said \"You live where it explodes?!\" Then I asked him where he was from . He replied \"Martinique\" Now, that is where it really explodes. I assured him Hawaiian volcnoes were much kinder to tourist and geologists. He looked skeptical."}, {"response": 248, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2006 (06:30)", "body": "Hi all I will rephrase that - no one should be living within 5km of a lava dome. Too unstable, too short a warning time if it falls apart. You would probably be living on its debris fan where all of the deposits end up after each collapse. Rob"}, {"response": 249, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2006 (08:17)", "body": "Ah yes, a lava dome. The closest I have been to an actual one of them is in my rock collection. My son did hike up to the dome in Mount Saint Helens volcano and brought me back a small chunk. That is as close as I wish to be to that one, but plans are afoot to take me to the mountain so I can add it to my collection of visited active volcanoes. I agree with Rob though I'd make that a few more km than he suggests. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 83, "subject": "California vs. Mother Nature's Fury: Our Past, Present, and Future.", "response_count": 8, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Aug 29, 2002 (16:23)", "body": "Its all San Andreas' Fault! She made me do it! *laughs* Okay, well I still do not like California that much but I do respect its awesome geology. I noticed some amazing things as I was driving back down through California last week. First of all, I had no idea that there was an entire volcanic range about 18 miles east of Santa Rosa. I just learned that on my trip. And what I found out about it, you would not believe. But I am going to make you wait a bit before I tell you. I think first I should explain a little bit about California's geologic history."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 30, 2002 (19:24)", "body": "Of course, I am currently in California and this is entirely appropriate.Thanks, Julie. If I am not to stay here, at least my next of kin will be affected. I worry that nothing in California is real. They have grown beyond sustainable growth. I will be happy not to live here!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Sat, Aug 31, 2002 (10:40)", "body": "Personally, I worry if something is real on earth. The fast rhythm of life makes shadows and changes the real colors. We must follow this rhythm in order we have the same view of the reality with the people, which are surrounding us. I wonder where I can find the correct place for me\ufffd But I am afraid that I would feel extraterrestrial between the people there\ufffd Solution: Self-adjustment (even if it takes some time). John"}, {"response": 4, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (02:23)", "body": "WOAH! What I am about to tell you is bizarre, ironic, scary, freaky, and I don't know what else to call it. I want to find some actual proof to make sure this is true, but I think its possible that it is true cause I know there is some truth to it. What am I rambling on about? Okay...I'll tell you. I am talking about a particular fault...one of the most dangerous faults in California that runs under major cities with very large populations. No, I am not talking about the infamous San Andreas Fault which everyone believes is the most dangerous fault in CA. Sure its a big fault the San Andreas but its not the most dangerous. The fault I am talking about if the Newport Ingullwood Fault Zone. I will talk about why the Newport Ingullwood Fault Zone is so dangerous later. But here's the ironic and scary thing. I knew a long time ago that it runs underneath my college, but I didn't know EXACTLY where under my school it went through. I knew it was near the geology department ironically enough, but I did not know that I have been sitting on top of it for two semesters!! I took an Oceanography Lab class last semester and I decided I would sit at a lab tabel near the front with a nice view of the tropical fish tank and the white board. I sat at that table in that same chair for that whole semester. Now I am taking Island Ecology this semester and in that same room. I decided to sit in the same nice spot again. There was even new fish to look at this time. I didn't know at all until today when my professor was giving us a lecture on plate tectonics, volcanism, earthquakes, etc and he pointed out a crack that went underneath my chair and lab table. I had no idea that I have been sitting on the Newport Ingullwood Fault for nearly 2 semesters. There I am taking exams, listening to lectures, taking notes, and me of all people sitting on one of the most dangerous faults in California?! I don't know if I believe this or not which is why I want to research it to see where EXACTLY underneath my college does the Newport Ingullwood go. So for now maybe I will sit somewhere else, but I suppose it really doesn't matter cause it is underneath our school and that is FACT! Where is is EXACTLY is the question. The moral to this is...Always look where you sit. *laugh*"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (07:55)", "body": "Is there a map reference you can point to Julie. When was the last time that fault had activity? What are the odds here?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (08:14)", "body": "John did a danger assessment for the Los Angeles area a year or more ago and there are faults all over the place. We discussed his findings and decided not to post them. John???"}, {"response": 7, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (11:49)", "body": "http://www.scecdc.scec.org/newping.html That gives a little information on the Newport Ingullwood Fault. But...My professor passed out an article from the L.A. Times that was taken on March 11th 1933 after a 6.4 magnitude earthquke on the Newport Ingullwood Fault. http://www.scecdc.scec.org/longbeac.html The website above gives you a few pictures of the destruction of the quake. I will see if I can scan in the article I got. The picture on it is amazing. It shows the the devastation on all of Long Beach Blvd. There was no building left standing! Some of the eyewitness reports of the quake were quite bizarre. One woman ran out of her brick house into the middle of the street. As the earthquake was occuring, she could see the whole street look like it was rolling like ocean waves and she began to get sea sick. Another newspaper article descibes this. I will see what I can find and post it when I get a chance."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  9, 2002 (21:22)", "body": "I keep having nightmares that I am back in Hawaii and being swallowed either by earthquake cracks or lava flows. I must have been more worried than I thought! Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 84, "subject": "Love is in the Earth by Melody", "response_count": 8, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (07:11)", "body": "Ames and Heather have an exciting project here. Ames spends about a solid month every year at the world's largest gem show in Arizona and he shuttles between AZ, California and Austin, Texas. The other night, Ames and his daughter, Heather, stopped by and we set up the new web site. I have attempted to put a 'placeholder' page there but Heather will be updating it with her own content."}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (09:04)", "body": "Terry, you know geo has a books topic and precious gems topic right?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (09:23)", "body": "Yep, I thought the website might generate a lot of comment so I gave this it's own topic, I'm biased though, cause I really like Ames and his daughter Heather! I'll work extra hard to \"pump it up\"."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (19:12)", "body": "I'm eager to see the book or reviews of same. I am assuming it is copiously illustrated with photographs?"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (19:13)", "body": "Did you consider linking this with the books conference, Terry?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 20, 2002 (22:07)", "body": "It's a series of books. I'll link it to the books conference."}, {"response": 7, "author": "ames", "date": "Fri, Oct 25, 2002 (17:16)", "body": "That would be one for Melody to answer! She's out of town right now."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (17:07)", "body": "Looking forward to her return. I have not had time to check this out, but if Terry thinks it is worthy, it must be. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 85, "subject": "Todays Hot Topics on the Spring", "response_count": 81, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 20, 2002 (07:00)", "body": "Soccer. Soccer. Soccer. OK, football! Sports 22. The 22nd topic in the sports conference has lots of updates on the red hot World Cup which is seeing matches with England and the US tomorrow (Friday). Even a romantic bit of a story from Korea. Don't miss it."}, {"response": 2, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Sep 30, 2002 (09:32)", "body": "Why is the last Webtrends report showing April stats? Where can you see more current utilization figures?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 30, 2002 (11:00)", "body": "I started to do the report yesterday but the download failed. I'll be updating it soon."}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 22, 2002 (22:35)", "body": "Sniper. Topic 81 in news."}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct 29, 2002 (07:44)", "body": "Sheryl Crow, she's a babe. http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/babes/77/since/-7 In homage to drool, these fine babes are making their debut this week in Mike Griggs 'babes conference'. topic res title 72 1 Helena Bonham Carter 73 0 Jane Seymour 74 1 Emma Thompson 75 0 Justine Waddell 76 2 Kate Winslet It's just a coincidence that these 5 topics are sandwiched in between Miss Universe and Sheryl Crow."}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 2002 (06:04)", "body": "Good news for your heart. See the heart topic in health for news, of a new more effective test for heart disease. And it's not a cholesterol test."}, {"response": 7, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 2002 (06:06)", "body": "Why is Jiang still holding on to military power in China? You're going to have to check out the China topic in the news conference to find out."}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 2002 (06:09)", "body": "Who is John Tsatsaragos? You'll have to voyage to the Geo conference to find out. He has sage comments on all of these topics today: 2 952 Vulcanism 24 876 Beyond Planet Earth 25 165 Natural Disasters: Drastic Changes in the Landscape 31 123 Geo Mysteries 45 34 Earth Medicine"}, {"response": 9, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 2002 (06:11)", "body": "Who are Austin, Texas hottest news babes? http://www.spring.net/newsbabes Results of this years poll have been tallied and the top ten are revealed. You'll be surprised at the newcomers who have risen to number one and two. And find out who is Austin's all time news babe for the fifth consecutive year."}, {"response": 10, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 2002 (06:25)", "body": "I have 3 questions for Joe, our English ambassador, about Newcastle. See the soccer topic in sports for the questions. I'll email Joe and give him a heads up."}, {"response": 11, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 2002 (07:20)", "body": "Who's Shari Fletcher and does she like Lord of the Rings and someone named Viggo? You'll have to visit the web conference to find out who she's drooling over. Topic 2 on cool websites. Clue. Viggo is \"Number two on my List of Men I'd Flip the Switch For.\" Who could number one be? http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/web/2/since/-30"}, {"response": 12, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Nov 30, 2002 (02:36)", "body": "JFK. Was he deceitful or noble to hide his medical problems from the public. Discuss in politics. The Beatles just did a tribute to George Harrison in London. Read about it in topic 55 in the Spring's music conference. And talk about Paul's recent televised concert, wasn't it great?"}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Nov 30, 2002 (02:40)", "body": "In \"Grade A: The Market for a Yale Woman's Eggs,\" published in the December Atlantic, Jessica Cohen describes her experience as a potential egg donor being screened by a highly selective couple whose advertisement she first sees in the Yale Daily News. Loving family seeks exceptional egg donor with 1500 SAT, great looks, good family health history, Jewish heritage and athletic. Height 5'4''-5'9'', Age 18-29. We will pay EXTREMELY well and will take care of all expenses. Hope to hear from you. Cohen wonders, \"Should couples be able to pay a premium on an open market for their idea of the perfect egg?\" She ultimately withdraws from a process she thinks will create \"a child encumbered with too many expectations.\" Cohen suggests that perhaps modern-day Social Darwinists would support egg donation on an open market because \"modern success is measured largely in financial terms\" and therefore \"the most successful couples, eager to pay more, [should] have access to the most expensive eggs.\" What are the most important ethical questions this issue raises? Should the process of egg donation be regulated? How? Discuss in topic 49 in the (gasp) babes conference."}, {"response": 14, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 2002 (19:07)", "body": "I found what I think is a very neat application. If you go to http://www.wimba.com/tools/vmail/showroom.php you can record a voice email and send it to anyone you like. Send one to me! (terry@spring.net) I'd love to hear from you using this tool so I could hear you. I've been reading your posts for so long and I often wonder what the voices behind all the words are like! Tell me how your holidays are going and what you'd like to see more of on the Spring, I'll listen!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 2002 (04:42)", "body": "Hi all You have to feel sorry for the people of Sydney as a big bushfire outbreak, exacerbated by drought moves toward the city and towns on the outskirts. Australia has an annual bushfire problem, but this has been exacerbated by the worst drought in living memory and increasingly severe water shortages, which are hampering fire fighting efforts. The Murray-Darling River has all but dried up in many areas and in others, the \"Australian Nile\" is crossable on barefoot. Much water goes to waste through irrigation schemes, and 99% of total volume is used for power-generation/irrigation and industrial purposes in the M-D basin. As for the fires, well, they have been a given ever since the drought began in June which is the wettest time of year for the area, and the time when the weather is coolest. Humidity has exacerbated the fires by being very low and is falling as I type this. Anyway, if you feel for Australia, go to the Australia subject in the Travel category. Rob"}, {"response": 16, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 2002 (07:50)", "body": "What are we going to talk about today?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (20:15)", "body": "Have to peruse these goodies in the morning when I have more time. John Tsatsaragos is the most wonderful man. He, with his self-taught English has kept Geo alive while I was out traipsing around on the mainland with Geo's resident archaeologist."}, {"response": 18, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan  2, 2003 (10:35)", "body": "I'm posting on the new server. Annyone making it here yet?"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (15:38)", "body": "Looks great terry. I need to see if I can get rid of the holiday stuff and back to the Greek key horizontal bars."}, {"response": 20, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Jan 27, 2003 (02:49)", "body": "Hi all Please go to Geo Conference and visit number 64, where New Zealand has had a magnitude 5.6 earthquake that did a bit of damage. Alternatively you can go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldearthquakes (Marcia, this is the former World Seismicity) for detailed coverage. Rob"}, {"response": 21, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Feb 24, 2003 (11:30)", "body": "Marci made a comeback today and we're glad to see her. She's all over Geo, of course. The Grammy's were last night and there's conversation about them in the Odds and Ends topic in drool, in the music conference, and I made a little webpage for the event at http://www.spring.net/music/grammy.html There's a remarkable picture there of Norah Jones with her half sister Anouska Shankar showing off their buttocks tattoos side by side. The 'inside' scoop!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Feb 24, 2003 (11:31)", "body": "Spring has a new website of interest in the Austin Texas area: http://www.austinmayor.com is about the upcoming Austin Mayor's race. There's a topic about this in the politics conference."}, {"response": 23, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 27, 2003 (10:53)", "body": "Today hot topic, Marc Katz. See http://www.austinmayor.com"}, {"response": 24, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Feb 28, 2003 (09:10)", "body": "Our newest site http://www.austinmayor.com is getting loads of hits but google just won't index it for some reason. Never had this happen before. What's wrong with what I'm doing? I have the meta tags and all in place. And it's linked from lots of other sites."}, {"response": 25, "author": "wer", "date": "Tue, Mar  4, 2003 (14:16)", "body": "What do you mean by \"won't index it\"?"}, {"response": 26, "author": "janc", "date": "Wed, Mar  5, 2003 (11:11)", "body": "Users interested in trying out a new interface to spring.net might try following the following URL: http://www.spring.net/yabb-bin/pw/backtalk/abalone A couple notes: - Your usual login and password will work. - For now, at least, the \"drool\" conference is not accessible via this interface. This is deliberate. - Navigation is mostly through the pull-down menu in the upper right hand corner. - You can flag items as \"favorites\". These are shown first when you read a conference. By default, items you enter are automatically flagged as favorites, and items you respond to are automatically flagged as temporary favorites (just until the next time you read them). - There is a spell checker. - HTML can only be included in responses if you select \"Pure HTML\" or \"Lazy HTML\". You can set a default on the prefences page. - Fairwitnesses and (maybe) authors of items can retitle them. Any user can set a \"private title\" to be shown instead of then standard title. - Users can enter various personal information, if they like, which other users can see. - There are several other different looks that can be selected from the spring.net home page. Pistachio has a good feature set, but is not as pretty. The others are more primitive. - If you notice problems, or have questions, please Email me at mailto:janc@unixpapa.com or enter something in the Backtalk conference."}, {"response": 27, "author": "janc", "date": "Wed, Mar  5, 2003 (11:13)", "body": "Oops, typo above. The URL is http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/pw/backtalk/abalone"}, {"response": 28, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar  5, 2003 (13:44)", "body": "A lot of the conferences aren't working now in abalone and in the other interfaces. You can't access them. Have you looked at this?"}, {"response": 29, "author": "janc", "date": "Wed, Mar  5, 2003 (23:11)", "body": "Which conferences?"}, {"response": 30, "author": "wer", "date": "Thu, Mar 20, 2003 (00:43)", "body": "re posts #24 and #25 above...Google has finally crawled austinmayor.com"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 20, 2003 (14:34)", "body": "Thanks for bringing it up. Bigger thanks for posting in Geo again! I really should look into Abalone if I am going to be associated with it or backlash or whatever it is. Terry, I still can't FTP but that is not news. That my Eudora is jammed and my ISP refuses to unjam it is most worrisome. Outlook express is taking up the job now but I have lost many things people have written to me andI to which I have not yet responded. *SIGH*"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 20, 2003 (14:38)", "body": "Maybe it is just me, but I cannot access the backtalk/abalone website."}, {"response": 33, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar 30, 2003 (11:36)", "body": "It should be working now that we have the bugs out. I'd like to talk about the Open Directory project and how we can best implement it on our site."}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  1, 2003 (01:06)", "body": "Hmmmmmm have we a topic anywhere for that? Please let me know. Despite open chaos here, Geo keeps me sane!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  1, 2003 (01:07)", "body": ""}, {"response": 36, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr  2, 2003 (20:01)", "body": "I'll start a topic in the web conference."}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  5, 2003 (21:05)", "body": "Thanks!!!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr  6, 2003 (10:26)", "body": "Topic started. http://dmoz.org is the home of the ODP."}, {"response": 39, "author": "janc", "date": "Mon, Apr  7, 2003 (11:26)", "body": "Re #32: Were you ever able to get Backtalk/abalone to work for you? The link on www.spring.net works fine for me. Should just be http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/pw/backtalk/abalone If you still have problems, please post details, or mail me at mailto:jan@unixpapa.com . I'm very interested in getting this working for people, and finding out what new users think about it."}, {"response": 40, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Apr  8, 2003 (00:14)", "body": "Abalone is working fine."}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 19, 2003 (17:54)", "body": "Abalone is, indeed, working well. Yes I have been there sniffing around. Thanks for reminding me!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:00)", "body": "abalone rocks more than the others in my experience. bubblegum is for kids, literally."}, {"response": 43, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:08)", "body": "Kids in grade school actually used bubblegum."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:44)", "body": "I remember that program! I think there are sites on the web that still use it."}, {"response": 45, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 21, 2003 (11:39)", "body": "There's a school that still uses it. Or at least they have an archive of it that's still readable. Jan knows the url. It may be on his site. http://www.unixpapa.com/backtalk/ Booktalk is a variation of the Backtalk system developed for the Canton Public Library PULSE system. It designed to be used in schools, with conferences for each classroom under the control of a teacher and all-school conferences shared by all. You can see the original site at http://pulse.cantonpl.org/ . Just download the backtalk, bubblegum, and booktalk packages and follow the installation instructions in the booktalk package to install them. (from Jan's page)"}, {"response": 46, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 22, 2003 (22:32)", "body": "wait a sec--what's this backtalk/abalone business?"}, {"response": 47, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr 23, 2003 (10:05)", "body": "On the Spring.net main page there is an option called \"abalone\" that gives you another interface to read through conferences."}, {"response": 48, "author": "janc", "date": "Fri, Apr 25, 2003 (12:17)", "body": "It's a bit confusing. Once upon a time, before the Internet was invented, there was a computer program called \"PicoSpan\". It was written by an friend of mine name of Marcus Watts. It was used in a number of important early computer conferencing systems, most famously \"The Well\" and was, within a certain small community of users, wildly popular. But two bad things happened to Picospan. First, the company that bought the rights to it from Marcus vanished in a puff of grime, taking the rights to it down into a legal black hole that few would dare to explore. Second, the world wide web was invented, and people started wanting a web interface. In the less distant past, an acquaintance of mine, name of Dave Thaler, decided that implementing a clone of Picospan would be a cool project for his software engineering class at the University of Michigan. I suggested he call it \"Yet Another Picospan Program\" - Yapp. He did a nice job of writing a program that was virtually indistinguishable from Picospan, and started selling it to people who desperately wanted Picospan, but could not figure out how to get a copy. It soon became obvious to Dave that there was demand for a web interface, so he developed a modified version of Yapp that worked on the web. This is the conferencing system that has been running on Spring for many years. Back in 1996, several other systems I used found a need for a web interface to Picospan. Yapp couldn't be used because it cost money and it didn't have a working web interface yet. So Steve Weiss and I decided to write a new program. We couldn't base it on Picospan or Yapp, because that was proprietary code. So we wrote a new program, called Backtalk. It's completely independent from Picospan, but you can use it to read Picospan conferences, because it understands the Picospan data file formats. Unlike Yapp or Picospan, Backtalk is free, open source software. Backtalk consists of a core program that does all the hard internal stuff, and several sets of scripts that construct the user interface - they determine what the pages look like and how the buttons behave and so forth. The are several different sets of scripts, called \"flavors\". To the user, different flavors can look like a very different programs, but they are really all the same and access all the same conferences. The two most mature flavors are called \"Abalone\" and \"Pistachio\". Abalone is the slickest, Pistachio is old-fashioned but more feature rich. There are others that are all a bit half-baked: bubblegum, papaya, vanilla. Backtalk is on Spring.net as a sort of experiment. The theory was that since Backtalk is built to be 100% compatible with Picospan, and Yapp started life as a Picospan clone, it ought to be possible to run Yapp and Backtalk on the same conference database. Arbornet.org experimented with this briefly, running both Backtalk and Yapp for a while. However, the site administrators deleted Yapp after a week, so it wasn't an extensive test of compatibility. The experiment here on Spring has been mostly a success, but it's been rougher than I expected. Lots of very tiny differences keep showing up in the way Yapp and Backtalk store things, and I keep having to iron them smooth. Still from a users point of view, things work pretty well. You can use the various Backtalk interfaces to do pretty much everything Yapp lets you do, but with a different look and feel. The main limitation on the Backtalk interfaces is that they have been banned from the drool conference. Backtalk has only a few features that Yapp doesn't have, so mostly using Backtalk instead isn't going to gain you any dramatic improvements. At this stage it is mostly a matter of taste. You might like Backtalk better than Yapp. You might not."}, {"response": 49, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Apr 25, 2003 (12:28)", "body": "thanks jan, i really do get it now! is that what yapp really stands for? *LAUGH*"}, {"response": 50, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr 26, 2003 (20:29)", "body": "Spring Server is going down for about 10 minutes now. It's 7:30 pm CST on Saturday night."}, {"response": 51, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr 26, 2003 (20:30)", "body": "Final notice, server going down now."}, {"response": 52, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr 26, 2003 (20:31)", "body": "Should be back around 7:45 pm CST."}, {"response": 53, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr 27, 2003 (09:42)", "body": "The system reboot went smoothly and only interupted service for about 10 minutes, we've discovered that one of our hard drives has crashed, the primary one on the system. But since we're running RAID (redundant hard drives) we didn't lose any data. But we're going to have to buy another hard drive pair to replace the defective pair. I'll be talking to Karen about bundling this upgrade in to our April/May/June fund raising drive. We're ok for now, but I'd like to not be running on a single, nonredundant drive for much longer. I'll be doing a backup this evening, so things will run slow tonight. Don't be surprised if it takes longer to pull up web pages etc. tonight because the server will be churning a lot, backing up data."}, {"response": 54, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr 27, 2003 (10:02)", "body": "The recommendation is to get either a pair of Seagate Barracuda 120 gb drives or a pair of Western Digital 120gb drives. Circuit City might have a sale on Western Digitals so I'll check there today when they open at 9. Some Circuit Cities were selling them for $10 after rebates but that sale ended Saturday. I wish I had become aware of this a little sooner! I see CompUSA has them for 79.99 but it's if you buy something else for $150 or more. They have Western Digital 160 gb drives for 129.99 after the 100 mail in rebate so it's 229.99 at the counter. Just checked, Circuit City's 120 gb Western Digitals are 159.99."}, {"response": 55, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 27, 2003 (13:21)", "body": "go to frye's and see what they have---they seem to sell a lot of stuff for decent prices."}, {"response": 56, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 27, 2003 (15:26)", "body": "actually it's fry's and their website is outpost.com"}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  2, 2003 (19:14)", "body": "Just when I thought I was current on things PC, and treading water as fast as I can, a whole new set of stuff comes online for me to learn. *Sigh* Ia m still doing telnetting to keep up my skills. I hate not having a mouse, though. We are, indeed, creatures of habit! Fry's is where I got this much-travelled laptop! On the Outskirts of Sacramento."}, {"response": 58, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jul 16, 2003 (13:05)", "body": "Origins: Another cruel real-life example of the shocking degradation of women, or a big put-on? That's the question being raised about Hunting for Bambi, a Las Vegas-based business which purportedly offers \"hunters\" the opportunity, for $10,000, to stalk naked women and shoot them with paintball guns. According to the Hunting for Bambi site, their business is: More shocking than anything you've ever seen before. Labeled by CBS News as a cross between Sex and Violence a deadly combination! Women are being hunted down like animals and shot with paintball guns. This Raw and completely Uncensored video is a cross between Bum Fights and Girls Gone Wild and is sure to be the topic of many Howard Stern Show fans. You will be completely stunned when you see some of the wildest, most outrageous moments ever caught on tape. This is without a doubt one of the sickest and most shocking videos ever made. When it comes to hunting women if you can think of it we probably show it. Women are screaming with fear as our Team Bambi hunters track them down and blast them with paintball guns . . . Contributing to the public's belief in this venture was a local Las Vegas television station, KLAS-TV, running a non-probing news feature on Hunting for Bambi (complete with footage of \"hunters\" in action) and proclaiming it to be real. Discuss this in the news conference topic 88 Hunting for Bambi"}, {"response": 59, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Thu, Jul 24, 2003 (17:15)", "body": "It's hilarious/sick"}, {"response": 60, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 26, 2003 (00:36)", "body": "i heard on the news today that it was a hoax........"}, {"response": 61, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jul 26, 2003 (02:46)", "body": "I would think so because of the liability issues. Chalk it up to a \"myth\" and a successful publicity grab."}, {"response": 62, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Jul 26, 2003 (07:09)", "body": "Yup, a hoax indeed. Highly amusing, though! Just watch somebody go and do it for real now..."}, {"response": 63, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jul 26, 2003 (11:34)", "body": "you guys need to go to truthorfiction.com if you ever want to know what's up with some of these things we see through the email or otherwise."}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 26, 2003 (12:38)", "body": "There are also excellent hoax sites onlline. I use them whenever I get warnings that \"the sky is falling \" and our computers will be dust by morning."}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 27, 2003 (13:52)", "body": "I have no doubt the paintball project will surface elsewhere. It is funny in my mind to see what might happen!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Sun, Jul 27, 2003 (20:36)", "body": "I'm glad to see a post from you. I've been checking but haven't seen any for a long time, Marcia."}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (12:13)", "body": "Lucie, I am on my way to a new life far from the negativity of Hawaii and surroundings there. More in email !"}, {"response": 68, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Oct 11, 2003 (05:41)", "body": "Kia Ora The Rugby World Cup has begun!!! 20 nations, 44 days for 48 games. Defending champions are Australia. http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/sports/59 Can the mighty Wallabies hold the trophy against the terrifying All Blacks of New Zealand, the roaring Lion of England, the cunning Springboks of South Africa, or the dark horse of France? HEAR THE STADIUMS OF AUSTRALIA ROAR!!!!!! Wait until you hear 100,000 Australians defy the meddling International Rugby Board with \"Waltzing Matilda\". It is truly awesome. Rob"}, {"response": 69, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Oct 14, 2003 (02:15)", "body": "Kia Ora Got to mention the best place to get Rugby coverage at the World Cup. http://www.foxsportsworld.com/rugby The United States is bravely competing. Well done America. Rob"}, {"response": 70, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 18, 2003 (21:47)", "body": "Read about sports drinks in the sports conference. New topic. OK I'll lead off. My sports are basketball, football, soccer, golf, tennis, badminton, volleball and roque primarily. I drink Gatorade Strawberry Kiwi in the plastic bottle and the twist cap. I'm also trying a beverage called \"Trek\" just like the bicycle. Has anyone tried it? It comes in a nalgene (\"I just found out that nalgene is a durable, clear freezeproof, smash proof, rugged type of plastic\") bottle and has of those deals climbers use. What are they called, Caribiners or something like that? I hear it's more common out West, it's rare here. The Trek. I refill those Gatorade and Trek bottles with spring water from Whole Foods in Austin. We don't have our own reverse osmosis on our well yet. I like Mad River \"Red Tea\" and I've heard of another beverage called soy20 that's about to be released. I may have to mail order some, it's not locally available. What's your sport and drink of choice while playing/competing? Gator Ade sure. But surely there are higher perfomance sports drinks. Whatt would be interesting to find out is which one is most nourishing and which one helps your perfomance the most. What is your sport? What is your sports drink of choice? Why? Do you even think about this?"}, {"response": 71, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov 24, 2003 (20:39)", "body": "my fave sports drink is water, for obvious reasons (and i don't like gatorade) but it mostly depends on whether or not i'm participating or spectating (spectating-then a Coke)"}, {"response": 72, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 25, 2003 (11:55)", "body": "Read my \"summer watch\" chronicle of the seasons in the \"austin\" conference, and find out how and why I guage the passing and coming of summer by the termperature of the water in my swimming pool."}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 29, 2003 (18:03)", "body": "Nalgene is the most expensive plastic labware made but is also inert and durable. Save the containers and put lots of water in them. Without a doubt, you need more water than anything else! I thought by sports drinks you meant Mint Juleps or some such,,,"}, {"response": 74, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov 30, 2003 (21:00)", "body": "Nope, I have a bunch of bottles here of Trek, and it seems to really work for running, swimming and just generally working out and staying balanced and hydrated. I need to get someone to take a picture of me holding up the carabiners with Trek beverages hanging off of them. It's a great sports drink for high performance athletes."}, {"response": 75, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov 30, 2003 (21:15)", "body": "http://trekenergy.com"}, {"response": 76, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 18, 2003 (17:48)", "body": "Don't miss Nightline with Ted Koppel tonight. It's about how 9/11 could have been avoided. There's more about this is the Nightline topic in the news or the tv conference. Take your pick. These topics are cross linked."}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Dec 19, 2003 (11:45)", "body": "i didn't watch it but the news said the white house was to blame. what's the point of pointing fingers at who could've prevented it? there was an intent, and they took advantage of whatever weakness they found.....and in their delusion, the event created heroes of every sort."}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:43)", "body": "More 20-20 backward vision. Armchair quarterbacks never miss. How come they are not running the world? It is so easy..."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:45)", "body": "Meanwhile I fly my flag and dare anyone to find a better country in which to live or which to defend. Try taking out the USA with a hypothetical meteorite strike. Who would save the world from the truly evil, then? Think about it!!!"}, {"response": 80, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 24, 2003 (09:25)", "body": "Who would save the world from a meteor? That would be us."}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 25, 2003 (19:40)", "body": "of course... *smile* Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 86, "subject": "Island Ecology", "response_count": 29, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 2002 (21:35)", "body": "This past semester I took a class at my college called Island Ecology. This class was just offered 2 years ago at my college for the first time and is quite rare in other colleges. It was a very challenging class and I have yet to see what I recieved in it. I get to find out on Wednesday. Anyway....the class was very fascinating. I leanred mainly about the ecology and geology of the Channel Islands of California. But I also leanred things about other islands as well that was just unbelievable.....the San Juan Islands, Hawaii, Galapagos, and other islands in the South Pacific."}, {"response": 2, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 2002 (21:48)", "body": "Islands are considered laboratories of evolution because they are isolated landmasses separated from continents by barriers of water. Charles Darwin made a voyage in the HMS Beagle to the Galapagos Islands in the early 1800's. In 1834-1836 he wrote of his expereinces on the islands. He is known as the father of island biogeography and of course also of the origin of species and evolution theory."}, {"response": 3, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 2002 (21:50)", "body": "There are 2 types of islands...Continental Islands are close to the mainland, which makes it easier for flora and fauna to colonize there. Oceanic Islands on the other hand are far away from the mainland, which makes it difficult for flora and fauna to colonize there. But those plants and animals that do make it on to the islands are very rare and unique species."}, {"response": 4, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 2002 (21:55)", "body": "Since my class mainly revoloved around the Channel Islands of California, I think I am going to talk about those first."}, {"response": 5, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 2002 (22:06)", "body": "The Channel Islands consist of 8 islands starting from south and going north...San Clemente Island, Santa Catalina Island, San Nicolas Island, Santa Barbara Island, Anacapa Island, Santa Cruz Island, Santa Rosa Island, and San Miguel Island. Only 5 of the 8 Channel Islands though make up Channel Island National Park.....Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Anacapa, San Miguel, and Santa Rosa."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (01:15)", "body": "JulieJulieJulie !!! *HUGS* Thanks for creating this while I am still on (or back to) an island. I'll be adding to this!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (01:48)", "body": "Oh please do!! I hope you do and I hope Rob does too. New Zealand I would think would be considered an island."}, {"response": 8, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Dec 18, 2002 (16:05)", "body": "WOOOOOHOOOOO!! Guess what?! I found out what I got on in my Island Ecology class........A. I was standing there reading the posted grades and trying to find my ID number. As soon as I found it and saw that I got an A, I just went crazy. I started screaming \"YES\" really loud and jumping up and down. Just as I was doing that, my professor walks by and gives me a weird look...\"Someone is very satisfied.\" he says. I had the most biggest smile on my face and I didn't know what to say. \"You definatly earned it.\" he replied. He's right, I guess I did. I left the building running and cheering all the way across the parking lot."}, {"response": 9, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Dec 18, 2002 (23:11)", "body": "Hi all CONGRATS JULIE!!!!!!!!!! Rob"}, {"response": 10, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Thu, Dec 19, 2002 (01:37)", "body": "I think before I start getting into depth on the Channel Islands of California, I should familarize everyone with some basic words used in Island Ecology. Ecology: The study of the interrelationship between the biotic and abotic elements in an ecosystem. Ecosystem: All the cummunities of plants and animals that live in a specific geographical area. Community: All the populations of animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa that live in a localized specific area of an ecosystem. Population: All the individuals of specific genus species that live in a community. Genus Species: Only those animals and plants which can and do reproduce fertile offspring. Niche: The role that an organism plays in the community it lives in. Competitive Exclusion: No two organisms can occupy the same niche. Keytone Species: Some organisms have a niche that is far more important than any other organisms in the community. Habitat: The specific place or address and all the specific aboitic and biotic conditions where an organism lives. Symbiosis: Organisms living together in some way. Biogeography: Plant and animal distribution. Oceanic Islands: Distant islands that have never been connected to the mainland. Continental Islands: Close to or once were part of the mainland. Endemic Species: Species that are on some islands and are extinct elsewhere and enjoy localized and limited distribution. Autochthonous Endemics: New populations that are now different from their mainland species."}, {"response": 11, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 19, 2002 (19:58)", "body": "First the Angels win. Then the A. What next! You're on a roll, Julie."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 19, 2002 (22:54)", "body": "Julie's unstoppable. You go Girl!!!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Dec 20, 2002 (02:28)", "body": "How did organisms get on to Islands? Well, there is several ways. First is by land bridges. Organisms may have moved to islands by crossing areas of land that were formally attached to the mainland when sea level was lower. The Channel Islands of California may not have been connected to the mainland during the Pleistocene era, about 2 million to 12,000 years ago. The Farallon Islands off of San Francisco Bay were probably attached to the mainland. Organisms may have gotten onto islands by swimming or flying. Flying animals could reach the islands without hardly any difficulty. Organisms may have made it across to islands on floating debris downstream and rivers took them out to sea. In 1955, a live Black-tailed Jack Rabbit was found floating on a kelp raft near San Clemente Island. Small insects and seeds may have been carried across to islands when strong wind blows offshore. There is two other ways organisms can get on to an island and that is by passive transport and vicariant transport. In passive transport birds can transport insects and seeds on their feet and feathers. Mainland birds may have eaten plants and the seeds that were deposited after the bird arrived on the island. Some barbed seeds can stick to bird's feathers or feet. Vicariant transport is a form of transport associated with plate tectonics. The northward movement of land west of the San Andreas Fault is a possible example of vicariant transport."}, {"response": 14, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Fri, Dec 20, 2002 (02:35)", "body": "Island Biogeography Theory The Island Biogeography Theory states that to establish residence on an island, a species must first be able to get on to the island either by vicariant transport, passive transport, air floation, rafting, swimming, flying, or by land bridges. Once they get onto the islands they need to find a suitable habitat, food, water, and must be able to reproduce successfully to ensure the survival of that species. The two factors that influence the number of species on an island is rate of immigration and rate of extinction. These two rates must remain in equilibrium and get to a point of ecological saturation, where the total number of species is maximized."}, {"response": 15, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 20, 2002 (09:06)", "body": "vicariant?"}, {"response": 16, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Dec 21, 2002 (14:13)", "body": "Congratulations Julie!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 23, 2002 (20:10)", "body": "How they got here is more amazing than how we got here. In Hawaii, you have to be sea-borne. Of course, greatoceanic storms brought not only very light airborne seeds but also birds blown off course. Then there are the tradewinds that brought commerce to Hawaii. Flotsam brought many hitch-hikers. Alas, mankind brought the most damaging things on their ships. Rats (though even the Hawaiians had their own on those voyaging canoes.) and little wretched bugs and other amenities of civilization - cockroaches and mosquitoes have enriched the island life. No one can be an isolated island. We each are responsible for keeping the seas clean and the life in the water surrounding us healthy so we, too, may live."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 23, 2002 (20:11)", "body": "Mele Kalikimaka, and Big Holiday Hugs from your humble hostess."}, {"response": 19, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 25, 2002 (08:01)", "body": "Holiday hugs in return!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 25, 2002 (14:55)", "body": "I will be dining today with some interesting people and even more interesting island food including \"traditional\" raw fish and seaweed. How many other islanders can claim that? Ir is sunny and beautiful here and looks like June about to become July. Cool nights and warm days with a little snow on Mauna Kea. Mele Kalikimaka . I'll let you know what we ate when I return!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 25, 2002 (18:31)", "body": "Just had Cornish hen, dresing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. With a fine red wine."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 26, 2002 (00:08)", "body": "Surprise! I spent it online with better friends and left over Chinese food. I'd much rather spend it with those I love and who love me than anywhere else. ...and to all a good night."}, {"response": 23, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 2003 (09:06)", "body": "Topic 86 of 86: 'Island Ecology' Resp 23 of 23: Julie (cascadeclimber) Fri, Jan 3, 2003 (18:43) 3 lines WOW! No one is ever going to believe what happened to me today. It was like I was in fairytale or at least an overratted Hollywood movie. Since yesturday, this heat wave has moved into southern California. Temperatures have been ranging from 80-90 F in some places. I dedcided to take the oppertunity today to go body boarding at the beach. The water temperature is in the mid 50's here which isn't exactly comfortable. But with a wet suit I was able to get in with out much problem. After a while, I decide to swim out more. I was in about 15-20 feet of water when all of a sudden someone yells, \"Look! Over there!\" I look to where the person is pointing and I could see a dolphin. Common Dolphin to be specific. The dolphin suddenly turned and swam right towards me. Sure I had always dreamed of swimming with a dolphin but this kinda freaked me out. I kinda went into shock almost because I stopped treading water for a few seconds and started sinking. I watched with my mouth opened and my body slightly quivering as the dolphin swam right underneath me. I could feel my foot touch its fin or its body as it went underneath me. I watched in amazement as it went back towards the bouy's and out to sea. I was still in shock so I decided to get out and go home. I had had enough body boarding for one day. That was the most amazing, weirdest, shocking moment in my life. ported from the old server ot here by terry"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 2003 (15:36)", "body": "Julie, you have been having icredibly strong Santa Ana winds. How bad it is really? Thanks, Terry! Julie's posts are worth the effort to repost. In fact, Geo is blessed with wonderful people. Each and every post is valuable to the rest of us."}, {"response": 25, "author": "cascadeclimber", "date": "Wed, Jan  8, 2003 (03:40)", "body": "I wouldn't know really. I just got back from San Francisco at 12:00am this evening. Sean was here though taking care of the pets. He said the wind gusts got up to 70mph here on Sunday night and Monday morning. No wonder there were trees down in our driveway! Surprisingly, we encountered wonderful sunny and clear skies in northern California."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 13, 2003 (08:34)", "body": "You were lucky with the winds. I heard roofs and trees were destroyed by the wind. But, if it is like here (Hilo) most of the damagine winds occur at 14,000 feet."}, {"response": 27, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 2003 (07:04)", "body": "What is your elevation? Sea level?"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 19, 2003 (20:49)", "body": "450 feet above sea level. Inland about 5 miles"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 19, 2003 (21:46)", "body": "Oh... and straight line to Mauna Loa's lava flows Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 87, "subject": "geourl", "response_count": 26, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb  6, 2003 (09:03)", "body": "To get started and see a geourl in action click this link: http://geourl.org/near/?p=http://www.spring.net"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb  6, 2003 (09:35)", "body": "Do you want to get a geourl for your website. Step one is to find out your exact latitude and longitude. If you go to http://www.geourl.org/ you'll find a cool world map of geourl sites, and directions on how to get your latitude and longitude. Of course, if you have a gps device, you can just look it up. This address is called your \"ICBM Address\", whoa, sounds like INtercontinental Ballistic Missile doesn't it! The explanation: ICBM address n. (Also `missile address') The form used to register a site with the Usenet mapping project, back before the day of pervasive Internet, included a blank for longitude and latitude, preferably to seconds-of-arc accuracy. This was actually used for generating geographically-correct maps of Usenet links on a plotter; however, it became traditional to refer to this as one's `ICBM address' or `missile address', and some people include it in their sig block with that name. (A real missile address would include target elevation.)"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 23, 2003 (21:06)", "body": "Ahhhh yes! I'll check it out right away. It sounds fascinating. Thanks for finding it. I did notice one place citing resources on the internet for things earthly and such included GEO. I was amazed and delighted."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 23, 2003 (21:07)", "body": "Hmmmmmmm I wonder if I should put the Hilo stats or Louisville *;)"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Feb 24, 2003 (09:07)", "body": "Both!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (10:41)", "body": "YES!!! I still have to take photos of St James Court for you, but it will be some months before I get back there - if not longer. There is a lot of unfinished business both ends need to finish and get out of their lives before it becomes possible. Hilo is really boring. It ranges from 68-80 F degrees every day 24/7/365."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (15:08)", "body": "Interesting home page http://www.unixpapa.com/ Even better links."}, {"response": 8, "author": "janc", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (15:46)", "body": "Glad you liked it."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (15:49)", "body": "You found nothing phallic at my Alma Mater? Penn State surely has one. In fact it is a obelisk. No bells or clock. Just pure phallic. There were lots of comments (all rude) made by students, of course! Aloha and Welcome to Geo, Jan! You honor us with your presence."}, {"response": 10, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (16:06)", "body": "LOL. Some tour."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar  7, 2003 (16:23)", "body": "Look at his webiste and scroll down to the most provacative title. Jan will not be happy with this publicity, but I think it is interesting. Pitt has it's tower, too. I guess they all do! Penn State's was supposed to be made of a combination of all the rock found in Pennsylvania. It is built out of ashlars rather than a monolith as most obelisks are. Of course, the legend attached to it was when and if a virgin walked by, it would crumble. Needless to say, it is still upright."}, {"response": 12, "author": "janc", "date": "Wed, Mar 12, 2003 (17:14)", "body": "If I was embarrassed by the Campus Phallic Symbols page, it probably wouldn't be on my web page, so publicity is no problem. I haven't really been aiming for completeness, and don't update it often. As you say, nearly every university seems to have one. They always struck me as weird. I once exchanged email with the president of a carillon player's organization. He'd wanted to create a more serious web page showing all the world's carillons, and wanted to know if he could use some of my pictures. Well, he can't. I got them all by swiping them from university web sites. This would be a violate of copyright, except for the fair use exemption for satirical works. So it's much easier to have a guide to campus phallic symbols than a guide to carillons. The law is weird sometimes. The World Tour was one of my first experiments with web technology. Had a digital camera, and it cried out to be played around with. It seemed like the natural thing to do, but other people's minds don't seem to work like mine - I don't see many people playing with doctored images on the web, even though digital cameras are so common now."}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 12, 2003 (17:38)", "body": "Digital cameras are the only cameras to have as far as I am concerned. I can do field documentation, download it in the field for the archaeologist I am working with, and he can be sure we got the photos he needs to document his finds or lack thereof. It is fun to do campus tours. I have lived in academia my entire life and it is fun to see the campuses again. They are almost magical places and almost always beautifully done both architecture and landscape. Thanks for keeping the embarrassment available. It sounds like a master's thesis subject - for a psychology major, perhaps?!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "janc", "date": "Thu, Mar 13, 2003 (17:48)", "body": "Yeah, college campuses are in some strange way, all one place. It's funny how the unique traditions of the University of X appear again at the University of Y with only the names changed. But it's not really surprising. The students and professors and administrators at all the universities are drawn from the same pool. They are pursuing the same goals, teaching and learning the same things. It's good. Universities aren't supposed to be insular"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 17, 2003 (16:48)", "body": "Tome, college campuses are the ultimate in ivory towers. Good conversation`, Great company, and bull sessions that go on all night about the most innovative subjects. I cannot imagine better company in a lovlier setting. I was privileged to go to college. I have never forgotten that, Then I married a professor. It does not get any better than that even though it ultimately did not work out. I am still an \"academia nut.\""}, {"response": 16, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Mar 18, 2003 (20:17)", "body": "An \"academia nut\"? Which is not to be confused with a macadamia nut, I suppose. Sorry, I couldn't resist."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 18, 2003 (23:33)", "body": "Ah yes, as I intended you to surmise about the \"'academia Nut.\""}, {"response": 18, "author": "janc", "date": "Mon, Apr  7, 2003 (11:30)", "body": "I can't imagine living in a town without a big university. Though these days my life seems to mostly revolve around babies and toddlers rather than libraries and cafes, still most of the parents ot the preschoolers I associate with turn out to be University folk of one flavor or another."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (18:22)", "body": "I agree with you. I was married for 25 years to a PhD professsor and ALL the people I knew were with the University. Big can be worse, though. Politics going on in small ones are easier to sniff out than the maneuvering going on at places like Penn State. I've been involved in both. Give me the small one any day. However, I will soon (I pray) be a few blocks from The University of Louisville, which is lovely though rambling!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 2003 (18:40)", "body": "Never really made it over to UL that much when I lived in Louisville, did you read my piece on Molly Bingham?"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 19, 2003 (17:50)", "body": "I read your piece on Molly Bingham but need to refresh my memory. A lot has me preoccupied lately... U of L has two campuses and both are BIG and strung out. Your most likely one contains the Speed Art Museum and the Brandeis College of Law. That is the closest to me."}, {"response": 22, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:09)", "body": "Molly is a voice of dispassionate understanding in a time of great passion."}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 20, 2003 (22:43)", "body": "Ah, good lady to know. I will look her up in the morning!"}, {"response": 24, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 21, 2003 (11:46)", "body": "I'm following her exploits in http://news.google.com"}, {"response": 25, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 22, 2003 (22:28)", "body": "*HUGS* geophiles---you guys got me laughing with the phallic symbols, and i thought Disney was the only one with those problems (think Little Mermaid). course, me being the wolfie that i am, didn't notice anything weird until someone outlined it for me *LAUGH*"}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May  2, 2003 (19:16)", "body": "If you want more phallic symbols, look through the old files of Drool when Nan was posting and we were all squidgy about Colin Firth. It seems like centuries ago... Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 88, "subject": "EARTHQUAKE!!!! Part 2", "response_count": 148, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 23, 2003 (19:19)", "body": ""}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 23, 2003 (19:22)", "body": "I should delete that and start over but I don't have the time. Sorry!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 23, 2003 (22:44)", "body": "A magnitude 7.6 earthquake IN CARLSBERG RIDGE has occurred at: 2.56S 68.30E Depth 10km Tue Jul 15 20:27:50 2003 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Tue Jul 15 20:27:50 2003 Time Near Epicenter Wed Jul 16 01:27:50 2003 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) Tue Jul 15 16:27:50 2003 Central Daylight Time (CDT) Tue Jul 15 15:27:50 2003 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) Tue Jul 15 14:27:50 2003 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Tue Jul 15 13:27:50 2003 Alaska Daylight Time (ADT) Tue Jul 15 12:27:50 2003 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Tue Jul 15 10:27:50 2003 Location with respect to nearby cities: 635 km (395 miles) NW of Diego Garcia, Chagos Archipelago 945 km (580 miles) SW of MALE, Maldives 1650 km (1030 miles) SW of COLOMBO, Sri Lanka"}, {"response": 4, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jul 24, 2003 (04:57)", "body": "Hi all Well I remembered Karen has the Drool Conference where there are many Colin Firth subjects with 2000 messages, which points to one of (or both)two things: Colin Firth is a god to Drooleurs, or Colin Firth gossip is the only thing worthy of talking about. But Marcia, please leave it up there unless you are having problems managing Geo because it is a tribute to it's popularity as a subject here. It must be (in my humble opinion)the former, because the second possibility is impossible. Although it is many thousands of messages behind Colin Firth in popularity, I think seismicity has done much to contribute to our life and not necessarily in negative ways. Seismicity many people understandably loath because it usually brings destruction, injuries and scares the hell out of people but our understanding of the Earth would be in the Stone Age if it were not for earthquakes. We would still be having Tangshan size disasters because no one lived in buildings that adhered to a modern building code, building on faultlines would still be okay. There is much to be learned and shared about the future of seismicity in human life, so this is a welcome forum for it. Rob"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 25, 2003 (01:21)", "body": "Rob,this is how I get to all Geo topics. If I loaded them all from post 1, I would never get anything done! http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/88/new"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 25, 2003 (01:23)", "body": "If I feel another earthquake after August 1st, I am on the New Madrid fault system. Tomorrow I will be on various faults connected to the San Andreas Fault. I think I might be safer in Hawaii, albeit miserable!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jul 25, 2003 (05:53)", "body": "Hi all When you say you are leaving Hilo, is this saying \"Haere ra, Hilo\", as in \"Goodbye Hilo\"? I think you just moved yourself to a lower risk, but higher consequence area in moving to Kentucky. I am not aware of fault systems in Hawaii where a magnitude 8.0 earthquake is possible, but the NM fault system HAS generated earthquakes of this size, and would appear capable of doing it again. The New Madrid Fault is not well known and not visible from space (not like the Alpine Fault in NZ where the abrupt edge of the Southern Alps as seen from space marks the fault), so it might be difficult to convince the Midwest of the danger. New Zealand is lucky when it comes to spotting faults from imagery shot in space, because there are several geographical features clearly marked, which on closer inspection could be influenced by faults. The Wairau River in the northern South Island runs due NE from Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes National Park, and is almost completely straight when you look at it on the map. That is because a large fault runs parallel to the river and dominates the geological structure of the valley. This is actually the northern section of the Alpine Fault, and it passes within 7km of Blenheim (population 25,000). The fault disappears out to sea where it terminates. Rob"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 27, 2003 (10:37)", "body": "I left Friday and am on the San ANDREAS fault system now. I will not miss my little part of purgatory. It is lovely to visit Paradies. It is wretched to try to live there like it was part of the rest of the world! If Kiluea is going to crack in half (the crack grows daily) and fall into th sea, I'd rather not be there. The Big Island of Hawaii is long past overdue for another damaging eqrthquake. I am happy to be gone, but I do wish the EQ would hold off until I have sold the house. The good news is that my eventual home in Tennessee (in two years or so) is almost seismically inert."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (12:04)", "body": "A magnitude 6.7 earthquake IN PRIMOR'YE, RUSSIA has occurred at: 47.18N 139.22E Depth 481km Sun Jul 27 06:25:33 2003 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Sun Jul 27 06:25:33 2003 Time Near Epicenter Sun Jul 27 17:25:33 2003 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) Sun Jul 27 02:25:33 2003 Central Daylight Time (CDT) Sun Jul 27 01:25:33 2003 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) Sun Jul 27 00:25:33 2003 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Sat Jul 26 23:25:33 2003 Alaska Daylight Time (ADT) Sat Jul 26 22:25:33 2003 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Sat Jul 26 20:25:33 2003 Location with respect to nearby cities: 270 km (165 miles) W of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia 275 km (170 miles) NW of Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Japan 1275 km (790 miles) N of TOKYO, Japan 6480 km (4020 miles) NE of MOSCOW, Russia ................................................................... A magnitude 6.0 earthquake IN SOUTHERN BOLIVIA has occurred at: 19.84S 64.94W Depth 348km Sun Jul 27 11:41:28 2003 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Sun Jul 27 11:41:28 2003 Time Near Epicenter Sun Jul 27 07:41:28 2003 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) Sun Jul 27 07:41:28 2003 Central Daylight Time (CDT) Sun Jul 27 06:41:28 2003 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) Sun Jul 27 05:41:28 2003 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Sun Jul 27 04:41:28 2003 Alaska Daylight Time (ADT) Sun Jul 27 03:41:28 2003 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Sun Jul 27 01:41:28 2003 Location with respect to nearby cities: 90 km (55 miles) ESE of Potosi, Bolivia (pop 147,000) 90 km (55 miles) SSE of Sucre, Bolivia (pop 192,000) 190 km (120 miles) N of Tarija, Bolivia 505 km (310 miles) SE of LA PAZ, Bolivia"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (14:26)", "body": "JUL 21 013105.4& 30.837S 71.822W 20 4 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 3.1 (GUC). 015211.9& 30.834S 71.828W 20 5 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 3.2 (GUC). 021738.9* 50.189N 142.478E 33N 4.3 1.3 119 11 SAKHALIN, RUSSIA 032126.9& 33.392S 71.343W 54 7 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 2.9 (GUC). 040705.1& 28.335S 71.007W 62 9 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 4.2 (GUC). Felt (III) at Copiapo and Vallenar. 042614.6* 2.757S 68.343E 10G 4.6 1.2 95 9 CARLSBERG RIDGE 042622.0& 36.960N 121.570W 7 12 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. . MD 2.8 (NC). 054032.7& 34.841S 70.927W 103 8 CHILE-ARGENTINA BORDER REGION. . MD 2.6 (GUC). 054558.2& 46.812N 6.790E 2G 40 SWITZERLAND. . ML 3.3 (LDG). 055943.6 1.302S 69.767E 10G 4.9 4.0 1.1 58 45 CARLSBERG RIDGE 061904.7& 40.520S 175.840E 28 39 NORTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND. . ML 4.7 (WEL). 082623.0& 40.070S 175.640E 49 41 N ISL OF NEW ZEALAND. . 100405.7 38.830N 141.643E 71D 4.3 1.2 125 32 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN. Recorded (2 JMA) in Iwate and Miyagi; (1 JMA) in Fukushima and Yamagata Prefectures. 100756.9& 30.557S 71.683W 26 4 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 3.0 (GUC). 104655.2& 17.941N 66.629W 23 4 PUERTO RICO REGION. . MD 1.0 (RSPR). 124658.7 30.758N 41.754W 10G 4.7 4.6 0.9 97 85 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE 131557.4 47.158N 14.324E 5G 1.0 58 133 AUSTRIA. ML 4.6 (ZAMG), 4.6 (FUR), 4.6 (GRF), 4.3 (STR), 4.3 (LDG). 132330.9* 5.174N 32.548W 10G 4.3 1.2 152 12 CENTRAL MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE 132555.7& 18.909N 66.361W 92 8 PUERTO RICO REGION. . MD 2.5 (RSPR). 135359.1 5.491S 148.928E 190D 6.2 0.8 48 120 NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA. MW 6.4 (GS), 6.3 (HRV). Felt at Kimbe. Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 182 km; Principal axes (scale 10**18 Nm): (T) Val=3.66, Plg=4, Azm=289; (N) Val=0.52, Plg=9, Azm=198; (P) Val=-4.18, Plg=80, Azm=45; Best double couple: Mo=3.9*10**18 Nm; NP1: Strike=28, Dip=41, Slip=-77; NP2: Strike=191, Dip=50, Slip=-101. Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 13:54:04.3; Lat 5.67 S; Lon 149.08 E; Dep 192.7 km; Half-duration 3.4 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**18 Nm): (T) Val=2.98, Plg=5, Azm=300; (N) Val=1.09, Plg=12, Azm=209; (P) Val=-4.07, Plg=77, Azm=51; Best double couple: Mo=3.5*10**18 Nm; NP1: Strike=43, Dip=42, Slip=-72; NP2: Strike=200, Dip=51, Slip=-105. 135825.7& 37.950S 176.190E 189 9 N ISL OF NEW ZEALAND. . 141827.7& 32.145S 71.738W 11 17 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 4.2 (GUC). 151631.5 25.964N 101.317E 10G 5.4 6.0 0.9 59 136 YUNNAN, CHINA. MW 6.0 (GS), 5.9 (HRV). At least 16 people killed, 584 injured, 24,000 houses collapsed, 1,186,000 houses damaged in Dayao and adjoining counties. At least 1,508 head of livestock killed. Rockslides blocked some highways in the epicentral area. Felt in much of southwestern Yunnan Province. Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 14 km; Principal axes (scale 10**18 Nm): (T) Val=0.97, Plg=11, Azm=65; (N) Val=0.13, Plg=78, Azm=226; (P) Val=-1.10, Plg=4, Azm=334; Best double couple: Mo=1.0*10**18 Nm; NP1: Strike=109, Dip=80, Slip=175; NP2: Strike=200, Dip=85, Slip=10. Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 15:16:39.2; Lat 26.06 N; Lon 101.35 E; Dep 15.0 km Fix; Half-duration 2.2 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=9.10, Plg=11, Azm=243; (N) Val=0.20, Plg=78, Azm=37; (P) Val=-9.30, Plg=5, Azm=152; Best double couple: Mo=9.2*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=287, Dip=78, Slip=176; NP2: Strike=18, Dip=86, Slip=12. 151926.1& 46.700N 9.800E 5 16 SWITZERLAND. . ML 2.2 (ZAMG), 2.1 (ZUR). 171212.0& 44.024N 6.909E 5G 13 FRANCE. . ML 2.1 (LDG), 2.0 (STR). 174242.8 47.152N 14.378E 5G 1.2 94 6 AUSTRIA. ML 2.4 (ZAMG). 182449.5& 28.417S 70.446W 95 5 CENTRAL CHILE. . 192058.1& 34.633S 70.867W 86 10 CHILE-ARGENTINA BORDER REGION. . MD 2.5 (GUC). 192110.6 6.701N 93.647E 10G 5.2 5.5 1.0 58 177 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION. MW 5.6 (HRV), 5.5 (GS). Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 6 km; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=2.12, Plg=48, Azm=358; (N) Val=-0.07, Plg=37, Azm=145; (P) Val=-2.05, Plg=17, Azm=249; Best double couple: Mo=2.1*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=20, Dip=43, Slip=153; NP2: Strike=130, Dip=72, Slip=50. Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 19:21:16.2; Lat 6.78 N; Lon 93.40 E; Dep 19.9 km; Half- duration 1.5 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=2.18, Plg=46, Azm=337; (N) Val=0.53, Plg=43, Azm=144; (P) Val=-2.71, Plg=6, Azm=240; Best double couple: Mo=2.4*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=7, Dip=54, Slip=148; NP2: Strike=118, Dip=64, Slip=41. 192132.8& 44.486N 6.777E 2G 9 FRANCE. . ML 2.3 (LDG). 192158.0& 32.230N 115.240W 6 10 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO. . ML 3.0 (PAS). 194513.9 0.474S 123.610E 33N 5.3 5.3 1.0 94 46 SULAWESI, INDONESIA. MW 5.5 (HRV). Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 19:45:21.0; Lat 0.75 S; Lon 123.80 E; Dep 36.3 km; Half-duration 1.3 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=2.52, Plg=59, Azm=20; (N) Val=-0.62, Plg=31, Azm=192; (P) Val=-1.89, Plg=4, Azm=284; Best double couple: Mo=2.2*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=42, Dip=49, Slip=133; NP2: Strike=168, Dip=56"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (14:32)", "body": "This REVISED information is provided by the USGS National Earthquake Information Center. (Address problems to: sedas@ghtmail.cr.usgs.gov) These parameters are preliminary and subject to revision. A magnitude 6.1 earthquake NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN has occurred at: 38.48N 141.00E Depth 33km Fri Jul 25 22:13:34 2003 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Fri Jul 25 22:13:34 2003 Time Near Epicenter Sat Jul 26 07:13:34 2003 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) Fri Jul 25 18:13:34 2003 Central Daylight Time (CDT) Fri Jul 25 17:13:34 2003 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) Fri Jul 25 16:13:34 2003 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Fri Jul 25 15:13:34 2003 Alaska Daylight Time (ADT) Fri Jul 25 14:13:34 2003 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Fri Jul 25 12:13:34 2003 Location with respect to nearby cities: 30 km (15 miles) NNE of Sendai, Honshu, Japan (pop 971,000) 95 km (60 miles) NNE of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan (pop 285,000) 140 km (85 miles) S of Morioka, Honshu, Japan (pop 286,000) 330 km (205 miles) NNE of TOKYO, Japan"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (14:32)", "body": "A magnitude 5.6 earthquake IN THE INDIA-BANGLADESH BORDER REGION has occurred at: 22.85N 92.31E Depth 10km Sat Jul 26 23:18:17 2003 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Sat Jul 26 23:18:17 2003 Time Near Epicenter Sun Jul 27 04:48:17 2003 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) Sat Jul 26 19:18:17 2003 Central Daylight Time (CDT) Sat Jul 26 18:18:17 2003 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) Sat Jul 26 17:18:17 2003 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Sat Jul 26 16:18:17 2003 Alaska Daylight Time (ADT) Sat Jul 26 15:18:17 2003 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Sat Jul 26 13:18:17 2003 Location with respect to nearby cities: 75 km (50 miles) NE of Chittagong, Bangladesh (pop 1,599,000) 105 km (65 miles) SSW of Aizawl, Mizoram, India (pop 229,000) 220 km (135 miles) ESE of DHAKA, Bangladesh 405 km (250 miles) E of Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India"}, {"response": 13, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Jul 29, 2003 (07:51)", "body": "Kia Ora What happened to Geo 2 - Vulcanism? Rob"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 29, 2003 (14:03)", "body": "Rob, it's there. I posted a bunch in there yesterday. Hit the \"forgotten\" at the top of your Geo conference title page to see if you \"forgot\" it by mistake."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 29, 2003 (14:04)", "body": "JUL 22 004824.0& 18.682N 66.928W 15 15 PUERTO RICO REGION. . MD 3.2 (RSPR). 021323.8* 19.207S 173.296W 33N 4.6 1.1 187 32 TONGA 024449.3& 44.477N 6.754E 2G 6 FRANCE. . ML 1.6 (LDG). 034225.9* 72.432N 0.602E 10G 4.4 1.1 148 9 NORWEGIAN SEA 035205.1 57.735N 136.285W 5G 3.9 1.3 127 18 SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA 042141.0 15.449S 166.191E 33N 5.7 5.7 0.8 99 85 VANUATU ISLANDS. MW 6.0 (HRV). Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 04:21:45.2; Lat 15.39 S; Lon 166.19 E; Dep 39.7 km; Half-duration 2.3 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**18 Nm): (T) Val=1.13, Plg=31, Azm=149; (N) Val=-0.27, Plg=59, Azm=330; (P) Val=-0.86, Plg=1, Azm=239; Best double couple: Mo=1.0*10**18 Nm; NP1: Strike=288, Dip=68, Slip=23; NP2: Strike=189, Dip=69, Slip=156. 042700.9& 32.619S 70.154W 121 8 CHILE-ARG. BDR REG. . 062117.6 6.763N 93.537E 33N 4.9 0.8 71 79 NICOBAR ISL, INDIA REGION 072439.1* 17.720S 177.317W 100G 4.3 1.3 75 25 FIJI REGION 073128.0& 40.590N 124.960W 11 14 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. . MW 3.8 (NC). 084138.5& 35.015S 71.038W 100 4 CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 2.1 (GUC). 093635.5& 30.717S 71.747W 15 4 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 2.9 (GUC). 095051.7& 33.892S 70.103W 6 9 CHILE-ARGENTINA BORDER REGION. . ML 2.5 (GUC). 104510.8& 44.002N 6.908E 4G 13 FRANCE. . ML 2.1 (STR), 2.0 (LDG). 111404.5 14.741N 54.593E 10G 4.8 1.0 133 28 OWEN FRACTURE ZONE REGION 114115.6& 42.772N 70.023W 11 7 NEAR THE COAST OF MASSACHUSETTS. . mbLg 3.6 (WES). Felt (III) in eastern Massachusetts. Also felt in southeastern New Hampshire and south coastal Maine. 120906.9* 4.256S 133.880E 33N 4.8 1.4 108 15 NEAR THE S COAST IRIAN JAYA 153821.4* 1.890S 68.187E 10G 4.5 1.3 110 11 CARLSBERG RIDGE 170347.3& 44.465N 6.764E 2G 7 FRANCE. . ML 1.8 (LDG). 172210.0* 29.039N 142.328E 33N 4.7 1.2 122 26 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION 172919.5 1.425S 69.784E 10G 4.8 4.2 1.0 57 31 CARLSBERG RIDGE 175147.3& 33.139S 70.277W 4 9 CHILE-ARGENTINA BORDER REGION. . MD 3.0 (GUC). 182018.0& 35.170N 119.010W 21 8 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. . ML 2.7 (PAS). 192832.9* 29.813N 69.698E 33N 4.3 0.8 137 12 PAKISTAN 195912.9& 44.483N 6.828E 2G 9 FRANCE. . ML 2.4 (LDG). 214157.8* 6.579N 93.449E 33N 4.7 1.2 118 35 NICOBAR ISL, INDIA REGION 221915.6& 45.968N 2.910E 3 12 FRANCE. . ML 2.1 (LDG). 222037.6* 10.397N 103.003W 10G 4.3 0.8 217 12 NORTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE golden co usa 2003 JUL 29 11:34"}, {"response": 16, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Jul 30, 2003 (06:02)", "body": "Kia Ora You can catch the seismic activity in and around New Zealand here: http://www.geonet.org.nz - go to the link for seismograph drums (Geonet has a network of seismic stations around the country that are hooked to the national centre in Wellington, which translates the data stream into online drum readings). Rob"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 30, 2003 (08:07)", "body": "Rob, is New Zealand considered an \"island arc\"?"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 30, 2003 (14:03)", "body": "JUL 23 010928.0 50.903N 179.833W 33N 4.3 0.7 130 24 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA 021947.4& 32.333S 72.191W 22 17 OFF THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 4.2 (GUC). 044241.8* 27.464N 101.156E 10G 4.2 1.2 132 8 WESTERN SICHUAN, CHINA 045605.7 38.205N 28.755E 33N 4.9 0.9 87 58 WESTERN TURKEY 050100.1 32.706N 142.602E 33N 4.7 1.0 133 37 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION 082157.0* 3.552N 63.915E 10G 4.6 1.4 113 9 CARLSBERG RIDGE 091513.2 38.357N 73.620E 115? 4.3 0.8 137 21 TAJIKISTAN 102228.2* 51.102N 15.776E 5G 0.6 189 7 POLAND. ML 2.9 (ZAMG). 105230.0& 63.517N 147.200W 1 9 CENTRAL ALASKA. . ML 3.7 (AEIC). 110344.2& 18.875N 65.201W 25 11 PUERTO RICO REGION. . MD 3.4 (RSPR). 115659.5& 44.670N 7.210E 5G 29 NORTHERN ITALY. . ML 2.9 (STR). 124154.0& 19.266N 64.641W 25 8 VIRGIN ISLANDS. . MD 3.4 (RSPR). 124755.1* 12.030S 74.975W 33N 4.6 0.6 190 24 CENTRAL PERU. Felt (V) at Carhuacallanga, Chacapampa and Huasicancha. 132318.2& 42.920N 6.150E 5G 5 WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA. . ML 2.4 (STR). 163837.1 15.550S 13.321W 10G 5.6 5.2 1.0 55 57 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE. MW 5.8 (GS), 5.6 (HRV). Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 20 km; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=5.32, Plg=6, Azm=105; (N) Val=1.11, Plg=84, Azm=270; (P) Val=-6.43, Plg=2, Azm=15; Best double couple: Mo=5.9*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=149, Dip=85, Slip=177; NP2: Strike=240, Dip=87, Slip=5. Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 16:38:43.6; Lat 15.58 S; Lon 13.45 W; Dep 15.0 km Fix; Half-duration 1.5 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=3.18, Plg=2, Azm=82; (N) Val=-0.25, Plg=2, Azm=351; (P) Val=-2.92, Plg=87, Azm=226; Best double couple: Mo=3.1*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=173, Dip=43, Slip=-87; NP2: Strike=350, Dip=48, Slip=-92. 165335.4 15.482S 13.268W 10G 5.2 0.8 55 35 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE 171945.4& 46.850N 6.720E 10G 7 SWITZERLAND. . ML 2.2 (STR). 200705.2 15.630S 13.213W 10G 5.0 0.9 55 46 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE 213056.5* 4.287S 145.045E 33N 5.4 5.0 1.3 94 33 NR N CST NEW GUINEA, P.N.G. 225037.5& 47.090N 7.080E 5G 7 SWITZERLAND. . ML 1.9 (STR). 225313.2? 46.32 N 149.74 E 138* 4.3 1.1 209 22 KURIL ISLANDS golden co usa 2003 JUL 30 11:41"}, {"response": 19, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Jul 31, 2003 (04:32)", "body": "Kia Ora No NZ is not an island arc. The country consists of two large islands and a host of smaller ones either scattered far and wide like the Chathams, and Auckland Islands or coastal like White Island. An island arc as nearly as I know is a chain like the Marianas where you have a string of islands sitting opposite to a plate boundary (marked by a trench - the plate boundary is on land in New Zealand, running down the West Coast of the South Island). New Zealand is a submerged continent of which the islands are the 10% that we can actually see above sea level. If you lowered the sea level to the continental margin, the Waimakariri would actually end up taking the combined flows of itself, the Ashley, and several other rivers north of Christchurch. Cook Strait would be considerably narrower or might even completely disappear and Christchurch would be high and dry with the coast several hundred kilometres to the east. Rob"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 31, 2003 (09:07)", "body": "You are right about what creates an island arc. I had no idea a submerged continent was your bedrock in New Zealand. That should make the possibility of earthquakes much less for you, but that is not the case. You lie on the subduction zone of the Pacific ring of fire?"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 31, 2003 (16:29)", "body": "JUL 24 001646.3& 32.389S 72.179W 26 17 OFF THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 4.1 (GUC). 014858.9& 48.330N 6.660E 5G 6 FRANCE. . ML 1.8 (STR). 020120.7& 35.934S 72.631W 15 7 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 3.4 (GUC). Felt (II) at Chanco. 023422.8* 21.962S 65.810W 262 4.0 0.8 109 15 SOUTHERN BOLIVIA 043656.9& 32.333S 72.276W 25 4.6 23 OFF THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . ML 4.5 (GUC). 045759.8 41.794N 15.480E 10G 0.4 194 13 S ITALY. MD 3.7 (ATH). 053317.7& 32.372S 72.088W 32 18 OFF THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . ML 3.7 (GUC). 053618.9& 32.312S 71.997W 5 13 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . ML 2.8 (GUC). 055832.9& 48.950N 7.850E 5G 8 FRANCE. . ML 2.0 (STR). 071029.5* 16.537S 177.278W 33N 4.9 0.7 126 33 FIJI REGION 071328.7& 38.050N 22.360E 9 8 GREECE. . MD 3.3 (ATH). 073139.7& 43.800N 7.460E 5G 5 NEAR THE SOUTH COAST OF FRANCE. . ML 2.2 (STR). 081725.1* 7.861S 119.923E 33N 4.7 1.4 122 16 FLORES SEA 090248.1 4.555S 102.609E 33N 4.9 1.0 83 21 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA 095503.4& 32.244S 72.190W 26 4.8 18 OFF THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . ML 4.9 (GUC). 100838.0* 33.589S 179.394W 33N 4.7 1.4 251 15 SOUTH OF THE KERMADEC ISL 102316.9 0.124N 124.502E 33N 5.7 5.0 0.9 57 49 MINAHASA, SULAWESI, INDONESIA. MW 5.8 (GS), 5.8 (HRV). Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 66 km; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=5.14, Plg=46, Azm=313; (N) Val=-0.09, Plg=42, Azm=153; (P) Val=-5.05, Plg=10, Azm=54; Best double couple: Mo=5.1*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=105, Dip=51, Slip=30; NP2: Strike=355, Dip=67, Slip=137. Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 10:23:27.1; Lat 0.33 N; Lon 124.72 E; Dep 76.5 km; Half- duration 1.8 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=5.75, Plg=40, Azm=309; (N) Val=-0.40, Plg=47, Azm=153; (P) Val=-5.34, Plg=12, Azm=50; Best double couple: Mo=5.5*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=98, Dip=53, Slip=23; NP2: Strike=354, Dip=72, Slip=141. 103122.4& 38.130N 22.330E 20 11 GREECE. . ML 3.4 (ATH). 114524.3& 49.340N 6.800E 1 4 GERMANY. . ML 1.8 (STR). 115311.3& 32.273S 72.168W 33 4.7 17 OFF THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 4.4 (GUC). 124955.8* 51.222N 15.800E 5G 1.3 196 5 POLAND. ML 3.1 (ZAMG). 134015.9& 32.353S 72.129W 25 14 OFF THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . ML 3.8 (GUC). 143834.1* 51.293N 15.739E 5G 1.6 199 6 POLAND. ML 3.1 (ZAMG). 160418.7* 51.525N 15.890E 5G 4.9 0.5 255 12 POLAND. ML 3.7 (ZAMG), 3.6 (GRF). 215302.3& 38.770S 176.020E 121 36 N ISL OF NEW ZEALAND. . 235402.4& 34.850N 25.700E 5G 4 CRETE, GREECE. . MD 3.4 (ATH). golden co usa 2003 JUL 31 11:42"}, {"response": 22, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Aug  1, 2003 (04:58)", "body": "Hi all Yes. We are just like the US in many ways. Both countries have a segment of plate boundary that is offshore (US Gulf of California and off the West Coast; NZ along the Hikurangi trench off the east coast of the North Island). Both countries have onshore segments of plate boundary (US San Andreas Fault; NZ Alpine Fault). New Zealand has an active volcanic chain through the central North Island and out into the Bay of Plenty, where over 50 more volcanoes are to be found on the sea floor. They are all subduction volcanoes caused by the collision of the Pacific plate which has oceanic crust, and the oceanic crust of the Indian plate. Where it reaches the Bay of Plenty the angle of collision starts becoming increasingly oblique moving WSW as it collides with the overriding Indian plate. A well established Benioff Zone is found there and right along the Hikurangi Trench section of the offshore boundary. Further along still, there is a collision between oceanic and continental crust. It is this collision and chemical change that creates the magmas that fuel the \"Dirty Dozen\" onshore New Zealand volcanoes. Questions? Rob"}, {"response": 23, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Aug  3, 2003 (03:47)", "body": "Hi all Continuing where I left off. Under the South Island continental crust collides with continental crust at an oblique angle, with the eastern SI slipping SW, and the western part slipping NE. This is pushing up mountain ranges in the northeastern South Island by creating strike slip faults with some dip slip, as expressed in the Seaward and Inland Kaikoura's where altitudes reach 9,000ft. Three large faultlines run SW-NE across the northeastern South Island, and are the Clarence, Awatere and Hope Faults. All three have built significant mountain ranges which have short steeply graded rivers running off them, where flood times can be as short as a couple hours. Rob"}, {"response": 24, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Aug  4, 2003 (05:45)", "body": "Hi all Had a magnitude 5.4 earthquake on land in the lower North Island overnight. The earthquake was felt strongly throughout the lower North Island, and was centred 20km E of Pahiatua at a depth of 50km. In January, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake not far away cleared shelves in two supermarkets. The Wairarapa is the most seismically active part of New Zealand because of it's proximity to the plate boundary offshore. Earthquakes tend to be bigger in Wairarapa because the crust is stronger, and more stess has to build up before things break. Further north it is more elastic and stretches. Rob"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug  4, 2003 (19:25)", "body": "This is great stuff, Rob!!! A light earthquake occurred at 12:00:53 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time on Sunday, August 3, 2003. The magnitude 4.2 event occurred 6 km (4 miles) SW of Cobb, CA. The hypocentral depth was 2 km ( 1 mile)."}, {"response": 26, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Aug  5, 2003 (05:17)", "body": "Kia Ora It is. The earthquake has caused about 250 claims for damage from the coastal Wairarapa and inland parts of the lower NI. A magnitude 4.6 earthquake rocked the lower NI later that night and is assumed to be an aftershock, because it was in the same location, but a few kilometres deeper. On average each year, we get about one M 6.0 earthquake on land in NZ. The last earthquake to exceed M 6.0 on land was at Cass in 1995, and was M 6.2 Rob"}, {"response": 27, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Aug  6, 2003 (04:11)", "body": "Kia Ora New Zealand is in a bit of a drought as far as earthquakes on land go that cause damage. There has not been a magnitude 7.0+ earthquake ANYWHERE on land in NZ since 1968, when Inangahua was rocked in June of that year. It measured 7.1 and was strong enough to wake Dad and get him to get under the doorway of the sleepout he was living in at the time. The last earthquake to cause problems was on Saturday June 18, 1994 on a fault near Arthurs Pass in the Southern Alps, when a magnitude 6.7 earthquake (size of Northridge, January 17 of the same year) occurred. Damage totalled about NZ$5 million and caused slips and cracking of road surfaces. An aftershock followed on Tuesday 21 which was almost strong enough to make my school stop work. The day before an independent earthquake with no relation to the AP earthquake measuring 5.8 had occurred. I think most people were a bit rattled. Rob"}, {"response": 28, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Aug 11, 2003 (03:46)", "body": "Hi all This conference by the way, was set up to pick where Earthquake - the Sequel left off. That particular conference is now 1900 messages long and takes forever to open it. This conference is supposed to be part two (I noticed Colin Firth on Drool has 16 parts!). The earthquake topics here have a combined sum of nearly 3000 messages, which is a testament to their popularity. Anyway... The following earthquake has been recorded by GeoNet: Reference Number: 2097975/G Universal Time: 2003 Aug 07 18:17 NZ Standard Time: 2003 Aug 08 06:17 Latitude, Longitude: 38.32\ufffdS, 176.35\ufffdE Focal Depth: 110 km Richter Magnitude: 5.4 20 km south-east of Rotorua Possibly felt in the region. Rob"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 12, 2003 (21:00)", "body": "oh Rob! Just use the /new link and you only download the stuff you have not read yet !!! http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/26/new"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 12, 2003 (21:01)", "body": "ahhhh have new info on White Island. Where would you like it?"}, {"response": 31, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Aug 13, 2003 (07:12)", "body": "Kia Ora In Robs Geo World, would be good thanks. Where is John Tsatsaragos these days, and how come we never hear of his wisdom anymore? Pity that because John has a lot to offer seismology and it was something of a coup to get him posting in here. John, if you see this you are MORE than welcome to contribute. Your knowledge of things geophysical and seismic is a godsend. Rob"}, {"response": 32, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Aug 13, 2003 (19:41)", "body": "I really miss John, too."}, {"response": 33, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Aug 15, 2003 (04:27)", "body": "Hi all. I am very sorry for my long absence. It is due to strong significant changes (good and bad) of my life afterwards my retirement. I am continuing my research even if with big difficulties and a lot of effort. But the new findings and the new scientific questions are so interesting! Thank you for your good words. I am sure for your feelings about me. I will return soon as possible. My kindest regards John P.S. Happily, the yesterday\ufffds (2003Aug.14) big earthquake in Lefkada Island in western Greece (M=6.3) had not dead people. (I had clear pre-earthquake signals on 9th of August.)"}, {"response": 34, "author": "tsatsvol", "date": "Fri, Aug 15, 2003 (04:50)", "body": "Hi again. Here are my pre-earthquake signals on 9th of August (red flashing lobes) and the two epicenters (dark blue spheres) of the significant EQ\ufffds on 14th of August. Regards John"}, {"response": 35, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Aug 15, 2003 (08:19)", "body": "Kia Ora Welcome and good to hear from you. I found this on Yahoo!. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&ncid=732&e=10&u=/ap/20030814/ap_on_re_eu/greece_earthquake In February and March we had a lecturer at Uni talking about earthquakes and he mentioned the North Anatolian Fault, which passes the mouth of the Bosporus near Istanbul. The North Anatolian Fault I know to be particularly dangerous, because it ruptures like a domino set falling over. In the current cycle of activity the NA Fault has ruptured on all segments bar the one that passes under the Bosporus near Istanbul. The 1999 earthquake in Turkey was a segment of the North Anatolian Fault rupturing at Izmit, which was closest to the epicentre. Istanbul has 9 million people in it. The next earthquake on the NA Fault is going to be ugly. Rob"}, {"response": 36, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Aug 21, 2003 (10:28)", "body": "Hi all I am okay. The earthquake was at least 300km from my place, but there were small towns in isolated places much closer to the epicentre, out of which it may be proving difficult to get information, because the news has not reported this earthquake yet. The earthquake is dangerous because it was only 12km below the surface, and offshore, so I have not discounted the possibility of a small tsunami occurring. It would have caused slips on the Milford Sound road, and cracked the tarseal I would imagine. Damage is likely to have occurred in Milford which was probably about 35km from the epicentre, and may hamper tourism. The following earthquake has been recorded by GeoNet: Reference Number: 329009/W Universal Time: 2003 Aug 21 12:12 NZ Standard Time: 2003 Aug 22 00:12 Latitude, Longitude: 45.14\ufffdS, 166.90\ufffdE Focal Depth: 12 km Richter Magnitude: 7.1 70 km north-west of Te Anau Will have been felt strongly in the south of the South Island. Rob"}, {"response": 37, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Aug 29, 2003 (06:55)", "body": "Kia Ora Here is a full account of the earthquake that hit Fiordland a week ago. Rob ---- On Friday August 22, at 0012 hours New Zealand Standard Time, the lower South Island was rocked by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake just of Secretary Island. The earthquake occurred on a subducting slab of the Australian Plate of the Fiordland coast at a depth of 12km, over which a strand of the Alpine Fault offshore lies. This area has a high level of earthquake activity because of the subduction zone, which releases considerably more seismic energy than the onshore boundary does. Near the epicentre it caused over 200 slips in rugged forested terrain all the way down to sea-level. A near-field tsunami with a maximum height of 0.6 metres formed within minutes of the earthquake occurring, which did no damage. Cracks appeared in roads and buildings to the east and around Te Anau, 70km SE of the epicentre where goods were shaken of supermarket shelves, and temporary power outages occurred. With a damage bill of $2 million appearing to be the most likely figure for the earthquake, New Zealanders are generally heaving a sigh of relief that we got let off so lightly. It was felt very strongly in Te Anau and was described as being accompanied by a huge roar like a freight train going past. People in Doubtful Sound dived for cover as they were only 10-20km from the epicentre and a primary school group was trapped by a slip blocking the access road to the sound, from Manapouri power station. In Dunedin furniture shook, loose things fell of the shelves and buildings shook noticeably. It was felt as far north as Christchurch (I noticed the computer table starting to rock, and a diet coke I was drinking starting to slide around). Aftershocks have been frequent and in their own right quite impressive - a magnitude 6.2 earthquake rocked the Fiordland area 2 hours after the first event, and there have been about 25 events in excess of magnitude 5.0. Two days ago there were 3 magnitude 5 events in the space of a few hours, and Te Anau residents are on edge - they just want the Earth to knock it off and let them get on with their lives. Regional Councils across the South Island have leapt at the chance to press home the message that \"the Big One\" - the now overdue magnitude 8.0+ earthquake on the Alpine Fault is still to come. Considering that a same sized event in 1989 near San Francisco killed 61 people, and did about US$4 billion in damages New Zealand was very lucky to let of with only minor damage. Perhaps it was my comment that summed it best: \"New Zealand was very lucky to get off the hook so lightly. This was the seismic variant of the 'Great Escape'\". Rob"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 29, 2003 (19:19)", "body": "John! Welcome Home! I did notice the earthquake and wondered about damage. I relied on your assurance of the safety of your house to assure me that you were also safe. And, I did look at your website. This one happened after I left. A magnitude 5.0 earthquake IN HAWAII has occurred at: 19.33N 155.21W Depth 10km Wed Aug 27 06:24:22 2003 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Wed Aug 27 06:24:22 2003 Time Near Epicenter Tue Aug 26 20:24:22 2003 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) Wed Aug 27 02:24:22 2003 Central Daylight Time (CDT) Wed Aug 27 01:24:22 2003 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) Wed Aug 27 00:24:22 2003 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Tue Aug 26 23:24:22 2003 Alaska Daylight Time (ADT) Tue Aug 26 22:24:22 2003 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Tue Aug 26 20:24:22 2003 Location with respect to nearby cities: 45 km (30 miles) SSW of Hilo, Hawai`i, Hawaii (pop 40,000) 90 km (55 miles) ESE of Kailua Kona, Hawai`i, Hawaii (pop 9,800) 180 km (110 miles) SSE of Hana, Maui, Hawaii 355 km (220 miles) SE of HONOLULU, Hawaii I asked John Burnett about feeling it. He reported it shook him around for about 10 seconds. That must have been the first \"feelable\" earthquake in Hilo for several years!"}, {"response": 39, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Aug 30, 2003 (05:00)", "body": "Kia Ora People in the Geography Department building working on Honours assignments rode out the earthquake in the 6th floor computer laboratory. Things up there are fairly secure though and no one felt any fear. Rob"}, {"response": 40, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug 30, 2003 (14:43)", "body": "0550 August 27, 2003 A magnitude 5.0 earthquake occurred at a depth of 10 km beneath the central part of Kilauea's south flank last night at 2024. The earthquake was the largest on the island since April 2, 2000; that earthquake took place in almost exactly the same place. No significant damage was done, no ground cracks or rockfalls were recognized this morning along Chain of Craters Road, and there is no change in the eruption. HVO's incoming phone system has been out since yesterday afternoon, long before the earthquake struck."}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  3, 2003 (21:43)", "body": "Thanks. Terry. That is the one John Burnett felt. Hilo is long overdue for a strong earthquake. I'm happy to be away from them. Rob, how appropriate for a Kiwi-quake!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep  3, 2003 (22:05)", "body": "High above Earth where seismic waves never reach, satellites may be able to detect earthquakes--before they strike. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/11aug_earthquakes.htm?list89800"}, {"response": 43, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Sep  4, 2003 (05:27)", "body": "Kia Ora The following earthquake has been recorded by GeoNet: Reference Number: 2110611/G Universal Time: 2003 Sep 04 08:40 NZ Standard Time: 2003 Sep 04 20:40 Latitude, Longitude: 45.25\ufffdS, 166.92\ufffdE Focal Depth: 25 km Richter Magnitude: 6.1 60 km west of Te Anau A further (and second largest) aftershock of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake on 22 August. This earthquake will have been felt strongly in Fiordland. This earthquake occurred about 40 minutes ago, but I did not feel it. Fiordland and Southland would have felt this earthquake and slight damage is possible. The earthquake is an aftershock from the August 22 event. Rob"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  4, 2003 (11:50)", "body": "Quite impressive for an aftershock! I hope it did not do more damage. Aftershocks are prone to do that!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  4, 2003 (14:26)", "body": "U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NO. 3-247 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SEP 04, 2003 NEIC QUICK EPICENTER DETERMINATIONS UTC TIME LAT LONG DEP GS MAGS SD GAP STA F-E REGION AND COMMENTS HRMNSEC MB Msz USED AUG 28 010102.8& 45.350S 166.890E 26 5 OFF W CST THE S ISL, NZ . ML 4.8 (WEL). 011630.2* 39.251N 20.580E 33N 4.2 1.6 144 24 GREECE 013626.1& 37.870S 176.330E 167 19 N ISL OF NEW ZEALAND. . 020607.7* 45.601N 26.762E 100G 0.1 118 5 ROMANIA 031922.6 46.891N 13.607E 10G 0.5 162 9 AUSTRIA. ML 2.4 (ZAMG). Felt (III) at Gmund. 044820.3* 49.759S 114.651W 10G 5.4 6.1 1.0 96 79 SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE. MW 6.2 (HRV), 6.1 (GS). Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 17 km; Principal axes (scale 10**18 Nm): (T) Val=1.30, Plg=1, Azm=144; (N) Val=0.25, Plg=89, Azm=267; (P) Val=-1.54, Plg=1, Azm=54; Best double couple: Mo=1.4*10**18 Nm; NP1: Strike=189, Dip=89, Slip=-180; NP2: Strike=99, Dip=90, Slip=-1. Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 04:48:27.2; Lat 49.95 S; Lon 115.22 W; Dep 15.0 km Fix; Half-duration 3.1 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**18 Nm): (T) Val=2.48, Plg=19, Azm=323; (N) Val=-0.07, Plg=65, Azm=183; (P) Val=-2.41, Plg=15, Azm=58; Best double couple: Mo=2.4*10**18 Nm; NP1: Strike=101, Dip=66, Slip=3; NP2: Strike=10, Dip=87, Slip=156. Scalar Moment (PPT): Mo=5.8*10**18 Nm. 053121.7 55.901S 146.228E 10G 5.2 5.0 1.3 76 15 WEST OF MACQUARIE ISLAND 054627.8& 45.300S 166.930E 12 4 OFF W CST THE S ISL, NZ . ML 4.8 (WEL). 063811.9 7.279S 126.102E 414D 5.7 0.8 40 53 KEPULAUAN BARAT DAYA, INDONESIA. MW 6.0 (HRV). Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 06:38:16.4; Lat 7.27 S; Lon 126.21 E; Dep 428.9 km; Half-duration 2.3 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**18 Nm): (T) Val=1.00, Plg=56, Azm=294; (N) Val=-0.01, Plg=23, Azm=165; (P) Val=-0.99, Plg=24, Azm=65; Best double couple: Mo=1.0*10**18 Nm; NP1: Strike=117, Dip=30, Slip=37; NP2: Strike=353, Dip=73, Slip=114. 085941.6 11.374N 85.712W 166D 4.5 0.9 142 44 NICARAGUA 100056.1& 37.460S 176.290E 292 13 N ISL OF NEW ZEALAND. . 125658.4 62.520N 149.905W 33N 0.5 101 7 CEN ALASKA. ML 2.8 (PMR). 135826.6 5.096S 103.420E 33N 5.0 1.1 62 35 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA 150758.1& 45.400S 166.840E 25 6 OFF W CST THE S ISL, NZ . ML 4.8 (WEL). 164829.0& 38.230N 122.240W 0 11 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. . ML 2.8 (NC). Felt (III) at Fairfield and Suisun City. 165151.7 60.100N 150.813W 33N 0.4 154 10 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA. ML 3.2 (PMR). 173332.0& 36.220N 120.330W 8 10 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. . MD 2.9 (NC). 174102.4* 56.096S 143.488W 10G 4.9 1.1 112 13 PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE 183157.2 28.406N 54.098E 33N 4.7 0.8 89 32 SOUTHERN IRAN 203944.2 21.963S 179.535W 566* 5.1 0.8 43 98 FIJI REGION. MW 5.5 (GS). Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 598 km; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=1.67, Plg=70, Azm=74; (N) Val=0.33, Plg=6, Azm=182; (P) Val=-2.01, Plg=19, Azm=274; Best double couple: Mo=1.8*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=14, Dip=27, Slip=104; NP2: Strike=179, Dip=64, Slip=83. 205233.3 6.307S 126.152E 33N 4.7 1.3 96 17 BANDA SEA 205826.6 0.230N 126.082E 33N 5.1 4.5 1.1 73 38 MOLUCCA SEA 213820.0& 40.510N 111.360W 11 18 UTAH. . ML 2.9 (SLC). 220647.9 13.146N 145.238E 61 5.3 0.9 119 90 GUAM REGION. MW 5.5 (GS). Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 9 km; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=2.11, Plg=53, Azm=283; (N) Val=-0.03, Plg=2, Azm=190; (P) Val=-2.07, Plg=36, Azm=98; Best double couple: Mo=2.1*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=174, Dip=9, Slip=74; NP2: Strike=10, Dip=81, Slip=92. 223414.8* 49.735N 18.620E 10G 1.6 163 6 POLAND-CZECH REPUBLIC-SLOVAKIA BORDER. ML 2.7 (ZAMG). 233540.0* 12.745N 145.572E 33N 4.4 0.6 170 10 GUAM REGION 235839.2? 13.01 N 145.58 E 33N 4.5 1.3 153 8 GUAM REGION golden co usa 2003 SEP 04 12:09"}, {"response": 46, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Sep 26, 2003 (06:34)", "body": "Kia Ora \"We will, we will rock you We will, we will rock you\" That was the message from Mother Nature to coastal Japan when a magnitude 8.0 earthquake hit the region earlier today. The earthquake was 36 miles deep, which is it's saving grace, but 260 are in hospital having sustained injuries during the quake. It triggered 3ft high tsunami waves which hit Kushiro. Rob ---- Below is a report from Yahoo on the quake: Strong Quake Injures Hundreds in Japan By KENJI HALL, Associated Press Writer KUSHIRO, Japan - A magnitude 8 quake rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido early Friday, injuring hundreds, cutting off electricity and water to thousands, igniting a spectacular oil-tank blaze and collapsing part of an airport roof. The quake was the largest anywhere in the world this year, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Still, no deaths were immediately reported \ufffd a fact that experts attributed to sturdy Japanese buildings and the quake's location 26 miles below the ocean floor. The quake forced the evacuation of 41,000 people and left some 16,000 homes blacked out. Warnings of tsunami, or ocean waves, were briefly issued as far away as Hawaii and Alaska. The quake, which struck at 4:50 a.m., cracked roads, capsized fishing boats and caved in part of the roof of the airport in Obihiro, a city of 200,000. The temblor, centered in the Pacific about 60 miles off Hokkaido's eastern shore, was followed by several strong aftershocks and small tsunami, ocean waves. The government warned residents to avoid coastal areas, but the highest waves recorded were only about four feet. Hokkaido government official Hideki Domon said 323 people were confirmed injured as of 4 p.m., about 11 hours after the quake. Police said 22 were seriously hurt, mostly with broken bones. Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, put the injury toll at nearly 400. Kushiro, 560 miles northeast of Tokyo, was believed to be the hardest hit by the powerful quake. \"The shaking went on and on,\" said Fumiko Okuse, who owns a liquor store wiher husband in Kushiro. \"Everything was thrown out of the refrigerators and all over the floor. Juice, beer, everything.\" Television footage showed an office where books were knocked off shelves, and desks and computers swayed back and forth as the quake hit. Merchandise fell off store shelves and people sought shelter in schools. \"It shook hard and long and I was very frightened,\" said Eri Takizawa, a city official in Kushiro. \"We have small quakes here from time to time, but this was completely different.\" Black plumes of smoke and flames leapt from an oil tank in the city of Tomakomai. The fire was contained within three hours and no injuries were reported. Police said one person was injured when a local train carrying about 39 passengers derailed. Though not listed as a quake-caused fatality, a 61-year-old man cleaning up broken beer bottles on a street immediately after the quake was struck by an oncoming car and died, Hokkaido police said. A 58-year-old man also died aboard his fishing boat while trying to sail it to calm waters, but local officials said his death did not appear to have been caused by the quake. Most of the injured escaped with minor bruises and cuts caused by glass from shattered windows and objects falling off of shelves. A 70-year-old woman in this Hokkaido city, just west of Kushiro, broke her leg trying to crawl out a window. The quake had a magnitude of 8, according to Japan's Central Meteorological Agency. It was followed by an aftershock of magnitude 7. Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. It sits atop four tectonic plates, slabs that move across the earth's surface. This month, Japan marked the 80th anniversary of a magnitude 8.3 quake that devastated Tokyo and neighboring Yokohama, killing at least 140,000 people. In January 1995, a magnitude 7.2 temblor in Kobe killed more than 6,000 people. Hokkaido is the northernmost and most sparsely populated of Japan's major islands. Sapporo, which hosted the 1972 Olympics, is the prefecture's capital. A quake and tsunami on the western side of Hokkaido killed 230 people in July 1993, most on the nearby isle of Okushiri."}, {"response": 47, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Sep 30, 2003 (07:43)", "body": "Hi all This earthquake hit at 6.22AM NZST while I was in bed. I felt it strongly and there was minor damage reported in the way of loose stuff falling off shelves. Dad was in the shower and did not feel it. It has nothing to do with Fiordland's earthquake last month, but may be a result of last weeks big shake in Japan, which I will deal to shortly. Rob ---- The following earthquake has been recorded by GeoNet: Reference Number: 346668/W Universal Time: 2003 Sep 29 18:22 NZ Standard Time: 2003 Sep 30 06:22 Latitude, Longitude: 43.34\ufffdS, 173.03\ufffdE Focal Depth: 30 km Richter Magnitude: 4.9 40 km north-east of Christchurch Will have been felt in Canterbury and possibly in Marlborough."}, {"response": 48, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Oct 17, 2003 (04:45)", "body": "Hi all A second earthquake (no aftershock)hit the Canterbury coast in the same place as the aforementioned one. It hit about 2.43PM local time and was strongly felt in Christchurch. No damage has been done, though it was shallower than the first. Rob ---- The following earthquake has been recorded by GeoNet: Reference Number: 2128373/G Universal Time: 2003 Oct 14 01:43 NZ Daylight Time: 2003 Oct 14 14:43 Latitude, Longitude: 43.37\ufffdS, 173.04\ufffdE Focal Depth: 12 km Richter Magnitude: 4.3 40 km north-east of Christchurch Reported felt in Christchurch"}, {"response": 49, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Oct 18, 2003 (08:07)", "body": "How close was this to your locale, Rob?"}, {"response": 50, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Oct 21, 2003 (06:39)", "body": "Hi all Thats about 35km NE of my place. I make it to be just northeast of the Ashley River mouth. Rob"}, {"response": 51, "author": "Leah", "date": "Tue, Oct 21, 2003 (06:47)", "body": "Hi Rob Are your houses built to accomodate earthquakes? ie in the foundations etc The only news on earthquakes that make it to South Africa, is if there are damages to whole towns etc, like in Turkey or Japan."}, {"response": 52, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Oct 22, 2003 (02:14)", "body": "Kia Ora New Zealand has a high standard of building design, and relatively low levels of corruption in the building industry. Building codes were introduced after bad earthquakes in the 1930s and 1940s where we had 5 Kobe 1995, size earthquakes or bigger over an eleven year period. New Zealand as a comparison has earthquake activity comparable with California, and shares many similarities to the state that Arnold Schwarzenegger has just been made Governor of. The country gets on average 14,000 earthquakes per annum, but of which only about 150-250 are strong enough to be felt by humans. On average here a magnitude 6 earthquake occurs in NZ every year. How familiar are you with earthquakes and plate tectonics which is the theorem behind how we see modern geology? Rob"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 2003 (19:12)", "body": "Thanks for posting the Japan EQ information. I had seen nothing about it here."}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 29, 2003 (18:17)", "body": "U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NO. 3-331 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NOV 27, 2003 NEIC QUICK EPICENTER DETERMINATIONS UTC TIME LAT LONG DEP GS MAGS SD GAP STA F-E REGION AND COMMENTS HRMNSEC MB Msz USED NOV 20 003350.8& 38.240N 20.340E 5 8 GREECE. . MD 3.3 (ATH). 014727.7& 39.400S 174.790E 216 15 N ISL OF NEW ZEALAND. . 020125.3 24.367S 179.793W 481D 5.4 0.9 38 162 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS. MW 5.6 (GS), 5.6 (HRV). Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 495 km; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=2.66, Plg=25, Azm=69; (N) Val=0.70, Plg=16, Azm=167; (P) Val=-3.35, Plg=60, Azm=285; Best double couple: Mo=3.0*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=128, Dip=24, Slip=-131; NP2: Strike=352, Dip=72, Slip=-73. Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 02:01:30.0; Lat 24.34 S; Lon 179.58 W; Dep 487.8 km; Half-duration 1.5 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=2.81, Plg=29, Azm=81; (N) Val=0.03, Plg=16, Azm=180; (P) Val=-2.85, Plg=56, Azm=295; Best double couple: Mo=2.8*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=134, Dip=21, Slip=-138; NP2: Strike=4, Dip=76, Slip=-74. 021306.3* 20.530N 70.771W 10G 4.4 1.2 94 15 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION 025031.7& 35.300N 23.630E 10 6 CRETE, GREECE. . MD 3.0 (ATH). 031704.0 41.606N 144.076E 33N 4.9 4.9 1.1 132 53 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION. Recorded (1 JMA) in south- central Hokkaido. 040224.0* 10.289S 75.335W 33N 3.7 0.7 164 9 CENTRAL PERU 052721.4& 42.900S 171.660E 9 14 SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND. . ML 4.2 (WEL). 060212.2& 43.040N 0.420W 5G 4 PYRENEES. . ML 2.2 (STR). 060705.5* 50.905N 177.516E 33N 4.4 0.6 228 11 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA 073250.8& 45.310S 166.970E 20 6 OFF W CST THE S ISL, NZ . ML 4.1 (WEL). 095703.1& 45.160S 166.880E 20 8 OFF W CST THE S ISL, NZ . ML 3.9 (WEL). 111411.5? 4.87 N 127.26 E 33N 4.9 1.4 139 17 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA 111632.3& 34.360N 23.560E 5 7 CRETE, GREECE. . MD 3.3 (ATH). 114707.8? 7.44 S 156.64 E 33N 4.7 1.3 211 6 SOLOMON ISLANDS 122432.3 10.015S 111.082E 10G 5.2 5.6 1.1 50 33 SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA. MW 5.8 (GS), 5.8 (HRV). Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 15 km; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=5.56, Plg=80, Azm=348; (N) Val=0.20, Plg=1, Azm=85; (P) Val=-5.76, Plg=10, Azm=175; Best double couple: Mo=5.7*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=267, Dip=35, Slip=92; NP2: Strike=84, Dip=55, Slip=88. Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 12:24:45.6; Lat 10.76 S; Lon 111.03 E; Dep 19.4 km; Half-duration 2.0 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=6.33, Plg=69, Azm=4; (N) Val=-0.20, Plg=1, Azm=272; (P) Val=-6.14, Plg=21, Azm=182; Best double couple: Mo=6.2*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=270, Dip=24, Slip=88; NP2: Strike=92, Dip=66, Slip=91. 125930.3& 45.749N 26.690E 140 8 ROMANIA. . MD 3.9 (BUC). 140502.2 13.111N 93.268E 33N 5.3 5.2 0.9 60 95 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION. MW 5.5 (HRV). Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 14:05:04.2; Lat 13.03 N; Lon 93.11 E; Dep 19.6 km; Half-duration 1.3 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=1.92, Plg=61, Azm=164; (N) Val=-0.19, Plg=22, Azm=28; (P) Val=-1.74, Plg=19, Azm=291; Best double couple: Mo=1.8*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=350, Dip=33, Slip=47; NP2: Strike=218, Dip=67, Slip=114. 142905.0 51.238N 177.937E 33N 4.8 1.0 133 77 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA 143105.4& 38.290S 177.600E 57 35 NORTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND. . ML 4.0 (WEL). 160713.8? 5.59 N 126.87 E 33N 4.5 1.2 138 8 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES 175201.8* 51.107N 178.374E 33N 4.4 1.4 138 18 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA 181900.8& 34.740N 23.860E 5 4 CRETE, GREECE. . MD 3.3 (ATH). 212103.0* 36.381N 141.843E 33N 4.6 1.2 174 19 NR THE E COAST HONSHU, JAPAN 212354.3 51.044N 178.454E 33N 4.4 0.9 214 29 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA 233821.1* 20.225N 70.650W 10G 4.3 1.6 93 5 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION golden co usa 2003 NOV 27 12:04"}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 29, 2003 (18:49)", "body": "U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NO. 3-333 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NOV 29, 2003 NEIC QUICK EPICENTER DETERMINATIONS UTC TIME LAT LONG DEP GS MAGS SD GAP STA F-E REGION AND COMMENTS HRMNSEC MB Msz USED NOV 22 022906.5 19.730N 78.125W 10G 5.0 4.4 0.8 122 147 CUBA REGION 024636.3& 44.425N 6.773E 3 23 FRANCE. . ML 2.2 (GEN), 2.0 (LDG). 033933.2& 45.967N 2.809E 3G 13 FRANCE. . ML 2.3 (LDG). 034340.9& 40.521N 2.096W 0G 4 SPAIN. . mbLg 1.8 (MDD). 062047.4& 28.027N 16.167W 11 5 CANARY ISLANDS, SPAIN REGION. . mbLg 1.8 (MDD). 065840.4& 35.430S 178.300E 283 4.6 26 OFF EAST COAST OF THE NORTH ISLAND, N.Z. . 074816.3& 40.805N 0.829W 0G 6 SPAIN. . mbLg 1.6 (MDD). 093003.3* 13.268N 57.395E 10G 5.1 3.8 1.0 150 34 OWEN FRACTURE ZONE REGION 101253.0& 38.580S 175.970E 125 13 N ISL OF NEW ZEALAND. . 102708.8* 35.007N 140.784E 33N 4.5 1.1 115 28 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN. Recorded (1 JMA) in Chiba and Kanagawa Prefectures. 103609.9& 38.540S 174.180E 12 19 NORTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND. . ML 3.7 (WEL). 112433.2* 13.348N 57.278E 10G 5.2 1.0 83 38 OWEN FRACTURE ZONE REGION 122012.7 51.225N 177.208E 33N 4.4 0.7 138 28 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA 135335.6& 43.994N 7.114E 2 7 NEAR THE SOUTH COAST OF FRANCE. . ML 1.7 (LDG). 144801.4& 45.220S 167.050E 20 6 SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND. . ML 3.8 (WEL). 173704.5& 45.280S 166.850E 20 5 OFF W CST THE S ISL, NZ . ML 3.8 (WEL). 210327.4& 36.818N 3.192W 0G 5 STRAIT OF GIBRALTAR. . mbLg 1.3 (MDD). 220022.5 35.474N 140.863E 52* 4.9 4.8 1.0 118 79 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN. Felt at Kawaguchi. 233224.0& 38.787N 122.772W 4 16 N CALIF. . ML 3.3 (NC). 233826.0& 46.490N 1.475E 2 9 FRANCE. . ML 2.1 (LDG). golden co usa 2003 NOV 29 12:06"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (15:26)", "body": "Central California just reported an earthquake of 6.7 magnitude (preliminary estimate)."}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (17:02)", "body": "Magnitude 6.5 near San Simeon, CA Monday, December 22, 2003 at 11:15:56 AM (PST) Preliminary Earthquake Report Magnitude 6.5 Time Monday, December 22, 2003 at 19:15:56 (UTC) Monday, December 22, 2003 at 11:15:56 AM (PST) Distance from 11 km (7 miles) NE (49 degrees) of San Simeon, CA 17 km (11 miles) N (356 degrees) of Cambria, CA 20 km (13 miles) W (260 degrees) of Lake Nacimiento, CA 39 km (24 miles) WNW (283 degrees) of Paso Robles, CA Coordinates 35 deg. 42.3 min. N (35.706N) 121 deg. 6.1 min. W (121.102W) Depth 7.6 km (4.7 miles) Quality Excellent"}, {"response": 58, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (17:33)", "body": "The aftershocks begin: A magnitude 4.7 earthquake IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA has occurred at: 35.63N 121.02W Depth 0km Mon Dec 22 19:26:07 2003 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Mon Dec 22 19:26:07 2003 Time Near Epicenter Mon Dec 22 11:26:07 2003 Eastern Standard Time (EST) Mon Dec 22 14:26:07 2003 Central Standard Time (CST) Mon Dec 22 13:26:07 2003 Mountain Standard Time (MST) Mon Dec 22 12:26:07 2003 Pacific Standard Time (PST) Mon Dec 22 11:26:07 2003 Alaska Standard Time (AST) Mon Dec 22 10:26:07 2003 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Mon Dec 22 09:26:07 2003 Location with respect to nearby cities: 15 km (10 miles) E of San Simeon, California (pop less than 1,000) 25 km (15 miles) W of Paso Robles, California (pop 24,000) 50 km (30 miles) NW of San Luis Obispo, California (pop 44,000) 330 km (205 miles) S of SACRAMENTO, California"}, {"response": 59, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (17:53)", "body": "How close were your son and daughter-in-law to the vicinity of the earthquake."}, {"response": 60, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (17:57)", "body": "Hi all Lots of emails back and forth on the ELFRAD reflector (VLF/ELF/ULF earth monitoring page). Check it out at www.elfrad.com 73 de Mike AA9IL Happy Solstice to all!"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (18:18)", "body": "2003/12/22 19:53 M 4.6 OFFSHORE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA Z= 5km 35.58N 121.12W This information is provided by the USGS National Earthquake Information Center. (Address problems to: sedas@ghtmail.cr.usgs.gov) These parameters are preliminary and subject to revision. A magnitude 4.6 earthquake IN OFFSHORE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA has occurred at: 35.58N 121.12W Depth 5km Mon Dec 22 19:53:30 2003 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Mon Dec 22 19:53:30 2003 Time Near Epicenter Mon Dec 22 11:53:30 2003 Eastern Standard Time (EST) Mon Dec 22 14:53:30 2003 Central Standard Time (CST) Mon Dec 22 13:53:30 2003 Mountain Standard Time (MST) Mon Dec 22 12:53:30 2003 Pacific Standard Time (PST) Mon Dec 22 11:53:30 2003 Alaska Standard Time (AST) Mon Dec 22 10:53:30 2003 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Mon Dec 22 09:53:30 2003 Location with respect to nearby cities: 10 km (5 miles) SE of San Simeon, California (pop less tham 1,000) 35 km (25 miles) W of Paso Robles, California (pop 24,000) 55 km (35 miles) NW of San Luis Obispo, California (pop 44,000) 335 km (210 miles) S of SACRAMENTO, California The location parameters for this earthquake were provided by: Northern California Seismic Network, UC Berkeley & USGS Menlo Park, USA For maps, additional information, and subsequent updates, please consult the following web page: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_craq.html ."}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (18:20)", "body": "Cosmo's url http://www.elfrad.com for those who like clickable links Thanks, Mike!!!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:01)", "body": "Three (or two depending on your sources) died - so far... in a bulding collapse."}, {"response": 64, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:09)", "body": "i think i felt this whilst sitting in my office...it could've been the boiler room though! kept getting cancelled messages from usgs so i had originally thought the posting was in error."}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:19)", "body": "Hey Wolfie! Fantastic! I wondered how far south it had been felt. I was listening to reports on the radio but the only southern Cal report was from San Diego and was too far away to feel anything. You have joined the group!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:20)", "body": "Wolfie, I also got a cancelled notice from USGS today so I went in again and resubscribed."}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (19:26)", "body": "To subscribe http://earthquake.usgs.gov/products/services.html"}, {"response": 68, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 23, 2003 (21:04)", "body": "actually they kept sending updates and cancelling them so i went to the website itself and found that it was not an error! now i'm watching the aftershocks..... learned that the folks working upstairs didn't feel anything!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 23, 2003 (23:10)", "body": "Some folks are far more sensitive to earthquakes than others. Ask Rob. He rarely feels them. The news coverage makes Paso Robles look terrible. No two bricks standing on one another !"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 23, 2003 (23:29)", "body": "U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NO. 3-357 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY DEC 23, 2003 NEIC QUICK EPICENTER DETERMINATIONS UTC TIME LAT LONG DEP GS MAGS SD GAP STA F-E REGION AND COMMENTS HRMNSEC MB Msz USED DEC 16 004212.9& 43.419N 2.634E 2 6 FRANCE. . ML 2.0 (LDG). 015950.4& 44.438N 6.738E 2 5 FRANCE. . ML 2.0 (LDG). 044744.2& 44.042N 7.300E 4G 15 NORTHERN ITALY. . ML 2.1 (STR), 2.0 (LDG). 062449.2& 38.440S 175.930E 155 38 N ISL OF NEW ZEALAND. . 083310.2& 43.810N 7.360E 10G 7 NEAR THE SOUTH COAST OF FRANCE. . ML 2.1 (STR). 101025.7& 43.062N 0.827W 2 5 PYRENEES. . ML 2.0 (STR), 1.7 (LDG). 104109.7& 38.974N 26.827E 16 4.3 3.4 76 NR THE CST W TURKEY. . MD 4.6 (ISK). ML 4.1 (THE). 104851.0& 45.320S 166.960E 12 9 OFF W CST THE S ISL, NZ . ML 3.8 (WEL). 105156.5& 43.063N 0.825W 2 4 PYRENEES. . ML 2.0 (STR), 1.9 (LDG). 121125.7& 43.045N 0.834W 2 20 PYRENEES. . ML 2.6 (LDG), 2.3 (STR). 122903.5& 43.053N 0.831W 2 5 PYRENEES. . ML 2.0 (STR), 1.4 (LDG). 123308.0& 48.950N 7.470E 2G 7 FRANCE. . ML 2.1 (STR). 200818.2 18.891S 177.344W 377D 5.3 0.8 47 176 FIJI REGION. MW 5.6 (GS), 5.6 (HRV). Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 378 km; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=2.48, Plg=53, Azm=104; (N) Val=0.49, Plg=7, Azm=204; (P) Val=-2.98, Plg=36, Azm=300; Best double couple: Mo=2.7*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=64, Dip=11, Slip=130; NP2: Strike=203, Dip=81, Slip=83. Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 20:08:22.2; Lat 18.95 S; Lon 176.98 W; Dep 387.0 km; Half-duration 1.6 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=3.24, Plg=50, Azm=87; (N) Val=0.09, Plg=21, Azm=204; (P) Val=-3.33, Plg=32, Azm=308; Best double couple: Mo=3.3*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=87, Dip=23, Slip=155; NP2: Strike=200, Dip=80, Slip=69. 212827.0& 44.789N 4.346E 2 6 FRANCE. . ML 1.7 (LDG). 230032.1* 51.833N 173.346W 33N 4.7 1.1 184 25 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA. ML 4.5 (PMR). golden co usa 2003 DEC 23 12:06"}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 24, 2003 (02:28)", "body": "One never knows where an earthquake will happen. This happened earlier in the month ... A light earthquake occurred at 20:59:14 (UTC) on Tuesday, December 9, 2003. The magnitude 4.5 event has been located in VIRGINIA . (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.) Magnitude 4.5 Date-Time Tuesday, December 9, 2003 at 20:59:14 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Tuesday, December 9, 2003 at 3:59:14 PM = local time at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 37.607\ufffdN, 77.963\ufffdW Depth 5 km (3 miles) set by location program Region VIRGINIA Distances 24 km (15 miles) SE (133\ufffd) from Columbia, VA 30 km (19 miles) WSW (258\ufffd) from Short Pump, VA 33 km (20 miles) WSW (252\ufffd) from Wyndham, VA 45 km (28 miles) W (280\ufffd) from Richmond, VA 167 km (104 miles) SSW (210\ufffd) from Washington, DC"}, {"response": 72, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 24, 2003 (02:41)", "body": "Alas, I thought I had sensed an earthquake some weeks ago but I forget the exact day and time. No, surely it was not this ! Just my imagination."}, {"response": 73, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 24, 2003 (09:49)", "body": "Neverland got hit by a quake. Arnold is on the scene at the worst devastated areas in Calif."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 25, 2003 (19:38)", "body": "Do you think it is Judgement Day in Neverland? That places gives off very bad vibes for me. Arnold, no matter what you think of him, gets lots of press! We saw him on the news, too"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 25, 2003 (20:10)", "body": "U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NO. 3-359 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY DEC 25, 2003 NEIC QUICK EPICENTER DETERMINATIONS UTC TIME LAT LONG DEP GS MAGS SD GAP STA F-E REGION AND COMMENTS HRMNSEC MB Msz USED DEC 18 002242.0& 37.795N 122.221W 10 9 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA. . ML 3.1 (NC). Felt (III) at Alameda, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Hayward, Pacifica, Oakland, San Bruno and San Leandro; (II) at Albany, Daly City, Moraga, Orinda, Pleasant Hill, Richmond, San Francisco and South San Francisco. 002623.9 18.868N 81.512W 33N 4.4 0.8 79 34 CAYMAN ISLANDS REGION. ML 4.9 (SNCC). 042230.2* 50.147N 18.544E 5G 1.5 162 10 POLAND. ML 2.9 (ZAMG). 053328.4* 22.973N 121.030E 10G 4.8 1.4 118 21 TAIWAN REGION. ML 4.8 (TAP). Recorded (4 TAP) in T'ai- tung; (2 TAP) in Kao-hsiung; (1 TAP) in Hua- lien Counties. 054157.5 6.278S 151.341E 53D 5.6 1.0 78 128 NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA. MW 5.9 (HRV), 5.8 (GS). Moment Tensor (GS): Dep 49 km; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=6.52, Plg=66, Azm=270; (N) Val=-0.49, Plg=23, Azm=71; (P) Val=-6.03, Plg=7, Azm=164; Best double couple: Mo=6.3*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=278, Dip=43, Slip=125; NP2: Strike=54, Dip=56, Slip=62. Centroid, Moment Tensor (HRV): Centroid origin time 05:42:00.6; Lat 6.33 S; Lon 151.71 E; Dep 15.0 km Fix; Half- duration 2.0 sec; Principal axes (scale 10**17 Nm): (T) Val=8.10, Plg=16, Azm=144; (N) Val=0.10, Plg=9, Azm=237; (P) Val=-8.20, Plg=72, Azm=356; Best double couple: Mo=8.2*10**17 Nm; NP1: Strike=221, Dip=30, Slip=-108; NP2: Strike=62, Dip=61, Slip=-80. 092641.2* 39.680N 141.941E 94? 4.3 0.3 211 10 EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN 130825.8% 47.166N 10.665E 10G 0.3 201 5 AUSTRIA. ML 2.4 (ZAMG). 144915.0& 37.306N 122.073W 5 6 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA. . MD 2.8 (NC). Felt (III) at Cupertino, Saratoga and San Jose; (II) at Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. 163746.2 51.900N 142.954E 10G 4.7 0.7 123 38 SAKHALIN, RUSSIA 192859.2& 44.490N 7.300E 5G 4 NORTHERN ITALY. . ML 2.1 (STR). 200603.3 43.961N 141.018E 219* 4.3 1.2 136 25 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION 212637.0 43.071N 146.430E 33N 5.0 4.5 0.7 134 104 KURIL ISLANDS. Recorded (2 JMA) in eastern Hokkaido. 214602.8 7.139S 129.742E 33N 5.1 0.6 82 48 KEPULAUAN BABAR, INDONESIA golden co usa 2003 DEC 25 12:07"}, {"response": 76, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 26, 2003 (20:55)", "body": "Deadly Earthquake Jolts City in Southeast Iran By NAZILA FATHI EHRAN, Iran, Dec. 26 \ufffd A powerful earthquake rocked the ancient city of Bam in southeastern Iran today, destroying 70 to 90 percent of the city's residential areas and leaving officials fearing thousands of people had been killed or injured. Iran's government news service, the Islamic Republic News Agency, said that the earthquake's magnitude had been measured at 6.3; the United States Geological Survey put it at 6.7, though such estimates are often revised after greater study of the seismological data.\" The good news is that the neighboring Iranian cities of Wham, Thankew and Ma'am were all spared. Further details at: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/26/international/26CND-QUAKE.html It was on the CBS Evening News. They said thousands injured and dead. I'm sure we'll be talking about this one."}, {"response": 77, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Dec 27, 2003 (06:43)", "body": "Frantic Hunt for Iran Quake Survivors, 20,000 Dead Dec 26, 8:46 PM (ET) By Parisa Hafezi BAM, Iran (Reuters) - Survivors of an earthquake that devastated Iran's ancient Silk Road city of Bam, killing more than 20,000 people, dug frantically with bare hands through the night early on Saturday for anyone buried alive. President Bush, who once branded Iran part of an \"axis of evil\" for allegedly developing weapons of mass destruction, and other world leaders rushed to offer whatever help they could to the Islamic Republic. The pre-dawn quake on Friday also injured some 50,000 people, government officials said. It measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and struck when most people were still asleep in their homes. About 70 per cent of Bam, a popular tourist spot some 600 miles southeast of the capital Tehran with an historic citadel and other centuries-old buildings, was leveled. Reuters witnesses in Bam said hundreds of corpses were bundled into trucks and the back seats of cars. Distraught relatives wailed next to bodies wrapped in blankets. more at http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/245963|top|12-26-2003::20:51|reuters.html and a whole slew of links at http://spring.net/geo/iranquake.html"}, {"response": 78, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 30, 2003 (10:01)", "body": "Estimates put the dead at around 50,000 and between 10,000 to 30,000 injured. BBC news said we had a C-130 in the air out of Kuwait within hours and so far we have landed seven C-130s loaded with supplies and we have sent medical teams. Lists organizations giving aid: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3808904/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3350583.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3351121.stm Photos: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/photo_gallery/3349563.stm The Guardian has a comprehensive Special Report: http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1113104,00.html"}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 22, 2004 (17:45)", "body": "I'm not quite sure where to put this: Lost world mapped by scientists A prehistoric lost world deep under the North Sea where man once hunted animals has been mapped by scientists with the help of earthquake data. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_866343.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology"}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 22, 2004 (17:47)", "body": "Those latest earthquakes were not as intense as others, but have happened where dwellings are poorly built. It is truly tragic and will continue to happen. Thanks for posting it, Terry."}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 20, 2004 (16:01)", "body": "U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NO. 4-111 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY APR 20, 2004 NEIC/WDCS-D QUICK EPICENTER DETERMINATIONS UTC TIME LAT LONG DEP GS MAGS Q SD GAP STA F-E REGION AND COMMENTS HRMNSEC MB Msz USED APR 13 001733.6 1.676N 100.948W 10G 4.7 A 0.7 206 47 GALAPAGOS TRIPLE JUNCTION REGION 015100.0& 46.980N 114.310W 18 28 WESTERN MONTANA. . ML 3.0 (BUT). 033439.1& 31.273S 71.416W 74 4 NR CST CEN CHILE. . 034203.3& 30.600S 69.345W 1 4 CHILE-ARGENTINA BORDER REGION. . ML 2.7 (GUC). 035158.9 22.543S 169.736E 10G 5.4 5.1 A 0.9 96 96 SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS 041045.8& 30.701S 71.656W 30 4 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . ML 2.3 (GUC). 045953.5& 34.736S 72.479W 24 20 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . ML 4.3 (GUC). Felt (IV) at Iloca, Lincanten and Vichuquen. 052453.9& 29.474S 71.541W 34 5 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . ML 2.9 (GUC). 085833.9& 30.953S 71.704W 29 16 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . ML 4.3 (GUC). 102208.7 7.348S 128.706E 105 5.3 A 0.8 117 67 KEPULAUAN BARAT DAYA, IND. 112436.2 15.596S 173.885W 98D 4.9 A 0.8 116 99 TONGA 145605.8 51.458N 170.363W 46D 4.5 A 1.4 114 67 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA 162340.0& 44.749N 110.946W 6 9 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING. . ML 2.5 (BUT). MD 2.3 (SLC). 175707.1* 63.044N 144.103W 10G B 1.4 141 11 CENTRAL ALASKA. ML 3.2 (AEIC), 3.1 (PMR). 201051.0& 44.752N 110.945W 7 9 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING. . ML 2.5 (BUT), 2.4 (SLC). 214723.0& 40.729N 31.629E 5 4.1 86 WESTERN TURKEY. . ML 4.6 (ISK). Four people injured jumping from buildings in the Bolu area. 225407.3& 32.130S 71.672W 50 10 NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE. . MD 2.6 (GUC). golden co usa 2004 APR 20 11:07"}, {"response": 82, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Apr 29, 2004 (17:45)", "body": "Strong Quake Predicted to Hit Desert By Sept. 5 * Scientific Team's Work Gets Qualified Backing From State Panel A team of scientists that predicts that a quake with a magnitude of 6.4 or greater will occur somewhere in the Southern California desert by Sept. 5 has received a qualified endorsement from a state earthquake council. The California Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council, a group of eight scientists selected by the state Office of Emergency Services, said it considers the new prediction by the UCLA team to be \"a legitimate approach in earthquake prediction research.\" Still, the council pointed out in a report to the state that \"the physical basis for the prediction has not been substantiated.\" UCLA team, headed by Vladimir Keilis-Borok, has generated interest in its prediction after it successfully forecast -- although with wide parameters in place and time -- the magnitude-6.5 San Simeon quake of Dec. 22, as well as an 8.1 quake last year off Japan's Hokkaido island. Based on its analysis, the team claims that a quake will occur somewhere within a 12,000-square-mile area east of L.A. by early September. ----- Full article (registration required) at latimes.com:"}, {"response": 83, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, May  1, 2004 (23:57)", "body": "Is anyone going to watch \"10.5\" tomorrow night. http://nbc.com/10.5 The four-hour drama intertwines the professional and personal dilemmas of multiple characters caught up in the seismic crisis, among them Kim Delaney (search) as quake expert Samantha Hill and Beau Bridges (search) as President Paul Hollister. Schneider was expert behind the wheel of the General Lee, the souped-up car of \"The Dukes of Hazzard,\" (search) so it's no surprise that in this miniseries, he did his own stunt work for a harrowing sequence where his vehicle sinks into the earth. Schneider plays Jonathon Kent on Smallville."}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 2004 (21:58)", "body": "They are winding up for another seige of strong quakes: 25JUL2004 MW=7.2 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA"}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 2004 (22:08)", "body": "I missed 10.5. How was it? Since I have heard nothing since its initial showing, I would guess it was not a particularly memorable movie."}, {"response": 86, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 2004 (15:07)", "body": "Tremor felt in Greek capital during Olympics (08-24) 07:22 PDT ATHENS, Greece (AP) A small earthquake rattled some Olympic venues Tuesday. There were no reports of injuries or damage. The Athens Geodynamic Institute said the tremor had a preliminary magnitude of 4.5 and occurred at 3:38 p.m. local time. It was centered about 42 miles northeast of Athens, 12 miles beneath the Aegean Sea. \"There is no reason to panic. It was a very small quake,\" said Giorgos Stavrakakis, a seismologist with the Geodynamic Institute. The press table shook at the baseball venue at the Helliniko Complex near the coastline. \"Like somebody was pounding the keyboard too hard,\" one reporter said. Other said they didn't notice anything. Venues including the Olympic Village and the 9,000-seat Ano Liossia Olympic Hall for wrestling and judo were built near the fault line and designed to withstand a potentially massive quake. International Olympic Committee took the unprecedented step of buying insurance in case the games were called off due to terrorism or natural disasters, such as earthquakes. Earthquakes are common in Greece, one of the most seismically active countries in Europe. In 1999, a 5.9-magnitude quake near Athens killed 143 people, injured about 2,000 and left thousands more homeless. An earthquake also hit Nagano, Japan, during the 1998 Winter Games, jolting athletes and spectators but causing no major damage. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/08/24/sports1004EDT0340.DTL"}, {"response": 87, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Aug 28, 2004 (22:15)", "body": "wow, thanks for posting that Cheryl. the AM is back in Cali and i am worried about the big one supposed to hit by Sept 5 (although we all know how reliable predictions are)."}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:16)", "body": "There have been several sizeable quakes in Greece lately. I have heard of nothing bad happening which is a good thing. California has had two strong quakes near Parkfield where the San Andreas Fault has made life difficult before. They are warning of aftershocks. == AFTERSHOCK PROBABILITY REPORT == Southern California Seismic Network (TriNet) operated by Caltech and USGS Version 1: This report supersedes any earlier probability reports about this event. MAINSHOCK - Magnitude : 5.0 Ml Time : 29 Sep 2004 03:54:53 PM PDT : 29 Sep 2004 22:54:53 UTC Coordinates : 35 deg. 23.31 min. N, 118 deg. 37.24 min. W Event ID : 14095628 STRONG AFTERSHOCKS (Magnitude 5 and larger) - At this time (17 hours after the mainshock) the probability of a strong and possibly damaging aftershock IN THE NEXT 7 DAYS is less than 10 PERCENT. EARTHQUAKES LARGER THAN THE MAINSHOCK - Most likely, the recent mainshock will be the largest in the sequence. However, there is a small chance (APPROXIMATELY 5 TO 10 PERCENT) of an earthquake equal to or larger than this mainshock in the next 7 days. WEAK AFTERSHOCKS (Magnitude 3 to 5) - In addition, up to approximately 10 SMALL AFTERSHOCKS are expected in the same 7-DAY PERIOD and may be felt locally. This probability report is based on the statistics of aftershocks typical for California. This is not an exact prediction, but only a rough guide to expected aftershock activity. This probability report may be revised as more information becomes available. Background Information About Aftershocks Like most earthquakes, the recent earthquake is expected to be followed by numerous aftershocks. Aftershocks are additional earthquakes that occur after the mainshock and in the same geographic area. Usually, aftershocks are smaller than the mainshock, but occasionally an aftershock may be strong enough to be felt widely throughout the area and may cause additional damage, particularly to structures already weakened in the mainshock. As a rule of thumb, aftershocks of magnitude 5 and larger are considered potentially damaging. Aftershocks are most common immediately after the mainshock; their average number per day decreases rapidly as time passes. Aftershocks are most likely to be felt in the first few days after the mainshock, but may be felt weeks, months, or even years afterwards. In general, the larger the mainshock, the longer its aftershocks will be felt. Aftershocks tend to occur near the mainshock, but the exact geographic pattern of the aftershocks varies from earthquake to earthquake and is not predictable. The larger the mainshock, the larger the area of aftershocks. While there is no \"hard\" cutoff distance beyond which an earthquake is totally incapable of triggering an aftershock, the vast majority of aftershocks are located close to the mainshock. As a rule of thumb, a magnitude 6 mainshock may have aftershocks up to 10 to 20 miles away, while a magnitude 7 mainshock may have aftershocks as far as 30 to 50 miles away."}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:16)", "body": "Then, of course, there is Mount St Helens... continued on Geo 88..."}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:17)", "body": "not 88 I find... see you at Geo 74"}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:29)", "body": "My relatives there did not feel it but sent the following: From CNN: Parkfield Quake Preliminary magnitude of 5.9 Tuesday, September 28, 2004 Posted: 1:50 PM EDT (1750 GMT) PARKFIELD, California (AP) -- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 struck central California on Tuesday and was felt as far north as San Francisco and Sacramento, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. An aftershock of 5.0 magnitude struck four minutes later. Police said there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. In nearby Redwood City, the quake delayed the murder trial of Scott Peterson after a juror reported feeling the tremors. Thousands of people from throughout the state reported feeling the quake. \"It rattled everything hanging on the walls and the chandelier was swinging. It didn't do any damage to our house. There were two shakers, one right after the other,\" said Ben Brown, who lives in Paso Robles. The earthquake, which struck at 10:15 a.m. (1715 GMT) was centered 9 miles (14 kilometers) south of Parkfield and 17 miles (27 kilometers) north east of Paso Robles, scene of an earthquake that killed two people in December 2003. Parkfield, located on the San Andreas fault, is known as the earthquake capital of California."}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 16, 2004 (15:12)", "body": "Powerful earthquake rocks Taiwan and southern Japan Fri Oct 15, 6:19 AM ET TAIPEI (AFP) - A powerful earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale shook Taiwan, sparkling several fires and prompting people to flee swaying high-rise buildings but causing no serious damage. Photo AFP Photo The quake led to a dozen technicians being trapped in elevators of the world's tallest building, Taipei 101, for several minutes but the 508-metre (1,666-feet) structure remained intact, passing a key safety test. The earthquake struck shortly after noon (0408 GMT) and was also felt in Japan's southern Okinawa chain, where the Meteorological Agency said it measured 6.6 on the Richter Scale. Neither Taiwan nor Okinawa reported serious injuries or damage from the tremor, which was located at sea some 109 kilometres (68 miles) off Taiwan's northeastern coast. Its focus was 58 kilometres below sea more... mms://eyenet.wm.llnwd.net/eyenet_livenews1"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 16, 2004 (15:13)", "body": "The link for the above article is http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1540&ncid=1540&e=1&u=/afp/20041015/sc_afp/taiwan_quake_041015101920 Sorry for this error."}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 24, 2004 (13:38)", "body": "Great Australian Quake CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's southern state of Tasmania was rocked by the world's largest earthquake in three-and-a-half years when it struck under the sea half way between Australia and Antarctica on Friday, seismologists said. No injuries or damage were reported. The earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale hit near Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean, more than 500 miles southeast of Tasmania, at about 2 a.m., said Geoscience Australia seismologist Cvetan Sinadinovski. \"Usually this kind of earthquake happens every three to four years in the world, it is just a part of the dynamic cycle of the earth,\" Sinadinovski told Reuters. The earthquake could have caused a tsunami, but no noticeable changes in water levels had been reported in Tasmania or New Zealand, Sinadinovski said. An aftershock measuring 6.1 hit at 6.50 a.m., he said. \"The last earthquake of similar magnitude in the Macquarie Rise region was in 1924. The magnitude of that earthquake was 7.5,\" Sinadinovski said. It is the largest earthquake to hit since more than 120 people were killed in Peru when an earthquake measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale struck less than 125 miles off the coast of the South American nation in June 2001. The Richter scale measures the magnitude of an earthquake with a reading of more than 8 regarded as a \"great\" earthquake that can cause serious damage over several hundred kilometers and a reading of less than 2 considered micro. Geoscience Australia said an earthquake measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale releases energy equivalent to about 10,000 atom bombs like the one that destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima in World War II."}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 2004 (11:53)", "body": "Just when you thought that Australian earthquakes couldn't get any worse: JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and southeast Asia on Sunday, killing more than 7,000 people in six countries. Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high that swept across the Bay of Bengal, unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. In Sri Lanka, 1,000 miles west of the epicenter, more than 3,000 people were killed, the country's top police official said. At least 1,870 died in Indonesia, and 1,900 along the southern coasts of India. At least 198 were confirmed dead in Thailand, 42 in Malaysia and 2 in Bangladesh. But officials expected the death toll to rise dramatically, with hundreds reported missing and all communications cut off to Sumatran towns closest to the epicenter. Hundreds of bodies were found on various beaches along India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, and more were expected to be washed in by the sea, officials said. The rush of waves brought to sudden disaster to people carrying out their daily activities on the ocean's edge: Sunbathers on the beaches of the Thai resort of Phuket were washed away; a group of 32 Indians - including 15 children - were killed while taking a ritual Hindu bath to mark the full moon day; fishing boats, with their owners clinging to their sides, were picked up by the waves and tossed away. ``All the planet is vibrating'' from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation. more... http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0100&id=2004122610130001600764"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 2004 (12:15)", "body": "2004 12/26 04:21 M 7.3 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION Z= 10km 6.90N 92.95E This information is provided by the USGS National Earthquake Information Center. These parameters are preliminary and subject to revision. A magnitude 7.3 earthquake IN THE NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION has occurred at: 6.90N 92.95E Depth 10km Sun Dec 26 04:21:26 2004 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Sun Dec 26 04:21:26 2004 Time Near Epicenter Sun Dec 26 09:51:26 2004 Eastern Standard Time (EST) Sat Dec 25 23:21:26 2004 Central Standard Time (CST) Sat Dec 25 22:21:26 2004 Mountain Standard Time (MST) Sat Dec 25 21:21:26 2004 Pacific Standard Time (PST) Sat Dec 25 20:21:26 2004 Alaska Standard Time (AST) Sat Dec 25 19:21:26 2004 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Sat Dec 25 18:21:26 2004 Location with respect to nearby cities: 130 km (80 miles) SSW of Misha, Nicobar Islands, India (pop N/A) 305 km (190 miles) WNW of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia 1125 km (690 miles) SW of BANGKOK, Thailand 2910 km (1810 miles) SE of NEW DELHI, Delhi, India For maps, additional information, and subsequent updates, please consult: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/ussmax.htm ."}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 2004 (17:25)", "body": "Expert Sees More Aftershocks But No Killer Quake WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Strong aftershocks from the Indonesian earthquake will be felt for \"weeks and months\" but more killer-magnitude tremblers and deadly tsunamis were unlikely, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey said on Wednesday. Waverly Person, a USGS director, said he anticipates repeated and at times powerful aftershocks that will spread from the epicenter of Sunday's quake in the Indian Ocean off Sumatra along a line about 600 miles long. \"I don't think there's any chance of a major earthquake of (magnitude 9) but there will be continued strong aftershocks,\" he told Reuters from USGS headquarters in Golden, Colorado. He said USGS seismologists were aware of two quakes of magnitude 6.0 that struck on Wednesday alone. The largest aftershock at 7.5 magnitude occurred, he said, about 3.5 hours after Sunday's main quake, the world's most powerful in 40 years that set off tsunamis that barreled across the Indian Ocean before striking coastal areas in south and Southeast Asia. more... http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=7201158"}, {"response": 98, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Dec 31, 2004 (15:51)", "body": "but those aftershocks can produce more tsunamis?"}, {"response": 99, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2005 (10:36)", "body": "Quake rattles Sulawesi. Sulawesi is in Indonesia, about 30 homes were damaged."}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2005 (20:54)", "body": "Any earthquake has the potential of creating a tsunami. Some aftershocks are stronger than the original event. Interesting data at this link gives the changes to the whole earth from the December 26th Indonesian earthquake: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/2005/2005011018159.html"}, {"response": 101, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2005 (08:56)", "body": "Some interesting images there: Quickbird satellite captured an image of the devastation around Kalutara, Sri Lanka (top), on December 26, 2004, at 10:20 a.m. local time\ufffdabout an hour after the first in the series of waves hit. A Quickbird image taken on January 1, 2004 (lower), shows the normal ocean conditions. Water is flowing out of the inundated area and back into the sea, creating turbulence offshore. Some near-shore streets and yards are covered with muddy water. It is possible that the image was acquired in a \ufffdtrough\ufffd between wave crests. Imagery of nearby beaches shows that the edge of the ocean had receded about 150 meters from the shoreline. Credit: Images Copyright"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 10, 2005 (23:11)", "body": "Where can we find the Quickbird satellite images? This would be even more interesting to add to the already horrific images we have seen to date."}, {"response": 103, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (10:07)", "body": "They are, inf fact, here: http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html"}, {"response": 104, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (10:11)", "body": "Before After"}, {"response": 105, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (10:13)", "body": "I apologize for the hugeness of these pictures, but this is one of the few instances where the magnitude of the disaster calls for pictures of some magnitude as well. So bear with this exception, ok?"}, {"response": 106, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (10:15)", "body": "They show the devastation and Bandeh Aceh."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (21:45)", "body": "Terry, we just looked at these pictures and they are indeed worth the time to download. How devastating! Only if you have experienced such a calamity do you know the awful feeling. At Kalapana Black Sand Beach on the Island of Hawaii it is like you turned down the wrong street and what you seek is still there but you can't see it from here. Twenty or more feet of lava covered Kalapana. This poor region was obliterated in moments by tsunami. The only saving grace for Hawaii is that the lava flows are slow enough to get out of the way. Has anyone seen anything about how usable the soil will be? With all that salt water on it, I can imagine it would be infertile for many years to come. Famine will surely follow."}, {"response": 108, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Mar 11, 2005 (22:16)", "body": "it is just unimaginable, even with the before and after pics!!!"}, {"response": 109, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (08:03)", "body": "These pictures bring tears to my eyes. I don't usually get emotional about pictures."}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 12, 2005 (14:37)", "body": "When I got to Hilo, Hawaii in January most of the stores and all of the schools were still collecting things for those poor tsunami victims. Hilo can relate. The stories I have been told from first hand survivors are worse than any nightmare. This brings feelings of profound sorrow to me. That land will never be the same again. I cannot possibly imagine the grief and horror of having one's mate washed away in just seconds never to be seen again. The following is a great narration by Father Kircher at the link following. This was my precise experience of a sizeable quake in Hawaii. The more memorable one was 6.7 magnitude but the 7.2 magnitude quake got into the record books. http://www.circolocalabrese.org/library/history/earthquake1638.asp"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (01:57)", "body": "2005/10/08 03:50 M 7.6 PAKISTAN Z= 10km 34.43N 73.54E This information is provided by the USGS National Earthquake Information Center. (Address problems to: sedas@ghtmail.cr.usgs.gov) These parameters are preliminary and subject to revision. A magnitude 7.6 earthquake IN PAKISTAN has occurred at: 34.43N 73.54E Depth 10km Sat Oct 8 03:50:38 2005 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Sat Oct 8 03:50:38 2005 Time Near Epicenter Sat Oct 8 08:50:38 2005 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) Fri Oct 7 23:50:38 2005 Central Daylight Time (CDT) Fri Oct 7 22:50:38 2005 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) Fri Oct 7 21:50:38 2005 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Fri Oct 7 20:50:38 2005 Alaska Daylight Time (ADT) Fri Oct 7 19:50:38 2005 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Fri Oct 7 17:50:38 2005 Location with respect to nearby cities: 95 km (60 miles) NNE of ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (pop 524,000) 115 km (70 miles) ESE of Mingaora, Pakistan (pop 174,000) 125 km (75 miles) WNW of Srinagar, Kashmir (pop 894,000) 165 km (105 miles) N of Jhelum, Pakistan For maps, additional information, and subsequent updates, please consult: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/usdyae.htm . Flinn-Engdahl Region Number = 710 For the most significant earthquakes, information may also be available from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program home page at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ and the USGS home page at http://www.usgs.gov/ . The earthquake information delivered through Bigquake notifications is preliminary. Subsequent review usually results in some revision to the data, and all users are advised to check the USGS earthquake program pages at http://earthquake.usgs.gov for updates. Data users are cautioned to consider carefully the provisional nature of the information before using it for decisions that concern personal or public safety or the conduct of business that involves substantial monetary or operational consequences. Earthquakes are a common occurrence, and many are either not large enough to cause damage or not located sufficiently close to populations centers to produce damage. This e-mail does not imply an impending threat. Bigquake is an informational tool and NOT an earthquake or tsunami warning system. The USGS does not produce tsunami warnings. For the information about tsunamis, please refer to the information given in the NOAA website http://tsunami.gov ."}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (02:03)", "body": "Quake hits Indo-Pakistan border A strong earthquake has struck parts of Pakistan, northern India and Afghanistan, causing panicked residents to pour out into the streets. In Islamabad, buildings shook and walls swayed for about a minute shortly before 0900 (0400 GMT). Residents in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and in the Indian capital, Delhi, are also reported to have felt the tremor. The US Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of at least 7.6 and the epicentre was northeast of Islamabad. Japan's Meteorological Agency put the magnitude at 7.8. \"We can say that it was one of the strongest earthquakes [ever] felt in Islamabad,\" Mohammad Hanif, an official at the Pakistan Meteorological Department, told the Reuters news agency. Police in the Pakistani city of Lahore told the Associated Press news agency that at least eight people were injured and four shops were damaged. Part of a 19-storey building collapsed in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, reports say. \"It was so strong that I saw buildings swaying. It was terrifying,\" Hari Singh, a guard in an apartment complex in the New Delhi suburb of Noida told the Associated Press news agency. The earthquake was also felt in the disputed territory of Kashmir. BBC world news"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  8, 2006 (10:30)", "body": "I hope all is well in Greece: 2006/01/08 11:34 M 6.7 SOUTHERN GREECE Z= 38km 36.25N 23.50E This information is provided by the USGS National Earthquake Information Center. (Address problems to: sedas@ghtmail.cr.usgs.gov) These parameters are preliminary and subject to revision. A magnitude 6.7 earthquake IN SOUTHERN GREECE has occurred at: 36.25N 23.50E Depth 38km Sun Jan 8 11:34:52 2006 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Sun Jan 8 11:34:52 2006 Time Near Epicenter Sun Jan 8 13:34:52 2006 Eastern Standard Time (EST) Sun Jan 8 06:34:52 2006 Central Standard Time (CST) Sun Jan 8 05:34:52 2006 Mountain Standard Time (MST) Sun Jan 8 04:34:52 2006 Pacific Standard Time (PST) Sun Jan 8 03:34:52 2006 Alaska Standard Time (AST) Sun Jan 8 02:34:52 2006 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Sun Jan 8 01:34:52 2006 Location with respect to nearby cities: 95 km (60 miles) NNW of Chania, Crete, Greece (pop 50,000) 150 km (95 miles) SE of Kalamata, Greece (pop 44,000) 185 km (115 miles) NW of Iraklion, Crete, Greece 195 km (120 miles) S of ATHENS, Greece For maps, additional information, and subsequent updates, please consult: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/ushrak.htm . Flinn-Engdahl Region Number = 368 For the most significant earthquakes, information may also be available from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program home page at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ and the USGS home page at http://www.usgs.gov/ ."}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  8, 2006 (10:33)", "body": "Magnitude 6.7 SOUTHERN GREECE Sunday, January 08, 2006 at 11:34:52 UTC Preliminary Earthquake Report U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center World Data Center for Seismology, Denver The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A strong earthquake occurred 195 km (120 miles) S of ATHENS, Greece at 4:34 AM MST, Jan 8, 2006 (1:34 PM local time in Greece). The magnitude and location may be revised when additional data and further analysis results are available. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time. http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2006/eq_060108_hrak/neic_hrak_nr.html"}, {"response": 115, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  9, 2006 (19:06)", "body": "yes, i saw that on a news web. let's hope our grecian (?) is doing well and not in harm's way! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 116, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jan 10, 2006 (22:49)", "body": "Our Grecian?"}, {"response": 117, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Jan 11, 2006 (09:54)", "body": "I think that would be John."}, {"response": 118, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 11, 2006 (18:53)", "body": "yeah, i forgot his name (but not who he is).....thanks cheryl!!"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 13, 2006 (17:09)", "body": "JohnVolos. If I put his whole name here google will find it. Apparently most of the damage was on Crete. St. Michael's Apparition, Earthquake Linked Jan. 10, 2006\ufffd The ancient story of the Archangel Michael, whose legendary apparition influenced the cultural evolution and spread of Christianity throughout Europe, may be linked to earthquake activity in Southern Italy, according to a new study. The study, published in a recent issue of the journal Tectonophysics, suggests that many early legends were rooted in natural phenomena, such as geological events. The study's author, Luigi Piccardi, has made similar determinations concerning stories about the oracle at Delphi and the Loch Ness monster. According to legend, the Archangel Michael descended into the ground at Monte Sant'Angelo near the Adriatic Sea, and he temporarily dwelled in a sacred cave there. The oldest written account, which dates to the 8th century, states, \"The Gargano (a rocky promontory) was shaken by a huge tremor, lightning often flew, and a dark cloud covered the whole summit of the mountain (Monte Sant'Angelo).\" http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060109/stmichael_his.html"}, {"response": 120, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jan 13, 2006 (18:00)", "body": "Google really loves the Spring."}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 26, 2006 (16:48)", "body": "How so? Terry, you can't just come in here and say that. We need to know why!"}, {"response": 122, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 26, 2006 (20:19)", "body": "There are jillions of references to the Spring on google. We've been googled silly."}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2006 (02:49)", "body": "I just got back into Spring using Google. I should not have wondered. I am currently in California with the geologist in the family and looking at far different rocks than those of Hawaii or of Kentucky. Has anyone heard anything further about the 7.6 earthquake in Mozambique last week? One that strong should have created some sort of disaster."}, {"response": 124, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2006 (05:09)", "body": "I hadn't heard about it, I don't think it made network news."}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  9, 2006 (12:05)", "body": "Alas or happily it was in a mostly unpopulated part of the world. California is great. I will miss it and a few of the inhabitants."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2006 (15:02)", "body": "QUAKE AND TSUNAMI NEAR TONGA UPDATED 6.33am Thursday May 4, 2006 Refresh this page for latest updates A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck northern Tonga this morning, creating a local tsunami which may have caused damage. A small tsunami of less than half a metre was observed at Niue (east of Tonga) and at Pago Pago in American Samoa (north of Tonga). There were initial fears a tsunami could also affect New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii, but all warnings have now been cancelled. It was not immediately clear what damage was caused by the quake but a report on Sky Television said it was felt in several Tongan islands. A resident told Sky he felt tremors lasting over 30 seconds. The quake hit 170km northeast of the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa at 3.26am (NZT), at a depth of 38km, the New Zealand Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS) said. The epicentre was near the Ha'apai islands group in central Tonga, approximately 2150km northeast of Auckland. The quake was reported by GNS as magnitude 8.1, but the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii later said it measured 7.8 on the Richer scale. The Tsunami Warning Centre issued warnings for countries in the region at 3.42am, saying at the time it did not know whether the quake actually generated a tsunami. If it did, it could have hit Fiji at 5.13am and Gisborne at 6.21am. The Centre later cancelled all warnings, and said New Zealand would likely experience half-metre swells only. Niue registered a 0.21m wave at 4.03am and Pago Pago registered a 0.15m wave at 4.36am, according to data on the Tsunami Warning Centre website. A message posted on the website at 5.36am said: \"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated. It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicentre. For those areas - when no major waves are observed for two hours after the estimated time of arrival or damaging waves have not occurred for at least two hours then local authorities can assume the threat is passed. \"Danger to boats and coastal structures can continue for several hours due to rapid currents. as local conditions can cause a wide variation in tsunami wave action the all clear determination must be made by local authorities. \"No tsunami threat exists for other coastal areas in the Pacific although some other areas may experience small sea level changes.\" - NZPA, REUTERS, NZHERALD STAFF http://www.nzherald.co.nz/"}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2006 (19:17)", "body": "Power outage slowed news in Tonga of tsunami warning Associated Press NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga \ufffd A powerful earthquake struck early today near the South Pacific nation of Tonga, prompting tsunami warnings for as far away as Fiji and New Zealand. But the warning never reached Tonga \ufffd and was lifted after a tsunami of less than 2 feet. There were no reports of injuries from the quake or tsunami, and a Tongan official said a few broken windows were the extent of the damage. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu lifted its warning for all areas within two hours. It said there was no data indicating that the 4:26 a.m. earthquake generated a giant wave. The magnitude 7.9 earthquake, classified by the U.S. Geological Survey as \"major,\" struck about 95 miles south of Neiafu, Tonga, and 1,340 miles north-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. It occurred 20 miles beneath the sea floor. But nearly 18 months after a tsunami in the Indian Ocean left at least 216,000 people dead or missing, sparking international calls for a better warning system, Pacific islanders got little or no notice of the latest possible tsunami. The failure raised troubling questions about protections in place for inhabitants of the sparsely populated islands scattered thousands of miles across the earthquake-prone region. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said its first alert went out 16 minutes after the earthquake but was not received in Tonga because of a power failure there. Gerard Fryer, the center's acting director, said \"there was problem in Tonga where there was a power outage and they didn't get our initial message.\" Fryer said the center needs to work with Tonga to correct the problem. He said he did not know whether the power failure was caused by the earthquake. more... http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/May/03/br/br14p.html"}, {"response": 128, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2006 (05:02)", "body": "Kia Ora I was first aware that anything had happened at all when the midday news bulletin came on on TV One. Apparently my esteemed Mayor had not been told by Civil Defence of the earthquake or tsunami and was wanting to know what was going on. Fair comment I guess - when you run a city, you are responsible for overseeing its role in any Civil Defence emergency. In a city with a coastline and thousands of people within the nominated 1km wide coastal zone that should be cleared incase of a tsunami, tens of thousands would have to move. The earthquake was felt in parts of the North Island, but I was too far south. Maybe if it had been southwest of NZ I would have felt something. It was magnitude 7.8 and centred 55km down, which is too deep to start the the water displacement needed for a tsunami to get hoofing. No lives lost and no damage caused. Another lucky escape. Rob"}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2006 (12:26)", "body": ""}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2006 (12:29)", "body": "Thanks for this report. It was disappointing since I wanted you to feel a bit of the shaking and to report on how it felt. I can still remember my earthquakes too clearly. Starting off with a giant shove... then the shaking starts. Then just when it appears to be dying out, the shaking gets VERY stong and ruins your house and walls and chimmeys and empties grocery store shelves. I almost miss them!"}, {"response": 131, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, May  6, 2006 (12:10)", "body": "Almost but not quite, right?"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  8, 2006 (13:23)", "body": "I am near enough the New Madrid fault to be concerned. All forces of nature fascinate me and I want to experience them all. Safely... from a distance. Missing the feel of earthquakes is a bit like missing having the flu. Some things we are best missing the entire event."}, {"response": 133, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Tue, May  9, 2006 (07:57)", "body": "Kia Ora Morbid fascinations with faultlines in bizarre places sent me up to Karori nature reserve in Wellington this weekend while I was in town for the Amnesty International NZ section AGM. However the weather was closing in, so I did not get to the reserve in the end. Two of the reservoirs in the reserve are actually sag ponds on top of the Wellington Fault. Rob"}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 11, 2006 (14:25)", "body": "Not very good planning, I suggest. There are earthen dams all over the US plus levees protecting cities including the one in which I live. Not all are on faults but most are in peril just by water alone. I can't begin to think of how dangerous the earthen dams on fault lines are !"}, {"response": 135, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Tue, May 16, 2006 (23:35)", "body": "Hi all I am okay, and the world continues to spin. But Civil Defence will have been caught off guard - they did not do all that well with the earthquake and tsunami two weeks ago. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3670799a11,00.html Too deep for a tsunami. This was on the old Pacific plate boundary being subducted back into the Earth for recycling. ---- Different subject - regarding earth dams, we had an irrigation dam in South Canterbury fail under sustained rain on Waitangi Day 1997. The dam has been rebuilt, but in 2002 concerns were voiced about the possibility of failure in an earthquake. Remedial work has been done, and Environment Canterbury (local Govt authority)notified. Rob"}, {"response": 136, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Wed, May 17, 2006 (07:34)", "body": "Kia Ora The Wellington Fault was not known to exist when the reservoirs were constructed. They were built before the plate tectonics revolution changed the way we look at the Earth. Rob"}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 14, 2006 (11:58)", "body": "Some of the greatest engineering and physics universities in the US are in California right on the San Andreas Fault. They knew it was there. I can't imagine the carnage when a large quakes happens - and it Will happen."}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  1, 2007 (16:45)", "body": "Region: VANUATU Geographic coordinates: 15.651S, 167.542E Magnitude: 7.2 Mw Depth: 172 km Universal Time (UTC): 1 Aug 2007 17:08:57 Time near the Epicenter: 2 Aug 2007 04:08:57 Local time in your area: 1 Aug 2007 17:08:57 Location with respect to nearby cities: 46 km (28 miles) ESE (107 degrees) of Santo (Luganville), Vanuatu 247 km (154 miles) NNW (341 degrees) of PORT-VILA, Vanuatu 469 km (291 miles) NNW (337 degrees) of Isangel, Vanuatu 1996 km (1240 miles) NE (52 degrees) of Brisbane, Australia ADDITIONAL EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS ________________________________ event ID : US 2007fmba This event has been reviewed by a seismologist at NEIC For subsequent updates, maps, and technical information, see: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007fmba.php or http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ National Earthquake Information Center U.S. Geological Survey http://neic.usgs.gov"}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  1, 2007 (16:46)", "body": ""}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug  1, 2007 (16:48)", "body": "If this does not work please help me get this back to ordinary type ! Which reminds me of a problem not only I have. Aol has taken over my computer and made both email and browser type gigantic. I cannot figure where to change it. Any suggestions?"}, {"response": 141, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Thu, Aug 30, 2007 (17:01)", "body": "Wondering about the debate on the recent mine collapse and if it really was an earthquake or similar seismic activity."}, {"response": 142, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Sep 19, 2007 (08:04)", "body": "Have they determined if the mine collapse triggered a seismic episode? Or if a small earthquake prompted the collapse?"}, {"response": 143, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Fri, Oct  5, 2007 (20:37)", "body": "Don't think it was a quake."}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 30, 2008 (20:39)", "body": "Probably not the quake, though the mine from which my Alexandrites came has been destroyed by the great tsunami's quake. When a whole block of the crust is up- or downthrust, it writes its own chapter in geology. Earthquakes make the whole earth reverberate like a struck bell or a pebble tossed into a pool. A mere mine collapse while cataclysmic for those involved, has little affect on the earth."}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 30, 2008 (20:40)", "body": "I spoke to Rob and Julie a short time ago on IM. It was good to hear of their success and progress in becoming the next generation of geologists."}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 30, 2008 (20:41)", "body": "There was also a pretty strong earthquake a few months ago in Greece. I am sure John Tsatsaragos felt it (and likely predicted it). I wonder how he is."}, {"response": 147, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Mon, Jul 21, 2008 (20:25)", "body": "Wow it sure would be great to hear from Cascade Julie."}, {"response": 148, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Wed, Feb  3, 2010 (07:15)", "body": "With the crisis in Haiti going on (I just watched Wyclef Jean on Tavis Smiley) we're going to hold a crisis camp at SXSW in mid March. I miss Marci's updates here, where can we find you these days (online ( -) ... Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 89, "subject": "American Folkways", "response_count": 32, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 31, 2003 (13:20)", "body": "Response 1 of 6: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (21:50) * 3 lines As soon as I get my CuteFTP reinstated (pay for it) I will post things archaeological about America instead of burying them in the world-wide archaeolgy topic. Watch for me. I'll be right back!! Thanks, Don! You suggested the perfect title. *HUGS* Response 2 of 6: Curious Wolfie (wolf) * Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (22:16) * 1 lines so what is american folksways? duh! marcia, you just told us above! *laugh* maybe we oughta have topics for specific areas or continents? whatdaya think? Response 3 of 6: Marcia (MarciaH) * Tue, Aug 20, 2002 (23:10) * 1 lines Rob had New Zeland. Julie has the Cascades. John has topics for his research. Absolutely, if anyone is interested, please create a useful topic to which you are willing to contribute. I cannot know everything so I wish to learn from your interests. That is a great idea, Wolfie! Response 4 of 6: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (23:04) * 1 lines Please do not think I am departing Geo for other topics. I can find something of nature in just about anything. Geology and folkways? Absolutgely Yes. I will shortly work on posting grave houses. They are made of things mined from the Earth. Ever see a cast Zinc headstone? I managed to find 5 different styles in one cemetery in Indiana a few days ago. They look brand new! It was with great astonishment that I found they had been in the ground as long as the people whose lives they marked. More to come! Response 5 of 6: Marcia (MarciaH) * Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (07:16) * 41 lines This perhaps falls under archaeology - and what really does not?! English armour found at old US base An armour breastplate has been found which could date from earliest days of English presence in what is now the US. It was found at the site of a fort built when the Jamestown settlement was founded in 1607. It was found in a well which archaeologists have been excavating for weeks. The brick-lined well, found earlier this summer, also is thought to date from the early period of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. The armour was found sitting upright about three feet below the surface and was in remarkably good condition, said William Kelso, director of archaeology for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and a leader of the Jamestown project in Virginia. Evidence suggests the well was used as a rubbish dump after it outlived its usefulness as a water source. The armour and other artifacts recovered from the well may help paint a picture of life for early settlers. \"The English found themselves in a strange new land,\" Kelso said. \"Some of the equipment they brought was useful and some was obsolete. They had to adapt to their environment. \"What we're discovering is the process by which Englishmen became Americans.\" Story filed: 17:32 Thursday 19th September 2002 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_674246.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology Response 6 of 6: Marcia (MarciaH) * Mon, Jul 28, 2003 (11:10) * 47 lines This article I am posting because this practice still exists in the more rural areas of the US. Question: Why do we place pebbles on grave stones? by Rabbi Tom Louchheim Answer: There is no clear answer to this question. We can only guess as to the origins of this tradition. 1. An early Midrash Lekah Tov (also known as Pesikta Zutra) 35:20 relates that each of Jacob's sons took a stone and put it on Rachel's grave to make up Rachel's tomb. Here and elsewhere we learn that by placing stones on the grave one participates in building the tombstone. We do not find any direct connection with our present practice, but we might ask if this is an ancient memory of this tradition. 2. We learn in the Tosefot to Tractate Sanhedrin 47b (in the Babylonian Talmud), that Rabeinu Tam interpreted the \"golel\"; as a large stone slab that they place on the grave as a marker and this is called the tombstone as is written (in Genesis 29:35) \"It is the tombstone of Rachel's grave.\" Rabeinu Tam, the grandson of Rashi, goes on to explain that there were smaller stones that were set under the sides of the large stone that rests on them so that it will not bear down too heavily on the deceased. These smaller stones are called the \"dofek\" (upright stones upon which the large stone rests). To these smaller stones it was a custom to attach a marker until a large slab is found, lest the place of the grave be lost. 3. Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof quotes the book Ta-amey Ha-Minagimim (The Reasons for the Customs, pp. 470-471) of late nineteenth century author, Ithak Sperliing: \"We put grass and pebbles on the grave to show that the visitor was at the grave. It was a sort of calling card to tell the deceased that you have paid him a visit.\" (See also Orah Haim 224:8). Furthermore, we find in the Shulhan Arukh Yoreh Deah 376:4 : Now it is practiced after the grave is covered to pluck up grass or pick up a stone and put them on the gravestone, which"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 31, 2003 (13:22)", "body": "Now that I will be posting the real information and posting pictures I took, I wanted it spelled right."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 31, 2003 (14:58)", "body": "And, when one dedicates a whole topic to someone special, it should ne a perfect as I can possibly make it. *;)"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 31, 2005 (10:01)", "body": "Here is a post about the Tennessee Pygmies as promised. Tennessee \ufffdPygmies\ufffd The folklore relating to an extinct race of \ufffdpygmies\ufffd in central Tennessee\ufffds Cumberland River Valley appears to have been solidly in place as early as about 1800 and later spread into western Kentucky and southeastern Missouri as Tennessee residents moved to these areas. This legend grew as increasing numbers of once commonplace prehistoric stone box graves were discovered as a result of farming and land clearing activities in and around present day Nashville. These elongated rectangular graves were lined with readily available slabs of roughly shaped limestone and capped with two or three additional slabs. Typically, the uppermost slabs were placed but a few inches below the surface and were easily snagged by plows. More recent research has associated these graves with the Mississippian-era Cumberlandia chiefdom (also called the Middle Cumberland Culture) dating from about AD 1050-1450. Why would such graves have been interpreted as the remains of \ufffdpygmies\ufffd? In simple terms, the infant (defined as those fi e years or younger) mortality of this early group ran about 25% of the population. Such an abundance of diminutive skeletons were contrasted to the remains of adults which, not surprisingly, were called giants. In contrast, examination of the skeletons of the adults has shown that 40 years of age would have been considered elderly. But a few of the early authors who studied these remains include John Haywood, Moses Fiske, Charles Wilkins Webber, Gerard Troost, Joseph Jones, Frederic Putnam, Robert Stoddart Robertson (one time Lt. Governor of Indiana), and Union Gen. Gates P. Thruston. The only known fictional account of the \ufffdleetle people\ufffd appeared in Mary Noailles Murfree\ufffds 1891 \ufffdlocal color\ufffd novel entitled In the \ufffdStranger People\ufffds\ufffd Country. This fascinating aspect of Tennessee archaeology is the subject of a forthcoming book by Donald B. Ball entitled Chiefdom on the Cumberland: The History and Evolution of Middle Tennessee Archaeology. The reality of the society which constructed these graves is considerably more interesting than the folklore which grew up around them. But an incomplete inventory of the remains associated with the Cumberlandia chiefdom reveals that in addition to literally tens of thousands of the graves for which they are best known they also constructed in excess of 160 mounds and erected palisaded walls (and sometimes dry moats) around a number of their later (ca. AD 1250-1450) villages. The sometimes elaborate artifacts associated with this society clearly indicate participation in the pan-regional Southeastern Ceremonial Complex and trade relations with groups far removed from Tennessee. This chiefdom level society was contemporaneous with cultural groups centered at the Etowah Mounds in northern Georgia, Moundville in central Alabama, Angel Mounds in southern Indiana, and Cahokia Mounds in western Illinois. The demise of this society appears to have been brought about by increasing inter-group warfare and there is s me evidence of violent death and scalping in the late period of their existence. It has been theorized that this population migrated to southeastern Tennessee and established what is archaeologically termed the late prehistoric Mouse Creek phase and were the ancestors of the Yuchi, one of the regions lesser known small tribes. Submitted by Donald B. Ball, Louisville, Kentucky"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr  1, 2005 (00:06)", "body": "Have you seen these in museums, etc?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  2, 2005 (23:01)", "body": ""}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr  2, 2005 (23:01)", "body": "Don's response: (He is Very busy working on the books about to be published) Any errors in the following post are due to my lack of clerical skills and not to his lack of editing. There are three main collections open to the public. The best and most notable is the Gen. Gates P. Thruston collection at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. This consists for the most part of ceramic vessels and other artwork collected from the late 1870s into the early 1890s . A second and smaller collection is available at the Travellers Rest site, an early 19th century inn built on top of a fortified Cumberlandia village and cemetery. A third collection consists of a series of over 30 elaborate chipped flint artifacts found in Humphreys County, TN in the 1890s. Among these flint items are ceremonial blades over 2 fee long. This material is on display at the Frank H. McClung Museum on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Three Cumberlandia sites are now being developed for public display as part of the TN state park system. The largest of these is Mound Bottom - containing 34 mounds - in Cheatham County near Nashville. This park is not yet open to the public. A second site is the Sellars Village near Lebanon in Wilson County southeast of Nashville. The third site open to the public is Castilian Springs in Sumner County, TN."}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr  3, 2005 (14:50)", "body": "marcia, please let us know when they are published!! they will be an interesting read!! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 9, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr  4, 2005 (08:11)", "body": "I scribbled response 6 because it was a dupe of response 7. Do don't get mad at me ok? And this answers the question I asked in the previous topic. Excuse my impatience."}, {"response": 10, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr  4, 2005 (08:18)", "body": "Shameless plug (warning) http://austinblogger.com/wordpress/ (plug complete, thank you)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  4, 2005 (14:17)", "body": "Apparenly there is more trouble posting here than I thought. Mitten discovered it and now I have had my \"double\" post erased. There was one? !!! I'll let you know the particulars of his books when they are available. Oddly enough he is a very readable scholar, and this makes it so much more pleasant to work with him."}, {"response": 12, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr  4, 2005 (19:45)", "body": "Great! When I hear Mitten I think of the three little kittens."}, {"response": 13, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr  5, 2005 (20:52)", "body": "me too :-)"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (12:38)", "body": "I guess that makes it unanimous. Me too !"}, {"response": 15, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (19:42)", "body": "from http://www.childrenstory.org/cscom/rhymes/indexkitns.html a website prototype I'm working on."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 24, 2005 (20:18)", "body": "That is wonderful. How great when you have little ones to have story readers available whenever you need them. Fantastic idea, Terry !"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (21:30)", "body": "Gravehouses: They are structures built directly above inground interments. They do NOT contain human remains. They are constructed to protect graves over with they are erected. Gravehouses have been reported in Indian settlements on the upper peninsula of Michigan - L'Anse and Vieux Desert Indian Reservation in Baraga County. Other examples (all are associated with Indian tribes) in the western Great Lakes area are known. (Thank you DB) Further photos and information: http://www.tngenweb.org/darkside/index.html If you scroll down on the above link you come to a citation of the resident archaeologist :) \"OBSERVATIONS ON THE FORM AND FUNCTION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE GRAVEHOUSES\", Donald B. Ball, Tennessee Anthropologist, Tennessee Anthropological Association II(1):29-62. 1977."}, {"response": 18, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (01:00)", "body": "I'll check out the photos."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (14:51)", "body": "There are even better places with more ephemeral houses. I'll hunt up the sites and post the links. The one that amazed me was a one-of-a-kind according to DB as far as he knew. It is a full sized house rather than a little sheltering structure and had window curtains and carpets but with headstones inside of four children. Oh dear !!! Very distressing."}, {"response": 20, "author": "DonB", "date": "Thu, Oct 20, 2005 (08:00)", "body": "GRAVEHOUSES -- Merely to elaborate on Marci's comments, I would note that gravehouses are widely distributed throughout the Upland South cultural region of the United States from the Appalachian Mountains westward to the Ozarks and south into Louisiana and eastern Texas. Typically they are constructed of wood, display a gable roof and \"picket fence\" walls, and cover but a single grave. Variations do exist and I'm aware of examples built of cut stone, brick, poured concrete, and even sheet metal. A few have \"shed\" roofs and one I've seen had a pyramidal roof. One shed roofed example I saw in the mid-1970s in southeastern Tennessee covered four graves. Many of these structures have been demolished through the years because they feel into disrepair due to a lack of post-construction maintainance. In general, the \"hey day\" of their construction was ca. 1880-1930 although from documentary sources I'm aware of one constructed as early as 1841 in Middle Tennessee and have seen one of sheet metal erected in the mou tains of eastern Kentucky as late as about 1980. The most elaborate example I have personally seen (1970's) was in a church cemetery in eastern Tennessee. Built in the 1880s over the grave of a six year old girl, it resembled a small child's playhouse with a front door that opened, glass windows, and was equiped with curtains. The reason given for their contruction was to \"protect\" a grave from rain or burrowing animals. Folklorists and geographers have long debated their origin. Some researchers -- most notably the late Terry G. Jordan of the University of Texas -- thought these structures originated with various Indian tribes and the idea was picked up by early white settlers. D. Gregory Jeane of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, has suggested they are derived from sizable tomb-house grave covers constructed in Scotland or lych-gates built at the entrance to some English cemeteries. I'm not convinced as to these attributed origins. There is no anthroplogical evidence that Native Americans in the southeastern United States built such structure in the pre-Columbian era and the derivation from British Isles prototypes is unlikely given the wide gap in time from the American Revolution until the era of their greatest popularity beginning ca. 1880. In my opinion, it is more reasonable to interprete them as variations on a wide spread theme of providing full length covers for graves which can be traced back for ce turies in the British Isles and best represented in the 18th century by box graves and table-tombs. These stone grave coverings in turn served as the models for a variety of American folk mortuary structures such as gravehouses, comb graves (consisting of two elongated slabs of stone leaning against one another to resemble a \"pup tent\"; most frequently found along Middle Tennessee's Highland Rim area), slot & tab graves (a varient of a box grave covering found in a limited area of northeastern Georgia), and a surprising variety of rather massive cut stone block grave coverings variously reported in central Tennessee southward into northern Alabama. Having some knowledge of these early types of grave decoration makes a trip along the back roads of the region all the more enjoyable and interesting. Perhaps some Conference Center readers can comment on where they have seen examples of some of these types of grave decorations."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 20, 2005 (18:23)", "body": "*Bowing graciously* Many thanks for this wonderful surprise! You posted in our humble Geo !!! My gratitude is boundless. I'd better go charge my camera batteries for tomorrow. We are off to see things and enjoy lunch with a fabulous lady historian who can make hours disappear over even ordinary food. We are looking forward to this and I will report back."}, {"response": 22, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2006 (16:26)", "body": "ok, i remember this topic now....and before i think i'm going crazy, was there supposed to be someone telling the story of the 3 little kittens when i clicked this topic?"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 14, 2006 (18:50)", "body": "I know the world authority on The Three Bears , but I can't recall the kittens. If I find it I'll let you know. Periodically I read these posts - they are wonderful."}, {"response": 24, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 15, 2006 (09:53)", "body": "no, no, when i opened this topic my sound popped up with someone reading the 3 little kittens......."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 15, 2006 (16:27)", "body": "Fantastic! You have a musical computer. Mine is currently playing Beethoven's \"Pastoral\" symphony (6th) but it is a separate program. Hmmm..."}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 15, 2006 (21:39)", "body": "i reloaded and saw at the bottom that \"children's story\" url was being utilized..."}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 16, 2006 (13:14)", "body": "For some reason (I use Netscape) mine is muta and there is no link on it. Back to American Folkways. Brace yourself for Folk Architecture by someone who is considered an \"athority\" in the field. It is fun to go to symposia with him and to hear young graduate archaeologists citing him."}, {"response": 28, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2006 (21:01)", "body": "cool, that'll be interesting!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2006 (17:07)", "body": "This will be from an upcoming paper he is considering presenting. I will tell him we are waiting for his post."}, {"response": 30, "author": "DonB", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2006 (07:05)", "body": "As an update to some \"current events,\" I would note that Marcia and I are currently co-authoring a brief research paper on early (19th century) rock fences along the lesser traveled back roads of rural Middle Tennessee. Although stylistically similar to the better known (and better made) rock fences around various plantations near Lexington in Kentucky's Bluegrass region, these fences appear to have been associated with much less pretentious small farms. In most -- if not all -- instances, these were likely made of minimally shaped pieces of more or less (mostly less) flat fragments of limestone fieldrock. The majority of the fences we have seen thus far are consistently in a state of poor repair and have obviously been neglected for many, many years. Some similar fences wer also built around small family cemeteries. We hope to undertake further fieldwork on these later this year. Marcia can keep you posted on our progress in documenting these."}, {"response": 31, "author": "DonB", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2006 (07:19)", "body": "One other research project on which I have been working is a short study of what are called \"tub mills\" in the southern Appalachian mountains. The motive force was provided by a wooden \"wheel\" mounted horizontally rather than vertically. This wheel was typically enclosed in a wooden or stone well which resembled a tub, hence the name of this type of mill. The design of the wheel was basically an early type of turbine. These small mills were built to serve the needs of individual families rather than the larger mills with which most people are familiar which served the needs of a broader market and were commercially operated. One of the better known standing examples of one of these mills is the Alfred Reagan tub mill in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Sevier County, Tennessee. Very similar \"one family\" mills were at one time built in great numbers throughout the British Isles (for example, the AD 1086 Doomsday Book inventoried over 5,000 of them). Relatively little scholarly attention has been dircted toward these mills and my current work is limited to finding references to them in various 19th century publications. Very few of these mills are now standing."}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 11, 2006 (21:00)", "body": "I'd really appreciate seeing some of these tub mills if they still exist, and I look forward to seeing and photographing thost stone walls in the fields of Middle Tennessee. They are quite impressive even when low and small. Thanks, Don, for your great posts. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 9, "subject": "Seismology: Earthquakes - The Science and Updates on Current Activity", "response_count": 160, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (17:31)", "body": "Is there a site where we can find current faultlines?"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (19:03)", "body": "The quick answer is there is no good one that I know of but have sent the request to my family expert. Usually they appear as a line of earthquakes as in http://www.geophys.washington.edu/CNSS/us.epi.gif I will search it further. At this URL you will find links to your area which is about as stable as it is possible to get. Water is your enemy, not the earth beneath it! http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/QUAKES/CURRENT/current.html"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (19:15)", "body": "For my current seismic activity for my location Check out the zoomable map at the bottom of the page. http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/quake/tako.wr.usgs.gov/db=usa/river=1/fed.=1 YY MM DD HH MM SS Lat Long Depth Mag Q Point of Reference || || || || || || ||.|| |||.|| ||.| |.| | 99/07/08 02:55:54 19.32N 155.09W 5.1 2.6MGN B* 5 mi. S of Puu O'O 99/07/08 03:04:16 19.33N 155.09W 2.3 2.6MGN B* 4 mi. S of Puu O'O 99/07/08 07:49:36 19.19N 155.45W 18.3 2.0MGN C* 2 mi. ESE of Pahala 99/07/08 16:38:48 19.73N 155.80W 0.9 2.4MLG B* 15 mi. ENE of Kailua-Kona 99/07/10 09:27:57 19.34N 155.13W 0.3 2.3MGN A* 4 mi. SSW of Puu O'O 99/07/10 12:53:58 19.33N 155.12W 3.3 2.2MGN C* 4 mi. SSW of Puu O'O 99/07/10 13:09:45 19.70N 155.82W 31.3 2.2MLG B* 13 mi. ENE of Kailua-Kona 99/07/10 15:52:23 19.36N 155.08W 1.4 2.3MGN B* 2 mi. SE of Puu O'O 99/07/10 22:44:05 19.49N 155.35W 14.7 2.0MGN A* 18 mi. WNW of Puu O'O 99/07/10 23:09:06 19.35N 155.07W 1.8 2.5MGN B* 3 mi. SE of Puu O'O ---------------------------------------------- <> Last update was on 10-JUL-1999 23:11 HST ------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 11, 1999 (21:48)", "body": "David has come through for me and here are his suggestions for fault maps: There are several related sources. You may like the ABAG site with forecast damage estimate maps: http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/eqmaps.html and http://www.geophys.washington.edu/seismosurfing.html The best simple fault map is on the CA quake pages at: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/ Be sure to check the Bay Area version cause it has lots of what folks will want to see."}, {"response": 5, "author": "livamago", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (22:08)", "body": "Marcia, there was some seismic activity in Central America this weekend. Can you find the particulars? I had conflicting reports."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (23:21)", "body": "There were two Earthquakes in Honduras: 99/07/11 20:09:21 15.71N 88.51W 10.0 4.4Mb B HONDURAS 99/07/11 20:17:25 15.29N 88.38W 10.0 4.3Mb B HONDURAS Maps and more information is available at http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/quake/"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (23:21)", "body": "There were two Earthquakes in Honduras: 99/07/11 20:09:21 15.71N 88.51W 10.0 4.4Mb B HONDURAS 99/07/11 20:17:25 15.29N 88.38W 10.0 4.3Mb B HONDURAS Maps and more information is available at http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/quake/"}, {"response": 8, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (08:35)", "body": "Lisbon is in a seysmic zone, and after the \"big one\" in 1755 that was followed by a tidal wave and fires that dertroyed most of the city, we have never felt quite safe again. There was a reasonably strong earthquake in 1968 (I'm writing from memory and haven't checked the particulars so cannot give you any numbers)but people say it \"wasn't it\", they still fear a bigger one! I was very young and living in Madeira in 68, but woke up in the night and felt the quake."}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (09:59)", "body": "when my father was stationed in san francisco, we had an earth tremor. just a baby at the time, so i remember nothing about it."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (13:02)", "body": "You need to move to a more active place than you are now...You have just about no chance of feeling a really fun Earth quake in La Belle Lousiana"}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (17:31)", "body": "no thanks, that's one experience i think i'll pass on (i mean, no guarantees, right?)"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (18:32)", "body": "The only guarantee is No Guarantees!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (20:09)", "body": "kind of like posting on the Spring..."}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (20:13)", "body": "so true, we're lucky to stay on topic!!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (20:49)", "body": "we're lucky if we can still keep it in sight while we're straying away!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (20:56)", "body": "That's odd. I thought we were posting on the Spring (as I drag my seismograph and stand along behind me...)"}, {"response": 17, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 1999 (22:50)", "body": "any conclusions yet?"}, {"response": 18, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (00:18)", "body": "You have just about no chance of feeling a really fun Earth quake in La Belle Lousiana Now hold your beignets! They could probably feel something from that New Madras fault. A long, long time ago, when I was visiting older sis in college down at U ofI, I got woken up by earth tremors coming from that region. Chicago can get them, so they probably head south as well."}, {"response": 19, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (00:23)", "body": "...unless it's too soggy down there"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (10:55)", "body": "(Karen)...unless it's too soggy down there That's my guess. It mostly depends on your substrate. If you are on the same plate and the same portion of the bedrock, you will be able to feel a strong one from quite far away. It is on this principle that seismographs work. The ones at the epicenter are knocked off-line almost instantaneously with a local earthquake, so the magnitude and epicenter have to be extrapolated from the data obtained from the network of Seismic stations around the world. At the Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory, where ours are located, the Good Friday quake in Alaska some years ago made a very impressive readout. I think it is still on display. However, that said, the New Madrid Fault quakes have changed the course of the Mississippi, so it just might have been felt in Lousiana, despite the dampening effect of the bog on which it sits."}, {"response": 21, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (12:25)", "body": "New Madrid, well, I knew it started with an M!! Strange though that I did a search on Yahoo! and an article there talked about the New Madras Fault as well. According to these two site, the fault cuts across 5 states, but none mentioned affecting Louisiana, excepting as you said Marcia the course of the Mississippi!! http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/www/public_info/faultfacts.html http://quake.ualr.edu/public/nmfz.htm"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (15:48)", "body": "Oh Karen..thanks for the links. For those not knowing, Madrid in Spain is not the way they pronounce it for the New Madrid Fault. This case is pronounced MAA-drid (accent on the first syllable.)"}, {"response": 23, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (16:22)", "body": "I was going to mention the difference in pronunciation (as all foreign place names in the Midwest), but didn't think Geo was the place. ;-D Although, I would add another D in there. MAAD-drid. My fav is upriver in Cairo, Il. You know how that's pronounced? BTW, we're relevant here as Cairo is along the fault line."}, {"response": 24, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (16:24)", "body": "Wolf could add the La. versions of French words, like the street names in Nawlins."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 28, 1999 (19:40)", "body": "KAY row we all have our regional peculiarities. In Maine Calais is pronounced Callous (like on the bottom of your foot!)"}, {"response": 26, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (03:16)", "body": "WoW! I like to learn these things to. To talk of such places with the right pronunciation makes one sound *very* cool! (Like one has been there) ;-)"}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (11:47)", "body": "(Fun, is it not!!) In Pennsylvania they are very capricious with their French place-names. Charleroi (Charles-le-Roi) is pronounced the French way (excepting the roi part which is pronounced roy), but DuBois is DOO bose. Amazing!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (14:01)", "body": "In Wisconsin (or is it Michigan or maybe it's Illi-NWA), there is a Charlesvoix, pronounced: SHAR-le-voy. A little bit of both."}, {"response": 29, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (14:08)", "body": "Another: in Illi-NWA, we have a lot of French place names because of Joliet and Champlain--one of them was a Pere, forget which). South of Chicago, is Bourbonnais. Have heard it pronounced: Bur-BON-is and Bur-bon-aze."}, {"response": 30, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (14:10)", "body": "and Marseilles, which is of course: Mar-SAILS"}, {"response": 31, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (17:51)", "body": "well, and then there's nacogdotches and nacodetches (or something like that). in LA, it's nack-ah-dish and in texas, it's nack-ah-doe-chez. i think they're even spelled the same way!"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (18:37)", "body": "Ok, people, admit it. When you wear the cloth of kings (whether wide wale or narrow) you call it Cor-doo-roy or Cor-der-roy ...not Cord-Du-Roi"}, {"response": 33, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (18:42)", "body": "i call it yucky! *smile*"}, {"response": 34, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Jul 29, 1999 (19:25)", "body": "oops, and it was Pere Marquette in that little canoe... you call it Cor-doo-roy or Cor-der-roy ...not Cord-Du-Roi depends on if it's been good or bad and if it's going to get any supper that night! ;-p"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 30, 1999 (00:03)", "body": "*lol* how do you think up these comments! Especially after a ziooion hours a day doing this - like me - but I am almost brain-dead at this point."}, {"response": 36, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (17:59)", "body": "Being brain-dead is a requirement. ;-p"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (18:45)", "body": "You know, I wondered about those electrodes they afixed to my scalp before turning this Conference over to my care. No business going on in here - I think I'll go up to the observatory and jump up and down on their seiso-cables. You see tourist and little kids doing that all the time. Very funny! And quite undetectable."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 13, 1999 (14:14)", "body": "Here is an excellent source of information for teachers (which also means parents) This particular issue is about Natural Disasters and overcoming science myths (that is what they said!) http://www.earthsky.com/Teachers/Booklet/natural_disasters.html"}, {"response": 39, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Aug 13, 1999 (23:34)", "body": "I wonder if ratthing heard that...and what he'd have to say on the topic of \"science myths\"...?"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 13, 1999 (23:41)", "body": "I wondered about that, too. I was busy today so I did not check out the URL as thoroughly as I usually do...shall report tomorrow...stayed tuned!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Aug 16, 1999 (19:49)", "body": "We have just experienced a 4.5 Earthquake. I thought a hurricane would be about all I needed to make my day complete...until now!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (18:12)", "body": "Nothing on the 7.1 earthquake in Turkey? Get out of the Bath, Marcia! ;-o"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (20:42)", "body": "I was waiting to see if anyone else was aware of it while I waited for Cal Tech to update their stuff and give me something more substantial to post. Willl check in again and post what I can find."}, {"response": 44, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (21:15)", "body": "msn on line is reporting 1000 dead but the news says 2000 and thousands missing. they're having aftershocks and fear an even bigger quake during the night. let's pray not."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (21:31)", "body": "Since the Earthquake resources are still not reporting anything, I went to The Times of London for information: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk:80/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html?1319194 bul toll rises to more than 2,000 \ufffd A young girl is carried out of the wreckage of her demolished home in Istanbul after the quake yesterday Photograph: AP Turks call for earthquake aid BY ANDREW FINKEL IN IZMIT TURKEY was counting its dead yesterday after a major earthquake devastated western parts of the country. More than 2,000 people are believed to have been killed over a wide area from the extreme western Istanbul suburb of Halkali to Asia and the industrial city of Izmit about 60 miles to the east. At least 11,000 are thought to have been injured. Survivors tore at mangled steel and concrete to free loved ones, and officials asked the international community to send sniffer dogs and lifting equipment to help in the rescue. The whole region shook for 45 seconds at 3.02 am local time (1.02 BST) yesterday, driving millions of people from their beds out into the street. Turkish seismologists calculated the initial tremor at 6.7 on the Richter scale. But the British Geological Survey, Harvard University and other centres around the world later calculated the magnitude as at least 7.5. The tremor was felt with violent intensity in the capital Ankara, some 270 miles from the epicentre in a fault segment running from Izmit to Lake Sapanca. Bulent Ecevit, the Turkish Prime Minister, appeared close to tears during a visit to devastated towns. \"The loss is huge,\" he said in a trembling voice.\"It is the biggest natural disaster I have witnessed. May Allah help our state and our people.\" Most of the those who died were killed as they slept when substandard buildings collapsed. The Istanbul neighbourhood of Avcilar, far from the epicentre, was badly hit. The stricken region also includes Yalova, Bursa, Adapazari, Bolu and Eskisehir - an area which defines the industrial and commercial heartland of Turkey and to emphasise the point smoke billowed from the country's main oil refinery at Izmet. The naval base at Golcuk across Izmit Bay was also badly hit. A handover of command ceremony had taken place on Monday and many high-ranking officers had decided to stay overnight. Twenty bodies were recovered and more than 200 were missing feared dead. While most of the structural damage was to blocks of flats, the early 16th-century Beyazid Mosque in Istanbul was one of the few historical buildings to suffer substantial damage. Along the highway approach to Izmit, some apartment blocks looked as if someone had taken an axe to split them in two, and the force of the quake turned one five-storey block in the town of Korfez on to its side. Other buildings simply collapsed one floor on top of the other with mattresses and carpets sticking out at the end to define the layers. The minaret on the town's mosque lay draped over the building like a limp sock. Many of those trapped under the rubble were taken to Izmit state hospital, which presented a scene reminiscent of the Inferno. A car park littered with bandages and surgical gloves was converted into an emergency ward with relatives holding up pieces of cardboard to shade loved ones as their wounds were being stitched. Inside, three of the four operating theatres were in constant use, even although there was no city water and the emergency electrical generator was not working. The corridors of the hospital were filled with the injured, while those not in a critical condition were taken to the park across the street. \"I don't know if I should be thinking of myself or my family,\" said a dazed 20-year-old sitting outside, a saline drip suspended from a railing and his face still caked in blood. He was one of the lucky ones who had been rescued within the first hour and brought in to have his arm, broken in three places, mended. He had no knowledge of the fate of his parents or younger brother, still missing in the rubble. Turkey has in the past been unwilling to accept international assistance after an earthquake, but Mr Ecevit, who was manning a special crisis centre, made clear that there would be no such reluctance this time. He urged international organisations to be patient as there might be logistical problems in getting aid to where it was needed most. He also urged Turks to refrain from using bulldozers to clear the wreckage, warning them that such powerful intervention might kill those trapped in air pockets. \"Some of our citizens who lost their loved ones under wreckage demand heavy machinery to clear it and save their relatives. But if we do this we can lose more people than we save. So we have to be patient and wait,\" he said. Britain sent a team of 42 experts including firefighters and those trained in search-and-rescue operations, and other countries - including some that have been at odds with Turkey - promised help. Greece offered crews experienced in recovering survivors from ruined b"}, {"response": 46, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (21:40)", "body": "i believe we're sending in search and rescue troops out of virginia. the best in the country (not military). i can only imagine what contracting must be like over there right now (i.e., the military bases etc.) and i have a friend who will be moving there with his family next week. :("}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (21:44)", "body": "You don't want to know...Those search and rescue teams with the sniffer dogs are veterans of the Mexico City quake and numerous others. They are the best in the world at that unhappy task. We can all be grateful that they are willing to do it."}, {"response": 48, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug 17, 1999 (21:50)", "body": "indeed, so!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (00:28)", "body": "My son reports that a rode out a 5.0 earthquake in central California MAG DATE LOCAL-TIME LAT LON DEPTH LOCATION y/m/d h:m:s deg deg km 5.0 99/08/17 18:06:18 37.91N 122.69W 6.9 0 mi SSW of BOLINAS More information is available at this URL: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes.big.html"}, {"response": 50, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (10:31)", "body": "the numbers in turkey are over 3500 dead and still 10's of thousands missing. from what i understand, none of the us military bases were hit."}, {"response": 51, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (12:56)", "body": "That is my understanding at this hour. Two sniffer-dog rescue units are there from the US...one from Virginia and one from Florida - to be joined by units from Japan and other countries, including Greece, its arch-enemy. In times like this, national disputes seem very petty, indeed!"}, {"response": 52, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (14:29)", "body": "eh, eh, eh. Last night on the news, they said the largest contingent to come over was from Israel. Having been to Turkey fairly recently (less than 2 yrs ago) I think the US AF bases are northeast from this area, along the Black Sea--as close as they dared to the former Soviet Union. Am amazed that those historic buildings in Istanbul are still standing. 7.4 on the scale, they say."}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (15:35)", "body": "http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/990817000138.HTML 99/08/17 00:01:38 40.69N 29.82E 10.0 7.4Mw TURKEY The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A major earthquake occurred about 55 miles (90 km) east-southeast of Istanbul or about 165 miles (270 km) west-northwest of Ankara at 6:02 PM MDT, Aug 16, 1999 (Aug 17 at 3:02 AM local time in Turkey). A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 7.8 WAS COMPUTED FOR THIS EARTHQUAKE. The magnitude and location may change slightly as additional data are received from other seismograph stations. At least 2,000 people killed, 10,000 injured, many missing and extensive damage in the Istanbul-Adapazari area. Much of the damage and casualties occured in the provinces of Kocaeli and Sakarya. Felt as far east as Ankara. There is discussion that the California quake David felt was the compression wave travelling around the earth (see diagram in above url.) Turkey is on a plate boundary, and any movement on a plate boundary makes all of the other plates move. The San Andreas fault quake yesterday in California is the result."}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (18:00)", "body": "amazing when you look at the mileage! turkey being so far away from california."}, {"response": 55, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (18:41)", "body": "I guess this big blue marble is not all that big. I have heard Earthquakes described as striking a bell or a gong. It reverberates for a long while before all of the oscillations fade into the background."}, {"response": 56, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (20:51)", "body": "i'm sure it does, just like ripples in the water..."}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Aug 20, 1999 (20:48)", "body": "Exactly analagous..."}, {"response": 58, "author": "patas", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (04:23)", "body": "Do you have anything on Lisbon's fault and seismic history, Marcia? Apart from the 1755 earthquake."}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (12:13)", "body": "I shall look it up - I am sure data is available, and with luck a plot of mapping of the faulting. Gives me something to do besides wring my hands over this hurricane about to assault Texas. Thank you for asking."}, {"response": 60, "author": "patas", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (12:44)", "body": "You won't believe this but I give you my word it's true. Earlier today there was a warning issued by the Maritime Authority that a giant ocean wave about 40 metres high was going to hit the Algarve (southern Portugal) coast. The beaches were evacuated, as were some restaurants and private homes. People gathered at high points to watch it appear. I didn't hear of it until about an hour ago, found it peculiar (but exciting, I admit) and asked my DH to call the \"Civilian Protection Service\" to find out more. Here's what we learned: the CPS had told the Maritime Authority to issue a warning that a heat wave of about 40\ufffdcelsius would hit the Algarve this afternoon. Someone must have drunk a little to much at lunch and the warning came out as it did..."}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (12:48)", "body": "Too scary but funny! That is like the 40' lava wave that was going to sweep over Hilo as reported in mainland US newspapers. That is impossible. Lava moves pretty rapidly down slopes fresh from the vest, but not at 40' high and not sweeping...more like creeping. We did get a lot of phone calls, though. That is highly irresponsible reporting!!! Thanks for sharing, and stay cool!"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep  7, 1999 (13:15)", "body": "The current information on the Greek Earthquake has not hit The Times of London yet, and am waiting for more information from Geological sources. Updates as soon as I can find them. 99/09/07 11:56:50 38.13N 23.55E 10.0 5.8Mb A GREECE"}, {"response": 63, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep  7, 1999 (16:10)", "body": "From the BBC: Tuesday, September 7, 1999 Published at 19:29 GMT 20:29 UK Earthquake rocks Athens An earthquake has shaken the Greek capital Athens, killing at least 20 people and leaving more than 100 trapped inside collapsed buildings. Three children are said to be among those who died in the tremor, which struck around 1500 local time (1200 GMT) and was followed by a series of strong aftershocks. Thousands of Athenians who were taking an afternoon siesta, fled into streets when the tremor occurred. People were hit by falling glass, concrete and marble slabs. At least three were killed when a building collapsed in the northern working-class surburb of Menidi. Emergency services are trying to free 70 people trapped under a collapsed detergent factory in the northern Tatoi suburb, one of the worst hit areas. A further 20 people were reported trapped in the ruins of a flattened apartment building. Reports say up to 100 buildings have been destroyed in the tremor. A government spokesman said many people were trapped inside buildings and several dozen had been transported to hospital. Cracks appeared in buildings in the historic Plaka district, but there was no apparent damage to ancient sites, including the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus. The Athens Seismological Institute said the quake registered 5.9 on the Richter scale, and its epicentre was 20km (12.4 miles) north of the capital. Experts said the seismic shift occurred 5 to 10km below the ground."}, {"response": 64, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Sep  9, 1999 (07:31)", "body": "Is there a site where I can find a sort of map of the earth's seismic faults, Marcia?"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep  9, 1999 (14:07)", "body": "Still looking for that map. There are several with local locations - like around San Francisco, or California in general. Will check for one for Lisbon for you (Portugal? Elsewhere?)"}, {"response": 66, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Sep  9, 1999 (14:20)", "body": "Thanks! What I really want to know is the relationship between Lisbon's fault and others. If there is such a thing."}, {"response": 67, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 10, 1999 (22:17)", "body": "I will keep checking for the world-wide system, but All of the European coastline on the Atlantic is along the plate boundaries of the European Plate and the Atlantic Plate. By their very nature they grind and slide past one another as the earth fluctuates with celestial tugging by moon and sun. That is what caused the great quake in Turkey, recently."}, {"response": 68, "author": "patas", "date": "Sun, Sep 12, 1999 (03:59)", "body": "...And in Greece? And two years ago in Italy? why one place and not another? Shall we be next? Stupid questions, I know, but we are worried. I guess only the events in East Timor have taken our collective mind away from that worry."}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 12, 1999 (14:13)", "body": "I could answer your question better if I knew if they had strain meters along your part of the plate boundary, and whether or not there was evidence of strain building up in the rock beneath. I trust it is being monitored and you will hear far before it becomes life-or-death time. The problem with that is the panic factor. The powers that be in places like New York City, have said that fewer people would die from the earthquake they did not know was coming than from the panic ensuing trying to leave the city if they did know one was imminent. Terrible though it might seem, that may be the only viable option with the populations centered as they are. Alas, anything bordering the Mediterranean is a natural for earth upheavals. Your only sure bet would be to move to the less populated outskirts of the city, and away from the coast."}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 12, 1999 (14:23)", "body": "Ah, and your question, why in one place and not in another: Some places the rock is more fragile and fractures more easily...in others it is just a case of when one large piece of something past another, each with great inertia. It hops rather than slides along, resulting in a big quake at the point of the hop. Sometimes this is entirely arbitrary where it occurs, but others have had the way paved by smaller ones which tend to lubricate the slide and make that area more prone to quakes. It is an imprecise science at best."}, {"response": 71, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 12, 1999 (16:35)", "body": "There has been an EarthQuake swarm on Kilauea today so I am hoping to get up there to look around and see what is happening: From Quake Map:"}, {"response": 72, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 12, 1999 (18:32)", "body": "that's a first for me, what's an earth quake swarm?"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 12, 1999 (20:03)", "body": "They occur when magma is moving down the rift zone (a network of cracks in the volcano's structure)under the surface. It usually precedes an eruption by a little while (hours to days), and the park service closes off access to the public for their protection. As soon as the eruption takes place and stabilizes itself in a specific area, they open it to the public for viewing. It is one of the most exciting things I can think of doing - anywhere, any time."}, {"response": 74, "author": "patas", "date": "Mon, Sep 13, 1999 (13:52)", "body": "Must be! Thank you, Marcia, for looking for my \"fault information\". There has been a new earthquake in Turkey this afternoon - have you heard?"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 13, 1999 (14:04)", "body": "I had not. Thanks for the update. I just posted information about the ongoing activity at Kilauea volcano on Geo 2. Will post updates on both sites as the day progresses."}, {"response": 76, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 20, 1999 (15:20)", "body": "A 7.6 EarthQuake has been reported in Taiwan. A tusnami Alert has been issued. More news as it becomes available."}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 20, 1999 (18:00)", "body": "From http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/finger?quake@gldfs.cr.usgs.gov 99/09/20 17:47:19 23.78N 121.09E 33.0 7.6Ms A TAIWAN 99/09/20 17:57:16 23.80N 121.34E 33.0 6.0Mb B TAIWAN 99/09/20 18:03:44 23.65N 121.36E 33.0 5.9Mb B TAIWAN 99/09/20 18:11:53 23.75N 121.19E 33.0 6.1Mb B TAIWAN 99/09/20 18:16:18 23.69N 121.31E 33.0 6.1Mb B TAIWAN 99/09/20 20:40:08 24.09N 121.95E 33.0 5.1Mb C TAIWAN 99/09/20 21:46:44 23.56N 121.10E 33.0 5.8Mb B TAIWAN Looks like they have had a bad couple of hours...all of the earthquakes have been over 5.0 which is pretty lively."}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 20, 1999 (18:32)", "body": "From the BBC ONline news : A powerful earthquake has hit Taiwan, killing at least 20 people and causing the partial collapse of a 12-storey hotel in the capital, Taipei. Most northern parts of the island felt the effects of the quake, which has been estimated at 7.6 on the Richter Scale. But it struck in the early hours of the morning, so the full extent of the damage and casualties is still unknown. An official from the Ministry of the Interior told the AFP news agency: \"I'm afraid [there will be] more casualties as many people are trapped in collapsed buildings.\" Taiwan's weather centre says it is the strongest earthquake ever to have hit the island. In Taipei, rescuers are working at the 78-room Sungshan Hotel, trying to pull survivors from the rubble. At least two other buildings in the capital are reported to have collapsed. The US Geological Survey gave the preliminary magnitude of the quake as 7.6 on the Richter scale. Its epicentre is believed to be Nantou, an active earthquake zone in central Taiwan. The earthquake which devastated Turkey last month, killing more than 15,000 people, was measured at 7.4. Warnings of tsunamis - tidal waves which often follow earthquakes - have gone out for Taiwan, Japan and other islands in the region, the Geological Survey said. The quake, which struck at 1.47am on Tuesday (1747 GMT on Monday) caused severe damage to infrastructure and buildings in several cities. Power has been lost in large parts of northern and central Taiwan. But the extent of the damage, especially in remote and mountainous areas, is not yet known. Witnesses in Taipei spoke of continuing aftershocks, buildings collapsing, objects falling off apartment blocks and people fleeing their homes. Radio reports said the central city of Taichung might be the worst hit. The city's mayor said: \"This is one of the strongest earthquakes I have felt in my life. Many buildings collapsed and there is damage to roads and other infrastructure\". The authorities have warned that, because of the magnitude of the earthquake, aftershocks and tremors may be felt for the next two weeks."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (04:36)", "body": "The picture from the air of the collapsed hotel on the news was terrifying. I am hoping this was the only multi-storey building that collapsed, because if the hotel was just symptomatic, the Taiwan situation would look worse than Turkey. Amazingly, only 100 people were apparently in a 12-storey hotel overnight - seems strange? In terms of comparisons with Turkey, if the numbers given so far as dead and injured are correct, I guess the buildings are constructed with quakes in mind."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (15:30)", "body": "Mark, thanks for posting! Those who know about these thing - structural engineers - say the difference between Turkey and Taiwan damage is due almost entirely to buildings on Taiwan being built to stricter codes. That hotel bent and torqued as seen from the air is an amazing and terrifying sight. I can imagine how terrible, having ridden a 7.2 quake here which lasted more than 30 seconds. It was like walking on the heaving deck of a ship as the ground undulated beneath my feet. It is an incredible f eling, and one I do not need to have repeated in my lifetime, thank you!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (15:35)", "body": "According to the news, teams from Fairfax, Virginia complete with sniffer dogs and fiber-optics cameras are on their way to help search for victims. Teams are also in Taiwan from Japan and mainland China and other parts of the US. Karen, has Israel sent their top-notch team there, too? Have not heard as yet. Again, what a terrible job, and I am very thankful such competent people are willing to go and do it."}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (21:05)", "body": "Earthquakes and aftershocks continue for Taiwan, and another for Turkey plus one in Portugal just after Gi has gone on holiday, and one for my son in Calidfornia 99/09/20 21:46:43 23.49N 120.93E 33.0 6.5Ms B TAIWAN 99/09/20 21:54:32 38.61N 9.34W 10.0 3.7Lg A PORTUGAL 99/09/20 21:54:49 23.64N 120.94E 33.0 5.4Mb C TAIWAN 99/09/21 07:06:06 23.85N 121.63E 33.0 4.8Mb C TAIWAN 99/09/21 11:49:46 44.84N 149.74E 33.0 5.6Mb A KURIL ISLANDS 99/09/21 14:11:36 13.80N 90.68W 33.0 4.5Mb A NEAR COAST OF GUATEMALA 99/09/21 14:21:03 33.16N 141.42E 33.0 4.6Mb B OFF E COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 99/09/21 15:42:48 35.80N 121.26W 5.6 3.6Ml CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 99/09/21 17:38:39 23.90N 121.29E 33.0 5.1Mb A TAIWAN"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (22:21)", "body": ""}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Sep 21, 1999 (22:24)", "body": ""}, {"response": 85, "author": "MarkG", "date": "Wed, Sep 22, 1999 (02:55)", "body": "Wonderful plate boundaries map, Marcia! Does your previous list of today's shocks show Richter measures (Ms, Mb, Lg) or are the A, B or C for seriousness)? How come Hawaii gets shocks - is it not safe in the middle of the Pacific plate? What happens to the faultline in the Mediterranean, and the one that heads into Northern Siberia and stops there, do you think?"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 22, 1999 (12:04)", "body": "The right-hand column is magnitude of the earthquakes on the Richter Scale. According to the source page of those statistics: DEPDepth in kilometers MAG Magnitude, with method used to calculate it: Ml local, the original Richter magnitude Lg mblg or Mn, local or regional magnitude for the area east of the Rocky Mountains Md duration Mb body wave Ms surface wave Mwmoment Q Earthquake Location Quality: A is good, B is fair, C is poor, D is bad"}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 22, 1999 (12:23)", "body": "Since they remove the plate boundary EQ map when they update it, I am posting another one which is static, but still shows all of the boundaries: As to why Hawaii has Earthquakes in the middle of a plate...we are unique in the world for that fact and that we have volcanoes. It seems to be a \"hot spot\" (as the technicians call it) and as the plate moves across it to the northwest, new islands are formed. Another is forming off of our southeastern flank, but don't contact your real estate agents just yet. It will be several thousand years before it shows above the suface of the sea. The earthquakes we feel are just from the settling of the rock m sses after magma has left a void, or new magma is forcing its way to the surface. Having said that, the strongest EQ that I have been through - 7.2 mag - was from the plate movement across the hot spot. I truly think a lot of the dynamics of the Hawaiian situation is not yet known and GPS, laser measured inflation rates (the mountains actually swell when fresh magma enters the upper levels), and other new techinques may shed new light on the causes. We KNOW all about the effects!"}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 22, 1999 (12:24)", "body": ""}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 22, 1999 (12:31)", "body": "Checking other sources about what happens to the Mediterranean plate boundary, it is there, but dives under other strata which have been forced onto it. I think it is the same for the Siberian boundary, as well. Close inspection of the map reveals the continuation of the boundary a few miles in front of the obstruction. (...at least, so it appears!)"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Sep 29, 1999 (13:20)", "body": "For a comparison of plate boundaries map above and global vulcanism, please check http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/2.58"}, {"response": 91, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Sep 30, 1999 (04:53)", "body": "Marcia, wonderful maps. I'm saving this one as well as the vulcanism one."}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 30, 1999 (12:36)", "body": "I think they compliment each other...It would be great to have a wall-sized on for reference, I think..."}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 30, 1999 (16:58)", "body": "TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001 PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS ISSUED 30 SEP, 1659 UTC THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE PACIFIC BASIN EXCEPT CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, AND ALASKA. . . . A TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH ARE IN EFFECT . . . A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR: MEXICO, EL SALVADOR, ECUADOR A TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR: PANAMA, PERU FOR OTHER AREAS IN THE PACIFIC, THIS MESSAGE IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY. AN EARTHQUAKE, PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE 7.6, OCCURRED 30 SEP, 1631 UTC. COORDINATES: LATITUDE 16.0 NORTH, LONGITUDE 96.8 WEST VICINITY: OAXACA, MEXICO. EVALUATION: IT IS NOT KNOWN THAT A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. THIS WARNING AND WATCH ARE BASED ONLY ON EARTHQUAKE EVALUATION. ESTIMATED TIMES OF INITIAL WAVE ARRIVAL AT LOCATIONS WITHIN THE WARNING AND WATCH AREAS ARE: ACAPULCO,MEXICO 1703Z 30 SEP MANZANILLO,MEXICO 1801Z 30 SEP ACAJUTLA,EL SALVADOR 1828Z 30 SEP SOCORRO,MEXICO 1849Z 30 SEP BALTRA IS,ECUADOR 1949Z 30 SEP BALBOA HTS,PANAMA 2150Z 30 SEP LA PUNTA,PERU 2233Z 30 SEP BULLETINS WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER IF CONDITIONS WARRANT. THE TSUNAMI WARNING WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. RECIPIENTS OF THIS MESSAGE LOCATED IN CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, AND ALASKA SHOULD REFER ONLY TO ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER MESSAGES FOR INFORMATION ABOUT ANY TSUNAMI THREAT IN THOSE AREAS. David N. Little Geologist IT Corporation Martinez, California"}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 30, 1999 (17:23)", "body": "TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 3 WEST COAST AND ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS ISSUED SEP 30 AT 1836 UTC ...THIS IS THE FINAL TSUNAMI ADVISORY BULLETIN FOR ALASKA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, OREGON, AND CALIFORNIA ONLY... NO, REPEAT NO, WATCH OR WARNING IS IN EFFECT. AN EARTHQUAKE, PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE 7.6, OCCURRED AT 0831 ADT ON SEP 30, OR 0931 PDT ON SEP 30, OR 1631 UTC ON SEP 30. THE EARTHQUAKE WAS LOCATED IN THE GENERAL AREA OF: SOUTHERN MEXICO NEAR 16.1N, 96.8W. EVALUATION: NO DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI HAS OCCURRED. NO TSUNAMI WAS RECORDED AT MANZANILLO, MEXICO. NO TSUNAMI DANGER EXISTS FOR ALASKA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, OREGON, OR CALIFORNIA. HOWEVER, SOME AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA LEVEL FLUCTUATIONS. THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER IS CLOSING ITS INVESTIGATION AND WILL ISSUE A FINAL BULLETIN. THIS WILL BE THE LAST WEST COAST AND ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER ADVISORY BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT. THIS INFORMATION IS ALSO POSTED AT HTTP://WWW.WCATWC.GOV . David N. Little Geologist IT Corporation Martinez, California"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 30, 1999 (18:39)", "body": "In Hilo, we do not take Tsunami warnings lightly. This is what Hilo looked like the day after the 1960 Tsunami. Information and more pictures from Hilo's very own Tsunami Museum: http://planet-hawaii.com/tsunami/ Suddenly I heard a shout, \ufffdBig wave!\ufffd The streetlights around us exploded almost in the same instant. I looked up and saw a locally well known fishing boat coming up over the Wailoa Bridge\" -- Susan Maeda Veriato on the 1960 tsunami in Hilo, as told to her son Travis [PTM Photo: Polhemus collection]"}, {"response": 96, "author": "patas", "date": "Fri, Oct  1, 1999 (03:09)", "body": "Wow! So this is what we would have had if our Giant Wave had been real... As it was, it didn't even fill the pool ;-)"}, {"response": 97, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  1, 1999 (12:55)", "body": "Indeed! What you cannot see is the human toll. People were washed out to sea, rescued and told terrifying stories to me. Others lost realtives. Our roofs were mostly sheet iron in those days, and the sheets slashed through the water slicing up houses, animals and people. Parking meters on sturdy metal posts were laid flat against the concrete in which they were set. That whole area in the picture has been made into parkland and soccer fields along the bay front and looks lovely. There is a memorial set in the middle background to those whose lives were lost that April 1, 1960. Many more could have been saved had they not thought the warning sirens were an April Fool's Day joke!!!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  1, 1999 (13:01)", "body": "It is never just one huge wave. Like the pebble dropped into a pond creates a series of wavelets around its impact zone, so does an Earthquake. It was the third or fourth wave that did the most damage in Hilo. The surging water does more damage as it moves inland, only to suck back out to sea whatever is loose and movable. The next wave deposits it far inland from whence it came. They are terrible waves, indeed!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 1999 (12:56)", "body": "Indeed they must be. It is like those aftershocks in Taiwan, almost as ugly as the first quake. I had no idea there had been a quake in Portugal just after I left for Tunisia... Read it here and then had it confirmed... After so much earth motion this year I admit I am a bit worried."}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 1999 (13:12)", "body": "It is difficult to live in a place with a history of Earthquakes and NOT be concerned... That one in Portugal was minor and north of Lisbon, if I recall correctly...Was there much damage reported? I have seen no follow-up information."}, {"response": 101, "author": "patas", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (02:28)", "body": "I think not much. It was felt in Sintra and thereabouts. Since I am now in the south I don't really have access to people from that area, but will check when I go back to Lisbon."}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (18:56)", "body": "Thanks - it would be interesting to know what the cause might have been, or was it just settling and creaking of the mantle or crust...?!"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 16, 1999 (12:40)", "body": "***** UPDATE OF PREVIOUSLY REPORTED EVENT ***** == PRELIMINARY EVENT REPORT == Southern California Seismic Network operated by USGS and Caltech Version 8: This report supersedes any earlier reports about this event. This solution has been reviewed by KNK Magnitude : 7.0 ME Time : 16 Oct 1999 02:46:44 AM PDT : 16 Oct 1999 09:46:44 UTC Location : 32 mi. N of Joshua Tree, CA : 47 mi. ESE of Barstow, CA : 14 mi. SE of HECTOR (quarry) : 4 mi. NE of the Pisgah Fault Coordinates : 34 deg. 35.73 min. N, 116 deg. 16.09 min. W Depth : 3.7 miles ( 6.0 km) Quality : Fair Event ID : 9108645 More information is available on the Worldwide Web at: http://www.trinet.org/scsn/scsn.html"}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 16, 1999 (19:33)", "body": "Recommended reading this site has three maps and a brief description of the earthquake early this morning in Southern CAlifornia: http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/991016094644.HTML ************************* From http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes.big.html Below is a list of earthquakes recorded by the California and Nevada Seismic Networks during the last week. Times are local (PST or PDT). Most recent earthquakes are at the top of the list... Click on the word \"map\" or \"MAP\" to see a map view. Click on a \"DATE\" to get additional text information. Magnitude 3 and greater earthquakes are printed in bold type. The top three magnitudes greater than or equal to 3 are in red. MAG DATE LOCAL-TIME LAT LON DEPTH LOCATION y/m/d h:m:s deg deg km --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAP 3.1 99/10/16 16:52:10 34.67N 116.34W 5.9 37 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.0 99/10/16 16:51:40 34.81N 116.33W 6.0 35 mi SSW of BAKER MAP 3.0 99/10/16 15:55:38 34.67N 116.33W 0.0 37 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 4.6 99/10/16 15:53:41 34.71N 116.36W 6.0 39 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.1 99/10/16 15:25:28 34.44N 116.26W 2.0 21 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.5 99/10/16 14:55:44 34.70N 116.29W 5.8 39 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.1 99/10/16 14:53:57 34.41N 116.20W 2.7 20 mi NNE of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.0 99/10/16 14:46:15 34.85N 116.36W 2.7 34 mi SSW of BAKER MAP 4.1 99/10/16 14:10:50 34.67N 116.34W 6.0 37 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.3 99/10/16 13:22:30 34.60N 116.32W 6.0 32 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 4.7 99/10/16 13:13:37 34.69N 116.28W 6.0 38 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.0 99/10/16 13:08:07 34.48N 116.27W 6.3 24 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.6 99/10/16 12:39:55 34.68N 116.31W 2.3 37 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.5 99/10/16 11:13:09 34.54N 116.28W 6.0 28 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.6 99/10/16 11:10:20 34.79N 116.34W 0.0 37 mi SSW of BAKER MAP 3.8 99/10/16 11:05:22 34.57N 116.26W 0.0 30 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 4.3 99/10/16 11:01:52 34.65N 116.41W 9.2 36 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.1 99/10/16 10:55:16 34.53N 116.25W 0.9 28 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.5 99/10/16 10:48:31 33.27N 115.72W 0.7 6 mi S of BOMBAY BEACH MAP 5.0 99/10/16 10:38:48 34.44N 116.24W 0.1 21 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.1 99/10/16 10:37:04 33.21N 115.65W 1.7 3 mi NNW of OBSIDIAN BUTTE MAP 3.0 99/10/16 10:21:56 34.55N 116.27W 0.0 29 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.5 99/10/16 10:02:46 34.64N 116.37W 6.0 35 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.1 99/10/16 09:57:29 34.59N 116.26W 5.9 32 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.7 99/10/16 09:55:58 33.79N 116.11W 13.5 8 mi NE of INDIO MAP 3.6 99/10/16 09:55:21 34.40N 116.29W 0.0 18 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.6 99/10/16 09:54:27 34.50N 116.36W 5.8 26 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.2 99/10/16 09:48:39 34.70N 116.30W 6.0 39 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.1 99/10/16 09:38:59 34.57N 116.26W 0.0 30 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.6 99/10/16 09:22:58 34.68N 116.30W 0.0 37 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.8 99/10/16 09:12:09 34.52N 116.27W 5.8 26 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.4 99/10/16 09:12:09 34.52N 116.26W 6.0 27 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.0 99/10/16 09:05:02 34.35N 116.24W 0.2 15 mi NNE of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.0 99/10/16 08:54:20 34.60N 116.31W 6.0 32 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.1 99/10/16 08:42:29 34.48N 116.27W 2.3 23 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.2 99/10/16 08:41:41 34.59N 116.28W 6.0 31 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.8 99/10/16 08:38:33 34.38N 116.14W 0.5 17 mi NNW of TWENTYNINE PALMS MAP 3.6 99/10/16 08:31:47 34.55N 116.34W 6.0 29 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.0 99/10/16 08:18:55 34.40N 116.27W 0.4 18 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.8 99/10/16 07:52:35 34.45N 116.27W 0.6 22 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.0 99/10/16 07:48:45 34.47N 116.28W 2.5 23 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.7 99/10/16 07:44:25 34.56N 116.36W 6.0 29 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.8 99/10/16 07:43:44 34.45N 116.24W 0.0 22 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.8 99/10/16 07:43:11 34.44N 116.24W 5.8 21 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.5 99/10/16 07:20:45 34.70N 116.32W 6.0 39 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.7 99/10/16 07:07:05 34.37N 116.14W 0.0 17 mi NNW of TWENTYNINE PALMS MAP 4.2 99/10/16 06:59:16 34.84N 116.34W 0.1 33 mi SSW of BAKER MAP 3.6 99/10/16 06:56:43 34.68N 116.35W 6.1 38 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.5 99/10/16 06:55:23 33.23N 115.69W 0.2 6 mi NW of OBSIDIAN BUTTE MAP 4.2 99/10/16 06:51:17 34.45N 116.23W 1.5 22 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.6 99/10/16 06:42:49 33.79N 116.12W 10.8 7 mi NE of INDIO MAP 3.2 99/10/16 06:37:02 33.79N 116.12W 6.0 8 mi NE of INDIO MAP 3.7 99/10/16 06:34:57 34.54N 116.31W 6.0 28 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.7 99/10/16 06:32:22 34.35N 116.22W 0.0 15 mi NNE of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.6 99/10/16 06:23:55 34.59N 116.30W 6.0 31 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.0 99/10/16 06:23:09 34.36N 116.14W 0.0 16 mi NNW of TWENTYNINE PALMS MAP 4.0 99/10/16 06:22:10 34.55N 116.28W 0.0 29 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.0 99/10/16 06:14:56 34.45N 116.23W 0.6 22 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.1 99/10/16 06:09:09 34.42N 116.26W 4.0 20 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.9 99/10/16 06:05:20 34.69N 116.31W 6.0 38 mi N of JOSHUA TREE MAP 3.9 99/10/16 06:01:08 34.77N 116.33W 6.0 37 mi SSW of BAKE"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 16, 1999 (19:37)", "body": "The above statistics are easier to read on the web page...and the maps are hot linked for those who are really interested in it. They have had a bumpy ride today! Some of the aftershocks have been pretty strong, as well. http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/bulletin.html Gives the statistics of earthquakes world wide for this date."}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (01:54)", "body": "The continuing strong earthquakes beneath Taiwan has spawned a group of interesting theories recently published in the journals of record for the science. Here is one such which explains the quakes as being the result of the zone of subduction (where the Pacific Plate it being dragged beneath the Asian Plate) activity. AUTHOR: Lin, C. H.; Roecker, S. W. TITLE: Deep earthquakes beneath central Taiwan; mantle shearing in an arc-continent collision AUTH AFFIL: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences; Troy, NY; United States PUBLISHER: American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, United States SOURCE: Tectonics, v.12, n.3, p.745-755 REFERENCES: 10 YEAR: 1993 LANGUAGE: English PUB TYPE: Serial, Analytic FORMAT: illus., 2 tables, sketch maps ISSN: 0278-7407 CODEN: TCTNDM DESCRIPTOR: arrival time; Asia; body waves; central Taiwan; compression tectonics; deep-focus earthquakes; displacements; earthquakes; elastic waves; Eurasian Plate; Far East; faults; focal mechanism; focus; island arcs; mantle; models; P-waves; Philippine Sea Plate; S-waves; seismicity; seismology; shear; Taiwan; tectonics; tomography LATITUDES: N220000; N251000 LONGITUDES: E0122000; E0120000"}, {"response": 107, "author": "Jana2", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (22:02)", "body": "Marcia, I finally had time to stop by and visit. Wow! Fascinating stuff, particularly for a California native like myself. I was sitting here writing up some of my earthquake experiences for you, and after a few loooong paragraphs my finger accidentally brushed the Escape key. Poof! It all disappeared. I took that as an omen that I was being long winded and boring and gave up :-). But I did want you to know that I enjoyed your site!"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (01:22)", "body": "Pleeeeeeeease try again on a page like wordPad and paste it here. I am delighted to see you *big smile* Check our updating weather maps in Geo 14."}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (22:15)", "body": "It was reported to me that Wales had a 3.5 earthquake...would the person who sent me the information please email me again...I cannot find your original letter. Thanks! Wales has a base of very old rock - Precambrian, which is odd for Cambria to have since it implied the rocks were there before the country was there - and that is probably correct."}, {"response": 110, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (12:33)", "body": "Hi Marcia, I sent in the Wales report, it was on the BBC news, I think that's the second or third this year."}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (12:54)", "body": "I thought you had, but going through your emails yeaterday I could not find it. And, I am most happy to credit my reporters. Thank you Maggie! I will check with the Beeb today since the Cal Tech equipment is not reporting it and none of the other world-wide reporting is, either. I shall go directly to BBC for Wales and get the scoop! Thanks, again!"}, {"response": 112, "author": "Jana2", "date": "Sat, Nov  6, 1999 (02:56)", "body": "Hi Marcia, I have to head over to Taipei for business next week. Do you know if they're still having lots of aftershocks there? Ever since the fright of 1994 I'm a nervous nellie about earthquakes so am not looking forward to it!"}, {"response": 113, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Nov  6, 1999 (02:59)", "body": "I got this one from an online newssheet: \"At Police Headquarters of a developing country a telegramm arrives from the Geophysics and Meteorology National Institute. It says: URGENT STOP Possible seismic activity in the capital in the next two days STOP Very dangerous Richter 7 STOP Epicenter 3 km from town center STOP Take precautionary measures STOP Urgently report back STOP Three months later the Institute receives the following telegramm: This is Police Headquarters STOP Seismic activity completely under control STOP Richter 7 tried to escape was shot dead STOP Epicenter and three gang members arrested STOP Could not answer earlier because an earthquake destroyed everything here STOP\""}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  6, 1999 (15:29)", "body": "Jana, They have been having incredibly strong and frequent aftershocks on Taiwan. The most recent stron one was 6.1 a few days ago. Check this URL frequently and scroll to the bottom for previous quakes. Good Luck!!! http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/bulletin.html"}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov  6, 1999 (15:31)", "body": "Gi, *LOL* Thanks for the \"update\"..."}, {"response": 116, "author": "Jana2", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (02:13)", "body": "Thanks for the website, Marcia!"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov  8, 1999 (14:04)", "body": "You are most welcome. This is my \"thing\" and digging up information and sharing it is most interesting and rewarding to me. Thanks for your interest. Take notes and report back when you return from your Taiwan trip...and, Good Luck! (Most EQ's happen in the dark of the moon or at full moon...!)"}, {"response": 118, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Nov  9, 1999 (10:27)", "body": "Do they now? A tidal thing?"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  9, 1999 (11:40)", "body": "David came up with a theory (about the same time others did) that having both the sun AND the moon on the same side of Earth caused abnormal gravitational tugging on the crust, thereby causing more frequent volcanic eruptions. It sure seems to work that way It turns out that Earthquakes happen at that same time more frequently. The thing which confounds me is that it also happens at full moon when those forces should cancel out each other. I think we do not know all there is to this..."}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov  9, 1999 (15:11)", "body": "This news from Maggie: A strong earthquake shook Northern Pakistan, including the capital islamabad, last night. the quake measured about 6 on the Richter sclae and was centred aboout 220 miles north of the northwestern city of Peshawar in the Hindu Kush mountains on the Afghan border. There were no immediate reports of casualties. (Reuters, Islamabad, in The Guardian 9.11.99) I checked the near-real-time recorders at USGS and they reported it as 6.5. It is in a very remote ares (caused by the Himalayas being shoved up even higher) and any resulting damage or loss of life will be a long time filtering out. Many aftershocks noted, as well."}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 11, 1999 (15:08)", "body": "There are still strong aftershocks from the EQ on the Afghan border This just happened in Turkey... 99/11/11 14:41:24 40.80N 30.26E 10.0 5.6Ms A TURKEY"}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 11, 1999 (15:10)", "body": "88 people reposted injured from the Western Turkey Earthquake"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (23:06)", "body": "Turks rush to help quake survivors By Amberin Zaman in Ankara RESCUE workers were last night struggling to help survivors of an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale that shook western Turkey yesterday, three months after the devastating tremor that left 17,000 people dead. The quake centered on the town of Duzce, in a hilly region of Bolu province, 115 miles east of Istanbul. Main communication lines with Duzce were cut, including the main highway linking Istanbul and Ankara. Yahya Gur, the Governor of Ankara, said: \"A great number of buildings have collapsed in the town. There are dead, and people are asking for help.\" Bolu province was also hit by the quake in August, which measured 7.4 on the Richter scale, but suffered relatively little damage. President Suleyman Demirel said: \"We are face to face with a new disaster.\" Turkey's Prime Minister, Bulent Ecevit, said: \"The aftershocks are still continuing. God protect us.\" Hundreds of terrified residents poured into the streets as fires erupted across the town. The local hospital was reported to be overflowing with injured. They were being treated in the hospital garden after the hospital was evacuated. Sadettin Cakmakoglu, a doctor, said the hospital was in urgent need of pain killers and medicine. He said: \"I am calling out an SOS for Duzce.\" Television pictures showed men and women weeping and crying out the names of loved ones trapped under the rubble of collapsed homes. People were shown tearing away at mounds of rubble as they frantically tried to uncover buried relatives. One man kept shouting \"Allah, Allah, why, why?\" as he pounded his chest in anger. A television reporter in Duzce said: \"There is utter helplessness here at the moment. Hundreds of buildings have collapsed but there is no one who can help.\" The pictures showed shocked residents, wrapped in blankets, huddling together on the streets. Doctors were quoted as saying that at least 1,000 people were injured in the quake. In the town of Bolu, women stood at the foot of a pile of rubble weeping. A young man in tears was shown walking around his collapsed home, shouting for his sister trapped in the rubble to talk to him, while a woman was shown desperately pouring water on flames around the rubble of her home. Bolu province's police chief, Ugur Gur, appealed for help, saying that Duzce was in desperate need of ambulances and doctors. He said: \"We can hear the moans of people trapped under the rubble,\" he said. \"Please tell Ankara to send us doctors and ambulances . . . please.\" One television station broadcast appeals for blood donations. Mr Ecevit said rescue teams had been rushed to the area and a crisis management centre formed in Ankara to coordinate relief efforts. Turkish military helicopters were ferrying the wounded to hospitals in Ankara. The government's swift response contrasted sharply with its sluggish reaction to the earthquake on Aug 17, which prompted an outpouring of national anger. Hundreds of thousands of victims left homeless in the earthquake are still sheltering in tents despite government pledges to provide all weather protection ahead of the harsh Anatolian winter, which is beginning to set in. Yesterday's earthquake was felt in Ankara, where terrified residents fled from their homes. It was also felt in Istanbul and as far south as the Mediterranean resort of Antalya. President Clinton is scheduled to arrive in Ankara on Monday on a two-day state visit. He was expected to visit areas affected by the previous quake. 17 October 1999: 1999: the year that seismic shifts killed 20,000 across the world 22 September 1999: World stunned by third disaster 29 August 1999: Istanbul fails to heed the fearful lesson of tremors 28 August 1999: Turkish quake homeless total rises to 600,000 19 August 1999: Refinery fire threatens earthquake survivors"}, {"response": 124, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Nov 13, 1999 (12:09)", "body": "This has been a terrible year for Turkey."}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 13, 1999 (12:36)", "body": "It has been a bad geological epoch. Since Turkey straddles the Eurasian plate boundary Earthquakes have plagued the region as long as history has been written and rock upthrust and deformation could tell the story. It will continue to be one of the most unstable areas on earth."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 15, 1999 (19:24)", "body": "Since the above was written a 7.2 aftershock has occurred and taken many more lives in Turkey. For some idea of what they are experiencing and pictures as well check http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/study/turkey/#Nov12_1999_aftershock ANATOLIAN FAULT MAP MOLETRACK IN FIELD - WHERE THE EARTHQUAKE FAULT TORE ACROSS TURKEY EARTHQUAKE CRACKS IN THE GROUND NEAR THE EPICENTER"}, {"response": 127, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (16:07)", "body": "That was very impressive!"}, {"response": 128, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov 17, 1999 (17:16)", "body": "There is a part of the roadway in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park which looks just like the bottom picture. One afternoon, some high school girls had crept under the barriers and were jumping up and down on a piece ready to fall into the crater - a 300 foot (52 M) drop!"}, {"response": 129, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (03:32)", "body": "*shiver*"}, {"response": 130, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 1999 (13:15)", "body": "Indeed! The park rangers went out very slowly and casually chatting with the girls and talked them safely back onto more stable ground. Crazy !"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 15, 1999 (18:31)", "body": "Quake Forces Cult Out of Tunnels TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) - A quake on Wednesday forced out more than 2,000 followers of a Philippine cult hiding in tunnels for fear of the sky raining down fire at the start of the new millennium. The tremor struck at 1:12 p.m. (0512 GMT) and measured 4.8 on the open-ended Richter scale, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. The institute said it did not expect aftershocks or major damage. The quake was centered near the coastal town of Ormoc, 570 km (355 miles) southeast of Manila. Officials said followers of cult leader Ceferino Qunito were hiding in dozens of tunnels in the central province of Leyte. A spokeswoman for the municipal office told reporters police had been deployed around the tunnels, which were considered unsafe. The tremor cracked walls and pavements in the town, she said. Schoolchildren were also sent home early. The earthquake-prone Philippines was hit by a quake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale on Sunday. Officials reported three deaths and 24 injured but only minor damage."}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (19:40)", "body": ""}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (20:16)", "body": "Moderate Earthquake Shakes East Caribbean Islands CHARLESTOWN, Nevis (Reuters) - A moderate earthquake with its center about 12 miles east of Antigua jostled residents of the Leeward Islands early on Monday morning. On Nevis, people sleeping about 6:45 a.m. when the quake hit were rattled awake and on Montserrat lamps sitting on dresser tops shook for about 10 seconds, one resident said. ``We haven't had any reports of damage. Strong shaking but nobody's said anything was damaged,'' said Joan Latchman, a seismologist with the Seismic Research Unit in Trinidad. The tremor had a magnitude of between 4.8 and 5.7 on the open-ended Richter scale, meaning it could have been strong enough to cause heavy damage in populated areas. Its epicenter was located at 17.09 degrees north and 61.59 degrees west at a depth of 11 miles under the sea, according to the Trinidad unit. It shook Antigua quite strongly and was also felt in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, and St. Kitts and Nevis. Latchman called the quake moderate. Different readings have been reported from various seismographic centers. The 4.8 magnitude was registered in Guadeloupe but the U.S. Geological Service recorded it as a 5.7. The Trinidad unit, which monitors all seismic activity for the English-speaking Caribbean islands, listed it at 5.2. There were no reports of injuries related to the tremor. Latchman said that quakes of this magnitude occur more than once a year but one so close to an island happens less often. Others of similar size in recent years occurred north of Antigua last year and one off Tobago in 1997. An earthquake of this size in a populated land mass can be devastating, she said. The earthquake was not related to nearby Montserrat where the Soufriere Hills volcano is quiet, said Chelston Lee, spokesman for the Montserrat Volcano Observatory."}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 23, 1999 (15:25)", "body": "Algeria Quake Death Toll set at 22 AIN TEMOUCHANT, Algeria (Reuters) - Algeria said on Thursday that 22 people were killed when an earthquake flattened several buildings in the western town of Ain Temouchant. A government statement carried by state-run radio also said 47 people remained in hospitals, including seven in critical condition. Scores had been treated for minor injuries, it said. Hundreds of people were left homeless when the quake struck on Wednesday and they, along with others who feared aftershocks, spent the night in the open. Scores of women could be seen huddled in corners, covering themselves with blankets as they waited for relief workers to set up tents in open areas. Other residents carried mattresses and other household items which they had salvaged from beneath the debris of mud bricks, all that remained of their homes. The government said it would distribute 600 housing units and had set up tents to accommodate displaced people. SCHOOLS DEMOLISHED ``I saw several collapsed buildings, including three schools which were completely demolished,'' said schoolteacher Amina Kali. ``Scores of families have been left homeless and spent the night outside in freezing temperatures.'' An earlier official statement put the death toll at 28 with 181 injured in the quake, which measured 5.8 on the Richter scale and shook several western provinces of the North African country at 6:37 p.m. on Wednesday. There was no immediate explanation for the revised figures. ``Fortunately, we don't have tall buildings. Otherwise the death toll would have been much higher,'' a local official told Reuters. ``It was also relatively easy for rescue workers to reach trapped people quickly. We don't have any missing people.'' State radio said the earthquake's epicenter was in Tissalat mountains where Ain Temouchant is located. But the impact of the quake was still evident in the rubble and on the faces of many people wandering the streets of Ain Temouchant, a town with a population of 56,000, some 45 miles west of the Mediterranean city of Oran. Several expressed anger at what they saw as the government's slow response to deal with the disaster. ``Many buildings are completely demolished. I've lost my two sisters here,'' Abdelhadi Mohammed, 30, said pointing to the rubble of what used to be his home. ``But instead of rushing to our help, the authorities appear more concerned about the prisoners who escaped from jail.'' CONVICTS FLEE AS PARTS OF JAIL COLLAPSE Residents said many inmates fled after parts of the jail collapsed. At least three prisoners died under the rubble, they added. Energy officials have said the quake caused no damage to a major oil and gas export terminal and refinery at Arzew, just a few miles east of Oran. There had been no interruption at both facilities, the officials added. Arzew, one of Algeria's two main export terminals, also has a refinery with a processing capacity of 60,000 barrels a day. Algeria's western region has been hit by several earthquakes in the past, the deadliest of which was in 1980 when at least 2,590 people were killed in an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale. The quake devastated the Algerian town of El Asnam, leaving 330,000 people homeless. The town was subsequently rebuilt and renamed Chlef."}, {"response": 135, "author": "patas", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:44)", "body": "Earthquakes are terrifying and people dying or being injured or losing property is not a laughable matter, but Marcia, some of those headlines had me LOLing! Sorry. Had to tell."}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 28, 1999 (14:55)", "body": "The made me laugh, as well, and I do know how terrifying earthquakes can be. But some of these stories are amazing...Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did."}, {"response": 137, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sat, Jan 15, 2000 (18:31)", "body": "My dear Marcia, I know you are enjoying your weekend, so I'll await your report on the quake in China...I heard on the news that fortunately there were not too many casualties."}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (12:02)", "body": "Just peeking in here for a second before hitting the road with the relatives. Had no idea there was an EQ in China...More when I get home...and some sleep! Thanks for posting Lidya - you are a friend extraordinarie. Bless you! *hugs*"}, {"response": 139, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (20:24)", "body": "Apparently there were two tremors; the aftershock being stronger than the eq. I don't in which area it occurred. Perhaps when you have time you can show us a map?"}, {"response": 140, "author": "livamago", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (20:28)", "body": "What is wrong with my English tonight? Mayhap the weekend in the paternal home and the language of the cradle are corrupting my understanding of the lingua franca..."}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (00:44)", "body": "The earthquakes in Yunnan Province: 00/01/14 22:09:04 25.58N 101.15E 33.0 5.2Mb B YUNNAN, CHINA 00/01/14 23:37:08 25.60N 101.14E 33.0 5.9Ms A YUNNAN, CHINA"}, {"response": 142, "author": "livamago", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (09:45)", "body": "Great work dear!"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 17, 2000 (14:23)", "body": "Unfortunately I have not yet found an Earthquake map which updates automatically, but I have not given up on it most certainly. The hunt for just the right graphics for Geo is part of the fun!"}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb  8, 2000 (17:52)", "body": "Yes, I did...it is posted on EARTHQUAKE!!! Geo topic 26."}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (15:45)", "body": "Ok, there is a smashing map of the fault lines in San Francisco Bay at this location http://www.sfbayquakes.org/ I would post it but at 178KB, it is far too big and slow. Enjoy! (courtesy of David's surfing for things needed at work.)"}, {"response": 146, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Sep 24, 2000 (07:32)", "body": "Nothing much happened in here since April --I don't believe it!!!! Earthquake hits Warwickshire, England The biggest seismic event in Britain for 10 years .... SEISMIC ALERT: WARWICK, WARWICKSHIRE 23 SEPTEMBER 2000 04:23 UTC 4.2 ML http://www.gsrg.nmh.ac.uk/alert_info.htm BGS have received many reports, from the Police, the media, the Emergency Planning Officer and residents in Cheadle (85 km to the north), Gloucester (65 km to the south), Peterborough (95 km to the east), Birmingham, Coventry, Warwick, Rugby, and Leamington Spa, of a felt event at 04:25 UTC this morning (23 September 2000). Felt reports describe \"we were alarmed\", \"the bed moved\", \"the whole house shook\", \"we were woken from sleep\" and \"the whole building trembled\". The BGS rapid-access networks detected an event at 04:23 UTC. The following preliminary information is available for this earthquake: DATE : 23 September 2000 ORIGIN TIME : 04:23 45.8sUTC LAT/LONG : 52.28o North / 1.61o West GRID REF : 426.5 kmE / 265.0 kmN DEPTH : 13.1 km MAGNITUDE : 4.2 ML INTENSITY : 5+ LOCALITY : Warwick, Warwickshire Historically, a similar earthquake occurred near Tewksbury, some 50 km to the south west with a magnitude of 4.1 in 1768. More recently, a magnitude 3.0 earthquake was felt at Stratford-upon-Avon in May 1994, 17 km to the south west. The largest earthquake within 100 km occurred at Bishops Castle near the Welsh border in April 1990, with a magnitude of 5.1 (almost 10 times the ground movement and 30 times the energy of the Warwick earthquake). It was felt over the whole of Wales, most of England and into Ireland and Scotland Here's the list from the British Geological Society of EArthquakes in the UK this month http://www.gsrg.nmh.ac.uk/recbrit.html YearMoDy HrMnSecs Lat Lon kmE kmN Dep Mag Locality Int 20000923 042345.8 52.28 -1.61 426.5 265.0 13.1 4.2 WARWICK,WARWICKSHIRE 5+ 20000921 073048.3 56.99 -5.47 189.0 794.2 6.4 1.2 LOCH NEVIS,HIGHLAND 20000915 035724.7 52.96 -4.36 241.3 342.6 23.3 0.7 LLEYN PENIN,GWYNEDD 20000914 214946.3 52.96 -4.36 241.3 342.7 22.6 0.7 LLEYN PENINSULA 20000912 014225.6 50.11 -5.18 172.6 28.0 7.2 -0.2 CONSTANTINE,CORNWALL 20000912 001419.5 54.63 -2.43 372.3 525.7 4.8 0.8 APPLEBY,CUMBRIA 20000911 032127.2 54.81 -3.59 297.9 547.6 3.6 1.0 SOLWAY FIRTH 20000910 065255.2 52.97 -4.41 238.3 343.8 22.0 0.4 LLEYN PENINSULA 20000906 002612.3 57.58 -5.49 191.7 860.3 5.2 0.6 TORRIDON,HIGHLAND 20000830 235340.7 56.20 -2.96 340.2 700.8 3.7 1.4 EXPL-LARGO BAY,FIFE 2+ 20000824 074921.1 55.39 -5.23 195.2 615.0 19.0 2.1 ARRAN,STRATHCLYDE 20000823 071515.2 53.06 -4.55 229.0 354.5 13.2 0.6 CAERNARVON BAY,GWYNEDD"}, {"response": 147, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Sep 24, 2000 (07:39)", "body": "What to do if you feel an earthquake in the UK Go to the British Geological Society site and fill in this form .... http://www.gsrg.nmh.ac.uk/hazard/quest.htm"}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 24, 2000 (22:08)", "body": "Maggie, general earthquake lists are posted in Geo 26. This is the place for discussion of other bigger results. I post them regularly in 26 but thanks for posting here!!!"}, {"response": 149, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (03:10)", "body": "Oops!! sorry, missed that! (I get muddled without enough coffee in me!) Hey, 4.2 is MASSIVE for the UK!!!"}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 28, 2000 (01:14)", "body": "You are very old rock...your plate boundary is pretty far from the 'dry land' and 4.2 for those not used to having the earth move under their feet under usual circumstances, it must have been frightening!"}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec  8, 2000 (12:10)", "body": "The 20th Century had it's share of damaging earth all around the globe and the Pacific Ring of Fire was no exception Below is an incomplete list of the DEADLIEST earthquakes experienced. Location Country Year Deaths Tangshan China 1976 650,000 Kansu China 1920 200,000 Tokyo Japan 1923 140,000 Kansu China 1932 70,000 * Peru 1970 67,000 * = Location unknown The next list is of the most POWERFUL earthquakes to occur during the 20th Century Location Country Year Magnitude Puerto Montt Chile 1960 9.5 P.W Sound USA 1964 9.2 * Chile 1906 8.6 Kansu China 1920 8.5 San Fr. USA 1906 8.3 The size of the 1960 and 1964 events are disputed but these figure I hear most frequently. Thanks, Rob"}, {"response": 152, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Dec  9, 2000 (12:16)", "body": "The 76 quake in China was devastating, almost a million people! It must have hit in a very heavily populated area. And Kansu China as two megaquakes within 12 years of each other."}, {"response": 153, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (14:34)", "body": "On January 23 1855 an earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale ruptured the Wairarapa Fault east of Wellington causing massive uplift west of the fault across 20,000km2 of the lower North Island. Only 5 people were killed simply because the 500,000 people living in and around Wellington now were not there then. The earthquake raised the land that Wellington sits on now and also the land that the airport is sited on between Cook Strait and the harbour. With more than 3 active faults in or near Wellington it is a deadly guessing game figuring out which one will rupture next, though the most likely candidate is the Wellington Fault running a mere 700 metres from Parliament. This fault has classic sag ponds on it in the hills near Karori and those ponds are now reservoirs for the Wellington water supply system. Another dangerous faultline is the Ohariu Fault. Although this fault moves less frequently than the other two it is expected to produce an earthquake up to 7.5 on the Richter Scale. It crosses Porirua harbour giving it the disjointed look near the highway bridge and the North-South railway."}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (15:16)", "body": "China never wanted outside help so they just let the people die. All of the mass devastation is just now being discovered. Truly tragic!!"}, {"response": 155, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (17:06)", "body": "The explanation on the varying magnitudes given for the greatest earthquakes is a matter of advancement in the science of calculating quake magnitudes. The reason we hear conflicting magnitudes is often because a seismologist is speaking through the press to the public in the terms they understand, as they are accustomed to Richter Magnitude, and most are unaware of the other scales that are now in use. You will often hear the press ask, \"What was the Richter magnitude?\" The seismologists simply ignore the \"Richter\", will not take the time to explain the various scales being used, and simply answer with the appropriate magnitude, no matter which scale was used to measure it. I understand their reason for doing this, but frequently find this factor irritating, as for example, when a seismologist had the chairman of our EPC confused and extremely hyper, as he was about to compare the 1857 Fort Tejon quake, not above Mw 8.0 (formerly given as ML 8.25), to the 1964 P. W. Sound megaquake of Mw 9.2, that he had seen a video of the destruction of! We are in no less danger where we live on the San Andreas Fault Zone, but that is due to a difference in our environment. For earthquakes up to, let's say, M 5.5, this isn't a problem, because the magnitudes given for quakes will not differ significantly, whichever scale is used. The different scales are each most useful within a given magnitude range. It becomes more significant above M 6.0, and greatly significant for great earthquakes. The EQ magnitude scale that was first introduced was the Richter scale in 1935. It is based on the logarithm of the peak amplitude recorded on a short period seismometer, corrected for distance. This scale, now called Local Magnitude (ML) was developed using local recordings of earthquakes in Southern California. In order to study earthquakes on a global scale, with recordings at great distances from the focus, it was necessary to develop other magnitude scales. These scales were calibrated to give numbers similar to the Local Magnitude, but since the waves being measured differ, the magnitudes may vary slightly. There are others, but these four are the most important to remember, as you will see them being use most frequently: (ML) Richter (Local) Magnitude - Essentially, Dr. Richter's scale, still quite useful for smaller local quakes, but not useful for quakes classed as \"Great\". (Ms) Surface Wave Magnitude - Formulated by Dr. Guttenberg to describe distant quakes with surface waves with a 20-second period. (Mb) Body Wave Magnitude - Formulated by Dr. Guttenberg, for waves that pass through the interior of the planet, and that have a shorter period. (Mw) Moment Magnitude - Formulated by K. Aki and Hiroo Kanamori, among others. It is the best representation of the largest earthquakes on the planet, as it takes much more into consideration. It is based on more than just the logarithm of the peak amplitude, corrected for distance. It combines a measurement of total energy release with the amplitude of the waves; and takes into account the surface area of the fault, the average displacement of the fault plane, and the rigidity of the material of the fault. This is the Seismic Moment, Mo, from which the Moment Magnitude is calculated. [You may also often see (Md) - duration magnitude, used on smaller events.] (thanks Yahoo Clubs and Sandi)"}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 27, 2000 (17:10)", "body": "More from Sandi: I don't remember the source of this online quote: \"A more systematic problem occurs for large earthquakes. The signals for earthquakes of different sizes are not simply scaled by some multiplicative factor. The shape of their frequency spectra changes because larger earthquakes have larger source dimensions and therefore longer source durations. If these durations are larger than the period at which the magnitude determination is made, then the number will be systematically too low. In the last decades, it has become common practice to analyze earthquakes by modeling the waveforms over a broad frequency range. This gives a more accurate number for the size of the earthquake (seismic moment) and the mechanism.\" If the moment tensor solution is not yet available, the magnitude for a significant quake, as reported by the USGS/NEIS is either a surface wave magnitude or a body wave magnitude. The reason the different scales are each most useful within a given magnitude range, is because they become saturated at a certain magnitude, and fail to measure any magnitude above the magnitude they become saturated at. The 1960 Chile and the 1964 Alaska quakes were so enormous that they saturated the traditional magnitude scale. With the introduction of the Moment Magnitude Scale, they were revised upward to Mw 9.5 and Mw 9.2, respectively. These are the appropriate magnitude for these events. The 1906 San Francisco quake was also revised downward, from the traditional M 8.25 - M 8.3 to Mw 7.7. I have formerly seen an Ms 7.9 for this event, but the Moment Magnitude is the best measurement. I don't have information on the Moment Magnitude of these other two quakes you mentioned; Chile 1906 8.6 Kansu China 1920 8.5 This a good site that discusses the magnitude of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. http://www-socal.wr.usgs.gov/wald/1906/1906.html"}, {"response": 157, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 28, 2000 (15:48)", "body": "Thank you, Rob The Alpine Fault is the largest faultline in New Zealand, running a distance of 550km from the entrance to Milford Sound in the south to the Pacific coast north east of Blenheim. Geological records and samples of fallen vegetation suggest that the last earthquake to occur on it was in 1720 and prior to that it had moved at least 3 times. Each earthquake had a magnitude of roughly 8 and a gap of 140-260 years existed between individual events. Because of its location this fault is a particularly severe threat to Wellington and Christchurch both of which are less than 150km away. The time is now due for a damaging event to occur on this fault which has several branches running north of Kaikoura. The Hope Fault runs through the Hope river valley near Hanmer which is famous for it's hotpools supplied by hot springs on the fault. It moved in 1888 and damaged the Cathedral in Christchurch with a magnitude 7.0-7.3 event (no one has given a definite figure). Further north a fault runs through the Clarence valley, and although it has not moved in recent times it is judged as active. Through the Awatere valley you have a fault crossing farmland and entering the sea just north of the Awatere river mouth. It is also active. The northern-most fault is the most dangerous. It is the Alpine Fault and it runs within 7km of Blenheim (Population 25,000)and dominates the geology of the Wairau River valley, along whose length it runs almost the entire distance."}, {"response": 158, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Tue, Jan  9, 2001 (18:01)", "body": "Is New Zealand a fairly recent land mass? What I mean is relation to the age of the continents, such as Iceland is a recent land mass in relation to the ages of the continents. (I hope I got that out right?)"}, {"response": 159, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 10, 2001 (23:15)", "body": "It is more about plate tectonics. New Zealand is astride the Pacific Ring of Fire. The plate is subducting there - It goes BOOM!!! Iceland is astride the Mid-Atl;antic Ridge where it is expanding, the lavas as very fluid like Hawaii's are, and it just flows with a few fountains. Iceland is much newer since it is new lava."}, {"response": 160, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Jan 11, 2001 (17:09)", "body": "Thanks Marcia. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 90, "subject": "Spring 2004 Hardware Fundraiser", "response_count": 10, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Nov  1, 2003 (14:49)", "body": "Our main page to go to help out is http://spring.net/contribute"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 29, 2003 (14:55)", "body": "OK, I'll do it!!! What is new? I had to get in frojm Google. Have things changed or has my PC been more messed up than usual?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Nov 29, 2003 (18:08)", "body": "I know what the problem was. I still had this computer configured for LAN. I had to reset lots of programs for access. *sigh*"}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov 30, 2003 (20:59)", "body": "Whew! Glad you're back with us! You're the woman!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Dec 22, 2003 (17:29)", "body": "Donation sent. Merry Christmas fronm Geo!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 24, 2003 (09:23)", "body": "Thank you so much Marci! Merry Christmas!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Mar 26, 2004 (12:31)", "body": "This message is primarily to Geo and the rest of the Spring, I acknowledge the generous contributions made by Drooleurs during the Fall Pledge Drive. We recently had a call from our \"colo\" or colocation facility that we needed to replace a motherboard. It turned out we did not need a motherboard after further checks. Had it been a motherboard, the Spring would have been down for 3-4 days. So, we're having a fund raiser to raise the money to keep a spare motherboard on hand to reduce our downtime in case of a motherboard failure to hours instead of days. We also had one of the six hard drives in Spring crash and it needs replacing as this drive is our backup safety net and we're limping along without it now. Here is what we need to be able to come back online quickly in case of a real failure of the motherboard, a cpu or memory module. And the cost of the replacement hard drive. 405.00 P3TDDE Supermicro Motherboard 109.00 512k memory module 95.00 IBM Hard Drive 120 mb 609.00 total Please send paypal contributions to bank@spring.net Or mail your checks / money orders to The Spring 182 Clover Rd Cedar Creek, TX 78612 With your help, I can build an effective safety net to protect our server against hardware failure. We had our wake up call, now it's time to really prepare!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  8, 2004 (07:31)", "body": "Check paypal again... :)"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr  8, 2004 (07:35)", "body": "Please give us the URL for the bank@spring.net so we can use PayPal. Otherwise it goes to generic spring.net. Suggestions?"}, {"response": 10, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Apr 15, 2004 (07:09)", "body": "Try clicking this link or click this button: We're trying to cover the last mile. I have two servers up and running and am working on a third server for triple rudundant crash protection and robustness. We're getting serious about backups and data protection. We lost our main server and came back up relatively unscathed, but not as smoothly as I would have liked. You can't do enough disaster preparedness. And this hardware special fund drive supports that. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 91, "subject": "global warming", "response_count": 18, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan  1, 2004 (04:18)", "body": "global dimming is not a plague of stupidity: Goodbye sunshine Each year less light reaches the surface of the Earth. No one is sure what's causing 'global dimming' - or what it means for the future. In fact most scientists have never heard of it. By David Adam David Adam Thursday December 18, 2003 The Guardian In 1985, a geography researcher called Atsumu Ohmura at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology got the shock of his life. As part of his studies into climate and atmospheric radiation, Ohmura was checking levels of sunlight recorded around Europe when he made an astonishing discovery. It was too dark. Compared to similar measurements recorded by his predecessors in the 1960s, Ohmura's results suggested that levels of solar radiation striking the Earth's surface had declined by more than 10% in three decades. Sunshine, it seemed, was on the way out. The finding went against all scientific thinking. By the mid-80s there was undeniable evidence that our planet was getting hotter, so the idea of reduced solar radiation - the Earth's only external source of heat - just didn't fit. And a massive 10% shift in only 30 years? Ohmura himself had a hard time accepting it. \"I was shocked. The difference was so big that I just could not believe it,\" he says. Neither could anyone else. When Ohmura eventually published his discovery in 1989 the science world was distinctly unimpressed. \"It was ignored,\" he says. It turns out that Ohmura was the first to document a dramatic effect that scientists are now calling \"global dimming\". Records show that over the past 50 years the average amount of sunlight reaching the ground has gone down by almost 3% a decade. It's too small an effect to see with the naked eye, but it has implications for everything from climate change to solar power and even the future sustainability of plant photosynthesis. In fact, global dimming seems to be so important that you're probably wondering why you've never heard of it before. Well don't worry, you're in good company. Many climate experts haven't heard of it either, the media has not picked up on it, and it doesn't even appear in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). \"It's an extraordinary thing that for some reason this hasn't penetrated even into the thinking of the people looking at global climate change,\" says Graham Farquhar, a climate scientist at the Australian National University in Canberra. \"It's actually quite a big deal and I think you'll see a lot more people referring to it.\" .... \" continued at http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4821493-111414,00.html"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 10, 2004 (22:20)", "body": "I still don't drive nor do I smoke,and I am freezing at the moment. Hmmm. It is not as easily solved as most think, and we are very tiny beings on avery big planet. I suspect we will do eachother in before we kill the climate."}, {"response": 3, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Feb 27, 2004 (17:36)", "body": "Even if we do \"kill the climate\" we basically only suceed in killing ourselves, or at least many of us, off. The Earth will survive. We may not be able to survive the consequences of our actions, but the Earth will survive."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 19, 2004 (14:02)", "body": "Precisely!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, May 16, 2004 (15:48)", "body": "NPR's \"Morning Edition\" interviewed three climate scientists about their views on global warming. This page contains links to all three interviews: http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1893089"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2005 (13:37)", "body": "In today's paper it says global warming is approaching the point of no return. After which occurs widespread drought, crop failure and rising sea levels which will be irreversible. From an international climate change task force. Just an insignificant little article on page 2 of the paper."}, {"response": 7, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 27, 2005 (03:54)", "body": "Global warming might be twice as catastrophic as previously thought, flooding settlements on the British coast and turning the interior into an unrecognisable tropical landscape ... http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=604955"}, {"response": 8, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Aug  4, 2005 (14:28)", "body": "Collapse of Antarctic ice shelf linked to global warming The collapse of a huge ice shelf in Antarctica in 2002 has no precedent in the past 11 000 years, according to a study to be published on Thursday that points the finger at global warming. Measuring about 3 250 square kilometres in area and 220m thick, the Larsen B iceshelf broke away from the eastern Antarctic Peninsula in 2002, eventually disintegrating into giant icebergs. By chance, a United States-led team of geologists had gathered a rich harvest of data around the iceshelf just before the spectacular collapse, including six cores that had been drilled into marine sediment. The cores contain the remains of plankton and algae imbedded in layers of minerals, and their radiocarbon and oxygen isotopes provide clues about ice cover and climate change over the millennia. The researchers, reporting in Nature, the British science weekly, say that since the end of the last Ice Age, about 11 000 years ago, the iceshelf had been intact but had slowly thinned, by several dozen metres. Its coup de grace came from a recent but decades-long rise in air temperature, they say. \"The modern collapse of the LIS-B [Larsen B iceshelf] is a unique event within the Holocene,\" they write. \"The LIS-B eventually thinned to the point where it succumbed to the prolonged period of regional warming now affecting the entire Antarctic Peninsula region.\" The Holocene is the period of relatively balmy weather that followed the last Ice Age. The research is the latest in a series of studies to sound the alarm about the effects of climate change in Antarctica, where the bulk of the world's freshwater is locked up. The Antarctic Peninsula, which juts northwards out of West Antarctica, is considered a warming hot-spot. Over the past half century, temperatures in the peninsula have risen by around 2C. In recent years, the peninsula has lost ice shelves totalling more than 12 500 sq km, equivalent to four times the area of Luxembourg. Of the 244 glaciers that drain inland ice and feed these shelves, 87% have fallen back since the mid-1950s, according to a British study published in April. Global warming, also called the greenhouse effect, is caused by carbon gases mostly discharged by burning oil, gas and coal, that trap the Sun's heat. But Earth's climate also goes through natural oscillations of warming and cooling, resulting in Ice Ages and the milder interglacial periods in-between. The new study does not say that man-made global warming was responsible for the Larsen B's demise. However, it refers to a steep rise in the temperatures over the past several decades, a phenomenon that climatologists concur was unleashed by fossil fuels. - Sapa-AFP http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=247148"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (19:09)", "body": "I have no idea why this past summer has been so hot, but I am heartily glad to see it go. Give me 10 overcoats. I can keep warm. When I get down to skin and am still way too hot, there is a problem. I know the Gulf of Mexico's wanter has gotten quite warm. Happy hurricanes!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (01:05)", "body": "What website is best for Gulf water temp and weather?"}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (19:55)", "body": "can you use NOAA?"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (22:15)", "body": "http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/"}, {"response": 13, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Fri, Jul 14, 2006 (14:17)", "body": "The mission of The Canary Project is to photograph landscapes around the world that are exhibiting dramatic transformation due to global warming and to use these photographs to persuade as many people as possible that global warming is already underway and of immediate concern. To compile a persuasive body of images, we will be photographing at least 16 landscapes throughout the world. These images will show that global warming: (1) is affecting the world in a variety of ways (melting, sea-level rise, drought, extreme weather events, dying habitats, etc.); (2) is affecting every place on earth. (See map) In addition to providing visual evidence of the changing climate, we also hope to address something more fundamental that possibly lies behind apathy towards the issue in the U.S.: people's sense of remove from the forces of nature. http://www.canary-project.org/mission.html"}, {"response": 14, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sat, Jul 22, 2006 (13:42)", "body": "Very interesting quotes from the New Yorker on the current thinking on global warming: But where there\ufffds a will there is, indeed, always a way. The new argument making the rounds of conservative think tanks, like the National Center for Policy Analysis, and circulating through assorted sympathetic publications goes something like this: Yes, the planet may be warming up, but no one can be sure of why, and, in any case, it doesn\ufffdt matter\ufffdlet\ufffds stop quibbling about the causes of climate change and concentrate on dealing with the consequences. A recent column in the Wall Street Journal laid out the logic as follows: \ufffdThe problems associated with climate change (whether man-made or natural) are the same old problems of poverty, disease, and natural hazards like floods, storms, and droughts.\ufffd Therefore \ufffdmoney spent directly on these problems is a much surer bet than money spent trying to control a climate change process that we don\ufffdt understand.\ufffd Sounding an eerily similar note, a column published a few days later in the National Review Online stated, \ufffd We can do more to help the poor by combating these problems now than we would by reducing carbon dioxide emissions.\ufffd The beauty of this argument is its apparent high-mindedness, and this, of course, is also its danger. Carbon dioxide is a persistent gas\ufffdit lasts for about a century\ufffdand once released into the atmosphere it is, for all practical purposes, irrecoverable. Since every extra increment of CO2 leads to extra warming, addressing the effects of climate change without dealing with the cause is a bit like trying to treat diabetes with doughnuts. The climate isn\ufffdt going to change just once, and then settle down; unless CO2 concentrations are stabilized, it will keep on changing, producing, in addition to the \ufffdsame old problems,\ufffd an ever-growing array of new ones. The head of the Goddard Institute, James Hansen, who first warned about the dangers of global warming back in the nineteen-seventies and recently made headlines by accusing the Bush Administration of censorship, has said that following the path of business-as-usual for the remainder of this century will lead to an earth so warm as to be \ufffdpractically a differe t planet.\ufffd In a world thus transformed, the only sure bet is that there will be no sure bets. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/060320ta_talk_kolbert"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jul 28, 2007 (12:56)", "body": "On YouTube there is an amazing death of a glacier and at the rate it appears to be happening, it is a wonder there is a glacier there at all. Of course there is global warming. Just get the science right before you commit my tax dollars (and I pay plenty!) to the \"fix\" which seems ultimately to be a planetary problem not a human one."}, {"response": 16, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Thu, Aug 30, 2007 (17:01)", "body": "Do you have a youtube link?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 30, 2008 (20:58)", "body": "Let me hunt for it. There are also amaszing movies of Kilauea eruptions and of other volcanoes as well. That place is very bad. I can spend all kinds of time there just enjoying being elsewhere."}, {"response": 18, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Mon, Jul 21, 2008 (20:26)", "body": "Thanks for looking for that link. Al Gore just came and spoke at the Austin NetRootsNation about global warming. Obama has hinted at making him VP or Energy Czar, or both. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 92, "subject": "Stairway to the stars", "response_count": 16, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Mar  8, 2004 (10:11)", "body": "http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-1.html http://www.spaceelevator.com/ http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,57536,00.html are some good starting places. This should *precede* a trip to Mars. It would make space travel way less costly and would boost the Mars mission exponentially."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 19, 2004 (14:05)", "body": "They are really considering this stairway? It would not collapse under its own weight? Or am I being facetious? Is this possible considering we are out trying to save the world and simply cannot fund everything everywhere. I vote for space!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 20, 2004 (05:52)", "body": "I googled around and found this cbc article: Space Elevator: Next floor, Mars CBC News Online | February 24, 2004 Reporter: Kelly Crowe | Producer: Debie Goodwin Sometimes breakthrough science can happen during a simple coffee break, at least it can at the U.S. Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico where it's possible to eavesdrop on some big brains hatching a bold scheme that will transform the planet. They're calculating nothing less than the ultimate conquest of the universe. Their idea? They intend to build a fixed link into outer space. Right now, the only way into space is to be strapped to a rocket. It will boost a satellite or a shuttle into orbit, but it's like getting into space on the back of a bomb. It's dangerous, it's expensive and no one has ever been able to use a rocket twice. What if there were a better way, a ribbon slicing through the atmosphere that spacecraft could climb? An extreme version of an elevator that's right out of science fiction by writers like Arthur C. Clarke. As long as man has been able to stare at the stars the idea has been there, in Jacob's ladder, in the Tower of Babel. It was a mystical dream of something tall enough to reach into the heavens. It would be a revolution, and out here in this remote part of New Mexico scientists have already launched one revolution. Now 60 years later they're planning another one. In 1941, the world's greatest physicists gathered at Los Alamos, in secret, to build the atomic bomb. They were hidden away, courtesy of the U.S. government, under the code name the Manhattan Project. When they finished, they had packed the power of the atom into a weapon so awesome that it ended a war and launched the nuclear age. Since then, Los Alamos has continued to draw big brains with big ideas to a thriving centre of military and industrial science. Now, there's another idea percolating here, an idea just as big, with implications just as profound. But there's no big government this time. Just a few passionate scientists working on their own, for free, in their spare time. Meet astrophysicist Bryan Laubscher. \"The whole beanstalk idea and the whole idea of putting a ribbon into space and just climbing it is a hard concept to sell to people on Earth who are used to rockets,\" he says. \"That's the way to get into space, a man's way. Climb in there and they light that thing and hope it doesn't blow up.\" There's Ron Morgan, health physicist. He admits he's obsessed. \"We're definitely on the ground floor,\" he says. \"I think of a project that is going to change the world, absolutely. I believe that we could have the first Earth to space elevator in 12 to 15 years.\" And Mervyn Kellum. He's studying the business opportunities that would open up if the elevator made space travel suddenly easy. \"It's a concept where we can dramatically lower the transportation costs, access to space,\" Kellum says. The space elevator starts with a basic platform in the ocean, near the equator. Attached to the platform is a paper-thin ribbon no more than a metre wide that stretches 100,000 kilometres into space, about one-quarter of the way to the moon. There it's tied to a satellite that pulls the ribbon taut and keeps it straight as it orbits in synch with the Earth's rotation. \"The idea is somewhat like taking a ball on a string, spinning it around in your hand,\" Laubscher says. \"It doesn't just flop down, it actually opposes the force of gravity and stands outward. That's really what's happening with this cable.\" Spacecraft would ride up the cable on an electrically powered climber that would be fuelled by ground-based lasers shining onto solar panels. . . . the rest is at http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/space/spaceelevator.html"}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 20, 2004 (05:54)", "body": "\"Even though the challenges to bring the space elevator to reality are substantial, there are no physical or economic reasons why it can't be built in our lifetime.\" That's the matter-of-fact feeling of physicist, Bradley Edwards of Eureka Scientific in Berkeley, California, but carrying out heavy lifting design work in Seattle, Washington. Edwards told SPACE.com that he's been wrapped up in space elevator work for some three years, supported by grants from NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. \"I'm convinced that the space elevator is practical and doable. In 12 years, we could be launching tons of payload every three days, at just a little over a couple hundred dollars a pound,\" he said. \"In 15 years we could have a dozen cables running full steam putting 50 tons in space every day for even less, including upper middle class individuals wanting a joyride into space. Now I just need the $5 billion, Edwards added. the rest is at: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-1.html"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 20, 2004 (06:02)", "body": "Basically, a big long rope tied to the equator of earth, with a rock at the end. The spin of the earth causes the rock to generate enough centrifugal force to keep the rope tight. People could then climb the rope and get into outer space cheaply. Here's an especially useful page from which the above quote and picture comes: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SpaceElevator"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 20, 2004 (06:04)", "body": "The Space Elevator: NIAC report: by Dr. Bradley C. Edwards http://www.isr.us/Downloads/niac_pdf/contents.html"}, {"response": 7, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 20, 2004 (06:06)", "body": "http://www.liftport.com/ The LiftPort Group (LPG) is dedicated to building the first mass transportation system to open up access to the inner solar system (LEO, GEO, the Moon, Mars, and asteroids). We expect the Space Elevator will be at the heart of this revolutionary transportation service. By opening up broad-based access to Earth orbit and the inner solar system, LPG will help bring about the creation of entire new markets. Based in space commerce, these new markets can only become viable through inexpensive, routine access to the inner solar system. In short, we at the LiftPort Group believe that development of the space elevator is a crucial step in the development of space. Each company in the LiftPort Group contributes to the over-arching goal of developing the space elevator in two ways. First, each company contributes a portion of its revenue to enhancing the financial strength of LPG. Second, each company engages in activities (such as carbon nanotube research, financing, public awareness) which help bring the space elevator to reality."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 13, 2004 (13:27)", "body": "Good Heavens! What a target for the nefarious to fly planes into. Sorry, I could not get the image out of my head..."}, {"response": 9, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Apr 15, 2004 (07:10)", "body": "It's a pretty ambitious project. Yeah, it would have to be equipped with Star Wars most likely."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 22, 2004 (09:09)", "body": "We have to do something about getting back into space with all the programs we have underway already up there needing attention. We used the Russian space program to get into space again this week. This stairway would take a huge amount of time to build - not to mention how they maintain it..."}, {"response": 11, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 28, 2004 (11:32)", "body": "Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years By CARL HARTMAN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) wants to return to the moon and put a man on Mars. But scientist Bradley C. Edwards has an idea that's really out of this world: an elevator that climbs 62,000 miles into space. Edwards thinks an initial version could be operating in 15 years, a year earlier than Bush's 2020 timetable for a return to the moon. He pegs the cost at $10 billion, a pittance compared with other space endeavors. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&e=2&u=/ap/space_elevator Big space elevator conference going on this week."}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  2, 2004 (18:31)", "body": "what? i mean, how long would it take to go up the elevator? and where would it stop? just out in the middle of space...the doors open and it turns into a nightmare where there's no floor? *yikes*"}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug  6, 2004 (09:47)", "body": "Yeah, you don't want to caught in between floors."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  2, 2004 (23:45)", "body": "I am NOT going to volunteer for this mission. I haste terrestrial elevators. I can't imagine a space one being any more comforting!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Mon, Aug 29, 2005 (19:45)", "body": "Especially if it had glass walls and you could see out...although it would be a cool view eventually."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (19:32)", "body": "Just pry my eyes open and maybe I can do it. After all down here they just tell you not to look down. Up there, there IS no down !! I'd just need to bury my face in someone on the way down . I wonder where it leaves your stomach! (I need spell check seriously !!) Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 94, "subject": "Jurassic Park", "response_count": 238, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (20:23)", "body": "Competing with my Paleontology or Fossils Topics, or are we talking Live Dinosaurs???! *hugs* it is good to have you busy again in here *smile*"}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (20:24)", "body": "Actually, I wanted to use this topic to supplement yours and thought we could link the two up. Want to use this to explore the dinosaur age and whether or not the world is as old as \"they\" say it is. And to discuss theories as to what killed them off. A huge virus, meteor, what....."}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (20:26)", "body": "OK, I'll add this to my request for linkup between Collecting rocks and Geo..."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (20:35)", "body": "Cfadm may have to create a new Paleo topic in Geo since this one is written in and there in one post in my Paleo...which is easily dispensed with as it was not important. I think this is an exciting prospect. I have loved dinosaurs since I was very little and taken to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I still have my books about dinosaurs from when I was a kid!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "riette", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (14:29)", "body": "Dinos are so cool!! Apparently new evidence shows that the T-REX lived in colonies. Don't you find that SCARY?? Imagine such mean animals in a pack! But apparently they weren't very nice to each other, and always picked on the smaller T-REX."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (16:16)", "body": "They were the ultimate killing machine of the Jurassic, and they helped evolution out a lot by getting rid of the lame, stupid and slow so they did not pass those genes on to their offspring. Whatever happened to Natural Selection?! I think we need to have it back..."}, {"response": 7, "author": "riette", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (05:00)", "body": "We do. That's why bad people get away with being bad so often..."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (21:21)", "body": "I'm afraid you are right...It seems as though they are propagating faster than the good folks of the world, as well."}, {"response": 9, "author": "riette", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (04:12)", "body": "Of course. Survival by means of depleting other people's means."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (16:00)", "body": "As soon as there were two people on the Earth, there was the problem of depleting the other person's means...if for nothing else than to eliminate the competition. Seems we were at it from the very beginning. It is amazing that we survive as well as we do! We are now linked to Geo. Happy thought, Indeed...so now we can legitimately discuss gastroliths and coprolites *grin*"}, {"response": 11, "author": "riette", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (06:39)", "body": "You mean farting and burping?"}, {"response": 12, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (09:58)", "body": "They've found a completely intact mammouth and are planning on cloing the dna and inseminating an African elephant with it (I may have the details garbled, I heard it on the car radio a few days ago), but the gist is that mammouths will walk the earth again. Jurrasic Park is real."}, {"response": 13, "author": "riette", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:07)", "body": "You're late!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:10)", "body": "Terry, I think we discussed this on SpringArk 30 / Genetics:Animal Kingdom. I am really excited for them to do this and I hope they are successful. Not quite the Jurassic period, but far enough back that it piques our interest and imagination."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:16)", "body": "(Ri\ufffdtte)You mean farting and burping? If we are talking coprolites, it is long past the flaming point and into fossilization (wouldn't that make a nifty engagement ring stone?!), as for Gastroliths...yup! But belching stones is not a pleasant thing to contemplate. Bouncing around in your gut at that size could be the cause of more than gastric distress! It might knock two stones together, cause a spark and ignite the whole Dinosaur. BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (16:18)", "body": "I wish these intersecting topics would show as \"read\" in all the conferences once they are read in one of them. Can this not be done, Marcia, Terry?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (16:54)", "body": "When I enter a conference I do it like this: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/Geo/all/new after I have accessed them and I go to SpringArk or Collecting (to which Geo is linked - as well as News and Parents - I do the same using browse/all/new. The ones already read should not appear again on the other place since you have accessed it."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (16:57)", "body": "Well, so much for that. It did not work this time... Since each conference is independent one of the other it might be impossible to do what Gi requests."}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (21:42)", "body": "i've wondered the same thing myself!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (23:41)", "body": "I have done some looking at yapp capabilities, and this seems to be too convoluted for it to handle."}, {"response": 21, "author": "patas", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (04:47)", "body": "Well, then, never mind! Some genius may think of that, though, the next time they write such a program :-)"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (15:00)", "body": "I think it just might take an exasperated non-expert to write such a program. I have been thinking about it, but am far from the stage of making useful suggestions - so I keep plugging at it, and another program which would keep posts on private boards from general display...!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (20:12)", "body": "And, here I sit in telnet (actually double telnet) and am still coming up empty"}, {"response": 24, "author": "patas", "date": "Wed, Nov  3, 1999 (15:32)", "body": "I wonder if I Forget it in one conference will it be Forgotten in the other? Will try it. But then the object is defeated, which was to link to it from either conference."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Nov  3, 1999 (20:15)", "body": "Hmmm....I think it is conference specific, but not sure. Please report your findings on this matter!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "patas", "date": "Thu, Nov  4, 1999 (16:42)", "body": "I Forgot it on SpringArk but it still showed up in Geo."}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov  4, 1999 (17:40)", "body": "Thank you! I was wondering, but since I am host on both of those conferences I did not think it would be a fair test."}, {"response": 28, "author": "patas", "date": "Fri, Nov  5, 1999 (09:26)", "body": "And it is still forgotten in SpringArk. So now we know :-)"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov  5, 1999 (13:39)", "body": "Aha again! Good to know these things. Thanks, again *hugs*"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan  7, 2000 (20:12)", "body": "Mammoth Stuck Outside New Museum NORMAN, Okla. (Reuters) - A life-size bronze sculpture of an Ice Age mammoth is proving to be a mammoth headache for the University of Oklahoma, which has been unable to fit the beast through the doors of the country's newest natural history museum, officials said on Thursday. When the massive bronze, whose 12-foot (3.6-metre) tusks make up more than half its 23-foot (6.9-metre) length, arrived on Wednesday, workers discovered the head was eight inches (20 cm) too high to fit upright through the loading doors of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Natural History Museum. The new University of Oklahoma museum is a large state-of-the-art facility built to showcase a university collection that has spent decades scattered in buildings across campus and in dilapidated storage sites. It is due to open on May 1. ``It's going to be a big pain and a lot of guys are going to be working on it,'' museum spokeswoman Linda Coldwell said. ''But we will get it in.'' She said a large crane would be brought to the site and the sculpture would be turned on its side to fit through the door, ''like you'd bring a sofa into your living room, around the door frame.'' The sculpture is of an Imperial Mammoth, a species that lived more than 10,000 years ago. The bronze weighs 5,000 pounds (2,250 kg). It will be mounted in a display called the ``Pleistocene Plaza'' alongside bronze sculptures of an early Native American family encountering the beast, a scene which could have easily occurred on the site of the new museum around 12,000 years ago, Coldwell said. The sculpture, by Nebraska artist Fred Hoppe, is based on the bones of a mammoth found in the fossil beds of Lincoln County, Nebraska, in 1922."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (20:20)", "body": "Internet Auction Flogs T-Rex Bones for $5.8 Million SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In a monster sale on the Internet, online auctioneers on Monday put a fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton on the block with the opening bid set at $5.8 million. The fossil dubbed ``Mr. Z-Rex'' and boasting the largest male skull with the longest teeth of any T. Rex ever discovered is being jointly offered by online auction sites run by Lycos Inc. (LCOS.O) and Millionaire.com. ``The fossil is absolutely breathtaking,'' its discoverer, paleontologist Alan Detrich, said in a statement. ``This truly is the King of T-Rex's.'' The fossil was estimated to bring in between $10 million and $12 million, according to the auctioneers. A 1997 Sotheby's auction for ``Sue,'' a female T. Rex dubbed ``The Queen of T. Rex's,'' fetched $8.36 million, the highest price ever paid for dinosaur fossils. That purchase was made by a group led by Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner on behalf of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History. ``Mr. Z. Rex'' was discovered on Oct. 6, 1992 by Alan and Robert Detrich on a private cattle ranch in northwestern South Dakota. It is currently co-owned by Detrich Fossils and Fred J. Nuss Fossils, both Kansas-based paleontological groups. This is not the first time the massive fossil has been put up for sale over the Internet. In July 1999, Detrich Fossils offered the item over another online auction site, but the sale was scrapped after phony bidders put in too many illegitimate offers. The new sale will be limited to pre-qualified buyers, which could include natural history museums seeking to add the T-Rex to their attractions, company officials said. Appraisers have estimated that a T-Rex exhibit can boost museum revenues by as much as $40 million a year. ``When a significant boost in ticket sales is combined with revenue from souvenirs, casts of giant teeth, etc., the revenue from a T. Rex display could total millions of dollars per year, quickly earning back the original cost of the fossils,'' the companies' statement said. The auction, which closes on Feb. 10, is visible at www.auctions.lycos.com and www.millionaire.com."}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (21:42)", "body": "that's absurd! is it a hoax?"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (22:18)", "body": "Nope. Complete T-Rex skelatons are so rare that this is up for the highest price it can fetch. There is world-wide interest in this guy without any meat on his bones and probably not gastroliths or coprolites, either."}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (22:22)", "body": "*wow*"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 18, 2000 (22:41)", "body": "Actually, if I am remembering correctly, this is the Only complete T-Rex skelaton ever found let alone successfully excavated. Btw, it is a female!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (20:57)", "body": "Was it \"Sue\"? Then, again, I think that that Sue was the largest T-Rex, though not complete...missed the exhibition - rats!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:32)", "body": "No name that I remember seeing. I guess that honor goes to the person or institution willing to shell out $5+ million for the privilege of taking her home. But, I have not gone to the websites holding the auction...have been busy posting about the eclipse instead. I have seen the one in the American Museum of Natural History which is by far the largest of the ones currently on exhibit in major museums. I was disappointed by the small size of the British Museum of Natural History's specimen. But, a T- ex is impressive in any condition...I would jump at the chance to see another specimen."}, {"response": 38, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (21:51)", "body": "see, i don't understand why it's on the auction block. i thought those things were taken to museums not purchased. been to the natural history museum in d.c. and that thing was huge (the dinosaur, ok, the museum was too)"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (22:04)", "body": "There is no law in this country that I am aware of which deals with \"treasure\" found on land not owned by anyone (is there such thing anymore?!). In Britain the discoverer can take possession and sell it to the highest bidder if it is lost property...anything dropped on the ground or lost by the owner. Finders Keepers. If it is buried or placed somewhere where the owner could reasonable be considered to return to use it, then it is in the custody of the state and as such it goes to the British Museum. e are a prickly bunch when it comes to the government taking things we discover in the wilderness - like Gold or dinosaur bones...!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (22:07)", "body": "I am all for things as unique as dinosaur bones or meteroites belonging to the nation and being kept in a museum for all to see. But, where do you draw the line??? It is almost a no-win situation!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (22:14)", "body": "wait, i didn't know the museums were govt run. i knew they got money, but the pieces were property of the museum and the general public, not the gov't. maybe i need to move to a smaller scale. finding an arrowhead is no big deal but finding a whole dinasour is just infathomable to me. can you imagine? my finding this thing in my backyard (of course, if i did, wouldn't that make headlines) and then what do i do with it? i dunno. just a question, not trying to start a fight! speaking of things we find in the wilderness, there are laws regarding the taking of certain feathers found lying about. the only \"civilian\" people allowed to take them are indians and then for ceremonial purposes. (of course, bird feathers are covered in mites and junk, so clean it really well!)"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (22:23)", "body": "You will never get me to fight with you, Wolfie! *Hugs* is more like it =) I am just stating what exists in the world of archaeology...like the Dead Sea Scrolls and other things of that magnitude which should belong to all mankind. Most museums are run by a board of directors and get endowments from many sources. The Smithsonian is that way, but is also the Nation's repository of historically significant things. Most finds of the American Museum were by people hired to go out and find. Margaret Meade was on their payrole as was the man who did all of the dinosaur finds in Mongolia. Therefore his things belong to the museum. Other things, like the Hope Diamond were either sold or donated to the museum by their owners/discoverers I think all finds should be first the nation's and second the finder's...but this is the fight Mel Fisher is fighting over his gold salvage finds in the sea."}, {"response": 43, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (22:37)", "body": "if i found something significant, depending on what it was as to whether i'd want to keep it, i'd definitely want credit for unearthing the thing. perhaps the idea behind musuems and such is to preserve it for mankind and to take ownership away. i don't know. i thought archeology was for everyone's benefit. i guess there's the \"pirate's treasure\" deal going on for folks. to me, that's just greed. but i'd sure be tempted to keep it, am only human (thank goodness) just hate how things get exploited for t e sake of the almighty dollar. who's got $5M to lay out for some dinosaur bones anyway? what are they gonna do with it? put it in the foyer of their castle and hang christmas lights off of it? it belongs in a museum or such place so people can take a gander and see it to know that it's real IMMHO. i'd love to see it and touch the bones and know that this thing used to be alive. i'd love to pet the mammoth and feel the texture of it's fur and know that that thing, too, was alive."}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (22:56)", "body": "I agree! Put most eloquently, Wolfie...you expressed the frustration we all feel who care about these things. I am afraid the altruism which once was the rule in the world is long gone. It is now, \"What's in it for me?\" and getting worse by the moment!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (19:05)", "body": "Found this interesting article which addresses some of our worst fears: Wednesday, September 17, 1997 Fossil may be biggest T-rex ever Last modified at 1:36 a.m. on Wednesday, September 17, 1997 HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- What may be the largest Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever found has been unearthed on a Montana cattle ranch, touching off a dispute over who has claim to the site. University of Notre Dame paleontologist Keith Rigby said identification of the fossil is not yet complete, but if it is not a T-rex it may be a completely new variety of dinosaur -- and the largest meat-eater ever found. \"There is some possibility that it may be new, and T-rex may have to become 'T-who?\"' Rigby said Tuesday. Rigby said he found a pubis bone, one of three bones in the pelvis, that measures at least 52 inches, compared with 48 inches in the largest T-Rex fossil ever measured. However, the femurs, or thigh bones, which paleontologists normally use to estimate the size of dinosaurs, are still unexcavated. The find is \"exciting, but not earth-shattering,\" said J. Michael Parrish, a dinosaur expert at Southern Illinois University. He said only a couple of dozen T-rex specimens are known and the largest size keeps changing, but that Rigby is probably right that his would be the biggest T-rex known. Parrish said other carnivores found recently in South America and Africa are thought to be larger than a T-rex, but comparisons among species are difficult. Rigby said he was forced to reveal the find before the fossil could be confirmed because of an unauthorized excavation over the weekend, which prompted federal agents to intervene to keep bones from being taken away. James Rector, a lawyer who has been helping Rigby, said he saw two sons of the former landowner and other relatives using a tractor to dig at the site on Sunday. Rector said he alerted the FBI and the federal Farm Service Agency, which owns the land. No one was arrested, but the FBI is investigating. Rector said he asked Steve Walton, a son of former landowner Edmund Walton, what he intended to do with the bones and the man replied: \"I'm going to save my farm and feed my children.\" T-rex fossils can be extremely valuable. A 50-foot fossil nicknamed Sue, which was found in South Dakota in 1990, is expected to bring more than $1 million when it is auctioned next month at Sotheby's in New York. Rigby said he began work at the Montana site more than a year ago with permission of people who claimed to own the land, but he later became suspicious. He said he did a title search and found that FSA took ownership of the land several years ago. Two men who identified themselves to The Associated Press in separate calls as Steve Walton and his cousin, Fred Walton, said Tuesday the group did not take anything from the site and were there merely out of curiosity. Both said ownership of the land is still in dispute and they might be entitled to some money from the dinosaur find. A similar fight was waged over Sue, one of the most complete T-Rex fossils ever found. It was seized by the government in 1992 from Peter L. Larsen, the fossil dealer who excavated it. The government said the land where Sue was found was under federal jurisdiction and off-limits to Larsen. Sotheby's is selling the fossil on behalf of the Sioux Indian on whose ranch Sue was found."}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (19:09)", "body": "The T-Rex Fossil The fossil, currently owned by Detrich fossils, a Kansas-based paleontological group, contains the most perfect skull and largest teeth (some measuring 13 inches) ever discovered. The fossil is nicknamed Mr. Z-Rex in honor of the owners of the private property where the fossil was discovered. Bids for the T-Rex are beginning at $5.8 million. Appraisers believe a T-Rex fossil of this quality can bring an additional $40 million in permanent, annual revenue to the museum that acquires it. Mr. Z-Rex was discovered on October 6, 1992 by paleontologists Alan & Robert Detrich while exploring fossil deposits on a private cattle ranch in northwestern South Dakota. The skull was found in a sand formation. It is thought that the T-Rex died on the sandy shoreline of a prehistoric river, sea or lake. Mr. Z-Rex has the best skull with the largest teeth I have seen. The fossil is absolutely breath-taking. This truly is the King of T-Rex's - a paleontologist's dream come true. -Alan Deitrich -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The specimen was excavated according to professional standards and transported without damage. Skeletal elements have been exposed by partial preparation from the original undersurface of three major blocks. These blocks contain, respectively, the skull, the presacral vertebrae, and elements of the hind limbs and anterior portion of the tail. Great care was taken to collect all fragments of bone from from the locality, which may permit the reassemblage of several bones which would otherwise have been lost. Stabilization of the skeletal parts will present no unusual problems, and the extraction of the bones from the sediment in which they are preserved will vary from relatively easy to requiring considerable skill. Details Length of skull 1370 mm Length of tooth row, left maxilla 560 mm (approximately) Length of tooth row, left dentary 530 mm Length of articulated cervicals from the anterior zygapophysis of C4 to the posterior zygapophysis of C10 985 mm Length of dorsal 4-6 taken at base of transverse processes 393 mm Length of posterior dorsal vertebra 140 mm Height of posterior dorsal vertebra 653 mm Length of 13 articulated caudal vertebrae 2780 mm Length of centra of two isolated caudals 152 and 132 mm Length of femur 1330 mm Circumference of femur 588 mm (indicating a weight of 5.5 metric tonnes) Length of fibula 965 mm (approximately) Length of metatarsal II 620 mm Length of metatarsal III 750 mm Length of metatarsal IV 640, 655 mm Length of phalanx r-1 120 mm The total length of the reconstructed skeleton is estimated to be approximately 10.8 m (35 feet). The total reconstructed height at the hips is estimated to be approximately 3.45 m (11.35 feet)."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (12:53)", "body": "I wonder if this will affect the price of the one being auctioned now: BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) \ufffd Scientists working in the remote Patagonia region of Argentina say they have discovered partial remains of what may be the largest dinosaur species on record. Carlos Munoz, director of the Florentino Ameghino Museum of Natural Sciences, said Thursday a team of paleontologists unearthed the bones of a huge plant-eating dinosaur thought to have roamed Earth some 105 million years ago. The dinosaur is believed to have stretched between 157 and 167 feet from head to tail and weighed more than 10 tons. The creature is said to have been 27 feet longer than the 100-ton Argentinosaurus, considered by some experts to be the largest dinosaur ever recorded. The new dinosaur, which had a small head and a lengthy tail, has yet to be named or classified, Munoz said. Munoz said scientists working on a tip from a villager found a femur and two parts of a vertebra. The pieces of cervical vertebrae were nearly four feet high, he said. ``This is a spectacular find,'' said Munoz, whose team of nine students is still working in the remote area near the city of Neuquen, 640 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. Munoz said his team would continue to dig until the end of the month before returning to the museum to clean and classify what they uncovered. The scientists plan to officially release their findings in March in an Argentine paleontology magazine. John McIntosh, a dinosaur expert at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., said in a telephone interview that if the new creature truly did reach 167 feet in length, ``it certainly would be the largest dinosaur yet recorded.'' But paleontologists say there are different ways of measuring the biggest dinosaur, which might add some controversy to the Patagonia discovery. Though possible shorter, the 100-ton Argentinosaurus would have been as much as 10 times heavier than the new dinosaur, according to scientists' estimates. And in November, researchers at the University of Oklahoma reported the discovery of a 60-ton, 60-foot tall giraffe-like creature that lived 100 million years ago along an ancient seacoast in what is now the south-central United States. Those measurements would give that dinosaur, called Sauroposeidon, the greatest height and longest neck \ufffd 40 feet \ufffd of any recorded species, researcher Richard Cifelli said."}, {"response": 48, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (21:02)", "body": "i heard about that one on the news and for some reason thought this and the one up for auction were the same. guess i was wrong! a 40 ft long neck?"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (21:41)", "body": "You don't want to imagine a sore throat... Annette...Response 45 is about Sue. I Finally found the female. T-Rexes are very confusing. They all look alike..."}, {"response": 50, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (08:24)", "body": "LOL, the female of the species is the largest (T-Rexes, guys! :-) )...but, it seems there might could have been different sizes within the species, male and female. I am digging desperately for an article that I cut out of our local newspaper, last year, re: the unearthing of a specimen which appeared to be T-Rex, at first, but, the head resembled that of a crocodile! I think that the dig took place in or around the Gobi desert. This species was thought to have actually used it long jaws to pluck fish and other small animals out of the rivers, similar to herons, and other water bir s...birds...?? (*wink!) Does anyone remember reading about that or seeing anything regarding it?"}, {"response": 51, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (09:16)", "body": "http://jurassic.unicity.com/ Good Luck! ;)"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (13:14)", "body": "I have no memory off-hand regarding the incredible crocodile-headed dino, but I would not be surprised. The Gobi Desert is where most of the American Museum's fossils came from including that gigantic T-Rex I remember from childhood. Once upon a time it must have been one enormous swamp teaming with animals I do not ever wish to meet tooth-to-tooth. Thanks for the URL..."}, {"response": 53, "author": "laughingsky", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (11:06)", "body": "Has anyone tried the game, yet? (the URL that I listed above...) I am not much of a gamer, which probably explains why I keep getting eaten by the Velociraptor...! Seems I can't make it to the next level...oh, well...maybe that is my fate, being lunch for the raptor, and all...;)"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar  2, 2000 (12:52)", "body": "No..I don't dare. That is not my thing, and if I get going on it I could really mess up my latent Carpal-Tunnel problem. Typing for 16 hours a day is about all I can handle. Not much of a gamer, actually, but I'll bet there are some out there with kiddies who might like to try it. *lol* You must be very tasty!!!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (10:03)", "body": "ok, this may be old news (haha, a pun, get it?), today's paper has an article about finding a carnivorous dinosaur larger than t-rex, 45 ft bigger! can you imagine? the bones were found on the eastern slopes of the andes in south america."}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (13:12)", "body": "I heard that on the radio yesterday and spent considerable amount of time chasing it down. Never did find out anything before we had to leave for Baseball. Thanks for posting at least that much. Oxymoron for sure about the old news. *grin*"}, {"response": 57, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (13:36)", "body": "ok, then here's the whole article from the shreveport times: Scientists have discovered the bones of what could be the largest meat-eating dinosaur ever to walk the Earth--a needle-nosed, razor-toothed beast that may have been more terrifying than even the Tyrannosaurus Rex. A team of researchers from Argentina and North America unearthed the fossilized bones of as many as six of the previously unknown species in Patagonia, a desert on the eastern slopes of the Andes in South America. The discovery of the predators' graveyard challenges the theory that the largest meat-eaters were loners. It also raises the possibility that they lived and hunted in packs--which would make them even more terrifying to their prey. \"You always think of these things as being solitary--now we know they traveled in packs,\" said Philip Currie, one of two scientists to make the discovery. He works with the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada. Currie said the newly discovered species lived about 100 million years ago, and was heavier and had slightly shorter legs than the T-rex, which roamed North America. It had a tail and short front legs that were basically useless. The dinosaur also was characterized by a long, narrow skull and a jaw shaped like scissors. That suggests it could have dissected its prey with an almost surgical precision, \"where the Tyrannosaur had a nutcracker skull,\" Currie said. Researchers estimated the meat-eating giant was 45 feet longer, bigger than the reigning king of the carnivores, the 41-foot Gigantosaurus. The better-known T-rex was about 40 feet long. \"I think it would look just as nasty, if not worse,\" Currie said. She said the animal is apparantly related to the Gigantosaurus, but it's a new species and genus. ----- maybe i can find something on line. all msn news shows is stuff about the sun."}, {"response": 58, "author": "Ree", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (13:57)", "body": "Must have been difficult to have been such a huge beast with so many useless bits."}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (14:56)", "body": "Post a picture or send it to me and I'll post it if you find one. I have to leave for the Softball games in a little while. Thanks for the article. Amazing!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (15:06)", "body": "Maybe it dined on siesmosaurus, one of the largest herbovorous dinosaur fossils ever found."}, {"response": 61, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (22:11)", "body": "here is a rendition of the new beast, thanks to abcnews.com Courtesy of Robert F. Walters/Dinosaur Productions/AP Photo"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 11, 2000 (23:28)", "body": "Thanks wolfie. That critter is mostly head! An eating machine!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "Ree", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (06:09)", "body": "I wonder how those things managed to balance. I mean, it's got a huge head, it's arms are useless and it seems have such an akward spine. How could the spine hold all that weight? Amazing though, isn't it? Did you see that computer animated series about the dinosaurs? THat was GREAT!"}, {"response": 64, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (18:50)", "body": "Ree, that computer animated series WAS great. I hope they run it again! Speaking of such, on Discovery Channel this evening they are uncovering the Mammoth live from Siberia. Check your local schedules to see when it is on - it starts here at 6pm and re broadcasts at 9pm. It runs about 3 hours."}, {"response": 65, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (21:08)", "body": "that mammoth show is on right now (7-9CST)....will catch the beginning again at 9CST (back to back showing)"}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (21:19)", "body": "Thanks for that, Wolfie. I'll catch it at 6pm HST ( which is 11pm Eastern)"}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (21:21)", "body": "not a problem! they've got it out of the ice right now and showing his fur. amazing!!"}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (21:25)", "body": "Wow! Can't wait!....Must be really neat!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (21:31)", "body": "yeah, the stuff they've found is amazing. but am not gonna let the cat outta the bag, you'll just have to wait!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (21:35)", "body": "*sigh* we are always the last to know...*sigh* *Grin*"}, {"response": 71, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (21:40)", "body": "actually, i figured you'd be watching this right now too."}, {"response": 72, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (21:42)", "body": "\"Walking with Dinosaurs\" will premiere on the Discovery channel on Apr 16. be there!!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 12, 2000 (22:55)", "body": "Remind me again and I will be there! It starts in 4 minutes so logging off for the eveing.. G'night, Wolfie! It was great again *hugs*"}, {"response": 74, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (12:49)", "body": "so didja like it? (i was unable to watch the second showing)"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 13, 2000 (14:44)", "body": "I really loved it. I was spellbound and all nervous that they would not get it out of the pit before winter set in again... Thanks for not giving away the ending. When it was over I was all elated and looked over at the house male and said how much I had liked it. He said it was boring. Back to the computer! This man is clueless...*sigh* I can't wait till they let us know what they did discover from tests and such."}, {"response": 76, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (18:47)", "body": "the news just reported that monkey bones the size of a human thumb have been discovered in China. they say that this may change the way they look at how monkeys evolved and later humans (!!)....anyway, the bones are very very old (didn't catch how old they were)..."}, {"response": 77, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (18:54)", "body": "L O N D O N, March 15 \ufffd Scientists have discovered 45-million-year-old foot bones in China from an extinct primate that may fill in a missing branch of the evolutionary tree. Paleontologist Dan Gebo of Northern Illinois University said Wednesday the tree-dwelling, mouse-size animal, called Eosimias, could solve the hotly debated issue of the origins of higher primates \ufffd monkeys, apes and humans. \ufffdThese fossils for the first time actually bridge that anatomical gap between the lower primates and the higher primates,\ufffd Gebo said in a telephone interview. Fossil Provides Crucial Link Contrary to expectations, the bones of Eosimias were found in Asia, not Africa, and they are older and tinier than scientists thought they would be. Until now only jaws and teeth of Eosimias had been found. \ufffdThese fossils are much smaller than what other people had been thinking about in terms of the ancestral condition of higher primates,\ufffd said Gebo. On the evolutionary tree, the creatures are somewhere between prosimians such as lemurs and tarsiers, which leaped and clung to trees, and anthropoids such as monkeys, apes and humans, which walk on four or two limbs. \ufffdThey are half prosimians and half anthropoids. They really do make that connection. Much of the debate in the field has been to figure out which of those early prosimian fossil primates gave rise to anthropoids,\ufffd he said. \ufffdWe needed something that is 50-50 and that\ufffds what we think Eosimias is.\ufffd Gebo and other scientists from the United States and China discovered the fossils in a limestone quarry 100 miles west of Shanghai and along the Yellow River, about 350 miles southeast of Beijing. The finding was reported in the science journal Nature. Complex Anatomical Features The lack of physical evidence led to doubts about whether Eosimias was a primate, and if it was, where it fit into the family tree. \ufffdThe most interesting aspect of these new foot bones is that they represent a mosaic,\ufffd Gebo said. \ufffdThey possess primitive lower-primate features as well as several advanced or higher-primate characteristics.\ufffd Scientists from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology in Beijing contributed to the study. the above was from abcnews.com"}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "Fascinating stuff - thanks for posting it, Wolfie! At least it will show which way one branch of primates went...!"}, {"response": 79, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (19:12)", "body": "maybe they're related to the marmosettes (sp?)....."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (19:30)", "body": "or lemurs or other little primates witht he big starey eyes which l@@k so cute."}, {"response": 81, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (20:10)", "body": "can you imagine how cute these guys must've been?"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (20:39)", "body": "Incredible! I am smiling just thinking about them!"}, {"response": 83, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (22:02)", "body": "they have a terrible rendition of what the monkey might look like on msnews but i'm not gonna post it. the one on tv was cuter!"}, {"response": 84, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (22:08)", "body": "found a pic of the new monkey (that was on abc news):"}, {"response": 85, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (22:09)", "body": "can you imagine a primate this little?"}, {"response": 86, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (22:20)", "body": "i believe tamarins are the smallest primates existing today. they'll fit in your hand."}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (22:24)", "body": "That is Teeny indeed! Looks like the plastic ones kids get. It is adorable. I guess tamarinds are the tiniest ones now. How enchanting! Thanks for posting the picture - I had not seen it!"}, {"response": 88, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (22:24)", "body": "here's an informative website on the golden tamarin, who, btw, is an endangered species. i'll copy this info over to our ape topic as well. http://www.si.edu/glt/facts.htm"}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (13:16)", "body": "Cute and furry little dickens, isn't he?!"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 21, 2000 (12:57)", "body": "Space Science News for March 21, 2000 Scientists have discovered molecular buckyballs containing extraterrestrial helium from the era of the dinosaurs. The find comes from the global Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary layer. FULL STORY at http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast21mar_1.htm Buckyballs from Outer Space"}, {"response": 91, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 21, 2000 (18:36)", "body": "what in the heck is a buckyball?"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 21, 2000 (20:10)", "body": "Have you ever seen a geodesic dome on a sports arena or some such thing? Buckminster Fuller, an engineer/architect invented the structure and it has been since applied to all sorts of physics and chemistry. (I have a caller bugging my phone and I do not get them out here very often. Sorry if I sound rattled...I am!) I'll check it out on the web and post a picture!"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 21, 2000 (20:15)", "body": "Saying that about the geodesic dome, if you go to that URL I posted, you'll see the similarity. \" Fullerenes -- better known as \"buckyballs\" -- are hollow, cage-like molecules made of carbon atoms. They are named in honor of Buckminster Fuller, designer of the geodesic dome that resembles the molecule. This image shows how extraterrestrial gases such as helium can be trapped inside the fullerene cage. One view shows a broken bond, or open \"window,\" with an atom moving out through window. \" http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast21mar_1.htm"}, {"response": 94, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (13:42)", "body": "This isn't exactly right here but since David attenborough is the dinosaur bloke I guess it fits. I've added an brit/US glossary at the end.Film director Lord Attenborough locks himself out of his car and flies into a panic because he has an important ceremony to attend. Luckily his brother David passes by, and the movie-maker is certain he\ufffdll have a good suggestion to get him out of the scrape. \ufffdoh, darling, just in the nick of time! With all the horrible places you have had to visit, you must have learned a few survival tricks. Can you get me into my car?\ufffd \ufffdNo problem, stand aside\ufffd says Sir David. Then he steps forward and begins rubbing his trouser leg up against the car door. Within a few seconds there is a click and the door is opened. \ufffdDarling David, you\ufffdve done it! \ufffd declares the delighted Dickie. \ufffdBut do tell me, were you taught the secret by some isolated tribesman?\ufffd \ufffdNo, not really\ufffd said his smiling brother. \ufffdYou were just lucky that I am wearing my khaki trousers\ufffd. (Key: Richard Attenborough \ufffd movie director; David Attenborough \ufffd naturalist and \ufffdwalking with dinosaurs\ufffd etc. movie maker. Trousers = pants. Khaki \ufffd dullish green colour, pronounced \ufffdcar key\ufffd in Brit English)"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (15:00)", "body": "LOL....You had me going until I wondered about the Khaki trousers (we call'um trousers too, on occasion, and Khaki is a very popular color here now as is olive drab (probably what you call khaki!) Thanks for another chapter in the Attenborough saga."}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (15:02)", "body": "Actually, more Americans might be curious about two men calling each other \"darling\"...!"}, {"response": 97, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (17:47)", "body": "Didn't you know - they're luvvies!!! IMHO all theatre people do it! ALL the time!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2000 (19:52)", "body": "...and they call eachother by diminutive names...dickie...larry...ralphy (you might know of whom I speak if you are a certain age and all that...!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (02:26)", "body": "who me??"}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (13:40)", "body": "Ah, you did not read all of Olivier's books then?!"}, {"response": 101, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (13:58)", "body": "books? - i thought he was an actor?"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (14:39)", "body": "Oh, My Dear! He was the first great love of my life. He wrote two books and I have about 7 others written about him. An actor? That's like saying Shakespeare was a writer or that Beethoven wrote music...*sigh* But, that is where I learnt about luvvies (though they were not called that when they were written)"}, {"response": 103, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (14:53)", "body": "I never knew that. I did sort of grow up with the teatre though. Wrote, produced and danced in my own ballet - the little mermaid."}, {"response": 104, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (15:01)", "body": "I AM impressed! Bet you were just as cute as the proverbial button, too *grin*"}, {"response": 105, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (15:22)", "body": "Gave it up when I was sixteen - back injury. gotta sweet photo somewhere I'll dig it out."}, {"response": 106, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (17:01)", "body": "I read somewhere that \"khaki\" was British Army slang for, ahem I'll be polite, crap. It got the name when when the Army stopped wearing their famous red coats and the new uniforms where this beige sort of color. The soldiers thought the color was like that of crap."}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (17:08)", "body": "Kaka is babytalk for it over here... think it was a contribution of another language other than English, though."}, {"response": 108, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (17:12)", "body": "Probably, the word was borrowed from another language. I think the khaki uniforms were first issued by the British Army to soldiers in India."}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (17:21)", "body": "Indeed! I just looked it up and it is Hindi for \"dust-colored\" in my Webester's Collegiate Dictionary."}, {"response": 110, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (13:51)", "body": "olive drab is the perfect color of baby stuff. and that's what we wear all over....khaki is tan over here and rather a nice color when compared to olive drab *smile*"}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (15:27)", "body": "Got that right, wolfie. On all counts, actually. I uderstand the wisdom of making uniforms the color of dirt in the locality - especially in a very dry area. However, wonder why they thought you'd get \"baby stuff\" all over you in the military - who uses olive drab more than any other color, I think!"}, {"response": 112, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (17:07)", "body": "I guess i really started something here!! *grin*"}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (17:54)", "body": "Just a little off-topic conversation to entertain us until the next dinosaur makes the newspaper and some kind soul posts it in here *grin*"}, {"response": 114, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 25, 2000 (20:33)", "body": "actually, the bdu (battle dress uniform) is effective in camoflauge. there are also desert uniforms that are various shades of khaki."}, {"response": 115, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (13:47)", "body": "OK here's the latest dinosaur dropping courtesy of The Times newspaper. One of the world's most important dinosaur skeletons has bee offered for sale over the internet for \ufffd15 million in a move that has appalled archeologists who fear historic specimens are being lost to private collectors. Alan Detrich and American fossil dealer, spent 2 half months digging up a 41 foot long 16 geet high tyrannosaurus rex with his brother, and is keeping it in his store house at Bend Point, Kansas. He claims to be close to selling what he says is the finest male tyrannosaurus in the world to a private buyer. Dietrich found the skeleton in south Dakota.'We found it in clay and sand which is why it is so well preserved' he said. 'We haven't cleaned it up yet becuase we figure the new owner can make money out of getting poeple to pay to see it being cleaned and prepared.' Paleontologists blame films and documentaries such as Jurassic park and the BBCs Walking with Dinosaurs for boosting the market in fossils. Many specimens for sale come from the American West where large numbers of fossils are found. However, fossils from britain's premier dinosaur site on the Isle of Wight have disappeared from digs in the past few months while paleontologists were still working on the sites. Scientists are calling for tighter controls, and want the law which at present covers man-made archeological objects to be extended to the collection of fossils."}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (15:38)", "body": "Thanks, Maggie. Think that is the one we were discussing should belong to all mankind rather than some odd collector with more money than social conscience. There must be a huge black market in such finds - something I cannot imagine! Check Geo 2 for an interesting picture of Geologist David from his college days."}, {"response": 117, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (21:22)", "body": "went and saw. how brave or crazy it must be to live near the vent (wrong topic but....)"}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2000 (21:39)", "body": "That is what we say when other volcanoes are erupting...then people look at us and shake their heads.... But, ours is so well-mannered...so far..."}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (20:40)", "body": "We're just a few dinosaurs short of a full tank By DAVE BARRY If you've been to a gas station lately, you have no doubt been shocked by the prices -- $1.67, $1.78, even $1.92. And that's just for Hostess Twinkies. Gas prices are even worse! Americans are ticked off about this and with good reason, our rights are being violated! The First Amendment clearly states: \"In addition to freedom of speech, Americans shall always have low gasoline prices, so they can drive around in 'sport utility' vehicles the size of minor planets.\" And don't let any so-called \"economists\" try to tell you that foreigners pay more for gas than we do. Foreigners use metric gasoline which is sold in foreign units called \"kilometers,\" plus they are paying for it with foreign currencies such as the \"franc,\" the \"lira\" and the \"doubloon.\" So in fact, there is no mathematical way to tell WHAT they are paying! But here in the US we are definitely getting messed over and the question is, what are we going to do about it? Step one, of course, is to file a class-action lawsuit against the cigarette companies. They have nothing to do with gasoline, but juries really hate them, so we'd probably win several hundred billion dollars. But that is a short-term answer. To truly solve this problem, we must understand how the oil business works. Like most Americans, you probably think that gasoline comes from the pump at the gas station. Ha ha! What an idiot. In fact, the gasoline comes from tanks located UNDER the gas station. These tanks are connected to underground pipelines which carry large oil tankers filled with oil from the Middle East. But how did the oil get in the Middle East in the first place? To answer that question, we must go back millions of years to an era that geologists call the Voracious Period, when giant dinosaurs roamed the Earth eating everything that stood in their path, except for broccoli which they hated. And then, one fateful day (Oct. 8), a runaway asteroid, believed by scientists to be nearly twice the diameter of the late Orson Welles, slammed into the Earth and killed the dinosaurs, who by sheer bad luck all happened to be standing right where it landed. The massive impact turned the dinosaurs, via a process called photosynthesis, into oil. This oil was then gradually covered with a layer of sand, which in turn was gradually covered by a layer of people who hate each other and thus the Middle East was formed. For many years, the Middle East was content to supply the United States with as much oil as we wanted at fair constitutional prices. But then the major oil-producing nations -- Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Texas -- got all snotty and formed an organization called OPEC, which stands for \"North Atlantic Treaty Organization.\" In the 1970s, OPEC decided to raise prices, and soon the United States was caught up in a serious crisis -- The Disco Era. It was horrible. You couldn't go to a bar or wedding reception without being ordered onto the dance floor to learn \"The Hustle.\" At the same time, we also had an oil crisis which was caused by the fact that every motorist in the United States was determined to keep his or her automobile gas tank completely filled at all times. As soon as your gas gauge dropped from full to fifteen-sixteenths, you'd rush to a gas station and get in a huge line with hundreds of other motorists who also had nearly full tanks. Also a lot of people, including me, saved on heating oil by buying kerosene space heaters which enabled us to transform a cold, dank room into a cold, dank room filled with kerosene fumes. Buying gas and dancing \"The Hustle\" with people who smelled like kerosene -- that was the seventies. So anyway, the oil crisis finally ended and over time we got rid of our Volkswagen Rabbits and replaced them with Chevrolet Suburbans boasting the same fuel economy as the World Trade Center. Now, once again, we find ourselves facing rising gas prices and the question is this time, are we going to learn from the past? Are we finally going to get serious about energy conservation? Of course not! We have the brains of mealworms! So we need to get more oil somehow. As far as I can figure, there's only one practical way to do this. That's right, we need to clone more dinosaurs. We have the technology, as was shown in two blockbuster scientific movies, \"Jurassic Park\" and \"Jurassic Park Returns with Exactly the Same Plot.\" Once we have the dinosaurs, all we need is an asteroid, or, if he is available, Marlon Brando. If this plan makes sense to you, double your medication dosage, then write to your congressperson. Do it now! That way you'll be busy when I siphon your tank."}, {"response": 120, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (11:29)", "body": "During the Voracious Period the broccoli plants were the size of oak trees and you should have seen those cabbages. Why do Americans think it their undisputable right to have access to cheap gasoline?"}, {"response": 121, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (16:17)", "body": "Cheryl, it is a complex problem. The US produces a great deal of oil. Alalska alone could supply us pretty well, but we cannot use it in the US - all of it is marked for export to Japan. (Don't ask!!). You don't think it is manipulated like DeBeers manipulates the prices of diamonds? Sooner or later we are gonna have to give up being greedy and share what we have - or use our own. America has rich natural resources. That is why. it is here and cartels are getting rich over selling cars which burn huge amounts of the stuff when they have already built the engines which would put them out of business. Power and Control. Don't blame the American tax-payers so quickly. It is a very difficult and tortuous situation. I'd be interested in hearing your suggestions on how to rememdy this problem."}, {"response": 122, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (18:59)", "body": "Maybe it's just a crazy theory, but could it be that George W's dad called on his Gulf War cronies to jack up the prices while his son runs for election? Bush can't win in a sparkling economy."}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (19:24)", "body": "Anything is possible, including your idea. It did not occur to me...but it certainly is plausible...scary!"}, {"response": 124, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (20:26)", "body": "Just a crazy idea. But who knows?"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (20:46)", "body": "Indeed! Crazier things than that have happened. All's fair in love, war, and politics, I hear...!"}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2000 (21:46)", "body": "John agrees that with such high stakes, anything goes; nothing is outside of the realm of possibility."}, {"response": 127, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 24, 2000 (00:24)", "body": "Protesters Knock 'Cents' Into Oil Company TORONTO (Reuters) - The annual meeting of Canada's biggest oil company, Imperial Oil Ltd., was disrupted briefly when protesters showered shareholders and directors with pennies. ``Outrageous! Esso penny pinches while Torontonians choke!'' yelled one person protesting the high sulfur content of Imperial's gasoline, marketed under the Esso brand. Exxon Mobil Corp. of Irving, Tex., owns 69.6 percent of Imperial. Imperial and several other Canadian oil companies have warned the Canadian government that implementing new, lower sulfur, regulations for gasoline would result in higher gas prices. Gasoline sold in Canada now has some of the highest sulfur levels among industrialized countries and Esso gas has the highest levels of sulfur in Canada, according to figures supplied to the government by Imperial. ``Come on Imperial can't afford to spend a penny a liter to clean up the gasoline, reduce smog and protect our children from asthma? Nonsense!'' three protesters shouted Thursday. Imperial Oil maintains it meets current government standards and is working to meet new requirements for cleaner gasoline by 2004, a year ahead of schedule. Lobby group Friend of the Earth said sulfur particles spewed from cars are the most health-damaging component of smog. The lobby group is calling for a boycott of Esso gasoline in the heart of summer driving season between Earth Day, April 22, and Labor Day. Sulfur in gasoline causes increased emissions of sulfur dioxide and sulfates particles from cars which can contribute to asthma, chronic heart or lung disease, said Trevor Hancock, chair of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, in a statement. The protesters were escorted out of the meeting without further incident. ``Well, for long time attenders, that was a change of pace,'' said Imperial Oil chairman Bob Peterson."}, {"response": 128, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (18:53)", "body": "Excuse me while I atempt to get my virtual foot out of my virtual mouth. I do take your point Marcia that American tax-payers have been and are continuing to be manipulated by businessmen and politicians. It's like Eisenhower said in his farewell speech as president, \"Beware of the military-industrial complex.\" I also know something of advertising and marketing. The American consumer is courted by the safety factor in driving an SUV. Yes, you are statisically and realistically safer in a larger vehicle than a small one. That is an important point, and it well used on consumers. Mass transit and rail travel were eviscerated in the US from circa 1946 through 1960 by the automobile industry. What was good for General Motors was good for America. GM wanted the interstate system and they got. The ruse which Congress used was National Security. The roads were there for use by the Army in case of national emergency. The laws were passed, the land appropriated. The dream of two cars in every garage. The most famous of the mass transit scandals was the Red Car Scandal in Los Angeles. It's hard to believe but Los Angeles once had the most enviable mass transit system in America. The trolleys went everywhere, and the ran every 8 to 10 minutes. So this is the lifestyle of enormous petroleum consumption to which Americans have been conditioned by many factors. About the assertion that George W's daddy might have his cronies in the oil business pulling strings to affect the presidential election -- scary stuff. It is, however, plausible. The elder Bush was once the head of the CIA."}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (19:38)", "body": "Excellent points, Cheryl! (You did not have your foot in your mouth - you were provoking discourse!) As a non-driver (yup, there are still some of us out here) and on a finite island with everything fuel brought in by ship, we are very aware of the crippling effects of things we cannot control - such as strikes by longshoremen and such - and that we are at the mercy of the big boys when it comes to petroleum prices. We can hardly drive to the next state or the next island, for that matter for better prices. I would put nothing beyond the rich and powerful. Thanks for that well-considered post, dear!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (19:54)", "body": "You don't drive, wow! I never knew that. I guess it's easy to get around on a small island with a bike or a bus. One of my room mates at Quail Creek, Dora, walks or takes the bus everywhere. She got a job at Dell, which is real close by the house. Dora cleans the pool, mows the lawn, cleans the bath rooms, and vacuums the carpets. She was just out by the pool cleaning the bbq grills and the tarp. We like having Dora around here!"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (20:14)", "body": "You did not read my discourse with Alexander in Cultures on the subject?! He suggested it was because I had so many admirers circling for the honor of driving me places...but not the case, necessarily and not the reason, in this case. Dora sounds Heaven-sent. Be sure you tell her how nice she is making the place...(not too much or she'll ask for a raise, but...)"}, {"response": 132, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "i can't imagine life without my car. why do you think i drive to all my classes? (and to think i used to be afraid to go anywhere of distance)...."}, {"response": 133, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (21:13)", "body": "You've gotta have a car in Austin, but I can see where it wouldn't be that desireable on a small island."}, {"response": 134, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (22:01)", "body": "Guess I'd better avoid Austin...or get me a chauffeur..."}, {"response": 135, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (06:47)", "body": "Actually, there's a pretty good bus system here. It just takes longer to get places. I've enjoyed the bus rides I've taken around town, just not the waits at the bus stops. And there are some good bike trails."}, {"response": 136, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (19:31)", "body": "...I had thought to visit, sometime. Perhaps I should bring my own driver."}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (19:33)", "body": ""}, {"response": 138, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (20:46)", "body": "Mega-Artichokes to Power Homes? LONDON (Reuters) - Spanish farmers are growing three-meter high artichokes for burning in special power stations to produce electricity, the Independent newspaper reported on Thursday. The genetically-modified monster vegetables, which boast seven meter roots, will be generating power for 60,000 people when operations in the northern towns of Villabilla de Burgos and Alcala de Gurrea begin in two years. The newspaper said twin power stations will burn 105,000 tonnes of the dried and pulped Cynara Cardunculs each year. Farmers were persuaded to sow the prickly plant by EU subsidies and price guarantees from the electricity generator. Burning plants for energy is not a new idea, but the biomass sector has seen a revival in recent years as environmental concerns rise. While there are already a number of biomass schemes in Europe they often struggle to compete commercially with other green energy schemes. An Irish scheme to burn cannabis as a fuel foundered last year because of it was considered too expensive compared with wind power projects."}, {"response": 139, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (21:28)", "body": "Wow, pot powered cities."}, {"response": 140, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (21:46)", "body": "Can you see the Chamber of Commerce ads now? Stressed? Come to PotTown and take a deep breath. Or something like that, anyway. I gather they are gonna burn industrial waste from the fiber hemp plant and not the mind-altering sort."}, {"response": 141, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sat, Apr 29, 2000 (16:44)", "body": "Burning cannabis for electricity. That doesn't seem to likely in the US. Can you hear the political debate on that one. What would the Religious Right make of that? I mean no offense to those posting who hold conservative views. It's just that it would fuel (pardon the pun) debate. Fun fact: both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis on their plantations. It was an ordinance in Virginia. So much acreage had to be planted in hemp. It was used for rope and sailcloth for the sailing ships of the era."}, {"response": 142, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 29, 2000 (17:08)", "body": "Like I said before somewhere (here?), the Hawaii Visitors Bureau could advertise that the air here is not only clean but is stress-relieving. Our public workers don't get much work done now...can you imagine the Polynesian Paralysis which would ensue downwind of the power plant?! Lest someone get the wrong idea about the industrial hemp grown by our founding fathers, it contains so little of the stuff which makes marijuana so popular, that it is not worth mentioning. That, however, would not keep the rabid right from attacking it just on the name Hemp alone. I agree!"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 15, 2000 (12:48)", "body": "Fossil gives clues into T. rex's behavior CHICAGO (AP) - In ''Jurassic Park,'' the terrified kids held perfectly still so a hungry celluloid Tyrannosaurus rex couldn't detect them. In reality, scientists say, they would've been lunch meat. CT-scanning of the desk-sized skull of Sue, the most complete T. rex fossil ever found, suggests the supreme carnivore in North America 65 million years ago had acute senses. Its forward-pointing eyes provided a wide field of view, and ear structures suggest it could hear well. But Sue's key advantage was smell. Its olfactory bulbs were grapefruit-sized. The skull opening for the bundle of olfactory nerves leading to the brain is wider than the spinal cord. ''The olfactory bulbs are larger than the cerebrum,'' said paleontologist Chris Brochu of the Field Museum of Natural History, the only scientist to have extensively examined the Sue fossil. The dinosaur ''smelled its way through life,'' he said. Sue's skeleton will be unveiled at the Field Museum on May 17 after nearly three years of cleaning and assembly. For now, it is off-limits to outsiders. Brochu has yet to reveal many details. At a recent paleontology meeting, he said it was unlikely that the bones, however complete, would settle key debates about the superstar of dinosaurs. Among them: T. rex's color and vocalizations, whether it was warm-blooded, hunter or scavenger, male or female. Others are more hopeful. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. of the University of Maryland examined Sue briefly before it was auctioned in 1997, but key parts were still jacketed in protective plaster. ''The complete tail of a T. rex has not yet been described,'' he said. ''I would like to see if the furcula, or wishbone, is present.'' Peter Larson, president of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, S.D., directed the fossil's excavation in 1990. He spent two years examining the bones until they were seized by federal agents in a legal dispute. He believes the Sue fossil is an older female. Among predatory birds, fish and insects, females are larger than males, he notes. Sue has a wider pelvis that would accommodate egg-laying. And, similar to crocodile anatomy, she lacks an extra bone that male crocs and smaller, presumably male T. rex skeletons both have. Reading behavior based on bones is trickier. Sue's teeth are foot-long cylinders with serrated edges. Her stomach contents included acid-etched bones of a duckbilled dinosaur. Other T. rex remains include bones from triceratops and other plentiful herbivores. A T. rex gulped everything and relied on a powerful digestive tract to process bone and horn. In the movies, T. rex is a solitary killer. But many scientists believe the real-life carnivores hunted in packs. Evidence? The Sue excavation also yielded juvenile and infant T. rexes in the same location. Long before dying, Sue suffered a broken left leg that was slow to heal. ''She couldn't have hunted on it,'' Larson said. ''I think her mate helped her.'' How did Sue die? T. rexes fought each other, probably over territory, food and mates. Embedded in Sue's ribcage is the tooth of another T. rex. The left side of the skull is smashed, with holes along her jaw. Brochu doubts it is evidence of a fatal encounter. The holes don't line up with the bite of a T. rex, he said. Larson disagrees. ''In her last fight she didn't do so well,'' he said. T. rex might have ruled North America in the late Cretaceous Period. But on the roster of the biggest and baddest dinosaurs, some formidable predators are emerging around the world. In March, scientists announced the discovery in Argentina of a yet-to-be-named meat eater that lived 100 million years ago. At 45 feet, it was 10% longer than T. rex. It had a long, narrow skull with scissor-like jaws, whereas the T. rex had nutcracker jaws. ''It probably attacked and dismembered its prey with a surgical precision,'' said Phil Currie of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada. ''T. rex was a creature of brute force.'' In 1998, researchers in central Africa found Suchomimus tenerensis. It was as large as a T. rex, but it prowled 30 million years earlier. Its pointy crocodile-like jaw sported 100 teeth. It also had 16-inch sickle claws. In Argentina, Gigantosaurus was discovered in 1995. It weighed 50% more than T. rex and was a contemporary of Suchomimus about when Africa and South America were connected. It had thin, flat teeth like daggers."}, {"response": 144, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 24, 2000 (18:31)", "body": "HERE WE GO AGAIN The price of gasoline is going up again. The latest Lundberg Survey shows that gas prices went up by five cents over the past two weeks. Nationwide, the average price for a gallon of self-serve regular last Friday was $1.58.41. Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the survey, says the two main reasons for the higher prices are higher prices for crude oil and a new federal requirement that refineries turn out more environmentally friendly gasoline. Refineries have taken steps to produce \"greener\" gas by reducing sulfur content and cutting down on other pollutants in the final product. Prices dropped over the past two weeks in some states, such as California, where stricter emissions standards have already forced refiners to produce \"greener\" gas."}, {"response": 145, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jun 18, 2000 (22:07)", "body": "saw an interesting show on discovery today: two dinosaur experts had opposite theories concerning our beloved T. Rex. was the t. rex a scavenger or a predator. both really held up their theories with what is known about scavengers and predators today. for example, t. rex has a better sense of smell than of sight. how does this influence whether they were scavengers or predators? i don't know but they thought it was significant. most predators today have excellent eyesight as well as smell. also, the teeth played a role in their theories but i only heard the predator theory of where the teeth curved inward so for a critter to attempt escape, they'd have to (ironically) go down the t. rex's throat. of course, i'm no expert. but does t. rex being a predator or a scavenger seriously affect our whole idea of dinosaurs and rearrange the \"givens\" significantly? (unfortunately, i didn't see the conclusion of the show)."}, {"response": 146, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (00:51)", "body": "Did not see it. However, considering the musculature in the hind legs T-rex would almost certainly have been a preditor. Who needs legs like those to run down a dead animal?"}, {"response": 147, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (09:11)", "body": "curious. i think an animal like the t. rex could have his meal anyway he'd like it-dead or alive. *grin*"}, {"response": 148, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (15:30)", "body": "I think he was probably an opportunist as well as a predator. you are right!"}, {"response": 149, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (16:46)", "body": "Even today predators will scavenge when they can. Lions are prime examples of this. They are adept hunters, but aren't beneath driving another animal off its kill. That's one of the reasons leopards carry their kills into trees; so it won't be stolen by lions. Lions are too large to climb and leopards are the most athetic of the cats."}, {"response": 150, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (17:35)", "body": "Indeed!"}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 29, 2000 (19:26)", "body": "Science News - Week of June 24, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 26 Overlooked fossil spread first feathers S. Milius A new look at a fossil that had been lying in a drawer in Moscow for nearly 30 years has uncovered the oldest known feathered animal, says a team of U.S. and Russian researchers. First honors go to the 10-inch-long, lizardlike Longisquama insignis, which is not a dinosaur itself but a related ancient reptile, say Terry D. Jones of Oregon State University in Corvallis and eight colleagues. It sported six to eight pairs of long, narrow feathers on its back, the researchers argue in the June 23 Science. The creature didn't fly but may have been able to glide from tree to tree, they suggest. Longisquama dates from some 220 million years ago, at least 75 million years before Archaeopteryx, the first known bird, the researchers note. They don't claim that Longisquama gave rise to birds, explains coauthor Alan Feduccia of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. However, he says, the fossil \"points toward the right time to look for the ancestors of birds.\" More... http://www.sciencenews.org/20000624/fob2.asp"}, {"response": 152, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May 18, 2001 (10:03)", "body": "I hear there's a new Jurassic Park movie due out this summer. They crash on another island full of 'saurs. Ya' think they would have learned . . ."}, {"response": 153, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, May 18, 2001 (19:34)", "body": "i heard that too!"}, {"response": 154, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May 18, 2001 (23:44)", "body": "And what do you want to bet, they will chased by dinosaurs?"}, {"response": 155, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, May 20, 2001 (00:36)", "body": "Can't wait .......Grin"}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 21, 2001 (00:15)", "body": "And, more parents will take little kids to see the cute little dinosaurs and have the living whatevers scared out of their little skulls full of mush. Sounds like a sure thing, to me!"}, {"response": 157, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, May 23, 2001 (20:01)", "body": "Marcia, do I detect a hint of irritation and disapproval of those computer generated dinos and \"The Jurassic Park\" franchise?"}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (01:32)", "body": "Moi?! Not at all. This is America where parents give their kids money instead of raising them properly. Let um go get the Beejeepers scared out of um. Mine is all raised and can hold his own hand if he is scared in the dark! Seriously, I did hear that little kids, who were hooked on dinosaurs, got their parents to take them to Jurassic Park movie and it is not for little kids! I have seen none of the movies and probably will not see them. Rather read a good book than watch mechanical dinosaurs. Just my 'umble opinion. Has anyone seen this stuff and is it fit for kiddies?"}, {"response": 159, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (02:09)", "body": "Well, I have to admit I enjoyed the first movie ..and look forward to the second. Actually the dinosaurs were pretty good ... for mechanical items ....Enjoyed a very good expose on TV on how they made them."}, {"response": 160, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (19:59)", "body": "the whole family enjoyed the movie. but, my kids understand the \"it's all pretend\" part and though we jumped at the appropriate moments, my son still wanted themed bed linen. parents just need to be involved and not let these movies and tv's become babysitters. we enjoy going to the movies together."}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 24, 2001 (20:23)", "body": "I did see the program about how they did the dinosaurs. perhaps it is just me with no kiddies to take along. I am relieved to know seen under the right parental accompaniment, that it is a good bit of entertainment. I guess I am still hoping to see real ones..."}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (14:48)", "body": "Did anyone know they are filming the new Jurassic Park movie here on the Big Island? Lots of locals are being used for extras, but you won't see me. /\\~~~"}, {"response": 163, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (14:56)", "body": "Oh, come on, Marci, do it!"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (15:12)", "body": ""}, {"response": 165, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (15:14)", "body": "correcting spelling on the above post: Terry, they requested Wild long unkempt hair for the locals (guess they wanted us to be the savages or some other indignity) and I think they specified in some politically correct way that they also wanted Someone with much darker skin and nappier hair than I have. Alas, you may have to wait for another movie. Our car with me inside was in a Debra Winger grade zilch movie some years ago, \"The Black Widow\" I think it was called. They used Hilo Junior High School for the court house. It was fun to watch!"}, {"response": 166, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (16:35)", "body": "(they were filming outside the gym while I was on the bike the other day ...dunno what but I did see one character looking like a panto dame so it was probably a Christmas thingy ..oh the gym is on the Thames at Marlow ..where Steve Redgrave comes from Marcia!)"}, {"response": 167, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (17:10)", "body": "Scientist: Brazil Dinosaur Find May Be Oldest Yet By Carlos DeJuana SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - A Brazilian (news - web sites) paleontologist said on Friday he may have discovered a new ``strange'' prehistoric reptile, which, if proven to be a dinosaur, could be the oldest one ever found. The creature, which had a 12-inch-long head and was about 8 feet long, appears to be about 235 million years old -- placing it on the edge of the middle and high Triassic period, said Jorge Ferigolo of the Rio Grande do Sul Zoobotanical Foundation. Discovered in Brazil's southern Rio Grande do Sul state in February, the fossil shows signs that appear to make it either a very old dinosaur or very evolved thecodont, which were early pre-dinosaur reptiles. ``If it is a dinosaur, it's a pretty strange one,'' Ferigolo told Reuters by telephone from his office in the city of Porto Alegre. The fossils were found about 155 miles (250 km) west of the city. ``We still can't tell if it's a dinosaur or not,'' he added. ''If it was a dinosaur, it would have been the world's oldest.'' He said the carnivorous creature appears to have walked on the flat of its foot, like a thecodont, and not on its toes, like most dinosaurs. However, early examination of the fossils also showed dinosaur-like traits in its backbone and skull. The fossils, which were found alongside two other creatures of the same species, are most similar to the Coelophysis -- a type of flesh-eating North American dinosaur that weighed about 35-65 pounds (16-30 kg). But Ferigolo said it's still not clear whether the new find walked on four legs or on two, like Coelophysis. He hopes to be able to publish his first finds in at least a year. ``The south of Brazil and northern Argentina is where the dinosaurs were born, it's where you find some of the most ancient dinosaurs. So it wouldn't be so strange if it was (a dinosaur),'' said Sergio Azevedo, a paleontologist at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro. A number of important dinosaur fossils have been found in Brazil and Argentina in recent years, including last year's discovery of the Santanaraptor, one of the oldest dinosaurs in the world and predecessor to its more famous cousin, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Azevedo agreed the fossils needed to be further studied. ``If it's really a primitive dinosaur, it's pretty important,'' he said. ``If it's not, it's also great. If it's a thecodont, it is still a good piece of information.''"}, {"response": 168, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (17:11)", "body": ""}, {"response": 169, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, May 25, 2001 (17:14)", "body": "Friday May 25 1:14 PM ET U.S. Museum Unveils Computer-Enhanced Triceratops By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With a bigger skull, better posture and a computer-engineered look, a 65-million-year-old Triceratops began its latest incarnation this week at the U.S. Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. The Triceratops, an elephant-sized vegetarian dinosaur with two big horns above its eyes and a bony ruff around its neck, probably lived in what is now Wyoming when it walked the earth, said museum paleontologist Ralph Chapman. Its skeleton had been on display at the Smithsonian since 1905, and conservators noticed about two years ago that the bones were literally decaying from the inside out. They decided to take the bones down from their metal supports and to use new technology to capture each bone on a computer. Chapman was in charge of what came to be known as the virtual Triceratops. Using a laser scanner and other devices, Chapman said he and others got detailed images of every available bone in the skeleton. They found that at least a dozen different Triceratops were used to make the original exhibit. From these images, they built miniature copies of the Triceratops, about one-sixth actual size. These were used to help paleontologists and other researchers figure out how the bones went together, which would have been impossible with the decaying but still unwieldy full-sized bones. What they found made big changes in how the Triceratops would be exhibited, Chapman said in a telephone interview. The Triceratops skull the exhibit used to have was too small to belong with the body; Chapman said it was the head of a younger, smaller dinosaur. The museum's researchers believed that the younger animal was probably at a stage where the proportions would have been the same as it matured and grew, so they made a new head to fit with the body based on the old head's measurements. The old head was about 6 feet long, while the new one measures about 7 feet. From nose to tail, the skeleton measures about 21 feet, Chapman said. ``It's an impressive animal with this big head,'' Chapman said. Exhibited right across from a skeleton of the carnivorous Tyrannosaurus rex, the Triceratops looks as if it might hold its own, he said: ``The Tyrannosaurus would probably have avoided it.'' Researchers also realized that the back feet were all wrong; in fact, they belonged to a duck-footed dinosaur, according to Chapman. These were changed to more accurately reflect the Triceratops. The dinosaur's posture was also changed from its earlier state, which had the front end ``more sprawled'' than it is now, Chapman said. ``The animal looks like a real animal,'' he said. ``It looks like if you were to look at the skeleton of a rhino or a horse or a cow ... It's lovely.''"}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, May 26, 2001 (23:33)", "body": "Oooh have you seen him? Thanks for posting. Your little town is so pretty it should be in all the archetypal English movies... *Looking for Maggie in the extras*"}, {"response": 171, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, May 27, 2001 (09:33)", "body": "Early Preview of JPI: Dinosaur Field Guide A few lucky site readers got a chance to review a copy of the upcoming \"Jurassic Park Institute: Dinosaur Field Guide, the first in a new series of JP3 tie-ins about the science of dinosaurs. The book, written by several dino experts, will be released June 12. Here's Jordan Mallon's review: At first glance, the book seems rather smallish, although it does contain a good 160 pages of text. It starts off with an essay written by the authors (Dr. Thomas Holtz Jr. and Dr. Michael Brett-Surman) called \"Why Are Dinosaurs So Popular?\" This commentary is followed up by an article on the dinosaurian timeline and other typically paleontology-related topics (including \"Finding Fossils\", \"How to Draw Dinosaurs\", \"How Dinosaurs Are Classified\", etc.) The bulk of the book, however, consists of what is basically a large dinosaur dictionary, featuring some 100 genera. Each dinosaur has at least one page dedicated to its history, trivia, friends/enemies, and even \ufffdfun facts\ufffd. (Did you know that _Psittacosaurus_ has horns on its cheeks called \ufffdjugal horns\ufffd?) Interestingly, some of the old dinosaur inaccuracies made in the JP series are also clarified, which is something any paleo-buff can appreciate. (_Velociraptor_ was only 1.5 feet tall at the hips! Ahem! Excuse me.) Some non-dinosaurian animals are also listed in the back, such as the pterosaurs, mosasaurs, and other archosaurian relatives. The dinosaur paintings are beautifully executed by professional paleolife artist Robert Walters, and I think the book is worth buying for his illustrations alone. If not that, then perhaps some of the readers might enjoy looking at some of the screen shots taken from the JP movies, including the upcoming Jurassic Park 3 film. Most interestingly, the Field Guide also contains a \ufffdfree dinosaur poster\ufffd inside! It\ufffds basically an illustrated list of all the dinosaurs in the book and features the Jurassic Park Institute logo at the top. At any rate, that\ufffds about it review-wise. The back of the book lists a website to go to if you\ufffdre looking to \ufffdbegin an adventure of a lifetime.\ufffd It can be found at www.jpinstitute.com, although it is not yet open to the public (I tried!). Overall, I\ufffdd say this book is easily one of the most accurate and up-to-date works for children, although I would think that even most adults would enjoy this one too. It\ufffds not clich\ufffdd like some of the older dinosaur books, and I feel it\ufffds well worth the $10.99 pricetag. http://www.dansjp3page.com/index2.asp"}, {"response": 172, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, May 27, 2001 (09:35)", "body": "And from the same site: New JP3 Theater Display Spotted Nate wrote in to say that he spotted a JP3 standee last night at his local theater, which he describes as \"HUGE -- at least 8 or 10 feet tall, and 16 to 18 feet long. It was made of a thick cardboard and it was just a huge image like the new posters that are out, with the JP3 logo and then the wing span of the [pteranodon] across it. It was awesome, that was all there was too it, but it looked like from a distance that there actually could be a dino flying over head and that was the actual shadow it was casting, that is how big this thing is. The display was in 4 panels, and it had the sturdy supports in the back of it to hold the beast up. All I can say is I will be waiting in line to take this home the moment they want to throw it away, the only problem is, I dont think I have any where to put it, more over a car or van large enough to bring it home! \" Hey, I want one!"}, {"response": 173, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, May 27, 2001 (14:53)", "body": "i saw previews when i went to the theatre on friday....it looks good."}, {"response": 174, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, May 27, 2001 (17:38)", "body": "Wow, the previews are out already."}, {"response": 175, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 27, 2001 (19:02)", "body": "I want one too. Would be great with the Volcano erupting for a backdrop. Sounds amazing. I think this one I will do to see!"}, {"response": 176, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Jun  1, 2001 (07:37)", "body": "Thursday May 31 2:05 PM ET http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20010531/sc/science_dinosaur_dc_1.html Fossil of Gargantuan Dinosaur Unearthed in Egypt By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fossilized remains of a gargantuan plant-eating dinosaur, the second most massive animal ever to walk the Earth, have been unearthed in a desert oasis in Egypt at a site that eons ago was a lush coastal paradise, researchers said on Thursday. The discovery of a partial skeleton of Paralititan stromeri was made by 31-year-old University of Pennsylvania doctoral student Joshua Smith, who went on a dinosaur hunt at a remote site that had yielded spectacular finds in the first half of the 20th century in expeditions led by German paleontologist Ernest Stromer von Reichenbach. But the fossils of the four new dinosaurs Stromer uncovered were lost to the world during World War Two when British warplanes bombed the Bayerische Staatssammlung museum during a raid over Munich on April 24, 1944. Stromer's excavation site remained largely ignored in the decades since then. Paralititan (pronounced pah-ral-ih-TY-tan and meaning ''tidal giant'') lived 94 million years ago during the middle of the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic Era. The long-necked, long-tailed quadruped looked much like the familiar Brontosaurus (formal name Apatosaurus) that lived tens of millions of years earlier, except that its back may have been studded with bony body armor as protection from predators. The finding was published in the journal Science. ``It was an enormous dinosaur by anybody's reckoning,'' Smith, who was 29 when he found it, said in an interview. ``We think that a large individual might have massed about 70 tons, 75 tons maybe and it might have approached 100 feet in length. As far as tall, stack four African elephants on top of each other. That's about the height. It would look through a third-story window without much problem.'' FIRST RUNNER-UP IN THE WEIGHT CATEGORY The only dinosaur known to be heavier than Paralititan is Argentinosaurus, which looked much like the new dinosaur (both are classified as titanosaurid sauropods) but is estimated to have been about 7 percent more massive. The remains of only one example of these two colossal dinosaurs exist. Smith found the partial skeleton preserved in fine-grained sediments full of plant remains and root casts in the Bahariya Oasis in the Sahara desert some 180 miles southwest of Cairo. He said the evidence suggests that the arid Bahariya site once resembled the tropical mangrove coasts of Florida, a low-energy, shallow water area of tidal flats and tidal channels. He compares it to the Everglades. And based in part on Stromer's earlier finding of three massive carnivorous dinosaurs at the site, Smith said the area must have been teeming with life. Smith believes the massive herbivore was standing on the edge of a tidal channel in very shallow water when it died. His team also found evidence that the carcass had been scavenged by a flesh-eating dinosaur, including a tooth that may come from Carcharodontosaurus, whose name means ''shark-tooth lizard'' and whose size, 45 feet (13.5 meters) long, was comparable to Tyrannosaurus rex. In addition, the pelvis was ripped apart as if it had been eaten. It's unclear whether Paralititan lost a life-or-death struggle with the predator or became a meal after dying for other reasons, Smith said. ``All we know is that the animal died and somebody came along and munched on it.'' PARTIAL REMAINS FOUND Smith said the skeleton of Paralititan is only 20 to 25 percent complete. Most impressive is a humerus (upper forelimb bone) that measures 6 foot, 7 inches long. The remains also include several vertebrae, ribs and both shoulder blades. The Penn team also found fossils of fish, sharks, turtles, marine reptiles and other dinosaurs. Dumb luck played a role in the discovery, Smith admits. He and University of Pennsylvania graduate student Matthew Lamanna, who at age 25 is a co-author of the study, dreamed up the idea of finding the sites that had been so productive for Stromer, who worked there extensively starting in 1911. Smith said in 1999 he tagged along on another Penn expedition to Egypt and was given all of two days to search for dinosaurs. Another problem was finding the Stromer's exact site because he did not leave behind any maps or directions. Scientific literature found in Cairo pointed the way, but Smith ended up in the wrong place anyway. But as luck would have it, on Feb. 23, 1999, Smith spotted from the window of his Toyota Land Cruiser three pieces of Paralititan's forelimb. He said he may have stumbled on ``dinosaur heaven,'' adding: ''Nobody thought for a second that we'd find anything, including me. Paralititan was the first thing we found the first morning we looked. It's just ridiculou .''"}, {"response": 177, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun  2, 2001 (22:53)", "body": "Just when we thought it could not get any bigger...! Thanks Maggie! That is amazing!"}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (16:29)", "body": "From Maggie, who is really allowed to post her own stuff... *sigh* Just finished watching today's report of the five-day dinosaur dig at the isle of Wight. here's the web site for you ......do look ..it's fascinating. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/dinosaur_island/index.shtml"}, {"response": 179, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (10:43)", "body": "There's a story in the news conference today about a Kimono lizard, perhaps it should have been in this topic. You'll gasp when you read it."}, {"response": 180, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (14:26)", "body": "Here's Terry's story about the Komodo Dragon. They eat people!!! Yeah, it's really weird and more than a little ghastly! Thanks, I think! Phil Bronstein, of SF Chronicle, is in the hospital after having been bitten (mauled sounds more like it) on the foot by a Kimodo Dragon at I forget which Zoo (LA I think). He was on a special just for him for father's day back stage tour of the zoo, esp. to see the Kimodo Dragon. Apparently he was wearing white sneakers and was told that they might appear to resemble the white mice fed to the Kimodo Dragon. So instead he was barefoot when he was attacked by said KD. Sounds like he's lost much of a big toe and is danger of umpteen different kinds of extemely nasty bacteria which can cause sepsis. Apparently there are left over particles of food in the KD's mouth which fester in nasty ways. This happened about a week ago. Here's the story: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/06/10/MN156967.DTL Should I have put this in the Jurassic Park topic? Isn't this the weirdest story?"}, {"response": 181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (14:47)", "body": "I think that is why they put \"Don't Feed The Animals\" Signs on the cages!"}, {"response": 182, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (16:37)", "body": "Not mentioned. The guy's married to Sharon Stone and the visit was a gift from her."}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun 15, 2001 (23:17)", "body": "That helps!!!"}, {"response": 184, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (11:07)", "body": "*laugh* i imagine that man's getting his share of vaccinations now."}, {"response": 185, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (11:40)", "body": "What was the movie Sharon Stone was in with Michael Douglas called, does sending her hubby in with an attack lizard remind you of this? Or maybe I'm thinking of Glenn Close? This white guy with white shoes and white socks takes them off so he'll be in his white as can be feet."}, {"response": 186, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (13:58)", "body": "oh, terry, i know what movie you're talking about...it was along the genre of romancing the stone (which had michael douglas and that other blonde lady--oh, i can't think of her name!)"}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (14:34)", "body": "Kathleen Turner, Wolfie. Yup I remember that movie to whihc Terry refers and I cannot think which it is."}, {"response": 188, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (17:54)", "body": "the one with glenn close and michael douglas was...hmmmm....now i can't remember that one either (have a whiny daughter in the background which may have messed up my brain files for the moment)...."}, {"response": 189, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (18:10)", "body": "errr.....Fatal Attraction???"}, {"response": 190, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (20:22)", "body": "Uh Huh!!! Our resident Babe expert comes to the rescue!"}, {"response": 191, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (20:30)", "body": "That's it."}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (21:27)", "body": ""}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (21:27)", "body": "Go to http://www.discovery.com and punch in your zip code- they will give you a list of what dinosaurs used to live in your area."}, {"response": 194, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (21:30)", "body": "cool!"}, {"response": 195, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (21:33)", "body": "mine came up with sauropods..."}, {"response": 196, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (23:00)", "body": "Allosaurus and Tenontosaurus here."}, {"response": 197, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 20, 2001 (01:07)", "body": "I want to know where my ichytheosaurs are!!! We are not nearly old enough. I think the machine looked at my zip in the middle of the ocean and BINGO. Had to be some sea-dweller."}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 20, 2001 (01:08)", "body": "WOW, Autumn, you got BIG stuff in your area. Great going!"}, {"response": 199, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jun 25, 2001 (16:37)", "body": "Yeah, well, you know what they say about big prehistoric dinosaurs in your area--we're overcompensating!!"}, {"response": 200, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jul  1, 2001 (16:01)", "body": "My neighborhood was once the home to Theropods and Ornithischians. They allegedly left footprints."}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  1, 2001 (18:43)", "body": "Wow! I have trod your sacred land and did not realize upon which I stepped. I think I dated one of those Ornithiscians, but how was I to know he was in a very old religious sect?! (They sound birdlike so I will be off to www.google.com to find them)"}, {"response": 202, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul  2, 2001 (19:43)", "body": "Please tell us more about the Ornithiscian you'd once dated and the arcane religious practices of their sect. That is if you don't have to kill the person(s) to whom divulge such information."}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul  5, 2001 (16:39)", "body": "*GRIN* I was sworn to secrecy, but it did involve a great deal of unbuttoning and attempts to rebutton faster than it was undone. As for the feathers... Perhaps that is best left to the imagnation."}, {"response": 204, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jul  8, 2001 (15:57)", "body": "Marcia, it seems it might have been a bit of a ticklish situation. *Grin* Say no more."}, {"response": 205, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul  9, 2001 (22:22)", "body": "*Laugh* Cheryl, I can tell you have been to college, too!"}, {"response": 206, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Jul 15, 2001 (04:34)", "body": "Welcome to this week's edition of DINOSAURNEWS. For the full story visit the FREE webzine at this address: http://www.dinosaurnews.org . The headlines: ** War victims include rare fossils Allied bombing in September 1943 damaged the Natural History Museum at Humbolt University in Berlin, home of the largest mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world, the mighty Brachiosaurus ** County chipping in for Sue skeleton A signed contract will end a month of nail biting by museum officials, who have been worried the deal would fall through ** Dino tracks par for course The West's past and its future came down to a gritty conversation Monday in an old clay mine here, where a golf course is pitted against dinosaur tracks. ** Eggs of dinosaur found Scientists from the Florentino Ameghino museum will continue to excavate the site in August in the hope of finding more nests as well as the skeletal remains of adult dinosaurs ____________________________________________________________________________ ___ Advertisement: SURVIVAL OR EXTINCTION The Dinosaur game NEW Package! Winner of 10 industry awards for quality and value! Ideal for ages 5 & up Become a dinosaur!! Learn to Survive! Fun for the whole family! In the DINOGAMES section http://www.dinosaurnews.org ____________________________________________________________________________ ___ ** Dinosaur special includes newly discovered species Among the new dinos featured are a two-legged, meat-eating member of the Coelurosaur species, yet unnamed, and Nothronychus, a bizarre, long-necked plant-eater ** Fossil being freed from ancient rock Project Prosauropod is enabling fossil fanciers with Internet access to watch the unearthing of a 200 million-year-old dinosaur's fossilized bones from the comfort of their own home. ** T-REX may throw paleontologists a bone Bone-hunting paleontologists will walk behind earthmoving equipment during the T-REX highway project, searching for fossilized plants and the remains of dinosaurs ** Dino Went Down to Georgia Recently, two of the world's most unusual dinosaur fossils went on display at that city's Fernbank Museum ** Dinosaur State Park plans eventful summer Dinosaurs will not be the only creatures making tracks at Dinosaur State Park this summer, according to a park spokesperson. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____ FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO DINOSAURNEWS - Send an email to subscribe@dinosaurnews.org ____________________________________________________________________________ ____ ** Day of the 'Dinosaur' Several leading paleontologists are gathering Sunday at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County for \"Dinosaur Discoverers,\" a five-hour-plus symposium ** Prints reveal dinosaurs may have hunted in packs It's the first evidence found in Africa to contradict the belief dinosaurs were solitary beasts ** This Month's Feature Website A Dinosaur's Neighborhood - What if a dinosaur, like this one, lived in your neighborhood?. Activity sheet from National Geographic ** Dinosaur Tracks - New Mexico QTVR Panoramas from New Mexico In conjunction with New Mexico State University. ____________________________________________________________________________ __ DINOSAURNEWS webzine with the latest Dinosaur Books, Dinosaur Games, Dinolinks and a Dinomall. Read something ferocious this week: http://www.dinosaurnews.org"}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 16, 2001 (17:19)", "body": "Wow!!! Dinosaur news! Thank you Maggie *HUGS* for posting this!"}, {"response": 208, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 24, 2001 (18:25)", "body": "watched the movie this weekend and i really liked it. i think the dinosaurs are cool and no nightmares for the kids!"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 24, 2001 (23:51)", "body": "I guess I got spoiled by seeing real ones all those years in the American Museum of Natural History. The archaeologist and paleontologist in me also rebels at putting feelings into these creatures. We have found so few of somes of them we have no idea how they lived. Yeah, I know. I just take the kids and be quiet. Only I don't have any kids to take. Too dark in there to read a good book...*sigh* I'm delighted you enjoyed it, Wolfie!"}, {"response": 210, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jul 25, 2001 (22:18)", "body": "i don't know if anyone can say exactly what these creatures did but i could hardly contain myself thinking about all the work that went into these creatures whose roars sounded like they came out of their mouths and the dilating pupils, and to think that T Rex was my fave out of all their critters. that's what amazed me the most!"}, {"response": 211, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 26, 2001 (01:07)", "body": "I was watching a special on the movie on Discovery Channel and there is a 1000 hp (one thousand horse power) motor running that T Rex. Check out that chariot that gets you to the grocery store. That whole movie represents Huge amounts of money. Whether it might have been better used is a question I will not even think of answering. I am delighted both you and the kids (or is it all of you kids?!) enjoyed it."}, {"response": 212, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 26, 2001 (18:58)", "body": "the kids and i enjoyed it while the big kid did not."}, {"response": 213, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 27, 2001 (16:04)", "body": "Big Kids are always the most difficult. I have one of my own, so I know... *HUGS*"}, {"response": 214, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2001 (15:39)", "body": "Marcia, could you imagine getting to the grocery store in a 1,000 hp motorized T.Rex. That could make the neighbors sit up and take notice. Wolfie, glad that you and the kids enjoyed the movie. I haven't seen it yet."}, {"response": 215, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul 29, 2001 (18:50)", "body": "In California, a 1000 hp T Rex is the ONLY way to get from point A to point B on the freeways. At least we would be intact. No guarantees on scratches or dents, though. Don't you wonder what something like that eats? Anything it wants!"}, {"response": 216, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Jul 30, 2001 (18:59)", "body": "Whenever it wants!"}, {"response": 217, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (19:02)", "body": "Some folks want to create Jurassic Park, literally, and plan to use the mammoth that was dug up to get it started. Check out this link: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/08/21/clone.mammoth/index.html"}, {"response": 218, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (19:17)", "body": "Oh yes! I had heard of that. Thanks for the link. I wonder why this is not showing up as active as Geo 22. Another puzzlement.b"}, {"response": 219, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 2004 (18:06)", "body": "found this article awhile back and am finally able to post it here. dinosaurs in germany: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=YR5L30SZNRRQMCRBAEOCFEY ? type=scienceNews&storyID=5609871"}, {"response": 220, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 27, 2004 (18:06)", "body": "copy and paste the entire link so you can go straight to the article (include stuff after the question mark)"}, {"response": 221, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Mar 26, 2005 (18:05)", "body": "A Major T. Rex Breakthrough Broken Bone Leads to Discovery of Soft Tissues By Guy Gugliotta Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 25, 2005; Page A01 Paleontologists have recovered what appear to be soft tissues from the thighbone of a 70 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex, potentially enabling dinosaur research to make a leap into studying the animals' physiology and perhaps even their cell biology, the research team said yesterday. Working with the remains of a T. rex unearthed in northeastern Montana's celebrated Hell Creek formation, the paleontologists spied the soft tissue when they were forced to break the thighbone into pieces to fit it aboard a helicopter."}, {"response": 222, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr  6, 2005 (13:24)", "body": "I can hear the cameras grinding already on Jurassic Park 42 (or whatever number this sequel is) - and now they have some faint glimmer of scientific truth to work with. Can Velociraptors be far behind?"}, {"response": 223, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 11, 2005 (19:21)", "body": "here's a new finding--dinosaur/crocodile... http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20051107/croc_din.html?source=msn_cml_news"}, {"response": 224, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Nov 12, 2005 (15:43)", "body": "Wasn't that a B grade movie \"Dinocroc\"?"}, {"response": 225, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Nov 12, 2005 (15:55)", "body": "probably, but now they've found that it existed!"}, {"response": 226, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 13, 2005 (17:45)", "body": "DB will love this creature. From the pictures I've seen, the teeth are amazingly ferocious. Scientists reveal prehistoric terror Thursday, November 10, 2005; Posted: 4:10 p.m. EST (21:10 GMT) (CNN) -- Scientists say they have discovered the intact fossilized skull of a marine crocodile with a dinosaur-like head and a fish-like tail that likely terrorized the Pacific Ocean 135 million years ago. The head of the expedition that found the specimen has dubbed it \"Godzilla.\" The fossil was discovered in 1996 in the Patagonia region of Argentina and researchers spent years uncovering the skull and analyzing their find. They published their work Thursday in the journal Science. more... http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/11/10/godzilla.find/index.html"}, {"response": 227, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 17, 2005 (17:50)", "body": "Is anyone watching Surface?"}, {"response": 228, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov 17, 2005 (19:44)", "body": "nope...."}, {"response": 229, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 17, 2005 (20:51)", "body": "Not I. How is it?"}, {"response": 230, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Nov 19, 2005 (22:53)", "body": "Pretty good. Think there's a topic in tv. I'll chat it up."}, {"response": 231, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 20, 2005 (15:53)", "body": "Put a link down and maybe you can get Geo lurkers to go there, too *;)"}, {"response": 232, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Nov 20, 2005 (17:50)", "body": "I created the topic in tv."}, {"response": 233, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 24, 2005 (13:45)", "body": "People who use Unix to read the web are basically lazy. I know. I did it for a while. It is just too difficult to cut and paste there so links never show up."}, {"response": 234, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  3, 2006 (20:39)", "body": "a complete dodo skeleton has been unearther: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,180208,00.html"}, {"response": 235, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  8, 2006 (10:28)", "body": "They are dead, I hear. Thanks Wolfie. There is a new study on-going about the Neanderthal to check DNA for a social upgrade. Perhaps they weren't so dumb and clumsy as once thought. I know for fact that at least one went to college. I dated him, once!"}, {"response": 236, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  9, 2006 (19:08)", "body": "*LAUGH*"}, {"response": 237, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jan 10, 2006 (22:50)", "body": "What was his major?"}, {"response": 238, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 13, 2006 (17:25)", "body": "You need to ask? HHD or phys ed as we called it way back then. That is Health and Human Development / physical education. Sports. They major in football. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 95, "subject": "Moon Mission", "response_count": 20, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 28, 2005 (22:23)", "body": "http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/09/19/space.moon/index.html WASHINGTON (Reuters/CNN) -- NASA unveiled plans on Monday to return humans to the moon by 2018 at a cost of $104 billion. http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/TECH/space/09/19/space.moon/story.nasa.moon.return.jpg"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Sep 29, 2005 (17:14)", "body": "Am I the only one excited by this? Because I had dinner with the first astronauts to walk on the moon? I wish them well at NASA and you can bet I'll be watching every step of the way!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Sep 29, 2005 (21:25)", "body": "we're going back to the moon? cool!! i don't wanna go but it's neat for those that do (i had forgotten about your dinner, marcia)......"}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (12:21)", "body": "But how we gonna do it? We got Iraq. We got KatrinaRita. Social Security. What's the payoff ecomically? Isn't Mars more exciting. Or do we have to have the moon to get to Mars?"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (12:22)", "body": "ecomically should have obviously been economically. But maybe there will be some comic aspects to another moon mission. Golf anyone?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (19:08)", "body": "We sooner or later have to be responsible for ourselves and if we stop looking outward we will cease to grow as a civilization. It is that simple."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (19:10)", "body": "Oh, and about the moon, it is days to get there. To get to Mars, it takes YEARS!!! The moon would be a stop-off and replenishment center. More on this to come. I am delighted !!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (19:12)", "body": "OH wolfie, I am missing your email address and IM login on MSN. Please email me at critter. My aloha.net is no longer functioning. Thanks !"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (19:14)", "body": "mswolf68@hotmail.com and i'm midnight wolf on MSN *HUGS* but my stupid mcafee thing is reluctant to allow me to sign into MSN Messenger.......might have to go yahoo or something *grin*"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (19:23)", "body": "AIM is best for me. I use it to talk to family. Might I suggest it? Off to email you !!!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (19:30)", "body": "am signed up with yahoo: hazeleyedwolfie never heard of AIM!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep 30, 2005 (22:17)", "body": "Email me too, Marci! So I can get your new email address."}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (19:12)", "body": "actually I should change my email address here too. I'll get right on it. Might I suggest checking AIM at the following?! http://www.aim.com/ I'll add you to my Yahooigans but I suspect Yahoo will continue to slow down my computer to the point of stalling if I do anything but use Yahoo. It seems incompatible with aol which thinks it owns my pc. *snarl*"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  1, 2005 (19:15)", "body": "Ok terry, my email should read critter514@aol.com. I can't get the userinfo to take it."}, {"response": 15, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (17:16)", "body": "I read somewhere about a Japanese company that wanted, eventually, to build a luxury hotel on the moon. That may well give a whole new meaning to the concept of a \"honeymoon\"."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (19:11)", "body": "Good heavens. I've listened quietly to a very sincere and heated discussion of whether or not we should go to the moon because that was where heaven is. Perhaps they need more mansions there?!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (22:02)", "body": "*LMAO* \"honeymoon\" and \"good heavens\" you punsters!! wait, heaven's on the moon? are you serious, someone was arguing about that? incredible...."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (23:51)", "body": "Yup some Texan sure he had the direct line to God. But then I also heard it from a guy way back in the woods of West Virginia many years ago. Dare I suspect these preachers have descendants who believe the same? I try not to ask."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (23:51)", "body": "(I had no idea I was making puns. *grin*"}, {"response": 20, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (22:37)", "body": "hey, they could be on to something, we never know! (yes, you make them just like i do) Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 96, "subject": "Aliens", "response_count": 6, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Nov  9, 2005 (10:25)", "body": "Is there life on other planets? And if so, are they the little green men of science fiction? Professor Ian Stewart from the University of Warwick thinks there is life on other planets and while it could be little and green, it\ufffds highly unlikely to be anything we would recognise as men. Despite our fascination with science fiction it seems our imagination rarely extends beyond pointed ears and different coloured skin when we picture alien races. Now an exhibition at London\ufffds Science Museum addresses just what alien life might look like when it develops on planets with different physical and chemical properties to our own. Apply scientific principles and alien life might be very alien indeed. As a scientist who is also a science fiction writer, Professor Stewart was one of the early advisors to the Exhibition and is uniquely positioned to comment on what alien life could really be like! Professor Stewart argues that popular culture fails miserably to give us anything approaching a scientifically sound idea of what an alien could look like. Many authors and film-makers simply rely on making their aliens in our humanoid image such as Star Trek's Mr Spock or Klingons. Even when a bit more imagination is used science is ignored in favour of simply reproducing the cosyily familiar such as the teddy bear like Ewoks in the film Return of the Jedi, or the remarkable resemblance of ET to the size and behavior patterns of a human toddler. for the rest of the story http://www.physorg.com/news7949.html"}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 11, 2005 (18:21)", "body": "ok, so you're taking the scientific approach to this--we have an alien topic in paraspring as well...."}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Nov 12, 2005 (14:43)", "body": "Ooops, should done it with linkage."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Nov 13, 2005 (16:38)", "body": "There was a great program of some lenth on Discovery Channel dealing more with science fiction writers than scientists but the discussion was lively. No, they will not look like us at all, is their opinion. More than likely they will be tiny."}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 17, 2005 (16:50)", "body": "I saw that, wasn't it a great program."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Nov 17, 2005 (19:54)", "body": "It really was great. They will more than likely show it again. Watch for it. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 97, "subject": "time", "response_count": 22, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Dec 11, 2005 (20:01)", "body": "http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ is a good place to get a sense of time around the world. gosh, I hope Marci is ok with this topic. I couldn't figure out what conference it belonged in so I picked geo."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Dec 16, 2005 (16:57)", "body": "This is fine, Terry. I'm still ttying to remember I am ahead of California instead of behind it time-wise. A handy little calculater is useful. So is that url you cited. Excellent. Indiana has two time zones. So does some parts of Ky and Tn. It is very confusing."}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Dec 18, 2005 (19:26)", "body": "Just remember the sun comes up on the east coast and when it's 7 am in NYC, it's 6 am in Louisville, 5 am in Denver and 4 am in California. It gets earlier the further west you go."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Dec 24, 2005 (06:41)", "body": "You'd be amazed at how many people phoned us in the middle of the night thinking we were either a day ahead in Hawaii or on some other time machine which made it daytime no matter when they called. Louisville keeps the same time as New York City. Eastern time. Other parts of the state (south) and some of Tennessee are an hour later. Very confusing."}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Dec 24, 2005 (12:53)", "body": "that is weird. maybe they ought to do away with the whole thing. some states don't keep daylight savings time (i think arizona is one of them)."}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 27, 2005 (09:43)", "body": "Wow, you really don't think of Kentucky as being on the East Coast. No wonder Marci is ahead of the rest of us in time."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 27, 2005 (12:57)", "body": "After being the last time zone in America for so long, it is nice to be up with current events and news when it happens. Indiana has had two referenca on the time problem. I think they have resloved it. HOwever, KY and TN still have two time zones going. It makes life difficult. I keep local time and DB keeps time back home. Occasionally we get messed up but mostly it works. I'm with Wolfie. Time is abstract. Why mess with this two time zones in one state?!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 28, 2005 (06:46)", "body": "I think Texas, big as it is, just has the one time zone. If it's noon in Lousiville, what time is it in Hawaii?"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 28, 2005 (22:06)", "body": "it does, central standard time. we go back an hour for colorado and another for california. ahead 1 hour for the east coast. didn't know KY and TN have TWO time zones. So what if my house was on the time zone line? if my bedroom was in one and my work in another would i be late?"}, {"response": 10, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan  1, 2006 (14:06)", "body": "Hey. Happy New Year everybody. We got a bonus second last night. Did you notice?"}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan  1, 2006 (22:23)", "body": "yeah--i heard about that... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jan  2, 2006 (08:58)", "body": "I blogged First Night at http://austincast.com/blog/ And the pix are here. http://austincast.com/firstnight"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  8, 2006 (11:37)", "body": "Noted the extra second, too. Hawaii stays on standard time, so in real hours, Hawaii is 5 hours behind Louisville unless we spring ahead an extra hour which makes it 6 hours behind us. Ergo, Noon in Louisville = 7 AM in Hawaii - standard time. Noon in Louisville = 6 AM in Hawaii - daylight saving time"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  8, 2006 (11:39)", "body": "Wolfie there are towns in Indiana where a person is on eastern time while the job downtown is on central. I think they tried to eliminate county line houses for many reasons including taxation and elections. I don't think there are any (but it is always possible) houses sharing two time zones."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  8, 2006 (11:40)", "body": "OH Terry, which has the picture of you and where is Willian's? All that talent in Austin and I get generic photos?! Bummer."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  8, 2006 (11:41)", "body": "never NEVER spell someone's name wrong. Sorry, William ! (nervous habit)"}, {"response": 17, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  9, 2006 (19:10)", "body": "what? there are pictures of terry and william?"}, {"response": 18, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jan 10, 2006 (22:50)", "body": "Nyet. Not yet. Coming soon to a theater near you. William willing."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 13, 2006 (17:38)", "body": "Please !!! Ask and it shall be delivered unto you !"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 13, 2006 (17:38)", "body": "I do bribes too *;)"}, {"response": 21, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2006 (01:24)", "body": "Hi all Thinking of a certain Pink Floyd song... Rob"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2006 (19:11)", "body": "You seem to like Pink Floyd. I've seen your comments elsewhere about them on Spring. NOT just anoother brick in the wall, are they?! Pictures. We need pictures. They are worth a thousand words... Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 98, "subject": "geo day trips, hikes and expeditions", "response_count": 27, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  1, 2006 (02:44)", "body": "This is an outstandin topic and just the place I can post my archaeolgical and geolgocial field trips. I have several.. Thank you for thinking of this one!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Sun, Mar 19, 2006 (08:33)", "body": "Kia Ora Koutou It's been a bit... Naku na, Rob"}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2006 (08:38)", "body": "In case you were wondering...Kia Ora Koutou roughly translates to \"Welcome to the People\" . . . I looked it up in google. Naku na is a greeting? It has been a bit! Welcome back Rob."}, {"response": 4, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar 20, 2006 (18:36)", "body": "hi rob!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2006 (06:01)", "body": "Kia Ora \"Naku na\" means yours sincerely in Maori. I haven't been here for more than 2 years (and boy is Marcia going to get a surprise...), so this is the best greeting I can give. Quite a lot has happened in the time I have been gone. For those who knew that I was doing an undergraduate degree in Geography when I left here, I was awarded it in April 2004. I am now finishing a Post-graduate Diploma of Science in Hazard and Disaster Management. Europe in 2008. Rob"}, {"response": 6, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2006 (18:47)", "body": "congratulations rob, that is AWESOME!!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Thu, Mar 23, 2006 (22:06)", "body": "Hi all I have noted new hazards in New Zealand, which I will describe in the appropriate topic shortly. They relate to the geomorphology in New Zealand, where the wet West Coast climate, combined with the dynamic geology of the Southern Alps is seriously testing the long term viability of Franz Josef as a town in its current location. Shortly, I will mention my North American sojourn of 2004, which was really a sprint through 7 states in 16 days, and 3000 miles of driving. It would have been 23 days but Grandma died, though by the time we left, Mum, Dad and I had seen the gist of what we wanted to anyway. It involved the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington state. We may have entered Montana when we were in Yellowstone, but I am not sure. Rob"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 26, 2006 (13:08)", "body": "Rob, this is fantastic and wonderful. We Knew you could do it! You have seen my son's second favorite (currently) place on earth - Yellowstone. I'd love to see it sometime. Hawaii did not make your list of states visited, and for that I am most sorry. With or without my tour guiding, Kilauea was worth the trip. I'm sorry about your grandmother. Please accept our sympahties."}, {"response": 9, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Fri, Apr  7, 2006 (03:52)", "body": "Kia Ora all I have an idea for another topic in Geo, but don't see a button on the menu for creating new topics. Geomorphology is the study of how land forms evolve and change - I know it has several branches like fluvial geomorphology, but when 250,000 cubic metres of rock falls off for example is that not an act in the evolution of the surrounding landscape? Or what about when a debris avalanche plugs a river, forcing it to either over top the dam or find a new course? Rob"}, {"response": 10, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr  7, 2006 (05:41)", "body": "I'll create it and help you figure out why you don't have a new topic button. I'll log in as a new user and test this."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (14:45)", "body": "Terry leave my cfadmin stuff as it is. We set it up like it is with only you and me and wer (and John of Grrece) able to create topics. Ihad trouble with one very fundamentalist Welshman and had to delete all of the stuff he wrote. Thank you."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (16:03)", "body": "Rob should have an enter button. He has created topics here previously. Must be gremlins!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (16:05)", "body": "Actually, where ever wer is listed as a host, that username should be deleted. It does weird things when the password is reset. If any current hosts of those conferences would still like me as a backup, just replace wer with weroland."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (17:43)", "body": "Ok thanks... I'll go check and correct as needed on Geo and SpringArk, and crafts and garden conferences too since I seem to be involved with them, oh and History too. Yes ! I want you for Geo backup. Please! Thank you !!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (17:45)", "body": "Well that was pretty miserable. Only cfadm can add you, and for some reason you are no longer listed. Terry, I can't change it but can you add weroland to the list of people allowed to backup Geo. Thanks."}, {"response": 16, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (17:46)", "body": "I got rid of some of the wers for security reasons before, but I don't think I got them all."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (19:16)", "body": "As I discovered some time ago, you were pretty well expunged from Geo. Wherever Terry is on a spring Sunday afternoon he is not here. I guess we will just have to wait. *shuggling cards* What do you want to play?"}, {"response": 18, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (19:07)", "body": "i don't remember who was backup on springark, crafts, and garden, hmmmm....been awhile since i've done any admin type stuff, i wonder if i remember! oh, let's play rummy..."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (20:06)", "body": "I can go look too. I am afraid he removed himself from everything we were on."}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (08:34)", "body": "So do you still need weroland added here or other places?"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (13:55)", "body": "Please add him to Geo. Thanks."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (13:55)", "body": "and crafts, and springArk, and garden"}, {"response": 23, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (15:42)", "body": "! .crafts.cf 0 spring5,MarciaH,wolf,cfadm,wer,weroland public ! .Geo.cf 0 terry,MarciaH,ratthing,cfadm,wer,weroland public ! .SpringArk.cf 0 terry,cfadm,wolf,riette,stacey,MarciaH,wer,weroland public ! .garden.cf 0 terry,sprin5,cfadm,wolf,MarciaH,wer,weroland public"}, {"response": 24, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (15:42)", "body": "I think that's it."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (17:36)", "body": "Looks very good. Now fix his cooking conference so he can get into it and work on it. I'm certain he will do us proud and it will be fun to have him active again."}, {"response": 26, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2006 (00:41)", "body": "Kia Ora I was going to send the pics from Franz Josef last night, but the ADSL connection said a network plug had come out, just five hours after Craig (my brother)fixed an earlier problem. 12 hours later and still no connection, and since Craig is at work it will have to wait a bit. Okay. So in the absence of those photos, I will put up a post of the trip last year to Franz Josef, to describe what I saw on the ground. We left Christchurch in overcast conditions on March 19, and headed inland. After about an hour, we crossed the Porters Pass Fault on the west side of Porters Pass and the cloud began to lift somewhat. The convoy of minivans that was carrying the field trip goers stopped near Lake Grassmere to examine a gully with a steep debris fan coming out of it. Not an ideal place to build as in recent times judging by the lack of vegetation on the fan, it appeared that a number of smaller spills had occurred. The convoy drove into Arthurs for morning tea and then up to the lookout near the Otira viaduct - built in 1999 to replace the notorious hair pins section of State Highway 73, it ran 440 metres down a river bed flanked by ancient rockfalls, 900 metres above sea level and in a high precipitation zone, it is a feat of NZ engineering. Impressive work, but in a place I would pay good money not to be in an earthquake. From there we drove to Hokitika for lunch, and then turned southwest towards Franz Josef. The next port of call was to see a house on the edge of an active debris fan and the mitigatory work done to protect the highway. A heavy rainstorm one night had caused a slip in the gully behind the house, which trapped the rainwater and then emptied explosively in a sudden dam burst flood which left rocks the size of car wheels just ten metres from the house some 500 metres away. Transit (NZ road authority)built a stopbank to deflect lesser events away from the road - how effective it is, is yet to be known. Down the road was a more serious case of fluvial geomorphology in action. A gentleman farmer on the flats of the Poerua (Po-e-ru-a) River whose property is being slowly eaten up by the river, told us about a landslide dam above his property in 1999. That year, while I was still in high school a dam had plugged the river gorge to a depth of several metres causing water to pile up. The guy said that Civil Defence evacuated the valley briefly, incase of dam failure, but it over topped peacefully instead of bursting. A few days later however it rained, and the dam did fail. The movement of sediment through the gorge started a process of aggradation where erosion in the river bed progressively worked up stream carving out a new channel and aiming the river at his property. Over the following five years the river has progressively eaten across the farm, and the land is up for sale but no one wants it. He and his wife will quit when the river reaches their shed. From there we drove to the field station at Harihari (Ha-re-ha-re) where we were going to overnight. Played cricket on the lawn for an hour or two and then went down to the pub for dinner. Watched the rugby and left at midnight, having probably provided half the business for the night. Somehow on the way back someone managed to lose their underwear in the stream running through an adjacent property - what they were doing in it is beyond me. The next day, we crossed the Alpine Fault and drove into Franz Josef. The town is one of the few in the world that can claim to sit on TWO tectonic plates, though no one wants to know what will happen when the boundary does a boogie. We drove over the Waiho River on the south side of the river and up to the Franz Josef Glacier. In light rain we walked up a rock in the riverbed that had had the side facing the glacier sheared off smoothly and listened to a brief description of the glacial processes in the valley. Following that we drove down to a condemned motor camp nestled in against the stop bank on the south side of the Waiho (Y-ho)River. It is in a dodgy place with a dodgy stop bank to protect it - no good. It or the stop bank - or both - must give way, and since the stop effectively reduces the rivers width to 1/3, it will be the bank that fails in a flood. A 1-in-5 year flood could do it, but the scariest scenario involves a damburst flood in the Callery gorge which might peak at 3000 cubic metres per second. The flood would not just be water - it would be carrying boulders, vegetation and anything else loose on the riverbed. It would arrive within 2 minutes of the dam burst, and the scariest part of this already scary scenario is on a rainy night when it is hosing down in a thunderstorm outside, no one in Franz Josef would even know the difference since the noise of the storm would drown out the rumble of the dam failing. After hearing all of this, we drove back into town for lunch and then back to Christchurch. My interest geomorphology in action had been pricked. How cool to actually SEE with your o"}, {"response": 27, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr 21, 2006 (10:39)", "body": "Riveting. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 99, "subject": "geomorphology", "response_count": 28, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr  8, 2006 (22:04)", "body": "and very well too. it's neat to see where we slice through earth and can see the changes it went through."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2006 (14:31)", "body": "Good Rob! I was including this stuff in Mass Wasting and Diastrophism but here is even better. Now tell me all about a destructive earth. I just lived thru a week of the most intensive toradoes on record for this area. Eleven died south of us."}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (19:08)", "body": "oh yes, that was all over the news. the AM said he was shocked that the damage was done to those brick homes vs all the trailer homes we usually see. still amazing how it can hit one house and leave the one next door alone."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2006 (19:52)", "body": "That is the problem with tornadoes. You an more or less predict where lava flows are going to go. With tornadoes, you find caprice and not logic. I can opt to go see a lava flow. Tornadoes make house calls !"}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2006 (18:55)", "body": "indeed! with lava, you have time to get out of the way (for the most part)."}, {"response": 6, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2006 (06:39)", "body": "Kia Ora Thanks Terry. Marcia, if I scan them to the computer, and e-mail them to you, would you like to put up some cool pics from Franz Josef which I will use to explain the geomorphological processes there. Okay, okay, maybe you cannot see them very clearly - these processes usually only reveal themselves if the geomorphological environment has been upset by something as drastic as an earthquake. However maybe by seeing the land as it looks now, and then see it after a major event and you will get an appreciation for geomorphology in action. Rob"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2006 (18:21)", "body": "Sure Rob ! Send them to me at critter514@aol.com. Thanks. No matter they are not as clear as you'd like. They are far better than none at all."}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2006 (18:07)", "body": "oooohh, hurry up, i wanna see *grin*"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2006 (21:48)", "body": "Yes indeedy. It s Geo 89. Enjoy! You might like to add to the American Folkways please!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (08:00)", "body": "Kia Ora Marcia. In your e-mail please find two photos attached of the Waimakariri River. I scanned them in last year when I was writing a mock resource consent application for an environmental science paper. Could you please put them up here? People. I have for you two photos of one the finest examples of a BRAIDED river - a river with multiple channels lined by alluvial sediment and subject to the processes of fluvial geomorphology - that you will see anywhere in the world. With the exception of Alaska where a couple exist and maybe in the Soviet Union, it is unlikely you will see any examples anywhere else in the world that are this good. The best example would have to be the Rakaia River. For most of it's 145km course, the Rakaia River is a mass of braided channels on a riverbed more than a mile wide at the township of Rakaia. In low flow - 250 cubic metres per second or less - most of the multitude of channels are fordable. In full flood the whole riverbed is a single brown torrent running at anything up to 6000 cubic metres per second. Rob"}, {"response": 11, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (08:03)", "body": "Kia Ora http://www.dantecdynamics.com/applications/Images/backdropM.jpg - Rakaia River from the air. All the blue streaks are river channels meandering all over the river bed. Rob"}, {"response": 12, "author": "paul", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (08:36)", "body": ""}, {"response": 13, "author": "paul", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (08:36)", "body": "Just being a smartypants and posting the picture Rob pointed to."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2006 (17:35)", "body": "Terry, Rob's two latest are on their way to you. Please post them too. They remind me of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers at the confluence. It is braided all over the place in what is called the American Bottoms which is the richest farmland in North America. What is the land like around the braided pictures you are posting?"}, {"response": 15, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2006 (23:11)", "body": "Hi all Okay. Cool. Terry has the pic of the Rakaia River up. This airborne shot is taken looking inland towards the foothill ranges of the Southern Alps. You can see that the river is very braided here, and thus appears like this for most of its 145km run from the Alps to the Pacific Ocean. If you look at the land immediately left of the river, you can see older river channels that were active when the river had meandered over to that side of its course. If you look about 3/4 of the way up the photo you can see what I think is a glacial moraine extending into the river, which was left from the last ice age when the big braided river valleys were conduits for the glaciers coming off the Southern Alps. Most of those river channels are 1-3 metres deep. None of them exist in the array that you see there, as their network changes with each flood event that comes down the river - as recently as Tuesday the Rakaia had a 1050+ cubic metre per second flood going down the river. Rob"}, {"response": 16, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2006 (23:39)", "body": "Kia Ora http://spring.net/geo/rob/ Thanks for that Terry. Now to explain a braided river to people who haven't seen them before... Essentially what you are looking at is a river with multiple channels meandering over a riverbed that here, is about 750-1000 metres wide. In these photos of the Waimakariri River after rainfall in the mountains, the river is running high and dirty. The channel closest to you in the bottom pic is usually about half as wide and blue when the river is low. You can see that the river is just starting to drop (notice wet rocks on edge of channel in top photo). In high flood, all 750-1000m of river bed width will be under water - the number of people who get caught out on braided river beds or who simply don't understand Canterbury weather is amazing. Centrifugal forces shape the channel. Just as water running down the edge of the shower wall seems to bend for no apparent reason, the same happens in river channels. The gravel on the river bed is all alluvial sediment washed down by thousands and thousands of years of fluvial geomorphology in action. Rob"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2006 (19:06)", "body": "Thanks Terry. Is this the way future graphics will be put on Geo if they are not already on the interet? Great stuff, Rob. I am so happy you have returned. Rivers are new to me as neighbors. I find them fascinating. We were on the Indiana side of the Ohio not long ago and noted that what seems like a peaceful river had flung trash 20 or 30 feet into the tops of trees on the last flood stage. I am happy we are several miles from the main course."}, {"response": 18, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, May  2, 2006 (21:44)", "body": "Sure, I can help you get set up to post graphics. Download filezilla."}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2006 (11:13)", "body": "what's filezilla? afore i go and download it myself!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2006 (12:27)", "body": "It's a real easy to use ftp program that will let you put pictures on the spring servers."}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2006 (13:11)", "body": "Ok Will do that. Meanwhile this just came thru -- Tsunami warnings issued for Fiji and New Zealand after earthquake measuring a magnitude of about 8.0 shakes southern Pacific Ocean."}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2006 (13:11)", "body": "A magnitude 8.0 earthquake IN TONGA has occurred at: 20.03S 174.23W Depth 16km Wed May 3 15:26:35 2006 UTC Time: Universal Time (UTC) Wed May 3 15:26:35 2006 Time Near Epicenter Thu May 4 04:26:35 2006 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) Wed May 3 11:26:35 2006 Central Daylight Time (CDT) Wed May 3 10:26:35 2006 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) Wed May 3 09:26:35 2006 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Wed May 3 08:26:35 2006 Alaska Daylight Time (ADT) Wed May 3 07:26:35 2006 Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Wed May 3 05:26:35 2006 Location with respect to nearby cities: 155 km (95 miles) S of Neiafu, Tonga (pop 3,000) 160 km (100 miles) NE of NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga (pop 37,000) 455 km (280 miles) S of Hihifo, Tonga 2145 km (1340 miles) NNE of Auckland, New Zealand"}, {"response": 23, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2006 (13:12)", "body": "I just saw that on MSNBC. It hit Tonga. It's off the East Coast of Australia. Will Hawaii feel this?"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2006 (13:13)", "body": "Expect more large earthquakes from various parts of the world as the struck bell effect sends reverberations throughout the planet."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May  3, 2006 (13:27)", "body": "Hawaii may be affected. Dropping a pebble in a lake spreads the waves to every corner.. thus it is possible - though much reduced in strength over long distances."}, {"response": 26, "author": "southernalps", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2006 (05:07)", "body": "Kia Ora Ideas that this was near Oz are fiction. It was nearly 1000km away. Oz might have felt it, but like everyone else outside of Nuku'alofa and American Samoa that thought a tsunami was coming, they were dreaming if they thought they saw a fluctuation in the water level. Australia has no plate boundaries or subduction zones in its waters. Rob"}, {"response": 27, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2006 (10:32)", "body": "well, i certainly am glad you are safe. btw: i didn't catch any of this on the news (abc) last night, unless i missed it...."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May  4, 2006 (11:55)", "body": "Thanks, Rob. That is why I went to the Honolulu newspaper for their report. It was more reliable than local news here. Thank goodness it was pretty harmless. Geo conference Main Menu"}]}]}